recited before each chapter.

CHAPTER I

1. Moses received the _Torah_ (4) from Sinai (5), and handed it down
to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders (6), and the elders to the
prophets, and the prophets delivered it to the men of the Great
Synagogue (7). They said three things, "Be deliberate in judgment;
raise up many disciples; and make a fence about the _Torah_" (8).

(4) The word _Torah_ is usually translated by "law," but it
means rather "teaching," "instruction" of any kind, or
"doctrine." This term is generally used to designate the
_Five Books of Moses_ or the _Pentateuch_, called the "written
law" ([torah shebichtav]), but it is also employed as a
designation of the whole of the Old Testament. Besides the
"written law," according to tradition, there was also
communicated to Moses, on Mt. Sinai, the "oral law" ([torah
she'b'al peh]), supplementing the former and other laws and
maxims, and explaining it. This "oral law" was handed down by
word of mouth from generation to generation, but subsequently,
after the destruction of the second Temple, it was committed
to writing, and constitutes the _Mishnah_, the _Talmud_, and
the _Midrashim_. The "oral law" develops, illuminates, and
comments upon the "written law." Here, _Torah_ means the
"oral law," which Moses communicated to Joshua, Joshua, in
turn, to the elders, and so on. See Taylor, _Sayings of the
Jewish Fathers_, p. 105 _et seq._, and 134-135; Friedlander,
_The Jewish Religion_, p. 136 _et seq._; _Jewish
Encyclopedia_, arts. _Law and Oral Law;_ Schechter, _Some