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 1875.
 
 HEBREW 
 CHARACTERISTICS: 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS 
 
 FROM THE GERMAN. 
 
 •mivnbi 
 
 mm? 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 October, 1875.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, 
 By the AMERICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 
 in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
 
 \u^ov^^,
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The translation of the following essays being prepared for 
 the general reader rather than the student of that branch of 
 Jewish literature to which they belong, it has been thought 
 advisable to issue them in their present form unencumbered by 
 the purely literary and scientific ground work of the originals. 
 The names of their authors may be accepted as a sufficient 
 guarantee for the correctness of every statement contained in 
 them In the translation, the competent reader will recognize 
 the hand of a master of both idioms, and acknowledge that it 
 is as faithful and polished a r'4»ndering of the original as the 
 difference of idioms permits. 
 
 PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 
 
 of the A. J. P. S-
 
 )nhlt{ xiF i0iti0nJ$* 
 
 PAGE 
 
 L Extracts from Jewish Moralists (from the elev- 
 enth TO THE FIFTEENTH CENTCRY). FrOlll Dr. L. 
 
 Zltiz's: "Zwr Geschichte und Literatur." (Berlin: 
 
 Veit & Co. 1845.) 7 
 
 II. Jewish Marriage in Post-Biblical Times. A Study 
 ill Archoealogy by Dr. Joseph Perles. (Frankel: 
 Monatschrift, 1860.) 45 
 
 III. Om I>fTERMENT OF THE DeaD IN PoST-BlBLTCAL JuDAISM. 
 
 A Study in Archaeology by Dr. Joseph Perles. 
 (Frankel: Monatschrlft, 1869. Separately published, 
 Breslau, Schletter'sche Buchhandlung.) ... 69
 
 EXTRACTS 
 
 FROM 
 
 Jewish Moralists. 
 
 EUu^nth to Fifteenth 6enturi^» 
 
 FROM 
 
 Dr. ZUII2:'S 
 "Zur GesctLiclite und Literatur."
 
 %xtxvicis from gjetaxsTx ia0ralxsts, 
 
 ELEVENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTUBY. 
 
 From Dr. ZUNZ'S " Zur Gescliiclite und 
 Literatur." 
 
 PMONG Jews, investigators of texts and men learned 
 in the law have also been the accredited expounders 
 of moral obligations ; it is important that this should 
 be borne in mind, for the remark applies to a persecuted race and 
 a much calumniated religion. How powerful, how pure moral 
 conviction was among this people, their religious poetry and prac- 
 tical legal learning show with equal force : what in the first was 
 sentiment, in great measure ideal, in the second becomes actual, 
 tangible fact ; the feeling passionately expressed in the poetic 
 works of Samuel the Pious and other Hymnologues is carried 
 into actual execution, into actual life, in the juridical deliverances 
 of Jehuda ha-Cohen, Solomon b.Isaac, and Jacob b. Meir ; in the 
 decisions of Isaac b. Abraham, Eliazar ha-Levi, Isaac b. Moses, 
 Meir b. Baruch, and their successors ; in the codices of Eliazar 
 of Metz and Moses of Coucy. But the teachers of that age
 
 10 HEBREW CHABACTEEI8TIC8. 
 
 were not content with the working on the minds of the educated, 
 and the learned in the Halacha, they sought themselves to mould 
 minds to appreciate moral distinctions, to appreciate essential 
 morality by oral discourses in the Synagogue, by special ethical 
 treatises, by original exposition and treatment of religious sub- 
 jects. When, some seventy years ago, a Professor cast a casual 
 glance on one of these writings, he exclaimed with condescend- 
 ing approval, " In such times as those we could hardly expect 
 to find even from Christians such moral teachings as this Jew 
 (K. Asher in Toledo) inculcated upon and transmitted to his 
 co-religionists." But the truth is, that the ethical doctrine of 
 these Jews need not blush in the presence of any of later 
 origin ; and the Israelites of the German middle age, children of 
 the devil as they were, stand immeasurably higher in ihS moral 
 scale than the Priests of Tyrol of two hundred years ago, for 
 example, among whom gluttony, laziness, unchastity, stupidity, 
 and heathenish superstition were almost universally to be found.* 
 This ethical literature is composed partly of interpretative 
 notes on the old Mishna Abot, partly belongs to excgetical or 
 halachic works, either as suitable comments upon special pas- 
 sages of the earlier books of exegesis or as separate treatises. 
 Sometimes they have the form of testaments to children and 
 family connections ; sometimes they liave allegorical or poetical 
 form ; sometimes they are direct exhortations to lead a moral 
 and God-fearing life. Between the years 1050 and 1490, at 
 least thirty works of this sort might be specially named. Let 
 us listen to the very words of some of tlicso old teachers. 
 They will amply repay attention. 
 
 , ♦ Beda Weber : "Tyrol und di« Eeformation." Innsbruck, 1841.
 
 HEBREW CHAEACTEEI8TIC8. 11 
 
 E. Eliezer b. Isaac (about 1050). 
 From Orchot Chayim, 
 
 My eon, give God all honor and the gratitude which is his 
 due; for He it is who made thee and brought thee into this 
 world. Tliou hast need of Him, but He needs thee not. Put 
 no trust in thy mere corporeal well-doing here below ! Many a 
 one liath laid him down to sleep at nightfall, but at morn risen 
 not agiiin ; many a one hath gone to his couch at nightfall sound 
 in health and of liigh cheerfulness, and has waked up to agonies 
 and terrors. Fear the Lord, the God of thy fathers ; fail never 
 at eventide to pronounce the great word wherein Israel is wont to 
 proclaim that He is, and that He is One, and One only ; at dawn 
 fail never to read the appointed prayers; see that thou guard well 
 tliy soul's holiness; let the thoughts of thy heart be saintly when 
 thou liest waking in the bed, and profane not thy soul, even in 
 the hour of most intimate communing with others, with words 
 of impurity. Be thou cleanly in things that concern the body; 
 wash well thine hands ere the morning be far gone ; and when 
 thou seest that they are clean and pure, fold them then in prayer. 
 Praise thy Creator when thou puttest on thy clothing, and 
 when thou takest the nourishment that supports life. Be 
 among the first to reach the house of God : enter it with reve- 
 rential awe. Think well before whom it is thou standest there. 
 When thou goest to the place where the law and the truth are 
 studied, let no idle word pass thy lips ; note well in mind the 
 words of the sages there ; deem not that anything there is small 
 and of slight account, and beware that thou never allow thy- 
 self to look down on any one. Visit the sick and sufi'ering 
 man, and let thy countenance be cheerful wheu he sees it, but
 
 12 HEBREW CHABACTERISTICS. 
 
 not SO that thou oppress the helpless one with gaiety. Com- 
 fort those that are in grief; let piety where thou seest it affect 
 thee even to tears ; and then it may be that thou wilt be spared 
 the grief of weeping over the death of thy children. Respect 
 the poor man by gifts whose hand he knows not of ; and when 
 he eats at thy table gaze not on him too much, lest he doubt 
 his welcome ; be not deaf to his beseechings, deal not hard words 
 out to him, and give him of thy richest food when he sits at 
 meal with thee. When thou prayest, be lowly and think thy- 
 self nothing before the Almighty, and use all thy soul's energy 
 and force to hold in check what evil desire there may be in 
 thine heart. Greet every man pleasantly, speak truth only, for- 
 get not modesty, and in thy eating be moderate ; rather feed 
 thyself with the vilest weed than make thyself dependent on 
 other human beings ; and seek not greedily after power and 
 pre-eminence in the world. From a wicked neighbor, from a 
 person of ill fame, see that thou keep aloof, and spend not 
 much of thy time among people who speak ill of their brother- 
 man ; be not as the fly that is always seeking sick and wounded 
 places ; and tell not of the faults and failings of those about 
 thee. Take no one to wife unworthy to be thy life's partner, 
 and keep thy sons close to the study of divine things. Dare 
 not to rejoice when thine enemy comes to the ground ; but 
 give him food when he hungers ; be on thy guard lest thou give 
 pain ever to the widow and the orphan ; beware lest thou ever 
 set thyself up to be both witness and judge against another ; and 
 when thou passest judgment, see that thou invoke counsel from 
 another mind. Never enter thy house with abrupt and star- 
 tling step, and bear not thyself so that those who dwell under 
 thy roof feel dread when in thy presence. Purge thy soul of
 
 HEBREW CHAEACTERI6TICB. 13 
 
 angry passion, that iulieritance of fools ; love wise men, and 
 strive to know more and more of the works and the ways of 
 thy Creator. Forget not that the hope of pious souls is that 
 concealed paradise prepared by God before the foundations of 
 the world ; tliat consecrated place where pure spirits and holy 
 enter at last into their rest. 
 
 R. Eleazar b. Jehtjda of Worms. (Obt. 1238.) 
 From JRokeach. 
 No crown carries such royalty with it as doth humility ; no 
 monument gives such glory as an unsullied name; no worldly 
 gain can equal that which comes from observing God's laws ; 
 the highest sacrifice is a broken and contrite heart : the high- 
 est wisdom is that which is found in the law ; tlio noblest of all 
 ornaments is modesty ; the most beautiful of all the things man 
 can do is to forgive wrong. Cherish a good heart when thou 
 findest it in any one; hate, for thou mayest hate it, the haughti- 
 ness of the overbearing man, and keep the boaster at a dis- 
 tance. There is no skill or cleverness to be compared to that 
 which avoids temptation ; there is no force, no strength that 
 can equal piety. All honor to him who thinks continually 
 and with an anxious heart of his Maker ; who prays, reads, 
 learns, and all these with a passionate yearning for his Maker's 
 grace. Such a one bears about with him unrepiningly the 
 burden of his nation's faith, holds worldly delights in con- 
 tempt, is moderate in all the workings of his mind, is master 
 of his passions, and, in sooth, has God continually before his 
 eyes. The path which his feet tread is straightforward, and 
 the words which he utters to others are soft and sweet; he edu- 
 cates his children for a worthy life, infuses love and righteous.
 
 14 HEBREW CHAEACTEKISTICS. 
 
 ness into all his works, seeks to lead others into the right 
 way; he reverences his wile and is inflexible in fidelity to her; 
 he sees that his children take to themselves husbands and 
 wives as soon as may be, after age fits them for wedlock ; is of 
 a contented mind, and rejoices when the world goes well with 
 other men. Such a one loves his neighbors and friends, lends 
 to the needy, gives alms secretly, and does good purely and 
 simply for God's sake ; such a one you will find early and find 
 late in the house of study and prayer, where he may add to 
 the store of his knowledge and may pray from the depths of 
 his reverent heart. God's blessing be on him and on his chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Do not inquire too curiously concerning thy Creator, or seek 
 by mere questioning to know the origin of things; but see 
 that God is never far from thy thoughts ; forget not what He 
 has done for thee, and let not strange gods, let not thine own 
 sensuous nature hold dominion over thy life. Let thy deal- 
 ings be of such sort that a blush need never visit thy cheek ; 
 be sternly dumb to the voice of passion ; commit no sin, saying 
 to thyself that thou wilt repent and make atonement at a later 
 time. Let no oath ever pass thy lips; play not the haughty 
 aristocrat in thine heart ; follow not the desire of the eyes, 
 banish carefully all guile from thy soul, all unseemly self asser- 
 tion from thy bearing and thy temper. Speak never mere 
 empty words ; enter into strife with no man ; place no 
 reliance on men of mocking lips; wrangle not with evil men; 
 cherish no too fixed good opinion of thyself, but lend thine ear 
 to remonstrance and reproof. Be not weakly pleased at demon- 
 stration of honor ; strive not anxiously for distinction ; never 
 let a thought of envy of those who do grave wrong cross thy.
 
 HEBREW 0HARACTERI8TICB. 15 
 
 mind; be never enviously jealous of others, or too eager for 
 money. Honor thy parents; make peace whenever thou canst 
 among people, lead them gently into the good patli; place thy 
 trust in, give thy company to, those who fear their God. If 
 the means of thy support in life be measured out scantily to 
 thee, remember that thou hast to be thankful and grateful 
 even for the mere privilege to breathe, and that thou must 
 take up that suffering as a test of thy piety and a preparation 
 for better things. But if worldly wealth be lent to thee, exalt 
 not thyself above thy poor brother ; for both of ye came naked 
 into the world, and both of ye will sui-ely have to sleep at last 
 together in the dust. 
 
 Thirteen passages in the Pentateuch enjoin upon us the love 
 of God ; and when the temper of a man is filled with love for 
 his God, he needs must serve his Maker faithfully, though men 
 should seek to drag him from the service by main force. For 
 then man is filled as with a consuming desire to mould his life 
 according to God's will, and delight in God makes us forget 
 all the world's delights. He who is possessed by the love of God 
 sets not the store he did on the raptures of his wife's, the delights 
 of his children's love. For nothing can be the real business of 
 his life save to fulfill divine commands, to see that God's name 
 is recognized as holy, to bring to God the sacrifice of his undivided 
 hfe. Men of this sort do not exalt themselves above others, in- 
 dulge in no idle talk, long not wretchedly for the love in woman's 
 eyes, are silent when blame is poured on them ; for their thonn-hts 
 are not where they are themselves, but ever with Him whose 
 praises are sung by their faithful lips. 
 
 Let the man of humble mind carefully evade all marks of 
 special esteem and recognition from men. If his failings are
 
 16 HEBREW CHA.EACTERI6TIC8. 
 
 spoken of, let liim give God thanks for putting this humiliation 
 on him for the amendment of his ways, if they need it. But if 
 he is well and surely convinced that they need it not in that 
 wherein they blame, let him after all remember that whatsoever 
 he be, he is but imperfect compared with what is required of him, 
 and forgive the person who is speaking ill of him. Wholly 
 incompatible with a humble spirit is loud and passionate talk, 
 falsehood, uttering of oaths, mockery, unrestrained desire, 
 vengefulness ; the humble man seeks not revenge for injuring 
 treatment, but bears it with unruffled temper ; if calamity strike 
 him, if his property be taken from him, if he lose children or 
 near relations, he does but acknowledge devoutly that Provi- 
 dence is just. When his conscience tells him that he has 
 offended against his brother-man, he confesses the wrong, and 
 he does not too eagerly confute and confound one who has 
 spread abroad falsehood concerning him. My son, shake off all 
 haughtiness, of mind and cling to humilit}', cease to exalt thy- 
 self in thine own estimation, and be of lowly mind and temper; 
 let none of thy failings appear small or trifling in thine own 
 eyes, but all of them weighty and great; remember whence thou 
 camest and whither thou gocst; repent, atone, and serve thy 
 Maker with love; free thyself from passion and desire before thy 
 light is quenclied, before thy soul is required of thee, before 
 the book of thy deeds is opened for judgment. 
 
 Tlie thoughts of thy heart and the imaginations of thy soul 
 remain pure if the work of thy hands be pure. Fly from all 
 unseemly things ; close thine eyes, thy cars to them with stern 
 decision ; for there be desires which cause the soul to be apos- 
 tate from God. Therefore in the days when thou art still 
 young, think of Him who made thee, of the heavenly Father
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 1 ( 
 
 who supported thee, clothed thee, and requite liim not ungrate- 
 ful by delivering up thy soul to impurity. Bear well thy 
 heart against the assaults of envy which kills even sooner than 
 death itself; and know no envy at all, save such envy of the 
 merits of virtuous men as shall lead thee to emulate the heauty 
 of their lives. Surrender not thyself a slave to hate, that ruin 
 of all the heart's good resolves, that destroyer of the very 
 savor of food, of our sleep, of all reverence in our souls. Keep 
 peace both within the city and without, for it goes well with all 
 those who are counselors of peace ; be wholly sincere ; mislead 
 no one by prevarications, by words smoother than intention, as 
 little as by direct falsehood. "Would ye know why men die 
 before their time ? It is because they lie. For God the Eternal 
 is a God of Truth ; it is He from whom ti-uth flowed first, He 
 who begat truth and sent it into creation. Let" the fear of God 
 breed in thee the habit of silence, for much speech can hardly 
 be without some sin. But when thou dost speak, speak truth 
 only, speak never praise of thyself, and speak ever moderate 
 thought in modest words. 
 
 If thou hadst lived in the dread days of martyrdom, and the 
 peoples had fallcTi on thee to force thee to apostatize from thy 
 faith, thou wouldst surel}-^, as did so many, have given thy life 
 in its defense. Well then ; fight now the fight laid on thee in 
 the better days, the fight with evil desire ; fight and conquer, 
 and seek for allies in this warfare of your soul, seek them in thf 
 fear of God and the study of his law. Forget not that God 
 recompenses acciording to the measure wherewith ye ^vithstand 
 the evil in your heart. Be a man in thy youth ; but if thou 
 wert then defeated in the struggle, return, return at last to God, 
 however old thou mayest be, and even in the later vears thou
 
 18 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 wilt find healing and safety in His hands. Sin not in secret, 
 and be not ashamed to fuliill the commandments of God in the 
 sight of men; reckon up aright, make no foolish mistake as to 
 what thon owest to God, what to man. Murmur not because 
 the world goes well with the powerful and wicked. The ways 
 and the leading of God are wonderful and admirable, even 
 though our poor e^'^es may sometimes not be able to see the 
 good things whicli be sure He yet always does for Israel, 
 Remain faithful to the law, deny thyself even many things that 
 are permitted, be so far as thou canst ever of cheerful and ever 
 joyous temper ; and forget not that it is to God, God Eternal, 
 God the Only One, to whom thy soul returns in death. 
 
