Alongside Mishnah, Tosefta, and Midreshei Halachah, existed many other tannaitic collections of oral traditions. For instance, the Talmud reports to us that the Amoraim Bar Kappara and Levi produced such collections in the Land of Israel. Little is known of the statements of Tannaim from Babylonia. None of these additional collections were preserved whole to our day. However, more than eighteen thousand individual quotations of Tannaim are preserved in the sugyot of the two Talmudim! The beraitot in the Talmudim are collected in a ten-volume work called “Otzar HaBeraitot” by M. Higger. These quotations, known as “beraitot” – sources which are “external” to Mishnah – provide valuable information about the opinions of the Tannaim over and above Mishnah. No one today knows the source of these quotations, or the original extent of the literature of the Tannaim outside Mishnah. Sometimes, the beraitot appearing in the Talmud are very similar or even identical to sources brought in Tosefta or Midreshei Halachah. This does not necessarily mean that they are being quoted from these books, but rather, that the sources from which they are being quoted contained sources like those in the other books. In the Talmud, some beraitot are considered more reliable (and are called îúøöúà), some less so (and are called îùáùúà), but the Amoraim valued beraitot overall, and utilized them frequently as prooftexts, or as disproofs of the claims or opinions of other Amoraim. Since the sugyot of the Talmud assume knowledge of the teachings of the Tannaim, they are much clearer after study of Mishnah together with beraitot.

If beraitot are only quoted in the Talmudim, how do we study beraitot opposite the Mishnah before study of Talmud? An edition of Mishnah with all the relevant parallel sources of the Tannaim is under construction in the Project for the Teaching of Mishnah and Talmud, but in the meantime, any student can amplify his/her study of Mishnah with beraitot by extracting the relevant beraitot from the Talmudic sugyot on the Mishnah under discussion.

How do we find beraitot in the Talmudim? The editors of Talmud utilized several types of expressions to introduce beraitot in the sugyot, depending on the function of the beraitot in the sugyot. If a beraita is brought as a general quotation, introductory words such as úðéà, úðà, úðå øáðï, úðéðà are utilized. If a beraita is brought as a challenge to the opinion of an Amora, introductory words such as àéúéáéä, îúéá, îéúéáé are used. If a beraita is brought as a challenge to another source of Tannaim, introductory words such as øîé, øîéðäå are used. The source appearing after any of these expressions is a beraita, and may be lifted from the Talmud and placed opposite a mishnah for comparative study.

As is the case in Tosefta, beraitot often bring opinions not represented in Mishnah, or even later layers of opinions of Tannaim not brought in Mishnah. For instance, Mishnah may bring the opinions of the Tannaim of Yavneh, and beraitot may report the opinions of the Tannaim of the two later generations in the Galil. Study of several texts together gives us a fuller, broader account of what the Tannaim said on the topic. Secondly, beraitot may bring the rationale of opinions presented in Mishnah, or the historical or legal circumstances of a given piece of legislation in Mishnah. Beraitot may also provide opinions of Tannaim on topics or issues not at all discussed in Mishnah, or may present the opinions of Tannaim very differently than their presentation in Mishnah.

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