ount, and classify, and weigh, and measure all
the separate commandments of the ceremonial and moral law. They had come
to the sapient conclusion that there were 248 affirmative precepts,
being as many as the members in the human body, and 365 negative
precepts, being as many as the arteries and veins, or the days of the
year: the total being 613, which was also the number of letters in the
decalog. They arrived at the same result from the fact that the Jews
were commanded (Numb. 15:38) to wear fringes (_tsitsith_) on the corners
of their _tallith_, bound with a thread of blue; and as each fringe had
eight threads and five knots, and the letters of the word _tsitsith_
make 600, the total number of commandments was, as before 613. Now
surely, out of such a large number of precepts and prohibitions, _all_
could not be of quite the same value; some were 'light' (_kal_), and
some were 'heavy' (_kobhed_). But which? and what was the greatest
commandment of all? According to some Rabbis, the most important of all
is that about the _tephillin_ and the _tsitsith_, the fringes and
phylacteries; and 'he who diligently observes it is regarded in the same
light as if he had kept the whole Law.'

"Some thought the omission of ablutions as bad as homicide; some that
the precepts of the Mishna were all 'heavy'; those of the Law were some
'heavy' and some 'light.' Others considered the _third_ to be the
greatest commandment. None of them had realized the great principle,
that the wilful violation of one commandment is the transgression of all
(James 2:10), because the object of the entire Law is the spirit of
_obedience to God_. On the question proposed by the lawyer the
Shammaites and Hillelites were in disaccord, and, as usual, both schools
were wrong: the Shammaites, in thinking that mere trivial external
observances were valuable, apart from the spirit in which they were
performed, and the principle which they exemplified; the Hillelites, in
thinking that _any_ positive command could in itself be unimportant, and
in not seeing that great principles are essential to the due performance
of even the slightest duties."--Farrar, _Life of Christ_, chap. 52.

5. Phylacteries and Borders.--Through a traditional interpretation of
Exo. 13:9 and Deut. 6:8, the Hebrews adopted the custom of wearing
phylacteries, which consisted essentially of strips of parchment on
which were inscribed in whole or in part the following texts: Exo.
13:2-10 and