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Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala
Various, et al, Edited by Maurice Henry Harris
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HEBRAIC LITERATURE; TRANSLATIONS FROM THE TALMUD, MIDRASHIM AND KABBALA
Tudor Publishing Co.
New York
1943
SPECIAL INTRODUCTION
Among the absurd notions as to what the Talmud was, given credence in
the Middle Ages, one was that it was a man! The mediaeval priest or
peasant was perhaps wiser than he knew. Almost, might we say, the Talmud
was Man, for it is a record of the doings, the beliefs, the usages, the
hopes, the sufferings, the patience, the humor, the mentality, and the
morality of the Jewish people for half a millennium.
What is the Talmud? There is more than one answer. Ostensibly it is the
_corpus juris_ of the Jews from about the first century before the
Christian era to about the fourth after it. But we shall see as we
proceed that the Talmud was much more than this. The very word "Law" in
Hebrew--"Torah"--means more than its translation would imply. The Jew
interpreted his whole religion in terms of law. It is his name in fact
for the Bible's first five books--the Pentateuch. To explain what the
Talmud is we must first explain the theory of its growth more remarkable
perhaps than the work itself. What was that theory? The Divine Law was
revealed to Moses, not only through the Commands that were found written
in the Bible, but also through all the later rules and regulations of
post-exilic days. These additional laws it was presumed were handed down
orally from Moses to Joshua, thence to the Prophets, and later still
transmitted to the Scribes, and eventually to the Rabbis. The reason why
the Rabbis ascribed to Moses the laws that they later evolved, was due
to their intense reverence for Scripture, and their modest sense of
their own authority and qualification. "If the men of old were giants
then we are pigmies," said they. They felt and believed that all duty
for the guidance of man was found in the Bible either directly or
inferentially. Their motto was then, "Search the Scriptures," and they
did search them with a literalness and a painstaking thoroughness never
since repeated. Not a word, not a letter escaped them. Every redundancy
of expression was freighted with meaning, every repetition was made to
give birth to new truth. Some of the inferences were logical and
natural, some artificial and far-fetched, but all ingenious. Sometimes
the method was inductive and sometimes deductive. That is, occasionally
a needed law was promulgated by the Jewish Sanhedrin, and then its
authority sought in the Scripture, or the Scripture would be sought in
the first instance to reveal new law.
So while the Jewish code, religious and civil, continued to grow during
the era of the Restoration of the second Temple, to meet the more
complex conditions of later times, still the theory was maintained that
all was evolved from original Scripture and always transmitted, either
written or oral, from Moses from Mount Sinai. It was not, however, till
the year 219 after the Christian era that a compiled summary of the
so-called oral law was made--perhaps compiled from earlier summaries--by
Rabbi Jehudah Hanassi (the Prince), and the added work was called the
Mishnah or Second Law. Mark the date. We have passed the period of the
fall of Judea's nationality. And it was these very academies in which
the Jewish tradition--the Jewish Law was studied, that kept alive the
Jewish people as a religious community after they had ceased to be a
nation. This Mishnah, divided into six _sedarim_ or chapters, and
subdivided into thirty-six treatises, became now in the academies of
Palestine, and later in Babylonia, the text of further legal
elaboration, with the theory of deduction from Scripture still
maintained.
Although the life of denationalized Israel was much narrower and more
circumscribed, with fewer outlets to their capacities, nevertheless the
new laws deduced from the Mishnah code in the academies grew far larger
than the original source, while the discussions which grew around each
Halacha, as the final decision was termed, and which was usually
transmitted with the decision, grew so voluminous that it became
gradually impossible to retain the complex tradition in the
memory--remarkable as the Oriental memory was and is. That fact, added
to the growing persecutions from Israel's over-lords, and the consequent
precarious fate of these precious traditions, made it necessary to write
them down in spite of the prejudice against committing the oral law to
writing at all. This work was undertaken by Rav Asche and his disciples,
and was completed before the year 500. The Mishnah, together with the
laws that later grew out of it, called also Gamara, or Commentary, form
the Talmud. While the Palestinian school evolved a Gamara from the
Mishnah which is called the "Palestinian Talmud," it was the tradition
of the Babylonian academies, far vaster because they continued for so
many more centuries, that is the Talmud _per se_, that great work of
2,947 folio leaves. Were we to continue the tradition further, we might
show how often this vast legal compilation was the subject of further
commentary, discussion and deduction by yet later scholars. But that
takes us beyond our theme and is another story.
In forming an estimate of these laws, we must first remember that they
belonged to the days when religion and state were one. So we shall find
priestly laws mixed up with police laws, sanitary regulations side by
side with regulations of sanctity, the injunctions teaching political
economy and morality almost in the same line. It should rather then be
compared to codes of law than to religious scriptures, though often
there the comparison would be incomplete, since the religious atmosphere
pervaded even the most secular circumstance of the life of the Jew.
There was no secular. The meanest function in life must be brought in
relation to the great Divine. This must be understood in studying the
Talmud, this must be understood in studying the Jew. As law, it compares
favorably with the Roman code--its contemporary in part. In the
treatment of a criminal it is almost quixotically humane. It abhors the
shedding of blood, and no man can be put to death on circumstantial
evidence. Many of its injunctions are intensely minute and
hair-splitting to the extreme of casuistry. Yet these elements are
familiar in the interpretation of law, not only in the olden time, but
in some measure even to-day. There are instances where Talmudic law is
tenderer than the Biblical; for example, the _lex talionis_ is softened
into an equivalent.
