" ar we- ^ UNIVERSITY' J JERUSALEM AND TIBERIAS; F SORA AND CORDOVA: A SURVEY OF THE RELIGIOUS AND SCHOLASTIC LEARNING OF THE JEWS; DESIGNED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HEBREW LITERATURE. BY J. W. ETHERIDGE, M.A., DOCTOR IN PHILOSOPHY. LONDON : LONGMAN, BROWN, GEEEN, AND LONGMANS. 1856. GIFT lONDON: TRINTED BT WIIJ.IAM NICHOLS, :a. LONDON WALL. (S54 fmm TO THE MEMORY OF ELIZA MIDDLETON ETHERIDGE, MY BELOVED AND DEPARTED DAUGHTER, FOIt WHOSE INSTRUCTION SOME PORTIONS OP THIS WORK WER WRITTEN ; AND WHO, "FROM A CHILD," HAD LEARNED TO READ AND LOVE THOSE INSPIRED HEBREW SCRIP- TURES WHICH WERE ABLE TO MAKE HER WISE UNTO SALVATION, THROUGH FAITH IN THE REDEEMER WHOM THEY REVEAL. iviGOSSOl MEMORANDUM. Had we any thing of the kind already in the English language, or had I been sure that a more qualified man would undertake the task, I should not have presumed to write this book. As it is, I offer it as an humble contribution towards the advancement of an important, but too much neglected, subject of study. Though our survey of Jewish literature extends over the whole of its area, I regret that it has not been in my power to render it as minute as could be wished, on account of the restricted limits prescribed to the volume by necessity. Publishing at my own charge, and aware, by experience, of the parsimonious encou- ragement" which falls, in our country, to Avorks of this description, I have not found myself at liberty to go to a greater length ; and thus, with ample materials for a folio, have been constrained to content myself with the fabrication of a mere hand-book. I have taken care, however, to give notices, more or less extended, of the chief master-pieces of Hebrew learning, and of the times and circumstances of the men by A 3 VI MEMOKANDUM. whom they vere created. In short, the reader has here a bibliographic manual of the Hebrevr classics. Where, as in too many cases, I have not had the opportunity of inspecting works which required to be enumerated on the following pages, I have availed myself of the information furnished by Jewish and other authors, ily authorities in these cases have been of the first order. Such names as Giulio Bartolocci, John Christopher Wolf, Jacob Gaffarelli, Leopold Zunz, Franz Delitzsch, and Julias Fiirst, will be a sufficient guarantee that the statements thus given can be depended on. For the sake of convenience to readers who may not, as yet, be well familiar with the Oriental characters, I have expressed all Hebrew and Arabic names and words in our common English letter, so making the book more readable to persons in general. The He- brew words are given according to the most approved mode of pronunciation, though, in this matter, we may not expect to give uniform satisfaction. I have heard Hebrew read by many learned men, both Jews and Christians, but never found two of them exactly alike in their manner of pronouncing. The mode here employed is that which has long appeared to me to be the correct one, and which is followed by some of the most learned Jews of the day. With regard to Hebrew names, I have not been rigorously exact in spelling them in their original forms, because the Jews themselves have departed from that principle in their ordinary practice. But it may be remarked in passing, that, in a translation of the Old- MEMOEANDUJI. VU Testament Scriptures, that principle should never be given up. It is a subject of regret that in our (in so many respects grandly true and unsurpassable) English translation, the proper names should have been so de- fectively represented. The patriarchs, prophets, saints, and kings who once bore them, would scarcely recog- nise tlieir own names in our version of them : for example, Moses for Mushe, Enoch for Chanok, Eleazar for Elasar, Solomon for Shelomo, Eebecca for Eivkah, Nehemiah for Nechem'ya, (three syllables,) Zephaniah for Tsephan'ya, Zechariah for Zekar'ya, Ezekiel for Ye- chezekel, Isaiah for Yeshdyah, Jeremiah for Yerem'ya. It is true that several of these metamorphoses are coiui- tenanced by the Septuagint, and even by the practice of the IVew-Testament writers who referred to it ; but in making a professed hteral translation of the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew documents, I submit that our translators were bound to follow the Hebrew orthoepy. The same canon will hold good in the version of any Oriental document in which proper names are recited. What right have we to alter them ? "While making these few explanations, a word may be proper upon the inscription of this volume to the memory of One departed. When the subject of the book is considered, such an inscription may appear to the reader as being somewhat out of place. Let me therefore be pardoned for adverting, so far as I can trust myself, to the circumstances which have occa- sioned it. My daughter, who died in October, 185-i, in her twentieth year, was my only surviring child. Bereaved vm MEMORANDUM. of lier dear mother at the tender age of six years, she was confided by Providence to my sole care, and it became the solace of my days to watch over and pro- mote her welfare. I had the blessedness of seeing her rise into life, adorned with an almost ideal beauty of person, the graces of a cultivated intellect, and, above all, through the boundless mercy of God, with the nrtues and sanctities of religion. She was at once my daughter and pupil, my companion in foreign travel, my fellow-student, and sympathizing friend ; in a word, the Angel of my life. But iu proportion to the love I had learned to cherish for that saint, was the anguish which bowed me down iu desolation of heart when she vanished from my sight. Here, however, I refrain from obtruding on the attention of others any recital of a trial which has overshadowed my remaining days with a gloom which can only be dispelled by the light of another world. I mil therefore hold my peace, and wait. The decrees of the Most High will prove them- selves unalterably wise and good. " The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!" Yet the yearnings of a father's heart may be forgiven, if, in these circumstances, I cannot sur- mount the wish to unite her name with my own on these pages, that both may survive for a season iu the recollections of some who have known us. I write these sentences both as a tribute of my humble thanksgiving to " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named," for His unspeakable grace thus shoflTi to me iu her ; and as a word of encourasement MEMOEAIfDUSr. IX to parents who are aiming at the faithful accomplish- ment of their momentous trast, in adding my own testimony to the fulfilled truth of the promise, that if a child be set right at the beginning of the way of human conduct, the issues of futurity will show that the solicitude of the guide was not in vain. I do it also to suggest a topic of consideration which will be deemed more germane to the subject of the jiresent book, — the more general introduction of the study of the Hebrew language as an element in the education, not only of sons, but of daughters. I offer tlie question to the reflection of educated and religious fathers and mothers, whether it does not appear desirable that their daughters as well as their sons should have the advantage of being able to read their Bibles in the original ? My Eliza began to learn Hebrew when five years of age; and that more in the way of a little pleasant occasional pastime, than as a task ; (a principle 1 observed in all that I taught her ;) and this practice jMTsevered in with the lapse of months and years, gave her, as she almost insensibly, and yet rapidly, acquired the language, the abiUty to read the word of God in that form in which He first gave it to mankind : and much of the soHdity and strength of her character, and her just conceptions of Divine truth, can be clearly traced to this circumstance of her life. I did not find it at all to interfere with the attainment by her of other accom- plishments, but rather to favour it, and to sanctify the acquisition of them. It is neither a difficult study, nor an expensive one; and as a constituent in the education uf young ladies, it would be attended not only by the X JIEMOKANDtTM. benefits I have named^ but by the intellectual advantage of enlarging their acquaintance with the laws of thought and language, and, if they follow it out, of opening to them an access to a rich and beautiful department of the helles lettres, in the moral writings of the Jews, and especially in their poetical literature, which, for elegance of thought, refinement, loftiness, and purity of senti- ment, transcends all other poetry ; and lastly, and what is of unspeakable consequence, by contributing to give stamen and vigour to the character, and orthodox truth- fulness to their religious principles, from the enlightened study of the Bible. In this latter respect my daughter found it to be of priceless worth. By bringing her to the highest fountains of Divine truth, it helped her to the knowledge of the Saviour, revealed His glory to her more fully, and gave that steady strength to her faith which enabled her to call Him her Lord and her God. It was of those very Hebrew Scriptures that the Eedeemer affirmed that they spake and testified of Him. It was those wliicli Saint Paul reminds Timothy he had known from a child, and had found them able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Messiah; and in them it was that she of whom I am writing found the true key to the New Testament itself, while she learned more clearly to know Him in those saving aspects of truth and grace in which He is described, — as the Seed of the Woman who bruises the serpent's head; the Shiloh, to whom will come the gathered nations; the Prophet who should be like Moses; the Eedeemer who was known to Job; the Angel of the Covenant, who spoke to Abraham, and MEIIOKANDTJJI. XI who redeemed Jacob from e\nl; the Boot and Offspring of David, and the bright and Morning Star ; Immanuel, God with MS, and yet the Virgin's Son; tlie Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, from whom Israel should hide their face; the smitten Shepherd, yet the triumphant King; the Priest and Monarch on Ilis throne ; the One who is as God, {Mi-ka-el, Dan. xii. 1,) wlio, at the time of the end, shall stand up for the children of His people ; the Deliverer who wUl come unto Sion, to turn away ungodliness from Jacob ; the Lord our Righteousness ; the Mighty God, the Father of the Eternal Age, the Prince of Peace. "With these loving views of Him who is the end of the law for righteousness unto every one that believes, she lived and died; and is now, I doubt not, one of those sanctified and vestal spirits who worship at His throne, and whom, when He comes, presently, with power and glory, He will bring with Him. Penzance, June, 1856. Wenn es eine Stpfenleiter von Leiden giebt, so hat Israel die hocliste Staff el erstiegen ; wenn die Dauer der Schmerzen und die Geduld, mil welcher sie ertragen werden, adeln, so nehmen es die Juden mil den Hochge- lorenen oiler Lander auf ; wenn eine Literatur reich genannt loird, die wenige KlassiscJie Trauerspiele besitzt, welcher Platz gebiihrt dann einer Tragodie die anderf- halb JahrtuHsende v:d1irt gedichtet und dargestellt von den Helden setter ? — Zlnz, Lie Si/iiagogale Poesie des Mittelalters. HEBREW LITERATURE. We have undertaken this work from a persuasion that a book of the kind is a desideratvm in the English language, and that a revived study of the Hebrew theo- logians would both contribute to the edification of the Cliristiau church, and tend to promote a better under- standing between us and the Jewish people themselves. Among the many hindrances to the reception of the Gospel by them, we must not overlook the misrepre- sentations of the religion of Jesus with wliich they have been too familiar, in the doctrines and practice of cor- rupt and persecuting churches; nor tlie circumstance, that many who take even a practical interest in Israel's regeneration, are too ignorant of the habits of thought peculiar to the Jewish mind ; as well as of their tra- ditions of the past, and their expectations about the future. The Jews are a people who live in an intel- lectual region of their own ; a region wdthin whose precincts but few Christians have ever cared to enter. But wliile we are thus contentedly unacquainted with the mental and social idiosyncrasies of this most ancient and isolated race, can we reasonably expect to alter them? jVow the more sedulous study of the rich oriental literature ■^hich lies neglected in the writings of manv 2 HEBREW LITERATURE. hundred Hebrew authors, — writings that, like an un- broken chain, connect the present with the remotest past, and in which the spirit of their antique tradi- tions sustains a perpetual metempsychosis, — woidd open a communion between their minds and our own, which would place each party upon a far more advantageous ground for the discussion of the momentous interests on which we differ than has ever yet been occupied, and form a basis for a more convincing demonstration of Christianity than has heretofore attracted their serious attention. Nor are these treasures of Hebrew learning valuable to the theologian only ; they would repay with affluent rewards the researches of the his- torian, the poet, the moralist, the lawyer, and the statesman. He who fairly enters within these " gates," finds himself in a world of intellect where thought takes new forms of combination ; where the canons of practical life and religion are set forth in unusual and heart-stirring aspects ; where devotion reaches a sub- limity in prayer and praise too rarely attained among ourselves, and ethical wisdom, combining the vene- rable, the beautiful, the astute, and the true, incul- cates its lessons with the sanction of an ancient, revered, and unquestioned authority, the quiet self- possessed gentleness of parental love, and often with the grace and ornament of poetic illustration. At present, however, we seem to be far enough from the day when scholars in general, or even Christian divines, will give this branch of study an adequate share of their attention; for as yet the majority among us consent to ignore the very existence of these results of the labours of minds, than which finer have never thought on earth, or vote them, in fact, an affair too contemptible to merit their notice. The author is aware that there are honourable excep- HEBEETV LITERATUEE. d tions to tliis statement, and many men who are infi- nitely more competent than lumself to recommend the claims of this neglected branch of learning. To any of them who may honour these lines with their glances, he offers, not instruction, but sincere homage. The book is not intended for such as they, unless, indeed, to stir up any of them to give us something more worthy of the subject. Meantime, these humble pages may answer some good purpose, in communicating the elements of the study to such persons as may be desirous of pursuing it, but who are discouraged by difficulties with which the experience of past years has rendered the writer famihar. The Hebrew language, one of the seven branches' of that old Shemitic stock which was probably the primfeval speech of mankind,*" has been subject, like ' ITie Assyrian, Babylonian, SjTiac, Phcpnician, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic. In anotber point of view tbey have been grouped under three classes. I. The Aramean. (1.) Assyrian. (2.) East Babylonian, the dialects of which are the Chaldee, Syro-Chaldaic, Galilean, Samaritan. (3.) West Babylonian, i.e., SjTiae, PalmyTeue, Sabean. II. The Canaanitisb. (1.) Hebrew. (2.) Phoenician, with its off-dialect, the Punic or Carthaginian. (Gesexius, Geschicliie tier Ilebr. Spr., vol. iii., p. 2.3.3.) III. Arabic : from which sprang the Habesh or Ethiopic. The Hebrew has the most direct affinity with Aramean and jVrabic. "^ There are good reasons for believing that the descendants of Shem retained the antediluvian language. On that point, however, the learned do not agree ; some contending that if any one of the Asiatic tongues may claim the honour of being the ancestral language of our race, the palm should be given to the Sanskiit. On the general question, compare Tarr/um Jonath., Gen. xi. 1 ; Morinus, Exercit. de Lingud primtfv., Ultraj., 1694 ; B. MiCHAEI.IS, Be Trinuev. Ilehr. Antiq., Hake, 1747 ; HuET, Demonstr. Eeapff., p. 283 ; Link's Vrwelt, vol. i., p. 324 ; Wahl's " General History of the Oriental Languages," Leipzig, 1784 ; Bohlen's Indien, vol. ii., p. 432 ; and Fukst's Aramaische Lehryebiiude. The language which Abram brought across the Euphrates, and thence, perhaps, called Ivritk, (Hebrew,) is first called iu the Bible sefath Kenaan, " the language of Canaan ;" (Isai. six. 18 ;) and after the 4 HEBREW LITEEATTJEE. all others, to a series of changes. Its grammatical developement was probably more early thau that of the other offsets of the parent stem ; for, as Geseuius shows, of many forms the origin is stiU visible in Hebrew, while all traces of it have vanished from the kindred dialects. 1. In its earliest written state it exhibits, in the wri- tings of Moses, a perfection of structure which was never surpassed. As it had no doubt been modified between the time of Abraham and Moses by the Egyp- tian and Arabic, so, in the period between Moses and Solomon, it was influenced by the Phoenician ; and, down to the time of Ezra, continued to receive an acces- sion of exotic terms, which, though tending to enlarge its capabihties as a spoken and written tongue, mate- rially alloyed the primitive simpHcity and purity of a language, compared with which none may be said to have been so poor, and yet none so rich. 2. But the great crisis of the language occurs at the time of the captivity in Babylon. There, as a spoken tongue, it became deeply tinged with the j\j-amaic. The biblical Hebrew, abiding in the imperishable ratings of the prophets, continued to be the study of the learned ; it was heard on the lips of the priest, in the ser\'ices of rehgion, and was the vehicle of written instruction; but, as the medium of common conversa- tion, it was extensively affected, and, in the case of mul- titudes, superseded, by the idiom of the nation among whom Providence had cast their lot. So an Aramaized Hebrew, or a Hebraized Aramean,.continued to be spo- ken by such of them as re-settled in Palestine under division of the kingdom, Jehudith. As the Aramaic and other dia- lects began to prevail, the Hebrew was called by distinction " the holy tongue," lishon quadesh; or, "the tongue of the sanctuary," lishon beth qudska. — Targ. Jerusli., Gen. xxxi. 47 ; ilv. 12. HEBKEW LITERATURE. Ezra and INeliemiah ; while the yet greater number who preferred the uninterrupted establisliment of their fami- lies in Babylonia, fell entirely into the use of Aramaic. This decline of the popular knowledge of pure He- brew gave occasion to the appointment of an order of interpreters [meturgemariin) in the synagogue, for the explication of the Scriptures in this more current dialect, which — notwithstanding the introduction of Greek, and, with the progress of the times, its partial adoption in the great cities of Palestine — remained the vulgar tongue of the people at large, [LisJion Hedioth,) not only down to the time of the destruc- tion of Jerusalem, but for generations afterwards. The best specimens of this dialect now extant are in the Agailotli, or tales in the Midrash Eclia. But while these changes were taking place in the vernacular speech, the Hebrew language itself still maintained its existence. It is a great mistake to call Hebrew a dead language. It has never died. It never will die. In the days to which we are now referring, it was still loved and revered by the Jewish people as the " holy tongue " of their patriarchs and prophets. Not only the -remaining canonical Scriptures, but the prayers and hymns of the temple and synagogue were, for the most part, written in it ; and even the inscrip- tions of the coinage retained both the language and the more antique alphabetic characters, in preference to thosd more recently introduced by Ezra.' In fact, the literature of the Soferite age was Hebrew, — modified, it is true, and undergoing a still progressive transition, but still Hebrew. The Literature of the last stage of the canonical period, i. e., from the return from exile tiU the times of the Hasmoneans, ' On the Hebrew writing characters, see a good compeuilium in the article Schriflkunde, in Winer's Real-Lexicon. 6 HEBREW LITERATURE. was embodied in this form of speech. And when Jerusalem at length lay in ruins, and the temple hierarchy was no more, it was regarded by the Jews as a religious obhgation to cultivate and employ the language in which God the Holy Ghost had once uttered His oracles to their fathers. Thus Rabbi Meir, one of the Tanaim, lays it down as a principle, that he who lives in Palestine, and speaks Hebrew, will be saved.'' And in the S'lfra, a work of the Mislma period, it is advised that, as soon as a child begins to speak, the father should teach him to speak Hebrew. This duty is set forth as a paramount one, and he who neglects it had better follow his cliild to the grave.* With tliis recommendation both religion and patriotism combined their sanctions. And while it was thus sought to extend and perpetuate the use of the lan- guage among the people, the more educated classes among them were required to cultivate a deep acquaint- ance with the text of the Holy Scriptures. No Jew was to consider his education as complete, without the knowledge of all the books of the inspired canon. Thus, in SJiemofh BiMa,^ alluding to Isaiah iii., it is said, " As the bridegroom adorns himself with twenty- four ornaments, so must every weU-taught Israehte adorn his mind with the knowledge of the twenty-four books of the Sacred Scriptures." Minds thus cultured were said to be the true decoration of the synagogue ; and the neglect of this beautifying study would strip the house of prayer of its most precious ornaments.' Nor in the Mishnaic times were these recjuirements unpalatable to the people. The sfudy of the law and the prophets had become a favourite pursuit, and was followed by many with an intellectual and pious enthu- * Sabbath (Hinvs.), cap. i., hal. 5. ' S/fra ou Deut. xi. 19. ° Cap. xli. ' H/iir Rabba, cap. xiv. HEBUEW LITERATURE. 7 siasm. The love of the word of God expressed in the 119th Psalm, which, as with a hundred echoes, repeats the vows of a good man's attachment to the Bible, had become a characteristic of multitudes in Israel. The pliraseology of the Scriptures was enwreathed with their common conversation, and the words of prophetic inspiration hovered on their lips.* In their epistolary correspondence the biblical element largely intermingled, both in imparting a tone and character to their style of writing, and in furnishing beautiful and appropriate tokens of friendship, or mementoes of duty.' But who does not see that these habits pre-suppose a wide- and familiar acquaintance with the holy language itself? And with all these facts before us, what becomes of the notion for which some men have so strenuously con- tended, that even so early as the time of our Sa\iour both Hebrew and Aramaic had been superseded in Palestine by the use of Greek and Latin ? With a few exceptions in Aramaic, the entire litera- ture of Palestine in the Soferite age was Hebrew. But then it must be remembered, that the language had already undergone serious modifications, and was yet undergoing still greater ones. New words supplanted old ones, and old words were retained with new shades of meaning. Exotic terms were being introduced from other languages, and grammatical forms and combina- tions adopted from the Aramaic. But these changes do not prove that the language had become a dead one; they indicate rather that it stDl lived a life that put forth its vigour in developements which answered to the wants of the times. In fact a new state of the lan- guage had been inaugurated, to which has been appro- " Peea, 2, '2; Bava BaiAra,73; Jvoth, 4, 19. Conf. FuRSi's Kultur-Geschichte, seite 27. ' Gittiit, 7, 40 ; Fesacliim, 3 ; Megilla, 4. 8 HEBREW LITEUATUllE. priately applied the designation of the New Hebrew {Ivriyanlth). In this idiom Joshua ben Sira wrote his MasJialim, Josephus his "Antiquities," and St. Matthew his Gospel; and in it, at length, the collectors of the Mishnaic traditions embodied them for all time. 3. The Amoraim of the Babylonian Talmudic schools, while in successive generations they elaborated the Geraara of the oral law, effected a still further transition in the Hebrew language : or rather, they confected a sort of idiom of their own, the Lishon Chakamini, or " dialect of the sages ;" the language pecidiar to the Eab- binical schools, and the voluminous writings which have issued from them, or have been expounded by their commentators. It is to this dialect alone that the term "Kabbinical Hebrew" can with accuracy be applied. An immense number of Jewish writers were not Eabbins, nor did they write upon Rabbinical sub- jects; and, moreover, the language they employ is another style of Hebrew than that of the schools, approximating more or less to the biblical standard; and hence the designation "Rabbinical Hebrew," as applied generally to all the post-biblical literature of the Jews, is a wrong one. It is one language throughout, but taking, according to the nature of the department in which a given class of authors wrote, a cast of expression pecidiar to that department. This Talmudical idiom, or Rabbinical Hebrew, has so many pecidiarities as to require a separate study. The scholar who is well versed in the pure or classic Hebrew of the Holy Scriptures, would be unable to read the first two lines in the Talmud, without an especial indoctrina- tion in its grammatical forms. The orthography, too, of this dialect has, to the reader of pure Hebrew, often an uncouth, and at first sight an unintelligible, appearance. This is caused by HEBREW LITEHATnEE. W their habit of inserting the letters, a, v, and i, instead of using the corresponding vowel-points ; by dropping a radical in verbs, — sometimes the first, sometimes the second or third; by prolonging parts of words, as by doubling letters, or inserting double yod ; and by the use of numerous abbreviations. Thus t'n'U, for torah ncviim ket/iHvim, "law, prophets, hagiographa." Of these abbreviations extensive lists may be found in A\'olf's BihliotUeca Hehreea, vols. ii. and iv. ; and in Buxtorf De Abbreviatiiris Rehr. {Fraiieq., 1696.) There is a useful list of them in a manual lately pub- lished by Mr. E. Young, of Edinburgh, "A Rabbinical \ ocabulary and Analysis of the Grammar." (12mo.) For the grammars of the Rabbinical dialect, there are the Latin ones of Mai, (Giessen, 1712,) Mercer, (Paris, 1560,) Rfiland, [Analecta liabbinka, UUraj., 1723,) MiUius, [Catuleeta RabUnka, UUraj. ,\T2,^,) with those of Alting, Cellarius, and Genebrard; and in German, excellent ones by Dukes, Geigner, Landau, Luzzatto, and others. In the English Hebrew Grammar of Dr. Nolan, there is a short compendiiun of the Rabbinical dialect, which may be sufficient for beginners. Rabbinical lexicons and word-booJcs. — In this depart- ment the Thesaurus is the great work of Buxtorf; [Lex- icon Chaldaicum, Talmiulicum, et Rabbinicum, Basil., 1640, folio;) which may frequently be purchased for about a guinea. The same author's Lexicon Breve Rabbiiiicn-PJiilosopJdcuni is a useful little thing. The advanced Hebraist will know the Arv.ch of Xathan ben Jechiel, (Rome, 1.515,) and the Mnsnf ha-Arvch of Musaphia. (Amst., 1055.) In German there are several good lexicons and dictionaries, among which we may spe- cify the RMiniscJi-Aramaisch-Deutsckes Worterhnch von M. T. Landau; (5 thl., Brag,, 1849;) and the Leschon Rahbanan, oder gedrcingfes, volhtdndiges Aramaiscfi- 10 HEBKEW LITEUATUEE. C/ml(laisch-RabUnisch-Bentsches Wurterhuch, von Dr. J. H. Dessauer. (1 tliL, Erlangeu, 1849.) This last book, which will be found at once comprehensive and portable, contains an appendix ou the structure of the Talmud, and a large collection of the abbreviations. 4. In the Talmudic idiom the Hebrew language is seen in its lowest and most corrupt condition ; but in the period which followed the completion of the Tal- mud, there were not wanting men in the schools of the Geonim who already began to endeavour after a better style. And when, on the dissolution of those schools in Babylonia, Spain, then under the Moslem Chahfs, became the new home-land for a multitude of learned Jews, tliese ameliorations were carried to a greater extent. Arabian literature was then in its most radiant bloom; and the enthusiasm with which the Jews cultivated the knowledge and use of that lan- guage had a manifest effect on their own. Some of them wrote entirely in Arabic ; and others, whether as translators from the Ai-abic, or as original authors in Hebrew, so largely blended the former language with the latter, as to form a new dialect, Arabianized Hebrew {LisJwn Maorev). In this the three great elements of the Shemitic, the Hebrew, Arabic, and Ara- mean, combine with a remarkable flexibility and vigour. 5. Then, on the revival of learning in Italy, France, and Germany, and when, after the expulsion of the Sefardim Jews from Spain, many of their literati found an asylum in those lands, a yet more beneficial im- provement was developed in their language. The bib- lical Hebrew now became, what 'it should liave ever been, the classic standard, and vigorous eflbrts were made to elevate the style of writing to this ideal. In carrying this wish somewhat to an extreme, a style of composition was adopted in wliich the material largely OUDEE I. SOFEEIM. 11 consisted of the very words and phraseology of the Scriptures (the " Mosaic or Musive " style) ; and in devotional, religious, or moral compositions, there was certainly a beautiful concinnity between the language and the theme; but, in some of the works in which tins style was employed, from their secular and, in some cases, frivolous character, the use, or rather the abuse, of the diction of the inspired writings has too much the air of profanation. However this may be, the language itself, in the works of these writers, recovered much of its ancient tone ; and the student, as he comes down to the Hebrew authors of modern times, wiU find that the language sets itself free more and more from the Aramean and exotic elements by which it had been so materiaOy alloyed, and shines forth with a purity and resplendence which remind us of the ages when it was chosen as the medium of Divine revelation. Thus, the post-bibhcal hterature of the Jews has been composed : — 1. In the New Hebrew of the So- ferite and Mishnaic time; 2. In Aramaic; 3. The Mixed or Talmudic dialect; 4. Arabic; 5. Arabized Hebrew; 6. The purer Hebrew of the Renaissance; 7. To these we are to add not a few works written in the several languages of Europe. ORDEE I. SOEERIM.' Whoeveu makes Imnself acquainted with the He- brew Bible, wiU be con\'inced that the people among whom such a literature unfolded itseK, must have been distinguished by a transcendent mental strength. They held rank in the highest grade of the human race. ' I use the word " Order " in these diTisions, not in the strictly ecclesiastical sense, but merely to designate a particular class of men. 13 HEBREW LITERATURE. Their physical stamina, both of body and mind, were healthy and vigorous ; and their wondrous history had given them an elevation of thought, which entitled them to a place among the nobles of tlie domain of intellect. A people who, while the rest of the world were but in mental childhood, eoidd produce such a succession of writers as the authors of the Pentateuch, and the poem of Job, the historical books, and the magnificent compositions of a David, an Isaiah, an Ezekiel, a Daniel, and a Jeremiah, have demonstrated their claims to the homage and admiration of aU nations and all times. Some modern writers, as Hume, for instance, have affected to speak of the ancient Hebrews as a mere clan of obscure barbarians; but such an opinion only betrays the ignorance or invincible preju- dices of the men who have been absurd enough to propound it. • How much more worthy is the estimate of the German critic, who affirms his conviction that " Hebrew literature, independently of the fact that it contains the records of Divine revelation, possesses a peculiar scientific interest ! It surpasses in antiquity, general credibility, originality, poetic strength, and religious importance, that of any other nation before the Christian era, and contains most remarkable monu- ments and trustworthy materials for the liistory of the human race, and its mental developement." In fact, Hebrew literature was the morning star of human knowledge. Its authors were the pioneers and dis- coverers of truth for unborn ages. The classic authors of the Gentile world only entered into the paths which the despised Israelites had long before struck out. For long before Aristotle taught the people of Greece to reason, or Socrates and Plato to moralize, or Herodotus embodied the wavering traditions of Egypt and Persia, or even Homer had tuned his lyre to the strains of ORDER I. SOFERIM. 13 poesy, tlie Hebrew people had beeu familiar with the origines of all history, with an immutable legislation, the purest ethics, the loftiest inspirations of the poet, and the sublimest truths of a revealed theology. Our present inquiries, however, do not lie witliin the province of inspiration, but relate to the Jewish national literature, as distinguished from the canonical docu- ments which make up the holy volume of the Old Testament, that book in which the Hebrew language is seen in its true grandeur and glory. A knowledge of those sacrosanct writings is now supposed to be already possessed by the student of the Kabbinical learning, who, in proceeding to the attainment of the latter, would otherwise build without a foundation. And in his more widely spread reading in the uninspired lite- rature, let him still hold daily converse, less or more, with these primordial records of the language, cherish- ing a serious and heartfelt faith in their Divine origin, as having been "given by inspiration of God, and being profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, througldy furnished unto all good works." " For the prophecy came not in old time by the vnW. of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." An apostle has declared that the Old Testament Scriptures " are able to make a man \rise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus;", and he who reads them with the devout dis- positions which our real circumstances demand, will know this for himself. When we dwell upon those pages, with sincere desire to obey the Divine will, and with thankfulness for the mercy displayed in the existence of such a revelation, we shall feel that we are on holy ground, and "know the doctrine," that it is from the Father of Lights, the living and eternal l^ HEBREW LITERATURE. God, who here condescends to speak to us from His own oracle. The earlier uninspired literature of the Jews has disappeared in the abyss of time. In the Bible we have notices of many works, which are now known only by their names. Such are : — 1. Sefer Mtlchamoth Yehovah, "The Book of the Wars of the Lord." (Num. xxi. li. See Lightfoot's opinion in A. Clarke's Com. i?i loco.) 3. Sefer ha-yasher, "The Book of the Upright." (Joshua X. 13.) 3. Sefer Mulipat Hammelek, "The Book of the Judgment of the King." A political constitution by the prophet Samuel, intimated 1 Sam. x. 25. 4. Three works of Solomon : i. e., a larger collection of Maslialim, or "Proverbs," than that now extant; an Anthology, of a thousand and five Poems ; and a Natural History of the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms. (1 Kings iv. 32, 33.) The Eabbinical opinions on these works may be seen in Wolf's Biblioth. Heir., vol. ii., p. 230. 5. Connected with the name of Solomon, there is another work mentioned, 1 Kiugs xi. 41, the Sefer Behrey Shelomo, " The Book of the Acts of Solomon," written, as would appear from 2 Cliron. ix. 29, by the seers Aliijah and Iddo, and a document which was probably the basis of the details in the extant books of the Kings and Clironicles. 6. It is questioned whether the books mentioned, 1 Kings xiv. 19, as the Sefer Belrey Ilayamiiirm le Mal- hey Israel, the " Chronicles of the Kings of Israel ;" and, verse 29, those of the Kings of Judah; are the same as our Books of Chronicles. Aben Ezra, Abravanel, and other Jewish commentators consider them as dif- ferent productions. ORDER I. SOFEUIM. 15 7. Tlie same remark may apply to tlie Sefer Belrey Hai/ammim le MeleJc David. (1 Chrou. xxvii. 24.) 8. The TJehrei/ ShamooelHaroe, the "Words of Samuel the Seer;" Bebrei/ Nathan RanaU, those of Nathan the Prophet ; aud Behrcy Gael ha-choze, those of Gad the Beholder, may refer to a work commenced by Samuel, and continued by Nathan aud Gad. 9. In 2 Chron. ix. 29, tlie work of Nathan is again referred to, mth those of Iddo aud Ahijah, here given by their titles Nehlatk Ahii/a, "The Prophecy of Ahijah," and Chozath Eddi, "The Vision of Iddo." 10. Bebrei/ Shemai/ah, "The Words of Shemaiah." (2 Chron. xii. 15 : compare the notice of him, chap. xi. 2.) 11. Scfer Yehu, "The Book of Jehu," the son of Hanan. (2 Cliron. xx. 34 : corap. 2 Chron. xiv. 2.) 12. A work of Isaiah, the Bebrei/ VzoAahu, "Acts of Uzziah." (2 Chron. xxvi. 22.) 13. Bebrei/ Cliozai, " The Words of the Seers." (2 Chron. xxxiii. 19.) 14. A Threnody, or collection of elegiac poetry, called, iu 2 Chrou. xxxv. 25, Ha-khwth, or "The Lamentations," a different work from the Echa, or the Lamentations of the Canon. 15. Sefer Bebrei/ Hai/ammim le Malkei/ Madai-u- Peres, "The Book of the Clironicles of the Kings of Media and Persia." (Esther x. 2.) All these works have irrecoverably perished. Of some of 'them, however, we may remark, that they were the productions of private and uninspired individuals ; of others, that, though written by prophetical men, they were merely historical, ethical, or scientific contribu- tions to the literature of their country; wliile others were political documents of a temporary interest. On theii' intrinsic value it is impossible to form a judg- ment; but we may reasonably believe that such ele- 16 HEBEEW LITERATTIIIE. ments in them as had a direct relation to the phins and purpose of the Bible revelation, have been transferred to its never fading pages. But what has been lost in the uninspired learning of the Hebrews, compared with what later ages have pro- duced, is as a mere streamlet to the ocean, or a few scattered trees contrasted with a wide- spread labyrintli, intricate with every form of vegetation, from the noi- some weed to tlie myrtle, the sandal-tree, and the cedar. Though most of tliese Jewish writings relate to the Bible, I need not say that they fall immeasurably below it in character. Like all the works of man, they have various degrees of merit and of imperfection. In some departments they are of little value, nay, worse than worthless ; in others they rise to great excellence. This win not be surprising if we consider that the history of uninspired Hebrew literature extends over a period of twenty centuries, and embodies the thoughts of men of every grade in intellectual strength and moral culture. When these multitudinous wTitings are first un- folded to our view, we are disposed to regard them as a chaotic and inextricable mass. But after a little patient examination, what at first sight appeared a scene of hopeless confusion, resolves itself into a beau- tiful and synthetic order. In proportion as we become acquainted with the historical circumstances of the Jewish people, we are better able to understand the character of their Hterature, which then unfolds an intelligible system. In the dry bibliography which wiU demand so many of the following ^pages, I regret that I shall be able to do so little to illustrate this principle. We can here only use the historical element as a slender thread upon which to string the pearls. But I exhort the student to make himself thoroughly familiar ORDEB, I. SOFERIM. 17 with the fate of the Hebrew people, as indispensable to the proper understanding of their writings. In this department we need not mention the works of Joseplms. Read them with Prideaux's " Connexion of the Old and New Testament, in the History of the Jews and neighbouring Nations ;" Jahn's " Biblical Archrcology," and Geseiiius's Kritische Geschichte der Heb. 8prache u. Schrift. (Leijjzig, 1815.) For the subsequent history, Basuage's Histoire de la Religion des Juifi dcjiui-s Jesus- Christ jiisqw'a present ; (15 vols., i7«(/(7, 1716;) a work which, though compiled from second-rate somres, and teeming with errors, is nevertheless worth having at hand. A much better book is Dean Miiman's " History of the Jews," in three volumes. But if we want his- tories derived immediately from the original sources, and distinguished for accuracy and erudition, we must go, as the last-mentioned author has done, to the Germans. I may mention especially the works of Ewald and Jost, as forming in themselves a library of authentic history in this department. 1. Geschichte des Yollces Israel, his Christus. (3 Band., Gottingen.) 2. Geschichte der Israeliten seit der Zeit der Mac- cahder his anf ttnsere Tage. (9 Theile. Berhn, 1820- 1828.)— Both by Dr. Jost, himself a Jew. The period at which our sur\'ey of the national Judaic literature commences, we may denominate the age of the Soferim. It begins in the time of Ezra, and extends to about seventy years after the nativity of Christ. If, however, we take the Tanaite teachers under the head of Soferim, we may make theii- period reach as low down as the reign of Adrian. But the more correct method will be to class the Tanaim as a 18 HEBREW LITEEATUllE. school of themselves ; a school, the action of which did not fully begin till after the death of Simon the Just. Ezra, Kohen and Snfer,^ in the great work as- signed him by Providence, B.C. 458, associated with himself some of the most eminent men of the age, as an organized synod or college, commonly called the Great Synagogue [Keneseth haggedola). This council is not to be confoimded with the Sanhedrm, which was not incorporated till the days of the Hasmoneans, and continued till the final ruin of the state, or rather lingered on, with a kind of a show of power, a long while after it : whereas the Great Synagogue, com- prising such men as Haggai, Zechariah, Zerubbabel, Bahana, and Nechonya bar Chalakya, terminated with the life of Simon the Just, its last surviving member. The entire number of which it was composed is said to have been one hundred and twenty, in a succession stretcliing through a period of about as many years. By the zealous efforts of these eidightened men, the institutes of religion were happily re-estabhshed, and an efficient and extensive provision made for the sjiiritual and moral culture of the people. Under their influence there arose a distinct order of men, whose lives were devoted to the work of public instruction. Bearing the name of Soferim, (from Safer, "to write" and "to re- count,") they became the teaching clergy of the Jews, the authorized expositors of the Holy Scriptures, and editors of the sacred text. (Matt, xxiii. 2; xvii. 10.) With the revival of Mosaism under Ezra, a new ' This title of Sofer, or " Scribe," seems to have been given to Ezra with a new import. It had been used in Tormer times to denote a secvilar officer who acted as coiu't secretary, safer hmnmelek, the "king's scribe." (2 Kings xii. 10.) But from the time of Ezra it bore chiefly a clerical signification. The " Scribes " mentioned in the Gospels were Soferim. In the Greek Testament they are called rpa/xfiaTus, and in the Syriac Soferee. OUDEU 1. SOFEEIM. 19 stage in the intellectual progress of tlie Hebrew church was entered upon. Their exile in Babylon had not been without its iufiueuce in promoting this impulse ; for their intercourse with the Chaldean peojile Ijoth enlarged the field of their knowledge, and gave them a stimulus to speculative exercises to which they had hitherto been comparatively unused. With the edu- cated part of them who returned, as well as with many who remained in Babylonia, the written law continued to be the text and ground upon which their studies were carried on ; and as this theocratic code had a twofold aspect, the one religious, the other political, so the doctrine of the Soferim regarded the theology and ritualism of the church, and the jurisprudence wliich ruled the civil life of the nation. Prom the time of Nehemya, the presidency of tlie Great Synagogue was vested successively in the liigh priests, Joiada, forty years; Jaddua, twenty years; Nechonya, (or, as in Greek, Onias,) twenty-one years ; and Simon, nine years. Simon, surnamed Jla-zacl'ui, or the Just, died, so far as we can ascertain,^ about 320 years before Christ, having Hved to see the overthrow of the Persian empire. He was revered for his sanctity and true patriotism. The traditions we have of him have been collected by 'Otho, in his Historia Boctonm Mishnicorum, pp. 13-32. Some of these recitals are evidently worthless ; but it is sufficiently .plain that Simon, himself an eminently holy man, must have greatly promoted the improvement of the people by opening to them the knowledge of the word of God, and giving an impulse to measures which, had they been wisely and faithfully carried out, ^ The clironologies are not clear. Simon I., the sou of Onias I., must be distinguished from Simon II., son of Onias II. ; and he again from this Simon, the Hasmonean high priest and prince of Judah. 20 HEBKEW LITERATURE. would have created a well educated and virtuous popu- lation. His motto was, "The (welfare of the) world hangs upon tliree things, — the observance of the law, the worship of God in His temple, and services of beneficence to mankind." The honour in wliich he was held finds expression in the magnificent eulogy of Ben Sira, the writer of Ecclesiasticus, who, in recounting the services which Simon had rendered to the temple and city of Jerusalem, proceeds in these admirable words : — " How beauteous was lie wlieu, coming forth from the tem;)le, He appeared from within the veil ! He was as the morning stai- in the midst of clouds. And as the moon in the days of Nisan : As the sun shining upon a palace. And as the rjiiubow in the cloud : As the waving wheat iu the field. As the Persian lily by a fountain, And as the trees of Lebanon iu the days of vintage : As the perfume of frankincense upon a censer. As a collar of gold of variegated beauty, And adorned with precious stones : As a fair olive-tree whose boughs are perfect, And as the tree of anointing whose branches are full." The order or class of men of whom Simon is accounted the last, the KenesetJi Jiaggedola, had rendered most essential help to the nation, — and shall we not say, to the world also ? — in collecting, authenticating, and defining the canonical books of the Old Testament, in multi- plying copies of them by careful transcription, in explaining them to the people themselves, and in establishing an agency for the inculcation of the word of God upon the people, in their newly adopted congregational assembhes, {trwadei/-el, "synagogues,") by the labours of the meturgeman, or interpreter of the Hebrew text into the Aramaized vernacular, and the practical expHcations of the authorized preacher; an ORDER I. SOFEEIM. 21 agency which continued, in various degrees of activity, through the whole duration of the Soferite age. But though all Israel, reformed for ever from the old tendency to idolatry, now acknowledged and adored the one only God, there existed, nevertheless, no small diversity of opinion and principle among them on many important details of religious doctrine and practice. As their religious hfe now began to unfold itself in the diversities of Pharisaism, Sadduceeism, and Esse- nianism, so the intellectual and studious part of them, whether teachers or disciples, ranged themselves into the three following schools. 1. The Masoeetic,'' whose labours were restricted within the field of Scripture and Tradition. Their studies turned upon the canonical documents them- selves, and such — in their view — authentic traditions as contributed to fix their meaning, and to ramify their application to the various interests of life, and the solemnities of religion. The men of this school built entii-ely on authority. They believed nothing, and taught nothing, but what they had received. Hence their distinctive title of Masorisis, from Masar, — tradere, veluti de maim in manum. 2. The Philosophic school. Allured by the lights of Grecian science, this class of Jews had diverged into paths of speculation luiknown to their fathers. The logic of Aristotle and the metaphysical philosophy of Plato, which akeady began to exert a powerfid sway over the intellect of tJie Greeks, had found a mul- titude of votaries in the East, and, mainly through then- relations with Egypt, had of late brought many inquirers after truth under their influence in Palestine " Which must not be confoimdcd with a later organization of the same name ; /'. e., the JIasorctic school of Tiberias, which we shall have to mention in its proper era. 22 HEBREW LITERATURE. itself. While some of tliem were, 'by tliis means, alienated from the faith of their ancestors, there were others who, abiding true to the principles of Judaism, made it their favourite study to harmonize with the doctrines of Pythagoras, or those of the Stagyrite, or of the Academy. We see some of the fruitage of these endeavours in the blended traditional and philosophic teaching of the apocryphal books of Ben Sira, and the Wisdom of Solomon. The Masorite school con- cerned itself with the letter, the Philosophic with the spirit or genius, of the law, and with a striving after universal truth, of which they believed the law was the index or exponent, or with which it was in ever- lasting unison. 3. The IvABALiSTic school. These men lived in a spiritual region of their o\ni. Their eyes could see what those of ordinary mortals were blind to. The letter of the law was only a veil which they could draw aside, and gaze upon a universe of mysteries. They saw in the holy books not merely what the literal sense of the words expressed in their general accep- tation ; but in each word, and sometimes in each letter of a word, they detected secret truths which ordinary minds were unable to apprehend, or to believe, ac- cording to them. These truths are to the letter of the Scriptures what the soul is to the body, or what a celestial spirit would be to the ethereal vehicle, in which, as in human form, his presence would become apparent to our eyes. But as the spectator would be grossly mistaken, were he to regard svich an apparition as nothing more than the body of a man, so are we mistaken, if we see nothing more in Scripture than the letter, and fail to ascend, by the help of it, to the ideas of the Infinite Mind, which could be only embodied in tliis way for our instruction. There is, indeed, little OEDEE I. SOFEEIM. 23 difficulty in believing that this principle is applicable to some portions of the holy volume ; but in applying it to the entire text of Scripture, we should become guilty of a grand absurdity. Wlien the KabaUsts became a distinctive school, they laid no claim to the honour of invention. Like the Masorites, and in this respect only Like them, they built upon authority, and adopted a name an;dogous to theirs. As Masar signifies to " deliver," so Kahal signifies to " receive." The Masorite believed nothing but what had been delivered to him; the Kabalist nothing but what he had received. Tlie masters of the art had received it, as they affirmed, from the prophets : these had heard it from angels; David, for instance, from the angel Michael ; Moses from Metatron ; Isaac from Eaphael ; Shem from Yophiel : and the angels themselves had heard it from God. To what extent the Kabala was cultivated in the Soferitc age, cannot be weU determined, as tbe system did not take a written form tiU late in the days of the Tanaim. It then became gradually a prominent ma- terial in Jewdsh Hterature, and as such will claim from us a more particular attention. The times of the Soferim were distinguished by events which exercised a mighty influence over the destinies of our world. Tlie Persian empire had given way to the Macedonian, and Alexander the Great, the founder of 'the latter, paid homage at the temple of the one only God at Jerusalem." Then came the Syrian domination, and the victorious struggles of the Has- monean hero-priests. The Roman empire, overshadow- ing all others, rises to its culminating grandeur, and Palestine becomes a province of its universal territory. "The sceptre" now departs from Judah, and Herod, ^ Joseph. Jjitiq. 24 HEBEEW LITEEATUEE. an Edomite, and the nominee of a pagan suzerain, holds rule in Jerusalem. "The lawgiver," too, who, since the days of Ezra, had exercised his authority in the Great Synagogue and tiie Sanhedrin, now stripped of every real prerogative, dwindles to a shadow ; for He was about to come, " unto whom the gathering of the people" should be." The angelic weeks of Daniel are completing their ftdl cycle.'' The fulness of the time is come.* The star shines over Betlilehem, and the Redeemer of the world is born. The voice of the incarnate Word is heard witliiu the walls of Zion ; the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead live, the lame man leaps as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sings. Yet is He who works these wouders, as the signs of His Messiahship, despised and rejected of men. He comes to His own, and His own receive Him not. The deed of Calvary transpires. The last days of grace run out, and those of retribution succeed. The tempest gathers at the call of Heaven. Borne on the storm, the Roman eagles urge their descending flight, and Judea is no more. Upon these great events our subject wiU not require us to dilate. Our humbler province is to ascertain the agencies which, undistm-bed by the march of armies or the fall of thrones, were all this while at work in the education of the Jewish people. It will be necessary to retrace our steps a few stages, and form some acquauitance vrith such of the masters of Hebrew sci- ence as exercised the greatest influence on the mental developement of the nation. ^ Gen. iHs. 10. ' Dan. is. ' Gal. iv. ORDER U. TAXAIII. 25 ORDER II. T.iNAIM. CLASS I. EARLIER TANAIJI. The men of the Masoretic school restricted their Libours, as we have said, to the province of tradition ; and their studies in tliis department resulted in the formation of a sj'stem which was destined to give its p' ciiUar character to Judaism through a long train of a^is. Tlie earl}' masters of this science were dis- tinguished by the name of Tanaim, from (a/ia, to " teach with authority." Tiie rise of the Sauhedrin was a kind of epoch in the intellectual history of the Jews, inasmuch as the president of that judicial body exercised a rectoral olHce in the scholastic institutions of the land; and many of its leading members were actively engaged in the work of instruction itself. A Sauhedrin was not altogether a new thing in Israel. There was a council of seventy-two in the time of Moses;" an institution, however, which disappears alter the establishment of the people ui Canaan, except on one occasion in the reign of Jehoshaphat.' Some think that it was re-organized by Ezra, on the restitu- tion of the commonwealth after the Captivity; but the lirst distinct notice of its existence does not occur till the time of the Maccabee Hyrcanus 11." It now 1)1 came the seat of the supreme legislative power, with lull jurisdiction in matters civil and ecclesiastical; but \\,is subsequently divested of its prerogatives by the Roman Ca;sars. " Num. xi. 16. ' 2 Clvron. six. 8. ^ Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiv., cap. 9. It may, however, be referred to in 2 Mace. i. 10 ; iv. 44 ; xi. 27 ; and 2 Mace. i. 8. Compare JosEi'H. Aiiiiq., lib. xii., cap. 3, 3, aud lib. xiii., cap. 5-8. C 26 HEBREW LITEUATURE. This court was composed of the liigh priest^ the chief priests, and a number of the Soferim elected from that body. It consisted of seventy- one members, and two secretaries. Twenty-three members formed a quorum. At the ordinary sessions students were ad- mitted as hearers. The Sanliedriu was superintended by a President, called the Rosli, or Nasi, and two Vice- Presidents, with the titles of Ah Beth Bin and Hakem. It held its sessions at first in a haU of the temple, {lishJatth liaggazilh^ tlie members sitting in a semicircle on low cushions, with their knees bent and crossed in the oriental fashion, and the President being in the centre, the ah heth dm on his right hand, and the hahem on the left.^ Wlien, under the Roman domination, the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin in civil affairs was seriously impaired, the chief business of the court was restricted to matters relating to religion and education. Now, simultaneously with the Sanhedrin, that rab- binical power unfolded itself which not long after acquired, and for centuries retained, a supreme ascend- ancy in the mental and moral life of the Jews. The Levitical priesthood, though recognised as the legiti- mate ministers of the altar, ceased, so far back as the time of Simon Hazadiq, to exercise any real influence on the minds of the people. The cause of this was that public instruction had fallen into other hands. With the people's revived and growing attachment to the tlwra, or " law," which entered into all the details of life, the men who were looked up to as its £xpositors, and upon whose decisions depended the shaping of their conduct, the quiet of their conscience, and tiie welfare of their ' Trad. Sanhedrin, i., 6 ; Selden, Be Si/nedris vet. Ehreeorum ; {Lond., 1650;) Witsii Miscel. Sacra, vol. i., p. 416; Reland, Antiq. Sacra, ii., 7. ORDER II. TA\Ani. 27 lives, and who were regarded, moreover, not only as the interpreters of the written law, but as the depositaries and trustees of those traditional principles which were believed to be a manifestation of the Divine will, co- ordinately with the written code, were honoured with their implicit obedience and homage. With them, "the voice of the Rabbi" became " the voice of God." While the Sanhedrin lasted, this rabbinical power was represented by, and culminated in, it. The nan, or "prince," of the Sanhedrin, therefore, personated also by his ah heth din, or his kal-em, would be considered as the supreme arbiter and authority in the whole sphere of morals and education. 1. Antigoni's, of Socho, (a town of Judea,) is recog- nised as head of the Sanhedrin after the death of Simon the Just. He had been the scholar of Simon, and, like his master, appears to have been a man of a saintly life. Unsatisfied with the ordinary motives to a holy conduct, he laid down the transcendental principle, that true virtue must be an emanation of disinterested love. The maxim which embodies this principle is the only memorial we have of him : — " Be not like servants who wait upon the master upon the calculation of receiving a reward ; but be Hke servants who wait upon the master without such a calculation; and let the reve- rence of heaven be upon you."* In this maxim is supposed to lie the germ of the Sadducean denial of a life to come ; as a certain Zadok,° a scholar of Antigo- * AvotJi, 1. ^ Aloug with luia the legend associates a t'cUow-scholar called Bootlius, or Biothos. Their followers are, therefore, in the Talmud interchaTig:cahly termed Zadiikim and Bioihusim. But the tradition is extremely obscure. Asaria di Hossi conjectures that the name Biothns is a contracliou of Beth aosi, an appellation for the Essenes, like the form Beth Hillel, or Beth Shammai, when taken for a scholastic sect, — Meor Enajim. r ■) 28 HEBREW LITERATURE. nuSj is said to have carried out the false consequence, that, because a future state of reward was not to be an object of mercenary calculation, there was no such state as an object of behef at all. The origin, however, of the Sadducees is involved in great uncertainty. They were a poUtical party, as well as a philosopliico-religious sect, and, both in politics and religion, the antagonists of the Pharisees. Some, as Koster,* consider the name Sadducees to be an alteration of that of Stoics, but with little probability. If the name be not a denominative from Zadok, it may have been a sort of moral manifesto : ZathiUm, " the righteous ones;" like PAaras/ilm, "the separate" or "select ones." '' Contemporary with Antigonus was Eliezer ben Charsum, celebrated for liis opulence, learning, and zeal in the promotion of religious knowledge. 2. The succession of traditional doctors is now given in zngoth, or " pairs," in the following order ; the first man of each pair being the principal of the clerical body, and the other his colleague, or vice-principal : — Jose ben Joezer, of Zereda, and Joseph ben Jochanan, of Jerusalem. The motto of the first inculcates a love for the society of learned men : " Let thy house be a house of assembly for the wise ; and dust thyself with the dust of their feet, and drink theii' words with thirst- iness ; " and that of the second, the duty of hospitality : " Let thy house be wide open, and let the poor be as the children of thy house." 3. To them succeeded Jehoshua ben Perachja and Simon ben Shetach. The Jewish' state, after the wars of hberation, by the valour and policy of the Maccabees had been erected into a kingdom, and, under John * Studlcn ?u Kriiik, 1837. ' Comp. the Mishna; Tedaim, 4, 6,/, y ; aud Sidda, 4, 2. ORDER II. TANAIM. 29 HjTcanus, was now (b.c. 110) a qiuet monarchical commonwealth. But, while the secular prerogative was wielded by the kingly hand, the moral life of the nation was ruled by the Sanhedrin. Such an imperium in imperio soon became unpalatable to the king; and the offices of the Sanhedrin being chiefly in the tenure of the Pharisees, whose influence had always tended to depreciate the royal authority, in order to keep them in check, and to lower their ascendancy, he took all his patronage from them, and bestowed it on the Sad- ducees. These measures, however, proving insufficient to obviate the mischief, he broke up the Sanhedrin, and put the leading members of it to death. From this onslaught the nasi, Jehoshua, escaped, by taking refuge at Alexandria, whence he was subsequently per- mitted to return, through the intercession of Queen Salome, the sister of his favourite scholar, Simon ben Shetach. 4. The Sanhedrin re-appears under Alexander .Tan- nai, who had succeeded to the tlirone after the brief and guilty reign of Aristobulus. It was now nded by Jehtjda ben Tabbai, (Tobya,) and Simon ben Shetach. But which of the two was the nasi, is a matter of dispute. Ben Shetach appears to have been a man of inflexible rigour, both in judgment and administration. His motto, as given in the Avoth, was : " Be extremely careful in examining witnesses, and be wary in thy words, lest they should learn to lie." Ben Tabbai, on the other hand, though a virtuou.s and well-meaning man, proved himself to be incompetent to his office, and was induced to resign it. As a rabbinical teacher, Ben Shetach took a wider range of thought and speculation than many of his contemporaries. He had returned from a residence in 30 HEBREW LITERATURE. Alexandria, — whither he went under circumstances * nearly similar to those which had made his predecessor a refugee in Egypt, — with a mind enriched by the study of the Greek philosopliy. His teaching was henceforth characterized by a certain tinge of Platonism, which initiated that peculiar style of interpretation in which Philo Judfeus afterward attained such pre-eminence. His rabbinical colleagues, however, were iU pleased with these innovations. Tliey conceived that the introduc- tion of Hellenic ideas would vitiate, not only the creed, but the practice, of the people, in the service and wor- ship of the God of their fathers, and gave suflicieutly significant expression to their disapproval, by pro- nouncing their curse upon the Israelite who should even teach his sou the language of the Heathen. This oppo- sition of the Pharisaic party was strengthened by the circumstance that the Sadducees affected a liking for the hochmath Javanith, the " Grecian science," on which account their adversaries gave them the name of Epicureans. 5. Shemaja and Abtalion. With the vicissitudes of those troubled times the Sanhedrin was subject to alternate changes ; now omnipotent, and now depressed to the verge of ruin. Involved as was its existence with the politics of the day, it will be necessary to take a glance at the course of events which form the history of the Jews at that period. Hyrcanus had left five sons, of whom John Aristobulus succeeded, and was speedily followed by Alexander Jannai. On his death his queen, Alexandrina, was declared regent. She sided with the Pharisees, who thereupon regained their ascendancy. The late king had left two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. The former, who had been named by his father as his successor, was now made ' In an insiuTcction against Alex. Jannai, stirred up by the Pharisees. ORDER II. TANAIM. 31 high priest. The succession, however, was disputed by Aristobulus, wlio attained the pontificate and the throne. Hyrcanus making a vigorous effort to recover his rights, Aristobulus entered into negotiations with Pompey, then concluding those victorious eastern cam- paigns in which he had finally triumphed over the brave Mithridates. The Roman general, taking advantage of some prevarications in the conduct of Aristobulus, jioured his legions into Judea, and, by the capture of Jerusalem, reduced the Jewish territory to a Roman province. The king made a fruitless attempt to eman- cipate the nation from tliis new thraldom, which residtcd in a yet more complete subjugation of the province by Galbinus, who, in settling the affairs of the state, confirmed Hyrcanus in the high-priesthood, and removed the civil administration from the Sanhedrin by investing it in five local courts, in as many districts into which he divided the country. Circiter B.C. 43. — When Julius Csesar shortly after obtained the ascendancy, he abolished the form of government settled by Galbinus, restored the Sanhedrin, confirmed the pontificate in the family of Hyrcanus, and appointed Antipater procurator of the province. Antipater had two sons : Phanuel, whom he made governor of Judea, and Herod, who was appointed governor of Galilee. In the struggle which now ensued, Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, with the purchased aid of the Parthians, made a stroke for the crown, and succeeded for a while. Phanuel destroyed himself by poison, and Hyrcanus, by bodily mutilation, was rendered unfit for the high-priesthood ; but Herod meanwhile obtained a decree of the Roman senate, appointing him king of Judea. Xow, in the lajise of these distressful years, the 82 HEBEEW LITERATURE. Sanlieclrin had been gradually losing its civil prero- gatives, but aggrandizing its importance as the seat of the Mosaic and traditional authority. Danger and calamity only render the law more endeared to the Jew ; and fearful as the times often were, tlie rabbinical schools at Jerusalem were still peopled by increasing multitudes of students. Shemaja and Abtalion, whose names appear next in the catalogue of presidents, are probably the same as Sameas and Pollio, mentioned by Josephus.'' Whether they held their office before the breaking up of the legal college by Pompey, or after its restitution by Csesar, is not clear; but the probability is in favour of the first. Of the two men, Abtalion has the character of having been the more strict traditionist : Shemaja leaned rather to the written word, and thus received the commendation of the Karaites, who began about this time to raise their standard for the sole authority of Holy Scripture in matters of religion, though it was not till afterward that they took a sectarian form and denomination. Both these men were held in great veneration by the good in Israel; and though neither of them was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, being both of proselyted fathers by Jewish mothers, yet "their works," it was said, "were as the works of the sons of Aaron." ^ In the Talmud there are frequent allusions to the authority in traditional matters of the Benei/ Betldra. These sons of Betliira were two brothers, Jehuda and Jehoshua, students in the school of Sliemaja and Abtahon; and yielded to none in the amplitude of their knowledge, except to Hillel and Shammai, dis- ' Joseph. Antiq. See the variatiou of names accounted for by JosT, Gesch., iii., abhang. v., seite 149. 1 Juchasin, fol. 17 ; Wolf, B. H., iv., 378. ORDEE II. TANAIM. 33 ciples of the Scame masters, and their successors in the scholastic throne. There were two other "sons oi Bethira/' about a hundred years later, probably descend- ants of one of the former : they lived at Sychni and Nisibis, and maintained the reputation of their name for depth in rabbinic learning : the authors of Zemach David and Juchami absurdly identify the latter with the former pair, thus extending their lifetime to more than a hundred and fifty years. G. HiLLEL came from Babylonia to Jerusalem, in the time of Shemaja and Abtalion. Though descended from a noble family,^ he was at that time extremely poor, and obtained a precarious livelihood by manual labour. With much privation, and in frequent want of food, he followed out the course of studies in the schools of the law, and took rank among the most distinguished scholars of the day. At the time when the presidential chair became vacant, the Passover happened to fall on the Sabbath : this circumstance had not occurred within the memory of any one, and a difficult question arose as to' which of the two festivals should be set aside by the other. In this embarrassment the wisdom of even the sons of Betliira, the aspirants to the vacant seats of honour, could supply no satisfactory decision ; but, ill an assembly met to discuss the matter, reference was made to Hillel, the friend, and formerly the favourite scholar, of Abtalion. He was called, and, without hesitation, pronounced that the Sabbath must cede to the Passover, fortif^ang the reasons he assigned for the opinion by the decisive one, that he had received it as tradition from his departed masters. This incident led to his election to the presidential throne, as the man who most fitly represented the Past. He is said to have held the oiiice till the advanced age of a hundred 2 Kiddmhin, 71, a. c 5 34 HEBRrw LITEEATrRE. and twentr years. His administrarion in the schools, along with his coadjntor Shammai, forms an era in the histoTT of rabbinical learning. His scholars were numbered by thousands. The Talmud commemorates eighty of them by uame, among whom are the cele- brated R. Jochanan ben Zachai, and Jonathan ben Uzziel, the Chaldee Targumist on the prophets. The influence of Hillel exerted itself over the whole domain of Jewish science : he raised the study of the unwritten law to such reputation, as to be considered in some sort its restorer, — ^a second Ezra. "When Israel of old," says the Talmud, " had fo^otten the law, Ezra came out of Babylon as its restorer ; and when, again, it had fallen into obli\ion, came Hillel, the Babylonian, and again revived the study of it ; and when, finally, it was once more forgotten, came Chijja, still a Baby- lonian, to be its renovator." ' These times of renovation can only be understood comparatively, as the study of the law by the predecessors of Hillel had been carried on in Jerusalem with much spirit and zeal : Hiliel gave a greater precision to the study than it had heretofore attained. Before his time the tradition learning had been dinded into six hundred, or, according to others, seven hundred, sections.* To simplify the subject, he arranged the whole complicated mass under a few primary capitulars, reducing what had been a chaos into something like system, by classifying its material under six Sedan m or Orders, — the basis, in fact, of the future ^lishna labours of Akiva, Chi^a, and Jehnda Ilakko- desh, in the same department.^ He, too, first LiiJ down a r^nlar system of henneneutics for the interprttation of the written law.° . 91, r ; JmcJuttK, 3^ «. ■ 9^3^»i/rAt,f. i_ IS. I know that he is lost ;'" — and Jochanan benZachai, who is said to have predicted the destruction of the temple forty years before the event,' and the advent of Titus to the imperial throne.' It was in the last days of Hillel that the event trans- pired which forms the turning-point in the history of the human race. The Kedeemer came. The sceptre had departed from Judah; for Herod, the son of the Edomite Autipater, had wielded for thirty-eight years that iron rod, which was shattering all that was distinctive in Jewish society. Herod was a man of unquestionable talent ; but --his laurels were dropping, not only with the blood of the last Hasmo- neans, but with that of his own wife and her children, and ' Beracliotli, 4. « Joma, (m.eros.,) 43. ' Gittin, {Bab.,) 56. ORDER II. TANATM. 39 liis rule had grown insupportably hateful to the people, who nevertheless trembled at his name. "The law- giver " too, as represented by the Sanhedrin, had been long deprived of all the essentials of civil power, and, of late, of even its shadow in externals. Tiie chronologic pro])hecj' of Daniel (chap, ix.) was also complete, point- ing us by a sure index to the fulness of the time ; and, instructed by these omens that the Great Deliverer might be daily looked for, all they who waited for " the consolation of Israel " were intently expecting His advent. It was even then that He came ; and, •' To heal all the wounds of the world. The Son of the Virgin was born." At the opening of this new dispensation of grace and truth, the old economy of Mosaism was lapsing fast into final decay. Its religious vigour was no longer pervasive of the national mind, but lingered only in the bosoms of a few. The spirit of holiness rested no more on the leaders of the state, and the people's ideas had become more and more worldly. The words of true and unquestionable prophecy had not been heard for generations. No man spake to them in the name of God. The old Urim and Thummim, and every other real oracle, had departed from among them ; and petty superstitions took their place. A sound repeated by natural echo with an imaginary resemblance to articu- late speech, the Bath Kol, or " Daughter of the Voice," or the first words which one heard on entering the medrash or synagogue, — these and such-like methods of coming at conclusions about present conduct or future contingencies, were the resources of a people to whom once the word of God had come in all the plenitude of revelation. Meantime selfishness was the ruling prin- ciple which moved heart, hand, and tongue. The high 40 HEBREW LITERATURE. priest, perhaps the most worldly-minded man in tlie laud, was decked in mitre and breast-plate by the hands of a Gentile soldier. The house of God had become a den of tliieves. The Piiarisee, intent only on an arti- ficial externalism, knew nothing of the vital genius of reUgion ; the Sadducee wore talith and phylactery over the heart of an infidel ; while the Essene removed him- Belf altogether from the sphere of human activity, and concealed what little of the better wisdom he possessed in moody and ascetical seclusion. Still here and there was one who lived for better things ; and in such hearts all true Israelitish hopes had found their last sanctuary. Lest I should be thought to give an overcharged repre- sentation, let us hear the words of a Jew. A few of the powerful sentences of Dr. .Jost will unfold a better view of the state of things, at that epoch, than as many pages of mine. " Herod the Great tore in pieces all the framework of society, and gave it a new construction. Under him the people so visibly lost their national pecu- liarities, that they seemed ready to become extinct. Although the sanctuary and the sacrifices contiiuied, yet every one could see that a high-priesthood which the king conferred on whom he pleased, and of whose incumbents he had deposed four and murdered two; and a temple which the king beautified merely as a piece of architecture, and the sanctity of which he was in no way concerned to maintain, — could by no means satisfy the requisitions of God's government, and of the Judaism resulting from it. Besides, the national tribunals were disregarded, and the king alone enacted laws and appointed tribunals on every occasion, accord- ing to his pleasure. The people had no protector, and were harassed with acts of individual violence. Some were carried away by ambition, others by self-interest; OEDEU 11. TANAIM. 41 some acted from compulsion, others from bigotry and hj'pocrisy. Wliat would be the result of such a con- dition of affairs, was a question which interested every friend of the public weal ; and it was answered vari- ously. One party adhered to the doctrines of Judaism, and looked for deliverance from a regent of the house of David ; another party were for waging war with every thing of a foreign character ; and a third party declared the kingdom of God to be at hand in the way of a general repentance and reformation." (" General History of the Israelites," book viii., chap. 6.) Though they were mistaken in many respects, both in principle and practice, we may nevertheless believe that the great rabbinical leaders were actuated at this period by the good motive of reclaiming the people to religion and morality, and preparing them by habits of obedi- ence to the law of God for the approacliing revelation of His Messiah. To tliis great event the hopes of the good were more than ever directed. If there was one idea which had the force of a unitive law in the minds of men in the then disrupted state of society, it was the cherished thought of their predestined glory in the manifestation of His reign, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, had written such wonders. And tliroughout the land there grew stronger from year to year the presentiment, that the promises of God to their fathers were now to be fulfilled, and that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. No sooner, then, was the voice heard in the wilder- ness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," than the whole nation was astir. Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the cities round about the Jordan, poured forth their population to listen to the prophet of the desert ; and, with a devout welcome t» the tidings he proclaimed, and a prompt obedience to the appropriate symbohsm 42 HEBREW LITERATURE. of their entrance on the new dispensation, were bap- tized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. Nor were they under any delusion in expecting the long hoped-for Redeemer. The time was fidfilled. He appeared among them ; and they crucified Ilim. This fatal deflection, at the very goal of their national felicity, was caused mainly by their misconception of the Messiah's character and kingdom. In the pro- phetic revelations concerning Him, they saw only a national prince, whose kingdom was of this world, and were blind to the great redemptive work which He was to accomplish for all the children of the earth, and to the heavenly nature of His reign. When, therefore, instead of this glorious monarch, there stood forward only a himible individual from a low rank of society, with a retinue of simple rustics, and one who, instead of announcing some great project for their emancipation from the power of Rome, and their attainment of the dominion of the world, which would have arrayed the unsheathed swords of tlie nation under his banner, was content to move among the people as a teacher of doc- trines too refined for their gross faculties to apprehend, and too unworldly for their carnal tastes to relish, they found themselves the victims of a great disappointment ; and, as one of themselves expresses it, were under the necessity of either altering their ideas of the Messiah Himself, or of transferring their hopes elsewhere.^ But had the masses of the people been disposed to embrace the truth of the Messiahship of Jesus, their rulers would have remained true to their purpose of ^ Als aber statt eines glorreiehen Konigs^ nur ein schlichter Mann auftrat mit geringen Gefolge, still nnd geriiitschlos ; nnd anstatt Erobenmgen zu machen, das Land bereiste, und lelirfe ; da sahen sick die Messias J/inger getanschtj und eniweder genothiyt ihren Sinn iiber das Wesen eines Messias zu dndern, oder ihre Soffnmig andermeits zu bauen. — JosT, vol. iii., p. ICO. ORDER II. TANAIM. 43 destroying Him. The principles of Plis teaching were in direct antagonism with their own. Both systems could not co-exist. Either He or they must go down. His ascendancy would be their undoing. We only glance at this awful subject here, as it dis- covers its presence at the hour in the Jewish history to which our rapid survey has conducted us. With the question of the long-sustained unbelief of the Hebrew people we have no intention at present to meddle. " Even to this day the veil is upon their heart : never- theless, when it shall turn to the Eord, the veil shall be taken away." Nor are we without strong reasons to hope that such a consummation is not far distant. The decline of the Talmudic authority among the more enhghtened of the nation; the spirit of reformation which seeks to assimilate their synagogal practice, as far as may be, to the practice of worship in the verna- cular tongue, and to the preaching institute of their Cliristian neighbours ; the increasing study of the Old- Testament Scriptures, and the wilJiugness, nay, desire, of many Jewish families to possess and peruse the New Testament itself; all betoken the dawn of a new day, and the preparation for a more blessed era in their history. Nor should we omit the consideration of the candid expressions in which some of the most learned Jews of our time are wont to speak of the Jtessiah of tlie Christians. Who can read without admira- tion the .statements of the erudite Jewish historian already quoted, on this, to him, most critical and delicate topic ? He recounts, as historically true, the leading facts of the Gospel narrative. He asserts the INNOCEKCY of Jcsus, and the flagrant injustice displayed in the conduct of His murderers.^ These statements ^ See .Tost's " General History of the Israelites," book viii., chap. 6 ; and his Geschichte der Is. seit der Zeit der Maccabder, vol. i., p. 298. 44 HEBREW LITERATURE. have been endorsed by tlie approval, or conceded b}' the silence, of the most learned of his co-religionists. Yet are they premises fraught with conclusions utterly incompatible with unbelief, and which, in due time, wiU not fail to reveal their power in the soul. Can we err in conceiving that in aU these developements may be seen the preparatory moral process for a result which the inspired predictions affirm to be impending in the near future, — when, restored (though yet believers only in Mosaism) to their ancestral land, the Israelitish people will be brought into circumstances distinctly described in the prophecies of Daniel, Zechariah, and Joel, which will render their conversion a sudden and supernatural event, — and when, in the crisis of their distress, the long-rejected Saviour will appear in power and glory for their deliverance, and the repentant nation be regenerated in a day ? " Hillel was followed, in the office of nasi, by his son Shemun, or Simeon, probably in a.d. 8; others say, A.D. 13. It has been asserted,* upon the authority of Athanasius and Epiphanius, that this was the Simeon who is described by St. Luke as embracing the infant Saviour in the Temple.' Tlie silence of St. Luke with regard to his public character seems to discountenance this opinion ; and, on the other hand, we know nothing that will positively disprove it. But were it a fact, it must have occurred before his advancement to the patriarchate. Simeon was the first who received the title of Rabban, " our Master ; " a distinction given to ' Hosca iii. i, 5 ; Isai. xi. 11, 13 ; Jer. xxxii. 37 ; Zech. xiv. 1-4 ; rii. 9, 10 ; Dan. xii. 1. * Bakonius, a.c. 1, u. 40. ^ Luke i. ORDER II. TAMAIM. 45 eight of the most emineiit Tanaite teachers, of whom seven were of the family of Hillel. His successor, Gamaliel Hazzaken, is deservedly regarded by the Jews as one of the most illustrious of their princely teachers. He is held to have been the thirty-fifth receiver of the traditions from Mount Sinai; and he added to all the amplitude of Hebrew lore a large acquaintance with Gentile literature; the study of Greek being connived at, in his case, by his rabbinical brethren, on the plea of his having need of that language in diplomatic transactions with the secular government. A master also in the astronomy of that day, he could test, it is said, the witnesses for the new moon by a chart of the lunar motions he had constructed for the purpose." His astronomic skill was employed also in the rectification of the Jewish i calendar. It is recorded that he dehghted much in the study of nature, and in the beautiful in all its manifestations. In short, Gamaliel appears to have been a man of an enlarged and refined mind, and no very stringent Pharisee, though connected with the sect. Casual notices of him in the Talmud make this evident. Thus, he had a figui-e engraved upon his seal,' a thing of which no strict Pharisee could approve. Nor could such an one have permitted himself to enter a public bath in which was a statue of Aplirodite. But this Gamaliel is reported to have done at Ptolemais; justifying. himself by the argument that the bath had been built before the statue was there ; that the build- ing had been erected not as a temple, but as a bath, and as such he used it ; and, moreover, that if it were not lawful for him to be except where idolatry had no( held its rites, he should not be able to find a place to remain in upon the face of the earth.* ' Juchasiii. ' Avoda Sara {Hieros.). * 3icl. 46 HEBREW LITERATUKE. There are two marks of honour given to Gamaliel in the New Testament itself: one, that, in a crisis of great jjeril to the infant church, he subdued by his reasoning the inclination of the Sanhedrin to attack it with the strong arm of persecution : (Acts v. 34 :) the other, that he was the preceptor of St. Paul, who — ■ as Saul, the young student from Tarsus — sat with Onkelos, and probably Steplien the protomartyr, before the chair of the great doctor of the oral law, fraught with the traditions of fourteen centuries. Some rab- binical scholars' have thought that Saul of Tarsus is identical with the Shamuel Hakaton, who makes a figure among the disciples of Gamaliel in the Talmud, as the author of an execratory prayer in the Tefila} They hold that the name Shard is only an abridgment • of Shamuel; and that Paulus, which signifies "the Less," is only a Gentile exponent of the Hebrew Ha-katon, his cognomen, and a word of the same mean- ing, used to distinguish him from Samuel the Prophet. All this, however, is mere fancy, as the Shamuel Haka- ton mentioned in the Talmud is there described as dying (before the destruction of Jerusalem) a zealous Pharisee. The attitude assumed by Gamaliel toward the Chris- tians, has induced others to surmise that this distin- guished Rabbin was at heart a believer in the ilessiah- ship of Jesus. That he was a more enlightened and liberal man than his colleagues, we see no reason to doubt; but the degree in which he approached the truth as it is in Jesus, we have no sufficient data to ascertain. Neander has observed,'' that "the great respect in which Gamaliel has been held by the Jews, is a sufficient proof that they never doubted the sound- ' As Alting, Scliilo, vol. iv., p. 28. ' The twelfth in the Shemone Esre. ORDER II. TAXAIM. 47 ness of his creed, or thought that he could be accused of any suspicious connexion with the Nazarenes." ^ Indeed, the two systems of Judaism and Chris- tianity had now become so strongly defined, as to render neutrality, in the case of a man so publicly known, impossible. Jews and Christians, as such, could no longer coalesce. One cause was the antagonism of Christianity to the corruptions with w?hich Rabbinisin had damaged the Jewish system. Tor while tlic new communion had accepted all the truths, and retained all the permanent realities, of the Old Testament dis- pensation, it speedOy, and in the spirit inculcated by the teachings of its Divine Founder, disengaged itself from the human and ojjpressive additions of the Soferim. But as these mischievous corruptions had become the rehgion, so to speak, of the mass of the people, as well as an effective apparatus of government in the practice of their spiritual rulers, the propagators of the new faith found it extremely difficult to make a favourable impression on the nation at large. Then, the catho- licity of the evangelical dispensation was opposed to the favourite ideas of the Jewish mind. The elect people identified with the reign of the expected DeH- verer their own ascendancy over a vassal world ; but the Gospel proclaimed the advent of the Messiah of aU nations, whose sceptre was to shed equal blessings on all the tribes of the earth. The Saviour of our race had been jnanifested, not to aggrandize a sect, but to redeem a world; to be a light to illumine the Gentiles, as well as to be the glory of His people Israel. Some time after his elevation to the presidency, Gamaliel, pressed by the distresses of the times, trans- ferred the locality of the synhedrial schools from Jerusalem to Jamnia, or Japhna, a town on the coast, ' " First Planting," &c., vol. i., p. 47. 48 HEBREW LITERATURE. not far from Joppa. He there completed the labours of his life, and died some fifteen years before the final ruin of his country. At his decease men said that the hahoil hattorah, "the glory of the law," had departed; and on the solemnization of his funeral obsequies, his favourite disciple, Onkelos, expended eighty talents of money iu perfumes. Simon bar Gamaliel succeeded his father. The authentic notices we have of him are very few. We get a glimpse or two of him in the storm which was then so fiercely raging in Jerusalem. As the resolute opponent of the Zelots, he took an active part in the pohtical struggles whose convulsions hastened the ruin of the state. The friend of the people, he perished in his efforts to save them from the vortex of destruction, and liis memory is sanctified with the honours of mar- tyrdom.^ The book Aroth preserves one sentence of his, to the effect that "three persons who have eaten at the same table, without discoursing upon the law of the Lord, are to be considered as if they had eaten of the sacrifices of idols ; while three who have eaten at the same table, and have communed witli each other on the law, are to be regarded as if they had eaten of the table of the Lord." Among the contemporaries of Gamaliel, was the Jochanan ben Zachai abeady mentioned, who now took his place as the Abba of the Sanhedrin, at an age verging on a century. His life had been most actively spent, at first in commerce, but afterward iu unre- mitting study and instruction. In the hyperbolical eulogy of him in BcresMfh Balla, it is .said, that " if the heavens were a scroll, and every son of man a ^ Simon was one of ten eminent teacherSj who, in the conflict with the Roman power, are considered by the Jews to have attained the crown of martyrdom. Their names ai'e given in Zemach Burid, p. 28. ORDER II. TANAI5I. 49 scribe, and all the trees were reeds to write \vitb, tliey could not record the multitude of his precepts." lu Bava Bathra we have a sort of catalogue of his attain- ments, in Scripture and Mishna, halaka, tradition, critical analysis of the law and of language, dialectics, astronomy, demonology, or the method of adjuring spirits, instruction by the various kinds of mashalim or " parables," &c. The place where he taught became another Sinai, resplendent wth flame. He predicted the destruction of Jerusalem forty years before the event ; (an easy task, as it had been done by a greater than he, in words that prolonged their knell like echoes tlirough all that generation ;) and when, among other omens towards " the time of the end," the gate of the temple, shut and barred at evening, was found in the morning open without hands, he interpreted the sign, by quoting the prophetic words of Zechariah : " Open thy gates, Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars."* During the siege, Jochanan left Jerusalem, and repaii'ed to the Roman camp. When introduced to Vespasian, then only a general, he saluted him as king. Vespasian told him he was mistaken in the title he had given him, as he was not a monarch. "True," said the aged man, " but a monarch you will be ; for the temple of Jerusalem can only perish by the hand of a king." ^ In Arof/i. we have his sententious judgment on his five most eminent disciples : " Eliezer ben Hyrkanos is like a well plastered pit, which loseth not a drop. Jehoshua ben Hananja, happy are they who begat him. Jose, the priest, is a saint. Simon ben Nathaniel * Juma, (nirros.,) fol. 43. '^ Gi/tin, i'ol. 50; Hcha S/iiia, fol. 64. If tliis anecdote Ims any foundation in truth, it must be referred, not to Vespasian, but to Titus, with whom Jochanan is elsewhere said to have found favour. 50 HEBREW LITERATURE, fearetli sin. Eliezer ben Arak is a redundant fountain." His dying words show what St. Paul (Rom. viii. 15) calls "the spirit of bondage unto fear," under which even virtuous men under the Jewish disjiensation lived and died : " I am now about to appear before the awful majesty of the King of kings ; before the Holy and Blessed One w^ho is, and who hveth for ever, whose just anger may be eternal, who may doom me to ever- lasting punishment. Should He condemn me, it will be to death without further hope. Nor can I pacify Him ■\vith words, nor bribe Him with money. There are two roads before me, one leading to Paradise, the other to heU, and I know not by which of these I go."" CLASS II. LATTER TANAIM. I. The temple was now in ashes, and Jerusalem a heap of ruins. The days of retribution had come, and civil war, with its deadly strife, the delirious agonies of famine, the shattering catapults and slaughtering swords of the Roman legions, had done their work ; and fifteen hundred thovisand of the children of them who had imprecated the blood of the Just One upon them, had perished in despair. But, notwithstanding these wasting desolations, we find the indestructible vitahty of Judaism re-asserting itself at once. The lowest step of their pohtical ruin had, indeed, been passed. The Levitical institutions had sunk in the flames of the temple ; and, disfranchised from the registry of nations, oppressed, despised, and hated of all mep, the residue of this doom-struck people took with them, in their long and Cain-like wanderings through the whole breadth of the earth, a generic character which was literally ' Berakoth. OEDEK n. TA2JAIM. 5l indelible, and an attachment to the religion of their fathers which no vicissitudes could destroy. Not a small number lingered on the ancestral soil. Though the cities were wasted, and the land made desolate, a remnant remained, like the seed of a future harvest,' and the pledge and attestation of Israel's eternal hold of the inheritance given by the Unchange- able to Abraham and to his seed for ever. They were cast down, but not destroyed. Fire and sword, the pangs of want, and the wastes of incessant conflict, wholesale massacres, or daily martyrdoms by the gibbet, the cross, the rack, or the flaming pile, the hungry teeth of wild beasts in the amphitheatres, or the man- traffic of the slave-market, all failed to undo them. Ruhus ardehat, et non comiimehatur. Within a few years, the Jewish communities throughout the world were re-organized, and unfolding in every country of their exile a uniform rehgious life. What was it that could make tliis outcast, but un- broken, race indomitable and immutable amid all the vicissitudes of time? It was their unswerving love and allegiance to a law which they beUeved to be Divine. "We live," wrote Josephus, "we live under our laws, as under the care of a father." And venerable as had been the law in their eyes in the past, it had never been so endeared to them as now, when the study of it became the rallying-ground where their dissipated strength was re-combined, and a new era of national life inaugurated.' In this exercise of the mind upon subjects imme- diately relating to the invisible kingdom of God, and ' Isai. vi. 11-13. * " Judaism found its last asylum in its academies. A conquered nation clianged their military leaders into rabbins, and their hosts into armies of pale-cheeked students, covered with the dust of the schools." — D'IsBAELi, Sen. D 2 52 HEBKEW LITEEATtJEE, iu wbicJi was found the secret principle that kept them from dissokitionj we behold an exemphfication of the ascendant power of man's spiritual nature over all that may give way before the decays of time ; the supremacy of the unseen and eternal over forces which are merely material and transient. II. The vigour of this intellectual life of Judaism shows itself in the fact, that, so early as the time of Gamaliel II., of Japhne, the next incumbent of the patriarchate, the scholastic institutions in the midst of so many diffi- culties attained a strength and effectiveness such as had never been surpassed in Palestine, It is true we know but comparatively little of the methods of education which had obtained among the Israelitish people in previous ages. So far back as the time of the Judges we read of a keriath sefer, "the city of books," a name which seems to indicate the seat of some scholastic establishment which had been founded by the Canaan- ites.^ But to what extent the people availed themselves of such helps, we are in perfect ignorance. In tiie days of Samuel, again, and down through the prophetical age, there are indications of collegiate settlements in several parts of the country, as Bethel, Jericho, Gilgal, Eama, and Mount Carmel, where the students, under the name of beney hanneviim, " sons of the prophets," Uved a kind of monastic, or rather Pythagorean, life ■" in great numbers, (2 Kings ii. 16,) and at common cost; (3 Kings iv. 38, 39 ;) and where the severer study of the theocratic laws and institutions was accompanied with that of poetry and music. (1 Sam. x. 5.) But these schools of the prophets fell into decay a long time before the Captivity. Meanwhile the Levites in their cities, ' It might, however, have heen a depository of national archives, thus betokening tlie existence of the art of writing before the time of Hoses. ' Though not bound to celibacy, Comp. 2 Kings iv, 1. ORDER II. TAN AIM. 53 and fatliers of families at home, were required to exer- cise the office of instructors in their respective spheres of life. (Deut. vi. 7, 20, &c.; Prov. vi. 20.) And these good practices greatly revived after the exile, by the impulse given to them by Ezra and the men of the synagogue. Diligent domestic instruction, not only by the father, but by the mother of a family, (Susanna 3; 2 Tim. i. 5 ; iii. 15,) appears to have been now a charac- teristic of Hebrew life ; and, in addition to the great Midrash schools which rose in Jerusalem in the Soferite age, the founding of schools for primary instruction in the country at large, was, some time before the over- throw of the state, promoted by the zeal and activity of Jesua bar Gamla. Still greater completeness was now given to the apparatus of public instruction by the establishment, at different times, of rabbinical chairs at Japhne or Jabneh, Lydda, Bethira, Chammatha, Ccsarea, Magdala, Sephoris (Zaphat), and Tabaria or Tiberias, the last of which has acquired a reputation in all lands, and for all time, as the laboratory of the Mislma and Masora. These foundations were called indiscriminately by various names in common. The school was termed beth midraih, "the house of exposition;" beth rah- banaii, "the house of our masters;" Leth ulfana, "the house of doctrine;" beth sidra, "the house of order;" ycsh'ihali, (Chald., mefkibatha,) "the seat of learning." Of the professors, the baali yeshibah, the senior, was rector or. principal of the school, rosh yesMbah, or metlbta. His colleagues, or the graduates who were eligible to that dignity, had the title of c/iaberim, or " companions," — as we now say, " fellows." The curriculum of study included hermeneutics, or ' Bava Bathra, fol. 31 ; Alting. 0pp., torn. v. ; G. Uksini AiitlqiiU . Eubr. Scliolast.; (Hafn., 1702;) Beek, Skisze einer Geschich. der ErziehuiKj u. des Unlerrichts bei deit Israeliten. (Pray, 1832.) 54 EEEEEW ttttt; att-rt- tie interpretation of the HoIt Scriptures ; halaka, the consticmicns of the traditional law; popular etbic^ in the form of ffnomonologr and fable; hagada, or lesendarr hisiorr, sacred poetrr, and the science of the calendar. In the schools of Babylon attention vas given also to astronomr and medicine. In the hotns of instruction the roish yeishihah "ras enthroned on an elevated chair, aronnd Trldch were placed the seats of the chaherim, and the bodv of the students {talmudim, ketanim) occupied the floor on low mats, thns " sitting at the feet " of their masters.* The principal read the text or tlnma, and gave his expo- sition, which was foDowed np bv comments from the cTiaherim., and bj questions from the talmudim., or "learners." Thus the subject was thorotighlv inves- tigated, and a recognition or memorandum made of the conclusions at which they had arrived. The academicai degree of cMler was conferred by the rotih laying ins hand on the head of the candidate, with the words, " Be thou chaler." He was now pro- moted to a seat in the schools, and empowered to give his sentence or judgment on a matter in debate, iris opinion possessing now a certain value or authority. He now also dropped his simple personal name, and took the more brief, but more honourable, designation of " the son of" such an one. Tor instance, Joshua the son of Bethira would now be called Ben Bethira ; or Simon the son of Zoma, simply Ben Zoma.* The higher degree was that of rat or rabli ; in Babylon, mar. It was given in the same form as that of cluAer, with the bestowmeni of a key, to denote that there* was conveyed to him a power of opening the law by authoritative exposition, and of locking tq) or releasing the con- sciences of men. * Acts rdi. 3. ' Compare Arxith, 4, 1, 2. lESie sEUinnfe iafi tvtt stssinEs in "fitf jear : ite smr- mer *'«wKXTr l»e£nivini'." v— i «,•.*■.:. h-^t ti!.'>m. of Ajiri., anL gnirmg t bar. Tiif TOinsT .• __ ■ _ .■.'w mnm: of Otnnber,' auc. endsd Tcoih nstar, fwir mi»nn IE "MnTchJ In the cnudtudinrr mrani of «ich halv Tear. -Jus smniss of "die seasicm ii^ere TPVEefi. On "uieae nrasisioiir il.ti'r "were wane:'.!:, oi-rv:"; ;ni .«- . viiint CTE'.. • imsres, ;. u- SU... Til--M Tr; .a — -s,~ Hnu Tnnae "smr xnifi. jbit ni xnsm ttrn.i ,\-asms&^ B TcswL. etc iiif MeSirerraiiesu 'i; TraleniaE and C^^arBii, unr iir ir>^r. the fits; TCTiikgvnig of itte : m L-mnmaii min. Utik' tr "ui--^ :..'"w ■ insi cai¥ "wise^ tiif cmservatian m uieir ut^nciatir IGir Tt:i!-'.-'.'> -nr rnrr ^r.Hr ^rmbDl of "3m wi iyaiir ; "bm ii "wje ■Qieir vnci , . _ -jr rf rrr "TitkI- ".;al ailL niunu rOlIira:, WiUiUi ^ "Jli UAii iinpf been. — -"ibe reiisir: i.- b?nr.:v r.:'ii-' "n^J^ "ir K -; cS -Iff ." attw^ l i .y il W I '. T - 56 HEBREW LITERATURE. "The yoke of the Eomans was exchanged for that of the rabbins." We may add that, strong as the Roman sway had been, the new dominion attained a potency infinitely greater. In the first place, its autho- rity was recognised, and implicitly deferred to, as Di\ane. The new clerical corporation were the representatives of Moses. The semika, or act of ordination, con- nected the rabbi with a direct succession of men who, as sauhedrins, synagogues, prophetic colleges, priests, and pontiffs, back to the days of the Theophany on Mount Sinai, had received and conveyed the spoken word of God, and had been His own appointed oracles to the people. He, then, who heard these interpreters of the Di\ine mind, heard in effect the Divinity Himself. Upon their lips hung the counsels of the Almighty. He who explained the law in any other sense than theirs, had no portion in the world to come. The reverence due to the rabbi was like that which is due to Heaven.* The words of the rabbi were no other than the words of the Most High;^ and he who said that which he had not heard from his rabbi, caused the Shekina to depart from Israel.^ And in the second place, wliile the reqiiu'ements of these men took the character and gra\aty of law in its Divinest form, they encircled and insphered the entire interests of hfe. The solemnities of religion must be understood after their idea, and per- formed according to their prescriptions. New appoint- ments were superadded to the institutions of the written law, and new meanings given to the ancient ordinances of Sabbath, Passover, new-moontide, festival, or fast- day. The times, terms, manner, and wtyds in which the congregation, the family, or the indiridual should approach the throne of God in prayer, were all sub- ^ Tehe more raMaa kemore shamai/im. — Avoth, 3, 8. ' lb., 4, 13. ' BerakoU, fol. 27, 2, a : comp. Eruvin, 21 ; and Sanhedrin, 110. ORDER II. TANAIM. 