nothing to be atoned for through sacrifice, the duty of offering prayers and sacrifices of thanksgiving will still remain in full force. Another saying of this kind is: “If all festivals were to cease, Purim will never be forgotten” (Piyyut for Sabbath Zachor); that is, even if other festivals should be neglected, Purim is so much liked that it will never be forgotten by the Jews. In Talmud Jerus. Megillah (i. 7) we read: “The reading from the Prophets and the Hagiographa may at some future time be discontinued, but the reading of the Pentateuch will never be abolished.” The idea expressed by this dictum is, that the warnings or consolations or prayers may become superfluous by the changed condition of the future, but the laws and statutes of the Pentateuch will always remain in force. In sayings of this kind the time to which they are meant to apply is not defined. “The future” (‏לעתיד לבא‎) may mean the time of Messiah, or else the time of the Resurrection, or what we are used to call “the future life.” As in the above quotation, the authors aimed at inculcating some moral lesson for the present state of things, and not at describing the results of philosophical speculation with regard to remote times. A new revelation, or the abrogation of the Law or part of it, is nowhere mentioned. On the contrary, it is emphasised in the Talmud that the Torah has been given to Israel in its entirety, and nothing has been reserved for a second revelation. “The Law is not any longer in heaven,” it is entirely in the hands of man. The only authority recognised in the interpretation of the Law was that based on knowledge, tradition, and common sense. Authority claimed for this purpose on the ground of supernatural privilege, prophecy, bath-kol or miracle, was not recognised (Babyl. Talm. Baba Metsia, 59b).