Yet the legal does not form the whole of the Talmud, nor perhaps the
part that would most interest the casual reader or the world at large.
It is the dry, prosaic half. There is a poetic half, let us say a
homiletic half, what we call Agada, as distinct from the legal portion
called Halacha. The term Agada, "narrative," is wofully insufficient to
describe the diverse material that falls under this head, for it
comprehends all the discursive elements that come up in the legal
discussions in the old Babylonian and Palestinian academies. These
elements are occasionally biographical,--fragments of the lives of the
great scholars, occasionally historical,--little bits of Israel's long
tragedy, occasionally didactic,--facts, morals, life lessons taught by
the way; occasionally anecdotic, stories told to relieve the monotony of
discussion; not infrequently fanciful; bits of philosophy, old
folk-lore, weird imaginings, quaint beliefs, superstitions and humor.
They are presented haphazard, most irrelevantly introduced in between
the complex discussions, breaking the thread that however is never lost,
but always taken up again.
From this point of view the Talmud is a great maze and apparently the
simplest roads lead off into strange, winding by-paths. It is hard to
deduce any distinct system of ethics, any consistent philosophy, any
coherent doctrine. Yet patience rewards the student here too, and from
this confused medley of material, he can build the intellectual world of
the early mediaeval Jew. In the realm of doctrine we find that "original
sin," "vicarious atonement," and "everlasting punishment," are denied.
Man is made the author of his own salvation. Life beyond the grave is
still progressive; the soul is pre-existent.
A suggestion of the wit and wisdom of the Talmud may be gathered from
the following quotations:--
A single light answers as well for a hundred men as for one.
The ass complains of cold even in July.
A myrtle in the desert remains a myrtle.
Teach thy tongue to say, "I do not know."
Hospitality is an expression of Divine worship.
Thy friend has a friend, and thy friend's friend has a friend;
be discreet.
Attend no auctions if thou hast no money.
Rather flay a carcass, than be idly dependent on charity.
The place honors not the man, 'tis the man who gives honor to the place.
Drain not the waters of thy well while other people may desire them.
The rose grows among thorns.
Two pieces of coin in one bag make more noise than a hundred.
The rivalry of scholars advances science.
Truth is heavy, therefore few care to carry it.
He who is loved by man is loved by God.
Use thy noble vase to-day; to-morrow it may break.
The soldiers fight and the kings are heroes.
Commit a sin twice, it will seem a sin no longer.
The world is saved by the breath of the school children.
A miser is as wicked as an idolater.
Do not make woman weep, for God counts her tears.
The best preacher is the heart; the best teacher time;
the best book the world; the best friend God.
The philosophy in the Talmud, rather than the philosophy of it, has been
made the subject of separate treatment just as the whole of the Agada
has been drawn out of the Talmud and published as a separate work.
What is the Talmud to the Jew to-day? It is literature rather than law.
He no longer goes to the voluminous Talmud to find specific injunction
for specific need. Search in that vast sea would be tedious and
unfruitful. Its legal portion has long been codified in separate
digests. Maimonides was the first to classify Talmudic law. Still later
one Ascheri prepared a digest called the "Four Rows," in which the
decisions of later Rabbis were incorporated. But it was the famous
Shulchan Aruch (a prepared table) written by Joseph Caro in the
sixteenth century, that formed the most complete code of Talmudic law
enlarged to date, and accepted as religious authority by the orthodox
Jews to-day.
I have already referred to the literature that has grown out of the
Talmud. The "Jewish Encyclopedia" treats every law recognized by nations
from the Talmudic stand-point. This will give the world a complete
Talmudic point of view. In speaking of it as literature, it lacks
perhaps that beauty of form in its language which the stricter demand as
literature _sine qua non_, and yet its language is unique. It is
something more than terse, for many a word is a whole sentence. Written
in Aramaic, it contains many words in the languages of the nations with
whom Israel came in contact--Greek, Roman, Persian, and words from other
tongues.
Like the Jew, the Talmud has had a history, almost as checkered as that
of its creator. Like him it was singled out for persecution. Louis IX.
burned twenty-four cart-loads of Talmuds in Paris. Its right of survival
had often been wrested through church synods and councils. It has been
banned, it has been excommunicated, it has been made the subject of
popish bulls; but it was in the sixteenth century that the Benedictine
Monks made a particular determined effort to destroy it. Fortunately
they knew not the times. It was the age of Humanism, the forerunner of
the Reformation, and the Talmud found its ablest defender in the great
Christian humanist, John Reuchlin. He was the one first to tell his
co-religionists, "Do not condemn the Talmud before you understand it.
Burning is no argument. Instead of burning all Jewish literature, it
were better to found chairs in the universities for its exposition." The
cause of liberality and light gained the day, and the printing-press
decided the perpetuation of the Talmud.
In the second stage of its persecution the censor figures. His
Philistine pen passed ruthlessly over everything that seemed to hint at
criticism of the Church; but not content with expunging the heretical
and the inferentially heretical, the censor at times went even so far as
to erase sentiments particularly lofty, in order that the Talmud should
not have the credit of expounding noble doctrine, nor the Jew the
advantage of studying it.