57 jected to rabbinic regulation. The habits of domestic and personal life, the hours of the day, the employ- ments of the intellect, and the labours of the hand; food, meal-times, dress, — were aU stamped, so to speak, with rabbiuism's official seal. Meantime liberty of thought was abrogated. The mind was shut up to rabbinical ideas. All Gentile learning was placed under ban; no communion with human intellect out- side of this pale could be allowed. The whole range of action permitted to the Jewish mind was included in the mazes of a vaulted labyrinth, from whence there was no outlet but tlirough the terrible gate of excom- munication. For the strength of these coercions became yet more potent by their maledictory sanctions. A fearful curse came upon the opposer. In the mildest form of penalty his reputation was blasted by the dis- grace of the nemplm, or the nidui ; and by the more complete punislunent of contumacy his temporal inter- ests were ruined, and his everlasting welfare undone, by the tremendous doom of the shamctJia, or the cherem. He who was struck with the thunderbolt of these anathemas, died to all privileges, civil and reli- gious. He became an alien to his kinsman, liis wife, or his child. His place was no longer found in tiie house of prayer. AU men shunned liim. He lived accursed; and when he died, no religious solemnity hallowed his funeral, and no stone marked his grave. Thus it became true almost to the letter, that he who transgressed the «'ord of the Soferim threw away his hfe.' HI. For more than three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, this stupendous etliical system was administered under a succession of presidents; in Babylonia by the resk haggola, or glutJia, ("prince "- Eruvw, fol. 21. D 5 58 HEBEEW LITERATDKE. of the exile,") and in Palestine by the nasi or patriarch of the W.st. Basuage is ceitahily in error where' he argues that the dignity of patriarch was unknown among the Jews till the time of Adrian. The office, indeed, did not assume its fuU grandeur till some time after the destruction of Jerusalem; but that the head of the sanhedrin and rabbinical schools had a recog- nised pre-eminency in the nation, is a fact that cannot be denied; and that this pre-eminency gave him the status of a prince or nasi of the people, is equally incontrovertible. In the Tahnud there is an account of an aged man, Ishmael ben Jose, who lived not more than sixty years after the destruction of tlie temple, and who, in delivering upon his death-bed some traditions he had received from his fathers, describes them as having been hearers of Hdlel and Gamaliel, whom he calls their nissiim, or "princes," in a way which intimates that such w-as their ordinary title.^ But it was not till the establishment of some- thing like order, after the chaos of confusion into wliich their great calamity had tlu'ovvn them, that the patri- archate received its fuU developement. The incum- bent of the office then had the titles of fosh ahoth, "patriarch," nasi, "prince," and ah ^aofo;«, "imiversal father." Wliile the Babylonian Jews had their own resh glutha, the Palestinian patriarch was recognised by the Israelites in the Holy Land, Egj-pt, and all the countries on the Mediterranean. His pontifical throne was fixed after a while at Tiberias, and from this seat of power he sent his absolute mandates and decisions to all the schools and symagogues of his spiritual dominions. His revenue was supplied by a common tribute, after the manner of the didi'achm jiayment to the temple; and his communication with the various ' Histoire lies Jiiifs, liv. iii., ctap. 1. * Shabbath, fol. 15, 3. ORDEE II. TAXAIM. 59 branches of his immense diocese was maintained not only by the transmission of documentary missives^ but by the personal agency of constituted officers, called shalechin, or " apostles/'' and that of subordinate patri- archs, located in some of the chief centres of the Jewish population. His status as patriarch was recognised by the emperor himself, who gave him in imperial rescripts the title of illtistris and clarissimus. The Patriarch Gamaliel received from the Emperor Theo- dosius a patent, defimng the limits of lus autliority, and investing him with a rank equivalent to that of a prefect. This patent, however, was subsequently taken away. The dignity itself, having lasted 350 years, through tliirteeu generations of the race of HUlel, was aboHshed in the year 415. IV. It was at Jamnia, as we have said, that the rabbinical college took up their first position after the overtlirow of Jerusalem. The presidency feU by every right to Gamahel II., the son of Simon. He had been carefully educated by his father in all the eradition of the Hebrews, and his life was spared by Titus through the intercession of Jochanan ben Zachai. One of his first cares was to re-constitute the sanhedrin,' a body which, though now divested of all the insignia of secular authority, soon unfolded a moral influence in the affairs of Jewish life, as great, or greater, ratlier, than it had ever wielded in the days of its highest majesty in the Holy City. As the head of the schools, Gamaliel exercised a severe discrimination in the admis- sion of students. They were to consist of the elite of the nation for intelligence and character. The utmost order was observed in the studies and routine of the school, which obtained the cognomen of "the Yine-garden," from the precision with which the youths ° Jadaim, 60 HEBEEW LITERATURE. were arranged in regular lines. No one but a properly matriculated man was admitted to the lectures.^ It was distinguished as a good law-school; the studies com- preheudiug the law of nature, Scripture, and tradition, ■with practical references and comparative illustrations from the Roman code. Gamaliel's great influence and authority are manifest in the frequent allusions to him in the Mishna. Some amusing specimens of the scholastic controversies of the day are given in that work and in the Talmud; as, for example, on the deter- mination of the time of the new moon;' and on the questions, whether a male cliild born with a hare-Hp could be considered legally unblemished,^ and whether the recital of evening prayers by individual Israelites was obligatory or optional;' points upon which the nasi came into collision with some of the chief men of his synagogue. Distinguished by an eminently autocratic temper, Gamaliel provoked their opposition, and led some of them, as we shall see, to the formation of rival schools of their own. His overbearing manner, especially on one occasion, when he treated the popular Rabbi Joshua with unmerited and relentless contumely, so provoked the indignation of the people, as to lead to liis temporary deposition. He was, however, afterward — through the good offices of the same Joshua, supported by Akiva — restored to his throne, though with a more defined and restricted power. V. The Mishna and Talmud contain frequent refer- ences to several men who were the feUow-labourers of Gamaliel. Of the principal of these it will be proper to set down a few brief notices. , 1. The first of these was Eliezer ben Asarja, of an opulent and noble famUy, who traced their descent from ' Berakoth. ' Hash Eashana, cap. 2. « Talm. Berakoth. ' Ibid. ORDER II. TANAIII. 61 Ezra. Eliezer was the tenth in succession from that prophet. He was a great proficient in the law, and, when only eighteen years of age, was deemed eligible, on the deposition of Gamahel, to be elected as his successor. He had a majority of votes over Akiva, and filled the office till the restoration of the preceding patriarch. 2. Eliezer ben Hyukanos, sui'named afterwards Hag- gedola the Great, a man also of good family, but of neglected education in early lifej a defect which he assiduously repaired, when, in his twenty-eighth year, urged by an awakened impulse after knowledge, he left his father's house and placed himself under the tuition of Jochanan ben Zachai, of whose school he became a distinguished ornament. The esteem of the disciple for the master is discernible in the saying imputed to Eliezer, that " a man could draw no more water from a cistern than what had been first poured into it ; but that it was his privilege to have access to a fountain whose supplies were inexhaustible." On the other hand, the admiration with which Ben Zachai regarded his favourite scholar may be gathered from the eulogy, that " even Abraham, Isaak, and Jacob, were blessed in having such a descendant as Ehezer." Of him, too, the author of Zaclmth affirms, with true oriental hyberbole, that " if the outspread heavens were parch- ment, the trees of Lebanon writing reeds, and the waters of the ocean transmuted iuto ink, all would be insufficient to poivrtray his wisdom." Eliezer, pro- found in the Kabala, made many practical acquisitions in magical science, and became the thaumaturgist of the schools. Wliile the controversies between Gamahel and the rival doctors of Jamnia were rmming so high, Eliezer undertook the formation of a school of liis o^ii at 62 HEBREW LITERATTJRE. Lydda, where his teaching appears to have assumed an almost entirely mystical or kabalistic character. In Jamnia his principles were not held in much respect ; and on his occasional visits and disputations there, he would seek to confii-m a doctrine demurred to by his hearers with the sanction of miracles. "The river ran backward, and the walls of the college leaned, at his word." But these prodigies seem to have made little impression on liis incredulous antagonists. On one occasion the Bat/i Kol confirmed his sentence on the spot ; but Rabbi Joshua exclaimed, " Such wonders are no credentials of truth. We trouble not ourselves here with miracles, or with the Bath Kol, but try to arrive at just conclusions by the light of intelligence." In fact, his mysticisms and thaumaturgics so compromised him with the rabbinical authorities, that he fell under the ban of shamatha, from which he was only set free when in the article of death. On account of this cu'cumstance, he sometimes bears the name of Eliezer Hashamathi."^ 3. There was another Eliezer, the son of Arak, who is sometimes confounded with the preceding. The principal notices of him are comprised in the book AvotJi. He, too, was a scholar of Ben Zachai, who is said to have affirmed, that "if all the wise men of Israel were in one scale of the balance, and even Eliezer ben Hpkanos with them, Ehezer ben Arak would outweigh them all." Once, when mth his disciples, "Ben Zachai said to them, 'Go forth, and consider which is the good path that a man should persevere in.' E. Ehezer answered, 'A good eye.'' E. Joshua said, ' A good companion.' E. Jose said, ' A good neighbour.' E. Eliezer ben Arak said, ' A good heart.' He said to them, 'I prefer the words of Ben Arak, ' Of the work Pirkcy daSiezer, attributed to lum, sec further on. ORDER II. TAJJAIM. 63 Ijecause liis words include yours/ He said to tliem, ' Go forth, aud consider wliich is the evil thing that a man ought to shun.' 11. Eliezer answered, 'An evil eye.' R. Joshua, ' An evil companion.' R. Jose, ' An. evil neighbour.' R. Simon said, ' He who borroweth, and payeth not ; for he who borroweth from man is as he who borroweth from God.' R. Eliezer ben Arak said, ' An evil heart.' He said to them, ' I prefer the words of Ben Arak, because his words include yours.'" lien Arak's favourite maxim was, "Be quick to study the law, and know what thou shouldst return in answer to the Epicurean. And remember before whom thou labourest; for the Master who employed thee is faithful, and will recompense thee the reward of thy toil." = -k Joshua ben IIananja. This truly respectable man was probably the most able of all the rabbins of that period. It is said that, before his birth, his mother invoked the intercessions of the synagogue, tliat her child might be distinguished for wisdom and righte- ousness. He, too, studied at Jerusalem under Ben Zachai, from wjiom he received the ordination of rabbi. Becoming one of the cliaherim of Gamaliel at Jabneh, he held there for some time the high office of ah heth din. Yet, though universally honoured as a master in Israel, he passed many years of his life in poverty, and sup- ported himself by working at the trades of a wheel- maker and blacksmith.^ Subsciquently a provision was made for him by tithes, paid to him as a member of the tribe of Levi. His controversies with Gamaliel and Eliezer ben Hyrkanos are celebrated in the Mishna and Talmud. The uneasy state of things at Jabneh induced him to found a school for himself at Pekjin. His ^ Flrh-D AvotJi, cap. 2. ' Berakoth, fol. 28. 64 HEBREW LITERATUUE. authority as arbitrator in rabbinical disputations had great weight both with clergy and laity ; and the force of his reasoning powers and the pungency of liis wit rendered him a formidable antagonist. At a later period of liis life Joshua went to Rome with Gamaliel and Akiva, to negotiate with the imperial court on some matters relating to the oppressed state of the Jews; when, contrary to the usual experience of his countrymen, he received something like kindness from the Emperor Trajan.'' It is to this time that the traditionary anecdote, however (juestionable, undoubt- edly refers, — that Imra, the daughter of Trajan, formed a personal acquaintance wfth the despised Jew, and honoured him with her friendship. The anecdote to which I more especially allude, is to the effect, that the princess, who regarded his intellectual and moral excellence as more than a counterbalance to the home- liness of liis outward appearance, said, on one occasion, " Thou art the Beauty of Wisdom in an abject dress : " to which tlie rabbi replied, " Good wine is not kept in gold or silver vases, but in vessels of earthenware."' On one occasion the emperor himself said to him, "You teach that your God is everywhere, and boast that He resides especially among you. I should hke to see Him." "Tiie presence of God is indeed every- where," answered Joshua; but He cannot be seen, nor can mortal eyes behold His glory." Trajan, however, maintained his proposal. "Well," said the rabbi, " let us first look at one of His ambassadors." Upon this he took the emperor into the open air, and told him to gaze at the sun, then sliining in his noon-day strength. " I cannot," said Trajan ; " the light dazzles ■* JoST, iii., 205. ° Bereshith Eahba, sec. 65. Many patriciaa ladies in Rome were proselytes to Judaism. ORDER II. TANAIM. G5 me." "Canst tliou, then," said Joshua, "who art unable to endure the hght of one of His creatures, expect to beliold the glory of the Creator ? "^ 5. Tarphon (Teraphon, or Tryphon) was a Jew of sacerdotal family and opulent circumstances, and sometime rector of the school at Lydda. Ligiitfoot, Carpzov, and others, maintain that he is the same Trypho who is the interlocutor in Justin Martyr's Dialogue, — an opinion to which there is but little to object.' His motto was a very solemn one: "Thei day is short ; the labour vast ; but the labourers are I slothful, though the reward is great, and the Master presseth for dispatch." 6. Another man of the time was NECiirxjA ben Hakjvnau, celebrated for his kabalistic learning. He seems (to credit tradition) to have been born a kaba- list ; for, even when a child, his conversation was about the mysteries of the Divine name, and the precious verities of Kabala fell from his lips like pearls. The two earliest kabalistic books, Bu/iir and Feliak, are attributed to him. 7. IsiiMAEL BEN Elisha Hakohen, a Scholar of Joshua ben Hananja and Xechunja, became one of the greatest authorities of his day. He was especially cele- brated as a theosophist, and died, a.d. 121, a political martyr. The works assigned to him are a subject of controversy among the critics. No one believes that those which are now extant under his name were written by him as we now have them, though the groundwork of them may be authentic. We have given notices of tliem under the several subjects to which they refer. A more indubitable work of Ishmael is the little herme- " Tahn. Cholin. ' Compare the expression in the Dialogue, 'Ev Tions for their destroyers ! The Emperor Trajan did not succeed in quelling these fierce outbreaks without still greater sacrifice of life. Tlie energetic efforts of his generals, i\Iartius Turbo in Cyrenaica, Hadrian in Cyprus, and Lucius (.hiietus in Mesopotamia and Palestine, were, however, filliiwed, after a time, by the restoration of order. 15ut the calm was only temporary. The hatred of till .Jews to their conquerors was hterally indomitable. The political sky grew dark again with clouds portent- ous of yet heavier tempests. Trajan was succeeded, in 117, by Hadrian. Lucius Quietus had been displaced by the n^w emperor, who re-delegated to T. Annius Rufus the government of Judea. It was tiiis general who bad caused the plough to be driven over the area of the ruined temple at Jerusalem ; an insulting token to the Israelites of the determination of their Latin riders that its desolation should be final. The whole policy of Eufus was such as to exasperate into renewed frenzy the ill-subdued fever of the Jewish mind, and to 70 HEBKEW LITEEATCRE. goad the people to a fresh outbreak. The near pre- sence of the emperor, who came at that time into the East, did not hinder the most active preparations on their part for a new enterprise for freedom; and no sooner had he retired, than the insiuTection broke out in all parts of the land. The strength of the Jews, amounting numerically to more than 200,000 des- perate men, had now become the more formidable by a military organization under a leader of talent and braverj', who, for a period of more than two years, baffled the utmost efforts of the Roman legions. Of the antecedent history of this man scarcely anything is certainly known. His true name was Simon. A robber chieftain,' with large and ambitious views, he saw in the character of the times the season of opportunity for an undertaking which, if successful, would seat liim on a tlirone. He announced himself as that long- expected deliverer who in Judea's darkest hour was to arise for her redemption. The present temper of the people, and their ancient and confirmed hope of such a pro%adential interposition, won for him their entire acquiescence. Their very miseries were, with them, not only a political motive for a last effort, but a religious prognostic of success. The prophets had foretold, and their fathers had taught them to believe it, that the Messiah would appear in the highest crisis of their need. Nor was this persuasion confined to the bosoms of the multitude only ; for it acted vntii the loftiest sway in the minds of some of the most eminent of their rabbins; and Aiiva became a new Elias, who, Hke the Baptist in the desert, was to prepare, by his preaching, the way of the Lord's Anouited. Simon, therefore, was inaugu- rated as their Messianic king, with the name of Bar Kokcla, "the Son of the Star:" — rather, let us say, ' EusEB. Hist. Eccles., iv., 6. ORDER II. TANAIM. 71 a meteor ■whose ominous liglit served only to allure mjTiads of benighted men to the abyss of destruction. Bar Kokeba's measures were planned and accompUshed witli consummate energy. The swords of the nation blazed around his standard. He would brook no neu- trality. Tlie Gentile inhabitants were pressed into his service, or their loyalty to Eome was visited with a sum- mary doom. His demands, repelled by the Cliristians of Palestine, brought upon them his severest vengeance ; and JuDAH, the last of the Hebrew succession of the bishops of Jerusalem, perished, with a multitude of his chiu'ch, under the swords of the Jews. Eufus, on the other hand, with footsteps of blood, laid waste the country, sparing neither young nor old who fell into his hands. But again and again, in actual conflict, liis legions gave way before the towering hero- ism of the Hebrews. It soon became evident at Eome that he was unequal to the strife, and a general of more adequate talent was found in Julius Severus, recalled for this employment from liis command in Britain. Arrived in Syria, he adopted a course of strategy which, though trying to the patience of his soldiers, led to an effectual and decisive result. Bar Kokeba was driven to centralize his forces in the fortified town of Bethar. There Severus brouglit the campaign to the crisis which rhe had projected. The place was stormed,'' and the entire population either slaughtered on the spot, or sent to the slave-markets. The mock ilessiah himself, no longer to be named among the people as Bar Kokeba, " the Son of a Star," but as Bar Kosiba, " the Son of a Lie," fell in the same day with the thousands of his followers. ■* On the fatal 9th of Ab, the same day as that on which the temple had each time been destroyed. — Taanith, cap. 4. About the year there is a difference amoncr chronologers ; some say, a.d. 122; others, 135. See the point argued in Kitto's " Theological Quarterly Jom-nal " for 1851. 72 HEBREW LITERATURE. Among those who perished was the now aged Akiva, who expiated the folly of his political fanaticism by a death of astoimding cruelty/ Never perhaps had the blasts of war rendered a country more desolate than Judea now became. We read of fifty fortified places, and hundreds of villages, utterly laid waste. The numbers of persons who perished by sword, flame, and hunger, have been stated as high as"700,nOO ; by others, 580,000. As to Juda- ism and the Jewish people, the land might be said for some time to be a solitude. The native inhabitants who had escaped the butchery of the war were expa- triated either by banishment or flight, or sold into bondage. No Jew was now permitted to come within sight of Jerusalem, and Gentile colonists were sent to take possession of the soil. Jerusalem in fact became a Gentile city. Rebuilt upon a new model, its very site was, in some respects, no longer the same, as the whole of Mount Sion was left out of the boundary, the new town stretching further to the north and east. Mount Moriah was planted with trees, and desecrated by statues of the emperor; while the gate of the wall towards Bethlehem was surmounted by the image of a hog. These expedients may have been adopted, not so much in the way of insult to the religion of the Hebrews, as to render the spot itself abhorrent to their feelings, and to strengthen the idea of the moral im- possibility of the restoration of their former state. To do away with every vestige of what the city had been, its very name was obliterated, and the new metropolis of the Roman Palestine became Elia Cap[i.olina. VI. The land of Israel, once a smiling garden, was ' His sldn and flesli were torn from his tones by an ii-on comb. — Mishna, Tr. Soota. Well might the historian Bion, in his account of this war, represent it as mai'ked by unparalleled atrocities. OUDEIl II. TAUAIM. 73 now a frightful desert ; and the people who had once claimed it as their heritage from God, were exiles throughout the earth ; and, as a natural consequence of the fanatical excesses of the last twenty years, they had become an opprobrium to the civilized world. Where not hated, they were at least despised. With talent and sagacity, which rendered them the intellectual superiors of their Gentile opponents, they were obliged, nevertheless, to bow down before them, and to mutter in the dust. The lot of the Jew was poverty and scorn. Co'phino f{mio(pie reUcto^ Arcanam Judaa tremens mendicat in aurem, Interpres legum Solymarum, et magna sacerdos Arhoris, ac sumnii jida internuncia cceli; Imjtlet et ilia manum, sed parcius are miuuto. Qualiact'.mque voles Judcei somjiia venduntJ* And yet, even now, their religious life asserted, as it has ever done, its superiority over all the disasters of time. No sooner had the war terminated, than, as if rising from the ruins of the tomb, the Sanhedrui and the synagogue re-appeared. Out of Palestine, innu- merable congregations of various sizes had long been estabhshed ; but the late events in Egypt, Cyrenaica, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia, as well as Palestine, would have insured their annihilation, but for the religious idiosyncrasy of the people. If but three persons \\ere left in a neighbourhood, they would rally at the trysting- place of the law. Nor would the imperial govern- ment offer any serious opposition to these re-organi- zations. It was not the general custom of the Eomans to make war with the gods of other nations ; and so long as a conquered people lived in quiet vassalage, they would afford them help, rather than hinder them, ' Jlvenal, Sat. \i. He liveil in HaJiian's reign. E 74 HEBREW LITEEATURE. in the discharge of their duties to those tutelary powers, of whose good will they were themselves desirous. The case was different with the Christians, most of whom, being the born subjects of the emperor, in abandoning the religion of the state, exposed themselves to legal persecution. But to all other races, brought under the sway of the imperial sceptre, a certain toleration was always granted. It is true that enactments existed at this very time against the scholastic and Sabbath gatherings of the Jews, and against the practice of circum- cision; but the former had been prohibited as being a means of promoting political sedition, and the latter for the purpose of checking any tendencies to proselytism. Now, however, the government, having sufficiently crushed the revolutionary spirit in them, was disposed to connive at the observance of their sacred rites, and, in consideration of a tribute paid for that purpose, to permit the open celebration of them. The eumity of the government towards the Cliristian church might, also, have had an influence in favour of the Hebrew synagogue, as its avowed antagonist. As to themselves, the sense of their common dangers, miseries, and wants, bound the Jewish people to one another, and made them true to what they believed to be their duty to themselves and to God, tiieir only strength and refuge. This, to the real Israelite, was the recognised vocation of his people, — to outlive the proof-time of adversity by abiding faithful to their ever- lasting King; to His truth, as propounded in their doctrines ; and His service, as embodied in their reli- gious usages. Upon the accomplishment ef this task the , Jew was to concentrate the energies of his Hfe. A citizen of the world, as having no country he could call his own, he, nevertheless, lived within certain well defined limits, beyond wliich, to liim, there was no world. ORDER II. TANAIM. 75 Thus, though scattered abroad, the Israelites had not ceased to be a nation ; nor did any nation feel its oneness and integrity so truly as they. Jerusalem, indeed, had vanished from their eyes, as the central shrine to which, in all liis wanderings, the Jew could look as the rallying-point of Hebrew unity ; but the time between the war under Titus and that just con- cluded against Hadrian, had sufficed to demonstrate that the existence of Judaism did not depend on that of a Levitic hierarchy. The school and the synagogue, under the shadow of the patriarchal throne, were now to be their impregnable citadel, and the law their palla- dium. Accordingly, even now the universal mind of Israel, uprising from the chaos of adversities flith which it had been overwhelmed, was yearning with desire for the restoration of rebgious discipline. The re- establishment of a Jewish kingdom by human eiforts had ceased to be expected. That dream had passed away ; and the only hope of such a monarchy which remained, was that created in their hearts by the prophe- cies of the Holy Scriptiu'es, that, at a coming day, when they should have attained a moral fitness for such a consummation. Omnipotence itself would bring it about by its own resources. It remained, then, for them to attempt the realization of such a time and condi- tion, by earnest endeavours to return to the Lord their God, and to walk in the ways He had set before them. In Palestine itself, notwithstanding the wide wasting ruin with which the war had ended, there were not wanting men with every qualification to re-organize the rabbinical system. Several rabbins had escaped the sword, and now bent their steps to a common meeting- place. In addition to these, new men had been ordained by some of the elder masters almost immediately E 2 76 HEBREW LITERATIIKE; before tlieir death. Thus Jehuda ben Bava, in the very last extremity, had conferred the semika on Jehuda ben lllai, Simon ben Yochai, Jose, EHezer, and Nehemja, who all succeeded in making their escape, while their master within a few hours fell under the lances of the Romans. In like manner Akiva gave ordination to his favourite scholar Meir, who became so eminent in after days as a teacher in Israel. All these men met, I believe, at Ussa, and proceeded to the election of a patriarch, the choice falling, in virtue of hereditary right, on Simon, the son of the late patriarch, Gamaliel II. Their next measure appears to have been the re-construction of the synagogue and school at Jamnia, which had escaped the ravages of the war, and now offered its well tried advantages for the new developement of their religious system. The rabbinical apparatus was here carried out with fresh efficiency, till, some time after, it was transferred to Tiberias. The earUest notice we have of Simon ben Gamaliel is the circumstance, mentioned by himself/ of his having been the only schoolboy who escaped from the slaugh- ter at Bethii'a. His election to the presidency must have, therefore, taken place while he was yet a youth.^ It was for some time kept as secret as possible, from fear of the Eoman authorities. Simon was much regarded by the people, not only for the sake of his illustrioiis forefathers, but on account of his own unfold- ing quahfications for the ofBce with which he had been invested. He seems, however, to have inlierited his father's jealousy for the prerogatives and honours of his position, and that striving for autocratic 'power, which, as in Gamahel's case, so now, met with effectual checks from an opposition party in the council, who acted under the influence of E. Meir, the Jiachem of the patri- ' Taanith (Hieros). * Cir. a.d. 110. OUDER II. TANAIM. 77 arch.' From sucli of tlie decisions of Simon as have come down to us/ he seems to have been not only a man with a passable knowledge of Hebrew law, but, for a Jew at that time, an extraordinary proficient in Gentile literature. He cultivated the study of the Greek language, and gave his countenance to the read- ing of the Septuagint. [It appears that he considered the Greek version of Aquila as not of any great worth ; in his opinion, it was made from a Chaldee Targum, j which itself had not been done from the original He- ' brew, but was the work of an unknown layman, who, ignorant of the Hebrew, had translated the Septuagint into Chaldee."] Among the college of rabbins over wliich Simon held the presidency, we ought to mention, — 1. Nathan, a native of Mischan, in Babylonia, whose father held the rank of exarch. Nathan became ab heth din, or vicar of the patriarch. His labours had a great influence in preparing the way for the written Mishna, he having compiled for the use of his students an outline of a Corpus Juris, which is referred to as Mishnath de Rabbi Nathan, and which Jelmda made use of in his more extensive undertaking. Nathan \\rote also the Nine-and-Forty Middoth, [Aharim ice tesJia Middoth,) a mathematical work, of which frag- ments are yet extant; and Masseketh Avoth, an haga- distic production, from which the present tract Aroth seems to have been in great part compiled. 2. Jose ben Halefta, who was born at Sepphoris about A.D. 80. Involved in the political schemes of Akiva, he was obliged, in 124, to save himself from the Eoman sword, by taking refuge somewhere in Asia ' Moed Katon, [Hieros.,) fol. 81. > Gittin, 75 ; Bava Kama, 69 ; Bava 3Ietsia, 30. = Megilla, {Hieros.,) 71. 78 HEBREW LITERATURE. Minor, from whence, on the death of Hadrian in 136, he returned to Sepphoris, and died at the head of the school in that place in 150. For some time he earned his subsistence by working at the trade of a currier, but continued indefatigable in the pursuit of know- ledge, carrying his studies into the domains of natural science and universal history, in which latter depart- ment he is the reputed author of the Seder Olam Rahba, described further on. The reputation in which he was held in the schools appears in the title given him of "The deep Thinker." The tendency of his teaching, as a rabbin, was to make the observance of the mani- fold duties of the law as easy and pleasant as was con- sistent with faithful obedience. In the Talmud there are more than tlu'ee hundred sentences of his, many of which are distinguished by clear and composed reflec- tion, and a resolute attachment to virtue. His life is said to have been an edifying example of moral conduct, diligence in acquiring and communicating knowledge, and an amiable modesty and humility. " I would rather," said he, " be a learner in a school, than be the founder of the school. I would rather, in the fulfilment of my duty, die a bitter death, than be infamous in the too well beaten way. I would rather overdo my duty, than fail in it. I would rather collect for the poor, than, by distributing among them, gain consideration for myself. I would rather be unjustly blamed, than really do what is wrong." 3. Jehuda ben Illai had been a hearer of the great rabbins who perished in the late wars. He resembled llillel in his struggles with poverty in his early life. His days were spent at that time in manual labour, and his nights in persevering study. After attaining the degree of rabbi, he still laboured at the trade of a cooper. So far from being ashamed of this, OE.DEE n. TAXAIM. 79 he gloried in his trade, and used sometimes to have a tub or hogshead of his own ■workmanship brought into the lecture-room, which he would use for a pulpit. His honest integrity procured him the title of Ila Chesecl, or "The Just." In the department of Scrip- ture exposition he paid particular attention to the third book of Moses j and it is considered that the book Sifra, mentioned further on, was first composed by him, though more fully elaborated afterwards. To Jehuda ben Illai belongs also tlie glory of having been one of the preceptors of Jehuda the Saint, the future compiler of the Mishna.' 4. llabbi JIeir was not of pure Hebrew descent; and tradition has fabulously given him a relationship to the family of the Emperor Nero. He was a disciple of ilkiva, but received ordination from Jehuda ben Bava, under tlie circumstances already stated. As a teacher, he was remarkable for a thorough and effective investi- gation of his subject. The rabbins used to say, in tlicir oriental mamier, that he dealt with the difficulties of the law as a giant would uproot the mountains, and shatter them against each other. So replete was he with knowledge, and so successful in the communi- cation of it, that "were a man even to touch the staff of Eabbi Meir, he would become wise." Meir was fond of illustrating his doctrine by apologue and parable, and is reported to have invented no less than three hundred fables about foxes.* His wife, Beruria, is also celebrated for her knowledge and acumen, of which there are several well-known anecdotes. She unfor- tunately compromised her character, and came to an unliappy end. Her death appears to have unsettled ' Schwaezauee's Lebensskiz:e cter Jehuda b. Illai ; and Fubst's Der Orient, 1843. * Sanhedri'i, 38. OU HEBREW LITERATURE. Meir's tranquillity. He left Palestine, and resided some time in Babylonia. On the restitution of tlie San- hedrin under Simon, lie returned to the Holy Land, and was elected vicar of the rabbinical see. But between himself and the patriarch there seems to have been but little love ; Meir having set himself in oppo- sition to the 7iasi, with the ambitious desire of attaining the patriarchate. This was remembered in the HUlel famUy after his death ; and Jehuda Hakkodesh, when, compiling the Mishna, he had occasion to quote the decisions of Meir, always did it anonymously, from a feeling of dislike to the adversary of his father. We should add, that Meir was not only an able expositor of the traditional law, but at one period of his Ufe a diligent transcriber of biblical manuscripts, and one of the first who made an essay towards establishing a system of Masoretic punctuation. .5. The biographical notices of Suiox ben Yochai are so enveloped in mythical extravagancies as to make it difficult to give a true statement of his history. His whole life was absorbed in the study of Kahala, in which science he has been ever regarded as one of the most eminent masters. He existed in a world of his own ; a region beyond the bounds of ordinary nature, and peopled by the genii of his own imagination. His occasional intercourse with his co-religionists did not propitiate their good affections ; being disliked by some for the moroseness of his disposition, and feared by others from his supposed connexion with the spirits of the other world.^ He had the character of being an unpleasant companion, and a bitter opponent ; more- over, he merited the reproaches of his countrymen by causing the overthrow of the school at Jamnia. At a time when their Gentile rulers were grudging the Jews = Meila, 7 et 17. ORDER II. TAXAIM. 81 the partial relaxation tliey had lately enjoyed from the severe discipline of Hadrian, and when the jealousy and suspicion entertained against them were so great as that the patriarch, who dared not use the title of nasi, nor assume any outward mark of authority, was constrained to screen the ordinary routine of the schools as much as possible from observation, and not only to prohibit the publication of books, but also to forbid the students to take written notes of the lectures, Simon ben Yochai was rash enough to inveigh against their oppressors in a public discourse. It happened that himself, Jehuda ben lilai, and Jose ben Halefta, were holding a rabbinical exercise in the congregation. The turn of the discus- sion led them to the comparative characteristics of the .lews and Romans; a topic to men in their situation of sufficient delicacy. Aware of this, Jehuda com- menced his discourse vrith an eloquent eulogium'^ on the Ilomaus, as the great promoters of the material con- venience and civilization of the people they governed ; instancing their public works in architecture, and the patronage they gave to the useful arts. When R. Jose's turn to speak came on, he exhibited the cau- tiousness which had given him the surname of " the Prudent," by observing an expressive sUeuce. The dis- cretion of liis colleagues was, however, lost upon Simon, whose animosity to the Romans was exasperated by what he deemed the sycophancy of Jehuda, and vented itself in a torrent of invective against the oppressors of liis people. The affair, becoming the topic of public conversation, aroused the displeasure of the civil autho- rities. A process of law was instituted against the rabbins. The silence of Jose was deemed a sufficient ground for banishment to Sepphoris, where, neverthe- less, he was subsequently permitted to commence a ' Shahbath, fol. 33. E 5 82 HEBKETV LlTEEATtJUE. school. The school of Jamnia was put under interdict ; licence being granted to Jehuda, as a mark of approval of the part he had taken^ to continue to exercise the office of a preacher iu the sjTiagogue. As for Simon, he was doomed to die ; a sentence which he evaded by flight. Accompanied by his son Eliezer, he retired to some remote seclusion, where, for several years the tenant of a cavern, he lived as a hermit, engaged in the developement of the science of Kahala, as embodied in the book Zoliar, of which he is the reputed author. After the death of the Emperor Antoninus he left his concealment, and re-appears as the founder of a school at Tekoa.' About three hundred magisterial sentences of his are recorded in the Talmud. In the Idra Zota, one of the appendices to the Zohar, there is an account of the death of Simon ben Yochai, by a scholar of his, named Aba, which is worthy of abridgement. " On the day of his decease, a preter- natural fire surrounded the house where he was holding his last discourse watli Aba and Eliezer. He expired in dictating one of his oracles. At that moment, shud- dering with awe, I heard a voice, which said, ' Before thee are countless days of blessedness ; ■" and then another, saying, ' He asked life of thee, and thou gavest him the years of eternity.' Throughout the day the flame had continued around the house, and no man entered, or went forth. I lay sighing on the ground. At length the fii'e departed ; and I perceived that the soul of him who was the hght of Israel had departed also. His corpse reclined on the right side, with a smile on the face. EKezer took his hands and kissed them. I could have eaten the dust which had been under his feet. We could find no utterance for our grief, till the tears began to flow. His son fell down ' Memchotk, fol. 72. OKDER II. TANAIM. 83 tlirice in speechless sorrow; at length he found the power of utterance, and cried, ' Father ! Father ! ' " The account proceeds to state that, as the funeral pro- cession moved towards the grave, a light revealed itself in the air, and a voice was heard, exclaiming, " Come, gather j'ourselves together to the marriage-feast of Simon." Some of us may find a difficulty in believing these statements in their literal form ; they, neverthe- less, serve to show the affection and reverence witli which the sage was regarded by his disciples. VII. Wien the distu.rbance which terminated the school at .Jamnia had subsided, Simon ben Gamaliel \\;is successful in founding a new rabbinical establish- ment at Tiberias.* This pleasant town, on the border of the Yam Kinoreth, the inland Sea, or Lake, of Genezareth, is called in the rabbinical ■m'itings Tabaria, a perversion of the name given to it by Herod Antipas in honour of the Emperor Tiberius. The remains of a large cemetery on the spot indicated the existence of a former town, the ancient Kinereth. Here, in the new city, the kings of Comagene, Emessa, Armenia, Pontus, and Chalcis, met Herod Agrippa at a series of royal entertainments. By Nero it was endowed with distin- guished privileges, and in the subsequent war escaped, in a great measure, the ruin which fell so extensively on the other cities of the land. It became a favourite resort, not only on account of its pleasant situation, but from the celebrity of its medicinal springs. The school now founded there by Simon continued as low do'mi as the eleventh century. Indeed, there has always been some scholastic activity among the Jewish residents at Tiberias. Dr. Richardson, when there some five-and- tliirty years ago, found six rabbins studying Hebrew foHos. They occupied two large rooms, surrounded * About A.D. 160. S* HEBREW LITKEATURE. with books, and informed him that they spent their whole time in searching the Scriptures, and reading works that could explain them. At Tiberias, then, under Simon, not only was the school re-organized, but a new Sanhedrin was formed, and Judaism began to stand out in bolder relief than it had dared to do since the calamities under Hadrian. During the reigns of the Antonine emperors, which extended over nine-tenths of a century, the Jews were not ground down by any new enactments, nor by the rigorous execution of such as were stiU in force. But, though always willing to give the Romans additional proofs of their inextinguishable hatred to their mastery, — as when, in Marcus Aurelius's time, they sided with the Parthians, and lent their aid to Avidius Cassius, the governor of Judea, in his attempt to ascend the imperial tlirone, — yet a certain magnanimous clemency rendered the emperors unwilUng to augment the miseries of the humihated Israelites, except so far as was necessary to protect the integrity of the state. So, while M. Aurelius, in his eastern progress, declared his belief that the Jews were a people as base as the Marcomanni and Sarmatte, who had given him so much trouble in the west, he still declined putting the Hadrianic laws into renewed opera- tion against them, and added their case to those of his other enemies whom he had so nobly forgiven. Thus unobstructed by state opposition, the rabbins found but little difiiculty in re-edifying their peculiar institutions. Tiberias shortly rose to be the new metropolis of Judaism. The town itself, and the beau- tiful region which surrounded it, became 'the favourite resort of Jewish families, and rapidly increased in popu- lation. The schools received the hallowed name of Zion, and Tiberias was spoken of by the Hebrew people throughout the world as another Jerusalem. Simon ORDER II. TANAIJI. 85 now openly assumed the title of nasi, with E. Nathan as his ab beth din, and Meir, who had returned to Palestine, as the hachem of the Sanhedrin. The autho- rity of this body was recognised, not only by the Palestinian families, but by the various synagogues in Egypt, Africa, Asia Minor, and the West; and even the Babylonian Jews, located in the Partliian dominions, were brought, tliough not without a struggle, to confess the supremacy of the house of Hillel. But though thus firmly possessed of the patriarchal throne, Simon was not long in finding that it was no seat of repose. The tranquillity accorded to them by their secular rulers was iuterrupted, withiu the precincts of the rabbinical communion, by the controversies of contending parties, and the mutual jealousies of the chiefs of the Sanhedrin. Simon, who carried within him the lofty spirit of an hereditary ruler, made demands on the homage of liis subordinates, which they were not disposed to gratify ; and it seems to have required at times all liis talent and address to counter- act the intrigues of Meir, who was accused of aspiring himself to the pontifical chair.'* In the schools and synagogues, too, the old distinctions of Pharisee and Sadducee re-appeared, to the no small prejudice of Jew- ish unity. Against the one and the other of these sects the leading rabbins now set their faces. Phari- saism, indeed, so far as it tended to uphold their own authority, was the least opposed of the two. Yet they did not hesitate to denounce it as a sanctimonious hypocrisy. A real Pharisee, they said, was one who wished to play the part of Cozbi, and to claim the reward of Phinehas.^ But to Sadduceeism there was ' Tide the scenes described in the tract Boraiolh. ' Alluding to Numbers xiv. This severe witticism is attributed originally to King Alexander Jannai. Ob HEBREW LITERATURE. shown no mercy. The adherents of that party were, in fact, the dissenters from Eabbinism of that day, and the forerunners of the modern Karaism, though only on the fundamental question of the authority of traditional law. The polemical spirit of the rabbins was also roused into great activity at this time against their Cluristian neighbours, and their old and hated rivals, the Cuthim, or Samaritans. After all, the repose now enjoyed from the terrors of persecution had permitted the synagogue to consoli- date its scattered powers ; and the Patriarch Simon died with the consciousness tjiat he had neither Hved nor laboured in vain, in promoting what he believed to be the cause and service of the God of Israel. The men, too, who had been the companions of his toils, and sometimes the disturbers of his peace, Simon ben Yochai, Jose, and Meir, followed him in quick succes- sion to their great account. Meir left no son ; but liis name and renown were perpetuated by his disciples ; among whom may be mentioned the Greek Scripture translator, Symmachus, once a Samaritan, then an Ebionite, and finally a .Jew ; and another, of transcend- ent eminence in rabbhiic learning, Jehuda, the compUer of the Mishna. Likewise the son of Jose, Islunael by name, sustained his father's reputation, as did Ehezer, the son of Simon ben Yochai. Both these last held offices of trust under the Roman government. VIII. Simon ben Gamahel was succeeded in the patri- archate by liis son Jehuda, a man whose sanctity of character, immense erudition, and practical wisdom in administering the discipline and rule of Judaism over its entire domain, have won for hiin the praise of his people in all their generations. Thus Maimonides describes him as a man so nobly gifted by the Almighty with the choicest endowments, as to have been the ORDER II. TANAIM. 87 phcEiiix and ornament of his age. And, nearer to his own time, we find Kav, the Babylonian, expressing his idea of him in the eulogy, that, " if the Messiah was on earth, he would be Hke Jehuda; and if the latter were to be compared with the saints departed, he would resemble Daniel the Beloved." According to some accounts Jehuda was born at Tiberias, in the year 135, at the time of Akiva's death ; " one sun," as the rabbins express it, " going down as the other arose." But tliis date win never agree with the fact, that liis father was himself but a mere youth at that time ; a schoolboy saved from the massacre of Bethira. I may remark here, that the later Je\vish liistorians appear to have been destitute of the faculty of chronological calculation. They seem to think nothing of making a cliild to be as old as his father, or even to have been born before him. Undoubtedly the true period of Jehuda's birth must be placed several years later. His education at Tiberias was superintended by the greatest masters of the day ; and with what efficiency, the magnificent structure of the Mishna is a perennial monument. The Jews dis- tinguish him by several favourite epithets. As the successor of his father in the patriarchal throne, he takes the princely title of Hannad ; on account of his great moral excellence, he is styled HaModesh, or " the Holy ; " and from his scholastic labours and relations, Malhcnu, " our Master," or, emphatically, Eabbi, with- out his personal name.^ But httle is known with cer- tainty of his private life, as the notices of him are evidently distorted. He is said to have been on terms of fi'iendly intimacy with the Emperor Antoninus ; but of the eight emperors of that name, the only one of whom such a statement can be made with any * Sometimes Uahhi Haiha, to distinguish him from a kter Jehnda of the Ilillel family, who is called Eaibi Zeitra, or " the Less." so HEBREW LITERATURE. approach to probability is Caracalla. (See this question investigated by Jost, OeschicJde der Isr., buch xiii., c. 9 ; and by E. Sal. Rapoport, in his Miktab al zeman Rahhenu Hakkodesh u-mi hu Antoninos yedido, Prague, 1839 ; and, on the general life of Jehuda, the Toledoth Rahhenu HakkodesJi, by Moses Konitz, Vienna, 1805.) This circumstance has been always regarded with great complacence by the Jews ; though the best informed of them acknowledge the uncertainty and obscurity in which it is involved. In his bochly health Jehuda vvas often a sufferer from severe pain, and especially during the last seventeen years of his life, towards the close of which he removed his residence from Tabaria to Sepphoris, for the advantage of the bracing air of that locahty. He died in December, a.d. 190. The veneration in which Eabbi was held for his wis- dom and integrity contributed to the establishment of liis power over the Hebrew nation to a wider extent than had fallen to the lot of any member of his house since Hillel. While, too, he knew how to main- tain his personal and of&cial dignity, the blandness of his disposition, and the munificent aid he gave to the distressed, and especially to students who were strug- gling with poverty, combined the people's reverence with gratitude and affection. But it was in the elaboration of the Mishna that he achieved his greatest claim to renown. In attempting this Herculean task he may have been moved by the peculiar condition of the Jewish community. They were a scattered people, Mable at any horn- to the renewal of a wasting persecution, and maiataining their religious standing in the presence of an ever advancing Clunstianity, and in defiance of the menaces of a world which always viewed them with hatred. Their schools, tolerated to-day, might to-morrow be under the imperial OEDER II. TANAUr. 89 interdict, and the lips of the rahbins, which now kept the knowledge of the law, become dumb by the terror of the oppressor. These circumstances possessed him with the apprehension that the traditional learning [ received from their fathers would, without a fixed ■ memorial, at no distant time be either greatly cor- rupted, or altogether perish fi-om among them. It was his wish also to furnish the Hebrew people with such a documentary code as would be a sufficient guide for them, not only in the affairs of religion, but also in r their dealings with one another in civil Hfe, so as to render it unnecessary for them to have recourse to suits of law at the heathen tribunals. And, in addition to these motives, he was probably actuated by the pre- [ vailing spirit for codification, which was one of the t' characteristics of the age. Legal science was in the ascendaut, and the great law schools of Home, Berytus, and Alexandria were in their meridian ; and Jehuda, who loved his law better than they could theirs, wished to give it the same advantages of simplification, system, r and immutability, which such jurists as Salvius Julianus had accomplished for the Roman laws in the time of Hadrian, and Ulpian was labouring at in his own day. The rabbins of the time of Jehuda who witnessed the completion of the Mishna, terminated the succession of ' teachers known by the name of Tanaim. Next to Jehuda tJie most eminent of them was Chaia, or Chijja, BAR Abba,. Descended from a noble Babylonian family, he settled in Palestine, to co-operate with Eabbi in liis great work at Tiberias. The nasi held him in the highest estimation, speaking of him as " the man of his counsel." * Of Chaia it was said that, " if the law had been lost, he would be able to restore it from memory." He was a biblical, as well as a traditional, teacher, and ' Bava Ilftsia, a, a. 90 HEBREW LITERATURE. laboured, not only to indoctrinate his students with the dogmas of the oral law, but to lead them to the foun- tains of pure inspiration. His indefatigable and all- embracing activity was such as to give occasion to the hyperbolical saying that "Chaia, with his own hand, took the deer in the chase, and skinned them for parch- ments, which he would inscribe with the records of the law, and distribute, without money or price, for the instruction of the young." * He promoted schools of mutual instruction, as a more effectual means for the improvement of the students. To him belongs the honoiu- of being ranked, in the recollections of his people, with Ezra and Hdlel. Of his works we will give a notice presently. AVith Chaia lived and laboured HosHAiA BEN Chanoa, whose works shall be enume- rated also ; Bar Kapara, renowned for the pungency of his wit, and liis aptitude in illustrating moral lessons by the machinery of fable ; and Abba Arika, who had come from beyond the Euphrates to acquire at Tiberias those stores of erudition which made him, in after days, so great a master among the Jews of Babylonia. The superstructure of the traditional law which had occupied the lives of these successive Tanaim for more than three hundred years, amid dangers, difficulties, and death, had been now permitted to take its complete form, at a period when its promoters found themselves free from all violent or persecuting interference with their hereditary and chosen purpose. The times, indeed, were far from tranquil; but the men of Tiberias were umnolested ; the masters of the world being too much absorbed in the great political changes thtn transpiring in the East to meddle with a people whose habits were becoming more and more settled and recluse. From the time of the Second Punic war, the oriental lands ^ Megilla {Sieros.). ORDER II. TANAIII. 91 had been the theatre of wars between the Parthians and Eomans : the latter had carried their triumphant eagles farther and farther into Asia, so long as the misgovernment of the Csesars had not paralysed their strength ; and even under them many vigorous efforts were put forth to preserve their eastern acquisitions; while the frequent advantages which they obtained over the Parthians, had shown that people that the expectation of freeing themselves entu-ely from the vexatious inter- ference of the Western emperors was not likely to be fully met. But events were now taking place within their own territories, which entirely changed the rela- tions of the East. The Persian adventurer, Ardsliir, or Artaxerxes, had begun that career of enterprise which overthrew the old dynasty of the Partliian Seleu- cidsBj and won for himself and liis Sassauide descend- ants the tlirone of a new empire. Under the energetic opposition of tliis man, the Eomans, notwithstanding the partial successes of Alexander Severus, beheld their power in the countries on the Euphrates cnunbling into irreparable decay. But in these agitations the Jews, as a people, took no part. They watched, indeed, the progress of events with an eye to the fulfilment of the designs of Providence respecting themselves; but they took no action, apparently content to " let the pot- sherds of the earth strive with one another " to their mutual destruction, while they would profit by the opportunity of strengthening their own peculiar inter- ests, and of gratifying those congenial inclinations with which their oppressors had, in their leisure, so grievously interfered. IX. LITERATURE OF THE TAXAIM. We have but few ■i\Titten results of the labours of the earlier Tanaim. " Scribes " as they were called, 92 HEBKEW LITERATTEE. the Hebrew doctors of tliose days either wrote but little of their own, or much of the fruitage of their studies has irretrievably perished. The wasting vicissitudes' of the times were unfriendly to the creation of an exten- sive literature ; and of that which was produced, too many a leaf was driven away by the successive hurri- canes of war which overswept the land, and laid, at length, the nation itself in a state of ruin, from which it has never yet arisen. The few portions of the unin- spired bookwork of the Soferite age now extant, may be classified as Liturgical, Hermeneutical, Ethical, His- torical, and Legendary or Hagadic. I. LITURGICAL. The Hebrew communion has been for centm-ies rich in Kturgical literature; but those portions of it winch are traceable to the Soferite period consist only of scanty fragments. We may range them under the distinct heads of Tefila, Beraia, and Shir, the "Prayer," the "Bene- diction," and the " Song," or poetic chant of praise. I. Tefila, "Prayer." There can be little doubt that a liturgical form of worship was observed in the temple fi'om the beginning. The solemn shrine on Mount Moriah was not only the place of sacrifice, but "the house of prayer." Though it does not appear that Moses ordained any complete ritual of this branch of devotion; yet, so far back as the Pentateuch, we may trace the existence of specific fokms of confession. Such is the vidui, or confession of the high priest, (Lev. xvi. 21,) and the formula prescribed at the obla- tion of becJioroth, or " first-fruits." (Dent, xxvi.) From David's time downwards, the letter of Holy Scripture furnished various forms of prayer and praise. (See examples in 1 Kings viii. 47 ; Psalm cvi. 6 ; Dan. ix. 4; Nehem. ix. 5, 38.) ORDER II. TAXAIM. 93 The AvoDA, or Divine Ser\"ice of the second temple under Ezra and his successors, was mainly a restoration, rather than a new institute ; but the inspired material for liturgy was now more copious. The Psalms, several of which, like the melodious swan-song of a departing inspiration, were written in the Ezra-Nehemiah time, formed of themselves a primary element. So, at the Feast of Tabernacles, they chanted the Co/ifiteor of the hundred-and-eighteenth Psalm. (Ezra iii. 10, 11 ; com- pare Nehem. xii. 'H.) The titles given to the Psalms by the men of the Great Synagogue indicate a stated use of them at certain periods of week-day and Sabbath wor- ship. Compare the llishna. Tumid, adjinem; Soferim, sec. 18; and the inscriptions for the Psalms in the Septuagint, evidently rendered fi-om Hebrew ones. For example, that to Psalm xxiii., " For the first Sabbath ;" to Psabn xlra., "For the second Sabbath;" to Psalm xciii., " For the fourth Sabbath." The " fifteen Songs of Degrees" (Hebrew, shirey hammadloth ; or, as the Targum renders that title, sliira de-itliamar al matimkin de-tehoma, "the hymn which was said upon the steps of the abyss") were evidently liturgical, and probably derive their name from the fifteen semicircular steps at the Nicanor gate of the great court of the temple, on which the Lentes stood while singing them. So the Mishna, (tr. Succali, 5, 4,) " On the fifteen steps which led into the women's court, corresponding with the fifteen songs of degrees, stood the Ledtes with their instruments of music, and sang." In the daily prayers {seder Jia-avoda) now in common use in the synagogue, there are some forms as old as the Soferite period. The most ancient portions of the Jewish liturgy may be arranged under two heads. They are found in, 1. The ShecJiarith, or "morning prayers ;" the portions which accompany the confession of y* HEBREW LITEUiTURE. the Divine Unity, technically called the Shema, from the initial words Shema Israel, "Hear, Israel!" The Shema itself consists of three paragraphs from the Pentateuch: (1.) Shema Israel ; (Dent. vi. 4-9;) (2.) Vehayah im shairmva; (Deut. xi. 13-21;) and, (3.) Yayomer Yehovah el Mosheh. (Num. xv. 37-41.) The devotional parts connected with the reading of these paragraphs are three : (1.) The Ygtser, cele- brating the worship of God as Yotser, or " Creator ; " (2.) The Ahaba, setting forth the love and compassion of God for Israel; and, (3.) The Geula, or the adora- tion of God as Israel's Goel, or " Eedeemer." [These tliree portions are larger now than they were at the formation of the service. (1.) The Totser was originally comprised in forty-five words : between Baruch atfah and Maaseh bereshith = twenty-seven words; and between tithharak and selah = thirteen words. (2.) The Ahaba contained only sixty-three words; from Ahaia rabhah to xdelamedenw = twenty-two words ; from vejached to va-ecl = fifteen words ; and the conclusion from Id el poel. (3.) The Geiila, from emeth shaaftah to zidalhel-a, from Shirah chadasha to va-ed, and the conclusion Baruch attah, &c., comprehended forty-five words. All the rest is of somewhat later date. The scholars of the great founders of the liturgy amplified the works of their masters.] 2. The other part of that which we may term the " nucleus liturgy," bears the usual name of the Tefila. It consists of what are commonly called the Sheiioneh EsREH, " the Eighteen Parts ;" though, strictly speaking, there are nineteen. As a beginner in these studies would not be able to find them easily in the prayer- book, from their not being numerically distinguished. ORDER II. TANAIM. Da but interspersed among otlier matter, we will give the leading word or words of each. (1.) Benediction, Marjan Abraham, "The shield of Abraham." (3.) Attah (j'Mar, " Thou art mighty." (3.) . Iffah kadosh, "Thou art holy." (-i.) Attah chonen, " Thou I'avourest." (5.) //fl.s/«'fe«?f, "Cause us to return." (6.) S.luch lanii, "Torgive us." (7.) Eech, "0 look." (8.) Uiphaenu, "Heal us." (9.) Barek alenu, "Bless for us." (10.) Teqiia, "0 sound the great trumpet." (11.) Ha- fi/iirah, "0 restore." (12.) Velamaleshinim, "Let the slanderers." (13.) Alhazaddikim, "Upon the righteous." (1-i.) VeUmshalaim, "To Jerusalem return." (15.) Elh ■.iiiuich David, "The offspring of David." (16.) Shema (I'di'iiu, "Hear our voice." (17.) Bitseh, "Graciously." (IS.) Modim, "We acknowledge." (19.) Sim shalum, " Confer peace." Now, of these nineteen parts, the first and last three are considered to be the most ancient. They are un- doubtedly of the Soferite age, and probably belong to the time of Simon the Just. The others belong to five or six epochs, extending over a period of three lumdred years. The entire Avoda, or {Tejila mikol hashanah) " Service for the whole Year," is a work of complicated authorsliip, including that of the men of the Great Synagogue, the Mishnaist Jehuda Hakkodesh, the Babylonian Doctors Eav and Samuel, and several other eminent teachers, as low down as the Geonim of the tenth century. He who wishes to make more particular researches into this subject, should avail liim- self of the critical works of R. Salomo Eapoport, the twentieth chapter of Zunz's GottesdiemtUchen Forlrdge der Juden, and Landshuth's Siddur hegion leh ; oder das gewohnliche Geheibuch, mit dem Helraischen Kommentar Mekor Beracha, worin eine Kritische GeschicMe der Gebote. (Svo., Konigsb., 1845.) yb HEBREW LITEKATUKE. Among tlie prayer fragments of the Soferite time, we must also mention the ejacuhitions on the days of fasting, as given in the Talmud tract Taanith: " May He who answered our fathers at the Eed Sea, answer you, and listen graciously this day to your cry. May He who answered Joshua at Gilgal answer you," &c.° Also the four collects offered by the high priest on the day of atonement, as preserved in the Jerusalem Gemara, and the Midrash Jelamdeim. Not being found in the common prayer-book, we will give them here. They are distinguished for their great simplicity, a desirable quality in all public prayer : — (1.) COLLECT: rOR HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY. "LoED, I have done wrong; I have transgressed, I have siuned before Thee, I and my house. Pardon now, Lord, the iniquities and transgressions and sins which I have um-ighteously committed, and in which I and my house have sinned against Thee ; even as it is written in the law of Moses Thy servant, that in this day he will make atonement for you, to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and they shall be clean." — Joma, iii., sec. 7. (2.) FOR HIMSELF AND THE PRIESTHOOD. " Lord ! I have done perversely, I have transgressed, I and my house, and the sons of Aliaron, thy conse- crated people. T beseech the Lord to pardon the iniquities, transgressions, and sins, which I, and my house, and tlie sons of Aharon, Thy consecrated people, have perversely committed ; according as it is written in the law of Moses Thy servant, saying, ' On this day he will make atonement for you, to cleanse you from all ' Taanith, per. ii., sec. iv., fol. 15, i. OEDER II. TA^AIM. 97 Vdur sins before the Lord, and tliej shall be clean.'" ■I villa, iv., 2. (3.) FOR THE PEOPLE AT LARGE. " Lord, Thy people, the house of Israel, have done perversely; they have transgressed, they have sinned brfore Thee. I beseech of the Lord to pardon the iniquities, transgressions, and sins, which Thy people, the house of Israel, have perversely committed, and by which they have sinned and transgressed ; according as it is written in the law," &c. (1.) WHEN HE CAME OUT FROM THE HOLY OF HOLIES." "Let it please Thee, Lord our God, the God of oiu' fathers, that we may not this day or this year be V\ into captivity. But if captivity befall us from Thee, li I it be captivity in a place for the law" (/. e., a place \\hrre the law might be freely kept). "Let it please riicc, O Lord our God, the God of our fathers, that this day and this year we may not be afflicted with want. But if this day or this year we be afflicted with want, let our want be want according to the precepts.' Let it please Thee, Lord our God, the God of our fathers, that this year may be a year of cheapness, a year of accepting and of giving, a year of rain and of sun warmth and of dew ; and let not Thy people Israel be opjjressed by any overbearing povi er. Let it please Thee, Lord our God, the God of our fatliers, that the houses of the men of Sharon be not made their graves." ' ^ This appeal's to be only a fragment of a comprehensive intercession : both the beginning and the end are wanting. ' Want occasioned by zealous beneficence. " Alluding to a calamity which lad formerly overtaken them by an inundation. — &te, {Hieros.,) 8, 3. Others say, by a baud of robbers. F 9S HEBREW IITERATUKE. There is another form of this praver in the Jelam- ilenu of Tanchmna.' The Hebrew text of these inter- cessions may also be found in DeUtzsch's Gew/iichie der ■Jud. Poe»ie, 5, 1S6. n. Bekaka, "Benediction."^ The benedict orr ado- ration of the name and dominion of God is a most ])roper and all-pervading element in the Hebrew Ht\irary. Manv of their pravers begin and end with it. The Berakas at the close of the several books of the Psalms ' were probablv added bv Ezra, or the prophe- tical men of his time, on the final arrangement of the canonical Psalter. And those wliich accompany the prayers of the Shemoneh E-sreh already referred to, are beheved to be of the same period. Thus M;\imonides : " These benedictions were appointed by Ezra the iofer, and the hefh din ; and no man hath power to diminish from, or add to, them."' In the innumerable instances where, in the Mishna and Avoda, this form occurs, in which the everlasting name is hallowed, and the truth of the Divine dominion is reverently confessed, it appears to have been the pious desire of the iustitutors of the svnagogue ritual, that supplication, with praver and thanksgi\ing, should give a spirit and tone to the entire life of the people. Indeed, almost all the affairs of Hebrew life have the prescription of their appropriate benedictions. See the minute specifications in the ilishna, order Beraioth, chapters 6-9 ; Bo^h Jiashana, chap, iv., sec. 5; Taanlfh, chap, ii., sec. 2, et seq. Of more modem date there is a krge variety of collec- tions of this form of devotion ; as, for example, the Ifeafi Berakoth, "A Hundred Benedictions." (Ferrara, 1554.) ' Ahare, fol. 155. ' Plnial, Berah>th. In staia eonsfnict., Birkath et Birtoth. - Psalm xU. 13 : Imi. IS : cri. 48. ' HUtoth Keriaih Siema, 1, 7 ; and Sill. Tffila, \, 11. ORDER II. TAXAIM. 99 III. SniRj the "Song" or "Chant." [With the root */«'?v//- compare the Saui-knt gwar, swarm, "a song;" the Arabic zabara, i. q. savara, whence ziihar, like the Hebrew mizniur, of the same import.] The shir is a metrical composition, designed for chanting, and con- sis^ting generally of the strophe, antistrophe, and epode. \\t have a fine biblical model in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus, on which see Kennicott and Lowth. Apart from the Divine poetry of the Scriptures, there are but scanty remains of Hebrew songs of a date prior to the distraction of Jerusalem. In the Mishna and Gemara, M I- come upon a few reminiscences of them ; as in the treatise SuJckah, where, in connexion with the solemni- tii < of the I'east of Tabernacles, we find the following (■hunt : — " Blessed are our cliildren Who dishonour not our elders. Kespo-nse. — Blessed are our elders Who make reconciliation for oar children. CKOBt'3. — Blessed is he who hath not sinned. And he whose sins are forgiven." There is another, a sort of confession made by the Levites at the same feast. " When the Levites," says the Mishna, "reached the gate that leads out to the east, they turned westward, their faces being toward the temple, and employed these words : — Rf.cihtitx. " ' Our fathers who were in this place Turned their backs upon the temple. And their faces toward the sun. Chosus {repeated again and again). But we unto the Lord, To the Lord we lift np our eyes.' " 11. HERMENEUTICAL. The second class of the Soferite writings are her- meueutical. Ezra and his school were the founders of 100 HEBREW LITERATURE. the Midrasli, the systematic interpretation of the Holy Scriptures for the instruction of the people at large. (See Nehem. viii. 8.) This authorized interpretation^ at first oral, took, in process of time, a written form as well. It seems to have had originally a merely para- phrastic character, but was seriously modified in after days by hagadistic amplifications. 1. Of the exegetical labours of this period, we have a most valuable monument in the Alexandrian Greek version of the Old Testament, commonly called the Septuagint, and the Chaldee Targums of OnJcelos on the Pentateuch, and Jonathan ben Uzziel on the Prophets. Of the Septuagint, as not belonging to the class of works with which we have now to do, I shall say nothing here, except to remark that the men who engaged in that undertaking appear to have belonged severally to the Masoretic and philosophical schools which were giving the tone in those days to the inter- pretation of the Hebrew Bible at Jerusalem. Tliis has been lately demonstrated in a most scholarlike man- ner by Dr. Frankel in his monograph Veher den Emfiuss der Palastinuchen Exe^ese mtf die Alexan- driniscke Herm.enevMk* which should be read in con- nexion with his Tordiulien zu der Septuaginta.^ To the Targums we will give an entire section by them- selves. 2. Coming down to the earlier Tanaim, we must mention the Mekiltha of Ishmael ben Elisha, [jride supra, p. 6.5,) a Midrask upon parts of the Book of ^ Exodus, from chapters xii. to xxiii., with other fragments. The whole work is divided into nine treatises, ^MesiMotli,) containing altogether seventy-seven chapters. It was first printed at Constantinople in 1515, and has been often since. The last time was at Wilna in 1844. The ' Leipzig, 1851. ^ Leipzig, 1841. ORDER II. TAN AIM. 101 edition with wliich I am acquainted, is tliat of Yenice, 1.5.50 : Midrfu-h HameklUha, quarto, thirty-seven leaves, double columns, in square letters. A Latin translation of the MeklUka may be found in the four- teenth volume of that magnificent collection of Hebrew archaeology, the Thumurun Antiqmtatum sacramm of Ugolino.' Commentaries also upon it have been given, with the text, by Moses Frankfurter, Amsterdam, 1712; by Jehuda Nagar, Lkorno, ISOl ; and by Elia Landau, Wilua, 1844, all in folio. 3. Another hermeneutical work of Ishmael is the short compend entitled, Shelonh Esreh MhMoth hat- toruh, or, " Thirteen Eules for the Interpretation of the Law," a remarkable specimen of the higher scholasticism of that day. The Rides themselves have been often printed, and may be seen even in the volume of daily common prayer. 4. Ehezer ben Hj'rkanos {vide page 61) is reputed the author of an expository work called variously the Boraitha, Pirkey, and Ragada of Eabbi Eliezer. It consists of commentaries liagadic, kabalistic, and allegorical, on the leading subjects of the Pentateuch, in fifty-four chapters. In chapters i., ii., we have a kind of eulogy of Ehezer ; in iii. to xi., a hexaemeron ; in xii. to xxi., a history of the first men, and, in xxii., xxiii., of their early descendants. Chapters xxiv. to xxxix. treat of Noah and the patriarchs to Joseph ; xl. to xliii., of Moses, and the revelations made to him; xliv. to xlvi., of Amalek, the golden calf, and other matters ; xlvii., of Phinehas ; xlviii. to li. return • to the dehverance from Egypt, ^dth an excursus on Haman, and on the future deliverance. Chapter Iii. de- scribes seven great miracles ; liii., Israel in the desert ; and liv., the episode of Sliriam. These Ferakim, ' Ven., 1769. 10:3 HEliEEW LITEUATURE. whiclij ia tlie'ir present state, are mucli later than the time of the reputed author, were first edited at Con- stantinople in 1514, quarto. There are several later editions, of which the last is Wilna, 1838, quarto. A. Latin translation was published, with commentaries, by "W. H. Yorst, Leyden, 1644. 5. We may also set down here the commentary on Ezekiel, dubiously ascribed to Hananja ben Hiskja. {Mishna Chagiga, cap. ii. ; Wolf, BiUiuth. Heljr., i., 384.) III. ETHICAL. Op the Soferite productions, a third class are ethical. Most of these were composed in a semi-poetical form, parabolic and proverbial, and technically denominated the Mashal. This term has been commonly considered (in relation to the root marital, "to have dominion") as describing what we call a proverb, from the " com- manding power and influence wluch wdse and weighty sayings have upon mankind; as he who teaches by them dominatur in concionibus, bears sway by dis- courses." More correct, however, is the view taken by Delitzsch, who traces the word to a Sanskrit root, expressive of comparison or resemblance;' because, in the oriental mashal, an action, purpose, or principle of human life is illustrated by some image or emblem, with which it has a certain analogy. In the older Hebrew writings the word is applied to prophecy, to doctrine, to history in the loftier style, and to instruc- tion given in a kind of poetic form, sometimes with the accompaniment of the harp or other music ; (Psahn Ixxviii. t ;) because, in these various manners of instruc- ' The Aramaic form of the word is metal, and is Sanskrito-Shcmitic. The grouiidword is the Sanskrit tul (tol-ere), whence tula, " resem- blance." The J/ is a prepositional prefix, as in many other words. OEDEU II. TAXAIJI. lO-"} tion, material tilings are employed in the way of parallel or comparison, to illustrate those which are super- sensible or spiritual. Hence mashal became a general name for all poetry which relates to the ordinary or every-day economy of life, with a still more specific application to a distinct epigrammatic saying, proverb, maxim, or reflection, carrying in itself some important principle or rule of conduct. The maslial, then, may be said to consist commonly of two elements : the- thesis, principal fact or lesson, and the type, emblem, or allusion by which it is explained or enforced. The latter may be one of the phenomena of nature, or an imaginary transaction in common life [parable) ; or an emblematic group of human agents {apologue) ; or of agents non-human, with an understood designation {fable). Sometimes the mashal takes a mathematical cast; and the doctrine or principle is laid down after a certain arithmetical proportion or canon, mida. (Prov. vi. 16, 31 ; xxx. 7, 18, 24 ; Ben Sira xxiii. 16 ; xxv. 1, 8, 9 ; xxvi. 5, 25 ; 1., 27, 28.) When there is no image or allusion of these kinds used, the mashal becomes sometimes an acute, recondite, yet generally pleasant assertion or problem, — (jryphos, the "riddle," or "em'gma;" in Hebrew, clikla ;^ (Judges xiv. 12;) and sometimes an axiom, or oracle of practical wisdom, — masa, a "burden," a weighty saj-ing, from nam, "to bear;" and wheji conveyed in a brilliant, sparkling style of speaking, it becomes melltsa, the pleasant witticism, or the pungent reproof. The remaining form of the inaiihal is the motto (apophthegm), where some moral counsel is sententiously expressed without a simile, and generally without the parallelism, as we see ' Chida, root chud, " to propose a riddle ; " or chad, Sanskrit i/iod, whence tlie Latin cud, cut, a-cut-us. 104 HEBREW LITERATURE. in the mottoes of tlie Hebrew sages in tlie book Avoth. A multitude of the mashalim, scattered so thickly on the leaves of the Talmud, and even later rabbinical works, are no doubt derived from times much earlier than those productions ; and, indeed, in many instances, they are cited as inscriptions of the wisdom and expe- rience of past generations. There are several com- pendiums of these Hebrew and Aramaic proverbs, after the manner of Erasmus's Greek Adag'in, or the Araium Prorer/jia of Freytag ; among which we may specify : — 1. The Zeharmi firath Moshek, of Moses ben Joseph. Prague, 1623. 2. Beth-lechem Jehuda, by Jehuda, a physician of Modena. Yenice, 1628. 3. Mishmeroth Kehunna, by Chaia de Lara. Am- sterdam, 1753. 4. Drusii Apoplithegmata Ebrceorum ac Araium. Franeq., 1612. 4to. 5. BuxTORFi Florilegmm Hehraicum. Basil., 1648. 8vo. This elegant collection is by Buxtorf the younger. 6. MilUn de Huhanin, by Israel Michelstadt. Frankfort-on-Oder, 1780. A learned German rabbi pronounces this to be ein redd gntes Bilchlein. 7. Geist nnd Sprache der Hebraer, nach dem zweiten Tempelban, von M. J. Landau. Prague, 1822. 8vo. 8. Sabhinische Anthologie, von E. J. Furstenthal. Breslau, 1835. 9. Charuzi Peninim : PerlenscJiitiire Aramaiscker (iiwmen uiid Lieder, von Julius Furst. Leipzig, 1836. 10. RcMinische Blumenlese, von Leopold Dukes. Leipzig, 1844. 8vo. This is the best book for a beginner. The Hebrew and Aramaic sentences are accompanied with a German translation, and the work ORDER II. T.iNAIJI. 105 has an admirable introduction. Dr. Julius Fiirst's (N^o. 9) is a work from which the more advanced student will learn a great deal. 11. Chrestomathia Ralbiidca, Auctore J. T. Bellen. Louvain, 1841. 4 vols. [Earlier works of the same kind : — 1. Mumr llufiJcel, by Hai Gaon : oJAit 1037. Edited at Vienna, 1837. 2. Ben MisJde, by Samuel Hannagid, of Cordova : ohi'd 105.5. 3. Tarshish, by Moses aben Ezea. Still more ancient collections once existed, in the five hun- dred " Fox Fables " of R. Meik, the Fables of Bar lv.\PARA, and the MegiUath Setarim, by R. Ise ben Jehuda.] 1. Of the ethical department of Soferite literature, wr have a valuable relic in Ben Sira's MasIiaUm, the book known among us as " The Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach." Joshua bea Sira ben EUezer, a priest at Jerusalem, composed this work about B.C. 190. He adopted the title from the inspired work of Solomon. The original Hebrew, with the exception of a few frag- ments in the Gemaras and Midrashim, is no longer extant ; but we have translations in Greek, Syriac, and '. riliic. The Syriac version is entitled, "The Book of •Ir-^hu bar Shemun Asira, wliich is called The Book of the Wisdom of Bar Asira." But the most authentic translation is the Greek one, as it was executed by the author's grandson, in the time of Ilyrkanus, about B.C. 130, and from which our English translation in the Apocrypha was made. The work has been always held in high esteem, both by Jews and Christians, and was judged by some of the Talmudists to be worthy of a place among the canonical Scriptures. It is quoted in one place in the New Testament. Compare chap. xxix. 14, with Luke xviii. 22. Sonntag, in his Commentarins de Jesu Siracicla Ecclesiastico, considers this book as a F 5 106 HEBEEW LITERATURE. collection of materials for a more complete work con- templated by the author. 2. There is a collection of proverbs with the title of "The Alphabet of Ben Sira." It contains a two- fold series of ethical sentences, Hebrew and Aramaic, arranged in the order of the alphabet. Some of them may have been written by Ben Sira; but the book itself, considered as a whole, is manifestly the produc- tion of a much later time. It is first quoted in the Aruh, and was first printed at Constantinople in 1519, {Sefer Ben Sira,) then by Fagius, with a Latin trans- lation, Isny, 1543, and often since. Several of the Chrestomathies just enumerated deal largely with Ben Sira. 3. The Book of AVisdom, or Ecclesiasticus, so admi- rable for its moral lessons, and the elevation and gran- deur of its style of thought and expression, though wTitten, Hke the Mashalun, in Hebrew, was destined to be preserved only through the medium of a Greek trans- lation. From the absence of all quotations from it in the Tahnud, it would seem that the Hebrew text had not survived till then. Some consider the author to have been Zerubbabel ; but the tone of the work evinces the greater probability that he was a Jew of Alexandria. 4. The Book of Baruch, though a venerable monu- ment of piety and wisdom, has not so clearly a Hebrew origin, and has never been in great favour with the Jews. 5. The appendix to the pseudo Book of Esdras, "The Wisdom of Zerubbabel," appears to be of Palestinian origin. 6. MeglUatli Taanifh was a work of the HUlel, or Shammai, school. The specific authorship of it is ascribed to Hauina ben Hiskia.' It was written in ' Schahcheleth, 26, a. ORDER II. TAIfAIJI. 107 Aramaic. Tliis is probably tlie MegiUafh Taanif/i which is quoted in the ilishna.^ It consisted of tra- ditionary hagadoth and halaJcofh on the solemnization of memorable days in the Jewish calendar, arranged according to the order of the months. There is still a work extant under the same title, and of the same structure and subject. [Megillath Taanllli, Amst., 1711.) It has twelve short chapters, answering to the months of, (1.) Nisan. (2.) Ijar. (3.) Sirau. (k) Thamtmtz. (5.) Ab. (6.) EM. (7.) Tiskri. (8.) Man'/iesi-an. (9.) CJmhi. (10.) Teheth. (11.) Sliebet. (12.) Adar. This little book, though it may combine the materials of the original one, is not more ancient than the eighth century. IV. HISTORY. The historical works of this period comprise : — 1. The first Book of Esdras, extant in Greek, witli Syriac, Latin, and other translations. Author unknown. 2. The second Book of Esdras, supposed to have been written in Hebrew or Chaldee. 3. The first Book of the Maccabees, composed in the time of Hyrkanus. St. Jerome says he had seen it in the original Hebrew. 4. The four other Books of the Maccabees are of Hellenistic origin. The last of them, which Calmet thinks was written in Hebrew, appears to be subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem. .5. There was an historical production of the Hillel and Shammai schoolmen, entitled, Mfglllath Betli IIa.%hmonaim, the " Roll of the House of the Hasino- neans," long, but now no longer, extant. 6. We must here mention, too, the historical writings of Joseph ben Mattathja, commonly known as ■ As in Taanith, 2. 108 HEBREW LITERATURE. Flavius Josephus. He was born of a sacerdotal family at Jerusalem, in the first year of Cains Caligula,^ A.D. 37. At the age of twenty-six he was made, by the Emperor Nero, prefect of Galilee; and afterwards, in the rising tronbles of the times, siding with his coun- trymen, he took the command of the Jewish forces, and won a great military reputation by the defence of the fortress of Jotapha against Tespasian and Titus. At the destruction of that place he was taken prisoner; but he ingratiated himself with his captors by predict- ing to them their elevation to the throne of the Cfesars. He now took the name of Flavius, in honour of Flavius Vespasian, who had conferred on him the Roman free- dom. After the destruction of Jerusalem he appears to have passed the remainder of his life at Rome. His works — on the Antiquities of the Jews, in twenty books ; on the Jewish War, in seven books ; two books Against Apion, a contemporaneous opponent of the Jews at Alexandria ; a monograph on his own life, and another on the Maccabees — are too well known to require a description. His historical works, which have gained hun the title of " the Jewish Livy," were originally writ- ten in Hebrew. Many of the literary Jews of our own time have formed a high opinion of Joseph; but among the nation at large, and especially the rabbins, there has always been a traditional antipathy to his writings. 7. The Seder Olam of R. Jose ben Halefta belongs to the same class. Tliis work, which is called Seder Olam Rabba, "The Great Chronicle," to distinguish it from Seder Olam Zota, " The Less," or " Little, Chro- nicle," is a collection, historical, chronologic, _and moral, comprising notices of events reaching from the Creation to the author's own time; {vid^ s?/f., p. 78;) but inter- spersed with a variety of sa.ffas and opinions peculiar to the Jewish people. The first part, in thirty chap- OKDEK 11. TAXAIM. 109 ters, is complete^ reaching to the death of Alexander the Great ; the remainder has come down only in frag- ments. The Seder Olam Zota is a later production, of some ten pages. These two books, together with the Me(jlllath Taauith and Sefer Hakhahala, were first printed at Mantua, in 1514. The copy which I know is the edition of Vienna, 1545, small quarto, double columns, square letters. The Seder Olam is a good book for beginners iu rabbinical Hebrew, and may be well fol- lowed by the MeijUlath Taanith, and the other work in the same volume. The Seder Olam has also been printed, with Latin translations, by Genebrard, Paris, 1577, and by Joh. Meyer, Amst., 1G99, quarto, and, vri\.\\ a commentary, by Suudel, Wihia, 1845, octavo. V. HAGADOTH, Or Histories coloured with fable; as the apocrj'phal books of Judith, Tobit, the Appendix to Esther, Bel and the Dragou, Susanna, and the Song of the Three Children, and various others less known, as the Lepte Geaesk, or tlie story of Josejih and Asenath, from an Hebrew original.^ It may be considered, also, whether the Jlidrash Books of Adam, Abraham, and Henoch, the Psalms of Solomon, the exotic Psalms of David, the Assumption of Moses, and the apocalyptic tracts whicli bear the names of Elijah, Isaiah, Sophonia, Zerubbabel, and Zecharja, which we shah, have to spe- cify more minutely hereafter, were not radically the productions of this period. They are mentioned by the author of the "Synopsis of the Scriptures," in the second volume of the AYorks of Athanasius; (p. 154 ;) and Epiphauius says that the Egyptian king Ptolemy received from Jerusalem, in addition to the canonical books, no less than seventy-two apocryphal treatises. - Compare Hiekon., Ej)isl. 127. 110 HEBREW LITERATURE. No doubt much of the Soferite literature in this and other departments has perished. Josephus, in the con- struction of his " Antiquities," must have had the use of materials which have not been equally durable with his own work. In fact we know but little of tlie Jewish post-biblical literature tiU the time of the Mishna, and are obliged to say, with Prankel, that, "as in the Mosaic Kosmology, at the beginning of the creation, ' darkness rested upon the deep,' so is there now a thick obscurity over the beginning of the post-bibhcal litera- ture, but with no Divine Word to command that there shall be light." VI. KABALA. Of the kabalistic works of this period we are in yet greater uncertainty : what writings of this class are attributed to the men of those days are of a really later date. The Kabalists of the Soferite time were not authors. They delivered their mysterious teachings to the most select of their students, and all unnecessary expositions of them were held to be a profanity wliicli would bring down the curse of God.^ Nevertheless, I believe that, shortly before the Mishna, kabalistic doc- trines had begun to receive that written form which was afterwards more fully developed in the Jetsira and ZoJiar, as we now have those works. In these recollections we must not omit Philo of Alexandria. Though tliese brief notices refer to men who wrote in the Hebrew language, yet such is the relation which his works have to the learning and lan- guage of his Palestinian brethren, that he has a just ' Chagiga, {Ilishna,) cap. ii., sec. 1 ; Gem., 13, a, 14, b ; Pesactiim, 50, a; Joma, %, 7 ; Slmhbatli, 80, b ; Chagiga, 13, a. ORDER II. TAXAIU. Ill claim to a place among the Jewish classics. The cul- ture of the Israelites who had long been settled in large numbers in iUexandria and the great Egyptian cities, was marked, as might be expected, with a strong Greek tendency. Their HeUeuic education would expose them to an apostasy from the creed of their fathers to the sensuous religion of the Heathen. But this effect was produced only ui a comparatively few. Yet, while the greater number held fast by the principles of Judaism, it was the care of the leading minds among them to seek a conciliatory mean betw-een the peculiarities of their ancestral faith and those philosophic principles which, enunciated by Plato and other princely spirits of the Gentile world, had brought under their- sway the most refined and thoughtful intellects of the time. But the assimilation of the Hebrew credenda and (Kjunda, as deduced from the inspired writings, to the transcendental theories of the Gentile scliools, could only be accompHshed by giving to those writings a seuse foreign to the letter of them, and sublimating their teachings by a process of the most reckless allegory. Such is the principle and design which pervades the works of Philo, who, in the composition of them, spent many years of life in a region of mystical dreams. A man of high family,* and of a thoroughly cultivated mind, and actuated evidently bj' great integrity of purpose, , he consecrated youth and manhood to the research after, and the earnest inculcation of what he believed to be, rehgious truth ; yet lived and laboured comparatively in vain, by giwng way to a perverse * His brother, Alexander Lysimachus, held an inijiortant civil office in Alexandria ; and a nephew of Philo, the son of Lysimachus. suc- ceeded C. Fadus in the preetorship of Galilee, and married a daughter of Herod Agrippa. 112 HEBREW LITERATURE. tendency of mind to mistake shadows for realities, and realities for shadows. Of Philo's works, 1. Some have passed into oblivion. Such were the two books on the Covenant, mentioned by liimself, and four of the five books on " What befell the Jews under Caius." 2. Some are extant only in the Armenian language, (early translations,) viz. two Dialogues on Providence, one on the Reason of Brutes, and a work of Questions and Answers on Genesis and Exodus. These have been jmbhshed in Latin by Aucher. 3. But the main body of his works have come down to us in the original Greek, comprising a series of dissertations chiefly on subjects deducible from the writings of Moses, and especially Genesis and Exodus. (1.) On the Creation of the World. (2.) The Allego- ries of the Law, thi'ee books, a hexaemeron. (3.) The Cherubim and Flaming Sword. (4.) The Sacrifices of Cain and Abel. (5.) On the principle that "the worse is made to serve the better." (6.) Of the Pos- terity of Cain. (7.) Of the Giants. (8.) On the Immutabihty of God. (9.) On Agriculture. (10.) The Plantation of Noah. (11.) On Drunkenness. (12.) On the words, "And Noah awoke." (13.) The Confusion of Tongues. (14.) The Migration of Abra- ham. (15.) Of him who shall inherit Divine Tilings. (16.) On Assemblies for Learning. (17.) On the Fu- gitives. (18.) On the Change of Names. (19.) On Dreams, two books. (20.) On the Life of a poUtical Man, or on Joseph. (21.) The Life of Moses. (22.) On the Decalogue. (23.) Circumcision. -(21.) On Monarchy, two books. (2.5.) On the Eewards of the Priesthood. (26.) On Animals fit for Sacrifices. (27.) On Sacrifices. (28.) On particidar Laws. (29.) On the Week. (30.) The Sixth and Seventh Command- OKDER II. TAXAIir. 113 ments. (31.) The Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth. (32.) On Justice. (33.) On the Election and Creation of the Prince. (34.) Fortitude. (35.) Humanity. (36.) Penitence. (37.) Eewards and Punishments. (38.) Exe- crations. (39.) Nobility. (40.) Efforts after Virtue and Liberty. (41.) The Contemplative Life (the Essenes). (42.) The IncorruptibiUty of the World. To which must be added, (43.) A writing against Elaccus. (44.) An account of his Embassy to Rome. (45.) On the World ; and several fragments. In England, the standard edition of Philo's Works is that of Dr. Maugay, in two volumes, foho, London, 1742. Dr. Pfeitfer, of Erlangen, commenced an edition in octavo, which reached five volumes; (1785;) but they only contain eighteen of the above treatises, the work not having been finished. A more successful enterprise was that of C. E. Richter, of Leipzig, in his Philonis Jud^i Opera Graw. (8 vols. 12mo., Leipz., 1828, 1829.) = The Armenian treatises have been published as fol- lows : — Philojjis JuDiEi Sermones tres kactenm inediti: I. et II, Ue Providentid, et III. Be Anmudihm, ex Armend Versione antiquissimd, ah quo originali Textu Greeco ad Verbuni stricte excequata, nunc primum in Latinum fidelUer trauslati. Per Jo. Bapt. Aucher, Fen., 1822, 4to., with the Armenian text. Philonis Judjji Paralipomena Armena : Lihri vide- licet quatuor in Genesin ; Libri duo in Exod-wm ; Sermo UHUS de Samsone ; alter de Jond; tertius de trihus AnrjeVu Ahraam apparentihus ; Opera Jiactenus inedita, et Armend Fersione, 8fc. Per J. B. Aucher, Fen., 1826, 4to., with a Latin translation. ' Mr. Bohn is now publishing an English translation of the Worlis of Pkilo. 114 HEBREW LITEUATUEE. On Philo. — 1. Dahne's Barstdlung der ■ludisch Alexandrinischen ReUgions-PhilosopJde. (3 Biinde, Halle, 1834, 1835, 8vo.) 2. Quadiones Vhilonece. (1.) Be Funfibxs et Aucfo- ritate The.olog'm PhUonis. (2.) Be Logo Philonis. Scripsit C. G. L. Grossman. (Leipz., 1829, 4to.) Another Jewisli Greek writer of the century before Christ was Ezekielos, who, probably at Alexandria, composed a dramatic poem after the manner of Euii- pides, on the Deliverance of Israel from Egypt, with the title of Exagoge ; extensive fragments of which have been preserved in the Prajjaratio Evang. of Ensebius, L\., 28, and in the Stroma fa of Clement of ^yex- andria, i., 344. Professor Delitzsch has collected and reprinted them in his Geschlchte der Judisck. Poesie, p. 211. Translations exist also both in Latin and German. "With Ezekiel may be named Philo the Elder, the author of a Greek poem called "Jerusalem;" and Aristobulus, a Jewish peripatetic, some of whose poetry, of the pseudo-Orphic kind, has been likewise handed down by Ensebius, and may be read along with the two others just mentioned in DeHtzsch's goodly volume. X. THE MISHNA. A Jewish historian, in his eulogy of the ilishna, has pronounced it a work, the possession of which by the Hebrew nation compensates them for the loss of their ancestral country; a book which constitutes a kind of homestead for the Jewish mind, an intellectual and moral fatherland for a people who, iu their long lasting discipline of suffering, are exiles and aliens in all the nations of the earth. And this, I imagine, is the highest commendation which even a Jew could ORDER II. TANAIII. 115 offer on tliis truly wondrous volume, unless he were to concentrate all the praises which his bretliren have lavished on it, by afhrming that in the Mishna, as ill the Bible, the oracles of God are spoken to Israel. i'or such, indeed, in their view, is the true state of I he case; the Mishna being regarded by them as not iii\rt to the written law, but as co-ordinate with it; i'lirming, with the Bible, the grand pecuUum of their race; the one book containing a divinely given text, and the other a divinely given interpretation; the one " ith the other putting them in possession of the fulness and complement of the theocratic law. In the Jewish point of view, the law was given in a twofold character: there was the torah shehckcteb, ihc law which is in writing; and the torah shebeal pefi, (lie law which is "upon the hp;" or, in other words, Scripture and tradition, the written and the oral law ; the latter having equal authority with the former. Indeed, in the estimation of some rabbins, the pre- Irience, if any, is to be given in favour of the tra- ditionary law, the halakoth of which have a greater weight and importance, as being more comprehen- sive and minutely appHcable to the manifold aifairs of life. ^V"e shall not enter here into the controversy between the Christian and Jewish theologians upon the Divine original of the unwritten law. It is enough for our present purpose, to concede that the existence of such a law, within certain limits, far narrower than those claimed for it by the Jews, need not be disputed. Long before the Mishna was compiled, the existence of a recognised and authoritative system of precepts and usages unwritten was a self-apparent fact.* And its existence was a necessary developement of circum- " Philo, Legat. ad Caium, p. lOOS. 116 HEBREW LITEEATUEE. stances. As every mau lias his peculiar habits, and every family its own regulations and modes of life, so every church of any standing has its traditional usages, and every nation its lex non scr'ijjta, or, as we say, its "common law/'^ A people so peculiar as the Hebrews might be expected to possess a large appa- ratus of unwritten regulations ; and there is, doubtless, a substratum of truth in the averment of the Jews, that an oral law of this description was actually given by Moses to Aaron, Eliezer, Joshua, and the elders, and by them transmitted to the judges, the prophets, the men of the Great Spiagogue, and the Tanaim. [See the full statement in Maimuni's Preface to the Mishna, order Zeraim.'] There is, I say, no doubt some truth iji this, as to a few elementary principles of Hebrew usage and practice, both civil and religious. Thus we find the existence of traditional regulations intimated in the Old Testament itself, and ratified by the express sanction of the Almighty : as those, for example, respecting the Sabbath; (Jer. xvii. 21, 22; Nehem. xiii. ;) tlie four leading fasts ; (Zech. viii. 19 ;) the graces at meals; (1 Sam. ix. 13;) and the canonical times for prayer. (Dan. vi. 10.) But the whole of the unwritten law cannot have this primordial majesty ; for, without referring to the trinal and fooHsh character of many of its appointments, we know that it has been visibly accumulating with the lapse of time, and that the great mass of the regulations and decisions embo- died in the pandects of the Mishna belong to a period not exceeding thi'ce hundred years previous to the com- position of the book. Xor Mill there be any hesita- tion, with an cnHghtened Jew, to admit that not all the decisions and conclusions of which it is composed can be of equal stringency; their authority ranging, in a ' Aristot. Bket., 2 -. Ethic, 3 ; Plato, De Legihv.s. ORDEE II. TAN AIM. 117 variable scale, from Avliat is heavenly and Divine, to what is merely human and conventional. Accordingly, Maimonides gives a five-fold classifica- tion of the precepts which make up the traditional law. 1. Those of which some intimation in the Scriptures, either expressly or by imphcation, makes it a certainty that they were inculcated by the great legislator himself. These are called j^erushbu, or explications "from the mouth of ]\Ioses." 2. Binerim, or constitutions of which it may be said they are " from the mouth of Moses from Sinai,^^ though no such specific indication may be adducible. Their nature and tendency vouch for their origin, and they are received implicitly as "halalvth'^ from Moses." 3. Those which have ad- mitted of discussion, and the value and weight of which have been mainly determined by an extensive consent among the authorities. 4. G'lzeroth, or decisions which have been made by the hachamim, or "wise men," regarding some of the written laws, and which decisions or appointments are designed to insure more fully the observance of such laws. [An halaha of this kind was designed to be a seyag latorah, a " hedge or fence about the law :" for example, the prohibition of taking wine with an idolater wiU insure the observance of that which forbids the making a covenant with him.] But while irreconcileable diversities in such decisions neutralize their authority, in every case in which there is consent or unanimity of prescription, such a decision has the full force of law. It is a practical tradition, a precept fipally delivered. 5. The remaining class consists of * Ilcdakoth, or hilkoth, pliiral oiJialaka, "modes of conduct," or autho- ritative decisions regidatiug them, from halak, to " go," " walk," " pro- ceed," " conduct oneself." Hence, Judaka, " a way," " going," " pro- cedure," "conduct." In Talmudical usage it denotes traditio decisa, usti et consuetudine recepta et approbata, secundum quam incedendum et vivendum. 118 HEBREW LITERATURE. experimental suggestions. They refer to things recom- mended or enjoined by particular masters ; and though they may not possess the stringent force of laws, they nevertheless exert a great influence in the formation of social and religious habits and usages. Now these various constitutions had remained, at least as low down as HLUel's time, altogether unwritten. Down to the days of the later Tanaim the rule had been inviolate, "Things delivered by word of mouth must not be recorded." The Mosaic statutes were to be read by the whole nation, and interpreted by the autho- rized teachers; while every contested point was to be decided by the 'highest tribunal of the commonwealth. But such decisions were not to be written down, so as to become a written law, "perhaps with the view,''^ as Ilurwitz has remarked, " that they might not be drawn into precedents ; because, though principles must ever remain the same, yet circumstances may change.''^ Yet such was the pressure of the motives already referred to ^ on the mind of Jehuda and his fellow-labourers, that they were constrained to overcome these restraints, and give a recorded form to the legal wisdom which had been stored in the memories of successive gene- rations. ^^ e have already said that so far back as the time of Hillel attempts had been made to reduce the hetero- geneous mass of tradition into a systematic form ; ^ and there is reason to believe that Akiva, or some man of tlie Hniel school, had already given that system, in some measure, a written status, from which, and other exist- ing memorandums, as well as from the results of his own researches, Jehuda Hakkodesh won the palm of immortality by providing for his people, in all their ' Vide supra, p. 88. ' Tosefta Sahim, cap. 1 ; SanJiedrin {Eieros.). ORDER II. TANAIM. 119 coming generations, the scriptiu'es of the traditionary law.» The title of Jeluula's ^vork is, simply, Mishna/ the. " Repeated or Second Code;" that is, either (consider- ing the Divine law as twofold, written and traditional) the second branch of the twofold law, or else the law given in a second form, as an expKcative and practical developement of it. The work itself is composed of the following ele- ments : — 1. Pure Mishna; the elucidation of the fun- damental texts of the Mosaic laws, and their application to an endless variety of particular cases and circum- stances not mentioned in them. 2. Halakoth ; the usages and customs of Judaism, as sanctioned and con- firmed by time and general acquiescence. 3. Debrey Hachamim; law principles of the wise men or sages, i. e., the ancient and, at that time, the more recent teachers, to whose decisions the people's respect for them gave a greater or less amount of conclusiveness. ■i. Debrey Jechidim ; opinions of individuals, of greater or less weight. 5. Maassijoth ; practical facts ; conclusions arrived at by the operation of events. 6. Geseroth; extemporaneous decisions demanded by emergencies. 7. Tekanoth ; modifications of usages to meet existing circumstances : and, 8. Elalim ; uni- versal principles under wliich a multitude of particular cases may be provided for. In constructing his work, the author arranged these manifold materials under six general classes, called Sedarim, or " Orders -," the first of which relates to the productions of the earth, as forming the staple suste- nance of human life. The second refers to times and ^ Traces of the older Mislinaioth, Zt'/iM, (Mishua,) cap. 13 ; ChagUja, (Talmud,) f. 14 ; Boraitha in Bava Bathra, 134 ; Stikka, 28. ' From shena, " to iterate," or " repeat a sccoud time." 120 HEBREW LITERATURE. seasons, involving the religious observance of years and days, fasts and festivals. The third deals with the institution of marriage, which lies at the basis of the system of human society. The fourth relates to civil controversies, and treats of the rights of persons and things. The fifth comprises laws and regulations regard- ing the service and worship of God, upon the provisions of the Levitic ritual, or things consecrated; and the sixth exhibits the prescriptions requisite to the main- tenance or recovery of personal purity, according to the Levitical ideas. The first Seder, or Order, is entitled Zeraim, "Seeds;" the second, Moed, "Festival," or "Solemnity ;" the thii'd, Nashim, "Women;" the fourth Nezikin, "Injuries;" the fifth, Kadashim, "Conse- crations;" and the sixth, Taharoth, "Purifications." The initial letters of these titles compose, for the sake of memory, the technical word ZeMaN NeKeTh, " a time accepted." The regulations thus generally classified are further arranged under a multitude of subsidiary topics ; each Seder being divided into a number of tracts or treatises, called Mes'iktas, and these again subdivided into Pera- klm, chapters or sections. The principal topics of the Mishna wHl be seen by glancing at the following analysis : — I. seder zeraim. 