Gemara

thumb|The first text page of Rosh Hashanah (tractate)|tractate Rosh Hashanah. The center column contains the Talmud text, beginning with a section of [[Mishnah. The Gemara begins 8 lines down with the abbreviation 'גמ (gimmel-mem). Mishnah and Gemara sections alternate throughout the Talmud text. The large blocks of text on either side are the Tosafot and Rashi commentaries. Other notes and cross references are in the margins.]]

The Gemara (also transliterated Gemarah, or in Yiddish Gemore) comprises a collection of rabbinical analyses and commentaries on the Mishnah presented in 63 books. The term is derived from the Aramaic word and rooted in the Semitic word ג-מ-ר (gamar), which means "to finish" or "complete". Initially, the Gemara was transmitted orally and not permitted to be written down. However, after Judah the Prince compiled the Mishnah around 200 CE, rabbis from Babylonia and the Land of Israel extensively studied the work. Their discussions were eventually documented in a series of books, which would come to be known as the Gemara. There are two versions of the Talmud: the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli) and the Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi). The Mishnah is virtually the same in two Talmuds; the Gemara is what differentiates the Babylonian Talmud from its Jerusalem counterpart.