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+Project Gutenberg's Jewish Literature and Other Essays, by Gustav Karpeles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jewish Literature and Other Essays
+
+Author: Gustav Karpeles
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2009 [EBook #27901]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEWISH LITERATURE AND OTHER ESSAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
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+
+
+
+JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+AND OTHER ESSAYS
+
+JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+AND
+
+OTHER ESSAYS
+
+BY
+
+GUSTAV KARPELES
+
+PHILADELPHIA THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA 1895
+
+Copyright 1895, by
+THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
+
+Press of
+The Friedenwald Co.
+Baltimore
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following essays were delivered during the last ten years, in the
+form of addresses, before the largest associations in the great cities
+of Germany. Each one is a dear and precious possession to me. As I once
+more pass them in review, reminiscences fill my mind of solemn occasions
+and impressive scenes, of excellent men and charming women. I feel as
+though I were sending the best beloved children of my fancy out into the
+world, and sadness seizes me when I realize that they no longer belong
+to me alone--that they have become the property of strangers. The living
+word falling upon the ear of the listener is one thing; quite another
+the word staring from the cold, printed page. Will my thoughts be
+accorded the same friendly welcome that greeted them when first they
+were uttered?
+
+I venture to hope that they may be kindly received; for these addresses
+were born of devoted love to Judaism. The consciousness that Israel is
+charged with a great historical mission, not yet accomplished, ushered
+them into existence. Truth and sincerity stood sponsor to every word. Is
+it presumptuous, then, to hope that they may find favor in the New
+World? Brethren of my faith live there as here; our ancient watchword,
+"Sh'ma Yisrael," resounds in their synagogues as in ours; the old
+blood-stained flag, with its sublime inscription, "The Lord is my
+banner!" floats over them; and Jewish hearts in America are loyal like
+ours, and sustained by steadfast faith in the Messianic time when our
+hopes and ideals, our aims and dreams, will be realized. There is but
+one Judaism the world over, by the Jordan and the Tagus as by the
+Vistula and the Mississippi. God bless and protect it, and lead it to
+the goal of its glorious future!
+
+To all Jewish hearts beyond the ocean, in free America, fraternal
+greetings!
+
+GUSTAV KARPELES
+
+BERLIN, Pesach 5652/1892.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+A GLANCE AT JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+THE TALMUD
+
+THE JEW IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION
+
+WOMEN IN JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+MOSES MAIMONIDES
+
+JEWISH TROUBADOURS AND MINNESINGERS
+
+HUMOR AND LOVE IN JEWISH POETRY
+
+THE JEWISH STAGE
+
+THE JEW'S QUEST IN AFRICA
+
+A JEWISH KING IN POLAND
+
+JEWISH SOCIETY IN THE TIME OF MENDELSSOHN
+
+LEOPOLD ZUNZ
+
+HEINRICH HEINE AND JUDAISM
+
+THE MUSIC OF THE SYNAGOGUE
+
+
+
+
+A GLANCE AT JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+
+In a well-known passage of the _Romanzero_, rebuking Jewish women for
+their ignorance of the magnificent golden age of their nation's poetry,
+Heine used unmeasured terms of condemnation. He was too severe, for the
+sources from which he drew his own information were of a purely
+scientific character, necessarily unintelligible to the ordinary reader.
+The first truly popular presentation of the whole of Jewish literature
+was made only a few years ago, and could not have existed in Heine's
+time, as the most valuable treasures of that literature, a veritable
+Hebrew Pompeii, have been unearthed from the mould and rubbish of the
+libraries within this century. Investigations of the history of Jewish
+literature have been possible, then, only during the last fifty years.
+
+But in the course of this half-century, conscientious research has so
+actively been prosecuted that we can now gain at least a bird's-eye view
+of the whole course of our literature. Some stretches still lie in
+shadow, and it is not astonishing that eminent scholars continue to
+maintain that "there is no such thing as an organic history, a logical
+development, of the gigantic neo-Hebraic literature"; while such as are
+acquainted with the results of late research at best concede that
+Hebrew literature has been permitted to garner a "tender aftermath."
+Both verdicts are untrue and unfair. Jewish literature has developed
+organically, and in the course of its evolution it has had its
+spring-tide as well as its season of decay, this again followed by
+vigorous rejuvenescence.
+
+Such opinions are part and parcel of the vicissitudes of our literature,
+in themselves sufficient matter for an interesting book. Strange it
+certainly is that a people without a home, without a land, living under
+repression and persecution, could produce so great a literature;
+stranger still, that it should at first have been preserved and
+disseminated, then forgotten, or treated with the disdain of prejudice,
+and finally roused from torpid slumber into robust life by the breath of
+the modern era. In the neighborhood of twenty-two thousand works are
+known to us now. Fifty years ago bibliographers were ignorant of the
+existence of half of these, and in the libraries of Italy, England, and
+Germany an untold number awaits resurrection.
+
+In fact, our literature has not yet been given a name that recommends
+itself to universal acceptance. Some have called it "Rabbinical
+Literature," because during the middle ages every Jew of learning bore
+the title Rabbi; others, "Neo-Hebraic"; and a third party considers it
+purely theological. These names are all inadequate. Perhaps the only one
+sufficiently comprehensive is "Jewish Literature." That embraces, as it
+should, the aggregate of writings produced by Jews from the earliest
+days of their history up to the present time, regardless of form, of
+language, and, in the middle ages at least, of subject-matter.
+
+With this definition in mind, we are able to sketch the whole course of
+our literature, though in the frame of an essay only in outline. We
+shall learn, as Leopold Zunz, the Humboldt of Jewish science, well says,
+that it is "intimately bound up with the culture of the ancient world,
+with the origin and development of Christianity, and with the scientific
+endeavors of the middle ages. Inasmuch as it shares the intellectual
+aspirations of the past and the present, their conflicts and their
+reverses, it is supplementary to general literature. Its peculiar
+features, themselves falling under universal laws, are in turn helpful
+in the interpretation of general characteristics. If the aggregate
+results of mankind's intellectual activity can be likened unto a sea,
+Jewish literature is one of the tributaries that feed it. Like other
+literatures and like literature in general, it reveals to the student
+what noble ideals the soul of man has cherished, and striven to realize,
+and discloses the varied achievements of man's intellectual powers. If
+we of to-day are the witnesses and the offspring of an eternal, creative
+principle, then, in turn, the present is but the beginning of a future,
+that is, the translation of knowledge into life. Spiritual ideals
+consciously held by any portion of mankind lend freedom to thought,
+grace to feeling, and by sailing up this one stream we may reach the
+fountain-head whence have emanated all spiritual forces, and about
+which, as a fixed pole, all spiritual currents eddy."[1]
+
+The cornerstone of this Jewish literature is the Bible, or what we call
+Old Testament literature--the oldest and at the same time the most
+important of Jewish writings. It extends over the period ending with the
+second century before the common era; is written, for the most part, in
+Hebrew, and is the clearest and the most faithful reflection of the
+original characteristics of the Jewish people. This biblical literature
+has engaged the closest attention of all nations and every age. Until
+the seventeenth century, biblical science was purely dogmatic, and only
+since Herder pointed the way have its æsthetic elements been dwelt upon
+along with, often in defiance of, dogmatic considerations. Up to this
+time, Ernest Meier and Theodor Nöldeke have been the only ones to treat
+of the Old Testament with reference to its place in the history of
+literature.
+
+Despite the dogmatic air clinging to the critical introductions to the
+study of the Old Testament, their authors have not shrunk from treating
+the book sacred to two religions with childish arbitrariness. Since the
+days of Spinoza's essay at rationalistic explanation, Bible criticism
+has been the wrestling-ground of the most extravagant exegesis, of bold
+hypotheses, and hazardous conjectures. No Latin or Greek classic has
+been so ruthlessly attacked and dissected; no mediæval poetry so
+arbitrarily interpreted. As a natural consequence, the æsthetic
+elements were more and more pushed into the background. Only recently
+have we begun to ridicule this craze for hypotheses, and returned to
+more sober methods of inquiry. Bible criticism reached the climax of
+absurdity, and the scorn was just which greeted one of the most
+important works of the critical school, Hitzig's "Explanation of the
+Psalms." A reviewer said: "We may entertain the fond hope that, in a
+second edition of this clever writer's commentary, he will be in the
+enviable position to tell us the day and the hour when each psalm was
+composed."
+
+The reaction began a few years ago with the recognition of the
+inadequacy of Astruc's document hypothesis, until then the creed of all
+Bible critics. Astruc, a celebrated French physician, in 1753 advanced
+the theory that the Pentateuch--the five books of Moses--consists of two
+parallel documents, called respectively Yahvistic and Elohistic, from
+the name applied to God in each. On this basis, German science after him
+raised a superstructure. No date was deemed too late to be assigned to
+the composition of the Pentateuch. If the historian Flavius Josephus had
+not existed, and if Jesus had not spoken of "the Law" and "the
+prophets," and of the things "which were written in the Law of Moses,
+and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms," critics would have been
+disposed to transfer the redaction of the Bible to some period of the
+Christian era. So wide is the divergence of opinions on the subject
+that two learned critics, Ewald and Hitzig, differ in the date assigned
+to a certain biblical passage by no less than a thousand years!
+
+Bible archæology, Bible exegesis, and discussions of grammatical
+niceties, were confounded with the history of biblical literature, and
+naturally it was the latter that suffered by the lack of
+differentiation. Orthodoxy assumed a purely divine origin for the Bible,
+while sceptics treated the holy book with greater levity than they would
+dare display in criticising a modern novel. The one party raised a hue
+and cry when Moses was spoken of as the first author; the other
+discovered "obscene, rude, even cannibalistic traits"[2] in the sublime
+narratives of the Bible. It should be the task of coming generations,
+successors by one remove of credulous Bible lovers, and immediate heirs
+of thorough-going rationalists, to reconcile and fuse in a higher
+conception of the Bible the two divergent theories of its purely divine
+and its purely human origin. Unfortunately, it must be admitted that
+Ernest Meier is right, when he says, in his "History of the National
+Poetry of the Hebrews," that this task wholly belongs to the future; at
+present it is an unsolved problem.
+
+The æsthetic is the only proper point of view for a full recognition of
+the value of biblical literature. It certainly does not rob the sacred
+Scriptures, the perennial source of spiritual comfort, of their exalted
+character and divine worth to assume that legend, myth, and history
+have combined to produce the perfect harmony which is their imperishable
+distinction. The peasant dwelling on inaccessible mountain-heights, next
+to the record of Abraham's shepherd life, inscribes the main events of
+his own career, the anniversary dates sacred to his family. The young
+count among their first impressions that of "the brown folio," and more
+vividly than all else remember
+
+    "The maidens fair and true,
+      The sages and the heroes bold,
+    Whose tale by seers inspired
+      In our Book of books is told.
+
+    The simple life and faith
+      Of patriarchs of ancient day
+    Like angels hover near,
+      And guard, and lead them on the way."[3]
+
+Above all, a whole nation has for centuries been living with, and only
+by virtue of, this book. Surely this is abundant testimony to the
+undying value of the great work, in which the simplest shepherd tales
+and the naïvest legends, profound moral saws and magnificent images, the
+ideals of a Messianic future and the purest, the most humane conception
+of life, alternate with sublime descriptions of nature and the sweet
+strains of love-poems, with national songs breathing hope, or trembling
+with anguish, and with the dull tones of despairing pessimism and the
+divinely inspired hymns of an exalted theodicy--all blending to form
+what the reverential love of men has named the Book of books.
+
+It was natural that a book of this kind should become the basis of a
+great literature. Whatever was produced in later times had to submit to
+be judged by its exalted standard. It became the rule of conduct, the
+prophetic mirror reflecting the future work of a nation whose fate was
+inextricably bound up with its own. It is not known how and when the
+biblical scriptures were welded into one book, a holy canon, but it is
+probably correct to assume that it was done by the _Soferim_, the
+Scribes, between 200 and 150 B.C.E. At all events, it is certain that
+the three divisions of the Bible--the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the
+miscellaneous writings--were contained in the Greek version, the
+Septuagint, so called from the seventy or seventy-two Alexandrians
+supposed to have done the work of translation under Ptolemy
+Philadelphus.
+
+The Greek translation of the Bible marks the beginning of the second
+period of Jewish literature, the Judæo-Hellenic. Hebrew ceased to be the
+language of the people; it was thenceforth used only by scholars and in
+divine worship. Jewish for the first time met Greek intellect. Shem and
+Japheth embraced fraternally. "But even while the teachings of Hellas
+were pushing their way into subjugated Palestine, seducing Jewish
+philosophy to apostasy, and seeking, by main force, to introduce
+paganism, the Greek philosophers themselves stood awed by the majesty
+and power of the Jewish prophets. Swords and words entered the lists as
+champions of Judaism. The vernacular Aramæan, having suffered the Greek
+to put its impress upon many of its substantives, refused to yield to
+the influence of the Greek verb, and, in the end, Hebrew truth, in the
+guise of the teachings of Jesus, undermined the proud structure of the
+heathen." This is a most excellent characterization of that literary
+period, which lasted about three centuries, ending between 100 and 150
+C. E. Its influence upon Jewish literature can scarcely be said to have
+been enduring. To it belong all the apocryphal writings which,
+originally composed in the Greek language, were for that reason not
+incorporated into the Holy Canon. The centre of intellectual life was no
+longer in Palestine, but at Alexandria in Egypt, where three hundred
+thousand Jews were then living, and thus this literature came to be
+called Judæo-Alexandrian. It includes among its writers the last of the
+Neoplatonists, particularly Philo, the originator of the allegorical
+interpretation of the Bible and of a Jewish philosophy of religion;
+Aristeas, and pseudo-Phokylides. There were also Jewish _littérateurs_:
+the dramatist Ezekielos; Jason; Philo the Elder; Aristobulus, the
+popularizer of the Aristotelian philosophy; Eupolemos, the historian;
+and probably the Jewish Sybil, who had to have recourse to the oracular
+manner of the pagans to proclaim the truths of Judaism, and to Greek
+figures of speech for her apocalyptic visions, which foretold, in
+biblical phrase and with prophetic ardor, the future of Israel and of
+the nations in contact with it.
+
+Meanwhile the word of the Bible was steadily gaining importance in
+Palestine. To search into and expound the sacred text had become the
+inheritance of the congregation of Jacob, of those that had not lent ear
+to the siren notes of Hellenism. Midrash, as the investigations of the
+commentators were called, by and by divided into two streams--Halacha,
+which establishes and systematizes the statutes of the Law, and Haggada,
+which uses the sacred texts for homiletic, historical, ethical, and
+pedagogic discussions. The latter is the poetic, the former, the
+legislative, element in the Talmudic writings, whose composition,
+extending over a thousand years, constitutes the third, the most
+momentous, period of Jewish literature. Of course, none of these periods
+can be so sharply defined as a rapid survey might lead one to suppose.
+For instance, on the threshold of this third epoch stands the figure of
+Flavius Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, who, at once an
+enthusiastic Jew and a friend of the Romans, writes the story of his
+nation in the Greek language--a character as peculiar as his age, which,
+listening to the mocking laughter of a Lucian, saw Olympus overthrown
+and its gods dethroned, the Temple at Jerusalem pass away in flame and
+smoke, and the new doctrine of the son of the carpenter at Nazareth
+begin its victorious course.
+
+By the side of this Janus-faced historian, the heroes of the Talmud
+stand enveloped in glory. We meet with men like Hillel and Shammaï,
+Jochanan ben Zakkaï, Gamaliel, Joshua ben Chananya, the famous Akiba,
+and later on Yehuda the Prince, friend of the imperial philosopher
+Marcus Aurelius, and compiler of the Mishna, the authoritative code of
+laws superseding all other collections. Then there are the fabulist
+Meïr; Simon ben Yochaï, falsely accused of the authorship of the
+mystical Kabbala; Chiya; Rab; Samuel, equally famous as a physician and
+a rabbi; Jochanan, the supposed compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud; and
+Ashi and Abina, the former probably the arranger of the Babylonian
+Talmud. This latter Talmud, the one invested with authority among Jews,
+by reason of its varying fortunes, is the most marvellous literary
+monument extant. Never has book been so hated and so persecuted, so
+misjudged and so despised, on the other hand, so prized and so honored,
+and, above all, so imperfectly understood, as this very Talmud.
+
+For the Jews and their literature it has had untold significance. That
+the Talmud has been the conservator of Judaism is an irrefutable
+statement. It is true that the study of the Talmud unduly absorbed the
+great intellectual force of its adherents, and brought about a somewhat
+one-sided mental development in the Jews; but it also is true, as a
+writer says,[4] that "whenever in troublous times scientific inquiry was
+laid low; whenever, for any reason, the Jew was excluded from
+participation in public life, the study of the Talmud maintained the
+elasticity and the vigor of the Jewish mind, and rescued the Jew from
+sterile mysticism and spiritual apathy. The Talmud, as a rule, has been
+inimical to mysticism, and the most brilliant Talmudists, in propitious
+days, have achieved distinguished success in secular science. The Jew
+survived ages of bitterness, all the while clinging loyally to his faith
+in the midst of hostility, and the first ray of light that penetrated
+the walls of the Ghetto found him ready to take part in the intellectual
+work of his time. This admirable elasticity of mind he owes, first and
+foremost, to the study of the Talmud."
+
+From this much abused Talmud, as from its contemporary the Midrash in
+the restricted sense, sprouted forth the blossoms of the Haggada--that
+Haggada
+
+    "Where the beauteous, ancient sagas,
+    Angel legends fraught with meaning,
+    Martyrs' silent sacrifices,
+    Festal songs and wisdom's sayings,
+
+    Trope and allegoric fancies--
+    All, howe'er by faith's triumphant
+    Glow pervaded--where they gleaming,
+    Glist'ning, well in strength exhaustless.
+
+    And the boyish heart responsive
+    Drinks the wild, fantastic sweetness,
+    Greets the woful, wondrous anguish,
+    Yields to grewsome charm of myst'ry,
+
+    Hid in blessed worlds of fable.
+    Overawed it hearkens solemn
+    To that sacred revelation
+    Mortal man hath poetry called."[5]
+
+A story from the Midrash charmingly characterizes the relation between
+Halacha and Haggada. Two rabbis, Chiya bar Abba, a Halachist, and
+Abbahu, a Haggadist, happened to be lecturing in the same town. Abbahu,
+the Haggadist, was always listened to by great crowds, while Chiya, with
+his Halacha, stood practically deserted. The Haggadist comforted the
+disappointed teacher with a parable. "Let us suppose two merchants," he
+said, "to come to town, and offer wares for sale. The one has pearls and
+precious gems to display, the other, cheap finery, gilt chains, rings,
+and gaudy ribbons. About whose booth, think you, does the crowd
+press?--Formerly, when the struggle for existence was not fierce and
+inevitable, men had leisure and desire for the profound teachings of the
+Law; now they need the cheering words of consolation and hope."
+
+For more than a thousand years this nameless spirit of national poesy
+was abroad, and produced manifold works, which, in the course of time,
+were gathered together into comprehensive collections, variously named
+Midrash Rabba, Pesikta, Tanchuma, etc. Their compilation was begun in
+about 700 C. E., that is, soon after the close of the Talmud, in the
+transition period from the third epoch of Jewish literature to the
+fourth, the golden age, which lasted from the ninth to the fifteenth
+century, and, according to the law of human products, shows a season of
+growth, blossom, and decay.
+
+The scene of action during this period was western Asia, northern
+Africa, sometimes Italy and France, but chiefly Spain, where Arabic
+culture, destined to influence Jewish thought to an incalculable degree,
+was at that time at its zenith. "A second time the Jews were drawn into
+the vortex of a foreign civilization, and two hundred years after
+Mohammed, Jews in Kairwan and Bagdad were speaking the same language,
+Arabic. A language once again became the mediatrix between Jewish and
+general literature, and the best minds of the two races, by means of the
+language, reciprocally influenced each other. Jews, as they once had
+written Greek for their brethren, now wrote Arabic; and, as in
+Hellenistic times, the civilization of the dominant race, both in its
+original features and in its adaptations from foreign sources, was
+reflected in that of the Jews." It would be interesting to analyze this
+important process of assimilation, but we can concern ourselves only
+with the works of the Jewish intellect. Again we meet, at the threshold
+of the period, a characteristic figure, the thinker Sa'adia, ranking
+high as author and religious philosopher, known also as a grammarian and
+a poet. He is followed by Sherira, to whom we owe the beginnings of a
+history of Talmudic literature, and his son Haï Gaon, a strictly
+orthodox teacher of the Law. In their wake come troops of physicians,
+theologians, lexicographers, Talmudists, and grammarians. Great is the
+circle of our national literature: it embraces theology, philosophy,
+exegesis, grammar, poetry, and jurisprudence, yea, even astronomy and
+chronology, mathematics and medicine. But these widely varying subjects
+constitute only one class, inasmuch as they all are infused with the
+spirit of Judaism, and subordinate themselves to its demands. A mention
+of the prominent actors would turn this whole essay into a dry list of
+names. Therefore it is better for us merely to sketch the period in
+outline, dwelling only on its greatest poets and philosophers, the
+moulders of its character.
+
+The opinion is current that the Semitic race lacks the philosophic
+faculty. Yet it cannot be denied that Jews were the first to carry Greek
+philosophy to Europe, teaching and developing it there before its
+dissemination by celebrated Arabs. In their zeal to harmonize philosophy
+with their religion, and in the lesser endeavor to defend traditional
+Judaism against the polemic attacks of a new sect, the Karaites, they
+invested the Aristotelian system with peculiar features, making it, as
+it were, their national philosophy. At all events, it must be
+universally accepted that the Jews share with the Arabs the merit "of
+having cherished the study of philosophy during centuries of barbarism,
+and of having for a long time exerted a civilizing influence upon
+Europe."
+
+The meagre achievements of the Jews in the departments of history and
+history of literature do not justify the conclusion that they are
+wanting in historic perception. The lack of writings on these subjects
+is traceable to the sufferings and persecutions that have marked their
+pathway. Before their chroniclers had time to record past afflictions,
+new sorrows and troubles broke in upon them. In the middle ages, the
+history of Jewish literature is the entire history of the Jewish people,
+its course outlined by blood and watered by rivers of tears, at whose
+source the genius of Jewish poetry sits lamenting. "The Orient dwells an
+exile in the Occident," Franz Delitzsch, the first alien to give loving
+study to this literature, poetically says, "and its tears of longing for
+home are the fountain-head of Jewish poetry."[6]
+
+That poetry reached its perfection in the works of the celebrated trio,
+Solomon Gabirol, Yehuda Halevi, and Moses ben Ezra. Their dazzling
+triumphs had been heralded by the more modest achievements of Abitur,
+writing Hebrew, and Adia and the poetess Xemona (Kasmune) using Arabic,
+to sing the praise of God and lament the woes of Israel.
+
+The predominant, but not exclusive, characteristic of Jewish poetry is
+its religious strain. Great thinkers, men equipped with philosophic
+training, and at the same time endowed with poetic gifts, have
+contributed to the huge volume of synagogue poetry, whose subjects are
+praise of the Lord and regret for Zion. The sorrow for our lost
+fatherland has never taken on more glowing colors, never been expressed
+in fuller tones than in this poetry. As ancient Hebrew poetry flowed in
+the two streams of prophecy and psalmody, so the Jewish poetry of the
+middle ages was divided into _Piut_ and _Selicha_. Songs of hope and
+despair, cries of revenge, exhortations to peace among men, elegies on
+every single persecution, and laments for Zion, follow each other in
+kaleidoscopic succession. Unfortunately, there never was lack of
+historic matter for this poetry to elaborate. To furnish that was the
+well-accomplished task of rulers and priests in the middle ages, alike
+"in the realm of the Islamic king of kings and in that of the apostolic
+servant of servants." So fate made this poetry classical and eminently
+national. Those characteristics which, in general literature, earn for a
+work the description "Homeric," in Jewish literature make a liturgical
+poem "Kaliric," so called from the poet Eliezer Kalir, the subject of
+many mythical tales, and the first of a long line of poets, Spanish,
+French, and German, extending to the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
+The literary history of this epoch has been written by Leopold Zunz with
+warmth of feeling and stupendous learning. He closes his work with the
+hope that mankind, at some future day, will adopt Israel's religious
+poetry as its own, transforming the elegiac _Selicha_ into a joyous
+psalm of universal peace and good-will.
+
+Side by side with religious flourishes secular poetry, clothing itself
+in rhyme and metre, adopting every current form of poesy, and treating
+of every appropriate subject. Its first votary was Solomon Gabirol, that
+
+    "Human nightingale that warbled
+    Forth her songs of tender love,
+    In the darkness of the sombre,
+    Gothic mediæval night.
+
+    She, that nightingale, sang only,
+    Sobbing forth her adoration,
+    To her Lord, her God, in heaven,
+    Whom her songs of praise extolled."[7]
+
+Solomon Gabirol may be said to have been the first poet thrilled by
+_Weltschmerz_. "He produced hymns and songs, penitential prayers,
+psalms, and threnodies, filled with hope and longing for a blessed
+future. They are marked throughout by austere earnestness, brushing
+away, in its rigor, the color and bloom of life; but side by side with
+it, surging forth from the deepest recesses of a human soul, is humble
+adoration of God."
+
+Gabirol was a distinguished philosopher besides. In 1150, his chief
+work, "The Fount of Life," was translated into Latin by Archdeacon
+Dominicus Gundisalvi, with the help of Johannes Avendeath, an apostate
+Jew, the author's name being corrupted into Avencebrol, later becoming
+Avicebron. The work was made a text-book of scholastic philosophy, but
+neither Scotists nor Thomists, neither adherents nor detractors,
+suspected that a heretical Jew was slumbering under the name Avicebron.
+It remained for an inquirer of our own day, Solomon Munk, to reveal the
+face of Gabirol under the mask of a garbled name. Amazed, we behold that
+the pessimistic philosopher of to-day can as little as the schoolmen of
+the middle ages shake himself free from the despised Jew. Schopenhauer
+may object as he will, it is certain that Gabirol was his predecessor by
+more than eight hundred years!
+
+Charisi, whom we shall presently meet, has expressed the verdict on his
+poetry which still holds good: "Solomon Gabirol pleases to call himself
+the small--yet before him all the great must dwindle and fall.--Who can
+like him with mighty speech appall?--Compared with him the poets of his
+time are without power--he, the small, alone is a tower.--The highest
+round of poetry's ladder has he won.--Wisdom fondled him, eloquence hath
+called him son--and clothing him with purple, said: 'Lo!--my first-born
+son, go forth, to conquest go!'--His predecessors' songs are naught with
+his compared--nor have his many followers better fared.--The later
+singers by him were taught--the heirs they are of his poetic
+thought.--But still he's king, to him all praise belongs--for Solomon's
+is the Song of Songs."
+
+By Gabirol's side stands Yehuda Halevi, probably the only Jewish poet
+known to the reader of general literature, to whom his name, life, and
+fate have become familiar through Heinrich Heine's _Romanzero_. His
+magnificent descriptions of nature "reflect southern skies, verdant
+meadows, deep blue rivers, and the stormy sea," and his erotic lyrics
+are chaste and tender. He sounds the praise of wine, youth, and
+happiness, and extols the charms of his lady-love, but above and beyond
+all he devotes his song to Zion and his people. The pearl of his poems
+
+    "Is the famous lamentation
+    Sung in all the tents of Jacob,
+    Scattered wide upon the earth ...
+
+    Yea, it is the song of Zion,
+    Which Yehuda ben Halevy,
+    Dying on the holy ruins,
+    Sang of loved Jerusalem."[8]
+
+"In the whole compass of religious poetry, Milton's and Klopstock's not
+excepted, nothing can be found to surpass the elegy of Zion," says a
+modern writer, a non-Jew.[9] This soul-stirring "Lay of Zion," better
+than any number of critical dissertations, will give the reader a clear
+insight into the character and spirit of Jewish poetry in general:
+
+    O Zion! of thine exiles' peace take thought,
+    The remnant of thy flock, who thine have sought!
+    From west, from east, from north and south resounds,
+    Afar and now anear, from all thy bounds,
+              And no surcease,
+              "With thee be peace!"
+
+    In longing's fetters chained I greet thee, too,
+    My tears fast welling forth like Hermon's dew--
+    O bliss could they but drop on holy hills!
+    A croaking bird I turn, when through me thrills
+    Thy desolate state; but when I dream anon,
+    The Lord brings back thy ev'ry captive son--
+              A harp straightway
+              To sing thy lay.
+
+    In heart I dwell where once thy purest son
+    At Bethel and Peniel, triumphs won;
+    God's awesome presence there was close to thee,
+    Whose doors thy Maker, by divine decree,
+          Opposed as mates
+          To heaven's gates.
+
+    Nor sun, nor moon, nor stars had need to be;
+    God's countenance alone illumined thee
+    On whose elect He poured his spirit out.
+    In thee would I my soul pour forth devout!
+    Thou wert the kingdom's seat, of God the throne,
+    And now there dwells a slave race, not thine own,
+          In royal state,
+          Where reigned thy great.
+
+    O would that I could roam o'er ev'ry place
+    Where God to missioned prophets showed His grace!
+    And who will give me wings? An off'ring meet,
+    I'd haste to lay upon thy shattered seat,
+          Thy counterpart--
+          My bruisèd heart.
+
+    Upon thy precious ground I'd fall prostrate,
+    Thy stones caress, the dust within thy gate,
+    And happiness it were in awe to stand
+    At Hebron's graves, the treasures of thy land,
+    And greet thy woods, thy vine-clad slopes, thy vales,
+    Greet Abarim and Hor, whose light ne'er pales,
+          A radiant crown,
+          Thy priests' renown.
+
+    Thy air is balm for souls; like myrrh thy sand;
+    With honey run the rivers of thy land.
+    Though bare my feet, my heart's delight I'd count
+    To thread my way all o'er thy desert mount,
+          Where once rose tall
+          Thy holy hall,
+
+    Where stood thy treasure-ark, in recess dim,
+    Close-curtained, guarded o'er by cherubim.
+    My Naz'rite's crown would I pluck off, and cast
+    It gladly forth. With curses would I blast
+    The impious time thy people, diadem-crowned,
+    Thy Nazirites, did pass, by en'mies bound
+          With hatred's bands,
+          In unclean lands.
+
+    By dogs thy lusty lions are brutal torn
+    And dragged; thy strong, young eaglets, heav'nward
+    borne,
+    By foul-mouthed ravens snatched, and all undone.
+    Can food still tempt my taste? Can light of sun
+          Seem fair to shine
+          To eyes like mine?
+
+    Soft, soft! Leave off a while, O cup of pain!
+    My loins are weighted down, my heart and brain,
+    With bitterness from thee. Whene'er I think
+    Of Oholah,[10] proud northern queen, I drink
+    Thy wrath, and when my Oholivah forlorn
+    Comes back to mind--'tis then I quaff thy scorn,
+          Then, draught of pain,
+          Thy lees I drain.
+
+    O Zion! Crown of grace! Thy comeliness
+    Hath ever favor won and fond caress.
+    Thy faithful lovers' lives are bound in thine;
+    They joy in thy security, but pine
+          And weep in gloom
+          O'er thy sad doom.
+
+    From out the prisoner's cell they sigh for thee,
+    And each in prayer, wherever he may be,
+    Towards thy demolished portals turns. Exiled,
+    Dispersed from mount to hill, thy flock defiled
+    Hath not forgot thy sheltering fold. They grasp
+    Thy garment's hem, and trustful, eager, clasp,
+              With outstretched arms,
+              Thy branching palms.
+
+    Shinar, Pathros--can they in majesty
+    With thee compare? Or their idolatry
+    With thy Urim and thy Thummim august?
+    Who can surpass thy priests, thy saintly just,
+              Thy prophets bold,
+              And bards of old?
+
+    The heathen kingdoms change and wholly cease--
+    Thy might alone stands firm without decrease,
+    Thy Nazirites from age to age abide,
+    Thy God in thee desireth to reside.
+    Then happy he who maketh choice of thee
+    To dwell within thy courts, and waits to see,
+              And toils to make,
+              Thy light awake.
+
+    On him shall as the morning break thy light,
+    The bliss of thy elect shall glad his sight,
+    In thy felicities shall he rejoice,
+    In triumph sweet exult, with jubilant voice,
+              O'er thee, adored,
+              To youth restored.
+
+We have loitered long with Yehuda Halevi, and still not long enough, for
+we have not yet spoken of his claims to the title philosopher, won for
+him by his book _Al-Chazari_. But now we must hurry on to Moses ben
+Ezra, the last and most worldly of the three great poets. He devotes his
+genius to his patrons, to wine, his faithless mistress, and to
+"bacchanalian feasts under leafy canopies, with merry minstrelsy of
+birds." He laments over separation from friends and kin, weeps over the
+shortness of life and the rapid approach of hoary age--all in polished
+language, sometimes, however, lacking euphony. Even when he strikes his
+lyre in praise and honor of his people Israel, he fails to rise to the
+lofty heights attained by his mates in song.
+
+With Yehuda Charisi, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the
+period of the epigones sets in for Spanish-Jewish literature. In
+Charisi's _Tachkemoni_, an imitation of the poetry of the Arab Hariri,
+jest and serious criticism, joy and grief, the sublime and the trivial,
+follow each other like tints in a parti-colored skein. His distinction
+is the ease with which he plays upon the Hebrew language, not the most
+pliable of instruments. In general, Jewish poets and philosophers have
+manipulated that language with surprising dexterity. Songs, hymns,
+elegies, penitential prayers, exhortations, and religious meditations,
+generation after generation, were couched in the idiom of the psalmist,
+yet the structure of the language underwent no change. "The development
+of the neo-Hebraic idiom from the ancient Hebrew," a distinguished
+modern ethnographer justly says, "confirms, by linguistic evidence, the
+plasticity, the logical acumen, the comprehensive and at the same time
+versatile intellectuality of the Jewish race. By the ingenious
+compounding of words, by investing old expressions with new meanings,
+and adapting the material offered by alien or related languages to its
+own purposes, it has increased and enriched a comparatively meagre
+treasury of words."[11]
+
+Side by side with this cosmopolitanism, illustrated in the Haggada,
+whose pages prove that nothing human is strange to the Jewish race, it
+reveals, in its literary development, as notably in the Halacha, a
+sharply defined subjectivity. Jellinek says: "Not losing itself in the
+contemplation of the phenomena of life, not devoting itself to any
+subject unless it be with an ulterior purpose, but seeing all things in
+their relation to itself, and subordinating them to its own boldly
+asserted _ego_, the Jewish race is not inclined to apply its powers to
+the solution of intricate philosophic problems, or to abstruse
+metaphysical speculations. It is, therefore, not a philosophic race, and
+its participation in the philosophic work of the world dates only from
+its contact with the Greeks." The same author, on the other hand,
+emphasizes the liberality, the broad sympathies, of the Jewish race, in
+his statement that the Jewish mind, at its first meeting with Arabic
+philosophy, absorbed it as a leaven into its intellectual life. The
+product of the assimilation was--as early as the twelfth century, mark
+you--a philosophic conception of life, whose broad liberality culminates
+in the sentiment expressed by two most eminent thinkers: Christianity
+and Islam are the precursors of a world-religion, the preliminary
+conditions for the great religious system satisfying all men. Yehuda
+Halevi and Moses Maimonides were the philosophers bold enough to utter
+this thought of far-reaching significance.
+
+The second efflorescence of Jewish poetry brings forth exotic romances,
+satires, verbose hymns, and humorous narrative poems. Such productions
+certainly do not justify the application of the epithet "theological" to
+Jewish literature. Solomon ben Sakbel composes a satiric romance in the
+Makamat[12] form, describing the varied adventures of Asher ben Yehuda,
+another Don Quixote; Berachya Hanakdan puts into Hebrew the fables of
+Æsop and Lokman, furnishing La Fontaine with some of his material;
+Abraham ibn Sahl receives from the Arabs, certainly not noted for
+liberality, ten goldpieces for each of his love-songs; Santob de Carrion
+is a beloved Spanish bard, bold enough to tell unpleasant truths unto a
+king; Joseph ibn Sabara writes a humorous romance; Yehuda Sabbataï, epic
+satires, "The War of Wealth and Wisdom," and "A Gift from a Misogynist,"
+and unnamed authors, "Truth's Campaign," and "Praise of Women."
+
+A satirist of more than ordinary gifts was the Italian Kalonymos, whose
+"Touchstone," like Ibn Chasdaï's Makamat, "The Prince and the Dervish,"
+has been translated into German. Contemporaneous with them was Süsskind
+von Trimberg, the Suabian minnesinger, and Samson Pnie, of Strasburg,
+who helped the German poets continue _Parzival_, while later on, in
+Italy, Moses Rieti composed "The Paradise" in Hebrew _terza-rima_.
+
+In the decadence of Jewish literature, the most prominent figure is
+Immanuel ben Solomon, or Manoello, as the Italians call him. Critics
+think him the precursor of Boccaccio, and history knows him as the
+friend of Dante, whose _Divina Commedia_ he travestied in Hebrew. The
+author of the first Hebrew sonnet and of the first Hebrew novel, he was
+a talented writer, but as frivolous as talented.
+
+This is the development of Jewish poetry during its great period. In
+other departments of literature, in philosophy, in theology, in ethics,
+in Bible exegesis, the race is equally prolific in minds of the first
+order. Glancing back for a moment, our eye is arrested by Moses
+Maimonides, the great systematizer of the Jewish Law, and the connecting
+link between scholasticism and the Greek-Arabic development of the
+Aristotelian system. Before his time Bechaï ibn Pakuda and Joseph ibn
+Zadik had entered upon theosophic speculations with the object of
+harmonizing Arabic and Greek philosophy, and in the age immediately
+preceding that of Maimonides, Abraham ibn Daud, a writer of surprisingly
+liberal views, had undertaken, in "The Highest Faith," the task of
+reconciling faith with philosophy. At the same time rationalistic Bible
+exegesis was begun by Abraham ibn Ezra, an acute but reckless
+controversialist. Orthodox interpretations of the Bible had, before him,
+been taught in France by Rashi (Solomon Yitschaki) and Samuel ben Meïr,
+and continued by German rabbis, who, at the same time, were preachers of
+morality--a noteworthy phenomenon in a persecuted tribe. "How pure and
+strong its ethical principles were is shown by its religious poetry as
+well as by its practical Law. What pervades the poetry as a high ideal,
+in the application of the Law becomes demonstrable reality. The wrapt
+enthusiasm in the hymns of Samuel the Pious and other poets is embodied,
+lives, in the rulings of Yehuda Hakohen, Solomon Yitschaki, and Jacob
+ben Meïr; in the legal opinions of Isaac ben Abraham, Eliezer ha-Levi,
+Isaac ben Moses, Meïr ben Baruch, and their successors, and in the
+codices of Eliezer of Metz and Moses de Coucy. A German professor[13] of
+a hundred years ago, after glancing through some few Jewish writings,
+exclaimed, in a tone of condescending approval: 'Christians of that time
+could scarcely have been expected to enjoin such high moral principles
+as this Jew wrote down and bequeathed to his brethren in faith!'"
+
+Jewish literature in this and the next period consists largely of
+theological discussions and of commentaries on the Talmud produced by
+the hundred. It would be idle to name even the most prominent authors;
+their works belong to the history of theologic science, and rarely had a
+determining influence upon the development of genuine literature.
+
+We must also pass over in silence the numerous Jewish physicians and
+medical writers; but it must be remembered that they, too, belong to
+Jewish literature. The most marvellous characteristic of this literature
+is that in it the Jewish race has registered each step of its
+development. "All things learned, gathered, obtained, on its journeyings
+hither and thither--Greek philosophy and Arabic, as well as Latin
+scholasticism--all deposited themselves in layers about the Bible, so
+stamping later Jewish literature with an individuality that gave it an
+unique place among the literatures of the world."
+
+The travellers, however, must be mentioned by name. Their itineraries
+were wholly dedicated to the interests of their co-religionists. The
+first of the line is Eldad, the narrator of a sort of Hebrew Odyssey.
+Benjamin of Tudela and Petachya of Ratisbon are deserving of more
+confidence as veracious chroniclers, and their descriptions, together
+with Charisi's, complete the Jewish library of travels of those early
+days, unless, with Steinschneider, we consider, as we truly may, the
+majority of Jewish authors under this head. For Jewish writers a hard,
+necessitous lot has ever been a storm wind, tossing them hither and
+thither, and blowing the seeds of knowledge over all lands. Withal
+learning proved an enveloping, protecting cloak to these mendicant and
+pilgrim authors. The dispersion of the Jews, their international
+commerce, and the desire to maintain their academies, stimulated a love
+for travel, made frequent journeyings a necessity, indeed. In this way
+only can we account for the extraordinarily rapid spread of Jewish
+literature in the middle ages. The student of those times often chances
+across a rabbi, who this day teaches, lectures, writes in Candia,
+to-morrow in Rome, next year in Prague or Cracow, and so Jewish
+literature is the "wandering Jew" among the world's literatures.
+
+The fourth period, the Augustan age of our literature, closes with a
+jarring discord--the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, their second
+home, in which they had seen ministers, princes, professors, and poets
+rise from their ranks. The scene of literary activity changes: France,
+Italy, but chiefly the Slavonic East, are pushed into the foreground. It
+is not a salutary change; it ushers in three centuries of decay and
+stagnation in literary endeavor. The sum of the efforts is indicated by
+the name of the period, the Rabbinical, for its chief work was the
+development and fixation of Rabbinism.
+
+Decadence did not set in immediately. Certain beneficent forces, either
+continuing in action from the former period, or arising out of the new
+concatenation of circumstances, were in operation: Jewish exiles from
+Spain carried their culture to the asylums hospitably offered them in
+the Orient and a few of the European countries, notably Holland; the art
+of printing was spreading, the first presses in Italy bringing out
+Jewish works; and the sun of humanism and of the Reformation was rising
+and shedding solitary rays of its effulgence on the Jewish minds then at
+work.
+
+Among the noteworthy authors standing between the two periods and
+belonging to both, the most prominent is Nachmanides, a pious and
+learned Bible scholar. With logical force and critical candor he entered
+into the great conflict between science and faith, then dividing the
+Jewish world into two camps, with Maimonides' works as their shibboleth.
+The Aristotelian philosophy was no longer satisfying. Minds and hearts
+were yearning for a new revelation, and in default thereof steeping
+themselves in mystical speculations. A voluminous theosophic literature
+sprang up. The _Zohar_, the Bible of mysticism, was circulated, its
+authorship being fastened upon a rabbi of olden days. It is altogether
+probable that the real author was living at the time; many think that it
+was Moses de Leon. The liberal party counted in its ranks the two
+distinguished families of Tibbon and Kimchi, the former famed as
+successful translators, the latter as grammarians. Their best known
+representatives were Judah ibn Tibbon and David Kimchi. Curiously
+enough, the will of the former contains, in unmistakable terms, the
+opinion that "Property is theft," anticipating Proudhon, who, had he
+known it, would have seen in its early enunciation additional testimony
+to its truth. The liberal faction was also supported by Jacob ben
+Abba-Mari, the friend of Frederick II. and Michael Scotus. Abba-Mari
+lived at the German emperor's court at Naples, and quoted him in his
+commentary upon the Bible as an exegete. Besides there were among the
+Maimunists, or rationalists, Levi ben Abraham, an extraordinarily
+liberal man; Shemtob Palquera, one of the most learned Jews of his
+century, and Yedaya Penini, a philosopher and pessimistic poet, whose
+"Contemplation of the World" was translated by Mendelssohn, and praised
+by Lessing and Goethe. Despite this array of talent, the opponents were
+stronger, the most representative partisan being the Talmudist Solomon
+ben Aderet.
+
+At the same time disputations about the Talmud, ending with its public
+burning at Paris, were carried on with the Christian clergy. The other
+literary current of the age is designated by the word Kabbala, which
+held many of the finest and noblest minds captive to its witchery. The
+Kabbala is unquestionably a continuation of earlier theosophic
+inquiries. Its chief doctrines have been stated by a thorough student of
+our literature: All that exists originates in God, the source of light
+eternal. He Himself can be known only through His manifestations. He is
+without beginning, and veiled in mystery, or, He is nothing, because the
+whole of creation has developed from nothing. This nothing is one,
+indivisible, and limitless--_En-Sof_. God fills space, He is space
+itself. In order to manifest Himself, in order to create, that is,
+disclose Himself by means of emanations, He contracts, thus producing
+vacant space. The _En-Sof_ first manifested itself in the prototype of
+the whole of creation, in the macrocosm called the "son of God," the
+first man, as he appears upon the chariot of Ezekiel. From this
+primitive man the whole created world emanates in four stages: _Azila_,
+_Beria_, _Yezira_, _Asiya_. The _Azila_ emanation represents the active
+qualities of primitive man. They are forces or intelligences flowing
+from him, at once his essential qualities and the faculties by which he
+acts. There are ten of these forces, forming the ten sacred _Sefiroth_,
+a word which first meaning number came to stand for sphere. The first
+three _Sefiroth_ are intelligences, the seven others, attributes. They
+are supposed to follow each other in this order: 1. _Kether_ (crown); 2.
+_Chochma_ (wisdom); 3. _Beena_ (understanding); 4. _Chesed_ (grace), or
+_Ghedulla_ (greatness); 5. _Ghevoora_ (dignity); 6. _Tifereth_
+(splendor); 7. _Nezach_ (victory); 8. _Hod_ (majesty); 9. _Yesod_
+(principle); 10. _Malchuth_ (kingdom). From this first world of the
+_Azila_ emanate the three other worlds, _Asiya_ being the lowest stage.
+Man has part in these three worlds; a microcosm, he realizes in his
+actual being what is foreshadowed by the ideal, primitive man. He holds
+to the _Asiya_ by his vital part (_Nefesh_), to the _Yezira_ by his
+intellect (_Ruach_), to the _Beria_ by his soul (_Neshama_). The last is
+his immortal part, a spark of divinity.
+
+Speculations like these, followed to their logical issue, are bound to
+lead the investigator out of Judaism into Trinitarianism or Pantheism.
+Kabbalists, of course only in rare cases, realized the danger. The sad
+conditions prevailing in the era after the expulsion from Spain, a third
+exile, were in all respects calculated to promote the development of
+mysticism, and it did flourish luxuriantly.
+
+Some few philosophers, the last of a long line, still await mention:
+Levi ben Gerson, Joseph Kaspi, Moses of Narbonne in southern France,
+long a seat of Jewish learning; then, Isaac ben Sheshet, Chasdaï
+Crescas, whose "Light of God" exercised deep influence upon Spinoza and
+his philosophy; the Duran family, particularly Profiat Duran, successful
+defender of Judaism against the attacks of apostates and Christians; and
+Joseph Albo, who in his principal philosophic work, _Ikkarim_, shows
+Judaism to be based upon three fundamental doctrines: the belief in the
+existence of God, Revelation, and the belief in future reward and
+punishment. These writers are the last to reflect the glories of the
+golden age.
+
+At the entrance to the next period we again meet a man of extraordinary
+ability, Isaac Abrabanel, one of the most eminent and esteemed of Bible
+commentators, in early life minister to a Catholic king, later on a
+pilgrim scholar wandering about exiled with his sons, one of whom,
+Yehuda, has fame as the author of the _Dialoghi di Amore_. In the train
+of exiles passing from Portugal to the Orient are Abraham Zacuto, an
+eminent historian of Jewish literature and sometime professor of
+astronomy at the university of Salamanca; Joseph ibn Verga, the
+historian of his nation; Amatus Lusitanus, who came close upon the
+discovery of the circulation of the blood; Israel Nagara, the most
+gifted poet of the century, whose hymns brought him popular favor;
+later, Joseph Karo, "the most influential personage of the sixteenth
+century," his claims upon recognition resting on the _Shulchan Aruch_,
+an exhaustive codex of Jewish customs and laws; and many others. In
+Salonica, the exiles soon formed a prosperous community, where
+flourished Jacob ibn Chabib, the first compiler of the Haggadistic tales
+of the Talmud, and afterwards David Conforte, a reputable historian. In
+Jerusalem, Obadiah Bertinoro was engaged on his celebrated Mishna
+commentary, in the midst of a large circle of Kabbalists, of whom
+Solomon Alkabez is the best known on account of his famous Sabbath song,
+_Lecho Dodi_. Once again Jerusalem was the objective point of many
+pilgrims, lured thither by the prevalent Kabbalistic and Messianic
+vagaries. True literature gained little from such extremists. The only
+work produced by them that can be admitted to have literary qualities is
+Isaiah Hurwitz's "The Two Tables of the Testimony," even at this day
+enjoying celebrity. It is a sort of cyclopædia of Jewish learning,
+compiled and expounded from a mystic's point of view.
+
+The condition of the Jews in Italy was favorable, and their literary
+products derive grace from their good fortune. The Renaissance had a
+benign effect upon them, and the revival of classical studies influenced
+their intellectual work. Greek thought met Jewish a third time. Learning
+was enjoying its resurrection, and whenever their wretched political
+and social condition was not a hindrance, the Jews joined in the
+general delight. Their misery, however, was an undiminishing burden,
+yea, even in the days in which, according to Erasmus, it was joy to
+live. In fact, it was growing heavier. All the more noteworthy is it
+that Hebrew studies engaged the research of scholars, albeit they showed
+care for the word of God, and not for His people. Pico della Mirandola
+studies the Kabbala; the Jewish grammarian Elias Levita is the teacher
+of Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo, and later of Paul Fagius and Sebastian
+Münster, the latter translating his teacher's works into Latin; popes
+and sultans prefer Jews as their physicians in ordinary, who, as a rule,
+are men of literary distinction; the Jews translate philosophic writings
+from Hebrew and Arabic into Latin; Elias del Medigo is summoned as
+arbiter in the scholastic conflict at the University of Padua;--all
+boots nothing, ruin is not averted. Reuchlin may protest as he will, the
+Jew is exiled, the Talmud burnt.
+
+In such dreary days the Portuguese Samuel Usque writes his work,
+_Consolaçam as Tribulações de Ysrael_, and Joseph Cohen, his chronicle,
+"The Vale of Weeping," the most important history produced since the day
+of Flavius Josephus,--additional proofs that the race possesses native
+buoyancy, and undaunted heroism in enduring suffering. Women, too, in
+increasing number, participate in the spiritual work of their nation;
+among them, Deborah Ascarelli and Sara Copia Sullam, the most
+distinguished of a long array of names.
+
+The keen critic and scholar, Azariah de Rossi, is one of the literary
+giants of his period. His researches in the history of Jewish literature
+are the basis upon which subsequent work in this department rests, and
+many of his conclusions still stand unassailable. About him are grouped
+Abraham de Portaleone, an excellent archæologist, who established that
+Jews had been the first to observe the medicinal uses of gold; David de
+Pomis, the author of a famous defense of Jewish physicians; and Leo de
+Modena, the rabbi of Venice, "unstable as water," wavering between faith
+and unbelief, and, Kabbalist and rabbi though he was, writing works
+against the Kabbala on the one hand, and against rabbinical tradition on
+the other. Similar to him in character is Joseph del Medigo, an
+itinerant author, who sometimes reviles, sometimes extols, the Kabbala.
+
+There are men of higher calibre, as, for instance, Isaac Aboab, whose
+_Nomologia_ undertakes to defend Jewish tradition against every sort of
+assailant; Samuel Aboab, a great Bible scholar; Azariah Figo, a famous
+preacher; and, above all, Moses Chayyim Luzzatto, the first Jewish
+dramatist, the dramas preceding his having interest only as attempts.
+He, too, is caught in the meshes of the Kabbala, and falls a victim to
+its powers of darkness. His dramas testify to poetic gifts and to
+extraordinary mastery of the Hebrew language, the faithful companion of
+the Jewish nation in all its journeyings. To complete this sketch of the
+Italian Jews of that period, it should be added that while in intellect
+and attainments they stand above their brethren in faith of other
+countries, in character and purity of morals they are their inferiors.
+
+Thereafter literary interest centres in Poland, where rabbinical
+literature found its most zealous and most learned exponents. Throughout
+the land schools were established, in which the Talmud was taught by the
+_Pilpul_, an ingenious, quibbling method of Talmudic reasoning and
+discussion, said to have originated with Jacob Pollak. Again we have a
+long succession of distinguished names. There are Solomon Luria, Moses
+Isserles, Joel Sirkes, David ben Levi, Sabbataï Kohen, and Elias Wilna.
+Sabbataï Kohen, from whom, were pride of ancestry permissible in the
+republic of letters, the present writer would boast descent, was not
+only a Talmudic writer; he also left historical and poetical works.
+Elias Wilna, the last in the list, had a subtle, delicately poised mind,
+and deserves special mention for his determined opposition to the
+Kabbala and its offspring Chassidism, hostile and ruinous to Judaism and
+Jewish learning.
+
+A gleam of true pleasure can be obtained from the history of the Dutch
+Jews. In Holland the Jews united secular culture with religious
+devotion, and the professors of other faiths met them with tolerance and
+friendliness. Sunshine falls upon the Jewish schools, and right into the
+heart of a youth, who straightway abandons the Talmud folios, and goes
+out into the world to proclaim to wondering mankind the evangel of a
+new philosophy. The youth is Baruch Spinoza!
+
+There are many left to expound Judaism: Manasseh ben Israel, writing
+both Hebrew and Latin books to plead the cause of the emancipation of
+his people and of its literary pre-eminence; David Neto, a student of
+philosophy; Benjamin Mussafia, Orobio de Castro, David Abenator Melo,
+the Spanish translator of the Psalms, and Daniel de Barrios, poet and
+critic--all using their rapidly acquired fluency in the Dutch language
+to champion the cause of their people.
+
+In Germany, a mixture of German and Hebrew had come into use among the
+Jews as the medium of daily intercourse. In this peculiar patois, called
+_Judendeutsch_, a large literature had developed. Before Luther's time,
+it possessed two fine translations of the Bible, besides numerous
+writings of an ethical, poetical, and historical character, among which
+particular mention should be made of those on the German legend-cycles
+of the middle ages. At the same time, the Talmud receives its due of
+time, effort, and talent. New life comes only with the era of
+emancipation and enlightenment.
+
+Only a few names shall be mentioned, the rest would be bound soon to
+escape the memory of the casual reader: there is an historian, David
+Gans; a bibliographer, Sabbataï Bassista, and the Talmudists Abigedor
+Kara, Jacob Joshua, Jacob Emden, Jonathan Eibeschütz, and Ezekiel
+Landau. It is delight to be able once again to chronicle the interest
+taken in long neglected Jewish literature by such Christian scholars as
+the two Buxtorfs, Bartolocci, Wolff, Surrenhuys, and De Rossi.
+Unfortunately, the interest dies out with them, and it is significant
+that to this day most eminent theologians, decidedly to their own
+disadvantage, "content themselves with unreliable secondary sources,"
+instead of drinking from the fountain itself.
+
+We have arrived at the sixth and last period, our own, not yet
+completed, whose fruits will be judged by a future generation. It is the
+period of the rejuvenescence of Jewish literature. Changes in character,
+tenor, form, and language take place. Germany for the first time is in
+the van, and Mendelssohn, its most attractive figure, stands at the
+beginning of the period, surrounded by his disciples Wessely, Homberg,
+Euchel, Friedländer, and others, in conjunction with whom he gives Jews
+a new, pure German Bible translation. Poetry and philology are zealously
+pursued, and soon Jewish science, through its votaries Leopold Zunz and
+S. J. Rappaport, celebrates a brilliant renascence, such as the poet
+describes: "In the distant East the dawn is breaking,--The olden times
+are growing young again."
+
+_Die Gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden_, by Zunz, published in 1832,
+was the pioneer work of the new Jewish science, whose present
+development, despite its wide range, has not yet exhausted the
+suggestions made, by the author. Other equally important works from the
+same pen followed, and then came the researches of Rappaport, Z.
+Frankel, I. M. Jost, M. Sachs, S. D. Luzzatto, S. Munk, A. Geiger, L.
+Herzfeld, H. Graetz, J. Fürst, L. Dukes, M. Steinschneider, D. Cassel,
+S. Holdheim, and a host of minor investigators and teachers. Their
+loving devotion roused Jewish science and literature from their secular
+sleep to vigorous, intellectual life, reacting beneficently on the
+spiritual development of Judaism itself. The moulders of the new
+literature are such men as the celebrated preachers Adolf Jellinek,
+Salomon, Kley, Mannheimer; the able thinkers Steinheim, Hirsch,
+Krochmal; the illustrious scholars M. Lazarus, H. Steinthal; and the
+versatile journalists G. Riesser and L. Philipson.
+
+Poetry has not been neglected in the general revival. The first Jewish
+poet to write in German was M. E. Kuh, whose tragic fate has been
+pathetically told by Berthold Auerbach in his _Dichter und Kaufmann_.
+The burden of this modern Jewish poetry is, of course, the glorification
+of the loyalty and fortitude that preserved the race during a calamitous
+past. Such poets as Steinheim, Wihl, L. A. Frankl, M. Beer, K. Beck, Th.
+Creizenach, M. Hartmann, S. H. Mosenthal, Henriette Ottenheimer, Moritz
+Rappaport, and L. Stein, sing the songs of Zion in the tongue of the
+German. And can Heine be forgotten, he who in his _Romanzero_ has so
+melodiously, yet so touchingly given word to the hoary sorrow of the
+Jew?
+
+In an essay of this scope no more can be done than give the barest
+outline of the modern movement. A detailed description of the work of
+German-Jewish lyrists belongs to the history of German literature, and,
+in fact, on its pages can be found a due appreciation of their worth by
+unprejudiced critics, who give particularly high praise to the new
+species of tales, the Jewish village, or Ghetto, tales, with which
+Jewish and German literatures have latterly been enriched. Their object
+is to depict the religious customs in vogue among Jews of past
+generations, their home-life, and the conflicts that arose when the old
+Judaism came into contact with modern views of life. The master in the
+art of telling these Ghetto tales is Leopold Kompert. Of his
+disciples--for all coming after him may be considered such--A. Bernstein
+described the Jews of Posen; K. E. Franzos and L. Herzberg-Fränkel,
+those of Poland; E. Kulke, the Moravian Jews; M. Goldschmied, the Dutch;
+S. H. Mosenthal, the Hessian, and M. Lehmann, the South German. To
+Berthold Auerbach's pioneer work this whole class of literature owes its
+existence; and Heinrich Heine's fragment, _Rabbi von Bacharach_, a model
+of its kind, puts him into this category of writers, too.
+
+And so Judaism and Jewish literature are stepping into a new arena, on
+which potent forces that may radically affect both are struggling with
+each other. Is Jewish poetry on the point of dying out, or is it
+destined to enjoy a resurrection? Who would be rash enough to prophesy
+aught of a race whose entire past is a riddle, whose literature is a
+question-mark? Of a race which for more than a thousand years has, like
+its progenitor, been wrestling victoriously with gods and men?
+
+To recapitulate: We have followed out the course of a literary
+development, beginning in grey antiquity with biblical narratives,
+assimilating Persian doctrines, Greek wisdom, and Roman law; later,
+Arabic poetry and philosophy, and, finally, the whole of European
+science in all its ramifications. The literature we have described has
+contributed its share to every spiritual result achieved by humanity,
+and is a still unexplored treasury of poetry and philosophy, of
+experience and knowledge.
+
+"All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is never full," saith the
+Preacher; so all spiritual currents flow together into the vast ocean of
+a world-literature, never full, never complete, rejoicing in every
+accession, reaching the climax of its might and majesty on that day
+when, according to the prophet, "the earth shall be full of the
+knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
+
+
+
+
+THE TALMUD
+
+
+In the whole range of the world's literatures there are few books with
+so checkered a career, so curious a fate, as the Talmud has had. The
+name is simple enough, it glides glibly from the tongue, yet how
+difficult to explain its import to the uninitiated! From the Dominican
+Henricus Seynensis, who took "Talmud" to be the name of a rabbi--he
+introduces a quotation with _Ut narrat rabbinus Talmud_, "As Rabbi
+Talmud relates"--down to the church historians and university professors
+of our day, the oddest misconceptions on the nature of the Talmud have
+prevailed even among learned men. It is not astonishing, then, that the
+general reader has no notion of what it is.
+
+Only within recent years the Talmud has been made the subject of
+scientific study, and now it is consulted by philologists, cited by
+jurists, drawn upon by historians, the general public is beginning to be
+interested in it, and of late the old Talmud has repeatedly been
+summoned to appear in courts of law to give evidence. Under these
+circumstances it is natural to ask, What is the Talmud? Futile to seek
+an answer by comparing this gigantic monument of the human intellect
+with any other book; it is _sui generis_. In the form in which it issued
+from the Jewish academies of Babylonia and Palestine, it is a great
+national work, a scientific document of first importance, the archives
+of ten centuries, in which are preserved the thoughts and opinions, the
+views and verdicts, the errors, transgressions, hopes, disappointments,
+customs, ideals, convictions, and sorrows of Israel--a work produced by
+the zeal and patience of thirty generations, laboring with a self-denial
+unparalleled in the history of literature. A work of this character
+assuredly deserves to be known. Unfortunately, the path to its
+understanding is blocked by peculiar linguistic and historical
+difficulties. Above all, explanations by comparison must be avoided. It
+has been likened to a legal code, to a journal, to the transactions of
+learned bodies; but these comparisons are both inadequate and
+misleading. To make it approximately clear a lengthy explanation must be
+entered upon, for, in truth, the Talmud, like the Bible, is a world in
+miniature, embracing every possible phase of life.
+
+The origin of the Talmud was simultaneous with Israel's return from the
+Babylonian exile, during which a wonderful change had taken place in the
+captive people. An idolatrous, rebellious nation had turned into a pious
+congregation of the Lord, possessed with zeal for the study of the Law.
+By degrees there grew up out of this study a science of wide scope,
+whose beginnings are hidden in the last book of the Bible, in the word
+_Midrash_, translated by "story" in the Authorized Version. Its true
+meaning is indicated by that of its root, _darash_, to study, to
+expound. Four different methods of explaining the sacred Scriptures were
+current: the first aimed to reach the simple understanding of words as
+they stood; the second availed itself of suggestions offered by
+apparently superfluous letters and signs in the text to arrive at its
+meaning; the third was "a homiletic application of that which had been
+to that which was and would be, of prophetical and historical dicta to
+the actual condition of things"; and the fourth devoted itself to
+theosophic mysteries--but all led to a common goal.
+
+In the course of the centuries the development of the Midrash, or study
+of the Law, lay along the two strongly marked lines of Halacha, the
+explanation and formulating of laws, and Haggada, their poetical
+illustration and ethical application. These are the two spheres within
+which the intellectual life of Judaism revolved, and these the two
+elements, the legal and the æsthetic, making up the Talmud.
+
+The two Midrashic systems emphasize respectively the rule of law and the
+sway of liberty: Halacha is law incarnate; Haggada, liberty regulated by
+law and bearing the impress of morality. Halacha stands for the rigid
+authority of the Law, for the absolute importance of theory--the law and
+theory which the Haggada illustrates by public opinion and the dicta of
+common-sense morality. The Halacha embraces the statutes enjoined by
+oral tradition, which was the unwritten commentary of the ages on the
+written Law, along with the discussions of the academies of Palestine
+and Babylonia, resulting in the final formulating of the Halachic
+ordinances. The Haggada, while also starting from the word of the Bible,
+only plays with it, explaining it by sagas and legends, by tales and
+poems, allegories, ethical reflections, and historical reminiscences.
+For it, the Bible was not only the supreme law, from whose behests there
+was no appeal, but also "a golden nail upon which" the Haggada "hung its
+gorgeous tapestries," so that the Bible word was the introduction,
+refrain, text, and subject of the poetical glosses of the Talmud. It was
+the province of the Halacha to build, upon the foundation of biblical
+law, a legal superstructure capable of resisting the ravages of time,
+and, unmindful of contemporaneous distress and hardship, to trace out,
+for future generations, the extreme logical consequences of the Law in
+its application. To the Haggada belonged the high, ethical mission of
+consoling, edifying, exhorting, and teaching a nation suffering the
+pangs, and threatened with the spiritual stagnation, of exile; of
+proclaiming that the glories of the past prefigured a future of equal
+brilliancy, and that the very wretchedness of the present was part of
+the divine plan outlined in the Bible. If the simile is accurate that
+likens the Halacha to the ramparts about Israel's sanctuary, which every
+Jew was ready to defend with his last drop of blood, then the Haggada
+must seem "flowery mazes, of exotic colors and bewildering fragrance,"
+within the shelter of the Temple walls.
+
+The complete work of expounding, developing, and finally establishing
+the Law represents the labor of many generations, the method of
+procedure varying from time to time. In the long interval between the
+close of the Holy Canon and the completion of the Talmud can be
+distinguished three historical strata deposited by three different
+classes of teachers. The first set, the Scribes--_Soferim_--flourished
+in the period beginning with the return from Babylonian captivity and
+ending with the Syrian persecutions (220 B.C.E.), and their work was the
+preservation of the text of the Holy Writings and the simple expounding
+of biblical ordinances. They were followed by the
+"Learners"--_Tanaïm_--whose activity extended until 220 C.E. Great
+historical events occurred in that period: the campaigns of the
+Maccabean heroes, the birth of Jesus, the destruction of the Temple by
+the Romans, the rebellion under Bar-Kochba, and the final complete
+dispersion of the Jews. Amid all these storms the _Tanaïm_ did not for a
+moment relinquish their diligent research in the Law. The Talmud tells
+the story of a celebrated rabbi, than which nothing can better
+characterize the age and its scholars: Night was falling. A funeral
+cortege was moving through the streets of old Jerusalem. It was said
+that disciples were bearing a well-beloved teacher to the grave.
+Reverentially the way was cleared, not even the Roman guard at the gate
+hindered the procession. Beyond the city walls it halted, the bier was
+set down, the lid of the coffin opened, and out of it arose the
+venerable form of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkaï, who, to reach the Roman
+camp unmolested, had feigned death. He went before Vespasian, and,
+impressed by the noble figure of the hoary rabbi, the general promised
+him the fulfilment of any wish he might express. What was his petition?
+Not for his nation, not for the preservation of the Holy City, not even
+for the Temple. His request was simple: "Permit me to open a school at
+Jabneh." The proud Roman smilingly gave consent. He had no conception of
+the significance of this prayer and of the prophetic wisdom of the
+petitioner, who, standing on the ruins of his nation's independence,
+thought only of rescuing the Law. Rome, the empire of the "iron legs,"
+was doomed to be crushed, nation after nation to be swallowed in the
+vortex of time, but Israel lives by the Law, the very law snatched from
+the smouldering ruins of Jerusalem, the beloved alike of crazy zealots
+and despairing peace advocates, and carried to the tiny seaport of
+Jabneh. There Jochanan ben Zakkaï opened his academy, the gathering
+place of the dispersed of his disciples and his people, and thence,
+gifted with a prophet's keen vision, he proclaimed Israel's mission to
+be, not the offering of sacrifices, but the accomplishment of works of
+peace.[14]
+
+The _Tanaïm_ may be considered the most original expounders of the
+science of Judaism, which they fostered at their academies. In the
+course of centuries their intellectual labor amassed an abundant store
+of scientific material, together with so vast a number of injunctions,
+prohibitions, and laws that it became almost impossible to master the
+subject. The task of scholars now was to arrange the accumulation of
+material and reduce it to a system. Rabbi after rabbi undertook the
+task, but only the fourth attempt at codification, that made by Yehuda
+the Prince, was successful. His compilation, classifying the
+subject-matter under six heads, subdivided into sixty-three tractates,
+containing five hundred and twenty-four chapters, was called Mishna, and
+came to be the authority appealed to on points of law.
+
+Having assumed fixity as a code, the Mishna in turn became what the
+Bible had been for centuries--a text, the basis of all legal development
+and scientific discussion. So it was used by the epigones, the
+_Amoraïm_, or Speakers, the expounders of the third period. For
+generations commenting on the Mishna was the sum-total of literary
+endeavor. Traditions unheeded before sprang to light. New methods
+asserted themselves. To the older generation of Halachists succeeded a
+set of men headed by Akiba ben Joseph, who, ignoring practical issues,
+evolved laws from the Bible text or from traditions held to be divine. A
+spiritual, truly religious conception of Judaism was supplanted by legal
+quibbling and subtle methods of interpretation. Like the sophists of
+Rome and Alexandria at that time, the most celebrated teachers in the
+academies of Babylonia and Palestine for centuries gave themselves up to
+casuistry. This is the history of the development of the Talmud, or more
+correctly of the two Talmuds, the one, finished in 390 C. E., being the
+expression of what was taught at the Palestinian academies; the other,
+more important one, completed in 500 C. E., of what was taught in
+Babylonia.
+
+The Babylonian, the one regarded as authoritative, is about four times
+as large as the Jerusalem Talmud. Its thirty-six treatises
+(_Massichtoth_), in our present edition, cover upwards of three thousand
+folio pages, bound in twelve huge volumes. To speak of a completed
+Talmud is as incorrect as to speak of a biblical canon. No religious
+body, no solemn resolution of a synod, ever declared either the Talmud
+or the Bible a completed whole. Canonizing of any kind is distinctly
+opposed to the spirit of Judaism. The fact is that the tide of
+traditional lore has never ceased to flow.
+
+We now have before us a faint outline sketch of the growth of the
+Talmud. To portray the busy world fitting into this frame is another and
+more difficult matter. A catalogue of its contents may be made. It may
+be said that it is a book containing laws and discussions, philosophic,
+theologic, and juridic dicta, historical notes and national
+reminiscences, injunctions and prohibitions controlling all the
+positions and relations of life, curious, quaint tales, ideal maxims and
+proverbs, uplifting legends, charming lyrical outbursts, and attractive
+enigmas side by side with misanthropic utterances, bewildering medical
+prescriptions, superstitious practices, expressions of deep agony,
+peculiar astrological charms, and rambling digressions on law,
+zoology, and botany, and when all this has been said, not half its
+contents have been told. It is a luxuriant jungle, which must be
+explored by him who would gain an adequate idea of its features and
+products.
+
+The Ghemara, that is, the whole body of discussions recorded in the two
+Talmuds, primarily forms a running commentary on the text of the Mishna.
+At the same time, it is the arena for the debating and investigating of
+subjects growing out of the Mishna, or suggested by a literature
+developed along with the Talmudic literature. These discussions,
+debates, and investigations are the opinions and arguments of the
+different schools, holding opposite views, developed with rare acumen
+and scholastic subtlety, and finally harmonized in the solution reached.
+The one firm and impregnable rock supporting the gigantic structure of
+the Talmud is the word of the Bible, held sacred and inviolable.
+
+The best translations--single treatises have been put into modern
+languages--fail to convey an adequate idea of the discussions and method
+that evolved the Halacha. It is easier to give an approximately true
+presentation of the rabbinical system of practical morality as gleaned
+from the Haggada. It must, of course, be borne in mind that Halacha and
+Haggada are not separate works; they are two fibres of the same thread.
+"The whole of the Haggadistic literature--the hitherto unappreciated
+archives of language, history, archæology, religion, poetry, and
+science--with but slight reservations may be called a national
+literature, containing as it does the aggregate of the views and
+opinions of thousands of thinkers belonging to widely separated
+generations. Largely, of course, these views and opinions are peculiar
+to the individuals holding them or to their time"; still, every
+Haggadistic expression, in a general way, illustrates some fundamental,
+national law, based upon the national religion and the national
+history.[15] Through the Haggada we are vouchsafed a glance into a
+mysterious world, which mayhap has hitherto repelled us as strange and
+grewsome. Its poesy reveals vistas of gleaming beauty and light,
+luxuriant growth and exuberant life, while familiar melodies caress our
+ears.
