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CHAPTER ONE

GROWTH OF THE

1. WRITTEN

The Mosaic law was re-accepted on the Babylonian exile as binding law, and the group that returned from the exile based their regime on it : "For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in and ordinances" (Ezra VII 10). There were thus two things that engaged him : to seek, to expound the law for himself, and to do it and, teach it to the others. This teaching refers of course to but it no doubt included the precepts of law and as well. Besides the study required in the process of settling disputes, it was also customary to read the on various occasions, in the fashion described in Neh VIII 8 : "And they read in the book, in the Law of God, distinctly : and they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading". Reading the Torah included interpretation and translation (TB Megilla 3a) ;1 and in order to spread knowledge of the Torah and make it readable, Ezra went so far as to sanctify the books written in Aramaic (Assyrian) script, and perhaps even the translation into Aramaic (TB 2lb).2 Among the important which were expounded on the basis of the Torah waa the commandment regarding the Feast of (Neh VIII. 14), but it may be assumed that in the course of public reading many matters were revived. The feeling was thus implanted in the people that they must alter their ways, and that among other things they must put away their foreign wives, "and let it be done according to the law" (Ezra X 3). Indeed, in this matter already they extended the purview of the Torah to include laws expounded by Ezra and not contained in the Torah proper, for the original prohibition

1 See Segal, Introduction to the (Hebrew), Je1'118&lem, 1952, 830. Ae to reading of the Torah see Tract&te 10. 2 Segal, Introduction, 848; J. Mann, The Bible as Read and Preached in the Old , Cincinnati, 1940-1966. 6 GROWTH OF THE HALAKHA referred to the seven nations only who lived in the land of Canaan during the days of .1 There were certain commandments which were not observed, the written provisions of the Torah notwithstanding, and reasons for this were apparently given at an early period. A case in point is the rule concerning the "daughter that possesseth an inheritance", re­ quiring her to marry within her tribe (Num XXXVI 8). The author of the book of Tobias held that this requirement was still in effect, 2 whereas the Scribes and the Sages considered it void, maintaining that it existed in the generation of the wilderness but no longer obtained (TB Baba Bathra 120a). Laws derived from an explicit pentateuchal source are words of Torah, as distinct from words of the Scribes ;3 according to a later formula there is a distinction between a matter to which the agree (TB Sanhedrin 33b, Horayoth 4a) and a matter to which they do do not. Words of Torah are ascribed to God, who gave them on Sinai for all the generations, and they are considered the of the community of the dispersion. Hence the Septuagint came to translate the word Torah-nomos; suggesting that the Torah is the law of the , with a standing comparable to the laws of the Greek polis. Due to its divine source it is an accepted rule that the Torah is perfect and nothing in it may be altered (Deut IV 2; XIII 1). 4 The exclusiveness of the words of the written Torah was maintained chiefly among the Sadducees, whereas the nevertheless recognized new crea­ tions, as we will show later on. 5 And it is possible that the Pharisees attributed the right to expound the Torah to the Sages alone, whereas the Sadducees gave this right to everyone : "The Torah is bound up and laid down, and anyone who wishes to may come and learn" (TB

Qiddushin 66a) 6•

1 See TJ Qiddushin III 14, 64d; TB Aboda Zara 36b; Belkin, Philo, 233. 2 And, apparently because of the dispute regarding the application of this law, went so far as to say that an offender against it deserves the death penalty. a Cf. Cohen, JRL, 277, 776. 4 See Cohen, Law and Tradition, New York 1959, 4 f. 5 As to the Sadducees seep. 10. 6 Cf. the saying of Anan the Karaite : "Seek well in the Torah and depend not on my opinion", which is perhaps a continuation of Sadducee doctrine. The words "in a corner" in the present text giving the saying of the Sadducees were apparently added by the Pharisees, so as to emphasize immediately the anticipated result, but cannot be assumed to have been included in the saying of the Sadduoees.