Barry Epstein asked:
Was does it mean that there were multiple versions of the Mishnah? I thought that the point of writing it down was so that it would not be forgotten and that there would be one source. Are these scribal errors or actually different Mishnayot?
Barry Epstein, Dallas, TX
The Kollel replies:
Before the Mishnayos were written down (in order to prevent the Oral Law from being lost, when the persecution of the Jews at the hands of the other nations posed such a risk), they were transmitted orally and there were different versions, as each scholar related the Mishnah as he heard it from his teacher
D. Zupnik