Page "Torah" Paragraph 50

However, after exile, dispersion and persecution, this tradition was lifted when it became apparent that in writing was the only way to ensure that the Oral Law could be preserved.

After many years of effort by a great number of tannaim, the oral tradition was written down around 200 CE by Rabbi Judah haNasi who took up the compilation of a nominally written version of the Oral Law, the Mishnah ( Hebrew: משנה ).

Other oral traditions from the same time period not entered into the Mishnah were recorded as " Baraitot " ( external teaching ), and the Tosefta.

Other traditions were written down as Midrashim.