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 PRESENTED BY 
 
 John Stuart Conning, D.D. 
 
 BM 45 .S34 1920 
 Schechter, S. 1847-1915 
 Studies in Judaism 
 
cy^ 
 
STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 FIRST SERIES 
 
STUDIES IN JUDAISM'''' 
 
 BV 
 
 S. SCHECHTER, M.A. 
 
 READER IN TALMUDIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
 1920 
 
 ji/I rights reserved 
 
Copyright, 1896, 
 By MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1896. 
 
 J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
TO 
 
 THE EVKR-CHERISHED MEMORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LATE DR. P. F. FRANKL, RABBI IN BERLIN 
 
 THESE STUDIES ARE REVERENTLY 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
PREFACE 
 
 These studies appeared originally in their first form in 
 The Jewish Quarterly and The Jewish Chronicle. To the 
 Editors of these periodicals my best thanks are due for their 
 readiness in placing the articles at my disposal for the 
 purposes of the present volume. The Introductory Essay 
 is new. I desire to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. 
 J. G. Frazer, Fellow of Trinity College ^ Cambridge^ and Dr. 
 J. Sutherland Blacky of London^ for their great kindness in 
 revising the proof Sy and for m,any a valuable suggestion. 
 To Mr. Claude G. Montefiore I am indebted for the English 
 version of the Essay on *^ Chassidim'' — my first literary 
 effort in this country^ written at his own suggestion. 
 
 In the transliteration of Hebrew names ^ I have given the 
 familiar English forms of the authorised version. As 
 regards post-Biblical names^ I have with few exceptions 
 followed Zedner's Catalogue of the Hebrew Books in the 
 Library of the British Museum. A Hebrew word will be 
 found here and there in the text ; I have purposely avoided 
 bewildering devices for representing the actual sound of the 
 wordy contenting myself with the ordinary Roman alphabet^ 
 in spite of its shortcomings. 
 
viii 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The authorities used for the various Essays will be found 
 indicated in the Notes at the end of the volume, where the 
 reader will also find short biographical and bibliographical 
 notices, together with brief explanations of technical terms 
 for which no exact equivalent exists in English. The index 
 will, it is hoped, facilitate reference, 
 
 Cambridge, February 1896. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 rAGK 
 
 Introduction xi 
 
 V I. The Chassidim i 
 
 2. Nachman Krochmal and the "Perplexities of the 
 
 Time" 46 
 
 3- Rabbi Elijah Wilna, Gaon 73 
 
 4. Nachmanides 99 
 
 5. A Jewish Boswell 142 
 
 \/ 6. The Dogmas of Judaism 147 
 
 7. The History of Jewish Tradition . . . .182 
 
 8. The Doctrine of Divine Retribution in Rabbinical 
 
 Literature 213 
 
 9. The Law and Recent Criticism . . . . .233 
 
 10. The Hebrew Collection of the British Museum . 252 
 
 11. Titles of Jewish Books 270 
 
 V \i. The Child in Jewish Literature 282 
 
 V 13. Woman in Temple and Synagogue .... 313 
 y 14. The Earliest Jewish Community in Europe . . 326 
 
 Notes 34' 
 
 Index 361 
 
 ix 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The essays published in this volume under the title of 
 Studies in Judaism have been written on various occasions 
 and at long intervals. There is thus no necessary con- 
 nection between them. If some sort of unity may be de- 
 tected in the book, it can only be between the first three 
 essays — on the Chassidim, Krochmal, and the Gaon — in 
 which there is a certain unity of purpose. The purpose in 
 view was, as may easily be gathered from the essays them- 
 selves, to bring under the notice of the English public 
 a type of men produced by the Synagogue of the Eastern 
 Jews. That Synagogue is widely different from ours. Its 
 places of worship have no claims to "beauty of holiness," 
 being in their outward appearance rather bare and bald, 
 if not repulsive ; whilst those who frequent them are a 
 noisy, excitable people, who actually dance on the " Sea- 
 son of Rejoicing" and cry bitterly on the "Days of 
 Mourning." But among all these vagaries — or perhaps 
 because of them — this Synagogue has had its moments 
 of grace, when enthusiasm wedded to inspiration gave 
 birth to such beautiful souls as Baalshem, such fine scep- 
 tics as Krochmal, and such saintly scholars as Elijah 
 Wilna. The Synagogue of the West is certainly of a 
 more presentable character, and free from excesses ; 
 though it is not devoid of an enthusiasm of its own which 
 
Xii STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 finds its outlet in an ardent and self-sacrificing philan- 
 thropic activity. But owing to its practical tendency 
 there is too little room in it for that play of intellectual 
 forces which finds its extravagant expression in the saint 
 on the one hand, and the learned heretic on the other. 
 
 Eight of these essays are more or less of a theological 
 nature. But in reading the proofs I have been struck by 
 the fact that there is assumed in them a certain concep- 
 tion of the Synagogue which, familiar though it be to the 
 Jewish student, may appear obscure and even strange to 
 the general English reader. For brevity's sake I will call 
 it the High Synagogue, though it does not correspond in 
 all details to what one is accustomed to understand under 
 the term of High Church. The High Synagogue has a 
 history which is not altogether without its points of 
 interest. 
 
 Some years ago when the waves of the Higher Criticism 
 of the Old Testament reached the shores of this country, 
 and such questions as the heterogeneous composition of 
 the Pentateuch, the comparatively late date of the Leviti- 
 cal Legislation, and the post-exilic origin of certain Prophe- 
 cies as well as of the Psalms began to be freely discussed 
 by the press and even in the pulpit, the invidious remark 
 was often made : What will now become of Judaism when 
 its last stronghold, the Law, is being shaken to its very 
 foundations .'* 
 
 Such a remark shows a very superficial acquaintance 
 with the nature of an old historical religion like Judaism, 
 and the richness of the resources it has to fall back upon 
 in cases of emergency. 
 
 As a fact, the emergency did not quite surprise Judaism. 
 The alarm signal was given some 150 years ago by an 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 Italian Rabbi, Abiad Sar Shalom Bazilai, in his pamphlet 
 The Faith of the Sages. The pamphlet is, as the title 
 indicates, of a polemical character, reviewing the work 
 of the Jewish rationalistic schools ; and after warming up 
 in his attacks against their heterodox views, Bazilai ex- 
 claims : " Nature and simple meaning, they are our mis- 
 fortune." By "nature and simple meaning" Bazilai, who 
 wrote in Hebrew, understood what we would call Natural 
 Science and Philology. With the right instinct of faith, 
 Bazilai hit on the real sore points. For though he mostly 
 argues against the philosophical systems of Aristotle and 
 his commentators, he felt that it is not speculation that 
 will ever seriously endanger religion. There is hardly any 
 metaphysical system, old or new, which has not in course 
 of time been adapted by able dialecticians to the creed 
 which they happened to hold. In our own time we have 
 seen the glorious, though not entirely novel spectacle, of 
 Agnosticism itself becoming the rightful handmaid of 
 Queen Theology. The real danger lies in "nature" (or 
 Natural Science) with its stern demand of law and regu- 
 larity in all phenomena, and in the "simple meaning" 
 (or Philology) with its inconsiderate insistence on truth. 
 Of the two, the ** simple meaning " is the more objection- 
 able. Not only is it very often at variance with Tradition, 
 which has its own code of interpretation, but it is con- 
 stantly increasing the difficulties raised by science. For 
 if words could only have more than one meaning, there 
 would be no objection to reading the first words of Gene- 
 sis, " In a beginning God evolved!' The difficulties of 
 science would then be disposed of easily enough. Mai- 
 monides, who was as bold an interpreter as he was a deep 
 metaphysician, hinted plainly enough that were he as con- 
 
xiv STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 vinced of the eternity of matter as he was satisfied of the 
 impossibility of any corporeal quality in the deity, he 
 would feel as little compunction in explaining (figuratively) 
 the contents of the first chapter of Genesis as he did in 
 allegorising the anthropomorphic passages of the Bible. 
 Thus in the end all the difficulties resolve themselves into 
 the one great difficulty of the "simple meaning." The 
 best way to meet this difficulty was found to be to shift 
 the centre of gravity in Judaism and to place it in the 
 secondary meaning, thus making religion independent of 
 philology and all its dangerous consequences. 
 
 This shifting work was chiefly done, perhaps not quite 
 consciously, by the historical school which followed upon 
 that of Mendelssohn and his first successors. The his- 
 torical school, which is still in the ascendant, comprises 
 many of the best Jewish writers who either by their 
 learning or by their ecclesiastical profession as Rabbis 
 and preachers in great communities have acquired some 
 important position among their brethren. The men who 
 have inaugurated this movement were Krochmal (1785- 
 1841), Rapoport (1790- 1867), and Zunz (1794- 1886). 
 
 It is not a mere coincidence that the first representa- 
 tives of the historical school were also the first Jewish 
 scholars who proved themselves more or less ready to 
 join the modern school of Bible Criticism, and even to 
 contribute their share to it. The first two, Krochmal 
 and Rapoport, early in the second quarter of this century 
 accepted and defended the modern view about a second 
 Isaiah, the post-exilic origin of many Psalms, and the late 
 date of Ecclesiastes ; whilst Zunz, who began (in 1832) 
 with denying the authenticity of Ezekiel, concluded his 
 literary career (1873) with a study on the Bible {Gesam- 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 melte Schriften^ i. pp. 217-290), in which he expressed 
 his view "that the Book of Leviticus dates from a later 
 period than the Book of Deuteronomy, later even than 
 Ezekiel, having been composed during the age of the 
 Second Temple, when there already existed a well-estab- 
 lished priesthood which superintended the sacrificial wor- 
 ship." But when Revelation or the Written Word is 
 reduced to the level of history, there is no difficulty in 
 elevating history in its aspect of Tradition to the rank of 
 Scripture, for both have then the same human or divine 
 origin (according to the student's predilection for the one 
 or the other adjective), and emanate from the same 
 authority. Tradition becomes thus the means whereby 
 the modern divine seeks to compensate himself for the 
 loss of the Bible, and the theological balance is to the 
 satisfaction of all parties happily readjusted. 
 
 Jewish Tradition, or, as it is commonly called, the Oral 
 Law, or, as we may term it (in consideration of its claims 
 to represent an interpretation of the Bible), the Second- 
 ary Meaning of the Scriptures, is mainly embodied in the 
 works of the Rabbis and their subsequent followers dur- 
 ing the Middle Ages. Hence the zeal and energy with 
 which the historical school applied itself to the Jewish 
 post-biblical literature, not only elucidating its texts by 
 means of new critical editions, dictionaries, and commen- 
 taries, but also trying to trace its origins and to pursue 
 its history through its gradual development. To the work 
 of Krochmal in this direction a special essay is devoted 
 in this volume. The labours of Rapoport are more of a 
 biographical and bibliographical nature, being occupied 
 mostly with the minor details in the lives and writings of 
 various famous Jewish Rabbis in the Middle Ages ; thus 
 
xvi STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 they offer but little opportunity for general theological 
 comment. Of more importance in this respect are the 
 hints thrown out in his various works by Zunz, who was 
 just as emphatic in asserting the claims of Tradition as 
 he was advanced in his views on Bible criticism. Zunz's 
 greatest work is Die Gottesdie^istlichen Vortrdge — an awk- 
 ward title, which in fact means ** The History of the Inter- 
 pretation of the Scriptures as forming a part of the divine 
 service." Now if a work displaying such wide learning 
 and critical acumen, and written in such an impartial spirit 
 can be said to have a bias, it was towards bridging over 
 the seemingly wide gap between the Written Word (the 
 Scriptures) and the Spoken Word (the Oral Law or Tra- 
 dition), which was the more deeply felt, as most of Zunz's 
 older contemporaries were men, grown up in the habits 
 of thought of the eighteenth century — a century distin- 
 guished both for its ignorance of, and its power of ignor- 
 ing, the teachings of history. Indeed it would seem that 
 ages employed in making history have no time for study- 
 ing it. 
 
 Zunz accomplished the task he set himself, by showing, 
 as already indicated, the late date of certain portions of 
 the Bible, which by setting the early history of Israel in 
 an ideal light betray the moralising tendency of their 
 authors, and are, in fact, little more than a traditional 
 interpretation of older portions of Scripture, adapted to 
 the religious needs of the time. Placing thus the origin 
 of Tradition in the Bible itself, it was a comparatively 
 easy matter for Zunz to prove its further continuity. 
 Prophecy and Interpretation are with him the natural 
 expressions of the religious life of the nation ; and though 
 by the loss of Israel's political independence the voice of 
 
INTR OD UCTION xvii 
 
 the prophets gradually died away, the voice of God was 
 still heard. Israel continues to consult God through the 
 medium of the Scriptures, and He answers His people by 
 the mouth of the Scribes, the Sages, the Interpreters of 
 the Law ; whilst the liturgy of the Synagogue, springing 
 up at the time when Psalms were still being composed, 
 expands in its later stages through the work of the Poets 
 of the Synagogue into such a rich luxuriance "that it 
 forms in itself a treasure of history, poetry, philosophy ; 
 and prophecy and psalms are again revived in the hym- 
 nology of the Middle Ages." This is in brief the lesson 
 to be learned from Zunz's Gottesdienstliche Vortrdge as far 
 as it deals with the significance of Tradition ; and it is in 
 the introduction to this work that Zunz expresses himself 
 to the following effect : Indispensable is the free Spoken 
 Word. Mankind has acquired all its ideal treasures only 
 by Word of Mouth ; an education continuing through all 
 stages of life. In Israel, too, the Word of Instruction 
 transmitted from mouth to mouth was never silenced. 
 
 The historical school has never, to my knowledge, offered 
 to the world a theological programme of its own. By the 
 nature of its task, its labours are mostly conducted in the 
 field of philology and archaeology, and it pays but little 
 attention to purely dogmatic questions. On the whole, its 
 attitude towards religion may be defined as an enlightened 
 Scepticism combined with a staunch conservatism which 
 is not even wholly devoid of a certain mystical touck. 
 As far as we may gather from vague remarks and hints 
 thrown out now and then, its theological position may 
 perhaps be thus defined : — It is not the mere revealed 
 Bible that is of first importance to the Jew, but the Bible 
 as it repeats itself in history, in other words, as it is 
 
xviii STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 interpreted by Tradition. The Talmud, that wonderful 
 mine of religious ideas from which it would be just as 
 easy to draw up a manual for the most orthodox as to 
 extract a vade-mecum for the most sceptical, lends some 
 countenance to this view by certain controversial passages 
 — not to be taken ::eriously — in v;hich " the words of the 
 scribes" are placed almost above the words of the Torah. 
 Since then the interpretation of Scripture or the Second- 
 ary Meaning is mainly a product of changing historical 
 influences, it follows that the centre of authority is actu- 
 ally removed from the Bible and placed in some living 
 body, which, by reason of its being in touch with the ideal 
 aspirations and the religious needs of the age, is best able 
 to determine the nature of the Secondary Meaning. This 
 living body, however, is not represented by any section of 
 the nation, or any corporate priesthood, or Rabbihood, but 
 by the collective conscience of Catholic Israel as embodied 
 in the Universal Synagogue. The Synagogue "with its 
 long, continuous cry after God for more than twenty-three 
 centuries," with its unremittent activity in teaching and 
 developing the v/ord of God, with its uninterrupted suc- 
 cession of prophets. Psalmists, Scribes, Assideans, Rab- 
 bis, Patriarchs, Interpreters, Elucidators, Eminences, and 
 Teachers, with its glorious record of Saints, martyrs, 
 sages, philosophers, scholars, and mystics ; this Syna- 
 gogue, the only true witness to the past, and forming in 
 all ages the sublimest expression of Israel's religious life, 
 must also retain its authority as the sole true guide for 
 the present and the future. And being in communion 
 with this Synagogue, we may also look hopefully for 
 a safe and rational solution of our present theological 
 troubles. For was it not the Synagogue which even in 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 XIX 
 
 antiquity determined the fate of Scripture ? On the one 
 hand, for example, books like Ezekiel, the Song of Songs, 
 and Ecclesiastes, were only declared to be Holy Writ 
 in virtue of the interpretation put upon them by the 
 Rabbis : and, on the other hand, it was the veto of the 
 Rabbis which excluded from the canon the works that 
 now pass under the name of Apocrypha. We may, there- 
 fore, safely trust that the Synagogue will again assert its 
 divine right in passing judgment upon the Bible when it 
 feels called upon to exercise that holy office. It is " God 
 who has chosen the Torah, and Moses His servant, and 
 Israel His people." But indeed God's choice invariably 
 coincides with the wishes of Israel ; He " performeth all 
 things " upon which the councils of Israel, meeting under 
 promise of the Divine presence and communion, have pre- 
 viously agreed. As the Talmud somewhere expresses 
 itself with regard to the Book of Esther, "They have 
 confirmed above what Israel has accepted below." 
 
 Another consequence of this conception of Tradition is 
 that it is neither Scripture nor primitive Judaism, but gen- 
 eral custom which forms the real rule of practice. Holy 
 Writ as well as history, Zunz tells us, teaches that the law 
 of Moses was never fully and absolutely put in practice. 
 Liberty was always given to the great teachers of every 
 generation to make modifications and innovations in har- 
 mony with the spirit of existing institutions. Hence a 
 return to Mosaism would be illegal, pernicious, and indeed 
 impossible. The norm as well as the sanction of Judaism 
 is the practice actually in vogue. Its consecration is the 
 consecration of general use, — or, in other words, of Cath- 
 olic Israel. It was probably with a view to this com- 
 munion that the later m.ystics introduced a short prayer to 
 
XX STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 be said before the performance of any religious ceremony, 
 in which, among other things, the speaker professes his 
 readiness to act '*in the name of all Israel." 
 
 It would be out of place in an introductory essay 
 to pursue any further this interesting subject with its 
 far-reaching consequences upon Jewish life and Jewish 
 thought. But the foregoing remarks may suffice to show 
 that Judaism did not remain quite inactive at the approach 
 of the great religious crisis which our generation has 
 witnessed. Like so many other religious communities, it 
 reviewed its forces, entrenched itself on the field of his- 
 tory, and what it lost of its old devotion to the Bible, 
 it has sought to make up by a renewed reverence for 
 institutions. 
 
 In this connection, a mere mention may suffice of the 
 ultra-Orthodox party, led by the late Dr. S. R. Hirsch of 
 Frankfort (i 808-1 889) whose defiance of reason and criti- 
 cism even a Ward might have envied, and whose saintli- 
 ness and sublimity even a Keble might have admired. 
 And, to take an example from the opposite school, we 
 must at least record the name of that devout Jew, Osias 
 Schorr (1816-1895), in whom we have profound learning 
 combined with an uncompromising disposition of mind 
 productive of a typical champion of Radicalism in things 
 religious. These men are, however, representative of two 
 extremes, and their followers constitute mere minorities ; 
 the majority is with the historical school. 
 
 How long the position of this school will prove tenable 
 is another question. Being brought up in the old Low 
 Synagogue, where, with all attachment to tradition, the 
 Bible was looked upon as the crown and the climax of 
 Judaism, the old Adam still asserts itself in me, and in 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 XXI 
 
 u«nguarded moments makes me rebel against this new 
 rival of revelation in the shape of history. At times this 
 now fashionable exaltation of Tradition at the expense of 
 Scripture even impresses me as a sort of religious bimetal- 
 lism in which bold speculators in theology try to keep up 
 the market value of an inferior currency by denouncing 
 loudly the bright shining gold which, they would have us 
 believe, is less fitted to circulate in the vulgar use of daily 
 life than the small cash of historical interpretation. Nor 
 can I quite reconcile myself to this alliance of religion 
 with history, which seems to me both unworthy and un- 
 natural. The Jew, some writer aptly remarked, was the 
 first and the fiercest Nonconformist of the East, and so 
 Judaism was always a protesting religion. To break the 
 idols, whether of the past or of the present, has always 
 been a sacred mission of Judaism, and has indeed been 
 esteemed by it as a necessary preliminary to the advent 
 of the kingdom of God on earth. One of its daily prayers 
 was and still is: "We therefore hope in Thee, O Lord 
 our God, that we may speedily behold the glory of Thy 
 might, when . . . the idols will be cut off, when the world 
 will be perfected under the kingdom of the Almighty." 
 It bowed before truth, but it had never made a covenant 
 with facts only because they were facts. History had to 
 be re -made and to sanctify itself before it found its way 
 into its sacred annals. Nor did Judaism make a virtue of 
 swallowing down institutions. Such institutions as crept 
 into it in course of time had, when the Synagogue was 
 conscious of their claims to form part of religion, to sub- 
 mit to the laborious process of a thorough adaptation to 
 prophetic notions before they were formally sanctioned. 
 But when this process was deemed impossible or impracti 
 
Xxii STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 cable, Judaism boldly denounced the past in such fierce 
 language as the prophets used and as still finds its echo 
 in such passages of the liturgy as *' First our ancestors 
 were worshippers of idols and now God has brought us 
 near to His service " ; or ** But of a truth, we and our an- 
 cestors have sinned." 
 
 However, it would be unfair to argue any further 
 against a theological system which, as already said, was 
 never avowed distinctly by the historical school — a 
 school, moreover, with which speculation is a matter of 
 minor importance. The main strength of this school lies 
 in its scientific work, for which Judaism will always be 
 under a sense of deep gratitude. And living as we do in 
 an age in which history reigns supreme in all departments 
 of human thought, we may hope that even its theology, 
 as far as it goes, will " do " for us, though I neither hope 
 nor believe that it will do for those who come after us. I 
 may, however, humbly confess that the sixth essay in this 
 volume was written in a spirit of rebellion against this all- 
 absorbing Catholic Israel, with its decently veiled scepti- 
 cism on the one hand, and its unfortunate tendency with 
 many people to degenerate into a soulless conformity on 
 the other hand. There is, I am afraid, not much to be 
 said in favour of this essay. It is deficient both in matter 
 and in style. It proved to be a futile attempt to bring 
 within the compass of an essay what a whole book could 
 hardly do justice to. The Hebrew documents bearing 
 upon the question of dogma which I have collected from 
 various manuscripts and rare printed books, would alone 
 make a fair-sized volume. I only venture to offer it to 
 the public in the absence of anything better ; since, so far 
 as I know, no other attempt has ever been made to treat 
 
INTRODUCTION XXIU 
 
 the subject even in its meagrest outlines. I even venture 
 to hope that, with all its shortcomings, it will contribute 
 something towards destroying the illusion, in which so 
 many theologians indulge, that Judaism is a religion with- 
 out dogmas. To declare that a religion has no dogmas is 
 tantamount to saying that it was wise enough not to com- 
 mit itself to any vital principles. But prudence, useful as 
 it may be in worldly affairs, is quite unworthy of a great 
 spiritual power. 
 
 Jewish mysticism in the Middle Ages and in modern 
 times is represented in this volume by two essays (" The 
 Chassidim" and " Nachmanides "). But in order to avoid 
 mistakes which might be implied by my silence, I think it 
 desirable to state that there are also to be found many 
 mystical elements in the old Rabbinic literature. Mysti- 
 cism, not as a theosophic system or as an occult science, but 
 as a manifestation of the spiritual and as an expression of 
 man's agonies in his struggle after communion with God, 
 as well as of his ineffable joy when he receives the assur- 
 ance that he has found it, is not, as some maintain, foreign 
 to the spirit of old Rabbinic Judaism. There was no need 
 for the mediaeval Rabbi to borrow the elements of such a 
 mysticism from non-Jewish sources. The perusal of the 
 old Homilies on the Song of Songs, and on the Lessons 
 from the Prophets, or even a fair acquaintance with the 
 Jewish liturgy would, in itself, suffice to refute such base- 
 less assertions. Those who are at all familiar with old 
 Rabbinic literature hardly need to be told that " the sea of 
 the Talmud " has also its gulf stream of mysticism which, 
 taking its origin in the moralising portions of the Bible, 
 runs through the wide ocean of Jewish thought, con- 
 stantly commingling with the icy waters of legalism, and 
 
xxiv STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 unceasingly washing the desolate shores of an apparently 
 meaningless ceremonialism, communicating to it life, 
 warmth, and spirituality. To draw attention to this fact a 
 humble attempt has been made in the ninth essay, "The 
 Law and Recent Criticism," a subject which I have essayed 
 to expound in a series of essays on "Some Aspects of 
 Rabbinic Theology," now appearing in The Jewish Quar- 
 terly Review. 
 
 The last five essays touch rather on certain social and 
 familiar aspects of Judaism, and need no further comment. 
 They are mere causeries and hardly deserve the name of 
 studies. Perhaps it may be useful for those who judge of 
 the heaviness of a work by its bulk to know that there is 
 also a lighter side of Rabbinic literature. 
 
 But I shall be better pleased if the more serious side of 
 this volume — Jewish mysticism and Rabbinic theology — 
 should attract the attention of students, and so draw some 
 fellow-workers into a field which is utterly neglected. 
 Notwithstanding the numerous Manuals and Introductions 
 which all more or less touch on the subject of Rabbinic 
 theology, there is, after nearly 250 years, not a single work 
 among them which, either in knowledge of facts or in 
 their interpretation, is a single step in advance of the 
 Cambridge Platonist, John Smith, in his Select Discourses. 
 But those who try so hard to determine the miraculous 
 distance of Christianity by the eclipses in Rabbinism, 
 should, if they wish to be just or prove themselves worthy 
 scholars, also endeavour to make themselves acquainted 
 with the numberless bright stars that move in the wide uni- 
 verse of Jewish thought. We are often told that no creed 
 or theological system which has come down to us from 
 antiquity can afford to be judged by any other standard 
 
INTRODUCTION XXV 
 
 than by its spiritual and poetic possibilities : this indul- 
 gence Judaism is as justly entitled to claim as any other 
 religion. The great and saintly Franz Delitzsch who, born 
 with an intellect of admirable temper, was also endowed 
 by Heaven with a soul — and a beautiful soul it was — 
 was one of the few theologians who, partly at least, ad- 
 mitted this claim, and sought earnestly and diligently after 
 these spiritual and poetic possibilities, and was amply re- 
 warded for his labours. 
 
THE CHASSIDIMi 
 
 Throughout the whole of that interesting field of 
 Theological Literature which deals with the genesis and 
 course of religious movements, there is probably none 
 whose history, even whose name, is so little known to 
 English students, as that of the Chassidim. And yet it 
 would be difficult to point, in comparatively recent times, 
 to a Dissenting movement more strikingly complete in its 
 development, more suggestive of analogy, more full of 
 interest in its original purpose, more pregnant of warning 
 in its decay. 
 
 The Hebrew word " Chassidim "^ merely means "the 
 Pious," and appears to have been complacently adopted 
 by the early apostles of the sect. But the thing — Chas- 
 sidism — was, in its inception at all events, a revolt among 
 the Jews of Eastern Europe against the excessive casu- 
 istry of the contemporary Rabbis. It was in fact one 
 more manifestation of the yearning of the human heart 
 towards the Divine idea, and of its ceaseless craving for 
 direct communion with God. It was the protest of an 
 emotional but uneducated people against a one-sided 
 expression of Judaism, presented to them in cold and 
 over-subtle disquisitions which not only did they not 
 understand, but which shut out the play of the feelings 
 
 B I 
 
2 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 and the affections, so that religion was made almost 
 impossible to them. 
 
 Some account of the sect is the more necessary because, 
 although the Chassidim have not been wholly ignored by 
 historians or novelists, the references to them have gen- 
 erally, for perfectly intelligible reasons, been either biassed 
 or inaccurate. The historians who have treated of them 
 have been almost exclusively men saturated with Western 
 culture and rationalism. To them the rude and uncouth 
 manifestations of an undisciplined religious spirit could 
 not be other than repellent; to them Chassidism was a 
 movement to be dismissed as unaesthetic and irrational. 
 
 To the purposes of fiction the romantic side of Chas- 
 sidism lends itself readily, but the novelists who have used 
 this material have confined themselves to its externals. 
 Indeed, to have done more would have involved a tedious 
 and unremunerative study of difficult Hebrew texts, an 
 undertaking not to be expected from the most conscien- 
 tious writers of this class. Thus Franzos in his references 
 to the Jews of Barnow describes faithfully the outer signs 
 of the man, his long coat and tangled curls, but the inner 
 life, the world in which the Chassid moved and had his 
 being, was unknown to him and is therefore unrecorded. 
 
 As to my treatment of the subject, I confess that there 
 was a time when I loved the Chassidim as there was a 
 time when I hated them. And even now I am not able 
 to suppress these feelings. I have rather tried to guide 
 my feelings in such a way as to love in Chassidism what 
 is ideal and noble, and to hate in it what turned out bad 
 and pernicious for Judaism. How far I have been suc- 
 cessful is another question. At least I have endeavoured 
 to write this paper in such a spirit. But of one thing I 
 
THE CHASSIDIM j 
 
 must warn the reader — the desire to give some clear 
 notion of the leading ideas of Chassidism has compelled 
 me to quote some passages in which the Chassidim have 
 spoken in very offensive terms of their opponents. In 
 justice to these I must remark that unfortunately religious 
 struggles are usually conducted on the most irreligious 
 principles. Thus the Chassidim imputed to their antago- 
 nists, the contemporary Rabbis, many vices from which 
 they were free. Certainly, there was, as one can read in 
 every history of Jewish religion, something wrong in the 
 state of Judaism. But I know people who maintain that 
 there is something very wrong in the present state of 
 Judaism, and who despair of a regeneration. But surely 
 this is a silly exaggeration. The Chassidim also exag- 
 gerated. It would be better to take but little notice of 
 their accusations and dwell more on that which was 
 spoken in a kind and loving spirit. 
 
 As to the literature of the subject, I can only say here 
 that I have made use of every book I could consult, both 
 in English and in foreign libraries. But I cannot pledge 
 myself to be what early Jewish writers called " a donkey 
 which carries books." I exercise my own choice and my 
 own judgment on many points. 
 
 As an active force for good, Chassidism was short-lived. 
 For, as I propose to show, there lurked among its central 
 tenets the germs of the degeneracy which so speedily 
 came upon it. But its early purposes were high, its doc- 
 trines fairly pure, its aspirations ideal and sublime. 
 
 The founder of the sect was one Israel Baalshem,^ and 
 the story of his parentage, birth, and childhood, and the 
 current anecdotes of his subsequent career play a con- 
 siderable part in Chassidic literature. But the authentic 
 
4 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 materials for his biography are everywhere interwoven 
 with much that is pure legend and with much more that 
 is miraculous. This was, perhaps, inevitable, and is cer- 
 tainly not an unfamiliar feature in the personal histories 
 of religious reformers as presented by their followers and 
 devotees. 
 
 The sayings and doings of Baalshem are an essential 
 — perhaps the most essential — portion of any account 
 of the sect. For Baalshem is the centre of the Chassidic 
 world, and Chassidism is so intimately bound up with 
 the personality of its founder that any separation be- 
 tween them is well nigh impossible. To the Chassidim 
 Baalshem is not a man who established a theory or 
 set forth a system; he himself was the incarnation of a 
 theory and his whole life the revelation of a system. 
 
 Even those portions of his history which are plainly 
 legendary have their uses in indicating the ideals and in 
 illustrating the aspirations of the early Chassidim ; while 
 their circulation and the ready credence they received 
 are valuable evidence of the real power and influence 
 of Baalshem's personality. 
 
 In the tale as told by the sect little is omitted of 
 those biographical accessories which are proper to an 
 Avatar. There is all the conventional heralding of a 
 pre-ordained advent; all the usual signs and portents 
 of a new dispensation may be recognised in the almost 
 preternatural virtues of Baalshem's parents, in the mirac- 
 ulous annunciation and exceptional circumstances of his 
 nativity, and in the early indication of a strong and fear- 
 less individuality. Everywhere it seems to be suggested 
 that Baalshem from his infancy was conscious of a lofty 
 mission. It is already in tender years that he is made 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 5 
 
 to give evidence of an indifference to conventional re- 
 straints and accepted ideals. 
 
 Rabbi Eliezer and his wife, the parents of Baalshem, 
 dwelt, as the story goes, in Moldavia. They are de- 
 scribed as a pious and God-fearing couple, who, when 
 they had already reached old age, were still childless. 
 They are accredited with a spotless rectitude, which was 
 unimpaired by a long series of strange vicissitudes and 
 misfortunes. 
 
 Ultimately, an angel of God appeared to Eliezer and 
 announced that, as he had successfully withstood all the 
 temptations and sufferings by which he had been tried, 
 God was about to reward him with a son, who was des- 
 tined to enlighten the eyes of all Israel. Therefore his 
 name should be Israel, for in him the words of Scripture 
 were to be fulfilled, "Thou art my servant, Israel, in 
 whom I will be glorified." In due course the promise 
 was fulfilled, and to the aged couple a son was born, who 
 was named Israel according to the angel's word. The 
 date of Baalshem's birth is about 1700; his birthplace, in 
 Bukowina, in a hitherto unidentified village which the 
 authorities call Ukop, then still belonging to Roumania. 
 The child's mother died soon after he was weaned, and 
 his father did not long survive her. But before Eliezer 
 died he took his child in his arms, and blessing him, bade 
 him fear naught, for God would always be with him. 
 
 As Eliezer had been greatly honoured in the community 
 in which he lived, his orphan son was carefully tended 
 and educated. He was early supplied with an instructor 
 in the Holy Law. But though he learned with rare facil- 
 ity, he rejected the customary methods of instruction. 
 One day, while still quite young, his teacher missed him, 
 
6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 and on seeking found him sitting alone in the forest that 
 skirted his native village, in happy and fearless solitude. 
 He repeated this escapade so often that it was thought 
 best to leave him to follow his own bent. A little later 
 we find him engaged as assistant to a schoolmaster. 
 His duty was not to teach, but to take the children from 
 their homes to the synagogue and thence on to the school. 
 It was his wont while accompanying the children to the 
 synagogue to teach them solemn hymns which he sang 
 with them. In the synagogue he encouraged them to 
 sing the responses, so that the voices of the children 
 penetrated through the heavens and moved the Divine 
 father to compassion. Satan, fearing lest his power on 
 earth should thereby be diminished, assumed the shape 
 of a werewolf, and, appearing before the procession of 
 children on their way to the synagogue, put them to 
 flight. In consequence of this alarming incident the chil- 
 dren's services were suspended. But Israel, recollecting 
 his father's counsel to fear naught, besought the parents 
 to be allowed to lead the children once more in the old 
 way. His request was granted, and when the werewolf 
 appeared a second time Israel attacked him with a club 
 and routed him. 
 
 In his fourteenth year Israel became a beadle at the 
 Beth Hammidrash.* Here he assiduously but secretly 
 pursued the study of the Law. Yet, being anxious that 
 none should know his design, he read and worked only 
 at night, when the schoolroom was empty and the usual 
 scholars had retired. During the daytime he slept, so 
 that he was popularly believed to be both ignorant and 
 lazy. Despite these precautions, however, his true 
 character was revealed to one person. A certain holy 
 
THE CHASSIDIM m 
 
 man, the father of a young student at the college, had 
 discovered some old manuscripts which contained the 
 deepest secrets. Before his death he bade his son repair 
 to Ukop, Israel's birthplace, telling him that he would 
 find one Israel, son of Eliezer, to whom the precious 
 documents were to be entrusted. They possessed, so the 
 old man declared, a certain mystic and heavenly affinity 
 with Israel's soul. The student carried out his father's 
 instructions, and at last discovered the object of his 
 search in the beadle of the Beth Hammidrash. Israel 
 admitted him to his friendship and confidence on the 
 condition of secrecy as to his real character. The student, 
 however, paid dearly for this acquaintance with Israel. 
 Contrary to Baalshem's advice, he entered upon a danger- 
 ous incantation in the course of which he made a mistake 
 so serious that it cost him his life. 
 
 Upon the death of his friend, Baalshem left his native 
 village and settled as a teacher in a small town near 
 Brody. Here, although his true mission and character 
 were still unknown, he became much respected for his 
 rigid probity, and was frequently chosen as umpire in 
 disputes among Jews. On one of these occasions he 
 arbitrated with so much learning and impartiality that 
 not only did he satisfy both parties, but one of them, 
 a learned man of Brody, named Abraham, offered him 
 his own daughter in marriage. Israel, to whom it had 
 been revealed that Abraham's daughter was his predes- 
 tined wife, immediately accepted the offer and the act of 
 betrothal was drawn up. But wishing his true character to 
 remain unknown he stipulated that Abraham, although a 
 •'Talmid Chacham " (student)^ himself and therefore pre- 
 sumably desirous that his daughter should marry a scholar, 
 
3 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 should omit from the betrothal-deed all the titles of honour 
 usually appended to the name of a learned bridegroom. 
 While returning to' Brody, Abraham died, and Gershon 
 his son, a scholar still greater and more celebrated than 
 his father, was surprised and shocked to find a deed of 
 betrothal among his father's papers, from which it appeared 
 that his sister was to wed a man with apparently no claim 
 to scholarship or learning. He protested to his sister, 
 but she declined to entertain any objections to a marriage 
 which her father had arranged. When the time for the 
 wedding was at hand, Israel gave up his post as teacher, 
 and repaired to Brody. Disguised as a peasant he pre- 
 sented himself before his future brother-in-law, who was 
 then fulfilling some high judicial function. Gershon taking 
 him for a beggar offered him alms, but Israel, refusing 
 the money, asked for a private interview, stating that he 
 had an important secret to reveal. He then, to Gershon's 
 surprise and disgust, explained who he was and that he 
 had come to claim his bride. As the girl was determined 
 to obey her father's will the affair was settled and the day 
 fixed. On the morning of the wedding Israel revealed to 
 his bride his real character and mission, at the same time 
 enjoining secrecy. Evil fortunes would befall them, he 
 said, but a better time would eventually follow. 
 
 After the wedding, Gershon, having in vain attempted 
 to instruct his seemingly ignorant brother-in-law, decided 
 to rid himself of his presence. He gave his sister the 
 choice of being separated from her husband, or of leaving 
 the town in his company. She chose the latter, and there- 
 upon the two left Brody and began a life of hardship and 
 suffering. Israel chose for his new home a spot on one 
 of the spurs of the Carpathian Mountains. No Jews lived 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 9 
 
 there, and Israel and his wife were thus separated from 
 the society of their fellows in a life of complete and un- 
 changing solitude. Israel dug lime in the ravines among 
 the mountains, and his wife conveyed it for sale to the 
 nearest town. Their life at this period seems to have 
 been one of great privation, but the harder Israel's out- 
 ward lot, the more he increased in spiritual greatness. In 
 his solitude he gave himself up entirely to devotion and 
 religious contemplation. His habit was to climb to the 
 summit of the mountains and wander about rapt in spirit- 
 ual ecstasies. He fasted, prayed, made continual ablu- 
 tions, and observed all the customary outward and inward 
 exercises of piety and devotion. 
 
 After seven years, Gershon, who was well aware of 
 the bitter poverty which his sister endured, relented and 
 brought her and her husband back to Brody. At first 
 he employed Baalshem as his coachman, but as he proved 
 wholly unfit for this work Gershon rented a small inn 
 in a remote village, and there established his sister and 
 her husband. The business of the inn was managed 
 by the wife, while Baalshem passed most of his time 
 in a hut in a neighbouring forest. Here he once more 
 gave himself up to meditation and preparation for his 
 future work, and here, a little later, when nearly forty- 
 two years of age, to a few chosen spirits, afterwards his 
 most fervent disciples, he first revealed his true character 
 and mission. 
 
 From this point unfortunately the materials for a con^ 
 tinuous biography are wanting ; we next hear of Baalshem 
 discharging the functions of an ordinary Rabbi at Mied- 
 ziboz in Podolia, but for the remainder of his personal 
 history we have to be content with detached anecdotes 
 
lO STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 and fragmentary passages in his life, the sum total of 
 which goes to show that he resided in Podolia and Walla- 
 chia, teaching his doctrines to his disciples and " working 
 Wonders." He does not seem to have figured as a public 
 preacher, nor has he left behind him any written work. 
 He appears rather to have used the method, familiar to 
 students of Greek philosophy, of teaching by conversa- 
 tions with his friends and disciples. These conversations, 
 and the parables with which they were largely inter- 
 spersed, were remembered and stored up by his hearers. 
 By his neighbours the country folk, Baalshem was re- 
 garded simply as "a man of God." He was allowed to 
 pursue his course undisturbed by persecution of the 
 serious character which his more aggressive successors 
 provoked. Such of the Rabbis as were aware of his 
 existence despised him and his ways, but the Rabbini- 
 cal world was at that time too much occupied in the 
 controversy between Eybeschiitz and Emden to concern 
 itself with the vagaries of an obscure and apparently 
 "unlearned" eccentric. Baalshem also took part in the 
 disputes which were held in Lemberg, the capital of 
 Galicia (1757.?), between the Rabbis and the Frankists,^ 
 who denounced the Talmud to the Polish Government 
 and wanted to have all the Rabbinical books destroyed. 
 Baalshem suffered from this excitement in a most terri- 
 ble way. The abrogation of the Oral Law meant for 
 him the ruin of Judaism. 
 
 Baalshem, in forming the little band of devoted fol- 
 lowers who were destined to spread a knowledge of his 
 creed, travelled considerably about Wallachia. He at 
 one time decided to make a pilgrimage to Palestine, but 
 when he reached Constantinople he felt himself inspired 
 
THE CHASSIDIM \\ 
 
 to return and continue his work at home. He died at 
 Miedziboz on the eve of Pentecost, 1761. 
 
 After his death his disciples, of whom one Beer of 
 Mizriez was the most prominent, undertook the prosely- 
 tising mission for which Baalshem had prepared them, 
 but from which he himself appears to have abstained. 
 They preached and taught in all the provinces of Russia 
 where Jews may reside, and in Roumania, and Galicia. 
 The number of the sect at the present day is probably 
 about half a million. 
 
 Returning now to Baalshem the founder, it may be 
 noted that his appearance as a teacher and reformer was 
 accompanied and justified by a customary and adequate 
 number of miracles. To one disciple he revealed secrets 
 which could have become known to him only by divine 
 revelation; to another he appeared with a nimbus round 
 his head. On the evidence of the Chassidim we learn 
 that Baalshem performed all the recognised signs and 
 marvels which have ever been the customary minor char- 
 acteristics of men of similar type in similar environment. 
 When Baalshem desired to cross a stream, he spread 
 forth his mantle upon the waters, and standing there- 
 upon passed safely to the other side. Ghosts evacuated 
 haunted houses at the mere mention of his name. Was 
 he alone in the forest on a wintry night, he had but to 
 touch a tree with his finger tips and flames burst forth. 
 When his spirit wandered through the angelic spheres, as 
 was frequently the case, he obtained access to Paradise 
 for millions of pining souls who had vainly waited with- 
 out through long thousands of mournful years. These 
 and other miracles need not be examined. Here, as in the 
 case of other such blissful seasons of grace, they were the 
 
12 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ephemeral though important accessories in establishing 
 the inspired character of his utterances and the authority 
 of his injunctions. It is not as a worker of miracles, but 
 as a religious teacher and reformer, that Baalshem is 
 interesting. 
 
 Properly to understand the nature and special direction 
 of his teaching, it is necessary in some measure to realise 
 the character of the field in which he worked ; to consider, 
 in other words, the moral and religious condition of the 
 Jews in those districts where Chassidism first took root. 
 
 In a Hebrew Hymn, written about looo a.c, and still 
 recited in the synagogue on the Day of Atonement, the 
 poet expresses the strange and bitter fortunes of his race 
 in touching words of mingled sorrow and exultation. 
 
 Destroyed lies Zion and profaned, 
 Of splendour and renown bereft, 
 Her ancient glories wholly waned, 
 One deathless treasure only left; 
 
 Still ours, O Lord, 
 
 Thy Holy Word. 
 
 And this Divine Word it was, which a persecuted relig- 
 ion has sought to preserve intact through so many cen- 
 turies of persecution, and for the sake of which no labour 
 seemed too severe, no sacrifice too large. " Bethink 
 Thee, O God," exclaimed one of our Jewish sages who 
 flourished about the same period, " bethink Thee of Thy 
 faithful children who, amid their poverty and want, are 
 busy in the study of Thy Law. Bethink Thee of the 
 poor in Israel who are willing to suffer hunger and desti- 
 tution if only they can secure for their children the know- 
 ledge of Thy Law." And so indeed it was. Old and 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 
 
 13 
 
 young, weak and strong, rich and poor, all pursued that 
 single study, the Torah. The product of this prolonged 
 study is that gigantic literature which, as a long unbroken 
 chain of spiritual activity, connects together the various 
 periods of the Jews' chequered and eventful history. All 
 ages and all lands have contributed to the develop- 
 ment of this supreme study. For under the word Torah 
 was comprised not only the Law, but also the contri- 
 butions of later times expressing either the thoughts or 
 the emotions of holy and sincere men ; and even their 
 honest scepticism was not entirely excluded. As in the 
 canon of the Bible, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon 
 found place in the same volume that contains the Law 
 and the Prophets, so at a later time people did not object 
 to put the philosophical works of Maimonides and the 
 songs of Judah Hallevi on the same level with the Code 
 of the Law compiled by R. Isaac Alfasi, and the com- 
 mentaries on the Bible by R. Solomon b. Isaac."^ None 
 of them was declared infallible, but also to none of them, 
 as soon as people were convinced of the author's sin- 
 cerity, was denied the homage due to seekers after truth. 
 Almost every author was called Rabbi ("my master") 
 or Rabbenu (" our master "),^ and nearly every book was 
 regarded more or less as a contribution to the great bulk 
 of the Torah. It was called Writ,^ and was treated with 
 a certain kind of piety. But, by a series of accidents too 
 long to be related here, sincerity ceased and sport took 
 its place. I refer to the casuistic schools commonly 
 known by the name of Pilpulists ^^ (the " seasoned " or the 
 "sharp" ones), who flourished in the last two centuries 
 preceding ours. To the authors of this unhappy period, 
 a few glorious exceptions always allowed, the preceding 
 
,4 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Jewish literature did not mean a "fountain of living 
 waters," supplying men with truth and religious inspira- 
 tion, but rather a kind of armoury providing them with 
 juristic cases over which to fight, and to out-do each other 
 in sophistry and subtlety. As a consequence they cared 
 little or nothing for that part of the Jewish literature that 
 appeals less to the intellect than to the feelings of men. 
 In short, religion consisted only of complicated cases and 
 innumerable ordinances, in which the wit of these men 
 found delight. But the emotional part of it, whose root is 
 the Faith and Love of men, was almost entirely neglected. 
 
 But it was precisely these higher religious emotions 
 that were Baalshem's peculiar province, and it was to 
 them that he assigned in his religious system a place be- 
 fitting their importance and their dignity. And the local- 
 ity where his ministration lay was curiously adapted for 
 such propaganda. To that universal study of the Law 
 of which I have just spoken there was one exception. 
 That exception was amongst the Jews in the territories 
 which bordered on the Carpathian Mountains, and com- 
 prise the principalities of Moldavia, and Wallachia, Buko- 
 wina, and the Ukraine. 
 
 It is historically certain that the first arrival of the 
 Jews in Roumania was at a very early date, but there is 
 no trace of any intellectual productivity among the immi- 
 grants until recent times, and it is admitted that the study 
 of the Law was almost entirely neglected. It was in 
 these districts of mental, and perhaps we might add of 
 even spiritual, darkness that Chassidism took its rise and 
 achieved its first success. " The sect of the Chassidim," 
 says one of the bitterest but most trustworthy of their 
 opponents, " first gained ground in the most uncivilised 
 
THE CHASSIDIM I5 
 
 provinces; in the wild ravines of Wallachia and the 
 dreary steppes of the Ukraine." 
 
 Apart from the genius of its founder, Chassidism owed 
 its rapid growth to the intellectual barrenness of these 
 districts as compared with the intellectual fertility of the 
 other regions where Jews most thickly congregated. The 
 Roumanian Jews were to some extent under the jurisdic- 
 tion of the Rabbis of Poland. Now the Poles were cele- 
 brated even in Germany for the elaboration of their casuis- 
 try. These over-subtle Rabbis, delighting in the quibbles 
 of their sophistry, and reducing religion to an unending 
 number of juristic calculations and all sorts of possibilities 
 and impossibilities, were but too apt to forget the claims 
 of feeling in their eager desire to question and to settle 
 everything. They may have been satisfactory guides in 
 matters spiritual to the men of their own stamp, but they 
 were of no avail to their Roumanian brethren who failed 
 to recognise religion in the garb of casuistry. It was, 
 therefore, not surprising that a revolt against the excess of 
 intellectualism should have sprung up and flourished in 
 those districts where the inhabitants were constitutionally 
 incapable of appreciating the delights of argument. The 
 field was ready, and in the fulness of time came the sower 
 in the person of Baalshem. 
 
 In the above estimate of the Polish Rabbis there 
 undoubtedly lurks a touch of exaggeration. But it rep- 
 resents the view which the Chassidim took of their oppo- 
 nents. The whole life of Baalshem is a protest against 
 the typical Rabbi thus conceived. The essential differ- 
 ence in the ideals of the two parties is perhaps best illus- 
 trated in those portions of their biographical literature 
 where legend treads most closely upon the heels of fact. 
 
l6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 The hero of Polish Rabbinic biography at five years of 
 age can recite by heart the most difficult tractates of the 
 Talmud ; at eight he is the disciple of the most celebrated 
 teacher of the time, and perplexes him by the penetrative 
 subtlety of his questions; while at thirteen he appears 
 before the world as a full-fledged Doctor of the Law. 
 
 The hero of the Chassidim has a totally different educa- 
 tion, and his distinctive glory is of another kind. The 
 legendary stories about Baalshem's youth tell us little of 
 his proficiency in Talmudic studies ; instead of sitting in 
 the Beth Hammidrash with the folios of some casuistic 
 treatise spread out before him, Baalshem passes his time 
 singing hymns out of doors, or under the green trees of 
 the forest with the children. Satan, however, says the 
 Chassid, is more afraid of these innocent exercises than 
 of all the controversies in the Meheram Shiff.^^ It was 
 through external nature, the woods of his childhood, the 
 hills and wild ravines of the Carpathians where he passed 
 many of his maturer years, that Baalshem, according to 
 his disciples, reached his spiritual confirmation. The 
 Chassidic hero had no celebrated Rabbi for his master. 
 He was his own teacher. If not self-taught, it was from 
 angelic lips, or even the Divine voice itself, that he learned 
 the higher knowledge. From the source whence the 
 Torah flowed Baalshem received heavenly lore. His 
 method of self-education, his ways of life, his choice of as- 
 sociates were all instances of revolt ; not only did he teach 
 a wholly different theory and practice, but he and his dis- 
 ciples seem to have missed no opportunity of denouncing 
 the old teachers as misleading and ungodly. Among the 
 many anecdotes illustrating this feature, it is told how 
 once, on the evening before the great Day of Atonement, 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 
 
 17 
 
 Baalshem was noticed by his disciples to be, contrary to 
 his usual custom, depressed and ill at ease. The whole 
 subsequent day he passed in violent weeping and lamen- 
 tations. At its close he once more resumed his wonted 
 cheerfulness of manner. When asked for the explanation 
 of his behaviour, he replied that the Holy Spirit had re- 
 vealed to him that heavy accusations were being made 
 against the Jewish people, and a heavy punishment had 
 been ordained upon them. The anger of heaven was 
 caused by the Rabbis, whose sole occupation was to invent 
 lying premisses and to draw from them false conclusions. 
 All the truly wise Rabbis of the olden time (such as the 
 Tannaim, the Amoraim ^^ and their followers, whom Baal- 
 shem regarded as so many saints and prophets) had now 
 stood forth as the accusers of their modern successors by 
 whom their words were so grossly perverted from their origi- 
 nal meaning. On this account Baalshem's tears had been 
 shed, and his prayers as usual had been successful. The 
 impending judgment was annulled. On another occasion, 
 when he overheard the sounds of eager, loud discussion 
 issuing from a Rabbinical college, Baalshem, closing his 
 ears with his hands, declared that it was such disputants 
 who delayed the redemption of Israel from captivity. 
 Satan, he said, incites the Rabbis to study those portions 
 of Jewish literature only on which they can whet the sharp- 
 ness of their intellects, but from all writings of which the 
 reading would promote piety and the fear of God he 
 keeps them away. "Where there is much study," says 
 a disciple of Baalshem, "there is little piety." "Jewish 
 Devils " ^3 is one of the numerous polite epithets applied 
 to the Rabbis by the friends of Baalshem. " Even the 
 worst sinners are better than they; so blind are they in 
 c 
 
1 8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 the arrogance of their self-conceit that their very devotion 
 to the Law becomes a vehicle for their sin." It will be 
 found when we deal with the most positive side of Baal- 
 shem's teaching that this antagonism to the attitude and 
 methods of the contemporary Rabbis is further empha- 
 sised, and it will readily be seen that his whole scheme 
 of religion and of conduct in relation to God and man 
 rendered this acknowledged hostility inevitable. In ap- 
 proaching this part of our subject it should be remembered 
 that, as stated above, Baalshem himself wrote nothing. 
 For a knowledge of his sayings we are therefore depend- 
 ent on the reports of his friends and disciples. And it is 
 not unfrequently necessary to supplement these by the 
 teaching of his followers, whom we may suppose in large 
 measure to have caught the spirit of their master. Un- 
 fortunately the original authorities are in a difficult He- 
 brew patois which often obscures the precise meaning of 
 whole passages. 
 
 The originality of Baalshem's teaching has been fre- 
 quently impugned, chiefly by the suggestion that he drew 
 largely from the Zohar (Book of Brightness).^* This 
 mystical book, " the Bible of the Cabbalists," whether we 
 regard its subject-matter or its history and influence, is 
 unique in literature. Its pretended author is Simeon ben 
 Yochai, a great Rabbi of the second century, but the real 
 writer is probably one Moses de Leon, a Spanish Jew, who 
 lived eleven centuries later. The book is one of the most 
 interesting literary forgeries, and is a marvellous mixture 
 of good and evil. A passage of delicate religious fancy 
 is succeeded by another of gross obscenity in illustration 
 and suggestion ; true piety and wild blasphemy are 
 strangely mingled together. Baalshem undoubtedly had 
 
THE CHASSIDIM ig 
 
 studied the Zohar, and he even is reported to have said 
 that the reading of the Zohar had enabled him to see into 
 the whole universe of things. But, for all that, Baalshem 
 was no copyist; and the Zohar, although it may have 
 suggested a hint to him here and there, was not the source 
 whence his inspiration was drawn. 
 
 Its attraction for Baalshem is sufficiently explained by 
 the fantastic, imaginative, and emotional nature of its 
 contents. It lent itself more easily than the older Rab- 
 binical literature to new explanations unthought of by its 
 author. But even the Talmud and its early commentaries 
 became apocalyptic to the heroes of Chassidism. Nay, 
 the driest and most legal disquisitions about meum and 
 tuum could be translated into parables and allegories 
 and symbols full of the most exalted meanings. Baal- 
 shem, like every other religious reformer, was partially 
 the product of his age. The influences of the past, the 
 history and literature of his own people, helped to make 
 him what he was. But they do not rob him of his 
 originality. He was a religious revivalist in the best 
 sense; full of burning faith in his God and his cause; 
 convinced utterly of the value of his work and the 
 truth of his teaching. 
 
 Although there can be no real doubt of Baalshem's 
 claim to originality, it should be borne in mind that his 
 teaching is not only distinctively Jewish, but that for 
 every part of it parallels and analogies could be found 
 in the older Hebrew literature. Indeed it is not wonder- 
 ful that in a literature, extending over 2000 years, of a 
 people whose chief thoughts have been religion, and 
 who have come in contact with so many external relig- 
 ious and philosophic influences, the germs can be dis- 
 
20 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 covered of almost every conceivable system, and the 
 outline of almost every imaginable doctrine. 
 
 The keynote of all Baalshem's teachings is the 
 Omnipresence, or more strictly the Immanence, of God. 
 This is the source from which flows naturally every 
 article of his creed; the universality of the Divinity is 
 the foundation of the entire Chassidic fabric. The 
 idea of the constant living presence of God in all exist- 
 ence permeates the whole of Baalshem's scheme; it is 
 insisted on in every relation; from it is deduced every 
 important proposition and every rule in conduct of his 
 school. 
 
 All created things and every product of human intel- 
 ligence owe their being to God. All generation and all 
 existence spring from the thought and will of God. It 
 is incumbent upon man to believe that all things are 
 pervaded by the divine life, and when he speaks he 
 should remember that it is this divine life which is 
 speaking through him. There is nothing which is void 
 of God. If we imagine for a moment such a thing to 
 be, it would instantly fall into nothingness. In every 
 human thought God is present. If the thought be 
 gross or evil, we should seek to raise and ennoble it by 
 carrying it back to its origin. So, if a man be suddenly 
 overwhelmed by the aspect of a beautiful woman, he 
 should remember that this splendour of beauty is owing 
 to the all-pervading emanation from the divine. When 
 he remembers that the source of corporeal beauty is 
 God, he will not be content to let his thought abide 
 with the body when he can rise to the inward contem- 
 plation of the infinite soul of beauty, which is God. A 
 disciple of Baalshem has said: Even as in the jewels 
 
THE CHASSJDIM 21 
 
 of his beloved the lover sees only the beauty of her he 
 loves, so does the true lover of God see m all the ap- 
 pearances of this world, the vitalising and generative 
 power of his divine master. If you do not see the 
 world in the light of God you separate the creation 
 from its Creator. He who does not fully believe in 
 this universality of God's presence has never properly 
 acknowledged God's Sovereignty, for he excludes God 
 from an existing portion of the actual world. The word 
 of God (to Baalshem, a synonym for God himself), which 
 " is settled in heaven " and " established on earth," 
 is still and always speaking, acting, and generating 
 throughout heaven and earth in endless gradations and 
 varieties. If the vitalising word were to cease, chaos 
 would come again. The belief in a single creation after 
 which the Master withdrew from his completed work, is 
 erroneous and heretical. The vivifying power is never 
 withdrawn from the world which it animates. Creation 
 is continuous ; an unending manifestation of the good- 
 ness of God. All things are an affluence from the two 
 divine attributes of Power and Love, which express 
 themselves in various images and reflections. 
 
 This is the doctrine of universality in Chassidism. God, 
 the father of Israel, God the Merciful, God the All-power- 
 ful, the God of Love, not only created everything but is 
 embodied in everything. The necessity of believing this 
 doctrine is the cardinal Dogma. But as creation is con- 
 tinuous so also is revelation. This revelation is only to be 
 grasped by faith. Faith, therefore, is more efficacious 
 than learning. Thus it is that in times of persecution, the 
 wise and the foolish, the sinner and the saint, are wont 
 alike to give up their life for their faith. They who could 
 
22 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 render no answer to the questions of the casuist are yet 
 willing to die the most cruel of deaths rather than deny 
 their faith in the One and Supreme God. Their strength 
 to face danger and death is owing to that divine illumina- 
 tion of the soul which is more exalted than knowledge. 
 
 We should thus regard all things in the light of so 
 many manifestations of the Divinity. God is present in 
 all things ; therefore there is good, actual or potential, in 
 all things. It is our duty everywhere to seek out and to 
 honour the good, and not to arrogate to ourselves the 
 right to judge that which may seem to be evil. In think- 
 ing therefore of a fellow-man, we should above all things 
 realise in him the presence of the spirit of good. Whence 
 we have the Doctrine that each of us, while thinking 
 humbly of himself, should alway be ready to think well, 
 and alway slow to think evil, of another. This explains 
 the Chassidic attitude towards erring humanity. Baalshem 
 viewed human sin and infirmity in a very different light 
 from that of the ordinary Rabbi. Ever conscious of the 
 Divine side of Humanity, he vigorously combated the 
 gratuitous assumption of sinfulness in man which was 
 a fertile subject with contemporary preachers. They, 
 among the Roumanian Jews as in other communities, 
 delighted chiefly to dwell on the dark side of things, and 
 found their favourite theme in elaborate descriptions of 
 the infernal punishments that were awaiting the sinner 
 after death. It is related how on one occasion Baalshem 
 rebuked one of these. The preacher had been denouncing 
 woe to an audience of whom he knew nothing whether for 
 evil or for good. Baalshem, indignant at this indiscrimina- 
 tive abuse and conceited arrogation of the divine office of 
 judgment, turned on him in the following words : " Woe 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 2% 
 
 upon thee who darest to speak evil of Israel ! Dost not 
 know that every Jew, when he utters ever so short a 
 prayer at the close of day, is performing a great work 
 before which the angels in heaven bow down ? " Great, 
 as it would seem, was the value set by Baalshem upon the 
 smallest evidence of the higher nature in man, and few 
 there were, as he believed, who, if their spirit was not 
 darkened by pride, did not now and again give proof of 
 the divine stamp in which God had created them. No sin 
 so separates us from God that we need despair of return. 
 From every rung of the moral ladder, no matter how low, 
 let man seek God. If he but fully believe that nothing is 
 void of God, and that God is concealed in the midst of 
 apparent ruin and degradation, he will not fear lest God 
 be far from him. God is regained in a moment of repent- 
 ance, for repentance " transcends the limits of space and 
 time." And he who leads the sinner to repentance causes 
 a divine joy ; it is as though a king's son had been in cap- 
 tivity and were now brought back to his father's gaze. 
 
 Baalshem refused to regard any one as wholly irredeem- 
 able. His was an optimistic faith. God was to be 
 praised in gladness by the dwellers in this glorious world. 
 The true believer, recognising the reflection of God in 
 every man, should hopefully strive, when that reflection 
 was obscured by sin, to restore the likeness of God in man. 
 The peculiar detestability of sin lies in this, that man 
 rejects the earthly manifestations of the Divinity and 
 pollutes them. One of Baalshem's disciples delighted in 
 the saying that the most hardened sinners were not to be 
 despaired of, but prayed for. None knows the heart of 
 man, and none should judge his neighbour. Let him who 
 burns with zeal for God's sake, exercise his zeal on him- 
 
24 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 self, not others. Baalshem said, " Let no one think him- 
 self better than his neighbour, for all serve God; each 
 according to the measure of understanding which God 
 has given him." 
 
 From this position it is a natural step to Baalshem's 
 view of prayer. He is reputed to have said that all the 
 greatness he had achieved was the issue not of study but 
 of prayer. But true prayer "must move," as Baalshem 
 phrased it, "in the realms above," and not be concerned 
 with affairs sublunary. Your prayer should not be taken 
 up with your wishes and needs, but should be the means 
 to bring you nigh to God. In prayer man must lay aside 
 his own individuality, and not even be conscious of his 
 existence; for if, when he prays. Self is not absolutely 
 quiescent, the object of prayer is unattainable. Indeed 
 it is only through God's grace that after true prayer man 
 is yet alive; to such a point has the annihilation of self 
 proceeded. 
 
 It may be necessary to caution the reader against 
 ascribing to Baalshem any modern rationalistic notions 
 on the subject of prayer. The power of prayer, ii the 
 old-fashioned sense, to produce an answer from God was 
 never doubted by Baalshem for a moment. Baalshem's 
 deity is not restricted towards any side by any philosophic 
 considerations. All Baalshem meant was that any ref- 
 erence or regard to earthly requirements was unworthy 
 and destructive of this communion of man with God. 
 The wise man, says Baalshem, does not trouble the king 
 with innumerable petitions about trifles. His desire is 
 merely to gain admission into the king's presence and to 
 speak with him without a go-between. To be with the 
 king whom he loves so dearly is for him the highest good. 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 2$ 
 
 But his love for the king has its reward; for the king 
 loves him. 
 
 It has already been implied that, with regard to our 
 duty towards our fellow-man, we must not only honour 
 him for the good, and abstain from judging the evil that 
 may be in him, but must pray for him. Furthermore we 
 must work for his spiritual and moral reclamation. In 
 giving practical effect in his own life to this doctrine, 
 Baalshem's conduct was in striking contrast to that of 
 his contemporaries. He habitually consorted with out- 
 casts and sinners, with the poor and uneducated of both 
 sexes, whom the other teachers ignored. He thus won 
 for his doctrines a way to the heart of the people by 
 adapting his life and language to their understanding and 
 sympathies. In illustration of this, as well as of his 
 hatred of vanity and display, it is told how, on the occa- 
 sion of his being accorded a public reception by the Jews 
 on his arrival at Brody, instead of addressing to them in 
 the conventional fashion some subtle discourse upon a 
 Talmudical difficulty, he contented himself with convers- 
 ing upon trivial topics in the local dialect with some of 
 the less important persons in the crowd. 
 
 This incident is perhaps the more noteworthy because 
 it occurred in Brody, which was at that time a seat of 
 learning and Rabbinic culture, — a place where, for that 
 very reason, Chassidism was never able to gain a foothold. 
 It is probable enough that Baalshem in his visits to this 
 town kept aloof from the learned and the wise, and sought 
 to gather round him the neglected and humbler elements 
 of Jewish society. It is well known that Baalshem con- 
 sorted a good deal with the innkeepers of the district, who 
 were held in very low repute among their brethren. The 
 
25 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 following remark by one of his followers is very sug- 
 gestive in this respect. Just as only superficial minds 
 attach a certain holiness to special places, whilst with 
 the deeper ones all places are alike holy, so that to them 
 it makes no difference whether prayers be said in the 
 synagogue or in the forest ; so the latter believe that not 
 only prophecies and visions come from heaven, but that 
 every utterance of man, if properly understood, contains 
 a message of God. Those who are absorbed in God will 
 easily find the divine element in everything which they 
 hear, even though the speaker himself be quite ignorant 
 of it. 
 
 This line of conduct gave a fair opening for attack to 
 his opponents, an opportunity of which they were not 
 slow to avail themselves. Baalshem was pointed at as 
 the associate of the lowest classes. They avenged them- 
 selves for his neglect of and hostility to the learned by 
 imputing the worst motives to his indifference to appear- 
 ances. He was accused of idling about the streets with 
 disreputable characters, and one polemical treatise draws 
 the vilest inferences from his apparent familiarity with 
 women. To this charge Baalshem's conduct, innocent in 
 itself, gave some colour; for his views and habits in re- 
 lation to women marked a strong divergence from current 
 customs. The position of women in contemporary circles 
 was neither debased nor inevitably unhappy, but it was 
 distinctly subordinate. Their education was almost en- 
 tirely neglected, and their very existence was practically 
 ignored. According to the Chassidic doctrine of Uni- 
 versality, woman was necessarily to be honoured. "All 
 Jews," says one Chassid, "even the uneducated and the 
 women, believe in God." Baalshem frequently associated 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 2/ 
 
 with women, assigning to them not only social equality, 
 but a high degree of religious importance. 
 
 His own wife he reverenced as a saint ; when she died 
 he abandoned the hope of rising to heaven while yet alive, 
 like Elijah of old, saying mournfully that undivided such 
 translation might have happened, but for him alone it 
 was impossible. Then again in a form of reHgion utilis- 
 ing so largely the emotions of Faith and Love there was 
 a strong appeal to the female mind. The effect of this 
 was soon evident, and Baalshem did not neglect to profit 
 by it. Among the most devoted of his early adherents 
 were women. One of them was the heroine of a favourite 
 anecdote concerning Baalshem's work of Love and Res- 
 cue. It is related that in a certain village there dwelt 
 a woman whose life was so disgraceful that her brothers 
 at last determined to kill her. With this object they 
 enticed her into a neighbouring wood, but guided by the 
 Holy Spirit Baalshem intervened at the critical moment, 
 and dissuading the men from their purpose rescued the 
 sinner. The woman afterwards became a sort of Mag- 
 dalen in the new community. 
 
 Above I have endeavoured to throw together in some 
 order of sequence the doctrines and practical rules of con- 
 duct which Baalshem and his early disciples seem to have 
 deduced from their central idea of the omnipresence of 
 God. This was necessary in order to give a connected 
 idea of their creed, but it is right to say that nowhere in 
 Chassidic literature have these deductions been logically 
 co-ordinated. Perhaps their solitary attempt to formulate 
 and condense their distinctive views is confined to a state- 
 ment of their idea of piety or service of God, and an exam- 
 ination of three cardinal virtues, Humility, Cheerfulness, 
 
23 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 and Enthusiasm. What the Chassidim held as to true 
 service brings into relief Baalshem's characteristic manner 
 of regarding the Law. 
 
 By the service of God was generally understood a life 
 which fulfilled the precepts of the written and oral law. 
 Baalshem understood by it a certain attitude towards life 
 as a whole. For, as God is reaUsed in life, each activity 
 of life when rightly conceived and executed is at once a 
 manifestation and a service of the Divine. All things 
 have been created for the glory and service of God. The 
 smallest worm serves Him with all its power. Thus, 
 while eating, drinking, sleeping, and the other ordinary 
 functions of the body are regarded by the old Jewish mor- 
 alists as mere means to an end, to Baalshem they are 
 already a service of God in themselves. All pleasures are 
 manifestations of God's attribute of love ; and, so regarded, 
 they are at once spiritualised and ennobled. Man should 
 seek to reach a higher level of purity and holiness before 
 partaking of food and drink, than even before the study 
 of the Law. For when the Torah had once been given 
 by God the whole world became instinct with its grace. 
 He who speaks of worldly matters and religious matters 
 as if they were separate and distinct, is a heretic. 
 
 Upon the continual and uninterrupted study of the 
 Law, Baalshem lays but little stress. He accepted the 
 ordinary belief that the Law (under which term are 
 included not only the Pentateuch, but the whole Old Tes- 
 tament and the major portion of the old Rabbinic litera- 
 ture) was a revelation of God. But, as the world itself is 
 equally a divine revelation, the Torah becomes little more 
 than a part of a larger whole. To understand it aright 
 one needs to penetrate to the inward reality — to the infi- 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 
 
 29 
 
 nite light which is revealed in it. We should study the 
 Law not as we study a science for the sake of acquiring 
 knowledge (he who studies it so has in truth been con- 
 cerning himself with its mere outward form), but we 
 should learn from it the true service of God. Thus the 
 study of the law is no end in itself. It is studied because, 
 as the word of God, God is more easily discerned and 
 absorbed in this revelation of Him than in any other. 
 The Torah is eternal, but its explanation is to be made by 
 the spiritual leaders of Judaism. It is to be interpreted 
 by them in accordance with the Attribute of the age. 
 For he regarded the world as governed in every age by a 
 different Attribute of God — one age by the Attribute of 
 Love, another by that of Power, a third again, by Beauty, 
 and so on — and the explanation of the Torah must be 
 brought into agreement with it. The object of the whole 
 Torah is that man should become a Torah himself. Every 
 man being a Torah in himself, said a disciple of Baalshem, 
 has got not only his Abraham and Moses, but also his 
 Balaam and Haman : he should try to expel the Balaam 
 and develop the Abraham within him. Every action of 
 man should be a pure manifestation of God. 
 
 The reason why we should do what the Law commands 
 is not to gain grace thereby in the eyes of God, but to 
 learn how to love God and to be united to Him. The 
 important thing is not how many separate injunctions are 
 obeyed, but how and in what spirit we obey them. The 
 object of fulfilling these various ordinances is to put one- 
 self, as it were, on the same plane with God, and thus, in 
 the ordinary phrase of the religious mystic, to become one 
 with Him, or to be absorbed in Him. People should get 
 to know, says Baalshem, what the unity of God really 
 
-O STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 means. To attain a part of this indivisible unity is to 
 attain the whole. The Torah and all its ordinances are 
 from God. If I therefore fulfil but one commandment in 
 and through the love of God, it is as though I have ful- 
 filled them all. 
 
 I have now briefly to refer to the three virtues to which 
 the Chassidim assigned the highest place of honour. Of 
 these the first is called in Hebrew " Shiphluth," ^^ and is 
 best rendered by our word " Humility," but in Chassidic 
 usage it includes the ideas of modesty, considerateness, 
 and sympathy. The prominence given to these qualities 
 is in sharp contrast to the faults of conceit, vanity, and 
 self-satisfaction, against which Baalshem was never weary 
 of protesting. He regarded these as the most seductive 
 of all forms of sin. But a few minutes before his death 
 he was heard to murmur, " O vanity, vanity ! even in this 
 hour of death thou darest to approach me with thy temp- 
 tations : ' Bethink thee, Israel, what a grand funeral pro- 
 cession will be thine because thou hast been so wise and 
 good.' O vanity, vanity ! beshrew thee." " It should be 
 indifferent to man," says the master, "whether he be 
 praised or blamed, loved or hated, reputed to be the wisest 
 of mankind or the greatest of fools. The test of the real 
 service of God is that it leaves behind it the feeling of 
 humility. If a man after prayer be conscious of the least 
 pride or self-satisfaction, if he think, for instance, that he 
 has earned a reward by the ardour of his spiritual exer- 
 cises, then let him know that he has prayed not to God 
 but to himself. And what is this but disguised idolatry .? 
 Before you can find God you must lose yourself." The 
 Chassidim treated Shiphluth from two sides: a negative 
 side in thinking humbly of oneself, a positive in thinking 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 3 1 
 
 highly of one's neighbour, in other words the love for our 
 fellow-man. 
 
 He who loves the father will also love his children. 
 The true lover of God is also a lover of man. It is igno- 
 rance of one's own errors that makes one ready to see the 
 errors of others. " There is no sphere in heaven where 
 the soul remains a shorter time than in the sphere of 
 merit, there is none where it abides longer than in the 
 sphere of Love." 
 
 The second Cardinal Virtue is " Cheerfulness," in He- 
 brew "Simchah."^^ Baalshem insisted on cheerfulness of 
 heart as a necessary attitude for the due service of God. 
 Once believe that you are really the servant and the child 
 of God and how can you fall again into a gloomy condition 
 of mind } Nor should the inevitable sins which we all 
 must commit disturb our glad serenity of soul. For is not 
 repentance ready at hand by which we may climb back to 
 God } Every penitent thought is a voice of God. Man 
 should detect that voice in all the evidence of his senses, 
 in every sight and sound of external nature. It is through 
 his want of faith in the universality of God's presence that 
 he is deaf to these subtle influences and can read only 
 the lessons which are inscribed in books. 
 
 The reader will be prepared to learn that Baalshem, 
 taking this cheerful view of things, was opposed to every 
 kind of asceticism. Judaism, or rather Israelitism, it is 
 true, was not originally much of an ascetic religion. But 
 there can be little doubt that in the course of history there 
 came in many ascetic doctrines and practices, quite enough 
 at least to encourage such tender souls the bent of whose 
 minds lay in this direction. To one of these, a former 
 disciple, Baalshem wrote : " I hear that you think yourself 
 
32 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 compelled from religious motives to enter upon a course 
 of fasts and penances. My soul is outraged at your deter- 
 mination. By the counsel of God I order you to abandon 
 such dangerous practices, which are but the outcome of a 
 disordered brain. Is it not written * Thou shalt not hide 
 thyself from thine own flesh } ' Fast then no more than 
 is prescribed. Follow my command and God shall be 
 with you." On another occasion Baalshem was heard to 
 observe that it is a machination of Satan to drive us into 
 a condition of gloom and despondency in which the small- 
 est error is regarded as a deadly sin. Satan's object is to 
 keep us away from the true service of God, and God can 
 only be truly served from a happy and confident disposi- 
 tion. Anxious scrupulosity in details is therefore to be 
 avoided. It is the counsel of the Devil to persuade us 
 that we never have done and shall never do our duty 
 fully, and that moral progress is impossible. Such ideas 
 beget melancholy and despair, which are of evil. 
 
 The third virtue is called in the Hebrew Chassidic 
 literature ** Hithlahabuth," ^^ and is derived from a verb 
 meaning " to kindle " or " set on fire." The substantive 
 " Hithlahabuth," so far as I am aware, was first coined by 
 Baalshem's followers. It is best rendered by our word 
 " Enthusiasm." Every religious action, to be of any 
 avail, must be done with enthusiasm. A mere mechanical 
 and lifeless performance of an ordinance is valueless. A 
 man is no step nearer the goal if he thinks, forsooth, that 
 he has done his duty when he has gone through the whole 
 round of laws in every section of the code. This essential 
 enthusiasm is only begotten of Love. The service of 
 fear, if not wholly useless, is yet necessarily accompanied 
 by a certain repulsion and heaviness, which effectually 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 33 
 
 prevent the rush and ardour of enthusiasm. The inspira- 
 tion of true service is its own end. There is no thought 
 of this world, and there is none of the world to come. 
 In the Talmud there is frequent reference to one Rabbi 
 Elisha ben Abuyah, an apostate from Judaism, who, when 
 urged to repent, replied that repentance was useless, and 
 that for this mournful belief he had direct divine authority. 
 For he had been told by a voice from heaven that even 
 though he repented he would be excluded from sharing 
 the happiness of the world to come. Of him it was said by 
 one of the Chassidim, " This man indeed missed a golden 
 opportunity. How purely could he have served God, know- 
 ing that for his service there could never be a reward ! " 
 
 From the conception of Enthusiasm springs the quality 
 of mobility, suggesting spiritual progress, and commonly 
 opposed by Baalshem and his followers to the dull re- 
 ligious stagnation of self-satisfied contemporaries. Man 
 should not imagine himself to have attained the level of 
 the righteous ; let him rather regard himself as a penitent 
 who should make progress every day. Always to remain 
 on the same religious plane, merely repeating to-day the 
 religious routine of yesterday, is not true service. There 
 must be a daily advance^ in the knowledge and love of the 
 Divine Master. Mere freedom from active sin is not 
 sufficient ; such negative virtue may be but another word 
 for the chance absence of temptation. What boots it 
 never to have committed a sin if sin lies concealed in the 
 heart.? It is only the uninterrupted communion with 
 God which will raise and ennoble your thoughts and 
 designs, and cause the roots of sin to die. The patriarch 
 Abraham, without any command from God, fulfilled the 
 whole Torah, because he perceived that the Law was the 
 
- . STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 life of all created things. In the Messianic age the law 
 will no longer seem to man as something ordained for him 
 from without; but the law will be within the hearts of 
 men ; it will seem natural and self-evident to them, 
 because they will realise that God and life are manifested 
 through the law. 
 
