The only English-language translation of the Tosefta ( supplement ), which contains explanations and discussion not included in the Mishnah, is organized according to the same six divisions. Materials in the Tosefta are attributed to rabbinic authorities in the first and second centuries c.e., the same ones cited in the Mishnah, and as such the Tosefta is crucial to the study of formative rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology, Bard College, and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College. He has published more than eight hundred books and innumerable articles, and he is editor of The Dictionary of Judaism in the Biblical Period and the three-volume Encyclopaedia of Judaism. He has also served as President of the American Academy of Religion, and was appointed as Member of the National Council on the Humanities and the National Council on the Arts.