+
+The Haggada conveys its poetic message in the garb of allegory song, and
+chiefly epigrammatic saying. Form is disregarded; the spirit is
+all-important, and suffices to cover up every fault of form. The Talmud,
+of course, does not yield a complete system of ethics, but its practical
+philosophy consists of doctrines that underlie a moral life. The
+injustice of the abuse heaped upon it would become apparent to its
+harshest critics from a few of its maxims and rules of conduct, such as
+the following: Be of them that are persecuted, not of the
+persecutors.--Be the cursed, not he that curses.--They that are
+persecuted, and do not persecute, that are vilified and do not retort,
+that act in love, and are cheerful even in suffering, they are the
+lovers of God.--Bless God for the good as well as the evil. When thou
+hearest of a death, say, "Blessed be the righteous Judge."--Life is like
+unto a fleeting shadow. Is it the shadow of a tower or of a bird? It is
+the shadow of a bird in its flight. Away flies the bird, and neither
+bird nor shadow remains behind.--Repentance and good works are the aim
+of all earthly wisdom.--Even the just will not have so high a place in
+heaven as the truly repentant.--He whose learning surpasses his good
+works is like a tree with many branches and few roots, which a
+wind-storm uproots and casts to the ground. But he whose good works
+surpass his learning is like a tree with few branches and many roots;
+all the winds of heaven cannot move it from its place.--There are three
+crowns: the crown of the Law, the crown of the priesthood, the crown of
+kingship. But greater than all is the crown of a good name.--Four there
+are that cannot enter Paradise: the scoffer, the liar, the hypocrite,
+and the backbiter.--Beat the gods, and the priests will
+tremble.--Contrition is better than many flagellations.--When the
+pitcher falls upon the stone, woe unto the pitcher; when the stone falls
+upon the pitcher, woe unto the pitcher; whatever betides, woe unto the
+pitcher.--The place does not honor the man, the man honors the
+place.--He who humbles himself will be exalted; he who exalts himself
+will be humbled,--Whosoever pursues greatness, from him will greatness
+flee; whosoever flees from greatness, him will greatness
+pursue.--Charity is as important as all other virtues combined.--Be
+tender and yielding like a reed, not hard and proud like a cedar.--The
+hypocrite will not see God.--It is not sufficient to be innocent before
+God; we must show our innocence to the world.--The works encouraged by a
+good man are better than those he executes.--Woe unto him that practices
+usury, he shall not live; whithersoever he goes, he carries injustice
+and death.
+
+The same Talmud that fills chapter after chapter with minute legal
+details and hairsplitting debates outlines with a few strokes the most
+ideal conception of life, worth more than theories and systems of
+religious philosophy. A Haggada passage says: Six hundred and thirteen
+injunctions were given by Moses to the people of Israel. David reduced
+them to eleven; the prophet Isaiah classified these under six heads;
+Micah enumerated only three: "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to
+do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Another
+prophet limited them to two: "Keep ye judgment, and do righteousness."
+Amos put all the commandments under one: "Seek ye me, and ye shall
+live"; and Habakkuk said: "The just shall live by his faith."--This is
+the ethics of the Talmud.
+
+Another characteristic manifestation of the idealism of the Talmud is
+its delicate feeling for women and children. Almost extravagant
+affection is displayed for the little ones. All the verses of Scripture
+that speak of flowers and gardens are applied in the Talmud to children
+and schools. Their breath sustains the moral order of the universe: "Out
+of the mouth of babes and sucklings has God founded His might." They are
+called flowers, stars, the anointed of God. When God was about to give
+the Law, He demanded of the Israelites pledges to assure Him that they
+would keep His commandments holy. They offered the patriarchs, but each
+one of them had committed some sin. They named Moses as their surety;
+not even he was guiltless. Then they said: "Let our children be our
+hostages." The Lord accepted them.
+
+Similarly, there are many expressions to show that woman was held in
+high esteem by the rabbis of the Talmud: Love thy wife as thyself; honor
+her more than thyself.--In choosing a wife, descend a step.--If thy wife
+is small, bend and whisper into her ear.--God's altar weeps for him that
+forsakes the love of his youth.--He who sees his wife die before him
+has, as it were, been present at the destruction of the sanctuary
+itself; around him the world grows dark.--It is woman alone through whom
+God's blessings are vouchsafed to a house.--The children of him that
+marries for money shall be a curse unto him,--a warning singularly
+applicable to the circumstances of our own times.
+
+The peculiar charm of the Haggada is best revealed in its legends and
+tales, its fables and myths, its apologues and allegories, its riddles
+and songs. The starting-point of the Haggada usually is some memory of
+the great past. It entwines and enmeshes in a magic network the lives of
+the patriarchs, prophets, and martyrs, and clothes with fresh, luxuriant
+green the old ideals and figures, giving them new life for a remote
+generation. The teachers of the Haggada allow no opportunity, sad or
+merry, to pass without utilizing it in the guise of an apologue or
+parable. Alike for wedding-feasts and funerals, for banquets and days of
+fasting, the garden of the Haggada is rifled of its fragrant blossoms
+and luscious fruits. Simplicity, grace, and childlike merriment pervade
+its fables, yet they are profound, even sublime, in their truth. "Their
+chief and enduring charm is their fathomless depth, their unassuming
+loveliness." Poems constructed with great artistic skill do not occur.
+Here and there a modest bud of lyric poesy shyly raises its head, like
+the following couplet, describing a celebrated but ill-favored rabbi:
+
+    "Without charm of form and face.
+    But a mind of rarest grace."
+
+Over the grave of the same teacher the Talmud wails:
+
+    "The Holy Land did beautify what womb of Shinar gave;
+    And now Tiberias' tear-filled eye weeps o'er her treasure's grave."
+
+On seeing the dead body of the Patriarch Yehuda, a rabbi laments:
+
+    "Angels strove to win the testimony's ark.
+    Men they overcame; lo! vanished is the ark!"
+
+Another threnody over some prince in the realm of the intellect:
+
+    "The cedar hath by flames been seized;
+    Can hyssop then be saved?
+    Leviathan with hook was caught;
+    Alas! ye little fish!
+    The deep and mighty stream ran dry,
+    Ah woe! ye shallow brooks!"
+
+Nor is humor lacking. "Ah, hamper great, with books well-filled, thou'rt
+gone!" is a bookworm's eulogy.
+
+Poets naturally have not been slow to avail themselves of the material
+stored in the Haggada. Many of its treasures, tricked out in modern
+verse, have been given to the world. The following are samples:[16]
+
+    BIRTH AND DEATH
+
+    "His hands fast clenched, his fingers firmly clasped,
+    So man this life begins.
+    He claims earth's wealth, and constitutes himself
+    The heir of all her gifts.
+    He thinks his hand may snatch and hold
+    Whatever life doth yield.
+
+    But when at last the end has come,
+    His hands are open wide,
+    No longer closed. He knoweth now full well,
+    That vain were all his hopes.
+    He humbly says, 'I go, and nothing take
+    Of all my hands have wrought.'"
+
+The next, "Interest and Usury," may serve to give the pertinacious
+opponent of the Talmud a better opinion of its position on financial
+subjects:
+
+    "Behold! created things of every kind
+      Lend each to each. The day from night doth take,
+      And night from day; nor do they quarrel make
+    Like men, who doubting one another's mind,
+    E'en while they utter friendly words, think ill.
+      The moon delighted helps the starry host,
+      And each returns her gift without a boast.
+    'Tis only when the Lord supreme doth will
+    That earth in gloom shall be enwrapped,
+      He tells the moon: 'Refrain, keep back thy light!'
+      And quenches, too, the myriad lamps of night.
+    From wisdom's fount hath knowledge ofttimes lapped,
+    While wisdom humbly doth from knowledge learn.
+      The skies drop blessings on the grateful earth,
+      And she--of precious store there is no dearth--
+    Exhales and sends aloft a fair return.
+    Stern law with mercy tempers its decree,
+      And mercy acts with strength by justice lent.
+      Good deeds are based on creed from heaven sent,
+    In which, in turn, the sap of deeds must be.
+      Each creature borrows, lends, and gives with love,
+      Nor e'er disputes, to honor God above.
+
+    When man, howe'er, his fellowman hath fed,
+      Then 'spite the law forbidding interest,
+      He thinketh naught but cursèd gain to wrest.
+    Who taketh usury methinks hath said:
+    'O Lord, in beauty has Thy earth been wrought!
+      But why should men for naught enjoy its plains?
+      Ask usance, since 'tis Thou that sendest rains.
+    Have they the trees, their fruits, and blossoms bought?
+    For all they here enjoy, Thy int'rest claim:
+      For heaven's orbs that shine by day and night,
+      Th' immortal soul enkindled by Thy light,
+    And for the wondrous structure of their frame.'
+    But God replies: 'Now come, and see! I give
+      With open, bounteous hand, yet nothing take;
+      The earth yields wealth, nor must return ye make.
+    But know, O men, that only while ye live,
+    You may enjoy these gifts of my award.
+      The capital's mine, and surely I'll demand
+      The spirit in you planted by my hand,
+    And also earth will claim her due reward.'
+      Man's dust to dust is gathered in the grave,
+      His soul returns to God who gracious gave."
+
+R. Yehuda ben Zakkaï answers his pupils who ask:
+
+    "Why doth the Law with them more harshly deal
+      That filch a lamb from fold away,
+    Than with the highwaymen who shameless steal
+      Thy purse by force in open day?"
+
+    "Because in like esteem the brigands hold
+      The master and his serving man.
+    Their wickedness is open, frank, and bold,
+      They fear not God, nor human ban.
+
+    The thief feels more respect for earthly law
+      Than for his heav'nly Master's eye,
+    Man's presence flees in fear and awe,
+      Forgets he's seen by God on high."
+
+That is a glimpse of the world of the Haggada--a wonderful, fantastic
+world, a kaleidoscopic panorama of enchanting views. "Well can we
+understand the distress of mind in a mediæval divine, or even in a
+modern _savant_, who, bent upon following the most subtle windings of
+some scientific debate in the Talmudical pages--geometrical, botanical,
+financial, or otherwise--as it revolves round the Sabbath journey, the
+raising of seeds, the computation of tithes and taxes--feels, as it
+were, the ground suddenly give way. The loud voices grow thin, the doors
+and walls of the school-room vanish before his eyes, and in their place
+uprises Rome the Great, the _Urbs et Orbis_ and her million-voiced life.
+Or the blooming vineyards round that other City of Hills, Jerusalem the
+Golden herself, are seen, and white-clad virgins move dreamily among
+them. Snatches of their songs are heard, the rhythm of their choric
+dances rises and falls: it is the most dread Day of Atonement itself,
+which, in poetical contrast, was chosen by the 'Rose of Sharon' as a day
+of rejoicing to walk among those waving lily-fields and vine-clad
+slopes. Or the clarion of rebellion rings high and shrill through the
+complicated debate, and Belshazzar, the story of whose ghastly banquet
+is told with all the additions of maddening horror, is doing service for
+Nero the bloody; or Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian tyrant, and all his
+hosts, are cursed with a yelling curse--_à propos_ of some utterly
+inappropriate legal point, while to the initiated he stands for Titus
+the--at last exploded--'Delight of Humanity.' ... Often--far too often
+for the interests of study and the glory of the human race--does the
+steady tramp of the Roman cohort, the password of the revolution, the
+shriek and clangor of the bloody field, interrupt these debates, and
+the arguing masters and disciples don their arms, and, with the cry,
+'Jerusalem and Liberty,' rush to the fray."[17] Such is the world of the
+Talmud.
+
+
+
+
+THE JEW IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION[18]
+
+
+In the childhood of civilization, the digging of wells was regarded as
+beneficent work. Guide-posts, visible from afar, marked their position,
+and hymns were composed, and solemn feasts celebrated, in honor of the
+event. One of the choicest bits of early Hebrew poetry is a song of the
+well. The soul, in grateful joy, jubilantly calls to her mates: "Arise!
+sing a song unto the well! Well, which the princes have dug, which the
+nobles of the people have hollowed out."[19] This house, too, is a
+guide-post to a newly-found well of humanity and culture, a monument to
+our faithfulness and zeal in the recognition and the diffusion of truth.
+A scene like this brings to my mind the psalmist's beautiful words:[20]
+"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
+in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down
+upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his
+garment; as the dew of Hermon, running down upon the mountains of Zion;
+for there hath the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for
+evermore."
+
+Wondrous thoughts veiled with wondrous imagery! The underlying meaning
+will lead us to our feast of the well, our celebration in honor of
+newly-discovered waters. Our order is based upon the conviction that all
+men should be banded together for purposes of humanity. But what is
+humanity? Not philanthropy, not benevolence, not charity: it is "human
+culture risen to the stage on which man is conscious of universal
+brotherhood, and strives for the realization of the general good." In
+early times, leaders of men were anointed with oil, symbol of wisdom and
+divine inspiration. Above all it was meet that it be used in the
+consecration of priests, the exponents of the divine spirit and the Law.
+The psalmist's idea is, that as the precious ointment in its abundance
+runs down Aaron's beard to the hem of his garment, even so shall wisdom
+and the divine spirit overflow the lips of priests, the guides, friends,
+and teachers of the people, the promoters of the law of peace and love.
+
+"As the dew of Hermon, running down upon the mountains of Zion!" High
+above all mountains towers Hermon, its crest enveloped by clouds and
+covered with eternal snow. From that supernal peak grateful dew trickles
+down, fructifying the land once "flowing with milk and honey." From its
+clefts gushes forth Jordan, mightiest stream of the land, watering a
+broad plain in its course. In this guise the Lord has granted His
+blessing to the land, the blessing of civilization and material
+prosperity, from which spring as corollaries the duties of charity and
+universal humanity.
+
+A picture of the olden time this, a lodge-address of the days of the
+psalm singers. Days flee, time abides; men pass away, mankind endures.
+Filled with time-honored thoughts, inspired by the hopes of by-gone
+generations, striving for the goal of noble men in all ages, like the
+psalm singers in the days of early culture, we celebrate a feast of the
+well by reviewing the past and looking forward down the avenues of time.
+
+Less than fifty years ago a band of energetic, loyal Jews, on the other
+side of the Atlantic, founded our beloved Order. Now it has established
+itself in every part of the world, from the extreme western coast of
+America to the blessed meadows of the Jordan; yea, even the Holy Land,
+unfurling everywhere the banner of charity, brotherly love, and unity,
+and seeking to spread education and culture, the forerunners of
+humanity. Judaism, mark you, is the religion of humanity. By far too
+late for our good and that of mankind, we began to proclaim this truth
+with becoming energy and emphasis, and to demonstrate it with the
+joyousness of conviction. The question is, are we permeated with this
+conviction? Our knowledge of Judaism is slight; we have barely a
+suspicion of what in the course of centuries, nay, of thousands of
+years, it has done for the progress of civilization. In my estimation,
+our house-warming cannot more fittingly be celebrated than by taking a
+bird's-eye view of Jewish culture.
+
+The Bible is the text-book of general literature. Out of the Bible, more
+particularly from the Ten Commandments, flashed from Sinai, mankind
+learned its first ethical lesson in a system which still satisfies its
+needs. To convey even a faint idea of what the Bible has done for
+civilization, morality, and the literature of every people--of the
+innumerable texts it has furnished to poets, and subjects to
+painters--would in itself require a literature.
+
+The conflicts with surrounding nations to which they were exposed made
+the Jews concentrate their forces, and so enabled them to wage
+successful war with nations mightier than themselves. Their heroism
+under the Maccabees and under Bar-Kochba, in the middle ages and in
+modern days, permits them to take rank among the most valiant in
+history. A historian of literature, a non-Jew, enumerates three factors
+constituting Jews important agents in the preservation and revival of
+learning:[21] First, their ability as traders. The Phoenicians are
+regarded as the oldest commercial nation, but the Jews contested the
+palm with them. Zebulon and Asher in very early times were seafaring
+tribes. Under Solomon, Israelitish vessels sailed as far as Ophir to
+bring Afric's gold to Jerusalem. Before the destruction of the Holy
+City, Jewish communities established themselves on the westernmost coast
+of Europe. "The whole of the known world was covered with their
+settlements, in constant communication with one another through
+itinerant merchants, who effected an exchange of learning as well as of
+wares; while the other nations grew more and more isolated, and shut
+themselves off from even the sparse opportunities of mental culture then
+available."
+
+The second factor conducing to mental advancement was the schools which
+have flourished in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; and the
+third was the linguistic attainments of the Jews, which they owed to
+natural ability in this direction. Scarcely had Greek allied itself with
+Hebrew thought, when Jews in Alexandria wrote Greek comparable with
+Plato's, and not more than two hundred years after the settlement of
+Jews in Arabia we meet with a large number of Jewish poets among
+Mohammed's disciples, while in the middle ages they taught and wrote
+Arabic, Spanish, French, and German--versatility naturally favorable to
+intellectual progress.
+
+Jewish influence may be said to have begun to exercise itself upon
+general culture when Judaism and Hellenism met for the first time. The
+result of the meeting was the new product, Judæo-Hellenic literature.
+Greek civilization was attractive to Jews. The new ideas were
+popularized for all strata of the people to imbibe. Shortly before the
+old pagan world crumbled, Hellenism enjoyed a beautiful, unexpected
+revival in Alexandria. There, strange to say, Judaism, in its home
+antagonistic to Hellenism, had filled and allied itself with the Greek
+spirit. Its literature gradually adopted Greek traditions, and the ripe
+fruit of the union was the Jewish-Alexandrian religious philosophy, the
+mediation between two sharply contradictory systems, for the first time
+brought into close juxtaposition, and requiring some such new element to
+harmonize them. When ancient civilization in Judæa and in Hellas fell
+into decay, human endeavor was charged with the task of reconciling
+these two great historical forces diametrically opposed to each other,
+and the first attempt looking to this end was inspired by a Jewish
+genius, Jesus of Nazareth.
+
+The Jews of Alexandria were engaged in widespread trade and shipping,
+and they counted among them artists, poets, civil officers, and
+mechanics. They naturally acquired Greek customs, and along with them
+Hellenic vices. The bacchanalia of Athens were enthusiastically imitated
+in Jerusalem, and, as a matter of course, in Alexandria. This point
+reached, Roman civilization asserted itself, and the people sought to
+affiliate with their Roman victors, while the rabbis devoted themselves
+to the Law, not, however, to the exclusion of scientific work. In the
+ranks of physicians and astronomers we find Jewish masters and Jewish
+disciples. Medicine has always been held in high esteem by Jews, and
+Samuel could justly boast before his contemporaries that the intricate
+courses of the stars were as well known to him as the streets of
+Nehardea in Babylonia.[22]
+
+The treasures of information on pedagogics, medicine, jurisprudence,
+astronomy, geography, zoology, botany, and last, though not least, on
+general history, buried in the Talmud, have hitherto not been valued at
+their true worth. The rabbis of the Talmud stood in the front ranks of
+culture. They compiled a calendar, in complete accord with the Metonic
+cycle, which modern science must declare faultless. Their classification
+of the bones of the human body varies but little from present results of
+the science of anatomy, and the Talmud demonstrates that certain Mishna
+ordinances are based upon geometrical propositions, which could have
+been known to but few mathematicians of that time. Rabbi Gamaliel, said
+to have made use of a telescope, was celebrated as a mathematician and
+astronomer, and in 289 C. E., Rabbi Joshua is reported to have
+calculated the orbit of Halley's comet.
+
+The Roman conquest of Palestine effected a change in the condition of
+the Jews. Never before had Judah undergone such torture and suffering as
+under the sceptre of Rome. The misery became unendurable, and internal
+disorders being added to foreign oppression, the luckless insurrection
+broke out which gave the deathblow to Jewish nationality, and drove
+Judah into exile. On his thorny martyr's path he took naught with him
+but a book--his code, his law. Yet how prodigal his contributions to
+mankind's fund of culture!
+
+About five hundred years later Judah saw springing up on his own soil a
+new religion which appropriated the best and the most beautiful of his
+spiritual possessions. Swiftly rose the vast political and intellectual
+structure of Mohammedan power, and as before with Greek, so Jewish
+thought now allied itself with Arabic endeavor, bringing forth in Spain
+the golden age of neo-Hebraic literature in the spheres of poetry,
+metaphysical speculation, and every department of scientific research.
+It is not an exaggerated estimate to say that the middle ages sustained
+themselves with the fruit of this intellectual labor, which, moreover,
+has come down as a legacy to our modern era. Two hundred years after
+Mohammed, the same language, Arabic, was spoken by the Jews of Kairwan
+and those of Bagdad. Thus equipped, they performed in a remarkable way
+the task allotted them by their talents and their circumstances, to
+which they had been devoting themselves with singular zeal for two
+centuries. The Jews are missioned mediators between the Orient and the
+Occident, and their activity as such, illustrated by their additions to
+general culture and science, is of peculiar interest. In the period
+under consideration, their linguistic accomplishments fitted them to
+assist the Syrians in making Greek literature accessible to the Arabic
+mind. In Arabic literature itself, they attained to a prominent place.
+Modern research has not yet succeeded in shedding light upon the
+development and spread of science among the Arabs under the tutelage of
+Syrian Christians. But out of the obscurity of Greek-Arabic culture
+beginnings gleam Jewish names, whose possessors were the teachers of
+eager Arabic disciples. Barely fifty years after the hosts of the
+Prophet had conquered the Holy Land, a Jew of Bassora translated from
+Syriac into Arabic the pandects by the presbyter Aaron, a famous medical
+work of the middle ages. In the annals of the next century, among the
+early contributors to Arabic literature, we meet with the names of Jews
+as translators of medical, mathematical, and astronomical works, and as
+grammarians, astronomers, scientists, and physicians. A Jew translated
+Ptolemy's "Almagest"; another assisted in the first translation of the
+Indian fox fables (_Kalila we-Dimna_); the first furnishing the middle
+ages with the basis of their astronomical science, the second supplying
+European poets with literary material. Through the instrumentality of
+Jews, Arabs became acquainted as early as the eighth century, some time
+before the learning of the Greeks was brought within their reach, with
+Indian medicine, astronomy, and poetry. Greek science itself they owed
+to Jewish mediation. Not only among Jews, but also among Greeks,
+Syrians, and Arabs, Jewish versatility gave currency to the belief that
+"all wisdom is of the Jews," a view often repeated by Hellenists, by the
+"Righteous Brethren" among the Arabs, and later by the Christian monks
+of Europe.
+
+The academies of the Jews have always been pervaded by a scientific
+spirit. As they influenced others, so they permitted the science and
+culture of their neighbors to act upon their life and work. There is no
+doubt, for instance, that, despite the marked difference between the
+subjects treated by Arabs and Jews, the peculiar qualities of the old
+Arabic lyrics shaped neo-Hebraic poetry. Again, as the Hebrew acrostic
+psalms demonstrably served as models to the older Syrian Church poets,
+so, in turn, Syriac psalmody probably became the pattern synagogue
+poetry followed. Thus Hebrew poetry completed a circuit, which, to be
+sure, cannot accurately be followed up through its historical stages,
+but which critical investigations and the comparative study of
+literatures have established almost as a certainty.
+
+In the ninth century a bold, venturesome traveller, Eldad ha-Dani,[23] a
+sort of Jewish Ulysses, appeared among Jews, and at the same time
+Judaism produced Sa'adia, its first great religious philosopher and
+Bible translator. The Church Fathers had always looked up to the rabbis
+as authorities; henceforth Jews were accepted by all scholars as the
+teachers of Bible exegesis. Sa'adia was the first of the rabbis to
+translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Arabic. Justly his work is said to
+"recognize the current of thought dominant in his time, and to express
+the newly-awakened desire for the reconciliation of religious practice,
+as developed in the course of generations, with the source of religious
+inspiration." Besides, he was the first to elaborate a system of
+religious philosophy according to a rigid plan, and in a strictly
+scientific spirit.[24] Knowing Greek speculations, he controverts them
+as vigorously as the _Kalâm_ of Islam philosophy. His teachings form a
+system of practical ethics, luminous reflections, and sound maxims.
+Among his contemporaries was Isaac Israeli, a physician at Kairwan,
+whose works, in their Latin translation by the monk Constantine,
+attained great reputation, and were later plagiarized by medical
+writers. His treatise on fever was esteemed of high worth, a translation
+of it being studied as a text-book for centuries, and his dietetic
+writings remained authoritative for five hundred years. In general, the
+medical science of the Arabs is under great obligations to him.
+Reverence for Jewish medical ability was so exaggerated in those days
+that Galen was identified with the Jewish sage Gamaliel. The error was
+fostered in the _Sefer Asaf_, a curious medical fragment of uncertain
+authorship and origin, by its rehearsal of an old Midrash, which traces
+the origin of medicine to Shem, son of Noah, who received it from
+angels, and transmitted it to the ancient Chaldeans, they in turn
+passing it on to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Arabs.
+
+Though the birth of medicine is not likely to have taken place among
+Jews, it is indisputable that physicians of the Jewish race are largely
+to be credited with the development of medical science at every period.
+At the time we speak of, Jews in Egypt, northern Africa, Italy, Spain,
+France, and Germany were physicians in ordinary to caliphs, emperors,
+and popes, and everywhere they are represented among medical writers.
+The position occupied in the Arabian world by Israeli, in the Occident
+was occupied by Sabattaï Donnolo, one of the Salerno school in its early
+obscure days, the author of a work on _Materia medica_, possibly the
+oldest original production on medicine in the Hebrew language.
+
+The period of Jewish prosperity in Spain has been called a fairy vision
+of history. The culture developed under its genial influences pervaded
+the middle ages, and projected suggestions even into our modern era. One
+of the most renowned _savants_ at the beginning of the period was the
+statesman Chasdaï ben Shaprut, whose translation of Dioscorides's "Plant
+Lore" served as the botanical textbook of mediæval Europe. The first
+poet was Solomon ibn Gabirol, the author of "The Source of Life," a
+systematic exposition of Neoplatonic philosophy, a book of most curious
+fortunes. Through the Latin translation, made with the help of an
+apostate Jew, and bearing the author's name in the mutilated form of
+Avencebrol, later changed into Avicebron, scholasticism became saturated
+with its philosophic ideas. The pious fathers of Christian philosophy,
+Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, took pains to refute them, while
+Duns Scotus and Giordano Bruno frequently consulted the work as an
+authority. In the struggle between the Scotists and the Thomists it had
+a prominent place as late as the fourteenth century, the contestants
+taking it to be the work of some great Christian philosopher standing on
+the threshold of the Occident and at the portals of philosophy. So it
+happened that the author came down through the centuries, recognized by
+none, forgotten by his own, until, in our time, behind the
+Moorish-Christian mask of Avencebrol, Solomon Munk discovered the Jewish
+thinker and poet Solomon ibn Gabirol.
+
+The work _De Causis_, attributed to David, a forgotten Jewish
+philosopher, must be classed with Gabirol's "Source of Life," on account
+of its Neoplatonism and its paramount influence upon scholasticism. In
+fact, only by means of a searching analysis of these two works can
+insight be gained into the development and aberrations of the dogmatic
+system of mediæval philosophy.
+
+Other sciences, too, especially mathematics, flourished among them. One
+century after he wrote them, the works of Abraham ibn Ezra, renowned as
+an astronomer and mathematician, were translated into Latin by Italians,
+among whom his prestige was so great that, as may still be seen, he was
+painted among the expounders of mathematical science in an Italian
+church fresco representing the seven liberal arts. Under the name
+Abraham Judæus, later corrupted into Avenare, he is met with throughout
+the middle ages. Abraham ben Chiya, another distinguished scientist,
+known by the name Savasorda, compiled the first systematic outline of
+astronomy, and in his geographical treatise, he explained the sphericity
+of the earth, while the Latin translation of his geometry, based on
+Arabic sources, proves him to have made considerable additions to the
+stock of knowledge in this branch. Moses Maimuni's intellectual vigor,
+and his influence upon the schoolmen through his medical, and more
+particularly his religio-philosophical works, are too well known to need
+more than passing mention.
+
+Even in southern France and in Germany, whither the light of culture did
+not spread so rapidly as in Spain, Jews participated in the development
+of the sciences. Solomon ben Isaac, called Rashi, the great exegete, was
+looked up to as an authority by others beside his brethren in faith.
+Nicolas de Lyra, one of the most distinguished Christian Bible exegetes,
+confesses that his simple explanations of Scriptural passages are
+derived pre-eminently from Rashi's Bible commentary, and among
+scientific men it is acknowledged that precisely in the matter of
+exegesis this French monk exercised decisive influence upon Martin
+Luther. So it happens that in places Luther's Bible translation reveals
+Rashi seen through Nicolas de Lyra's spectacles.
+
+In the quickened intellectual life of Provence Jews also took active
+part. David Kimchi has come to be regarded as the teacher _par
+excellence_ of Hebrew grammar and lexicography, and Judah ibn Tibbon,
+one of the most notable of translators, in his testament addressed to
+his son made a complete presentation of contemporary science, a
+cyclopædia of the Arabic and the Hebrew language and literature,
+grammar, poetry, botany, zoology, natural history, and particularly
+religious philosophy, the studies of the Bible and the Talmud.
+
+The golden age of letters was followed by a less creative period, a
+significant turning-point in the history of Judaism as of spiritual
+progress in general. The contest between tradition and philosophy
+affected every mind. Literature was widely cultivated; each of its
+departments found devotees. The European languages were studied, and
+connections established between the literatures of the nations. Hardly a
+spiritual current runs through the middle ages without, in some way,
+affecting Jewish culture. It is the irony of history that puts among the
+forty proscribers of the Talmud assembled at Paris in the thirteenth
+century the Dominican Albertus Magnus, who, in his successful efforts to
+divert scholastic philosophy into new channels, depended entirely upon
+the writings and translations of the very Jews he was helping to
+persecute. Schoolmen were too little conversant with Greek to read
+Aristotle in the original, and so had to content themselves with
+accepting the Judæo-Arabic construction put upon the Greek sage's
+teachings.
+
+Besides acting as intermediaries, Jews made original contributions to
+scholastic philosophy. For instance, Maimonides, the first to reconcile
+Aristotle's teachings with biblical theology, was the originator of the
+method adopted by schoolmen in the case of Aristotelian principles at
+variance with their dogmas. Frederick II., the liberal emperor, employed
+Jewish scholars and translators at his court; among them Jacob ben
+Abba-Mari ben Anatoli, to whom an annuity was paid for translating
+Aristotelian works. Michael Scotus, the imperial astrologer, was his
+intimate friend. His contemporaries were chiefly popular philosophers or
+mystics, excepting only the prominent Provençal Jacob ben Machir, or
+Profatius Judæus, as he was called, a member of the Tibbon family of
+translators. His observations on the inclination of the earth's axis
+were used later by Copernicus as the basis of further investigations. He
+was a famous teacher at the Montpellier academy, which reminds me to
+mention that Jews were prominently identified with the founding and the
+success of the medical schools at Montpellier and Salerno, they, indeed,
+being almost the only physicians in all parts of the known world.
+Salerno, in turn, suggests Italy, where at that period translations were
+made from Latin into Hebrew. Hillel ben Samuel, for instance, the same
+who carried on a lively philosophic correspondence with another
+distinguished Jew, Maestro Isaac Gayo, the pope's physician, translated
+some of Thomas Aquinas's writings, Bruno di Lungoburgo's book on
+surgery, and various other works, from Latin into Hebrew.
+
+These successors of the great intellects of the golden age of
+neo-Hebraic literature, thoroughly conversant with Arabic literature,
+busied themselves with rendering accessible to literary Europe the
+treasury of Indian and Greek fables. Their translations and compilations
+have peculiar value in the history of literary development. During the
+middle ages, when the memory of ancient literature had perished, they
+were the means of preserving the romances, fairy tales, and fables that
+have descended, by way of Spain and Arabia, from classical antiquity
+and the many-hued Oriental world to our modern literatures. Between the
+eleventh and the thirteenth century, the foundations were laid for our
+narrative literature, demonstrating the importance of delight in fable
+lore, stories of travel, and all sorts of narratives, for to it we owe
+the creation of new and the transformation of old, literary forms.
+
+In Germany at that time, a Jewish minnesinger and strolling minstrel,
+Süsskind von Trimberg, went up and down the land, from castle to castle,
+with the poets' guild; while Santob di Carrion, a Jewish troubadour,
+ventured to impart counsel and moral lessons to the Castilian king Don
+Pedro before his assembled people. A century later, another Jew, Samson
+Pnie, of Strasburg, lent his assistance to the two German poets at work
+upon the continuation of _Parzival_. The historians of German literature
+have not laid sufficient stress upon the share of the Jews, heavily
+oppressed and persecuted though they were, in the creation of national
+epics and romances of chivalry from the thirteenth to the fifteenth
+century. German Jews, being more than is generally recognized diligent
+readers of the poets, were well acquainted with the drift of mediæval
+poetry, and to this familiarity a new department of Jewish literature
+owed its rise and development. It is said that a Hebrew version of the
+Arthurian cycle was made as early as the thirteenth century, and at the
+end of the period we run across epic poems on Bible characters, composed
+in the _Nibelungen_ metre, in imitation of old German legend lore and
+national poetry.
+
+If German Jews found heart for literary interests, it may be assumed as
+a matter of course that Spanish and Provençal Jews participated in the
+advancement of their respective national literatures and in Troubadour
+poetry. In these countries, too, the new taste for popular literature,
+especially in the form of fables, was made to serve moral ends. A Jew,
+Berachya ben Natronaï, was the precursor of Marie de France, the famous
+French fabulist, and La Fontaine and Lessing are indebted to him for
+some of their material. As in the case of Aristotelian philosophy and of
+Greek and Arabic medical science, Jews assumed the rôle of mediators in
+the transmission of fables. Indian fables reached their Arabic guise
+either directly or by way of Persian and Greek; thence they passed into
+Hebrew and Latin translations, and through these last forms became the
+property of the European languages. For instance, the Hebrew translation
+of the old Sanskrit fox fables was the one of greatest service in
+literary evolution. The translator of the fox fables is credited also
+with the translation of the romance of "The Seven Wise Masters," under
+the title _Mishlé Sandabar_. These two works gave the impetus to a great
+series in Occidental literature, and it seems altogether probable that
+Europe's first acquaintance with them dates from their Hebrew
+translation.
+
+In Arabic poetry, too, many a Jew deservedly attained to celebrity.
+Abraham ibn Sahl won such renown that the Arabs, notorious for
+parsimony, gave ten gold pieces for one of his songs. Other poets have
+come down to us by name, and Joseph Ezobi, whom Reuchlin calls _Judæorum
+poeta dulcissimus_, went so far as to extol Arabic beyond Hebrew poetry.
+He was the first to pronounce the dictum famous in Buffon's repetition:
+"The style is the man himself." Provence, the land of song, produced
+Kalonymos ben Kalonymos (Maestro Calo), known to his brethren in faith
+not only as a poet, but also as a scholar, whose Hebrew translations
+from the Arabic are of most important works on philosophy, medicine, and
+mathematics. As Anatoli had worked under Emperor Frederick II., so
+Kalonymos was attached to Robert of Naples, patron of Jewish scholars.
+At the same time with the Spanish and the German minstrel, there
+flourished in Rome Immanuel ben Solomon, the friend of Dante, upon whose
+death he wrote an Italian sonnet, and whose _Divina Commedia_ inspired a
+part of his poetical works also describing a visit to paradise and hell.
+
+With the assiduous cultivation of romantic poetry, which was gradually
+usurping the place of moral romances and novels, grew the importance of
+Oriental legends and traditions, so pregnant with literary suggestions.
+This is attested by the use made of the Hebrew translation of Indian
+fables mentioned before, and of the famous collection of tales, the
+_Disciplina clericalis_ by the baptized Jew Petrus Alphonsus. The Jews
+naturally introduced many of their own peculiar traditions, and thus can
+be explained the presence of tales from the Talmud and the Midrash in
+our modern fairy tale books.
+
+It is necessary to note again that the Jews in turn submitted to the
+influence of foreign literatures. Immanuel Romi, for example, at his
+best, is an exponent of Provençal versification and scholastic
+philosophy, while his lapses testify to the self-complacency and levity
+characteristic of the times. Yehuda Romano, one of his contemporaries,
+is said to have been teacher to the king of Naples. He was the first Jew
+to attain to a critical appreciation of the vagaries of scholasticism,
+but his claim to mention rests upon his translations from the Latin.
+
+As Jews assisted at the birth of Arabic, French, and German, so they
+have a share in the beginnings of Spanish, literature. Jews must be
+credited with the first "Chronicle of the Cid," with the romance, _Comte
+Lyonnais, Palanus_, with the first collection of tales, the first chess
+poems, and the first troubadour songs. Again, the oldest collection of
+the last into a _cancionera_ was made by the Jew Juan Alfonso de Bæna.
+
+Even distant Persia has proofs to show of Jewish ability and energy in
+those days. One Jew composed an epic on a biblical subject in the
+Persian language, another translated the Psalms into the vernacular.
+
+The most prominent Jewish exponent of philosophy in this age of
+strenuous interest in metaphysical speculations and contests was Levi
+ben Gerson (Leon di Bannolas), theologian, scientist, physician, and
+astronomer. One of his ancestors, Gerson ben Solomon, had written a work
+typical of the state of the natural sciences in his day. Levi ben
+Gerson's chief work became famous not among Jews alone. It was referred
+to in words of praise by Pico della Mirandola, Reuchlin, Kepler, and
+other Christian thinkers. He was the inventor of an astronomical
+instrument, a description of which was translated into Latin at the
+express command of Pope Clement VI., and carefully studied by Kepler.
+Besides, Levi ben Gerson was the author of an arithmetical work. In
+those days, in fact up to the seventeenth century, there was but a faint
+dividing line between astronomy and mathematics, as between medicine and
+natural history. John of Seville was a notable mathematician, the
+compiler of a practical arithmetic, the first to make mention of decimal
+fractions, which possibly may have been his invention, and in the Zohar,
+the text-book of mediæval Jewish mysticism, which appeared centuries
+before Copernicus's time, the cause of the succession of day and night
+is stated to be the earth's revolution on its axis.
+
+In this great translation period scarcely a single branch of human
+science escaped the mental avidity of Jews. They found worthy of
+translation such essays as "Rules for the Shoeing and Care of Horses in
+Royal Stables" and "The Art of Carving and Serving at Princely Boards."
+Translations of works on scholasticism now took rank beside those from
+Greek and Arabic philosophers, and to translations from the Arabic into
+Hebrew were added translations from and into Latin, or even into the
+vernacular idiom wherever literary forms had developed. The bold
+assertion can be made good that not a single prominent work of ancient
+science was left untranslated. On the other hand it is hard to speculate
+what would have been the fate of these treasures of antiquity without
+Jewish intermediation. Doubtless an important factor in the work was the
+encouragement given Jewish scholars by enlightened rulers, such as
+Emperor Frederick II., Charles and Robert of Anjou, Jayme I. of Aragon,
+and Alfonso X. of Castile, and by popes, and private patrons of
+learning. Mention has been made of Jewish contributions to the work of
+the medical schools of Montpellier and Salerno. Under Jayme I. Christian
+and Jewish savants of Barcelona worked together harmoniously to promote
+the cause of civilization and culture in their native land. The first to
+use the Catalan dialect for literary purposes was the Jew Yehuda ben
+Astruc, and under Alfonso (X.) the Wise, Jews again attained to
+prominence in the king's favorite science of astronomy. The Alfonsine
+Tables were chiefly the work of Isaac ibn Sid, a Toledo _chazan_
+(precentor). In general, the results reached by Jewish scholarship at
+Alfonso's court were of the utmost importance, having been largely
+instrumental in establishing in the age of Tycho de Brahe and Kepler the
+fundamental principles of astronomy and a correct view of the orbits of
+the heavenly bodies. Equal suggestiveness characterizes Jewish research
+in mathematics, a science to which, rising above the level of
+intermediaries and translators, Jews made original contributions of
+importance, the first being Isaac Israeli's "The Foundation of the
+Universe." Basing his observations on Maimuni's and Abraham ben Chiya's
+statement of the sphericity of the earth, Israeli showed that the
+heavenly bodies do not seem to occupy the place in which they would
+appear to an observer at the centre of the earth, and that the two
+positions differ by a certain angle, since known as parallax in the
+terminology of science. To Judah Hakohen, a scholar in correspondence
+with Alfonso the Wise, is ascribed the arrangement of the stars in
+forty-eight constellations, and to another Jew, Esthori Hafarchi, we owe
+the first topographical description of Palestine, whither he emigrated
+when the Jews were expelled from France by Philip the Fair.
+
+Meanwhile the condition of the Jews, viewed from without and from
+within, had become most pitiable. The Kabbala lured into her charmed
+circle the strongest Jewish minds. Scientific aspirations seemed
+completely extinguished. Even the study of the Talmud was abandoning
+simple, undistorted methods of interpretation, and espousing the
+hairsplitting dialectics of the northern French school. Synagogue poetry
+was languishing, and general culture found no votaries among Jews.
+Occasionally only the religious disputations between Jews and Christians
+induced some few to court acquaintance with secular branches of
+learning. In the fourteenth century Chasdaï Crecas was the only
+philosopher with an original system, which in its arguments on free
+will and the nature of God anticipated the views of one greater than
+himself, who, however, had a different purpose in view. That later and
+greater philosopher, to whom the world is indebted for the evangel of
+modern life, was likewise a Jew, a descendant of Spanish-Jewish
+fugitives. His name is Baruch Spinoza.
+
+However sad their fortunes, the literature of the Jews never entirely
+eschewed the consideration of subjects of general interest. This
+receives curious confirmation from the re-introduction of Solomon
+Gabirol's peculiar views into Jewish religious philosophy, by way of
+Christian scholasticism, as formulated especially by Thomas Aquinas, the
+_Doctor angelicus_.
+
+The Renaissance and the humanistic movement also reveal Jewish
+influences at work. The spirit of liberty abroad in the earth passed
+through the halls of Israel, clearing the path thenceforth to be trodden
+by men. Again the learned were compelled to engage the good offices of
+the Jews, the custodians of biblical antiquity. The invention of the
+printing press acted as a wonderful stimulus to the development of
+Jewish literature. The first products of the new machine were Hebrew
+works issued in Italy and Spain. Among the promoters of the Renaissance,
+and one of the most thorough students of religio-philosophical systems,
+was Elias del Medigo, the friend of Pico della Mirandola, and the umpire
+chosen by the quarrelling factions in the University of Padua. John
+Reuchlin, chief of the humanists, was taught Hebrew by Obadiah Sforno,
+a _savant_ of profound scholarship, who dedicated his "Commentary on
+Ecclesiastes" to Henry II. of France. Abraham de Balmes was a teacher at
+the universities of Padua and Salerno, and physician in ordinary to
+Cardinal Dominico Grimani. The Kabbala was made accessible to the heroes
+of the Renaissance by Jochanan Alemanno, of Mantua, and there is pathos
+in the urgency with which Reuchlin entreats Jacob Margoles, rabbi of
+Nuremberg, to send him Kabbalistic writings in addition to those in his
+possession. Reuchlin's good offices to the Jews--his defense of them
+against the attacks of obscurantists--are a matter of general knowledge.
+Among the teachers of the humanists who revealed to them the treasures
+of biblical literature the most prominent was Elias Levita, the
+introducer, through his disciples Sebastian Münster and Paul Fagius, of
+Hebrew studies into Germany. He may be accounted a true humanist, a
+genuine exponent of the Renaissance. His Jewish coadjutors were Judah
+Abrabanel (Leo Hebræus), whose chief work was _Dialoghi di Amore_, an
+exposition of the Neoplatonism then current in Italy; Jacob Mantino,
+physician to Pope Paul III.; Bonet di Lattes, known as a writer on
+astronomical subjects, and the inventor of an astronomical instrument;
+and a number of others.
+
+While in Italy the Spanish-Jewish exiles fell into line in the
+Renaissance movement, the large numbers of them that sought refuge in
+Portugal turned their attention chiefly to astronomical research and to
+voyages of discovery and adventure, the national enterprises of their
+protectors. João II. employed Jews in investigations tending to make
+reasonably safe the voyages, on trackless seas, under unknown skies, for
+the discovery of long and ardently sought passages to distant lands. In
+his commission charged with the construction of an instrument to
+indicate accurately the course of a vessel, the German knight Martin
+Behaim was assisted by Jews--astronomers, metaphysicians, and
+physicians--chief among them Joseph Vecinho, distinguished for his part
+in the designing of the artificial globe, and Pedro di Carvallho,
+navigator, whose claim to praise rests upon his improvement of Leib's
+_Astrologium_, and to censure, upon his abetment of the king when he
+refused the request of the bold Genoese Columbus to fit out a squadron
+for the discovery of wholly unknown lands. But when Columbus's plans
+found long deferred realization in Spain, a Jewish youth, Luis de
+Torres, embarked among the ninety adventurers who accompanied him. Vasco
+da Gama likewise was aided in his search for a waterway to the Indies by
+a Jew, the pilot Gaspar, the same who later set down in writing the
+scientific results of the voyage, and two Jews were despatched to
+explore the coasts of the Red Sea and the island of Ormus in the Persian
+Gulf. Again, Vasco da Gama's plans were in part made with the valuable
+assistance of a Jew, a profound scholar, Abraham Zacuto, sometime
+professor of astronomy at the University of Salamanca, and after the
+banishment of Jews from Spain, astronomer and chronographer to Manuel
+the Great, of Portugal. It was he that advised the king to send out Da
+Gama's expedition, and from the first the explorer was supported by his
+counsel and scientific knowledge.
+
+Meritorious achievements, all of them, but they did not shield the Jews
+against impending banishment. The exiles found asylums in Italy and
+Holland, and in each country they at once projected themselves into the
+predominant intellectual movement. A physician, Abraham Portaleone,
+distinguished himself on the field of antiquarian research; another,
+David d'Ascoli, wrote a defense of Jews; and a third, David de Pomis, a
+defense of Jewish physicians. The most famous was Amatus Lusitanus, one
+of whose important discoveries is said to have brought him close up to
+that of the circulation of the blood. Before the banishment of Jews from
+Spain took effect, Antonio di Moro, a Jewish peddler of Cordova,
+flourished as the last of Spanish troubadours, and Rodrigo da Cota, a
+neo-Christian of Seville, as the first of Spanish dramatists, the
+supposed author of _Celestina_, one of the most celebrated of old
+Spanish dramatic compositions.
+
+The proscribed, in the guise of Marranos, and under the hospitable
+shelter of their new homes, could not be banished from literary Spain,
+even in its newest departures. Indeed, for a long time Spanish and
+Italian literatures were brought into contact with each other only
+through the instrumentality of Jews. Not quite half a century after the
+expulsion of Jews from Portugal and their settlement in Italy, a Jew,
+Solomon Usque, made a Spanish translation of Petrarch (1567), dedicated
+to Alessandro Farnese, duke of Parma, and wrote Italian odes, dedicated
+to Cardinal Borromeo.
+
+At the zenith of the Renaissance, Jews won renown as Italian poets, and
+did valiant work as translators from Latin into Hebrew and Italian. In
+the later days of the movement, in the Reformation period, illustrious
+Christian scholars studied Hebrew under Jewish tutorship, and gave it a
+place on the curriculum of the universities. Luther himself submitted to
+rabbinical guidance in his biblical studies.
+
+In great numbers the Spanish exiles turned to Turkey, where numerous new
+communities rapidly arose. There, too, in Constantinople and elsewhere,
+Jews, like Elias Mizrachi and Elias Kapsali, were the first to pursue
+scientific research.
+
+We have now reached the days of deepest misery for Judaism. Yet, in the
+face of unrelenting oppression, Jews win places of esteem as diplomats,
+custodians and advocates of important interests at royal courts. From
+the earliest period of their history, Jews manifested special talent for
+the arts of diplomacy. In the Arabic-Spanish period they exercised great
+political influence upon Mohammedan caliphs. The Fatimide and Omayyad
+dynasties employed Jewish representatives and ministers, Samuel ibn
+Nagdela, for instance, being grand vizir of the caliph of Granada.
+Christian sovereigns also valued their services: as is well known,
+Charlemagne sent a Jewish ambassador to Haroun al Rashid; Pope
+Alexander III. appointed Yechiel ben Abraham as minister of finance; and
+so late as in the fifteenth century the wise statesman Isaac Abrabanel
+was minister to Alfonso V., of Portugal, and, wonderful to relate, for
+eight years to Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain. At this time Jewish
+literature was blessed with a patron in the person of Joseph Nasi, duke
+of Naxos, whom, it is said, Sultan Selim II. wished to crown king of
+Cyprus. His rival was Solomon Ashkenazi, Turkish ambassador to the
+Venetian republic, who exercised decisive influence upon the election of
+a Polish king. And this is not the end of the roll of Jewish diplomats
+and ministers.
+
+Unfortunately, the Kabbala, whose spell was cast about even the most
+vigorous of Jewish minds, was the leading intellectual current of those
+sad days, the prevailing misery but serving to render her allurements
+more fascinating. But in the hands of such men as Abraham Herrera, who
+influenced Benedict Spinoza, even Kabbalistic studies were informed with
+a scientific spirit, and brought into connection with Neoplatonic
+philosophy.
+
+Mention of Spinoza suggests Holland where Jews were kindly received, and
+shortly after their arrival they interested themselves in the
+philosophical pursuits in vogue. The best index to their position in
+Holland is furnished by Manasseh ben Israel's prominent rôle in the
+politics and the literary ventures of Amsterdam, and by his negotiations
+with Oliver Cromwell. We may pardon the pride which made him say, "I
+have enjoyed the friendship of the wisest and the best of Europe." Uriel
+Acosta and Baruch Spinoza, though children of the Amsterdam
+_Judengasse_, were ardent patriots.
+
+The last great Spanish poet was Antonio Enrique de Gomez, the Jewish
+Calderon, burnt in effigy at Seville; while the last Portuguese poet of
+note was Antonio Jose de Silva, who perished at the stake for his faith,
+leaving his dramas as a precious possession to Portuguese literature.
+
+Even in the dreariest days of decadence, when the study of the Talmud
+seemed to engross their attention, Jews prosecuted scientific inquiries,
+as witness Moses Isserles's translation of _Theorica_, an astronomical
+treatise by Peurbach, the Vienna humanist.
+
+With the migration of Jews eastward, _Judendeutsch_, a Jewish-German
+dialect, with its literature, was introduced into Slavic countries. It
+is a fact not generally known that this jargon is the depository of
+certain Middle High German expressions and elements no longer used in
+the modern German, and that philologists are forced to resort to the
+study of the Polish-Jewish patois to reconstruct the old idiom. In 1523,
+the year of Luther's Pentateuch translation, a Jewish-German Bible
+dictionary was published at Cracow, and in 1540 appeared the first
+Jewish-German translation of the Pentateuch. The Germans strongly
+influenced the popular literature of the Jews. The two nationalities
+seized the same subjects, often imitating the same models, or using the
+same translations. The German "Till Eulenspiegel" was printed in 1500,
+the Jewish-German in 1600. Besides incorporating German folklore,
+Jewish-German writings borrowed from German romances, assimilated
+foreign literatures, did not neglect the traditions of the Jews
+themselves, and embraced even folk-songs, some of which have perpetuated
+themselves until the modern era.
+
+Mention of the well-known fact that the Hebrew studies prosecuted by
+Christians in the eighteenth century were carried on under Jewish
+influence brings us to the threshold of the modern era, the period of
+the Jewish Renaissance. Here we are on well-worn ground. Since Jews have
+been permitted to enter at will upon the multifarious pursuits growing
+out of modern culture, their importance as factors of civilization is
+universally acknowledged, and it would be wearisome, and would far
+transgress the limits of a lecture, to enumerate their achievements.
+
+In trying to show what share the Jew has had in the world's
+civilization, I have naturally concerned myself chiefly with literature,
+for literature is the mirror of culture. It would be a mistake, however,
+to suppose that the Jew has been inactive in other spheres. His
+contributions, for instance, to the modern development of international
+commerce, cannot be overlooked. Commerce in its modern extension was the
+creation of the mercantile republics of mediæval Italy-Venice, Florence,
+Genoa, and Pisa--and in them Jews determined and regulated its course.
+When Ravenna contemplated a union with Venice, and formulated the
+conditions for the alliance, one of them was the demand that rich Jews
+be sent thither to open a bank for the relief of distress. Jews were the
+first to obtain the privilege of establishing banks in the Italian
+cities, and the first to discover the advantages of a system of checks
+and bills of exchange, of unique value in the development of modern
+commerce.
+
+Even in art, a sphere from which their rigorous laws might seem to have
+the effect of banishing them, they were not wholly inactive. They always
+numbered among themselves handicraftsmen. In Venice, in the sixteenth
+century, we find celebrated Jewish wood engravers. Jacob Weil's rules
+for slaughtering were published with vignettes by Hans Holbein, and one
+of Manasseh ben Israel's works was adorned with a frontispiece by
+Rembrandt. In our own generation Jews have won fame as painters and
+sculptors, while music has been their staunch companion, deserting them
+not even in the darkest days of the Ghetto.
+
+These certainly are abundant proofs that the Jew has a share in all the
+phases and stages of culture, from its first germs unto its latest
+complex development--a consoling, elevating reflection. A learned
+historian of literature, a Christian, in discussing this subject, was
+prompted to say: "Our first knowledge of philosophy, botany, astronomy,
+and cosmography, as well as the grammar of the holy language and the
+results of biblical study, we owe primarily to Jews." Another historian,
+also a Christian, closes a review of Jewish national traits with the
+words: "Looking back over the course of history, we find that in the
+gloom, bareness, and intellectual sloth of the middle ages, Jews
+maintained a rational system of agriculture, and built up international
+commerce, upon which rests the well-being of the nations."
+
+Truly, there are reasons for pride on our part, but no less do great
+obligations devolve upon us. I cannot refrain from exhortation. In
+justice we should confess that Jews drew their love of learning and
+ability to advance the work of civilization from Jewish writings.
+Furthermore, it is a fact that these Jewish writings no longer excite
+the interest, or claim the devotion of Jews. I maintain that it is the
+duty of the members of our Order to take this neglected, lightly
+esteemed literature under their protection, and secure for it the
+appreciation and encouragement that are the offspring of knowledge.
+
+Modern Judaism presents a curious spectacle. The tiniest of national
+groups in Eastern Europe, conceiving the idea of establishing its
+independence, proceeds forthwith to create a literature, if need be,
+inventing and forging. Judaism possesses countless treasures of
+inestimable worth, amassed by research and experience in the course of
+thousands of years, and her latter-day children brush them aside with
+indifference, even with scorn, leaving it to the sons of the stranger,
+yea, their adversaries, to gather and cherish them.
+
+When Goethe in his old age conceived and outlined a scheme of universal
+literature, the first place was assigned to Jewish literature. In his
+pantheon of the world's poetry, the first tone uttered was to be that
+of "David's royal song and harp." But, in general, Jewish literature is
+still looked upon as the Cinderella of the world's literatures. Surely,
+the day will come when justice will be done, Cinderella's claim be
+acknowledged equal to that of her royal sisters, and together they will
+enter the spacious halls of the magnificent palace of literature.
+
+Among the prayers prescribed for the Day of Atonement is one of
+subordinate importance which affects me most solemnly. When the shadows
+of evening lengthen, and the light of the sun wanes, the Jew reads the
+_Neïlah_ service with fervor, as though he would "burst open the portals
+of heaven with his tears," and the inmost depths of my nature are
+stirred with melancholy pride by the prayer of the pious Jew. He
+supplicates not for his house and his family, not for Zion dismantled,
+not for the restoration of the Temple, not for the advent of the
+Messiah, not for respite from suffering. All his sighs and hopes, all
+his yearning and aspiration, are concentrated in the one thought: "Our
+splendor and our glory have departed, our treasures have been snatched
+from us; there remains nothing to us but this Law alone." If this is
+true; if naught else is left of our former state; if this Law, this
+science, this literature, are our sole treasure and best inheritance,
+then let us cherish and cultivate them so as to have a legacy to
+bequeath to our children to stand them in good stead against the coming
+of the _Neïlah_ of humanity, the day when brethren will "dwell together
+in unity."
+
+Perhaps that day is not far distant. Methinks I hear the rustling of a
+new spring-tide of humanity; methinks I discern the morning flush of new
+world-stirring ideas, and before my mind's eye rises a bridge, over
+which pass all the nations of the earth, Israel in their midst, holding
+aloft his ensign with the inscription, "The Lord is my banner!"--the one
+which he bore on every battlefield of thought, and which was never
+suffered to fall into the enemy's hand. It is a mighty procession moving
+onward and upward to a glorious goal: "Humanity, Liberty, Love!"
+
+
+
+
+WOMEN IN JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+
+Among the songs of the Bible there are two, belonging to the oldest
+monuments of poetry, which have preserved the power to inspire and
+elevate as when they were first uttered: the hymn of praise and
+thanksgiving sung by Moses and his sister Miriam, and the impassioned
+song of Deborah, the heroine in Israel.
+
+Miriam and Deborah are the first Israelitish women whose melody thrilled
+and even now thrills us--Miriam, the inspired prophetess, pouring forth
+her people's joy and sorrow, and Deborah, _Esheth Lapidoth_, the Bible
+calls her, "the woman of the flaming heart," an old writer ingeniously
+interprets the Scriptural name. They are the chosen exemplars of all
+women who, stepping across the narrow confines of home, have lifted up a
+voice, or wielded a pen, for Israel. The time is not yet when woman in
+literature can be discussed without an introductory justification. The
+prejudice is still deep-rooted which insists that domestic activity is
+woman's only legitimate career, that to enter the literary arena is
+unwomanly, that inspired songs may drop only from male lips. Woman's
+heart should, indeed, be the abode of the angels of gentleness, modesty,
+kindness, and patience. But no contradiction is involved in the belief
+that her mind is endowed with force and ability on occasion to grasp the
+spokes of fortune's wheel, or produce works which need not shrink from
+public criticism. Deborah herself felt that it would have better become
+a man to fulfil the mission with which she was charged--that a cozy home
+had been a more seemly place for her than the camp upon Mount Tabor. She
+says: "Desolate were the open towns in Israel, they were desolate....
+Was there a shield seen or a spear among forty thousand in Israel?...
+I--unto the Lord will I sing." Not until the fields of Israel were
+desert, forsaken of able-bodied men, did the woman Deborah arise for the
+glory of God. She refused to pose as a heroine, rejected the crown of
+victory, nor coveted the poet's laurel, meet recognition of her
+triumphal song. Modestly she chose the simplest yet most beautiful of
+names. She summoned the warriors to battle; the word of God was
+proclaimed by her lips; she pronounced judgment, and right prevailed;
+her courage sustained her on the battlefield, and victory followed in
+her footsteps--yet neither judge, nor poetess, nor singer, nor
+prophetess will she call herself, but only _Em beyisrael_, "a mother in
+Israel."
+
+This heroine, this "mother in Israel," in all the wanderings and
+vicissitudes of the Jewish people, was the exemplar of its women and
+maidens, the especial model of Israelitish poetesses and writers.
+
+The student of Jewish literature is like an astronomer. While the casual
+observer faintly discerns single stars dotted in the expanse of blue
+overhead, he takes in the whole sweep of the heavens, readily following
+the movements of the stars of every magnitude. The history of the Jewish
+race, its mere preservation during the long drawn out period of
+suffering--sad days of national dissolution and sombre middle age
+centuries--is a perplexing puzzle, unless regarded with the eye of
+faith. But that this race, cuffed, crushed, pursued, hounded from spot
+to spot, should have given birth to men, yea, even women ranking high in
+the realm of letters, is wholly inexplicable, unless the explanation of
+the unique phenomenon is sought in the wondrous gift of inspiration
+operative in Israel even after the last seer ceased to speak.
+
+Judaism has preserved the Jews! Judaism, that is, the Law with its
+development and ramifications of a great religious thought, was the
+sustaining power of the Jewish people under its burden of misery,
+suffering, torture, and oppression, enabling it to survive its
+tormentors. The Jews were the nation of hope. Like hope this people is
+eternal. The storms of fanaticism and race hatred may rage and roar, the
+race cannot be destroyed. Precisely in the days of its abject
+degradation, when its suffering was dire, how marvellous the conduct of
+this people! The conquered were greater than their conquerors. From
+their spiritual height they looked down compassionately on their
+victorious but ignorant adversaries, who, feeling the condescension of
+the victims, drove their irons deeper. The little nation grew only the
+stronger, and its religion, the flower of hope and trust, developed the
+more sturdily for its icy covering. Jews were mowed down by fire and
+sword, but Judaism continued to live. From the ashes of every pyre
+sprang the Jewish Law in unfading youth--that indestructible,
+ineradicable mentality and hope, which opponents are wont to call
+unconquerable Jewish defiance.
+
+The men of this great little race were preserved by the Law, the spirit,
+and the influences and effects of this same Law transformed weak women
+into God-inspired martyrs, dowered the daughters of Israel with courage
+to sacrifice life for the glory of the God-idea confessed by their
+ancestors during thousands of years. Purity of morals, confiding
+domesticity, were the safeguards against storm and stress. The outside
+world presented a hostile front to the Jew of the middle ages. Every
+step beyond Ghetto precincts was beset with peril. So his home became
+his world, his sanctuary, in whose intimate seclusion the blossom of
+pure family love unfolded. While spiritual darkness brooded over the
+nations, the great Messianic God-idea took refuge from the icy chill of
+the middle ages in his humble rooms, where it was cherished against the
+coming of a glorious future.
+
+"Every Jew has the making of a Messiah in him," says a clever modern
+author,[25] "and every Jewess of a _mater dolorosa_," of which the first
+part is only an epigram, the second, a truth, an historic fact.
+Mediæval Judaism knew many "sorrowful mothers," whose heroism passes
+our latter-day conception. Greece and Rome tell tales upon tales of
+womanly bravery under suffering and pain--Jewish history buries in
+silence the names of its thousands of woman and maiden martyrs, joyously
+giving up life in the vindication of their faith. Perhaps, had one woman
+been too weak to resist, too cowardly to court and embrace death, her
+name might have been preserved. Such, too, fail to appear in the Jewish
+annals, which contain but few women's names of any kind. Inspired
+devotion of strength and life to Judaism was as natural with a Jewess as
+quiet, unostentatious activity in her home. No need, therefore, to make
+mention of act or name.
+
+Jewish woman, then, has neither found, nor sought, and does not need, a
+Frauenlob, historian or poet, to proclaim her praise in the gates, to
+touch the strings of his lyre in her honor. Her life, in its simplicity
+and gentleness, its patience and exalted devotion, is itself a Song of
+Songs, more beautiful than poet ever composed, a hymn more joyous than
+any ever sung, on the prophetess's sublime and touching text, _Em
+beyisrael_, "a mother in Israel."
+
+As Miriam and Deborah are representative of womanhood during Israel's
+national life, so later times, the Talmudic periods, produced women with
+great and admirable qualities. Prominent among them was Beruriah, the
+gentle wife of Rabbi Meïr, the Beruriah whose heart is laid bare in the
+following touching story from the Talmud:[26]
+
+One Sabbath her husband had been in the academy all day teaching the
+crowds that eagerly flocked to his lectures. During his absence from
+home, his two sons, distinguished for beauty and learning, died suddenly
+of a malignant disease. Beruriah bore the dear bodies into her sleeping
+chamber, and spread a white cloth over them. When the rabbi returned in
+the evening, and asked for his boys that, according to wont, he might
+bless them, his wife said, "They have gone to the house of God."
+
+She brought the wine-cup, and he recited the concluding prayer of the
+Sabbath, drinking from the cup, and, in obedience to a hallowed custom,
+passing it to his wife. Again he asked, "Why are my sons not here to
+drink from the blessed cup?" "They cannot be far off," answered the
+patient sufferer, and suspecting naught, Rabbi Meïr was happy and
+cheerful. When he had finished his meal, Beruriah said: "Rabbi, allow me
+to ask you a question." With his permission, she continued: "Some time
+ago a treasure was entrusted to me, and now the owner demands it. Shall
+I give it up?" "Surely, my wife should not find it necessary to ask this
+question," said the rabbi. "Can you hesitate about returning property to
+its rightful owner?" "True," she replied, "but I thought best not to
+return it until I had advised you thereof." And she led him into the
+chamber to the bed, and withdrew the cloth from the bodies. "O, my sons,
+my sons," lamented the father with a loud voice, "light of my eyes, lamp
+of my soul. I was your father, but you taught me the Law." Her eyes
+suffused with tears, Beruriah seized her grief-stricken husband's hand,
+and spoke: "Rabbi, did you not teach me to return without reluctance
+that which has been entrusted to our safekeeping? See, 'the Lord gave,
+and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'"
+"'Blessed be the name of the Lord,'" repeated the rabbi, accepting her
+consolation, "and blessed, too, be His name for your sake; for, it is
+written: 'Who can find a virtuous woman? for far above pearls is her
+value.... She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is
+upon her tongue.'"
+
+Surrounded by the halo of motherhood, richly dowered with intellectual
+gifts, distinguished for learning, gentleness, and refinement, Beruriah
+is a truly poetic figure. Incensed at the evil-doing of the unrighteous,
+her husband prayed for their destruction. "How can you ask that, Rabbi?"
+Beruriah interrupted him; "do not the Scriptures say: 'May _sins_ cease
+from off the earth, and the wicked will be no more'? When _sin_ ceases,
+there will be no more _sinners_. Pray rather, my rabbi, that they
+repent, and amend their ways."[27]
+
+That a woman could attain to Beruriah's mental poise, and make her voice
+heard and heeded in the councils of the teachers of the Law, and that
+the rabbis considered her sayings and doings worthy of record, would of
+itself, without the evidence of numerous other learned women of Talmud
+fame, prove, were proof necessary, the honorable position occupied by
+Jewish women in those days. Long before Schiller, the Talmud said:[28]
+"Honor women, because they bring blessing." Of Abraham it is said: "It
+was well with him, because of his wife Sarah." Again: "More glorious is
+the promise made to women, than that to men: In Isaiah (xxxii. 9) we
+read: 'Ye women that are at ease, hear my voice!' for, with women it
+lies to inspire their husbands and sons with zeal for the study of the
+Law, the most meritorious of deeds." Everywhere the Talmud sounds the
+praise of the virtuous woman of Proverbs and of the blessings of a happy
+family life.
+
+A single Talmudic sentence, namely, "He who teaches his daughter the
+Law, teaches her what is unworthy," torn from its context, and falsely
+interpreted, has given rise to most absurd theories with regard to the
+views of Talmudic times on the matter of woman's education. It should be
+taken into consideration that its author, who is responsible also for
+the sentiment that "woman's place is at the distaff," was the husband of
+Ima Shalom, a clever, highly cultured, but irascible woman, who was on
+intimate terms with Jewish Christians, and was wont to interfere in the
+disputations carried on by men--in short, a representative Talmudic
+blue-stocking, with all the attributes with which fancy would be prone
+to invest such a one.[29]
+
+Elsewhere the Talmud tells about Rabbi Nachman's wife Yaltha, the proud
+and learned daughter of a princely line. Her guest, the poor itinerant
+preacher Rabbi Ulla, expressed the opinion that according to the Law it
+was not necessary to pass the wine-cup over which the blessing has been
+said to women. The opinion, surely not the withheld wine, so angered his
+hostess, that she shivered four hundred wine-pitchers, letting their
+contents flow over the ground.[30] If the rabbis had such incidents in
+mind, crabbed utterances were not unjustifiable. Perhaps every
+rabbinical antagonist to woman's higher education was himself the victim
+of a learned wife, who regaled him, after his toilsome research at the
+academy, with unpalatable soup, or, worse still, with Talmudic
+discussions. Instances are abundant of erudite rabbis tormented by their
+wives. One, we are told, refused to cook for her husband, and another,
+day after day, prepared a certain dish, knowing that he would not touch
+it.
+
+But this is pleasantry. It would betray total ignorance of the Talmud
+and the rabbis to impute to them the scorn of woman prevalent at that
+time. The Talmud and its sages never weary of singing the praise of
+women, and at every occasion inculcate respect for them, and devotion to
+their service. The compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud, Rabbi Jochanan,
+whose life is crowned with the aureole of romance, pays a delicate
+tribute to woman by the question: "Who directed the first prayer of
+thanksgiving to God? A woman, Leah, when she cried out in the fulness of
+her joy: 'Now again will I praise the Lord.'"
+
+Under the influence of such ideal views, and in obedience to such
+standards, Jewish woman led a modest, retired life of domestic activity,
+the help-meet and solace of her husband, the joy of his age, the
+treasure of his liberty, his comforter in sorrow. For, when the
+portentous catastrophe overwhelmed the Jewish nation, when Jerusalem and
+the Temple lay in ruins, when the noblest of the people were slain, and
+the remnant of Israel was made to wander forth out of his land into a
+hostile world, to fulfil his mission as a witness to the truth of
+monotheism, then Jewish woman, too, was found ready to assume the
+burdens imposed by distressful days.
+
+Israel, broken up into unresisting fragments, began his two thousand
+years' journey through the desert of time, despoiled of all possessions
+except his Law and his family. Of these treasures Titus and his legions
+could not rob him. From the ruins of the Jewish state blossomed forth
+the spirit of Jewish life and law in vigorous renewal. Judaism rose
+rejuvenated on the crumbling temples of Jupiter, immaculate in doctrine,
+incorruptible in practice. Israel's spiritual guides realized that
+adherence to the Law is the only safeguard against annihilation and
+oblivion. From that time forth, the men became the guardians of the
+_Law_, the women the guardians of the purity of _life_, both working
+harmoniously for the preservation of Judaism.
+
+The muse of history recorded no names of Jewish women from the
+destruction of the Temple to the eleventh century. Yet the student
+cannot fail to assign the remarkable preservation of the race to
+woman's gentle, quiet, though paramount influence by the side of the
+earnest tenacity of men. Among Jews leisure, among non-Jews knowledge,
+was lacking to preserve names for the instruction of posterity. Before
+Jews could record their suffering, the oppressor's hand again fell, its
+grasp more relentless than ever. For many centuries blood and tears
+constitute the chronicle of Jewish life, and at the sources of these
+streams of blood and rivers of tears, the genius of Jewish history sits
+lamenting.
+
+Whenever the sun of tolerance broke through the clouds of oppression,
+and for even a brief period shone upon the martyr race, its marvellous
+development under persecution and in despite of unspeakable suffering at
+once stood revealed. During these occasional breaks in the darkness,
+women appeared whose erudition was so profound as to earn special
+mention. As was said above, the first names of women distinguished for
+beauty and intellect come down to us from the eleventh century, and even
+then only Italy, Provence, Andalusia, and the Orient, were favored, Jews
+in these countries living unmolested and in comparative freedom, and
+zealously devoting their leisure to the study of the Talmud and secular
+branches of learning. In praise of Italy it was said: "Out of Bari goes
+forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Otranto." It is, therefore,
+not surprising to read in Jewish sources of the maiden Paula, of the
+family Deï Mansi (Anawim), the daughter of Abraham, and later the wife
+of Yechiel deï Mansi, who, in 1288, copied her father's abstruse
+Talmudic commentary, adding ingenious explanations, the result of
+independent research. But one grows somewhat sceptical over the account,
+by a Jewish tourist, Rabbi Petachya of Ratisbon, of Bath Halevi,
+daughter of Rabbi Samuel ben Ali in Bagdad, equally well-read in the
+Bible and the Talmud, and famous for her beauty. She lectured on the
+Talmud to a large number of students, and, to prevent their falling in
+love with her, she sat behind lattice-work or in a glass cabinet, that
+she might be heard but not seen. The dry tourist-chronicler fails to
+report whether her disciples approved of the preventive measure, and
+whether in the end it turned out to have been effectual. At all events,
+the example of the learned maiden found an imitator. Almost a century
+later we meet with Miriam Shapiro, of Constance, a beautiful Jewish
+girl, who likewise delivered public lectures on the Talmud sitting
+behind a curtain, that the attention of her inquisitive pupils might not
+be distracted by sight of her from their studies.
