Hebrew Literature. Various
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they were to be carried.
Book II
The Order Of The Festivals:
1. “Sabbath” treats of the laws relating to the seventh day.
2. “Mixtures,” or combinations, treats of the extension of boundaries, whereby all the inhabitants of the court, or entry, where the mixture is made, are counted as one family inhabiting one domicile; and are therefore allowed to carry victuals from one house to another. It also treats of the mixtures for a Sabbath day's journey, whereby the distance may be extended for an additional 2,000 cubits.
3. “Passovers” treats of all rites and ceremonies relating to the Paschal Lamb.
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4. “Shekels” (Exod. xxx. 13) treats of the half shekel, which every Jew, rich or poor, was obliged to pay every year to the daily sacrifice.
5. “Day of Atonement” treats of the solemnities peculiar to it.
6. “Tabernacles” teaches how they are to be built, and how to be used.
7. “The Egg Laid on a Festival” treats of the works which may or may not be done on any of the festivals, which are called days of holy convocation, on which no servile work may be done.
8. “New Year” treats of the laws and solemnities of the feast of the New Year, as also of the feasts of the New Moons.
9. “Fasts” treats of the various fasts throughout the year.
10. “The Roll” treats of the feast of Purim, and gives instructions how and in what manner the Book of Esther and other Lessons are to be read. The Gemara directs Jews to get so drunk on this feast, that they cannot discern the difference between “Blessed be Mordecai and cursed be Haman,” and “Cursed be Mordecai and blessed be Haman.”
11. “Minor Feasts” treats of the works that may and that may not be lawfully done on the 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th days, when the first and seventh are holy; these intermediate days being lesser festivals.
12. “Sacrifices on Festivals” treats of the three great festivals, when all the males were obliged to appear before the Lord, and of the sacrifices which they were to bring. It also lays down rules for the dissolution of vows, which it says “are like mountains hanging on a hair, for the text is slender and the constitutions many.”
Book III
On Women:
1. “Brother's Widow” (Deut. xxv. 5–11) treats of the law obliging a brother to marry the relict of his deceased brother; also, when the obligation is to take place, and the ceremonies to be used at its performance.
2. “Marriage Settlements” treats of dowries and women [pg 007] who happen to obtain estates, either real or personal. From this tract the baptism of infant proselytes can be proved.
3. “Vows” (Num. xxx. 4–16) shows when vows are binding and when null and void. When a married woman makes a vow the husband can confirm or annul it. This tract points out what vows fall under his cognizance and what do not.
4. “The Nazarite” (Num. vi. 21) treats of the laws relating to the different sorts of Nazarites.
5. “Trial of Jealousy” (Num. v. 11–31) treats of the mode of trial and punishment of criminals. Men may go home to their wives from voluntary wars, but not from wars of command. This tract shows the miserable state of the Jews at the destruction of the second Temple, and at the future advent of the Messiah.
6. “Divorces” treats of the laws relating to divorces, also the formalities to be observed both before and after they are given. A man may divorce his wife if she spoil his broth, or if he find another more handsome.
7. “Betrothing” treats of the laws of espousals and some other previous rites of marriage. It commands sons to be taught suitable trades. It states that all ass-drivers are wicked, camel-drivers are honest, sailors are pious, physicians are destined for hell, and butchers are company for Amalek.
Book IV
On Damages:
1. “First Gate,” so called because in the East law is often administered in the gateway of a city. It treats of all such damages as may be received from man or beast. It assesses damages done by a beast according to the benefit which the beast receives. If it eat a peck of dates its owner would be fined for a peck of barley, as dates are not more nourishing for a beast than barley.
2. “The Middle Gate” treats of laws of usury and trusts, of letting out on hire, of landlord and tenant, etc.
3. “Last Gate” treats of the laws of commerce and co-partnership, of buying and selling, of the laws of inheritance and the right of succession.
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4. “Sanhedrin” treats of the great national senate.
5. “Stripes” treats of false witnesses, of the law of the forty stripes save one, of those who were bound to fly to the cities of refuge.
6. “Oaths” explains the laws for administering oaths; when an oath is to be admitted between contending parties who are qualified to take them. In Hilchoth Eduth. ix. 1 it is taught that ten sorts of persons are disqualified—women, slaves, children, idiots, deaf persons, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their evidence.
7. “Evidences” are a collection of many important decisions gathered from the testimonies of distinguished Rabbis. It is observable that the decisions of the School of Shammai are more rigorous than those of the School of Hillel, from whence it is inferred that the former adhered more closely to Scripture, the latter to tradition. The former were the Scribes, and are now represented by the Karaites, who reject the Talmud.
8. “Idolatry,” or the worship of stars and meteors, treats of the way to avoid this grievous sin.
9. “The Fathers” contains a history of those who handed down the Oral Law, also many maxims and proverbs.
10. “Punishment” treats of the punishment of those disobedient to the Sanhedrin (Deut. xvii. 8–11).
Book V
On Holy Things:
1. “Sacrifices” treats of the nature and quality of the offerings; the time, the place, and the persons, by whom they ought to be killed, prepared, and offered.
2. “Meat Offerings” treats of the flour, oil, and wine, and the wave loaves.
3. “Unconsecrated Things” treats of what is clean and unclean, of not eating the sinew that shrank, and not killing the dam and her young in one day (Deut. xxii. 6).
4. “First Born” treats of their redemption by money, and their being offered in sacrifice; also of the tithes of all manner of cattle.
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5. “Estimations” (Lev. xxvii. 2) treats of the way in which things devoted to the Lord are to be valued in order to be redeemed for ordinary use; also, how a priest is to value a field which a person has sanctified.
6. “Cutting Off” treats of offenders being cut off from the Lord.
7. “Exchanges” (Lev. xxvii. 10, 33) treats of the way exchanges are to be effected between sacred things.
8. “Trespass” (Num. v. 6, 8) treats of things partaking of the nature of sacrilege. It asserts that if a man take away a consecrated stone or beam he commits no trespass. If he give it to his companion he commits a trespass, but his companion commits none. If he build it into his house he commits no trespass till he lives in the house long enough to gain the value of a half-farthing. If he take away a consecrated half-farthing he commits no trespass. If he give it to his companion he commits a trespass, but his companion commits none. If he give it to a bath-keeper he commits a trespass though he does not bathe, because the bath-keeper says to him, “See, the bath is open, go in and bathe.”
9. “The Daily Sacrifice” treats of the