1. Treatise Berakoth, on the confession, service, and worship of the one God, and of prayers and benedic- tion oflered to Him as the Giver of the blessings of life. This treatise has nine chapters. 2. Peak, "the Corner:" "the corner of the field." (Lev. xxiii. 22 ; Dent. xxiv. 19.) The rights of the poor on the soil of Palestine. Eight chapters. 8. Demai, things doubtful in matters of tithes and heave-offerings from agrarian produce. Seven chapters. ORDER TI. TAN AIM. 121 4. Kelaim, "things mixed." On the lawful com- mixture of seeds, association of plants, &c. (Lev. xix. 19 ; Deut. xxii. 9-11.) Nine chapters. 5. Shevith, the seventh or Sabbatical year. (Exod. xxiii. 10 ; Lev. xxv.) Ten chapters. 6. Terumoth, " oblations." (Num. xviii. 8.) Eleven chapters. 7. Maaseroth, first tenths. (Deut. xiv. 22 ; xxvi. 14.) rive chapters. 8. Maaser Sheney, second tenths. (Lev. xxvii. 30; Num. xviii. 28.) Eive chapters. 9. Challah, "the cake of dough." (Num. xv. 20.) Four chapters. 10. Orlah, newly planted or "uncircumcised" trees. (Lev. xix. 28.) Tliree chapters. 11. BiKVRni, primitia, or "first-fruits." (Deut. xxvi. 1.) Eour chapters. II. SEDER MOED. 1. Treatise Shabbaih, laws relating to the Sabbath days. TSventy-four chapters. 2. Eruvin, "combinations:" the relations of places and limits, as affecting the observance of the Sabbath. Ten chapters. 3. Pesachim, on the Passover. Ten chapters. 4. Shekalim, the poU-tax of haK a shekel. (Exod. xiii. 12.) Eight chapters. 5. YoMAH, the Day of Atonement; — ?/om hahhaplmr. Eight chapters. 6. SuKKAH, the Eeast of Tabernacles. (Lev. xxiii. 33.) Eive chapters. 7. YoM ToF, or Bitzah : Yom Tof, "the good day :" restrictions and distinctions regarding festivals. Eive chapters. N.B. This treatise, in several editions, both of Mishna and Talmud, has the title of Bitzah, "an ^^^" from the initial word. 6 122 HEBEEW LITERATURE. 8. EosH Hashanah, the New Year : Eeast of Tisri. Four chapters. 9. Taanith : concerning fasts, rour chapters. 10. MegillAj "the Roll/' i. e., the Book of Esther: Feast of Purim. Four chapters. 11. MoED Katok, " the minor feast :" middle days of Passover and Tabernacles. Tliree chapters. 12. Chagiga, "solemnity." the sacrifices for festi- vals. (Exod. xxiii. 17.) Three chapters. III. SEDER NASHIM. 1. Yevamoth^ "of the brother-in-law:" concerning Yeboom, or "the marriage of the childless widow;" (Deut. XXV. 5 ;) and Chalitza, or " the taking off the shoe." (Deut. xxv. 9.) Sixteen chapters. 2. Ketuvoth, "writings:" on marriage contracts. Thirteen chapters. 3. KiDDUSHiNj " betrothments." Four chapters. 4. Gittin, " divorcements." Nine chapters. 5. Nedarim^ vows made by families. (Num. xxx. 4-16.) Eleven chapters. 6. NaziRj vows of abstinence. (Num. vi. 1-21.) Nine chapters. 7. SooTAH, "declension of a wife from fidelity." (Num. V. 11.) Nine chapters. IV. seder nezikin. 1. Bava Kama, "the first gate:"^ on injuries re- ceived from fire, &c. Ten chapters. 2. Bava Metzia, "the middle gate:" on deposits, hire, accommodations, loans, usury, &c. Ten chapters. 3. Bava Bathra, "the last gate:" on buying and selling ; heirship, succession, and trusts. Ten chapters. 4. Sanhedrin : of the beth din; great and inferior * Bava, " gate," i. e., place of justice. OHDER II. TANAIM. 123 councils ; forensic transactions ; fines and punishments. The Future Age. The ]\Iessiah. Eleven chapters. 5. ]\Iakkoth, the forty stripes, save one: (Dcut. XXV. 3 :) corporal punishments. Three chapters. 6. Shevuoth, of oaths. Eight chapters. 7. Edioth, "testimonies;" i. e., decisions or judg- ments on various litigated subjects, collected from legal authorities. Eight chapters. 8. HoRioTH, "precepts,^' or "judgments:^' of over- sights and errors in the administration of law, and how they are to be atoned for. (Lev. iv. 13.) Three chapters. 9. AvoDA Zara, "of strange service ;^^ i. e., idolatry and heresy ; the avoiding of the society of idolaters and Christians. Five chapters. 10. AvoTH, the fathers who have transmitted the oral law. V. seder kadashim. 1. Zevachim, of sacrifices. Fourteen chapters. 2. MiNCHOTH, " meat offerings :" flour and bread, with and without oil and incense. Thirteen chapters. 3. CiiOLiN, "profane or common things :" of animals clean and unclean, as material for food. Twelve chapters. 4.'. Bekoroth, the first-born and their redemption. (Exod. xiii. 13.) Nine chapters. 5. Erakin, of valuations. Nine chapters. 6. Temurah, commutation or substitution of one sacrifice for another. Seven chapters. 7. ]\Iehila, inadvertencies and trespasses in the misuse of sacrifices, and things consecrated. (Num. v, 6, 8.) Six chapters. 8. Kerithoth, "excisions:" the sins which incur excision from the people. Six chapters. 9. Tamid, "the daily or perpetual offering." (Exod. xxxiv. ; Num. xxviii.) Six chapters. G 2 124 HEBEEW LITERATURE. 10. MiDDOTH, "measurements :'' dimensions of the temple. Five chapters. 11. KiNNiM, "nests;'' also "turtle-doves:" of birds offered at the altar by the poor. Three chapters. VI. SEDER TAHAROTH. 1. Kelim : of such things as contract and communi- cate uncleanness, and how to purify them. (Lev. xi. 11, 32; Num. xix. 14.; xxxi. 20.) Thirty chapters. 2. Oholoth : the defilement and purification of taber- nacles, or houses and their parts, with special reference to the presence of a corpse, (Num. xix. 14.) Eighteen chapters. 3. Negaim: uncleanness from leprosy, &c. (Lev. xiii. and xiv.) Fourteen chapters. 4. Parah, "the red heifer." (Num. xix.) Twelve chapters. 5. Taharoth : purifications from various minor kinds of uncleanness. Ten chapters. 6. MiKVAOTH : of lavers and baths. (Num. xxxi. 23.) Ten chapters. 7. NiDDA: purifications required by women. Ten chapters. 8. Makshirin : various rules of purification, founded on Lev. xi. 36-38. Six chapters. 9. Zabim, of fl.uxes. (Lev. xv.) Five chapters. 10. Tevul Yom, of purification on the same day that defilement is contracted. (Lev. xvii. 15; xxii. 6, 7.) Four chapters. 11. Yad aim, on purifying the hands. Four chapters. 12. OzEKiN, "stalks:" of fruits and legumes which contract uncleanness. Three chapters. ORDER ir. TANATM. 135 PRINCIPAL EDITIONS OF THE MISHNA. 1. By Menashe Ben Israel, with short Glosses. (Amsterdam, 1031.) 2. By Jose ben Israel. (Amst., 1616.) 3. By Israel ben EUjah Gotz, with the Sefer Jetsira. (Yen., 1704, 8vo.) 4. With the Commentary of Maimonides. (Naples, 1492. One vol.) 5. Ditto. Mishnaioth im Perusk Rambam. (Ven., 1606, folio.) 6. But the favourite edition is that of Professor Surenhuys of Amsterdam, as being furnished not only with the Commentaries, but also with a Latin transla- tion. This noble work is comprised in six volumes, folio, with the title : — MiSHNA, site totius Hehraorum Juris, Ritmim, Anti- qtdtatum, et Legum oralium Systema, cum clarissimorum Rabbinorum Maimonidis et Bartenor^ Commerdariis integris, quibiis accedunt variorum Auctorum NotcB et Ver- siones in eos quos ediderunt Codices. Interprete, Editore, et Notatore Guil. Surenhusio. Amst., 1668-1703. The several Treatises of the Mishna have been also translated into Latin by different authors, the principal of whom we will set down in the followins: table : — Order. Treatise. Translator. Publication. I. Berakoth. Edzard. Hamburg, 1713, Svo. Peak. Guisius. Oxon., 1690, 4to. Bemai. Idem. Oxon., 1690, 4to. Kilaim. Idem. Oxon. Terumoth. Idem. Maaseroth. Idem. Mauser sheni. SURENHUSIUS. Challah. Idem. Orlah. LUDWIG. Lips., 1695. 126 HEBREW LITERATURE. Order. Ti-eatise. Translator. Publication. I. Blhinin. Idem. Lij)s., 1696. II. Shahbath. Schmid et Wottoi^ . Ibid., 1670. Eruvhi. Idem. PesacJdm. SURENHUS. Shekalim. Otho. Geneva, 1675. Yomah. Sheringham. Lond., 1648. SukkaL Dachs. Traj. ad Bhen., 1726. Tom tof. SuRENHUS. Rosh hashana HOUTING. Amst., 1695. Taanith. LUNDY. Traj. ad Rhen., 1694. Megilla. SuRENHUS. Moed Katon. Idem. Chagiga. LUDWIG. Lips., 1696. Yll.Yevamoth. SuRENHUS. Ketuvoth. Paust. Basil, 1699. KiddusJdn. SuRENHUS. Gittin. Idem. Nedarim. Ulmann. Argentor., 1663. Nazir. Idem. Sootah. Wagenseil. Altorf., 1674. IV. Bava Kama. C. L'Empereur. Liigd., 1637. Bava Metsia. SuRENHUS. Bava BatJira. Idem. Sanhedrin. COCCEIUS. Amst., 1629. MaJckotk. Idem. Shevuoth. Ulmann. Argentor., 1663. EdiqtL SuRENHUS. Avoda zara. Peringer. Altorf., 1680. Horioth LUDWIG. Lips., 1696. Avoth. Surenhus. Y. Zehachim. Ulmann. Argent., 1663. Midchoth. Surenhus. ^' Cholin. Idem. " Bekoroth. Idem. ORDER 11. TANAIM. 127 Order. Treatise. Translator. Publication. V. Erachin. Idem. Tetnura. Idem. Mehila. Idem. Kerithoth. Ulmann. Argent., 1663. Tamid. Peringer. Altorf., 1680. Meddoth. L'Empereur. Liigd., 1630. Klnnim. Surenhus. Yl.Keliw, Alioloth, Negaim, ParaJi, TaJiarotJi, IliJcva- otli, Midda, 3Iakshirlm, Zahhn, Teviil i/om, Yadalm, and Ozekin, aU by Surenhusius. The entire Mislma has been translated into Spanish by Abraham ben Euben. (Venice, 1606, folio.) He has given it with the Commentaries of Bartenora and Maimuni. And into German by Johan Jak Eabe : Die game Mischna ; oder der Text des Talmuds ilber- setzt und erldutert. (6 ^5/^^^7tf;^, quarto. Ausbach, 1760- 63.) And by Dr. J. M. Jost : I)ie Gauze Mischna, mit punktirtem Texte, Noten u. Kom. (6 hdnde, quarto. Ber- lin, 1832-33.) In English, we have the treatises Shabbath and Eniv'm translated by Dr. Wotton ; (Lon- don, 1718;) i\\eAvotJi, in the Jewish prayer-book, and by ]\Ir. E. Young, Edinburgh {sine anno); and, recently, the treatises Berakoth, Kilaim, Shabbath, Eruvin, Pesa- chim, Yoma, Sukkah, Yom tof, RoshViashana, Taanith, Megilla, Moed Katon, Yevamoth, Ketuvoth, Gittin, Kid- dushin, Cholin, and Yadaim, in all eighteen treatises, have been, either wholly or in part, rendered into Eng- lish by the Rev. Rabbis De Sola and Raphall, in one volume. (Second Edition. Loudon, 1845.) 128 HEBREW LITERATURE. OEDER III. AMORAIM. CLASS I. THE AMORAIM OF PALESTINE. I. JUDAISM IN PALESTINE UNDER THE LATER EMPERORS. The century which followed the period of the pub- lication of the Mishna was, in relation to the Eoman empire, a season of transition. Every year witnessed the progressive triumphs of Christianity, and the gradual unloosing of men^s minds from the ideas and prejudices of their heathen forefathers. The polytheistic religion of old Rome had reached its last days; its face was changing in death, and a new spirit, of truer thought and purer feeling, unfolding itself in the social life of the people. Meanwhile, the Jews remained, with but few excep- tions, unmolested throughout the empire. Their rulers were too much absorbed in their own affairs, to trouble themselves with men who, in the main, were now peaceable citizens. The unquiet state of politics, the rapid transition of the imperial sceptre through the hands of thirty men in a hundred years, the alarms and miseries caused by the inroads of barbarians, intestine wars, and the natural calamities of unusual dearths, pestilences, and earthquakes, all rendered the civil ruler indisposed to occupy his time or resources with the merely religious affairs of the subject. Christianity, indeed, was often persecuted, because it called forth the opposition of the pagan hierarchy, against whose in- terests it was perpetually aggressive. Judaism never took that attitude, and there was conceded to it, tacitly at least, the status of a religio I'lcita ; and, under these circumstances, the Israelitish people had time to con- solidate their interests, both secular and ecclesiastical. OUDER III. AMORAIir. 129 At this period too, though far from exerting themselves as a propagandist community, their religious doctrines exercised a strong intluence on a large number of the educated classes among the Heathen, and proselytes were continually added to their sjmagogues. But the friendly relations which now obtained between Jews and Gentiles by the increase of proselytes, and by the marriage of Israelites with non-Jewish families, did not tend to what was considered the true religious life of Judaism. While the proselytes swelled the numbers of those who bore the designation of Israel, their old Gentile habits of thinking and living exerted an inju- rious effect on the minds and manners of their new associates. These innovations appear to have given no small uneasiness to the rabbins, who found it necessary to have recourse to a more stringent discipline.® In their deliberations whether some restriction should not be put upon the reception of proselytes, we find special allusions to the inhabitants of Palmyra, or, as the Talmud calls it, Tharmud, — a corruption of the old name, Thadmor. It Avas here that Zenobia, the widow of Odenatus, was now reigning, with the title of " the Queen of the East.''' This accomplished and heroic princess, whose name has been written in unfading characters by the hand of history, was herself a Jewess.* But though by birth of the race of Israel, she was by no means a strict votaress of her people's faith : on the contrary, a Gentile education, and habits of learned intercourse with men of all creeds, — such asLonginus, the Grecian sophist, and Paulos of Samosata, the Christian, or rather the Unitarian, bishop of Antioch, — had made 5 Tevamoth, fol. 16, 1?. * Gibbon tells us she was " descended from the old Macedonian kings." But in this he diverges from his usual accuracy. Compare Athanasius, E(jist. ad Solit,; Fuilostokg. Be Mares., cap. 65; NiCEPH., lib. vii., cap. 27. G 5 130 HEBEEW IJTERATURE. her what, in our time, would be called a freethinker, or rationalist. While she did not bestow any marked patronage upon Judaism, yet her relation to that re- ligion contributed to give it a certain credit among the Palmyreneans, which showed itself in a multitude of instances of conformity to the rites of the synagogue. But, on the other hand, the latitudinarianism encouraged by the queen exerted a neutralizing influence on the tone of Jewish opinion, to the great vexation of the rabbins. Hence the saying of Jochanan of Tiberias, that the man would be happy who should live to see the downfall of Palmyra; a consummation which he himself probably witnessed, when, so shortly after, the brilliant, but short-lived, dominion of Zenobia passed away before the victorious arms of Aurelian, This reciprocity of social influence between the Jews and their Gentile neighbours, whether pagan or Chris- tian, which was now yearly gaining ground, is indicated, not long after, in the proceedings of the Christian Council of Elvira, in 324, the sixteenth canon of which prohibits the marriage of Christians with Jews, as the fiftieth does the practice of eating with them; while the forty-ninth admonishes landholders not to suffer the fruits of the earth to be blessed by the Jews; in allusion to the custom, sufiiciently extensive to call thus for ecclesiastical interference, of employing the Hebrew rabbis to pronounce their formulas of benediction upon the crops of the garden and field.^ The general quietude and prosperity thus enjoyed by the Jews was, at length, however, menaced by an event of surpassing importance to the world at large. Cliris- tianity, in name at least, was about to ascend the throne of the Csesars. The long-oppressed religion of the Gospel had become so far triumphant, 'as that not ^ See examples of sucli benedictions in the Hosanna Rahba. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 131 only myriads of the people had been subdued to the obedience of the faith, but the rulers themselves con- fessed its supremacy. The storms of persecution Avhich for three hundred gloomy years had beaten with re- lentless fury upon the church, had at last broken away, and the cross shone refulgent in the serene sky. But what was a symbol of peace for the church, Avas an omen of disquietude for the synagogue. In the grow- ing political might of Christianity, the Jews dreaded the developement of a power which might prove equally or more oppressive to their race, than the expiring dpiasty of Paganism had been. As to the religion of Jesus itself, those fears would have been groundless; but with regard to the politico-ecclesiastical system which, in after times, under the abused name of that religion, so often brought distress and desolation upon this people, their presentiments, it must be confessed, were but too well founded. Yet from the first Christian emperor they experienced little that could form a just cause of complaint. Constantine was neither their per- secutor, nor their patron. They considered it, indeed, a circumstance in their faAour, that when the faith of the church took possession of the throne of the world, it was in the person of a man whose education had been heathen rather than systematically Christian. They expected a larger liberality from him than from one whose prejudices against them would have been co-eval with his life, and inseparable, in their view, from liis religion itself. Their conviction of the strength of Constantine's Christianity was so slight, as that they were not without hope that, in the unsettled and transition state of liis religious notions, he might even be persuaded to embrace the theology of the sjmagogue, rather than that of the church. Zonaras^ describes a ® Annal., torn, iii., p. 6. 132 HEBREW LITERATURE. discussion between some of the rabbins and Sylvester, the bishop of Rome, in the presence of the emperor, on the Divinity of Jesus Christ, in which Sylvester having the advantage in argument, the Jews appealed to the evidence of miracles. An ox fell dead, by the effect of a name whispered in his ear by a Hebrew thaumaturgist named Zambres ; but the wonder-working bishop carried off the palm even in this department, in resuscitating the animal by invoking the name of the Saviour : whereupon a large number of Jews submitted at once to baptism. So reads the legend, which, however ques- tionable as to its miraculous embellishment, has no doubt a groundwork of truth with regard to the con- troversial encounter itself. Though every year of Constantine's life tended to strengthen his persuasion of the truth of Christianity, he did not adopt measures of direct hostility against dissenters from it, either Jewish or pagan. He seems to have understood the principles of toleration much better than many of his successors ; and the enactments of his reign relating to the Jews were occasioned more by their misconduct, than by his severity. The first was called forth on account of the violence with which they treated such of their own people as embraced the Christian religion, and, in particular, a man of eminence among them, named Joseph, an apostle, or commissary of the patriarch, who had given in his adhesion to the churcli. In this edict the emperor charges them with stoning, or burning, their countrymen who became Christians, and condemns the perpetrators of such out- rages to the same punishments. The second prohibits the practice of compelling their slaves to receive cir- cumcision.^ A third edict obliges them to be hable to the decurionship, (an office wliich was considered rather * Cod. Theod., lib. xy^ tit. 9. OllDER III. AMOllAIM. 133 a burden than an honour,) assertmg that, while they enjoyed the benefits of citizenship, it was but just that they should have their share of the public liabilities. But even here he exempted the patriarch and office- bearers of the synagogue. On the whole, the Jews had no reason to complain of the first emperor who wore the badge of Calvary. The real triumph of Christianity at this period was hindered by the sectarian strife of its professors. The Jews were more than ever alienated from it, not only by a creed against which all their prejudices and passions revolted acquiring a power which could both menace and afflict them, but also from the disgust excited by the antipathies indulged in by the Christians among them- selves. The Israelites who resided in cities, which now became focuses of controversy between the Orthodox and the Arians, were not disposed to remain neutral spectators of the hideous scenes of strife in wliich Chris- tian waged war with Clu-istiau, not in angry words only, but in violences wliich scandalized the most unculti- vated of the Heathen ; ^ but, sympathizing with the Arians from the greater affinity of their doctrines with their own monotheism, they gratified their malignity by helping them, as at Alexandria, to destroy the property and lives of the Catholics. The new relations of Christianity to the state excited, too, a certain feeling of disaffection in their minds towards the government itself, and once more brought them under the power of their old temptation to resist- ance and revolt. Tliis propensity was the more aggra- vated, among the Jews of Palestine, by the efi^ects of the religious zeal which had been displayed by Constan- tine and liis mother Helena, in setting up, in Jerusalem and many parts of the Holy Land, those architectural ^ JuLil PAPJi I. Epist. ad Orient. ; Athanas. Epist. ad Orthod. 134 HEBREW LITERATURE. monuments to Cliristiauity which the Jews^ the ances- tral lords of the soil, could not but witness with an exasperated sense of degradation. The turbulent spirit which had now re-awoke in their bosoms, prompted them to take advantage of the difficult circumstances of the Emperor Constautius, — who was struggling with the exigencies of war in Gaul and Pannonia in the West, and with the Saracens and Parthians in the East, — ^to attempt the recovery of their ancient independence, and, as some say, the erection of a regal throne for their patriarch. These insurrectionary movements brought Gallus, the emperor's colleague, upon them, before whose avenging legions young and old perished in un- discriminating massacre, and their towns of Diocesarea, (Sepphoris,) Diospolis, and Tiberias sank in ashes. Tliis was a heavy blow to the Palestinian Jews, and one which was followed up by imperial enactments, which made it death for a Christian to marry a Jew, or for a Jew to circumcise a slave. The emperor also pro- hibited Christians from becoming proselytes to Juda- ism; and, wliile loading the Israelites with additional imposts, he renewed the edict of Hadrian, which pro- scribed them from entering Jerusalem.^ . But those days of ill omen passed away on the acces- sion of Julian the Apostate, whose policy towards the Jews was not only tolerant, but protective and auspi- cious. His hatred to Christianity predisposed him to whatever was against it ; and his wish to counteract aU the tendencies of the preceding reign inclined liim to befriend a people who had been its antagonists. Regarding Judaism as a national ritual addressing itseK to the senses, he perceived in it some affinity to the sesthetic religions of Greece and Eome, Avith which he was so enamoured. As to the Deity worshipp'ed by the ^ Cod. Theodos., lib. xv., Be Judais. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 135 Hebrews, he considered Him, as did many of the Hea- thens, to be a mere national God; or, if possessing even an universal power and majesty, then as the Dcmiurgus recognised by the polytheistic systems, and worshipped under other names. Besides, in the war in wliichhe was engaged with the king of Persia, whatever would propitiate a people so numerous as the Jews in all that region, would so far weaken the cause of his adversary. Moved by tliesc considerations, and with the malicious desire of placing Christianity at a still greater disadvan- tage, he conferred his patronage on its Hebrew rival, in setting the Jews free from their oppressive taxes ; in recognising the authority of their patriarch, whom he honoured with the title of his " Brother ;" ^ in gi\ang them permission to resume the solemnities of the altar ; and, for the full and legitimate accomplishment of this purpose, in allowing them to return to Jerusalem, and afforchng them all needful aid in their project to rebuild the temple. It has been thought that Julian, in this measure, was moved by the wish to discredit the pro- phecy of Jesus which foreshadowed the ruin of Jeru- salem; but we do not see how his own success in tliis enterprise would have invalidated a prediction which had been so completely fulhlled nearly three hundred years before. But the attempt, as we all know, was most signally defeated. Witnesses, both Jewish and Gentile, concur in affirming the disastrous circumstances which brought the undertaking to no- thing. The mound of ruins moved beneath the work- men's feet, and terrible flames drove them, awe-struck, from the henceforth dreaded mountain. The exag- gerated manner in wliicli this circumstance is described betrays the superstitious spirit of the times ; but the fact itself — most probably caused by the ignition of ex- ' Jul. Epist. 25 ; Sozomen, lib. v., cap. 21. 136 HEBREW LITERATURE. plosive gases confined in the subterranean vaults of the old temple site — has such thorouglily authentic historical attestation as to admit of no reasonable denial.'* The enthusiasm ■with which the Jews of Palestine entered upon this project was fated to meet with as signal a disappointment, and their visionary hopes to be extinguished in the funereal gloom which so soon came upon the short-lasting career of their brilHant but eccentric patron. From these days the tone of policy adopted by the Latin government toward the Jews was more or less depressive, though never severe. Jovian acted under the conviction that he ought to repress the insolence which his predecessor had excited both in the Jewish and the pagan mind, and he did so ; but his reign was so short that the objects of his dislike only looked upon it as a fleeting cloud. Valens, on the other hand, gave unhmited liberty to the various religionists of the empire, and extended to the Jemsh patriarch the gua- rantee of his privileges, while he renewed the hability of the Israelites to the discharge of the pubHc and more burdensome offices. In short, down to the time that terminated the Western patriarchate, the conduct of the emperors toward them appears to have been marked by an inflexible determination to keep them in order, tempered by a wise and worthy mo- deration. * Theodoket, lib. iii., cap. 20 ; Sozomen, lib. v., cap. 22 ; So- CEATES ScHOLAST., lib. i., cap. 17 ; Ajimianus Marcellixus, lib. xxiii., who says, Ciim itaque rei idem fortiter instaret Ali/pius jiivaret- que provincia rector, metiiendi globi Jiammarum prope fundamenta crebris asmdtibus erumpentes fecere locum, exustis aliqitoties operan- tibus, inaccessum, kocque modo elemetito destinatim repelleitte cessavit inceptum. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 137 11. SUCCESSION OF THE PATRIARCHS. All this time the family of Hillel wanted not a man to fill the patriarchal throne. Jehuda Hakkodesh, when near death, nominated his son Gamaliel to be nasi, and Simon, his other son, to be hahem, while Hanina ben Haina was to take the dignit}^ of ah beth din^ — appoint- ments M-hich were duly recognised by the nation at large. But, with the life of Rabbi, the splendour of the patriarchate began to pass away. During the last seventeen years of his administration, the business of the schools had been principally carried on at Sepphoris, where he lived for the sake of his health : but the Sanhedrin continued to transact its affairs at Tiberias, three members being sufficient for a quorum. This com't, however, was now rapidly sinking into insignifi- cance; and, after the death of Jehuda, the office of patriarch was dissociated from the rectorship of the schools, and restricted to the administration of law in cases civil and ecclesiastical, either in person, or by liis shalechin, "apostles," or "commissaries.^' Gamaliel ben Jehuda did not long survive his father; nor does he appear to have been a man of sufficient energy or talent to command much influence over either the rabbinic body or the people. The same may be affirmed, in general terms, of his son and successor, Jehuda II. Nesia. He ascended the patriarchal seat while but a young man. Endowed with no peculiar strength of character, he maintained an authority nominal rather than real, and was indebted for the respect externally paid him to the long standing of his family in the office, an ample inheritance, the established usages of the Jewish body, and the acquiescence of the rabbinate, * So his last will.— Z^towifA, fol. 103. 138 HEBREW LITERATURE. who had, in effect, possession of the real power, and who seem to have been much more in the habit of dictating to the patriarch than of submitting to him. A leading propensity with Jehuda was the accumulation of money, in gratifying which he laid himself open to the severe criticisms of his wide-spread flock, who had the feeling that he was much too zealous in the use of the pastoral shears.® HiLLEL BEN Jehuda succcedcd about a.d. 258. Among the acts of his administration was the convocation of a rabbinical synod for a revisal and settlement of the Jewish calendar, a measure which, by facilitating the more uniform observance of the Paschal festival, and other great solemnities, tended to the promotion of unity among a people dispersed through so many lands. If the acts of this synod had been handed down in a written form, we should probably have had in them some light on the present discrepancies between the chronology of the Hebrew text and that of the Sep- tuaginta. It is commonly believed that the rabbins of this synod fixed the epoch of the Creation at the vernal equinox, 3761 years before the birth of Jesus Clirist. The Jewish reputation of the Patriarch HiUel ben Jehuda has been rendered questionable by liis reported conversion to Christianity. This circumstance is af- fii'med in the most distinct and careful manner by Epiphanius,'' himself a converted Jew, who lived not long after, and who received his information, from a witness who had a personal knowledge of the fact. His testimony in substance amounted to tliis : that Hillel, when on his death-bed, sent for a neighbouring Cliristian bishop, ostensibly to consult him as a phy- sician, but really to make to him his profession of faith, and privately to receive baptism at his hands ; that the * Sanhedrin, {Eieros.,) fol. 20. " Epiph. Hares. 30. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 139 sacrament \\\as in that way administered ; and, moreover, that, snbsequcntly to the nasi's death, some portions of the New Testament Scriptures (the manuscripts of the Gospel of St. John and the Acts of the Apostles) were found secreted in his cabinet. Against the statement of Epiphanius, modern Jews argue, that a fact thus known by Christians must have been known also by the Israelites of the time, and could not, from the very nature of it, but have called forth a loud expression of their disapproval : but as not the slightest mention of the circumstance is made by the Jews of that or the following period, it may be safely concluded that no such event took place. The force or weakness of this objection wiU be determined by the reader for himself. Of the next incumbent in the patriarchate, Gamaliel BEX HiLLEL, the Jews themselves know next to notliing but his name ; and of his successor, Jehuda III. ben Ga^ialiel, scarcely more, except that he has the evil reputation of having been an adept in magical arts, and of having employed them for immoral purposes. The dignity itself was now about to become extinct. Gamaliel ben Jehuda, surnamed Batraak, or " the Last,'^ terminated the long dynasty of the house of Hillel. But his power had been hardly more than nominal. The Jewish population of Palestine had lost their preponderant influence by dispersion; and the stronger the foreign synagogues became, the less were they disposed to appeal to the patriarchal see, though its existence was still regarded with a certain com- placency. But the thing itself was now to end. The Emperor Honorius had inhibited the transfer of con- tributions from the West to the patriarchal coffers at Tiberias ; and Gamaliel himself, under the charge of contumacy, in the erection of synagogues contrary to the imperial law, by an edict of Theodosius was stripped 140 HEBEEW LITERATURE. of his secular title of "prefect."® He still, however, re- tained in Jewish circles the designation of " patriarch -" but at his decease without an heir, this shadow of a name entirely passed away. III. PALESTINIAN AMORAIM. The publication of the Mishna formed a great epoch in Jewish learning. Prom this time the schools were in possession of a scientific text of the traditional law, the study of which threw open a vast cursus of inves- tigation. Dialectics, law, both human and Divine, the antiquities of the nation, back to the remotest times, the rites and ceremonies of religion, the ethical casuistries of life, its usages, personal, domestic, commercial, and municipal; astronomy, agriculture, horticultm-e, medi- cine, and other branches of natural science and manual art, were all called into requisition in mastering this comprehensive cyclopedia. The study of the Mishna was, therefore, the fundamental employment of the schools. The men of Tiberias, and of the rising collegiate establishments in Babylonia, entered upon this labour with a zeal which vibrated through the minds of successive generations, till, after the toil of three hundred years, there had risen the Titanic structure of the Talmud. Eabbi had completed his great work in the vigour of life, and had devoted many of his later days to the task of revising and improving it. Tiberias had become the favourite resort of Jewish students from the east and the west, and its school was the model of those which under the men who had Ht their torches at the prime- val flame of Palestina, were destined to perpetuate and diffuse its hght in the Persian dominions, and, by their descendants, in Spain and other European lands. * A.D. 4]6. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 141 With the life and labours of Eabbi ended the suc- cession of the Tanaim, the men who had delivered the oral law. They were now to be followed by a new order, the Amoraim, that is to say, the expositors of the law, at length no longer oral, but reduced to a written text. From the practice, which had originated in Ezra's time, of rendering the Hebrew Scriptures in the popular assemblies into the vulgar dialect by a meturgeman, or " interpreter,^' the custom had grown up in the Misli- naical schools for the nasi, "rector," or tana, to deliver his discourse in a low voice in Hebrew, and one of the professors, "receiving tlie law from his lips,'' to an- nounce its meaning more audibly to the listening students in the vernacular speech. This officer was called the Amora, from amar, "to speak" or "dis- course." The Amora Avas ordinarily meturgeman ; but in places or times when there was no tana present, he exercised as an independent professor. A man of eminence in these circumstances acquired the authority of a secondary tana, tana bathra, as distinguished from the legitimate transmitter of Mishna law, tana Jcama. Exercising the function of commentator, he laid down new principles, or novel applications of received ones, which carried with them a certain legal weight and authority. A principle or application of this kind was called a baraitha, also tosefta ; the former term denoting a law maxim extra to the Mishna;® the latter, an appendix or superaddition.-^ They are indicated in ' From baria, "exterior." The Baraithas held a relation to the scholastic ^lishnas, similar to that which the Si'ferim Chizzomoth, the apocryi^hal books, hold to the normal or canonical Scriptui'cs. Nothing in the Baraithas is authoritative, unless it coincides with the Mishna. A similar relation was subsequently created between the Talmud and the minor treatises, called Massekthoth Chizzonioth. * From yasaf, "to add to, enlarge." 142 HEBREW LITERATURE. the Talmud by the prefatory formula, Tannu rablanu, " Our teachers have delivered/^ 1. Haia or Chaia bar Abba, — of whom we have already given a brief notice/ — besides a collection of Mishnaic memoranda, which, like those of Nathan, were either incorporated in Jehuda's work, or laid aside and lost, composed, — (2.) The TosEFTA, a collection of halakas, or law principles, illustrative of the Mishna, and designed to give completeness to it. This work is extant in several printed editions, the first of which is that of Yenice, with Isaac Alfasi^s Compendium of the Talmud, {Sefer HalaJwth,) in foho, 1521; and the last, that printed at Wilna, 1832-46. Commentaries on various parts of the Tosefta have been put forth : by Ab. Abele, on the order A'(?67'Z7'», Amst., 1732; by El. Schidloff, on Ze- haikim, Purth, 1776; by Isaac Carmoly, on Betzia, Metz, 1767; by David Pardo, four orders, Yenice; by Sam. Abigdor, on Nashim, Zeraim, and Moed, Wilna, 1839-4.2; by Elij. Wilna, on Zeraim, Wilna, 1799, and on Taharoth, Zolkiew, 1804. (3.) A third book of Chaia's was a manual of Baraithas;^ a work having the same tendency as the Tosefta. (4.) And another non-extant work of his was a Megillath Setarim, bearing also on the Halakas. Chaia is also considered by some to have been the inventor of the Athhash alphabet, an arrangement of the letters employed, as we shaU see, in the kabalistic interpretation of the Scriptures. 2. HosHAiA BEN Chanina, who was a disciple of Eabbi, and a fellow-labourer with Chaia, to whose Toseftoth he largely contributed. Several Barathioth in the Mishna are also attributed to him, as well as the MeJciltha; though tliis is uncertain, as the authorship of ^ Sec page 89. ^ Baraitlia de Rabhl Chaia. ORDEE III. AMORAIM. 143 the latter has been, on better grounds, ascribed to Ishmael ben Elisha. The name of Hoshaia is more- over associated with the Bcreshith Ruhba,'^ a collection of agadoth on the Book of Genesis, in one hundred chapters, first printed at Constantinople. But the parentage of this work, too, is involved in a cloud of doubts. There are, in fact, four different opinions or traditions about it. (1.) One is, that the Bereshith Balha composed by tliis Hoshaia was a different work from that now extant, and consisted of explanations of the Mislma. (So Wolf, B'lh. Hehr., ii., p. 1423, and the author of Zemach David, in express terms.) (2.) That the present B. Babha was written by Rabba bar Nach- man, a Babylonian, about fifty years later, of whom a notice will be given in its proper place. (3.) A third tradition gives it to Hoshaia, or Oscliaija, a brother of Eabba; while, (4.) A fourth asserts that it was the joint work of those brothers. The Midrash itself has internal endence of having been written not much later than the time of the Emperor Julian ; and, from a strong resemblance in tone and style to the Jerusalem Talmud, gives a plain indication of a Palestinian origin. Both Kabba bar Nachman and his brother Hoshaia lived a considerable time at Tiberias under E. Jochanan, the compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud. But whether they, either there, or afterwards in Babylonia, accomplished the Bereshith, ox whether it be the production of this Hoshaia ben Chaniua, has never been fully ascertained. 3. Hanina ben Haila held the seat of al leth din * There are several works with the general title of Rabboth, which are expositions of the Pentateuch and live MegiUoth, to each of which | is affixed the name of the particular book expounded. Thus Bereshith | Rabba is on Genesis (from the initial word of the book) ; in Uke manner Shemoth R., on Exodus ; Vatjikra R., on Leviticus ; Ucha Rabba, on Lamentations. They are assigned to Hoshaia bar Nachman. Comp. Wolf, vol. ii., p. 1426, and vol. iii., p. 1215, 144 HEBREW LITERATURE. at Tiberias after the death of Jehuda Hakkodesh. He was a man of good ability, but too much under the tyranny of a bad temper to be able to hve amicably with his colleagues. (See anecdotes in Jost, iv., 148.) 4. Abba Arekka, afterwards surnamed Rav, who, having come in his youth from the East to Tiberias, and attained great distinction there, returned (first moved by a quarrel with the above Hanina) laden with the treasures of Palestinian learning, to exert, as will be shown, a most effective influence on the culture of the Babylonian Jews. 5. Bar Kappara, in his worldly occupation a maker of women's shoes, was nevertheless one of the most popular teachers of his time. He was redoubtable for sarcastic wit;® and his talent for the invention of pleasing and instructive fables, as a medium of moral instruction, won for him the title of "the Hebrew ^sop.''^ 6. JocHANAN BEN Eliezer, Sometimes called Bar Naphcha, or the " Son of the Blacksmith," had been a fellow-student with Abba Arekka under Rabbi, and afterwards at the halls of Cesarea. On the death of Hanina he was installed as rector at Tiberias. Cele- brated not less for his personal beauty than for his incomparable virtue, he has acquired among the Jews a mythical grandeur of character. To him also is attributed the compilation, or, at least, the commence- ment and groundwork, of the Jerusalem Talmud. He may have begun it about a.d. 260. But it was not completed without the labour of other hands during the following half-century. 7. Simon ben Lakish, a man remarkable for liis boddy stature, and a corresponding magnitude of in- tellect. Eor some time he served as a legionapy in the Koman army; and, after his restoration to a life of * Nedarim, fol. 51. ORDEE, III. AMOEAIM. 145 study, became by marriage the brother-in-law of R. Jochanan. To these Amoraim may be added the names of Ami, Asi, and Dimi, disciples of Jochanan ; Shesheth, a blind rabbi; Joshua ben Levi, president of the school at Lydda, famous as a transccndentalist in doctrine, and the worker of many a legendary miracle ; and Abiliu, a teacher under whom the academy at Cesarea attained great prosperity. Erudite, not only in Hebrew, but in Grecian, studies, he had the accessory advantage of opulence, and the friendship of the Eoman prefect, who resided at Cesarea; and he was moreover a great favourite with the people, who used to salute him in public with such epithets as "Abihu, their sunbeam, and the guide of their nation." Of the scholastic labours of these men we have the monumental result in the Palestinian Gemara, com- monly called the Talmud Jerushalmi.® This important commentary on the Mishna, if it were ever completed at all, has not come down to us entire ; as what is extant of it reaches only to four of the six Orders, namely, Zeraim, 3Ioed, Nashim, and NeziJcin, together with the treatise Nidda and some other frag- mentary portions. The language is Talmudic Hebrew, with a strong infusion of the Western Aramaic, then common in Palestine. The Mishna text sometimes differs from that of the Babylonian Talmud ; the latter being a corrected redaction accomplished by Rabbi in the last years of his life, and adopted by the Babylonian schools as the more preferable; while the Palestinian Amoraim adhered to that with which they had been ^ The Eastern or Babylonian Jews called this work Talmud erets Israel, " tlie Talmud of tlie land of Israel," or Palestine, and sometimes Gemara cle-heney meareva, " the Gemara, or Commentary, of the Chil- dren of the "West." H 146 HEBREW LITEEATURE. first made familiar^ The general contents of the Gemara may be classified into Halakoth and Hagadoth ; principles or rules of jurisprudence, and legendary illustrations. The Hagadoth have been collected and published by themselves, with a Commentary by Samuel Jafe, (Venice, 1590,) and with Glossary, &c. by Low, (Berlin, 1725, 8vo.,) and by others. The Jerusalem Talmud itself was first printed by Bom- berg, in folio, at Venice, without date ; then, with brief glosses, at Cracow, in 1609. Several portions of the work have been put forth by various editors separately, with commentaries; as Zeraim, by Fuld, Amst., 1710, folio; Bava Kama and Bava Metsla, OfPenbacli, 1725, folio ; the three Bavoth, Trankfort-on -Maine, 1742, folio ; Shekalim, Amst., 1727, 8vo. ; Zeraim, Constant., 1662, folio; Moed, Vienna, 1821, folio; Nashim, Amst., 1755 ; and Nezikin, Leghorn, 1770, folio. CLASS II. THE AMORAIIM OF BABYLONIA. I. PERSIAN DYNASTIES. Next to Palestine, Babylonia was the home-land of Judaism. There the greater and the more noble part of the Jewish families settled at the Captivity, to return no more to the soil of tlieir forefathers ; and there the literary culture of the people took a developement which exerted no small influence on the studies of after generations in Spain, Africa, Italy, and the otlier widely spread colonies of their scattered race. From these schools of the East emanated the text works of Ilalaka, Hagada, legend lore, and Midrash, which, in conjunction with the Mishna of Palestine, have given its peculiar tone to the Hebrew mind of the present day. In Babylonia, or Irak Arabi, that is to say^ in the ' Avoda Zara. ORDKK III. AMORAIM. 147 lauds on the borders of the Euphrates aud Tigris, as far as the Persian Gulf, the Jews had been colonized ever since the Captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, 580 years before Christ. Here, for successive generations, they had retained their national and rehgious peculiari- ties amid all the political changes to which the country of their sojourn had been subjected. Fifty years after the Captivity, the Babylonian dynasty of kings gave place to the Medo-Persians under Cyrus. In the course of his reign he gave the Jewish exiles their manumission, with full liberty and every encou- ragement to return to Palestine ; and that, perhaps, with the wise and politic design of crcathig and fostering, through them, a moral and pacific influence over the turbulent countries surrounding it. Profiting by this freedom, about fifty thousand of them proceeded to the land of their fathers, and re-laid the foundations of their theocratic commonwealth. But the greater part of them, including the noblest families of the nation, preferred, as we have said, to remain in Babylonia, which continued under the Persian sway till Darius Codomanus (b.c. 330) was subdued by Alexander the Great, upon whose death it became, in the quadruple division of his empire, the domain of the Seleucidse. But their short-lived power passed away before the enterprise of Arsaces, the founder of the Persian mo- narchy, (b.c. 255,) which not long after comprised the whole region between the Euphrates and the Indus. This dynasty of the Arsacides was extended through the reigns of thirty-one kings, till, 220 years after Christ, it gave place to that of the Sassanides under Ardisheer, or Artaxerxes, the son of Sassan. It may be proper to remark here, that the early history of the Persian empire labours under several disadvantages. The authorities are Greek and native H 2 148 HEBREW LITEEATURE. Persian. The Greek writers lived nearer tlie times of tlie events, but they wrote under the influence of national prejudices. Then the Mahonunedans, at first, destroyed much of the native Persian literature. Yet the havoc they made of it was not complete. The later Chalifs sought to preserve what remained. The poet Dudiki was employed to versify such historical docu- ments as were still extant ; and, afterward, Pirdousee, in his ShahiameJi, or "Book of Kings,^' embodied all that was known of their past amials. He wrote from Peldevee^ archives which have long ago perished. The Persian history suffers from wide and irreparable blanks. The native writers take no notice of the immediate successors of Alexander; and the period of nearly five hundred years, during which the two branches of the Arsacidse held power, is treated of by those authors in such an imperfect and contradictory manner, as to make it evident that they possessed only a catalogue of names. Then, when they come down to the Sassanide times, they are deficient in accurate dates. Nevertheless, here the length they assign to the reign of each prince generally accords with the more exact chronology of western authors. The earliest dynasty of Persian kings mentioned by the oriental writers is that of the Mahabads, who were succeeded by the Pishdadians, and they, again, by the ® Languages of ancient Persia: Tarsee, Deri, Pehlevee. Tarsee, (from tlie province of Ears,) the dialect of Eastern Persia ; Pehlevee, that of the Western. The latter became the principal dialect. Sir W. Jones says it was a dialect of the Chaldee ; so also Von Hammer ; but others regard it as a member of the Indo-Persian. The Deri was not a dis- tinct language, but only a more refined form of the national one ; from der, [t/iicra,) " a door," or, as we now say, " the Porte," or " Court." The name Pehlevee comes from pehla, " a side," or " frontier," or, according to others, it signifies " the language of heroes." The Zend was hieratic, the language of the sacred books. See hereafter, under the Kahala. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 149 Kajaiiicles. This dynasty, including tlie reigns of Kai Kobad, Kai Kaoos, Kai Khoosroo, Lohrasp, Guslitasp, Baliman, Ilomai, Darab I., and Darab IL, lasted for about seven Imudi-ed years. All this period of Persian history has a fabulous character ; and the perplexity of the student is increased by the habit of the Greek histo- rians giving these kings names of their own choosing. They describe the series as comprising Dijoces, Phra- ortes, Cyaxares I,, Astyages, Cyaxares IL, Cyrus, Cam- byses, Smerdis Magus, Darius Hystaspes (Gushtasp), Xerxes L, Aj-taxerxes Longimanus, Xerxes II., Sog- dian, Darius Nothus, Artaxerxes Mnemon, Ochus, Ar- ses, and Darius Codomanus, who was overcome by Alex- ander the Great, (b.c. 329.) Prom the death of Alexander tiU the reign of Ardi- sheer Babignan, the same kind of discrepancy continues between the Greek and oriental historians. The short- lived power of the Seleucidse followers of Alexander passed away before the enterprise of Aschak, or Arsaces, who founded what is called the Parthian^ empire, which, not long after, bore sway over aR the region between the Euphrates and the Indus. This dynasty of the Ai'sacides extended through the reigns of thirty-one kings, till, about a.d. 220, it gave place to tlie Sassan- ides, the first of whom was Ardisheer Babignan, (the Artaxerxes 11. of the Greeks,) from whose days the leading events of the Persian history become more intelligible. The Jewish schoolmen of whose works we are now about to treat, lived under this Sassanide dynasty ; and some parts of our memoir will be rendered more clear ^ The name "Partliiau" is unknown anaoiig the eastern wTiters. Phi- lologists are not agreed about its exact import. Some make it of Scythian origin, like the race to whom it is applied, and to signify " fugitive," or " vasabond." Query, may it not be a variation of the name " Per- sian ;" the th being substituted for the *? 150 HEBREW LITERATUEE. if we set down the names of tlie monarclis of that race : — Ardisheer Babignan, a.d. 220; Shapoor, Shabur, or Sabor, a.d. 260 ; (he took Valerian prisoner ;) Hormuz, A.D. 271; Baharam, 272; (he pnt Maui, the heresi- arch, to death;) Baharam IL, a.d. 276; Narsi; Hoor- muz II., a.d. 303 ; Shapoor II., obiit a.d. 381 ; Ardisheer II. is deposed by Shapoor III., a.d. 385 ; Baharam lY., a.d. 390 ; Yesdigird, surnamed Ula- thim, "the Sinner;" Baharam Y.; (the name Baharam is sometimes given as Yararanes ;) Yesdigird II., a.d. l-SS; Hoormuz, A.D. 456 ; Firoze, a.d. 458; Palasch, the Yalens, or Yologeses, of the Eoman historians, a.d. 488; Kobad, oUit a.d. 531 ; Noorsheerwan, a.d. 531; Hoormuz III., a.d. 579; Baharam YI.; Khoosroo Pur- veez, was vanquished by Heraclius, and was put to death by his own son, a.d. 628 ; Schirouch, reigned eight months; Ai'disheer, Shahryar, Pooran Dokht, — all within three months ; Shah Shemendeh, one month; Yesdigird. The Saracens invade Persia, a.d. 641. Battle of Na- havund, which decides the fate of the Persian empire, and inaugurates the reign of the Chalifs. The dates here given must be considered only as proximate. I have never met ^vitll two lists that have been precisely the same. II. BABYLONIAN GOLA-JEWS. TYe have but a general idea of the condition of the Hebrew people in Babylonia from the Captivity down to the end of the second century after Christ. Their usual designation was " the Gola," the " Emigration, Depor- tation, or Captivity," [Aiaairopd,] from gala, migravit, deportatus est ; in Chaldee, Gahitha,OY Gliitha. After the manumission by Cyrus, those who remained had the status of colonists, living in the land as subjects of the Persian and Parthian government; yet, so long, at least, as the temple stood, holding a religious relation OllDER III. AMORAIM. 151 to their original country, and keeping up an ecclesi- astical communion with it. They paid the customary tribute to the temple, and went up, more or less nume- rously, from time to time to attend the great festivals at Jerusalem. (Compare Acts ii. 9.) At home, how- ever, they were not without a regular synagogal orga- nization. There is a tradition that, so early as the time of Ezra, or even of the captive king, Jcconja, (b.c. 600,) a synagogue had been built at Schafjatib, in the neighbourhood of Nehardea, in which some of the consecrated materials of the temple had been employed. This spot was long considered as holy ground by the Babylonian Jews, who, eight hundred years after the above date, could speak of it as the place where the SheJc'ma had been entlironed.^ About a farsang from Schafjatib, at Huzal, was another house of prayer, of almost equal sanctity; and in that vicinity Ezra himself had established a school for the study of the law.^ So long, we say, as the temple was standing, the Babylonian Gola acknowledged the presidency of the High Priest. When Jerusalem was destroyed, the di- drachm contribution, formerly paid by the Palestinians to the temple, went to the Eoman treasury. But, as the Romans had hitherto failed to attain supremacy in the Parthian domhiions, the Jews li\ing there ceased to pay it. Nor were they disposed quietly to acquiesce in the rising domination of the rabbinical clergy in Palestine, or the pontifical authority of the Hillel patri- archs ; but succeeded, after some time, in establishing their independence under a ruler or prince of their own, with the title of the Resh Haggoliith, or Resh Glutha, ^ Concerning the royal synajioguc, compare Megilla, 29 ; Uosh hashana, 24 ; and FiJRST, KvUur-Geschichte, i., 8. '" Sherira Gaon; lygereth., i., c. 33. 152 HEBEEW LITERATURE. " the chief, or prince, of the Gola, the Colonized, or Captivity." There can, indeed, be no doubt that some such form of authority had been maintained among them from the time of Jeconja, at the first ; but we have no certainty as to the exact succession. There is a list of Babylo- nian chiefs in the Seder Olam Zota, which may be found also in Basnage. This catalogue is wanting, however, in the attributes of authenticity. When the affairs of these Eastern Jews become historically cogni- zable, towards the middle of the second century, we find the presidential power invested in the person of Ahia, who appears to have been followed by Hananja. He was a contemporary with Simon ben Gamaliel, who, now firmly seated in the patriarchal tlu-one at Tiberias, was not willing that a compeer should exist in Babylon, and succeeded in obliging Hananja and the Eastern syn- agogues to acknowledge his supremacy. But tliis state of tilings did not continue long ; for, on the accession of E. Hona to the presidency, the Babylonians entirely and for ever shook themselves free from the authority of Tiberias ; and Hona was not only arrayed with the full power of resh glutlia by liis own people, but was recognised as such by Jehuda the Holy, then ruling in Palestine. We ■will now give, once for all, the succession of the Princes of the Babylonian Captivity during the Tal- mudic period ; that is to say, fi'om the time of- Jehuda the Saint, till the middle of the fifth century. Along with them, we set down the contemporary patriarchs of the West. 1. Palestinian Nesiim. Eabbenu Jehuda, Gama- liel ben Rabbi, Jehuda ben GamaHel, Hillel ben Je- huda, Gamaliel ben Hillel, Jehuda ben Gamahel II., Gamaliel ben Jehuda. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 153 2. Babylonian Reshe Haggoluth. Abba Huna, R'Abba bar Abuli, ^lar Ukba bar Abba, Huna ]\Iare, jN'eliemja, Ukba bar Nehemja, Abba ]\lari. Mar Imar, Mar Sutra, R. Ashe, Ilmia bar Nathan. The office of resh glutlui was not purely ecclesiastical. He presided over all the affairs and interests of the people of his nation in those parts of the world. He paid fealty to the royal government, as afterwards to the khalifate, and was recognised by it. His installa- tion was solemnized by the pomp of public processions, and his residence dignified with the paraphernaha of a vice-regal court. Nor were his resources less than princely, liis coffers being largely supplied by the con- tributions of a generally prosperous and extensive community, in the conditions of landholders and agriculturists, merchants and traders, physicians and jurisconsiolts, mechanics and artizans ; a people, in short, wdio were able and proud to support, though " by the waters of Babylon," the institutions of their old ances- tral faith, and to maintain the artificial glory of that simulacrum of Judah^s sceptre, the existence of which, in their way of thinking, justified their rejection of Jesus as Messiah, and exercised a kind of talismanic charm upon their delusive hope of the advent of another. III. schools op the gola. But though, in civil and ecclesiastical matters, the Jews in Babylonia were thus independent of the Western patriarchate, they did not succeed in developing their scholastic institutions without material aid from those of the fatherland. The earliest academical teachers among them, whose names have come down to us, were men of Palestine. Such was Jehuda, the son of Bethira, who estabhshed one of their schools at Nisibis, and Hananja, a nephew of the celebrated R. Joshua, by H 5 154 HEBREW LITERATURE. wliom tliat at Nehardea had been either fouuded, or more probably revived. Hence the Babylonian schools took the same unfolded form as those of the Holy Land. Their studies were mainly similar; the oral law on the text of the Mishna as the staple subject, and the Amoraic mode of explication. The names given to these rabbinical establishments were Arameaii forms of the Hebrew ones of the Pales- tinian schools. Beth ulfana, "the house of learning;^' betk midrash, " the house of doctrine ; " detA ha-maad, "the house of assemblage/' like the Hebrew heth ha- kenesetJi. So beth metibtha, ^^.jeshlha^ "the house of sitting," concessiis discipulorum ; beth rahbanan, "the house of the masters;" beth s'ldra, (Heb. seder,) "the house of order." From these terms the principal or rector of the school was entitled rav beth ulfana, resh metihtJia, (Heb., rosh jeshiba,) resh sldra, &c. So, too, the academical degree of mar was equivalent to the Palestinian title of rabbi, and was conferred after the same course of study by the semika, or " imposition of hands." We know nothing with certainty of the most primi- tive of these institutions, whether at Schafjatib, Huzal, Neliar-Pekod, or Nisibis. The earliest school about which we have any specific information is that which was situated at NEHARDEA. So called from its locality on the bank of a nahar, or "canal," which connected the Euphrates with the Tigris. The first exiles from Palestine settled there in great numbers, and Ezra himself is said to have founded the school. We first become acquainted witli it as a school towards the close of the second century, when it was under the presidency of Eav Schela, who was ORDER III. AMORAHI. 155 followed in the office by Mar Samuel in the first quarter of the following century. Samuel^ surnamed Arioch, and, in Palestine, Jar- ch'nia, "the moon calculator," was the son of Abba Ha- kohen, an amora of the school. Samuel had studied at Tiberias under Jehuda the Saint, and had returned into Babylonia fraught with all the learning of the western Tanaim. On the death of Eav Schela he was elected to the rectorship, and brought Nehardea into great repute as a school of astronomy,^ natural history, and medicine, as well as Mishna lore. His medical skill had been proved, and much appreciated, by Eabbi in Palestine, and had recommended him in Babylonia to the friendsliip of the king, Shabur I., who had much intercourse with liim, and became so well acquainted with Hebrew law, as to administer it in cases in which his Jewish subjects were concerned, in preference to the Partliiau code. Samuel w"as the author of the followang works : (1.) Baraitha cle Shamuel, an astronomical treatise which was extant in the fourteenth century, but of which only fragments remain at present. Sabbathai Donolo pub- lished a commentary on it in his Sefer Tachhemoni. (^.) Baraitha he sod ha Ibhir, an elucidation of the Jewish calendar. (3.) 8ecler de Tehifoth, on the seasons of the year; a manuscript of which may be found, I beheve, in the Vatican. (4.) In the de- partment of medicine he wrote Sifree Refuoth, or ''Books of Heahng." (5.) And, as an expounder of the Mishna, he gave the schools a Toseftha, or contri- bution to the study of traditional law. Samuel, who died in 250, was succeeded by Nachmau ^ It was observed of Mar Samuel, by some of his contemporaries, that he was better acquainted with the streets of the starry heavens, than with those of !Xehardea where he lived. ]^56 HEBUEW LITEEATURE. ben Jacobs a man who contributed to maintain the reputation which the school had attained under his predecessor. His influence as a master of rabbinical learning was augmented by the possession of an ample fortune, high connexion, by marriage -with the daughter of the Palestinian nasi, and the full countenance and support of the resh glutha. The academy, however, was suddenly broken up by the sacking of Nehardea by the robber chieftain, Bar Netzar, in 258. The students thereupon removed to Schakanzib, where Nachman resumed his presidency, and ended liis days at an advanced age. Others went to Schillii, a place on the Tigris, where a new school was organized under Rav Schescht, a teacher who, for his eminence in the ex- plication of the Scriptures, as well as Mislma, received the title of Sinai. He is said to have written a Targum on the Pentateuch.'* Both these schools terminated with the lives of their founders. MACHUSA, A town on the Tigris, about four hours from Ctesi- phon, became also the site of a new academy. This was promoted by the resh glutha, E'Abba bar Abuh, who settled there after the destruction of Nehardea. As a school, Machusa attained some celebrity. Its president was Josef bar Chama, hachem to the prince of the captivity. This establishment, to wliich we shall have occasion to refer again, was overthrown for a time by the demolition of IMachusa in the war with the Romans under Julian. SORA, Called also Matha Mahasia, on the Euphrates, about twenty farsangs from Nehardea, became the %eat of a * Sota, 48. ORDER III. AMORATM. 157 renowned academy, which was inaugurated by Abba Arekka, more commonly known by liis scholastic title of Hah or Rav. lie was the nephew of Chaia, and was born at Arekka, a place on the border-land between Susiana and Babylonia. In early life he went in quest of knowledge into Palestine, and became one of the most favourite scholars of Eabbeuu Hakkodesh. On his return to the east he laboured, some say for thirty years, (between a.d. 188 and 219,) at Nehardea, as meturgeman or amora under Schila and Samuel ; and at the close of that relationship he entered upon the higher sphere of school rector and judge at Sora, where he exercised those offices till the end of his life in 243. He here systematically expounded the Mishna, an ex- emplar of which, as revised and somewhat amended by Eabbi himself, in his later years, he had brought from Palestine.^ This second recension of the Mishna be- came the authorized or canonical form of that work, and, under the Aramaic name of Metnita de he' Rav, " the ]\lishna of the School of Eav/' constituted the TEXT of the Babylonian Talmud. But besides his labours as an oral expositor on the Mislma, Eav was the author of two important works which greatly con- tributed to the advancement of biblical exegesis. These were, 1. Sifra, or Slfra de he' Rav, "The Book of the i School of Eav;^^ a Midrash on the {Torath kohanim) I Third Book of Moses, or Leviticus. 2. Sifree, or Sifree de he' Rav, a similar halakic and hagadical commentary on the Books of Numbers and Deute- ronomy. These works have, indeed, been sometimes attributed to other authors, as to E. Jehuda ben Illai of Tiberias, [te))ip. Hadrian,) and to Akiva ben Joseph; but the greatest weight of authority assigns them to the ' He is said to have used also a compendium of traditions made by his uncle Chaia, which had the title of Megillath Setarim. 158 HEBREW LITERATURE. doctor of Sora. There is no question, at least, that he was the editor of them in Babylonia.^ They were first printed at Venice. The copy with wliich I am ac- quainted is entitled Zeh hasefer Sifra, {Fen., 1550,) a small folio of fifty-nine leaves, printed in double columns with square letters; colophon: Seliq torath Kohanim, Shabach le dor meonim ; — and the other, Ze/i Sefer S'lfree, {Ten., 1546,) uniform with i\\Q Sifra, sixty- three leaves. Some critics have claimed for Rav the autliorship also of the Mehiltha, the similar work on the Book of Exodus; but there is greater reason to assign that production to Ishmael ben Elisha. (See page 65.) Though Abba Arekka was not one of the authors of the written Talmud, his labours gave an evident deter- mination to the future existence of that work. In co-operation with his eminent contemporary. Mar Samuel, he made several important essays toward the more complete formation of the Jewish liturgy. Some of the finest prayers and thanksgivings in the present Beder Tejilloth, or " Order of Common Prayers," are the productions of his pen.^ They devoted their attention moreover to the text of the Pentateuch, so as to adapt it, by convenient divisions and sub-divisions, for synagogal reading and private reference. Rav Abba Arekka died in 243, at Sora, where for twenty-four years he had presided over a school re- markable for the pleasantness of its site and accommo- dations, and numbering at times from a thousand to twelve hundred students, with twenty amoras. He was a man of an impetuous temper; but as a teacher he ® Compare Zunz, 46, note e. ' They arc specified in Furst's Kultur-GescJdchte, i., 54. A collection of prayers is referred to in the Talmud, {Bosh Haskana, and 'Avoda Zara,) under the name of Tikiatha de Rav. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 159 stood at the head of tlie rabbins of his age. lie elevated the character of Eastern Jndaism, and placed it, in respect of the education of the Gola people, on an equal footing with that of Palestine. He was con- sidered in fact as the Jehuda Hannasi of Babylonia, and his title of liac had the same distinguished pecu- liarity as that of Jiul/lti had in the case of the author of the ]\Iishna. llabbi composed the Mishna, and llav exphiincd it to the Babylonians, llabbi had a patron in the Roman emperor, and Eav enjoyed the friendship of the last Arsacide king, Artaban. His death was la- mented in Palestine as well as in Babylonia, where the people regarded the earth of his grave as holy; and during a year from his decease no wedding or other procession was permitted the usual display of myrtles, flower-garlands, or music.^ [Note. — The office of res/i met'iUha was combined, by the warrant of the resh gluiha, with that of a judge, in whose court cases both civil and ecclesiastical were adjudicated, according to the pro\isions of Hebrew law. The Jew was amenable, of course, to the Parthian law courts in aU cases which compromised him with the law of the laud ; while the Hebrew judges had only the power of inflicting penances within the range of their own discipline. The nature of those penalties may be gathered from the symbolical apparatus of the staff, the whip, the- trumpet, and the shoe, which formed a part of the insignia of the tribunal : the staff, or rod, to coerce the contumacious offender; the whip, for the infliction of the forty stripes, save one ; the trumpet, to blazon the act of excommunication in the synagogue; and the shoe, to give the accustomed blow in the case of a divorced wife.] The Soranic school lost its brightest splendour with ® Moed Katon. 160 HEBREW LITERATURE. the departure of Eav. Mar Samuel held the rectorship till his own death in 250. He, however, did not reside at Sora, but remained at Nehardea. Samuel was suc- ceeded by R. Huna, a distinguished scholar of Ear's, and who had been secretary of the school. Descended from the patriarchal family in Palestine, possessed of ample wealth and competent learning, he contributed to sustain the reputation of the school, which could under him yet number eight hundred students and fifteen amoras, and was now, indeed, since the death of Jochanan at Tiberias, the principal Hebrew school in the world. Huna died in 290, after an administration of forty years. Jehuda bar Jecheskel, who had been the founder, and for about forty years the principal, of the rising school of Pumbaditha, supplied the vacant rectorship till his own decease, which took place two years after. Of him we shall have to speak further on. Chesda Ha- kohen followed, a scholar, likewise, of Eav, as weU as related to his family by marriage with his grand- daughter. He was distinguished for liis entire and enthusiastic devotion to the principles and opinions of his early master. The colleague, or chaber talmucl, of Huna for many years, he was far advanced in Hfe when he attained the rectorship, the duties of which he discharged for ten years, and died in 302, at the age of ninety -two. Chesda, who was the last of the men who had been personally instructed by Eav, was succeeded by a scholar of his own, Eabba bar Huna Mare, — the son of Huna ]\Iare, the late resh glittlia, — who obtained the rectorship, probably by family interest, at a com- paratively early age. Yet though a man of good ability, the seventeen years of his office witnessed a gradual decline in the school, both in numbers and ORDER III. AMORAIJr. 161 influence. He died in ;311), and was buried in Pales- tine. An interval of thirty-iive'years followed, during which Sora had no rector, till at length Papa bar Hanan resumed the office, and prolonged for a time the series of resh medU/ias there. Put the remains of the school were under him transferred to Nirasch, where he continued the course of studies till his death in 374. In the high school of Sora, during all these years, much material had accumulated for the future Tahnud; and among the men whose names are registered upon its pages, not a few acquired and communicated their knowledge at that seat of learning. PUMBADITIIA. This place derived its name from its situation at the {jmm) mouth of the Baditha, a canal between the Tigris and Euphrates, about six farsangs from the city of Koche. The school which was founded here became, with the exception of Sora, the most enduring and influential of all the rabbinic institutions in Babylonia. The first rector was Jehuda bar Jecheskel, surnamed Scliinnana, the "Subtle," or ''Sagacious," a.d. 250. Jehuda belonged to a rabbinical family, his father Jecheskel having been a teacher of the oral law, and his brotlier EMme maintaining a respectable standing in the same profession. Jehuda himself had the repu- tation of an almost unbounded knowledge, an inde- fatigable zeal for the promotion of it, and a sanctity of character which liis Hebrew eulogists have clothed with a kind of mythical splendour. In Jewish polity he was an opponent of the absolute authority of the resh glnth'i, and made it one of the objects of his life to render the rabbinical clergy independent of it. As a teacher his course of instruction w\as thoroughly practical. 163 HEBREW LITERATURE. He laid much stress on the study of the ]\Iishna order Nezikin, on the rights'of persons and property ; though in the more advanced period of his career he was a pro- found student of the mysteries of the maase heresliith, the kabaKstic nature-science wrapt up in the Book of Genesis. His attention was also sedulously employed on the conservation of the Hebrew language, which had now become liable to an entire corruption by the unceasing influx of terms and idioms from the Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and other exotic sources. In the last two years of his life, wliich ended in 292, he conjoined the presidency of Sora with that of Pumbaditha. After an ineffectual contest for the rectorship of the latter school, vacant by the death of Jehuda, between Rabba and Joseph, the chair was awarded to Huna bar Chijja, who had been treasurer to the Sassanide king, T\arsi bar Baharam, which office he now surrendered, as in- compatible with the presidency of the school, the duties of which he administered for seven years ; and in 299 was succeeded by Rabba, the son of Nachman, a Palestinian of the priestly family of Eli, and the father of seven sons,^ all of them men of renovni for their eminence in the learning of the Jews. The six brothers of Rabba resided chiefly at the school of Tiberias, devoted to the study of Jialaka and liafiada, under Jochanan, and afterwards under Ame and Jehuda IVesia, the grandson of Jehuda the Saint. Rabba himself was born in 250, at Hini, near Pumbaditha. On account of poverty he had been obliged to pursue his studies with no tuition but what he obtained by occasionally hearing Jehuda bar Jecheskel at Pumbaditha, and Huna at Sora, where also his brother Kajlil was a learner. After becoming cliaher, he went to Tiberias, to join his other four brothers in their studies under ^ Samuel, Oschaja, Hauina, Ishak, Kajlil, Joseph, aud Kabba. ORDER III. AMOKAnr. 103 Joclianan, and Asse his succesj^or, in 278. It was iiere tliat, according to one tradition, he commenced the collection of Palestinian Ilagadoth on Genesis, which has come down to us under the name of BcresJilth Jlahba^ to which we have already refi'rred. As this work is sometimes called BcresJiKh iJc Ralha OscJmja^ some consider this latter name to indicate Oschaja or lloshaia, the disciple of Jehuda the Holy, and others the brother of llabba, who is thonght to have had a j)artn(;r8liip with him in the work ; on which latter account it has again in some codices the title of BereshUh de Rahhi Oschaja ve Babba.* It is certain that the Bene?/ Nach- manl were eminent in that department of learning to which the book belongs. After the decease of Asse, Rabba, with Oschaja, returned to the land of Babel, acquiring and communi- cating knowledge at Hini Schilj, Kafri, Sora, and other places, till, on the death of Huna, in 297, he was installed in the rectorship of Pumbaditha. His course of instruction here had a wider range than what had obtained under Jehuda and Huna. Like them, he excelled in the exposition of Jewish civil law {^Ume mamonot-^i) on the rights of property, &c., giving much prominence to the study of the Seder Nezik'm. [How comprehensive this order is, will be seen by referring to the slight analysis of it supra, page 122.] This part of the Mishna, on account of its extensive and prac- tical uses in real life, had usually received the principal, and, in some cases, the exclusive, attention of the schools. But Rabba enlarged the ciirricidnm of study, by requu'iug attention to several of the more speculative treatises of the Mishna, and combined with the Baby- * A BR. BEN David in Sefer /laklcahala, f. 29. s Ualakoth Gedololh, f. 36. * Comp. Zuxz, G. v., 176, with FiiiiST, Kultur-Gesch., i., 133. 164 HEBREW LITERATURE. Ionian system of instruction some of the best pecu- liarities of the Palestinian schools. He designed a more scientific classification of the Halakas by reducing all which referred to the same subject to one denomi- nation. The Halakas comprised in these common- places were called Micldoth, or Midwoth, from mida, " a measure/' ^ or " normal standard.'" [Tliis term Mid- doth, or Midiooth, has been used in various ways. It is sometimes put as a synon3^m for the torah, or law, itself; {covaY^XQJevamofh, 64; a, yfiih. Minachoth, 18, a;) sometimes, to denote a certain class of traditional doc- trines ; those, namely, wliich have a secondary autho- rity, — MidwotJi sliel haJcamim, — as contrasted with such as are of primordial rank, as having been " received from Moses at Sinai.''] In his relations mth the o'esh glutlia, Rabba fol- lowed the same policy as that which had been adopted by Jehuda ben Jecheskel, and by many of the rabbins of Palestine with regard to their patriarch, — an opposi- tion to his autocratic power, and a purpose for the aggrandizement of the rabbinical power at his expense. In both countries, in proportion as the rabbinate gained influence, the patriarch and resh glutlia lost i^. This state of tilings brought on a serious antagonism between Eabba and the prince of the capti\'ity. The reputation of the former was increasing every year, and the school of Pumbaditha became the great resort of all who were in quest of Jewish learning. At the Imlla months, in spring and autumn, so many as twelve or fourteen thousand students crowded from all parts of the king- dom to hear his expositions. This inconvenient con- course attracted the unfavourable attention of the ^ In Aramaic, mekila, or melciltJia. A man skilled iu the Midiooth is styled Bar Mekilan. There were several collectious of 3Iidwoth with the title of Mekiltha. ORDEU III. AMOKATM. 105 Persian government ; and Sliabur, instigated, it is said, by the jealous resh gliif/ia, on tlie ground that all these men were called away from their several neighbour- hoods at a time when a certain tax was payable, inhibited the practice, and summoned Rabba to the civil tribunal, lie, however, withdrew himself, and, after leading a wandering life for some time, returned secretly to Pumbaditha. His retreat Avas soon dis- covered, and he was thrown into prison. Once more he found an opportunity to escape, but did not long survive. One account states that he w-as found dead under a palm-tree in the wilderness, with the Mishna treatises Negaim and Oholoth, w'hich had been the com- panions of his last hours ; but another tradition makes him to have sought refuge, when tracked by his ene- mies, among the branches of a lofty tree, and to have tlirown himself from it headlong, rather than become the victim of the public executioner. The next rector, about a.d. 309, was Josef bar Chijja, who well sustained the celebrity of the school. He was born at Schili, in a.d. 259. Endowed with an acute and powerful intellect, he had enjoyed the advan- tage of instruction from the greatest masters of the times, Jeliuda bar Jecheskel, Nachman bar Jacob, Huna, Schesclit, and Chasda, making the circle of the Babylonian schools, and receiving, as the disciple and talimid cliaber of those eminent men, the copious erudi- tion which they had derived from Samuel and Eav. This profound acquaintance with traditional lore won for him, both in Palestine and Babel, the appellation of " Sinai," and gave him the cliaracter of the most learned rabbi of the age. But Josef's studies and teaching were not restricted to the Halakoth and Haga- doth of tradition ; he was an adept in kabalistic theo- sophy, the metaphysical doctrines on the unity and 166 HEBREW LITERATURE. incorporeitj of the Divine nature, the flowing forth of the Divine energy in all being, and the tripartition of the universe into world, angels, and men, as unfolded, according to the rabbinical view, in the vision described in the first chapter of Ezekiel. Tliis had been a favourite study with many of the great masters, and had been reduced to a regular science, of which the earliest written exposition appears to have been a haraitJia de Maase Merkava.^ The Clu:istian divine, however, will feel more indebted to him for his labours in the depart- ment of biblical interpretation. He laid great stress on the verbal study of the Hebrew Scriptures, and on the value of the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, as fixing the meaning of terms and expressions which, according to his belief, would, even then, have been lost to the knowledge of the Jews themselves. And to his own labours in this field we owe the Targum on the Ketuvim, to which we shall have to refer in a future section, Josef held the presidential chair at Pumba- ditha till the close of his life iu 322. In his last days he sufTered from a failure of memor^^, and the extinction of his eyesight. Thus dilapidated, he was neverthe- less regarded by his disciples with undiminished respect. It was a noble sentence of one of them, Abba bar Mattana, in upholding the authority of their infirm and aged teacher, that " the tablets of the law, though broken, were enshrined by ]\Ioses in the ark of the covenant.''^ So, too, in relation to the loss of his sight, instead of fixing on his name the epithet of "the blind," the appellation by which he was henceforward known was " Josef the illuminated.'^ ' ® Merkavn, " the chariot-tliroiie." (Ezek. i.) See Eashi in Bera- koth, 55, a. a ^ Scuji Kako>\ Tlie rabbins never gave one of tbcniselves a name denoting a calamity : rather than do this, they reversed the epithet. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 107 Josef was followed bv Ahbaji Nacliniani bar Kajlil lia Kohen. His father, Kajlil, who was brother of ]{abl)a bar Nachman, died while his son was a young- child ; and Abbaji, left an orphan, owed nnieh to the goodness of a foster-mother, who is celebrated in the Talmud for her great wisdom in the atl'airs of life; sj)eeimens of which are given in ethical maxims, reflec- tions, dietetic rules, and medicinal prescriptions. From her care and instruction he Avas transferred to that of his uncle Rabba, who had just then returned from Tiberias, and who took great delight in advancing the studies of one in whom he thought, and correctly, he saw a future master in Israel. He attended, also, for a time, the jn-elections of Chasda at Sora, and of Nach- man in Schakanzib ; but studied more permanently under his illustrious kinsman, the rector of Pumbaditha. iVfter Eabba's death he engaged in teaching on his own account, but with frecjuent attendance on the exercitations of Josef, for whom he entertained an exalted esteem, and whom, in 322, he succeeded in the presidency. Abbaji, however, was not a popular resh metihtha ; and, during the fourteen years of his incum- bency, the school underwent a great numerical reduc- tion. For, though distinguished by great erudition and a life of elevated piety, the latter had a strong tinge of ascetic sternness, and his rehgion was overshadowed by the gloom of superstition.* His com-se of instruc- tion, also, was deemed too speculative to answer to the practical tendency of the times. His early friend, fellow-student, and successor, Eaba bar Josef bar Chama, (a.d. 337,) endeavoured to meet this defect, and so far succeeded as to give rise to the proverb, that, while in the school of Abbaji men gnawed the bones, in that of Raba they satisfied their * See, for example, his opinions on evil spirits, Berakoth, fol. 6. 168 HEBREW LITERATURE. hunger with the meat.^ This celebrated teacher was born in 292^ at Machusa, the place where, as already mentioned, his father, Josef bar Cliama, had founded a school, on the overthrow of Nehardea. ]\Iachusa was an old and considerable Jewish settlement; but Hebrew society had become much degenerated there by a large influx of proselytes, and by intermarriage with Gentile families. Eaba's education, begun by his father, was carried on by instruction from Jochanan, Nachman, Schescht, and, finally, by Eabba bar l^ach- man, at Pumbaditha, where he had the companionship of Abbaji. When the latter, on the death of Josef, was elected to the presidency, Eaba ^ went to Machusa, and superintended the academy there, more as a col- league of Abbaji than as his rival ; though, of the two, he was the more popular. He was, therefore, con- sidered the man every way quahfied to be liis successor. But, on becoming the sole resJi metibtJia, he preferred remaining at Machusa, whither the students fi'om Pimi- baditha removed in 337, Eaba being then but forty- five years of age. He sustained the oflice fourteen years, during which Machusa became the great resort of Hebrew students.^ Here the Mislma received a more ample exegesis than it had hitherto been the sub- ject of in Babylonia. The exposition itself was now being developed in recognised and authoritative forms, wliich, in their collective state, took at length the name of Gemaba. The study of IMishna and Gemara was called Talmuda. Of this Eaba was recognised as an eminent master {7nare de Talmuda) ; and as the expo- sitor of the ultimate and most perfect manifestation ^ Bava Bathra, 22, Furst's Perleiischniire, p. 79. ^ Distiuguisb his name from Rabba, by the single ieth. ' Hence the proverb, " Better to live in the precincts of Machusa than to dwell in the palaces of Pumbaditha." ouDin; III. AMoi!Ani. IGO of the law, he received the designation of the Moses of his day. In the school of Machusa, in addition to the usual routine of Scripture, !Mislina, Jiaraitha, Toseftha, Mekil- tlia, Mashahm, llagada, and so forth, the exercises called Kau-ajoth , initiated by Abbaji at Pumbaditha, were brought by Eaba into great efficiency. These were discussions carried on upon the principles of tlie dialectics which obtained in the Hebrew schools, and exemplifications of which are so numerous in the Talmud. [The terra Hawajoth is from the rabbinical form, Haice bell, or Hav'nin beJi, equivalent to, " ATe discuss," or "investigate, the subject ;" literally, "AYe are in it," or " enter into it," for the purpose of thorough exami- nation.] Eaba not only excelled in the dialectics of Hebrew law, but took great interest in that branch of their science called maase hereshitJi, the theosophy of crea- tion ) a province to which only the most advanced students were admissible. The investigation of pro- phecy in relation to the advent of the jMessiah was another of his favourite pursuits. At that time the world was changing. In the West, Coustantine had made Christianity the rehgion of the Roman empire; while, in the East, it was advancing with a steady pro- gress among the Persians, Armenians, Arabians, and other nations. With other learned men of his people, Eaba had an opinion that, at the time of the coming of the Son of David, Christianity would have overrun the world.* Prom the wide-spreading triumphs of the rehgion of the Cross, he was led to the expectation, that the long-expected deliverer of Israel was at hand. The interest of the Jewish race in this expectation was * Sanhedrin. fol. 96 170 HEBEEW LITERATUEE. augmented by their increasing liability to persecution from an antagonistic and, too often, vindictive power, wlucli was thus rising around them in greater strength every year ; so heightening their sense of forlornness as a jjeople, and giving renewed intensity to their old yearnings for the appearance of Him who would yet give Jerusalem the palm of victory over all the empires of the earth. Alas ! the fatal veil which is yet upon the Hebrew mind then hindered them, as now, from seeing that "the Desire of all nations has abeady come." To Eaba belongs the honour of promoting, more extensively than any of his predecessors, the education of young children. In this branch of culture the Baby- lonian Jews were behind their brethren in Palestine, where the department of primary instruction had been organically carried on from the time of Jeshua ben Gamla, some time before the destruction of Jerusalem. But it was not till the days of Abba Arekka Eav that any thing was attempted on a proper scale among the Gola. Among the precepts of Eav upon this subject one was, that no child should attend a school till six years of age : another, that if punishment was necessary, it should be administered with the sole of a shoe, or a thin strip of leather. " If he will then read, good ; if not, let him be put lower than his companions, that the feeling of emulation may stir him up to diligence.'" The rabbins were to exercise a constant supervision over these common schools. Eaba, following the principles of Jeshua ben Gamla, ordained that every town where there were any Jewish families should have its own elementary school ; and that no child belonging to one town should be admitted to the school of another. The number of scholars under one teacher should not exceed twenty-five. If there OKHKR Til. AMOiunr. 17 i were fifty chilclron, tluTc should be two masters. But if two regular masters eould not be found, the master should employ a suitable helper, {resh (Jnchna,) who \\as to be paid out of the public chest of the congregation ; and also, in the choice of masters, the preference should be given to a man of diligent habits and practi- cal experience, over another who might excel liim in learn- ing, but be wanting in those necessary qualifications. The learned labours of Raba were carried on in un- quiet and aftlictive times. The Persian king, Sliabur II., waged a long-continued strife with Coustantine, Julian, Jovinian, aud Gratiau. [In the course of this war the hand of persecution fell with terrible violence on the Clu:istians of the East;' and the Jews, as well as the fire-priests of the Magian rehgion, have been accused of having been instigators of it. True it is that Chris- tianit}', which had now overspread whole districts of the Persian dominions, must have been disliked and dreaded by both these parties ; and the charge of inciting the king to measures of violence against it, may be more or less applicable to them. Still, when w'e look at the difference of the treatment observed by Shabur toward the Jews and Christians, we must take into account the different relations in which each people stood with regard to Rome, his powerful enemy. The Jews were the hereditary enemies of the Roman power, and were therefore looked on with an amicable eye by the Per- sian government. They were not only tolerated, but admitted to offices of honour and trust. They had friends at court, and a proselyte in the person of the queen herself. On the other hand, the Christians, in proportion as their faith gained ground in the Raman empire, would be induced to cherish a friendly feeling towards it ; and, especially since the cstabhslunent of * Vide "Syrian Churches," p. 51. I -z 173 HEBREW LITEEATUEE. their religion by the emperor, they had become, at least in the judgment of their persecutors, interested in the successes of the enemies of their country. Tlie per- secution was, therefore, a political measure, though brought about by circumstances related to religion.] We may easily conceive, however, that these years of conflict and bloodshed were anytliing but propitious to the piu'suits of learning. For though, from a per- sonal friendsliip for Raba, the implacable adversary of the Christians afforded protection to the Jewish inhabi- tants of Machusa, he could not secure them from the unavoidable evils by which a country so often swept by the squadrons of Persia and the legions of Eome must have been harassed and made desolate. Still, through all those gloomy times, the lamp of science burned on at Machusa. The students, often reduced in number, persevered against great discouragements; and when the presidency of Eaba terminated, he left nearly a hundred accomplished men, ardently engaged in fol- lowing out the plans and principles of their revered instructor. After Eaba^s death in 351, Pumbaditha became once more the seat of the school ; and Nachman bar Isaak, who had been resli Imlla under Eaba, was chosen to the rectorship, which he held till 355, respected rather for his religious virtues than for scholastic eminence. His successor was Chama bar Tobija, who died in 376, and of whose twenty years' presidency tradition has left but little worthy of remark.® Meantime, at Sora a light had arisen which drew all eyes towards it. Ashi bar Simai had now begun that illustrious career which, during a rectorsliip of fifty-two years, brought the science of tradition into that systematic * Except liis having burned to death a young Jewess, thf daughter of a priest, for a violation of the law. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 173 form vvliich lias become permanent in the East Aramaic Talmud. The school at Sora had undergone, as wc have seen, an interruption under Papa bar Chanan ; but the studies were resumed some time after with renewed spirit and efficiency, on the accession to the rectoral chair of one who proved to be the prince of all the oriental rabbins. Asm (EsHAi or Isaiah) bar Simai was born at Sora in 351, and indebted to Kahana, one of Raba's best scholars, for his first scholastic training. His great capabdity of acquiring and imparting knowledge placed him, at the early age of twenty-three, in the presidential chair at Sora, where the school by his zealous labours unfolded a rapid resuscitation. It may be called, indeed, a literal resurrection; for the college buildings them- selves, and the synagogue with which they were con- nected, were rebuilt upon such a scale of magnitude and beauty, as to render them the ornament of the city; while the increasing number of students, the trans- cendent talent of the instructor, and the unwonted breadth and amplitude of his com'se of teaching, com- bined to make Sora the chief of the Babylonian schools, and the metropolis of Rabbinism in the East. At the outset of liis administration, Ashi found the immense mass of Gemara learning in a chaotic con- fusion. The labours of the Amoraim had hitherto created, rather than reduced their accmnulations into system and order. The text of the Mishna itseK had become deteriorated by various readings, and the cur- rent explanations of many points in it were uncertain and contradictory. One master had laid down tliis, and another that ; and the details of practice in Jewish life were thereby grox^ing more and more irregular. The Jerusalem Talmud was imperfect as a commentary on 174 HEBREW LITERATURE. the Mislma, both as to the extent and the quality of its explications. Many parts of the text were left without gemara ; and the commentary on those parts professedly explained^ was weakened and often worthless by a large admixture of mere fable and legend. Under these cir- cumstances Ashi was moved to undertake a connected and comprehensive commentary on the treatises of the Mishua^ so as to collect, condense, and set in order the entire array of traditional law, as eliminated by the rabbins since the time of Jehuda the Saint. This was the enterprise of his life, and one which, after the lapse of many laborious years, resulted in the consolidation of THE Babylonian Talmud. At each of the Irdla months, that Is, at Adar before Passover, and Elul before the New Year, he and his ten ros/ii kalla handled one of the treatises of the Mishna ; and the doctrine on such portions was there- upon embodied in a permanent form. The subject for the next halla exercise was then propounded, and the intermediate months employed by the students and chahenm in collecting aU kno^vn traditionary decisions respecting it. These in their turn formed the thema of investigation at the kalla, and the result took its place as Gemaristic law. It appears from Sherira Gaon, that Ashi went through the whole course of the Talmud in thirty years ; after the rate of two treatises in a year, or one treatise in a semestre? In the remaining twenty-two years of his of&cial life he accomplished a mehadora, or revision of the subject, so as that, when in his seventy-fifth year he ended his labours,® the Tahnud, saving only a few circumstantial additions, had been created. The rectorship of Ashi spread over an interval of fifty-t\yo years in the reigns of Ardisheer II,, Shabur III., 7 Sherira hjg., 38. » A.D. 426. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 175 Baliaram IV., Yesdigird Ulatliim, Baharam V., and Yesdigird II., and in the exarchate of Mar Eraar, Mar Sutra, and Huna bar Nathan. The school of Sora became, while he sat in the chair of traditional law, the centre of authority, the laboratory of a scientific rabbinical system, a source of illumination to the Jewish schools of the day, and to those of unborn ages. Ashi was thus to Babylon, what Jehuda Rabbenu had been to Palestine. This co-ordinate eminence is intimated in the peculiar title given to each : Jehuda is often named merely by the title of Rabbi or Rabbenu ; so like\\ise Ashi by Rabbana. The Talmud itself, thus substantially inaugurated by Ashi, was progressively advanced by his successors, till its completion and sealing in the year 498. The studies of Sora, and the carrying up of this intellectual Tower of Babel to what has been considered the summit of perfection, were superintended by Mar Jemar, a.d. 426- 431; Ide bar Abin, 431-451; [since 442 the Jews had suffered a bloody persecution by Yesdigird ;] Nach- mau bar Huna, 451-^154,; Tabjomi, or Mar bar Ashi, 454-466 ; Rabba of Tusfa, 466-473. [Persecution by Kruz : Je^vish schools placed under interdict.] Rabba was followed by R'Avina, or Rabbana Abina bar Huna, in 473. Of these, the two most considerable were Tabjomi and R^A^^na, who died in 498 ; and with him ended the series and succession of the Amoraim, or Mishna and Talmud authorities, at Sora. At Nehardea, Oschaja bar Sabba had presided from 320 to 345, and had been succeeded by Chama bar Tobija, 345-355 ; Chama bar Josef, 355-376 ; Dime bar Chinena, 376, who went, in 384, to Pumbaditha; and by Amemar bar Janka, Avho finished his eminent labours in 420. 176 HEBREW LITERATURE. At Pumbaditliaj Chama bar Tobija bad been suc- ceeded by Sebid bar Oschaja, a.d. 376-381.; and who had been followed by Dime bar Chihena, 384-387; Nafrem bar Papa, 387-397, author of a Baraitha called Ebel Eahhati;^ Kaliana bar Taclilifa, 397-413. To him is attributed the PesiMha ^ Rahhathi. [A cyclus of Hagadistic and Gemaristic illustrations on the Itafta- rotJi, or Bible lessons adapted to the sabbaths of the year. This work is no longer extant, except in a hundred and ninety fragments in the YalJcut, and in about two hundred and fifty quotations in the Aruch of E. Nathan.] Then follow, Acha bar Raba, 413-418; Gebiha, 418-433 ; Nafrem, 432-443 ; Nechumai, 443- 445; [persecution;] Sama bar Raba, 445-475; Jose, 475-503. In the time of this last series the Jews suffered much persecution from the Persian kings Yesdigird II. and Piruz " the Tyrant." Jose was the last rector of the Amoraim class of doctors. In his day the Horaa, or traditionary doctrine, received its consummation, and the Talmud became complete. This wondrous cyclopaedia of Jewish literature had been carried on in cu-cumstances often of formidable difficulty; the frequent discouragements of exile, the disturbances of war, and the reiterated violence of persecution,^ whether from the cupidity and cruelty of the Persian rulers, or the fanatical malice of the Magian worshippers of the sun, all rendering the task of the men engaged in such a work, one which could only be achieved by an indomitable zeal and perseverance. To Jose is assigned the honour of "completing to ' Moed Katon, 24. ^ PiSKA : decretum, sententia. Pesiktha : decisum, statmtum. ^ "We must qualify this by tke remark, that in much of Rahbana Ashi's time the Jews at Sora enjoyed a long interval of quietude. ORDER III. AMORAIM. 177 write and of sealing tlio Geniara of Isabel, in the twenty- fourth year of his rcctoral and magisterial dignity [lagedoUho hi uvith dino], in the year from the Creation 43G0, and three hundred and eleven years from the sealing of the Mishna/'' ^ IV. STRUCTURE OF THE TAL51UD. The Talmud, (from lamad, "to teach/') next to (or rather, in the strictly Jewish view, along with) the canonical Scriptures, is the authoritative code of Hebrew doctrine and juiisprudence. It consists of the Mishna as text, and a voluminous collection of commentaries and illustrations, called in the more modern Hebrew Horaa, and in Aramaic Gemara, " the Complement " or " Completion," from gemar, " to make perfect." Hence the men who dehvered these decisive commentaries are caDed Gemarists, sometimes Horaim, but more commonly Amoraim. The Gemara generally takes the character of scho- lastic discussions, more or less prolonged, on the con- secutive portions of the Mishna. On a cursory view these discussions have the air of a desultory and con- fused wrangle; but upon a more careful study they resolve themselves into a system governed by a method- ology of its own. The Gemara is in general only a more complete developement of the Mishna. It follows the same routine as the D'li^, or {shesJiah sedarim,) "six orders," of the latter, and their included massektoth, or " treatises," so far as they are the subjects of commentary. Thus, also, the primary elements of the Mishna pervade the Gemara. ^ Cir. A.D. 500. So R. Gedaua in Schalscheleth Ilakkahala ; Sherira Gaon, {apud Juc/ias'm,) and Zemach David, ad. ann. 4260. The year from tke Creation is the false rabbinical one. I 5 178 HEBREW LITERATURE. These are : 1. Quotations from the Torah, or written law. 2. Peeushim, exphcations of it. 3. Halaka^ whether fixed and immutable, because an oral tradition perpetuated from the lips of Moses, {halaka le-2IosJieh mi-Sinai,) or determinable by argumentation upon ac- knowledged rules and principles of exegesis, exliibited in the thirteen mecUotl of E. Ishmael. 4. Minhagoth, prescribed customs and settled usages [ritus). 5. Tequanoth, constitutions or appointments of later rab- bins, made in accordance with tlie necessity of circum- stances, 6. Gezeroth, [dehrey hachamim vajechidim,) ordinations of the rabbins, which have the effect of insuring a greater attention to the law itself, gedarim useyagiiii, ramparts and hedges to the law. All these materials are intermixed with, 7. An endless variety of Hagadoth, anecdotes and illustrations, historical and legendar}^, which tend to keep up the attention, and give the book a charm for the mere reader, and an ever recurring refreshment to the severer student. Next to the quotations from Scripture and the text of the Mishna, the most ancient materials of the Talmud are innumerable fragments of Toseftoth and Barathijoth, inserted here and there throughout the entire frame of the work. 1. A Toseftha is an appendix to the Mishna. We have seen that R. Chaia, or, as some have it, E,. Nehemja under his direction, composed a work of this description in Palestine, the substance of which is diffused in citations throughout the Talmud. They are indicated by the sign-word. Tana, " He teaches -'' or, Vetanl aleh, "It is taught hereuj)on," prefixed to the sentence. [Distinguish the purely Mishuaic Toseftoth, or additions to the Mislma, from the Tosafoth, or exegetical additions to the Gemara by later rabbins; e.g., those ORDEll III. AMOIIAIM. 179 of R. Tham, or Isaac ben Meir, Isaac ben Gcath, Is;uvc ben Samuel, Sliiraon Messchantz ben Abraham, Shimon Nikkinon, Isaac ben Abraham, and Perez ben Isaac, whose works, being of tliis kind, give them the common appeUation of Tosatists.] 2. A l^araitha is another kind of supplement to the Mishna. Such are the books Si/ra, Stfree, and Mckil- tha, mentioned in former pages. When a citation is adduced from a Baraitha in the l""ahnud it is introduced by one of these forms : Tanu rabbanan, " Our rabbins have taught;" Tani chada, "A certain (rabbi) has taught;" Tania idak, "Another has tauglit;" Tanina, "AVe have a tradition;" Mathnitha, "It is Mishna." These paragraphs contain doctrine which is commonly incontestable, unless contradictory to the literal text of the Mishna. The language of the Talmud is partly Hebrew and partly Aramaic. The best Hebrew of the work is in the text of the Mishna, that in the Gemara being largely debased with exotic words of various tongues, barbarous spelling, and uncouth grammatical, or rather ungrani- matical, forms. The same remark will apply to the Aramaic portions, which in general are thos'e containing popular narrative or legendary illustration; while the law principles, and the discussions relating to them, are embodied in Hebrew. Many forms of the Talmudic dialect are so peculiar as to render a grammar adapted to the work itself greatly to be desii-ed. Ordinary Hebrew grammar will not take a man through a page of it. Let any one, with the mere knowledge of bibli- cal Hebrew grammar, try to construe the first sentence in the Gemara, and he will begin to understand what we mean. In style the Mishna is remarkable for its extreme conciseness ; and the Gemara is written upon the same 180 HEBREW LITERATURE. model, though not so frequently obscure. The pre- vailing principle of the composition seems to have been the employment of the fewest words, thus rendering the work a continued brachylogy. A phrase becomes the focus of many thoughts ; a solitary word an anagram, a cipher for a whole subject of reflection. To employ an appropriate expression of Delitzsch, "What Jean Paul says of the style of Haman, applies exactly to that of the Talmud : It is a firmament of telescopic stars, containing many a cluster of light which no unaided eye has ever resolved." Beside the peculiar grammatical forms which reign throughout the work, there is a large class of technical expressions which were current only in the rabbinical schools, but have been incorporated in the Gemara, hke joints and ligaments in its organization, so as to make the knowledge of them indispensable to the student. (1.) Perush, or elucidation of some place or point in the IMishna, is introduced by the sign form, Mai hah, " What is tliis ?" (2.) KusHiA, "opposition, contradiction, or objec- tion;" a qrfestioning, not of a fixed Halaka, which is irrefragable, but of some position of the Amoraim, or perhaps Tanaim, which is lawfully debatable. If the objection relates to a single thing, the sign is ethehe ; if to more than one, methibe. (3.) Peruk, "releasing," is the explanatory answer to the hushia. If no rejoinder can be offered, the position is conclusive. (4.) Shealah is a question arising out of sometliing in a j\Iishna Toseftha, or 13araitha quotation. If offered by one school to another, the sign is, Ibaeja lelio, " They propose to them." If from several persons to one, the sign is, Ba-u mineh, " They ask of him." Or, ORDER III. AMORAIM. 