+
+Of the learned El Muallima we are told that she transplanted Karaite
+doctrines from the Orient to Castile, where she propagated them. The
+daughter of the prince of poets, Yehuda Halevi, is accredited with a
+soulful religious poem hitherto attributed to her father, and Rabbi
+Joseph ibn Nagdela's wife was esteemed the most learned and
+representative woman in Granada. Even in the choir of Arabic-Andalusian
+poets we hear the voice of a Jewish songstress, Kasmune, the daughter
+of the poet Ishmael. Only a few blossoms of her delicate poetry have
+been preserved.[31] Catching sight of her young face in the mirror, she
+called out:
+
+    "A vine I see, and though 'tis time to glean,
+      No hand is yet stretched forth to cull the fruit.
+    Alas! my youth doth pass in sorrow keen,
+      A nameless 'him' my eyes in vain salute."
+
+Her pet gazelle, raised by herself, she addresses thus:
+
+    "In only thee, my timid, fleet gazelle,
+      Dark-eyed like thee, I see my counterpart;
+    We both live lone, without companion dwell,
+      Accepting fate's decree with patient heart."
+
+Of other women we are told whose learning and piety inspired respect,
+not only in Talmudic authorities, but, more than that, in their sisters
+in faith. Especially in the family of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac),
+immortal through his commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud, a number
+of women distinguished themselves. His daughter Rachel (Bellejeune), on
+one occasion when her father was sick, wrote out for Rabbi Abraham Cohen
+of Mayence an opinion on religious questions in dispute. Rashi's two
+granddaughters, Anna and Miriam, were equally famous. In questions
+relating to the dietary laws, they were cited as authorities, and their
+decisions accepted as final.
+
+Zunz calls the wife of Rabbi Joseph ben Jochanan of Paris "almost a
+rabbi"; and Dolce, wife of the learned Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, supported
+her family with the work of her hands, was a thorough student of the
+dietary laws, taught women on Jewish subjects, and on Sabbath delivered
+public lectures. She wore the twofold crown of learning and martyrdom.
+On December 6, 1213, fanatic crusaders rushed into the rabbi's house,
+and most cruelly killed her and her two daughters, Bella and Anna.
+
+Israel having again fallen on evil times, the rarity of women writers
+during the next two centuries needs no explanation. In the sixteenth
+century their names reappear on the records, not only as Talmudic
+scholars, but also as writers of history in the German language. Litte
+of Ratisbon composed a history of King David in the celebrated "Book of
+Samuel," a poem in the _Nibelungen_ stanza, and we are told that Rachel
+Ackermann of Vienna was banished for having written a piquant novel,
+"Court Secrets."
+
+These tentative efforts led the way to busy and widespread activity by
+Jewish women in various branches of literature at a somewhat later
+period, when the so-called _Judendeutsch_, also known as
+_Altweiberdeutsch_ (old women's German), came into general use. Rebekah
+Tiktiner, daughter of Rabbi Meïr Tiktiner, attained to a reputation
+considerable enough to suggest her scholarly work to J. G. Zeltner, a
+Rostock professor, as the subject of an essay published in 1719. Her
+book, _Meneketh Ribka_, deals with the duties of woman. Edel Mendels of
+Cracow epitomized "Yosippon" (History of the Jews after Josephus); Bella
+Chasan, who died a martyr's death, composed two instructive works on
+Jewish history, in their time widely read; Glikel Hamel of Hamburg wrote
+her memoirs, describing her contemporaries and the remarkable events of
+her life; Hannah Ashkenasi was the author of addresses on moral
+subjects; and Ella Götz translated the Hebrew prayers into
+Jewish-German.
+
+Litte of Ratisbon found imitators. Rosa Fischels of Cracow was the first
+to put the psalms into Jewish-German rhymes (1586). She turned the whole
+psalter "into simple German very prettily, modestly, and withal
+pleasantly for women and maidens to read." The authoress acknowledges
+that it was her aim to imitate the rhyme and melody of the "Book of
+Samuel" by her famed predecessor. Occasionally her paraphrase rises to
+the height of true poetry, as in the first and last verses of Psalm
+xcvi:
+
+"Sing to God a new song, sing to God all the land, sing to God, praise
+His name, show forth His ready help from day to day.... The field and
+all thereon shall show great joy; they will sing with all their leaves,
+the trees of the wood and the grove, before the Lord God who will come
+to judge the earth far and near. He judgeth the earth with righteousness
+and the nations with truth."
+
+Rosa Fischels was followed by a succession of women writers: Taube Pan
+in Prague, a poetess; Bella Hurwitz, who wrote a history of the House
+of David, and, in association with Rachel Rausnitz, an account of the
+settlement of Jews in Prague; and a number of scholarly women famous
+among their co-religionists for knowledge of the Talmud, piety, and
+broad, secular culture.
+
+In a rapid review like this of woman's achievements on the field of
+Jewish scholarship, the results recorded must appear meagre, owing
+partly to the paucity of available data, partly to the nature of the
+inquiry. Abstruse learning, pure science, original research, are by no
+means woman's portion. Such occupations demand complete surrender on the
+part of the student, uninterrupted attention to the subject pursued, and
+delicately organized woman is not capable of such absorption. Woman's
+perceptions are subtle, and she rests satisfied with her intuitions;
+while man strives to transmute his feelings, deeper than hers, into
+action. The external appeals to woman who comprehends easily and
+quickly, and, therefore, does not penetrate beneath the surface. Man, on
+the other hand, strives to pierce to the essence of things, apprehends
+more slowly, but thinks more profoundly, and tests carefully before he
+accepts. Hence we so rarely meet woman in the field of science, while
+her work in the domain of poetry and the humanities is abundant and
+attractive. Jewish women form no exception to the rule: a survey of
+Jewish poetry will show woman's share in its productions to have been
+considerable and of high quality. While there was little or no
+possibility to prosecute historic or scientific inquiry during the
+harrowing days of persecution, the well-spring of Jewish poetry never
+ran dry. Poetry followed the race into exile, and clave to it through
+all vicissitudes, its solacement in suffering, the holy mediatrix
+between its past and future. "The Orient dwells an exile in the
+Occident, and its tears of longing for home are the fountain-head of
+Jewish poetry," says a Christian scholar. And at the altar of this
+poetry, whose sweetness and purity sanctified home life, and spread a
+sense of morality in a time when brutality and corruptness were general,
+the women singers of Israel offered the gifts of their muse. While the
+culture of that time culminated in the service of love (_Minnedienst_),
+in woman worship, so offensive to modern taste, Jewish poetry was
+pervaded by a pure, ideal conception of love and womanhood, testifying
+to the high ethical principles of its devotees.
+
+Judaism and Jewish poetry know naught of the sensual love so assiduously
+fostered by the cult of the Virgin. "Love," says a celebrated historian
+of literature, "was glorified in all shapes and guises, and represented
+as the highest aim of life. Woman's virtues, yea, even her vices, were
+invested with exaggerated importance. Woman became accustomed to think
+that she could be neither faithful nor faithless without turning the
+world topsy-turvy. She shared the fate of all objects of excessive
+adulation: flattery corrupted her. Thus it came about that love of woman
+overshadowed every other social force and every form of family
+affection, and so spent its power. The Jews were the only ones sane
+enough to subordinate sexual love to reverence for motherhood. Alexander
+Weill makes a Jewish mother say: 'Is it proper for a good Jewish mother
+to concern herself about love? Love is revolting idolatry. A Jewess may
+love only God, her husband, and her children.' Granny (_Alt-Babele_) in
+one of Kompert's tales says: 'God could not be everywhere, so he created
+mothers.' In Jewish novels, maternal love is made the basis of family
+life, its passion and its mystery. A Jewish mother! What an image the
+words conjure up! Her face is calm, though pale; a melancholy smile
+rests upon her lips, and her soulful eyes seem to hide in their depths
+the vision of a remote future."
+
+This is a correct view. Jewish poetry is interpenetrated with the breath
+of intellectual love, that is, love growing out of the recognition of
+duty, no less ideal than sensual love. In the heart of the Jew love is
+an infinite force. Too mighty to be confined to the narrow limits of
+personal passion, it extends so as to include future generations.
+
+Thus it happened that while in Christian poetry woman was the subject of
+song and sonnet, in Jewish poetry she herself sang and composed, and her
+productions are worthy of ranking beside the best poetic creations of
+each generation.
+
+The earliest blossoms of Jewish poetry by women unfolded in the
+spring-like atmosphere of the Renaissance under the blue sky of Italy,
+the home of the immortal trio, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The
+first Jewish women writers of Italian verse were Deborah Ascarelli and
+Sara Copia Sullam, who, arrayed in the full panoply of the culture of
+their day, and as thoroughly equipped with Jewish knowledge, devoted
+their talents and their zeal to the service of their nation.
+
+Deborah Ascarelli of Rome, the pride of her sex, was the wife of the
+respected rabbi Giuseppe Ascarelli, and lived at Venice in the beginning
+of the seventeenth century. She made a graceful Italian translation of
+Moses Rieti's _Sefer ha-Hechal_, a Hebrew poem written in imitation of
+the _Divina Commedia_, and enjoying much favor at Rome. As early as
+1609, David della Rocca published a second edition of her translation,
+dedicating it to the charming authoress. To put the highly wrought,
+artificial poetry of the Hebrew Dante into mellifluous Italian verse was
+by no means easy. While Rieti's poetry is not distinguished by the vigor
+and fulness of the older classical productions of neo-Hebraic poetry,
+his rhythm is smooth, pleasant, and polished. Yet her rendition is
+admirable. Besides, she won fame as a writer of hymns in praise of the
+God of her people, who so wondrously rescued it from all manner of
+distress.
+
+    "Let other poets of victory's trophies tell,
+    Thy song will e'er thy people's praises swell,"
+
+says a Jewish Italian poet enchanted by her talent.
+
+A still more gifted poetess was Sara Copia Sullam, a particular star in
+Judah's galaxy.[32] The only child of a wealthy Venetian at the end of
+the sixteenth century, she was indulged in her love of study, and
+afforded every opportunity to advance in the arts and sciences. "She
+revelled in the realm of beauty, and crystallized her enthusiasm in
+graceful, sweet, maidenly verses. Young, lovely, of generous impulses
+and keen intellectual powers, her ambition set upon lofty attainments, a
+favorite of the muses, Sara Copia charmed youth and age."
+
+These graces of mind became her misfortune. An old Italian priest,
+Ansaldo Çeba, in Genoa, published an Italian epic with the Esther of the
+Bible as the heroine. Sara was delighted with the choice of the subject.
+It was natural that a high-minded, sensitive girl with lofty ideals,
+stung to the quick by the injustice and contumely suffered by her
+people, should rejoice extravagantly in the praise lavished upon a
+heroine of her nation. Carried away by enthusiasm she wrote the poet, a
+stranger to her, a letter overflowing with gratitude for the pure
+delight his poem had yielded her. Her passionate warmth, betraying at
+once the accomplished poetess and the gifted thinker, did not fail to
+fascinate the old priest, who immediately resolved to capture this
+beautiful soul for the church. His desire brought about a lively
+correspondence, our chief source of information about Sara Copia. Her
+conversion became a passion with the highstrung priest, taking complete
+possession of him during the last years of his life. He brought to bear
+upon her case every trick of dialectics and flattery at his command. All
+in vain. The greatest successes of which he could boast were her promise
+to read the New Testament, and her consent to his praying for her
+conversion. Sara's arguments in favor of Judaism arouse the reader's
+admiration for the sharpness of intellect displayed, her poetic genius,
+and her intimate acquaintance with Jewish sources as well as philosophic
+systems.
+
+Ansaldo never abandoned the hope of gaining her over to Christianity.
+Unable to convince her reason, he attacked her heart. Though evincing
+singular love and veneration for her old admirer, Sara could not be
+moved from steadfast adherence to her faith. She sent him her picture
+with the words: "This is the picture of one who carries yours deeply
+graven on her heart, and, with finger pointing to her bosom, tells the
+world: 'Here dwells my idol, bow before him.'"
+
+With old age creeping upon him with its palsy touch, he continued to
+think of nothing but Sara's conversion, and assailed her in prose and
+verse. One of his imploring letters closes thus:
+
+    "Life's fair, bright morn bathes thee in light,
+      Thy cheeks are softly flushed with youthful zest.
+    For me the night sets in; my limbs
+      Are cold, but ardent love glows in my breast."
+
+Sara having compared his poems with those of Amphion and Orpheus, he
+answered her:
+
+    "To Amphion the stones lent ear
+      When soft he touched his lute;
+    And beasts came trooping nigh to hear
+      When Orpheus played his flute.
+
+    How long, O Sara, wilt thou liken me
+      To those great singers of the olden days?
+    My God and faith I sought to give to thee,
+      In vain I proved the error of thy ways.
+    Their song had charms more potent than my own,
+    Or art thou harder than a beast or stone?"
+
+The query long remained unanswered, for just then the poetess was
+harassed by many trials. Serious illness prostrated her, then her
+beloved father died, and finally she was unjustly charged by the envious
+among her co-religionists with neglect of Jewish observances, and denial
+of the divine origin of the Law. She found no difficulty in refuting the
+malicious accusation, but she was stung to the quick by the calumnious
+attack, the pain it inflicted vanishing only in the presence of a grave
+danger. Balthasar Bonifacio, an obscure author, in a brochure published
+for that purpose, accused her of rejecting the doctrine of the
+immortality of the soul, a most serious charge, which, if sustained,
+would have thrown her into the clutches of the Inquisition. In two days
+she wrote a brilliant defense completely exonerating herself and
+exposing the spitefulness of the attack, a masterful production by
+reason of its vigorous dialectics, incisive satire, and noble enthusiasm
+for the cause of religion. Together with some few of her sonnets, this
+is all that has come down to us of her writings. She opened her
+vindication with the following sonnet:
+
+    "O Lord, Thou know'st my inmost hope and thought,
+      Thou know'st whene'er before Thy judgment throne
+      I shed salt tears, and uttered many a moan,
+    'Twas not for vanities that I besought.
+    O turn on me Thy look with mercy fraught,
+      And see how envious malice makes me groan!
+      The pall upon my heart by error thrown
+    Remove; illume me with Thy radiant thought.
+      At truth let not the wicked scorner mock,
+      O Thou, that breath'dst in me a spark divine.
+      The lying tongue's deceit with silence blight,
+      Protect me from its venom, Thou, my Rock,
+      And show the spiteful sland'rer by this sign
+      That Thou dost shield me with Thy endless might."
+
+Sara's vindication was complete. Her friend Çeba was kept faithfully
+informed of all that befell her, but he was absorbed in thoughts of her
+conversion and his approaching end. He wrote to her that he did not care
+to receive any more letters from her unless they announced her
+acceptance of the true faith.
+
+After Ansaldo's death, we hear nothing more about the poetess. She died
+at the beginning of 1641, and the celebrated rabbi, Leon de Modena,
+composed her epitaph, a poetic tribute to one whose life redounded to
+the glory of Judaism.
+
+Our subject now carries us from the luxuriant south to the dunes of the
+North Sea. Holland was the first to open the doors of its cities
+hospitably to the three hundred thousand Jews exiled from Spain, and its
+busy capital Amsterdam became the centre whither tended the intelligent
+of the Marranos, fleeing before the Holy Inquisition. Physicians,
+mathematicians, philologists, military men, and diplomats, poets and
+poetesses, took refuge there. Among the poetesses,[33] the most
+prominent was Isabella Correa, distinguished for wit as well as poetic
+endowment, the wife of the Jewish captain and author, Nicolas de Oliver
+y Fullano, of Majorca. One of her contemporaries, Daniel de Barrios,
+says that "she was an accomplished linguist, wrote delightful letters,
+composed exquisite verses, played the lute like a _maestro_, and sang
+like an angel. Her sparkling black eyes sent piercing darts into every
+beholder's heart, and she was famed for beauty as well as intellect."
+She made a noble Spanish translation of _Pastor Fido_, the most popular
+Italian drama of the day, and published a volume of poems, also in
+Spanish. Antonio dos Reys sings her praises:
+
+  "_Pastor Fido!_ no longer art thou read in thy own tongue, since Correa,
+  Faithfully rendering thy song, created thee anew in Spanish forms.
+  A laurel wreath surmounts her brow,
+  Because her right hand had cunning to strike tones from the tragic lyre.
+  On the mount of singers, a seat is reserved for her,
+  Albeit many a Batavian voice refused consent.
+  For, Correa's faith invited scorn from aliens,
+  And her own despised her cheerful serenity.
+  Now, with greater justice, all bend a reverent knee to Correa, the Jewess,
+  Correa, who, it seems, is wholly like Lysia."
+
+Donna Isabella Enriquez, a Spanish poetess of great versatility, was her
+contemporary. She lived first in Madrid, afterwards in Amsterdam, and
+even in advanced age was surrounded by admirers. At the age of
+sixty-two, she presented the men of her acquaintance with amulets
+against love, notwithstanding that she had spoken and written against
+the use of charms. For instance, when an egg with a crown on the end was
+found in the house of Isaac Aboab, the celebrated rabbi at Amsterdam,
+she wrote him the following:
+
+    "See, the terror! Lo! the wonder!
+    Basilisk, the fabled viper!
+    Superstition names it so.
+    Look at it, I pray, with calmness,
+    'Twas thy mind that was at fault.
+    God's great goodness is displayed here;
+    He, I trow, rewards thy eloquence
+    In the monster which thou seest:
+    All this rounded whole's thy virtue,
+    Wisdom's symbol is the crown!"
+
+Besides Isabella Correa and Isabella Enriquez, we have the names, though
+not the productions, of Sara de Fonseca Pina y Pimentel, Bienvenida
+Cohen Belmonte, and Manuela Nunes de Almeida. They have left but faint
+traces of their work, and fancy can fill in the sketch only with
+conjectures.
+
+After these Marrano poetesses, silence fell upon the women of Israel for
+a whole century--a century of oppression and political slavery, of
+isolation in noisome Ghettos, of Christian scorn and mockery. The Jews
+of Germany and Poland, completely crushed beneath the load of sorrow,
+hibernated until the gentle breath of a new time, levelling Ghetto walls
+and heralding a dawn when human rights would be recognized, awoke them
+to activity and achievement.
+
+Mighty is the spirit of the times! It clears a way for itself, boldly
+pushing aside every stumbling-block in the shape of outworn prejudices
+and decaying customs. A century dawned, the promise of liberty and
+tolerance flaming on its horizon, to none so sweet as to the Jew. Who
+has the heart to cast the first stone upon a much-tried race, tortured
+throughout the centuries, for surrendering itself to the unwonted joy of
+living, for drinking deep, intoxicating draughts from the newly
+discovered fount of liberty, and, alas! for throwing aside, under the
+burning sun of the new era, the perennial protection of its religion?
+And may we utterly condemn the daughters of Israel, the "roses of
+Sharon," and "lilies of the valleys," "unkissed by the dew, lost
+wanderers cheered by no greeting," who, now that all was sunshine,
+forgot their people, and disregarded the sanctity of family bonds, their
+shield and their refuge in the sorrow and peril of the dark ages?
+
+With emotion, with pain, not with resentment, Jewish history tells of
+those women, who spurned Judaism, knowing only its external appearance,
+its husk, not its essence, high ethical principles and philosophical
+truths--of Rahel Varnhagen, Henriette Herz, Regina Fröhlich, Dorothea
+Mendelssohn, Sarah and Marianne Meyer, Esther Gad, and many others,
+first products of German culture in alliance with Jewish wit and
+brilliancy.
+
+Rahel Levin was the foster-mother of "Young Germany," and leader in the
+woman's emancipation movement, so fruitful later on of deplorable
+excesses. Rahel herself never overstepped the limits of "_das
+Ewig-Weibliche_." No act of hers ran counter to the most exalted
+requirements of morality. Her being was pervaded by high seriousness,
+noble dignity, serene cheerfulness. "She dwelt always in the Holy of
+holies of thought, and even her most daring wishes for herself and
+mankind leapt shyly heavenwards like pure sacrificial flames." Nothing
+more touching can be found in the history of the human heart than her
+confession before death: "With sublime rapture I dwell upon my origin
+and the marvellous web woven by fate, binding together the oldest
+recollections of the human race and its most recent aspirations,
+connecting scenes separated by the greatest possible intervals of time
+and space. My Jewish birth which I long considered a stigma, a sore
+disgrace, has now become a precious inheritance, of which nothing on
+earth can deprive me."[34]
+
+The fact is that Rahel Levin was a great woman, great even in her
+aberrations, while her satellites, shining by reflected light, and
+pretending to perpetuate her spirit, transgressed the bounds of
+womanliness, and opened wide a door to riotous sensuality. Certain
+opponents of the woman's emancipation movement take malicious
+satisfaction in rehearsing that it was a Jewess who inaugurated it,
+prudently neglecting to mention that in the list of Rahel's followers,
+not one Jewish name appears.
+
+The spirit of Judaism and with it the spirit of morality can never be
+extinguished. They may flag, or vanish for a time, but their restoration
+in increased vigor and radiance is certain; for, they bear within
+themselves the guarantee of a future. Henriette Herz, the apostate
+daughter of Judaism chewing the cud of Schleiermacher's sentimentality
+and Schlegel's romanticism, had not yet passed away when England
+produced Jewish women whose deeds were quickened by the spirit of olden
+heroism, who walked in the paths of wisdom and faith, and, recoiling
+from the cowardice that counsels apostasy, would have fought, if need
+be, suffered, and bled, for their faith. What answer but the blush of
+shame mantling her cheek could the proud beauty have found, had she been
+asked by, let us say, Lady Judith Montefiore, to tell what it was that
+chained her to the ruins of the Jewish race?
+
+Lady Montefiore truly was a heroine, worthy to be named with those who
+have made our past illustrious, and her peer in intellect and strength
+of character was Charlotte Montefiore, whose early death was a serious
+loss to Judaism as well as to her family. Her work, "A Few Words to the
+Jews by one of themselves," containing that charming tale, "The Jewel
+Island," displays intellectual and poetic gifts.
+
+The most prominent of women writers in our era unquestionably is Grace
+Aguilar, in whom we must admire the rare union of broad culture and
+profound piety. She was born at Hackney in June of 1816, and early
+showed extraordinary talent and insatiable thirst for knowledge. In her
+twelfth year she wrote "Gustavus Vasa," an historical drama evincing
+such unusual gifts that her parents were induced to devote themselves
+exclusively to her education. It is a charming picture this, of a young,
+gifted girl, under the loving care of cultured parents actuated by the
+sole desire to imbue their daughter with their own taste for natural and
+artistic beauty and their steadfast love for Judaism, and content to
+lead a modest existence, away from the bustle and the opportunities of
+the city, in order to be able to give themselves up wholly to the
+education and companionship of their beloved, only daughter. Under the
+influence of a wise friend, Grace Aguilar herself tells us, she
+supplicated God to enable her to do something by which her people might
+gain higher esteem with their Christian fellow-citizens.
+
+God hearkened unto her prayer, for her efforts were crowned with
+success. Her first work was the translation of a book from the Hebrew,
+"Israel Defended." Next came "The Magic Wreath," a collection of poems,
+and then her well-known works, "Home Influence," "The Spirit of
+Judaism," her best production, "The Women of Israel," "The Jewish
+Faith," and "History of the Jews in England"--a rich harvest for one
+whose span of life was short. Her pen was dipped into the blood of her
+veins and the sap of her nerves; the sacred fire of the prophets burnt
+in her soul, and she was inspired by olden Jewish enthusiasm and
+devotion to a trust.
+
+So ardent a spirit could not long be imprisoned within so frail a body.
+In the very prime of life, just thirty-one years old, Grace Aguilar
+passed away, as though her beautiful soul were hastening to shake off
+the mortal coil. She rests in German earth, in the Frankfort Jewish
+cemetery. Her grave is marked with a simple stone, bearing an equally
+simple epitaph:
+
+    "Give her of the fruit of her hands,
+    And let her own works praise her in the gates."
+
+Her death was deeply lamented far and wide. She was a golden link in the
+chain of humanity--a bold, courageous, withal thoroughly womanly woman,
+a God-inspired daughter of her race and faith. "We are persuaded," says
+a non-Jewish friend of hers, "that had this young woman lived in the
+times of frightful persecution, she would willingly have mounted the
+stake for her faith, praying for her murderers with her last breath."
+That the nobility of a solitary woman, leaping like a flame from heart
+to heart, may inspire high-minded thoughts, and that Grace Aguilar's
+life became a blessing for her people and for humanity, is illustrated
+by the following testimonial signed by several hundred Jewish women,
+presented to her when she was about to leave England:
+
+"Dearest Sister--Our admiration of your talents, our veneration for your
+character, our gratitude for the eminent services your writings render
+our sex, our people, our faith, in which the sacred cause of true
+religion is embodied: all these motives combine to induce us to intrude
+on your presence, in order to give utterance to sentiments which we are
+happy to feel and delighted to express. Until you arose, it has, in
+modern times, never been the case that a Woman in Israel should stand
+forth the public advocate of the faith of Israel; that with the depth
+and purity of feelings which is the treasure of woman, and with the
+strength of mind and extensive knowledge that form the pride of man, she
+should call on her own to cherish, on others to respect, the truth as it
+is in Israel.
+
+"You, dearest Sister, have done this, and more. You have taught us to
+know and appreciate our dignity; to feel and to prove that no female
+character can be ... more pure than that of the Jewish maiden, none more
+pious than that of the woman in Israel. You have vindicated our social
+and spiritual equality with our brethren in the faith: you have, by your
+own excellent example, triumphantly refuted the aspersion, that the
+Jewish religion leaves unmoved the heart of the Jewish woman. Your
+writings place within our reach those higher motives, those holier
+consolations, which flow from the spirituality of our religion, which
+urge the soul to commune with its Maker and direct it to His grace and
+His mercy as the best guide and protector here and hereafter...."
+
+Her example fell like seed upon fertile soil, for Abigail Lindo, Marian
+Hartog, Annette Salomon, and especially Anna Maria Goldsmid, a writer of
+merit, daughter of the well-known Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, may be
+considered her disciples, the fruit of her sowing.
+
+The Italian poetess, Rachel Morpurgo, a worthy successor of Deborah
+Ascarelli and Sara Copia Sullam, was contemporaneous with Grace Aguilar,
+though her senior by twenty-six years. Our interest in her is heightened
+by her use of the Hebrew language, which she handled with such
+consummate skill that her writings easily take rank with the best of
+neo-Hebraic literature. A niece of the famous scholar S. D. Luzzatto,
+she was born at Triest, April 8, 1790. Until the age of twelve she
+studied the Bible, then she read Bechaï's "Duties of the Heart" and
+Rashi's commentary, and from her fourteenth to her sixteenth year she
+devoted herself to the Talmud and the Zohar--a remarkable course of
+study, pursued, too, in despite of adverse circumstances. At the same
+time she was taught the turner's art by Luzzatto's father, and later she
+learned tailoring. One of her poems having been published without her
+knowledge, she gives vent to her regret in a sonnet:
+
+    "My soul surcharged with grief now loud complains,
+      And fears upon my spirit heavily weigh.
+      'Thy poem we have heard,' the people say,
+    'Who like to thee can sing melodious strains?'
+    'They're naught but sparks,' outspeaks my soul in chains,
+      'Struck from my life by torture every day.
+      But now all perfume's fled--no more my lay
+    Shall rise; for, fear of shame my song restrains.'
+      A woman's fancies lightly roam, and weave
+      Themselves into a fairy web. Should I
+      Refrain? Ah! soon enough this pleasure, too,
+      Will flee! Verily I cannot conceive
+      Why I'm extolled. For woman 'tis to ply
+      The spinning wheel--then to herself she's true."
+
+This painful self-consciousness, coupled with the oppression of material
+cares, forms the sad refrain of Rachel Morpurgo's writings. She is a
+true poetess: the woes of humanity are reflected in her own sorrows, to
+which she gave utterance in soulful tones. She, too, became an exemplar
+for a number of young women. A Pole, Yenta Wohllerner, like Rachel
+Morpurgo, had to propitiate churlish circumstances before she could
+publish the gifts of her muse, and Miriam Mosessohn, Bertha Rabbinowicz,
+and others, emulated her masterly handling of the Hebrew language.
+
+The opening of the new era was marked by the appearance of a triad of
+Jewesses--Grace Aguilar in England, Rachel Morpurgo in Italy, and
+Henriette Ottenheimer in Germany. A native of the blessed land of
+Suabia, Henriette Ottenheimer was consecrated to poetry by intercourse
+with two masters of song--Uhland and Rückert. Her poems, fragrant
+blossoms plucked on Suabian fields, for the most part are no more than
+sweet womanly lyrics, growing strong with the force of enthusiasm only
+when she dwells upon her people's sacred mission and the heroes of Bible
+days.
+
+Women like these renew the olden fame of the Jewess, and add
+achievements to her brilliant record. As for their successors and
+imitators, our contemporaries, whose literary productions are before us,
+on them we may not yet pass judgment; their work is still on probation.
+
+One striking circumstance in connection with their activity should be
+pointed out, because it goes to prove the soundness of judgment, the
+penetration, and expansiveness characteristic of Jews. While the
+movement for woman's complete emancipation has counted not a single
+Jewess among its promoters, its more legitimate successor, the movement
+to establish woman's right and ability to earn a livelihood in any
+branch of human endeavor--a right and ability denied only by prejudice,
+or stupidity--was headed and zealously supported by Jewesses, an
+assertion which can readily be proved by such names as Lina Morgenstern,
+known to the public also as an advocate of moderate religious reforms,
+Jenny Hirsch, Henriette Goldschmidt, and a number of writers on subjects
+of general and Jewish interest, such as Rachel Meyer, Elise Levi
+(Henle), Ulla Frank-Wolff, Johanna Goldschmidt, Caroline Deutsch, in
+Germany; Rebekah Eugenie Foa, Julianna and Pauline Bloch, in France;
+Estelle and Maria Hertzveld, in Holland, and Emma Lazarus, in America.
+
+One other name should be recorded. Fanny Neuda, the writer of "Hours of
+Devotion," and a number of juvenile stories, has a double claim upon our
+recognition, inasmuch as she is an authoress of the Jewish race who has
+addressed her writings exclusively to Jewish women.
+
+We have followed Jewish women from the days of their first flight into
+the realm of song through a period of two thousand years up to modern
+times, when our record would seem to come to a natural conclusion. But I
+deem it proper to bring to your attention a set of circumstances which
+would be called phenomenal, were it not, as we all know, that the
+greatest of all wonders is that true wonders are so common.
+
+It is a well-known fact, spread by literary journals, that the
+Rothschild family, conspicuous for financial ability, has produced a
+goodly number of authoresses. But it is less well known, and much more
+noteworthy, that many of the excellent women of this family have devoted
+their literary gifts and attainments to the service of Judaism. The
+palaces of the Rothschilds, the richest family in the world, harbor many
+a warm heart, whose pulsations are quickened by the thought of Israel's
+history and poetic heritage. Wealth has not abated a jot of their
+enthusiasm and loyal love for the faith. The first of the house of
+Rothschild to make a name for herself as an authoress was Lady
+Charlotte Rothschild, in London, one of the noblest women of our time,
+who, standing in the glare of prosperity, did not disdain to take up the
+cudgels in defense of her people, to go Sabbath after Sabbath to her
+poor, unfortunate sisters in faith, and expound to them, in the school
+established by her generosity, the nature and duties of a moral,
+religious life, in lectures pervaded by the spirit of truth and faith.
+Two volumes of these addresses have been published in German and English
+(1864 and 1869), and every page gives evidence of rare piety,
+considerable scholarship, thorough knowledge of the Bible, and a high
+degree of culture. Equal enthusiasm for Judaism pervades the two volumes
+of "Thoughts Suggested by Bible Texts" (1859), by Baroness Louise,
+another of the English Rothschilds.
+
+Three young women of this house, in which wealth is not hostile to
+idealism, have distinguished themselves as writers, foremost among them
+Clementine Rothschild, a gentle, sweet maiden, claimed by death before
+life with its storms could rob her of the pure ideals of youth. She died
+in her twentieth year, and her legacy to her family and her faith is
+contained in "Letters to a Christian Friend on the Fundamental Truths of
+Judaism," abundantly worthy of the perusal of all women, regardless of
+creed. This young woman displayed more courage, more enthusiasm, more
+wit, to be sure also more precise knowledge of Judaism, than thousands
+of men of our time, young and old, who fancy grandiloquent periods
+sufficient to solve the great religious problems perplexing mankind.
+
+Finally, mention must be made of Constance and Anna de Rothschild, whose
+two volume "History and Literature of the Israelites" (1872) created a
+veritable sensation, and awakened the literary world to the fact that
+the Rothschild family is distinguished not only for wealth, but also for
+the talent and religious zeal of its authoresses.
+
+I have ventured to group these women of the Rothschild family together
+as a conclusion to the history of Jewish women in literature, because I
+take their work to be an earnest of future accomplishment. Such examples
+cannot fail to kindle the spark of enthusiasm slumbering in the hearts
+of Jewish women, and the sacred flame of religious zeal, tended once
+more by women, will leap from rank to rank in the Jewish army. As it is,
+a half-century has brought about a remarkable change in feeling towards
+Judaism. Fifty years ago the following lines by Caroline Deutsch, one of
+the above-mentioned modern German writers, could not have awakened the
+same responsive chord as now:
+
+    "Little cruet in the Temple
+      That didst feed the sacrificial flame,
+    What a true expressive symbol
+      Art thou of my race, of Israel's fame!
+    Thou for days the oil didst furnish
+      To illume the Temple won from foe--
+    So for centuries in my people
+      Spirit of resistance ne'er burnt low.
+    It was cast from home and country,
+      Gloom and sorrow were its daily lot;
+    Yet the torch of faith gleamed steady,
+      Courage, like thy oil, forsook it not.
+    Mocks and jeers were all its portion,
+      Death assailed it in ten thousand forms--
+    Yet this people never faltered,
+      Hope, its beacon, led it through all storms.
+    Poorer than dumb, driven cattle,
+      It went forth enslaved from its estate,
+    All its footsore wand'rings lighted
+      By its consciousness of worth innate.
+    Luckless fortunes could not bend it;
+      Unjust laws increased its wondrous faith;
+    From its heart exhaustless streaming,
+      Freedom's light shone on its thorny path.
+    Oil that burnt in olden Temple,
+      Eight days only didst thou give forth light!
+    Oil of faith sustained this people
+      Through the centuries of darkest night!"
+
+We can afford to look forward to the future of Judaism serenely. The
+signs of the times seem propitious to him whose eye is clear to read
+them, whose heart not too embittered to understand their message aright.
+
+Our rough and tumble time, delighting in negation and destruction,
+crushing underfoot the tender blossoms of poetry and faith, living up to
+its quasi motto, "What will not die of itself, must be put to death,"
+will suddenly come to a stop in its mad career of annihilation. That
+will mark the dawn of a new era, the first stirrings of a new
+spring-tide for storm-driven Israel. On the ruins will rise the Jewish
+home, based on Israel's world-saving conception of family life, which,
+having enlightened the nations of the earth, will return to the source
+whence it first issued. Built on this foundation, and resting on the
+pillars of modern culture, Jewish spirit, and true morality, the Jewish
+home will once more invite the nations to exclaim: "How beautiful are
+thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwellings, O Israel!"
+
+May the soft starlight of woman's high ideals continue to gleam on the
+thorny path of the thinker Israel; may they never depart from Israel,
+those God-kissed women that draw inspiration at the sacred fount of
+poesy, and are consecrated by its limpid waters to give praise and
+thanksgiving to Him that reigns on high; may the poet's words ever
+remain applicable to the matrons and maidens of Israel:[35]
+
+    "Pure woman stands in life's turmoil
+      A rose in leafy bower;
+    Her aspirations and her toil
+      Are tinted like a flower.
+
+    Her thoughts are pious, kind, and true,
+      In evil have no part;
+    A glimpse of empyrean blue
+      Is seen within her heart."
+
+
+
+
+MOSES MAIMONIDES
+
+
+"Who is Maimonides? For my part, I confess that I have merely heard the
+name." This naïve admission was not long since made by a well-known
+French writer in discussing the subject of a prize-essay, "Upon the
+Philosophy of Maimonides," announced by the _académie universitaire_ of
+Paris. What short memories the French have for the names of foreign
+scholars! When the proposed subject was submitted to the French minister
+of instruction, he probably asked himself the same question; but he was
+not at a loss for an answer; he simply substituted Spinoza for
+Maimonides. To be sure, Spinoza's philosophy is somewhat better known
+than that of Maimonides. But why should a minister of instruction take
+that into consideration? The minister and the author--both presumably
+over twenty-five years of age--might have heard this very question
+propounded and answered some years before. They might have known that
+their colleague Victor Cousin, to save Descartes from the disgrace of
+having stood sponsor to Spinozism, had established a far-fetched
+connection between the Dutch philosopher and the Spanish, pronouncing
+Spinoza the devoted disciple of Maimonides. Perhaps they might have been
+expected to know, too, that Solomon Munk, through his French
+translation of Maimonides' last work, had made it possible for modern
+thinkers to approach the Jewish philosopher, and that soon after this
+translation was published, E. Saisset had written an article upon Jewish
+philosophy in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, in which he gave a popular
+and detailed exposition of Maimonides' religious views. All this they
+did not know, and, had they known it, they surely would not have been so
+candid as the German thinker, Heinrich Ritter, who, in his "History of
+Christian Philosophy," frankly admits: "My impression was that mediæval
+philosophy was not indebted to Jewish metaphysicians for any original
+line of thought, but M. Munk's discovery convinced me of my
+mistake."[36]
+
+Who was Maimonides? The question is certainly more justifiable upon
+German than upon French soil. In France, attention has been invited to
+his works, while in Germany, save in the circle of the learned, he is
+almost unknown. Even among Jews, who call him "Rambam," he is celebrated
+rather than known. It seems, then, that it may not be unprofitable to
+present an outline of the life and works of this philosopher of the
+middle ages, whom scholars have sought to connect with Spinoza, with
+Leibnitz, and even with Kant.[37]
+
+While readers in general possess but little information about Maimonides
+himself, the period in which he lived, and which derives much of its
+brilliancy and importance from him, is well known, and has come to be a
+favorite subject with modern writers. That period was a very dreamland
+of culture. Under enlightened caliphs, the Arabs in Spain developed a
+civilization which, during the whole of the middle ages up to the
+Renaissance, exercised pregnant influence upon every department of human
+knowledge. A dreamland, in truth, it appears to be, when we reflect that
+the descendants of a highly cultured people, the teachers of Europe in
+many sciences, are now wandering in African wilds, nomads, who know of
+the glories of their past only through a confused legend, holding out to
+them the extravagant hope that the banner of the Prophet may again wave
+from the cathedral of Granada. Yet this Spanish-Arabic period bequeathed
+to us such magnificent tokens of architectural skill, of scientific
+research, and of philosophic thought, that far from regarding it as
+fancy's dream, we know it to be one of the corner-stones of
+civilization.
+
+Prominent among the great men of this period was the Jew Moses ben
+Maimon, or as he was called in Arabic, Abu Amran Musa ibn Maimûn Obaid
+Allah (1135-1204). It may be said that he represented the full measure
+of the scientific attainments of the age at the close of which he
+stood--an age whose culture comprised the whole circle of sciences then
+known, and whose conscious goal was the reconciliation of religion and
+philosophy. The sturdier the growth of the spirit of inquiry, the more
+ardent became the longing to reach this goal, the keener became the
+perception of the problems of life and faith. Arabic and Jewish thinkers
+zealously sought the path leading to serenity. Though they never entered
+upon it, their tentative efforts naturally prepared the way for a great
+comprehensive intellect. Only a genius, master of all the sciences,
+combining soundness of judgment and clearness of insight with great
+mental vigor and depth, can succeed in reconciling the divergent
+principles of theology and speculation, if such reconciliation be within
+the range of the possible. At Cordova, in 1135, when the sun of Arabic
+culture reached its zenith, was born Maimonides, the man gifted with
+this all-embracing mind.
+
+Many incidents in his life, not less interesting than his philosophic
+development, have come down to us. His father was his first teacher. To
+escape the persecutions of the Almohades, Maimonides, then thirteen
+years old, removed to Fez with his family. There religious persecution
+forced Jews to abjure their faith, and the family of Maimon, like many
+others, had to comply, outwardly at least, with the requirements of
+Islam. At Fez Maimonides was on intimate terms with physicians and
+philosophers. At the same time, both in personal intercourse with them
+and in his writings, he exhorted his pseudo-Mohammedan brethren to
+remain true to Judaism. This would have cost him his life, had he not
+been rescued by the kindly offices of Mohammedan theologians. The
+feeling of insecurity induced his family to leave Fez and join the
+Jewish community in Palestine. "They embarked at dead of night. On the
+sixth day of their voyage on the Mediterranean, a frightful storm arose;
+mountainous waves tossed the frail ship about like a ball; shipwreck
+seemed imminent. The pious family besought God's protection. Maimonides
+vowed that if he were rescued from threatening death, he would, as a
+thank-offering for himself and his family, spend two days in fasting and
+distributing alms, and devote another day to solitary communion with
+God. The storm abated, and after a month's voyage, the vessel ran into
+the harbor of Accho."[38] The travellers met with a warm welcome, but
+they tarried only a brief while, and finally settled permanently in
+Egypt. There, too, disasters befell Maimonides, who found solace only in
+his implicit reliance on God and his enthusiastic devotion to learning.
+It was then that Maimonides became the religious guide of his brethren.
+At the same time he attained to eminence in his medical practice, and
+devoted himself zealously to the study of philosophy and the natural
+sciences. Yet he did not escape calumny, and until 1185 fortune refused
+to smile upon him. In that year a son, afterwards the joy and pride of
+his heart, was born to him. Then he was appointed physician at the court
+of Saladin, and so great was his reputation that Richard Coeur de Lion
+wished to make him his physician in ordinary, but Maimonides refused the
+offer. Despite the fact that his works raised many enemies against him,
+his influence grew in the congregations of his town and province. From
+all sides questions were addressed to him, and when religious points
+were under debate, his opinion usually decided the issue. At his death
+at the age of seventy great mourning prevailed in Israel. His mortal
+remains were moved to Tiberias, and a legend reports that Bedouins
+attacked the funeral train. Finding it impossible to move the coffin
+from the spot, they joined the Jews, and followed the great man to his
+last resting-place. The deep reverence accorded him both by the moral
+sense and the exuberant fancy of his race is best expressed in the brief
+eulogy of the saying, now become almost a proverb: "From Moses, the
+Prophet, to Moses ben Maimon, there appeared none like unto Moses."
+
+In three different spheres Maimonides' work produced important results.
+First in order stand his services to his fellow-believers. For them he
+compiled the great Codex, the first systematic arrangement, upon the
+basis of Talmudic tradition, of all the ordinances and tenets of
+Judaism. He gave them a system of ethics which even now should be
+prized, because it inculcates the highest possible ethical views and the
+most ideal conception of man's duties in life. He explained to them,
+almost seven hundred years ago, Islam's service to mankind, and the
+mission Christianity was appointed by Providence to accomplish.
+
+His early writings reveal the fundamental principles of his subsequent
+literary work. An astronomical treatise on the Jewish calendar, written
+in his early youth, illustrates his love of system, but his peculiar
+method of thinking and working is best shown in the two works that
+followed. The first is a commentary on parts of the Talmud, probably
+meant to present such conclusions of the Babylonian and the Jerusalem
+Talmud as affect the practices of Judaism. The second is his Arabic
+commentary on the Mishna. He explains the Mishna simply and clearly from
+a strictly rabbinical point of view--a point of view which he never
+relinquished, permitting a deviation only in questions not affecting
+conduct. Master of the abundant material of Jewish literature, he felt
+it to be one of the most important tasks of the age to simplify, by
+methodical treatment, the study of the mass of written and traditional
+religious laws, accumulated in the course of centuries. It is this work
+that contains the attempt, praised by some, condemned by others, to
+establish articles of the Jewish faith, the Bible being used in
+authentication. Thirteen articles of faith were thus established. The
+first five naturally define the God-idea: Article 1 declares the
+existence of God, 2, His unity, 3, His immateriality, 4, His eternity,
+5, that unto Him alone, to whom all created life owes its being, human
+adoration is due; the next four treat of revelation: 6, of revelations
+made through prophets in general, 7, of the revelation made through
+Moses, 8, of the divine origin of the Law, 9, of the perfection of the
+Law, and its eternally binding force; and the rest dwell upon the
+divine government of the world: 10, Divine Providence, 11, reward and
+punishment, here and hereafter, 12, Messianic promises and hopes, and
+13, resurrection.
+
+Maimonides' high reputation among his own people is attested by his
+letters and responses, containing detailed answers to vexed religious
+questions. An especially valuable letter is the one upon "Enforced
+Apostasy," _Iggereth ha-Sh'mad_. He advises an inquirer what to do when
+menaced by religious persecutions. Is one to save life by accepting, or
+to court death by refusing to embrace, the Mohammedan faith? Maimonides'
+opinion is summed up in the words: "The solution which I always
+recommend to my friends and those consulting me is, to leave such
+regions, and to turn to a place in which religion can be practiced
+without fear of persecution. No considerations of danger, of property,
+or of family should prevent one from carrying out this purpose. The
+divine Law stands in higher esteem with the wise than the haphazard
+gifts of fortune. These pass away, the former remains." His responses as
+well as his most important works bear the impress of a sane,
+well-ordered mind, of a lofty intellect, dwelling only upon what is
+truly great.
+
+Also his second famous work, the above-mentioned Hebrew Codex, _Mishneh
+Torah_, "Recapitulation of the Law," was written in the interest of his
+brethren in faith. Its fourteen divisions treat of knowledge, love, the
+festivals, marriage laws, sanctifications, vows, seeds, Temple-service,
+sacrifices, purifications, damages, purchase and sale, courts, and
+judges. "My work is such," says Maimonides, "that my book in connection
+with the Bible will enable a student to dispense with the Talmud." From
+whatever point of view this work may be regarded, it must be admitted
+that Maimonides carried out his plan with signal success, and that it is
+the only one by which method could have been introduced into the
+manifold departments of Jewish religious lore. But it is obvious that
+the thinker had not yet reached the goal of his desires. In consonance
+with his fundamental principle, a scientific systemization of religious
+laws had to be followed up by an explanation of revealed religion and
+Greek-Arabic philosophy, and by the attempt to bring about a
+reconciliation between them.
+
+Before we enter upon this his greatest book, it is well to dispose of
+the second phase of his work, his activity as a medical writer.
+Maimonides treated medicine as a science, a view not usual in those
+days. The body of facts relating to medicine he classified, as he had
+systematized the religious laws of the Talmud. In his methodical way, he
+also edited the writings of Galen, the medical oracle of the middle
+ages, and his own medical aphorisms and treatises are marked by the same
+love of system. It seems that he had the intention to prepare a medical
+codex to serve a purpose similar to that of his religious code. How
+great a reputation he enjoyed among Mohammedan physicians is shown by
+the extravagantly enthusiastic verses of an Arabic poet:
+
+    "Of body's ills doth Galen's art relieve,
+    Maimonides cures mind and body both,--
+    His wisdom heals disease and ignorance.
+    And should the moon invoke his skill and art,
+    Her spots, when full her orb, would disappear;
+    He'd fill her breach, when time doth inroads make,
+    And cure her, too, of pallor caused by earth."
+
+Maimonides' real greatness, however, must be sought in his philosophic
+work. Despite the wide gap between our intellectual attitude and the
+philosophic views to which Maimonides gave fullest expression, we can
+properly appreciate his achievements and his intellectual grasp by
+judging him with reference to his own time. When we realize that he
+absorbed all the thought-currents of his time, that he was their
+faithful expounder, and that, at the same time, he was gifted with an
+accurate, historic instinct, making him wholly objective, we shall
+recognize in him "the genius of his peculiar epoch become incarnate."
+The work containing Maimonides' deepest thought and the sum of his
+knowledge and erudition was written in Arabic under the name _Dalalat
+al-Haïrin_. In Hebrew it is known as _Moreh Nebuchim_, in Latin, as
+_Doctor Perplexorum_, and in English as the "Guide of the Perplexed." To
+this book we shall now devote our attention. The original Arabic text
+was supposed, along with many other literary treasures of the middle
+ages, to be lost, until Solomon Munk, the blind _savant_ with clear
+vision, discovered it in the library at Paris, and published it. But in
+its Hebrew translation the book created a stir, which subsided only with
+its public burning at Montpellier early in the thirteenth century. The
+Latin translation we owe to Buxtorf; the German is, I believe,
+incomplete, and can hardly be said to give evidence of ripe
+scholarship.[39]
+
+The question that naturally suggests itself is: What does the book
+contain? Does it establish a new system of philosophy? Is it a
+cyclopædia of the sciences, such as the Arab schools of that day were
+wont to produce? Neither the one nor the other. The "Guide of the
+Perplexed" is a system of rational theology upon a philosophic basis, a
+book not intended for novices, but for thinkers, for such minds as know
+how to penetrate the profound meaning of tradition, as the author says
+in a prefatory letter addressed to Joseph ibn Aknin, his favorite
+disciple. He believes that even those to whom the book appeals are often
+puzzled and confused by the apparent inconsistencies between the literal
+interpretation of the Bible and the evidence of reason, that they do not
+know whether to take Scriptural expressions as symbolic or allegoric, or
+to accept them in their literal meaning, and that they fall a prey to
+doubt, and long for a guide. Maimonides is prepared to lead them to an
+eminence on which religion and philosophy meet in perfect harmony.
+
+Educated in the school of Arabic philosophers, notably under the
+influence of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Maimonides paid hero-worship to
+Aristotle, the autocrat of the middle ages in the realm of speculation.
+There is no question that the dominion wielded by the Greek philosopher
+throughout mediæval times, and the influence which he exercises even
+now, are chiefly attributable to the Arabs, and beside them,
+pre-eminently to Maimonides. For him, Aristotle was second in authority
+only to the Bible. A rational interpretation of the Bible, in his
+opinion, meant its interpretation from an Aristotelian point of view.
+Still, he does not consider Aristotle other than a thinker like himself,
+not by any means the infallible "organ of reason." The moment he
+discovers that a peripatetic principle is in direct and irreconcilable
+conflict with his religious convictions, he parts company with it, let
+the effort cost what it may. For, above all, Maimonides was a faithful
+Jew, striving to reach a spiritual conception of his religion, and to
+assign to theology the place in his estimation belonging to it in the
+realm of science. He stands forth as the most eminent intermediary
+between Greek-Arabic thought and Christian scholasticism. A century
+later, the most prominent of the schoolmen endeavored, in the same way
+as Maimonides, to reconcile divine with human wisdom as manifested by
+Aristotle. It has been demonstrated that Maimonides was followed by both
+Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, and that the new aims of philosophy,
+conceived at the beginning of the thirteenth century, are, in part, to
+be traced to the influence of "Rabbi Moses of Egypt," as Maimonides was
+called by the first of these two celebrated doctors of the Church.
+
+What a marvellous picture is presented by the unfolding of the
+Aristotelian idea in its passage through the ages! And one of the most
+attractive figures on the canvas is Maimonides. Let us see how he
+undertakes to guide the perplexed. His path is marked out for him by the
+Bible. Its first few verses suffice to puzzle the believing thinker. It
+says: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." What! Is this
+expression to be taken literally? Impossible! To conceive of God as such
+that a being can be made in His image, is to conceive of Him as a
+corporeal substance. But God is an invisible, immaterial Intelligence.
+Reason teaches this, and the sacred Book itself prohibits image-worship.
+On this point Aristotle and the Bible are in accord. The inference is
+that in the Holy Scriptures there are many metaphors and words with a
+double or allegoric sense. Such is the case with the word "image." It
+has two meanings, the one usual and obvious, the other figurative. Here
+the word must be taken in its figurative sense. God is conceived as the
+highest Reason, and as reason is the specific attribute which
+characterizes the human mind, it follows that man, by virtue of his
+possession of reason, resembles God, and the more fully he realizes the
+ideal of Reason, the closer does he approach the form and likeness of
+God. Such is Maimonides' method of reasoning. He does not build up a new
+system of philosophy, he adopts an existing system. Beginning with Bible
+exegesis, he leads us, step by step, up to the lofty goal at which
+philosophy and faith are linked in perfect harmony.
+
+The arguments for the existence, unity, and incorporeity of God divide
+the Arabic philosophers into two schools. Maimonides naturally espoused
+the view permitting the most exalted conception of God, that is, the
+conception of God free from human attributes. He recognizes none but
+negative attributes; in other words, he defines God by means of
+negations only. For instance, asserting that the Supreme Being is
+omniscient or omnipotent, is not investing Him with a positive
+attribute, it is simply denying imperfection. The student knows that in
+the history of the doctrine of attributes, the recognition of negative
+attributes marks a great advance in philosophic reasoning. Maimonides
+holds that the conception of the Deity as a pure abstraction is the only
+one truly philosophic. His evidences for the existence, the
+immateriality, and the unity of God, are conceived in the same spirit.
+In offering them he follows Aristotle's reasoning closely, adding only
+one other proof, the cosmological, which he took from his teacher, the
+Arab Avicenna. He logically reaches this proof by more explicitly
+defining the God-idea, and, at the same time, taking into consideration
+the nature of the world of things and their relation to one another.
+Acquainted with Ptolemy's "Almagest" and with the investigations of the
+Arabs, he naturally surpasses his Greek master in astronomical
+knowledge. In physical science, however, he gives undivided allegiance
+to the Aristotelian theory of a sublunary and a celestial world of
+spheres, the former composed of the sublunary elements in constantly
+shifting, perishable combinations, and the latter, of the stable,
+unchanging fifth substance (quintessence). But the question, how God
+moves these spheres, separates Maimonides from his master. His own
+answer has a Neoplatonic ring. He holds, with Aristotle, that there are
+as many separate Intelligences as spheres. Each sphere is supposed to
+aspire to the Intelligence which is the principle of its motion. The
+Arabic thinkers assumed ten such independent Intelligences, one
+animating each of the nine permanent spheres, and the tenth, called the
+"Active Intellect," influencing the sublunary world of matter. The
+existence of this tenth Intelligence is proved by the transition of our
+own intellect from possible existence to actuality, and by the varying
+forms of all transient things, whose matter at one time existed only in
+a potential state. Whenever the transition from potentiality to
+actuality occurs, there must be a cause. Inasmuch as the tenth
+Intelligence (_Sechel Hapoel_, Active Intellect) induces form, it must
+itself be form, inasmuch as it is the source of intellect, it is itself
+intellect. This is, of course, obscure to us, but we must remember that
+Maimonides would not have so charming and individual a personality,
+were he not part and parcel of his time and the representative of its
+belief. Maimonides, having for once deviated from the peripatetic
+system, ventures to take another bold step away from it. He offers an
+explanation, different from Aristotle's, of the creation of the world.
+The latter repudiated the _creatio ex nihilo_ (creation out of nothing).
+Like modern philosophers, he pre-supposed the existence of an eternal
+"First substance" (_materia prima_). His Bible does not permit our rabbi
+to avail himself of this theory. It was reserved for the modern
+investigator to demonstrate how the Scriptural word, with some little
+manipulation, can be so twisted as to be made to harmonize with the
+theories of natural science. But to such trickery the pure-minded guide
+will not stoop. Besides, the acceptance of Aristotle's theory would rule
+out the intervention of miracles in the conduct of the world, and that
+Maimonides does not care to renounce. Right here his monotheistic
+convictions force him into direct opposition to the Greek as well as to
+the Arabic philosophers. Upon this subject, he brooked neither trifling
+nor compromise with reason. It is precisely his honesty that so exalted
+his teachings, that they have survived the lapse of centuries, and
+maintain a place in the pure atmosphere of modern philosophic thought.
+
+According to Maimonides, man has absolute free-will, and God is
+absolutely just. Whatever good befalls man is reward, all his evil
+fortune, punishment. What Aristotle attributes to chance, and the
+Mohammedan philosophers to Divine Will or Divine Wisdom, our rabbi
+traces to the _merits of man_ as its cause. He does not admit any
+suffering to be unmerited, or that God ordains trials merely to
+indemnify the sufferer in this or the future world. Man's susceptibility
+to divine influence is measured by his intellectual endowment. Through
+his "intellect," he is directly connected with the "Active Intellect,"
+and thus secures the grace of God, who embraces the infinite. Such views
+naturally lead to a conception of life in consonance with the purest
+ideals of morality, and they are the goal to which the "Guide" leads the
+perplexed. He teaches that the acquiring of high intellectual power, and
+the "possession of such notions as lead to true metaphysical opinions"
+about God, are "man's final object," and they constitute true human
+perfection. This it is that "gives him immortality," and confers upon
+him the dignity of manhood.
+
+The highest degree of perfection, according to Maimonides, is reached by
+him who devotes all his thoughts and actions to perfecting himself in
+divine matters, and this highest degree he calls prophecy. He is
+probably the first philosopher to offer so rationalistic an explanation,
+and, on that account, it merits our attention. What had previously been
+regarded as supernatural inspiration, the "Guide" reduces to a
+psychological theory. "Prophecy," he says, "is, in truth and reality, an
+emanation sent forth by the Divine Being through the medium of the
+Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's rational faculty, and
+then to his imaginative faculty; it is the highest degree ... of
+perfection man can attain; it consists in the most perfect development
+of the imaginative faculty." Maimonides distinguishes eleven degrees of
+inspiration, and three essential conditions of prophecy: 1. Perfection
+of the natural constitution of the imaginative faculty, 2. mental
+perfection, which may partially be acquired by training, and 3. moral
+perfection. Moses arrived at the highest degree of prophecy, because he
+understood the knowledge communicated to him without the medium of the
+imaginative faculty. This spiritual height having been scaled, the
+"Guide" needs but to take a step to reach revelation, in his estimation
+also an intellectual process: man's intellect rises to the Supreme
+Being.
+
+In the third part of his work, Maimonides endeavors to reconcile the
+conclusions of philosophy with biblical laws and Talmudical traditions.
+His method is both original and valuable; indeed, this deserves to be
+considered the most important part of his work. Detailed exposition of
+his reasoning may prove irksome; we shall, therefore, consider it as
+briefly as possible.
+
+Maimonides laid down one rule of interpretation which, almost without
+exception, proves applicable: The words of Holy Writ express different
+sets of ideas, bearing a certain relation to each other, the one set
+having reference to physical, the other to spiritual, qualities. By
+applying this rule, he thinks that nearly all discrepancies between the
+literal interpretation of the Bible and his own philosophic theories
+disappear. Having passed over the domain of metaphysical speculation, he
+finally reaches the consideration of the practical side of the Bible,
+that is to say, the Mosaic legislation. These last investigations of his
+are attractive, not only by reason of the satisfactory method pursued,
+but chiefly from the fact that Maimonides, divesting himself of the
+conservatism of his contemporaries, ventures to inquire into the reasons
+of biblical laws. For many of them, he assigns local and historical
+reasons; many, he thinks, owe their origin to the desire to oppose the
+superstitious practices of early times and of the Sabeans, a mythical,
+primitive race; but all, he contends, are binding, and with this solemn
+asseveration, he puts the seal upon his completed work.
+
+When Maimonides characterized the "Guide of the Perplexed" as "the true
+science of the Bible," he formed a just estimate of his own work. It has
+come to be the substructure of a rational theology based upon
+speculation. Maimonides cannot be said to have been very much ahead of
+his own age; but it is altogether certain that he attained the acme of
+the possibilities of the middle ages. In many respects there is a
+striking likeness between his life and work and those of the Arabic
+freethinker Averroës, whom we now know so well through Ernest Renan.
+While the Jewish theologian was composing his great work, the Arabic
+philosopher was writing his "Commentaries on Aristotle." The two had
+similar ends in view--the one to enthrone "the Stagirite" as the
+autocrat of philosophy in the Mosque, the other, in the Synagogue. We
+have noted the fact that, some centuries later, the Church also entered
+the federation subject to Aristotelian rule. Albertus Magnus uses
+Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas joins him, and upon them depend the other
+schoolmen. Recent inquirers follow in their train. Philosophy's noblest
+votary, Benedict Spinoza himself, is influenced by Maimonides. He quotes
+frequently and at great length the finest passages of the "Guide."
+Again, Moses Mendelssohn built his system on the foundations offered by
+Maimonides, and an acute critic assures us that, in certain passages,
+Kant's religious philosophy breathes the spirit of Maimonides.[40]
+
+The "Guide of the Perplexed" did not, however, meet with so gracious a
+reception in the Synagogue. There, Maimonides' philosophic system
+conjured up violent storms. The whole of an epoch, that following
+Maimonides' death, was absorbed in the conflict between philosophy and
+tradition. Controversial pamphlets without number have come down to us
+from those days. Enthusiasts eulogized, zealots decried. Maimonides'
+ambiguous expressions about bodily resurrection, seeming to indicate
+that he did not subscribe to the article of the creed on that subject,
+caused particularly acrimonious polemics. Meïr ben Todros ha-Levi, a
+Talmudist and poet of Toledo, denounced the equivocation in the
+following lines:
+
+    "If those that rise from death again must die,
+    For lot like theirs I ne'er should long and sigh.
+    If graves their bones shall once again confine,
+    I hope to stay where first they bury mine."
+
+Naturally, Maimonides' followers were quick to retort:
+
+    "His name, forsooth, is Meïr 'Shining.'
+      How false! since _light_ he holds in small esteem.
+    Our language always contrast loveth,--
+      Twi_light_'s the name of ev'ning's doubtful gleam."
+
+Another of Maimonides' opponents was the physician Judah Alfachar, who
+bore the hereditary title _Prince_. The following pasquinade is
+attributed to him:
+
+    "Forgive, O Amram's son, nor deem it crime,
+      That he, deception's master, bears thy name.
+    _Nabi_ we call the prophet of truths sublime,
+      Like him of Ba'al, who doth the truth defame."
+
+Maimonides, in his supposed reply to the Prince, played upon the word
+_Chamor_, the Hebrew word for _ass_, the name of a Hivite prince
+mentioned in the Bible:
+
+    "High rank, I wot, we proudly claim
+      When sprung from noble ancestor;
+    Henceforth my mule a _prince_ I'll name
+      Since once a prince was called _Chamor_."
+
+It seems altogether certain that this polemic rhyming is the fabrication
+of a later day, for we know that the controversies about Maimonides'
+opinions in Spain and Provence broke out only after his death, when his
+chief work had spread far and wide in its Hebrew translation. The
+following stanza passed from mouth to mouth in northern France:
+
+    "Be silent, 'Guide,' from further speech refrain!
+      Thus truth to us was never brought.
+    Accursed who says that Holy Writ's a trope,
+      And idle dreams what prophets taught."
+
+Whereupon the Provençals returned:
+
+    "Thou fool, I pray thou wilt forbear,
+      Nor enter on this consecrated ground.
+    Or trope, or truth--or vision fair,
+      Or only dream--for thee 'tis too profound."
+
+The homage paid to Maimonides' memory in many instances produced most
+extravagant poetry. The following high-flown lines, outraging the canons
+of good taste recognized in Hebrew poetry, are supposed to be his
+epitaph:
+
+    "Here lies a man, yet not a man,
+    And if a man, conceived by angels,
+      By human mother only born to light;
+    Perhaps himself a spirit pure--
+    Not child by man and woman fostered--
+      From God above an emanation bright."
+
+Such hyperbole naturally challenged opposition, and Maimonides'
+opponents did not hesitate to give voice to their deep indignation, as
+in the following:
+
+    "Alas! that man should dare
+    To say, with reckless air,
+      That Holy Scripture's but a dream of night;
+    That all we read therein
+    Has truly never been,
+      Is naught but sign of meaning recondite.
+    And when God's wondrous deeds
+    The haughty scorner reads,
+      Contemptuous he cries, 'I trust my sight.'"
+
+A cessation of hostilities came only in the fourteenth century. The
+"Guide" was then given its due meed of appreciation by the Jews. Later,
+Maimonides' memory was held in unbounded reverence, and to-day his
+"Guide of the Perplexed" is a manual of religious philosophy treasured
+by Judaism.
+
+If we wish once more before parting from this earnest, noble thinker to
+review his work and attitude, we can best do it by applying to them the
+standard furnished by his own reply to all adverse critics of his
+writings: "In brief, such is my disposition. When a thought fills my
+mind, though I be able to express it so that only a single man among ten
+thousand, a thinker, is satisfied and elevated by it, while the common
+crowd condemns it as absurd, I boldly and frankly speak the word that
+enlightens the wise, never fearing the censure of the ignorant herd."
+
+This was Maimonides--he of pure thought, of noble purpose; imbued with
+enthusiasm for his faith, with love for science; ruled by the loftiest
+moral principles; full of disinterested love and the milk of human
+kindness in his intercourse with those of other faiths and other views;
+an eagle-eyed thinker, in whom were focused and harmoniously blended the
+last rays of the declining sun of Arabic-Jewish-Spanish culture.
+
+
+
+
+JEWISH TROUBADOURS AND MINNESINGERS
+
+
+A great tournament at the court of Pedro I.! Deafening fanfares invite
+courtiers and cavaliers to participate in the festivities. In the
+brilliant sunshine gleam the lances of the knights, glitter the spears
+of the hidalgos. Gallant paladins escort black-eyed beauties to the
+elevated balcony, on which, upon a high-raised throne, under a gilded
+canopy, surrounded by courtiers, sit Blanche de Bourbon and her
+illustrious lord Dom Pedro, with Doña Maria de Padilla, the lady of his
+choice, at his left. Three times the trumpets have sounded, announcing
+the approach of the troubadours gathered from all parts of Castile to
+compete with one another in song. Behold! a venerable old man, with
+silvery white beard flowing down upon his breast, seeks to extricate
+himself from the crowd. With admiring gaze the people respectfully make
+way, and enthusiastically greet him: "Rabbi Don Santo! Rabbi Don Santo!"
+
+The troubadour makes a low obeisance before the throne. Dom Pedro nods
+encouragement, Maria de Padilla smiles graciously, only Doña Blanca's
+pallid face remains immobile. The hoary bard begins his song:[41]
+
+    "My noble king and mighty lord,
+      A discourse hear most true;
+    'Tis Santob brings your Grace the word,
+      Of Carrion's town the Jew.
+
+    In plainest verse my thought I tell,
+      With gloss and moral free,
+    Drawn from Philosophy's pure well,
+      As onward you may see."[42]
+
+A murmur of approval runs through the crowd; grandees and hidalgos press
+closer to listen. In well-turned verse, fraught with worldly-wise
+lessons, and indifferent whether his hortations meet with praise or with
+censure, the poet continues to pour out words of counsel and moral
+teachings, alike for king, nobles, and people.
+
+Who is this Rabbi Don Santob? We know very little about him, yet, with
+the help of "bright-eyed fancy," enough to paint his picture. The real
+name of this Jew from Carrion de los Condes, a city of northern Spain,
+who lived under Alfonso XI and Peter the Cruel, was, of course, not
+Santob, but Shem-Tob. Under Alfonso the intellectual life of Spain
+developed to a considerable degree, and in Spain, as almost everywhere,
+we find Jews in sympathy with the first intellectual strivings of the
+nation. They have a share in the development of all Romance languages
+and literatures. Ibn Alfange, a Moorish Jew, after his conversion a high
+official, wrote the first "Chronicle of the Cid," the oldest source of
+the oft-repeated biography, thus furnishing material to subsequent
+Spanish poets and historians. Valentin Barruchius (Baruch), of Toledo,
+composed, probably in the twelfth century, in pure, choice Latin, the
+romance _Comte Lyonnais, Palanus_, which spread all over Europe,
+affording modern poets subject-matter for great tragedies, and forming
+the groundwork for one of the classics of Spanish literature. A little
+later, Petrus Alphonsus (Moses Sephardi) wrote his _Disciplina
+Clericalis_, the first collection of tales in the Oriental manner, the
+model of all future collections of the kind.
+
+Three of the most important works of Spanish literature, then, are
+products of Jewish authorship. This fact prepares the student to find a
+Jew among the Castilian troubadours of the fourteenth century, the
+period of greatest literary activity. The Jewish spirit was by no means
+antagonistic to the poetry of the Provençal troubadours. In his didactic
+poem, _Chotham Tochnith_ ("The Seal of Perfection," together with "The
+Flaming Sword"), Abraham Bedersi, that is, of Béziers (1305), challenges
+his co-religionists to a poetic combat. He details the rules of the
+tournament, and it is evident that he is well acquainted with all the
+minutiæ of the _jeu parti_ and the _tenso_ (song of dispute) of the
+Provençal singers, and would willingly imitate their _sirventes_ (moral
+and political song). His plaint over the decadence of poetry among the
+Jews is characteristic: "Where now are the marvels of Hebrew poetry?
+Mayhap thou'lt find them in the Provençal or Romance. Aye, in Folquet's
+verses is manna, and from the lips of Cardinal is wafted the perfume of
+crocus and nard"--Folquet de Lunel and Peire Cardinal being the last
+great representatives of Provençal troubadour poetry. Later on,
+neo-Hebraic poets again show acquaintance with the regulations governing
+song-combats and courts of love. Pious Bible exegetes, like Samuel ben
+Meïr, do not disdain to speak of the _partimens_ of the troubadours, "in
+which lovers talk to each other, and by turns take up the discourse."
+One of his school, a _Tossafist_, goes so far as to press into service
+the day's fashion in explaining the meaning of a verse in the "Song of
+Songs": "To this day lovers treasure their mistress' locks as
+love-tokens." It seems, too, that Provençal romances were heard, and
+their great poets welcomed, in the houses of Jews, who did not scruple
+occasionally to use their melodies in the synagogue service.
+
+National customs, then, took root in Israel; but that Jewish elements
+should have become incorporated into Spanish literature is more
+remarkable, may, indeed, be called marvellous. Yet, from one point of
+view, it is not astonishing. The whole of mediæval Spanish literature is
+nothing more than the handmaiden of Christianity. Spanish poetry is
+completely dominated by Catholicism; it is in reality only an expression
+of reverence for Christian institutions. An extreme naturally induces a
+counter-current; so here, by the side of rigid orthodoxy, we meet with
+latitudinarianism and secular delight in the good things of life. For
+instance, that jolly rogue, the archpriest of Hita, by way of relaxation
+from the tenseness of church discipline, takes to composing _dansas_ and
+_baladas_ for the rich Jewish bankers of his town. He and his
+contemporaries have much to say about Jewish generosity--unfortunately,
+much, too, about Jewish wealth and pomp. Jewish women, a Jewish
+chronicler relates, are tricked out with finery, as "sumptuously as the
+pope's mules." It goes without saying that, along with these accounts,
+we have frequent wailing about defection from the faith and neglect of
+the Law. Old Akiba is right: "History repeats itself!" ("_Es ist alles
+schon einmal da gewesen!_").
+
+Such were the times of Santob de Carrion. Our first information about
+him comes from the Marquis de Santillana, one of the early patrons and
+leaders of Spanish literature. He says, "In my grandfather's time there
+was a Jew, Rabbi Santob, who wrote many excellent things, among them
+_Proverbios Morales_ (Moral Proverbs), truly commendable in spirit. A
+great troubadour, he ranks among the most celebrated poets of Spain."
+Despite this high praise, the marquis feels constrained to apologize for
+having quoted a passage from Santob's work. His praise is endorsed by
+the critics. It is commonly conceded that his _Consejos y Documentos al
+Rey Dom Pedro_ ("Counsel and Instruction to King Dom Pedro"), consisting
+of six hundred and twenty-eight romances, deserves a place among the
+best creations of Castilian poetry, which, in form and substance, owes
+not a little to Rabbi Santob. A valuable manuscript at the Escurial in
+Madrid contains his _Consejos_ and two other works, _La Doctrina
+Christiana_ and _Dansa General_. A careless copyist called the whole
+collection "Rabbi Santob's Book," so giving rise to the mistake of
+Spanish critics, who believe that Rabbi Santob, indisputably the author
+of _Consejos_, became a convert to Christianity, and wrote, after his
+conversion, the didactic poem on doctrinal Christianity, and perhaps
+also the first "Dance of Death."[43] It was reserved for the acuteness
+of German criticism to expose the error of this hypothesis. Of the three
+works, only _Consejos_ belongs to Rabbi Santob, the others were
+accidentally bound with it. In passing, the interesting circumstance may
+be noted that in the first "Dance of Death" a bearded rabbi (_Rabbi
+barbudo_) dances toward the universal goal between a priest and an
+usurer. Santob de Carrion remained a Jew. His _consejos_, written when
+he was advanced in age, are pervaded by loyalty to his king, but no less
+to his faith, which he openly professed at the royal court, and whose
+spiritual treasures he adroitly turned to poetic uses.
