form of the Mishnah implied anywhere. The preservation of this
wonderful code of Jewish laws was due to memory alone, men
being appointed in the various synagogues to learn the
Mishnaic sections and to recite them whenever it was
necessary. Extracts will be given below from the Mishnah and
also from the Gemara, the letters M and G preceding paragraphs
indicating which of the two is summarised.

_DIVISION I.--CALLED SEEDS_

[This part deals first of all with prayer, and then most of all with the
various tithes and donations which are due to the priests, Levites, and
the poor, from the products of the land.]

SECTION I. TREATISE ON BLESSINGS _(Berakot)_. The time for reading or
reciting the Shemang.[32]

_M_. At what time in the evening may shemang be read? From the time when
the priests, having cleansed themselves, enter the sanctuary to partake
of the offering (2) (_i.e._, when the stars come out) until the end of
the first watch (about 10 p.m.). So says Rabbi Eliezar, but otherwise
men extend the time until midnight. Rabbi Gameliel makes the time reach
even to the dawn of the following day. It happened once that his sons
returned home at midnight without having read the shemang. On asking
their father if it was too late he replied that the obligation to
perform the duties of each day is valid until the first light of morning
shows itself.

The morning Shemang.

_M_. From what time may the morning shemang be read? From the moment
when there is light enough to distinguish between purple-blue and white.
Rabbi Eliezar says "between purple-blue and leek-green" (which are
harder to distinguish) (3). Up to when may the morning shemang be read?
Until the sun has risen. Rabbi Jose says "until the end of the third
hour after sunrise, for it is the custom of kings' sons to rise in the
third hour of the day. Yet a good act, such as shemang is, never loses
its virtue whenever it is performed."

The attitude in which the shemang should be read.

_M_. The (strict) School of Shammai say men ought to bow in reading the
evening shemang, but to stand upright when saying shemang in the
morning, their scripture warrant being Deut. vi, 7, "when thou liest
down and when thou risest up." But according to (the more liberal)
School of Hillel, people must be allowed to read the shemang in whatever
attitude they choose, referring to the words in the same passage: "When
thou sittest in thy house a