Page "Pharisees" Paragraph 65

The Rabbinic Era itself is divided into two periods.

The first period was that of the Tannaim ( from the Aramaic word for " repeat ;" the Aramaic root TNY is equivalent to the Hebrew root SNY, which is the basis for " Mishnah.

" Thus, Tannaim are " Mishnah teachers "), the sages who repeated and thus passed down the Oral Torah.

During this period rabbis finalized the canonization of the Tanakh, and in 200 Judah haNasi edited together Tannaitic judgements and traditions into the Mishna, considered by the rabbis to be the definitive expression of the Oral Torah ( although some of the sages mentioned in the Mishnah are Pharisees who lived prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, or prior to the Bar Kozeba Revolt, most of the sages mentioned lived after the revolt ).