P E CI

S AL SE RI ES No .
3

THE TA L M U D

BY

EM AN UEL E UTS C H
p

P H ILA D E L PH IA
TH E JE W I S H PU B L I C A T I O N S O CIE T Y OF AME RI C A
1 895
 R E PR INT E D F RO M

L IT E RA R Y RE M A INS O F T H E L AT E E
E M A NU E L D U T S C H ,
.
"

L O ND O N, 1 874 .

7?

PR E SS O P

E DWA R D S T E RN CO .
,
I NC .
,

P H IL A D E L P H I A .
 T HE T A L M UD I

W H AT i s the Talmud ?
Wh at i s th e nat ure o f that strange production o f
whi c hthe name imperceptibly almost is beginning
, ,

t o take i t s place among the household words o f

E urope ? Turn where we may in the realms o f
modern l earning we seem t o be haunted by it We
, .

m eet with it in theology in science even in gen , ,

eral l iterature in their hig hways and in their by

,

ways There is not a handbook to all o r any o f th e

.

many department s o f b i blical lore sacred ge o gra ,

phy history chronology numismatics and the rest

, , , , ,

but it s pages contain references t o the Talmud .

The advocates o f all religious O pinions appeal t o

i t s dicta Nay not only the s cient ic investiga
.
,

tors o f J udaism and C hristianity but those o f ,

M ohammedanism and Zoroastrianism turn t o it in ,

their dissect ions o f dogma and l egend and cere

mony If again we take up any recent volume of
.
, ,

arch aeological o r philological t ransact ions whether ,

we light o n a dissertation o n a Phoenician altar or ,

a cuneiform tablet Babyloni a n weights o r Sas , ,

sanian coins we are certain t o nd th is mysterious

word N
,

.o r is it m erely th e restorers o f th e lost

idioms o f C anaan and Assyria of H imyar and Zoro ,

as t r i a n Persia th a t appeal to the Talmud for a ssis

,

1 T his article appeared in the Q u a r t er ly Re v i ew for O cto

ber , I 86 7 , vol cxxiii No 2 4 6
. .
,
. .
4 TH E TA L MU D

tance but the modern school s o f Greek and L atin

phil ology are beginning t o avail themselves o f the
classical an d post classical material s that lie scat
-

t e re d th rough it J uri spruden ce in it s turn has

.
, ,

been roused t o th e fact that apart from the bear ,

ing o f th e Talmud o n th e study o f the Pandect s

and the Instit ut es there are also some o f th ose
,

very laws of the M edes and Persians hi t herto b ut

a vague sound hidden away in it s labyrinths .

And s o t oo with m edicin e astronomy mathe , ,

m at i c s and the rest

, The h isto ry o f these sciences
.
,

during that period over which the composition of

t h e Talmud ranges and it ranges over about a
thousand years can no longer be writt en without
s ome reference t o the it ems preserved as in a vast ,

buried city in this cyclopean work Yet apart

, .
,

from th e fact s that belong emphatically t o these

respective bran ches it cont ain s other fact s o f, ,

larger moment still fact s bearing upon human cul

ture in it s widest sense Day by day there are .

excavat ed from these mounds pictures o f many

countries and many periods Pictures of H ellas .

and Byzant ium E gypt and Rome Persia and Pales

, ,

t ine of t he t emple an d the forum war and peace , ,

j oy and mourning ; picture s t eeming with life glow ,

ing with color .

These are indeed signs o f th e times A mighty

, ,
.

change has come over us We children of this .

,

latter age are above all things utilitarian We do

, , ,
.

n o t read the Koran th e Zend Avest a the Vedas ,

-
, ,

with the sol e view o f refuting them We look upon .

all literature religious l egal and otherwise when

, , , ,
 TH E T A LMUD 5

soever and wheresoever produced as part and par ,

cel o f humanity We in a manner feel a kind o f

.
, ,

responsibility for it We seek t o understand the .

phase o f culture which begot thes e items o f o ur

inheritan ce the spirit that move s upon their face
, .

And while we bury that which is dead in them we ,

rej oice in that which lives in them We enrich o ur .

st ores o f knowledge from theirs we are stirred by ,

their poetry we are moved t o high and holy

,

thought s when they t ouch the divine chord in o ur

hearts .

In the same hum a n S pirit we now speak o f the

Talmud There is even danger at hand that this
.

chivalresque feeling one of the most touching
characteristics of o ur t imes which is evermore
prompting us t o o ffer holocaust s to th e M anes o f
those whom former generations are thought t o have
wronged may lead t o its being extolled somewhat
,

beyond i t s meri t As these ever new t estimon ies

,

t o it s value crowd upon us we might be led into ,

exaggerati n g it s importance for the history of man

ki nd Yet an old adage of it s own says
. Above
all things study Whether for the sake o f learn
, .

ing o r for any other reason study For whateve r , .

,

the motives that impel you at rst you will very ,

soon love study for i t s own sake And thus eve n .

exaggerat ed expectations of the treasure trove in -

t he Talmud will have their value if they lead to the ,

study o f th e work itself .

For let us s ay it at once these tokens of its ex

, ,

i s t e n c e that appear in many a new publicat ion are

, , ,

for the most part but will o the wisps At rst ,
- - -
.
6 T HE T A L MU D

sight o n e would fancy t hat there n ever was a book

more popular or t hat formed more exclusively the
,

mental centre o f m odern scholars Orientalist s , ,

t heologian s o r j urist s What i s the real t ruth ?

, .

Paradoxical as it may seem t here never was a book ,

at onc e more universally n eglect ed and m ore uni

v e rs ally talked o f Well may we forgive H eine
.
,

when we read the glowing description o f the

Talmud contained in his Romancero for never ,

having even seen the subj ect o f his panegyrics .

L ike his count ryman S chiller who pining vainly for , ,

o n e gl impse o f th e Alp s produced th e most glowing

,

and faithful p ict ure of them so he with t he poet s , ,

unerring instinct gathered t ruth from h earsay and

,

descr i ption But how many of these ubiquitous

.

learned quotat ion s really ow from the fountain

head ? Too often and too palpably it is merely

t o us e Samson s agricultural simile those ancient

and well worked heifers t he Tela ignea S at anae
-
, ,

the Abgezogener S c hlan ge n b alg and all their

,

venom ous kindred which are once more being

,

dragged t o th e plough by some of th e l earned .

We s ay th e learned : for a s t o th e peopl e at large ,

often a s t hey hear t he word now we rmly believe ,

that numbers o f t hem still hold with that erudit e ,

C apucin friar H e n ricus S ey n e n s i s that the Tal

, ,

mud i s not a book m a m a n

Ut nar rat Rab
,

.

b i n us Talmud As says Rabbi Talmud cries -

he and t riumphantly clinches his argument !

,

And o f those who know t hat it is not a Rabbi ,

ho w many are th ere to whom it conveys a ny but

the vaguest o f not ion s ? Wh o wrot e it 3; What i s
 T HE TA LMU D 7

its bulk ? Its dat e ? It s content s ? It s birthplace ?

A contemporary lately called it a sphinx t owards ,

which all men s eyes are direct ed at this hour some ,

with eager curiosity some with vague anxiety , .

But why not force open its lips H ow much longer

are we t o live by quotation s alone quotat ions a ,

t housand t imes used a th ousand times abused ?

,

Where however are we t o look even for primary

, ,

instruction ? Where l earn the story of the book ,

its place in lit erature it s meaning and purport , ,

and above all its relation to ourselves ?

, ,

If we turn t o the t ime honored Authorities -
,

we shall mostly n d that in their eagerness t o ,

serve some cause they have torn a few pieces o ff

,

that gigantic living body and they have presented

t o us thes e ghastly anatomical preparations twist ed ,

and mut ilat ed o ut of all shape and semblance say ,

ing Behold this i s the book ! Or they have done

, ,

worse They have not garble d their samples but

.
,

have given them exactly as they found them ; and

the n stood aside pointing at them with e er i ng
,

countenance For their samples were ludicrous

.

and grot esque beyond expression But these wise .

and pious investigators unfortunat ely mistook the

gargoyles thos e grin ning stone caricatu res that
,

mount their thousand years guard over our cathe

d rals for the gleaming statues of the Saint s with

,

in and holding t hem up t o mockery and derision

, ,

they cried These be thy gods 0 I srael !

, ,

L et us not be misunderstood When we com .

plain of t he lack of guides to the Ta lmud w e do ,

not wish t o be ungrateful t o those great and earn

8 TH E TA LMUD

est scholars whose names are familiar to every

student and whose labors have been ever present
,

t o o ur mind F o r though in the whole realm of

.
,

l earni ng there is scarcely a single branch o f st udy

to be compared for it s di fculty t o t he Tal mud ,

yet if a man had t ime and patience and knowl

, , ,
l
edge there i s absolut ely no reason why h e should
,

not up and down ancient and modern libraries

, ,

gather most excellent hint s from essays and

t reatises m onograph s and sketches in books and
, ,

periodicals without number by dint o f which aided , ,

by the study of the work itself h e might arrive at ,

some conclusion as t o its essence and t endencies ,

it s origin and it s devel opment Yet s o far as we .

,

kno w that work every step of which it must be

, , ,

confessed i s beset with fatal pitfalls has not y e t

, ,

been done for the world at large It is for a very .

good reason that we have placed nothing but th e

name o f the Talmud it self at the head of o ur
paper We have sought far and near for some o ne
.

special book on the subj ect which we might make ,

t he theme of o ur observations a book which

should not merely be a garbled translation o f a

certain twelfth century Introduction inter ,

spersed with vituperations and s upplemented wit h

blunders but which from th e platform of modern
,

culture should pronounce impartially upon a pro

duction which if for no ot her reason claims re
, ,

s p ect through it s age a book that would lead us

,

thr ough t he stupendous labyrinths o f fact and ,

thought and fa n cy o f which t he Talmud consist s

, , ,

that would rej oice even i n hieroglyphical fairy lore -

,
 TH E TA LMUD 9

in abstruse proposition s an d syllogisms that could ,

forgive wild outburst s of passion and not j udge ,

harshly and hastily o f things the real meaning o f ,

which may have had t o be hidden under the fool s

cap and b ells .

We have n ot found such a book nor anything ap ,

p r o ac hi n g t o it But closely
. connected with t hat
circumstance is this other that we were fain to quot e ,

t he rst editions o f this Talmud though scores ,

have been printed since and about a dozen are in ,

th e press at this very moment E ven this rst .

edition was print ed in hot hast e and without due ,

care ; and every succeeding o n e with o ne o r two ,

insignicant except ions presents a sadder spectacle

, .

In the Basl e edition o f I 57 8 the third in point o f

t ime which has remained the standard edition
,

almost ever since that amazing creature the Cen ,

s or
,
stepped in I n hi s anxiety t o protect t he
.

Faith from all and every danger for the Talmud
was supposed t o hide bitt er things against Christian
ity under th e most innocent looking words and -

phrases this of cial did very wonderful things .

When he for example found some ancient Roman

, ,

in the book swearing by the Capitol or by J upiter

o f Rome his mind instantly misgave him Surely
,
.

this Roman must be a C hristian the Capitol the ,

Vatican Jupiter the Pope And forthwith he struck

, .

o ut Ro ni e and substituted any other place he could

think of A favorite spot seems t o have been

.

Persia sometimes it was Aram or Babel S o that

,
.

this worthy Roman may be found unto this day

swearing by the Capitol of Persia or by the Jupiter
IO T HE TA L M U D

of Aram and Babel But whenever the word .

Gentile occurred the C ensor was seized with th e ,

most frant ic terrors A Gentil e could not possi .

bly be aught but a C hristian ; wh ether h e lived in

I ndia o r in Athens in Rome o r in Canaan whether
,

h e was a good Gent ile and there are many such in
t he Talmud o r a wicked o n e I nstantly h e christ .

en ed h im and ch rist ened him as fancy moved ,

him an E gyptian an Aram aean an Amale
, , ,

kite an Arab a Negro ; sometimes a whol e
,

,

people .We are speaking strictly t o t he letter .

All t his is extant in our very last editions .

O nce o r twice attempt s were made t o clear th e

t ext from it s foul est blemishes Th ere was even .
,

about two years ago a beginning made of a eriti ,

cal edition such as not m erely Greek and Roman
, ,

San scrit and Persian classics but the veriest trash ,

writt en in thos e language s woul d have had ever

so long ago And there is M Renan s unfortunat e
. .

remark t o the contrary n o t wi t hs t an d i ng no lack l

o f Talmudical M S S however fragmentary they be .

,

for t he most part There are innumerable varia .

tions additions and corrections t o be gl eaned from

, ,

t he C odices at the Bodleian and the Vat ican in the ,

L ibraries of Odessa M unich a nd Florence H am , , ,

burg and H eidelberg Paris and Parma But an , .

evil eye s eems t o be upon this book This cor .

r e c t e d edition remains a t orso lik e the two rst ,

volumes of t ranslation s o f the Talmud commen ced ,

at di fferent periods the s econd volumes of which ,

1
O n sait q u il
ne reste aucun manuscrit d u T almud pour

c o ntrole r les ed i ti o ns imprim es L es A 1 mm .
, p . 262 .
 T HE TA LMU D II

never s aw the light It th erefore seemed advisable

.

t o refer t o the E ditio Prin ceps as th e on e that i s ,

at least free from th e blemishes censorial or typo ,

graphical of lat er ages , .

Well d oes th e Talmud supplement th e H oratian

H ab en t s ua fata libelli by the word s even th e ,

sacred s croll s in th e Tabernacle We really do .

not wonder that th e good Capucin of whom we

spoke mistook it for a man E ver since it exist ed .

almost before it exist ed in a palpabl e shape i t has

been treat ed m uch like a human being It has been .

proscribed and imprisoned an d burnt a hundred

, , ,

times over From Justinian who as early as 553

.
, ,

A D
. honored it by a special int erdictory Novella
.
,
1
,

down t o Clement VI I I and lat er a space of over .

a thousand years both t he secular and th e spiritual

powe rs kings and emperors popes and anti popes
, ,
-
,

vied with each other in hurling anathemas and bulls

and edict s o f whol esale conscation and c o n agra
t ion against this luckles s book Thus withi n a .
,

period of less than fty years and these forming

th e latt er half of the sixteenth cent ury i t was
publicly burnt no les s than six d i fferent t imes and ,

that not in singl e copies but wholesale by the , ,

wagon load J ulius I I I issued his proclamation

-
. .

against w hat h e.
grot esquely call s the
G e m ar o t h

T halm ud in I 553 and 1 555 Paul IV in 1 559 Pius
, ,
.
,

V in 1 566 Clement VI I I in 1 59 2 and 1 599 Th e

.
,
. .

fear of it was great indeed E ven Pius IV in giv . .

,
!

ing permission for a new edition stipulated expressly ,

Nov ella Hep i

Ep a z wv (addressed to the Prae fectus

l
I 46,

Prae t o ri o A r e ob i nd us ) .
I2 T HE TA LMUD

that it should appear without t he name Talmud .

Si t am e n p ro d i e r i t sine nomine T halm ud t o le rar i

d e be ret . It almost seems t o have be en a kind o f
S hibboleth by which every new pot entat e had t o
,

prove the rigor of his faith And very rigorous it .

must have been t o j udge by t he language which

,

even the highest dignitaries o f the C hurch did n ot

disdain t o use at t imes Thus H onorius IV writ es. .

t o th e Archbishop of C ant erbury in 1 2 86 anent that

damnable book (li ner d a m na bi lz s ) admonishing

'

him gravely and desiring him vehemently t o s e e
that it be not read by anybody since all other evils ,

o w o ut o f i t

.
Verily thes e docum ent s are s ad
reading only relieved occasionally by some wil d
,

blunder that light s up as with one flash th e abys s

o f ignoran ce regarding this obj ect o f wrath .

We remember but o n e sensibl e exception in this

Babel of manifestoes C lement V in I 3O7 before
. .
, ,

condemning the book wished to know something ,

o f it and there was n o one t o t ell him

,
Whereupon .

h e proposed but in language s o obscure that it left

th e door O pen for many int erpretat ions that three
chairs b e f o un d e d for H ebrew C haldee and Arabic
, , , ,

as th e three t ongues nearest t o the idiom of t he

Talmud The S pot s c ho s e n by him were th e U ni
.
'

ve rs i t i e s o f Paris Salamanca Bologna and Oxford

, , , .

In time he hoped one o f these U niversities might

, ,

be able t o produce a t ranslat ion of this mysterious

b ook . Need we say t hat this consummation never
came t o pass ? The more expeditious process of
destruction was resorted t o again and again and
again no t merely in the single cities o f Italy and
,
 T HE T A LMU D I3

France but throughout the ent ire H oly Roman

,

E m pire .

At length a change t ook plac e in Germany .

On e Pfefferkorn a miserable creature enough b e , ,

gan in t he tim e of th e E mperor M aximilian t o

, ,

agitat e for a n e w d ecree for th e ext ermination of

th e Talmud The E mperor lay with his host s b e
.

fore Pavia when the evil tongued messenger arrived

,
-

in the camp furnished with goodly lett ers by

,

Kunigunde the E mperor s beautiful sister M axi
, .

milian wearied and unsuspe ct ing renewed that

, ,

time honored decree for a con scat ion to be duly

-
,

followed by a c o n agrat i o n readily enough The ,

.

conscation was conscient iously carried out f or ,

Pfefferkorn kn ew well enough where his former

coreligionist s kept their books But a c o n agra .

t ion of a very different kind en sued Step by step .

,

hour by h our th e German Reformation was draw

,

ing nearer Reuchlin t h e most eminent H ellenist

.
,

and H ebraist of his tim e had been nominat ed t o ,

s i t o n th e C ommitt ee which was to lend it s l earned

authority to th e E mperor s decree But he did not

.

relish t his t ask H e did not l i ke the look of

.

Pfefferkorn h e says Besides which he was a
, .
,

learn ed and an honest man and having been the , ,

r e s t or e b f classical Greek in Germany h e did not

r ,

care t o participat e in th e wholesale murder o f a book

writt en by Christ s neare st relations Perhaps he

.

s aw the cunningly laid t rap H e had long been a -

.

thorn in th e esh o f many o f his cont emporaries .

H is H ebrew l abors had been l ooked upon wit h

bitter j ealousy if not fear Nothing l ess was con
, .
 14 TH E TA L M UD

t e m p lat e din those days th e theological Faculty

of M ayence de mand ed it openly than a t ota l

Revision and C orrect ion of t h e H ebrew Bibl e ,

inasmuch as it di ffered from th e Vulgat e .

Reuchlin o n his part never lost an opportun ity o f

, ,

proclaiming t he high importance o f the H ebrew

Truth as he emphatically called it H is enemies
, .

thought t hat o n e o f two t hings would follo w By .

O fcially pronouncing upon th e Talmud h e was ,

sure either t o commit hims elf dangerously an d

then a speedy end would be made o f him o r t o
s e t at naught t o a certain extent his o wn previous
, ,

j udgments in favor o f t hese st udies H e d eclined .

t he proposal sayin g honestly enough t hat h e kne w

, , ,

nothing o f the book and t hat he was n o t aware ,

o f th e exist ence O f many who knew anyth ing o f it .

L east o f all did its d etractors kno w it But h e .

,

continued even if it should contain attacks o n

,

Christianity would it n ot be preferable t o r eply t o

,

t hem ? Burn ing i s but a r uf anly argument

( B acck a mm A r
g um e m ) -
Whereupon a wild o ut
cry was raised against him as a J ew a J udaizer a , ,

bribed renegade an d s o o n Reu chlin nothing, .

,

daunted s e t t o work upon the book in his patient

,

hard working manner Next h e wrot e a brillian t

-
.

defence o f it When the E mperor asked his

.

O pinion h e repeat ed Clement s propo sal t o found
,

Talmudical chairs At each German university .

there should be two professors specially appointed ,

for t he sol e purpos e o f enabling s t udents t o become

acqua int ed wit h this book
As t o burning it .
,

he continues in th e famous M emorial addressed t o

,
 TH E TA L M U D 15

the E mperor if s ome fool came and said M ost
, ,

mighty E mperor ! your M aj esty should really s up

press and burn th e books o f al chymy [a ne c m
e m um ad fz om z m m
'

m ] becau e they contain

g u s

blasphe m ous wicked an d absurd things against

, ,

o ur fait h what should h is Imperial M aj esty reply

,

t o such a bu ffalo o r as s but t his : Thou art a ninny ,

rather t o be laughed at than followed ? No w b e

cause hi s feeble head cannot enter into the depths
o f a scien ce and cannot conceive it and does
, ,

understand things othe rwise than they really are ,

would you deem it t t o burn such books

F i e rc e r and e r ce r waxed th e howl and Re uc h ,

lin the peaceful st udent from a witn ess became a

, ,

delinquent What he su ffered for and through the

.

Talmud cannot be t old here Far and wide all .

,

over E urope the cont est raged A whole literature

, .

o f pamphlet s ying s heet s caricatures sprang up

, , , .

U niversity after U niversity was appealed t o against

him No less than forty seven sittings were held by
.
-

th e theological Faculty o f Paris which ended by ,

t heir formal condemnation of Reuchlin But he .

was n ot left t o ght al one Around him rallied o n e .

,

by o n e D uke U lrich o f Wii rt e m b e rg the E lector

, ,

Frederick o f Saxony U lrich vo n H utten Franz von

, ,

S ickingen he who nally made the C o lo gni an s

pay t he i r c os t s in the Reuchlin t rial E rasmus o f

Rotterd a m and that whol e brilliant phalanx of the

,

Knight s o f the H oly Ghost th e H osts o f Pallas ,

Athene the ,
as t he document s o f
the period variously styled them : they whom we
call th e H umanists .
16 TH E TA LMUD

And their palladium and their war cry was -

o h! wondrous ways o f H istory the Talmud ! To

stand up for Reuchlin m eant t o them t o stand up , ,

f o r the L aw t o ght for the Talm ud was t o g t

or w

e Ck m ck !
f Non t e writ es E gidio de Viterbo

,

t o Reuchl in s e d L egem
, 72072 Tka lm ud s e d ,
'

E ccle s z a m !
The rest of
th e story is writt en in the E p i s t o lm

Ob s c ur o r um V i ro r um and in the early pages o f
,

th e German Reformation Th e Talmud was n o t .

burnt this time O n th e contrary it s rst com

.
,

p le t e edit ion was print ed And in the same year .

o f Grace I 52 0 A D when this rst edition wen t

. .
,

through the pres s at Venice M artin L uther burnt ,

the Pope s bull at Witt enberg .

What is th e Talmud
Again th e question rises before us in its whole
formidable shape ; a quest ion which n o o n e has
yet answered sat isfact orily An d we labor in t his .

place under more t han o n e disadvantage F or .