But the latest stage of its persecution belongs to more modern days,
when inquisitions were out of date and monkish claws were cut. The
traducer would spitefully engage the services of some renegade Jew, to
gather from the Talmud all portions and passages that might seem
grotesque and ridiculous, so that the world might form an unfavorable
impression of the Talmud and of the people who treasure it. This has
been done with so much success that up till very recently the Gentile
world, including the Christian clergy, knew of the Talmud only through
these unfortunate perversions and caricatures. Imagine the citation of a
chapter from _Leviticus_ and one from _Chronicles_, of some vindictive
passages in the _Psalms_, of a few skeptical bits in _Ecclesiastes_ and
_Job_, and one or two of the barbaric stories in _Judges_, to be offered
to the world as a fair picture of the Bible, and you will understand the
sort of treatment the Talmud has received from the world at large and
the kind of estimate it has been given opportunity to form.
What is the value of the Talmud for the Jew? Certainly its greatest
value was rendered in the Middle Ages, when literature was scant and
copies of the few books in existence were rarer. When the Jew was shut
out of the world's pleasure and the world's culture and barred up in
Ghetto slums, then it was that the Talmud became his recreation and his
consolation, feeding his mind and his faith. In this way it not only
became in the Middle Ages a picture of the Jew, but largely formed his
character. It made him a keen dialectician, tempered with a thoughtful
and poetic touch. It fostered his patience and his humor and kept vivid
his ideals. It linked him with the Orient, while living in the Occident
and made him a bridge between the old and the new.
To the world at large it has great value archaeologically. Here are
preserved ancient laws, glint lights on past history, forgotten forms in
the classic tongues, and pictures of old civilization. No one criticism
can cover the whole work. It is so many-sided. It includes so many
different standards of worth and value. If we take it as a whole, it is
good, it is bad and indifferent; it is trash and it is treasure; it is
dust and it is diamonds; it is potsherd and it is pearls; and in the
hands of impartial scholars, it is one of the great monuments of mental
achievement, one of the world's wonders.
Maurice H. Harris
THE TALMUD
* * * * *
Where do we learn that the Shechinah rests even upon one who studies the
law? In Exodus xx. 24, where it is written, "In all places where I
record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee."
_Berachoth_, fol. 6, col. 1.
One pang of remorse at a man's heart is of more avail than many stripes
applied to him. (See Prov. xvii. 10.)
Ibid., fol. 7, col. 1.
"Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord!" (Deut. vi. 4.) Whosoever
prolongs the utterance of the word one, shall have his days and years
prolonged to him. So also _Zohar_, syn. tit. ii.
Ibid., fol. 13, col. 2.
Once, as the Rabbis tell us, the Roman Government issued a decree
forbidding Israel to study the law. Whereupon Pappus, the son of
Yehudah, one day found Rabbi Akiva teaching it openly to multitudes,
whom he had gathered round him to hear it. "Akiva," said he, "art thou
not afraid of the Government?" "List," was the reply, "and I will tell
thee how it is by a parable. It is with me as with the fishes whom a
fox, walking once by a river's side, saw darting distractedly to and fro
in the stream; and, addressing, inquired, 'From what, pray, are ye
fleeing?' 'From the nets,' they replied, 'which the children of men have
set to ensnare us.' 'Why, then,' rejoined the fox, 'not try the dry land
with me, where you and I can live together, as our fathers managed to do
before us?' 'Surely,' exclaimed they, 'thou art not he of whom we have
heard so much as the most cunning of animals, for herein thou art not
wise, but foolish. For if we have cause to fear where it is natural for
us to live, how much more reason have we to do so where we needs must
die!' Just so," continued Akiva, "is it with us who study the law, in
which (Deut. xxx. 20) it is written, 'He is thy life and the length of
thy days;' for if we suffer while we study the law, how much more shall
we if we neglect it?" Not many days after, it is related, this Rabbi
Akiva was apprehended and thrown into prison. As it happened, they led
him out for execution just at the time when "Hear, O Israel!" fell to be
repeated, and as they tore his flesh with currycombs, and as he was with
long-drawn breath sounding forth the word one, his soul departed from
him. Then came forth a voice from heaven which said, "Blessed art thou,
Rabbi Akiva, for thy soul and the word one left thy body together."
_Berachoth_, fol. 61, col. 2.
The badger, as it existed in the days of Moses, was an animal of unique
type, and the learned are not agreed whether it was a wild one or a
domestic. It had only one horn on its forehead; and was assigned for the
time to Moses, who made a covering of its skin for the tabernacle; after
which it became extinct, having served the purpose of its existence.
Rabbi Yehudah says, "The ox, also, which the first man, Adam,
sacrificed, had but one horn on its forehead."
_Shabbath_, fol. 28, col. 2.
Once a Gentile came to Shamai, and said, "Proselytize me, but on
condition that thou teach me the whole law, even the whole of it, while
I stand upon one leg." Shamai drove him off with the builder's rod which
he held in his hand. When he came to Hillel with the same challenge,
Hillel converted him by answering him on the spot, "That which is
hateful to thyself, do not do to thy neighbor. This is the whole law,
and the rest is its commentary." (Tobit, iv. 15; Matt. vii. 12.)
Ibid., fol. 31, col. 1.
When Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai and his son, Rabbi Elazar, came out of
their cave on a Friday afternoon, they saw an old man hurrying along
with two bunches of myrtle in his hand. "What." said they, accosting
him, "dost thou want with these?" "To smell them in honor of the
Sabbath," was the reply. "Would not one bunch," they remarked, "be
enough for that purpose?" "Nay," the old man replied; "one is in honor
of 'Remember' (Exod. xxii. 28); and one in honor of 'Keep' (Deut. v.
8)." Thereupon Rabbi Shimon remarked to his son, "Behold how the
commandments are regarded by Israel!"
Ibid., fol. 33, col. 2.
Not one single thing has God created in vain. He created the snail as a
remedy for a blister; the fly for the sting of a wasp; the gnat for the
bite of a serpent; the serpent itself for healing the itch (or the
scab); and the lizard (or the spider) for the sting of a scorpion.
Ibid., fol. 77. col. 2.
When a man is dangerously ill, the law grants dispensation, for it says,
"You may break one Sabbath on his behalf, that he may be preserved to
keep many Sabbaths."
_Shabbath_, fol. 151, col. 2.
Once when Rabbi Ishmael paid a visit to Rabbi Shimon, he was offered a
cup of wine, which he at once, without being asked twice, accepted, and
drained at one draught. "Sir," said his host, "dost thou not know the
proverb, that he who drinks off a cup of wine at a draught is a greedy
one?" "Ah!" was the answer, "that fits not this case; for thy cup is
small, thy wine is sweet, and my stomach is capacious."
_P'sachim_, fol. 86, col. 2.
At the time when Nimrod the wicked had cast our Father Abraham into the
fiery furnace, Gabriel stood forth in the presence of the Holy
One--blessed be He!--and said, "Lord of the universe, let me, I pray
thee, go down and cool the furnace, and deliver that righteous one from
it." Then the Holy One--blessed be He!--said unto him, "I am One in my
world and he is one in his world; it is more becoming that He who is one
should deliver him who is one." But as God does not withhold His reward
from any creature, He said to Gabriel, "For this thy good intention, be
thine the honor of rescuing three of his descendants." At the time when
Nebuchadnezzar the wicked cast Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the
fiery furnace, Yourkami, the prince of hail, arose before God and said,
"Lord of the universe, let me, I pray thee, go down and cool the fiery
furnace, and rescue these righteous men from its fury." Whereupon
Gabriel interposed, and said, "God's power is not to be demonstrated
thus, for thou art the prince of hail, and everybody knows that water
quenches fire; but I, the prince of fire, will go down and cool the
flame within and intensify it without (so as to consume the
executioners), and thus will I perform a miracle within a miracle." Then
the Holy One--blessed be He!--said to him, "Go down." Upon which Gabriel
exclaimed, "Verily the truth of the Lord endureth forever!" (Ps. cxvii.
2.)
_P'sachim_, fol. 118, col. 1.
One peppercorn to-day is better than a basketful of pumpkins to-morrow.
_Chaggigah_, fol. 10, col. 1.
One day of a year is counted for a whole year.
_Rosh Hashanah_, fol. 2, col. 2.
If a king be crowned on the twenty-ninth of Adar (the last month
of the Sacred year), on the morrow--the first of Nissan--it is
reckoned that he commences his second year, that being the new
year's day for royal and ecclesiastical affairs.
For the sake of one righteous man the whole world is preserved in
existence, as it is written (Prov. x. 25), "The righteous man is an
everlasting foundation."
_Yoma_, fol. 38, col. 2.
Rabbi Meyer saith, "Great is repentance, because for the sake of one
that truly repenteth the whole world is pardoned; as it is written
(Hosea xiv. 4), 'I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely,
for mine anger is turned away from him.'" It is not said, "from them,"
but "from him."
Ibid., fol. 86, col. 2.
He who observes one precept, in addition to those which, as originally
laid upon him, he has discharged, shall receive favor from above, and is
equal to him who has fulfilled the whole law.
_Kiddushin_, fol. 39, col. 2.
If any man vow a vow by only one of all the utensils of the altar, he
has vowed by the corban, even although he did not mention the word in
his oath. Rabbi Yehuda says, "He who swears by the word Jerusalem is as
though he had said nothing."
_Nedarim_, fol. 10, col. 2.
Balaam was lame in one foot and blind in one eye.
_Soteh_, fol. 10, col. 1, and _Sanhedrin_, fol. 105, col. 1.
One wins eternal life after a struggle of years; another finds it in one
hour (see Luke xxiii. 43).
_Avodah Zarah_, fol. 17, col. 1.
This saying is applied by Rabbi the Holy to Rabbi Eliezar, the son of
Durdia, a profligate who recommended himself to the favor of heaven by
one prolonged act of determined penitence, placing his head between his
knees and groaning and weeping till his soul departed from him, and his
sin and misery along with it; for at the moment of death a voice from
heaven came forth and said, "Rabbi Eliezar, the son of Durdia, is
appointed to life everlasting." When Rabbi the Holy heard this, he wept,
and said, "One wins eternal life after a struggle of years; another
finds it in one hour." (Compare Luke xv. 11-32.)
Whosoever destroyeth one soul of Israel, Scripture counts it to him as
though he had destroyed the whole world; and whoso preserveth one soul
of Israel, Scripture counts it as though he had preserved the whole
world.
_Sanhedrin_, fol. 37, col. 1.
