Kazhdan, Daniel and Benjamin S. Kay. "Unlocking Ancient Texts with New Tools: A Data-Centered Study of the Mishnah." Jewish Studies, an Internet Journal (forthcoming).
This is the database of Mishnaic disputes and constituant arguments used in our Kazhdan and Kay (2022) paper (Published in the JSIJ).* You can download the database here on github. In addition, you can see the database in action: here.
Broadly speaking, our database is like the US Supreme Court database and similar databases of other apex courts. These databases are widely used by legal scholars who wish to make claims about broad trends in judicial decisions. The Supreme Court database includes, inter alia, (a) information on which Supreme Court justices are involved in a decision, (b) the direction of the justices’ opinions (e.g., pro- or anti-defendant), and (c) which justices prevail. Our respective analogy for the Mishnah is to code (a) which Tannaim are involved in a decision, (b) the direction of the Tanna’s opinions (e.g., strict or lenient), and (c) which Tanma prevails. We manually coded every argument in the Mishnah along the various parameters described above, and then used computers to collate the data to show who argues with whom and what attitudes they tended to take in these arguments.
For a detailed discussion of the methodology with which we assembled this database, please see appendix A of our paper.
* - The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of their employers.
To use an interactive online tool to examine Mishnabase, see directions here. The page also includes many vignettes showing how to use the interactive tool.
| File Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Arguments.csv | Argument level data. A topic in the talmud where at least two Tannaim disagree on a topic. An argument contains one or more disputes. |
| Disputes.csv | Dispute level data. A dispute is a disagreement between exactly two Tannaim. A dispute is associated with exactly one argument. |
| Top30LinkMatrixWTies_CullFALSE.csv | Dispute relations between top 30 Tannaim by disputes. |
| Top30PrettyTableUnique_CullFALSE.csv | Tanna level statistics for top 30 Tannaim by disputes. |
| Top30StrictWinLinkMatrix_CullFALSE.csv | Strictness relations between top 30 Tannaim by disputes. |
| Top30WinLinkMatrix_CullFALSE.csv | Win (according to Maimonides) relations between top 30 Tannaim by disputes. |
Arguments (arguments.csv) Data Dictionary
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| SeqID | Unique argument ID. A dispute is associated with exactly one argument. |
| Location | Combination of chapter and line number(s) within that chapter where the dispute occurs. |
| EffectiveRows | The number of disputes contained within the argument. All rabbis involved in a dispute are paired up with all possible other rabbis who are involved in the dispute but take a different position. |
| tab | The Hebrew name (and number of order) of the 63 masechtot in which the argument is appears. |
| tabnum | Which of the 63 masechtot / books of the Talmud where the argument appears in. |
| Seder_Hebrew | Name of seder of the Talmud in which the argument appears, written in Hebrew. |
| Seder_Name | Name of seder of the Talmud in which the argument appears, Hebrew name in English transliteration. |
| Seder_Number | Which of the six seders of the Talmud the argument appears in. |
| Seder_Translate | English translation of which of the six seders of the Talmud the argument appears in. |
| Tractate_Name_Hebrew | Which of the 63 masechtot / books of the Talmud where the argument appears in, name in Hebrew. |
| Chapter | Which chapter number of the masechtot where the argument appears. |
| Ith_chapter_in_seder | Which chapter number of the seder where the argument appears. |
| Disputant_N | The rabbi(s) offering the nth position in the argument. |
| Result_N | Relative argument positions like Chumra 1.0 / Kula 0.0 (higher number is stricter), BHB 1.0 / 0.0, Chayav 1.0 / Patur 0.0, and a few less common topics have separate scores. |
| Score_N | Disputant(s) N wins the argument according to Maimonides (1) or loses (0). |
| Strict_N | Are disputant(s) N stricter (1 if yes, 0 if no or not a strictness argument). |
| Money_N | Does disputant(s) N say they owe money (1 if yes, 0 if no or not a money owing argument). |
| Owe_N | Does disputant(s) N say they owe (1 if yes, 0 if no or not a owe argument). |
| Winner | Which disputant(s), by name, won the argument according to Maimonides. |