,

quite apart from the di fculties of explaining a work

s o utt erly E astern antique and thoroughly s uz
, ,
'

e ne rz s t o o ur modern Western readers in the sp ace

g , ,

o f a few pages we labor under t h e further dis

,

ability of n ot being able t o refer t o the work itself .

Would it n o t indeed be mere affectation t o pre

suppose more than the vaguest acquaintance with
it s language o r eve n it s nam e in many o f o ur
readers ? An d whil e we would fain enlarge upon
such point s a s a comparison be t ween the law laid
down i n it with ours o r with the contemporary ,
18 TH E TA LM U D

similar kind a fact almost entirely overlooked t o thi s

day Being emphatically a C orpus J uris an e n c yc lo
.
,

ae d i a o f law civil and penal e ccl esiastical and i n

p , ,

t ern at i o n al human an d divine it may best be j u d ged

, ,

by anal ogy an d comparison wit h other l egal codes ,

more especially with th e J ust inian C ode and its

Commentaries What th e uninitiat ed have t aken
.

for except ional R a bbinical s ubtleties o r in , ,

matters rel at ing t o th e s exes for gros s o ffen ce s ,

against modern tast e will then caus e t h e Talmud,

t o stand rather favo rably than otherwise The .

Pandect s and t h e Instit ut e s the Novell ae and the ,

Responsa Pr ud e nt i um should thus be con stantly

consulted and co m pared NO less should o ur .

E ngl ish law as laid down in Blackst one wherein

, ,

we may s e e h ow th e most varied views o f right and

wrong have been n ally bl ended and harmonized
with th e S pirit o f o ur t imes But th e Talmud is .

more t han a book o f laws It i s a microcosm .

,

embracing even as doe s t he Bibl e heaven and

, ,

earth It i s as if all th e prose and th e po etry the

.
,

science th e faith and speculation o f th e Ol d World

,

were though only i n faint re flections boun d up in

, ,

it i n ll C omprising th e t im e from t h e rise

.

t o th e fall o f ant iquity and a good deal o f it s after

,

glow the h ist ory an d culture o f ant iquity have t o

,

be considered in t heir various stages But above .

,

all it i s n ecessary t o t ransport ourselves following

, ,

Goethe s advice t o it s birthplace Pal estin e and

Babylon th e gorgeous E ast it self where all things ,

glow in brighter colors and grow into more fantas ,

tic shapes
 T HE TA L M U D 19

Willst den D ichter d u verstehen ,

M usst i n D ichter s L ande gehen

.

The origin of th e Talmud is coeval with the r e

t urn from t he Babylonish captivity One o f the .

most myst eriou s and momentous periods in t he

history o f humanity is that brief S pace o f the
E xile What were t he inuences brought t o bear
.

upon t h e captives durin g t hat time we know n o t , .

But this we kn ow t hat from a reckl es s lawless

, , ,

godless populace t hey returned t ransformed int o

,

a band O f Puritan s The religion o f Z e r d us ht

.
,

though it has lef t it s t races in J udaism fail s t o a c ,

count for t hat change Nor does th e E xil e itself

.

account for it M any and int ense as are th e remi

.

n i s c e n c e s o f it s bitt erness and o f yearning f o r ,

home t hat have survived in prayer and in song

, ,

yet we know t hat when the hour o f liberty struck ,

th e force d colonist s were loth t o return t o the land

O f t heir fathers Yet the change is t here palpable
.
, ,

unmistakable a change which we may regard as

almost m iraculous S carcely aware before o f t he
.

existenc e O f their glorious national literature th e ,

peopl e now began t o press round these brands

plucked from th e re the scanty records o f their
faith and hist ory with a erce and passionat e
love a love stronger even than that of wife and
,

child These same document s as th ey were grad

.
,
'

n ally for med int o a canon became the immutable ,

centre o f t heir lives th eir actions t heir thoughts

, , ,

their very dreams From that time forth with

.
,

scarcely any int ermission th e keenest as well as ,

th e most poetical minds of the n ation remained

20 THE TA LMU D
L .o

xed upon them Turn it and t urn it again
.
,

says the Talmud wit h regard t o th e Bible for ,

,

everything i s in it S ea rch t h e S cript ures
. is ,

th e d istinct utterance of t h e N ew Testament .

Th e nat ural consequence ensued Gradu ally .

,

imperceptibly almost from a mere expounding and ,

investigation for purpose s Of e d i c at i o n or i n s t r uc

tion o n some special point t his activity begot a ,

science a s cience that assumed the very widest

,

dimen sions It s t echnical name is already con

.

t ai n e d in th e Book of Chronicles It i s M idrash .

(from d a m s /2 t o study expound )

'

,
a t erm which the ,
1
Authorized Version renders by Story .

There i s scarcely a m ore fruitful source o f m i s

conceptions upon this subj ect than the liquid
nature s o t o speak o f i t s t echnical t erms They
, ,
.

mean anything and everything at once most general ,

and most S pecial Nearly all of them s ignify in

.

th e rst instance S imply st udy N ext they are .

used for some o n e very special branch of this

study Then they indicat e at t ime s a peculiar

.
,

method at others th e works which have grown o ut

,

o f thes e either general o r S pecial m ental labors .

Thus M idrash from th e abstract expounding ,

ca m
,

e t o be applied rst t o t he exposit ion it self ,

even as our t erms work investigation enquiry

, , ,

imply both process and product ; and nally as a ,

special branch o f exposition th e l egendary was

more popular than the rest t o t his o n e branch only ,

and t o the books that chi ey represent ed it .

1
S ee 2 C hron . xiii . 2 2, xxiv . 27 .
 T HE TA LMU D 21

F or t here had sprung up almost innumerable

modes o f searching th e S criptures I n the .

quaintly ingenious manner o f the times four of ,

t he chief methods were found in the Persian word

Paradise spelt in vowelless S emitic fashion F R B S

, , .

E ach o n e o f these myst erious letters was taken ,

mnemonically as the initial o f som e t echnical

,

word that indicated o n e of th ese four methods .

The o n e called P [p as / ml] aimed at th e simple

underst anding o f words and things in accordance ,

with the primary exegetical law o f th e Talmud ,

that n o verse of t he Scripture ever practically

t ravelled beyond it s literal meaning though it -

might be explained homiletically and otherwise

, ,

in innum erable n ew ways The second R [re m es ] .

, ,

mean s H int a the discovery of the indicat ions

, ,

contained in certain s eemingly superuous lett ers

and S igns in S cripture These were taken t o refer
.

t o laws not distinctly ment ioned but eith er ex isting ,

t radit ionally or newly p romulgated This method .

,

when more generally appl ied begot a kind o f ,

m e m o r i al techn i cal a st enography akin t o the NO

,

t ar i k o n o f the Romans Point s and not es were
.

added t o the margins of scriptural M S S and the .

,

foundation o f the M assorah or diplomatic preser ,

vation o f the t ext was thus laid The third D

, .
,

homiletic application of t hat which

had been t o that which was and would be o f p ro ,

p h e t i c al and hist orical dicta t o the actual condition

o f things . It was a peculiar kind o f serm on with ,

all the aids o f dialectics and poetry o f parable , ,

gnome proverb legen d and the rest exactly as we

, , , ,
22 T HE TA L M U D

nd it in the New Te stament The fourth S .

, ,

st ood for s oa se cret myst ery This was t he Secret

, , .

Scien ce into which but few were initiat ed It was

, .

the osophy metaphysi cs angelology a host of wild

, , ,

and gl owing visions o f t hings beyond earth Faint .

echoe s o f t hi s scienc e survive i n Neoplat onism in ,

Gnosticism in the Kabbalah in H ermes Trisme

, ,

g i s t u s
. But few were init iat ed int o t h ese things

of The C reation and o f Th e C hariot as it ,

was also call ed in allusion t o E zekiel s vision Yet
, .

here again t he power o f th e vague and my st erious

was s o st rong that the word Paradise gradually
,

indicat ed thi s last branch t he s ecret scien ce only , .

L ater in Gn osticism it cam e t o m ean th e Spirit

, ,

ual Chri st .

There is a weird st ory in the Talmud which has ,

given rise t o th e wildest explanations but which ,

will become intelligibl e by th e foregoing lines .

Four men it says ent ered P a ra d i s e On e b e
, , .

held and died One beh eld and lost his senses
. .

One dest royed the young plant s One only e n .

t r e d in peac e an d cam e out in peace

e

The names .

o f all four are given They are all exalted mast ers
.

o f th e l aw . Th e last but o n e h e who destroyed ,

t h e young plant s i s E lisha ben A b uy ah the Faust

, ,

O f th e Talmud who whil e sitting in th e academy

, , ,

at the feet o f h is t each ers t o st udy the law kept , ,

th e profane books

of Ho m e r o s

t o wit hid ,

den i n hi s garment and from whos e m outh Greek ,

song n ever ceased t o ow H ow h e n o t wi t h .
,

standing his early scepticism rap i dly ri ses t o emi ,

n e nc e in t ha t same law nally falls away and b e ,

 TH E TA LMU D 23

comes a t raitor and a n outcast and h is very name ,

a thing of unutterable horror how o n e day ( it was ,

the great day o f atonement) he passe s the ruin s of

t h e t e m ple and hears a voice within murmuring
,

like a dove all m en shall be forgiven this day
save E lisha ben A b uyah who knowing me has b e , , ,

t ray e d m e

how aft er his deat h the ames will
,

n o t ceas e t o hover over hi s grave unt il his one ,

faithful disciple t he L ight o f the L aw M e i r
'

, , ,

throws himself over it swearing a holy oath that

,

he will not partake of the oys o f the world t o come

without his beloved mast er and that he will not ,

move from that spot until his mast er s soul shall
have found grace and salvation before the Throne
o f
M ercy all t his and a nu m ber of other incident s
form o n e of t he most stirring poet ical picture s of
th e whole Talmud The last of the four is Akiba
.
,

the most exalt ed most romantic and most heroic

, ,

charact er perhaps in that vast gall ery o f the learned

o f his time ; he who in t he last revolt under Traj an
,

and Hadrian expiated his patriot ic rashness at the

,

hands Of the Roman execution ers and the legen d ,

adds whose soul ed j ust when in his last agony , ,

his mouth cried o ut t he last word of th e confession

o f God s uni t y : H ear O I srael the L ord our

, ,

God is

Th e T almud i s the st orehouse o f M idrash in ,

it s wide st s ense and in all it s branches What we

,
.

said of the uct uation o f t erm s applie s emphat ic

ally also t o thi s word Talmud I t means in the .

rst instance nothing but study learning , ,

from la m a a t o learn ; n ext indicating a special

,
24 TH E TA L M U D

m et hod of learning o r rath er arguing it nally

,

became the name of the great Corpus J uris o f

J udaism .

When we S peak of the Talmud as a l egal code ,

we t rust we shall n o t b e underst ood t o o l iterally .

It resembles about as much what we generally

understand by that name as a primeval forest re
sembles a D ut ch garden .

Nothing in deed can equal t he state o f utter

amazement int o which th e modern investigator
nds himself plunged at t he rst sight o f t hese
luxuriant Talmudical wildernesses Schooled in .

th e harmonizing methodizing system s o f th e West

,

syst em s that co n den s e and arrange and classify

, , ,

and give everything it s tting place and it s tting

position in t hat place he feel s almost s t up e e d
here Th e language t he style t he method the
.
, , ,

very sequence o f things ( a s equence t hat O ft en

appears as logical as o ur dreams ) t he amazingly ,

varied nature o f th es e t hings everything s eems

tangled confuse d chaotic It is only after a t ime
, , .

that t he student learns t o distinguish between two

mighty current s in t h e bookcurrents that at
t imes ow parallel at t ime s seem t o w o rk upon
,

each other and t o impede each other s action the
,

o n e emanat ing from t he brain th e oth er from the,

heart the o e prose the other poetry the o n e
n ,

carrying with it all t hos e m ental faculties that
manifest themselves in arguing investigating , ,

comparing developing bringing a thousand points

, ,

t o bear upo n o n e and o ne upon a thousand ; the

other s pringing from the realms o f fan cy o f i m ag ,
26 TH E TA L M U D

ele m ent s th e legal and t he legendary i s divide d

, ,

int o M I S H N A H and GE M A RA : two t erms agai n o f

uncertain shifting meaning, O riginally i nd i cat .

ing like th e t echnical words m ent ioned already

, ,

study they both becam e t erms for special
,

studies and indicated special works Th e M ish

, .

nah from s ka na k ( Za a a ) t o l earn t o repeat has

, , , ,

been o f o ld t ra n slat ed d ur ep wa z g second law But e

, .

this d e rivation corre ct as it s eem s l it erally is i n

, ,

correct i n t he rst instan ce I t S imply mean s .

L earning like Gemara which besides indicat es
, , , ,

complement t o the M ishnah it self a comple

m ent t o t h e M osaic code b ut in such a manner ,

that i n developing and enlarging it supersedes it , .

The M ishnah o n it s o wn part again forms a kind

, ,

o f t ext t o which th e Gemara is not s o much a

scholion as a critical expans ion Th e Pentat euch .

remains in all cas es the background and lat ent

source o f t he M ishnah But it i s t he business o f .

the Gemara t o examine int o t he legitimacy and

correctness o f this M ish nic development in S ingl e
instances Th e Pentat euch rem ained under all
.

circumstances th e immutable divinely given con ,

s t i t ut i o n t h e wr z z z e a law : in cont radistinction t o

it t h e M ishnah t ogether with t h e Gemara was

, , ,

called the oral o r unwritten law not unlike
, ,

t he unwritt en Greek P p th e Roman L ex Non

r ac
,

S cripta th e Sunnah o r o ur o wn common law
, ,
.

There are few chapt ers in th e whole H istory o f

J urisprudence more obscure than the origin devel ,


Op m e n t and compl etion o f this Oral L aw
,
.

Ther e must have exist ed from the very beginning

 TH E TA LMU D 27

of th e M osaic law a number o f corollary la ws ,

which expl ained in d etail most Of th e rule s broadly

laid d own in it Apart from these it was but
.
,

nat ural that th e enactment s of that primitive

Council o f th e D esert th e E lders and their s uc
, ,

c es s o r s in each period t ogeth er wit h t he verdict s

,

issued by th e later j udge s within t h e gates t o ,

whom th e Penta t euch distinct ly refers S hould have ,

become precede nt s and been handed down as

,

such . Apocryphal writings notably th e fourt h

book o f E zra not t o mention Phil o and t he
Church Fathers speak of fabul ou s numbers of
,

books t hat had been given t o M ose s t ogether with

th e Pentateuch : th u s indicating th e common b e
lief i n t he divine origin O f th e supplementary laws
that had exist ed am ong t h e people from t im e i m
memorial J ewish t radition t race s t he bulk o f the
.

oral inj unctions through a chain o f distinctly named

,
-

auth orit ie s t o Sinai it self It mentions in de
, .

tail h ow M ose s communicat ed thos e minuti ae o f hi s

l egi slation in which h e had b een inst ruct ed during
,

th e myst eriou s forty day s and night s o n th e M ou n t ,

t o t he chosen guide s o f th e people in such a man ,

ne r that they S h ould for ever remain engraven o n

th e tablet s o f their hearts .

A long space int ervene s between the M osaic

period an d that O f th e M i shnah The ever grow .

ing want s of th e ever disturbed commonwealt h n e

c e s s i t at e d new laws and regulation s at eve ry t urn .

A di fculty however arose unknown to o ther

, , ,

legislation s In despotic stat es a decree i s issued

.
,

promulgating the new law In constit ut ional

.
28 TH E TA LMUD

states a Bill is brought in The supreme auth ority .

,

if it nds it m eet and right t o make t his n e w law ,

m akes it . Th e cas e was di fferent in t he J ewish

commonwealth of the post exilian t imes Among -
.

the things t hat were irredeemably l ost with th e rst

t emple were th e U rim and Thummim of the high
priest th e oracle With M alach i t he last prophet
.

had died Both for the promulgation of a n ew law

.

and the abrogation o f an o ld on e a higher sanct ion ,

was requisit e t han a mere maj ority o f the legisla

tive council Th e n ew act must be proved directly
.
,

o r indirectly from the , Word of God proved t o

have been promulgat ed by t he Suprem e King
hidden and bound up as it were in it s very lett ers
, ,

from the beginning This was not easy i n all .

cases ; e specially wh en a certain number o f her

m e n e ut i c al rules not unlik e thos e used i n t he
,

Roman schools ( inferences conclusion s fro m the ,

minor t o the maj or and v i ce ve rs a analogies o f ,

ideas o r obj ect s general an d special stat ement s

, ,

had come t o be laid down .

Apart from t he n ew laws requisite at sudden

emergencies there were many of those O ld t radi
,

t i o n al ones for which the p ai n t d app a i had t o be

found when as established l egal matt ers t h ey came

, , ,

before t he critical eye o f t he s chool s And t hese .

sch ool s t hemselves i n their ever restles s activity

, ,

evolved n e w laws according t o their l ogical rules

, ,

even whe n t hey were not practically wanted nor

likely ever t o come into practical use simply as a
matter o f S cience H enc e there is a doubl e actio n
.

percept ible in this l egal development E ither the .

 TH E TA LMUD 29

scriptural verse form s th e t erminus a q uo or t he ,

ter m inus a d ga em It i s either the starting point

.
-

for a discussion which ends in th e production of

some new enactment ; or s ome new enactment o r ,

o n e never before investigat ed is traced back t o the ,

divine source by an outward hint howe ver i n s i g ,

n i c ant .

This process of evolving new precept s from O ld

ones by signs
a word curiously enough used
,

also by Blackst one in his development o f the

law may in some instances have been applied with
t o o much freedom Yet while th e Talmudical
.
,

Code practically differs from t he M osaic as much

as o ur D igest will som e day differ from the laws of
the t im e o f Can ute and as the J ustinian Code di ffers
,

from the Twelve Tables it cannot be denied that ,

these fundamental laws have in all cases been con

s ult e d carefully and impartially as t o their S pirit
, ,

their letter being oft en but t he vessel or outer

symbol The often uncompromising severity o f the
.

Pen tat euch espe cially in t he province of the penal

,

law had certainly become much softened down

,

under t he milder inuences o f th e culture of lat er

days S everal o f it s inj unctions which had become
.
,

impracticable were circumscribed o r almost con

, ,

s t i t ut i o n all abrogated by t he introduction o f ex

y ,

c e p t i o n al formalities Som e o f i t s branch es also

.

had developed in a direction other than what at rst

sight seem s t o have been anticipated But the .

power vested in th e j udge of t hose days was i n
general most sparingly and conscientiously applied .

This whole process of the development o f the

30 TH E TA L MUD

L aw was in the hands o f t he Scribe s who , ,

according t o the Ne w Testam ent s i t i n t he seat ,

of M os es .We S hall S peak presently o f th e

Pharisees with whom t h e word is often coupled .

H ere m eantime we must once mo re distinguish

, ,

between th e different meanings of the word S crib e
at di fferen t periods For t here are thre e stage s in
.

the oral compilation o f t he Talmudical Code each ,

o f which is named after a special clas s o f doctors .

f
The t ask o f th e rst clas s o these masters the

S cribe s by way o f eminence whose t ime ranges ,

from t he ret urn fro m Babylon down t o the Greco

Syrian persecut ion s 2 20 B C ) was above all t o . .

preserve th e sacred Text as it had survived after ,

many mishaps Th ey enumerated not merely
.

th e precept s but the words t h e lett ers t h e signs

, , ,

o f the S cripture thereby guarding it from all fut ure

,

interpolation s and corrupt ions Th ey had further .

t o explain these precept s in accordance wit h th e ,

collateral t radit ion o f which th ey were th e guard

ians They had t o instruct t he peopl e t o preach
.
,

i n th e synagogues t o t each in t h e schools They

, .

f urther o n t heir o wn authority ere ct ed certain

, ,

Fe n ces ,
e such n ew inj unction s as they deemed
.
,

n ecessary m erely fo r t he bett er k e eping o f th e o ld

pre cept s The whol e work o f these m en

. M en o f
th e Great Synagogue is well summed up in t heir
adage H ave a care in l egal decision s send forth ,

many disciples and mak e a fence around the law
, .

M ore pregnant still is the mott o o f their last re p re

s e n t at i v e th e only o n e whose name besides thos e ,

of E zra and Nehemiah the supposed founders o f ,

 T HE T A L MU D 3I

t his body has survived Simon th e J ust

, On :

three things stands the world : on law on worship

, ,

and on charity .

f z vj v C ome the

After the S cribes z ar

o
'

L earners or Repeat ers al so called Ban ai m
, , ,

M aster builders - from 2 2 0 B C t o 2 20 A D In . . . .

this period falls the M accabean Revolution the ,

birth of Christ th e destruction of t he t emple by

,

Titus the revolt o f Bar Co chb a under H adrian th e

,
-
,

nal dest ruction o f J erusalem and t he t otal e xp a ,

t ri at i o n o f th e J ews D uring this time Palestine

.

was ruled success ively by Persians E gyptians , ,

Syrians and Romans But the l egal labors that

, .

belong t o this period were never s eriously inter

r up t e d . H owever dread th e events the s chools ,

continued their studies The masters were mar .

tyred t ime after t ime th e academies were razed t o ,

the ground the practical and the theoretical occupa

,

t ion with t he law was proscribed on pain of death

yet in no instance is t he chain o f th e living t ra
dit ion broken Wit h their last breath t h e dying
.

masters appointed and ordained their succes sors ;

fo r o n e academy t hat was reduced t o a h eap of
ashes in Palestine three sprang up in Babylonia
, ,

and the L aw owed on and was perpetuat ed in the ,

face o f a t housand deaths .

The chief bearers and representat i ves of t hese

divin e legal studies were th e President ( called N as i ,

Prince) and th e Vice President ( A b Beth Di n _

,
- - -

Father of the H ouse of J udgment ) of th e h ighest

legal assembly the Synedrion aram ai z e d int o S a a
, ,

ke d r z a There were three Sanhedrins : o n e Great
'

.
3 2 TH E TA LMUD
H
Sanh edrin two lesser ones Whenever the
, .

New Te stament m ent ions the Priest s the E lders , ,

and th e S cribes t ogether it means t h e Great ,

Sanhed rin This constit uted th e hi ghest e c c le s i

.

as t i c al and civil t ribu n al It con s ist ed o f seventy

.

o n e members ch osen from t he foremost priest s

, ,

t h e heads o f t ribes and families and from t h e ,

L earned , e t he Scribes o r L awyers It
.
, .

was no easy task t o be elect ed a member o f this

S upreme C ouncil Th e candidat e had to be a s u
.

perior man both mentally and bodi ly H e was

, .

not t o be either t oo young o r t oo o ld Above all .

