Editing Minor tractate (section)

{{Short description|Tractates covering topics of halakhah not covered by the Mishnah}}
{{Rabbinical Literature}}
The '''minor tractates''' ({{langx|he|מסכתות קטנות}}, ''masechtot qetanot'') are essays from the [[Talmud]]ic period or later dealing with topics about which no formal tractate exists in the [[Mishnah]]. They may thus be contrasted to the [[Tosefta]], whose tractates parallel those of the [[Mishnah]].

Each minor tractate contains all the important material bearing on a single subject. While they are [[mishnaic]] in form and are called "tractates," the topics discussed in them are arranged more systematically than in the Mishnah; for they are eminently practical in purpose, being, in a certain sense, the first manuals in which the data scattered through prolix sources have been collected in a brief and comprehensive form.

There are about 15 minor tractates. The first eight or so contain much original material; the last seven or so are collections of material scattered throughout the Talmud.<ref name="ou">{{cite web |last1=Abramowitz |first1=Jack |title=The 14 "Minor" Tractates |url=https://www.ou.org/torah/mitzvot/taryag/the_14_minor_tractates/ |website=ou.org |publisher=[[Orthodox Union]] |access-date=February 3, 2019 |language=English}}</ref> Ancient authorities mention especially seven such tractates,{{which|date=September 2019}} which are doubtless the earliest ones.<ref>{{JewishEncyclopedia|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=886&letter=S&search=soferim|title=Soferim |author=[[Wilhelm Bacher]] |author2=[[Ludwig Blau]]}}</ref> Their name and form suggests that they originated in the period of oral tradition which was dominated by the [[Talmud]] and the [[Midrash]], so that these treatises are doubtless of great antiquity, some of them having been compiled in their main outlines before even the final redaction of the Talmud in the 6th century.