 From the Book of " Pious Soui.s." 
 Begun hy R. Jehuda h. Saimiel of Regenshurg. 
 Be a man's piety ever so great, he can make no claim to 
 recompense at God's hands, were his life to last even for thou- 
 sands of years ; there is none, no, not the least of the benefits 
 conferred on him by God which lie could repay. Therefore let 
 no one serve his Creator merely because lie hopes for Paradise, 
 l)ut out of pure love for Him and His comniandniont. Let 
 man in his solitary hours feel the same repugnant sliame of 
 evil to the sight of God, as he would to commit it in the sight 
 of men, and let him lay down life freely for Him ; for if we do 
 not so, we are of less account in the scale than liireling sol- 
 diers wlio go into battle at tlie words of command. That oui- 
 soul may become perfected in rigliteousness, needs must tliat 
 we bear griefs and agonies ; and never should it cross our minds 
 for an instant to shrink from boldly declaiming that we are 
 Jews.
 
 HKBRKW CHARACTKRISTKS. 19 
 
 Mislead ii(» one through thy actions debignedly, ])e he Jew or 
 Jiot-Jew ; he not disputatious and quarrelsome with people, 
 whatever he their luitli. lie lioiiorahlc in thy husiness deal- 
 ings ; do not say that sucli or suHi n pi-ice has heen ottered 
 thee for tiiy wares when the thing is not true, and not hehavo 
 as though thou hadst a desire to sell what thou liast, when 
 there is no serious thought of doing so in tliy mind : such 
 things are unworthy of an Israelite. If one, l)e lie Jew or 
 not-Jew, comes to borrow money from thee, and thou wilt not 
 because of doubt of repayment, say not that thou hast no 
 money. 
 
 If a contract be made between Jews and not-Jews, binding to 
 nmtual observance and performance, the first must fulfill it even 
 if the last fail to perform that to which they are bound. If a 
 Jew attempt to kill a not-Jew, {»nd the latter only wishes to 
 defend himself, but not in return to kill, we are bound to help 
 him in his self-defense. Injustice must be done to none, whether 
 lie belong to our religion or to another. On the worldly pos- 
 sessions of those who oppress the workman, who buy stolen 
 goods, and keep articles decorated with heathen symbols or 
 iigures in their household furniture, rests no blessing. Thev 
 or their children will surely lose all they have. In thy inter- 
 course with not-Jews, be careful to be as wholly sincere as in 
 that with Jews: needst not that thou obtrude on him who is no 
 Jew, argument as to iiis religious errors, and tliou wouldst do 
 better to live on charity, than to abscond witli money not thine, 
 to tlie disgrace of tiie Jewish faith and name. If one not-Jew 
 seek council of thee, tell him where he will tind a true man 
 and not one deceiver in the place whither he repairetli. If thou 
 seest a strange man of :iiu)ther faith about to commit sin, pre-
 
 20 ^ HEBREW OKARACTERCSTICS. 
 
 vent its coming to pass if it be in thy power, and herein let 
 the prophet Jonali be thy model. It" an assassin take refuge 
 with thee, give him no protection, even thougli he be a Jew ; 
 if one who bears a heavy burden on his shouldei-s meet thee on 
 a narrow and difficult path, make way for him, even though he 
 be no Jew. If one not a Jew observe the precepts of the 
 natural (Noachian) moral law, restore to him whatsoever he 
 may have lost, hold him in higher honor than the Israelite who 
 neglects the truth given him l)y God. For tlie rest, in most 
 places Jews are not unlike Christians in tlieir morals and 
 usages. 
 
 If any one offer thee an amulet, alleging it to be useful in. 
 helping to favor or wealth, carry it not, but place thy undivided 
 confidence in God alone. If, when thy plans fail, thou wouldst 
 seek any other Lord than the Eternal thy God, it would be 
 apostasy. If thou canst possibly support thyself with the little 
 thou hast, take not aught from another in order that thou 
 mayest be ricli ; for few of those who take from others have 
 any happiness in life. 'No blessing rests on the money of 
 people who clip coin, make a practice of usury, use false 
 weiirhts and measures, and are in general not honest in busi- 
 ness; their cliildren and their friends' friends lose their homes 
 at last and have to beg their bread. But many a one falls 
 into poverty because he has looked down upon poor people 
 or has repulsed them with harsh words. If one is able to 
 work, I give him nothing, nothing. It is better to spend on 
 poor people than t(j lavish in keeping useless foolish things, as 
 birds or other sucli trifles. 
 
 To him who is merciful and good to men, God is merciful 
 and good: the pitiless man is like tlie cattle of the field w]ii(;h
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 21 
 
 are indifferent to tlie sufferings of their kind. There arc three 
 sorts of people i'or wlioin we ought to feel especial pain and 
 sympathy : a reasonable, prudent creature subjected to a crazy 
 fool ; a good man who has to take orders from a bad ; and a 
 noble being dependent upon one of vulgar nature. There are 
 three to whom we should sternly close our hearts : a cruel 
 person wlio does pitiless wrong and vile things, the fool who 
 rushes on ruin in spite of warning, and tlie ingrate. Ingrati- 
 tude is tlie blackest of faults ; it is not to be endured even 
 towards the dumb creatures whom we use. Worthy of punish- 
 ment is he, too, who heaps excessive burdens on the carrying 
 beast, l)eats and tortures it, twitches a cat by its ears to hurt 
 it, or plunges his spurs too deep into a horse's Hank. A sick 
 or breeding beast ought to" be tenderly dealt with ; if a not 
 dangerous dog runs into thy house, hunt him out with a small 
 whip that hurts not, but see that thou strike him not with a 
 heavy stick or pour boiling water over him, or jam him in the 
 doors, or madden him by any ill-usage. Even worse hath he 
 to answer for, who deals liarshly with serving man or woman. 
 If the people are good, yet thou needest money, part with 
 them not to any cruel person who will ciiastise them with 
 inhuman severity. 
 
 Hear not calumny willingly ; seek rather to admonish and 
 restrain him who complains bitterly to thee of the doings of 
 another. When thou speakest concerning one, tell the good 
 thou knowest of him; but do not so in presence of his enemies, 
 for they would make it opportunity to vent themselves con- 
 cerning his faults. Praise not one rich man in presence of 
 another rich man ; one author in presence of another author, 
 and as a rule, never one man of any business in presence of
 
 22 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 another whose business is the same ; only thou niaj'est freely 
 give all glory to a God-fearing man in presence of another who 
 fears his God. Make not reply in high-pitched self-asserting 
 tones, but with moderate and sweet, and wlien thou Undest 
 thyself among people who have nothing better to do than to 
 jeer and gibe, leave them as soon and as quickly as thou 
 canst'; for mockery leads to want of respect for one's self and 
 others, and that is the high road to an unchaste life. Insist, 
 not upon having explanations by word of mouth with one who, 
 as you ought to know, will turn a deaf ear to thy side of the 
 question, or who is likely to become embittered and vengeful 
 owing to such talk. 
 
 If a rich man and a poor man be sick, and thou seest all the 
 world going to see the rich man, go thou to the poor one, even 
 though he be ignorant and unlettered. But when thou hast to 
 choose between supplying the needs of a learned man, or 
 counseling the susceptibilities of a poor man, the first case is 
 of the greater urgency ; and if it sliould be that the scholar 
 is also devout and God-fearing, but the poor man not so, then 
 disregard the poor man's feelings altogether, if need be, to mark 
 thy respect for learned piety. Be intimate and work with 
 rather an uneducated man of generous soul than a learned one 
 close-fisted. If tliou art in debt, pay thy debts before thou 
 givest alms. If thou requirest one to join with thee in fellow- 
 ship of study, and knowest of a worthy, reserved and modest 
 disciple of tlic schools of whom others in reckless Iiigh spirits 
 are wont to make mockery, choose and take him to thee, that 
 one who is undeservedly set down may be lifted up to his right 
 place. Make no sign of visible disgust when thou meetest 
 people afflicted witli loathsome visible disease; for they are
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 33 
 
 God's creatures, remember, aiul healthy as well as sick are 
 all alike dependent upon Him. 
 
 Say not, " 1 will avenge that wi'ong." Place thy trust in 
 God ; He will keep thee. If any one hath deceived thee by 
 false weights, stolen from thee, borne false witness against thee, 
 be not so misguided as to avenge thyself by doing the like. 
 "When insult is poured on thee, be thou unmoved, and never 
 permit thy pupils, or those of thy household, to assail with 
 injurious words or blows, when they meet him, one who is doing 
 injury to thee. Expel all envy, all hatred from thy breast ; if 
 a fund be making up, and th}^ name be put down for more than 
 thy possessions warrant, so that richer men pay less than 
 they strictly should, breed not quarrel and mortification for 
 thyself and others by remonstrance and reproach ; hold thy 
 peace and busy thyself more than ever with the study of 
 divine things. When thy wife makes thy life heavy for thee, 
 and hatred foi her threatens to take possession of thee, then 
 implore the Loi'd not to give thee another wife, but to turn that 
 one's heart once more back to thee in love. 
 
 Let no one be troubled in mind or take up wrong ideas 
 because of the prosperity of wicked people or of such as hold 
 parents in little honor ; their end is bad. The reason why 
 good men have an ill lot in life is, lest men should fancy that 
 the good man cm only then be good when the world goes 
 well with him. If a congregation has bad men at its head, 
 that is a punishmmt for not valuing as they should the good 
 men among tlieni. The children of noble, righteous converts 
 to the faith are to be preferred for the marriage tie to cliildren 
 of Jews of nature cr conduct not so high. 
 
 The ancients of our nation composed works and sent them
 
 24 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 forth without their names; they dischiiraed to seek recom- 
 pensing delight for their labor in this lower earthly life. And 
 if there be an}' one who of pure vanity is minded to perpet- 
 uate the memory of himself in some work, very surely he will 
 miss his aim. There was once a rich man, who would build a 
 beautiful synagogue at his own charge alone, and suffered not 
 the congregation to contribute to the pious work, because he 
 would that the memorial should be of him and his posterity 
 alone. But ere he died his children all were dead. 
 
 If a father knows his married daughter to be busy and 
 occupied with her husband's affairs, let him not suggest of 
 order her to attend to his own, unless the husband allow of 
 it, postponing his own interests for a while. If a mother hath 
 enjoined some action on her son, and the father come suddenly 
 and say : " Who gave orders that this thing should be done? " 
 let not the son say that it was the mother. For if it should 
 hap that the father in rage should vent an angry curse against 
 his wife, the fault would be laid at the door of lihe son rather 
 than his own. If a son see an opportunity for some transac- 
 tion of profit, let him rather miss the chance rlian rouse his 
 sleeping father, unless he is well assured that t}e father would 
 be more vexed because the gain M-as sacrific^ than because 
 his sleep was broken. He who spends substance in supporting 
 other than parents and relations will reap no(hing but ingrat- 
 itude, while his property will fall to those ofpiis own blood at 
 last. If a father treats one son well, another^ll, it is the latter 
 who is very likely to succeed to his possessiofis. Let one who 
 hath never known parents, but only elder blathers, render the 
 respect and honor due to father and motheriinto these. 
 
 Parents may not hinder a son's marria^ that he may con-
 
 HKBRKW CHARAiVfERISTICS. 25 
 
 tinue to work for them ; let him take a wife and remain with 
 them still. If he can find no wife at the place where his 
 parents live, and these be aged and need his care, let him not 
 leave that city : and if, taking a wife, he can no longer care 
 for such helpless father and mother, let him remain unwedded. 
 If he can pay for the support and care of his parents, then he 
 hath a right to seek wife and settle elsewhere, only let him see 
 to it that they are not such as are repugnant to the parents' 
 feelings. If his choice hath fallen on a worthy girl of honor- 
 able parentage, but his father or mother wish to force him to 
 take one not worthy, because her relatives offer money, he 
 needs herein by no means to yield to his parents' wishes, for 
 their proceeding is blameworthy. Parents must by no means, 
 on no account whatever, strike a grown-up son, curse him, or 
 so move him to wrath that he forget himself and with whom he 
 is dealing. If children are hopelessly divided in feeling, a 
 father does well if he arrange all things concerning his pos- 
 sessions while he lives, and place property and children alike, 
 if they be minors, with all legal form under guardianship and 
 trust. 
 
 Let not a quite young man take to ^vife one who hath 
 reached forty years ; let no girl be married against her will to 
 an elderly man or one whom she cannot love. It is a thing 
 lijfhly to be disapproved that elderly men should dye gray 
 hairs black to deceive young girls as to their years. In most 
 cases bad ])arents beget bad children. If parents have no 
 scruples about false coin and false weighte, the sons are apt to 
 commit the same crimes. If we see about us so many unedu- 
 cated and ignorant, but descendants of people of high instruc- 
 tion, this is the fanlt of parents whom worldly interest hath led
 
 26 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 to form connections with unlearned persons. There was a 
 man who lived a poor and hard life, to whom a wealthy woman 
 was offered in marriage ; he refused her, for lier brothers were 
 unworthy and he dreaded lest his children by her might be 
 the same. So far as legal duty goes, a man indeed need not 
 abstain from wedding a wife so connected, just as he may 
 repudiate his wife for reasons that seem trifling and inadequate ; 
 but many things are permitted by the law, the doing of which 
 may lay upon a man the rendering of a heavy account some 
 day or other. 
 
 On the day of the last judgment those who are of kindred 
 virtue and merit will find themselves in final companionship 
 with each other. The father then ceases to mom*n and grieve 
 over the son that had left him ; for the joys of Paradise and 
 the rapturous delight felt in meeting the radiance of God's 
 countenance will send into oblivion all the anguish of the 
 earthly life. 
 
 R. MoSES OF EVREUX (1240). 
 
 Above all let a man be on his guard against wrath : for the 
 powers of hell do what they will witli the blindly angry man. To 
 guard against angry feeling is the way to reach humility, and in 
 doing so thou wilt find it needful to be watchful lest thou rise 
 into self-exaltation, and one who is self-exalted ofiiends against 
 God, with whose Being only is the thought of exaltation com- 
 patible. Be, therefore, gentle and humble in tliy ways and 
 demeanor, speak freely and accessibly with every one ; go 
 about with head not held too high, let thine eyes look some- 
 what away from people, but let thine heart look them straight 
 in the face. In discourse with folk look not with intrusive,
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 27 
 
 fixed eyes into theirs; consider and treat evei-y one, rich or 
 poor, as one greater than thyself, to whom respectful conduct 
 is due. If thou knowest that thou art wealthier, more powerful, 
 or more educated than he, none the less must thou treat him 
 with all honorable respect, remembering that he may be a 
 better man than thou at his heart, and in case when thou 
 wovddst offend wittingly and voluntarily he might only do so 
 in spite of himself. In all thy doings, in all thy resolves, for- 
 get not that thou standest in the presence of God, of Him 
 whose glory fills the whole earth, of whose majesty thou art 
 the subject and creature. Speak, therefore, Avheu thou dost 
 speak, with voice somewhat hushed ; fear BQm as the servant 
 fears his lord. Let there be no man before whose face thou 
 wouldst not scruple to do wrong things ; be lowlj' before everv 
 man ; answer every man's call with not too raised a voice, but 
 (juietly as one always in presense of the schoolmaster who 
 teacheth him how to live. Busy thyself as oft and as inuch as 
 possible witli the study of divine things, not to know them 
 only, but to do ; and when thou closest the book look round 
 thee, look within thee to see if thine hand can find auo-ht to 
 execute answering to something thou hast learned. Whenever 
 night falls, whenever day dawns, search well into thy dealings 
 of what sort they be j so will thy whole life be one long atoning 
 expiating day. When thou prayest, keep all thought other 
 than prayer far from thy soul; reflect upon the words of thv 
 prayer ere they pass thy lips, so that thou bringest a mind pre- 
 pared and in good order for speaking with tliy God. Yea, do 
 this even on all other occasions, and even in the taking of th}' 
 meat and drink be not over hasty and quick, for even that par- 
 takes of the nature of a fault. Go not about witli people who
 
 28 HEBREW CHABACTERI8TICS, 
 
 indulge without restraint in mocking views of things. So shall 
 all thy dealings be righteous, and thy prayer such as God can 
 hear and answer. 
 
 R. MosES B. Jacob of Coucy (1245). 
 From Semag. 
 
 Those who lie freely even to not-Jews and steal from them, 
 belong to the class of blasphemers ; for it is due to their guilt 
 that some say, the Jews have no binding law. If things go 
 well with Israelites, they should not lose their heads and forget 
 God, and ascribe all successes to their own industry and skill. 
 Let no one, indeed, exalt himself because of any advantage he 
 hath, be it money, or beauty, or cleverness ; let him be and 
 remain before man humble, before God thankful. -The divine 
 mind dwells with the man of humble spirit, and he who keepeth 
 himself lowly doth as well as though he offered up all the 
 burnt-sacrifice that ever was enjoined. The wishes of the 
 humble man are fulfilled even before he uttcreth any words of 
 request. But, on the contrary, people of haughty overbearing 
 temper do but inspire aversion ; surely they will have no part 
 or lot in Zion's future joy. 
 
 Either in commerce or in any other of life's business, dare 
 not to deceive any man, of whatsoever religion he be, by word 
 or deed ; rather, indeed, point out to the buyer wherein thy 
 goods are wanting. 
 
 It is because man is half angel, half brute, that his inner 
 life witnesses such bitter war between such unlike natures. The 
 brute in him clamors for sensual joy and tilings in which 
 there is only vanity ; but the angel resists and strives to make 
 him know that meat, drink, sleep, are but means whereby the
 
 HEBREW CHARAOrEKISTICS. 
 
 29 
 
 body may be made bufficient for the study of the truths, and 
 the doin"- of the will of God. Not until the very hour of 
 death can it be certain or known which of the two hath won 
 the victory. 
 
