STACK 
 ANNEX 
 
 fle 
 
 SUPPLEMENT 
 
 TO THE VOLUME OF 
 
 OLLECTED WRITINGS, etc., 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 ASHER ASHER, M.D.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 THE REVISION OF THE RITUAL . . . . . . . . Page 5 
 
 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER . . 9 
 
 THE HABDALA . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 
 
 EXTRACT FROM " JEWS IN MANY LANDS " BY E. N. 
 
 ADLER . . . . . . . . . . . . ,, 29 
 
 20980^0
 
 THE REVISION OF THE RITUAL. 
 
 From the " Jewish Chronicle," October 8th, 1880. 
 
 There are one or two points in the letter of your esteemed 
 correspondent " Lambda " in last week's issue which 
 call for some observation before the subject of the recent 
 Revision of the Ritual is allowed to rest. Being one 
 of an abnormal class which comes under two categories 
 in your correspondent's letter, namely, " blaming the 
 Conference for its insufficient action," and being at the 
 same time astonished and pleased that " the views of 
 the Delegates were, if anything, in advance rather than 
 in arrear of the expectations " of the Congregation, 
 I hope and trust that the subject is not now settled. 
 
 Where so much good has been effected, it would be 
 ungracious to minutely criticise " Lambda's " letter. 
 I pass by, as matters on which opinions may fairly differ, 
 " the thoroughly English character of the whole pro- 
 ceedings " ; that may or may not be subject for 
 congratulation. It is also fairly arguable whether or not 
 the Reform Congregation was right in seceding, and 
 although I agree with " Lambda " in his dislike to schism, 
 I recognise a motive beyond " ignorance and selfishness," 
 the two causes to which he would limit secession, namely, 
 conscience. If it is a crime to secede, it must undoubtedly 
 sometimes be a crime to remain in communion with those 
 who hold tenets which the individual conscience cannot 
 approve. Our forefather Abraham was a seceder from
 
 THE REVISION OF THE RITUAL. 
 
 the religion of his contemporaries ; was he therefore 
 criminal ? It is idle to ignore the vast benefit conferred 
 on the whole civilized world by the secession of Pro- 
 testants from the Catholic Communion. Had Luther, 
 Calvin, Huss, and others remained with their community 
 till " accord of opinion " was obtained, the greatest 
 religious movement of modern times would never have 
 taken place. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to the 
 courageous men who, forty years ago, bore the ignominy 
 and the hatred of their Orthodox brethren, and who 
 were publicly cursed and declared to be " no longer of 
 the congregation of Israel," for conscience sake, and 
 from neither ignorance nor selfishness on their part. 
 Had the " co-ordinate authority " consented to a Modifi- 
 cation of the Ritual, no secession would have occurred, 
 for the abolition of the second day of the Festivals, of 
 the use of Tephillin, and the introduction of an organ, 
 formed no part of the original programme of the Reform 
 Congregation. I am convinced that but for the existence 
 of that Reform Congregation the Ecclesiastical Autho- 
 rities would never have sanctioned the present alterations. 
 I believe with a perfect faith in " Lambda's " dictum 
 that the Ecclesiastical Authority is but a co-ordinate, 
 not a superior, power in our communal administration, 
 but I remind your readers that forty years ago the 
 holding of such an opinion was rank heresy, and that 
 it is not even now adopted universally by the members 
 of the London congregations. The very term " Co- 
 ordinate Power " is somewhat illogical. While things 
 work harmoniously, the two bodies are " equal in power 
 and glory," but where there is a conflict of opinion, the 
 power or body which vetoes the proposed act of the 
 other is, for the moment, the superior, not the co-ordinate 
 power. It is just possible that co-ordinate powers may 
 be diametrically opposed powers, and when on the other
 
 THE REVISION OF THE RITUAL. 
 
 hand the irresistible comes into contact with the im- 
 movable, I shudder to contemplate the consequences. 
 
 But the great result of the Conference is this that, 
 apart from piyutim or no piyutim, it is now definitely 
 recognised that the time-honoured prayer-book is not 
 henceforth to be considered as immutable and unchange- 
 able as the Decalogue, and that the minhag, or collection 
 of minhagim, introduced into this country by our cos- 
 mopolitan predecessors, is as unalterable as the laws 
 of the Medes and Persians. It is now nearly 800 years 
 since the great teachers, Aben Ezra and Maimonides, 
 inveighed against the piyutim, and only now, in this 
 remote isle of the sea, has their teaching borne fruit. The 
 knowledge that the Ritual is capable of modification 
 has been of slow growth, but I trust that it has taken 
 deep root. In view, therefore, of the further changes 
 which Time must inevitably bring about, I am anxious 
 to elicit the views of your readers on certain all-important 
 points, and foremost among these is the retention of 
 prayers for the Restoration of Sacrifices. In mooting 
 this subject, I shall, doubtless, awaken the prejudices 
 of some, but I hope to arouse the attention of many. 
 
