Flattening to Heretics

It’s strange. Usually, when we have minim, heretics, in Talmudic manuscripts, we encounter it as tzedukim, Sadducees, to satisfy the Christian censor, for whom minim might refer to Christians.

The opposite seems to happen in Sanhedrin 90b, where different sorts of heretics exist, different minim of minim, but they are all flattened to minim, with accompanying loss of clarity.

It even starts with a mnemonic, which might be a bit off in its letters:

(צֶדֶ״ק גַּ״ם גֶּשֶׁ״ם קָ״ם סִימָן) שָׁאֲלוּ צַדּוּקִים אֶת רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל: מִנַּיִין שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מְחַיֶּיה מֵתִים? אָמַר לָהֶם: מִן הַתּוֹרָה, וּמִן הַנְּבִיאִים, וּמִן הַכְּתוּבִים. וְלֹא קִיבְּלוּ מִמֶּנּוּ.

The Gemara records a mnemonic for those cited in the upcoming discussion: Tzadi, dalet, kuf; gimmel, mem; gimmel, shin, mem; kuf, mem. Heretics asked Rabban Gamliel: From where is it derived that the Holy One, Blessed be He, revives the dead? Rabban Gamliel said to them that this matter can be proven from the Torah, from the Prophets, and from Writings, but they did not accept the proofs from him.

This is interesting, because the Sefaria Hebrew text doesn’t match the English text. For the Hebrew, there is the correct צַדּוּקִים. But for the English text that Rav Steinsaltz supervised, it has heretics. So too, in Rav Steinsaltz’s interpolated commentary:

(צד"ק ג"ם גש"ם קם סימן). שאלו מינין את רבן גמליאל: מניין שהקדוש ברוך הוא מחייה מתים? הביא ואמר להם ראיות מן התורה, ומן הנביאים, ומן הכתובים, ולא קיבלו ממנו.

and so presumably in the printed Hebrew Steinsaltz gemaras, it also has minim, heretics. But, look at the variants:

Vilna strangely has minim, but earlier printings (Venice, Barco), and manuscripts (Florence, Yad Harav Herzog, Munich 95) all have Tzedukim. This makes sense, because they also agree to the written law, and so would be looking for some Scriptural bases for revival of the dead.

So too about Cutheans. Here, Rav Steinsaltz’s English text is again correct, and the Sefaria Hebrew as well.

תַּנְיָא: אָמַר רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בְּרַבִּי יוֹסֵי: בְּדָבָר זֶה זִיַּיפְתִּי סִפְרֵי כוּתִים, שֶׁהָיוּ אוֹמְרִים אֵין תְּחִיַּית הַמֵּתִים מִן הַתּוֹרָה. אָמַרְתִּי לָהֶן: זִיַּיפְתֶּם תּוֹרַתְכֶם וְלֹא הֶעֱלִיתֶם בְּיֶדְכֶם כְּלוּם, שֶׁאַתֶּם אוֹמְרִים אֵין תְּחִיַּית הַמֵּתִים מִן הַתּוֹרָה. הֲרֵי הוּא אוֹמֵר ״הִכָּרֵת תִּכָּרֵת הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַהִיא עֲוֹנָהּ בָּהּ״. ״הִכָּרֵת תִּכָּרֵת״ – בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה, ״עֲוֹנָהּ בָּהּ״ – לְאֵימַת? לָאו לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא?

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer, son of Rabbi Yosei, says: With this following matter, I refuted the books of the Samaritans, as they would say that there is no source for the resurrection of the dead from the Torah. I said to them: You falsified your torah and you accomplished nothing, as you say there is no source for the resurrection of the dead from the Torah, and the Torah states: “That soul shall be excised; his iniquity shall be upon him” (Numbers 15:31). You interpret the phrase “that soul shall be excised” to mean that a sinner will be punished with death in this world. If so, with regard to the phrase “his iniquity shall be upon him,” for when is that destined to be? Is it not for the World-to-Come, i.e., the world as it will exist after the resurrection of the dead? Apparently, there is a World-to-Come and there is an allusion to it in the Torah.

Often, Vilna censors “gentiles” to “Cutheans” because of the censor. Strangely, here it censors away from Cutheans. Earlier printings and manuscripts have Kutim, yet Vilna changes it to the pareve term minim.

Again, Kutim gives us more information. The Samaritans / Cutheans have a Samaritan Pentateuch, which differs in many respects from the Masoretic Text. It is often smoother, which is a mark against it — lectio difficilior rules the day. They regularize spelling. They take some text that is underlyingly correct, when you know something obscure about grammar, and “fix” it so that it is smoother. They harmonize, copying Moshe’s sending of the spies with different details, from different places in Torah.

That is the meaning of זִיַּיפְתֶּם תּוֹרַתְכֶם וְלֹא הֶעֱלִיתֶם בְּיֶדְכֶם כְּלוּם, You falsified your torah and you accomplished nothing. Even edits to the basic Torah text, done with an agenda, still doesn’t accomplish their desired aims. That is how the phrase is used in other locations. So it is specifically Samaritans, and I don’t know what the censor has against Samaritans. Did he think this was already a codeword for gentile, spoiled by his own censorship?

Regardless, I don’t think there isn’t something different in the Samaritan Pentateuch in Bemidbar 15:31. Masoretic text on the left, Samaritan on the right:

and the Samaritan Targum on the same, has the same doubled language:

Also, Devarim 31:16 seems the same:

as well as in the Samaritan Targum:

and in Shemot 6:4:

and in the Samaritan Targum:

So no changes from what the Torah says that I can tell, in any of the prooftexts used for techiyat hemeitim.

Sometimes the differing text is echoed in the Septuagint, but for Exodus 6:4, I see no changes. Nor for Numbers 15:31, or Deuteronomy 31:16.