The greatness of God is infinite; for while with one die man impresses
many coins and all are exactly alike, the King of kings, the Holy
One--blessed be He!--with one die impresses the same image (of Adam) on
all men, and yet not one of them is like his neighbor. So that every one
ought to say, "For myself is the world created."
Ibid., fol. 37, col. 1.
"He caused the lame to mount on the back of the blind, and judged them
both as one." Antoninus said to the Rabbi, "Body and soul might each
plead right of acquittal at the day of judgment." "How so?" he asked.
"The body might plead that it was the soul that had sinned, and urge,
saying, 'See, since the departure of the soul I have lain in the grave
as still as a stone.' And the soul might plead, 'It was the body that
sinned, for since the day I left it, I have flitted about in the air as
innocent as a bird.'" To which the Rabbi replied and said, "Whereunto
this thing is like, I will tell thee in a parable. It is like unto a
king who had an orchard with some fine young fig trees planted in it. He
set two gardeners to take care of them, of whom one was lame and the
other blind. One day the lame one said to the blind 'I see some fine
figs in the garden; come, take me on thy shoulders, and we will pluck
them and eat them.' By and by the lord of the garden came, and missing
the fruit from the fig trees, began to make inquiry after them. The lame
one, to excuse himself, pleaded, 'I have no legs to walk with;' and the
blind one, to excuse himself, pleaded, 'I have no eyes to see with.'
What did the lord of the garden do? He caused the lame to mount upon the
back of the blind, and judged them both as one." So likewise will God
re-unite soul and body, and judge them both as one together; as it is
written (Ps. 1, 4), "He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the
earth, that He may judge His people." "He shall call to the heavens from
above," that alludes to the soul; "and to the earth, that He may judge
His people," that refers to the body.
_Sanhedrin_, fol. 91, cols, 1, 2.
Rabbi Yehudah, surnamed the Holy, the editor of the Mishnah, is
the personage here and elsewhere spoken of as the Rabbi by pre
eminence. He was an intimate friend of the Roman Emperor
Antoninus Pius.
One thing obtained with difficulty is far better than a hundred things
procured with ease.
_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, ch. 3.
In the name of Rav, Rabbi Yehoshua bar Abba says, "Whoso buys a scroll
of the law in the market seizes possession of another's meritorious act;
but if he himself copies out a scroll of the law, Scripture considers
him as if he had himself received it direct from Mount Sinai." "Nay,"
adds Rav Yehudah, in the name of Rav, "even if he has amended one letter
in it, Scripture considers him as if he had written it out entirely."
_Menachoth_, fol. 30, col. 1.
He who forgets one thing that he has learned breaks a negative
commandment; for it is written (Deut. iv. 9), "Take heed to thyself ...
lest thou forget the things."
_Menachoth_, fol. 99, col. 2.
A proselyte who has taken it upon himself to observe the law, but is
suspected of neglecting one point, is to be suspected of being guilty of
neglecting the whole law, and therefore regarded as an apostate
Israelite, and to be punished accordingly.
_Bechoroth_, fol. 30, col. 2.
It is written (Gen. xxviii. ii), "And he took from the stones of the
place;" and again it is written (ver. 18), "And he took the stone."
Rabbi Isaac says this teaches that all these stones gathered themselves
together into one place, as if each were eager that the saint should lay
his head upon it. It happened, as the Rabbis tell us, that all the
stones were swallowed up by one another, and thus merged into one stone.
_Chullin_, fol. 91, col. 2.
Though the Midrash and two of the Targums, that of Jonathan and
the Yerushalmi, tell the same fanciful story about these stones,
Aben Ezra and R. Shemuel ben Meir among others adopt the
opposite and common-sense interpretation which assigns to the
word in Gen. xxviii. ii, no such occult meaning.
The psalms commencing "Blessed is the man" and "Why do the heathen rage"
constitute but one psalm.
_Berachoth_ fol. 9, col. 2.
The former Chasidim used to sit still one hour, and then pray for one
hour, and then again sit still for one hour.
Ibid., fol. 32, col. 2.
All the benedictions in the Temple used to conclude with the words
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel unto eternity;" but when the
Sadducees, corrupting the faith, maintained that there was only one
world, it was enacted that they should conclude with the words "from
eternity unto eternity."
_Berachoth_, fol. 54, col. i.
The Sadducees (Zadokim), so called after Zadok their master, as
is known, stood rigidly by the original Mosaic code, and set
themselves determinedly against all traditional developments. To
the Talmudists, therefore, they were especially obnoxious, and
their bald, cold creed is looked upon by them with something
like horror. It is thus the Talmud warns against them--"Believe
not in thyself till the day of thy death, for, behold, Yochanan,
after officiating in the High Priesthood for eighty years,
became in the end a Sadducee." (_Berachoth_, fol. 29, col. 1.)
In Derech Eretz Zuta, chap. i., a caution is given which might
well provoke attention--"Learn or inquire nothing of the
Sadducees, lest thou be drawn into hell."
Rabbi Yehudah tells us that Rav says a man should never absent himself
from the lecture hall, not even for one hour; for the above Mishnah had
been taught at college for many years, but the reason of it had never
been made plain till the hour when Rabbi Chanina ben Akavia came and
explained it.
_Shabbath_, fol. 83, col. 2.
The Mishnah alluded to is short and simple, viz, Where is it
taught that a ship is clean to the touch? From Prov. xxx. 19,
"The way of a ship in the midst of the sea." (i.e., as the sea
is clean to the touch, therefore a ship must also be clean to
the touch).