181 if tlic deiiuind is made by one person of another, it is, Baa vilneh, " I ask of him." (5.) Tesiiuvah, "rejiponse," is the answer to such interrogations. It is commonly preceded by the sign. To shema, "Come and hear." If the question is not answerable, it is signified by the word Teko, or by Kas/iia, " It remains a question." The expression Jcashia denotes, however, that though the question remains unanswered, it may nevertheless not be unanswerable. (6.) Tejuvtha, an objection put forward as a rejoinder {tuv) to an asserted doctrine or principle. The issue, conclusion, or Halaka will depend on the force or weakness of the tejuvtha. (7.) Sejua, or Seiuva, "help, support," appm ; cor- roborative evidence for a doctrine or principle. Sign : Lima iiiesaijea leh, "It can be said:" "There is sup- port for it." (8.) Eejiijah, an objection throivn against a senti- ment or opinion by the allegation of a contrary autho- rity (from rema, "to throw"). SigTi: Verammehi, " But I oppose this." (9.) Hazeraka, or Hatseeaio^, "necessity;" a rela- tive necessity, which makes two allegations equally demonstrable. SigTi : Zerikah, or TseriJcah. (10.) Hattakeftha, "an assailing or seizing upon," denotes another species of objection, in use only among the later Amoraim. The sign : Mathk'iph lah R. Peloni, "Eabbi such an one attacks this." If the Takeftha be not confuted, it takes the value of Halaka. (II.) Maasah, factum : the establishment of an Halaka by cases of actual experience or practice. (12.) Shemaatetha, from shema, "to hear," describes a judgment or principle, which, being founded on Holy Scripture, or being of self-evident authority, must be hearkened to as incontestable. 183 HEBREW LITERATURE. (13.) SuGiA, the proper nature of a thing. By this word the Gemara refers to itself, with regard to its own properties and characteristics. (14.) Teko, orTEKU. Compare No. (5.) Some con- sider this word as an adaptation of the Greek ^tjktj, "a receptacle/' and that it is used in the Talmud to denote that which is doubtful ; a problem which does not admit of solution; a matter concealed, as if shut up in a receptacle ; a difficulty which, for the present, seems unanswerable. But others take the word to be a compendium of the initial letters of the sentence, Tishbi i/etenits JcusJiioth ti-baioth, i. e., "The Tishbite" (Elijah, at his coming) "will explain all objections and inquiries." (15.) Shinnui, "disowning, or shifting o^-/' when a hakem, too sorely pressed ia debate, shifts off his thesis upon another. Sign : Ha mani R. Peloni hi. (16.) HiLKATHA, or Halaka, the ultimate conclu- sion on a matter debated; henceforth constituting a rule of conduct : from halah, "to walk." Of the various kinds of Jtill-othv;^ have already spoken. ]\[uch of the Gemara consists of discussions by which they are verified, confirmed, and designated. When the advocates of two opposing theses have brought the debate to an issue, they say, " The Halaka is with such an one." (17.) HoRAA, "demonstration;" doctrine, legitimate and authoritative ; authenticated as such by the con- clusions of the Amoraim. (18.) Sheetah, " series ;" a catena or line of Talmudic teachers, cited against a given proposition. Sign : Sebira lehi, " They are of opinion." (19.) Hagada, a sapng, incident related, anecdote or legend employed in the way of elucidation. Hagada is not law ; but it serves to illustrate law. OllBKR III. AMORAIM. 183 Many of the llagadoth wliicli crowd tlic pages of the Tahiuid are extravagant, and often, wlien taken literally, absui'd. But they must be merely regarded as to their meaning and intention. ]\Iucli has been said against tlie Tahuud, on account of the preposterous character of some of these legends. But wc should give the Hebrew literati the benelit of their own expla- nations. They tell us, that, in the Talnuid, llagada has no absolute authority ; nor any value, except in the way of elucidation. It often enwraps a })hilosopliic meaning under the veil of allegory, mythic folk-lore, etliical story, oriental romance, parable, aphorism, and fable. They deny that the authors of these fancy pieces intended either to add to the law of God, or to diminish from it, by them ; but only to explain and enforce it in terms best suited to the popular capacity. They caution us against receiving these things accord- ing to the letter, and admonish us to understand them according to their spiritual or moral import. " Beware," says Maimonides, " that you take not these words of the Hachimim literally ; for this would be degrading to the sacred doctrine, and sometimes to contradict it. Seek rather the hidden sense; and if you cannot find the kernel, let the shell alone, and confess, 'I cannot understand this.' " * Some of the earlier rabbins themselves confessed but Httle esteem for the Hagadistic branch of their scholastic lore. "He," exclaims R. Jehoshua ben Levi, " he who WTites it down w'ill have no portion in the world to come; he who explains it will be scorched."^ And one of the most enlightened Jews of our own time, the late Professor Hurwitz, freely acknow- ledges that " the Talmud contains many things which every Jew must sincerely wish had never appeared * Phermh Hammishnaioth. ^ Talmud {Hieros.). 184 HEBREW LITERATURE. tliere, or should, at least, long ago have been expunged from its pages Some of these Agadatha are objectionable lier se ; others are, indeed, susceptible of explanations, but without them are calculated to produce false and erroneous impressions. Of the former description are all those extravagances relating to the extent of Paradise, the dimensions of Gehinom, the size of Leviathan, and the slior hahar, the freaks of Aslimodai, &c,, &c. ; idle tales borrowed most probably from the Parthians and Arabians, to whom the Jews were subject before the promulgation of the Talmud, How these objectionable passages came at all to be inserted, can only be accounted for from that great reverence with wliich the Israelites of those days used to regard tlieir wise men, and which made them look upon every word and expression that dropped from the mouth of their instructors, as so many precious sayings well worthy of being preserved. And when, in after times, these writings were collected, the writers, either from want of proper discrimination, or from some pious motive, suffered them to remain I admit also that there are many contradictions in the Talmud; and, indeed, it would be a miracle if there were none. For the work contains not the opinions of only a few individuals Hving in the same society, under precisely similar circumstances, but of hundreds, nay, thousands, of learned men of various talents, living in a long series of ages, in different countries, and under the most diversified conditions." " To believe that its mul- tifarious contents are all dictates of unerring wisdom, is as extravagant as to suppose that all it contains is founded in error. Like all other productions of unaided humanity, it is not free from mistakes and prejudices; to remind us that the writers were fallible men, and that unqualified admiration must be reserved for the ORDER III. AMORATM, 185 works of Divine iiispir;i(ioii, which wc ought to study, the better to adore and obey the all-pert'ect Author. But while I shoidd be the first to protest against any confusion of the Tahuudic rills with the ever-flowing stream of holy writ, I do not hesitate to avow ihy doubts whether there exists any uninspired work of equal antiquity, that contains more interesting, more various and valuable information, than that of the still existing remains of the ancient Hebrew sages/' Thus far Professor Hurwitz, in his Introduction to a volume of " Hebrew Tales," collected chiefly from the Tahuud, It is evident that he was no believer iu the co-ordinate authority of the Gcmara and the Pentateuchal law. But even his estimate of the Talmud admits of serious qualifications. The fact is, that great encyclo- psedia of Hebrew wisdom teems vdiii error. In almost every department in science, in natural liistory, in chronology, genealogy, logic, and morals, falsehood and mistake are mixed up with truth upon its pages. Notwithstanding, with all its imperfections, it is a useful book, an attestation of the past, a criterion of progress already attained, and a prophecy of the future. It is a witness, too, of the lengths of folly to wliicli the mind of man may drift, when he disdains the wisdom of God as revealed in the Gospel ; and in these respects it will always have a claim on the attention of the wise. When Talmudism, as a religious system, shall in a generation or two have passed away, the Talmud itself will be stni resorted to as a treasmy of things amusing and things profitable ; a deep cavern of antiquity, where he who carries the necessary torch will not fail to find, amid w^hole labyrinths of the rubbish of times gone by, those inestimable lessons that will be true for all times to come, and gems of ethical and poetic thought which retain their brightness for ever. 186 HEBREW LITERATURE. In addition to the treatises wliicli compose the Gemaraj there are certain minor ones which are con- nected with it as a kind of apocrypha, or appendix, under the title of Massektoth Ketanoth, or Smaller Treatises. These are : — 1. Masseketh Soferim : Halakas respecting the transcriptions of biblical manuscripts. In twenty-one chapters. 2. MassehetTi Ebel Rahbathi, or SemaJcoth: ordi- nances for funeral solemnities. Fourteen chapters. 3. Masseketh Kalla : observances relating to marriage. 4. Masseketh Derek Eretz, Rabba ve-Zota: a com- pendium of ethical sentences. The Kabba contains eleven, and the Zota nine, chapters. 5. Masseketh Gerim : laws for proselytes. 6. Masseketh Kuthim: concerning persons not Jewish. 7. Masseketh Zitzith : fringes. To these tracts are sometimes added : — 1. Ililkoth Eretz Israel: relating principally to the ways of slaughtering animals for food, after the Jewish ideas. This treatise is much later than the Talmud. 2. Aboth cle Rabbi Nathan: a commentary on, or amplification of, the treatise Avoth. In twenty-one chapters. Subsidiaries to the Talmud, printed either in the margin of the pages, or at the end of the treatises : — 1. Tosafoth : vide s?fj)ra, ^age ITS. They are by the following authors : Baruch ben Isaac ; Ehezer ; Meir ben Baruch; Moses ben Yomtob, of Evereux; Perez ben Eha, of Corbeil; Samuel, of Evereux; Samuel ben SalomOj of Ealaise; Simson, of Sens; Moses Coney; Elia Oettiugen ; Benjamin of Posen ; Aslier ben Jechiel (Rosh) ; Jacob ben Asher ; and one anonymous. Most of these Tosafists were of the French school, and personally related to the family of Eashi. ORDEll ni. AMORAIM. 187 2. MasoraJi IiasJicsh Seilartm : margiiuil Masorctic indices to the six orders of the Mishna. 3. Ain or J^/t 3fis//j)at : index of phaccs in ]\Lii- monides, Jacob ben Aslier, &c,, on the rites and insti- tutions. 4. Ner Mitsroih: lumen pracepti : a general index of decisions according to the digest of Mainionides. 5. Or torah : the hnv of Hght. These indices, I believe, are all, or mainly, the work of Joshua Boaz, avIio spent thii-teeu years at the task, and left it uutinished. 6. Blur lehalaka : elucidations of difficult places. 7. The Penish'un, or Commentaries, of (1.) Rashi, or R. Shelomo Jarchi. (2.) llosh, E. Asher. (8.) Ilara- bam, R. Mushe ben j\Iaimun. (4.) Meharschel, R. Shelomo Luria ; and, (5.) jMeharsha, R. Shemuel Edel. Editions of the Babylonian Talmud. General title, Talmud Babli, Venice, 1520; Basil., 1579; Cracow, 1603; Lublin, 1617; Amsterdam, 1644; Frankfort, 1679; ibid., 1712; Berlin, 1715; Amst., 1752; Amst., 1765; Salsbach, 1770; Dyrhenf, 18^^; Slobuta, 1817 ; Prague, 1829 ; U/id., 1839 ; Czernowic, 1841 ; Venice, 1847. General distribution of the treatises. A memorandum of use in making references to the Tal- mud: — Vol. I., Seder Zeralm ; Vol. II., Moed: tr. Shabbath, Eritvin ; Vol. III., Moed continued : PesacMm, Betsia, Cliag'uja, Moed Katon ; Vol. IV., Moed con- tinued : Bosh hashana, Yoma, SuJcka, Taanith, Shehalirriy Megilla; Vol. V., Seder Nasldm: Jebamoth, Ketuvoth, Kidduskin; Vol. VI., Nashim continued: Gittin, Nedarim, Nasir, Sootah ; Vol. VIL, Seder Nezikin: Bava Kama, Bava Metsia ; Vol. VIII., Nezikin con- tinued : Bava Bathra, Avoda Sara ; Vol. IX., Nezihin continued : Sanhedrin, Shevuoth, MaJckoth, Edijoth, 188 HEBREW LITERATUKE. Horajoth, Avoth, with the Avoth of R. Natlian, and the Smaller Treatises, and the HalaJcoth of Asher ; Vol. X., Seder Kodashim : SebacJiim, MenacJioth, Beclioroth ; Yol. XI., Kodashim continued : Chull'm, Arachim, Te- mura, Kerithoth, Meila, Kiimim, Tamid, Middoth ; Yol. XII., Seder TaJiaroth: Nidda, Kelim, Oholoth, Negaim, ParaJi, Taharoth, Mihvaotli, MaksJdrim, Sahlm, Tehid-jom, Tadaim, Ozekln. I cannot say whether the distribution is uniformly the same in all the editions. Introductions to, or compendiums or, the Tal- mud : — 1. The Jad-Hachazaciua of Maimonides, in six volumes, folio, Amst., 1702. 3. Perus/i HammisJma, by the same, four vols., folio, Amst, 1698. 3. The Preface of Maimonides to the Seder Zeraim. 4. The Introduction to the Talmud of R. Shemuel Hannagid. 5. Einleitung in den Talmud, von Dr. E. M. Pinner, in his useful edition of the treatise BerakotJi. It embodies much of the two works last mentioned. (Folio, Berhn, 1842.) 6. CompendluM des Talmud, von Dr. E. M. Pinner. 7. Schroeder, J. P., Satzungeii u. Gehrduche d. Tal- mudisch-rahbinischen JudentJmms: ein Kandhuch fur Jnristen, Staatsmdnner, Tlieologen u. GescJiicJitsforscher, (8vo., 1851.) ORDER IV. TARGUMISTS AND MASORITES. 189 OEDER IV. TAEGUMISTS AND MASORITES. CLASS I. METURGEMANIN. The sin of idolatry to which their forefathers had been so often aud so fatally addicted, never re -appears amongst the Hebrew people after thcBabylonian captivity. A great moral change then took place in tliis respect, wliich has been confirmed as with an eternal seal. The desolation of their fatherland, and the sorrows ofexile, were so far sanctitied to the renovation of tlieir spiritual life, as to have finally cured them of the strong bias to polytheism, which had been in past generations the bane and dishonour of their race. And along with this rectified tendency to the acknowledgment and worship of the one true God, there came a revived love for the study of His word, which unfolded itself in the insti- tution of pubhc exercises for the exposition of the Scrip- tures. The voice of the prophets had been silenced in death, but not the voice of God; and from the days when Ezra inaugurated the wholesome practice of pub- licly preaching and expounding the written oracles of inspiration, a wish for a more accurate acquaintance with them vibrated throughout the national mind, till the Divine word, on sabbath, new moon, and feast- dav, was heard ^^ith solemnity and reverence by all the families in the land. But the change which had taken place in the verna- cular language, rendered a verbal translation of the He- brew Scriptures necessary to the instruction and edifi-. cation of the common people. By the establishment of Aramean settlements in the Holy Land, (2 Kings xvii. 24,) the subjugation of the country to the Chaldean power, and the long residence of the Gola families in 190 HEBREW LITERATURE. Babylonia itself, Aramaic had become the vulgar tongue, and the knowledge of the old biblical Hebrew only the privilege of priests and Soferim. This necessity was met by Ezra and the men of the Great Sjoiagogue, by the appointment of public interpreters of the word, who, in synagogues, {moacle^-el,Vsahalxs.iY. 8,) or ?nedras/iim, (schools of instruction,) carried on — under the official name of mehirgemanin, " paraphrasts or translators; " darshanlm,^ "expositors and preachers," and lieplire- sldm, "explainers or commentators" — the systematic exposition of the word of God. Now these expositions, at first merely grammatical and verbal, and then amplified by the element of Ha- gada, were not long in taking a written form ; and such were the earliest Targums.^ We are not able to say at what precise time the para- phrases were first embodied in writing. There were, no doubt, Targums written in the Hasmonean age, which have perished in the wreck of the Soferite literature. In the Talmud' there are allusions to a Targum on Job, and another on Esther; and in Vajikra Bahba (174) to one on the Psalms, all much earlier than the paraphrases now extant. The existence of Targums on such books would imply that of similar works on the law and the greater prophets. As the Hellenistic Jews had in those times a recognised translation of the Scriptures in Greek, we have no difficulty in concluding, even apart ^ As in the instance of Shemaja and Abtalion. {Boraitha in Pesa- chm, fol. 70.) N.B. Four kinds of interpretation were now being de- veloped. 1. Peshet ; simple rendering from one language into ano- ther. 2. Remez ; intimation, suggestion as to meaning. 3. Derush ; illustrative exposition. 4. Sod; the di'awiug out of latent mystical significations. Technical word from the initials of the foui' for me- mory, PaRaDiSe. <■ ^ Soferim, fol. 115 ; Tosefta Shahhath, cap. 14. » Ilenilla, fol. 3. ORDER IV. TARGUMISTS AND JIASORITES. 101 from these traces, that the inhabitants of Palestine, most of whom knew no otlier languaji-c than Aramaic, wonld not be destitute of similar advantages, I. But the earliest Chaldee paraphrase now extant, is that of Onkelos on the Pentateuch ; a work that, above all others in this branch of biblical literature, is ackno\v- ledged by the Jews as " their own ;" Gleich clem Baby- lonisck Talmud wurdc des Onkelos Targiim das Unsrige genannt. (Zuxz.) Of the author of this production but little is cer- tainly known ; the notices we have of him in the rabbi- nical writings nearest his times being but few, and those not in harmony. It may, however, be made out by them, that Onkelos, as his name would indicate, was a Gentile by birth, and that he was "the son of Kalo- njTiius, by a sister of Titus ;" * but that the latter was the Emperor Titus, is not at all probable : further, that he was a proselyte to the Hebrew religion, "Onkelos ha gher" as the Talmud designates him ; and that his re- nouncement of heathenism was so complete as to induce him to throw the substance of his Gentile patrimony into the Dead Sea :° moreover, that he was the disciple and friend of Gamaliel, at whose funeral he expended eigiity minas of perfumes; and that he became qualified as an interpreter of tlie law by receiving its authentic and traditional meaning from the great masters Eliezer and Jehoshua.^ Some critics, as Berthold,'^ consider the Targum of Onkelos to have been fabricated by him from various * Avoda Zara ; Gittin. ^ Bemai Toseph., c. 1. ® Abravauel expresses the tradition thus: "Ouivelos the Perfect re- ceived from Mar Eliezer the Great, and from ^lar Jehoshua ; and from their lips made his Targum, according to the Ilalaka of Moses from Sinai." But in Zoliar it is stated, that he had sought instruction in the law from Hillel and Shammai. ' Elideitung. 192 HEBEEW LITERATURE. materials in use in the synagogues in the department of Scripture interpretation. But the unity of principle and style which pervades the entire work^ renders this opi- nion altogether wortliless. It is undoubtedly the work of one man^ and he a well qualified Hebrew and Chaldee scholar, a man of sound judgment, and a correct theo- logian. The Targum, almost throughout, is a simple and intelligible paraphrase. He aims, indeed, at meta- phrasing the anthromorphitic passages which portray the Divine characteristics in a human dress, and he slightly tinges some of the poetical texts with an Haga- daic colouring ; but in all other respects his work is a literal and masterly translation of the Pentateuch. Onkelos throws out important hints to the inter- preter of the Mosaic writings for the explanation of difficulties in the Hebrew text, whether in whole phrases and verses, or in single words ; and not unfre- quently supplies wanting terms which are no longer extant in the codices of the original.® It admits, however, of serious consideration, whether the text of Onkelos is now altogether such as it was when first given from his pen. Indeed, the most com- petent judges affirm their conviction that, either by the accidents of time, or by the influence of Jewish prejudice, the work has been subjected to numerous alterations.^ In the event of a new edition of the Targum being undertaken, a careful collation should be instituted of the manuscripts of it at Oxford, London, Yienna, Stut- gard, Erfurt, Leipzig, Jena, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, * Of these uses of the Targiim, Winer has given an ample catalogue of instances in his Dissertatio de Onheloso ejusque Paraphrasi Chal- daicd, p. 27, et seq. I beg to say here that I have in readiness for the press a Translation of Onkelos on Genesis, accompanied by one of the corresponding Palestinian Targum on the same book. ' ZuNz, Gottesd. Verirarj., G2 : Sam. David Luzzato's Oheh. Ger., p. G7. ORDER IV. TARGUMISTS AND MASORITES. 193 Paris, l\rilan, Plorcnce, rariiin, and Hoiiic, wlierc codices, more or less ancient, will amply repay the attention of those who hibour in snch a task. Of the printed editions of Onkelos we should name those of Bononia, with the Commentary of Jarchi, in folio, 14'S:2 ; 8oria, 14.- 90 ; Constantinople, with the same Commentary, quarto, 1505 ; and the reprints in the Paris and London Polyg-lots. Latin translations of this Targum have been published by Alfonso de Zamora,^ Fagius, J^aldus, and Buxtorf. XL Next to Onkelos on the Pentateuch, the most valuable of the Targums is that of Jonathan, on the prophets. Of the contradictory statements made by the Jews respecting the author of this work, the more probable is that which assigns Jonathan (Yonathan) ben Uzziel a place among the disciples of Hillel the Elder, '^ which would bring him down very nearly to the time of our Saviour. When it is said in another place,' that he wrote his Targum from the lips of Haggai, Zecharja, and Malachi, it may be intended, that he embodied in it the traditional import of the prophecies, as handed down by the teaching of those inspired men. This paraphrase extends over the whole of the pro- phets, former and latter. It differs from the work of Onkelos, as well in the dialect and style as in the principle and spirit of the exposition. No doubt Onke- los, labouring upon the law, did not feel himself at liberty to travel beyond the letter of its prescriptions; but to Jonathan a greater licence was given by the nature of his documents, from their occasional obscurity, which required some attempt at elucidation, and the ' Antwerp, 1535. It is also printed in the Polyglots. * Bava Baf/ira, c. 8. ' MeylUa, c. 1. There is a Jonathan ben Azacl mentioned, Ezra i. as one of the companions of Ezra. K 194 HEBEEW LITEllATURE. incitement of tlieir spirit-stirring relation to the futurity of the Hebrew people. Hence a remarkable discrepancy is observable^ in the tone and manner of the work^ between his explication of the historical and that of the prophetical books. In the former he is generally literal, with but occasional glosses ; in the latter he indulges in a free handling of the text, which not infrequently passes into extravagance. Still, the Targum of Jonathan, with all these super- fluities, and with the certainty also that, like that of Onkelos, it has not escaped some unwarrantable tamper- ings in the hands of later rabbins, is a precious monu- ment of biblical learning, and a standing evidence that the Jews of the ante-apostolic age had views of the prophecies relating to the Messiah much more akin to those of the Christian church than are now entertained by their descendants. Hoc etlam, says Buxtorf, speak- ing of Jonathan ben Uzziel, in ij)so Imidandum, quod plurimos locos de Messid, non ita explicate scriptos, ipse sensii sane Chnstiano de Messkt escponit. Editions of Jonathan. In the Polyglots, with the Latin translations of Alfonso de Zamora.^ In the Bom- berg Venetian Bible, folio, 1518; and in separate por- tions, — as, the Twelve Minor Prophets, Paris, 1557, quarto j Hosea, Leyden, 1621; Jonah, Ultraj., 1657. III. The Targums on the Ketuvim exhibit some marked varieties of character. 1. On the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, they have an identity of dialect, and appear to belong to the same time and region, probably Syria. That on the Proverbs reminds us of the simple style of Onkelos, while those on the Psalms and Job go off into the manner of Jonathan. On Job there was a paraphrase much older than that now extant. To the latter the earliest references are found in the "Aruch of * There is auotter Latin translation by Tremellius. ORDER IV. TAEGUMISTS AM) J[ASORIT£S. 195 R. Nathan. 2. On the five Meg'illoth (Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, and Ecclesiastes) tlie transhx- tion becomes very loose, and passes into an Ilagadistic commentary. The dialect is a medium between the AYestern Sjriac, and the Eastern i\jamean of the Tal- mud Bahl'i. The work has been attributed to Mar Josef, of Sora, [vide supra, p. 166,) an opinion of which there are traces in the Jewish ^^Titers so early as the thirteenth century : but the modern critics see reason to conclude that the composer must have lived some time after the Talmudic era. 3. On Daniel no Targum is known ; and on the Chronicles and Ezra we have no intimation of anything of the kind, except the modern one first published at Augsburg in 1680.^ IV. We now come to the remaining Chaldee Para- phrase : a Targum on the Pentatench, but usually consi- dered as two works, — that called by the name of Jonathan ben Uzziel, on the law, and that of Jerusalem. These, however, are more accurately determined to be one and the same production, though in different states ; that is to say, entire in the one, and fragmentary in the other ; and known in former ages as the Palestinian Targum. No one acquainted with the genuine work of Jonathan ben Uzziel on the prophets, can read that on the Pentateuch which bears his name, without being con- vinced that the author of the former could never have written the latter. Nor in the earlier rabbinical literature is there the sHghtest allusion to the existence of any Targum on the law by the son of Uzziel. On the other hand, wliile they are silent also about a " Jeru- salem Targum," the older rabbins, from the Talmudic times down to the fourteenth century, make frequent references to a "Targum of Palestine." Towards the end of the fourteenth century the Hebrew authors ^ Paraphrasis Chald. Lib. Chronic., Audorc Jl. F. Beck. K 2 196 HEBREW LITERATURE. begin to cite a " Targum Yenishalmi," and in such ways as to make it evident that the work from which they quoted comprised the entire Pentateuch. On a comparison of these citations with the printed editions of the Targums, a considerable number of them are found only in the fragments of our present Yerushalmi ; about as many more are found only in the so-called Jonathan; sometimes clearer in the one than in the other. Several are missing in both, and others are only found in Jonathan. It sometimes happens, too, that places found in each Targum are quoted by different authors as each belonging to the Jerusalem. Now these incidents show the identity of the two works as one and the same. They indicate a Jerusalem or Pales- tinian Targum of the Pentateuch, of which there was a twofold recension; and of which one, the pseudo- Jonathan, has reached us complete, and the other only in fragments. In fact, Asaria di Rossi affirms that he had seen two fully accordant manuscripts of the Pen- tateuch Targum, the one entitled " Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel," the other, " Targum Yerushalmi.''' [Raithi sheneij Targumim shalemini al hdtorali, &c. — Meor Enajim, c. 9.) Now, supposing more recensions than one of the same Targum, the fragments we have under the name of Jerusalem may have been a mere collection of places in which the readings were various. And as to the difference in the names of the work, it is pro- bable that the initials, '"> 'r\ Targ. Jer., were mistaken for Targ. Jonathan. The language of the work is a Palestinian dialect of the Aramaic; and the style of the interpretation oftener resembles a Midrash than a paraplirase. In technical phrase, while the fundamental principle of Onkelos on the Pentateuch is peshet, that of the Pales- tinian Targum is derush. See page 190, note. ORDEU IV. TARGUMISTS AXD MASOHITES. 107 Dissertations on the Targunis may be found in Wolfs Blhllolheca llcbrieuyiova.. ii., p. 1135; in the Thesis of Winer, already mentioned ; and in the fifth chapter of Zunz on the Gotfcsd'wiififfichen I'oHnige der Juden, there is a most erudite and able disquisition on the same subject. In reading these Chaldec paraphrases in the Polyglots, the Lexicon of Castel will be found of great value. We may also mention in this department the work of Pliibel ben David : Expositio Vocuni dijjiciliorv.m in Targum Onkelosi, Jonathanis, et llierosolymitano. (Han- over, 1614 ; and Amsterdam, 1646, quarto.) CLASS II. MASORITES. (anshey masoreth, baaley-hammasoreth, hachmey TABARIA.) In its widest meaning, Masora signifies tradition ; that which is handed down from one to another.® In this sense it was applied to all traditional doctrine, and became a synonym for the torah sli V al peh, or oral law^ at large. Masar, "to deliver;" kahal, "to re- ceive." Masora and Kabala are, therefore, correlative terms, and were used indiflerently to denote the body of tradition in general ; but the use of each term was subsequently restricted to a particular class of tradi- tionary science : Kabala, to the mystical, or theosophic, doctrines of Judaism ; and IMasora, to whatever referred to the text, or letter, of the inspired writings. It is in this latter point of view that we are now to consider it. Notwithstanding the provision made for the preserva- tion and multiplication of the Mosaic and prophetical writings, (Deut. xxxi. 9-11, 26; xvii. 18; Joshua viii. 32 ; 2 Kings xxii. 8 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14,) the great mass of the people must have been dependent * From masar, " to deliver." (Num. xxxi. 5.) 198 HEBREW LITERATURE. for ages upon sucli verbal instructiou for their know- ledge of the word of God. The calamity of the Baby- lonish Captivity would not improve these circumstances ; for, though some effort would no doubt be made at the catastrophe of the siege to preserve the sacred records, copies of which we find still in the hands of the captives, (Dan. ix. ; Nehem. viii. 2,) there is reason to conjecture that the greater part of the lite- rary treasures of Jerusalem perished in the flames of the city and the temple. One of the first solicitudes of the Hebrew leaders, after the return from Babel, was to certify and increase the copies of the inspired writings. With the Scrip- tui'es of the law, the prophets, and historical books, already extant, the writings of the last inspired men were now combined into one authenticated canon. This, as we have seen, was the work of Ezra and the men of the Great Synagogue,^ who, in meeting the immediate religious wants of their countrymen, ap- plied themselves to the threefold task of the redac- tion of the Hebrew Scriptures, the translation of them into the vulgar Aramaic, and the systematic expla- nation of their contents by expository discourses. In achieving this, they were not only promoting the reli- gious culture of their own people, but providing, in fact, for the future illumination of all human beings, and preparing the Bible for the world. [Ezra, with the assistance of the men of the Great Synagogue, among whom were the prophets Haggai, Zecharja, and Malachi, collected as many copies of the sacred writings as he could find, and from them set forth a correct edition of the Old Testament canon, with the exception of his own writings, the Book of Nehemiah, and the prophecy of Malachi, which were ' Juchasui, fol. 11. OllDEU IV. TAPvGUMTSTS AND MASOUITES. 190 subsequently annexed to the canon by Simon the Just, ^vho is said to have been the last surviving member of the Great Synagogue.]* This Ezdrine text formed the basis of the studies of the Septuagint translators, the authors of the Pes- chito Syriac, the Greek versions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Synnnachus, the Chaldee paraphrases of Onkelos and Jonathan, the editorial labours of Origen in the Hexapla, and the textual labours of the Tanaim. In the age immediately before that of the apostles, and ill that whicli followed it, the Soferim made the conservation and multiplication of copies of the holy writings one great business of their lives. Some Jeuish authors affirm that the distinctive name given to these scholars, that of Soferim, or "Enumerators," originated in the practice they had adopted of num- bering the words and letters of the inspired books. If this were so, they must be regarded as the founders of the ]\Iasoretic system ; but the truth is, the name Sofer is much earlier than that day, and had been always used to denote a scribe, or recorder. The labours of the Masorites, properly so called, had a twofold object, — the exhibition of a perfect orthoepic standard of the Hebrew language, and the establish- ment of a correct and inviolable text of the Hebrew Scriptures. I. It is evident from the Jerusalem Talmud, that so early as the second century of the Christian era, considerable attention had been drawn to the diver- sities occasionally detected in the biblical manuscripts. Hence, as the result, the If fur Soferim, the "Collation of the Scribes," a specification of five instances in which the letter vau yvas to be overlooked or rejected;® and * Hartwell Horne. ' Set forth iu Bauer's Critica Sacra, p. 208. 200 HEBREW LITERATURE. the Tikkun, Soferim, "Restoration of the Scribes/' in some sixteen places where wrong readings had been ascertained. To this period also are traceable the points which appear over some or all of the letters of certain words, to denote that they are wanting in some manuscripts, and the first attempt at the keri and Jcetib with their circular index. During the long period of the Mishnaical and Tal- mudic activity, the Holy Scriptures had held, so to speak, but a secondary throne in the Jewish mind. Eabbinism was supreme. " The sofer is little, the tana is great." ^ Such was the order of things for genera- tions, especially among the Gola Jews. But when, in the beginning of the sixth century, the ravages of war and the force of persecution had well nigh ruined the Talmudic schools in the Persian dominions, the schools in Palestine recovered something of their importance, and that of Tiberias became pre-eminently the seat of a renewed study of the written word of God. We know, indeed, scarcely anything of the proximate causes of this hopeful renaissance', though much may be attributed to the influence of the Emperor Justinian's decree, which, ostensibly on account of the disturbances which had become frequent in many Jewish neighbour- hoods in Palestine between the Jews and Samaritans, interdicted the use of the Mishna, and \\\q perahotli, or public expositions of it, but enjoined the reading of the Scriptures in the synagogues.^ Enactments like these, it is true, would never have released a single Jew from the trammels of rabbinism ; but in bringing the people more fully into contact with the Scriptures, they con- ^ Avoda Zara. ^ Ham scripturam, qum secunda edltio {=Mishna, Gr., Sevrepeoffis) dicitur, interdicimus omnimodo, utpote sacris non conjunctam libris, neqtie desuper traditam de prophetis, sed inventionem institutam virorum ex sold loqueiitium terrd, et Divinum in Ipsis habentium nihil. ORDER IV. TAUGUMISTS AND MASORITES. 201 ferrecl upon them an inestimable advantage. One good effect seems to have been tlic purpose formed about this time by the rabbins of Tiberias, of setting forth a correct recension of the Hebrew Bible; and in order- to render their work as perfect as possible, they laboured in the creation of a grammatical apparatus which woidd certify the true text of the holy volume, and insure that it should henceforth be unalterable. They divided the several books into para.^hloth, or greater sections, seda- rhn, orders, or smaller sections, and perakm, or chap- ters, after a more recent arrangement than the ancient sedarim.^ These were again subdivided into pes'dim, or verses. The entire number of the verses in each book M^as notified by a technical word or words, which comprised the numerals making up the amount. The middle verse, or clause, the number of letters in each book, and the middle letter, were all ascertained. The total number of letters has been stated as 815,280. This, however, we believe, is but an approximate cal- culation. Notes also were made of places in wliicli they considered that words or even letters had been subjected to alteration, omission, or interpolation; what words have different significations, what letters are ' The Pentateucli had long before been divided into sidras, or ■wipiKoirai, for sabbath readings, and that, as some think, almost as far back as the time of Moses. {Berakoth, 12.) When Autiochus Epi- phaues prohibited the reading of the law, they selected lifty-four portions from the other books, which were called Haftaroth, and are still in use. In Palestine the number of sections required three years for the public reading of the Pentateuch throughout. But in Babylonia it was so arranged as to be done in one year. We find Rav and Samuel engaged in a new arrangement of the sections. (Fukst, Kultur- Geschichte, i., 60.) The Masorites of Tiberias, therefore, only carried out this mode of partitioning to the other books of the Old Testament, and superadded the more minute analysis of the text in the manner peculiar to themselves. The division also into verses was very ancient. {Megilla, 22.) K 5 203 HEBREW LITERATURE. perpendicular, what are inverted, or irregularly written^ and a variety of other details, which may be seen in Walton^s Eighth Prolegomenon, or in Buxtorf s "Tiberias."^ The Masoretic apparatus of each book was afterwards inserted in the margin, or at the end of the manuscript; either abridged, [masora parva,) or in full, {masora magna,) with the parts omitted added as an appendix [masora Jinalis). A more intrinsically important branch of their labours was the collection of manuscripts for the authentication of a genuine text. But the sanctity which they iden- tified with whatever belonged to the biblical writings, appears in the mode in which this matter was arranged. In any given text in which there was convincing evidence for a verbal emendation, the proper reading, instead of being introduced into the body of the text, was inserted in the margin, under the title of keri, i. e., "To be so read;" while the old, though dubious or evidently incorrect, word was suffered to remain unmolested in its place, but with the designation of KETIB, i. e., " It is so written."® Some of the Masorites appear to have considered both the heri and liet'ib to be * Though the Jews have, in some eases, laid themselves open to the charge of vitiating the meaning of the Holy Scriptures in their para- phrases or Targums, it will he acknowledged hy all men tliat they have heen the great conservators of the integrity of the text itself. A Jew would sooner die than corrupt it. The care with which their manu- scripts were copied, was most scrupulous. Maimonides, in his Hilkoth sefer Torah, gives some remarkable details on this point. Among other things, he says it was a precept of the Soferim that the Divine names which occm- in a MS. must not be inscribed unless the wTiter fii-st purify himself, and that he must fii'st concentrate his thoughts before writing them. The names to which such attention must be paid are seven : Eheyeli aslier Eheyeh, Yehovah, Shadai, Zebaoth, El, Elohim, Elo- heikem. , ^ The mai'ginal readings are pointed out by a small circle over the word in the text. ORDER IV. TARnUlIISTS AXD MASORITES. 203 of equal autliority, believing, as Bishop Alarsli expresses it, that both textual and marginal readings proceeded from the sacred writers themselves, and that the mar- ginal ones were transmitted by oral tradition, as con- veying some mysterious application of the written words. They were regarded, therefore, not so much as materials for criticism, as for interpretation. It is highly probable that the Ezdrinc maimscripts were not only extant at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, but that some of the most precious of tliem escaped the general ruin. That the llomans carried otf some of them is indicated by the fact mentioned by Josephus, that Titus had the roll of the law borne before him as a trophy. But we should also remember that the Sanhedrin had left Jerusalem before the siege, and had settled at Jarania, where they doubtless created a depository of the national writings. Now from these manuscripts, or good copies of them, the anshey Tabaria, the Masoretic rabbins, elaborated their system, and sent forth a fresh supply of the Scriptures of truth for the use of their world-dispersed communion. ]\Ieantime the Talmudic Jews in Persia and Babylonia were not altogether indifferent to the same enterprise. Their forefathers had brought into their exile copies of the word of God so far as given in their time ; and though a large number of families did not return to Palestine, they still retained a zealous love for the religion of their ancestors, evinced, among other ways, by a suitable multipKcation of the inspired writings. There thus arose a twofold recension of the Hebrew Bible, — the "Western, or Palestinian, and the Eastern, or Babylonian. The verbal variations between them have been long ago ascertained, and may be seen in the appendix to Walton^s Polyglot. It is a remarkable fact that, though amouuting to more than two hundred 204 HEBEEW LITERATURE. iu number, none of them involve a material difference in signification. The two recensions were first formally collated in the eleventh century, by Aharon ben Asher of Tiberias, and Jacob ben Naphtah, a president of one of the Babylonian schools. Bat, as their researches included vowel-points as well as words, the discrepan- cies ascertained by them amounted to more than eight hundred.® Our printed Hebrew Bibles mainly foUow the recension of Tiberias, that, namely, of Ben Asher. The learned Jews who removed into Europe in the middle of the eleventh century, brought with them pointed manuscripts ; and, in the two following centu- ries, copies were executed with the most rigid care. The exemplars, also, from which these transcripts were accomphshed were those the most higlily esteemed for their correctness and suitability for the creation of a standard text. These exemplars were, — 1. The Codex of Hillel; a manuscript which Kimclii, who lived in the tliirteenth century, says he had seen at Toledo. According to R. Zacuti, a part of it was afterwards sold, and sent into Africa. There are dif- ferent opinions as to the HiUel by whose name it is distinguislied : whether Hillel the Elder, or he who was patriarch subsequently ; or a Spanish Jew of that name, which is the greater probability, as the manu- script is pointed. The name of Hillel might have been given it in honour of the Palestinian nasi, or with the view of augmenting its value, — a custom not infrequent among Jewish authors. 2, 3. The Codices of Ben Asher and Ben Naphtali. Maimonides, writing in Egypt, states that the former was held in great repute in that country, as having been re^dsed by Ben Asher himself; and that it was the copy which he, Maimonides, followed in coppng the law. ^ See Walton, Proleg. 8. ORDER IV. TARGUMISTS AND MASORITES. 205 4. The Codex of Jericho; highly commeiuled by Elias Levita, as a most correct transcript of the hwv. 5. The Codex Sinai, a manuscript of the Pentateuch, distinguished by some variations in the accents from the preceding cxemphirs. Compare Waltox, Prol.' 8 ; HoRNE, voh ii., p. 41 ; Kennicott, Diss. Gen., sect. 55 ; Bauer, Crifica Sacra, p. 224; and "Wolf, Bid. ITehr., vol. ii., p. 289. II. In aiming at the adjustment and conservation of the Hebrew orthoepy, the Masoretic school now fabricated that admirable system of points and accents which has given a mathematical precision to the pro- nunciation of the language. In this way, too, they became the benefactors of posterity, in handing down to all following ages what they knew to be the true and traditional modes of the language as a spoken tongue.^ That the Masorites were the authors of this system, there can be no reasonable doubt; for, though there might have been some one or two diacritical points in use in preceding times, we have no convincing e\adence that anything like the present apparatus was known among the Jews till their day. Li the monuments of biblical Hebrew preserved by Origen, we see no trace of it; nor, judging from St. Jerome^s notices of the Hebrew language in his time,* was there anything of the kind then in practice. And so the more ancient Kabalists, who made so much of the letters of the alphabet as vehicles, or rather veils of mystery, never attempted the interpretation of Scripture by points ; nor, in the exposition of Bible texts in the ' The vowel system has, probably, for its basis the pronunciation of the Jews of Palestine : and its consistency, as well as the analogy of the kindred languages, furnishes strong proof of its correctness, at least as a whole. — Gesemus. * See his 22ud Qusest. on Jeremiah, and his Commentary on Hub. iii. 20. 206 HEBREW LITERATURE. Talmud, have we, so far as I know, any reference to such a system : all significant evidences that, as yet, it had no existence, or that it was in too nascent a state to possess the weight of authority. But, without going into the controversy which has been waged upon this question, the details of which would require a mono- graph for themselves, we may observe that the system of points was the necessity only of a language which had ceased to be a currently spoken tongue. To imagine that it was used in times when Hebrew was vernacular in Palestine, is as absurd as to suppose that a people with the natural use of their limbs should have recourse to the crutches of the lame. But, though thus comparatively modern as a technical apparatus, the vowel points are exponents of traditional facts in Hebrew pronunciation, as ancient, probably, as the language itself ; and no one who wishes to become a master of the language should fail to make himseK thoroughly and practically acquainted with them. The Accents* {tadmim or neginoth) appear to have been fabricated by the Masorists to answer four pur- poses. 1. Hermeneutic; to certify the meaning of words. 2. Grammatical; to indicate the tone syl- lables. 3. Musical; to regulate the cantilation of Scripture in synagogue or other reading ; and, 4. Rhe- torical; to show the emphasis of an expression, and, like the points or stops in our printed books, to mark the divisions and subdivisions of paragraphs and sentences. There is a multitude of works on the Hebrew accents, the earliest of which is the Horaith ha Keri, "the Doctrine of Reading," of an anonymous author who wrote in Arabic prior to the eleventh century, and was translated into Hebrew by Menachem ben'Na- ^ Distinguish the accents from the vowel points. ORDER IV. TARGUMISTS ANT) MASORITES. 207 tlianiel. It exists in inaimscript in the Vatican. jVoxt iu age may be the treatise of Aaron ben JMoshc ben Asher, in the eleventh century ; fragments of which are given in the tu'st edition of the Venetian Hebrew Bible by Bomberg. Since then a host of Avriters have laboured in this apparently uniuvitiug department, among whose works we should notice : 1. The Sefer Tov Taum of Elias Levita, [Jen., 1538; Basil., 1539,) with Munster^s Latin translation. 2. Schindleri Tract, de Accent'ihus Heb. {Witteb., 1591.) 3. The curious work of our countrjinan Walter Cross, " Specimens of a Comment on the Old Testament by the Taghmical Art,^' and, 4. The Imtitutio rernacula de Accent'ihus prosaicis et met r ids of J. H. Michaelis. {Hal., 1700.) Literature on the Masora in general. Unless the anonymous author of Mie Masseheth Soferim, given with the additamenta to the Talmud, was one of the original artificers of the system, we have no work im- mediately from the primitive Masorists; but, on the elucidation of the system, and in controversies about its authority, later Hebraists have created a whole Library of books, of wliich it will be sufficient here to mention a few of the most comprehensive. 1. Ehas Levita^s Masoreth hammasoreth. (Venice, 1546, octavo.) 2. Menachem di Lonsano's Or Torah. (Venice, 1618, quarto; Berlin, 1725.) 3. Meir Abraham Angola's Masoreth Hahherith. (Cracow, 1629, folio.) 4. Bux- torfs Tiberias. {Basil., 1665.) 5. The F unctuationis Arcana of L. Capellus. 6. Pfeiffer's Bissertatio Philo- log. de Masord. (Wittenberg, 1670.) 7. Walton's Eighth Prolegomenon ; and, 8. The Third Disputation in Schichard's Bechhiath llapiierushim. 208 HEBEEW LITERATURE. OKDEE V. SEBOEATM AND GEONIM. The history of these successors of the Amoraic com- pilers of the Talmud includes a period extending from the latter quarter of the fifth century to the overthrow of the Babylonian patriarchate, about the year 1036. I. UNDER THE LAST SASSANIDE KINGS. The Talmud had been finished in a time of great disaster to the Jewish community in Babylonia. In the reigns of the Persian kings, Yesdigird, Hormuz, Firoze, and Kobad, the Magian religion had reached a powerful ascendance, and both Christians and Jews suffered the rigours of persecution. Under the influence of the Magi, Yesdigird prohibited the observance of the sabbath, shut the synagogues and schools, and made over the buildings of those institutions to the Persian priesthood. Still the spirit of religious study was not extinguished among the Hebrews ; and the law teachers, no longer able to carry on their instructions in the traditional ways of the old colleges, gave their lessons to select companies of students in their private dwellings. Debarred also from any joint action with the resh glutha, their sentences had no longer the force of law. Indeed, by common consent throughout the Hebrew nation, the Talmud, now in rapid promulgation, was considered as a complete and ultimate code ; and hence- forth the labours of the rabbins (whatever their out- ward circumstances or power) in the department of law were devoted not to legislative enactment, but to the exposition of laws already accepted in the Mishna and Gemara. This expository function of the rabbins was indicated by the name given to, or adopted by, the teachers of the epoch before us, of Seboraim, ''Opi- nionists," or, as we say, ''Casuists." ORDER V. SEBORAIM AND GEONIM. 209 [In Hebrew, sabar is to " observe/' or " view." In Aramaic it means, to " think/' " cogitate/' " consider a thing;" and, in the Pael form, to "declare," or "announce." Thus in the Western Syriac, as in the Peschito Xew Testament, sabar is to " preach ; " sebartha is the "Gospel;" and mesabrona is an "evangelist." These Jewish Sebornim were not, as Basiiage and others explain the term, " doubters or sceptics," but investi- gators and expositors. In the rabbinical system, sebora stands distinguished from horaa ; the latter denoting authoritative traditional doctrine, bearing the character of obligatory law; the former, probable or disputable opinion. The Seboraim were lecturers on the casuistry of the Talmud.] The first of tliis line of men was Jose, already men- tioned, and wdio died in the persecution under Kobad in 503. The Seboraim, among Avhom we may name RB/. Sama bar Jehuda, Achai bar Hina, Huna, Ne- chomai, Samuel bar Jehuda, Kavina bar Amosia, Achab- hoi bar Rabba, Tahua, and Techina, endured as a distinctive class for five generations, or about one hun- dred and eighty-seven years, reaching to a.d. 689. The last of them was Eav Schischana. They were generally oral teachers ; though to their age must be assigned a few of the anonymous productions specified at the end of the present article. The Seboraim lived in troublous times, wdien fightings were without and fears within. The bloody Kobad (Cavades) was succeeded by his third son, Chosroes, called sometimes Nusheervan, in the reign of the Roman Emperor Justinian, with whom, in the almost iuternecinal strife Avith Rome, he carried on a w^ar which was inherited with his throne, and which Justinian, harassed by the western barbarians, was fain to terminate for a season by a dishonourable peace, for which he surrendered to the Persian king sixteen thou- 210 HEBREW LITERATURE. sand pounds of gold, and a portion of tlie spoils of Carthage, taken by Belisarius from the conquered Van- dals. This sacrifice, however, procured but a transient intermission of the war ; and Almondar, the general of Chosroes, invaded and ravaged the Roman territories in Syria, soon followed by his master, whose formidable cavalry carried all before them, Mdiile Damascus, Alep, Apamea, Chalcis, and Antioch, fell ruined at his feet. We refer to this war merely to observe, that the Jews in Palestine, as might have been expected, leaned entirely to the side of the Persians, with the hope of being delivered from the hated yoke of the Byzantine emperor. Yet their condition in the country had mani- festly improved. A^^ien the patriarchate of Tiberias had been dissolved, their unity was still maintained by syna- gogal communion, and their common recognition of the Mishna and Talmud, to which Justinian's opposition only, tended to rivet their attachment more firmly. But the scholastic importance of Tiberias had latterly re- sumed somewhat of its faded splendour. In an out- break of the Jews in Babylonia, in the late reign of Kobad, the resh glutha, Mar Zutra IL, had been obhged to take refuge in Palestine, where he restored the semika, or ordination to the rabbinate by imposition of hands, and re-established a Sanhediin. In these cir- cumstances the triumphs of the Persian arms over the Romans in the Holy Land awakened in the Jewish inhabitants the hope of regaining, after all, the heritage of their fathers. Their brethren, too, in Babel appear to have formed a similar expectation ; and Chosroes, who knew the poHtical importance which a people so intelli- gent, wealthy, and extensively spread as they, must needs possess, relaxed the severity of former reigns, and restored their forfeited privileges; while they, neither unthankful, nor loth to forward his views in Syria, ORDER V. SEBORATM AND nEONIM. 211 helped liim alike with their intrigues, their money, and their men. So, too, when Chosroes IL, following out the pohcy of his namesake, made his celebrated expe- dition into Palestine, (a.d. 625,) the Jews furnished him with a eontingent of twenty-six thousand soldiers. In that terrihlo eampaign the Israelites of Palestine reiterated one of those crimes which had already left such indelible blots of infamy on their name. The Persian conquerors gave up the followers of Jesus to their malice, and the entire country was inundated with Christian blood. Yet these fearfid massacres did not lead to the effects contemplated by the perpetrators of them. Jewish ascendancy in Palestine was as far from being achieved as ever. The Persians never intended to make Jerusalem a Hebrew capital; and when, by the subsequent victories of Heraclius, the invaders were driven from the country, the Jews found the collapse of the Eomau power more stringent than before. .He- raclius promulged an edict similar to that of Hadrian before him, which prohibited a Jew from even approach- ing the holy city. In Babylonia, under Chosroes II., the Hebrew schools developed a new^ vigour-. The interdicts of Yesdigird and Kobad had been repealed by Hormuz; and the reason why the schools were then so inert, must be sought for in the supremacy of that at Tiberias, where, as w^e have said, the semiJca had been restored, (a.d. 531,) and whither, in the late times of the Magian persecution, a multitude of students had resorted from the east. The disasters in Palestine, however, had now turned the balance in favour of the Babylonians ; and the countenance shown them by Chosroes II. enabled them to undertake a spirited re-organization of their entire system. Sora was re-opened by ]\Iar Hanan; Nehardea and Pumbaditha were again peopled with the 313 HEBREW LITERATURE. disciples of the rabbins; wliile at Pliirutz Shibboor, wliere there was an immense Jewish population, an im- portant academy was founded by E. Mare. The con- cord between the school rulers and the resh glutha, the interruption of which had been so long unfavourable to the unity of the communion, was now resumed ; they maintaining the scholastic and judicial, and he the executive, department. At this time the Jews in Babylonia were so numerous as to form no inconsiderable part of the population; and though subjects, and in general good ones, of the civil government, they had, nevertheless, a kind of national status of their own. The calamities which sometimes overtook them were felt in common, and, encountered with the same effort to endure or to over- come, contributed to consolidate their moral strength as a distinct people. Through their rabbinical and mercantile men they had the means of universal com- munication with other countries; and these foreign relations conduced to strengthen that political influence which made their presence either troublesome or desira- ble. But as they inherited an inveterate hatred to the Roman interests, and were commonly well aifected to those of Persia, the Sassanide kings did not in general regard them with ill will, but only sought to give their political influence a defined and proper direction. In the quiet time, therefore, which now opened on them, their religious and scholastic institutions grew stronger every year. The resh ghdha, who, though nominally chosen by the Jewish authorities, was really appointed by the royal court, was duly recognised by the latter as, what in our time would be called, " the minister of state for Jewish afi'airs.^^^ The school-head ^ for the mauner of the election of the resh ghdha and gaon, and the ceremonies of their instalment, see Jost's Geschlchte, vol. v., p. 284. OUDER V. SEBORAIM ANT) GKON'IM. 213 [rcsh mefihtha) was chosen by tlic chaher'im, and inau- gurated witli solemn pomp. The Sorancrs had the pre- cedence, in all points of dignity, of the men of Pumbadi- tha. The chief of the Sora college took the title of GAON ; those of the others, only that of IIabban. The gaon was the ecclesiastical peer of the rcsh glutha. [It has been alhrmed that the title yaon is a nume- rico-technical word, to denote one thoroughly versed in the law ; the letters of the word amounting in numerical value to GU, the number of books which compose the entire Talmud: thus, G, 3 + A, 1 + 0, G + N, 50 = 60. But the greater probability is, that the term was used in the common acceptation of the word itself, i. e., " excellent /' in the same way that clariss'uims or illustris was employed among the Latins. Eurther^ it should be observed, that the name geonim, the plural of gaon, was given in those days in a more wide and indefinite manner to the most eminent teachers of the Jewish universities at large; but in its strictly official import it belongs to the presidents of Sora.] To create the revenues of these dignitaries, the Jewish population were taxed in their several districts. In each district the resk glutha and gaon appointed by diploma a judge, whose duties comprised the adjust- ment of litigated cases, which he tried in conjunction with two assessors, chosen from among the most respect- able men of the synagogue; and the authorization of marriage contracts, letters of divorce, wills, and deeds of settlement. His salary accrued from fees regulated by law, and his secretary received such perquisites as made up an adequate remuneration. Transactions of the above nature accomphshed without the judge were invalid, and the parties exposed to the rabbinical ban. The superintendents of the schools derived their in- come either from funds connected with the foundation. 214 HEBKEW LITERATURE. or from tlie fees of the students, and presents which accompanied law questions, or cases of casuistrj^ sent for sokition in great numbers. Of any other gifts which fell to the scliools, a third part was set aside for gratuities to the students. The terra-times were, as formerly, the months Elul and Aclar. In the interim the students carried on their work at home. In the great schools, somewhat after the manner of the Sanhedrin, there were seventy of the most learned men, who, with the resh metiitha, constituted the standing corporation of the college. In term-time they sat in seven rows, ten in a row, with the gaon or resh on his throne. On the foremost seat next before the throne were seven abipMm, (chiefs, called also reshi IriUa,) and three chaherhn (companions, or "fellows" of the coUege). The students occupied seats below the remainii]g sixty of the Sanhedrin.' On week-days the mode of investigation was by discussion. The subject was opened by the gaon. The hearers had then liberty to propound their several opinions; a decision was commonly arrived at by vote, and recorded by the secretary. On each sabbath of the term-months the scholars were examined in the studies which had occu- pied them in the interim of the sessions. The president put a question, which was repeated by the men of the first row : the scholars responded, and received com- mendation or reproof from the president, according to their proficiency or negligence. The best men were rewarded M"ith prizes. On concluding, the subjects for ^ R. Petachja, of Eatisljon, (twelfth centurj",) in his "Hinerary," says, that at Bagdad he found a school of two thousand students. In the time of assembly they sat on the ground, while the chief taught them from a high deslc, covered with a gold tissue ; and every man had a copy containing the twenty-four books of the Scriptures. ORDER V. SEBORAIM AXD GEOyiJI. 215 tlie next session were given out, and the minutes or records of that about to close read over, and then sealed by the gaoii. In this manner, ■with occasional inter- ruptions, the schoolmen of Babylonia continued to pro- secute their work from one generation to another for more than three liundi'ed years. II. ^^'DER THE CHALIFS. While Heraclius was accomplishing those victories in the east, which gave a transient splendour to the evening hour of the Eoman empire, a power had begun to unfold itseK in the Arabian Peninsula which was destined before long to overshadow the greatest king- doms of the earth. In Arabia a complication of religious discords, a corrupted Christianity, a debased Judaism, the Sabean star-worship, and the grosser idolatrv of Paganism, had involved society in chaotic confusion. It was then that the Prophet of Islam spoke; and though his voice was at first drowned in the din of opposition, the oracle he pronoimced. La illa il Alla, " There is but one God,^^ soon hushed the turmoil iiito the silence of profound belief, or of terrified acquiescence. On ^lahomet and liis enterprise we have no need to expatiate. It must be conceded that, whatever were his faults, he was an instrument in the hand of Providence to usher in a new era in the liistory of the oriental world. He stands out prominently in the annals of time, as one of the monarchs of the human race; a man whose thoughts gave a direction to those of other men, not only in a neighbourhood, a district, or even a nation, but to whole groups of nations, and that through a lono; series of a^es. He conceived the design of forminsr out of those discordant and conflicting elements which warred with each other throughout the East, one harmo- nious political and religious whole ; and he succeeded. 21G HEBREW LITERATURE. As our subject relates exclusively to Judaism^ we have here only to observe of Maliomet himself, that when, in 622, opposed at the outset of his career by his own tribe, he fled to Medina, he entered into friendly relations with the Jews Avho abounded in that part of the country. Troni time immemorial the He- brew people had been domiciled in large numbers in the towns of Arabia. Independent alike of the Pales- tinian and Babylonian regime, they existed as a distinct branch of the Israelitish nation, strong in their numerical force, wealth, and social influence. The Arabian kings had been often either proselytes to the Mosaic religion, or, in some cases, if we may believe tradition, men of Hebrew blood., Now Mahomet perceived the import- ance of the aid which such a people could give him, and was gratified with the friendliness of their bearing towards him. With the Jemsh tribes of Kasragd, El Awys, Koreida, and El Nadir, who derived their descent from Aaroun ibn Amram, [i. e., from the brother of Moses,) and with the tribe of the Beni Kainoka, he entered into a formal compact of amity. He gave these Jewish allies the name of El Ansar, "The Help." But the assistance they really yielded him was little enough. Mahomet could not have rationally expected their ad- hesion to designs, an acquiescence in which was sub- versive of the faith and hope of their nation. The compact, then, was speedily disrupted by an open quarrel. Each tribe had, in consequence, to endure the brunt of war; and, allied with the Arab famiHes of Koreisch, they maintained for three years a bloody strife with the ever-growing forces of the Prophet, which issued, after ruinous losses of property and life, in their submission to liis political supremacy, and the permis- sion, upon payment of tribute, to enjoy their reKgious privileges. Tliis was the mode of compromise wliich the ORDER V. SEBOUAIM AND (iKONIM. 217 I'roplict adopted with the Jt'wisli and such other religious counuunities as fell uuder the power of his arms. And the chalifs who succeeded him maintained nearly the same policy. Nor did the Jews, whcllier in Kgypt, Palestine, or Persia, witness the ra])id triumphs of Islamism without a certain complaci!ncy. The ])owers which had so often heaped allliction on them and their fathers, were now themselves afflicted. From a per- suasion also that the overthrow of the Roman empire would usher in the kingdom of the Messiah, they cherished a heartfelt satisfaction in witnessing the pro- gressive triumphs of the Saracenic adversaries of the Christians, and commonly as well augmented their wealth by their advantageous purchases of the spoils of the vanquished. In Persia they had, indeed, just then a peculiar cause to wish for the speedy triumph of the Crescent, as the temper of the government had become severely adverse, and Yesdigird, the last Sassanide king, showed himself disposed to harass them in every way. The so-called Da\'idic family, from which the resh glutha was com- monly elected, were all doomed to death. One member only escaped, by name Bostani, who either held the office at the time when the Persian monarchy sank before the all-subduing arms of the Chalif Omar, in (551, or was shortly after invested with it. Omar did not interfere with the constituted state of tilings among the Persian Jews, who were well content to come under his sceptre. Under Ali the resh (jhitha Bostani main- tained an almost regal state; and the Chalif, who greatly esteemed him, gave him a daughter of the late royal family as his wife. The immense learning of Bostani obtained for him also the title of gaon. He died at Pumbaditha. L 218 HEBREW LITERATURE. Our limits will not allow us to go into minute details on tlie afl'airs of the Geonastic schools, nor the circum- stances which influenced the succession of their rulers. It will answer every purpose if we set down a list of the names of the latter, and of the chalifs under whose reigns they exercised their of&ce. It must be confessed, however, that we can only make comparative approaches to correctness in this arrangement. Those who have laboured most sedulously in attempting to identify the exact order, have acknowledged that the task is well nigh a hopeless one. The authorities are Sherira^s Iggeretli, and the authors of the Jnchasin, Zemach David, and the Shalsheleth Hakkahala. The difficulty of the compiler lies in their mutual contradictions. (Compare JosT, GeschicMe, vi., Atihang.) I. GEONIM or SORA. A.D. A.D. Hanna 688 HuNA 735 AcHAi 747 Netorai 761 Abraham Mari 763 Jehuda Mari BiBAi 778 Ebumai 784 HiLAi BAR Mare 786 Zedek BAR Ashe 7 94 HiLAi BAR Hanina ... 795 KiMAs Ashe 797 Mesharshia 803 Ahona KoHEN Zedek 828 SlIALLUM Netorai, or Natro- NAi 836 Abba 857 Amram 858 Joseph Zemach 871 Isaac bar Isai ... 879 HiLAi BAR Netu- RANAI 888 Shullam 895 Jacob YoM ToB Saadya HiDA Chanina Sherira , Haja ORDER V. SEBOKAIM AND GEONIM. 211) 11. RABBAMM IN rLMHADlTllA. A.D. A.D. BOSTANI . GUO Menashe 788 IIUNA BAR JoSEfll.. . 088 Jesala-h 795 illJA . 700 V 710 Joseph Cahna 797 Netouai b. Nehemj. 803 Jacob Ha-kohen .. . 711 Ebumai 809 Jehuda . 730 Abraham 814 Samuel . 735 Joseph 817 Joseph ,. 738 ISA-VC 826 Samuel Joseph 837 Simon Kaira .. 747 Platui 840 Jehuda .. 755 Amram 848 DORAI .. 760 Achai 856 Hananja . 763 Menachem 857 ]\Ialka .. 770 Zemach 87J Raba .. 772 Hai bar Nachshan 879 Mar b. Shfnna .... .. 781 Hai bar David ... 888 Hanina KlMOI 895 Hun A Jehuda b. Samuel , 905 Kohen Zedek 925 III. CHALIFS. A.D. A.D. Abubekir 632 Omar 634 Hassan Othman 643 Ali 655 660 OMMIADE CHALIFS. A.D. Moawiyah 661 Omar II. YezidI 679 YezidII. Moawiyah II. Hashem . . . Merwan I. Walid II. Abdalmelek Yezid III. AValid I. Ibrahim SOLIMAN MtRWAN II. l 2 A.D. 724 220 HEBKEW LITERATURE. ABASSIDES. A,D. Abul Abbas .. 750 Al Kaher Al Mansur Al Eadhi Al Mahdi Al Motaki Al Hadi Al Mostakfi Haroun al Eashid. . . 786 Al Moti Al Amin Al Tai Al Mamun Al Kader Al Motassem Al Kaim Al Wathek Al Moktadi Al Motawakkel Al Mortader Al Mostanser Al Mostarshed Al Mostain Al Eashid Al Motaz Al Moktafi Al Motadi Al Mostanjed Al Motamed . 870 Al Mostadhi Al Motadhed Al Naser Al Moktafi Al Zaher Al Moktader Al Mostanser Al Mostasem 1240 A.D. 991 The external condition of the Jews under the eastern chalifate remained for a long time undisturbed by any great vicissitudes. They were subjected to the usual tribute^ in common with the Christians. Wliile the Moslem paid only a tenth to the state^ the un- believer, whether Christian or Jew, was liable to pay a fifth, or sometimes a third, of his income. The landholder contributed in the form of a property-tax {taacUT), and the non-landholder a poU-tax [chareg). They were at times also the victims of oppressive treatment in other ways, chiefly from the caprice or cruelty of the pro- vincial rulers ; as when Abdalla ibn Ah, the governor of Palestine, branded the Jews on the hand ; or when the Imaum Giafur Zedek promulged a law, that no Jew or OKDER V. SEHOKAIM AND OEOXIM. 221 Christian should succeed to an inheritance, uiiless he embraced the faith of Isham. Yet, tlirougliout those centuries, they were in general not only tolerated, but esteemed, trusted, and honoured. Their extensive mer- cantile transactions in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and the intercourse ■which their common interests, their synagogal system, and their schools, prompted and enabled them to maintain with their brethren in other lands, gave them advantages as a pohtical body, which rendered their friendship of importance to the civil rulers, who, in their enterprises against the western power, found the intelligence and ability of the Jew well worthy of being conciliated and employed. They were therefore retained about the court, not only in the capacity of physicians and men of science, but in the discharge of civil and political functions, in which they acquitted themselves with honour and advantage to themselves and the princes who employed them. AVlien the Persian coinage was altered by the Chalif Omar, on the subversion of the royal dynasty, the transaction was confided to a Jew, Abdelmalek;^ and at the court of Haroim al Eashid the Jew Ishak appeared as ambas- sador from Charlemagne. The rabbinical schools were now in the bloom of their prosperity. Tliousands of students repaired to those fountains of instruction, not a few of whom came from distant parts of Europe and Africa, to carry back the means of promoting the cause of education in their own countries. Literature and science were attaining also a remarkable ascendancy among the Saracens themselves ; for the Arabian intel- lect had now discovered the track which led to precious knowledge, and was pui'suing it with a noble emulation. ^ In accordance with the Hebrew and Mahometan principle, the new coinage bore iio image, but a legend or motto setting forth the unity of God. 223 HEBREW LITERATURE. Long, indeed, before the time of Mahomet, the poetic genius of the Arabians had revealed itself, not only in the improvisations of their minstrels, but in the more abiding creations of the golden-lettered poems of the Modahahafh and J/oo'/i^/^-a;'//, suspended in their temple. The collected writings of ]\Iahomet established a literary standard for the language; and when the vic- torious wars of the chalifs had, within a century from his death, consolidated an empire which stretched from Lisbon to Astrakan, their mental character, elevated, rather than enervated, by prosperity, and refined by intercourse with civilized nations, unfolded its energies in efforts after the attainment and diffusion of truth that ushered in a day of scientific and literary glory which has been scarcely surpassed. Li the magnificent courts of Al ]\Iansur and Haroun al Rashid, the learned of many lands found an asylum, where wealth and honour rewarded the labours of the mind. It is con- ceded that the Arabians themselves were not eminent at first as inventors or discoverers ; but they had the wisdom and tact to seize upon what was bright and good among the results of the investigations and dis- coveries of other peoples. Thus the choicest works of the Syrian and Greek literature were rendered into Arabic,* and widely studied among the population. Universities and libraries were founded in Bagdad, Basra, Kufa, and Bucharest, which became centres of an activity that still vibrates thi-ough the world. For the Arabians were not content with translations of the works of Aristotle, Plato, Galen, and their Greek commentators, but learned to elaborate a literature of their own, and became in their turn the instructors of posterity. "Whoever is acquainted with the genesis and * We ought to remark, tliat many of these translations were made by learned Nestorian Cliristians. See my "Syrian Churclies," pp. 239-266. ORDER, V. SEB0RA1!\[ AND GEONIM. 223 history of European scinico, knows well that the gcnns of useful knowledge, originally sprung from the older oriental or later Grecian mind, wouKl, iu all probability, have perished in the medicuval winter time, had they not been fostered and preserved in the eastern antl Spanish Islamite schools. A mere account of the commentaries of the Arabians on the ancient masters of learning, and their own multitudinous achievements in mathematics, astronomy, geography ; in medicine, in logic, and metaphysics ; their philological lexicons and encyclopeedias, and their ciea- tions in the various kinds of poetry, — would require; a volume. It deserves also to be noted that in the department of philosophy the labours of those great men were not without a healthy and religious tendency ; their threefold aim having been, to demonstrate the sublime truth of the unity of God, against the oriental Dualism; to establish the fact of a creation, against the dogma of the eternity of matter; and, so far as they were unfettered by the authority of the Koran, to vin- dicate the moral liberty of the human wiU. This developement of wisdom and knowledge among their Islamite neighbours was not without its intluence on the Jews. In the schools, indeed, the Talmud continued to be the fundamental study ; but the learned among them had already received the impulse after a more extensive career of knowledge, and applied them- selves, in common with the Maliometan ulemas, to the more accm-ate study of the physical and metaphysical sciences. In dialectics and philosophy their past train- ing would give them peculiar advantages. Yet but comparatively few of the men of the Geo- nastic period distinguished themselves as authors. Their labours, as was the case with many of their predecessors, were mainly confined within the domain of oral iustruc- 224 HEBEEW LITERATURE. tion, or embodied in writings which have not survived the wastings of time, or exist in the anonymous forms to which we will attend a little further on. Of the authors of this school who are known as such by name, we should mention, — Shemun bar Kaira, who, about a.d. 74-8, compiled a work called HalaJcoth Gedoloth, exhibiting a copious abstract of the principal decisions of the Talmud. A similar production emanated shortly after from the school of Sora, under the direction of Jehuda bar Nachman Gaon, surnaraed "the Illuminated.''^ This book was entitled Halakoth Pesikoth, and was, in fact, an abridgment of Shemun Kaira's ; though some make it to have had the precedence in date, and consider Kaira^s compendium to be aTi amplification of Jehuda's. The work now extant under the title of HalaJcoth Gedoloth, (edited Venice, 1548, and Zolkiew, 1811,) was com- posed from the materials of each of them, by Joseph Tob Elem, about a.d. 1040. HiLAi BAR Hananja (795) wrote a collection of Teshiboth, responses on various rabbinical themes, which are printed in the Sheare-Zion. (Salonica, 1792.) Achat Gaon (750) wrote the Sefer Bhalsheleth^ or rather Shealoth ; a question-and-answer exposition of the rites, ceremonies, and institutions of the law, upon the basis of the weekly paraslnoth of the Pentateuch. The matter is chiefly from the Talmud. (Venice, 1546 ; Dyrhenfurt, 1786.) Amram Gaon (858) prepared a Siddur, or "Prayer Book," frequently cited by the later rituahsts. In the department of philology, and contemporary with the Arabian grammarians. El Chalil and Siha- VEHA, the Eabbins Juda bar Quarish, Dunash ^ben Lib RATH, Juda ibn Chaiug, and Menachem ben Sarug, elaborated some works on the Hebrew language. ORDEll V. SEBORAIM AND GEONIM. 225 characterized by tlie advantages which their authors possessed in a thorough knowledge of the cognate Arabic. These works have been merged in later pro- ductions of the same class, though a few fragments of them yet exist in some of the great continental libraries. The Lexicon of Menachcm ben Sarug is now edited by Dr. J. H. Biesenthal, to whom we are indebted for several valuable works in Hebrew philology. The edition of Ben Sarug includes the scholia of his con- temporary, Dunasli ibu Librath. Ibn Iwalid IMerwan ibn Ganah, or Eabbi Jonah, about A.D. 1000, wrote the K'ltah al Azul, a large Lexicon, Hebrew and Arabic, in which the Hebrew was compared with the Arabic and Aramean forms and idioms. Here we may notice a remarkable modification in the Jewish language, resulting from the circumstances of the times. As in the Talmud the Aramaic and He- brew blended into a new dialect, so now it was with Arabic and Hebrew. In the Geonian and post-Geo- uian period it became the custom to write not only in Arabic and Hebrew, but also in a dialect {Ihhon waaroh) which created a kind of verbal reservoir supplied by three Shemitic streams, — Hebrew, Aramean, and Arabic. Thus, in the Mafteah Jia Talmud, and the Megillatk Setarim of Nessim Jacob, while Arabic and Hebrew alternate, the style sometimes becomes a mixture of both. Many of the works of the Morocco and Spanish rabbins partook of this character. A grammar of this dialect was confected by Adonim ben Tannim.'^ This constellation of Geonastic writers will be per- ceived to be but few in number, and within but a degree of total obscurity; but there are three others ^ See Eben Ezra's Mosnaim, apud Delitzsch, Wissenscliaft und Judenthum, 255. L 5 226 HEBREW LITERATURE. who sliine like stars of the first magnitude in the firmament of Jewish hterature. I. The first of these is Saadya Gaon, who was born at Pithora, (Al Fium,) in Egypt ; and hence is sometimes called Al Fayumi. He flourished between a.d. 892 and 942, the contemporary of the Arabian historian Masudi. Saadya enjoyed the tuition of an eminent Karaite teacher, Shalmon ben Jenicham ; an advantage that gave him an enlargement of mind beyond many of his colleagues in the Babylonian schools, though he never embraced the Karaite doctrine, but contended for the necessity of oral tradition. While rector of the school of Perez Shibbur, he was nominated by the resh glutha, David bar Zachai, to the presidency of Sora. This appointment, made on the part of Bar Zachai with reluctance, from dislike to Saadya, was by no means felicitous. A personal quarrel broke out between them, which was carried to the length of anathemas and excommunications, and issued in Saadya's flight into exile under the power of the ban. In tins retreat he spent seven years, in which he composed some of the important works which have given his name an abiding reputation. 1. Eben ha-pldlosophim : a Kabalistic disquisition. 2. /S'^er^_j7gro«,"the Book of Treasures:" a grammar. 3. Other otJi : on the Hebrew alphabet. 4. /Sg^b* //^/wM/m^c; on the Hebrew language. These, and several other minor ones, are no longer extant. 5. Sefer ha-emvMah: on the articles of faith. In Arabic. Translated into Hebrew by Juda ibn Tibbon. (Const., 1562.) 6. A commentary on the Sefer Jetsira. (Mantua, 1592.) 7. Sefer happeduth vehappurekan : a book on, the redemption and liberation of Israel. ORDER V. SEBORAIM AND GEONIM..; 227 8. A translation of the Pcntatei^cli into Arabic. Saadya translated many, if not all,,.of the books of the Old Testament. Among the great mass of the eastern Jews at that time even the Aramaized Hebrew had ceased to be vernacular : thus both the original text and the Aramaic Targuras were available only to the learned. Saadya attempted to meet this deficiency by a version of the Scriptures into the noble language which had then become the prevailing speech of the East. The surviving portion of this faithful and able translation is highly valued by biblical scholars. (Const., 1546 ; by Erpenius, at Leyden, 1G22 ; and also in the London and Paris Polyglots.) 9. Commentaries: on Canticles; (Prague, 1G19 ;) on Daniel; (found in the great rabbinical Bibles;) on Job, in Arabic, MS. in the Bodleian. In treating of the prophecies which relate to the restoration of Israel, Saadya maintains the literal prin- ciple of interpretation. In his Sefer Jia-emimali , Sefer happeduth, and in his Perttshim or Commentaries, he enlarges amply on this topic, and argues for the certain and literal rehabilitation of the Jewish state fi'om the power, justice, and faithfulness of God. This wise and good man lived eight years in peace after his return from exile, and died at the age of fifty, a.d. 942. 11. Sherira Gaon was the son of Hauina Gaon, and grandson of Judah, who had also been invested with the same diffnitv. Sherira had taught first at Perez Shibbur, and had won such universal respect in the Jewish community, that, when raised to the gaouate, the ofhce of resh glutlia becoming vacant, it was not filled up, and Sherira was left to discharge the twofold function of the chief ruler in both departments. In his old age he associated with himself his son, Haja, in the direction of the schools. He underwent, in his latter 228 HEBREW LITERATURE. days, a disastrous reverse of fortune; having fallen under the displeasure of the Chalif Ahmed Kader, who confiscated his property, and afterward hanged him. He died at the advanced age of a hundred years, about A.D. 997. Sherira is said to have been an implacable enemy to the Christians. But it is due to him, with respect to our present investigations, to remark, that it is to him we owe our most accurate intelligence of the affairs of the Jewish schools in Babylonia; his book, entitled Iggereili, "Epistle," or, in other copies, Teshi- hafh, " Eesponse," containing not only answers to a variety of questions on the methodology of the Talmud, but brief personal notices of many of the most distin- guished schoolmen of the period. It is, in fact, the classical text-book from which tlie most trustworthy writers on the subject have derived their certain infor- mation. The Teshuhath of R. Sherira was first printed with the Constantinople edition of the Juchasin ; but the best edition is that which has been recently pub- Hshed by Dr. Goldberg, in a collection of scarce and valuable rabbinical treatises, entitled C/iop/ies/i Matmo- nim, in octavo, at Berlin, 1845. III. Hai or Haja bar Sherira Gaon in early life proved lumself a worthy descendant of fathers so illus- trious in Israel for their learning and integrity ; so as that, at the age of eighteen, he attained the office of ab heth din, as the colleague of his father, and, in two years after, the degree of co-gaon, in which relation he continued till the death of Sherira. The chalif, having been made aware that the charges which had brought the aged father to his end were unfounded, permitted the son to retain the gaonship, the sole duties of which he discharged till his death on the 30th of Nisan, 1035. Hai Gaon was distinguished both for his personal ORDER V. SEBORAIM AND CEONIM. 229 virtues, and for an erudition which reiulered liim tlie most accomplished Jewish scholar of his time. The learned men of the nation were then more intent upon the cul- tivation of general science, iu connnou with the Arabian philosophers ; but liai abided by the traditional studies of the Hebrew schools, and sought to recall and concen- trate the intelligence of his people on the old, but fast decaying, system of rabbinical study. In this respect he seems to stand like a solitary colunni among mouldering ruins. His manifold works may be classitied under the following heads : — 1. Tauiudical. (1.) Mlshpete kashebiioth: on oaths. In Arabic. Translated into Hebrew by Nis- sim Sason. (Ed. Yenice, 1602.) (2.) Line Mamnnoth: on the laws of personal property. (3.) Baraitha dimleaketh ha-mislil-an. (Altona, 1782.) (4.) 8efer Maqqach n-mimJcar : on buying and selling. (Altona, 1782.) (5.) Sefer hammasJikon: on pledges and mortgages. (Vienna, 1800.) (6.) Sefer Mishpate hattanalm : Tanaistic Halakoth. (Vienna, 1800.) (7.) 8efer Mishpate hattevaoth: on loans. (Vienna, 1800.) (8.) Dime Mamonoth : on civil law. (Altona, 1782.) 2. ExEGETiCAL. (1.) Perush al tor ah nehaim veke- iuvim : a Commentary on the Scriptures. Not extant, but cited by some of the succeeding commentators. (2.) Biurim al Skesh : illustrations of the Sixty Books, i. €., the Talmud. Not extant. (3.) Sefer hammeasef: a Lexicon, Hebrew and Arabic. This, as weU as several minor treatises, is not extant. 3. Poetic. (1.) Mn.sar Ilaskal: an exposition of the Pentateuch in i\j-abic verse. (Constant., 1511.) Latin translation, Cantica Eruditionis Intellectus; (Paris, 330 HEBREW LITERATURE. 1561;) and by Seidel, Carmen Morale R. Chai. (Leipzig, 1638.) (2.) Shema Koli: "Hear my voice/' a hymu in the Spanish ritual. 4. Kabalistic. (1.) Lekutim Mereb : collections on the names of God. (Warsaw, 1798.) (2.) Phiteron Clialomoth: oil A\:eQ.m&; (Const., 1515;) with a translation into Jewish German. (Amst. 1694.) 5. Miscellaneous. {\.) Shealothu-teslmhoth, "Epis- tles and Answers," contains some by Sherira. (Salo- nica, 1792.) (2.) Sliealoih al inyan liaggenla u-tecliiyath Jiamme- tim: on the release and resurrection of the dead. A portion of this is printed in the Jewish periodical Kochhe Jizchak. {Heft 5, Yienna, 1846.) The entire manu- script is in the Yatican, No. 181. Hai Gaon was the last but one of that order. He was fallowed by Hiskiah, a grandson of David bar Zachai, who united the offices of resh glutlia and gaon. His presidency was one of trouble ; for in the chalif of the day he found an enemy who pursued him to death. His two sons, who were also brought under sentence to the same fate, effected their escape into Spain, where Hebrew literature, forsaking the now desolated schools of the Euphrates, found an asylum, in which it put forth a renewed vigour, and clothed itself with beauties it had never worn since the times when prophets wrote with the pen of inspiration. We have given no details on the internal history of the Babylonian schools during the Geonastic period. The lives of the rabbins were partly devoted to secular occupations, as handicraftsmen, merchants, physicians, astrologers, and secretaries; partly, in relation to the schools, in the acquirement and inculcation of their own peculiar kinds of knoMdedge, and in the prosecu- OUDER V. SEBORATM A\D OF.ONIM. 231 tion of almost endless coiilroversies, either as a body, in opposition to the oecasionally despotic ruk; of the irsk glut/ia, (who, throughout this period, was often the creature or servant of tlie state, hokhng his office, though nominally by rabbinic election, yet reall}' by purchase from the government,) or among themselves, in such personal cabals as commoidy arise among men in similar circumstances. In detailing these matters we might crowd our pages with names which are the symbols of petty contentions, in which the reader would find as little interest as in the noise of so many rooks in a distant grove. There were two controversies among them, however, of acknowledged importance. One, on the doctrine of the metempsychosis, which many of the Jews held in common with the Gentile philosophers, and which found an able antagonist in Saadya Gaon. The other was between the llabbinists and the rising sect of the Karaites, whose principles were becoming every year more formidable to the adherents of the traditional law. A serious schism took place about a.d. 750, under the leadership of Anan, a man of great learning and inHuence, and whom the Karaites venerate as the patriarch of their sect. The Eabbiuists, however, if they could not well answer the arguments of their biblical opponents, had suffi- cient secular power to compel these dissenters to emi- OTate in lar^-e numbers into Palestine, where the com- munity took a regular organization. III. LITERATURE OF THE GEONASTIC AGE. AYiTH the exception of the authors we have named in the last article, the great mass of the Geonastic litera- ture is anonymous. In giving a conspectus of it, I shall not scruple to append a few works which, though in point of time they are a trifle more modern than the 232 HEBREW LITERATURE. days of the Geonim, belong nevertheless to the kind and description of books to which their activity gave existence, and were composed by men whose minds had been formed, directly or indirectly, under their teaching. The Geonastic learning may be ranged under the following heads : — I. ExEGETiCAL : Comprising, — 1. The Pentateuch, &c., of Saadya, and his Com- mentaries. 2. The Pernsh al Torah of Hai Gaon. 3. The latter four Eabboth, or Hagadistic Com- mentaries on the Pentateuch. (1.) Of the Bereshith Rabha, or Commentary on Genesis, we have already s|)okeu. If it be not of the earlier age of Hoshaia Eabba, it must have origi- nated in the time of the Seboraim, or first Geonim. The last five chapters (the section Vaichi) are more modern, probably of the eleventh century. (2.) Shemoth Balba, or Ve-eleh shemoth: on Exodus, in fifty-two chapters. It bears traces of the author of the Vaichi just mentioned. (3.) Vajikra Rahha, or Hagadath Vajikra : on Levi- ticus. Middle of seventh century. (4.) Ba-midbar Babba: twenty-three chapters on Numbers. The age uncertain, but internal evidence points to the eleventh or tweKth century. (5.) Bebarim Babba: on Deuteronomy. Beginning of tenth century. In the Yalkut there are some twenty fragments of a Bebarim Zutta, riclily parabolical. 4. Midrash EcJia: on the Lamentations. Strong in Hagadoth. Seventh century. 5. The Pesiktot/i : (i". ^., portions or sections :) eluci- datory and Hagadistic readings on the parasldoth of the law and some parts of the prophets, and adapted to the sabbath and fast-day calendar. The Besiktas are ORDER. V. SKBORAIM AND (IKONIM. 233 HOW only found in detached fragments here and tlierc in the YalkiU and Jrnk. They arc twenty-nine in ;ill, and appear to be portions of a work once entire, but now lost. Dr. Zunz, with immense research, has been able to specify and describe them in the eleventh chapter of his Goitesdienst. Vortriige der Jnden. N.B. These fragments must not be confounded with the better known Pesiklha Rahhalhi and Zotarlha, which are works of a later time. The Pesiktha Rabbathi is a collection of comments on Leviticus, from the Mish- naist teachers, under the nominal authorship of llab Kohana, in the fourth century; but there is reason to assign it rather to some Jew in Greece, in the middle of the ninth century. The Pesiktha Zotartha, the lesser Pesiktha, is a col- lection of various Midrash and allegorical comments on Leviticus, and to the end of the Pentateuch, taken chiefly from the Sifra, Sifree, and Mekiltha. It is ascribed to R. Tobia ben Eliezer, in the twelfth cen- tury. Its original title was Lekach Tob ; a motto from Prov. iv. 2. (Venice, 1546, foho.) 6. Yelamdenu: a grand llagada on the Pentateuch. The title comes from the oft-repeated formula at the beginning of the paragraphs, Yelamdenu rabbemt, " Our master wiU teach us." This work is the same as the Yelamdenu of Tanchuma bar Abba, so often quoted by Raslii and Nathan in the ArvJc : that is to say, Tan- chuma wrote some considerable portion of it, but the ample form in which it now exists may not date further back than the latter half of the ninth century.® It was first printed at Constantinople in 1528, folio; and, as IH'ld._^<*- Sefer Tanchuma, hanlkra Jelamdeuu, vehu Midrash al cha- ^*^j!j^ '* " In Italy, where at that time were several learned Jews much engaged with the Eastern Hebrew literature, aud in correspondence with the rabbins of the Babylonian schools. 234 HEBEEW LITERATURE. misha chumishe Torah, at Verona, iu 1595, — a thin folio, in double columns, very small, but beautiful square letters. 7. Boraitha de Bahhi M'lezer. This variegated Mid- rash, which bears the name of Eliezer, in connexion with whom we have already given a notice of it, belongs properly to the Geonian period, and to the authorship or the compilation of some Jew of Palestine, Greece, or Asia Minor. The best critics assign it to the eighth century. Vide page 101. 8. Hagadoth Chazith : on the Canticles. Early part of the ninth century. 9. Midrash Bdher, or HagadotJi Megilla: resem- bles in tone the second Targum on Esther. 10. A small Hagada on Euth, in eight sections. 11. One on Koheleth, in three sedarim. Quoted by Nathan, and probably of the tenth century. 12. Sochar Toh, or Hagada Tillhn, or Midrash Tillim : on the Psalms, by different hands. The former part belongs to the Geonian age. The whole of it was known in the eleventh century, as appears from quotations from it by Nathan and Eashi. 13. Midrash Mishley : on the Proverbs. Of the same age as the latter part of the Midrash Tillim. 11. Midrash Shamuel: beginning of the eleventh century. 15-17. ^\i.rtt Midrashim on Job, Isaiah, and Jonah. II. Talmudical. 1. The Halakoth Gedoloth of Solomon ben Kaira. 2. The Shalsheleth of Achai Gaon. 3. The Teshuvoth of Sherira Gaon, so far as it relates to Talmudical questions. 4. The eight works in this department by Hai Gaon, enumerated in our notice of him. 5. The 2Iassehtoth Ketanoth, or appendices to the Talmud, set forth, page 186. ORDER V. SEBORAT^t AM) (IKOMM. :235 III. KIa-BALISTIC. 1. Some crilics have placed the books Jetsira and Zo/iar in tliis age ; but 1 feel myself unable to concur willi them. The rererences to the •fcfsira in the 'ralmud are too plain to warrant a reason- able doubt that the book was then in existence. l. A connnentary on the Jetsira, by Saadya Gaon, or, at least, attributed to liim. 3. His Ebeti ha-P/iUosoj)him, or, " Stone of the Philosophers." 4. The great and little HeJcaloth of Hai Gaon. 5. Sefer Raziel: which must be distinguislicd from a later Sefer Biuiel hagfjcuJol : a kind of connnentary on the Jetsira. 6. The alphabet attributed, wrongly, to Akiva. 7. The J/idras/i Konoi : (Prov. iii. 19:) a kind of romantic cosmology. It has been lately reprinted in Jellineck^s Beth llanmidrasli, a collection of the most valuable Midrasliim. (Leipzig, 1853.) IV. Theologic and Ethical. 1. The Sefer ha- emnna, on the articles of faith, by Saadya. t. His book on the Redemption of Israel. 3. Ilai Gaon's work on the Release and Resurrection of the dead. 4. The Birhe Avoth, commonly ascribed to Rabbi Nathan. Y. Philological. The Aruh of Zemach bar Palthai, rector of Pumbaditha, 872 : probably the first Hebrew dictionary ever written. The AYorks of Juda ben Quarish, Dunasli ben Librath, and Juda ibn Chaiug; (see page 224 j) the Lexicon of Iwalid Merwan, or R. Jonah ; Saadya's Book of Treasures, his Sefer Lishon Ivree, and the Lexicon of Menachem ben Sarug. YI. Miscellaneous, Under this head we have to mention some of the most interesting of the rich Midrasliim literature of the Jews. These works were mainly designed to illustrate various momenta in their 236 HEBREW LITERATIJUE. religious traditions, doctrines, and practices. Though generally founded upon Holy Scripture, they are not strict interpretations of the sacred text, nor even free paraphrases of it ; but, combining some elements of each method, they intermingle with the statements and teachings of the Bible a multitude of Sagas or Hagadoth, It is this which distinguishes the Midrash writers from the Targumists, on the one hand, and the more scientific commentators, on the other. If the design of the Midrash writers was to illustrate the Scriptures for the popular mind, they signally failed in their object, as the effect of their works is to confuse and corrupt the statements of the inspired volume, and to weaken the confidence of the more enlightened Israelites in the traditions of their national history. Of this class of productions are, — 1. Megillath Antiochus, Subject, the wars of the Hasmoneaus. (First edition, Mantua, 1557, 8vo.) 2. Ketib Elclad ha-Bani, " The book of Eldad, the Danite." The fable of the Jews beyond the river " Sambation." (Constantinople, 1516.) 3. Sefer Zeruhahel : traditions on Armilus, i. e., Romulus, the personification of the Eoman hereditary enemy of Israel, and of the last gi'eat infidel king. (Const, 1519.) 4. Midrash Vajisu : wars of the sons of Jacob. (Const., s. a.) 5. Maaseh de Rahli JeJioshua heii Letoi: a mythical biography of him. Printed, with other Hagadoth, at Const., 1519. 6. Midrash Me Ezlcera : so called from the first words, " These will I remember." (Psalm xlii. 5, Heb. text.) The death of ten eminent Tanaim. 7. Midrash Esr eh Haddeheroth: on the Ten 'Com- mandments. Tales designed to illustrate the Decalogue. ORDEll V. SEBORAI.M AND fiKONlM. 237 The sixth and teutli commandments are not handled. (Verona, IGll.) 8. Behrei/ hai/amrm shel Moshe: the Chronicle of Moses. (Const., 1511).) 9. Midrash Phatire or Pef/iiraf, Moshe : the last days and translation of Moses. (Const., 15 IG.) 10. Midrash PJiatire A/iartin : a similar work, but probably more modern. (Const., 15 IG.) 11. Chabur Yejiheh : a collection of legends by Rabbenu Nissim, chiefly taken from the Talmuds and Boraithas. (Ferrara.) 12. Seder Ola7n Zuta : this is not a Midrash, but a more serious work, genealogical and historical, though often glaringly incorrect. (Amst., 1711, with the greater Seder 01 am. Vide p. 108.) [13. Not far off from the time of these works is that of the well-knowii production of Joseph ben Gorion, Sefer Yosef hen Gorion ha-Kohen, called also, Josippon. A history from the Creation; comprising, with details on the origines and fate of the Jewish people, various notices of the Gentile nations, and espe- cially the Romans : the whole worked up with strongly coloured fable. Joseph was probably an Italian Jew ; and liis work, in the judgment of Zunz, may be assigned to the last quarter of the tenth century. He is quoted so early as Rashi. (First edition, Mantua, s. a.; Constantinople, 1510; Oxford, 1706, quarto.) ' 14. With the latter book we must also mention the Sefer ha Jasher, or the Toledoth Adam ; a history from Adam to the Judges, written in the same style, and in correct and fluent Hebrew. It is sometimes attributed to Joseph ben Gorion. (Fii'st edition, Venice, 1625.) This romance must not be confounded with " the Book ^ Sources of Bex Gokion. — Delitzsch, Poesie, 38, note. 238 HEBEEW LITERATURE. of Jaslier/' quoted in the Bible. (Joshua x. 13.) It is a Spanish production of the twelfth century.] 15. Ahla Gorion : a crabbed treatise^ (as to style,) relating to the Book of Esther. 16. Midrash Esfa : on part of the Book of Numbers. Written in Babylonia in the ninth century. 17. Midrash Tudislia : so called from the first word in it. (Taken from Gen. i. 11.) It is also entitled the Boraitha R. Pinchas ben Jair. 18. Vai/eJmllu : (Gen. ii. 1 :) on several parts of the Pentateuch. It is quoted so early as the twelfth century. 19. Tajosha : (Exod. xiv. 30 :) the tradition about Aimilus, the Roman Antichrist. 20. Tana de Be' Eliahu : a melange from the Bible, Talmud, and prayer-books, tlirown into the form of instructions by the Prophet Elijah. The work of a Babylonian, about 970. The Bliahu Zota is a smaller compendium of the same kind. 21. The Musar Haskel and Shema Koll of Hai Gaon. Many of these Midrashim are now being published in a very neat and useful pocket edition, under the care of that accomplished Hebrew scholar, Dr. Adolf Jehnck. (Leipzig, 1853, &c.) ORDER VI. MEDIEVAL RABBANIM. 239 OEDER VI. MEDI/EVAL llABBANIM. On the dissolution of the Babylonian patriarchate and schools many learned Jews found an asylum in Spain. Their settlement in that country was attended by cir- cumstances which opened a new and bright era in Hebrew science. The greater part of the western peninsula was now under the Moslem sceptre. The Saracens, or, rather, Moorish Arabs, had been in pos- session of more or less of the country ever since about the nineteenth year of the Hedjra, when Taric, who commanded their forces in Africa, crossed the straits, and unfurled his banner on the rock which has since borne the memorial of his name, the Gebel Al Taric. In July, A.D. 711, the last Gothic king, Eodriguez, perished at the great fight near Xeres de la Erontera; and Spain ^ became a province of the Eastern chalifate, except where, in the inaccessible fastnesses of Granada, the fugitive Visigoths maintained a fragment of their former dominion. Firmly seated in this new accpiisition, their impetuous ambition moved the Arab leaders to extend their con- quests beyond the PjTcnees. Under Abderrahman, the governor of Spain, the arniy of the Crescent, two hun- dred and fifty thousand strong, carried all before them, from the borders of Catalonia to the walls of Tours. Here, however, they had to meet face to face the roused and well appointed chivalry of Erance, who, led on by Charles Martel, utterly overthrew the invading host, and washed away the insult otfered to their country in a deluge of blood. By this most critical and decisive * Tlie Arabs called it Audalouz, a name still retained ia one of the provinces. Some writers make it equivalent to Vandalouz, " the laud of the Vandals;" but others assign it an Arabian origin in Ilandalouz, " the region of the evening or setting sun." 240 HEBREW LITERATUEE. victory, tlie European countries were saved from the ravages of an universal war, and the infamy of subjuga- tion to the Mahometan power. In the East, the chalif dynasty of the Beni 0mm- wyah was now near its end. The founder of the Abassides ascended the seat of the Prophet over the corpses of the family whicli had held it for foui'teen generations. One member of that family, however, Abderrahman, escaped the fate of his murdered relatives, and, after many vicissitudes and wanderings, was invited by the Arab sheiks of Spain to a new country and a throne, (a.d. 755.) He made Cordova his capital, and established there the seat of the " white clialifs " ^ of the West ; a race that, for nearly three hundred years, ruled the Spanish dominions with, all things considered, a wise, just, and munificent sway. Under them, the resources of the country, agricul- tural, commercial, political, and moral, were developed in measures which, for the same lapse of time, were never surpassed or equalled by any of the nations of the world. Abderrahman III. had a revenue of eight millions sterling, a sum which, at that time, exceeded, I suppose, all the revenues of the European mouarchs put together. This amazing income, derived from the taxes of his prosperous subjects, from the azalc, or impost of a tenth on all commercial imports, from the ordinary tithe on agricultural produce, the prizes of war, and the customary tribute levied by the Islam- ite governments on Jews and Christians, contributed at once to uphold the almost fabulous magnificence of his reign, and returned, in a hundred channels of expen- diture, to support and reward the industry of the people. Commercial relations throve among them with ® From the colour of ttcir dress and standards. The Fatimite chalif? of Egjrpt chose grecDj and the Abassides black. OKDET? VI. Mnn.KVAL RABBANIM. 211 all parts of the civilized world; ami tlic onlargod ami ornamented harbonrs of Algesiras and Sidoiiia, Alineria, Valentia, and Arragon, were crowded wiili the sails and standards of all maritime lands. The mineral weidtli of tl\e conntrv was largely wrought u])on, and agri- cultnre combined the beautifid with the productive. The favourable nature of the climate was made avail- able for the cultivation of the exotics of the vegetable kingdom ; and the stately palm and the Indian sugar- cane adorned the landscape, with the myrtle, orange, and vine. The courts of the I'astern chalifs were more than rivalled by the sjilendom- of that of their Ommiade brethren in Spain. A personal retinue of more than six thousand attendants made the residence of Abder- rahman at Azhara, near Cordova, a magnificent town rather than a palace. His own stud of Arabian horses amounted to four thousand in number. His body guard consisted of twelve thousand cavaliers, every man of whom carried a scimitar of gold. Cordova, in his day, was the brightest city of the earth. Built under the shelter of the Sierra Morena, with the glittering waters of the Guadahjuivir flowing at its feet, it stood amid one of the most affluent regions for mineral wealth and rustic fertility in all the European continent. The population at one time is said to have reached a million. Its broad streets and squares were plentifully supplied with fountains, and the houses interspersed with luxuriant gardens. It had six hundred mosques and colleges. The grand mos([uc was one of the wonders of the world. Through an area of six hundred feet in length, by two hundred and fifty broad, fifteen hundred marble eoluniiis supported its gorgeous roof. The great entrance consisted of a colon- nade of doors richly chased in bronze. A\ithin, the 242 HEBREW LITERATUKE. oratory of the Imaum, the sanctum of the temple, was constructed of pure gold ; and when the sunshine faded, six thousand silver lamps diffused at once perfume and light through the solemn shrine.'