 There is no occasion at present to enter into the question 
 of the origin of sacrifices ; whether they were an integral 
 and vital portion of the Jewish Ritual, or, as Maimonides 
 believes, a concession to the gross habits and customs 
 of the time ; and whether there existed a power of abolish- 
 ing them. Suffice it that let us thank God they have 
 ceased. The point I raise before your intelligent readers 
 is, whether or not they would, in the event of a Jewish 
 Restoration to Palestine taking place as I truly and 
 devoutly believe it will consent to the re-establishment 
 of an altar for burnt-offerings, and whether they would 
 be parties towards converting the House of Prayer for 
 all Nations, the Temple of the Universally acknowledged
 
 8 THE REVISION OF THE RITUAL. 
 
 One God, into a slaughter-house reeking with the gore 
 of its thousands of victims, and whether they consider 
 that the All-Merciful must be approached by wading in 
 the blood of bullocks ? And I would further wish your 
 readers to ask themselves, if they turn with horror from 
 the idea, whether they can justify to themselves the hypo- 
 crisy of praying to Almighty God to " bring us again to 
 Zion, Thy City, in joy, and to Jerusalem, Thy holy 
 house, in ineffable gladness ; and there we will offer 
 before Thee the burnt-offerings which we owe, the daily 
 sacrifices hi their order, and the additional offerings in 
 their rotation." I wonder if those who so pray realise 
 to themselves what they are saying. Be it remembered 
 that I am not now discussing the question of burnt- 
 offerings and sacrifices, but simply of retaining prayers 
 for their restoration in the Ritual. It has been proved 
 that the Ritual may be altered : shall this alteration 
 remain unmade ? 
 
 ALIQUIS. 
 LONDON, October 5th, 1880.
 
 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING 
 THE OMER. 
 
 From the " Jewish Chronicle," June <$h, 1885. 
 
 I have much pleasure in complying with the request 
 of Mr. Breslar as to furnishing the approximate date 
 when the custom of not marrying during the Omer 
 became general among us, but it is impossible to reply 
 to his queries as to " what induced our forefathers to 
 adopt this superstition " ; " by whom was it pro- 
 mulgated " ; and " was it the result of pressure from 
 tyrannical Popes and Emperors ? " 
 
 Mr. Breslar evidently does not know that customs grow, 
 or are adopted by one nation, or section of a nation, from 
 another, and are not " promulgated." This is the 
 difference between a " custom " and an " enactment." 
 The latter may be founded on the former, but never 
 the former on the latter. It is not uncommon, among 
 civilized peoples, to find traces of barbarism still sur- 
 viving. There is hardly a popular custom of which this 
 cannot be said, and the Jewish popular customs are no 
 exception. According to Maimonides even many of 
 the Jewish Laws are merely customs to which the
 
 10 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER. 
 
 Legislator gave sanction. In their native country, customs, 
 in their origin, have generally or almost always some 
 basis of convenience or necessity from the native point of 
 view ; but when they survive among circumstances to 
 which they are no longer applicable, they are merely evi- 
 dence of the conservative tendency of the human mind, 
 showing nothing but the superstition, from our point of 
 view, on which they are often founded. 
 
 It is not the case that " the customs of Israel have all 
 the binding force of Jewish Law." It may be so among the 
 ignorant and unthinking, and the idea is not combated 
 by those who do not desire that people should think. 
 Maimonides, however, teaches otherwise. According to 
 him no custom is to be considered binding on Israel unless 
 it has a distinct foundation in the Torah, and he warns 
 men not to abnegate their common sense. Had this 
 dictum been observed, we should have had fewer super- 
 stitious observances among us. 
 
 Mr. Breslar's account of the Jews in the Middle Ages 
 has no more to do with the matter in hand than has the 
 House that Jack built. On his own showing they had 
 no political rights till 1586 ; and although " intellectually 
 the Jew had no Middle Ages," he imbibed the 
 customs of every country in which his lot was cast. 
 These customs are at first only adopted by individuals; 
 they then spread by example ; then travellers take them 
 to other countries ; their origin is not inquired into ; if 
 none is forthcoming any Talmudic or Midrashic reference 
 will do ; and then the customs become hoary with age ; and 
 when they are practised by a sufficient number of people 
 in a sufficiently wide district for a sufficiently long time, 
 then they find their way into print in some Rabbinic 
 work, and are henceforth invested with sacred character 
 as " customs of Israel." The burning of the Jahrzeit 
 light, the fasting on the eve of the New Moon, and
 
 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER. II 
 
 other customs, are examples. Or in his love for the 
 social customs of his native Palestine, the Jew gave these 
 religious sanction, and they immediately became religious 
 customs, such as that of covering the head at prayers. 
 The origin of Jewish customs will some day form a very 
 interesting object of study. 
 
