text · B0009
Sifra ספרא
The halakhic midrash on Vayikra — the most tightly argued of the tannaitic midrashim, and so central that the Talmud treats fluency in it as a benchmark of learning. Its preface, the thirteen middot of R' Yishmael, became the classic statement of the Oral Torah's interpretive method and entered the daily liturgy.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- ספרא
- Also known as
- Torat Kohanim, Sifra devei Rav
- Era
- tannaim
II. When
- Traditional
- tannaitic; anonymous layer of R' Yehudah, per R' Akiva's school
- Academic
- redacted c. 3rd c. CE from the school of R' Akiva
- Duration
- ≈70 years
- Precision
- disputed
IV. What
- Language
- Mishnaic Hebrew
- Redaction
- "The anonymous Sifra is R' Yehudah... and all follow R' Akiva" (Sanhedrin 86a) — R' Akiva is Rabbi Akiva. The Rambam records the tradition that "Rav composed the Sifra and the Sifrei," hence the byname "Sifra devei Rav."
- Structure
- A dense halakhic midrash on the entire book of Vayikra, prefaced by the Baraita DeRabbi Yishmael — the thirteen hermeneutical rules by which the Torah is expounded.
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| R' Yochanan assigns the Sifra's anonymous layer to R' Yehudah (bar Ilai), within the school of R' Akiva: "the anonymous Sifra is R' Yehudah... and all follow R' Akiva." | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| A parallel tradition, recorded by the Rambam, credits Rav — the first-generation Babylonian amora — with composing the Sifra and Sifrei "to explain and make known the principles of the Mishnah."
The two attributions are usually reconciled as school-material (R' Yehudah / R' Akiva) versus final compilation or transmission (Rav); the atlas records both as stated.
|
tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| The work opens with the Baraita DeRabbi Yishmael, the thirteen middot; academic scholarship treats this preface as an originally independent unit attached to a work whose body is otherwise the product of R' Akiva's school, redacted in the 3rd century CE. | rabbinic reconstruction | ★★★★☆ |