 Baalshem, who dealt largely in parable, has left the 
 following, which we may fitly add to our somewhat 
 inadequate presentation of his doctrine. 
 
 There was once a king who built himself a glorious 
 palace. By means of magical illusion it seemed as if the 
 palace were full of devious corridors and mazes, prevent- 
 ing the approach to the royal presence. But as there was 
 much gold and silver heaped up in the entrance halls, 
 most people were content to go no further, but take their 
 fill of treasure. The king himself they did not notice. 
 At last the king's intimate had compassion upon them 
 and exclaimed to them, " All these walls and mazes which 
 you see before you do not in truth exist at all. They are 
 mere illusions. Push forward bravely, and you shall find 
 no obstacle." 
 
 We must not interpret the parable to mean that Baal- 
 shem denied the reality or even the importance of the 
 actual phenomenal world. The very contrary is the truth. 
 The world is for him full of God, penetrated through and 
 through by the divine, and therefore as real as God him- 
 self. It was quite in Baalshem' s manner when one of his 
 disciples declared that only fools could speak of the 
 world as vanity or emptiness. '' It is in truth a glorious 
 world. We must only learn how rightly to make use of 
 it. Call nothing common or profane : by God's presence 
 all things are holy." 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 35 
 
 Above we have reviewed the essential doctrines of 
 Baalshem and his immediate followers ; we have now to 
 see how they fared at the hands of the sect which he 
 founded. This is a sad part of our task, for the sub- 
 sequent history of Chassidism is almost entirely a record 
 of decay. As formulated by its founder the new creed 
 amounted to a genuine Reformation, pure and lofty in 
 ideal. After his death unhappily it was rapidly corrupted 
 and perverted. This was due almost exclusively to the 
 dangerous and exaggerated development of a single point 
 in his teaching. That point, the honour due to the 
 divine in man, was relatively a minor article in the original 
 creed. But the later Chassidism has given it a distorted 
 and almost exclusive importance wholly out of proportion 
 to the grander and more essential features of Baalshem's 
 teaching, until the distinctive feature of the Chassidism 
 of to-day is an almost idolatrous service of their living 
 leaders. What little there is to say of the history of the 
 sect after Baalshem's death would be unintelligible with- 
 out some explanation of the origin and growth of this 
 unfortunate perversion. 
 
 It has been explained that Baalshem laid but little stress 
 upon the study of the Law or the observance of its pre- 
 cepts in themselves, but regarded them only as means to 
 an end. The end is union with God. Man has to discover 
 the presence of God in the Divine word and will. Now 
 this mystical service of God, although perhaps sufficing to 
 sensitive and enthusiastic natures, is scarcely plain or defi- 
 nite enough for ordinary men. Few can realise abstrac- 
 tions : and yet fewer can delight in them and find in their 
 contemplation sufficient nurture for their religious needs. 
 What then had Chassidism to offer to the ordinary major- 
 
^5 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ity who could not recognise God in all the plenitude of 
 His disguise ? The want of something tangible whereon to 
 fix the minds of the people, which has confronted the 
 teachers of so many creeds, was also encountered by the 
 Chassidim, and they unfortunately found their way out of 
 the difficulty by relying on and developing their doctrine 
 of man's position in the Universe. Man's ideal is to be a 
 law himself ; himself a clear and full manifestation of God. 
 Now, not only is he God's servant and child, but in high- 
 est development he becomes himself a part of God, albeit 
 in human shape, so that he may become wholly one with 
 his divine Father. But if man may reach this highest 
 level of holiness, he is virtually a kind of God-man, whom 
 his fellow-men of lower levels perceive by reason of his 
 manhood, but his essential office consists in raising them 
 up to God by reason of his Divinity. 
 
 The few chosen spirits who through the successful per- 
 sistency with which they have sought God in all things have 
 become, though yet on earth, absorbed in Him, are known 
 in Chassidic literature by the name of the "Zaddikim." 
 The Hebrew word Zaddik ^^ means "just" or "righteous," 
 and the term was probably chosen in conscious opposition 
 to the title of Rabbinic heroes, " disciples of the wise." 
 For the Zaddik is not so much the product of learning 
 as of intuition: his final consummation is reached by a 
 sudden and direct illumination from God. The Zaddik 
 not only resembles Moses, but, in virtue of his long 
 communion with the Divine, he is also the true child of 
 God. He is, moreover, a vivifying power in creation, 
 for he is the connecting bond between God and his 
 creatures. He is the source of blessing and the fount 
 of grace. Man must therefore learn to love the Zaddik, 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 
 
 37 
 
 SO that through the Zaddik he may win God's grace. 
 He who does not believe in the Zaddik is an apostate 
 from God. Here then we have the fatal exaggeration 
 to which I have alluded, and here its logical conse- 
 quence. The step to man-worship is short. 
 
 This peculiar doctrine of the Intermediary soon became 
 the distinguishing feature of Chassidism. By a Chassid 
 was understood not a man who held such and such opin- 
 ions in theology and religion, but a believer in the Zaddik, 
 and one who sought to attain salvation through the wor- 
 ship of the Zaddik. Every other doctrine of Chassidism 
 was rapidly pushed into the background and overlooked. 
 Even the grand and fundamental doctrine of Omnipres- 
 ence in the Creation was veiled by the special presence in 
 the Zaddik. Chassidism became mere Zaddikism, and its 
 subsequent history is identical with the downward develop- 
 ment of that cult. 
 
 Whether Baalshem named his successor is doubtful. 
 But the lead after his death was assumed by his disciple 
 Beer of Mizriez. This man's conversion to Chassidism 
 was an important event for the new community ; his piety 
 and learning were beyond dispute, and, whereas during 
 Baalshem's life Chassidism had found its chief adherents 
 among the lower classes of society. Beer managed to 
 gather round him many of the most learned among his 
 contemporaries. It was to these new and ardent disciples 
 of Beer that the expansion of Chassidism was chiefly due. 
 They came together from many quarters, and after Beer's 
 death separated and preached the new doctrine far and 
 wide. Many even went forth during the lifetime of their 
 master, and at his command, to found fresh branches of 
 the new sect. Like Beer himself, they directed their ef- 
 
23 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 forts mainly to winning over the educated sections of 
 the Jews. The elder men paid little heed to their word, 
 but the youths, just fresh from their casuistic studies, 
 which had sharpened their wits and starved their souls, 
 lent a ready ear and an eager heart to the new doc- 
 trine. The uneducated were by no means excluded; to 
 them Chassidism held out a deeper consolation and a 
 grander hope than the current Rabbinism of the age; 
 they therefore joined the young community in large num- 
 bers without any special effort being necessary to gain 
 them over. 
 
 In their methods of Prayer the Chassidim most conspic- 
 uously differed from the older communities. Laying as 
 they did supreme stress on the importance and efficacy of 
 prayer, they soon found it necessary to secede from the ex- 
 isting synagogues and erect separate buildings for them- 
 selves. The usual salaried Reader " with the beautiful 
 voice and empty head," who naturally regarded his func- 
 tion as a matter of business, was done away with and his 
 place taken either by the Zaddik himself or by some other 
 distinguished person in the community. The Chassidim 
 also effected many changes in the liturgy. Instead of the 
 German they adopted the Spanish ritual. They excised 
 many prayers which, lacking the authority of antiquity, 
 were cumbrous in form or objectionable in matter. They 
 inserted new prayers and hymns of their own. They paid 
 little regard to the prescribed hours at which public wor- 
 ship should be held. Prayer began when they had got 
 themselves into the proper devotional frame of mind. 
 Frequent ablutions, perusal of mystical writings, intro- 
 spective meditation were the means by which they sought 
 to gain the befitting mood. The prayers themselves were 
 
THE CH A SSI DIM 
 
 39 
 
 accompanied by the usual phenomena of religious excite- 
 ment. Some in the zeal of their devotion began to dance ; 
 others were rapt in a motionless ecstasy ; some prayed 
 aloud; others in solemn silence. They justified their 
 abrogation of fixed hours for prayer by saying that you 
 cannot order a child when to speak with its father : such 
 restraint were fit only for slaves. 
 
 As a rule the larger number of the younger Chassidim 
 were able to devote their whole time to religious exercises. 
 It was the custom among the Jews in Eastern Europe for 
 the young men to live at the expense of their own or their 
 wives' parents, in order that they might give themselves 
 up entirely to religious study. According to the old 
 notions, this meant the study of the Talmud and its Com- 
 mentaries; the Chassidim who cared little for the legal 
 side of Jewish literature betook themselves to the litera- 
 ture of edification and mysticism. No small part of their 
 time was taken up with endless conversations about the 
 Zaddik, his piety, goodness, and self-sacrifice and the won- 
 derful miracles which he had wrought. If a Zaddik was 
 living in his own town, the youthful Chassid spent as 
 many hours as he could in the Zaddik's company, in order 
 to observe and study this embodied Torah as constantly 
 as possible. Where no Zaddik was at hand, periodical 
 pilgrimages were made to the town in which he lived, and 
 endless were the tales which were afterwards repeated, to 
 those who were obliged to stay at home, of the Zaddik's 
 marvellous wisdom and extraordinary deeds. The last 
 hours of the Sabbath day were looked upon as a special 
 season of grace, and the Chassidim were therefore in the 
 habit of collecting together in the waning of the Sabbath 
 and celebrating the so-called '' Supper of the Holy Queen." 
 
.Q STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 The meal was accompanied by the usual conversations as 
 well as by hymns and prayers. 
 
 The Chassidim were second to no other sect in their 
 loyalty and affection for each other. No sacrifice for a 
 brother Chassid was too great. They knew no difference 
 of rich and poor, old and young, wise and ignorant ; for 
 they all, with one accord, worshipped one common ideal, 
 the Zaddik, who in his exalted position was equally raised 
 above them all. Before him all minor differences of rank 
 disappeared. When a Chassid travelled, he had no scruple 
 in asking for lodging or entertainment in the house of any 
 Chassid who could afford to give them. If he was in 
 money difficulties the purse of his host was at his dis- 
 posal. If that was not sufficient, it was supplemented by 
 a grant from the fund of the community. These gifts 
 were not looked upon in the light of charity either by 
 giver or receiver; they were made to the Zaddik, to whom 
 all Chassidim alike were debtors. It sometimes even 
 happened that a Zaddik said that the son of some rich 
 merchant was to marry the daughter of a poor school- 
 master, and both parties were equally delighted to fulfil 
 the wish of their beloved chief. 
 
 It may easily be imagined that the innovations of the 
 Chassidim provoked the wrath of the orthodox communi- 
 ties. But in their detestation of the Rabbis the Chassidim 
 returned in full measure all the hatred they received. 
 The Zaddik is the Moses of his age : the Rabbis its Korah 
 and Abiram. Where the Chassidic party in any commu- 
 nity gained the upper hand, the Rabbi was deposed and a 
 Zaddik, if that was possible, elected in his place. The 
 issue of these bitter attacks upon the old nobility of the 
 Jewish race was a rigorous persecution. In many places 
 
THE CHASSIDIM ^I 
 
 the Chassidim were excommunicated, in others their 
 leaders were publicly scourged and put into the stocks. 
 Their books were burnt and their synagogues forcibly 
 closed. But persecution produced only the usual result of 
 increasing the popularity and the numbers of the sect. 
 The devotion of the Chassidim to each other and to their 
 common cause was increased a hundred-fold by suffering. 
 In one case a distinguished Zaddik was accused of trea- 
 son, before the Russian authorities, and was thrown into 
 prison. In Russia, however, the power of money is con- 
 siderable, and on payment of a large ransom not only was 
 the beloved Zaddik released but as an obvious consequence 
 his reputation greatly profited : the day of his release was 
 celebrated as a yearly festival, while his sufferings were 
 regarded by his followers as a sin-offering that atoned for 
 the iniquities of his age. From this time the government 
 maintained a purely neutral attitude towards the new sect, 
 and ere long the persecution by the orthodox ceased. 
 
 The cessation of persecution may possibly be accounted 
 for by the fact that Chassidism as a secession soon ceased 
 to be formidable. There were early divisions within the 
 sect. Even Beer's disciples began to quarrel over theo- 
 logical differences and to found separate communities. 
 When once the course of corruption and spiritual decay 
 had begun, it was the interest of the false Zaddikim to 
 accentuate these differences. Each Zaddik sought to have 
 a whole little sect to himself, from which to draw an undi- 
 vided revenue. And each deluded little sect as it arose 
 boasted of the exclusive possession of the true Zaddik. 
 
 It must not be supposed that these strictures apply to 
 the whole class of Zaddikim. The greater number of 
 Baalshem's leading disciples as well as Beer's were beyond 
 
42 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 question men of pure, unalloyed piety, who would have 
 rejected with scorn any idea of making a trade of their 
 sacred profession. Their motives and their zeal were 
 alike ideal. Many gave up highly paid posts as Rabbis 
 when they joined the new sect. Some emigrated to Pales- 
 tine to lead a holy life on holy ground, others sought to 
 become religious specialists, following out practically, 
 although with some exaggeration, a favourite doctrine of 
 the Founder, that he who observes but one commandment 
 devotedly and lovingly, may reach the goal desired : the 
 union with God. Thus one Zaddik made it his business 
 never to tell the smallest falsehood, whatever the cost or 
 the inconvenience of truth might be. It is related that 
 the Russian Government, suspecting the Jews of his town 
 of smuggling, consented to withdraw the charge if he 
 declared his brethren innocent. Having no alternative but 
 either to bring misfortune on his brethren or to tell an un- 
 truth, he prayed to God to save him from this dilemma by 
 sending death upon him. And lo ! when the officials came 
 to fetch him before the law court they found him dead. 
 Another, thinking that the commandment in Exodus xxiii. 
 3, relating to the help that should be given to a neighbour 
 or enemy when " his ass is lying under its burden," was 
 practically unobserved, devoted himself to its fulfilment. 
 He was continually to be seen in the streets, helping one 
 man to load his waggon, and another to drag his cart out 
 of the mire. A third made the service of the oppressed 
 his religious speciality. It is said that one day his wife, 
 having had a quarrel with her maid, was setting out to the 
 magistrate of the town to obtain satisfaction. Noticing 
 that her husband was about to accompany her, she asked 
 him whither he was bound. He replied, "to the magis- 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 43 
 
 trate." His wife declared that it was below his dignity to 
 take any part in a quarrel with a servant. She could dea\ 
 with the matter herself. The Zaddik replied, "That may 
 be, but I intend to represent your maid, who when ac- 
 cused by my wife will find no one willing to take her 
 part." And then, bursting into a passion of tears, he 
 quoted Job xxxi. 13: "If I did despise the cause of my 
 man-servant or of my maid-servant, when they contended 
 with me, what shall I do when God riseth up .? " 
 
 Several Zaddikim were learned men and thinkers of 
 no ordinary kind. The works of Solomon Ladier or of 
 Mendel Witipsker, read with attention and without West- 
 ern preconceptions, certainly give the impression of both 
 originality and depth of thought. But most characteristic 
 of all is the passionate yearning of authors such as these 
 towards the Divine. The reader is astonished and moved 
 by the intense sincerity and ardour of their longing after 
 God. But, despite the adherence of these worthy men, 
 the fate of Chassidism, as a regenerative force, was sealed 
 from the day when Zaddikism replaced the original doc- 
 trines of the sect. 
 
 For, apart from the obvious theological considerations 
 already suggested, there are two points of inherent weak- 
 ness in the cult of the Zaddik which naturally doomed it 
 to perversion and failure. The necessary qualifications for 
 " Zaddikship " are wholly undefined. We hear a great 
 deal about what a Zaddik actually is, but we hear very 
 little about what he should be. The Zaddik has many 
 virtues, but we are nowhere told what are his indispen- 
 sable qualifications. Moreover, the Zaddik is a being 
 who can be comprehended by the understanding as little 
 as an angel, or as God Himself. He is realised by faith, 
 
44 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 not conceived by thought. Hence there is no human test 
 of a true Zaddik except the test of miracles; and every 
 student of religious history knows the deceitful character 
 of that test. 
 
 The second source of danger arose from the Chassidim 
 holding it to be their sacred duty to provide for the Zad- 
 dik a life of comfort and ease. The Zaddik must pursue 
 his divine avocations undisturbed by grosser cares. But 
 what were the consequences.? The Chassidim believed 
 they could win the grace and blessing of the Zaddik 
 by the richness and variety of their gifts. A Zaddik's 
 career became a very profitable concern. The result of 
 both defects was that not only was the opportunity given 
 for every scheming charlatan to become a Zaddik, but 
 inducements were offered to make the deception lucra- 
 tive. Hence the anxiety of the false Zaddikim, already 
 noticed, to found separate communities. 
 
 Among the Chassidim of to-day there is not one in 
 ten thousand who has the faintest conception of those 
 sublime ideas which inspired Baalshem and his immedi- 
 ate disciples. It is still the interest of the wretched 
 ringleaders of a widely spread delusion to crush and keep 
 down every trace of reflection and thought so that they 
 may play at will with the conscience and purses of their 
 adherents. The new scientific movement, inaugurated by 
 such men as Krochmal, Zunz, and others who came under 
 the influence of the German critical spirit, found in them 
 its hottest and most fanatical opponents. That the cult 
 of the Zaddikim has not led to still more disastrous con- 
 sequences is solely due to the fact that the Chassidim in 
 general have remained faithful to the Law. It is the 
 Law, against the excessive study of which the original 
 
THE CHASSIDIM 
 
 45 
 
 Chassidim protested, that has put limits to the license of 
 its modern false prophets. 
 
 Amid much that is bad, the Chassidim have preserved 
 through the whole movement a warm heart, and an ar- 
 dent, sincere faith. There is a certain openness of char- 
 acter and a read}' friendliness about even the modern 
 Chassidim which are very attractive. Religion is still to 
 them a matter of life and death. Their faith is still real 
 enough to satisfy the demands of a Luther, but it is di- 
 verted and wasted upon unworthy objects. If Chassidism 
 is to be reformed, its worship must no longer be of man ; 
 it must be brought back again to the source of all Beauty, 
 all Wisdom, and all Goodness ; it must be restored to 
 God. 
 
II 
 
 NACHMAN KROCHMAL AND THE "PER- 
 PLEXITIES OF THE TIME" 
 
 In her good-natured panegyric of mediocrity which is 
 known under the title of Scenes of Clerical Life, George 
 Eliot remarked : " Let us hope that there is a saving 
 ignorance." 
 
 Strange as this demand may sound, the wish of the 
 great novelist to see her favoured mediocrities "saved," 
 has been shared by the great majority of mankind. I 
 know that I, at least, echo that desire with all my heart. 
 And I am afraid that I am prompted by some rather self- 
 ish reasons. It would be somewhat hard, when one is 
 born with small abilities, but a great desire for being 
 saved, to be deprived of the hope held out by the author 
 of Adam, Bede. 
 
 But there are some, I am afraid, who are not satisfied 
 with this dictum of George Eliot. They show a strong 
 tendency to make salvation a monopoly of ignorance. 
 This is a little too selfish. With all due respect to every 
 form of ignorance, sacred as well as profane, we ought, I 
 think, to believe that there is also such a thing as a saving 
 knowledge. Nay, we might go even farther. There may 
 be certain epochs in history when there is hardly any 
 
 46 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 
 
 47 
 
 other path to salvation than knowledge, and the deep 
 search after truth. 
 
 We all know the words of the Psalmist, "The Lord 
 preserveth the simple." But as there are periods in the 
 life of the individual when naivete has to give way to 
 sagacity and reflection, so there are times in history at 
 which Providence does not choose to leave men in sim- 
 plicity. At such times doubts arise, as though of them- 
 selves ; questions suddenly become open when they had 
 been supposed solved for centuries; and the human mind 
 is stirred by a sceptical breeze of which no man can tell 
 whence it came. One may under those circumstances be 
 indifferent, but one can be simple no more. 
 
 Even in such cases, however, man has no cause to de- 
 spair. When our dearest beliefs are shaken by all kinds 
 of doubts. Providence sends us also great thinkers, earnest 
 lovers of truth, who devote their lives to enlightening our 
 puzzled minds. Not that these men try to answer all the 
 questions by which we feel perplexed. They endeavour 
 to satisfy us, partly by showing that many of our difficul- 
 ties are not difficulties at all, but merely arise from super- 
 ficiality, and partly by proving that the great cause about 
 which we feel so much anxiety does not exactly depend 
 on the solution of the questions that are troubling us. 
 They give to the things which are dearer to us than our 
 life a fresh aspect, which enables us to remain attached to 
 them with the same devotion and love as before. To 
 speak again in the words of the Psalmist : " Thou sendest 
 forth Thy Spirit, and they are created, and Thou renewest 
 the face of the earth." 
 
 This spirit that renews the face of things is what I 
 understand by " saving knowledge." As men of that 
 
48 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 saving knowledge we may regard Rabban Johanan ben 
 7j2iQ,Q,2\^ and his disciples, who made it possible for Ju- 
 daism to survive the destruction of the Temple, which 
 some believed to involve the end of the religion. As such 
 men we may look upon R. Saadiah Gaon and his fol- 
 lowers, who worked at a time when Judaism was menaced 
 in its inner life, namely in the tradition, by the attempts of 
 the narrow-minded Caraites to convert it into a bookish 
 religion.2 Such men were Maimonides and his successors, 
 who came to the aid of religion when it had got into dog- 
 matic troubles by reason of its coming into contact with 
 various philosophical systems. And in order to approach 
 the subject of the present essay, I venture to say that a 
 man of such saving knowledge was also Nachman Kroch- 
 mal, who lived and laboured in the first half of the present 
 century, when Judaism had been terribly shaken by the 
 scepticism of Voltaire, and the platitudes of the so-called 
 Mendelssohnian school. 
 
 Nachman Krochmal was born on the 17th of February 
 in the year 1785. His father, Solomon Krochmal, was a 
 merchant of Brody, a commercial frontier town in the 
 north-east of Galicia in Austria. In his early years Solo- 
 mon often used to visit Berlin for business purposes. He 
 is said to have seen Mendelssohn there on one occasion, 
 and to have learned greatly to revere the Jewish sage. 
 And it is not unlikely that Nachman's subsequent admira- 
 tion for Mendelssohn was partly due to his father's influ- 
 ence. 
 
 Solomon was a man of considerable wealth, and he, 
 therefore, endeavoured to give his son the best possible 
 education. But as a respectable member of a Polish com- 
 munity a hundred years ago, Solomon had to follow the 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 49 
 
 fashion adopted by his neighbours, and the best possible 
 education consisted in affording the child an opportunity 
 to study the Talmud and other Rabbinical works. All 
 other languages and their literatures were sealed books to 
 the child — a very absurd and regrettable fashion indeed. 
 But let us not be too hard on PoUsh Jews. I have been 
 told that there are countries on our globe where people 
 have been driven by the force of fashion into the opposite 
 extreme ; where, with few exceptions, they think that the 
 Talmud, as well as the whole Hebrew literature, must 
 needs be excluded from the programme of a gentleman's 
 education. 
 
 Happily, or the reverse, Krochmal's childhood did not 
 last long, for in the year 1798 we find that Nachman, a 
 boy of fourteen, was already married to a Miss Haberman 
 in Zolkiew. As a result of this foolish custom of marrying 
 at so very early an age, Nachman was hardly ever a boy ; 
 we have at once to deal with him as a man. 
 
 It was then customary in Poland, and perhaps is so still, 
 for the father of the bride to provide for the support of the 
 young couple for some years after their marriage. In 
 order to reduce the expense of this arrangement, the 
 bridegroom had to reside in the same house as his father- 
 in-law. Thus we see Krochmal removing from Brody to 
 Zolkiew, the native town of his wife. Here Krochmal 
 lived in the house of her father for many years, entirely 
 devoted to his studies; and he certainly needed all his 
 time for them. For he now began to expand the sphere 
 of his education, to embrace subjects quite new to him. 
 By his marriage Nachman seems to have gained a certain 
 amount of independence, and the first use he made of it 
 was to study the Guide of the Perplexed^ of Maimonides, 
 
CO STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 the Commentaries of Ibn Ezra on the Bible,* and other 
 more or less philosophical works written in the Hebrew 
 language. His next step was to learn German ; but, as 
 his biographers inform us, he was not able to follow this 
 course without undergoing many struggles, and overcoming 
 many obstacles. 
 
 It would lead us too far to give a full account of the 
 difficulties which the young scholar had to conquer while 
 pursuing his new studies. They will be sufficiently 
 characterised by the following extract from a Hebrew 
 letter of his disciple, Solomon Leb Rapoport, who, 
 writing in 1841 concerning his master and friend, re- 
 marks : " Consider this, ye inhabitants of Germany " — 
 and, I may add, ye inhabitants of England — "and you 
 will be astounded. It is easy for you to avoid being one- 
 sided, and to study different sciences, for you possess 
 many schools and teachers from every branch of learning. 
 It is not so in Poland and Russia even at present, much 
 less was it so forty years ago. There is no teacher, no 
 guide, no supporter, for the Jew who desires any sort of 
 improvement. The Jew who wishes to enter on a new 
 path of learning has to prepare the road for himself. And 
 when he has entered on it, his friend will come to him and 
 ask, ' Is it true that you have got scientific books in your 
 house } Mind you do not mention it to any one. There 
 are enough bigots in the town to persecute you and all 
 your family if they get scent of it.' " It was under these 
 conditions that Krochmal pursued his studies, which were 
 by no means few or easy, for he was not content with a 
 knowledge of only the lighter portions of German litera- 
 ture. He soon began to read the works of Lessing, 
 Mendelssohn, and more especially of Kant, who always 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL cj 
 
 remained his favourite philosopher. In his later years 
 he also became acquainted with the writings of Fichte, 
 Schelling, and Hegel. But to the last he could not con- 
 sole himself for having missed the advantages of a system- 
 atic university education. 
 
 After having learned German, Krochmal proceeded to 
 acquire a knowledge of Latin and French, and to read 
 the best books written in those languages. To deepen 
 his knowledge of Hebrew, he studied Arabic and Syraic, 
 but we are unable to say how far he succeeded in master- 
 ing these languages. With these studies, which appear 
 to have occupied our philosopher for an interval of ten 
 years after his marriage, the first period of his life seems 
 also to end. But the hard work of ten years did not pass 
 over the delicate youth without undermining his health 
 for ever. At the age of twenty-four, Krochmal fell sick 
 of an illness which compelled him to interrupt his work. 
 He was forced to go to Lemberg to consult the doctors of 
 that town, and he had to remain there for a long time. 
 And now began Krochmal's career as a teacher. For 
 during his stay at Lemberg there gathered round him a 
 band of young scholars whom Krochmal's fame had al- 
 ready reached. It is useless to enumerate the names of 
 all these students. Among them figured Isaac Erter, 
 Samson Bloch, A. Bodek, and many others. The most 
 gifted of them was undoubtedly Rapoport, who afterwards 
 became even more famous than his master Krochmal. It 
 is not easy to define accurately the relation that subsisted 
 between these two men. Graetz, in his history, calls 
 Rapoport a disciple of Krochmal. Rapoport himself, in 
 his memoir of Krochmal, describes the latter as a dear 
 friend with whom he was wont to discuss literary topics. 
 
C2 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Zunz does not mention Rapoport at all in his account 
 of our author. It seems to me that this relation may 
 be most aptly defined by the Talmudic term " Talmid- 
 Chaber," ^ " disciple-colleague." 
 
 Indeed, Krochmal's whole method of teaching was rather 
 that of a companion than of a professor. He gave no set 
 lectures on particular subjects, but conveyed his instruc- 
 tion rather by means of suggestive conversations with his 
 younger friends. His usual habit was to walk with his 
 pupils in the neighbourhood of the town, and to try to 
 influence their minds each in accordance with its bent. 
 If any of his disciples showed an inclination for poetry, 
 Krochmal sought to refine his taste by directing his atten- 
 tion to the best works in Hebrew and German literature. 
 To another, whose fancy strayed into mysticism, he recom- 
 mended the writings of Philo and Ibn Ezra, at the same 
 time suggesting how the works of the latter should be in- 
 terpreted. A third who, like Rapoport, was interested in 
 historical researches, Krochmal instructed in the methods 
 of critical inquiry. 
 
 There must have been some fascinating charm in 
 Nachman's personality, which made him irresistible to all 
 who came into contact with him. Rapoport has described 
 his first interview with Krochmal. " It is more than 
 thirty years since I first made his acquaintance, and be- 
 held the glory of his presence. Though he was in weak 
 health, still his soul was strong ; and as soon as I con- 
 versed with him there came over me a spirit of judgment 
 and knowledge. I felt almost transformed into another 
 man." Elsewhere the same writer says : *' Oh, how sweet 
 to me were these walks with Krochmal — sweeter than all 
 the pleasures of this world. I could never have enough 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL t\ 
 
 of his wisdom ; with his every word he conveyed a new 
 lesson." 
 
 After a lengthy stay at Lemberg, Krochmal partially, 
 though not entirely, recovered from his severe illness ; he 
 remained weak and pale for the rest of his days. His 
 antagonists, the Chassidim, believed him to be possessed 
 by a demon who could find no better dwelling-place than 
 in the person of this arch-heretic. Had it been in their 
 power they would probably have dragged him to some ex- 
 orcist for the purpose of driving out his German, French, 
 Latin, and other symptoms of demoniacal heresy. Happily 
 the orthodox were powerless to do this, so Krochmal was 
 left unmolested, and was allowed to resume his walks and 
 studies. It may be here remarked that Krochmal in gen- 
 eral avoided giving the Chassidim any cause for reasonable 
 complaint. Rapoport asserts that his master was " deeply 
 religious and a strict observer of the law. He was zeal- 
 ously anxious to perform every ordinance. Biblical or 
 Rabbinical." The only liberty that Krochmal claimed for 
 himself and his disciples was the right to study what they 
 thought best and in the way they thought best. When 
 this liberty was attacked, he showed a firmness and reso- 
 lution which would hardly have been expected from this 
 quiet and gentle man. To one of his pupils, who made 
 concessions to the Chassidim and their Zaddikim worship, 
 Krochmal wrote : " Be firm in this matter unless you wish 
 to earn the contempt of every honest man. One who is 
 afraid of these people, and debases himself before them 
 bears a mean soul that was born to slavery. The man that 
 wishes to rise above the mob, with its confused notions 
 and corrupt morality, must be courageous as a lion in con- 
 quering the obstacles that beset his path. Consideration 
 
C4 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 of what people will say, what bigots will whisper, what 
 crafty enemies will scheme — questions such as these can 
 have but one effect, — to darken the intellect and confuse 
 the faculty of judgment." 
 
 So Krochmal continued his studies without interruption 
 till 1 8 14, when the death of his wife's mother brought his 
 period of ease and comfort to an end. His father-in-law 
 seems to have died some time before, and Krochmal was 
 forced to seek his own living. He became a merchant, 
 but it is to be regretted that he did not prove as successful 
 a man of business as he was a man of letters. He found 
 it a hard struggle to earn a living. But the sever- 
 est trial which he had to undergo was the death of his 
 wife in 1826. In a letter, dating from about this time, 
 to a friend who had asked him for assistance in his philo- 
 sophical inquiries, Krochmal wrote — "How can I help 
 you now .? I am already an old man ; my head is gray, 
 and my health is broken. In the last three years I have 
 met with many misfortunes. My beloved wife died after 
 a long illness. My daughter will soon leave me to get 
 married, my elder son will depart to seek his livelihood, 
 and I shall be left alone with only a child of ten years, the 
 son of my old age. I will lift up mine eyes unto the 
 hills: From whence shall my help come.?" 
 
 Nachman was evidently in very low spirits at this time, 
 but he was in too true a sense a philosopher to despair. 
 He turned for comfort to his studies, and at this dark 
 epoch of his life he first became acquainted with the 
 Philosophy of Hegel, whose system he was wont to call 
 the '' Philosophy of Philosophies." 
 
 For the next ten years the works of Hegel and inqui- 
 ries into Jewish history appear to have absorbed all the 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 55 
 
 leisure that his mercantile occupation left him. We shall 
 presently see what the result of these studies was. No 
 fresh subjects were undertaken by Krochmal in the last 
 years of his life ; he had already acquired a fund of 
 knowledge vast enough to engage all his thoughts. There 
 are, however, some remaining points in his private circum- 
 stances which it may not be uninteresting to mention. 
 
 Krochmal, as has been already related, was not prosper- 
 ous in his business. Things went from bad to worse, and 
 he was compelled in 1836 to seek a situation. "There 
 ought to be literary men poor," some writer has main- 
 tained, "to show whether they are genuine or not." This 
 test Krochmal successfully passed through. Even as a 
 young man Nachman's strength of character was admired 
 by his contemporaries not less than his rare learning. In 
 his subsequent distress, he gave evidence of the truth of 
 this judgment. Despite his poverty, his friends could not 
 prevail upon him to accept the post of Rabbi in any Jewish 
 community. "I am unwilling," he wrote to a friend, "to 
 be the cause of dissensions in any Jewish congregation. 
 I should prefer to die of hunger rather than become a 
 Rabbi under present circumstances." He expressed his 
 views on this subject even more decidedly on a later occa- 
 sion when the Berlin congregation offered him the post of 
 Cbief Rabbi in that town. In a letter, conveying his re- 
 fusal of this honourable office, he says : " I never thought 
 of becoming the Conscience-counsellor {GewissensratH) of 
 men. My line of studies was not directed to that end, 
 nor would it accord with my disposition and sentiments. 
 The only post that I should care to accept would be that 
 of teacher in the Jewish Theological Seminary, which, 
 as I was informed, you were thinking of establishing in 
 
C6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Berlin." The plan to found such an institution was not 
 realised till forty years later, and in the interval Nachman 
 had to look for his living in other regions than Jewish the- 
 ology. Being in poor circumstances, and as his children 
 and friends had left him, he felt very lonely at Zolkiew. 
 " Nobody cares for me here," he writes, " and I am equally 
 indifferent." His one desire was to obtain a situation at 
 Brody, possibly as book-keeper with a salary of some thirty 
 pounds a year, on condition that he would be expected to 
 devote only half the day to his business duties, thus secur- 
 ing for himself leisure for philosophical studies. 
 
 His terms were accepted, and he obtained the humble 
 post he sought. He remained in Brody for the next two 
 years, 1836-8, but at the end of 1838 he fell so danger- 
 ously ill that he could no longer resist the pressing request 
 of his daughter to live with her at Tarnopol. She had 
 urged him to take this step even previous to his removal to 
 Brody, but he had declined on the plea that he preferred 
 to live by the labour of his hands. Now, however, he 
 yielded to her wish, and betook himself to Tarnopol, where 
 for two years longer he lived affectionately tended by his 
 children and respected by all who knew him. In May 
 1840, Krochmal's illness began to develop fatal symptoms, 
 and he died in the arms of his daughter on the 31st of 
 July (the first of Ab), at the age of fifty-five. As Zunz 
 happily remarked : *' This great man was born on the 7th 
 of Adar, the birthday of Moses (according to Jewish tra- 
 dition), and died on the first of Ab, the anniversary of the 
 death of Aaron, the High Priest." 
 
 I have tried in the foregoing remarks to give a short 
 sketch of our Rabbi's life according to the accounts of 
 Zunz, Rapoport, and Letteris. There is one other point 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL rj 
 
 to which I must allude, as it involves a consideration on 
 which Letteris seems to lay much stress. This biographer 
 appears to think that Krochmal was in his youth greatly 
 influenced by the society in which he moved, consisting as 
 it did of many learned and enlightened men. There is, 
 too, the oft-quoted saying of Goethe : — 
 
 Wer den Dichter will verstehen 
 Muss in Dichters Lande gehen. 
 
 And I am probably expected to give some account of the 
 state of society in which Nachman grew up. I regret 
 that I must ask to be excused from doing so. I cannot 
 consent to take the reader to Krochmal's land. And if I 
 might venture to give him my humble advice, I should 
 only say, " By all means stop at home." Goethe may be 
 right about the poet, but his remark does not apply to the 
 case of the scholar. It may be true, as some think, that 
 every great man is the product of his time, but it cer- 
 tainly does not follow that he is the product of his coun- 
 try. Nor could I name any other country of which Kroch- 
 mal was the product. Many a city no doubt boasted itself 
 a town full of " Chakhamim and Sopherim " ^ as the He- 
 brew phrase is, or, as we would express it, " a seat of learn- 
 ing," full of scholars of the ancient and modern schools. 
 But neither these ancient scholars nor the modern were 
 of a kind to produce a real scholar and an enlightened 
 thinker like Krochmal. There were many men who knew 
 by heart the whole of the Halachic works of Maimonides, 
 the Mishnah, and even the whole of the Babylonian Tal- 
 mud. This is very imposing. But if you look a little 
 closer, you will find that with a few exceptions — such as 
 the school of R. Elijah Wilna — these men, generally 
 
58 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 speaking, hardly deserve the name of scholars at all. 
 They were rather a sort of studying engines. The steam- 
 engine passes over a continent, here through romantic 
 scenery, there in the midst of arid deserts, by stream and 
 mountain and valley, always with the same monotonous 
 hum and shriek. So these scholars went through the 
 Talmud with never changing feelings. They did not 
 rejoice at the description which is given in tractate Biccu- 
 rim '^ of the procession formed when the first-fruits were 
 brought into the Holy Temple. They were not much 
 saddened when reading in tractate Taanith ^ of the un- 
 happy days so recurrent in Jewish history. They were 
 not delighted by the wisdom of Seder Nezikin^ which 
 deals with civil law ; nor were they vexed of Seder Taha- 
 roth}^ which treats of the laws of cleanliness and unclean- 
 liness, that by their exaggeration gave cause to much 
 dissension in the time of the Temple. The pre-Talmudic 
 literature, such as the Siphra, Siphre^ and Mechilta " — the 
 only existing means of obtaining an insight into the 
 Talmud — were altogether neglected. All that these 
 readers cared for was to push on to the end, and the 
 prayer recited at the close was of more importance to 
 them than the treatise they had perused. 
 
 Not less melancholy was the spectacle presented by the 
 so-called men of "Enlightenment" {Aiifkldrung). They 
 belonged chiefly to the rationalistic school of Mendelssohn, 
 but they equalled their master neither in knowledge nor 
 in moral character. It was an enlightenment without 
 foundation in real scholarship, and did not lead to an ideal 
 life, though again I must add that there were exceptions. 
 These men were rather what Germans would term Schon- 
 geister^ a set of dilettanti who cared to study as little as 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 
 
 59 
 
 possible, and to write as much as possible. They wrote 
 bad grammars, superficial commentaries on the Bible, 
 and terribly dull poems. Of this literature, with the 
 exception of Erter's Watchman^ there is scarcely a work 
 that one would care to read twice. Most of them 
 despised Rabbinism, but without understanding its noblest 
 forms as they are to be traced in the Talmud and later 
 Hebrew literature. They did not dislike Judaism, but 
 the only Judaism they affected was one " which does not 
 oppose itself to anything in particular " ; or, as Heine 
 would have described it, "Eine reinliche Religion." In 
 one respect these little men were great: in mutual 
 admiration, which reached such a pitch that such titles 
 as "Great Luminary," "World-famed Sage," were con- 
 sidered altogether too insignificant and commonplace. 
 
 I will now pass to the writings of Krochmal. It must 
 be premised that Krochmal was not a voluminous author. 
 All his writings, including a few letters which were pub- 
 lished in various Hebrew periodicals, would scarcely 
 occupy four hundred pages. Krochmal used to call him- 
 self " der ewige Student " (the perpetual pupil). He did 
 not read books, nor study philosophical systems, with the 
 object of writing books of his own on them. He read 
 and studied in order that he might become a better and a 
 wiser man. Besides, he did not think himself competent 
 to judge on grave subjects, nor did he consider his judg- 
 ment, even if he formed one, worthy of publication. He 
 counselled his friends to be equally slow in publishing 
 their views to the world. " Be not," he wrote to a corre- 
 spondent, — " be not hasty in forming your opinions before 
 you have studied the literature of the subject with care 
 and devotion. This is no easy matter, for no man can 
 
5o STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 obtain any real knowledge of the Torah and philosophy 
 unless he is prepared to give himself up in single-hearted 
 devotion to his studies." Severe though he was to his 
 friends, he was still more severe to himself. Though he 
 had been collecting materials on subjects of Jewish history 
 and philosophy from his early youth, it was not until he 
 had endured much persuasion and pressure from his 
 friends that he began to write down his thoughts in a' 
 connected form. We thus possess only one work from 
 the pen of this author ; but that work is the Guide of the 
 Perplexed of the Time}^ a posthumous book published 
 in 185 1, eleven years after Krochmal's death. His work 
 had been much interrupted by illness during the last years 
 of his life, and as a necessary consequence many parts of 
 his treatise finally remained in an unfinished state. Kroch- 
 mal commissioned his children to hand over his papers to 
 Zunz, who was to arrange and edit them as best he might. 
 Zunz, who in his reverence for Krochmal went so far as 
 to call him the man of God, gladly accepted the task, in 
 which he was aided by Steinschneider. Unfortunately, 
 the work was pubHshed in Lemberg, a place famous for 
 spoiling books. Even the skill of these two great masters 
 did not suffice to save Krochmal's work from the fate to 
 which all the books printed in Lemberg seem inevitably 
 doomed. Thus Krochmal's work is printed on bad paper, 
 and with faint ink ; it is full of misprints and the text is 
 sometimes confused with the notes. A second edition 
 appeared in Lemberg in 1863 ; but, it is scarcely necessary 
 to add, the reprint is even worse than the original issue. 
 
 The work occupies some 350 pages, and is divided into 
 seventeen chapters. The opening six treat of Religion 
 in general. The author first indicates the opposite dan- 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 6 1 
 
 gers to which men are liable. On the one hand, men 
 are exposed to extravagant phantasy {Sckwdrmerei), su- 
 perstition and ceremonialism ( Wej'kheiligkeit). Some, on 
 the other hand, in their endeavour to avoid this danger, 
 fall into the opposite extreme, materialism, unbelief, and 
 moral degeneracy as a consequence of their neglect of 
 all law. He proceeds to say : Even in the ritual part 
 of religion, such as the regulations of the Sabbath, the 
 dietary laws and so forth, we find abstract definitions 
 necessary, and differences of opinions prevalent. In the 
 dogmatic aspects of religion, dealing as they do with the 
 grave subjects of metaphysics, the mystery of life and 
 death, the destiny of man, his relation to God, reward 
 and punishment, the inner meaning of the laws, — in 
 these spiritual matters, the difficulty of accurate defini- 
 tion must be far greater and the opportunities for differ- 
 ence of opinion more frequent and important. What 
 guide are we to follow, seeing that every error involves 
 the most dangerous consequences ? Shall we abandon 
 altogether the effort of thinking on these grave subjects ? 
 Such a course is impossible. Do not believe, says Kroch- 
 mal, that there ever was a time when the religious man 
 was entirely satisfied by deeds of righteousness, as some 
 people maintain. On the contrary, every man, whether 
 an independent thinker or a simple believer, always feels 
 the weight of these questions upon him. Every man 
 desires to have some ideal basis for hi^ actions which 
 must constitute his real life in its noblest moments. 
 Krochmal here quotes a famous passage from the Mid- 
 rash. ^^ The Torah, according to one of our ancient sages, 
 may be compared to two paths, the one burning with fire, 
 the other covered with snow. If a man enters on the 
 
52 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 former path he will die by the heat ; if he walks by the 
 latter path he will be frozen by the snow. What, then, 
 must he do ? He must walk in the middle, or, as we 
 should say, he must choose the golden mean. But, as 
 Krochmal suggests, the middle way in historical and 
 philosophical doubts does not consist, as some idle heads 
 suppose, in a kind of compromise between two opposing 
 views. If one of two contending parties declares that 
 twice two make six, while his opponent asserts that twice 
 two make eight, a sort of compromise might be arrived 
 at by conceding that twice two make seven. But such 
 a compromise would be as false as either extreme; and 
 the seeker after the truth must revert to that mean 
 which is the heart of all things, independently of all 
 factions, placing himself above them. 
 
 Having dealt with the arguments relating to the exist- 
 ence of God as elaborated in the philosophical systems 
 of his time, Krochmal leads up to his treatment of the 
 History of Israel by a chapter on the ideal gifts be- 
 stowed upon the various ancient nations, which, possessed 
 by them through many centuries, were lost when their 
 nationality ceased. We next come, in Chapter VII., to 
 the ideal gifts of Israel. These are the religious gift 
 and the faculty and desire for seeking the ideal of all 
 ideals, namely, God. But Israel, whose mission it was 
 to propagate this ideal, was, even as other nations, sub- 
 ject to natural laws ; and its history presents progress 
 and reaction, rise and decline. Krochmal devotes his 
 next three chapters to showing how, in the history of 
 Israel, as in other histories, may be detected a triple 
 process. These three stages are the budding, the period 
 of maturity, and the decay. As the history of Israel is 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 
 
 ^l 
 
 more a history of religion than of politics and battles, 
 its rise and decline correspond more or less with Israel's 
 attachment to God, and its falling away from Him. The 
 decay would be associated with the adoption of either of 
 the extremes, the dangerous effects of which have been 
 already mentioned. But "through progress and back- 
 sliding, amid infectious contact with idolatry, amid sur- 
 vival of old growths of superstition, of the crude practices 
 of the past; amid the solicitation of new aspects of life; 
 in material prosperity and in material ruin," Israel was 
 never wholly detached from God. In the worst times it 
 had its judges or its prophets, its heroes or its sages, its 
 Rabbis or its philosophers, who strove to bring Israel 
 back to its mission, and who succeeded in their efforts 
 to do so. Even in its decay traces of the Divine spirit 
 made themselves felt, and revived the nation, which en- 
 tered again on a triple course and repeated its three 
 phases. The first of these three-fold epochs began, ac- 
 cording to Krochmal's eighth chapter, with the times of 
 the Patriarchs, and ended with the death of Gedaliah after 
 the destruction of the first Temple. Next, in the follow- 
 ing two chapters, Krochmal finds the second triple move- 
 ment in the interval between the prophets of the exile 
 in Babylon and the death of Bar-Cochba about 135 a.c. 
 The author also hints at the existence of a third such 
 epoch beginning with R. Judah the Patriarch, the com- 
 piler of the Mishnah (220 a.c.),i^ and ending with the 
 expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492). This idea is 
 not further developed by Krochmal; but it would be 
 interesting to ask, by the way, in which phase of the 
 three-fold process — rise, maturity, or decay — are we at 
 the present time? 
 
54 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 The next five chapters may be regarded as an excursus 
 on the preceding two. Krochmal discusses the Biblical 
 books which belong to the period of the Exile and of the 
 Second Temple, such as the Second Isaiah, certain Exilic 
 and Maccabean psalms, Ecclesiastes, certain Apocryphal 
 books, and the work of the Men of the Great Synagogue. 
 They contain, again, researches on the various sects, such 
 as the Assideans, Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, the Gnos- 
 tics, the Cabbalists and their relation to the latter, and 
 the Minim,!^ ^j^q a^i-g mentioned in the Talmud. In an- 
 other part of this excursus Krochmal describes the sys- 
 tems of the Alexandrian Jewish philosophers, such as 
 Philo and Aristobulus, and discusses their relation to 
 certain theosophic ideas in various Midrash-collections. 
 The author also attempts to prove the necessity of Tradi- 
 tion ; he shows its first traces in the Bible, and explains 
 the term Sopherim (scribes) ; and he points out the 
 meaning of the phrase "A law unto Moses from Mount 
 Sinai," ^^ and similar expressions. He gives a summary 
 of the development of the Halachah in its different stages, 
 the criteria by which the older Halachahs may be dis- 
 criminated ; he seeks to arrive at the origin of the Mish- 
 nah, and deals with various cognate topics. In another 
 discourse Krochmal endeavours to explain the term Aga- 
 dah,^^ its origin and development ; the different kinds of 
 Agadah and their relative value. Chapter XVI. contains 
 the Prolegomena to a philosophy of the Jewish religion in 
 accordance with the principles laid down by Hegel. In 
 the seventeenth and last chapter the author gives a gen- 
 eral introduction to the Philosophy of Ibn Ezra, and quotes 
 illustrative extracts. 
 
 The space of an essay does not permit me to give 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 65 
 
 further details of Krochmal's book. I am conscious that 
 the preceding outUne is deficient in quality as well as in 
 quantity. Yet, even from this meagre abstract, the reader 
 will gather that Krochmal reviews many of the great 
 problems which concern religion in general and Judaism 
 in particular. Zunz somewhere remarks that Krochmal 
 was inspired in his work by the study of Hegel, just as 
 Maimonides had been by the study of Aristotle. I give 
 this statement solely on the authority of Zunz, as I myself 
 have never made a study of the works of the German 
 philosopher, and am therefore unable to express an opin- 
 ion on the question. 
 
 Now there is no doubt that Krochmal's book is not 
 without defects. The materials are not always well 
 arranged, there is at times a want of proportion in the 
 length at which the various points are treated, and the 
 author occasionally seems to wander from the subject 
 in hand. But we shall be better able to account for these 
 and similar technical faults, as well as to appreciate the 
 real value of the author's work, if we consider the fol- 
 lowing fact. Nachman Krochmal's object was to elabo- 
 rate a philosophy of Jewish history, to trace the leading 
 ideas that ran through it, and the ultimate causes that led 
 to its various phases. But, unfortunately, at the time 
 when Krochmal began to write, there did not exist a 
 Jewish history at all. The labours of Zunz were con- 
 ducted in an altogether different field. Not to mention 
 the names of the younger scholars then unborn, Graetz, 
 the author of the History of the Jews, and Weiss, who 
 wrote a history of the Tradition, were still studying at 
 college. Franker s masterly essays on the Essenes and 
 the Septuagint, his well-known work, Introduction to the 
 
66 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Mishnah, and the results of Geiger's most interesting and 
 suggestive researches on the older and later Halachah, 
 and on the Pharisees and Sadducees, had yet to be written. 
 Rapoport's great treatise, Erech Millin}^ had not been 
 published at that time, and Steinschneider was not yet 
 working at his historical sketch of Jewish literature. It 
 was not till six years after Krochmal's death (viz. in 1846) 
 that Landauer's memorable studies on the Jewish mystics 
 were given to the world. Even the bad books of Julius 
 Fiirst, such as his History of the Canon, and his still worse 
 History of Jewish Literature in Babylon, were then un- 
 written. Neither the most charlatanic History of the 
 Opinions and Teachings of All the Jewish Sects, by Peter 
 Beer, the universal provider, nor Jost's most honest but 
 narrow-minded and superficial History of the Jews, was 
 of much use to Krochmal. Jost's more scholarly works 
 were not published till long afterwards. Krochmal was 
 thus without the guidance of those authorities to which 
 we are now accustomed to turn for information. Except- 
 ing the aid that he derived from the writings of Azariah 
 de Rossi,20 Krochmal was therefore compelled to prose- 
 cute all the necessary research for himself ; he had to 
 establish the facts of Jewish history as well as to philoso- 
 phise upon them. Hence, in the very midst of his philo- 
 sophical analysis, the author was bound to introduce 
 digressions on historical subjects, in order to justify as 
 well as to form the basis of that analysis. He had to 
 survey the ground and to collect the materials, besides 
 constructing the plan of the edifice and working at its 
 erection. Nevertheless, it is precisely for these historical 
 excursuses that Krochmal has deserved the gratitude of 
 posterity. He it was who taught Jewish scholars how to 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 
 
 67 
 
 submit the ancient Rabbinic records to the test of criti- 
 cism and the way in which they might be utilised for the 
 purpose of historical studies ; he it was who enabled them 
 to trace the genesis of the tradition, and to watch the 
 inner germination of that vast organism. He even indi- 
 cated to them how they might continue to connect their 
 own lives with it, how they might derive nourishment from 
 it, and in their turn further its growth. I may assert with 
 the utmost confidence that there is scarcely a single page 
 in Krochmal's book that did not afterwards give birth 
 to some essay or monograph or even elaborate treatise, 
 though their authors were not always very careful about 
 mentioning the source of their inspiration. Thus Kroch- 
 mal justly deserves the honourable title assigned to him 
 by one of our greatest historians, who terms him the 
 Father of Jewish Science. 
 
 So far, I have been speaking of the importance of 
 Krochmal's treatise and of its significance in the region 
 of Jewish Science. It is necessary, I think, to add a 
 few words with regard to the general tendency of his 
 whole work. I have already alluded to the characteristic 
 modesty of Krochmal; I have pointed out how little he 
 cared for publicity, how dearly he loved retirement. The 
 question accordingly presents itself — What can have 
 been the real and sufficient causes that prevailed upon 
 him to yield to the solicitations of his friends and to write 
 upon what the Talmud would term " matters standing on 
 the heights of the world " .? 
 
 The answer to this question may, I think, be found in 
 the title of Krochmal's book, the Guide of the Perplexed 
 of the Time. It is indeed a rather unusual coincidence 
 for the title of a Hebrew book to have any connection 
 
68 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 with its subject matter. The same merit is possessed 
 by the Guide of the Perplexed of Maimonides, the tit!e 
 of which undoubtedly suggested that of Krochmal's 
 treatise. There is, however, one Httle addition in 
 Krochmal's title that contains a most important lesson 
 for us. I mean the words '* of the Time." By these 
 words Krochmal reminds us that, great as are the merits 
 of the immortal work of Maimonides — and it would be 
 difficult to exaggerate its value and importance — still it 
 will no longer suffice for us. For, as Krochmal himself 
 remarks, every time has its own perplexities, and there^ 
 fore needs its own guide. In order to show that these 
 words are no idle phrase, I shall endeavour to illustrate 
 them by one example at least. In the Guide of the 
 Perplexed of Maimonides, Part II., Chapter XXVI., 
 occurs a passage which runs thus: "In the famous 
 chapters known as the 'Chapters of R. Eliezer the 
 Great,' 21 I find R. Eliezer the Great saying something 
 more extraordinary than I have ever seen in the utter- 
 ances of any believer in the Law of Moses. I refer 
 to the following passage: 'Whence were the heavens 
 created.? He (God) took part of the light of His gar- 
 ment. He stretched it like a cloth, and thus the heavens 
 were extending continually, as it is said (Ps. civ. 2): 
 He covereth Himself with light as with a garment, He 
 stretcheth the heavens like a curtain. Whence was 
 the earth created.? He took of the snow under the 
 throne of glory, and threw it; according to the words 
 (in Job xxxvii. 6), He said to the snow be thou earth.* 
 These are the words given there (in the 'Chapters of 
 R. Eliezer the Great'), and I, in my surprise, ask. What 
 was the belief of this sage t Did he think it impossible 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 
 
 69 
 
 that something be produced from nothing ? . . . If the 
 terms 'the light of His garment' and the 'snow of 
 glory ' mean something eternal (as matter) they must 
 be rejected. ... In short, it is a passage that greatly 
 confuses the notions of all intelligent and religious per- 
 sons. I am unable to explain it sufficiently." 
 
 So far Maimonides ; and we are quite able to conceive 
 his perplexity in dealing with this passage. On one side, 
 Maimonides himself believed that Judaism is a dogmatic 
 religion, and that one of its dogmas is the principle of 
 Creatio ex nihilo. On the other side, he found R. Eliezer 
 — one of the greatest authorities of the early part of the 
 second century — apparently denying this dogma. The 
 perplexity was indeed a serious one for Maimonides, but 
 we find no difficulty whatever in extricating ourselves from 
 it. In the first place, there are many who cling to the 
 theory which holds that there are no dogmas in Judaism 
 at all, and to them Maimonides' difficulty would have no 
 relevance. Secondly, those who believe that there are 
 dogmas in Judaism may regard such expressions as those 
 quoted above from the " Chapters of R. Eliezer " in the 
 light of mere poetical metaphors, or may call them fairy 
 tales or legends, or include them in some other section of 
 literature, known under the name of folklore, which is an 
 excuse for every absurdity, the fortunate authors of which 
 are responsible neither to philosophy nor to religion, and 
 sometimes not even to common sense. But there is a 
 third consideration that affords the best solution of the 
 difficulty. The "Chapters of R. Eliezer," despite their 
 pompous title, are not the work of R. Eliezer at all. 
 Criticism has taught us to attach no importance to the 
 heading of a chapter or the title-page of a book. We are 
 
70 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 now in a position to judge from the tone, style, and con- 
 tents of the work, that the " Chapters of R. Eliezer " is a 
 later compilation of the eighth century, and that its author 
 could not have been R. Eliezer, the teacher of R. Akiba, 
 in the second century. In this way, these particular diffi- 
 culties of Maimonides solve themselves for us in a suffi- 
 ciently easy way. But it is just these solutions that open 
 up new difficulties and perplexities which did not exist for 
 the generation of the great Spanish philosopher. Sup- 
 pose that we accept the view that Judaism is not a dog- 
 matic religion. But how are we to conceive a religion 
 without dogmas, or, if you prefer the expression, without 
 principles or bases of belief? Or is Judaism, as some 
 platitudinarians think, a mere national institute with some 
 useful dietary and sanitary laws, but with nothing that 
 makes for the sanctification of man, with no guidance to 
 offer us in the great problems of our life, and in the great- 
 est anxieties of the human soul.? On the other hand, 
 granted that we may consider certain things as mere le- 
 gend, how are we to discriminate between these and the 
 things that must be taken seriously } Does it depend on 
 the nature of the subject, or on the position of the book in 
 the canon of Hebrew literature.? In the thirteenth cen- 
 tury symbolical meanings were given to certain difficult 
 passages in the Talmud; but the process was carried 
 further, and the Biblical narratives were subjected by phi- 
 losophers to a like treatment. R. Solomon ben Adereth 
 and his colleagues (in the thirteenth century) settled the 
 question by indiscriminately excommunicating all young 
 men who should study philosophy; but this method is 
 scarcely one to be commended for present use. 
 
 The third, or the philological solution of difficulties, 
 
NACHMAN KROCHMAL 7 1 
 
 leads to fresh troubles. A hundred years ago men were 
 in that happy state of mind in which they knew every- 
 thing. They knew the exact author and date of every 
 Psalm ; they knew the author of each and every ancient 
 Midrash ; they knew the originator of every law and ordi- 
 nance ; they even knew the writer of the Zohar, and of 
 other mystical books. There were certainly a few who 
 did not know all these things, among them Ibn Ezra, 
 Azariah de Rossi, and the two Delmedigos.22 But they were 
 merely a miserable historical blunder, men who had no 
 right to be born when they were. But the philological 
 method has swept away all this knowingness as by a 
 deluge from heaven, and men find that they know nothing. 
 True, there linger on a few who still know all these things, 
 but it is they who are now the anachronism. These, and 
 such as these, are the perplexities of our time, to the res- 
 olution of which the labours of Krochmal and of a noble 
 band of scholars have been directed in this century. 
 
 Have these perplexities, we must ask, and these puz- 
 zles been solved by Krochmal and his coadjutors } We 
 may with all certainty answer : They have only pointed out 
 the way, it is for ourselves to proceed by it. It would be 
 unreasonable to expect that difficulties which have been 
 accumulating during the course of thousands of years 
 should be solved by the men of one or two generations. 
 Again, we live in a century in which excavations and dis- 
 coveries in other fields have added at once to our know- 
 ledge and to our uncertainty. Each country, we might 
 almost say, over and above the perplexities that trouble 
 mankind in general, has its own special difficulties which 
 are entirely unknown to those who dwell outside its 
 frontiers. I am not disposed to discuss these difficulties 
 
»2 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 in this place. Nor have I the ability to do so. But of 
 two things I am perfectly certain : the first is, that for a 
 solution of these difficulties which, in the language of 
 Maimonides, "confuse the notions of all intelligent and 
 religious persons," the only hope is in true knowledge and 
 not in ignorance ; and secondly, this knowledge can only 
 be obtained by a combination of the utmost reverence for 
 religion and the deepest devotion to truth. The poor old 
 Rabbis who have been so foully decried by their calumni- 
 ators as hedonists, and so foolishly praised by sorry apolo- 
 gists as materialistic optimists, strongly insisted that when 
 a man woos the truth, his suit can only prosper if he is 
 influenced by the purest and most single-hearted affection. 
 " A man," says the Siphr^, " must not say : ' I will study 
 the Torah in order that I may attain the title of Rabbi or 
 savant, or that I may become rich by it, or that I may be 
 rewarded for it in the world to come.' He must study for 
 love's sake." Such a knowledge, which is free from all 
 taint of worldliness and of other-worldliness, a knowledge 
 sought simply and solely for pure love of God, who is 
 Truth, — such a knowledge is in the highest sense a sav- 
 ing knowledge, and Nachman Krochmal was in possession 
 of it. 
 
Ill 
 
 RABBI ELIJAH WILNA, GAON 
 
 The three great stars of German literature are usually 
 characterised by German scholars in the following way : 
 Goethe they say represents the beautiful, Schiller the 
 ideal, while Lessing represents truth. I think that we 
 may apply the same characteristics to the three great 
 luminaries, with which the Jewish middle ages ceased — 
 for as Zunz somewhere remarked, the Jewish middle ages 
 lasted till the beginning of the eighteenth century — and 
 the modern age of Judaism opened. I am thinking of 
 Mendelssohn in Germany, Israel Baalshem, the founder of 
 the sect of the Chassidim in Podolia, and Elijah Wilna, or 
 as he is more frequently called, the Gaon,^ the Great One, 
 in Lithuania. 
 
 As to Mendelssohn, enough, and perhaps more than 
 enough, has already been written and spoken about his 
 merits in awakening the sense for the beautiful and the 
 harmonious which was almost entirely dormant among the 
 Jews of his age. In regard to the second, namely, Israel 
 Baalshem, I have only to refer the reader to the first essay 
 in this volume. The subject of the present essay will be 
 R. Elijah Wilna, who, among the Jews, as Lessing among 
 the Germans, represented truth, both by his life and by 
 his literary activity. 
 
 75 
 
74 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 I say that the Gaon represented truth, but these words 
 must be taken cwmgrano sails. For I do not mean at all to 
 say that he was in possession of the whole truth, still less 
 in exclusive possession of it. It is true as we shall learn 
 in the course of this essay, that the Gaon was a genius of 
 the first order. But there are matters of truth, the obtain- 
 ing of which cannot be accomplished by genius alone. 
 R. Elijah Wilna did not know any other language than 
 Hebrew. Truths, therefore, which are only to be reached 
 through the medium of other languages, remained a secret 
 to him. Again, records of ancient times which are buried 
 in the shelves of remote libraries or under the ruins of 
 past civilisations are not always a matter of intuition. 
 Even the most gifted of men have to wait patiently till 
 these are brought to light by the aid of spade and shovel, 
 or the pen of some obscure copyist. But R. Elijah lived 
 at a time when excavation had as yet done very little for 
 Semitic studies, and when a Jew scarcely got admittance 
 into the great libraries of Europe. Thus much truth 
 which we get now in a very easy way was beyond this 
 seer's eye. 
 
 But even if all the libraries on earth had been at his dis- 
 posal, even if he had read all the cuneiform writings which 
 ornament the British Museum, and had deciphered all the 
 Hieroglyphics which the Louvre possesses, even in that 
 case we should not be justified in terming him a represent- 
 ative of the truth, without quahfying our words. 
 
 " Truth," said the old Rabbis, " is the Seal of the Holy 
 One, praised be He." But Heaven has no Lord Chancel- 
 lor. Neither men nor angels are trusted with the great 
 Seal. They are only allowed to catch a glimpse of it, or 
 rather to long after this glimpse. However, even the 
 
ELIJAH WILNA 75 
 
 longing and effort for this glimpse will bring man into 
 communion with God, and make his life divine. And the 
 life of the Gaon was, as we shall see, one long effort and 
 unceasing longing after the truth. 
 
 Again, if I say that the Gaon represented truth, you 
 must not think that he lacked the two other qualities. A 
 life entirely devoted to such a great cause as that of seek- 
 ing the truth is, ipso facto, ideal and harmonious. It is 
 only in his influence on Judaism — more particularly on 
 the Jews in the North of Europe — that this feature in his 
 life becomes more prominent than his other admirable 
 qualities. 
 
 In what this truth consisted, how the Gaon arrived at it, 
 and by what means he conveyed it to others, we shall see 
 in the course of this essay. 
 
 R. Elijah was born at Wilna in the year 1720. His 
 father, Solomon Wilna, is called by his biographers the 
 great Rabbi Solomon, and is said to have been the de- 
 scendant of R. Moses Rivkas, the author of a learned 
 work, containing notes to the Code of the Law by R. 
 Joseph Caro.2 
 
 Having quoted the biographers, I must point out that 
 there are only two biographies of the Gaon : the one by 
 Finn, in his book Faithful City^ on the celebrities of 
 Wilna, the other by Nachman of Horodna, in his book 
 Ascension of Elijah.'^ The former is a very honest account 
 of the Gaon's life, but a little too short. The latter is too 
 long, or rather too much intermixed with that sort of 
 absurd legend, the authors of which are incapable of mark- 
 ing the line which separates the monster from the hero. 
 
 Even in the region of imagination we must not for a 
 moment forget the good advice given to us by one of our 
 
«5 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 greatest scholars who had to deal with a kindred subject : 
 " He," says this scholar, " who banishes the thought of 
 higher and lower from his study, degrades it into a mere 
 means of gratifying his curiosity, and disqualifies it for the 
 lofty task which it is called upon to perform for modern 
 society." We shall thus cling to the higher and stop at 
 the hero. 
 
 Our hero was the first-born of five brothers. They 
 were all famous men in their little world. According to 
 the tradition in Wilna, Elijah was a lovely child, with 
 beautiful eyes, and goodly to look at, or as it is expressed 
 in another place, " as beautiful as an angel ! " The tradi- 
 tion, or rather the legend, relates that as a child of six 
 years he was already the pupil of R. Moses Margalith, the 
 famous author of a commentary on the Talmud of Jerusa- 
 lem. At the age of seven years he is said to have already 
 perplexed the Chief Rabbi of his native town by his con- 
 troversial skill in Talmudical subjects. At the early age 
 of nine he was acquainted with the contents of the Bible, 
 the Mishnah, the Talmud and its ancient commentaries ; 
 and even the Cabbalistic works of R. Isaac Loria were no 
 secret to the youthful scholar.^ At the age of twelve years 
 he is said to have acquired the seven liberal arts, and to 
 have puzzled the scholars of Wilna by his astronomical 
 knowledge. At thirteen, when according to Jewish law he 
 attained his majority, he was already the accomplished or 
 " the great one " (Gaon) ; so far tradition. I am afraid that 
 tradition is here, against all experience, too exact in its 
 dates. But we may learn from it that the child Elijah 
 showed many signs of the future Gaon, and was therefore 
 considered as the prodigy of his age. Again it is likewise 
 pretty certain that no man could^" boast of having been the 
 
ELIJAH WILNA 77 
 
 master of Elijah. He was not the product of any school, 
 nor was he biassed by the many prejudices of his time. 
 He was allowed to walk his own way in his struggle after 
 truth. 
 
 It is rather an unfortunate thing that history is so much 
 made up of parallels and contrasts that the historian or 
 even the biographer cannot possibly point out the great- 
 ness of some men without touching, however slightly, on 
 the smallness of others. It is only natural that every 
 strong shining object should push the minor lights of its 
 surroundings into the background and darken them. 
 Thus, when we are speaking of the superiority of the 
 Gaon, we cannot escape hinting at least at the shortcom- 
 ings of his contemporaries, as well as of his predeces- 
 sors. 
 
 To indicate briefly in what this superiority consisted, I 
 will premise here a few words from a Responsum by one 
 of his great predecessors, the Gaon Rabbi Hai.^ Con- 
 sulted by a student as to the meaning of certain mystical 
 passages in the tractate CJtagigah^ Rabbi Hai, in warning 
 his correspondent not to expect from him a long philosoph- 
 ical dissertation, writes as follows : " Know that it never 
 was our business to palliate matters and explain them in a 
 way of which the author never could have thought. This 
 is fashionable with other people, but our method is to 
 explain the words of this or that authority in accordance 
 with his own meaning. We do not pledge ourselves that 
 this meaning is * right rule ' in itself, for there do exist 
 statements made by the old authorities that cannot be ac- 
 cepted as norm." Thus far the words of the Gaon of the 
 tenth century, which speak volumes. The Gaon of the 
 eighteenth century followed the same course. All his 
 
-g STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 efforts were directed to this point; namely, to find out 
 the true meaning of the Mishnah, the true meaning of 
 the Gemara,^ the true meaning of the Gaonim, the true 
 meaning of the great codifiers, and the true meaning of 
 the commentators on the ancient Rabbinical literature. 
 Whether this meaning would be acceptable to us mattered 
 very little to him. His only object was to understand 
 the words of his predecessors, and this he obtained, as 
 we shall soon see, by the best critical means. This was 
 the method of the Gaon ; that of other scholars (at least 
 of the great majority) was dictated by entirely differ- 
 ent considerations. They would not suffer the idea that 
 the great man could be wrong at times. To them, all that 
 he said was " right rule." Now suppose a great author 
 like Maimonides had overlooked an important passage in 
 the Talmud or any other statement by a great authority, 
 the alternative remaining to them was either to explain 
 away the passage of the Talmud or to give the words of 
 Maimonides a strange meaning. This led originally to 
 the famous method of the Pilpttl (casuistry), a kind of 
 spiritual gymnastic, which R. Liva of Prague in the six- 
 teenth century, and many others condemned as most per- 
 nicious to Judaism and leading to the decay of the study 
 of the Torah. 
 
 Now it is beyond doubt that the method of the two 
 Gaonim is the only right one. But, in justice to the 
 casuistic school, which includes many a great name, it is 
 only right to remember that this impartiality towards ac- 
 knowledged authorities as maintained by our hero is not at 
 all such an easy matter as we imagine. We quote often 
 with great satisfaction the famous saying. Amicus Plato, 
 amicus Socrates, sed magis amica Veritas, "Plato is our 
 
ELIJAH WILNA yg 
 
 friend, so is Socrates, but Truth is, or rather ought to be, 
 our greatest friend." This sounds very nicely, but let us 
 only realise what difficulties it involves. To be a friend of 
 Socrates or Plato means to know them, or in other words 
 to have a thorough knowledge of the writings of the one 
 and the recorded utterances of the other. But such a 
 knowledge can with most men only be obtained by devot- 
 ing one's w/to/e life to the study of their works, so that 
 there is not left much time for new friendships. And 
 the few who are able to save a few years after long wan- 
 derings with these Greek philosophers, seldom see the 
 necessity of new friendships. For what else did those 
 long courtships of Plato or Aristotle mean except that 
 those who conducted them thought that thereby they 
 would wed Truth } 
 
 This impartiality is the more difficult when these friends 
 are invested with a kind of religious authority where 
 humility and submission are most important factors. The 
 history of Lanfranc, the predecessor of Anselmof Can- 
 terbury, gives a striking example of what this submission 
 meant in the Middle Ages. One day, we are told, when 
 he was still an ordinary monk, he was reading at the 
 table and pronounced a word as it ought to be pronounced, 
 but not as seemed right to the person presiding, who bade 
 him say it differently ; " as if he had said docere, with the 
 middle syllable long, as is right, and the other had cor- 
 rected it into docere, with the middle short, which is 
 wrong; for that Prior was not a scholar. But the wise 
 man, knowing that he owed obedience rather to Christ 
 than to Donatus, the grammarian, gave up his pronunci- 
 ation, and said what he was wrongly told to say ; for to 
 make a short syllable long, or a long one short, he knew 
 
go STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 to be no deadly sin, but not to obey one set over him in 
 God's behalf was no light transgression." ^ 
 
 But this admiration — and here we turn again to the 
 Gaon — must not prevent us from believing that Provi- 
 dence is not confined to such ungrammatical Priors, and 
 that the men who are really working on behalf of God 
 are those who teach us to pronounce rightly, and to think 
 rightly, and to take matters as they are, not as we desire 
 them to be on account of our friends. 
 
 As for the critical means to which I have alluded, the 
 Gaon himself said somewhere that simplicity is the best 
 criterion of truth, and this is the most characteristic feat- 
 ure of all his literary career. The Gaon studied Hebrew 
 grammar in order to obtain a clear notion of the language 
 in which the Scriptures are written. He tried to attain 
 to the knowledge of the Bible by reading the Bible itself ; 
 and was not satisfied to become acquainted with its con- 
 tents from the numerous quotations which are made from 
 it in Rabbinical literature. Again, he studied mathemat- 
 ics, astronomy, and philosophy, as far as they could be 
 found in Hebrew books. Certainly the Gaon did not 
 study these subjects for their own sake, and they were 
 considered by him only as a means to the end, or as the 
 phrase goes, as the " hand-maidens " of Theology, the 
 queen of all sciences. But it may be looked upon as a 
 mark of great progress in an age when Queen Theology 
 had become rather sulky, continually finding fault with 
 her hand-maidens, and stigmatising every attention paid 
 to them as conducive to disloyalty. To these accusa- 
 tions the Gaon answered that Queen Theology does not 
 study her own interests. Knowledge of all arts and 
 sciences, the Gaon maintained, is necessary for the real 
 
ELIJAH WILNa 8 1 
 
 understanding ot the Torah which embraces the whole of 
 them. From his own writings it is evident that he him- 
 self was famiUar with Euclid, and his Ayil Meshulash 
 contains several original developments of Euclid. It was 
 at his suggestion that a certain Baruch of Sclow trans- 
 lated Euclid into the Hebrew language. 
 
 Another way which led the Gaon to the discovery of 
 many truths was his study of the pre-Talmudic literature, 
 and of the Jerusalem Talmud. By some accident or other 
 it came to pass that only the Babylonian Talmud was 
 recognised as a guide in the practices of religious life. 
 As the great teachers and their pupils cared more for 
 satisfying the religious wants of their flocks than for 
 theoretic researches, the consequence was that a most 
 important part of the ancient Rabbinic literature was 
 almost entirely neglected by them for many centuries. 
 And it was certainly no exaggeration, when R. Elijah 
 said that even the Gaonim and Maimonides, occupied as 
 they were with the practical part of the law, did not pay 
 sufficient attention to the Talmud of Jerusalem and the 
 Tosephta.^^ The Gaon was no official head of any Jew- 
 ish community, and was but little troubled by decisions 
 of questions which concern daily life. He was thus in 
 a position to leave for a little while the Babylonian Tal- 
 mud and to become acquainted with the guides of the 
 guide. I refer to Siphra, Siphre, Mechilta, Tosephta, 
 the Seder Olam,^ the Minor Tractates,^ and above all 
 the Talmud of Jerusalem, which, regarded from an his- 
 torical and critical point of view, is even of more impor- 
 tance than its Babylonian twin-brother. But by this means 
 there came a new light upon the whole of ancient Rab- 
 binic literature. The words of the Torah, the Midrash 
 
82 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 says, are poor in one place, but we shall find them rich 
 in another place. The Gaon by his acquaintance with 
 the whole of the Torah had no difficulty whatever in 
 discovering the rich places. If there was a difficult pas- 
 sage in this or that Tractate, he showed, by giving a 
 reference to some other place, that it was wanting in 
 some words or lines. Obscure passages in the Mishnah 
 he tried to elucidate by parallel passages in the Tosephta. 
 The too complicated controversies of the Babylonian Tal- 
 mud he tried to explain by comparing them with the 
 more ancient and more simple Talmud of Jerusalem. 
 
 There is little to be told of the Gaon's private affairs. 
 Even the date of his marriage with a certain Miss Anna 
 of Kaidon is not mentioned by his biographers. But it 
 may be taken for granted that, in accordance with the 
 custom in Poland, he married at a very early age, say 
 about eighteen years. It was also when a young man 
 that he travelled for some years through Poland and 
 Germany. It is rather difficult to say what his object 
 may have been in making these travels — for the Gaon 
 was not the man to travel for pleasure's sake. Perhaps 
 it was to become acquainted with the great Rabbis of 
 these countries. It is also possible, as others maintain, 
 that the Gaon considered the many privations which a 
 traveller had to endure a hundred and fifty years ago, 
 as an atonement for his imaginary sins. Indeed we find 
 in many ascetic books that travelling, or as they term it 
 "receiving upon oneself to be banished into the exile," ^^ 
 is recommended as a very successful substitute for pen- 
 ance. At least it seems that the coachmen whom the 
 Gaon employed on his journeys looked at it from this 
 point of view. One of them went so far in adding to 
 
ELIJAH WILNA 83 
 
 the privations of the Gaon as to run away with his car- 
 riage when the Rabbi alighted from it in order to read 
 his prayers. But the reading of the Eighteen Benedic- 
 tions ^* must not be interrupted excepting in the case of 
 danger ; and the Gaon did not consider it very dangerous 
 to be left without money and without luggage. 
 
 These travels ended in the year 1745. The Gaon left 
 Wilna again at a later date with the purpose of going to 
 Palestine and settling there. But he found so many ob- 
 stacles on his way that he was soon compelled to give up 
 his favourite plan and to return to his native town. It is 
 not known whether he left Wilna again. 
 
 The position which the Gaon occupied in Wilna was, as 
 already hinted, that of a private man. He could never be 
 prevailed upon to accept the post of Rabbi or any other 
 office in a Jewish community. I am unable to give the 
 reason for his declining all the offers made to him in this 
 direction. But it may be suggested here that it was in 
 the time of the Gaon that there arose a bitter struggle 
 between the Rabbi and the Jewish wardens of his native 
 town, which ended in the abolition of the office of Rabbi. 
 The history of the struggle is the more irritating, as it 
 arose from the pettiest reasons imaginable. People act- 
 ually discovered that there was no light in the house of 
 the Rabbi after the middle of the night, which fact might 
 lead to the conclusion that he did not study later than 
 12 o'clock P.M. What an idle man! And this idleness 
 was the less pardonable in the eyes of the community, as 
 the Rabbi's wife was so unfortunate as not to have been 
 polite enough to some Mrs. Warden. Under such circum- 
 stances we must not wonder if the Gaon did not find it 
 very desirable to meddle with congregational affairs in an 
 
84 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 official capacity. The relation of the Gaon to his contem- 
 poraries resembles rather the position in the olden times 
 of a Tanna or Amora/^ who neither enjoyed the title of 
 Nasin or that of Ab Beth Din.^^ Like R. Akiba, or Mar 
 Samuel, the Gaon became influential among his contem- 
 poraries only by his teaching and his exemplary life. 
 
