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Rereading the Mishnah: A New Approach to Ancient Jewish Texts (Texts & Studies in Ancient Judaism)

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Judith Hauptman is a professor of Talmud at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. A book review in "Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Review of Jewish Studies" states:

This work contains the results of many years of carefully reading and evaluating the relationship between the Tosefta and the Mishnah. The book has the following chapters:

(1) Rethinking the Relationship between the Mishnah and the Tosefta; (2) The Tosefta as a Commentary on an Early Mishnah; (3) Rewriting Tosefta's Halakhic Paragraphs for Inclusion in the Mishnah; (4) Condensing Aggadah; (5) Editing for the Ease of Memory; (6) From Tosefta to Mishnah to Talmud; (7) A New Model of the Mishnah-Tosefta Relationship.

This book contains a bibliography and an index that lists sources, modern authors, and subjects. Most of the materials were presented as papers at academic conferences such as the Association for Jewish Studies Conferences; this reviewer was present at virtually all of Judith Hauptman's presentations that led to this revolutionary book which sets forth the premise that the Tosefta preceded the Mishnah.

...Hauptman's assessment of the relationship of Tosefta, Mishnah, Tosefta Atiqta and "Ur-Mishnah" is impressive and demonstrates a remarkable breadth of rabbinic knowledge. Her book and related scholarship could serve as a catalyst for the reevaluation of the conventional wisdom concerning the assumed chronology of the Mishnah and the Tosefta. Additionally, the relationship of the tannaitic, halakhic midrashim with the Mishnah/Tosefta needs to be reconsidered as well. Her discussion of the interdependency and sequencing of rabbinic documents may change some views of rabbinic texts; there are many collections that may predate the edited documents in which they surface...

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