Jachin and Boaz, or, The Free Mason's Catechism/In the Preface to the Mishnaw, We Find Tradition of the Jews Explained As Follows
IN THE PREFACE TO THE MISHNAW, WE FIND
TRADITION OF THE JEWS EXPLAINED AS
FOLLOWS,
God not only delivered the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, but the explanation of it likewise. When Moses came down from the Mount and entered into his tent, Aaron went to visit him, and Moses acquainted Aaron with the laws he had received from God, together with the explanation of them: After this, Aaron placed himself at the right hand of Moses, and Eleazer, and Ithamar, (sons of Aaron,) who were admitted, to whom Moses repeated what he had just before told Aaron. These being seated, the one on the right hand, the other on the left hand of Moses; the seventy elders of Israel, who composed the Sanhedrim, came in; and Moses again declared the same laws to them, with the interpretations of them, as he had done before to Aaron and his sons. Lastly, all who pleased, of the common people, were envited to enter, and Moses instructed them likewise in the same manner as the rest. So that Aaron heard four times what Moses had been taught by God upon Mount Sinai; Eleazar and Ithamar, three times; the seventy elders, twico; and the people once. Moses afterwards reduced the laws he had received into writing, but not the explanation of them; these he thought it sufficient to trust to the memories of the above-mentioned persons, who being perfectly instructed in them, delivered them to their children, and these again to theirs, from ago to age.