,

h e was t o be an adept bot h in th e L aw and i n
S cience .

When people read of law masters o r doc ,

t ors o f th e law t hey do n ot i t seems t o us al ways
, , ,

fully realize what that word l aw m ean s i n Old
o r rather Ne w Test a m ent language It s hould be .

remembered that as we have already indicated it

, ,

stands for all and every knowledge S ince all and ,

every knowledge was requisit e for th e understand

ing o f it Th e M osaic code has inj unctions about
.

the sabbatical j ourney ; t h e distance had t o be

measured and calculat ed and math emat ics were ,

called int o play S eeds plants and animal s had t o

.
, ,

be studied i n connect ion wit h t h e many precepts

regarding them and natural hist ory had t o be ap
,

pealed t o Then t here were th e purely hygienic

.

paragraphs which necess itat e d for their precision

,

a knowledge o f all t he medical science of t h e tim e .

The seasons and t he feast days were regulat ed -

by the phases o f the moon ; and ast ronomyi f

34 TH E TA LMUD

not only was s cience in it s widest sense required , ,

in him but even an acquaintance with it s fantastic

,

S hadows suc h as astrology magic an d th e rest in

, , , ,

order t hat h e as b oth lawgiver and j udge S houl d

, ,

be abl e t o enter al so int o the popular feeling about

the s e widespread Art s Proselyt es eunuchs .
, ,

freedmen were rigidly excluded from t he Assem

,

bly S O were th ose who could not prove them

.

selve s the l egitimat e offspring o f priest s L evites , ,

or I sraelit es And s o further were gamblers

.
, , ,

betting men money lenders and deal ers in illegal

-
,
-
,

produce To th e provision abou t t he age viz that

. .
, .
,

th e senator S hould b e neith er t oo far advanced in

age lest his j udgment might be enfeebled nor ,

t o o young lest it might be immature a nd hasty
and t o the proofs required o f his vast th eoretical
and practical k nowledge fo r he was only by slow
degree s promot ed from an obscure j udgeship i n his
nat ive hamlet t o th e senat orial dignity there came
t o be added al so that wonderfully n e rul e t hat he ,

must be a married man and have children o f his

o wn D eep miseries o f fami lies would be laid bare
.

before him and he s hould bring with him a heart

,

full o f sympathy .

Of the practical administ ration o f j usti ce by the

Sanhedrin we have yet t o speak when we com e t o
the Corpus J uris it self It n o w behooves us t o .

pause a moment at t hose sch ool s an d academies
o f which we have repeat edly made m ention and o f ,

which the Sanh edrin formed as it were the crown , ,

and the highest co n summation .

E ighty years before C hrist schools ourished ,

 T HE TA LM U D 35

throughout th e length and th e breadth o f the land ;

-
education had been made compuls ory While .

there i s not a S ingle t erm for school t o be found
before the Captivity there were by that t ime about ,

a dozen i n common usage H ere are a few o f th e .

1

innumerabl e popular sayings O f t he period bet o ,

kening t he paramount importance which public i n

struction had assumed in th e l ife o f th e nat ion :

J erusalem was destroyed becaus e t he instruction

o f the young was neglect ed The world i s only .

saved by the breath of t he school children E ven -
.

for the rebuilding of the Temple th e schools must

not be interrupted Study is more meritorious
.

than sacrice A scholar is great er than a pro
.

phet . You should revere the t eacher even more
than your fat her The latt er only brou ght you.

into this world t he former indicat es the way int o

,

the next But blessed is th e s o n who has learn t

.
,

from his father ; h e S hall revere him bot h as his

father and his master ; and blessed is the father

who has inst ruct ed his so n .

1
S ome of these terms are G reek like fi l o /le g
Z some , ,

belonging to th e p ellucid idiom of th e people the A ramaic , ,

poetically indicated at times the spec ial arrangement Of th e

small and big scholars e
A rray V ineyard ( w h ere
, .
,

they sat in rows as stands the b looming vine ) while ot h ers

are of so u n certai n a derivation that the y ma y b elong to ,

either language T he technical term for t h e h ighest school

.
,

for instance has long formed a crux for etymologists I t is

,
.

Ka li a a T his may b e either th e H e b rew word for Bride

.

,

a well known allegorical expression for science assiduously

-

,

to b e courted not lightly to b e won and easil y estranged ;

, ,

or it may b e the S lightly mutilated Greek 07 0 177 or it may lit '

e rally be our O wn word Un i v e r s i ty from K01 all uni vers us : , , ,

an all embracing institution of all branches Of learning

-
.
36 TH E TA LM U D

The H igh C olleges o r Kallahs only met 1

during some mont h s in t he year Thre e weeks .

before the t erm the D ean prepared the st udent s

for t he lectures t o be delivered by t h e Rector and ,

s o arduous became t he task as th e number o f the ,

disciples increased that in t ime no les s than s even

,

Deans had t o b e appointed Yet th e mod e o f

.

t eaching was not that o f o ur m odern universities .

The professors did not deliver lectures which the ,

disciples like the Student in Faust coul d com
, ,

f o rt ab ly take ho me in black and whit e H ere all .

was life movement debat e ; ques t ion was met by

, ,

counter question an swers were given wrapped up

-
,

in all egorie s o r parables the in quirer was led t o

,

deduce the questionable point for h ims elf by

analogy th e nearest approach t o th e S ocratic
m ethod The New Testament furnish es many
.

specimens o f this contemporary method of i n s t ruc

t ion .

The highest rank in the estimat ion of the people

was no t reserved for th e Priest s about whose ,

real position so m e ext raordinary notion s seem st ill

a o at nor for th e Nobles but for t hese M as

ters o f the L aw th e Wise th e D isciples of t he
, ,

Wise . There is something almost German i n th e
profound reverence uniformly S hown t o these rep
r e s e nt at i v e s o f s cience and learning however poor ,

and insignican t i n person an d rank M any O f t he .

most eminent D octors were but humb le trades
men . They were t ent makers s an d alm ak e r s
, ,

weavers carpent ers tanners bakers cooks A

, , , , .

1
S ee preceding note .
 TH E TA LM U D 37

n ewly elected President was found by hi s prede

-

cessor who had been ignominiously depos ed for his

,

overbearing manner all grimy in th e midst o f his ,

charcoal mounds Of all things th e most hated .

were idlenes s and as ceticism ; piety and learning

themselves only received t heir proper estimation
when j oined t o healthy bodily work It i s well .

t o add a trade t o your studies you will then be free

from S i n The t radesman at his work need n ot
.

rise before t h e great est Doctor Great er is he .

who derives his livelihood from work than he who

fears G o d are some o f the most common d icta

o f th e period .

Th e exalt ed place thus given t o Work as o n the ,

o n e hand it prevent ed an abj ect worship o f L earn

ing so o n t he other it kept all asceti c eccentrici

,

ties from the body o f the people And there was .

always some danger of them at hand When t he .

Templ e lay in ashes men would no l onger eat meat ,

o r drink wine A S age remonstrat ed with them

.
,

but they replied weeping : Once the esh o f s ac

,

r i c e s was burnt upon the Altar o f God The altar .

is thrown down Once libations of wine were

.

poured o ut They are no more. But you eat .

bread ; t lpe re were bread o fferings You are -
.

right M aster we shal l eat fruit only
, ,
But the .

r s t fruit s were offered up
-
We S hall refrain .

from them
But you drink wat er and there
.
,

were libat ion s of wat er And they knew not .

what t o reply Then he comforted them by th e

.

assurance that H e who had destroyed J erusalem

had promised t o rebuild it and that proper mourn ,
38 T HE TA L M U D

ing was right and meet but that it must no t be o f

,

a nature t o weaken t he body f or work .

Another most striking st ory is that o f th e Sage

who walk i ng in a market place crowded with p e o
,
-

ple suddenly encount ered t he proph et E lij ah and

, ,

asked him who o ut o f t hat vast multitude would

, ,

be saved Whereu pon th e prophet rst point ed

.

o ut a weird looking creature a t urnkey
-
because , ,

h e was merciful t o hi s prisoners ; and next two
common l ooking t rad esm e n who came walking
-
,

through th e crowd pleasantly chatt ing Th e Sage

, .

instantly rushed t owards th em and asked them what ,

were their s aving works But they muc h puzzl ed .

, ,

replied : We are but poo r workmen who l i ve by
o ur t rade All t hat can be said fo r us i s that we
.

are al ways o f good cheer and are good natured ,

-
.

When we meet anybody wh o seem s sad we j oin

h im and we talk t o him and ch eer him S O long
, , ,

that h e must forget hi s grief A nd if we kno w O f .

two peopl e who have quarrelled we t alk t o them ,

an d persuade th em unt il we have made t h em

,

friends again This i s o ur whole l ife
. .

Before leaving t his period o f M ishnic develop

ment we have yet t o speak of o n e o r two things
,
.

This period i s th e o n e in which C hristianity arose ;

an d it may be as well t o t ouch h ere upon th e rela

t ion between C hristian ity and the Tal mud a s ub

o f lat e
j e c t much di s cuss ed Were not t h e whol e .

o f o ur general views o n th e di fference betwe en

J udaism and Christianity greatly confused peopl e ,

would certainly not be s o very much surprised at

the striking parallel s o f dogm a and parable o f alle ,
 TH E TA L M U D 3g

gory and proverb exhibited by the Gospel and th e ,

Talmudical writings The New Testament writ .

,

t en as L ightfoot has it among J ews by J ews for
, , , ,

J ews cannot but speak the language o f t he t ime
, ,

both as t o form and broadly speaking as t o c on , ,

t ents Th ere are many more vital point s o f contact

.

between th e New Testament and th e Talmud than

divines yet s eem fully t o realize ; for s uch t erm s as

Redemption Bapti s m Grace
, Faith , , ,

Salvation Regeneration
, S on o f M an , ,

S o n O f God Kingdom o f H eaven were not
, , ,

as we are apt t o think invent ed by C hristianity , ,

but were household words of Talmudical J udaism .

No less loud and bitt er in the Talmud ar e t h e p ro

t est against lip s erving against making the law
-
,

a burden t o th e peopl e against laws t hat hang ,

o n hairs again st Priest s and Phar i sees
,
The .

fundamental mysteries o f th e new Faith are mat

t ers t otally apart ; but the E thics in both are i n ,

t heir broad outlines ident ical That grand dictum , .

,

DO unt o oth ers as thou wouldst b e done by ,

against which Kant declared himself energetically

from a p hi lO S Op hi c al point o f vie w is quot e d by ,

H illel t he President at whose death J esus was t en

, ,

years o f age not as anything n e w but as an o ld

, ,

and well k no wn dictum that comprised t he whole
-

L aw . The most monstrous mistake has ever been
o ur m ixing up in th e rst instance s ingl e i ndi
, ,
.

vi d uals o r classes with a whol e peopl e and next

, , ,

o ur confounding t he J udaism o f th e t ime o f C hrist

with that o f t he t ime o f t he Wilderness o f t he ,

J udges o r even o f Abraha m

, I saac and J acob , , .
4 o T H E TA L M U D

The J udaism of the t i me o f Christ (t o which that

'

o f o ur days owing prin cipally t o the Talmud stands

, ,

very n ear) and t hat o f t he Pentat euch are as like

, ,

each other as o ur E ngland is lik e t hat o f William

Rufus o r the Greece o f Plat o that of t he Argon
,

aut s . I t i s th e glory o f Christ ianity t o have car

ried those golden germ s hidden in t he school s and,

amo n g t he S ilent community o f t he l earned into ,

t he market o f H umanity It has communicat ed.

t hat Kingdom o f H eaven o f which t he Talmud ,

i s full from t h e rst page t o the last t o t h e herd , ,

even t o t h e lepers Th e fruit s that have sprung

.

from this through the wid e worl d we need not h ere

consider But th e m isconception as if t o a God o f
.
,

Vengeance had suddenly succeeded a God of L ove ,

cannot be t o o O ften protest ed against Thou shalt .

love t hy neighbor as t hyself i s a pre cept o f th e
Old Testament as Chri st him self taught hi s disci
,

ples Th e L aw as we have seen an d shall fur
.
,

t her see was developed t o a marvell ously and per

,

haps O ppressively m inut e pit ch but only as a

regulat or o f outward act io n s The faith o f the .

heart the d ogma prominently dwelt upon by

Paul was a t hing that st ood much higher with the
Pharisees than t hi s outward law I t was a thing .
,

they said not t o be com m anded by any ordinance :

,

yet was great er than all E verything i s one o f
.
,

t heir adages i s in th e hands of H eaven save the
, ,

fear o f H eaven .

S ix h undred and thirteen injuncti onssays th e T almud ,

9
,

was M oses instructed to give to the people D avid reduced .

them all to elev en in th e fteenth Psalm

,
L ord who shall ,
42 TH E T A L M UD

lut e ly no question o n this point t hat t here were ,

among t h e genuine Pharisees t he most patriot ic ,

th e m ost noble minded the m ost advanced l eaders

-
,

o f th e Party o f Progress Th e development o f the .

L aw itself was nothing in t he ir hands but a means

t o keep th e Spirit as O pposed t o t he Word the

outward frame i n full life and am e and t o vindi ,

cat e f o r each t im e it s o wn right t o int erpret t h e

t emporal ordinances according t o it s o wn n e c e s s i
t ies and requirement s But t hat t here were very .

many black sh eep in t heir c k many who t raded
o

o n th e high reputation o f t he whol e body is mat

t er o f reit erat ed d enu nciat ion in th e whol e con

t emporary l it erature Th e Talmud inveigh s even.

more bitt erly and caust ically than th e New Testa

ment against what it call s the Plague o f Phari s a

ism , the dyed ones who do evil deeds like ,

Zimri and require a goodly reward like Phinehas
, ,

they who preach beaut ifully but do n ot act beau ,

t ifully Parodying t h eir exaggerat ed logical ar
.

ra n gement s th eir scrupulous division s and s ub

,

di visions the Talmud distinguishe s s even classes

,

o f Pharisee s o n e o f who m only is worthy o f tha t

,

name Th ese are 1 those who do t he will o f God

.
,

from earthly motives ; 2 they who make small ,

steps o r s ay j ust wait a whil e for me ; I have ust

, ,

o n e more good work t o p erform 3 they who kn ock ,

t heir heads against wall s in avoiding t he s ight o f a

woman ; 4 saint s in o fce ; 5 t hey who implore
, ,

y ou t o ment ion some more duties whic h they

might perform ; 6 they wh o are pious because,

they f ea r G o d The real and only Pharise e is he

.
 T HE TA L M UD

who does the will of his father which is in H eave n

eea z z s e ke love: H i m Among thos e chiey

Pharisaic mast ers o f the M ishnic period whose ,

names and fragment s o f who se live s have come

down t o us are som e o f th e most illustrious men
, ,

men at whos e feet th e rst Christian s s at whose ,

sayings household words in th e mouths o f the
people prove them t o have been endowed with
n o common wisdom piety kindness and high and , , ,

n obl e courage : a courage and a piety they had

often enough occasion t o seal with thei r lives .

From t his hasty outline o f th e mental atmos

p h e r e o f th e t ime when th e M ishnah was gradu
ally built up we now turn t o this C ode it self Th e
, .

bulk o f ordinances inj unct ions prohibitions pre

, , ,

c e p t s th e O ld and new
, t raditional derived o r , , ,

enacted on th e spur of th e moment had after , ,

about eight hundred years risen t o gigantic p ro ,

portions proportions no longer t o be mast ered in

,

their scattered an d be it remembered chie y

, ,

unwritten form Thrice at different periods the

, .
, ,

work of reducing them t o syst em and order was

undertaken by three eminent masters ; the t hird
alone s ucceeded First by H illel I under whose
.
. .
,

presidency Christ was born This H illel also .

,

called t he second E zra was born in Babylon , .

Thirst for knowledge drove him t o J erusalem .

H e was s o poor the legend t ell s us that once

, , ,

when he had not money enough t o fee t he porter

o f the academy h e climbed up th e wi ndow sill o n e
,
-

bitter winter s night As he lay t here listening

.
,

the cold gradually made him insensible and the ,

44 TH E T A L M U D

snow covered him up Th e darkness of the roo m .

rst called t he attention o f those inside t o t h e

motionl ess form without H e was rest ored t o life . .

B e it observed by t he way that t his was o n a Sab

, ,

bath a s according t o t he Talmud danger a lway s

, , ,

supersede s th e Sabbat h E ven for th e sak e o f t h e .

t iniest babe it must be broken without th e slight e st

h esitation for th e babe will it i s added keep
, , ,

many a Sabbath yet for that o n e that was broken

for it .

And here we cannot refrain from ent ering an

emphatic prot est against th e vulgar not ion o f t he

J ewish Sabbath being a t hing o f grim aust erity .

I t was precisely th e cont rary a day o f j oy an d ,

delight a , honored by n e garment s ,

by t he best cheer by win e lights spice and oth er

, , , ,

j oys of pre eminently bodily import and th e high

-

e s t expres sion o f t he feeling o f self reliance an d -

independence is contained in t h e adage Rath er ,

live o n your Sabbath as you would o n a week day -

,

than be dependent o n others But this only by .

th e way .

About 30 B C H illel became President Of his

. . .

m eekness his piety his benevol en ce t he T alm udi

, , ,

cal records are full A few of his sayings will .

characterize him bett er than a ny sket ch o f ours

could do Be a dis cipl e of Aaron a friend o f
.
,

peace a promoter o f peace a friend of al l men

, , ,

and draw th em near unt o t h e law
DO not .

believe in thyself t ill the day o f thy death DO .

n o t j udge t hy neighbor until thou hast stood in

his place Whosoever does not increase in
.
 T HE TA LMU D 45

knowledge decreases Whosoever tries to make
.

gain by the crown of l earning perishes I mme .

d i at e ly after th e lecture h e used t o hurry home .

Once asked by his dis cipl es what caused him t o

hasten away he replied h e had t o look af ter his
,

guest When they pressed him for the name o f

.

his guest h e said that h e meant h is sou l which

, ,

was h ere t o day and there t o morrow One day a

- -
.

heathen wen t t o Shammai t he head o f t h e rival ,

academy and asked him mockingly t o convert him

,

t o th e law wh ile h e st ood o n one leg The irat e .

master t urned him from his door H e then went .

t o H illel who received h im kindly and gave him

,

that reply sin ce s o widely propagat ed
Do not
unto another what thou wouldst not have another
do unto t hee This i s th e whol e L aw the rest is
.
,

mere commentary Very charact eristic is also
.

hi s answer t o o n e of thos e wits wh o used t o
plague him with their silly questions H o w many .

laws are t here ? h e asked H illel
Two H illel .
,

replied on e writt en and o n e oral
, Whereupon .

th e other I believe i n the rst but I do not s e e
, ,

why I should believe in t h e second Sit down .
,

H illel said And he wrot e down the H ebrew al

.

p h ab e t
.

What l ett er i s this ? he then asked ,

pointing t o the rst This i s an Aleph
. Good .
,

th e next ?
Beth
Good again But ho w do
. .

you know that this is an Aleph and this a Beth ?

Thus the other replied we have l earnt from
, ,

o ur ancestors Well H illel said as you have
.
, ,

accepted t hi s in good faith accept also t h e other
!
, .

To his mind th e necessity o f arranging and simpli

4 6 TH E TA LM UD

fy i ng t hat monstrous bulk o f oral tradit ion s seem s

t o have presented it self rst with all it s force .

There were n o l ess t han some s i x h undred vaguely

oating section s o f it in exist ence by that t ime .

H e tried t o reduce t hem t o S ix But he died and .

,

t he work commenced by hi m was l eft untouched

fo r another cent ury Akiba t he poor shepherd .
,

wh o fell in l ove wit h th e d aughter o f t he richest

and proudest man in all J erusalem and through his ,

love fro m a clown became o n e of th e most eminent

,

doctors o f his generation nay a s econd M oses , , ,

came next But h e t oo was unsuccessful H i s

. .

legal labors were cut short by t he Roman e x e c u

t i o ne r Yet th e day o f his martyrdom i s said t o
.

have been the day o f th e birth o f h im who at last , ,

did carry o ut the work Je hud a the Saint also , , ,

called Rabbi by way o f e minence About 200

.

A D
. . th e redaction o f the whole unwritt en law into
,

a code t hough still unwritten was complet ed aft er

, ,

the i m mense e ffort s not o f o ne s chool but o f all

, , ,

n o t t hrough o n e but many methods o f collection

, ,

comparison and condensat ion , .

When t he code was drawn up it was already o b ,

solet e in many o f it s parts M ore than a gen e ra .

tion before the D estruction o f th e Temple Rom e ,

had taken the penal j urisdict ion from the Sanh e

drin The innumerable inj unction s regarding t h e
.

t emple service t h e sacrices and th e rest had but

-
, , ,

an ideal val ue The agrarian laws for th e most

.

part applied only t o Palestine and but an i ns i gn i ,

cant fract ion o f th e peopl e had remained faithful

t o th e desecrat ed land Nevertheless th e whol e.
 T HE TA LMU D 47

C ode was eagerly received as their text book by -

t h e many academies both in Palestin e and in Baby

l onia n o t merely as a record o f past enactment s
, ,

but as laws that at some tim e or ot her with th e ,

rest oration o f th e commonwealth would com e into ,

full practice as o f yore .

The M ishnah i s d ivided int o s i x sections Th ese .

are subdivided again int o 1 1 1 2 7 9 ( o r 11 , , , ,

and 1 2 chapters respect ively which are further ,

broken up int o 52 4 paragraphs We shall briey .

describe their cont ent s :

S ection of A grarian L aws commencing with
S eed s : ,

a chapter on P rayers I n this section the various tithes and

.

donations due to th e Priests the L evites and th e p oor from , , ,

th e p roducts of th e lands and furth er the S abbatical year , ,

and t h e prohibited mixtures in plants animals and ga rm ents ,

, ,

are treated of .

S ection I I F ea s ts : of S abbaths Feast and Fast days

.
, , ,

the work prohibited th e cerem onies ordained the sacrices

, ,

to b e Off ered on them S pecial chapters are devoted to th e

, .

F east of the E xodus from E gypt to th e N ew Y ear s D ay ,

,

to th e D a y of A tonement (one of the m ost impressive por

tions of the whole book ) to th e Feast of T abernacles and , ,

to that of H aman .

S ection Wom en : of betroth al m arriage divorce , , ,

etc ; also of vows

. .

S ection IV D a m ag es : including a great part o f the

civil and criminal law I t treats of the law of trover of.
,

buying and selling and th e ordinary monetary transactions

Further of th e greatest cri m
, .

