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The Gemara

The Talmud comprises two elements, the Mishna and the Gemara. The Mishna is the oral law as it was known up to the end of the second century A.D. The Gemara is the interpretation or commentary on the oral law which the scholars of Babylon and of Jerusalem produced between the beginning of the third century A.D. and the end of the fifth century.

Gemara became a term used by many in Judaism as a synonym for the Talmud. Technically, the Gemara is the final collection of all the commentary, analysis, and discussion which together with the oral laws of the Mishnah comprise the Talmud.