be admitted between contending parties who are qualified to take them. In
Hilchoth Eduth. ix. 1 it is taught that ten sorts of persons are
disqualified--women, slaves, children, idiots, deaf persons, the blind, the
wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their evidence.

7. "Evidences" are a collection of many important decisions gathered from
the testimonies of distinguished Rabbis. It is observable that the
decisions of the School of Shammai are more rigorous than those of the
School of Hillel, from whence it is inferred that the former adhered more
closely to Scripture, the latter to tradition. The former were the
Scribes, and are now represented by the Karaites, who reject the Talmud.

8. "Idolatry," or the worship of stars and meteors, treats of the way to
avoid this grievous sin.

9. "The Fathers" contains a history of those who handed down the Oral Law,
also many maxims and proverbs.

10. "Punishment" treats of the punishment of those disobedient to the
Sanhedrin (Deut. xvii. 8-11).

Book V

On Holy Things:

1. "Sacrifices" treats of the nature and quality of the offerings; the
time, the place, and the persons, by whom they ought to be killed,
prepared, and offered.

2. "Meat Offerings" treats of the flour, oil, and wine, and the wave
loaves.

3. "Unconsecrated Things" treats of what is clean and unclean, of not
eating the sinew that shrank, and not killing the dam and her young in one
day (Deut. xxii. 6).

4. "First Born" treats of their redemption by money, and their being
offered in sacrifice; also of the tithes of all manner of cattle.

5. "Estimations" (Lev. xxvii. 2) treats of the way in which things devoted
to the Lord are to be valued in order to be redeemed for ordinary use;
also, how a priest is to value a field which a person has sanctified.

6. "Cutting Off" treats of offenders being cut off from the Lord.

7. "Exchanges" (Lev. xxvii. 10, 33) treats of the way exchanges are to be
effected between sacred things.

8. "Trespass" (Num. v. 6, 8) treats of things partaking of the nature of
sacrilege. It asserts that if a man take away a consecrated stone or beam
he commits no trespass. If he give it to his companion he commits a
trespass, but his companion commits none. If he build it into his house he
commits no trespass till he lives in the house long enough to gain the
value of a half-farthing. If he take away a consecrated half-farthing he
commits no trespass. If he giv