On Damages:
1. “First Gate,” so called because in the East law is often administered in the gateway of a city. It treats of all such damages as may be received from man or beast. It assesses damages done by a beast according to the benefit which the beast receives. If it eat a peck of dates its owner would be fined for a peck of barley, as dates are not more nourishing for a beast than barley.
2. “The Middle Gate” treats of laws of usury and trusts, of letting out on hire, of landlord and tenant, etc.
3. “Last Gate” treats of the laws of commerce and co-partnership, of buying and selling, of the laws of inheritance and the right of succession.
4. “Sanhedrin” treats of the great national senate.
5. “Stripes” treats of false witnesses, of the law of the forty stripes save one, of those who were bound to fly to the cities of refuge.
6. “Oaths” explains the laws for administering oaths; when an oath is to be admitted between contending parties who are qualified to take them. In Hilchoth Eduth. ix. 1 it is taught that ten sorts of persons are disqualified—women, slaves, children, idiots, deaf persons, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their evidence.
7. “Evidences” are a collection of many important decisions gathered from the testimonies of distinguished Rabbis. It is observable that the decisions of the School of Shammai are more rigorous than those of the School of Hillel, from whence it is inferred that the former adhered more closely to Scripture, the latter to tradition. The former were the Scribes, and are now represented by the Karaites, who reject the Talmud.
8. “Idolatry,” or the worship of stars and meteors, treats of the way to avoid this grievous sin.
9. “The Fathers” contains a history of those who handed down the Oral Law, also many maxims and proverbs.