,
e k nown to th e law vi z idol , .
,

atry N ext of witnesses of oaths of legal p unishments and

.
, , ,

of th e S anhe drin itself T his section concludes with th e s o

.

called S e ntences of th e Fathers containing som e of the

,

sublimest ethical dicta known in the history of religious phi

IOS Op hy .

S ection V .
,
of sacrices th e rs t born
S a cr ed Thi ngs ,
-
,

etc .
; also of th e measurements of the T emple ( M i ddo th) .
48 T H E TA L MUD

S ection of th e various levitical and

other hygienic laws of impure things and persons their puri
, ,

e at i o n etc
, .

There i s it cannot be denied more symmetry

, ,

and met hod in the M ish n ah than in t he Pandect s ;

although we have not found t hat minut e logical
s equence in it s arrangemen t which M aimonides and
others have discovered I n fact we do not bel ieve .
,

that we have it in it s original shape But as far as .

,

t h e singl e t reat ises are concerned th e M ishnah is ,

fo r the m ost part free from th e blemish es o f t h e

Roman C ode There are unquestionably fewer
.
, ,

contradict ory laws fewer repetit ions fewer int er , ,

o l t i o n s than in th e D igest s which n o t wi t hs t an d

p a , , ,

ing T ri b o n i an s efforts abound with s o called ,
-

G e m i n at i o n e s L eges f ugi t i vae
,

e r r at i vae , ,

an d s o forth and as regards a certain out spoken

,

n ess i n bodily t hings it has at last been ac k n o wl ,

edged by all compet ent authorities that it s language

i s innit ely purer than that for instance o f t h e , ,

medieval casuists .

Th e regulations contained in these s i x t reatises

are o f very diff erent k inds They are apparently .

important an d unimportant int ended t o be perma ,

nent o r t emporary They are either cl ear e xp an .

s ions o f S cript ural precept s o r independent t radi ,

t ions l inked t o S cripture only hermeneutically

, .

3,
They are decision s fences inj unctions
, , ,

ordinances or simply M osaic H alachah from
,

S inai
much as t he Roman laws consist o f

S e n at us c o n s ult a Plebiscita , E d i c ta Res , ,

ponsa Prud e nt i um and t he rest Save i n point s, .
50 T HE T A L MU D

Th e t one and t en or of t h e M ishnah i s except in ,

t he o n e S pecial division devot ed t o E t hics e m p hat i ,

cally practical It does n o t concern it s elf with

.

M etaphysics but aims at being merely a civil cod e

, .

Yet it never misse s an O pportunity o f i n c ulc at i n g

thos e high er et hical principl es which lie beyond the

s trict l ett er o f th e law I t l oo ks more t o t h e i n
.

t ention i n th e fullment of a pre cept t han t o the

fullment it self H e who claim s certain advantage s
.

by t he lett er of t he law t hough t h e spirit o f ,

humanity sh ould urge him n ot t o insist upon t hem ,

i s n ot beloved by G o d and m an O n the other .

hand h e who make s good by h is o wn free will

,

d emand s which th e law coul d n ot have enforced ;

he in fact wh o doe s n ot s t e p short at th e Gat e o f
, ,

J ustice but proceeds within t h e l in e o f mercy
, ,

i n him the spirit o f t he wi se has pleasure C er .

t ain dutie s bring fruit s ( int erest ) in t his world but

th e real reward th e capital i s p aid back in the
, ,

world t o com e : such as reveren ce fo r fat her and

m other c harity early application t o study hospi
, , ,

tality doing th e last honor t o th e dead promoting

, ,

peace between man and hi s n eighbor Th e M ish .

nah knows nothing of H ell F o r all and any .

t ran sgre ssions there were only th e xed legal pun

i s hm e n t s o r a mysterious sudden
, vi sitation of
G o d
th e scriptural root n o ut
D eath at ones .

for all sin s M in or t ransgression s are redeemed by

.

repent an ce charity sacrice and th e day o f at one

, , ,

m ent . Si n s c ommitt ed a gainst man are only f o r

given when t he inj ured man has had full amen ds
m ad e and declares himself reconcil ed T he high .
 TH E TA L M UD 51

est virtue lies in the study of the law I t is n ot .

only the badge o f high culture (as was of old the

case in E ngland ) but there i s a S pecial merit bound
,

up in it that will assist man both in this and in the

world t o co me E ven a bastard who is l earned in
.

it i s more honored than a hi gh priest who i s not -

.

To discuss these laws their spirit and their de , ,

tails i n t his place we cannot undertake But this

, , .

much we may s ay that it has always been the unani

,

mous opinion o f both friends and foes t hat their

general character i s humane in the ext reme : in
spite of certain harsh and exceptional laws issued ,

in t imes o f danger and misery o f revolution and ,

react i on ; laws moreover which for the most part

, ,

never were and n ever could be carried into practice .

There is an almost modern liberality o f view re

garding the fullment o f th e L aw it self ex ,

pressed by such frequent adages as The Scripture
says : he S hall live by them that m eans he

,

shall no t d i e tk roag /z tk em They shall no t be .

made pitfalls o r burdens t o him that shall make ,

him hate life H e who carries o ut these precept s

.

t o th e full i s declared t o be nothing less than a

Saint .The law has been given t o men and ,

n o t t o angels .

Respecting the pra c t ical adm inistration o f j us

tice a sharp disti n ction i s drawn by the M ishnah
,

between t h e civil and criminal law In both the .

most careful investigation and scr utiny is required

but whil e in the former three j udges are compe
t ent a t ribunal of no less than twenty three is re
,
-

quired fo r the latter The rst duty o f the civil .

52 TH E TA L M U D

j udges is always h owever cl ear t he case t o urge

an agreement When says t he Talmud
. do
, ,

j ustice and goodwill meet ? When the cont ending

parties are made t o agree peaceably There were .

bot h special local magist rat es and ca sual j ustice s

o f peace chos en a d lz ae by th e parties Payment
, .

received for a decision annuls th e decision L os s .

o f time only was allowed t o be mad e good in case

o f t radesmen j udges The plaintiff if proved t o

-
.
,

have asked more t han his due with a vie w o f t hus ,

obtaining his due more readily was n onsuit ed ,

.

Three partners in an act ion must not d ivide them

s elves into one plaintiff and two witnesses The .

J udge must s e e that both parties are pretty equally

dressed i e not o n e in ne garments the others in
, . .
, ,

rags and h e is further particularly caut ioned not

t o be biassed i n f a vor of Me p ee r ag a i ns t we r i d e .

Th e J udge must not hear anything o f th e case ,

save in th e presence of both parties M any and .

striking are also th e admonitions regarding t h e

J udge . H e who unj ustly hands over o ne man s
goods t o another he S hall pay God for it with his
,

o wn soul

I n the hour when th e J udge S it s in
.

j udgment over his fellow men h e shall feel as it -

, ,

were a sword pointed at his own heart
,
Woe .

unto the J udge who convinced in his mind o f the ,

unright eousness o f a cause t ries t o t hro w t h e ,

blame o n the witnesses From ni m God will ask .

an account When the part ies stand before
.

you look upon both as guilty but when t hey are

,

dismissed let them both be innocent in t hine eyes

, ,

f o r the decree has gone forth .
 TH E T A LMU D 5
9
2

It would not be easy to nd a more human e al ,

most rened penal legislation from th e days of

, ,

the old world t o our o wn Whil e in civil cases .

whenever larger t ribunals (j uries ) had t o be call ed

i n a maj ority o f one i s suf cient for either ac
quittal o r condemnation ; i n criminal cas e s a ma
j o ri t
y o f o n e acquit s but a maj,ority of two i s re

q u i s i t e for condemnation All m en are accept ed

i n the for m er as wit nesses al ways except gamblers
.

u c dice players betting men pigeon

( )

y
z s -
a - -
,

usurers dealers in ill egal ( s e vent h year s )
,

produce and slaves who were disqualie d from

j udging and b e ari n g wi t n e s s
, ,

.
either for t he
plaint iff or th e defendant ; but it is o nly fo r t h e
defence t ha t everybody indiscriminately i s heard , ,

in criminal c as es The cross examination o f t he

.
-

witnesses was exceedingly strict Th e formula .

( containing at once a whol e breviary for t he J udge

himself ) with which th e witness es were ad mon
,

i s he d in criminal cases was of so awful and strik

ing a nature that swearing a man s life away
,

became an almost unheard o f occurrence -

How is one s ays th e M ishnah to awe t h e witnesses
, ,

who are called to testify in matters of life and death ? When

they are brought into C ourt they are charged thus : Per ,

chance you would spea k from conj ecture or rumor as a ,

witness from another witnesshaving h eard it from some

trustworthy m an o r p erch ance you are not aware that
we shall pro ceed to search and to try you with close q ues
tions and sea rching scrutiny Know ye that not like trial s
.

about money are trials over life and death I n trials of .

m oney a man may redeem his guilt by money and h e ,

may b e forgiven I n trials Of life the blood not o nly of

.
,

h im who has been falsely condemned will hang over the

54 T HE TA LMUD

false witness but also that of the seed of his seed even
, ,

unto th e end of the world ; for thus we nd that when

C ain killed his b rother it is said T he voic e of th y , ,

brother s blood is crying to me from the ground T he word

b lood stands there i n the plural number to indicate to you ,

th at the b lood of h im together with that of h is seed h as , ,

been shed A dam was created alone to show you that h e

.
,

who destroys one single life will b e called to account for it ,

as if h e h ad destroyed a whole world But on th e .

,

other h and ye might say to yourselves What h ave we to do

, ,

with all this misery h ere ? Remember then that H oly Writ , ,

h as said ( L ev v I ) I f a witness h ath seen or k nown if h e

. .
, ,

do not utter h e shall bear his ini q uity But perchanc e y e

, .

might say Why S h all we b e guilty of this man s blood ?

,

Remember then what is said in Proverbs (xi

, , I n th e .

destruction of th e wicked there is j oy .

The L ex Talionis is unknown t o th e Talmud .

Paying measure for measure it says is in , ,

God s hand only Bodi ly inj uries i nicted are t o
.

be redeemed by money and here again the Phari

sees had carried the day against the Sadducees ,

who insist ed upon th e lit eral interpretation of t h e

eye fo r eye The extreme punishment s agel
.
,

lation and death as ordained in th e M osaic ,

C ode were inict ed in a humane mann er unkno wn

, ,

as we have said n o t only t o the cont emporary ,

court s of antiquity but even t o t ho se o f E urope up ,

t o within th e last generat ion Thirty n ine was the .

-

utmost number o f strokes t o be inicted but t h e

loving one s neighbor l ike oneself being con
s t an t l
y urged by the Penal C ode it self even with ,

regard t o criminals i f t he life of t he culprit was

in t h e l east d egre e endangered this number was at
once reduced H owever numerous t he deli u
.

quent s t ransgressions but o n e punishment co uld

,
 T H E TA LMUD 55

be decreed for them all Not even a ne and .

age llat i o n could be pronounced o n the same occa

sion .

The care taken o f human life was ext reme indeed .

The j udge s of capital o ffences had t o fast al l day ,

nor was the s entence executed on t he day o f t h e

verdict but it was once more subj ected t o scrutiny
,

by the Sanhedrin the next day E ven t o the last .

some favorable circumstance that might t urn th e

scale in the prisoner s favor was looked for The .

place of execution was at some distan ce from t he

Court in order t hat time might be given t o a wit
,

ness or the accused himself for naming any fresh

fa c t in his favor A man was stationed at th e e n
.

t rance t o the Court with a ag in his hand and at

, ,

some distance another man o n horseback was , ,

stationed in order t o stop th e execution instantly

,

if any favorable circumstance S hould st ill com e t o

l ight The culprit hims elf was allowed t o stop four
.

o r ve t imes and t o be brought back before the

,

j udges if he had still something t o urge in his de

,

fence Before him marched a herald c rying The

.
, ,

man N N s on o f N N i s being led t o execution

. . .
,

f o r having committ ed such and such a crime ; such

and such are the witnesses against him whos oever
knows aught t o his favor let him come and pro ,

claim it Ten yards fro m the place o f execution
.

they said t o him Confes s thy sins every o ne who

,

c o n f e s s e sli as part in th e worl d t o come ; f o r thus

it i s writt en of Achan t o whom J oshua said M y , ,

s o n give n e w glory t o the God o f I srael
, If he

could not offer any formal confess i on he need ,
5 6 T HE TA LMU D

only s ay M ay my death be a redemption f or all

,

my sins . T o th e last t h e culprit was support ed
by marks o f profound and awful sympathy The .

ladies o f J erusalem formed a society which provided

a beverage of mixed myrrh and vinegar that l ike , ,

an O piat e benumbed t he man when he was being

,

carried t o execution .

Th ere were four kinds o f capital punishment ,

st oning burning slaying wit h th e sword and

, , ,

st rangling C rucixion i s utterly unknown t o

.

t he J e wi s h law

The house o f st oning was two

stories high stoning in th e M ishnah being
,

merely a t erm for break ing t he culprit s n eck It

.

was t he part o f th e chief witn es s t o precipitat e the

criminal with his own hand If h e fell o n his .

breast h e was t urn ed on his b a c k ; if th e fall had

n o t kill ed hi m on the spot th e s e cond witness had,

t o cast a ston e on his heart ; i f h e still survived ,

then and th en only th e whol e people hasten ed his

,

death by casting st one s upon him Th e modes o f .

strangl ing and burning were almost ident ical : in

both cases t he culprit was immersed t o his waist
i n s oft mud and two men by tight ening a cord
,

wrapp e d i n a s of t c lo t/i round his neck caused ,

instantaneous su ffocation I n t h e burni n g a .

light ed wick was t hrown down his t hroat when h e

O pened his mouth at his last breat h The corps e .

was buried in a special place appropriat ed t o

criminals Aft er a time however th e bone s were
.
, ,

gath ered t ogether and t ransferred t o th e burial

place of the culprit s kin Th e relations th en
.

visited the j udges and t he wit nes ses

as much as ,
58 T HE TA LMU D

vast mass o f these materials was n o w al so collect ed ,

as a sort o f apocryphal oral code We have dat in g .

,

from a few generation s aft er th e redact ion o f the

o fcial M ishnah a s o call ed ext ernal M ishnah ( Bo
,
-

raita) ; furth er t h e discussion s and addit ion s b e ~

lo nging by right s t o the M ishnah called T o s ef t a ,

( Suppl ement ) ; and nally the exegesis

, a n d meth ,

odology o f t h e H alachah ( Sifri Sifra M e c hilt a) , , ,

much o f which was aft erwards embodied in t he

Talmud .

The M ishnah being formed int o a code became

, ,

in it s t urn what t he S cripture had been a basis of ,

development and dis cussion I t had t o b e linked .

t o th e Bible it becam e impregnat ed wit h and o b

,

s c ure d by speculat ions new tradit ion s sprang up, ,

new m ethods were invent ed casuistry assumed i t s ,

sway as it did in the l egal school s t hat ourished
at that period at Rome at Alexandria at Be ry t us , , ,

-
and the Gemara ensued A doubl e Gemara : .

one ,
th e expres sion of th e schools in Palestine ,

called t hat of J erusalem redact ed at Tiberias (not ,

at J er usalem ) about 390 A D and writt en in what . .

,

may be called E ast Aram aean ; t he other r e

,

d aet e d at Syra in Babylonia edit ed by R Ashe , .

6 The nal cl os e f this codex how

(3 5 4 7 2 o ,

ever the collecting and sifting o f which t ook j ust

,

S ixty years i s due t o t he school o f the Saboraim
,

at the end of th e fth century A D Th e Babylo . .

nian Gemara is the express ion o f th e academies o f

Syra Ne hard e a Pum V e d i t ha M ab usa and other
, ,
-
, ,

places during six o r seven gen erations of continu

,

ous development This Babylonian Talmud i s

.

couched in West ern Aram aean .
 T HE TA LMUD

Neither of t he two codes was written down at rst

and neither has s urvived in it s complet eness .

Whether there ever was a double Gemara t o all the

s i x o r even th e rst ve divisions o f th e M ishnah

( the S ixt h having early falle n int o disuse ) is at ,

least very doubtful M uch however t hat exist ed

.
, ,

has been lost Th e Babyl onian Talmud i s about

.

four t imes as large as that o f J erusalem It s .

thirty six t reat ise s n o w cover in o ur editions

-
, ,

printed with the most prominent commentaries

( Rash i and T o s af o t h) exactly ,2 94 7 folio leaves in
twelve folio volumes the pagination of wh ich is
,

kept uniform in almost all editio n s If however .

, ,

the extran eous port ions are subtracted it i s only ,

about t en o r eleven t imes as large as t he M ishnah ,

which was redacted j ust as many generations b e

fore t he Talmud .

H ow the Talmud itself became by degrees what

the M ishnah had been t o t he Ge mara and what ,

th e Scripture had been t o the early S cribes viz a , .

Text ; how the Amoraim ( speak ers ) S a ,

b o r ai m and Gao ni m
, those E pigoni of the
,

Scribes made it th e centre of th eir activity for
,

centuri es ; what endless commentaries disserta ,

tions expositions responses novell ae abst racts

, , , , ,

et c grew o ut o f it we cannot here t ell Only

.
, , .

t his much we will add that th e Talmud as such, , ,

was never formally accepted by the nat ion by ,

either G ehe ral o r Special C ouncil It s legal de .

ci s i ons as derived from the highest a uthorities

, ,

certainly formed the basis o f th e religious law the ,

norm o f all future decisions : as undoubtedly the

60 TH E TA L M U D

Tal mud is the most t rustworthy canon of J ewis h

tradit ion But it s popularity is much more due t o
.

an extraneous cause D uring th e persecutions

.

against th e J ews in the Persian empire under ,

J e s d e ge r d I I . Firuz
, and Kobad
, t h e schools were ,

closed for about eighty years Th e l iving develop .

m ent o f the law being st opped t he book obtained ,

a supreme authority such as had probably never

,

been dreamt o f by its authors Need we add that .

what authority was silently vest ed in it belonged

exclusively t o it s legal portion s ? Th e other th e ,

haggadistic o r l egendary portion was poetry , ,

a t hing beloved by women and children and by

thos e still and pensive minds which d elight i n
owers and in the song of wild birds The .

Authorit ies t hemselves oft en e n ough s e t t heir
faces again st it repudiat ed it and explained it
,

a way But the people clung t o it and in cours e o f

.
,

t ime gave t o it and it al on e the encyclop aedic name

of M i d rash .

We have now t o s ay a f e w words resp ecting the

language in which t hes e document s are couched ,

as furnish ing an addit ional key t o th e mode o f life

and thought s o f th e period .

The language o f th e M ish nah i s as pure a

H ebre w as can b e expected in t hos e days The .

peopl e t hemselves spoke as we mentioned above , ,

a corrupt Chaldee o r Ar amaic m ixed wit h Greek ,

and L atin . M any prayers of the period the ,

Targums t he Gemaras are conceived in that idiom

, , .

E ven th e M ishnah it s elf could not exclude thes e

all pervading foreign el e m e nt s M any l egal t erms
-
.
,
 \(
T HE TA LM U D
Q
m any nam es o f product s o f heathen feast s o f , ,

ho usehold furniture of m eat and drink of fruit s , ,

and garments are borrowed from the classical

,

languages H ere is a curious addition t o the

.

curious history o f words ! The bread which the

Semites had cast upon th e waters i n th e archaic ,

Phoeni cian times came back t o them after many ,

days If they had given t o the early Greeks the

.

1
names for weight s and measures for spice and ,

2
aromas every one of which is H ebrew : if they
,

had import ed th e sapphire j asper emerald the , , ,

ne mat erials for g a rment s and t he garment s ,

3

t hemsel ves as indeed the well known X u u m is but - -

t he H ebrew n ame for J oseph s coat in the Bible
4
if the musical instruments t h e plants vessels , , ,

writing materials and last not least th e alpha , , ,

bet itself came from th e S emit es : the Greek
,

and L atin idioms repaid t hem in the Talmudi cal

period with full interest t o the great distress o f ,

th e later scholiast s and lexicographers Th e .

Aramaic itself was as we said t he language of th e , ,

co m mon people It was in it self a most pellucid .

, ,

and picturesque idiom lendin g itself admirably ,

not only t o the epigrammat ic t erseness of th e

Gemara but also t o thos e profoundly poetical con
,

c e p t i o n s o f t he d a ily phenomena which had pene ,

t rat e d even int o the cry of t he wat chmen the pass ,

1
(f wd , x d o g d

a n
, p z n ,

2 116 77,
x cw d p wp o v d d /la a p o v

raaza yd oq 0
, , p , ,

etc
I

X OZ OC
P ,
.

3
a a o g , z d p n a a o g , a m lai v
'

4
val/
31a , z t vp a et c
,
62 T HE TA LMU D

word o f t he t emple guards and the rout ine formula

-
,
-

o f the levit ical functionary U nfortunat ely it was .

,

t oo poet ical at t imes M att ers o f a purely meta

.

physical nature which aft erwards grew into d o g

,

mas through it s vague phraseology assumed very ,

monstrous shapes indeed But it had become i n .

t he hands o f th e peopl e a mongrel idiom ; and ,

t hough gifted with a ne feeling for the dist in

g u i s hi n g characters o f each o f th e languages t hen

in common use ( Aramaic lends itself best t o el e
gies Greek t o hymn s H ebrew t o prayer Roman
, , ,

t o martial compo sitions as a common saying has ,

it ) they yet mixed th em all up somewhat in the

, ,

mann er of th e Pennsylvanian s o f t o day Aft er -

.

all it was but th e faithful reex o f thos e wh o

,

made t his idiom an enduri n g language Thes e .

M asters o f the L aw formed the most mixed
assembly in the world There were n ot only natives
.

o f all the part s o f th e world wide Roman empire -

among them but als o denizen s o f Arabia and

,

I ndia ; a fact which account s f or many ph enomena

in th e Talmud But t here i s hard ly anything o f
.

domest ic o r public purport which was not called ,

either by it s Greek o r L at in name o r by both and , ,

gen erally in s o questio nable a s hape and in such ,

O bsolet e forms that both classical and S emitic

,
'

s cholars have often n eed t o go t hrough a wh ol e

course of arch aeology and ant iquities before un rav
elling i t Save only o n e province that o f agri c ul
.
1
,

Greek or L atin or both were th e terms commonly em

, ,

ployed by th em for th e table ( r p a z i a tabula r p m , ,

r
p

gz o ug
) the,
chair th e b ench th
,
e cushion (subsellium accu
, ,
 TH E TA L MU D 63

ture This alon e t ogether with some other t rades

.
, ,

had retained the o ld homely S emitic words : thereby

indicating n ot as ignorance might be led t o c o n
, ,

e l ude t hat th e n ation was avers e t o it but exactl

,
y ,

th e contrary : that from th e early days of J oshua

they had n ever ceased t o cherish t he th ought of
sitting und e r their o wn vine and g t ree We refer -
.

f or this point t o th e idyllic picture given in th e

M ishnah o f t he procession t hat went up t o J e rus a
lem with th e r s t fruit s accompanied by th e sound
-
,

o f th e ut e the sacricial bull with gilt horns and

,

an olive garland round his head proudly marching

-

in front .