^ Nor were the efforts of these monarchs confined to the augmentation of the material welfare of the people ; but, with an enlightened and large-minded liberality, they sought to promote their intellectual and moral progress as well. Schools, colleges, and libraries, were multiplied in the great centres of the population. Im- mense collections of books were made, and stately edifices built to receive them. The Meruan palace at Cordova, and the alcazars of Seville, J\[urcia, and Toledo, were thronged with the treasures of ancient and modern learning. Al Hakem II., the founder of the Cordovan academy,^ presented, we are told, six hundred thousand volmnes for the public use of the capital. The learned of other countries were invited to the munificent patron- age of the chalifs ; and the nniversities became the resort of students from the East and the West, who had the advantage of the most eminent professors of the age. Several of the chalifs themselves were lite- rary men. They amused their leisure with poetical compositions, of which examples are yet preserved, and ^ Yet all this glory passed away ; nor, while it lasted, could it gi\'e a real satisfaction to the spirits of the nieu who created it. How in- structive is the well-known Arabic memorandum penned by the hand of Abderrahman III., and foimd in his cabinet after his death ! " I have now reigned above fifty years in victory or peace, beloved by my sub- jects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. "Riches and honours, power and pleasiu'e, have waited on my call ; nor does any earthly blessing seem to have been wanting to complete my felicity. In this situation I have diligently numbered the days of pure and perfect happiness which have fallen to my lot : they amount to foiu'teen ! O man, place not thy confidence in this present world !" ■ Like the French Academy in oui' own days, the similar institutions at ToledOj Se^-ille, and Calatrava consisted each of forty members. ORDER VI. MEDT/EVAL RABBAXIM. 213 some created more elaborate works wliidi liavc main- tained a permanent repntation among Arabian scholars. At the time to which we must now more particularly refer, that, namely, of the immigration of the Baby- lonian Jews into Spain, this state of things had been somewhat moditied. The Ommiade dynasty of chalifs lasted about two hundred and seventy years, and then, by a fate which seems common to every series of monarchs, degenerated and died away. On the break- ing up of the chalifate it was divided into the royalties of Cordova, Seville, Toledo, Valencia, and Zaragossa. These divisions weakened the Saracenic interests, and contributed to the success of the never-ceasing efforts of the Christian power to regain its lost supremacy. In 10;3.j, Castile was constituted a Christian kingdom, and its sovereign, Ferdinand, — subsequently enabled to comprehend in his dominions Gallicia, Asturias, and other districts, — assumed the title of emperor. It was in this transition time that the refugees from Babylonia found an asylum among their already numerous bre- thren in the peninsula, where their forefathers had been domiciled from times almost immemorial. The Jews now found in this country a grateful repose. They enjoyed entire toleration, the friendly countenance of the reigning kings, and a ready access to the fountains of knowledge which sent forth their streams from the Arabian universities of Cordova and Toledo. Spain to them became another Palestine. The climate, scenery,^ and social condition of things ^ The descriptions we have of some districts of the country in those days, seem like an amplification of the heantiful words which Goethe puts into the mouth of Miguon in Witlielm Meisters Lehrjahre ; — Kennst da das Land wo die Citroneti hliihn, Iin dunkeln Laub die GoJd-Orangen glillin, Ein sanfter Wind vom hlauen Ilimmel tceht. Die Myrte still v.nd hoch der Lorbeer steitt ' M "2 244 HEBREW LITERATURE. brouglit to tlieir minds a vivid reminiscence of the country of their ancestors ; the " good laud ; a land of brooks of water, and fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a laud of oil- olive and honey ; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, arid lack nothing ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass/^ An historian well says that, " the two sons of Eabbi Hezekiah escaping from Babylon at the overthrow of the college of the Geonim, and the murder of their father its president, they and theu' com- panions arriving at Cordova must have welcomed as tenderly the view of the stately palms as did their planter, the first Abderrahman." ■* They found them- selves also among people to whom oriental customs, dresses, and dialects were natural, the very presence of wdiich would " make the Jew feel doubly that he was one,"' by creating impressions which harmonized with his own pecuharities, and enhance the effect of liis religion and language. For even the religions of the two people, however diverse in other respects, had one principle in which they both agreed, — the confession of the unity of God : in the mosque it was syllabled in the Allahu la illaha ilia hu,^ and in the syiiagogue it took expression in the more sacred Shemd Israel, YehS- vah Eloheinu YehSvah Echdd. (Deut. vi. 4.) Up to the close of the Geonastic period the Jews in Spain, however numerous, thriving iu worldly wealth, or well educated, in general knowledge were greatly behind their eastern brethren in rabbinical learning. But at the end of the tenth century a new impulse was given to those studies among them, by the influence of Moses, a rabbin of the school of Sherira Gaon, wh6, * Sefardim, p. 102. ^ Alkoran, 64, 13. ORDER VI. MKDIiEVAL RAHBANIM. M 'j with three otliers of his brethren, hud been l:ikcn prisoners when on a vovage in the iMediterraneim, and had been sohl into skvery. Moses was brought in this state to Cordova, and, liaving obtained Hl)ertv enough to attend the synagogue, lie ventured, ill ilressed as he was, in the sackcloth of a slave, to take a part in the discussion of some questions on the law. Beeouiing thus known to the inquirers after rabbinical knowledge in Cordova, he unfolded such stores of that kind of erudition as not only to win the admiration of the people, but to prepare his way to the chief seat of instruction, and the patronage of the Cordovan king, Hashem II., who himself received instruction from him in the laws and usages of the peculiar people who formed so considerable a section of his subjects. Moses was followed in the presidency of the Cordovan syna- gogue by his son Enoch, who for many years maintained an equal reputation. But it was on the breaking up of the Babylonian schools, and the influx of a multitude of oriental scholars into Spain, that Hebrew science received so decisive an impulse in that country as to inaugurate a new era in its progress. It ought to be observed, that the Jewish mind in that and other ]\Iahometan countries M'as now in a more advanced stage than when the Talmud- was first promulged either in Palestine or Iran; and in the circumstances in which they found themselves in relation to the scientific and hterarj- culture of their Islamite fellow-subjects, the great question which the heads of the synagogue had now before them was, How to retain the ascendancy of rabbinism, and yet not restrain among their peo[)le the benefits of the more extensive educational movements which were displaying themselves around them. They attempted this, — 246 HEBREW LITERATURE, 1. By the establisliment of collegiate foundations of their own^ where a liberal education could be prose- cuted by Hebrew youth under rabbinical influence. Such schools arose in Arragon, Navarre^ Castile, Alcala, Catalonia, Zaragossa, Burgos, Cordova, Toledo, Tara- gona, and Lucena; while in Italy similar institutions were found at ]\Iantua, Lucca, and other places ; and in France at Montpellier, Karbonne, Lunel, and Marseilles. The principal of each college took the title of nagid, or "prince," equivalent to that of resh melihtlia in the eastern schools. In these institutions, under the care of some of the most eminent scholars of the age, a multi- tude of men were trained whose works have been ever held in estimation not only by their own bretliren, but by the learned of the Cliristian church as well. 2. By making rabbinical learning the basis of other forms of instruction. They wished the minds of their students to be pre-occupied with their own national doctrines and traditions. Thus Salomo ibn Adrath, nagid of Barcelona, went so far as to enact that Gentile philosophy should not be studied tiU the age of twenty- four years. It should, however, be added that this law did not meet the approval of the rabbins at large, and was the occasion of a troublesome controversy. 3. By the translation of the most important Talmud- ical works into the then vernacular Arabic, so giving the rabbinical institutes a status in the modern litera- ture. The Talmud itself was so translated by E. Joseph. 4. By the more scientific study of the Hebrew language itseK. 5. By the sanctification of the poetic art in its ap- plication to the ritual of the synagogue, the illustration of Biblical and Talmudic literature, and the cherishing of national and ancestral feelings in the minds of the rising generation; and, — OUDER VI. MEDI.EVAL lUBBANDI. 217 6. By regular courses of popular iustructiou, distinct from the academical course, through the medium of public preacliiug in their congregations. And this system was carried out so cfTicicntly as to develope not only a vigorous rchgious life in the social condition of the people, but a golden age of Hebrew literature. In attempting to give some idea of the amplitude of this Sephardite literature, we will first inscribe the names of some of the most eminent of the authors themselves. Jehuda Chaiug was a native of Fez, in Africa, about 1025, but spent the greater part of his life in Spain. He brought his thorough acquaintance with the Hebrew and Arabic languages to bear upon the scientific study of grammar, and won the appellation of Rosh Ilammidakdikim, or "Prince of the Ciram- marians." His works have been edited by L. Dukes, with the title of Sifree dikeduk me-roah E. Jehudah Chaiug. (Frankfort, 1844, 8vo.) Alfes, or, more correctly, Israel Alfasi, a native of Fez, came into Spain with the Marov^de Moors in 1088, and settled at Lucena, where he held the office of nag id in the Hebrew college. His reputation as a Talmudist was of the highest kind, and his Sefer J/aJta- lakoth, a compendium of the Talmud, (Basil., I(i02,) acquired, from the first, the rank of a text-book. Alfasi died at the age of ninety. Samuel Ha-nagid was a scholar of Chaiug, and maintained the reputation of his master. He is best known as the author of a good treatise on the method- ology of the Talmud, of Avliich a condensed German translation is given by Pinner, in his introduction to the Mhketh Berakoth. (See page 188.) Bachja ben Josef, who was a judge in Zaragossa, 248 IIEBKEW LITERATURE. in the middle of tlie eleventh century, had the surname of Hachesid, or " the Moralist/' from his most popu- lar work, Sefer Chobath hallelahotk, "the Book of Heart Obligations, or Duties;" originally written in Arabic; rendered into Hebrew by Jeliuda ibn Tabon, (Naples, 1490,) and partly by Jos. Kimchi. (Leipzig, 1846.) This work, which is an important contribution to ethical literature, has been translated into German bv Turstenthal, (Breslau, 1836,) Italian (imitation) by Debora Ascaralli, (Venice, 1610,) Spanish by Pardo, (A^enice, 1703,) and Portuguese by Abbas. (Amst., 1670.) Abraham ibn Esra (ben Meir), commonly called Aben Esra, was born at Toledo in 1092, and died at Rome in 1167. A man of prodigious erudition, as Talmudist, philosopher, astronomer, physician, Kabalist, and poet. His greatest reputation, however, was achieved in the field of Scripture exegesis; and his Commentaries will ever command the esteem of all thorough students of the holy volume, whether Jews or Christians. Works : — 1. Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible. See under the Order of Commentators. 2. Arugath ha-cJioJcma : on the philosophy of rehgion. Edited in the periodical Kerem Chemed. (Prague, 1839.) 3. Igrath hashahafh : on the divisions of time. [Kerem Chemed, 1840.) 4. Yesod More va-sod Torah: on tradition and the study of the law. (Constant., 1530.) 5. Sod hashem: on the name of God. (Pui'th, 1834.) 6. Sefer moznaim: an excellent Hebrew grammar. (Augsburg, 1521.) 7. Sefath j ether : explanation of difficult words in the Bible. (Presburg, 1838.) 8. Shirim : religious poems and hymns ; and a number of minor treatises, among Avhich is a metrical one on the game of chess, which was edited, with a Latin transla- ORDER VI. MEDI.r,VAL RABHAMM. )l \\) tion, by Hyde, at Oxford, in IGDl. ^lany of Iiis other works are yet unedited. Jehuda Ha Levi (bkn Samukl), a C'astiliim, in the twelfth century, became, both in sacred poetry und moral science, one of the ornaments of his age. Highlv educated, opulent, and ardently religious, he consecrated his life to the promotion of piety and truth. His poeti- cal works {S/iirlm u-mi:morim) enrich the Sefardite ritual with some of its choicest lyrics ; and in addition to thet^e, he composed a Blwan or collection of anthems and miscellaneous poems, a large selection of which was published by Luzzatto under the title of Bethitlaf/i bath Jehuda. (Prague, 1846.) Copious specimens of tlie poetry of Jehuda have. been given by Leopold Dukes, {Zur Kenhiiss der neu-Uebr. Religiosen Poesie, Frank- fort, 1842,) and by M. Sachs [Die lielig'wse Poesie iler Juden in Spanien, 1845). More widely known, however, is a remarkable work of his, the Kusari, or Cosri, an imaginary discussion between a king of Khosar, and a heathen philosopher, a Christian divine, a Mahometan, and a Hebrew rabbi. It is grounded on the fact, that a chakan, or sovereign ® of a people called Khosars, a Tui'koman nation inhabiting the district between the Caspian and Black Seas, (and at that time, about a.d. 740, powerful enough, from their commercial prosperity and military prowess, to awaken the fears and insure the respect both of the Persian and Byzantine monarchs,) had embraced the Jewish religion. To one of his suc- cessors of the same creed Chasdai bar Isaac, a learned Jew holding office in the palace of Cordova, addressed a letter with a poetical eulogium which is still extant ; and, as it is said, received an epistle in reply, the * His name was Bulaa : he was followed by a succession of Ivings professing the same faith. The subject has been invest i;j:at id liy .Io.-t, Gesch., vi., 120, u. Anhauy. M 5 250 HEBREW LITERATTJEE. authenticity of which is not so probable as that of Chasdai. However this be, the circumstance afford- ed to Jehuda Ha Levi the topic of a work which De Sacy has pronounced to be one of the most vakable and beautiful productions of the Jewish pen. The king is aroused to a solicitude about the true religion by a dream : he gathers around him the Epicurean, the Christian, the Mahometan sage, and a Jewish chaber named Tischak Sangari : he becomes, in the course of their discussion, convinced that a merely philosophical religion cannot be reduced to sufficient certainty to meet the needs of human existence. Christianity is not Avithout liability to objection in some respects, and Mahometanism in many. But both these religions recognise the Divine authority of Judaism, the doctrines of which are distinguished for their celestial, origin, and have the impress of immutability : so he embraces it. "We are to recoUect that the writer of this romance was himself a pious and earnest Jew. The work was at first composed in Arabic with the title, " The Book of Evidences and of Argument, for a Help to the true Eehgion." Of this I believe there is a MS. at Oxford. It was rendered into Hebrew by Jehuda ibn Tabon, who gave it the name of Sefer Ha-kosari ; (Eano, 1506 ; Leipzig, 1841;) into Spanish by Abendana; (Amst., 1663;) into Latin by Buxtorf, Juu.; (Basil., 1660;) into German by Jolowicz. (Leipzig, 18-11.) Jehuda Ha Levi made a pilgrimage to the Holy.Land, and died while praying under the walls of Jerusalem, through being trampled on by an Arab horseman, — a barbarian, — who stood by at first, and scoffed at him, but, irritated by the indifference of the poor Jew to his ridi- cule, grew angry, and put an end, at once, to the prayer and the suppliant beneath the hoofs of his charger. •" Moses ibn Esra, of Granada, lived in the first quar- ORDER VI. MEDI^.VAL RABBANIM. 251 ter of the twelfth centur^^, autl has obtained a durable celebrity as a Hebrew poet, lie beloiitj^ed to a noble family, in which genius, as well as wcaltli, was an heri- tage. A\orks: Y.Zem'iroth: religious poems and liymns for festivals, ko.. (Printed in the Scfardini. liitual.) 2. The Bhoan : a collection of poems, lyrical, occasional, and devotional. 3. Sefer Ila-tarshisli. In ten "gates'' or cantos, comprising 1,210 strophes. 4. Sifer llam- gath habhosem : a manual on the philosophy of religion, in seven chapters. Ilerr Leopold Dukes has given a monograph on this author, with copious specimens of his works : Moses hen Esra. Dantellung seines Leleas, u. s. w. (Altona, 1839.) Abraham ben David of Toledo was the author of a book well known among Jewish students, i\\Q Sefer Hakabala : a chonicle of tradition, " from the Creation till the author's time," 1161. It has been commonly printed with the Seder Olam. (First edition, Mantua, 151-i.) This Abraham ben David must be distinguished from another of that name, a president of synagogue at Beaucaire a century after. The latter was an extensive writer in Talmudical controversy, and the reputed author of one of the standard commentaries on the Stfer Jeisira. R. Moses bar Nachman (Ramban), born at Gerona, 119-1; retired from Spain into Judea, having made himself odious to the Spanish clergy. He built a syna- gogue in Palestine, and wrote many volumes. His Ig- gerotl, or "Epistles," embrace a wide range of subjects on morals and polemics. (Constantmople, 1C23 ; Cracow, 1594.) In Kahala his works are numerous : the prin- cipal are Sefer ha-emuna, " Book of the Paith ;" (Const., 1601 ;) Binr al haUorah, "Introduction to the Law;" (Pisa, 1 514 ;) Sithre^ Torah, " the Arcana of the Law ;" the Orders of Salvation ; Eden ; the Pomegranate ; the Lily of Secrets ; the Square Table, &c. Miscellaueous : 252 HEBREW LITERATURE. Hefer Geula : on the redemption of Israel. Se/er haq- qets, "the Book of the End:" on the advent of the Messiah ; (MS. ;) Torath ha- Adam : on the duties of man in life and death ; a Conference with a Dominican ; and a Sermon preached before the king of Castile. Salomo ibn Adrath (Rashba)'' had been a student under Moses bar j^achman, and became president of the school of Barcelona, and a kind of oracle with the rab- bins of the East and West, with whom he maintained an extensive correspondence. He was an acute tliinker, an enemy to all equivocation, and an advocate of the open truth. Works: Shealoth u-teshuvoth : letters on law and ritual subjects; (Lemberg, 1811;) Iggeroth: "Let- ters;" (Lemberg, 1S09;) Ahodath hakJcodesh: on oab- bath and festival observances; (Venice, 1602;) Torath hahbaith, "The Law of the House:" domestic regula- tions, from the Talmud; (Prague, 1811;) Perush Aga- doth: explanations of the Agadoth ; (Furth, 1766;) and a large collection of Chadiishim, or Novellas, dis- cussive and expository of Talmudic law, published in successive portions and times. Maimonides, or properly Moshe ben Maimon ibn Josef (Eambam),^ was born on the Passover Sabbath of the year 1135, at Cordova. His father, who had been a scholar of Joseph Ha Levi at Lucena, was himself a distinguished teacher, and a dain or judge in Cordova. Moses in early youth did not give much promise of the eminence he afterward attained. But his father's harsh and turbulent care for the developement of his dormant faculties was at length relieved by the unfolding of those powers which made IMaimuni the greatest Hebrew doc- ' Tiat is, R. Shal. ben Ade. He must be distinguished from another " Rashba," who was president of the synagogue of Montpellicr. * Ben Maimon is expressed by IMatmuni, his common designation among learned men. He has also the cognomens of "the Egyptian," " the Eagle of the Kabbins," and " the Light of the West." ORDER VI. MEDLEVAL ILVBBANIM. 253 tor of tlic ago, and clothed his name with imperishable honour, lie hved at a time when science and learning were in their highest bloom iu Spain, and when tlie Jews possessed the unrestricted enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. With free access to all the fountains of knowledge, and with such teachers as Averroes, llbn Tophail, Ebn Saig, and the choicest men of his own nation, Maiuumi became a paragon of learning, lie was not only profoundly conversant with Hebrew, Arabic, and the kindred Aramaic dialects, but was familiar as well with tlie Greek and Turkish languages. In science, he excelled in mathematics and astronomy, (after the system of the time,) iu medicine and political economy ; while, as a theologian, his expanded and enlightened views of divine revelation made him a guide to his co- religionists, and enabled him to inaugurate a new era in the studies of the sj-nagogue. His preceptor Averroes had broken free from the trammels of the Koran, and had become what we should call a philosophical Deist. Maimonides, without imitating him in relation to the Bible and the Talmud, nevertheless partook of his love for freedom of thought. The great purpose he con- templated in his theological writings was to harmonize Talmudism with the written law, and to demonstrate that the latter was itself founded in immutable reason and the fitness of things. But in accomplishing the first of these purposes Maimonides found himself under the necessity of rejecting many things iu the Talmudic writings which the great mass of liis rabbinical bretlu'cn held inviolably sacred. This involved him in extensive and painful controversies, and brought him in fact under the ban of the French synagogue. The College of Montpellier condemned his works to the flames. Many of the rabbins of Spain and Narbonne, on the contrary, sided with ^laimonides, and a furious war of words and 254 HEBREW LITERATUKE. anathemas was sustained between them for nearly half a century. But his works were destined to outlive the angry discussions they had at first provoked, and to insure their author the homage of the learned in all following times. The high esteem of the Jews for ]\Iaimuni has been expressed in their well known saying, Mi Ilosheh ad Mosheh lo qoom hi 2Iosheh : " Trom Moses (the Lawgiver) to Moses (Maimuni) no one hath arisen like Moses.''^ Maimonides was fated to lead an unsettled life. The pressure of circumstances and the unfriendly spirit of his antagonists denied him the repose of an undisturbed home for any great length of time at one place. In 1159 we find him residing at Fez. In 1165 he was in Palestine, and subsequently in Egypt, where he obtained the post of physician to the Sultan Sala-ed-din. After a life of great labour and vicissitude he died on the 13th of December, 1204, and was buried in the Holy Land. Works of Maimuni : Class I. Biblical and Theo- logical : — 1. Sefer Hammitswoth, the "Book of Ordinances," on the 613 precepts of the law. Ti'anslated from Arabic into Hebrew by Sam. ibn Tabon. (Const., 1517 ; Wien, 1835 ; Edinburgh, lately, s. a.) 2. Moreh NevuMm, the " Guide of the Perplexed " or "Entangled." (Exod. xiv. 3.) Translated into Hebrew from the Arabic by Ibn Tabon. This is properly a com- prehensive exposition of the rehgion-philosophy of Juda- ism, embracing a great mass of scriptural investigation. It is divided into three parts, containing altogether a hundred and seventy-eight chapters. Portions of it have been translated into French, by Professor Munk of Paris, in his Notice sur Saadia Gaon ; (Paris, 183$;) another portion into Latin, in "Sharpens Dissertations;" (Oxford, 1767;) and into English, a sufficient number ORDER VI. MEDIEVAL RABBANIM. 255 of cliapters to make an octavo volume, by tlic late Rev. Dr. James Towuley. The entire work has been rendered into Latin by Justiniani : R. Mossel yl^yi/jdil Dux, seu Director DuUianthm, &c., (Paris, 1520.) And by Buxtorf, Jun., Doctor Perplexonim. (Basil., 1629.) Into German, the first part by Eiirsteutlial, Doc- tor Derplexorum, oder Theologisch-jjhilosojMsche Eror- terungeii iiher die Ueberehistimmung der Mos. nnd Babb. Religionsquellen mit der Dldlosophle. With the Hebrew text. (Krotoscliin, 1838.) The first edition of the entire Hebrew work has neither place nor date. The latest edition is, I believe, that of Frankfort am Main, 1838. With Commcntarv, Venice, 1551. On this and the other principal works of Maimonides, there have been several bulky commen- taries ; by Dm-an (Profiat) Shem Tob, Bonan ibn Ki-es- cas, Moses Narbouni, and others. 3. Pirke Hahitslacha: two chapters on the soul and future blessedness. (Salonica, 1567 ; Amst., 1765.) 4. Maamar Techiath hammeteim: on the resurrec- tion of the dead. (Constant., 1569 ; Prankfort an der Oder, 1776.) Class XL Eabbinical : — 1. Sefer Hamrmor, "The Book of Illumination." Original Arabic title, Ketab Alsarag, or " The Book of Elucidation:^' an extensive exposition of the Mishna. With the Mishna text, Naples, 1492; Venice, 1546. Without the text, Venice, s. a.; Kracow, s. a. This work has been also pubhshed various times in separate portions, translated from Ai-abic into Hebrew : as the Order Seraim, by Juda Charisi; Moed, by Josef Alfual; Nashim, by Jacob Akkasi ; Nesikin, by Sal. ben Jacob ; Kodashin and ToJioroth, by Nethanel Almah. Separate portions, with Latin translations, by Yorst, Uhnann, Carpzov, De Veil, Buxtorf, Prideaux, and others. 256 HEBREW LITERATURE. 2. Mishieh Tor ah : more commonly known by the title of Yad HacJiazakah, "the strong Hand/' ^ A grand systematic exposition of the whole Jewish law, written and oral, in four parts, comprising foui-teen books ; each book being divided into tractates, and they again into chapters and paragraphs; (2 vols, folio, Soncino, 1490;) with Commentary, (8 vols., Vienna, 1835-42.) Sepa- rate portions of it have been often published, and some of them with Latin translations. German translations comprise the part called Hilkotk Beoth, by Lazaron ; (KGnigsberg, 1832;) "The First Book,'' by Soloweiczyk. (Konigsberg, 1846.) English translations : "The Trac- tate on Repentance," by Skinner ; " The First Book," by B. Hurwitz. (London, 1850.) I may here also recom- mend a useful volume on " The main Principles of the Creed and Ethics of the Jews," a selection from the Yad HachazaJcah of Maimonides, by Hermann H. Ber- nard. (Cambridge, 1832.) It contains seventy pages of the Hebrew text, an English translation, glossary, and notes, with tables of abbreviations. Class III. Scientific : — 1. Biur Miloth HaJnggaion : on the terminology of logic, in fourteen chapters. In Hebrew, from the Arabic, by Moses ibn Tabon, Yenice, 1550; and with Latin translation, Basil., 1527. With Commentary by Mendelssohn, Berlin, 17 06; and with German trans- lation, Yienna, 1822. 2. 8hemone Perakim: "The Eight Chapters," psy- chological and ethical, founded upon the book AvotL (Naples, 1492; Basil., 1804.) Latin translation by Yythage: Explicatio R.M.Maimonidis sujier Patrum Sen- tential ; (Ley den, 1683;) and by Mantino : Octo Capita B. M. M. (Bologna, 1526.) German: Bie EtJiiJc des ' Probably an allusion to Deut. xxxiv. 12: Lekol hai/ad hachazakaJi, &c., " In all that strong hand which Moses showed," &c. OIIDEU VI. MEDIAEVAL EABBANIM. 257 Maimon'ules, von S. Falkenheim. (Konigsbcrg, 1832.) Freuch : Les huit Chapilres de Maimouide. (Paris, 1811.) 3. "Apliorisins on j\lc(liciue :" rendered into Hebrew by Natlian Chamali, from the original Ai-abic, under the title of Perakiiti hechochna harephua, " Chapters on the Science of Healing ; " eaibodying the doctrines of Galen and Hippocrates, and some of the more eminent Arabian j)hysicians. (Lemberg, 183-1.) Latin trans- lation : Aphorism'i E. 3Iosis Medici. (Basil, 1579.) 4. Four medical treatises, in the form of letters to the Sultan. In manuscript in the Oppenheimer Library, and partly edited in the Kerem Chemed. (Prague, 1838.) Latin translation : Regimen Sanitatis. (Venice, 1514.) Among the minor and miscellaneous works of Maimuni there is a large collection of correspondence on rab- binical and other subjects. Ibrahim, the son of Moses Maimuni, was born in 1184, and died, 18th of Kisleu, 1234. He foUowed his father in the oversight of the Hebrew congrega- tions in Egypt. He wrote, in Ai-abic : 1. Kitab el Kafaja : a treatise on the liagadoth. A Hebrew trans- lation is given in the Kerem Chemed, 183G. 2. Maa- seh Jerushelmi : a popular romance, inculcative of the sacredness of an oath; written originally in Arabic; pubhshed in Hebrew; (Const., 1518;) in Latin by AVa- genseil in his Exercitationes Varia ; (Altorf, 1687 ;) and in German, with, the title of Bie JJamoneirfilrstin, ein Mdhrelien, in the Judische Gil Bias. (Leipzig, 1834.) Ibrahim Maimuni wrote also on various passing matters of Talmndism. His son David, born in Egypt in 1222, was the author of a kind of Midrash on the Pentateuch. Jehuda ibn Tibbon, or Tabon, of Granada, and Samuel his son, distinguished themselves in the labour of translation. Thoroughly conversant with 258 HEBREW LITERATI/ RE. Arabic and Hebrew, they transferred some of the choicest pieces of the Arabico-Jewish hterature into the latter language, and thus contributed to preserve them, and to promote their circulation. In looking over the foregoing list of the works of Maimonides, the value of these efforts will be apparent. Isaac ben Sahula, 1250, is to be mentioned as the author of the Masul Ilacicied money, "The Proverbs of the Ancients :^' a rhythmical work, which is admired for the beauty of its style. The family of the Kimchis was of Spanish origin, and several of them had occupied high offices both in school and synagogue. Joseph Ivimchi and his two sons, Moses and David, were among the most eminent rabbins of this period. The father presented some choice contributions to the hymnology of the syna- gogue, and displayed his zeal for Judaism by his polemical works against Christianity. His son Moses excelled as a grammarian. Darke Lishon hakkodesh, "The Way to the holy Language :" a grammar; (Pa- dua, 1504;) with notes by Elias Levita. (Leyden, 1631.) A Latin translation by Sebastian Munster. (Basil., 1531.)^ But the younger brother David was the greatest man of the family. Some dispute has arisen as to whether he was a native of Spain or of Prance. In his own works he is mentioned as David Ivimchi Ha-sefardi. He lived, however, in communion with the Prench Jews, at least with those of Narbonne, and took an active part in the controversy about the Moreh Nevukim of ^ Other works of Josepli Kimclii -. Sefer habberith : a polemic against Christiauity, in a dialogue between Ilaamiti, a believer, and Min, a heretic; (printed, with other pieces, at Const., 1710;) Si'fer Milkamoth, on the same subject ; and some commentaries on the Bible. jMoses Kimchi wrote also a Comment on the Proverbs, Ezra, and Ne- hemiah. Read Die Tamilie Kimchi, by L. Duies, in Ber Orient flir 1850. ORDER VI. MEDIEVAL RABBANIM. 259 Mainionides, labouring zealously to bring tliose injuri- ous dissensions to a pacific end. For this purpose he acted as a kind of mediator between the contending parties, but found their passions at that stage of the afl'air to be too strong to be quelled by the influence of liis arguments and persuasions. The correspondence which has survived on this subject shows Kimchi to have been a man of clear and calm judgment and good temper. Rabbi David is greatly esteemed by Hebrew scholars and biblical students for his valuable labours in the grammar and lexicography of the holy tongue, and for his masterly commentaries on the Scriptures. Of the latter we will give a list under the head of the commentators. His philological works are the &efer Miklol : a grammar and vocabulary of great worth. (Const., 1522; Furth, 1792.) The Sefer SJwrashim, or " Book of Roots," was intended as a supplement to the Miklol. (Published separately, Naples, 1190 ; Ber- lin, 1838.) The Iliklol has been translated into Latin by Pagni- nus ; (Paris, 1519 ;) and also, with modifications, by ReucliHn, PeUican, and Guidacier. From the initials of Rabbi David Kimchi, this author takes the technical name of Radak. Benjamin ben Jona, of Tudela, in the twelfth cen- tury, devoted his hfe to researches on the state of the various colonies of the Hebrew people, both in the East and West. He travelled, for this pm-pose, in several countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. His well known work, the Massavoth, or ""Wanderings of E. Benjamin,"' gives the residt. This curious book of travels was edited, with a Latin translation, by Arias Montanus at Antwerp in 1622, and by L'Empereur at Leyden. Jehuda Chaeisi ben Salojio (Alch.irisi), probably 260 HEBKEW LITERATURE. a native of Granada, in tlie first half of the thirteenth century, is one of the choicest of the Hispaniau Jewish literati. He travelled extensively in the south of Europe, Greece, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Babylonia ; and laboured, as an author, both as a translator and a poet of the first order. As one of the translation school of Granada, he rendered from the Arabic into Hebrew, I. The Commentary of Maimonides on the Seder Zeraim. 2. The same rabbi's " Introduction to the Mishna,'' given in some of the editions of that book. 3. Selections from the Greek Philosophers, [Musari ha- pMlosojihim,) from the Arabic version of Honein bar Isaac. (Riva di Trent o, 156:2.) 4. Sefer ha-nefesh: the Be Aniitid, from Galen. (Venice, 1519.) 5. Shir al RefiiaJi, on healing and medicine; a didactic poem from the Arabic of Abd el Eachman; (Eerrara, 1552;) and, 6. The 21oreh Xei-uJihii of Maimonides. But the true fame of Alcharisi rests on his own poetical works ; for an account of which see under the Peitanim. In speaking of the Spanish Hebrew poets, a special reference should be also made to one of the oldest and best of them, Salomo ben Jehuda Gabirol, of whom Alcharisi pronounces that he surpassed aU Hebrew poets before him, and that all since his time have taken his works for their models. He was born at Malaga in 1035, studied and wrote at Zaragossa, and died at Yalencia in the twenty-ninth year of liis age. Eor his poetical works see under the Peitanim. Those wi'itten in prose are either ethical or philosophic. 1. Tlkhui 'Mldv-otli hannefesh, "The Correction of the Manners of the Soul." In this moral treatise man is contemplated after the kabalistic idea, as the micro- cosm, and viewed in his relation to the macrocosm. The book is divided into five parts, referiing in each to ORTiKK VI, MEm.KVAL liARBAXT:\[. 261 one of the live senses, and nnder each descanting on the virtues and vices associated with its improvement or abuse. (Kiva di Trento, IM'kI ; Lnneville, ISOi.) 2. ^Ilhchar IlapjK'mnim : a collection of ethical sentences from the Greek and Ai-abian philosophers; (Soncino, 1484; Hamburg, 1844;) with Latin transla- tion, (Frankfort a. M. 1C30 ;) German, Pcrh's Aaswahl, kc. (Hamburg, ]844.) 3. JM-or Cha'im, "The Fountain of Life :" a philo- sophico-kabalistic work, MS. A portion edited bv Dukes in his EJirensa'iden. Abraham ibx Chasdai, about 1240, chief rabbi of Barcelona. 1. Sefer Ilattapltuach : an adaptation from Aristotle; subject, the soul, its faculties and inunortahtv, in the form of a dialogue. (Yen., L!319). 2. Se/'er lian- nefesh: an imaginary discourse of Galen with liis dis- ciples, a translation from the Arabic. (Venice, 1519.) 3. 8efer Moazney Zedeh : a compendium of moral phi- losophy, in thirty-two parts, written first in Arabic. (Leipzig, 1839.) 4. Ben hammeleh rehannazlr, "The Prince and the Dervish :'' an ethical romance. (Con- stant., 1518; Livorno, 1836.) R. Levi ben Gershom (IIalbag), called also Leon DE Banolas, was grandson, on the mother's side, to Eamban. Born at Banolas, in Catalonia, and brought up to the medical profession, he removed to France, where he practised as a physician, and died at Per- pignan, in 1307. His principal work, Milchamoth Ye/i'jralt, treats, 1. Of the immortality of the soul, on which there are fourteen chapters. 2. On dreams and prophecy, eight chapters. 3. On the omniscience of God, and the conflict between philosophy and religion, six chapters. 4. On Providence, viewed from the philo- sophical and religious stand-points, seven chapters. The remaining portion of the work is a cosmogony. 262 HEBREW LITERATURE. designed to show the harmony between the statements of the Bible^ and the phenomena of the universe. (Riva di Trento, 1560.) His commentaries on Scripture are given under that head. Bachja BEX AsHER, a daiii or judge in Zaragossa, in 1291, puhhshed a Commentary on the Pentateuch, "Grammatical, Philosophical, Allegorical, and Kabal- istical," condensing much of the former commentators. (Pesaro, 1507.) And besides a Comment on Job, (Amst., 1768,) and a collection of sixty deraslias or sermons, he wrote a curious book on food and meals, Sefer ShilcJian Arha, " The Book of the Square Table ; " on the times of eating ; the mystical significations of food ; the moral import of fasting ; the manners of the table ; the feasts of the ancients ; the festivals of the just in the world of blessedness. (Pirst edition, Mantua, without date; last edition, Wilna, 1818.) Jacob bar Asher ben Jechiel was, properly speak- ing, a native of Germany, but came, in 130G, into Spain, and settled at Toledo, where he died, 12th of Tham- muz, 1340. Among Christian divines he is best known by his commentaries on the Bible, [Baal IlaUurrm,) and by his ParparofJi al Jiattorah, or explanations of words and phrases in the law. But among Jews his renown lies in his great achievement, the Arba.\ Turim, or " Pour Orders ;" a grand compendium of rabbinical pre- scriptions, ritual and legal, giving a resume of the whole Talmudic literature of the Amoraim, Geonim, and chief doctors, down to his own time. (Mantua, 1476.) The Arbaa Turim consists of four parts or orders [turim), each order arranged into constitutions [halakoth), and each lialaka into sections [simenim). The first part is called Tar Orach Chaiim, " The Path of Life ;" (Ppalm xvi. 11;) the second, Tiir Yoreh dea, "He shall teach Knowledge ;^^ (Isai. xxviii. 9;) the third, Tur Choshen ORDER Yl. MEDIAEVAL RABBANIM. 263 Mishpat, "The Breastplate of Judgment ;'' (Exod. xxviii. 15 ;) and the fourth, Tiir FJjoi Haezcr, " The Stone of Help." (1 Sam. vii. 12.) The first part has twenty- seven halakoth, on things pertaining to the worship of God; the second, thirty-one, on manners, customs, food, &:c.; the third, thirty-eight, relating to forensic matters ; and the fourth, five, on the laws of husband and wife. This masterly production, which gave to its author the cognomen by which he is most commonly known, of Baal IJaUurim., or " Master of the Orders," has been re-published many times, either wholly, or each order separately, and with an immense mass of annotations by ditferent rabbis. For instance, the entire work; (Mantua, 11-76;) the Jore dea ; (Berlin, 1787;) as like- wise the Eben Haezer and the other two parts, with commentaries. The scholia of Baal Hatturim on the Holy Scriptures are set down under their proper head in another section. AsHER BEN Jechiel died at Toledo in 1327, leaving numerous works on Jewish law, which have a high place in the esteem of the learned of liis people. They com- prise commentaries on the treatises of the Mishna and Talmud, and decisions gathered, or reasoned out, from the latter. These law works have been published in separate portions, and at different times. He was, also, the author of a more inviting little book, called Sefer Hanaaga, a moral treatise addressed as a testament to his son. (Vienna, 1791.) Isaac Israeli was a scholar of Asher ben Jechiel at Toledo, along with his brother Israel, who became eminent as an Arabic scholar and critic. Isaac wrote a scientific book on chronology in its connexion with astronomy and mathematics : title, Yesod Olam, " The Basis of the "World." (Berlin, ISIS.) Isaac Israeli 2G4 HEBREW LITERATURE. lived under Alfonso X,, and was a member of the astro- nomical academy founded by liim. Josef Albo^ rabbi of Soria in Old Castile, about 1415, wrote his Sefer Ikkarim, " Book of Founda- tions :" a philosophical view of the theology of Juda- ism. The spirit of this treatise is conciliatory : he concedes the doctrine on the Messiah in silence, and expatiates on what he considered the three fundamental moi//enta of the Jewish faith, — the being and perfections of God, the reality of future rewards and punisliments, and the revealed economy of the Mosaic law. (Soncino, 1486.) The work is written in difficult rabbinical Hebrew, and has been carefully explained by anno- tations in the Oliel Jacoh of Jacob ben Samuel; (Frei- burg, 1584;) the Ets sliatul of Gedalja Liipschutz, with the text; (Venice, 1618;) and in d.\\ Historlsche Einleitung zu Albo' s IkJcarhn, von Ludwig Schlesinger. (Frankfort am M., 1844.) A Latin translation was made by Genebrard. (Paris, 1566.) These are some of the master spirits of the Sephardi scholars; but along with them lived and laboured a numerous band of authors, whose works of themselves form a vast library. Of the principal of these it may be sufficient here to give the following conspectus. I. In the department of Biblical Criticism, in addition to the great commentaries on the Scriptures hereafter mentioned, we must here set down : — The Translation of the Book of Job, by Mose Gikatiha; (in MS. at Oxford;) the treatise of Bar Nachman on the 6 1 3 *precepts ; the "Considerations on the Pentateuch," grammatical and kabalistical, of Baclija ben Asher; the "Depths of the Law," or explanations of difficult passages, by Salomo bar Euoch ; and the OJieh Mhlipat of Simon Duran, a treatise on the book of Job. (Yen., 1598.) ORDEll VI. MKDI.F.VAI, IJAliBAM.M. 2G5 11. In Theolooy, (lo^matic iiiid inorul : — The dogmatic of Jiuliiisin, by llasilai Kroskas, with the title of Or Adomu, "The J.ight of the Lord." (Ferrara, 1555.) A logical luasterjiicce. That on the unity of ( lod, and on Divine I'rovideiice, by ]\loses of Xarbonne. The Arha Turhu, or Four Orders, of Abraham ben Jehuda, (1253,) on the existenee of (iod, Providence, the linal cause, and the disputed cessation of the Mosaic law, hi ^IS. in the Vatican. The Shaar Hashamaim, " Gate of Heaven," by Isaak ibn Latif: a philosophic dogma system in four parts. ISot edited. Abraham ibn Esra's Jesod moreh vesod Torah : on tradition, the study of Scripture, and especially the law. (Const., 1530.) The Tabernacle of Testimony, by Shem Tob of Leon. The Fountain of Life, an exposition of the law, by Shemuel Sursa. The Crown of the Law, and the Golden Song, of David Vidal of Toledo. The Gate of Penitence, by Joseph of Gerona. Moses of Leon's Nefesh ha-hochma : on the soul, the state after death, and the resurrection. (Basil., 1608.) The Tseda la-Derek of Mennchem bar Serach of Alcala : an entire view of rabbinical Judaism in 3:27 chapters. (Ferrara, 1554.) Bachja ben Josefs " Book of the Law on the Duties of the Heart.'' [Sefer Torath chohoth hallehafjoth.) This popular manual was originally written in Arabic, of which an edition, Yen., 1548; and of the Hebrew text, Leipzig, 1846; with Comment, Vienna, 1797; German Translation, by Fiirstenthal, Breslau, 1836. The Abqath Rokel of R. Machir of Toledo : a Je^ ish eschatology, in three parts. 1. On the advent of the N 266 HEBREW LITERATURE. Messiah, the resurrection, jiidgment, and the world to come. 2. On rewards and punishments, heaven and hell. 3. On the oral law. (Eimini, 1526.) Juda ben Josef of Zaragossa : on the positive precepts. The theological works of the Kimchi^s, and of Josef Albo, mentioned hereafter. Josef ben Caspi's illustrations of Aristotle^s Ethics, and the Perush sefer hammidoth I'Aristo, a com- mentary on the Ethics, by Josef ben Shem Tob. (Berlin, 1791.) The same author wrote a M^ork on " the Glory of God, as seen in the Nature of Man, and in the Mosaic Law.-*^ As an elegant ethical composition, we must not omit the Hapen'ma of Jededja ben Abraham, the Com- mentary on the Avoth by Samuel ibn Tibbon, nor the Menorath ha-Maor of Israel Alnaqua, a complete store- house of moral sentences. In devotional theology should be specially noted the Perush ha-BeraJwth veha-TepMloih of David Abudi- rahim, or Abudrahan, of Seville, 1340 : a commentary on the Sefardite ritual. (Lisbon, 1490; Amst., 1726.) Among the theologic Hebrew writings of this period, some are strongly polemical against Christianity. Such is the book of Profiat Duran on " The Confusion of the Gentiles. The "Exposition of the Christian Eaith," by Simon Duran. The Kelhnath Haggoim of Eabbi Ki-eskas, in twelve chapters, against the principles of Christianity. Joseph Kimchi's Sefer Hahberith, a con- troversial dialogue ; and the TesJiuvofJi Lanozrin, or '^' An- swers to the Nazarenes,^^ on the Messianic Psalms, by David Kimchi. (Altorf, 1644; Konigsberg, 1847.) The Chazidh Kashz, or "Grievous Vision,^^ of Isaac Arama of Zamora. (Sabionetta, 1551.) "The Stronghold of the Eaith,'' by Moses Kohen of Tordesilla ; and " The Touchstone " of Eabbi Shipruth. ' Let it be remembered that most of these opponents ORDER VI. Mi;i)I.KVAL KAIJB.VMM. 207 of Cliristiauity wrote uiidtr the inllucnce of the injuries which their people luiil reei'ived, and were still receiving, from its professors ; and also from an iipioralio dcnc/ii of mistaking European Popery and Asiatic superstition for the religion of Jesus Christ. III. TaLMUDICAL Wt)RKS. Samuel Xagid of Cordova, (1055,) best known by his Mabna ha-Talmud, an Introduction to the Talmud, (Yen., 151'5,) and embodied in some of the more modern introductions. Isaac bar Eeuben of Barcelona : (1078 :) legal documents : on buying and selling. Contributions to the Tosafoth. Isaac Alfes of Lncena : {ob. 1103 :) Sefer llahalaloth : a compendium of the llalakas of the whole Talmud. (Basil., 1602; and with Commentary, Wilna, 1832.) Josef ben Meir : Tosafoth : notices of the various codices of the Talmud. Constitutions. Jehuda ben BarsiUai (Barccloni) : Sefer ha-ittim, a collection of Talmudic prescriptions. Rabbenu Nissim abu Alfarag of Gerona : Decisions. Elucidations of Gemara. Salomo ibn Adrat of Barcelona (Rashba) : ChadusJiim, or novellas on various books of the Talmud ; forming a discussive exposition of most of that work. They are edited in detached portions, and at various places and times; Berakoth, for example, with Gittm and CkulUii. (Amst., 1715.) Isaac Aboab of Castile : Menorath Hamaor, the ethics of the Talmud, in seven parts. (A'en., 1544.) Isaac Canpanton of Castile (1463): Darke hattalmud : the methodology of the Talmud, and rules for under- standing it. (Mantua, 1593.) Zecharia Hallevi of Barcelona : exercises prelimi- nary to the reading of the Talmud. N 2 268 HEBREW LITERATURE. Joshua ben Josef: "The "Ways everlasting." An introduction to the Talmud. IV. Grammar and Lexicography. Jehuda Chaiug: Sefer Otldvoth, (Frankfort a. M., 1844.) Sefer Paali hakl-apel: on the Hebrew verb. (Frankfort a. M., 1844.) Jona aben Gannachj Cordova : (he had also the Arabic name of Abul Walid Merwan :) a lexicon, or book of roots, of which fragments were printed at Prague in 1841, in Kerem Chemid, v., pp. 34-47. Josef Kimchi : Sefer Hazzikaron, " The Book of ]\Iemory." A grammar. David Kimchi: Sefer MiUol, "The Book of Perfec- tion." A Hebrew grammar and vocabulary. Most valuable. (Constant., 1523 ; Furth, 1793.) Sefer Hasharashim : " The Book of Roots : " a lexicon well known. (Naples, 1490; Berlin, 1838.) Moses Kimchi, BarM Lishon Hakkodesh, "The Ways of the Holy Language." A grammar. (Padua, 1504.) With notes by Ehas Levita. (Leyden, 1631, Elzevir : beautiful.) A Latin translation was published by Seb. Munster. (Basil., 1531.) Samuel ben Tibbon : a dictionary of philosophical terms introduced into the Rabbinical Hebrew. Aben Esra : Mozne Lishon Hakkodesh, " The Balances of the Holy Language : " a systematic grammar. (Augs- burg, 1521; Offenbach, 1794.) Sefer Tsachith: critical disquisitions on Hebrew grammar. (Venice, 1546; Furth, 1827.) Sefath Jether : explanations of difficult words in the Bible. (Presburg, 1838.) David Kolien of Seville : an Arabic dictionary in Rabbinical characters. Profiat Duran of Arragon: Maaseh Ephod, ''The Work of the Ephod :" a grammar. ORDER VI. MEDI.1!;VAL RABBANIM. 205) David ben Salomon : "The Tongue of the Learned," a grannnar; and a treatise on metres, transited into Latin by Genebrard. Jehuda ibn Balam, Toledo : on the Hebrew verb'; on the particles ; Hebrew homonymics. Never fully edited; portions of them may be found in Fiirst's Orient, Nos. 29 and 42. Jehudah wrote also, Sefer Taamey Jiammiqra, a treatise on the accents of the Hebrew Bible, (Paris, 1665, and twelve chapters of it at Eodclheim, ISOS,) and Meaner be-taamet/, &c., /. e., a discourse on the accents in the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, a fragment of which was also printed by Mercier at Paris, in 1556. Moses Clii(|uitilla, Cordova : Sefer Otkivotk hannuack : on the quiescent letters. (Frankfort a. M., 184.4.) Y. Logic and Rhetoric. Moses ibn Tibbon : the works of Aristotle in Hebrew. Josef ibn Kaspi of Barcelona : Tseror kalckesep/i, "The Bundle of Money:" (Prov. vii. 20:) a manual of logic compiled from Abumassar and Averroes. MS. in the Vatican. Moses of Narbonne : commentaries on the Logic of Algazali. MS. in the Bodleian. Yidal of Narbonne : comment on the same text-book. In the department of logic the Jews in Spain, in common with the Arabians, were disciples of Aristotle. Their objection to him as a Greek author had been overcome by an imaginary discovery that the Stag}'rite was a relative of their own, of the Benjamite family of Koliah. Others, who did not go so far as this, were persuaded that Aristotle had received his knowledge from Simon the Just. YI. Mathematics and Astronomy, Tyloses ibn Tibbon : a Hebrew translation of Euclid^s Elements, and the Tables of iUferg. 270 HEBREW LITERATURE. Alhadeb: Opus Artijiclomm: on aritlimetic. "The precious Instrument :" a treatise on the astrolabe. ProfiatDuran: Ckoshebha-ephod: amanual of astronomy. Abraham benChijja: (1156:) Sefer Tsurath ha-eretz: the science of astronomy opened, in ten parts. (Basil., 1546.) Sefer Cheshbon ha-ibhur : on the calendar. Abraham ibn Ezra. 1. Sefer hammisphar : on arith- metic, in MS. Vide Notice sur un MS. Hebraique du Traite d' Arithmetique d'Ibn Ezra. (Metz, 1841.) 2. Sefer keif/ necJwsheth: "The Book of the Brasen Instrument/' i. e., the astrolabe. (Konigsberg, 1845.) 3. Sefer Hammaoroth : on the heavenly luminaries, and on critical days: astrological. (Ptome, 1544.) Moses of Kiriath-Jearim, astronomer to Alonzo X.: "The Book of Circles." Jehuda ben Moses Kohen, of Toledo, translated the astronomical works of Avicenna into Spanish. Isaac ibn Latif: (1280:) Tsurath ha-olam: a cosmology. Israel Israeli ben Josef of Toledo: (1312 :) 1. Shaar Jiashamaim, "The Host of Heaven:" founded on Ptolemy's Almagest. 2. Yesod Olavi, " The Pounda- tion of the World :" a masterly work on the entire science of astronomy, theoretical and practical. (Berlin, 1777.) 3. Seder HaJcabala : tables of Jewish chrono- logy. (Amst., 1713.) David Abudirahim of Seville : Seder ha-ibbur : on the solstices, equinoxes, and calendar. (Lisbon, 1490 ; Prague, 1777.) Jacob ben Machir ben Tibbon of Seville: 1. The Astronomy of Abu Ali from the Arabic. 2. Tracts by Averroes, translated into Hebrew. Isaac ben Tsadik : tables. (1482.) Abraham ben Isaac of Catalonia : annotations on the Physics of Algazali. The science of astronomy has always been a favourite ORDER VI. MKDLKVAL RABHAN'IM. 271 study with tlie Jews, from the (iiiuvs uhen tlicir anees- tors read the heavens from the liills of Palestine, or the plains of Chaldea, down to the age before us, when their descendants stood before kings in tlie stately palaces of the West, or read their lessons from the chairs of the universities to crowds of students, Hebrew, Mahometan, and Christian.* The earliest scientilic references to the heavenly orbs appear in the Book of Job, showing that the arrange- ment of the stars into constellations had even then taken place. "We read, chapter ix. 9, of ash, or ai/ish, "the great bear;" oi k'unah, "the Pleiades;" h'sll, " the giant," or " Orion ;" ' and the chaclrey theman, or " chambers of the south," an expression which the Tar- gum renders astrologically, " the chambers or houses of the planetary domination in the southern hemi- sphere." In chapter xxxviii. 33, wx have another allu- sion to the ayhh, or " bear," with the addition of haue- yahy "her sons," i. e., the three stars in the tail in a bending line ; and in chapter xx\a. 13, to the nachmh hareack, "the crooked serpent," the constellation draco, between the great and lesser bears ; all which indicate a definite status of the science in the time of Job, and, from the manner of the allusions, one to which the popular mind had already attained. The Jewish religion required, for the regulation of its festivals, some knowledge of astronomy, and thus in- directly encouraged the study of it. In the Babylonian exile the Jews would make considerable advancement in the science, as then understood. Daniel is spoken of as * A Spanish writer (Sarmiento) affirms that Christian stiuk'iits from all parts of Europe repaired to Spain, to learn astronomy from (he Jewish professors. Among these students arc named Abelard, an Eng- lish monk, in the time of Henry I., David Morlcy of Xorfolk, a student of Oxford and Paris, and Gcrbert, afterwards Pope Sylvester 11. * Some of the rabbins held that this was a name for the star Canopus. :272 HEBREW LITERATURE. the master of the astrologers of tlie royal court, among whom, no doubt, astronomy was debased by astrological superstitions. But it is far from impro- bable that their purely astronomical principles were nearer to our own than we commonly imagine. In or not far from Daniel's time, Pythagoras came to Babylon in his researches after the science of the times, and took with him, on liis return, the knowledge of the helio- centric system, and of the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis. But long before the Jews had any con- nexion with the Babylonians, they had read that sub- lime text in Job, that the Creator had " stretched out the north over the empty space, and had hung the earth upon nothing." Remarkable, too, is the passage in Josephus, where he affirms the tradition of his people, that the patriarchs lived a life of centuries, that they might witness the completion of the grand year of six hundred years ; by which it is supposed he understood " a period in which the sun and moon recur to the same point relative to each other as its commencement." That Pythagoras taught the heliocentric system of the sun and planets, is affirmed by Aristotle. " Almost all people," says he, " who have studied the heavens, have held that the earth is in the centre ; but the Italian philosopher (Pythagoras) taught directly the reverse. His opinion is, that the fire is in the centre, and that the earth, which is only a star, has a motion around it which causes day and night." ^ Some of the Christian Fathers recognise the existence of tliis opinion, but only to oppose it. " It is absurd," says Lactantius, " to believe that there are men whose feet are over the heads of others, and countries where men and trees live, so to speak, upside down. The source of this error is in the doctrine of those philosophers who have taught that the * Be Ccelo, lib. ii., cap. 13. ORDER VI. MEDLEVAL RABBANIM. 273 earth is round/' — ckJus erroris originem philosopliis fu- isse quod existimdr'mt rotimdum esse mundiim.* Saint Augustine speaks to the same effect in his hook on " the City of God." ® In the Tahnud the existence of tlie antipodes is more than hinted at; and the Jerusalem Gemara says that Alexander the Great is sometimes represented as holding a ball in his hand because he had ascertained that the earth, which he traversed to conquer, had the figure of a sphere.^ All this shows that the germs of the true astronomy had an existence long before the time commonly assigned to the discovery of them. They had made their appear- ance at a much earUer day, but had the fate of being overlaid by the Ptolemaic system, till, under the ministry of Kepler, GaHleo, and Copernicus, they revealed them- selves in a demonstration that has become final for all time. The Geonastic Jews came into Spain stored with the science of the East. In their schools the traditions of the Chaldean nature-lore found an asylum, and the study of astronomy, in particular, was a favourite one. Mar Samuel, of whom we wrote under the order of the Amoraim, was renowned for the precision of his star-knowledge. Men said of him, that he was more familiar with the streets of the firmament than with those of Nehardea ; and many of the students of his school participated in his enthusiasm for the science. The Talmud gives us incidental notices of some of the momenta of the Jewish astronomy of that period. To the planets they gave the general appellation of koc/ihe leheth, "moving or journeying stars.'' Their several names were for Mercury, KocJiab, " the star ; " Venus, Noga/i, "splendour;" Mars, 3Ioadim, "redness;" * Lact., lib iii., cap. 24. ^ Lib. x., cap. 9. ' Acoda Sara, cap. 3. N 5 274' HEBREW LITEEAXrEE. Jupiter, Zeclek, " riglitness /^ Saturn, Sahhatkai, tlie " sabbath star." * It was held that the planets move in elliptical circles, called reJci'un or gaJgaJim? Besides these there were two other circles, enclosing the others concentrically. The forms of the planets and their motions showed that the sphere or circle was an original law of the creation. The ninth or outer circle was the zodiac, which is divided into twelve parts or signs, maz- zarofk, bearing the names of Taleh, " the ram ; " SJior, "the bull;""T/^tw;^///?, "the twins;" Sartan, "the crab;" Ar'ieh, "the Hon;" Bethula, "the virgin;" Moznaim, "the balances;" Aqrav, "the scorpion;" Keshefh, "the archer;" Gedl, "the kid;" Deli, "the pail ;" Bagim, " the fishes." The galaxy had the ap- propriate name of Nehar de Nur, " the river of light ;" and the comets that of Zeqojin, " burning arrows." In relation to the latter there was an old principle, that a comet never passes tlirough Orion, as it would then destroy the world. The men of the Geonian age had yet greater advan- tages than those of the school of Samuel and the Amoraim, in the patronage which some of the chalifs gave to men of eminence in the study. TTe are told that Almansor, in the great arcliitectural works he accompHshed at Bagdad, was mindful of the wants of his astronomers, and lofty and beautiful towers were built on the banks of the Tigris for celestial observations. Among the royal patrons whom the Jews found in Spain, Alonzo the Tenth has a pre-eminent name. It was by his order that Jehuda of Toledo translated Avi- ceima, and made a new arrangement of the constella- tions;^ and in the construction of the astronomical tables which bear his name, Alonzo was assisted by « Shabbath, 120, b. ' Chag{ga, \1,h. ' ^ HiGUERA, EUtor. Toletan., 21, 8. ORDEll VI. MEDIAEVAL RABBAMM. 2V) various learned Jews, the most considerable of whom were Abeu Eiighel and Akjuibits of Toledo, (whum lie styled his masters,) Aben Musio, and Mahomad de Sevilla, Josef ben Hali, and Jacob Abvena of Cordova. To tlie list of astronomical autliors we ought to add ^Maimonides, who, in his yad Hachazakah, (book i., chap. 3,) has given a popular exposition of the wretched system then prevalent among the Spanish and Egyptian astronomers. The Arabians did good service in the more exact mathematics. They probably received the first elements of algebra from India, and their descendants in Spain pursued the cultivation of it as far as quadratic equa- tions. Gerbert, afterwards Sylvester II., mentioned ni a previous note, conferred a great boon on Europe at large when he introduced into Erance, on his return from Cordova, the use of the .Arabian, or rather Indian, numerals, now the current ciphers in aritlunetic. Yll. In Xatueal Philosophy : — Juda ibn Tibbon of Granada : a treatise on the elements. Samuel ben Juda ibn Tibbon : 1. Othoth hashamaim, " The Signs of the Heavens :" a meteorology. 2. Iqqavu hamayim, " The Gathering together of the Waters : " a treatise on the elements. 3. He also translated Aristotle on Meteors. Meir -\ldabi of Toledo : (1360 :) Sel'ile Emv.neh, " The Paths of Eaith : " comprising dissertations on created existence ; the creation of the heavens and earth ; that of Adam and Eve; on the formation of man in the womb ; on bodily vigour ; ou the mind and its faculties ; on sanity of mind ; and on the release and resurrection of the dead, (Riva di Trento, 1559; Amst., 1707.) Zecharja HalleW : a book on the essenee of the soul. VIII. Medicine. Mahomet ibn Isaac : (1265 :) a manual of the healing art. 276 HEBREW LITERATURE. Maimonides, whose treatises are specified iu tlie account of his works. Joseph ibn Isaac : a medical work in Spanish. Jacob ben Jehuda of Alcala : a* treatise on surgery. Honain ben Isaac : a translation of Hippocrates. Chanin ben Isaac translated Galen. We could name also a variety of works in this depart- ment by Vidal of Eislad, Vidal ben Benaste, Joseph bar Shem Tov, Gedaljab. Da\nd Jachjia, Jehuda ibn Alpha- char, ]\Ieir Alvarez, and others. The Jewish physicians of the Middle Ages were esteemed as the most skilful of their profession ; and, both in the East and in Europe, were employed not only by the common people, but by nobles, emperors, and chalifs. There are many refer- ences to medicine in the Talmud which merit attention. See Ginzburger's Dissert., exJulens Medicinam ex Tal- mudicis ilhistratam. (Gott., 1743.) Still better, Dr. A. H. Israelis Tentamen Idstonco-medlcwn. (Groningen, 1845.) It is a common idea, that the old Jewish phy- .sicians were not permitted by their religion to study anatomy. Nevertheless, there is good evidence that many of them were acquainted with it. The descrip- tions, for example, of the brain and nerves, in the Tal- mud and the book Zohar, could never have been other- wise Avritten. In the general details of medicine they were disciples of Hippocrates and Galen, whose works they possessed in Arabic and Hebrew translations. IX. Kabala. The works of Moses of Leon: (1293:) Nefesh ha- choJona: on the Soul and its Destiny. (Basil., 1608.) Sefer ha-shein: on the Sefiroth. Mishkan ha edicoik: on hell and paradise. Sefer Rimmon, "The Book of Pomegranates." On the opinion that he is the aufhor of the book Zohar, see further under the order Kabalists, Meir Abulafia ben Thodros : Ganath BaUhan, "The OllDER VI. MEDL'EVAL RABBANIM. 277 Garden of the Palace : " on Bereshith. Lipnai vele- penim, " before and formerly : " an exposition of parts of the Jetsira. (Published, with the latter book, by Rit- tangel. Amst., 1662.) Abr. ibn Ezra : Sod Ilashem : on the four-lettered divine name. (Purth, 183 i.) Perez ben Isaac : Maareketh kaelahiith, " The Ordi- nation of the Divinity : " a work much valued by the Kabalists. Joseph Chiquitilla of Medina Celi : 1. Gennath Egoz, "The Garden of Nuts:" (Canticles vi. 11:) on the doctrines of Kabala, in five parts. (Hanau, 1615.) 2. 8haarey ZedeJc, " The Gates of Righteousness : " on the ten Sefiroth, in 327 paragraphs. (Riva di Trento, 1561.) 3. Shaareij Orali, "The Gates of Light:'' a compendium of the Kabalistic philosophy. (Riva, 1559.) The foregoing Hsts are but imperfect ; yet they may give an idea of the Jewish literature of that period. Purther information on these authors may be found in the works of Wolf and Bartolocci, and in the Biblio- tJieca E-spanola, Tomo i., que contiene la Noticla de los Escritores Rab'mos EsjMitoles. Su autor Don Jos. RoDRiGUES DE Castro. (Madrid, 1780.) These varied studies were not peculiar to the Jews in Spain. Throughout Europe, and, as yet, in some parts of Asia and the north of Africa, learned men of the nation were devoted to the work of acquiring and com- municating knowledge. In recalling the names of some of these, we should observe that, while the Sephardite Jews enjoyed in the Spanish lands, with only occasional interruptions, a long era of repose and prosperity, their brethren in other parts of Europe were subjected to painful vicissitudes. Por a long time, indeed, things went with them in general prosperously. In the By- zantine empire they were favoured with the avowed protection and patronage of the government. The 278 HEBREW LITEEATURE. Italian Jews pursued their quiet avocations witli little obstacles or restraints ; and in France the generous and enhghtened policy of Charlemagne and Louis le Debon- naire insured them relief from persecution, and an ample field for all legitimate enterprises. They im- proved their opportunity, and rose yearly in wealth and honour. The quays of Marseilles, and the markets of Lyons and Narbonue, were crowded with the tokens of their wealth. One of the two prefects of Narbonne was always a Jew ; and in Lyons the quarter inhabited by them was the best in the city. Many of them, too, were ornaments to the liberal professions ; some, minis- ters of finance, and one,^ at least, an ambassador. In fact, there was now another proof, and one of several furnished in the annals of their history, that the rights and repose which fall in common to other people, if enjoyed in an average degree by the Jews, will be so honourably, gratefully, and energetically improved, as to place them in the foreground of human progress ; and that, had they their own, they would speedily take rank in science, morals, social enjoyment, and beneficence, with the noblest nations of the earth. Nay, in the Middle Ages, the said nations knew, from the spectacle of Jewish grandeur revealed in Spain and France before their eyes, that the Hebrews were not only capable of coming to a par with them, but of leaving them behind. And, probably, a conviction of this kind con- tributed to inflame those unworthy passions of jealousy, mistrust, and cupidity, which could find no rest but in the spoliation and ruin of an unoffending people, whose prosperity was a presumptuous crime, and their exist- ence an evil of which the earth was to be made free. The favour shown by the French kings to the Jews had a vigorous opponent in Agobard, bishop of Lyons> whose disposition was participated by nearly all the ^ Isaac, who went as such to the coui't of Haroun al Rashid. OHDER VI. J[EDT.KVAL RABRANIM. 279 clergy, wlio, in their turn, succeeded in fanning the latent dislike to the Israelites into a blaze of popular hatred. The royal patronage was gradually withdrawn, and, on the death of Charles the Bald, which was imputed to the Jewish court physician, Zechariah, the Hebrews found themselves exposed to the public male- volence without a protector. In a word, the golden age had gone, and that of iron had come in. One wide wasting spirit of dislike un- folded itself against tliis doomed people; and the avarice of kings and nobles, the bigotry of the priesthood, and the fanatical prejudices of the populace, combined to trample them down to desolation and despair. With no defined status in the great feudal system of Euro- pean life, they had existed hitherto by a toleration which began now to be exhausted. The spirit of chi- valry, which took a religious (?) turn at the Crusade time, regarded the Jew, as well as the Moslem, as its legitimate victim. And this was still more exacerbated by the ignorant zeal of the monks and priesthood, while the cupidity of the hungry nobles impelled them to the indulgence of a legalized rapine on what they affected to consider the ill-gotten wealth of the Jew. But into the details of this odious chapter in the history of human nature, our subject does not of neces- sity lead us. They who wish to know somewhat of the humbling truth, must seek it on the pages of the Jewish and Gentile annalists ^ who have chronicled them ^ Open, for instance, the elcventli volume of the Universal History, and let the eye fall upon the marginal indices, which may he said to form a sort of hill of fare of the treatment with which the Jews met from the European rulers in the Middle Ages. Thus, " Jews protected by the Pope. Persecuted in Spain. In Pi-ancc, by Philip Augustus. Recalled by him, but driven out again. In England, persecuted. In Spain, massacred by the Crusaders. Suffer from the irruption of the Shepherds. Banished and recalled by Alphonso. ^Massacred at Toledo. Persecuted 280 HEBREW LITERATURE. in a record which, like that of the prophet, is filled with " mourning, and lamentation, and woe/' They will there learn how the Jews "had risen but to be trampled down by the fiercer and more unrelenting tread of oppression and persecution. The world, which before seemed to have made a kind of tacit agreement to allow them time to regain wealth that might be plundered, and blood that might be poured out like water, now seemed to have entered into a conspiracy as extensive, to drain the treasures and the life of this devoted race.''' "Kingdom after kingdom, and people after people, followed the dreadful example, and strove to peal the knell of the descendants of Israel ; till, at length, what we blush to call Christianity, with the Inquisition in its train, cleared the fair and smiling provinces of Spain of this industrious part of its population, and self- inflicted a curse of barrenness upon the benighted land.'' ■* In Spain, indeed, the day of prosperity lingered longer, yet not without omens that the sun was going down, and the night coming on the wings of the storm. The same spirit was at work which had wrought out the ruin of their brethren on the other side of the Pyrenees, by Henry III. of Castile. Massacred. Prance: Jews persecuted. Banished. Recalled. Banished. After their return banished again by Philip the Fair. Multitudes retii-e to Germany. Recalled, 1314. Persecuted afresh. Once more driven away. Recalled in 1356, Banished again and finally. In England. Banished by King John. Again, by Henry HI. Persecuted at Norwich. At London. More thoroughly bauished by Edward, and continued imder ban tUl Cromwell. In Germany the people more superstitiously zealous against them than elsewhere. Burning aud slaughter at Frankfort. IMassacred in Bavaria. Massacred at Nuremberg. Banished by king of Hungary. Persecuted by the Flagellants. Massacred in Bohemia. Banished the Empire," and so on. Dr. Zunz has lately given some data on the same subject in his excel- lent volume on the Poetry of the Syuagogue, many of the hymns of which are wails fi-om these hereditary sufferers. , * Milman's " History of the Jews," vol. iii. ORDER VI. MEDIEVAL RABBANIM. 281 and gathered strength from year to year, in one act of 0])pressi()n and erneUy after anotlier, till it spoke, froin the throne of Fenhnand and IsabeUa, the fatal decree which drove the entire Jewish community into ever- lasting exile. But, throughout the period of trial and sull'ering at which we have just glanced, and while the Sefardim Jews were building up in Spain their imperishable monuments of literature and science, there were many of the Israelites in the Byzantine dominions, Italy, Germany, and France, who were zealously engaged in similar studies. From a list comprising so)/ie /luiulreds of these, I select the foUowing, as the more eminent. Sabbathai ben Abraham ben Joel Donolo, born in 913 at Averse, in the province of Naples, was a prac- titioner of medicine, but owes his reputation to his erudite, works on astronomy. He wrote, 1. The Sefer Tachkemonl : a commentary on the Baraitha of Samuel of Nehardea, in which he embodies what he had per- sonally learned in the East about the zodiac and the constellations and the horoscopes of astrology, as well as what he had read in the writings of Greek, Arabic, and Indian astronomers. (MS.) 2. ZaphnathTaaneach : an astronomical commentary on the book Jetsira, the introductory portion of which is printed in Geiger's Mt'lo Chofnaihn. (Berlin, 1840.) 3. Sefer Rammaza- loth : an astrognosy. In medicine, also, he left a treatise with the title Sefer ha-Tehar, which may be found in the Florentine library. Eldad ha-Dani, or Abu Dani, a native of Fez, in the first quarter of the tenth century. He travelled in Asia as far as India, in researches as to the fate of the Ten Tribes. He gives the result in his Sefer Eldad Hadani. (Const., 1516; Brussels, 183i; Paris, 1838.) IsHAK Israeli, well known among learned medical 282 HEBEEW LITERATURE. men for liis works in that science. He flourished in the tenth century. His full name was Abu Jacob Ishak b. Suleiman el Israeli. A native of Egypt^ he practised some time in that country, and afterwards in Morocco, as physician to the court, and died at Keiruwan in 932, it is said, more than a hundred years of age. His numerous writings, in medicine, mathematics, astro- nomy, and philosophy, are partly in Arabic, and partly in Hebrew. Some remain in manuscript, others liave been edited. Those which have been deemed the best are collected in a Latin translation: Isaaci Ojtera. (Lugd., 1515.) E. Salomon ben Isaac (Eashi), known also as Salomon Jizchaki and Jarchi. The latter name is taken by some as a Hebrew appellative, from the town of Luuel ^ where he resided. In the scanty biographies wliich we have of this eminent commentator, his birth, probably at Troyes, is differently stated as in 1030 and 1040; others make it still later. The extent of his scholarship is also a matter of disj)ute. Basnage terms him one of the most learned of the rabbins, while Jost takes but a low estimate of his scientific and literary attainments. However this be, he was certainly a master in Israel in the ordinary learning of his people, the Holy Scriptures and the whole circle of Talmudic lore. He spent much of his life in wandering from place to place, visiting the different seats of learning in Italy, Greece, Palestine, Egypt, Persia, and Germany, giving lectures and maintaining disputations in the Jewish schools. At Worms they may still show, as they could a few years ago, the chamber where he taught a class of students, and the stone seat hewn in the wall, from which he dispensed his instructions. ^ Jareach=LKna.. Others make Jai'chi to have been a family name. Pronounce the / as Y. ORDER VI. MEDI/EVAL RABBANIM. 283 Besides his commentaries, for a notice of ■u-liicli see under that head, Rashi composed : — 1. Perush Talmud Babli: a commentary on thirty- books of the Talmud, printed in the editions of that work ; and the several books separately in many differ- ent editions. They are also published with super- commentaries and glossaries. 2. Perush Pirke Avoth. (Kracow, 1621.) 3. Perush hammishnioth : condensed from that on the Talmud. (Berhu, 1716.) 4. Perush Midrash Rabha sefer Bereshith: on the one hundred chapters of the Bereshith Rabba. (Venice, 1568.) 5. Sefer Happardis : a collection of Halakoth. (Const., 1802.) 6. Various Selichoth hymns. The tlu'ee daughters of Rashi were married to men of note as rabbinical scholars : R. Jehuda ben Nathan (Riban), Rabeuu Ephraim, and Rabenu Meir. They collected, completed, and published the works of their father-in-law. Rabenu Meir had three sons : R. Samuel ben !Meir (Rashbam), R. Isaac ben Meir (Ribam), and Jacob ben Meir, surnamed Rabenu Tarn, "The Per- fect." (An allusion to Jacob, in Gen. xxv. 27.) They have immortalized themselves .among the learned Jews by their Tosefoth, or supplementary commentaries on the Talmud. Salomo Jizchak died on the 29th of Tainmuz, 1105. Gershom Maor ha-golah, surnamed Hasaken, and the " Light of the Trench Exiles," [maor ha-golah,) was born at Metz about 1070. He is reputed the founder of the French rabbinical school, in which the studies of that of Babylonia were earnestly revived. His "Constitutions," Takamth, (Venice, 1519,) were for a long time disputed and rejected, and liimseLf 284 HEBREW LITERATURE. placed under ban for attempting the abrogation of the Mosaic precept respecting the marriage of a man with the childless wife of liis deceased brother. Gershom \\Tote also a commentary on the Talmud tract Koda- sJiim, and five SeHchoth hymns, which are extant in the Machor. One of his disciples, Jakob ben Jakor, an eminent casuist, was celebrated also for his skill in music. Moses Hadarshan of Narbonne flourished in the third quarter of the eleventh century. He was the teacher of Tsathau, the author of the Aruch. Moses composed a commentary on the Pentateuch on the Midrash principle, only parts of which are extant. He has a traditional fame for pulpit eloquence, expressed by the honorary surname of Ha Barshan, '' the Preacher.'" Nathan ben Jechiel was president of the Hebrew academy at Rome about the conclusion of the eleventh century. It is said of hxra., ^^eritum omnis generis sci- entiarum fuisse ; and his name is held in universal repute among Hebrew scholars, as the author of the Aruch, or Aruk, a grand lexicon to the Talmuds of Jerusalem and Babylon. The title of this work {Bis- positum) comes from arak, "to arrange," or "set in order," as the words in a dictionary. The work is not adapted only to the Talmuds, but also to the Targums and ^Midrashim. Notwithstanding the subsequent la- bours of Buxtorf, Landau, and others, in the field of Hebrseo-Aramaic lexicography, the Aruch of Nathan Jechieli still holds its pre-eminence. Its definitions are remarkable for theii- substantial import and verbal pre- cision. The first edition is that of Pisauri, 1515; the next, Venice, 1531 ; another, Basil., 1599. That of Venice is by Bomberg, Sefer ha-Aruch, a beautiful quarto, square letters, £43 leaves. It appears from the colophou at the end, in which he offers "thanks to ORDER VI. MEDIAEVAL RABEANIM. 285 {Shalach lahore Olam) the Creator of the World" for the conclusion of the work, that tliis great task was finished in the year 48(35, answering to a.d. 1105. The author died in the year following. Benjamin Musaphia, a Spanish Jew, who died in Germany, 1674, contributed much supplementary matter to the work of Nathan, under the title of Masaf ha ArucJi, i.e., accessories or additions to it. They are found in the edition of Amsterdam, 1G55. Castel has made good use of the Aruch in his heptaglot lexicon ; so has Munster, in the Dictlouarium ChaMaictim, ; so had Kimclii and Solomon ben Isaac, or Rashi, before them. But all these works have not rendered Nathan^s super- fluous. Jehuda Hadassi, of Stamboul, 1148, by profession a physician, in creed a Karaite, composed Eshkol Ha- Jcopher, a large acrostic or alphabetical poem in 387 sections, descriptive of the tenets and religious services of that sect', and ^nth a controversial bearing upon Eabbinism. (Goslow, 1836.) Samuel Israeli, a rabbi of Morocco in the eleventh century, went into Spain and embraced Christianity, and returned to his native country. His Iggereth, a masterly investigation of the question respecting the ]\Iessiah, was first written in Arabic, then translated into Hebrew ; and into Latin by Buenhombre, (Mantua, 1475.) It has been also translated into Italian by Brunati, German by Link, and English by Calvert, ■with the title of " A Demonstration of the true Messias, by E. Samuel, a converted Jew." E. Abraham ben David (Eabad) of Beaucaire and Kismes, [ob. 1198,) in addition to a large amount of polemical criticism on the works of Maimonides and Alfes, wrote a Perush Torath Kohanim, a commentary on the Sifra, (Constant., s. a.,) and a Perush al Sefer Jetsira, 286 HEBREW LITEHATUEE. found in several editions of that work. He was a man of huge erudition^ and took the lead in the opposition to Maimuni. Josef Kara, a contemporary of Eashi, in Trance, added to the commentaries of the latter some useful and needed glossemes, and composed some annotations of his own on the sacred writings. See the Perushim. Kalonymos BEN Kalonymos, born in Italy, 1287, filled some important offices in the service of the king of Naples, an accomplished scholar. He translated the Arabian poem, Risale Ichwan el-Ssafa, in five Portes, or cantos, under the title of Iggereth Baale Chaiim, (Prankfort a. M., 1703,) and wrote besides a Talmudic treatise on the Peast of Purim, (Venice, 1752,) title, Maseketh Purim, and the ELe)i Boclian, "the Stone of AYeepiug,^^ a poetical satire on the times. (Prankfort, 1746.) It is translated into Jewish-German. (Prankfort, 1746.) Kalonymos translated also several medical treatises from the Arabic. Menachem de Eecanati, died 1290, author of, 1. Sefer ha-dinim, a treatise, forensic, moral, and ceremonial. (Bononia, 1538.) 2. Taamey MiUwotli : an exposition of the precepts of the law. (Const., 1544.) 3. Pemsh al ha-foraJi: a comment on the Pentateuch, in the kabahstic style. (Basil., 1581.) Menachem, who takes the name of Eecanati from his native place in Italy, was remarkable for the sudden developement of his intellectual powers. The legend of him, in Shalsheleth, describes this in the hyperbolical manner of the Jews. In youth more than ordinarily inapt at learning, he fasted and prayed that his faculties might be strength- ened. Palling asleep in the sjTiagogue, he saw in a vision a man who held to him a vessel of water, of which he had scarcely drunk when he found himself as wise as he had before been ignorant. ORDER VI. HfEDLKVAL R.\BBANIM. 287 Jehuda Ha-chasid, about 1240, wrote Sefer Chasi- dim, a collection of ethical instructions, cnriclied with excerpts -from the ohler moralists, (Bologna, 153^,) and Shi ret/ hahihod, liynuig on the unity and unchange- ablencss of God. (In the Mac/iasor.) Elasar Ha-kaliu, one of the oldest of the Italian Jewish poets. The time and period of his life cannot be exactly ascertained. He may be considered as the founder of the synagogal poetry of the non-Sefardite Jews in Europe. His Hymns, distinguished for a pecu- liar grandeur and solemnity, are treasures of devotion. They are found in the Mae/iasoriin. Elasar ben Jehuda, scholar of Jehuda Ha-chasid_, excelled in the Kabala ; " had frequent interviews with the prophet Elijah." {Seder JiaddorotL) He was more substantially indebted for his kabalistic skiU to the instructions of Kashisha, a rabbi of Sora, who had wandered into Poland. His principal works are a Commentary on the book Jetsira, (Mantua, 1562,) and Kabalistic Commentaries on the Pentateuch and Can- ticles. R. Eliezer of Metz (Ram) was a contemporary of his, and Avas eminent in the same science. AVith them flourished R. EHezer ben Joel of Mainz (Rabjah), and R. Isaac ben Mose of Yienna, surnamed Rioz, from the title of one of his works, Or Zerua, (" Light sown,") and the initials of his appellation of Rabbi Isaac. Abba Mare ha Jarchi of Lunel (from which he takes the name of Jarchi, which answers to it in Hebrew). In 1300, driven away with liis people from Lunel, he took up his residence at Aries, and then in Perpignan. He composed, 1. MlncJtath Qenaoth : a collection of letters and documents relating to the con- troversy going on at that time among the rabbins on the study of pliilosophy. 2. Se/er hajareach: on the 288 HEBREW LITERATURE. same topic; aucl, 3, Meamar Be-iqrei Emunah: a treatise on the articles of faith. (All tliree edited at Presburg, 1838.) Meir ben Baruch of Rothenberg^ author of various rabbinical constitutions, an exposition of the Targum, (partly edited at Prague, 1614,) and some controversial pieces against Maimonides, was imprisoned in 1300, by the emperor Adolph, for the purpose of extorting from him a sum of money. He died in prison at Worms, where his tombstone was discovered a few years since in the Gottesacker. He is venerated by the Ashkenasi Jews as a saint. Immanuel ben Salomo, a commentator and poet, born at Rome in 127 2, of the family of the Zifronim : (which produced several eminent Hterary men :) he won the title of Aluf hadcloMh he magdiel, "the leader of knowledge at Rome." Works: \. Fenmh al misliley : commentary on the Proverbs. (Naples, 1486.) 2. Machlerotk Immanuel: a collection or "divan" of poems, makamen, tales, ]3urim-chants, prayers, elegies, and epistles. (Berlin, 1796.) See Poets. Tanchuma ben Josef, generally called Tanchuma Jerushalmi, flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century. He resided chiefly at Haleb, where he com- posed the commentaries on the Bible wliich will be enumerated under that head. Jerucham ben Meshullam of Provence, about 1334: Toledoth Adam va-chava: ritual prescriptions. (Venice, 1553.) Sefer mesharim: a continuation of the same work. (Const., 1669.) Joshua Ezobi of Provence, an admired poet, about 1250, His didactic piece called Qaarath kesef, "The silver Yase," (Paris, 1559,) has been translated into Latin, (Tubingen, 1512,) and into French, in the Bevue Orient., (] 843,) with a biography of the author. OUDEE, VI. 5IEDI.EVAL RABBANIM. 289 Chiskia Chaskuni: (France, 1:2G0:) Commentary on the Pentateuch, replete with Midrashim hteraturc. lie embodies quotatious from about twenty previous expo- sitors. (Cremona, 1551); and in the Rabb. Bible of Frankfurter.) The family of Duiian, originally of Provence, then settlers in Spain, and ultimately emigrants to Algiers, produced several men who are regarded as ornaments to rabbinical learning. Simeon Duran, 1391, wrote a Commentary on Job, with an introduction on the principles upon which it should be expounded; (Venice, 1590;) and Salomon, who died 1-1()7, dis- tinguished himself as a zealous apologist for Judaism. His brother Zemach is the author of a body of epistles, Shealotk vatesJmvoth, on various subjects in Tahnudic law and metaphysical philosophy, (Livorno, 1782,) and of several other rabbinical works. Isaac Nathan was the first who compiled a Con- cordance to the Hebrew Bible. He finished this work in 1445, under the title of 3Ieir Netib, "The Pathway illuminated : " (Venice, 1534:) MeirNetib ha-neqra Kon- kordansis. It has been attributed, on erroneous grounds, to another rabbi, Mardechai Nathan, 1556. Isaac is said to have availed himself of a Latin concordance which had been made so early as 1£9U by Arlotti, General of the Order of Minorites. The labours of these men were embodied by Calasius in his great Concord- ance, (Rome, 1631,) and by Reuchlin in his JJlctlona- r'lum llehraico-Lathmm. (Basil., 1556.) A'\ e have now enumerated the most remarkable of the Hebrew literati of the ]\Iiddle Ages. The epoch of this period, so far as relates to our subject, is the settlement of the eastern Jews in Spain ; and the winding up of it, the expulsion of the Hebrew people from that kingdom, in connexion with which event 1 have reserved till now the o 290 HEBREW LITERATURE. mention of Abravanel, with whom our limits will compel us to conclude this series. Don Isaac Abravanel^ or Abarbanel^ though born in Portugal, (1436;) was descended from a family long established in Spain, the Abravanels of Seville, who affected to trace their lineage from the royal house of David. Distinguished for liis genius, learning, and address, Isaac received many tokens of favour from King AKonso V., who appointed him a privy counsellor. But with the death of this patron his prosperity at the Portuguese court underwent a change. Under the suc- ceeding reign of Juan II., Abravanel involved himself in some political movements which made him obnoxious to the king, and obliged him to retire with his family into Castile. Here he was occupied solely with learned parsuits, and composed his Commentary on the Pro- phets. He acquired not only the greatest esteem from his own people, but enjoyed the favour of Ferdinand and Isabella. But it was now that a dismal revolution was coming over the fortunes of the Jews in Spain. A popular feeling had gathered strength in the country, that the privileges granted to the Jews were injurious to the other portions of the community. They had been raised to a kind of equality with the nobles ; and by the tenure which they had contrived to obtain of the financial offices, as stewards to landed proprietors, farm- ers of the revenue, and even ministers of finance, they had nearly all the money of the kingdom under their control; and the jealousy and suspicion thus excited were aggravated by the rigorous and exorbitant usury demanded by them in their monetary transactions. But in addition to these causes of popular odium, there was now brought into a fatally opportune activity that theo- logical hatred which had so long smouldered in the breasts of the Eoman Catholic priesthood against them. ORDER VI. MEDLEVAL RABBANl.M. 201 At length the storm whicli had been so long brewing began to break upon their heads. The power of the In([uisition proved itself stronger than the wavering will of the king and queen, and their expulsion from the country was decreed. On the eve of this disastrous blow, Abravanel sought an audience of the royal pair. He threw himself at their feet, and poured forth in agonizing prayers his intercession for his people. Fer- dinand and Isabella were moved to relenting, when at this critical moment the chief inquisitor, Turre Cre- mata, who had been the soul and spirit of this act of persecution, entered the royal presence with the out- stretched crucifix, and warned them against the guilt of being untrue to the Catholic chiu'ch in showing mercy to her adversaries. The result is matter of history. A hundi'ed and sixty thousand famihes were made desolate by a stroke of the pen ; ® and this sweeping expatriation was carried into effect under circumstances of robbery, oppression, and heartless, or rather devilish, cruelty, M'liich, vivid as are some of the statements which have come down to us, have never been adequately described. Abravanel and his family first took refuge at Car- thagena, from whence he found his way to Naples. There he met with kind treatment from the old king Ferdinand. This support, however, failed on the death of the king. Naples was taken and sacked by the French, and Don Isaac found a new asylum in Corfu, where, among other works, he published his Com- mentary on Deuteronomy, which had been written in Portugal. From Corfu he removed again to Naples and Monopoli, and thence to Venice, and spent nearly all the remainder of his life in the service of the state, and the composition of his Commentaries on the first four books of Moses, and some of the prophets. He « March, 1492. O 2 292 HEBREW LITERATUEE. died in his seventy-first year, and was buried in the old Jewish cemetery at Pavia. Besides his exegetical works on the Bible, which wiU be noticed under the Perushim, Abravanel was the author of, — 1. Zevach pesach, a commentary on the Passover hagada. (Const., 1505 ; Grodno, 1798.) 2. Sefer Rosh Amana, the doctrines of Judaism ; (Tarnopol, 1813 ;) and with Latin translation by Vorst. (Amst., 1638.) 3. Nechaleth AvotJi, "The Inheritance of the Fa- thers : " comment on the Tlrle Avoth. Written for his son. (Venice, 1545.) 4. Atereth Zekanim, " The Crown of the Aged : " a philosophic and theological exposition of Exodus xxiii. (Sabionetta, 1557.) 5. Tsuroth liayesudotli : on the original or genesis of the elements. (Sabionetta, 1557.) 6. Miphaloth EloJiim, " The wondrous Works of God : " on the creation of the world from nothing. (Venice, 1592.) 7. Mashmia YeshtmJi: on the meaning or nature of salvation. (Salonica, 1526.) Latin translation, by Mai, Praco Saint is. (Frankfort, 1712.) 8. Yeshnoth MesJdcJio, " The saving Strength of His Anointed : " on the doctrine concerning the Messiah, as contained in the Talmud and Midrashim. (Carlsruhe, 1828.) * 9. Sefer liasliama'im hacliadaslihn : on the origines of the natural world. (Rodelheim, 1829.) This, and also some few minor pieces, were written in relation to the doctrines of Maimonides. ORDER VII. KABALISTS. :293 ORDER YII. KAB.VLISTS. The studies of tlie learned men among the Jews who lived in the ages at which we have ghinced, did not all turn on the same themes, but varied both in matter and manner. For some the dry details of Talmudic law had a charm which riveted the attention of their hfe, wliile others wandered more freely in the llowery fields of hagadistic legend lore. Some were gifted with the inspirations of the poetic muse, and sang the heroic deeds of their great forefathers, or, consecrating their talent to the service of religion, put words of prayer upon the lips of repentant sorrow, or celebrated the praises of forgiving mercy, and the omnipotence and truth of the Most High in their past deliverances, and the prospective fulfilment of His unchangeable promises to their race. One class, again, devoted the powers of their well stored minds to the exposition of the written word of God ; while another, following the impulse of a metaphysical turn of intellect, sought to explore the deepest depths of existence in the investigations of the occult science to which they gave the name of Kahala. To the labours of this order of men, — the Mekube- LiM, or Baale ha-Shem, — we must next pay some consideration. The term Kahala, as we have elsewhere observed, is a correlative with Masora. Kabal signifies " to receive ; " Masora, " to hand down, or communicate." The Kabalists beheve that God has expressly com- mitted His mysteries to certain chosen persons, and that they themselves have received those mysteries in trust, still further to hand them down to worthy recipients. 294 HEBREW LITERATURE. I. If the Immau mind, awaking to existence in a uni- verse of mysteries, would know either its own nature and destiny, or the character and counsels of its infinite and unseen Creator, that knowledge must be attained through the grace of a Divine revelation. The necessity of such disclosures is a postulate of reason itself; and in the fact of their existence we have a display of the justice as well as the compassion of God. The revelation, how- ever, which He has given to man, is at once adapted to his intellectual and moral nature ; and so given as to call forth, even in the proper reception of its lessons, the exercise of the faculties of his mind, and the moral dis- positions of the heart. We do not learn all in a day. The inquirer is led on. " Thou shalt learn more, when thou hast learned this." New vistas open. What is inexplicable now, will be understood hereafter. The doctrines of revelation admit of various degrees of mani- festation, and its principles develope themselves in prac- tical consequences fitted to the wants of each passing age. The Bible may even contain laws that are yet to be applied, and involve questions with which the intel- lect of distant ages will have for the first time to grap- ple. But to explain these doctrines, to unfold these consequences, to determine the application of these laws, and the solution of those questions, is a work in which many minds have found so much insufficiency in them- selves, as to lead them to wish for some authentic autho- rity which shall speak, as from a tribunal, the true interpretation of the oracles of heaven, and give a casting decision in cases of perplexity or doubt, either in doctrine or practice : and such an authority they think they have found in tradition ; that is to say, a further or supple- mental Divine revelation orally dehvered and transnjitted. ORDEU VII. KABAUSTS. 205 Meanwhile, other men have undertaken these cuter- prises, and attempted to supply the hiatus of revelation from the resources of their own powers. Tliey ai^'ree in acknowledging no other authority than the written word of God, but differ as to the degrees of licence to be given to the thinking faculty in its investigation of that word; some hohling the need of an interior and inunediate Divine teaching, to be able to perceive and obey the truth, and others asserting the independence of "rationalism." There is a third class, who, while they acknowledge the written revelation as the sole canon of Divine truth, and as necessary to the apprehen- sion of it, nevertheless deny that man can arrive at the real knowledge of that truth by receiving or resting in the mere letter of it. They regard the letter only as the vehicle of a recondite and spiritual meaning. Hence they reject the gross and literal import of the words of Scripture, and treat them only as the husk or shell which contains the richer substance of the science they are in quest of. In the domain of Christianity the first of these classes has its representatives in the strict Romanists ; the second, in the early schoolmen, who brought the logic of Aristotle to the investigation of the Bible, and in the various communities of modern Protestantism which maintain the rights of private judgment. The tliird class comprises the primitive Gnostics, the school of Oricjen, and the later Mvstics. Even in Mahometanism, with its fancied revelation, we see the same developement. While recognising the Divine authority of the Koran, the Sunnites maintain that there is in tradition (sumia) a continued oracle; while the Schiites, who, though believers in the Koran, reject the authority of the Sunna, hold, nevertheless, in addition to the book, the existence of a co-ordinate 296 HEBREW LITERATURE. teaching authority in the Imaums, the successors of AH. So, too, the second class are represented by the scho- lastic philosophers, the Mutekellenmn, whom the rabbins call medaberim, " discoursers, or dialecticians ; " and the Mnatasiliten, who believe that all truth necessary to hap- piness lies within the province of reason, and that both before and after the fact of a revelation : and the third class, in the Karmathai, who arose as a sect about the year 264 of the Heg'ra, and who treat the Koran as a mystic allegory. In the subject of our present discourse we see the working of the same principles in Judaism. The students of religious truth among the Hebrew people unite in their common recognition of " the law and the prophets^' as a written revelation; but they differ in the same threefold way about the manner in which the holy canon is to be interpreted. The disciples of the Tanaim and Amoraim, as we have seen, hold by tra- dition. The Karaites maintain the sole authority of the written word. Between these two there is also an intermediate class, who do not constitute a corporate sect, and who are orthodox in their belief of the verities of the Hebrew Scriptures and of the great facts of tradition, but who claim at the same time the right of rationalizing upon them. They are represented by such writers as Saadja Gaon, Bachja, and Maimonides. But in addition to these, there has been always for the last two thousand years a mystical school, more or less numerous, who have treated the written word as the symbolic vehicle of an esoteric doctrine. Tliis school may be said to consist of two classes. 1. Those with whom that interior spiritual signification shapes itself into a philosophical system, which they nevertheless hold eitlier from, or in connexion with, a foreign or Gentile teaching, such as Platonism. Their representa- ORDER VII. K.VBALISTS. '25.17 tive is Philo. They blend the Mosaic law with the Gentile monotheism. 2. The other class are the Ka- BALiSTS, projicrly so called, who, from the impulse of the mind after a deep and satisfying knowledge of the inmost mysteries of being, have given themselves up too much to the tutelage of the imagination, and constructed a system which combines, at once, the sublime and the despicable. To become acquainted with the Kabala in its real character, the student will find that he must ascend to the consideration of its primitive metaphysical principles, as laid down in the earhest docmnents of the science, because in later times the professors of the Kabala have mixed it with many doctrines taken from the Greek and Arabian philosophies. Those of them, too, who, from superstition, kept themselves aloof from the general culture of their times, abandoned by degrees the profound speculations of which the Kabala was the result, and preserved merely the grosser types which, had been used by the earlier masters only as the drapery of the truth which they veiled. II. The system itself is undoubtedly of very great age. Without spending a moment on the obvious exaggera- tions wliich refer it to Moses, to Abraham, and even to Adam in Paradise, we must admit that, so far back as the Tanaim, there are evident traces of its existence. The numerous allusions to it in the Mishna and Gemara abundantly show that, under the Tanaim, a certain philosophy, or religious metapliysic, was secretly taught, and that this system of esoteric teacliing related espe- cially to the Creation and the Godhead, Bereshith and Merkava. So early as a.d. 189, the time of the Mishna redaction, it was thus recognised as an estab- lished theosophy, the privilege of select disciples. We may, therefore, safely believe in its operation in the o 5 298 HEBREW LITEEATUK.E. second centuiy. Then lived, as we know, Aiiva, Simon ben Yochai, Jose of Sepphoris, the reputed autliors of the most ancient Kabalistic works. The system had, even then, been long enough in existence to be subjected to great extravagances, in being made the instrument of thaimiaturgic experiments. Thus, of Joshua ben Cha- nanja it is smd, that he wrouglit miracles by means of the Book of the Creation.^ With regard to the early works of this school, one of the most ancient of them, the St^fer ha Bahlr, attributed to Xechonja ben Hakana, (a contemporary of Ilillel in the time of Herod the Great,) has not come down to us. A similar work was the Peliah, of wliich, as well as sevend others of those days, we know scarcely any thing but the titles. [We have, indeed, a little book wliich professes to be that of Nechonja, a small quarto of twelve leaves, double columns, with the title, Sefer ha Bahir,^ sodoth 7iej)haloth, shel Rabbi JS~echi>nJa ben Hakana ; (Amst., 1641 ;) but there is sufficient internal evidence to warrant the rejection of it as a production of the age preceding the destruction of Jerusalem.] Two works, however, of the Mislinaic period are still extant, and in a form at once authentic and tolerably complete. I allude to the Sefer Jefsira and the Zohar. In the study of these venerable dociunents we can ascer- tain the genuine principles of the science at their well- head : Juvant accedere foiifes at que ha it rl re. The Kabala, considered as a constructed science, is, 1. Theoretical; 2. Practical. The pn^ctical depart- ment comprises a symbolical apparatus, and niles for the use of it. The first or theoretical part, with wliich we have more immediately to do, consists of two ^ Talm. Bah. CAappa, * " The Book BaMr, of woudrons Mysteries." The title'ls taken from Job issrii. 21, with a quotation of which the treatise opens. ORDER \t:i. KABALISTS. 1^99 brandies : — tlie cosmogonic, as relating to the visible universe ; a branch which is technically called Maase Bereshith, from the first word in the biblical account of the Creation. The second is theogonic and pneuniato- logical^ as relating more directly to the spiritual world, and to the perfections of the Divine nature. The tech- nical name of this part is Maase Merl-ava, alluding to the merhiva, or chariot throne, \\ith its attendant angels, in the vision of Providence described in the first chapter of Ezekiel. III. I DO not presume to give a thorough exposition of the Kabalistic theory, but confine myself, by the neces- sity already explained, to mere outlines. It would be a gratification to go more at large into many topics in this volume, in the way of illustration, and in extracts and specimens from the Talmudists, the poets, and com- mentators, as well as iu working up a more finished exliibition of the Kabala ; but then, as one of these writers expresses it, "my brook would become a river, and my river a sea.^' So, remembering the original condi- tions of this task, I keep to the idea of the handbook, and let the bulky folio alone. In other words, I must be content to act as the humble door-keeper of the temple, rather than play the part of the hierophant in the shrine itself. Nevertheless, it may be permitted me to Hft the curtaia at the door, and give the inquirer a glimpse of what he may expect to find on taking his place among the initiated within. Now, in the books Jetsira and Zohar the theoretical part of the Kabala receives its most authoritative and classical exposition, — the Maase Beres/zit/i in Jetura, and the Merkava in Zohar. In them we get the sure priuciples of the science laid do^vn and explained by the great masters themselves. BOO HEB&gW LtTBlLi'nJRR. The true ag(- of the book JeUira cannot iudwjd be exactly (l<:t«?nniiicd. L)r. Zunz SAsigns it to j»ome time in tbe Utter Iwlf of the Oeona*tic jx^mxl, the ei|?hth or ninth century, and holds tliat the jHJrtion relating to Abra- ham i* yet later. But other men of great learning and r(^:arch liave ceriod, the other two Wing written by 81iab- thai ben Abraham, and Jacob ben Nissim. 8aadja, or the autlu>r who j>erMjnates him, not only atfinus the JeUira to be then an old book, but exprfx-wes his opinion that it was the oldest production of all merely human literaturfi. Tins was no doubt aii exagg<;rated opinion, but it certainly shows that even then the work in AM«l>, ''i')l nirlirr d.iv lli;iii lli;it «;!' fli«; (i«'onim, Ih. /iiii/ <;riv(« MOUir few UniiiH i)i' rxjjrrMf'ion iVoiii il wIikIi l)tl,«»kMi h MKJr*' /iiodi'i'ii ii;/r ; l)iil it Hli(;iii<; toi'f/«<'|| rvidriitly JiiUi'))oIhI(o(ly «>j tin; f-cxt i« «iicli tt« Ix'sjxakH j;l.-iiiily tlir ti^<; \a) wliicli it W)i» i(luii(-.(j<'ijr» in (lie .A'/«//v/, Wliilr, oil llic otlnr Imnd, llio «tyl«j j» not 'J'ttlinudi/; nor |>o«t. 'liilijindi*', so ji«-it|i«-r is it tlir pnn- H<;l>nw of tlx; l;il>li<:il iS<:rij\ what )ij«l be<;ii hith<-rt«> deU;riiiiind on llie oeeult rubject <;f whi<.h it treal^s. 'J'he tille is w^nietimes JliUioUi Ji'/Hirn, and s<'r», in the middle <^f t)u', paj^e, and the eounnentaries u\ Jtiiuiban, (Mose b<;|j N':i/;lnnaii,) lt;jba Urn, on <;ax;h «ide, and at the b'^tl-^^m. The c<;Hijnen- tary of h>;ia^ija (/won is giv<;;i, by it»4:ll', at tlw; end. 'J'he t«;xt e.(;nsisU» oi six pf/rakhii, or " <;ha]j1><-rs," divide/! xwUi wyjtions, ealhid " /ni^h/liA»." These are delivered in • A J/Udii truiixlatioii of the Jrttiru wiw |>uMi«li<:«l l;y I'oJit.ij jti Ihii, 302 HEBKEW UTEEATTEE. a style purely dogmatic, having the air and character of aphorisms, or theorems laid down -with an absolute authority. The abstract character of the treatise is reheved bv an ha^adisric addition on the conversion of Abram from the old Chaldean idolatry to pure theism ; so treated as to render the work a kind of monologue of that patriarch on the natural world, as a monument or manifestation of the glory of the one only God. The Jetsira is in fact an ancient effort of the human mind to discover the plan of the universe at large, and the law or band which unites its various parts into one harmonious whole. But the student will master both the Jetmra and the Zohar with greater facility, if he brmg with him to the task a premonition on some axioms which the Kabalists consider to be fundamental. Such are the following : — ]. From nothing nothing can proceed. 