Learn more about the Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi while you Tour IsraelNation of the Jewish People!
On your IsraelNation of the Jewish People Tour you can increase your knowledge while you travel!
The smartest travelers in IsraelNation of the Jewish People Travel while they learn!
The term 'Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi' basically means the entire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE, when Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (Judah the Prince) finally redacted it.
He is usually simply referred to as 'RebbeRabbi Menachem Schneerson the Lubavitcher Rebbe'. He recorded the Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, also known in English as the Oral Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism or Oral Law.
The Written Law is another name for the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism. The Oral Law is a legal commentary on the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism, explaining how its commandments are to be carried out. Common sense suggests that some sort of oral tradition was always needed to accompany the Written Law, because the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism alone, even with its 613 commandments, is an insufficient guide to Jewish life. For example, the fourth of the Ten Commandments, ordains, "Remember the Sabbath day to make it holy" (Exodus 20:8). From the Sabbath's inclusion in the Ten Commandments, it is clear that the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism regards it as an important holiday. Yet when one looks for the specific biblical laws regulating how to observe the day, one finds only injunctions against lighting a fire, going away from one's dwelling, cutting down a tree, plowing and harvesting. Would merely refraining from these few activities fulfill the biblical command to make the Sabbath holy? Indeed, the Sabbath rituals that are most commonly associated with holiness - lighting of candles, reciting the kiddush, and the reading of the weekly Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism portion are found not in the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism, but in the Oral Law.
The Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism also is silent on many important subjects. We take it for granted that the large majority of couples want their wedding ceremony to be religious, but the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism itself has nothing to say concerning a marriage ceremony. To be sure, the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism presumes that people will get married - "Therefore shall a man leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh." (Genesis 2:24) - but nowhere in the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism is a marriage ceremony recorded. Only in the Oral Law do we find details on how to perform a Jewish wedding.
Without an oral tradition, some of the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism's laws would be incomprehensible. In the Shema's first paragraph, the Bible instructs: "And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes." (Deuteronomy 6:48)
"Bind them for a sign upon your hand," the last verse instructs. Bind what? The Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism doesn't say. "And they shall be for frontlets between your eyes." What are frontlets? The Hebrew word for frontlets, totafot is used three times in the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism - always in this context (Exodus 13:16; Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18) - and is as obscure as is the English. Only in the Oral Law do we learn that what a Jewish male should bind upon his hand and between his eyes are tefillin (phylacteries).
Finally, an Oral Law was needed to mitigate certain categorical Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism laws that would have caused grave problems if carried out literally. The Written Law, for example, demands an "eye for an eye" (Exodus 21:24). Did this imply that if one person accidentally blinded another, he should be blinded in return? That seems to be the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism's wish. But the Oral Law explains that the verse must be understood as requiring monetary compensation: the value of an eye is what must be paid.
For these three reasons-the frequent lack of details in Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism legislation, the incomprehensibility of some terms in the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism, and the objections to following some Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism laws literally — an Oral Law was always necessary.
Strangely enough, the Oral Law today is a written law, codified in the Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi and Talmud. Orthodox JudaismThe religion of the Jewish people believes that most of the oral traditions recorded in these books dates back to G-d's revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai. When G-d gave Moses the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism, Orthodoxy teaches, He simultaneously provided him all the details found in the Oral Law. It is believed that Moses subsequently transmitted that Oral Law to his successor, Joshua, who transmitted it to his successor, in a chain that is still being carried on today (Ethics of the Fathers 1:1).
The Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi is the basic textbook of Jewish life and thought, and is traditionally considered to be an integral part of the Torahthe central and most important document of Judaism revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. The sifting and recording of the body of oral interpretations of biblical law was the work of the Tannaim, the final compilation being made during the rule of Judah ha-Nasi . The Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi is divided into six Orders Zeraim [seeds], laws pertaining to agriculture; Moed [seasons], laws concerning observation of the Sabbath and festivals; Nashim [women], laws regarding vows, marriage, and divorce; Nezikim [damages], laws concerning civil and criminal matters; Kodashim [holy things], laws regulating ritual slaughter, sacrifice, and holy objects; and Tohorot [purities], laws regarding ceremonial purity. Each Order is divided into tractates, which in turn are divided into chapters. These contain paragraphs called mishnayyot. The penultimate tractate of the fourth Order is called Avot or Pirke Avot [chapters of the fathers], and unlike much of the rest of the Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi consists of general moral and religious sayings. In addition to those rulings accepted as law, the Mishnahentire body of Jewish religious law that was passed down and developed before 200 CE by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi records contrary opinions and discussions among the rabbis.