Mishneh Torah - The Books and Sections

The Books and Sections

  1. HaMadda' (Knowledge):
    1. Yesodei ha-Torah: Belief in God and other Jewish principles of faith
    2. De'ot: general proper behavior
    3. Talmud Torah: see Torah study
    4. Avodah Zarah: the prohibition against idolatry
    5. Teshuvah: the law and philosophy of repentance
  2. Ahavah (Love): the precepts which must be observed at all times if the love due to God is to be remembered continually (prayer, tefillin).
  3. Zemanim (Times):
    1. Shabbat
    2. Eruvin, a Rabbinic device that facilitates Sabbath observance
    3. Yom Tov: prohibitions on major Jewish holidays that are different from the prohibitions of Sabbath
    4. Shevitat `Asor: laws of Yom Kippur, except for the Temple service (see Avodat Yom ha-Kippurim, below)
    5. Hametz u-Matza: see Passover
    6. Shofar ve-Lulav ve-Sukkah: see Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot
    7. Hanukah u-Megillah: see Hanukkah and Purim
  4. Nashim (Women):
    1. Ishut: laws of marriage, including kiddushin and the ketubah
    2. Geirushin: laws of divorce
    3. Yibum va-Chalitzah: laws of levirate marriage
    4. Na'arah Betulah: the law of a man who seduces or rapes an unmarried woman
    5. Sotah laws concerning a woman suspected of infidelity
  5. Kedushah (Holiness)
    1. Issurei Biah: forbidden sexual relations, including niddah, incest and adultery. Since intermarriage with non-Jews is forbidden, the laws of conversion to Judaism are also included.
    2. Ma'akhalot Assurot: laws of forbidden foods (see kashrut)
    3. Shechitah: laws of ritual slaughter
  6. Hafla'ah (Separation): laws of vows and oaths
    1. Shevuot: Laws of vows (to refrain from doing an action)
    2. Nedarim: Laws of oaths (to do an action)
    3. Nezirot: Laws of Nazirites
    4. Erachin: Laws of donations to the temple
  7. Zera'im (Seeds): agricultural laws
    1. Kilayim: Laws of forbidden mixtures
    2. Aniyim: Laws of obligatory gifts to the poor
    3. Terumot: Laws of obligatory gifts to the priests
    4. Maaser: Laws of tithes
    5. Sheini: Laws of secondary tithes
    6. Bikurim: Laws of first fruit offerings
    7. Shemittah: Laws of the sabbatical year
  8. Avodah (Divine Service): the laws of the Temple in Jerusalem
  9. Korbanot (Offerings): laws for offerings in the Temple, excepting those of the whole community
  10. Tohorah (Cleanness): the rules of ritual purity
  11. Nezikin (Injuries): criminal and tort law
  12. Kinyan (Acquisition): laws of the marketplace
  13. Mishpatim (Rights): civil law
  14. Shofetim (Judges): the laws relating legislators, the Sanhedrin, the king, and the judges. It also addresses the Noahide Laws and those pertaining to messianic times.

Read more about this topic:  Mishneh Torah

Famous quotes containing the words books and/or sections:

    “The book borrower of real stature whom we envisage here proves himself to be an inveterate collector of books not so much by the fervor with which he guards his borrowed treasures and by the deaf ear which he turns to all reminders from the everyday world of legality as by his failure to read these books.”
    —Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)

    “I have a new method of poetry. All you got to do is look over your notebooks ... or lay down on a couch, and think of anything that comes into your head, especially the miseries.... Then arrange in lines of two, three or four words each, don’t bother about sentences, in sections of two, three or four lines each.”
    —Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)