MISCHNA

or MISNA. A part of the Jewish Talmud. From a word which signifies repetition : i. e. a secondary law. It is believed by the Jews to be the tradition delivered, unwritten, to Moses by God ; and preserved only by the doctors of the synagogue till the time of Rabbi Judas the Holy, who committed it to writing about A. D. 180. It is in fact the canon and civil law of the Jews; treating of tithes, festivals, matrimonial laws, mercantile laws, idolatry, oaths, sacrifices, and purifications. The heads of the synagogue who are said to have preserved the Mischna, were thought to have had the privilege of hearing the Bath-Col , or oracular voice of God. (See Bath-Col .) The Mischna contains the text; and the Gemara, which is the second part of the Talmud, contains the commentaries; so that the Gemara is, as it were, a glo ary to the Mischna.