Nobody likes to feel like an outsider. Few things separate people like language (you might remember a Bible story set on a construction site in Babel…). In addition to the major divisions we experience when encountering the world’s various languages, there is also the issue of jargon or technical terminology related to a specific field or discipline. For example, “borborygmi” is used by English speaking medical professionals but it probably means nothing to you even though you’re clearly a capable English-reader (by the way, it means “stomach growling”).

Enter: Messianic Judaism.

Folks who understand Jesus Christ to be Yeshua HaMashiach have probably come to terms with the fact that there is a major language gap we need to close. But beyond the challenges of the Hebrew language, people can be confused by Jewish terms and concepts.

“Where does the idea of Rabbi come from?”
“What’s the difference between the Mishnah and the Talmud?”

“Is the Oral Torah really a thing?”

WATCH: Rabbi Jason Explains: What is Messianic Judaism

We’ve created explanations for several terms that are central to Judaism (whether conventional or Messianic) in order to assist you on this journey deeper into the roots of our faith.

MISHNAH

The word itself means study by repetition. It is the first significant written collection of Jewish oral traditions (known as the “Oral Torah”). It is the first major work that would become the corpus of rabbinic literature. According to traditional thought, a rabbi from the 2nd century named Judah ha-Nasi compiled the content that would comprise the Mishnah, probably in the Galilean village of Beit Shearim or Sepphoris (not far from Nazareth). He worked during a time when—due to the persecution of Jews and the passage of time—there was a genuine possibility that the details of the oral traditions of the Pharisees from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE) would be lost forever. The Mishnah probably evolved, as its composition may have continued until the 6th century.¹

The Mishnah is composed of six “orders,” which are general subject headings:

1. Zeraim (seeds),
2. Moed (Festival),
3. Nashim (Women),
4. Nezikin (Damages),
5. Kodashim (Holy Things), and
6. Tohorot (Purities).

Beyond these general categories are subdivisions known as “Tractates,” of which there are 63.

Most likely owing to the Roman persecution of Jews, the Mishnah contains several important laws which lack sufficient elaboration. These include the laws of tzitzit, tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot, the holiday of Hanukkah, and the laws of conversion to Judaism. Coincidentally, all of these were explicitly outlawed by Roman decree following the failed Bar Kokhba revolt in 136 CE. These subjects would be taken up later in the Talmud in what would become known as the “minor tractates.”

TALMUD

The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (halakha) and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewish cultural life. It was foundational to “all Jewish thought and aspirations,” also serving as “the guide for the daily life” of Jews. The term Talmud commonly refers to the collection of writings named specifically the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli), traditionally claimed to be compiled in the 5th century by Rav Ashi and Ravina II. Significant internal and external evidence—including several prominent Talmudic commentators—surprisingly indicate that the Babylonian Talmud did not find its final form until the 11th century.² There is a second iteration currently called the “Jerusalem Talmud,” which reached its final form between the 6th and 7th centuries in the academies of Tiberias and Caesarea. It was written in the Western Aramaic language, which residents of the Land of Israel spoke then.

Both volumes elucidate the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings, often venturing onto other subjects and expounding broadly on the Hebrew Bible. Both Talmuds contain the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis on various subjects, including halakha, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, folklore, and many others. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is widely quoted in subsequent rabbinic literature.

ORAL TORAH

According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah includes the statutes and legal interpretations not recorded in the Five Books of Moses, the Written Torah. Orthodox Jews view the Oral Torah as prescriptive and given simultaneously to Moses along with the Written Torah on Mount Sinai. This holistic Jewish code of conduct encompasses a broad swathe of rituals, worship practices, and interpersonal relationships, from dietary laws to Sabbath and festival observance to marital relations, agricultural practices, and civil claims and damages.

According to Rabbinic Jewish tradition, the Oral Torah was passed down orally in an unbroken chain from generation to generation until its contents were finally committed to writing following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. At that historical moment, Jewish civilization faced an existential threat via the dispersion of the Jewish people.

Deuteronomy 12:21 serves as a critical source of authority for the Oral Law: “Then you may slaughter any of your herd and flock that Adonai has given you—as I have commanded you” (TLV emphasis added). Jewish authors note that God directed the Children of Israel to slaughter the animal in the manner that He commanded; however, nowhere in the Torah (or the Bible in general) is the method and means of that slaughter elucidated. Rabbinic literature will state that this is a particularly glaring oversight. The “missing” method and means would later be explained and elaborated on in the Mishan tractate Chullin.

Midrash

With the growing canonization of the contents of the Hebrew Bible—both in terms of the books that it contained and the version of the text in them—and a consensus that adding new texts was untenable, there came a need to produce material that would differentiate between the biblical text and its rabbinic interpretation. By collecting and compiling these thoughts, readers could engage them in a manner that helped to refute claims that the interpretations were only human. The rationale was that, by presenting the various collections of different schools of thought (each of which relied upon close study of the text), students could reconcile the apparent differences between early biblical law and its later rabbinic interpretation.³

There are essentially two types of Midrash. 