 Now as to the time when Abstention from Marriage 
 during the Sphira took firm hold as a Jewish custom, the 
 date can be approximately arrived at by a process of 
 exhaustion. The Jerusalem Talmud was finished in the 
 year 4150 ; the Babylonian Talmud in 4340 ; the com- 
 position of the Midrashim lasted probably a few hundred 
 years longer : Rabbenu Gershon died in 4800 ; Rabbi Isaac 
 Alphasi died in 4863 ; Rashi died in 4865 ; Rambam died 
 in 4965 ; Rabbi Moses, the author of the Halochoth Gedoloth, 
 died about the year 5000 ; Rambam died in 5030 ; Rashbo 
 in 5060 ; R. Moses de Leon, the probable author of 
 the Zohar, in 5065 ; the Rosh in 5087 ; and not one 
 of these writers, who dilated on every Jewish law and 
 custom in their most minute detail, refers in even the 
 most distant way to the custom which it is alleged existed 
 in their day of not marrying in the Omer. The inference 
 clearly is, that they knew nothing about it. It is only 
 when we come to the time of Abudraham and the Tur, 
 about 5000, that we find the custom noticed. It was 
 doubtless then gradually spreading, and although it had 
 become sufficiently noticeable to be recorded, it was 
 not yet universal. I will direct attention, later on, to 
 its appearance in the book called " Meah Shearim." 
 
 I am glad to observe that Mr. Breslar is, unconsciously 
 to himself, on my side of the discussion. He says, " the 
 law enjoins the solemnization of marriage, notwithstanding 
 the sudden demise of a father or mother must and would 
 cast a terrible gloom over the proceedings, and create 
 dark forebodings in the minds of the wedded pair."
 
 12 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER. 
 
 Exactly so. // it is wrong to postpone, even for one day, 
 a marriage on account of the death of such a near and dear 
 relative of the bride and bridegroom as a father or mother, 
 can it be right to abolish marriages altogether for seven weeks 
 among a whole nation on account of the death of Rabbi 
 Akiba's pupils 1,800 years ago ? 
 
 The letter of *pv is a mixture of unfounded 
 assertion and of misquotation. He tells us that the 
 Bible prohibits us following the customs of other nations, 
 and he wishes us to infer that we have never done so. 
 Of course we know that the laws of the Pentateuch 
 are specially intended to abolish superstition and ignorance, 
 but " Joseph " entirely forgets that even in Moses's 
 lifetime the Jews lapsed into idolatry ; that the lives 
 of the prophets were spent in one long protest against 
 idolatrous customs.; that the Psalmist declares that we 
 " mixed with the nations and learned their ways," and 
 that the Rabbins tell us that we "picked up the bad 
 customs of the nations, but forsook the good ones." 
 Has "Joseph" never heard of laws in the Shulchan 
 Aruch founded on the literal interpretation of "the 
 Evil Eye," of evading the Angel of Death by such means 
 as changing the patient's name, of avoiding "ill-luck" 
 by a variety of charms, of amulets (niENDp), of 
 conjuring away evil by ringing changes on the names 
 of angels, et hoc genus omne ? Has " Joseph " never 
 seen amulets on the necks of Jewish children, nor 
 " charms " in the lying-in room of the wives of Rabbis, 
 nor seen Jews eat plum pudding at Christmas, nor beheld 
 Christmas trees, euphemistically called Chanuka trees, 
 among his coreligionists ? 
 
 There is no difficulty whatever in the circumstance 
 of the Roman year having been originally divided into 
 ten months only. It is only the period of the year, not 
 the name of the period, which is material ; it is therefore
 
 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER. 13 
 
 of no moment whether the year of Romulus consisted 
 of ten or twelve months, for, as I pointed out in my 
 last letter, the introduction of the Lemuralia, during 
 which no marriages were solemnized, was, for want of 
 a better reason, attributed to Romulus. The custom of 
 not marrying during their celebration was, as I have 
 shown, much older. The Romans ascribed all their 
 ancient usages to Romulus, even as the Jews traced all 
 their unaccountable customs to a special extra-Biblical 
 revelation to Moses -^DB nrcab robn 
 
 " Joseph " remarks that according to the Talmud the 
 period between Passover and Pentecost is the best for 
 commencing a cure, and therefore there was no prejudice 
 against that period. This is exactly my contention. 
 The Talmud knows nothing of abstention from marriage 
 during the interval named, neither on account of its being 
 " unlucky " nor for any other reason. 
 