Th e Talmud does indeed offer us a perfect pic , ,

t ure o f t h e cosmopolitanism and luxury o f t hose

nal day s o f Rome such as but few classical o r ,

post classical writings contain We nd mention .

ma d e of Spanish sh of Cretan apples Bithynian , ,

cheese E gyptian lent il s and beans Greek and

, ,

E gyptian pumpkins Italian wine M edian beer , ,

'

E gyptian Zyp hus : garment s were I mported fro m

b i t um ) , th e room in whic h th ey l ived and slept ( z z r wv o

Ee p )

a a the cup ( cyathus

, p hi ala potori a out of whic h
, ,

the y drank th e eating and drinking itself ( oenogarum c ollyra

, , ,

na
p g
o l z
'

g
,
e ax og a c rat o n Opsonium
,
O f their
, dress ,

we h ave th e s agum d alm at i c a b rac c m c hi ro d o t a

, , ,
.

O n their h ead th ey wore a pileus and they girded themselves ,

with a ( ai m T he words s an d ali um solea s oleus talaria , , , ,

L adies adorned themselves

.

i m p i li a i n dicate the footgear

, .

with th e c atella cochlear , and oth er s orts of rings

,

and bracelets and i n general wh atever appertained to a

,

Greek or Roman lady s ne apparel A mong the arms whic h

.

th e man wore are mentioned the the spear t he ,

c a (a word foun d in Genesis ) the pugio

-
!
( m i ,
.
64 TH E TA LMU D

Pe lus i um and I ndia shirt s from C ilicia and veil s

, ,

from Arabia To t he Arabic Persian and Indian

.
, ,

materials cont ained i n addition t o t hes e in t he

, ,

Gemara a bare allusion may s u fce S o much we

, .

venture t o predict t hat when o nce arch aeologica l

,

and linguisti c s cien ce shall t urn t o this eld t hey ,

will n ot leave it again soon .

We had long pondered over the best way o f

illustrating t o o ur readers th e ext raordinary man

ner in which the H aggadah that s econd curren t ,

o f t h e Talmud o f which we spoke in the i n t ro d uc

,

t ion suddenly int errupt s t he cours e o f th e Ha

,

lachah , when we bethought o urselves o f th e
device o f an o ld mast er I t was a h ot E astern .

aft ernoon and whil e he was expounding som e i nt ri

,

cate subtlety o f the law his hearers quietly fell ,

away in drowsy S lumbers A ll o f a s udd e n h e .

burst o ut : There was onc e a woman i n E gypt
who brought forth at o n e birth s i x hundre d thou !

san d men .And o ur readers may fancy ho w hi s
audience started up at this remarkabl e tal e o f the
p rolic E gyptian woman H er name t h e mast er .
,

calmly proceeded was J ochebed and s he was th e

, ,

m other o f M oses who was worth as much as all

,

t hos e s i x hundred t housand armed m en t ogether

who went up from E gypt The Professor t hen .
,

aft er a brief l egendary digress ion proceeded with ,

his legal int ricacies and his hearers slept no more

,

that aft ernoon An E ast ern mind s eem s pee n

.

li arly constitut ed It s passionat e love for t hings

.

wis e and witty f o r stories and tales for parables

, ,

and apol ogues does n ot leave it even in its mos t

,
66 THE TA L MU D

Prophetess of the E xile who appears wherever and ,

whenever S he li st eth and disappears as suddenly, .

Well can we understand t he dist res s O f mind in a

m edieval divine or even in a modern s a wa n l who
,

, ,

bent upon following the most subtle windings of

some scient i c debat e in the Talmudical pages
geometrical botanical nancial o r ot herwise as
,
, ,

it revolves round th e Sabbath j ourney the raising ,

o f seeds the computation o f tith es and taxes

,

feels as it were t he ground suddenly give way

, ,
.

The l oud voices grow thin the doors and walls o f ,

the school room vanish before his eyes an d in their

-
,

place uprises Rom e th e Great the U rbs e t Orbis , ,

and her million voiced life O r th e blooming vine

-
.

yards round that other City o f H ills J erusalem t he ,

Golden herself are seen and white clad virgins

, ,
-

move dreamily among them Snat ches o f their .

songs are heard t he rhythm of their choric dances

,

rises and falls it is the most dread Day o f At one .

m ent it self which in poetical contrast was chosen

, , ,

by the Rose o f Sharon as a day of rej oicing t o
walk among t hose waving lily e ld s and vine clad - -

slopes O r the clarion o f rebellion rings high and

.

shrill t hrough the complicat ed debat e and Bel ,

s haz z a r the story of whos e ghastly banquet i s told

,

with all the additions of maddening horror i s doing ,

service for N ero t he bloody ; o r Nebuchadnezzar ,

th e Baby lonian tyrant and all his hosts are cursed , ,

with a yelling curse a p ro/9 0s o f som e utt erly

inappropriat e legal point while t o the initiat ed h e
stands for Titus t he at last e X p lo d e d D elight

o f H umanity Th e symbols and hieroglyph s o f
 T HE TA L MUD 67

the H aggadah when fully explained some day will

, ,

indeed form a very curious contribution to the

u nwritt en hist ory o f man Often far t oo often .

for the int erest s o f study and th e glory of the

human race does the st eady tramp of the Roman
-

cohort th e password o f th e revolution the shriek

, ,

and clangor o f th e bloody eld int errupt these ,

debat es and t he arguin g masters and disciples

,

don their arms and with the cry J erusalem and
, ,

L iberty rush t o t he fray
, .

Those who look with an eye of disfavor upon all

these extraneous matt ers as represent ed by the
H aggadah in the Talmud the fairy tales and the
j est s the st orie s and the parables and all that
, ,

strange agglomeration o f foreign things crystal

li z e d around t h e l egal kernel should remember ,

above all o n e fact A S this tangled mas s lies

, .

before us it represent s at best a s eries o f photo

,

graphic slides half broken mutilat ed and faded :

, ,

though what remains of them i s startlingly faithful

t o th e original As t he disciple had retained in
.
,

his mem ory o r his quick notes th e t enor o f the ,

s ingl e debates interspersed with the t housand allu

,

sions reminiscences ape rea s fact s quotations and

, , , , ,

t he rest s o h e perpetuat ed i t sometimes well

, ,

sometimes ill If well we have a feeling as if

.
, ,

after a long S pell of musings or p o nd e ri ngs we ,

were tryi ng t o retrace the cours e of our ideas and
the most in congruous t hings spring up and d i s ap
.

pear apparently without rhyme o r reason And

, .

yet there is a deep signicance a nd connection in

them C reeping o r ying m elodious or grating
.
, ,
68 T HE TA LMUD

t hey carry us on ; and there is j ust this di fference

in the Talmudical wanderings t hat they never lose ,

themselve s S uddenly when least expected th e

.
, ,

original quest ion is repeat ed togeth er with the an ,

swer distilled as it were o ut o f t hese t housand for

,

e i gn things o f w hich we did not always see t h e

drift If ill report ed t he page become s like a broken

.
,

dream a half transparent palimpsest Would it

,
-
.

perhaps have bee n bett er if a wise discretion had

guided the hands o f th e rst redactors ? We t hink
not The m ost childish o f t r i e s found in an A s
.
,

syrian mo und i s of value t o him wh o understands

,

such things and who from t hem may deduce a

,

number of s urprisingly important result s .

We shall devot e th e brief space t hat remains t o

this H aggadah And for a general picture o f it .

we shall refer t o Bunyan who speaking o f his o wn , ,

book which m a la l i s m uta nd i s is very H aggad i s

,

tic unknowingly describe s t he H aggadah as accu

,

rat e ly as can be

Would st t h ou divert th y self from melancholy ?

Wou ld st thou b e pleasant yet b e far from folly

,

Would st thou read riddles and thei r explanation ?

O r e ls e b e drowned in thy co ntem p lation ?

D ost thou love p ic k ing m eat ? O r would st thou see

A man i the clouds and hear him S pea k to the e ?

,

Would st thou b e in a dream and yet not sleep ?

,

O r would st th ou in a moment laug h and weep ?

,

Would st lose thyself and catc h no h arm ?

,

A n d nd thyself again without a charm ?

Would st read thyself and read tho u k no w s t not what ?

,

A n d yet k no w whether th ou art blest or not

By reading th e s ame lines ? 0 th en come h it her ,

A nd lay this book thy head and heart together , .

 T HE TA LMUD 69

We would not reproach those who often with the ,

best intentions i n t he wo rld have brought almost ,

the entire Haggadi s t ic province into disreput e We .

really do not wonder t hat the s o called rabbinical

-

stories t hat have from time t o t ime been brought
,

before th e E nglis h public have not met with the ,

most attering reception The Talmud which has

.
,

a drastic word for every occasion says They , ,

dived int o an ocean and brought up a potsh erd .

First of all t hes e stories form only a small item in

,

the vast mas s o f allegories parables and the like , ,

that make up t he H aggadah And they were .

partly ill chosen partly badly rendered and partly

-
, ,

did not even belong t o the Talmud but t o ,

some recent J ewish story book H erder t o name

-
.

the most eminent j udge of th e Poetry of Peo

ples has extolled what he s aw o f the genuine
,

specimens in transcendental t erms And in truth .

not only is the entire world o f pious biblical l egend

which I slam has said an d sung in its many t ongues ,

t o the delight of th e wise and S imple fo r twelve

centuries n o w t o be found either in embryo or
,

fully devel oped in the H aggadah but muc h t hat ,

is familiar among ourselves in the circles of medie

val sagas i n Dant e in Boccaccio in C ervantes in
, , , ,

M ilton in Bunyan has consciously or unconsciously

, ,

owed o ut of this wondrous real m th e H aggadah , .

That much of it i s overstrained even according t o ,

E as t e rn fn o t i o n s we do not deny
,
But there are .

feebl e passages even in H omer and S hak S p e are ,

and there are always people with a happy instinct

of picking o ut the weakes t portions o f a work ; .
70 TH E TA L MU D

while even the best page s o f S hak s p e are and Ho

mer are apt t o be spoiled by awkward manipulation .

At th e sam e t ime we are far from advising a whole

sale t ranslation o f thes e H aggadist ic productions .

Nothing co uld be more t edious than a continuous

cours e o f such reading though choice bits fro m ,

them would satisfy even th e most fastidious critic .

And such bit s s catt ered through th e Talmud are

, ,

delightfully refresh ing .

I t i s unfort unat ely not in o ur power t o indicat e

, ,

any specimen s o f it s strikingly keen interpreta

tions o f it s gorgeous dreams its
, ,

Beautiful old stories ,

T ales of angels fairy legends , ,

S tilly h istories of m artyrs .

Festal songs and words of wisdom

H yperboles m ost q uaint i t may be
, ,

Y e t replete with stre ngth and re , ,

A nd faith ho w they gleam ,

A n d glo w and glitter !

3,

as H eine has it .

It S eems of more moment t o call att ention t o an

ent irely new branch of investigation namely Tal , ,

m ud i c al metaphysics and eth ics such as may be ,

gl eaned from the H aggadah o f which we shall now ,

take a brief glance .

B eginning with the Creation we nd t he gradual ,

developm ent o f t he C osmos fully recognized by t he

Talmud It assumes destruct ion aft er de struction
.
,

stage after stage And in their quaintly ingenious

.

manner t h e M ast ers refer t o t he verse in Genesis ,

And God s aw all t hat h e had made and behold ,

i t was very good and t o that other in E ccles iii
,
:
. .
 T HE TA L MU D 7 1

1 1, God created everything in it s proper season :

and argue H e creat ed world s upon worlds and ,

destroyed them o n e after the other until H e cre ,

ated this world H e th en said This please s me
.
, ,

the others did not in it s proper seaso n it

was not m eet t o creat e a s world until now .

Th e Talmud assume s som e original substance ,

itself creat ed by God o ut o f which th e U niverse ,

was shaped There i s a perceptible leaning t o t h e

.

early Greek sch ools On e o r t hree t hings were

.

before t his world : Water Fire and Wind : Wat er , ,

begat th e D arkness Fire begat L ight an d Wind, ,

begat th e spirit o f Wisdom Th e H o w o f the .

creat ion was not even mat ter o f speculat ion The .

c o operation o f angels whos e existence was war

-
,

rant ed by S cripture and a whol e hierarchy o f whom

,

had been built up under Persian inuences was ,

distinct ly denied I n a discussion about t he day

.

o f th eir creation it i s agreed o n all hands that , ,

there were no angels at rst l est men might s ay ,

M ichael S p anned o ut the r m am e nt o n t h e s o uth

and Gabriel t o the There is a distinct
foreshadowing of th e gnostic D emiurgos that a n
t ique l ink between t he D ivine Spirit and the World
o f M atter t o b e found i n t h e Talmud What with .

Plat o were th e Ideas with Philo the L ogos with , ,

the Kabbalist s the World o f A z i lut h what the

,

Gnostics called more emphatically t h e wisdom

( 0
0
50 2 ) 0
111 power

( d p g) and Plotinus
va the dcg ,
vo
,
x

that t he l alm ud i c al Authors call M etatron 1
The

angel s whose nam es according t o t h e Talmud

I T his name is most probably nothing but M ithra .

72 T H E T A LMU D

itself t he J ews brought back from Babylon play

, ,

after the exile a very different part from t hos e

,

before the exil e Th ey are in fact more or l ess

.
, ,

Persian : as are also for th e m ost part all incanta

t ions t he m agi cal cures t he sidereal inuences
, , ,

a n d the rest o f t he

heathen elem ents contained
i n t he Talmud E ven t h e number o f the Angelic
.

Pri n ces i s seven like t hat o f th e A m es na

,

and their H ebrew names and their function s cor

respond as n early as can be t o th ose o f t heir Per
, ,

sian prototypes who o n t heir o wn part have only

, , ,

at t his moment been discovered t o be m erely alle

g o r i c al name s for God s supreme qualities M uch .

as th e Talmudical authorit ies inveigh against t hos e

heathen ways sympathetic cures t h e exorcism s
, ,

o f d emons th e charms and t h e rest th e working

, , ,

o f m irac les very m uch i n vogue in t hose days yet

, ,

they themselve s were drawn i nt o large concessions

t o angel s and demons Beside s the s even Angel .

Princes t h ere are h ost s

,
o f
minist ering angel s th e
Persian Ya e a z as whos e functions besides t hat

,

of being m essengers are two fold t o prais e ,

-

God and t o be guardians of man I n t heir rst .

capacity they are daily created by God s breath out
o f a st ream o f re that roll s it s waves under th e

divin e throne A S guardian angels ( Persian F ra

.

va s /ei s ) t wo o f th e m accompany every man and for ,

every new good deed man acquire s a new guardian

angel who always wat ches over his st eps When
,
.

the right eous dies t hree h ost s o f angel s m eet hi m

,
.

O ne says (in t h e word s o f S cripture ) H e shall

go in peace the second tak e s up t he strain and
,
74 T HE T A L M UD

it is said E very o n e who S hall call o n th e name o f

,

t he L ord shall be sav e d .

Th e end and aim of C reat ion is man who t here , ,

fore was created last when everything was ready

, ,

for his reception . When he has reached t h e per
f e c t i o n o f virtue he is higher t han t he angels

t hemselves .

M iracles are con sidered by the Talmud much

as L eibnitz regards all the movement s o f every
limb o f o ur body as only possible through a sort

of

p r e s t a b i li t a t e d harmony i e t,he cours
. e o
. f ,

creat ion was n ot dist urbed by t hem but they were ,

all primevally existing , pre ordained -
They .

were created at t h e end o f all other things in th e ,

gloaming o f th e sixt h day Among t hem h owever .

, ,

was and t his will int erest our pal aeographers

al so the art o f writ ing : an invention considered
beyond all art s nothing short o f a miracle C rea .

t ion t ogether with t he se s o called exceptions once

,
-
,

established n othing could b e altered in it The

, .

L aws o f Nature went o n by t heir o wn immutabl e

force however much evil might S pring t herefrom
, .

These wicked one s not only vulgarize my coin ,

says t he H aggadah with reference t o th e propaga

t ion o f the evil doers and th eir kin bearing t he
-
,

human face divine but they actually make m e
,

impres s bas e coin with my own stamp .

God s real name is ineffable but there are many

designat ion s indicat ive of h is qualities such as t he ,

M erciful ( Rachman a nam e o f frequent occurrence

,

both i n th e Koran and in the Talmud ) t he H o ly ,

One the Place the H eavens th e Word Our

, , , ,
 T H E TA LMUD 75

Father which i s in H eaven th e Almighty the , ,

Shechinah or Sacred Presen ce

, .

The doctrine o f the soul bears more t he impress

of the Plat onic than of the Aristot elian school It .

is held t o be pre existing All souls that are ever

-
.

t o be united t o bodies have been creat ed once for

all and are h idden away from the rst moment of
,

creat ion They being creatures o f t he highest

.
,

realms are cognizant of all things but at the hour

, , ,

o f t heir birth in a human body an angel t ouches ,

the mouth o f th e child which causes it t o forget ,

all that has been Very st riking is the comparison

.

between the soul and God a comparison which has ,

an almost pantheistic look As God lls th e .

whole universe says th e H aggadah s o the soul
, ,

lls the whol e body ; as God sees and is not seen ,

s o t he soul sees and i s not seen ; as God nourishe s

the whol e universe s o t he soul nourishes the whol e

,

body ; as God i s pure s o t he soul is pure , This .

purity i s specially dwelt upon in contradist inct ion

t o t he theory of hereditary s i n which is den ied , .

There is no death without individual S in no pain ,

without indi vidual transgre ssion That same S pirit .

t hat dictated in the Pentat euch : And parents

shall not die for their children nor the children for ,

t heir parent s has ordained that no one should be
,

punished for another s t ran sgress ions I n the .

j udgment on s i n the a n i m us i s taken int o c o n s i d

e r at i o n
. T h e desire t o commit t he vice is held t o
be more Wicked than th e vice it self .

The fear o f God o r a virtuou s life the whole

, ,

aim and end o f a man s e x ist ence is entirely in

,
76 TH E T A L MUD

E verything i s in God s hand save

m an s hand

.

t he fear of God But one hour of repentance is
.

bett er than t he whol e world t o come The fullest .

liberty i s grant ed in this respect t o every human

being though th e help of God i s necessary for car
,

r i n g it out
y .

The dogma of the Resurrection and of Imm or

tality vaguely indicat e d in t he various part s of th e
,

Old Test ament has been xed by t he Talmud and

, ,

t raced t o several biblical passages Various are th e .

s imiles by which the relation of t his world t o t he

world t o come is indicated This world i s like unt o
.

a Pr o s d o ra t o the next Prepare thyself in th e

hall th at t hou mayest be admitt ed into t he palac e
,

or,
This world is like a roadside inn (hospitium ) ,

but t he world t o come i s l ike t he real home Th e

right eous are repre sented as perfect ing t hemselves
and developing all t h eir highest faculti e s even in

t he n ext world for the right eous t here i s no rest ,

neither i n t his world n or in th e n ext for t hey go , ,

sa
y the S criptures from host,
to ho st from st riving ,

t o striving th ey will s e e God in Zion
-
H o w all .

it s deeds and the hour when they were committed

are unfolded t o t h e sight o f th e depart ed soul th e ,

t errors of th e grave t he rolling back t o J erusal em

,

on th e day of t h e great t rumpet we n eed n ot here ,

t ell in detail These half metaphysical half m y s

.
- ~

tical speculat ions are throughout in t he manner of

the more poet ical e a rly C hurch fath ers of old and
o f Bunyan i n our t imes Only t he glow o f imagi
.

nat ion and the conciseness o f language in which

they are mostly t old in t he Talmud contrast favor
 THE TA L MU D 77

ably with the verboseness of later t imes Th e .

Resurrection is t o take place by t he mystic powe r

o f the


D ew of L ife in J erusalem o u M oun t
Olivet add t he Targums
, .

There is no everlasting damnat ion according t o

the Talmud There is only a t emporary punish
.

m ent even for t he worst sinners Generations .

upon gen erations S hall last th e damnation o f idol

a t e r s apostates and t raitors
,
B ut t here i s a space
, .

of only two ngers breadth between H ell an d
H eaven the sinner has but t o repent sincerely
and the gat es t o everlasting bliss will spring open .

No human being is excluded from the world t o

come E very man of whatever creed or n ation
.
, ,

provided he be of th e righteous shall be admitt ed ,

into it The punishment of the wicked is not s p e

.

c i e d as i n deed all th e description s o f t h e n ext

,

world are left vague yet with regard t o Paradise , , ,

the idea of something inconceivably glorious i s

co n veyed at every step The passage Eye has .
,

not seen nor has ear heard is applied to it s un ,

speakable bliss In t he next world t here wil l be
no eat ing no drinking no love and n o labor n o
, , ,

envy n o hatred no cont est The Righteous wil l

, , .

s i t with crowns on their heads glorying in t he ,

Splendor o f God s M aj esty

The essence o f prophecy gives rise t o some S p e c u

lation One decisive Talmudical dictum i s that Go d
. ,

does not eaus e his spirit t o rest upon any one but

a strong wise rich an d humble man Strong an d

, , ,
.

rich are in the M ishnah explained in t his W i se :

Who i s strong ? H e who subdues his passion .

7 8 TH E TA LMU D

?
Who is rich H e who is satised with his lo t .

There are degrees among prophet s M oses saw .

everything clearly ; the ot her prophet s as i n d ark

mirrors . E zekiel and I saiah s ay the same things ,

but I saiah like a t own bred m an E zekiel like a -

,

villager . The prophet s word is t o be obeyed in
all things save when he com m ands the worship of
,

idolatry The notion of either E lij ah or M oses

.

having in reality ascended t o H eaven is utt erly
repudiated as well as that o f the D eit y ( Shechinah )
,

havin g descended from H eaven more t han ten

hands breadth .

The philosophy o f religion will be best com

prehended by some o f those small coins th e

,

popular and pithy sayings gnomes proverbs and , , ,

th e rest which even bett er t han street songs

, , ,

charact erize a t ime With th ese we shall conclude

. .

