Blinking Sadducees

Continuing on Sanhedrin 38, our Friday maggid shiur pointed out an interesting phenomenon, in which no manuscript, and even the censored Vilna Shas, had min, but where the Mesivta printing (and to a lesser extent the Artscroll translation) had tzeduki.

That is, one such example:

לְפִיכָךְ כּוּ׳. תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: אָדָם יְחִידִי נִבְרָא, וּמִפְּנֵי מָה? שֶׁלֹּא יְהוּ מִינִים אוֹמְרִין ״הַרְבֵּה רְשׁוּיוֹת בַּשָּׁמַיִם״. דָּבָר אַחֵר: מִפְּנֵי הַצַּדִּיקִים וּמִפְּנֵי הָרְשָׁעִים, שֶׁלֹּא יְהוּ הַצַּדִּיקִים אוֹמְרִים ״אָנוּ בְּנֵי צַדִּיק״, וּרְשָׁעִים אוֹמְרִים ״אָנוּ בְּנֵי רָשָׁע״.

§ The mishna teaches: Therefore, Adam the first man was created alone. The Sages taught in a baraita: Adam was created alone, and for what reason? So that the heretics will not say: There are many authorities in Heaven, and each created a different person. Alternatively, Adam was created alone due to the righteous and due to the wicked. It was so that the righteous will not say: We are the children of the righteous, and righteousness is natural for us, so there is no need for us to exert ourselves to be righteous, and so that the wicked will not say: We are the children of the wicked and cannot change our ways.

and then later down on the daf,

תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן: אָדָם נִבְרָא בְּעֶרֶב שַׁבָּת, וּמִפְּנֵי מָה? שֶׁלֹּא יְהוּ מִינִים אוֹמְרִים: שׁוּתָּף הָיָה לוֹ לְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית. דָּבָר אַחֵר: שֶׁאִם תָּזוּחַ דַּעְתּוֹ עָלָיו, אוֹמֵר לוֹ: יַתּוּשׁ קְדָמְךָ בְּמַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית. דָּבָר אַחֵר: כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּכָּנֵס לַמִּצְוָה מִיָּד.

The Sages taught in a baraita (Tosefta 8:7): Adam the first man was created on Shabbat eve at the close of the six days of Creation. And for what reason was this so? So that the heretics will not be able to say that the Holy One, Blessed be He, had a partner, i.e., Adam, in the acts of Creation. Alternatively, he was created on Shabbat eve so that if a person becomes haughty, God can say to him: The mosquito preceded you in the acts of Creation, as you were created last. Alternatively, he was created on Shabbat eve in order that he enter into the mitzva of observing Shabbat immediately.

Mesivta had tzedukim in both places, while Artscroll had haminim in the first and tzedukim in the second. The problem with that would seem to be that, at least on Hachi Garsinan, no manuscript, and no printing, including the Vilna Shas, had tzedukim.

However, there is something interesting in that Vilna printing. The Rashi on the second instance of minim instead has tzedukim. See the three red circles I made:

This is particular to the censored Vilna Shas. Earlier printings of Talmud including Rashi, such as Venice, do not have it. My guess, then, was that Artscroll transferred the Rashi dibbur hamatchil into the text of the second instance, because their commentary is primarily Rashi-centric. And, they didn’t realize that this was a censored Rashi.

And that Mesivta took it a step further and applies minim in their text across the board.

But I think I am wrong about that. Here is the same page of Vilna, but on Sefaria’s website:

It is not just darker, but has tzedukim in all three places. Which one is original?

I’m sure it is possible to find this information out, by asking them. But it might be fun to theorize. Should we expect consistency in Rashi / the main gemara text? After all, the censor for one should be the censor for the other.

But maybe we should say that earlier texts has minim, so the trajectory should be 0 tzedukim → 1 tzeduki → 3 tzedukim.

I would also point out something interesting from the Hachi Garsinan image, which had minim.

That is the left edge. Note how the text on the entire page is entirely justified, to both the right side (not shown) and the left side (shown). Except, for the word haminim, where there is a slight gap. In the darker image, tzedukim is lined up.

This is because minim is a shorter word. This looks like a clumsy editing operation, where they left a gap when they replaced it. Which makes me think that the censored version on Sefaria is the more original.