 I am fully aware, and stated distinctly in my letter, 
 that the Gaonim are said to have taught that marriages 
 must not be celebrated in the Omer. But " Joseph " 
 writes : " We find it already mentioned hi the ancient 
 Responses of the Gaonim." Well, I challenge " Joseph " 
 to point out the place, in the published Responses of 
 the Gaonim, where he " finds " it. If he gives chapter 
 and verse, I will confess that the custom is much more 
 ancient among the Jews than I thought it, although 
 still maintaining that it is of foreign origin ; if " Joseph " 
 fails, he must be content to be henceforth considered a 
 person who puts forth statements which are void of 
 foundation. 
 
 As " Joseph " says, Rabbi Isaac Aben Gayath " tells 
 us that the Minhag [of not marrying] was established 
 immediately after the death of Rabbi Akiba's pupils, 
 and kept in all Israel." It is absolutely incredible that 
 such a custom should have existed and not be mentioned
 
 14 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER. 
 
 by any one in the list of authors I have given above. 
 They evidently had never heard of it. The negative 
 evidence of all of them amounts to positive proof, and 
 cannot be explained away. The real truth is to be found 
 in the letters, etc., which constitute the preface to the 
 modern edition of the book. It is there stated that the 
 only manuscript copies extant have evidently been 
 largely tampered with and interpolations made. The 
 passage could never have existed in Aben Gayath, written 
 in 4849, nor could there have been any traditions on 
 the subject, and not be noticed by the illustrious writers 
 who immediately succeeded him ; the custom could 
 never have been instituted immediately after the death 
 of Rabbi Akiba's pupils, and not be recorded in Talmud, 
 Midrash, or Rambam. " Joseph " may, if he likes, 
 believe the passage to be genuine and the custom as 
 ancient as would thereby appear, but no rational man 
 will coincide with him. 
 
 Then, as to the character of Rabbi Akiba's pupils : 
 why shall we ignore the opinion of Rabbi Eleazar, their 
 contemporary, and Rabbi Akiba, their master, and adopt 
 that of persons who wrote a thousand years after their 
 death ? The sins for which they died cannot have been 
 " trivial." This word is very comparative, but envy, 
 lying, calumny, etc., as detailed in the Talmud, are not 
 trivial. I have heard an undoubted criminal speak of 
 his operations in similar terms, and with about as much 
 truth. 
 
 " Joseph's " final paragraph is such as ought to make 
 its author blush. He says, and brings in the Wilner 
 Gaon to back him, " that the day on which the Disciples 
 ceased to die," that is Lag B'Omer, the i8th day of 
 lyar, " is identical with the ancient festival held on the 
 day when those who were doomed to perish in the Wilder- 
 ness ceased to die, as related in Talmud Taanith." A
 
 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER. 15 
 
 little scholarship on " Joseph's " part, or a reference 
 to the passage which he quotes, would have told him 
 that the day on which these unfortunates ceased to die 
 was the i5th day of Ab. 
 
 ALIQUIS. 
 May 30th, 1885.
 
 l6 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER. 
 
 From the " Jewish Chronicle," June 26th, 1885. 
 
 In reply to my challenge, Fpv has published an 
 extract from a printed book professing to give the 
 dictum of Rabbi Natronai Gaon that abstention from 
 marriage during the Omer was instituted immediately 
 after the death of Rabbi Akiba's pupils. He may, if 
 he likes, believe that Rabbi Natronai wrote this ; I do 
 not. I will never convince him that the Jews have 
 borrowed customs, which Time has consecrated into 
 religious observances, from every nation among whom 
 they have been dispersed ; he will never convince me 
 that a Jewish religious custom existing at the time of 
 the Gaonim should have been altogether ignored by 
 such writers as Rashi, Rambam and others. Nor would 
 any explanation of the custom of abstaining from marriage 
 during the Omer be complete without an explanation 
 why marriages are permitted on Lag B'Omer ; the 
 quasi authority of Rabbi Natronai says -nothing on the 
 subject, and FjDV is discreetly silent. The reason 
 I gave in my first paper on the subject is the only one 
 which meets every difficulty, and it is, to my mind, 
 irrefutable. I showed that Jews do not marry in the 
 Omer because Christians do not marry in May, and I 
 not only traced the usage to Roman times, but showed 
 how it came to the Romans from a Lunar Assyrian 
 myth, which alleges that during the period of Ishtar's 
 stay in Hades " the male of any animal did not seek the 
 female." It is perfectly evident that the custom among 
 Jews is not a mere parallelism, but is an actual survival 
 of Idolatry.
 
