Mishnah
first major written collection of the Oral Torah
The Mishnah (; Hebrew: מִשְׁנָה, romanized: mišnā, lit. 'study by repetition', from the verb לִשְׁנוֹת lišnot, "to repeat") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions. These oral traditions are known as the "Oral Torah", to differentiate them from the (written) Torah, and both are believed in rabbinic tradition to have been revealed alongside each other to Moses at Mount Sinai. While the Torah was passed down in writing, the Oral Torah is believed to have been transmitted by Jewish scholars until the compilation of the Mishnah in the late second or early third century CE. The Mishnah is viewed as authoritative and binding revelation by most Orthodox Jews and some non-Orthodox Jews. The Mishnah is also the basis of the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud, which are both commentaries on the Mishnah.
According to tradition, the Mishnah arose during the persecution of Jews in the late second or early third century. Fearing that these events would lead to the oral traditions of the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE) being forgotten, Judah ha-Nasi compiled the Mishnah in its current form, either in Beit Shearim or in Sepphoris. It was mainly written in Mishnaic Hebrew, but some parts are also in Jewish Aramaic. The oldest surviving physical fragments are from the 6th to 7th centuries.
Etymology
Mishnah comes from the verb shanah, which means "to repeat", "to study", "to heed oral instruction", or "to teach".
Authorship
Traditional accounts, especially the Iggeret of Sherira Gaon, credit Judah ha-Nasi ("Judah the Prince") with the final redaction and publication of the Mishnah, including arranging the Mishnah from earlier tannaitic traditions.
The public source identifies “Mishnah” as first major written collection of the Oral Torah. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mishnah, first and major.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q191825. VIAF identifies the subject as 177806309. The Library of Congress control number is n80017842. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mishnah” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.