"[...]ecclesiastical council. It numbered 70 like the Council of Elders appointed by Moses (Exodus xxiv, 1). Thus it happened when all political power was taken, from the Jews, the presentation of religion through the forms of law very naturally survived. There is yet another reason for Judaism being interpreted as Law, which touches the genius of Judaism. Judaism has always been less a faith to be confessed than a life to be lived. The emphasis was laid on deed rather than on dogma, on law rather than creed. We shall later see (p. 133) that it was on this very distinction that Christianity broke away from the parent religion to become a separate Faith. The reduction of religion to law had its abuses as well as its excellences. It led to the multiplication of ceremonials. The laws of ritual cleanliness, especially[...]".

Excerpt from Modern Jewish History From the Renaissance to the World War This volume completes the author's history of the Jews. The series was commenced in 1897 with a Biblical history styled People of the Book in three volumes. The first covered the patriarchal-period and the Mosaic Law (the Pentateuch) the second, the Israelitish Mon archy the third, the Epoch of the Prophets, closing with the Restoration of Judah after the Exile. This was followed by A Thousand Years of Jewish History - from the close of the Persian era to the eu trance of the Mohammedans into Europe. Next in the series was the History of the Mediaeval Jews cover ing the Middle Ages, the entire Spanish era and closing with the discovery of America. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.