mp unmolested, had feigned death. He went before Vespasian, and,
impressed by the noble figure of the hoary rabbi, the general promised
him the fulfilment of any wish he might express. What was his petition?
Not for his nation, not for the preservation of the Holy City, not even
for the Temple. His request was simple: "Permit me to open a school at
Jabneh." The proud Roman smilingly gave consent. He had no conception of
the significance of this prayer and of the prophetic wisdom of the
petitioner, who, standing on the ruins of his nation's independence,
thought only of rescuing the Law. Rome, the empire of the "iron legs,"
was doomed to be crushed, nation after nation to be swallowed in the
vortex of time, but Israel lives by the Law, the very law snatched from
the smouldering ruins of Jerusalem, the beloved alike of crazy zealots
and despairing peace advocates, and carried to the tiny seaport of
Jabneh. There Jochanan ben Zakkai opened his academy, the gathering
place of the dispersed of his disciples and his people, and thence,
gifted with a prophet's keen vision, he proclaimed Israel's mission to
be, not the offering of sacrifices, but the accomplishment of works of
peace.[14]

The _Tanaim_ may be considered the most original expounders of the
science of Judaism, which they fostered at their academies. In the
course of centuries their intellectual labor amassed an abundant store
of scientific material, together with so vast a number of injunctions,
prohibitions, and laws that it became almost impossible to master the
subject. The task of scholars now was to arrange the accumulation of
material and reduce it to a system. Rabbi after rabbi undertook the
task, but only the fourth attempt at codification, that made by Yehuda
the Prince, was successful. His compilation, classifying the
subject-matter under six heads, subdivided into sixty-three tractates,
containing five hundred and twenty-four chapters, was called Mishna, and
came to be the authority appealed to on points of law.

Having assumed fixity as a code, the Mishna in turn became what the
Bible had been for centuries--a text, the basis of all legal development
and scientific discussion. So it was used by the epigones, the
_Amoraim_, or Speakers, the expounders of the third period. For
generations commenting on the Mishna was the sum-total of literary
endeavor. Traditions unheeded before sprang to light. New methods
asserted themselves. To the older generation o