90 J. Duncan M. Derrett some certified by the Pentateuch itself5. But we shall find a rabbinical cliché useful, and to that we come. 2. The Jurisprudence of Heaven At the time of Christ and long afterwards Jewish courts stuck strictly to the Torah (as they understood it), except in emergencies, and irrespective of state courts which had their own procedures6. Where the fundamental source of law is an ancient scripture, whether Buddhist, Hindu, Israelite or Islamic, the function of the jurist is vital. Reform as such is nearly impossible. Interpretation copes with new problems. Obsolescence7 is very rarely admitted, and likewise “impractability”. The Torah of Moses remains supreme. But the punitive powers of Torah courts was limited. Some absurd anomalies remained. I push a man into a river and he drowns. If he could swim I am not liable, nor if he is eaten by a crocodile. Intervening factors are relevant. Here a formula comes into play, of great use to us: see Mishnah (hereafter “m”) Baba Qamma (hereafter “B.Q.”) VI.4: “If one caused a conflagration through a deaf-mute, an idiot, or a minor he is exempt from the laws of man but he is liable by divine law (pāūr bedînê ᾽ādām wehͺayyāv bedînê šāmāyim)”8. So at Babylonian Talmud (“b”) B.Q. 28b-29a (also 99b): “If his pitcher broke and he did not remove it, or if his camel fell and he did not raise it, he is not liable by the laws of men, but is liable by the laws of Heaven (ayyāv bedînê šāmāyim)9. Also at b. Qidd. 24b: “If one frightens his neighbour (and causes damage) he is exempt by the laws of men, yet liable by the laws of Heaven”10. Also at b. Qidd. 43a: “Where a person says to The mysterious term kārēt (e.g. sudden death). “Death at the hands of Heaven”: SB I, 5 271-3) Thirty six transgressions lead to it (Mishna (here-after “m”) Ket. I.1). “Bears his own sin”; Lev 20,20; 24,15. Legends at SB I, 273-5. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, “Code”, XI,V,2.4, trans. Hyman Klein, The Code of 6 Maimonides. Book Eleven. The Book of Torts (New Haven 1954) 199. Ibid., XI, V, 10.12, trans. Klein, 223. 7 Philip Blackman, Mishnayoth IV Order Mezikin (London 1954) 54-5. Ze᾽ev W. Falk, 8 Introduction to Jewish Law of the Second commonwealth I (Leiden 1972) 29. SB I, 275. Joseph Bonsirven S,I,, Textes rabbiniques des deux premiers siècles chrétiens (Rome 1955) § 1628. Falk, Introduction 30. At m.B.Q. III.1 the opposite view appears. SB I, 27540. 9 Falk, Introduction 30; SB I, 275 (Tosefta B.Q. VI.l6f, a rich passage); Bonsirven, Textes 10 § 1670.