+
+Santob, it is interesting to observe, was not a writer of erotic poetry.
+He composed poems on moral subjects only, social satires and
+denunciations of vice. Such are the _consejos_. It is in his capacity as
+a preacher of morality that Santob is to be classed among troubadours.
+First he addressed himself, with becoming deference, to the king,
+leading him to consider God's omnipotence:
+
+    "As great, 'twixt heav'n and earth the space--
+      That ether pure and blue--
+    So great is God's forgiving grace
+      Your sins to lift from you.
+
+    And with His vast and wondrous might
+      He does His deeds of power;
+    But yours are puny in His sight,
+      For strength is not man's dower."
+
+At that time it required more than ordinary courage to address a king in
+this fashion; but Santob was old and poor, and having nothing to lose,
+could risk losing everything. A democratic strain runs through his
+verses; he delights in aiming his satires at the rich, the high-born,
+and the powerful, and takes pride in his poverty and his fame as a poet:
+
+    "I will not have you think me less
+      Than others of my faith,
+    Who live on a generous king's largess,
+      Forsworn at every breath.
+
+    And if you deem my teachings true,
+      Reject them not with hate,
+    Because a minstrel sings to you
+      Who's not of knight's estate.
+
+    The fragrant, waving reed grows tall
+      From feeble root and thin,
+    And uncouth worms that lowly crawl
+      Most lustrous silk do spin.
+
+    Because beside a thorn it grows
+      The rose is not less fair;
+    Though wine from gnarlèd branches flows,
+      'Tis sweet beyond compare.
+
+    The goshawk, know, can soar on high,
+      Yet low he nests his brood.
+    A Jew true precepts doth apply,
+      Are they therefore less good?
+
+    Some Jews there are with slavish mind
+      Who fear, are mute, and meek.
+    My soul to truth is so inclined
+      That all I feel I speak.
+
+    There often comes a meaning home
+      Through simple verse and plain,
+    While in the heavy, bulky tome
+      We find of truth no grain.
+
+    Full oft a man with furrowed front,
+      Whom grief hath rendered grave,
+    Whose views of life are honest, blunt,
+      Both fool is called and knave."
+
+It is surely not unwarranted to assume that from these confessions the
+data of Santob's biography may be gathered.
+
+Now as to Santob's relation to Judaism. Doubtless he was a faithful Jew,
+for the views of life and the world laid down in his poems rest on the
+Bible, the Talmud, and the Midrash. With the fearlessness of conviction
+he meets the king and the people, denouncing the follies of both. Some
+of his romances sound precisely like stories from the Haggada, so
+skilfully does he clothe his counsel in the gnomic style of the Bible
+and the Talmud. This characteristic is particularly well shown in his
+verses on friendship, into which he has woven the phraseology of the
+Proverbs:
+
+    "What treasure greater than a friend
+      Who close to us hath grown?
+    Blind fate no bitt'rer lot can send
+      Than bid us walk alone.
+
+    For solitude doth cause a dearth
+      Of fruitful, blessed thought.
+    The wise would pray to leave this earth,
+      If none their friendship sought.
+
+    Yet sad though loneliness may be,
+      That friendship surely shun
+    That feigns to love, and inwardly
+      Betrays affections won."
+
+The poem closes with a prayer for the king, who certainly could not have
+taken offense at Santob's frankness:
+
+    "May God preserve our lord and king
+      With grace omnipotent,
+    Remove from us each evil thing,
+      And blessed peace augment.
+
+    The nations loyally allied
+      Our empire to exalt,
+    May God, in whom we all confide,
+      From plague keep and assault.
+
+    If God will answer my request,
+      Then will be paid his due--
+    Your noble father's last behest--
+      To Santob, Carrion's Jew."
+
+Our troubadour's poetry shows that he was devotedly attached to his
+prince, enthusiastically loved his country, and was unfalteringly loyal
+to his faith; that he told the king honest, wholesome truths disguised
+in verse; that he took no pains to conceal his scorn of those who, with
+base servility, bowed to the ruling faith, and permitted its yoke to be
+put upon their necks; that he felt himself the peer of the high in rank,
+and the wealthy in the goods of this world; that he censured, with
+incisive criticism, the vices of his Spanish and his Jewish
+contemporaries--all of which is calculated to inspire us with admiration
+for the Jewish troubadour, whose manliness enabled him to meet his
+detractors boldly, as in the verses quoted above:
+
+    "Because beside a thorn it grows,
+      The rose is not less fair;
+    Though wine from gnarlèd branches flows,
+      'Tis sweet beyond compare.
+
+    A Jew true precepts doth apply,
+      Are they therefore less good?"
+
+History does not tell us whether Pedro rewarded the Jewish troubadour as
+the latter, if we may judge by the end of his poem, had expected. Our
+accounts of his life are meagre; even his fellow-believers do not make
+mention of him. We do know, however, that the poor poet's prayers for
+his sovereign, his petitions for the weal and the glory of his country
+were not granted. Pedro lost his life by violence, quarrels about the
+succession and civil wars convulsed the land, and weakened the royal
+power. Its decline marked the end of the peace and happiness of the Jew
+on Castilian soil.
+
+As times grew worse, and persecutions of the Jews in Christian Spain
+became frequent, many forsook the faith of their fathers, to bask in the
+sunshine of the Church, who treated proselytes with distinguished favor.
+The example of the first Jewish troubadour did not find imitators. Among
+the converts were many poets, notably Juan Alfonso de Bæna, who, in the
+fifteenth century, collected the oldest troubadour poetry, including his
+own poems and satires, and the writings of the Jewish physician Don
+Moses Zarzal, into a _cancionera general_. Like many apostates, he
+sought to prove his devotion to the new faith by mocking at and reviling
+his former brethren. The attacked were not slow to answer in kind, and
+the Christian world of poets and bards joined the latter in deriding the
+neophytes. Spanish literature was not the loser by these combats, whose
+description belongs to general literary criticism. Lyric poetry, until
+then dry, serious, and solemn, was infused by the satirist with flashing
+wit and whimsical spirit, and throwing off its connection with the
+drama, developed into an independent species of poetry.
+
+The last like the first of Spanish troubadours was a Jew,[44] Antonio di
+Montoro (Moro), _el ropero_ (the tailor), of Cordova, of whom a
+contemporary says,
+
+    "A man of repute and lofty fame;
+    As poet, he puts many to shame;
+    Anton di Montoro is his name."
+
+The tailor-poet was exposed to attacks, too. A high and mighty Spanish
+_caballero_ addresses him as
+
+    "You Cohn, you cur,
+    You miserable Jew,
+    You wicked usurer."
+
+It must be admitted that he parries these thrusts with weak, apologetic
+appeals, preserved in his _Respuestas_ (Rhymed Answers). He claims his
+high-born foe's sympathy by telling him that he has sons, grandchildren,
+a poor, old father, and a marriageable daughter. In extenuation of his
+cowardice it should be remembered that Antonio di Montoro lived during a
+reign of terror, under Ferdinand and Isabella, when his race and his
+faith were exposed to most frightful persecution. All the more
+noteworthy is it that he had the courage to address the queen in behalf
+of his faith. He laments plaintively that despite his sixty years he has
+not been able to eradicate all traces of his descent (_reato de su
+origen_), and turns his irony against himself:
+
+    "Ropero, so sad and so forlorn,
+    Now thou feelest pain and scorn.
+    Until sixty years had flown,
+    Thou couldst say to every one,
+    'Nothing wicked have I known.'
+
+    Christian convert hast thou turned,
+    _Credo_ thou to say hast learned;
+    Willing art now bold to view
+    Plates of ham--no more askew.
+    Mass thou hearest,
+    Church reverest,
+    Genuflexions makest,
+    Other alien customs takest.
+    Now thou, too, mayst persecute
+    Those poor wretches, like a brute."
+
+"Those poor wretches" were his brethren in faith in the fair Spanish
+land. With a jarring discord ends the history of the Jews in Spain. On
+the ninth of Ab, 1492, three hundred thousand Jews left the land to
+which they had given its first and its last troubadour. The irony of
+fate directed that at the selfsame time Christopher Columbus should
+embark for unknown lands, and eventually reach America, a new world, the
+refuge of all who suffer, wherein thought was destined to grow strong
+enough "to vanquish arrogance and injustice without recourse to
+arrogance and injustice"--a new illustration of the old verse: "Behold,
+he slumbereth not, and he sleepeth not--the keeper of Israel."
+
+* * *
+
+A great tournament at the court of the lords of Trimberg, the Franconian
+town on the Saale! From high battlements stream the pennons of the noble
+race, announcing rare festivities to all the country round. The
+mountain-side is astir with knights equipped with helmet, shield, and
+lance, and attended by pages and armor-bearers, minnesingers and
+minstrels. Yonder is Walther von der Vogelweide, engaged in earnest
+conversation with Wolfram von Eschenbach, Otto von Botenlaube, Hildebold
+von Schwanegau, and Reinmar von Brennenberg. In that group of notables,
+curiously enough, we discern a Jew, whose beautiful features reflect
+harmonious soul life.
+
+"Süsskind von Trimberg," they call him, and when the pleasure of the
+feast in the lordly hall of the castle is to be heightened by song and
+music, he too steps forth, with fearlessness and dignity, to sing of
+freedom of thought, to the prevalence of which in this company the
+despised Jew owed his admission to a circle of knights and poets:[45]
+
+    "O thought! free gift to humankind!
+      By thee both fools and wise are led,
+    But who thy paths hath all defined,
+      A man he is in heart and head.
+      With thee, his weakness being fled,
+    He can both stone and steel command,
+    Thy pinions bear him o'er the land.
+
+    O thought that swifter art than light,
+      That mightier art than tempest's roar!
+    Didst thou not raise me in thy flight,
+      What were my song, my minstrel lore,
+      And what the gold from _Minne's_ store?
+    Beyond the heights an eagle vaunts,
+    O bear me to the spirit's haunts!"
+
+His song meets with the approval of the knights, who give generous
+encouragement to the minstrel. Raising his eyes to the proud, beautiful
+mistress of the castle, he again strikes his lyre and sings:
+
+    "Pure woman is to man a crown,
+    For her he strives to win renown.
+    Did she not grace and animate,
+    How mean and low the castle great!
+    By true companionship, the wife
+    Makes blithe and free a man's whole life;
+    Her light turns bright the darkest day.
+    Her praise and worth I'll sing alway."
+
+The lady inclines her fair head in token of thanks, and the lord of
+castle Trimberg fills the golden goblet, and hands it, the mark of
+honor, to the poet, who drains it, and then modestly steps back into the
+circle of his compeers. Now we have leisure to examine the rare man.--
+
+Rüdiger Manesse, a town councillor of Zürich in the fourteenth century,
+raised a beautiful monument to bardic art in a manuscript work, executed
+at his order, containing the songs of one hundred and forty poets,
+living between the twelfth and the fourteenth century. Among the authors
+are kings, princes, noblemen of high rank and low, burgher-poets, and
+the Jew Süsskind von Trimberg. Each poet's productions are accompanied
+by illustrations, not authentic portraits, but a series of vivid
+representations of scenes of knight-errantry. There are scenes of war
+and peace, of combats, the chase, and tourneys with games, songs, and
+dance. We see the storming of a castle of Love (_Minneburg_)--lovers
+fleeing, lovers separated, love triumphant. Heinrich von Veldeke
+reclines upon a bank of roses; Friedrich von Hausen is on board a boat;
+Walther von der Vogelweide sits musing on a wayside stone; Wolfram von
+Eschenbach stands armed, with visor closed, next to his caparisoned
+horse, as though about to mount. Among the portraits of the knights and
+bards is Süsskind von Trimberg's. How does Rüdiger Manesse represent
+him? As a long-bearded Jew, on his head a yellow, funnel-shaped hat, the
+badge of distinction decreed by Pope Innocent III. to be worn by Jews.
+That is all! and save what we may infer from his six poems preserved by
+the history of literature, pretty much all, too, known of Süsskind von
+Trimberg.
+
+Was it the heedlessness of the compiler that associated the Jew with
+this merry company, in which he was as much out of place as a Gothic
+spire on a synagogue? Süsskind came by the privilege fairly. Throughout
+the middle ages the Jews of Germany were permeated with the culture of
+their native land, and were keenly concerned in the development of its
+poetry. A still more important circumstance is the spirit of tolerance
+and humanity that pervades Middle High German poetry. Wolfram von
+Eschenbach based his _Parzival_, the herald of "Nathan the Wise," on the
+idea of the brotherhood of man; Walther von der Vogelweide ranged
+Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans together as children of the one God;
+and Freidank, reflecting that God lets His sun shine on the confessors
+of all creeds, went so far as to repudiate the doctrine of the eternal
+damnation of Jews. This trend of thought, characterizing both Jews and
+Christians, suffices to explain how, in Germany, and at the very time in
+which the teachers of the Church were reviling "the mad Jews, who ought
+to be hewn down like dogs," it was possible for a Jew to be a
+minnesinger, a minstrel among minstrels, and abundantly accounts for
+Süsskind von Trimberg's association with knights and ladies. Süsskind,
+then, doubtless journeyed with his brother-poets from castle to castle;
+yet our imagination would be leading us astray, were we to accept
+literally the words of the enthusiastic historian Graetz, and with him
+believe that "on vine-clad hills, seated in the circle of noble knights
+and fair dames, a beaker of wine at his side, his lyre in his hand, he
+sang his polished verses of love's joys and trials, love's hopes and
+fears, and then awaited the largesses that bought his daily bread."[46]
+
+Süsskind's poems are not at all like the joyous, rollicking songs his
+mates carolled forth; they are sad and serious, tender and chaste. Of
+love there is not a word. A minnesinger and a Jew--irreconcilable
+opposites! A minnesinger must be a knight wooing his lady-love, whose
+colors he wears at the tournaments, and for whose sake he undertakes a
+pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Jew's minstrelsy is a lament for Zion.
+
+In fact what is _Minne_--this service of love? Is it not at bottom the
+cult of the Virgin Mary? Is it not, in a subtle, mysterious way, a phase
+of Christianity itself? How could it have appealed to the Jew Süsskind?
+True, the Jews, too, have an ideal of love in the "Song of Songs": "Lo,
+thou art beautiful, my beloved!" it says, but our old sages took the
+beloved to be the Synagogue. Of this love Princess Sabbath is the ideal,
+and the passion of the "Song of Songs" is separated from German _Minne_
+by the great gap between the soul life of the Semite and that of the
+Christian German. Unbridled sensuousness surges through the songs rising
+to the chambers of noble ladies. Kabbalistic passion glows in the
+mysterious love of the Jew. The German minstrel sings of love's
+sweetness and pain, of summer and its delights, of winter and its woes,
+now of joy and happiness, again of ill-starred fortunes. And what is the
+burden of the exiled Hebrew's song? Mysterious allusions, hidden in a
+tangle of highly polished, artificial, slow-moving rhymes, glorify, not
+a sweet womanly presence, but a fleeting vision, a shadow, whose elusive
+charms infatuated the poet in his dreams. Bright, joyous, blithe,
+unmeasured is the one; serious, gloomy, chaste, gentle, the other.
+
+Yet, Süsskind von Trimberg was at once a Jew and a minnesinger. Who can
+fathom a poet's soul? Who can follow his thoughts as they fly hither and
+thither, like the thread in a weaver's shuttle, fashioning themselves
+into a golden web? The minnesingers enlisted in love's cause, yet none
+the less in war and the defense of truth, and for the last Süsskind von
+Trimberg did valiant service. The poems of his earliest period, the
+blithesome days of youth, have not survived. Those that we have bear the
+stamp of sorrow and trouble, the gifts of advanced years. With
+self-contemptuous bitterness, he bewails his sad lot:
+
+    "I seek and nothing find,--
+    That makes me sigh and sigh.
+    Lord Lackfood presses me,
+    Of hunger sure I'll die;
+    My wife, my child go supperless,
+    My butler is Sir Meagreness."
+
+Süsskind von Trimberg's poems also breathe the spirit of Hebrew
+literature, and have drawn material from the legend world of the
+Haggada. For the praise of his faithful wife he borrows the words of
+Solomon, and the psalm-like rhythm of his best songs recalls the
+familiar strains of our evening-prayer:
+
+    "Almighty God! That shinest with the sun,
+    That slumb'rest not when day grows into night!
+    Thou Source of all, of tranquil peace and joy!
+    Thou King of glory and majestic light!
+    Thou allgood Father! Golden rays of day
+    And starry hosts thy praise to sing unite,
+    Creator of heav'n and earth, Eternal One,
+    That watchest ev'ry creature from Thy height!"
+
+Like Santob, Süsskind was poor; like him, he denounced the rich, was
+proud and generous. With intrepid candor, he taught knights the meaning
+of true nobility--of the nobility of soul transcending nobility of
+birth--and of freedom of thought--freedom fettered by neither stone, nor
+steel, nor iron; and in the midst of their rioting and feasting, he
+ventured to put before them the solemn thought of death. His last
+production as a minnesinger was a prescription for a "virtue-electuary."
+Then he went to dwell among his brethren, whom, indeed, he had not
+deserted in the pride of his youth:
+
+    "Why should I wander sadly,
+      My harp within my hand,
+    O'er mountain, hill, and valley?
+      What praise do I command?
+
+    Full well they know the singer
+      Belongs to race accursed;
+    Sweet _Minne_ doth no longer
+      Reward me as at first.
+
+    Be silent, then, my lyre,
+      We sing 'fore lords in vain.
+    I'll leave the minstrels' choir,
+      And roam a Jew again.
+
+    My staff and hat I'll grasp, then,
+      And on my breast full low,
+    By Jewish custom olden
+      My grizzled beard shall grow.
+
+    My days I'll pass in quiet,--
+      Those left to me on earth--
+    Nor sing for those who not yet
+      Have learned a poet's worth."
+
+Thus spake the Jewish poet, and dropped his lyre into the stream--in
+song and in life, a worthy son of his time, the disciple of Walther von
+der Vogelweide, the friend of Wolfram von Eschenbach--disciple and
+friend of the first to give utterance, in German song, to the idea of
+the brotherhood of man. Centuries ago, he found the longed-for quiet in
+Franconia, but no wreath lies on his grave, no stone marks the
+wanderer's resting-place. His poems have found an abiding home in the
+memory of posterity, and in the circle of the German minnesingers the
+Jew Süsskind forms a distinct link.
+
+In a time when the idea of universal human brotherhood seems to be
+fading from the hearts of men, when they manifest a proneness to forget
+the share which, despite hatred and persecution, the Jew of every
+generation has had in German literature, in its romances of chivalry and
+its national epics, and in all the spiritual achievements of German
+genius, we may with just pride revive Süsskind's memory.--
+
+On the wings of fancy let us return to our castle on the Saale. After
+the lapse of many years, the procession of poets again wends its way in
+the sunshine up the slope to the proud mansion of the Trimbergs. The
+venerable Walther von der Vogelweide again opens the festival of song.
+Wolfram von Eschenbach, followed by a band of young disciples, musingly
+ascends the mountain-side. The ranks grow less serried, and in solitude
+and sadness, advances a man of noble form, his silvery beard flowing
+down upon his breast, a long cloak over his shoulder, and the peaked
+hat, the badge of the mediæval Jew, on his head. In his eye gleams a ray
+of the poet's grace, and his meditative glance looks into a distant
+future. Süsskind von Trimberg, to thee our greeting!
+
+
+
+
+HUMOR AND LOVE IN JEWISH POETRY
+
+
+One of the most remarkable discoveries of the last ten years is that
+made in Paris by M. Ernest Renan. He maintains as the result of
+scientific research that the Semitic races, consequently also the Jews,
+are lacking in humor, in the capacity for laughter. The justice of the
+reproach might be denied outright, but a statement enunciated with so
+much scientific assurance involuntarily prompts questioning and
+investigation.
+
+In such cases the Jews invariably resort to their first text-book, the
+Bible, whose pages seem to sustain M. Renan. In the Bible laughing is
+mentioned only twice, when the angel promises a son to Sarah, and again
+in the history of Samson, judge in Israel, who used foxes' tails as
+weapons against the Philistines. These are the only passages in which
+the Bible departs from its serious tone.
+
+But classical antiquity was equally ignorant of humor as a distinct
+branch of art, as a peculiar attitude of the mind towards the problems
+of life. Aristophanes lived and could have written only in the days when
+Athenian institutions began to decay. It is personal discomfort and the
+trials and harassments of life that drive men to the ever serene, pure
+regions of humor for balm and healing. Fun and comedy men have at all
+times understood--the history of Samson contains the germs of a
+mock-heroic poem--while it was impossible for humor, genuine humor, to
+find appreciation in the youth of mankind.
+
+In those days of healthy reliance upon the senses, poetic spirits could
+obtain satisfaction only in love and in the praise of the good world and
+its Maker. The sombre line of division had not yet been introduced
+between the physical and the spiritual world, debasing this earth to a
+vale of tears, and consoling sinful man by the promise of a better land,
+whose manifold delights were described, but about which there was no
+precise knowledge, no traveller, as the Talmud aptly puts it, having
+ever returned to give us information about it. Those were the days of
+perfect harmony, when man crept close to nature to be taught untroubled
+joy in living. In such days, despite the storms assailing the young
+Israelitish nation, a poet, his heart filled with the sunshine of joy,
+his mind receptive, his eyes open wide to see the flowers unfold, the
+buds of the fig tree swell, the vine put forth leaves, and the
+pomegranate blossom unfurl its glowing petals, could carol forth the
+"Song of Songs," the most perfect, the most beautiful, the purest
+creation of Hebrew literature and the erotic poetry of all
+literatures--the song of songs of stormy passion, bidding defiance to
+ecclesiastical fetters, at once an epic and a drama, full of childlike
+tenderness and grace of feeling. Neither Greece, nor the rest of the
+Orient has produced anything to compare with its marvellous union of
+voluptuous sensuousness and immaculate chastity. Morality, indeed, is
+its very pulse-beat. It could be sung only in an age when love reigned
+supreme, and could presume to treat humor as a pretender. So lofty a
+song was bound to awaken echoes and stimulate imitation, and its music
+has flowed down through the centuries, weaving a thread of melody about
+the heart of many a poet.
+
+The centuries of Israelitish history close upon its composition,
+however, were favorable to neither the poetry of love nor that of humor.
+But the poetry of love must have continued to exercise puissant magic
+over hearts and minds, if its supreme poem not only was made part of the
+holy canon, but was considered by a teacher of the Talmud the most
+sacred treasure of the compilation.
+
+The blood of the Maccabean heroes victorious over Antiochus Epiphanes
+again fructified the old soil of Hebrew poetry, and charmed forth
+fragrant blossoms, the psalms designated as Maccabean by modern
+criticism. Written in troublous times, they contain a reference to the
+humor of the future: "When the Lord bringeth back again the captivity of
+Zion, then shall we be like dreamers, then shall our mouth be filled
+with laughter, and our tongue with singing."
+
+Many sad days were destined to pass over Israel before that future with
+its solacement of humor dawned. No poetic work could obtain recognition
+next to the Bible. The language of the prophets ceased to be the
+language of the people, and every mind was occupied with interpreting
+their words and applying them to the religious needs of the hour. The
+opposition between Jewish and Hellenic-Syrian views became more and more
+marked. Hellas and Judæa, the two great theories of life supporting the
+fabric of civilization, for the first time confronted each other. An
+ancient expounder of the Bible says that to Hellas God gave beauty in
+the beginning, to Judæa truth, as a sacred heritage. But beauty and
+truth have ever been inveterate foes; even now they are not reconciled.
+
+In Judæa and Greece, ancient civilization found equally perfect, yet
+totally different, expression. The Greek worships nature as she is; the
+Jew dwells upon the origin and development of created things, hence
+worships their Creator. The former in his speculations proceeds from the
+multiplicity of phenomena; the latter discerns the unity of the plan. To
+the former the universe was changeless actuality; to the latter it meant
+unending development. The world, complete and perfect, was mirrored in
+the Greek mind; its evolution, in the Jewish. Therefore the Jewish
+conception of life is harmonious, while among the Greeks grew up the
+spirit of doubt and speculation, the product of civilization, and the
+soil upon which humor disports.
+
+Israel's religion so completely satisfied every spiritual craving that
+no room was left for the growth of the poetic instinct. Intellectual
+life began to divide into two great streams. The Halacha continued the
+instruction of the prophets, as the Haggada fostered the spirit of the
+psalmists. The province of the former was to formulate the Law, of the
+latter to plant a garden about the bulwark of the Law. While the one
+addressed itself to reason, the other made an appeal to the heart and
+the feelings. In the Haggada, a thesaurus of the national poetry by the
+nameless poets of many centuries, we find epic poems and lyric
+outbursts, fables, enigmas, and dramatic essays, and here and there in
+this garden we chance across a little bud of humorous composition.
+
+Of what sort was this humor? In point of fact, what is humor? We must be
+able to answer the latter question before we may venture to classify the
+folklore of the Haggada.
+
+To reach the ideal, to bring harmony out of discord, is the recognized
+task of all art. This is the primary principle to be borne in mind in
+æsthetic criticism. Tragedy idealizes the world by annihilation,
+harmonizes all contradictions by dashing them in pieces against each
+other, and points the way of escape from chaos, across the bridge of
+death, to the realm beyond, irradiated by the perpetual morning-dawn of
+freedom and intellect.
+
+Comedy, on the other hand, believes that the incongruities and
+imperfections of life can be justified, and have their uses. Firmly
+convinced of the might of truth, it holds that the folly and aberrations
+of men, their shortcomings and failings, cannot impede its eventual
+victory. Even in them it sees traces of an eternal, divine principle.
+While tragedy precipitates the conflict of hostile forces, comedy,
+rising serene above folly and all indications of transitoriness,
+reconciles inconsistencies, and lovingly coaxes them into harmony with
+the true and the absolute.
+
+When man's spirit is thus made to re-enter upon the enjoyment of eternal
+truth, its heritage, there is, as some one has well said, triumph akin
+to the joy of the father over the home-coming of a lost son, and the
+divine, refreshing laughter by which it is greeted is like the meal
+prepared for the returning favorite. Is Israel to have no seat at the
+table? Israel, the first to recognize that the eternal truths of life
+are innate in man, the first to teach, as his chief message, how to
+reconcile man with himself and the world, whenever these truths suffer
+temporary obscuration? So viewed, humor is the offspring of love, and
+also mankind's redeemer, inasmuch as it paralyzes the influence of anger
+and hatred, emanations from the powers of change and finality, by laying
+bare the eternal principles and "sweet reasonableness" hidden even in
+them, and finally stripping them of every adjunct incompatible with the
+serenity of absolute truth. In whatever mind humor, that is, love and
+cheerfulness, reigns supreme, the inconsistencies and imperfections of
+life, all that bears the impress of mutability, will gently and
+gradually be fused into the harmonious perfection of absolute, eternal
+truth. Mists sometimes gather about the sun, but unable to extinguish
+his light, they are forced to serve as his mirror, on which he throws
+the witching charms of the Fata Morgana. So, when the eternal truths of
+life are veiled, opportunity is made for humor to play upon and
+irradiate them. In precise language, humor is a state of perfect
+self-certainty, in which the mind serenely rises superior to every petty
+disturbance.
+
+This placidity shed its soft light into the modest academies of the
+rabbis. Wherever a ray fell, a blossom of Haggadic folklore sprang up.
+Every occurrence in life recommends itself to their loving scrutiny:
+pleasures and follies of men, curse turned into blessing, the ordinary
+course of human events, curiosities of Israel's history and mankind's.
+As instances of their method, take what Midrashic folklore has to say
+concerning the creation of the two things of perennial interest to
+poets: wife and wine.
+
+When the Lord God created woman, he formed her not from the head of man,
+lest she be too proud; not from his eye, lest she be too coquettish; not
+from his ear, lest she be too curious; not from his mouth, lest she be
+too talkative; not from his heart, lest she be too sentimental; not from
+his hands, lest she be too officious; nor from his feet, lest she be an
+idle gadabout; but from a subordinate part of man's anatomy, to teach
+her: "Woman, be thou modest!"
+
+With regard to the vine, the Haggada tells us that when Father Noah was
+about to plant the first one, Satan stepped up to him, leading a lamb, a
+lion, a pig, and an ape, to teach him that so long as man does not drink
+wine, he is innocent as a lamb; if he drinks temperately, he is as
+strong as a lion; if he indulges too freely, he sinks to the level of
+swine; and as for the ape, his place in the poetry of wine is as well
+known to us as to the rabbis of old.
+
+With the approach of the great catastrophe destined to annihilate
+Israel's national existence, humor and spontaneity vanish, to be
+superseded by seriousness, melancholy, and bitter plaints, and the
+centuries of despondency and brooding that followed it were not better
+calculated to encourage the expression of love and humor. The pall was
+not lifted until the Haggada performed its mission as a comforter. Under
+its gentle ministrations, and urged into vitality by the religious needs
+of the synagogue, the poetic instinct awoke. _Piut_ and _Selicha_
+replaced prophecy and psalmody as religious agents, and thenceforth the
+springs of consolation were never permitted to run dry. Driven from the
+shores of the Jordan and the Euphrates, Hebrew poetry found a new home
+on the Tagus and the Manzanares, where the Jews were blessed with a
+second golden age. In the interval from the eleventh to the thirteenth
+century, under genial Arabic influences, Andalusian masters of song
+built up an ideal world of poetry, wherein love and humor were granted
+untrammelled liberty.
+
+To the Spanish-Jewish writers poetry was an end in itself. Along with
+religious songs, perfect in rhythm and form, they produced lyrics on
+secular subjects, whose grace, beauty, harmony, and wealth of thought
+rank them with the finest creations of the age. The spirit of the
+prophets and psalmists revived in these Spanish poets. At their head
+stands Solomon ibn Gabirol, the Faust of Saragossa, whose poems are the
+first tinged with _Weltschmerz_, that peculiar ferment characteristic of
+a modern school of poets.[47] Our accounts of Gabirol's life are meagre,
+but they leave the clear impression that he was not a favorite of
+fortune, and passed a bleak childhood and youth. His poems are pervaded
+by vain longing for the ideal, by lamentations over deceived hopes and
+unfulfilled aspirations, by painful realization of the imperfection and
+perishability of all earthly things, and the insignificance and
+transitoriness of life, in a word, by _Weltschmerz_, in its purest,
+ideal form, not merely self-deception and irony turned against one's own
+soul life, but a profoundly solemn emotion, springing from sublime pity
+for the misery of the world read by the light of personal trials and
+sorrows. He sang not of a mistress' blue eyes, nor sighed forth
+melancholy love-notes--the object of his heart's desire was Zion, his
+muse the fair "rose of Sharon," and his anguish was for the suffering of
+his scattered people. Strong, wild words fitly express his tempestuous
+feelings. He is a proud, solitary thinker. Often his _Weltschmerz_
+wrests scornful criticism of his surroundings from him. On the other
+hand, he does not lack mild, conciliatory humor, of which his famous
+drinking-song is a good illustration. His miserly host had put a single
+bottle of wine upon a table surrounded by many guests, who had to have
+recourse to water to quench their thirst. Wine he calls a
+septuagenarian, the letters of the Hebrew word for wine (_yayin_)
+representing seventy, and water a nonagenarian, because _mayim_ (water)
+represents ninety:
+
+WATER SONG
+
+Chorus:--Of wine, alas! there's not a drop,
+         Our host has filled our goblets to the top
+                 With water.
+
+         When monarch wine lies prone,
+         By water overthrown,
+         How can a merry song be sung?
+         For naught there is to wet our tongue
+                 But water.
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc.
+
+         No sweetmeats can delight
+         My dainty appetite,
+         For I, alas! must learn to drink,
+         However I may writhe and shrink,
+                 Pure water.
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc.
+
+         Give Moses praise, for he
+         Made waterless a sea--
+         Mine host to quench my thirst--the churl!--
+         Makes streams of clearest water purl,
+                 Of water.
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc.
+
+         To toads I feel allied,
+         To frogs by kinship tied;
+         For water drinking is no joke,
+         Ere long you all will hear me croak
+                 Quack water!
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc.
+
+         May God our host requite;
+         May he turn Nazirite,
+         Ne'er know intoxication's thrill,
+         Nor e'er succeed his thirst to still
+                 With water!
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc."
+
+Gabirol was a bold thinker, a great poet wrestling with the deepest
+problems of human thought, and towering far above his contemporaries and
+immediate successors. In his time synagogue poetry reached the zenith of
+perfection, and even in the solemn admonitions of ritualistic
+literature, humor now and again asserted itself. One of Gabirol's
+contemporaries or successors, Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat, for
+instance, often made his whole poem turn upon a witticism.
+
+Among the writers of that age, a peculiar style called "mosaic"
+gradually grew up, and eventually became characteristic of neo-Hebraic
+poetry and humor. For their subjects and the presentation of their
+thoughts, they habitually made use of biblical phraseology, either as
+direct quotations or with an application not intended by the original
+context. In the latter case, well-known sentences were invested with new
+meanings, and this poetic-biblical phraseology afforded countless
+opportunities for the exercise of humor, of which neo-Hebraic poetry
+availed itself freely. The "mosaics" were collected not only from the
+Bible; the Targum, the Mishna, and the Talmud were rifled of sententious
+expressions, woven together, and with the license of art placed in
+unexpected juxtaposition. An example will make clear the method. In
+Genesis xviii. 29, God answers Abraham's petition in behalf of Sodom
+with the words: "I will not do it for the sake of forty," meaning, as
+everybody knows, that forty men would suffice to save the city from
+destruction. This passage Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat audaciously
+connects with Deuteronomy xxv. 3, where forty is also mentioned, the
+forty stripes for misdemeanors of various kinds:
+
+    "If you see men the path of right forsake,
+    To bring them back you must an effort make.
+    Perhaps, if they but hear of stripes, they'll quake,
+    And say, 'I'll do it not for forty's sake.'"
+
+This "mosaic" style, suggesting startling contrasts and surprising
+applications of Bible thoughts and words, became a fruitful source of
+Jewish humor. If a theory of literary descent could be established, an
+illustration might be found in Heine's rapid transitions from tender
+sentiment to corroding wit, a modern development of the flashing humor
+of the "mosaic" style.
+
+The "Song of Songs" naturally became a treasure-house of "mosaic"
+suggestions for the purposes of neo-Hebraic love poetry, which was
+dominated, however, by Arab influences. The first poet to introduce the
+sorrow of unhappy love into neo-Hebraic poetry was Moses ibn Ezra. He
+was in love with his niece, who probably became the wife of one of his
+brothers, and died early on giving birth to a son. His affection at
+first was requited, but his brothers opposed the union, and the poet
+left Spain, embittered and out of sorts with fate, to find peace and
+consolation in distant lands. Many of his poems are deeply tinged with
+gloom and pessimism, and the natural inference is that those in which he
+praises nature, and wine, and "bacchanalian feasts under leafy canopies
+with merry minstrelsy of birds" belong to the period of his life
+preceding its unfortunate turning-point, when love still smiled upon
+him, and hope was strong.
+
+Some of his poems may serve as typical specimens of the love-poetry of
+those days:
+
+    "With hopeless love my heart is sick,
+      Confession bursts my lips' restraint
+    That thou, my love, dost cast me off,
+      Hath touched me with a death-like taint.
+
+    I view the land both near and far,
+      To me it seems a prison vast.
+    Throughout its breadth, where'er I look,
+      My eyes are met by doors locked fast.
+
+    And though the world stood open wide,
+      Though angel hosts filled ev'ry space,
+    To me 'twere destitute of charm
+      Didst thou withdraw thy face."
+
+Here is another:
+
+    "Perchance in days to come,
+      When men and all things change,
+    They'll marvel at my love,
+      And call it passing strange.
+
+    Without I seem most calm,
+      But fires rage within--
+    'Gainst me, as none before,
+      Thou didst a grievous sin.
+
+    What! tell the world my woe!
+      That were exceeding vain.
+    With mocking smile they'd say,
+      'You know, he is not sane!'"
+
+When his lady-love died, he composed the following elegy:
+
+    "In pain she bore the son who her embrace
+      Would never know. Relentless death spread straight
+      His nets for her, and she, scarce animate,
+    Unto her husband signed: I ask this grace,
+    My friend, let not harsh death our love efface;
+      To our babes, its pledges, dedicate
+      Thy faithful care; for vainly they await
+    A mother's smile each childish fear to chase.
+    And to my uncle, prithee, write. Deep pain
+      I brought his heart. Consumed by love's regret
+    He roved, a stranger in his home. I fain
+      Would have him shed a tear, nor love forget.
+    He seeketh consolation's cup, but first
+    His soul with bitterness must quench its thirst."
+
+Moses ibn Ezra's cup of consolation on not a few occasions seems to have
+been filled to overflowing with wine. In no other way can the joyousness
+of his drinking-songs be accounted for. The following are
+characteristic:
+
+    "Wine cooleth man in summer's heat,
+    And warmeth him in winter's sleet.
+    My buckler 'tis 'gainst chilling frost,
+    My shield when rays of sun exhaust."
+
+    "If men will probe their inmost heart,
+    They must condemn their crafty art:
+    For silver pieces they make bold
+    To ask a drink of liquid gold."
+
+To his mistress, naturally, many a stanza of witty praise and coaxing
+imagery was devoted:
+
+    "My love is like a myrtle tree,
+      When at the dance her hair falls down.
+    Her eyes deal death most pitiless,
+      Yet who would dare on her to frown?"
+
+    "Said I to sweetheart: 'Why dost thou resent
+      The homage to thy grace by old men paid?'
+    She answered me with question pertinent:
+      'Dost thou prefer a widow to a maid?'"
+
+To his love-poems and drinking-songs must be added his poems of
+friendship, on true friends, life's crowning gift, and false friends,
+basest of creatures. He has justly been described as the most subjective
+of neo-Hebraic poets. His blithe delight in love, exhaling from his
+poems, transfigured his ready humor, which instinctively pierced to the
+ludicrous element in every object and occurrence: age dyeing its hair,
+traitorous friendship, the pride of wealth, or separation of lovers.
+
+Yet in the history of synagogue literature this poet goes by the name
+_Ha-Sallach_, "penitential poet," on account of his many religious
+songs, bewailing in elegiac measure the hollowness of life, and the
+vanity of earthly possessions, and in ardent words advocating humility,
+repentance, and a contrite heart. The peculiarity of Jewish humor is
+that it returns to its tragic source.
+
+No mediæval poet so markedly illustrates this characteristic as the
+prince of neo-Hebraic poetry, Yehuda Halevi, in whose poems the
+principle of Jewish national poesy attained its completest expression.
+They are the idealized reflex of the soul of the Jewish people, its
+poetic emotions, its "making for righteousness," its patriotic love of
+race, its capacity for martyrdom. Whatever true and beautiful element
+had developed in Jewish soul life, since the day when Judah's song first
+rang out in Zion's accents on Spanish soil, greets us in its noblest
+garb in his poetry. A modern poet[48] says of him:
+
+    "Ay, he was a master singer,
+    Brilliant pole star of his age,
+    Light and beacon to his people!
+    Wondrous mighty was his singing--
+
+    Verily a fiery pillar
+    Moving on 'fore Israel's legions,
+    Restless caravan of sorrow,
+    Through the exile's desert plain."
+
+In his early youth the muse of poetry had imprinted a kiss upon Halevi's
+brow, and the gracious echo of that kiss trembles through all the poet's
+numbers. Love, too, seems early to have taken up an abode in his
+susceptible heart, but, as expressed in the poems of his youth, it is
+not sensuous, earthly love, nor Gabirol's despondency and unselfish
+grief, nor even the sentiment of Moses ibn Ezra's artistically
+conceived and technically perfect love-plaint. It is tender, yet
+passionate, frankly extolling the happiness of requited love, and as
+naively miserable over separation from his mistress, whom he calls Ophra
+(fawn). One of his sweetest songs he puts upon her lips:
+
+    "Into my eyes he loving looked,
+      My arms about his neck were twined,
+    And in the mirror of my eyes,
+      What but his image did he find?
+
+    Upon my dark-hued eyes he pressed
+      His lips with breath of passion rare.
+    The rogue! 'Twas not my eyes he kissed;
+      He kissed his picture mirrored there."
+
+Ophra's "Song of Joy" reminds one of the passion of the "Song of Songs":
+
+    "He cometh, O bliss!
+    Fly swiftly, ye winds,
+    Ye odorous breezes,
+    And tell him how long
+    I've waited for this!
+
+    O happy that night,
+    When sunk on thy breast,
+    Thy kisses fast falling,
+    And drunken with love,
+    My troth I did plight.
+
+    Again my sweet friend
+    Embraceth me close.
+    Yes, heaven doth bless us,
+    And now thou hast won
+    My love without end."
+
+His mistress' charms he describes with attractive grace:
+
+    "My sweetheart's dainty lips are red,
+    With ruby's crimson overspread;
+    Her teeth are like a string of pearls;
+    Adown her neck her clust'ring curls
+    In ebon hue vie with the night;
+    And o'er her features dances light.
+
+    The twinkling stars enthroned above
+    Are sisters to my dearest love.
+    We men should count it joy complete
+    To lay our service at her feet.
+    But ah! what rapture in her kiss!
+    A forecast 'tis of heav'nly bliss!"
+
+When the hour of parting from Ophra came, the young poet sang:
+
+    "And so we twain must part! Oh linger yet,
+      Let me still feed my glance upon thine eyes.
+    Forget not, love, the days of our delight,
+      And I our nights of bliss shall ever prize.
+    In dreams thy shadowy image I shall see,
+      Oh even in my dream be kind to me!"[49]
+
+Yehuda Halevi sang not only of love, but also, in true Oriental fashion,
+and under the influence of his Arabic models, of wine and friendship. On
+the other hand, he is entirely original in his epithalamiums, charming
+descriptions of the felicity of young conjugal life and the sweet
+blessings of pure love. They are pervaded by the intensity of joy, and
+full of roguish allusions to the young wife's shamefacedness, arousing
+the jest and merriment of her guests, and her delicate shrinking in the
+presence of longed-for happiness. Characteristically enough his
+admonitions to feed the fire of love are always followed by a sigh for
+his people's woes:
+
+    "You twain will soon be one,
+      And all your longing filled.
+    Ah me! will Israel's hope
+      For freedom e'er be stilled?"
+
+It is altogether probable that these blithesome songs belong to the
+poet's early life. To a friend who remonstrates with him for his love of
+wine he replies:
+
+    "My years scarce number twenty-one--
+    Wouldst have me now the wine-cup shun?"
+
+which would seem to indicate that love and wine were the pursuits of his
+youth. One of his prettiest drinking songs is the following:
+
+    "My bowl yields exultation--
+      I soar aloft on song-tipped wing,
+    Each draught is inspiration,
+      My lips sip wine, my mouth must sing.
+
+    Dear friends are full of horror,
+      Predict a toper's end for me.
+    They ask: 'How long, O sorrow,
+      Wilt thou remain wine's devotee?'
+
+    Why should I not sing praise of drinking?
+      The joys of Eden it makes mine.
+    If age will bring no cowardly shrinking,
+      Full many a year will I drink wine."
+
+But little is known of the events of the poet's career. History's
+niggardliness, however, has been compensated for by the prodigality of
+legend, which has woven many a fanciful tale about his life. Of one fact
+we are certain: when he had passed his fiftieth year, Yehuda Halevi left
+his native town, his home, his family, his friends, and disciples, to
+make a pilgrimage to Palestine, the land wherein his heart had always
+dwelt. His itinerary can be traced in his songs. They lead us to Egypt,
+to Zoan, to Damascus. In Tyre silence suddenly falls upon the singer.
+Did he attain the goal he had set out to reach? Did his eye behold the
+land of his fathers? Or did death overtake the pilgrim singer before his
+journey's end? Legend which has beautified his life has transfigured his
+death. It is said, that struck by a Saracen's horse Yehuda Halevi sank
+down before the very gates of Jerusalem. With its towers and battlements
+in sight, and his inspired "Lay of Zion" on his lips, his pure soul
+winged its flight heavenward.
+
+With the death of Yehuda Halevi, the golden age of neo-Hebraic poetry in
+Spain came to an end, and the period of the epigones was inaugurated. A
+note of hesitancy is discernible in their productions, and they
+acknowledge the superiority of their predecessors in the epithet
+"fathers of song" applied to them. The most noted of the later writers
+was Yehuda ben Solomon Charisi. Fortune marked him out to be the critic
+of the great poetic creations of the brilliant epoch just closed, and
+his fame rests upon the skill with which he acquitted himself of his
+difficult task. As for his poetry, it lacks the depth, the glow, the
+virility, and inspiration of the works of the classical period. He was a
+restless wanderer, a poet tramp, roving in the Orient, in Africa, and in
+Europe. His most important work is his divan _Tachkemoni_, testifying to
+his powers as a humorist, and especially to his mastery of the Hebrew
+language, which he uses with dexterity never excelled. The divan touches
+upon every possible subject: God and nature, human life and suffering,
+the relations between men, his personal experiences, and his adventures
+in foreign parts. The first Makamat[50] writer among Jews, he furnished
+the model for all poems of the kind that followed; their first genuine
+humorist, he flashes forth his wit like a stream of light suddenly
+turned on in the dark. That he measured the worth of his productions by
+the generous meed of praise given by his contemporaries is a venial
+offense in the time of the troubadours and minnesingers. Charisi was
+particularly happy in his use of the "mosaic" style, and his short poems
+and epigrams are most charming. Deep melancholy is a foil to his humor,
+but as often his writings are disfigured by levity. The following may
+serve as samples of his versatile muse. The first is addressed to his
+grey hair:
+
+    "Those ravens black that rested
+      Erstwhile upon my head,
+    Within my heart have nested,
+      Since from my hair they fled."
+
+The second is inscribed to love's tears:
+
+    "Within my heart I held concealed
+      My love so tender and so true;
+    But overflowing tears revealed
+      What I would fain have hid from view.
+    My heart could evermore repress
+    The woe that tell-tale tears confess."
+
+Charisi is at his best when he gives the rein to his humor. Sparks fly;
+he stops at no caustic witticism, recoils from no satire; he is malice
+itself, and puts no restraint upon his levity. The "Flea Song" is a
+typical illustration of his impish mood:
+
+    "You ruthless flea, who desecrate my couch,
+      And draw my blood to sate your appetite,
+    You know not rest, on Sabbath day or feast--
+      Your feast it is when you can pinch and bite.
+
+    My friends expound the law: to kill a flea
+      Upon the Sabbath day a sin they call;
+    But I prefer that other law which says,
+      Be sure a murd'rer's malice to forestall."
+
+That Charisi was a boon companion is evident from the following drinking
+song:
+
+    "Here under leafy bowers,
+      Where coolest shades descend,
+    Crowned with a wreath of flowers,
+      Here will we drink, my friend.
+
+    Who drinks of wine, he learns
+      That noble spirits' strength
+    But steady increase earns,
+      As years stretch out in length.
+
+    A thousand earthly years
+      Are hours in God's sight,
+    A year in heav'n appears
+      A minute in its flight.
+
+    I would this lot were mine:
+      To live by heav'nly count,
+    And drink and drink old wine
+      At youth's eternal fount."
+
+Charisi and his Arabic models found many imitators among Spanish Jews.
+Solomon ibn Sakbel wrote Hebrew Makamat which may be regarded as an
+attempt at a satire in the form of a romance. The hero, Asher ben
+Yehuda, a veritable Don Juan, passes through most remarkable
+adventures.[51] The introductory Makama, describing life with his
+mistress in the solitude of a forest, is delicious. Tired of his
+monotonous life, he joins a company of convivial fellows, who pass their
+time in carousal. While with them, he receives an enigmatic love letter
+signed by an unknown woman, and he sets out to find her. On his
+wanderings, oppressed by love's doubts, he chances into a harem, and is
+threatened with death by its master. It turns out that the pasha is a
+beautiful woman, the slave of his mysterious lady-love, and she promises
+him speedy fulfilment of his wishes. Finally, close to the attainment of
+his end, he discovers that his beauty is a myth, the whole a practical
+joke perpetrated by his merry companions. So Asher ben Yehuda in quest
+of his mistress is led from adventure to adventure.
+
+Internal evidence testifies against the genuineness of this romance, but
+at the same time with it appeared two other mock-heroic poems, "The Book
+of Diversions" (_Sefer Sha'ashuim_) by Joseph ibn Sabara, and "The Gift
+of Judah the Misogynist" (_Minchatk Yehuda Soneh ha-Nashim_) by Judah
+ibn Sabbataï, a Cordova physician, whose poems Charisi praised as the
+"fount of poesy." The plot of his "Gift," a satire on women, is as
+follows:[52] His dying father exacts from Serach, the hero of the
+romance, a promise never to marry, women in his sight being the cause of
+all the evil in the world. Curious as the behest is, it is still more
+curious that Serach uncomplainingly complies, and most curious of all,
+that he finds three companions willing to retire with him to a distant
+island, whence their propaganda for celibacy is to proceed. Scarcely has
+the news of their arrival spread, when a mass meeting of women is
+called, and a coalition formed against the misogynists. Korbi, an old
+hag, engages to make Serach faithless to his principles. He soon has a
+falling out with his fellow-celibates, and succumbs to the fascinations
+of a fair young temptress. After the wedding he discovers that his
+enemies, the women, have substituted for his beautiful bride, a hideous
+old woman, Blackcoal, the daughter of Owl. She at once assumes the reins
+of government most energetically, and answers her husband's groan of
+despair by the following curtain lecture:
+
+    "Up! up! the time for sleep is past!
+    And no resistance will I brook!
+    Away with thee, and look to it
+    That thou bringst me what I ask:
+    Gowns of costly stuff,
+    Earrings, chains, and veils;
+    A house with many windows;
+    Mortars, lounges, sieves,
+    Baskets, kettles, pots,
+    Glasses, settles, brooms,
+    Beakers, closets, flasks,
+    Shovels, basins, bowls,
+    Spindle, distaff, blankets,
+    Buckets, ewers, barrels,
+    Skillets, forks, and knives;
+    Vinaigrettes and mirrors;
+    Kerchiefs, turbans, reticules,
+    Crescents, amulets,
+    Rings and jewelled clasps;
+    Girdles, buckles, bodices,
+    Kirtles, caps, and waists;
+    Garments finely spun,
+    Rare byssus from the East.
+    This and more shalt thou procure,
+    No matter at what cost and sacrifice.
+    Thou art affrighted? Thou weepest?
+    My dear, spare all this agitation;
+    Thou'lt suffer more than this.
+    The first year shall pass in strife,
+    The second will see thee a beggar.
+    A prince erstwhile, thou shalt become a slave;
+    Instead of a crown, thou shalt wear a wreath of straw."
+
+Serach in abject despair turns for comfort to his three friends, and it
+is decided to bring suit for divorce in a general assembly. The women
+appear at the meeting, and demand that the despiser of their sex be
+forced to keep his ugly wife. One of the trio of friends proposes that
+the matter be brought before the king. The poet appends no moral to his
+tale; he leaves it to his readers to say: "And such must be the fate of
+all woman-haters!"
+
+Judah Sabbataï was evidently far from being a woman-hater himself, but
+some of his contemporaries failed to understand the point of his
+witticisms and ridiculous situations. Yedaya Penini, another poet,
+looked upon it as a serious production, and in his allegory, "Woman's
+Friend," destitute of poetic inspiration, but brilliant in dialectics,
+undertook the defense of the fair sex against the misanthropic
+aspersions of the woman-hater.
+
+Such works are evidence that we have reached the age of the troubadours
+and minnesingers, the epoch of the Renaissance, when, under the blue sky
+of Italy, and the fostering care of the trio of master-poets, Dante,
+Petrarch, and Boccaccio, the first germs of popular poetry were
+unfolding. The Italian Jews were carried along by the all-pervading
+spirit of the times, and had a share in the vigorous mental activity
+about them. Suggestions derived from the work of the Renaissance leaders
+fell like electric sparks into Jewish literature and science, lighting
+them up, and bringing them into rapport with the products of the
+humanistic movement. Provence, the land of song, gave birth to Kalonymos
+ben Kalonymos, later a resident of Italy, whose work, "Touchstone"
+(_Eben Bochan_) is the first true satire in neo-Hebraic poetry. It is a
+mirror of morals held up before his people, for high and low, rabbis and
+leaders, poets and scholars, rich and poor, to see their foibles and
+follies. The satire expresses a humorous, but lofty conception of life,
+based upon profound morality and sincere faith. It fulfils every
+requirement of a satire, steering clear of the pitfall caricature, and
+not obtruding the didactic element. The lesson to be conveyed is
+involved in, not stated apart from the satire, an emanation from the
+poet's disposition. His aim is not to ridicule, but to improve,
+instruct, influence. One of the most amusing chapters is that on woman's
+superior advantages, which make him bewail his having been born a
+man:[53]
+
+    "Truly, God's hand lies heavy on him
+    Who has been created a man:
+    Full many a trial he must patiently bear,
+    And scorn and contumely of every kind.
+    His life is like a field laid waste--
+    Fortunate he is if it lasts not too long!
+    Were I, for instance, a woman,
+    How smooth and pleasant were my course.
+    A circle of intimate friends
+    Would call me gentle, graceful, modest.
+    Comfortably I'd sit with them and sew,
+    With one or two mayhap at the spinning wheel.
+    On moonlight nights
+    Gathered for cozy confidences,
+    About the hearthfire, or in the dark,
+    We'd tell each other what the people say,
+    The gossip of the town, the scandals,
+    Discuss the fashions and the last election.
+    I surely would rise above the average--
+    I would be an artist needlewoman,
+    Broidering on silk and velvet
+    The flowers of the field,
+    And other patterns, copied from models,
+    So rich in color as to make them seem nature--
+    Petals, trees, blossoms, plants, and pots,
+    And castles, pillars, temples, angel heads,
+    And whatever else can be imitated with needle by her
+    Who guides it with art and skill.
+    Sometimes, too, though 'tis not so attractive,
+    I should consent to play the cook--
+    No less important task of woman 'tis
+    To watch the kitchen most carefully.
+    I should not be ruffled
+    By dust and ashes on the hearth, by soot on stoves and pots;
+    Nor would I hesitate to swing the axe
+    And chop the firewood,
+    And not to feed and rake the fire up,
+    Despite the ashy dust that fills the nostrils.
+    My particular delight it would be
+    To taste of all the dishes served.
+    And if some merry, joyous festival approached,
+    Then would I display my taste.
+    I would choose most brilliant gems for ear and hand,
+    For neck and breast, for hair and gown,
+    Most precious stuffs of silk and velvet,
+    Whatever in clothes and jewels would increase my charms.
+    And on the festal day, I would loud rejoice,
+    Sing, and sway myself, and dance with vim.
+    When I reached a maiden's prime,
+    With all my charms at their height,
+    What happiness, were heaven to favor me,
+    Permit me to draw a prize in life's lottery,
+    A youth of handsome mien, brave and true,
+    With heart filled with love for me.
+    If he declared his passion,
+    I would return his love with all my might.
+    Then as his wife, I would live a princess,
+    Reclining on the softest pillows,
+    My beauty heightened by velvet, silk, and tulle,
+    By pearls and golden ornaments,
+    Which he with lavish love would bring to me,
+    To add to his delight and mine."
+
+After enumerating additional advantages enjoyed by the gentler sex, the
+poet comes to the conclusion that protesting against fate is vain, and
+closes his chapter thus:
+
+    "Well, then, I'll resign myself to fate,
+    And seek consolation in the thought that life comes to an end.
+    Our sages tell us everywhere
+    That for all things we must praise God,
+    With loud rejoicing for all good,
+    In submission for evil fortune.
+    So I will force my lips,
+    However they may resist, to say the olden blessing:
+    My Lord and God accept my thanks
+    That thou has made of me a man."
+
+One of Kalonymos's friends was Immanuel ben Solomon of Rome, called the
+"Heine of the middle ages," and sometimes the "Jewish Voltaire." Neither
+comparison is apt. On the one hand, they give him too high a place as a
+writer, on the other, they do not adequately indicate his characteristic
+qualities. His most important work, the _Mechabberoth_, is a collection
+of disjointed pieces, full of bold witticisms, poetic thoughts, and
+linguistic charms. It is composed of poems, Makamat, parodies, novels,
+epigrams, distichs, and sonnets--all essentially humorous. The poet
+presents things as they are, leaving it to reality to create ridiculous
+situations. He is witty rather than humorous. Rarely only a spark of
+kindliness or the glow of poetry transfigures his wit. He is uniformly
+objective, scintillating, cold, often frivolous, and not always chaste.
+To produce a comic effect, to make his readers laugh is his sole desire.
+Friend and admirer of Dante, he attained to a high degree of skill in
+the sonnet. In neo-Hebraic poetry, his works mark the beginning of a new
+epoch. Indelicate witticisms and levity, until then sporadic in Jewish
+literature, were by him introduced as a regular feature. The poetry of
+the earlier writers had dwelt upon the power of love, their muse was
+modest and chaste, a "rose of Sharon," a "lily of the valleys."
+Immanuel's was of coarser fibre; his witty sallies remind one of Italian
+rather than Hebrew models. A recent critic of Hebrew poetry speaks of
+his Makamat as a pendant to "Tristan and Isolde,"--in both sensuality
+triumphs over spirituality. He is at his best in his sonnets, and of
+these the finest are in poetic prose. Female beauty is an unfailing
+source of inspiration to him, but of trust in womankind he has none:
+
+    "No woman ever faithful hold,
+    Unless she ugly be and old."
+
+The full measure of mockery he poured out upon a deceived husband, and
+the most cutting sarcasm at his command against an enemy is a
+comparison to crabbed, ugly women:
+
+    "I loathe him with the hot and honest hate
+    That fills a rake 'gainst maids he can not bait,
+    With which an ugly hag her glass reviles,
+    And prostitutes the youths who 'scape their wiles."
+
+His devotion to woman's beauty is altogether in the spirit of his
+Italian contemporaries. One of his most pleasing sonnets is dedicated to
+his lady-love's eyes:[54]
+
+    "My sweet gazelle! From thy bewitching eyes
+      A glance thrills all my soul with wild delight.
+      Unfathomed depths beam forth a world so bright--
+    With rays of sun its sparkling splendor vies--
+    One look within a mortal deifies.
+      Thy lips, the gates wherethrough dawn wings its flight,
+      Adorn a face suffused with rosy light,
+    Whose radiance puts to shame the vaulted skies.
+    Two brilliant stars are they from heaven sent--
+      Their charm I cannot otherwise explain--
+    By God but for a little instant lent,
+      Who gracious doth their lustrous glory deign,
+    To teach those on pursuit of beauty bent,
+      Beside those eyes all other beauty's vain."
+
+Immanuel's most congenial work, however, is as a satirist. One of his
+best known poems is a chain of distichs, drawing a comparison between
+two maidens, Tamar the beautiful, and Beria the homely:
+
+  "Tamar raises her eyelids, and stars appear in the sky;
+  Her glance drops to earth, and flowers clothe the knoll whereon she stands.
+  Beria looks up, and basilisks die of terror;
+  Be not amazed; 'tis a sight that would Satan affright.
+  Tamar's divine form human language cannot describe;
+  The gods themselves believe her heaven's offspring.
+  Beria's presence is desirable only in the time of vintage,
+  When the Evil One can be banished by naught but grimaces.
+  Tamar! Had Moses seen thee he had never made the serpent of copper,
+  With thy image he had healed mankind.
+  Beria! Pain seizes me, physic soothes,
+  I catch sight of thee, and it returns with full force.
+  Tamar, with ringlets adorned, greets early the sun,
+  Who quickly hides, ashamed of his bald pate.
+  Beria! were I to meet thee on New Year's Day in the morning,
+  An omen 'twere of an inauspicious year.
+  Tamar smiles, and heals the heart's bleeding wounds;
+  She raises her head, the stars slink out of sight.
+  Beria it were well to transport to heaven,
+  Then surely heaven would take refuge on earth.
+  Tamar resembles the moon in all respects but one--
+  Her resplendent beauty never suffers obscuration.
+  Beria partakes of the nature of the gods; 'tis said,
+  None beholds the gods without most awful repentance.
+  Tamar, were the Virgin like thee, never would the sun
+  Pass out of Virgo to shine in Libra.
+  Beria, dost know why the Messiah tarries to bring deliverance to men?
+  Redemption time has long arrived, but he hides from thee."
+
+With amazement we see the Hebrew muse, so serious aforetimes,
+participate in truly bacchanalian dances under Immanuel's guidance. It
+is curious that while, on the one hand, he shrinks from no frivolous
+utterance or indecent allusion, on the other, he is dominated by deep
+earnestness and genuine warmth of feeling, when he undertakes to defend
+or expound the fundamentals of faith. It is characteristic of the trend
+of his thought that he epitomizes the "Song of Songs" in the sentence:
+"Love is the pivot of the _Torah_." By a bold hypothesis it is assumed
+that in Daniel, his guide in Paradise (in the twenty-eighth canto of his
+poem), he impersonated and glorified his great friend Dante. If true,
+this would be an interesting indication of the intimate relations
+existing between a Jew and a circle devoted to the development of the
+national genius in literature and language, and the stimulating of the
+sense of nature and truth in opposition to the fantastic visions and
+grotesque ideals of the past.
+
+Everywhere, not only in Italy, the Renaissance and the humanistic
+movement attract Jews. Among early Castilian troubadours there is a Jew,
+and the last troubadour of Spain again is a Jew. Naturally Italian Jews
+are more profoundly than others affected by the renascence of science
+and art. David ben Yehuda, Messer Leon, is the author of an epic,
+_Shebach Nashim_ ("Praise of Women"), in which occurs an interesting
+reference to Petrarch's Laura, whom, in opposition to the consensus of
+opinion among his contemporaries, he considers, not a figment of the
+imagination, but a woman of flesh and blood. Praise and criticism of
+women are favorite themes in the poetic polemics of the sixteenth
+century. For instance, Jacob ben Elias, of Fano, in his "Shields of
+Heroes," a small collection of songs in stanzas of three verses,
+ventures to attack the weaker sex, for which Judah Tommo of Porta Leone
+at once takes up the cudgels in his "Women's Shield." At the same time a
+genuine song combat broke out between Abraham of Sarteano and Elias of
+Genzano. The latter is the champion of the purity of womanhood, impugned
+by the former, who in fifty tercets exposes the wickedness of woman in
+the most infamous of her sex, from Lilith to Jezebel, from Semiramis to
+Medea. An anonymous combatant lends force to his strictures by an
+arraignment of the lax morals of the women of their own time, while a
+fourth knight of song, evidently intending to conciliate the parties,
+begins his "New Song," only a fragment of which has reached us, with
+praise, and ends it with blame, of woman. Such productions, too, are a
+result of the Renaissance, of its romantic current, which, as it
+affected Catholicism, did not fail to leave its mark upon the Jews,
+among whom romanticists must have had many a battle to fight with
+adherents of traditional views.
+
+Meantime, neo-Hebraic poetry had "fallen into the sear, the yellow
+leaf." Poetry drooped under the icy breath of rationalism, and vanished
+into the abyss of the Kabbala. At most we occasionally hear of a polemic
+poem, a keen-edged epigram. For the rest, there was only a monotonous
+succession of religious poems, repeating the old formulas, dry bones of
+habit and tradition, no longer informed with true poetic, religious
+spirit. Yet the source of love and humor in Jewish poetry had not run
+dry. It must be admitted that the sentimentalism of the minneservice,
+peculiar to the middle ages, never took root in Jewish soil. Pale
+resignation, morbid despair, longing for death, unmanly indulgence in
+regret, all the paraphernalia of chivalrous love, extolled in every key
+in the poetry of the middle ages, were foreign to the sane Jewish mind.
+Women, the object of unreasoning adulation, shared the fate of all
+sovereign powers: homage worked their ruin. They became accustomed to
+think that the weal and woe of the world depended upon their constancy
+or disloyalty. Jews alone were healthy enough to subordinate sexual love
+to reverence for maternity. Holding an exalted idea of love, they
+realized that its power extends far beyond the lives of two persons, and
+affects the well-being of generations unborn. Such love, intellectual
+love, which Benedict Spinoza was the first to define from a scientific
+and philosophic point of view, looks far down the vistas of the future,
+and gives providential thought to the race.
+
+While humor and romanticism everywhere in the middle ages appeared as
+irreconcilable contrasts, by Jews they were brought into harmonious
+relationship. When humor was banished from poetry, it took refuge in
+Jewish-German literature, that spiritual undercurrent produced by the
+claims of fancy as opposed to the aggressive, all absorbing demands of
+reason. Not to the high and mighty, but to the lowly in spirit, the
+little ones of the earth, to women and children, it made its appeal, and
+from them its influence spread throughout the nation, bringing
+refreshment and sustenance to weary, starved minds, hope to the
+oppressed, and consolation to the afflicted. Consolation, indeed, was
+sorely needed by the Jews on their peregrinations during the middle
+ages. Sad, inexpressibly sad, was their condition. With fatal
+exclusiveness they devoted themselves to the study of the Talmud.
+Secular learning was deprecated; antagonism to science and vagaries
+characterized their intellectual life; philosophy was formally
+interdicted; the Hebrew language neglected; all their wealth and force
+of intellect lavished upon the study of the Law, and even here every
+faculty--reason, ingenuity, speculation--busied itself only with highly
+artificial solutions of equally artificial problems, far-fetched
+complications, and vexatious contradictions invented to be harmonized.
+Under such grievous circumstances, oppression growing with malice,
+Jewish minds and hearts were robbed of humor, and the exercise of love
+was made a difficult task. Is it astonishing that in such days a rabbi
+in the remote Slavonic East should have issued an injunction restraining
+his sisters in faith from reading romances on the Sabbath--romances
+composed by some other rabbi in Provence or Italy five hundred years
+before?
+
+Sorrow and suffering are not endless. A new day broke for the Jews. The
+walls of the Ghetto fell, dry bones joined each other for new life, and
+a fresh spirit passed over the House of Israel. Enervation and decadence
+were succeeded by regeneration, quickened by the spirit of the times, by
+the ideas of freedom and equality universally advocated. The forces
+which culminated in their revival had existed as germs in the preceding
+century. Silently they had grown, operating through every spiritual
+medium, poetry, oratory, philosophy, political agitation. In the
+sunshine of the eighteenth century they finally matured, and at its
+close the rejuvenation of the Jewish race was an accomplished fact in
+every European country. Eagerly its sons entered into the new
+intellectual and literary movements of the nations permitted to enjoy
+another period of efflorescence, and Jewish humor has conquered a place
+for itself in modern literature.
+
+Our brief journey through the realm of love and humor must certainly
+convince us that in sunny days humor rarely, love never, forsook Israel.
+Our old itinerant preachers (_Maggidim_), strolling from town to town,
+were in the habit of closing their sermons with a parable (_Mashai_),
+which opened the way to exhortation. The manner of our fathers
+recommends itself to me, and following in their footsteps, I venture to
+close my pilgrimage through the ages with a _Mashal_. It transports us
+to the sunny Orient, to the little seaport town of Jabneh, about six
+miles from Jerusalem, in the time immediately succeeding the destruction
+of the Temple. Thither with a remnant of his disciples, Jochanan ben
+Zakkaï, one of the wisest of our rabbis, fled to escape the misery
+incident to the downfall of Jerusalem. He knew that the Temple would
+never again rise from its ashes. He knew as well that the essence of
+Judaism has no organic connection with the Temple or the Holy City. He
+foresaw that its mission is to spread abroad among the nations of the
+earth, and of this future he spoke to the disciples gathered about him
+in the academy at Jabneh. We can imagine him asking them to define the
+fundamental principle of Judaism, and receiving a multiplicity of
+answers, varying with the character and temper of the young
+missionaries. To one, possibly, Judaism seemed to rest upon faith in
+God, to another upon the Sabbath, to a third upon the _Torah_, to a
+fourth upon the Decalogue. Such views could not have satisfied the
+spiritual cravings of the aged teacher. When Jochanan ben Zakkaï rises
+to give utterance to his opinion, we feel as though the narrow walls of
+the academy at Jabneh were miraculously widening out to enclose the
+world, while the figure of the venerable rabbi grows to the noble
+proportions of a divine seer, whose piercing eye rends the veil of
+futurity, and reads the remote verdict of history: "My disciples, my
+friends, the fundamental principle of Judaism is love!"
+
+
+
+
+THE JEWISH STAGE
+
+
+Perhaps no people has held so peculiar a position with regard to the
+drama as the Jews. Little more than two centuries have passed since a
+Jewish poet ventured to write a drama, and now, if division by race be
+admissible in literary matters, Jews indisputably rank among the first
+of those interested in the drama, both in its composition and
+presentation.
+
+Originally, the Hebrew mind felt no attraction towards the drama. Hebrew
+poetry attained to neither dramatic nor epic creations, because the
+all-pervading monotheistic principle of the nation paralyzed the free
+and easy marshalling of gods and heroes of the Greek drama.
+Nevertheless, traces of dramatic poetry appear in the oldest literature.
+The "Song of Songs" by many is regarded as a dramatic idyl in seven
+scenes, with Shulammith as the heroine, and the king, the ostensible
+author, as the hero. But this and similar efforts are only faint
+approaches to dramatic composition, inducing no imitations.
+
+Greek and Roman theatrical representations, the first they knew, must
+have awakened lively interest in the Jews. It was only after Alexander
+the Great's triumphal march through the East, and the establishment of
+Roman supremacy over Judæa, that a foothold was gained in Palestine by
+the institutions called theatre by the ancients; that is, _stadia_;
+circuses for wrestling, fencing, and combats between men and animals;
+and the stage for tragedies and other plays. To the horror of pious
+zealots, the Jewish Hellenists, in other words, Jews imbued with the
+secular culture of the day, built a gymnasium for the wrestling and
+fencing contests of the Jewish youth of Jerusalem, soon to be further
+defiled by the circus and the _stadium_. According to Flavius Josephus,
+Herod erected a theatre at Jerusalem twenty-eight years before the
+present era, and in the vicinity of the city, an amphitheatre where
+Greek players acted, and sang to the accompaniment of the lyre or flute.
+
+The first, and at his time probably the only, Jewish dramatist was the
+Greek poet Ezekielos (Ezekiel), who flourished in about 150 before the
+common era. In his play, "The Exodus from Egypt," modelled after
+Euripides, Moses, as we know him in the Bible, is the hero. Otherwise
+the play is thoroughly Hellenic, showing the Greek tendency to become
+didactic and reflective and use the heroes of sacred legend as human
+types. Besides, two fragments of Jewish-Hellenic dramas, in trimeter
+verse, have come down to us, the one treating of the unity of God, the
+other of the serpent in Paradise.
+
+To the mass of the Jewish people, particularly to the expounders and
+scholars of the Law, theatrical performances seemed a desecration, a
+sin. A violent struggle ensued between the _Beth ha-Midrash_ and the
+stage, between the teachers of the Law and lovers of art, between
+Rabbinism and Hellenism. Mindful of Bible laws inculcating humanity to
+beasts and men, the rabbis could not fail to deprecate gladiatorial
+contests, and in their simple-mindedness they must have revolted from
+the themes of the Greek playwright, dishonesty, violence triumphant, and
+conjugal infidelity being then as now favorite subjects of dramatic
+representations. The immorality of the stage was, if possible, more
+conspicuous in those days than in ours.