| Comment | Miscellaneous notes on the dispute not fitting into other variables. |
| IsCopy | Is this the second or later appearance of a dispute in the Mishnah? Always false because duplicate arguments are now filtered out. First appearance only. |
| keep | Argument meets data quality checks (database only contains values where this is TRUE). |
| NumDisp | Number of distinct disputant positions contained within this argument. This is not the combinations of disputes or a count of all possible combinations of disputants. Also see field EffectiveRows. |
| AltStrictQuestion | Is this a question about strictness (1 if yes, 0 if no)? |
| OweQuestion | Is this a question about owing (1 if yes, 0 if no)? |
| MoneyQuestion | Is this a question about owing money (1 if yes, 0 if no)? |
| Owe_Sum | Number of argument positions taking an owe position. Either 0 (not a owing argument) or 1 (an owing argument). |
| Strict_Sum | Number of argument positions taking the strictest position. Generally 0 (not a strictness argument) or 1 (one position is strictest), but it can be more than 1 if there is a multi-way argument and more than one Tana takes the strictest view. |
| Money_Sum | Number of argument positions taking an money owing position. Generally 0 (not a money owing argument) or 1 (a money owing argument), but it can be more than 1 if there is a multi-way argument and more than one Tana takes the strictest view. |
Created with Tables Generator
Disputes (disputes.csv) Data Dictionary
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| SeqID | Unique argument ID. |
| DisputeID | A unique dispute ID. A single argument can contain multiple disputes. |
| Location | Combination of chapter and line number(s) within that chapter where the dispute occurs. |
| EffectiveRows | The number of disputes contained within the argument. All rabbis involved in a dispute are paired up with all possible other rabbis who are involved in the dispute but take a different position. |
| tab | The Hebrew name (and number of order) of the 63 masechtot in which the argument is appears. |
| tabnum | The number of the masechtot where the argument appears in. |
| Seder_Hebrew | Name of seder of the Talmud in which the argument appears, written in Hebrew. |
| Seder_Name | Name of seder of the Talmud in which the argument appears, Hebrew name in English transliteration. |
| Seder_Number | Which of the six seders of the Talmud the argument appears in. |
| Seder_Translate | English translation of which of the six seders of the Talmud the argument appears in. |
| Tractate_Name_Hebrew | Which of the 63 masechtot / books of the Talmud where the argument appears in, name in Hebrew. |
| Chapter | Which chapter number of the masechtot where the argument appears. |
| HebrewChapterLocation | Using Hebrew numbering, what is the chapter location of the dispute. |
| Ith_chapter_in_seder | Which chapter number of the seder where the argument appears. |
| Disputant_N | The rabbi(s) offering the nth position in the argument. |
| Disputant_Hebrew_DNX | Disputant number N's name in Hebrew, possibly in one of X different versions. |
| OweQuestion | Is this a question about owing (1 if yes, 0 if no)? |
| MoneyQuestion | Is this a question about owing money (1 if yes, 0 if no)? |
| StrictQuestion | Is this a question about strictness (1 if yes, 0 if no)? |
| Winner | Which disputant(s), by name, won the argument according to Maimonides. |
| Result_N | Relative argument positions like Chumra 1.0 / Kula 0.0 (higher number is stricter), BHB 1.0 / 0.0, Chayav 1.0 / Patur 0.0, and a few less common topics have separate scores. |
| Score_N | Disputant(s) N wins the argument according to Maimonides (1) or loses (0). |
| AltOwe_N | Does disputant(s) N say they owe money (1 if yes, 0 if no or not a money owing argument). |
| AltMoney_N | Does disputant(s) N say they owe money (1 if yes, 0 if no or not a money owing argument). |
| AltStrict_N | Relative argument positions like Chumra 1.0 / Kula 0.0 (higher number is stricter), BHB 1.0 / 0.0 (lower is stricter). |
| Owe_Result_Score_N | Numerical portion of Result_N but only for 'Owe' related arguments. |
| Money_Result_Score_N | Numerical portion of Result_N but only for 'Money' related arguments. |
| Strict_Result_Score_N | Numerical portion of Result_N but only for 'Strictness' related arguments. See AltStrict_N definition for using this number. |
Created with Tables Generator