Mishnah

American  

[mish-nuh, meesh-nah] / ˈmɪʃ nə, miʃˈnɑ /

Or Mishna

noun

Judaism.

plural

Mishnayoth, Mishnayot, Mishnayos,

plural

Mishnahs

1. the collection of oral laws compiled about a.d. 200 by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi and forming the basic part of the Talmud.

2. an article or section of this collection.

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Other Word Forms

• Mishnaic adjective
• Mishnic adjective
• Mishnical adjective
• post-Mishnaic adjective
• post-Mishnic adjective
• post-Mishnical adjective

Etymology

Origin of Mishnah

First recorded in 1600–10, Mishnah is from the Medieval Hebrew word mishnāh literally, teaching by oral repetition

Example Sentences

Lander took his oath of office on a 500-year-old fragment of the Mishnah, an ancient Jewish text documenting oral traditions and laws.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 2, 2021

A low glass cabinet contained the full Mishnah.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 14, 2019

Entire sections of the Mishnah and Talmud are devoted to trying to flesh out this simple command.

From Slate • Oct. 30, 2015

He found a trove of clues in three codices of Jewish Law that were compiled millennia ago in Israel: the Mishnah, Tosefta, and the Jerusalem Talmud.

From National Geographic • Aug. 21, 2015

I finished the explanation of the Mishnaic text and read the next thought unit, which consisted of another Mishnah found in a different tractate from the one we were now studying.

From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok