Mishnah is organized in six orders and sixty-three tractates according to topics. However, this was not the only way to organize and maintain Oral Tradition in ancient times. On the books of Shemot, Vayikra, Bamidbar and Devarim, which contain many halachic commands, Tannaim would learn a verse together with the relevant Oral Tradition received from Sinai, explaining how the Oral Tradition is learned from the verse. When necessary, Tannaim would also interpret a verse to create new laws, and the resulting laws would be preserved by being learned together with the verse from which they were derived. This is called “midrash halachah.” Learning verses as supporting sources for exisiting oral traditions is called “midrash tomech” or “midrash mekayem,” or “supporting interpretation,” and is also referred to as “halachah kadma l’drash,” or a process in which “the law preceeded the interpretation of the verse.” Learning new laws from verses is called “midrash yotzer,” or “creative interpretation,” and is also referred to as “drash kadam l’halachah,” or a process in which “interpretation of the verse preceeded the law.”

Some of the Oral Tradition given in detail from Sinai in the form of authoritative interpretations of verses, and some was in the form of “halachot” - independent laws – without specific connection to any given verse. In rabbinic legislation as well, halachot were sometimes the direct result of the legislation of the Rabbis at later times, without connection to verses. These laws were learned in topical order, like Mishnah, and were only later attached to the verses by means of interpretive allusions. However, some later legislation actually arose from interpretation of the verses. These laws may also be included in the topical order of Mishnah, but they would also be learned orally together with the verses in the original “midrash” format.

In the academies of Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Yishmael in the Yavneh period, Oral Tradition was learned together with the verses of Torah. Seven books of “midreshei halachah” have survived to our day from their academies (See table below).

Both schools used “middot” – fixed hermeneutic principles – to interpret Torah, but the principles used by the two academies are distinguished from each other in important ways. On the whole, Rabbi Yishmael tends to be more in keeping with the simple meaning and context of the Torah text, while Rabbi Akiba tends to more far-reaching in his interpretations.

Comparing Mishnah to Midreshei Halachah often provides a missing link between the Written and Oral Traditions. Sometimes, we learn how the Rabbis found allusions in the versers for laws handed down from antiquity, and sometimes we can actually see how the Rabbis approached verses and interpreted them for new legislation according to the hermeneutic principles.

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