 ABSTENTION FROM MARRIAGE DURING THE OMER. I? 
 
 There is no need to enter into a refutation of the 
 statement that Newton favoured amulets and charms. He 
 did not ; but even if he did that would not justify Jews 
 in doing the same. Nor need I again dwell on the in- 
 congruity of the assertion that because the Bible 
 prohibits superstition, therefore modern Jews are not 
 superstitious. The lady who declines to sit down one 
 of thirteen to dinner would be insulted were she told 
 that she is superstitious. So many persons who think 
 their practices religiously orthodox are merely and 
 grossly idolatrous. But they do not know it. In the 
 merciful language of the Talmud DITTO DrpmsN unsn, 
 they but do as their parents did. They act from want 
 of thought, and from a refusal to believe that their 
 parents could be wrong. f\DT belongs to the number. 
 Well, let him and me agree to differ. The evidence is 
 now before the discerning public let them decide. 
 
 ALIQUIS. 
 June 2ist, 1885.
 
 THE HABDALA. 
 
 From the " Jewish Chronicle," May 2jth, 1887 
 
 The Habdala, or distinctive ceremony which marks 
 the conclusion of the Sabbath, has been frequently treated 
 of in your columns. The latest writer on the subject, 
 " A Constant Reader," has evolved from his ownperfervid 
 inner consciousness a new theory thereon, has surrounded 
 its performance with such gorgeous accessories as " a 
 silver goblet " and a " richly ornamented spice box," and 
 has strangely omitted any explanation of, among other 
 things, the hebdomadal examination of the finger nails 
 as part of the ceremony. As the subject seems to have 
 aroused some public interest, may I venture to offer to 
 your readers some explanations afforded by the 
 " Rabbinical Exegesis " vaguely referred to by your 
 correspondent, and which I have collected from the 
 writings of Jewish authorities. 
 
 i. A celebrated Jewish author has written that there is 
 no people or nation so burdened with ritual observances 
 as the Jews. Every custom has become a mitzvah, or 
 precept ; the 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law, which 
 (Maccoth 23 b) David generalised into n, Isaiah into 6, 
 and Habbakuk into i, have been by later generations 
 expanded into 13,602, such being the number of sections 
 and subsections in the Shulchan Aruch, excluding later
 
 20 THE HABDALA. 
 
 additions. The word " precept " or commandment (rma) 
 has been extended to such things as the repetition of a 
 verse of Scripture, the putting on of the right shoe first, 
 the leaning on this or that side at meals, the lifting, 
 rolling and dressing of the Sepher, the pulling of the 
 string which moves the Curtain of the Ark ; and there 
 is no possible act of which the human body is capable 
 that is not surrounded by ordinances of the Shulchan 
 Aruch, dignified by the name of Mitzvoth. It is no 
 wonder that, to certain minds, the performance of such 
 acts has, if not superseded the precepts of the Torah, 
 at least placed itself on a level with them, and that men 
 can be found, even in these days, who can speak of 
 Habdala as one of " the observances of Monotheistic 
 Judaism," which has " intertwined itself with the inner 
 soul." If this is so in this " so-called nineteenth century," 
 some excuse can be found for the Rabbi Hunah (Pesachim 
 105 a), who thought that drinking even water prior to 
 the ceremony of Habdala should involve the penalty of 
 death by eschar of the throat, explained elsewhere as a 
 death inflicted by Heaven on those who evade merited 
 death by the hangman. 
 
 In Pesachim, 53 b and 54 a, it is ordained that the 
 blessing over light as represented by the Habdala 
 Candle is to be said on Saturday night, because light was 
 then created. In the Pirke R. Eleazer 21, it is related that 
 when Adam saw the sun go down on the day of his 
 creation, Friday, he wept, and thought that the world 
 was coming to an end on account of his disobedience, 
 but that God comforted him by sending a pillar of fire, 
 on seeing which he blessed God for creating fire. 
 K7Kn msE KTO ; but in Pesachim 45 a, this narrative 
 is varied by the very important statement that God gave 
 him wisdom and taught him to strike two flints together 
 to produce fire. These narratives, in one form or other,
 
 THE HABDALA. 21 
 
 are repeated by the Jerushalmi (Berachoth 8,) Midrash 
 Bereshith Rabba n, Shocher Tob 35, Pirke R. Eleazer 20, 
 Shloh, the Kolbo, and others. 
 
