Читать книгу Torah - Max Margolis - Страница 13

The contents of the Torah fall into two main parts: historical and legal. The latter commences with Ex. xii.; so that the Tannaim maintained that the Law actually began there, proceeding on the correct principle that the word "Torah" could be applied only to teachings which regulated the life of man, either leading him to perform certain acts (commands = ) or restraining him from them (prohibitions = ). The Talmud enumerates a total of 613 rules, 248 being commands and 365 prohibitions (see Jew. Encyc. iv. 181, s.v. Commandments, The 613). In the post-Talmudic period many works were written on these 613 "miẓwot," some even by Maimonides. The legal parts of the Pentateuch include all the relations of human life, although these are discussed with greater detail in the Talmud (see Talmudic Laws). The Torah recognizes no subdivisions of the commandments; for all alike are the ordinances of God, and a distinction may be drawn only according to modern ideas, as when Driver (in Hastings, "Dict. Bible," iii. 66) proposes a triple division, into juridical, ceremonial, and moral "torot."