Halakhic Midrash:  A collection of expositions on the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, by the Tannaim. Tannaim are Jewish sages whose perspectives are mentioned in the Mishnah. These midrashim, written in Mishnaic Hebrew, clearly distinguish between the biblical texts they discuss and the rabbinic interpretations of that text. They often go beyond simple interpretation and derive or provide support for halakha. This work rests on pre-set assumptions about the sacred and divine nature of the text and the belief in their legitimacy that accords with rabbinic interpretation. Although this material treats the biblical texts as the authoritative word of God, it is clear that not all of the Hebrew Bible was fixed in its wording at this time, as some cited verses differ from the Masoretic Text (the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic biblical text), and accord with the Septuagint, Qumran or Samaritan Torah instead.

Aggadic Midrashim: Works that explain the Hebrew Bible’s non-legal portions are sometimes referred to as Aggadah or Haggadah. Aggadic discussions of the non-legal parts of Scripture are characterized by a much greater freedom of exposition than the halakhic midrashim (midrashim on Jewish law). Aggadic expositors availed themselves of various techniques, including sayings of prominent rabbis. These Aggadic explanations could be philosophical or mystical disquisitions concerning angels, demons, paradise, hell, the messiah, Satan, feasts and fasts, parables, legends, satirical assaults on those who practice idolatry, etc. The most famous of these is the Passover Haggadah, which recounts, with Rabbinic explanation, the Exodus from Egypt.

RABBI 

Members of the Sanhedrin had to receive their ordination (semicha) in an uninterrupted line of transmission from Moses, yet rather than being referred to as rabbis, they were called priests or scribes. Consider Ezra, whom the biblical text describes as “the kohen, the scribe, a teacher of matters pertaining to the mitzvot of ADONAI and His statutes over Israel” (Ezra 7:11 TLV). “Rabbi” as a title does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, though later rabbinic sources occasionally use it as a title for wise biblical figures

With the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem, the end of the Jewish monarchy, and the decline of the dual institutions of prophets and the priesthood, the focus of scholarly and spiritual leadership within the Jewish people shifted to the sages known as the “Tannaim.” As noted above, the Tannaim were the leading Jewish voices (mentioned in the Midrashic literature) after the destruction of the 2^nd Temple in 70 CE. . This assembly was composed of the earliest group of “rabbis” in the more modern sense of the word, in large part because they began the formulation and explication of what became known as Judaism’s “Oral Law” (Torah SheBe’al Peh). This was eventually encoded and codified within the Mishnah and Talmud and subsequent rabbinical scholarship, resulting in what is known as “Rabbinic Judaism.”

From the 1st century BCE to the 5th century CE, the title “Rabbi” was given to those sages of the Land of Israel who received formal ordination (semicha). After the Roman Emperor Theodosius II suppressed the Patriarchate and Sanhedrin in 425, there was no more formal ordination in the strict sense. Consequently, a recognized scholar would be granted the title Rav. The transmission of learning from master to disciple remained of tremendous importance, and the title became more of an academic degree than a formal ordination (as it had been).

One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as semicha. In more recent centuries, the duties of a rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Protestant Christian minister, hence the title “pulpit rabbis.” In 19th-century Germany and the United States, rabbinic activities, including sermons, pastoral counseling, and representing the community to the outside, all increased in importance.

SIDDUR

The Siddur is a Jewish prayer book containing a set order of daily prayers. The word siddur comes from the Hebrew root ס-ד-ר‎, meaning “order.” The earliest parts of Jewish prayer books are the Shema Yisrael (“Hear O Israel” / Deuteronomy 6:4 et seq) and the Priestly Blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), which are in the Torah.

A set of eighteen (currently nineteen) blessings called the Shemoneh Esreh or the Amidah (Hebrew, “standing [prayer]”) is traditionally ascribed to the Great Assembly in the time of Ezra at the end of the biblical period. It was only near the end of the Second Temple period that the eighteen prayers of the weekday Amidah became standardized. Even then, their precise wording and order were not yet fixed and varied from locale to locale. According to the Talmud, soon after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, a formal version of the Amidah was adopted at a rabbinical Council in Yavne under the leadership of Gamaliel II (prominent late-1^st century rabbi) and his colleagues. While the prayer’s precise wording remained unspecified, the order, general ideas, and opening and closing lines were fixed. Hence, the Siddur is the earliest piece of Rabbinic literature extant.

Again, most of the wording was left to the individual reader. It was not until several centuries later that the prayers began to be codified. By the Middle Ages, the prayers’ texts in the Siddur were pretty well established and had assumed the form they have today. The Siddur was first printed by Soncino in Italy as early as 1486, making it also the first Jewish text to meet the printing press.