ORAL LAW, or Tradition, is that which the Jews say they have received by Tradition from their Ancestors. They affirm, that Moses received equally the Written, and the Oral Law, upon Mount Sinai; that the first was reduced into Writing, and the other given only by Word of Mouth, and hath been transmitted down from one Generation to another by the Elders. Thus they attribute an equal Authority to both, as having both the same Original, and flowing equally from God. Nay, they give a Preference to the Oral, before the written Law; for this they say is in many Places obscure, imperfect, and defective, and could not be made Use of as a Rule without the Assistance of the Oral Law, which supplies all that is wanting in the written Law, and removes all Difficulties.
Wherefore they do not observe the written Law without the Explanations, Modifications, and Glosses of the Oral Law, and it is a Sort of Maxim among them, that the Covenant which God made with them at Sinai, consists not so much in the Precepts of the written Law, as in those of the Oral Law; to these latter Laws they generally give the Preference. They say, for Example, that the Words of the Levites are more lovely than those of the Law; that the Words of the Law are sometimes weighty and sometimes light; whereas those of the Doctors are always of Weight: That the Words of the Elders were of greater Weight than those of the Prophets. In other Places they compare the sacred Text with Water, and the Mishna or Talmud, which contains their Traditions, with Wine or Hipocras. Besides the written Law is salt, but the Mishna and Talmud are the most exquisite Spices. The Law is only as it were the Body, and the Oral Law or Tradition, as it were the Soul of Religion. Ever since our Mark vii. 13.Saviour’s Time they have been reproached with making the Word of God of no Effect by their Traditions. See above CABBALA.
CABBALA.