Mishnah, Baraita, and Tosefta

Hello, What is the difference between the Mishnah, Baraita, and Tosefta?

Hello, 

The Torah given at Sinai is divided into the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. 

The Written Torah includes the Five Books of Moses and the books of the Prophets and the Writings. 

The Oral Torah includes all the explanations, interpretations, and teachings related to the Written Torah. 

Of course, over the generations, there were dozens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of such sayings, which were passed from rabbi to student.

As generations diminished and exiles came, the sages saw that the Oral Torah would not be remembered if it were not written down, and it was permitted to write it as a temporary measure for this purpose.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi briefly arranged from all the sayings before him a concise work called the Six Orders of the Mishnah, which contains the distilled essence of the Oral Torah. 

In addition, there were many "Baraitas," which translates as "external." That is, sayings that were not included in the Mishnah. 

Additionally, there are sayings included under the name "Tosefta" - these are also additions to the words of the Torah that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi decided not to include in the Mishnah. 

There are other orders of sayings transmitted orally, such as Sifra, Sifrei, Midrashim, and others.

The importance of the Baraitas and Toseftas is, of course, less compared to the Mishnah, which was thoroughly examined and refined. The approach to them is that if there is no contradiction to their words from the Mishnah, they are accepted. 

Letters of Rav Sherira Gaon and others.