 2. Closely connected with the light is the examination 
 of the nails. The Talmud (Berachoth 53 b, also Pirke R. 
 Eleazer 20, and the Tur Orach Chayim 296), forbid the 
 blessing over the light merely as an incandescent substance 
 and limit the blessing to the making use of the light so 
 as to be able to distinguish between one thing and 
 another, as between one weight and another, or between 
 one coin and another ; and the opinion is there expressed 
 that if no light is at hand, it need not be searched for 
 as one searches for the means of performing the precepts, 
 because the use of the light is a mere memorial of its 
 original production. Rabbenu Asher, on Berachoth, 
 says that the nails and flesh are looked at, as coins are not 
 available on Sabbath, as a convenient and always obtain- 
 able means of distinguishing between one thing and 
 another. 
 
 The Pesiktah, quoted by Midrash Yalkut (Tehillim, 
 sec. 720), declares that the nails were created for the 
 purpose, among others, of being looked at during Habdala. 
 The Kabbalists positively revel in the sacred mysteries 
 connected with the examination of the nails. The 
 author of Spy n^bin, writing on the proper method 
 and order of cutting the nails, says that Adam, in 
 his state of innocence, was covered with scales, like 
 armour, which protected him from every evil thing, but 
 that when he sinned, these fell off everywhere except 
 from the ends of his fingers. In the Zohar (Exodus 208 b) 
 the scaly skin of Adam, the nails, and the spiritual effects 
 produced by the loss of the one and the growth of the 
 other, are enlarged on, as is also the smell of the Garden 
 of Eden, etc. The 'O-na explains that the examination
 
 22 THE HABDALA. 
 
 of the nails is to remind us of the punishment of Adam's 
 disobedience. The Midrash (Bereshith Rabba 21) opines 
 that not Adam's skin, but his clothing, was like scaly 
 armour, whereupon Abarbanel tries to explain that he 
 was clothed in rays of light, represented by the Torah. 
 Rabbi Hai Gaon says one must look at the nails because 
 they always grow, and are therefore emblematic of the 
 prosperity which is hoped for during the week. The Tur 
 says that the Ancients looked, not at the nails, but at the 
 lines on the hand, and that " we have learned from our 
 elders that there is much sign of blessing to be gathered 
 from an examination of the lines on the palm of the hand." 
 Rabbi Moses Isserles, adopting the view of the Zohar, 
 quoted above, says that the nails of the right hand must 
 be examined, not the fronts of the fingers ; but Rabbi 
 Joseph Karo orders that the fingers are to be closed into 
 the palm of the hand, so that, on their being gradually 
 extended, the light may shine on what was previously dark. 
 
 3. Now let us look at the wine. From the Talmud 
 (Berachoth, 33 a), it appears that the Men of the Great 
 Synagogue ordained the formula of Habdala used in the 
 1 8 blessings, but knew nothing of wine in the ceremony ; 
 that when the nation became wealthy, and people were 
 able to purchase wine, it was ordered that they should 
 hold a Habdala service after the evening service, with 
 wine ; and that when the nation fell, and no one any 
 longer possessed a vineyard, the formula of Habdala 
 in the 18 blessings was restored. Your " Constant 
 Reader " must have had in his mind the period of 
 prosperity referred to when he wrote that the wine must 
 be in a silver goblet. From the Mishna (Berachoth, 
 ch. 8, sect. 5) and from the Gemara thereon (Berachoth, 
 52 &), which treats of the disputes between the disciples 
 of Hillel and Shammai as to the Habdala service, it is
 
 THE HABDALA. 23 
 
 clear that wine was not used at all. When it did become 
 part of the ceremony it was, and is still, customary to 
 fill the cup to overflowing, from a literal rendering of the 
 saying (Erubin 65 a) that no one can be called blessed 
 unless wine flows in his house like water. For somewhat 
 the same reason, a little wine was poured on the table 
 after the ceremony in order to extinguish the light by 
 dipping it therein. To blow out a candle was evidently 
 not considered correct. The fumes of the extinguished 
 candle were to be inhaled ; they were improving to the 
 memory ; and, while inhaling, there was to be repeated the 
 verse, " Remember ye the law of Moses, My servant." 
 The eyes were to be washed with the spilt wine while 
 saying the verse, " The precepts of the Lord make clear 
 the light of the eyes." (See Shulchan Aruch, Orach 
 Chayim 296, Haga ; and in the Siddur Olath Sabbath.) 
 Beer, or the ordinary drink of the country, may be used 
 in place of wine. Women may not drink of the wine of 
 the Habdala. The Shloh gives as a reason that the 
 fruit of which Eve ate, and which brought death to the 
 world, was the grape (Berachoth 40 a ; also the Zohar, 
 Genesis, 192). The Shloh enters into other matters 
 affecting women, not necessary to be quoted here, but 
 all showing how sinful it would be for her to drink of the 
 cup of Habdala. 
 