 The highest service that can be rendered God is to love Him, 
 purely because our Creator. Circumcision, Sabbath, Tefillin, 
 are the three symbolic marks of the Israelite which testify that 
 he is a servant of God. And he who is but a novice in the 
 fear of God will do well to say audibly each day, as he rises : 
 " This day will I be a faithful servant of the Almighty ; be on 
 my guard against wrath, falsehood, hatred, quarrelsomeness ; 
 will look not too closely at women, and forgive those who 
 wound me. For whoso forgives is forgiven in his turn; hard- 
 heartedness and a temper that will not make up quarrels are a 
 heavy burden of sin, unworthy of an Israelite. 
 
 Berach.ta ha-Nakdan (About 1260). 
 From The Book of Fables. 
 
 Prefer the possession of one thing to the mere expectation of 
 two ; a small certainty is better than a large peradventure. Be a 
 servant among noble-minded men, rather than a chieftain over 
 the vulgar. The good repute of the first will reflect itself on 
 thcc ; but the contempt felt for those over whom thou hast 
 direction, will soon extend itself equally to thee. If thou too 
 earnestly seek pre-eminence and power, l)e sure that will flee 
 thee ; but if thou bearest thyself in this world like a guest 
 receiving its hospitality, men will try to find for thee a place 
 of honor and a place of profit. 
 
 It is an evil trait of very many men that they treat with little 
 deference those who in truth deserve more honor than them-
 
 30 HEBRKW CHARA.CTER1STI0S. 
 
 selves : too often the}^ bear a grudge against a known good man 
 and never come near liim save when they want some service 
 from him. The man of merit hath too often to bend his back 
 before men of vulgar soul, and because he only knows how to 
 wield a good blade, while they are in command. 
 
 The proud cedar is felled, while the humble shrub is left 
 alone ; fire ascends and goes out, water descends and is not lost. 
 Exalt not thyself because of beauty and wealth over neighbor 
 and brother ; for, so doing, thou givest provender to loathsome 
 hate, and the poor man, whom thou hast looked down on, may 
 bear away the palm of victory easily from thee. 
 
 He who would preserve his dignity, will perish rather 
 than surrender his honor : prefers freedom and content to all 
 luxury at the prison of a stranger's table. 
 
 Give thy love equally to all thy children ; often does the 
 liope placed on those preferred turn out mere illusion, while all 
 tliy happiness and joy come from the one whom thou hast 
 disregarded or neglected. 
 
 From thk Tosafot of the Pentateuch, 
 {Second Half of the VMh Century.) 
 
 What a man spends on the poor when he is in full health 
 is gold ; when sick, silver ; what he provides for them in his 
 last will, copper. 
 
 If thou return not liis pledged goods to tlie poor man at 
 eventide, tliou deservest not that thy pledge, thy soul placed 
 each night in the hands of (-rod, should be returned to thee at 
 daylight. 
 
 Unmeasured drinking of wine brings poverty, shame, quar-
 
 HEBRKW ClIAUACTERISTICS. 31 
 
 rels; leads to calumnious talk, iucliastity, murder, to the loss 
 of freedom, of honor, of understanding. 
 
 Power and wealth acquired without true personal merit, or 
 without the fear of God, take wings and fly. Both these 
 things, as well as mental cleverness, are gifts of God, therefore 
 let no man glory because he possesses them. The only thing 
 we, as free agents, really possess in full inalienable right, is 
 upright walking in the fear of God ; and it is because that is 
 so, that we can glory in the knowledge of God. 
 
 Anonymous (About 1300) 
 {From Kol Bo, No. 67.) 
 
 Wlieu a new spirit of atoning repentance really comes over 
 a man, so tliat he would fain be pure from sin as a new-born 
 l)abe, let him read every day some prayer that calls to mind 
 such resolve and wish. As soon as he riseth in the morning, 
 let him review all his dealings with others, and be anxiously 
 careful not to do any wrong thing before he sits down to his 
 day's first food. But, should it so hap that something of the 
 kind hath befallen, let him confess his error, without delay, in 
 prayer, and he will be protected against a repetition of his 
 fault ; for he will be ashamed to stand as a liar before God, and 
 that will be his guard. If he hath persevered in his good re- 
 solves, let him thank his Creator for it, who hath stood by him, 
 and helped him to be pure a while. Let him do the same before 
 the evening meal, and before his nightly sleep, and continue it 
 daily, month by month, till a year hath gone by, so that he may 
 be strong in good resolve, and freed from his evil hal)its. But 
 let him never cease to mourn over his earlier sins, and let him 
 impose upon himself many works of atonement and repent-
 
 32 HEBREW CHARACTEKI8TICS. 
 
 ance, and, if he be too weak for this, let hiin strengthen him- 
 self thereto by moderation and renunciation. Habitually to 
 renounce delicacies at the table is a better barrier than fasting 
 against excess in matter of food. Let him bow his spirit to 
 divine truth, his body to the laM' ; let him fulfill the command- 
 ments earnestly and actively, even when false shame might, 
 perhaps, induce him to neglect them. Then let him not blindly 
 fear that the atonement he is making cannot possibly outweigh 
 his sins ; for when one repents truly and with true grief, the 
 evil that he hath done is no more thought of, and the repentant 
 sinner even excels the sinless just. Well is it for him who, 
 even out of all men's sight, fulfills the will of God ; who 
 without murmuring suflfers pain and trouble for his faith ; the 
 day will come when he shall be freed I'rom his griefs. 
 
 R. ASCHER B. IeCHIEL OF GERMANY (DiED 132T). 
 
 {J^rom his Testament^) 
 Be not ready to quarrel ; avoid oaths and passionate adjura- 
 tions, excess of laughter and outbursts of wrath ; they disturb 
 and confound the reason of a man. Avoid all dealings wherein 
 there is a lie ; utter not the name of God superfluously to no 
 useful end, or in places dirty or defiled. Cut from under 
 thee all mere human supports, make not gold the foremost 
 longing of thy life ; for that is the first step to idol worship, 
 a heathen religion. Nay, rather wander in all humility before 
 thy Creator, and where thou seest His will to be so, give 
 up thy money at once ; He can more than replace it. Rather 
 give money than words ; and as to ill words, see that thou 
 place tliem in the scale of understanding before they leave thy 
 lips. What liatli been uttered in thy presence, even though
 
 HEBBIDW OHABACTEBIBTIOS. 33 
 
 not told as secret, let it not pass from thee to others. And if 
 one tell thee a tale, say not to liim that thou hast heard it all 
 before. 
 
 Sleep not late with the indolent man ; rise with the sun and 
 the singing bird. Be not a glutton or a hard drinker ; it might 
 lead thee to forget thy Maker. Do not fix thy eyes too much 
 on one who is far above thee in wealth, but on those who arc 
 behind thee in worldly fortune. Only in respect of the service 
 and the fear of God look up to the great, and never on the 
 insignificant. Take pleasure in being warned from wrong and 
 set to right, seek for good counsel and for instruction cheer- 
 fully ; exalt not thyself proudly above men ; do it not; rather 
 remain the dust for all to tread on. Speak not to others in 
 hard and supercilious manner ; be not obstinate and self- 
 willed, but abide in the fear of God. 
 
 Lift not up tliine hand against thy neighbor, yea, though he 
 insult thy parents before thee; speak no ill of anybody, mock 
 and vilify no human being. If any one speak what is unbe- 
 coming, give him no rude answer. Let no one ever hear thy 
 speech because it is so loud on tlie street; cry not out like 
 a brute beast, but speak decorously. Put no one to open- 
 shame ; misuse not thy power against any one ; who can tell 
 whether thou wilt not some day be powerless thyself ? Hunt 
 not for honors, and place not thyself in any place that belongs 
 to thee not. Never cease to acquire friends ; avoid making 
 even one enemy. When a companion is of approved truth, 
 spare no pains in attaching him to thee and cherish him 
 carefully; but flatter him not and say no untrue word to him. 
 
 Do not struggle vaingloriously for the small triumph of 
 showing thyself in the right, and a wise man in the wrong : 
 
 3
 
 34 HEBREW CHAKACTEEISTIC8. 
 
 thou art not one whit the wiser therefor. Be not angry or 
 unkind to any one for trifles, lest thou make thyself enemies 
 unnecessarily. Strive not to screw out the secrets of others ; 
 do not refuse things of mere obstinacy to thy fellow-citizens, 
 rather put thy will below their wishes. Avoid, as much as may 
 be, bad men, men of persistent angry feeling, fools ; thou canst 
 get nothing from their company but shame. Never address 
 thy remarks to an utterly irrational man of whom thou knowest 
 that he cannot take them in. Be and remain grateful to any 
 one who hath helped thee to thy bread ; be sincere and true 
 with every one, even those who are not Jews ; be the first to 
 extend courteous greeting to every one, whatever be his faith ; 
 provoke not to wrath one of another belief than thine. 
 
 Receive kindly travellers who seek thy house ; supply their 
 needs when there ; lead them on their way with kind, good 
 words. Make not a practice of sleeping elsewhere than under 
 thine own roof ; be on thy guard against drunkenness, and 
 then thou wilt not have to repent vulgar conduct and unfitting 
 speech. Never be violently angry with thy wife, and if haply 
 thy left hand had repulsed her, let thy right draw her quickly 
 to thy heart again. Make not light of her in thy dealings with 
 her, but hold her in all respect and honor ; so shalt thou keep 
 her from the thought and deed of sin. See that thou force 
 not those of thy household to over-fear of thee. Much misery 
 and wrong hath sprung ere now therefrom. 
 
 When thou takest food or drink, give God thanks before and 
 after enjoying it ; when thou utterest the name of God, cover 
 thy head. Before prayer, before meals, wash thee thy hands ; 
 let thy demeanor be reverent, not in the synagogue alone, but 
 in thy home; even with thy wife thou dost not well to speak
 
 HEBREW CHARACTEEISTIC8. 35 
 
 with levity of unedifying things. Before thou eatest, before 
 thou goest to thy bed, occupy tliyself for some set time with 
 the law, and let thy discom'se at table be on matter which it 
 contains. Prayer is the soul's service to God ; see that thou 
 be reverent in prayer above all ; but speak audibly the words 
 that thou mayest hear thy prayer and know that thou art pray- 
 ing. 
 
 E,. Eliazar b. SAivruEL Ha-Levi (Died 1327 in Matence). 
 From his Testament, 
 
 I lay on my children my injunction or advice that at morn- 
 ing, immediately after prayer, they read some passages in the 
 Pentateuch or Psalms, or do some work of mercy. In their 
 intercourse with others, Jews or not-Jews, let them be consci- 
 entious and anxious to do right, amiable and.accommodatino-, 
 and never speak when speech is superfluous ; so will they be 
 guarded against uttering words of calumny or mockery against 
 others. 
 
 From the Book of Morals (15th Century). 
 
 The thread on which the different good qualities of human 
 beings are strung, as pearls, is — the fear of God. "When the fast- 
 enings of this fear are unloosed, the pearls roll in all directions 
 and are lost one by one. But without taking a high degree in 
 morality we can neither enter into possession of the learning of 
 divine things nor fulfill positive precepts ; nay, even a single 
 grave moral fault may be tlic ruin of all other advantages, as 
 when, for example, one is always seeking to set off his own excel- 
 lence by bringing into prominence his neighbor's failings. It 
 is just as with wine, the best of which may escape frojn a
 
 d$. HEBREW CHAKA0TERI8TIC8. 
 
 vessel through one little hole overlooked. But there are but 
 few men who recognize this to bo true in their own case ; 
 they see the lofty ladder they have to mount ; they cannot see 
 that their feet suffice not for the ascent. Or they liave no 
 notion what a treasure they possess in their own souls, and 
 recklessly sell their house and all the treasures it contains. 
 Eut the heart is like a tablet as yet unwritten ; fools scratch 
 it all over and ruin it ; only the wise know how to fill it with 
 suitable matter. 
 
 A habit to be most especially inculcated and commended, 
 is that of cleanliness. Clothing, bed, table, table-furniture, 
 especially those used for food, indeed all and everything that 
 we ever take in our hands, let it all be clean, sweet, pure ; the 
 body above and beyond all, made in the image of God, that 
 ought never to be defiled by dirt. 
 
 It is wretched pride when one is always thinking others as 
 lower than himself, and that his own opinion is always better than 
 others'. All progress is thereby made wholly impossible ; such 
 a one does things only for approval of men, not because God 
 wills he should ; is always seeking thanks for what he does, 
 takes delight in others' crouching as inferiors before him. A 
 person of that kind is like a very superior article of food burnt 
 by the cook, and which therefore has to be sent away from 
 table. The sweeter self-love makes our own ignorance to us, 
 the more bitter do we become towards others, the less acces- 
 sible to all opportunity of reform. 
 
 Be reasonable and modest in thy dealings and intercourse 
 with men ; speak reasonably and modestly with every one, 
 and treat him fairly well. Practice humility, even toward in- 
 mates of thine house, poor people, subordinates. Be not chary
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 87 
 
 but kind of speech with widows and converts ; put up willingly 
 with discomfort from their talk ; reply not when men scold 
 thee ; be deferential to men of learning or piety ; thoughtful 
 and circumspect towards thy scholars and disciples, and never 
 be tired of repeating things over and over again to them, that 
 they may understand them aright. Never be ashamed to 
 learn, even from less men than thyself. He who is humble 
 toward everybody, pleases and wins confidence, and every one 
 wishes to be even as he is. But the more of worldly or other 
 good things thou hast, the greater let thy humility be, all the 
 more do thou pay respect to men, and abound in kindness 
 towards them. 
 
 Let a man be never ashamed to execute the commands of 
 religion, even though he be mocked therefor ; never ashamed 
 to confess the truth, to set another man right, to put a question 
 to a teacher when something is not well understood. But let 
 a man be well on his guard against putting others to shame, or 
 lay bare wantonly the failings of a neighbor, or give him a dis- 
 honorable nickname, or address him by such. Never tell any 
 one that such a one wished to give his daughter to thee in 
 marriage, and thou wouldst not have her. Never put in words 
 anything which can call up a blush on thine own cheek, or make 
 another's grow pale. 
 
 It is very vexatious, very wrong, to keep up and support 
 evil men ; but to keep down good men, and thrust them from 
 thee, it is frightful weakness to do so. But genuine compas- 
 sion and pity highly become and adorn the Israelite ; be pitiful, 
 therefore, even to thy cattle, and give them food even before 
 thou thyself eatest ; and be careful that on no account thou 
 give even brute beast unnecessary pain. The words of Scrip-
 
 38 HEBREW CHARACTEEISTIC8. 
 
 ture, " the tender mercy of the wicked is cruel," refer to such 
 as exact heavy returns from poor men for favors received. 
 
 Be tender-hearted towards bondsmen who are not Jews. 
 Make not their hibor too heavy for them ; treat them not as 
 though they were of no account whatever, by words of con- 
 tempt or blows ; even in dispute with a serving man speak 
 affably, and listen to what he hath to say. Our ancient teach- 
 ers relieved the slave from all responsibility to criminal law, 
 and provided anxiously for his needs, even as for their own. 
 
 "When thou seest that men are not what they should be, do 
 not rejoice over the fact, but grieve, for thou shouldst pray 
 even on thine enemy's behalf that he serve his God. 
 
 On thy business and affairs let not thy trust and dependence 
 be placed, but on God alone. He it is who supports thee, and 
 those affairs are nothing more than the means He applies to thy 
 support. It is not the iron, but the force that moves the iron, 
 that fells the tree. Think not, then, when thou art supporting 
 thyself by some earnings of thy calling, that without these 
 earnings thou must needs starve ; but put thy entire con- 
 fidence in God, who will support thee in some other manner ; 
 for He hath many messengers always ready for his service. He 
 helps in small ways, and also in great. Therefore put not thy 
 confidence wholly in any human creature, on whom thou art 
 dependent for thy bread, but think and say boldly that God 
 alone it is who holds thee up. He alone it is whose eyes lead us, 
 poor blind creatures, in our path, we who all stand in such need 
 the one of the other. So will even he who supports thee be 
 not overproud to thee for doing so ; for he, too, is a blind 
 man among the blind. 
 
 Forget never the merits that thou lackest, but forget always
 
 HEBREW CHAKACTEKISTICS. 39 
 
 the good that thou hast done ; set down thy faihngs, thy faults 
 in thy book, but not the benefits thou hast conferred. Forget 
 the wounds inflicted on thee by others, and when thou prayest, 
 forget thou earthly things. 
 
