In the years following the Mishnah's compilation, it became a central text in the rabbinic curriculum of sacred study. One manifestation of this curricular centrality is the fact that the Mishnah serves as the skeletal structure around which the two Talmuds are organized. Additionally, the so-called curriculum pericopes indicate that mishnaic traditions consistently occupied a place of honor in rabbinic academic settings. Moshe Halbertal has noted that when texts are canonized in a curricular sense, that is, when they become central pedagogical texts, they determine “how to think, how to see the world and what objects to meditate upon.” Following on Halbertal's observation, in this chapter I am interested in documenting the effect of the Mishnah's canonization as a centerpiece in the rabbinic curriculum on rabbinic habits of thought and analysis. Building on his observation, I wish to argue that study of m. Shevuot conditioned a particular way of thinking about legal problems.

In the previous chapter, I argued that the textual materials of m. Shevuot functioned as a script for ongoing reenactment of the legal exercises it records. By presenting difficult cases along with their legal resolutions, m. Shevuot trained its readers and students in particular methods of analyzing legal cases. It familiarized them with the basic principles that undergird the legal system as a whole, it modeled strategies for balancing the concerns of conflicting legal principles, and it taught students to explore the ambiguity of individual cases.