It is indiscreet for one to sleep in a house as the sole occupant, for
Lilith will seize hold of him.
Ibid., fol. 151, col. 2.
Lilith (the night-visiting one) is the name of a night spectre,
said to have been Adam's first wife, but who, for her refractory
conduct, was transformed into a demon endowed with power to
injure and even destroy infants unprotected by the necessary
amulet or charm.
"Thou hast acknowledged the Lord this day to be thy God; and the Lord
hath acknowledged thee this day to be His peculiar people" (Deut. xxvi.
17, 18). The Holy One--blessed be He!--said unto Israel, "Ye have made
Me a name in the world, as it is written (Deut. vi. 4), 'Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord;' and so I will make you a name in the
world, as it is said (1 Chron. xvii. 21), 'And what one nation in the
earth is like Thy people Israel?'"
_Chaggigah_, fol. 3, col. 1.
Why are the words of the Law compared to fire? (Jer. xxiii. 29.)
Because, as fire does not burn when there is but one piece of wood, so
do the words of the Law not maintain the fire of life when meditated on
by one alone (see, in confirmation, Matt, xviii. 20).
_Taanith_, fol. 7, col. i.
"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo"
(Deut. xxxiv, i). Tradition says there were twelve stairs, but that
Moses surmounted them all in one step.
_Soteh_, fol. 13, col. 2.
Pieces of money given in charity should not be counted over by twos, but
one by one.
_Bava Bathra_, fol. 8, col. 2.
"Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth?"
(Job xxxix. 1.) The wild goat is cruel to her offspring. As soon as they
are brought forth, she climbs with them to the steep cliffs, that they
may fall headlong and die. But, said God to Job, to prevent this I
provide an eagle to catch the kid upon its wings, and then carry and lay
it before its cruel mother. Now, if that eagle should be too soon or too
late by one second only, instant death to the kid could not be averted;
but with Me one second is never changed for another. Shall Job be now
changed by Me, therefore, into an enemy. (Comp. Job ix. 17, and xxxiv.
35.)
_Bava Bathra_, fol. 16, cols. 1, 2.
A generation can have one leader only, and not two.
_Sanhedrin_, fol. 8, col. 1.
"Like the hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces" (Jer. xxiii. 29). As
a hammer divideth fire into many sparks, so one verse of Scripture has
many meanings and many explanations.
Ibid., fol. 34, col. 1.
In the Machser for Pentecost (p. 69) God is said to have
"explained the law to His people, face to face, and on every
point ninety-eight explanations are given."
Adam was created one without Eve. Why? That the Sadducees might not
assert the plurality of powers in heaven.
Ibid., fol. 37, col. i.
As the Sadducees did not believe in a plurality of powers in
heaven, but only the Christians, in the regard of the Jews, did
so (by their profession of the doctrine of the Trinity), it is
obvious that here, as well as often elsewhere, the latter and
not the former are intended.
"And the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt" (Exod. viii. i; A.
V. viii. 6). "There was but one frog," said Rabbi Elazar, "and she so
multiplied as to fill the whole land of Egypt." "Yes, indeed," said
Rabbi Akiva. "there was, as you say, but one frog, but she herself was
so large as to fill all the land of Egypt." Whereupon Rabbi Elazar ben
Azariah said unto him, "Akiva, what business hast thou with Haggadah? Be
off with thy legends, and get thee to the laws thou art familiar with
about plagues and tents. Though thou sayest right in this matter, for
there was only one frog, but she croaked so loud that the frogs came
from everywhere else to her croaking."
_Sanhedrin_, fol. 67, col. 2.
Rabba, the grandson of Channa, said that he himself once saw a
frog larger than any seen now, though not so large as the frog
in Egypt. It was as large as Acra, a village of some sixty
houses (_Bava Bathra_, fol. 73, col. 2.)
Apropos to the part the frog was conceived to play or symbolize
in the Jewish conception of the mode and ministry of Divine
judgment, we quote the following:--"We are told that Samuel once
saw a frog carrying a scorpion on its back across a river, upon
the opposite bank of which a man stood waiting ready to be
stung. The sting proving fatal, so that the man died; upon which
Samuel exclaimed, 'Lord, they wait for Thy judgments this day:
for all are Thy servants.' (Ps. cxix. 91.)" (_Nedarim_, fol. 41,
col. 1.)
"According to the days of one king" (Isa. xxiii. 15). What king is this
that is singled out as one? Thou must say this is the King Messiah, and
no other.
_Sanhedrin_, fol. 99, col. 1.
Rabbi Levi contends that Manasseh has no portion in the world to come,
while Rabbi Yehudah maintains that he has; and each supports his
conclusion in contradiction of the other, from one and the same
Scripture text.
Ibid., fol. 102, col. 2.
The words, "Remember the Sabbath day," in Exod. xx. 8, and "Keep the
Sabbath day," in Deut. v. 12, were uttered in one breath, as no man's
mouth could utter them, and no man's ear could hear.
_Shevuoth_, fol. 20, col. 2.
The officer who inflicts flagellation on a criminal must smite with one
hand only, but yet with all his force.
_Maccoth_, fol. 22, col. 2.
I would rather be called a fool all my days than sin one hour before
God.
_Edioth_, chap. 5, mish. 6.
He who observes but one precept secures for himself an advocate, and he
who commits one single sin procures for himself an accuser.