 Thirty things there are thou shouldst bring to mind each 
 twice a day, and take them seriously to heart: (1.) God made 
 thee out of nothing, a being set over all created things, and 
 that from pure love to thee, for he owed thee no obligation to 
 do it. (2.) It is to God's goodness thou art indebted for 
 sound limbs and entire. How deeply wouldst thou feel thy- 
 self indebted to a physician who should heal a single limb, 
 but it is God who keeps thee all thy limbs intact. (3.) He 
 gave thee understanding. (4.) Holy Writ and doctrine. 
 (5.) The means whereby they are understood. (6.) All 
 creatures follow the will of their Creator ; beast and plant, sun 
 and earth, do what they ought to do, and man should be 
 ashamed to let his members be used to overstep the laws. (7.) 
 K a mere serving-man fears and loves the master that does him 
 good, how much more should man recognize the sovereignty of 
 God, and be of humble bearing towards Him. (8.) Faithful 
 servants spend energy and attention to execute as best they 
 can their master's commands, and are careful to choose their 
 words M'hen they approach him with words of gratitude or 
 other. So let thy service to God, both without and within, be 
 reverential and anxious. (9.) Fulfill the commandments out 
 of pure love, neither on account of men nor for reward. (10.) 
 Think well over thy bearing towards thy Creator, whether 
 there be nothing wherein thou hast to better, to perfect thy- 
 self. (11.) Thou art indefatigable to obtain money, that pos- 
 session uncertain at best ; what labor, wliat anxiety is being
 
 40 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 spent uuspairingly ; is there any for the welfare of thy immor- 
 tal soal? (12.) Thou puttest thyself in fine garments to please 
 men ; forget not that God looks in thy heart : adorn that well 
 in honor of Him. (13.) If thou art clever and rich, do good 
 according to the measure of thy powers, and be not idle in 
 that regard under the pretext that thou waitest until. thou art 
 still more clever and wealthy. (14.) God has given us assur- 
 ance of his love for all time, and will not thrust us from Him, 
 even in the enemy's country (Levit. xxvi. 4i), therefore return of 
 love is but His simple due. (15.) For the distant journey to 
 which thou mayest at all times suddenly be called make timely 
 provision. (16.) Keep thy soul always pure ; thou knowest 
 not the moment when it may be required of thee. Many a 
 young, many a strong man hath gone before thee to his home. 
 (17.) Seek solitude, it preserves from many a sin, or otherwise 
 keep to the society of the pious only. (18.) Be grateful for, 
 not blind to the many, many sufierings which thou art spared ; 
 thou art no better than those who have been searched out and 
 racked by them. (19.) Thy possession is not thy property, but 
 a deposit with thee only ; and if it be God's will, soon falls to 
 another man. Therefore look down on no poor man, for the 
 more that thou hast is no merit of thine own. (20.) Thou art 
 a being of earth, and yet hast knowledge in some measure of 
 God, and dominion over the other creatures ; thank, therefore, 
 and pay homage to the Giver. (21.) Accustom thyself to do 
 good, that it may become an easy thing to thee, and implore 
 therein tlic divine assistance. (22.) Be lovable in word and 
 deed towards men. (23.) Be not blind, but open-eyed to the 
 great wonders of nature, familiar objects though they be to 
 thee, of every day. But men are more wont to be astonished
 
 HEBREW CHARA.CTERI8TICS. 41 
 
 at the Bun's eclipse than at liis unfailing rise. (24.) Be not 
 content with the studies of thy youthful years, but think of and 
 study truth and what thy action sliould be in the years of thy 
 maturity, and thine insight will gain in strength and depth. 
 (25.) Let thy yearning for the delights of the life to come be 
 stronger than thy clinging to tlie life of earth. (26.) Let thy 
 soul fear the chastisement of the King of Kings. (27.) 
 Accept grief and pain with resignation and love ; be they never 
 so keen, they are yet milder than the punishment which is thy 
 due. (28.) Be ready to give back thyself, wife, children, all 
 possession, to the Lord that gave them thee, and be ever willing 
 to bear that which He lays upon thee. (29.) It is often the 
 case that one human being is worth a hundred others. Never 
 because of his body, but because of his spirit, his mental 
 insight, his moral worth. So build ever higher and higher the 
 edifice of thy soul, for all merit takes its origin there only. A 
 man, strong, healthy, beautiful, but all astray in mind, is worth 
 nothing, while an ill-favored man, weak in body, but abound- 
 ing in mental gifts, may rise to highest honors. (30.) When 
 any one comes into a strange land, where he knows, and is 
 known of, none, and its ruler takes him up, supports him, makes 
 him one of his servants, sees that lie is well rewarded for his 
 service, and does not suffer him to forget, in the time of his 
 well-being, that, some day, the date of which is not yet fixed, 
 he will have to quit the country again, surely such a one would 
 be deferential and faithful in the service of such a master, and 
 specially love those who are strangers there hke himself, and 
 do all possible good for that country, where no one save its 
 king was so good and kind to him. "Well, just so did man 
 come as a stranger into this world, and no one is his supporter
 
 42 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 save God, and no one there is so pitiful and tender to him as 
 He who made him. 
 
 Put no one to open shame ; injure no one's feelings who has 
 any bodily failing, or on whose family rests a stain. If thou 
 sittest next to such a one, speak not of such deficiency or fault, 
 even in reference to other than himself. If any one relate thee 
 something known already, be silent till he has finished ; for, 
 granting that he tells thee nothing new, he had the pleasure of 
 believing that he did. Touch not the subject of a quarrel that 
 is ended, thou mayest fire the dying embers afresh. 
 
 Luxury and good living, idleness and sitting at wine, lead to 
 unrestraint of soul, and so to evil speaking and mockeries. 
 People of this kind sit there and make merry over poor men and 
 pious ; but their mockeries strike at God, and at the works of God. 
 Or else they think themselves the only clever ones of earth, and 
 make a mock of other people's proceedings, because they are 
 not their own, and never listen to any advice of better things. 
 
 He who flatters a bad man falls into his or liis descend- 
 ants' hands ; flatter not either relative or child when tliey 
 • are not following after good things. Especially ought a chief 
 man of any community, a judge, an administrator of charitable 
 funds to be a true and not false man, for personal interest or 
 any other reason smooth and insincere of tongue. But wor- 
 thiest of blame is that flattery whose aim is to seduce a human 
 being into wrong. Desire for worldly honors, self-interest, 
 vanity, these are the things which make men hypocrites and 
 false. How many a teacher and scholar in our day are taken 
 in this snare. To make their power sure, to turn the lives of 
 people to their own account, they not only refrain from 
 rebuking where they should, but play false, or put on false
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 43 
 
 appearances, by keeping silence when they ought to speak in 
 honor of the truth. 
 
 Five offenses. are hard ever to repair; a curse launched at a 
 multitude of men ; sharing the spoil of thieves ; keeping as your 
 own, lost things; oppression of the poor ; rendering corrupt judg- 
 ment. Five sins are not thought much of, but yet are grave : to 
 abuse the hospitality of poor people ; to turn to one's own use 
 the deposit of a poor man ; to look on beautiful women whose so- 
 ciety is forbidden ; to rejoice at another's disgrace ; to suspect the 
 innocent. Five bad habits are hard to get rid of: chattering, 
 calumny, angry temper, suspicion, associating with bad people. 
 
 The aim of all thought, the highest of all merits, is love to 
 God ; let this thrust into the background all other love. All 
 our dealings with the delights of life, whether of enjoyment 
 or renunciation., should lead the soul to tm-n freely and fully to 
 its Creator, so that it may participate in the light on high, over- 
 coming the desires of the body. Love of that sort is bound up 
 with a joy that causes all the pleasant things of this world 
 to fade into nothingness; in comparison with the raptures 
 of that love all other delights pale, even those we have in our 
 children. To love God so that His service, and that only, tills 
 our hearts, so that if need come, we sacrifice om-selves freely 
 and imhesitatingly for it, that is the sort of fear of God which 
 Holy Writ sets before our eyes. Well is it with the soul, bless- 
 ings on the soul that reaches the enchantments of this joy. The 
 divine spirit rests only on those filled with such joy, only when 
 they were thus sublimely glad had the prophets the gift of the spir- 
 it ; the soul made holy by such yearning for the source from which 
 it sprang is destined to enter into the appointed place where life 
 glows and shines with a fire that shall never be quenched.
 
 Jewish Marriage 
 
 IN POST-BIBLICAL TIMES 
 
 ^ Stttdi) in ^rchxalog^. 
 By Dr. JOSEPH PERLES.
 
 IN POST-BIBLICAL TIMES 
 
 A STUDY IN ARCH^OLOGT. 
 
 By Dr. JOSEPH PERLES. 
 
 HE legal and other consequences worked bj mar- 
 riage on persons or property, the modes of per- 
 forming the marriage ceremony, and everything 
 indeed connected with it, will always be found to be closely 
 correlated to the conception formed of marriage among 
 a people, and to be best explained thereby. Where marriage 
 is regarded as a holy institution, as the keystone of genuine 
 morality, as the delightful union of two kindred souls, yielding 
 themselves to each other freely in love and duty, on a ground 
 where they are spiritually and morally equal, there too we shall 
 find usages religious and social, connected with the solemn 
 celebration of the marriage ceremony ; there we sliall find a 
 sense of sanctity and consecration in its performance, and a 
 joyousuess among all concerned, not boisterous, but measured 
 and touching deeply the inner life. The position assigned to 
 woman by the general feeling and opinion is here the determin-
 
 48 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 ing element and stamps itself unmistakably on all that is done ; 
 we may certainly know by inspection of the marriage ceremonial 
 whether the wife enters wedlock as dumb creatures involun- 
 tarily submit to the yoke, or whether she holds out her hand 
 as an independent person acting of free will, to a husband of her 
 choice. 
 
 Applying this to the solemnities connected with marriage 
 among the Jewish people, and estimating them in comparison 
 with those practiced among others, we have at the outset to bear 
 steadily in mind the very different character borne by marriage 
 among Hebrews and other nations. That in Jewish marriage 
 morality at its highest and human, but above all, feminine, dig- 
 nity were consulted, expressed, and realized in every word and 
 gesture is a fact that has been so proved by repeated 
 exposition that we need not here enlarge upon the subject. 
 For quite lately a hand entirely competent to the task has 
 amply shown that " among the Jewish people marriage was 
 rooted in morality, and grew to tlie height at which it became 
 so noble and ennobling entirely by sustenance it drew from 
 moral ideas." (Frankel, " Outline of Mosaico-Talmudic Mar- 
 riage Law," p. xi.) To quote one only of the countless utterances 
 of the Kabbis upon the exalted significance of marriage, let us 
 hear the opinion of one of these sages. " How sublime the 
 dignity of marriage is we may know, for in the Pentateuch, in 
 the Prophets, in the Hagiographers it is announced to be 
 of divine institution ; in one passage, Laban and Bethuel 
 answered — This thing proceeds from none lower than God 
 (Gen. xxiv. 50); concerning Samson we read, his father and 
 mother knew not that the thing had been brought about by 
 God (Judges xiv. 4) ; and in Proverbs, in fine, it is written,
 
 HEBREW CHARA.0TEBI8TICS. 49 
 
 House and land are inheritance from ancestors, but a thoughtful 
 wife is God's own gift." Marriage, indeed, was so serious, so 
 sacred in the eyes of the Rabbis that they declared the bride- 
 groom pm-ged of sin by reason of his entering that holy state, 
 thus giving to the ceremony the full effect of the prayer and 
 fasting of the great Atoning Day. Monogamy, the only mar- 
 riage which develops genuine and deep morality, which, even 
 as early as in the narrative of creation, is pronounced the real 
 marriage of human natm'e, and which in biblical Jewish times 
 only temporarily made way for polygamy, that accident of 
 climate, monogamy was the almost universal Jewish rule in post- 
 biblical times; and R. Gerschom, surnamed Light of the 
 Exile, met with but little opposition worth the name when he 
 issued his ftimous condemnatory decree against plural marriage. 
 While among Greeks woman was known as the" progenitrix," 
 yvvr/ (from ysiva), among Romans as the " prolific," femina 
 (related to fecundus), in the Jewish world she was known as 
 " Ish-shah," equivalent, in moral as well as literal etymology, 
 to the Isb : man ; and it is she to whom the Scriptures princi- 
 pally refer in speaking of a man's house^ inc'N ^'\ in'3 . AVhile 
 the classical nations regarded Hera, the goddess of marriage, as 
 ^vyia, the patroness that is of the marriage yoke, whose unseen 
 hand placed it on married necks, and marriage as a yoking 
 together of two people, conjugium, each one of whom is ffv^v^ 
 or o/xo^vS, yokefellow ; while the Arabs and Persians give to 
 wedlock a still more hateful designation, the Hebrew, on the 
 other hand, calls betrothal by a name deeply significant of the 
 very soul of mari'iage, JCiddicshin, or sanctification, and gives to 
 marriage itself the noble appellation of Jlilloola, or song of 
 exultant praise.
 
 50 HEBKEW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 Where the ground thought was so dignified, everything con- 
 nected "with the performance and solemnization of marriage 
 could not but bear the marks of exultation and purity. How 
 abundantly true this is of the juridical aspect of the matter, 
 the Talmud testifies abundantly, and is shown by Frankel 
 with the utmost acuteness and learning. In this paper we 
 intend to confine ourselves to showing, in a brief space, how 
 this was so in regard to the solemnities attending the mar- 
 riage ceremony among Jews in post-biblical times. 
 
 Betrothal precedes the marriage, which is brought about 
 by the courtship of the bridegroom, as well as, in a 
 measure, by tlie mediation of third parties. The Talmud 
 gives an instance of a rejected suit. When E,. Eliazar died, 
 another doctor of the law sought his widow in marriage, but 
 was refused with the remarkable speech : " One without the 
 sanctuary qiay not use a wine-cup that has served a holy man 
 whose place was within." That, occasionally, betrothals took 
 place while tlie bride and bridegroom were still unknown to 
 each other, is proved by the observation of the Talmud that 
 no one ought to marry a wife without having personal know- 
 ledge of lier. On certain days of the year, there were numer- 
 ously attended balls at which young people freely danced with 
 each other, and these afibrded Jewish girls an opportunity of 
 being freely sought, and, in due measure, of freely giving 
 themselves in marriage. On the fifteenth day of the month 
 Ab and on the day of Atonement, the young ladies, all clad 
 alike in white, that there might be no distinction between the 
 Avealthy and others, went out in groups to the wine gardens, 
 formally invited the young men to dance with them, and half 
 foolishly, half in earnest, demanded their hands in marriage.
 
 HEBREW CHARACTEEISTICS. 51 
 
 And these charming candidates for matrimony stated their 
 different claims as best they couhl ; those distinguished for 
 personal beauty dwelt upon that ; those of high birth made all 
 they could of noble blood and its influence upon strict fidelity 
 to the marriage bond, while Nature's step-children, who could 
 plead no merits derived from personal appearance, enlarged 
 upon the transitory character of physical advantages and the 
 enduring value of morality. 
 
 Betrothal was celebrated with a family banquet at which 
 sometimes the expenditure was very lavish. The apartments 
 were brilliantly lighted up, couches were placed around the 
 walls, guests went in and out in great numbers ; the women 
 sat at the spinning-wheel and sang in joyous chorus, " Such a one 
 and such a one are this day given in betrothal." In the so- 
 called and so frequently mentioned progameia, a word plainly 
 Greek, we seem to have a festival in honor of the marriage, but 
 celebrated some time before it. The German Jews of the 
 middle ages begin this preliminary festival, which they called 
 " Spinn-liolz^'' on the Saturday preceding the wedding 
 day. It is to be gathered from several allusions in the Rabbi- 
 nical writing that certain days were regarded as especially for- 
 tunate for the solemnization of marriage, and that it was even 
 an occasional practice to draw the bridegroom's horoscope to 
 determine the wedding day. The Spanish Jews followed 
 Greek precedent in regarding the full moon as a preferential 
 time for weddings. There is reason also to suppose that it 
 was not infrequent there to place on the bride's neck an amu- 
 let, to preserve against the " evil eye." 
 
 The status of betrothed people was one of exceptional honor 
 and respect, and they enjoyed certain privileges in public wor-
 
 52 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 ship and social gatherings. The relation of God to the Jewish 
 people is again and again typified in the Bible and by the 
 Rabbis by that of persons betrothed in wedlock. The greeting 
 given to the Sabbath in prayer and used at its moment of 
 beginning is similar to that given to a beloved bride.* The 
 bride had a chair of honor specially assigned to her, and was 
 carried through the city in full dress upon a handsome 
 palanquin, which was borne on the shoulders of men of the 
 highest social position. Sometimes the bride was placed on 
 horseback or on an elephant, and so taken to the house where 
 the marriage was to be performed. The Jews of the middle 
 ages used, following the custom of their land and time, to 
 meet the happy couple with a handsomely ordered cavalcade, 
 and hold a brief tournament in their honor ; and the Rabbie 
 lay down that any damage done to person in these encounters 
 need not be the subject of compensation. It was a duty, par- 
 taking even of religious obligation, to join in songs of praise 
 of the bride and bridegroom, to join festive marriage proces- 
 sions, and help to stimulate the gaiety of guests attending the 
 celebration. King Agrippa once joined the cortege attending 
 a bride to her marriage with the remark, "My head wears a 
 crown at all times, and therefore I think it well to pay homage 
 to one who wears it only for the brief hour." According to 
 Rabbinical precept, the study of the law might properly be 
 interrupted to join in the songs of a passing marriage proces- 
 sion. R. Jehuda b. Ilai once even bade his disciples, who, we 
 
 ■" Used here, observe, in the German sense of betrothed woman. The Ger- 
 mans have never fallen into the confusion of so calling a person after she is 
 married : a real confusion of thought and terms, for no limit of time can be 
 assigned after wedlock when the appellation should properly cease. — Translator.
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 53 
 
 may believe, were nothing loth, to leave the lecture-room and 
 add their numbers to a bridal cortege, and he did .it on ethical 
 grounds which he quite seriously set forth to them. R. 
 Jehuda Hanasi, observing that a marriage procession was pass- 
 ing, made his students go and follow the pair, telling them 
 that the practical observance of the law was better than its 
 theoretic study. R. Tryphon, too, once noticed, when in his 
 professional chair, a porripa nuptialis. He stopped it and had 
 the bride brought into his house, and made his mother and 
 consort put her into a bath, anoint her and put on her some 
 ornaments, and accompany her with joyous steps in some sort 
 of dance to the house of the groom. 
 
