A
Law given to Moses at Sinai (Hebrew
Halakhah le-Moshe mi-Sinai הלכה למשה מסיני) refers to a
halakhic law that is neither explicitly stated in the biblical laws nor derived from it by
Talmudical hermeneutics (the Oral exposition); it is, however, known from the
Jewish Tradition. As a category, "The law given to
Moses at
Mount Sinai" refers to halakhot not included in the
Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), but which were transmitted
orally since time immemorial from one generation to the next, with no scriptural source. The laws are nonetheless considered by the
Talmud to have the force and gravity of Biblical law as if they are written explicitly in the Torah. A classic example are the laws of
Tefillin. Tefillin are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. Sets of tefillin, dating from the 1st-century CE, were discovered at
Qumran in the
Judean Desert. The corresponding
halakhot, as expounded by the '
Oral Law', are mentioned four times in the
Torah (,,,), though.