Mishnah

or Mish·na

[ English, Ashkenazic Hebrew mish-nuh; Sephardic Hebrew meesh-nah ]

noun

, Judaism.

, plural Mish·na·yoth, Mish·na·yot, Mish·na·yos [mish-n, uh, -, yohs, meesh-nah-, yawt], English Mish·nahs.

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.

Other Words From

• Mish·na·ic [mish-, ney, -ik], Mishnic Mishni·cal adjective
• post-Mish·naic adjective
• post-Mishnic adjective
• post-Mishni·cal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Mishnah¹

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

Example Sentences

They describe six, seven, eight in the Mishnah—again, this is an 1,800-year-old text we’re talking about.

From Slate

Rabbi Mychal B. Springer, the manager of clinical pastoral education at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, has found herself returning to an ancient Jewish writing in the Mishnah, which says that when God began creating, God created a single person.

From New York Times

Rabbi Mychal B. Springer, the manager of clinical pastoral education at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, has found herself returning to an ancient Jewish writing in the Mishnah, which says that when God began creating, God created a single person.

From New York Times

That realization, in turn, reminded Lander of an expression found in the Mishnah, the earliest collections of rabbinical interpretations of oral Jewish law: “It’s not required that you complete the work, but neither may you refrain from it.”

From Washington Post

In scouring the Library of Congress catalogue for a copy of the Mishnah, however, Lander stumbled upon something a bit more specific: a 13-page volume containing the Pirkei Avot, a subset of the Mishnah that focuses on ethics and contains the expression.

From Washington Post