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That the Rabbis themselves formed a somewhat enclosed, rather exclusive group, small in numbers and accessible only to those with the necessary expertise to enable them to appreciate and take part in Rabbinic discourse, may nonetheless be granted; and the promulgation of their first written document, the Mishnah (English translation Danby 1933), underscores this point. It consists of a collection of Oral Torah (individual legal norms in conditional and unconditional formulations; disputes; some mini-narratives about named authorities, often illustrating legal points; rules for good conduct; and some parables and wisdom-utterances) deriving from the Tanna’im, the “repeaters” of the Oral Law. It is organized under six main headings or “orders.” These are Zera’im, “seeds” (the laws of agriculture); Mo’ed (the laws of festivals); Nashim (the laws relating to women); Neziqin (literally “damages,” the laws of contract, tort, civil and criminal law); Qedoshim, “holy things” (the laws of sacrifice); and Tohorot (the laws of purity). The orders are subdivided into 63 tractates (massekhtot) whose titles alone offer a fair representation of the Rabbinic legal agenda as a whole: this is set out in compressed formulations and often terse language which evidently assumes a fair degree of prior knowledge on the student’s part. Apparent digressions from what may be taken to be the main topics of the tractates are by no means unknown; but concern to establish correct legal norms to be put into practice (halakhah) is foregrounded, even though recorded disputes between legal authorities do not always conclude with clear, unambiguous decisions on particular points. The Mishnah’s digressions and mini-narratives appear from time to time to illustrate and discuss an event or series of events in the life of a Rabbi, or to pass comment on some practice or institution; and such information, taken along with the technical legal discussions, suggests that the Mishnah has a broad vision of Jewish life and culture as a whole (Neusner 1981; Avery-Peck and Neusner 2006).