_Avoth_, chap. 4, mish. 15.
He who learns from another one chapter, one halachah, one verse, or one
word or even a single letter, is bound to respect him.
Ibid., chap. 6, mish. 3.
The above is one evidence, among many, of the high esteem in
which learning and the office of a teacher are held among the
Jews. Education is one of the virtues--of which the following,
extracted from the Talmud, is a list--the interest of which the
Jew considers he enjoys in this world, while the capital remains
intact against the exigencies of the world to come. These
are:--The honoring of father and mother, acts of benevolence,
hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, devotion in prayer,
promotion of peace between man and man, and study in general,
but the study of the law outweighs them all. (_Shabbath_, fol.
127, col. 1.) The study of the law, it is said, is of greater
merit to rescue one from accidental death, than building the
Temple, and greater than honoring father or mother.
(_Meggillah_, fol. 16, col 2.)
"Repent one day before thy death." In relation to which Rabbi Eliezer
was asked by his disciples, "How is a man to repent one day before his
death, since he does not know on what day he shall die?" "So much the
more reason is there," he replied, "that he should repent to-day, lest
he die to-morrow; and repent to-morrow, lest he die the day after: and
thus will all his days be penitential ones."
_Avoth d'Rab. Nathan_, chap. 15.
He who obliterates one letter from the written name of God, breaks a
negative command, for it is said, "And destroy the names of them out of
that place. Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God" (Deut. xii. 3,
4).
_Sophrim_, chap. 5, hal. 6.
Rabbi Chanina could put on and off his shoes while standing on one leg
only, though he was eighty years of age.
_Chullin_, fol. 24, col. 2.
A priest who is blind in one eye should not be judge of the plague; for
it is said (Lev. xiii. 12), "Wheresoever the priest (with both eyes)
looketh."
_Negaim_, chap. 2, mish. 3.
The twig of a bunch without any grapes is clean; but if there remained
one grape on it, it is unclean.
_Okzin_, chap, i, mish. 5.
Not every man deserves to have two tables.
_Berachoth_, fol. 5, col. 2.
The meaning of this rather ambiguous sentence may either be,
that all men are not able to succeed in more enterprises than
one at a time; or that it is not given to every one to make the
best both of the present world and of that which is to come.
Abba Benjamin used to say "There are two things about which I have all
my life been much concerned: that my prayer should be offered in front
of my bed, and that the position of my bed should be from north to
south."
Ibid., fol. 5, col. 2.
There are several reasons which may be adduced to account for
Abba Benjamin's anxiety, and they are all more or less connected
with the important consequences which were supposed to depend
upon determining his position with reference to the Shechinah,
which rested in the east or the west.
Abba Benjamin felt anxious to have children, for "any man not
having children is counted as dead," as it is written (Gen. xxx.
1), "Give me children, or else I die." (_Nedarin_, fol. 64, col.
2.)
With the Jew one great consideration of life is to have
children, and more especially male children; because when a boy
is born all rejoice over him, but over a girl they all mourn.
When a boy comes into the world he brings peace with him, and a
loaf of bread in his hand, but a girl brings nothing. (_Niddah_,
fol. 31, col. 2.)
It is impossible for the world to be without males and females,
but blessed is he whose children are boys, and hapless is he
whose children are girls. (_Kiddushin_, fol. 82, col. 2.)
Whosoever does not leave a son to be heir, God will heap wrath
upon him. (Scripture is quoted in proof of this, compare Numb.
xxvii. 8 with Zeph. i. 15.) (_Bava Bathra_, fol. 116, col. 1.)
"There are two ways before me, one leading into Paradise, the other into
Hell." When Yochanan, the son of Zachai, was sick unto death, his
disciples came to visit him; and when he saw them he wept, upon which
his disciples exclaimed, "Light of Israel! Pillar of the right! Mighty
Hammer! why weepest thou?" He replied, "If I were going to be led into
the presence of a king, who is but flesh and blood, to-day here and
to-morrow in the grave, whose anger with me could not last forever,
whose sentence against me, were it even unto death, could not endure
forever, and whom perhaps I might pacify with words or bribe with money,
yet for all that should I weep; but now that I am about to enter the
presence of the King of kings, the Holy One--blessed be He forever and
ever!--whose anger would be everlasting, whose sentence of death or
imprisonment admits of no reprieve, and who is not to be pacified with
words nor bribed with money, and in whose presence there are two roads
before me, one leading into Paradise and the other into Hell, and should
I not weep?" Then prayed they him, and said, "Rabbi, give us thy
farewell blessing;" and he said unto them, "Oh that the fear of God may
be as much upon you as the fear of man."
_Berachoth_, fol. 28, col. 2.
Rabbi Ami says, "Knowledge is of great price, for it is placed between
two divine names, as it is written (I Sam. ii. 3), 'A God of knowledge
is the Lord,' and therefore mercy is to be denied to him who has no
knowledge; for it is written (Isa. xxvii. 11), 'It is a people of no
understanding, therefore He that hath made them will not have mercy on
them.'"
_Berachoth_ fol. 33, col. 1.
Here we have a clear law, drawn from Scripture, forbidding, or
at any rate denying, mercy to the ignorant. The words of Rabbi
(the Holy) are a practical commentary on the text worth quoting,
"Woe is unto me because I have given my morsel to an ignorant
one." (_Bava Bathra_, fol. 8, col. 1.)
