Even within the narrow sphere of the rabbinic literary output originality was sadly missing. The "stars" of Rabbinism who were engaged in learned correspondence (_Shaaloth u-Teshuboth_) with one another were, as a rule, immersed in fruitless controversies about complicated and petty cases of religious and legal practice, frequently degenerating into the discussion of questions which do not arise in real life. Others wrote diffuse hair-splitting commentaries and _novellae_ (_hiddushim_) on various tractates of the Talmud, including those which had long lost all legal significance. Thus Aaron Samuel Kaidanover, Rabbi of Cracow, who had narrowly escaped the massacres of 1648, commented on the section dealing with the sacrifices and the ancient ritual of the temple in Jerusalem (_Birkhath ha-Zebah_[177]). Still others wrote annotations and supplements to the _Shulhan Arukh_.[178] Lithuania, in particular, excelled by the number of its celebrities in the field of rabbinic scholasticism, all men who refused to acknowledge any branch of secular and even religious knowledge outside the domain of Talmudic dialectics. A rare exception among these scholars was Jehiel Halperin (ab. 1670-1746), rabbi of Minsk, who wrote an extensive historic chronicle under the name of _Seder ha-Doroth_, "The Order of the Generations." Halperin's work, which is divided into three parts, narrates in the first the events of Jewish history from Biblical times down to the year 1696. The second part enumerates, in alphabetical order, the names of all the Tannaim and Amoraim,[179] and cites the opinions and sayings attributed to each of them in the Talmud. The third part contains a list of authors and books of the post-Talmudic period. The original contribution of Halperin consists in his having systematized the extremely complicated material, and rendered it available for a characterization of the Talmudic rabbis. In all else he merely copied earlier chroniclers, particularly David Gans,[180] without any attempt at a critical analysis. He even fails to render account of such important events of his own time as the Messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi. The essence of history to him is identical with the genealogies of scholars, saints, and rabbis; the only reason for existence which in his judgment historiography may claim is to serve as the handmaid of Rabbinism. Even this outlook upon history, narrow though it be, was entirely foreign to Halperin's contemporaries.