QODASHIM

(Hebrew: Holy Things), the fifth of the six major divisions, or orders (sedarim), of the Mishna (codification of Jewish oral laws), which was given its final form early in the 3rd century AD by Judah ha-Nasi. Qodashim deals primarily with rites and sacrifices that took place in the Temple of Jerusalem, which was destroyed in AD 70 by Roman legions and never rebuilt. The 11 tractates (treatises) of Qodashim are Zevahim (Animal Sacrifices), Menahot (Meal Offerings), Hullin (Profane Objects), Bekhorot (Firstborn), 'Arakhin (Estimates), Temura (Exchange), Keretot (Excisions), Me'ila (Transgression), Tamid (Burnt Offering), Middot (Dimensions), and Qinnim (Birds' Nests). Gemara (critical commentaries) are found in the Babylonian Talmud on all but the last two of the tractates; the Palestinian Talmud has no Gemara on the Qodashim, though some may have been written and subsequently lost.