EXOD348 To the Jew, his Torah has no peer as a source of instruction in the art of right living. For him, it combines the loftiest teaching with abundant illustrations to show how its ideals can be lived. The Bible will always be the divine Book because it is, at the same time, so intensely human. Its uniqueness consists in that while it contains not a little which is within the understanding of an intelligent child, it is also so profound that the studies of two thousand years have not exhausted its significance for scholars and philosophers. "And the voice of the Shophar waxed louder and louder" [this verse]. Unlike the human voice which gets weaker after much use, the "Voice of God" assumes more force with time. The Bible by no means exhausts the sources of Jewish faith. The Jew has preserved, in addition, a treasury of doctrines and sayings transmitted from father to son. This traditional literature, the Oral Law (Torah she'be'al Peh) constitutes the largest part of Judaism. Many Halachic doctrines not mentioned in the Torah have been, explicitly or implicitly, traced to the forty days Moses spent with God prior to communicating them orally to Israel [these traditional observances are described in the Talmud as halachah l'moshe mi'Sinai]. So have many well-known haggadic illustrations been connected with Sinaitic teachings. This Oral Law comprises all the interpretations and conclusions which our scribes have deduced from the written Torah, together with the regulations instituted by them. These are to be found in the Mishnah, Gemara, Tosefta, and Halachic Midrashim, all of which were originally not committed to writing but transmitted and taught orally. In these sources, the claim is often repeated that a complete body of Rabbinical doctrines had been revealed unto Moses on Sinai, together with the hermeneutical rules according to which they might be developed. An example of such exegetical principles is the thirteen rules of R. Ishmael [See Singer's Prayer Book, pp. 13-14. These are included in the Siddur, in order to enable the Jew to study, as well as pray, each day.] These rules are indispensable, in view of the terse utterances of the Torah. May not the very brevity of the Scriptures be a further proof that, side-by-side with the Bible, there existed a vigorous body of tradition? Let one illustration suffice. In Deut. xii.21, the commandment of slaughtering the sacrifice is given with the addition "as I have commanded thee". We will search in vain for a command in the Torah advising us how to slaughter the animal in the prescribed way. It is when we turn to the Talmudic Tractate Hullin that we find the laws of Shechitah enumerated in detail. These are invested with Divine authority because they are believed to form part of the instruction given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. We can understand the opinions expressed in the Talmud that customs and ceremonies observed by the rank and file of the people are to be regarded as sacrosanct as the Torah itself [minhag Yisrael Torah hee].