Revolution or evolution

The Talmudic laws of handling objects on the Sabbath (referred to usually as muqse) relate to one's mental state towards given objects as a criterion for determining the permissibility of handling them. Examination of the Mishnah and Tosefta in relation to the Talmuds reveals that this approach is an amoraic novelty, whereas the tannaitic sources base the law solely on physical criteria. This development is demonstrated through two main examples: Application of thought to set the status of an object and the consideration of one's knowledge or awareness of the state of an object in determining its status. The emergence of this mental approach seems to have been deeply influenced, semantically and conceptually, by the tannaitc purity laws. Continuity, rather than revolution, appears to characterize this development, based in the tannaitic purity laws and applied in early and late amoraic discourse in the Yerushalmi and the Bavli.