ng the ravages of time,
and, unmindful of contemporaneous distress and hardship, to trace out,
for future generations, the extreme logical consequences of the Law in
its application. To the Haggada belonged the high, ethical mission of
consoling, edifying, exhorting, and teaching a nation suffering the
pangs, and threatened with the spiritual stagnation, of exile; of
proclaiming that the glories of the past prefigured a future of equal
brilliancy, and that the very wretchedness of the present was part of
the divine plan outlined in the Bible. If the simile is accurate that
likens the Halacha to the ramparts about Israel's sanctuary, which every
Jew was ready to defend with his last drop of blood, then the Haggada
must seem "flowery mazes, of exotic colors and bewildering fragrance,"
within the shelter of the Temple walls.

The complete work of expounding, developing, and finally establishing
the Law represents the labor of many generations, the method of
procedure varying from time to time. In the long interval between the
close of the Holy Canon and the completion of the Talmud can be
distinguished three historical strata deposited by three different
classes of teachers. The first set, the Scribes--_Soferim_--flourished
in the period beginning with the return from Babylonian captivity and
ending with the Syrian persecutions (220 B.C.E.), and their work was the
preservation of the text of the Holy Writings and the simple expounding
of biblical ordinances. They were followed by the
"Learners"--_Tanaim_--whose activity extended until 220 C.E. Great
historical events occurred in that period: the campaigns of the
Maccabean heroes, the birth of Jesus, the destruction of the Temple by
the Romans, the rebellion under Bar-Kochba, and the final complete
dispersion of the Jews. Amid all these storms the _Tanaim_ did not for a
moment relinquish their diligent research in the Law. The Talmud tells
the story of a celebrated rabbi, than which nothing can better
characterize the age and its scholars: Night was falling. A funeral
cortege was moving through the streets of old Jerusalem. It was said
that disciples were bearing a well-beloved teacher to the grave.
Reverentially the way was cleared, not even the Roman guard at the gate
hindered the procession. Beyond the city walls it halted, the bier was
set down, the lid of the coffin opened, and out of it arose the
venerable form of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai, who, to reach the Roman
ca