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Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala
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.