What's difference between Talmud, Mishnah, and the rabbinical writings?

Good post :)

I'll clarify:

TANAKH = original Hebrew scriptures, the Jewish 'bible'

TORAH = five books of Moses, holy Jewish text, is *in* the Tanakh

TALMUD = 'oral Torah' - the other part of the Torah, given by G-d to Moses at Mt Sinai, along with the written Torah, before a huge gathering of Israelites. The Talmud illustrates, illuminates and 'fleshes out' the written Torah. There are in fact two Talmuds, each comprises a series of volumes. Within each, are the various rulings, debates, discussions, by theologians and Rabbis, over the ages, over *how* to apply Jewish religious law to everyday life and to various ethical dilemmas. There is also folklore, proverbs and humour within the Talmud.

Practically no difference. The Mishnah is the name of the oral Torah, which makes up half of the Talmud (the other half is called the Gemara). The entire Talmud is made up of rabbinical writings.

When people refer to the Talmud, they may be referring either to the Mishna or the Gemara, or a combination of the two. If they refer to the Mishnah, they mean the Mishnah section of the Talmud.

On the other hand, if they refer to the "rabbinical writings," they could be referring to the Talmud (generally the Gemara), but they could also be referring to the hundreds of other important scholarly works that came after - everything from the Shulchan Aruch (the codification of Jewish law), to the writings of RaMBaM (Maimonides) or the Vilna Gaon (Lithuanian sage from a couple hundred years ago), or even to works published within the last century.

Torah..as you know...the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Pentateuch. Tanakh is the entire Hebrew Bible... an acronym of T-N-K: Torah, Nevi'im, Kethuvim. Nevi'im (Prophets) are the books of Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc. Kethuvim (Writings) are the Psalms, Proverbs, Chronicles, etc. Talmud are rabbinical writings of the Sages. It is comprised of the Mishneh (Oral Torah), and the Gemara. Since the Torah left out many lessons and teachings...Rabbis concluded that Moses wrote down the Written Torah (the Pentateuch) while explaining and teaching to the people in expounding feature..which didn't become recorded in the Torah itself.

It's the paper.

not much, all great works of fiction