We ha ve thought it preferable t o give t hem at

1
random as we found them instead o f building up ,

from them a syst em o f E thics o r D uties o f

th e H eart We have naturally preferred the bet
.

t er and more charact eristic ones that came in o ur

I With regard to the striking parallels exhibited by them
to some of th e most sublime d icta of the Gospels we dis ,

claim any i ntention o f h aving p urposely selected th em I t is .

utterly impossible to read a p age of th e T almud and o f t h e

N ew T estament without coming upon innumerable instances
of th is kind as indeed they constantly seem to supplement
,

each other We need not urge th e priority of th e T almud to

.

th e Ne w T estament although the form er was redacted at a

,

later p eriod T o assume th at th e T almud has b orrowed

.

from the N ew T estament would be like assuming that S ans

krit sprang from L atin or th at Frenc h was developed from
,

th e N orman words found in E nglish .

 T HE TA L MU D 79

way We may add a remark perhaps not quit e

.

s up e r uo us that the following specimens as well ,

as the quotations which we have given in the

course of this article have been all translated by ,

us as literally as possible from the Talmud itself

, , .

B e thou the cursed not h e who curses B e of them that

, .

are persecuted not of them that persecute L ook at S crip

, .

ture : there is not a single bird more persecuted than th e

dove ; yet G od has chosen her to be Offered up on his alt a r .

T h e bull is hunted by the lion th e sheep by th e wolf the , ,

goat by th e tiger A nd God said Bring me a sacrice not

.
, ,

from them that persecute but from them that are perse

,

c ut e d W e read ( E x xvii I I ) that while in the contest wit h

.

. .
,

A malek M oses lifted up his arms I srael prevailed

,
D id , .

M oses s hands mak e war or brea k war ? But this is to tell

y ou that as long as I srael are looking upwards and h umbling

their h earts before their Fath er which is in H eaven th ey ,

p revail ; if not they fall I n th e sam e way you nd (N urn

,
. .

xxi. A nd M oses m ade a serpent of brass and put it

,

upon a pole : and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten ,

any man when h e beheld th e serpent of brass h e lived

, , .

D ost think that a serpent killeth or giveth life ? But as long

as I srael are looking upwards to their F ather which is in
H eaven they will live if not th ey will die H as God plea ,
.

sure i n th e meat and blood of sacrices ? asks the prophet

.

N 0 ; H e has not so much ordained as permitted the m t is .

for yourselves h e s ays not for me that you o ffer L ike a

, , .

king who sees his son carousing daily with all manner of
,

evil companions : Y o u s hall h enceforth eat and drink entirely

at your will at my own table h e says T hey o ffered s ac ri ,
.

ces to demons and devils for they loved sacricing and , ,

could not do without i t A nd th e L ord said Bring your

.
,

Offerings t o M e ; you shall then at least off er to the true God

.

S cripture ordains that th e H ebrew slave who loves his

bondage shall have his ear pierced against th e door post

,
-
.

Why ? b ecause it is that ear which heard on S inai T hey ,

are M y servants they shall not b e sold as bondsmen :

,

80 TH E T A LMUD

T hey are My servants not s ervants servants A nd this m an

,

.

voluntarily throws away his precious freedom Pierc e his

e ar ! H e who sacrices a whole o ffering sh all b e rewarded ,

for a whole Offering ; h e who o ffers a b urnt o ffering shall -

,

have the reward of a burnt Offering ; b ut h e wh o offers humil

-

ity unto G od and m an shall b e rewarde d with a re ward as

,

if h e h ad o ff ered all th e sacrices i n th e world T h e child .

loves its mother more than its fat h er I t fears its fath er more .

than its mother S ee ho w the S cripture makes the father pre

.

c ede the moth er i n th e i nj unction T hou shalt love th y ,

father and thy mother ; and th e mother when it s ays

, ,

H onor thy m oth er and thy father Bless Go d for th e .

good as well as th e evil When you h ear of a deat h say

.
,

Blessed is the righteous Judge E ven w hen the gates of .

heaven are shut to prayer th ey are O pen to those of tears

, .

Prayer is I srael s only weapon a weapon inherited from its

fathers a weapon tried in a thousand battle s When th e

,

righteous dies i t is th e e arth that loses T he l ost j ewel will

,
.

always b e a j ewel but th e possessor who h as l ost i twell may

he wee p L ife is a p assing shado w s ays the S cripture
,

IS , .

it th e sh adow o f a tower of a tree ? A shadow th at prevails

,

for a wh ile ? N o it is th e shadow of a bird in his ight

,

away ies the bird and there is neither bird nor shadow .

Repent o ne day before thy d eath T here was a kin g who .

b ade all his servants to a great repast b ut did not indicate ,

th e h our : some went h ome and put o n thei r best garm ents
and s tood at th e d oor o f the p alace ; others s aid T here is ,

ample time th e king will let us know beforeh and B ut th e

,
.

king summoned the m o f a sudden ; and those that came i n

their best g arments were well received but th e foolish ones , ,

who c ame in their slovenliness were t urned away in d isgrace

, .

Re p ent to day l est to morrow ye might b e summone d T h e

,
-

a i m and end of all wisdom are repentance and good work s .

E ven th e most righteous sh all not a ttain to so high a place i n

H eaven a s the truly repentant T h e re ward of good works
.

is like dates : sweet a n d ripening lat e T h e dying b enedic

t i on of a sage to his disciples was : I pray for you that the
f ear of H eaven m ay b e as strong upon you as the fear of
m an. Yo u avoid sin b efore th e fac e of th e latter : avoid it
82 TH E TA L MU D
Q

is the y who b ring science i nto splendor L et the h onor of .

t hy neig h bor b e to thee li k e thine own Rath er b e thrown .

i nto a ery furnace than b ri ng any one to p ublic s h am e .

H ospitality is th e m ost im p ortant p art of Divine worship .

T h ere are three crowns of t h e law the p riesthood t h e k ing , ,

s hi p ; but th e crown of a good nam e is greater t h an they all

I ron breaks t he stone re melts iron water extinguis h es
.

, ,

re t h e clouds drin k up th e water a storm drives awa y th e

, ,

clouds m an withstands th e storm fear unm ans m an wine

, , ,

dis p els fear S leep drive s away wine and dea th sweeps all
,

awayeven sleep
,

But S olomon th e Wise says C harity

s aves from D eat hHo w can you escape sin ? T h in k of three
.

t h i ngs : whence thou comest whither thou goest and to w h om

, ,

t h ou wilt h ave to account for all th y deeds : even to the King

o f Kings th e A ll H oly p raised b e H e Four shall not enter
, ,
.

P aradis e : the s c o er t he li ar the hypocrite and th e slanderer

T o slander is to murder T h e coc k and th e owl bot h await

, , ,

th e daylig h t T he light sa ys th e cock b rings deligh t to m e

.
, , ,

b ut w h at are y ou waiting for When t h e thief h as no 0p

p o rt uni ty for stealing h e considers himself an h onest man
,
.

I f th y friends agree in calling th ee an ass go and get a h alte r ,

around the e T hy friend h as a friend and thy friend s friend

has a friend : b e discree t T h e dog stic k s to you on account

,

o f th e crum b s i n y our p ocke t H e i n w h ose family there has

b een one h anged should not say to his neighbor Pray h ang , ,

th i s little s h up for me T h e camel wanted to h ave h orns
.

a d
n the y too k away his ears T he soldiers ght and the
ki ngs are the h eroe s T h e thief invo k es God while h e b reaks
,

i nto th e hous e T h e woman of sixty will run after music li k e

n
o e of six A fter th e thief runs the theft ; after th e beggar
p overty Wh il e thy foot is shod smas h t h e thorn When
.
,

.
.
,

th e ox is down m any are th e butch er s D escend a ste p in

choosing a wife m ount a step in ch oosing a frien d If there
,

is a nything bad about you say it yoursel f L uc k m ak es ric h ,

luc k makes wis e B eat th e gods and the p riests will tremble
,

.
,

Were it not for the existe n ce of passions no one would build

,

a house m arr
,
y a wife beget children
,
or do an y wor k Th e ,

s un will go down all b y himself with out y o ur assista nce ,

.

T he world could n ot well get on without perfumers and with

 TH E TA LMUD 83

out tanners but woe unto th e tanner well to the p erfumer !

Fools are no proof N o man is to b e made responsible for
,

words whic h h e utters i n h is grie f O ne eats another says ,

grac e H e wh o is ashamed will not easily commit sin T here .

is a great differenc e between h im wh o is ashamed before

his own self and him who is only ashamed before others I t .

is a good sign i n man to be capable of being ashamed O ne .

contrition in man s h eart is b etter than many agellati o ns

.

I f our ancestors were l ike angels we are li k e men ; if our

ancestors were like men we are li k e asse s D o not live near a
,

pious fool If you wish to hang y ourself choose a big tree

. .
,

Rather eat onions and sit in th e s h adow and do not eat ,

geese and p oultry if it makes th y h eart uneasy within thee .

A small stater ( coin ) in a large j ar ma k es a big nois e A

myrtle even in a desert remains a myrtl e When the p itch er
, ,

falls upon th e stone woe unto the pitc h er ; w h en th e stone

,

falls upon th e p itcher woe unto the pitcher : w h atever befalls ,

woe unto the pitcher E ven if the bull have his head deep in
,

h is trough h asten upon th e roof and drag th e l adder after

you Get y our living by skinning carcases in th e street if
, ,

.
,

y o u cannot otherwise and do not say I am a priest I am a

great man ; this work would not b e t m y dignity
, , ,

Y outh is .

a garland of roses age is a crown of thorns Us e a noble

vase even for one d ay lest i t b reak to morrow T h e last
,

thief is hanged rs t T eac h thy tongue to say I do not k now

.

T he heart of our rst ancestors was as large as th e l argest

, .

gate of th e T emple that of the later ones like t h at of the next

,

large one ; ours is like the eye of a needl e D rin k not and
y ou will not S i n Not what you say about yourself but what
,

others say Not the place honors th e man but th e m an th e

,

plac e T h e cat and t h e rat m ake p eac e over a carcase A

.
,

dog away from his native k ennel dares no t b ar k for seven

y ears H e wh o walks daily over his estates nds a little coin
each tim e H e w h o humiliates himself will b e lifted up ; h e
wh o rai s eShi m s elf u p will b e humiliated Whosoever runs

.

after greatness greatness runs away from h im ; h e wh o ru ns

,

from greatness greatness follows him H e who curbs hi s
wrath h is sins will be forgive n Whosoever does nOt perse
.
,

cute th em that persecute him whosoever ta k es an offence i n

,
84 TH E TA L M U D

S ilence h e wh o d oes good because of love h e w h o is c h eerful

,

under his su fferings the y are the friends Of God and of

,

them the S cripture s ays A nd t h ey shall sh ine forth as does

th e sun at noonday
,

P ride is like i dolatry C ommit a sin

. .

twice and you will thin k it perfectly allowa b l e When th e

,

end of a man is com e everybod y lords i t ove r hi m Wh ile

,

our love was strong we lay on the edge of a sword ; now i t is

,

no longer strong a sixty yard wide bed is too narrow for us

- -

A Galilean said When th e sh epherd is angry wit h h is ock

, .

'

h e a p points to it a b lind b ell wether T he da y i s s h ort and

,

-
.

the work is great ; b ut the l aborers are i dle thoug h th e reward ,

b e great and th e master of the work p resses I t is not i n

, .

cumbent upon t h ee to complete th e wor k b ut th ou must not

th erefore c eas e from i t I f thou h ast work e d muc h great
.
,

S hall b e t hy reward : for th e m aster wh o employed th ee i s

faithful i n his payment But kno w that th e true reward is

.

not of this world .

S ol emnly as a warning and as a comfort this

, ,

adage strike s o n o ur c ar And it i s not i n c um

bent upon th ee t o complete t h e work When th e .

M asters o f th e L aw ent ered and l eft t he academy

they used t o o ffer up a shor t but fervent prayer ,

in whic h we would fain j oin at t his moment a

prayer o f thank s t hat t hey had be en abl e t o carry

o ut their task t hus far ; and a prayer further that
n o evil might arise at their hands that they might ,

n o t have fallen int o error t hat they might not d e ,

clare pure that which was impure impure t hat ,

which was pure and that t h eir words might be

,

pleasing and acceptabl e t o God and t o their fellow

men .
 NOT E S O F A L E CT URE O N T HE
T A L M UD

M R D E U T S C H began his lecture by speaking

. of

the various and contradictory ideas peopl e had

about the Talmud some believing it t o be almost
divine : others that it was nothing but folly and
childishness Those who investigat ed th e book
.

were he said like those explorers sent by M oses

, ,

into the Promised L and th e m aj ority o f whom ,

ret urned with t ales o f iron walls and monstrous

giants while a few cam e back carrying a huge
,

bunch o f delicious grapes M any were t he strik .

ing and poet ical similes suggest ed by that strang e

work such as an ocea n o r a buried city but speak
, ,

ing of it strictly as a book the nearest approach t o

,

it was Hansard L ike H ansard it is a law book : a

.
,
-

miscellaneous collection of Parliamentary debates ,

o f bill s motions and resolutions ; with this di ffer

, ,

ence that in H ansard these pr e positions bills and , ,

mot ions gradually grow int o an Act while in th e

,

Talmud t he Act is the starting point and the de -

,

bates it s consequence The disquisitions in the

.

Talmud seek t o evolve t he reasons for the Act o ut

of Scripture o f wh ich itself i s a development and
,

an out growth while at th e same t ime s up p le m e n ,

tary pa ragraphs are constantly drawn o ut of it s

1
D elivered on Friday evening M ay I 5 1 868 at the Royal
, , ,

I nstitution of Great Britain A lbemarle S treet

,
.

( 5)
8
86 TH E TA LMU D

o wn legal t ext These bills o r Act s are called t he

.

M i s nna n bot h collectively and individually the

,

discussions G e m a ra ; both t ogeth er Talmud

, ,
.

The Talmud h owever contain s a vast deal more

, ,

t han Hansard : it i s n ot conned t o st rictly legal

matt ers All those manifold assemblies wherein a
.

people s mental social an d religiou s l ife are con
, ,

s i d er e d and devel oped are here represent ed Par, .

li am e nt Convocation L aw C ourt s Academies

, ,
-
, ,

C o lleges th e Temple and t he Synagogue even th e

,

L obby and t h e Common Room have l eft real istic

t races upon it The authors o f this book who may
.
,

be counted by hundreds were always th e most ,

promine n t m en o f t h e peopl e in t heir respe ct ive

generat ions and thus undesignedly and designedly
S how t he fulness and t he various phases o f t his

people s life and progress at every t urn .

The Talmud i n th is wi se contai n s beside s the

, ,

social cr i minal int ernat ional h uman and divine

, , ,

L aw along with abundan t explanations o f L aws

,

not perfectly comprehended corollaries and infer ,

e n c e s from th e L aw t hat were handed down with,

more o r l es s religious reveren ce an accoun t al so ,

o f the education t he art s t h e science th e h istory

, , , ,

and religion o f this people for about a t housand

years : most fully perhaps o f th e t im e immediat ely
preceding and followin g t he b irth o f Ch ristianity
It S hows us t he t eeming stre et s o f J erusalem the ,

t radesman at his work t h e women i n t heir domes ,

t ic circle even t he children at play i n t he market

,

place Th e Priest and the L evit e m inistering i n

.

their holy sit es t h e preach er o n t he hillside s ur

,
 TH E TA LMUD 87

rounded by t he multitude even the story t eller in ,

-

t he bazaar they all l i ve mov e and have their being

,

in t hes e p age s Nor is it J erusalem o r even the

p

hallowed soil o f J ud aea alone but t he whole antique ,

world that seems t o l ie embalmed in i t ; we nd

here th e most curious notices o f the religion o f
Zoroaster how it gradually was restored t o i t s
original status as if all t hings which had dropped
o ut o f the records o f antique humanity had taken

refuge in the Talmud .

Athen s and Alexandria Persia an d Rome their , ,

civilizations and religions o ld and new are r e p r e

sent ed at every t urn That cosmopolitanism which
.

for good or evil has ever been the characteristic

t rait o f th e J ewish people and which was in fact , , ,

t he h ighest type o f t eaching is most vividly r e p r e ,

S ent ed in th is book On e o f th e most striking hi s

.

t o r i c al point s is t heir always coming in contact ,

generally against their will with t he most promi ,

nent nat ions exactly at th e moment when the lat

,

t er seem t o have reached t he highest point of

culture in th eir o wn development Passing over .

t h e three different stage s o f the peopl e as H ebrews ,

I sraelites J ews names which have a distinct s i g
,

n i c an c e we nd them connec t ed with Chaldea ,

E gypt Ph oenicia
,
Assyria Babylonia Persia
,
"

, , ,

Greece Rome Arabia Yet that cosmopolitanism

, , .

never for o n e moment int erfered with the most

marked m ental individual ity There always r e .

mained the o n e cent ral s un the Bible : around t his ,

ever revolved t hat great Cosmos the Talmud ,

wi ld and vague though it may b e and from it as

, ,

shown in th e G em a ra the M i s hna /z is begott en

, .
88 TH E TA LMUD

The Talmud has been harshly dealt wi th more ,

owi n g t o the blund ers o f friends than of foes .

S om e people have supposed that wh atever any

J ew wrot e was a Talmud : oth ers have spoken o f
it as a revelat ion and claimed inspiration f or it
, .

The fact is that what each o f th ese men wrot e was

,

purely his o wn : an d no one o f t hem would have

claimed m ore for th em t han that they were his o wn
utterances And it was only because som e o f the
.

laws o r inj unctions in it were attributed t o M oses

o n M ount S inai that any sort o f divinity was pre
,

d i c at e d o f it .

As t o it s dat es nothing can be more authent ic
,

t han the memory of the E ast The Talmud has .

been preserved with absolute authenticity in the

mem ory of doctors and dis ciples in t he same way ,

as many Brahmin s and Parsee priest s can repeat ,

without the variat ion o f a singl e accent entire ,

Veda s and other chapt ers of their sacred books ,

although without the slightest concept ion o f t heir

cont ent s and wholly ignorant of their meaning
, .

The same was t rue of the foll owers of Zoroaster .

At th e same t ime there is n o doubt that much

, ,

was writt en down by way of n o t e by scribes who '

yet did not vent ure upon t h e work o f redaction .

What alt eration s there are in t he Tal mud are owing

t o cen sors who changed passages that were s up
p osed t o clash with C hristianity and produced
, t he

most singular obscurities The censor s work was
.

frui tless for in reali ty there was nothing in the

,

genuin e Talmud t o be t aken out .

But indeed we have apart from t he cl earest and

,
90 TH E TA LMU D

that revol t was quelled t hey could scarcely have

g o t o n wit hou t the Sacrices Temple and all it s , ,

concomitant s ; but after th e Babylonian captivity ,

when idolat ry had died o ut l earning became of ,

higher moment The Priest s had sadly d e t e ri o

.

rat ed as a body with som e bright except ions since

, ,

the days o f t he M accabees when they by an acci ,

dent suddenly found t hemselves i n political power .

From bei ng as M oses i nt ended them t o be th e

, ,

receivers o f th e people s free gift s t heir messen ,

gers no t m e d iat ors and their t eachers they had ,

becom e chiey in t he upper strata an encroach

, ,

ing and ignorant faction Th e ordinary priest s .

had mostly sunk int o mere l ocal f un ctionaries o f

the Templ e while many o f t he H igh Priests who
, ,

in t heir later days oug nt t heir sacred o f ce from

the ruling foreign power had forgott en th e very ,

elements o f that Bibl e which t hey had been espe

c i ally appoint ed t o t each But a st rong re a ction .

set in The Pharisees i n vie w o f t h e clouds that

.
,

they s aw gath ering round t h e Commonwealth had ,

n
but o e cry E ducation catholic compul sory and ,

gratuitous Th e wat chwords res ounding from o n e

.

end of t h e Talmud t o t h e other are t h e words ,

l earn t each ; t each learn
The Priesthood .
,

the S acrices t he Temple as th ey all wen t d own

, ,

at on e s udde n blow seem ed scarcely t o l eave a gap

,

in t h e religious life o f th e nati on Th e Pharisees .

had l ong before undermined t h es e t hings o r rather ,

transplanted t hem i nt o t he people s home s and

heart E very man i n I srael t h ey said i s a priest

.
, , ,

every man s house a t empl e every man s t able an ,
 TH E TA LMU D 91

altar every man s prayer his sacrice L ong b e
, .

fore th e Templ e fell it had been virtually super ,

s e d e d by hun d reds o f synagogues schools and , ,

colleges where laymen read and expounded th e

,

L aw and the Prophets The Priest as such o r th e .

,

L evit e played but a very insignicant part in th e

,

s ynagogue and school Th e function o f p ro n o un c

.

ing the Benediction o n certain occasions an d ,

a kind o f vague precedence was all t hat the
synagogue had preserved of the former high estat e
o f the son s of Aaron Yet o n the other hand .
,

many of these m en having lost their former privi

,

leges applied themselves all the more vigorously

,

t o study and t o th e great national work o f E duca

,

t ion Nor was there any real personal antagonism

.

between the pharisaical or popular party ,

and th e descendant s o f th e sacred t ribe and
family There is o n th e contrary a l egend o n e o f
.
,

the most cherished o f all t he l egend s ( as usual

faithfully int erpreting th e people s real feeling ) ,

which t ells how when the enemy entered the H oly

,

o f H olies the Priests and L evit es led by th e vener

, ,

able H igh Priest himself bearing aloft t he golden ,

key o f the sanctuary were seen ascending t o the ,

highest summit and then precipitating themselves

, ,

with all the t okens and emblems o f their sacre d

trust into the blazing ruin s o f the Temple rather
,

than deliver them up t o th e conquerors
S t re nuo us i y and indefatigably we have said the

, ,

Pharise es advocated education ; and by their un

ceasing effort s hundreds o f synagogues colleges
, , ,

and s chool s arose not only in J ud aea but through

, ,
9 2 TH E TA L M U D

o ut t he whole Roman E mpire Over J ud aea after

.
,

many unsuccessful att empt s education was mad e

,

compulsory everywhere except in Galilee Peculiar .

circumstances arising o ut o f it s geographical posi

t ion behind Samaria and Phoenicia had redu ced ,

that beautiful country t o be th e Boeotia of Pal es

t ine The faulty pronunciation o f it s i nhabitant s
.

was the standing j oke o f t h e witty denizens o f th e

m et ropoli s After the fall o f J erusalem however
.
, ,

this was altered ; and Gal ile e becam e i n h er t urn

the seat o f some o f t h e most exalted Academies .

