As we have seen above, Hebrew jurisprudence in its principles and in the
manner of their interpretation was chiefly transmitted by the living
voice of tradition. These laws were easily and safely handed down from
father to son through successive generations as long as Jewish
nationality continued and the Temple at Jerusalem still stood. But, with
the destruction of the Temple and the banishment of the Jews from
Palestine (A.D. 70), the danger became imminent that in the loss of
their nationality would also be buried the remembrance of their laws.
Moved with pity and compassion for the sad condition of his people,
Judah the Holy, called Rabbi for preëminence, resolved to collect and
perpetuate for them in writing their time-honored traditions. His work
received the name Mishna, the same which we have discussed above. But it
must not be imagined that this work was the sudden or exclusive effort
of Rabbi Judah. His achievement was merely the sum total and culmination
of the labors of a long line of celebrated Hebrew sages. "The Oral Law
had been recognized by Ezra; had become important in the days of the
Maccabees; had been supported by Pharisaism; narrowed by the school of
Shammai, codified by the school of Hillel, systematized by R. Akiba,
placed on a logical basis by R. Ishmael, exegetically amplified by R.
Eliezer, and constantly enriched by successive rabbis and their
schools. Rabbi Judah put the coping-stone to the immense structure."[52]
Emanuel Deutsch gives the following subdivisions of the Mishna:
The Mishna is divided into six sections. These are subdivided again
into 11, 12, 7, 9 (or 10), 11, and 12 chapters, respectively, which
are further broken up into 524 paragraphs. We shall briefly
describe their contents:
Section I. Seeds: of Agrarian Laws, commencing with a chapter on
Prayers. In this section, the various tithes and donations due to
the Priests, the Levites, and the poor, from the products of the
lands, and further the Sabbatical year and the prohibited mixtures
in plants, animals, garments, are treated of.
Section II. Feasts: of Sabbaths, Feast, and Fast days, the work
prohibited, the ceremonies ordained, the sacrifices to be offered,
on them. Special chapters are devoted to the Feast of the Exodus
from Egypt, to the New Year's Day, to the Day of Atonement (one of
the most impressive portions of the whole book), to the Feast of
Tabernacles and to that of Haman.
Section III. Women: of betrothal, marriage, divorce, etc., also of
vows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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