 According to the opinion of many students of the text in 
 the 45th Psalm, we have preserved for us a marriage song of 
 the loveliest kind. The Talmud has preserved fragments of 
 others. " Away with all thy purchased aids to beauty, She 
 needs them not, our sweet gazelle-eyed girl ! " R. Jehuda bar 
 Ilai and R. Samuel b. Yizchak, in a sort of religious ecstasy, 
 danced once before a bride, waving myrtle branches and utter- 
 ing songs in her praise. R. Acha once actually took a bride in 
 his arms and invited her to dance with him. The rigid Sham- 
 maites were averse to the practice of pouring out rhetorical 
 praise in honor of a bride ; but in the eyes of Hillers followers 
 poetry was a need of nature, and their system recognized it as 
 a legitimate thing. Where nature is given so free a play, the 
 bridal couple wei-e sometimes, as we might expect, the subject 
 *of the people's jests and wit, and the gossips stuck their little 
 sharp ])oiiits into the whole traiisaction. The Midrasch to 
 Psalm i^4- has this : " Once when the people saw a solemn 
 marriage procession where the groom was handsome, but the
 
 54 HEBREW CHARACTEKISTIC8. 
 
 bride ill-favored, they said to oue another, That young fellow's 
 palanquin is a coffin, they are going to bury him alive." And 
 when they saw it the other way, a charming girl by the side of 
 a misshapen groom, they cried out, There's the Beast going to 
 eat up Beauty." There was a teasing question which persons 
 sometimes put to a young husband about his wife's behavior, 
 very elliptical in form ; " Is it ' whoso hath found,' or is it, ' I 
 have found,' " where the allusion was to two verses of Scripture : 
 " Whoso hath found a wife hath found his happiness" (Pro v. 
 xviii. 22), and, " I have found that a wife is as bitter as death." 
 Something much more serious which at times oceiu-red was the 
 application of the so-called Kezazah, the ceremonial in which 
 the connections of a bridegroom incase of a 9nesalliance gave 
 formal expression of their displeasure, and which is described 
 as of the following kind. When the member of a family mar- 
 ried beneath himself or one unworthy, his relatives and family 
 brought a vessel filled with all sorts of fruits to some public 
 place, broke it up, and spoke thus to the bystanders : " Breth- 
 ren of Israel, our relative N. N. has maried a woman unworthy, 
 and the thought tortures us that his descendants should some 
 day form part of our family ; take this act therefore as a 
 sign for all future time that his posterity are shut out from and 
 belong not to ours." Whereupon the children present gathered 
 up the fruits that had fallen from the vessel, and said in chorus, 
 " N. N. has been put out of his family." 
 
 At the wedding, the bridal pair appeared in most elaborate 
 costume, attended by bridesmaids and groomsmen (para- 
 nymphs), and soon a crowd gathered from all quarters. The 
 head of the happy bride was adorned with garlands of roses, 
 myrtles, olive-branches, and ornamental reeds, with ornaments
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 55 
 
 of gold or crystal, and silk from Miletus. There was many 
 a o-rave doctor of the law who would allow no other hands than 
 his to weave the garlands for his daughter-bride. That the 
 full stream of delight might be in some degree checked or 
 qualified by more serious thouglit, it was customary to throw 
 ashes on the bridegroom's head, in sad commemoration of the 
 destruction of Jerusalem ; or later, in Spain, to encircle it with 
 a garland of olive twigs. Young maidens went to meet the 
 bridal couple with torches, the faces nuptiales of the Komans. 
 As R. Nathan b. Jechiel, of Rome, informs us, it was the 
 usage still of the Arabian Jews in the middle ages to carry in 
 front of the bridal procession a number of staffs which supported 
 a vessel carrying combustible materials, which were fired while 
 the procession was going on. In a proclamation of Peter the 
 Second of Castile (1338), the patrols of the city are insti-ucted 
 not to interfere with Jews when they passed the open place in 
 front of the citadel, the Cassero, with their marriage proces- 
 sions, and the document specifies that it is not necessary to 
 entitle to this immunity that every one present should be carry- 
 ing a torch, but enough if the first or leading person of the 
 cortege does so. 
 
 In honor of the young couple, wine and oil were poured from 
 jars filled with them, on the passage towards the house where the 
 wedding was held, and the folks threw nuts and roasted ears 
 of corn about. It was customary to carry in front of a virgin 
 bride a vessel filled with so-called Theruma wine, as a symbol of 
 herchastity and youthful freshness. In Babylon the students of 
 the law appeared at :i young lady's wedding with their hair richly 
 anointed in honor of the bride. At a widow's marriage the throw- 
 ing about of nuts and roasted ears of wheat was omitted. Part
 
 56 HEBREW CHAKACTEKI8TIC8. 
 
 of the same symbolism was the usage of sowing in a flower-pot, 
 either on the wedding-day or a little time earlier, grains of barley, 
 notoriously of such quick growth, a sportive suggestion of the 
 fruitfuluessof the new marriage. Among the Jews in the middle 
 ages it was still usage to strew about wheat or barley in the house 
 where the wedding took place ; or else, as the ancient Persians 
 did at their betrothals, to sprinkle the young married couple 
 with them. In the same suggestive spirit the inhabitants of 
 Tur Malka used to carry in front of the bridal couple chanti- 
 cleer and one of his wives. The inhabitants of Beta were still 
 more elaborate in their symbolic procedure ; they used to 
 plant a cedar at the birth of every boy, an acacia whenever a 
 girl came into tlie world ; and when young people married, 
 cut down the birth-tree of each and use it as material for 
 furnishing the bridal chamber. 
 
 Of anything like a priest's blessmg in consecrated places, as 
 essential to or accompanying marriage, wc find no trace in the 
 older rabbinical writings ; the first trace of anything of the kind 
 I think I have discovered in a casual observation contained in 
 the Pirke of R. Eliazar, a work composed under Mohammedan 
 dominion. In the biblical era, tlie bridal pair was blessed 
 by the parents, relatives, and all the people present (Ruth iv. 11). 
 In Tobias (vii. 13), the Greek text has it tliat Raguel blessed 
 the newly married pair, but does not give the fornnihi of the 
 benediction, but the Latin translation gives it: et apprehendcns 
 dexteram Mse suaj dextrffi Tobise tradidit, dicens: Deus 
 Abraham et Deus Isaac et Deus Jacob vobiscum sit ct ipse 
 conjugat vos impleatque bcnedictionem suam in vobis — " and 
 laying the right liand of his daughter into tlie riglit hand of 
 Tobias, he said : The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be
 
 HEBREIW CHARACTERISTICS. 57 
 
 with you, and join you Himself together and fulfill His promised 
 blessing in you." 
 
 The wedding ring — which might only be of simple metal with- 
 out any precious stone — was borrowed quite clearly from the 
 Romans, among whom it was customary for the betrothed man 
 to send his promised bride an iron ring without any stone. It can- 
 not be shown that the Greeks ever used the ring ; but it occurs 
 among the Mohammedans. In tlie Christian church the ring 
 is not mentioned as used at the wedding earlier than tlie tenth 
 century ; while at the betrothal in the very first Christian cen- 
 turies, the young man usually tendered to his chosen, when she 
 gave her consent, a ring of gold as a pledge and token that 
 they were soon to be irrevocably given to each other. 
 
 The Talmud is unacquainted with the custom, evidently of 
 later origin, according to which the bride, before the ceremony 
 was performed, was deprived of her head of hair ; a usage met 
 with also among the Greeks. Moses Alaschkar, a learned Rabbi 
 of the sixteentli century, warmly inveighs against this custom in 
 an open letter addressed to Tlemesan, insisting that in Moham- 
 medan countries Jewish women from the most ancient times 
 carried their wealth of hair visibly and unconcealed, and tliat 
 in Christian countries they conceal it not from any religious 
 obligation, for none existed, but merely in conformity with 
 general manners, which enjoined upon Christian married women 
 too that they should not go about with uncovered heads. 
 
 In regard to other usages, however, all of which are directly 
 resulting from and typify the exalted conception entertained 
 of marriage, a difierence prevailed between tlie inhabitants of 
 Judea and Galilee; as an instance may be given that in Judea 
 the bridal couple were permitted a private interview of one
 
 58 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 hour's duration before the final performance of the marriage 
 ceremony, while the Galileans allowed no such thing. 
 
 There was great merriment at the wedding. Everything was 
 done that dancing and music could do to make the guests as 
 happy as possible. A sort of orchestra was formed out of all 
 kinds of the most incongruous instruments, flutes, harps, zithers, 
 castagnets ; tambourines were a very important item in these 
 instrumental musical resources which were now and then 
 helped out by clappings of hands, and occasionally varied by 
 cheerful singing which often attracted a great crowd of people. 
 It was a popular saying that when the castagnet was heard the 
 matron of sixty was as ready to run to the sound as the girl of 
 six. Now and then the tide of merriment when at its height — 
 and the most serious among the guests threw gravity aside and 
 helped to swell it — was checked by some one present delivering 
 a short speech of moral reflections. Moderation, indeed, was 
 especially enjoined by the moral teachers in respect of outbursts 
 of joy and merriment at weddings. R. Ashe, observing at the 
 marriage of his own son tliat the students were losing self- 
 command almost in tlieir boisterous humor, deliberately threw 
 a valuable vase to the ground in order to stem the overflow- 
 ing current of hilarity. R. Hamnuna the Less, once pressed to 
 sing at a marriage banquet, broke out with the strain, " Woe to 
 us we must die, woe to us we must die !" whereupon the others 
 responded in chorus, " Bless the truth, bless the law, which 
 arc our guard and defense." One of the sages also compared 
 the transitory joys of life with the momentary pleasures of a 
 marriage feast. The later Rabbis, who were just as little able 
 to conceive of a wedding without its music, would not have any- 
 thing sung on the occasion save religious hymns, and pro-
 
 HEBREW CUAKACTERISTICS. 59 
 
 hibited dancing altogether, founding their opposition on the 
 passage of Proverbs (xi. 21), " Hand in luuid remains not 
 wholly pure/' 
 
 Invitations to a wedding banquet were regarded as a special 
 mark of respect. The Jews of Jerusalem had a peculiarity as 
 to this, evincing great reserve and distinction of manners ; it 
 was not usual there to go to such a celebration unless the invita- 
 tions for the family had been numerous and pressing. On the 
 other hand, if any one who might fairly expect an invitation was 
 overlooked, he was justly offended, and now and then took occa- 
 sion to make the uncourteous giver of the feast feel that he was 
 offended. R. Jehuda Hanasi, for instance, invited to the wed- 
 ding of his son, R. Simon, all the learned men, and only left 
 out Bar Kappara, disliking and fearing his sarcastic tongue. 
 Whereupon Bar Kappara wrote on the wall of the house where 
 the wedding was to be celebrated : " 240 million denars are 
 to be spent on this feast — and Bar Kappara is not invited ! If 
 such luxury falls to the lot of sinners, what grandeur will not 
 pious people have some day !" The consequence of this was, 
 that he had an invitation sent him, and then he altered the last 
 sentence and said, " If the pious have the enjoyment of such 
 splendors even in this hfe, what glories must be reserved for 
 them in the other !" According to another authority, Bar 
 Kappara's vengeance was of a more elaborate and witty sort 
 than what we have given. He wrote on the door of R. Jehuda's 
 house : " Death follows thy joys, what are thy joys worth ?" 
 After R. Jehuda had found out who the writer was, he had 
 guests invited to a special banquet prepared for him for the 
 following day. Hardly had the dishes been put on the table, 
 when Bar Kappara began to pour out a whole litany of ridicu-
 
 60 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 lous stories about foxes, and the guests became so absorbed in 
 his proceedings that they paid no attention to the delicacies 
 before them until they were quite spoiled and had to be taken 
 back to the kitchen untasted. The liberal host could not help 
 complaining a little about it to Bar Kappara, but received from 
 him this answer : " I did it because you did not invite me with 
 my colleagues, and also that you might not run away with 
 the idea that I was enamored of your good cookery." 
 
 At the wedding banquet the bridegroom took the most 
 prominent seat, while it was one of the conventional duties of 
 the bride to keep in the background with maidenly modesty, 
 and it was regarded as a duty of the guests to give all the 
 pleasure they could to the groom and his young partner, in 
 everything they said and did. Friends testified their sympathy 
 for the bridegroom by wedding presents, which were not of 
 arbitrary choice, but had to be selected according to certain rules 
 distinctly prescribed by law ; the groom for his part sent all 
 sorts of love-gifts to his bride. He led the procession on horse- 
 back, and so, bearing all sorts of vessels of wine and oil, gold 
 and silver caskets, silk garments, and other articles, it pro- 
 ceeded to the house of his bride's parents, before the door of 
 which he held out the wine-cup, which was there filled for him to 
 drink — a sort of loving-cup. The bridal-chamber was furnished 
 in the most luxurious manner; linens of divers colors, stulfs of 
 silk and purple, ornaments of pure gold, and fruits of every sort 
 and description adorned its walls. 
 
 In the times of media3val oppression, when barbarous perse- 
 cutors forbade the practice of their religion to tlie Jewish 
 people, there were many reasons why Jewish parents should 
 keep as secret as possible the occasions when the distinctive
 
 riBBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 61 
 
 Jewish rites attending infancy, and especially when weddings 
 were performed. Accordingly friends of the faith had to be 
 notified when such celebrations were to happen by secret signs 
 and tokens. The Talmud says, " When the screaming sound 
 of the hand-mill is heard in a large building, this signifies that 
 a circumcision feast is coming off; when the windows of a house 
 in Berur-Chajil are brilliantly illuminated, it was understood 
 that people were invited to a wedding." 
 
 According to old-biblical usage, the marriage festival lasted 
 a full week. On the Saturday following the wedding-day, the 
 bridegroom was distinguished in several ways in public worship, 
 and was still looked upon as the hero of the day. The origin 
 of this usage is in Rabbinical books thus described. When 
 King Solomon built the temple, he had two doors prepared; 
 these were to be regarded as places specially consecrated to 
 the spirit of kindness in man ; one was called the Bridegroom's 
 door, the other the Mourner's, On Saturdays the crowd used 
 to gather before these doors, to see who would enter at them. 
 When one went through the bridegroom's door, they called to 
 him, " May God, whoso throne is in this house, rejoice thee 
 with sons and daughters." The mourners then came up to pass 
 through the other door, and the usual cry to them was, "May 
 the Owner of this house comfort ye ; " then followed those 
 excommunicate who were thus addressed, " The Lord soften 
 your hearts that ye yield to authority, and the congregation 
 reckon ye as of it again." After the destruction of the Temple, 
 the Rabbis instituted the practice that every bridegroom and 
 every mourner should visit the synagogue or the lecture hall, in 
 order that the people, always numerous there, might have an 
 opportunity of rejoicing with the one and consoling the other.
 
 62 HEBREW CHARACTEEISTIC8. 
 
 So much, briefly, concerning the marriage customs of the 
 time for which the Tahnud and Midraschim must be regarded 
 as our authorities. We see ah*eady that, original and native 
 as all these are in the main, foreign elements have crept in, and 
 the influence of neighboring peoples is unmistakably there. 
 The same impression and to a much greater degree comes irre- 
 sistibly into the mind of the archaeologian when he examines 
 the marriage customs of the later centuries up to our own time. 
 "We h^ve already remarked above, that the Spanish and French 
 Jews had tournaments at their weddings; the Sicilian and Ara- 
 bian Jews, torchlight processions ; and in what follows we shall 
 meet with many a custom which never grew up on purely Jew- 
 ish soil, many a one which, after becoming accredited among 
 the people, had to be eliminated and put down as intrusive and 
 foreign and repugnant to religion by the Rabbis. 
 
 We commence our delineation of marriage among the later 
 Jews with a country respecting whose Jewish inhabitants, not- 
 withstanding the early date of their settlement in it, the investi- 
 gator is supplied with but scanty material — western and southern 
 India. From about the close of the fifth century, Jews in con- 
 siderable numbers, under the stress of the persecution set on 
 foot by the Persian King Firuz, had repaired to Malabar, Cey- 
 lon, Cochin, for a new home, and there formed themselves into 
 independent religions congregations, with free privilege to live 
 and worship, and the Jews still to be found in these parts of 
 India and adjacent countries can be no other than descendants of 
 these early settlers. Singular good fortune has preserved for 
 us liturgical forms used by the Cingalese Jews, which were sent 
 by lecheskel. Rabbi of Cochin on the Malabar coast, to a certain 
 Tobias Boas at the Hague — Ceylon was, it should be noted, Dutch
 
 HEBREW CHAKACTERI8TIC8. 63 
 
 territory at the time — and printed about a century ago in 
 Amsterdam. This liturgical book gives a full and particular 
 statement of the marriage ceremonies among Cingalese Jews, 
 which covers several successive pages. Many of the details 
 are more fully explained by a translation into the vernacular 
 speech, probably an Indian dialect. That this liturgy as a 
 whole dates from a very early period, when Cingalese Jews 
 were under rulers or head-men of their own race, appears from 
 a strophe of a song contained in it. 
 
