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I heard, long ago, about a mesechta (or entire seder, I can't recall which) of Yerushalmi that was fabricated. It was finally proven to be a fake when a rabbi realized that every mesechta (or seder) in shas has its own unique figure, whether that's a tanna or amora or what-have-you, and this mesechta (or seder) did not.

Is anyone familiar with the specifics of this story, and where can I find more about it?

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https://www.yerushalmionline.org/articles/yerushalmi_on_kodshim.pdf Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer's terrific article about it.

It was the Yerushalmi on all of Seder Kodshim.

Rabbi Yosef Rosen of Rogachov is the one to whom the one-new-rabbi-per-mesechta story is attributed:

It is worthwhile to note that according to an unverified legend related in the Yeshiva world, Friedlander's creativity was flawed. The legend maintains that Rabbi Yosef Rosen (the Rogatchover), one of the greatest masters of Talmudic knowledge of all time, realized that the work was a forgery because he had noticed that each tractate in the Talmud contains the name of at least one Amora who is never mentioned anywhere else. In his care not to raise doubts as to the work's legitimacy, it seems that Friedlander only used the names of known Amoraim!

If I'm not mistaken, someone actually did find the Rogachover's note about this in one of his written works, somewhere in Tzofnas Paneach if I recall?

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  • I didn't reread the article but I think he disproves the legend. Or at the very least it's disproven.
    – robev
    Commented Jan 24, 2021 at 21:24
  • @robev I just read the article. He doesn't disprove the legend, but he does imply that it's untrue: "The Rogatchover's actual objections to the Yerushalmi on Kodashim are detailed in his responsa, Tzafnas Paneach (Jerusalem, 1979), chaps. 113–115." (Sounds like the legendary one is not "actual".)
    – msh210 ♦
    Commented Jan 24, 2021 at 21:44
  • Link is broken, can you update?
    – Yehuda
    Commented Jan 1 at 1:08

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