 It must be said in praise of the Jews of Wilna that, not- 
 withstanding their petty behaviour towards their ecclesias- 
 tical chief, they willingly submitted to the authority of the 
 Gaon (who was devoid of all official authority). They 
 revered him as a saint. To converse with the Gaon was 
 considered as a happy event in the life of a Jew in Wilna, 
 to be of any use to him as the greatest distinction a man 
 could attain on earth. But what is remarkable is the 
 readiness with which even scholars acknowledged the 
 authority of the Gaon. Scholars are usually more slow 
 in recognising greatness than simple mortals. Every 
 new luminary does not only outshine their minor lights 
 and thus hurt their personal vanity, but it threatens also 
 sometimes to obscure certain traditions which they wish to 
 keep prominently in view. But the literary genius of the 
 Gaon was too great to be opposed with success, and his 
 piety and devotion to religion far above suspicion. Thus 
 the Gaon was very soon recognised by his contemporaries 
 as their master and guide ; not only in literary questions, 
 but also in matters of belief and conduct. 
 
 It would lead me too far to name here all the Gaon's 
 disciples. It seems as if all the great scholars in his coun- 
 try considered themselves to be more or less his pupils. 
 The Gaon used to give in the Beth Hammidrash, which he 
 founded, public lectures on various subjects, and the stu- 
 dents who attended these lectures also claimed the honour 
 
ELIJAH WILNA 85 
 
 ^l being called his pupils. I shall mention here only his 
 greatest disciple, R. Chayim Walosin, who, after the Gaon, 
 influenced his countrymen more than any other scholar of 
 that time. This R. Chayim also did not occupy any official 
 post among his brethren. He was a cloth manufacturer 
 by profession, and was very prosperous in his business. 
 But it did not prevent him from being devoted to Hebrew 
 literature, and he enjoyed a wide-spread fame as a great 
 scholar. But as soon as the fame of the Gaon reached 
 him, he left cloth manufactory and scholarship behind, 
 and went to Wilna to " learn Torah " from the mouth of 
 the great master. It must be noticed that even the giv- 
 ing up of his claim to scholarship was no little sacrifice. 
 All our learning, said some scholar in Wilna, disappeared 
 as soon as we crossed the threshold of the Gaon's house. 
 He made every disciple who came into close contact with 
 him begin at the beginning. He taught them Hebrew 
 grammar, Bible, Mishnah, and many other subjects, which 
 were, as already mentioned, very often neglected by the 
 Talmudists of that time. R. Chayim had also to go 
 through all this course. Some would have considered such 
 treatment a degradation. R. Chayim, however, became 
 the more attached to his master for it. 
 
 In such a way the life of the Gaon was spent, studying 
 by himself or teaching his pupils. It must be understood 
 that to learn Torah meant for the Gaon more than mere 
 brain work for the purpose of gaining knowledge. To 
 him it was a kind of service to God. Contemporaries who 
 watched him when he was studying the Torah observed 
 that the effect wrought on the personality of the Gaon was 
 the same as when he was praying. With every word his 
 countenance flushed with joy ; with every line he was gain- 
 
S6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ing strength for proceeding further. Only by looking at 
 matters from this point of view shall we be able to under- 
 stand the devotion and the love of the Gaon for study. 
 
 There has been, no doubt, among the Russian Jews a 
 strong tendency to exaggerate the intellectual qualities of 
 the Gaon. But one can readily excuse such a tendency. 
 He was gifted by nature with such a wonderful memory 
 that, having read a book once, he was able to recite it 
 by heart for the rest of his life. Not less admirable 
 was his sure grasp. The most complicated controversies 
 in the Talmud, into which other scholars would require 
 whole days and weeks to find their way, the Gaon was 
 able to read by a glance at the pages. Already as a 
 boy he is said to have gone through in a single night 
 the tractates Zebachim and Menachoth}'^ containing not 
 less than two hundred and thirty pages, the contents of 
 which are sometimes so difficult as to make even an aged 
 scholar despair of understanding them. Again, he pos- 
 sessed so much common-sense that all the intellectual 
 tricks of the casuistic schools did not exist for him. And 
 nevertheless his biographers tell us that he was so much 
 occupied by his studies, that he could not spare more 
 than one hour and a half for sleep out of twenty-four 
 hours. This is, no doubt, an exaggeration. But let us 
 say five hours a day. He had not time to take his meals 
 regularly. He used also, according to tradition, to repeat 
 every chapter in the Bible, every passage in the Talmud, 
 hundreds of times, even if they presented no difficulty 
 at all. But it was, as already said, a matter of love for 
 the Gaon ; of love, not of passing affection. 
 
 Nothing on earth could be more despicable to the Gaon 
 !han amateurs who dabble with ancient literature. To 
 
ELIJAH WILNA 87 
 
 understand a thing clearly made him happy. He is said 
 to have spent more than six months on a single Mishnah 
 in the tractate Kilayim}^ and felt himself the happiest 
 man when he succeeded in grasping its real meaning. 
 Not to be able to go into the depth of a subject, to miss 
 the truth embedded in a single passage, caused him the 
 most bitter grief. A story told by his pupil, R. Chayim, 
 may illustrate this fact. One Friday, narrates R. Chayim, 
 the servant of the Gaon came to him with the message 
 that his master wanted to see him as soon as possible. 
 R. Chayim went instantly. When he came into the house, 
 he found the Gaon lying in bed with a bandage on his 
 head and looking very ill. The wife of the Gaon also 
 reported to him that it was more than three days since 
 her husband had taken any food, and that he had hardly 
 enjoyed any sleep all this time. All this misery was 
 caused by reason of not having been able to understand 
 some difficult passages in the Talmud of Jerusalem. The 
 Gaon now asked his disciples to resume with him their 
 researches. Heaven, he said, might have mercy upon 
 them and open their eyes, for it is written, " Two are 
 better than one": and lo! Heaven did have mercy on 
 them; they succeeded in getting the true meaning of 
 the passage. The Gaon recovered instantly, and master 
 and disciple had a very joyful Sabbath. 
 
 He is also reported to have said on one occasion, he 
 would not like to have an angel for his teacher who would 
 reveal to him all the mysteries of the Torah. Such a con- 
 dition is only befitting the world to come, but in this world 
 only things which are acquired by hard labour and great 
 struggle are of any value. The German representative of 
 truth expressed the same thought in other words, which 
 
88 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 are well worth repeating here : " Did the Almighty," says 
 Lessing, " holding in His right hand Truth and in His left 
 Search after Truth, deign to tender me the one I might 
 prefer, in all humility and without hesitation I should 
 select Search after Truth." 
 
 This absorption of all his being in the study of the 
 Torah may also, I think, account for the fact that his 
 biographers have so little to say about the family of the 
 Gaon. Of his wife, we know only that she died in the 
 year 1783. Not much fuller is our knowledge about his 
 children. The biographers speak of them as of the family 
 " which the Lord has blessed," referring to his two sons, 
 Rabbi Aryeh Leb and Rabbi Abraham, who were known 
 as great scholars and very pious men. The latter one is 
 best known by his edition of a collection of smaller Mid- 
 rashim. Mention is also made of the Gaon's sons-in-law, 
 especially one Rabbi Moses of Pinsk. But this is all, and 
 we are told nothing either about their lives or their call- 
 ings. From his famous letter which he sent to his family 
 when on his way to Palestine, we see that he was rather 
 what one may call a severe father. He bids his wife pun- 
 ish his children most severely for swearing, scolding, and 
 speaking untruth. He also advises her to live as retired 
 a life as possible. Retirement he considers as a condition 
 sine qua non for a religious life. He even advises his 
 daughter to read her prayers at home, for in the syna- 
 gogue she may get envious of the finer dresses of her 
 friends, which is a most terrible sin. The only tender 
 feature in this letter is perhaps where he implores his 
 wife to be kind to his mother on account of her being a 
 widow, and it were a great sin to cause her the least an- 
 noyance. From other passages we may gather that his 
 
ELIJAH WILNA gg 
 
 family had at times to suffer hunger and cold by the ex- 
 cessive occupation of their father with the study of the 
 Torah and other religious works. In short, the Gaon was 
 a one-sided, severe ascetic, and would never have deserved 
 the title of a good father, a good husband, an amiable man 
 or any other appellation derived from those ordinary 
 " household decencies " which, as Macaulay informs us, 
 half of the tombstones claim for those who lie behind 
 them. But I am very much afraid that many a great man 
 who has made his mark in history could never claim these 
 household virtues as his own. I do not want to enter here 
 into the question whether Judaism be an ascetic religion 
 or not. But even those who think Judaism identical with 
 what is called ** making the best of this life," will not dis- 
 pute the fact that Jewish literature contains within it 
 enough ascetic elements to justify the conduct of our 
 greatest men whose lives were one long-continued self- 
 denial and privation. " The Torah," says the Talmud, 
 " cannot be obtained unless a man is prepared to give his 
 life for it," or as the Talmud puts it, in another place, " if 
 it be thy desire not to die, cease to live before thou diest." 
 This was the principle by which the Gaon's life was actu- 
 ated. And as he did not spare himself, he could not spare 
 others. We could not expect him to act differently. The 
 Scriptures tell us : " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself." But how is it with the man who never loved 
 himself, who never gave a thought to himself, who never 
 lived for himself, but only for what he considered to be 
 his duty and his mission from God on earth } Such a 
 man we cannot expect to spend his time on coaxing and 
 caressing us. As to the charge of one-sidedness at which 
 I have hinted, if the giving up of everything else for the 
 
QQ STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 purpose of devoting oneself to a scholarly and saintly life 
 is one-sidedness, the Gaon must certainly bear this charge ; 
 but in a world where there are so many on the other side, 
 we ought, I think, to be only too grateful to Providence for 
 sending us from time to time great and strong one-sided 
 men, who, by their counterbalancing influence, bring God's 
 spoilt world to a certain equilibrium again. To appease my 
 more tender readers, I should like only to say that there is 
 no occasion at all for pitying Mrs. Gaon. It would be a 
 miserable world indeed if a good digestion and stupidity 
 were, as a certain author maintained, the only conditions 
 of happiness. Saints are happy in their sufferings, and 
 noble souls find their happiness in sacrificing themselves 
 for these sufferers. 
 
 Another severe feature in the life of the Gaon showed 
 itself in his dispute with the Chassidim. I regret not to 
 be able to enter here even into a brief account of the his- 
 tory of this struggle. I shall only take leave to say that I 
 am afraid each party was right, the Gaon as well as the 
 Chassidim; the latter, in attacking the Rabbis of their 
 time, who mostly belonged to the casuistic schools, and in 
 their intellectual pursuits almost entirely neglected the 
 emotional side of religion; but none the less was the 
 Gaon right in opposing a system which, as I have shown 
 above, involved the danger of leading to a worship of 
 
 men. 
 
 Excepting this incident, the Gaon never meddled with 
 public affairs. He lived in retirement, always occupied 
 with his own education and that of his disciples and 
 friends. It is most remarkable that, in spite of his hard 
 work and the many privations he had to endure, he 
 enjoyed good health almost all his life. He never con- 
 
ELIJAH WILNA qI 
 
 suited a doctor. It was not until the year 1791, in the 
 seventieth year of his life, that he began to feel the 
 decline of his health. But he was not much interrupted 
 by the failure of his powers. As a means of recovery, he 
 esteemed very highly the conversation of the preacher 
 Jacob of Dubna, better known as the Dubna Maggid,^^ 
 whose parables and sallies of wit the Gaon used to enjoy 
 very much. On the eve of the Day of Atonement in the 
 year 1797, he fell very ill and gave his blessing to his 
 children. He died on the third day of the Feast of Tab- 
 ernacles, with the branch of the Lulab^^ in his hands. 
 The Feast of Joy, relates a contemporary, was turned into 
 days of mourning. In all the streets of Wilna were heard 
 only lamenting and crying voices. The funeral orations 
 delivered on this occasion in Wilna, as well as in other 
 Jewish communities, would form a small library. His dis- 
 ciples wept for their master, the people of Wilna for the 
 ornament of their native town, and the feeling of the Jews 
 in general was that "the Ark of God was taken away." 
 
 After the foregoing sketch, the reader will hardly 
 expect me to give an account of the Gaon's literary pro- 
 ductions. The results of so long a life and such powers 
 of mind devoted to one cause with such zeal and fervour, 
 would furnish by themselves the subject of a whole series 
 of essays. The tombstone set on his grave by his pious 
 admirers bears the inscription, " The Gaon gave heed and 
 sought and set in order " — that is to say, he wrote com- 
 mentaries or notes on — "the Bible, the Mishnah, both 
 Talmuds, the Siphre, Siphra, the Zohar, and many other 
 works." Inscriptions on tombstones are proverbial for 
 exaggeration, and we all know the saying, " as mendacious 
 as an epitaph." But a glance at the catalogue of the 
 
92 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 British Museum under the heading of Elijah Wilna, will 
 show that this inscription makes a praiseworthy exception. 
 We will find that this list might be lengthened by many 
 other works of great importance for Jewish life and 
 thought. His commentary to the Code of R. Joseph 
 Caro, in which one will find that in many cases he knew 
 the sources of the religious customs and usages, put 
 together in this work, better than its compiler himself, 
 would have been sufficient to place him at the head of 
 Halachic scholarship, whilst his notes and textual emenda- 
 tions to the Tosephta and Seder 01am, to the restoration 
 of which he contributed so much, would have sufficed to 
 establish his fame as a critic of the first order. And this 
 is the more astonishing when we consider that all this was 
 done without manuscripts or any other aid, and by mere 
 intuition. We cannot wonder that scholars who had 
 the opportunity of visiting great libraries and saw how 
 the emendations of the Gaon agreed sometimes with the 
 readings given in the best manuscripts exclaimed very 
 often : " Only by inspiration could he have found out 
 these secrets." We have no need to go so far; we shall 
 simply say with the Talmud, " The powers of the real 
 sage surpass those of the prophet." Nay, even had we 
 possessed only his Gleanings^ which form a kind of obiter 
 dicta on various topics of Jewish literature, the Gaon 
 would have remained a model of clear thinking and real 
 ingenuity for all future generations. 
 
 However, a real appreciation of the Gaon's greatness as 
 a scholar would only be possible either by a thorough 
 study of his works, to which I have alluded, or by giving 
 many specimens of them. The short space I am limited 
 to makes such an undertaking impossible. I shall there- 
 
ELIJAH WILNA gj 
 
 fore use what remains to me to say a few words on the 
 salutary influence the Gaon had on his countrymen, the 
 Russian Jews. 
 
 The Russian Jew is still a riddle to us. We know this 
 strange being only from the Reports of the Board of 
 Guardians or from bombastic phrases in public speeches ; 
 for he has always been the victim of platform orators, 
 
 So over violent or over civil, 
 
 That every man with them is God or Devil. 
 
 From all, however, that I can gather from the best Jewish 
 writers in Russia, I can only judge that the Russian Jew, 
 when transplanted to a foreign soil, where he is cut off 
 from the past and uncertain of his future, is for the time 
 at least in a position in which his true character cannot be 
 truly estimated. His real life is to be sought in his own 
 country. There, amidst his friends and kinsmen who are 
 all animated by the same ideals, attached to the same tra- 
 ditions, and proud of the same religious and charitable 
 institutions, everything is full of life and meaning to him. 
 Thus, a certain Russian writer addresses his younger col- 
 leagues who find so much fault with the bygone world : 
 " Go and see how rich we always were in excellent men. 
 In every town and every village you would find scholars, 
 saints, and philanthropists. Their merits could sustain 
 worlds, and each of them was an ornament of Israel." 
 And he proceeds to give dozens of names of such excel- 
 lent men, who are not all indeed known to us, but with 
 whom the Russian Jew connects many noble and pious 
 reminiscences of real greatness and heroic self-denial, and 
 of whom he is justly proud. 
 
g^ STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 The focus, however, of all this spiritual life is the Yeshi- 
 bah (Talmudical College) ^^ in Walosin. I hope that a 
 glance at its history and constitution will not be found 
 uninteresting. The intellectual originator of this institu- 
 tion which bears the name Yeshibah Ets Chayim (Tree of 
 Life College),^ was the Gaon himself. Being convinced 
 that the study of the Torah is the very life of Judaism, but 
 that this study must be conducted in a scientific, not in a 
 scholastic way, he bade his chief disciple, the R. Chayim 
 already mentioned, to found a college in which Rabbinical 
 literature should be taught according to his own true 
 method. It would seem that, as long as the Gaon was 
 alive, R. Chayim preferred to be a pupil rather than a 
 teacher. When, however, the Gaon died, R. Chayim did 
 not rest till he had carried out the command of his master, 
 and in the year 1803 the College was opened in Walosin. 
 The cloth manufacturer and disciple now became Rabbi 
 and master. He began on a small scale, teaching at first 
 only a few pupils. But even for the sustenance of a small 
 number he had not sufficient means, and his pious wife 
 sold her jewellery to help him in accomplishing his favour- 
 ite plan. This is the best refutation of the French prov- 
 erb Avare co7nme ime Rabbine. The number, however, 
 increased daily, and before he died (1828), he was fortunate 
 enough to lecture to a hundred students. The number of 
 students in the year 1888 amounted to 400, and the Rus- 
 sian Jews are thus right in asserting that they have the 
 greatest Talmudical College in the world. It is evident 
 that no private charity by a single man, however great, 
 could suffice to maintain such large numbers. Thus R. 
 Chayim was already compelled to appeal to the liberality 
 of his Russian brethren. The name of R. Chayim, and 
 
EUJAH WILNA gj 
 
 the still greater name of his master, were recommendation 
 enough, and besides private offerings, many communities 
 promised large sums towards supporting the students in 
 Walosin. From time to time also messengers are sent out 
 by the committee to promote the interests of the Yeshi- 
 bah. The writers to whom I owe these data tell us that 
 these messengers travel to all parts of the world to collect 
 offerings for Walosin : so that it is a standing joke with 
 the students that the existence of the mythical river 
 Sambatyon23 may be questioned after all, otherwise it 
 must long have been discovered by these messengers who 
 explore the whole world in their journeys. But it would 
 seem that this world is only a very small one. For the 
 whole income of the Yeshibah has never exceeded the 
 sum of about ;£i8oo. Of this a certain part is spent in 
 providing the salaries of the teaching staff and proctors, 
 and on the repairs of the building; whilst the rest is 
 distributed amongst the students. Considering that no 
 scholarship exceeds ;£i3 — it is only the forty immortals 
 of Walosin who receive such high stipends — considering 
 again that the great majority of the students belong to the 
 poorer classes and thus receive no remittance from their 
 parents, we may be sure that the words of the Talmud : 
 **This is the way to study the Torah ; eat bread and salt, 
 drink water by measure, sleep on the earth, and live a 
 life of care," are carried out by them literally. But it 
 would seem that the less they eat and the less they sleep, 
 the more they work. Indeed the industry and the enthu- 
 siasm of these Bachurim {alu^mti)'^ in the study of the 
 Torah is almost unsurpassable. The ofificial hours alone 
 extend from nine in the morning until ten in the evening, 
 while many of the students volunteer to continue their 
 
g5 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Studies till the middle of the night, or to begin the day at 
 three in the morning. 
 
 As to the subject of these studies, it is confined, as may 
 be imagined, to the exploration of the old Rabbinic litera- 
 ture in all its branches. But it would be a mistake to think 
 that the modern spirit has left Walosin quite untouched. 
 It would be impossible that among 400 thinking heads 
 there should not be a few who are interested in mathemat- 
 ics, others again in philosophy or history, while yet others 
 would conjugate the irregular verbs of some classical lan- 
 guage when moving to and fro over their Talmud folios 
 and pretending to ''learn.'' Indeed, almost all the writers 
 who demand that these subjects should be introduced as 
 obligatory into the programme of Walosin, belonged them- 
 selves to this Yeshibah. And it is these writers who 
 betray the secret how secular knowledge is now invading 
 the precincts of Walosin, as well as of other Talmudical 
 Colleges in spite of all obstacles and prohibitions. In 
 conquering these difficulties seem to consist the pleasures 
 of life of many Bachurim at Walosin. Look only at that 
 undergraduate, how, after a heavy day's work he is stand- 
 ing there in the street reading Buckle's History of Civili- 
 sation in the moonlight ! Poor man, he is not so romantic 
 as to prefer the moonlight to a cheerful, warm room, with 
 the more prosaic light of a candle, but he has got tired of 
 knocking at the door, for his landlady, to whom he has 
 neglected to pay rent for the last three terms, made up 
 her mind to let him freeze to-night. But still more cruel 
 to him is his fellow-sufferer, who is also wandering in the 
 streets with an overloaded brain and empty stomach ; he 
 roughly shakes him out of his dreams by telling him that 
 Buckle is long ago antiquated, and that he had better 
 
ELIJAH WILNA ^y 
 
 Study the works of Herbert Spencer, who has spoken the 
 last word on every vital subject in the world. Still these 
 two starving and freezing representatives of English 
 thought in Walosin form only an exception. The gen- 
 eral favourites are the representatives of Jewish thought. 
 That such books as the Guide of the Perplexed, by Mai- 
 monides, the Metaphysical Researches of Levi b. Ger- 
 shom,2s and other philosophical works of the Spanish 
 school are read by the Walosin students it is needless to 
 say. These books now form a part of the Rabbinic litera- 
 ture, and it would be almost unorthodox to suspect their 
 readers. But is worth noticing that even the productions 
 of the modern historico-critical school, such as the works 
 of Zunz, Frankel, Graetz, Weiss, are very popular with 
 the Bachurim, being much read and discussed by them. 
 
 Thus Walosin deserves rightly to be considered as the 
 centre of Jewish thought in Russia, in which the spirit of 
 the Gaon is still working. 
 
 I have very often, however, heard doubts expressed as 
 to the continuance of this spirit when, as it is to be hoped, 
 better times come for the Jews in Russia. Is it not to be 
 feared that liberty and emancipation will render untenable 
 ideas and notions which arose under entirely different cir- 
 cumstances } There is no need of entertaining such fears. 
 Rabbi Jedaiah of Bedrests concludes his philosophical 
 work Examination of the World, with the following words : 
 " The conclusion of the whole matter is, go either to the 
 right, my heart, or go to the left, but believe all that R. 
 Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) has believed, the last of 
 the Gaonim by time, but the first in rank." About five 
 hundred years have passed away since these lines were 
 written. Time, as we have seen, has brought another 
 
 H 
 
gS STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Gaon, and probably Time will favour us in future with 
 still another. But times have also altered. The rebel- 
 lious hearts of a liberal age are not likely to obey always 
 the command, "believe all that the Gaon said." But the 
 heart of man will in all ages retain idealism enough to 
 love and revere the greatest of men and to follow what 
 was best in them. 
 
IV 
 
 NACHMANIDESi 
 
 R. Chayim Vital, in his Book of the Transmigrations of 
 SoulSy gives the following bold characteristic of the two 
 great teachers of Judaism, Maimonides and Nachmanides. 
 Their souls both sprang forth from the head of Adam — 
 it is a favourite idea of the Cabbalists to evolve the whole 
 of ideal humanity from the archetype Adam — but the 
 former, Maimonides, had his genius placed on the left 
 curl of Adam, which is all judgment and severity, whilst 
 that of the latter, Nachmanides, had its place on the right 
 curl, which represents rather mercy and tenderness. 
 
 I start from these words in order to avoid disappoint- 
 ment. For Nachmanides was a great Talmudist, a great 
 Bible student, a great philosopher, a great controversialist, 
 and, perhaps, also a great physician ; in one word, great 
 in every respect, possessed of all the culture of his age. 
 But, as I have already indicated by the passage quoted by 
 way of introduction, it is not of Nachmanides in any of 
 these excellent qualities that I wish to write here. For 
 these aspects of his life and mind I must refer the reader 
 to the works of Graetz, Weiss, Steinschneider, Perles, and 
 others. I shall mostly confine myself to those features 
 and peculiarities in his career and works which will illus- 
 trate Nachmanides the tender and compassionate, the 
 
 99 
 
IQQ STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Nachmanides who represented Judaism from the side of 
 emotion and feeling, as Maimonides did from the side of 
 reason and logic. 
 
 R. Moses ben Nachman, or Bonastruc de Portas, as he 
 was called by his fellow-countrymen, or Nachmanides, as 
 he is commonly called now, was born in Gerona about the 
 year 1 195. Gerona is a little town in the province of Cata- 
 lonia in Spain. But though in Spain, Gerona was not 
 distinguished for its philosophers or poets like Granada, 
 Barcelona, or Toledo. Situated as it was in the North of 
 Spain, Gerona was under the influence of Franco-Jewish 
 sympathies, and thus its boast lay in the great Talmudists 
 that it produced. I shall only mention the name of 
 R. Zerahiah Hallevi Gerundi — so-called after his native 
 place — whose strictures on the Code of R. Isaac Alfasi, 
 which he began as a youth of nineteen years, will always 
 remain a marvel of critical insight and independent re- 
 search. Nachmanides is supposed by some authors to 
 have been a descendant of R. Isaac ben Reuben of Barce- 
 lona, whose hymns are still to be found in certain rituals. 
 The evidence for this is insufficient, but we know that he 
 was a cousin of R. Jonah Gerundi, not less famous for his 
 Talmudic learning than for his saintliness and piety. 
 Nachmanides thus belonged to the best Jewish families 
 of Gerona. Various great men are mentioned as his 
 teachers, but we have certainty only about two, namely 
 R. Judah ben Yakar, the commentator of the prayers, 
 and R. Meir ben Nathan of Trinquintaines. The mystic, 
 R. Ezra (or Azriel), is indeed alleged to have been his 
 instructor in the Cabbalah, and this is not impossible, as 
 he also was an inhabitant of Gerona ; but it is more prob- 
 able that Nachmanides was initiated into the Cabbalah by 
 
NA ChMANIDES I q I 
 
 the R. Judah just mentioned, who also belonged to the 
 
 mystical school. 
 
 Whoever his masters were, they must have been well 
 satisfied with their promising pupil, for he undertook, at 
 the age of fifteen, to write supplements to the Code of 
 R. Isaac Alfasi. Nor was it at a much later date that he 
 began to compose his work, The Wars of the Lord, in 
 which he defends this great codifier against the strictures 
 of R. Zerahiah, to which we have referred above. I shall 
 in the course of this essay have further occasion to speak 
 of this latter work; for the present we will follow the 
 career of its author. 
 
 Concerning the private life of Nachmanides very little 
 has come down to us. We only know that he had a 
 family of sons and daughters. He was not spared the 
 greatest grief that can befall a father, for he lost a son ; 
 it was on the day of the New Year.^ On the other hand, 
 it must have been a great source of joy to him when he 
 married his son Solomon to the daughter of R. Jonah, 
 whom he revered as a saint and a man of God. As a 
 token of the admiration in which he held his friend, the 
 following incident may be mentioned. It seems that it 
 was the custom in Spain to name the first child in a 
 family after his paternal grandfather; but Nachmanides 
 ceded his right in behalf of his friend, and thus his 
 daughter-in-law's first son was named Jonah. Another 
 son of Nachmanides whom we know of was Nachman, to 
 whom his father addressed his letters from Palestine, and 
 who also wrote Novellae to the Talmud, still extant in MS. 
 But the later posterity of Nachmanides is better known 
 to fame. R. Levi ben Gershom was one of his descend- 
 ants; so was also R. Simeon Duran;^ whilst R. Jacob 
 
,02 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Sasportas, in the eighteenth century,* derived his pedigree 
 from Nachmanides in the eleventh generation. 
 
 As to his calling, he was occupied as Rabbi and teacher, 
 first in Gerona and afterwards in Barcelona. But this 
 meant as much as if we should say of a man that he is 
 a philanthropist by profession, with the only difference 
 that the treasures of which Nachmanides disposed were 
 more of a spiritual kind. For his livelihood he probably 
 depended upon his medical practice. 
 
 I need hardly say that the life of Nachmanides, "whose 
 words were held in Catalonia in almost as high authority 
 as the Scriptures," was not without its great public events. 
 At least we know of two. 
 
 The one was about the year 1232, on the occasion of 
 the great struggle about Maimonides' Guide of the Per- 
 plexed, and the first book of his great Compendium of 
 the Law. The Maimonists looked upon these works 
 almost as a new revelation, whilst the Anti-Maimonists 
 condemned both as heretical, or at least conducive to 
 heresy.^ It would be profitless to reproduce the details 
 of this sad affair. The motives may have been pure and 
 good, but the actions were decidedly bad. People de- 
 nounced each other, excommunicated each other, and did 
 not (from either side) spare even the dead from the most 
 bitter calumnies. Nachmanides stood between two fires. 
 The French Rabbis, from whom most of the Anti- 
 Maimonists were recruited, he held in very high esteem 
 and considered himself as their pupil. Some of the 
 leaders of this party were also his relatives. He, too, 
 had, as we shall see later on, a theory of his own about 
 God and the world little in agreement with that of Mai- 
 monides. It is worth noting that Nachmanides objected 
 
NA CHMANIDES 1 03 
 
 to calling Maimonides " our teacher Moses " (Rabbenu 
 Mosheh),^ thinking it improper to confer upon him the 
 title by which the Rabbis honoured the Master of the 
 Prophets. The very fact, however, that he had some 
 theory of the Universe shows that he had a problem to 
 solve, whilst the real French Rabbis were hardly troubled 
 by difficulties of a metaphysical character. Indeed, 
 Nachmanides pays them the rather doubtful compliment 
 that Maimonides' work was not intended for them, who 
 were barricaded by their faith and happy in their belief, 
 wanting no protection against the works of Aristotle and 
 Galen, by whose philosophy others might be led astray. 
 In other words, their strength lay in an ignorance of 
 Greek philosophy, to which the cultivated Jews of Spain 
 would not aspire. Nachmanides was also a great admirer 
 of Maimonides, whose virtues and great merits in the 
 service of Judaism he describes in his letter to the French 
 Rabbis. Thus, the only way left open to him was to play 
 the part of the conciliator. The course of this struggle 
 is fully described in every Jewish history. It is sufficient 
 to say that, in spite of his great authority, Nachmanides 
 was not successful in his effort to moderate the violence 
 of either party, and that the controversy was at last set- 
 tled through the harsh interference of outsiders who well- 
 nigh crushed Maimonists and Anti-Maimonists alike. 
 
 The second public event in the life of Nachmanides 
 was his Disputation, held in Barcelona, at the Court and 
 in the presence of King Jayme I., of Aragon, in the year 
 1263. It was the usual story. A convert to Christianity, 
 named Pablo Christiani, who burned with zealous anxiety 
 to see his former co-religionists saved, after many vain 
 attempts in this direction, applied to the King of Aragon 
 
104 STUDIES IN JUDAISM ' 
 
 to order Nachmanides to take part in a public disputation. 
 Pablo maintained that he could prove the justice of the 
 Messianic claims of Jesus from the Talmud and other 
 Rabbinic writings. If he could only succeed in convinc- 
 ing the great Rabbi of Spain of the truth of his argument, 
 the bulk of the Jews was sure to follow. By the way, 
 it was the same Talmud which some twenty years pre- 
 viously was, at the instance of another Jewish convert, 
 burned in Paris, for containing passages against Chris- 
 tianity. Nachmanides had to conform with the command 
 of the king, and, on the 2ist of July, 1263, was begun 
 the controversy, which lasted for four or five days. 
 
 I do not think that there is in the whole domain of 
 literature less profitable reading than that of the contro- 
 versies between Jews and Christians. These public dis- 
 putations occasionally forced the Jews themselves to 
 review their position towards their own literature, and 
 led them to draw clearer distinctions between what they 
 regarded as religion and what as folklore. But beyond 
 this, the polemics between Jews and Christians were 
 barren of good results. If you have read one you have 
 read enough for all time. The same casuistry and the 
 same disregard of history turn up again and again. 
 Nervousness and humility are always on the side of the 
 Jews, who know that, whatever the result may be, the 
 end will be persecution ; arrogance is always on the side 
 of their antagonists, who are supported by a band of 
 Knights of the Holy Cross, prepared to prove the sound- 
 ness of their cause at the point of their daggers. 
 
 Besides, was there enough common ground between 
 Judaism and thirteenth century Christianity to have jus- 
 tified the hope of a mutual understanding.^ The Old 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 105 
 
 Testament was almost forgotten in the Church. The 
 First Person in the Trinity was leading a sort of shadowy 
 existence in art, which could only be the more repulsive 
 to a Jew on that account. The largest part of Church 
 worship was monopolised by devotion to the Virgin 
 Mother, prayers to the saints, and kneeling before their 
 relics. And a Jew may well be pardoned if he did not 
 entertain higher views of this form of worship than Lu- 
 ther and Knox did at a later period. It will thus not be 
 worth our while to dwell much on the matter of this 
 controversy, in which the essence of the real dispute is 
 scarcely touched. There are only two points in it which 
 are worth noticing. The first is that Nachmanides de- 
 clared the Agadoth'' in the Talmud to be only a series 
 of sermons (he uses this very word), expressing the indi- 
 vidual opinions of the preacher, and thus possessing no 
 authoritative weight. The convert Pablo is quite aghast 
 at this statement, and accuses Nachmanides of heter- 
 odoxy. 
 
 Secondly, — and here I take leave to complete the 
 rather obscure passage in the controversy by a parallel 
 in his book, The Date of Redemptiojt^ quoted by Azariah 
 de Rossi — that the question of the Messiah is not of that 
 dogmatic importance to the Jews that Christians imagine. 
 For even if Jews supposed their sins to be so great that 
 they forfeited all the promises made to them in the Script- 
 ures, or that, on some hidden ground, it would please the 
 Almighty never to restore their national independence, 
 this would in no way alter the obligations of Jews towards 
 the Torah. Nor is the coming of the Messiah desired by 
 Jews as an end in itself. For it is not the goal of their 
 hopes that they shall be able again to eat of the fruit of 
 
I06 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Palestine, or enjoy other pleasures there; not even the 
 chance of the restoration of sacrifices and the worship of 
 the Temple is the greatest of Jewish expectations (con- 
 nected with the appearance of the Messiah). What 
 makes them long for his coming is the hope that they 
 will then witness, in the company of the prophets and 
 priests, a greater spread of purity and holiness than is 
 now possible. In other words, the possibility for them 
 to live a holy life after the will of God will be greater 
 than now. But, on the other hand, considering that such 
 a godly life under a Christian government requires greater 
 sacrifices than it would under a Jewish king; and, con- 
 sidering again that the merits and rewards of a good act 
 increase with the obstacles that are in the way of execut- 
 ing it — considering this, a Jew might even prefer to live 
 under the King of Aragon than under the Messiah, where 
 he would perforce act in accordance with the precepts of 
 the Torah. 
 
 Now there is in this statement much that has only to 
 be looked upon as a compliment to the government of 
 Spain. I am inclined to think that if the alternative laid 
 before Nachmanides had been a really practical one, he 
 would have decided in favour of the clement rule of the 
 Messiah in preference to that of the most cruel king 
 on earth. But the fact that he repeats this statement 
 in another place, where there was no occasion to be over 
 polite to the Government, tends to show, as we have said, 
 that the belief in the Messiah was not the basis on which 
 Nachmanides' religion was built up. 
 
 The result of the controversy is contested by the dif- 
 ferent parties ; the Christian writers claim the victory 
 for Pablo, whilst the Jewish documents maintain that 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 107 
 
 the issue was with Nachmanides. In any case, ^' Der 
 Jude wird verbrannt'' For in the next year (1264) all 
 the books of the Jews in Aragon were confiscated and 
 submitted to the censorship of a commission, of which 
 the well-known author of the Pugio Fidei, Raymund 
 Martini, was, perhaps, the most important member. The 
 books were not burned this time, but had to suffer a 
 severe mutilation ; the anti-Christian passages, or such as 
 were supposed to be so, were struck out or obliterated. 
 Nachmanides' account of the controversy, which he 
 probably published from a sense of duty towards those 
 whom he represented, was declared to contain blasphemies 
 against the dominant religion. The pamphlet was con- 
 demned to be burned publicly, whilst the author was, as 
 it seems, punished with expulsion from his country. It 
 is not reported where Nachmanides found a home during 
 the next three years; probably he had to accept the 
 hospitality of his friends, either in Castile or in the 
 south of France; but we know that in the year 1267 he 
 left Europe and emigrated to Palestine. 
 
 Nachmanides was, at this juncture of his life, already 
 a man of about seventy. But it would seem as if the 
 seven decades which he had spent in the Spanish Penin- 
 sula were only meant as a preparation for the three years 
 which he was destined to live in the Holy Land, for it 
 was during this stage of his life that the greatest part of 
 his Commentary on the Pentateuch was written. In this 
 work, as is agreed on all sides, his finest thoughts and 
 noblest sentiments were put down. 
 
 Before proceeding to speak of his works, let us first 
 cast a glance at his letters from Palestine, forming as 
 they do a certain link between his former life and that 
 
jq8 studies in JUDAISM 
 
 which was to occupy him exclusively for the rest of his 
 days. We have three letters, the first of which I shall 
 translate here in extenso. 
 
 The letter was written soon after his arrival at 
 Jerusalem in the year 1267. It was addressed to his 
 son Nachman, and runs as follows : — 
 
 " The Lord shall bless thee, my son Nachman, and thou shalt 
 see the good of Jerusalem. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's 
 children (Ps. cxxviii.), and thy table shall be like that of our 
 father Abraham!^ In Jerusalem, the Holy City, I write this 
 letter. For, thanks and praise unto the rock of my salvation, 
 I was thought worthy by God to arrive here safely on the 9th 
 of the month of Elul, and I remained there till the day after the 
 Day of Atonement. Now I intend going to Hebron, to the 
 sepulchre of our ancestors, to prostrate myself, and there to dig 
 my grave. But what am I to say to you with regard to the 
 country ? Great is the solitude and great the wastes, and, to 
 characterise it in short, the more sacred the places, the greater 
 their desolation ! Jerusalem is more desolate than the rest 
 of the country : Judaea more than Galilee. But even in this 
 destruction it is a blessed land. It has about 2000 inhabitants, 
 about 300 Christians live there who escaped the sword of the 
 Sultan. There are no Jews. For since the arrival of the Tar- 
 tars, some fled, others died by the sword. There are only two 
 brothers, dyers by trade, who have to buy their ingredients 
 from the government. There the Ten Men^*^ meet, and on 
 Sabbaths they hold service at their house. But we encouraged 
 them, and we succeeded in finding a vacant house, built on pillars 
 of marble with a beautiful arch. That we took for a synagogue. 
 For the town is without a master, and whoever will take possession 
 of the ruins can do so. We gave our offerings towards the repairs 
 of the house. We have sent already to Shechem to fetch some 
 scrolls of the Law from there which had been brought thither 
 from Jerusalem at the invasion of the Tartars. Thus they will 
 organise a synagogue and worship there. For continually people 
 crowd to Jerusalem, men and women, from Damascus, Zobah 
 
NACHMANIDES IO9 
 
 (Aleppo)," and from all parts of the country to see the Sanctu- 
 ary and to mourn over it. He who thought us worthy to let us 
 see Jerusalem in her desertion, he shall bless us to behold her 
 again, built and restored, when the glory of the Lord will return 
 unto her. But you, my son, and your brothers and the whole of 
 our family, you all shall live to see the salvation of Jerusalem and 
 the comfort of Zion. These are the words of your father who 
 is yearning and forgetting, who is seeing and enjoying, Moses 
 ben Nachman. Give also my peace to my pupil Moses, the son 
 of Solomon, the nephew of your mother. I wish to tell him . . . 
 that there, facing the holy temple, I have read his verses, weeping 
 bitterly over them. May he who caused his name to rest in the 
 Holy Temple increase your peace together with the peace of the 
 whole community." 
 
 This letter may be illustrated by a few parallels taken 
 from the appendix to Nachmanides' Commentary to the 
 Pentateuch, which contains some rather incoherent notes 
 which the author seems to have jotted down when he 
 arrived in Jerusalem. After a lengthy account of the 
 material as well as the spiritual glories of the holy city 
 in the past, he proceeds to say : — 
 
 " A mournful sight I have perceived in thee (Jerusalem) ; only 
 one Jew is here, a dyer, persecuted, oppressed and despised. At 
 his house gather great and small when they can get the Ten Men. 
 They are wretched folk, without occupation and trade, consisting 
 of a few pilgrims and beggars, though the fruit of the land is still 
 magnificent and the harvests rich. Indeed, it is still a blessed 
 country, flowing with milk and honey. ... Oh ! I am the man who 
 saw affliction. I am banished from my table, far removed from 
 friend and kinsman, and too long is the distance to meet again. 
 ... I left my family, I forsook my house. There with my 
 sons and daughters, and with the sweet and dear children whom I 
 have brought up on my knees, I left also my soul. My heart and 
 my eyes will dwell with them for ever. . . . But the loss of all 
 this and of every other glory my eyes saw is compensated by hav- 
 
no STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ing now the joy of being a day in thy courts (O Jerusalem), visit- 
 ing the ruins of the Temple and crying over the ruined Sanctuary ; 
 where I am permitted to caress thy stones, to fondle thy dust, and 
 to weep over thy ruins. I wept bitterly, but I found joy in my 
 tears. I tore my garments, but I felt relieved by it." 
 
 Of some later date is his letter from Acra, which may 
 be considered as a sort of ethical will, and which has been 
 justly characterised as a eulogy of humility. Here is an 
 extract from it : — 
 
 " Accustom yourself to speak gently to all men at all times, and 
 thus you will avoid anger, which leads to so much sin. . . . Hu- 
 mility is the first of virtues ; for if you think how lowly is man, how 
 great is God, you will fear Him and avoid sinfulness. On the 
 humble man rests the divine glory ; the man that is haughty to 
 others denies God. Look not boldly at one whom you address. 
 . . . Regard every one as greater than thyself. . . . Remember 
 always that you stand before God, both when you pray and when 
 you converse with others. . . . Think before you speak. . . . 
 Act as I have bidden you, and your words, and deeds, and thoughts, 
 will be honest, and your prayers pure and acceptable before God." 
 
 The third letter is addressed to his son (R. Solomon .?) 
 who was staying (in the service of the king) in Castile. It 
 is in its chief content a eulogy of chastity.^^ Probably 
 Nachmanides had some dread of the dangerous allure- 
 ments of the court, and he begs his son never to do any- 
 thing of which he knows that his father would not approve, 
 and to keep his father's image always before his eyes. 
 
 As to his works, we may divide them into two classes. 
 The one would contain those of a strictly legalistic (Hala- 
 chic), whilst the other those of a more homiletic-exegetical 
 and devotional character (Agadic). As already indicated 
 in the preliminary lines of this paper, I cannot dwell long 
 
NACHMANIDES HI 
 
 on the former class of our author's writings. It consists 
 either of Glosses or Novellae to the Talmud, in the style 
 and manner of the French Rabbis, or of Compendia of 
 certain parts of the Law after the model set by R. Isaac 
 Alf asi or Maimonides, or in defences of the " Earlier Au- 
 thorities " against the strictures made on them by a later 
 generation. A few words must be said with regard to these 
 defences ; for they reveal that deep respect for authority 
 which forms a special feature of Nachmanides' writings. 
 His Wars of the Lord, in which he defends Alf asi against 
 R. Zerahiah of Gerona, was undertaken when he was very 
 young, whilst his defence of the author of the Halachoth 
 Gedoloth^'^ against the attacks of Maimonides, which he 
 began at a much more mature age, shows the same defer- 
 ence "to the great ones of the past." Indeed, he says in 
 one place, " We bow before them (the earlier authorities), 
 and though their words are not quite evident to us we 
 submit to them " ; or, as he expresses himself elsewhere, 
 ** Only he who dips (deeply enough) in the wisdom of the 
 'ancient ones' will drink the pure (old) wine." But it 
 would be unjust to the genius of Nachmanides to repre- 
 sent him as a blind worshipper of authority. Humble and 
 generous in disposition, he certainly would bow before 
 every recognised authority, and he would also think it his 
 duty to take up the cudgels for him as long as there was 
 even the least chance of making an honourable defence. 
 But when this chance had gone, when Nachmanides was 
 fully convinced that his hero was in the wrong, he followed 
 no guide but truth. " Notwithstanding," he says in his 
 introduction to the defences of the Halachoth Gedoloth, 
 ** my desire and delight to be the disciple of the Earlier 
 Authorities, to maintain their views and to assert them, I 
 
112 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 do not consider myself a 'donkey carrying books.' I will 
 explain their way and appreciate their value, but when 
 their views are inconceivable to my thoughts, I will plead 
 in all modesty, but shall judge according to the sight of 
 my eyes. And when the meaning is clear I shall flatter 
 none, for the Lord gives wisdom in all times and ages." 
 But, on the other hand, there seems to have been a certain 
 sort of literary agnosticism about Nachmanides which 
 made it very difficult for him to find the ''clear meaning." 
 The passage in the Wars of the Lord to the effect " that 
 there is in the art (of commenting) no such certain demon- 
 stration as in mathematics or astronomy," is well known 
 and has often been quoted ; but still more characteristic of 
 this literary agnosticism is the first paragraph of the 
 above-mentioned defences of the Halachoth Gedoloth. 
 Whilst all his predecessors accepted, on the authority of 
 R. Simlai,^* the number (613) of the commandments as 
 an uncontested fact, and based their compositions on it, 
 Nachmanides questions the whole matter, and shows that 
 the passages relating to this enumeration of laws are only 
 of a homiletical nature, and thus of little consequence. 
 Nay, he goes so far as to say, " Indeed the system how to 
 number the commandments is a matter in which I suspect 
 all of us (are mistaken) and the truth must be left to him 
 who will solve all doubts." We should thus be inclined to 
 think that this adherence to the words of the earlier Au- 
 thorities was at least as much due to this critical scepti- 
 cism as to his conservative tendencies. 
 
 The space left to me I shall devote to the second class 
 of his writings, in which Nachmanides worked less after 
 given types. These reveal to us more of his inner being, 
 and offer us some insight into his theological system. 
 
NA CHM AMIDES 1 1 3 
 
 The great problem which seems to have presented 
 itself to Nachmanides' mind was less how to reconcile 
 religion with reason than how to reconcile man with 
 religion. What is man ? The usual answer is not flat- 
 tering. He is an animal that owes its existence to the 
 same instinct that produces even the lower creatures, and 
 he is condemned, like them, to go to a place of worm and 
 maggot. But, may not one ask, why should a creature 
 so lowly born, and doomed to so hapless a future, be 
 burdened with the awful responsibility of knowing that 
 he is destined "to give reckoning and judgment before 
 the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He " .? It 
 is true that man is also endowed with a heavenly soul, 
 but this only brings us back again to the antithesis of flesh 
 and spirit which was the stumbling-block of many a theo- 
 logical system. Nor does it help us much towards the solu- 
 tion of the indicated difficulty ; for what relation can there 
 be between this materia impura of body and the pure in- 
 tellect of soul } And again, must not the unfavourable 
 condition in which the latter is placed through this uncon- 
 genial society heavily clog and suppress all aspiration for 
 perfection } It is " a house divided against itself," doomed 
 to an everlasting contest, without hope for co-operation or 
 even of harmony. 
 
 The works The Sacred Letter and The Law of Man 
 may be considered as an attempt by Nachmanides, if not 
 to remove, at least to relieve the harshness of this antithe- 
 sis. The former, in which he blames Maimonides for fol- 
 lowing Aristotle in denouncing certain desires implanted 
 in us by nature as ignominious and unworthy of man, 
 may, perhaps, be characterised as a vindication of the 
 flesh from a religious point of view. The contempt in 
 I 
 
114 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 which "that Greek," as Nachmanides terms Aristotle, 
 held the flesh is inconsistent with the theory of the 
 religious man, who believes that everything (including 
 the body, with all its functions) is created by God, whose 
 work is perfect and good, without impure or inharmonious 
 parts. It is only sin and neglect that disfigure God's crea- 
 tions. I cannot enter into any further details of this work, 
 but I may be permitted to remark that there is a very 
 strong similarity between the tendency of the Sacred 
 Letter and certain leading ideas of Milton. Indeed, if 
 the first two chapters of the former were a little con- 
 densed and put into English, they could not be better 
 summarised than by the famous lines in the Paradise 
 Lost : — 
 
 Whatever hypocrites austerely talk 
 Of purity, and place, and innocence, 
 Defaming as impure what God declares 
 Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all, 
 Our Maker bids increase ; who bids abstain 
 But our destroyer, foe to God and man ? 
 Hail, wedded love, mysterious law! . . . 
 Far be it that I should write thee sin or blame 
 Or think thee unbefitting holiest place, 
 Perpetual fountain of domestic sweets. 
 
 The second of these two works, the Law of Man, may 
 be regarded as a sanctification of grief, and particularly 
 of the grief of griefs, death. The bulk of the book is 
 legaHstic, treating of mourning rites, burial customs, and 
 similar topics; but there is much in the preface which 
 bears on our subject. For here again Nachmanides takes 
 the opportunity of combating a chilling philosophy, which 
 tries to arm us against suffering by stifling our emotions. 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 "5 
 
 ''My son," he says, "be not persuaded by certain prop- 
 ositions of the great philosophers who endeavour to 
 harden our hearts and to deaden our sensations by their 
 idle comfort, which consists in denying the past and de- 
 spairing of the future. One of them has even declared 
 that there is nothing in the world over the loss of which 
 it is worth crying, and the possession of which would 
 justify joy. This is an heretical view. Our perfect 
 Torah bids us to be joyful in the day of prosperity and 
 to shed tears in the day of misfortune. It in no way 
 forbids crying or demands of us to suppress our grief. On 
 the contrary, the Torah suggests to us that to mourn over 
 heavy losses is equivalent to a service of God, leading 
 us, as it does, to reflect on our end and ponder over our 
 destiny." 
 
 This destiny, as well as Reward and Punishment in 
 general, is treated in the concluding chapter of the Law 
 of Mart, which is known under the title of The Gate of 
 Reward}^ Nachmanides does not conceal from himself 
 the difficulties besetting inquiries of this description. 
 He knows well enough that in the last instance we must 
 appeal to that implicit faith in the inscrutable justice of 
 God with which the believer begins. Nevertheless he 
 thinks that only the " despisers of wisdom " would fail 
 to bring to this faith as full a conviction as possible, which 
 latter is only to be gained by speculation. I shall have 
 by and by occasion to refer to the results of this specula- 
 tion. Here we must only notice the fact of Nachmanides 
 insisting on the bodily resurrection which will take place 
 after the coming of the Messiah, and will be followed by 
 the Olarn Habba ^^ (the life in the world to come) of which 
 the Rabbis spoke. 
 
Il6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Irrational as this belief may look, it is only a conse- 
 quence of his theory, which, as we have seen, assigns even 
 to the flesh an almost spiritual importance. Indeed, he 
 thinks that the soul may have such an influence on the 
 body as to transform the latter into so pure an essence 
 that it will become safe for eternity. For, as he hints in 
 another place, by the continual practising of a thing the 
 whole man, the body included, becomes so identified with 
 the thing that we call him after it, just as the Holy Singer 
 said : I am prayer, i' so that — 
 
 Oft converse with heavenly habitants 
 Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape, 
 The unpolluted temple of the mind, 
 And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence^ 
 Till all be made immortal. 
 
 But if even the body holds such a high position as to 
 make all its instincts and functions, if properly regulated, 
 a service of God, and to destine it for a glorious future of 
 eternal bliss and rejoicing in God, we can easily imagine 
 what a high place the soul must occupy in the system of 
 Nachmanides. To be sure it is a much higher one than 
 that to which philosophy would fain admit her. A beau- 
 tiful parable of the Persian poet Yellaladeen (quoted by 
 the late Mr. Lowell) narrates that " One knocked at the 
 beloved's door, and a voice asked from within, 'Who is 
 there } ' and he answered, * It is I.' Then the voice said, 
 ' This house will not hold me and thee,' and the door was 
 not opened. Then went the lover into the desert and 
 fasted and prayed in solitude, and after a year he returned 
 and knocked again at the door, and again the voice asked 
 * Who is there } ' and he said ' It is thyself ' ; and the door 
 
NACHMANIDES U^ 
 
 was opened to him." This is also the difference between 
 the two schools — the mystical and the philosophical — 
 with regard to the soul. With the rationalist the soul is 
 indeed a superior abstract intelligence created by God, but, 
 like all His creations, has an existence of its own, and is 
 thus separated from God. With the mystic, however, the 
 soul is God, or a direct emanation from God. " For he 
 who breathes into another thing (Gen. ii. 7) gives unto it 
 something of his own breath (or soul)," and as it is said in 
 Job xxxii. 8, "And the soul of the Almighty giveth them 
 understanding." This emanation, or rather immanence — 
 for Nachmanides insists in another place that the Hebrew 
 term employed for it, Azihith}^ means a permanent 
 dwelling with the thing emanating — which became mani- 
 fest with the creation of man, must not be confounded 
 with the moving soul (or the Nephesh ChayaJi)}^ which is 
 common to man with all creatures. 
 
 It may be remarked here that Nachmanides endows all 
 animals with a soul which is derived from the " Superior 
 Powers," and its presence is proved by certain marks of 
 intelligence which they show. By this fact he tries to 
 account for the law prohibiting cruelty to animals, "all 
 souls belonging to God." Their original disposition was, 
 it would seem, according to Nachmanides, peaceful and 
 harmless. 
 
 About them frisking played 
 All beasts of earth, since wild, and of all chace 
 In wood or wilderness, forest or den. 
 
 It was only after man had sinned that war entered into 
 creation, but with the coming of the Messiah, when sin 
 will disappear, all the living beings will regain their 
 
Il3 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 primaeval gentleness, and be reinstituted in their first 
 rights. 
 
 The special soul of man, however, or rather the " over- 
 soul," was pre-existent to the creation of the world, 
 treasured up as a wave in the sea or fountain of souls — 
 dwelling in the eternal light and holiness of God. There, 
 in God, the soul abides in its ideal existence before it 
 enters into its material life through the medium of man ; 
 though it must be noted that, according to Nachmanides' 
 belief in the Transmigration of souls, it is not necessary 
 to perceive in the soul of every new-born child, " a fresh 
 message from heaven " coming directly from the fountain- 
 head. Nachmanides finds this belief indicated in the com- 
 mandment of levirate marriage, where the child born of 
 the deceased brother's wife inherits not only the name of 
 the brother of his actual father, but also his soul, and thus 
 perpetuates his existence on earth. The fourth verse of 
 Ecclesiastes ii. Nachmanides seems to interpret to mean 
 that the very generation which passes away comes up 
 again, by which he tries to explain the difficulty of God's 
 visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children ; the 
 latter being the very fathers who committed the sins. 
 However, whatever trials and changes the soul may have 
 to pass through during its bodily existence, its origin is in 
 God and thither it will return in the end, "just as the 
 waters rise always to the same high level from which their 
 source sprang forth," 
 
 It is for this man, with a body so superior, and a soul so 
 sublime — more sublime than the angels — that the world 
 was created. I emphasise the last word, for the belief in 
 the creation of the world by God from nothing forms, 
 according to Nachmanides, the first of the three funda- 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 119 
 
 mental dogmas of Judaism. The other two also refer to 
 God's relation to the world and man. They are the belief 
 in God's Providence and his YediahP^ Creation from 
 nothing is for Nachmanides the keynote to his whole 
 religion, since it is only by this fact, as he points out in 
 many places, that God gains real dominion over nature. 
 For, as he says, as soon as we admit the eternity of 
 matter, we must (logically) deny God even " the power of 
 enlarging the wing of a fly, or shortening the leg of an 
 ant." But the whole Torah is nothing if not a record of 
 God's mastery in and over the world, and of His miracu- 
 lous deeds. One of the first proclamations of Abraham 
 to his generation was that God is the Lord (or Master) of 
 the world (Gen. xviii. 33). The injunction given to Abra- 
 ham, and repeated afterwards to the whole of Israel (Gen. 
 xvii. 2, and Deut. xviii. 13), to be perfect with God, Nach- 
 manides numbers as one of the 613 commandments, and 
 explains it to mean that man must have a whole belief 
 in God without blemish or reservation, and acknowledge 
 Him possessed of power over nature and the world, man 
 and beast, devil and angel, power being attributable to 
 Him alone. Indeed, when the angel said to Jacob, " Why 
 dost thou ask after my name " (Gen. xxxii. 29), he meant 
 to indicate by his question the impotence of the heavenly 
 host, so that there is no use in knowing their name, the 
 power and might belonging only to God. 
 
 We may venture even a step further, and maintain that 
 in Nachmanides' system there is hardly room left for such 
 a thing as nature or "the order of the world." There are 
 only two categories of miracles by which the world is 
 governed, or in which God's Providence is seen. The 
 one is the category of the manifest miracles, as the ten 
 
I20 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 plagues in Egypt, or the crossing of the Red Sea; the 
 other is that of the hidden miracles, which we do not per- 
 ceive as such, because of their frequency and continuity. 
 " No man," he declares, *' can share in the Torah of our 
 Teacher, Moses (that is, can be considered a follower of 
 the Jewish religion), unless he believes that all our affairs 
 and events, whether they concern the masses or the in- 
 dividual, are all miracles (worked by the direct will of 
 God), attributing nothing to nature or to the order of the 
 world." Under this second order he classes all the prom- 
 ises the Torah makes to the righteous, and the punish- 
 ments with which evil-doers are threatened. For, as he 
 points out in many places, there is nothing in the nature 
 of <;he commandments themselves that would make their 
 fulfilment necessarily prolong the life of man, and cause 
 the skies to pour down rain, or, on the other hand, would 
 associate disobedience to them with famine and death. 
 All these results can, therefore, only be accomplished in 
 a supernatural way by the direct workings of God. 
 
 Thus miracles are raised to a place in the regular 
 scheme of things, and the difficulty regarding the possi- 
 bility of God's interferences with nature disappears by 
 their very multiplication. But a still more important 
 point is, that, by this unbroken chain of miracles, which 
 unconditionally implies God's presence to perform them, 
 Nachmanides arrives at a theory establishing a closer 
 contact between the Deity and the world than that set 
 forth by other thinkers. Thus, he insists that the term 
 Shechinah, or Cabod'^^ (Glory of God), must not be under- 
 stood, with some Jewish philosophers, as something sepa- 
 rate from God, or as glory created by God. " Were this 
 the case," he proceeds to say, " we could not possibly 
 
NACHMANIDES I2i 
 
 say, * Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place, 
 since every mark of worship to anything created involves 
 the sin of idolatry." Such terms as Shechinah, or Cabod, 
 can therefore only mean the immediate divine presence. 
 This proves, as may be noted in passing, how unphilo- 
 sophical the idea of those writers is who maintain that the 
 rigid monotheism of the Jews makes God so transcen- 
 dental that He is banished from the world. As we see, 
 it is just this assertion of His absolute Unity which not 
 only suffers no substitute for God, but also removes every 
 separation between Him and the world. Hence also 
 Nachmanides insists that the prophecy even of the suc- 
 cessors of Moses was a direct communion of God with 
 the prophet, and not, as others maintained, furnished 
 through the medium of an angel. 
 
 The third fundamental dogma, Yediah, includes, accord- 
 ing to Nachmanides, not only the omniscience of God — 
 as the term is usually translated — but also His recognition 
 of mankind and His special concern in them. Thus, he 
 explains the words in the Bible with regard to Abraham, 
 "For I know him" (Gen. xviii. 19), to indicate the special 
 attachment of God's Providence to the patriarch, which, on 
 account of his righteousness, was to be uninterrupted for 
 ever ; whilst in other places we have to understand, under 
 God's knowledge of a thing, his determination to deal with 
 it compassionately, as, for instance, when Scripture says 
 that God knew (Exod. ii, 25), it means that His relation to 
 Israel emanated from His attribute of mercy and love. 
 But just as God knows (which means loves) the world. He 
 requires also to be recognised and known by it. *' For this 
 was the purpose of the whole creation, that man should 
 recognise and know Him and give praise to His name," as 
 
122 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 it is said, " Everything that is called by my name (mean, 
 ing, chosen to promulgate God's name), for my glory have 
 I created it." 
 
 It is this fact which gives Israel their high prerogative, 
 for by receiving the Torah they were the first to know 
 God's name, to which they remained true in spite of all 
 adversities ; and thus accomplished God's intention in 
 creating the world. It is, again, by this Torah that the 
 whole of Israel not only succeeded in being real prophets 
 (at the moment of the Revelation), but also became Segu- 
 lah^ which indicates the inseparable attachment between 
 God and His people, whilst the righteous who never dis- 
 obey His will become the seat of His throne. 
 
 The position of the rest of humanity is also determined 
 by their relation to the Torah. *' It is," Nachmanides tells 
 us, " a main principle to know that all that man contrives 
 to possess of knowledge and wisdom is only the fruits of 
 the Torah or the fruits of its fruits. But for this know- 
 ledge there would be no difference between man and the 
 lower animated species. The existence of the civilised 
 nations of the world does not disprove this rule " both 
 Christians and Mahometans being also the heirs of the 
 Torah. For when the Romans gained strength over 
 Israel they made them translate the Torah which they 
 studied, and they even accommodated some of their laws 
 and institutions to those of the Bible." Those nations, 
 however, who live far away from the centre of the world 
 (the Holy Land) and never come into contact with Israel 
 are outside the pale of civilisation, and can hardly be 
 ranked together with the human species. " They are the 
 isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have 
 seen my glory." 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 123 
 
 What Nachmanides meant by maintaining that all know- 
 ledge and wisdom were " the fruits of the Torah, or the 
 fruits of these fruits," will be best seen from his Commen- 
 tary on the Pentateuch. I have already made use of this 
 Commentary in the preceding quotations, but, being the 
 greatest of the works of Nachmanides, it calls for some 
 special attention by itself. Its general purpose is edifica- 
 tion, or as he says, "• to appease the mind of the students 
 (labouring under persecution and troubles) when they read 
 the portion on Sabbaths and festivals, and to attract their 
 heart by simple explanations and sweet words." The ex- 
 planations occupy a considerable space. As Dr. Perles 
 has shown in his able essay on this work of Nachmanides, 
 our author neglected no resource of philology or archae- 
 ology accessible in his age which could contribute to es- 
 tablish the " simple explanations " on a sound scientific 
 basis. The prominent feature of this Commentary, how- 
 ever, is the ''sweet words." Indeed, how sweet and sooth- 
 ing to his contemporaries must have been such words as 
 we read at the end of the " Song of Moses " (Deut. xxxii.) : 
 ** And behold there is nothing conditional in this Song. It 
 is a charter testifying that we shall have to suffer heavily 
 for our sins, but that, nevertheless, God will not destroy 
 us, being reconciled to us (though we shall have no merits), 
 and forgiving our sins for his name's sake alone. . . . And 
 so our Rabbis said. Great is this song, embracing as it 
 does both the past (of Israel) and the future, this world 
 and the world to come. . . . And if this song were the 
 composition of a mere astrologer we should be constrained 
 to believe in it, considering that all its words were ful- 
 filled. How much more have we to hope with all our 
 hearts and to trust to the word of God, through the mouth 
 
124 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 of his prophet Moses, the faithful in all his house, like unto 
 whom there was none, whether before him or after him." 
 A part of these sweet words may also be seen in the nu- 
 merous passages in which he attempts to account for 
 various laws, and to detect their underlying principles. 
 
 For though " the Torah is the expression of God's simple 
 and absolute will, which man has to follow without any 
 consideration of reward," still this will is not arbitrary, and 
 even that class of laws which are called chukkim '^ (which 
 means, according to some Jewish commentators, motive- 
 less decrees) have their good reasons, notwithstanding that 
 they are unfathomable to us. " They are all meant for the 
 good of man, either to keep aloof from us something hurt- 
 ful, or to educate us in goodness, or to remove from us an 
 evil belief and to make us know his name. This is what 
 they (the Rabbis) meant by saying that commandments 
 have a purifying purpose, namely, that man being purified 
 and tried by them becomes as one without alloy of bad 
 thoughts and unworthy qualities." Indeed, the soul of 
 man is so sensitive to every impurity that it suffers a sort 
 of infection even by an unintentional sin. Hence the in- 
 junction to bring a Korban (sacrifice) even in this case ; 
 the effect of the Korban, as its etymology (^Karaby^ indi- 
 cates, is to bring man back to God, or rather to facilitate 
 this approach. All this again is, as Nachmanides points 
 out, only an affluence from God's mercy and love to man- 
 kind. God derives no benefit from it. " If he be right- 
 eous what can he give thee } " And even those laws and 
 institutions which are intended to commemorate God's 
 wonders and the creation of the world (for instance, the 
 Passover festival and the Sabbath) are not meant for His 
 glorification, or, as Heine maliciously expressed it : — 
 
NA CHMANIDES 1 2 5 
 
 Der Weltkapellenmeister hier oben 
 Er selbst sogar hbrt gerne loben 
 Gleichfalls seine Werke. . . . 
 
 " For all the honour (we give to Him), and the praising of 
 His work are counted by Him less than nothing and as 
 vanity to Him." What He desires is that we may know 
 the truth, and be confirmed in it, for this makes us worthy 
 of finding in Him *' our Protector and King." 
 
 The lessons which Nachmanides draws from the various 
 Biblical narratives also belong to these "sweet words." 
 They are mostly of a typical character. For, true as all 
 the stories in the Scriptures are, ** the whole Torah is," as 
 he tells us (with allusion to Gen. v. i.), "the book of the 
 generations of Adam," or, as we should say, a history of 
 humanity written in advance. Thus the account of the 
 six days of the creation is turned into a prophecy of the 
 most important events which would occur during the suc- 
 ceeding six thousand years, whilst the Sabbath is a fore- 
 cast of the millennium in the seventh thousand, which will 
 be the day of the Lord. Jacob and Esau are, as in the 
 old Rabbinic homilies generally, the prototypes of Israel 
 and Rome ; and so is the battle of Moses and Joshua with 
 Amalek indicative of the war which Elijah and the 
 Messiah the son of Joseph will wage against Edom (the 
 prototype of Rome), before the Redeemer from the house 
 of David will appear.^^ Sometimes these stories convey 
 both a moral and a pre-justification of what was destined to 
 happen to Israel. So Nachmanides' remarks with refer- 
 ence to Sarah's treatment of Hagar (Gen. xvi. 6): "Our 
 mother Sarah sinned greatly by inflicting this pain on 
 Hagar, as did also Abraham, who allowed such a thing to 
 pass ; but God saw her aflfliction and rewarded her by a 
 
126 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 son (the ancestor of a wild race), who would inflict on 
 the seed of Abraham and Sarah every sort of oppres- 
 sion." In this he alluded to the Islamic empires. Nor 
 does he approve of Abraham's conduct on the occasion of 
 his coming to Egypt, when he asked Sarah to pass as his 
 sister (Gen. xii.). "Unintentionally," Nachmanides says, 
 " Abraham, under the fear of being murdered, committed 
 a great sin when he exposed his virtuous wife to such a 
 temptation. For he ought to have trusted that God would 
 save both him and his wife. ... It is on account of this 
 deed that his children had to suffer exile under the rule of 
 Pharaoh. There, where the sin was committed, also the 
 judgment took place." It is also worth noticing that, in 
 opposition to Maimonides, he allows no apology for the 
 attack of Simeon and Levi on the population of Shechem 
 (Gen. xxxiv. 25). It is true that they were idolaters, im- 
 moral, and steeped in every abomination ; but Jacob and 
 his sons were not commissioned with executing justice on 
 them. The people of Shechem trusted their word, there- 
 fore they ought to have spared them. Hence Jacob's pro- 
 test, and his curse against their wrath, which would have 
 been quite unjustified had he looked on the action of his 
 sons as a good work. 
 
 Besides these typical meanings, the matters of the 
 Torah have also their symbolical importance, which places 
 them almost above the sphere of human conception ; they 
 are neither exactly what they seem to be nor entirely what 
 their name implies, but a reflex from things unseen, which 
 makes any human interference both preposterous and dan- 
 gerous. Of "the things called Tree of Life and Tree of 
 Knowledge," Nachmanides tells us that their mystery is 
 very great, reaching into higher worlds. Otherwise, why 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 127 
 
 should God, who is good and the dispenser of good, have 
 prevented Adam from eating the fruit (of the latter), whilst 
 in another place he says : " And if thou wilt be worthy, and 
 understand the mystery of the word Bereshith'^ (with 
 which the Torah begins), thou wilt see that in truth the 
 Scripture, though apparently speaking of matters here below 
 (on earth), is always pointing to things above (heaven); " for 
 ** every glory and every wonder, and every deep mystery, 
 and all beautiful wisdom are hidden in the Torah, sealed 
 up in her treasures." 
 
 It is very characteristic of the bent of Nachmanides* 
 mind, that he is perhaps the first Jewish writer who men- 
 tions the apocryphal book The Wisdom of Solomon, which 
 he knew from a Syriac version, and which he believed to 
 be genuine. And when we read there (vii. 7-25), "Where- 
 fore I prayed and understanding was given to me. I called 
 upon God and the spirit of wisdom came upon me. . . . 
 For God has given me unmistakable knowledge to know 
 how the world was made, and the operations of the planets. 
 The beginning, ending, and midst of the times, the alter- 
 ations and the turnings of the sun, the changes of the 
 seasons, the natures of the living creatures and the furies 
 of the wild beasts, the force of the spirits and the reason- 
 ings of men, the diversities of plants and the virtues of the 
 roots. All such things that are either secret or manifest, 
 them I knew" — the wise king was, according to Nach- 
 manides(who quotes the passages which I have just cited), 
 speaking of the Torah, which is identical with this wis- 
 dom, a wisdom which existed before the creation, and by 
 which God planned the world. Hence it bears the impres- 
 sion of all the universe, whilst on the other hand when 
 it is said, "The king brought me into his chambers," 
 
J 28 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 those secret recesses of the Torah are meant in which all 
 the great mysteries relating to Creation and to the Chariot 
 (Ezekiel i.) are hidden. 
 
 We must content ourselves with these few sparks 
 struck from the glowing fires of these inner compart- 
 ments, which, imperfectly luminous as my treatment has 
 left them, may yet shed some light on the personality of 
 Nachmanides, which is the main object of this essay. 
 But I do not propose to accompany the mystic into the 
 ''chambers of the king," lest we may soon get into a 
 labyrinth of obscure terms and strange ways of thinking 
 for which the Ariadne thread is still wanting. We might 
 also be confronted by the Fifty Gates of Understanding, 
 the Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom, and the Two Hundred 
 and Thirty-One Permutations or Ciphers of the Alphabet, 
 the key to which I do not hold. It is also questionable 
 whether it would always be worth while to seek for it. 
 When one, for instance, sees such a heaping on of nouns 
 (with some Cabbalists) as the Land of Life, the Land of 
 Promise, the Lord of the World, the Foundation Stone, 
 Zion, Mother, Daughter, Sister, the Congregation of 
 Israel, the Twin Roes, the Bride, Blue, End, Oral Law, 
 Sea, Wisdom, etc., meant to represent the same thing or 
 attribute, and to pass one into another, one cannot pos- 
 sibly help feeling some suspicion that one stands before 
 a conglomerate of words run riot, over which the writer 
 had lost all control. 
 
 Indeed Nachmanides himself, in the preface to the 
 above-mentioned Commentary, gives us the kind advice 
 not to meditate, or rather brood, over the mystical hints 
 which are scattered over this work, "speculation being 
 (in such matters) folly, and reasoning over them fraught 
 
NACHMANIDES 1 29 
 
 with danger.'* Indeed, the danger is obvious. I have, 
 to give one or two instances, already alluded to the theory 
 which accepts the Torah or the Wisdom as an agent in 
 the creation of the world. But the mystic pushes further, 
 and asks for the Primal Being to which this Wisdom owes 
 its origin. The answer given is from the great Nothing, 
 as it is written, And the Wisdom shall be found from 
 Nothing.27 What is intended by this, if it means anything, 
 is probably to divest the first cause of every possible 
 quality which by its very qualifying nature must be limit- 
 ing and exclusive. Hence, God becomes the Unknowable. 
 But suppose a metaphysical Hamlet, who, handling words 
 indelicately, should impetuously exclaim. To be or not to 
 be, that is the question } — into what abyss of utter nega- 
 tions would he drag all those who despair, by his terrible 
 Nothing. 
 
 On the other hand, into what gross anthropomorphisms 
 may we be drawn by roughly handling certain metaphors 
 which some Cabbalists have employed in their struggling 
 after an adequate expression of God's manifestations in 
 His attribute of love, if we forget for a single moment 
 that they are only figures of speech, but liable to get 
 defiled by the slightest touch of an unchaste thought. 
 
 But the greater the dangers that beset the path of 
 mysticism, the deeper the interest which we feel in the 
 mystic. In connection with the above-mentioned warning, 
 Nachmanides cites the words from the Scriptures, ''But 
 let not the priests and the people break through to come 
 up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them " (Exod. 
 xix. 24). Nevertheless, when we read in the Talmud the 
 famous story of the four Rabbis ^^ who went up into the 
 Pardes, or Garden of Mystical Contemplation, we do not 
 
j-Q STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 withhold our sympathy, either from Ben Azzai, who shot 
 a glance and died, or from Ben Zoma, who shot a glance 
 and was struck (in his mind). Nay, we feel the greatest 
 admiration for these daring spirits, who, in their passion- 
 ate attempt to "break through" the veil before the 
 Infinite, hazarded their lives, and even that which is 
 dearer than life, their minds, for a single glance. And 
 did R. Meir deny his sympathies even to Other One 
 or Elisha ben Abuyah, who "cut down the plants"? 
 He is said to have heard a voice from heaven, " Return, 
 oh backsliding children, except Other One," which pre- 
 vented his repentance. Poor fallen Acher, he mistook 
 hell for heaven. But do not the struggle and despair 
 which led to this unfortunate confusion rather plead for 
 our commiseration } 
 
 Nachmanides, however, in his gentle way, did not mean 
 to storm heaven. Like R. Akiba, " he entered in peace, 
 and departed in peace." And it was by this peacefulness 
 of his nature that he gained an influence over posterity 
 which is equalled only by that of Maimonides. "If he 
 was not a profound thinker," like the author of the Guide 
 of the Perplexed, he had that which is next best — "he 
 felt profoundly." Some writers of a rather reactionary 
 character even went so far as to assign to him a higher 
 place than to Maimonides. This is unjust. What a 
 blank would there have been in Jewish thought but for 
 Maimonides' great work, on which the noblest thinkers of 
 Israel fed for centuries ! As long as Job and Ecclesi- 
 astes hold their proper place in the Bible, and the Talmud 
 contains hundreds of passages suggesting difficulties re- 
 lating to such problems as the creation of the world, God's 
 exact relation to it, the origin of evil, free will and pre- 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 131 
 
 destination, none will persuade me that philosophy does 
 not form an integral part of Jewish tradition, which, in its 
 historical developments, took the shape which Maimonides 
 and his successors gave to it. If Maimonides' Guide, 
 which he considered as an interpretation of the Bible and 
 of many strange sayings in the old Rabbinic homilies 
 in the Talmud, is Aristotelian in its tone, so is tradition 
 too ; even the Talmud in many places betrays all sorts 
 of foreign influences, and none would think of declaring 
 it un-Jewish on this ground. I may also remark in pass- 
 ing that the certainty with which some writers deprecate 
 the aids which religion may receive from philosophy is 
 a little too hasty. For the question will always remain, 
 What religion t The religion of R. Moses of Tachau or 
 R. Joseph Jabez29 would certainly have been greatly 
 endangered by the slightest touch of speculation, while 
 that of Bachya,^^ Maimonides, Jedaiah of Bedres, and 
 Delmedigo undoubtedly received from philosophy its 
 noblest support, and became intensified by the union. 
 
 But apart from that consideration, the sphere of the ac- 
 tivity of these two leaders seems to have been so widely 
 different that it is hardly just to consider them as antag- 
 onists, or at least to emphasise the antagonism too much. 
 Maimonides wrote his chief work, the Guide, for the few 
 elect, who, like Ibn Tibbon ^^ for instance, would traverse 
 whole continents if a single syllogism went wrong. And 
 if he could be of use to one wise man of this stamp, 
 Maimonides would do so at the risk of "saying things 
 unsuitable for ten thousand fools." But with Nach- 
 manides, it would seem, it was these ten thousand who 
 formed the main object of his tender care. They are, as 
 we have seen, cultivated men, indeed "students," having 
 
132 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 enjoyed a proper education; but the happy times of 
 abstract thinking have gone, and being under a perpetual 
 strain of persecutions and cares, they long for the Sabbath 
 and Festivals, which would bring them both bodily and 
 spiritual recreation. They find no fault with religion, a 
 false syllogism does not jar on their ears; what they are 
 afraid of is that, being engaged as they are, all the six 
 days of work, in their domestic affairs, religion may be 
 too good a thing for them. "To appease their minds," 
 to edify them, to make life more sweet and death less 
 terrible to them, and to show them that even their weak- 
 nesses, as far as they are conditioned by nature, are not 
 irreconcilable with a holy life, was what Nachmanides 
 strove after. Now and then he permits them a glance 
 into the mystical world in which he himself loved to move, 
 but he does not care to stifle their senses into an idle 
 contemplation, and passes quickly to some more practical 
 application. To be sure, the tabernacle is nothing but a 
 complete map of the superlunar world; but nevertheless 
 its rather minute description is meant to teach us "that 
 God desires us to work." 
 