+
+This was the point of view assumed by the rabbis in their exhortations
+to the people, and a conspiracy against King Herod was the result. The
+plotters one evening appeared at the theatre, but their designs were
+frustrated by the absence of the king and his suite. The plot betrayed
+itself, and one of the members of the conspiracy was seized and torn
+into pieces by the mob. The most uncompromising rabbis pronounced a
+curse over frequenters of the theatre, and raised abstinence from its
+pleasures to the dignity of a meritorious action, inasmuch as it was the
+scene of idolatrous practices, and its _habitués_ violated the
+admonition contained in the first verse of the psalms. "Cursed be they
+who visit the theatre and the circus, and despise our laws," one of them
+exclaims.[55] Another interprets the words of the prophet: "I sat not in
+the assembly of the mirthful, and was rejoiced," by the prayer: "Lord of
+the universe, never have I visited a theatre or a circus to enjoy
+myself in the company of scorners."
+
+Despite rampant antagonism, the stage worked its way into the affection
+and consideration of the Jewish public, and we hear of Jewish youths
+devoting themselves to the drama and becoming actors. Only one has come
+down to us by name: the celebrated Alityros in Rome, the favorite of
+Emperor Nero and his wife Poppæa. Josephus speaks of him as "a player,
+and a Jew, well favored by Nero." When the Jewish historian landed at
+Puteoli, a captive, Alityros presented him to the empress, who secured
+his liberation. Beyond a doubt, the Jewish _beaux esprits_ of Rome
+warmly supported the theatre; indeed, Roman satirists levelled their
+shafts against the zeal displayed in the service of art by Jewish
+patrons.
+
+A reaction followed. Theatrical representations were pursued by Talmudic
+Judaism with the same bitter animosity as by Christianity. Not a matter
+of surprise, if account is taken of the licentiousness of the stage, so
+depraved as to evoke sharp reproof even from a Cicero, and the hostility
+of playwrights to Jews and Christians, whom they held up as a butt for
+the ridicule of the Roman populace. Talmudic literature has preserved
+several examples of the buffooneries launched against Judaism. Rabbi
+Abbayu tells the following:[56] A camel covered with a mourning blanket
+is brought upon the stage, and gives rise to a conversation. "Why is
+the camel trapped in mourning?" "Because the Jews, who are observing the
+sabbatical year, abstain from vegetables, and refuse to eat even herbs.
+They eat only thistles, and the camel is mourning because he is deprived
+of his favorite food."
+
+Another time a buffoon appears on the stage with head shaved close. "Why
+is the clown mourning?" "Because oil is so dear." "Why is oil dear?" "On
+account of the Jews. On the Sabbath day they consume everything they
+earn during the week. Not a stick of wood is left to make fire whereby
+to cook their meals. They are forced to burn their beds for fuel, and
+sleep on the floor at night. To get rid of the dirt, they use an immense
+quantity of oil. Therefore, oil is dear, and the clown cannot grease his
+hair with pomade." Certainly no one will deny that the patrons of the
+Roman theatre were less critical than a modern audience.
+
+Teachers of the Law had but one answer to make to such attacks--a
+rigorous injunction against theatre-going. On this subject rabbis and
+Church Fathers were of one mind. The rabbi's declaration, that he who
+enters a circus commits murder, is offspring of the same holy zeal that
+dictates Tertullian's solemn indignation: "In no respect, neither by
+speaking, nor by seeing, nor by hearing, have we part in the mad antics
+of the circus, the obscenity of the theatre, or the abominations of the
+arena." Such expressions prepare one for the passion of another
+remonstrant who, on a Sabbath, explained to his audience that
+earthquakes are the signs of God's fierce wrath when He looks down upon
+earth, and sees theatres and circuses flourish, while His sanctuary lies
+in ruins.[57]
+
+Anathemas against the stage were vain. One teacher of the Law, in the
+middle of the second century, went so far as to permit attendance at the
+circus and the _stadium_ for the very curious reason that the spectator
+may haply render assistance to the charioteers in the event of an
+accident on the race track, or may testify to their death at court, and
+thus enable their widows to marry again. Another pious rabbi expresses
+the hope that theatres and circuses at Rome at some future time may "be
+converted into academies of virtue and morality."
+
+Such liberal views were naturally of extremely rare occurrence. Many
+centuries passed before Jews in general were able to overcome antipathy
+to the stage and all connected with it. Pagan Rome with its artistic
+creations was to sink, and the new Christian drama, springing from the
+ruins of the old theatre, but making the religious its central idea, was
+to develop and invite imitation before the first germ of interest in
+dramatic subjects ventured to show itself in Jewish circles. The first
+Jewish contribution to the drama dates from the ninth century. The story
+of Haman, arch-enemy of the Jews, was dramatized in celebration of
+_Purim_, the Jewish carnival. The central figure was Haman's effigy
+which was burnt, amid song, music, and general merrymaking, on a small
+pyre, over which the participants jumped a number of times in gleeful
+rejoicing over the downfall of their worst enemy--extravagance
+pardonable in a people which, on every other day of the year, tottered
+under a load of distress and oppression.
+
+This dramatic effort was only a sporadic phenomenon. Real, uninterrupted
+participation in dramatic art by Jews cannot be recorded until fully six
+hundred years later. Meantime the Spanish drama, the first to adapt
+Bible subjects to the uses of the stage, had reached its highest
+development. By reason of its choice of subjects it proved so attractive
+to Jews that scarcely fifty years after the appearance of the first
+Spanish-Jewish playwright, a Spanish satirist deplores, in cutting
+verse, the Judaizing of dramatic poetry. In fact, the first original
+drama in Spanish literature, the celebrated _Celestina_, is attributed
+to a Jew, the Marrano Rodrigo da Cota. "Esther," the first distinctly
+Jewish play in Spanish, was written in 1567 by Solomon Usque in Ferrara
+in collaboration with Lazaro Graziano. The subject treated centuries
+before in a roughshod manner naturally suggested itself to a genuine
+dramatist, who chose it in order to invest it with the dignity conferred
+by poetic art. This first essay in the domain of the Jewish drama was
+followed by a succession of dramatic creations by Jews, who, exiled from
+Spain, cherished the memory of their beloved country, and, carrying to
+their new homes in Italy and Holland, love for its language and
+literature, wrote all their works, dramas included, in Spanish after
+Spanish models. So fruitful was their activity that shortly after the
+exile we hear of a "Jewish Calderon," the author of more than twenty-two
+plays, some long held to be the work of Calderon himself, and therefore
+received with acclamation in Madrid. The real author, whose place in
+Spanish literature is assured, was Antonio Enriquez di Gomez, a Marrano,
+burnt in effigy at Seville after his escape from the clutches of the
+Inquisition. His dramas in part deal with biblical subjects. Samson is
+obviously the mouthpiece of his own sentiments:
+
+    "O God, my God, the time draws quickly nigh!
+      Now let a ray of thy great strength descend!
+    Make firm my hand to execute the deed
+      That alien rule upon our soil shall end!"
+
+Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Portuguese language
+usurped the place of Spanish among Jews, and straightway we hear of a
+Jewish dramatist, Antonio Jose de Silva (1705-1739), one of the most
+illustrious of Portuguese poets, whose dramas still hold their own on
+the repertory of the Portuguese stage. He was burnt at the stake, a
+martyr to his faith, which he solemnly confessed in the hour of his
+execution: "I am a follower of a faith God-given according to your own
+teachings. God once loved this religion. I believe He still loves it,
+but because you maintain that He no longer turns upon it the light of
+His countenance, you condemn to death those convinced that God has not
+withdrawn His grace from what He once favored." It is by no means an
+improbable combination of circumstances that on the evening of the day
+whereon Antonio Jose de Silva expired at the stake, an operetta written
+by the victim himself was played at the great theatre of Lisbon in
+celebration of the auto-da-fé.
+
+Jewish literature as such derived little increase from this poetic
+activity among Jews. In the period under discussion a single Hebrew
+drama was produced which can lay claim to somewhat more praise than is
+the due of mediocrity. _Asireh ha-Tikwah_, "The Prisoners of Hope,"
+printed in 1673, deserves notice because it was the first drama
+published in Hebrew, and its author, Joseph Pensa de la Vega, was the
+last of Spanish, as Antonio de Silva was the last of Portuguese, Jewish
+poets. The three act play is an allegory, treating of the victory of
+free-will, represented by a king, over evil inclinations, personified by
+the handsome lad Cupid. Though imbued with the solemnity of his
+responsibilities as a ruler, the king is lured from the path of right by
+various persons and circumstances, chief among them Cupid, his
+coquettish queen, and his sinful propensities. The opposing good forces
+are represented by the figures of harmony, Providence, and truth, and
+they eventually lead the erring wanderer back to the road of salvation.
+The _dramatis personæ_ of this first Hebrew drama are abstractions,
+devoid of dramatic life, mere allegorical personifications, but the
+underlying idea is poetic, and the Hebrew style pure, euphonious, and
+rhythmical. Yet it is impossible to echo the enthusiasm which greeted
+the work of the seventeen year old author in the Jewish academies of
+Holland. Twenty-one poets sang its praises in Latin, Hebrew, and Spanish
+verse. The following couplet may serve as a specimen of their eulogies:
+
+    "At length Israel's muse assumes the tragic cothurn,
+    And happily wends her way through the metre's mazes."
+
+Pensa, though the first to publish, was not the first Hebrew dramatist
+to write. The distinction of priority belongs to Moses Zacuto, who wrote
+his Hebrew play, _Yesod Olam_[58] ("The Foundation of the World") a
+quarter of a century earlier. His subject is the persecution inflicted
+by idolaters upon Abraham on account of his faith, and the groundwork is
+the Haggadistic narrative about Abraham's bold opposition to idolatrous
+practices, and his courage even unto death in the service of the true
+God. According to Talmudic interpretation a righteous character of this
+description is one of the corner-stones of the universe. It must be
+admitted that Zacuto's work is a drama with a purpose. The poet wished
+to fortify his exiled, harassed people with the inspiration and hope
+that flow from the contemplation of a strong, bold personality. But the
+admission does not detract from the genuine merits of the poem. On the
+other hand, this first dramatic effort naturally is crude, lacking in
+the poetic forms supplied by highly developed art. Dialogues, prayers,
+and choruses follow each other without regularity, and in varying
+metres, not destitute, however, of poetic sentiment and lyric beauties.
+Often the rhythm rises to a high degree of excellence, even elevation.
+Like Pensa, Zacuto was the disciple of great masters, and a comparison
+of either with Lope de Vega and Calderon will reveal the same southern
+warmth, stilted pathos, exuberance of fancy, wealth of imagery,
+excessive playing upon words, peculiar turns and phrases, erratic style,
+and other qualities characteristic of Spanish dramatic poetry in that
+period.
+
+Another century elapsed before the muse of the Hebrew drama escaped from
+leading strings. Moses Chayyim Luzzatto (1707-1747) of Padua was a poet
+of true dramatic gifts, and had he lived at another time he might have
+attained to absolute greatness of performance. Unluckily, the
+sentimental, impressionable youth became hopelessly enmeshed in the
+snares of mysticism. In his seventeenth year he composed a biblical
+drama, "Samson and the Philistines," the preserved fragments of which
+are faultless in metre. His next effort was an allegorical drama,
+_Migdal Oz_ ("Tower of Victory"), the style and moral of which show
+unmistakable signs of Italian inspiration, derived particularly from
+Guarini and his _Pastor Fido_, models not wholly commendable at a time
+when Maffei's _Merope_ was exerting wholesome influence upon the Italian
+drama in the direction of simplicity and dignity. Nothing, however,
+could wean Luzzatto from adherence to Spanish-Italian romanticism. His
+happiest creation is the dramatic parable, _Layesharim Tehillah_
+("Praise unto the Righteous!"). The poetry of the Bible here celebrates
+its resurrection. The rhythm and exuberance of the Psalms are reproduced
+in the tone and color of its language. "All the fragrant flowers of
+biblical poetry are massed in a single bed. Yet the language is more
+than a mosaic of biblical phrases. It is an enamel of the most superb
+and the rarest of elegant expressions in the Bible. The peculiarities of
+the historical writings are carefully avoided, while all modifications
+of style peculiar to poetry are gathered together to constitute what may
+fairly be called a vocabulary of poetic diction."[59]
+
+The allegory _Layesharim Tehillah_ is full of charming traits, but lacks
+warmth, naturalness, and human interest, the indispensable elements of
+dramatic action. The first act treats of the iniquity of men who prize
+deceit beyond virtue, and closes with the retirement of the pious sage
+to solitude. The second act describes the hopes of the righteous man and
+his fate, and the third sounds the praise of truth and justice. The
+thread of the story is slight, and the characters are pale phantoms,
+instead of warm-blooded men. Yet the work must be pronounced a gem of
+neo-Hebraic poetry, an earnest of the great creations its author might
+have produced, if in early youth he had not been caught in the swirling
+waters, and dragged down into the abysmal depths of Kabbalistic
+mysticism. Despite his vagaries his poems were full of suggestiveness
+and stimulation to many of his race, who were inspired to work along the
+lines laid down by him. He may be considered to have inaugurated another
+epoch of classical Hebrew literature, interpenetrated with the modern
+spirit, which the Jewish dramas of his day are vigorously successful in
+clothing in a Hebrew garb.
+
+In the popular literature in Jewish-German growing up almost unnoticed
+beside classical Hebrew literature, we find popular plays, comedies,
+chiefly farces for the _Purim_ carnival. The first of them, "The Sale of
+Joseph" (_Mekirath Yoseph_, 1710), treats the biblical narrative in the
+form and spirit of the German farcical clown dialogues, Pickelhering
+(Merry-Andrew), borrowed from the latter, being Potiphar's servant and
+counsellor. No dramatic or poetic value of any kind attaches to the
+play. It is as trivial as any of its models, the German clown comedies,
+and possesses interest only as an index to the taste of the public,
+which surely received it with delight. Strangely enough the principal
+scene between Joseph and Selicha, Potiphar's wife, is highly discreet.
+In a monologue, she gives passionate utterance to her love. Then Joseph
+appears, and she addresses him thus:
+
+    "Be welcome, Joseph, dearest one,
+    My slave who all my heart has won!
+    I beg of thee grant my request!
+    So oft have I to thee confessed,
+    My love for thee is passing great.
+    In vain for answering love I wait.
+    Have not so tyrannous a mind,
+    Be not so churlish, so unkind--
+    I bear thee such affection, see,
+    Why wilt thou not give love to me?"
+
+Joseph answers:
+
+    "I owe my lady what she asks,
+    Yet this is not among my tasks.
+    I pray, my mistress, change thy mind;
+    Thou canst so many like me find.
+    How could I dare transgress my state,
+    And my great trust so violate?
+    My lord hath charged me with his house,
+    Excepting only his dear spouse;
+    Yet she, it seems, needs watching too.
+    Now, mistress, fare thee well, adieu!"
+
+Selicha then says:
+
+    "O heaven now what shall I do?
+    He'll list not to my vows so true.
+    Come, Pickelhering, tell me quick,
+    What I shall do his love to prick?
+    I'll die if I no means can find
+    To bend his humor to my mind.
+    I'll give thee gold, thou mayst depend,
+    If thou'lt but help me to my end."
+
+Pickelhering appears, and says:
+
+    "My lady, here I am, thy slave,
+    My wisest counsel thou shalt have.
+    Thou must lay violent hand on him,
+    And say: 'Unless thou'lt grant my whim,
+    I'll drive thee hence from out my court,
+    And with thy woes I'll have my sport,
+    Nor will I stay thy punishment,
+    Till drop by drop thy blood is spent.'
+    Perhaps he will amend his way,
+    If thou such cruel words wilt say."
+
+Selicha follows his advice, but being thwarted, again appeals to
+Pickelhering, who says:
+
+    "My lady fair, pray hark to me,
+    My counsel now shall fruitful be.
+    A garbled story shalt thou tell
+    The king, and say: 'Hear what befell:
+    Thy servant Joseph did presume
+    To enter in my private room,
+    When no one was about the house
+    Who could protect thy helpless spouse.
+    See here his mantle left behind.
+    Seize him, my lord, the miscreant find.'"
+
+Potiphar appears, Selicha tells her tale, and Pickelhering is sent in
+quest of Joseph, who steps upon the scene to be greeted by his master's
+far from gentle reproaches:
+
+    "Thou gallowsbird, thou good-for-naught!
+    Thou whom so true and good I thought!
+    'Twere just to take thy life from thee.
+    But no! still harsher this decree:
+    In dungeon chained shalt thou repine,
+    Where neither sun nor moon can shine.
+    Forever there bewail thy lot unheard;
+    Now leave my sight, begone, thou gallowsbird.'"
+
+This ends the scene. Of course, at the last, Joseph escapes his doom,
+and, to the great joy of the sympathetic public, is raised to high
+dignities and honors.
+
+This farce was presented at Frankfort-on-the-Main by Jewish students of
+the city, aided by some from Hamburg and Prague, with extravagant
+display of scenery. Tradition ascribes the authorship to a certain
+Beermann.
+
+"Ahasverus" is of similar coarse character, so coarse, indeed, that the
+directors of the Frankfort Jewish community, exercising their rights as
+literary censors, forbade its performance, and had the printed copies
+burnt. A somewhat more refined comedy is _Acta Esther et Achashverosh_,
+published at Prague in 1720, and enacted there by the pupils of the
+celebrated rabbi David Oppenheim, "on a regular stage with drums and
+other instruments." "The Deeds of King David and Goliath," and a
+travesty, "Haman's Will and Death" also belong to the category of Purim
+farces.
+
+By an abrupt transition we pass from their consideration to the Hebrew
+classical drama modelled after the pattern of Moses Chayyim Luzzatto's.
+Greatest attention was bestowed upon historical dramas, notably those on
+the trials and fortunes of Marranos, the favorite subjects treated by
+David Franco Mendez, Samuel Romanelli, and others. Although their
+language is an almost pure classical Hebrew, the plot is conceived
+wholly in the spirit of modern times. At the end of the eighteenth
+century, a large number of writers turned to Bible heroes and heroines
+for dramatic uses, and since then Jewish interest in the drama has never
+flagged. The luxuriant fruitfulness of these late Jewish playwrights,
+standing in the sunlight of modern days, fully compensates for the
+sterility of the Jewish dramatic muse during the centuries of darkness.
+
+The first Jewish dramatist to use German was Benedict David Arnstein, of
+Vienna, author of a large number of plays, comedies and melodramas, some
+of which have been put upon the boards of the Vienna imperial theatre
+(_Burgtheater_). He was succeeded by L. M. Büschenthal, whose drama,
+"King Solomon's Seal," was performed at the royal theatre of Berlin.
+Since his time poets of Jewish race have enriched dramatic literature in
+all its departments. Their works belong to general literature, and need
+not be individualized in this essay.
+
+In the province of dramatic music, too, Jews have made a prominent
+position for themselves. It suffices to mention Meyerbeer and Offenbach,
+representatives of two widely divergent departments of the art. Again,
+to assert the prominence of Jews as actors is uttering a truism. Adolf
+Jellinek, one of the closest students of the racial characteristics of
+Jews, thinks that they are singularly well equipped for the theatrical
+profession by reason of their marked subjectivity, which always induces
+objective, disinterested devotion to a purpose, and their
+cosmopolitanism, which enables them to transport themselves with ease
+into a new world of thought.[60] "It is natural that a race whose
+religious, literary, and linguistic development in hundreds of instances
+proves unique talent to adapt itself with marvellous facility to the
+intellectual life of various countries and nations, should bring forth
+individuals gifted with power to project themselves into a character
+created by art, and impersonate it with admirable accuracy in the
+smallest detail. What the race as a whole has for centuries been doing
+spontaneously and by virtue of innate characteristics, can surely be
+done with greater perfection by some of its members under the
+consciously accepted guidance of the laws of art." Many Jewish race
+peculiarities--quick perception, vivacity, declamatory pathos, perfervid
+imagination--are prime qualifications for the actor's career, and such
+names as Bogumil Davison, Adolf Sonnenthal, Rachel Felix, and Sarah
+Bernhardt abundantly illustrate the general proposition.
+
+Strenuous efforts to ascertain the name of the first Jewish actor in
+Germany have been unavailing. Possibly it was the unnamed artist for
+whom, at his brother's instance, Lessing interceded at the Mannheim
+national theatre.
+
+Legion is the name of the Jewish artists of this century who have
+attained to prominence in every department of the dramatic art, in every
+country, even the remotest, on the globe. Travellers in Russia tell of
+the crowds that evening after evening flock to the Jewish-German
+theatres at Odessa, Kiev, and Warsaw. The plays performed are
+adaptations of the best dramatic works of all modern nations. We
+outside of Russia have been made acquainted with the character of these
+performances by the melodrama "Shulammith," enacted at various theatres
+by a Jewish-German _opera bouffe_ company from Warsaw, and the writer
+once--can he ever forget it?--saw "Hamlet" played by jargon actors. When
+Hamlet offers advice to Ophelia in the words: "Get thee to a nunnery!"
+she promptly retorts: _Mit Eizes bin ich versehen, mein Prinz!_ (With
+good advice I am well supplied, my lord!).
+
+The actor recalled by the recent centennial celebration of the first
+performance of "The Magic Flute" must have been among the first Jews to
+adopt the stage as a profession. The first presentation, at once
+establishing the success of the opera, took place at Prague. According
+to the _Prager Neue Zeitung_ an incident connected with that original
+performance was of greater interest than the opera itself: "On the tenth
+of last month, the new piece, 'The Magic Flute,' was produced. I
+hastened to the theatre, and found that the part of Sarastro was taken
+by a well-formed young man with a caressing voice who, as I was told to
+my great surprise, was a Jew--yes, a Jew. He was visibly embarrassed
+when he first appeared, proving that he was a human being subject to the
+ordinary laws of nature and to the average mortal's weaknesses. Noticing
+his stage-fright, the audience tried to encourage him by applause. It
+succeeded, for he sang and spoke his lines with grace and dignity. At
+the end he was called out and applauded vigorously. In short, I found
+the Prague public very different from its reputation with us. It knows
+how to appreciate merit even when possessed by an Israelite, and I am
+inclined to think that it criticises harshly only when there is just
+reason for complaint. Hartung, the Jewish actor, will soon appear in
+other rôles, and doubtless will justify the applause of the public."
+
+To return, in conclusion, to the classical drama in Hebrew. Though
+patterned after the best classical models, and enriched by the noble
+creations of S. L. Romanelli, M. E. Letteris, the translator of _Faust_,
+A. Gottloeber, and others, Hebrew dramas belong to the large class of
+plays for the closet, unsuited for the stage. This dramatic literature
+contains not only original creations; the masterpieces of all
+literatures--the works of Shakespere, Racine, Molière, Goethe, Schiller,
+and Lessing--have been put into the language of the prophets and the
+psalmists, and, infected by the vigor of their thought, the ancient
+tongue has been re-animated with the vitality of undying youth.
+
+
+
+
+THE JEW'S QUEST IN AFRICA
+
+
+Citizens of ancient Greece conversing during the _entr'actes_ of a first
+performance at the national theatre of Olympia were almost sure to ask
+each other, after the new play had been discussed: "What news from
+Africa?" Through Aristotle the proverb has come down to us: "Africa
+always brings us something new." Hence the question: _Quid novi ex
+Africa?_[61]
+
+If ever two old rabbis in the _Beth ha-Midrash_ at Cyrene stole a chat
+in the intervals of their lectures, the same question probably passed
+between them. For, Africa has always claimed the interest of the
+cultured. Jewish-German legend books place the scenes of their most
+mysterious myths in the "Dark Continent," and I remember distinctly how
+we youngsters on Sabbath afternoons used to crowd round our dear old
+grandmother, who, great bowed spectacles on her nose, would read to us
+from "Yosippon." On many such occasions an unruly listener, with a view
+to hurrying the distribution of the "Sabbathfruit," would endanger the
+stability of the dish by vigorous tugging at the table-cloth, and elicit
+the reproof suggested by our reading: "You are a veritable
+Sambation!"--Aristotle, Pliny, Olympia, Cyrene, "Yosippon," and
+grandam--all unite to whet our appetite for African novelties.
+
+Never has interest in the subject been more active than in our
+generation, and the question, "What is the quest of the Jews in Africa?"
+might be applied literally to the achievements of individual Jewish
+travellers. But our inquiry shall not be into the fortunes of African
+explorers of Jewish extraction; not into Emin Pasha's journey to Wadelai
+and Magungo; not into the advisability of colonizing Russian Jews in
+Africa; nor even into the rôle played by a part of northern Africa in
+the development of Jewish literature and culture: briefly, "The Jew's
+quest in Africa" is for the remnants of the ten lost tribes.
+
+For more than eight hundred years, Israel, entrenched on his own soil,
+bade defiance to every enemy. After the death of Solomon (978 B. C. E.),
+the kingdom was divided, its power declining in consequence. The
+world-monarchy Assyria became an adversary to be feared after Ahaz, king
+of Judah, invited it to assist him against Pekah. Tiglath-Pileser
+conquered a part of the kingdom of Israel, and, in about the middle of
+the eighth century, carried off its subjects captive into Assyria. In
+the reign of Hosea, Shalmaneser finished what his predecessor had begun
+(722), utterly destroying the kingdom of the north in the two hundred
+and fifty-eighth year of its independence. Before the catastrophe, a
+part of its inhabitants had emigrated to Arabia, so that there were
+properly speaking only nine tribes, called by their prophets, chief
+among them Hosea and Amos, Ephraim from the most powerful member of the
+confederacy. Another part went to Adiabene, a district on the boundary
+between Assyria and Media, and thence scattered in all directions
+through the kingdom of the Medes and Persians.
+
+The prophets of the exile still hope for their return. Isaiah says:[62]
+"The Lord will put forth His hand again the second time to acquire the
+remnant of his people, which shall remain, from Asshur, and from Egypt,
+and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and
+from Chamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he will lift up an
+ensign unto the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel; and
+the dispersed of Judah will he collect together from the four corners of
+the earth.... Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not assail
+Ephraim.... And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian
+sea.... And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people,
+which shall remain from Asshur, like as it was to Israel on the day that
+they came up out of the land of Egypt." In Jeremiah[63] we read: "Behold
+I will bring them from the north country, and I will gather them from
+the farthest ends of the earth ... for I am become a father to Israel,
+and Ephraim is my first-born." Referring to this passage, the Talmud
+maintains that the prophet Jeremiah led the lost tribes back to
+Palestine.
+
+The second Isaiah[64] says "to the prisoners, Go forth; to those that
+are in darkness, Show yourselves." "Ye shall be gathered up one by
+one.... And it shall come to pass on that day that the great cornet
+shall be blown, and then shall come those that are lost in the land of
+Asshur, and those who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall
+prostrate themselves before the Lord on the holy mount at Jerusalem."
+
+And Ezekiel:[65] "Thou son of man, take unto thyself one stick of wood,
+and write upon it, 'For Judah, and for the children of Israel his
+companions'; then take another stick, and write upon it, 'For Joseph,
+the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions':
+and join them one to the other unto thee as one stick; and they shall
+become one in thy hand."
+
+These prophetical passages show that at the time of the establishment of
+the second commonwealth the new homes of the ten tribes were accurately
+known. After that, for more than five hundred years, history is silent
+on the subject. From frequent allusions in the prophetical writings, we
+may gather that efforts were made to re-unite Judah and the tribes of
+Israel, and it seems highly probable that they were successful, such of
+the ten tribes as had not adopted the idolatrous practices of the
+heathen returning with the exiles of Judah. In the Samaritan book of
+Joshua, it is put down that many out of the tribes of Israel migrated to
+the north of Palestine at the time when Zerubbabel and Ezra brought the
+train of Babylonian exiles to Jerusalem.
+
+In Talmudic literature we occasionally run across a slight reference to
+the ten tribes, as, for instance, Mar Sutra's statement that they
+journeyed to Iberia, at that time synonymous with Spain, though the
+rabbi probably had northern Africa in mind. Another passage relates that
+the Babylonian scholars decided that no one could tell whether he was
+descended from Reuben or from Simon, the presumption in their mind
+evidently being that the ten tribes had become amalgamated with Judah
+and Benjamin. If they are right, if from the time of Jeremiah to the
+Syrian domination, a slow process of assimilation was incorporating the
+scattered of the ten tribes into the returned remnant of Judah and
+Benjamin, then the ten lost tribes have no existence, and we are dealing
+with a myth. But the question is still mooted. The prophets and the
+rabbis continually dwell upon the hope of reunion. The Pesikta is the
+first authority to locate the exile home of the ten tribes on the
+Sambation. A peculiarly interesting conversation on the future of the
+ten tribes between two learned doctors of the Law, Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi
+Eliezer, has been preserved. Rabbi Eliezer maintains: "The Eternal has
+removed the ten tribes from their soil, and cast them forth into another
+land, as irrevocably as this day goes never to return." Rabbi Akiba, the
+enthusiastic nationalist, thinks very differently: "No, day sinks, and
+passes into night only to rise again in renewed brilliance. So the ten
+tribes, lost in darkness, will reappear in refulgent light."
+
+It is not unlikely that Akiba's journeys, extending into Africa, and
+undertaken to bring about the restoration of the independence of Judæa,
+had as their subsidiary, unavowed purpose, the discovery of the ten lost
+tribes. The "Dark Continent" played no unimportant rôle in Talmudic
+writings, special interest attaching to their narratives of the African
+adventures of Alexander the Great.[66] On one occasion, it is said, the
+wise men of Africa appeared in a body before the king, and offered him
+gifts of gold. He refused them, being desirous only of becoming
+acquainted with the customs, statutes, and law, of the land. They,
+therefore, gave him an account of a lawsuit which was exciting much
+attention at the time: A man had bought a field from his friend and
+neighbor, and while digging it up, had found a treasure which he refused
+to keep, as he considered it the property of the original owner of the
+field. The latter maintained that he had sold the land and all on and
+within it, and, therefore, had no claim upon the treasure. The doctors
+of the law put an end to the dispute by the decision that the son of the
+one contestant was to take to wife the daughter of the other, the
+treasure to be their marriage portion. Alexander marvelled greatly at
+this decision. "With us," he said, "the government would have had the
+litigants killed, and would have confiscated the treasure." Hereupon
+one of the wise men exclaimed: "Does the sun shine in your land? Have
+you dumb beasts where you live? If so, surely it is for them that God
+sends down the rain, and lets the sun shine!"
+
+In biblical literature, too, frequent mention is made of Africa. The
+first explorer of the "Dark Continent" was the patriarch Abraham, who
+journeyed from Ur of the Chaldees through Mesopotamia, across the
+deserts and mountains of Asia, to Zoan, the metropolis of ancient Egypt.
+When Moses fled from before Pharaoh, he found refuge, according to a
+Talmudic legend, in the Soudan, where he became ruler of the land for
+forty years, and later on, Egypt was the asylum for the greater number
+of Jewish rebels and fugitives. As early as the reign of King Solomon,
+ships freighted with silver sailed to Africa, and Jewish sailors in part
+manned the Phoenician vessels despatched to the coasts of the Red Sea
+to be loaded with the gold dust of Africa, whose usual name in Hebrew
+was _Ophir_, meaning gold dust. In the Talmud Africa is generally spoken
+of as "the South," owing to its lying south of Palestine. One of its
+proverbs runs thus: "He who would be wise, must go to the South." The
+story of Alexander the Great and the African lawyers is probably a
+sample of the wisdom lauded. Nor were the doctors of the Talmud ignorant
+of the physical features of the country. A scoffer asked, "Why have
+Africans such broad feet." "Because they live on marshy soil, and must
+go barefoot," was the ready answer given by Hillel the Great.
+
+In the course of a discussion about the appearance of the cherubim,
+Akiba pointed out that in Africa a little child is called "cherub."
+Thence he inferred that the faces of cherubim resembled those of little
+children. On his travels in Africa, the same rabbi was appealed to by a
+mighty negro king: "See, I am black, and my wife is black. How is it
+that my children are white?" Akiba asked him whether there were pictures
+in his palace. "Yes," answered the monarch, "my sleeping chamber is
+adorned with pictures of white men." "That solves the puzzle," said
+Akiba. Evidently civilization had taken root in Africa more than
+eighteen hundred years ago.
+
+To return to the lost tribes: No land on the globe has been considered
+too small, none too distant, for their asylum. The first country to
+suggest itself was the one closest to Palestine, Arabia, the bridge
+between Asia and Africa. In the first centuries of this era, two great
+kingdoms, Yathrib and Chaibar, flourished there, and it is altogether
+probable that Jews were constantly emigrating thither. As early as the
+time of Alexander the Great, thousands were transported to Arabia,
+particularly to Yemen, where entire tribes accepted the Jewish faith.
+Recent research has made us familiar with the kingdom of Tabba (500) and
+the Himyarites. Their inscriptions and the royal monuments of the old
+African-Jewish population prove that Jewish immigrants must have been
+numerous here, as in southern Arabia. When Mohammed unfurled the banner
+of the Prophet, and began his march through the desert, his followers
+counted not a few Jews. In similar numbers they spread to northern
+Africa, where, towards the end of the first thousand years of the
+Christian era, they boasted large communities, and played a prominent
+rôle in Jewish literature, as is attested by the important contributions
+to Jewish law, grammar, poetry, and medicine, by such men as Isaac
+Israeli, Chananel, Jacob ben Nissim, Dunash ben Labrat, Yehuda Chayyug,
+and later, Isaac Alfassi. When this north-African Jewish literature was
+at its zenith, interest in the whereabouts of the ten tribes revived,
+first mention of them being made in the last quarter of the ninth
+century. One day there appeared in the academy at Kairwan an adventurer
+calling himself Eldad, and representing himself to be a member of the
+tribe of Dan. Marvellous tales he told the wondering rabbis of his own
+adventures, which read like a Jewish Odyssey, and of the independent
+government established by Jews in Africa, of which he claimed to be a
+subject. Upon its borders, he reported, live the Levitical singers, the
+descendants of Moses, who, in the days of Babylonish captivity, hung
+their harps upon the willows, refusing to sing the songs of Zion upon
+the soil of the stranger, and willing to sacrifice limb and life rather
+than yield to the importunities of their oppressors. A cloud had
+enveloped and raised them aloft, bearing them to the land of Chavila
+(Ethiopia). To protect them from their enemies, their refuge in a trice
+was girdled by the famous Sambation, a stream, not of waters, but of
+rapidly whirling stones and sand, tumultuously flowing during six days,
+and resting on the Sabbath, when the country was secured against foreign
+invasion by a dense cloud of dust. With their neighbors, the sons of
+Moses have intercourse only from the banks of the stream, which it is
+impossible to pass.[67]
+
+This clever fellow, who had travelled far and wide, and knew men and
+customs, gave an account also of a shipwreck which he had survived, and
+of his miraculous escape from cannibals, who devoured his companions,
+but, finding him too lean for their taste, threw him into a dungeon.
+Homer's Odyssey involuntarily suggests itself to the reader. In Spain we
+lose trace of the singular adventurer, who must have produced no little
+excitement in the Jewish world of his day.
+
+Search for the ten tribes had now re-established itself as a subject of
+perennial interest. In the hope of the fulfilment of the biblical
+promise: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
+between his feet, until he comes to Shiloh," even the most famous Jewish
+traveller of the middle ages, Benjamin of Tudela, did not disdain to
+follow up the "traces of salvation." Nor has interest waned in our
+generation. Whenever we hear of a Jewish community whose settlement in
+its home is tinged with mystery, we straightway seek to establish its
+connection with the ten lost tribes. They have been placed in Armenia,
+Syria, and Mesopotamia, where the Nestorian Christians, calling
+themselves sons of Israel, live to the number of two hundred thousand,
+observing the dietary laws and the Sabbath, and offering up sacrifices.
+They have been sought in Afghanistan, India, and Western Asia, the land
+of the "Beni Israel," with Jewish features, Jewish names, such as
+Solomon, David, and Benjamin, and Jewish laws, such as that of the
+Levirate marriage. One chain of hills in their country bears the name
+"Solomon's Mountains," another "Amram Chain," and the most warlike tribe
+is called Ephraim, while the chief tenet of their law is "eye for eye,
+tooth for tooth." Search for the lost has been carried still further, to
+the coast of China, to the settlements of Cochin and Malabar, where
+white and black Jews write their law upon scrolls of red goatskin.
+
+Westward the quest has reached America: Manasseh ben Israel and Mordecai
+Noah, the latter of whom hoped to establish a Jewish commonwealth at
+Ararat near Buffalo, in the beginning of this century, believed that
+they had discovered traces of the lost tribes among the Indians. The
+Spaniards in Mexico identified them with the red men of Anahuac and
+Yucatan, a theory suggested probably by the resemblance between the
+Jewish and the Indian aquiline nose. These would-be ethnologists
+obviously did not take into account the Mongolian descent of the Indian
+tribes and their pre-historic migration from Asia to America across
+Behring Strait.
+
+Europe has not escaped the imputation of being the refuge of the lost
+tribes. When Alfonso XI. expelled the Saracens from Toledo, the Jews of
+the city asked permission to remain on the plea that they were not
+descendants of the murderers of Jesus, but of those ten tribes whom
+Nebuchadnezzar had sent to Tarshish as colonists. The petition was
+granted, and their explanation filed among the royal archives at Toledo.
+
+The English have taken absorbing interest in the fate of the lost
+tribes, maintaining by most elaborate arguments their identity with the
+inhabitants of Scandinavia and England. The English people have always
+had a strong biblical bias. To this day they live in the Bible, and are
+flattered by the hypothesis that the Anglo-Saxons and kindred tribes,
+who crossed over to Britain under Hengist and Horsa in the fifth
+century, were direct descendants of Abraham, their very name
+_Sakkasuna_, that is, sons of Isaac, vouching for the truth of the
+theory. The radical falseness of the etymology is patent. The gist of
+their argument is that the tribe of Dan settled near the source of the
+Jordan, becoming the maritime member of the Israelitish confederacy, and
+calling forth from Deborah the rebuke that the sons of Dan tarried in
+ships when the land stood in need of defenders. And now comes the most
+extravagant of the vagaries of the etymological reasoner: he suggests a
+connection between Dan, Danube, Danaï, and Danes, and so establishes the
+English nation's descent from the tribes of Israel.
+
+In the third decade of this century, when Shalmaneser's obelisk was
+found with the inscription "Tribute of Jehu, son of Omri," English
+investigators, seeking to connect it with the Cimbric Chersonese in
+Jutland, at once took it for "Yehu ibn Umry." An Irish legend has it
+that Princess Tephi came to Ireland from the East, and married King
+Heremon, or Fergus, of Scotland. In her suite was the prophet Ollam
+Folla, and his scribe Bereg. The princess was the daughter of Zedekiah,
+the prophet none other than Jeremiah, and the scribe, as a matter of
+course, Baruch. The usefulness of this fine-spun analogy becomes
+apparent when we recall that Queen Victoria boasts descent from Fergus
+of Scotland, and so is furnished with a line of descent which would
+justify pride if it rested on fact instead of fancy. On the other hand,
+imagine the dismay of Heinrich von Treitschke, Saxon _par excellence_,
+were it proved that he is a son of the ten lost tribes!
+
+"Salvation is of the Jews!" is the motto of a considerable movement
+connected with the lost tribes in England and America. More than thirty
+weekly and monthly journals are discharging a volley of eloquence in the
+propaganda of the new doctrine, and lecturers and societies keep
+interest in it alive. An apostolic believer in the Israelitish descent
+of the British has recently turned up in the person of a bishop, and the
+identity of the ancient and the modern people has been raised to the
+dignity of a dogma of the Christian Church by a sect which, according to
+a recent utterance of an Indianapolis preacher, holds the close advent
+of Judgment Day. Yet the ten lost tribes may be a myth!
+
+One thing seems certain: If scattered remnants do exist here and there,
+they must be sought in Africa, in that part, moreover, most accessible
+to travellers, that is to say, Abyssinia, situated in the central
+portion of the great, high tableland of eastern Africa between the basin
+of the Nile and the shores of the Red and the Arabian Sea--a tremendous,
+rocky, fortress-like plateau, intersected closely with a network of
+river-beds, the Switzerland of Africa, as many please to call it.
+Alexander the Great colonized many thousands of Jews in Egypt on the
+southern and northern coasts of the Mediterranean, and in south-eastern
+Africa. Thence they penetrated into the interior of Abyssinia, where
+they founded a mighty kingdom extending to the river Sobat. Abyssinian
+legends have another version of the history of this realm. It is said
+that the Queen of Sheba bore King Solomon a son, named Menelek, whom he
+sent to Abyssinia with a numerous retinue to found an independent
+kingdom. In point of fact, Judaism seems to have been the dominant
+religion in Abyssinia until 340 of the Christian era, and the _Golah_ of
+Cush (the exiles in Abyssinia) is frequently referred to in mediæval
+Hebrew literature.
+
+The Jewish kingdom flourished until a great revolution broke out in the
+ninth century under Queen Judith (Sague), who conquered Axum, and
+reigned over Abyssinia for forty years. The Jewish ascendancy lasted
+three hundred and fifty years. Rüppell,[68] a noted African explorer,
+gives the names of Jewish dynasties from the ninth to the thirteenth
+century. In the wars of the latter and the following century, the Jews
+lost their kingdom, keeping only the province of Semen, guarded by
+inaccessible mountains. Benjamin of Tudela describes it as "a land full
+of mountains, upon whose rocky summits they have perched their towns and
+castles, holding independent sway to the mortal terror of their
+neighbors." Combats, persecutions, and banishments lasted until the end
+of the eighteenth century. Anarchy reigned, overwhelming Gideon and
+Judith, the last of the Jewish dynasty, and proving equally fatal to the
+Christian empire, whose Negus Theodore likewise traced his descent from
+Solomon. So, after a thousand years of mutual hostility, the two ancient
+native dynasties, claiming descent from David and Solomon, perished
+together, but the memory of the Jewish princes has not died out in the
+land.
+
+The Abyssinian Jews are called Falashas, the exiled.[69] They live
+secluded in the province west of Takazzeh, and their number is estimated
+by some travellers to be two hundred and fifty thousand, while my friend
+Dr. Edward Glaser judges them to be only twenty-five thousand strong.
+Into the dreary wastes inhabited by these people, German and English
+missionaries have found their way to spread among them the blessings of
+Christianity. The purity of these blessings may be inferred from the
+names of the missionaries: Flad, Schiller, Brandeis, Stern, and
+Rosenbaum.
+
+Information about the misery of the Falashas penetrated to Europe, and
+induced the _Alliance Israélite Universelle_ to despatch a Jewish
+messenger to Abyssinia. Choice fell upon Joseph Halévy, professor of
+Oriental languages at Paris, one of the most thorough of Jewish
+scholars, than whom none could be better qualified for the mission. It
+was a memorable moment when Halévy, returned from his great journey to
+Abyssinia, addressed the meeting of the _Alliance_ on July 30, 1868, as
+follows:[70] "The ancient land of Ethiopia has at last disclosed the
+secret concerning the people of whom we hitherto knew naught but the
+name. In the midst of the most varied fortunes they clung to the Law
+proclaimed on Sinai, and constant misery has not drained them of the
+vitality which enables nations to fulfil the best requirements of modern
+society."
+
+Adverse circumstances robbed Halévy of a great part of the material
+gathered on his trip. What he rescued and published is enough to give us
+a more detailed and accurate account of the Falashas than we have
+hitherto possessed. He reports that they address their prayers to one
+God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that they feel pride in
+belonging to the old, yet ever young tribe which has exercised dominant
+influence upon the fate of men; that love for the Holy Land fills their
+hearts; and that the memory of Israel's glorious past is their
+spiritual stay. One of the articles of their faith is the restoration of
+Jewish nationality.
+
+The Falashas speak two languages, that of the land, the Amharic, a
+branch of the ancient Geez, and the Agau, a not yet classified dialect.
+Their names are chiefly biblical. While in dress they are like their
+neighbors, the widest difference prevails between their manners and
+customs and those of the other inhabitants of the land. In the midst of
+a slothful, debauched people, they are distinguished for simplicity,
+diligence, and ambition. Their houses for the most part are situated
+near running water; hence, their cleanly habits. At the head of each
+village is a synagogue called _Mesgid_, whose Holy of holies may be
+entered only by the priest on the Day of Atonement, while the people
+pray in the court without. Next to the synagogue live the monks
+(_Nesirim_). The priests offer up sacrifices, as in ancient times, daily
+except on the Day of Atonement, the most important being that for the
+repose of the dead. On the space surrounding the synagogue stand the
+houses of the priests, who, in addition to their religious functions,
+fill the office of teachers of the young. The Falashas are well
+acquainted with the Bible, but wholly ignorant of the Hebrew language.
+Their ritual has been published by Joseph Halévy, who has added a Hebrew
+translation, showing its almost perfect identity with the traditional
+form of Jewish prayer. About their devotional exercises Halévy says:
+"From the holy precincts the prayers of the faithful rise aloft to
+heaven. From midnight on, we hear the clear, rhythmical, melancholy
+intonation of the precentor, the congregation responding in a monotonous
+recitative. Praise of the Eternal, salvation of Israel, love of Zion,
+hope of a happy future for all mankind--these form the burden of their
+prayers, calling forth sighs and tears, exclamations of hope and joy.
+Break of day still finds the worshippers assembled, and every evening
+without fail, as the sun sinks to rest, their loud prayer (beginning
+with _Abba! Abba!_ Lord! Lord!) twice wakes the echoes."[71]
+
+Their well kept houses are presided over by their women, diligent and
+modest. Polygamy is unknown. There are agriculturists and artisans,
+representatives of every handicraft: smiths, tailors, potters, weavers,
+and builders. Commerce is not esteemed, trading with slaves being held
+in special abhorrence. Their laws permit the keeping of a slave for only
+six years. If at the expiration of that period he embraces their
+religion, he is free. They are brave warriors, thousands of them having
+fought in the army of Negus Theodore.
+
+It must be confessed that intellectually they are undeveloped. They have
+a sort of Midrash, which apparently has been handed down from generation
+to generation by word of mouth. The misfortunes they have endured have
+predisposed them to mysticism, and magicians and soothsayers are
+numerous and active among them. But they are eager for information.
+
+King Theodore protected them, until missionaries poisoned his mind
+against the Falashas. In 1868 he summoned a deputation of their elders,
+and commanded them to accept Christianity. Upon their refusal the king
+ordered his soldiers to fire on the rebels. Hundreds of heads were
+raised, and the men, baring their breasts, cried out: "Strike, O our
+King, but ask us not to perjure ourselves." Moved to admiration by their
+intrepidity, the king loaded the deputies with presents, and dismissed
+them in peace.
+
+The missionaries--Europe does not yet know how often the path of these
+pious men is marked by tears and blood--must be held guilty of many of
+the bitter trials of the Falashas. In the sixties they succeeded in
+exciting Messianic expectations. Suddenly, from district to district,
+leapt the news that the Messiah was approaching to lead Israel back to
+Palestine. A touching letter addressed by the elders of the Falashas to
+the representatives of the Jewish community at Jerusalem, whom it never
+reached, was found by a traveller, and deserves to be quoted:
+
+"Has the time not yet come when we must return to the Holy Land and Holy
+City? For, we are poor and miserable. We have neither judges nor
+prophets. If the time has arrived, we pray you send us the glad tidings.
+Great fear has fallen upon us that we may miss the opportunity to
+return. Many say that the time is here for us to be reunited with you in
+the Holy City, to bring sacrifices in the Temple of our Holy Land. For
+the sake of the love we bear you, send us a message. Peace with you and
+all dwelling in the land given by the Lord to Moses on Sinai!"
+
+Filled with the hope of redemption, large numbers of the Falashas, at
+their head venerable old men holding aloft banners and singing pious
+songs, at that time left their homes. Ignorant of the road to be taken,
+they set their faces eastward, hoping to reach the shores of the Red
+Sea. The distance was greater than they could travel. At Axum they came
+to a stop disabled, and after three years the last man had succumbed to
+misery and privation.
+
+The distress of the Falashas is extreme, but they count it sweet
+alleviation if their sight is not troubled by missionaries. At a time
+when the attention of the civilized world is directed to Africa,
+European Jews should not be found wanting in care for their unfortunate
+brethren in faith in the "Dark Continent." Abundant reasons recommend
+them to our loving-kindness. They are Jews--they would suffer a thousand
+deaths rather than renounce the covenant sealed on Sinai. They are
+unfortunate; since the civil war, they have suffered severely under all
+manner of persecution. Mysticism and ignorance prevail among them--the
+whole community possesses a single copy of the Pentateuch. Finally, they
+show eager desire for spiritual regeneration. When Halévy took leave of
+them, a handsome youth threw himself at his feet, and said: "My lord,
+take me with you to the land of the Franks. Gladly will I undergo the
+hardships of the journey. I want neither silver nor gold--all I crave
+is knowledge!" Halévy brought the young Falasha to Paris, and he proved
+an indefatigable student, who acquired a wealth of knowledge before his
+early death.
+
+Despite the incubus of African barbarism, this little Jewish tribe on
+the banks of the legend-famed Sabbath stream has survived with Jewish
+vitality unbroken and purity uncontaminated. With longing the Falashas
+are awaiting a future when they will be permitted to join the councils
+of their Israelitish brethren in all quarters of the globe, and confess,
+in unison with them and all redeemed, enlightened men, that "the Lord is
+one, and His name one."
+
+The steadfastness of their faith imposes upon us the obligation to bring
+them redemption. We must unbar for them not only Jerusalem, but the
+whole world, that they may recognize, as we do, the eternal truth
+preached by prophet and extolled by psalmist, that on the glad day when
+the unity of God is acknowledged, all the nations of the earth will form
+a single confederacy, banded together for love and peace.
+
+The open-eyed student of Jewish history, in which the Falashas form a
+very small chapter, cannot fail to note with reverence the power and
+sacredness of its genius. The race, the faith, the confession, all is
+unparalleled. Everything about it is wonderful--from Abraham at Ur of
+the Chaldees shattering his father's idols and proclaiming the unity of
+God, down to Moses teaching awed mankind the highest ethical lessons
+from the midst of the thunders and flames of Sinai; to the heroes and
+seers, whose radiant visions are mankind's solace; to the sweet singers
+of Israel extolling the virtues of men in hymns and songs; to the
+Maccabean heroes struggling to throw off the Syrian yoke; to venerable
+rabbis proof against the siren notes of Hellenism; to the gracious bards
+and profound thinkers of Andalusia. The genius of Jewish history is
+never at rest. From the edge of the wilderness it sweeps on to the lands
+of civilization, where thousands of martyrs seal the confession of God's
+unity with death on ruddy pyres; on through tears and blood, over
+nations, across thrones, until the sun of culture, risen to its zenith,
+sends its rays even into the dark Ghetto, where a drama enacts itself,
+melancholy, curious, whose last act is being played under our very eyes.
+Branch after branch is dropping from the timeworn, weatherbeaten trunk.
+The ground is thickly strewn with dry leaves. Vitality that resisted
+rain and storm seems to be blasted by sunshine. Yet we need not despair.
+The genius of Jewish history has the balsam of consolation to offer. It
+bids us read in the old documents of Israel's spiritual struggles, and
+calls to our attention particularly a parable in the Midrash, written
+when the need for its telling was as sore as to-day: A wagon loaded with
+glistening axes was driven through the woods. Plaintive cries arose from
+the trees: "Woe, woe, there is no escape for us, we are doomed to swift
+destruction." A solitary oak towering high above the other trees stood
+calm, motionless. Many a spring had decked its twigs with tender,
+succulent green. At last it speaks; all are silent, and listen
+respectfully: "Possess yourselves in peace. All the axes in the world
+cannot harm you, if you do not provide them with handles."
+
+So every weapon shaped to the injury of the ancient tree of Judaism will
+recoil ineffectual, unless her sons and adherents themselves furnish the
+haft. There is consolation in the thought. Even in sad days it feeds the
+hope that the time will come, whereof the prophet spoke, when "all thy
+children shall be disciples of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of
+thy children."
+
+
+
+
+A JEWISH KING IN POLAND
+
+
+There is a legend that a Jewish king once reigned in Poland. It never
+occurs to my mind without at the same time conjuring before me two
+figures. The one is that charming creation of Ghetto fancy, old Malkoh
+"with the stout heart," in Aaron Bernstein's _Mendel Gibbor_, who
+introduces herself with the proud boast: _Wir sennen von königlichein
+Geblüt_ ("We are of royal descent"). The other is a less ideal, less
+attractive Jew, whom I overheard in the Casimir, the Jewish quarter at
+Cracow, in altercation with another Jew. The matter seemed of vital
+interest to the disputants. The one affirmed, the other denied as
+vigorously, and finally silenced his opponent with the contemptuous
+argument: "Well, and if it comes about, it will last just as long as
+Saul Wahl's _Malchus_ (reign)."
+
+Legend has always been the companion of history. For each age it creates
+a typical figure, in which are fixed, for the information of future
+times, the fleeting, subtle emotions as well as the permanent effects
+produced by historical events, and this constitutes the value of
+legendary lore in tracing the development and characteristics of a
+people. At the same time its magic charms connect the links in the chain
+of generations.
+
+The legend about Saul Wahl to be known and appreciated must first be
+told as it exists, then traced through its successive stages, its
+historical kernel disentangled from the accretions of legend-makers,
+Saul, the man of flesh and blood discovered, and the ethical lessons it
+has to teach derived.
+
+In 1734, more than a century after Saul's supposed reign, his
+great-grandson, Rabbi Pinchas, resident successively in Leitnik,
+Boskowitz, Wallerstein, Schwarzburg, Marktbreit, and Anspach, related
+the story of his ancestor: "Rabbi Samuel Judah's son was the great Saul
+Wahl of blessed memory. All learned in such matters well know that his
+surname _Wahl_ (choice) was given him, because he was chosen king in
+Poland by the unanimous vote of the noble electors of the land. I was
+told by my father and teacher, of blessed memory, that the choice fell
+upon him in this wise: Saul Wahl was a favorite with Polish noblemen,
+and highly esteemed for his shrewdness and ability. The king of Poland
+had died. Now it was customary for the great nobles of Poland to
+assemble for the election of a new king on a given day, on which it was
+imperative that a valid decision be reached. When the day came, many
+opinions were found to prevail among the electors, which could not be
+reconciled. Evening fell, and they realized the impossibility of
+electing a king on the legally appointed day. Loth to transgress their
+own rule, the nobles agreed to make Saul Wahl king for the rest of that
+day and the following night, and thus conform with the letter of the
+law. And so it was. Forthwith all paid him homage, crying out in their
+own language: 'Long live our lord and king!' Saul, loaded with royal
+honors, reigned that night. I heard from my father that they gave into
+his keeping all the documents in the royal archives, to which every king
+may add what commands he lists, and Wahl inscribed many laws and decrees
+of import favorable to Jews. My father knew some of them; one was that
+the murderer of a Jew, like the murderer of a nobleman, was to suffer
+the death penalty. Life was to be taken for life, and no ransom
+allowed--a law which, in Poland, had applied only to the case of
+Christians of the nobility. The next day the electors came to an
+agreement, and chose a ruler for Poland.--That this matter may be
+remembered, I will not fail to set forth the reasons why Saul Wahl
+enjoyed such respect with the noblemen of Poland, which is the more
+remarkable as his father, Rabbi Samuel Judah, was rabbi first at Padua
+and then at Venice, and so lived in Italy. My father told me how it came
+about. In his youth, during his father's lifetime, Saul Wahl conceived a
+desire to travel in foreign parts. He left his paternal home in Padua,
+and journeying from town to town, from land to land, he at last reached
+Brzesc in Lithuania. There he married the daughter of David Drucker, and
+his pittance being small, he led but a wretched life.
+
+It happened at this time that the famous, wealthy prince, Radziwill, the
+favorite of the king, undertook a great journey to see divers lands, as
+is the custom of noblemen. They travel far and wide to become
+acquainted with different fashions and governments. So this prince
+journeyed in great state from land to land, until his purse was empty.
+He knew not what to do, for he would not discover his plight to the
+nobles of the land in which he happened to be; indeed, he did not care
+to let them know who he was. Now, he chanced to be in Padua, and he
+resolved to unbosom himself to the rabbi, tell him that he was a great
+noble of the Polish land, and borrow somewhat to relieve his pressing
+need. Such is the manner of Polish noblemen. They permit shrewd and
+sensible Jews to become intimate with them that they may borrow from
+them, rabbis being held in particularly high esteem and favor by the
+princes and lords of Poland. So it came about that the aforesaid Prince
+Radziwill sought out Rabbi Samuel Judah, and revealed his identity, at
+the same time discovering to him his urgent need of money. The rabbi
+lent him the sum asked for, and the prince said, 'How can I recompense
+you, returning good for good?' The rabbi answered, 'First I beg that you
+deal kindly with the Jews under your power, and then that you do the
+good you would show me to my son Saul, who lives in Brzesc.' The prince
+took down the name and place of abode of the rabbi's son, and having
+arrived at his home, sent for him. He appeared before the prince, who
+found him so wise and clever that he in every possible way attached the
+Jew to his own person, gave him many proofs of his favor, sounded his
+praises in the ears of all the nobles, and raised him to a high
+position. He was so great a favorite with all the lords that on the day
+when a king was to be elected, and the peers could not agree, rather
+than have the day pass without the appointment of a ruler, they
+unanimously resolved to invest Saul with royal power, calling him Saul
+Wahl to indicate that he had been _chosen_ king.--All this my father
+told me, and such new matter as I gathered from another source, I will
+not fail to set down in another chapter."--
+
+"This furthermore I heard from my pious father, when, in 1734, he lay
+sick in Fürth, where there are many physicians. I went from Marktbreit
+to Fürth, and stayed with him for three weeks. When I was alone with
+him, he dictated his will to me, and then said in a low voice: 'This I
+will tell you that you may know what happened to our ancestor Saul Wahl:
+After the nobles had elected a king for Poland, and our ancestor had
+become great in the eyes of the Jews, he unfortunately grew haughty. He
+had a beautiful daughter, Händele, famed throughout Poland for her wit
+as well as her beauty. Many sought her in marriage, and among her
+suitors was a young Talmudist, the son of one of the most celebrated
+rabbis. (My father did not mention the name, either because he did not
+know, or because he did not wish to say it, or mayhap he had forgotten
+it.) The great rabbi himself came to Brzesc with his learned son to urge
+the suit. They both lodged with the chief elder of the congregation.
+But the pride of our ancestor was overweening. In his heart he
+considered himself the greatest, and his daughter the best, in the land,
+and he said that his daughter must marry one more exalted than this
+suitor. Thus he showed his scorn for a sage revered in Israel and for
+his son, and these two were sore offended at the discourtesy. The Jewish
+community had long been murmuring against our ancestor Saul Wahl, and it
+was resolved to make amends for his unkindness. One of the most
+respected men in the town gave his daughter to the young Talmudist for
+wife, and from that day our ancestor had enemies among his people, who
+constantly sought to do him harm. It happened at that time that the wife
+of the king whom the nobles had chosen died, and several Jews of Brzesc,
+in favor with the powerful of the land, in order to administer
+punishment to Saul Wahl, went about among the nobles praising his
+daughter for her exceeding beauty and cleverness, and calling her the
+worthiest to wear the queenly crown. One of the princes being kindly
+disposed to Saul Wahl betrayed their evil plot, and it was
+frustrated.'"[72]
+
+Rabbi Pinchas' ingenuous narrative, charming in its simple directness,
+closes wistfully: "He who has not seen that whole generation, Saul Wahl
+amid his sons, sons-in-law, and grandsons, has failed to see the union
+of the Law with mundane glory, of wealth with honor and princely
+rectitude. May the Lord God bless us by permitting us to rejoice thus in
+our children and children's children!"
+
+Other rabbis of that time have left us versions of the Saul Wahl legend.
+They report that he founded a _Beth ha-Midrash_ (college for Jewish
+studies) and a little synagogue, leaving them, together with numerous
+bequests, to the community in which he had lived, with the condition
+that the presidency of the college be made hereditary in his family.
+Some add that they had seen in Brzesc a gold chain belonging to him, his
+coat of arms emblazoned with the lion of Judah, and a stone tablet on
+which an account of his meritorious deeds was graven. Chain, escutcheon,
+and stone have disappeared, and been forgotten, the legend alone
+survives.
+
+* * *
+
+Now, what has history to say?
+
+Unquestionably, an historical kernel lies hidden in the legend. Neither
+the Polish chronicles of those days nor Jewish works mention a Jewish
+king of Poland; but from certain occurrences, hints can be gleaned
+sufficient to enable us to establish the underlying truth. When Stephen
+Báthori died, Poland was hard pressed. On all sides arose pretenders to
+the throne. The most powerful aspirant was Archduke Maximilian of
+Austria, who depended on his gold and Poland's well-known sympathy for
+Austria to gain him the throne. Next came the Duke of Ferrara backed by
+a great army and the favor of the Czar, and then, headed by the
+crown-prince of Sweden, a crowd of less powerful claimants, so motley
+that a Polish nobleman justly exclaimed: "If you think any one will do
+to wear Poland's crown upon his pate, I'll set up my coachman as king!"
+Great Poland espoused the cause of Sweden, Little Poland supported
+Austria, and the Lithuanians furthered the wishes of the Czar. In
+reality, however, the election of the king was the occasion for bringing
+to a crisis the conflict between the two dominant families of Zamoiski
+and Zborowski.
+
+The election was to take place on August 18, 1587. The electors, armed
+to the teeth, appeared on the place designated for the election, a
+fortified camp on the Vistula, on the other side of which stood the
+deputies of the claimants. Night was approaching, and the possibility of
+reconciling the parties seemed as remote as ever. Christopher Radziwill,
+the "castellan" of the realm, endeavoring to make peace between the
+factions, stealthily crept from camp to camp, but evening deepened into
+night, and still the famous election cry, "_Zgoda!_" (Agreed!), was not
+heard.
+
+According to the legend, this is the night of Saul Wahl's brief royalty.
+It is said that he was an agent employed by Prince Radziwill, and when
+the electors could not be induced to come to an agreement, it occurred
+to the prince to propose Saul as a compromise-king. With shouts of "Long
+live King Saul!" the proposal was greeted by both factions, and this is
+the nucleus of the legend, which with remarkable tenacity has
+perpetuated itself down to our generation. For the historical truth of
+the episode we have three witnesses. The chief is Prince Nicholas
+Christopher of Radziwill, duke of Olyka and Nieswiesz, the son of the
+founder of this still flourishing line of princes. His father had left
+the Catholic church, and joined the Protestants, but he himself returned
+to Catholicism, and won fame by his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, described
+in both Polish and Latin in the work _Peregrinatio Hierosolymitana_.
+Besides, he offered 5000 ducats for the purchase of extant copies of the
+Protestant "Radziwill Bible," published by his father, intending to have
+them destroyed. On his return journey from the Holy Land he was attacked
+at Pescara by robbers, and at Ancona on a Palm Sunday, according to his
+own account, he found himself destitute of means. He applied to the
+papal governor, but his story met with incredulity. Then he appealed to
+a Jewish merchant, offering him, as a pawn, a gold box made of a piece
+of the holy cross obtained in Palestine, encircled with diamonds, and
+bearing on its top the _Agnus dei_. The Jew advanced one hundred crowns,
+which sufficed exactly to pay his lodging and attendants. Needy as
+before, he again turned to the Jew, who gave him another hundred crowns,
+this time without exacting a pledge, a glance at his papal passport
+having convinced him of the prince's identity.[73]
+
+This is Radziwill's account in his itinerary. As far as it goes, it
+bears striking similarity to the narrative of Rabbi Pinchas of Anspach,
+and leads to the certain conclusion that the legend rests upon an
+historical substratum. A critic has justly remarked that the most vivid
+fancy could not, one hundred and thirty-one years after their
+occurrence, invent, in Anspach, the tale of a Polish magnate's
+adventures in Italy. Again, it is highly improbable that Saul Wahl's
+great-grandson read Prince Radziwill's Latin book, detailing his
+experiences to his contemporaries.
+
+There are other witnesses to plead for the essential truth of our
+legend. The rabbis mentioned before have given accounts of Saul's
+position, of his power, and the splendor of his life. Negative signs, it
+is true, exist, arguing against the historical value of the legend.
+Polish history has not a word to say about the ephemeral king. In fact,
+there was no day fixed for the session of the electoral diet. Moreover,
+critics might adduce against the probability of its correctness the
+humble station of the Jews, and the low esteem in which the Radziwills
+were then held by the Polish nobility. But it is questionable whether
+these arguments are sufficiently convincing to strip the Saul Wahl
+legend of all semblance of truth. Polish historians are hardly fair in
+ignoring the story. Though it turn out to have been a wild prank, it has
+some historical justification. Such practical jokes are not unusual in
+Polish history. Readers of that history will recall the _Respublika
+Babinska_, that society of practical jokers which drew up royal
+charters, and issued patents of nobility. A Polish nobleman had founded
+the society in the sixteenth century, its membership being open only to
+those distinguished as wits. It perpetrated the oddest political jokes,
+appointing spendthrifts as overseers of estates, and the most
+quarrelsome as justices of the peace. With such proclivities, Polish
+factions, at loggerheads with each other, can easily be imagined uniting
+to crown a Jew, the most harmless available substitute for a real king.
+
+Our last and strongest witness--one compelling the respectful attention
+of the severest court and the most incisive attorney general--is the
+Russian professor Berschadzky, the author of an invaluable work on the
+history of the Jews in Lithuania. He vouches, not indeed for the
+authenticity of the events related by Rabbi Pinchas, but for the reality
+of Saul Wahl himself. From out of the Russian archives he has been
+resurrected by Professor Berschadzky, the first to establish that Saul
+was a man of flesh and blood.[74] He reproduces documents of
+incontestable authority, which report that Stephen Báthori, in the year
+1578, the third of his reign, awarded the salt monopoly for the whole of
+Poland to Saul Juditsch, that is, Saul the Jew. Later, upon the payment
+of a high security, the same Saul the Jew became farmer of the imposts.
+In 1580, his name, together with the names of the heads of the Jewish
+community of Brzesc, figures in a lawsuit instituted to establish the
+claim of the Jews upon the fourth part of all municipal revenues. He
+rests the claim on a statute of Grandduke Withold, and the verdict was
+favorable to his side. This was the time of the election of Báthori's
+successor, Sigismund III., and after his accession to the throne, Saul
+Juditsch again appears on the scene. On February 11, 1588, the king
+issued the following notice: "Some of our councillors have recommended
+to our attention the punctilious business management of Saul Juditsch,
+of the town of Brzesc, who, on many occasions during the reigns of our
+predecessors, served the crown by his wide experience in matters
+pertaining to duties, taxes, and divers revenues, and advanced the
+financial prosperity of the realm by his conscientious efforts." Saul
+was now entrusted, for a period of ten years, with the collection of
+taxes on bridges, flour, and brandies, paying 150,000 gold florins for
+the privilege. A year later he was honored with the title _sluga
+królewski_, "royal official," a high rank in the Poland of the day, as
+can be learned from the royal decree conferring it: "We, King of Poland,
+having convinced ourself of the rare zeal and distinguished ability of
+Saul Juditsch, do herewith grant him a place among our royal officials,
+and that he may be assured of our favor for him we exempt him and his
+lands for the rest of his life from subordination to the jurisdiction of
+any 'castellan,' or any municipal court, or of any court in our land, of
+whatever kind or rank it may be; so that if he be summoned before the
+court of any judge or district, in any matter whatsoever, be it great or
+small, criminal or civil, he is not obliged to appear and defend
+himself. His goods may not be distrained, his estates not used as
+security, and he himself can neither be arrested, nor kept a prisoner.
+His refusal to appear before a judge or to give bail shall in no wise be
+punishable; he is amenable to no law covering such cases. If a charge be
+brought against him, his accusers, be they our subjects or aliens, of
+any rank or calling whatsoever, must appeal to ourself, the king, and
+Saul Juditsch shall be in honor bound to appear before us and defend
+himself."
+
+This royal patent was communicated to all the princes, lords,
+_voivodes_, marshals, "castellans," starosts, and lower officials, in
+town and country, and to the governors and courts of Poland. Saul
+Juditsch's name continues to appear in the state documents. In 1593, he
+pleads for the Jews of Brzesc, who desire to have their own
+jurisdiction. In consequence of his intercession, Sigismund III. forbids
+the _voivodes_ (mayors) and their proxies to interfere in the quarrels
+of the Jews, of whatever kind they may be. The last mention of Saul
+Juditsch's name occurs in the records of 1596, when, in conjunction with
+his Christian townsmen, he pleads for the renewal of an old franchise,
+granted by Grandduke Withold, exempting imported goods from duty.
+
+Saul Wahl probably lived to the age of eighty, dying in the year 1622.
+The research of the historian has established his existence beyond a
+peradventure. He has proved that there was an individual by the name of
+Saul Wahl, and that is a noteworthy fact in the history of Poland and in
+that of the Jews in the middle ages.
+
+* * *
+
+After history, criticism has a word to say. A legend, as a rule, rests
+on analogy, on remarkable deeds, on notable events, on extraordinary
+historical phenomena. In the case of the legend under consideration, all
+these originating causes are combined. Since the time of Sigismund I.,
+the position of the Jews in Lithuania and Poland had been favorable. It
+is regarded as their golden period in Poland. In general, Polish Jews
+had always been more favorably situated than their brethren in faith in
+other countries. At the very beginning of Polish history, a legend,
+similar to that attached to Saul Wahl's name, sprang up. After the death
+of Popiel, an assembly met at Kruszwica to fill the vacant throne. No
+agreement could be reached, and the resolution was adopted to hail as
+king the first person to enter the town the next morning. The guard
+stationed at the gate accordingly brought before the assembly the poor
+Jew Abraham, with the surname Powdermaker (_Prochownik_), which he had
+received from his business, the importing of powder. He was welcomed
+with loud rejoicing, and appointed king. But he refused the crown, and
+pressed to accept it, finally asked for a night's delay to consider the
+proposal. Two days and two nights passed, still the Jew did not come
+forth from his room. The Poles were very much excited, and a peasant,
+Piast by name, raising his voice, cried out: "No, no, this will not do!
+The land cannot be without a head, and as Abraham does not come out, I
+will bring him out." Swinging his axe, he rushed into the house, and
+led the trembling Jew before the crowd. With ready wit, Abraham said,
+"Poles, here you see the peasant Piast, he is the one to be your king.
+He is sensible, for he recognized that a land may not be without a king.
+Besides, he is courageous; he disregarded my command not to enter my
+house. Crown him, and you will have reason to be grateful to God and His
+servant Abraham!" So Piast was proclaimed king, and he became the
+ancestor of a great dynasty.
+
+It is difficult to discover how much of truth is contained in this
+legend of the tenth century. That it in some remote way rests upon
+historical facts is attested by the existence of Polish coins bearing
+the inscriptions: "Abraham _Dux_" and "_Zevach_ Abraham" ("Abraham the
+Prince" and "Abraham's Sacrifice"). Casimir the Great, whose _liaison_
+with the Jewess Esterka has been shown by modern historians to be a pure
+fabrication, confirmed the charter of liberties (_privilegium
+libertatis_) held by the Jews of Poland from early times, and under
+Sigismund I. they prospered, materially and intellectually, as never
+before. Learning flourished among them, especially the study of the
+Talmud being promoted by three great men, Solomon Shachna, Solomon
+Luria, and Moses Isserles.
