The average English Bible student could stop there, get their daily wisdom, and move on being reminded to always allow God to move in the heart of the believer with regards to His instructions; and that would be well.  There isn't anything wrong with that.  But though Jesus starts by expanding upon the heart of the Old Testament Law, indeed even the 10 commandments themselves once written by the Finger of God, Jesus moves on to mention things "heard" but not found in scripture; specifically "hate thine enemy".  

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This statement leaps off the page because it is so striking against the backdrop of the love and respect that all of God's Law entails.  After all, the Law states if you find black mold in your house you should burn it down to be sure and save your neighbor's house.  So,"and hate thine enemy"... where did this come from?

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Well just as you would expect, religious leaders for centuries, even before Jesus, had been adding to and refining the interpretation of the original Torah.  Later, after the books of the Prophets were added, teaching and commentary on those works as well started to become a law unto themselves.  The term for the collection of supplementary teachings, and traditions is what is now referred to as the "Oral Torah".  Supporters of the Oral Torah believe the authority of these teachings to have come from Moses himself after his meeting with God upon Mt. Sinai and that these beliefs and ordinances have been passed down orally from Moses throughout each generation.  If this were true then from the beginning of the written Torah upon Mt. Sinai there has always existed a parallel Oral Torah.  That Oral Torah is believed to have existed before the time of Christ in two parts:  The Halakhah (the legal side) and the Haggada (the ethical side).  

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Whenever the beginning of the Oral Torah, there is some scriptural support that there were accepted legal (Halakhic) traditions within Israel as far back as recorded in the book of Kings where personal servitude was an accepted legal penalty for unpaid debts.

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Though not expressly covered in detail in the Holy Bible, writings of court decisions and precepts of rulings from kings, priests, and words of prophets surely influenced the understanding and proliferation of these beliefs and practices.  Judgements and presumptions may not be necessarily wrong in any sort, except if they be found contrary to the laws of God (the Torah).

 

Before the time of Jesus, each religious town of even modest size had a court.  During Roman occupation each court was given the authority to govern that town based on religious tenants so long as it fostered peace and didn't cause the Roman government any problems.  These court systems (usually made up of 23 members but Josephus records it could be as few as 7), even had the authority of capital punishment if necessary.  It is expected that in addition to the written Tanakh (the entire Old Testament), these courts would have used and enforced Halakhic and Aggadic tenants to mete out judgement and instruction.  The local court systems were relatively self-governing, especially in the Galilean region, but would on occasion take direction from the highest religious court - the Sanhedrin which was made up mostly of the Sadducees and of a minority position, the Pharisees.  In Galilee, again far from the oversight of the Sanhedrin based in Jerusalem, the local court systems and synagogues began to form commentaries and judgements, let's call them "explanations", from their understandings of the Tanakh.  Though most customs, teachings, and schools of thought were more-or-less local, trends in interpretation began to spread.  By the time Jesus began His ministry, many of the teachings of the several schools had seeped into tradition and customary belief.  In essence, the interpretation of God's Laws had become accepted as laws themselves. 

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Now we may come across terms such as: Mishnah, Talmud, Gemara, Halakhah, Haggadah.  Though most of the terms and collections occurred after the time of Christ, the influence of the oral cultural traditions and subsets of Rabbinical law that would become those terms were born before, sometimes way before (like the ones housed in the Halakhah and Haggadah.)  A couple of centuries after our Christ's resurrection these individual schools of thought were collected and then written into one accepted volume which is now referred to as the Talmud (Specifically the "Mishnah" part.)  The Mishnah wasn't written until 200 AD but the adherence to the precepts covered in them were fully fledged during Jesus's day.  

 

Matthew records Jesus speaking about what was going on in chapter 23:

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Matthew 23 - Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

 

In addition, by the time Jesus walked the earth, Greek translations and thereby copies had been made of the original Hebrew Old Testament that we now refer to such as the "Septuagint;" which is commonly believed to be compiled by at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 B.C.)  However, the Old Testament we now read in English versions most-often comes from a translation of the "Masoretic Text" which was accepted by Jews over the Egyptian-born "Septuagint".  Even the dedicated Bible teacher can often forget details, dates, and how they all seem to influence one another.

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What is the English Bible Student, who wants to understand more of the traditional Jew mindset that Jesus was ministering to overcome to do with all of these terms?  To aid that discovery take a look at the following flowchart below: