57. Hirschfeld, u. s. pp. 92-99.
58. From
to lean against. At the same time the ordinances, for which an appeal could be made to
Asmakhta, were better liked than those which rested on tradition alone (Jer. Chag. p. 76, col d).
59.
60.
61. In connection with this it is very significant that R. Jochanan ben Zaccai, who taught not many
years after the Crucifixion of Christ, was wont to say, that, in the future, Halakhahs in regard to purity,
which had not the support of Scripture, would be repeated (Sot. 27 b, line 16 from top). In general, the
teaching of R. Jochanan should be studied to understand the unacknowledged influence which
Christianity exercised upon the Synagogue.
62.
63.
64. But this is not always.
65. St. Matt. xxiii. 3, 4.
66. To elucidate the meaning of Christ, it seemed necessary to submit an avowedly difficult text to fresh
criticism. I have taken the word κινειν, moveo in the sense of ire facio (Grimm, Clavis N.T. ed. 2da, p.
241 a), but I have not adopted the inference of Meyer (Krit. Exeget. Handb. p. 455). In classical Greek
also κινειν is used for `to remove, to alter.' My reasons against what may be called the traditional
interpretation of St. Matt. xxiii. 3, 4, are: 1. It seems scarcely possible to suppose that, before such an
audience, Christ would have contemplated the possibility of not observing either of the two first
classes of Halakhoth, which were regarded as beyond controversy. 2. It could scarcely be truthfully
charged against the Scribes and Pharisees, that they did not attempt to keep themselves the ordinances
which they imposed upon others. The expression in the parallel passage (St. Luke xi. 46) must be
explained in accordance with the commentation on St. Matt. xxiii. 4. Nor is there any serious difficulty
about it.
67. B. Kam. 79 b.
68. For the classification, arrangement, origin, and enumeration of these Halakhoth, see Appendix V.:
`Rabbinic Theology and literature.'
This body of traditional ordinances forms the subject of the Mishnah, or second, repeated law.
We have here to place on one side the Law of Moses as recorded in the Pentateuch, as
standing by itself. All else - even the teaching of the Prophets and of the Hagiographa, as well as
the oral traditions - bore the general name of Qabbalah - `that which has been received.' The
sacred study - or Midrash, in the original application of the term - concerned either the
Halakhah, traditional ordinance, which was always `that which had been heard' (Shematha),
or else the Haggadah, `that which was said' upon the authority of individuals, not as legal
ordinance. It was illustration, commentary, anecdote, clever or learned saying, &c. At first the
Halakhah remained unwritten, probably owing to the disputes between Pharisees and
Sadducees. But the necessity of fixedness and order led in course of time to more or less
complete collections of the Halakhoth.69 The oldest of these is ascribed to R. Akiba, in the time