(4) The word _Torah_ is usually translated by "law," but it means rather "teaching," "instruction" of any kind, or "doctrine." This term is generally used to designate the _Five Books of Moses_ or the _Pentateuch_, called the "written law" ([torah shebichtav]), but it is also employed as a designation of the whole of the Old Testament. Besides the "written law," according to tradition, there was also communicated to Moses, on Mt. Sinai, the "oral law" ([torah she'b'al peh]), supplementing the former and other laws and maxims, and explaining it. This "oral law" was handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation, but subsequently, after the destruction of the second Temple, it was committed to writing, and constitutes the _Mishnah_, the _Talmud_, and the _Midrashim_. The "oral law" develops, illuminates, and comments upon the "written law." Here, _Torah_ means the "oral law," which Moses communicated to Joshua, Joshua, in turn, to the elders, and so on. See Taylor, _Sayings of the Jewish Fathers_, p. 105 _et seq._, and 134-135; Friedlander, _The Jewish Religion_, p. 136 _et seq._; _Jewish Encyclopedia_, arts. _Law and Oral Law;_ Schechter, _Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology_, Chapter VIII; Strack, _Einleitung_, pp. 9-10, and Herford, _Pharisaism_, chapter on "the Theory of Torah," p. 57 _et seq._ (5) _I.e._, from God. Compare the expression [halacha l'moshe misinai], "the law to Moses from Sinai (God)," _Peah_, II, 6, _Eduyot_, VIII, 7, etc. (6) The elders were the wise men who were the members of the supreme national tribunal. See Joshua XXIV, 31.