2. There- fore no substance that now exists has been produced from nothing; and whatever exists is, in one sense, uncreated. 3. All existing substances are emanations from one eternal substance. In the act of what is com- monly called " Creation," the Eternal Being drew from Hunself. 4. Consequently there is no such thing as matter; strictly speaking, that which we call " matter " is only a form or species under which spirit 'gives itself a manifestation. 5. So that the universe is a revelation of the Infinite ; an immanent effect of His ever active power and presence. 6». But though all existence thus flowed from the Divinity, yet is the world different from the Godhead, as the effect is different from the cause. Nevertheless, as not separate from, but abiding imma- nently in Him, it is evermore the manifestation of Himself. It is the mantle with which He clothes Himself; or rather it is a revelation of the Godhead, not in His hidden essence, but in His visible dorv. OUDETl VII. KABALISTS. 303 7. Ill giving existence to the universe, the first act of the Ahnighty was the production of a power or prin- ciple intimately and (^s])ecially relating to Himself, to which are given the names of " His Holy Spirit," " His personal Word/' and "His I'irst-begotten Son/' and wliich the Kabalists personify as the Adam Kadmon^^ the heavenly or archetypal man, who, in His turn, caused to proceed, by emanation from Himself, all the lower forms of actual existence in their several de- scending gradations. We see here, in effect, a philosophic system essen- tially the same, though with ditl'erent circumstantials, with that wdiich has been reproduced in modern times by Spinoza and Hegel. Why need we use many words ? The principles of the Kabala may be summed up in one, and that one, — Pantheism. Some of the later Kabalists have attempted to obviate this conclusion. But if the verdict be reserved for conuuon sense or logic to pronounce, the sentence will be irreversible. This character of the system appears partially in the Jetsira, and more fully in the Zohar. The Jetsira opens its instructions with something of the tone and manner of the Bible, and aimounces that the universe bears upon itself the imprint of the name of God ; so that, by means of the great panorama of the world, the mind may acquire a conception of the Deity ; and from the unity which reigns in the Creation, it may learn the oneness of the Creator. So far, the way of thinking is in agreement with the common one. But now, instead of tracing in the universe the laws "wliich govern it, so as to ascertain from those laws the thoughts of the Lawgiver, it is sought rather to arrive at the same end by finding some *° The first Adam. This expression has no reference here to the eartlJv Adam, the father of the human race. 304< HEBREW LITERATURE. tangible analogy between the things which exist, and the signs of thought, or the means by which thought and knowledge are principally communicated and in- terpreted among men; and recourse is had for this purpose to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and to the first ten numbers. [According to the Kabalists, God is the author of the letters. Speech is a revelation of thought, and the form in which intellect pronounces itself most dis- tinctly. Letters are the organic elements of speech. Therefore He who taught man language, or who made him, as the Targum expresses it, ruvach mamelella, "a speaking spirit,^^ must have been the author of the letters, those, namely, of the primitive language, whether Hebrew or otherwise.] The first ten numbers and the twenty-two letters, considered analogically as types of Divine operation, are denominated the "thirty-two wondrous ways of wisdom," nethiboth jjeliaoih hachna, in which the Almighty created the universe. "In thirty-two won- drous ways of wisdom, Jah Jehovah Zebaoth, Elolie Israel, Elohim Chaiim, the King everlasting, El, Merciful and Gracious, Exalted and Lifted up. Dwelling on High, and whose name is Holy, hath engraven (His name) with the three Seferim, with Sefar, Sefer, and Sijojmr.''^ Some copies, instead of " hath engraven His name," read, " hath created His world." It should be observed, that the text of the Jetsira is marked by many varia- tions, which contribute their influence in baffling the inquirer into its meaning. Thus, the expression, " with the three seferim," &c., has been considered extra to the original document ; and those critics who recognise it as a part of the genuine text, are not well agreed as to the precise import of the terms themselves. It may ^ Perek i., mishna 1. ORDEU VII. KABALISTS. 305 be enough for our present purpose to remark that the term scfar is efjuivalent to "a number;" sefer, to "writing ; "and sippiir, to '' a word." Now I take the lat- ter to denote the Memm, or Logns=^ov(\, " tlie Adam Kadmon, or Pirst-begotten Son," from ^yhose bosom all visible things, according to the Kabalistic idea, have emanated and now exist, in forms which correspond ^vith their types, in the sefar, "number," and sefer, " written letters." Jehuda Ha-Levi, in the book Kosari, observes on this passage, " The works of God are the writing of Him whose writing is His word, and whose word is His thought: so that the works, word, and thought of God are one, though to man they seem to be three." In subsequent Mishnas the letters are collectively called othioth, and the numbers, sejiroth. About the meaning of this last expression there have been several opinions, to which we shaU have occasion to refer in our account of the Zohar ; but in whatever sense it is used in the latter work, its signification is sufficiently plain in the Jetslra, as used for tlie plural form of sefar in indicating the ten numbers : " There are ten sejiroth only ; ten, and not nine ; ten, and not eleven. Appre- hend them with intelligence, and ascertain them wisely with understanding, that the matter may be established clearly, and the Creation set upon its proper basis." ^ Now, these letter and nmnber abstractions are held to be types of the various forms of being which constitute the universe, and by means of them it is thought that the understanding may even apprehend, in some re- spects, the infinite itself. " For the ten sefiroth, whether in past or future, good or evil, height or depth, east or ^ Eser sefiroth belimah ; eser, velo tesha ; eser, velo achafh esreh. Haben bachokma, veJiakem beblnah ; bachon behem vachqor viehem, vehaamed deber al boralf vehoshev yotser al mekono. — Pcrek i., mishna 4. 306 HEBREW LITEUATURE. west, north or south, are without end, (even as is) Adon Jehovah El, the faithful King, in the sanctuary of His holiness, for ever, and ever, and ever/' ^ These sefiroth have a mutual relation one with another. Though antithetic among themselves, they are, nevertheless, one system. " Like the ten fingers of a man's hands, there are five against five, yet between them there is a covenant of unity." ^ Before we go further, it may not be without use to recollect the Pythagorean idea of the numbers. In the ten numerals, Pythagoras thought he discovered a kind of model after which the world had been made. They are the atrial or principles of all things, considered as equal and unequal : the latter represent unity ; the former, duahty. Unequal numbers are limited and complete ; equal ones are unlimited and incomplete. The absolute principle of all perfection is unity and limitation j that of imperfection, duality and indeterminateness. The monad, or unity, is the fountain of all numbers ; the dyad, the cause of increase and division; the triad, compounded of the monad and dyad, partakes of the nature of both. The tetras, or number four, is in the highest degree perfect. The decad, which contains the sum of the four prime numbers, and is therefore called tetradys, comprehends all musical and arithme- tical proportions, and denotes the system of the world. It has been thought that, in this system, "numbers were the symbohcal representations of the first principles or forms of nature. As Pythagoras could not express abstract ideas in simple language, he seems to have made use of numbers as geometers do of a diagram, to assist the comprehension of liis scholars. He perceived ' Per. i., mislina 5. * E$er etsheoth, cJiamesh keneged chamesh u-beritJi yechid. — Pef. i., mishna 3, ORDER \qi. KABALISTS. 307 some analogies between numbers and the attributes of the Divine understanding, and made the former the symbols of the latter. As the numbers proceed from the monad, or unity, undergo various combinations, and in their progress assume new properties, so he regarded tlie pure and simple essence of the Deity as the com- mon source of all the forms of nature, which, according to their various modifications, possess different proper- ties." The doctrines of Pythagoras, which he probably derived from the remote east, had obtained some dis- ciples in Palestine so early as the first century before Christ ; nor is it improbable that the Kabalistic notions of the numbers might have been suggested by them, though the greater likelihood is that those notions had a common oriental origin with the Pythagorean ones. Be this as it may, the Kabahstic developement of the numbers, as symbols of the parts of the universe, ac- quired a grossness to which the Ionic philosopher never descended. Thus, according to them, the first numeral (expressed in Hebrew by the letter alepli) denotes the Spirit of God, which, it must be remarked, is to be considered the same with the Word, or Logos, at once " Spirit, voice, and word." ^ Two {heth) is the expiration or breath of the Spirit, i. e., the air, in wliich He has inwrought the twenty-two letters.^ Three {gimeV) is the water wliich comes from the air [mi-ruvach) . In them He hath set toliit va-holm, (Gen. i. 2,) "slime and dirt," after the manner of a root, or a wall, or a pavement.^ * Kol veruvach ve dibbur ; zehu riivach hakkodesh. — Pcrek i., mishna 9. ^ Mislma 10. " Mishna 10. I suppose by tUs jargon he intends to express the opinion that the grosser elements come from water as their base. 308 HEBREW LITEEATUEE. Four [daleth) is the fire which comes from the water, (!) and of it He hath made the throne of His glory, the oplianim, " the heavenly wheels/' (Ezek. i. 16,) the serapldm, the holy living ones and the ministering angels, (Psalm civ. 4,) and founded His habitation.^ The six remaining numbers indicate the several limits or definements of the world; i. e., the four cardinal points, the height and the depth.' These definements have, also, their emblems in the various combinations of the three first letters of the name Jehovah. In this arbitrary and absurd arrangement one thing is sufficiently apparent : the various elements of the world are represented as proceeding each from the other, and primarily from the Spirit- Word of God, out of whose very substance all have so emanated as to render Him "i\\e world-becoming- Word.'' Thus far the universe is considered as to its sub- stance: but in relation to its form or constitution, in adjusting the various parts of which it is composed, the Kabalists look about for some common law that shall have the effect of so harmonizing them. They have recourse to the twenty-two letters, as means for such a purpose. These letters, considered as to the sounds which they represent, seem to their imagina- tion to hover on the confines of the spiritual and ma- terial worlds ; for if they unfold themselves in a merely sensuous element, — the air, namely, — they are, neverthe- less, signs of the spiritual which no language can dispense with; they are tokens of intellectual operations, and forms or phenomena of the mind. It is through them that the Spirit- i/o^o.y reveals Himself, and " by means of ® Mishna 11. In tlie Kabala the angels are only natui'al forces. ' Mishnath 11, 13. ORDER VII, KABALISTS. 309 the twenty-two letters that tlie Creator, in giving them form, and in variously interchanging and combining them, hath expressed the soul of whatever hath been or will be created." ^ These twenty-two letters are arranged into tliree classes : 1. The shelosJi amoth, or three mother letters, — alejoh, mem, and skin, 2. The sheva kepiUoth, or seven double letters, so called because they have each two sounds, a hard and a soft one : they are heth, ghnel, daleth, caph, phe, resh, and than. 3. The shetaim esreh pcshutoth, or twelve simple letters, each having but a single sound, — he, van, zain, clieth, teth, yocl, lamed, nun, samech, ain, tsaddi, qoph} By a merely arbitrary mode of application, they are then set up as the exponents of, 1. The elemental world in general ; 2. The seasons of the year ; and, 3. The human being, who, in himself, is a microcosm, or fhume. of the universe. I. In the first regard, the shelosJi amoth denote : — 1 . The tliree primary elements : the letter shin being put for fire, the substance of the heavenly orbs ; mem, for water, whicli, they inform us, when condensed, " becomes earth ; " wliile the aleph betokens the air, the inter- mediate element between fire and water. [M. Franck, in his excellent work on the religion- philosophy of the Jews, remarks on this part of the Jetsira, that " the letter shiyi, which has a hissing sound, betokens the fire ; the mem, which has a murmuring one, the water; and the aleph, with its soft breathing, is the symbol of the air." Adolf Jelinek here adds a note to his German translation of Franck, to the effect that the aleph is the first letter in the Hebrew word {aoir) for the " air ; " mem, the first in mayim, " water ; " and the shin, the last letter in esh {Wi^), "fire."] ^ Per. ii., mishna 3. ^ Per. i., mislma 2. 310 HEBREW LITERATURE. 2. Again, the same letters set forth the three seasons of the yeiir : summer, whose nature is heat, answering to letter sli'm = fire; winter, characterized in the east by rain = mem, or water; and the temperate season, which is enjoyed when the air, = aleph, is in its best state, in spring and autumn. 3. So also in the constitution of man, we have the triple configuration of "the head, the heart or breast, and the stomach;"* and in his moral state, the threefold reality of merit, guilt, and the law, which is the standard of the one and the other. II. By the seven double letters those things are expressed which exist in pairs, the one the counterpart to the other. There are seven planets, which exert, some a good, others an evil, influence. In the week are seven days and nights. In the body " seven doors : the eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth,'" III. The twelve peslmtoth, or simple letters, denote the twelve signs of the zodiac, the twelve months of the year, and the twelve most important things in the body and the life of man, namely, " sight, hearing, breathing, speech, smelling, taste, matrimony, motion, anger, laughter, thought, and sleep." •* We need not remark on the imperfect and capricious character of these arrangements. Indicating, as they evidently do, an early effort of the mind in such investigations, they are vouchers at least for the originality and antiquity of the Kabalistic study. As, extra to the world, man, and time, we can only conceive of the Infinite; so these letters, picturing as they do that threefold distribution, become the symbolic representations of all created existence. As in the universe harmony reigns in manifoldness, so the letters and numbers thus classified constitute a system which ^ Per. iii., mishaa 4. * Per. v., mislinatli 1 and 2. OUDER VII. KABALISTS. 311 has its centre and hierarchy. " The unit predominates over the three, the three over the seven, the seven over the twelve; each part of the system inseparable from the other.-" ^ " The centre of the universe is (the con- stellation of) the celestial dragon. The circuit of the zodiac is the basis of the year ; the heart is the centre of man. The first is elevated in the world like a king upon his throne; the second circles through the year as a king in his dominion ; the third is in the soul {nefesli, the whole person) as a king in war.'^ " These comparisons appear to refer to the perfect proportion which obtains in the great system of the world, and the antagonisms which exist in man, notwithstanding his individuality. Thas, in the seven organs of the body there is a kind of opposedness which sets the " one against another, as in battle array. Three promote love, three engender hatred, three bestow life, three lead to our dissolution.''^ ^ And the one cannot be apprehended by the mind without the other. Over the whole of this triple system, over man, the world, and time, "over letters and sefiroth, the only true King, the one God, rules for ever and ever.-"' Such is the substance of the Sefer Jetsira, the princi- ples of which are carried out more fully, both in theory and practice, in the Zohar. Some writers have argued that, whatever may be the defects and absurdities of the book, it has the merit of opposing tlie oriental dualism, by the assertion of the Divine unity. But is it not equally true that it opposes that other dualism of the Bible, which asserts the Creator and the creation to be two distinct substances? Whereas the book Jetsira contemplates God, the infinite and inscrutable Being, as indeed reigning in boundless might over, but not [extra) apart from, the organized existence which we call " the ^ Per. vi., mishua 3. ^ Per. vi., mishna 2. ^ Ibid. 312 HEBREW LITERATURE, universe." Each element, it tells us, flows from a higher one, and all have in the Word, or Holy Spirit, their common mhstantial fountain. In " the Word '" we find the essential manifestations of the Divine thought, which reveals itself in whatsoever is in all the spheres of being. But this "Word," the first of the sefiroth or " numbers," and who is thus the substance of all things, is Himself the first emanation from the Divine substance. Here, then, is a theory which makes the Deity to be at once the origin, the matter, and the form of the world. He is not, indeed, that matter and form merely; still nothing exists or can exist extra to Himself. His sub- stance is the ground of aU being ; and the entire array of it bears the imprint, and is the visible and tangible manifestation, of His intelligence and of Himself, This consequence of the Jetsira is the basis of the doctrine of the book Zohar ; but the plan on which the latter is unfolded differs from that carried out in the former. Instead of ascending from the various forms and principles of the world to the highest principle and universal form, so as to arrive at the truth of the Divine unity, that truth is at once asserted, and then developed by an exhibition of its evidences. IV. The Zohar, the sequel to the Jetsira, is held, from the greater amplitude of its doctrine, as the standard and code of the Kabalistic system. The titles of the book vary: Midrash Mel U. Shemun ben YocJial, from its reputed author; Miclrasli Yehe Or, from the words of Gen. i. 4, " Let there be light ; " but more commonly Sefer ha Zohar, from Dan. xii. 3, where the word zohar is used for "the brightness of the firmament." The title in full is, Sefer ha Zohar al ha Torah, me-ish Elohim hodesh hu nore meod ha-tana R. SheniM hen OllDEU VII. KABAI.ISTS. 313 Yochii't, z. I., "The Book of Spleiulour on the .Law, by the very holy and venerable l\lan of Ciotl, the Tana Kabbi Shemun b. Yochai, of bh'ssed JMeniory." The body of the work takes the form of a commentary, extending over the five Books of j\[oses, of a highly mystic and allegorical character. This commentary has been published by itself, with the last of the above titles, in a stout folio. (Cremona, 15G5.) But the Zohar is not considered complete without the addition of certain appendices, attributed either to the same autlior, or to some of his personal or successional disciples. These supplementary portions are, — 1. Sifra de Zetilutha, "The Book of Mysteries.''^ 2. Idra llabha, "The Great Assembly :" referring to the community or college of Shemun's disciples, in their conferences for Kabalistic discussion. 8. Idm Zotha, " The Lesser Assembly : " the few dis- ciples who still assembled for that purpose, towards the end of their master^s life, or after his decease. To these tluree larger appendices are added fifteen other minor fragments, viz., — 4. Sabha, "The aged Man." 5. Midrash RiUh. 6. Sefer ha-hahir, "The Book of clear Light." 7. Toseftha, " Kjq. kMiiioxx." 8. liaia mehimna, "The faithful Shepherd." 9. HeMoth, " The Palaces." 10. Sithrei/ Torah, "The Secrets of the Law." 11. Midrash ha-neelam, "The concealed Treatise." 12. Base de Rasin, " Mysteries of Mysteries." 13. Midrash Chasith : on the Canticles. 14. Maamar Ta chasi, a discourse so entitled from its fii'st words, "Come and See." 15. Yenuqa, "The Youth." IG. PeJciida : illustrations of the law. p 314 HEBREW LITERATURE. 17. Chibhura Kadmaa, "The early Work.'' 18. MatJmitin, "Doctrines.'' The body of the work is sometimes called Zohar Gadol, and the other portions Zohar Katon. The edition of Sulzbach is considered the best, as it has the entire apparatus. The edit'w prince J)H is that of Mantua, 1560, in three volumes quarto; but it em- bodies only eight of the appendices. To the authenticity of the Zohar as a work of the early Kabalistic school, objections have indeed been made, but they are not of sufficient gravity to merit an extended investigation. The opinion that ascribes it as ^ipseudo fabrication to ]\Ioses de Leon in the thirteenth century, has, I imagine, but few believers among the learned in this subject in our own day. The references to Shemun ben Yochai and the Kabala in the Talmud, and abundant internal evidence found in the book itself, exhibit the strongest probability, not that Shemun him- self Avas the author of it, but that it is the fruit and result of liis personal instructions, and of the studies of his immediate disciples. As in the Jetsira, the language is not Biblical Hebrew, nor post-Talmudic, much less the Arabized Rabbinical of the Geonim, but the dialect in use among the Palestinian Jews in the period which preceded the Talmud, — the Jerusalem dialect. The ideas and expressions belong also to the same time. There is no trace of the Aristotelian or Arabian philosophy in the work, but, on the other hand, the ideas correspond with the Syrian gnosis. If any one wishes to see the question of the authenticity of the Zohar thoroughly gone into, let him consult the able dissertation of Pro- fessor Pranck, in his Si/steme de la Kahhale. (Paris, 1842.) When we say that the Zohar is a commentary on the Pentateuch, it must be understood that the principle of OKDER YII. KABALISTS. 315 iiiter})retatioii is Kabalistic. The authors consider the Kteral sense of the words as a covering to a truer mean- ing. According to them the real doctrine is a living body, of which the hteral text is only the vestment. It is here that they develope their most solemn theology, — the true knowledge of the only true God. They have two ways of speaking of the Divine Being, which nevertheless do not militate the one against the other. AVhen they speak simply and directly of ITis nature, their style is severely metaphysical ; but at other times they launch boldly into the region of metaphor: but though the style they used is highly imaginative, and often extravagantly so, yet it is commonly with an expressed or implied disclaimer of the possibility of any forms of that kind to describe the Incomprehensible, because Infinite, Being. The Sifra Zeniutha is pervaded with this style. " He is the Ancient of Ancients, the Mystery of Mysteries, the Concealed of Concealments. He hath a Ibrm peculiar to Himself, but He hath chosen to appear to us as the Ancient of Ancients. Yet in the form in which we know Him, H^e remaineth still unknown. "His vesture is white, and His aspect that of an unveiled face. He sitteth on a throne of splendours ; the white light streameth over a hundred thousand worlds. This white light will be the inheritance of the righteous in the world to come. " Trom His skull go forth every year thirteen thou- sand myriad worlds, which receive their subsistence from, and de})end upon, Him. Out of His skull streams a dew with which His head is replete, and this dew will hereafter give new life to the dead This dew is the nourishment of the highest saints Its appearance is as the whiteness of the diamond, in whose colour all colours are blended. The length of His c(mntenance, p 2 310 HEBREW LITERATURE. from the extreme ijoints of the skull, is that of three hundred and seventy thousand mp-iads of worlds ; and this is called the Long Tace.-" Before all time the En Soj)/i,^ the Unoriginated and Infinite Being, existed without likeness or reflection, incomprehensible, unknowable. In the production of finite existence, by which He became knowable, the first act was the evolution of the Memra or "Word," of whom they speak as the primary point in the descending series of being, and from whom, in nine other degrees of manifestation, emanated those forms which at once compose the universe, and express the attributes and presence of its eternal Euler. To these ten forms of manifestation the Zohar gives the common name of sefroth. This term some critics consider to be equivalent to the Greek a-(^o2paL, or "spheres;" but others, deriving it fo-om saph'ir, make it to denote "splendours,"^ the favourite term with Basnage, and writers of his class. But probably the more correct notion is, as already observed, that which explains it as the plural of sefar, "a number;" the evolution of numbers out of an original unity being one of the dogmatic m^odes of illustrating the doctrine of emanation by the Kabalists. In the book Jelsira, the ten numbers answer to the elementary world and its categories. The sum of them is the universe itself, the manifestation of God. But in the Zohar the sefiroth are unfolded with a greater amplitude than in the Jetdra ; or rather the things symbolized in the Jefsira by the numbers, are in the Zohar described with various accessories, and presented under other names. No longer indicated by the naked numbers, they are clothed, so to speak, with the more imposing grandeur of moral From the negative en or ain, auJ the noun so])li, " end or teruiiuus." ^ An allusiou, as they think, to Esodus xxiv. 10. '' ORDER VII. KABALISTS. 317 appellations. Here their several or separate titles are, 1. Kvl/iar, "the crown;" 2. Hachma, "wisdom;" 3. Bliiafi, " uiulerstanding ; " 4. Chesed, "mercy;" 5. I)'in, "justice;" 0. Tijcirfli, "beauty;" 7. Nel- sac/f, "triumph;" S. JIo(f, "glory;" 9. Yasod," ba- sis •/' 10. JItflhti/f, "dominion." These names arc asso- ciated in Christian theology with intellectual and moral realities ; but in the Kabala they are ajjplied as well to physical phenomena, because such phenomena are mani- festations of the Great Being in whose character the vir- tues expressed by this nomenclature are for ever inherent. The Primordial Essence is before all. In His ab- stract and eternal condition He is utterly incompre- hensible, and, as an object of the understanding, ac- cording to the ZoJiar, He is as nothing ; the Mystery of Mysteries, the Concealed of all Concealments. But He took a form, as He called forth the all. " The Ancient of Ancients is now^ seen in His own light ; that light is His holy Xame." The ten sefiroth through ^\hich He has revealed Himself, become attributes or predicates of His nature. In them the Divine discovers itself ; and, taken together, they make the fullest of all manifestations of it. This revelation of the Divine attributes, the Zohar personifies as "the heavenly Man," Adam Bah, the "Man on liigh," an allusion to Ezekiel i. 26 ; and Adam Kadmon, the primeval Adam, of whom the earthly Adam was an image, as being in himself a microcosm. The heavenly Man, the Logos, developing Himself in the ten sefiroth, is the absolute form of aU being. Some of the modern Kabalists, seeking to harmonize their science with the literal phraseology of the Bible, speak of the sefiroth as medium instruments of the power of God, themselves having an exalted nature, but still substantially different from the Infinite Essence. 318 HEBREW LITERATURE. At tlie head of this school is Menachem Recanati.^ Another class, carrying out to its last consequence the old principle that " nothing can come from nothing," identify the sefirotli with the Divine substance itself. What the Zohar calls the En Soph, the "Infinite Essence," is, according to them, the sum or complement of the sefirotli, each of which is a varied parzopon, " face or aspect/' under which the Infinite may be contem- plated. So the author of the Magan (or " Shield " of) David. Between these extreme opinions there is yet another, — that the sefirotli are neither mere instruments, and therefore different from the Divine substance, nor are they in its totality identical with it. According to this view, [a] God is present in the sefirotli, else He could not manifest Himself in them ; [tj) but He does not confine Himself to them. He is more than that which these forms of being make visible. The ten sefirotli cannot in themselves comprise the Infinite. While each of them has a well defined name, He, as Infinite, can have no name. While, therefore, God pervades all worlds which reveal to us His presence. He is at the same time exalted above them. His immutable nature can never be meted or scanned. Adopting the simile of the Zohar, which compares the sefirotli to kelim, or vessels of various capacities and forms, (perhaps because they limit or define the things which they represent, so as to be said to contain them,) or to glasses of various colours, we must see that with whatever vessel, or how many soever, we would seek to measure the Absolute Es- sence, it remains unmeasured and unaltered. And though the Divine light shine through the media of the various glasses, it is in itself unchanged, as the sunbeam is imchanged, by whatever medium transmits it. The 1 See page 386. OUDEU VII. KABALISTS. 310 sefvrofh therefore only serve to show uhere, niul in wliat way, the Boundless Nature has seen tit to linn't Himself to our perception and knowledge. This is the view taken by Isaac Luria and Closes Corduero in tlieir exposition of the Zo/iar. Yet this most plausible ex- planation fails to commend itself to our reason. It teaches us, in effect, to consider the universe not as God entirely, as the naked pantheistic theory docs, but as a part of God ! Let us, however, proceed to the details. 1. The first sefira is "the crown,'' [kethar,) and is so called because it is the highest of all the Divine manifestations, — "the highest crown, from which all diadems and crowns receive their splendours." It is uot the infinite unknowable En Soph, considered in His boundlessness, but the first form hi which lie becomes capable of being hiown. In the way in which the ten sefiroth correspond with the ten Divine names, (which w'e will specify more fully hereafter,) the fii-st sefira corresponds with the name EJijeh, "I am."" It be- speaks the simple idea of an existence which can be subjected to no analysis, " a point " without divisibility. This is why the Kabalists call it the nehula rlshuna, " the original or primary point;" or the nekuda peshda, " the simple point." The later Kabalists say, that the Deitv, when about to make the manifestations, concen- trated Himself into this point; an act which withdrew, so to speak, the pleroma of His presence from endless space, and made room for what is now the universe ! Ill this respect, too, as being incapable of analysis or perfect definition, the Divine nature is designated by these men by the starthng name of En, or A'ln, the sometliing which is as though it were not. The learned reader will here be reminded of the same form of thought, and even of expression, in the modern German 320 HEBEEW LITEEATURE. transcendental systems. This concei^tion of the Deity is also symbolized by tJie Kabalists in their epithet of the BisJia Chavnra, the "White Head;" because, as in white all colours are blended, so in the idea of Him to whom they have applied it, all finite thoughts are swal- lowed up. They call this mysterious point, moreover, the Atika, the " Ancient/' because He is the first of the sefiroth. The Atika, however, must be distinguished from the AfU-a cT Atihin, the "Ancient of Ancients," an appellation applied only to the En Sojjh. 2. From this first principle, the crown, proceed two other sefiroth: the one, active or masculine, haclima, "wisdom;" the other, passive or feminine, bhiah, " understanding ;" the combination of which results in dclcdli, or "knowledge."^ In this highly abstract representation the universe is regarded as the effect of thought. The crowned Memra, or primeval Logos, is the thinking power in creation; hachma, the modus of that exercise, or the act of thinking ; Uriah, the subject of the thinking; ddath, the realization of the subject thus thought into being. "The forms of all worldly being," says Corduero, "are in these tliree sefiroth, as they themselves are in Him who is their fountain." 3. The seven remaining sefiroth, which the later Kabalists term sefiroth ha h'lnim, from their serving immediately in the construction or building of the world, develope themselves also in triads, in which two antithetical members are united by a third. Thus chesed, " grace," is the antithesis of diii, " justice," and both are united in tifereth, "beauty." Here we must be reminded, that these terms are not used restrictively in the moral or spiritual sense in which they are em- ployed in our common theology and ethics; in the ^ The Zoliar calls hachma, AB, " the father," and binah, AM, " mother." In this point of view, ddatJi is the offspring of both. ORDKll VII. KABALISTS. .'521 Kabala tliey liave rather a cosmological or — shall I say ? — dynamic meaning. Thus chesed, " grace," here signi- fies the expansion of the Divine will, and din, "justice," its concentrated energy ; and hence, in some of the Kabalistic diagrams, this last takes the name of ge- burah, or "strength." These two attributes, the Zoh-ar says, are the two arms of God. And tijereth, " beauty," whose symbol is the breast or heart, is the expression for the good which thev produce and u()- hold. The next three sefroth, netsach, "triumph," IkhI or hovod, " majesty or glory," and i/asod, " basis," are also of a dynamical character, representing the Deity as the ground or producing power of all existence. The words netsach, masculine, and hovod, feminine, are used in the sense of expansiveness and grandeur. They denote the power from which all the forces of the universe proceed. On this account they are sometimes designated by the epithet zebaoth. They combine themselves in a common principle, yasod, the foundation or basis of all being. Viewed under one aspect, these three attributes reveal the Deity in the character iu which the Bible speaks of Plim as Jehovah Zebaoth. The tenth and last of the sefirotli, malkuth, "roy- alty" or "kingdom," sets forth the steadfast sovereignty which displays its never-ending reign within and by all the others. The ten theogonic sejiroth are thus resolvable into three classes, which together make up what the modern KabaUsts have called the olam atzeloth, the "world of emanation." ^ The first tliree are of a purely intel- lectual nature, and are the exponents of the olam mosJcel, or "intelligent world."'* They set forth the absolute identity of being and thought. ' From atscl, " to flow forth." ■• Seie/, " intelligence." p 5 322 HEBREW LITEEATUEE. The three next have at once a cosmologic and moral character. They express the energy of rectitude and o-race in the revehition of the beautiful. In them the Almighty appears as the suminum boiium. The Kaba- lists group them under the common ethical name of midwoth; and, in their cosmological aspect, they ^all them the olam moregesh^ the " sensible world/^ or the " world of feeling." The last tliree, which disclose the Divine Architect as at once the eternal foundation and producing cause of all being, constitute what is called the natural or physically developed world, olam hamotava.^ [These "worlds" are sometimes described as four- fold : atzelah, her'iah, jetsira, and assiaJi ; the term heriali, according to some, referring to the higlier orders of spirits, jetsira to the heavenly bodies, and assiah to the system of terrestrial nature. The chariot vision in the first chapter of Ezekiel shadows them forth. The Divine human figure on the throne is the aizelot/i ; the chariot, ieriah ; the four cJiaioth, or • " living ones," jetsira ; and the wheels, assiah. Vide Beer's GescJiichte-Lehren der Juden. But I prefer the more scientific represen- tation of Professor Pranck, which I have here followed.] The olam hamotava, or "terrestrial world," com- bining, as it does, the sunken dregs of existence, is never- theless immaterial ; for matter, in the ordinary idea of it, on account of its imperfection and mutability, would not be possible, as an emanation from God, of whose nature it would be a contradiction. Therefore, what we call " matter " is in reality a degree of emanative force attenuated almost to exhaustion. The Divine efflux of vivifying glory, so resplendent at its fontal source, becomes less potent as it descends in the scale of being, ^ Beffosh, " to feel." ® " The grossest or lowest world," from tava, " to sink, or settletlowu." ORDER VII. KABALISTS. 323 till, ill the plienoiiieuou termed " matter/' it exists only, as I may say, in its embers, or, as some of the Kabalists express it, "like a coal in which there is no longer any liglit." In all these representations the Deity ever appears in an unalterably triune character. The Zohar gives a beautiful illustration of the intimate and unique relation of these " worlds " from the flame of a lamp, the upper and white light of which symbolizes the intellectual ; the lower and more shaded light, wdiich insensibly blends itself with the upper one, represents the world oi feeling ; while the grosser material, which is beneath all, is the emblem of the plnjslcal world. Jkit the second of the three has an intimate relation with each opposite extreme ; the wliite light of intellect wdth the grosser element of the olam hamotava. But hda ethkasher ba-i/eckuda chad, all three are combined in an indivisible unity. ^1. Crown. -^ 3. Understanding. 5. Justice. 8. Glory. 6. Beauty. 9. Basis. 2. Wisdom. 4. Grace. 7. Triumph. 10. Kingdom. Taking the three centre sejiroth as the highest mani- festations of their respective trinities, we may say with the Zohar, that the crown represents the one and abso- 324 HEBREW LITERATUEE. lute substance; the heauty, the highest expression or ideal of moral perfection; and the kingdom, the per- manent activity of all the sefiroth together, the real presence or SheJdnak of God in the universe. Each of these three is sometimes personified as a parzopon, with a peculiar name. The crown thus personified is called •■•the Long Face/' (see page 316,) and "the Ancient;" Beauty is surnamed " the Holy King ; " and the Sheki- nah, or Divine Presence in the universe, is the Metro- nitha, or, sometimes, " the Queen." The relations of the sefiroth are set forth, in order to assist the student, in a diagrammatic or hieroglyphical form : sometimes by nine concentric circles around one point; or by the members of the human body; — the head signifying the crown ; the breast, beauty ; the brain, wisdom; the heart, understanding; the arms, grace and justice, &c., &c. And these representations should not be overlooked, as they have a bearing on the practical department of the Kabala. Thus the ground-principle of this singular philosophy is, that every form of being, from the lowest element of the organic world, up to the purest and brightest beams of the eternal Wisdom, is an emanative manifestation of God. And it is held not only that all being has pro- ceeded from Him ; but that, to be maintained in exist- ence, it must be ever with and in Him, or it would vanish like a shadow. He is, therefore, ever present, not with it only, but in it. In Him it has its being. Its being is Himself. It follows, that any substance in itself separate from the great First Cause, is a chimera or an impossibility. All is one. The basest element is but the last link of the unbroken chain of existence, of wliich the Memra is the second, and the En Soph the first. Another consequence is, that the world can nevgi- be OHDER VII. KABALISTS. 325 destroyed in tlic sense of niinihilation^ because its sub- stance is identic with the First Cause. In like manner, they infer that no substance is in itself essentially evil. With the Kabalist, Ijcreshllh and beraka arc inter- changeable terms. He believes that, in the moral world, wicked beings will at length develope a better state of character. Even Samael will, at a future time, regain his angel name and nature. Corduero says, that even hell itself will vanish ; sutfering, sin, and tempta- tion be outlived, and be succeeded by an eternal feast, a sabbath without end.^ Fiu'ther, the entire existent universe, being of one substance, is pervaded with one principle, and its various parts or spheres have, as already intimated, a correspon- dence with each other. The lower world is an image of the one above it. So that, whatever our senses can apprehend here, has a symbolic meaning. Every phe- nomenon of nature is the expression of a Divine idea. This principle is applied by them to astronomy, (or rather what we should call " astrology,") and to physio- gnomy. The starry firmament is a heavenly alphabet, by which the wise can read the interpretation of the present, and the history of the future. So, in the human visage, the outward conformation is the signature of inward qualities. " When souls come forth from Eden (God), each hath its own form, which manifests itself in that of the \-isible or outward man." [A broad vaulted forehead, they say, betokens a genial and ample mind; a flat forehead, stupidity; a flat forehead, pressed at the sides, a narrow and con- tracted intellect.] The four visages of the cherubic animals, in the first chapter of Ezekiel, point out four varieties of human character. ]\Ian is at once the com- pendium and climax of the works of God. He stands ^ Pardis Rimmomm. 326 HEBREW LITERATURE. on the highest step. Hence, when he was formed, it is said, God completed His work. He is an image of the Word, and in this a representation of the great Supreme ; an exhibition of God. on the earth; "the terrestrial Shekinah." The heavenly Adam reveals HimseK in the eartlily one. "Wliat is man? Not mere flesh and bones : these are the veil, the vestment, but not the man. When he goes from the earth, he tlu-ows these things off, and is then unclothed." Yet is this bodily garment in itself a symbol or mys- tery. In it the universe is epitomized : " The skin represents the firmament outstretched over all; the flesh, the weak side of the world, that is, the sensible or sensuous element," &c. And as the firmament is written over with planets and stars which, rightly read, make the hidden known, so on the firmament of the human surface there are lines and configurations which are the signatures of character aud destiny. While man was as he came from God, his very look made the lower animals tremble and worship. That look was the angel that shut the lions' mouth for Daniel : it was the aspect of the prophet's face. The inner man is the true man. There is in him, as in his Divine original, a trinity in unity : 1. Nishmah, "spirit." ^. Ruvach, "sovX." 2,. Nefesh, i\\Q " s&a- suous " or " animal life," which is immediately related to the body, and dies when the body dies. The nefesJi never enters the portals of Eden. The fountain of the nishmah, " spirit," is the highest "wisdom;" the ruvach, "soul," proceeds from the " beauty," which combines justice and grace ; nefesh, the animal principle, comes from the " basis." Besides these elements in man, the Kabalists speak of another, which they represent as an idea or type of the person. Tliis type descends from heaven at the time of ORDER VII. KLfVBALISTS. 3:! 7 our conceptiou. It grows as we grow, remains ever with us, and accompanies us when we leave the earth. They call it the i/echidali, or "])rinciplc of indivi- duality/' The temporal union of the two liighcr elements, spirit and soul, with sense, they do not, with Origin and the Gnostics, regard as an evil, but as a means of moral education ; a wholesome state of trial, in which the soul works out, in the domain of sense, a proba- tion for ultimate felicity. Human life, in its perfect character, is the agreement between the ideal and the real, between the intellectual form and matter, or, as the Zoliar plu-ases it, " between the king and the (pieen," that is to say, the harmony between God and natuio. The soul is at present being schooled to this harmony : " It is like a king's son, sent away for a time from the palace, to fulfil a career of education, and then to be recalled home." The harmony w^liich at first subsisted between nature and God has been disturbed by sin. By this the soul became enslaved to sense, and was clothed with the baser elements as its consequence and punishment. Before the Fall Adam and Chava were perfect intelli- gences, living in the beams of the light of God, and unencumbered with bodies. This is what is signified in Genesis, when it is written, (Gen. ii. 25,) that "they were both naked." "When it is said that after the Fall God clothed them with garments of skins, it is intended that He invested them with mortal bodies. Their clothing before the Fall was that of robes of light.® Here we may mention another curious idea. One of " The early Kabalists do not acknowledge au iuliereut original sin ; but the modern ones are disposed to admit that doctrine; especially Isaac Luria, who believed that all souls were born with Adam, or that all ours were in his, and that therefore his sin was ours. 328 HEBREW LITERATURE. the resemblances between man and bis Divine arcbetjpe, is that union of the mascuHiie and feminine principles in him which, in combination, form one moral being (another form of trinity). As the heavenly Adam, according to the doctrine of the sefroth, is the result of such a combination, so is it with the earthly Adam. The distinction of sex holds true, not only of the body, but of the soul as well.^ The ideal of human nature is not perfect where only one half of it is found. It is said in Genesis, " He blessed them, and called their name Man," {Adam,) a name which is then only per- fectly descriptive when applied to husband and wife, considered as one. Before the eartlily state, the male and female soul, the two halves of our nature, and in one or the other of which all its elements and powers are found, existed thus in union. When they came upon earth to work out their probation, they were at first separated ; but in the sacrament of marriage they are again united. But this is true only of the marriage of those whose ways please God, and such become eternally one. It will be seen that this doctrine implies that of the pre-existence of souls ; a dogma which may be deduced from the principle of the identity of thought and being. The doctrine of pre-existence is laid down in the Zohar, section Mishpatim; that of reminiscence, in section Achare-maveth. But they deny that pre-existence involves predestina- tion. To reconcile liberty with destiny, to give to man the j)rivilege of repentance for sin, and to render it pos- sible that he should return at length to the bosom of God, they adopt the doctrine of metempsychosis, though in a way more refined than it was taught by Pythagoras. * They probably got this notion from Plato ; in fact, they use his own word, av^p&Yuvos, ^ OPvDER Vir. KARALTSTS. 329 If probation for final bliss be not successfully acliieved in one life, another life is entered upon, aiul tluMi a third. As to death, they deny that it should be considered as an universal curse. To the righteous it is rather u token of favour: it is "the kiss of (Jod." In truth, for the good, the transition from the earthly state may not be called " dying." The time of probation successfully accomplished, the soul attains the consummation of bliss in the fruition of God; that is, in the intuitive vision of His glory, in perfect love, and in that oneness with Himself in which it ■uill have the same ideas and the same will \nth Him, and, like Him, will hold dominion in the universe. The demonology of the Kabalists is a sensuous one. Angels and demons, according to their view, are only the different forces of nature. As such, they are inferior to man. The names given to them are therefore not to be taken in a personal sense, but as the signs of certain qualities. For example : Tahariel, the angel of purity ; Eachmiel, of mercy ; Zadkiel, of justice ; Padiel, of de- liverance ; Raziel, of mystery. The angel host belong to the third world, Jetsira, that of nature; and their chief is Metatron, {i. q. meta thronos,) because his place is immediately under the throne. His office is to main- tain the order and harmony of all the a])paratus of nature. Under him are the subordinate angels who superintend the various departments of the elemental world ; as Xuriel, the angel of fire ; Uriel, the angel of light. The generic term by which they describe the demons as Mifoth, [qelijihoth,) " shells, husks, or integuments," sets forth the inferiority of their nature. But in rela- tion to what are called " evil demons," it is an epithet for whatever is wanting in itself in Ufe and order. Of these 330 HEBREW LrrERATTRE. there are ten degrees : ruin or disorder, darkness, suffer- ing, concupiscence or irregular passion, anger, unclean- ness, guilt, enmitr, idolatrr, pride. All these constitute the empire of heU, whose chief is Samael, the angel of Tenom or of death ; who, sars the Z>jiar, is the same as Satan, and the serpent that tempted Chava. There is also a female evil principle, who is regarded as the wedded companion of Samael. Her name is LiEith, the personification of sensualiir. The demonolc^ of the Kabalists is a necessary accompaniment to their metaphysics. It will appear, then, from these brief outhnes, that while the Kabala r^ards all the words and facts of the Scriptures as symbols, it teaches men to confide in their own powers in the task of interpreting them. It sets reason in the pbce of authority, and rears up a philo- sophical system under the sceptre and protection of religion. Instead of beheving in a creating Grod, who is dis- tinguishable firom nature, and who, notwithstanding His omnipotent ability to create, must have existed from all eternity before the epoch of creation, it sets up the idea of one universal substance, infinite, ever thinking, ever active, the immanent ground of the universe, in which He has developed Himself. Instead of a material world distinguishable from Grod, brought out of nothing by His will, and destined to succe«ive changes in fulfilling the purposes of the Creator, it recognises countless forms under which the one Divine substance unfolds and manifests itself; all of them pre-existent in the Divine Intelligence. Man is the hi^est and most perfect of all these forms, and the only one through whom God is radi- vidually represented. He is the bond between God and the world, being the image of each, according to His OIIDKU VII. K.VBALISTS. 331 twofold intellectual and elemental nature. Originally in the Divine substance, lie returns to it again, when the prcparatorv process of the eartldy life shall have been happily fuliilled. V. In accounting for the oitioix of the Kabala, we must advert to such systems as have a resemblance to it, and endeavour to ascertain what relation it bears to them, and whether it be such as will account for its genesis in the Jewish mind. The systems to which the Kabala has some likeness are partly philosophic and partly religious. Platonism and the Alexandrine doctrines are of the first; Christianity, the second. Yet we doubt whether to either of these the Kabala is indebted for its origin. 1. Xot to the doctrines of Plato. That there is a striking analogy between them and the Kabalistic system cannot be denied. Both systems make the Logos, or Divine "Wisdom, the primordial archetype of the universe. In both the numbers act a mediatorial part between the Divine idea, and the objects which form the manifesta- tion of that idea. In both are found the notions of pre-existence, reminiscence, and the metempsychosis. So remarkable are these coincidences, that some of the later Kabalists have been obhged to make Plato a disciple of the prophet Jeremiah. But, on the other hand, there are differences between the two theories which render it impossible to affirm that the one is the copy of the other. The Kabalists believe in one sub- stance, spirit ; Plato believed in two, spirit and matter, — the intelligent cause, and the created material produced. Neither can the Kabalistic sefiroth be reconciled with the idea-doctrine of Plato, L e., his teaching respecting those forms or archetypes of things which existed in the 382 HEBREW LITERATURE. Divine Mind from eternity. Those ideas, according to him, abide in that !Mind, are inseparable from it ; nay, are the Divine Intelligence itself, and are distinguish- able from the things of which they are the patterns : whereas the sejiroth are considered as at once not only the archetypal forms, but their realization, in the substance of the world. So the Trinity of Plato differs equally from that of the Kabala. By the latter the sejiroth are divided into two classes, figuratively set forth as masculine and feminine, and, flowing alike from the eternal fountain of the En Soph, combine themselves in a common personi- fied power, that of "the Son,^^ from whom they once more become distinguished in a new form of develope- ment. It is impossible to compare this doctrine with Plato's Triad of the Pater, the Logos, or Bemiurgos, and the '^v^r) tov koct/jlov, without perceiving that Kabalism and Platonism can never be identified. That the doctrines of the great master of the Lyceum in some refracted way influenced the minds of the early K aba- lists, we may wilhngly concede ; but the mere outline we have given of their theory will be enough to show, that we must seek for the origin of it in another source than Platonism. 2. Not in the Alexandi-ine school. Between the Kabala and Neo-Platonism, there are indeed unques- tionable resemblances; but historical considerations render it impossible that the latter should have been the model of the former. The Kabala was developed in Palestine. Its language and direct associations with rabbinical institutions set this beyond doubt. The Jews of Alexandria had but little intercourse with their brethren in Palestine; and never entered into intimate relations with the rabbinical system of the Holy Land or of Babylonia. On the other hand, the rabbinical ORDER VII. KABALISTS. 333 Fews were averse to tlie "Greek wisdom," and were orbidden even to instruct their children in the Greek anguage. But while the Palestinian Jews detested the jrreek philosopli}-, they received the Kabala. "Who can ffirm reasonably, that the Kabalistic wisdom was only 1. ray of the foreign sun which shone at Alexandria ? b to IVeo-Platonism, the Kabala was held in honour )y the Hebrews long before that was ever thought of. STevertheless, as we have said, the two systems have a ertain likeness. (1.) The school of Amraonius, like that if Simon ben Yochai, shut themselves up within the olded doors of mystery. (2.) "With both, God is the mmanent ground and substantial source of all being. Ul goes out from, all returns to Him again. (3.) The wo systems recognise the necessity of a Trinity. (4.) Chey agree also in regarding the universe as a Divine nanifestation. (5.) And, moreover, in their doctrines ibout the soul and its final return to God. But in Lccounting for these resemblances, we are more justi- ied in supposing that the Neo-Platonists copied from he Kabalists, than the contrary. 3. Not from the writings of Philo. The Jewish )hilosopher of Alexandria seems to have been unknown o the Jews of the Middle Ages, and almost equally so o their rabbinical ancestors in Palestine and Babylon. Besides, Philo had no specific system of his own. The )nly trace of am'thing of this kind in his writings is the )urpose to reconcile the teachings of the Bible with he best features of the Greek philosophy, and especially hat of Plato. But in doing this he attempts to hold, it the same time, two doctrines which no logic can ever •econcile : — the Platonic Duahsm = God, and a crea- ion which once had a beginning; the other, the dogma )f an active principle = the Divine Intelligence, and a Dassive one = matter, pre-existent, and shaped, accord- 334 HEBREW LITEEATUEE. incj to a plan or idea conceived in the Divine Mind^ into a perfect and eternally indissoluble system, and not only over which, but (e^co) apart from it as well, He reigns supreme. But while in some places he affirms that the Divine activity only fashioned the pre-existent chaotic material into form and order, he as distinctly asserts, in others, that that activity was not only archi- tectural, but literally creative. "God is not only the Demiurgos, or iVrchitect of the world, but its Creator.'' [Ue Sornn., p. 577.) He created not only matter, but the space which it occupies. And inasmuch as Pie per- vades the world, in order to sustain it. He may be said to be the Place of the universe itself, 6 twv oXwv TOTTO'i' for He contains All. He is the asylum and dwelling-place of the world, the place wherein He Him- seK abides. {Be Ling. Confus.) He Himself is the world ; for God is All : Eh kol to UAN avTo<; ia-riv. {Le(/is AUeg.) To explain these palpable contradictions, be passes from the Platonic to the oriental way of thinking. God is the unapproachable and incompre- hensible Light. No creature can behold Him. But His image shines forth in His thought, (the Logos,) and through this image we can become acquainted with Him. {De Sown.) But to this first manifestation or emanation of the Divine nature, Philo, like Plato, gives an hypostatic or personal character. He is God's Pirst- begotten. Next, the elder Logos produces another, which represents Him, or in which He is Himself mani- fested : that is to say, He exerts a creative power, of which the world is the manifestation. In this point of view, Pliilo speaks of the first-born Logos, in common with the Platonists and Kabalists, as the Amtne, or mother of the universe, that " well beloved offspring," of which the Infinite is the Father. In this sense the world, the Logos, and God are one. OUttJi Ml. iLlBAUSTS. .^io On the nature of angels, Philo difTers from the Kaba- lists, in re^?arrling them, not aa penooifications of the enerr ' . but as real bdng«. to t. .iian sooL Tlieir i aether, but ther hold convert with men, and sooi' vea with * ■ ' ' ; ments oi i.atuiv. I:: - -_ . - - r, _. . the ^:- - - ^i m ine blood, i Tnenta of the lii.nM.,^ im:.^: in aitempung to ascend to the : and spir> *- * * -. . v. - mind to - _ ; just as ine bodj requires nmk oeiore ii can be jle of stronger meat. But in the i - - -" — • .a an insight into that higher or ^ ii is necessarr to place the senses in abeyance, and to let the intellect exercise itself independently of them altoctther. When, however. ?uch know!«^sre i« »t- is not by mere ..._ „-^ ^i ph:" - • " • . but ^. ^.... God. He b- : it is thus p : to attain to tiic uiiuiUTe perception oi : .- self. He lays here great stress on the ex<-. - - . ......:, (uuTTi^,) which he caUs "the queen of all virtues." . lifts the veil of sense, and conducts the spirit of . to an union with God. Philo has a double doctrine on the liberty of man. He wavers between the Stoic dogma of fre^ 1 the oriental notion of our subjection to evil a.- in matter. TBere are two means, however, which may prevent this bondage from becoming bopeleas : one, the 336 HEBREW LITERATUEE. communication of a certain influence or power from God to man, which he calls %a/>t9, " geace ;" [De Nomimcm Mviat.;) and the other, the possibility of the imputation of a good man's righteousness to the account of a A^acked one. "The innocent/' says he, "are the sin-offering for the soul." [Be Sacrijlcio Meli.) In treating of ethics, Philo uses the phraseology of his Grecian masters, but employs it in an entirely orien- tal and mystical sense. A first principle with him is, that the present Hfe is a condition of degradation and bondage to the flesh and its passions; and, therefore, that the deeper a man enters into the spnit of it, and becomes absorbed in merely worldly things, the further he removes from real worth, and becomes more alien- ated from God. In the Eternal One alone peace and joy are to be found. The ascetic life, therefore, is the great means of attaining the perfection wliich will fit Tis for communion with Him. Evil, wliich lies in our passions and desires, must not only be subdued, but utterly eradicated. Even marriage is but a necessary expedient, from which at least the future renovated human being will be freed. The ascetic life is not an end, but a means of reach- ing that supreme beatitude of our nature which consists in an union with God ; a state in which the soul loses sight of herself, and is swallowed up in the ecstasy of love to her Creator. Yet with Philo the contemplative Kfe was not an Antinomian one. He inculcates the exercise of that practical virtue "whose principle is love, and whose purpose the welfare of mankind." " As man must care for the body so long as it is the dweUing of the soul, so must we observe the written laws ; for the greater our fidehtv in the fulfilment of them, the better able shall OUHKIl VII. KABAI.ISTS. 337 we be to iipprcheml the things of which they are the symbols." [De Mhjrat. Mr.) Even this imperl'eet sketr-h of the leadinpr doctrines of this honest and adinirabh' man will l)e sullicient to show that tile founders of tlu' Kabala could never have been indebted to liini for tlu-ir system, as such. The dissimilarities between his teachings and theirs are as great as tiie resemblances; while the latter are dis- tinctly traceable to a common source, from which he and the Kabalists alike derived their o})inions. Compare Franck, Germ. Traiisl., j). 237. Gfro- REB., Kr/fisc//e Geschlcliie des Urc/iristoifhums, th. 2; Daiine, Geschichtlicfie Barsfellurig der Jadhch-Alex. Religious-philosophie, th. 2. 4. Some writers have thought they have perceived such an affinity between the doctrines and phraseology of Christianity and the Kabala as to warrant the notion that the latter had its origin in the former. Here it is needful to divest the subject of various accessories which have gathered around both systems with the lapse of time,^ and keep to the fundamental j'j;v'/;c?;jm of each for the solution of the simple question : AVhereas the Old-Testament revelation teaches so clearly the sub- stantial distinction between God and the universe created by Him, whence did the Jews, to whom that revelation was first given, derive their doctrine of the one pantheistic substance ? Most certainly not from Chris- tianity. (1.) The dualism of the Christian faith, which is precisely that of the Mosaic revelation, — that is to say, God, and a created universe, — and then the second dual- ism of matter and spirit as the components of the uni- verse, can never be reconciled with the one substance of the pantheistic Kabala. (2.) Again, the theological ^ Sec the unwieldy dissertation of Basnaoe in the third hook of his Histoire des Juifs. Q 338 HEBREW LITEEATUEE. trinitarianism of Cliristianity reveals a Trinity of Divine Persons : the trinitarianism of the Kabala is only a trinal developement of Divine attributes^ or^ rather, a trinal classification of pneumatical and cosmogonic powers. The two systems are entirely distinct. And if we fail to discover the fountain of the Kabala in the true doctrines of the Christian jVpostles, we shall be still unsuccessful if we seek it in those of the heterodox sects of the apostolic age. In the earliest notice we have of the Palestinian Gnosticism in the case of Simon the Magician in the eighth chapter of the Acts, we perceive an indication of some resemblance between it and the Kabala. Simon announced himself as "the Greatness, or Power," ha-geborah, or, as the Samaritan people understood him, " the Great Power of God." Hie est Virtus Dei, qua vocatur Magna.^ In this respect they regarded him as the Logos or Memra, and therefore possessed of Divine attributes. Hence St. Jerome records as 2:enuine such affirmations of the Magus concerning himself as, " I am the Word of God, I am the true Beauty, I am the Comforter, I am the Almighty, I am all Godlike and Divine." Ego sum Sermo Dei, ego sum Speciosus, ego Paracletiis, ego Omnipotens, ego omnia Dei? Who does not see in these very terms modes of thinking allied to the Kaba- listic ones? This likeness appears still more plainly when Simon, as the Logos, or visible " Wisdom " of the Deity, exhibited his female companion as the Binali, " Understanding," the feminine principle in the three superior sefroih. [Vide supra, p. 320.) The leading opinions of the Gnostics of Bardesanes' ^ Acts viii. 10 ; so rendered by St. Jerome, who was well acquainted with the subject, and who affirms that the i\Iagician wished to be considered as the Logos. (In Mail. xxiv. 5.j ^ HiEKON., xihi sup. ORDER VII, KAHALTSTS. 33'.) scliool may he g-atlu'ird from the metrical homilies ol' St. Ephvein, 15ut the most satisfactory monument of the entire doctrine is to be found in the Codex jVit:(i- Ticus* wliicli has been well called the Bible of Gnosti- cism. Here the similarity of the two systems in many particulars comes out in full light. In reading, too, the various fragments of the teachings of those heretics w liich occur in the writings of the early fathers, and especially Ireuanis, it would be possible to make out the leading points of the Kabala itself: the degenera- tion of natures at eacli degree of remoteness from the J)ivine fountain ; the production of actual things by the Lofjos ; the four worlds ; the male and female soul, aiul their union ; and even the symbolic of the numbers and letters of the alphabet. All this leaves no doubt that there was some intimate relation between the two theories. "NYhat then? Did tlie Kabalists borrow of the Gnostics ? The truth is the exact reverse. But from whom did the Kabalists borrow ? Whence came those metaphysical dogmas which were neither derived from the Greek philosophy, either of the heathen or the J udreo- Alexandrian schools, nor yet w^ere indigenous to Palestine, because transplanted thither ? 5. To find the true answer, we must take a new stand-point, and re-visit Babylonia. In that " land of the children of the East,^^ those very doctrines, at the time of the Hebrew Captivity, were taking their full developement in the teachings of Zeraduscht, or Zoro- aster, of which we have a valid representation in the Zend Avesta. [This ancient record was first brought to Europe by Mons. Anquetil du Perron in the beginning of the last century, when its authenticity was subjected to a * Edited in 1S15 bv Ncirbers^, with a trauslation. Q 2^ 340 HEBEEW LITERATURE. rigorous investigation.® At length the personal re- searches and vast erudition of the Danish philologist, M. Eask, dispelled the last doubts of the most sceptical, and imprinted the work with the true seal of antiquity. The original is written in Zend, a language which bears a strong affinity to the Sanskrit. According to Sir William Jones, in ten Sanskrit words seven are Zend. This authentic code of the reformed Persian theology has been published among us in the following forms : — Zend Avesla : Oitvrage de Zoroastre, contenant des Idees theologiques, phjsiqxies, et morales de ce Legis- lateur, les Ceremonies du CuUe religleiix qu'il a etalli, Sfc. Traduit en Frangais sur I' original Zend, par M. Anquetil du Perron. (Paris, 1711.) It has been translated into German by Kleuker, in three volumes. And just now the first volume® of a new and com- plete recension of the Zend Avesta has ap])eared at Copenhagen under the laborious care of Professor Westergaard, of that university. This edition is to comprise the text, a translation, glossary, and notes. Zoroaster flourished at the very time of tiie Jews' Captivity in Babylonia, which terminated in the first year of Cyrus, B.C. 530 ; at which time, then about forty years of age, Zoroaster had for fourteen years been extensively engaged in effecting those reforms in the old Persian religion with which his name was thenceforth to be identified.^ He, on his part, had been largely ^ See Buhle's "Manual of the History of Philosophy;" and Erskine's " Dissertation on the Parsees," vol. ii. of the Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay. " Published by Glydenthal, Copenhagen. " Hyde, in his elaborate work on the Religion of the Old Persians, claims for their theology a pure and patriarchal origin in the earliest postdiluvian time. As taught by Elam and Shem, it continued for a period in its first simplicity. Then came what he calls the interijolatio OUDER VII. K^\B.VLISTS. 311 indebted to his intercourse with the Jews for many doctrines which he embodied in his system ; sucli as the tradition of the six {f/alninhars) days of Creation ; tlie earthly paradise; the demon tempter in the form of a serpent; the sad efl'ects of the apostasy on our Hrst parents, who before it had lived the life of anu^cls, but were then obliged to clothe themselves with the skins of animals, and delve in the earth for the metals neces- sary to labour Avith for their daily bread. These, together with the prophecy of the rcsuriection of the dead and a last judgment, were all truths which he had obtained either from the Hebrew Scriptures, or by converse with Hebrew men. On the other hand, the Jews, however wrong in doing so, appropriated many of his oriental ideas, which, though kept apart from their canonical records of Divine revelation, were never- theless suffered to pervade the popular mind, and were, some of them, afterwards embodied in the Talmud. See, for example, the demonological ideas in the treatise BerakotJt. But the influence of the Zoroastrian doc- trines was yet more remarkably unfolded in the meta- physical system which had such a charm for the learned Hebrews who had found in the Persian dominions their abiding home. In the Rabbinical schools in Babylonia, an esoteric teaching accompanied, in the case of a select few, the traditional law doctrines, which finally embodied itself in the Talmud. This esoteric doctrine of the Kabala was brought from Babylonia into Palestine. "We have seen that the Rabbinic schools of that land received their strongest impulses from such teachers as Sabaitica prima, the first atlultt-ration of it by the Sabian idolatry; from which, as he attempts to show, they were reclaimed by Abraham, altei- whose time they again relapsed, [secunda interpolatio,) aud even became image-worshippers; and from this apostasy they were refonned by Zeraduscht. 343 HEBREW LITERATURE. Hillel, Chaia, and Nathan, wlio came to them versed in the mystical learning of Babylonia, as well as in the traditional doctrines of their own people ; and some of the most eminent of the Palestinian Kabalists were their disciples. 'Now, in the Zend Aresta may be found all the great primordial principles of the Kabalistic theory. Observe, we do not speak of the ramified practice of the Kabala, but of the principles of its theory. Thus, the U/i Sop/i of the Kabala answers to the Zervanne Akerene, " the Eternally Boundless One" of the Zend Avesia. The Magians apply the epithet of Zervanne Akerene to illimitable space as well as duration; and one of the names given by the Kabalists to the Deity is that of Mahom, ''Place," in the same way. The Logos, or Memra, as the Targumists always designate him, is the Honofer, or Ormiizd, of tlie Zend Avesta, which calls him also, expressly, " the Son," and affirms that it was by him the Zervanne produced the world. The Honofer is the Mediator between the boundless, incomprehen- sible Zervanne and finite being, and himself becomes more intelligible and more clearly revealed in the cha- racter of Ormuzd, who has sometimes manifested him- self in a human form in a body resplendent as the light, at once Spirit and Word; and in him, rather than in the Zervanne, the attributes which constitute absolute perfection become knowable by the mind of man. His throne is light, (compare the Merkava,) and, hke the " heavenly man " of the Kabala, he unites in himself the true " wisdom," the highest " under- standing, greatness, grace, beauty, power, and glory," and is the fashioner and sustainer of all beings. What have we here but the sejiroth of the Kabala ? As in the Platonic, so also in the Kabalistic, system, all finite being proceeds from a Divine idea. But tliis ORDER YII. KABALISTS. ol3 is also the doctrine of the ZimuI books, which give to this archetypal idea the name of Feruer, or Feroher, the Divine prototypal conception of all things, whether collectively or individually considered. In looking, too, at the account \vhich Du Perron has given of the psychology of the Tarsees, {Mem. de V Academic den Inscriptions, torn, xxxvii.,) it will be seen that it answers to the distribution of the elements in the human being adopted by the Kabalists. In like manner the angels of the latter are represented in the Bewe's of the Persians ; and, finally, even the A/ireman, the evil being of the Zend, has his rcHection in the Sainael of the Kabala, the personified principle of darkness and evil. Thus far I think it appears plainly, that the Kabala is not a mere shadow of the Platonic philosophy, either old or new, nor a fabrication of Philo, nor an imita- tion of Christianity ; but that its material was deduced out of the theosophic dogmas of Zoroaster, not, indeed, as a ser^^le copy, but as a modification adapted, so far as the Jews could make it, to the theology of Moses and the prophets. 6. The question now^ is, "Were these wondrous ideas the creations of Zoroaster's own fancy, or had he derived them from another source? A little further investigation will lead us to conclude that the truth lies on the side of the latter alternative, and that, at least, the primary principles of his creed had existed in more remote times, and were adopted and modified by the Persian hierophaut in the construction of the theoso- phic system which has come down to us w'ith the imprint of his name. To see this, we must do in imagination what he did in reality, — look still toward the east, and visit the lands beyond the Indus. AVe there find a people who, at that time, had reached a height of ci\ilization which had not been surpassed 344 HEBEEW LITERATURE. by any of the nations of antiquity. In the material arts, in physical and speculative science, in ethical wisdom, in a melodious and tender poetry, in a wide- spread literatiue, and a solemn and mysterious religion, the Indians in those ages were advanced beyond all the Gentile peoples, except, perhaps, the Egyptians, whose genius and culture were of a somewhat ditferent cast. Waving all consideration of topics extraneous to the question before us, it will be enough that we restrict ourselves here to the sacred literature of the Indians, as an accessible and undoubted means of ascertaining their credenda on those points of their religio -philo- sophy which bear upon the matter we have in hand. Witliin the last hundred years these venerable writings have attracted the earnest and enthusiastic study of some of the most eminent scholars of Europe, and are now sufficiently unfolded to be within the reach of ordinary students in excellent translations, some in English, and others in Erench and German. The original language in which they are embodied, is the Sanskrit, one of the most ancient tongues of the earth, if not the primeval one, and which, even in the times of the authors of these books, was taught in perfect grammatical forms, and had attained a grandeur and refinement but rarely surpassed. It was then, and still is, the language of religion and science among the Hindoos, and, with the Prakrit, the less polished and ungrammatical vernacular, forms the basis of most of the dialects wliich now prevail on each side of the Ganges. The symbolical books of the old Indian religion, written in the Sanskrit language, and in the Beva- nagari, or sacred alphabet, have the general name of SJiasters, that is to say, ordinances given by God. They are considered as the result of a Divine revelation. ORDER VII. KABALISTS. 345 and the human authorsliip of thoin is attributed lo a mythical ])ersoiiage named Vyasa. They may be spccitically arranged under four heads : — I. The Vedas : (so caHcd from a root signifyinLi; "light/" "illumination/" "perception/" and "know- ledge/" Compare video, tvissen, icit.) Of these I'eda-s or Tldijas, there are four principal ones extant, which form the basis and canon of the Hindoo theology. 1. The Rich or ll'uj-veda, in five sections, in metre, now being translated into English by Professor 11. 11. Wilson. 2. The Yajusli, eighty-six sections, in prose. 3. Sa»ian-veda, a thousand sections, liturgical, adaptetl to the chant. 4. Atharvana-veda, in nine sections, with eleven thousand sub-sections, mainly formulas of prayer, but of dubious authenticity. The names of the four Vedas are often comprised in one compound word, BlgyajvlisamaCharva. There is a copy of the Vedas in the British Museum, in eleven volumes, brought from India by the late Colonel Poller. II. The Upavedas, of which there are four. 1. At/Hsk : on the theory and practice of medicine. 2. Gandharva : on nmsic. 3. Dhanush: on arms and implements of war. 4. Sihapatt/a : on architecture and other mechanical arts, to the number of sixty-four. III. The AxGAS, or Bedangas, ("bodies of learn- ing,"") which are six. I. Sicsha, by the old gram- marian, Panini : on the laws of language. 2. Caljm : on religious rites. 3. Vyacarana: on grammar, in eight lectures. 4. Ch'kandas: on prosody. 5. Jyotlsh: on astronomy. 6. Ninicti : a glossary and comment on difficult words in the Vedas. IV. The Upangas : classified under the orders of, 1. The Piiranas, of which there are eighteen; immense poems, some of them reaching to more than fifty thou- sand stanzas ; on a variety of subjects, theogonic, cos- Q 5 346 HEBREW LITERATURE. mogonicj legendary, ethical, and devotional. Some of theoi have been translated into French. I have seen a magnificent edition of these versions in the Sorbonne, printed under the pati'onage of King Louis Philippe. 2. The IS^fjaya books, so called from the root vij, which signifies "to apprehend with the intellect :"* they treat of the acts of the mind in apprehension, reasoning, and judgment, and form the logic of the Indian schools, which has been considered the basis of that of Aristotle itself. The authors of them are Gautama and Kanada. 3. The Mimaiisas : (1.) The ethical Carina Mlmansa: on moral and religious duties; and, (2.) The metaphy- sical Uttara, or latter Miniansa : on the Divine nature, treated with a strong pantheistic tendency. The books of the second and third orders are sometimes called Dersanas. 4. The Bherma-sliadras, the fourth order of Upanga books, comprise the pandects of Indian law, under the topics of the duties of rehgion, administration of jus- tice, and punishment or expiation of crimes. Most of these laws are attributed to i\lenu, in the estima- tion of the Indians a sacred, or even Divine, legislator. The most important of them have become accessible to the English reader, in a translation by Sir WiUiam Jones: "The Institutes of Menu." Eefraining from the department of secular literature among the old Indians, we may yet mention tlu*ee other works which have a qims'i sacred character : the Rama- 'i/ana, and the Bharata, or Mahahharata, two bulky epic poems, containing the legendary history of some of their ancient kings. Of another poem, the Bhagavaf-ffeeta, portions have been translated by Wilkins, Schlegel, and Maier. All the above works belong to the Brah- minical or orthodox Indians. The Budhist sects have * Compare the Greek vovs, " luinJ." ORDER VII. KABAMSTS. 317 a literature of their own, u])ou which we have no space here to dilate. Now, without saying that all the detnils of the Kabalistic theory are found in these antique writings, we may safely afTirni, that the radieal principles of it are there existent in their strongest germs. The phi^ losophy of tlic Indians may be technically ranged under three lieads, — the Nyaya, M'uuansa, and Vedunta. Tlie first investigates the pluienomena of mhitl. It has to do with the abstract metaphysics of logic, and leads to a theory of pure idealism, — the identity of being and thought. The second, of which the principal sect or school is tlie Sauchya, recognises two Divine sub- stances, or, rather, the one Divine substance in two states: the one, PurnsJi, eternally quiescent; and tlie other, Frakrali, from which has emanated the entire system of nature. The third school, the Vedanta, open- ing the true, ultimate, and pantheistic aim or end of the Vedas, regards the Divine nature as existing in two conditions : first, abstract essence, quiescent in itself, and incomprehensible by us; secondly, a being coining forth in a Divine activity, and producing the universe. It w'ill be perceived that in these philo- sophies, mixed up, indeed, with a multitude of mytho- logic and extraneous elements, may be found the root- principles of the Kabalistic doctrine. 1. The recognition of a self-existent and eternal nature, undefinable and inconceivable; to which they give the neuter appellation of Brihm,ov Brahn ; the Zervan Akerene of Zeraduscht, and the F/n Soph of the Kabala. 2. A fiHal emanation of this infinite nature, -who is as a first-born son of the Brahn, and who bears the name of Brahma. "From that which is,'' says Menu, "without beginning or end, was produced the 348 HEBREW LITERATURE. Divine man, famed in all worlds under the appellation of Brahma/' This personification is equivalent to the Kabalistic Memm, the Adam Kadmon, or heavenly Man. It may be observed also, that Brahma is often represented with a humau form. 3. The natui-al universe is produced by Brahma. From him proceeded "the heavens above and the earth beneath. In the midst he placed the subtile ether, the eight regions, and the primeval receptacle of waters." (Menu.) 4. Yet the natural universe is considered to have been self-emanative; a pantheistic dogma, which has its counterpart in the procession or developement of the sefiroth worlds from the First-begotten Son, who is at once the archetype and principle of all finite being, and nevertheless in his own substance Divine. 5. A trinal distinction in the Divinity, unfolded in the results of production, preservation, and renovation. This trimiirti, or Divine triad, consists of, (1.) Brahma, so called from a root which signifies "to unfold or expand." (3.) ^A7^;^o?/, from f/*, " to penetrate or per- vade/' as with sustaining energy. (3.) Skva, or Isivara, signifying " powerful." He who bears this latter name is known as the power which will destroy, but will destroy only that he might renovate. Siwa is called also Mahadeva. These names of the three persons are abbreviated in the symbolic books by the letters A. U. M., or more commonly by the word O'M, a word which the Hindoo is as reluctant to pronounce audibly, as the Hebrew is to utter the Name of four letters. 6. The existence of an evil principle, occupied in counteracting the benevolent purposes of the good one, in their execution by the Bewata, or subordinate ORDER VII. KABALISTS. 349 genii, to Avhom is intrusted the control over the various evolutions of nature. 7. Metempsychosis. The soul, an ofl'set from the Deity, an emanation from the Light of Lights, is des- tined ultimately to return to its great original. Sub- jected to the depraving effects of evil in time, it is to work out a purifying probation; and if it fail in this in one era of probation, another and yet another may- be granted, till the work shall be complete. The new probation may be achieved in another human body, in Mliich case the soul is so far regenerated, i. e., literally born again ; or the probation may be wrought out in the body of a beast. This doctrine becomes with the Indians a ruling principle of existence, the basis of their life.^ 8. The entire world an emanation from the Deity, and therefore of one substance. "One only has existed from eternity. Everything we behold, and ourselves too, are portions of Him. The soul, mind, and intellect of men, and all sentient creatures, are oti'shoots from the universal soul, to which it is their fate to return." "But the mind of finite beings is impressed with a series of illusions which it con- siders as real, tiU re-united with the great fountain of truth." Of these illusions, the most potent is that termed Aliangcar, or "the feehng of individuality." By its influence the soul, when detached from its source, becomes ignorant of its own nature, origin, and destiny, and erroneously considers itself as a sepa- rate existence, and no longer a spark of the eternal fire, a part of the universal whole, or a link in one unbroken and immeasurable chain. 9. The universe being of one substance, and an * See on this point the fourth of the " Lectures on History " by that learned, wise, and good man, Frederic von Schlegel. 350 HEBREW LITERATURE. emanation from God, it follows that there is no such thing as matter in the gross and vulgar sense of the word. According to the Indian sophists, matter has no essence independent of mental perception; exist- ence and perceptibility are convertible terms; external appearances and the whole outward world are illusory; and what we take to be the attributes of matter are, in effect, so many manifestations of spirit. The substance we call " matter " is, and yet is not, eternal : the first, when considered in relation to its Divine original; and the second, with regard to its figured states or phsenomeual developements. Such are the fundamental principles of the Indian philosophy, delivered, with more or less of clearness, in the books to which we have referred. The various schools of the old Brahmanic faith do not agree in all things, and have, on some points, wide divergen- cies, making use even of different names for the same things in which they do agree : but, with all these variations, they substantially coalesce in the recognition of the doctrines here set down. Now, the oneness of these principles with those which form the ground- work of the Kabala, is too plain to be denied; and as it is highly probable that the Jews obtained their Kabalistic ideas from the school of Zeraduscht, so is the probability equally great that he obtained them from the Indians. If, at no long time from his day, the sliips of the Ptolemies carried to India not only the merchants bent on commerce, but the scholars of Alexandria in quest of the scientific and mysterious learning of the east, is it unreasonable to suppose that Zeraduscht, who lived so much nearer the abodes of the oriental sages, should visit them with the same desire? We know that King Gushtasp, or Hystaspes, at whose court. OEDER VII. KABALISTS. 351 at Balkh, Zeradusclit resided and taught, had himself made this pilgrimage.^ And as, I think, Maurice, in his "Indian Antiquities," conjectures, it is highly pro- bable that he \\as accompanied by the Archimagos himself. Be this as it may, the affinity between the teachings of the latter, and those of the Indian schools, is too strongly marked to admit of a doubt that he had derived them from that source. Though thus far, both as to time and region, we have traced the genesis of the Kabala, we are aware that the ultimate answer is not achieved. For still the question recurs, From whom did the Indians derive it ? So remote, however, is the antiquity which enshrouds the or'ujlnes of that people, that it must be confessed that no reply can be given to such a question but what is conjectural. But they who are inclined to the investigation of it would find it reasonable to consider, whether, first, this whole pantheistic doctrine, which so early took hold of the human intellect, and still sways it so widely, may not have been a perversion of pri- msevally revealed truth; and whether the revelations * made to the patriarchs of our race were not more ample I and rich than we commonly suppose ; whether they had not some knowledge of the trinal mystery of the Elohim, the mediation of the Second Person of the Trinity in creation and redemption, the existence of angels and of '' the Satanic foe, a future and immortal life, and the I ultimate felicity of the sanctified in the eternal fruition of God; but that their descendants were faithless to these di\'inely spoken truths, and sank into the abyss of ^ Hystmpes, qui, qinim superioris India secreia fidentius penetrarei, ad nemorosam qtmndam venerat solitudinem, cujus silentiis prcecelsa Bracmanorum ingenia potiuntur, eorumque monitu rationes mundani moMs et siderum, purosque sacrorum ritws, quantum, coUigere potuit, eruditus, ex his qua didicit, aliqna sensibus Magorum infudit, ^"c. — Ajimiaxus Marcellinus, lib. xxiii., cap. 6. 3 5 3 HEBREW LITERATURE. heathenisli error.^ Compare here St. Paul's assertion. (Rom. i. 21.) Or^ upon the denial that the primseval theology was thus ample and defined, then, secondly, it should be considered whether the oriental theosophy may not have been the effect of Satanic delusion ; an expedient of the father of lies, the arch-deceiver and destroyer, to fore- stall, by a caricature of the truth, the coming Bible revelation of God as the Creator and Redeemer. The Indian Brahmaism, the Zoroastrian Magianism, the Jewish Kabalism, the Alexandrian Neo-Platonism, the scholastic Mysticism of the Middle Ages, and the panthe- istic philosophy of our own time, are all the same in principle, and all tend to defraud man of the true and saving knowledge of the God who made him, and of the Mediator, through whom alone his guilty spirit can arrive at the eternal repose from sin and e\il for which it strives. These considerations do not, then, relate merely to the mental exercises of the vanished generations of the past, but bear upon the intellectual and religious life of modern times in Europe as well as Asia. "VYliile the Jews were dreaming the dreams of the Kabala, a similar process was going on in the minds of multitudes in the nations of the Gentile world. The wide relations of the Roman empire brought the orientals into contact with the peoples of the West. Alexandria, too, became at length a focus where the eastern and occidental doc- trines converged, in theories which gave a tone to the meditations of many of the thoughtful, both in the Christian church and the sects of philosophy, in follow- ing times. Thus, some of the mediaeval schoolmen, as ^ Huet, Bryant, G. S. Faber, and others, have written largely on this question ; and in George Smith's Preliminary Dissertation to the third volume of his " Sacred Annals " will be found an immensity of reading on it, well condensed for popular use. ORDER VII. KABALISTS. 353 John Scotus Erigena/ and Albertus Magnus, derived their pantheistic notions from the works of the pseudo- Dionysius the Areopagite, which were the production of the Cliristian-Alexandrian school, whose theoh)gy had become tinged and poisoned with tlie heathenish delu- sions to which the natui-e of our subject has obliged us to devote too many of these pages. TI. Havixg dealt thus far with tlie first or theoretical part of the Kabala, we proceed to give some account of the second or practical. This consists of two depart- ments : first, the exegetical, applied to tlie interpretation of the Holy Scriptures ; and secondly, the thaumaturgic, comprising rules for producing certain preternatural results in the cure of diseases, the exorcism of demons, and so forth. I. The exegetical Kabala is founded on the assump- tion that Moses received from the Lord at !Mount Sinai, not only the words of the law, [i. e., the Pentateuch, and the same principle is applied to the whole canon,) but also a knowledge of certain mysteries wrapt up in each section, verse, word, letter, point, and accent;* and that these mysteries may be unravelled by an appa- ratus, the secret of which has been handed down through the successive generations of the wise. This apparatus is threefold, and arranged under the heads of Gemetria, Notarikon, and Temura. * See his book, Be Bivisione Naturce, where he affirms that what we call " the creation," is a theophany, an emanation of God, by which He makes Himself sjTnbolically known under the forms of the finite and temporal. The theory of this work has been pronounced by Cole- brook and Ritter to be the same as that of the old ludian Sauchya philosophy. * The Kabalists take in the whole ilasora into tlieir system of artificial interpretation, many of the details of which are comparatively modern. 354 HEBREW LITERATURE. 1. Gemetria, a word which is a mere variation of " Geometry," in the sense of ratio, form, and proportion, describes that part of the Kabalistic exegesis which deals with the numerical value and power of letters, their forms, and sometimes their situation in a word. In the first respect it is called arithmetical gemetria ; in the other, figurative. (1.) In arithmetical gemetria each letter of the alpha- bet has its numerical value. One word, whose letters are equivalent to those of another, may be accepted as an explanation of that other. And the same principle applies to more words than one in like circumstances. For instance, in Genesis i. 1, K"in n"'::?J^")l = 1116 ^^-^23 r\l^T\ i:\^-|l=ill6: therefore the Creation took place in September. So, in chap, xlix., verse 10, rb>m ^?n'' = 35S^^l:;D=358: therefore Shiloh is the Messiah. (2.) The figurative gemetria is employed in specula- tions on the letters which (from accident, but as the Kabalists say, from Divine design) are greater or smaller, reversed or inverted, in the manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures. And another branch of it, which has been called architectonical, consists of calculations and mysti- fications on the size, form, and dimensions of the sacred edifices, the tabernacle, the temple, and the future temple described in Ezekiel. See some curious par- ticulars in Schichard's Bechinath HapperuscJdm, p. 65. 2. Notarikon. "This," says R. Nathan,^ "is used when one letter is made to signify an entire thing." The term notarikon is said to be taken from the jiractice of notaries in abbreviating words; though others derive it from notare, " to denote." The defini- tion of Nathan is not ample enough, as the practice is more varied than the instance specified. Por exam- ^ Aruk, sub voce. OllDEll VIT. KARALISTS. 355 plc, a single word is formed froin the filial let i its of srveral Avords. Thus, in (icn. ii. .'3, the iiiials of r\ML'V^ D\l'?S^ Nnn = n,:2S* "Truth." Or, the letters of cue word may be employed as the initials of seve- ral words. I'Aainiilo, tlio letters of DIN* may be put for n'Z'D, in, aiN\ Adam, David, Mesliiach ; a proof, say the Kabalists, that the soul of Adam was trausmig-rated into * David, and ]')avid's into the Messiah^. 3. Temuha signifies "permutation," that is, of letters, by various modes of interchanges. (1.) By ath-baah, in which one word is composed that shall a!iswer to another, by inverting the order of the letters as they stand in the alphabet; making the last letter T\ stand for the first, and so answer to i< ; then ^ to correspond with 1, and so on in the subjoined order. Ath Bash. Example : Jer. li. 1, ^J:p l'? becomes DHtt'D "Chal- deans." (2.) By al-ham, in which the alphabet is divided into two equal portions, and the fu-st letter interchanged with the eleventh, the second with the twelfth, and so on. Al Bam. Example : Isai. vii. G, where ^XltD Taheel, becomes i^bD'S Ramla, the king of Israel. (8.) By a transposition of letters in an apparently arbitrary maimer, in which the letters of a word that can be so employed are so interchanged as to compose 356 HEBREW LITERATURE. another word. Example : ''^iilD, " my angel/' may be made H^::^D "Michael.'-' II. The tliaumaturgic Kabala is founded on the assumption that a certain virtue or energy is inherent in the A\'ords and letters of the Scriptures, which, upon the pronunciation of them with a specific and steadfast purpose of mind, communicates itself to the spiritual or heavenly powers of which those names, words, or letters are the symbols. By such a process effects, they tell us, are produced in the higher world, which give themselves expression in the changes sought to be -accomplished in the lower one. The parts of Scripture employed for this purpose are chiefly those which either contain, or are, by the foregoing modes, made to be expressive of, the names of God and of the angels. Here we must call to mind what was intimated before under the theory of the Kabala, (page 3£4^,) that each of the ten sejiroth corresponds with a name of the Deity, an order of angels, and a part or member of the human body. Thus,— Pai-ts of Sefiroth. Divine Name. Angels. the Body. Kethar ...Ehjeh Chaioth Brain Hochma ...Jab Ophanim Lungs Binah Jehovah Eralim Heart Chesed . . .El Chasmalim . . . Stomach Geburah . . .Eloali Seraphim Liver Tephereth. .Elohim ]\Ialachim Gall Netsiach . . .Jehovah Zebaoth Tarsheeshim . . .Spleen Hod Elohim Zebaoth Beni Elohim Eeins Yesod El Chai Cherubim ( Genitalia t masc. Malbuth. . . Adonai Isheem Do. fern. So, in the cure of diseases, the name of the heavenly power is invoked, which corresponds to the part or ORDER VIT. K.VBALISTS. 857 member to be healed. For the same purpose the names are sometimes inscribed in Qdnwavofli, or amidets of various kinds, constructed according to certain rules, for which instructions are ijiven in such books as the SeguUoth licphuoth, and Slutnuxh Tc/ii/'nii. The depart- ment of practical Kabala which thus relates to the conjuration of c:t)od powers is denominated Tlit'ni'fji/ ;■ that which refers to the conjuration of evil powers is called Goeti/. It should be observed, however, in justice to the Kabalists, that the most eminent men among them disclaim a belief in this part of the system, and denounce the practice of it ; while others, who have had a sort of faith in it, prohibit its practice, except in particular cases, as the exorcism of evil demons, and the saving of life in dangerous childbirth. TIL The Literature of the Kabala is a subject which would require a treatise for itself. Of the authors in this department it may be said that their name is Legion. But many of their works are iterations of the original documents of the sect; while the additions they have made to the elementary teachings of the old masters, compose in general a mere mass of rubbish. It will answer every good purpose if we set down here those authors who are the greatest favourites, and whose works form the classics of the Kabala. Of the earliest works in this curious study but little is known. The third and fourth chapters of the Boraitha of Rabbi Eliezer are held to contain some of the first written lessons. A Maasefi Bereshith and a Maaseh Merkava, of very old but undetermined date, exist among the manuscripts of the Vatican. (A. 1205.) The com- mentary on the Jctsira, attributed to Saadja Uaon, refers 358 HEBREW LITERATURE. to a Mishnath Merhava, of wliicli nothing is now known. The Hekaloth UahbatM, and Ihkaloth ZolartU, which described the heavenly hosts and the celestial temple along with theories on the Creation and the soul, ascribed to Ishmael ben Elisha, exist ordy in an evidently modernized fragment, the Pirlicy Hekaloth. (Venice, 1601.) Of the same character is the Sefer Raziel, of a later date, eleventh century, (ed. Amsterdam, 1701,) and Sefer llarozzim, or the " Book of Mysteries ; " the Mid- rash Koneii, on heaven, earth, heU, and paradise; and the Alphabet of Akiva, which inculcates the secrets of the ath-hash and al-ham. Of the grand cardinal books of Jetsira and Zohar we have already said as much as is needful ; as also that Abraham ben David, of Beaucaire, surnamed Eabad, ■wrote a commentary on the Jetsira, which is commonly printed with that work ; and Moses Botarel, a Spaniard ; and before them Saadja, in Babylonia, is said to have laboured also on the Jetsira. Their annotations are printed in the same way. It must be observed, however, that the authenticity of Eabad's and Saadja's commen- taries has been disputed. Moses bar Nachman, (Eamban,) wdio died in 1260, in addition to a similar Commentary on Jetsira, wrote on the Kabala, Otsar Hachajim, " The Treasure of Life ; " Sefer Haemunah, " The Book of the Taith : " a Kabalistic theology ; Biur al hattorah : an expo- sition of the law, in the same spirit ; and Shoshan Sodoth, " The Lily of Secrets : '' a treatise on the powers of the letters and numbers. Josef Chtquitilla, (or Giquitilia : the name is spelt in various ways, and he is sometimes called Josef Karnitol,) of Medina Celi, in Castile, wrote in the fourteenth centurv, 1. Genath Egoz, "The Gardjen of ORDEE VII. KABAIJSTS. 350 Nuts :" (Cant, vi. 11 :) an introduction to the doctrines of the Kabala, in three parts. (1.) Cheleq IIas7i,e))iofh : on the Divine names, in five sections. (^.) C/icleq Ila- otkiwotJi : on the letters, in thirty-two sections. (3.) C/iel'eq TLuniiqod : on the })oints, kc, in four sections. (Hanan, 1615.) 3. Shear ey Zedek, "The Gates of Righteousness : " on the ten sejiroth, in 327 paragraphs. (Mantua, 1561.) 3. Sliearet/ Orah, "The Gates of Light:" a com- pendium of Kabahstic philosophy, on the Divine Names, sejiroth, kc. (Mantua, 1561.) We must next mention the works of ]\Ioses Cordo- VERO, who was born in 1522, at Safet, in Palestine, and died in 1570. 1. His most important book is the Pardis Rhnmonim, "The Garden of Pomegranates," which treats of the Divine names and sejiroth, and explicates much of the Zohar. It is divided into fifty- three parts called shearim, or " gates," and again sub- divided into chapters. (Venice, 1586, folio.) 2. Zibchi Shehuu'ihi, "The Sacrifices of Peace:" a Kabahstic exposition of the Prayer Book. (Lublin, 1613.) 3. Tomer Beburah : ten chapters on ethics, in the Kabal- istic style. 4. Or Neerav, "The Evening Light," is a compendium of the Pardis, a book of prolegomena. (Venice, 1585, 8vo.) Several writings of this author are unedited. Is.vAK LuRiA, or LoRiA, was born at Jerusalem in 1534, and died at Safet in 1572. Like Cordovero, he spent a lifetime absorbed in the Kabala. His great work is the Ets hachajim, "The Tree of Life," in six parts. (Korez, 1785, folio; Sdihkow, 1818.) To which, from among his other numerous productions, we may add, the Sefer Jetsira im penish, an edition of the Jetsira, with a Commentary; (Constantinople, 1724;) the Tikkune Shabl/ath, a ritual on Kabahstic principles ; 860 HEBREW L1TER.\TUIIE. (Venice, 1640 ;) and the Mda'in Iia-hachma, a treatise on practical Kabala. Some of Loria^s most important works were first published in manuscripts, under the care of his distinguished disciple, Chajim Vidal. Abraham Galante, a scholar of Moses Cordovero, wrote a Kabalistic Commentary on the Lamentations, embodying much of the Zohar ; (Venice, 1589;) and Yareach Yaqnar, a large exposition of the latter work, part of which is extant, unedited, in the Oppenheimer library. Elias Loanz died at AVorms, in 1636. He was surnamed Baal Shem, from his great attainments in these studies. His works are a Commentary on the KoJieleth and SJiir, and a book of Tekinofh, or devout poems, in a mystical style. Sabbethai Sheftel Horwitz of Prague, in the latter end of the sixteenth century, was one of an eminent family of rabbinical teachers. He wrote, 1. Shepha Tal, ("A Shower, or Influence, of Dew,'^) in two parts, tlie second of which is a kind of clavis to the Zohar; (Zolkiew, 1780;) and, 2. Nhhnath Shahbethai, a dialogue expounding the Kabalistic doctrine on the soul. (Prague, 1616.) Abraham Asulai, of Pez, who died at Hebron, 1644, and whose other works we have enumerated else- where, wrote, 1 . A Commentary on part of the Zohar, — Genesis; (Ven., 1655;) and, 3. Chesed Le Abraham, a Kabalistic exposition of the creed of Judaism, in seven enayim, or " fountains." (1 .) FAn or En Kol, in twenty- eight streams, or chapters, on Providence, the Shekinah, angels, &c. (2.) FAn hahkore, in sixty-five chapters, on the universe, the mysteries of the law, and the liturgy. (3.) Fin haarefs, in twenty-five chapters : on the Holy Land and the resurrection. (4.) Fin Jacob, in fifty-iiine chapters: on the microcosm. (5.) Fin Mlshpat, fifty- ORDER VU. KARATJSTS. 3GI two chapters : on rewards and jiunishments, i)aradisc, hell, and the transmigration of the soul. {(\.) Ein Gannim, fifty-five chapters : on demonology and guar- dian angels. (7.) FAn Gada'i, twenty-eight chapters : on hidden powers. This singular ])roduction was first printed at Sul/.bach, 1085, in (luario, ]\IosES Chaiiji Luzzatto added to his other stores of learning an intimate knowledge of the Kabala. He wrote on it, 1. Pit/ic/ie llovJniia/i, 138 rules on the elements of the science, with an elucidation of Loria's Efs C/tailm. (Korez, 1785.) 2. Jlachocjer vi'/ianiqufjal, "The Philosopher and the Kabalist:'' a dialogue in Avhich the principles of Kabala are unfolded. (Best edition, Kuuigsberg, 1S40.) Among the Hebrew poets, LuzzATfo and Gebirol have employed the Kabalistic theosophy to give an unearthly and mysterious tone to the strains of the harp. Of the modern non-Jewish expositors of the Kabala, we can recommend : — 1. S^sth/ie de la Kahhale, ou la Philosophie Reli- gieiise des Jiiifs. (Paris, 1S12, one vol., 8vo.) To this admirable work I acknowledge great obligations. I have used the German translation by Jelinek, Die Kabbala, oder die Religions-philosophie der Hebrcier. (Leipzig, 18-14.) This is an improvement of the original, the quotations having been not only verified but corrected by the learned translator. 2. Beer, Peter: Geschichte LeJiren itnd Meimmgen aller besidndenen tc. nocli besfeJieuden religioseu SeMeii der Juden, u. der Geheimlehre oder Kabbala. (2 theile, Berlin, 1822, 8vo.) 3. Hallenbcrg : Die Geheimlehre der Juden. 