Aaron, the high priest, was honored with the appointment of repeating, for the instruction of the people, all the learning taught by his brother Moses. Aaron was succeeded by his sons. Then came the elders who gathered together all the Israelites and placed them in their several academies for the study of the law. Every individual of Israel was permitted to make memoranda of the oral law, in order to assist the memory, for personal and private convenience, but the public instruction was taught orally. This oral tradition was transmitted from Moses down to the days of the celebrated Rabbi, Judah the Prince, son of the learned Simon the Just, about a hundred and fifty years after the destruction of the second temple. After the death of Moses, Joshua the son of Nun, his successor, taught the said law in his Sanhedrin, and delivered it to the elders who succeeded him; and in like manner the tradition of the Mishna was successively transferred from generation to generation, and was concluded by Rabbi Judah, above named, who flourished in the reign of the Emperor Antoninus, by whom he was honored with the title of Prince, and invested with a supremacy of power for his office. It was generally believed in those days that there never rose up in Israel any man like unto him, in whom so much piety, wealth and glory were united. It was in consequence of his extreme piety and devotion to spiritual purposes only, and divesting himself of all worldly cares and pleasures, that he was designated Rabbinu Hakodesh, or the Holy Rabbi. This pious man, acting as president of the Sanhedrin, consulted his colleagues, who, perceiving the decline of literature, such as contained in the oral law at that period, and fearful of the consequences thereof to the nation at large, took into their serious consideration the necessity of adopting some plan by which such tradition should not be entirely forgotten. They saw and felt that the many sufferings and persecutions inflicted upon their co-religionists would ultimately be the cause of the loss of that knowledge which was so dear to them as God's own people. That it would be impossible for future generations to understand the practical part of the divine precepts as embodied in the Pentateuch. It was therefore with holy zeal that they judged it proper to collect and compile all the oral tradition explanatory of the written law and commit the same to writing, in order that it should be handed down to posterity. This is the same Mishna now in existence among the Jews at this day. It is written in short sentences and aphorisms, and generally considered to be in pure Hebrew, with some few exceptions. It contains full elucidations of the Pentateuch, as admitted by the most eminent Jewish doctors of all ages, who testify that without such elucidations the written law would have remained a sealed book to the world at large.