+
+Henry of Anjou, the first king elected by the Diet (1573), owed his
+election to Solomon Ashkenazi, a Jewish physician and diplomat, who
+ventured to remind the king of his services: "To me more than to any one
+else does your Majesty owe your election. Whatever was done here at the
+Porte, I did, although, I believe, M. d'Acqs takes all credit unto
+himself." This same diplomat, together with the Jewish prince Joseph
+Nasi of Naxos, was chiefly instrumental in bringing about the election
+of Stephen Báthori. Simon Günsburg, the head of the Jewish community of
+Posen, had a voice in the king's council, and Bona Sforza, the Italian
+princess on the Polish throne, was in the habit of consulting with
+clever Jews. The papal legate Commendoni speaks in a vexed tone, yet
+admiringly, of the brilliant position of Polish Jews, of their extensive
+cattle-breeding and agricultural interests, of their superiority to
+Christians as artisans, of their commercial enterprise, leading them as
+far as Dantzic in the north and Constantinople in the south, and of
+their possession of that sovereign means which overcomes ruler, starost,
+and legate alike.[75]
+
+These are the circumstances to be borne in mind in examining the
+authenticity of the legend about the king of a night. As early as the
+beginning of his century, recent historians inform us, three Jews,
+Abraham, Michael, and Isaac Josefowicz, rose to high positions in
+Lithuania. Abraham was made chief rabbi of Lithuania, his residence
+being fixed at Ostrog; Isaac became starost of the cities of Smolensk
+and Minsk (1506), and four years later, he was invested with the
+governorship of Lithuania. He always kept up his connection with his
+brothers, protected his co-religionists, and appointed Michael chief
+elder of the Lithuanian Jews. On taking the oath of allegiance to Albert
+of Prussia, he was raised to the rank of a nobleman. A Jew of the
+sixteenth century a nobleman! Surely, this fact is sufficiently
+startling to serve as the background of a legend. We have every
+circumstance necessary: An analogous legend in the early history of
+Poland, the favored condition of the Jews, the well-attested reality of
+Saul Juditsch, and an extraordinary event, the ennobling of a Jew. Saul
+Wahl probably did not reign--not even for a single night--but he
+certainly was attached to the person of the king, and later, ignorant of
+grades of officials, the Jews were prone to magnify his position.
+Indeed, the abject misery of their condition in the seventeenth century
+seems better calculated to explain the legend than their prosperity in
+the fifteenth and the sixteenth century. Bogdan Chmielnicki's campaign
+against the rebellious Cossacks wrought havoc among the Jews. From the
+southern part of the Ukraine to Lemberg, the road was strewn with the
+corpses of a hundred thousand Jews. The sad memory of a happy past is
+the fertile soil in which legends thrive. It is altogether likely that
+at this time of degradation the memory of Saul Wahl, redeemer and hero,
+was first celebrated, and the report of his coat of arms emblazoned with
+a lion clutching a scroll of the Law, and crowning an eagle, of his
+golden chain, of his privileges, and all his memorials, spread from
+house to house.
+
+Parallel cases of legend-construction readily suggest themselves. In
+our own time, in the glare of nineteenth century civilization, legends
+originate in the same way. Here is a case in point: In 1875, the
+Anthropological Society of Western Prussia instituted a series of
+investigations, in the course of which the complexion and the color of
+the hair and eyes of the children at the public schools were to be
+noted, in order to determine the prevalence of certain racial traits.
+The most extravagant rumors circulated in the districts of Dantzic,
+Thorn, Kulm, all the way to Posen. Parents, seized by unreasoning
+terror, sent their children, in great numbers, to Russia. One rumor said
+that the king of Prussia had lost one thousand blonde children to the
+sultan over a game of cards; another, that the Russian government had
+sold sixty thousand pretty girls to an Arab prince, and to save them
+from the sad fate conjectured to be in store for them, all the pretty
+girls at Dubna were straightway married off.--Similarly, primitive man,
+to satisfy his intellectual cravings, explained the phenomena of the
+heavens, the earth, and the waters by legends and myths, the germs of
+polytheistic nature religions. In our case, the tissue of facts is
+different, the process the same.
+
+But legends express the idealism of the masses; they are the highest
+manifestations of spiritual life. The thinker's flights beyond the
+confines of reality, the inventor's gift to join old materials in new
+combinations, the artist's creative impulse, the poet's inspiration, the
+seer's prophetic vision--every emanation from man's ideal nature clothes
+itself with sinews, flesh, and skin, and lives in a people's legends,
+the repositories of its art, poetry, science, and ethics.
+
+Legends moreover are characteristic of a people's culture. As a child
+delights in iridescent soap-bubbles, so a nation revels in
+reminiscences. Though poetry lend words, painting her tints,
+architecture a rule, sculpture a chisel, music her tones, the legend
+itself is dead, and only a thorough understanding of national traits
+enables one to recognize its ethical bearings. From this point of view,
+the legend of the Polish king of a night is an important historical
+argument, testifying to the satisfactory condition of the Jews of Poland
+in the fifteenth and the sixteenth century. The simile that compares
+nations, on the eve of a great revolution, to a seething crater, is true
+despite its triteness, and if to any nation, is applicable to the Poland
+of before and after that momentous session of the Diet. Egotism, greed,
+ambition, vindictiveness, and envy added fuel to fire, and hastened
+destruction. Jealousy had planted discord between two families, dividing
+the state into hostile, embittered factions. Morality was undermined,
+law trodden under foot, duty neglected, justice violated, the promptings
+of good sense disregarded. So it came about that the land was flooded by
+ruin as by a mighty stream, which, a tiny spring at first, gathers
+strength and volume from its tributaries, and overflowing its bounds,
+rushes over blooming meadows, fields, and pastures, drawing into its
+destructive depths the peasant's every joy and hope. That is the soil
+from which a legend like ours sprouts and grows.
+
+This legend distinctly conveys an ethical lesson. The persecutions of
+the Jews, their ceaseless wanderings from town to town, from country to
+country, from continent to continent, have lasted two thousand years,
+and how many dropped by the wayside! Yet they never parted with the
+triple crown placed upon their heads by an ancient sage: the crown of
+royalty, the crown of the Law, and the crown of a good name. Learning
+and fair fame were indisputably theirs: therefore, the first, the royal
+crown, never seemed more resplendent than when worn in exile. The glory
+of a Jewish king of the exile seemed to herald the realization of the
+Messianic ideal. So it happens that many a family in Poland, England,
+and Germany, still cherishes the memory of Rabbi Saul the king, and that
+"Malkohs" everywhere still boast of royal ancestry. Rabbis, learned in
+the Law, were his descendants, and men of secular fame, Gabriel Riesser
+among them, proudly mention their connection, however distant, with Saul
+Wahl. The memory of his deeds perpetuates itself in respectable Jewish
+homes, where grandams, on quiet Sabbath afternoons, tell of them, as
+they show in confirmation the seal on coins to an awe-struck progeny.
+
+Three crowns Israel bore upon his head. If the crown of royalty is
+legendary, then the more emphatically have the other two an historical
+and ethical value. The crown of royalty has slipped from us, but the
+crown of a good name and especially the crown of the Law are ours to
+keep and bequeath to our children and our children's children unto the
+latest generation.
+
+
+
+
+JEWISH SOCIETY IN THE TIME OF MENDELSSOHN
+
+
+On an October day in 1743, in the third year of the reign of Frederick
+the Great, a delicate lad of about fourteen begged admittance at the
+Rosenthal gate of Berlin, the only gate by which non-resident Jews were
+allowed to enter the capital. To the clerk's question about his business
+in the city, he briefly replied: "Study" (_Lernen_). The boy was Moses
+Mendelssohn, and he entered the city poor and friendless, knowing in all
+Berlin but one person, his former teacher Rabbi David Fränkel. About
+twenty years later, the Royal Academy of Sciences awarded him the first
+prize for his essay on the question: "Are metaphysical truths
+susceptible of mathematical demonstration?" After another period of
+twenty years, Mendelssohn was dead, and his memory was celebrated as
+that of a "sage like Socrates, the greatest philosophers of the day
+exclaiming, 'There is but one Mendelssohn!'"--
+
+The Jewish Renaissance of a little more than a century ago presents the
+whole historic course of Judaism. Never had the condition of the Jews
+been more abject than at the time of Mendelssohn's appearance on the
+scene. It must be remembered that for Jews the middle ages lasted three
+hundred years after all other nations had begun to enjoy the blessings
+of the modern era. Veritable slaves, degenerate in language and habits,
+purchasing the right to live by a tax (_Leibzoll_), in many cities still
+wearing a yellow badge, timid, embittered, pale, eloquently silent, the
+Jews herded in their Ghetto with its single Jew-gate--they, the
+descendants of the Maccabees, the brethren in faith of proud Spanish
+grandees, of Andalusian poets and philosophers. The congregations were
+poor; immigrant Poles filled the offices of rabbis and teachers, and
+occupied themselves solely with the discussion of recondite problems.
+The evil nonsense of the Kabbalists was actively propagated by the
+Sabbatians, and on the other hand the mystical _Chassidim_ were
+beginning to perform their witches' dance. The language commonly used
+was the _Judendeutsch_ (the Jewish German jargon) which, stripped of its
+former literary dignity, was not much better than thieves' slang. Of
+such pitiful elements the life of the Jews was made up during the first
+half of the eighteenth century.
+
+Suddenly there burst upon them the great, overwhelming Renaissance! It
+seemed as though Ezekiel's vision were about to be fulfilled:[76] "The
+hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the
+Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones...
+there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very
+dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I
+answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon
+these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
+Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause
+breath to enter into you, and ye shall live ... and ye shall know that I
+am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied,
+there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together,
+bone to his bone ... the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the
+skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he
+unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the
+wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and
+breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he
+commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood
+up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son
+of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel."
+
+Is this not a description of Israel's history in modern days? Old
+Judaism, seeing the marvels of the Renaissance, might well exclaim: "Who
+hath begotten me these?" and many a pious mind must have reverted to the
+ancient words of consolation: "I remember unto thee the kindness of thy
+youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the wilderness,
+through a land that is not sown."
+
+In the face of so radical a transformation, Herder, poet and thinker,
+reached the natural conclusion that "such occurrences, such a history
+with all its concomitant and dependent circumstances, in brief, such a
+nation cannot be a lying invention. Its development is the greatest poem
+of all times, and still unfinished, will probably continue until every
+possibility hidden in the soul life of humanity shall have obtained
+expression."[77]
+
+An unparalleled revival had begun; and in Germany, in which it made
+itself felt as an effect of the French Revolution, it is coupled first
+and foremost with the name of Moses Mendelssohn.
+
+Society as conceived in these modern days is based upon men's relations
+to their families, their disciples, and their friends. They are the
+three elements that determine a man's usefulness as a social factor. Our
+first interest, then, is to know Mendelssohn in his family.[78] Many
+years were destined to elapse, after his coming to Berlin, before he was
+to win a position of dignity. When, a single ducat in his pocket, he
+first reached Berlin, the reader remembers, he was a pale-faced, fragile
+boy. A contemporary of his relates: "In 1746 I came to Berlin, a
+penniless little chap of fourteen, and in the Jewish school I met Moses
+Mendelssohn. He grew fond of me, taught me reading and writing, and
+often shared his scanty meals with me. I tried to show my gratitude by
+doing him any small service in my power. Once he told me to fetch him a
+German book from some place or other. Returning with the book in hand, I
+was met by one of the trustees of the Jewish poor fund. He accosted me,
+not very gently, with, 'What have you there? I venture to say a German
+book!' Snatching it from me, and dragging me to the magistrate's, he
+gave orders to expel me from the city. Mendelssohn, learning my fate,
+did everything possible to bring about my return; but his efforts were
+of no avail." It is interesting to know that it was the grandfather of
+Herr von Bleichröder who had to submit to so relentless a fate.
+
+German language and German writing Mendelssohn acquired by his unaided
+efforts. With the desultory assistance of a Dr. Kisch, a Jewish
+physician, he learnt Latin from a book picked up at a second-hand book
+stall. General culture was at that time an unknown quantity in the
+possibilities of Berlin Jewish life. The schoolmasters, who were not
+permitted to stay in the city more than three years, were for the most
+part Poles. One Pole, Israel Moses, a fine thinker and mathematician,
+banished from his native town, Samosz, on account of his devotion to
+secular studies, lived with Aaron Gumpertz, the only one of the famous
+family of court-Jews who had elected a better lot. From the latter,
+Mendelssohn imbibed a taste for the sciences, and to him he owed some
+direction in his studies; while in mathematics he was instructed by
+Israel Samosz, at the time when the latter, busily engaged with his
+great commentary on Yehuda Halevi's _Al-Chazari_, was living at the
+house of the Itzig family, on the _Burgstrasse_, on the very spot where
+the talented architect Hitzig, the grandson of Mendelssohn's
+contemporary, built the magnificent Exchange. To enable himself to buy
+books, Mendelssohn had to deny himself food. As soon as he had hoarded a
+few _groschen_, he stealthily slunk to a dealer in second-hand books. In
+this way he managed to possess himself of a Latin grammar and a wretched
+lexicon. Difficulties did not exist for him; they vanished before his
+industry and perseverance. In a short time he knew far more than
+Gumpertz himself, who has become famous through his entreaty to Magister
+Gottsched at Leipsic, whilom absolute monarch in German literature: "I
+would most respectfully supplicate that it may please your worshipful
+Highness to permit me to repair to Leipsic to pasture on the meadows of
+learning under your Excellency's protecting wing."
+
+After seven years of struggle and privation, Moses Mendelssohn became
+tutor at the house of Isaac Bernhard, a silk manufacturer, and now began
+better times. In spite of faithful performance of duties, he found
+leisure to acquire a considerable stock of learning. He began to
+frequent social gatherings, his friend Dr. Gumpertz introducing him to
+people of culture, among others to some philosophers, members of the
+Berlin Academy. What smoothed the way for him more than his sterling
+character and his fine intellect was his good chess-playing. The Jews
+have always been celebrated as chess-players, and since the twelfth
+century a literature in Hebrew prose and verse has grown up about the
+game. Mendelssohn in this respect, too, was the heir of the peculiar
+gifts of his race.
+
+In a little room two flights up in a house next to the Nicolai
+churchyard lived one of the acquaintances made by Mendelssohn through
+Dr. Gumpertz, a young newspaper writer--Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
+Lessing was at once strongly attracted by the young man's keen,
+untrammelled mind. He foresaw that Mendelssohn would "become an honor to
+his nation, provided his fellow-believers permit him to reach his
+intellectual maturity. His honesty and his philosophic bent make me see
+in him a second Spinoza, equal to the first in all but his errors."[79]
+Through Lessing, Mendelssohn formed the acquaintance of Nicolai, and as
+they were close neighbors, their friendship developed into intimacy.
+Nicolai induced him to take up the study of Greek, and old Rector Damm
+taught him.
+
+At this time (1755), the first coffee-house for the use of an
+association of about one hundred members, chiefly philosophers,
+mathematicians, physicians, and booksellers, was opened in Berlin.
+Mendelssohn, too, was admitted, making his true entrance into society,
+and forming many attachments. One evening it was proposed at the club
+that each of the members describe his own defects in verse; whereupon
+Mendelssohn, who stuttered and was slightly hunchbacked, wrote:
+
+    "Great you call Demosthenes,
+    Stutt'ring orator of Greece;
+    Hunchbacked Æsop you deem wise;--
+    In your circle, I surmise,
+    I am doubly wise and great.
+    What in each was separate
+    You in me united find,--
+    Hump and heavy tongue combined."
+
+Meanwhile his worldly affairs prospered; he had become bookkeeper in
+Bernhard's business. His biographer Kayserling tells us that at this
+period he was in a fair way to develop into "a true _bel esprit_"; he
+took lessons on the piano, went to the theatre and to concerts, and
+wrote poems. During the winter he was at his desk at the office from
+eight in the morning until nine in the evening. In the summer of 1756,
+his work was lightened; after two in the afternoon he was his own
+master. The following year finds him comfortably established in a house
+of his own with a garden, in which he could be found every evening at
+six o'clock, Lessing and Nicolai often joining him. Besides, he had laid
+by a little sum, which enabled him to help his friends, especially
+Lessing, out of financial embarrassments. Business cares did, indeed,
+bear heavily upon him, and his complaints are truly touching: "Like a
+beast of burden laden down, I crawl through life, self-love
+unfortunately whispering into my ear that nature had perhaps mapped out
+a poet's career for me. But what can we do, my friends? Let us pity one
+another, and be content. So long as love for science is not stifled
+within us, we may hope on." Surely, his love for learning never
+diminished. On the contrary, his zeal for philosophic studies grew, and
+with it his reputation in the learned world of Berlin. The Jewish
+thinker finally attracted the notice of Frederick the Great, whose poems
+he had had the temerity to criticise adversely in the "Letters on
+Literature" (_Litteraturbriefe_). He says in that famous criticism:[80]
+"What a loss it has been for our mother-tongue that this prince has
+given more time and effort to the French language. We should otherwise
+possess a treasure which would arouse the envy of our neighbors." A
+certain Herr von Justi, who had also incurred the unfavorable notice of
+the _Litteraturbriefe_, used this review to revenge himself on
+Mendelssohn. He wrote to the Prussian state-councillor: "A miserable
+publication appears in Berlin, letters on recent literature, in which a
+Jew, criticising court-preacher Cramer, uses irreverent language in
+reference to Christianity, and in a bold review of _Poésies diverses_,
+fails to pay the proper respect to his Majesty's sacred person." Soon an
+interdict was issued against the _Litteraturbriefe_, and Mendelssohn was
+summoned to appear before the attorney general Von Uhden. Nicolai has
+given us an account of the interview between the high and mighty officer
+of the state and the poor Jewish philosopher:
+
+Attorney General: "Look here! How can you venture to write against
+Christians?"
+
+Mendelssohn: "When I bowl with Christians, I throw down all the pins
+whenever I can."
+
+Attorney General: "Do you dare mock at me? Do you know to whom you are
+speaking?"
+
+Mendelssohn: "Oh yes. I am in the presence of privy councillor and
+attorney general Von Uhden, a just man."
+
+Attorney General: "I ask again: What right have you to write against a
+Christian, a court-preacher at that?"
+
+Mendelssohn: "And I must repeat, truly without mockery, that when I play
+at nine-pins with a Christian, even though he be a court-preacher, I
+throw down all the pins, if I can. Bowling is a recreation for my body,
+writing for my mind. Writers do as well as they can."
+
+In this strain the conversation continued for some time. Another version
+of the affair is that Mendelssohn was ordered to appear before the king
+at Sanssouci on a certain Saturday. When he presented himself at the
+gate of the palace, the officer in charge asked him how he happened to
+have been honored with an invitation to come to court. Mendelssohn said:
+"Oh, I am a juggler!" In point of fact, Frederick read the objectionable
+review some time later, Venino translating it into French for him. It
+was probably in consequence of this vexatious occurrence that
+Mendelssohn made application for the privilege to be considered a
+_Schutzjude_, that is, a Jew with rights of residence. The Marquis
+d'Argens who lived with the king at Potsdam in the capacity of his
+Majesty's philosopher-companion, earnestly supported his petition: "_Un
+philosophe mauvais catholique supplie un philosophe mauvais protestant
+de donner le privilège à un philosophe mauvais juif. Il y a trop de
+philosophie dans tout ceci que la raison ne soit pas du côté de la
+demande._" The privilege was accorded to Mendelssohn on November 26,
+1763.
+
+Being a _Schutzjude_, he could entertain the idea of marriage. Everybody
+is familiar with the pretty anecdote charmingly told by Berthold
+Auerbach. Mendelssohn's was a love-match. In April 1760, he undertook a
+trip to Hamburg, and there became affianced to a "blue-eyed maiden,"
+Fromet Gugenheim. The story goes that the girl shrank back startled at
+Mendelssohn's proposal of marriage. She asked him: "Do you believe that
+matches are made in heaven?" "Most assuredly," answered Mendelssohn;
+"indeed, a singular thing happened in my own case. You know that,
+according to a Talmud legend, at the birth of a child, the announcement
+is made in heaven: So and so shall marry so and so. When I was born, my
+future wife's name was called out, and I was told that she would
+unfortunately be terribly humpbacked. 'Dear Lord,' said I, 'a deformed
+girl easily gets embittered and hardened. A girl ought to be beautiful.
+Dear Lord! Give me the hump, and let the girl be pretty, graceful,
+pleasing to the eye.'"
+
+His engagement lasted a whole year. He was naturally desirous to improve
+his worldly position; but never did it occur to him to do so at the
+expense of his immaculate character. Veitel Ephraim and his associates,
+employed by Frederick the Great to debase the coin of Prussia, made him
+brilliant offers in the hope of gaining him as their partner. He could
+not be tempted, and entered into a binding engagement with Bernhard. His
+married life was happy, he was sincerely in love with his wife, and she
+became his faithful, devoted companion.
+
+Six children were the offspring of their union: Abraham, Joseph, Nathan,
+Dorothea, Henriette, and Recha. In Moses Mendelssohn's house, the one in
+which these children grew up, the barriers between the learned world and
+Berlin general society first fell. It was the rallying place of all
+seeking enlightenment, of all doing battle in the cause of
+enlightenment. The rearing of his children was a source of great anxiety
+to Mendelssohn, whose means were limited. One day, shortly before his
+death, Mendelssohn, walking up and down before his house in Spandauer
+street, absorbed in meditation, was met by an acquaintance, who asked
+him: "My dear Mr. Mendelssohn, what is the matter with you? You look so
+troubled." "And so I am," he replied; "I am thinking what my children's
+fate will be, when I am gone."
+
+Moses Mendelssohn was wholly a son of his age, which perhaps explains
+the charm of his personality. His faults as well as his fine traits
+must be accounted for by the peculiarities of his generation. From this
+point of view, we can understand his desire to have his daughters make a
+wealthy match. On the other hand, he could not have known, and if he had
+known, he could not have understood, that his daughters, touched by the
+breath of a later time, had advanced far beyond his position. The Jews
+of that day, particularly Jewish women, were seized by a mighty longing
+for knowledge and culture. They studied French, read Voltaire, and drew
+inspiration from the works of the English freethinkers. One of those
+women says: "We all would have been pleased to be heroines of romance;
+there was not one of us who did not rave over some hero or heroine of
+fiction." At the head of this band of enthusiasts stood Dorothea
+Mendelssohn, brilliant, captivating, and gifted with a vivid
+imagination. She was the leader, the animating spirit of her companions.
+To the reading-club organized by her efforts all the restless minds
+belonged. In the private theatricals at the houses of rich Jews, she
+filled the principal rôles; and the mornings after her social triumphs
+found her a most attentive listener to her father, who was in the habit
+of holding lectures for her and her brother Joseph, afterward published
+under the name _Morgenstunden_. And this was the girl whom her father
+wished to see married at sixteen. When a rich Vienna banker was proposed
+as a suitable match, he said, "Ah! a man like Eskeles would greatly
+please my pride!" Dorothea did marry Simon Veit, a banker, a worthy
+man, who in no way could satisfy the demands of her impetuous nature.
+Yet her father believed her to be a happy wife. In her thirtieth year
+she made the acquaintance, at the house of her friend Henriette Herz, of
+a young man, five years her junior, who was destined to change the
+course of her whole life. This was Friedrich von Schlegel, the chief of
+the romantic movement. Dorothea Veit, not beautiful, fascinated him by
+her brilliant wit. Under Schleiermacher's encouragement, the relation
+between the two quickly assumed a serious aspect. But it was not until
+long after her father's death that Dorothea abandoned her husband and
+children, and became Schlegel's life-companion, first his mistress,
+later his wife. As Gutzkow justly says, his novel "Lucinde" describes
+the relation in which Schlegel "permitted himself to be discovered. Love
+for Schlegel it was that consumed her, and led her to share with him a
+thousand follies--Catholicism, Brahmin theosophy, absolutism, and the
+Christian asceticism of which she was a devotee at the time of her
+death." Neither distress, nor misery, nor care, nor sorrow could
+alienate her affections. Finally, she became a bigoted Catholic, and in
+Vienna, their last residence, the daughter of Moses Mendelssohn was
+seen, a lighted taper in her hand, one of a Catholic procession wending
+its way to St. Stephen's Cathedral.
+
+The other daughter had a similar career. Henriette Mendelssohn filled a
+position as governess first in Vienna, then in Paris. In the latter
+city, her home was the meeting-place of the most brilliant men and
+women. She, too, denied her father and her faith. Recha, the youngest
+daughter, was the unhappy wife of a merchant of Strelitz. Later on she
+supported herself by keeping a boarding-school at Altona. Nathan, the
+youngest son, was a mechanician; Abraham, the second, the father of the
+famous composer, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, established with the
+oldest, Joseph, a still flourishing banking-business. Abraham's children
+and grandchildren all became converts to Christianity, but Moses and
+Fromet died before their defection from the old faith. Fromet lived to
+see the development of the passion for music which became hereditary in
+the family. It is said that when, at the time of the popularity of
+Schulz's "Athalia," one of the choruses, with the refrain _tout
+l'univers_, was much sung by her children, the old lady cried out
+irritably, "_Wie mies ist mir vor tout l'univers_" ("How sick I am of
+'all the world!'").[81]
+
+To say apologetically that the circumstances of the times produced such
+feeling and action may be a partial defense of these women, but it is
+not the truth. Henriette Mendelssohn's will is a characteristic
+document. The introduction runs thus: "In these the last words I address
+to my dear relatives, I express my gratitude for all their help and
+affection, and also that they in no wise hindered me in the practice of
+my religion. I have only myself to blame if the Lord God did not deem me
+worthy to be the instrument for the conversion of all my brothers and
+sisters to the Catholic Church, the only one endowed with saving grace.
+May the Lord Jesus Christ grant my prayer, and bless them all with the
+light of His countenance. Amen!" Such were the sentiments of Moses
+Mendelssohn's daughters!
+
+The sons inclined towards Protestantism. Abraham is reported to have
+said that at first he was known as the son of his father, and later as
+the father of his son. His wife was Leah Salomon, the sister of Salomon
+Bartholdy, afterwards councillor of legation. His surname was really
+only Salomon; Bartholdy he had assumed from the former owner of a garden
+in Köpenikerstrasse on the Spree which he had bought. To him chiefly the
+formal acceptance of Christianity by Abraham's family was due. When
+Abraham hesitated about having his children baptized, Bartholdy wrote:
+"You say that you owe it to your father's memory (not to abandon
+Judaism). Do you think that you are committing a wrong in giving your
+children a religion which you and they consider the better? In fact, you
+would be paying a tribute to your father's efforts in behalf of true
+enlightenment, and he would have acted for your children as you have
+acted for them, perhaps for himself as I am acting for myself." This
+certainly is the climax of frivolity! So it happened that one of
+Mendelssohn's grandsons, Philip Veit, became a renowned Catholic church
+painter, and another, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, one of the most
+celebrated of Protestant composers.
+
+After his family, we are interested in the philosopher's disciples. They
+are men of a type not better, but different. What in his children sprang
+from impulsiveness and conviction, was due to levity and imitativeness
+in his followers. Mendelssohn's co-workers and successors formed the
+school of _Biurists_, that is, expounders. In his commentary on the
+Pentateuch he was helped by Solomon Dubno, Herz Homberg, and Hartwig
+Wessely. Solomon Dubno, the tutor of Mendelssohn's children, was a
+learned Pole, devoted heart and soul to the work on the Pentateuch. His
+literary vanity having been wounded, he secretly left Mendelssohn's
+house, and could not be induced to renew his interest in the
+undertaking. Herz Homberg, an Austrian, took his place as tutor. When
+the children were grown, he went to Vienna, and there was made imperial
+councillor, charged with the superintendence of the Jewish schools of
+Galicia. It is a mistake to suppose that he used efforts to further the
+study of the Talmud among Jews. From letters recently published, written
+by and about him, it becomes evident that he was a common informer.
+Mendelssohn, of course, was not aware of his true character. The noblest
+of all was Naphtali Hartwig Wessely, a poet, a pure man, a sincere lover
+of mankind.
+
+The other prominent members of Mendelssohn's circle were: Isaac Euchel,
+the "restorer of Hebrew prose," as he has been called, whose chief
+purpose was the reform of the Jewish order of service and Jewish
+pedagogic methods; Solomon Maimon, a wild fellow, who in his
+autobiography tells his own misdeeds, by many of which Mendelssohn was
+caused annoyance; Lazarus ben David, a modern Diogenes, the apostle of
+Kantism; and, above all, David Friedländer, an enthusiastic herald of
+the new era, a zealous champion of modern culture, a pure, serious
+character with high ethical ideals, whose aims, inspired though they
+were by most exalted intentions, far overstepped the bounds set to him
+as a Jew and the disciple of Mendelssohn. Kant's philosophy found many
+ardent adherents among the Jews at that time. Beside the old there was
+growing up a new generation which, having no obstructions placed in its
+path after Mendelssohn's death, aggressively asserted its principles.
+
+The first Jew after Mendelssohn to occupy a position of prominence in
+the social world of Berlin was his pupil Marcus Herz, with the title
+professor and aulic councillor, "praised as a physician, esteemed as a
+philosopher, and extolled as a prodigy in the natural sciences. His
+lectures on physics, delivered in his own house, were attended by
+members of the highest aristocracy, even by royal personages."
+
+In circles like his, the equalization of the Jews with the other
+citizens was animatedly discussed, by partisans and opponents. In the
+theatre-going public, a respectable minority, having once seen "Nathan
+the Wise" enacted, protested against the appearance upon the stage of
+the trade-Jew, speaking the sing-song, drawling German vulgarly supposed
+to be peculiar to all Jews (_Mauscheln_). As early as 1771, Marcus Herz
+had entered a vigorous protest against _mauscheln_, and at the first
+performance of "The Merchant of Venice" on August 16, 1788, the famous
+actor Fleck declaimed a prologue, composed by Ramler, in which he
+disavowed any intention to "sow hatred against the Jews, the brethren in
+faith of wise Mendelssohn," and asserted the sole purpose of the drama
+to be the combating of folly and vice wherever they appear.
+
+Marcus Herz's wife was Henriette Herz, and in 1790, when Alexander and
+Wilhelm Humboldt first came to her house, the real history of the Berlin
+_salon_ begins. The Humboldts' acquaintance with the Herz family dates
+from the visit of state councillor Kunth, the tutor of the Humboldt
+brothers, to Marcus Herz to advise with him about setting up a
+lightning-rod, an extraordinary novelty at the time, on the castle at
+Tegel. Shortly afterward, Kunth introduced his two pupils to Herz and
+his wife. So the Berlin _salon_ owed its origin to a lightning-rod;
+indeed, it may itself be called an electrical conductor for all the
+spiritual forces, recently brought into play, and still struggling to
+manifest their undeveloped strength. Up to that time there had been
+nothing like society in the city of intelligence. Of course there was no
+dearth of scholars and clever, brilliant people, but insuperable
+obstacles seemed to prevent their social contact with one another.
+Outside of Moses Mendelssohn's house, until the end of the eighties the
+only _rendezvous_ of wits, scholars, and literary men, the preference
+was for magnificent banquets and noisy carousals, each rank entertaining
+its own members. In the middle class, the burghers, the social instinct
+had not awakened at all. Alexander Humboldt significantly dated his
+first letter to Henriette Herz from _Schloss Langeweile_. In the course
+of time the desire for spiritual sympathy led to the formation of
+reading clubs and _conversazioni_. These were the elements that finally
+produced Berlin society.
+
+The prototype of the German _salon_ naturally was the _salon_ of the
+rococo period. Strangely enough, Berlin Jews, disciples, friends, and
+descendants of Moses Mendelssohn, were the transplanters of the foreign
+product to German soil. Untrammelled as they were in this respect by
+traditions, they hearkened eagerly to the new dispensation issuing from
+Weimar, and they were in no way hampered in the choice of their
+hero-guides to Olympus. Berlin irony, French sparkle, and Jewish wit
+moulded the social forms which thereafter were to be characteristic of
+society at the capital, and called forth pretty much all that was
+charming in the society and pleasing in the light literature of the
+Berlin of the day.
+
+To judge Henriette Herz justly we must beware alike of the extravagance
+of her biographer and the malice of her friend Varnhagen von Ense; the
+former extols her cleverness to the skies, the other degrades her to the
+level of the commonplace. The two seem equally unreliable. She was
+neither extremely witty nor extremely cultured. She had a singularly
+clear mind, and possessed the rare faculty of spreading about her an
+atmosphere of ease and cheer--good substitutes for wit and
+intellectuality. Upon her beauty and amiability rested the popularity of
+her _salon_, which succeeded in uniting all the social factors of that
+period.
+
+The nucleus of her social gatherings consisted of the representatives of
+the old literary traditions, Nicolai, Ramler, Engel, and Moritz, and
+they curiously enough attracted the theologians Spalding, Teller,
+Zöllner, and later Schleiermacher, whose intimacy with his hostess is a
+matter of history. Music was represented by Reichardt and Wesseli; art,
+by Schadow; and the nobility by Bernstorff, Dotina, Brinkmann, Friedrich
+von Gentz, and the Humboldts. Her drawing-room was the hearth of the
+romantic movement, and as may be imagined, her example was followed for
+better and for worse by her friends and sisters in faith, so that by the
+end of the century, Berlin could boast a number of _salons_,
+meeting-places of the nobility, literary men, and cultured Jews, for the
+friendly exchange of spiritual and intellectual experiences. Henriette
+Herz's _salon_ became important not only for society in Berlin, but also
+for German literature, three great literary movements being sheltered in
+it: the classical, the romantic, and, through Ludwig Börne, that of
+"Young Germany." Judaism alone was left unrepresented. In fact, she and
+all her cultured Jewish friends hastened to free themselves of their
+troublesome Jewish affiliations, or, at least, concealed them as best
+they could. Years afterwards, Börne spent his ridicule upon the
+Jewesses of the Berlin _salons_, with their enormous racial noses and
+their great gold crosses at their throats, pressing into Trinity church
+to hear Schleiermacher preach. But justice compels us to say that these
+women did not know Judaism, or knew it only in its slave's garb. Had
+they had a conception of its high ethical standard, of the wealth of its
+poetic and philosophic thoughts, being women of rare mental gifts and
+broad liberality, they certainly would not have abandoned Judaism. But
+the Judaism of their Berlin, as represented by its religious teachers
+and the leaders of the Jewish community, most of them, according to
+Mendelssohn's own account, immigrant Poles, could not appeal to women of
+keen, intellectual sympathies, and tastes conforming to the ideals of
+the new era.
+
+As for Mendelssohn's friends who flocked to his hospitable home--their
+names are household words in the history of German literature. Nicolai
+and Lessing must be mentioned before all others, but no one came to
+Berlin without seeking Moses Mendelssohn--Goethe, Herder, Wieland,
+Hennings, Abt, Campe, Moritz, Jerusalem. Joachim Campe has left an
+account of his visit at Mendelssohn's house, which is probably a just
+picture of its attractions.[82] He says: "On a Friday afternoon, my wife
+and myself, together with some of the distinguished representatives of
+Berlin scholarship, visited Mendelssohn. We were chatting over our
+coffee, when Mendelssohn, about an hour before sundown, rose from his
+seat with the words: 'Ladies and gentlemen, I must leave you to receive
+the Sabbath. I shall be with you again presently; meantime my wife will
+enjoy your company doubly.' All eyes followed our amiable
+philosopher-host with reverent admiration as he withdrew to an adjoining
+room to recite the customary prayers. At the end of half an hour he
+returned, his face radiant, and seating himself, he said to his wife:
+'Now I am again at my post, and shall try for once to do the honors in
+your place. Our friends will certainly excuse you, while you fulfil your
+religious duties.' Mendelssohn's wife excused herself, joined her
+family, consecrated the Sabbath by lighting the Sabbath lamp, and
+returned to us. We stayed on for some hours." Is it possible to conceive
+of a more touching picture?
+
+When Duchess Dorothea of Kurland, and her sister Elise von der Recke
+were living at Friedrichsfelde near Berlin in 1785, they invited
+Mendelssohn, whom they were eager to know, to visit them. When dinner
+was announced, Mendelssohn was not to be found. The companion of the two
+ladies writes in her journal:[83] "He had quietly slipped away to the
+inn at which he had ordered a frugal meal. From a motive entirely worthy
+I am sure, this philosopher never permits himself to be invited to a
+meal at a Christian's house. Not to be deprived of Mendelssohn's society
+too long, the duchess rose from the table as soon as possible."
+Mendelssohn returned, stayed a long time, and, on bidding adieu to the
+duchess, he said: "To-day, I have had a chat with mind."
+
+This was Berlin society at Mendelssohn's time, and its toleration and
+humanity are the more to be valued as the majority of Jews by no means
+emulated Mendelssohn's enlightened example. All their energies were
+absorbed in the effort of compliance with the charter of Frederick the
+Great, which imposed many vexatious restrictions. On marrying, they were
+still compelled to buy the inferior porcelain made by the royal
+manufactory. The whole of the Jewish community continued to be held
+responsible for a theft committed by one of its members. Jews were not
+yet permitted to become manufacturers. Bankrupt Jews, without
+investigation of each case, were considered cheats. Their use of land
+and waterways was hampered by many petty obstructions. In every field an
+insurmountable barrier rose between them and their Christian
+fellow-citizens. Mendelssohn's great task was the moral and spiritual
+regeneration of his brethren in faith. In all disputes his word was
+final. He hoped to bring about reforms by influencing his people's inner
+life. Schools were founded, and every means used to further culture and
+education, but he met with much determined opposition among his
+fellow-believers. Of Ephraim, the debaser of the coin, we have spoken;
+also of the king's manner towards Jews. Here is another instance of his
+brusqueness: Abraham Posner begged for permission to shave his beard.
+Frederick wrote on the margin of his petition: "_Der Jude Posner soll
+mich und seinen Bart ungeschoren lassen._"
+
+Lawsuits of Jews against French and German traders made a great stir in
+those days. It was only after much annoyance that a naturalization
+patent was obtained by the family of Daniel Itzig, the father-in-law of
+David Friedländer, founder of the Jews' Free School in Berlin. In other
+cases, no amount of effort could secure the patent, the king saying:
+"Whatever concerns your trade is well and good. But I cannot permit you
+to settle tribes of Jews in Berlin, and turn it into a young
+Jerusalem."--
+
+This is a picture of Jewish society in Berlin one hundred years ago. It
+united the most diverse currents and tendencies, emanating from
+romanticism, classicism, reform, orthodoxy, love of trade, and efforts
+for spiritual regeneration. In all this queer tangle, Moses Mendelssohn
+alone stands untainted, his form enveloped in pure, white light.
+
+
+
+
+LEOPOLD ZUNZ[84]
+
+
+We are assembled for the solemn duty of paying a tribute to the memory
+of him whose name graces our lodge. A twofold interest attaches us to
+Leopold Zunz, appealing, as he does, to our local pride, and, beyond and
+above that, to our Jewish feelings. Leopold Zunz was part of the Berlin
+of the past, every trace of which is vanishing with startling rapidity.
+Men, houses, streets are disappearing, and soon naught but a memory will
+remain of old Berlin, not, to be sure, a City Beautiful, yet filled for
+him that knew it with charming associations. A precious remnant of this
+dear old Berlin was buried forever, when, on one misty day of the spring
+of 1886, we consigned to their last resting place the mortal remains of
+Leopold Zunz. Memorial addresses are apt to abound in such expressions
+as "immortal," "imperishable," and in flowery tributes. This one shall
+not indulge in them, although to no one could they more fittingly be
+applied than to Leopold Zunz, a pioneer in the labyrinth of science, and
+the architect of many a stately palace adorning the path but lately
+discovered by himself. Surely, such an one deserves the cordial
+recognition and enduring gratitude of posterity.
+
+Despite the fact that Zunz was born at Detmold (August 10, 1794), he was
+an integral part of old Berlin--a Berlin citizen, not by birth, but by
+vocation, so to speak. His being was intertwined with its life by a
+thousand tendrils of intellectual sympathy. The city, in turn, or, to be
+topographically precise, the district between _Mauerstrasse_ and
+_Rosenstrasse_ knew and loved him as one of its public characters. Time
+was when his witticisms leapt from mouth to mouth in the circuit between
+the Varnhagen _salon_ and the synagogue in the _Heidereutergasse_,
+everywhere finding appreciative listeners. An observer stationed _Unter
+den Linden_ daily for more than thirty years might have seen a peculiar
+couple stride briskly towards the _Thiergarten_ in the early afternoon.
+The loungers at Spargnapani's _café_ regularly interrupted their endless
+newspaper reading to crane their necks and say to one another, "There go
+Dr. Zunz and his wife."
+
+In his obituary notice of the poet Mosenthal, Franz Dingelstedt
+roguishly says: "He was of poor, albeit Jewish parentage." The same
+applies to Zunz, only the saying would be truer, if not so witty, in
+this form: "He was of Jewish, hence of poor, parentage." Among German
+Jews throughout the middle ages and up to the first half of this
+century, poverty was the rule, a comfortable competency a rare
+exception, wealth an unheard of condition. But Jewish poverty was
+relieved of sordidness by a precious gift of the old rabbis, who said:
+"Have a tender care of the children of the poor; from them goeth forth
+the Law"; an admonition and a prediction destined to be illustrated in
+the case of Zunz. Very early he lost his mother, and the year 1805 finds
+him bereft of both parents, under the shelter and in the loving care of
+an institution founded by a pious Jew in Wolfenbüttel. Here he was
+taught the best within the reach of German Jews of the day, the _alpha_
+and _omega_ of whose knowledge and teaching were comprised in the
+Talmud. The Wolfenbüttel school may be called progressive, inasmuch as a
+teacher, watchmaker by trade and novel-writer by vocation, was engaged
+to give instruction four times a week in the three R's. We may be sure
+that those four lessons were not given with unvarying regularity.
+
+In his scholastic home, Leopold Zunz met Isaac Marcus Jost, a waif like
+himself, later the first Jewish historian, to whom we owe interesting
+details of Zunz's early life. In his memoirs[85] he tells the following:
+"Zunz had been entered as a pupil before I arrived. Even in those early
+days there were evidences of the acumen of the future critic. He was
+dominated by the spirit of contradiction. On the sly we studied grammar,
+his cleverness helping me over many a stumbling-block. He was very
+witty, and wrote a lengthy Hebrew satire on our tyrants, from which we
+derived not a little amusement as each part was finished. Unfortunately,
+the misdemeanor was detected, and the _corpus delicti_ consigned to the
+flames, but the sobriquet _chotsuf_ (impudent fellow) clung to the
+writer."
+
+It is only just to admit that in this _Beth ha-Midrash_ Zunz laid the
+foundation of the profound, comprehensive scholarship on Talmudic
+subjects, the groundwork of his future achievements as a critic. The
+circumstance that both these embryo historians had to draw their first
+information about history from the Jewish German paraphrase of
+"Yosippon," an historical compilation, is counterbalanced by careful
+instruction in Rabbinical literature, whose labyrinthine ways soon
+became paths of light to them.
+
+A new day broke, and in its sunlight the condition of affairs changed.
+In 1808 the _Beth ha-Midrash_ was suddenly transformed into the
+"Samsonschool," still in useful operation. It became a primary school,
+conducted on approved pedagogic principles, and Zunz and Jost were among
+the first registered under the new, as they had been under the old,
+administration. Though the one was thirteen, and the other fourteen
+years old, they had to begin with the very rudiments of reading and
+writing. Campe's juvenile books were the first they read. A year later
+finds them engaged in secretly studying Greek, Latin, and mathematics
+during the long winter evenings, by the light of bits of candles made by
+themselves of drippings from the great wax tapers in the synagogue.
+After another six months, Zunz was admitted to the first class of the
+Wolfenbüttel, and Jost to that of the Brunswick, _gymnasium_. It
+characterizes the men to say that Zunz was the first, and Jost the
+third, Jew in Germany to enter a _gymnasium_. Now progress was rapid.
+The classes of the _gymnasium_ were passed through with astounding ease,
+and in 1811, with a minimum of luggage, but a very considerable mental
+equipment, Zunz arrived in Berlin, never to leave it except for short
+periods. He entered upon a course in philology at the newly founded
+university, and after three years of study, he was in the unenviable
+position to be able to tell himself that he had attained to--nothing.
+
+For, to what could a cultured Jew attain in those days, unless he became
+a lawyer or a physician? The Hardenberg edict had opened academical
+careers to Jews, but when Zunz finished his studies, that provision was
+completely forgotten. So he became a preacher. A rich Jew, Jacob Herz
+Beer, the father of two highly gifted sons, Giacomo and Michael Beer,
+had established a private synagogue in his house, and here officiated
+Edward Kley, C. Günsburg, J. L. Auerbach, and, from 1820 to 1822,
+Leopold Zunz. It is not known why he resigned his position, but to infer
+that he had been forced to embrace the vocation of a preacher by the
+stress of circumstances is unjust. At that juncture he probably would
+have chosen it, if he had been offered the rectorship of the Berlin
+university; for, he was animated by somewhat of the spirit that urged
+the prophets of old to proclaim and fulfil their mission in the midst of
+storms and in despite of threatening dangers.
+
+Zunz's sermons delivered from 1820 to 1822 in the first German reform
+temple are truly instinct with the prophetic spirit. The breath of a
+mighty enthusiasm rises from the yellowed pages. Every word testifies
+that they were indited by a writer of puissant individuality, disengaged
+from the shackles of conventional homiletics, and boldly striking out on
+untrodden paths. In the Jewish Berlin of the day, a rationalistic,
+half-cultured generation, swaying irresolutely between Mendelssohn and
+Schleiermacher, these new notes awoke sympathetic echoes. But scarcely
+had the music of his voice become familiar, when it was hushed. In 1823,
+a royal cabinet order prohibited the holding of the Jewish service in
+German, as well as every other innovation in the ritual, and so German
+sermons ceased in the synagogue. Zunz, who had spoken like Moses, now
+held his peace like Aaron, in modesty and humility, yielding to the
+inevitable without rancor or repining, always loyal to the exalted ideal
+which inspired him under the most depressing circumstances. He dedicated
+his sermons, delivered at a time of religious enthusiasm, to "youth at
+the crossroads," whom he had in mind throughout, in the hope that they
+might "be found worthy to lead back to the Lord hearts, which, through
+deception or by reason of stubbornness, have fallen away from Him."
+
+The rescue of the young was his ideal. At the very beginning of his
+career he recognized that the old were beyond redemption, and that, if
+response and confidence were to be won from the young, the expounding of
+the new Judaism was work, not for the pulpit, but for the professor's
+chair. "Devotional exercises and balmy lotions for the soul" could not
+heal their wounds. It was imperative to bring their latent strength into
+play. Knowing this to be his pedagogic principle, we shall not go far
+wrong, if we suppose that in the organization of the "Society for Jewish
+Culture and Science" the initial step was taken by Leopold Zunz. In 1819
+when the mobs of Würzburg, Hamburg, and Frankfort-on-the-Main revived
+the "Hep, hep!" cry, three young men, Edward Gans, Moses Moser, and
+Leopold Zunz conceived the idea of a society with the purpose of
+bringing Jews into harmony with their age and environment, not by
+forcing upon them views of alien growth, but by a rational training of
+their inherited faculties. Whatever might serve to promote intelligence
+and culture was to be nurtured: schools, seminaries, academies, were to
+be erected, literary aspirations fostered, and all public-spirited
+enterprises aided; on the other hand, the rising generation was to be
+induced to devote itself to arts, trades, agriculture, and the applied
+sciences; finally, the strong inclination to commerce on the part of
+Jews was to be curbed, and the tone and conditions of Jewish society
+radically changed--lofty goals for the attainment of which most limited
+means were at the disposal of the projectors. The first fruits of the
+society were the "Scientific Institute," and the "Journal for the
+Science of Judaism," published in the spring of 1822, under the
+editorship of Zunz. Only three numbers appeared, and they met with so
+small a sale that the cost of printing was not realized. Means were
+inadequate, the plans magnificent, the times above all not ripe for such
+ideals. The "Scientific Institute" crumbled away, too, and in 1823, the
+society was breathing its last. Zunz poured out the bitterness of his
+disappointment in a letter written in the summer of 1824 to his Hamburg
+friend Immanuel Wohlwill:
+
+"I am so disheartened that I can nevermore believe in Jewish reform. A
+stone must be thrown at this phantasm to make it vanish. Good Jews are
+either Asiatics, or Christians (unconscious thereof), besides a small
+minority consisting of myself and a few others, the possibility of
+mentioning whom saves me from the imputation of conceit, though, truth
+to say, the bitterness of irony cares precious little for the forms of
+good society. Jews, and the Judaism which we wish to reconstruct, are a
+prey to disunion, and the booty of vandals, fools, money-changers,
+idiots, and _parnassim_.[86] Many a change of season will pass over this
+generation, and leave it unchanged: internally ruptured; rushing into
+the arms of Christianity, the religion of expediency; without stamina
+and without principle; one section thrust aside by Europe, and
+vegetating in filth with longing eyes directed towards the Messiah's ass
+or other member of the long-eared fraternity; the other occupied with
+fingering state securities and the pages of a cyclopædia, and constantly
+oscillating between wealth and bankruptcy, oppression and tolerance.
+Their own science is dead among Jews, and the intellectual concerns of
+European nations do not appeal to them, because, faithless to
+themselves, they are strangers to abstract truth and slaves of
+self-interest. This abject wretchedness is stamped upon their
+penny-a-liners, their preachers, councillors, constitutions,
+_parnassim_, titles, meetings, institutions, subscriptions, their
+literature, their book-trade, their representatives, their happiness,
+and their misfortune. No heart, no feeling! All a medley of prayers,
+banknotes, and _rachmones_,[87] with a few strains of enlightenment and
+_chilluk_![88]--
+
+Now, my friend, after so revolting a sketch of Judaism, you will hardly
+ask why the society and the journal have vanished into thin air, and are
+missed as little as the temple, the school, and the rights of
+citizenship. The society might have survived despite its splitting up
+into sections. That was merely a mistake in management. The truth is
+that it never had existence. Five or six enthusiasts met together, and
+like Moses ventured to believe that their spirit would communicate
+itself to others. That was self-deception. _The only imperishable
+possession rescued from this deluge is the science of Judaism. It lives
+even though not a finger has been raised in its service since hundreds
+of years. I confess that, barring submission to the judgment of God, I
+find solace only in the cultivation of the science of Judaism._
+
+As for myself, those rough experiences of mine shall assuredly not
+persuade me into a course of action inconsistent with my highest
+aspirations. I did what I held my duty. I ceased to preach, not in order
+to fall away from my own words, but because I realized that I was
+preaching in the wilderness. _Sapienti sat_.... After all that I have
+said, you will readily understand that I cannot favor an unduly
+ostentatious mode of dissolution. Such a course would be prompted by the
+vanity of the puffed-out frog in the fable, and affect the Jews ... as
+little as all that has gone before. There is nothing for the members to
+do but to remain unshaken, and radiate their influence in their limited
+circles, leaving all else to God."
+
+The man who wrote these words, it is hard to realize, had not yet passed
+his thirtieth year, but his aim in life was perfectly defined. He knew
+the path leading to his goal, and--most important circumstance--never
+deviated from it until he attained it. His activity throughout life
+shows no inconsistency with his plans. It is his strength of character,
+rarest of attributes in a time of universal defection from the Jewish
+standard, that calls for admiration, accorded by none so readily as by
+his companions in arms. Casting up his own spiritual accounts, Heinrich
+Heine in the latter part of his life wrote of his friend Zunz:[89] "In
+the instability of a transition period he was characterized by
+incorruptible constancy, remaining true, despite his acumen, his
+scepticism, and his scholarship, to self-imposed promises, to the
+exalted hobby of his soul. A man of thought and action, he created and
+worked when others hesitated, and sank discouraged," or, what Heine
+prudently omitted to say, deserted the flag, and stealthily slunk out of
+the life of the oppressed.
+
+In Zunz, strength of character was associated with a mature, richly
+stored mind. He was a man of talent, of character, and of science, and
+this rare union of traits is his distinction. At a time when the
+majority of his co-religionists could not grasp the plain, elementary
+meaning of the phrase, "the science of Judaism," he made it the loadstar
+of his life.
+
+Sad though it be, I fear that it is true that there are those of this
+generation who, after the lapse of years, are prompted to repeat the
+question put by Zunz's contemporaries, "What is the science of Judaism?"
+Zunz gave a comprehensive answer in a short essay, "On Rabbinical
+Literature," published by Mauer in 1818:[90] "When the shadows of
+barbarism were gradually lifting from the mist-shrouded earth, and light
+universally diffused could not fail to strike the Jews scattered
+everywhere, a remnant of old Hebrew learning attached itself to new,
+foreign elements of culture, and in the course of centuries enlightened
+minds elaborated the heterogeneous ingredients into the literature
+called rabbinical." To this rabbinical, or, to use the more fitting name
+proposed by himself, this neo-Hebraic, Jewish literature and science,
+Zunz devoted his love, his work, his life. Since centuries this field
+of knowledge had been a trackless, uncultivated waste. He who would
+pass across, had need to be a pathfinder, robust and energetic, able to
+concentrate his mind upon a single aim, undisturbed by distracting
+influences. Such was Leopold Zunz, who sketched in bold, but admirably
+precise outlines the extent of Jewish science, marking the boundaries of
+its several departments, estimating its resources, and laying out the
+work and aims of the future. The words of the prophet must have appealed
+to him with peculiar force: "I remember unto thee the kindness of thy
+youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the wilderness,
+through a land that is not sown."
+
+Again, when there was question of cultivating the desert soil, and
+seeking for life under the rubbish, Zunz was the first to present
+himself as a laborer. The only fruit of the Society for Jewish Culture
+and Science, during the three years of its existence, was the "Journal
+for the Science of Judaism," and its publication was due exclusively to
+Zunz's perseverance. Though only three numbers appeared, a positive
+addition to our literature was made through them in Zunz's biographical
+essay on Rashi, the old master expounder of the Bible and the Talmud. By
+its arrangement of material, by its criticism and grouping of facts, and
+not a little by its brilliant style, this essay became the model for all
+future work on kindred subjects. When the society dissolved, and Zunz
+was left to enjoy undesired leisure, he continued to work on the lines
+laid down therein. Besides, Zunz was a political journalist, for many
+years political editor of "Spener's Journal," and a contributor to the
+_Gesellschafter_, the _Iris_, _Die Freimütigen_, and other publications
+of a literary character. From 1825 to 1829, he was a director of the
+newly founded Jewish congregational school; for one year he occupied the
+position of preacher at Prague; and from 1839 to 1849, the year of its
+final closing, he acted as trustee of the Jewish teachers' seminary in
+Berlin. Thereafter he had no official position.
+
+As a politician he was a pronounced democrat. Reading his political
+addresses to-day, after a lapse of half a century, we find in them the
+clearness and sagacity that distinguish the scientific productions of
+the investigator. Here is an extract from his words of consolation
+addressed to the families of the heroes of the March revolution of
+1848:[91]
+
+"They who walked our streets unnoticed, who meditated in their quiet
+studies, toiled in their workshops, cast up accounts in offices, sold
+wares in the shops, were suddenly transformed into valiant fighters, and
+we discovered them at the moment when like meteors they vanished. When
+they grew lustrous, they disappeared from our sight, and when they
+became our deliverers, we lost the opportunity of thanking them. Death
+has made them great and precious to us. Departing they poured unmeasured
+wealth upon us all, who were so poor. Our heads, parched like a summer
+sky, produced no fruitful rain of magnanimous thoughts. The hearts in
+our bosoms, turned into stone, were bereft of human sympathies. Vanity
+and illusions were our idols; lies and deception poisoned our lives;
+lust and avarice dictated our actions; a hell of immorality and misery,
+corroding every institution, heated the atmosphere to suffocation, until
+black clouds gathered, a storm of the nations raged about us, and
+purifying streaks of lightning darted down upon the barricades and into
+the streets. Through the storm-wind, I saw chariots of fire and horses
+of fire bearing to heaven the men of God who fell fighting for right and
+liberty. I hear the voice of God, O ye that weep, knighting your dear
+ones. The freedom of the press is their patent of nobility, our hearts,
+their monuments. Every one of us, every German, is a mourner, and you,
+survivors, are no longer abandoned."
+
+In an election address of February 1849,[92] Zunz says: "The first step
+towards liberty is to miss liberty, the second, to seek it, the third,
+to find it. Of course, many years may pass between the seeking and the
+finding." And further on: "As an elector, I should give my vote for
+representatives only to men of principle and immaculate reputation, who
+neither hesitate nor yield; who cannot be made to say cold is warm, and
+warm is cold; who disdain legal subtleties, diplomatic intrigues, lies
+of whatever kind, even when they redound to the advantage of the party.
+Such are worthy of the confidence of the people, because conscience is
+their monitor. They may err, for to err is human, but they will never
+deceive."
+
+Twelve years later, on a similar occasion, he uttered the following
+prophetic words:[93] "A genuinely free form of government makes a people
+free and upright, and its representatives are bound to be champions of
+liberty and progress. If Prussia, unfurling the banner of liberty and
+progress, will undertake to provide us with such a constitution, our
+self-confidence, energy, and trustfulness will return. Progress will be
+the fundamental principle of our lives, and out of our united efforts to
+advance it will grow a firm, indissoluble union. Now, then, Germans! Be
+resolved, all of you, to attain the same goal, and your will shall be a
+storm-wind scattering like chaff whatever is old and rotten. In your
+struggle for a free country, you will have as allies the army of mighty
+minds that have suffered for right and liberty in the past. Now you are
+split up into tribes and clans, held together only by the bond of
+language and a classic literature. You will grow into a great nation, if
+but all brother-tribes will join us. Then Germany, strongly secure in
+the heart of Europe, will be able to put an end to the quailing before
+attacks from the East or the West, and cry a halt to war. The empire,
+some one has said, means peace. Verily, with Prussia at its head, the
+German empire means peace."
+
+Such utterances are characteristic of Zunz, the politician. His best
+energies and efforts, however, were devoted to his researches. Science,
+he believed, would bring about amelioration of political conditions;
+science, he hoped, would preserve Judaism from the storms and calamities
+of his generation, for the fulfilment of its historical mission.
+Possessed by this idea, he wrote _Die Gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der
+Juden_ ("Jewish Homiletics," 1832), the basis of the future science of
+Judaism, the first clearing in the primeval forest of rabbinical
+writings, through which the pioneer led his followers with steady step
+and hand, as though walking on well trodden ground. Heinrich Heine, who
+appreciated Zunz at his full worth, justly reckoned this book "among the
+noteworthy productions of the higher criticism," and another reviewer
+with equal justice ranks it on a level with the great works of Böckh,
+Diez, Grimm, and others of that period, the golden age of philological
+research in Germany.
+
+Like almost all that Zunz wrote, _Die Gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der
+Juden_ was the result of a polemic need. By nature Zunz was a
+controversialist. Like a sentinel upon the battlements, he kept a sharp
+lookout upon the land. Let the Jews be threatened with injustice by
+ruler, statesman, or scholar, and straightway he attacked the enemy with
+the weapons of satire and science. One can fancy that the cabinet order
+prohibiting German sermons in the synagogue, and so stifling the
+ambition of his youth, awakened the resolve to trace the development of
+the sermon among Jews, and show that thousands of years ago the
+well-spring of religious instruction bubbled up in Judah's halls of
+prayer, and has never since failed, its wealth of waters overflowing
+into the popular Midrash, the repository of little known, unappreciated
+treasures of knowledge and experience, accumulated in the course of many
+centuries.
+
+In the preface to this book, Zunz, the democrat, says that for his
+brethren in faith he demands of the European powers, "not rights and
+liberties, but right and liberty. Deep shame should mantle the cheek of
+him who, by means of a patent of nobility conferred by favoritism, is
+willing to rise above his _co-religionists_, while the law of the land
+brands him by assigning him a place among the lowest of his
+_co-citizens_. Only in the rights common to all citizens can we find
+satisfaction; only in unquestioned equality, the end of our pain.
+Liberty unshackling the hand to fetter the tongue; tolerance delighting
+not in our progress, but in our decay; citizenship promising protection
+without honor, imposing burdens without holding out prospects of
+advancement; they all, in my opinion, are lacking in love and justice,
+and such baneful elements in the body politic must needs engender
+pestiferous diseases, affecting the whole and its every part."
+
+Zunz sees a connection between the civil disabilities of the Jews and
+their neglect of Jewish science and literature. Untrammelled,
+instructive speech he accounts the surest weapon. Hence the homilies of
+the Jews appear to him to be worthy, and to stand in need, of
+historical investigation, and the results of his research into their
+origin, development, and uses, from the time of Ezra to the present day,
+are laid down in this epoch-making work.
+
+The law forbidding the bearing of German names by Jews provoked Zunz's
+famous and influential little book, "The Names of the Jews," like most
+of his later writings polemic in origin, in which respect they remind
+one of Lessing's works.
+
+In the ardor of youth Zunz had borne the banner of reform; in middle age
+he became convinced that the young generation of iconoclasts had rushed
+far beyond the ideal goal of the reform movement cherished in his
+visions. As he had upheld the age and sacred uses of the German sermon
+against the assaults of the orthodox; so for the benefit and instruction
+of radical reformers, he expounded the value and importance of the
+Hebrew liturgy in profound works, which appeared during a period of ten
+years, crystallizing the results of a half-century's severe application.
+They rounded off the symmetry of his spiritual activity. For, when
+Midrashic inspiration ceased to flow, the _piut_--synagogue
+poetry--established itself, and the transformation from the one into the
+other was the active principle of neo-Hebraic literature for more than a
+thousand years. Zunz's vivifying sympathies knit the old and the new
+into a wondrously firm historical thread. Nowhere have the harmony and
+continuity of Jewish literary development found such adequate expression
+as in his _Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters_ ("Synagogue Poetry of
+the Middle Ages," 1855), _Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes_ ("The
+Ritual of the Synagogue," 1859), and _Litteraturgeschichte der
+synagogalen Poesie_ ("History of Synagogue Poetry," 1864), the capstone
+of his literary endeavors.
+
+In his opinion, the only safeguard against error lies in the pursuit of
+science, not, indeed, dryasdust science, but science in close touch with
+the exuberance of life regulated by high-minded principles, and
+transfigured by ideal hopes. Sermons and prayers in harmonious relation,
+he believed,[94] will "enable some future generation to enjoy the fruits
+of a progressive, rational policy, and it is meet that science and
+poetry should be permeated with ideas serving the furtherance of such
+policy. Education is charged with the task of moulding enlightened minds
+to think the thoughts that prepare for right-doing, and warm,
+enthusiastic hearts to execute commendable deeds. For, after all is said
+and done, the well-being of the community can only grow out of the
+intelligence and the moral life of each member. Every individual that
+strives to apprehend the harmony of human and divine elements attains to
+membership in the divine covenant. The divine is the aim of all our
+thoughts, actions, sentiments, and hopes. It invests our lives with
+dignity, and supplies a moral basis for our relations to one another.
+Well, then, let us hope for redemption--for the universal recognition of
+a form of government under which the rights of man are respected. Then
+free citizens will welcome Jews as brethren, and Israel's prayers will
+be offered up by mankind."
+
+These are samples of the thoughts underlying Zunz's great works, as well
+as his numerous smaller, though not less important, productions:
+biographical and critical essays, legal opinions, sketches in the
+history of literature, reviews, scientific inquiries, polemical and
+literary fragments, collected in his work _Zur Geschichte und
+Litteratur_ ("Contributions to History and Literature," 1873), and in
+three volumes of collected writings. Since the publication of his
+"History of Synagogue Poetry," Zunz wrote only on rare occasions. His
+last work but one was _Deutsche Briefe_ (1872) on German language and
+German intellect, and his last, an incisive and liberal contribution to
+Bible criticism (_Studie zur Bibelkritik_, 1874), published in the
+_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_ in Leipsic.
+From that time on, when the death of his beloved wife, Adelheid Zunz, a
+most faithful helpmate, friend, counsellor, and support, occurred, he
+was silent.
+
+Zunz had passed his seventieth year when his "History of Synagogue
+Poetry" appeared. He could permit himself to indulge in well-earned
+rest, and from the vantage-ground of age inspect the bustling activity
+of a new generation of friends and disciples on the once neglected field
+of Jewish science.
+
+Often as the cause of religion and civil liberty received a check at
+one place or another, during those long years when he stood aside from
+the turmoil of life, a mere looker-on, he did not despair; he continued
+to hope undaunted. Under his picture he wrote sententiously: "Thought is
+strong enough to vanquish arrogance and injustice without recourse to
+arrogance and injustice."
+
+Zunz's life and work are of incalculable importance to the present age
+and to future generations. With eagle vision he surveyed the whole
+domain of Jewish learning, and traced the lines of its development.
+Constructive as well as critical, he raised widely scattered fragments
+to the rank of a literature which may well claim a place beside the
+literatures of the nations. Endowed with rare strength of character, he
+remained unflinchingly loyal to his ancestral faith, "the exalted hobby
+of his soul"--a model for three generations. Jewish literature owes to
+him a scientific style. He wrote epigrammatic, incisive, perspicuous
+German, stimulating and suggestive, such as Lessing used. The reform
+movement he supported as a legitimate development of Judaism on
+historical lines. On the other hand, he fostered loyalty to Judaism by
+lucidly presenting to young Israel the value of his faith, his
+intellectual heritage, and his treasures of poetry. Zunz, then, is the
+originator of a momentous phase in our development, producing among its
+adherents as among outsiders a complete revolution in the appreciation
+of Judaism, its religious and intellectual aspects. Together with
+self-knowledge he taught his brethren self-respect. He was, in short, a
+clear thinker and acute critic; a German, deeply attached to his beloved
+country, and fully convinced of the supremacy of German mind; at the
+same time, an ardent believer in Judaism, imbued with some of the spirit
+of the prophets, somewhat of the strength of Jewish heroes and martyrs,
+who sacrificed life for their conviction, and with dying lips made the
+ancient confession: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is
+one!"
+
+His name is an abiding possession for our nation; it will not perish
+from our memory. "Good night, my prince! O that angel choirs might lull
+thy slumbers!"
+
+
+
+
+HEINRICH HEINE AND JUDAISM
+
+
+I
+
+No modern poet has aroused so much discussion as Heinrich Heine. His
+works are known everywhere, and quotations from them--gorgeous
+butterflies, stinging gnats, buzzing bees--whizz and whirr through the
+air of our century. They are the _vade mecum_ of modern life in all its
+moods and variations.
+
+This high regard is a recent development. Within the last thirty years a
+complete change has taken place in public opinion. Soon after the poet's
+death, he was entirely neglected. The _Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung_,
+whose columns had for decades been enriched with his contributions, took
+three months to get up a little obituary notice. Then followed a period
+of acrimonious detraction; at last, cordial appreciation has come.
+
+The conviction has been growing that in Heine the German nation must
+revere its greatest lyric poet since Goethe, and as time removes him
+from us, the baser elements of his character recede into the background,
+his personality is lost sight of, and his poetry becomes the paramount
+consideration.
+
+What is the attitude of Judaism? Does it acknowledge Heine as its son?
+Is it disposed to accept _cum beneficio inventarii_ the inheritance he
+has bequeathed to it? To answer these questions we must review Heine's
+life, his relations to Judaism, his opinions on Jewish subjects, and the
+qualities which prove him heir to the peculiarities of the Jewish race.
+
+Heine's family was Jewish. On the paternal side it can be traced to
+Meyer Samson Popert and Fromet Heckscher of Altona; on the maternal side
+further back, to Isaac van Geldern, who emigrated in about 1700 from
+Holland to the duchy of Jülich-Berg. He and his son Lazarus van Geldern
+were people of importance at Düsseldorf, and his other sons, Simon and
+Gottschalk, were known and respected beyond the confines of their city.
+Simon van Geldern was the author of "The Israelites on Mount Horeb," a
+didactic poem in English, and on his trip to the East he kept a Hebrew
+journal, which can still be seen. His younger brother Gottschalk was a
+distinguished physician, and occupied a position of high dignity in the
+Jewish congregations in the duchies of Jülich and Berg. It is said that
+he provided for the welfare of his brethren in faith "as a father
+provides for his children." His only daughter Betty (Peierche) van
+Geldern, urged by her family and in obedience to the promptings of her
+own heart, married Samson Heine, and became the mother of the poet.
+Heine himself has written much about his family,[95] particularly about
+his mother's brother. Of his paternal grandfather, he knew only what
+his father had told him, that he was "a little Jew with a great beard."
+On the whole, his education was strictly religious, but it was tainted
+with the deplorable inconsistency so frequently found in Jewish homes.
+Themselves heedless of religious ceremonies, parents exact from their
+children punctilious observance of minute regulations. Samson Heine was
+one of the Jews often met with in the beginning of this century who,
+lacking true culture, caught up some of the encyclopædist phrases with
+which the atmosphere of the period was heavy. Heine describes his
+father's extraordinary buoyancy: "Always azure serenity and fanfares of
+good humor." The reproach is characteristic which he addressed to his
+son, when the latter was charged with atheism: "Dear son! Your mother is
+having you instructed in philosophy by Rector Schallmeier--that is her
+affair. As for me, I have no love for philosophy; it is nothing but
+superstition. I am a merchant, and need all my faculties for my
+business. You may philosophize as much as you please, only, I beg of
+you, don't tell any one what you think. It would harm my business, were
+people to discover that my son does not believe in God. Particularly the
+Jews would stop buying velvets from me, and they are honest folk, and
+pay promptly. And they are right in clinging to religion. Being your
+father, therefore older than you, I am more experienced, and you may
+take my word for it, atheism is a great sin."
+
+Two instances related by Joseph Neunzig, one of his playmates, show how
+rigorously Harry was compelled to observe religious forms in his
+paternal home. On a Saturday the children were out walking, when
+suddenly a fire broke out. The fire extinguishers came clattering up to
+the burning house, but as the flames were spreading rapidly, all
+bystanders were ordered to range themselves in line with the firemen.
+Harry refused point-blank to help: "I may not do it, and I will not,
+because it is _Shabbes_ to-day." But another time, when it jumped with
+his wishes, the eight year old boy managed to circumvent the Law. He was
+playing with some of his schoolmates in front of a neighbor's house. Two
+luscious bunches of grapes hung over the arbor almost down to the
+ground. The children noticed them, and with longing in their eyes passed
+on. Only Harry stood still before the grapes. Suddenly springing on the
+arbor, he bit one grape after another from the bunch. "Red-head Harry!"
+the children exclaimed horrified, "what are you doing?" "Nothing wrong,"
+said the little rogue. "We are forbidden to pluck them with our hands,
+but the law does not say anything about biting and eating." His
+education was not equable and not methodical. Extremely indulgent
+towards themselves, the parents were extremely severe in their treatment
+of their children. So arose the contradictions in the poet's character.
+He is one of those to whom childhood's religion is a bitter-sweet
+remembrance unto the end of days. Jewish sympathies were his
+inalienable heritage, and from this point of view his life must be
+considered.
+
+The poet's mother was of a different stamp from his father. Like most of
+the Jews in the Rhenish provinces, his father hailed Napoleon, the first
+legislator to establish equality between Jews and Christians, as a
+savior. His mother, on the other hand, was a good German patriot and a
+woman of culture, who exercised no inconsiderable influence upon the
+heart and mind of her son. Heine calls her a disciple of Rousseau, and
+his brother Maximilian tells us that Goethe was her favorite among
+authors.
+
+The boy was first taught by Rintelsohn at a Jewish school, but his
+knowledge of Hebrew seems to have been very limited. It is an
+interesting fact that his first poem, "Belshazzar," which he tells us he
+wrote at the age of sixteen, was inspired by his childhood's faith and
+is based upon Jewish history. Towards the end of his life he said to a
+friend:[96] "Do you know what inspired me? A few words in the Hebrew
+hymn, _Wayhee bechatsi halaïla_, sung, as you know, on the first two
+evenings of the Passover. This hymn commemorates all momentous events in
+the history of the Jews that occurred at midnight; among them the death
+of the Babylonian tyrant, snatched away at night for desecrating the
+holy Temple vessels. The quoted words are the refrain of the hymn, which
+forms part of the Haggada, the curious medley of legends and songs,
+recited by pious Jews at the _Seder_." Ay, the Passover celebration,
+the _Seder_, remained in the poet's memory till the day of his death. He
+describes it still later in one of his finest works:[97] "Sweetly sad,
+joyous, earnest, sportive, and elfishly mysterious is that evening
+service, and the traditional chant with which the Haggada is recited by
+the head of the family, the listeners sometimes joining in as a chorus,
+is thrillingly tender, soothing as a mother's lullaby, yet impetuous and
+inspiring, so that Jews who long have drifted from the faith of their
+fathers, and have been pursuing the joys and dignities of the stranger,
+even they are stirred in their inmost parts when the old, familiar
+Passover sounds chance to fall upon their ears."
