occasionally a deep significance underlies them, converting them into allegories
and fables and parables well worthy the attention of the student, though he may
not think so highly of them as Frankel, who exclaims: “They are as vivid flashes:
or as those spirits of light in Jewish myth, that flow forth in daily myriads from
GOD’S throne, and then vanish to make way for others.”
The Halacoth and Haggadoth accumulated rapidly after the Captivity,
representing in due time “a body of traditional exposition of high authority,
which increased rapidly, and required the life-long study of a numerous body of
Sopherim, or Scribes, to digest and hand on without loss to succeeding
generations.” Soon it outgrew the grasp of even the strongest memory and the
profoundest application, and it became evident that, unless put upon record, all
that was valuable would perish, and only that be preserved which chanced to be
in accordance with popular sentiment. To the digest made by Hillel, Simon ben
Gamaliel added the worthiest of the later material; and his son, Jehudah the
Holy, entered on a complete redaction and revision, which he published in A.D.
- Hillel, grandfather of the Gamaliel at whose feet S. Paul sat, had arranged
the traditional Halacoth under eighteen heads; Jehudah re-arranged them into six
Sedarim, or sections:— - Zeraïm (Seeds,) on Agriculture;
- Moed (Feast,) on the Sabbath, Festivals, and Fasts;
- Nashim (Women,) on Marriage, Divorce, &c., including the laws on Vows
and the Nazirship; - Nizikin (Damages,) chiefly civil and penal law, including the ethical treatise
Aboth; - Kadashim (Sacred things,) Sacrifices, &c., a description of the Temple at
Jerusalem, &c.; - Tehoroth (Purifications,) on pure and impure persons and things.
We now see that, about A.D. 221 Jehudah the Holy created the Mishna, we have
already seen that three centuries later, the same exhaustive work of redaction and
revision was done for the Gemara,—the two forming what is now known as the
Talmud. The two “editors” received each his peculiar title of honour; Jehudah
was styled Rabbina, Ashi Rabban.
Of the language of the Babylon Talmud it is said that it is debased with foreign