Aramaic, “completion” or “tradition.” The portion of the Talmud that contains rabbinical commentaries and analyses on the work called the Mishnah, which was finalized by R. Judah haNasi (ca. 200 c.e.). The Mishnah was debated exhaustively by many generations of rabbis in Babylonia and Israel, and these debates and discussions were recorded in the series of books that became the Gemara, which was combined with the Mishnah to form the Talmud.