+
+My esteemed friend Rabbi Dr. Frank of Cologne has in his possession a
+Haggada, admirably illustrated, an heirloom at one time of the Van
+Geldern family, and it is not improbable that it was out of this
+artistic book that Heinrich Heine asked the _Mah nishtannah_, the
+traditional question of the _Seder_.
+
+Heine left home very young, and everybody knows that he was apprenticed
+to a merchant at Frankfort, and that his uncle Solomon's kindness
+enabled him to devote himself to jurisprudence. But this, of important
+bearing on our subject, is not a matter of common knowledge: _Always and
+everywhere, especially when he had least intercourse with Jews, Jewish
+elements appear most prominently in Heine's life._
+
+A merry, light-hearted student, he arrived in Berlin in 1821. A curious
+spectacle is presented by the Jewish Berlin of the day, dominated by the
+_salons_, and the women whose tact and scintillating wit made them the
+very centre of general society. The traditions of Rahel Levin, Henriette
+Herz, and other clever women, still held sway. But the state frustrated
+every attempt to introduce reforms into Judaism. Two great parties
+opposed each other more implacably than ever, the one clutching the old,
+the other yearning for the new. Out of the breach, salvation was in time
+to sprout. In the first quarter of our century, more than three-fourths
+of the Jewish population of Berlin embraced the ruling faith. This was
+the new, seditious element with which young Heine was thrown. His
+interesting personality attracted general notice. All circles welcomed
+him. The _salons_ did their utmost to make him one of their votaries.
+Romantic student clubs at Lutter's and Wegener's wine-rooms left nothing
+untried to lure him to their nocturnal carousals. Even Hegel, the
+philosopher, evinced marked interest in him. To whose allurements does
+he yield? Like his great ancestor, he goes to "his brethren languishing
+in captivity." Some of his young friends, Edward Gans, Leopold Zunz, and
+Moses Moser, had formed a "Society for Jewish Culture and Science," with
+Berlin as its centre, and Heinrich Heine became one of its most active
+members. He taught poor Jewish boys from Posen several hours a week in
+the school established by the society, and all questions that came up
+interested him. Joseph Lehmann took pleasure in repeatedly telling how
+seriously Heine applied himself to a review which he had undertaken to
+write on the compilation of a German prayer-book for Jewish women.
+
+To the Berlin period belongs his _Almansor_, a dramatic poem which has
+suffered the most contradictory criticism. In my opinion, it has usually
+been misunderstood. _Almansor_ is intelligible only if regarded from a
+Jewish point of view, and then it is seen to be the hymn of vengeance
+sung by Judaism oppressed. Substitute the names of a converted Berlin
+banker and his wife for "Aly" and "Suleima," Berlin under Frederick
+William III. for "Saragossa," the Berlin Thiergarten for the "Forest,"
+and the satire stands revealed. The following passage is characteristic
+of the whole poem:[98]
+
+    "Go not to Aly's castle! Flee
+    That noxious house where new faith breeds.
+    With honeyed accents there thy heart
+    Is wrenched from out thy bosom's depths,
+    A snake bestowed on thee instead.
+    Hot drops of lead on thy poor head
+    Are poured, and nevermore thy brain
+    From madding pain shall rid itself.
+    Another name thou must assume,
+    That if thy angel warning calls,
+    And calls thee by thy olden name,
+    He call in vain."
+
+Such were Heine's views at that time, and with them he went to
+Göttingen. There, though Jewish society was entirely lacking, and
+correspondence with his Berlin friends desultory, his Jewish interests
+grew stronger than ever. There, inspired by the genius of Jewish
+history, he composed his _Rabbi von Bacharach_, the work which, by his
+own confession, he nursed with unspeakable love, and which, he fondly
+hoped, would "become an immortal book, a perpetual lamp in the dome of
+God." Again Jewish conversions, a burning question of the day, were made
+prominent. Heine's solution is beyond a cavil enlightened. The words are
+truly remarkable with which Sarah, the beautiful Jewess, declines the
+services of the gallant knight:[99] "Noble sir! Would you be my knight,
+then you must meet nations in a combat in which small praise and less
+honor are to be won. And would you be rash enough to wear my colors,
+then you must sew yellow wheels upon your mantle, or bind a blue-striped
+scarf about your breast. For these are my colors, the colors of my
+house, named Israel, the unhappy house mocked at on the highways and the
+byways by the children of fortune."
+
+Another illustration of Heine's views at that time of his life, and with
+those views he one day went to the neighboring town of Heiligenstadt--to
+be baptized.
+
+Who can sound the depths of a poet's soul? Who can divine what Heine's
+thoughts, what his hopes were, when he took this step? His letters and
+confessions of that period must be read to gain an idea of his inner
+world. On one occasion he wrote to Moser, to whom he laid bare his most
+intimate thoughts:[100] "Mentioning Japan reminds me to recommend to you
+Golovnin's 'Journey to Japan.' Perhaps I may send you a poem to-day from
+the _Rabbi_, in the writing of which I unfortunately have been
+interrupted again. I beg that you speak to nobody about this poem, or
+about what I tell you of my private affairs. A young Spaniard, at heart
+a Jew, is beguiled to baptism by the arrogance bred of luxury. He sends
+the translation of an Arabic poem to young Yehuda Abarbanel, with whom
+he is corresponding. Perhaps he shrinks from directly confessing to his
+friend an action hardly to be called admirable.... Pray do not think
+about this."
+
+And the poem? It is this:
+
+    TO EDOM
+
+    "Each with each has borne, in patience
+      Longer than a thousand year--
+    _Thou_ dost tolerate my breathing,
+      _I_ thy ravings calmly hear.
+
+    Sometimes only, in the darkness,
+      Thou didst have sensations odd,
+    And thy paws, caressing, gentle,
+      Crimson turned with my rich blood.
+
+    Now our friendship firmer groweth,
+      Daily keeps on growing straight.
+    I myself incline to madness,
+      Soon, in faith, I'll be thy mate."
+
+A few weeks later he writes to Moser in a still more bitter strain: "I
+know not what to say. Cohen assures me that Gans is preaching
+Christianity, and trying to convert the children of Israel. If this is
+conviction, he is a fool; if hypocrisy, a knave. I shall not give up
+loving him, but I confess that I should have been better pleased to hear
+that Gans had been stealing silver spoons. That you, dear Moser, share
+Gans's opinions, I cannot believe, though Cohen assures me of it, and
+says that you told him so yourself. I should be sorry, if my own baptism
+were to strike you more favorably. I give you my word of honor--if our
+laws allowed stealing silver spoons, I should not have been baptized."
+Again he writes mournfully: "As, according to Solon, no man may be
+called happy, so none should be called honest, before his death. I am
+glad that David Friedländer and Bendavid are old, and will soon die.
+Then we shall be certain of them, and the reproach of having had not a
+single immaculate representative cannot be attached to our time. Pardon
+my ill humor. It is directed mainly against myself."
+
+"Upon how true a basis the myth of the wandering Jew rests!" he says in
+another letter. "In the lonely wooded valley, the mother tells her
+children the grewsome tale. Terror-stricken the little ones cower close
+to the hearth. It is night ... the postilion blows his horn ... Jew
+traders are journeying to the fair at Leipsic. We, the heroes of the
+legend, are not aware of our part in it. The white beard, whose tips
+time has rejuvenated, no barber can remove." In those days he wrote the
+following poem, published posthumously:[101]
+
+    TO AN APOSTATE
+
+    "Out upon youth's holy flame!
+      Oh! how quickly it burns low!
+    Now, thy heated blood grown tame,
+      Thou agreest to love thy foe!
+
+    And thou meekly grovell'st low
+      At the cross which thou didst spurn;
+    Which not many weeks ago,
+      Thou didst wish to crush and burn.
+
+    Fie! that comes from books untold--
+      There are Schlegel, Haller, Burke--
+    Yesterday a hero bold,
+      Thou to-day dost scoundrel's work."
+
+The usual explanation of Heine's formal adoption of Christianity is that
+he wished to obtain a government position in Prussia, and make himself
+independent of his rich uncle. As no other offers itself, we are forced
+to accept it as correct. He was fated to recognize speedily that he had
+gained nothing by baptism. A few weeks after settling in Hamburg he
+wrote: "I repent me of having been baptized. I cannot see that I have
+bettered my position. On the contrary, I have had nothing but
+disappointment and bad luck." Despite his baptism, his enemies called
+him "the Jew," and at heart he never did become a Christian.
+
+At Hamburg, in those days, Heine was repeatedly drawn into the conflict
+between reform and orthodoxy, between the Temple and the synagogue. His
+uncle Solomon Heine was a warm supporter of the Temple, but Heine, with
+characteristic inconsistency, admired the old rigorous rabbinical system
+more than the modern reform movement, which often called forth his
+ridicule. Yet, at bottom, his interest in the latter was strong, as it
+continued to be also in the Berlin educational society, and its "Journal
+for the Science of Judaism," of which, however, only three numbers were
+issued. He once wrote from Hamburg to his friend Moser: "Last Saturday I
+was at the Temple, and had the pleasure with my own ears to hear Dr.
+Salomon rail against baptized Jews, and insinuate that they are tempted
+to become faithless to the religion of their fathers only by the hope of
+preferment. I assure you, the sermon was good, and some day I intend to
+call upon the man. Cohen is doing the generous thing by me. I take my
+_Shabbes_ dinner with him; he heaps fiery _Kugel_ upon my head, and
+contritely I eat the sacred national dish, which has done more for the
+preservation of Judaism than all three numbers of the Journal. To be
+sure, it has had a better sale. If I had time, I would write a pretty
+little Jewish letter to Mrs. Zunz. I am getting to be a thoroughbred
+Christian; I am sponging on the rich Jews."
+
+They who find nothing but jest in this letter, do not understand Heine.
+A bitter strain of disgust, of unsparing self-denunciation, runs through
+it--the feelings that dictate the jests and accusations of his
+_Reisebilder_. This was the period of Heine's best creations: for as
+such his "Book of Songs," _Buch der Lieder_, and his _Reisebilder_ must
+be considered. With a sudden bound he leapt into greatness and
+popularity.
+
+The reader may ask me to point out in these works the features to be
+taken as the expression of the genius of the Jewish race. To understand
+our poet, we must keep in mind that _Heinrich Heine was a Jew born in
+the days of romanticism in a town on the Rhine_. His intellect and his
+sensuousness, of Jewish origin, were wedded with Rhenish fancy and
+blitheness, and over these qualities the pale moonshine of romanticism
+shed its glamour.
+
+The most noteworthy characteristic of his writings, prose and verse, is
+his extraordinary subjectivity, pushing the poet's _ego_ into the
+foreground. With light, graceful touch, he demonstrates the possibility
+of unrestrained self-expression in an artistic guise. The boldness and
+energy with which "he gave voice to his hidden self" were so novel, so
+surprising, that his melodies at once awoke an echo. This subjectivity
+is his Jewish birthright. It is Israel's ingrained combativeness, for
+more than a thousand years the genius of its literature, which
+throughout reveals a predilection for abrupt contrasts, and is studded
+with unmistakable expressions of strong individuality. By virtue of his
+subjectivity, which never permits him to surrender himself
+unconditionally, the Jew establishes a connection between his _ego_ and
+whatever subject he treats of. "He does not sink his own identity, and
+lose himself in the depths of the cosmos, nor roam hither and thither in
+the limitless space of the world of thought. He dives down to search for
+pearls at the bottom of the sea, or rises aloft to gain a bird's-eye
+view of the whole. The world encloses him as the works of a clock are
+held in a case. His _ego_ is the hammer, and there is no sound unless,
+swinging rhythmically, itself touches the sides, now softly, now
+boldly." Not content to yield to an authority which would suppress his
+freedom of action, he traverses the world, and compels it to promote the
+development of his energetic nature. To these peculiarities of his race
+Heine fell heir--to the generous traits growing out of marked
+individuality, its grooves deepened by a thousand years of martyrdom, as
+well as to the petty faults following in the wake of excessive
+self-consciousness; which have furnished adversaries of the Jews with
+texts and weapons.
+
+This subjectivity, traceable in his language and in his ancient
+literature, it is that unfits the Jew for objective, philosophic
+investigation. It is, moreover, responsible for that energetic
+self-assertiveness for which the Aramæan language has coined the word
+_chutspa_, only partially rendered by arrogance. Possibly it is the root
+of another quality which Heine owes to his Jewish extraction--his wit
+Heine's scintillations are composed of a number of elements--of English
+humor, French sparkle, German irony, and Jewish wit, all of which,
+saving the last, have been analyzed by the critics. Proneness to
+censure, to criticism, and discussion, is the concomitant of keen
+intellect given to scrutiny and analysis. From the buoyancy of the
+Jewish disposition, and out of the force of Jewish subjectivity, arose
+Jewish wit, whose first manifestations can be traced in the Talmud and
+the Midrash. Its appeals are directed to both fancy and heart. It
+delights in antithesis, and, as was said above, is intimately connected
+with Jewish subjectivity. Its distinguishing characteristic is the
+desire to have its superiority acknowledged without wounding the
+feelings of the sensitive, and an explanation of its peculiarity can be
+found in the sad fate of the Jews. The heroes of Shakespere's tragedies
+are full of irony. Frenzy at its maddest pitch breaks out into merry
+witticisms and scornful laughter. So it was with the Jews. The waves of
+oppression, forever dashing over them, strung their nerves to the point
+of reaction. The world was closed to them in hostility. There was
+nothing for them to do but laugh--laugh with forced merriment from
+behind prison bars, and out of the depths of their heartrending
+resignation. Complaints it was possible to suppress, but no one could
+forbid their laughter, ghastly though it was. M. G. Saphir, one of the
+best exponents of Jewish wit, justly said: "The Jews seized the weapon
+of wit, since they were interdicted the use of every other sort of
+weapon." Whatever humdrum life during the middle ages offered them, had
+to submit to the scalpel of their wit.
+
+As a rule, Jewish wit springs from a lively appreciation of what is
+ingenious. A serious beginning suddenly and unexpectedly takes a merry,
+jocose turn, producing in Heine's elegiac passages the discordant
+endings so shocking to sensitive natures. But it is an injustice to the
+poet to attribute these rapid transitions to an artist's vain fancy. His
+satire is directed against the ideals of his generation, not against the
+ideal. Harsh, discordant notes do not express the poet's real
+disposition. They are exaggerated, romantic feeling, for which he
+himself, led by an instinctively pure conception of the good and the
+beautiful, which is opposed alike to sickly sentimentality and jarring
+dissonance, sought the outlet of irony.
+
+Heine's humor, as I intimated above, springs from his recognition of the
+tragedy of life. It is an expression of the irreconcilable difference
+between the real and the ideal, of the perception that the world,
+despite its grandeur and its beauty, is a world of folly and
+contradictions; that whatever exists and is formed, bears within itself
+the germ of death and corruption; that the Lord of all creation himself
+is but the shuttlecock of irresistible, absolute force, compelling the
+unconditional surrender of subject and object.
+
+Humor, then, grows out of the contemplation of the tragedy of life. But
+it does not stop there. If the world is so pitiful, so fragile, it is
+not worth a tear, not worth hatred, or contempt. The only sensible
+course is to accept it as it is, as a nothing, an absolute
+contradiction, calling forth ridicule. At this point, a sense of tragedy
+is transformed into demoniac glee. No more is this a permanent state.
+The humorist is too impulsive to accept it as final. Moreover, he feels
+that with the world he has annihilated himself. In the phantom realm
+into which he has turned the world, his laughter reverberates with
+ghostlike hollowness. Recognizing that the world meant more to him than
+he was willing to admit, and that apart from it he has no being, he
+again yields to it, and embraces it with increased passion and ardor.
+But scarcely has the return been effected, scarcely has he begun to
+realize the beauties and perfections of the world, when sadness,
+suffering, pain, and torture, obtrude themselves, and the old
+overwhelming sense of life's tragedy takes possession of him. This train
+of thought, plainly discernible in Heine's poems, he also owes to his
+descent. A mind given to such speculations naturally seeks poetic solace
+in _Weltschmerz_, which, as everybody knows, is still another heirloom
+of his race.
+
+These are the most important characteristics, some admirable, some
+reprehensible, which Heine has derived from his race, and they are the
+very ones that raised opponents against him, one of the most interesting
+and prominent among them being the German philosopher Arthur
+Schopenhauer. His two opinions on Heine, expressed at almost the same
+time, are typical of the antagonism aroused by the poet. In his book,
+"The World as Will and Idea,"[102] he writes: "Heine is a true humorist
+in his _Romanzero_. Back of all his quips and gibes lies deep
+seriousness, _ashamed_ to speak out frankly." At the same time he says
+in his journal, published posthumously: "Although a buffoon, Heine has
+genius, and the distinguishing mark of genius, ingenuousness. On close
+examination, however, his ingenuousness turns out to have its root in
+Jewish shamelessness; for he, too, belongs to the nation of which Riemer
+says that it knows neither shame nor grief."
+
+The contradiction between the two judgments is too obvious to need
+explanation; it is an interesting illustration of the common experience
+that critics go astray when dealing with Heine.
+
+
+II
+
+When, as Heine puts it, "a great hand solicitously beckoned," he left
+his German fatherland in his prime, and went to Paris. In its sociable
+atmosphere, he felt more comfortable, more free, than in his own home,
+where the Jew, the author, the liberal, had encountered only prejudices.
+The removal to Paris was an inauspicious change for the poet, and that
+he remained there until his end was still less calculated to redound to
+his good fortune. He gave much to France, and Paris did little during
+his life to pay off the debt. The charm exercised upon every stranger by
+Babylon on the Seine, wrought havoc in his character and his work, and
+gives us the sole criterion for the rest of his days. Yet, despite his
+devotion to Paris, home-sickness, yearning for Germany, was henceforth
+the dominant note of his works. At that time Heine considered Judaism "a
+long lost cause." Of the God of Judaism, the philosophical
+demonstrations of Hegel and his disciples had robbed him; his knowledge
+of doctrinal Judaism was a minimum; and his keen race-feeling, his
+historical instinct, was forced into the background by other sympathies
+and antipathies. He was at that time harping upon the long cherished
+idea that men can be divided into _Hellenists_ and _Nazarenes_. Himself,
+for instance, he looked upon as a well-fed Hellenist, while Börne was a
+Nazarene, an ascetic. It is interesting, and bears upon our subject,
+that most of the verdicts, views, and witticisms which Heine fathers
+upon Börne in the famous imaginary conversation in the Frankfort
+_Judengasse_, might have been uttered by Heine himself. In fact, many of
+them are repeated, partly in the same or in similar words, in the
+jottings found after his death.
+
+This conversation is represented as having taken place during the Feast
+of _Chanukka_. Heine who, as said above, took pleasure at that time in
+impersonating a Hellenist, gets Börne to explain to him that this feast
+was instituted to commemorate the victory of the valiant Maccabees over
+the king of Syria. After expatiating on the heroism of the Maccabees,
+and the cowardice of modern Jews, Börne says:[103]
+
+"Baptism is the order of the day among the wealthy Jews. The evangel
+vainly announced to the poor of Judæa now flourishes among the rich. Its
+acceptance is self-deception, if not a lie, and as hypocritical
+Christianity contrasts sharply with the old Adam, who will crop out,
+these people lay themselves open to unsparing ridicule.--In the streets
+of Berlin I saw former daughters of Israel wear crosses about their
+necks longer than their noses, reaching to their very waists. They
+carried evangelical prayer books, and were discussing the magnificent
+sermon just heard at Trinity church. One asked the other where she had
+gone to communion, and all the while their breath smelt. Still more
+disgusting was the sight of dirty, bearded, malodorous Polish Jews,
+hailing from Polish sewers, saved for heaven by the Berlin Society for
+the Conversion of Jews, and in turn preaching Christianity in their
+slovenly jargon. Such Polish vermin should certainly be baptized with
+cologne instead of ordinary water."
+
+This is to be taken as an expression of Heine's own feelings, which come
+out plainly, when, "persistently loyal to Jewish customs," he eats,
+"with good appetite, yes, with enthusiasm, with devotion, with
+conviction," _Shalet_, the famous Jewish dish, about which he says:
+"This dish is delicious, and it is a subject for painful regret that
+the Church, indebted to Judaism for so much that is good, has failed to
+introduce _Shalet_. This should be her object in the future. If ever she
+falls on evil times, if ever her most sacred symbols lose their virtue,
+then the Church will resort to _Shalet_, and the faithless peoples will
+crowd into her arms with renewed appetite. At all events the Jews will
+then join the Church from conviction, for it is clear that it is only
+_Shalet_ that keeps them in the old covenant. Börne assures me that
+renegades who have accepted the new dispensation feel a sort of
+home-sickness for the synagogue when they but smell _Shalet_, so that
+_Shalet_ may be called the Jewish _ranz des vaches_."
+
+Heine forgot that in another place he had uttered this witticism in his
+own name. He long continued to take peculiar pleasure in his dogmatic
+division of humanity into two classes, the lean and the fat, or rather,
+the class that continually gets thinner, and the class which, beginning
+with modest dimensions, gradually attains to corpulency. Only too soon
+the poet was made to understand the radical falseness of his definition.
+A cold February morning of 1848 brought him a realizing sense of his
+fatal mistake. Sick and weary, the poet was taking his last walk on the
+boulevards, while the mob of the revolution surged in the streets of
+Paris. Half blind, half paralyzed, leaning heavily on his cane, he
+sought to extricate himself from the clamorous crowd, and finally found
+refuge in the Louvre, almost empty during the days of excitement. With
+difficulty he dragged himself to the hall of the gods and goddesses of
+antiquity, and suddenly came face to face with the ideal of beauty, the
+smiling, witching Venus of Milo, whose charms have defied time and
+mutilation. Surprised, moved, almost terrified, he reeled to a chair,
+tears, hot and bitter, coursing down his cheeks. A smile was hovering on
+the beautiful lips of the goddess, parted as if by living breath, and at
+her feet a luckless victim was writhing. A single moment revealed a
+world of misery. Driven by a consciousness of his fate, Heine wrote in
+his "Confessions": "In May of last year I was forced to take to my bed,
+and since then I have not risen. I confess frankly that meanwhile a
+great change has taken place in me. I no longer am a fat Hellenist, the
+freest man since Goethe, a jolly, somewhat corpulent Hellenist, with a
+contemptuous smile for lean Jews--I am only a poor Jew, sick unto death,
+a picture of gaunt misery, an unhappy being."
+
+This startling change was coincident with the first symptoms of his
+disease, and kept pace with it. The pent-up forces of faith pressed to
+his bedside; religious conversations, readings from the Bible,
+reminiscences of his youth, of his Jewish friends, filled his time
+almost entirely. Alfred Meissner has culled many interesting data from
+his conversations with the poet. For instance, on one occasion Heine
+breaks out with:[104]
+
+"Queer people this! Downtrodden for thousands of years, weeping always,
+suffering always, abandoned always by its God, yet clinging to Him
+tenaciously, loyally, as no other under the sun. Oh, if martyrdom,
+patience, and faith in despite of trial, can confer a patent of
+nobility, then this people is noble beyond many another.--It would have
+been absurd and petty, if, as people accuse me, I had been ashamed of
+being a Jew. Yet it were equally ludicrous for me to call myself a
+Jew.--As I instinctively hold up to unending scorn whatever is evil,
+timeworn, absurd, false, and ludicrous, so my nature leads me to
+appreciate the sublime, to admire what is great, and to extol every
+living force." Heine had spoken so much with deep earnestness. Jestingly
+he added: "Dear friend, if little Weill should visit us, you shall have
+another evidence of my reverence for hoary Mosaism. Weill formerly was
+precentor at the synagogue. He has a ringing tenor, and chants Judah's
+desert songs according to the old traditions, ranging from the simple
+monotone to the exuberance of Old Testament cadences. My wife, who has
+not the slightest suspicion that I am a Jew, is not a little astonished
+by this peculiar musical wail, this trilling and cadencing. When Weill
+sang for the first time, Minka, the poodle, crawled into hiding under
+the sofa, and Cocotte, the polly, made an attempt to throttle himself
+between the bars of his cage. 'M. Weill, M. Weill!' Mathilde cried
+terror-stricken, 'pray do not carry the joke too far.' But Weill
+continued, and the dear girl turned to me, and asked imploringly:
+'Henri, pray tell me what sort of songs these are.' 'They are our
+German folk songs,' said I, and I have obstinately stuck to that
+explanation."
+
+Meissner reports an amusing conversation with Madame Mathilde about the
+friends of the family, whom the former by their peculiarities recognized
+as Jews. "What!" cried Mathilde, "Jews? They are Jews?" "Of course,
+Alexander Weill is a Jew, he told me so himself;--why he was going to be
+a rabbi." "But the rest, all the rest? For instance, there is Abeles,
+the name sounds so thoroughly German." "Rather say it sounds Greek,"
+answered Meissner. "Yet I venture to insist that our friend Abeles has
+as little German as Greek blood in his veins." "Very well! But
+Jeiteles--Kalisch--Bamberg--Are they, too.... O no, you are mistaken,
+not one is a Jew," cried Mathilde. "You will never make me believe that.
+Presently you will make out Cohn to be a Jew. But Cohn is related to
+Heine, and Heine is a Protestant." So Meissner found out that Heine had
+never told his wife anything about his descent. He gravely answered:
+"You are right. With regard to Cohn I was of course mistaken. Cohn is
+certainly not a Jew."
+
+These are mere jests. In point of fact, his friends' reports on the
+religious attitude of the Heine of that period are of the utmost
+interest. He once said to Ludwig Kalisch, who had told him that the
+world was all agog over his conversion:[105] "I do not make a secret of
+my Jewish allegiance, to which I have not returned, because I never
+abjured it. I was not baptized from aversion to Judaism, and my
+professions of atheism were never serious. My former friends, the
+Hegelians, have turned out scamps. Human misery is too great for men to
+do without faith."
+
+The completest picture of the transformation, truer than any given in
+letters, reports, or reminiscences, is in his last two productions, the
+_Romanzero_ and the "Confessions." There can be no more explicit
+description of the poet's conversion than is contained in these
+"confessions." During his sickness he sought a palliative for his
+pains--in the Bible. With a melancholy smile his mind reverted to the
+memories of his youth, to the heroism which is the underlying principle
+of Judaism. The Psalmist's consolations, the elevating principles laid
+down in the Pentateuch, exerted a powerful attraction upon him, and
+filled his soul with exalted thoughts, shaped into words in the
+"Confessions":[106] "Formerly I felt little affection for Moses,
+probably because the Hellenic spirit was dominant within me, and I could
+not pardon the Jewish lawgiver for his intolerance of images, and every
+sort of plastic representation. I failed to see that despite his hostile
+attitude to art, Moses was himself a great artist, gifted with the true
+artist's spirit. Only in him, as in his Egyptian neighbors, the artistic
+instinct was exercised solely upon the colossal and the indestructible.
+But unlike the Egyptians he did not shape his works of art out of brick
+or granite. His pyramids were built of men, his obelisks hewn out of
+human material. A feeble race of shepherds he transformed into a people
+bidding defiance to the centuries--a great, eternal, holy people, God's
+people, an exemplar to all other peoples, the prototype of mankind: he
+created Israel. With greater justice than the Roman poet could this
+artist, the son of Amram and Jochebed the midwife, boast of having
+erected a monument more enduring than brass.
+
+As for the artist, so I lacked reverence for his work, the Jews,
+doubtless on account of my Greek predilections, antagonistic to Judaic
+asceticism. My love for Hellas has since declined. Now I understand that
+the Greeks were only beautiful youths, while the Jews have always been
+men, powerful, inflexible men, not only in early times, to-day, too, in
+spite of eighteen hundred years of persecution and misery. I have learnt
+to appreciate them, and were pride of birth not absurd in a champion of
+the revolution and its democratic principles, the writer of these
+leaflets would boast that his ancestors belonged to the noble house of
+Israel, that he is a descendant of those martyrs to whom the world owes
+God and morality, and who have fought and bled on every battlefield of
+thought."
+
+In view of such avowals, Heine's return to Judaism is an indubitable
+fact, and when one of his friends anxiously inquired about his relation
+to God, he could well answer with a smile: _Dieu me pardonnera; c'est
+son metier._ In those days Heine made his will, his true, genuine will,
+to have been the first to publish which the present writer will always
+consider the distinction of his life. The introduction reads: "I die in
+the belief in one God, Creator of heaven and earth, whose mercy I
+supplicate in behalf of my immortal soul. I regret that in my writings I
+sometimes spoke of sacred things with levity, due not so much to my own
+inclination, as to the spirit of my age. If unwittingly I have offended
+against good usage and morality, which constitute the true essence of
+all monotheistic religions, may God and men forgive me."
+
+With this confession on his lips Heine passed away, dying in the thick
+of the fight, his very bier haunted by the spirits of antagonism and
+contradiction....
+
+    "Greek joy in life, belief in God of Jew,
+    And twining in and out like arabesques,
+    Ivy tendrils gently clasp the two."
+
+In Heine's character, certainly, there were sharp contrasts. Now we
+behold him a Jew, now a Christian, now a Hellenist, now a romanticist;
+to-day laughing, to-morrow weeping, to-day the prophet of the modern
+era, to-morrow the champion of tradition. Who knows the man? Yet who
+that steps within the charmed circle of his life can resist the
+temptation to grapple with the enigma?
+
+One of the best known of his poems is the plaint:
+
+    "Mass for me will not be chanted,
+      _Kadosh_ not be said,
+    Naught be sung, and naught recited,
+      Round my dying bed."
+
+The poet's prophecy has not come true. As this tribute has in spirit
+been laid upon his grave, so always thousands will devote kindly thought
+to him, recalling in gentleness how he struggled and suffered, wrestled
+and aspired; how, at the dawn of the new day, enthusiastically
+proclaimed by him, his spirit fled aloft to regions where doubts are set
+at rest, hopes fulfilled, and visions made reality.
+
+
+
+
+THE MUSIC OF THE SYNAGOGUE[107]
+
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen:--Let the emotions aroused by the notes of the
+great masters, now dying away upon the air, continue to reverberate in
+your souls. More forcibly and more eloquently than my weak words, they
+express the thoughts and the feelings appropriate to this solemn
+occasion.
+
+A festival like ours has rarely been celebrated in Israel. For nearly
+two thousand years the muse of Jewish melody was silent; during the
+whole of that period, a new chord was but seldom won from the unused
+lyre. The Talmud[108] has a quaint tale on the subject: Higros the
+Levite living at the time of the decadence of Israel's nationality, was
+the last skilled musician, and he refused to teach his art. When he sang
+his exquisite melodies, touching his mouth with his thumb, and striking
+the strings with his fingers, it is said that his priestly mates,
+transported by the magic power of his art, fell prostrate, and wept.
+Under the Oriental trappings of this tale is concealed regretful anguish
+over the decay of old Hebrew song. The altar at Jerusalem was
+demolished, and the songs of Zion, erst sung by the Levitical choirs
+under the leadership of the Korachides, were heard no longer. The
+silence was unbroken, until, in our day, a band of gifted men disengaged
+the old harps from the willows, and once more lured the ancient melodies
+from their quavering strings.
+
+Towering head and shoulders above most of the group of restorers is he
+in whose honor we are assembled, to whom we bring greeting and
+congratulation. To you, then, Herr Lewandowski, I address myself to
+offer you the deep-felt gratitude and the cordial wishes of your
+friends, of the Berlin community, and, I may add, of the whole of
+Israel. You were appointed for large tasks--large tasks have you
+successfully performed. At a time when Judaism was at a low ebb, only
+scarcely discernible indications promising a brighter future, Providence
+sent you to occupy a guide's position in the most important, the
+largest, and the most intelligent Jewish community of Germany. For fifty
+years your zeal, your diligence, your faithfulness, your devotion, your
+affectionate reverence for our past, and your exalted gifts, have graced
+the office. Were testimony unto your gifts and character needed, it
+would be given by this day's celebration, proving, as it does, that your
+brethren have understood the underlying thought of your activities, have
+grasped their bearing upon Jewish development, and have appreciated
+their influence.
+
+You have remodelled the divine service of the Jewish synagogue,
+superadding elements of devotion and sacredness. Under your touch old
+lays have clothed themselves with a modern garb--a new rhythm vibrates
+through our historic melodies, keener strength in the familiar words,
+heightened dignity in the cherished songs. Two generations and all parts
+of the world have hearkened to your harmonies, responding to them with
+tears of joy or sorrow, with feelings stirred from the recesses of the
+heart. To your music have listened entranced the boy and the girl on the
+day of declaring their allegiance to the covenant of the fathers; the
+youth and the maiden in life's most solemn hour; men and women in all
+the sacred moments of the year, on days of mourning and of festivity.
+
+A quarter of a century ago, when you celebrated the end of twenty-five
+years of useful work, a better man stood here, and spoke to you. Leopold
+Zunz on that occasion said to you: "Old thoughts have been transformed
+by you into modern emotions, and long stored words seasoned with your
+melodies have made delicious food."
+
+This is your share in the revival of Jewish poesy, and what you have
+resuscitated, and remodelled, and re-created, will endure, echoing and
+re-echoing through all the lands. In you Higros the Levite has been
+restored to us. But your melodies will never sink into oblivious
+silence. They have been carried by an honorable body of disciples to
+distant lands, beyond the ocean, to communities in the remote countries
+of civilization. Thus they have become the perpetual inheritance of the
+congregation of Jacob, the people that has ever loved and wooed music,
+only direst distress succeeding in flinging the pall of silence over
+song and melody.
+
+Holy Writ places the origin of music in the primitive days of man,
+tersely pointing out, at the same time, music's conciliatory charms: it
+is the descendant of Cain, the fratricide, a son of Lemech, the slayer
+of a man to his own wounding, who is said to be the "father of all such
+as play on the harp and guitar" (_Kinnor_ and _Ugab_). Another of
+Lemech's sons was the first artificer in every article of copper and
+iron, the inventor of weapons of war, as the former was the inventor of
+stringed instruments. Both used brass, the one to sing, the other to
+fight. So music sprang from sorrow and combat. Song and roundelay,
+timbrels and harp, accompanied our forefathers on their wanderings, and
+preceded the armed men into battle. So, too, the returning victor was
+greeted, and in the Temple on Moriah's crest, joyful songs of gratitude
+extolled the grace of the Lord. From the harp issued the psalm dedicated
+to the glory of God--love of art gave rise to the psalter, a song-book
+for the nations, and its author David may be called the founder of the
+national and Temple music of the ancient Hebrews. With his song, he
+banished the evil spirit from Saul's soul; with his skill on the
+psaltery, he defeated his enemies, and he led the jubilant chorus in the
+Holy City singing to the honor and glory of the Most High.
+
+Compare the Hebrew and the Hellenic music of ancient times: Orpheus with
+his music charms wild beasts; David's subdues demons. By means of
+Amphion's lyre, living walls raise themselves; Israel's cornets make
+level the ramparts of Jericho. Arion's melodies lure dolphins from the
+sea; Hebrew music infuses into the prophet's disciples the spirit of the
+Lord. These are the wondrous effects of music in Israel and in Hellas,
+the foremost representatives of ancient civilization. Had the one united
+with the other, what celestial harmonies might have resulted! But later,
+in the time of Macedonian imperialism, when Alexandria and Jerusalem
+met, the one stood for enervated paganism, the other for a Judaism of
+compromise, and a union of such tones produces no harmonious chords.
+
+But little is known of the ancient Hebrew music of the Temple, of the
+singers, the songs, the melodies, and the instruments. The Hebrews had
+songs and instrumental music on all festive, solemn occasions,
+particularly during the divine service. At their national celebrations,
+in their homes, at their diversions, even on their journeys and their
+pilgrimages to the sanctuary, their hymns were at once religious,
+patriotic, and social.[109] They had the viol and the cithara, flutes,
+cymbals, and castanets, and, if our authorities interpret correctly, an
+organ (_magrepha_), whose volume of sound surpassed description. When,
+on the Day of Atonement, its strains pealed through the chambers of the
+Temple, they were heard in the whole of Jerusalem, and all the people
+bowed in humble adoration before the Lord of hosts. The old music ceased
+with the overthrow of the Jewish state. The Levites hung their harps on
+the willows of Babylon's streams, and every entreaty for the "words of
+song" was met by the reproachful inquiry: "How should we sing the song
+of the Lord on the soil of the stranger?" Higros the Levite was the last
+of Israelitish tone-artists.
+
+Israel set out on his fateful wanderings, his unparalleled pilgrimage,
+through the lands and the centuries, along an endless, thorny path,
+drenched with blood, watered with tears, across nations and thrones,
+lonely, terrible, sublime with the stern sublimity of tragic scenes.
+They are not the sights and experiences to inspire joyous songs--melody
+is muffled by terror. Only lamentation finds voice, an endless,
+oppressive, anxious wail, sounding adown, through two thousand years,
+like a long-drawn sigh, reverberating in far-reaching echoes: "How long,
+O Lord, how long!" and "When shall a redeemer arise for this people?"
+These elegiac refrains Israel never wearies of repeating on all his
+journeyings. Occasionally a fitful gleam of sunlight glides into the
+crowded Jewish quarters, and at once a more joyous note is heard, rising
+triumphant above the doleful plaint, a note which asserts itself
+exultingly on the celebration in memory of the Maccabean heroes, on the
+days of _Purim_, at wedding banquets, at the love-feasts of the pious
+brotherhood. This fusion of melancholy and of rejoicing is the keynote
+of mediæval Jewish music growing out of the grotesque contrasts of
+Jewish history. Yet, despite its romantic woe, it is informed with the
+spirit of a remote past, making it the legitimate offspring of ancient
+Hebrew music, whose characteristics, to be sure, we arrive at only by
+guesswork. Of that mediæval music of ours, the poet's words are true:
+"It rejoices so pathetically, it laments so joyfully."
+
+Whoever has heard, will never forget Israel's melodies, breaking forth
+into rejoicing, then cast down with sadness: flinging out their notes to
+the skies, then sinking into an abyss of grief: now elated, now
+oppressed; now holding out hope, now moaning forth sorrow and pain. They
+convey the whole of Judah's history--his glorious past, his mournful
+present, his exalted future promised by God. As their tones flood our
+soul, a succession of visions passes before our mental view: the Temple
+in all its unexampled splendor, the exultant chorus of Levites, the
+priests discharging their holy office, the venerable forms of the
+patriarchs, the lawgiver-guide of the people, prophets with uplifted
+finger of warning, worthy rabbis, pale-faced martyrs of the middle ages;
+but the melodies conjuring before our minds all these shadowy figures
+have but one burden: "How should we sing the song of the Lord on the
+soil of the stranger?"
+
+That is the ever-recurring _motif_ of the Jewish music of the middle
+ages. But the blending of widely different emotions is not favorable in
+the creation of melody. Secular occurrences set their seal upon
+religious music, of which some have so high a conception as to call it
+one of the seven liberal arts, or even to extol it beyond poetry. Jacob
+Levi of Mayence (Maharil), living at the beginning of the fifteenth
+century, is considered the founder of German synagogue music, but his
+productions remained barren of poetic and devotional results. He drew
+his best subjects from alien sources. At the time of the Italian
+Renaissance, music had so firmly established itself in the appreciation
+of the people that a preacher, Judah Muscato, devoted the first of his
+celebrated sermons to music, assigning to it a high mission among the
+arts. He interpreted the legend of David's Æolian harp as a beautiful
+allegory. Basing his explanation on a verse in the Psalms, he showed
+that it symbolizes a spiritual experience of the royal bard. Another
+writer, Abraham ben David Portaleone, found the times still riper; he
+could venture to write a theory of music, as taught him by his teachers,
+Samuel Arkevolti and Menahem Lonsano, both of whom had strongly opposed
+the use of certain secular melodies then current in Italy, Germany,
+France, and Turkey for religious songs. Among Jewish musicians in the
+latter centuries of the middle ages, the most prominent was Solomon
+Rossi. He, too, failed to exercise influence on the shaping of Jewish
+music, which more and more delighted in grotesqueness and aberrations
+from good taste. The origin of synagogue melodies was attributed to
+remoter and remoter periods; the most soulful hymns were adapted to
+frivolous airs. Later still, at a time when German music had risen to
+its zenith, when Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven flourished,
+the Jewish strolling musician _Klesmer_, a mendicant in the world of
+song as in the world of finance, was wandering through the provinces
+with his two mates.
+
+Suddenly a new era dawned for Israel, too. The sun of humanity sent a
+few of its rays into the squalid Ghetto. Its walls fell before the
+trumpet blast of deliverance. On all sides sounded the cry for liberty.
+The brotherhood of man, embracing all, did not exclude storm-baptized
+Israel. The old synagogue had to keep pace with modern demands, and was
+arrayed in a new garb. Among those who designed and fashioned the new
+garment, he is prominent in whose honor we have met to-day.
+
+From our short journey through the centuries of music, we have returned
+to him who has succeeded in the great work of restoring to its honorable
+place the music of the synagogue, sorely missed, ardently longed for,
+and bringing back to us old songs in a new guise. An old song and a new
+melody! The old song of abiding love, loyalty, and resignation to the
+will of God! His motto was the beautiful verse: "My strength and my song
+is the Lord"; and his unchanging refrain, the jubilant exclamation:
+"Blessed be thou, fair Musica!" A wise man once said: "Hold in high
+honor our Lady of Music!" The wise man was Martin Luther--another
+instance this of the conciliatory power of music, standing high above
+the barriers raised by religious differences. It is worthy of mention,
+on this occasion, that at the four hundredth anniversary celebration in
+honor of Martin Luther, in the Sebaldus church at Nuremberg, the most
+Protestant of the cities of Germany, called by Luther himself "the eye
+of God," a psalm of David was sung to music composed by our guest of the
+day.
+
+"Hold in high honor our Lady of Music!" We will be admonished by the
+behest, and give honor to the artist by whose fostering care the music
+of the synagogue enjoys a new lease of life; who, with pious zeal, has
+collected our dear old melodies, and has sung them to us with all the
+ardor and power with which God in His kindness endowed him.
+
+    "The sculptor must simulate life, of the poet I demand intelligence;
+    The soul can be expressed only by Polyhymnia!"
+
+An orphan, song wandered hither and thither through the world, met,
+after many days, by the musician, who compassionately adopted it, and
+clothed it with his melodies. On the pinions of music, it now soars
+whithersoever it listeth, bringing joy and blessing wherever it alights.
+"The old song, the new melody!" Hark! through the silence of the night
+in this solemn moment, one of those old songs, clad by our _maestro_ in
+a new melody, falls upon our ears: "I remember unto thee the kindness of
+thy youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the
+wilderness, through a land that is not sown!"
+
+Hearken! Can we not distinguish in its notes, as they fill our ears, the
+presage of a music of the future, of love and good-will? We seem to hear
+the rustle of the young leaves of a new spring, the resurrection
+foretold thousands of years agone by our poets and prophets. We see
+slowly dawning that great day on which mankind, awakened from the fitful
+sleep of error and delusion, will unite in the profession of the creed
+of brotherly love, and Israel's song will be mankind's song, myriads of
+voices in unison sending aloft to the skies the psalm of praise:
+Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Aaron, medical writer, 79
+
+Abbahu, Haggadist, 21
+
+Abbayu, rabbi, quoted, 232-233
+
+Abina, rabbi, 19
+
+Abitur, poet, 24
+
+Aboab, Isaac, writer, 45, 130
+
+Aboab, Samuel, Bible scholar, 45
+
+Abrabanel, Isaac, scholar and statesman, 42, 99
+
+Abrabanel, Judah, 42, 95
+
+Abraham in Africa, 255
+
+Abraham Bedersi, poet, 171
+
+Abraham ben Chiya, scientist, 83, 93
+
+Abraham ben David Portaleone, musician, 376
+
+Abraham de Balmes, physician, 95
+
+Abraham deï Mansi, Talmudist, 116
+
+Abraham ibn Daud, philosopher, 35
+
+Abraham ibn Ezra, exegete, 36
+  mathematician, 83
+
+Abraham ibn Sahl, poet, 34, 88
+
+Abraham Judæus. See Abraham ibn Ezra
+
+Abraham of Sarteano, poet, 224
+
+Abraham Portaleone, archæolegist, 45, 97
+
+Abraham Powdermaker, legend of, 285-286
+
+Abt and Mendelssohn, 314
+
+Abyssinia, the Ten Tribes in, 262-263
+
+Ackermann, Rachel, novelist, 119
+
+Acosta, Uriel, alluded to, 100
+
+_Acta Esther et Achashverosh_, drama, 244
+
+Actors, Jewish, 232, 246, 247-248
+
+Adia, poet, 24
+
+Adiabene, Jews settle in, 251
+
+Æsop's fables translated into Hebrew, 34
+
+"A few words to the Jews by one of themselves," by Charlotte
+    Montefiore, 133
+
+Afghanistan, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Africa, interest in, 249-250
+  in the Old Testament, 255
+  the Talmud on, 254
+  the Ten Tribes in, 262
+
+Agau spoken by the Falashas, 265
+
+Aguilar, Grace, author, 134-137
+  testimonial to, 136-137
+
+"Ahasverus," farce, 244
+
+Ahaz, king, alluded to, 250
+
+Akiba ben Joseph, rabbi, 19, 58
+  quoted, 253, 256
+
+Albert of Prussia, alluded to, 288
+
+Albertus Magnus and Maimonides, 156, 164
+  philosopher, 82
+  proscribes the Talmud, 85
+
+Albo, Joseph, philosopher, 42
+
+Al-Chazari, by Yehuda Halevi, 31
+  commentary on, 298
+
+Alemanno, Jochanan, Kabbalist, 95
+
+Alessandro Farnese, alluded to, 98
+
+Alexander III, pope, and Jewish diplomats, 99
+
+Alexander the Great, 229, 254
+
+Alexandria, centre of Jewish life, 17
+  philosophy in, 75
+
+Alfonsine Tables compiled, 92
+
+Alfonso V of Portugal and Isaac Abrabanel, 99
+
+Alfonso X, of Castile, patron of Jewish scholars, 92, 93
+
+Alfonso XI, of Castile, 170, 260
+
+Alityros, actor, 232
+
+Alkabez, Solomon, poet, 43
+
+_Alliance Israélite Universelle_, and the Falashas, 264
+
+"Almagest" by Ptolemy translated, 79
+  read by Maimonides, 159
+
+_Almansor_ by Heine, 347
+
+Almohades and Maimonides, 148
+
+_Altweiberdeutsch._ See _Judendeutsch_
+
+Amatus Lusitanus, physician, 42, 97
+
+Amharic spoken by the Falashas, 265
+
+Amoraïm, Speakers, 58
+
+Amos, prophet, alluded to, 251
+
+Amsterdam, Marrano centre, 128-129
+
+Anahuac and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Anatoli. See Jacob ben Abba-Mari ben Anatoli
+
+Anatomy in the Talmud, 77
+
+Anna, Rashi's granddaughter, 118
+
+Anti-Maimunists, 39-40
+
+Antiochus Epiphanes, alluded to, 193
+
+Antonio di Montoro, troubadour, 97, 180-181
+
+Antonio dos Reys, on Isabella Correa, 129
+
+Antonio Enriquez di Gomez. See Enriquez, Antonio.
+
+Antonio Jose de Silva, dramatist, 100, 236-237
+
+Aquinas, Thomas, philosopher, 82
+  and Maimonides, 156, 164
+  under Gabirol's influence, 94
+  works of, translated, 86
+
+Arabia, Jews settle in, 250-251
+  the Ten Tribes in, 256-257
+
+Arabs influence Jews, 80
+  relation of, to Jews, 22
+
+Argens, d', and Mendelssohn, 303
+
+Aristeas, Neoplatonist, 17
+
+Aristobulus, Aristotelian, 17
+
+Aristotle, alluded to, 250
+  and Maimonides, 156
+  interpreted by Jews, 85
+  quoted, 249
+
+Arkevolti, Samuel, grammarian, 376
+
+Armenia, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Arnstein, Benedict David, dramatist, 245
+
+Art among Jews, 102
+
+"Art of Carving and Serving at Princely Boards, The" translated, 91
+
+Arthurian legends in Hebrew, 87
+
+Ascarelli, Deborah, poetess, 44, 124
+
+Asher ben Yehuda, hero of a romance, 34, 213
+
+Ashi, compiler of the Babylonian Talmud, 19
+
+Ashkenasi, Hannah, authoress, 120
+
+_Asireh ha-Tikwah_, by Joseph Pensa, 237-238
+
+_Asiya_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Astruc, Bible critic, 13
+
+Auerbach, Berthold, novelist, 49, 50
+  quoted, 303
+
+Auerbach, J. L., preacher, 322
+
+_Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung_ and Heine, 340
+
+Avenare. See Abraham ibn Ezra
+
+Avencebrol. See Gabirol, Solomon
+
+Avendeath, Johannes, translator of "The Fount of Life," 26
+
+Averröes and Maimonides, 163-164
+
+Avicebron. See Gabirol, Solomon
+
+Avicenna and Maimonides, 156, 158
+
+Azariah de Rossi, scholar, 45
+
+_Azila_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+
+Barrios, de, Daniel, critic, 47, 129
+
+Barruchius, Valentin, romance writer, 171
+
+Bartholdy, Salomon, quoted, 308
+
+Bartolocci, Hebrew scholar, 48
+
+Bassista, Sabbataï, bibliographer, 47
+
+Bath Halevi, Talmudist, 117
+
+Bechaï ibn Pakuda, philosopher, 35, 137
+
+Beck. K., poet, 49
+
+_Beena_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Beer, Jacob Herz, establishes a synagogue, 322
+
+Beer, M., poet, 49
+
+Behaim, Martin, scientist, 96
+
+Belmonte, Bienvenida Cohen, poetess, 130
+
+"Belshazzar" by Heine, 344
+
+Bendavid. See Lazarus ben David
+
+"Beni Israel" and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Benjamin of Tudela, traveller, 37, 258
+  quoted, 263
+
+Berachya ben Natronaï (Hanakdan), fabulist, 34, 88
+
+Beria, a character in Immanuel Romi's poem, 221-222
+
+_Beria_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Bernhard, employer of Mendelssohn, 298, 300, 304
+
+Bernhardt, Sarah, actress, 246
+
+Bernstein, Aaron, Ghetto novelist, 50
+  quoted, 272
+
+Bernstorff, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Berschadzky on Saul Wahl, 282
+
+Beruriah, wife of Rabbi Meïr, 110-112
+
+Bible. See Old Testament, The
+
+Bible critics, 12, 13, 14
+
+Bible dictionary, Jewish German, 100
+
+"Birth and Death" from the Haggada, 66
+
+_Biurists_, the Mendelssohn school, 309
+
+Blackcoal, a character in "The Gift of Judah," 214
+
+Blanche de Bourbon, wife of Pedro I, 169
+
+Bleichroeder quoted, 296-297
+
+Bloch, Pauline, writer, 140
+
+Boccaccio, alluded to, 35
+
+Böckh, alluded to, 333
+
+Bonet di Lattes, astronomer, 95
+
+Bonifacio, Balthasar, accuser of Sara Sullam, 127
+
+"Book of Diversions, The" by Joseph ibn Sabara, 214
+
+"Book of Samuel," by Litte of Ratisbon, 119, 120
+
+"Book of Songs" by Heine, 353
+
+Börne, Ludwig, quoted, 313-314, 359-361
+
+Borromeo, cardinal, alluded to, 98
+
+Brinkmann, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Bruno di Lungoborgo, work of, translated, 86
+
+Bruno, Giordano, philosopher, 82
+
+_Buch der Lieder_ by Heine, 353
+
+Buffon quoted, 89
+
+Büschenthal, L. M., dramatist, 245
+
+Buxtorf, father and son, scholars, 48
+  translates "The Guide of the Perplexed," 155
+
+
+Calderon, alluded to, 239
+
+Calderon, the Jewish, 100
+
+Calendar compiled by the rabbis, 77
+
+Caliphs and Jewish diplomats, 98
+
+Campe, Joachim, on Mendelssohn, 314-315
+
+Cardinal, Peire, troubadour, 171-172
+
+Casimir the Great, Jews under, 286
+
+Cassel, D., scholar, 49
+    quoted, 19-20
+
+Castro de, Orobio, author, 47
+
+Çeba, Ansaldo, and Sara Sullam, 125-128
+
+_Celestina_, by Rodrigo da Cota, 97, 235
+
+Chananel, alluded to, 257
+
+Chanukka, story of, 359-360
+
+Charlemagne and Jewish diplomats, 98
+
+Charles of Anjou, patron of Hebrew learning, 92
+
+Chasan, Bella, historian, 120
+
+Chasdaï ben Shaprut, statesman, 82
+
+Chasdaï Crescas, philosopher, 42, 93-94
+
+Chassidism, a form of Kabbalistic Judaism, 46
+
+_Chesed_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Children in the Talmud, 63-64
+
+Chiya, rabbi, 19
+
+Chiya bar Abba, Halachist, 21
+
+Chmielnicki, Bogdan, and the Jews, 288
+
+_Chochma_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+_Chotham Tochnith_ by Abraham Bedersi, 171
+
+"Chronicle of the Cid," the first, by a Jew, 90, 170
+
+Cicero and the drama, 232
+
+Clement VI, pope, and Levi ben Gerson, 91
+
+Cochin, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Cohen, friend of Heine, 350
+
+Cohen, Abraham, Talmudist, 118
+
+Cohen, Joseph, historian, 44
+
+Coins, Polish, 286
+
+Columbus, alluded to, 181
+  and Jews, 96
+
+Comedy, nature of, 195-196
+
+Commendoni, legate, on the Polish Jews, 287
+
+"Commentaries on Aristotle" by Averroës, 163
+
+"Commentary on Ecclesiastes" by Obadiah Sforno, 95
+
+Commerce developed by Jews, 101-102
+
+_Comte Lyonnais, Palanus_, romance, 90, 171
+
+"Confessions" by Heine, quoted, 365-366
+
+Conforte, David, historian, 43
+
+_Consejos y Documentos al Rey Dom Pedro_ by Santob de Carrion, 173-174
+
+_Consolaçam as Tribulações de Ysrael_ by Samuel Usque, 44
+
+Constantine, translator, 81
+
+"Contemplation of the World" by Yedaya Penini, 40
+
+"Contributions to History and Literature" by Zunz, 337
+
+Copernicus and Jewish astronomers, 86
+
+Correa, Isabella, poetess, 129
+
+Cota, da, Rodrigo, dramatist, 97, 235
+
+"Counsel and Instruction to King Dom Pedro" by Santob de Carrion, 173-174
+
+"Court Secrets" by Rachel Ackermann, 119
+
+Cousin, Victor, on Spinoza, 145
+
+Creation, Maimonides' theory of, 160
+
+Creed, the Jewish, by Maimonides, 151-152
+
+Creizenach, Th., poet, 49
+
+Cromwell, Oliver, and Manasseh ben Israel, 99
+
+
+_Dalalat al-Haïrin_, "Guide of the Perplexed," 154
+
+Damm, teacher of Mendelssohn, 299
+
+"Dance of Death," attributed to Santob, 174
+
+Daniel, Immanuel Romi's guide in Paradise, 223
+
+_Dansa General_, attributed to Santob, 174
+
+Dante and Immanuel Romi, 35, 89, 220, 223
+
+Dante, the Hebrew, 124
+
+"Dark Continent, The." See Africa
+
+David, philosopher, 83
+
+David ben Levi, Talmudist, 46
+
+David ben Yehuda, poet, 223
+
+David d'Ascoli, physician, 97
+
+David della Rocca, alluded to, 124
+
+David de Pomis, physician, 45, 97
+
+Davison, Bogumil, actor, 246
+
+Deborah, as poetess, 106-107
+
+_De Causis_, by David, 83
+
+Decimal fractions first mentioned, 91
+
+"Deeds of King David and Goliath, The," drama, 244
+
+Delitzsch, Franz, quoted, 24
+
+Del Medigo, Elias. See Elias del Medigo and Joseph del Medigo
+
+De Rossi, Hebrew scholar, 48
+
+Deutsch, Caroline, poetess, 139, 142-143
+
+Deutsch, Emanuel, on the Talmud, 68-70
+
+_Deutsche Briefe_ by Zunz, 337
+
+_Dialoghi di Amore_ by Judah Abrabanel, 42, 95
+
+_Dichter und Kaufmann_ by Berthold Auerbach, 49
+
+_Die Freimütigen_, Zunz contributor to, 330
+
+_Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden_ by Zunz, 48, 333-335
+
+Diez, alluded to, 333
+
+Dingelstedt, Franz, quoted, 319
+
+Dioscorides, botanist, 82
+
+_Disciplina clericalis_, a collection of tales, 89, 171
+
+_Divina Commedia_, travestied, 35
+  imitated, 89, 124
+
+_Doctor angelicus_, Thomas Aquinas, 94
+
+_Doctor Perplexorum_, "Guide of the Perplexed," 154, 155
+
+Document hypothesis of the Old Testament, 13
+
+Dolce, scholar and martyr, 119
+
+Donnolo, Sabattaï, physician, 82
+
+Dorothea of Kurland and Mendelssohn, 315
+
+Dotina, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Drama, the, among the ancient Hebrews, 229
+    classical Hebrew, 244-245, 248
+    first Hebrew, published, 239
+    first Jewish, 234
+    Jewish German, 246-247
+
+Drama, the German, Jews in, 245
+    the Portuguese, Jews in, 236-237, 238
+    the Spanish, Jews in, 235-236
+
+Dramatists, Jewish, 230, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 244, 245, 248
+
+Drinking songs, 200-201, 204, 205, 209, 212-213
+
+Dubno, Solomon, commentator, 309
+
+Dukes, L., scholar, 49
+
+Dunash ben Labrat, alluded to, 257
+
+"Duties of the Heart" by Bechaï, 137
+
+
+_Eben Bochan_, by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, 216-219
+
+Egidio de Viterbo, cardinal, 44
+
+Eibeschütz, Jonathan, Talmudist, 47
+
+Eldad ha-Dani, traveller, 37, 80, 257-258
+
+Elias del Medigo, scholar, 44, 94
+
+Elias Kapsali, scholar, 98
+
+Elias Levita, grammarian, 44, 95
+
+Elias Mizrachi, scholar, 98
+
+Elias of Genzano, poet, 224
+
+Elias Wilna, Talmudist, 46
+
+Eliezer, rabbi, quoted, 253
+
+Eliezer ha-Levi, Talmudist, 36
+
+Eliezer of Metz, Talmudist, 36
+
+El Muallima, Karaite, 117
+
+_Em beyisrael_, Deborah, 107
+
+Emden, Jacob, Talmudist, 47
+
+Emin Pasha, alluded to, 250
+
+"Enforced Apostasy," by Maimonides, 152
+
+Engel, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Enriquez, Antonio, di Gomez, dramatist, 100, 236
+
+Enriquez, Isabella, poetess, 130
+
+_En-Sof_, Kabbalistic term, 40, 41
+
+Ephraim, the Israelitish kingdom, 251
+
+Ephraim, Veitel, financier, 304, 316
+
+Erasmus, quoted, 44
+
+_Esheth Lapidoth_, Deborah, 106
+
+Eskeles, banker, alluded to, 305
+
+Esterka, supposed mistress of Casimir the Great, 286
+
+"Esther," by Solomon Usque, 235
+
+Esthori Hafarchi, topographer, 93
+
+Ethiopia. See Abyssinia
+
+Euchel, Isaac, Hebrew writer, 48, 309
+
+Eupolemos, historian, 17
+
+Euripides, alluded to, 230
+
+Ewald, Bible critic, 14
+
+"Exodus from Egypt, The" by Ezekielos, 230
+
+Ezekiel, prophet, quoted, 252, 294-295
+
+Ezekielos, dramatist, 17, 230
+
+Ezra, alluded to, 253
+
+
+Fables translated by Jews, 79, 86-87, 88
+
+Fagius, Paul, Hebrew scholar, 44, 95
+
+Falashas, the, and the missionaries, 263, 267
+  and the Negus Theodore, 267
+  customs of, 266
+  described by Halévy, 264
+  history of, 263
+  intellectual eagerness of, 266, 268
+  Messianic expectations of, 267-268
+  religious customs of, 265-266
+
+Faust of Saragossa, Gabirol, 199
+
+_Faust_ translated into Hebrew, 248
+
+Felix, Rachel, actress, 246
+
+Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and Isaac Abrabanel, 99
+
+Ferrara, duke of, candidate in Poland, 278
+
+Figo, Azariah, rabbi, 45
+
+Fischels, Rosa, translator of the Psalms, 120
+
+"Flaming Sword, The," by Abraham Bedersi, 171
+
+"Flea Song" by Yehuda Charisi, 212
+
+Fleck, actor, 311
+
+Foa, Rebekah Eugenie, writer, 139
+
+Folquet de Lunel, troubadour, 171-172
+
+Fonseca Pina y Pimentel, de, Sara, poetess, 130
+
+"Foundation of the Universe, The," by Isaac Israeli, 93
+
+"Foundation of the World, The," by Moses Zacuto, 238-239
+
+"Fount of Life, The," by Gabirol, 26
+
+Fox fables translated, 79
+
+Frank, Rabbi Dr., alluded to, 345
+
+Fränkel, David, teacher of Mendelssohn, 293
+
+Frankel, Z, scholar, 49
+
+Frankl, L. A., poet, 49
+
+Frank-Wolff, Ulla, writer, 139
+
+Franzos, K. E., Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Frederick II, emperor, patron of Hebrew learning, 40, 85, 89, 92
+
+Frederick the Great and Mendelssohn, 301-303
+  and the Jews, 316-317
+
+Freidank, German author, 185
+
+Friedländer, David, disciple of Mendelssohn, 48, 317, 350
+
+Fröhlich, Regina, writer, 131
+
+Fürst, J., scholar, 49
+
+
+Gabirol, Solomon, philosopher, 26-27, 82-83, 94
+  poet, 24, 25-26, 27, 199
+
+Gad, Esther, alluded to, 132
+
+Galen and Gamaliel, 81
+  works of, edited by Maimonides, 153
+
+Gama, da, Vasco, and Jews, 96-97
+
+Gamaliel, rabbi, 18, 77, 81
+
+Gans, David, historian, 47
+
+Gans, Edward, friend of Heine, 324, 346, 350
+
+Gaspar, Jewish pilot, 96
+
+Gayo, Isaac, physician, 86
+
+Geiger, Abraham, scholar, 49
+
+Geldern, van, Betty, mother of Heine, 341, 344
+
+Geldern, van, Gottschalk, Heine's uncle, 341
+
+Geldern, van, Isaac, Heine's grandfather, 341
+
+Geldern, van, Lazarus, Heine's uncle, 341
+
+Geldern, van, Simon, author, 341
+
+Gentz, von, Friedrich, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Geometry in the Talmud, 77
+
+German literature cultivated by Jews, 87
+
+Gerson ben Solomon, scientist, 90
+
+_Gesellschafter_, Zunz contributor to the, 330
+
+_Ghedulla_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Ghemara, commentary on the Mishna, 60
+
+Ghetto tales, 50
+
+_Ghevoora_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Gideon, Jewish king in Abyssinia, 263
+
+"Gift from a Misogynist, A," satire, by Yehuda ibn Sabbataï, 34, 214-216
+
+Glaser, Dr. Edward, on the Falashas, 263
+
+Goethe, alluded to, 314
+  and Jewish literature, 103-104
+  on Yedaya Penini, 40
+
+Goldschmidt, Henriette, writer, 139
+
+Goldschmidt, Johanna, writer, 139
+
+Goldschmied, M., Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Goldsmid, Anna Maria, writer, 137
+
+Goldsmid, Isaac Lyon, alluded to, 137
+
+Gottloeber, A., dramatist, 248
+
+Götz, Ella, translator, 120
+
+Graetz, Heinrich, historian, 49
+  quoted, 185
+
+Graziano, Lazaro, dramatist, 235
+
+Greece and Judæa contrasted, 194
+
+Grimani, Dominico, cardinal, alluded to, 95
+
+Grimm, alluded to, 333
+
+Guarini, dramatist, 239
+
+Gugenheim, Fromet, wife of Mendelssohn, 303
+  quoted, 307
+
+"Guide of the Perplexed, The," contents of, 157-163
+  controversy over, 164-166
+  English translation of, 155 (note)
+  purpose of, 155
+
+Gumpertz, Aaron, and Mendelssohn, 297, 299
+  quoted, 298
+
+Gundisalvi, Dominicus, translator of "The Fount of Life," 26
+
+Günsburg, C., preacher, 322
+
+Günsburg, Simon, confidant of Stephen Báthori, 287
+
+"Gustavus Vasa" by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+Gutzkow, quoted, 306
+
+
+Haggada and Halacha contrasted, 21, 60, 194-195
+
+Haggada, the, characterized, 18, 54-55, 60-61, 64-70
+  cosmopolitan, 33
+  described by Heine, 20
+  ethical sayings from, 61-63
+  poetic quotations from, 65-68
+
+Haggada, the, at the Passover service, 344-345
+
+Haï, Gaon, 22
+
+Halacha and Haggada contrasted, 21, 60, 194-195
+
+Halacha, the, characterized, 18, 54-55
+  subjective, 33
+
+Halévy, Joseph, and the Falashas, 264
+  quoted, 265-266
+
+Halley's comet and Rabbi Joshua, 77
+
+"Haman's Will and Death," drama, 244
+
+Hamel, Glikel, historian, 120
+
+Händele, daughter of Saul Wahl, 276
+
+Hariri, Arabic poet, 32, 34 (note)
+
+Haroun al Rashid, embassy to, 99
+
+Hartmann, M., poet, 49
+
+Hartog, Marian, writer, 137
+
+Hartung, actor, 248
+
+_Ha-Sallach_, Moses ibn Ezra, 205
+
+Hebrew drama, first, published, 237
+
+Hebrew language, plasticity of, 32-33
+
+Hebrew studies among Christians, 44, 47-48, 95, 98
+
+Heckscher, Fromet, ancestress of Heine, 341
+
+Hegel and Heine, 346
+
+Heine, Heinrich, poet, 49
+  and Venus of Milo, 362
+  appreciation of, 340
+  characterized by Schopenhauer, 357-358
+  character of, 367
+  conversion of, 348-351
+  family of, 341-342, 344
+  Ghetto novelist, 50
+  in Berlin, 346-347
+  in Göttingen, 347-348
+  in Paris, 358-359
+  Jewish traits of, 345-348, 353-357
+  on Gabirol, 25-26
+  on the Jews, 362-363, 365-366
+  on Yehuda Halevi, 27
+  on Zunz, 327-328, 333
+  quoted, 9, 20, 28, 206
+  religious education of, 343
+  return of, to Judaism, 366
+  wife of, 363-364
+  will of, 366-367
+
+Heine, Mathilde, wife of Heinrich Heine, 363-364
+
+Heine, Maximilian, quoted, 344
+
+"Heine of the middle ages," Immanuel Romi, 219
+
+Heine, Samson, father of Heinrich Heine, 341, 342
+
+Heine, Solomon, uncle of Heinrich Heine, 345, 352
+
+Hellenism and Judaism, 75-76
+
+Hellenists, Heine on, 359, 362
+
+Hennings, alluded to, 314
+
+Henry of Anjou, election of, in Poland, 286-287
+
+Herder, poet, and Mendelssohn, 314
+  quoted, 296
+
+Hermeneutics by Maimonides, 162-163
+
+Herod and the stage, 230-231
+
+Herrera, Abraham, Kabbalist, 99
+
+Hertzveld, Estelle and Maria, writers, 140
+
+Herz, Henriette, alluded to, 131, 133-346
+  and Dorothea Mendelssohn, 306
+  character of, 312-313
+  _salon_ of, 311-314
+
+Herz, Marcus, physicist, 310, 311
+
+Herzberg-Fränkel, L., Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Herzfeld, L., scholar, 49
+
+Hess, M., quoted, 109
+
+"Highest Faith, The" by Abraham ibn Daud, 36
+
+Higros the Levite, musician, 369, 374
+
+Hildebold von Schwanegau, minnesinger, 182
+
+Hillel, rabbi, 18
+  quoted, 255
+
+Hillel ben Samuel, translator 86
+
+Himyarites and Jews, 256
+
+Hirsch, scholar, 49
+
+Hirsch, Jenny, writer, 139
+
+"History and Literature of the Israelites"
+ by Constance and Anna Rothschild, 142
+
+"History of Synagogue Poetry" by Zunz, 336
+
+"History of the Jews in England" by Grace Aguilar, 135
+
+"History of the National Poetry of the Hebrews" by Ernest Meier, 14
+
+Hitzig, architect, alluded to, 298
+
+Hitzig, Bible critic, 13, 14
+
+_Hod_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Holbein, Hans, illustrates a Jewish book, 102
+
+Holdheim, S., scholar, 49
+
+Holland, exiles in, 128-129
+
+Homberg, Herz disciple of Mendelssohn, 48, 309
+
+"Home Influence" by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+Hosea, king, alluded to, 250
+
+Hosea, prophet, alluded to, 251
+  "Hours of Devotion" by
+  Fanny Neuda, 140
+
+Humanism and the Jews, 94-95
+
+Humboldts, the, and Hennriette Herz, 311, 312, 313
+
+Humor in antiquity, 191-192
+  in Jewish German literature, 225-226
+  nature of, 195-195, 356-357
+
+Hurwitz, Bella, historian, 120
+
+Hurwitz, Isaiah, Kabbalist, 43
+
+
+Ibn Alfange, writer, 170
+
+Ibn Chasdaï, Makamat writer, 35
+
+Ibn Sina and Maimonides, 156
+
+_Iggereth ha-Sh'mad_ by Maimonides, 152
+
+_Ikkarim_ by Joseph Albo, 42
+
+Ima Shalom, Talmudist, 113
+
+Immanuel ben Solomon, poet, 35, 89, 90, 219-221, 222-223
+  and Dante, 35, 89, 220, 223
+  quoted, 220, 221, 222
+
+Immanuel Romi. See Immanuel ben Solomon
+
+India, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Indians and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Innocent III, pope, alluded to, 184
+
+Intelligences, Maimonides' doctrine of the, 159
+
+"Interest and Usury" from the Haggada, 67-68
+
+_Iris_, Zunz contributor to the, 330
+
+Isaac Alfassi, alluded to, 257
+
+Isaac ben Abraham, Talmudist, 36
+
+Isaac ben Moses, Talmudist, 36
+
+Isaac ben Sheshet, philosopher, 42
+
+Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat, poet, 201, 202
+
+Isaac ibn Sid, astronomer, 92
+
+Isaac Israeli, mathematician, 93
+
+Isaac Israeli, physician, 81, 82, 257
+
+Isaiah, prophet, quoted, 251, 252
+
+Ishmael, poet, alluded to, 118
+
+Israel, kingdom of, 250-251
+
+"Israel Defended" translated by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+"Israelites on Mount Horeb, The," by Simon van Geldern, 341
+
+Isserles, Moses, Talmudist, 46, 100, 286
+
+Italy, Jews of 45-46, 116
+
+Itzig, Daniel, naturalization of, 317
+
+Jabneh, academy at, 57, 227-228
+
+Jacob ben Abba-Mari ben Anatoli, scholar, 39-40, 85
+
+Jacob ben Elias, poet, 224
+
+Jacob ben Machir, astronomer, 86
+
+Jacob ben Meïr, Talmudist, 36
+
+Jacob ben Nissim, alluded to, 257
+
+Jacob ibn Chabib, Talmudist 43
+
+Jason, writer, 17
+
+Jayme, J, of Aragon, patron of Hebrew learning, 92
+
+Jellinek, Adolf, preacher, 49
+  quoted, 33, 245-246
+
+Jeremiah, prophet, quoted, 251
+
+Jerusalem, friend of Moses Mendelssohn, 314
+
+Jerusalem, Kabbalists in, 43
+
+Jesus, mediator between Judaism and Hellenism, 76
+  quotes the Old Testament, 13
+
+"Jewish Calderon, The," Antonio Enriquez di Gomez, 236
+
+Jewish drama, the first, 234
+
+"Jewish Faith, The," by Grace Aguilar, 135
+
+Jewish German drama, the, 246-247
+
+Jewish historical writings, lack of, 23-24
+
+Jewish history, spirit of, 269-271
+
+"Jewish Homiletics" by Zunz, 333-335
+
+Jewish literature and Goethe, 103-104
+  characterized, 11-12
+  comprehensiveness of, 37
+  definition of, 328
+  extent of, 9-10, 22
+  Hellenic period of, 16-17
+  in Persia, 90
+  love in, 122-123
+  name of, 10
+  rabbinical period of, 38
+
+Jewish philosophers, 17, 22, 23, 35, 40, 42
+
+Jewish poetry, and Syrian, 80
+  future of, 50
+  subjects of, 24-25
+
+Jewish poets, 49
+
+Jewish race, the, liberality of, 33-34
+  morality of, 36
+  preservation of, 108-109
+  subjectivity of, 33, 353-354
+  versatility of, 79
+
+Jewish scholars, 49
+
+Jewish Sybil, the, 17-18
+
+"Jewish Voltaire, The," Immanuel Romi, 219
+
+Jewish wit, 354-356
+
+Jews, academies of, 75, 79
+  and Columbus, 96
+  and commerce, 101-102
+  and Frederick the Great, 316-317
+  and the invention of printing, 38
+  and the national poetry of Germany, 87
+  and the Renaissance, 43-44, 74-75, 94-95, 223, 224
+  and troubadour poetry, 171-173
+  and Vasco da Gama, 96-97
+  as diplomats, 98-99
+  as economists, 103
+  as interpreters of Aristotle, 85
+  as linguists, 75
+  as literary mediators, 97-98
+  as physicians, 19, 37, 44, 45, 81-82, 86, 95, 97
+  as scientific mediators, 78
+  as teachers of Christians, 95, 98
+  as traders, 74-75
+  as translators, 44, 79, 86-87, 88, 89, 90, 91-92
+  as travellers, 37-38
+  as wood engravers, 102
+  characterized by Heine, 362-363, 365-366
+  defended by Reuchlin, 95
+  in Arabia, 256-257
+  in Holland, 46
+  in Italy, 45-46, 116
+  in Poland, 46, 286-288
+  in the modern drama, 235-237, 245
+  in the sciences, 102
+  of Germany, in the middle ages, 186
+  of Germany, poverty of, 319
+  of the eighteenth century, 294
+  relation of, to Arabs, 22
+  under Arabic influences, 78, 80
+  under Hellenic influences, 76
+  under Roman influences, 76, 77
+
+João II, of Portugal, employs Jewish scholars, 96
+
+Jochanan, compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud, 19, 114
+
+Jochanan ben Zakkaï, rabbi, 18, 56-57, 228
+
+John of Seville, mathematician, 91
+
+Josefowicz brothers in Lithuania, 287-288
+
+Joseph ben Jochanan, wife of, 119
+
+Joseph del Medigo, scholar, 45
+
+Joseph Ezobi, poet, 89
+
+Joseph ibn Aknin, disciple of Maimonides, 155
+
+Joseph ibn Nagdela, wife of, 117
+
+Joseph ibn Sabara, satirist, 34, 214
+
+Joseph ibn Verga, historian, 42
+
+Joseph ibn Zaddik, philosopher, 35
+
+Josephus, Flavius, historian, 13, 18, 44
+  at Rome, 232
+  quoted, 230
+
+Joshua, astronomer, 77
+
+Joshua, Samaritan book of, on the Ten Tribes, 252
+
+Joshua ben Chananya, rabbi, 18
+
+Joshua, Jacob, Talmudist, 47
+
+Jost, Isaac Marcus, historian, 49, 321
+  on Zunz, 320
+
+"Journal for the Science of Judaism," 324-325, 329, 352
+
+Juan Alfonso de Bæna, poet, 90, 179
+
+Judæa and Greece contrasted, 194
+
+Judæo-Alexandrian period, 16-17
+
+Judah Alfachar and Maimonides, 165
+
+Judah Hakohen, astronomer, 93
+
+Judah ibn Sabbataï, satirist, 34, 214
+
+Judah ibn Tibbon, translator, 39, 84
+
+Judah Tommo, poet, 224
+
+Judaism and Hellenism, 75-76
+  served by women, 115-116
+
+_Judendeutsch_, patois, 47, 294
+  literature in, 47, 100-101
+  philological value of, 100
+  used by women, 119
+
+Judges, quoted, 107
+
+Judith, queen of the Jewish kingdom in Abyssinia, 262, 263
+
+
+Kabbala, the, attacked and defended, 45, 46
+  influence of, 93, 99
+  studied by Christians, 44
+  supposed author of, 19
+  system of, outlined, 40-41
+
+Kabbalists, 43, 95, 99
+
+_Kalâm_, Islam theology, 81
+
+_Kalila we-Dimna_, fox fables, translated, 79
+
+Kalir, Eliezer, poet, 25
+
+"Kaliric," classical in Jewish literature, 25
+
+Kalisch, Ludwig, quoted, 364-365
+
+Kalonymos ben Kalonymos as a satirist, 35, 216-219
+  as a scholar, 89
+
+Kant and Maimonides, 146, 164
+  's philosophy among Jews, 310
+
+Kara, Abigedor, Talmudist, 47
+
+Karaite doctrines in Castile, 117
+
+Karo, Joseph, compiler of the _Shulchan Aruch_, 43
+
+Kasmune (Xemona), poetess, 24, 118
+
+Kaspi, Joseph, philosopher, 42
+
+Kayserling, M., quoted, 300
+
+Kepler and Jewish astronomers, 91, 92
+
+_Kether_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Kimchi, David, grammarian, 39, 84
+
+"King Solomon's Seal" by Büschenthal, 245
+
+Kisch, teacher of Moses Mendelssohn, 297
+
+_Klesmer_, musician, 377
+
+Kley, Edward, preacher, 49, 322
+
+Kohen, Sabbataï, Talmudist, 46
+
+Kompert, Leopold, Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Korbi, character in "The Gift of Judah," 214
+
+Krochmal, scholar, 49
+
+Kuh, M. E., poet, 49
+
+Kulke, Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Kunth, tutor of the Humboldts, 311
+
+
+_La Doctrina Christiana_, attributed to Santob, 174
+
+La Fontaine, and Hebrew fable translations, 34, 88
+
+Landau, Ezekiel, Talmudist, 47
+
+Laura (Petrarch's) in "Praise of Women," 223
+
+_Layesharim Tehillah_ by Luzzatto, 240-241
+
+"Lay of Zion" by Yehuda Halevi, 28-31, 210
+
+Lazarus ben David, philosopher, 310, 350
+
+Lazarus, Emma, poetess, 140
+
+Lazarus, M., scholar, 49
+
+_Lecho Dodi_, Sabbath song, 43
+
+Legend-making, 288-289
+
+Legends, value of, 289-292
+
+Lehmann, M., Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Leibnitz and Maimonides, 146
+
+_Leibzoll_, tax, 294
+
+Lemech, sons of, inventions of, 372
+
+Leo de Modena, rabbi, 45, 128
+
+Leo Hebræus. See Judah Abrabanel
+
+Leon di Bannolas. See Levi ben Gerson
+
+Lessing, alluded to, 246
+  and Mendelssohn, 299, 300, 314
+  as fabulist, 88
+  on Yedaya Penini, 40
+
+Letteris, M. E., dramatist, 248
+
+"Letters to a Christian Friend on the Fundamental Truths of Judaism,"
+  by Clementine Rothschild, 141
+
+Levi ben Abraham, philosopher, 40
+
+Levi ben Gerson, philosopher, 42, 90-91
+
+Levi (Henle), Elise, writer, 139
+
+Levi of Mayence, founder of German synagogue music, 376
+
+Levin (Varnhagen), Rahel, alluded to, 131, 346
+  and Judaism, 132
+  and the emancipation movement, 132-133
+
+Levita, Elias. See Elias Levita
+
+Lewandowski, musician, work of, 370-371, 377-378
+
+"Light of God" by Chasdaï Crescas, 42
+
+Lindo, Abigail, writer, 137
+
+Lithuania, Jews in, 282, 285
+
+Litte of Ratisbon, historian, 119
+
+_Litteraturbriefe_ by Mendelssohn, 301
+
+_Litteraturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie_ by Zunz, 336
+
+Lokman's fables translated into Hebrew, 34
+
+Lonsano, Menahem, writer on music, 376
+
+Lope de Vega, alluded to, 239
+
+Love in Hebrew poetry, 122-123, 225
+
+Love in Jewish and German poetry, 186
+
+Lucian, alluded to, 18
+
+"Lucinde" by Friedrich von Schlegel, 306
+
+Luis de Torres accompanies Columbus, 96
+
+Luria, Solomon, Talmudist, 46, 286
+
+Luther, Martin, and Rashi, 84
+  quoted, 377
+  under Jewish influences, 98
+
+Luzzatto, Moses Chayyim, dramatist, 45, 239-241
+
+Luzzatto, S. D., scholar, 49, 137
+
+
+Maffei, dramatist, 240
+
+_Maggidim_, itinerant preachers, 227
+
+"Magic Flute, The," first performance of, 247-248
+
+"Magic Wreath, The," by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+Maharil, founder of German synagogue music, 376
+
+Maimon, Solomon, and Mendelssohn, 310
+
+Maimonides, Moses, philosopher, 34, 35, 84
+  and Aristotle, 156
+  and Averroës, 163-164
+  and Ibn Sina, 156
+  and modern philosophy, 164
+  and scholasticism, 85, 156, 164
+  as astronomer, 93
+  career of, 147-150
+  in France, 145-146
+  medical works of, 153-154
+  on man's attributes, 160-161
+  on prophecy, 161-162
+  on resurrection, 164-165
+  on revelation, 162
+  on the attributes of God, 157-158
+  on the Mosaic legislation, 163
+  philosophic work of, 154 ff.
