HEBREW LITERATURE. "Hebrew Literature" denotes works written in the Hebrew language. Frequently, however, the expression is used as synonymous with Jewish literature, includ ing all works written by Jews in Hebrew characters, whether the language be Aramaic, Arabic or even some vernacular not related to Hebrew.
Old Testament Scriptures.—The literature begins with the earliest portions contained in the Old Testament. There were no doubt in the earliest times popular songs orally transmitted and perhaps books of annals and laws, but except in so far as remnants of them are embedded in the biblical books, they have entirely disappeared. The traditional view that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch in its present form, would make this the earliest monument of Hebrew literature. Modern inquiry, however, has arrived at other conclusions affecting not only the Pentateuch but the other Old Testament books as well (see BIBLE : Old Testament).
Apocryphal Literature.—It is not to be supposed that all the contents of the Old Testament were immediately accepted as sacred, or that they were ever all regarded as being on the same level. The Torah, the Law delivered to Moses, held among the Jews of the 4th century B.C. as it holds now, a pre-eminent posi tion. The inclusion of other books in the Canon was gradual, and was effected only after centuries of debate. The Jews have always been, however, an intensely literary people, and the books ultimately accepted as canonical were only a selection from the literature in existence at the beginning of the Christian era. The rejected books receiving little attention have mostly either been altogether lost or have survived only in translations, as in the case of the Apocrypha. Hence from the composition of the latest canonical books to the redaction of the Mishnah (see below) in the end century A.D., the remains of Hebrew literature are very scanty. There was formed during this period a large body of ex egetical and legal material, for the most part orally transmitted, which only received its literary form much later.
Not only was translation, and therefore exegesis, cultivated, but even more the amplification of the Law. According to Jewish teaching (e.g., Abhoth i. I) Moses received on Mount Sinai not only the written Law as set down in the Pentateuch, but also the Oral Law, which was transmitted to the 7o elders and through them by a "chain of tradition" to succeeding ages. The application of this oral law is called Halakhah, the rules by which a man's daily "walk" is regulated. The halakhah was by no means inferior in prestige to the written Law. Indeed some even ven tured to ascribe a higher value to it, since it comes into closer relation with the details of everyday life. It was not independ ent of the written Law, still less could it be in opposition to it. Rather it was implicitly contained therein, and the duty of the teacher was to show this. It was therefore important that the chain of tradition should be continuous and trustwcrthy. The line is traced through biblical teachers to Ezra, the first of the Sopherim or scribes, who handed on the charge to the "men of the Great Synagogue," a much-discussed term for a body or suc cession of teachers inaugurated by Ezra. The last member of it, Simon the Just (either Simon I., who died about 30o B.C., or Simon II., who died about 200 B.C.), was the first of the next series, called Elders, represented in the tradition by pairs of teach ers, ending with Hillel and Shammai about the beginning of the Christian era. Their pupils form the starting-point of the next series, the Tanndim (from Aram. tend, to teach), who occupy the first two centuries A.D.
By this time the collection of halakhic material had become very large and various, and after several attempts had been made to reduce it to uniformity, a code of oral tradition —the Mishnah—was finally drawn up in the and century by Judah ha-Nasi, called Rabbi par excellence. The name Mishnah is derived from the Hebrew shanah, corresponding to the Aramaic tend, and therefore a suitable name for a tannaitic work, meaning the repetition or teaching of the oral law. Its language differs in many respects from that of the Old Testament (see HEBREW LANGUAGE). It is divided into six "orders," according to subject, and each order is subdivided into treatises. In making his selection of halakhoth, Rabbi used the earlier compilations, which are quoted as "words of Rabbi 'Aqiba" or of Rabbi Meir, but re jected much which was afterwards collected under the title of Tosefta (addition) and Baraita (outside the Mishnah).
Traditional teaching was, however, not confined to halakhah. Since the teachers endeavoured to show the connection of practical rules with the written Law, there arose the Midrash, exposition, from darasli to "investigate" a scriptural passage. Of the halakhic Midrash we possess that on Exodus, called Mek hilta, that on Leviticus, called Sifra, and that on Numbers and Deuteronomy, called Sifre. These were drawn up in the period of the Amoraim, the order of teachers who succeeded the Tan naim, from the close of the Mishnah to about A.D. 500. The term Midrash, however, more commonly implies agada, i.e., the homi letical exposition of the text, with illustrations designed to make it more attractive to the readers or hearers. It began with the Sopherim and was most developed among the Tannaim and Amor aim. As the hah khoth were collected and edited in the Mishnah, so the agadic material was compiled and arranged in the Midra shim. Most of these collections form a sort of continuous com mentary on the books of the Bible, Midrash, Rabb5th so called in order to distinguish them from preceding smaller collections. Bereshith Rabba, on Genesis, and Ekhah Rabbati, on Lamen tations, were probably edited in the 7th century. Of the same character and of about the same date are the Pesiqta, on the lessons for Sabbaths and feast-days, and Wayyiqra R. on Leviti cus. A century perhaps later is the Tanhuma, on the sections of the Pentateuch, and later still the Pesiqta Rabbati, Shemoth R. (on Exodus), Bemidhbar R. (on Numbers), Debharim R. (on Deuteronomy). There are also Midrashim on Canticles, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther and the Psalms, belonging to this later period, the Pirqe R. Eliezer, of the 8th or 9th century, a sort of history of creation and of the patriarchs, and the Tanna debe Eliyahu (an ethical work of the loth century but containing much that is old), besides a large number of minor compositions. (See es pecially J. D. Eisenstein's Ozar Midrashim [New York, 1915], for these lesser midrashim.) In general, these performed very much the same function as the lives of saints in the early and mediaeval church. Very important for the study of Midrashic literature are the Yalqut (gleaning) Sliim`hni, on the whole Bible, the Yalqut Mekhiri, on the Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs and Job, and the Midrash ha-gadhol, all of which are of uncertain but late date and preserve earlier material. That on Genesis was edited for the first time by Schechter (1902), and that on Exodus by D. Hoffmann (1913) . The last, which is preserved in MSS. from Yemen, is especially valuable as representing an independent tradition.
