Code of Jewish Law

While at the Market today I was so intrigued by a book I found that I bought it.  Well actually its a 5 book set.   They are the Code of Jewish Law by Ganzfried - Goldin.   For one it's really cool that it's written in both English and Hebrew.  When you open up the book the left page is in English and the right page is in Hebrew. And since Hebrew is read and written right to left (opposite of English), that's the format of the book.  The English text is the normal left to right, but the first page of the book is what we would normally call the last page of the book.  When I turn to go the the next page I have to turn the page on the left.  The title is on what we would call the back (with the binding to the right) and what we would call the front is blank (with the binding to the left).

The book itself so far is very interesting.  I am only a small handful of pages into the first book.  The first book has 47 chapters (each about 3 pages long - all on a different area of the laws).  I am hoping that as I read these books I can understand more the traditions, laws and culture of the Jews in Bible times (particularly Jesus' time).  I hope that this will help me understand the Bible better, since I will have a bit more context of the culture of when the Bible took place.

I have to say some of the laws seem quite crazy.  And I didn't realize that they had laws for just about everything, nearly every aspect of life has a huge list of laws.  I can see how the Jews in Jesus' day didn't want to give up the laws.  If I had spent my life learning and perfecting these laws, I would not want someone just coming in and saying that they're less worthwhile.   That would make me angry.  So I now have a much better view of how the Jews might of felt.   It's crazy how many laws there are, and how specific and detailed they are!