אימתי הוא זמנו של 'הקהל'?

The time of assembling the hakhel is recorded in two extant versions of Mishnah Sotah. According to one version it is held on the evening after the first day of Sukkot while, in the other, it is held after the last day. Both versions are incompatible with the continuation of the text, which speaks of hakhel being held 'on the eighth day'. That is to say, after the date mentioned in the one version, and before the time mentioned in the second. Following a detailed discussion of the various proposals offered in explanation of this mishnah, the present article suggests that it contains two different strata. The original mishnah did not contain the reference to 'the eighth day' and spoke of hakhel as being observed 'at the close of the last day of the holiday'. This would refer to the day after Shemini Azeret, before those who had come to Jerusalem for the holiday returned home. According to this version, for which support is given in the article, hakhel was held not on Sukkot itself but in the context of the pilgrimage, which continued up until Shemini Azeret. In the schools of the later Tannaʾim, when the question of hakhel had become purely academic, the Biblical verses were construed as referring specifically to the holiday. The words of the mishnah ('at the close of the [last day of the] holiday') were construed as referring not to the day subsequent to the eighth day, but rather to the night immediately following. This reflects the fact that vis-à-vis the laws of the Temple, the night is affiliated with the previous day. Therefore, the night after Shemini Azeret is included in the eighth day and hence part of the holiday, as the passage was then apprehended. Consequently, the words 'on the eighth day' were added to the mishnah in order to elucidate that the night after Shemini Azeret is indeed part of the eighth day and, accordingly, part of the holiday itself. The article then shows how this emendation became part of all subsequent textual and exegetical history of the mishnah. This mishnah may be seen as an example of the interpretive activity pursued by the later Tannaʾim through the exegesis and emendation of the early text.