 What strikes us immediately and unmistakably here at the 
 first glance is that the Cingalese Jews were to all intents and 
 purposes Rabbinical in their religious foundation. Marriage 
 festivals are celebrated for a space of seven days ; the bride 
 bathes in a bath of Rabbinical prescription ; there are the brides- 
 maids, and seven blessings, there is the marriage deed, Kethubah, 
 aud the peculiar form and method of pronouncing the benedic- 
 tion. Everything testifies to the influence of Talmudic dis- 
 quisition and precept. The observance of the seven days is 
 carried out in the severest and most consequent manner. 
 There are separate observances and songs assigned to each of 
 these days. Songs for female voices, music of other kinds 
 abounded in the festivities, and wax tapers were lavishly used. 
 There was one usage peculiar to them alone ; the bride was on 
 the Monday night bathed, and then escorted to the sound 
 of tambourines to the house where the wedding was cele- 
 brated ; the roll of the law was opened, while she stood close 
 by, at the ten commandments, to wliich she reverentially 
 put her lips, while the Rabbi pronounced over her a special 
 benediction made up of pointed passages from the Bible On 
 Tuesday the guests assembled at the house where the wedding
 
 64 HEBREW CHAKACTERISTICS. 
 
 festival is going on, the bridegroom placed gold and silver 
 articles in some vessel, which was then placed on the fire and 
 the contents fused into one mass. The old men made a solemn 
 examination of this mass of alloy, while the women vented 
 their feeling in concerted song. The groom and his " best men " 
 then dressed themselves in a handsome manner and sat down 
 to a banquet, during which strains of various kinds were sung 
 to them. On the evening of the same dav the bridegroom, 
 with his person all concealed by white festive garments, attended 
 by his groomsmen similarly clad, was led into the synagog,ue 
 to the sound of tambom'iues ; and thence escorted back by the 
 whole congregation to the bride's house, with four large wax 
 tapers being borne in front of the whole party. On the way all 
 sorts of songs were sung. Having reached the bridal house, 
 they led the bride to a chair specially prepared for lier, and 
 covered her with a thick vail. The bridegroom took a place 
 directly opposite her, his hand holding a cup filled with wine, 
 whereto the wedding ring was tied by some fastening. There- 
 upon a dialogue in a sort of recitative began between bride- 
 groom and congregation, at the close of which the bridegroom 
 spoke the specific formula which effects the union in wedlock, 
 and put the ring upon the bride's finger. The Rabbi then 
 read out loud the Kethuba, and held a catechetical dialogue with 
 the bridegroom as to the obligations incurred in marriage. The 
 bridegroom signed the Kethuba, two witnesses also attesting the 
 fact with their signatures, and handed it, pronouncing a special 
 formula, to the bride, who was then nnvailed by the women, 
 singing a song while they did it, and placed by them on a couch. 
 The Rabbi spoke the seven blessings, the congregation recited 
 appointed songs, then led the bridegroom solemnly to the
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERI88ICB. 65 
 
 « 
 
 bride and retired, after uttering uU sorts of wishes for theii- 
 happiness. Next night — that of Thursday — and on the follow- 
 ing nights the guests assembled at the house of the wedding, and 
 sang special songs for each night as they sat at supper. On the 
 last night, finally, the young couple were escorted with music by 
 men and women to the house of God, where the bridegroom 
 himself led in the evening prayer, and the;i returned with the 
 whole cortege to his dwelling, where the close of the festival was 
 solemnized by an assemblage of guests and the singing of 
 ciieerful songs. 
 
 Maimoni makes it a reproach to the Jews of Egypt, and con- 
 siders it a very mischievous circumstance, that in their weddings 
 they comply with strange un-Jewish usages, and even perform 
 a sort of mummery. The bride covers her head with a helmet, 
 takes a sword in her hand, and so travestied, dances at the head 
 of the procession of the marriage guests. The bridegroom 
 then allows himself to be dressed up in women's garments l)y 
 persons of that sex, skilled in matters of the toilet, female 
 clothing is put on the boys who are present, and their nails 
 stained with henna. Maimoni's narrative informs us that, 
 although men of distinction in Egypt clung with great per- 
 tinacity to these usages, and the people in particular had become 
 deeply attached to them from hab^t, he succeeded, in spite of 
 this, in bringing about their complete extirpation. 
 
 Concerning marriage ceremonies in Bagdad, Persia, and 
 Northern Africa, we have information from " Benjamin " — 
 whose statements, however, are to be used with great circum- 
 spection — in the work which he entitles his " Journeys.'' (Eight 
 Years in Asia and Africa, pp. Ill, 112; 269-270; 276, 277.) 
 In a general way the usages which he reports bear a certain
 
 HEBREW CHARACTEEISTICS. 
 
 affinity to the marriage ceremonies peculiar to Oriental 
 peoples. 
 
 The marriage usages of the Jews in European coimtries, so 
 far as our available sources of information enable us to judge, 
 do not difier materially. That here and there national and 
 non-Jewish customs should and did creep even into the syna- 
 gogue is easily intelligible ; the differences we do find are 
 principally of a liturgical kind. Of such liturgical specialties 
 Abudraham in his work mentions some as peculiar to the con- 
 gregations of Seville, Toledo, and other Spanish cities. The 
 marriage ceremonies of the German Jews in the middle ages 
 are described by R. Eleazar b. Jehuda of Worms. One very 
 striking circumstance is, that they were in the habit of solemn- 
 izing marriage on the day dedicated to the Teutonic Yenus, 
 Freia, Friday.* When the bride solemnly enters the bride- 
 groom's house, he meets her at tlie threshold, takes her hand 
 and lays it on the lintel of the house door, probably for the 
 same reason for which the Romans used to hand the keys of 
 the house to the bride at the moment when the bridesmaids 
 lifted her over the threshold, to signify that she was mistress of 
 that house. After the marriage ceremony, the bridal pair sat 
 
 ♦ The translator cannot forbear remarking that the writer of this essay is in 
 error when he represents Freia as the analogue of the Latin Venus. Had 
 she been so, it would scarcely have happened that Hebrews would have adopted 
 her day for their weddings, on the contrary, they would have carefully avoided 
 it. The Latin " Venus" is physical in her attributes chiefly, though not exclu- 
 sively. The Teutonic "Freia," on the contrary, represents all that is at once 
 ideal and legitimate in love and marriage. But in the Christian middle ages it is 
 very little probable that her attributes or herself were much remembered by 
 any Germans, save perhaps by those of the peasant class, among whom antique 
 heathendom has preserved a feeble cryptic existence throughout the centuries.
 
 HEBREW CHAEACTERISTIC6. 67 
 
 down to a special meal, principally composed of honey and 
 cheese, the motive of which was the proverbial speech, 
 " honey and milk are under thy tongue." Besides the fruit- 
 seeds, salt too was strewn about in the house where the mar- 
 riage was performed, to characterize symbolically the covenant 
 that was entered into as one that was to last for eternity, and 
 from which there could never be release. On the Sunday fol- 
 lowing the wedding day, the newly married man delivered, on 
 the very instant of his return home from synagogue, to his 
 young spouse his cloak, girdle, and hat, by way of open recog- 
 nition that she was henceforth a sharer in all that was his. 
 Of the betrothals and weddings of the Jews of Frankfort 
 Schudt discourses in his " Jiidische Merkwiirdigkeiten," throw- 
 ing carelessly together old things and new after his fashion. 
 Concerning the usages of the Jews of Rhineland, in particular 
 of Mayence, we have full information from Maharil in his 
 Minhagim. "What is to be especially noticed in regard to 
 these, is that the marriage ceremony of a virgin bride was per- 
 formed in the synagogue on the Bimah, that of a widow in the 
 outer court of the temple. No particular stress is laid on the 
 reading of the marriage deed, the Kethuba. In the Kol Bo it 
 is required that the Kethuba should be translated into the ver- 
 nacular. 
 
 As to marriage among the Karaites, it is to be observed that, 
 as was the case generally with their whole doctrinal system, 
 many rabbinical elements, however forbidden, got in one way 
 or another. Speaking generally, it differs but little from the 
 common forms of marriage in vogue among the Oriental Jews. 
 Ashes were strewn on the heads of the bridal couple, to com- 
 memorate the destruction of Jerusalem. The seven blessings
 
 68 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 n-erc adopted without alteration, and supplemented by numer- 
 ous passages from the Bible. The already mentioned formula 
 of the seven benedictions occurs among them also. . The brides- 
 maids and groomsmen (paranymphs) are mentioned ' both in 
 the liturgy and in many songs. The Kethuba, or, as the Kara- 
 ites call it, Sh'tar, was composed in Hebrew. Among other 
 things the married pair bound themselves expressly in it, if 
 they ever should reach the holy land, conscientiously to keep 
 the Jewish festivals according to antique usage, viz. : by care- 
 fully observing the changes of the moon. 
 
 The marriages of Jews of quite recent times have only this 
 one peculiarity that need engage attention, that instead of the 
 old tone of natural and religious joy which sprang from the 
 heart, we now too often see the stiff etiquette of the salon^ and 
 it is only in a few localities that the old forms, artless and 
 happy as they were, have held their ground against the gen- 
 eral tendency to sublimate and refine away what antiquity has 
 handed down. Particularly interesting in this connection is 
 the account from the pen of a French tourist, of a Jewish mar- 
 riage celebrated not long ago in Alsatia. Here we see the 
 " Mashaliks," who have so long disappeared from our wed- 
 dings, still amusing the guests with their improvised discourses, 
 abounding in surprising turns and twists of thought ; the cos- 
 tumes, so singular and of such venerable antiquity, defy the 
 universal supremacy of French fashion, and the man of the 
 world from Paris who witnesses and reports the scene, tells us 
 that he could not help fancying that he sat at table with ghosts 
 that had risen straight out of the grave of the preceding cen- 
 tury.
 
 ON 
 
 Interment oe the Dead. 
 
 IN POST-BIBLICAL JUDAISM. 
 
 By Dr. JOSEPH PERLES.
 
 (Jt)n Itxtjermewt of the ^ead 
 
 IN POST -BIBLICAL JUDAISM 
 
 A STUDY IN" ARCHEOLOGY. 
 
 By Dr. JOSEPH PERLES. 
 
 |HE usages connected with the rendering of the 
 last honors to tlie dead in post-biblical Judaism 
 were subject to the modifications necessarily caused 
 by a period wherein all things were somewhat rapidly trans- 
 formed. The primitive simplicity of Jewish burial received 
 accretions or enrichments from foreign sources, by reason 
 of contact with the Zend religion, with Islam, and the 
 later Kabbala ; but it never lost its principal and leading 
 features of gentleness and tranquillity, due as these were, 
 originally, to, and necessarily bound up with, the concep- 
 tions of Judaism concerning the dignity of humanity and the 
 splendor^ of its ultimate destiny. For wlint Judaism saw on 
 the death-bed of man or woman was no mere atom losing its 
 individuality by being merged in the vast substance of the uni- 
 verse, but a being that had reached a higher stage of existence, 
 about to cast oft' the shell which on earth had enveloped the
 
 72 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 imperisliable soul, and to enter on the pure sphere of the spirit- 
 ual life. Hence, originally, mourning for the dead was carefully 
 kept within bounds, and the leading feature of observance was 
 the bestowal of solemn and anxious care in the disposition of 
 the corpse, so lately the vessel wherein the immortal part was 
 contained ; while the departed spirit itself was, so to speak, left 
 alone and undisturbed to its peace and rest. It was not until 
 a later time, when the masses for the dead of the Christian 
 Church, and the sensuous notions of the Koran and the Kabbala, 
 began to have their influence on Judaism, that prayers for the 
 dead and other foreign usages accompanied obtrusively the 
 flight of the spirit to the world beyond. But the corpse was an 
 object of devout and tender respect only because it was thought 
 that between it and the soul that had taken wing some continu- 
 ing relation needs must be, because the Hebrew mind was 
 possessed by the poetic thought that this world and the world 
 to come held out, as it were, arms to embrace each other, and 
 that they even had lips which could meet with a parting kiss. 
 Hence, it was thought that tlie separation of the two elements 
 of earthly existence, body and soul, could not be sudden and 
 abrupt, but that the latter still for some days liovered and lin- 
 gered around the mansion which had sheltered it so long, taking 
 its final departure only then when Death had begun to set his 
 seal irrevocably and certainly on his work in the visible marks of 
 corruption. It resulted from such ideas that any desecration 
 of the srave, such as the Parsees were wont to practice in their 
 detestation of physical interment, was regarded by Hebrews with 
 horror and aversion as profanity to tlie dead, and a wicked 
 disturbance of the " eternal sleep" (Jerem. li- 39, 57); while, 
 on tlie otlier hand, complete preservation of the physical frame
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 by embalmment or other means, as in vogue among Egyptians 
 and other peoples, was carefully avoided. Embalmment, it is 
 possible, may have been employed on very rare occasions, and 
 in the case of some few highly distinguished personages, and 
 there are some other alleged cases of preservation of the corpse 
 by such methods ; but these are either to be regarded as excep- 
 tional, or, more probably, to be considered as belonging to 
 fable and legend alone. AYe are told, for example, that the 
 corpse of Eleazar ben Simon was kept by his wife, according to 
 his injunction, more than twenty years, in the garret of his 
 house; but the reason of this is expressly given, because he did 
 not wish to be submitted to the discourteous or disrespectful 
 mode of interment intended for him by his hostile and embittered 
 fellow-teacher ; while the stories that Herod kept the corpse 
 of a girl preserved seven years long in honey, and that Chija 
 ben Abuhu kept the skull of King Joiachin wrapped up in silk 
 in a bureau, bear their legendary character unmistakably upon 
 their face. 
 
 That some solemn disposition of the mortal remains should be 
 made was so natural and inevitable a claim of human feelmg, 
 that, originally and at the outset, man saw no need of seeking 
 for it the sanction of religious law or of considering it as founded 
 in scriptural injunction. It was only at a later time, when the 
 Jewish religion was at best but tolerated by the side of that of 
 Zoroaster, that the necessity was felt in Jewish circles of enter- 
 ing into a formal justification of their own practice of burial, so 
 precious to themselves, so detested by their opponents. King 
 Sapor asks R. Chama to give him passages from the Bible sup- 
 porting the practice of consigning bodies to the earth ; and m 
 consequence of this request the Jewish doctors of the law pro-
 
 74 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 posed to themselves the qnestion, what was the leading motive 
 of burial ; whether the feeling so prevalent among most of the 
 peoples of antiquity, that there was dishonor and shame in per- 
 mitting the corpse to putrefy above the earth ; or rather that the 
 corpse ought to be returned to the bosom of mother earth, in 
 some sort, for purification from earthly offense. According 
 as this question is decided one way or the other, practice will 
 differ in the ritual of interment; but the imderlying moral 
 thought connected with the practice is in no way affected by the 
 answer. The second view supports the well-known preference 
 for interment 'in the Holy Land, to whose soil was attributed 
 a specially atoning power ; while it was the first view that led 
 the Rabbis in Jamnia to insert in the liturgy a special form of 
 praise and blessing commemorative of the interment, happily 
 after difficulty brought about, of those who had fallen on the 
 day of Betar.* So highly was this pious observance, indeed, 
 esteemed in the Jewish world, that the Agadists even referred 
 the passage of the Bible, " Abraham gave all that was his to 
 Isaac," to the place of burial which he left to be hereditary for 
 the family. In all the towns there were, at certain places, 
 special subscription-boxes for burial expenses, and every one 
 who remained for nine months in the locality was under the 
 duty of contributing. 
 
 To comprehend aright the spirit of noble resignation which 
 is embodied in Jewish funeral ceremonials, it must be remem- 
 bered that, according to the apprehension ©f the Jewish sages, 
 
 * The fall of that fortress ("135 C. E. ) put a terrible end to the rising of the 
 Jews, led by Bar Cochba, against Boman tyranny ; it is said that more than half 
 a million of the devoted race either lost their lives or were sold into slavery at . 
 that catastrophe.
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 75 
 
 this world is to be compared to a dwelling in which man is 
 received as a temporary guest, while the passage to the life 
 beyond was always regarded as leading to the abode of ever- 
 lasting peace, and that life itself as to be passed in the house 
 of eternity ; for it was by that expressive name that, following 
 herein the Egyptians, they called " God's acre," or the burial 
 place, where, according to the expression of the Psalmist, those 
 who have reached their last home find their everlasting mansion 
 in the grave. To disturb the rest of this second home was 
 regarded as a proof of the most extreme hardness of heart, and 
 the barbarous conduct of the Parsees, who in their fanaticism 
 tore the corpses even of strangers to their faith from their graves 
 that they might be devoured, according to Parsee usage, by 
 birds of prey, drew many a cry of anguish from Jewish breasts. 
 " Sink my coflin deep, deep into the earth," says dying Jose 
 b. Kisma to his disciples, " for a Parsee horse is haltered to 
 every date-palm of Babylon, and there is no cotiin in Palestine 
 out of which some Median charger does not feed as from a 
 manger." " Let my burial-clothes be but scanty," is the last 
 injunction of E.. Chiskija, " and let the grave be deep that 
 receives my cofiin." And Simeon b. Jochai exclaims, " When 
 tliou seest the steed of a Zoroastrian trampling graves in the soil 
 of Holy Land, know that our miseries have reached their 
 climax, and expect at any moment Messiah's hour ! " And 
 Rabba b. Samuel is of opinion that tlie threat in the Book 
 of Samuel (i. 12, 15), that " God's chastisement will strike ye 
 and your forefathers," was visibly fulfilled in the desecration 
 of Jewish corpses by Parsees. 
 
 After these prefatory remarks we now proceed to deal par- 
 ticularly with our special subject.
 
 76 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 The dying person wrestles, as it were, with Death. This last 
 agony must not be aggravated by outcries and lamentations of 
 those around the bed of death, nor may the release of the body 
 from its final trial be accelerated one instant by the slightest 
 touch. The death that sets it free approaches at last in the form 
 of the Angel of Death, represented in imagination and fable as 
 a being almost entirely made up of widely-opened eyes, and as 
 standing during the last moments of life at the head of the 
 dying creature with a drawn sword in his hand. On the 
 point of the sword there is a drop of gall, at the sight of 
 which the dying person opens the mouth in terror; death 
 comes at the very instant that he swallows this drop of gall, 
 and this drop it is, also, wliich works a little later that 
 alteration of the countenance that follows death. Those who 
 have been present at the death-struggle then tear their clothes. 
 After the breath has departed the eyes are closed, usually by 
 the eldest son, the fallen jaw is raised and the mouth bound 
 up, the corpse itself bathed, anointed, and, in order to check 
 too rapid corruption, covered with vessels of metal or glass, or 
 else with salt, and deposited on bare earth, or on a layer of 
 refrigerative salt. 
 