 This tendency toward being useful to the great majority 
 of mankind may account for the want of consistency of 
 which Nachmanides was so often accused. It is only the 
 logician who can afford to be thoroughgoing in his theory, 
 and even he would become most absurd and even danger- 
 ous but for the redeeming fact " that men are better than 
 their principles." But with Nachmanides these "prin- 
 ciples " would have proved even more fatal. Could he, 
 for instance, have upset authority in the face of the ten 
 thousand t They need to be guided rather than to guide. 
 But he does not want them to follow either the Gaon or 
 
NA CHMANIDES 1^3 
 
 anybody else slavishly, " the gates of wisdom never having 
 been shut," whilst on the other hand he hints to them that 
 there is something divine in every man, which places him 
 at least on the same high level with any authority. Take 
 another instance — his wavering attitude between the 
 Maimonists and the Anti-Maimonists, for which he was 
 often censured. Apart from other reasons, to which I 
 have pointed above, might he not have felt that, in spite 
 of his personal admiration for Maimonides' genius, he had 
 no right to put himself entirely on the side where there 
 was little room for the ten thousand who were entrusted 
 to his guidance, whilst the French Rabbis, with all their 
 prejudices and intolerance, would never deny their sym- 
 pathies to simple emotional folk ? 
 
 This tender and absorbing care for the people in gen- 
 eral may also account for the fact that we do not know 
 of a single treatise by Nachmanides of a purely Cabba- 
 listic character in the style of the Book of Weight, by 
 Moses de Leon, or the Orchard, by R. Moses Cordovora, 
 or the Tree of Life by R. Isaac Loria.^ The story that 
 attributes to him the discovery of the Zohar in a cave in 
 Palestine, from whence he sent it to Catalonia, needs as 
 little refutation as the other story connected with his 
 conversion to the Cabbalah, which is even more silly and 
 of such a nature as not to bear repetition. The Lilac of 
 Mysteries ^ and other mystical works passed also for a 
 long time under his name, but their claim to this honour 
 has been entirely disproved by the bibliographers, and 
 they rank now among the psendepigraphica. It is true 
 that R. Nissim, of Gerona, said of Nachmanides that he 
 was too much addicted to the belief in the Cabbalah, and 
 as a fellow-countryman he may have had some personal 
 
134 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 knowledge about the matter. But as far as his writings 
 go, this belief finds expression only in incidental remarks 
 and occasional citations from the Bahir,^ which he never 
 thrusts upon the reader. It was chiefly when philosophy 
 called in question his deep sympathies with even lower 
 humanity, and threatened to withdraw them from those 
 ennobling influences under which he wanted to keep them, 
 that he asserted his mystical theories. 
 
 Nachmanides' inconsistency has also proved beneficial 
 in another respect. For mysticism has, by its over- 
 emphasising of the divine in man, shown a strong ten 
 dency to remove God altogether and replace Him by the 
 creature of His hands. Witness only the theological 
 bubble of Shabbethai Tsebi — happily it burst quickly 
 enough — which resulted in mere idolatry (in more polite 
 language, Hero Worship) on the one side, and in the 
 grossest antinomianism on the other. Nachmanides, 
 however, with a happy inconsistency, combined with the 
 belief of man's origin in God, a not less strong conviction 
 of man's liability to sin, of the fact that he does sin — 
 even the patriarchs were not free from it, as we have seen 
 above — and that this sin does alienate man from God. 
 This healthy control over man's extravagant idea of his 
 own species was with Nachmanides also a fruit of the 
 Torah, within the limits of which everything must move, 
 the mystic and his aspirations included, whilst its fair 
 admixture of 365 Do nofs with 248 Do's preserved him 
 from that " holy doing nothing " which so many mystics 
 indulged in, and made his a most active life. 
 
 Much of this activity was displayed in Palestine, "the 
 land to which the providence of God is especially at- 
 tached," and which was, as with R. Judah Hallevi, always 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 135 
 
 "his ideal home." There he not only completed his 
 Commentary on the Pentateuch^ but also erected syna- 
 gogues, and engaged in organising communities, whose 
 tone he tried to elevate both by his lectures and by his 
 sermons. His career in Palestine was not a long one, 
 for he lived there only about three years, and in 1270 
 he must already have been dead. A pretty legend nar- 
 rates that when he emigrated to Palestine his pupils asked 
 him to give them a sign enabling them to ascertain the 
 day of his death. He answered them that on that day 
 a rift in the shape of a lamp would be seen in the tomb- 
 stone of his mother. After three years a pupil suddenly 
 noticed this rift, when the mourning over the Rabbi began. 
 Thus, stone, or anything else earthly, breaks finally, and 
 the life of the master passes into light. 
 
 What life meant to him, how deeply he was convinced 
 that there is no other life but that originating in God, how 
 deeply stirred his soul was by the consciousness of sin, 
 what agonies the thought of the alienation from God 
 caused him, how he felt that there is nothing left to him 
 but to throw himself upon the mercy of God, and how he 
 rejoiced in the hope of a final reunion with Him — of all 
 these sentiments we find the best expression in the follow- 
 ing religious poem, with which this paper may conclude. 
 Nachmanides composed it in Hebrew, and it is still pre- 
 served in some rituals as a hymn, recited on the Day of 
 Atonement. It is here given in the English translation of 
 Mrs. Henry Lucas.^ 
 
 Ere time began, ere age to age had thrilled, 
 I waited in his storehouse, as he willed ; 
 He gave me being, but, my years fulfilled, 
 
 I shall be summoned back before the King. 
 
1^6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 He called the hidden to the light of day, 
 To right and left, each side the fountain lay. 
 From out the stream and down the steps, the way 
 That led me to the garden of the King. 
 
 Thou gavest me a light my path to guide, 
 To prove my heart's recesses still untried ; 
 And as I went, thy voice in warning cried : 
 
 "Child ! fear thou him who is thy God and King !^'^ 
 
 True weight and measure learned my heart from thee ; 
 If blessings follow, then what joy for me ! 
 If nought but sin, all mine the shame must be, 
 For that was not determined by the King. 
 
 I hasten, trembling, to confess the whole 
 Of my transgressions, ere I reach the goal 
 Where mine own words must witness 'gainst my soul, 
 And who dares doubt the writing of the King? 
 
 Erring, I wandered in the wilderness, 
 
 In passion's grave nigh sinking powerless ; 
 
 Now deeply I repent, in sore distress. 
 
 That I kept not the statutes of the King ! 
 
 With worldly longings was my bosom fraught, 
 Earth's idle toys and follies all I sought ; 
 Ah! when he judges joys so dearly bought, 
 
 How greatly shall I fear my Lord and King ! 
 
 Now conscience-stricken, humbled to the dust, 
 Doubting himself, in thee alone his trust. 
 He shrinks in terror back, for God is just — 
 How can a sinner hope to reach the King? 
 
 Oh, be thy mercy in the balance laid, 
 
 To hold thy servant's sins more lightly weighed, 
 
 When, his confession penitently made. 
 
 He answers for his guilt before the King. 
 
NACHMANIDES 1 37 
 
 Thine is the love, O God, and thine the grace, 
 That folds the sinner in its mild embrace ; 
 Thine the forgiveness, bridging o'er the space 
 
 'Twixt man's works and the task set by the King. 
 
 Unheeding all my sins, I cling to thee ; 
 I know that mercy shall thy footstool be : 
 Before I call, oh, do thou answer me, 
 
 For nothing dare I claim of thee, my King ! 
 
 O thou, who makest guilt to disappear, 
 My help, my hope, my rock, I will not fear ; 
 Though thou the body hold in dungeon drear, 
 The soul has found the palace of the King ! 
 
 Postscript 
 
 The third letter of Nachmanides to which I have 
 alluded above, ^is embodied in the following will by R. 
 Solomon, son of the martyr Isaac. Neither the date 
 nor the country of the testator is known, but style and 
 language make it probable that he was a Spanish Jew, 
 and lived in the fourteenth century. I give here a trans- 
 lation from the whole document as it is to be found in the 
 Manuscripts. 
 
 These are the regulations which I, Solomon, the son of the mar- 
 tyr. Rabbi Isaac, the son of R. Zadok, of blessed memory, draw 
 up for myself. That as long as I am in good health, and free 
 from accident, and think of it, I shall not eat before I have studied 
 one page of the Talmud or of its commentaries. Should I trans- 
 gress this rule intentionally, I must not drink wine on that day, or 
 I shall pay half a Zehub ^^ to charity. Again, that I shall every 
 week read the Lesson twice in the Hebrew text, and once in the 
 Aramaic version. Should I intentionally omit completing the 
 Lesson as above, then I must pay two Zehubs to charity. Again, 
 that I shall every Sabbath take three meals, consisting of bread or 
 fruit. Should I omit to do so, I must give in charity half a Zehubs 
 
1^8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Again, in order to subdue my appetites, and not to enjoy in this 
 world more than is necessary for the maintenance of my body, I 
 must not eat at one meal more than one course of meat, and not 
 more than two courses altogether; nor must I drink more than 
 two cups of wine at one meal, apart from the blessing-cup (over 
 which grace is said), except on Sabbath, Festivals, Chanukah (the 
 Maccabean Dedication Feast), New Moon, and at other religious 
 meals (for instance, wedding-dinners and similar festive occa- 
 sions). Again, I must not have any regular meal on the day pre- 
 ceding Sabbath or Festivals. [ must not have during the day 
 more than one course, so that I shall enter upon the holy day with 
 a good appetite. Should I transgress this resolve intentionally 
 I shall have to fast a day, or to pay two Zehubs. Again, that I 
 shall not eat the fish called burbot,^"^ if I think of it. Again, even 
 on the above-mentioned days, I must not eat more than three 
 courses at a meal, nor drink more than three cups of wine, exclu- 
 sive of the blessing-cup. Again, ... I must not swear by God, 
 nor mention the name of Heaven without a purpose, nor curse 
 any man in the name of God. Should I, God forbid, transgress 
 it, I must not drink more than one cup of wine on that day ex- 
 clusive of the blessing-cup. Should I, however, transgress this 
 after dinner, I must abstain from wine the following day. Should 
 I transgress it, I have to pay half a Zehub. Again, that I shall 
 get up every night to praise God, to supplicate for His mercy, and 
 to confess. On those nights when confession is not to be said 
 (Sabbaths and Festivals), I shall say hymns and psalms. This I 
 shall do when I am in my house, and in good health, free from 
 any accident. Should I transgress it, I shall drink not more than 
 one cup of wine the following day, except the blessing-cup. I 
 again take upon myself to give in charity the following proportion 
 of my expenditure — from each dress which I shall have made for 
 myself or for one member of my family, costing more than ten 
 Zehubs, I must pay one Pashut ^8 for each ten Zehubs. Again, if 
 I should buy an animal, or a slave, or a female slave, or ground, 
 that I shall also pay at the same rate. And if I shall buy clothes 
 for sale, called fas has, I shall pay two Pashut s for each garment. 
 As often as I have occasion to say the benediction of thanksgiv- 
 
NACHMANIDES 
 
 139 
 
 ings for having escaped danger I shall pay a Zehub, except when 
 I am travelling [also involving danger in those times!], in which 
 case I shall have to pay a Zehub on my arrival, and two Pashuts 
 daily during the journey. Again, from every kind of fish bought 
 for me, costing more than a Zehub, I shall pay a Pashut for each 
 Zehub. And also, if I shall be deemed worthy by God to marry 
 my children, and to be present at their wedding, to cause them to 
 give to the poor from the dowry brought to them by their wives, 
 whether in money or in kind, at the rate of one per cent. If God 
 will find me worthy of having sons, I must give in charity accord- 
 ing to my means at the time. 
 
 I shall also, between New Year and the Day of Atonement in 
 each year, calculate my profits during the past year and (after de- 
 ducting expenses) give a tithe thereof to the poor. Should I be 
 unable to make an accurate calculation, then I shall give approx- 
 imately. This tithe I shall put aside, together with the other 
 money for religious (charitable) purpose, to dispose of it as I 
 shall deem best. I also propose to have the liberty of employing 
 the money in any profitable speculation with a view to augment- 
 ing it. But in respect of all I have written above I shall not hold 
 myself guilty if I transgress, if such transgression be the result of 
 forgetfulness ; but in order to guard against it, I shall read this 
 through weekly. 
 
 I also command my children to take upon themselves as many of 
 the above regulations as may be in their power to observe, and also 
 to bind them {i.e. the regulations), from generation to generation, 
 upon their children. And he who carries them out, and even 
 adds to them, at pain of discomfort to himself, shall merit a spe- 
 cial blessing. And this is the text of the will which I, the above- 
 mentioned Solomon, draw up for my children, may God preserve 
 them. That they shall pray thrice daily, and endeavour always 
 to utter their prayers with devotion. Again, that this prayer 
 shall be said in the Beth Hammidrash, or in the synagogue to- 
 gether with the congregation. Again, that they shall apply all their 
 powers to maintain the synagogues and the houses of study, which 
 our ancestors have built, as well as to continue the endowments 
 established by my ancestors and myself. They must always en- 
 
I40 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 deavour to imitate them, so that goodness shall never cease from 
 among them. Again, that they shall always have a chair on 
 which a volume of the Talmud, or some other Talmudical work, 
 shall lie ; so that they shall always open a book when they come 
 home. At least, they chall read in any book they like four lines 
 before taking their meal. Again, that they shall every week read 
 the Lesson twice in the Hebrew text, and once in the Aramaic 
 version. Again, to take three meals on the Sabbath . . . 
 
 Again, that they shall be always modest, merciful, and chari- 
 table, for these are the qualities by which the children of Israel are 
 known. Let also all their thoughts and meditations be always di- 
 rected to the service of the Lord, and be as charitable and benevo- 
 lent as possible, for this is all that remains to man of his labour. 
 They shall also endeavour to regulate their diet according to the 
 rules laid down by Rabbi Moses (b. Maimon, or Maimonides), so 
 as to fulfil the words of Scripture : " The righteous eateth to the 
 satisfying of his soul." And let them always be careful not to take 
 the name of God in vain, to be honest in all business transactions, 
 and let their yea be always yea. They shall always be under the 
 obligation to train their children to the Study of the Torah, but 
 one shall devote his life exclusively to the study thereof. And 
 it shall be incumbent upon his brothers to support this one, and to 
 invest his moneys, and to provide for him that he and his family 
 may live respectably, so that he be not distracted by worldly cares 
 from his studies. Let also the elder love the younger brothers as 
 their own children, and the younger respect the elder as a parent. 
 Thus they may always bear in mind that they are of a God-fear- 
 ing family. Let them love and honour scholars, thus to merit the 
 honour of having scholars for their sons and sons-in-law. This 
 will they shall themselves read weekly, and shall also make it in- 
 cumbent upon their children, from generation to generation, to 
 read weekly, in order to fulfil what is written (Gen. xviii. 19), 
 " For I know him that he will command his children," etc., and 
 also the words of Isaiah (lix.21), " And this is my covenant," etc 
 But as often as they shall read this will, they shall also read the 
 two letters below written, which Rabbi Moses ben Nachman sent 
 to his sons, with a view of being serviceable to them in many re- 
 
NA CHMANIDES 1 4 1 
 
 spects. Should, heaven forbid, they be by any sad accident pre- 
 vented from fulfilling the injunctions above laid down, they must 
 fine themselves by not drinking wine on that day, or by eating one 
 course less at the dinner, or by giving some fine in charity. . . . 
 
 And this is the letter which the above-mentioned Rabbi 
 sent from the Holy Land to Castile, when his son was 
 staying before the king (in his service) : — 
 
 "... May God bless you and preserve you from sin and pun- 
 ishment. Behold, our master. King David, had a son, wise and 
 of an understanding heart, like unto whom there was never one 
 before or after. Nevertheless he said to him (i Kings ii. 2) : ' And 
 keep the charge of the Lord thy God,' etc. He also said to him : 
 'And thou, my son, know the God of thy father' (i Chron. 
 xxviii. 9). Now, my son, if thou wilt measure thyself v/ith Solo- 
 mon, thou wilt find thyself a worm — not a man, merely an insect ; 
 nevertheless, if thou wilt seek God, he will make thee great ; and if 
 thou wilt forsake him, thou wilt be turned out and forsaken. My 
 son, be careful that thou read the Shema^^ morning and evening, 
 as well as that thou say the daily prayers. Have always with thee 
 a Pentateuch written correctly, and read therein the Lesson for 
 each Sabbath. ... ' Cast thy burden upon the Lord,' for the 
 thing which thou believest far from thee is often very near unto thee. 
 Know, again, that thou art not master over thy words, nor hast 
 power over thy hand ; but everything is in the hand of the Lord, 
 who formeth thy heart. ... Be especially careful to keep aloof 
 from the women [of the court?]. Know that our God hates im- 
 morality, and Balaam could in no other way injure Israel than by 
 inciting them to unchastity, [Here come many quotations from 
 Malachi and Ezra.] . . . My son, remember me always, and let 
 the image of my countenance be never absent from before thine 
 eyes. Love not that which I hate. . . . Let the words of the 
 Psalmist be always upon thy lips, ' I am a stranger in the earth : 
 hide not thy commandments from me ' (Ps. cxix. 19) ; and God, 
 who is good and the dispenser of good, shall increase thy peace 
 and prolong thy life in peace and happiness, and promote thy honour 
 according to thy wish and the wish of thy father who begat thee, 
 Moses ben Nachman." 
 
A JEWISH BOSWELL 
 
 There is a saying in the Talmud " Nothing exists of 
 which there is not some indication in the Torah." These 
 words are often quoted, and some modern authors have 
 pressed them so far as to find even the discoveries of 
 Columbus and the inventions of Watt and Stephenson 
 indicated in the Law. This is certainly misapplied in- 
 genuity. But it is hardly an exaggeration to maintain 
 that there is no noble manifestation of real religion, no 
 expression of real piety, reverence, and devotion, to which 
 Jewish literature would not offer a fair parallel. 
 
 Thus it will hardly be astonishing to hear that Jewish 
 literature has its Boswell to show, more than three cen- 
 turies before the Scottish gentleman came to London to 
 admire his Johnson, and more than four centuries before 
 the Sage of Chelsea delivered his lectures on Hero Wor- 
 ship. And this Jewish Boswell was guided only by the 
 motives suggested to him in the old Rabbinic literature. 
 In this literature the reverence for the great man, and 
 the absorption of one's whole self in him, went so far 
 that one Rabbi declared that the whole world was only 
 created to serve such a man as company.^ 
 
 Again, the fact that, in the language of the Rabbis, 
 the term for studying the Law and discussing it is "to 
 
 142 
 
A JEWISH BOS WELL I43 
 
 attend " or rather " to serve the disciples of the Wise " 
 may also have led people to the important truth that the 
 great man is not a lecturing machine, but a sort of living 
 Law himself. "When the man," said one Rabbi, "has 
 wholly devoted himself to the Torah, and thoroughly 
 identified himself with it, it becomes almost his own 
 Torah." Thus people have not only to listen to his 
 words but to observe his whole life, and to profit from 
 all his actions and movements. 
 
 This was what the Jewish Boswell sought to do. His 
 name was Rabbi Solomon, of St. Goar, a small town on 
 the Rhine, while the name of the master whom he served 
 was R. Jacob, the Levite, better known by his initials 
 Maharil, who filled the office of Chief Rabbi in Mayence 
 and Worms successively. The main activity of Maharil 
 falls in the first three decades of the fifteenth century. 
 Those were troublous times for a Rabbi. For the pre- 
 ceding century with its persecution and sufferings — one 
 has only to think of the Black Death and its terrible con- 
 sequences for the Jews — led to the destruction of the 
 great Schools, the decay of the study of the Law, and 
 to the dissolution of many congregations. Those which 
 remained lost all touch with each other, so that almost 
 every larger Jewish community had its own Minhag or 
 ritual custom.^ 
 
 It was Maharil who brought some order into this chaos, 
 and in the course of time his influence asserted itself 
 so strongly that the rules observed by him in the per- 
 forming of religious ceremonies were accepted by the 
 great majority of the Jewish communities. Thus the per- 
 sonality of Maharil himself became a standing Minhag, 
 suppressing all the other Minhagim (customs). 
 
144 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 But there must have been something very strong and very 
 great about the personality of the man who could succeed 
 in such an arduous task. For we must not forget that 
 the Minhag or custom in its decay degenerates into a kind 
 of religious fashion, the worst disease to which religion 
 is liable, and the most difficult to cure. It is therefore 
 an irreparable loss both for Jewish literature and for Jewish 
 history, that the greatest part of Maharil's posthumous 
 writings are no longer extant, so that our knowledge about 
 him is very small. But the little we know of him we owe 
 chiefly to the communicativeness of his servant, the Solo- 
 mon of St. Goar whom I mentioned above. 
 
 Solomon not only gave us the ** Customs " of his master, 
 but also observed him closely in all his movements, and 
 conscientiously wrote down all that he saw and heard, 
 under the name of Collectanea. It seems that the bulk 
 of these Collectanea was also lost. But in the fragments 
 that we still possess we are informed, among other things, 
 how Maharil addressed his wife, how he treated his pupils, 
 how careful he was in the use of his books, and even how 
 clean his linen was. Is this not out-Boswelling Boswell } 
 
 The most striking point of agreement between the 
 Boswell of the fifteenth and him of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, is that they both use the same passage from the 
 Talmud to excuse the interest in trifles which their labours 
 of love betrayed. Thus Solomon prefaces his Collectanea 
 with the following words : " It is written. His leaf shall 
 not wither. These words were explained by our Sages 
 to mean that even the idle talk of the disciples of the wise 
 deserves a study. Upon this interpretation I have relied. 
 In my love to R. Jacob the Levite, I collected everything 
 about him. I did not refuse even small things, though many 
 
A JEWISH BOS WELL I45 
 
 derided me. Everything I wrote down, for such was the 
 desire of my heart" 
 
 Thus far Solomon. Now, if we turn to the introduction 
 to Boswell's Life of JoJmson, we read the following sen- 
 tence : " For this almost superstitious reverence, I have 
 found very old and venerable authority quoted by our 
 great modern prelate, Seeker, in whose tenth sermon 
 there is the following passage : * Rabbi Kimchi, a noted 
 Jewish commentator who lived about five hundred years 
 ago, explains that passage in the first Psalm, "His leaf 
 also shall not wither" from Rabbins yet older than him- 
 self, that even the idle talk, so he expressed it, of a good 
 man ought to be regarded. '" 
 
 Croker's note to this passage sounds rather strange. 
 This editor says : " Kimchi was a Spanish Rabbi, who 
 died in 1240. One wonders that Seeker's good sense 
 should have condescended to quote this far-fetched and 
 futile interpretation of the simple and beautiful metaphor, 
 by which the Psalmist illustrates the prosperity of the 
 righteous man." Now Kimchi died at least five years 
 earher than Croker states, but dates, we know from 
 Macaulay's essay on the subject, were not Croker's strong 
 point. But one can hardly forgive the editor of Boswell 
 this lack of sympathy. Had he known what strong 
 affinity there was between his most Christian author and 
 the humble Jew Solomon, he would have less resented 
 this condescension of Archbishop Seeker. 
 
 As for the Jewish Boswell himself, we know very little 
 about him. The only place in which he speaks about his 
 own person is that in which he derives his pedigree from ' 
 R. Eleazar ben Samuel Hallevi (died 1357), and says that 
 he was generally called " Der gute (the good) R. Salman." 
 
1^6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 He well deserved this appellation. In his Will we find 
 the following injunction to his children : " Be honest, and 
 conscientious in your dealing with men, with Jews as well 
 as Gentiles, be kind and obliging to them ; do not speak 
 what is superfluous." And wisdom is surely rare enough 
 to render inappropriate a charge of superfluousness 
 against the work of those who in bygone times spent 
 their energies in gathering the crumbs that fell from the 
 tables of the wise. 
 
VI 
 
 THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 
 
 The object of this essay is to say about the dogmas of 
 Judaism a word which I think ought not to be left unsaid. 
 
 In speaking of dogmas it must be understood that 
 Judaism does not ascribe to them any saving power. The 
 belief in a dogma or a doctrine without abiding by its real 
 or supposed consequences {e.g. the belief in creatio ex 
 nihilo without keeping the Sabbath) is of no value. And 
 the question about certain doctrines is not whether they 
 possess or do not possess the desired charm against cer- 
 tain diseases of the soul, but whether they ought to be 
 considered as characteristics of Judaism or not. 
 
 It must again be premised that the subject, which occu- 
 pied the thoughts of the greatest and noblest Jewish 
 minds for so many centuries, has been neglected for a 
 comparatively long time. And this for various reasons. 
 First, there is Mendelssohn's assertion, or supposed asser- 
 tion, in his yeriisalemy that Judaism has no dogmas — an 
 assertion which has been accepted by the majority of 
 modern Jewish theologians as the only dogma Judaism 
 possesses. You can hear it pronounced in scores of 
 Jewish pulpits ; you can read it written in scores of Jewish 
 books. To admit the possibility that Mendelssohn was in 
 error was hardly permissible, especially for those with 
 
 147 
 
1^8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 whom he enjoys a certain infallibility. Nay, even the fact 
 that he himself was not consistent in his theory, and on 
 another occasion declared that Judaism has dogmas, only 
 that they are purer and more in harmony with reason than 
 those of other religions ; or even the more important fact 
 that he published a school-book for children, in which the 
 so-called Thirteen Articles were embodied, only that 
 instead of the formula " I believe," he substituted " I am 
 convinced," — even such patent facts did not produce 
 much effect upon many of our modern theologians.^ 
 They were either overlooked or explained away so as to 
 make them harmonise with the great dogma of dogma- 
 lessness. For it is one of the attributes of infallibility 
 that the words of its happy possessor must always be 
 reconcilable even when they appear to the eye of the 
 unbeliever as gross contradictions. 
 
 Another cause of the neglect into which the subject has 
 fallen is that our century is an historical one. It is not 
 only books that have their fate, but also whole sciences 
 and literatures. In past times it was religious speculation 
 that formed the favourite study of scholars, in our time it 
 is history with its critical foundation on a sound philology. 
 Now as these two most important branches of Jewish 
 science were so long neglected — were perhaps never cul- 
 tivated in the true meaning of the word, and as Jewish lit- 
 erature is so vast and Jewish history so far-reaching and 
 eventful, we cannot wonder that these studies have ab- 
 sorbed the time and the labour of the greatest and best 
 Jewish writers in this century. 
 
 There is, besides, a certain tendency in historical studies 
 that is hostile to mere theological speculation. The his- 
 torian deals with realities, the theologian with abstrac- 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM I .g 
 
 tions. The latter likes to shape the universe after his 
 system, and tells us how things ought to be, the former 
 teaches us how they are or have bee^i, and the explanation 
 he gives for their being so and not otherwise includes in 
 most cases also a kind of justification for their existence. 
 There is also the odimn theologicum, which has been the 
 cause of so much misfortune that it is hated by the his- 
 torian, whilst the superficial, rationahstic way in which 
 the theologian manages to explain everything which 
 does not suit his system is most repulsive to the critical 
 spirit. 
 
 But it cannot be denied that this neglect has caused 
 much confusion. Especially is this noticeable in England, 
 which is essentially a theological country, and where 
 people are but little prone to give up speculation about 
 things which concern their most sacred interest and 
 greatest happiness. Thus whilst we are exceedingly poor 
 in all other branches of Jewish learning, we are compara- 
 tively rich in productions of a theological character. We 
 have a superfluity of essays on such delicate subjects as 
 eternal punishment, immortality of the soul, the day of 
 judgment, etc., and many treatises on the definition of 
 Judaism. But knowing little or nothing of the progress 
 recently made in Jewish theology, of the many protests 
 against all kinds of infallibility, whether canonised in this 
 century or in olden times, we in England still maintain 
 that Judaism has no dogmas as if nothing to the contrary 
 had ever been said. We seek the foundation of Judaism 
 in political economy, in hygiene, in everything except relig- 
 ion. Following the fashion of the day to esteem religion 
 in proportion to its ability to adapt itself to every possible 
 and impossible metaphysical and social system, we are 
 
ICO STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 anxious to squeeze out of Judaism the last drop of faith 
 and hope, and strive to make it so flexible that we can 
 turn it in every direction which it is our pleasure to fol- 
 low. But alas ! the flexibility has progressed so far as 
 to classify Judaism among the invertebrate species, the 
 lowest order of living things. It strongly resembles a cer- 
 tain Christian school which addresses itself to the world in 
 general and claims to satisfy everybody alike. It claims 
 to be socialism for the adherents of Karl Marx and 
 Lassalle, worship of man for the followers of Comte and 
 St. Simon; it carefully avoids the word "God" for the 
 comfort of agnostics and sceptics, whilst on the other hand 
 it pretends to hold sway over paradise, hell, and immortal- 
 ity for the edification of beUevers. In such illusions many 
 of our theologians delight. For illusions they are; you 
 cannot be everything if you want to be anything. More- 
 over, illusions in themselves are bad enough, but we are 
 menaced with what is still worse. Judaism, divested of 
 every higher religious motive, is in danger of falling into 
 gross materialism. For what else is the meaning of such 
 declarations as "Believe what you like, but conform to 
 this or that mode of life"; what else does it mean but 
 " We cannot expect you to believe that the things you are 
 bidden to do are commanded by a higher authority ; there 
 is not such a thing as belief, but you ought to do them 
 for conventionalism or for your own convenience." 
 
 But both these motives — the good opinion of our 
 neighbours, as well as our bodily health — have nothing to 
 do with our nobler and higher sentiments, and degrade 
 Judaism to a matter of expediency or diplomacy. Indeed, 
 things have advanced so far that well-meaning but ill- 
 advised writers even think to render a service to Judaism 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 151 
 
 by declaring it to be a kind of enlightened Hedonism, or 
 rather a moderate Epicureanism. 
 
 I have no intention of here answering the question, 
 What is Judaism ? This question is not less perplexing 
 than the problem, What is God's world ? Judaism is also 
 a great Infinite, composed of as many endless Units, the 
 Jews. And these Unit-Jews have been, and are still, 
 scattered through all the world, and have passed under an 
 immensity of influences, good and bad. If so, how can 
 we give an exact definition of the Infinite, called Judaism ? 
 
 But if there is anything sure, it is that the highest mo- 
 tives which worked through the history of Judaism are the 
 strong belief in God and the unshaken confidence that at 
 last this God, the God of Israel, will be the God of the 
 whole world ; or, in other words, Faith and Hope are the 
 two most prominent characteristics of Judaism. 
 
 In the following pages I shall try to give a short 
 account of the manner in which these two principles of 
 Judaism found expression, from the earliest times down to 
 the age of Mendelssohn ; that is, to present an outline of 
 the history of Jewish Dogmas. First, a few observations 
 on the position of the Bible and the Talmud in relation to 
 our theme. Insufficient and poor as they may be in pro- 
 portion to the importance of these two fundamental docu- 
 ments of Judaism, these remarks may nevertheless suggest 
 a connecting link between the teachings of Jewish antiq- 
 uity and those of Maimonides and his successors. 
 
 I begin with the Scriptures. 
 
 The Bible itself hardly contains a command bidding us 
 to believe. We are hardly ordered, e.g., to believe in the 
 existence of God. I say hardly, but I do not altogether 
 deny the existence of such a command. It is true that we 
 
JC2 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 do not find in the Scripture such words as: "You are 
 commanded to believe in the existence of God." Nor is 
 any punishment assigned as awaiting him who denies it. 
 Notwithstanding these facts, many Jewish authorities — 
 among them such important men as Maimonides, R. 
 Judah Hallevi, Nachmanides — perceive, in the first words 
 of the Ten Commandments, " I am the Lord thy God," 
 the command to believe in His existence.^ 
 
 Be this as it may, there cannot be the shadow of a 
 doubt that the Bible, in which every command is dictated 
 by God, and in which all its heroes are the servants, the 
 friends, or the ambassadors of God, presumes such a 
 belief in every one to whom those laws are dictated, and 
 these heroes address themselves. Nay, I think that the 
 word "belief" is not even adequate. In a world with so 
 many visible facts and invisible causes, as life and death, 
 growth and decay, light and darkness ; in a world where 
 the sun rises and sets ; where the stars appear regularly ; 
 where heavy rains pour down from the sky, often accom- 
 panied by such grand phenomena as thunder and light- 
 ning ; in a world full of such marvels, but into which no 
 notion has entered of all our modern true or false explana- 
 tions—who but God is behind all these things.? "Have 
 the gates," asks God, "have the gates of death been open 
 to thee.? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of 
 death.? . . . Where is the way where light dwelleth .? 
 and as for darkness, where is the place thereof? . . . 
 Hath the rain a father .? or who hath begotten the drops 
 of dew.? . . . Canst thou bind the sweet influences of 
 Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion .? . . . Canst thou 
 send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, 
 Here we are .? " (Job xxxviii.). Of all these wonders, God 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 153 
 
 was not merely the prima causa ; they were the result of 
 His direct action, without any intermediary causes. And 
 it is as absurd to say that the ancient world believed in 
 God, as for a future historian to assert of the nineteenth 
 century that it believed in the effects of electricity. We 
 see them, and so antiquity sazv God. If there was any 
 danger, it lay not in the denial of the existence of a God, 
 but in having a wrong belief. Belief in as many gods 
 as there are manifestations in nature, the investing of 
 them with false attributes, the misunderstanding of God's 
 relation to men, lead to immorality. Thus the greater 
 part of the laws and teachings of the Bible are either 
 directed against polytheism, with all its low ideas of God, 
 or rather of gods ; or they are directed towards regulating 
 God's relation to men. Man is a servant of God, or His 
 prophet, or even His friend. But this relationship man 
 obtains only by his conduct. Nay, all man's actions are 
 carefully regulated by God, and connected with His holi- 
 ness. The 19th chapter of Leviticus, which is considered 
 by the Rabbis as the portion of the Law in which the 
 most important articles of the Torah are embodied, is 
 headed, " Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your own God 
 am holy." And each law therein occurring, even those 
 which concern our relations to each other, is not founded 
 on utilitarian reasons, but is ordained because the opposite 
 of it is an offence to the holiness of God, and profanes 
 His creatures, whom He desired to be as holy as He is.^ 
 Thus the whole structure of the Bible is built upon the 
 visible fact of the existence of a God, and upon the belief 
 in the relation of God to men, especially to Israel. In 
 spite of all that has been said to the contrary, the Bible 
 does lay stress upon belief, where belief is required. The 
 
1^4 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 unbelievers are rebuked again and again. "For all this 
 they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous 
 work," complains Asaph (Ps. Ixxviii. 32). And belief is 
 praised in such exalted words as, "Thus saith the Lord, 
 I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of 
 thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilder- 
 ness, in a land that was not sown" (Jer. ii. 2). The Bible, 
 especially the books of the prophets, consists, in great 
 part, of promises for the future, which the Rabbis justly 
 termed the "Consolations."* For our purpose, it is of 
 no great consequence to examine what future the prophets 
 had in view, whether an immediate future or one more 
 remote, at the end of days. At any rate, they inculcated 
 hope and confidence that God would bring to pass a 
 better time. I think that even the most advanced Bible 
 critic — provided he is not guided by some modern Aryan 
 reasons — must perceive in such passages as, "The Lord 
 shall reign for ever and ever," "The Lord shall rejoice 
 in his works," and many others, a hope for more than 
 the establishment of the "national Deity among his 
 votaries in Palestine." 
 
 We have now to pass over an interval of many centu- 
 ries, the length of which depends upon the views held 
 as to the date of the close of the canon, and examine 
 what the Rabbis, the representatives of the prophets, 
 thought on this subject. Not that the views of the 
 author of the Wisdom of Solomon, of Philo and Aristobu- 
 lus, and many others of the Judaeo-Alexandrian school 
 would be uninteresting for us. But somehow their influ- 
 ence on Judaism was only a passing one, and their doc- 
 trines never became authoritative in the Synagogue. We 
 must here confine ourselves to those who, even by the 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 155 
 
 testimony of their bitterest enemies, occupied the seat of 
 Moses. 
 
 The successors of the prophets had to deal with new 
 circumstances, and accordingly their teachings were 
 adapted to the wants of their times. As the result of 
 manifold foreign influences, the visible fact of the exist- 
 ence of God as manifested in the Bible had been some- 
 what obscured. Prophecy ceased, and the Holy Spirit 
 which inspired a few chosen ones took its place. After- 
 wards this influence was reduced to the hearing of a 
 Voice from Heaven, which was audible to still fewer. 
 On the other hand the Rabbis had this advantage that 
 they were not called upon to fight against idolatry as 
 their predecessors the prophets had been. The evil in- 
 clination to worship idols was, as the Talmud expresses 
 it allegorically, killed by the Men of the Great Syna- 
 gogue, or, as we should put it, it was suppressed by the 
 sufferings of the captivity in Babylon. This change of 
 circumstances is marked by the following fact : — Whilst 
 the prophets mostly considered idolatry as the cause of all 
 sin, the Rabbis show a strong tendency to ascribe sin to 
 a defect in, or a want of, beUef on the part of the sinner. 
 They teach that Adam would not have sinned unless he 
 had first denied the "Root of all" (or the main principle), 
 namely, the belief in the Omnipresence of God. Of Cain 
 they say that before murdering his brother he declared : 
 "There is no judgment, there is no judge, there is no 
 world to come, and there is no reward for the just, and 
 no punishment for the wicked."^ 
 
 In another place we read that the commission of a sin 
 in secret is an impertinent attempt by the doer to oust 
 God from the world. But if unbelief is considered as 
 
ic6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 the root of all evil, we may expect that the reverse of 
 it, a perfect faith, would be praised in the most exalted 
 terms. So we read : Faith is so great that the man who 
 possesses it may hope to become a worthy vessel of the 
 Holy Spirit, or, as we should express it, that he may hope 
 to obtain by this power the highest degree of communion 
 with his Maker. The Patriarch Abraham, notwithstanding 
 all his other virtues, only became " the possessor of both 
 worlds " by the merit of his strong faith. Nay, even the 
 fulfilment of a single law when accompanied by true faith 
 is, according to the Rabbis, sufficient to bring man nigh 
 to God. And the future redemption is also conditional 
 on the degree of faith shown by Israel.^ 
 
 It has often been asked what the Rabbis would have 
 thought of a man who fulfils every commandment of the 
 Torah, but does not believe that this Torah was given by 
 God, or that there exists a God at all. It is indeed very 
 difficult to answer this question with any degree of cer- 
 tainty. In the time of the Rabbis people were still too 
 simple for such a diplomatic religion, and conformity 
 in the modern sense was quite an unknown thing. But 
 from the foregoing remarks it would seem that the 
 Rabbis could not conceive such a monstrosity as atheistic 
 orthodoxy. For, as we have seen, the Rabbis thought 
 that unbelief must needs end in sin, for faith is the ori- 
 gin of all good. Accordingly, in the case just supposed 
 they would have either suspected the man's orthodoxy, 
 or would have denied that his views were really what he 
 professed them to be. 
 
 Still more important than the above cited Agadic pas- 
 sages is one which we are about to quote from the trac- 
 tate Sanhedrin. This tractate deals with the constitution, 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 157 
 
 of the supreme law-court, the examination of the wit- 
 nesses, the functions of the judges, and the different 
 punishment to be inflicted on the transgressors of the 
 law. After having enumerated various kinds of capital 
 punishment, the Mishnah adds the following words: 
 "These are (the men) who are excluded from the life 
 to come : He who says there is no resurrection from 
 death; he who says there is no Torah given from 
 heaven, and the Epikurus."^ This passage was con- 
 sidered by the Rabbis of the Middle Ages, as well as 
 by modern scholars, the locus classicus for the dogma 
 question. There are many passages in the Rabbinic 
 literature which exclude man from the world to come 
 for this or that sin. But these are more or less of an 
 Agadic (legendary) character, and thus lend themselves 
 to exaggeration and hyperbolic language. They cannot, 
 therefore, be considered as serious legal dicta, or as the 
 general opinion of the Rabbis. 
 
 The Mishnah in Sanhedrin, however, has, if only by 
 its position in a legal tractate, a certain Halachic (obliga- 
 tory) character. And the fact that so early an authority 
 as R. Akiba made additions to it guarantees its high 
 antiquity. The first two sentences of this Mishnah are 
 clear enough. In modern language, and positively speak- 
 ing, they would represent articles of belief in Resurrection 
 and Revelation. Great difficulty is found in defining what 
 was meant by the word Epikurus. The authorities of the 
 Middle Ages, to whom I shall again have to refer, explain 
 the Epikurus to be a man who denies the belief in reward 
 and punishment ; others identify him with one who denies 
 the belief in Providence ; while others again consider the 
 Epikurus to be one who denies Tradition. But the paral- 
 
Ijg STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 lei passages in which it occurs incline one rather to think 
 that this word cannot be defined by one kind of heresy. 
 It implies rather a frivolous treatment of the words of 
 Scripture or of Tradition. In the case of the latter (Tra- 
 dition) it is certainly not honest difference of opinion that 
 is condemned; for the Rabbis themselves differed very 
 often from each other, and even Mediaeval authorities 
 did not feel any compunction about explaining Scripture 
 in variance with the Rabbinic interpretation, and some- 
 times they even went so far as to declare that the view 
 of this or that great authority was only to be considered 
 as an isolated opinion not deserving particular attention. 
 What they did blame was, as already said, scoffing and 
 impiety. We may thus safely assert that reverence for 
 the teachers of Israel formed the third essential principle 
 of Judaism.^ 
 
 I have still to remark that there occur in the Talmud 
 such passages as " the Jew, even if he has sinned, is still a 
 Jew," or "He who denies idolatry is called a Jew." These 
 and similar passages have been used to prove that Judaism 
 was not a positive religion, but only involved the negation 
 of idolatry. But it has been overlooked that the statements 
 quoted have more a legal than a theological character. 
 The Jew belonged to his nationality even after having 
 committed the greatest sin, just as the Englishman does 
 not cease to be an Englishman — in regard to treason and 
 the like — by having committed a heinous crime. But he 
 has certainly acted in a very un-English way, and having 
 outraged the feelings of the whole nation will have to suf- 
 fer for his misconduct. The Rabbis in a similar manner 
 did not maintain that he who gave up the belief in Revela- 
 tion and Resurrection, and treated irreverently the teach- 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM ijq 
 
 ers of Israel, severed his connection with the Jewish nation, 
 but that, for his crime, he was going to suffer the heaviest 
 punishment. He was to be excluded from the world to 
 come. 
 
 Still, important as is the passage quoted from Sanhe- 
 drin, it would be erroneous to think that it exhausted the 
 creed of the Rabbis. The liturgy and innumerable pas- 
 sages in the Midrashim show that they ardently clung to 
 the belief in the advent of the Messiah. All their hope 
 was turned to the future redemption and the final estab- 
 lishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Judaism, 
 stripped of this belief, would have been for them devoid of 
 meaning. The belief in reward and punishment is also 
 repeated again and again in the old Rabbinic literature. 
 A more emphatic declaration of the belief in Providence 
 than is conveyed by the following passages is hardly con- 
 ceivable. " Everything is foreseen, and free will is given. 
 And the world is judged by grace." Or, " the born are to 
 die, and the dead to revive, and the living to be judged. 
 For to know and to notify, and that it may be known 
 that He (God) is the Framer and He the Creator, and 
 He the Discerner, and He the Judge, and He the Wit- 
 ness," etc.^ 
 
 But it must not be forgotten that it was not the habit of 
 the Rabbis to lay down, either for conduct or for doctrine, 
 rules which were commonly known. When they urged 
 the three points stated above there must have been some 
 historical reason for it. Probably these principles were 
 controverted by some heretics. Indeed, the whole tone 
 of the passage cited from Sanhedrin is a protest against 
 certain unbelievers who are threatened with punishment. 
 Other beliefs, not less essential, but less disputed, remain 
 
l5o STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 unmentioned, because there was no necessity to assert 
 them. 
 
 It was not till a much later time, when the Jews came 
 into closer contact with new philosophical schools, and 
 also new creeds which were more liable than heathenism 
 was to be confused with Judaism, that this necessity was 
 felt. And thus we are led at once to the period when the 
 Jews became acquainted with the teachings of the Moham- 
 medan schools. The Caraites came very early into con- 
 tact with non-Jewish systems. And so we find that they 
 were also the first to formulate Jewish dogmas in a fixed 
 number, and in a systematic order. It is also possible that 
 their separation from the Tradition, and their early division 
 into little sects among themselves, compelled them to take 
 this step, in order to avoid further sectarianism. 
 
 The number of their dogmas amounts to ten. Accord- 
 ing to Judah Hadasi (1150), who would appear to have 
 derived them from his predecessors, their dogmas include 
 the following articles: — i. Creatio ex nihilo; 2. The ex- 
 istence of a Creator, God ; 3. This God is an absolute unity 
 as well as incorporeal ; 4. Moses and the other prophets 
 were sent by God; 5. God has given to us the Torah, 
 which is true and complete in every respect, not want- 
 ing the addition of the so-called Oral Law ; 6. The Torah 
 must be studied by every Jew in the original (Hebrew) 
 language; 7. The Holy Temple was a place elected by 
 God for His manifestation ; 8. Resurrection of the dead ; 
 9. Punishment and reward after death ; 10. The Coming 
 of the Messiah, the son of David. 
 
 How far the predecessors of Hadasi were influenced by 
 a certain Joseph Albashir (about 950), of whom there exists 
 a manuscript work, " Rudiments of Faith," I am unable to 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM l6l 
 
 say. The little we know of him reveals more of his inti- 
 macy with Arabic thoughts than of his importance for his 
 sect in particular and for Judaism in general. After Ha- 
 dasi I shall mention here Elijah Bashazi, a Caraite writer 
 of the end of the fifteenth century. This author, who was 
 much influenced by Maimonides, omits the second and the 
 seventh articles. In order to make up the ten he numbers 
 the belief in the eternity of God as an article, and divides 
 the fourth article into two. In the fifth article Bashazi 
 does not emphasise so strongly the completeness of the 
 Torah as Hadasi, and omits the portion which is directed 
 against Tradition. It is interesting to see the distinction 
 which Bashazi draws between the Pentateuch and the 
 Prophets. While he thinks that the five books of Moses 
 can never be altered, he regards the words of the Prophets 
 as only relating to their contemporaries, and thus subject 
 to changes. As I do not want to anticipate Maimonides' 
 system, I must refrain from giving here the articles laid 
 down by Solomon Troki in the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century. For the articles of Maimonides are copied by 
 this writer with a few slight alterations so as to dress them 
 in a Caraite garb. 
 
 I must dismiss the Caraites with these few remarks, my 
 object being chiefly to discuss the dogmas of the Syna- 
 gogue from which they had separated themselves. Besides, 
 as in everything Caraitic, there is no further development 
 of the question. As Bashazi laid them down, they are 
 still taught by the Caraites of to-day. I return to the Rab- 
 banites.^^ 
 
 As is well known, Maimonides (i 130-1205), was the first 
 Rabbanite who formulated the dogmas of the Synagogue. 
 But there are indications of earlier attempts. R. Saadiah 
 
l52 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Gaon's (892-942) work, Creeds and Opinions, shows such 
 traces. He says in his preface, "My heart sickens to 
 see that the beUef of my co-reUgionists is impure and 
 that their theological views are confused." The subjects 
 he treats in this book, such as creation, unity of God, 
 resurrection of the dead, the future redemption of Israel, 
 reward and punishment, and other kindred theological 
 subjects might thus, perhaps, be considered as the essen- 
 tials of the creed that the Gaon desired to present in a 
 pure and rational form. R. Hannaneel, of Kairowan,^^ in 
 the first half of the eleventh century, says in one of his 
 commentaries that to deserve eternal life one must believe 
 'mfotir things : in God, in the prophets, in a future world 
 where the just will be rewarded, and in the advent of the 
 Redeemer. From R. Judah Hallevi's Cusari, written in 
 the beginning of the twelfth century, we might argue that 
 the belief in the election of Israel by God was the cardinal 
 dogma of the author.^^ Abraham Ibn Daud, a contem- 
 porary of Maimonides, in his book The High Belief}^ 
 speaks of rudiments, among which, besides such meta- 
 physical principles as unity, rational conception of God's 
 attributes, etc., the belief in the immutability of the Law, 
 etc., is included. Still, all these works are intended to fur- 
 nish evidence from philosophy or history for the truth of 
 religion rather than to give a definition of this truth. The 
 latter task was undertaken by Maimonides. 
 
 I refer to the thirteen articles embodied in his first work. 
 The Commentary to the Mishnah. They are appended 
 to the Mishnah in Sanhedrin, with which I dealt above. 
 But though they do not form an independent treatise, 
 Maimonides' remarks must not be considered as merely 
 incidental. 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 163 
 
 That Maimonides was quite conscious of the importance 
 of this exposition can be gathered from the concluding 
 words addressed to the reader : *' Know these (words) 
 and repeat them many times, and think them over in the 
 proper way. God knows that thou wouldst be deceiving 
 thyself if thou thinkest thou hast understood them by hav- 
 ing read them once or even ten times. Be not, therefore, 
 hasty in perusing them. I have not composed them with- 
 out deep study and earnest reflection." 
 
 The result of this deep study was that the following 
 Thirteen Articles constitute the creed of Judaism. They 
 are: — 
 
 I. The belief in the existence of a Creator; 2. The 
 belief in His Unity ; 3. The belief in His Incorporeality ; 
 4. The belief in His Eternity; 5. The belief that all wor- 
 ship and adoration are due to Him alone ; 6. The belief in 
 Prophecy ; 7. The belief that Moses was the greatest of 
 all Prophets, both before and after him ; 8. The belief that 
 the Torah was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai ; 9. The 
 belief in the Immutability of this revealed Torah ; 10. The 
 belief that God knows the actions of men; 11. The belief 
 in Reward and Punishment; 12. The belief in the coming 
 of the Messiah; 13. The belief in the Resurrection of the 
 dead. 
 
 The impulse given by the great philosopher and still 
 greater Jew was eagerly followed by succeeding genera- 
 tions, and Judaism thus came into possession of a dogmatic 
 literature such as it never knew before Maimonides. Mai- 
 monides is the centre of this literature, and I shall accord- 
 ingly speak in the remainder of this essay of Maimonists 
 and Anti-Maimonists. These terms really apply to the 
 great controversy that raged round Maimonides' Guide of 
 
15^ STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 the Perplexedy but I shall, chiefly for brevity's sake, em- 
 ploy them in these pages in a restricted sense to refer to 
 the dispute concerning the Thirteen Articles. 
 
 Among the Maimonists we may probably include the 
 great majority of Jews, who accepted the Thirteen Articles 
 without further question. Maimonides must indeed have 
 filled up a great gap in Jewish theology, a gap, moreover, 
 the existence of which was very generally perceived. A 
 century had hardly elapsed before the Thirteen Articles 
 had become a theme for the poets of the Synagogue. And 
 almost every country where Jews lived can show a poem 
 or a prayer founded on these Articles. R. Jacob Molin 
 (1420) of Germany speaks of metrical and rhymed songs 
 in the German language, the burden of which was the 
 Thirteen Articles, and which were read by the common 
 people with great devotion. The numerous commentaries 
 and homilies written on the same topic would form a small 
 library in themselves.^* But on the other hand it must 
 not be denied that the Anti-Maimonists, that is to say 
 those Jewish writers who did not agree with the creed 
 formulated by Maimonides, or agreed only in part with 
 him, form also a very strong and respectable minority. 
 They deserve our attention the more as it is their works 
 which brought life into the subject and deepened it. It 
 is not by a perpetual Amen to every utterance of a great 
 authority that truth or literature gains anything. 
 
 The Anti-Maimonists can be divided into two classes. 
 The one class categorically denies that Judaism has dog- 
 mas. I shall have occasion to touch on this view when I 
 come to speak of Abarbanel. Here I pass at once to the 
 second class of Anti-Maimonists. This consists of those 
 who agree with Maimonides as to the existence of dogmas 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 165 
 
 in Judiasm, but who differ from him as to what these 
 dogmas are, or who give a different enumeration of 
 them. 
 
 As the first of these Anti-Maimonists we may regard 
 Nachmanides, who, in his famous Sermon in the Presence 
 of the King, speaks of three fundamental principles : Crea- 
 tion (that is, non-eternity of matter). Omniscience of God, 
 and Providence. Next comes R. Abba Mari ben Moses, 
 of Montpellier. He wrote at the beginning of the four- 
 teenth century, and is famous in Jewish history for his 
 zeal against the study of philosophy. We possess a small 
 pamphlet by him dealing with our subject, and it forms 
 a kind of prologue 4;o his collection of controversial let- 
 ters against the rationalists of his time.^^ He lays down 
 three articles as the fundamental teachings of Religion : 
 I. Metaphysical : The existence of God, including His Unity 
 and Incorporeality ; 2. Mosaic : Creatio ex ftihilo by God 
 — a consequence of this principle is the belief that God 
 is capable of altering the laws of nature at His pleasure ; 
 3. Ethical: Special Providence — i.e. God knows all our 
 actions in all their details. Abba Mari does not mention 
 Maimonides' Thirteen Articles. But it would be false to 
 conclude that he rejected the belief in the coming of the 
 Messiah, or any other article of Maimonides. The whole 
 tone and tendency of this pamphlet is polemical, and it is 
 therefore probable that he only urged those points which 
 were either doubted or explained in an unorthodox way by 
 the sceptics of his time. 
 
 Another scholar, of Provence, who wrote but twenty 
 years later than Abba Mari — R. David ben Samuel 
 d'Estella (1320) — speaks of the seven pillars of religion. 
 They are: Revelation, Providence, Reward and Punish- 
 
1 66 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ment, the Coming of the Messiah, Resurrection of the 
 Dead, Creatio ex nihiloy and Free Will.^^ 
 
 Of authors Uving in other countries, I have to mention 
 here R. Shemariah, of Crete, who flourished at about the 
 same time as R. David d'Estella, and is known from his 
 efforts to reconcile the Caraites with the Rabbanites. 
 This author wrote a book for the purpose of furnishing 
 Jewish students with evidence for what he considered the 
 five fundamental teachings of Judaism, viz. : i . The Exis- 
 tence of God ; 2. The Incorporeality of God ; 3. His 
 Absolute Unity ; 4. That God created heaven and earth ; 
 5. That God created the world after His will 5106 years 
 ago — 5106 (1346 A.C.), being the year.in which Shemariah 
 wrote these words.^^ 
 
 In Portugal, at about the same time, we find R. David 
 ben Yom-Tob Bilia adding to the articles of Maimonides 
 thirteen of his own, which he calls the " Fundamentals of 
 the Thinking Man." Five of these articles relate to the 
 functions of the human soul, that, according to him, 
 emanated from God, and to the way in which this divine 
 soul receives its punishment and reward. The other eight 
 articles are as follows : i. The belief in the existence of 
 spiritual beings — angels; 2. Creatio ex nihilo ; 3. The 
 belief in the existence of another world, and that this 
 other world is only a spiritual one ; 4. The Torah is above 
 philosophy; 5. The Torah has an outward (literal) mean- 
 ing and an inward (allegorical) meaning; 6. The text of 
 the Torah is not subject to any emendation ; 7. The 
 reward of a good action is the good work itself, and the 
 doer must not expect any other reward ; 8. It is only by 
 the "commands relating to the heart," for instance, the 
 belief in one eternal God, the loving and fearing Him, and 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 167 
 
 not through good actions, that man attains the highest 
 degree of perfection. ^^ Perhaps it would be suitable to 
 mention here another contemporaneous writer, who also 
 enumerates twenty-six articles. The name of this writer 
 is unknown, and his articles are only gathered from quo- 
 tations by later authors. It would seem from these quota- 
 tions that the articles of this unknown author consisted 
 mostly of statements emphasising the belief in the attri- 
 butes of God : as, His Eternity, His Wisdom and Omnip- 
 otence, and the like.^^ 
 
 More important for our subject are the productions of 
 the fifteenth century, especially those of Spanish authors. 
 The fifteen articles of R. Lipman Muhlhausen, in the pref- 
 ace to his well-known Book of Victory ^^ (1410), differ but 
 slightly from those of Maimonides. In accordance with 
 the anti-Christian tendency of his polemical book, he lays 
 more stress on the two articles of Unity and Incorpo- 
 reality, and makes of them four. We can therefore dis- 
 miss him with this short remark, and pass at once to the 
 Spanish Rabbis. 
 
 The first of these is R. Chasdai Ibn Crescas, who com- 
 posed his famous treatise, T/ie Light of God, about 1405. 
 Chasdai's book is well known for its attacks on Aristotle, 
 and also for its influence on Spinoza. But Chasdai deals 
 also with Maimonides' Thirteen Articles, to which he was 
 very strongly opposed. Already in his preface he attacks 
 Maimonides for speaking, in his Book of the Command- 
 ments, of the belief in the existence of God as an " affirma- 
 tive precept." Chasdai thinks it absurd; for every com- 
 mandment must be dictated by some authority, but on 
 whose authority can we dictate the acceptance of this 
 authority.? His general objection to the Thirteen Articles 
 
l68 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 is that Maimonides confounded dogmas or fundamental 
 beliefs of Judaism, without which Judaism is inconceivable, 
 with beliefs or doctrines which Judaism inculcates, but the 
 denial of which, though involving a strong heresy, does 
 not make Judaism impossible. He maintains that if 
 Maimonides meant only to count fundamental teachings, 
 there are not more than seven ; but that if he intended 
 also to include doctrines, he ought to have enumerated 
 sixteen. As beliefs of the first class — namely, fundamen- 
 tal beliefs — he considers the following articles : i. God's 
 knowledge of our actions ; 2. Providence ; 3. God's om- 
 nipotence — even to act against the laws of nature; 
 4. Prophecy; 5. Free will; 6. The aim of the Torah is 
 to make man long after the closest communion with God. 
 The belief in the existence of God, Chasdai thinks, is an 
 axiom with which every religion must begin, and he is 
 therefore uncertain whether to include it as a dogma or 
 not. As to the doctrines which every Jew is bound to 
 believe, but without which Judaism is not impossible, 
 Chasdai divides them into two sections: {a) i. Creatio ex 
 nihilo ; 2. Immortality of the soul ; 3. Reward and Pun- 
 ishment; 4. Resurrection of the dead; 5. Immutability 
 of the Torah ; 6. Superiority of the prophecy of Moses ; 
 7. That the High Priest received from God the instructions 
 sought for, when he put his questions through the medium 
 of the Urim and Thummim ; 8. The coming of the Mes- 
 siah. {U) Doctrines which are expressed by certain relig- 
 ious ceremonies, and on belief in which these ceremonies 
 are conditioned : i. The belief in the efficacy of prayer — 
 as well as in the power of the benediction of the priests to 
 convey to us the blessing of God ; 2. God is merciful to 
 the penitent; 3. Certain days in the year — for instance, 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 1 69 
 
 the Day of Atonement — are especially qualified to bring 
 us near to God, if we keep them in the way we are com- 
 manded. That Chasdai is a little arbitrary in the choice 
 of his " doctrines," I need hardly say. Indeed, Chasdai's 
 importance for the dogma-question consists more in his 
 critical suggestions than in his positive results. He was, 
 as we have seen, the first to make the distinction between 
 fundamental teachings which form the basis of Judaism, 
 and those other simple Jewish doctrines without which 
 Judaism is not impossible. Very daring is his remark, 
 when proving that Reward and Punishment, Immortality 
 of the soul, and Resurrection of the dead must not be con- 
 sidered as the basis of Judaism, since the highest ideal of 
 religion is to serve God without any hope of reward. Even 
 more daring are his words concerning the Immutability 
 of the Law. He says : " Some have argued that, since 
 God is perfection, so must also His law be perfect, and 
 thus unsusceptible of improvement." But he does not 
 think this argument conclusive, though the fact in itself 
 (the Immutability of the Law) is true. For one might 
 answer that this perfection of the Torah could only be in 
 accordance with the intelligence of those for whom it was 
 meant ; but as soon as the recipients of the Torah have 
 advanced to a higher state of perfection, the Torah must 
 also be altered to suit their advanced intelligence. A 
 pupil of Chasdai illustrates the words of his master by a 
 medical parallel. The physician has to adapt his medica- 
 ments to the various stages through which his patient has 
 to pass. That he changes his prescription does not, how- 
 ever, imply that his medical knowledge is imperfect, or 
 that his earlier remedies were ignorantly chosen ; the vary- 
 ing condition of the invalid was the cause of the variation 
 
j^O STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 in the doctor's treatment. Similarly, were not the Immu- 
 tability of the Torah a "doctrine," one might maintain 
 that the perfection of the Torah would not be inconsistent 
 with the assumption that it was susceptible of modifi- 
 cation, in accordance with our changing and progressive 
 circumstances. But all these arguments are purely of a 
 theoretic character ; for, practically, every Jew, according 
 to Chasdai, has to accept all these beliefs, whether he 
 terms them fundamental teachings or only Jewish doc- 
 trines.^^ 
 
 Some years later, though he finished his work in the 
 same year as Chasdai, R. Simeon Duran (i 366-1444,) a 
 younger contemporary of the former, made his researches 
 on dogmas. His studies on this subject form a kind of 
 introduction to his commentary on Job, which he finished 
 in the year 1405. Duran is not so strongly opposed to 
 the Thirteen Articles as Chasdai, or as another *' thinker 
 of our people," who thought them an arbitrary imitation 
 of the thirteen attributes of God. Duran tries to justify 
 Maimonides; but nevertheless he agrees with "earlier 
 authorities," who formulated the Jewish creed in Three 
 Articles — The Existence of God, Revelation, and Reward 
 and Punishment — under which Duran thinks the Thir- 
 teen Articles of Maimonides may be easily classed. Most 
 interesting are his remarks concerning the validity of dog- 
 mas. He tells us that only those are to be considered 
 as heretics who abide by their own opinions, though they 
 know that they are contradictory to the views of the 
 Torah. Those who accept the fundamental teachings of 
 Judaism, but are led by their deep studies and earnest 
 reflection to differ in details from the opinions current 
 among their co-religionists, and explain certain passages 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 17I 
 
 in the Scripture in their own way, must by no means be 
 considered as heretics. We must, therefore, Duran pro- 
 ceeds to say, not blame such men as Maimonides, who 
 gave an allegorical interpretation to certain passages in 
 the Bible about miracles, or R. Levi ben Gershom, who 
 followed certain un- Jewish views in relation to the belief 
 in Creatio ex nihilo. Only the views are condemnable, 
 not those who cherish them. God forbid, says Duran, 
 that such a thing should happen in Israel as to condemn 
 honest inquirers on account of their differing opinions. 
 It would be interesting to know of how many divines as 
 tolerant as this persecuted Jew the fifteenth century can 
 boast.22 
 
 We can now pass to a more popular but less original 
 writer on our theme. I refer to R. Joseph Albo, the 
 author of the Roots^ who was the pupil of Chasdai, a 
 younger contemporary of Duran, and wrote at a much 
 later period than these authors. Graetz has justly denied 
 him much originality. The chief merit of Albo consists 
 in popularising other people's thoughts, though he does 
 not always take care to mention their names. And the 
 student who is a little familiar with the contents of the 
 Roots will easily find that Albo has taken /lis best ideas 
 either from Chasdai or from Duran. As it is of little 
 consequence to us whether an article of faith is called 
 "stem," or "root," or "branch," there is scarcely anything 
 fresh left to quote in the name of Albo. The late Dr. 
 Low, of Szegedin, was indeed right, when he answered 
 an adversary who challenged him — "Who would dare to 
 declare me a heretic as long as I confess the Three Arti- 
 cles laid down by Albo .•* " with the words " Albo himself." 
 For, after all the subtle distinctions Albo makes between 
 
172 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 different classes of dogmas, he declares that every one 
 who denies even the immutability of the Law or the com- 
 ing of the Messiah, which are, according to him, articles 
 of minor importance, is a heretic who will be excluded 
 from the world to come. But there is one point in his 
 book which is worth noticing. It was suggested to him 
 by Maimonides, indeed; still Albo has the merit of having 
 emphasised it as it deserves. Among the articles which 
 he calls *' branches" Albo counts the belief that the per- 
 fection of man, which leads to eternal life, can be obtained 
 by the fulfilling of one commandment. But this command 
 must, as Maimonides points out, be done without any 
 worldly regard, and only for the love of God. When one 
 considers how many platitudes are repeated year by year 
 by certain theologians on the subject of Jewish legalism, 
 we cannot lay enough stress on this article of Albo, and 
 we ought to make it better known than it has hitherto 
 been.^ 
 
 Though I cannot enter here into the enumeration of the 
 Maimonists, I must not leave unmentioned the name of 
 R. Nissim ben Moses of Marseilles, the first great Mai- 
 monist, who flourished about the end of the thirteenth 
 century, and was considered as one of the most enlight- 
 ened thinkers of his age.^^ Another great Maimonist 
 deserving special attention is R. Abraham ben Shem-Tob 
 Bibago, who may perhaps be regarded as the most promi- 
 nent among those who undertook to defend Maimonides 
 against the attacks of Chasdai and others. Bibago wrote 
 The Path of Belief "^ in the second half of the fifteenth 
 century, and was, as Dr. Steinschneider aptly describes 
 him, a Denkgldubiger. But, above all, he was a believing 
 Jew. When he was once asked, at the table of King 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM I^sj 
 
 John II., of Aragon, by a Christian scholar, " Are you the 
 Jewish philosopher ? " he answered, "I am a Jew who 
 believes in the Law given to us by our teacher Moses, 
 though I have studied philosophy." Bibago was such a 
 devoted admirer of Maimonides that he could not tolerate 
 any opposition to him. He speaks in one passage of the 
 prudent people of his time who, in desiring to be looked 
 upon as orthodox by the great mob, calumniated the 
 Teacher (Maimonides), and depreciated his merits. Bi- 
 bago's book is very interesting, especially in its contro- 
 versial parts ; but in respect to dogmas he is, as already 
 said, a Maimonist, and does not contribute any new point 
 on our subject. 
 
 To return to the Anti-Maimonists of the second half 
 of the fifteenth century. As such may be considered 
 R. Isaac Aramah, who speaks of three foundations of 
 religion : Creatio ex nihilo^ Revelation (^\ and the belief 
 in a world to come.^^ Next to be mentioned is R. Joseph 
 Jabez, who also accepts only three articles : Creatio ex 
 nikilo, Individual Providence, and the Unity of God.^ 
 Under these three heads he tries to classify the Thirteen 
 Articles of Maimonides. 
 
 The last Spanish writer on our subject is R. Isaac 
 Abarbanel. His treatise on the subject is known under 
 the title Top of Amanah^^ and was finished in the year 
 1495. The greatest part of this treatise forms a defence 
 of Maimonides, many points in which are taken from 
 Bibago. But, in spite of this fact, Abarbanel must not 
 be considered a Maimonist. It is only a feeling of piety 
 towards Maimonides, or perhaps rather a fondness for 
 argument, that made him defend Maimonides against 
 Chasdai and others. His own view is that it is a mistake 
 
174 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 to formulate dogmas of Judaism, since every word in the 
 Torah has to be considered as a dogma for itself. It was 
 only, says Abarbanel, by following the example of non- 
 Jewish scholars that Maimonides and others were induced 
 to lay down dogmas. The non-Jewish philosophers are 
 in the habit of accepting in every science certain indis- 
 putable axioms from which they deduce the propositions 
 which are less evident. The Jewish philosophers in a 
 similar way sought for first principles in religion from 
 which the whole of the Torah ought to be considered as 
 a deduction. But, thinks Abarbanel, the Torah as a 
 revealed code is under no necessity of deducing things 
 from each other, for all the commands came from the 
 same divine authority, and, therefore, all are alike evident, 
 and have the same certainty. On this and similar grounds 
 Abarbanel refused to accept dogmatic articles for Judaism, 
 and he thus became the head of the school that forms 
 a class by itself among the Anti-Maimonists to which 
 many of the greatest Cabbalists also belong. But it is 
 idle talk to cite this school in aid of the modern theory 
 that Judaism has no dogmas. As we have seen, it was 
 rather an embarras de riches se that prevented Abarbanel 
 from accepting the Thirteen Articles of Maimonides. To 
 him and to the Cabbalists the Torah consists of at least 
 613 Articles. 
 
 Abarbanel wrote his book with which we have just 
 dealt, at Naples. And it is Italy to which, after the 
 expulsion of the Jews from Spain, we have to look chiefly 
 for religious speculation. But the philosophers of Italy 
 are still less independent of Maimonides than their pred- 
 ecessors in Spain. Thus we find that R. David Messer 
 Leon, R. David Vital, and others were Maimonists. 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 1 75 
 
 Even the otherwise refined and original thinker, R. Eli- 
 jah Delmedigo (who died about the end of the fifteenth 
 century) becomes almost impolite when he speaks of the 
 adversaries of Maimonides in respect to dogmas. "It 
 was only," he says, " the would-be philosopher that dared 
 to question the articles of Maimonides. Our people have 
 always the bad habit of thinking themselves competent 
 to attack the greatest authorities as soon as they have got 
 some knowledge of the subject. Genuine thinkers, how- 
 ever, attach very little importance to their objections.^^^ 
 
 Indeed, it seems as if the energetic protests of Del- 
 medigo scared away the Anti-Maimonists for more than 
 a century. Even in the following seventeenth century 
 we have to notice only two Anti-Maimonists. The one 
 is R. Tobijah, the Priest (1652), who was of Polish de- 
 scent, studied in Italy, and lived as a medical man in 
 France. He seems to refuse to accept the belief in the 
 Immutability of the Torah, and in the coming of the Mes- 
 siah, as fundamental teachings of Judaism.^i -phe other, 
 at the end of the seventeenth century (1695), is R. Abra- 
 ham Chayim Viterbo, of Italy. He accepts only six 
 articles: i. Existence of God ; 2. Unity; 3. Incorporeal- 
 ity ; 4. That God was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, 
 and that the prophecy of Moses is true; 5. Revelation 
 (including the historical parts of the Torah) ; 6. Reward 
 and Punishment. As to the other articles of Maimonides, 
 Viterbo, in opposition to other half-hearted Anti-Maimon- 
 ists, declares that the man who denies them is not to be 
 considered as a heretic; though he ought to believe 
 them.^^ 
 
 I have now arrived at the limit I set to myself at the 
 beginning of this essay. For, between the times of 
 
1^6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Viterbo and those of Mendelssohn, there is hardly to be 
 found any serious opposition to Maimonides worth notic- 
 ing here. Still I must mention the name of R. Saul 
 Berlin (died 1794); there is much in his opinions on 
 dogmas which will help us the better to understand the 
 Thirteen Articles of Maimonides. As the reader has 
 seen, I have refrained so far from reproducing here the 
 apologies which were made by many Maimonists in behalf 
 of the Thirteen Articles. For, after all their elaborate 
 pleas, none of them was able to clear Maimonides of the 
 charge of having confounded dogmas or fundamental 
 teachings with doctrines. It is also true that the Fifth 
 Article — that prayer and worship must only be offered 
 to God — cannot be considered even as a doctrine, but 
 as a simple precept. And there are other difficulties 
 which all the distinctions of the Maimonists will never 
 be able to solve. The only possible justification is, I 
 think, that suggested by a remark of R. Saul. This 
 author, who was himself — like his friend and older 
 contemporary Mendelssohn — a strong Anti-Maimonist, 
 among other remarks, maintains that dogmas must never 
 be laid down but with regard to the necessities of the 
 time.^ 
 
 Now R. Saul certainly did not doubt that Judaism is 
 based on eternal truths which can in no way be shaken 
 by new modes of thinking or changed circumstances. 
 What he meant was that there are in every age certain 
 beliefs which ought to be asserted more emphatically 
 than others, without regard to their theological or rather 
 logical importance. It is by this maxim that we shall 
 be able to explain the articles of Maimonides. He as- 
 serted them, because they were necessary for his time. 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 177 
 
 We know, for instance, from a letter of his son and from 
 other contemporaries, that it was just at his time that 
 the belief in the incorporeality of God was, in the opin- 
 ion of Maimonides, a little relaxed. Maimonides, who 
 thought such low notions of the Deity dangerous to 
 Judaism, therefore laid down an article against them. 
 He tells us in his Guide that it was far from him to 
 condemn any one who was not able to demonstrate the 
 Incorporeality of God, but he stigmatised as a heretic 
 one who refused to believe it. This position might be 
 paralleled by that of a modern astronomer who, while 
 considering it unreasonable to expect a mathematical 
 demonstration of the movements of the earth from an 
 ordinary unscientific man, would yet regard the person 
 ►who refused to believe in such movements as an ignorant 
 faddist. 
 
 Again, Maimonides undoubtedly knew that there may 
 be found in the Talmud — that bottomless sea with its 
 innumerable undercurrents — passages that are not quite 
 in harmony with his articles ; for instance, the well-known 
 dictum of R. Hillel, who said, there is no Messiah for 
 Israel — a passage which has already been quoted ad 
 nauseam by every opponent of Maimonides from the 
 earliest times down to the year of grace 1896. Maimon- 
 ides was well aware of the existence of this and similar 
 passages. But, being deeply convinced of the necessity 
 of the belief in a future redemption of Israel — in oppo- 
 sition to other creeds which claim this redemption ex- 
 clusively for their own adherents — Maimonides simply 
 ignored the saying of R. Hillel, as an isolated opinion 
 which contradicts all the consciousness and traditions of 
 the Jew as expressed in thousands of other passages, and 
 
,78 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 especially in the liturgy. Most interesting is Maimonides' 
 view about such isolated opinions in a letter to the wise 
 men of Marseilles. He deals there with the question of 
 free will and other theological subjects. After having 
 stated his own view he goes on to say : ** I know that 
 it is possible to find in the Talmud or in the Midrash 
 this or that saying in contradiction to the views you have 
 heard from me. But you must not be troubled by them. 
 One must not refuse to accept a doctrine, the truth of 
 which has been proved, on account of its being in opposi- 
 tion to some isolated opinion held by this or that great 
 authority. Is it not possible that he overlooked some 
 important considerations when he uttered this strange 
 opinion } It is also possible that his words must not be 
 taken literally, and have to be explained in an allegorical 
 way. We can also think that his words were only to be 
 applied with regard to certain circumstances of his time, 
 but never intended as permanent truths. ... No man 
 must surrender his private judgment. The eyes are not 
 directed backwards but forwards." In another place 
 Maimonides calls the suppression of one's own opinions — 
 for the reason of their being irreconcilable with the iso- 
 lated views of some great authority — a moral suicide. 
 
 By such motives Maimonides was guided when he left 
 certain views hazarded in the Rabbinic literature un- 
 heeded, and followed what we may perhaps call the 
 religious instinct, trusting to his own conscience. We 
 may again be certain that Maimonides was clear-headed 
 enough to see that the words of the Torah : " And there 
 arose no prophet since in Israel like unto Moses " (Deut. 
 xxxiv. 10), were as little intended to imply a doctrine as 
 the passage relating to the king Josiah, "And like unto 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 1 79 
 
 him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord 
 with all his heart . . . neither after him arose there any- 
 like him" (2 Kings xxiii. 25). And none would think of 
 declaring the man a heretic who should believe another 
 king to be as pious as Josiah. But living among followers 
 of the "imitating creeds" (as he calls Christianity and 
 Mohammedism), who claimed that their religion had super- 
 seded the law of Moses, Maimonides, consciously or un- 
 consciously, felt himself compelled to assert the supe- 
 riority of the prophecy of Moses. And so we may guess 
 that every article of Maimonides which seems to offer 
 difficulties to us contains an assertion of some relaxed 
 belief, or a protest against the pretensions of other creeds, 
 though we are not always able to discover the exact neces- 
 sity for them. On the other hand, Maimonides did not 
 assert the belief in free will, for which he argued so ear- 
 nestly in his Guide. The common " man," with his simple 
 unspeculative mind, for whom these Thirteen Articles were 
 intended, "never dreamed that the will was not free," and 
 there was no necessity of impressing on his mind things 
 which he had never doubted.^ 
 
 So much about Maimonides. As to the Anti-Maimon- 
 ists, it could hardly escape the reader that in some of the 
 quoted systems the difference from the view of Maimonides 
 is only a logical one, not a theological. Of some authors 
 again, especially those of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies, it is not at all certain whether they intended to op- 
 pose Maimonides. Others again, as for instance R. Abba 
 Mari, R. Lipman, and R. Joseph Jabez, acted on the 
 same principle as Maimonides, urging only those teach- 
 ings of Judaism which they thought endangered. One 
 could now, indeed, animated by the praiseworthy exam- 
 
jgQ STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 pie given to us by Maimonides, also propose some arti- 
 cles of faith which are suggested to us by the necessities 
 of our own time. One might, for instance, insert the 
 article, "I believe that Judaism is, in the first instance, 
 a divine religion, not a mere complex of racial pecul- 
 iarities and tribal customs." One might again propose 
 an article to the effect that Judaism is a proselytising 
 religion, having the mission to bring about God's king- 
 dom on earth, and to include in that kingdom all man- 
 kind. One might also submit for consideration whether 
 it would not be advisable to urge a little more the prin- 
 ciple that religion means chiefly a Weltanschauung and 
 worship of God by means of holiness both in thought 
 and in action. One would even not object to accept the 
 article laid down by R. Saul, that we have to look upon 
 ourselves as sinners. Morbid as such a belief may be, it 
 would, if properly impressed on our mind, have perhaps 
 the wholesome effect of cooling down a little our self- 
 importance and our mutual admiration that makes all 
 progress among us almost impossible. 
 
