Changes

In Israel, there arose a literature, mainly in the common Hebrew of the day. It is known as the Mishna ("secondary"). This was primarily the recordings of discussions of Biblical laws with view to application to the present life and experience of Jews in Israel and in the diaspora. Changing conditions required more current applications. The Mishna developed over four centuries (200 B.C. to 200 A.D.) and is divided into 6 orders, numerous tractates, and smaller units (mishnayot). The non legal aspects of the Mishna - the anecdotes, stories, remembrances of the rabbinic lives, etc. are called Aggada ("the telling").  

In Israel, there arose a literature, mainly in the common Hebrew of the day. It is known as the Mishna ("secondary"). This was primarily the recordings of discussions of Biblical laws with view to application to the present life and experience of Jews in Israel and in the diaspora. Changing conditions required more current applications. The Mishna developed over four centuries (200 B.C. to 200 A.D.) and is divided into 6 orders, numerous tractates, and smaller units (mishnayot). The non legal aspects of the Mishna - the anecdotes, stories, remembrances of the rabbinic lives, etc. are called Aggada ("the telling").  

The Palestinian Hebrew Mishna, having spread to Mesopotamia,  came to be regulatory to the Babylonian Jews, and, as the Mishna had become a "commentary" on the Hebrew Bible, so the Babylonian Jews developed a commentary on the Mishna itself. This was called the Gemara ("completion") and is in their own language, Aramaic.The formation of the Gemara took from 200 A.D. to 500 A.D. The whole Talmud then was a work of 300 years. The Mishna and the Gemara together is called the Talmud ("the Learning"). The Talmud then became regulatory until modern times for Jewish life elsewhere with but a few exceptions (Karaite Jews who do not hold to oral tradition).

The Palestinian Hebrew Mishna, having spread to Mesopotamia,  came to be regulatory to the Babylonian Jews, and, as the Mishna had become a "commentary" on the Hebrew Bible, so the Babylonian Jews developed a commentary on the Mishna itself. This was called the Gemara ("completion") and is in their own language, Aramaic.The formation of the Gemara took from 200 A.D. to 500 A.D. The whole Talmud then was a work of 700 years. The Mishna and the Gemara together is called the Talmud ("the Learning"). The Talmud then became regulatory until modern times for Jewish life elsewhere with but a few exceptions (Karaite Jews who do not hold to oral tradition).

The process of God sanctioned and ordained commentary (the Talmud) on the Scriptures is a legacy of the one movement that survived the first century Roman detruction of the temple and Jewish authority in Israel.  The Saduccees disappeared as did the Essenes and the Herodians. But not so the Pharisees. The Pharisees believed that with the written Torah given to Moses on Sinai, there was also an Oral Torah given to him, by which the written was to be interpreted and applied. This Oral Torah was transmitted to others - Joshua, then the seventy, the prophets, and then to certain pairs (Zugot)  finally finding its exression through the discussions and decisions embodied in the Talmudic literature. Having a "portable" law and, so to speak,  a "constituion" in the Talmud, Jews then were able to survive as Jews when they no longer had a land to live in.

The process of God sanctioned and ordained commentary (the Talmud) on the Scriptures is a legacy of the one movement that survived the first century Roman detruction of the temple and Jewish authority in Israel.  The Saduccees disappeared as did the Essenes and the Herodians. But not so the Pharisees. The Pharisees believed that with the written Torah given to Moses on Sinai, there was also an Oral Torah given to him, by which the written was to be interpreted and applied. This Oral Torah was transmitted to others - Joshua, then the seventy, the prophets, and then to certain pairs (Zugot)  finally finding its exression through the discussions and decisions embodied in the Talmudic literature. Having a "portable" law and, so to speak,  a "constituion" in the Talmud, Jews then were able to survive as Jews when they no longer had a land to live in.