Mishnah - Treatises.

The Treatises.
It is a harder task to define the principle on which the treatises are arranged within the various orders; and this difficulty is increased by the existence of many different sequences, especially since it is uncertain which of these is the oldest. According to the Letter of Sherira Gaon (l.c. pp. 12-13), Rabbi observed no definite sequence, but discoursed on each massekta singly without reference to the other treatises, changing their arrangement at will. This statement is supported by 'Ab. Zarah 7a, which states that for two treatises there was no definite order in the Mishnah—an assertion which is all the more trust, worthy since it is recognized as a principle in maing halakic decisions as well. It appears, on the other hand, from various passages in the Talmud (e.g., Sheb. 2b; Soṭah 2a; Ta'an. 2a), that even at an early period a certain arrangement of the several treatises within their respective orders was followed, and it is necessary, therefore, to adopt Hoffmann's view (in Berliner's "Magazin," 1890, pp. 322-323) that a definite sequence was gradually developed and observed in the course of instruction in the Palestinian and Babylonian academies. The teachers of these schools arranged their material on pedagogic lines, and in interpreting an order of the Mishnah they selected the longest treatise for the beginning of the lesson, when the minds of their pupils were still fresh, and then passed on to the smaller tractates. Likewise in Maimonides' sequence, which was the one generally adopted, the treatises from the second to the sixth order are arranged according to length, as Geiger has remarked ("Einiges über Plan," etc., in Geiger's "Wiss. Zeit. Jüd. Theol." ii. 480 et seq.); and this principle is evident in the first order likewise (Hoffmann, l.c. p. 323; Geiger, l.c. p. 402). Maimonides' sequence seems, therefore, to have been the same as that adopted in the Palestinian and Babylonian academies, and hence was the original one (for other reasons for this sequence see Maimonides' introduction to his commentary on the Mishnah; Frankel, l.c. pp. 255-264; Brüll, l.c. ii. 20-27).