 But it was not my purpose to ventilate here the question 
 whether Maimonides' articles are sufficient for us, or 
 whether we ought not to add new ones to them. Nor do 
 I attempt to decide what system we ought to prefer for 
 recitation in the Synagogue — that of Maimonides or that 
 of Chasdai, or of any other writer. I do not think that 
 such a recital is of much use. My object in this sketch 
 has been rather to make the reader think about Judaism, 
 by proving that it regulates not only our actions, but also 
 our thoughts. We usually urge that in Judaism religion 
 means life ; but we forget that a life without guiding 
 principles and thoughts is a life not worth living. At 
 
THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM igl 
 
 least it was so considered by the greatest Jewish thinkers, 
 and hence their efforts to formulate the creed of Judaism, 
 so that men should not only be able to do the right thing, 
 but also to think the right thing. Whether they suc- 
 ceeded in their attempts towards formulating the creed 
 of Judaism or not will always remain a question. This 
 concerns the logician more than the theologian. But 
 surely Maimonides and his successors did succeed in 
 having a religion depending directly on God, with the 
 most ideal and lofty aspirations for the future ; whilst the 
 Judaism of a great part of our modern theologians reminds 
 one very much of the words with which the author of 
 Marius the Epicurean characterises the Roman religion 
 in the days of her decline : a religion which had been 
 always something to be done rather than something to 
 be thought, or believed, or loved. 
 
 Political economy, hygiene, statistics, are very fine 
 things. But no sane man would for them make those 
 sacrifices which Judaism requires from us. It is only for 
 God's sake, to fulfil His commands and to accomplish His 
 purpose, that religion becomes worth living and dying for. 
 And this can only be possible with a religion which 
 possesses dogmas. 
 
 It is true that every great religion is " a concentration 
 of many ideas and ideals," which make this religion able 
 to adapt itself to various modes of thinking and living. 
 But there must always be a point round which all these 
 ideas concentrate themselves. This centre is Dogma. 
 
VII 
 
 THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 
 
 There is an anecdote about a famous theologian to the 
 effect that he used to tell his pupils, "Should I ever 
 grow old and weak — which usually drives people to em- 
 brace the safer side — and alter my opinions, then pray 
 do not believe me." The concluding volume of Weiss's 
 History of Jewish Tradition ^ shows that there was no 
 need for our author to warn his pupils against the dan- 
 gers accompanying old age. For though Weiss had, when 
 he began to write this last volume, already exceeded his 
 three-score and ten, and, as we read in the preface, had 
 some misgivings as to whether he should continue his 
 work, there is no trace in it of any abatement of the 
 great powers of the author. It is marked by the same 
 freshness in diction, the same marvellous scholarship, the 
 same display of astonishing critical powers, and the same 
 impartial and straightforward way of judging persons and 
 things, for which the preceding volumes were so much 
 distinguished and admired. 
 
 This book, which is recognised as a standard work 
 abroad, is, I fear, owing to the fact of its being written 
 in the Hebrew language, not sufficiently known in this 
 country. Weiss does not want our recognition ; we are 
 rather in need of his instruction. Some general view 
 
 182 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 183 
 
 of his estimate of Jewish Tradition may, therefore, be 
 of service to the student. It is, indeed, the only work of 
 its kind. Zunz has confined himself to the history of the 
 Agadah. Graetz gave most of his attention to the politi- 
 cal side of Jewish history. But comparatively little has 
 been done for the Halachah, though Frankel, Geiger, 
 Herzfeld, and others have treated some single points 
 in various monographs. Thus it was left for Weiss to 
 write the History of Tradition, which includes both the 
 Agadah and the Halachah. The treatment of this latter 
 must have proved, in consequence of the intricate and 
 intractable nature of its materials, by far the more diffi- 
 cult portion of his task. 
 
 In speaking of the History of Tradition, a term which 
 suggests the fluctuating character of a thing, its origin, 
 development, progress, and retrogression, we have already 
 indicated that Weiss does not consider even the Halachah 
 as having come down from heaven, ready-made, and defi- 
 nitely fixed for all time. To define it more clearly, Tradi- 
 tion is, apart from the few ordinances and certain usages 
 for which there is no precedent in the Bible, the history 
 of interpretation of the Scriptures, which was constantly 
 liable to variation, not on grounds of philology, but 
 through the subjective notions of successive generations 
 regarding religion and the method and scope of its 
 application. 
 
 Weiss's standpoint with reference to the Pentateuch is 
 the conservative one, maintaining both its unity and its 
 Mosaic authorship. Those passages and accounts in the 
 Bible in which the modern critic discerns traces of dif- 
 ferent traditional sources, are for Weiss only indicative 
 of the various stages of interpretation through which the 
 
1 34 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Pentateuch had to pass. The earliest stage was a very 
 crude one, as may be seen from the case of Jephthah's 
 vow, for which only a misinterpretation of certain pas- 
 sages in the Pentateuch (Gen. xxii. 2 ; Num. xxv. 4) could 
 be made responsible. Nor was Jephthah, who felt himself 
 bound to carry out his vow, acquainted with the provision 
 for dissolving vows ^ that was sufficiently familiar to later 
 ages. When, on the other hand, Jeremiah declared sacri- 
 fices to be altogether superfluous, and said that God did 
 not command Israel, when he brought them from the 
 land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices 
 (vii. 22), he was not in contradiction with Leviticus, but 
 interpreted the laws contained in this book as a conces- 
 sion to popular custom, though not desirable on their 
 own account. This concession, whenever it was of a 
 harmless nature, the prophets carried so far as to per- 
 mit altars outside the Tabernacle or Temple, though 
 this was against the plain sense of Deuteronomy. Elijah 
 even bewailed their destruction (i Kings xix. 10). He 
 and other prophets probably interpreted the law in ques- 
 tion as directed against the construction and maintenance 
 of several chief sanctuaries, but not against sacrificing in 
 different places on minor occasions. This is evidently a 
 free interpretation, or rather application, of the Law. 
 Occasionally the conception as to when and how a law 
 should be applied took a completely negative form. In 
 this manner is to be explained the action of Solomon in 
 suspending the Fast of the Day of Atonement before 
 the festival he was going to celebrate in honour of the 
 consecration of the Temple (i Kings viii. 65), the king 
 being convinced that on this unique occasion the latter 
 was of more religious importance than the former. Weiss 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 185 
 
 thinks that the later custom of holding public dances in 
 the vineyards on the loth of Tishri might have had its 
 origin in this solemn, but also joyful, festival. Ezekiel, 
 again, though alluding more frequently than any other 
 prophet to the laws in the Pentateuch, is exceedingly 
 bold in his interpretation of them, as, for instance, when 
 he says that priests shall not eat anything that is dead 
 or torn (xliv. 31), which shows that he took the verses 
 in Exod. xxii. 30, and Deut. xiv. 20, to have been meant 
 only as a good advice to the laymen to refrain from eat- 
 ing these unclean things, but not as having for them the 
 force of a real commandment. 
 
 Starting from this proposition, that there existed always 
 some sort of interpretation running side by side with the 
 recognised Scriptures, which from the very looseness of 
 its connection with the letter of the Scripture could claim 
 to be considered a thing independent in itself, and might 
 therefore be regarded as the Oral Law, in contradistinc- 
 tion to the Written Law, the author passes to the age of 
 the Second Temple, the period to which the rest of the 
 first volume is devoted. In these pages Weiss reviews the 
 activity of Ezra and Nehemiah, the ordinances of the Men 
 of the Great Synagogue, the institutions of the Scribes, the 
 Lives of the so-called Pairs,^ the characteristics of the 
 three sects, the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes, and 
 the differences between the schools of Shammai and Hillel. 
 To each of these subjects Weiss gives his fullest attention, 
 and his discussions of them would form perfect mono- 
 graphs in themselves. To reproduce all the interesting 
 matter would mean to translate the whole of this portion 
 of his work into English. I shall only draw attention to 
 one or two points. 
 
1 86 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 First, this liberal interpretation was active during the 
 whole period referred to. Otherwise no authority could 
 have abolished the lex talionis^ or have permitted war on 
 Sabbath, or made the condition that no crime should be 
 punished without a preceding warning (which was chiefly 
 owing to the aversion of the Rabbis to the infliction of 
 capital punishment), or have sanctioned the sacrificing of 
 the Passover when the 14th of Nisan fell on Sabbath. 
 Indeed Shemaiah and Abtalyon, in whose name Hillel 
 communicated this last law, were called the Great Inter- 
 preters.* 
 
 Secondly, as to the so-called laws given to Moses on 
 Sinai. ^ Much has been said about these. The distinction 
 claimed for them by some scholars, viz. that they were 
 never contested, is not tenable, considering that there pre- 
 vailed much difference of opinion about some of them. 
 Nor is the theory that they were ancient religious usages, 
 dating from time immemorial, entirely satisfactory. For 
 though the fact may be true in itself, this could not have 
 justified the Rabbis in calling them all Sinaitic laws, espe- 
 cially when they were aware that not a few of them were 
 contested by certain of their colleagues, a thing that would 
 have been quite impossible if they had a genuine claim to 
 Mosaic authority. But if we understand Weiss rightly 
 these laws are only to be considered as a specimen of the 
 whole of the Oral Law, which was believed to emanate, 
 both in its institutional and in its expository part, from the 
 same authority. The conviction was firmly held that 
 everything wise and good, be it ethical or ceremonial in 
 its character, whose effect would be to strengthen the 
 cause of religion, was at least potentially contained in the 
 Torah, and that it only required an earnest religious mind 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 187 
 
 to find it there. Hence the famous adage that ** everything 
 which any student will teach at any future time was already 
 communicated to Moses on Mount Sinai " ; or the injunc- 
 tion that any acceptable truth, even if discovered by an 
 insignificant man in Israel, should be considered as having 
 the authority of a great sage or prophet, or even of Moses 
 himself. The principle was that the words of the Torah 
 are "fruitful and multiply." 
 
 It will probably be said that the laws of clean and un- 
 clean, and such like, have proved rather too prolific ; but 
 if we read Weiss carefully, we shall be reminded that it 
 was by the same process of propagation that the Rabbis 
 developed from Deut. xxii. 8, a whole code of sanitary and 
 police-laws which could even now be studied with profit ; 
 from the few scanty civil laws in Exod. xxi., a whole corpus 
 juriSy which might well excite the interest and the admira- 
 tion of any lawyer ; and from the words " And thou shalt 
 teach them diligently unto thy children," a complete school- 
 system on the one hand, and on the other the r/sum^ of a 
 liturgy that appears to have sufficed for the spiritual needs 
 of more than fifty generations of Israelites. 
 
 Before we pass to the age of the Tannaim,^ the subject 
 of Weiss's second volume, we must take account of two 
 important events which have greatly influenced the further 
 development of Tradition. I refer to the destruction of 
 the Temple and the rise of Christianity. With the former 
 event Judaism ceased to be a political commonwealth, and 
 if ** the nation was already in the times of Ezra converted 
 into a church," — an assertion, by the way, which has not 
 the least basis in fact, — it became the more so after it had 
 lost the last remains of its independence. But it was a 
 church without priests, or, since such a thing, as far as 
 
Ig3 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 history teaches us, has never existed, let us rather call it a 
 Synagogue. 
 
 From this fact diverse results flowed. A Synagogue 
 can exist not only without priests, but also without sacri- 
 fices, for which prayer and charity were a sufficient substi- 
 tute. With the progress of time also many agricultural 
 laws, as well as others relating to sacerdotal purity, 
 gradually became obsolete, though they lingered on for 
 some generations, and, as a venerable reminiscence of a 
 glorious time, entered largely into Jewish literature. This 
 disappearance of so many laws and the weakening of the 
 national element, however, required, if Judaism was to con- 
 tinue to exist, the strengthening of religion from another 
 side. The first thing needed was the creation of a new 
 religious centre which would not only replace the Temple 
 to a certain degree, but also bring about a greater solidar- 
 ity of views, such as would render impossible the ancient 
 differences that divided the schools of Hillel and Shammai. 
 The creator of this centre was R. Johanan ben Zaccai, 
 who founded the school of Jamnia, and invested it with 
 the same authority and importance as the Sanhedrin had 
 enjoyed during Temple times. The consciousness that 
 they were standing before a new starting-point in history, 
 with a large religious inheritance from the past, actuated 
 them not only to collect the old traditional laws and to 
 take stock of their religious institutions, but also to give 
 them more definite shape and greater stability. As many 
 of these traditions were by no means undisputed, the best 
 thing was to bring them under one or other heading of 
 the Scriptures. This desire gave the impulse to the famous 
 hermeneutic schools of R. Akiba and R. Ishmael. 
 
 The next cause that contributed to give a more deter- 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 189 
 
 minate expression to the Law was the rise of Christianity. 
 This is not the place to give an account of the views which 
 the Rabbis entertained of Christianity. Suffice it to say 
 they could not see in the destruction of the Law its ful- 
 filment. They also thought that under certain conditions 
 it is not only the letter that killeth, but also the spirit, or 
 rather that the spirit may sometimes be clothed in a letter, 
 which, in its turn, will slay more victims than the letter 
 against which the loudest denunciations have been levelled. 
 Spirit without letter, let theologians say what they will, is 
 a mere phantasm. However, the new sect made claims to 
 the gift of prophecy, which, as they thought, placed them 
 above the Law. It would seem that this was a time of 
 special excitement. The student of the Talmud finds that 
 such marvels as predicting the future, reviving the dead, 
 casting out demons, crossing rivers dry-shod, curing the 
 sick by a touch or prayer, were the order of the day, and 
 performed by scores of Rabbis. Voices from heaven were 
 often heard, and strange visions were frequently beheld. 
 Napoleon L is said to have forbidden the holy coat of 
 Treves to work miracles. The Jewish legislature, how- 
 ever, had no means of preventing these supernatural 
 workings ; but when the Rabbis saw their dangerous con- 
 sequences, they insisted that miracles should have no in- 
 fluence on the interpretation and development of the Law. 
 Hence the saying with regard to Lev. xxvii. 34, that no 
 prophet is authorised to add a new law. And when R. 
 Eliezer b. Hyrkanos (about 120 a.c.) thought to prove the 
 justice of his case by the intervention of miracles, the 
 majority answered that the fact of this or that variation, 
 effected at his bidding, in the established order of nature, 
 proved nothing for the soundness of his argument. Nay, 
 
IQO STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 they even ignored the Bath-KoP (the celestial voice), 
 which declared itself in favour of R. Eliezer, maintaining 
 that the Torah having once been given to mankind, it is 
 only the opinion of the majority that should decide on its 
 interpretation and application. Very characteristic is the 
 legend connected with this fact. When one of the Rabbis 
 afterwards met Elijah and asked him what they thought 
 in heaven of the audacity of his colleagues, the prophet 
 answered, " God rejoiced and said, my children have con- 
 quered me." 
 
 Into such discredit did miracles fall at that period, whilst 
 the opinion of the interpreting body, or the Sanhedrin, be- 
 came more powerful than ever. These were merely dog- 
 matical consequences. But new laws were enacted and 
 old ones revived, with the object of resisting Christian in- 
 fluences over the Jews. To expand the Oral Law, and 
 give it a firm basis in the Scriptures, were considered the 
 best means of preserving Judaism intact. " Moses de- 
 sired," an old legend narrates, "that the Mishnah also 
 (that is Tradition) should be written down;" but foresee- 
 ing the time when the nations of the world would translate 
 the Torah into Greek, and would assert their title to rank 
 as the Children of God, the Lord refused to permit tra- 
 dition to be recorded otherwise than by word of mouth. 
 The claim of the Gentiles might then be refuted by ask- 
 ing them whether they were also in possession of "the 
 Mystery." The Rabbis therefore concentrated their at- 
 tention upon "the Mystery," and this contributed largely 
 towards making the expository methods of R. Akiba and R. 
 Ishmael, to which I have above referred, the main object 
 of their study in the schools. 
 
 It would, however, be a mistake to think that the San- 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION jqi 
 
 hedrin now spent their powers in " enforcing retrograde 
 measures and creating a strange exegesis." I especially 
 advise the student to read carefully that admirable chap- 
 ter (VII., of Vol. II.) in which Weiss classifies all the Or- 
 dinances, " Fences," Decrees, and Institutions, dating both 
 from this and from earlier ages, under ten headings, and 
 also shows their underlying principles. The main object 
 was to preserve the Jewish religion by strengthening the 
 principle of Jewish nationality, and to preserve the nation- 
 ality by the aid of religion. But sometimes the Rabbis 
 also considered it necessary to preserve religion against 
 itself, so to speak, or, as they expressed it, " When there 
 is time to work for the Lord, they make void thy Torah." 
 This authorised the Beth Din^ to act in certain cases 
 against the letter of the Torah. " The welfare of the 
 World" was another great consideration. By "World" 
 they understood both the religious and the secular world. 
 From a regard to the former resulted such " Fences " and 
 Ordinances as were directed against " the transgressors," 
 as well as the general injunction to " keep aloof from what 
 is morally unseemly, and from whatever bears any like- 
 ness thereto." In the interests of the latter — the welfare 
 of the secular world — they enacted such laws as either 
 tended to elevate the position of women, or to promote 
 the peace and welfare of members of their own commu- 
 nity, or to improve the relations between Jews and their 
 Gentile neighbours. They also held the great principle 
 that nothing is so injurious to the cause of religion as 
 increasing the number of sinners by needless severity. 
 Hence the introduction of many laws " for the benefit of 
 penitents," and the maxim not to issue any decree which 
 may prove too heavy a burden to the majority of the com- 
 
IQ2 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 munity. The relaxation of certain traditional laws was also 
 permitted when they involved a serious loss of property, or 
 the sacrifice of a man's dignity. Some old decrees were 
 even permitted to fall into oblivion when public opinion 
 was too strong against them, the Rabbis holding that it 
 was often better for Israelites to be unconscious sinners 
 than wilful transgressors. The Miiihag, or religious cus- 
 tom, also played an important part, it being assumed that 
 it must have been first introduced by some eminent au- 
 thority ; but, if there was reason to believe that the custom 
 owed its origin to some fancy of the populace, and that it 
 had a pernicious effect on the multitude, no compunction 
 was felt in abolishing it. 
 
 Very important it is to note that the Oral Law had not 
 at this period assumed a character of such rigidity that all 
 its ordinances, etc., had to be looked upon as irremovable 
 for all times. With those who think otherwise, a favourite 
 quotation is the administratory measure laid dawn in Trac- 
 tate Evidences^ I. 5, where we read that no Beth Din has 
 the right of annulling the dicta of another Beth Din, unless 
 it is stronger in numbers (having a larger majority) and 
 greater in wisdom than its fellow tribunal. Confess with 
 becoming modesty that the world is always going downhill, 
 decreasing both in numbers and in wisdom, and the result 
 follows that any decision by the earlier Rabbis is fixed law 
 for all eternity. Weiss refutes such an idea not only as 
 inconsistent with the nature of Tradition, but also as con- 
 tradictory to the facts. He proves by numerous instances 
 that the Rabbis did abolish ordinances and decrees intro- 
 duced by preceding authorities, and that the whole concep- 
 tion is based on a misunderstanding. For the rule in 
 question, as Weiss clearly points out, originally only meant 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 193 
 
 that a Beth Din has no right to undo the decrees of 
 another contemporary Beth Din, unless it was justified in 
 doing so by the weight of its greater authority. This was 
 necessary if a central authority was to exist at all. Weiss 
 is indeed of opinion that the whole passage is a later inter- 
 polation from the age of R. Simeon b. Gamaliel II., when 
 certain Rabbis tried to emancipate themselves from the 
 authority of the Patriarch. But it was not meant that the 
 decision of a Beth Din should have perpetual binding 
 power for all posterity. This was left to the discretion of 
 the legislature of each generation, who had to examine 
 whether the original cause for maintaining such decision 
 still existed. 
 
 The rest of this volume is for the greater part taken up 
 with complete monographs of the Patriarchs and the heads 
 of the schools of that age, whilst the concluding chapters 
 give us the history of the literature, the Midrash, Mechilta, 
 Siphra, Siphre, Mishnah, etc., which contain both the 
 Halachic and the Agadic sayings emanating from these 
 authorities. 
 
 With regard to these Patriarchs, I should like only to 
 remark that Weiss defends them against the charge made 
 by Schorr and others, who accuse them of having assumed 
 too much authority on account of their noble descent, and 
 who describe their opponents as the true friends of the 
 people. Weiss is no lover of such specious phrases. The 
 qualifications required for the leadership of the people 
 were a right instinct for the necessities of their time, a fair 
 amount of secular knowledge, and, what is of chief impor- 
 tance, an unbounded love and devotion to those over whose 
 interests they were called to watch. These distinctions, as 
 Weiss proves, the descendants of Hillel possessed in the 
 
jQ. STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 highest degree. It is true that occasionally, as for instance 
 in the famous controversy of R. Gamaliel II. with R. 
 Joshua b. Hananiah, or that of R. Simeon b. Gamaliel II. 
 with R. Nathan and R. Meir, they made their authority 
 too heavily felt ; ^^ but this was again another necessity of 
 those troubled times, when only real unity could save 
 Israel. 
 
 However, Weiss is no partisan, and the love he lavishes 
 on his favourite heroes does not exhaust his resources of 
 sympathy and appreciation for members of the other 
 schools. Weiss is no apologist either, and does not make 
 the slightest attempt towards explaining away even the 
 defects of R. Akiba in his somewhat arbitrary method of 
 interpretation, which our author thinks much inferior to 
 the expository rules of R. Ishmael ; but this does not pre- 
 vent him from admiring his excellences. 
 
 Altogether it would seem that Weiss thinks R. Akiba 
 more happy in his quality as a great saint than in that of 
 a great exegete. What is most admirable is the instinct 
 with which Weiss understands how to emphasise the right 
 thing in its right place. As an indication of the literary 
 honesty and marvellous industry of our author, I would 
 draw attention to the fact that the sketch of R. Akiba 
 and his school alone is based on more than two thousand 
 quotations scattered over the whole area of the Rabbinic 
 literature; but he points in a special note to a sentence 
 attributed to R. Akiba, which presents the whole man 
 and his generation in a single stroke. I refer to that pas- 
 sage in Tractate Joys,^'^ in which R. Akiba speaks of the 
 four types of sufferers. He draws the comparison of a 
 king chastising his children ; the first son maintains stub- 
 born silence, the second simply rebels, the third suppli- 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 195 
 
 cates for mercy, and the fourth (the best of sons) says : 
 "Father, proceed with thy chastisement, as David said, 
 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me 
 from my sin " (Ps. li. 4), This absolute submission to 
 the will of God, which perceives in suffering only an ex- 
 pression of His fatherly love and mercy, was the ideal of 
 R. Akiba. 
 
 The great literary production of this period was the 
 Mishnah, which, through the high authority of its com- 
 piler, R. Judah the Patriarch, his saintliness and popu- 
 larity, soon superseded all the collections of a similar 
 kind, and became the official text-book of the Oral Law. 
 But a text requires interpretation, whilst other collections 
 also demanded some attention. This brings us to the two 
 Talmuds, namely, the Talmud of Jerusalem and the Tal- 
 mud of Babylon, the origin and history of which form 
 the subject of Weiss' s third volume. 
 
 Here again the first chapters are more of a preliminary 
 character, giving the student some insight into the laby- 
 rinth of the Talmud. The two chapters entitled *'The 
 instruments employed in erecting the great Edifice," and 
 the "Workmanship displayed by the Builders," give evi- 
 dence of almost unrivalled familiarity with the Rabbinical 
 literature, and of critical powers of the rarest kind. Now 
 these instruments were by no means new, for, as Weiss 
 shows, the Amoraim employed in interpreting the Mish- 
 nah the same explanatory rules that are known to us 
 from the School of R. Ishmael as "the Thirteen Rules 
 by which the Torah is explained," though they appear 
 in the Talmud under other names, and are in reality only 
 a species of Midrash. Besides this there comes another 
 element into play. It was the exaggerated awe of all 
 
Iq6 studies in JUDAISM 
 
 earlier authorities that endeavoured to reconcile the most 
 contradictory statements by means of a subtle dialectic 
 for which the schools in Babylon were especially famous. 
 There were certainly many opponents of this system, and 
 from the monographs which Weiss gives on the various 
 heads of the western and eastern schools we see that not 
 all followed this method, and some among them even con- 
 demned it in the strongest words. However, it cannot be 
 denied that there is a strong scholastic feature in the Tal- 
 mud, which is very far from what we should look for in 
 a trustworthy exegesis. Thus we must not always ex- 
 pect to find in the Talmud the true meaning of the say- 
 ings of their predecessors, and it is certain that a more 
 scientific method in many cases has led to results the 
 very opposite of those at which the later Rabbis have 
 arrived. This fact was already recognised in the six- 
 teenth century, though only in part, by R. Yom-Tob 
 Heller and others. Only he insisted that in this matter 
 a line must be drawn between theory and practice. But 
 Weiss gives irrefragable proofs that even this line was 
 often overstepped by the greatest authorities, though they 
 remained always within the limits of Tradition. Indeed, 
 as Weiss points out, not every saying to be found in the 
 Talmud is to be looked upon as representing Tradition; 
 for there is much in it which only gives the individual 
 opinion or is merely an interpolation of later hands ; nor 
 does the Talmud contain the whole of Tradition, this 
 latter proceeding and advancing with the time, and cor- 
 responding to its conditions and notions. As we read 
 Weiss, the conviction is borne in upon us that there was 
 a Talmud before, and another after The Talmud. 
 
 Much space in this volume is given to the Agadah and 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 197 
 
 the so-called "Teachers of the Agadah." Weiss makes 
 no attempt at apology for that which seems to us strange, 
 or even repugnant in this part of the Rabbinic literature. 
 The greatest fault to be found with those who wrote down 
 such passages as appear objectionable to us is, perhaps, 
 that they did not observe the wise rule of Johnson, who 
 said to Boswell on a certain occasion, " Let us get serious, 
 for there comes a fool." And the fools unfortunately 
 did come in the shape of certain Jewish commentators 
 and Christian controversialists, who took as serious things 
 which were only the expression of a momentary impulse, 
 or represented the opinion of some isolated individual, or 
 were meant simply as a piece of humorous by-play, calcu- 
 lated to enliven the interest of a languid audience. But 
 on the other hand, as Weiss proves, the Agadah contains 
 also many elements of real edification and eternal truths 
 as well as abundant material for building up the edifice 
 of dogmatic Judaism. Talmudical quotations of such a 
 nature are scattered by thousands over Weiss's work, par- 
 ticularly in those chapters in which he describes the lives 
 of the greatest Rabbinical heroes. But the author lays the 
 student under special obligations by putting together in 
 the concluding pages of this volume some of these sen- 
 tences, and classifying them under various headings. I give 
 here a few extracts. For the references to authorities I 
 must direct the reader to the original : — 
 
 " The unity of God is the keystone of dogmatic Judaism. 
 The Rabbis give Israel the credit of having proclaimed to 
 the world the unity of God. They also say that Israel 
 took an oath never to change Him for another God. This 
 only God is eternal, incorporeal, and immutable. And 
 though the prophets saw Him in different aspects, He 
 
IQg STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 warned them that they must not infer from the visions 
 vouchsafed to them that there are different Gods. *I 
 am the first,* He tells them, which implies that he had no 
 father, and the words, ' There is no God besides me,' mean 
 that he has no son. Now, this God, the God of Israel, is 
 holy in every thinkable way of holiness. He is merciful 
 and gracious, as it is said, * And I will be gracious to whom 
 I will be gracious,' even though he who is the recipient of 
 God's grace has no merit of his own. * And I will show 
 mercy to whom I will show mercy,' that is, even to those 
 who do not deserve it. His attributes are righteousness, 
 loving-kindness, and truth. God speaks words of eternal 
 truth, even as He himself is the eternal life. All that the 
 Merciful One does is only for good, and even in the time 
 of His anger He remembers His graciousness, and often 
 suppresses His attribute of judgment before His attri- 
 bute of mercy. But with the righteous God is more 
 severe than with the rest of the world, and when His hand 
 falls in chastening on His saints His name becomes awful, 
 revered, and exalted. This God of Israel, again, extends 
 His providence over all mankind, and especially over Israel. 
 By His eye everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice 
 is given, and the world is judged by grace, yet all accord- 
 ing to the works wrought. Hence, know what is above 
 thee, a seeing eye and a hearing ear, and that all thy deeds 
 are written in a book. 
 
 " They [the Rabbis] believed that God created the world 
 out of nothing, without toil and without weariness. This 
 world was created by the combination of His two attri- 
 butes, mercy and justice. He rejoices in His creation, and 
 if the Maker praises it, who dares to blame it } And if 
 He exults in it, who shall find a blemish in it ? Nay, it is 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION igg 
 
 a glorious and a beautiful world. It is created for man, 
 and its other denizens were all meant but to serve him. 
 Though all mankind are formed after the type of Adam, no 
 one is like his fellow-man (each one having an individuality 
 of his own). Thus he is able to say, ' For my sake, also, 
 was the world created ' ; and with this thought his respon- 
 sibilities increase. But the greatest love shown to man is 
 that he was created in the image of God. Man is a being 
 possessed of free will, and, though everything is given on 
 pledge, whosoever wishes to borrow may come and borrow. 
 Everything is in the gift of Heaven except the fear of 
 God. In man's heart abide both the evil inclination and 
 the good inclination ; and the words of Scripture, * Thou 
 shalt not bow down before a strange god,' point to the 
 strange god who is within man himself, who entices him 
 to sin in this world, and gives evidence against him in 
 the next. But the Holy One — blessed be He ! — said, * I 
 have created the evil inclination, but I have also created 
 its antidote, the Torah.' And when man is occupied with 
 the Torah and in works of charity, he becomes the master 
 of the evil inclination ; otherwise, he is its slave. When 
 man reflects the image of God, he is the lord of creation, 
 and is feared by all creatures ; but this image is defaced 
 by sin, and then he has no power over the universe, and is 
 in fear of all things. 
 
 "Another principle of Judaism is the belief in reward 
 and punishment. *I am the Lord, your God,* means, 
 'it is I who am prepared to recompense you for your 
 good actions, and to bring retribution upon you for your 
 evil deeds.* God does not allow to pass unrewarded even 
 the merit of a kind and considerate word. By the same 
 measure which man metes out, it shall be meted out to 
 
200 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 him. Because thou drownedst others, they have drowned 
 thee, and at the last they who drowned thee shall them- 
 selves be drowned. Though it is not in our power to 
 explain either the prosperity of the wicked or the affliction 
 of the righteous, nevertheless know before whom thou 
 toilest, and who thy employer is, who will pay thee the 
 reward of thy labour. Here at thy door is a poor man 
 standing, and at his right hand standeth God. If thou 
 grantest his request, be certain of thy reward; but if 
 thou refusest, think of him who is by the side of the 
 poor, and will avenge it on thee. 'God seeketh the 
 persecuted ' to defend him, even though it be the wicked 
 who is persecuted by the righteous. The soul of man 
 is immortal, the souls of the righteous being treasured 
 up under the throne of God. Know that everything is 
 according to the reckoning, and let not thy imagination 
 give thee hope that the grave will be a place of refuge 
 for thee, for perforce thou wast formed, and perforce thou 
 wast born, and thou livest perforce, and perforce thou wilt 
 die, and perforce thou wilt in the future have to give 
 account and reckoning before the Supreme King of kings, 
 the Holy One, blessed be He. 
 
 "The advent of the Messiah is another article of the 
 belief of the Rabbis. But if a man tell thee that he 
 knows when the redemption of Israel will take place, 
 believe him not, for this is one of the unrevealed secrets 
 of the Almighty, The mission of Elijah is to bring peace 
 into the world, while the Messiah, in whose days Israel 
 will regain his national independence, will lead the whole 
 world in repentance to God. On this, it is believed, will 
 follow the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 "Another main principle in the belief of the Rabbis 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 2OI 
 
 is the election of Israel, which imposes on them special 
 duties, and gives them a peculiar mission. Beloved are 
 Israel, for they are called the children of God, and His 
 firstborn. * They shall endure for ever ' through the merit 
 of their fathers. There is an especial covenant established 
 between God and the tribes of Israel. God is their father, 
 and He said to them. My children, even as I have no 
 contact with the profanity of the world, so also withdraw 
 yourselves from it. And as I am holy, be ye also holy. 
 Nay, sanctify thyself by refraining even from that which is 
 not forbidden thee. There is no holiness without chastity. 
 
 " The main duty of Israel is to sanctify the name of God, 
 for the Torah was only given that His great name might 
 be glorified. Better is it that a single letter of the law 
 be cast out than that the name of Heaven be profaned. 
 And this also is the mission of Israel in this world : to 
 sanctify the name of God, as it is written, * This people 
 have I formed for myself, that they may show forth my 
 praise.' Or, *And thou shalt love the Lord thy God,' 
 which means. Thou shalt make God beloved by all creat- 
 ures, even as Abraham did. Israel is the light of the 
 world ; as it is said, ' And nations shall walk by thy light.' 
 But he who profanes the name of Heaven in secret will 
 suffer the penalty thereof in public ; and this whether the 
 Heavenly Name be profaned in ignorance or in wilfulness. 
 
 " Another duty towards God is to love Him and to fear 
 Him. God's only representative on earth is the God-fear- 
 ing man. Woe unto those who are occupied in the study 
 of the Torah, but who have no fear of God. But a still 
 higher duty it is to perform the commandments of God 
 from love. For greater is he who submits to the will of 
 God from love than he who does so from fear. 
 
202 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 " Now, how shall man love God ? This is answered in 
 the words of Scripture, * And these words shall be upon 
 thy heart.' For by them thou wilt recognise Him 
 whose word called the world into existence, and follow 
 His divine attributes. 
 
 "God is righteous; be ye also righteous, O Israel. 
 By righteousness the Rabbis understand love of truth, 
 hatred of lying and backbiting. The seal of the Holy 
 One, blessed be He, is Truth, of which the actions of man 
 should also bear the impress. Hence, let thy yea be 
 yea, and thy nay, nay. He who is honest in money trans- 
 actions, unto him this is reckoned as if he had fulfilled 
 the whole of the Torah. Greater is he who earns his liveli- 
 hood by the labour of his hands than even the God-fearing 
 man ; whilst the righteous judge is, as it were, the compan- 
 ion of God in the government of the world. For upon 
 three things the world stands : upon truth, upon judg- 
 ment, upon peace ; as it is said, * Judge ye the truth and 
 the judgment of peace in your gates.' But he who breaks 
 his word, his sin is as great as if he worshipped idols ; 
 and God, who punished the people of the time of the Flood, 
 will also punish him who does not stand by his word. 
 Such a one belongs to one of the four classes who are 
 not admitted into the presence of the Shechinah ; these 
 are the scoffers, the hypocrites (who bring the wrath of 
 God into the world), the liars, and the slanderers. The 
 sin of the slanderer is like that of one who would deny 
 the root (the root of all religion, i,e, the existence of God). 
 The greatest of liars, however, is he who perjures himself, 
 which also involves the sin of profanation of the name of 
 God. The hypocrite, who insinuates himself into people's 
 good opinions, who wears his phylacteries and is en- 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 203 
 
 wrapped in his gown with the fringes, and secretly com- 
 mits sins, equally transgresses the command, 'Thou shalt 
 not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.' 
 
 " God is gracious and merciful ; therefore man also 
 should be gracious and merciful. Hence, * Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour as thyself,' which is a main principle 
 in the Torah. What is unpleasant to thyself, do not unto 
 thy neighbour. This is the whole Torah, to which the 
 rest is only to be considered as a commentary. And this 
 love is also extended to the stranger, for as it is said with 
 regard to Israel, 'And thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself,' so is it also said, ' And thou shalt love him (the 
 stranger) as thyself.' And thus said God to Israel, ' My 
 beloved children, Am I in want of anything that I should 
 request it of you t But what I ask of you is that you 
 should love, honour, and respect one another.' Therefore, 
 love mankind, and bring them near to the Torah. Let 
 the honour of thy friend be as dear to thee as thine own. 
 Condemn not thy fellow-man until thou art come into his 
 place, and judge all men in the scale of merit. Say not 
 
 * I will love scholars, but hate their disciples ; ' or even, 
 
 * I will love the disciples, but hate the ignorant,' but love 
 all, for he who hates his neighbour is as bad as a mur- 
 derer. Indeed, during the age of the second Temple, 
 men studied the Torah and the commandments, and per- 
 formed works of charity, but they hated each other, a sin 
 that outweighs all other sins, and for which the holy 
 Temple was destroyed. Be careful not to withdraw thy 
 mercy from any man, for he who does so rebels against 
 the kingdom of God on earth. Walk in the ways of God, 
 who is merciful even to the wicked, and as He is gracious 
 alike to those who know Him, and to those who know 
 
204 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Him not, so be thou. Indeed, charity is one of the three 
 pillars on which the world is based. It is more precious 
 than all other virtues. The man who gives charity in 
 secret is greater even than Moses our teacher. An act 
 of charity and love it is to pray for our fellow-man, and to 
 admonish him. 'Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neigh- 
 bour, and not suffer sin upon him' (Lev. xix. i8), means 
 it is thy duty to admonish him a hundred times if need be, 
 even if he be thy superior; for Jerusalem was only de- 
 stroyed for the sin of its people in not admonishing one 
 another. The man whose protest would be of any weight, 
 and who does not exercise his authority (when any wrong 
 is about to be committed), is held responsible for the whole 
 world. 
 
 " Peacef ulness and humility are also the fruit of love. 
 Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace, and pursuing 
 peace. Let every man be cautious in the fear of God; 
 let him ever give the soft answer that turneth away wrath ; 
 let him promote peace, not only among his own relatives 
 and acquaintances, but also among the Gentiles. For (the 
 labour of) all the prophets was to plant peace in the world. 
 Be exceeding lowly of spirit, since the hope of man is but 
 the worm. Be humble as Hillel, for he who is humble 
 causes the Divine presence to dwell with man. But the 
 proud man makes God say, * I and he cannot dwell in the 
 same place.' He who runs after glory, glory flees from 
 him, and he who flees from glory, glory shall pursue him. 
 Be of those who are despised rather than of those who 
 despise ; of the persecuted rather than of the persecutors ; 
 be of those who bear their reproach in silence and answer 
 not. 
 
 "Another distinctive mark of Judaism is faith in God, 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 205 
 
 and perfect confidence in Him. Which is the right course 
 for a man to choose for himself ? Let him have a strong, 
 faith in God, as it is said, 'Mine eye shall be upon the 
 faithful (meaning those possessing faith in God) of the 
 land.' And so also Habakkuk based the whole Torah or 
 the principle of faith, as it is said, ' And the just shall live 
 by his faith' (ii. 4). He who but fulfils a single command- 
 ment in absolute faith in God deserves that the Holy 
 Spirit should rest on him. Blessed is the man who fears 
 God in private, and trusts in Him with all his heart, for 
 such fear and trust arms him against every misfortune. 
 He who puts his trust in the Holy One, blessed be He, 
 God becomes his shield and protection in this world 
 and in the next. He who has bread in his basket for 
 to-day, and says, ' What shall I have to eat to-morrow .? ' 
 is a man of little faith. One consequence of real faith is 
 always to believe in the justice of God's judgments. It is 
 the duty of man to thank God when he is visited with 
 misfortune as he does in the time of prosperity. There- 
 fore, blessed is the man who, when visited by suffering, 
 questions not God's justice. But what shall he do .? Let 
 him examine his conduct and repent. 
 
 " For repentance is the greatest prerogative of man. 
 Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this 
 world than the whole life of the world to come. The aim 
 of all wisdom is repentance and good deeds. The place 
 where the truly penitent shall stand is higher than that of 
 the righteous. Repentance finds its special expression in 
 prayer ; and when it is said in Scripture, ' Serve God with 
 all thy heart,' by this is meant, serve Him by prayer, which 
 is even greater than worship by means of sacrifices. 
 Never is a prayer entirely unanswered by God. There- 
 
2o6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 fore, even though the sword be on a man's neck, let him 
 not cease to supplicate God's mercy. But regard not thy 
 prayer as a fixed mechanical task, but as an appeal for 
 mercy and grace before the All-Present; as it is said, 
 * For He is gracious and full of mercy, slow to anger, 
 abounding in loving-kindness, and repenteth him of the 
 evil.' " 
 
 The last two volumes of Weiss's work deal with the 
 history of Tradition during the Middle Ages, that is, from 
 the conclusion of the Talmud to the compilation of the 
 Code of the Law by R. Joseph Caro. I have already in- 
 dicated that with Weiss Tradition did not terminate with 
 the conclusion of the Talmud. It only means that a 
 certain undefinable kind of literature, mostly held in dia- 
 logue form and containing many elements of Tradition, 
 was at last brought to an end. The authorities who did 
 this editorial work were the so-called Rabbanan Saburai^ 
 and the Gaonim, whose lives and literary activity are fully 
 described by Weiss. But, while thus engaged in preserv- 
 ing their inheritance from the past, they were also enrich- 
 ing Tradition by new contributions, both the Saburai and 
 the Gaonim having not only added to and diminished from 
 the Talmud, but having also introduced avowedly new 
 ordinances and decrees, and created new institutions. 
 
 Now, it cannot be denied that a few of these ordinances 
 and decrees had a reforming tendency (see the second and 
 twentieth chapters of vol. iv.); in general, however, they 
 took a more conservative turn than was the case in the 
 previous ages. This must be ascribed to the event of the 
 great schism within the Rabbinical camp itself. I refer 
 to the rise of Caraism, which took place during the first 
 half of the eighth century. 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 207 
 
 There is probably no work in which the Halachic or 
 legalistic side of this sect is better described than in this 
 volume of Weiss. I regret that I am unable to enter into 
 its details. But I cannot refrain from pointing to one of 
 the main principles of the Caraites. This was *' Search 
 the Scriptures." Now this does not look very dissimilar 
 from the principle held by the Rabbis. For what else is 
 the Talmud, but a thorough searching through the Bible 
 for whatever was suggestive by time and circumstances } 
 The light which the Caraites applied to the searching of 
 the Scriptures was the same which illumined the paths of 
 the Rabbis' investigations. They employed most of the 
 expository rules of the Tannaite schools. The fact is that 
 they were only determined to find something different from 
 what the Rabbis found in the Scriptures. They wanted 
 to have gloomy Sabbaths and Festivals, and discovered 
 authority for it in the Bible ; they wanted to retain most 
 of the dietary laws which had their root only in Tradition, 
 but insisted on petty differences which they thought might 
 be inferred from the Scriptures, and they created a new 
 "order of inheritance," and varied the forbidden degrees 
 in marriage, in all which the only merit was that they were 
 in contradiction to the interpretation of the Rabbis. They 
 also refused to accept the Liturgy of Rabbinical Judaism, 
 but never succeeded in producing more than a patch- 
 work from verses of the Bible, which, thus recast, they 
 called a prayer-book. There were undoubtedly among 
 their leaders many serious and sincere men, but they give 
 us the impression of prigs, as for instance, Moses Darai, 
 when he reproaches the Rabbinical Jews for having an 
 " easy religion," or Israel Hammaarabi, when he recom- 
 mended his book on the laws regarding the slaughtering 
 
2o8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 of animals, as having the special advantage that his deci- 
 sions were always on the more stringent side. Those 
 who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land were by the 
 Caraites canonised as "mourners." The Rabbanite R. 
 Judah Hallevi also visited the ruins of Jerusalem, but he 
 did something more than " mourn and sigh and cry," he 
 became a God-intoxicated singer, and wrote the "Zion- 
 Elegy." The novel terminology which they use in their ex- 
 egetical and theological works, was only invented to spite 
 the Rabbanites, and marks its authors as pedants. On 
 the other hand, it is not to be denied that their opponents 
 did not employ the best means to conciliate them. The 
 Middle Ages knew no other remedy against schism than 
 excommunication, and the Gaonim were the children of 
 their time. Nor were the arguments which the latter 
 brought forward in defence of Tradition always calculated 
 to convince the Caraites of their error. When R. Saadiah, 
 in his apology for the institution of the Second Day of 
 the Festival,^^ went the length of assigning to it a Sinaitic 
 origin, he could only succeed in making the Caraites more 
 suspicious of the claims of Tradition than before. In a 
 later generation one of his own party, R. Hai Gaon, had 
 to declare his predecessor's words a " controversial exag- 
 geration." The zeal which some of the Gaonim showed 
 in their defence of such works as the Chambers and the 
 Measure of the Stature i* was a not less unfortunate thing, 
 for it involved the Rabbanites in unnecessary responsi- 
 bilities for a new class of literature of doubtful origin, 
 which in succeeding centuries was disowned by the best 
 minds in Judaism. 
 
 The Gaonic period, to which we also owe the rise of the 
 Massorah and the introduction of points in the text of the 
 
THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 209 
 
 Bible —of which Weiss treats fully in the twenty-third 
 and twenty-fourth chapters of vol. iv. — comes to an end 
 with the death of R. Hai. The famous schools of Sura 
 and Pumbeditha, over which these two Gaonim presided, 
 fell into decay, and Babylon ceased to be the centre of 
 Judaism. To be more exact, we should say that Judaism 
 had no longer any real centre. Instead of dwelling in one 
 place for centuries, we now have to be perpetually on our 
 journey, accompanying our authors through all the inhab- 
 ited parts of the world — France, Italy, Spain, Germany, 
 with an occasional trip to Africa and Russia. There we 
 shall meet with the new schools, each of which, though 
 interpreting the same Torah, occupied with the study of 
 the same Talmud, and even conforming more or less to 
 the same mode of life, has an individuality and character 
 of its own, reflecting the thought and habits of the country 
 which it represents. Thus "geographical Judaism" be- 
 comes a factor in history which no scholar can afford to 
 neglect. It is true that Judaism never remained entirely 
 unbiassed by foreign ideas, and our author points in many 
 a place to Persian, Greek, and Roman influences on 
 Tradition ; still, these influences seem to have undergone 
 such a thorough " Judaization " that it is only the practised 
 eye of the scholar that is able to see through the transfor- 
 mation. But it requires no great skill to discriminate 
 between the work produced by a Spanish and that of a 
 French Rabbi. Though both would write in Hebrew, 
 they betray themselves very soon by the style, diction, 
 and train of thought peculiar to each country. The 
 Spaniard is always logical, clear, and systematising, whilst 
 the French Rabbi has very little sense of order, is always 
 writing occasional notes, has a great tendency to be 
 
2IO STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 obscure, but is mostly profound and critical. Hence the 
 fact that whilst Spain produced the greatest codifiers of 
 the law, we owe to France and Germany the best com- 
 mentaries on the Talmud. What these codes and com- 
 mentaries meant for Judaism the student will find in 
 Weiss's book, and still more fully in his admirable essays 
 on Rashi (Solomon b. Isaac), Maimonides, and R. Jacob 
 Tam (published in his periodical, Beth Talmud, and also 
 separately). It is enough for us here only to notice the 
 fact of the breadth of Tradition, which could include 
 within its folds men of such different types as the sceptics, 
 Maimonides, Solomon b. Gabirol, and Abn Ezra on one 
 side, and the simple "non-questioning" Rabbenu Ger- 
 shom, Rashi, and Jacob Tam on the other. 
 
 The last three centuries, which occupy our author's 
 attention in the fifth volume, are not remarkable for their 
 progress. The world lives on the past. The i-ationalists 
 write treatises on Maimonides' philosophical works, whilst 
 the German Talmudists add commentary to commentary. 
 It is, indeed, the reign of authority, '* modified by acci- 
 dents." Such an accident was the struggle between the 
 Maimonists and Anti-Maimonists, or the rise of the Cab- 
 balah, or the frequent controversies with Christians, all of 
 which tended to direct the minds of people into new chan- 
 nels of thought. But though this period is less original in 
 its work, it is not on that account less sympathetic. One 
 cannot read those beautiful descriptions which Weiss gives 
 of R. Meir of Rothenburg and his school, or of R. Asher 
 and his descendants, without feeling that one is in an 
 atmosphere of saints, who are the more attractive the 
 less they were conscious of their own saintliness. The 
 only mistake, perhaps, was that the successors of these 
 
THE HISTORY OP JEWISH TRADITION 21I 
 
 "Chassidim or pious men of Germany" looked on many 
 of the religious customs that were merely the voluntary 
 expression of particularly devout souls as worthy of imita- 
 tion by the whole community, and made them obligatory 
 upon all. 
 
 This brings us to the question of the Code already men- 
 tioned (by R. Joseph Caro), with which Weiss's work con- 
 cludes. I have already transgressed the limits of an 
 essay, without flattering myself that I have done anything 
 like justice to the greatest work on Jewish Tradition 
 which modern Jewish genius has produced. But I should 
 not like the reader to carry away with him the false im- 
 pression that our author shares in the general cry, " Save 
 us from the Codifiers." Weiss, himself a Rabbi, and the 
 disciple of the greatest Rabbis of the first half of this cen- 
 tury, is quite aware of the impossibility of having a law 
 without a kind of manual to it, which brings the fluid 
 matter into some fixed form, classifying it under its proper 
 headings, and this is what we call codifying the law. And 
 thus he never passes any attempt made in this direction 
 without paying due tribute to its author — be it Maimon- 
 ides or Caro. But however great the literary value of a 
 code may be, it does not invest it with the attribute of in- 
 fallibility, nor does it exempt the student or the Rabbi 
 who makes use of it from the duty of examining each par- 
 agraph on its own merits, and subjecting it to the same 
 rules of interpretation that were always applied to Tradi- 
 tion. Indeed, Weiss shows that Maimonides deviated in 
 some cases from his own code, when it was required by 
 circumstances. 
 
 Nor do I know any modern author who is more in 
 favour of strong authority than Weiss. His treatment of 
 
212 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 the struggle between the Patriarch R. Gamaliel and his 
 adversaries, which I have touched on above, proves this 
 sufficiently. What Weiss really objects to, is a weak 
 authority — I mean that phonograph-like authority which 
 is always busy in reproducing the voice of others without 
 an opinion of its own, without originality, without initiative 
 and discretion. The real authorities are those who, draw- 
 ing their inspiration from the past, also understand how to 
 reconcile us with the present and to prepare us for the 
 future. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 
 IN RABBINICAL LITERATURE 
 
 " Blessed be he who knows." These are the words 
 with which Nachmanides, in his classical treatise, Gate of 
 Reward^ dismisses a certain theory of the Gaonim with 
 regard to this question ; after which he proceeds to ex- 
 pound another theory, which seems to him more satisfac- 
 tory. This mode of treatment implies that, unsatisfactory 
 as the one or other theory may appear to us, it would be 
 presumptuous to reject either entirely, there being only 
 One who knows the exact truth about the great mystery. 
 But we may indicate our doubt about one doctrine by put- 
 ting by its side another, which we may affirm to be not 
 more absolutely true, but more probable. This seems to 
 have been the attitude, too, of the compilers of the ancient 
 Rabbinical literature, in which the most conflicting views 
 about this grave subject were embodied. Nor did the Syn- 
 agogue in general feel called upon to decide between these 
 views. There is indeed no want of theodicies, for almost 
 every important expounder of Job, as well as every Jewish 
 philosopher of note, has one with its own system of retribu- 
 tion. Thus Judaism has no fixed doctrine on the subject. 
 It refused a hearing to no theory, for fear that it should 
 
 213 
 
214 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 contain some germ of truth, but on the same ground it 
 accepted none to the exclusion of the others. 
 
 These theories may, perhaps, be conveniently reduced 
 to the two following main doctrines that are in direct 
 opposition to each other, whilst all other views about the 
 subject will be treated as the more or less logical results of 
 the one or other doctrine. 
 
 I. There is no death without (preceding) sin, nor afflic- 
 tion without (preceding) transgression.^ This view is cited 
 in the name of R. Ammi, who quoted in corroboration the 
 verses Ez. xviii. 20, and Ps. Ixxxix. 33. Though this 
 Rabbi flourished towards the end of the third century, 
 there is hardly any doubt that his view was held by the 
 authorities of a much earlier date. For it can only be 
 under the sway of such a notion of Retribution that the 
 Tannaim were so anxious to assign some great crime as 
 the antecedent to every serious calamity by which man- 
 kind was visited. The following illustrations will suffice : 
 — " Pestilence comes into the world for capital crimes 
 mentioned in the Torah, which are not brought before the 
 earthly tribunal. . . . Noisome beasts come into the world 
 for vain swearing and for profanation of the name (of God). 
 Captivity comes upon the world for strange worship and 
 incest, and for shedding of blood and for (not) giving 
 release to the land." As an example of the misfortune 
 befalling the individual I will merely allude to a passage in 
 another tractate of the Talmud, according to which lep- 
 rosy is to be regarded as the penalty for immorality, 
 slander, perjury, and similar sins.^ 
 
 If we were now to complement R. Ammi's view by add- 
 ing that there is no happiness without some preceding 
 merit — and there is no serious objection to making this 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 215 
 
 addition — then it would resolve itself into the theory of 
 Measure for Measure, which forms a very common stand- 
 ard of reward and punishment in Jewish literature. 
 Here are a few instances : — " Because the Egyptians 
 wanted to destroy Israel by water (Exod. i. 22), they were 
 themselves destroyed by the waters of the Red Sea, as 
 it is said, Therefore I will measure their former work 
 into their bosom (Is. Ixv. 7);" whilst, on the other hand, 
 we read, " Because Abraham showed himself hospitable 
 towards strangers, providing them with water (Gen. xviii. 
 4), God gave to his children a country blessed with plenty 
 of water (Deut. viii. i)." Sometimes this form of retri- 
 bution goes so far as to define a special punishment to 
 that part of the body which mostly contributed to the 
 committing of the sin. Thus we read, " Samson rebelled 
 against God by his eyes, as it is said. Get her (the Philis- 
 tine woman) for me, for she pleases 7ny eyes (Judg. xvi. 
 21); therefore his eyes were put out by the Philistines 
 (Judg. xviii. 9)"; whilst Absalom, whose sinful pride be- 
 gan by his hair {2 Sam. xiv. 25), met his fate by his hair 
 (2 Sam. xviii. 9).^ Nahum of Gemzo himself explained 
 his blindness and the maimed condition of his arms and 
 legs as a consequence of a specific offence in having neg- 
 lected the duty of succouring a poor man. Addressing 
 the dead body of the suppliant who perished while Nahum 
 was delaying his help, he said, " Let my eyes (which had 
 no pity for your pitiful gaze) become blind; may my 
 hands and legs (that did not hasten to help thine) become 
 maimed, and finally my whole body be covered with 
 boils." * " This was the hand that wrote it," said Cranmer 
 at the stake; "therefere it shall first suffer punishment." 
 It is worth noticing that this retribution does not always 
 
2i5 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 consist in a material reward, but, as Ben Azzai expressed 
 it: "The reward of a command is a command, and the 
 reward of a transgression is a transgression." ^ So again : 
 " Because Abraham showed himself so magnanimous in 
 his treatment of the king of Sodom, and said, I will not 
 take from thee a thread ; therefore, his children enjoyed 
 the privilege of having the command of Zizith, consisting 
 in putting a thread or fringe in the border of their gar- 
 ments." In another passage we read, " He who is anx- 
 ious to do acts of charity will be rewarded by having the 
 means enabling him to do so." ^ In more general terms 
 the same thought is expressed when the Rabbis explained 
 the words. Ye shall sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be 
 holy (Lev. xi. 44), to the effect that if man takes the initi- 
 ative in holiness, even though in a small way, Heaven will 
 help him to reach it to a much higher degree."^ 
 
 Notwithstanding these passages, to which many more 
 might be added, it cannot be denied that there are in the 
 Rabbinical literature many passages holding out promises 
 of material reward to the righteous as well as threatening 
 the wicked with material punishment. Nor is there any 
 need of denying it. Simple-minded men — and such the 
 majority of the Rabbis were — will never be persuaded 
 into looking with indifference on pain and pleasure ; they 
 will be far from thinking that poverty, loss of children, 
 and sickness are no evil, and that a rich harvest, hope of 
 posterity, and good health, are not desirable things. It 
 does lie in our nature to consider the former as curses and 
 the latter as blessings; "and if this be wrong there is 
 no one to be made responsible for it but the Creator of 
 nature." Accordingly the question must arise. How can 
 a just and omnipotent God allow it to happen that men 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 217 
 
 should suffer innocently? The most natural suggestion 
 towards solving the difficulty would be that we are not 
 innocent. Hence R. Ammi's assertion that affliction and 
 death are both the outcome of sin and transgression ; or, 
 as R. Chanina ben Dossa expressed it, " It is not the wild 
 beast but sin which kills." ^ 
 
 We may thus perceive in this theory an attempt "to 
 justify the ways of God to man." Unfortunately it does 
 not correspond with the real facts. The cry wrung from 
 the prophets against the peace enjoyed by the wicked, 
 and the pains inflicted on the righteous, which finds its 
 echo in so many Psalms, and reaches its climax in the 
 Book of Job, was by no means silenced in the times of 
 the Rabbis. If long experience could be of any use, it 
 only served to deepen perplexity. For all this suffering 
 of the people of God, and the prosperity of their wicked 
 persecutors, which perplexed the prophets and their im- 
 mediate followers, were repeated during the death-strug- 
 gle for independence against Rome, and were not lessened 
 by the establishment of Christianity as the dominant re- 
 ligion. The only comfort which time brought them was, 
 perhaps, that the long continuance of misfortune made 
 them less sensible to suffering than their ancestors were. 
 Indeed, a Rabbi of the first century said that his genera- 
 tion had by continuous experience of misery become as 
 insensible to pain as the dead body is to a prick of a 
 needle.^ The anaesthetic effect of long suffering may, 
 indeed, help one to endure pain with more patience, but 
 it cannot serve as an apology for the deed of the inflictors 
 of the pain. The question, then, how to reconcile hard 
 reality with the justice of God, remained as difficult as 
 ever. 
 
2i8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 The most important passage in Rabbinical literature re- 
 lating to the solution of this problem is the following : — 
 With reference to Exod. xxxiii. 13, R. Johanan said, in the 
 name of R. Jose, that, among other things, Moses also 
 asked God to explain to him the method of his Providence, 
 a request that was granted to him. He asked God, Why 
 are there righteous people who are prosperous, and right- 
 eous who suffer; wicked who are prosperous and wicked 
 who suffer ? The answer given to him was, according to 
 the one view, that the prosperity of the wicked and the 
 suffering of the righteous are a result of the conduct of 
 their ancestors, the former being the descendants of right- 
 eous parents and enjoying their merits, whilst the latter, 
 coming from a bad stock, suffer for the sins of those to 
 whom they owe their existence. This view was suggested 
 by the Scriptural words, " Keeping mercy for thousands 
 (of generations) . . . visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
 upon the children " (Exod. xxxiv. 7), which were regarded 
 as the answer to Moses' question in the preceding chapter 
 of Exodus.^^ Prevalent, however, as this view may have 
 been in ancient times, the Rabbis never allowed it to pass 
 without some qualification. It is true that they had no 
 objection to the former part of this doctrine, and they 
 speak very frequently of the " Merits of the Fathers " for 
 which the remotest posterity is rewarded ; for this could 
 be explained on the ground of the boundless goodness of 
 God, which cannot be limited to the short space of a life- 
 time. But there was no possibility of overcoming the 
 moral objection against punishment of people for sins 
 they have not committed. 
 
 It will suffice to mention here that, with reference to 
 Joshua vii. 24, 25, the Rabbis asked the question, If he 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 
 
 219 
 
 (Achan) sinned, what justification could there be for put- 
 ting his sons and daughters to death ? And by the force 
 of this argument they interpreted the words of the Script- 
 ures to mean that the children of the criminal were only 
 compelled to be present at the execution of their father. 
 
 Such passages, therefore, as would imply that children 
 have to suffer for the sins of their parents are explained 
 by the Rabbis as referring to cases in which the children 
 perpetuate the crimes of their fathers.^^ The view of 
 R. Jose, which I have already quoted, had, therefore, to 
 be dropped, and another version in the name of the same 
 Rabbi is accepted. According to this theory the sufferer 
 is a person either " entirely wicked " or " not perfectly 
 righteous," whilst the prosperous man is a person either 
 "perfectly righteous," or "not entirely wicked." 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that there is still some- 
 thing wanting to supplement this view, for the given clas- 
 sification would place the not entirely wicked on the same 
 level with the perfectly righteous, and on a much higher 
 level than the imperfectly righteous, who are undoubtedly 
 far superior. The following passage may be regarded as 
 supplying this missing something : — " The wicked who 
 have done some good work are as amply rewarded for it 
 in this world as if they were men who have fulfilled the 
 whole of the Torah, so that they may be punished for 
 their sins in the next world (without interruption) ; whilst 
 the righteous who have committed some sin have to suffer 
 for it (in this world) as if " they were men who burned the 
 Law," so that they may enjoy their reward in the world to 
 come (without interruption)." ^ Thus the real retribution 
 takes place in the next world, the fleeting existence on 
 earth not being the fit time either to compensate right- 
 
220 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 eousness or to punish sin. But as, on the one hand, God 
 never allows "that the merit of any creature should be 
 cut short," whilst, on the other hand, He deals very 
 severely with the righteous, punishing them for the 
 slightest transgression ; since, too, this reward and punish- 
 ment are only of short duration, they must take place in 
 this short terrestrial existence. There is thus established 
 a sort of divine economy, lest the harmony of the next 
 world should be disturbed. 
 
 Yet another objection to the doctrine under discussion 
 remains to be noticed. It is that it justifies God by 
 accusing man, declaring every sufferer as more or less 
 of a sinner. But such a notion, if carried to its last 
 consequences, must result in tempting us to withhold 
 our sympathies from him. And, indeed, it would seem 
 that there were some non-Jewish philosophers who argued 
 in this way. Thus a certain Roman official is reported 
 to have said to R. Akiba, "How can you be so eager 
 in helping the poor } Suppose only a king, who, in his 
 wrath against his slave, were to set him in the gaol, and 
 give orders to withhold from him food and drink; if, 
 then, one dared to act to the contrary, would not the 
 king be angry with him .? " ^^ There is some appearance 
 of logic in this notion put into the mouth of a heathen. 
 The Rabbis, however, were inconsistent people, and re- 
 sponded to the appeal which suffering makes to every 
 human heart without asking too many questions. With- 
 out entering here into the topic of charity in the Rabbinic 
 literature, which would form a very interesting chapter, 
 I shall only allude now to the following incident, which 
 would show that the Rabbis did not abandon even those 
 afflicted with leprosy, which, according to their own 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 221 
 
 notion, given above, followed only as a punishment for 
 the worst crimes. One Friday, we are told, when the 
 day was about to darken, the Chassid Abba Tachnah 
 was returning home, bearing on his shoulders the baggage 
 that contained all his fortune; he saw a leprous man 
 lying on the road, who addressed him : " Rabbi, do me 
 a deed of charity and take me into the town." The 
 Rabbi now thought, " If I leave my baggage, where shall 
 I find the means of obtaining subsistence for myself and 
 my family ? But if I forsake this leprous man I shall 
 commit a mortal sin." In the end, he allowed the good 
 inclination to prevail over the evil one, and first carried 
 the sufferer to the town.^* The only practical conclusion 
 that the Rabbis drew from such theories as identify 
 suffering with sin were for the sufferer himself, who 
 otherwise might be inclined to blame Providence, or even 
 to blaspheme, but would now look upon his affliction as 
 a reminder from heaven that there is something wrong 
 in his moral state. Thus we read in tractate Berachoth : ^^ 
 " If a man sees that affliction comes upon him, he ought 
 to inquire into his actions, as it is said. Let us search and 
 try our ways, and turn again to the Lord (Lam. iii. 40)." 
 This means to say that the sufferer will find that he 
 has been guilty of some offence. As an illustration of 
 this statement we may perhaps consider the story about 
 R. Huna, occurring in the same tractate.^^ Of this Rabbi 
 it is said that he once experienced heavy pecuniary losses, 
 whereupon his friends came to his house and said to him, 
 " Let the master but examine his conduct a little closer." 
 On this R. Huna answered, " Do you suspect me of 
 having committed some misdeed ? " His friends rejoined, 
 " And do you think that God would pass judgment with- 
 
222 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 out justice ? " R. Huna then followed their hint, and 
 found that he did not treat his tenant farmer so gener- 
 ously as he ought. He offered redress, and all turned 
 out well in the end. Something similar is to be found 
 in the story of the martyrdom of R. Simeon ben Gamaliel 
 and R. Ishmael ben Elisha. Of these Rabbis we are 
 told that on their way to be executed the one said to 
 the other, " My heart leaves me, for I am not aware of 
 a sin deserving such a death " ; on which the other an- 
 swered, *' It might have happened that in your function 
 as judge you sometimes — for your own convenience — 
 were slow in administering justice."^'' 
 
 But even if the personal actions of the righteous were 
 blameless, there might still be sufficient ground for his being 
 afflicted and miserable. This may be found in his relations 
 to his kind and surroundings, or, to use the term now more 
 popular, by reason of human solidarity. Now, after the 
 above remarks on the objections entertained by the Rabbis 
 against a man's being punished for the sins of others, it 
 is hardly necessary to say that their idea of solidarity has 
 little in common with the crude notions of it current in 
 very ancient times. Still, it can hardly be doubted that 
 the relation of the individual to the community was more 
 keenly felt by the Rabbis than by the leaders in any other 
 society, modern or ancient. According to the view given 
 by an ancient Rabbi whose name is unknown, it would, 
 indeed, seem that to them the individual was not simply a 
 member of the Jewish commonwealth, or a co-religionist, 
 but a limb of the great and single body '' Israel," and that 
 as such he communicated both for good and evil the sen- 
 sations of the one part to the whole. In the Midrash, 
 where a parallel is to be found to this idea, the responsi- 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 
 
 223 
 
 bility of the individual towards the community is further 
 illustrated by R. Simeon ben Yochai, in the following way : 
 "It is," we read there, "to be compared to people sitting 
 on board a ship, one of the passengers of which took an 
 awl and began to bore holes in the bottom of the vessel. 
 Asked to desist from his dangerous occupation, he an- 
 swered, ' Why, I am only making holes on my own seat,' 
 forgetting that when the water came in it would sink the 
 whole ship." Thus the sin of a single man might en- 
 danger the whole of humanity. It was in conformity with 
 the view of his father that R. Eliezer, the son of R. Simeon 
 (ben Yochai) said, " The world is judged after the merits or 
 demerits of the majority, so that a single individual by his 
 good or bad actions can decide the fate of his fellow-creat- 
 ures, as it may happen that he is just the one who con- 
 stitutes this majority." ^^ Nor does this responsibility cease 
 with the man's own actions. According to the Rabbis 
 man is responsible even for the conduct of others — and 
 as such liable to punishment — if he is indifferent to the 
 wrong that is being perpetrated about him, whilst an ener- 
 getic protest from his side could have prevented it. And 
 the greater the man the greater is his responsibility. He 
 may suffer for the sins of his family which is first reached 
 by his influence ; he may suffer for the sins of the whole 
 community if he could hope to find a willing ear among 
 them, and he may even suffer for the sins of the whole 
 world if his influence extend so far, and he forbear from 
 exerting it for good.^^ Thus the possibility is given that 
 the righteous man may suffer with justice, though he him- 
 self has never committed any transgression. 
 
 As a much higher aspect of this solidarity — and as may 
 have already suggested itself to the reader from the pas- 
 
224 
 
 STUDIES m JUDAISM 
 
 sage cited above from the anonymous Rabbi — we may 
 regard the suffering of the righteous as an atonement for 
 the sins of their contemporaries. "When there will be 
 neither Tabernacle nor the Holy Temple," Moses is said 
 to have asked God, " what will become of Israel ? *' Where- 
 upon God answers, "I will take from among them the 
 righteous man whom I shall consider as pledged for them, 
 and will forgive all their sins ; " the death of the perfect 
 man, or even his suffering being looked upon as an expi- 
 ation for the shortcoming of his generation.^^ 
 
 It is hardly necessary to remind the reader of the affinity 
 of this idea with that of sacrifices in general, as in both 
 cases it is the innocent being which has to suffer for the 
 sins of another creature. But there is one vital point which 
 makes all the difference. It is that in our case the suffer- 
 ing is not enforced, but is a voluntary act on the part of 
 the sacrifice, and is even desired by him. Without enter- 
 ing here on the often-discussed theme of the suffering of 
 the Messiah, I need only mention the words of R. Ishmael 
 who, on a very slight provocation, exclaimed, "I am the 
 atonement for the Jews," which means that he took upon 
 him all their sins to suffer for them.^i This desire seems 
 to have its origin in nothing else than a deep sympathy 
 and compassion with Israel. To suffer for, or, at least 
 with Israel was, according to the Rabbis, already the ideal 
 of Moses. He is said, indeed, to have broken the Two 
 Tables with the purpose of committing some sin, so that 
 he would have either to be condemned together with Israel 
 (for the sin of the golden calf), or to be pardoned together 
 with them.22 And this conduct was expected not only from 
 the leaders of Israel, but almost from every Jew. " When 
 Israel is in a state of affliction (as, for instance, famine) one 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 225 
 
 must not say, I will rather live by myself, and eat and drink, 
 and peace be unto thee, my soul. To those who do so the 
 words of the Scriptures are to be applied : And in that day 
 did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourn- 
 ing, . . . and behold joy and gladness. . . . Surely this 
 iniquity shall not be purged out from you till ye die " (Is. 
 xxii. 12-14). Another passage is to the effect that, when a 
 man shows himself indifferent to the suffering of the com- 
 munity, there come the two angels (who accompany every 
 Jew), put their hands on his head, and say, " This man who 
 has separated himself shall be excluded from their con- 
 solations."^ 
 
 We might now characterise this sort of suffering as the 
 chastisement of love (of the righteous) to mankind, or 
 rather to Israel. But we must not confuse it with the 
 Chastisement of Love often mentioned in the Talmud, 
 though this idea also seems calculated to account for the 
 suffering of the righteous. Here the love is not on the 
 side of the sufferer, but proceeds from him who inflicts 
 this suffering. " Him," says R. Huna, " in whom God 
 delights he crushes with suffering." As a proof of this 
 theory the words of Is. liii. 10 are given, which are inter- 
 preted to mean : him whom the Lord delights in He puts 
 to grief. Another passage, by the same authority, is to 
 the effect that where there is no sufficient cause for pun- 
 ishment (the man being entirely free from sin), we have 
 to regard his suffering as a chastisement of love, for it 
 is said : "Whom the Lord loveth He correcteth" (Proverbs 
 iii. 11).^ To what purpose He corrects him may, perhaps, 
 be seen from the following passage : " R. Eleazar ben 
 Jacob says : If a man is visited by affliction he has to be 
 thankful to God for it: for suffering draws man to, and 
 
226 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 reconciles him with God, as it is said: For whom God 
 loveth he correcteth." ^5 
 
 It is in conformity with such a high conception that 
 affliction, far from being dreaded, becomes almost a 
 desirable end, and we hear many Rabbis exclaim, ''Be- 
 loved is suffering," for by it fatherly love is shown to man 
 by God; by it man obtains purification and atonement, 
 by it Israel came in possession of the best gifts, such as 
 the Torah, the Holy Land, and eternal life.^^ And so 
 also the sufferer, far from being considered as a man 
 with a suspected past, becomes an object of veneration, 
 on whom the glory of God rests, and he brings salvation 
 to the world if he bears his affliction with joyful submis- 
 sion to the will of God.27 Continuous prosperity is by no 
 means to be longed after, for, as R. Ishmael taught, '* He 
 who has passed forty days without meeting adversity has 
 already received his (share of the) world (to come) in 
 this life." 28 Nay, the standing rule is that the really 
 righteous suffer, whilst the wicked are supposed to be 
 in a prosperous state. Thus, R. Jannai said, *' We (aver- 
 age people) enjoy neither the prosperity of the wicked nor 
 the afflictions of the righteous," ^^ whilst his contemporary, 
 Rab, declared that he who experiences no affliction and 
 persecution does not belong to them (the Jews).^^ 
 
 2. The second main view on Retribution is that re- 
 corded by the Rabbis as in direct opposition to that of 
 R. Ammi. It is that there is suffering as well as death 
 without sin and transgression. We may now just as well 
 infer that there is prosperity and happiness without pre- 
 ceding merits. And this is, indeed, the view held by 
 R. Meir. For in contradiction to the view cited above, 
 R. Meir declares that the request of Moses to have 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 
 
 227 
 
 explained to him the mysterious ways of Providence was 
 not granted, and the answer he received was, " And I will 
 shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy " (Exod. xxxiii. 
 19), which means to say, even though he to whom the 
 mercy is shown be unworthy of it. The old question 
 arises how such a procedure is to be reconciled with the 
 justice and omnipotence of God. The commentaries try 
 to evade the difficulty by suggesting some of the views 
 given above, as that the real reward and punishment are 
 only in the world to come, or that the affliction of the 
 righteous is only chastisement of love, and so on. From 
 the passages I am about to quote, however, one gains the 
 impression that some Rabbis rather thought that this 
 great problem will indeed not bear discussion or solution 
 at all. Thus we have the legend : " The angels said to 
 God, why have you punished Adam with death } He 
 answered. On account of his having transgressed my 
 commandment (with regard to the eating of the tree of 
 knowledge). But why had Moses and Aaron to die } 
 The reply given to them is the words, Eccl. ix. 2 : * All 
 things come alike to all ; there is one event to the right- 
 eous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and 
 to the unclean.' " ^^ Another legend records, " When 
 Moses ascended to heaven, God showed him also the 
 great men of futurity. R. Akiba was sitting and inter- 
 preting the law in a most wonderful way. Moses said 
 to God : Thou hast shown me his worth, show me also 
 his reward ; on which he is bidden to look back. There 
 he perceives him dying the most cruel of deaths, and his 
 flesh being sold by weight. Moses now asks : Is this the 
 reward of such a life } whereupon God answers him : 
 Be silent; this I have determined."^ 
 
228 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 It is impossible not to think of the fine lines of the 
 German poet : — 
 
 Warum schleppt sich blutend, elend, 
 Unter Kreuzlast der Gerechte, 
 Wahrend glucklich als ein Sieger 
 Trabt auf hohem Ross der Schlechte? 
 
 * * * * « 
 
 Also fragen wir bestandig, 
 Bis man uns mit einer HandvoU 
 Erde endlich stopft die Mauler — 
 Aber ist das eine Antwort ? 
 
 Still, one might perhaps suggest that these passages 
 when examined a little closer, not only contain a rebuke 
 to man's importunity in wanting to intrude into the secrets 
 of God, but also hint at the possibility that even God's 
 omnipotence is submitted to a certain law — though de- 
 signed by His own holy will — which He could not alter 
 without detriment to the whole creation. Indeed, in one 
 of the mystical accounts of the martyrdom of R. Akiba 
 and other great Rabbis, God is represented as asking the 
 sufferers to accept His hard decree without protest, unless 
 they wish Him to destroy the whole world. In another 
 place again, we read of a certain renowned Rabbi, who 
 lived in great poverty, that once in a dream he asked the 
 divine Shechinah how long he would have still to endure 
 this bitter privation .? The answer given to him was : 
 " My son, will it please you that I destroy the world for 
 your sake } " ^ It is only in this light that we shall be 
 able to understand such passages in the Rabbinic litera- 
 ture as that God almost suffers Himself when He has to 
 inflict punishment either on the individual or on whole 
 communities. Thus God is represented as mourning for 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 
 
 229 
 
 seven days (as in the case when one loses a child) before 
 He brought the deluge on the world ; He bemoans the 
 fall of Israel and the destruction of the Temple, and the 
 Shechinah laments even when the criminal suffers his just 
 punishment. And it is not by rebelling against these 
 laws that He tries to redeem His suffering. He himself 
 has recourse to prayer, and says : "May it be my will 
 that my mercy conquer my wrath, that my love over-rule 
 my strict justice, so that I may treat my children with 
 love." ^ If now man is equal to God, he has nevertheless, 
 or rather on that account, to submit to the law of God 
 without any outlook for reward or punishment; or, as 
 Antigonos expressed it, " Be not as slaves that minister to 
 the Lord with a view to receive recompense." ^ Certainly 
 it would be hazardous to maintain that Antigonos's saying 
 was a consequence of this doctrine ; but, at any rate, we 
 see a clear tendency to keep the thought of reward (in 
 spite of the prominent part it holds in the Bible) out of 
 view. Still more clearly is it seen when, with reference 
 to Ps. cxii., "Blessed is the man . . . that delighteth 
 greatly in his commandments," Rabbi Eleazar remarks 
 that the meaning is that the man desires only to do His 
 commandments, but he does not want the rewards con- 
 nected with them.^ This is the more remarkable, as the 
 whole contents of this psalm are nothing else than a long 
 series of promises of various rewards, so that the explana- 
 tion of Rabbi Eleazar is in almost direct contradiction to 
 the simple meaning of the words. On the other hand, 
 also, every complaint about suffering must cease. Not 
 only is affliction no direct chastisement by God in the 
 way of revenge ; but even when it would seem to us that 
 we suffer innocently, we have no right to murmur, as 
 
230 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 God himself is also suffering, and, as the Talmud expresses 
 it, * It is enough for the slave to be in the position of his 
 master.' " ^7 
 
 This thought of the compassion — in its strictest sense 
 of fellow-suffering — of God with His creatures becomes 
 a new motive for avoiding sin. " Woe to the wicked," 
 exclaims a Rabbi, " who by their bad actions turn the 
 mercy of God into strict justice." ^ And the later mystics 
 explain distinctly that the great crime of sin consists in 
 causing pain, so to speak, to the Shechinah. One of 
 them compared it with the slave who abuses the goodness 
 of his master so far as to buy with his money arms to 
 wound him. But, on the other hand, it becomes, rather 
 inconsistently, also a new source of comfort; for, in the 
 end, God will have to redeem Himself from this suffering, 
 which cannot be accomplished so long as Israel is still 
 under punishment.^^ Most interesting is the noble prayer 
 by a Rabbi of a very late mystical school : " O God, 
 speedily bring about the redemption. I am not in the 
 least thinking of what I may gain by it. I am willing to 
 be condemned to all tortures in hell, if only the Shechinah 
 will cease to suffer."*^ 
 
 If we were now to ask for the attitude of the Synagogue 
 towards these two main views, we should have to answer 
 that — as already hinted at the opening of this paper — it 
 never decided for the one or the other. R. David Rocca 
 Martino dared even to write a whole book in Defence of 
 Adam proving that he committed no sin in eating the 
 fruit of the tree of knowledge against the literal sense of 
 the Scriptures, which were also taken by the Rabbis 
 literally.*^ By this he destroyed the prospects of many a 
 theodicy, but it is not known to me that he was severely 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION 
 
 231 
 
 rebuked for it. It has been said by a great writer that the 
 best theology is that which is not consistent, and this ad- 
 vantage the theology of the Synagogue possesses to its 
 utmost extent. It accepted with R. Ammi the stern prin- 
 ciple of divine retribution, in as far as it makes man feel 
 the responsibility of his actions, and makes suffering a 
 discipline. But it never allowed this principle to be 
 carried so far as to deny the sufferer our sympathy, and 
 by a series of conscious and unconscious modifications, 
 he passed from the state of a sinner into the zenith of the 
 saint and the perfectly righteous man. But, on the other 
 hand, the Synagogue also gave entrance to the very op- 
 posite view which, abandoning every attempt to account 
 for suffering, bids man do his duty without any hope of 
 reward, even as God also does His. Hence the remarkable 
 phenomenon in the works of later Jewish moralists, that, 
 whilst they never weary of the most detailed accounts of 
 the punishments awaiting the sinner and the rewards in 
 store for the righteous, they warn us most emphatically 
 that our actions must not be guided by these unworthy 
 considerations, and that our only motive should be the love 
 of God and submission to His holy will. 
 
