The celebrated Maimonides, in the twelfth century, made an epitome of the laws of the Talmud, which many prefer to the Talmud itself, forasmuch as he omits the strange fables with which the original work abounds, and preserves the really valuable matter. The name of his book is Yad-ha-chazzak, or _The Strong Hand_. It is of great use to those who wish to gain a knowledge of Jewish laws and ceremonies. FOOTNOTES: [248] The meaning of this is, that the development of the Law is contained in the Law itself. There must have been from the first difficulties in the interpretation of the Law. These were referred to Moses. His decisions were traditionally preserved, and called the Oral Law, this is figured by God’s delivering the Oral Law to Moses. A Rabbinical fable further declares that God committed the Written Law to Moses by day, and the Oral by night. This symbolizes, first, that God’s law is the true measure of time, and secondly, that the Written Law is to the Oral as the light to the darkness. [249] The Jerusalem Talmud contains only four of the six Orders which make up that of Babylon, and a portion of the fifth. Whenever, it should be noted, ‘The Talmud’ is spoken of, without any intimation _which_ Talmud is referred to, the expression must be understood to mean that of Babylon. [250] Here introduced because idolatry is sometimes the subject of judicial proceedings. [251] Against this, however, may be set the opinion of the celebrated Buxtorf. He says, that ‘it contains excellent lessons in jurisprudence, medicine, physics, ethics, politics, and astronomy; admirable proverbs, and apothegms and shining gems of eloquence, not less ornamental to the Hebrew tongue than are the flowers of eloquence to the Greek and Latin languages. Nor would the knowledge of Hebrew and Chaldee be complete without them.’ [252] Some persons might be inclined to remark on this saying, that it is a great deal truer than its authors were aware of. Yet its meaning has probably been misunderstood, and there is no intention of disparaging Scripture. It may only mean, that the Mishna is the knowledge of Scripture with more knowledge added, and the Gemara is the knowledge of Scripture and Mishna combined with a yet further addition of knowledge. [253] See p. 269. _APPENDIX III._ THE TARGUMS, MASSORA, CABBALA, SEPHER-YETZIRA, AND ZOHAR. THE TARGUMS.