 4. Lastly, we come to the spices. The Talmud 
 (Berachoth 52 a) orders the smelling of spices as part of 
 the Habdala ceremony. The same book (Taanith 27 b ; 
 Bezah 16 a), on the authority of Resh Lokish, declares 
 that on the eve of Sabbath an extra soul is given to man, 
 which is taken from him again when Sabbath departs. 
 The idea is beautiful and poetic, but is somewhat spoiled 
 by the commentators. Rashi says that the extra soul 
 means that on the Sabbath man's heart is opened and his
 
 24 THE HABDALA. 
 
 mind enlarged so that he may rest and enjoy himself, 
 that he may eat and drink, and that his spirits may not 
 droop. This is excellent. But Maimonides (Yad, 
 Sabbath, ch. 29, sect. 29), in reply to his own question 
 why spices should be inhaled at the Habdala service, 
 says that the soul grieves on the departure of the Sabbath 
 and the spices give it comfort and solace. The Tur 
 (sect. 297) can find no better reason. Rabbenu Bechai 
 (sect. Vayishlach) philosophises thus : That it is well 
 known that everything is especially weak on the third 
 day of its creation ; that Mars rules over the third day of 
 the week, and that a child born on that day is peculiarly 
 liable to illness ; that the Evil Spirit, Samael, has extra 
 power on that day ; that as Adam was created on 
 Friday, his descendants are in an extraordinary degree 
 liable to the ills of the flesh on Sunday, the third day of 
 his existence ; and that therefore spices are inhaled at 
 the commencement of Sunday, that is, on the exit of the 
 Sabbath, in order to strengthen the powers of the intellect 
 by their grateful odour. Another authority (Tosephot to 
 Bezah, 33 6), also quotes as above about the extra soul, 
 but gives the additional reason for spices that on the 
 departure of the Sabbath the ill-smelling fires of Gehinnom 
 are relighted. (About these fires, see also Sanhedrin 65 ; 
 the Sheiltoth of Rab Achai 2 ; and other Midrashim.) 
 It appears from the Tur that the vessel in which the 
 spices were kept was called the Hadassah, because myrtle 
 was frequently used instead of spices. Dry myrtle, 
 without smell, was not allowed (see the Tur, the Beth 
 Joseph, and the Tashbats, in the name of Rabbenu 
 Ephraim). 
 
 As to this extra soul, there are doubtless writers, such as 
 Rashi, quoted above, and Manasseh ben Israel, in his 
 work, Nishmath Chayim, p. 23, who indignantly reject 
 the idea that an extra soul on Sabbath is to be taken in
 
 THE HABDALA. 25 
 
 its literal sense. The latter declares that such a belief 
 was utterly foreign to our ancestors, and that all that 
 was meant to be conveyed to the intelligent mind was, 
 that on the Sabbath the soul of man craves for instruc- 
 tion in the Law of God and for relief from the worries and 
 anxieties of life, and that an extra soul signifies increased 
 intelligence and more perfect comprehension of God's 
 ways. This doubtless was so ; but it is difficult, if not 
 impossible, to reconcile this rational explanation with 
 the dictum of some of the exponents of the Ritual. There 
 can be no doubt that these not only believed literally in 
 an additional soul on Sabbath, but believed that that 
 soul was nourished and strengthened by the inhalation 
 of spices on the exit of the Sabbath. I abstain from 
 quoting passages from these writers which show incon- 
 testably that this was their belief. 
 
 5. May I here interpolate the hope that having, as 
 desired by " A Constant Reader," appealed to " Rabbinical 
 Exegesis," your readers " have been provided with an 
 explanation as clear as it is convincing " ? I greatly 
 fear that the appeal has not been successful, and that it 
 has only made confusion worse confounded. Those who 
 follow blindly in the beaten path neither want nor wish 
 any explanation of the Ritual acts they perform. If in 
 this critical age they are sometimes compelled to give 
 a reason, they become homiletic. There is nothing easier 
 than to give forth beautiful moral reflections, or to make 
 of a ceremony, the origin of which is unknown, a peg on 
 which to hang a sermon. But this process is misleading 
 and is unsatisfactory. I hardly think that the various 
 passages adduced in this paper in connection with Habdala 
 will afford to the intelligent Jew any satisfactory answer 
 to the question why the departure of the Sabbath should 
 be celebrated by such a ceremony as the blessing over the
 
 26 THE HABDALA. 
 
 rays of light, the smelling of spices, and the sipping of a 
 glass of wine. 
 
 glass of wine. 
 