 Nor must it be thought that the views of the Rabbis 
 are so widely divergent from those enunciated in the 
 Bible. The germ of almost all the later ideas is already 
 to be found in the Scriptures. It only needed the proc- 
 ess of time to bring into prominence those features 
 which proved at a later period most acceptable. Indeed, 
 it would seem that there is also a sort of domestication 
 of religious ideas. On their first association with man 
 there is a certain rude violence about them which, when 
 left to the management of untutored minds, would cer- 
 
232 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 tainly do great harm. But, let only this association last 
 for centuries, during which these ideas have to be sub- 
 dued by practical use, and they will, in due time, lose 
 their former roughness, will become theologically work- 
 able, and turn out the greatest blessing to inconsistent 
 humanity. 
 
IX 
 
 THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM ^ 
 
 Professor Toy's work, Judaism and Christianity, gives 
 an admirable conspectus of the results of the modern 
 critical school in their bearing on the genesis of Chris- 
 tianity. The author takes various important doctrines of 
 Christianity, traces them back to their origin in Israeli- 
 tism, pursues their course through their various phases 
 in Judaism, until they reach their final development in 
 the teaching of Jesus and His disciples, which, in the 
 author's judgment, is the consummation of that which 
 the prophets and their successors had to give to the 
 world. Laying so much stress as Professor Toy does on 
 the saying, " By their fruits shall ye know them," he 
 ought also, perhaps, to have told us what, in the course 
 of time, has become of these several doctrines. For 
 when, for instance, with regard to the doctrine of origi- 
 nal sin, he remarks that " in certain systems of Christian 
 theology the human race is involved in the condem- 
 nation of the first man" (p. 185, n. i); or that, in the 
 New Testament, " the demand for a mediating power be- 
 tween God and humanity is pushed to the farthest point 
 which thought can occupy consistently with the mainte- 
 nance of the absoluteness of the one Supreme Deity" 
 (p. 121), he is rather evading a difficulty than answering 
 it. Such elaboration would, however, have been outside 
 
 233 
 
234 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 the scope of Professor Toy's book, which claims only to 
 be a sketch of the progress of thought from the Old 
 Testament to the New. For his own solution of the 
 indicated difficulty, Toy, to judge from his liberal stand- 
 point, would probably refer us to Dr. Hatch's Hibbert 
 lectures ; the issue of such an appeal must, I imagine, 
 remain for long doubtful and disputed. 
 
 A delightful characteristic of Toy's book is its trans- 
 parent clearness and sobriety, which will make it inter- 
 esting reading, even to those who are acquainted with 
 the writer's authorities in their original sources. Almost 
 entirely new, as well as most suggestive, is the justice 
 which Toy does to the law in recognising it as a factor 
 for good in the history of religion. In this point Toy is 
 not only up to his date, but beyond it. It is true that 
 even the Pharisees have made some advance in the esti- 
 mation of the liberal school. They are no longer con- 
 demned en masse as so many hypocrites. It is even 
 admitted that there were a few honest men among 
 them, such as Rabban Gamaliel, the teacher of Paul, 
 or R. Akiba, the patriot of Bethar. We are now too 
 polite to be personal. But with regard to the law, on 
 the other hand, there is at present a markedly opposite 
 tendency. The general idea seems to be that, as the 
 doctrine of the resurrection of Christ must be loosely 
 interpreted in a spiritual sense, it must logically have 
 been preceded by a universal spiritual death, and the 
 germs of the disease which brought this death about 
 are to be sought for in the law. Hence the strained 
 efforts to discover in the law the source of all religious 
 evil, — cant, hypocrisy, formalism, externalism, transcen- 
 dentalism, and as many "isms" more, of bad reputation. 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 235 
 
 It was probably with this current representation of the 
 law in view that Toy, when speaking of the Levitical leg- 
 islation, and of its fixing "men's minds on ceremonial 
 details which, in some cases, it put into the same category 
 and on the same level with moral duties," asks the ques- 
 tion : " Would there not thence result a dim^ming of the 
 moral sense and a confusion of moral distinctions ? The 
 ethical attitude of a man who could regard a failure in the 
 routine of sacrifice as not less blameworthy than an act of 
 theft cannot be called a lofty one" (p. 186). The answer 
 which he gives is more favourable than such a leading 
 question would induce us to expect. He tells us that, " in 
 point of fact, the result was different " {ibid). "The Levit- 
 ical law is not to be looked on as a mere extension and 
 organisation of the ritual. ... Its ritual was, in great 
 part, the organised expression of the consciousness of sin " 
 (p. 226). Of the law in general Toy says that it had 
 "larger consequences than its mere details would sug- 
 gest," for it " cultivated the moral sense of the people 
 into results above its mechanical prescriptions," and "it 
 developed the sense of sin, as Paul points out " (Gal. iii. 
 19), "and therewith a freer feeling, which brought the 
 soul into more immediate contact with God" (p. 227); 
 whilst in another place he reminds us " that much of the 
 law is moral, and that no one could fail to see a spiritual 
 significance beneath its letter" (p. 245), and he even ad- 
 mits that " the great legal schools which grew up in the 
 second century, if we may judge by the sayings of the 
 teachers which have come down to us, did not fail to dis- 
 criminate between the outward and the inward, the cere- 
 monial and the moral " (p. 186). 
 
 These and similar passages will suffice to show that 
 
236 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Toy's estimate of the law is a very different one from that 
 of Smend and his school. However, it must not be sup- 
 posed that he is not on the look-out for the germs of the 
 disease. He must find these germs somewhere, or else 
 the progress, which his book is intended to illustrate, 
 would be difficult to detect. And thus he repeats the old 
 accusations, though not without modification. 
 
 Professor Toy's objections may, perhaps, be summed up 
 in the passage in which he represents the Jewish law as 
 "an attempt to define all the beUefs and acts of life" 
 (p. 239), or as "the embodiment of devotion to a fixed 
 rule of belief and conduct" (p. 237). Toy does not 
 entirely condemn this system, and even speaks of it as a 
 "lofty attempt" (p. 239); but, on the whole, he considers 
 that it must have resulted in bad theology, as well as in 
 doubtful conduct. Without following Professor Toy over 
 the whole area of his investigations, which would require 
 a volume for itself, I will only take the opportunity of 
 making a few general remarks upon the nature and 
 character of this legal system, which seems to hold the 
 key to the spiritual history of Judaism. 
 
 First, as to its theology, Toy's description of the law as 
 an attempt to define all the beliefs of life — an assertion 
 which is also made by Schiirer — is not wholly accurate. 
 For such an attempt was never made by Judaism. The 
 few dogmas which Judaism possesses, such as the Exist- 
 ence of God, Providence, Reward, and Punishment — 
 without which no revealed religion is conceivable — can 
 hardly be called a creed in the modern sense of the term, 
 which implies something external and foreign to man's 
 own knowledge, and received only in deference to the 
 weight of authority. To the Jew of the Christian era, 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 
 
 237 
 
 these simpler dogmas were so self-evident that it would 
 have cost him the greatest effort not to believe them. 
 Hence the fact that, whilst there have come down to us 
 so many controverted points between the Sadducees and 
 Pharisees with regard to certain juristic and ritual ques- 
 tions, we know of only one of an essentially dogmatic 
 character, viz. the dispute concerning the Resurrection. 
 It is thus difficult to imagine to what Professor Toy can 
 be alluding when he speaks of the " interest they (the 
 Jews) threw into the discussion and determination of 
 minutiae of faith" (p. 241). Discussions upon minuticB 
 of faith are only to be read in the works of the later 
 schoolmen (as Saadiah, Maimonides and their followers), 
 in which such subtle problems as Creatio ex nihilo^ the 
 origin of evil, predestination, free will and similar subjects 
 are examined; but this period is very distant from that 
 with which Toy is concerned. The older schools and 
 the so-called houses of Shammai and Hillel, most of whose 
 members were the contemporaries of the Apostles, show 
 very little predilection for such minutics. Their discus- 
 sions and differences of opinion about ritual matters are 
 very numerous, scattered as they are over the whole of 
 the ancient Rabbinic literature, but I can only remember 
 two of a metaphysical character, or touching upon the 
 minuticB of faith. The one, dealing with the efficacy of 
 certain sacrifices, discusses whether it only extends to 
 the remission of the pending punishment for sins, or also 
 includes their purification and washing away; the other 
 considers the question whether it would not have been 
 better for man not to have been created.^ But this latter 
 controversy, which is said to have lasted for two years 
 and a half, by no means led to any big metaphysical or 
 
238 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 theological system, but only to the practical advice that, 
 as we have been created, we ought to be watchful over 
 our conduct. It is, indeed, a noteworthy feature of Juda- 
 ism that theological speculations have never resulted in 
 the formulation of any imposing or universal doctrine, but 
 usually in divers ceremonial practices. To give one illus- 
 tration : according to Professor Toy (p. 210) the conclu- 
 sion which the author of i Tim. ii. 11-14 draws from the 
 fact that woman was the immediate agent of the introduc- 
 tion of sin was the subordination of her sex. The Rabbis 
 also noticed the same fact, and in their less abstract lan- 
 guage speak of woman as having brought death and grief 
 into the world ; but the conclusion which they drew was 
 that since woman had extinguished the "light of the 
 world," she ought to atone for it by lighting the candles 
 for the Sabbath.3 j^qj- jg Xoy quite correct when he main- 
 tains that the conception of the Memra as Creator and 
 Lord, etc., and as " representative of the immediate divine 
 activity," did not keep its hold on Jewish thought, hav- 
 ing been discarded in the later literature (p. 104). For 
 the Shechinah of the Talmud, the Metatron * of the Gaonic- 
 mystical literature, the Active Intelligence of the philosoph- 
 ical schools, as well as the Ten Sephiroth ^ (Emanations) 
 of the Cabbalists, all owe their existence to the same theo- 
 sophic scruples and subtleties in which the Logos of Philo 
 and the Memra ^ of the Targums originated. Thus, they 
 always kept — though under various forms — their hold 
 on the Jewish mind. Judaism was always broad enough 
 to accommodate itself to these formulae, which for the 
 one may mean the most holy mysteries, and for the other 
 empty and meaningless catchwords. The objection — in 
 fact, the active opposition — of the Synagogue began when 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 
 
 239 
 
 these possible or impossible explanations of the universe 
 tended to transgress the bounds of abstract speculation, 
 and, passing over into real concrete beings, to be wor- 
 shipped as such. An instance from comparatively modem 
 times might be found in one of the vagaries of the fol- 
 lowers of the Pseudo-Messiah, Shabbethai Tsebi. For 
 many generations the controversy had raged among the 
 Cabbalists, whether the first of the above-mentioned Ten 
 Emanations (called by some Original Adam, by others, 
 Crown'^) is to be considered as a part of the Deity or 
 as something separate, and so to speak, having a reality 
 in itself. The danger of establishing a Being near the 
 Deity, having an existence of its own and invested with 
 divine attributes, could not have escaped the thoughtful, 
 and there are indeed some indications to this effect. The 
 Synagogue as such, however, remained during the whole 
 controversy strictly neutral, and allowed these theosophists 
 to fight in the air as much as they liked. But the moment 
 that the sect of Shabbethai Tsebi identified the incarnate 
 Original Adam with their leader, and worshipped him as 
 a sort of God-Messiah, the Synagogue at once took up 
 a hostile attitude against those who separated God from 
 His world, and, declaring Shabbethai Tsebi and his fol- 
 lowers to be apostates, excluded them from Judaism for 
 ever. 
 
 Nor can it be proved that legalism or nomism has ever 
 tended to suppress the spiritual side of religion, either in 
 respect of consciousness of sin, or of individual love and 
 devotion. With an equal logic quite the opposite might 
 be argued. Professor Toy tells us himself that it is no 
 " accident that along with this more definite expression of 
 ethical-religious law we find the first traces of a more 
 
240 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 spiritual conception of righteousness in the 'new heart' 
 of Jeremiah and Ezekiel" (p. 235), whilst in another pas- 
 sage we read that "a turning point is marked by the 
 Deuteronomist Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who announce the 
 principles of individual responsibility and inwardness of 
 obedience " (p. 184). Now, two things are certain; first, 
 that Ezekiel urges the necessity of the new heart as well as 
 of individual responsibility more keenly than any of his 
 predecessors ; secondly, that in Ezekiel the legalistic ten- 
 dency is more evident than in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah. 
 The logical conclusion would thus be that the higher ideals 
 of religion are not only not inconsistent with legalism, but 
 are the very outcome of it, and the so-called Priestly Code, 
 by the very fact of its markedly legalistic tendency, 
 should be considered as a step in the right direction. The 
 latter assertion sounds like a paradox, but it will seem less 
 so when the prevailing characteristic of this portion of the 
 Pentateuch, as given even by Kuenen, who is by no means 
 a champion of the Law, is borne in mind. " The centre 
 of gravity," according to the great Dutch critic, "lies for 
 the priestly author elsewhere than for the prophet ; it lies 
 in man's attitude, not towards his fellow-men, but towards 
 God ; not in his social, but in his personal life " (Hibbert 
 Lectures, p. 161). It is here that we seem to strike the 
 keynote of the Weltanschauung of the Priestly Legislation. 
 In it man is more than a social being. He has also an 
 individual life of his own, his joys and sorrows, his his- 
 torical claims, his traditions of the past, and his hopes for 
 the future — and all these have to be brought under the 
 influence of religion, and to become sanctified through 
 their relation to God. Hence, the work of the Priestly 
 narrator and legislator opens with a cosmogony of his 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 24 1 
 
 own, in which we find the grand theological idea of man 
 being created in the Divine image; hence, too, his relig- 
 ious conception of the history of the nation and the con- 
 trol claimed by him over all the details of human life, 
 which became with him so many opportunities for the 
 worship of God. To him, God is not a mere figurehead ; 
 He not only reigns, but governs. Everywhere, — in the 
 temple, in the judge's seat, in the family, in the farm, and 
 in the market-place, — His presence is felt in enforcing 
 the laws bearing His imprimatur, "I am the Lord thy 
 God." By thus diffusing religion over the whole domain 
 of human life — not confining it to the social institutions 
 which are represented only by a few personages, such as 
 the king, the princes, the priests, the judges or elders 
 — they made it the common good of the whole people, 
 and the feeling of personal responsibility for this good 
 became much deeper than before. Thus it came to pass 
 that whilst, during the first temple, the apostasy of kings 
 and aristocracy involved the entire people, so that the 
 words "And he (the king) did evil in the sight of the 
 Lord," embrace the whole nation, during the second 
 temple it was no longer of much consequence which side 
 the political leaders took. Both during the Hellenistic 
 persecutions, as well as afterwards in the struggles of 
 some Maccabean kings with the Pharisees, the bulk of the 
 people showed that they considered religion as their own 
 personal affair, not to be regulated by the conscience of 
 either priest or prince. It is true that this success may 
 be largely ascribed to such contemporary religious factors 
 as the Synagogue with its minimum of form, the Scribes 
 with their activity as teachers, and the Psalmists with 
 their divine enthusiasm ; but the very circumstance that 
 
2^2 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 these factors arose and flourished under the influence of 
 the Priestly Code would suffice to prove that its tendency 
 was not so sacerdotal as some writers would have us 
 believe. Jewish tradition indeed attributes the composi- 
 tion of the daily public prayers, as well as of others for 
 private worship, to the very men whom modern biblical 
 criticism holds responsible for the introduction of the 
 Priestly Code. Now this fact may perhaps be disputed, 
 but there is little doubt that the age in which these 
 prayers were composed was one of flourishing legalism. 
 Nor is there any proof that the synagogues and their 
 ritual were in opposition to the temple. From the few 
 documents belonging to this period, it is clear that there 
 was no opposition to the legalistic spirit by which the 
 Priestly Code was actuated. This would prove that legal- 
 ism meant something more than tithes and sacrifices for 
 the benefit of the priests. 
 
 Nor is it true that the legal tendency aimed at narrowing 
 the mind of the nation, turning all its thoughts into the one 
 direction of the law. Apart from the fact that the Torah 
 contained other elements besides its legalism, the prophets 
 were not forgotten, but were read and interpreted from a 
 very early age. It was under the predominance of the 
 Law that the Wisdom literature was composed, which is 
 by no means narrow or one-sided, but is even supposed by 
 some critics to contain many foreign elements. In the 
 book of Job, the great problems of man's existence are 
 treated with a depth and grandeur never equalled before 
 or since. This book alone ought partly to compensate the 
 modern school for the disappearance of prophecy, which 
 is usually brought as a charge against the Law. Then, 
 too, the Psalms, placed by the same school in the post- 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 243 
 
 exilic period, are nothing but another aspect of prophecy, 
 with this difference, perhaps, that in the Prophets God 
 speaks to man, while in the Psalms it is man who estab- 
 lishes the same communion by speaking to God. There 
 is no reason why the critical school, with its broad concep- 
 tion of inspiration, and with its insistence that prophecy 
 does not mean prediction, should so strongly emphasise 
 this difference. If "it is no longer as in the days of 
 Amos, when the Lord Yahveh did nothing without reveal- 
 ing his counsel to his servants the prophets," there is in 
 the days of the Psalmists nothing in man's heart, no ele- 
 ment in his longings and meditations and aspirations, 
 which was not revealed to God. Nay, it would seem that 
 at times the Psalmist hardly ever desires the revelation of 
 God's secrets. Let future events be what they may, he is 
 content, for he is with God. After all his trials, he ex- 
 claims, " And yet I am continually with thee ; thou hast 
 taken hold of my right hand. According to thy purpose 
 wilt thou lead me, and afterwards receive me with glory. 
 Whom have I (to care for) in heaven } and possessing 
 thee, I have pleasure in nothing upon earth. Though my 
 flesh and my heart should have wasted away, God would 
 for ever be the rock of my heart and my portion " (Ps. 
 Ixxiii. 23-26). How an age producing a literature contain- 
 ing passages like these — of which Wellhausen in his Ab- 
 riss (p. 95) justly remarks, that we are not worthy even to 
 repeat them — can be considered by the modern school as 
 wanting in intimate relation to God and inferior to that of 
 the prophets is indeed a puzzle. 
 
 Now a few words as to the actual life under the Law. 
 Here, again, there is a fresh puzzle. On the one side, we 
 hear the opinions of so many learned professors, proclaim- 
 
244 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ing ex cathedrdy that the Law was a most terrible burden, 
 and the life under it the most unbearable slavery, deaden- 
 ing body and soul. On the other side we have the testi- 
 mony of a literature extending over about twenty-five 
 centuries, and including all sorts and conditions of men, 
 scholars, poets, mystics, lawyers, casuists, schoolmen, 
 tradesmen, workmen, women, simpletons, who all, from the 
 author of the 119th Psalm to the last pre-Mendelssohnian 
 writer — with a small exception which does not even de- 
 serve the name of a vanishing minority — give unanimous 
 evidence in favour of this Law, and of the bliss and hap- 
 piness of living and dying under it, — and this, the testi- 
 mony of people who were actually living under the Law, 
 not merely theorising upon it, and who experienced it in 
 all its difificulties and inconveniences. The Sabbath will 
 give a fair example. The law of the Sabbath is one of 
 those institutions the strict observance of which was al- 
 ready the object of attack in early New Testament times. 
 Nevertheless, the doctrine proclaimed in one of the Gos- 
 pels — that the son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath — 
 was also current among the Rabbis. They, too, taught 
 that the Sabbath had been delivered into the hand of man 
 (to break, if necessary), and not man delivered over to the 
 Sabbath.^ And they even laid down the axiom that a 
 scholar who lived in a town, where among the Jewish pop- 
 ulation there could be the least possibility of doubt as to 
 whether the Sabbath might be broken for the benefit of a 
 dangerously sick person, was to be despised as a man neg- 
 lecting his duty ; for, as Maimonides points out, the laws 
 of the Torah are not meant as an infliction upon mankind, 
 "but as mercy, loving-kindness, and peace." ^ 
 
 The attacks upon the Jewish Sabbath have not abated 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 245 
 
 with the lapse of time. The day is still described by 
 almost every Christian writer on the subject in the most 
 gloomy colours, and long lists are given of minute and 
 easily transgressed observances connected with it, which, 
 instead of a day of rest, would make it to be a day of 
 sorrow and anxiety, almost worse than the Scotch Sun- 
 day as depicted by continental writers. But it so happens 
 that we have the prayer of R. Zadok, a younger contem- 
 porary of the Apostles, which runs thus : " Through the 
 love with which Thou, O Lord our God, lovest Thy people 
 Israel, and the mercy which Thou hast shown to the 
 children of Thy covenant, Thou hast given unto us in love 
 this great and holy Seventh Day." ^^ And another Rabbi, 
 who probably flourished in the first half of the second 
 century, expresses himself (with allusion to Exod. xxxi. 13 : 
 Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep . . . that ye may know 
 that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you) — "The Holy 
 One, blessed be He, said unto Moses, I have a good gift 
 in my treasures, and Sabbath is its name, which I wish 
 to present to Israel. Go and bring to them the good 
 tidings." ^1 The form again of the Blessing over the 
 Sanctification-cup ^^ — a ceremony known long before the 
 destruction of the Second Temple — runs : " Blessed art 
 Thou, O Lord our God, who hast sanctified us by Thy 
 commandments, and hast taken pleasure in us, and in love 
 and grace hast given us Thy holy Sabbath as an inheri- 
 tance." All these Rabbis evidently regarded the Sabbath 
 as a gift from heaven, an expression of the infinite mercy 
 and grace of God which Hf; manifested to His beloved 
 children. 
 
 And the gift was, as already said, a good gift. Thus 
 the Rabbis paraphrase the words in the Scripture " See, 
 
2a6 studies in JUDAISM 
 
 for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath " (Exod. xvi. 
 29) : God said unto Israel behold the gem I gave you, My 
 children I gave you the Sabbath for your good. Sanctify 
 or honour the Sabbath by choice meals, beautiful garments ; 
 delight your soul with pleasure and I will reward you (for 
 this very pleasure) ; as it is said : " And if thou wilt call 
 the Sabbath a delight and the holy of the Lord honourable 
 (that is honouring the Sabbath in this way) . . . then 
 shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord" (Is. Iviii. 13, 14).^^ 
 The delight of the Sabbath was keenly felt. Israel 
 fell in love with the Sabbath, and in the hyperbolic lan- 
 guage of the Agadah the Sabbath is personified as the 
 "Bride of Israel," whilst others called it "Queen Sab- 
 bath," ^^ and they are actually jealous of a certain class 
 of semi-proselytes who, as it seems, were willing to ob- 
 serve the Sabbath, but declined to submit to the cove- 
 nant of Abraham. The Gentile Sabbath-keepers— who, 
 like all the nations of the world, envy Israel their Sab- 
 bath — the Rabbis considered as shameless intruders de- 
 serving punishment.i^ ^^^ it was Israel's own Queen or 
 Bride Sabbath whose appearance in all her heavenly 
 glory they were impatiently awaiting. Thus we are told 
 of R. Judah b. Ilai that when the eve of the Sabbath 
 came " he made his ablutions, wrapped himself up in his 
 white linen with fringed borders looking like an angel of 
 the Lord of Hosts," thus prepared for the solemn recep- 
 tion of Queen Sabbath. Another Rabbi used to put on 
 his best clothes, and arise and invite the Sabbath with 
 the words : " Come in Bride, come in." ^^ What the Bride 
 brought was peace and bHss. Nay, man is provided with 
 a super soul for the Sabbath, enabling him to bear both 
 the spiritual and the material delights of the day with 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 
 
 247 
 
 dignity and solemnity.^" The very light (or expression) 
 of man's face is different on Sabbath, testifying to his 
 inward peace and rest. And when man has recited his 
 prayers (on the eve of the Sabbath) and thus borne tes- 
 timony to God's creation of the world and to the glory 
 of the Sabbath, there appear the two angels who accom- 
 pany him, lay their hands on his head and impart to 
 him their blessing with the words : " And thine iniquity 
 is taken away and thy sin purged " (Is. vi. 7).^^ For 
 nothing is allowed to disturb the peace of the Sabbath; 
 not even "the sorrows of sin," though the Sabbath had 
 such a solemn effect on people that even the worldly 
 man would not utter an untruth on the Day of the Lord. 
 Hence it was not only forbidden to pray on Sabbath for 
 one's own (material) needs, but everything in the liturgy 
 of a mournful character (as for instance the confession 
 of sin, supplication for pardon) was carefully avoided. It 
 was with difficulty, as the Rabbis say, that they made 
 an exception in the case of condoling with people who 
 had suffered loss through the death of near relatives. 
 There is no room for morbid sentiment on Sabbath, for 
 the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and He addeth 
 no sorrow with it (Prov. x. 22). ^^ The burden of the 
 Sabbath prayers is for peace, rest, sanctification, and joy 
 (through salvation) and praise of God for this ineffable 
 bliss of the Sabbath. 
 
 Such was the Sabbath of the old Rabbis and the 
 same spirit continued through all ages. The Sabbath 
 was and is still celebrated by the people who did and 
 do observe it, in hundreds of hymns, which would fill vol- 
 umes, as a day of rest and joy, of pleasure and delight, 
 a day in which man enjoys some foretaste of the pure 
 
248 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 bliss and happiness which are stored up for the righteous 
 in the world to come. Somebody, either the learned 
 professors, or the millions of the Jewish people, must 
 be under an illusion. Which it is I leave to the reader 
 to decide. 
 
 It is also an illusion to speak of the burden which a 
 scrupulous care to observe six hundred and thirteen com- 
 mandments must have laid upon the Jew. Even a super- 
 ficial analysis will discover that in the time of Christ 
 many of these commandments were already obsolete (as 
 for instance those relating to the tabernacle and to the 
 conquest of Palestine), while others concerned only cer- 
 tain classes, as the priests, the judges, the soldiers, the 
 Nazirites, or the representatives of the community, or 
 even only one or two individuals among the whole popu- 
 lation, as the King and the High-Priest. Others, again, 
 provided for contingencies which could occur only to a 
 few, as for instance the laws concerning divorce or 
 levirate marriages, whilst many — such as those concern- 
 ing idolatry, and incest, and the sacrifice of children to 
 Moloch — could scarcely have been considered as a prac- 
 tical prohibition by the pre-Christian Jew; just as little 
 as we can speak of Englishmen as lying under the 
 burden of a law preventing them from burning widows 
 or marrying their grandmothers, though such acts would 
 certainly be considered as crimes. Thus it will be found 
 by a careful enumeration that barely a hundred laws 
 remain which really concerned the life of the bulk of 
 the people. If we remember that even these include 
 such laws as belief in the unity of God, the necessity of 
 loving and fearing Hin.. and of sanctifying His name, 
 of loving one's neighbour and the stranger, of providing 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 340 
 
 for the poor, exhorting the sinner, honouring one's 
 parents and many more of a similar character, it will 
 hardly be said that the ceremonial side of the people's 
 religion was not well balanced by a fair amount of 
 spiritual and social elements. Besides, it would seem 
 that the line between the ceremonial and the spiritual 
 is too often only arbitrarily drawn. With many com- 
 mandments it is rather a matter of opinion whether they 
 should be relegated to the one category or the other. 
 
 Thus, the wearing of Tephillin^o or phylacteries has, 
 on the one hand, been continually condemned as a mean- 
 ingless superstition, and a pretext for formaHsm and 
 hypocrisy. But, on the other hand, Maimonides, who 
 can in no way be suspected of superstition or mysti- 
 cism, described their importance in the following words: 
 "Great is the holiness of the Tephillin; for as long as 
 they are on the arm and head of man he is humble and 
 God-fearing, and feels no attraction for frivolity or idle 
 things, nor has he any evil thoughts, but will turn his 
 heart to the words of truth and righteousness." The 
 view which R. Johanan, a Palestinian teacher of the 
 third century, took of the fulfilment of the Law, will 
 probably be found more rational than that of many a 
 rationahst of to-day. Upon the basis of the last verse 
 in Rosea, "The ways of the Lord are right, and the 
 just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall 
 therein," he explains that while one man, for instance, 
 eats his paschal lamb with the purpose of doing the 
 will of God who commanded it, and thereby does an act 
 of righteousness, another thinks only of satisfying his 
 appetite by the lamb, so that his eating it (by the very 
 fact that he professes at the same time to perform a relig- 
 
250 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ious rite) becomes a stumbling-block for him.^^ Thus all 
 the laws by virtue of their divine authority — and in this 
 there was in the first century no difference of opinion 
 between Jews and Christians — have their spiritual side, 
 and to neglect them implies, at least from the individual's 
 own point of view, a moral offence. 
 
 The legalistic attitude may be summarily described as 
 an attempt to live in accordance with the will of God, car- 
 ing less for what God is than for what He wants us to be. 
 But, nevertheless, on the whole this life never degenerated 
 into religious formalism. Apart from the fact that during 
 the second temple there grew up laws, and even beliefs, 
 which show a decided tendency towards progress and 
 development, there were also ceremonies which were popu- 
 lar with the masses, and others which were neglected. Men 
 were not, therefore, the mere soulless slaves of the Law ; 
 personal sympathies and dislikes also played a part in 
 their religion. Nor were all the laws actually put upon 
 the same level. With a happy inconsistency men always 
 spoke of heavier and slighter sins, and by the latter — 
 excepting, perhaps, the profanation of the Sabbath — they 
 mostly understood ceremonial transgressions. The state- 
 ment made by Professor Toy (p. 243), on the authority of 
 James (ii. 10), that "the principle was established that he 
 who offended in one point was guilty of all," is hardly cor- 
 rect; for the passage seems rather to be laying down a 
 principle, or arguing that logically the law ought to be 
 looked upon as a whole, than stating a fact. The fact 
 was that people did not consider the whole law as of equal 
 importance, but made a difference between laws and laws, 
 and even spoke of certain commandments, such as those 
 of charity and kindness, as outweighing all the rest of the 
 
THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 
 
 251 
 
 Topah. It was in conformity with this spirit that in 
 times of great persecution the leaders of the people had 
 no compunction in reducing the whole Law to the three 
 prohibitions of idolatry, of incest, and of bloodshed. Only 
 these three were considered of sufficient importance 
 that men should rather become martyrs than transgress 
 them. 
 
 These, then, are some of the illusions and misrepresen- 
 tations which exist with regard to the Law. There are 
 many others, of which the complete exposure would re- 
 quire a book by itself. Meanwhile, in the absence of 
 such a book to balance and correct the innumerable vol- 
 umes upon the other side. Professor Toy has done the 
 best he could with existing materials, and produced a 
 meritorious work deserving of wide recognition and 
 approval. 
 
THE HEBREW COLLECTION OF THE 
 BRITISH MUSEUM 
 
 The Hebrew collection in the British Museum forms 
 one of the greatest centres of Jewish thought. It is only 
 surpassed by the treasures which are contained in the 
 Bodleian Library at Oxford. The fame of these magnifi- 
 cent collections has spread far and wide. It has pene- 
 trated into the remotest countries, and even the Bachurim 
 {ahimni) of some obscure place in Poland, who otherwise 
 neither care nor know anything about British civilisation, 
 have a dim notion of the nature of these mines of Jewish 
 learning. 
 
 All sorts of legends circulate amongst them about the 
 " millions " of books which belong to the " Queen of Eng- 
 land." They speak mysteriously of an autograph copy of 
 the Book of Proverbs, presented to the Queen of Sheba on 
 the occasion of her visit to Jerusalem, and brought by the 
 English troops as a trophy from their visit to Abyssinia, 
 which is still ruled by the descendants of that famous lady. 
 They also talk of a copy of the Talmud of Jerusalem 
 which once belonged to Titus, afterwards to a Pope, was 
 presented by the latter to a Russian Czar, and taken away 
 from him by the English in the Crimean war ; of a manu- 
 
 252 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 
 
 253 
 
 script of the book Light is Sown} which is so large that 
 no shelf can hold it, and which therefore hangs on iron 
 chains. How they long to have a glance at these pre- 
 cious things ! Would not a man get wiser only by looking 
 at the autograph of the wisest of men ? 
 
 But even the students of Germany and Austria, who are 
 inaccessible to such fables, and by the aid of Zedner's, 
 Steinschneider's, and Neubauer's catalogues have a fair 
 notion of our libraries, cherish the belief that they would 
 gain in scholarship and wisdom by examining these grand 
 collections. How often have I been asked by Jewish stu- 
 dents abroad : " Have you really been to the British Mu- 
 seum } Have you really seen this or that rare book or 
 manuscript.? Had you not great difficulties in seeing 
 them } Is not the place where these heaps of jewels are 
 treasured up always crowded by students and visitors } " 
 
 Yet how little does our English public know of these 
 wonderful things ! We are fairly interested in Graeco- 
 Roman art. We betray much curiosity about the different 
 Egyptian dynasties. We look with admiration at the 
 cuneiform inscriptions in the Nimrod room. We do not 
 even grudge a glance at the abominable idols of the sav- 
 age tribes. But as to the productions of Jewish genius, 
 — well, it is best to quote here the words of Heine, who 
 ridiculed this indifference to everything that is Jewish, 
 in the following lines : — 
 
 Alte Mumien, ausgestopfte, 
 Pharaonen von i^gypten, 
 Merowinger Schattenkon''ge, 
 Ungepuderte Periicken, 
 
 Auch die Zopfmonarchen China's 
 Porzellanpagodenkaiser — 
 
2tA STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Alle lernen sie auswendig, 
 Kluge Madchen, aber, Himmel! 
 
 Fragt man sie nach grossen Namen, 
 Aus dem grossen Goldzeitalter 
 Der arabisch-althispanisch 
 Jiidischen Poetenschule, 
 
 Fragt man nach dem Dreigestirn 
 Nach Jehuda ben Halevy, 
 Nach dem Salomon Gabirol 
 Und dem Moses Iben Esra. 
 
 Fragt man nach dergleichen Namen, 
 Dann mit grossen Augen schaun 
 Uns die Kleinen an — alsdann 
 Stehn am Berge die Ochsinnen. 
 
 Now Heine goes on to advise his beloved one to study 
 the Hebrew language. It would be indeed the best rem- 
 edy against this indifference. But this is so radical a cure 
 that one cannot hope that it will be made use of by many. 
 A few remarks in English, trying to give some notion of 
 the Hebrew collection in the British Museum, may, there- 
 fore, not be considered altogether superfluous. 
 
 The Hebrew collection in the Museum may be divided 
 into two sections : Printed Books, and Manuscripts. The 
 number of the printed books amounted in the year 1867, 
 in which Zedner concluded his catalogue, to 10,100 vol- 
 umes. Within the last twenty-eight years about 5000 
 more have been added. 
 
 This enormous collection has grown out of very small 
 beginnings. The British Museum was first opened to the 
 public in the year 1759. Amongst the 500,000 volumes 
 which it possessed at that time only a single Jewish work, 
 the editio princeps of the Talmud (Bomberg, Venice, 1520- 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 255 
 
 1523) was to be found on its shelves. According to an 
 article by Zedner in the Hebrdische Bibliographic (ii. p. 
 88), this copy of the Talmud once belonged to Henry 
 VIII. But very soon the Museum was enriched by a 
 small collection of Hebrew books, presented to it by Mr. 
 Solomon da Costa, surnamed Athias, who had emigrated 
 to England from Holland. The translation of the He- 
 brew letter with which the donor accompanied his pres- 
 ent to the Trustees of the Museum was first published in 
 the Gentleman s Magazine, February 1760, and was after- 
 wards republished by the Rev. A. L. Green, in an article 
 in the Jewish Chronicle, 1859. ^ shall only reproduce 
 here the passage relating to the history of this collection. 
 After expressing his gratitude to the " crowning city, the 
 city of London, in which he dwelt for fifty-four years in 
 ease and quietness and safety," and telling us that he 
 bequeaths these books to the British nation as a token of 
 his gratitude. Da Costa proceeds to say that they are 180 
 books, which had been gathered and bound for Charles 
 II., with valuable bindings and marked with the king's 
 own cipher. These books were intended as a present 
 from the London Jewish community to Charles for certain 
 privileges which he had bestowed on them. The sudden 
 death of the king seems to have frustrated the intention 
 of the first donors. The books were scattered, and Da 
 Costa had to collect them again. 
 
 Small as this collection is, it is most valuable on account 
 of its including many early -editions of Venice, Constanti- 
 nople, Naples, etc. The original letter of Da Costa, with 
 a full list of the 180 books, is preserved in a MS. in the 
 British Museum (Additional, 4710-11). 
 
 Of still greater importance is the Michaelis collection. 
 
2c6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 It consists of 4420 volumes, and was bought by the Trus- 
 tees of the Museum in 1848. Other successive acquisi- 
 tions, especially the purchase of a large number of printed 
 books from the Almanzi collection, brought the Museum 
 into possession of one of the most complete and one of 
 the largest Hebrew libraries in the world. 
 
 After the foregoing remarks on the quantity of this 
 collection, I shall now attempt to give some idea of its 
 quality. The following table, taken from the Preface of 
 Zedner's Catalogue, shows its manifold contents : — 
 
 1. Bibles ...... 1260 
 
 2. Commentaries on the 
 
 Bible 510 
 
 3. Talmud 73° 
 
 4. Commentaries on the 
 
 Talmud 700 
 
 5. Codes of Law. . . . 1260 
 
 6. Decisions 520 
 
 7. Midrash 160 
 
 8. Cabbalah 460 
 
 9. Sermons 400 
 
 10. Liturgies 1200 
 
 1 1 . Divine Philosophy . . 690 
 
 12. Scientific works . . . 180 
 
 13. Grammars, Dictionaries 450 
 
 14. History, Geography « 320 
 
 15. Poetry, Criticism . . 770 
 
 The reader can see that almost every branch of human 
 thought, religious and secular, is amply represented in 
 this collection. Looking at this table from a geographical 
 point of view, we may perhaps classify the authors in the 
 following way: — France and Germany in the Middle 
 Ages, Poland and the East in modern times, are repre- 
 sented by the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes. The Rabbis 
 of Spain and Italy would probably excel in the last five 
 classes. In the productions of classes eight and nine all 
 the before-mentioned countries would have an equal share. 
 English Judaism, by reason of its large number of occa- 
 sional prayers and wedding hymns (Zedner, pp. 472, 652), 
 may perhaps be represented in the last class (criticism 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 257 
 
 excluded). We in England are a pious, devotional people, 
 and leave the thinking to others. 
 
 But what is still more welcome to the student is the fact 
 that all these branches of Jewish learning are represented 
 in the British Museum by the best editions. It would be 
 a rather tedious task to enumerate here all the early edi- 
 tions of which this collection can boast. There is hardly 
 any Hebrew book of importance from the Bible down to 
 the Code of R. Joseph Caro of which the Museum does 
 not possess the first printed edition. There are also many 
 books and editions in the Museum of which no second 
 copy is known to be in existence. An enumeration of 
 these rare books and editions would require long lists, the 
 perusal of which would be rather trying. But I shall say 
 a few words to show the importance of such early editions 
 for the student. They possess, first, the advantage of 
 being free from the misprints which crept in with every 
 fresh republication. The art of editing books in a correct 
 and scientific way is of a very recent date. And even 
 Hebrew literature does not find that support from the 
 public which would enable scholars to edit Jewish books 
 in such a way as Roman and Greek classics are prepared 
 by Oxford and Cambridge students. A new edition of a 
 Hebrew book meant therefore an addition of new mistakes 
 and misprints. And it is only by examining the editiones 
 principes that the scholar finds his way out of these 
 perplexities. 
 
 Another advantage is the fact that these early editions 
 escaped the hand of the censor, whose office was not intro- 
 duced till a comparatively late date. The same advantage 
 is also possessed by the Hebrew books published at Con- 
 stantinople, Salonica, and other Mohammedan cities. Only 
 
258 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Christian countries indulged in the barbarous pleasure of 
 burning and disfiguring Jewish books. It is one of the 
 most touching points in the life of R. David Oppenheim, 
 of Prague, who spent all his life and fortune in collecting 
 Hebrew works, and whose collection now forms one of the 
 greatest ornaments of the Bodleian Library, that he was 
 not allowed by the censor to enjoy the use of his treasures. 
 He had to put them under the protection of Lipman Cohen, 
 his father-in-law in Hanover, many hundreds of miles from 
 his own home. With the exception of the Bible hardly 
 any Jewish books escaped mutilation. In certain Chris- 
 tian countries some books were not allowed to be published 
 at all ; of others, again, whole chapters had to be omitted, 
 while of others many passages had to be expunged. The 
 words Roman, Greek, Gentile, were strictly forbidden, and 
 had to be changed into Turks, Arabs, Samaritans, or wor- 
 shippers of the stars and planets. One can imagine what 
 confusion such stupid alterations caused. Fancy what 
 blunders would have been committed in history if the old 
 chroniclers had been compelled to change the Pope into 
 the Grand Turk or the Shah of Persia, the Christian rulers 
 into as many califs and pashas, or Rome and Athens into 
 Pekin and Mecca ! 
 
 It may perhaps be interesting to learn that Jews some- 
 times imitated their bitter enemies in this work of mutila- 
 tion. Thus in the later editions of the Book of Gettealogies 
 by Abraham Zacuto,^ a passage was left out reproducing 
 the evidence given by the widow of Moses de Leon to the 
 effect that the cabbalistic work, the Zohar, was a forgery 
 manufactured by her poor dear husband. Another omis- 
 sion of this kind is to be found in the Code of R. Joseph 
 Caro, mentioned above. Here the earliest editions declare, 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 259 
 
 in the heading of section 605, " a certain religious usage " 
 to be "a custom of folly." In the republications, the last 
 three words were left out. From such nonsensical omis- 
 sions and changes only the earliest editions, which are 
 abundant in the Museum, were exempt. 
 
 A remarkable feature about the books of this Hebrew 
 collection also is that many of them are provided in the 
 margin with manuscript notes by their former possessors. 
 These often happen to bear very great names in literature. 
 I shall only mention here R. Jacob Emden, Almanzi, 
 Michael, Gerundi, and Heidenheim. Of the works writ- 
 ten by R. Jacob Emden, the Museum possesses an almost 
 complete author's copy with abundant corrections, notes, 
 and emendations by the author himself. His works are 
 still very popular among Polish and Russian Jews, espe- 
 cially his Prayer-Book, and his Responses. It would be 
 advisable for publishers in these countries to avail them- 
 selves of this copy on the occasion of a new edition. Of 
 Christian scholars I should name here Isaac Casaubon. A 
 rather amusing mistake occurs in Ben-Jacob's Treasure of 
 Books in connection with this name. Among the many 
 valuable copies of Kimchi's grammatical work Perfection? 
 possessed by the Museum, there is included one which 
 belonged to Casaubon, and is full of notes by him. The 
 author of the Treasure speaks of a Perfection with notes 
 by Rabbi Yitzchak Kasuban. I was at first at a loss to 
 guess who that Rabbi Casaubon might be. When ex- 
 amining Zedner I found it was no other than the famous 
 Christian scholar, Isaac Casaubon. It is not known that 
 Casaubon's ambition lay in this direction. But when 
 Philo was regarded as a Father of the Church, Ben Gabirol 
 quoted for many centuries as a Mohammedan philosopher, 
 
26o STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 why should not Casaubon obtain for once the dignity of a 
 Rabbi ? 
 
 After having given the reader some notion of the collec- 
 tion of printed works, I should like now to invite him to 
 accompany me through the Manuscript Department of the 
 Museum. But I am afraid that I shall make a bad guide 
 here ; for the Museum is still without a descriptive cata- 
 logue of the Hebrew manuscripts, which is the only means 
 of enabling the student to obtain a general view of the 
 number and nature of these works. The manuscript cata- 
 logue of Dukes goes only as far as 1856. It was, as we 
 shall soon see, just after this time that the Museum made 
 its largest and, to a' certain degree also, its most valuable 
 acquisitions in Hebrew manuscripts. The following re- 
 marks must, therefore, not be taken as the result of a 
 systematic study of this collection, which would be quite 
 impossible without the aid of a catalogue. They rest 
 partly on the descriptions given of a certain number of 
 manuscripts in the catalogue by Dukes, but for the greater 
 part on occasional glances at this or that MS. 
 
 As to the history of the collection, it has grown out of 
 small beginnings just as that of printed books. The col- 
 lection of Dr. Sloane, which laid the foundation of the 
 Museum Library, contained only nine Hebrew MSS. 
 Later acquisitions, as the Harleian collection, the Cot- 
 tonian collection, the Royal collection, and many other 
 smaller collections marked as Additional up to 1854, in- 
 creased the number of the Hebrew manuscripts to 232. 
 Of much more importance was the Almanzi collection, 
 bought by the trustees of the Museum in 1865, and con- 
 sisting of 335 MSS. Of succeeding acquisitions I shall 
 mention here only the Yemen MSS., which were brought 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 26 1 
 
 to this country by the famous Shapira. The number of 
 Hebrew MSS. at the present day is said to exceed one 
 thousand. But we must not forget that many MSS. con- 
 tain more than one work ; in some cases even three or 
 four, so that the number of Hebrew works is far greater 
 still. 
 
 I shall now speak of the nature and importance of these 
 MSS. As to their contents they may be easily grouped 
 under the following headings : Biblical MSS., Commen- 
 taries (to the Bible) and Super-Commentaries, parts of the 
 Talmud and their Commentaries, Theology, Philosophy 
 and Ethics, Massorah, Grammar and Lexicography, Cab- 
 balah. Poetry, Mathematics, Astronomy, Astrology and 
 Magic, Historical and Polemical Literature, etc. All 
 these branches of theological and secular learning and even 
 of human folly are fairly represented in the collection of 
 Hebrew MSS. in the Museum, though often only by a 
 part or a fragment of a work. 
 
 Thus the Babylonian Talmud is to be found only in two 
 MSS. (Harl. 5508 and Add. 25,717) both of them includ- 
 ing 1 1 Tractates, hardly a third part of the whole work. 
 Indeed poor " Rabbinus Talmud " had to go to the auto de 
 fe on so many occasions that one cannot wonder if only 
 disjointed limbs are to be found of him in libraries. The 
 only complete MS. copy which escaped this vandalism is 
 that in the Royal Library in Munich, from which Mr. 
 Rabbinowicz has edited his monumental work, Variae 
 Lectiones of the Talmud. 
 
 All other libraries, Oxford included, have to be satisfied 
 with fragments. Still worse, as it is seen, fared the Jeru- 
 salem Talmud, and excepting the well-known copy in 
 Leyden from which the Venice edition was prepared, not 
 
252 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 even fragments of this Talmud are to be found in the 
 majority of hbraries. To my knowledge it is only the 
 British Museum which can boast of the Jerusalem Talmud 
 in MS. extending over Order of Seeds and one tractate of 
 Order of Festivals *(0r. 2122-24) with commentaries of R. 
 Solomon Syrillo, the first few pages of which were edited 
 by Dr. Lehmann of Mayence. The Museum also pos- 
 sesses a great part of the Tosephta extending over 14 
 Tractates (Add. 27,296). Of Midrashim we find in the 
 Museum two excellent manuscripts of the Genesis Rabbahy 
 one of the Leviticus Rabbah, and one of the Siphra and 
 the Siphre {KM. 27,169 and 16,406), besides two copies 
 of the Midrash Haggadol and other Aagadic collections 
 brought from Yemen. The Midrash by Machir b. Abba 
 Mari to the minor prophets included in the Harleian col- 
 lection (5704) is unique. Of Liturgies, besides a great 
 number of MSS. representing the most peculiar rites, I 
 shall mention the Machzor^ Vitri (Add. 27,200-1) com- 
 posed by the disciples of R. Solomon b. Isaac, and form- 
 ing in itself almost a small library. For, apart from the 
 prayers for festivals and week days which gave it its title, 
 it includes, besides the Sayings of the Fathers with a large 
 commentary, three of the Minor Tractates of the Talmud, 
 many responses by German and French Rabbis, and a 
 whole series of religious hymns by German and Spanish 
 authors, and many other literary pieces. Cabbalah is rep- 
 resented by various valuable writings of the pre-Zoharis- 
 tic time (see for instance Add. 15,299) and the works of 
 R. Moses de Leon and R. Abraham Abulafia. Of Poetry, 
 I shall point here to the Tarshish of R. Moses Ibn Ezra, 
 the Makames by Judah Al Charisi (Add. 27,122), and the 
 Divan of R. Abraham of Bedres(Add. 27,188). Of works 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 263 
 
 relating to grammar and lexicography, I may refer to a 
 Codex (Add. 27,214) which contains the lexicon of R. 
 Menahem ben Saruk, which is considered as the oldest 
 Hebrew MS. in the Museum, dating from the year 1091. 
 Of historical works, I mention the chronicle of R. Joseph 
 the Priest (Add. 27,122) and the letter of R. Sherira Gaon 
 (Arundel 51), the oldest existing copy of this work (1189), 
 which was edited by Dr. Neubauer in his MedicBval Jewish 
 Chronicles. 
 
 These examples will suffice to show the significance of 
 the MSS. collection of this Library. And the student 
 may rest assured that in whatever branch of Jewish 
 thought he is interested, he will always find in the Mu- 
 seum some Hebrew manuscript useful for his purpose. 
 
 I ought now to say a few words as to the value of this 
 collection of manuscripts. Now, if the work contained in 
 a MS. has never been edited, as for instance the Machzor 
 Vitri ^ and so many others, its value is established by the 
 mere fact of its existence. For those who published MSS. 
 were not always guided by the best literary motives. And 
 while they published and republished many books of 
 which one edition would have been more than enough, 
 many other works of the greatest importance for Jewish 
 literature and history remained in manuscript. As an 
 instance, it will suffice to mention here the Zohar, which 
 has passed through twenty-four editions since the six- 
 teenth century, whilst the earliest Jewish Midrash, the 
 Pessikta de Rab Kahana, had to linger in the libraries till 
 the year 1868, when it was edited by Mr. S. Buber. Thus 
 there are still many pearls of Jewish literature which exist 
 only in MS. Likewise most publishers were careless in 
 their choice of the manuscript from which our editions 
 
264 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 have been prepared. Almost the whole of Jewish litera- 
 ture will have to be re-edited before a scientific study of it 
 will be possible. But such critical editions can only be 
 obtained by the aid of the MSS. not yet made use of, in 
 which better readings are to be found. From this fact 
 even those MSS. the contents of which have been several 
 times reprinted, as for instance the MSS. of the Midrash 
 Rabbah, gain the greatest literary importance. And the 
 more MSS. the editor of a work has at his disposal, the 
 more certain is he of being able to furnish us with a good 
 text. 
 
 But even when the whole of Jewish literature lies 
 before the student in the best of texts, there will still 
 remain a great charm about manuscripts. Printed books, 
 like the great mass of the modern society for which they 
 are prepared, are devoid of any originality. They interest 
 us only as classes, and it is very seldom that they have a 
 story of their own to tell. It is quite different with manu- 
 scripts, where the fact of their having been produced by a 
 living being invests them with a certain kind of individual- 
 ity. This is specially the case with Hebrew MSS., which 
 were not copied by men shut up in cloisters, but by socia- 
 ble people living in the world and sharing its joys and 
 sorrows. Even women were employed in this art, and I 
 remember to have read in some MS. or catalogue a post- 
 script by the lady copyist, which, if I remember rightly, 
 ran as follows: "I beseech the reader not to judge me 
 very harshly when he finds chat mistakes have crept into 
 this work; for when I was engaged in copying it God 
 blessed me with a son, and thus I could not attend to my 
 business properly." 
 
 To be sure, some of these copyists were curious folk. 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 265 
 
 Their mind as well as that of the world around them must 
 have been of a peculiar constitution hardly conceivable to 
 us. Take, for example, Benjamin, the copyist of a certain 
 Machzor in the Museum (Add. 11,639). This Machzor 
 was written in times of bitter persecution. The copyist, 
 who was himself a learned man, alludes in one place to 
 the sufferings which the Jews in a certain French town 
 had to undergo in the year 1276. On one of them, 
 the martyr R. Samson, Benjamin the copyist composed a 
 lamentation written in a most mournful strain. But this 
 lamentation is followed by a wine-song, one of the j oiliest 
 and wildest parodies for the feast of Purim. 
 
 Speaking of this Machzor I should like to remark that 
 it forms one of the greatest ornaments of the Museum. 
 Besides including the whole of the Pentateuch, the above- 
 mentioned Tarshish by R. Moses Ibn Ezra, and many 
 other smaller literary pieces which would require a small 
 volume to describe them properly, this MS. is most richly 
 illuminated, and contains very many illustrations. The 
 subjects of these illustrations are biblical, sometimes also 
 apocryphal, such as — Adam and Eve in Paradise, Noah 
 in the Ark, Abraham meeting the angels, Sarah behind 
 the door listening to the conversation of her husband with 
 his guests, Moses with the rod in his hands dividing the 
 Red Sea, Samson riding on the back of a lion, Solomon 
 on his throne, Daniel in the lion's den, the king Ahasuerus 
 holding out the golden sceptre to Esther, Judith address- 
 ing Holof ernes, the Leviathan, the mythical bird Bar 
 Yochni, and many other similar subjects. In passing I 
 recommend these illustrations and illuminations to the 
 attention of the artist as the most worthy examples of 
 Jewish ecclesiastical art, — if there is such a thing as a 
 
266 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 special Jewish art. The artist will find the Museum best 
 suited for this purpose, its collection being considered as 
 the richest of the kind. Besides this Machzor I must also 
 allude to the illuminated Bible (Or. 2226-28) written in 
 Lisbon for R. Judah Alchakin — it is said to be one of the 
 finest specimens of such works — and the illuminated 
 Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, executed for R. Joseph of 
 the famous Yachya family, also thought to be most artisti- 
 cally done. The liturgies for the Passover Eve service 
 will also offer to the artist a rich harvest, especially Codex, 
 Add. 27,210, which the wealthy Lady Rosa Galico pre- 
 sented to her son-in-law on his wedding-day, and Codex, 
 Add. 14,762, even the binding of which is considered as 
 an artistic curiosity. 
 
 Leaving now these marvels to the appreciation of the 
 artist, the greatest wonder which suggests itself to us is 
 how the Jews could maintain such a cultured taste in such 
 unhappy times, and get the means of satisfying it. These 
 reflections about the owners present themselves the more 
 strongly to our mind when we meet with one of those old 
 Jewish prayer-books, which in many cases formed the 
 whole religious and literary treasure of the family. In 
 their fly-leaves, in which the births and deaths of succes- 
 sive generations are very often registered, the spiritus 
 familiaris seems to be still haunting the pages. When 
 you turn them over and see the service for Passover Eve, 
 are you not bound to think of the anxiety with which these 
 poor creatures engaged in this ceremony lest they might 
 be attacked suddenly by a fanatic mob } must you not ask 
 how they could bear life under such circumstances ? And 
 when you turn a few more pages and arrive at the prayers 
 read for the dead, must you not ask how did they die ? 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 267 
 
 Were they perhaps burnt alive ad viajorcm Dei gloriam, 
 or torn to pieces by a " saintly mob " ? Take again the 
 illuminated copies of the Bible and the Mishneh Torah, 
 both of which were finished only a few years before the 
 great expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal, times 
 when the earth already "burnt under their feet, and the 
 heaven was also very unkind to them." And nevertheless 
 Jews were still, as these MSS. show us, cultivating science 
 and art. Another instance of such a devotion to science 
 in spite of the unfavourable times may be seen from a 
 colophon to Codex Or. 39. It contains the book Nissinty 
 a philosophical treatise on the fundamental teachings of 
 Judaism, together with a philosophical commentary on the 
 Pentateuch by R. Nissim of Marseilles, a contemporary 
 of R. Solomon ben Adereth in the thirteenth century. 
 The Museum copy was written by R. Jacob, the son of 
 David, who also added some annotations to the book. 
 At the end he says : " I have copied this book Nissim for 
 my own use, that I may study in it, I and my children and 
 my grandchildren. ... I have finished it to-day, Sunday, 
 the 28th of Ab, 5333 (1573), at Venice, in the year of the 
 expulsion which befell us on account of our sins." Now, 
 only observe this poor R. Jacob, who has to go through all 
 these horrors, yet is still occupied in copying MSS. for his 
 own pleasure, and in meditating on the most complicated 
 problems of philosophy and religion. 
 
 But it is not always stories of this heroic nature that 
 the MSS. tell us. They betray also very much of the 
 instability of human affairs and their weakness. You 
 find in many copies the words that they must not 
 "be sold or given in mortgage." But scarcely a genera- 
 tion has passed away, and they are already in the posses- 
 
268 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 sion of a new owner, who writes the same injunction to 
 be broken again by his children in their turn. In Codex 
 27,122, we find commendatory letters for a worthy poor 
 man, who is so unhappy as to have two grown-up daugh- 
 ters, and not to have the means of supplying them with 
 marriage portions. Indeed, he must have been very poor, 
 not possessing even a book in his house, or else his 
 troubles could not have been so great. For in Codex 
 Harl. 5702, we find the owner saying : " To eternal 
 memory that I have acquired this Third Book of Avicena 
 from the hands of my father-in-law, R. Jekuthiel, as a 
 part of my dowry." 
 
 As a sign of human weakness I give the following two 
 instances. There lies before me a cabbalistic Codex (Add. 
 27,199), which acquired some notoriety from the fact of 
 its having been copied by the famous grammarian, R. 
 Elijah Levita, for his pupil Cardinal Aegidius. At the 
 end of this MS. we read : " I (Levita) have finished (the 
 copying of) this book on Wednesday, the day of Hoshana 
 Rabba,^ 5277(1516), on which day I have seen my head 
 in the shadow of the moon. Praised be God (for it), for 
 now I am sure not to die in the following year." These 
 words relate to a well-known superstition, according to 
 which, when a man is going to die in the course of the 
 next year his shadow disappears from him on the preced- 
 ing Hoshana Rabba. But is it not humiliating to see 
 that the great Levita, who was superior to many preju- 
 dices of his time, and taught Christians Hebrew, and who 
 denied the antiquity of the vowels in the Bible, which was 
 considered by the great majority of his contemporaries 
 as a mortal heresy — is it not humiliating to see this 
 enlightened man trembUng for his life on this night, and 
 
BRITISH MUSEUM HEBREW COLLECTION 
 
 269 
 
 anxiously observing his shadow ? Another Codex lies 
 before me (Add. 17,053), containing the Novellae to three 
 tractates of the Talmud. Its owner must accordingly 
 have been a learned man. But in the fly-leaf of this MS. 
 we read the following words: "Memorandum — Thurs- 
 day, the 25th of Sivan, 5295 (1535), I have taken an oath 
 in the presence of R. David Ibn Shushan and R. Moses 
 de Castro, etc., not to play (cards) any more." I might 
 perhaps suggest on this occasion that in our days when 
 all sorts of Judaisms are circulating, a cooking Judaism, 
 a racing Judaism, a muscular Judaism, and so many 
 Judaisms more — it would be interesting to take up also 
 the subject of playing Judaism, and to write its history. 
 
 In conclusion I shall mention the colophon to Codex 
 Harl. 5713, which may have some interest for the English 
 reader. It runs : " I have written it in honour of the 
 noble and pious, etc., Humphrey Wanley, the noble Libra- 
 rian of my Lord Treasurer. May his glory be increased. 
 In the year 5474(1714) in the holy community of London, 
 under the reign of the noble and happy Queen Anne. 
 May the Lord increase her splendour and glory." The 
 signature of the copyist is "Aaron the son of Moses, 
 born in the city of Navaschadok in Poland." By the way, 
 we learn from this signature that the immigration of Polish 
 Jews into this country had already begun in the time of 
 Queen Anne, and perhaps still earlier. 
 
 Thus everything in a MS., the arrangement of the 
 matter, the remarks of the owners, the signature of the 
 copyist, sets the reader thinking, and contributes many 
 a side-light to the history of the Jews. 
 
XI 
 
 TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS 
 
 It is now more than half a century since Isaac Reggie 
 in his edition of Elijah Delmedigo's Examination of 
 Religion, made the remark that this book adds to its other 
 merits that of bearing a title corresponding to its contents, 
 — a merit that is very rare in Jewish books. Reggio pro- 
 ceeds to give a few specimens confirming his assertion, 
 and concludes his remarks with a eulogy on Delmedigo, 
 who in this respect also had the courage to differ from 
 his contemporaries. Zunz also once wrote an article on 
 titles of books. But this article unfortunately appeared 
 in some German periodical which the British Museum 
 does not possess, and I could not even succeed in ascer- 
 taining whether Zunz treats at all of titles of Hebrew 
 books, nor am I aware that the subject has been taken up 
 by any other scholar, Isaac D' Israeli's few notes on the 
 subject in his Curiosities of Literature being scarcely 
 worth mention. It seems to me, however, interesting 
 enough to deserve some illustration, though I can by no 
 means hope to be complete. 
 
 The titles of the books contained in the Bible need not 
 be discussed here ; information concerning them is to be 
 found in every critical introduction to the Old Testament. 
 The Rabbinical works dating from antiquity also offer 
 
 270 
 
TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS 27 1 
 
 little opportunity for reflection on their titles. The Tal- 
 mud, as a work, has no title at all ; for Talmud simply 
 means "teaching" or "study." Sometimes it is termed 
 ShaSS, an abbreviation of Shisha Sedarim} meaning the 
 Six Orders or divisions contained in the Mishnah. This 
 last word means, according to some authors, " Repetition." 
 Other Tannaitic collections of laws or expositions of the 
 Scriptures are called "the Book" (Siphra), "the Books" 
 (Siphre), or "Additions" (Tosephta to the Mishnah). 
 The word Baraitha'^ means the external Mishnah that 
 enjoyed less authority than the Mishnah of R. Judah the 
 Patriarch. Some approach to titles we find in the names 
 given to the different tractates included in the Mishnah, 
 as Berachoth, because it treats of Benedictions, Peah^ 
 (Corner) which contains the particulars concerning the 
 law in Lev. xix. and so forth. Of the few works quoted 
 in the Talmud it will suffice to mention the Seder Olam, 
 the Order of the World, the name of which is very suita- 
 ble to the chronological contents of the book. In general, 
 I may observe that as long as the law which prohibited 
 the writing down of the Oral teachings was in force, there 
 hardly existed Jewish books. But where there are no 
 books there is also no need for titles. The few titles, 
 however, which can be proved to be historical are simple 
 and to the point. It is not till about the beginning of the 
 Middle Ages, when this prohibitive law had, for reasons not 
 to be explained here, been abolished, that we can speak of 
 Hebrew books. But here also the Title-confusion begins. 
 In order that we may have some general view of the 
 thousands of titles that are catalogued by the Jewish 
 bibliographers, it will perhaps be well to arrange them 
 under the following six classes : — 
 
272 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 I. Simple titles, that have no other object than that of 
 indicating the subject matter of the book. These are, as 
 we have just seen, the only kind of titles known to antiq- 
 uity. The few books which the Gaonim left us bear 
 such simple titles as could have served as models to later 
 generations. Among them may be mentioned the Hala- 
 choth or collection of Laws, Creeds and Opinions, by R. 
 Saadiah Gaon, the Book on Buying and Selling, by R. 
 Hai Gaon, containing the laws relating to commercial 
 transactions. It may be noticed that this last book is 
 one of the best arranged in Jewish literature, and dis- 
 plays more systematising powers than even the Code of 
 Maimonides. The greatest part of the literary activity 
 of the Gaonim consists in their Responsa, in which they 
 gave decisions on ritual questions, or explanations of dif- 
 ficult passages in the Talmud, The titles borne by the 
 various collections of those Responsa belong to a period 
 later than the author's. The great majority of the books 
 produced by the Franco-German school may also be in- 
 cluded in this class. They are termed "Commentaries," 
 ''Additions" or "Glosses," " Novellae," or "Confirming 
 Proofs," and similar modest titles which show both their 
 relation to, and dependence on, another older authority. 
 The largest collection of Midrashim we possess bears the 
 simple title " Bag." * Many of the Responsa satisfy them- 
 selves with the words " Questions to, and Answers by." 
 
 II. Titles taken from the first word with which the book 
 begins, or from the first word of the Scriptural verse occur- 
 ring first in the book. This class is strongly represented 
 by the Midrashim. Thus the Midrash to the Song of 
 Songs is also quoted as the Midrash Chazitha^ " Midrash, 
 Seest thou " (the first text with which this Midrash deals 
 
TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS 273 
 
 being Proverbs xxii. 28). The Midrash to the Psalms is 
 called Midrash Shocher Tob^ "Midrash, He that dili- 
 gently seeketh the good " (Prov. xi. 37). The Midrash 
 containing the legendary story of the wars of the sons of 
 Jacob with the Canaanites is quoted as Midrash V'yisseu^ 
 "■ Midrash, And they journeyed," as the story begins with 
 the verse from Gen. xxxv. 5. And this is the case with 
 the titles of many other Midrashim. Whether the work 
 cited under the strange name of Meat on Coals did not 
 begin with those words, containing some law relating to 
 the salting of meat, I do not venture to decide. Under 
 this class we may also arrange those books that are called 
 after a phrase which is often used in the book, e.g., the 
 Midrash Yelamdenu (He may teach us), or the VehizhiVy 
 " And He commanded us," almost every paragraph in 
 these books beginning with the phrases mentioned.^ 
 Probably all the books belonging to this class received 
 from the hands of their authors or compilers no titles at 
 all. The student who had to quote them gave them 
 names after the phrase or word which first caught his eye. 
 In later centuries this class disappears almost entirely (see, 
 however, Ben-Jacob's Treasure, p. 201, No. 827). 
 
 III. Pompous titles. The largest contributions to this 
 class were made by the mystical writers. Books which 
 profess to know what is going on in the heavens above 
 and the earth beneath cannot possibly be satisfied with 
 modest titles. Thus we have the " Book of Brightness " 
 (Zohar), ''the shining book" (Bahir), ''the Confidential 
 Shepherd" (Moses).^ The books which the Zohar 
 quotes bear such titles as the Book of Adam, the Book of 
 Enoch. The only excuse for the Zohar is that the manu- 
 facturing of such books with pseudo-epigraphical titles 
 
274 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 had already begun in antiquity. It is not, however, till 
 the Gaonic period that a whole apocryphal literature sud- 
 denly emerges which perplexes the Gaonim themselves. 
 No one is spared. Angels, patriarchs, and martyrs are 
 called upon to lend their names to these books. What 
 one resents most is that history came within the range of 
 the forger's activity. There is, for instance, the Josippon, 
 which professes to be written by Josephus, the well-known 
 Jewish historian of the first century. But in spite of all 
 the care taken by the author to disguise himself in the 
 garb of antiquity, the Josippon is a forgery of the ninth 
 or tenth century. Of a similar kind is the Book of Jasher, 
 containing legendary stories relating to BibHcal person- 
 ages. It pretends to be identical with the Book of Jasher 
 quoted in Joshua x. 13 and 2 Sam. i. 18. Some sixty 
 years ago a certain Mr. Samuel of Liverpool had the mis- 
 fortune to make himself ridiculous by maintaining the pre- 
 tensions of this book; for, indeed, it does not require 
 much knowledge of the Agadic literature to see that the 
 Book of Jasher is only a compilation of comparatively late 
 Midrashim. 
 
 IV. Titles suggested by other Titles. As an instance of 
 this we may take Maimonides' great Code of Law, which 
 bears the title Mishneh Torah. The importance of the 
 book made it the object of study for hundreds of scholars, 
 who wrote their commentaries and glosses on it. Among 
 the titles of the commentaries such Title-genealogies may 
 be discovered as Maggid Mishneh, Mishneh Lammelech ; 
 which last word again suggested such titles as Emek ha- 
 Melech, Shaar )\2i-Melech, and so on.^^ 
 
 The same process may be observed in other standard 
 works, the importance of which made them a subject of 
 
TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS 275 
 
 investigation and interpretation as the " Prepared Table," 
 one of the glosses to which is called Mappah, "Table- 
 cloth," whilst others provided it with the Shewbread and 
 with New Fruit. 
 
 V. Euphemistic Titles, as "The Tractate of Joys," 
 treating of funeral ceremonies and kindred subjects. It 
 does not seem that this title was known to antiquity, but 
 it is certain that already the earlier authorities quoted it 
 by this name. "The Book of Life" (the German Jewish 
 title of which is Alle Dinini, von Freuden), is the name of 
 a very popular book containing the prayers to be read in 
 the house of mourning as well as in the cemetery, which 
 is also called the House of Life. 
 
 VL Titles taken from the Bible, or Fancy Titles. This 
 is the largest class of all, though it was utterly unknown 
 in antiquity. It will be, perhaps, convenient to arrange 
 this class of titles under the following sub-divisions, {a) 
 Titles taken from the Bible, but also fulfilling the purpose 
 of indicating the name of the author. For instance, 
 " Seed of Abraham" (Ps. cv. 6), is the title of nine differ- 
 ent books, the name of whose authors happened to be 
 Abraham; "And Isaac entreated" (Gen. xxv. 21), is by 
 Isaac Satanow on the Prayers ; " Then Isaac sowed " 
 (ibid. xxvi. 12), edited by R. Isaac Perles, contains an 
 index to the Zohar. "Jacob shall take root" (Is. xxvii. 
 6) is the name of a book on Grammar and Massorah 
 by R. Jacob Bassani. R. Joseph of Posen left two col- 
 lections of sermons and commentaries on the Penta- 
 teuch, of which the one is called " And Joseph nour- 
 ished " (Gen. xlvii. 12), the other "And Joseph gathered" 
 {ibid. 14). Authors with the name of Judah are repre- 
 sented among others by such titles as "And this of Judah" 
 
2^6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 (Deut. xxxiii. 7), a treatise on the laws concerning the 
 killing of animals; or "Judah shall go up" (Judges i. 2), 
 a pamphlet containing a collection of prayers to be said 
 on a journey. " Moses began " (Deut. L 5) forms the title 
 of three different books on various subjects, the authors 
 of which had the name Moses. " Moses shall rejoice," 
 a phrase occurring in the morning prayer for Sabbaths, 
 is also the title of two books, the authors of which were 
 named Moses. The " Rod of Aaron" enjoyed, as it seems, 
 a goodly popularity; there are four bearing this name, 
 not to speak of a fifth, " The Rod of Aaron brought forth 
 buds " (Exod. xvii. 23), which is the name of a collection 
 of Responsa by R. Aaron ben Chayim. But other Rods 
 also were fashionable; there are, besides the five Rods 
 of Moses, also Rods of Ephraim, Dan, Judah, Joseph, 
 Naphtali, and Manasseh. By authors of the name of 
 David we find books with the title " And David said," or 
 a " Prayer of David," and other phrases occurring in the 
 Psalms relating to David ; whilst the " Tower of David " 
 became the stronghold of other writers, and the " Shield 
 of David " protected as many as nine more. The " Chariot 
 of Solomon" (Cant. iii. 9) adorns the title-pages of five 
 books by authors named Solomon. The Caraite Solomon 
 Troki was so fond of that title that he called his two 
 polemical treatises "He made himself a chariot," while 
 R. Solomon of Mir's collection of sermons has the title, 
 "This Bed which is Solomon's" (Cant. iii. 7). As to 
 family names, there were not many authors in the enjoy- 
 ment of that luxury (especially among the German Jews), 
 but we find them indicating the fact of their being Priests 
 or Levites. Among such books are the collection of 
 Responsa, by R. Raphael Cohen, which has the title 
 
TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS 277 
 
 " And the Priest shall come again " (Lev. xiv. 39), and 
 the Cabbalistic treatise by R. Abraham Cohen, of Lask, 
 with the title **And the Priest shall reckon unto him" 
 (Lev. xxvii. 18). Probably the author deals with num- 
 bers. R. Hirsch Horwitz, the Levite, called his Novellae 
 to the Talmud "The Camp of Levi." The title "The 
 Service of the Levite " (with allusion to Exodus xxxviii. 
 21) is borne by five other books by authors who were 
 Levites. And there may be found hundreds of books 
 with titles suggesting the Priestly or Levitical descent of 
 their authors. Most anxious is Joseph Ibn Kaspi (Joseph 
 the Silvern, so called after his native place Argentiere, in 
 the south of France) to provide most of his numerous 
 books with some Biblical titles combined with silver, as a 
 "Bowl of Silver " (Numb. vii. 13), or "Points of Silver" 
 (Song of Songs i. 11), or "Figures of Silver" (Prov. xxv. 
 10), and other similar phrases. On the other hand Azulai 
 manages to indicate at least one of his three Hebrew 
 names, Chayim Joseph David, in most of his works, of 
 which the number exceeds seventy, as Chayim Shaal," 
 "He asked Life" (Ps. xxi. 4), or "The knees of Joseph" 
 (alluding to Gen. xlviii. 12), and "Truth unto David" 
 (Ps. cxxxii. 11). 
 
 {h) The Tabernacle with its furniture was also a great 
 favourite with many authors. There are not only six tab- 
 ernacles (two on Cabbalah, two on grammar, and two on 
 Talmudical subjects), but also three "Arks of the Testi- 
 mony," two "Altars of gold," two "Tables of Shewbread," 
 four "Candlesticks of the Light," two "Sockets of Silver," 
 and two "Pillars of Silver." Others again preferred the 
 vestments of the priests as the " Plate of Judgment," the 
 " Robe of the Ephod," the " Mitre of Aaron," the " Plate 
 
2^8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 of Gold," the "Bell and Pomegranate," " Wreathen Chains," 
 and the ''Arches of Gold." Many of these books were 
 written by authors claiming to be priests, {c) But be- 
 sides the canonical, other costumes were also fashionable. 
 R. Mordecai Yafeh composed ten books, every one of them 
 bearing the name of some garment or apparel, as "Apparel 
 of Royalty," " Apparel of Blue," " Apparel of White," and 
 so the whole suit with which Mordecai went out from the 
 presence of the king (Esther viii. 15). These ten works 
 range from codifications of the law and occasional sermons 
 to philosophy, astronomy, and Cabbalah. By other writers 
 we have three " Coats of many colours " (Gen. xxxvii. 4), 
 one " Bridal Attire," and the "Thread of Scarlet" is not 
 missing, {d) The ingredients for incense as well as other 
 articles used in the Tabernacle or in the Temple were also 
 fancied by some authors, and we have two books with the 
 title of " Principal Spices," two " Pure Myrrh," three 
 " Arts of the Apothecary," one " Oil of Holy Ointment," 
 five " Meat Offerings mingled or dry," three or four " Flour 
 of the Meat Offering," and also one " Two Young Pigeons " 
 (Bene Yonah) by R. Jonah Zandsopher. But the appetite 
 of the authors did not stop at these holy things. It ex- 
 tended also to such lay articles as "Spiced Wine," "Juice 
 of Pomegranate " (Cant. viii. 2), " Forests of Honey," the 
 " Book of the Apple," and " Seven Kinds of Drink." 
 
 {e) Field and flock also suggested to Hebrew writers as 
 well as to Mr. Ruskin such titles as " The Fruit of the 
 Hand," the " Rose of Sharon," the " Lily of the Valleys," 
 or "The Shepherds' Tents," and " In the Green Pastures" 
 (Ps. xxiii. 2). 
 
 The specimens given for every class may with very little 
 trouble be doubled and redoubled. But it is not my inten- 
 
TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS 279 
 
 tion to reproduce here whole catalogues. Reggio thinks 
 all such titles, which do not correspond with the context 
 of the book, absurd and confusing. He suggests that 
 the Jews followed in this respect the Arabic writers. There 
 is no doubt that Reggio is not altogether wrong in his 
 complaint. Almost all the titles included in class vi., as 
 the reader might have observed, never indicate to the 
 student the subject of which the books treat. How can 
 one guess that the Responsa, the Dance of Mahanaim 
 (two companies), is of a polemical nature against the ten- 
 dencies of reform } This list may be lengthened by hun- 
 dreds of titles. But even these incomprehensible titles 
 are better than the Chad Gadyah Lo Israel (One Kid No 
 Israel),^2 ^h^ un-Hebrew title of a pamphlet trying to prove 
 the un-Jewish origin of the well-known folk-song sung on 
 Passover Eve. But, on the other hand, it must not be 
 overlooked that even this class has, though not always, 
 something suggestive and even practical about it. The 
 " Choice of Pearls " is undoubtedly more attractive than 
 the prosaic " Collection of Proverbs and Sayings," which 
 is what the book contains. " Understanding of the Sea- 
 sons " (i Chr. xii. 32), sounds also better than the simple 
 " Collection of Sermons on different occasions." " The 
 Lips of those who Sleep " recommends itself as a very 
 suggestive title for a catalogue, especially when one thinks 
 of the Agadic explanation given to Cant. vii. 10, according 
 to which the study of the book of a departed author 
 makes the lips of the dead man to speak. Such titles as 
 " Bunch of Lilies " for a collection of poems are still usual 
 with us. Such a title as the " Jealousy Offering," or the 
 " Law of Jealousies," in polemical literature is very appro- 
 priate for its subject. R. Jacob Emden, who named one 
 
280 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 of his pamphlets " Rod for the fool's back " (Prov. xxvi. 3), 
 will be envied for his choice by many a controversialist 
 even to-day. Wittily devised is the pun-title, "City of 
 Sihon " for a mathematical book by R. Joseph Tsarphathi, 
 alluding to Numb. xxi. 27, " For Hesbon (reckoning) is 
 the City of Sihon." 
 