 As now among Jews, so of old ; in this respect, that few 
 were regarded as endowed with sufficient tact and intelligence 
 to perform the delicate task of bearing news of a death to those 
 concerned. The inhabitants of Sepphoris threatened death to 
 any one who should bring them news of the dissolution of R. 
 Jehuda Ilanasi. Bar Kappara undertook to do it, but conveyed 
 tli(3 intelligencte in figurative language. He appeared before 
 them with covered head and torn garments, and lifted up his 
 voice in lamentation. " The angels above and the mighty
 
 PIKBRKW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 77 
 
 men here have liad a struggle for the possession of the tablets 
 of the law, the angels have carried off the victory, and borne 
 away the tablets ! '' " Rabbi is dead," interrupted the Seppho- 
 rjeans. " It is ye who have said it," answered Bar Kappara 
 with a gesture of assent, " not I." 
 
 Popular belief loved to dignify the death of special favorites 
 or of the specially illustrious by miraculous narratives, or else 
 to bring real events into some sort of connection with their 
 last moments. When R. Acha died, says the legend, stars 
 were visible in the clear light of noon ; when R. Chanina of 
 Bath-Hauran died, the sea of Tiberias divided itself like the 
 Red Sea of old; at the death of R. Samuel b. Yizchak, a 
 storm tore up the cedars of Palestine by the roots ; at that of 
 R. Jose b. Chalafta, streams of blood flowed through the 
 streets of Lydda ; when R. Jose was torn away from the 
 world, the citadel of Tiberias fell with a crash ; on the death- 
 day of R. Chija meteoric stones fell abundantly from the sky ; 
 on that of R. Hamnuna, hail-storms devastated the neighbor- 
 hood far and wide ; in the year of the death of R. Meshar- 
 shija, thorns grew out of the date-palms; and when R. 
 Abuhu went to his last home, the very pillars in the buildings 
 of Caesarea could not refrain from tears. 
 
 The precepts of religion enjoined that bursts of grief for the 
 dead should be as much as possible restrained and moderated, 
 and that mourning for them should not take exaggerated 
 forms; but natural impulse and the contagious example of 
 neighbor-peoples in this respect sometimes prevented the 
 voice of reason from being heard. R. Akiba, coming quite 
 abruptly upon the procession carrying R. Eliesar b. Kisri to 
 the grave, was moved to scourge his own body till the blood
 
 78 HEBEEW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 flowed ; and R. Hamnuna found it necessary to remind once 
 more the women of his time that it was a forbidden thing to 
 tear out their hair when one dear to them had died. 
 
 When one died, the news was proclaimed abroad to the 
 sound of a trumpet ; and the public, where the death had 
 occurred, participated in the mourning, for all the inhabitants 
 of the locality refrained, though probably only for a very brief 
 time, from their usual labors. But in the case of men of distinc- 
 tion, the mourning was far more extensive. When a teacher of 
 the law died, his school was closed ; when the Ab-beth-din died, 
 instruction ceased for a while, as of course, in all the school- 
 houses of the city ; when the Nasi died, it was the same with 
 all the schools of the State. 
 
 Between death and interment there was but a short interval. 
 It was a special privilege or attribute of the city of Jerusalem 
 that no corpse was permitted to pass a night within its walls. 
 The cruelty of such quick burial was more apparent than real, 
 for it was mitigated by the circumstance that, as we shall sec 
 later, the corpses were deposited in open graves, and carefully 
 inspected for several days, to provide for the rare case when 
 death had not really occurred. It is a very one-sided interpre- 
 tation of the law that finds in this usage any warrant or justi- 
 fication for the very altered circumstances of subsequent times. 
 Bachya ben Ascher and Chaskuni declare expressly that it 
 was applicable only in Palestine itself; while Menasseh ben 
 Israel, who, in spite of his extensive general culture, was still 
 controlled by many prejudices, pronounces for its unqualified 
 retention. 
 
 In this interval measures were taken preparatory to the 
 actual consignment to earth. The dead body was bathed and
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 79 
 
 anointed, on which occasion drugs and spices of the most vari- 
 ous kinds were employed in the most abundant measure ; myr- 
 tle, aloes ; later, also hyssop, oil of roses, and rose-water, with 
 carefully prescribed ceremonies and forms of prayer. Great 
 stress was laid on the point of bathing the corpse ; and it is 
 related, in pity or in accusation, of the Babylonians (probably 
 the Jews of Babylon) that their dead go to the grave without 
 due honor, with no torch-light procession, and even unbathed. 
 The body thus bathed and anointed, was wrapped in gar- 
 ments specially appropriated to the corpse. To be consigned 
 naked to the grave was thought, among Jews as among many 
 other peoples, dishonor and shame ; and the connections of the 
 deceased considered it a meritorious thing and expressive of 
 the extent of their grief, to put a quantity of valuable garments 
 upon the mortal remains ; in this proceeding they were usually 
 a little hampered by the remonstrances of sensible friends, for 
 the garments which had once touched the corpse could never 
 be used afterwards for any other purpose. There was so 
 much expense and display in this matter of dressing corpses, 
 that, as the Talmud drastically puts it, the interment of the 
 corpse was frequently a more serious matter to relatives than 
 the death itself, and that many who could not stand the enor- 
 mous cost, and yet did not like not to conform to existing 
 usage, solved the matter by abandoning their homes, leaving 
 the corpses of their relatives to such interment as the town 
 would bestow. In order to put some check on these abuses, 
 R. Gamaliel left orders that he should be buried only in linen 
 garments. This good example was not without its effect, and 
 in R. Papa's times people had got so far as not to feel any hesita- 
 tion about wrapping a corpse in an overcoat which only cost a
 
 80 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 sus* R. Chiskija also warmly opposed the practice of heap- 
 ing a mass of garments upon corpses, and we are told that he 
 was interred in a simple linen cloth. It was customary also to 
 use the worn-out wrappings of the rolls of the law, which 
 could not lawfully be applied to any ordinary purpose, for 
 burial garments. As regards the color of these costumes of 
 the dead, usage differed greatly. R. Josia wished to be con- 
 signed to earth in white robes. R. Jannai said before his 
 death to his sons : " Wrap me neither in white nor black gar- 
 ments, for I would not apjjcar as a mourner among the joyous, 
 or as joyous among mourners, but put me parti-colored gar- 
 ments on." R. Jochanan uttered a similar request. R. Jir- 
 mija's desire was to be wrapped in a white stuff weaved of 
 prickly plants, with shoes on his feet and a staff in his hand, 
 and to be laid on his side, in order that he might be com- 
 pletely prepared for the resurrection. In the middle ages red 
 burial-clothes were in vogue as well as white. 
 
 Kings wished their very burial costume to bear witness to 
 their departed grandeur. Accordingly Herod was borne to 
 the grave on a golden bier inlaid with a great number of 
 precious stones. The pall and tlie burial-garments were of 
 Tyrian purple. On his head the golden crown was fastened 
 above the diadem, and in the immovable right hand was seen 
 the royal sceptre. 
 
 The face of the corpse was originally covered and concealed 
 only in those cases where the. features were distorted, but later, 
 in the case of all, with the single exception only of a man 
 betrothed to niarry. The corpse lay in the coffin with face 
 turned upwards, with the hands folded on the breast, and lege 
 
 * The name of a small coin.
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 81 
 
 stretched out to their full length. Universal usage among the 
 Jews rejected any oblique attitude for the corpse, or a sitting 
 one, or one in which the limbs were gathered together as of one 
 cowering. It would appear that, as a rule, the hair was cut 
 from the head, and it is so expressly stated in the case of the 
 betrothed girl. It was not unusual with women to bequeath 
 their hair, by way of legacy, to designated persons. 
 
 Besides their garments, it was customary to give the dead, or 
 hang on then- coffin, borrowing herein custom from the neigh- 
 boring peoples, divers objects which they had used in life ; such 
 as their inkstand, their writing-pen, their writing-table, their 
 keys. This usage was especially observed in the case of those 
 who died betrothed or childless. It appears to have been a 
 special or exclusive practice of the royal family, to deposit large 
 sums of money or valuable ornaments in the grave with the 
 dead. Thus, Herod buried the murdered Aristobulus with 
 particularly fine spices and other exceptionally valuable things. 
 Hyrcanus opened the grave of David and robbed it of three 
 thousand silver talents. Herod, who tried the same thing a 
 second time, found no money, but gold ornaments of remarkable 
 beauty and value. 
 
 The coffin in which the dead was consigned to earth was 
 either of wood, most frequently cedar, or of stone. The kind 
 of coffin most frequently in use was made of separate planks. 
 The coffin of bronze in which, according to legend, the Egyptians 
 sank Joseph's corpse in the Nile, or deposited it, according to 
 another version, in the labyrinth, is suggestive of Egyptian 
 rather than Jewish circumstances. To bury in a shnple matting 
 of reeds was regarded as dishonoring the body, and involved, in 
 popular belief, the consequence that the soul of one who had
 
 82 HEBREW CHAKACTERISTICS. 
 
 received such sepulture could never extricate itself from the 
 tomb and join the multitudinous company of invisible spirits 
 who were always traversing the world. It has been already 
 remarked that the coffin was decorated with all sorts of orna- 
 ments, emblems, crowns or garlands. On the coffin of dis- 
 tinguished scholars, like R. Huna, and of pious kings eminent 
 for service to the community, like Chiskija, a roll of the law 
 was deposited, to illustrate the zeal wherewith the dead had 
 prosecuted either the study or the application of the truths of 
 religion. This custom was modified later, and the roll of the 
 law merely carried in front of the bier to the grave. On the 
 coffin of one who died excommunicate, the supreme court of 
 law appointed a person to deposit a stone in token of expiation. 
 The Rabbis of the middle ages, however, regarded death as a 
 complete purgation of the sentence of excommunication, and, 
 accordingly, abolished entirely the Talmudic custom of depos- 
 iting the stone. Above the coffin of those who died betrothed, 
 canopies profusely decorated were raised ; and, generally, the 
 interment of such persons was marked by the special honor of 
 lavish expenditure and ornament. The coffin was also fre- 
 quently crowned with garlands of myrtle twigs; and incense, 
 originally but sparingly or exceptionally employed, was later, 
 in the case of persons of rank, used customarily, with the most 
 lavish unrestraint. A sort of libation of honor, on the bier of the 
 dead, may have been practiced occasionally. The French Jews 
 of the middle ages were in the habit of having their coffins made 
 from the table which had borne testimony in life to their 
 generous hospitality. In Spain, and particularly in Gerona, 
 according to the statement of R. Nissim ben Reuben, coffins 
 were gradually disused, and the dead body, without any other
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 83 
 
 envelope, consigned to its last resting-place in earth. This cus- 
 tom, which is of mystical significance, has maintained itself even 
 to the present day. 
 
 The burial procession, which went from the house of the 
 departed to the cemetery — God's acre, so called — was the 
 object of careful attention and special care. Pains were taken 
 to have as many as possible take part in it. Everyl)ody who 
 met it on its way, w^as in duty bound to join and accompany it 
 to the" grave. Even the study of the law, on which such store 
 was set, was to be interrupted in order to pay these last honors 
 to the dead. At all points where the procession passed spec- 
 tators rose from their seats, as a mark of respect to the dead, 
 or, as others explain, to the company bound on this errand of 
 grief. According to the views of the ancients, the procession 
 to the grave was adequate and satisfactory only in the case where 
 it extended itself, at least espalier-wise, from the very house of 
 mourning to the place of sepulture itself, by such additions. 
 But when it is computed that sometimes the numbers of those 
 who thus of duty and obligation joined in its passage to the 
 grave, mounted up even to many thousands, this must surely 
 be no more than somewhat sportive hyperbole. 
 
 The mode of carrying the corpse was dependent upon the 
 age of the deceased person. Children who died before the end 
 of their first month, and who were still regarded as mere 
 embryos, were taken without any special ceremony of mom-ning 
 to a burial-place, as it would seem, specially reserved for such 
 cases. Children of more than a month were carried to their 
 resting-place in a coffin under the arm ; those who had lived 
 more than one full year, on a bier carried on men's shoulders. 
 In the case of grown-up people, a distinction was originally made
 
 84 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 between people of large or slender means, tlie former being 
 conveyed in a carriage, the latter on a simple bier; at a later 
 day, the carriage was used without exception for all alike ; the 
 bier, which in the great majority of instances was of wood, in 
 the case of persons of very high ranlv, of precious metal highly 
 chased and decorated in the richest manner. 
 
 There is a legend that King Chiskija caused his father to be 
 carried to the grave upon a very simple military or field bed- 
 stead, as a token that atonement was needed for the sinful life 
 he had led. The bearers of the bier, who went with naked feet, 
 were frequently changed in the passage to the grave, in order 
 that as many as possible might share in this labor of love. For 
 this purpose, the bier was from time to time laid down in the 
 street or road, and the pauses before the procession resumed its 
 course were filled up with songs of lamentation. But there were 
 certain days when such interruptions of the passage to the grave 
 were not permitted in the case of male corpses, and they were 
 never practiced or permissible in the case of female dead. The 
 bier on which the dead was carried made a line of division 
 between the two sexes. In some localities, the men preceded, the 
 women followed the bier, as was Greek custom ; in others, the 
 inverse order was observed. 
 
 The interment of crowned heads and persons of the most 
 exalted social position was exceptional in regard to many obser- 
 vances exclusively practiced in their honor. Any objects, as 
 furniture and the like, of which they had made marked and 
 favorite use, were burned ; a custom expressly stated to have 
 been borrowed from the neighboring peoples; their riding 
 horses were hamstrung, and there were other similar observan- 
 ces. In honor of the deceased R. Gamaliel the elder, the
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 85 
 
 famous convert Oiikelos erected a funeral pyre the cost of 
 which amounted to nearly seventy Tyrian minse. And in all 
 other possible respects, the sepulture of kings was performed 
 with extraordinary solemnity and splendor. At the burial of 
 King Chiskija, we are told that many thousand soldiers, it is even 
 stated thu-ty-six thousand, were marshaled in the fullest military 
 array, and the whole distance from the house of mourning where 
 he died, to the hereditary burial-place of the Davidian family, 
 was covered with carpet. The expensively decorated coffin of 
 Herod was, according to the description of the interment given 
 by Josephus, carried by the sons and nearest relations ; and, 
 indeed, it was general usage that the connections and friends of 
 the departed were employed in the performance of the last ser- 
 vices of love. These coftin-bearers, in Herod's case, were 
 followed by military detachments representing the various regi- 
 ments and nationalities in the service, in complete equipment 
 and under the command of the generals and centurions. The 
 closing partof the procession wasmade up of five hundred attend- 
 ants, all carrying burning incense. At the interment of a 
 member of the royal family, the king in person but very rarely 
 attended the funeral cortege ; as a rule, on such occasions he 
 withdrew into strict seclusion in his own private apartments. 
 
 One of the most indispensable elements of the cortege was 
 composed of the Nceniee or funeral dirges of hired mourners 
 accomplished in such art ; to say nothing of the torch-bearers, 
 and the music of drums and flutes, in the arrangement of which 
 pains were taken, that the solemnity of tlie occasion should be 
 well marked. The function of paid mourner or singer of songs 
 of lamentation does not appear, however, to have been exclu- 
 sively performed, as among the Romans, by a woman, known as
 
 86 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 \hQ jprcefica ; on the contrary, we often find such a mourner of* 
 the male sex employed, who had a special Hebrew name. The 
 legal minimum of vocal and instrumental music in funeral cere- 
 monies was composed of two flutes and a singing woman. In 
 Galilee, the people employed for this lamentation in music went 
 in front of the bier ; in Judea, behind it. The performances and 
 functions of these hired mourners were somewhat complicated. 
 They had to make solemn appeal to those present to show 
 signs of grief, and utter elaborate lyrical panegyrics of the dead, 
 beating their breasts, and expressing grief in rythmical move- 
 ments of the hands and feet; and the songs of mourning were 
 distributed between recitative of a single voice and chorus. 
 
 Besides these songs of grief, there were funeral orations at 
 the grave; but the fragments of those that survive show that 
 these were delivered only in the case of distinguished persons ; 
 for others there was a set and general formula of commemora- 
 tion. As to the significance to be attached to the funeral 
 oration, opinions were divided. Some regarded it as a consola- 
 tory tribute to the grief of survivors, others as a mark of 
 honor to the dead. In the course of time, the latter view pre- 
 vailed ; and the orator at the grave, in the latest times of the 
 usage, tried to make of his discourse a sort of mirror reflecting 
 the earthly career of the deceased on earth, and forecasting his 
 probable destiny in the other life. Any one who sincerely 
 deplored in words and even tears the loss of a good man dead 
 might fairly, according to popular ideas, expect tliat his sins 
 would be forgiven him ; for God kept count of such tears and 
 stored them in the treasury of eternal memory ns proofs of 
 human love and sympathy ; while, on the other hand, it was 
 thought that unsympathizing people, who only joined with
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 87 
 
 lukewarm voice in the praise of a noble man departed, 
 deserved to be buried alive themselves. The dead person, it 
 was foncied, hears tlic })raise uttered in his memory as in a 
 sort of half-sleep until the coffin-lid is nailed down over him, 
 or until corruption sets in ; and Rab before his death urged 
 R. Samuel b. Silath to utter an impassioned oration over his 
 corpse ; " for," said he, " I shall assuredly be there, and hear 
 thy words as heretofore in life." 
 
