Following a mishnah on Bava Batra 12 that declared jointly owned sacred writings cannot be split even if both partners wish to do so, the Gemara spent several pages on the laws of Torah scrolls — their dimensions, how and where they’re joined and the order of the books. Today, the Gemara brings a fascinating beraita, which describes the authorship, not just of Torah, but of the other books in Tanakh:
And who wrote the books of the Bible? Moses wrote his own book (i.e., the Torah) … and the book of Job.
Joshua wrote his own book and eight verses in the Torah.
Samuel wrote his own book, the Book of Judges, and the Book of Ruth.
David wrote the book of Psalms by means of ten elders. He included psalms authored by Adam the first man, Melchizedek king of Salem, Abraham, Moses, Heman, Jeduthun, Asaph and the three sons of Korah.
Jeremiah wrote his own book and the Book of Kings and Lamentations.
Hezekiah and his colleagues wrote … Isaiah, Proverbs, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.
The members of the Great Assembly wrote … Ezekiel, the Twelve (minor) Prophets, Daniel and the Scroll of Esther.
Ezra wrote his own book and the genealogy of the Book of Chronicles until his period.
While most people are aware of the traditional stance that the five books of the Torah were received and written by Moses at Mount Sinai, the authorship of the rest of Tanakh receives far less attention. This beraita envisions the writing as something done primarily by individual leaders (particularly those with books named after them), but also by prominent bodies of leadership, such as the Great Assembly. Psalms, for instance, which many have heard attributed to King David, is noted to comprise not only his original compositions, but a compilation of psalms dating all the way back to Adam!
The Gemara focuses on one puzzling thing mentioned in the beraita: eight verses of Torah written by Joshua. Which eight verses were not written by Moses?
This point is subject to a tannaitic dispute, as it is taught in another beraita: “And Moses the servant of the Lord died there” (Deuteronomy 34:5); is it possible that after Moses died, he himself wrote “And Moses died there”? Rather, Moses wrote the entire Torah until this point, and Joshua wrote from this point forward — this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. And some say that Rabbi Nehemya stated this opinion.
The last eight lines of the Torah record Moses’ death and the community’s subsequent mourning, as well as Joshua’s assumption of leadership. One view is that it would have been logistically difficult for Moses to record this himself, and so these final lines must in fact be where Joshua’s authorship begins, continuing through to his book which opens the next section of Tanakh, Prophets. But this opinion is not unanimous:
Rabbi Shimon said to him: Is it possible that the Torah scroll was missing a single letter? But it is written: “Take this Torah scroll” (Deuteronomy 31:26), indicating that the Torah was complete as is and that nothing further would be added to it. Rather, until this point the Holy One, Blessed be He, dictated and Moses repeated after Him and wrote the text. From this point forward, with respect to Moses’ death, the Holy One, Blessed be He, dictated and Moses wrote with tears.
Are we really to imagine, says Rabbi Shimon, that Moses descended from Mount Sinai with an incomplete Torah, only for Joshua to scribble an ending 39 years later? Rather, it must be that God dictated the last verses to Moses, those describing his own death and legacy, while the latter recorded them through his tears.
This vision is both fascinating and heartbreaking, especially when carried to its logical conclusion. Famously, in Numbers 20:12, God tells Moses that he will never enter the promised land, as punishment for striking a rock. Did Moses write this down before it happened as well? In fact, if we take seriously the notion that Moses received and recorded the whole Torah on Mount Sinai, this would mean Moses recorded the sin of the Golden Calf before descending the mountain and smashing the tablets, that he later sent the spies out knowing they’d come back with negative reviews of the land (condemning the Israelites to another 39 years of wandering), that he knew of every rebellion, every punishment and even of his own fatal error before he made it. In this case, it’s surprising that only eight lines of the Torah were written through Moses’ tears.
Read all of Bava Batra 15 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 10, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