 Other titles were probably intended more as mottoes 
 cnan titles. "Go forth and behold, ye daughters of 
 Zion " (Cant. iii. 11), is put in the title-page of R. Jacob's 
 German-Jewish paraphrase of the Pentateuch, which was 
 written chiefly for the use of ladies. " Let another man 
 praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not 
 thine own lips " (Prov. xxvii. 2), forms the title of a book 
 extending over only one and a half page in quarto. It 
 contains letters by seven Rabbis (among them R. Liva of 
 Prague) recommending the Ascetic, R. Abraham Wangos, 
 who has a daughter to marry, and wants also to make a 
 pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as deserving the support 
 of his brethren. 
 
 There is also another objection to these titles. It is 
 that they seem sometimes not quite consonant with our 
 notions of modesty. Thus we have " Desirable and 
 Sweet" on astronomy, "Sweeter than Honey" or "He 
 shall comfort us," and many others of this kind. But it 
 must not be thought that we have a right to infer from 
 the title to the author. There is, indeed, an anecdote 
 that three authors were rather too little careful about 
 the choice of their titles, namely Maimonides in calling 
 his Code Mishneh Torah (which is the traditional title of 
 the Book of Deuteronomy), R. Moses Alshech in call- 
 ing his homiletical commentaries Torah of Moses, and 
 R. Isaiah Horwitz in calling his book Skene Luchoth ha- 
 
TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS 28 1 
 
 Berith (The Two Tables of the Covenant). These authors, 
 as the story goes, had for their punishment that their 
 works are never quoted by the titles they gave to them, 
 the former two being usually cited as Rambam or 
 Alshech, whilst the last is more known by its abbre- 
 viated title of SHeLa^^ than by its full name. 
 
 I do not remember where I have read this story, but I 
 am quite sure that its pious author would have been more 
 careful about repeating it had he known that this accu- 
 sation against Maimonides was a favourite topic with 
 apostates, who thought to hit Judaism in the person of 
 its representative Maimonides. But, as R. Solomon 
 Duran in his polemical work remarks, Maimonides was 
 too much of a truly great man to find any satisfaction 
 in such petty vanity. Nor do I believe that even the 
 character of less-known authors can in any way be im- 
 pugned by the seemingly conceited titles of their books ; 
 just as on the other hand the humility of the author is 
 not proved by calling his book "The Offering of the 
 Poor," or other modest titles. The fancy title was in 
 common use, and was therefore a commonplace with no 
 significance whatever. The real disadvantage of such 
 titles lies in the fact that, as already pointed out, they con- 
 ceal from the student the contents of the book which he 
 might otherwise consult in the course of his researches. 
 
 Did these authors perhaps foresee that there would 
 come a time in which index-knowledge would pass for 
 deep scholarship } and did they thus by using these 
 obscure titles try to put a check on the dabblers who 
 speak the more of a book the less they have read of its 
 contents } If this be the case we can only admire their 
 foresight. 
 
XII 
 
 THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 
 
 " I SAW a Jewish lady only yesterday with a child at 
 her knee, and from whose face towards the child there 
 shone a sweetness so angelical that it seemed to form a 
 sort of glory round both. I protest I could have knelt 
 before her, too, and adored in her the divine beneficence 
 in endowing us with the maternal storge which began with 
 our race and sanctifies the history of mankind." These 
 words, which are taken from Thackeray's Pendennis, may 
 serve as a starting-point for this paper. The fact that the 
 great student of man perceived this glory just round the 
 head of a Jewish lady rouses in me the hope that the small 
 student of letters may, with a little search, be able to dis- 
 cover in the remains of our past many similar traces of this 
 divine beneficence and sanctifying sentiment. Certainly 
 the glimpses which we shall catch from the faded leaves 
 of ancient volumes, dating from bygone times, will not be 
 so bright as those which the noveUst was so fortunate as 
 to catch from the face of a lady whom he saw but the pre- 
 vious day. The mothers and fathers, about whom I am 
 going to write in this essay, have gone long ago, and the 
 objects of their anxiety and troubles have also long ago 
 vanished. But what the subject will lose in brightness, it 
 may perhaps gain in reality and intensity. A few moments 
 
 282 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 283 
 
 of enraptured devotion do not make up the saint. It is a 
 whole series of feelings and sentiments betrayed on differ- 
 ent occasions, expressed in different ways, a whole life of 
 sore troubles, of bitter disappointments, but also moments 
 of most elevated joys and real happiness. 
 
 And surely these manifestations of the divine benefi- 
 cence, which appear in their brightest glory in the litera- 
 ture of every nation when dealing with the child, shine 
 strongest in the literature of the Jewish nation. In it, 
 to possess a child was always considered as the greatest 
 blessing God could bestow on man, and to miss it as the 
 greatest curse. The patriarch Abraham, with whom Israel 
 enters into history, complains — " Oh Lord, what wilt Thou 
 give me, seeing I go childless ! " 
 
 The Rabbis regarded the childless man as dead, whilst 
 the Cabbalist in the Middle Ages thought of him who died 
 without posterity as of one who had failed in his mission 
 in this world, so that he would have to appear again on 
 our planet to fulfil this duty. To trace out the feelings 
 which accompanied the object of their greatest anxiety, 
 to let them pass before the reader in some way ap- 
 proaching to a chronological order, to draw attention to 
 some points more worthy of being emphasised than 
 others, is the aim of this essay. 
 
 I said that I propose to treat the subject in chrono- 
 logical order. I meant by this that I shall follow the 
 child in the different stages through which it has to pass 
 from its birth until it ceases to be a child and attains its 
 majority. This latter period is the beginning of the thir- 
 teenth year in the case of a female, and the beginning of 
 the fourteenth year in the case of a male. I shall have 
 occasion later on to examine this point more closely. 
 
284 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 But there is the embryo-period which forms a kind of 
 preliminary stage in the life of the child, and plays a 
 very important part in the region of Jewish legends. 
 Human imagination always occupies itself most with 
 the things of which we know least. And so it got hold 
 of this semi-existence of man, the least accessible to ex- 
 perience and observation, and surrounded it by a whole 
 cycle of legends and stories. They are too numerous 
 to be related here. But I shall hint at a few points 
 which I regard as the most conspicuous features of 
 these legends. 
 
 These legends are chiefly based on the notion of the 
 pre-existence of the soul on the one hand, but on the 
 other hand they are a vivid illustration of the saying 
 of the Fathers, " Thou art born against thy will." Thus 
 the soul, when it is brought before the throne of God, 
 and is commanded to enter into the body, pleads before 
 Him : " O Lord, till now have I been holy and pure ; 
 bring me not into contact with what is common and un- 
 clean." Thereupon the soul is given to understand that 
 it was for this destiny alone that it was created. Another 
 remarkable feature is the warning given to man before 
 his birth that he will be responsible for his actions. He 
 is regularly sworn in. The oath has the double purpose 
 of impressing upon him the consciousness of his duty to 
 lead a holy life, and of arming him against the danger 
 of allowing a holy life to make him vain. As if to ren- 
 der this oath more impressive, the unborn hero is pro- 
 vided with two angels who, besides teaching him the 
 whole of the Torah, take him every morning through 
 paradise and show him the glory of the just ones who 
 dwell there. In the evening he is taken to hell to wit- 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 285 
 
 ness the sufferings of the reprobate. But such a lesson 
 would make free will impossible. His future conduct 
 would only be dictated by the fear of punishment and 
 hope of reward. And the moral value of his actions 
 also depends, according to Jewish notions, upon the 
 power to commit sin. Thus another legend records : 
 "When God created the world, He produced on the 
 second day the angels with their natural inclinations to 
 do good, and the absolute inability to commit sin. On 
 the following days again He created the beasts with their 
 exclusively animal desires. But He was pleased with 
 neither of these extremes. If the angels follow my will, 
 said God, it is only on account of their impotence to act 
 in the opposite direction. I shall therefore create man, 
 who will be a combination of both angel and beast, so that 
 he will be able to follow either the good or evil inclination. 
 His evil deeds will place him beneath the level of animals, 
 whilst his noble aspirations will enable him to obtain a 
 higher position than angels." Care is therefore taken to 
 make the child forget all it has seen and heard in these 
 upper regions. Before it enters the world an angel strikes 
 it on the upper lip, and all his knowledge and wisdom 
 disappear at once. The pit in the upper lip is a result of 
 this stroke, which is also the cause why children cry when 
 they are born. 
 
 As to the origin of these legends, the main features of 
 which are already to be found in the Talmud, I must refer 
 the reader to the researches of Low and others.^ Here 
 we have only to watch the effect which these legends had 
 upon the minds of Jewish parents. The newly born child 
 was in consequence looked upon by them as a higher 
 being, which, but a few seconds before, had been convers- 
 
286 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ing with angels and saints, and had now condescended 
 into our profane world to make two ordinary mortals 
 happy. The treatment which the child experienced from 
 its parents, as well as from the whole of the community, 
 was therefore a combination of love and veneration. One 
 may go even further and say that the belief in these 
 legends determines greatly the destination of the child. 
 What other destination could a being of such a glorious 
 past have than to be what an old German Jewish poem 
 expressed in the following lines : — 
 
 Geboren soil es wehren 
 Zu Gottes Ehren. 
 
 " The child should be born to the honour of God." The 
 mission of the child is to glorify the name of God on earth. 
 And the whole bringing up of the child in the old Jewish 
 communities was more or less calculated to this end. The 
 words of the Bible, " And ye shall be unto me a kingdom 
 of priests," were taken literally. Every man felt it his 
 duty to bring up his children, or at least one member of 
 his family, for this calling. How they carried out this 
 programme we shall see later on. 
 
 Now, regarding almost every infant as a predestined 
 priest, and thinking of it as having received a certain 
 preparation for this calling before it came into this world, 
 we cannot wonder that the child was supposed to show 
 signs of piety from the days of its earliest existence, and 
 even earlier. Thus we read that even the unborn children 
 joined in with the chorus on the Red Sea and sang the 
 Song (of Moses). David, again, composed Psalms before 
 perceiving the face of this world. On the Day of Atone- 
 ment they used to communicate to the unborn child, 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 2%*f 
 
 through the medium of its mother, that on this great day- 
 it had to be satisfied with the good it had received the day 
 before. And when a certain child, afterwards named 
 Shabbethai, refused to listen to such a request, R. Johanan 
 applied to it the verse from the Psalm, " The wicked are 
 estranged from the womb." Indeed, Shabbethai turned 
 out a great sinner. It will perhaps be interesting to hear 
 what his sin was. It consisted in forestalling the corn in 
 the market and afterwards selling if to the poor at a much 
 higher price. Of a certain child the legend tells that it 
 was born with the word emeth (truth) engraved on its fore- 
 head. Its parents named it Amiti,^ and the child proved 
 to be a great saint. 
 
 The priest, however, could not enter into his office with- 
 out some consecration. As the first step in this consecra- 
 tion of the child we may consider the Covenant of Abraham. 
 But this was prefaced by a few other solemn acts which 
 I must mention. One of the oldest ceremonies connected 
 with the birth of a child was that of tree-planting. In 
 the case of a boy they planted a cedar, in that of a girl 
 a pine ; and on their marriage they cut branches from 
 these trees to form the wedding-canopy. Other rites fol- 
 lowed, but they were more of a medical character, and 
 would be better appreciated by the physician. In the 
 Middle Ages superstition played a great part. To be sure, 
 I have spoken of saints ; but we ought not to forget that 
 saints, too, have their foolish moments, especially when they 
 are fighting against hosts of demons, the existence of 
 which is only guaranteed by their own over-excited brains. 
 Jewish parents were for many centuries troubled by the 
 fear of Lilith,^ the devil's mother, who was suspected of 
 stealing children and killing them. The precautions they 
 
288 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 took to prevent this atrocity were as foolish as the object 
 of their fear. I do not intend to enumerate here all these 
 various precautions. Every country almost has its own 
 usages and charms, one more absurd than the other. It 
 will suffice to refer here to the most popular of these 
 charms, in which certain angels are invoked to protect 
 the child against its dangerous enemy Lilith. But of 
 whatever origin they may be, Judaism could do better 
 without them. The only excuse for their existence among 
 us is to my mind that they provoked the famous Dr. Erter 
 to the composition of one of the finest satires in the 
 Hebrew language. 
 
 Of a less revolting character was the so-called ceremony 
 of the " Reading of the Shema." * It consisted in taking 
 all the little children of the community into the house of 
 the newly-born child, where the teacher made them read 
 the Shema, sometimes also the ninety-first Psalm. The 
 fact that little children were the chief actors in this cere- 
 mony reconciles one a little to it despite its rather doubt- 
 ful origin. In some communities these readings took 
 place every evening up to the day when the child was 
 brought into the covenant of Abraham. In other places 
 they performed the ceremony only on the eve of the day 
 of the Berith Milah^ (Ceremony of the Circumcision). 
 Indeed, this was the night during which Lilith was sup- 
 posed to play her worst tricks, and the watch over the 
 child was redoubled. Hence the name "Wachnacht," or 
 the •* Night of Watching." They remained awake for the 
 whole night, and spent it in feasting and in studying 
 certain portions of the Bible and the Talmud, mostly re- 
 lating to the event which was to take place on the follow- 
 ing day. This ceremony was already known to Jewish 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 289 
 
 writers of the thirteenth century. Nevertheless, it is con- 
 sidered by the best authorities on the subject to be of 
 foreign origin. Quite Jewish, as well as entirely free from 
 superstitious taint, was the visit which was paid to the 
 infant-boy on the first Sabbath of his existence. It was 
 called "Shalom Zachar,"^ probably meaning "Peace- 
 boy," in allusion to a well-known passage in the Talmud 
 to the effect that the advent of a boy in the family brings 
 peace to the world. 
 
 At last the dawn of the great day of the Berith came. 
 I shall, however, only touch here on the social aspects of 
 this rite. 
 
 Its popularity began, as it seems, in very early times. 
 The persecutions which Israel suffered for it in the times 
 of Antiochus Epiphanes, "when the princes and elders 
 mourned, the virgins and the young men were made 
 feeble, and the beauty of women was changed, and when 
 certain women were put to death for causing their chil- 
 dren to be circumcised," are the best proof of the attach- 
 ment of the people to it. The repeated attempts against 
 this law, both by heathen and by Christian hands, only 
 served to increase its popularity. Indeed R. Simeon ben 
 Eleazar characterised it as the law for which Israel 
 brought the sacrifice of martyrdom, and therefore held 
 firmly by it. In other words they suffered for it, and it 
 became endeared to them. R. Simeon ben Gamaliel de- 
 clares it to be the only law which Israel fulfils with joy 
 and exultation. As a sign of this joy we may regard the 
 eagerness and the lively interest which raised this cere- 
 mony from a strictly family affair to a matter in which the 
 whole of the community participated. Thus we find that 
 already in the times of the Gaonim the ceremony was 
 
2go STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 transferred from the house of the parents to the syna 
 gogue. Here it took place after the prayers, in the 
 presence of the whole congregation. The synagogue 
 used to be specially illuminated in honour of the event. 
 Certain pieces of the daily prayer, of a rather doleful 
 nature, such as the confession of sins, were omitted, lest 
 the harmony of the festival should be disturbed. As a 
 substitute for these prayers, various hymns suitable for 
 the occasion were composed and inserted in the liturgy 
 for the day. As the most prominent members among 
 those present figured the happy father of the child and 
 the medical man who performed the ceremony, usually 
 called the Mohel or Gozer,"^ both wearing their festal 
 garments and having certain privileges, such as being 
 called up to the Reading of the Law and chanting certain 
 portions of the prayers. It is not before the tenth century 
 that a third member suddenly emerges to become almost 
 as important as the father of the child. I refer to the 
 Sandek or Godfather. In some countries he was also 
 called the Baal Berith (Master of the Covenant). In Italy 
 they seemed to have had two Sandeks. This word was 
 for a long time supposed to be the Greek word o-vvBcko^;. 
 But it is now proved beyond doubt that it is a corruption 
 of the word o-vvreKvof; used in the Greek church for god- 
 father. In the church he was the man who lifted the 
 neophyte from the baptismal waters. Among the Jews, 
 the office of the Sandek was to keep the child on his 
 knees during the performance of the rite. The Sandek's 
 place was, or is still, near the seat of honour, which is 
 called the Throne of Elijah, who is supposed to be the 
 angel of the covenant. Other angels, too, were believed 
 to officiate at this rite. Thus the angel Gabriel is also 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 29 1 
 
 sard to have performed the office of Sandek to a certain 
 child. According to other sources the archangel Meta^ 
 tron himself attended. Probably it was on this account 
 that later Rabbis admonished the parents to take only 
 a pious and good Jew as Sandek for their children. 
 Christian theologians also declared that no good Christian 
 must render such a service to a Jew. The famous Bux- 
 torf had to pay a fine of 100 florins for having attended 
 the Berith of a child, whose father he had employed as 
 reader when editing the well-known Basel Bible. The 
 poor reader himself, who was the cause of Buxtorf's 
 offence, was fined 400 florins. Of an opposite case in 
 which a Jew served as godfather to a Christian child, we 
 find a detailed account in Schudt's Merkwiirdigkeiten der 
 Juden, a very learned and very foolish book. When the 
 father was summoned before the magistrate, and was 
 asked how he dared to charge a Jew with such a holy 
 Christian ceremony, he coolly answered, because he knew 
 that the Jew would present him with a silver cup. As 
 to the present, I have to remark that with the Jews also 
 the godfather was expected to bestow a gift on the child. 
 In some communities he had to defray the expenses of 
 the festival-dinner, of which I shall speak presently. In 
 others, again, he had also to give a present to the mother 
 of the child. 
 
 Much older than the institution of the Sandek is the 
 festival-dinner just alluded to, which was held after the 
 ceremony. Jewish legend supplies many particulars of 
 the dinner the patriarch Abraham gave at the Berith of 
 his son Isaac. This is a little too legendary, but there is 
 ample historical evidence that such meals were already 
 customary in the times of the Second Temple. The 
 
2Q2 . STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Talmud of Jerusalem gives us a detailed account of the 
 proceedings which took place at the Berith dinner of 
 Elisha ben Abuyah, who afterwards obtained a sad celeb- 
 rity as Acher. Considering that Elisha' s birth must have 
 fallen within the first decades after the destruction of the 
 Temple, and that these sad times were most unsuitable for 
 introducing new festivals, we may safely date the custom 
 back to the times of the Temple. The way in which the 
 guests entertained themselves is also to be gathered from 
 the passage referred to. First came the dinner, in which 
 all the guests participated ; afterwards the great men of 
 Jerusalem occupied one room, indulging there in singing, 
 hand clapping, and dancing. The scholars again, who 
 apparently did not belong to the great men, were confined 
 to another room, where they employed themselves in dis- 
 cussing biblical subjects. In later times special hymns, 
 composed for this festival, were inserted in the grace after 
 dinner. After the dinner, sermons or speeches used also 
 to be given, the contents of which were usually made up 
 of reflections on biblical and Talmudical passages relat- 
 ing to the event of the day. Sometimes they consisted of 
 a kind of learned puns on the name which the child re- 
 ceived on this occasion. 
 
 With this meal the first consecration of the child-priest 
 was concluded. In some places they used to come to the 
 father's house on the third day after the circumcision with 
 the purpose of making inquiries after the child's health. 
 In the case when the child was the first-born the ceremony 
 of " redeeming the child " ^ in accordance with Exodus xiil 
 used to take place. The details of this ceremony are to 
 be found in almost every prayer-book, and there is nothing 
 fresh to add. But perhaps I may be allowed to draw 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 
 
 293 
 
 attention to another distinction that the first-born received 
 in the Middle Ages. I refer to an account given by the 
 author of the book, The Ordinance of the Law? who 
 flourished in the thirteenth century. He says : Our pred- 
 ecessors made the rule to destine every first-born to God, 
 and before its birth the father had to say, " I take the vow 
 that if my wife presents me with a son, he shall be holy 
 unto the Lord, and in His Torah he shall meditate day and 
 night." On the eighth day after the Berith Milah they 
 put the child on cushions, and a Bible on its head, and 
 the elders of the community, or the principal of the col- 
 lege, imparted their blessings to it. These first-born sons 
 formed, when grown up, the chief contingent of the Yes- 
 hiboth (Talmudical Colleges), where they devoted the 
 greatest part of their lives to the study of the Torah. In 
 later centuries the vow was dropped, but from the abun- 
 dance of the Yeshiboth in Poland and elsewhere it seems 
 as if almost every child was considered as having no other 
 calling but the study of the Torah. Indeed, the growing 
 persecutions required a strengthening of the religious 
 force. 
 
 With these ceremonies the first act of consecration 
 ended in the case where the new-born child was a boy. 
 I will now refer to the ceremony of the name-giving, which 
 was common to males and females. In the case of the 
 former this ceremony was connected with the Berith 
 Milah. The oldest formula, which is already to be found 
 in the Ritual Rab Amrani Gaon, is composed in Aramaic. 
 It is, like many prayers in that language, a most beautiful 
 composition, and very suitable for the occasion. Our 
 present Hebrew prayer is far less beautiful, and dates 
 from a much later age. In some countries the ceremony 
 
294 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 of naming was repeated in the house of the parents. It 
 took place on the Sabbath, when the mother returned home 
 from her first visit to the synagogue after her recovery. 
 Here the friends and relatives of the family assembled, 
 and after arranging themselves round the cradle of the 
 child they lifted it three times, shouting the new name at 
 every lifting. This name was the so-called "profane" 
 name, whilst the name it received in the synagogue was 
 the "sacred" or Hebrew name. The ceremony con- 
 cluded with the usual festival-dinner. By the way, there 
 was perhaps a little too much feasting in those days. The 
 contemporary Rabbis tried indeed to suppress some of 
 the banquets, and put all sorts of restrictions on dinner- 
 hunting people. But considering the fact that, as Jews, 
 they were excluded from every public amusement, we 
 cannot grudge them the pleasure they drew from these 
 semi-religious celebrations. For people of an ascetic 
 disposition it was, perhaps, the only opportunity of enjoy- 
 ing a proper meal. In the same way, in our days, the 
 most severe father would not deny his lively daughter the 
 pleasure of dancing or singing charitably for the benefit 
 of suffering humanity. The ceremony described was known 
 to the authors of the Middle Ages by the name of Holle 
 Kreish. These words are proved by Dr. Perles to be of 
 German origin, and based on some Teutonic superstition 
 into the explanation of which I cannot enter here. 
 
 Of much more importance was the ceremony of name- 
 giving in the case of a girl, it being the only attention the 
 female child received from the synagogue. The usages 
 varied. In some countries the name was given on the 
 first Sabbath after the birth of the child. The father 
 was "called up to the Reading of the Law," on which 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 295 
 
 followed the formula, " He who blessed our ancestors 
 Abraham," etc., " may He also bless," etc., including the 
 blessing and announcement of the child's name. After 
 the prayer the congregation assembled in the house of 
 the parents to congratulate them. In other countries the 
 ceremony took place on the Sabbath when the mother at- 
 tended the synagogue after the recovery. The ceremony 
 of Holle Kreish seems to have been especially observed 
 in the case of a girl. 
 
 Though the feasting was now over for the parents, the 
 child still lived in a holiday atmosphere for a long time. 
 In the legend of the ''Ages of Man" the child is de- 
 scribed in the first year of its existence as a little prince, 
 adored and petted by all. The mother herself nourished 
 and tended the child. Although the Bible already speaks 
 of nurses, many passages in the later Jewish literature 
 show a strong aversion to these substitutes for the mother. 
 In the event of the father of the child dying, the mother 
 was forbidden to marry before her suckling infant reached 
 the age of two years, lest a new courtship might lead to 
 the neglect of the child. 
 
 More difficult is it to say wherein the other signs of 
 loyalty to the little prince consisted; as, for instance, 
 whether Jews possessed anything like lullabies to soothe 
 the little prince into happy and sweet slumber. At least 
 I am not aware of the existence of such songs in the 
 ancient Jewish literature, nor are they quoted by mediaeval 
 writers. The " Schlummerlied," by an unknown Jewish 
 bard, about which German scholars wrote so much, con- 
 tains more heathen than Jewish elements. From the 
 protest in The Boo'h of the Pious, against using non- 
 Jewish cradle-songs, it seems that little Moshechen was 
 
296 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 lulled to sleep by the same tunes and words as little 
 Johnny. The only Jewish lullaby of which I know, is 
 to be found in the work of a modern writer who lived 
 in Russia. How far its popularity goes in that country 
 I have no means of ascertaining. This jingle runs as 
 follows : — 
 
 O ! hush thee, my darling, sleep soundly my son, 
 Sleep soundly and sweetly till day has begun ; 
 For under the bed of good children at night 
 There lies, till the morning, a kid snowy white. 
 WeUl send it to market to buy Sechora,^*' 
 While my little lad goes to study Torah. 
 Sleep soundly at night and learn Torah by day, 
 Then thou'lt be a Rabbi when I have grown gray. 
 But I'll give thee to-morrow ripe nuts and a toy. 
 If thou'lt sleep as I bid thee, my own little boy." 
 
 But naturally the holiday atmosphere I spoke of was 
 very often darkened by clouds resulting from the illness 
 of the child. Excepting small-pox, the child was subject 
 to most of those diseases which so often prove fatal to 
 our children. These diseases were known under the col- 
 lective name of " the difficulties (or the pain) of bringing 
 up children." These difficulties seem to have been still 
 greater in Palestine, where one of the old Rabbis ex- 
 claimed that it was easier to see a whole forest of young 
 olive trees grow up than to rear one child.^ To avoid 
 so mournful a subject, I refrain from repeating the touch- 
 ing stories relating to the death of children. The pain 
 was the more keenly felt since there was no other way 
 of explaining the misfortune which befell the innocent 
 creature than that it had suffered for the sins of the 
 parents; and the only comfort the latter had was that 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 297 
 
 the child could not have lost much by its being removed 
 from this vale of tears at such an early period. A re- 
 markable legend describes God Himself as giving lessons 
 so many hours a day to these prematurely deceased 
 children.^3 Indeed, to the mind of the old Rabbis, the 
 only thing worth living for was the study of the Law. 
 Consequently the child that suffered innocently could 
 not have a better compensation than to learn Torah from 
 the mouth of the Master of masters. 
 
 But even when the child was healthy, and food and 
 climate proved congenial to its constitution, there still 
 remained the troubles of its spiritual education. And to 
 be sure it was not an easy matter to bring up a "priest." 
 The first condition for this calling was learning. But 
 learning cannot be acquired without honest and hard 
 industry. It is true that R. Akiba numbers wisdom 
 among the virtues which are hereditary from father to son. 
 Experience, however, has shown that it is seldom the case, 
 and the Rabbis were already troubled with the question 
 how it happens that children so little resemble their 
 fathers in respect of learning. 
 
 Certainly Jewish legends can boast of a whole series of 
 prodigies. Thus a certain Rabbi is said to have been so 
 sharp as to have had a clear recollection of the mid-wife 
 who made him a citizen of this world. Ben Sira again, 
 instantly after his birth, entertains his terrified mother 
 with many a wise and foolish saying, refuses the milk she 
 offers him, and asks for solid food. A certain Nachman 
 was born with a prophecy on his lips, predicting the fate 
 of all nations on earth, as well as fixing the date for the 
 advent of the Messiah. The youngest of seven sons of 
 Hannah, who became martyrs under the reign of Antio- 
 
2^8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 chus Epiphanes, was according to one version aged two 
 years, six months, six hours, and thirty minutes. But the 
 way in which he defied the threats of the tyrant was 
 really worthy of one of seventy. R. Judah de Modena is 
 said to have read the lesson from the prophets in the 
 synagogue at the age of two years and a half. A famous 
 Cabbalist, Nahum, at the age of three, gave a lecture on 
 the decalogue that lasted for three days. The Chassidim 
 pretended of one of their Zaddikim that he remembered 
 all that he had been taught by the angels before his birth, 
 and thus excused their Zaddik's utter neglect of studying 
 anything. Perhaps I may mention in this place a sen- 
 tence from Schudt, which may reconcile one to the harm- 
 less exaggerations of the Chassidim. It relates to a case 
 where a Jewish girl of six was taken away by a Christian 
 with the intention of baptising her, for he maintained that 
 this was the wish and pleasure of the child. Probably 
 the little girl received her instruction from the Christian 
 servant of the house, as has happened many times. 
 Schudt proves that this wish ought to be granted in spite 
 of the minority of the child. He argues : As there is a 
 maxim, ** What is wanting in years may be supplied by 
 wickedness," why could not also the reverse be true that 
 " What is wanting in years can be supplied by grace " ? 
 Of a certain R. Meshullam, again, we know that he 
 preached in the synagogue at Brody, at the age of nine, 
 and perplexed the chief Rabbi of the place by his deep 
 Talmudical learning. As the Rabbi had a daughter of 
 seven, the cleverness exhibited by the boy Rabbi did not 
 end without very serious consequences for all his life. 
 
 Happily all these prodigies or children of grace are 
 only exceptional. I say happily, for the Rabbis them- 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 299 
 
 selves disliked such creatures. They were more satisfied 
 with those signs of intelligence that indicate future great- 
 ness. The following story may serve as an instance : — ■ 
 R. Joshua ben Hananiah once made a journey to Rome. 
 Here he was told that amongst the captives from Jeru- 
 salem there was a child with bright eyes, its hair in 
 ringlets, and its features strikingly beautiful. The Rabbi 
 made up his mind to redeem the boy. He went to the 
 prison and addressed the child with a verse from Isaiah, 
 " Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers .? " 
 On this the child answered by continuing the second half 
 of the same verse, *' Did not the Lord, He against whom 
 we have sinned.? For they would not walk in His ways, 
 neither were they obedient unto His law" (Isaiah xlii. 
 24). The Rabbi was so delighted with this answer, that 
 he said : "I am sure he will grow up to be a teacher in 
 Israel. I take an oath to redeem him, cost what it 
 may." The child was afterwards known under the name 
 of R. Ishmael ben Elisha. Such children were ideals 
 of the Rabbis, but they hated the baby scholar, who 
 very often grew impertinent and abused his elders. The 
 Rabbis much preferred the majority of those tiny creat- 
 ures, who are characterised by the already mentioned 
 legends on the "Ages of Men" as little animals play- 
 ing, laughing, crying, dancing, and committing all sorts 
 of mischief. 
 
 But these children must be taught. Now, there is the 
 well-known advice of Judah ben Tema, who used to say 
 that the child at five years was to be taught Scripture, 
 at ten years Mishnah, at thirteen to fulfil the Law, etc. 
 This saying, incorporated in most editions in the fifth 
 Chapter of the Sayings of the Fathers^ is usually con- 
 
^OO STUDIES IN JUDAISM ■ 
 
 sidered as the programme of Jewish education. But, 
 like so many programmes, this tells us rather how things 
 ought to have been than how they were. In the times of 
 the Temple, the participation of the youth in religious 
 actions began at the tenderest age. As soon as they 
 were able to walk a certain distance with the support 
 of their parents, the children had to accompany them 
 on their pilgrimages to Jerusalem. In the Sabbatical 
 year they were brought to the Temple, to be present at 
 the reading of Deuteronomy by the king.i* The period 
 at which the child's allegiance to the Synagogue began 
 is still more distinctly described. Of the many Talmudi- 
 cal passages relating to this question, I shall select the 
 following quotation from a later Midrash, because it is 
 the most concise. In allusion to Leviticus xix. 23, 24, 
 concerning the prohibition of eating the fruits of a tree 
 in the first three years, this Midrash goes on to say: 
 "And this is also the case with the Jewish child. In 
 the first three years the child is unable to speak, and 
 therefore is exempted from every religious duty, but in 
 the fourth year all its fruits shall be holy to praise the 
 Lord, and the father is obliged to initiate the child in 
 religious works." Accordingly the religious life of the 
 child began as soon as it was able to speak distinctly, 
 or with the fourth year of its life. As to the character 
 of this initiation we learn from the same Midrash and 
 also from other Talmudical passages, that it consisted in 
 teaching the child the verses, " Hear, O Israel : the Lord 
 our God is One " (Deut. vi. 4), and " Moses commanded 
 us a Torah, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob " 
 (Deut. xxxiii. 4). It was also in this year that the boys 
 began to accompany their parents to the synagogue, car- 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 30 i 
 
 rying their prayer-books. At what age the girls first 
 came out — not for their first party, but with the pur- 
 pose of going to the synagogue — is difficult to decide 
 with any degree of certainty. But if we were to trust a 
 rather doubtful reading in Tractate Sopherim}^ we might 
 maintain that their first appearance in the synagogue was 
 also at a very tender age. I hope that they behaved there 
 more respectfully than their brothers, who played and 
 cried instead of joining in the responses and singing 
 with the congregation. In some communities they proved 
 so great a nuisance that a certain Rabbi declared it would 
 be better to leave them at home rather than to have the 
 devotion of the whole congregation disturbed by these 
 urchins. Another Rabbi recommended the praiseworthy 
 custom of the Sephardim,!^ who confined all the boys 
 in the synagogue to one place, and set a special over- 
 seer by their side, with a whip in his hands, to compel 
 them to keep quiet and to worship with due devotion. 
 
 A strange custom is known among the Arabian and Pal- 
 estinian Jews under the name of Chalaka. It means the 
 first hair-cutting of the boy after his fourth birthday. As 
 on this occasion loyalty to the Scripture is shown by not 
 touching the "corners " (Lev. xix. 17), the whole action is 
 considered a religious ceremony of great importance. In 
 Palestine it usually takes place on the second day of the 
 Feast of the Passover when the counting of the seven 
 weeks begins. On this day friends and relatives assemble 
 at the house of the parents. Thither the boy is brought, 
 dressed in his best garments, and every one of the as- 
 sembly is entrusted with the duty of cutting a few hairs, 
 which is considered a great privilege. The ceremony is as 
 usual followed by a dinner given to the guests. The Jews 
 
302 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 in Safed and Tiberias perform the ceremony with great 
 pomp in the courtyard surrounding the (supposed) grave 
 of R. Simeon ben Yochai, in one of the neighbouring 
 villages. 
 
 Another custom already mentioned in the Talmud, but 
 which quite disappeared in later times, is that of weighing 
 the child. It would be worth reviving if performed in the 
 way in which the mother of Doeg ben Joseph did it. This 
 tender-hearted mother weighed her only son every day, 
 and distributed among the poor, in gold, the amount of 
 the increased weight of her child. 
 
 I pass now to the second great consecration of the boy, 
 — the rites performed on the day when the boy went to 
 school for the first time. This day was celebrated by the 
 Jews, especially in the Middle Ages, in such a way as to 
 justify the high esteem in which they held the school. 
 The school was looked upon as a second Mount Sinai, and 
 the day on which the child entered it as the Feast of Reve- 
 lation. Of the many different customs, I shall mention 
 here that according to which this day was fixed for the 
 Feast of Weeks. Early in the morning, while it was still 
 dark, the child was washed and dressed carefully. In 
 some places they dressed it in a *'gown with fringes." 
 As soon as day dawned the boy was taken to the syna- 
 gogue, either by his father or by some worthy member of 
 the community. Arrived at their destination, the boy was 
 put on the Almemor, or reading-dais, before the Scroll of 
 the Law, from which the narrative of the Revelation (Exod. 
 XX. 2-26) was read as the portion of the day. From the 
 synagogue the boy was taken to the house of the teacher, 
 who took him into his arms. Thereupon a slate was 
 brought, containing the alphabet in various combinations, 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 303 
 
 the verse, " Moses has commanded," etc. in Deut. xxxiii. 4, 
 the first verse of the Book of Leviticus, and the words, 
 " The Torah will be my calling." The teacher then read 
 the names of the letters, which the boy repeated. After 
 the reading, the slate was besmeared with honey, which the 
 boy licked off. This was done in allusion to Ezekiel iii 
 3, where it is said : " And it (the roll) was in my mouth 
 as honey for sweetness." The boy was also made to eat 
 a sweet cake, on which were written passages from the 
 Bible relating to the importance of the study of the Torah. 
 The ceremony was concluded by invoking the names of 
 certain angels, asking them to open the heart of the boy, 
 and to strengthen his memory. By the way, I am very 
 much afraid that this invocation was answerable for the 
 abolition of this ceremony. The year in which this cere- 
 mony took place is uncertain, probably not before the fifth, 
 nor later than the seventh, according to the good or bad 
 health of the child. 
 
 The reverence for the child already hinted at was still 
 further increased when the boy entered the school. " The 
 children of the house (school) of the master " is a regular 
 phrase in Jewish literature. It is on their pure breath 
 that the existence of the world depends, and it is their 
 merit that justifies us in appealing to the mercy of God. 
 Words of Scripture, uttered by them quite innocently^ 
 were considered as oracles ; and many a Rabbi gave up 
 an undertaking on account of a verse pronounced by a 
 schoolboy, who hardly understood its import. Take only 
 one instance : R. Johanan was longing to see his friend 
 Mar Samuel in Babylon. After many disturbances and 
 delays, he at last undertook the journey. On the way he 
 passed a school where the boys were reciting the verse 
 
304 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 from I Samuel xxviii. 3, "And Samuel died." This was 
 accepted by him as a hint given by Providence that all 
 was over with his friend. 
 
 Especially famous for their wisdom and sharpness were 
 the children of Jerusalem. Of the many illustrative 
 stories given in the Midrash to Lamentations, let the fol- 
 lowing suffice : R. Joshua was one day riding on his don- 
 key along the high road. As he passed a well, he saw a 
 little girl there, and asked her to give him some water. 
 She accordingly gave water to him and to his animal. 
 The Rabbi thanked her with the words : " My daughter, 
 you acted like Rebecca." "To be sure," she answered, 
 "I acted like Rebecca; but you did not behave like 
 Eleazar." I must add that there are passages in Jewish 
 literature from which, with a little ingenuity, it might be 
 deduced that Jewish babies are the most beautiful of their 
 kind. The assertion made by a monk that Jewish chil- 
 dren are inferior to Christian children is a dreadful libel. 
 The author of the Old Victory}^ in whose presence this 
 assertion was made, was probably childless, or he would 
 have simply scratched out the eyes of this malicious monk, 
 instead of giving a mystical reason for the superior beauty 
 of any other children than his own. 
 
 Another point to be emphasised is that the boys were 
 not confined all day long to the close air of the school- 
 room. They had also their hours of recreation. This 
 recreation consisted chiefly, as one can imagine, in play- 
 ing. Their favourite game was the ball, boys as well as 
 girls being fond of this form of amusement. They did 
 not deny themselves this pleasure even on festivals. 
 They were also fond of the kite and games with nuts, in 
 which their mothers also took part. Letter-games and 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 305 
 
 riddles also occupied their minds in the recreation hours. 
 The angel Sandalphon,^^ who also bears in the Cabbalah 
 the name of " Boy," was considered by the children as 
 their special patron, and they invoked him in their plays, 
 addressing to him the words : " Sandalphon, Lord of the 
 forest, protect us from pain." Speaking generally, there 
 are very few distinctively Jewish games. From the re- 
 searches of Zunz, Giidemann, and Low on this subject, it 
 is clear that the Jews always adopted the pastimes of the 
 peoples among whom they dwelt. 
 
 But it must not be thought that there was too much 
 playing. Altogether, Jewish education was far from spoil- 
 ing the children. And though it was recommended — if 
 such recommendation were necessary — to love children 
 more than one's own soul, the Rabbis strongly condemned 
 that blind partiality towards our own offspring, which ends 
 in burdening our world with so many good-for-nothings. 
 The sad experience of certain biblical personages served 
 as a warning for posterity. Even from the quite natural 
 behaviour of Jacob towards his son Joseph, which had the 
 best possible results in the end, they drew the lesson that 
 a man must never show to one of his children marks of 
 greater favour than to the others. In later times they 
 have been even anxious to conceal this love altogether, 
 and some Rabbis went so far as to refrain from kissing 
 their children. The severity of Akabya ben Mahalaleel 
 is worth mentioning, if not imitating. When this Rabbi, 
 only a few minutes before his death, was asked by his 
 son to recommend him to his friends and colleagues, the 
 answer the poor boy received was : " Thy conduct will 
 recommend thee to my friends, or will estrange thee from 
 them." Another Rabbi declared (with reference to Pro v. 
 
 X 
 
3o6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 xxviii. 27) that it is life-giving to a youth to teach him 
 temperance in his diet, and not to accustom him to meat 
 and wine. R. Judah, the Pious, in the Middle Ages, gives 
 the advice to rich parents to withdraw their resources 
 from their sons if they lead a disorderly life. The strug- 
 gle for their existence, and the hardship of life, would 
 bring them back to God. When the old Rabbi said that 
 poverty is a most becoming ornament for Israel, his re- 
 mark was probably suggested by a similar thought. And 
 many a passage in the Rabbinic literature gives expression 
 to the same idea as that in Goethe's divine lines : — 
 
 Wer nie sein Brot mit Thranen ass, 
 
 Wer nie die kummervollen Nachte 
 
 Auf seinem Bette weinend sass, 
 
 Der kennt Euch nicht, Ihr himmlischen Machte. 
 
 I have spoken of a kingdom of priests, but there is one 
 great disadvantage of such a polity. One or two priests 
 in a community may be sustained by the liberality of 
 the congregation. But if a community consisted of only 
 priests, how could it then be maintained ? Besides, the 
 old Jewish ideal expected the teacher to be possessed of a 
 divine goodness, imparting his benefits only as an act of 
 grace. Salaries, therefore, either for teaching or preach- 
 ing, or for giving ritual decisions, were strongly forbidden. 
 The solution of the question put by the Bible, " And if ye 
 shall say. What shall we eat.?" is to be found in the law 
 that every father was obliged to teach his son a handi- 
 craft, enabling him to obtain a living. 
 
 I have now to speak of the time when childhood is 
 brought to a conclusion. It is, as I stated above, in the 
 case of a girl at the beginning of the thirteenth year, and 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 307 
 
 in that of a boy at the beginning of the fourteenth year. 
 As a reason for this priority I will reproduce the words of 
 R. Chisda, who said that God has endowed woman with 
 a greater portion of intelligence than man, and therefore 
 she obtains her maturity at an earlier period than man 
 does. A very nice compliment, indeed ; but like all com- 
 pliments it is of no practical consequence whatever. It 
 is not always the wiser who get the best of it in life. 
 Whilst the day on which the girl obtained her majority 
 passed unnoticed either by her or by her family, it was 
 marked in the case of the boy as the day on which he 
 become a Son of the Law,i^ and was signalised by various 
 rites and ceremonies, and by the bestowing on him of 
 beautiful presents. I miss only the wig, which used to 
 form the chief ornament of the boy on this happy day. 
 Less known, however, is the origin of this ceremony, 
 and the reason for fixing its date. It cannot claim a very 
 high antiquity. I may remark that in many cases centu- 
 ries elapse before an idea or a notion takes practical shape 
 and is crystallised into a custom or usage, and still longer 
 before this custom is fossilised into a law or fixed institu- 
 tion. As far as the Bible goes, there is not the slightest 
 indication of the existence of such a ceremony. From 
 Lev. xxvii. 5, and Num. xiv. 29, it would rather seem that 
 it was not before the twentieth year that the man was con- 
 sidered to have obtained his majority, and to be responsi- 
 ble for his actions. It was only in the times of the Rabbis, 
 when Roman influence became prevalent in juristic mat- 
 ters at least, that the date of thirteen, or rather the puber- 
 tas, was fixed as giving the boy his majority. But it would 
 be a mistake to think that before having obtained this 
 majority the boy was considered as under age in every 
 
2o8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 respect. Certainly the law made every possible effort to 
 connect him with the synagogue, and to initiate him in his 
 religious duties long before the age of thirteen. 
 
 We have seen that the boy's first appearance in the syn- 
 agogue was at the beginning of the fourth year. We have 
 noticed the complaints about his troublesome behaviour. 
 But how could we expect the poor child to be attentive to 
 things which quite surpassed the intellectual powers of his 
 tender age } There was no better reason for this attend- 
 ance either in the Temple or in the synagogue than that 
 the parents might be rewarded by God for the trouble of 
 taking their children there. These cares, by the way, fell 
 most heavily upon the women. The mother of R. Joshua 
 enjoyed this burden so much that she carried her boy, 
 when still in the cradle, to the " House of Study of the 
 Law," in order that his ears might be accustomed to the 
 sound of the Torah. In later times there was another ex- 
 cuse for taking the little children to the synagogue. They 
 were there allowed to sip the wine of the Sanctification 
 Cup,2o which was the exclusive privilege of the children ; 
 an easy way of worshipping, but, as you can observe, it is 
 a method that they enjoy and understand most excellently. 
 They did not less enjoy and understand the service with 
 which they were charged on the day of ''The Rejoicing of 
 the Law." 21 On this feast they were provided with flags, 
 which they carried before the bearers of the Torah, who 
 feasted them after the service with sweets. Another treat 
 was that of being called up on this day to the Torah, a 
 custom that is still extant. In the Middle Ages they went 
 in some countries so far as to allow these little fellows who 
 did not wear caps " to be called up " to say the blessings 
 over the Law bare-headed. A beautiful custom was that 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 309 
 
 every Sabbath, after finishing the weekly lesson and dress- 
 ing the Scroll of the Law, the children used to come up to 
 the Almemor and kiss the Torah. Leaving the synagogue 
 they kissed the hands of the scholars. At home the initi- 
 ation began with the blessing the child received on every 
 eve of the Sabbath, and with its instruction in " Hear O 
 Israel" and other verses as already mentioned. Short 
 prayers, consisting of a single sentence, were also chosen 
 for children of this age. The function of the child on the 
 eve of the first day of Passover is well known. Besides 
 the putting of the four questions for the meaning of the 
 strange ceremony (Exod. xiii. 14), the boy had also to 
 recite, or rather to sing, the " Praise." 22 But I am afraid 
 that they enjoyed better the song of "One Kid," which 
 was composed or rather adapted for their special enter- 
 tainment from an old German poem. 
 
 Within three or four years after entering the syna- 
 gogue, and with the growth of intellect and strength, 
 the religious duties of the boy increased, and became of 
 a more serious character. He had not only to attend 
 the school, which was troublesome enough, but he was 
 also expected to attend the services more regularly, and 
 to gain something by it. Yet the Rabbis were not so 
 tyrannical as to put unjust demands on the patience of 
 the child. The voice of God on Mount Sinai, the Rabbis 
 said, was adapted to the intellect and powers of all who 
 witnessed the Revelation — adapted, as the Midrash says, 
 to the powers of old and young, children and women. It 
 was in accordance with this sentiment that the Rabbis 
 suited their language to the needs of the less educated 
 classes. Thus we read in the Tractate Sopherim that 
 according to the law the portion of the week, after hav 
 
2IO STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 ing been recited in Hebrew, must be translated into 
 the language of the vernacular for the benefit of the un- 
 learned people, the women, and the children. Another 
 consideration children experienced from the Rabbis was 
 that at the age of nine or ten the boy was initiated into 
 the observance of the Day of Atonement by fasting a 
 few hours. Lest, however, this good work might be over- 
 done, and thus endanger the child's health, the sage R. 
 Acha used to tell his congregation after the Addition- 
 Prayer " My brethren, let every one of you who has a 
 child go home and make it eat." In later centuries, 
 when the disease of small-pox became so fatal, some 
 Rabbis declared it to be the duty of every father to 
 leave the town with his children as soon as the plague 
 showed itself. The joy with which the Rabbis hailed 
 Dr. Jenner's discovery deserves our recognition. None 
 of them perceived in vaccination a defiance of Provi- 
 dence. R. Abraham Nansich, from London, wrote a 
 pamphlet to prove its lawfulness. The Cabbalist Buzagli 
 disputed Dr. Jenner's priority, but nevertheless approved 
 cf vaccination. R. Israel Lipschiitz declared that the 
 Doctor acquired salvation by his new remedy. 
 
 With his advancing age, not only the boy's duties but 
 also his rights were increased. An enumeration of all 
 these rights would lead me too far, but I shall mention 
 the custom which allowed the boy the recital of " Magni- 
 fied "^s and "Bless ye"^* in the synagogue. Now this 
 privilege is restricted to the orphan boy. It is interest- 
 ing to hear that girls were also admitted to recite the 
 Magnified in the synagogue, in cases where their parents 
 left no male issue. I have myself witnessed such a case. 
 In some countries the boy had the exclusive privilege of 
 
THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 311 
 
 reading the prayers on the evenings of the festivals and 
 Sabbaths. R. Samson ben Eleazar, in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, received his family name Baruch Sheamar^^ from 
 the skill with which he recited this prayer when a boy. 
 He chanted it so well that he was called by the members 
 of the community Master Baruch Sheamar. As to the 
 question whether the boy, while under age, might law- 
 fully be considered as one of the Ten when such a quo- 
 rum was required, or one of the three in the case of 
 grace after meals, I can only say that the authorities 
 never agreed in this respect. Whilst the one insisted 
 upon his having obtained his majority, the other was 
 satisfied with his showing such signs of intelligence as 
 would enable him to participate in the ceremony in ques- 
 tion. Here is an instance of such a sign. Abaye and 
 Raba, the two celebrated heroes of the Babylonian Tal- 
 mud, were sitting at the table of Rabbah. Before say- 
 ing grace he asked them, " Do you know to whom these 
 prayers are addressed .? " Thereupon one boy pointed 
 to the roof, whilst the other boy went out and pointed 
 to the sky. The examiner was satisfied with their answer. 
 The privilege of putting on the phylacteries forms now 
 in most countries the chief distinction of "The Son of 
 the Law " ; in olden times, however, every boy had claim 
 to it as soon as he showed himself capable of behaving 
 respectfully when wearing the holy symbol. It even hap- 
 pened that certain honours of the synagogue were be- 
 stowed on boys, though under age. We possess a copy 
 of a Jewish epitaph dating from about the third century, 
 which was written in Rome for a boy of eight years, who 
 is there designated as archon. The fact is the more curi- 
 ous, as on the other hand the Palestinian R. Abuha, who 
 
212 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 lived in the same century, maintained that no man must 
 be elected as Warden before he has achieved his fiftieth 
 year. That boys were admitted to preach in the syna- 
 gogue I have already mentioned.^^ 
 
 From all these remarks it will easily be seen that in 
 olden times the boy enjoyed almost all the rights of 
 majority long before the day of his being "The Son of 
 the Law." The condition of the novice is hardly distin- 
 guishable from that of the initiated priest. The Talmud, 
 the Gaonim, and even R. Isaac Alfasi and Maimonides 
 knew neither the term "The Son of the Law" (in our 
 sense of the word) nor any ceremony connected with it. 
 There is only one slight reference to such an institution, 
 recorded in the Tractate Sopherim, with the quotation of 
 which I shall conclude this paper. We read there : " In 
 Jerusalem there was the godly custom to initiate the chil- 
 dren at the beginning of the thirteenth year by fasting the 
 whole Day of Atonement. During this year they took 
 the boy to the priests and learned men that they might 
 bless him, and pray for him that God might think him 
 worthy of a life devoted to the study of the Torah and 
 pious works." For, this author says, " they were beauti- 
 ful, and their lives harmonious and their hearts directed 
 to God." 
 
XIII 
 
 WOMAN IN TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 
 
 The learned Woman has always been a favourite sub- 
 ject with Jewish students; and her intellectual capabilities 
 have been fully vindicated in many an essay and even 
 fair-sized book. Less attention, however, has been paid 
 to woman's claims as a devotional being whom the 
 Temple, and afterwards the Synagogue, more or less 
 recognised. At least it is not known to me that any 
 attempt has been made to give, even in outline, the history 
 of woman's relation to public worship. It is needless to 
 say that the present sketch, which is meant to supply 
 this want in some measure, lays no claim to completeness ; 
 but I venture to hope that it will help to direct the atten- 
 tion of the friends of research to the matter, and that it 
 may induce others to deal more fully with the subject and 
 do it the justice it deserves. 
 
 The earliest allusion to women's participation in public 
 worship, is that in Exodus xxxviii. 8, to the women who 
 assembled to minister at the door of the "tent of meet- 
 ing," of whose mirrors the lavers of brass were made (cf. 
 I Sam. ii. 22). Philo, who is not exactly enamoured of 
 the emancipation of women, and seeks to confine them to 
 the " small state," is here full of their praise. *' For," he 
 says, "though no one enjoined them to do so, they of 
 
 3>3 
 
^14 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 their own spontaneous zeal and earnestness contributed 
 the mirrors with which they had been accustomed to deck 
 and set off their beauty, as the most becoming first-fruits 
 of their modesty, and of the purity of their married life, 
 and, as one may say, of the beauty of their souls." In 
 another passage Philo describes the Jewish women as 
 " competing with the men themselves in piety, having 
 determined to enter upon a glorious contest, and to the 
 utmost extent of their power to exert themselves so as not 
 to fall short of their holiness." 
 
 It is, however, very difficult to ascertain in what this 
 ministry of women consisted. The Hebrew term "Zo- 
 beoth " ^ would suggest the thought of a species of relig- 
 ious Amazons, who formed a guard of honour round the 
 Sanctuary. Some commentators think that the minis- 
 try consisted in performing religious dances accompanied 
 by various instruments. The Septuagint again speaks 
 "of the women who fasted by the doors of the Taber- 
 nacle." But most of the old Jewish expositors, as well as 
 Onkelos, conceive that the women went to the tent of 
 meeting to pray. Ibn Ezra offers the interesting remark, 
 "And behold, there were women in Israel serving the 
 Lord, who left the vanities of this world, and not being 
 desirous of beautifying themselves any longer, made of 
 their mirrors a free offering, and came to the tabernacle 
 every day to pray and to listen there to the words of 
 the commandments." When we find that in i Sam, i. 
 12, "Hannah continued to pray before the Lord," she 
 was only doing there what many of her sisters did 
 before and after her. We may also judge that it was 
 from the number of these noble women, who made relig- 
 ion the aim of their lives, that the " twenty-two " heroines 
 
WOMAN IN TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 315 
 
 and prophetesses sprang who form part of the glory of 
 Jewish history. Sometimes it even happened that their 
 husbands derived their religious inspiration from them. 
 Thus the husband of the prophetess Deborah is said to 
 have been an unlettered man. But his wife made him 
 carry to the Sanctuary the candles which she herself had 
 prepared, this being the way in which she encouraged 
 him to seek communion with the righteous. 
 
 The language in which the husband of the " Great 
 Woman " of Shunem addresses his wife : ''Wherefore wilt 
 thou go to him" (the prophet).? "it is neither New Moon 
 nor Sabbath " (2 Kings iv. 23), proves that on Festivals 
 and Sabbaths the women used to attend some kind of wor- 
 ship, performed by the prophet, though we cannot say in 
 what this worship consisted. The New Moon was espe- 
 cially a woman's holiday, and was so observed even in the 
 Middle Ages, for the women refrained from doing work 
 on that day. The explanation given by the Rabbis is that 
 when the men broke off their golden earrings to supply 
 material for the golden calf, the women refused to con- 
 tribute their trinkets, for which good behaviour a special 
 day of repose was granted to them. Some Cabbalists even 
 maintain that the original worshippers of the golden calf 
 continue to exist on earth, their souls having successively 
 migrated into various bodies, while their punishment con- 
 sists in this, that they are ruled over by their wives. 
 Rather interesting as well as complimentary to women 
 is the remark which the Rabbis made with regard to 
 the " Great Woman." As will be remembered, it is she 
 who says, " I perceive that this (Elisha) is a holy man 
 of God" (2 Kings iv. 19). In allusion to this verse 
 the Talmud says : " From this fact we may infer that 
 
3i6 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 woman is quicker in recognising the worth of a stranger 
 than man." 
 
 The great woman, or women, continued to pray and to 
 join in the public worship also after the destruction of the 
 first Temple. Thus Esther is reported by tradition to 
 have addressed God in a long extempore prayer before 
 she presented herself before the throne of Ahasuerus to 
 plead her people's cause ; and women were always en- 
 joined to attend the reading of the Book of Esther. When 
 Ezra read the Law for the first time, he did so in the pres- 
 ence of the men and the women (Neh. viii. 3). In the 
 Book of the Maccabees we read of " The women girt with 
 sackcloth . . . and the maidens that ran to the gates . . . 
 And all holding their hands towards heaven made suppli- 
 cation." In the Judith legend, mention is also made of 
 " Every man and woman . . . who fell before the Temple, 
 and spread out their sackcloth before the face of the Lord 
 . . . and cried before the God of Israel." In the second 
 Temple, the women, as is well known, possessed a court 
 reserved for their exclusive use. There the great illumi- 
 nations and rejoicings on the evening of the Feast of Tab- 
 ernacles used to be held. On this occasion, however, the 
 women were confined to galleries specially erected for 
 them. It was also in this Women's Hall that the great 
 public reading of certain portions of the Law by the king, 
 once in seven years, used to take place, and women had 
 also to attend at the function. On the other hand, it is 
 hardly necessary to say that women were excluded from 
 performing any important service in the Temple. If we 
 were to trust a certain passage in the " Chapters of R. 
 Eliezer," we might perhaps conclude that during the first 
 Temple, the wives of the Levites formed a part of the 
 
WOMAN IN TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 
 
 317 
 
 choir, but the meaning of the passage is too obscure and 
 doubtful for us to be justified in basing on it so important 
 an inference. Nor can the three hundred maidens who 
 were employed for the weaving of the curtains in the Tem- 
 ple, be looked upon as having stood in closer connection 
 with the Temple, or as having formed an order of women- 
 priests or girl-devotees (as one might wrongly be induced 
 to think by certain passages in Apocryphal writings of the 
 New Testament). But on the other hand, it is not im- 
 probable that their frequent contact with the Sanctuary of 
 the nation produced in them that religious enthusiasm and 
 zeal which may account for the heroic death which — ac- 
 cording to the legend — they sought and found after the 
 destruction of the Temple. It is to be remarked that, 
 according to the law, women were even exempted from 
 putting their hands on the head of the victim, which 
 formed an important item in the sacrificial worship. It is, 
 however, stated by an eye-witness, that the authorities per- 
 mitted them to perform this ceremony if they desired to do 
 so, and that their reason for this concession was " to give 
 calmness of the spirit, or satisfaction, to women." 
 
 Still greater, perhaps, was " the calmness of spirit " 
 given to women in the synagogue. We find in ancient 
 epitaphs that such titles of honour were conferred upon 
 them as "Mistress of the Synagogue," and "Mother of 
 the Synagogue," and, though they held no actual office 
 in the Synagogue, it is not improbable that they acquired 
 these titles by meritorious work connected with a religious 
 institution, viz. : Charity. There was, indeed, a tendency 
 to exclude women from the synagogue at certain seasons, 
 but almost all the authorities protest against it, many of 
 them declaring such a notion to be quite un-Jewish. Some 
 
2i8 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Jewish scholars even think that the ancient synagogues 
 knew of no partition for women. I am rather incUned to 
 think that the synagogue took for its model the arrange- 
 ments in the Temple, and thus confined women to a place 
 of their own. But, whether they sat side by side with 
 the men or occupied a special portion of the edifice, there 
 can be no doubt that the Jewish women were great syna- 
 gogue-goers. To give only one instance. One Rabbi asks 
 another: Given the case that the members of the syna- 
 gogue are all descendants of Aaron, to whom then would 
 they impart their blessing .? The answer is, to the women 
 who are there. 
 
 Of the sermon they were even more fond than their 
 husbands. Thus one woman was so much interested in 
 the lectures of R. Meir, which he was in the habit of 
 giving every Friday evening, that she used to remain there 
 so long that the candles in her house burnt themselves 
 out. Her lazy husband, who stopped at home, so strongly 
 resented having to wait in the dark, that he would not 
 permit her to cross the threshold until she gave some of- 
 fence to the preacher, which would make him sure that 
 she would not venture to attend his sermons again. 
 
 The prayers they said were the Eighteen Benedic- 
 tions which were prescribed by the Law. But it would 
 seem that occasionally they offered short prayers com- 
 posed by themselves as suggested by their personal feel- 
 ings and needs. Thus, to give one instance, R. Johanan 
 relates that one day he observed a young girl fall on her 
 face and pray : '* Lord of the world. Thou hast created 
 Paradise, Thou hast created hell. Thou hast created the 
 wicked. Thou hast created the righteous ; may it be Thy 
 will that I may not serve as a stumbling-block to them.'* 
 
WOMAN IN TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 
 
 319 
 
 The fine Hebrew in which the prayer is expressed, and 
 the notion of the responsibiUty of Providence for our 
 actions, manifest a high degree of intelHgence and reflec- 
 tion. It would also seem that some women went so far 
 in their religious sensibility as to lead a regular ascetic 
 life, and, according to the suggestion of some scholars, 
 even took the vow of celibacy. Of these the Rabbis did 
 not approve, and stigmatised them as the " destroyers of 
 the world." Perhaps it was just at this period that Juda- 
 ism could not afford to give free play to those morbid 
 feelings, degenerating into religious hysterics, which led 
 some to join rival sects, and others to abandon themselves 
 to the gross immorality we read of in the history of 
 the Gnostics. 
 
 The same circumstances may have been the cause of 
 public opinion being led to accept the view of R. Eliezer, 
 who thought it inadvisable — it would seem on moral 
 grounds — to permit woman to study the Law. This 
 opinion was opposed to that of Ben Azzai, who con- 
 sidered it incumbent upon every father to teach his 
 daughter Torah. But justified as the advice of R. Eliezer 
 may have been in his own time, it was rather unfortunate 
 that later generations continued to take it as the guiding 
 principle for the education of their children. Many great 
 women in the course of history indeed became law- 
 breakers and studied Torah ; but the majority were en- 
 tirely dependent on men, and became in religious matters 
 a sort of appendix to their husbands, who by their good 
 actions insured salvation also for them, and sometimes the 
 reverse. Thus there is a story about a woman which, put 
 into modern language, would be to the effect that she 
 married a minister and copied his sermons for him ; he 
 
220 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 died, and she then married a cruel usurer, and kept his 
 accounts for him. 
 
 The fact that women were exempted from certain affirm- 
 ative laws, which become operative only at special seasons 
 
 e.g.^ the taking of the palm branch on the Feast of 
 
 Tabernacles — must also have contributed to weaken their 
 position as a religious factor in Judaism. The idea that 
 women should vie with men in the fulfilment of every law, 
 became even for the Rabbis a notion connected only with 
 the remotest past. This is the impression one gains when 
 reading the legend about Michal, the daughter of Saul, 
 putting on phylacteries, or the wife of the prophet Jonah 
 making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the three Festivals. 
 It would indeed seem as if women were led to strive for 
 the satisfaction of their religious wants in another direc- 
 tion. Yet it was said of Jewish women, " The daughters 
 of Israel were stringent and laid certain restrictions on 
 themselves." They were also allowed to form a quorum 
 by themselves for the purpose of saying the Grace, but 
 they could not be counted along with males for this end. 
 It was also against the early notion of the dignity of the 
 congregation that women should perform any public ser- 
 vice for men. 
 
 One privilege was left to women— that of weeping. 
 In Judges xi. 40, we read of the daughters of Israel that 
 went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah ; while in 
 2 Chronicles xxxv. 25, we are told how ** all the singing 
 men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their 
 lamentations." Of this privilege they were not deprived, 
 and if they were not allowed to sing any longer, they at 
 least retained the right to weep as much as they pleased. 
 Even in later times they held a public office as mourning 
 
WOMAN IN TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 321 
 
 women at funerals. In the Talmud fragments of composi- 
 tions by women for such occasions are to be found. In- 
 deed, woman became in these times the type of grief and 
 sorrow. She cannot reason, but she feels much more 
 deeply than man. Here is one instance from an old 
 legend : Jeremiah said, " When I went up to Jerusalem 
 (after the destruction of the Temple) I lifted my eyes and 
 saw there a lonely woman sitting on the top of the moun- 
 tain, her dress black, her hair dishevelled, crying, * Who 
 will comfort me.?' I approached her and spake to her, 
 * If thou art a woman, speak to me. If thou art a ghost, 
 begone.' She answered, * Dost thou not know me ? . . . 
 I am the Mother, Zion.' " 
 
 In general, however, the principle applied to women 
 was : The king's daughter within the palace is all glorious 
 (Psalm xlv. 14), but 7iot outside of it. In the face of the 
 " Femina in ecclesia taceat," which was the ruling maxim 
 with other religions, Jewish women could only feel flat- 
 tered by this polite treatment by the Rabbis, though it 
 meant the same thing. We must not think, however, 
 that this prevented them from attending the service of the 
 synagogue. According to the Tractate Sopherim^ even 
 *' the little daughters of Israel were accustomed to go to 
 the synagogue." In the same tractate we find it laid 
 down as " a duty to translate for them the portion (of the 
 Law) of the week, and the lesson from the prophets " into 
 the language they understand. The ** King's daughter " 
 occasionally asserted her rights without undue reliance on 
 the opinion of the authorities. And thus being ignorant 
 of the Hebrew language women prayed in the vernacular, 
 though this was at least against the letter of the law. 
 And many famous Rabbis of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 
 Y 
 
222 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 centuries express their wonder that the " custom of 
 women praying in other (non-Hebrew) languages ex- 
 tended over the whole world." It is noteworthy that 
 they did not suppress the practice, but on the contrary, 
 they endeavoured to give to the Law such an interpretation 
 as would bring it into accord with the general custom. 
 Some even recommended it, as, for example, the author 
 of The Book of the Pious, who gives advice to women to 
 learn the prayers in the language familiar to them. 
 
 At about the same period a lengthy controversy was 
 being waged by the commentators of the Talmud and the 
 codifiers, about woman's partaking in the fulfilment of the 
 laws for special seasons, from which, as already remarked, 
 they were exempted. To the action itself there could not 
 be much objection, but the difficulty arose when women 
 also insisted on uttering the blessing. Now the point at 
 issue was whether they could be permitted to say, for 
 instance, " Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, etc., who 
 hast sanctified us by Thy Commandments, and hast com- 
 manded zis, concerning the taking of the Palm branch," 
 since in reality the women had not been commanded to do 
 it. To such logical and systematic minds as Maimonides 
 and R. Joseph Caro, the difficulty was insurmountable, 
 and they forbade women to use the formula; but with 
 the less consistent majority women carried their point. 
 Rather interesting is the answer received by R. Jacob, of 
 Corbeil, with regard to this question. This Rabbi is said 
 to have enjoyed the mysterious power which enabled him 
 to appeal in cases of doubt to the celestial authorities. 
 Before them he put also this women's case for decision. 
 Judgment was communicated to him in the verse from the 
 Scriptures, " In all that Sarah saith unto Thee, hearken 
 
WOMAN IN TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 323 
 
 unto her voice" (Gen. xxL 12). Nor was it unknown for 
 a pious Jew to compose a special hymn for his wife's use 
 in honour of the Sabbath. 
 
 How long this custom of women praying in the vernac- 
 ular lasted, we have no means of ascertaining. Probably 
 was already extinct about the end of the fifteenth century. 
 For R. Solomon Portaleone, who lived in the sixteenth 
 century, already regrets the abolition of "this beautiful 
 and worthy custom." "When they prayed in the ver- 
 nacular," he says, "they understood what they were say- 
 ing, whilst now they only gabble off their prayers." As 
 a sort of compromise we may regard the various " Sup- 
 plications "; ^ they form a kind of additional prayers sup- 
 plementary to the ordinary liturgy, and are written in 
 German. Chiefly composed by women, they specially an- 
 swer the needs of the sex on various occasions. These 
 prayers deserve a full description by themselves, into 
 which I cannot enter here ; I should like only to mention 
 that in one of these collections in the British Museum, a 
 special supplication is added for servant-maids, and if I 
 am not quite mistaken, also one for their mistresses. 
 
 It is also worth noticing that the manuals on the 
 "Three Women's Commandments" (mostly composed in 
 German, sometimes also in rhymes), contained much more 
 than their titles would suggest. They rather served as 
 headings to groups of laws, arranged under each com- 
 mandment. Thus the first (about certain laws in Lev. xii. 
 and XV.) becomes the motto for purity in body and soul ; 
 the second (the consecration of the first cake of the 
 dough) includes all matters relating to charity, in which 
 women were even reminded to encourage their newly 
 married husbands not to withhold from the poor the 
 
324 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 tithes of the bridal dowry, as well as of their future yearly 
 income ; whilst the third (the lighting of the Sabbath 
 lamp) becomes the symbol for spiritual light and sweet- 
 ness in every relation of human life. 
 
 As another compromise may also be considered the in- 
 stitution of "Vorsugern" (woman-reader) or the "Woilken- 
 nivdicke " (the well-knowing one) who reads the prayers 
 and translates them into the vernacular for the benefit 
 of her less learned sisters. In Poland and in Russia, even 
 at the present time, such a woman-reader is to be found 
 in every synagogue, and from what I have heard the insti- 
 tution is by no means unknown in London. The various 
 prayer-books containing the Hebrew text as well as the 
 Jewish-German translation, which appear in such frequent 
 editions in Russia, are mostly intended for the use of 
 these praying women. Not uninteresting is the title-page 
 of R. Aaron Ben Samuel's Jewish-German translations 
 and collections of prayers which appeared in the begin- 
 ning of the eighteenth century. He addressed the Jewish 
 public in the following terms : " My dear brethren, buy 
 this lovely prayer-book or wholesome tonic for body and 
 soul, which has never appeared in such German print 
 since the world began ; and make your wives and children 
 read it often, thus they will refresh their bodies and souls, 
 for this Hght will shine forth into your very hearts. As 
 soon as the children read it they will understand their 
 prayers, by which they will enjoy both this world and the 
 world to come." 
 
 An earlier translator of the prayer-book addresses him- 
 self directly to the " pious women " whom he invites to buy 
 his book, " in which they will see very beautiful things." 
 Recent centuries seem, on the whole, to have been dis- 
 
WOMAN IN TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 325 
 
 tinguished for the number of praying-women they pro- 
 duced. The virtues which constituted the claim of women 
 to religious distinction were modesty, charity, and daily at- 
 tendance at the synagogue morning and evening. In the 
 memorial books of the time hundreds of such women are 
 noticed. Some used also to spin the " Fringes," which 
 they presented to their friends ; others fasted frequently, 
 whilst '' Old Mrs. Hechele " not only attended the syna- 
 gogue every day, and did charity to poor and rich, but also 
 understood the art of midwifery, which she practised in the 
 community without accepting payment for her services. 
 According to R. Ch. J. Bachrach women used also to say 
 the ''Magnified" prayer in the synagogue when their 
 parents left no male posterity. 
 
 In bringing to a close this very incomplete sketch, per- 
 haps I ought to notice the confirmation of girls introduced 
 during this century in some communities in Germany, 
 which the " Reformed " Rabbis recommended, but of which 
 the " Orthodox " Rabbis disapproved. It would be well if 
 in the heat of such controversies both sides would remem- 
 ber the words of R. Zedekiah b. Abraham, of Rome, who 
 with regard to a certain difference of opinion on some 
 ritual question, says : " Every man receives reward from 
 God for what he is convinced is the right thing, if this 
 conviction has no other motive but the love of God." 
 
XIV 
 
 THE EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY 
 IN EUROPE 
 
 Roman Judaism has disappeared from our guide-books. 
 Civilisation has levelled down the walls of the Ghetto, and 
 its former inhabitants are not any longer " a people that 
 dwell alone." But with this well-deserved destruction 
 a good deal of the interest was also destroyed which the 
 traveller used to attach to " the peculiar people " enclosed 
 in that terrible slum of Rome. 
 
 Still, if there is anything eternal in the " eternal city," 
 which was neither reconstructed by the Caesars, nor im- 
 proved upon by the Popes, it is the little Jewish commu- 
 nity at Rome. It has survived the former ; it has suffered 
 for many centuries under the latter, and, partaking in the 
 general revival which has come upon the Italian nation, 
 it may still be destined for a great future. Indeed, the 
 history of the relation of Israel to Rome is so old that it is 
 not lacking even in legendary elements. On the day on 
 which King Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, 
 the Rabbis narrate, there came down the angel Gabriel. 
 He put a reed into the sea, which, by means of the slime 
 that adhered to it, formed itself, in the course of time, 
 into a large island, on which the city of Rome was built — 
 an event with which the troubles of Israel began. These 
 
 326 
 
EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY IN EUROPE 327 
 
 were the evil consequences of the first mesalliance. Even 
 more unfortunate for Israel (and it is not impossible that 
 this is the meaning of the legend) were the results of that 
 spiritual mixed marriage between Judaism and paganism 
 which took place at a much later period, whereat a blunt 
 soldier, who sympathised with neither, and "who dealt in 
 salvation as he dealt in provinces," acted as best man. 
 As a fact, the parties concerned never understood each 
 other properly. The declaration of love, and the final 
 proposal, were made in an Alexandrine jargon, strange to 
 both, the obscurities of which only grew with the com- 
 mentaries each successive generation added to them. 
 Under such circumstances, a happy union was not to be 
 expected, and the family quarrel which fills the annals of 
 civilised Europe soon broke out. Judaism, more particu- 
 larly Roman Judaism, witnessed this struggle from the 
 beginning, and its fortunes were greatly dependent on 
 the chance which of these two elements, the Jewish or the 
 pagan, won the ascendency. 
 
 However, I am theologising too much, whilst I am 
 deviating from the subject of these lines. Nor could I 
 think of giving here, even in outline, the history of the 
 oldest Jewish community in Europe. This has been 
 already admirably done by Dr. A. Berliner, who has made 
 the history of the Jews of Rome the subject of his studies 
 for nearly a quarter of a century. I intend only to repro- 
 duce here, in a stray fashion, some of those impressions 
 and reflections which, I am certain, must occur to every 
 Jewish traveller in Italy. 
 
 Now I do not think for a moment that we Jews should 
 have a point of view of our own for looking at things and 
 men in this paradise of Europe. It would be as silly to 
 
328 STUDIES m JUDAISM 
 
 have a Jewish Baedeker as to think of orthodox mathe- 
 matics or an ecclesiastical logic or a racial morality — 
 though unfortunately there exist such things. But on the 
 other hand, if we have not, like the fox in the fable, left 
 our heart at home, let us not do violence to our feelings by 
 passing over everything Jewish, over sights which might 
 remind us of our history, with a certain indifference which 
 would be affected on our part. We are not all little 
 Goethes, nor even little Ruskins, and our artistic enjoy- 
 ment is hardly so intense as to shut our hearts against 
 impressions which force themselves upon us either by 
 the way of remembrance of the past, or even as a living 
 contrast in the present. 
 
 It so happened that my first visit to the Vatican was 
 on a Friday. After doing my work in the Vatican 
 Library, which is open till noon, I went into the adjoining 
 Church of St. Peter. 
 
 One should be, like the angel of death in the legend, 
 full of eyes, properly to see all the wonders of art and 
 marvels of architecture at which human genius and piety 
 laboured busily through centuries, in adorning the grand- 
 est of sacred buildings in the world. But there is Bae- 
 deker or Murray serving at least as a pair of good specta- 
 cles to the layman, and it was by their aid that I made my 
 round in St. Peter. But lo, whilst you are observing the 
 celebrated Piet^ by Michael Angelo, and, according to 
 the instruction of your guides, admiring both the grief 
 of the Mother and the death of the Son, you notice in its 
 vicinity a little column, surrounded by rails to which the 
 pilgrims approach with a certain awe ; for " Tradition 
 affirms it to have been brought from Jerusalem." Natu- 
 rally, one is instantly reminded of the report, given by the 
 
EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY IN EUROPE 329 
 
 famous traveller of Tudela, of the curiosities of Rome, 
 which among other things records, ''That there are also 
 to be seen in St. Giovanni in Porta Latina (probably- 
 meant for Lateran) the two brazen pillars, constructed 
 by King Solomon of blessed memory, whose name, 
 Solomon, the son of David, is engraved upon each ; of 
 which he was also told that every year about the 9th 
 of Ab (the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem), 
 these pillars sweat so much that water runs down from 
 them." So far Benjamin of Tudela in the twelfth cen- 
 tury. In our days pillars weep no longer, and even of 
 men it is considered a special sign of good breeding to 
 behave pillar-like; but a sigh is still permissible at the 
 sight of this temple-column, which in its captivity sym- 
 bolises, not less than the Pieta, the grief of a whole 
 people. Of course, not possessing on the spot either 
 the Itinerary or even Urlick, one is unable to establish 
 the connection between these two traditions and their 
 claim to authenticity. Perhaps one may even comfort 
 oneself on the same ground on which the famous cure 
 tried to appease his flock who were sobbing bitterly at 
 his telling them the Passion story. He exclaimed : " My 
 children, do not weep so much; it happened long ago, 
 and even perhaps is not quite true." 
 
