Zeraim זרעים
The first order of the Mishnah—about the land and its produce: tithes, the sabbatical year, forbidden mixtures. It opens, however, with a tractate on prayer.
The oddity of this order is plain at once: it is about farming, and its first tractate is Berakhot, on the reading of the Shema and on blessings. The explanation given is this: before speaking of what a man takes from the earth, one must say by whose leave he takes it.
Almost the whole order concerns commandments bound to the Land of Israel: terumah and tithes, peah—the corner of the field left for the poor, orlah—the fruit of the first three years, kilayim—the ban on mixing kinds, sheviit—the seventh year. In Babylonia these laws did not apply, and the Babylonian Gemara was written only on Berakhot; for the rest of the order Gemara exists only in the Jerusalem Talmud.
The order has 11 tractates: Berakhot, Peah, Demai, Kilayim, Sheviit, Terumot, Maasrot, Maaser Sheni, Challah, Orlah, Bikkurim.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Shabbat 31a — «emunat» — this is the order of Zeraim
- Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 — the opening mishnah of the order
Rishonim
- Rambam, Introduction to the Mishnah — why the order begins with prayer
Basis: Talmud and midrash.