Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Temurah, Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1522

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Temurah, Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1522

Temurah (Exchange), the sixth tractate in the order Kodoshim, treats, in seven chapters, the consequences of replacing a particular item dedicated to the Temple with another. Animals consecrated as private sacrifices maintain their sanctity even after the exchange has taken place, whereas public offerings do not. Likewise, property meant to support Temple building repairs can be switched without incurring a penalty. Other questions discussed include the status of the offspring of consecrated animals, consecrated animals whose owners have died, and the proper method for disposing of property from which one may not benefit. 

Temurah, like Nedarim, Nazir, Kereitot, Me‘ilah, and part of Tamid, is one of the “special tractates” written in a peculiar dialect of Aramaic that seem not to have benefited from final editorial polishing. It is distinguished by a profusion of “alternative readings” and uses unique terminology not generally found elsewhere in Talmudic literature.

Physical Description

34 folios (13 1/2 x 9 3/4 in.; 341 x 245 mm) (collation: i-iii⁸, iv¹⁰) on paper. Woodcut initial word panel on f. 2r; tapering text on f. 27v. Slight scattered staining (though see ff. 3, 34); a few small holes and a short tear on f. [1]; minor creasing on f. 2; outer edge of f. 2 repaired; light, mostly marginal wormtracks, at times repaired and at other times affecting some text (see, e.g., ff. 20-24, 34). Modern beige cloth over board; title lettered in gilt on spine; modern paper flyleaves and pastedowns.

Literature

A.M. Habermann, Ha-madpis daniyyel bombirgi u-reshimat sifrei beit defuso (Safed: The Museum of Printing Art, 1978), 35 (no. 54).

Vinograd, Venice 65