6. TREATISE CALLED "SENTENCES OF THE FATHERS" (Heb. Pirga Abot). No. 9 in order.
[This treatise, on which no Gemara has been handed down, contains moral precepts, aphorisms, and so forth, of the elder Tannain. It has been often translated, an excellent rendering by the late Dr. Charles Taylor having been published by the Cambridge Press.]
The Two Tables of the Law. M. The two Tables of the Law, handed to Moses on Mount Sinai, were created, along with nine other things, at the time when the world was made, and at sunset, before the first Sabbath began.
V.--Sacred Things, Sacrifices, Measurements of the Temple, etc.
1. TREATISE ON THE MEASUREMENTS OF THE TEMPLE (Middot). 10th in order.
Extent of the Temple Area.
M. The Temple Mount was 500 cubits square. The space was largest on the south, next largest on the east, the third largest being on the north, and the least, westward. All who entered this area did so on the south side, going round and passing on to the left.
VI.--Legal Purifications, Laws of Clean and Unclean, Etc. (Teharot)
1. TREATISE ON PRESERVING THE HANDS FROM CEREMONIAL UNCLEANNESS. (Jadaim).
The Aramaic passages in Ezra and Daniel make the hands unclean (25). But Aramaic written in Hebrew characters and Hebrew written in Aramaic (Syriac) characters, or in the primitive Hebrew characters (much like the Phoenician) do not make the hands unclean. Scriptures, though the matter is the same, never make the hands unclean unless the characters or letters, in which they are written, are the square Assyrian letters introduced by Ezra, the second Moses.