therein we can see traces of how the ancient Halakot were remoulded, and how the Pharisees strove to bring the religion into consonance with life, and to amend the Pentateuchal law, if such were life's demands.
during the Sabbath afternoon service was instituted at the close of the period of the Second Temple, the purpose being (on Sabbaths) to restrict it to the afternoon as the Sages preferred that the people free from work should go to the Bet-ha-Midrash to hear the exposition of the Sages and not read the Holy Seriptures and therefore they decided that reading of the Scriptures was permissible on Sabbath from Minḥah and after. And this we find in a Tosefta (Shabbat 14): אף על פי שאמרו אין קורין בכתבי הקרש and we also find in the Talmud that it is not allowed to read the Scriptures until the afternoon service: אין קורין בכתבי קרש אלא מן המנחה ולטעלה (Pal. Shabbat 15c); and also the question arose among the Amoraim: If the fifteenth of Adar falls on a Sabbath what should be done in regard to reading of Megillat Esther as it is forbidden to read from the Scriptures before Minḥah (J. Megila 74 b)? See S. Zeitlin, 'Les dix-huit Mesures', RÉJ., LXVIII pp. 34-5.