4. Basnage, in his lildoire des Jidfo, has a long dissertation on the subject, which may be read with some advantage, though it is by no means scientific or R 362 HEBREW LITERATURE. correct. Tlie same remark applies, more or less, to several other works of that class, in which the subject is partially handled; as, Buddei Introduct'w ad His- Uriam I^JiiloBophia Kehrteorimi ; Wolf, in his Blblioth. Kehrcea, tom. ii. ; and Siraon^s Histoire Critique du Vet. Testament, liv. i. ; Brucker^s History of Philosophy ; with several authors who have made that work their text-book.® More valuable are the productions of Eeuchhn : Be Arte Cabhalisticd ; Pico de Mirandula, Conclus'wnes Cahbalisticce ; and the Kahhala Demulata of Christianus Knorrius, baron of Kosenroth, (Sulzbach, 1677,) in which large portions of the Zohar are well translated, with commentaries, glossaries, and a large mass of information on the transcendental philosophy of the Jews. ® Add the (Edipus ^gitptiaais, of that gigantic scholar, the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, whose multifarious works comprise twenty-three folios. ORDEll VHI. TElTANDl. 303 ORDER YIIL PEITANIM. It may be truly said, that poetry is a grand element in the character of the Hebrew people. Their history is a sublime epic of Providence; their very laws arc- brightly tinged with poetic beauty ; their sacred oracles reveal the future of our conunon race in magniticent poetic forms ; their inspired lyrics furnish the language for the worship of successive generations ; they afford a solace in the afflictive cares of life, they hover on the lips of the dying, they are destined to be sung by nations yet unborn, and to be the hymn-book of a regenerated world. This, of course, is to be understood entirely of the songs of the Hebrew Bible. Excellent as are many of the later productions of the Jewish pen in this de- partment, there is an impassable line between them and the compositions of the prophetic writers. The first great distinction between these two classes of poetry arises from the fact that the biblical songs were not the products of mere human genius, but a theophany in words, an embodiment of Divine inspiration. This gives them a majesty for ever unapproachable by any effort of the unassisted mind, the most brilliant crea- tions of which are no more ecpial to the effulgent grandeur of the Bible, than the sparks which glow in the ashes of a peasant^s hearth may be compared with the glory of the noontide sun. Thej are different also in their forms. The later Hebrew poetry fashions itself in the artistic numbers of prosody; that of the Bible is ametrical. That the biblical poems are conformed to the laws of metre has been, indeed, an opinion of many learned men, from Philo and Josephus downward ; and by none has it been E 3 364 IIEBKEW LITKRATURE. more plausibly advocated than by oiir own Bishop Lowth in those classical works of his, so widel}^ known and admired, not only in England, but among the scholars of all nations, — the De sacra Poesi Helrceoruni, and the Prehminary Dissertation to Isaiah; but his main argument in defence of that opinion, that metre is an essential of poetry, and therefore that the Hebrew poets must have expressed their conceptions in numbers, is utterly fallacious, the premiss itself being untrue. Metre may be an accidental attribute of poetry, but is not essential to its nature. The primitive poetry of all nations is ametrical, and the artificial forms which they subsequently adopt are appliances furnished by after invention. That the poetic writings of the Hebrew^ bards were intended to be sung, as is indicated by the names of mizmor'ivi and sJihim given to them, does not involve the necessity that they should be written in metre, since even the prosaic sections of the Hebrew Scriptures have been adapted to the cantillated music of the syna- gogue, by the mere lengthening and shortening of the syl- lables to the simple chant-melodies prescribed for them. Nevertheless the biblical poetry is not without form, though it is without metre. It takes the form of strophes, divided into hemistich, triplet, or quartet lines, related to one another by the laws of parallelism : as Avhen one hemistich echoes the sense of the first ; [si/no- nymous parallelism : ex. gr., Gen. iv. 2-3 ; Judges xiv. 14; Psalm ii. 10 ;) or wdien the members of the strophe express thoughts in opposition or contrast to each other ; [antithetical parallelism : ex., Psalm xx. 8 ; Isai. i. 3 ;) or, finally, where the second or following members continue the thought expressed in the first one, or combine other ideas to illustrate and enforce it; This last is called the spitJietical parallelism. [Ex., Psalm xlviii. 12; civ. 18.) ORDEll Vlir. rr.ITAMM. ■]('>') This kind of struct iiro, toyi'lluM- with Ihi- fri'(|ueiit use o( the p((?-afioi/mitia, tind the siiiL;iil;ir .((liiptjiiioii of the, language to picturesque descriptiou, and the exhil)iti<)u of ideas by the very sounds of the words, gives a hirge- iiess, compass, and variety to the poetry of tlic Hebrew Bible peculiar to itself. ]Uit as the Englisii language is already well sui)i)lied with materials for this branch of biblical study, there is no need for a discpiisition on it here. I wish, in the present section, to offer some iuforMiation on the post- biblical Hebrew poetry; a subject for which the in((uirer will lind but very few resources in merely Knglish libraries. Our restricted limits will only allow me to give a dry outline, without the pleasure of embellishing the subject with specimen citations. I must be content to show my reader where the treasures lie hidden, and leave it with him to make them his own by personal appropriation. The post-biblical poetry of the Jews has a plain relationship to that of the Bible. That is its fontal source, the river head, rising in the Eden of the inspired writings, and flowing forth in golden streams, to vivify and make beautiful almost every province of their national literature. I. FIRST EPOCH. In the Soferite age, when the last tones of the pra- phetic harp were yet lingering on the ear, the Aboda, or temple service, as arranged by Ezra and the men of the Great Assembly, combined strong poetic elements, tuning, as one may say, the popular mind to harmonious thouglits and words. The Shemoneh Esreh, or "Eigh- teen Benedictions,^' are in themselves a grand anthem of adoration. The Mashallm of Ben Sira are ethical precepts of a defined poetic form, though not — except 366 HEBREW LITERATURE. in cases tliat may be more accidental than designed — couched in measured versification. They are also dis- tinguished by occasional bursts of great sublimity, and include traces of song in use in the temple service. (Chap. 50, 24-26.) The Book of Baruch is a reflection of the last rays of prophecy, the Bath-kol, as it were, of the voices which had spoken from heaven. The Book of Wisdom con- tains elements of prayer and praise, elegies, hymns, and etliical lessons ; while the Book of Esdras clothes his- tory with a mythical and many-coloured robe. The Targum of Jonathan is replete with poetic materials, and not a few renderings in that of Oukelos have been suggestive to the after votaries of song. We read that the Essenes had ritualistic hymns, the strains of which have for ever died away. (See Josephus and Philo.) Some think that the old synagogue hymn. Ha meir la arez, is one of them, as well as the alphabetical El Adon, in the first benediction of the Skema. In Egypt, from the time of the Ptolemies, the habits of thought among the Jewish residents became tinged with those of the oriental and Greek philosophies. Philo's works are a variegated poetic dream, — an intellectual mirage, formed by the combination of those Hebrew and Gentile elements. On the other hand, Aristobulus, and Ezekielos, the author of " The Deliverance of Israel,'^ wrote more entirely after the classic or Grecian models. In the times of the Tanaim and Amoraim, though Greek literature was in general still under prohibition, yet the study of Homer appears to have been by no means uncommon; and though the Mislmaists and Talmudists were neither poets nor rhetoricians of set purpose, yet even among their crude and unpromising lucubrations there are not wanting many genuine speci- mens of poetical emlDellishment. Briglit sparks are OllDEU VIll. PKITAMM. -Wl sometimes struck out from the lliuty halaka itself, and the Tahnud has many a llowery spot amid its otherwise dry legal surface. And no doul)t the hagadislic m'ul- rashim of that day were still more redolent with the creations of the fancy. II. SECOND EPOCH. But it was in the age of the (jeonini that i)octry, as such, began to be more fully cultivated among the Jews. Nearly all the works we have enumerated under that period are more or less imaginative, ami, though prosaic in their composition, they nevertheless abound in chiar- oscuro poetic pictures. But it was now that poetry also began to take those more defined artistic forms, in which the subsequent Hebrew votaries of the muse attained such excellence. In the earlier syuagogal assemblies the expository and midrash exercises were more ample than in after time ; and the liturgical ones more simple and concise. Meanwhile the Christian church had acquired a greater amplitude in iiturgic usages, and had enriched the devotional parts of the Divine service with a pure and solemn music, and a metrical psalmody, in Greek, Syriac, or Latin, where each language was vernacular. A feehng now began to grow strong among the Jews, that the synagogue should be furnished with similar advantages f and the movement occasioned ^ This is acknowledged by Dr. Zunz, in his recent work, Die Syna- gogale Poesie des Mittelalters, p. 60. The benefit thus derived from tlie example of the church was a sort of compensation for one previously re- ceived by the latter, in the adoption of music iu the public worsliip of God after the manner of the temple service. The Jews consider the Christians as indebted to them for this blessed usage. So their old poetic proverb : — 3Iah omereth hochma hhjayoa etsel Ila-Nazerim ? Ganub, gunavti mi-erets Ila-Ivrim. " "What says the art of music among the Nazarencs? ' Stolen, I have been stolen from the land of the Hebrews ! ' " 368 HEBREW LITEKATUEE. by these impulses created a new era in tlie liturgical forms. The first essays were without rhyme or metre; in short lines^ as in a litany; and sometimes arranged in alphabetical order, — an idea obtained probably from the structure of some of the inspired Psalms. [The acrostic method of composition become after- wards very common, and took a variety of forms : 1. In the natural series of the alphabet. 2. By inverting that order, the first line of the hymn beginning with than, and the last with alej)]i. This kind of poem was called The-shereq: p, 1. ^, H, and so on, in the order of the alphabet, backward. 3. A third way was by 2W, i^n 4. A fourth, by ^2, n^ 5. A fifth, by □1, bi^ (3. A sixth, by yjDl DH.^ 7. And a seventh, by 1^2 p"'h? — while, in other poems, the initial letters formed the names of the authors, or their friends. But it will be easily supposed, that these ingenious practices would seriously interfere with the freedom and strength of the writers^ thoughts.] In the eighth and ninth centuries, while poetry in its more elevated types was being unfolded among the Arabians, the Kabala was giving a mystical tone to the Jemsli mind, and the studies of the Masorites were rendering the Hebrew language more flexible as a poetic instrument, some of the earliest and, at the same time, the most grand of the synagogal anthems received their imperishable form. Poetry itself now took among the Jews the name of pint, a term obviously adopted from the Greek ; and the poet was, in like manner, called peitan. Of the personal history of the ^vst' peiianim we know next to nothing : the most eminent of them is Elasar Ha-Kalir, who is said, though with uncer- tainty, to have been precentor at Bari, and to have died at Kirjath Sefer, in the Holy Land. His compositions. ORDER VIII. I'EITANl.M. .'iCi) as preserved in the Jfac/tasorii//, or syiKigogiie rituals, seem to have the power of the thiinder, and to ghMni with the resplendence of lightning, I wish these truly magnificent hymns were edited, with a translation, in a pocket manual. They consist of Kerohoth * for the ShecharUh,^ and anthems for the Rnxh //as/iana,^ for the Mi/saf of the Yoma,^ for the M<),->/ /la-.vikkoth,^ the Iloshana Txahha, the "Feast of rurim/' the lamentation day on the ninth of Ah, and other Hebrew soIemniti<'s ; and it is saying everything in their })raisc, to allirm that they are worthy of them, A little later we lind Saadja Gaon giving one of the earliest specimens of Hebrew rhyme verse, in his Shir al Haofhivoth ;* and Hai bar Sherira Gaon, in the Mx- sar HmJcel,^ set forth the leading doctrines and precepts of the Pentateuch in the same way. At this time the Arabian poetry had unfolded its bloom; and it has been sometimes asserted that the Hebrew authors had recourse to the metro-rhythmical style in imitation of the Mahometan bards : but tliis opinion has not carried universal concurrence. Learned men have, in fact, taken three different views of the question, 1. Some, as Arkevolti and ^lose ibn Chabib, con- sidering the Scriptures as the universal code of all art and science, affirm that we may find in them, not only poetry, but all essential poetic forms. They ' The Keroha is that part of the ilorning Service which comprehends the first three Benedictions. ^ Morning Prayer. ' New Year's Day. " Additional service for the Day of Atouemcnt. ' Feast of Tabernacles. * Alphabetical. Saadja's contemporary and Karaite antagonist, Sa- lomo ben Jehuram, made a similar essay. ' rii'st printed at Constantinople in 1511. Last edition, ^Viliia, 1833. Latin ti'anslation by Meucier, Paris, 1561. R 5 37 HEBREW LITEEATUEE. believe that tlie Hebrew hemistichs were metrical by the adjustment of metrical time. 3. Others, affecting a contempt for quantitative metre and rhyme, as unworthy of the sacred language, are willing to assign them an Ishmaelite, or Gentile, origin. They were adopted by the Hebrew poets of the Middle Ages from a depraved love of heathen literature. So Judah Hallevi. Abravanel partly coin- cides with this view. In his commentary on Exo- dus XV., he incidentally remarks that "in our holy language we find three kinds of poetic forms. (1.) The metro-rhythmical; in use in the present day, and which is not found in the Bible, but has been adopted from the Ishmaelite poetry. (2.) The musical; resulting, not from any artificial arrangements, but from the peculiar nature of certain parts of Scripture, in which the mode of expression is different from the prosaic portions, as we see in the Slur ha-yam, (Exod. XV.,) the Ha-azina, (Dent, xxxii.,) the Sldrath Dehora, (Judges V.,) and the Shlraih Dav/id ; (2 Sam. xxii. ;) and, (3.) Those which, not having either verse, measure, rhyme, or melody, (wliich are merely external accidents of poetry,) possess an ideal and tropical character that iden- tifies them with poetry ; such as the Song of Solomon, and the Shirath Dodi of the fifth chapter of Isaiah.'^'* 3. A third opinion is, that metre, and rhyme itself, are a natural developement of the form in which poetry exists in the Bible : that the parallelism of sense has in it the basis for the rhyme, or the parallelism of sound, in the concluding words. They who maintain this doc- trine refer us to passages in which the parallelism ^ Voss distributes Jevvish poetry into, 1. Harmonica vetusto- rum HehrcEorum. 2. Rhythmica modernorvm : (1.) Pure rhythnica. {&fjiiTpos.) (2.) Metrica-melopoetica, metro-rkythmica. {e/xfierpos.) — Inst. Orat., v., 5. ORDER VIII. riLlTANl^L. :j71 certainly does take this turn ; as in Psaha ii, .'i ; Prov. V. 15 ; as well as in many places in 15en Sira and the Talmudic proverbs. Thus the poetic forms ot* verse-measure and rhyme need not have been borrowed from the Arabians, but were already germinaiil iu the inspired Hebrew poesy. As to rhyme itself, it is not an invention of the Arabians ; it has been unfolded in the poetry of all nations; and if, among the Jews, any exotic influence contributed to this tone of their verse, it would be more likely to have come from the Persian than the Arabic. Persian literature had pre- cedence of the Arabian in respect of time. Prior to any attempt at systematic versification by the Arabians, Beliranger, the Sassanide, had made the first essay in reducing the Persian poetry to metre. The Persian was the language in which the earliest Islamite works of science were composed, and was used by many to whom Arabic was their native speech. The first Ma- hometan grammarians were Persians. It may be added that in biblical learning, long before Saadja Gaon had made his Arabic translation of the Penta- teuch, there was already a translation of it in Persian;^ and, as Delitzscli well remarks, a Bible translation is always a fountain of other popular literature, and espe- cially that of poetry. We ought also to consider that Jewish authorship in the Arabic language is equally ancient with that of the Islamites themselves ; and that a Hebrew liturgical poetry was coeval with the ante- Mahometan, or heathen Arabic mualakat specimens. And when, at length the art had assumed a regular metro-rhythmical form among the Mahometans, we find the same thing existing among the Jews ; and that, not only in Asia, but in Europe and Africa, Jewish poets, writing in Arabic, had already presented theii* offerings " So jMaihontdes, Nohloth Ilachma, fol. 97- 372 HEBREW LITERATURE. to the muse. Of these may be named Jacob ben Slieora^ the transLitor of the Indian fables of the Kal'ila ve dhnna ; Jehuda ibn Quarish, Samuel ibn Edi, and Jehuda ibn Suleiman al Charisi. Is it then pro- bable that the earliest Jewish versifiers were mere copy- ists of the Islamites, or that the Hebrew poetry of the Middle Ages owes its being to an Arabian parentage ? We may add, that the Arabian poetry was mainly the offspring of the Koran ; but it is notorious that the author of the Koran was largely indebted to the legend- ary treasures of the Jews. Hebrew poetry is also equally independent of a Grseco-classical origin. The Jews of the Talmudic and Geonastic times had made but few advances upon the habits of their forefathers in the study of Gentile literatui'e, and there are no traces of a relationship between their first poetic essays and the creations of the classic mind. On the other hand it must be conceded, that, while for the material of their poetry they drew only from their own national resources, for the technical form of their verse they were, to a limited extent, under obligation, in common with the Arabians, to the Poetics of Aristotle, with which they had become familiar in Syriac and Arabic translations. Their poetry was native ; their poetics, to a certain degree, Aristotelean. We say, to a certain degree ; for the Hebrew writers did not stretch the flexible power of their language to an adaptation to all the forms of the Greek and Arabian poets : on the contrary, the Jewish metres were dis- tinguishable from the classical and Arabian by their extreme simplicity. III. WORKS ON HEBREW METRES. i. Jewish. Some of the works on the mechanism of Hebrew verse are scarcely less ancient than the OKDI'.K Vlll. rKITANIM. 373 rliytlunical poctn itself. Tlu' authors of the (Icoiiasiitr period weiv yraiuinai'iaiis, aliki' skilful in Arahiaii aiul Ilebri'W prosody. 8iicli wi'iv Ilai and Saadja, Mi-iia- cliem b(.ii Sarug, Punash (Adoniin) beii Tamini, and Dunasli ha Levi beii Labratli, Saniud ha Levi, Nagid of Cordova, (1055,) Isaak ben (Jiat, (1050,) and Mose Chiquitina. (Illy.) Saadja's lirtit metrical essay lias the letters for its subject, and the S//ir besod dikduk sefnth /iOih'.s/i of Saloiuo ibn Gavirol (born at Mahiga ill 10o5) is at once a poem and a grammar. But the oklest ctl'ort on the metrical apparatus itself is the Scfcr Zachot of Ibn Ezra, professor at Mantua, 1140. Xext, a chapter in Mose ben Josepli Kimchi's ]\[a/ialiich Shehile JDatif : a grammar, 1,2S0. These were followed by the Li-shou, Lhnudhn. of David bcii Salomo Jechija, a Portuguese, bom 1430. From him Buxtorf has drawn largely in his treatise on prosody. The first entire work is the Darke Noam, ("Ways of Pleasantness,-'^) of Mose ben Chabib, (born 14S6,) a Portuguese by birth, but who spent his life in Italy% The best edition is that of Wolf Ileidenheiin. (Rodel- heim, 1806.) Arkevolti of Padua, 1()0£, in his grammar, Sefcr Arugath Jiabosem, has an important chapter on tlie biblical and post-biblical poetry. The fourth part of Isio&a Abudiente\s Portuguese Grammatica Hcbraica (1G33) treats of the same sub- ject ; and the similar work of Mose Rafael d^Vgnilar, Epitome da Grammatica Ilebraijca, (Amst., 1001,) has four chapters upon it. There is a piece on metres in the Rhyme Lexicon, Sharahoth Gabliit/i, of Salomo Oliveira. (17 OS.) To these we may add the grammar of Low Ben Seeb Tulmi'd Lishon Ibri, (1796,) the Introduction to Izaak von Satauow's 2L:leh'fh Iia-SIiir, and the articles on 374 HEBREW LITERATURE. Hebrew poetics in Heidenheim^s invaluable edition of the Machasor, or great body of synagogue prayer and psalmody. 2. Christian. In tlie Institutiones Ling. Heir, of Cardinal Bellarmine, (1541,) the fifth part is devoted to the Hebrew metres, and presents a compendious digest of the subject; though not quite free from technical errors, and disfigured by the incorrect taste exhibited in the examples. Good information will be found in Sebastian Munster's Opus Grammaticum. (1541.) The matter is more copiously treated in the Lilri tres Pros- odia of John Clajus, 1582; by the elder Buxtorf, in his Thesaurus Lingua. S. Grammaticus ; (1609;) and by L. Pabricius, in his Metrica IlehrcEonim. (1623.) We should mention also the Claris Poeseos Sacra of Jerome Aviaiius ; (1627 ;) and the Poetica Hebraica of Theodore Ebert, (1638,) where the metres are more extensively exemplified than in any of the others ; while in the Epitome Prosodia Ebraica (1671) of Laurentius Triese there will be found many illustrations of the capability of the Hebrew language to adapt itself to all the forms of the classic metres. The most complete work, however, in this depart- ment is that published in our own day by T. L. Saalschiitz, Von den Formen der Ileh. Poesie ; (1825;) and we ought to add, that in Delitzsch^s Geschickte der Judischen Poesie, 1836, (a complete text-book,) the thirty-first section will be found to condense much information on this topic. IV. No national poetry is so rich in material as the Jewish. 1. In the wondrous history of the Hebrew people, stretching over the entire lapse of historic time, and unfolding new materials with every age. In their transcendent prerogatives, as the theocratic people to oiiDKii VIII. iMoiT.vxni. 375 uliom Uic word of (ioil canu', and wlio liavi; hrvw the chosen instruments for the ooinnumieation of revealed truth to tlie world, they have been made the poets and prophets of tlie human raee. 2. The LAW itself is a fountain of ethical poetry. The positive law, with its (U-'i preeepts, — the law in relation to faith, — the Siuaitic theophany, — arc all teemini? with imaii-inative elements. The Hebrew law oracles have ])roduced tlic following kinds of didactic poems : — (1.) A:/n(ra: law doctrine, precept, or admonition. (2.) Aserefh Ita-d'ibroth : narratives illustrating the Decalogue. (o.) Keter Malknfh, and Shir ha Yihucl : the doc- trinal hymn and lyric on the revelation of God in nature and in the theocracy. (t.) Shelosh Esre : the relation between dogma and its moral uses. (5.) Mishle, or Mashalim: similitudes, parables, and gnomologic aphorisms. 3. Hagadoth : combining the legend and saga ; whether, (1.) The old historical; (2.) The Talmu- die; (3.) The special or popular, as in the Meg'iUoth Shushaii, Antiochus, Kahira, &c. ; (i.) The life and death of the hero and the martyr. 4. The PROPHETS, their words and actions, as those of Moses and Elijah; and prophecy itself, with its bearings on the past and the future. In all these things there are inexhaustible mines of thought and sentiment. Can we wonder that a people with whom these realities are as their very life should have " prophesied in song," or that they should have given the key-notes to the many-voiced music of our world ? Y. On the downfall of the Babylonian patriarchate, 376 HEBREW LITERATURE. Hebrew learning passed away from the banks of the Euphrates, and, re-appearing in the West, in Spain and Italy, took a purer form, and entered upon a new and a glorious career. The residence of the Jews in Spain reaches to a great antiquity. There is reason to believe that a numerous colony of them existed in that country so far back as the time of Solomon. The dispersions under Titus and Hadrian brought yet more of them thither, where, in successive generations, they increased and multiphed botli in numbers and wealth, faithful also to then* religious principles, and to their relations with their brethren in the Holy Land, by their common obedience to the patriarch of Tiberias. Their expe- rience was a checpaered one, however, as to the treat- ment received from the Spanish rulers. Under the Gothic kings they were often severely persecuted, and at times worn down to the most abject misery. But M'hen, after 250 years' duration, the Gothic kingdom gave way before the world-subduing enterprises of the Saracens, a happier day broke upon the oppressed Hebrews. "To them the Moslem crescent was as a star which seemed to soothe the troubled waters on which they had been so long agitated/'^ and in the halcyon times which followed, they were not indisposed to improve their advantages in raising the standard of their intellectual and moral life. Among the Maho- metans in Spain literature and science attained a rapid ascendance. "With the decline of the chalifate of Bag- dad, the Arabian literati found an asylum in Spain, under the magnificent patronage of the Ommiades ; and the city of Cordova became, as Ave have before stated, an university in the traest sense, where philosophy, natural science, mathematics, and the belles lettres were ^ MiLJIAN. ORDKU Vlir. rElTANIM. .*577 cultivated with fervent zeal, and dill'iised far and wide their social benefits. for more than two hundred years. It was now that the Jews, relieved from the grindiiii^ burdens of opj)ression, and invested with equal political and religious rights with their Islamite neighbours, attained not only a large particii)atioii in the wealth of that rich and pleasant land, but rivalled their protectors in the sciences and arts which contribute to elevate and beautify our life. Disembarrassed from the shackles of serfdom, and relieved of the terrors of the o})pressor, the Jewish mind, in this seasou of refreshing, recovered the strength and tone which had distinguished it in the times of David and Isaiah ; and Hebrew poesy, like the phtenix, rising from the ashes of death, bathed her radiant wings in the morning sunshine. In this renovation the Italian Jews partook with their Sefardim brethren in the western peninsula. The Italian de- •velopement was indeed upon a more limited scale than the Spanish. The early Spanish Hebrew poetry is partly secular as well as sacred : the Italian, exclusively sacred, or Peitanic. The spirit of the Spanish school is more scientitic, blending more with that of their Arabian fellow-students : that of the Italians is Palesti- nian or national, that is, Jewish, — the genius which reveals itself in the Jerusalem Gemara. The Spanish was philosophy in the vestments of poetry, as in the Keicr Malknth of Gavirol : it took a Avider range than the Itahan, and could be either scientitic, as in the phi- lologic poem of the same author, or devotional, as the hvmns of the Spanish Machasor, or romantic and sati- rical, as in the Tac/ikemoni of Al Charisi. The old Italian Hebrew poetry is, on the contrary, eminently national, animated with a purely Jewish life, and draw- ing all its illustrations from biblical and hagadistic sources. The Spanish Israelite poets painted with the 378 HEBllEW LITERATURE. pencil of Rafael ; the Italians, with that of Michael Angelo. In the Spanish Hebrew poetry the soul con- verses with the God of nature ; in the Italian^ with the God of Israel. After the decadence of the Babylonian and Palestinic academies, Spain and Italy became the chief home- lands of Jewish learning. The Babylonian principles and traditions re-appeared more distinctly in Spain, while the Itahan Jews sustained the Palestinian cha- racter. The Spanish Israelites were more free and rationahstic in their ways of thinking, and more inclined to philosophical and aesthetic studies than their Italian brethren, who distinguished themselves by a narrower nationality in thinking and feeling. In Spain, Judaism took a tinge from the intellectual life of the Ismaelite Moors ; in Italy, from the stringent orthodoxy of the church. In Spain, the interpretation of the Scriptures was grammatical and historic : in Italy it became a mystical Midrash. And so in poetry : the Spanish school cultivated a moral and artistic poesy ; the Italian, that of the synagogal Pudh. Hence, because pos- sessed of a richer art-literature, the Spanish poets wrote more in rhyme with metre ; while the Italians, with their more solemn ritual literature, employed simple rhjTnes, without much attention to metre. YI. In mentioning the Jewish European poets them- selves, it is with a feeling of self-denial that I restrict myself to a simple catalogue of names, books, and dates. To give a select anthology of extracts would augment the bulk of my volume beyond the limits which will be demanded by the essentials of our inquiries : we must, therefore, still content ourselves with dry practical details. It deserves to be remarked that the poetry of the Jews in Spain was earlier than that of the laud in ORDER VIII. PEITAMM. 379 which they dwelt. Before the Spanish muse had well tuned her harp, the Hebrew poetry was in full choir. Even the popular Troubadour poetry received an im- pulse from the Jews. The two most eminent of the Troubadours, Don Santo de Carrion of Old Castile, and Juan Alfonso de Baena, were Jewish converts. The first Chronicle of the Cid had for its author a Moorish Jew, Aben Alfange of Valencia. (1099.) The earliest of the Jewish poets in Spain were Mena- chem ben Sarug or ibn Saruk, (830,) Dunash ben Li- brath, (SIO,) Samuel Abun, Josef ibn Abitur, and Isaac beu Chasdai, who was attached to the court of the Emir Aluioumenin : he was renowned for his scien- tific attainments, and, as a poet, is described by his countrymen as "a sun among the stars." Isaac ben Kalfon, distinguished by the scholastic correctness of his versification. Samuel Halevi, who had the rank of naffid or "prince," and presided at the school of Cor- dova. {OL 1055.) His son, prince Josef Halevi, in- herited his fathei-'s genius. Samuel ibn Gabirol, or Gevtrol, of Saragoza, whose name has obtained a greater renown than the others, died by assassination, at Valencia, in 1070. His short hfe of twenty-nine years was spent in studies and literary eftbrts, which have given him an immortal fame. Cha- risi asserts that his works are models for all after times. The principal of them are : — 1. JIuc/iieret/i s/iiraA Sliehllah , or Besocl dikdn.q se- fatli Kodesh : a grammatical poem on the Hebrew lan- guage, written in his nineteenth year. A hundred verses of this work are edited by Parchon in his Mach- bereth, and the rest by Leopold Dukes in the Ehremdiden u. JDenksteine zu e'lnem Icunftlgeii Pantheon Ilebralscher BicUer. (AVien, 1837.) 2. Sefer Azharoth : on the 613 precepts of the law. 380 HEBREW LITERATURE. printed hi the Sefardim Eitiial, for the seasou of Pentecost, (Yen., 1525,) and several times since in a separate form, with introductions and commentaries, as, for example, that of Simon Duran, with the title of Zohar Ha-mlcia. (Amst., 1735.) 3. An elegy on the death of R. Jekutiel, Zaakafh Sheber. (Leipzig, 1846.) 4. SJiinm: hymns on various subjects. Some yet in MS., others printed in Fiirst's Orient. 5. Keter Malkuth, a grand devotional and didactic hymn in 845 verses. In the Spanish Machasor, and separately, (Venice, s. a.; Eome, 1623,) ^dtli a Latin translation by Donato. It has been translated also into French by Venture ; (Xizza, 1773;) into Italian by BoUatij (Livorno, 1809;) into Dutch by Polak; (Amst., 1839;) and into English by De Sola. (1S40.) This poem of Gevirol^s will also be found in a German translation, with the Hebrew text, in Michael Sacli^s Religiose Poesie der Judeit, with the title of Die Konigskrone. (Berlin, 1845.) The theological poems of Gevirol have a wondrous mystical grandeui'. I have mentioned his prose works elsewhere. (Page 260.) ISAAK BEX JUDAH BEX GhaJAT Or GlAT, of LuCCUa, {oh. 1059,) was the author of several hymns extant in the ILachasors. There are some of them in the above quoted melange of Sacli's. Ben Ghajat wrote also a Sefer Hahalalvth : a collection of decisions from the best Talmudists and Geonim down to his own time. Isaac Jacob Al Fez, (Aleasi,) 1089, was a re- spectable poet, as well as a profound Talmudist. (See page 247.) Jehuda Ha-Levi, of Castile: a wealthy, learned, and good man. As a poet he enjoys a steady reputation. He flourished about 1100, and died in Palestine, under the circumstances referred to before. ORDKU Mil. PRITAM.M. 8Sl (See page :2.jO.) 01" his poetical works wc should mention : — 1. Shiriiii K-vi'i^morim : liynms anil lyrics, in various forms; many of which are still retained in the Mac/ntsorn. 2. Achod asar niizworim. rrinted from the MS. in Sacli's collection, page -2.1, kv. 3. Arhaaii mizinorim. Printed from the MS. by Dnkcs, in his work, Ziir Kennfuiss (h-r ucu-llcbr. Poesie. (Frankf., 1SI2.) 4. Other poems, in the Oriciif for IslO-lSlS. 5. Bhvan B. Jehnda Ila-Levi : a collection of poems, severally sent on various occasions to his learned friends, and principally when on his last pilgrimage to Jeru- salem. In part edited by S. D. Luzzatto, from a Tunis manuscript, nnder the title of JBetnlafh lath Jchuila. (Prague, 184G.) G. Adon Chasdeka : a Purim history, in alphabetic verse. In X\\c ^Licha-sorim ; and, Mith Latin, (Jermaii, and Spanish translations, under the title of Mi Ku)iiul:ii, by Mose Ashkenasi. (Amst., 1700.) 7. Sioif : an elegy. (Amst., 1775.) Translated into German by jMendelssohn, and also by Herder. For the Kusari of Jehuda, vide supra, p. 249. ]\rosES iBN EsRA BEN Jacob, of Granada, was descended from a family which once held noble rank in Jerusalem. There is a diversity about the dates of his birth and death; but he flourished in the fust half of the twelfth century, and won the honour of being ever considered one of the most finished of the Hebrew- poets. His works are remarkable not oidy for the intrinsic excellence of the matter, but for the purity, sweetness, and esthetic grace of their style. The SeUclioth, or penitential hymns, are greatly esteemed by the Jews, who give to Ibn Esra the epithet of Hamdacli, or " the Selichoth poet/' by excellence. 382 HEBEEW LITERATURE. 1. Zemiroth vetachammim : liymns for festival and other occasions. In the Sefardim rituah 2. Diwan R. M. ben Esra : a collection, in two parts, miscellaneous and religious. 3. Sefer Ha-tars/iis/i, or Sefer Anaq. This poem is called TarshisJi from the number of its stanzas, 1,210, expressed by the numerical value of the letters Ii^"'Ii/~in 4. Sefer Arvgatli hahbosem, "The Garden of Spices :" on the philosophy of religion, in seven parts. 5. Tokacha: a penitential poem. Extensive specimens of Ibn Esra are given in Leop. Dukes^ Moses ben Esra, (Altona, 1839,) and in Sach^s Hel'ig. Poesie der Juden. Abraham ibn Esra, of Toledo, (died at liome in 1167,) is best known as a commentator on the Scrip- tures. Of his works in that field we will give an account under the Ferusliini. I mention him here, to observe that among his multitudinous writings there are some essays which show that, had he been disposed to dedicate his powers to the muse of song, he would have achieved an immortal name as a poet. Such are the S/iirim vezemiroth, (Constantinople, 1545,) and the Cliomath esh, or "Wall of Eire." (Breslau, 1799.) Jehuda ben Salomo Al Charisi, of the school of Granada in the thirteenth century, a man of colossal powers, of whose prose works we have already given a list. (See p. 260.) The fame of Al Charisi rests mainl}^, however, on his poetry, as embodied in ; — 1. The Machbereth Ithiel, an adaptation in Hebrew from the Malcamen of the Arabian poet Hariri. Of the Miy Makamefi, (cantoes, or "gates,") twenty -seven are extant. The third may be found in De Sacy's Seances de Hariri ; (Paris, 1822;) in Dukes^ Bhrensdulen %md Denksteine ; (Vienna, 1837;) and the eighteenth, in German, in Zednev's Atmva/d /lisforisc/ier Stiicke. (S. 67.) OHDEK VIII. PEITANIM. 383 2. Sefer TiicH-emof/i, or "Tlio Diwun." This, too, is an imitation of Hariri in form, though carried out iu a different spirit. The author ilescribes hnniau hie in a multitude of its phases, rehvtes his own adventures as a traveller, and takes a critical survey of Hebrew poetry. The poem is ([uite a panorama, and abounds with pic- turesque scenery and wise discpiisition. (Constantinople, 1540; Amst., 17:2!).) Portions of this deserving work have been transhatcd into Latin," Cierman,^ and French. For the characteristics of Al Charisi's poetry see Delitzsch, pp. 41, 47, 55. The history of Judean poetry in Spain has been divided into live periods : — the early era, a.d. 840- 910; the golden era, 940-1040; the silver era, 1010- 1140; the period of ''the roses among the thorns," the period of fallen art ; and the epoch of a transient renaissance, of which Al Charisi was the morning star. In each of these periods there were several minor poets,^ whose works are not so worthy of enumeration as those of the celeljrated writers whom we have more par- ticularly named. But the days of peace to the Jews in Spain were not to endure. The decadence of the j\Ioslem power under whose sceptre they had enjoyed an age of unwonted repose, was ominous to them of change and adversity. The return of Catholicism to the throne but too truly verified their fears. But no forebodings could be too gloomily prophetic of the actual affliction which awaited » By Ure, London, 1772. * By Kaempf : Die Ersten Makamen, &c. (Berlin, 1845.) "^ As Becliai Haddain, Juda ibn Tibbon, Josef beu Jacob ibn Sahal of Cordova, Isaak ben Ruben, Abraham bar Chasdai, Mose Giquitilia, Isaak ben Kalfon. and Abraham Badrcshi. Isaak beu Baruk of Damascus, Michael ben Keleb in Greece, and Mose bar Sheshct in Babylonia, in ihc thirteenth century, were also poets of the Spanish school. 384 HEBREW LITEKATTJRE. tliem, in ill treatment inflicted by priests and rnlers alike, till consummated in their entire ruin by a crown- ing act of folly and iniquity, which has stained the annals of Spain with an infamy which no time can efface. Meantime the Jews in otlier countries were en- riching their religious literature with poetic compo- sitions, which, though differing in their cast of thought and style from those of the Iberian synagogue, have nevertheless great excellency of their own. In Italy. The early feast poetry of the Italian Jews varies from the Babylonian genius which had imparted itself to that of Spain. In the Italian the Palestinian spirit breathes more largely. Hagada, both ethical and hermeneutical, as in the Targums, Midrashim, and Jerusalem Talmud, is the material which, in the works now to be specified, has become crystallized into poetry. The founder of the Italian school was Elasar ben Jacob Kalir, already named, and about whom R. Salomo Eapoport has collected all that now can be cei'tainly knoM'n, in the BJl-lcnre ha-Hthn for 1829. Kalir had a brother, named Jehuda, who attained also some eminence as a poet. Meshullam ben Kalonymus, of Lucca, (1010,) laboured not only as a Tosafist, but was the author of some good synagogal hymns preserved in the Machasor. Kalonymus BEX Kalonymus, of the celebrated Venetian family of that name, was born in 1287, and lived at x\rles. He translated the Arabic Risale Ichican el Ssqfa, with the title of Iggereth haale chahn. (Mantua, 1557; Berlin, 1762.) And besides a treatise for Purim, Miseketh Purim, (Yen., 1752,) and one on medicine, Sefer Hefvah, (Amst., 1610,) he wrote a moral satire on the manners of the age, entitled Ehen hochin, "The Stone of AYeeping.'' (Naples, 1489; OllDEll VIll. lM.TTANI.\r. 3S5 Sulzbacli, 1705.) Kaloiiyiuus, though ;m Italiuii, belongs, as to material and manner, to the Spanish school.* "\^liile the Spanish Jews wrote under the; iniluencc of the Arabian aesthetic, those of Italy, in their secular compositions, yielded to that of the Proveiu/al nnise. Scarcely had Guittone of Arezzo founded the musical line system in the Italian somiet, than Immauuel ben . Salomo, born at Rome, 1372, transferred it into the Hebrew poetry in his Macliheroth or Diwan, a large collection of poems of various kinds, some of which arc in the sonnet form. In fact, the lust known Italian sonnet "was composed by a Jew, namely, Jehuda di Salamone, of IMantua;'* and among others who followed in the same style of writing were the Jewesses Debora Ascarelli and Sara Copia. Another portion of Immanuel Salomons MachherotJi is a spirited imitation of Dante's Divina Commedia, entitled Tophet ve-ha-Eden. (I'irst edition of the Mach- ■ heroth, Brescia, 1491 ; last, Berlin, 1796.) The Tophet ve-ha-Eden has been edited separately. (Prague, 1558 ; and Frankfort, 1713.) There is a translation of it in Jewish German. (Prague, without date.) In like manner, Mose di Eieti, about 1400, adapted the Divina Commedia to Hebrew ideas, in his Sefer ha Hehal, in a thousand and twelve stanzas. In Palestine Isaac Luria sang the mysteries of the Kabala, in his Zimiroth Maharshel, (Venice, 1602,) and Zihche Torah. (Prague, 1615.) David ben Simra of Jerusalem composed in the like theosophic strain, as did Mose Chagis, author of the Or Kadmon, " Primeval Light.'' To these we may add, j\lenachem de Lanzano, author of an ethical poem called Derek Chaim, " The ' He also translated from the Arabic the works of Galeu, Archimedes, and Aristotle. * BaccoUo Grechc, Bologna, 1504. S 386 HEBREW LITERATURE. Way of Life ; " Israel Nagara, synagogal Zemiroth, 1587 ; and Joseph beu Mordechai, Schaare YerusJialam, "The Gates of Jerusalem/' 1707- In Egypt Charisi, when travelling there, found, as he says, a poet in Abraham of Damietta. In Barbary the art had votaries in Simon beu Zimrah Duran, (1440,) Chaim bar Abr. Kohen, a Ivabalist, Mose Juda Avas, and Saadja ben Levi Ash- kenuth, author of the lyyereth Pitrim. (1 647.) In Constantinople, Salomo Mazal Tob composed a collection of devotional hymns for various occa- sions. (1548.) In Greece Josef ben Jeshua, a poetical kalendar; (1568 ;) and Mose Kohen of Corfu, the Leketh ha Omer, described as a poem of considerable merit. (Venice, 1718.) Among the Karaites there have not been vvanting men gifted with the poetic faculty. Their controversy with the Talmudists in the Geonastic time struck out some sparks of poetry, in a piece ^ by Salomon ben Jeruham, the antagonist of Saadja; and Juda ha Abel wrote a devotional poem on the Karaite principles, at Constantinople, in 1148, with the title of Esld-ol ha Kqfar. Aharon ben Josef, surnamed the Holy, physician and rabbi at Constantinople, was the author of some of their liturgical poems. Aharon ben Elia Nikomedee, philosopher, commentator, and poet, composed the Keter Torah, "Crown of the Law,''' in 1360; and Juda ben Elia ben Josef, the Mi achat Jehucla, a metrical com- ment on the Pentateuch. The Karaite Siddur, or Prayer Book, was first printed at Venice in 1528; and since, at Kale, in the Crimea, in 1734. It is in tliree volumes, and entitled, "Order of Prayer for the whole Year, according to the Eite of ^ On " the Vaiiitv of Talmudism." ORDER VIII. PEITAMM. ^S? the Karaite Congregations in the Crimea, Coiistnuliiioplc. Poland, and Lithuania/' The Jewish poetry of tlie Spanish school, in the latter part of the Middle Ages, was only a faint eclio of the songs which had awoke with such melodious power in that land in earlier days. Two causes tended to this decline. Persecution quenched the poetic fire in many bosoms ; and the rise of the ])hilosi)]ihic Eabnnist school was unfriendly to its action wlu'rc it still lingered, liy the men of that school truth was no longer clothed witli the star-spangled robe of imagination, but with the mantle of the Gra^co- Arabian philosophy. Hence the Hebrew verse of the fourteenth century is either a reflection of scholastic science, or the hopeless groan of the persecuted. THIRD EPOCH. The oldest Jewish poetry, as we have said, was either synagogal, that is, liturgical, as inaugurated by the great synagogue ; or extra-synagogal, the first specimens of which are found in the apocryphal writings. Both kinds were the reminiscence or reflection of the poetry of the Bible ; and from both these sources came that of the Peitanim, which was religious and devotional, and a resonance of the Bible, the Talmud, and Midrashim ; and that of i\\e poets, whose works are distinguishable from those of the Peitanim, as being secular in their themes, though more or less imbued with the oriental spirit. But in the period on which we are now entering, another kind of poetry arose among the Jews, — "the new classical ; " not, like its predecessors, the offspring of the synagogal literature, and expressive of strictly Hebrew ideas, but more cosmopolitan in its range of sub- jects ; Hebrew only in language^ but that Hebrew more approximative to the pure style of the biblical writers than had been ever reached since the days of inspiration, s 2 388 HEBREW LITERATUEE. This new developement resulted partly from the dis- persion of the Sefardite Jews, who disseminated their Spanish knowledge and science in Italy, France, Holland, Germany, Poland, England, the Levantine countries, and America; partly from the revival of classical learning in Italy and other parts of Europe, in the impulses of which many learned Jews participated; and partly from the study of the great Italian and Spanish Gentile poets. 1. Eorermmers o fthe new classical school. (1.) In Italy, Elias ben Asher Levita Ashkenasi, (born 1471,) professor of Hebrew at Padua, of whose prose works we have spoken further on, — in his Tier Taam, or treatise on the Hebrew accents ; his Pirke Shira, or grammatical studies in verse; his translation of Job; and his Sliirim, a collection of songs and elegies, — contributed both by precept and example to the new poetic movement. Juda, Mose, and David Provenzale, three brothers, in the latter part of the sixteenth century, laboured in the same department. The first wrote Nefucoth Jehnda, a work which Asarja di Eossi has called the "mother of Jewish classical poesy ; " the second, a poetical grammar, entitled Bosem Kadmon ; and the third, the iJor Ilaflaga, a comparative lexicon, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Italian. Salomo Usque, (1619,) who may be called the first modern Jewish dramatist. He, however, wrote in Spanish. His principal works are, " Esther,^' a drama ; the Poems of Petrarca, rendered into Spanish ; and an Eloge on Cardinal Borromeo. Mose ben Mordecai Zacuto, who died at Mantua in 1693, wrote an Inferno in 185 stanzas, mth the title of TopJite AruJc, "Tophet prepared."" (Venice, 1715.) Though suggested by Dante, this poem is based on the Hebrew tract Gihinom. Jacob Dan ORDER VIII. PEITAXIM. :JR9 Ulamo, of Fcrrani, produced a counterpart to this piece in the Ftlea Aru.k, in 277 stanzas. Abraham ben Sabatai Kohen distinguished hiinsclt' by a melodious paraphrase ou the Psabiis, in pure biblical Hebrew : Kehunoth Abraham, in live books. (2.) In the Low Countries. Jewisli literature owes a large debt to the good old city of Amsterdam. It was a refuge for n\aiiy of the Spanish literati, Tiie' friendly disposition towards mental and moral culture which reigued there, its libraries and literary societies, its vast printing establishments, and the munificence of some of the wealthy Hebrew residents, rendered Am- sterdam a j)lantation for oriental scholarship, whose branches were sent forth not only to the neighbouring countries in the north of Europe, but to the most distant regions of the earth. Among the Amsterdam Jews, who became eminent in the poetic choir, we should name, — Joseph Salomo del Medigo, (1637,) Manase ben Israel, (1657,) David Kohen de Lara, {oh. 167-1,) Ben- jamin Immanuel Musafia, (1675,) known also by his researches in natural philosophy, and his additions to the Aruh. Josef Pinco, the first author of a drama in the Hebrew language, the Aslre Tikva, composed in three acts. (Amst., 1668.) To these men we may add the two Uzziels, Isaac and Jacob ; Isaac Aboab and ]\Iose Eafael d^\guilar ; to all of whom we must again refer hereafter. (3.) In France, Juhanon Pinto Delgado dedicated his Spanish poems to Cardinal Richelieu. (Rouen, 1627.) Philip d'Aquiu, an elegiac poet, who was baptized into Cliristianity, and whose reputation lies more in philology. He was professor of Hebrew at Paris. (4.) In Germany, at this time the Jews had not enjoyed the advantages possessed by their brethren in 890 HEBREW LITERATURE. Holland, and their literature had been more narrow. Their scholars were either rigid disciples of the Talmud, or crazy Kabalists. But the reviviscence of Christian poetry under Luther and his coadjutors exercised a good influence on the German Jews, and produced an Isi'aelitish folk-literature in the dialect known by the name of Jewish-German. Such are the Artus Hof, Till Enlenspieffel, Ritter JFieduwelt, Amadis, Siehen Weise Meisfer von Rom, the Kuh-hich, &c., together with sundry popular expositions of the Scriptures, partly in prose, and partly in rude verse. Among the more serious and strictly rabbinical studies, Isaac Chajut ben Abraham, president of the synagogue in Prague, wrote the Rene Isaak, a metrical exposition of the Jore Bea, divided into a hundred gates or chapters. (Krakau, 1581.) The improvement of Jewish poetry in Germany was furthered by the agency of some men of Spanish educa- tion, as David Kohen de Lara, and Moses ben Gideon Abudiente, author of the Abne Shokani, " The Stones of Onyx : " a poem in ottave rime. (5.) In the Sclavic countries the condition of the Jews in the Middle Ages was much more favourable than that of their brethren in Germany, and their intel- lectual life took accordingly a more free and vigorous character. There was already in the eleventh century a Judeo-Russian literature, one monument of wdiich was the translation of the Pentateuch in 1094. Among the two millions of Jews who had such extensive settle- ments in Poland, the studies of the synagogue were carried on with great ardour. The privileges conferred on the Karaites in that and the Ottoman lands, insured them a quietude higlily favourable to religious and scholastic developement, which gave itself expression in a Karaite, while the importation of Kabalistic principles ORDER VIII, PEITANIM. 391 from Palestine created a Theosophic, and the intluence of theological and sectarian controversy a C/uisidrcan, poetry. So, too, the occasional troubles of persecution, or of suffering from national calamity, brought out the tones of elegiac verse, in such works as the Peta/i Tschuha of Gabriel ben Joshua; (Amst., 1(153;) the Maaraka Chadasha of Josef ben Uri Shagra; (Frank- fort, 1699;) and Jacob Naftali's Nahalalh. Jacob'. (Amst., 1652.) In mentioning separate works we may specify the Ben Z'ljnn of Josef b. Ehmelek ; a thesaurus in itself of synagogue learning and devotion. (Amst., 1619.) The Datli Jekutiel, by Jekutiel ben Salomo : on the 613 precepts. The Sefer ha Kosharoth of Ephraim ben Josef Chelm : a collection of hymns. The Slur inin/'nn, by David de Lida : on the revelation of the thirteen attributes of God, in the Sinaitic theophany. Tliese productions come under the common title of Azharnth, or didactical poetry. A Kabalistic hymnanum was edited by the Eussian Nathan Nata ben Mose Hanover, with the title of Shaare Z'ljon. (Prague, 1662.) Two ethical works should also be mentioned : Mordecai ben Meir, of Lub- lin, -wrote Tahiith ha Bajith, a vivid representation of the vanity of the world; and Juda ben ^lordecai Hui'witz of Wilna, the Amude Je/tuda, a moral philoso- phy, on rabbinical principles, written in the form of a dialogue, and not without vigour of style and occasional enlivenments of humour. To the same school belong the Sefer Zaoth ha Melitsa and the Shire Tehilla of Wolf Buchner, of Brody. (1781.) Finally, Isaac von Satanow brought up the rear of this train of writers, and became, by the cast and character of his writings, the immediate harbinger of that of the modern order. 393 HEBREW LITEEATURE. 2. The modem or new classical school. The Hebrew poetry had been hitherto synagogal or else festhetic. That of the Peitanhn belongs, strictly speaking, to the first, answering to the Christian Catholic poetry of the jMiddle Ages. It deals in legend and hagada. The p'ljnth song is thoroughly hagadistic. The secular class was formed under the influence of the Islamite, Italian, and Limosin sensuous creations. A new turn had been given to Jewish poetry by the revival of Greek and Latin learning, both m ideas and in form. It gradually lost its hold on Talmudism and tradition, and departed, as well, from the fervid and exaggerated tone and manner of the Arabian school. The struggle which had begun in the church between the mediaeval legend ideas and the revived classical or heathen modes of thought and expression, now extended to the s}Tiagogue itself. The hyperbolism of the le- gendary style gave way before the ascendancy of a classical and simple Art. The efi'ect of this transition begins to be discoverable in the Jesharim Tehilla of Luzzatto, a drama in which the traces of Hebrew nationality disappear, and the ethics of Epictetus displace those of the Talmud. In the productions of this new school the style itself, though purely Hebrew in words, is stripped of its oriental drapery, and takes as much as possible a Western or European character. The leading men in this movement were, in Italy, Luzzatto ; in HoUand, Franco ; in Poland, Satanow ; and in Germany, Wessely. , (1.) Modern school in Italy. Its founder, as we have said, was Mose Chaim ben Jacob Luzzatto, born in 1707, at Padua, of a family illustrious in Judaism. He was a proficient both in Gentile learning, and in that of his own people. Though an accomplished classical scholar, his personal religion was strongly ORDER VIII. PEITANIM. 393 mystical. Towards tlie close of life he went to Palestine, where he died of the plague in 1741', and was buried at Tiberias. Of liis multifarious works some arc yet unedited. They amount to about twenty-four. On the other hand twenty-eight works have been published, comprising prose treatises in theology, dogmatic and kabalistical, ])liilosophy, morals, and rhetoric, and a body of poetry, devotional, lyrical, and dramatic. Of- these works we wiU mention, — Derek Hachna, "The Way of Wisdom \' a catechism of philosophy. (Amst., 1783.) Llshon Limnd'uii: on rhetoric, Gentile and Hebrew; a masterly treatise. (Lemberg, 1810.) JSl'iklabhn ve-iggeroth : miscellanies and epistles on Kabalistic studies. (Prague, 183S.) Pithche hachma, " The Doors of Wisdom : " 138 rules of Kabala. (Korez, 1785.) Derek Tehunim : a method- ology of the Talmud, on logical principles. (Amst., 174^.) Tiimmath Jesharim : a drama, after the Pastor Fido of Guarini. (Leipzig, 1837.) "Samson:^' a drama. (Prague, 1838.) Lajesharim Tehilla: a drama. (Berlin, 1780.) Luzzatto was followed by Samuel Pomanili of Mantua, whose melodrama of Ha Qoloth jechdalhn is Grecian in spirit and Italian in form. Ephraim Luzzatto, who practised as a physician in London, has left a variety of poems of great taste and elegance. They are found in the Meustf, (1786-9,) and the Biknre ha H'nn. (1825.) In our own day Professor Samuel David Luzzatto of Padua has well sustained the poetical reputation of his family. His works are also printed in the B'tkure. (2.) The new classical school in Germany had for its founder Kaftali Hartwig Wessely, the friend and feUow-labourer of Moses Mendelssohn. Wessely was born in 1725, and, after a life of unremitting literary toil, dietl s 5 394 HEBREW LITERATURE. at Hamburgh in 1805. His Iliisar Hasl-el is much esteemed for its etliical principles ; but his reputation as a poet rests chiefly on his SJdre Tifereth, an epic on the life of Moses. Though the language of this poem is purel}^ biblical, and the style enriched wiih. the finest embellishments of the inspired poetic writings, yet the cast of thought is not national, but European and secular. Wessely may be said to have struck the key-note to a song which is still prolonged by a succession of bards, who give manifest proof that the poetic spirit remains unquenched in Israel, Here I need only name such poems as the epopee of Nir David, by Salom Kohen ; the " Hasmoneans " of Isakar Schlesinger ; the Osnath Yosef, and the " Samson,^'' of Siiskind Easchkov ; and the " Moses and Zippora " of Gabriel Berger. Periodical literature was adopted by the new school, as a means of intercommunication among themselves, and as a telegraph with the learned public at large. Mendelssohn in 1750 had begun a weekly paper in Hebrew, called "The Moral Preacher." In 1783, a society of learned Jews was formed by himself and Wessely, with the name of the Geselhchaft der Hehra- iscJien Lite7'atur-Freuiide,^ for philosophic, poetical, and liberal studies. This association commenced a monthly periodical, with the title of Ha-Measef, (" The Gatherer,") which in successive years accumulated a large variety of important articles, and was then fol- lowed by the " New Measef." In 1 820 another periodical was undertaken, the Bikure-Jm-itim, (" Pirst Pruits of the Times,") a year-book of polite literature, which was carried on by Jewish writers of good ability till 1831. The poetry of these works is also German in its prin- ciple, though arrayed in a Hebrew dress. ^ Subsequently, Die Gesellschaft zur Befordcrung des Guten and Edlen. (" The Society for promoting tke Good and the Noble.") ORDEii viii. naxANiM. ;J'J5 (3.) The most oniiiu'ut Ik'l)rc\v poet of the new school in the Xetiiek lands is David Fraiiet), author of the Gemul Athaljahu. In the Xrtlicrlaiuls an asso- ciation was formed in 1815, for the jjurpose of counter- acting what was thouglit to be an undue tencK'ucy towards Gentile studies, lu the disparagement of the purely Jewish ones. It took the name of "The Society for the Revival of Scriptural and Mishna Studies," or "The Society Ha Tuelel." They have pubHshed a peri-' odical with the title of Bikurc Toclcf. Of that coterie the leading men were Elclianan Benjaminas, Sanuiel Mohlar, and Mose Lohcnstein. In their poetical works there is a kind of Bath-Kol of the devout and liagadistic poetry of the old time. (i.) The modern school in Poland has derived its inspirations more from the antique biblical fountains than the German did. The founder was Isaak ha Levi of Satanow, who was born in 17o'3. lie was at once an adept in the old Rabbinical and xVrabian learning, , and yet a transcendent master of the accomphshments of the modern world, — rabbin, philosopher, and poet. Of his numerous works we should mention, as be- longing to our present subject, the Selichoth, the Zemlrolh Asaf, and the Jl'ishle Asaf. Salomo ben Joel of Dubno, well known also by his Masoretic labours on the Pentateuch, contributed to the advancement of poetic culture among his countrymen. His poems are in the Bikure Toelet. And among the Polish Hebrew literati of the present day no man takes precedence of Salomo Juda Rapoport of Lemberg. This magnificent scholar has not onl}- contributed, in a variety of works of immense erudition, to the history and biography of Jewish learning, but has displayed poetical talent of no mean order in several productions in the Blkiire-ha-itim, among which the Purim drama 396 HEBREW LITERATURE. of Sheerifh JelivAa is one of the most charming in the whole province of Je-wish poetry. XoTE I. — Rijmm composed in Chaldee. The older Jews, with whom Aramaic was vernacular, employed that lansruage not only as the vehicle of instruction in the synagogue, but of devotion also, both in prayer and praise. AVe have already referred to the strong element of poetry in the Targums, and, occasionally, in the Talmud itself. So in the Midrash tales of Habba bar Ghana, Jochanan, Safra, and .Tehuda the Indian, the poetic spirit comes out in resplendent flashes. But, in addition to these non-metrical productions, there are not a few metro-rhythmical pieces in Aramaic which have great merit and value for the solemnity of their spirit, and the religious dignity of the style which clothes it. Such are the Kad^jsJi hymn, [Ith^adal ve-ifhncdmh^ probably the oldest now in existence in that dialect ; the Yehv.m pv.rhiii of the Babylonian synagogues; the Kol Nidre, for the eve of the atonement, also Babylonian ; the Berik Shemeh de-mare alma ; the SelicJia prayers, Maran de-hishmaia and Mache ti-mase ; the Aqdamidk and two other hvmns of Meir ben Isaac, surnamed the Precentor, (103 J:,) and the Tecib PifJigam of Jacob ben Meir Levi; Jah ribon olam, a thanksgiWng hvmn for meal-times ; with several others, including some of the mystical pieces of the KabaHst Isaac Luria. XoTE II, — ^Ve have several times alluded to the !Machazorim, and a word about them may be accept- able to the begiimer. A Machazor (from chazar, " to circulate " or " revolve ") is a volume or volumes com- prising the course of devotional services for the entire circle of the year. This work must be distinguished from the Shear ha-tejjhilla, or " Common Prayer- ORDER VIII. PEITANIM. 397 Book," as it comprehends a great variety of prayers and hymns not to be found in the hitter. It is in the Mac/tazorim that we become acquainted with the opulence of the synagogal poetry. Here we have it in all its forms, in adaptation to the acts of each sernce, and to the services of each season in the Je^nsh year: iheYotser,^ Ked/ts/ta,^ Ofan^ Meora^ Ahaha^ Genla and Zulath^ Keroba* Sec, of the Sabbath worship ; the Sanctification of the Passover ; the Azharoth^ of the Feast of "Weeks ; the HoshaanotJi, of the Tabernacles ; the Aboda and Neila, of the Atonement ; and several other minor solemnities ; together -with the plaintive KinotJi,^ or lamentation elegies for the thousand woes of the doomed people ; and the rich and deep Selichoth^ or penitential hymns, for days of fasting and humihation. " Adoration of God as Creator. ^ Adoration of the holiness of God. (Tsaiah vi. 3.) ' The benedictoiy chant of the angels, (Ezek. iii. 12,) to whom is given the name of Ofanim, fi-om their presence at the wheels of the Merkava. (Ezek. i. 16.) ^ Adoration of God, as Ha-Meir la-arefs, " The Enlightener of the Earth." ^ Adoration of the love which the Almighty shows to Israel. ^ Adoration of God as Israel's only Deliverer. * The offering up of the first three Benedictions. (See p. 94.) The introit, or " introduction," to a synagogal anthem, and especially to the Keroboth, is called the Eeshuth, and the concluding portion, the Silluk. ^ Didactic or admonitory hymns, from zahar, " to teach," " admo- nish," or "warn." ^ Kinah, or qina, " a lamentation," from qiin, or qonen, " to lament." ' Prayers for absolution and forgiveness; from salach, "to pardon." These hymns consist of several classes. 1. The Vidid, or " Confession of Sin;" fi-om i/ada," io kaovr". jn/iel, "to make known." i. The Aqada : a plea for mercy, founded on Abraham's obedience in binding Isaac ; from aqad, " to bind." 5. The Pizmon, a word which seems to be an adaptation, or rather a corruption, of that of "psalm." {Pseattme.) 6. The Tokecha, or deprecation of chastisement ; fi'om yakach, " to chide and punish." 7- The CJiatanu : acknowledgment of sin. 8. The Teckinna, or intercession, and others of like import. 398 HEBREW LITERATURE. In a recent volume of Dr, Zunz, Die Spiagogale Poesie des MiUelalters, there will be found a minute analysis of the structure of these hymiis^ as well as a German translation of many of them. The Selichoth at large have been often printed in separate collections : for example, that of the German Jews, (Frankfort, 1625, quarto,) and that of the Poles. (Amst., 1711, quarto.) Others have been edited for specific syna- gogues, as that of Cologne, (Frankfort, 1694,) and that of Prague. (Dyreufurt, 1706, foHo.) The entire Machazor, or encyclopedia of Jewish ritual poesy, has had three principal recensions. 1. The German : Machazor AshJcenazi. (Amsterdam, 1646, quarto; Sulzbach, 1709, folio, and many other editions.) 2. The Spanish: Machazor Ha-Sejjhardim. (Amst., 1689, 8vo. j Venice, 1693, &c.) A Spanish translation was made by Menasse ben Israel. (Amst., 1660.) 3. The Italian : Machazor Taliani. (Bononia, 1541, folio ; Venice, 1626, three vols., 8vo.) The large type por- tions in the folio editions are magnificent specimens of Hebrew typography. Some of the editions have commentaries. An English translation of the Machazor with the Hebrew text has been executed by Professor Lyons. But the most complete work of the kind, for any one who reads German, is that published by Wolf Heiden- heim,^ a learned Jewish printer of Hodelheim, to whom we are indebted for many reprints and original contributions in Hebrew literature. His edition bears the descriptive title of Sefer Karoboth : Das Machazor, oder das 8yna- gogen-ritual fur Sahbate und Festtage, im Original, ins Deutsche ilbersetzt u. Hebraisch commentirt. Beigegeben ist auch eine kurze Einleitung iiber Pijjutim u. Pajta- nim. (9 biinde, 8vo., Rodelheim, 1800.) « Died iu 1832. ORDER VIII. PEITANIM. 399 These Hebrew pmvers and hvinns are wvW worthy the study of the Christian ininislor. lie will know how to pass over the occasional errors of the intellect or the heart which he may meet with there; but he will find so much of what is good that the book will become one of his choicest companions. In these forms of worship the scriptural element reigns with a force more lofty than in any other liturgical composi- tions I am acquainted with : they seem to turn tiie whole Hebrew Bible into prater and praise. In their argument of ])rayer before God the style of thought is so chastened and retined, and the pathos often so fer- vent, that a mind with any religious susceptibility cannot but be solemnized and elevated by conversing with them. Happy would it be for many a Christian congregation, if the exercise of their extempore devo- tions were distinguished by the same characteristics. Shelomo Alehaachamim of IMantua published a col- lection of hymns from the Machazorim, with musical adaptations for eight voices. The title of this desirable book is Bas^u Tlashirim. (Venice, 1G23.) 400 HEBREW LITERATURE. ORDEE IX. hipeeshim; " COMMENTATORS." The critical study of the Holy Scriptures would be more advantageously jarosecuted by Christian divines by becoming conversant with the labours of their Hebrew brethren in this most important branch of sacred learning. In neglecting or ignoring those earnest and often effective labours, we are guilty of an unwarrantable indifference to the truth, or we betray an ill-omened self-sufficiency alike dishonourable to the intellect and the heart. The helps which we thus willingly forego are at once authentic and potent, while those with which we content ourselves are, in too many cases, uncertain, feeble, and illegitimate. Might it not be reasonably expected that a learned Jew would be found, in some respects, a better commentator on the Hebrew Bible than a Gentile ? The document on which he labours is in his own ancestral language, with which he has been familiar from his early youth. The book itself is one in which he has an interest inexpressibly great. He possesses the knowledge of habits, man- ners, rites, and traditions, verbal idioms, and forms of expression, which ought to give his opinions a peculiar claim on our attention. It is true he may write under the influence of strong prejudices, and on one class of subjects he may be the slave of inveterate error ; but notwithstanding these drawbacks, he is a witness whose testimony on the import of Old-Testament Scripture in general, and a hundred dubious texts in particular, we should feel ourselves bound to consider. In the Jewish commentators there is much that is wortliless and ^ Or Mepareshim, bova. parash, "to explain." ORDER IX. IIIPRESHIM. 101 untnic ;^ but tlicre are also treasures of masterly criticism, iu comparison of which tlie strain of biblical interpre- tation most common and popular among us api)cars attenuated and trivial. In short, to adopt the words of Gcscnius, "in the Hebrew expositors there is nnich that is unquestionably true and good ; and a facility in understanding their sources of exegesis will be indis- pensably necessary to every respectable interpreter." ° The studies of tlic JcMish rabbins in the explication of the Bible, of which we have the written results, extend over a long succession of centuries, away to the times of the Soferim. Among the earliest are the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan. With these we may not improperly combine some of the works of Philo, and the Antiquities of Josef ben Mattatja, which exhibit an historic and archseological commentary on much of the Old Testament. Coming dowTi to the Tanaim, we have the Boraifha of Eabbi Eliesar, and the books Sifm, Sifree, and Mekiltha, all professedly anno- tatory on the Pentateuch. Prom Ishmael ben Elisha, the reputed author of the MckiUha, we have the Shelish esreh M'ulwoth hattorah, or "Thirteen Eules for the Interpretation of the Law,^^ and wliich comprise the first known attempt at a scientific system of hermeneutics. They are distinguished for their logical precision, and are given in terms which show that the men of that day were by no means the tyros in these exercises of the intellect, which we too commonly suppose them to have been. The extreme conciseness of these canons, and the abstract scholasticism of their phraseology, have called forth several commentaries upon them; as the ^ And are not the Chiistian commentators more or less liable to the same reflection ? though I am hound to admit that this is more exten- sively the case with the Hebrew ones. - Geschichte d. Ilebr. Sprache. 402 HEBREW LITERATURE. Bathe Mulwoth of Simson de Chinoii, in his Sefer Keritliotli ; (Const,, 1516;) the short commentary on the Thirteen Kules by Menachem Asarja ben Low; (Furth, 1769 ;) with others, by Leo de Banolas, Abra- ham Ostroh, Phihp d'Aqnine; {Vetenim Rahhhiorum, Sj-c, Paris, 1622 ;) and hi the Methodologies to the Talmud, as Pinner^s Introduction to the treatise Bera- hoth. There is a sensible outline on tliem in Schich- ard's Bechinath Happeruschim, p. 159. The precepts of the Mishna involve occasional com- ments on the law, of a certain kind ; and the discussions of the Talmud, many of a more ample form, and with a range that comprehends the Scriptures at large. Strange, inconclusive, and absurd as are many of these specimens of interpretation, there are others among them which have an inestimable value. The Talmudic mine in this respect is well worth working. But it is when we come to the times of the Geonim, that we find ourselves with Jewish scholars who had begun to be awake to the importance of serious inquiry into the true meaning of the written word of God ; and men who brought to the task of such investigations minds, not only teeming with the traditions of their forefathers, but educated in the severer science of their own age. Of this class the representative is Saadja Gaon, who was beyond compare, both as a philologist and theologian, the most competent expositor of Holy Scripture ^ho had hitherto appeared in the schools of Judaism ; and who was followed by men yet more power- ful, in Abeu Ezra, Salomo Jizchaki, David Kimchi, Abra- vanel, and others, whose works we proceed to specify. These commentators do not all adopt the same prin- ciple of interpretation. They teach the same doctrines substantially ; they write under the influence of similar prejudices, more or less strong ; and they aim at like ORDER IX. HIPRESHIM. 108 objects; but they go to work in difl'creiit wavs. Out; class address themselves to unfold what they consider to be the simple or literal meaning of the words of Scrip- ture ; and of this class, some not only attend to the idioms of the language and the lexicographic import of words, but descend to the niceties of the Masora, and profess to show how different shades of meaning may be brought out of words by the diacritical use of the vowel ])()ints and accents. Another class bring to their aid the mythical appa- ratus of the Midrashim, and crowd their pages with the legends and sagas of the hagadoth. Others, again, advance from the literal into the allegorical mode of exposition, and consider the letter of the document as the signature or indication of a higher and more spiritual teaching ; while a fourth school, disdaining all these lower modes of exegesis, seek the transcendental regions of the Kabala. So that we may say, there are four principal methods of interpretation among the Jewish commentators : — 1. The derek lia-pesliut, the simple way, dealing with the grammatico-historical signification of words and sentences; the plain, common-sense meaning of the document. The Syrian church gave the title of Peshito to the ancient translation of the Scri])tui-es into that language, to indicate the principle on which the version had been made : that principle was the purely literal. 2. The derek medrush, which has greater latitude than the first, and breadth enough to admit not only the illustrations of the legend, but the fancies of the allegory. He who follows it looks about for whatever wM give him an idea toM^ards the exposition of the text. Darask is " to seek, look for, search for ; " mednisJi is the sensus inquisitorius. A Frenchman would call this method, la mode recherchee. 404 HEBREW LITERATURE. Asaria di Rossi distinguishes three kinds of mid rash: the hyperbohcal, [guzma, "exaggerated,") the legend- ary or quasi-historical, and the exhaustive ; of which last kind are all attempts to explain a passage of Scripture in any way, and in all ways, at the same time. To several of these midmsldm we have already adverted; and among the more professedly exegetical ones, we may further direct the student^s attention to the Midrash VajoscJia, on the exodus from Egypt ; the Midrash Kohanim, on matters relating to the priesthood ; the five RabhotJi ; the Midrash Haneelam on the Book of Euth ; the Midrash Shemuel Eahhetha, on Samuel ; the Midrashim Tehilllm and Shocher Tov, on the Psalms ; the Midrash Mishle, on the Proverbs ; and the Midrash Chasith, on the Canticles. It may be observed, that the more critical Jews do not give the title of commentaries to some of these productions ; they reserve that epithet (in Hebrew, Perushim) for the works of the first class. 3. The derek hasJcel is so denominated from sakal, " to act wisely ; " in Hiphil, " to have understanding, be intelligent;" whence the noun haskel, "wisdom or erudition." This, which may be termed the intel- lectual method, seeks, in addition to the grammatical import of the words, to ascertain whether they do not intimate some latent instruction, or recondite truth, besides their more ordinary meaning. Compare the title of the thirty-second Psalm, and the expression in the Apocalypse xiii. 18. 4. The derek ha-kahala interprets the Scriptures upon those peculiar principles which we have endea- voured to elucidate in our article on the Kabalistic theosophy. ORDER IX. HIPRESHIM. 405 CONSPECTUS OF HEBREW COIMMENTATORS. TENTH CENTURY. S.iADJA Paijumi, Gaon. 1. Sliort scholia on the Psalms. These were written in Arabic. Inedited. Manuscripts at Oxford and Munich. Three of the Psahus printed in Eichhorn's AUgem. BiUiothek der Bill. L'ltcratv.r. (Bd. 3.) 2. Berush at Shir: on the Canticles, allegorical and midrashistic. 3. On Daniel : in the Venice and Basil Hebrew Bibles. 4. On Job. Manuscript in the Bodleian. Saadja's Translation of the Pentateuch was without notes. He wTote, however, an Arabic introduction, lading down the principles on which he had executed the version. The textual pecu- harities of this important work have been collected by Pocockc, and may be found in the sixth volume of tlie London Polyglot. As a commentator Saadja was opposed to a hteral acceptation of some facts which are unconditionally received, and properly so, by most behevers in the Di\ane authority of the Bible. He had something of the rationalistic tendency. Thus he denies that we are to understand literally what is related of the serpent con- versing with Eve, or of the ass speaking to Balaam, because articulate speech is a faculty possessed only by human beings. And, along with a great veneration for the Scriptures, he maintained tlie need of oral tradition to supply instruction about many things on which the written word is silent. His commentary on Daniel is worthy of serious study, and should be read with his treatise on the redemption of Israel. Hai Gaon. This eminent man wrote a Pernsh al Torah Nehiim vaketubim, or commentary on the law, prophets, and hagiographa. It was explanatory of 406 HEBREV LITERATURE. words and things, but is no longer extant. It is cited often by Ibn Esra and Kimclii. To Moses Hadarshan of Narbonne (latter part of the eleventh century) is attributed a Midrash on the Pentateuch by the name of the Bereshitk Rahha, (dis- tinguish from the Ber. Rabb. of Oschaja,) not now extant, except in quotations and fragments. twelfth century. ToBiA BEN Eliezer of Maiuz was the author of a Midrash on tlie Pentateuch, and Mey'dloth, some frag- ments of which on Leviticus, Numbers, and Deute- ronomy, were edited at Venice in 1546. He was the compiler also of the Lel-ach Tab, Prov. iv. 2, (so called from the initial words,) which was afterwards erro- neously termed the Pesikta Zotartha. (See page 233.) This work is a confection, (on the latter half of the Pentateuch,) from the older Midrashim, and was edited at Venice by Bomberg, in 1546. In Salomo Jizchaki (Rabbi Salomo ben Isaac, by abbreviation Rashi) we have one of the most celebrated of the Hebrew Commentators. His labours extend over the entire Old Testament under the general title of Perush al Esrim va arba. They are edited in the great Rabbinical Bibles, — the Miqraoth Gedoloth of Bomberg, (Venice, 1525,) which omits the Commen- tary on Job, Proverbs, and Daniel; and in that of Moses Frankfurter, the Qehilath Moseh. (Amst., 1724.) They have been published also in different portions in numerous editions, with and without the text. Various parts have, moreover, been translated into Latin by Genebrard on the Canticles and Joel, Leusden on Joel and Jonah, Carpzov on Ruth ; but more extensively by B. J. P. Breithaupt : viz., the Pen- tateuch; (Gotha, 1740 ;) the historical books; (Gotha, ORDER IX. IIIPRESITTM. 407 1714;) and the Prophets, Job, aiul Psahns. (Gotha, 1707.) The commentary of llashi on the Pentateuch lias been transhited into German : Genesis by L. llaymann ; (Bonn, 1835 ;) and by Leopold Dukes : JRashi zmn Pen- tateuch mit Bentsch Linear-vtjersetzung. (In 5 hcfton. Prague, 1835.) Raslii, bv having been lons^ ensraEced in writing, annotations on the Talmud, formed the habit of com- posing, after the manner of that work, in an extremely concise and obscure style, and with the frequent use of its terms and idioms. He condensed as much as pos- j- sible, and endeavoured to give the precise original thought by a natural method of interpretation, by ex- plaining the grammar of the passage, by paraphrasing its meaning, by supplying the wanting members of elliptical forms, and by sometimes rendering a word or expression into the French of that day. At the same time he did not fail to bring forward the received interpretations of the Talmud and Midrashim, and to point out the support w'hich the Rabbinical halakoth receive from such passages as he thought available. The rigid brevity of his style, which often leaves the reader in perplexity as to his meaning, has served to call forth a number of super-commentaries on his works bv several Jewish authors : as the 8efer Hazz'iTcaron of Abraham Bokrat of Tunis, 1485 ; (edited, Livorno, 1845 ;) the Biur al Peruskim Rashi of Sam. Ahnosino ; and many others. Abraham ibn Esra. (Toledo, 1167.) 1. Sefer Ea-jashar. A Commentary on the Pentateuch; con- sidered to be the best and most scientific of all written in the Middle Ages, with a good introduction on the history of biblical exegesis. (Naples, 1488; and in Bomberff's and Buxtorfs Rabbinical Bibles.) There 408 HEBREW LTTEKATTEE. have been also various super-commentaries and glos- saries on this work, as those by Prerau, Emrich, and Josef ben Eliezer. 2. Permh al Xevijim Biihonim. (MS.) 3. Perush al Nevijim Acheronim : major and minor prophets. In Bomberg's, Buxtorf s, and Frank- furter's Bibles. 4. Perusk al terey-awr : twelve minor prophets. In the same, and in various portions, with and without Latin translarions. 5. Perujfk al Chame^l> Meg il loth ; — al Sefer Tehillimy Sefer Mhhiey, Hloi. Daniel, Ezra, and Kehemia. All given in the Kab- binical Bibles. Ibu Esra brought to the task of an expositor a mind powerfullv endowed bv nature, and richly stored with the learning of past times, and the philology and science of his own day. His style of interpretation is 1 literal and judicious. He does not so much dilate on ^ doctrine as he opens up the simple signification of the 1 record. Though a Talmudist, he is not without an evident leaning towards Karaism. Moses bar Xacitman. (Gerona, 1194.) 1. Biur al Halorah : an exposition of the law ; Kabalistic. 2 . Pertish a I Hiol : in Bomberg. Moses bex Maimon. Throughout the great works of Maimuni, the More/i and the Tad, (see page 254, el seg.,) there is a constant strain of Bible exposition, though not given in the formal way of the professed commentators. TVe ought here to specify particularly his Sefer ha-m\h\rof.h : a systematic arrangement of the 613 precepts of the law, affirmative and prohibitory. Originally in Arabic, but made Hebrew by Ibn Tabon. (Constant., 1517 ; Tenice, 1592 ; Vienna, 1S35.) THIKTEESTH CENTTKY. SiMEO' Hjlddaeshan, author of the Talkut S/n- meoni. This vast thesaurus contains a condensed ORDER IX. HIPRESHIM. 409 commentary on the entire Old Testament, and gives the substance of more than tifty works, many of winch are lost. The extracts are epitomized. What scholar will' confer a great benefit on English students of the Bible, by translating this work into English ? ' The Yalkut ("collection, repertory, or thesaurus," from Uqet, "to gather up") is in folio, in two parts.. The first embraces the Pentateuch, in the order of the parash'ioth, in 813 pages, double columns, in rabbinical letters. The second part takes in the Prophets and Ketuvim, in the order of the books in the Hebrew canon, pages 190. At the end of the first part he offers a ])rayer for the s[>eedy coming of the Kedeemer. The colophon of the second part records that the whole work was finished, bes/ieah U-raka, " in a blessed hour," in the year 5000 from the Creation. Title, Yalkut luitorah haniqra S/iemioni : vehv Midra^k al kol marim vearba Seferim. (Editions, Salonica, 1521 ; Venizia, 1566; Cracow, 1595; Polonna, 1808.) Ephraim bes Simson, of France. Ferunh at ha- t(/rah. (Livorno, 1&(H).) El.isar ben Jehuda, of ^\ orras. He wrote thirty works, and died in 1238. Commentaries: 1. Liqqu- tim: on the books of the Pentateuch. Kabalistic. luedited. Large extracts given in Asulai's Xukal 0.6- dui/iin. 2. Annotations on the Song and Piuth, in the threefold kabalistic methods of Gemetria, Zervf, and Itaarhe Tehot. (Lublin, 160b.) Jekltiel ben Jehlda, of Prague. En. ha-kore al ha-torali : a masoretic critique on the text of the Penta- teuch and Esther, in which he used the works of Ben Naftali, Ben Asher, Chaiug, Ibn Gannach, Ibn Ezra, Parchon, Tam, and other Masorists. (Rodelheim, 1818- 21.) His eminence in this department has given him i)i«i title of Jehuda Ha-Xakdan, or the Punctist. 110 HEBREW LITERATURE. David Kimchi, or Qimchi. Tins good and great man flourished, as already narrated, (p. 258,) in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. His particular forte was Hebrew gi'ammar_, and the commentaries on Scripture we have from him are characterized by an elaborate application of tliis instrument, which some critics have thought he uses to a pedantic excess. The student, however, who wishes to explore a Bible para- graph thoroughly will be thankful for these minute and accurate instructions. The Jewish scholars set an almost unlimited value on the commentaries of Eabbi David. Im ein qemach ein iorali, " No meal," say they, "A^dthout the miller;" applying, after their quaint usage, the term "meal" to the law, and playing on the re- semblance of the name Qimchi to the Hebrew word {qemach) for a miller. 1. Penish al ha-torah : on the Pentateuch. But only Genesis as yet edited, by Ginzburg, from a MS. in the Bilhliotheque Royals, Paris. (Presburg, 1842.) 2. PenisJi al Nevijim Rishonwi: on the greater prophets. In Bomberg's and Prarfkfurter's Bibles. An earlier edition separately. (Leira, 1494.) 3. Nevijim Acheronim. (Pesaro, 1515, and the Bibles.) 4. Terey asar : the twelve minor prophets, with the greater prophets. (Pesaro, 1515.) Prom these notes on the prophets a variety of excerpts have been trans- lated into Latin and German. We have also in Eng- lish, the Commentary on Zechariah, translated by Dr. M'Caul; and that on Isai. Hii., by Professor Turner of America. 5. Fernsh al Tehillim: on the Psalms. (Separately, 1472, s. I., and often since.) Several parts of this pre- cious work have been rendered in Latin ; as, on the hundredth, by Janvier, (Paris, 1666,) the first ten, by Pagius, (Constanz, 1544,) and the nineteenth, by De ORDER IX. HIPRESHIM. 411 Mills. (Paris, 1020.) I first learned to value llabbi David on the Psalms from the large use made ol" him by tlie professor of Hebrew at the Sorboune, the Abbe Louis Barges, when I had the privilege of belonging to his class in ISlk An edition of the whole of Kimchi's commentaries, including the above, and those on Chronicles and Ruth, (Paris, 1.5()3,) and on the four books of the Pentateuch, the Books of Proverbs, Job,' Daniel, Ezra, N ehemiah. Canticles, Esther, Lamentations, and Koheleth, which yet remain in raanuscri})t, wt)uld be a great beuetit to the cause of biblical learning. The name by which E. D. Kimchi is usually (pioted as a commentator, is RaDaK. Moses Kimchi, brother of David, wrote an exposi- tion of the Proverbs, Ezra, and Nehemiah, \\hich are incorporated in Bomberg's and Erankfurter's editions of the Bible. These works of M. Kimchi's are sometimes wrongly ascribed to Ibn Ezra. Tanchuji Jerushalmi ben Josef, of Haleb. 1. A comment on Lameiitations in Arabic. MS., in Hebrew characters, in the Bodleian. Edited by Cureton, 1843. 2. Kifah el Bian, i. e., "The Book of Literpretation," existing in Arabic MSS. in the Bodleian. Of these, the following have been edited : — (1.) Specimens on the greater prophets, by Haarbrucker. (Leipzig, 1844.) (2.) On Samuel and Kings, by the same. (Leipzig, 1844.) . (3.) On Habakkuk, with a Erench translation by Dr. Munk. (Paris, 1843.) (4.) On Judges, in part by Schnurrer. (Tubingen, 1791.) Chiskia Chaskuni, Erance. Sefer Chaskuni : an exposition of the Pentateuch, replete with Midrash literature, and founded on the works of twenty pre- ceding commentators. (Venice, 1524.) Imanuel ben Salomo, of Rome and Eermo. On the Proverbs. (Xaples, 1486.) Eragments on the T 2 41^ HEBREW LITEEAURE. Psalms. In De Rossi's Scholia. On the Pentateuch, Psalms, Job, Ruth, the Song, and Esther. All in MSS. and unedited. [Codd. De Rossi et Vatican.) Imanuel ben Salomo is best known as a poet. Leon de Banolas, or Levi ben Gershom. L Pe- rush al ha-torah : on the Pentateuch, both as regards the matter of the history and the phraseology, [Blur htqjkariisha, va hiur IiatninUotJi,) and witli moral appli- cations. (Mantua, 14.76; Amst., 1724.) 'i. Perush al nevijim rislionhn. (Leiria, 1494.) 3. On Proverbs. (Leiria, 1492.) Latin translation by Ghiggheo. (Milan, 1620.) 4. On Job. (Perrara, 1477.) Latin transla- tion by Philip d'Aquine. (Leipzig, 1700.) Bachja ben As her, Saragoza. 1. Srfer BacJija : a commentary on the Pentateuch, in four methods, — gram- matical, rational, [l. e., philosophical,) allegorical, and kabalistical, with quotations from older authorities. Strongly antagonistic to Christianity. (Pesaro, 1.507.) 2. A short work on Job. (Amst., 1768.) Isaac ben Jehuda. Sefer Paaneach Roza : a com- mentary on the Pentateuch. This is an extensive com- pilation from a number of preceding expositors. The kabalistic manner prevails. (Prague, 1607.) FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Jehuda ben Eliezer, Prance. Minchath Jehuda: illustrations of the Mosaic writings. He explains many places in Rashi's commentary, and gives quotations from more than a hundred authors. (Livorno, 1783.) Moses Chiquitilla. On Job. (Stuttgart, 1844.) He wrote also on the five books of Moses, on Isaiah, the Psalms, and minor prophets. Aaron ben Elijah, of Nicomedia. Keter Tor ah, " Tlie Crown of the Law :" on the Pentateuch. Edited, with Latin translation, at Jena, 1824. ORDER IX. HIPRESHIM. 413 Aaron ben Eliiiu. Oh the rcntatcuch. In Bom- berg's edition. Joseph Chivan. An exposition of the He])rew Psal- ter. (Salonica, 15:22.) FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Salomo Duran. On the Proverbs. (Venice, 1623.) On Esther. (Venice, 1632.) Abraham ha Saken, of Jerusalem. Mesliare Qitrin : a commentary on the seventy weeks of Daniel. Kaba- listic. (Constantinople, 1510.) Meir Aram a, of Saragoza. 1. Sefer Oorim vethum- mim: on Isaiah and Jeremiah. (Venice, 1608.) 2. Pe- rus/i S/iir: on the Canticles. (Amst., 1724.) 3. Perus/i Hioh : on Job. A philosophical commentary, (lliva di Trento, 1562.) 4. Meir Teldlloth: a philosophic com- mentary on the Psalms. (Venice, 1509.) Jacob Be Eab, Spanish exile. Licpite^ Shoshcniim : scholia on the prophets. (Venice, 1602.) Isaac ben Arama, of Zamora in Spain, and, after the exile, of Naples. An exposition of the Proverbs. (Con- stantinople, s. a.) Don Isaac Abravanel. See p. 290. Y.PerushHa- torah: on the Pentateuch. (Ven., 1579; Amst., 1768.) On Deuteronomy. (Sabionetta, 1551.) 2. Perush Ne- vijim Rishonim. (Pesaro, 1522.) 3. Perusli Nevijim Acheronim. (Pesaro, 1520.) Separate portions of these works have been published at various times with Latin translations; as, on Isaiah liii., by L'Empereur, who has given extracts, also, from the Yalkut on the same portion; (Leyden, 1631;) on the twelve minor prophets, by Pranc Husen, (Leyden, 1687,) and on Jonah, by Palmeroot. (Upsala, 1696.) Buxtorf has printed parts of AbravaneFs commen- taries on particular topics, in separate dissertations ; as, 414 HEBREW LITERATURE. on the leprosy, the new moon, the longevity of the patriarchs, and on the poetry of the Hebrew Bible. Abravaners commentaries are replete with erudition ; he was fond of going at large into a question, and his works abound with excursus which sometimes exhaust the subject and the reader too. There reigns as well throughout his expository writings a mahgn animus against Christianity, or rather against Catholicism. He wrote with a strong feeling of resentment, which he and his had received from the dominant men of that profes- sion in Spain. It amounted, indeed, to an implacable hatred. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Bresch Lowe. The Pentateuch and Meg'illoth, trans- lated into Jewish German, with illustrations from the Rashi commentaries. (Basil., 1583.) Moses Almosino. Yedey Mosheh : a commentary on iht 2IegillofJi, in a philosophical spirit. (Salonica, 1572.) Samuel Almosino. Perushim al terey asar : in the Frankfurter Bible. Samuel Laniado, of Aleppo. 1. Keley Chatnda, "The desirable Yase : " (Jer. xxv, 34 :) exposition of the Parashas, midrashistic and allegorical. (Yen., 1596.) 2. Keley Yal-ar, " The precious Yase : " (Prov. xx. 15 :) on the former prophets, collected from various sources. (Yen., 1603.) 3. Keley jja^;, "The Yase of pure Gold : " a large commentary on Isaiah. (Yen., 1657.) R.Shimon. On Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. In Bomberg. Tomtov Shalom, Leqach Tov, Commentary on Esther. (Constant., s. a.) Obadja Sforno, of Rome. On the Pentateuch, Psalms, Job, Song, and Koheleth. Abraham Menachem Porto, of Eurth. On the Pentateuch. ORDER IX. HIPRESHIM. 415 Moses Albelda. Oloth Tamid: disquisitions on the books of the law : exegetic and philosophical. (Ven., 1526.) Solomon Abenmelech, Spain. Scholia on the Old Testament, condensing the essence of Kimchi. In Bomberg's and Buxtorf's editions. Aaron Abu Aldari. On the Pentateuch. Printed with those of Almosino and Albelda, at Constantinople. . Moses Alscheich, Palestine. 1, Deharim Tovim, "Good Words:'' on Koheleth. (Yen., IGOl.) 2. Deharim Nechonim, "Comfortable Words:" on La- mentations. (Yen., 1001.) 3. Chahatsdeth ha Sharon, "The Rose of Sharon:'' on Daniel. (Safet, 1568.) 4. Chelqafh Mehoqeq, " The Portion of the Lawgiver : " on the Book of Job. (Yen., 1603.) 5. Maroth Hat- sovoth 'J< n on the former prophets. Maroth Hat- sovoth '1 n on the latter prophets. (Yen., 1595.) 6. Perush al Terey asar : on the twelve minor prophets. (Furth, 1765.) 7. On Euth, the Megilloth, Proverbs, and Psalms. (Each at Yenice.) Samuel xIrepol. 1. On the alphabetic Psalms, and the Songs of Degrees. (Yen., 1576.) 2. On the Canticles. (Safet, 1579.) Elijah Ashkenasi. On Esther. (Cremona, 1576.) Baruch ben Baruch. a twofold commentary on Koheleth, giving, 1. The simple word-sense. 2. An allegorical exposition. (Yenice, 1599.) Obadja di Bertinora, the Mishnaist. 1. Ferush al Mufh. 2. On Canticles and Koheleth. (Each at Yenice.) Elisha Galicho, of Safet. On Esther. Like all the writings of the Safet men, thoroughly kabalistic. (Yenice, 1583.) On Koheleth. (Yenice, 1548.) On the Song and the Mefjilloth. (Yen., 1587.) Isaac Jaabez. Torath Chesed : a commentary on the Hagiographa in Frankfurter's Bible. 416 IIKBREW LITERATURE. Josef ibn Jachja, born at Moreuce, of an expa- triated Portuguese famiiv, Perush al Tillim, al Megilloth, al Mashalim re-al Baiiiel ; (Bologna, 1538;) and on the Psalms in Praukfurter. Jacob ben Asher, surnamed Baal Ha-turim, from his great ritual work, the Arba Turim. 1. Perusk al Ha-torah: a commentary on the Pentateuch. This has alv/ays been a popular book among real students of the Hebrew Bible. It is largely enriched from the works of Moses Nachmani, and the older expositors. (Last edition, Hanover, 1838.) 2. Parperaoth al Ha- torah, explications of the Pentateuch : on words and doctrines, intended as an auxiliary to the commentary. (Const., 1500; Venice, 1544.) To be found also in the Rabbinical Bibles, and in several editions of the Pentateuch. Josef Kara, Prance. 1. Perush ha-torah: a glos- seme to Rashi. 2. Perush Neviim, founded on Rashi : only edited in part by De Rossi; (Parma, 1785;) and Dukes, (Eslingen, 1846.) 3. Perush al Job: on the same plan : MSS. at Milan, Paris, Oxford, and Padua, where Luzzatto has published some portions. 4. Perush Megilloth, of which only some fragments have been edited. Matathja ha Jizhari, of Smyrna. Midrask ha- aJphabevthoth : an exposition of Psalm cxix. Pirst edited at Const., s. a.; subsequently in the Mldrash Tillim. (Ven., 1546.) Philip d'Aquine has given a Latin translation in his Comm. Pahbinonm in Psalm cxix. Jacob d^Illescas. Imre Noam, " Pleasant words : " a commentary on the Pentateuch. 1. Literal. 2. Alle- gorical. 3. Kabalistic. (Const., 1540 ; and in Frank- furter's Bible.) Abraham Katsenelnbogen, BeraJcath Abraham : an exposition of Koheleth, ethical and philosophical. ORDER IX. IIIPRKSIIIM. 417 Samuel Laniado, of llalub. 1. Deraslias, or honii- letic expositions on the rentateucli. 2. A commentary on the greater prophets, a compihition. (Each at Venice.) Shabtai BEX Abraham. 1. A connnentnrj on the Psakus: brief, and generally good. (Mantua, 15(;2.) Translated into German. 2. On the Proverbs. In Bomberg. Samuel ben David. On the Pentateuch : a large work in five volumes. ]\Ianuscript in the Bodleian. • Mardechai Lorta. a commentary on the Targum to the 2Ieni, " discourscrs ;" and such as were more zealous for the cor- rection of the people's morals than for their indoctrina- tion with the niceties of the Talmud, had the name of ■mochichhii, "reprehenders, or rebukers.'" Such was the state of public instruction among the Ashkenasim Jews far into the eighteenth century, when a better day began to dawn, which brightens still. Among the German synagogal preacliers in the ])resent day there are men inferior to none in learning and ability. We may add, that in London, and iu some of the provincial towns, the same order are becoming respectable for their biblical erudition and zeal for the improvement of their people. As specimens of the style of preaching which is gaining ground among the more enlightened and educated Jews of our ovm country, we may point out the two following volumes. 1. Ser- mons preached on various Occasions at the AA est London Synagogue of British Jews, by the Rev. D. W. Marks, Minister of the Congregation. (London, 185L) •2. Sermons, by the Rev. Abraham P. Meudez, ^linister of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation. (London, 1 S55.) u 434; HEBREW LITERATURE. In this order of Darslianim the following men deserve commemoration. TWELFTH CENTURY. Moses bar Nachman, Nathan Ha-darshan, Moses Ha-dars]ian_, Josef Haddain, Abraham bar Chasdai. THIRTEENTH CENTURY. Bachja ben Asher, of Zaragossa. Sefer Haderashoth : sixty discourses on dogma and morals. (Const., 1515.) Shemtov of Leon. DerasJioth. fourteenth CENTURY. David of Estella. A collection of sermons called, " The Tower of Da^ad." Isaak Kampanton, — whose face, the book Juclias'ni says, " was like unto the Shekinah/' — Simon Duran ben Zemach, and Joel ben Shiocu. fifteenth century. Isaak Arama. Driven from Spain in 1492 ; died at Naples. Aqedath IshaJc : philosophic derashas on the Pentateuch and megilloth, in which he unfolds what he deemed to be the true philosophy of religion. He strongly sets himself against Aristotle. (Salonica, 1522.) Jacob ben Chabib of Zamora, who died at Salonica ; David Vital, of Patros ; Salomo Molcho, Italy ; Moses Latif ; Salomo Masaltov. Joel aben Shoeb. Sermons entitled Nora tJielnloth: " Pearful in Praises.''^ Isaac Karo, of Castile. Toledoth Isaac. Expositions of the Pentateuch. Chajim ben Samuel. Tseror Jia-chaim : " The Bundle of Life.''^ Abra- ham Bokrat, of Tunis, author of a super-commentary on Rashi, and a celebrated preacher. ORDER X. DARSHANIM. 43; SIXTEKNTH CENTURY. Samuel Chagis, Mebaqcsh Yehovah : " Seeking the Lord." Twelve discourses oil the Pentateucli. (Venice, 1596.) Elia ben Chaiim, Constantinople. 7wm/ S/tt^/'cr .- "Words of rieasantness." (Venire, 151)0.) l^fenacliem Egosi, of Constantinople. Expository discourses on Genesis. Jehuda Ari, or Leo di iModtiia. Midbar Je- huda : a collection of discourses at Venice. (Ven., 1002.). Isaak Adarbi. JJc/j/rj/ S/ialoiii : " ^^'ords of Peace." (Salon., 1580.) Moses Galante. Dermholh. (Venice, 1598.) David di Pomis, of Otranto. Closes Alniosino. Meametz Koach : "Strengthening Strengtli." (Ven., 1588.) Josef Samega. Mikrai Kodcsh : "Holy Con- vocations.'" (Ven., 1586.) Sanuiel Jehuda ben i\reir. Denis/wU. {Yen., 1591.) Liwa ben ]5(>/;del. Ik'niahoth. (Prague, 159.':i.) Shemtob ben Josef. Berusholh. (Padua, 1507.) Jehuda Muscato. Nephulsofh Jehuda : "The dispersed Ones of Judah." (Ven., 1591.) Josef Karo, of Safet. Eifty-two sermons. (Salonica, 1799.) ' Jacob Zahalone, Eerrara and Rome. Tifteu enwih le Jacob, " Thou wilt perform the Truth unto Jncob : " Sermons on the Pentateuch. Moses Alpalas, of Salonica. Vajikahel Moseh : sermons preached at Salonica, Venice, Ragusa, Tetuan, &c. (Venice, s. a.) Salomo Levi. Dehrey Sulomo. (Venice, 1596.) Samuel Laniado. Kelei/ Chamda: "The desirable A'ase." (Ven., 1590.) SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Abraham AsuLAi. (Died at Hebron, 1044.) Berashas, with the title of Ahahatli Bavid, "The Love of David." (Livorno, 1799.) Israel Benavista, of Constantinople. Sefer Beth Israel, " The Book of the House of Israel :" fifty-two discourses : u 2 436 HEBilEW LITERATURE. seven on the Pentateuch, seven on penitence, seven on various duties, and thirty-one funereal. (Const., 1678.) Josef Chasan, of Smyrna. En Yosef, " The Fountain of Joseph : " homilies on Genesis and Exodus, preached at Constantinople and Smyrna. (Smyrna, 1680.) Abraham Conchi, of Hebron. Abeq Soferim, " The Dust of the Scribes:" sermons on the Pentateuch. (Amst., 1702.) Asaria Pigo, of Venice. Binali la-ittitn, " The Under- standing of the Times :" seventy -five sermons. (Ven., 1G53.) Gottlieb ben Abraham, of Lemberg. Sefer Ahabafk ha Slieni: derasJtas on the love and fear of God, in which the passage of Deut. x. 12 is illustrated from fifty different points of view. (Cracow, 1628.) Josef ben Mardechai, of Jerusalem. Behreij Josef: on various themes. (Venice, 1715.) Josef Kosbi, of Constantinople. Benishey Raf Yosef. (1736.) Baer Ledier. Deruskim, kabalistical. Sefer Atereth Rosh : a collection of sermons for the New Year, &c. (Kopust, 1821.) Sal. Efraim Lenczy, of Prague. Five volumes of homilies on various subjects and occasions. Naftali Ashkenasi, of Safet. Imrey Shefer. (Ven., 1601.) Abraham Laniado. Magan Avraham, "The Shield of Abraham :^^ seventeen sermons. (Ven., 1603.) Joshua Bigo, Safet. MalJci Jelmda, "The Kings of Judah:" fifteen sermons. (Lubhn, 1616.) Josef Zarfathi, Adrianople. Yad Josef . (Ven., 1616.) Josef Trani, Constantinople. Zciphneach paneach. (Ven., 1G53.) Levi Kosin. Aliyath kir qetana, "A little Chamber on the Wall :" (2 Kings iv. 10 :) sermons on the Pentateuch. (Ven., 1636.) ORDER X. DAUSHANIM. 1^7 Cliajim ben Abmliani, Aleppo. Tor^ifh luirhnn, " Tlu- Law of the Wise." (Yen., Kl.") I.) Salomo Algasi. .Uuifjuth olam, " Kvorlastiiii,' \m\v." (101'7.) S/u'i//(i Salomo, "Hear Solomon." (Siiivrn:i, 1659.) jMoses de l^uschal. Yus/niKH'h Mosi/i, " Moses sluill rejoice." (Smyrna, llJSO.) Joshua Benbenaste. A:net/ Jehoshua. (Const., 1(577.) Aaron Terachja. Higdei/ Ko/uuia, "The Vcstmeiifs of the Priest." Preached at Saloniea. Josef Chasan ben Eha. En Yosef. (Smvma, 1()58.) Salomo Amarillo. Fenei Shaloiiio. (Saloniea, 171').) Isaac Usiel, of Amsterdam. Sermons. (1620.) Abra- ham Lombroso. Thirty Sermons. (Amst., 162*.).) Saul Levi Mortera. G'tbeath Hhaul. (Amst., 164-5.) Moses Zacuta. Joshua da Silva. Abraham Jizchaki, of Jerusalem. Samuel Algasi, Jerusalem. Elia Kohen, Smyrna. Shabtai No\n, of iUvschid. Samuel d'Avila, of Mekennes. David Nieto preached and died in London. In his epitaph he is styled yjr(^yrt/A;r _/«(•« //<^, "an eloquent preacher." Jacob Abendaua. Sermons in Portuguese. (London.) Menashe ben Israel wrote nearly live hundred sermons, which have not been printed. Abraham Isaak Castello of Livorna. Oracion doctrinal. (Livorna, 1753.) Isaak Cavallero, Venice. His sermons, with those of Muscato and Perez, are embodied in a collection entitled Pcrach Lebanan. Jedidja, of Cracow. Abraham Le\i, of Prague. Samuel Spira, of Kalisch. Josiah Pinto. Kesef Neba/iar, " Choice Silver ; " and Kesef Mezuqaq, " Retined Sil- ver." (Damascus, 1606.) Samuel di Medina, Ben Shamuel. (Mantua, 1611.) Mcnachem ben Moses, of Padua. i>^>-a^/^///^ (Yen., 1605.) Jacob Albo, Florence. Toledoth Jacob. (Yen., 1609.) Meir Angil, of Belgrade. Masoreth habberith : a collection of derashas on the 4-38 HEBREW LITERATrRE, Masoretic readings of the Old Testament. (Cracow^ 1619; and Mantua, 102:2.) EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. AsHER Anschel, Barshan at Prenzlau. Fourteen sermons delivered there. (Dessau, 1701.) Samuel d'Avila, of Salee, in ^lorocco. Ozen Shamuel: a collection of sermons in three divisions : the first con- taining five penitential ones; the second, five for the Great Sabbath, and five for KaUa Sabbaths ; the third, sixteen funeral discourses. (Amst., 1717.) Isaak Beraka. Berak hhal- : Discourses on the Pen- tateuch. (Venice, 1767.) Elijah Bondi of Prague. Zera Avrahaw, " The Seed of Abraham : " sermons on various moral themes. (Prague, 1832.) V\ olf Dessau. Six discourses in German and Hebrew. (Dessau, 1812.) Abraham Kohen. Kabod Hachamini, " The Glory of the Wise.'^ (Venice, 1700.) NINETEENTH CENTURY. Low Margalioth, Prankfort on the Oder. Etsey Eden, " The Trees of Eden : " important essays in the form of derashas. 1. Ets ha-chaiim, " The Tree of Life :" on faith. 2. Ets ha-daath, " The Tree of Knowledge : " on philosophy. 3, Ets erez t7a-^^?/<5, " The Cedar and the Hyssop : " on pride and humility. 4. Ets shatul, " The Tree planted by the Waters : " on attachment to the law. (Frankfort, 1802.) Jacob Dubno, preacher at Dubno. Ohel Jakob, " The Tabernacle of Jacob : " derasJias on Genesis. (1830.) Edouard Kiev, of Hamburg. Predigten in den nezten Tenqjel zu Hamburg (/ehalten. (Hamb., 1819.) ORDER X. DAKSllANlM, 18l> • Dr. N. M. Adler, of llauovcr and London. Jhn hraeliten L'lebe zum Vaterlande. (llan., IS.'H.) Dr. David ^rddola, of London. ( )n tlu- law alfcctin^ unity and peace. (London, l5S 10.) There are many otlier collections of sermons, hut these are all which I have now room to cnnmeratc. The list will give some idea of the extent and amplitude of syiiagogal instruction. Some rahbins have com[)osed treatises on the compo- sition of sermons, designed as help-books for |)nachers.- Such are the Nepliutmth Jehuda. (1572.) Ildhnatmlulk Udar- shan'im, "The Defence of the Preachers." (Lublin, 1548.) Asifoth Shelomoh, "The Collections of Solomon." (Amst., 1725.) Nehalath Shevieoni, "The Inheritance of Simeon." (Wandsbeck, 1728.) Or Haddarslianhii, " The Light of Trcachers," by Jacob Zahalone. And the Imreij S/iefer : a pulpit commonplace-book, by N. Altschul. (i602.) 440 HEBREW LITERATURE. ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI FROM THE SIXTEENTH TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The Reforinatiou exerted a beneficial influence on both the Jews and their literature. Luther himself, amongst the just counsels which his far reaching voice was dictating to monarchs and their people^ advocated on the behalf of the Hebrews a more wise and really Christian policy toward them than that which had been displayed either in the licence given to the fitful passions of the multitude, the inordinate exactions of the rulers, the system of coercive conversion, or even the ill-judged endeavour to bring them into contact with the Gospel by compelling them by brute force to be present at certain times in the churches. Against all this he set his face, and urged, instead, the experiment of liberality and kindness, combined with honest and faithful endeavours to instruct them in the truth by the only book which could convince them of it, and make them wise to salvation, — their own too much forgotten Bible. "I wish," said he, "that people would deal with the Jews in a friendly spirit, and wisely instruct them out of the Holy Scriptures We Gentiles are only bro- thers-in-law and foreigners ; they are the blood-kinsmen and brethren of our Lord. Therefore my prayer and counsel is, that they should be dealt with gently, and instructed from the Bible. So might some of them be induced to come in. Yet now we try to drive them by force, and have recourse to all sorts of fallacious methods for convincing them. But while we thus play the fool, and treat them like dogs, how can we expect to do them good? And while we prohibit them from the use of ^ I use the term "order " here in the sense indicated in page 11. ORDER XI. JKVISII LITKUATI. Ill thrifty labour, and the privilcgi's of li-gitiinnto commcrcf, and so oblige them to betake themselves to the nefarious practices of usury, how can we reasonably expi-ct them to do better ? If we will be of any real service to them, it must be by showing them, not papistical, but Chris- tian love; by inviting them to have fellowsliip with us, and receiving them in a friemlly spirit. Tluis they will find both inchicement and fair rt)om to consort with us, and will hear our Christian doctrine, and see our Chris- tian lives."* These words of wisdom and charity, though thrown abroad hke seeds in a wintry day, had in them the imperishable germs of a sin-e, though slow, harvest. But the intluence of the lleformalion was more im- mediately benetic in the stimulus it gave to the advance- meut of Hebrew learning. While the revival of classical studies drew men's attention to the great master])ieces of ancient hterature, assisted in the creation of a purer taste in art, and opened to them a more ample range of secular knowledge, the long neglected urns of inspired truth were again unsealed, and shed forth their invigo- rating fragrance on the intellect of the church. The great questions of the times led the theologians of each ' Ich hoffe doss man tnit den Juden freundlich handelt und aiis der heiligen Sckrift sie weisUch unterweiset Wir sind Sc/itca/^er und Fremdlinge, sie sind Bluts-freunde uud Bidder unsers JJerrii. Drum ware meine Bitte uud mei/i Rath, dass man sdtiberlich mit ihneii iiuujingt, und aus der Schrift sie nnierrichtete : so mochten mehr etliche her- beikommen. Aber nun tcir sie mit Geica/i treiben, und (jehen mit L/igenfAeidu7iffen um und teas des Narrenwerkes mehr ist, dass man, sie gleich den Hunden halt, was sollen wir Gates von ihnen schaffen than ? Item was man ihnen verbeut zu arbeitcn, uud zu hantiren, und andere menschliche Gemeinschaft :u haben, da man sie ZH wuchern treibt, wie sollen sie das bessern ? Will man ihnen helfen, so muss man nicht des Fabstes, sondern Christliche Liebe an ihnen iiben, und sie freundlich annehmen, mitlassen werben und arbeiten, damit sie Ursache und Raitm gewinnen bei und vm uns zn sein, unsre Christliche Lehre und Leben zu horen und zu sehen. u 5 44-2 HEBREW LITERATURE. party to perceive the need of an appeal to the documents of revelation in the original languages, and the study of the Hebrew Bible was resumed with a diligence till now unknown. Nor could this new feeling gain the ascend- ancy in their minds, without exciting the wish to profit by the labours of those eminent Jewish scholars who had written not only on, but in, the language of the propliets itself. And with what energy and success these investi- gations were carried out and applied to practical account, they know who have become familiar with such names as those of Reuchlin, I'agius, Wolfgang Capito, Erancis Eaphelengius, John Drusius, the Buxtorfs, and Sebastian Munster, in Germany and Switzerland ; Louis de Dieu and Nicolas Lyra, in France ; and the Italians, Santes Pagninus, Pico da Mirandola, and Bartolocci.^ Nor were the Jews themselves without a new move- ment in the same right direction. With many of them the claims of the Bible above the Talmud began to be more fully understood, while the language in which it was written was at lengtli recognised, as it should always have been, as the true standard of Hebrew composition. The consequence was the abandonment, by some of the leading Jewish literati, of the crabbed style of the rabbinists, and the strenuous endeavour to regain the simple, pure, and majestic Hebrew of Moses, David, and Isaiah. The learned pursuits of these Israelitish scholars were carried on with many discouragements, arising from their unsettled state in the various European countries. They toiled after what they deemed to be truth both in storm and calm ; not only in seasons of quiet and com- petence, but under the depressing effects of want, and while smarting from the violence of persecution. The * We should add, in England, Rudolpt, professor of Hebrew at Cam- bridge, and Richard KnoUes, vicar of Sandwich. ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. 44-3 effects of this unwearied zeal will be apparent by glancing at the array of learned productions created by the Jewish scholarhood of that era. It is true, a great proportion of them may be deemed by us Christians to be almost or altogether wortliless ; but in one conclusion we shall be all agreed, — that the elaboration of sucli massive works by men so situated betokens a heroism of the mind and heart which challenges our admiration and respect. I. In Geriiany and Poland, rabbinical studies had taken the lead of, or rather had excluded, all others ; and even now the Jews of those lands held longest by the old traditions. It was now that their principal academies in that part of the continent had their commencement. Such were the schools of Prague, Lemberg, Brody, Lublin, Cracow, and Furth : the school at Worms, earlier. Under the direction of Jacob Falk the syllogistic method of argumentation was introduced into the Hebrew academies on the model of the Christian uni- versity exercises in the Middle Ages ; but this expedient never found favour among them, and was ultimately abandoned. It was Falk who probably introduced the practice of intoning the Talmud and the Scriptures, With him were contemporary Joshua Falk,^ Moses Isseiies of Cracow,*^ and Salomo Luria' of Ostrow, a man who had the reputation of being much before his age in freedom and expausiveness of thinking. Joseph ben Mordecliai Gershon of Cracow, Salomo of Lublin, and Moses Luria, are also held in high esteem. Lowe BEN Bezalel, " who Conversed with the emperor Rudolf,^' ^ Commentaries ou the Arba Turim. « 06.1573. Authorof7bm/i//flo/«//,"TlieLawoftlieBunitOffermg," (Prague, 1569,) and Torah ha chattath, "The Law of the Sin Offering;" (Cracow, 1570:) works on the ritual of the sacrifices. ^ Not the Kabalist, whose name was Isaac. Salomo wrote large discussive novellas on the Talmud, and commentai'ies on the litm-gy. 444 HEBREW LITEEATURE. aud of whom tlie Jews say tliai "all Israel drank of his waters, and walked in his light." He founded the academy at Prague called the Klaus, in 1593, and taught there for fifteen years. Works : Gehurath Ilashem, " The Power of the Lord : " on the deliverance of Israel from Egypt; in seventy-two chapters. (Cracow, 1582.) Nets'iacli Israel, " The Victory or Triumph of Israel : " on the duration of the exile, the coming of the Messiah, and the resurrection. (Prague, 1599.) Or Chadash, "New Light :" a comment on Esther. (Prague, 1600.) A super-commentary on Eashi, and several Talmudical works. Isaac ben Abraham, of Troki, died in 1594. He was of the Karaite school, but is best known as the author of the Chizzuk Emuna, " Fortress of the Faith,' an (intended) demonstration of Judaism against Chris tianity. (Amst., 1705.) First printed by Wagenseil with a Latin translation, in his Tela ignea Satance. (Altdorf, 1681.) Compare Joh. Philip Storr, Evan gelische Glaiihenskraft gegeti das Werk Chmuk Emima (Tubingen, 1703.) Abraham ben Matatja wrote the popular Kuh- buch, a collection of moral lessons in fables on beasts and birds, in Jewish Dutch. (Berne, 1555.) David Ganz, of Prague, [ohiit 1613,) the author of Zemacli David, " The Branch of David," in two parts ; the first is a chronicle of sacred and Jewish history, from the Creation to the year 1592 ; the second, entitled Yamoth Olam, " The Days of the World," recounts some of the events of secular history. (Prague, 1592; Furth, 1784.) Ganz, though a great man with the second-hand class of writers on Jewish history, is not considered a good authority by the critics. Jost, speaking of the Zemach David, says, that it is geistlos und ohne waJil verfasst. This work must not be con- ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. 445 founded with another, with the same tilU% by David de Pomis, an Itahan Jew. The lattiT is a Hebrew, l.aliii, and ItaUau Dictionary. Elijah Loanz ben ^Ioseii diinl in l(!o<), at Worms. His great proticiency in the Kabahi was recognised by the Jews in giving him the surname of Baal S/teiti. So deep was the veneration which his k'arning and labours among them had inspired, that the synagogue at AVorms made an ordinance tliat no one shouhl be buried within four yards of the place where he rests. Works : Riniiaih Dod'uii, "The Song of the Beloved ;" a kabal- istic commentary on the Canticles, composed in the spirit of the Zohar. (Basil, lOOG.) 2. Mildol Joji, " The Perfection of Beauty : " an exposition of Koheleth, in the same style. (Amst., 1695.) 3. Various com- mentaries on the Zohar, on some of the works of Isaac Luria, on tlie Midmsh liahha, and a collection of Teddnoth, or devotional hymns. (Basil., 1599.) Naftali Kohen, a man whose life was full of in- cidents which would give a biography of him the air of a romance. He was born about 1650, at Ostrow, in the Ukraine, and, while a youth, was carried off by some Cossacks, who took him away into the wilds of that country ; where he lived among them several years in the employments of a hunter and shepherd. He learned to excel in horsemanship and archery, in wliich he took great delight all his life after. At length he succeeded in making his escape from the Tartars, and travelled into Poland. Here new impulses stirred within him, and his naturally vigorous mental powers were roused to earnest efforts after learning. He made such pro- gress in the study of the Talmud and Ivabala, as to be considered worthy of ordination to the rabbinate, and was subsequently elected chief rabbi at Posen. In the Rabbinen-haus in that citv there might some time ago. 446 HEBREW LITERATURE. and may yet, be seen, in the antechamber, two stags' horns, which had once belonged to him. His studies in the Kabala turned not only on the theoretical, but principally on the practical department of the science ; and lie was at once admired and feared for his supposed ability to command the intervention of the supernatural powers. But this taste for the recondite and mysterious was combined in Eabbi Naftali with that love for the music of the heart and mind which gave itself expres- sion in a variety of hymns and anthems for the use of the synagogue and the family. After leaving Posen he took charge of the Hebrew congregations at Frankfort on the Maine, where, as in Poland, he enjoyed for a time a high reputation as an expounder of the law, and a kabalistic hierophant. But in 1711 there occurred a frightful conflagration, which will never be forgotten in Frankfort, and in which all the Judeustrasse was burned to ashes. In this woful calamity poor Kohen shared a heavy part, as he not only lost through it his little property, but his office and reputation as well. As a potent kabalist, he was called upon by the distracted people, whom he had deceived by his pretensions, to bring into exercise those supernatural resources of which he had so often told them, to stay the progress of the fiery flood that threatened to overwhelm the entire city. He was weak enough to make the trial. AU in vain. No amulet he could write, no names he could pronounce, would so much as extinguish a spark. This sad exposure, combined with the circumstance that the fire had first broken out in his own house, turned the popular feeling of the Jews against him, and Eabbi Naftali was once more obliged " to grasp the wandering staff," and begin the world anew. He now bent his steps towards the place of his birth, and ended his days in connexion with the synagogue at Ostrow. ]\Iany ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. 44'7 curious notices of hira may be i'ouiul in the Judische Merkwurcl'i(jl-eiten of Johaiiu Jacoh Seluidt, who, I be- lieve, was a rector at Frankfort at the time of the tire. Works of Naftali Koheu : — Talmudic : — BirckatJi ha-shem. Coiiinicntaries and novellas on the treatise Bemkoth, with an mtrochicliuu to the Talmud at large. (Frank., 170:!.) Sefer Mesek lta-:cra. Counncntaries on the Order Zeralm. MS. Kabalistic : — Fl Ycsharim. An introduction to the Book of Genesis, and especially on the word BereshUL A tract of twelve leaves in folio, (l-'rankfort, 1702.) Poetical : — Beth Rachel. Prayers and Hymns. (\A'ilna- Grodno, 1815.) Selichofh. Penitential Hymns, with annotations. (Frankfort, 1702.) Moral:— The Testament of R. Xaftali llakohen. (Wilna, 1803.) Naitali Altschul, a printer in the city of Prague, 1649, where his father Asher Altschul had carried on the same profession, wrote a commentary on the Hebrew Bible, simple and grammatical, compUed from the best authorities. The title is Ayalah Shelucha, from the allusion in Gen. xlix. 21. The text is in Hebrew, and the notes in Jewish German: in six volumes. (Amst., 1778.) He was also the author of Imrey Shefer, " Words of Beauty : " a help-book for preachers, in thirty-two sections of common- places, arranged iu alphabetical order. (Lublin, 1602.) Perdixaxd Frakcis Engelsberger, a Bohemian. His original name was Chaiiai Engelsberger. This miserable man was a double apostate, — first from Juda- ism, and then from Christianity. On his second transition he wrote the infamous Toledoth Yeshu, so full of blas- phemy against the Saviour ; a book which is now held in 448 HEBREW LITERATURE. abhorrence not only by Christians, but by all en- lightened Jews. The editions have neither place nor date.^ The LiJpscHUTz^s, Abraham, Efraim, Chaim, Ge- DALJA, and Elias, were all eminent as scholiasts on the great talmudic and ritual works. Efraim wrote a much esteemed derasha commentary on the Pentateuch. Nathan Spira (so called from the city of Speier). There were two rabbins of this name. The first died at Grodno in 1577, a commentator on Misrachi ; the other, a rabbi in Cracow, [ohiit 1633,) was the author of some pieces in mystical theology. Jacob ben Isaac, of Prague, a descendant of the family of Eashi, died in 1628. He was the compiler of the Zeenah U-reenah, more commonly called Die Frauen Bibel, a Midrash upon the Pentateuch, Megillotk and the Haftaras, in Jewish German. This work, which is held but in small reputation by well educated Jews, consists of a mass of worthless hagadoth. The first edition is Amsterdam, 1648. There have been many since, the book being an amusing, if not an instructive, one. We ought not to omit to name to her honour the Jewess Rebecca Tikkiner of Prague, (about 1625,) who wrote in German on the duties of women. Among the rabbins of the Polish school mention should be made, too, of Yomtov Lipmann Heller, whose works as a Tosafist have given him great repute with the Jews; and of Mordechai Mauschel, who built a splendid synagogue in Prague, furnished it with gold and silver utensils, and with rolls of the Thora written * J. J. HuLDRiCK. published an edition of this work, with a Latin translation and refutation. Liber Toldet Jem, cum Versione et Refuta- tione. (Leyden, 1705.) See also Wagenseil's Tela Satance. ORDER XI. JE^VISII LITERATI. 4ii) by himself. He also erected a public bath, jjavcd the Judemtrasse, and maintained several poor raljbins out of his own fortune. Jechiel Heilprin, of Minsk, 1728, composed tlie Seder Ha-doroth, a chronicle of Jewish history and literature. It consists of three parts : 1 . Scilcr i/emofk olam, "The Order of the Days of the World:" or chronicles of historic events from the Creation to the author's own time ; to which is added a list of the most eminent Jewish teachers. %. Seder /la-Tanaim veamo- raim: an alphabetical catalogue of the ^lishnaist and Talmudic doctors. 3. Sheiuoth haali ha-meehaher'nti ve- kol /la-sofarlm: an alphabetic index of Hebrew literati. (Karlsruhe, 1769, folio; Zolkiew, 180S.) Heilprin wrote also a useful Flebrew and rabbinic dictionary adapted to the Rahhoth, Sifra, MeklUha, Yalknt, and the works of the kababsts. (Dyrhenfurt, 1806, folio.) There are several treatises of his, of solid value, yet in manuscript; one, a body of sermons, and another, a large commonplace book, comprising collectanea from several hundred authors. II. In Italy the studies of the Jews took, at this period, a higher and wider range than those of their Polish and German brethren. The influence of Abra- vanel aud the Spanish Jews who had come into that country after their expulsion, contributed greatly to this result ; aud the admirable spirit with which the Hebrew printing press was conducted by Bombcrg" and others, gave an encouraging impulse to enterprise in that branch of learning. The eldest son of Abravanel, Don Jehuda Leon BEN Isaac, who settled at Genoa as a physician, was an accomplished scholar. His Italian work, Blaloghi ' Bomberg employed some luindi'cds of learned Jews in conncxiou with his presses. 450 HEBREW LITERATURE. di Amove, contains disquisitions on tlie doctrines of neo- Platonism, the symbolic of mythology, the Hebrew Kabala, and the Arabian philosophy. (Iloine, 1585 ; Yenice, 1607.) It exists in Frenchj Spanish, and Latin translations, all made in the sixteenth century. Don Jehuda was a good mathematician and an amateur in music. He is sometimes called Leo Hebrseus; more commonly by the Italians, Messer Leone. Elias Levita, 2)roperly Elija ha-Levi ben Asher AsHKENASi, though a native of Germany, spent so much of his life at the great seats of learning in Italy, as to be identified with the literary Jews of that coun- try. He was born at Neustadt on the Aisch in 1471. On the expulsion of the Jews from his native city he went to Venice, where he completed his education, and entered on the profession of a teacher. Erom 1504 to 1509, he taught Hebrew with much success at Padua; but in the latter year, suffering the loss of his property by the sacking of Padua, he returned to Venice, which he again left in 1511, and after three years of wander- ing settled at Home, where he gave lessons in Hebrew to Cardinal Egidio. When Eome was besieged by Charles V.^ Levita was robbed of his little all by the imperial soldiers, and once more found his way to Venice. In 1540 he formed a connexion with Paul Fagius, the learned typographer of Isny, where he edited many works for the press. Levita^s own produc- tions are among the choicest in the department of Hebrew philology. 1. Sefer Ha-hachur :'^ a grammar. (Home, 1518.) With notes. (Basil., 1612.) With Latin translation by Munster. (Basil., 1543.) %. Sefer Haharkavah : a word-book explanatory of the ^ He has himself, generally, the cosriiomen of Ila-lachiir, " The Bachelor." OUDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. !•.')! most difficult forms. (Ivoine, l.')10 ; Prague, 17!'-"5.) Latiu translation bv Munster. (Basil., 1.')-^.').) 3. Tuv Taam : eight chapters on ilu- llchnw acctnfs. (Yeuicc, 1538.) An abridged Tjatiii transhition i)v Mini- ster. (Basil, 1.539.) 1. Pirk' EUahit : another Hebrew granunar, (Son- cino, 15^0,) aud Latin translation, (i^asil., 1539.) 5. Masoreih Hit-nhimref/i : introduction to tiic study of the Masora. (Basil., 1539.) Latin translation by Nao-cl; (Altdorf, 1757 ;) CIcrnian ditto by Sender. (Halle, 177^.) G. Mefurgetiian: an Aramaic word-book for the Tal- mud and Targuras. (Isny, 1511.) 7. Sfiemoth Bt'hanm : a dictionary, Hebrew, GermaTi, Jewish German, and Latiu. (Isny, 151:2.) 8. Tishfj'i : a vocabulary of more than seven hundred words used in Jewish literature, but as yet not found in other dictionaries. (Basil., 1527; Grodno, 1S05.) 9. S/iiri)H : poems and elegies. (Venice, 15 15.) 10. Other works: the Targum on the Proverbs, with glosses. The Psalms with Kimchi's notes, A concordance. [Sefer Zikroimili.) Notes on the Scfer Jcfsira, written for Cardinal Egidio, and some annota- tions on the grammatical works of Moses and David Kimchi. To xABRAnA:\[ de Balmes, a physician, who became professor of philosophy in the university of Padua, we are indebted for an excellent Hebrew grammar, which was brought through the press, immediately after the author's death, by Kalonymus : Miqiwh Ahrahavi. (\ en- ice, 1523.) De Balmes translated the works of Aver- roes from Arabic into Latin. Edited, Venice, ISi^. Abraham hex Samuel Zakut, or Sacuto, was living in 1492 at Zaragossa, and went forth with his people from Spain at that disastrous exodus. He had been 452 HEBREW LITERATURE. professor of astronomy, and had read lectures in that science before the royal family ; and in that department he is the author of a perpetual almanack of the planet- ary motions. (Venice, 1502.) But Zakut is best known as the author of the Sefer Juchas'm, " The Book of Generations :" a well known chronography of Jewish teachers, more especially those of the Tanaim and Amo- raim, of which there have been many editions. There was another Zakut, Moses ben Mordechai, of Venice, 1650, who wrote annotations on the kabalistic works of Luria, and had the reputation of being an elegant poet. His epitaph says, that "his lips speak even from the sepulchre :" Al ken sephathaif doheboth ha-qeber ; an allusion to the saying in the Talmud, that every disciple of wisdom who has spoken what needs to be heard in this world, will yet speak from the tomb. {Jevamoth, 97.) Gedalja ibn Jachia, ben Don Josef, of Imola, was the author of another work of the same class as the Sefer Juchasin ; namely, the S/ials/ielet/i hahkabala, or "Chain of Tradition/' in three parts, of which the first part only is the Shalsheleth, or literary chronicle of rabbinism; the other parts take a wider sweep, and comprise a variety of subjects in natural history, pneumatology, economics, and history. It was begun in l549, at Eavenna, but carried on in several other places in Italy, where, in his unsettled life, he resided at various times. (Zolkiew, 1801.) Another Ibn Jachia, Josef ben David, was born at Florence in 1491, and died, exhausted by excessive study, in his forty-fifth year. Besides liis commentaries on the Scriptures, noticed under the Perushim, he wrote a celebrated work on the theology of Judaism, entitled Torah Or, " The Law of Light." (Bologna, 1538.) Solomon, Samuel, and Abraham Usque, of a Spa- ORBKR XI. JEWISH IJTKRATI. \')l^ iiish fnmilj \vlui settled in Italy. The iirst wrote in Spanish a translation of the 7f/W of Petrarch, a tra- gedy on Esther, and a poem on the llexaiMneron. lie dedicated this work to C!ardinal Borronieo. Sanuiel Usque published at Ferrara, in 1553, " Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel," in which he gives graphic descriptions of the sull'erings of the Jews since the ruin of Jerusalem downward, and descants on their hopes as founded on the Divine promises. Al)raham i)riuted at Ferrara, in 1573, a Spanish translation of the Hibh-, "word for word from the Hebrew." This work is some- times erroneously ascribed to David Kimchi. Josef ben Joshua ben Meir, ha-Skfaudi, born, in 1 197, at Avignon, where his family had found rest after the exile, has the reputation of being one of the best Jewish historians since Joscphus. Debree Haja- mim : a chronicle in two parts; the first from the Creation till 1520, and the second of transactions from that time till 1553. (Venice, 1554.) English transla- tion by BiaUoblotsky : " The Chronicle of K. Joseph," &c. (London, 1834.) Samuel Arkevolti, of Padua, (1525,) esteemed for his labours in Hebrew philology. He is the author of Arugath Habbasem, an extensive grammar, of which the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh chapters are devoted to the accents, the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth to style, the thirtieth to steganography, and the thirty- tirst and thirty- second to the modern Hebrew metres. (Venice, 1602.) He wrote also the Deyel Ahabah, an ethical work; (Venice, 1551;) the Maayan Gannim, "The Fountains of the Gardens," a series of model pieces on Hebrew style; (Ven., 1553;) and edited the Aruh of Nathan Jecliieli. (Ven., 1531.) Abraham Tarissol, of Eerrara and Avignon, (1525,) composed the Iggereth ArcJioth 01 am : a cosmogony 454 HEBREW LITERATURE. and geography, in which the fabulous preponderates over the scientific. (Prague, 1793.) J^atin translation by Hyde. (Oxford, 1691.) Meir Isaac Ivatsenelnbogen, of Pndua, carried on an extensive correspondence with the Oriental and Western rabbins of his time on tolmudical subjects, of which the substance may be found in his Teshuvoth. (Yenice, 1553.) Imanuel ben Jekutiel, of Benevento, a kabalist and grammarian, published a large work on the Hebrew language, at Mantua, 1557, in 138 chapters, with the title of Llveyath Chen. At his own expense also he edited the Tlqqnne)/ Zuhar, after an ancient manuscript ; (Mantua, 1557 ;) and the Sefer Maarelceth Haelachoth, a kabahstic work of Perez Ha-kohen. (Mantua, 1558.) A similar character was Menachem Asaria di Pano, of Mantua, who edited, at his own cost, the C'hesef Mishne of Josef Karo, a commentary on Maimuni's Yad Hachazal-ah ; an enthusiast in kabalistic studies. Di Pano purchased the manuscripts of Isaac Luria for a thousand zechms, and became himself a voluminous author in that branch. His principal work is the Esreh Meamiroth: ten dissertations on kabalistic sub- jects, a book of colossal erudition, of \vhich the parts were published at different times and ])laces. The first three at Yenice, 1597. David di Pomis, a physician of Eome and Yenice, 1575, was a master in Hebrew criticism. He had the esteem of Pope Sixtus Y., to whom he dedicated his Zemach David, a tetraglot lexicon, Hebrew, Chaldee, Latin, and Italian. (Yenice, 1587.) He also edited the book Koheleth, in Hebrew and Itahan, with illustrations. In his other occasional writings, Di Pomis laboured to bring Jews and Christians into a better understanding of the true principles of their rehgious systems. OrvDER X[. .IKWISII T.ITKKATI. 455 AsAKiA Di liossi,^ a native of Mautiia, and long a resident at Ferrara, was the author of one of the most interesting works in Jewish literature, the Mror Kiuij'tm. ("Light of the Eyes") It consists of three jwrts: 1. Kvl FJoh'im, "The Voice of God :" a (hs(iiiisition on earthquakes, occasioned by a calamity of that kiiui which had occurred at Ferrara in l.')71. :h llnhatk Zeki'iiini, "The Glory of the Aged:" an aeeoiint of the Septuagint version of the Bible, ehietly from the tradition of Aristeas. 3. Iinrei/ B'nuih, " Words of Lnderstanding:" a series of articles, historical, philo- sophic, and critical, on many subjects relating to Hebrew learning and antiquities, in which he displays a large circle of reading not only in the writings of his own nation, but in the classical authors of Paganism and the fathers of the Christian Church. This book, though not distinguished by scientific correctness or historical accuracy, has lun-ertheless always been a favourite among Hebrew scholars. (Mantua, 1574. ) Jehuda Aim da Modena, (commonly known as Leo of Modena, from his Hebrew name Ari or Ariah, "a Lion,") was born in the old Ghetto of Venice, in 157 L He held the office of chief rabbi in that city, and died in 1G4S. His works are, — 1. Sod Jesharim, "The Secret of the Just :" a collec- tion of natural phenomena. (Ven., 1595.) 2. Zemach Zadiq, "The righteous Branch:" ethical fables. (Ven., 1600.) 3. Midhar Yehuda: a collection of homilies and funeral orations. (Ven., 1602.) 4. 8iir Mera, "Turn away from evil :" (Psalm xxxiv. 15, Hebrew :) a dialogue on gambling. It has been translated into Latin, German, and rrench. - Rossi, i. e., roth or " red." The family are called in Hebrew Edomim. 456 HEBREW LITERATURE. 5. Galuth Yehula, "The Captivity of Judah :" a dictionary to the Bible, in Hebrew and Italian. (Ven., 1612.) 6. Leh Ha-ariah, "The Heart of the Lion:" on the art of memory. (Ven., 1612.) 7. BetJdehem Yehuda: a word-book for the Talmud. (Ven., 1625.) 8. Pi Aria//, "The Mouth of the Lion:" a word- book, rabbinical and Italian. (Ven., 1648.) 9. Riti : a history of Jewish manners and customs. (Ven., 1638.) This work, by which Leo of Modena is best known among us, was translated into Trench by Simon, and into English by Ockley. There is also a translation in Dutch, which was executed upon the French work of Simon, and not from the original. For the poetical works of Leo, see under the Peitanim. Abraham Jagel, of Monselice, last quarter of the sixteenth century. Author of a well known Jewish catechism of doctrine and morals, entitled Leqach Tob. (Venice, 1587.) A book which has been often re- printed, and was translated into Latin by De Veil, Doc- trina Bona, with the Hebrew text ; (Loudon, 1679 ;) and by Carpzov, Odhel, and Van der Hardt, on the Continent ; and into German, Bus Buck von Guten Judischen Lekren. (Leipzig, 1694.) Rabbi Jagel afterward entered the Christian church, when he was baptized by the name of Camiilo. He wrote, beside the catechism, 1. Beth yaar haleianon, "The House of the Porest of Lebanon :" 200 chapters on the peculiarities of Juda- ism. 2. Esheth CJiayil, "The Woman of Strength:" on the duties of a wdfe : Prov. xxxi. 10. (Venice, 1606.) 3. Moshia Chosim, "Trusting in Salvation:" on prayer, as a refuge in times of pestilence. (Ven., 1587.) Mardechai Jafe ben Abraham resided in 1561 at ORDER XI. JEWISH I.ITEK.VTl. -l,")? Yeiiice, \vlic'ucc, during a persecution of the .Imvs, he retreated to Boliemia, and became rabbi in the syna- gogues of Grodno, Lublin, Kreinnit/, and Prague. He is the autlior of the Lehusuim, a series of ten works, which hold a high place in the classics of modern Judaism. The geni-ral title of the seric^s is Lehusli MaU'ttfh, "Eoyal Apparrl," iVoai Esther viii. 15; and the collection itself is sometimes called Scfer Lefjus/i'nii. It consists of, 1. Lebtisk Tekehlh, "The purple Kobe." 2. Lehmh Ha-chor, "The AVhite Vest- ment.^^ 3. L. Atereth Zuliab, "The Crown of Gold." 4. L. Ilahaiz Veargam, "The Vestment of tine Linen' and Purple." 5. L. ir ShusJiau, "The Vestment of the City of Shushan." Compare all these expressions in Esther viii. 15. These five treatises turn upon the subjects of the ritual codices of the Arhaa Titr'nti of Jacob ben Asher, (see page 202,) and the S/iiilc/uni And: of Josef Karo. (Page AGo.) The remaining five Lelusliim are exegetical, kabalistic, and philosophical ; dz., 6. Leh. Ha-ora/i, " The Robe of Light :" a com- mentary on some of the talmudic works of llashi. 7. Leb. sunclia ve-sason, "The Garment of Joy and Glad- ness:" sermons for wedding festivals, kc. (Esthcrviii. 16.) 8. Leb. j)inaili yik rath, "The precious Corner (Stone):" (Isai. xxviii. 16 :) exposition of parts of the Moreh Xecu- chhii. 9. Leb. Ader hai/eqar, "The Robe of Magnifi- cence :" a disquisition on astronomy, with special refer- ence to the manner of celebrating the time of the new moon. All these works have been published separately, in several editions, and some of them with commentaries and super-connnentaries. David Askoli (1559) wrote an apology for the Jews against the oppressive measures of Pope Paul IV., for which he suffered imprisonment. David Colorxi, of Mantua, (15SS,) was diplomatic X 458 HEBREW LITERATURE. agent for the Duke of Ferrara, at Prague. He wrote well in Italian on miscellaneous subjects. Abraham Porto, of Cremona, (1583,) produced a commentary on the Pentateuch, and an introduction to the Kabala. Another Porto, in Padua, wrote on astro- nomy and geography. In Yenice, Aaron ben Chaiim (1609) laboured in biblical exposition ; and, in the same city, Imantjel Aboab wrote his Nomologla, in Spanish : an elaborate defence of oral tradition, pub- lished afterwards at Amsterdam. Jacob Lombroso, of Venice, edited the Hebrew Bible with introduction and commentary. (1639.) Chaiim Kohen, born in Turkey, and died at Livorno, a diligent commentator on the Bible, had the misfortune to lose his manuscripts by shipwreck. Mention should also be made of Obadja Seforno, who was deeply skilled in Hebrew criticism, and who left a commentary on the Pentateuch and Psalms ; and of Debora Askarelli, of Eome, who made a translation into Italian of the Hebrew poems of Moses Eieti. See Peitanim. The SoNCiNi. This appellation designates a Jewish family, who won a lasting name by their early and extensive enterprises in Hebrew typography. They were of German origin, and may be traced to the city of Spire ; but take the name by which they are best known from Soncino, a small town in the Cremonese, where they established a press, from wliich issued a number of valuable works in Hebrew literature. Wolf, in his Bihliotheca Hebraa, says,^ that the earliest use of Hebrew letters in printing occurs in the treatise of Peter Niger, Contra perfidos Judaos de Conditlonibus veri Messice, where the name Yehovah, and the words BeresMth hara, are given in Hebrew type ; and that the first entire books printed in the language were the 3 Vol. iii., p. 941 : vol. iv., p. 447. ORDER XI. JEAVISII LITKRATI. 1.')'.) Choshen Mid pat and Elen User of Jacob hen AsIut, at Pheibia, (Pieve di Sacco,) iu 14.7S. Put tlic fact is, there were previous editions of the Ar(/,i Tiirim of that author,— one at Mantua in MTO, and another, yet earher, at Pieve in 1475. Nor is even this hitter one the earliest Hebrew book ; for De Hossi lias ascertained the existence of a Psalter, with David Kiuichi's commen- taries, with the date of 11.72, (no place,) which may be considered the lirst specimen of ilchrew tv]K)gra])hy now known. The hrst production of the Soncini press is the trea- tise Bentkof/i, dated 1181. The printer was Joshua- Solomon ben Israel Nathan, who was the head of the family ; and with him was associated his brother Moses, whose son Gerson established a ])ress at Constaiitinople, of which the earliest issue I can iind is the M'lklol of E. David, in 1522. In the preface, the printer speaks of himself as " Gerson, a man of Soncino, the son of K. Moslie, the sou of the wise and excellent R. Israel Nathan ben Samuel ben llabbi Moshe, being of the fifth generation from the Kabbi Moshe of Spirah." The firm subsequently extended their operations by erecting presses at Naples, Brescia, Pano, and other places. I will here set down a list of the other principal Hebrew printing establishments in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Amsterdam, where the work began very early, and was carried to great perfection by the family of Athias. Basle. The first city in Switzerland which patronized the art. Barco, in the Milanese. A book of Sellchoth was printed here by Gerson ben Moses Mentzlan, in 1-197. Bologna (Bononia). The Pentateuch printed by Chaiim di Pisaura, in 1482. X 2 460 HEBREW LITERATURE. Cracow, sixteenth century. Djrhenfurt, Pentateuch, 1693. !Ferrara, so early as 1476. riorence; Frankfort on the Maine and Oder; and Furth. Gisnium, near Constantinople : a Masoretic work on the Pentateuch, in 1598. Haleb or Aleppo ; Ham- burg. Isny or Ysni, in the Algau. Pagius set up a press there about 1542. Leiria, in Portugal : Proverbs, 1492. Lublin in Poland, 1559. Mantua: a part of the Arba Tit rim, 1476. Naples : the Psalms, 1487. Pesaro, in the Duchy of Urbino, 1504. Pheibia (Plebisacium, Pieve di Sacco). Prague. Reggio, or Regium, in the kingdom of Naj)les. The commentary of Jarchi on the Pentateuch was printed here by Abraham ben Garton in 1475 : a small folio in rabbinical characters, rudely done, with neither signatures nor numerals. Riva di Trento, or Rieff, a small town in the Tyrol, on the Lago di Garda, sixteen miles from Turin. 1560. Sabioneta, or Savioneta, in Italy. An important establishment, 1551. Pirst carried on by Tobias Poa. Tedesco was editor and corrector, and Jacob ben Naph- tali the printer. When this press was put down by authority, the types were removed to Yenice, and employed in the edition of the Bible in 1615. De Rossi enumerates thirty-four editions of Hebrew works from Savioneta, between 1551 and 1590. The earliest is Abravanel on Deuteronomy. The books printed here are remarkably neat. There are four books at present known, the earliest of which is the Orach chaiim of Ben Asher, which have the name of the place where they were printed given as ORDER, XT. JEWISH LTTEllATI. 401 '^^?tt^"'^il It is questioned whetlior this means Sora in Italy, Soria in Spain, or Ixar, a town of Arragon. The printer is Eliezer ben Ahinta. De Rossi thinks they are of Spanish execution. Salonichi, Thessalonica, estahlishcd about 1 l'.)7. The chief typographer was Don Jehuihi bin (icihilja, and his family. Venice. The Hebrew jiress of this city is distin- guished for the splendour ol" its ediiions of the IJible, as well as for a multitude of other works. Daniel Homberg, the great Venetian printer, was a native of the Nether- lands, and removed from Antwerp to Venice. I lis great Rabbiiiical Bible, with the commentaries, is an imperishable monument to his fame. The corrector of Bomberg's press was Jacob ben Chaiiu), a native of Tunis, who also wrote the preface to the Bible last mentioned, and a work on the Masora of the entire Old Testament. Reverting to our rabbins, we come next to those, — III. In the OrroMAN dominions. I have before rae a list of more than six hundred Hebrew scholars who taught or wrote in various parts of the Byzantine and Turkish countries from a.d. 1500 to 1750. Some of the earlier were refugees from Spain, and others their descendants. Most of them are known only by their names, as found in such records as the Kore ha-doroth ; and the works of the more notable are chiefly on the monotonous casuistry of the Talmud. Of these we may set down, — MosE KLvpsoiJ, teacher and judge in the old Roman- esque congregation of Jews at Constantinople, 15U0. Elia MisiiACHi, or the Oriental, called also Elia Paruas, of Constantinople. Between these two a sharp controversy was maintained about the admission of Karaite cliildreu into the rabbinical schools. Kapsoli 462 HEBREW LITERATURE. denounced the practice as illegal ; Misrachi argued not only tliat it was lawful, but highly expedient, as a means of bringing them to conform to rabbinism. He laboured much in the cause of Jewish education, and wrote a 8efer lia-mispar , treatise on arithmetic. Other works : Chadashim, a collection of novellas on the Talmud, and a super-commentary on Rashi's Pentateuch. There was another Kapsoli, Elia of Candia, who wrote a quasi-historical work, the Seder Eliahu. Obadja di Beetinoro was born in Italy, but died in Palestine, where he finished his well known com- mentaries on the Mishna. They are found, with a Latin translation, in Surenhusius's edition of that work. Jacob Berab was a colleague of Bertinoro's at Safet, and published a collection of scholia on the prophets, with the title of Llqatey Shoshmiim, "The Bundle of Lihes.'^ In Frankfurter's Bible. Israel ben Israel Moses Nagara, who, on leaving Spain, settled at Damascus, was a poet and musician. 1. Zemiroth Israel: a collection of poems in three parts. (Safet, 1587.) 2. Mesacheqeth he-tevel, Prov. viii. 31 : a metrical homily on contempt for the world. 3. Meviey Israel, "The Waters of Israel :" a melange^ poetical, epistolary, and oratorical, arranged under six heads, designated by the waters mentioned in the Bible. (1.) Meij ha-Shiloah. (2.) Mei/ MenuchofJi. (3.) Me?j Merihah. {^.) Mey Metsor. {h.) Mey Zahah. (6.) J% ha-Marim. (Ven., 1600.) We are told, that at Damascus Nagara used to attend the Mahometan mosque service, to bring away their choicest tunes, which he would adapt to Hebrew hymns. David ibn Jachia left Portugal in 1492, and prac- tised as a teacher of the sciences at Constantinople. He died in 1543, in Italy. To him scholars are indebted for two good works : LisJion Limmodim, a large grammar ; ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. tG3 and Sliekel ILikkodesJi, a treatise on the metric and poetical laws of the new Hebrew dialect. Josef K.\ro, a Spanish exile, who lived snccessivt-ly at Nicopolis, Adrianople, Saloiiica, and at Sal'et, where he died in 1575. He is the author of two works of great authority : — I. The S/i'uU'haw Ariilc, " The Table arranged : " a compendium of rabbinical law and usage. It is com- posed on the model of Jacob ben Asher's Arhaa Tiirim, that is to say, in four parts : tht; Ornc/i C/iaiiin, Yore dea, Ehen ha-ezer, and C/ioshen Mis/ipat. (Compare page 5i62.) Each part is divided into hahdcas, cliapters, and sections. The book is written in good Hebrew, and in a clear and concise style. (Venice, 15(17.) Each of the four ])arts has been often pubhshed separately with and without commentaries. 3. Bet/i Yoset': a commentary on the four Tnriin of Ben Asher. In addition to these and some other talmudical writings, Karo composed a collection of dt-ra- shas, and an unlhiislied exposition of the Pentateuch. Moses Alsheich, of Safet, a disciple of Karo, dis- tinguished himself as a biblical commentator. See Pernshim. Moses di Trani taught at Safet, 1570, and wrote the Keriafh Sefer and Beth Elohim. lie had the title of "The Light of Israel." IsAAK Karo, a Castilian, and uncle to Josef, retired, in 1592, at first to Portugal, and then to the Holy Land ; lost his children and his books on the p:vssage ; lived as a recluse at Jerusalem, where he Mrote the Toledoth Isaak, a commentary on the Pentateuch, partly literal and partly kabalistic. At Constantinople, Samuel Jafe, about the same time, read his homilies on the midrashim on the Pen- tateuch. He afterwards published them under the title 46^ HEBREW LITERATURE. of Jafe Toar, al BereshitJi, Shemotk, and Ta-yihra Rabba : on Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. He extended a similar course to the midrashim on the Mefjilloth, the Song, and the hagadoth of the Palestinian Talmud. At Jerusalem, Menachem di Lonsano (1600) culti- vated poetry with the severer studies of the law. He wrote, Bereh Cliaivm, " The Way of Life : " moral poems, with commentary. Fizmonim : a book of hymns. Abodatli hamikdash : a description of the temple service. Or Torah, on the masora of the Pentateuch; and a supplement to Nathan's AruTc. Abraham Zahalon removed from Spain, and became a resident at Safet, where he wrote, 1. Marphe ha- nephesli, " The Healer of the Soul : " on repentance and conversion. 2, Yad charutshn, "The Hand of the Diligent : " a treatise on the Hebrew, Christian, and Mahometan calendars. 3. Yesha Elohim, "The Sal- vation of God : " a commentary on Esther. Safet, once a large place in Galilee, has been for a long time a seat of Hebrew learning in Palestine. The school there kept up a distant representation of that of Tiberias. Wealthy Jews were in the habit of sending their sons to be educated at Safet, from the purity of the Hebrew spoken there. The rabbins of that school were nearly all strong kabalists. Josef Salomo del Medigo, born in Candia, 1591, of a family which had been driven from Bavaria in a time of persecution, and had first settled in Italy, where Josefs grandfather was a physician and professor of philosophy at Padua, and then in Candia, in which island it is said they built the first synagogue. Josef was educated at Padua, and on returning to his native place, finding liis Italian ideas unsuited to the meridian of the Candiote synagogue, commenced a wandering life, in which he practised as a physician in Egypt, Turkey, ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. 4G5 \Ya.llacliia, Poland, Kussia, Doiimark, and liiially in Holland. At Constantinojilo ho had conmionci'd the study of Kabala, which lu'ncfforth absorbed much of his attention. At Padua he had studied astronomy under Galileo, and enjoyed tlic society of Ijco da Mixh-na and Sanuiel Lu/zatto. At Constantinople he began the study of Kabala, in which he became an enthusiast. In Amsterdam he exercised the oiHce of Rabbi, and had the friendship of Mcnassc ben Israid. Purposing a journey into the East in search of Hebrew mauuscripts, he died on the way at Prague. Principal works : — S/icrcr Yose/': a cosmology. Se^ fer EUm : mathematics and astronomy. Maaj/tm Ganini, "The Fountain of the Gardens : " natural science. Twi- lumoth hachma, "The Secrets of Wistlom:" kabalistic. NoMoth hacJima, "The fallen Fruits of Wisdom : " and, in addition to these, several other minor treatises, chietly on kabalistic subjects. David Confouti, who went from Italy to Palestine and thence into Egypt, where he died in l(i7 I-, wrote the Sifer Kore lla-doroth : a compendium of rabbinical liistory, founded on the Sefer ha-Kahala, Jnchasin, un- published manuscripts, and oral information from rabbins in Italy, Turkey, Palestine, and Africa. (Venice, 17G1-.) Best edition, with indices, 184^6, It was first edited by David Ashkeuasi of Jerusalem, to whom the authorship is sometimes, though wrongly, attributed. I have mentioned here and there several works of this description, and will here set down a list of them at one view. I. The Teshuvoth Rabbenu Sherira Gaon. 2. Seder Tanaim va-At/ioraim, written about 884. 3. Sefer ha- Kahala, by Abraham ben David. 4. Jichuse Tanaim va-Amoraim, a biographical dictionary, about 1210. h. Sefer Jucliasln, by Abr. Zakuto. G. The Kkzur Seehcr X 5 466 HEBREW LITERATURE. Zadik of Joseph ibn Zadik, contains a clironicle down to the taking of Constantinople. 7. The Sefer l)or Dor va-Jiachamaif, "The Generations and their Teachers : '' a chronographj from Adam to Maimonides, by Saadja ibn Danan. 8. The PetichaiJi heth Avoth, or introduc- tion to the Pirl-e Avoth, by Yidal Salomo, condenses the materials of Sherira and Abraham ben David. 9. A similar work is an anonymous Seder Hachamim. 10. The Shalsheleth ha-Kabala of Gedalja ibn Jachia. 11. The Zemach David of Rabbi Gauz. 12. Heilprin's Seder ha-doroth. 13. The Dehree hayamim, by Joseph ben Meir. 14. Chaiim Asulai's Sliem Ilagedalim. 15. Dr. Julius Fiirst is engaged on two works which^ when completed, will be of great importance in this branch : his Kultur mid Liter atur-gescliicMe der Juden in Asien ; and his JJrhunden zur GescJdchte der Juden in ihren Originalsprachen gesammelt tmd mit einer Deiitschen Uebersetzung versehen. Of each of these the first part is already pubhshed. IV. In the Netherlands. At Amsterdam, Ant- werp, Rotterdam, and other places in the Low Countries, the Jewish community received numerous accessions by the influx of the first Spanish refugees in 1492, and subsequently by the arrival of many more who had suffered, as '^New Christians," {i..e., Jews at heart, but Papists by constraint,) from the tyranny of the Inqui- sition ; but who found opportunities to quit the land of their bondage, and to join their brethren where the political events of the times had created such changes as insured them the freedom in the profession and exercise of their own faith, of which they had been deprived so long. In Amsterdam these Sefardim Jews erected some new synagogues, the first of which they called Deth Jacob ; then, in 1603, another, called Neve Shalom or Friedenswohnung, " The Dwelling of Peace ; " ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. UM and some years later, a Ihird, with tlir luunc of JhU Israel. In 1639 another yet was bnilt, in connexion with a scholastic editice, which was named T/di/wiul Thora. A still more beautiful erection was nndiTtakcn by the Portuguese congregation in l(i7l. A printiug establishment was also organized by some members of the same congregation, which becanie well kuown for the beauty and correctness of tiio works it issued, not only in Hebrew, but in the Latin, Spanish, Dutcii, and Portuguese languages. Of the numerous rabbins and scholars who taught in connexion with these Dutch congregations we should, record the names of, — Salomo BEX ViRGA, a pliysiciau, expatriated from Spain in li92. He wrote tlie !S/tcfct Jehiula, "The Sceptre of Judali :" an historical collection commemora- tive of the suflerings of the Jews since the destruction of Jerusalem; a well-known book, which has been translated into Latin, Spanish, and German. Moses Raphael d^Aguilar and Isaac Aboab, who headed a colony of six hundred Jews desirous of forming a settlement in the Brazils, where, however, they were not permitted to remain. D'Aguilar and Aboab returned to Amsterdam. The former compded a Hebrew and Spanish grammar; and Aboab, in addition to several other treatises in philosophy and criticism, and a collection of SS6 Spanish sermons, wrote an elaborate commentary on the Pentateuch. (Amsterdam, IGSl.) Baruch de Castro, of Hamburg, whose father had been physician to the queen of Sweden, AM-ote on medicine, in Latin and Spanish. His Monomachia, sive Certamen medicum, (Hamb., 1647,) is worthy of the attention of medical men. David de Lara, of Hamburg, an excellent philolo- gist. Some of his writings relate to the niceties of Hebrew 468 HEBREW LITERATURE. grammar ; but his principal work is a comparative Tal- mudic lexicon, in which the Shemitic words are explained in Latin and Italian. It was the study of forty years, and extended in the author's MS. to tlie letter Resh; but the printing reached ouly to Yod. (Hamburg, 1667.) Uriel Acosta was of a "New Christian" family at Oporto. Dissatisfied with Popery, he emigrated to Amsterdam, and professed the rehgion of his Jewish forefathers. But his conception of Judaism had been formed by the reading of the Holy Scriptures ; and the contrast he found between his ideal and the Judaism of actual life, unsettled his belief, and brought liim into troublesome antagonism with the synagogue. His un- happy life was terminated by suicide. This unfortunate scholar left a work entitled Eremplar Humance Vita. It comprises a gloomy autobiography.^ Baruch Spinoza was born at Amsterdam, in 1632, of a Portuguese family. Like Uriel Acosta, he lived but on bad terms with the rabbins. His indifference to the formularies of the spiagogue, and his intimacy with Christian families, among whom he lived more habitually than with his own people, exposed him to the censure of the Jewish authorities, and brought him under their ban. Nevertheless, Spinoza remained true, both in life and death, to a certain profession of Judaism. In his early youth he made great proficiency in talmudical studies ; but his ardent love of knowledge led him to a more ample scope of inquiry than that of the rabbinic curriculum, and enabled him to master the Latin lan- guage, the mathematical sciences, and the whole philo- sopliic system of Descartes. The grand theological error with which the name of Spinoza is associated, was not Atheism, as is sometimes asserted, but Pantheism. * The good Isaac da Costa of Amsterdam is a grand-nephew of the ahove. ORDER XT. JEWISH LITERATI. 469 lie believed in the being of only one absolnte Essence, infinite, intelligent, and omnipresent, of which nil liiiile beings are limited appearances, or modi. This theory was the combination of what he had learned from the Hebrew kabalists, on the one hand, and from the metaphysical teachings of Descartes, on the other. The latter relation has been unfolded by 8ieg\vart, in his monograph JJeher den Zusammenhang des Spinozismus m'lf der Carfes'ianiscJien Pliilosnj^Jile ; (Tiibingen, 1810;) and the former one will come out to view by comi)aring Spinoza's theory with what we have said on the abstract principles of the Kabala. Spinoza himself was distin- guished by the tranquillity of his temper, a disinterested benevolence, and an unobtrusive and industrious life. AYorks : Benedicti de Spinoza Renatl Descartes Frlnci- p'la Philoso2)hia More geometrico demonstrata. (Amst., 1G63.) Tract atits Theologieo-Politicus. (1070.) 02)era Postlmma. (1677.) Don Balthasar Orobio, professor of metaphy- sics in Salamanca, was also a member of a "New Christian '' family, but suspected of secret adherence to Judaism. He was imprisoned in the Inquisition, where he underwent repeated torture, and was dismissed after three years' ordeal. Upon this he repaired to Amsterdam, and made open profession of the Hebrew religion. He wrote, " A Defence of the Law of Nature and Revelation, against Spinoza ;" " A Defence of the Mosaic Law," in a Letter to a Physician ; " Israel Avenged," a Jewish exposition of the j\Iessianic prophe- cies ; and, "An Investigation of the Divine Authority of Christianity." This last work was published, with a reply, by Limborch, with the title of Aiiiica Colla- t'lones cum erndito Judao. Menashe ben Josef ben Israel. This great man was a native of Lisbon, and belonged, also, to a " New 470 HEBREW LITERATURE. Christian" family. His father, having been pkindered of his property by the Inquisition, escaped from Por- tugal, and took refuge with his children in Holland. In 1623 Menashe succeeded Isaac Usiel in the rab- binate of one of the synagogues at Amsterdam, following at the same time the occupation of a printer. He signalized his name by many learned works. In 1656 he came to England, and obtained from Cromwell liberty for the establishment of a Portuguese synagogue in London. Returning to Holland, he died at Middleburg the following year, and was buried with great pomp at Amsterdam. Some of the most eminent Christian scholars of the time, as Huet, Voss, Episcopius, and others, were his personal friends. His wife was of the family of the Abravanels. The works of Menashe ben Israel are written in Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, Portu- guese, and English. The principal are, — 1. Sefer Peni Rahbah : an index to the midrashim on the Pentateuch. 2. El Conciliador : the reconciliation of apparent differences or contradictions in Holy Scrip- ture ; in four parts. Of this there is an English trans- lation. 8. Be la Resurreccion de los Muertes. Libros III. 4. De Creatione, Problemata XXX. 5. Nishmath Chaiim : on the immortality of the soul. 6. Vindicm Judaorum : an apology for the Jews, written, while at London, in Enghsh. Also, "An humble Address to the Lord Protector, on Behalf of the Jewish Nation." 7. Seder TefilotJi, " The Prayers of the Jews for the Year," in Spanish. 8. Esperanga de Israel, "The Hope of Israel." This, also, has been translated into Enghsh. In addition to these works and 450 sermons in Portu- guese, not printed, Menashe edited the Pentateuch and Psalter separately, the entire Hebrew Bible, and the Mislina, with short annotations. Isaac Cardoso, a Portuguese "New Christian," ORDKR XI. JEWISH LITERATI. 171 practised as a physician for some time in ^[adrid, but, leaving Spain, retired to Amsterdam, and resumed J uda- ism. lie died in Italy, in lOSl. Cardoso was the author of several works in medicine and natural history, but is best known by his book, l)e los ilurellt'iician ile los Ucljreos : on the jjreropitives of the Israelites; in which he expatiates on the privih'ges of the Jewish people, and refutes the calumnious charges commonly alleged against them. The privileges are, 1. The Divine election. 2. The seal of circumcision. '.\. The sabbatli. k The sacred law. 5. The gift of pro- phecy. 0. The Holy Lanch 7. The revelation of the one God. 8. National unity. i). Divers virtuous characteristics. 10. Separateness. The calumnies re- futed relate to, 1. False worship. 2. Impuritv. 3. Bloodshedding. l. Yindictiveness against Chris- tians. 5. Proselyte-making. (>. Disloyalty. 7. I'ro- fligacy. 8. Corrupting the text of Holy Scripture. 9. Destruction of images. 10. ^lurder of children. To the first part there is an emblematic vignette of a hand scattering ilowcrs from the skies, with the motto, " lie who dispersed will gather ;" and, to the second part, another of a rose surrounded by thistles, with the motto, ''Though they curse, I will bless." (Amsterdam, 1079.) Daniel Levi de Earkios, of Amsterdam, was another relapsed "New Christian," who died in 1671. Among his numerous publications in general literature there is an attractive book, entitled " The Chorus of the Muses:" [Coro de las Musos :) a poetical anthology in nine parts. 1. Urania : religious hymns. 2. Terpsi- chore: geographical descriptions. 3. Clio: eulogies of eminent persons. 4. Erato: love songs. 5. Euterpe: pastorals. 6. Folyhymnia: lyrics. 7. Thalia: frag- ments of comedy. 8. Melpomene : tragic pieces. 9. Calliope: didactic and moral. (Amst,, ltJ72.) 4^7 3 HEBREW LITERATURE. Josef Serrano, a professor in the school of Talmud Tkora at Amsterdam, gave a new translation of the Pentateuch in Spanish, with marginal glosses ; and Thomas de Pinedo put forth an edition of Stephanus Byzantinus, with critical notes, in which he acknow- ledges the beneficial influence of the Christian religion upon human society, in overthrowing superstition and in insuring freedom for the mind. The family of Athias in Amsterdam, Venice, and Ferrara, became celebrated not so much for their own writings, as for the beautiful editions of other authors which issued from their presses. Isaac Athias wrote a treatise in Spanish on the 613 precepts; and Joseph, the printer, contributed to the cause of biblical learning by his correct editions of the Hebrew Scriptures. The States-General of Holland decreed him a gold chain and medal, as a mark of their appreciation of his merit. He died in 1700. At this period there were several Jews in England who have left names in the annals of learning. Por examples : Isaac Abendana, who resided at Oxford, translated various treatises of the Mishna into Latin, and wrote the Calendarium Jnda'ienm, 1695. In Lon- don, Jacob Abendana translated the Kusari of Halevi. Joshua de Silva, hacliem of the Portuguese congre- gation, published some essays in that language; and David Phineas Nieto became eminent as an eloquent preacher. Born at Yenice in 1654, he was educated as a physician, but applied himself to the wider studies of Hebrew literature, mathematics, and philosophy. He practised medicine at Livorno, occasionally preaching in the synagogue, till he was called to the office of pre- sident of the Portuguese congregation in London. He wrote, 1. A disquisition on the paschal festival of the Christian Church, with the title of Pascalogia, in which OEDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. 473 he points out the causes of the differences between the Greek and Latin Churclies on the time of Easter, and between them and the synat'ot'ue on that of the Pass- over. The book is in Itahan, and is dedicated to Car- dinal de ]\[edici. 2. A treatise on Divine Providence, or dialogues on the universal law of nature. .1. On the Jewish Calendar. 4-. A contribution to the liis- tory of the ln([uisition : Kofwlaa rccoudilas del Pro- cedimento de las Imj^uisiciones d' E-fpanna i/ Portngnl. 5. Some pulpit discourses. 6. A supplement, or second part, to the book dmin, in Hebrew and vSpaiiish : an ar- gument against the Karaites. 7. Other poh-mical ])icces, among which is one against the doctrines of 8abbathai Zcwi, who at that time, as one of a succession of im- postors of the same class, had been making a sensation among the Jews as a pretender to the Messiahship." Though it does not fall within the jirovince of this work to detail the progress of modern Jewish literature, it seems proper to a})pend a few notices of it. In doing so we may observe, that towards the middle of the last century a marked altera- tion for the better began to unfold itself in the con- dition of the European Jews. AVar and change had overthrown many of the old relations of continental society, and the feudalism of the ^Middle Ages had given place to a more free developement of political and social life. The subject, whether Gentile or Jew, was no longer a vassal. The ecclesiastical unity so long maintained by coercion, had been disrupted by the effects of the Reformation ; and the spectre of ghostly power, by which Rome had held for generations the minds of millions under her spell, had lost its terrors. All these changes were advantageous to the Jews. ^ See the " Universal History," vol. ii. ; Jost, Geschichte, vol. viii. ; Basnage, Ilist.. liv. vii. 474 HEBKEW LITERATURE. The political temper of the age became more tolerant, and the religious spirit more enlightened and less fana- tical. It was still, and rightly, the purpose of the Church to convert the Jews to Christianity, but no longer its wish to persecute them. Henceforth the weapons of controversy must be spiritual, and not carnal. There was also in several of the European governments an increasing willingness to improve their civil status. In Italy itseK an edict of Charles of Naples and Sicily gave them, in 1740, the liberty of re-settling in that kingdom, wdth the privileges of unre- stricted commerce. In England the Jews' Naturahza- tion BiU, which passed the Houses of Parliament, and received the royal sanction, in 1753, though almost as soon repealed by the force of public clamour, showed nevertheless a more kindly feeling toward them on the part of' the senate and the government. In l78^-4;fe Emperor Francis, of Austria, published his celebrated toleration edict, which gave them a comfortable stand- ing in his dominions. At a later day their condition throughout Germany became, by legal emancipation, as easy in political and civil matters as they could reasonably desire; while in France the consequences of the first Eevolution, and the well-known measures of Napoleon, threw open to them those municipal rights and privi- leges, which they have gratefuUy improved with honour to themselves, and with benefit to the country. All tliis time there were hopeful changes transpiring in the inner life of European Judaism. The more thought- ful Israelites felt that, as a people, they should prepare themselves for the better future which was thus dawning upon them. They would be mentally and morally, as well as politically, free. So the contracting influences of Rabbinism began to give way before an impulse which led to a series of improvements stid in progress. ORDEU XI. JEWISH IJTKUATI. 175 This promising renovation became more fully ilclined through the labours of Mkndklssohn, of Ik-rliu, a man to whom his co-religionists have long since acknow- lodged a debt of imperishable gratitude. Moses Men- delssohn (Moseh ben ALendel ha-sofi-r) was the son of a poor Jewish schoolmaster at Dessau, and was born there in 1729. The knowledge of Hebrew which he acquired from his father, led him to love the Old- Testament Scriptures more than the Tabnud, and to seek to gratify his thirst for truth at the fountains of Divine inspiration. The study also of the M,>n/i Ami- chim of Maimonides, conlirmed his predilection for a more enlarged circle of study, anil more free ami true modes of thinking, than those prescribed by the usual rabbinical masters. Cast upon the world while yet a stripling, he bent his steps to the city of Berlin, and, through several years of the most utter poverty, toiled, day and night, in storing his mind with the treasures of knowledge. In this pursuit he was, after a time, befriended by some men, whom he was always fond of commemorathig as the kindly guides of his other- wise uncomforted and desolate youth. Such Mere Israel Closes, a Jew, who, like himself, was in very penurious circumstances, but an enthusiast in mat he- matical science ; Dr. Kirsch, a Jewish physician, who helped him in Latin; and Dr. Gumperz, from whose library he obtained books in modern literature. At length a rich silk manufacturer, llerr Bernard, of Berlin, employed him as a tutor to his children, and subsequently gave him a place in his firm as a partner. He now formed acquaintance with some of the most eminent German literati, Lessing, Nicolai, and others, and contributed to the leading periodicals of the day. His most strenuous efforts were, however, henceforth to be consecrated to the elevation of the mental and 47 G HEBREW LITEEATURE. moral character of the Israehte people, and he lived to accomplish a series of works which have rendered them, and many a Christian student as well, his grateful debtors. Mendelssohn was enabled not only to improve the intellectual and rehgious life of his own people, but to advance the progress of a higher education, and to develope more richly the resources of the Ger- man language. Some of his productions, wliich have raised him, indeed, to the position of a German classic, are distinguished by a beauty of style and a correctness of principle, which challenge the admiration of enlight- ened and good men. TTlio that has read, for example, his Platonic Dialogue on the Immortality of the Soul, will not desire to peruse it again and again ? In these excellent writings he became a kind of mediator between the intellect of Christianity and Judaism, and brought each into a better understanding with the other. Of the works of j\Iendelssohn, which, in all, amount to more than fifty, we enumerate, as the more valuable, — I. The Philosophical. 1. PJdlosophische Gesprdche. 2. Pope, ein Metapliplher. 3. Brief e {v.her Plato, Aristotle, Bescartes, &c.) 4. Ueher die Wahrschein- lichJceit. 5. BetracMtivrjen iiher die Qnellen und die Yerhindungen der ScJwnen Kihiste und Wissenscliaften. 6. JJeher das Erliahene tind das Na'ive in den Sclidnen Wissenchaften. 7. Ahhandlung von der Vnhorperlicli- keit der menschlichen Seele. 8. Uefjer die Evidenz in metapliysisclien Wissenchaften. 9. Phddon, oder iiher die UnsterhlickJceit der Seele. 10. Morgenstunj^en, oder Vorlesnngen iiher das Pasein Gottes. 11. Sache Gottes, oder die gerettete VorseJmng. 12. An die Freunde Lessings. II. Jewish. 1. KoJieleth Musar, "The Hebrew Preacher.'" 2. Perush le hiur miloth, &c. : an expo- sition of the terminolou'v of Maimonides, with German ouDEi; xi. jKwisii i,iti;i;ati. -177 translations. 3. Dcrunh qenlur /unn'Jed : on the union of the soul and body. 4. A reader for Jewish children, on the thirteen artiekvs of fnith. f). The ritual laws of the Jews regarding inheritance, wills, &c. 6. Jerusalem, oder iiher reVufiose Macht loid Jnih'u- tJiinn. 7. Specimens of Hebrew wisdom, from the Talmud and IMidrashim. III. Biblical. The Pentateuch, in Cierinan, with a commentary. The Tsalms, Canticles, and KoheUdh, in like manner. Of j\lendelssohn's fellow-labourers in the great work on the Pentateuch, Solomon Dubno and N. H. AVessely, we have already given some notices. Associated with them were Aaron Jaroslaw of Berlin, and afterwards rabbi at Lemberg, who executed the Book of Numbers ; Herz Homberg, rabbi in Prague, who laboured on Deuteronomy ; and Shalom Meseritz, of Berlin, who, with Dubno, contributed the masoretic portions of the commentary. These works on the Pentateuch were followed up by similar translations of the daily prayers, the Hagada for Passover, some portions of the Mishna, and, at length, the entire Macliasor for the Jewish year. I may here note, that Isaac Euchel, a native of Konigsberg, in 175G, and who had been educated at the University of that city, translated the liturgies of the synagogue into German, and wrote a biography of Mendelssohn, with a prefatory discourse in Hebrew. (Berlin, 17b9.) David Eriedlander, a native also of Kiinigsberg, a disciple and much honoured friend of the Berlin ])hiloso- pher, had been induced, as well, to undertake a trans- lation of the liturgies, which stands among the important works he gave to the world in Hebrew and German. In modern literature he had made himself familiar with the writings of Ilaller, Lessing, Herder, and others of 478 HEBUEW LITERATURE. that altitude ; and enjoyed the friendship of several of the learned men then living in Berlin. Greatly respected in the political circles of Prussia, he contri- buted not a little to the investiture of his Jewish brethren with the civil rights they now possess, and lived himself to be a stadtrath in Berlin. Priedlander's best works are, 1. Gehete der Juden. 2. Brief e iiher die Moral des Handels : on the ethics of commerce. 3. Filr Liehhaher morgenlandischer Dichtkunst. (Berlin, 1821.) Another step in the right direction occurred in the effort to improve the style of education in the Jewish schools. Up to this time they had been, in Germany and Poland, barbarously deficient in the elements of useful secular knowledge, while that which had the name of religious instruction had been confined to a course of lessons in the Catechism and Talmud. But education now began to take a higher character, and good schools, both public and private, were established in many towns of Germany, A-Ustria, Denmark, Prance, and even Poland and Kussia. In these establishments the purer vernacular language became the vehicle of instruction, and elementary books in the various branches of tuition began to be multiplied. [The course of study in the larger Jewish schools and colleges, in the present day, varies in different places in detail ; but the general system may be described as comprehending, — I. The Hebrew language and religion. 1. Syllables and vowel points. Pronunciation of the prayers. 2. Eudiments of the grammar. Some easy portions of the Pentateuch and haftaroth, with exercises on the accents. 3. Purther study of the grammar. More extensive Bible reading, with the Targum of Onkelos, and with exercises in written translation. ORDER XI. JF.WISH LITERATI. -IJO Some easy rabbinical author. Catechetical instruction. 4. The Bible, uith a cotnnientary. A more advanced rabbinical author, as portions of the Kituary of Karo, the S/iulc/ian Aruk. The Mishna. 5. Translations from the vernacular into Hebrew. Select treatises of the Talmud, the Slnilclian Aruk, and some t)f the writings of Maimonides. IT. Secular instruction. A\ ritinir, arithmetic, geo- metry, geography, the Trench language, merchants' accounts, historical and moral readings, and music. Female schools. Lessons iu reading Hebrew, and chiefly the prayers. The catechism. Select reading, writing, arithmetic, and needlework.] The process of amelioration next unfolded itself in the sf/unffogi'.e. First, in the character of the rabbinate. It was felt to be necessary iu meeting the wants of the times, that the Jewish clergy should be suitably trained for their office ; and this conviction led gradually to the founding of seminaries for the accomplishment of that important purpose. The throwing open of the universi- ties to the Jews has been the means of elevating the principles and taste of many of the synagogal teachers in Germany. Some of them, as Adler, IVankel, Ilex- heimer, Philipsson, and other doctors in ])hilosophy of various universities, have won a deserved reputation in literature and pulpit eloquence. The same remark applies to others of the order in various parts of the Continent, as well as in our own country and America. Secondly/, in the matter and manner of congregational instruction ; and. Thirdly, in the better regulation of the acts of Divine worship.® These changes, however, were • Israel Jacobson, (born 1768, died 1828,) president of the consistory in AVestphalia, and a privy counsellor of state, did great service ia promoting these improvements, in founding schools and synagogues, preaching in an able manner himself, promoting literature, and up- holdinz the civil rights of his nation. 480 HEBEEAV LITERATURE. uot accomplished in a day. There was a world of old prejudices to be surmounted, before they could be properly set in train ; and it is only of late years that any thing like satisfactory results have been arrived at. The good work is yet in progress. Already in a multitude of congregations the devotions are more intel- ligent and reverential; some parts of the service are performed in the common tongue ; the organ has been introduced in the psalmody ; and homilies, often of a striking character, are statedly delivered from the pulpit. In short, in these assembhes the services of the syna- gogue may be said to approximate to those of the Christian Church. Greater attention is also being paid to the religious edification of the Jewish women;' and the beautiful ceremony of confirmation for the young people of both sexes has been adopted by many synagogues. These transitions from the obsolete rabbinical regime have not interfered with, but rather advanced, the true cultivation of Hebrew scholarship among the Jews. Their learned men have since this new developement transcended their predecessors of all ages in real science, accurate philology, and amplitude of oriental research, whether in languages or antiquities.- So nu- merous are the exemplifications of this in the present century, that it would have an invidious appearance to record some few names, where our space forbids the pleasure of giving a more fuU catalogue. But each name may be taken as the type of a class. In the department of mental philosophy : — Salomo Maimon, born in 1753, in Lithuania. A metaphysician of the school of Kant. The range of his studies may be seen by a glance at the subjects of his principal works. i. Versiich ilher die transcendental-Philoso- ' See the works of tlie late Miss Grace Asruilar. ORDER XI. JKWISH LTTKK.VTI. 481 2)hic. 2. P/dlosop/iische Worierhuch. .'5. Leber die Progressen der Pliilosophie. 4. The Categories of Aristotle. 5. A conimentary on the Novum Organon of Bacon. 6. A commentary on the Moreh Nevuchim. 7. Some twenty -five dissertations in ethics, law, science, and .Tsthetics, ])rinted in various periodicals. There is a Life of Maimon by R. P. Moritz. In the criticism of rabbinical literature, we must name CiiAii^r Josef David Asulai, a native, I believe, of Hebron, where his grandfather, Abraham Asulai, had devoted his hfe to the study of Kabala, and published the Chcsed Abraham, an exposition of the leading ar- ticles of that science. Chaiim Josef, his grandson, removed to Europe, and died at Livorno, in 1807. His son, Nissim Serachja Asulai, passed a literary life at Safet, and perished there in the earthquake of 1837. Chaiim Asulai was the author of about fifty works in many branches of Jewish learning, but is best known by his Shem Ha-gcdolim, a bibliographical history of Hebrew Hterature. (First part, Livorno, 1774; second part, 1784.) Vead la Hachamhn: a continuation of the 8hem HagedoUm. (Livorno, 1796; second part, 1798 ; further appendices in 1796 and 1801.) It would be Avell if we had an entire edition of these several portions. Among Asulai's other writings are derashas on the Pentateuch ; a commentary on the same part of Scripture, and another on the Meg'illoth and Psalms; commentaries on the Zohar and the Pesnch hagada ; and an Introduction to the Talmud, following the track of the usual methodologies, ami comprising the rules of Saadja Gaon, Maimonides, and Pczalel Ashkenasi. But in this branch of research who has excelled more than Dr. Leopold Zunz ? among whose multifarious writings there is one work which alone woidd ini[)riiit Y 482 HEBREW LITERATURE. the author's name with immortahty. I now refer to Bie gottesdienstUchen Tortrdge der Juden historisch entvnckelt. (Berlin, 1832.) Tlue lovers of rehgious song have also to thank him for his more recent volume on the synagogal poetry of the Jews. Another illustrious teacher of the same school is Eabbi Salomo Juda Rapoport, of Leraberg, the learned author of the Amhe Shem, or biographical and characteristic portraitures of eminent Israelites, espe- cially of the Talmudic and Geonastic times ; and separate writings of the same kind in the Bikure ha Itim, in biographies of Saadja Gaon, Eabbenu Nathan, Hai Gaon, the poet Elazar Qahr, and Eabenu Nissim. He has also published, under the title of Erek Milvm, a linguistic and archseological lexicon. The poetical contributions of Eapoport in the Bikure may be ascer- tained by the cipher "1 • "• " tt^ For talmudic learning in general, a masterly effort was made in the last century by a man whom I should have named among those of his contemporaries in- scribed on a former page. Isaac Lampronti of Ferrara, who died in 1756, undertook a large real lexicon, or encyclopaedia of rabbinical archaeology. He gave it the title of Pachad Isaac, (''The Fear of Isaac,") and lived to bring it down in manuscript so far as the letter Mem, in twelve volumes. It was published at Venice between the years 1750 and 1813. Professor Salomo Munk of Paris has also enriched our literature with several treatises bearing on the learning of the past. Such are, 1. His Notice stir Rahhi Saadia Gonn, et sa Version Arahe d'Isaie. 2. L'ln- scription Phoinicienne de Marseille. 3. Notice sur Aboul-walid Merwan. 4. His edition of the com- mentary of Tanclmm of Jerusalem; and, 5. His "Pales- ORDER XI. JEWISH LITFUATI. 483 line ; " " Di'-fcripfioH rjeoijrapfiique, h'ldonqve, et orcJien- log'ique : " all ])ublishe(l at Paris. In Oriental Philoloijy we are indebted to Y)u. Julius FiJRST, of Leipzig, for some of the most useful books for the accurate study of the Sheniitic languages, while he has revealed more clearly than any other man the points in which they stand related to the Sanskrit and Indo-European tongues. Such are, 1. His Lchrgehaude der Aram. Idiom, mit Bezng auf die Indo-Germanischen Spraclien. 2. The Perlensclmitre Aramdischer GnoniPi} vnd Lleder. 3. His Concordance to the Hebrew Bible, and a large number of studies on Eastern and sacred literature in the Orient, a well known peri- odical, of which Dr. Eiirst is the editor. I have already had occasion to mention his history of the Jewish schools, under the title of Kulturgeschichte der Juden in Asien, of which only the first volume is yet publislicd. We are also expecting from him the com- pletion of a bibliography of Jewish authors already in progress, with the title of Bibliotheca Jndaicu. In History, and especially that of the Hebrew nation, it is enough to mention the name of Israel Jost, though we might add several others, and among them those of Hersfeld and Kaphall. In Mathematics, that of Michael Creizenach, of Frankfort; in Medicine and Anatomy, Wolf David- soHX, of Berlin, and Judah Eliasberg, of Wilna ; and in Natural History we may refer to the numerous works of Marcus Block of Ausbach, and especially to his Ichfi/ologie, in twelve volumes, folio. (Berlin, 171)5.) Several of the Jewish literati have done good service to their own people, as well as to many other readers, by some able and spirited periodicals. Such were the Mcasef and the Bikure ha-iiim already referred to; and such have been subsequently the Jedidja, conducted by Y 2 484 HEBREW LITERATURE. Dr. Heinemann, at Berlin; the Sidamith, by Dr. Prankel, of Dessau ; the Zeitschrift fiir die JFissenschqft des Judenthums, by Dr. Zunz ; the Homiletic Zeitschrift of Dr. Philippson, of Magdeburg ; the IFissenschqftliche Zeitschrift fiir Jildische TJieologie, by Dr. Abraham Geiger, of Wiesbaden ; I)er Orient, by Dr. Julius Fiirst, of Leipzig ; and the " Jewish Chronicle/^ now carried on with much ability, in London^ by Dr. Abraham Benisch. Reverting for a moment to the rehgious ameliorations among the Jews in the present century, we shall not be wrong if we ascribe some share in them to Christian influence. The well-known work of the Rev. Dr. M'Caub "The Old Paths/' « has contributed not a little, both in England and on the Continent, to excite dis- satisfaction with the senilities of Talmudism ; while the circulation of good editions of the Hebrew Bible, at convenient prices, or by gift, by the Bible Societies, and the societies for the evangelization of the Jews, has been the means of communicating the sacred volume to multitudes of the Israelitish people, who are thereby enabled to return to the pristine documents of their venerable faith, and assisted to extricate themselves from the labyrinthine errors of two thousand years, and regain the pleasant sun- lit ways of Bible truth, where they may find rest for their souls. I make no apology for these references to their reh- gious interests. The volume about to close is only a manual of their literature ; but that literature is so per- vaded with the element of religion, that it is impossible to treat of the one and to ignore the other. Instead of wishing to do so, I would that the subject had far more of the solemn attention it demands, both from the Chris- tian and the Jew. We of the Church should entertain a * "The Old Paths : oi', a Comparison of the Principles and Doctrines of modern Judaism with the Religion of Moses and the Prophets." ORDER XI. JKWISH LITKRATI. !b5 loving wish i'or the true ' and otiTiial weHare of them of the Synagogue, and cherish the disposition expressed, in word and life, by one who was ahke a noble of the Hebrew race, and an apostolic hierareli of Christianity : " Brethren, my heart's desire and })rayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For 1 bear them record that they have a zeal of CJod, but not accordnig to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's riErhteousuess, and goini' about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that belicveth." (Rom. X. I.) Xo good man can consider the pleasing transitions in their state to which we have referred, nor ponder the revealed designs of the Supreme Mind with regard to them, as made known in the Bible, without feeling a strength-gathering sentiment of hope, that a multitude of them u-i/l be saved. "Writing with a full conviction of the Divine truth of Christianity, I am, nevertheless, not even without hope of the salvation of sincere, though misguided, Israelites, in their present position in respect of the religion of the Cross. Though the great mass of the Jewish people (and of what nation, alas ! may not the like be affirmed?) are living in desolate alienation from God, debased at heart, "of the earth, earthy,'* impenitent of sin, and in danger of failing of eternal life; yet, among them, as among other people, this ominous condition has its exceptions in many who are living in the fear of God, and endeavouring to walk in the way of His commandments ; and so far from con- curring with the sweeping verdict with which a tiiought- less intolerance consigns all Jews, as Jews, to a common perdition, I hold, in the case of every one of tliem who is true in his life to the rclidous light he has, that he 4^86 HEBREW LITERATURE. will obtain the mercy which every man needs alike at the Divine tribunal. Here, however, let us not misunderstand. If saved, such Jews wiU be saved through the merit and interces- sion of the Eedeemer, the efficacy of whose atoning death pervades all time, and sheds its mercies over aU the families of the earth. This great truth is the sole basis of human hope. When an apostle declared that in every nation the upright will be accepted before God, (Acts X. 35,) the statement had that truth underly- ing it as its foundation ; so that a sincere man may be saved, not independently of the great expiation revealed in the new covenant, but in accidental ignorance of it. In this case it is supposed that the man has not had the means of knowing the terms of salvation as propounded in the Gospel. Such a revelation would alter his status at once. Henceforth, if he reject the Gospel, he cannot be saved, whether he be Jew or Gentile, because " he does not live up to the advantages of the state in which Providence has placed him.'' But the Jews, as a people scattered among aU nations, have not, for many ages, had the privilege of a full revelation of the Gospel. Where has it been adequately propounded to them? Certainly not in heathen countries;^ and most dubiously in Popish ones, where, in addition to the ill treatment they have suffered from the so-called church, the very name of Christianity has been identified in their minds with the brutalism of vice, and the profanities of superstition. Meanwhile, as a people, they have earnestly sought to keep up whatever they have considered to be the religion of their fathers, and in doing so have endured a perpetual martyrdom. But all this suffering might have been evaded. They had only to give up their ^ There are mj-riads of Jews who are in utter ignorance of the facts of the Gospel. See Dr. Wolff's "Journey to Bokhara" for instances. ORDER XI. JKNVISII LITERATI. 1 > 7 religion. AVliat forhad tlu'ir apostasy from it ? 'I'lie voice of conscience. Yes: they have been so .•sincere in what has appeared to tlieir behef to be tidt lity to the will of Ciod, that, rather than swerve from it, they have accepted with resignation the heir-loom of abasement and affliction, whieh conies to them with the dying sighs of a long train of predecessors, who, in like manner, believed, obeyed, and sufl'ered before them. But shall sincere Heathens be admitted into the kingdom of God, and the true-hearted and devout of this peculiar people be shut out by a relentless reprobation ? The Jews, moreover, arc not to be put, for a moment, in the same category with mere Heathens. They are the people of God's ancient covenant, and we know that the New Testament affirms He hath not east them finally off. (Rom. xi. 1, 2.) Their reconciliation with Him is predestined, the bounds of their exile among the Gentiles determined, and a limit set to the days of tribulation. Jerusalem, now desolate, is trodden down but for a season, till the times of the Gentiles are fid- filled, and they see Him again whom they will hail with benedictions, as coming in the name of the Lord. (Luke xxi. 24; Matt, xxiii. 137-30.) As to faith in a Redeemer, let it be remembered that they already believe in one whom they recognise as the promised consolation of their race; only they know Him not as already come. I do not seek to extenuate the dark crime of their forefathers in rejecting Him when manifested among them; but only say that the descendants of those men have been placed in circum- stances which palliate their ignorance of the true claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the times of this igno- rance ^^^ll shortly pass away. The day is coming when He will be again revealed, and " Joseph be mad(.' known at the last unto liis brethren." Their sight will be no 488 HEBUEW LITERATUilE. longer holden, that they should not discern Him ; the veil will be taken from their heart, and they will know that their Redeemer liveth : for their eyes will behold Him, and not another. Even now, with not a few among them, here and there, the better time dawns ; not universally, it is too true; but in the lands where their position is more conspicuous, and their influence the greater, a more 'auspicious day is opening upon them. Cliristianity begins to be understood : led by the light of this new aurora, they resort to the old paths; the evangelic writings are perused, and the iron bands of prejudice already are being loosened from their souls. " The charm dissolves apace ; And as the morning steals upon the night, Melting the darkness, so their rising senses Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle Their clearer reason." These things are not said to discourage efi'orts for the evangelization of our Hebrew brethren, but rather to promote them; for such efforts are becoming more visibly needful than ever, from the danger to which thousands of European Jews are exposed, in breaking free from talmudic superstition, of falling into the more horrid gulf of infidelity. If you wish the Jews, whether Talmudists or Neologists, to believe Christianity, send them the Bible and the evangelist. "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth ! " (Rom. x. ; Isai. lii.) But the true state of the question pending in their ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI, 4S9 case, as a natio.n, can only be understood by taking into account the discoveries of the sacred vohime about their prospective fortunes. And here we coiue to a most remarkable feature in their national character. They are the only people now in existence whose perpetuity is guaranteed by the decree of God, and whose earthly fate is a revelation of prophecy. It dignifies a nation to have a history which records the greatness of the past : but here is a race not only ennobled with such an honour, but distinguished by the prerogative of pos- sessing a history of the future blazing in letters of light on the awful scroll of prophecy. In the oracles to which I refer, we have set before us an apocalypse of Israel's future, so revealed in con- nexion with its influence on the world, as to prove that it involves the highest interests of humanity at large. They pronounce, in terms which cannot be misunder- stood, nor be explained away by what is called "the spiritual method of interpretation," without the grossest impropriety : — 1. That the land of Canaan was given by the Ahnighty to the descendants of Abraham as an ever- lasting inheritance. It was given to them, not con- ditionally, and therefore with a liability to forfeiture, but unconditionally, and therefore irreversibly. " And the Lord said to Abram, Unto thy seed will I give this land." (Gen. xii. 7.) "I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, all the land of Canaan for an ever- lasting possession, and I will be their God." (xvii. 8.) 2. Though now removed from it, they will ultimately be restored^to the enjoyment of it. " The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without sacrifice, and without an ima"-e, and without an ephod, and without teraphim." (Ho^sea iii. -1.) Note : this state of exile cannot refer Y 5 490 HEBREW LITERATURE. to tlie Babylonish Captivity, which lasted but com- paratively a little time, and during which they had either king or prince, and ephod too. It is descriptive of their present state, in which they have so "long tarried,^' but from which a day of release and restora- tion is as literally predicted as is their desolation. " Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days."^ (Verse 5.) That the restoration here foretold is not that of their first return from Babylon, is evident also from Isaiah xi. 10-16, where the prophet, after announcing the advent of an age of universal righteousness and peace, proceeds to declare, that " in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time, to recover the remnant of the people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Gush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." So another prophet : " And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them and of their children after them Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with ]\Iy whole ^ Targum. " Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the service of the Lord their God, and be obedient to Meshiah the Sou of David their king ; and shall teach them the worship of the Lord ; and the good shall be multiplied that will come to them iu the end of the days." OUDKR XI, JhWISlI LITERATI. I'.tl heart and Mith Mv whole soul." (Jcr. xxxii. -V.K 11.) And another: ''And I will bring ag-ain the capiivu^ of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their own land, and they shall no more be pulled u})- out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." (Amos. ix. 11, 1.5 ; coinp. Ezek. xxxiv. 22-29.) "For I will take you froui among the Heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers." (Ezek. xxxvi. 24.) 3. In the further discoveries made as to this event, we learn that the mass of the people will return to the land while yet unbelievers in Jesus Christ, — bebevers oidy in Moses and the prophets, according to their jiresent \news of them. These Jews, as distinguished from the rest of their brethren, (who will have l;dlen into European scepticism and infidelity, and who will not return with them, but will have their portion in the judgments impending over antichristiau nations,) are perpetually spoken of in the prophecies with the appel- lation of "the remnant." (Isai. x. 21, 2^; xi. 11; Joel ii. 32; iii. 1, 2 ; Rom. ix. 27, 28.) 4. By them the city and temple of Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and the Old Testament ritual bf re- sumed. The city : " Jerusalem shall be lifted uj), and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto tiie place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from - Tliis expression should be markiil. -Vfter their return froiu Babylon, thev were again " plucked up " by the Uonians. Hut here h a re-establishinent foretold that shall be permanent. 492 HEBEEW LITERATURE. the tower of Hananeel unto the king^s winepresses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shaU be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely," or {lahetach) "confidently, inhabited." (Zech. xiv. 10, 11. Comp. Amos ix. 14, 15.) The temple : referred to as subsequently standing in the day of the Lord, (Isai. Ixvi. 6 j Joel ii. 17 ; Mai. iii. 1,) and shadowed out in gigantesque pro- portions in the latter chapters of the book of Ezekiel. 5. By a concurrence of political events, Palestine will become the seat of a terrible war^ and Jerusalem, be- sieged, be the scene of unparalleled affliction. " For behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I wiU gather aU nations against Jerusalem to battle." (Zech. xiv. 1, 2.) "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time."* (Dan. xii. 1.) ""\Ye have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into pale- ness ? Alas ! for that day is great, so that none is like it : it is even the time of Jacobus trouble ; but he shall be saved out of it." (Jer. xxx. 5-7.) 6. A Di\ane intervention will take place on their behalf. "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives." (Zech. xiv. 3.) "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people and at that time thy people shall be delivered." (Dan. xii. 1.) These various prophecies are synchronical. 7. Now, too, Avill be the crisis of judgment upon the ^ Oui" Lord's prediction fMatt. xxiv. 21, 22; Luke xxi. 23, 26) will be more fully understood by carrying it forward to this time. ORDER XI. JFAVISH LlTKUATl. 103 atheistic and anticliristian- nations, foretold by so many prophetic heralds. (Xuni. xxiv. 17-2-i; JVut. xxxii. 40-43 ; Psahn ii. 1-S; ex. 5-7 ; Isai. i. 21, 2S ; xxviii. 22; xxxiii. 1-10; xxxiv. 2-4; Jer. iv. ll)-23, 20; XXV. 29-33; xxx. 23, 24; E/.ek. xxxix. 10-21; llev. xi. 15-19; xvi. 15-21.) These judgments, so far as we can learn, will come in the form of political overthrows, natund convulsions, earthquakes, inundations, and volcanic lircs, and in the sore scourges of pestilence, famine, and the sword. It appears, further, that they will be sudden and unlooked for by the unbelienng workl, of great extent in their sweep of desolation ; that they will be brief in duration, — " the Lord's short work '' of vengeance ; and that the chiklren of God will be removed from the scenes of horror by translation. Tor in this time of wonders will occur the first Eesurrection, and the gathering together of the elect from the realms of the grave, and the living nations of the world, to meet their Saviour in the expanse, and to return with Him to the mansions He had gone before to prepare for them, that so they may be ^\'ith Him evermore. (Acts i. 11 ; iii. 10-21 ; 1 Cor. XV. 22-24, 53, 54; compare with Isai. xxv. S ;* Dan. xii. G-13; llev. xx. 4-0; 1 Thess. iv. 13-17; John xiv. 1-3.) But it will be in ralestine that the stroke will descend, whose vibrations will tremble through the nations, and bring down, in eternal ruin, the strong holds of atheism and antichrist in all the once lunnan world. "Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye Hea- then ; and gather yourselves together round about : * The twenty-fourth ami twenty-fifth chapters refer to the same tre- mendous epoch. It is only in Isai. xxv. 8, that "the sayiut; " i|iU)ted bv St. Paul " is Avritten." Both Isaiah and .St. Paul tell us how and when it will be "brought to pass." \ 494 HEBREW LITERATURE. THITHER cause Thy mighty ones to come down, Lord. Let the Heathen " [haggoim, " the nations ") " be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehosliaphat : for there will I sit to judge all the Heathen that are round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe : come, get you down ; for the press is full, the vats overflow ; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars withhold their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem ; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel." (Joel iii. 11-16; Eev. xvi. 12-21 ; xix.) 8. Yet will this just "severity of God" unfold itself in effects which will more fully illustrate the eternal " goodness " that belongs to His nature, and shapes aU His designs. The vengeful thunders of the judgment time will purify the moral atmosphere of our world, and usher in a cloudless sabbath. The benedictions of religion and knowledge, liberty and peace, will bring repose and joy to the palace and the cottage, and endow with their treasures aU the families of the earth. Among the prophetic people, to whose destiny we are more immediately referring, a great renovation will now begin to be developed. The Divine intervention on their behalf, in the Epiphany of the Messiah, will be the cause of their simultaneous conversion to Himself; for in their Deliverer they will see Him whom their fathers crucified. "And it shaU come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications : and they shall look upon ORDER XI. J i:\VlSll LITKRATl. 11)5 Me whom thoy luvvo picireil, and numni." (Zirh, xii. \), 10.) Thus thev will stv and heliove : but whiK" their oycs raiu repeulaut tears for their past unbelief and its fear- ful crime, their heartii, in believing, will be renewed and ennobled. And along with this moral reviviscenee — this " re- fresliing from the presence of the Lord'' — there are plain indications given us, that tlie very country in which it takes place will be subjected to a benefic change in its physical condition. The preternatural sterility which now makes it one of the deserts of our planet, will pass away before the life-giving word of nature's God, and the bloom and fruitage of the olden time will come again, and render it once more the Eden of the earth. [It deserves to be considered whether many prophetic passages whicli we are in the habit of regarding as meta- phors depicting indetinite spiritual improvements in the Church, do not, while they beautifully discover such a pur- pose, nevertheless primarily and literally foretell this phy- sical renovation of the Holy Land. Compare, thus, what is said about the earthquake which will attend the personal revelation of the Messiah on the Blount of Olives," and by which " all the land shall be turned as a i)lain," and be "lifted up;" (Zech. xiv. 1-10;) and in the convul- sions of which the source of a new river will be created in Jerusalem, " the streams of which " will not oidy " make glad the city of God," but, diverging, at nearly the commencement of its course, into two branches, will How in fertilizing currents through regions tliat are now an arid waste. "And it shall be in that day, that ' Lrt ine beg the student to distinguish between the personal advent of Jesus at the ushering in of the millennial age, and His personal reign on earth during that era. In the /alter I eannot say that I an> a believer. 496 HEBREW LITERATURE. li\dng waters shall go out from Jerusalem ; half of them toward the former sea, aud half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be." (Verse 8.) And again : " And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim." (Joel iii. 18.) Thus, too, Isaiah, after the prediction of the judgments on the nations, (chap, xxxiv.,) sings of the delightful renova- tion that shall thereupon come upon the land of Israel : " The wilderness and the solitar}' place shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water : in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. Xo Kon shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there ; but the redeemed shall walk there." (Isaiah xxxv.) Is there nothing more in these declarations than mere metaphor ? Most surely we are wrong in putting them into our spiritualizing crucible, and resolving them into thin air. They are prophecies which are to be as literally fulfilled as any whose fulfilment is now history. This renovation of the land is as distinctly foretold as its desolation is, and the promise has been spoken which is one of the immutable things of God : " Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant %vith Isaac, and also My covenant with Abra- ham wiU I remember ; aud I wiU remember the land." (Lev. xx\d. 43, 43.)] ORDER XI. JEWISH LITERATI. ID? 9. Nor will these miracles of mercy be without their effect upon the other branches of tlie great human family. The Hebrew people iu their conversion will become efl'ective witnesses for Christ to the world, not only in the grand monument to the truth of revelation which their own history is rearing to the vision of all men, but as an apostolical people, whose personal agencies will mightily conduce to the evangelization of the then chastised and humbled nations. Isai. xii. 4 : " And in that day " (compare the foregoing chapter) " ye shall say. Praise the Lord, call upon " (margin, " proclaim ") " His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention that His name is ex- alted." And chapter Ixvi. 19-23 : "And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off that have not lieard ^ly fame, neither have seen W'j glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gen- tiles. And they shall bring all your brethren " (^«>/aii Methodist Magazine. \ II. Uniform mth the above, pp. 508. Price Seven Shillings and Sixpence, THE APOSTOLICAL ACTS AND EPISTLES, FROM THE PESCHITO, OH ANCIENT SYttlAC : TO WHICH ARE ADDED, THE REMAINING EPISTLES, AND BOOK OF REVELATION, AFTER A LATEK SYRIAN TEXT. WITH PROLEGOMENA AND INDICES. " Completes the New Testament. The Introduction contains a valuable body of information." — Spectator. "Dr. Etheeidge has conferred no ordinary obligation on students in biblical literature, by the publication of this volume. It is pleasing to see the close agreement of the text from which our authorized ver- sion was rendered, with that which the Syriac translators must have had before them." — Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. " In an earlier volume the learned author gave a translation of the Gospels ; the present one completes his design of presenting a transla- tion of the entire Syriac New Testament. We are gratified with the opportunity of repeating an opinion of the admirable manner in which the task has been executed. To unquestionable competence on the score of learning. Dr. Etheridge adds a profound reverence for the sacred records, and the zeal of an enlightened theologian. His Prolegomena contain much valuable information, well digested, which cannot but be of great advantage to the bibKcal student and the yoimg divine." — Evangelical Christendom. " Completes an undertaking which aU intelligent biblical students will know how to prize, — a literally exact translation of the venerable Peschito The Prolegomena evince learning combined with modesty: much research, little show. The style throughout is succinct, elegant, and scholarly. There is a livingness about even the scholastic parts," &c. — Watchman. "We had occasion, some time since, to notice with commendation the translation of the Gospels by Dr. Etheridge. We have now to award equal commendation to the translation he has accomplished of the remaining books of the New Testament We must not conclude without especially praising the Prolegomena, — a critical, historical, and philosophical introduction to this volume, which reflects great credit upon its able and painstaking author." — Church and State Gazette. (See also the Church of England Quarterly Review, for April, 1849.) " By this work we are enabled to compare the sacred text, as read in the Eastern churches for sixteen or seventeen centuries, with that which during the same lapse of time has been received in the West. Such a comparison will tend to confirm our belief in the integrity and incorrupt transmission of the inspired documents of the Christian dispensation. The Prolegomena will be found extremely valuable. We know not any single work in wliich so much rare information could be found upon aucieut translations. We earnestly commend the volume to the notice of all Ministers and jNIissionaries." — Evangelical Magazine. Either of these Volumes can be had separately. THE ONLY OBJECTION MADE TO THIS VERSION IS, THAT IT IS TOO LITERAL : BUT THE PURPOSE OF THE TRANSLATOR WAS TO MAKE IT AS LITERAL AS POSSIBLE ; THAT STUDENTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WHO DO NOT READ SYRIAC MAY HAVE THE MEANS OF COMPARING THE STRUCTURE OF THIS ANCIENT TEXT IN A VERSION THAT SHALL EXACTLY REPRESENT IT. III. Royal 18»?o., in Cambric. Price Three Shillings, HORi^ ARAMAICiE: Being Outlines on, I. The Shemetic Languages. II. Aramaic, AS ADOPTED BY THE HEBREWS. III. DiAiECTS OF THE ARA- MAIC IV. Study of the Language. Bibliography. V. The Old Testament in Aramaic. VI. The Targums. VII. Aramean Versions of the New Testament : the Philoxe- nian. VIII. The Hierosolymitan. IX. The Peschito, oe Old Syriac, its Antiquity. X. Its Relation to the Greek Text. XI. Its Relation to some other Versions. XII. Critical Uses. XIII. Supplements to the Syrian Canon. XrV. Editions of the Peschito. XV. The Karkaphensian Version. XVI. Translations : St. Matthew's Gospel, and the Epistle to the Hebrews. "A VERY useful manual." — Church of England Quarierhj Review. " A VALUABLE volume." — Patriot. " Destine a faciliter Vetude de la langite Sgriaque" — Journal Asiatique de Fans. IV. Royal 18?«o., in Cloth. Price Two Shillings and Sixpence, MISERICORDIA: CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE MERCY OF GOD; REGARDED ESPECIALLY IN ITS ASPECTS ON THE YOUNG. " An admirable work. Whoever wishes for devotional reading of the best sort, will not be disappointed if he procures this volume. It is sound and clear in doctrine, rich in feeling, impressive and argumenta- tive, and full both of admonition and encouragement." — Watchman. " An impressing and edifying view of the mercy of God A most effective and stirring appeal to yoimg people, on their immediate sub- mission to that mercy An appropriate present to young persons, especially to those of education. It is eloquent, argumentative, and affectionate ; and, in many places, reminds one of the energy and unction of Baxter's practical treatises." — Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. LCNDON: — FEINTED BT WILLIAM NICHOLS, 32, LONDON WALL. l^ l( 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 25Mar'57Ki: ^ |eCE1VEO REC;P LP ~^] \ 5;B8-i^^^ r> / W V. ^^ -'^ dkp^ LOAN APR S-^ 19SS^ 5 MAY1 6 1968 31 LD 21-100m-6,'56 (B9311sl0)476 General Library University of California Berkeley U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES CDMb^fil773