 6. The Mishna (Berachoth, ch. 6, sect. 6), speaks of the 
 Mugmar, or cresset of spices, which it was the custom to 
 burn during meals ; it is also referred to in other portions 
 of the Mishna, and there are directions in the Talmud as to 
 the blessing to be said, varying with the composition of 
 the Mugmar, when the fumes thereof are perceptible. 
 So far as I know, the author of the Commentary nb I'wn 
 on the prayer book was the first to point out that in the 
 burning of the Mugmar is to be found the origin of the 
 use of spice on the conclusion of the Sabbath ; and that, 
 as the spice could not be set fire to till after the conclusion 
 of the Sabbath, the light used for the purpose gives the 
 origin of the candle at the ceremony. This explanation 
 is perfectly reasonable, and is probably the true one. 
 I would add thereto that the wine of the ceremony 
 represents the meal at which the Mugmar was burned. 
 The lighting of the spices at the meal was the sign that 
 the Sabbath was concluded ; later generations, which 
 sanctify usages which have outlived their meanings, made 
 the vestige of the meal and its accompaniments the 
 means of ending the Sabbath. And this explanation shows 
 the true reason why women do not drink the cup of 
 Habdala. The Talmud was very unwilling that, except 
 when nursing, she should ever drink wine at all (Kethuboth, 
 64 b and 65 a), and it was allowed her very sparingly. 
 For the reason set forth there, she seems to have been 
 allowed some licence on the Sabbath. But when Habdala 
 was made, Sabbath was over and then she was restrained. 
 Moreover, some Rabbins held that Kiddush on Friday 
 evening is a precept of the Torah, and is therefore incum- 
 bent on women, but no one insisted on this with regard 
 to Habdala. And so this custom remains to this day,
 
 THE HABDALA. 2J 
 
 not " expressive of that deep sentiment within which 
 passeth show," but as a survival of a social custom long 
 since extinct. 
 
 This paper is already so long that I am obliged to 
 omit therefrom all reference to the Psalms, prayers, 
 hymns, invocations and exorcisms used on the exit of the 
 Sabbath. I would only observe that the poem com- 
 mencing Virib tzmp ?"O Vnsnn was, on the authority 
 of Hamordecai (Yoma), originally used for the exit of 
 the Day of Atonement. This is evidently the case, as 
 many of the expressions used therein are inappropriate 
 for the exit of the Sabbath, and can only apply to the 
 Day of Atonement. 
 
 ALIQUIS. 
 May 22nd, 1887.
 
 EXTRACT FROM "JEWS IN MANY LANDS," 
 BY E. N. ADLER 
 
 (Published by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1905). 
 
 From Chapter headed "Prayers at Rachel's Tomb," 
 page 95. 
 
 . . . The white sarcophagus inside the sepulchre is 
 comparatively new, and this and the numerous memorial 
 tablets and Hebrew names of devotees written on the 
 walls give it, internally, a most characteristic appearance. 
 One of these tablets is not without a melancholy interest 
 for the Jewish Communities of Great Britain. It was 
 placed there by Dr. Asher, whom we were all so proud 
 to call our friend. He told me how, when he and Samuel 
 Montagu visited it, they were struck and annoyed by 
 the numberless names of little great men who had 
 sought to obtain a cheap immortality by inscribing their 
 names on the stone walls. It was recorded how this 
 community had contributed so much for the purchase of 
 the ground ; and that man had done this and the other 
 that. It is only too obvious that mutual admiration is 
 a plant which thrives on tropical soil equally as well as, 
 and perhaps better than, in temperate England itself. 
 What most astonished Dr. Asher was the total absence 
 of any reference to Rachel herself. Her name was 
 nowhere mentioned, although all was but in her honour.
 
 30 PRAYERS AT RACHEL S TOMB. 
 
 Accordingly he had a marble tablet erected and engraved 
 with a Hebrew inscription, of which the following is a 
 translation : 
 
 " A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and 
 bitter weeping ; Rachel weeping for her children 
 refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they 
 are not." 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord : Refrain thy voice from 
 weeping, and thine eyes from tears ; for thy work 
 shall be rewarded, saith the Lord ; and they shall 
 come again from the land of the enemy." 
 
 " This stone was set up by one of Rachel's children, who 
 hath come from a distant land." 
 
 The anonymity of the inscription is one of those silent 
 life-lessons whifch its author was always giving us. His 
 love for the Holy Land was ever ardent, and, if at times 
 he had to combat abuses, and be himself abused, he 
 always spoke and wrote in a kindly spirit, and in the hope 
 of effecting an improvement in the condition of our 
 brethren there. He himself has now, alas, gone to 
 another Distant Land ; but he lived long enough to see 
 much of his hope realized, and realized to a great extent 
 through his own outspoken home-truths. We shall not 
 look upon his like again. May his work also be rewarded !
 
 A 000 049 647 1 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 WILLIAMS, LEA & Co., LTD., 
 Clifton House, Worship Street, B.C.