Rab Adda's said: "The man who is conscious of sin and confesses it, but does not turn away from it, is like the man who holds a defiling reptile in his hand; were he to bathe in all the waters of the world, the bath would not restore him to cleanness. Only when he drops it from his hand, and bathes in but forty seahs (about 100 gallons) of water he is clean." (Babylonian Talmud Taanit 16a; compare Tosefta Taanit 1:8.)
Other argue that he was an erudite in the Baraitas and Tosefta, which the latter also literally means an 'add on' or a 'supplement', and both are an 'add on' works to the classic texts, and in their view, this is the way he earned his known name.
Tosefta |
He also authored a commentary to the works of the Tosefta on the section of Nezikin in the Talmud,
In another instance, Rabbi Joshua praises her intervention in a debate between Rabbi Tarfon and the sages, saying "Bruriah has spoken correctly" (Tosefta Keilim Bava Metzia 1:3).
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Bruriah was very involved in the halachic discussions of her time, and even challenges her father on a matter of ritual purity (Tosefta Keilim Bava Kamma 4:9).
The Mishnah, Tosefta, and Gemara, include a tract entitled Terumot ("Offerings"), which deals with the laws regulating raised offerings.
The work is divided into three parts, the first consisting of novellæ on the Gemara, the second of novellæ on the Tosefta, and the third of novellæ on the corresponding tractates in the Yerushalmi.
David Pardo explained that in Tosefta it is explained that selectively choosing one group of servants to the King (God) exemplifies and portrays the grandor of the King by showing that not all could merely "show up" and begin serving.
Halivni posits that during the time of Ravina and Rav Ashi, they compiled a Gemara that was much smaller than the Gemara known today, and which likely was similar to the Mishna and to the Tosefta.