The regulations and provision s fo r public i n

struct ion were extremely strict and minut e The .

number o f children allott ed t o o n e t each er t h e ,

s chool buildings and t hei r s ites t he road even t hat

,

led t o t hem everything was considered ; no l ess

,

th e age o f t h e pupil s and t he dutie s o f t h e parent s

with regard t o preliminary prep arat ion and cont in
uo us domestic supervision o f t heir t asks Th e .

subj ect s th e meth od t h e gradual weaning even o f

, ,

th e pupil into a t e ache r or h elpmat e o f h is fellow

pupils all t hese t hings are carefully expos ed i n
the Talmud Above all i s t h e great principl e Non
.

m ulta s e d m ult um t h e motto o f al l s choolin g in

,

th e Talmud Good fundamental grounding el e

.
,

mentary m a te r na l t eaching and constant repetition

,

are som e o f the chief principles laid down Th e .

t eachers in most cas es taught grat uitously : c on

, ,

s i d e ri ng t heirs a holy and godly o fce f or which ,

the reward would s urely n ot fail t hem Th e rela .

t ion between mast er and d iscipl e was generally

that o f father and ch ild o r frien d and fri e nd
, .
 TH E TA LM U D 93

Next t o L aw E th ics H istory and Grammar

, , ,

L anguage s were one of the principal subj ects of

study We he ar of C optic Aramaic Persian M e
.

, , ,

dian L atin but above all Greek The t erms in

, , .

which this last language is spoken of verge indeed

o n the t ranscendental This also i s th e only lan
.

guage which it seems to have been incumbent t o

t each even t o girl s M edicine was anothe r n e c e s
.

sary subj ect of instruct ion the hygienic laws and

th e anatomical knowledge (bound up with religion )
transmitted t o us in the book S how indeed no small
procien cy for it s t ime M athematics and astron
.

om form ed another part o f instruction and wer e

y ,

indeed considered indispensable We hear of men .

t o whom the ways of the stars in the skies were as

familiar as the st reet s o f their native city and ,

others who could compute the number o f drops in

the ocean who foretold the appearance of comet s
, ,

et c Next came Natural H istory chiey Botany

.
,

and Zoo lo gy Th e highest point however was

.
, ,

reached in J urisprudence which formed the most ,

extensive and thoroughly national study .

The chief aim and end of all learning the Tal

mud is n ever t ired of repeating is d oi ng All .

knowledge is but a step t o modesty and the fear
o f heaven and innumerable are the parables
whereby this lesson i s inculcated After briey .

adverting t o Prayers and Sermons and th e whole

worship o f ! Temple and Synagogue at the time of

C hrist t he speaker turned t o th e political por
,

tions of the L aw under consideration an d hav ,

ing p o mt e d o ut how almost th e modern theory of

94 T HE TA L M UD

constitutionalism was contain ed in it briey t ouched ,

upo n t he relationship between Royalty State and , ,

subj ect s and the provisions for taxes for war the , ,

legislative and j udicial powers et c Bot h t his t he

, .
,

legal and th e ot her th e ethical part of t he book

, ,

S O closely intert wined t hat t hey can hardly be s e

p
r
a a t e d may be said t o gro w o ut chiey o f o ne
fundamental axiom o f the Talmud viz th e utt er , .
,

and absolut e equality of all m e n and the O bligation

to follow God by imitating the mercy att ribut ed
,

t o H im by S cripture No book can possibly p oint

.

o ut in st ronger language than th e Tal mud does ,

th e extreme sinfuln ess of sin .

Next the speaker alluded t o the holy inuence

exercised by th e women o f whom the Talmud not
,

only records th e noblest deeds but whom even as , ,

the angels themselves it makes at times the bear

,

ers o f most sublime thought s Regarding th e .

latt er it was shown at some lengt h ho w both

,

they and their counterparts the demons were
though partly adopted from Persian or rather
Zoroastrian metaphysics made th e vehic les o f na
t i o n al J ewish doctrines Indeed all t hos e panthe
.
,

i s t i c and dualistic principle s which the peopl e had

gathered from the creed o f other nat ions were ,

transformed under the skilful hand of the Talmud

ical mast ers into stri ctly monot heistic element s ,

by being either idealized int o ab stract notion s o f

right and wrong o r surrounded by a poet ical halo
,

which deprived them o f any re al exist en ce Thus .

Satan ( Sammael the Primeval

, t hough
mythologically hi s functions are precisely similar
 TH E TA LMUD 95

to those o f th e Persian E vi l Spirit i e t hose o f , . .
,

Seducer Accuser and Angel of D eath is yet ex

, , ,

plain ed away philosophically as m eaning merely

Passion whi ch seduces produces remorse and
, , ,

kill s Th e dem ons are said t o have masks before

.

their faces which fall only when th e s i n i s commit

,

t ed it i s t h en only that as bitt er self reproaches ,

-
,

they surround th e sinner o n all S ides Anoth er .

in stance o f this i s th e l egend of I saac i n which ,

Satan as t he Angel of D eath appears rst as
, ,

an accuser o f Abraham ( as o f J ob ) before G o d ,

next as a sed ucer t o Abraham in t he garb o f an

o ld m an t o I saac in that of a youth nally t o
, ,

Sarah informing her of th e danger in which her

,

s o n had been placed There i s also the l egend of

.

th e death of M oses in which Satan eager t o van, ,

h
m

q u i s the divine a n is thwarted by God s ,

Name even t o th e end .

I n the sam e manner Asmodeus (the Persian

A eshma) L ilith and the rest o f the demoniacal
, ,

powers as well as th ose all egorical m onst ers the

, ,

L eviathans the C ocks the Bull s and the
, , ,

rest o f t he ever repeat ed reproaches t o t he Talmu d

-
,

have t o play their instructi ve part All th e se ar e .

taken almost bodily from the Z e n d ave s t a which in ,

it self represent s m ore o r l ess a protest agai n st th e

Vedic faith They are either reduced int o their
.

original meanings in th e Talmud or t hey are ,

ridiculed an d made t o inculcat e som e m oral l esson .

O n the other hand the famous S ea Fai ry Tales ,

taken from Vedi c sources are made into guises o f ,

political if n o t religious satires When the Per

, .
9 6 TH E TA LMUD

s ians broke o ff from the I ndians the good gods o f

,

the o ld system became the bad gods o f t he n ew ,

and v i ce ve rs
.

Aft er dwellin g o n the causes o f the obscurity o f

some o f th e matters found in th e Talmud and their

apparent want o f dignity occasio n ed partly by the
circumstance s and the manners o f t he period and ,

partly by th e n eglect o f copyist s and t he undying

,

fanaticism which ever t ried t o improve this i m

portant record o f human ity the speaker instanced
th e variou s modes in which the Talmudical aut hors
gured t o t hemselves t h e M essiani c t imes and t he ,

utter and absolut e freedom with which they ex

pressed their O pinion o n this as o n every other
religious t opic . E very s ermon every dis course
,
,

that t reat ed o f holy things ended with the o ne

com pre hensive formula And may t o Sion come
t he Redeemer The O pinion s o f the modes and
O bj ect s o f his coming are man y and various ; the
Tal mud record s t hem al l equally faithfully and, ,

without comment save t hat t o him who says t h e

,

M essiah is no longer t o be expected it adds M ay , ,

God forgive him

Further remarks o n t he value o f the Talmud as

a human st udy in o ur days and the s cienti c
,

manner in which it sh ould be t reated followed I t , .

required the speaker said a certain syst em and

, ,

method ent irely o f it s o wn being itself in almost

,

every respect an exceptional work Above all .

,

however th e investig at or S hould n ot only be armed

,

with patience and perseveran ce such as i s scarcely

needed for any other branc h o f study but h e mus t ,
 A L E C T URE O N T H E T A L M UD I

DR E M A N U E L D E UT S C H expla i ned that t he Tal

.

m ud i s th e work which embodies th e civil and

canonical law o f t he J ewish people t hat it con sist s
o f the M i s n na /z o r text and th e commentary o r
, , ,

Ge m a ra ; that its cont ent s have reference n ot

merely to religion but also t o philosophy medicine
, , ,

hist ory j urispruden ce and th e various branches o f

, ,

practical duty ; that it is in fact a law civil and , ,

criminal national and int ernational human and

, ,

divin e formin g a kind o f suppleme nt t o th e Penta

,

t euch a supplement such as it t ook 1 000 years of

a nat ion s life t o produce ; and that it is not merely
a dull t reatis e but it appeal s t o t he imagination and
,

the feelings and t o all that i s noble st and purest ;

,

that between t he rugged boulders o f th e law which

bestrew t he pass of t he Talmud there grow th e blue
owers of romance and poet ry in th e most catholic ,

and E astern sen se Parabl e tal e gnome saga.

, , ,

i t s element s are t aken from heaven and earth but

chiey and most lovingly from t he h uman heart
and from Scripture for every vers e and every word
,

in this latter becam e as it were a golden nail upon

, ,

which it h ung i t s gorgeous tapestries But it would .

be a great mistake to suppose that the poet s cun
ning had been at work in the Talmud It was only .

1
D elivered D ecember 7 , 1 86 8, at th e M idlan d I nstitut e ,

Birmingham .

(9 8 )
 T HE T A L MU D 99

his heart The chief feature and charm of its con

.

tent s lav in their utter na i ve te Taken up as they

.
,

appeared at ran dom and told in their simple i n

, , ,

artistic unconscious form they t ouched the s oul

, , .

But nothing could b e much more dist ressing than

t o attempt t o take them out of their antique garb
and press them into some kind of modern fashion
able dress ; o r worse still t o syst ematize and
,

methodize them It would be as well t o attempt to

.

syst emat i ze the s o n gS of the bird in the wood or a ,

mothe r s parting bl essing H e had however t o
.
, ,

endeavor t o reproduce a portion o f t he cont ent s of

t he Talmud i n their own vague s equen ce and
,

phraseology and h e should conne himself almost

to smal l er productions as parables apopht hegms
, , ,

allegories and the like minute things which were

, ,

most characteristic and required littl e expl a nation

, .

The f undamental law of all human and social

economy in t he Talmud was t he utter and absolut e
equal ity o f man It was point ed out that man was
.

creat ed alone not more than one at di fferent t imes ,

lest o n e should s ay to another I am of the better
,

o r earlier stock And it failed not t o mention
.

that man was created on the last day and that even ,

the gnat was of more ancient lineage than man I n .

a discussion wh ich aros e among the doctors as t o

which was the m ost important passage in the whol e
Bible on e pointed t o the verse And thou shal t
, ,

l ove thy n e ighbor as thyself The other contra
.

d icted hi m a n d pointed to the words And t hese ,

are the generations of man not black not white , ,

not great not small but m a n

, .
1 00 T HE T A LMU D

O r again t hey pointed o ut the words

, , And ,

these are the ordinances by which men S hall live

not th e priest or t he L evite but men The law
, .

given o n M ount S inai the masters said t hough em

, ,

phatically addressed to o n e people belonged t o all ,

humanity It was not given in any King s land
.
,

not in any city o r i nhabit ed spot l est the other

, ,

nations might s ay We know nothing o f it
, It .

was given o n God s o wn highway in th e desert

not in t he darkness and stillnes s of night but in ,

plain day amid thunder and light nin g And why

, .

was it given o n Sinai ? Because it is t he lowliest

and the meekest of th e m ountain s t o S h ow t hat

God s spirit rest s only upon them that are meek and
lowly in their heart s Th e Talmud taught that .

religion was not a t hing of creed or dogma o r faith

merely but of act ive goodness S cripture said
, .
,

Ye shall wa lk in the words o f t he L ord But .

t he L ord i s a consuming r e how can man walk in

H is way ? By being they answered as H e , ,

is merciful loving long suffering M ark h ow on

, , .

the rst page of t he Pentat euch G o d clothed t he

naked Adam and o n the last H e buries the dead
M oses H e heal s t he sick frees the captives
.
, ,

does good t o H is enemies an d H e is m erciful both ,

t o t he l iving and t o t he dead .

I n close connect ion with t his stood the relation

ship o f men t o t heir neighbors c hi e y t o those
beyond the pale of creed or nationality The Tal .

mud distinctly and st rongly s e t it s face against

proselytism pronouncing it t o be even dangerous
,

t o the commonwealt h Th ere was n o occasion it

.
,
 1 02 T HE T A L MU D

bestowed in their most poetical ight s upon God

himself was that of Pedagogue o f M an There
was drought and the most pious m en prayed and
wept for rain but none came An i n s i gn i c a nt
, .

looking person at length prayed t o H im who caused

the wind t o blo w and the rain t o fall and i nstantly ,

t h e heaven s covered t hem selve s with clouds and ,

t he rain fell Who are you t h ey cried
. whos e , ,

prayers alon e have prevailed ? And h e answered ,

I am a t eacher o f l ittle children When God .

intended t o give the law t o t h e p eople H e asked ,

them whom th ey would o ffe r as th eir guarant ee s

that t hey would keep it holy and t hey said Abra ,

ham God said

. Abraham has sinned Isaac , ,

J acob M oses h imself they have all sinned ; I can
,

not accept t hem Th e n t hey said M ay o ur chil
.

dren be o ur witnesses and our guarant ees And .

God accepted t hem ; even as it i s writt en From

the m outh s of t he wee babes has H e founded H is

e mpire I ndeed the relationship of man t o God
.

th ey coul d n ot express more pregnantly than by

th e m ost familiar words which occurred from on e
end o f th e Tal mud t o th e oth er Our Father i n ,

e av e n f

Ii
Anoth er simile was that of bride and bride
groom There was once a man who b et rothed
.

himself t o a beaut iful maiden and then went a way , ,

and th e maiden wait ed and waited and h e cam e

not .Friends and rival s mocked her an d said H e ,

will never come Sh e went into he r room and
.
,

t ook o ut th e l etters i n which h e had promised to

be ever faithful Weeping s he read t hem and was
.
 T HE TA L MU D Io3

comfort ed In t im e h e returned and enquiring

.
,

how s he had kept her faith s o l ong she showed h im ,

his letters I srael in misery in capt ivity was

.
, ,

mocked by t he nation s for h er hopes o f r e d e m p

tion ; but I srael went into her school s and syn a
o
g g u e s and t ook out the l etters and was comfort ed , .

God would in t ime redeem h er and s ay

H ow , ,

could you alon e among all th e mocking nation s be

faithful ? Then I srael would point t o t he law and

answer H ad I n ot your promise h ere ?
,

Next t o women angel s were t h e m ost frequent,

bearers of s ome o f t he sublim est and most ideal

not ion s in th e Talmud
U nderneath th e wings .

o f t he s e raphim said t h e Talmud are stret ched
, ,

th e arms of t h e D ivine mercy ever ready t o r e ,

c e i v e sinners E very word that emanated from
.

God was t ransform ed int o an angel and every good ,

deed of man became a guardian angel t o him O n .

Friday night wh en th e J ew l eft the synagogue a

, ,

good angel and a bad angel accompanied him If .

,

on ent ering the house he found t h e tabl e spread , ,

the lamp l i ght ed and his wife and children in fes

,

tive garment s ready t o bless th e holy day of rest

, ,

th e good angel said M ay th e next Sabbath and ,

all following one s b e lik e unt o this ; peace unt o

t his dwelling peace and th e bad angel against ,

his will was compelled t o s ay Amen
,
If on .
,

the cont rary everything was in confusion th e bad

, ,

angel rej oi ced and said M ay all your Sabbaths and

,

week days be like this ; while the good angel
-

wept and s a id Amen According t o the Tal .

mud when God wa s about t o creat e man great

, ,
1 04 TH E TA LM U D

clamoring aros e among the heavenly host Some .

said , Creat e O God a bein g wh o S hall praise
, ,

Th ee o n earth even as we S ing Thy glo ry i n

,

heaven Others said O God creat e no more !
.
, ,

M an will dest roy th e glorious harmony which Thou

hast s e t o n earth as in heaven Of a sudden God .
,

turned t o th e cont esting host o f h eaven and deep ,

silence fell upon them all Th en before t h e t hrone .

o f gl ory there appeared bending th e knee t he , ,

Angel of M ercy and h e prayed O Father create

, , ,

man H e will be t hin e o wn nobl e image o n earth

. .

I will ll h is heart wit h h eavenly pity and sympa

thy t owards all creatures ; t hey will praise Thee

through him And t here appeared th e Angel o f
.

Peace an d wept
,
O God man wil l dist urb Thin e ,

o wn peace Bl ood will ow ; h e will invent war

.
,

confus ion horror Thy place will be n o l onger in

, .

th e midst o f all Thy earthly works T he Angel .

o f J u st ice cried You will j udge him God ! H e
, ,

shall be subj ect t o my law and peace S hall again ,

nd a dwelling plac e o n earth -
Th e Angel of .

Truth said Father o f Truth cease ! With man
, ,

you creat e the lie Out o f th e deep S ilence t hen

was h eard th e divine word You S hall go with
him you mine o wn S eal Truth ; but you shall
, ,

also remain a denizen o f heaven between heaven

and earth you shall oat an everlasting link b e ,

tween both .

Th e quest ion was asked in the Talmud why ,

children were born with their hands clenched and ,

men died with t heir hand s wide O pen ; an d the

answer was that on ent ering th e world man de ,
1 06 T HE TA L MU D

beam M ore and more S ilver and gold were put
.

into t he scal e and at last all his C rown e we ls and

diadem s were in but they all ew upwards like
,

feathers before t he weight o f the bone Then one .

of th e wise men took a grain of dust from t he

ground and placing it o n the bon e th e scale went ,

up The bone was t hat which surrounded the eye

.
,

and nothing will ever satisfy t he eye until grains ,

o f dust and ashes are placed upon it down in t he ,

grave .

I n his travel s Alexander cam e t o E th iopia and a ,

cause was decided in his presenc e by the king o f

that country A man who had recently purchased
.

land found a treasure upon it wh ich was claimed ,

by t h e s eller o f th e land The king reconciled th e .

rival claims by suggesting that t he s o n o f o n e o f

th e m en should marry t h e daughter o f t he other ,

and t hat t he t reasure should be given as t he dowry .

Alexander was moody and the King o f E thiopia ,

asked Are you dissatised with my j udgment ?
,

Well Alexander said I am not d issatised ;
, ,

I only kno w we should have j udged di fferently in

o ur country H ow ?
. We s hould of cours e

have taken the t reasure at onc e into th e King s
exchequer and bot h those men would have been
,

beheaded o n the spot Th e King of E thiopia.

said Allow me t o ask a question D oes th e s un

,
.

eve r shin e in your country ? Of course And .

does it ever rain C ertainly H ave you any .

cattle ? Yes Then that is the reason why
.

the s un shines and the rain rains i t can t be for

,

ou
y .
 TH E TA L MU D 1 07

The lecturer concluded by remarking that what

h e had been abl e t o bring before th e audience
proved as it were but a drop in a vast ocean of t h e
Talmud that strange wild weird ocean with it s
, , ,

leviathan s and it s wrecks of golden argosies and

, ,

with it s forlorn bell s t hat s end up th eir dreamy

sound s ever and anon whil e the sherman bends
,

upon hi s oar and starts and listen s and perchance

, ,

the tears may com e int o his eyes .

OUTLINES OF JEWISHHISTORY .

Fromthe Returnfrom Babylon to thePresent Ti me,

1890 .

Wi t h Th r e e M p s , a aF ro n ti sp i e c e a nd Ch ro n l gi c l T b le s oo a a
B Y L A D Y M A G NU S .

REVISED BY M F RIEDL X NDE R

.
, PH . D .

O P I NI O NS O F T H E PR ES S .

The t i r w rk i f gr t i t r t i i w itt e wi th m d
s o ne o ti n e es t n o era on,
wi t h hu h gr t r wh h r
en e o ea s r

r d r mi d
an d y et m f
a ne en t b
s i as h or t e ea ace i c i s s et e fo e t e
ea e

s A l n M hy t anti c on t l
W d u b t wh th r t h r i i h E gli h l gu g b tt r k t h
.

n t e n an of
J w h h t ry Th J wi h P b i i S i y i b gr u l t d
e o e e e e s s a e a e e s e c
is is u l ca t o n o c et s to e con at
ful p i g i r r S h m v mt
e o . e e s a e
on t e h s ucce ss o en n of t s c a ee uc pi e n , s o a us
ly b gu d rv h h rty u p p rt f h p u bli N i (N w
a o e .

i
c ous n, es e es t e ea s o o t e c at on e
Y rk )
e

t
o

Of u iv r l hi t i l i t
.

n e sa Phi l d lp hi L dg
s or ca n e res a e a e er.

C mp o mu h i i m p l l gu g B lti m r S
re s s e s c n s e an a e a o e un
Th u h f u ll of ym p t hy f wi th ut
.

h w p l it i i n s n ot a s n
gu l r v l r d r wh r li gi u b li f d i ff r f r m t h t f h
o g s a or er o e op e , o
f a ue s e e e s t
uth r N w Y k
a or ea e s ose e o o a o e
a o -
e or Tu nes
l r t d m t m t w rk f i t du d
. .

f th
m d r ti m N w Y k S
O ne o e c ea e s p an l p os i co ac o s o s c as s ro ce n
o e n es e or un
t i S i ty of A m ri h ly f rr d
.

Th J wi h P b li u ca on a s n ot o n c on e
f v ru ll y H br w b u t wh d i r t
e e s oc e e ca e a.

r hi m lf
a o p on a lo un g pe e ll G
s, il
ut a s o on a en es o es e o
see h J w
t e h e as B
e ap H p eald s to se ost0n er a

lu m h i t ry wh i h g i v b tt i d
. .

W k w of no i gL n o s n e - vo f th
m r bl p r p l y d by h J w i d m d r hi t ry
e e s o c es a e er ea o e
re a ka e a t a e i
t e e s n a n c en t a n o e n s o .

S anF i h
ra n c s co l C ron i c e

A u i t w ll w i t h i t y f w d rfu l B ff l C i
.

s cc nc e -
r t en s or o a on e r ace u a o our er

Th b t h d k f J wi h h i t ry th t r d
, .

d
e bes an oo o f y le s s o a ea e rs o an c as s c a n
n N w Y k H ld e er a

b k f J wi h hi t ry Cl d d
or

t tt t iv h d
. .

A i
c o n ve n e n d an a rac e an -
oo o e s s o ev an
Pl i D l
a n c a er

Th w r k i d mi r b l m u l of J wi h h i t ry i t
.

d

e o s an a on e , a n an
d d r v ry r r
a e as a a e s s o

m m
y
a b
es
m m
e co p enf e dto d hi l d lp hi
e so n s o e e ac e a n c ee P a e a

gi th r it w uld b d i f ul t m d th r b k th i ubj t
.

