עיון ראלי-היסטורי מחודש במשנה ראשונה דפרק'לפני אידיהן'

This article seeks to extract the historic reality underlying Mishna 'Aboda Zara I, 1, focusing on the philological and historical study of the term, 'Id, and the phrase, 'three days before the holidays of the heathen', and addressing the issue of the ban on commercial activity. This Mishna is compared with literary and epigraphic sources relating to the Graeco-Roman feasts that were celebrated in the region. It is argued that the notion of a three-day prohibition, based on religious considerations, was grounded in the ritual importance which the Greeks and Romans attributed to this period of time both before and after their holidays. In the Greek ritual three and nine were, in fact, favored time periods; whilst in the Roman religion the number three – and as the religion developed, also multiples of three – held an important place. The most remarkable elevation of the number three is to be found in the celebration of the Ludi Saeculares in 17 BCE, with expiatory rites lasting three nights and three days. The festival itself was preceded by three days of purification, followed by three expiatory offerings of three different kinds. The rabbis focused on the three-day prohibition from commercial activity and not on other social activities with the heathen. This position was motivated by the fact that the heathen holidays to which the rabbis referred seem to have been identified with the yerid, or dies nundinarum, a ritual Roman fair. The execution of legal commitments or the signing of contracts was often carried out specifically at this fair. This reality probably spurred Jews, even those respectful of the Halakha, to negotiate with heathens during these three days, in spite of their recognizably pagan and cultic associations, in order to protect their financial interests. This reality is likely that which the rabbis wanted to contain through the promulgation of the law recorded in the Mishna. The conclusions of this study demonstrate that the Mishna harmonizes well with the social and economic conditions that prevailed between Jews and pagans in Eretz-Israel from the second century BCE until the late Roman era.