The Mishnah or the Mishna (/ˈmɪʃnə/; Hebrew: מִשְׁנָה, romanized: mišnā, lit. 'study by repetition', from the verb שנה šānā, "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is the first work of rabbinic literature,[1][2] written primarily in Mishnaic Hebrew but also partly in Jewish Aramaic. The oldest surviving physical fragments of it are from the 6th to 7th centuries.[3]
After the Mishnah was compiled, it became the subject of centuries of rabbinic commentary, primarily taking place in the Land of Israel and Babylonia. Both of these centers compiled their own collection of rabbinic commentaries on the Mishnah, leading to the creation of the Jerusalem Talmud and the now more well known Babylonian Talmud ("Talmud" alone refers to the latter).
^The same meaning is suggested by the term Deuterosis ("doubling" or "repetition" in Koine Greek) used in Roman law and Patristic literature. However, it is not always clear from the context if the reference is to the Mishnah or the Targum, which could be regarded as a "doubling" of the Torah reading.
^Fine, Steven; Koller, Aaron J. (2014). Talmuda de-Eretz Israel: archaeology and the rabbis. Studia Judaica. Center for Israel studies. Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 231–237. ISBN978-1-61451-485-5.
^Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael (2007). "Mishnah". Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 14 (2 ed.). p. 319. ISBN978-0-02-865942-8.. Heinrich Graetz, dissenting, places the Mishnah's compilation in 189 CE (see: H. Graetz, History of the Jews, vol. 6, Philadelphia 1898, p. 105Archived 2022-11-02 at the Wayback Machine), and which date follows that penned by Rabbi Abraham ben David in his "Sefer HaKabbalah le-Ravad", or what was then anno 500 of the Seleucid era.
