[4] _i. e._, one knew that the preceding month was what is called a complete month, counting thirty days, and the days of the celebration of the New Moon (Rosh Hodesh) belonged to the following month; while the other believed that the preceding month was what is called a defective month, counting only twenty-nine days, and that the semi-holyday of the new moon was observed on two days, the first of which belonged to the preceding month. [5] It was forbidden to examine a witness in the presence of another one. [6] Even if his information is worthless, he remains seated besides the Judges, the whole day, in order not to degrade him before the public. [7] A verdict of guilty cannot be pronounced on the same day as that on which the trial was held. While the Mishna is strictly a code only, still its underlying structure is religious. The moral is everywhere impressed. One of its sections is a Book of Morals called Ethics of the Fathers, iv. 9, from which rabbinic sayings have already been quoted. A complete translation of this section will be found in the Sabbath Afternoon Service of the Prayer Book. We find no system of doctrines in the Mishna and no formulated creed. A bad life is summed up in the general term--_epicurean_, which probably meant sensual self-indulgence and scoffing scepticism. The Jew is not asked to believe in God's existence. That is taken for granted; atheism hardly came within his ken. He is asked rather to shun anything that tends to polytheism. Revelation and Resurrection are regarded as fundamental beliefs. He who denies them will be deprived of future life. To withhold immortality from him who disbelieves it we might call poetic justice. While the ceremonial law was rigorous, its observance was saved from being mechanical by the importance laid on sincerity of intention and on inner devotion. Not the brazen serpent but the repentant heart cured afflicted Israel in the wilderness, the Mishna reminds us, pointing its moral with the quotation from the prophet Joel, "Rend your hearts, not your garments." To go beyond the Law in the keeping of one's word merits the highest praise. Many prohibitions were imposed against actions not wrong in themselves, as barriers against possible wrong. These formed a "fence around the Law." Amoraim. The acceptance of the Mishna as the Canon of Jewish Law curtailed--theoretically at least--the freedom of the rabbis who now followed, in the evolving of new Law. This later group of teachers was henceforth at liberty only to _expound_ the Mishna. They are therefore called _Amoräim_, expounders, to distinguish them from the Tannäim, that class of teachers who interpreted direct from the Scriptures and whose work closed with the Mishna. The Mishna tended still further to emphasize the legal character of Judaism (p. 19). While it may have robbed the individual of spontaneity of religious action, it strengthened the bulwarks of moral law. NOTES AND REFERENCES.