On the Sabbath following Passover we started reciting Pirket Avot (The Ethics of the Fathers). Each Sabbath one chapter is said. Sefaradim, who recite Avot only until the Sabbath before Shavuot, read the entire tractate only once. Ashkenazim, generally recite Avot until the Sabbath before Rosh Hashana.
Rabbi Moses Almosnino, a 16th centuryy rabbinic scholar, served as preacher in Salonika. He was the author of a variety of books, including Pirkei Moshe, a commentary on Avot (salonika, 1563).
At the beginning of his commentary he asks why the chain of tradition (“Moses received the Torah and transmitted it to Joshua,” etc.) is recorded at the beginning of this tractate. Why not at the beginning of the Order of Zemanim (Seasons)- Rabbi Almosnino refers to the Mishna Order of Mo’ed as Zemanim- the Order of Nashim, the Order of Nezikin, or at the beginning of one of the other Orders of the Mishna?
The names of the six Orders of the Mishna are all mentioned in the Talmud and in the Midrash: Zera’im, Mo’ed, Nashim, Nezikin, Kodashim and Tohorot. They were never changed and have remained the same throughout the ages. Where did Rabbi Almosnino get the name Zemanim for the Order of Mo’ed?
In 1609 an edition of the Mishna with the short commentary Kaf Nakhat, selected from the commentaries of Rashi and Maimonides by Rabbi Yitzchak Gabbai was printed in Venice. The title page of the part which contains the order of Mo’ed carries the name Zemanim instead of Mo’ed.
The name Zemanim instead of Mo’ed also appears on the title page of an edition of the Mishna printed in 1631 by Menasseh ben Israel’s printing press in Amsterdam.
Zemanim in place of Mo’ed is found as well on the title page of a vocalized edition of the Mishna printed by Menasseh ben Israel in Amsterdam in 1646.
Perhaps there are also other editions of the Mishna in which the Order of Mo’ed is called Zemanim.
[The above mentioned Mishna editions, Venice 1609 and Amsterdam 1631, are described by Isaac Yudlov in his catalog of the Israel Mehlman Collection, Sefer Ginzei Yisrael (Jerusalem 1984). I saw the Amsterdam 1646 Mishna edition in the Ben Zvi Institute in Jerusalem. In all these editions, the name Zemanim is printed on the title pages. The name Mo’ed is found on the inside pages. I also examined other editions from that period, but their title pages were missing.]
All these editions- in which the Order of Mo’ed is called Zemanim– were printed after the death of Rabbi Moses Almosnino ,who is believed to have died around 1580. However, it is possible that such editions already appeared while he was still alive. But even if this is not so, we may assume, in view of the fact that these editions were printed not very long after Rabbi Almosnino’s death, that even during his lifetime Torah scholars used the name Zemanim for the Order of Mo’ed. Hence Rabbi Almosnino’s use of it in his Pirkei Moshe.
How did this appellation for the Order of Mo’ed come into being? Mo’ed and Zemanim are synonymous. Moreover the third of Maimonides’ fourteen books of Mishneh Torah is called Sefer Zemanim. It includes the laws for Sabbaths, the Festivals and other special days of the Jewish calendar. It is probable that under the influence of the name of Maimonides’ Sefer Zemanim,Torah scholars came to call the Order of the Mishna which deals mainly with the laws of Sabbath, the Festivals and other special days of our calendar –– Zemanim!
I would like to add that Rabbi Jacob Hagiz (a 17th century Jerusalem scholar) at one point refers to the Order of Mo’ed as“Seder Zemanim” in his Mishna commentary Etz Hayyim (see Seder Zera’im p. 22b, Livorno,1654).
THe Jewish Press, Friday, April 19, 2002