A lt o to n an o on
mu h i f rm i (Phi l d lp hi )
e e o e c e oo s s ec
c on t a n i n g s o ic n o at o n A er can a e a

L dy M g dd i ti t h t r h u of li t r
.

b k n usl bl

is a v a ua on t
tur h w lr d y h t h J w Ch l (S N w
a a oo e a o e s o e- o se e a
e t at e a ea a ve a b o u t e e e ar esto n e s

W h u ld li k t t hi v lum i t h li b r ry f v ry h
. .

l i th n
St lb
e s o e o s ee s o e e a o e e sc oo n e
a te A an y A rgus
A u i t h lp fu l p t y l f J wi h hi t y B t P t
.

s cc nc , e or ra a o e s s or -
os on os .

o
B und i n C l o th . P ice, rp o s t p a i d $ l oo , .
,
Li b r a ry Ed i ti o n .

75 c e nt s S c hool E d i t i o n
, .
 THINKAND THANK

.

a
A T le fo r t he Y o ung , Narr a ti ng i n R m o an ti c F o r m the
B yh o oo d of Sir M os e s M o n t e o re .

WIT H SIX I L L U ST R A T I O NS .

B Y S A M UE L W . COOPE R .

O P I NIO NS O F T H E P R E S S .

A gr p hi d i r ti t ry f ll of i i d t d d tu with
n te es ng s o
c an u nc en a n ve n
dm r bl p i ri t t t i d ly
a , a re ,
an a d
a t e n i ng i t c ons o n a n t t e k nwi h h w a nd eet ,
ur r t m p r f h d i ti u i h d p hi l
i a e s s

h pi t m i
h
t o ug h ag e o u s a n d
e n e ge c te i t e s ng

(Phi l d lp hi )
co e o s e an
t rO s A er ca n . a e a .

TH INK A ND TH NK i m tu f l A rr ti t r p j d i It se u u
r l k t h f i gu i h d
s a os co ec ve o ace r ec .

i
hi l d p hi d
s a ls o d i i i nt e re s r n g d b og a p hi c a i st n
E gli h m
eep '
y as a s e c o a. s e
n s an P a el a L e ger

b kf b y f y l t r d
.

A ne oo or o P bl Op i i (W hi gt )
so an c as s o ea u ic n on as n on .

It wi ll h i l i t r t f h b hi r b ut ll h l
av e e s n e es t o ys of
b y r d i d p by i r l
p ec a or e s ac e , a sc oo
o w ll ff d
s c an e a or to ea y E i gJ t an ro t t A tban ven n ou na

d w ll
. .

T ld i m p ly
o s N w Y rk S
an e e o un .

t t y f h i ldr I d i p li J
.

A l
n ex ce le n s or or c l en n ana o s ourna

fr m i t J wi h
.

Th lde o w ll th y u g m y l r
as e as l e o n a ea n a e ss o n o . e s
E xp onen t.

It i t hri lli g t y d i gly W ll t ld Am i I

s a n s or e x c ee it n e o er can srae e.

Th b k i wri tt i l i i mp l tyl d i w ll d p t d f
en n a p a n, s e , an
Su d y r
e oo s e s s e a a e ar
n a h l li b
-
sc 4oo wi l p rari e s . s z S ecta to .

I i t of h v ry f w b k i th E g li h l u g whi h
s on e t b n n
wi t h h r i g
e e e oo s e s a ng a e c c an e
pl d i h h d ofn t wi h b an s Je f m ~ d e ass u a n ce o
m i t r H b w J r t
a ce e a oy t a us n an
a n ai n n g i h i i s nte e st e re ou no

d d f t h y u g b ut m y w ll b d b y th i r ld r D t i t
. .

I t n en e or e o n , a e e re a e e e s e ro
F ree P r ess .

B i ght r d ttr ti v r di g
an a Phi d lp h
ac i Pe ea n la e a r es s .

T H INK A ND T H A NK wi ll p l b y d i t wi ll b f d p p ul
i Su d y
n n h l li r r i
a sc
- N w Ym H ld
oo b a es e
eas e
k
o
er a
s , an
.
e o un o ar

Th t ry i b t f l d i ea u l r i
i u i g ht i t t h
o n e , an i r um g ve s n o ns
th f h tr g d h m im u rgy
e s o s a a c ea e c c
s an c e s , t ai n i n h an t d o t i ve s t a t g a ve l
w r k f h gr t p h l hr p i
e an
e ne
K
e e p s to
t li
e e ~
o o t e ea i a nt o st a ns as Ci ty Tun es .

W h uld b gl d k w t h t hi li tt l b k h to nol rg r ul t i
t e ci c
m G ti l W l m h h r
e s o e a as e oo as a a a on

on g el l I h o ng t e t
r u bi g ry b ut i d i p r l b rv m
a en es 3. s as a c o se n p e o p e as n o t a c e .

of e li g i o ot t , an ts e us a ca nnot ut s e e to ake
d J wb t r k
s a o
Ch i r s t i a n an w e h m e te Phi l d p h T g ph
no n t o e a c o en a el i a. ete r a .

o
B und i n C lo t h . r
P i c e , p s p i d , 5 00 ot a .
 RABBI AND PRIEST .

A STORY .

BY MILTONGOLDSMITH .

O P I NI O NS OF T HE PRE S S .

The a uth r
o has a e m p e to tt t d d p i t f i thfu lly th u t m d p
e c a e c s o s an raco
u
ti c es o f t he R s si an p e o p le a n d g v r m ti ti wi h ho e n en n con n e c on t t e

J e wi s h p op la i on o fu t th t t y T h b k i tr g d w l wr
uff r r P bl Op i i
a c oun r e oo s a s on an e l it .

t ry d with h
.

te n s o We rea a n d s uff er t e s e e s u ic n on

(W h i gt )
.

as n on .

A lth ugh dd o d t J w with a pp l t th m t

re s s e k fr
o e s, an a ea o e o s ee ee

d m o d p an i Am i it
e ace ht t b r d b y hum p p l f ll
n er ca , ou g o e ea an e eo e o a

r d r li gi M G ld m i th i m t f E gli h d hi

a c es a n e on s . r o s s a as er o n s an s

ur ty r ur t
.
,

p l
e s i f t h
e l p l
s on e o f t h y Phi l d lp hi B ll
e ea eas es o e s or a e a u e

m it f b i g w ll w itt i h i ghly t rt i i g
The b o o k has t he er o e n e r en , s en e a n n

f ilt pr v f i t r t t qu i t
,

an d i t c an n ot all wh m y wo o e o n e es to a o a an to ac a n

t h m l i h m tt r f h
e s e ves di ti f ff i r th t h r tly
nt e a e o t e c on on o a a s a as e ce n

b ttr ti
e en a iv r l tt ti S F i C ll
ac n g un e sa a en on an ran c s co a .

R N P
A B BI h g ui w rth d i titl d t r k
A D RIE ST as en ne o an s en e o a an

m g h f m t f i t l Mi p li T i b
,

a on t e ore os o s c as s nn ea o s r un e .

Th w it t ll hi t ry fr m th J wi h t d p i t d t ll i t
e r er e s s s o o e e s s an o n , an e s

well .
-
Si . L oui s Rep ubli c .

The d es cr ip ti on s o f li fe i n R u i
s s a ar e vivid an d ad d g tly t
re a o t he
c ha rm f th b k B b C i
o e oo u a

our er.

A v ry th i lli g t y
e Ch l t
r (S Nw n s or ar es on e s

m
. .

V ry li k t h h
e id t l t h t m fr m u
e e orr a es a co e o nhap p y Ru i ss a A
Orleans P i cayune .

T he si tu ti a on s ar e d ra m tia c ; t he d i alo gu e i s sp i ri t d J wi
e e sh Mes
s enger .

A hi story of p ass n ig v e ent s in an i t r ti g f r m J wi h Ti d i

n e es n o e s ngs.

RA B B I A ND PRIE ST wi ll a p p e a l t o th ym p thy f v ry r
e s d ri
a o e e ea e n i ts

t ouch n i g i m p li i y
s c t an d t u hfu
r t ln es s J w e i sh Sp ectato r .

Bo und in C lo t h . Pr c e , i P o st p -
a i d SI
. .
SOMEJ EWISHWOMEN .

. _ BY _

H E NRY Z IR ND O RF

O P INIO NS OF TH E PRE S S :

Mo r urity bi li ty f ul lf i d ff ti
al p , n dd ti e vo on ,
rr w d h p p th b r p hi d h i t r t
o n an
o o so , se s acr
-
ce , ee p a ec
an ll i n e ss a e n t er i n to i og es . an t e n e es
f lt i t h r p ru dd d b h w rmth d m thy wh h h
so o a ese a
n ei sal i to y t e an ic t
t h r d i l y d b y hi ultur d d vi g r u y f wri ti g
e e s a e a sy a e
au o sp a s an s c e an o o s st e o n .

Ph d lp h R
i la e d ia ecor

H i m th d i m li ti p hu
.

t d
on c e a si fJ d on a n e x p an s o n o s an
t h T lm u d t r i m p yt ld f i t hf l p r t ti f h v i rtu d
s e o s ar e a p ca os e
l u esen a on o t e s , an not
i f qu t y h r t r m ti m l g d ry g r lly
e a , s o i es s o , a e
h
r l 1\ w Y rk W ld
n re en l i t e v c es , of c a ac e s so e es e en a , en e a
'

ea e o or

h r g iv i t r t hri lli
. .

Th li ti i ll d i
bl Op i i (W hi gt D
e ve s e e en a r e n e es ng n a ca se s , an a re ng n
so m e ca s e s Pu ic n on as n on ,

Th v lum i f u i v r l h i t ri i t r t p rtr y l f
.

e e s o ne o d i n e sa s o c n e es an
rly tri l f J wi h w m
o ,
s a o a a o
th e ea a s o e H ld s o en B oston er a

Th h t h h p t r b ri f th y l rly t h r lt f d p d
.

o ug es u an
t h r h r r h h t i h m d t v um hi t ri l d ri t l
e c a e s ar e e , e ar e c e a e o ee
o o ug t g ves t e ol e an an
v lu Phi l d lp hi l i m
es ea c a o es s o ca c i ca
a e a e a es

lt g th r r d i t bl u d rt k i t h t th p r t ut h rh
.

It i s an a n ng e se n
b r u ht t i fy i g h lh t d r wi
o e e c e a e e a a e a o as
l
g ra t n Bi bli l t e si o ue t e ng o f
fm h r t r t th b gr u d f th hi t r i t i m
o g o so a c os e a ca
e a le c a ac e a g ai n s i e ac k o n o os e a n c e n t s o c es .

Mi p i T ib
nn ea ol s r une
H ry Zi r d rf k hi h tud t t hi k r d wri t r d t h
.

en n ran en n an an is
li t l b r h u d y f H b r w li r t r
o s g as a s , e e ,

t e k wi ll g f
oo t o ar o e n c ou a ge t e st o e e te a u e .

D enver Rp bi e u l can
Th b k i gr f u lly wri tt m y tr g t u h f h r
. .

e oo s a ce d h en , a n as an s on o c es o c a
i i
a c t e r z at o n s T l d Bl d o e o a e.

k t h d u v i l b l hi t ry wr i tt l r
.

Th b d i
on a s o an en n c ea
rr ti v yl G
e s e c e s ar e
p as e a a e ar e
na a e st Nw
e alves ton e s.

H ry Zi r d rf h d
en n pi f w rk f m on e a h li t r ry ll uc e n ce
J W W N L
o as e ce o o o e a e x ce

i n S OM E E Is H P D
OM E h l oui s os t- i sp a tc

ttr tiv b k i pp r d f ll f ur i u bi r
. . .

It i s an a n a p hi l ea an c e a n u o c o s og a ca
r h m S
ac e oo
re s e a c B a lti or e un
Th wr i t r h w r ful r r h d om i t hu m ki g
.

i an n s c en i o s n e ss n n
rr t h t ri lly r t h r u t
e e s o s ca e es e a c c a
hi s na i ve s is d h an i n iv to e ac e oi ne er
A m ri I r l
g g co ecJ s
a
r o ca
d ue e (C
can m s ae) i te i nc n at i .

o
B und i n C loth Or na m , e nta l , Gi t T o p l . P r i c e p o stp a i d
, , $ l 25
. .
 IST Y OF T J EWS .

PROF E S S OR H . G RA ET Z .

Vo l . I . F ro t he E m ar li e s t P e r i o d t o t he D e a t h o f Si m on t he
M ac c ab e e ( 13 5 B C . .

Vo l II F m t he R e i g n n r canus t o t h e C o m p l e ti on o f t he
y
. . ro o
B ab lo n i an T a lm u d ( 5 00 C .

V o l I II . . F ro m t h e C o m p l e t i o n o f t h e B a b y l o n i a n T a lm u d t o
t h e B a n i s hm e n t o f t h e J e w s f r o m E n g la n d ( 1 29 0
0 E . 0
) .

"0 1 . IV . F ro t he R i s e o f t he
m K a b b a l a (1 2 7 0 C E ) t o t he P e r . .

m a n e n t S e t t le m e n t o f t he M a r r a n o s i n H o lla n d (1 6 1 8
C .

Vo l . V . In p re p ar a t i o n .

OPINIONS OF T HE PRESS .

P r r G t H i t ry i u i v r lly p t d
of e ss o r ae z

s i ti u
s o s n e sa ac c e e as a c o n s c e n o s

an d r li etri b tab le c o nr l i u li t r tur h h

u i on t o h e ig o s e a e P i la d elp i a Telegr ap
A i d fr m hi v lu h t ri h rm i
.

s e o h m k s hi p a e as a by is o an , e a es s a ge s c a ng

a ll h li tt l
t ide i ht d i llu tr t i
e s whi h
e- l ly
g m t th b
s an k s a on s c on co e a e ec

o f g i u Chen I sO i cago n ter- cean

Th wri t r wh i i d r ed b y f th g t t f J wi h hi t ri
.

e e o s con s e ar e r ea e s o e s s o an s ,

r i hi ld f w rk hi t ry w t h ut th y p l m i
,

i th p i
s e on e e n s e o o s o i o e olog or o e cs

t l w rk p r mi h t d r d b whi h
.

Hi m m s b
on u en a o o se s to e t e s an a y c

a ll th r J wi h hi t ri
o e et b m s ur d b y J w f m y y r t
s o e s ar e o e e as e e s or an ea s o

co m em m B a lti or e A er i can

Wh r h ub j t tr i th uth r t d i u th Chri t i
.

e n ev e t e s ec con s a ns e a o o sc ss e s an

r li i h i i m t d b y p i ri t u w rthy f h hi l p hi d
e g on , e s an a e a s n ot n o o t e p os o c an

h gh m i d d h r N th h W N w Y S
f L

i -
n i e e o o e ss n g s a an t e i se e or k un .

h l rly w r k f whi h t h tu d t f hi
.

It i h s an e x d au s t i ve a n sc o a o or c e s en o s

t ry h d tly th kful
,

o b
as r e as o n to It wi ll b w l m d
e evo u an e e co e

h wri t r t ty l d f t h lm t i p y w y i
.

l
a so f or t ll e e

s e x ce en s e an or e a os g os s a n

whi h h tur c i d f r m th
e r i u rr ti v i ll m i hi p g
n s as e o e se o s na a e to u ne s a es

w t h i l tr t i v d
i l us i ti f li f
a d e ry D e s cr p on s o e an s c en e elr oi l F r ee P res s
f h tri k i t r f t h m p i l ti i i t
. .

O ne o t e s n g f ea u e s o
i d e co a on s ts s u c c n c n e s s an

r i d i ty f rr ti whi t th m ti m
ap o na a ry d t i l i
ve , le a e sa e e n e c es s a e a s n ot

sac r i d M ce T i nn eap oli s r i bune

Wh v r tr v r i h w rk m y w k f i t
.

a te e co n o e s esh h t e o a a a en , o s n oble sc olar s ip

th r b
e e c an q ti R hm D e no h u es on ic on d i sp a tc

d ir t d y h hi t ry f th J wi h p l u d r th
.

If on e es es to s u t e s o o e e s eop e n e e

d r ti f h l r d p
i ec on o t wri t r wh i i ym thy wi th hi
a sc o a an le as a n e o s n s pa s

su bj tb ec h i h i m lf J w h
e c au s e h uld r e rt th v lum f
s se a e e s o es o to e o es o

Gr t R i w f R w (N w Y rk )
,

ae z . ev e o evi e s e o .

Bo und i n C lo t h Pr i p o s t p a i d $3 p vol um
. ce , , er e.
 S A B BATH HOURS .

T H OU G H T S .

By L IEBM A N A DLER .

OPINIONS OF T HE PRESS .

d r
Rab b i A le was m f tr d f rt i l m i da d hi rm
an o s on g an e e n an s se on s
mi t ly r d bl S y S h T m
,

are e nen ea a e und a c ool i es .

A tur fr m rm t m h g th r w lth f p r p t
s on e ns o se on o s er on, e a e s a ea o ece

whi h if h w u ld p r ti h w u ld m k b th hi m lf d th r
,

c e o ac ce , e o a e o se an o e s

h p p i r W m i ht q t fr m v ry p g m b l utt r
,

a e e g uo e o e e a e so e no e e an c e o r

w t t h ght w ll w r hy f th h ri h i g b y ith r J w Chri t i

.

R hm d D p h
s ee ou e o t o ec e s n e e e or s an .

ic on is a tc .

Th t p i e di u d o i th m t i
cs t
sc pr
sse i l i th i r
are n e os n s an ce s act c a n e

na tur A ll i tru ti v d p g f r l qu
e are ns c f f e , an a ss a es o are e o en ce ar e o ro

q u t urr S F
.

en occ C e n ce an ra n ci s co a ll .

Th rm
e se i mp l d r ful tudi
o n s ar e s m ti m f d tr ie an ca e s es , so e es o oc ne ,
b t m r
u ft f t h g d p r p Ch
o e o en o mea c in an e ce t i cago Ti es .

H mb i d h l rly tt i m t wi th p r ti l p ri
e co ne sc o a da a n en ac ca ex e e n c e , an

th rm
e se se r wi d r g f u bj t S m f t h m
o n s cove a i gu e an e o s ec o e o e ar e s n

l ly m d r i t I
.

ar o e n Nw n on e n d i anap oli s e s .

Th y e m d r rm d li g with th p r b l m f th d y d
ar e o e n se o ns, ea n e o e s o e a an

v y t h i t rp r t ti whi h t h p r b l m h uld i v i th
,

con e e n e e a on c es e o e s s o re c e e n e

li ght f h Old T t m
o t t h i t ry B H d
e es a en s o . os l0n er a l .

Whi l th i b k i t wi th ut i t r t i th
e s oo mm u i ti wh r
s no o n e es n o se c o n es e e

th r i
e e r i ty f r li i t hi g d i u
s n o sc a c o i e tf i g ous ea c n an n enc e , t c an n o a l to
b p rt i u l rly
e a i thc m mu it i
a wh so th r i b ut li ttl J wi h
n ose c o n es er e e e s e e s

t hi g B m m
e ac n a lti or e A er i can .

Th rme se th ughtful d r t i t
on s ar e d dr w mo yf r i an e a n es n on e an a an o c

bl e d p rti
an tl fr m th Old T t m t r rd Sy
e n en e ss on s o e es a en e co s r acuse

H er a ld .

T hy e tur t d wi th Bi bl l r b ut v y i i d t t k fr m h
are sa a e e o e, e er nc en a en o t e

Old Tes t m t i m d t i llu tr t m truth i m d r li f S

a en s a e o s a e so e n o e n e .
- an

F ran ci s co Chroni cle .

hy
T e lm d rv ti v
are c a p p li
anbl i th i ti l
cons e a e, a ca e n e r e ss e n a

m i g t th m d r r li gi u
e an n o d f G ti l w ll J w I
e o e n e o s n ee s o en e as e as e n

tyl th y mi tly l r d d i r t R i w f R w (N w Y rk)

.

s e e ar e e n en c ea an ec . ev e o evi e s e o .

Ab l f r i bl
e, h lp ful t h ught up th m m t
o c e, e ti l h o s on e es os e ss e n a to t e

p r os
p r i ty ef th f mi ly i ty
o d t h t t e P b Op
a (W hi g ,
s oc e an e s a e u li c i ni on as n

t on , D .

o
B und i n C lo t h . P ri ce p o stp a i d
, , $ I 25 . .
 OLD
EURO PEAN J EWRIES
By DA VID PHIL IPS ON, D D . .

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS

A good p ur p o se i s s erve d i n t h i s unp re t e n d i n g little b oo k ,

wh i c h c o n t ai n s an am o un t an d k i n d of i n forma t i o n t hat i t would b e

h
d i f cult to n d e ls ew ere wi t h o u t gre a t lab or The au t h or s s ub j ec t i s .

t he G h et to or J e wi s h q ua rt e r i n E u ro p e an c i t i e s
, L i ter ary Wo r ld

(B o s to n) .

It i s i n t e r e sti n to s e e the foun d at i o n of

g s o m uch
c t i o n t h a t i s fam i li a r to us to go as t he aut hor h e re has g o n e i n o n e
,

of hi s tri p s ab ro ad i n to t he r em ai n s of the old J ewri e s B alti mor e Sun

, .
-
.

H i s b oo k i s a c are ful s tu d y li m i te d to t he oi c i al G h e tto Ci n ci nna ti

Commer ci al Gaz ette .

Ou t -
o f- the- way inform at i o n grat e ful to t he d elver i n an t i q ui t i e s
, ,

form s t he st ap le of a wor k o n t he h i stori c G h etto s of E u rop e M i l

waukee Senti ne l .

He t e lls t he s tor y of the G h e tto s c alm ly , s ym p t h a e t i c ally an d con

s ci e n ti ous ly , an d hi s d due c t i o n s are i n ha m r on y wi t h t hos e of all ot h er

in t elli g en t a nd fai r m i n d e d m e n Ri chmond D i sp atch
-
.

A stri k i g s t d y of h r s lt s of sy st m t h t h l ft i m r k
n u t e e u a e a as e ts a up on
h J ws of ll o
t e e tr i S F
a i
c un Chr i l es an ranc sco on c e .

H h e r f lly go o r ll p b li s h d
as c a e u o ts d m d d i
ne ve a u e a cc un an a e s c ri m i

i g
n at n of th p b li ti o s b ot h r
us e e t d old r
u ca hi bj n , e ce n an e ,
on s su ec t , in
G rm
e Fr
an , h d E gli s h R f r m A d
en c an t ( Ch i
n o) e o voca e c ag .

n
Bo u d i n C lo t h Pr ic e , Po s t p a id , $ I 2S .
Jew
ishLiteratureandO
therEssays
By G USTA V KA RP E L E S

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS

The t h or s h o ws i n eve ry c h ap t e r t he d e vot e d love for J ud ai s m wh i c h

au

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p h i lo s op h y d so an ng Phi lad elp hi a Record .

Th r s lt of r
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The p re s en t aut h or i n t h i s volum e g i ve s us a g en e ral vi e w of all

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A ls o , an Ap p e n di x,
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