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

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

The vast labyrinth of Biblical commentary known as the Mishnah is at once “an orgy of the picayune” and “a thousand-page act of yearning.”

From Seattle Times • Mar. 26, 2014

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