or Gemara, the second part of the Talmud.

The word גמרא, gemara, is commonly supposed to denote a supplement; but in strictness it rather signifies complement, perfection; being formed of the Chaldee יסוד, gemar or ghemar, "to finish, perfect, or complete anything."

The rabbins call the Pentateuch simply the law: the first part of the Talmud, which is only an explication of that law, or an application thereof to particular cases, with the decisions of the ancient rabbins thereon, they call the Mishnah, i.e., "second law;" and the second part, which is a more extensive and ample explication of the same law, and a collection of decisions of the rabbins posterior to the Mishnah, they call Gemara, q.d., "perfection, completion, finishing;" because they esteem it the finishing of the law, or an explication beyond which there is nothing farther to be desired.

The Gemara is usually called simply Talmud, the common name of the whole work. In this sense we say, there are two Gemaras or Talmuds: that of Jerusalem and that of Babylon: though in strictness the Gemara is only an explication of the Mishnah, given by the Jewish doctors in their schools; much as the commentaries of our school-divines on St Thomas, or the matter of the sentences, are an explication of the writings of those authors.

A commentary, Monf. Tillemont observes, was wrote on the Mishnah, by one Jochanan, whom the Jews place about the end of the second century: but Fa.

(c) Account of the present state and arrangement of Mr James Tassie's collection of pastes and impressions from ancient and modern gems, by R. C. Rafpe, London, 1786, 8vo. Morin proves, from the work itself, wherein mention is made of the Turks, that it was not wrote till the time of Heraclius, or about the year 620; and this is what is called the Gemara, or Talmud of Jerusalem, which the Jews do not use or esteem much because of its obscurity.

They set a much greater value on the Gemara, or Talmud of Babylon, begun by one Afa; discontinued for 73 years, on occasion of the wars with the Saracens and Persians; and finished by one Jofa, about the close of the seventh century. See Talmud.

Though the name Talmud, in its latitude, includes both the Mishnah and the two Gemaras, yet it is properly that of Afa and Jofa alone which is meant under that name. This the Jews prize above all their other writings, and even set it on a level with scripture itself; in effect, they conceive it as the word of God, derived by tradition from Moses, and preserved without interruption to their time. R. Jehuda, and afterwards R. Johanan, R. Afa, and R. Jofa, fearing the traditions should be lost in the dispersion of the Jews, collected them into the Mishnah and the Gemara. See Caraites and Rabbinists.