Rabbinic literature is made up of five major kinds of works.
Those parts of the Talmuds which are commentary on the Mishnah are called Gemara. Rabbinic literature is frequently called the Oral Torah. Some scholars believe that the teachings of the Oral Torah developed during a much later period. Regardless of the time of its genesis, the Oral Torah was the Sages' method of making the Written Torah meaningful to the people of their day. The following summarizes some important historical information about the different works of Rabbinic literature and the abbreviations we will use to identify these texts along with the name of individual tractates, i.e., individual books of the Oral Torah.