 However, the Vatican is the last place in the world to 
 exercise your critical faculties ; you are so deeply absorbed 
 in seeing, that you have no time to think. So on I went, 
 from aisle to aisle, from niche to niche, from chapel to 
 chapel, looking, staring, and admiring, till of a sudden my 
 eyes were struck by a large statue, on which the words, 
 ** Thou shalt have no other God before me," are engraved. 
 There I stood before a question of exegesis, where one is 
 
330 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 permitted to use his right senses without any regard to 
 the aesthetic side. Yet not all the manifold expositions 
 of the Decalogue, nor all the talk about the subjective- 
 objective, the absolute and the real, with which metaphy- 
 sicians have tried to confuse the notion of the Unity of 
 God, will reconcile one to the meaning which Mediaeval 
 Art has impressed upon the Ten Commandments. The 
 truth has to be sought elsewhere, and thus my thoughts 
 were turned to the synagogue, and thither I went. 
 
 The day was already drawing to its close, and, by a 
 marvellous coincidence, I arrived at the synagogue just as 
 the congregation was intoning the words : " The Lord is 
 one, and His name is one to His renown and glory." 
 Here was sound, simple exegesis, though sadly lacking 
 in the illustrative matter in which the Vatican is so rich. 
 But what need was there of any real or artificial " aid to 
 the believer," in the presence of such a living faith, as 
 enabled this little community to maintain its protesting 
 position in the teeth of the mistress of the world ! And 
 this even at a time, when it only required a hint from the 
 successors of the old Roman Emperors to make the whole 
 world renounce its right of thinking and judging, and, 
 were we to believe Herr Janssen, even to feel perfectly 
 happy in this torpor. 
 
 But, by the way, are our own times much better } As 
 I write these lines (October 1893) I hear that a Bill has 
 been brought into the German Diet, asking that the Tal- 
 mud should be submitted to a Commission (which en pas- 
 sant, has been sitting in unbroken session in that country 
 since the days of Pfefferkorn in the fifteenth century) 
 with the purpose of examining its contents, while in the 
 Vatican the very pupils of Loyola are offering every con- 
 
EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY IN EUROPE 331 
 
 venience and comfort to the student who should care to 
 devote his time to Rabbinic literature. Does not the work 
 of a great number of our poets, historians, theologians, 
 and so-called seers in this blessed century of ours, in many 
 respects prove but a strained effort to destroy the few 
 humanitarian principles which were estabUshed a few 
 generations ago, as well as to deify every brutal warrior 
 who was successful in his day? Again, is the national 
 idea so much sublimer, so much grander, than that of a 
 universal religion, that we would willingly permit the 
 former to employ the means which have been denied to 
 the latter as inhuman and barbarous ? Every age has its 
 own idolatry, and the eternal wandering Jew will always 
 be the chosen victim of the Moloch in fashion. 
 
 Let us, however, return to the synagogue, which with- 
 stood many a cruelty, both ancient and modern. The 
 place where the synagogue stands is near the Ghetto, 
 now called Piazza di Scuola. It is, besides a few other 
 communal houses, the only building left there, — all those 
 narrow, dirty, and typhoid-breeding streets which formed 
 the old Ghetto having been demoHshed by a sage and 
 humane government, which by this action wiped out the 
 last stain from its history. There, on this vast blank is 
 the synagogue, a comparatively small, insignificant build- 
 ing, laden with heavy age and looking down on her 
 children whom she has been nursing, consoling, and pro- 
 tecting for centuries, but who, now grown old, have for- 
 saken her and scattered to all the ends of the city. Of 
 all her former acquaintances there appears to be left 
 only father Tiber, who would seem to be murmuring to 
 her many an old tale of the times before she was called 
 into existence. And if he listened to the special prayers 
 
232 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 recited within her walls by the deputies of the Jewish 
 communities, when preparing themselves to go to the 
 court of the Pope, the Tiber heard many a sigh and 
 cry, wrung out from the heart of a Jewish captive who, 
 preferring death to slavery even under the masters of 
 the world, found his last repose in its waters. But insig- 
 nificant as this synagogue appears, she proved the spirit- 
 ual bulwark against all the attacks of the time, and you 
 admire her brave resistance all the more when you look 
 at that multitude of churches and cloisters in the closest 
 vicinity of the Ghetto, impressing you as so many in- 
 trenchments, all directing their missiles and weapons 
 against this humble, defenceless building, threatening it 
 with death and destruction. One of these churches, 
 probably founded by some Jewish convert, who gained 
 in it both salvation and a good living, bears on its gates 
 in Hebrew letters the inscription : "I have spread out 
 my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which 
 walketh in the way that was not good, after their own 
 thoughts. A people that provoketh me to anger con- 
 tinually to my face " (Isaiah Ixv. 2, 3). Menace is fol- 
 lowed by persuasion, the cited verses being accompanied 
 by the Latin words : " Indulgentia plenaria quotodiana 
 perpetua pro vivis et defunctis." Theologians who like 
 to quarrel most about things they can know least, have 
 for ages discussed the question, whether prayers for the 
 dead are of any use; here the matter is decided by a 
 simple advertisement. It is not to be denied that one 
 would enjoy the fortunes accumulated by one's late sin- 
 ner of an uncle all the better for being sure that a few 
 pennyworths of prayer enable the legatee to make one's 
 benefactor in Hades comfortable and happy. 
 
EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY IN EUROPE 333 
 
 The thought is very consoling indeed, and it is not to be 
 wondered at that the Roman synagogue could not entirely 
 withstand its temptations, and introduced into the offering- 
 blessing after one is called up to the Torah, the words : 
 "To the advancing of the soul of the departed." Of 
 course much of this tendency may be attributed to the 
 Ford Jabbok,^ which was and is still very popular in 
 that country ; but the fact that the author of this Jewish 
 "Book of the Dead "was an Italian (from Modena), shows 
 clearly that there was some Catholic influence at work, 
 from which even the fellow-countrymen of Azariah de 
 Rossi and Judah Messer Leon could not entirely emanci- 
 pate themselves. 
 
 I ought to have spoken of Roman synagogues, since 
 the building in the Ghetto to which I have been constantly 
 alluding comprises four prayer-houses devoted to Spanish 
 and Italian rites. It says much for Roman Judaism, that 
 they did not consider ritual differences of such importance 
 as to prevent them from forming one community for all 
 charitable and congregational purposes. In Verona and 
 in Modena some congregations even retained the German 
 rite, which their ancestors who immigrated from the Rhine 
 provinces brought with them, whilst they accepted the 
 Spanish pronunciation. I wish that the Anglo-Jewish 
 community could see their way to imitate their example. 
 Not that I think for a moment that the Spanish pronun- 
 ciation is more correct than the German. Each system 
 has its own mistakes and corruptions; and it is more 
 than probable that the prophet Isaiah, or even the author 
 of Ecclesiastes, would be as little able to follow the 
 prayers in Bevis Marks a« in Duke's Place. But since 
 the non-Jewish scientific world has, though only by pure 
 
334 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 accident, accepted the Spanish way of reading the Hebrew, 
 I should Uke to see this trifling difference of ^^ruch over 
 BuxViOh at last disappear, by pronouncing the camets-vowel 
 a instead of o, and accepting similar little changes, which 
 are of no real importance to us. 
 
 The inside of these synagogues is even more simple 
 than their outside. I was told that the synagogue which 
 was burned down last winter, and which also formed a 
 part of this building, could boast of many fine decorations 
 and carvings, etc., but I could observe nothing of the kind 
 in the synagogues I had occasion to frequent. Nor is 
 there much of natural decorum in them, and they reconcile 
 one perfectly to the worst of the Small Synagogues else- 
 where. I venture to think that in this respect, too, we 
 have to recognise Catholic influence. It was, I think, one 
 of the leaders in the Oxford Movement who expressed his 
 delight at seeing in Italy a woman poorly-dressed coming 
 into the church, who, after putting down the basket from 
 her back, kneels before one of the many altars and says 
 her prayers. A good deal of this familiarity in the place 
 of worship may also be noticed in the Roman synagogues, 
 where I have seen a woman come into the partition for 
 men, notwithstanding their having a separate gallery, 
 without bonnet or hat on her head, and with an infant in 
 her arms, and listen there to the prayers, till she walked 
 home with her husband. The other people were also 
 very restless, coming and going often, whilst, as soon as 
 the reading of the Law was over, the greater part of the 
 worshippers left the synagogue. It was not a very de- 
 lightful sight. A minus of decorum does not always mean 
 a plus of devotion ; just as little as a maximum of respect- 
 ability and stiffness are to be taken as signs of true piety. 
 
EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY IN EUROPE 335 
 
 It is not uninteresting to notice that the Roman syna- 
 gogue, in spite of its old traditions, did not entirely shut 
 itself against modern reforms. Among them there is that 
 of " calling up the people to the Torah " by the simple for- 
 mula, "Let the Priest" (or "the Levite ") "step forth," 2 
 and so on, not mentioning either names or titles, which I 
 should like to recommend most strongly to our congrega- 
 tions. I hope that no man will suspect me of such heresy 
 as that of questioning the wisdom of the Synagogue Reg- 
 ulations. But I am inclined to think that the business of 
 conferring the degrees of Rabbi, "Associate" or " Master," 
 does not exactly fall within the sphere of activity of the 
 Wardens. The matter could only be decided by a proper 
 Board of examination. As the Council is not provided 
 with such a Board, nor is every aspirant to this honour 
 prepared to undergo the examination required, the wisest 
 course would be to give up titles altogether, calling up all 
 people alike in the way indicated. 
 
 The robes the ministers wear (somewhat similar to those 
 of the Greek clergy), are probably also an innovation of 
 modern date, — the old orthodox Rabbis looking at any 
 special vestment for the Preacher or Reader with the same 
 feeling of disgust which the old Puritans entertained for 
 surplice or mitre. But the principle of " The Beauty of 
 Holiness" proved too strong for resistance, and it was 
 only a pardonable vanity when the reformers applied it 
 to their own persons; "Vanity of vanities," saith the 
 preacher, so often, that he gets rather to like it. This 
 vanity is greatly redeemed by the fact that the preacher 
 does not grudge his uniform to his humbler brother, the 
 beadle, who is in most cases to be distinguished from the 
 officiating ministry only by the brass-plate on his breast, 
 
236 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 on which the word "Servant" is engraved. Considering 
 the great confusion arising from the meaningless " Rever- 
 end " and the universal white neck-tie, such a label, indi- 
 cating the proper office of the bearer, might, perhaps, 
 prove as useful among the English Jews as it is among 
 the Jews of Rome. 
 
 It was with a pupil of the Rabbinical College, in com- 
 pany with his friends, that I took my first walk through 
 ancient Rome. I felt attracted to him by his striking face 
 of that peculiar fine Jewish type, which is more common 
 among the Jews in the East than among us. And when 
 he was reading the lesson from the Prophets in the syna- 
 gogue, where I made his acquaintance, he reminded me of 
 that Jewish boy with bright eyes, black curls, and features 
 strikingly beautiful walking as a captive from Jerusalem 
 through the streets of Rome some seventeen centuries ago, 
 whose proficiency in the words of Isaiah caused his re- 
 demption. It would be an exaggeration to say that my 
 companion's remarks were very instructive from an artistic 
 point of view. Being born and bred in Rome, he passed 
 with utter indifference many objects which we are bidden 
 to admire, whilst at others he actually shouted out "Im- 
 age," or made some other prosaic remark. But in a coun- 
 try where one is determined to play the heathen for so 
 many weeks, to worship superannuated deities, to get into 
 raptures at every reminiscence of superseded and vanish- 
 ing religions, and to be delighted at the sights of "greasy 
 saints and martyrs hairy," there can be no great harm in 
 being called back to one's true nature. 
 
 The feelings crowding upon one, when entering that 
 part of the ancient city which probably was in the mind 
 of the Rabbis when they spoke of "Guilty Rome," are 
 
EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY IN EUROPE 337 
 
 of a conflicting nature. Every stone and every brick 
 there saw the humiliation of Israel, in every theatre and 
 every circus the Jew served as a comic figure, and was 
 held up to ridicule, whilst there was, perhaps, hardly a 
 single lane or gate through which those who resented 
 the yoke of the " anti-Semites of Antiquity " did not pass, 
 in order to "be butchered to make a Roman holiday." 
 What concerns a Jew most in this perished world of 
 ruins, and at the same time causes him the deepest grief, 
 is the triumphal arch of Titus, " commemorating the de- 
 feat of the Jews, and dedicated to him by his successor, 
 Domitian." Enough has been said and written about it 
 both by antiquarians and theologians, the former admir- 
 ing the workmanship of the reliefs, the latter perceiving 
 in it a proof of the fulfilment of the well-known passages 
 in the New Testament about the destruction of the Tem- 
 ple, which came to pass in spite of the efforts made by 
 Titus to save it. Those who have read Bernay's essay on 
 the '' Chronik des Sulpicius Severus " know that the be- 
 haviour of "the delight of the human species " on that 
 occasion is rather open to doubt, and it is more probable 
 that, instead of trying to rescue it, he commanded that 
 it should be set on fire. Josephus, who witnessed the 
 shame of his compatriots and co-religionists, has left us 
 a full account of the triumphal procession. Only a 
 flunkey like Josephus could maintain that calm indiffer- 
 ence with which he describes the events of the "bitter 
 day," the perusal of which makes one's blood boil. His 
 description fairly agrees with the famous relief on the 
 arch, showing that part of the procession in which the 
 table with the shewbread, the candlestick with the seven 
 lamps, and the golden trumpets figure as the chief ob- 
 
2^3 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 jects. The only thing which we miss is the " Law of 
 the Jews," which, according to Josephus, was carried in 
 the triumph as "the last of all the spoils." Was it only 
 an oversight of the artist, or had he no place for it, or is 
 it Josephus who committed the error, mistaking some 
 other object for the Scroll of the Law ? I dearly hope 
 that this last was the case, and that Heine was under the 
 impulse of a true and real and poetic inspiration when he 
 wrote (speaking of the Holy Scripture to which he owed 
 his conversion): "The Jews, who appreciate the value 
 of precious things, knew right well what they did when, 
 at the burning of the second temple they left to their fate 
 the golden and silver implements of sacrifice, the candle- 
 sticks and lamps, even the breastplate of the High Priest 
 adorned with great jewels, but saved the Bible. This 
 was the real treasure of the temple, and, thanks be to 
 God ! it was not left a prey to the flames, nor to the fury 
 of Titus Vespasian, the wretch, who, as the Rabbi tells us, 
 met with so dreadful a death." 
 
 However, there were others who brought the glad tid- 
 ings of the Old Testament to Rome long before there 
 existed a New one. And this is, on the other side, what 
 makes Rome a sort of Terra Sancta even to the Jew. It 
 is true that we have not to look for the footprints of the 
 prophets, for whom even tradition never claimed " the gift 
 of missionary-travelling." But might not the ground there 
 have received a sort of consecration by the fact that it was 
 traversed by the ambassadors of Judas Maccabaeus (about 
 i6i B.C.) "to make a league of amity and confederacy" 
 with the Roman Senate .? Of the embassy of Simon the 
 Maccabee (about 140 b.c.) there is actual historical evi- 
 dence that they began to propagate in Rome the Jewish 
 
EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY IN EUROPE 339 
 
 religion. Some seventy or eighty years later the Jews 
 had already their own quarter in Rome, with their own 
 synagogues, which they were in the habit of visiting, 
 *' most especially on the sacred Sabbath days, when they 
 publicly cultivate their national philosophy." That many 
 of the oldest teachers of Israel, the Tannaim, went to 
 Rome as deputies, and that one of them (R. Mathia ben 
 Chares) founded a school there early in the second cen- 
 tury, is also an authenticated fact. One would like to 
 know what they taught, and in what way they expounded 
 their national philosophy. Most of all one would like to 
 know what were the spiritual means they employed in 
 their proselytising work, in which they were, according to 
 the testimony of history, so successful. Did they preach 
 in the streets } Or did they hold public controversies } 
 Or did they even send out Epistles which, in form at least, 
 served as a model to apostles of another creed.? How 
 many a problem would be solved ; how many a miracle 
 would disappear ; how many a book would become super- 
 fluous, if we could obtain certainty about these points ! 
 The Talmud tells us little, almost nothing, about these 
 important things, whilst we get from the Roman writers 
 only sneers and raillery. To these respectable Romans 
 the Jews were only a mob of unlettered atheists. Indeed, 
 to a good orthodox heathen, a religion without images and 
 statues, with a God without a pedigree and without a 
 theogony, was an impossible thing. Those poor meta- 
 physicians ! 
 
 However, why dwell so long on a past world.? A 
 famous Rabbi once exclaimed : *' If a man would ask thee, 
 * Where is thy God t ' answer him : ' In the great city of 
 Rome.' " The underlying idea was the mystical notion 
 
340 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 that wherever Israel had to migrate, they were accom- 
 panied by the Divine presence. And Rome was, in the 
 times of the Rabbis, the point to which the streams of 
 Jewish migration from the Holy Land chiefly converged. 
 But now, instead of to Rome, might we not point to Lon- 
 don and New York as centres of Jewish migrations ? 
 
NOTES 
 
 I. THE CHASSIDIM 
 
 I. Subjoined is a List of selected Authorities on the Sub- 
 ject OF THE Chassidim. — Historical and Bibliographical Works: 
 Graetz (xi. including the polemical literature quoted in the Appendix), 
 Jost, Peter Beer, M. Bodek (s'lnn nnnn mo, Lemberg, 1865), A. Wal- 
 den (tt'-inn D^Snjn d«', Warschau, 1864), Finn (hjdnj nnp, Wilna, i860), 
 D. Kahana (Sdin pN in the periodical nncn, iv.), Zederbaum (njinD nns, 
 Odessa, 1868). Essays and Satires: T. Erter (noixn, Wien, 1858), 
 S. Szantd {Jahrbuch fur Israeliten, p. 108-178, 1867), A. Gottlober 
 (in his periodical nis -sp^^ri, iii.), L. Low (Ben Chananjah, ii.), Ruder- 
 mann (inB'n, vi.), Rapoport (min> nSm, Lemberg, 1873, P- ^o)» Frohlich 
 (imcn, Warschau, 1876, p. 63 seq.)y S. Maimon {Autobiographie, 
 Berlin, 1792). Compare also the Hebrew novels by P. Smolensky, 
 L. Gordon, M. Brandstatter, A. Gottlober and B. Horowitz (German). 
 Occasional references to the liturgy or the system of the Chassidim in 
 the " Responses " of R. Ezechiel Landau, Moses Sopher, E. Flekeles 
 and T. Steinhart, and in the works of Israel Samostsch, Salomon 
 Chelma and Chayim Walosin. Compare also Zunz {Gottesdienstliche 
 Vortrdge, p. 477) and L. Low {Mannheimer Alburn^ Wien, 1874), 
 Senior Sachs (n>nnn, i. 61) and B. L. Zeitlin (ntyp nirn, Paris, 1846). 
 The best book on the whole subject is E. ZweifePs work ^^-vv^ '^>' mSir 
 (Zitomyr 1868, three parts), which I strongly recommend to students. 
 The books written by the Chassidim would amount to more than 200. 
 They are catalogued by Bodek and Walden. I shall only draw the 
 attention of the student to the works of Beer, Salomon Ladier, and 
 Mendel Witipsker on one side, who developed the theory of the 
 Immanence, and those of Nachman Braslaw and Melech Liezensker, 
 who, on the other hand, carried the theory of Zaddikism to its utmost 
 consequences. The student will find a fair collection of sayings and 
 sentences arranged according to theological subjects in the books -yw 
 on-'Dn and o^Don pB'S (Anon., Lemberg, 1876). 
 
 341 
 
242 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 2. Dn^Dn, "pious ones" (Ps. xxxvii. 28, Ixx. 2, etc.). The reader 
 is probably acquainted with the term from the Maccabean history 
 (i Mace. ii. 42, vii. 13), in which the strict party, opposed to all 
 Hellenistic influence, are called "Assideans" [R.V. " Hasidaeans"], 
 Gr. 'Ao-tSatoi. 
 
 3. or S>'a, "The Master of the Name," a term usually applied to 
 exorcists, who cast out devils and performed other miracles through 
 adjuration by the name of God (or angels). The unbelieving Rabbis 
 maintained indeed that in his exorcisms Baalshem employed " impure 
 names" (of devils), whilst the Chassidim, on the other hand, declared 
 that their Master never used " names " at all, his miracles being per- 
 formed by the divine in Baalshem to which all nature owes obedience. 
 Occasionally the Chassidim call him nrj or ^•;:^ (The Man of Good 
 Name), in allusion to Eccles. vii. i, shortened by some into Besht. 
 
 4. rmnn p>3 — "House of Research" or of "study" (of the Law), 
 but in which also divine service is held thrice a day. 
 
 5. con n^nSn — "Disciple of the Wise," the usual title of a scholar 
 or student. 
 
 6. A Jewish sect, so called after their founder Jacob Leibovicz 
 Frank, who was himself one of the apostles of the pseudo-Messiah 
 Shabbethai Tsebi of Smyrna in Turkey. Among his other doctrines 
 he taught also a sort of Trinity, consisting of the Holy Ancient One, 
 the Holy King or the Messiah, and a feminine person in the Godhead, 
 in which he, like his master, represented the Second Person. The sect 
 ultimately abolished the Law, and, after many controversies with the 
 Rabbinic Jews, went over to Catholicism, the dominant religion in 
 Poland, by which they were soon absorbed. Eybeschiitz, chief Rabbi 
 of Prague and Hamburg, was suspected by Emden to be a secret 
 adherent of Shabbethai Tsebi, which was tantamount to apostasy from 
 Judaism. Eybeschiitz protested. The litigants excommunicated each 
 other, and the Rabbis divided into two camps, taking sides either with 
 Emden or with his antagonist. 
 
 7. The works of Maimonides or Moses b. Maimon (i 135-1204) are 
 too many to be enumerated here. The most important are the Guide 
 of the Perplexed (qoi3j nnm) and his Cotnpendiuin of the Law (njtt'D 
 min). Judah Hallevi or Abul Hassan flourished in the first half of the 
 twelfth century. He is well known as a poet by his Divan and as a 
 
NOTES 
 
 343 
 
 deep religious thinker by his Cusari. The former contains also many 
 songs of a secular nature. Isaac Alfasi (died 1103) ^s best known by 
 his Compendium of the Talmud, which was so greatly admired by his 
 contemporaries that they declared it could never have been composed 
 "without the aid of the Holy Spirit." R. Solomon b. Isaac, also 
 called by his initials Rashi (1040-1105), is well known by his com- 
 mentaries on the Bible and the Talmud. 
 
 8. ij>3i, >3n. 
 
 9. isD, Sepher. 
 
 10. The Hebrew word is Sis*?d, meaning subtle discussion and sharp 
 distinction. The word is closely related to ScSo or nScSb, which means 
 " pepper " or " seasoning." 
 
 11. ri>B^ onnn = R. Meir Shiff, whose novellce on the Talmud are of a 
 very subtle kind, and were very popular with the students of this work. 
 
 12. D-'NiiDN — D^Njn, " The Repeaters," and " The Interpreters." The 
 sayings and statements of the former are embodied in the Mishnah, a 
 work compiled by R. Judah the Saint about 220 a.c, and covering a 
 period of about 250 years (30 B.C.-220 a.c). The latter occupied 
 themselves mainly with the interpretation of the Mishnah, and their 
 discussions and controversies are incorporated in the Talmud of Jeru- 
 salem and that of Babylon, and extend over the period from 220-500 
 A.c. The Talmud of Jerusalem is mostly the product of the schools 
 of Palestine. The Talmud of Babylon is a growth of that country. 
 The authorities of this latter Talmud being far away from the place 
 where the first great Rabbis lived and laboured, their traditions are 
 naturally not so historically reliable as those of the Talmud of Jerusa- 
 lem. The authorities of Palestine were also simpler in their method 
 of interpretation. These again are followed by the Babylonian schools 
 of new interpreters (of the Talmud) . 
 
 13. pNiin^ intr, an expression that goes back as far as to the Zohar. 
 
 14. -inn, "Brightness." Cf. Dan. xii. 3, — the authors of "The 
 Brightness" pretending to be the Maskilim or "Wise Ones" men- 
 tioned in this verse. 
 
 15. mVflB'. 
 
 16. nnDK'. 
 
 17. nnnSnn, 
 
 18. y>'^'\-i^ pi. o^p^-a. 
 
344 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 II. NACHMAN KROCHMAL 
 
 1. R. Johanan b. Zaccai was a contemporary of the Apostles, and 
 died about no a.d. He belonged to the peace party in opposition to 
 the Zealots, and obtained permission from the Roman government to 
 establish the school of Jamnia, which, after the destruction of the 
 Temple, became the centre of Jewish religious life. See also p. 
 i88. 
 
 2. R. Saadiah Gaon was born in Egypt in 892, and died as the 
 head of the school of Sura in Babylon in 942. He is known by his 
 translations of and commentaries on the Bible, and many other works, 
 especially his philosophical treatise Creeds and Opinions. He was 
 also a great controversialist. Most of his polemical writings are di- 
 rected against the Caraites (d-'n-^p) or " Scripturalists," a Jewish sect 
 founded by Anan in the eighth century. They protested against the 
 Oral Law, and denied Tradition. On the title " Gaon," see note i to 
 Elijah Wilna. 
 
 3. D>jiaj miD, Moreh Nebuchim^ generally considered to be the 
 greatest philosophical work by any Jewish thinker. 
 
 4. R. Abraham Ibn Ezra, who spent some time in London, died 
 about 1 161. He is best known by his commentaries on the Bible. He 
 was the first writer who doubted the unity of the book of Isaiah. 
 
 5. -lam^nSn. 
 
 6. D-'-ifiiDi o>D3n hxVd i^y, meaning " sages " and " scribes," but used 
 by later writers in the sense given in the text. 
 
 7. oniDj, dealing with the laws relating to the firstfruits which were 
 brought to the temple (Ex. xxiii. 19). The processions formed by the 
 pilgrims are very vividly described after the said tractate by Delitzsch 
 in his /m, p. 190 sq. (English ed.). See also by the same author, 
 Judisches Handwerkerleben zur Zeit Jesu, p. 66 seq. 
 
 8. n^jj;n, « Fast," or nvjyn, " Fasts." 
 
 9. rpMj -no, " Order of Damages," treating of the civil law of the 
 Jews, the procedure of courts of justice, and kindred subjects. This 
 Order also includes the tractate nns, Aboth or "Sayings of the 
 Fathers," which is very important for the study of Rabbinic doctrine 
 and ethics. 
 
NOTES 
 
 345 
 
 10. nnntj nno, " Order of Purities," dealing with the laws regarding 
 Levitical purity. 
 
 11. N-iDD (or D^jns nnin), noD, nhS^dd. These three works form the 
 oldest Rabbinic commentary on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deu- 
 teronomy. The authorities cited in these commentaries all belong to 
 the period of the Tannaim. See above, note 12 to the Chassidim. 
 Constituting as they do, to a certain extent, one of the sources used by 
 the Gemara, they are naturally indispensable for a scientific study of 
 the Talmud. 
 
 12. noisn, ''^ Hatsophe^'' a spirited satire against the orthodox and 
 especially against the then prevailing belief in the transmigration of 
 souls taught by the mystical schools. The book is written in the 
 purest biblical Hebrew. 
 
 13. prn -"ijiiaj mio. 
 
 14. i^-in?:, pi. D^tymo {Midrashim), "Research," "Researches," a 
 name usually applied to the homiletical part of the Rabbinic literature. 
 The most important collection of this kind is the Midrash Rabbah to 
 the Pentateuch. The usual way of quoting it is Genesis Rabbah^ Exo- 
 dus Rabbah, and so on. 
 
 15. See above, note 12 to the Chassidim. 
 
 16. D^rr, " Heretics," applied to the first Christians, and more so to 
 certain Gnostic sects. 
 
 17. TDD ntt'cS ddSh, see below, p. 186 and note. 
 
 18. r\'^^T\ or mjN — riDSn, " rule," " method," — " narrative." The for- 
 mer deals with the legal side of the Scriptures, and is thus more of a 
 juristic nature; the latter represents a collection of homilies having 
 mostly as their text the historical and exhortatory parts of the Bible, 
 and is thus more of an edifying character. The theological side of 
 Judaism, as well as its ideal aspirations and Messianic hopes, find their 
 expression in the Agadah. The two words are also used as adjectives, 
 as Halachic (legalistic, juristic, and obligatory) and Agadic (poetic, edi- 
 fying, and hyperbolic) . 
 
 19. pSd t\;?, a sort of encyclopaedia to the Talmud, of which only 
 the first letter appeared. 
 
 20. Menahem Azariah de Rossi, an Italian Jew who flourished in 
 the first half of the sixteenth century. His great work, □>:>;; iixc, Meor 
 Enayim, " Light of the Eyes," is the first attempt made by a Jew to 
 
346 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 submit the statements of the Talmud to a critical examination, and to 
 question the value of tradition in its historical records. 
 
 21. it^j^Sn "-n ipns. 
 
 22. Italian Jews of the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. The 
 one, Elijah Delmedigo, wrote an Examination of Religion, whilst his 
 grandson, Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, wrote various pamphlets of a 
 deeply sceptical character. See Geiger's Introduction to his Melo 
 Chofnayim (Berlin, 1840). 
 
 III. ELIJAH WILNA 
 
 1. pNj, "The Great One." The authorities of the Babylonian 
 schools after the sixth century were also called the Gaonim (d^jinj), 
 " [their] Eminences." The title was also given afterwards to great 
 Rabbis distinguished for their learning. 
 
 2. R. Joseph Caro (i 488-1 575) lived in Safed. The title of his 
 code is iny jnSr, Prepared Table. This is a code of the Oral Law 
 compiled from the Rabbinic literature. 
 
 3. njDNj rs^-sp^ containing an account of the Jewish worthies of that 
 city. 
 
 4. ini^N n^Sp. 
 
 5. A famous mystic of the sixteenth century, from Safed, who was 
 the more admired the less his pupils understood him. 
 
 6. Hai was the last of the authorities called Gaon. With his death 
 (1038) the schools of Babylon fell into decay and soon disappeared. 
 
 7. njijn, treating of the voluntary offerings brought by the pilgrims 
 to Jerusalem. 
 
 8. N-iDj, " Perfection or Supplementary Explanations." By this is 
 understood the interpretation given to the Mishnah by the schools in 
 Palestine and Babylon. See above, note 12 to the Chassidim. 
 
 9. See Dean Church's St. Anselm, from which this story is taken. 
 
 10. NHflDin, "Addition" (to the Mishnah), but also containing only 
 the sayings and discussions of the period of the Tannaim. 
 
 1 1 . dSij? niD, " Order of the World," dealing with the Chronology of 
 the Bible, and dating from about the end of the second century. 
 
 12. These "Minor Tractates" include, among others, treatises on 
 proselytes, on the laws concerning funerals, the writing of the Law, 
 
NOTES 
 
 347 
 
 and the like. Others are more of an edifying nature, treating of good 
 manners, conduct, etc. 
 
 13. mSj nS^p. 
 
 14. r\^^vy njiDtt', "Eighteen." They are recited thrice a day, and 
 form the original germ of the prayers, from which a very rich liturgy 
 developed in the course of time. 
 
 15. The titles of the old authorities from 70 B.C. to 500 a.c. See 
 above, note 12 to the Chassidim. 
 
 16. ]n n>3 3N, NVi'j, "Prince," or "Patriarch," religious head, of the 
 Jews (not political), and "Father (or president) of the Court of 
 Justice." 
 
 17. mnjD, D^n^r, "Sacrifices," "Offerings." They treat of the laws 
 relating to sacrifices and meal-offerings. 
 
 18. d^nSd, the laws relating to diverse seeds and garments of diverse 
 sorts. Cf. Deut. xxii. 9-1 1 . 
 
 19. n>jD, " Teller," a sort of travelling preacher. 
 
 20. ^ViS, " palm branch." Cf. Lev. xxiii. 40. 
 
 21. 7\2^v\ "High School," or "Academy," in which the Rabbinic 
 literature is studied. 
 
 22. o-iin xy PDitt'-'. 
 
 23. p>t32CD, a mythical river which is supposed to stop its course on 
 Sabbath. 
 
 24. Dmn3, sing, -nna, " Young man," by which term the Jews usu- 
 ally understand the alumni of their Talmudical schools. 
 
 25. Levi b. Gershom (i 286-1344) is generally regarded as the 
 greatest successor of Maimonides. Besides his rationalistic commen- 
 taries on the Bible, he wrote various treatises on metaphysics, mathe- 
 matics, astronomy, medicine, etc. 
 
 26. dVij; nj-'na. 
 
 IV. NACHMANIDES 
 
 I. In Steinschneider's Catalogue of the Bodleian Library ^ under the 
 name of Moses Nachmanides, pp. 1947-1965, all the works which are 
 ascribed to this author are put together, and also discussed as to their 
 authenticity. There are only to be added the new edition of the 
 Derasha by Jellinek (Vienna, 1872), in which the variants from 
 Schorr's MS. (yhr\r\, viii. 162) are already incorporated; a new edi- 
 
348 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 tion of the hidm, and the commentary to Is. lii.-liii. by Steinschneider 
 (Berlin, i860) ; a Sermon for the New Year, ed. by H. Berliner {Liba- 
 tion, V. 564); and another Sermon at a wedding (?), ed. by Schorr 
 {Hechaluz, xii. 3). For the literature on Nachmanides, besides the 
 references given by Steinschneider, in his Catalogue, and the Addenda, 
 p. cxviii. (cf. also the pedigree in the Catalogue 2305), see also Graetz, 
 Geschichte, vii., pp. 112-143? and p. 147 seq.; Michael, a^^nn nix, 
 No. 1 125, and Weiss, i^a'ini nn nn, v. 4 seq.; Perles' Monatsschrift, 
 i860, p. 175 ; Zomber, ibid. 421 ; and Z. Frank el, ibid. 1868, p. 449, 
 and The Jewish Quarterly Review, iv. 245 seq. For Nachmanides' 
 disputation we have to add M. Loeb in the Revue des Etudes Juives, 
 XV. I seq., and xviii. 52 (about Abner), and Dr. Neubauer's Essay on 
 Jewish Controversy in the Expositor, vol. vii. (third series), p. 98 seq., 
 with the references given there. See also his article on the Bahir and 
 the Zohar in The Jewish Quarterly Review, iv. 357. With regard to 
 Nachmanides' mystical system see the references to S. Sachs (whose 
 remarks are most suggestive), Krochmal, and Jellinek in Steinschnei- 
 der, col. 1949 and 1964, Perles' Monatsschrift, 1858, p. 83 seq., and 
 Steinschneider in the Heb. Bibliographie, i. 34. See also Professor 
 Kaufmann's Die Geschichte der Attributenlehre, and the references 
 given in the index under this name. The NovellcB by his son R. 
 Nachman, alluded to in the text, are in the University Library, Cam- 
 bridge (Add. 1 187, 2). The nSiNjn yp is extant in the British Museum, 
 MS. Add. 26,894, and the passage quoted by De Rossi is to be found 
 on p. 163;^, but a few words are erased by the censor. As to the poem 
 given at the end of this paper, see Zunz, Synagogale Poesie, p. 47^ ; 
 Landshut, Amtide ha-Abodah s.v., the references in Sachs' Religiose 
 Poesie der Jjtden, and Luzzatto in the Ozar Nechmad, ii. 27. Compare 
 also Professor Cheyne's The Origin of the Psalter, p. 421. 
 
 2. New Year's Day, on the first of Tishri. It is in autumn. 
 
 3. A famous Rabbi of the fifteenth century, known by his various 
 casuistical and philosophical works. 
 
 4. Chiefly known through his controversial writings against the 
 adherents of the pseudo-Messiah Shabbethai Tsebi. He was for some 
 time the Rabbi of the Portuguese congregation in London. 
 
 5. The main objections of the opponents of Maimonides were di- 
 rected against his rationalistic notions of Revelation, and his allegoris- 
 
NOTES 
 
 349 
 
 ing interpretation of the Scriptures, which amounted in some places to 
 a denial of miracles. He was also suspected of having denied bodily 
 resurrection. A history of Jewish rationalism is still a desideratum. 
 I am certain that it would prove at least as interesting as Reuter's 
 Geschichte der religiosen Aufkl'drung im Mittelalter (Berlin, 1845-60). 
 
 6. ni^D yy^i'\. 
 
 7. nnjN, " Homilies." See above, p. 64 and note. 
 
 8. n'^iNjn |>p, " The end of the Redemption," that is the time when 
 the advent of the Messiah is to be expected. 
 
 9. This patriarch is famous in Jewish legend for his hospitality. 
 See Beer's Leben Abrahams^ pp. 37 and 56. 
 
 ID. This is the quorum necessary to form a congregation (mv) for 
 the purpose of holding divine service. 
 
 11. By Zobah, or Aram Zobah, the Jews of the Middle Ages usually 
 understood Aleppo. See Benjamin of Tudela's Itinerary, i. 88, ii. 124 
 (London and Berlin, 1840-41). 
 
 12. See below, p. 141, where a full translation of the letter is given. 
 
 13. niVnj nioSn, a compendium of the Law, dating from the ninth 
 century, by R. Simon Caro. 
 
 14. R. Simlai flourished in Palestine in the third century. He is 
 best known as an Agadic teacher and a great controversialist. Accord- 
 ing to him, 613 commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, 
 of which 365 are prohibitive laws, whilst the remaining 248 are positive 
 injunctions. 
 
 15. SiDjn n;?a', " Treatise on Reward (and Punishment)." 
 
 16. N3n uhy. 
 
 17. Ps. cix. 4; nVfin^jKV 
 
 18. niS-ixN. 
 
 19. n"«n VQi. 
 
 20. nyn>, " Knowledge," " Foreknowledge," " Omniscience." 
 
 21. ni3D, nj^DU'. 
 
 22. nSuD. See Exod. xix. 5 
 
 23. Dipn. 
 
 24. aip, p-ip. 
 
 25. According to a Jewish tradition (the date of which is uncertain) 
 the advent of the Messiah, the Son of David, will be preceded by that 
 of the Messiah, the Son of Joseph. The latter will perish in the battle 
 
350 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 against Gog and Magog (the Antichrist of Jewish literature), but will 
 soon be brought back to life on the appearance of the former. Cf. G. 
 H. Dalman's Der leidende und der sterbende Messias der Synagoge 
 (Berlin, 1881). 
 
 26. n>iyN-\3, " In the beginning," Gen. i. i. 
 
 27. pnd; Job xxvii. 12. 
 
 28. Chagigah 14^. The activity of these four Rabbis falls chiefly 
 in the second century. R. Akiba died as a martyr in the Hadrianic 
 persecution (about 130). Elisha b. Abuyah, the apostate, was usually 
 called inN, Acher^ " the other one." 
 
 29. The former lived in the twelfth, the latter in the sixteenth, 
 century. They are both known for their hostility to philosophy. 
 
 30. Bachya wrote in the eleventh century a famous book called 
 nijaSn main. The Duties of the Heart. For the others see above, p. 13 
 and note, p. 49 and note, p. 102 and note, p. 97 and note, p. 71 and 
 note. They all belong to the rationalistic school. 
 
 31. A younger contemporary of Maimonides, who translated the 
 Guide from Arabic into Hebrew. 
 
 32. Sp)if'!:>r\ n£3D. See above, p. 18. R. Moses Cordovora, the author 
 of the Dine, lived in Safed in the sixteenth century. For R. Isaac 
 Loria, the author of the o^-'on yy, see above, note 5 to Elijah Wilna. 
 
 33. nniD \ivw. 
 
 34. '\'^r\ir\ -\i3D, a forgery by a Provencal Jew of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, who attributed it to a Rabbi of the first century. 
 
 35. This hymn is now incorporated in her excellent little book, 
 Songs of Zion, pp. 13-15. 
 
 36. 3inr, a gold piece. The country and the date of the writer not 
 being certain, it is impossible to determine the value of this coin. 
 
 37. The lawfulness of eating this fish (= sturgeon?) was contested 
 for many centuries, and the controversy still continues. 
 
 38. toitt'o, a smaller coin than the Zehub. 
 
 39. ;?Dtt', "Hear," the verses from Deut. vi. 4-9, xi. 13-21, and 
 Num. XV. 37-41, recited twice a day by the Jews. 
 
NOTES 351 
 
 V. A JEWISH BOSWELL 
 
 1. Sabbath, 30^. 
 
 2. jn:n, pi. D^jnjD {Minhagim)^ applied usually to those ritual cus- 
 toms and ceremonies for which there is no distinct authority in the 
 Scriptures or even in the Talmud. 
 
 VI. THE DOGMAS OF JUDAISM 
 
 1. Jerusalem, in Mendelssohn's Sdntmtliche Werke (Vienna, 1838), 
 especially from p. 264 onwards, and a letter by him published in 
 Frankel-Graetz's Monatsschrift, 1859, p. 173. For Mendelssohn's 
 position, see Graetz's Geschichte, xi. 86 seq., especially p. 88 and 
 note I ; Kayserling, Leben und Werke of M., 2d ed., p. 394; Stein- 
 heim, Moses Mendelssohn (Hamburg, 1840), p. 30 seq.; Holdheim, 
 Moses Mendelssohn (Berlin, 1859), p. 18 seq.; Leopold Low's pam- 
 phlet, Judische Dognien (Pesth, 1871). 
 
 2. See the Commentaries on Maimonides' mxnn leo, especially R. 
 Simeon Duran's ^^\>'\r\ -inir ; cf. also ancient and modern commentaries 
 on Exod. XX. 2. 
 
 3. See Siphra (ed. Weiss), pp. 863, 93^. 
 
 4. Baba Bathra, 14^; cf. Fiirst's Kanon, p. 1$. 
 
 5. See Sanhedrin, 38^, and Pseudo- Jonathan to Gen. iv. 8. 
 
 6. Mechilia, 33^. 
 
 7. Dmp^DN, Lat. Epicurus. 
 
 8. See Mishnah, Sanhedrin^ x. e, § i, and Talmud, ibid. 90a and *, 
 and Rabbinowicz's Variae LectioneSy ix. p. 247 notes. Besides the 
 ordinary commentaries on the Talmud, account must also be taken of 
 the remarks of Crescas, Duran, Albo, and Abarbanel on the subject. 
 Cf. also Kampf in the Monatsschrift (1863), p. i^^seq. ; Oppenheim, 
 ibid. (1864), p. 144; Friedmann in the Beth Talmud, i. p. 210 seq. 
 See also Talmudical Dictionaries, s.v. omp^oN. The explanation I 
 have adopted agrees partly with Friedmann's and partly with Oppen- 
 heim's views. 
 
 9. Sayings of the Fathers, iii. § 9, and iv. § 22. 
 10. See in^Ss n->iK (Jovslow, 1835), P- 48- 1° "*y exposition of the 
 dogmas of the Caraites I have mainly followed the late Dr. Frankl's 
 
352 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 article "Karaiten" in Ersch u. Gruber's Encyclopadie (sec. ii. 
 vol. xxxvi. pp. 1 2-18). See also his Ein mutazilitischer Kalam 
 and his Beitr'dge zur Liter aturgeschichte der Karder (Berlin, 1887) 
 on Bashazi. Cf. also Jost's Geschichte^ ii. c. 13. 
 
 1 1 . Kairowan was one of the greatest centres of Jewish learning in 
 North Africa during that period. 
 
 12. See, however. Professor D. Kaufmann's note in the Jewish 
 Quarterly Review^ i. p. 441 . From this it would seem that the creed of 
 R. Judah Hallevi may be formulated in the following articles: — The 
 conviction of the existence of God, of His eternity, of His guidance of 
 our fathers, of the Divine Origin of the Law, and of the proof of all 
 this, the pledge or token of its truth, the exodus from Egypt. 
 
 13. nD-\ njicN', Emunah Ramah, pp. 44 and 69; cf. Gulmann, 
 Monatsschrift, 1878, p. 304. 
 
 14. For the various translations of the Thirteen Articles which were 
 originally composed in Arabic, see Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1887. 
 Cf. Rosin, Ethik des Maimonides, p. 30 ; Weiss, Beth Talmud, i. p. 330, 
 and Ben Chananjah, 1863, p. 942, and 1864, pp. 648 and 697, and 
 Landshut, mnpn >niD;;, p. 231. 
 
 15. niNjp nmo. See pp. 1-16. 
 
 16. See Hammaskir, viii. pp. 63 and 103. 
 
 17. See Steinschneider, Cat. Miinchen, No. 210. 
 
 18. See the Collection d^ddh nan, by Ashkenazi, pp. $6b seq. 
 
 19. See Albo, c. iii. Probably identical with the author mentioned 
 by Duran, 13^. 
 
 20. ]^ml "ifiD, " Sepher Nizzachon." 
 
 21. See 'n niN (ed. Johannisburg), preface, and pp. 20fl, 44^, 59^, 
 and elsewhere. The style of this author is very obscure. Cf. JoePs 
 pamphlet on this author (Breslau, 1874). 
 
 22. See the first pages of the noN pn (Leghorn, 1758), and his 
 •OQ^n 3niK, pp. 13 seq. 
 
 23. Dnpj7, Ikkariffty " Fundamentals." 
 
 24. See Ikkarim, i. c. 23, and Maimonides' Commentary on the 
 Mishnah (end of tractate Maccoth). On Albo compare Schlesinger's 
 Introduction and notes to the Ikkarim., Joel's pamphlet, p. 82 ; Paulus, 
 Monatsschrift., 1874, p. 463, and Brlill's Jahrb. iv. p. 52. 
 
 25. I know his work fr-om a MS. in the British Museum, Orient. 39. 
 
NOTES 353 
 
 26. njiDN -|m, Derech Emunah. Qi. Steinschneider, Monatsschrift^ 
 1883, p. y()seq. 
 
 27. See pnx^ m^pj', gate 55. 
 
 28. See his njicNn •^^o> and nnnNn idnd. 
 
 29. njDN CNI. 
 
 30. See mn nj^n^, ed. Reggio, p. 28. 
 
 31. See n>3iLD ne'^D (Venice, 1707), 16^ and 23^. His language is 
 very vague. 
 
 32. See the Collection by Ashkenazi (as above, note 18), p. 29^. 
 
 33. See his z'i<-y d>d::'2, p. 331. 
 
 34. See Weiss's admirable monograph on Maimonides, published 
 in the Beth Talmud^ i. 
 
 VII. THE HISTORY OF JEWISH TRADITION 
 
 1. The Hebrew title of the work is vtrtm nn nn. 
 
 2. That is, vows of an ascetic nature (not vows or oaths enforced 
 by a court of justice), which the tribunal could annul when there was 
 sufficient reason for it. 
 
 3. The ten Rabbis who are named as the bearers of tradition during 
 the period between 170 and 30 B.C. The "pair" in each case is sup- 
 posed to have consisted of the president and the vice-president of the 
 Sanhedrin for the time being. See, however, Kuenen, Gesammelte 
 Schriften, p. 49 seq. 
 
 4. DiSnj D"'jB>-n. 
 
 5. ij-iDD nco'? nioSn. They amount, in the whole of Rabbinic litera- 
 ture, to about forty, of which more than ten concern the preparation of 
 the phylacteries, whilst others relate to the libations of water at the 
 Feast of Tabernacles and similar subjects. 
 
 6. This is the time when the school of R. Johanan b. Zaccai began 
 its activity. Others place the Tannaitic age in Hillel's time (30 B.C.). 
 
 7. Sip r\i. 
 
 8. in no, lit. " Court of Justice," as above, note 16 to Elijah Wilna, 
 but it means also a sort of permanent Synod, in which of course justice 
 was also administered as a part of religion. 
 
 9. nm;;, "Evidences given by Witnesses." The tractate consists 
 
 2A 
 
2^4 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 mostly of a number of laws attested by various Rabbis as having come 
 down to them as old traditions. 
 
 ID. The family of Hillel, which was supposed to be descended from 
 the house of David, supplied the Jews with patriarchs for many gen- 
 erations. Gamaliel II. flourished about 120 a.c, whilst Simon b. 
 Gamaliers activity as Patriarch falls about 160 a.c. 
 
 11. x\-\r\-o'v^ Semachoth. It is a euphemistic title, the tractate dealing 
 with the laws relating to funeral ceremonies and mourning. 
 
 12. >Nni2D, " Elucidators " or "Explainers." The heads of the 
 schools in Babylon during the fifth and sixth centuries were so 
 designated. 
 
 13. The Rabbinic Jews of the dispersion add one day to each 
 festival, and thus celebrate the Passover eight days, the Feast of 
 Weeks two days, etc. The custom arose out of the uncertainty 
 about the first day of the month, the prerogative of fixing the New 
 Moon resting with the great Beth Din in Palestine, which had not 
 always the means of communicating in time the evidence given before 
 them that the New Moon had been seen by qualified witnesses. The 
 prerogative was abolished in the fourth century, and the calendar fixed 
 for all future time, but the additional day is still kept by the Rabbinic 
 Jews as the " Custom of their Fathers." 
 
 14. HDip nijj^jy, niSs^n, « Chambers (of Heaven) " and the " Measure 
 of the Stature," mystical works in which occasionally gross anthropo- 
 morphisms are to be found. Their authorship is unknown. 
 
 III. THE DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION IN 
 RABBINICAL LITERATURE 
 
 1. Sabbath^ 55a. 
 
 2. Sayings of the Fathers (ed. C. Taylor), v. 12-15. See also 
 Sabbath, 32 seq., and Mechilta (ed. Friedman), 95*^. Arachin, i6a. 
 
 3. See Mechilta, 25c, 32^. Gen. Rabbah, ch. 48, and Tossephta 
 Sotahy iv. 7, and parallels. 
 
 4. Taanith, 21a. 
 
 5. Sayings of the Father s^ iv. 5. 
 
 6. Baba Bathra, gb. 
 
 7. Voma, 39a. 
 
NOTES 
 
 355 
 
 6. Berachoth, 33d;. 
 
 9. Sabbath^ 13^. 
 
 10. Berachoth^ ya. 
 
 11. See i)/^<:M^<z, 68^, and parallels. Siphra,ii2b. Pgssikta of R. 
 Kahana, 167^. Cp. Sanhedrin^ 44a. 
 
 12. Abol/i de R. Nathan, 40a, 59^, and 62^. 
 
 13. Baba Bai/ira, loa. 
 
 14. EccUs. Kabbah, ix. 7. 
 
 15. 5«. 
 
 16. 7^. 
 
 17. See Mechilta,, 95^, and parallels. 
 
 18. See Kiddushin^ \ob. Mechilta, 63^. Z^v. Kabbah, iv. 
 
 19. See Sabbath, 54^:. 
 
 20. Exodus Kabbah, c 35, and parallels. 
 
 21. See iV^^dim, ii. I. 
 
 22. Exod. Kabbah, c. 46. 
 
 23. Taanith, iia. 
 
 24. See Berachoth, $a. 
 
 25. Tanchuma, Nxn o, § 2. Cp. MechiUa, y^. 
 
 26. SiphrS, T^b, and parallels. 
 
 27. Taanith, Sa. 
 
 28. Arachin, i6b. 
 
 29. Sayings of the Fathers^ iv. 15. 
 
 30. See Chagigah, ^a. 
 
 31. Sabbath, 55^. 
 
 32. Menachoth, 29^. 
 
 33. Taanith, i^a. 
 
 34. Gen. Kabbah, xxv'n.; Pessikta, 136^; Sanhedrin, v\. 5; 5^ra- 
 M<7M, 7^. 
 
 35. Sayings of the Fathers, i. 3, p. 27, ed. Taylor. See also note 8. 
 
 36. Abodah Zarah, iga ; Siphrk, 79^. 
 
 37. Berachoth, 58^. 
 
 38. See £!ty^. /?., 30, and parallels. 
 
 39. See no^n n'>K'Nn, i. 9. 
 
 40. See o>fl« DTiD-1, 33^. 
 
 41. See Sabbath, 55^, and Siphra, 2ya, 
 
356 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 IX. THE LAW AND RECENT CRITICISM 
 
 1 . Judaism and Christianity, a Sketch of the Progress of Thought 
 from Old Testament to New Testament, by C. H. Toy, Professor in 
 Harvard University. London, 1890. 
 
 2. See Pessikta of R. Kahana, 61^, and parallels, and Erubin, 
 iZb. 
 
 3. Tal. Jer., Sabbath, $b. 
 
 4. pntooD, the name of an angel, already found in the Talmud, but 
 playing a more important part in the Book of Chambers, where he is 
 identified with Enoch. The etymology of the word is doubtful, some 
 authors considering it to be of Persian origin {Mithra) ; others again 
 deriving it from the Greek /actoi rvpavvov, or fiera. Bpovov. 
 
 5. nniDD. 
 
 6. NiD^D, "The Word," sometimes substituted for God. See J. 
 Levy's Chalddisches Worterbuch, s.v. 
 
 7. nn^, \xa-\p din. 
 
 8. Mechilta, 104a. 
 
 9. See Tal. Jer., Voma, 4$b. Cf. Maimonides, Mishnth Torah, 
 y'n 3"d n^!:' noSn. 
 
 10. Tosephfa Berachoth, iii. 7. 
 
 11. Sabbath, lob. The name of the Rabbi is not given, but the 
 fact that R. Simeon b. Gamaliel (160 a.c.) already refers to this inter- 
 pretation makes it clear that its anonymous author must have lived at 
 least a generation before, 
 
 12. tt-np S'i' DID. 
 
 13. See Midrash to the Psalms xcii. and Deut. Rabbah iii. The 
 Rabbis perceived in the words jjy nstt''? nNnpi (Isa. Iviii. 13), a command 
 to make the Sabbath a day of pleasure, whilst the word ixon was under- 
 stood by them to mean " needs," " wants," or " business " {not " pleas- 
 ure ") . Cf. Sabbath, 1 13^ and b. 
 
 14. See Gen. Rabbah, xi. (and parallels), and Sabbath, iiga. 
 
 15. See Maaseh Tor ah (ed. Schonblum) and Deut. Rabbah, i. 
 
 16. Sabbath, 25^ and 119^. 
 
 17. Betsah, i6a. Cf. Baer's notes in his Prayer-Book, p. 203 seq, 
 
 18. See Sabbath, iigb, and Gen. Rabbah, xi. 
 
NOTES 357 
 
 19. See Sabbath^ lob, and Gen. Rabbah^ ibid. 
 
 20. i^Son. 
 
 21. Nazir^ 2^b. 
 
 X. THE HEBREW COLLECTION OF THE BRITISH 
 MUSEUM 
 
 1. ynr ms by R. Isaac b. Moses of Vienna (thirteenth century), 
 mostly on legal subjects. 
 
 2. i^onv, Yuchasin. 
 
 3. SSoD, Miklal. 
 
 4. D'-ynr, lyi?;, the former treating of the agricultural laws of the 
 Bible, the latter of those relating to the Sabbath, Passover, and other 
 festivals. 
 
 5. iiinc, " Cycle," containing the liturgy for the festivals. 
 
 6. Since then edited by the Mekize Nirdamim. 
 
 7. Eve of the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 
 XI. TITLES OF JEWISH BOOKS 
 
 1. omD TWV, u"v, 
 
 2. NP^na. 
 
 3. riNfl. 
 
 4. i3)pS>, Yalkut. 
 
 5. nnn. 
 
 6. aio -unw. 
 
 7. IJJOM. 
 
 8. n^nim, widV^ 
 
 10. ^Sdh pd;?, iSdV njiTD, nji^D n>jD, mm nja'D, iSnn npty. 
 
 11. S^ty D>"»n. 
 
 12. SN-ity^ n"? 5<nj> in. 
 
 13. nnan mmS ^js'. nW. 
 
358 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 XII. THE CHILD IN JEWISH LITERATURE 
 
 1. The main authorities on the subjects of this essay are Die 
 Lebgnsalter, by Dr. Leopold Low ; The Jewish Rite of Circumcision, 
 by Dr. Asher; an article by Dr. Perles in the Graetz Jubelschrifty 
 p. 23 seq. ; Merkwurdigkeiten der Juden, by Schudt ; the o^jnjDn nipo 
 and other works on ritual customs ; Gudemann's Geschichte des Erzie- 
 hungswesens und der Cultur der Juden ; and Das Kind in Branch 
 undSitte der Volker, by Dr. Ploss. 
 
 2. "TiDN, nrsN. 
 
 3. n^S^S, Is. xxxiv. 14. 
 
 4. See above, note 39 to Nachmanides. 
 
 5. nS^D nn3, "Covenant of Circumcision." This is the usual 
 expression in Hebrew literature for the rite of circumcision. 
 
 6. 13? diSb'. 
 
 7. ITU, 'jniD. 
 
 8. pn pno, 
 
 9. minn npn, on educational matters. 
 
 10. niiHD, " business," or " wares." 
 
 11. I am indebted for the English adaptation to Mrs. Henry Lucas. 
 
 12. Bereshith Rabbah, chapter xx. For another reading see n>B'Nn 
 noon (ed. Cracow), p. 374. 
 
 13. Abodah Zarah, ^b, 
 
 14. This is the way in which Deut. xxxi. 10-12 was explained. 
 
 15. Dn£5"iD, "Scribes"; treating of the regulations concerning the 
 writing of the Law, but containing also much liturgical matter. 
 
 16. omeD, by which name the Jews of the Spanish rite are desig- 
 nated. 
 
 17. iif^ pmj, a controversial work published by Wagenseil. See 
 above, p. 203, for another victory. 
 
 18. peSnjD, who is probably known to the English reader from 
 Longfellow's poem. 
 
 19. n«D 13. 
 
 20. tt'iTp, " Sanctification " — "benediction" — on the eve of Sab- 
 bath, which is pronounced over a cup of wine. 
 
 21. mm nnoc, on the 23rd of Tishri, when the last portion from the 
 Pentateuch is read. 
 
NOTES 355 
 
 22. SSn, "Praise," i.e. Ps. cxiii.-cxviii. 
 
 23. K'np, the name of a prayer commencing iynpn>^ Sijn^, " Magnified 
 and sanctified be," etc. 
 
 24. Prayer beginning- 13^3, " Bless ye," etc. 
 
 25. ncNi' ^n^, beginning of a prayer, " Blessed be He," etc. 
 
 26. See Schiirer's Die Gefneindeverfassung der Juden in Rom^ 
 p. 24. Cf. Hebrdische Bibliographies xix. p. 79. 
 
 XIII. WOMAN IN TEMPLE AND SYNAGOGUE 
 
 1. n^<^2(. 
 
 2. nunn. 
 
 XIV. THE EARLIEST JEWISH COMMUNITY IN 
 
 EUROPE 
 
 1. pj"" nj;;D. 
 
 2. "\iDyv In olden times the weekly lesson from the Law used to 
 be read by seven members of the congregation who were " called up " 
 for this purpose ; the Priest and the Levite took precedence of laymen 
 for this honour. At the present day, the members of the congregation 
 are still called up, but the actual reading is performed by an official. 
 
INDEX 
 
 This Index contains the most important names of persons, titles of books, 
 technical terms and Hebrew words occurring in the text. In the notes to 
 the text, commencing with p. 41^, the Hebrew words are for the most part 
 given also in Hebrew characters. 
 
 Abarbanel, Isaac, 173, 174 
 
 Abaye, 311 
 
 Ab Beth Din, 84, 347 
 
 Abba Mari b, Moses, 165, 1 79 
 
 Abba Tachnah, the Chassid, 221 
 
 Abraham, Baalshem's father-in-law, 7 
 
 Abraham, son of Elijah Wilna, 88 
 
 Abraham of Bedres, 262 
 
 Abraham Abulaphia, 262 
 
 Abraham Ibn Daud, 162 
 
 Abraham Ibn Ezra, 50, 52, 64, 71, 210, 
 
 3I4» 344 
 Abraham b. Shem — Tob Bibago, 172, 
 
 173 
 
 Abtalyon, 186 
 
 Abuha, 311 
 
 Acha, 310 
 
 Acher, 292, 350 
 
 Adam, Primal, 239, 356 
 
 Agadah, pi. Agadoth, 64, 105, 183, 
 
 I97» 345 
 Agadic, no, 156, 157, 193, 262, 279, 
 
 345 
 Ages of Man, 295 
 Akabyah b. Mahalaleel, 305 
 Akiba, 70, 84, 130, 188, 190, 194, 220, 
 
 227, 228, 234, 350 
 Almemor^ 302 
 Ammi, 214, 217, 226, 231 
 Amora, pi. Amoraim, 17, 84, 195, 343 
 Amram Gaon, 293 
 
 Anna of Kaidon, wife of Elijah Wilna, 
 
 82 
 Anselm, St., of Canterbury, 79 
 Antigonos of Socho, 229 
 Anti-Maimonists, 133 
 Aristotle, 79, 167 
 
 Aryeh Leb, son of Elijah Wilna, 88 
 Ascension of Elijah, 75, 346 
 Asher b. Jechiel, 2io 
 Assideans, 64, 342 
 Ayil Meshulash, 81 
 
 Azariah de Rossi, 66, 71, 105, 333, 345 
 Aziluth, 117, 349 
 Azulai, 277 
 
 Baalshem, Israel, 3-12, 14-35, 
 
 73, 342 
 Bachrach, Ch. J., 325 
 Bachur, pi. Bachurim, 95, 97, 347 
 Bachya, 131, 35° 
 Baraitha, 271, 357 
 Baruch Sheamar, 31 1, 359 
 Bashazi, 161 
 Bath-Kol, 190, 353 
 Beer of Mizriez, ii, 37 
 Beer, Peter, 66 
 Ben Azzai, 130, 216, 319 
 Benjamin of Tudela, 329 
 Ben-Jacob, 259 
 Ben Sira, 297 
 Ben Zoma, 130 
 
 361 
 
362 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Bereshith, 127, 350 
 
 Berith Milah, 288, 292, 293, 358 
 
 Berliner, A., 327 
 
 Bernays, Isaak, 337 
 
 Beth Din, I9i-i93» 354 
 
 Beth Hammidrash, 7, 16, 84, 139, 
 
 342 
 Beth Talmud, 210 
 Biccurim, 58, 344 
 Bloch, Samson, 51 
 Bodek, A., 51 
 
 Book of Brightness (see Zohar) 
 Book of the Pious, 295, 322 
 Book of Victory, i6t, 352 
 Book of Weight, 133, 350 
 Boswell, 142, 197 
 Buckle, 96 
 Burbot, 138, 350 
 Buzagli, the Cabbalist, 310 
 
 Cabbalah, Cabbalists, 99, 128, 129, 
 
 133, 210, 283, 315 
 Cabod, 120, 121 
 Caraites, 48, 160, 161, 207, 208, 344, 
 
 351 
 
 Casaubon, Isaac, 259 
 
 Chagigah, 77, 346 
 
 Chakhamim, 57, 344 
 
 Chambers, the, 208, 355 
 
 Chanina b. Dossa, 217 
 
 Chanukah, 138 
 
 Chapters of R. Eliezer the Great, 68, 
 
 69, 316, 346 
 Chasdai Ibn Crescas, 167-173, 180 
 Chassidim, Chassid, Chassidic, Chas- 
 
 sidism, 1-4, ii, 12, 14-16, 21, 22, 
 
 25-27> 30, ZZ^ 35-41, 43-45» 53, 
 
 73, 90, 298, 341, 342 
 Chayim Vital, 99 
 Chayim Walosin, 85, 87, 94 
 Chisda, 307 
 Chukkim, 124, 349 
 Code of the Law, by Caro, 75, 92, 206, 
 
 211,257,346 
 Collectanea, 144 
 Commentary on the Pentateuch, by 
 
 Nachmanides, 107, 108, 123, 135 
 
 Creeds and Opinions, by Saadiah Gaoiit 
 
 162, 344 
 Crown, 239, 356 
 Cusari, 162, 343 
 
 DA TE OF THE REDEMPTION^ IO5, 
 
 349 
 David Rocca Martino, 230 
 David Messer Leon, 174 
 David b. Samuel d'Estella, 165, 166 
 David b. Yom-Tob Bilia, 166 
 Defence of Adam, 230 
 Delmedigo, 71, 131, '75, 34^ 
 Disputation, by Nachmanides, 103 
 Dukes, L., 260 
 
 Eighteen benedictions^ 83, 
 347 
 
 Eleazar, 229 
 
 Eleazar b. Jacob, 225 
 
 Eliezer, father of Baalshem, 5 
 
 Eliezer b. Hyrkanos, 189, 319 
 
 Eliezer b. Samuel Hallevi, 145 
 
 EHezer b. Simeon, 223 
 
 Elijah Levita, 268 
 
 Elijah Wilna, 57, 73-77, 81-92, 96, 97, 
 
 EHsha b. Abuyah, 33, 130, 292 
 
 Emden, Jacob, 10, 259, 342 
 
 Epikurus, 157, 351 
 
 Erech Millin, 66, 345 
 
 Erter, Isaac, 51, 59, 288 
 
 Essenes, 64, 185 
 
 Examination of the World, 97, 347 
 
 Eybeschutz, J., 10, 342 
 
 Ezra, or Azriel, the mystic, 100 
 
 Faithful City, the, 75, 346 
 
 Fichte, 51 
 
 Finn, 75 
 
 Ford Jabbok, 333, 359 
 
 Frankists, lo, 342 
 
 Frankl, Z., 65, 97 
 
 Fiirst, J., 66 
 
 Gamaliel I., 234 
 Gamaliel II., 194, 212, 354 
 
INDEX 
 
 363 
 
 Gaon^ pi. Gaonim, 73, 76-78, 97, 98, 
 
 206, 208, 209, 289, 312, 346 
 Garden of Mystical Contemplation^ 
 
 129 
 Gate of Reward, 115,213, 349 
 Geiger, A., 66 
 Gemara, 78, 346 
 Gershon, brother-in-law of Baalshem, 
 
 8,9 
 Ghetto, 326, ZZ^-ZZZ 
 Gnostics, 64 
 
 Goethe, 57, 73, 306, 328 
 Gozer, 29c, 358 
 Graetz, 65, 97, 99, 183 
 Great Interpreters, 186, 353 
 Green, A. L., 255 
 Guide of the Perplexed, 49, 68, 97, 
 
 102, 130, 131, 179, 342, 344 
 Guide of the Perplexed of the Time, 
 
 60, 67, 345 
 
 Hadasi, Judah, 160, 161 
 
 Hai Gaon, 77, 208, 209, 272, 346 
 
 Halachah, pi. Halachoth, 64, 66, 183, 
 
 345 
 Halachic^ 57,92, lio, 157, 193, 207, 
 
 344 
 Halachoth Gedoloth, III, 1 12, 349 
 Hannaneel of Kairwan, 162 
 Hegel, 51, 54, 64, 6s 
 Heine, 59, 124, 254 
 High Belief 162, 352 
 Hillel the Great, 185, 186, 188, 193, 
 
 237 
 Hillel, R., 177 
 History of Jewish Tradition, 65, 182, 
 
 353 
 clithlahabuth, 32, 343 
 Holle Kreisch, 294, 295 
 Huna, 221, 225 
 
 Isaac Alfasi, 13, 100, loi, iii, 312, 
 
 343 
 Isaac Aramah, 173 
 Isaac Loria, 76, 133, 350 
 Isaac b. Ruben, 100 
 Ishmael, 18S, 190, 224 
 
 Ishmael b. Elishah, 222, 299 
 
 Israel Baalshem {see Baalshem, Israel) 
 
 Jacob of Corbeil, 322 
 
 Jacob Dubna, 91 
 
 Jacob the Levite, or Maharil, 143, 
 
 144 
 Jacob Sasportas, loi, 102 
 Jacob Tam, 210 
 Jannai, 226 
 
 Jedaiah of Bedres, 97, 131 
 Jerusalem, by Mendelssohn, 147, 351 
 Johanan, 249, 287, 303, 318 
 Johanan b. Zaccai, 48, 188, 344 
 Jonah Gerundi, 100, loi 
 Jonah, son of Nachmanides, loi 
 Jose, 218, 219 
 Joseph Albashir, 160 
 Joseph Albo, 171, 172 
 Joseph Caro, 75, 92, 206, 211, 322, 
 
 346 
 Joseph Jabez, 131, i73» I79» 35° 
 Joshua b. Hananiah, 194, 299, 304, 
 
 308 
 Jost, M., 66 
 Judah Alcharisi, 262 
 Judah Hallevi, 13, 34, 152, 162, 208, 
 
 342, 352 
 Judah b. Ilai, 246 
 Judah Messer Leon, 333 
 Judah de Modena, 298 
 Judah the Patriarch, 63^ 195, 343 
 Judah the Pious, 306 
 Judah b. Tema, 299 
 Judah b. Yakar, 100 
 
 Karab, 124, 349 
 
 Kilayim, 87, 347 
 
 Kimchi, D., 145 
 
 Korban, 124, 349 
 
 Krochmal, Nachman, 44, 46, 48-68, 
 
 71,72 
 Kuenen, 240 
 
 Law OF MAN, 113-115 
 Laws unto Moses on Mount Sinai, 
 64. 345» 353 
 
3^4 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Lessing, 73 
 
 Letteris, M., 56, 57 
 
 Levi b. Gershom, 97, loi, 171, 347 
 
 Light of God, 167, 352 
 
 Lilac of Mysteries, 133, 350 
 
 Lilith, 287, 288, 358 
 
 Lipman of Miihlhausen, 167, 179 
 
 Liva of Prague, 78 
 
 Lowell, R., 116 
 
 Low, L., 171, 285, 305 
 
 Lucas, Mrs. Henry, 135, 358 
 
 Macaulay, 89 
 
 Maggid, 19, 347 
 
 Magnified, 310, 359 
 
 Maimonides, or Moses b. Maimon, 
 
 13, 48, 49, 68, 70, 78, 97, 100, 102, 
 
 103, III, 126, 130, 133, 140, 161- 
 
 168, 170-181, 210, 211, 249, 274, 
 
 280, 281, 312, 322, 342 
 Maimonists, Anti-Maimonists, 163- 
 
 165, 173, 210 
 Mar Samuel, 84 
 Mathia b. Chares, 339 
 Measure of the Stature, 208 
 Mechilta, 58, 81, 193, 345 
 Meheram Schiff, 16, 343 
 Meir, 130, 194, 226, 318 
 Meir b. Nathan of Trinquintaines, 100 
 Meir of Rothenburg, 210 
 Memra, 238, 356 
 
 Men of the Great Synagogue, 64, 185 
 Menachoth^ 86, 347 
 Mendelssohn, Moses, 48, 58, 73, 147, 
 
 151, 176,351 
 Metatron, 238, 356 
 Midrash, pi. Midrashim, 61, 64, 71, 
 
 81, 193, 195, 222, 262, 272, 273, 
 
 304* 345 
 Milton, 114 
 
 Minhag, pi. Minhagim^ 143, 192, 351 
 Minim ^ 64, 345 
 Minor Tractates, 81, 346 
 Mishnah, 57, 64, 66, 76, 78, 82, 85, 
 
 87, 91, 157, 190, 193, 195, 271, 343 
 Mistress of the Synagogue, 317 
 Moses Cordevora, 133, 350 
 
 Moses Ibn Ezra, 262 
 
 Moses de Leon, 18, 133, 258, 262 
 
 Moses of Tachau, 131 
 
 Mother Zion, 321 
 
 Nachman, son of Nachmanides, loi 
 Nachmanides, or Moses b. Nachman, 
 
 99-141, 213 
 Nahum of Gemzo, 215 
 Nasi, 84, 347 
 Nathan, 194 
 
 Nephesh Chayah, 117, 349 
 Neubauer, Dr. A., 263 
 Night of Watching, 288 
 Nissim of Gerona, 133 
 Nissim of Marseilles, 267 
 
 Olam Habba, 115 
 Old Victory, 304, 358 
 Oral Law, 10 
 Orchard, the, 133, 350 
 Ordinance of the Law, 293, 358 
 
 Pablo Christiano, 103, 105, 106 
 
 Pairs, the, 185, 353 
 
 Paradise Lost, 1 14 
 
 Pardes, 129 
 
 Pashut, 138, 350 
 
 Path of Belief 172, 353 
 
 Perles, J., 99, 123, 294 
 
 Pharisees, 64, 185, 237, 24I 
 
 Philo, 52, 64, 154, 238 
 
 Pilpul Pilpulist, 13, 78, 343 
 
 Plato, 78 
 
 Pugio Fidei, 107 
 
 Raba, 311 
 
 Rabbanan Saburai, 206, 354 
 
 Rabbah, 311 
 
 Rabbenu, 13, 343 
 
 Rabbenu Mosheh, 103, 349 
 
 Rabbinowicz, R. N. N., 261 
 
 Raimund Martini, 107 
 
 Rapoport, Solomon Leb, 50, 53, 56, 66 
 
 Reggio, Isaac, 270 
 
 Roots, the, 171, 352 
 
 Ruskin, 328 
 
INDEX 
 
 365 
 
 Saadiah Gaon, 48, 162,208,272,344 
 
 Sacred Letter, 113 
 
 Sadducees, 64, 185, 237 
 
 Salman the Good, 145 
 
 Sambatyon, 95, 347 
 
 Sanctification-cup, 245, 356 
 
 Sandalphon, 305 
 
 Sandek, 290 
 
 Sanhedrin, the, 188, 190, 191 
 
 Saul Berlin, 176, 180 
 
 Sayings of the Fathers, Aboth^ 262, 
 
 299 
 Schelling, 51 
 Schiller, 73 
 Schlummerlied, 295 
 Schorr, O., 193 
 Schudt, 291, 298 
 Sechorah, 296, 358 
 Seder Nezikin, 58, 344 
 Seder Olam, 81, 92, 346 
 Seder Taharoth, 58, 345 
 Segulah, 122, 349 
 Sephardim, 301, 358 
 Sepher, 13, 343 
 Sephiroth, Ten, 238, 356 
 Sermon in the Presence of the King, 
 
 by Nachmanides, 165 
 Shabbethai Tsebi, 134, 239, 348 
 Shalom Zachar, 289, 358 
 Shammai, 185, 188, 237 
 Shechinah, 120, 121, 228-230, 349 
 Shema, reading of the, 141, 288, 350 
 Shemaiah, 186 
 Shemariah of Crete, 166 
 Sherira Gaon, 263 
 Shiphluth, 30, 343 
 Simchah, 31, 343 
 Simeon Duran, loi, 170, 171, 348 
 Simeon b. Eleazar, 289 
 Simeon b. Gamaliel, 222 
 Simeon b. Gamaliel II., 193, 194, 
 
 354 
 Simeon b. Yochai, 18, 223 
 Simlai, 112, 349 
 
 Siphra, 58, 81, 91, 193, 262, 345 
 Siphre, 58, 81, 91, 193, 262, 345 
 Solomon b. Adereth, 70, 267 
 
 Solomon b. Gabirol, 210 
 Solomon of St. Goar, 143-145 
 Solomon b, Isaac, Rashi, 13, 210, 343 
 Solomon b. Isaac b. Zadok, 137 
 Solomon Ladier, 43, 341 
 Solomon Portaleone, 323 
 Solomon, son of Nachmanides, 1 10 
 Solomon Syrillo, 262 
 Solomon Wilna, 75 
 Son of the Law, 307, 312, 358 
 Sopherim^ 64 
 Spencer, Herbert, 97 
 Steinschneider, M., 99, 172 
 
 TAANITH, 58, 344 
 
 Talmid Chaber, 52, 344 
 
 Talmid Chakaf7i, 7, 342 
 Talmud (of Jerusalem or Babylon), 
 16, 19, ZZ, 49, 52, 57-59» 64, 76, 78, 
 81, 82, 86, 87, 89, 91, 92, 96, loi, 
 104, 105, III, 129, 131, 140, 151, 
 i55» 158, 195. 196, 206, 207, 209, 
 210, 238, 252, 254-256, 261, 262, 
 271, 272, 277, 343 
 
 Tanna, pi. Tannaim^ 17, 84, 187, 
 
 342, 343 
 Tephillin, 249, 357 
 Thackeray, 282 
 Thirteen Articles of the Creed, 148, 
 
 163, 164, 170, 176, 179 
 Thirteen Rules (of Interpretation), 
 
 195 
 Tobijah, the Priest, 175 
 Tosephta, 81, 82, 92, 262, 271, 346 
 Toy, Prof., 233-239, 251 
 Tractate Berachoth, 221, 271 
 Tractate Evidences, 192, 353 
 Tractate Joys^ 194, 354 
 Tractate Sanhedrin, 156, 157, 1 59 
 Tractate Sopherim, 301, 312,321, 358 
 Tree of Life, the, 133 
 Troki, Solomon, 1 61 
 
 Variae Lection ES (of the Tal- 
 mud), 261 
 Viterbo, Abraham Chayim, 175, 176 
 Vorsugerin, 324 
 
366 
 
 STUDIES IN JUDAISM 
 
 Wars of the Lord, ioi 
 
 Watchman^ the, 59, 341, 345 
 Weiss, T. H., 65, 97, 99, 182, 183, 
 185-187, 191-197, 206, 207, 209- 
 
 212 
 
 Wellhausen, 243 
 
 Wisdom of Solomon^ 127, 154 
 
 Woilkennivdicke^ 324 
 
 YEDIAH, 119, 349 
 
 Yeshibah, pi. Yeshiboth, 94-96, 293, 
 
 347 
 Yom-Tob HeUer, 196 
 
 Z ADD IK, pi. Zaddikim (Zaddikism), 
 
 36-44, 53, 298, 343 
 Zadoc, 245 
 Zebachim, 86, 347 
 Zedner, 254-256 
 Zehub, 137-139, 350 
 Zerahiah Hallevi of Gerona (or Ge- 
 
 rondi), 100, loi, iii 
 Zion-Elegy, 208 
 Zobeothy 314, 359 
 
 Zohar, 18, 19, 71, 91, 133, 258, 343 
 Zunz, Leopold, 44, 52, 56, 60, 65, 73, 
 
 97, 183, 270, 305 
 
 Printed in the United States of America. 
 
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