it was also accompanied by an Oral Torah, an authoritative oral tradition transmitted through the ages by the sages. Rabbinic sources present this oral tradition as the basis for interpreting and applying the Written Torah, and sometimes as necessary even for its proper reading and liturgical performance. Later rabbinic teaching could also be conceptualized as part of what had already been revealed at Sinai, even when articulated by sages of subsequent generations.

Much of the Mishnah formulates rabbinic law connected with biblical commandments,