From Moses until Rabbenu Hakadosh the traditional laws were thus learnt by heart and handed down from generation to generation orally. Rabbenu Hakadosh, however, realizing that because of growing hardships and persecutions the Jews might not be able to retain by memory all these traditional laws, decided to record them. Being both a great scholar and a man of considerable means, he gathered around him the greatest scholars of his time and recorded all the traditional laws and interpretations of the Torah that they had learnt from their teachers. All this vast knowledge he arranged into six sections:
Zeraim-"Seeds"-agricultural laws;
Moed-"Season"-laws of Sabbath and Festivals;
Nashim-"Women"-marriage laws;
Nezikin- "Damages"-civil and criminal laws;
Kodshim- "Holy Things"-laws on Sacrifices;
Taharoth- "Purities" - laws of cleanliness and purity.
Each section was further subdivided into tractates, Mesichtoth, each tractate into chapters and each chapter into Mishnayoth.
Gemara
The Mishnayoth were written down very concisely, without discussion or much argumentation. "Rabbi's" disciples later compiled the "Toseftoth" and "Brayetoth" where the subjects of the Mishnayoth are examined at greater length. The great scholars living after the redaction and completion of the Mishnah, who studied, examined, discussed and interpreted the Mishnayoth, were called 'Amoraim (meaning 'teachers' or 'interpreters').
Thus the Mishnayot were studied in the great Yeshivoth of Eretz Israel and Babylon for about 400 years after the destruction of the Second Temple. Finally, Rav Ashi, one of the greatest scholars of his time, a man combining both scholarship and wealth, realizing that the growing troubles and sufferings of the Jewish people might cause many of the laws and interpretations which had been handed down traditionally for many generations, to be forgotten, decided to write them down.
Together with his contemporary, Ravina, and other heads of the Yeshivoth in Babylon, they gathered and compiled the Gemara-the Talmud Bavli, which Jews hold sacred and study to this very day. The scholars of Eretz Israel had already compiled and arranged the Talmud Jerushalmi, which is also held sacred and studied by our scholars to this day.
Rabbanan Seburai
The scholars who lived after the redaction of the Gemara, were known as Rabbanan Seburai (Rabbis - interpreters). They subtracted nothing from the Talmud; they merely interpreted the Gemara.
Geonim
The great scholars, successors to the Rabbanan Seburai, were called Geonim. (Gaon-excellency). For many years they headed the great Babylonian academies. The last one of them was Rav Hai Gaon.
Rishonim and Acharonim
After the Geonim lived the great scholars: Rabbenu Chananel, Rabbi Isaac Alfasi, Rabbi Joseph ibn Migash, Rashi, Rambam (Maimonides) and others. Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Itzchaki) won immortal fame by his commentaries on the Torah and Talmud, without which it would now be almost impossible to understand either; and Maimonides-by his MishnehTorah ("Repetition of the Law")-a codification of all the laws of Israel. The grandsons of Rashi together with other great scholars of their time compiled the "Tosefoth" (commentaries on the Talmud).
Various great scholars of later years gathered the final decisions and settlements of disputed laws, as codified by the Rishonim and arranged them. The most outstanding of them was: the 'Author of the Tirim' (Rabbi Jacob son of the 'Rosh'-Rabbi Osher son of Rabbi Jechiel). Later, Rabbi Joseph, son of Rabbi Ephraim Caro, reexamined and recast the law-decisions and arranged them in his famous work the Shulchan-aruch ("Table arranged") or the Code of Jewish Law, so that every Jew could learn and understand them.
The holy Torah-the Written Torah and the Oral Torah-is the Divine gift that G-d has given us through Moses, on Mount Sinai. This selfsame Torah was handed down by Moses to his successor Joshua, and so on from generation to generation to the present day. As G-d is eternal, so the Torah which He has given is eternal, and through studying the Torah and observing the precepts and commandments of the Torah, the Jewish people are also eternal.