 These funeral orations were probably delivered at stopping- 
 places of the funeral cortege, or in a separate building belong- 
 ing to the family of the dead, devoted to times of special 
 mourning among them, or at the place of sepulture, sometimes 
 even in the synagogue. When the corpse of R. Jehuda 
 Hanasi was taken to Beth-Shearim, the cortege had eighteen 
 stations or stopping-places; or, as it is otherwise explained, 
 the crowd that accompanied it stopped at eighteen synagogues 
 in order to hear the various funeral discourses delivered at 
 each of them. R. Seira pronounced the funeral oration over 
 one of his disciples, and Rafrem over his own daughter-in-law 
 in the synagogue. It seems to have been occasional usage 
 that the relatives of the deceased themselves delivered a 
 speecli for the purpose of formally thanking the public for 
 their sympathy and attention. When the sons of R. Aldba 
 died, the Talmud tells us that an enormous crowd of people 
 tiocked to their interment. When the usual solemnities were 
 ended, the grief-stricken father himself ascended the rostrum, 
 and addressed the people as follows : " Brothers in Israel, ye 
 must hear some words from me ! Even if my sons hud died 
 exalted by betrothal and approaching wedlock, the honor ye 
 have shown them would alnfost liave sufficed to console me in
 
 88 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 my grief. It is not because of any merit or station of mine, 
 that ye are all here to-day; for, assm-edly, many are my 
 equals among the people. Still ye have not forgotten that the 
 Law of God has an abiding place in the old man's heart of 
 hearts ; and it is the doctrine, the truth, the religion I repre- 
 sent to which ye do homage at this hour. Yerily God will 
 requite ye abundantly. Depart in peace ! " 
 
 We still possess fragments of some songs and orations. 
 The invitation to join in the song of lamentation ran thus in 
 Palestine : " "Weep with him, all ye of heavy-laden heart ! " 
 The women of Shechanzib, the inhabitants of which locality 
 were notorious for their jesting ways, had a special and some- 
 what obscure refrain in their songs of lamentation; as, for 
 example, " hide yourselves, cover yourselves, ye mountains, 
 for he was the son of those exalted on earth." More intelli- 
 gible because specially applied to each person over whom they 
 were delivered, whom we happen moreover to know, and as a 
 rule composed in the purest Hebrew, are the funeral orations, 
 from which we give some cliaracteristic quotations. 
 
 An orator, Bar Kipop, declaimed as follows over R. Abina : 
 " When the devouring flame seizes the cedars, what shall the 
 lowly hyssop do ? If leviathan be taken by the angler's hook, 
 what have the fi,shes of the shallow pond to expect: if the 
 fishing line be dropped in dashing torrents, how stands it with 
 the waters of mere brooks ?" Another speaker exclaimed over 
 the same R. Abina: "Mourn for those who are left, and not 
 for him who has been taken away from earth ; for he has 
 entered into his rest ; it is wc who are bowed and broken by 
 sorrow." R. Lakish joined in the funeral-song for a deceased 
 yonng scholar from Palestine, distinguished for mastery of
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 89 
 
 traditional lore, in thiswise: " Woe, woe, Palestine is poorer 
 by a man of great mark and likelihood." R.Nachman uttered 
 the following cry of lamentation over another meritorious 
 teacher of the law : " Alas, the very book-case is broken ! " 
 R. Chanina died on the birthday of his first-born child, and 
 these words were uttered over him : " Joy was changed into 
 pain ; delight and dismay met each other in the way ; in the 
 very moment of happiness, grief hastened to overtake him, and, 
 even in his hour of favor and grace, mercy failed his life." 
 When R. Simon b. Zebid went to his last home, R. Levi thus 
 lamented: "Earthly possessions, when they depart from us, may 
 be replaced, for there is a vein for the silver, a stratum whence 
 tlie gold is brought to the light, iron is wrested from the earth, 
 and the metals of bronze obtained from their stones ;" but when 
 a wise man is torn away from the world, what shall balance his 
 loss ? For " where is wisdom found, and where does insight 
 lurk ? Verily they disclose themselves not to the eye of the 
 living man. The brothers of Joseph were startled when they 
 found valuables unexpectedly, how much more must we be 
 stricken with terror, when we -lose inestimable treasure in one 
 who departs from us in death." R. Lakisli began the funeral 
 discourse over R. Chija b. Ada, son of Bar Kappara's sister, 
 with the following homily : " My lover goes down into his 
 garden, to the beds of spices, to wander about in the garden 
 and pluck roses. The lover is God, the Lord ; the garden in 
 which he goes about is the large wide world, in which Israel 
 sends up its perfume like a small bed of fragrant flowers, fenced 
 round by peace ; Israel where firmly foimded piety and learn- 
 ing flourish and put fortli vast leaves whereunder to shelter 
 from life's heats : it is tiiis bed tliat the Lord seeks, and plucks
 
 90 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 the queens of the garden, the roses, the disciples of the law 
 whose belief is their delight." At the grave of Samuel Hakaton 
 who died childless, R. Gamaliel the elder, and E-. Eleazar b. 
 Asarja thus spoke : " Here is one over whom we ought indeed 
 to shed tears and grieve. Kings transmit their crown to their 
 successors, the wealthy leave their treasures to tlieu* children, 
 but Samuel has gone to his last home, and taken with him all 
 bis glorious possessions." 
 
 The public cemetery was usually situated at least fifty ells 
 from the city boundaries. In selecting its site, care was taken 
 that the ground should be rocky and well drained. The manners 
 of the people altogether forbad the erection of graves or mau- 
 solea on public roads or at cross-ways, as was so customary in 
 Greece. But the same feeling which forbad this, led to fre- 
 quent interments either in gardens or very near them ; and it is 
 more than probable that graves and tombs were planted with 
 roses, and all sorts of flowering shrubs. Any disturbance of the 
 quiet and peace of burial-places was carefully prevented, and 
 special measures were taken to keep wild animals from the 
 graves, and prevent tlieir being t'avaged by such creatures. To 
 tread the turf of the graves was regarded as showing a want of 
 reverent feeling to the dead. H. Jonathan did it once, and 
 received this rebuke from R. Chija : " Rabba, do you know what 
 the dead think when you do that ? They who outrage us to-day 
 will to-morrow be here under the sod with us." 
 
 Cemeteries, as at this day in the Orient, were favorite places 
 of resort ; for the siglit of graves humbles the soul, and prayer 
 ofiered among them is apt to be more intense ; another motive 
 was to evoke memories of companionship with the dead, and 
 so hold silent and imagined discourse with departed souls. It
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 91 
 
 was thus that Judah b. Tabbai, who had, as Ab-beth-din,* caused 
 an innocent man to be unjustly put to death, made a practice 
 of visiting the victim's grave ; thus that R. Joshua, who had 
 had a severe controversy on religious questions with the dis- 
 ciples of Sharamai, and was subsequently convinced of the 
 infirmity of the opinions he had maintained, went to the graves 
 of his opponents and there solemnly confessed and recanted 
 his errors. It was also a common thing to deliver lectures on 
 religious subjects over the graves of persons distinguished for 
 holiness of life, and in the case of very distinguished scholars, 
 this was commonly done on every anniversary of their death. 
 But it must be admitted that many superstitious notions were 
 connected with this practice of visiting cemeteries. Though 
 it was generally held dangerous to pass an entire night in 
 these abodes of the dead, and those who made a practice of 
 doing so were stamped in public opinion as almost touched in 
 mind, yet many a charlatan and enthusiast determined at any 
 cost to establish mysterious relations with the departed, as 
 well as for themselves the character of skillful magicians, were 
 wont to pay these moonlit visits to the spirits. And as church- 
 yards generally cast a gloom over the imagination, or the 
 imagination over them, impostors may frequently have used 
 this twilight of the mind to vail their frauds ; and it is well 
 known that, in popular belief, dust from the grave of holy men 
 was an approved specific againt fevers. 
 
 As Islam spread, so superstition in regard to the dead and 
 
 their resting-place increased among the Jews. Abiilsavi Sahal 
 
 b. Mazllach, a Karaite of the tenth century, drew up a most 
 
 solemn classified catalogue of the heathenish practices of liis 
 
 * The presiding judge of the Supreme Court.
 
 92 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 rabbanite contemporaries ; they sit on graves, spend their time 
 uselessly in cemeteries, pray to the dead, offer up vows to them 
 and say : " O Joseph of the Galileans, save me, give me chil- 
 dren." They light torches or tapers, send up incense, and join 
 in dances over the graves of pious people ; and, to avert illness, 
 hang up votive offerings on the palm-trees in the cemeteries. 
 Isaac Sheshet (XIV. century) tells us expressly that the Spanish 
 Jews of his time followed Mohammedan usage in spending the 
 first seven days of the mourning at the place of sepulture of 
 the deceased. At Saragossa, the mourners were usually fol- 
 low'ed from the Synagogue to their house by all the people in 
 a crowd, in the same first seven days. On the way, a profes- 
 sional female mourner sang a song of lament, accompanying 
 herself on a sort of tambourine, and the other women joined 
 in clapping their hands to the rhythm. 
 
 Death was regarded as a complete leveler of all distinctions 
 and differences of man from man during life; for, say the 
 Talmudists, "'be things small or be they great, they find their 
 way at last into the grave ;" and this feeling went so far that 
 the very barrier of religion fell before death, and non-Jewish 
 corpses were allowed to rest by the side of Jewish in a common 
 cemetery ; yet tlie line was drawn in the case of crime. This 
 was stigmatized even by dishonoring differences in death and 
 burial ; less by way of punishment for the offense than as 
 warning to others. The suicide received but a portion of the 
 funeral honors accorded to others. The apostate who had 
 shown himself embittered against his mother-religion was even 
 more sternly dealt with. A man of notorious wickedness was 
 not allowed to rest near those whose piety had been unques- 
 tionable; though til is last discrimination, when people began
 
 HEBREW 0HAKACTERI8TICS. , 93 
 
 to pay respect to the inaxim wliich forbids linking the idea of 
 evil with the dead, fell into disuse. Justice provided a separ- 
 ate burial place for those who perished by her decrees ; but the 
 connections of the condemned were permitted, after suitable 
 lapse of time, to collect their bones and deposit them in the 
 family sepulclire. In like manner, the corpses of involuntary 
 homicides who died in the cities of refuge, might, after the 
 death of the High-Priest, be returned to their homes ; while, 
 conversely, those who died after such offense before they fled 
 for refuge, were held bound to do so, as it were vicariously, in 
 death, and their corpses were carried thither. Those who fell 
 in battle were buried on the field. Death at sea under circum- 
 stances which forbad interment was always thought of with 
 especial horror. 
 
 The cynicism of grave-diggers was proverbial, and repaid 
 by public contempt. "Worse than a grave-digger" was a 
 word frequently on men's lips. But for all this a Tannaite of 
 mark, Abba Saul, unhesitatingly adopted the occupation. How 
 anxious and systematic was the care taken by the Jewish people 
 that their cemeteries should be well kept and of dignified 
 appearance, is shown by a legend according to which the nations 
 bordering Palestine, when inducing Nebuchadnezzar to invade 
 Palestine, drew a seductive picture of the country, telling him, 
 among other things, that there was more splendor in the ceme- 
 teries of the Jews than in his palaces. 
 
 The practice of preparing the tomb during life, abundantly 
 testified to in the Talmud, has been maintained up to the latest 
 time. Originally corpses were deposited in chambers, and the 
 skeleton was subsequently taken thence and put in a coffin. 
 At this second sepulture, when the bones were collected, there
 
 94 , HEBREW CHAKACTERI6TICS. 
 
 was a solemn ceremonial on a smaller scale than at the first, 
 with orations and other usages. Piety enjoined that the bones 
 of the dead should be carefully handled ; they were wrapped 
 in linen cloths, or deposited in some strong suitable vessel, 
 anointed with wine and oil, and fastened together by ligaments, 
 like mummies in Egypt. The bones of two dead persons were 
 on no account to be rashly mixed together ; and children were 
 not permitted to perforin the task of collecting the bones of 
 deceased parents ; for this, as Zadok explained to his son 
 Eleazer b. Zadok, might somewhat impair the reverential 
 respect due to a parent's memory. 
 
 The graves differed in character and construction at difier- 
 ent times. Sometimes they were vaults or pits, hypogoea, for 
 general use, sometimes they were of masonry, with oblique cor- 
 ridors of niches, which might be long or short at pleasure. In 
 order to avert any approach or profanation forbidden by the 
 law, they were distinguished outwardly by a stone whitened by 
 chalk, in which we are perliaps to see the first traces of the grave- 
 stone. The edifice of stone above the grave, of which the 
 Talmud makes mention in several places, and which we may 
 conclude from one passage to have been hollow and probably 
 designed as a sort of guest chamber for visitors to the tomb, 
 appears to have been in by no means general use ; at all events 
 R. Simeon b. Gamaliel declared that pious people, whose 
 actions in life were more important than all other memorials, 
 did not require their graves to be thus distinguished or adorned. 
 It was a superstructure of this kind, no doubt, the monument of 
 white stone erected by Herod on the grave of David, and that 
 which Simon the Maccabee put up to commemorate his father 
 and brothers, which was composed of seven towering pyramids
 
 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 95 
 
 of polished stone, decorated with weapons of war and profusely 
 carved, visible from a very great distance. Of a grave-stone 
 the Talmud makes no mention whatever ; but it must be remem- 
 bered that in Talmudic times decoration of Jewish graves had 
 begun to be a pretty general practice, and it may have been 
 thought discreet to avoid exposing the graves of Jewish dead to 
 profanation by provocative and conspicuous monuments ; but it 
 is remarked incidentally in one passage that to read tiie " writing 
 on graves " is somewhat detrimental to memory, and this sug- 
 gests that the graves had epitaphs. 
 
 When a body was once solemnly interred, there was great 
 reluctance in transferring it, for any cause, to another grave. 
 But an exception was made in the case of the transfer of a 
 corpse to a family burial-place ; for " it is sweet to man to rest 
 among his fathers." When burial grounds were already quite 
 filled, the Gaon. R. Hai allowed an upper layer of corpses to 
 be deposited on those already there, provided that a layer of 
 earth, of at least an ell in depth, could be between them. 
 
 So much concerning the solemnities attending the disposition 
 of the corpse, of which we are now able to see something up to 
 the last clod of earth thrown into the grave. As to the mourn- 
 ing ceremonies that followed interment, and the usages con-, 
 nected therewith, form the subject of a separate study. But in 
 some measure to make the foregoing sketch complete, the 
 remarks that follow may be in place. 
 
 The assembled sympathizers formed themselves into long 
 files which the mourners, usually clad in black, traversed to 
 receive a special word from every one present. On the return 
 from the grave, a halt was made at difierent places, at least 
 seven, partly for the purpose of uttering praises of the dead,
 
 96 HEBREW CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 partly to console the mourners, and to utter some words of thanks 
 to the assembled people. The signal for stopping at anyplace 
 was given in the formula, " Take your places, worthy friends ;" 
 for renewing the march by the formula, " Rise up, worthy 
 friends ! " In very old times, the family of the deceased prepared 
 a funeral feast for the public, a custom of which the Talmud 
 knows nothing, and which, as Josephus remarks, helped to im- 
 poverish many families ; for in spite of the enormous expense, 
 no one could well escape complying with it.
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 Leopold Bambebqeb, Esq., 243 Broadway, New York. 
 Benjamin I. Habt, Esq. , 657 Broadway, New York. 
 
 2tl Wxts-^xt^uUnt 
 
 Mteb Stebn, Esq., 130 Church St., New York. 
 
 Edwabd Mobbison, Esq. , 52 Broadway, New York. 
 
 Aenold Tanzeb, Esq., G3 Crosby st., New York. 
 
 Louis Lewengood, Esq. 
 
 Key. H. S. Jacobs. 
 
 Wm. B. Hackenbueg, Esq., Philadelphia. 
 
 Hon. S. Wolf, Washington, D. C. 
 
 gubUcatiou (tomnxiiUt* 
 
 Eev. Db. G. Gottheil. 
 
 Eev. De. M. Mielzinee. 
 
 Key. De. F. de Sola Mendes. 
 
 M. Ellingeb, Esq. 
 
 Eey. De. M. Jasteow, Philadelphia. 
 
 6fncvat ^jjcnt. 
 
 Sol. Weil, Esq., 338 E. 30th st., New York.
 
 AMERICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 
 
 lo«. Witt- 
 
 Portland, Maine. — B. Aaronson, Esq. 
 Boston, Mass. — Jacob Norton, Esq. 
 Providence, li. I. — Henry Green, Esq. 
 Hartford, Ct. — Joseph Schwab, Esq. 
 NeiD Haven, Ct.—M. Zunder, Esq. 
 Bridgeport, Ct. — Moses Klein, Esq. 
 Waterbury, Ct. — L. Kaiser, Esq. 
 Rochester, N. Y. — Elias S. Ettenhei- 
 
 mer, Esq. 
 Albany, N. F.— Hon. S. W. Rosen- 
 dale. 
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 Elmira, N. T.— Rev. Stahl. 
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 Washington, D. C. — A. S. Solomon, 
 
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 Richmond, Va. — Hon. William Low- 
 
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 Wheeling, Va. —Henry Frank, Esq. 
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 Lynchburg, Fa.— Max Guggenheimer, 
 
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 Wilmington, N. C— Solomon Beer, 
 
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 Charleston, 8. V. — Philip Wineman, 
 
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 Savannah, Ga. — Jos. Rosenheim, Esq. 
 Columbus, Ga. — Rev. Bonhsim.
 
 AMEEICAN JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 
 
 Hon. Vice-Presidents— Continued. 
 
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 " " Eev. Dr. Moses. 
 
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