THE NA"ME “TOSEFTA” AND THE ORIGIN OF THE WORK

As with most names of individual works of rabbinic literature, so too the name “Tosefta,” literally “supplement,” did not originally denote one particular work, but rather a characteristic type of traditional teaching of the tannaitic period. Teachings of this period were transmitted orally in the form of short sayings, presented anonymously or attributed to a particular sage; these traditions were memorized through repetition (Hebrew shanah). The sayings dealt mainly, although not exclusively, with law (halachah), and provided the basis for what was later called the “Oral Torah” (torah she-al peh), or “orally transmitted instruction.” The individual sayings were thus called either mishnah or halachah. Some of these sayings were, in time, supplemented by clarifying remarks or additional legal material. As the original sayings were transmitted together in various collections, so too the supplemental sayings were collected and transmitted (most probably orally); an individual supplemental saying was called tosefet (Aramaic [det.] tosefta), a collection of these (in plural): tosafot (Aramaic [det.] tosefata). These two corpora, halachot and tosafot, along with the aggadot (transmitted non-legal traditions), comprised the basic curriculum of study (the “Oral Torah”) for the Sages of the first two centuries of the Common Era (the Tannaim).