A Word from Reb Shlomo on Mishnayos
Mishna is the essence of the Talmud which is the Oral Tradition. This is probably the utmost, there is nothing like it in our tradition. It contains so much in so few words, the essence of all essences.
The word Mishna contains the same letters as the word 'neshomah'. What is the most important thing in our lives. To be in touch with the essence of our soul, the essence of our life. Our holy rabbis taught us that whenever you learn a mishnah you fix your neshomah, you soul. And when a person has moved on to another world, it is a custom to learn a mishna which begins with the letters of the person's name, because the more you love a person the more you are connected not only to them but to the letters of their name. We are learning a mishnah to connect with the essence of the soul of the departed. We are also saying to the departed, if by any chance you are missing a few mishnahs to get to the essence of your meshomah we are learning it for you.
Mishnah also comes from the word 'double'. On Shabbos we eat two challahs -- Lechem Mishna - Because according to our tradition, when we are alive we are in this world but when we die we are in both worlds, this one and the world to come. We don't know how much double strength and double fixing we do for ourselves and also for the departed when we study Mishnayos.