Mishnah Gitin

The NY Mishnah (JTS MS R1622), is one of the most important surviving manuscripts of the Mishnah. Scholars list it among the major Mishnah manuscripts known today. Only 16 folios survive, containing parts of Seder Moʿed and Seder Nashim, but the manuscript is generally well preserved and clearly written.

The manuscript was copied in the 12th century, most likely in Italy, based on its handwriting and vocalization system, which belongs to the northern Italian–southern French tradition. The text includes vowel points and cantillation marks, showing that the Mishnah was studied and sometimes chanted aloud in a structured way, similar to biblical reading.

The manuscript was later found in Jobar, near Damascus, Syria, where it was purchased in the late 19th or early 20th century by the manuscript collector Ephraim Deinard. He later sold it to Mayer Sulzberger, who donated it to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where it remains today.

The page displayed comes from Chapter 4 of Tractate Gittin, which contains the first appearance of the phrase tikkun ha-olam (repairing the world). In the Mishnah, this phrase refers to legal enactments made for the proper functioning of society and to prevent social harm, a meaning quite different from the modern use of the term.

This manuscript is important not only because it preserves an early and reliable text of the Mishnah, but also because it shows how the Mishnah was read, studied, corrected, and transmitted across the medieval Jewish world.