The sayings recorded in the Mishna reach back to the times of Simon the Just, a contemporary of Alex- ander the Great; and it expounds also some religious and political usages introduced by Ezra; but the bulk of the book is made up of tlie decisions or opinions of the rival schools of Hillel and Shampiai, who arose at the beginning of the 1st century of the Christian a>ra, and of tlie subsequent teachers, who followed generally the rulings of Hillel's school, and among whom Ilillel's descendants were prominent. In a few instances a case (il'O?;'?) is stated to have arisen, and the decision of the Sanhcdriu (q. v.) upon it, or of some prominent rabbi, is given ; very often the names of the teachers who taught any particular point are mentioned, even where no disagreement is spoken of; but much oftener in cases of disagreement. Still oftener, however, the text of the law appears without any one to propound it : these parts of the ^Mishna are ascribed to H. IMeir, who flourished about A.D. 145, and it is therefore probable that If. iSIoir made an older collection, of which the Mishna as now found is only an enlargement.
The authority for the laws of the ^lishna is best ex- plained ill the tirst section of the first chai>ter of its trea- tise, r'ZX (Al)oth, fathers): "?.Ioses received the law from Sinai, and handed it over to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the jiroph- ets to the men of the Great Synod" (the companions and followers of K/ra down to about B.C. 300). The mean- ing hereof is, that jMoses received not only the written law from God, but also certain rules for its construction and application ; and that even in the most corrupt times
of Israel's history there were always some pure and holy men, who kept up the study of this tradition, and hand- ed it over unbroken to their successors. Moreover, it was inferred from Deut. xvii, 'J that the supreme judges for the time being might make authoritative decisions on facts as they arose; and that these decisions must serve as precedents for the future, unless reversed by a court of '-greater wisdom and greater number." The words "priests and Levites" in that verse were construed by the Pharisees merely to indicate the place at which the supreme judges must hold their sessions. The rides of construction of the Pentateuch are stated as thirteen, among which the foremost are "I'^HI .-J?, Kalve-chomer, a minori ad majus, and HTJ iTiTS, Gezeruh sharah, '• like decision." The latter, however, rests generally on the arbitrary comparison of the same word in two wholly dis- connected passages, and is not allowed unless tradition itself sanction it. licsides these rules of construction, certain ceremonies in their full form were also believed to have thus been handed down, while the letter of the law only hinted at the manner of performing them. Thus Exod. xiii,9, 10; Deut. vi, 10; xi,18, command the tying of those respective passages to the hand and between the eyes of the Israelite; but tradition supiJied the manner of doing it, that is, the construction of the phylacteries. The second section of the above-quoted chapter pro- ceeds : " They (the men of the great synod) said three things: . . . make a fence to the law." That is, put around the law a wall of restrictions and injunctions, which the Israelite Avill have to break through before he feels tempted to break the law itself. This was, in fact, done to a great extent by the teachers whose say- ings are recorded in the Mishna. Many of their so-called m"Ta (decisions) — a name given to the extra-^Iosaic laws— refer to a stricter observance of the Sabbath, and these are comprehended under the name of riS'^, which decisions Seldcn renders Sabbathismii.i ; forbid- ding, for instance, the handling on the Sabbath of any- thing that has been unlawfully made on that day; the causing a Gentile (unless in case of necessity) to work on the Sabbath for the Israelite ; to play musical in- struments on that day, etc. Others refer to Levitical cleanness; among these are numberless rules about the washing of hancts, of cups, etc., at the ordinary meals, in imitation of the rules which the Aaronitic ])riesthood had to observe at their sacrificial meals. It was princi- pally by these observances that the followers of the rab- bins, whom Christian writers generally denote as the Pharisaic sect, but who called themselves D^"i3n (com- panions), distinguished themselves not only from the Sadducees (q. v.), but also from the inditVerent mass, who are known in the Mishna as ""I'Xn ^? (people of the land), and are often spolvcn of with a great deal of bitterness.
The writers of the ^lishna never seek to make their readers believe that a rabbinical ordinance, which is in- tended only as a part of the fence around the law. is of divine origin; but where doubt can arise about the meaning, they expressly show what is intended for a construction of the law, and what is their own addition, often by the words 111:5 (free; that is, not liable to striiies for a wilful offence, or to a sin-offering for of- fence through ignorance or forget fulness); yet IICX (forbidden). In the very first section of the first chap- ter of the Mishna — where the question arises how late at night the passages Deut. vi, 5-10; xi, 13-21. may be reatl in fidlilment of the command to speak of Iliem "when thou liest down," we find : " The learned (Z"":=n — as opposed to any one rabbi by name) say until mid- night ; and rabbi ( Jamaliel said until the morning dawn ; in fact, when his sons came home from a feast, and told him AVe have not read the Shemfi (Hear, () Israel^ he told them, As the morning has not dawned, you should read it ; not this onlv. but wherever the wise have said