[3] It consists of seven sections, each with approximately 25 chapters, which explains intricate halakhic topics including the validity of a single witness and the practical ramifications of a doubt.
Although an early form of this work was initially presented by R. Heller when he was still a young man during his seven days of celebration after his wedding, it was actually one of his later publications and underwent significant editing by the author.
R. Heller's introduction to this celebrated work explains his outlook on Judaism, and includes complex and profound biblical exegesis.
His basic stance is a blend of Kabbalah and Italian Neoplatonism, somewhat similar to that found in Isaiah Horowitz's Shene Luchot ha-Berit and the works of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto.
Through analysis of a series of Biblical incidents, he illustrates his contention that there would be no value in an understanding and observance of Torah that was ready-made and which one had no choice but to follow.
Rather, just as practical halachah is a code which one strives to follow using one's free will, so the intellectual content of Torah is presented in a cryptic and open-ended form the value of which depends on one's struggle to understand it.
Chazakah is the presumption that in case of doubt one may assume that the physical or legal status of the object (or person) in question remains constant.
Heller points out (based on various Talmudic passages) that if the object is likely to change (in his example a girl who is likely to mature) then the Chazakah D'Hashta takes precedence.
Section Seven discusses the Halachic concept that an ordinarily unfit witness (e.g. a child) is believed if in the middle of an ordinary conversation he mentions something in passing.
Louis Jacobs, "Rabbi Aryeh Laib Heller's Theological Introduction to His Shev Shema'tata", Modern Judaism, Vol.