But who is the ignorant one from whom this mercy is to be
withheld? Here the doctors disagree. He, says Rabbi Eliezer, who
does not read the Shema, "Hear, O Israel," etc., both morning
and evening. According to Rabbi Yehudah, he that does not put on
phylacteries is an ignorant one. Rabbi Azai affirms that he who
wears no fringes to his garment is an ignorant one, etc. Others
again say he who even reads the Bible and the Mishna but does
not serve the disciples of the wise, is an ignorant one. Rabbi
Huna winds up with the words "the law is as the others have
said," and so leaves the difficulty where he finds it.
(_Berachoth_, fol. 47, col. 2.)
Of him "who transgresses the words of the wise, which he is
commanded to obey," it is written, "He is guilty of death and
has forfeited his life." (_Berachoth_, fol. 4, col. 2, and
_Yevamoth_, fol. 20, col. 1.) Whoso, therefore, shows mercy to
him contradicts the purpose and incurs the displeasure of God.
It was in application of this principle, literally interpreted,
that the wise should hold no parley with the ignorant, which led
the Jews to condemn the contrary procedure of Jesus Christ.
It was this prohibition to show mercy to the ignorant, together
with the solemn threatenings directed against those who
neglected the study of the law, that worked such a wonderful
revolution in Hezekiah's time; for it is said that then "they
searched from Dan to Beersheba, and did not find an ignorant
one." (_Sanhedrin_, fol. 94, col. 2.)
When the Holy One--blessed be He!--remembers that His children are in
trouble among the nations of the world, He drops two tears into the
great ocean, the noise of which startles the world from one end to the
other, and causes the earth to quake.
_Berachoth_, fol. 59, col. 1.
We read in the Talmud that a Gentile once came to Shamai and said, "How
many laws have you?" Shamai replied, "We have two, the written law and
the oral law." To which the Gentile made answer, "When you speak of the
written law, I believe you, but in your oral law I have no faith.
Nevertheless, you may make me a proselyte on condition that you teach me
the written law only." Upon this Shamai rated him sharply, and sent him
away with indignant abuse. When, however, this Gentile came with the
same object, and proposed the same terms to Hillel, the latter proceeded
at once to proselytize him, and on the first day taught him Aleph, Beth,
Gemel, Daleth. On the morrow Hillel reversed the order of these letters,
upon which the proselyte remonstrated and said, "But thou didst not
teach me so yesterday." "True," said Hillel, "but thou didst trust me in
what I taught thee then; why, then, dost thou not trust me now in what I
tell thee respecting the oral law?"
_Shabbath_, fol. 31, col. 1.
Every man as he goes on the eve of the Sabbath from the synagogue to his
house is escorted by two angels, one of which is a good angel and the
other an evil. When the man comes home and finds the lamps lit, the
table spread, and the bed in order, the good angel says, "May the coming
Sabbath be even as the present;" to which the evil angel (though with
reluctance) is obliged to say, "Amen." But if all be in disorder, then
the bad angel says, "May the coming Sabbath be even as the present," and
the good angel is (with equal reluctance), obliged to say "Amen" to it.
Ibid., fol. 119, col. 2.
Two are better than three. Alas! for the one that goes and does not
return again.
_Shabbath_, fol. 152, col. 1.
As in the riddle of the Sphinx, the "two" here stands for youth
with its two sufficient legs, and the "three" for old age, which
requires a third support in a staff.
There were two things which God first thought of creating on the eve of
the Sabbath, which, however, were not created till after the Sabbath had
closed. The first was fire, which Adam by divine suggestion drew forth
by striking together two stones; and the second, was the mule, produced
by the crossing of two different animals.
_P'sachim_, fol. 54, col. 1.
"Every one has two portions, one in paradise and another in hell."
Acheer asked Rabbi Meyer, "What meaneth this that is written (Eccl. vii.
14), 'God also has set the one over against the other'?" Rabbi Meyer
replied, "There is nothing which God has created of which He has not
also created the opposite. He who created mountains and hills created
also seas and rivers." But said Acheer to Rabbi Meyer, "Thy master,
Rabbi Akiva, did not say so, but spake in this way: He created the
righteous and also the wicked; He created paradise and hell: every man
has two portions, one portion in paradise, and the other in hell. The
righteous, who has personal merit, carries both his own portion of good
and that of his wicked neighbor away with him to paradise; the wicked,
who is guilty and condemned, carries both his own portion of evil and
also that of his righteous neighbor away with him to hell." When Rav
Mesharshia asked what Scripture guarantee there was for this, this was
the reply: "With regard to the righteous, it is written (Isa. lxi. 7),
'They shall rejoice in their portion, therefore in their land (beyond
the grave) they shall possess the double.' Respecting the wicked it is
written (Jer. xvii. 18), 'And destroy them with double destruction.'"
_Chaggigah_, fol. 15, col. 1.
The question asked above by Acheer has been practically resolved
by all wise men from the beginning of the world, but it is the
boast of the Hegelians that it has for the first time been
resolved philosophically by their master. Others had maintained
that you could not think a thing but through its opposite; he
first maintained it could not exist but through its opposite,
that, in fact, the thing and its opposite must needs arise
together, and that eternally, as complements of one unity: the
white is not there without the black, nor the black without the
white; the good is not there without the evil, nor the evil
without the good.
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