+  quoted, 152, 167
+  religious works of, 150-153
+
+Maimunists, 39-40
+
+Makamat, a form of Arabic poetry, 34 (note)
+
+Malabar, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+_Malchuth_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Manasseh ben Israel, author, 47, 99-100
+  and Rembrandt, 102
+  on the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Manesse, Rüdiger, compiler, 183-184
+
+Mannheimer, N., preacher, 49
+
+Manoello. See Immanuel ben Solomon
+
+Mantino, Jacob, physician, 95
+
+Manuel, of Portugal, alluded to, 97
+
+Margoles, Jacob, Kabbalist, 95
+
+Maria de Padilla, mistress of Pedro I, 169
+
+Marie de France, fabulist, 88
+
+Mar Sutra on the Ten Tribes, 253
+
+_Mashal_, parable, 227
+
+_Massichtoth_, Talmudic treatises, 59
+
+_Mauscheln_, Jewish slang, 310-311
+
+Maximilian, of Austria, candidate for the Polish crown, 278
+
+_Mechabberoth_ by Immanuel Romi, 219-220
+
+Medicine, origin of, 81
+
+Meier, Ernest, Bible critic, 12
+  quoted, 14
+
+Meïr, rabbi, fabulist, 19, 111-112
+
+Meïr ben Baruch, Talmudist, 36
+
+Meïr ben Todros ha-Levi, quoted, 164-165
+
+Meissner, Alfred, recollections of, of Heine, 362-364
+
+_Mekirath Yoseph_ by Beermann, 241-244
+
+Melo, David Abenator, translator, 47
+
+_Mendel Gibbor_, quoted, 272
+
+Mendels, Edel, historian, 120
+
+Mendelssohn, Abraham, son of Moses Mendelssohn, 307, 308
+
+Mendelssohn, Dorothea, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, 131, 305-306
+
+Mendelssohn, Henriette, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, 306-308
+
+Mendelssohn, Joseph, son of Moses Mendelssohn, 305, 307
+
+Mendelssohn, Moses, philosopher, 48
+  and Lessing, 299, 300, 314
+  and Maimonides, 164
+  as critic, 301-302
+  as reformer, 316
+  as translator, 40
+  children of, 304
+  disciples of, 309
+  friends of, 299, 314-315
+  in Berlin, 293, 296 ff
+  marriage of, 303-304
+  quoted, 300, 301
+
+Mendelssohn, Nathan, son of Moses Mendelssohn, 307
+
+Mendelssohn, Recha, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, 307
+
+Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, 307, 308
+
+Mendez, David Franco, dramatist, 244
+
+_Meneketh Ribka_, by Rebekah Tiktiner, 119
+
+Menelek, son of the Queen of Sheba, 262
+
+_Merope_ by Maffei, 240
+
+_Mesgid_, Falasha synagogue, 265
+
+Mesopotamia, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Messer Leon, poet, 223
+
+Meyer, Marianne, alluded to, 132
+
+Meyer, Rachel, writer, 139
+
+Meyer, Sarah, alluded to, 132
+
+Meyerbeer, alluded to, 245
+
+Midrash, commentary, 20, 53-54
+
+Midrash Rabba, a Talmudic work, 21
+
+_Migdal Oz_ by Luzzatto, 239
+
+_Minchath Yehuda Soneh ha-Nashim_, by Judah ibn Sabbataï, 214-216
+
+_Minnedienst_ absent from Jewish poetry, 122
+
+Minnesingers, 182
+
+Miriam, as poetess, 106
+
+Miriam, Rashi's granddaughter, 118
+
+_Mishlé Sandabar_, romance, 88
+
+Mishna, the, commentary on, 60
+  compilation of, 58
+  in poetry, 201
+
+_Mishneh Torah_ by Maimonides, 152-153
+
+Missionaries in Abyssinia, 263-267
+
+Mohammedanism, rise of, 77-78
+
+Montefiore, Charlotte, writer, 133
+
+Montefiore, Judith, philanthropist, 133
+
+Montpellier, "Guide of the Perplexed"
+  burnt at, 155 Jews at academy of, 86, 92
+
+_Moreh Nebuchim_ by Maimonides, 146, 154, 161-162
+
+Morgenstern, Lina, writer, 139
+
+_Morgenstunden_ by Mendelssohn, 305
+
+Moritz, friend of Henriette Herz, 313, 314
+
+Morpurgo, Rachel, poetess, 137-138
+
+Mosaic legislation, the, Maimonides on, 163
+
+"Mosaic" style in Hebrew poetry, 201-202
+
+Mosenthal, S. H., Ghetto novelist, 49, 50
+  Dingelstedt on, 319
+
+Moser, Moses, friend of Heine, 324, 346
+  letters to, 350, 352
+
+Moses, prophet, characterized by Heine, 365-366
+  in Africa, 255
+
+Moses de Coucy, Talmudist, 36
+
+Moses ibn Ezra, poet, 24, 32, 202-206, 207
+
+Moses, Israel, teacher of Mendelssohn, 297-298
+
+Moses of Narbonne, philosopher, 42
+
+Moses Rieti, the Hebrew Dante, 35, 124
+
+Moses Sephardi. See Petrus Alphonsus
+
+Mosessohn, Miriam, writer, 138
+
+Munk, Solomon, scholar, 49
+  and Gabirol, 26, 83
+  translates _Moreh Nebuchim_, 146, 155
+
+Münster, Sebastian, Hebrew scholar, 44, 95
+
+Muscato, Judah, preacher, 376
+
+Music among Jews, 372-376
+
+Mussafia, Benjamin, author, 47
+
+
+Nachmanides, exegete, 39
+
+Nagara, Israel, poet, 43
+
+"Names of the Jews, The," by Zunz, 335
+
+Nasi, Joseph, statesman, 99
+  and the Polish election, 287
+
+"Nathan the Wise" and tolerance, 185, 310-311
+
+Nazarenes, defined by Heine, 359
+
+_Nefesh_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+_Neïlah_ prayer, A, 104
+
+Neo-Hebraic literature. See Jewish literature
+
+Nero, alluded to, 232
+
+_Neshama_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+_Nesirim_, Falasha monks, 265
+
+Nestorians and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Neto, David, philosopher, 47
+
+Neuda, Fanny, writer, 140
+
+Neunzig, Joseph, on Heine, 343
+
+"New Song," anonymous poem, 224
+
+_Nezach_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Nicolai, friend of Mendelssohn, 299, 300, 313, 314
+
+Nicolas de Lyra, exegete, 84
+
+Noah, Mordecai, and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Nöldeke, Theodor, Bible critic, 12
+
+_Nomologia_, by Isaac Aboab, 45
+
+Numbers, book of, quoted, 71
+
+Nunes, Manuela, de Almeida, poetess, 130
+
+
+Obadiah Bertinoro, Talmudist, 43
+
+Obadiah Sforno, teacher of Reuchlin, 95
+
+Offenbach, J., alluded to, 245
+
+Old Testament, the, Africa in, 255
+  document hypothesis of, 13
+  humor in, 191, 193
+  in poetry, 201
+  interpretation of, 54
+  literary value of, 14-16, 73-74
+  quoted by Jesus, 13
+  study of, 12-13, 18
+  time of compilation of, 16
+  time of composition of, 13-14
+  translations of, 16, 47, 48, 80
+
+Oliver y Fullano, de, Nicolas, author, 129
+
+"On Rabbinical Literature" by Zunz, 328
+
+_Ophir_, Hebrew name for Africa, 255
+
+Ophra in Yehuda Halevi's poems, 207
+
+Oppenheim, David, rabbi at Prague, 244
+
+Ormus, island, explored by Jews, 96
+
+Ottenheimer, Henriette, poetess, 49, 138-139
+
+Otto von Botenlaube, minnesinger, 182
+
+Owl, character in "The Gift of Judah," 214
+
+
+Padua, University of, and Elias del Medigo, 94
+
+Palestine described, 93
+
+Palquera, Shemtob, philosopher, 40
+
+Pan, Taube, poetess, 120
+
+"Paradise, The" by Moses Rieti, 35
+
+Parallax computed by Isaac Israeli, 93
+
+_Parzival_, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, 185
+  Jewish contributions to, 35, 87
+
+_Pastor Fido_ by Guarini, 129, 240
+
+Paul III, pope, alluded to, 95
+
+Paula deï Mansi, Talmudist, 116-117
+
+Pedro I, of Castile, and Santob de Carrion, 87, 169, 170
+
+Pedro di Carvallho, navigator, 96
+
+Pekah, king, alluded to, 250
+
+Pensa, Joseph, de la Vega, dramatist, 237-238
+
+Pentateuch, the Jewish German translation of, 100
+  Mendelssohn's commentary on, 309
+
+_Peregrinatio Hierosolymitana_ by Radziwill, 280
+
+Persia, Jewish literature in, 90
+
+Pesikta, a Talmudic work, 21
+
+Petachya of Ratisbon, traveller, 37, 117
+
+Petrarch, translated into Spanish, 98
+
+Petrus Alphonsus, writer, 89, 171
+
+Peurbach, humanist, 100
+
+Philipson, L., journalist, 49
+
+Philo, philosopher, 17
+
+Philo the Elder, writer, 17
+
+Phokylides (pseudo-), Neoplatonist, 17
+
+Physicians, Jewish, 81, 95, 97, 179
+
+Pickelhering, a character in _Mekirath Yoseph_, 241
+
+Pico della Mirandola alluded to, 94
+  and Levi ben Gerson, 91
+  and the Kabbala, 44
+
+_Pilpul_, Talmudic method, 46
+
+Pinchas, rabbi, chronicler of the Saul Wahl story, 273, 277, 280
+
+_Piut_, a form of liturgic Hebrew poetry, 24, 198
+
+"Plant Lore" by Dioscorides, 82
+
+Pliny, alluded to, 250
+
+Pnie, Samson, contributes to _Parzival_, 35, 87
+
+_Poésies diverses_ by Frederick the Great, 301
+
+Poland, election of king in, 278-279
+  Jews in, 286-288
+
+Pollak, Jacob, Talmudist, 46
+
+Popert, Meyer Samson, ancestor of Heine, 341
+
+Popiel, of Poland, alluded to, 285
+
+Poppæa, empress, alluded to, 232
+
+"Praise of Women," anonymous work, 34
+
+"Praise of Women," by David ben Yehuda, 223
+
+"Praise unto the Righteous," by Luzzatto, 240-241
+
+"Prince and the Dervish, The," by Ibn Chasdaï, 35
+
+Printing, influence of, on Jewish literature, 94
+
+"Prisoners of Hope, The," by Joseph Pensa, 237-238
+
+Prophecy defined by Maimonides, 161-162
+
+Proudhon anticipated by Judah ibn Tibbon, 39
+
+Psalm cxxxiii., 71-72
+
+Psalms, the, translated into Jewish German, 120
+  into Persian, 90
+
+Ptolemy Philadelphus and the Septuagint, 16
+
+Ptolemy's "Almagest" translated, 79
+
+
+Rab, rabbi, 19
+
+Rabbinical literature. See Jewish literature
+
+Rabbinowicz, Bertha, 138
+
+_Rabbi von Bacharach_ by Heine, 50, 348, 349
+
+Rachel (Bellejeune), Talmudist, 118
+
+Radziwill, Nicholas Christopher, and Saul Wahl, 274-276, 279-280
+
+"Radziwill Bible, The," 280
+
+Rambam, Jewish name for Maimonides, 146
+
+Ramler and Jews, 311, 313
+
+Rappaport, Moritz, poet, 49
+
+Rappaport, S., scholar, 49
+
+Rashi. See Solomon ben Isaac
+
+Rausnitz, Rachel, historian, 121
+
+Ravenna and Jewish financiers, 101-102
+
+"Recapitulation of the Law" by Maimonides, 152-153
+
+Recke, von der, Elise, and Mendelssohn, 215
+
+Red Sea, coasts of, explored by Jews, 96
+
+Reichardt, musician, 313
+
+Reinmar von Brennenberg, minnesinger, 182
+
+_Reisebilder_ by Heine, 353
+
+Rembrandt illustrates a Jewish book, 102
+
+Renaissance, the, and the Jews, 43-44, 74-75, 94-95, 223, 224
+
+Renaissance, the Jewish, 101, 227, 293-295
+
+Renan, Ernest, alluded to, 163, 191
+
+_Respublika Babinska_, a Polish society, 281-282
+
+_Respuestas_ by Antonio di Montoro, 180
+
+Resurrection, Maimonides on, 164-165
+
+Reuchlin, John, and Jewish scholars, 91, 94-95
+  and the Talmud, 44
+  quoted, 89
+
+Revelation defined by Maimonides, 162
+
+Richard I, of England, and Maimonides, 149
+
+Riemer quoted, 358
+
+Riesser, Gabriel, journalist, 49, 291
+
+"Righteous Brethren, The" an Arabic order, 79
+
+Rintelsohn, teacher of Heine, 344
+
+Ritter, Heinrich, on Maimonides, 146
+
+"Ritual of the Synagogue, The," by Zunz, 336
+
+_Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes_ by Zunz, 336
+
+Robert of Anjou, patron of Hebrew learning, 92
+
+Robert of Naples, patron of Hebrew learning, 89
+
+Rodenberg, Julius, quoted, 144
+
+Romanelli, Samuel L., dramatist, 244, 248
+
+_Romanzero_ by Heine, 9, 27, 365
+
+Rossi, Solomon, musician, 376
+
+Rothschild, Anna, historian, 142
+  Charlotte, philanthropist, 141
+  Clementine, writer, 141-142
+  Constance, historian, 142
+
+Rothschild family, women of the, 140-142
+
+_Ruach_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Rückert, poet, alluded to, 139
+
+"Rules for the Shoeing and Care of Horses in Royal Stables," translated, 91
+
+Rüppell, explorer, quoted, 263
+
+
+Sa'adia, philosopher, 22, 80-81
+
+Sachs, M., scholar, 49
+
+Saisset, E., on Maimonides, 146
+
+"Sale of Joseph, The" by Beermann, 241-244
+
+Salerno, Jews at academy of, 86, 92
+
+Salomon, Annette, writer, 137
+
+Salomon, G., preacher, 49
+
+Salomon, Leah, wife of Abraham Mendelssohn, 308
+
+_Salon_, the German, established by Jews, 312
+
+Salonica, Spanish exiles in, 43
+
+Sambation, fabled stream, 249, 258
+
+Samson, history of, dramatized, 236
+  humor in the, 191, 192
+
+"Samson and the Philistines" by Luzzatto, 239
+
+"Samsonschool" at Wolfenbüttel, 321
+
+Samuel, astronomer, 76
+
+Samuel, physician, 19
+
+Samuel ben Ali, Talmudist, 117
+
+Samuel ben Meïr, exegete, 36, 172
+
+Samuel ibn Nagdela, grand vizir, 98
+
+Samuel Judah, father of Saul Wahl, 273, 274
+
+Samuel the Pious, hymnologist, 36
+
+Santillana, de, on Santob de Carrion, 173
+
+Santo. See Santob de Carrion
+
+Santob de Carrion, troubadour, 34, 87, 169-170, 174-175, 188
+  characterized, 173
+  character of, 178
+  quoted, 169, 175-176, 177-178
+  relation of, to Judaism, 176-177
+
+Saphir, M. G., quoted, 355
+
+Sarah, a character in _Rabbi von Bacharach_, 348
+
+Sarastro, played by a Jew, 247
+
+Satirists, 213-223
+
+Saul Juditsch. See Saul Wahl
+
+Saul Wahl, in the Russian archives, 282-284
+  relics of, 278
+  story of, 273-277
+  why so named, 276
+
+Savasorda. See Abraham ben Chiya
+
+Schadow, sculptor, 313
+
+Schallmeier, teacher of Heine, 342
+
+Schlegel, von, Friedrich, husband of Dorothea Mendelssohn, 306
+
+Schleiden, M. J., quoted, 28, 74-75
+
+Schleiermacher and the Jews, 313, 314, 323
+
+Schopenhauer, Arthur, anticipated by Gabirol, 27
+  on Heine, 357-358
+
+_Schutzjude_, a privileged Jew, 302-403
+
+Scotists and Gabirol, 26
+
+Scotus, Duns, philosopher, 82
+
+Scotus, Michael, scholar, 40, 85
+
+Scribes, the compilers of the Old Testament, 16
+
+"Seal of Perfection, The," by Abraham Bedersi, 171
+
+_Sechel Hapoel_, Active Intellect, 159
+
+_Seder_ described by Heine, 345
+
+_Sefer Asaf_, medical fragment, 81
+
+_Sefer ha-Hechal_ by Moses Rieti, 124
+
+_Sefer Sha'ashuim_ by Joseph ibn Sabara, 214
+
+_Sefiroth_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Selicha, a character in "The Sale of Joseph," 241
+
+_Selicha_, a form of Hebrew liturgical poetry, 24, 25, 198
+
+Septuagint, contents of the, 16
+
+Serach, hero of "The Gift of Judah," 214-216
+
+"Seven Wise Masters, The," romance, 88
+
+Seynensis, Henricus, quoted, 52
+
+Shachna, Solomon, Talmudist, alluded to, 286
+
+_Shalet_, a Jewish dish, 360-361
+
+Shalmaneser, conquers Israel, 250
+  obelisk of, 261
+
+Shammaï, rabbi, 18
+
+Shapiro, Miriam, Talmudist, 117
+
+_Shebach Nashim_ by David ben Yehuda, 223
+
+Shem-Tob. See Santob de Carrion
+
+Sherira, Talmudist, 22
+
+"Shields of Heroes," by Jacob ben Elias, 224
+
+"Shulammith," Jewish German drama, 247
+
+_Shulchan Aruch_, code, 43
+
+Sigismund I, Jews under, 285, 286
+
+Sigismund III, and Saul Wahl, 283-284
+
+Simon ben Yochaï, supposed author of the Kabbala, 19
+
+Sirkes, Joel, Talmudist, 46
+
+"Society for Jewish Culture and Science," in Berlin, 324, 346
+
+_Soferim_, Scribes, 56
+
+Solomon, king, alluded to, 250
+  and Africa, 255
+
+Solomon Ashkenazi, diplomat, 96, 286-287
+
+Solomon ben Aderet, Talmudist, 40
+
+Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), exegete, 36, 84, 137
+  essay on, by Zunz, 329
+  family of, 118
+
+Solomon ben Sakbel, satirist, 34, 213
+
+Solomon Yitschaki. See Solomon ben Isaac
+
+"Song of Joy" by Yehuda Halevi, 207
+
+"Song of Songs," a dramatic idyl, 229
+  alluded to, 207
+  characterized, 192-193
+  epitomized, 223
+  explained, 172
+  in later poetry, 202
+  quoted, 186
+
+Sonnenthal, Adolf, actor, 246
+
+Soudan, the, Moses in, 255
+
+"Source of Life, The" by Gabirol, 82-83
+
+"South, the," Talmud name for Africa, 255
+
+Spalding, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+"Spener's Journal," Zunz editor of, 330
+
+Spinoza, Benedict (Baruch), philosopher, 47, 100
+  and Maimonides, 145, 146, 164
+  influenced by Chasdaï Crescas, 94
+  under Kabbalistic influence, 99
+
+"Spirit of Judaism, The," by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+Stein, L., poet, 49
+
+Steinheim, scholar, 49
+
+Steinschneider, M., scholar, 37, 49
+
+Steinthal, H., scholar, 49
+
+Stephen Báthori, of Poland, 278, 282, 287
+
+_Studie zur Bibelkritik_ by Zunz, 337
+
+Sullam, Sara Copia, poetess, 44, 124-128
+
+Surrenhuys, scholar, 48
+
+Süsskind von Trimberg, minnesinger, 35, 87, 182, 184
+  and Judaism, 187
+  character of, 188
+  poetry of, 185-186
+  quoted, 182-183, 187-188, 188-189
+
+_Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters_, by Zunz, 335
+
+"Synagogue Poetry of the Middle Ages" by Zunz, 336
+
+Syria, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Syrian and Jewish poetry, 80
+
+Syrian Christians as scientific mediators, 78
+
+
+_Tachkemoni_ by Yehuda Charisi, 211
+
+Talmud, the, burnt, 40, 44
+  character of, 52-53
+  compilers of, 56, 57-58
+  composition of, 16
+  contents of, 59-60, 68-70, 76-77
+  in poetry, 201
+  on Africa, 254
+  on the Ten Tribes, 253
+  origin of, 53-54
+  study of, 17-18
+  translations of, 60
+  woman in, 110-114
+  women and children in, 63-64
+
+Talmud, the Babylonian, 54
+  compiler of, 17
+
+Talmud, the Jerusalem, compiler of, 17
+
+Talmudists, 22, 36, 40, 43, 46, 47, 117, 286
+
+Talmudists (women), 116, 117, 118
+
+Tamar, a character in Immanuel Romi's poem, 221-222
+
+_Tanaïm_, Learners, 56, 57
+
+Tanchuma, a Talmudic work, 19
+
+Targum, the, in poetry, 201
+
+Telescope, the, used by Gamaliel, 77
+
+Teller, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Ten Tribes, the, English views of, 260-262
+  Irish legend of, 261
+  the prophets on, 251-252
+  the Samaritan Hexateuch on, 252
+  the supposed homes of, 256-262
+  the Talmud on, 253
+
+Tertullian quoted, 233
+
+Theatre, the, and the rabbis, 230-234
+
+Theodore, Negus of Abyssinia, 263, 267
+
+_Theorica_ by Peurbach, 100
+
+Thomists and Gabirol, 24
+
+"Thoughts suggested by Bible Texts" by Louise Rothschild, 141
+
+_Tifereth_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Tiglath-Pileser conquers Israel, 250
+
+Tiktiner, Rebekah, scholar, 119
+
+"Till Eulenspiegel," the Jewish German, 101
+
+Tolerance in Germany, 185, 189
+
+"Touchstone" by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, 33, 216-219
+
+"Tower of Victory" by Luzzatto, 239
+
+Tragedy, nature of, 195
+
+Travellers, Jewish, 80
+
+"Tristan and Isolde" compared with the _Mechabberoth_, 220
+
+Troubadour poetry and the Jews, 171-173
+
+Troubadours, 223
+
+"Truth's Campaign," anonymous work, 32
+
+Turkey, Jews in, 98
+
+"Two Tables of the Testimony, The," by Isaiah Hurwitz, 43
+
+Tycho de Brahe and Jewish astronomers, 92
+
+
+Uhden, von, and Mendelssohn, 302
+
+Uhland, poet, alluded to, 139
+
+Ulla, itinerant preacher, 114
+
+"Upon the Philosophy of Maimonides," prize essay, 145
+
+Usque, Samuel, poet, 44
+
+Usque, Solomon, poet, 98, 235
+
+
+"Vale of Weeping, The," by Joseph Cohen, 44
+
+Varnhagen, Rahel. See Levin, Rahel
+
+Varnhagen von Ense, German _littérateur_, 312
+
+Vecinho, Joseph, astronomer, 96
+
+Veit, Philip, painter, 308
+
+Veit, Simon, husband of Dorothea Mendelssohn, 306
+
+Venino, alluded to, 302
+
+Venus of Milo and Heine, 362
+
+Vespasian and Jochanan ben Zakkaï, 57
+
+
+Walther von der Vogelweide, minnesinger, 182, 189
+
+Wandering Jew, the, myth of, 350
+
+"War of Wealth and Wisdom, The," satire, 34
+
+"Water Song" by Gabirol, 200-201
+
+Weil, Jacob, Talmudist, 102
+
+Weill, Alexander, and Heine, 363-364
+
+_Weltschmerz_ in Gabirol's poetry, 199
+  in Heine's poetry, 357
+
+Wesseli, musician, 313
+
+Wessely, Naphtali Hartwig, commentator, 48, 309
+
+Wieland, poet, alluded to, 314
+
+Wihl, poet, 49
+
+Wine, creation of, 197-198
+
+Withold, grandduke, and the Lithuanian Jews, 282, 284
+
+Wohllerner, Yenta, poetess, 138
+
+Wohlwill, Immanuel, friend of Zunz, letter to, 325
+
+Wolfenbüttel, Jews' free school at, 320-321
+
+Wolff, Hebrew scholar, 48
+
+Wolfram von Eschenbach, minnesinger, 182, 185, 189
+
+Woman, creation of, 197
+  in Jewish annals, 110
+  in literature, 106-107
+  in the Talmud, 64, 110-114
+  mental characteristics of, 121-122
+  satirized and defended, 223-224
+  services of, to Judaism, 115-116
+
+"Woman's Friend" by Yedaya Penini, 216
+
+Women, Jewish, in the emancipation movement, 133, 139
+
+"Women of Israel, The" by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+"Women's Shield," by Judah Tommo, 224
+
+"World as Will and Idea, The," by Schopenhauer, 357
+
+
+Xemona. See Kasmune
+
+
+Yaltha, wife of Rabbi Nachman, 113-114
+
+Yechiel ben Abraham, financier, 99
+
+Yechiel deï Mansi, alluded to, 116
+
+Yedaya Penini, poet, 40, 216
+
+Yehuda ben Astruc, scientist, 92
+
+Yehuda ben Zakkaï quoted, 68
+
+Yehuda Charisi, poet, 32, 34 (note), 210-213
+  on Gabirol, 27
+  quoted, 214
+  traveller, 37
+
+Yehuda Chayyug, alluded to, 257
+
+Yehuda Hakohen, Talmudist, 36
+
+Yehuda Halevi, as philosopher, 31, 34
+  as poet, 24, 27-28, 206-210
+  daughter of, 117
+
+Yehuda Romano, translator, 90
+
+Yehuda Sabbataï, satirist, 34, 214
+
+Yehuda the Prince, Mishna compiler, 19, 58
+  lament over, 65-66
+
+Yemen, Judaism in, 256
+
+_Yesod_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+_Yesod Olam_ by Moses Zacuto, 238-239
+
+_Yezira_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+"Yosippon," an historical compilation, 120, 249, 250, 321
+
+Yucatan and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+
+Zacuto, Abraham, astronomer, 42, 96-97
+
+Zacuto, Moses, dramatist, 238-239
+
+Zarzal, Moses, physician, 179
+
+_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft_,
+  Zunz contributor to, 337
+
+Zeltner, J. G., on Rebekah Tiktiner, 119
+
+Zerubbabel, alluded to, 253
+
+Zohar, the, astronomy in, 91
+  authorship of, 39
+
+Zöllner, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Zunz, Adelheid, wife of Leopold Zunz, 337, 352
+
+Zunz, Leopold, scholar, 25, 48
+  and religious reform, 335
+  as journalist, 330
+  as pedagogue, 324
+  as politician, 330-332
+  as preacher, 322-323
+  characterized by Heine, 327-328
+  described by Jost, 320
+  education of, 320-322
+  friend of Heine, 346
+  importance of, for Judaism, 338
+  in Berlin, 318-319
+  quoted, 11-12, 119, 323, 325-327, 330, 331, 332, 334, 336, 371
+  style of, 338
+
+"Zur Geschichte und Litteratur" by Zunz, 337
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+PUBLICATIONS OF THE Jewish Publication Society OF AMERICA
+
+OUTLINES OF JEWISH HISTORY. From the Return from Babylon to the Present
+Time. By Lady Magnus. (Revised by M. Friedländer.)
+
+THINK AND THANK. By Samuel W. Cooper.
+
+RABBI AND PRIEST. By Milton Goldsmith.
+
+THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.
+
+VOEGELE'S MARRIAGE AND OTHER TALES. By Louis Schnabel.
+
+CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO: BEING PICTURES OF A
+
+PECULIAR PEOPLE. By I. Zangwill.
+
+SOME JEWISH WOMEN. By Henry Zirndorf.
+
+HISTORY OF THE JEWS. By Prof. H. Graetz.
+
+Vol. I.   From the Earliest Period to the Death of Simon
+  the Maccabee (135 B.C.E.).
+
+Vol. II. From the Reign of Hyrcanus to the Completion of
+  the Babylonian Talmud (500 C.E.).
+
+Vol. III. From the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud to
+  the Expulsion of the Jews from England (1290 C.E.).
+
+Vol. IV. From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C.E.)
+  to the Permanent Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C.E.).
+
+Vol. V.   In preparation.
+
+SABBATH HOURS. Thoughts. By Liebman Adler.
+
+PAPERS OF THE JEWISH WOMEN'S CONGRESS.
+
+OLD EUROPEAN JEWRIES. By David Philipson, D.D.
+
+Dues, $3.00 per Annum
+
+ALL PUBLICATIONS FOR SALE BY THE TRADE AND AT THE SOCIETY'S OFFICE
+
+SPECIAL TERMS TO SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES
+
+
+THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
+Office, 1015 Arch St.
+P. O. Box 1164
+PHILADELPHIA, PA.
+
+
+OUTLINES OF JEWISH HISTORY.
+
+From the Return from Babylon to the Present Time, 1890.
+
+With Three Maps, a Frontispiece and Chronological Tables,
+
+BY LADY MAGNUS.
+
+REVISED BY M. FRIEDLÄNDER, PH.D.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+The entire work is one of great interest; it is written with moderation,
+and yet with a fine enthusiasm for the great race which is set before
+the reader's mind.--_Atlantic Monthly._
+
+We doubt whether there is in the English language a better sketch of
+Jewish history. The Jewish Publication Society is to be congratulated on
+the successful opening of its career. Such a movement, so auspiciously
+begun, deserves the hearty support of the public.--_Nation_ (New York).
+
+Of universal historical interest.--_Philadelphia Ledger._
+
+Compresses much in simple language.--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+Though full of sympathy for her own people, it is not without a singular
+value for readers whose religious belief differs from that of the
+author.--_New York Times._
+
+One of the clearest and most compact works of its class produced in
+modern times.--_New York Sun._
+
+The Jewish Publication Society of America has not only conferred a favor
+upon all young Hebrews, but also upon all Gentiles who desire to see the
+Jew as he appears to himself.--_Boston Herald._
+
+We know of no single-volume history which gives a better idea of the
+remarkable part played by the Jews in ancient and modern history.--_San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+A succinct, well-written history of a wonderful race.--_Buffalo
+Courier._
+
+The best hand-book of Jewish history that readers of any class can
+find.--_New York Herald._
+
+A convenient and attractive hand-book of Jewish history.--_Cleveland
+Plain Dealer._
+
+The work is an admirable one, and as a manual of Jewish history, it may
+be commended to persons of every race and creed.--_Philadelphia Times._
+
+Altogether it would be difficult to find another book on this subject
+containing so much information.--_American_ (Philadelphia).
+
+Lady Magnus' book is a valuable addition to the store-house of
+literature that we already have about the Jews.--_Charleston (S. C.)
+News._
+
+We should like to see this volume in the library of every school in the
+State.--_Albany Argus._
+
+A succinct, helpful portrayal of Jewish history.--_Boston Post._
+
+Bound in Cloth. Price, postpaid, $1.00, Library Edition.
+
+75 cents. School Edition.
+
+
+"THINK AND THANK."
+
+A Tale for the Young, Narrating in Romantic Form the Boyhood of Sir
+Moses Montefiore.
+
+WITH SIX ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+BY SAMUEL W. COOPER.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+A graphic and interesting story, full of incident and adventure, with an
+admirable spirit attending it consonant with the kindly and sweet,
+though courageous and energetic temper of the distinguished
+philanthropist.--_American_ (Philadelphia).
+
+THINK AND THANK is a most useful corrective to race prejudice. It is
+also deeply interesting as a biographical sketch of a distinguished
+Englishman.--_Philadelphia Ledger._
+
+A fine book for boys of any class to read.--_Public Opinion_
+(Washington).
+
+It will have especial interest for the boys of his race, but all
+school-boys can well afford to read it and profit by it.--_Albany
+Evening Journal._
+
+Told simply and well.--_New York Sun._
+
+An excellent story for children.--_Indianapolis Journal._
+
+The old as well as the young may learn a lesson from it.--_Jewish
+Exponent._
+
+It is a thrilling story exceedingly well told.--_American Israelite._
+
+The book is written in a plain, simple style, and is well adapted for
+Sunday School libraries.--_Jewish Spectator._
+
+It is one of the very few books in the English language which can be
+placed in the hands of a Jewish boy with the assurance of arousing and
+maintaining his interest.--_Hebrew Journal._
+
+Intended for the young, but may well be read by their elders.--_Detroit
+Free Press._
+
+Bright and attractive reading.--_Philadelphia Press._
+
+THINK AND THANK will please boys, and it will be found popular in Sunday
+School libraries.--_New York Herald._
+
+The story is a beautiful one, and gives a clear insight into the
+circumstances, the training and the motives that gave impulse and energy
+to the life-work of the great philanthropist.--_Kansas City Times._
+
+We should be glad to know that this little book has a large circulation
+among Gentiles as well as among the "chosen people." It has no trace of
+religious bigotry about it, and its perusal cannot but serve to make
+Christian and Jew better known to each other.--_Philadelphia Telegraph._
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, 50c.
+
+
+RABBI AND PRIEST.
+
+A STORY.
+
+BY MILTON GOLDSMITH.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+The author has attempted to depict faithfully the customs and practices
+of the Russian people and government in connection with the Jewish
+population of that country. The book is a strong and well-written story.
+We read and suffer with the sufferers.--_Public Opinion_ (Washington).
+
+Although addressed to Jews, with an appeal to them to seek freedom and
+peace in America, it ought to be read by humane people of all races and
+religions. Mr. Goldsmith is a master of English, and his pure style is
+one of the real pleasures of the story.--_Philadelphia Bulletin._
+
+The book has the merit of being well written, is highly entertaining,
+and it cannot fail to prove of interest to all who may want to acquaint
+themselves in the matter of the condition of affairs that has recently
+been attracting universal attention.--_San Francisco Call._
+
+RABBI AND PRIEST has genuine worth, and is entitled to a rank among the
+foremost of its class.--_Minneapolis Tribune._
+
+The writer tells his story from the Jewish standpoint, and tells it
+well.--_St. Louis Republic._
+
+The descriptions of life in Russia are vivid and add greatly to the
+charm of the book.--_Buffalo Courier._
+
+A very thrilling story.--_Charleston (S.C.) News._
+
+Very like the horrid tales that come from unhappy Russia.--_New Orleans
+Picayune._
+
+The situations are dramatic; the dialogue is spirited.--_Jewish
+Messenger._
+
+A history of passing events in an interesting form.--_Jewish Tidings._
+
+RABBI AND PRIEST will appeal to the sympathy of every reader in its
+touching simplicity and truthfulness.--_Jewish Spectator._
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $1.
+
+
+SPECIAL SERIES NO. 1.
+
+The Persecution of the Jews in Russia.
+
+WITH A MAP, SHOWING THE PALE OF JEWISH SETTLEMENT.
+
+Also, an Appendix, giving an Abridged Summary of Laws,
+
+Special and Restrictive, relating to the Jews in
+
+Russia, brought down to the year 1890.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+The pamphlet is full of facts, and will inform people very fully in
+regard to the basis of the complaints made by Jews against Russia. We
+hope it will be very widely circulated.--_Public Opinion_ (Washington).
+
+The laws and regulations governing Jews in Russia, subjecting them to
+severe oppression, grievous restrictions and systematic persecution, are
+stated in condensed form with precise references, bespeaking exactness
+in compilation and in presenting the case of these unfortunate
+people.--_Galveston News._
+
+This pamphlet supplies information that is much in demand, and which
+ought to be generally known in enlightened countries.--_Cincinnati
+Commercial Gazette._
+
+Considering the present agitation upon the subject it is a very timely
+publication.--_New Orleans Picayune._
+
+It is undoubtedly the most compact and thorough presentation of the
+Russo-Jewish question.--_American Israelite._
+
+Better adapted to the purpose of affording an adequate knowledge of the
+issues involved in, and the consequences of, the present great crisis in
+the affairs of the Jews of Russia than reams of rhetoric.--_Hebrew
+Journal._
+
+Paper.
+Price, postpaid, 25c.
+
+
+SPECIAL SERIES NO. 2.
+
+Voegele's Marriage and Other Tales.
+
+BY LOUIS SCHNABEL.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+A series of nine well-written short stories based upon love and
+religion, which make quite interesting reading.--_Burlington Hawkeye._
+
+A pamphlet containing several sketches full of high moral principle, and
+of quite interesting developments of simple human emergencies.--_Public
+Opinion_ (Washington, D. C.)
+
+Interesting alike to Hebrew and Gentile.--_Minneapolis Tribune._
+
+In addition to being interesting, is written with a purpose, and carries
+with it a wholesome lesson.--_San Francisco Call._
+
+This is a collection of brief stories of Jewish life, some of which are
+of great interest, while all are well written.--_Charleston (S. C.) News
+and Courier._
+
+The little volume as a whole is curious and interesting, aside from its
+claims to artistic merit.--_American Bookseller_ (New York).
+
+Short tales of Jewish life under the oppressive laws of Eastern Europe,
+full of minute detail.--_Book News_ (Philadelphia).
+
+Written in delightful style, somewhat in the manner of Kompert and
+Bernstein.... To many the booklet will be a welcome visitor and be
+greatly relished.--_Menorah Monthly._
+
+These stories are permeated with the Jewish spirit which is
+characteristic of all Mr. Schnabel's works.--_American Hebrew._
+
+Paper.
+Price, postpaid, 25c.
+
+
+CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO
+
+_BEING_
+
+PICTURES OF A PECULIAR PEOPLE.
+
+BY I. ZANGWILL.
+
+
+The art of a Hogarth or a Cruikshank could not have made types of
+character stand out with greater force or in bolder relief than has the
+pen of this author.--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+It is one of the best pictures of Jewish life and thought that we have
+seen since the publication of "Daniel Deronda."--London _Pall Mall
+Gazette_.
+
+This book is not a mere mechanical photographic reproduction of the
+people it describes, but a glowing, vivid portrayal of them, with all
+the pulsating sympathy of one who understands them, their thoughts and
+feelings, with all the picturesque fidelity of the artist who
+appreciates the spiritual significance of that which he seeks to
+delineate.--_Hebrew Journal._
+
+Its sketches of character have the highest value.... Not often do we
+note a book so fresh, true and in every way helpful.--_Philadelphia
+Evening Telegraph._
+
+A strong and remarkable book. It is not easy to find a parallel to it.
+We do not know of any other novel which deals so fully and so
+authoritatively with Judæa in modern London.--_Speaker, London._
+
+Among the notable productions of the time.... All that is here portrayed
+is unquestionable truth.--_Jewish Exponent._
+
+Many of the pictures will be recognized at once by those who have
+visited London or are at all familiar with the life of that
+city.--_Detroit Free Press._
+
+It is a succession of sharply-penned realistic portrayals.--_Baltimore
+American._
+
+TWO VOLUMES.
+
+Bound in Cloth.         Price, postpaid, $2.50.
+
+
+SOME JEWISH WOMEN.
+
+BY
+
+HENRY ZIRNDORF.
+
+
+=_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS._=
+
+Moral purity, nobility of soul, self-sacrifice, deep affection and
+devotion, sorrow and happiness all enter into these biographies, and the
+interest felt in their perusal is added to by the warmth and sympathy
+which the author displays and by his cultured and vigorous style of
+writing.--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+His methods are at once a simplification and expansion of Josephus and
+the Talmud, stories simply told, faithful presentation of the virtues,
+and not infrequently the vices, of characters sometimes legendary,
+generally real.--_New York World._
+
+The lives here given are interesting in all cases, and are thrilling in
+some cases.--_Public Opinion_ (Washington, D.C.).
+
+The volume is one of universal historic interest, and is a portrayal of
+the early trials of Jewish women.--_Boston Herald._
+
+Though the chapters are brief, they are clearly the result of deep and
+thorough research that gives the modest volume an historical and
+critical value.--_Philadelphia Times._
+
+It is an altogether creditable undertaking that the present author has
+brought to so gratifying a close--the silhouette drawing of Biblical
+female character against the background of those ancient historic
+times.--_Minneapolis Tribune._
+
+Henry Zirndorf ranks high as a student, thinker and writer, and this
+little book will go far to encourage the study of Hebrew
+literature.--_Denver Republican._
+
+The book is gracefully written, and has many strong touches of
+characterizations.--_Toledo Blade._
+
+The sketches are based upon available history and are written in clear
+narrative style.--_Galveston News._
+
+Henry Zirndorf has done a piece of work of much literary excellence in
+"SOME JEWISH WOMEN."--S_t. Louis Post-Dispatch._
+
+It is an attractive book in appearance and full of curious biographical
+research.--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+The writer shows careful research and conscientiousness in making his
+narratives historically correct and in giving to each heroine her just
+due.--_American Israelite_ (Cincinnati).
+
+Bound in Cloth, Ornamental, Gilt Top. Price, postpaid, $1.25.
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE JEWS
+
+BY
+
+PROFESSOR H. GRAETZ
+
+
+Vol. I. From the Earliest Period to the Death of Simon the Maccabee (135
+B.C.E.).
+
+Vol. II. From the Reign of Hyrcanus to the Completion of the Babylonian
+Talmud (500 C.E.).
+
+Vol. III. From the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud to the Banishment
+of the Jews from England (1290 C.E.).
+
+Vol. IV. From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C.E.) to the Permanent
+Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C.E.).
+
+Vol. V. In preparation.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+Professor Graetz's History is universally accepted as a conscientious
+and reliable contribution to religious literature.--_Philadelphia
+Telegraph._
+
+Aside from his value as a historian, he makes his pages charming by all
+the little side-lights and illustrations which only come at the beck of
+genius.--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._
+
+The writer, who is considered by far the greatest of Jewish historians,
+is the pioneer in his field of work--history without theology or
+polemics.... His monumental work promises to be the standard by which
+all other Jewish histories are to be measured by Jews for many years to
+come.--_Baltimore American._
+
+Whenever the subject constrains the author to discuss the Christian
+religion, he is animated by a spirit not unworthy of the philosophic and
+high-minded hero of Lessing's "Nathan the Wise."--_New York Sun._
+
+It is an exhaustive and scholarly work, for which the student of history
+has reason to be devoutly thankful.... It will be welcomed also for the
+writer's excellent style and for the almost gossipy way in which he
+turns aside from the serious narrative to illumine his pages with
+illustrative descriptions of life and scenery.--_Detroit Free Press._
+
+One of the striking features of the compilation is its succinctness and
+rapidity of narrative, while at the same time necessary detail is not
+sacrificed.--_Minneapolis Tribune._
+
+Whatever controversies the work may awaken, of its noble scholarship
+there can be no question.--_Richmond Dispatch._
+
+If one desires to study the history of the Jewish people under the
+direction of a scholar and pleasant writer who is in sympathy with his
+subject because he is himself a Jew, he should resort to the volumes of
+Graetz.--_Review of Reviews_ (New York).
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $3 per Volume
+
+
+SABBATH HOURS
+
+=THOUGHTS=
+
+BY LIEBMAN ADLER
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS=
+
+Rabbi Adler was a man of strong and fertile mind, and his sermons are
+eminently readable.--_Sunday School Times._
+
+As one turns from sermon to sermon, he gathers a wealth of precept
+which, if he would practice, he would make both himself and others
+happier. We might quote from every page some noble utterance or sweet
+thought well worthy of the cherishing by either Jew or
+Christian.--_Richmond Dispatch._
+
+The topics discussed are in the most instances practical in their
+nature. All are instructive, and passages of rare eloquence are of
+frequent occurrence.--_San Francisco Call._
+
+The sermons are simple and careful studies, sometimes of doctrine, but
+more often of teaching and precept.--_Chicago Times._
+
+He combined scholarly attainment with practical experience, and these
+sermons cover a wide range of subject. Some of them are singularly
+modern in tone.--_Indianapolis News._
+
+They are modern sermons, dealing with the problems of the day, and
+convey the interpretation which these problems should receive in the
+light of the Old Testament history.--_Boston Herald._
+
+While this book is not without interest in those communities where there
+is no scarcity of religious teaching and influence, it cannot fail to be
+particularly so in those communities where there is but little Jewish
+teaching.--_Baltimore American._
+
+The sermons are thoughtful and earnest in tone and draw many forcible
+and pertinent lessons from the Old Testament records.--_Syracuse
+Herald._
+
+They are saturated with Bible lore, but every incident taken from the
+Old Testament is made to illustrate some truth in modern life.--_San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+They are calm and conservative, ... applicable in their essential
+meaning to the modern religious needs of Gentile as well as Jew. In
+style they are eminently clear and direct.-_-Review of Reviews_ (New
+York).
+
+Able, forcible, helpful thoughts upon themes most essential to the
+prosperity of the family, society and the state.--_Public Opinion_
+(Washington, D.C.).
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $1.25
+
+
+PAPERS
+
+OF THE
+
+Jewish Women's Congress
+
+Held at Chicago, September, 1893
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS=
+
+This meeting was held during the first week of September, and was marked
+by the presentation of some particularly interesting addresses and
+plans. This volume is a complete report of the sessions.--_Chicago
+Times._
+
+The collection in book form of the papers read at the Jewish Women's
+Congress ... makes an interesting and valuable book, of the history and
+affairs of the Jewish women of America.--_St. Louis Post-Dispatch._
+
+A handsome and valuable souvenir of an event of great significance to
+the people of the Jewish faith, and of much interest and value to
+intelligent and well informed people of all faiths.--_Kansas City
+Times._
+
+The Congress was a branch of the Parliament of Religions and was a great
+success, arousing the interest of Jews and Christians alike, and
+bringing together from all parts of the country women interested in
+their religion, following similar lines of work and sympathetic in ways
+of thought.... The papers in the volume are all of interest.--_Detroit
+Free Press._
+
+The Jewish Publication Society of America has done a good work in
+gathering up and issuing in a well-printed volume the "Papers of the
+Jewish Women's Congress."--_Cleveland Plain-Dealer._
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $1
+
+
+OLD EUROPEAN JEWRIES
+
+BY DAVID PHILIPSON, D.D.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS=
+
+A good purpose is served in this unpretending little book, ... which
+contains an amount and kind of information that it would be difficult to
+find elsewhere without great labor. The author's subject is the Ghetto,
+or Jewish quarter in European cities.--_Literary World_ (Boston).
+
+It is interesting ... to see the foundation of ... so much fiction that
+is familiar to us--to go, as the author here has gone in one of his
+trips abroad, into the remains of the old Jewries.--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+His book is a careful study limited to the official Ghetto.--_Cincinnati
+Commercial-Gazette._
+
+Out-of-the-way information, grateful to the delver in antiquities, forms
+the staple of a work on the historic Ghettos of Europe--_Milwaukee
+Sentinel._
+
+He tells the story of the Ghettos calmly, sympathetically and
+conscientiously, and his deductions are in harmony with those of all
+other intelligent and fair-minded men.--_Richmond Dispatch._
+
+A striking study of the results of a system that has left its mark upon
+the Jews of all countries.--_San Francisco Chronicle._
+
+He has carefully gone over all published accounts and made
+discriminating use of the publications, both recent and older, on his
+subject, in German, French and English.--_Reform Advocate_ (Chicago).
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $1.25
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Zunz, _Gesammelte Schriften_, I., 42.
+
+[2] G. Scherr, _Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur_, I., p. 62.
+
+[3] F. Freiligrath, _Die Bilderbibel_.
+
+[4] D. Cassel, _Lehrbuch der jüdischen Geschichte und Literatur_, p.
+198.
+
+[5] Heine, _Romanzero, Jehuda ben Halevy_.
+
+[6] F. Delitzsch, _Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Poesie_, p. 165.
+
+[7] Heine, _l. c._
+
+[8] Heine, _l. c._
+
+[9] M. J. Schleiden, _Die Bedeutung der Juden für die Erhaltung der
+Wissenschaften im Mittelalter_, p. 37.
+
+[10] Ezek. xxiii. 4. [Tr.]
+
+[11] Ad. Jellinek, _Der jüdische Stamm_, p. 195.
+
+[12] "Makama (plural, Makamat), the Arabic word for a place where people
+congregate to discuss public affairs, came to be used as the name of a
+form of poetry midway between the epic and the drama." (Karpeles,
+_Geschichte der jüdischen Literatur_, vol. II., p. 693.) The most famous
+Arabic poet of Makamat was Hariri of Bassora, and the most famous
+Jewish, Yehuda Charisi. See above, p. 32, and p. 211 [Tr.]
+
+[13] Hirt, _Bibliothek_, V., p. 43.
+
+[14] _Midrash Echah_, I., 5; Mishna, _Rosh Hashana_, chap. II.
+
+[15] Cmp. Wünsche, Die Haggada des jerusalemischen Talmud, and the same
+author's great work, Die Haggada des babylonischen Talmud, IL; also W.
+Bacher, Die Agada der Tannaiten, Die Agada der babylonischen Amoräer,
+and Die Agada der palästinensischen Amoräer, Vol. I.
+
+[16] M. Sachs, _Stimmen vom Jordan und Euphrat_.
+
+[17] Emanuel Deutsch, "Literary Remains," p. 45.
+
+[18] Address at the dedication of the new meeting-house of the
+Independent Order B'nai B'rith, at Berlin.
+
+[19] Numbers, xxi. 17, 18.
+
+[20] Psalm cxxxiii.
+
+[21] M. J. Schleiden: _Die Bedeutung der Juden für die Erhaltung der
+Wissenschaften im Mittelalter_, p. 7.
+
+[22] _Moed Katan_, 26_a_.
+
+[23] Cmp. "Israel's Quest in Africa," pp. 257-258
+
+[24] Cmp. Gutmann, _Die Religiousphilosophie des Saâdja_.
+
+[25] M. Hess, _Rom und Jerusalem_, p. 2.
+
+[26] Midrash _Yalkut_ on Proverbs.
+
+[27] _Berachoth_, 10_a_.
+
+[28] _Baba Metsiah_, 59_a_.
+
+[29] _Sota_, 20_a_.
+
+[30] _Berachoth_, 51_b_.
+
+[31] Cmp. W. Bacher in _Frankel-Graetz Monatsschrift_, Vol. XX., p. 186.
+
+[32] Cmp. E. David, _Sara Copia Sullam, une héroïne juive au XVII^e
+siècle_.
+
+[33] For the following, compare Kayserling, _Sephardim_, p. 250 _ff._
+
+[34] Cmp. _Rahel, ein Buch des Andenkens für ihre Freunde_, Vol. I., p.
+43.
+
+[35] By Julius Rodenberg.
+
+[36] Ritter, _Geschichte der christlichen Philosophie_, Vol. I., p. 610
+ff.
+
+[37] Joel, _Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie_, Vol. II., p. 9.
+
+[38] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, Vol. VI., p. 298 _f._
+
+[39] "The Guide of the Perplexed," the English translation, consulted in
+this work, was made by M. Friedländer, Ph. D., (London, Trübner & Co.,
+1885). [Tr.]
+
+[40] Joel, _l. c._
+
+[41] Cmp. Kayserling, _Sephardim_, p. 23 _ff._
+
+[42] Translation by Ticknor. [Tr.]
+
+[43] Cmp. F. Wolf, _Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen
+Nationalliteratur_, p. 236 _ff._
+
+[44] Cmp. Kayserling, _l. c._ p. 85 _ff._
+
+[45] Livius Fürst in _Illustrirte Monatshefte für die gesammten
+Interessen des Judenthums_, Vol. I., p. 14 ff. Cmp. also, Hagen,
+_Minnesänger_, Vol. II., p. 258, Vol. IV., p. 536 ff., and W. Goldbaum,
+_Entlegene Culturen_, p. 275 _ff._
+
+[46] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, Vol. VI., p. 257.
+
+[47] For Gabirol, cmp. A. Geiger, _Salomon Gabirol_, and M. Sachs, _Die
+religiöse Poesie der Juden in Spanien_.
+
+[48] H. Heine, _Romanzero_.
+
+[49] Translation by Emma Lazarus. [Tr.]
+
+[50] See note, p. 34. [Tr.]
+
+[51] J. Schor in _He-Chaluz_, Vol. IV., p. 154 _ff._
+
+[52] S. Stein in _Freitagabend_, p. 645 _ff._
+
+[53] H. A. Meisel, _Der Prüfstein des Kalonymos_.
+
+[54] Livius Fürst in _Illustrirte Monatshefte_, Vol. I., p. 105 _ff._
+
+[55] _Aboda Sara_ 18_b_.
+
+[56] Midrash on Lamentations, ch. 3, v. 13 _ff._
+
+[57] Jerusalem Talmud, _Berachoth_, 9.
+
+[58] Cmp. Berliner, _Yesod Olam, das älteste bekannte dramatische
+Gedicht in hebräischer Sprache_.
+
+[59] Delitzsch, _Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Poesie_, p. 88.
+
+[60] Jellinek, _Der jüdische Stamm_, p. 64.
+
+[61] Aristotle, _Hist. Anim._, 8, 28. Nicephorus Gregoras, _Hist.
+Byzant._, p. 805.
+
+[62] Isaiah xi. 11-16.
+
+[63] Jeremiah xxxi. 8-9.
+
+[64] Isaiah xlix. 9 and xxvii. 13.
+
+[65] Ezekiel xxxvii. 16-17.
+
+[66] Cmp. Spiegel, _Die Alexandersagen bei den Orientalen_.
+
+[67] Cmp. A. Epstein, _Eldad ha-Dani_, p. x.
+
+[68] Rüppell, _Reisen in Nubien_, p. 416.
+
+[69] Cmp. Epstein, _l. c._, p. 141.
+
+[70] _Alliance_ Report for 1868.
+
+[71] Halévy, _Les prières des Falashas_, Introduction.
+
+[72] Cmp. Edelmann, _Gedulath Shaul_, Introduction.
+
+[73] Cmp. H. Goldbaum, _Entlegene Culturen_, p. 299 _ff._
+
+[74] _Woschod_, 1889, No. 10 _ff._
+
+[75] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, IX., p. 480.
+
+[76] Ezekiel xxxvii. 1-11.
+
+[77] J. G. Herder.
+
+[78] M. Kayserling: _Moses Mendelssohn_, and L. Geiger, _Geschichte der
+Juden in Berlin_, II.
+
+[79] Lessing, _Gesammelte Schriften_, Vol. XII., p. 247.
+
+[80] Mendelssohn, _Gesammelte Schriften_, Vol. IV^2, 68 _ff._
+
+[81] Hensel, _Die Familie Mendelssohn_, Vol. I., p. 86.
+
+[82] Cmp. I. Heinemann, _Moses Mendelssohn_, p. 21.
+
+[83] Cmp. Buker and Caro, _Vor hundert Jahren_, p. 123.
+
+[84] Address delivered at the installation of the Leopold Zunz Lodge at
+Berlin.
+
+[85] In _Sippurim_, I., 165 _ff._
+
+[86] Administrators of the secular affairs of Jewish congregations.
+[Tr.]
+
+[87] Compassion, charity. [Tr.]
+
+[88] Talmudical dialectics. [Tr.]
+
+[89] Cmp. Strodtmann: _H. Heine_, Vol. I., p. 316.
+
+[90] Zunz, _Gesammelte Schriften_, Vol. I., p. 3 _ff._
+
+[91] _Ibid._, p. 301.
+
+[92] _Ibid._, p. 310.
+
+[93] _Ibid._, p. 316.
+
+[94] _Ibid._, p. 133.
+
+[95] Cmp. _Memoiren_ in his Collected Works, Vol. VI., p. 375 _ff._
+
+[96] Ludwig Kalisch, _Pariser Skizzen_, p. 331.
+
+[97] Collected Works, Vol. IV., p. 227.
+
+[98] _Ibid._, Vol. III., p. 13.
+
+[99] _Ibid._, Vol. IV., p. 257 _ff._
+
+[100] _Ibid._, Vol. VIII., p. 390 _ff._
+
+[101] _Ibid._, Vol. I., p. 196.
+
+[102] Vol. II., p. 110. Cmp. Frauenstädt, _A. Schopenhauer_, p. 467
+_ff._
+
+[103] Collected Works, Vol. VII., p. 255 _ff._
+
+[104] Alfred Meissner, _Heinrich Heine_, p. 138 _ff._
+
+[105] Ludwig Kalisch, _Pariser Skizzen_, p. 334.
+
+[106] Collected Works, Vol. VII., 473 _ff._
+
+[107] Address at the celebration of Herr Lewandowski's fiftieth
+anniversary as director of music.
+
+[108] _Yoma_, 38_a_.
+
+[109] Cmp. Fétis, _Histoire générale de la Musique_, Vol. I., p. 563
+_ff._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jewish Literature and Other Essays, by 
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+Project Gutenberg's Jewish Literature and Other Essays, by Gustav Karpeles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
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+Title: Jewish Literature and Other Essays
+
+Author: Gustav Karpeles
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2009 [EBook #27901]
+
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEWISH LITERATURE AND OTHER ESSAYS ***
+
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+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was
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+</pre>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<h1 class="top15">JEWISH LITERATURE</h1>
+
+<p class="c">AND</p>
+
+<h2>OTHER ESSAYS</h2>
+
+<p class="c">BY</p>
+
+<h3 class="top5">GUSTAV KARPELES</h3>
+
+<p class="c top5"><img src="images/001.png"
+alt="image not available"
+width="156"
+height="156" /></p>
+
+<p class="c smcap top5">philadelphia<br />
+the jewish publication society of america<br />1895</p>
+
+<p class="sml non">Press of<br />
+The Friedenwald Co.<br />
+Baltimore</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">Page 5</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>PREFACE</h3>
+
+
+<p>The following essays were delivered during the last ten years, in the
+form of addresses, before the largest associations in the great cities
+of Germany. Each one is a dear and precious possession to me. As I once
+more pass them in review, reminiscences fill my mind of solemn occasions
+and impressive scenes, of excellent men and charming women. I feel as
+though I were sending the best beloved children of my fancy out into the
+world, and sadness seizes me when I realize that they no longer belong
+to me alone&mdash;that they have become the property of strangers. The living
+word falling upon the ear of the listener is one thing; quite another
+the word staring from the cold, printed page. Will my thoughts be
+accorded the same friendly welcome that greeted them when first they
+were uttered?</p>
+
+<p>I venture to hope that they may be kindly received; for these addresses
+were born of devoted love to Judaism. The consciousness that Israel is
+charged with a great historical mission, not yet accomplished, ushered
+them into existence. Truth and sincerity stood sponsor to every word. Is
+it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> presumptuous, then, to hope that they may find favor in the New
+World? Brethren of my faith live there as here; our ancient watchword,
+"Sh'ma Yisrael," resounds in their synagogues as in ours; the old
+blood-stained flag, with its sublime inscription, "The Lord is my
+banner!" floats over them; and Jewish hearts in America are loyal like
+ours, and sustained by steadfast faith in the Messianic time when our
+hopes and ideals, our aims and dreams, will be realized. There is but
+one Judaism the world over, by the Jordan and the Tagus as by the
+Vistula and the Mississippi. God bless and protect it, and lead it to
+the goal of its glorious future!</p>
+
+<p>To all Jewish hearts beyond the ocean, in free America, fraternal
+greetings!</p>
+
+<p class="r smcap">Gustav Karpeles</p>
+
+<table summary="berlin"
+cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
+style="font-size:70%;margin-left:2%;">
+<tr><td valign="middle"><span class="smcap">Berlin,</span>
+Pesach</td>
+<td><span class="un">5652.</span><br />1892</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+
+<table summary="toc"
+cellpadding="5"
+cellspacing="0"
+class="smcap">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right">page</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>A Glance at Jewish Literature</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Talmud</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Jew in the History of Civilization</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Women in Jewish Literature</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Moses Maimonides</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Jewish Troubadours and Minnesingers</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Humor and Love in Jewish Poetry</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Jewish Stage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Jew's Quest in Africa</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>A Jewish King in Poland</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Jewish Society in the Time of Mendelssohn</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Leopold Zunz</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_318">318</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Heinrich Heine and Judaism</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_340">340</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Music of the Synagogue</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Index</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_380">380</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>A GLANCE AT JEWISH LITERATURE</h3>
+
+
+<p>In a well-known passage of the <i>Romanzero</i>, rebuking Jewish women for
+their ignorance of the magnificent golden age of their nation's poetry,
+Heine used unmeasured terms of condemnation. He was too severe, for the
+sources from which he drew his own information were of a purely
+scientific character, necessarily unintelligible to the ordinary reader.
+The first truly popular presentation of the whole of Jewish literature
+was made only a few years ago, and could not have existed in Heine's
+time, as the most valuable treasures of that literature, a veritable
+Hebrew Pompeii, have been unearthed from the mould and rubbish of the
+libraries within this century. Investigations of the history of Jewish
+literature have been possible, then, only during the last fifty years.</p>
+
+<p>But in the course of this half-century, conscientious research has so
+actively been prosecuted that we can now gain at least a bird's-eye view
+of the whole course of our literature. Some stretches still lie in
+shadow, and it is not astonishing that eminent scholars continue to
+maintain that "there is no such thing as an organic history, a logical
+development, of the gigantic neo-Hebraic literature"; while such as are
+acquainted with the results of late<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> research at best concede that
+Hebrew literature has been permitted to garner a "tender aftermath."
+Both verdicts are untrue and unfair. Jewish literature has developed
+organically, and in the course of its evolution it has had its
+spring-tide as well as its season of decay, this again followed by
+vigorous rejuvenescence.</p>
+
+<p>Such opinions are part and parcel of the vicissitudes of our literature,
+in themselves sufficient matter for an interesting book. Strange it
+certainly is that a people without a home, without a land, living under
+repression and persecution, could produce so great a literature;
+stranger still, that it should at first have been preserved and
+disseminated, then forgotten, or treated with the disdain of prejudice,
+and finally roused from torpid slumber into robust life by the breath of
+the modern era. In the neighborhood of twenty-two thousand works are
+known to us now. Fifty years ago bibliographers were ignorant of the
+existence of half of these, and in the libraries of Italy, England, and
+Germany an untold number awaits resurrection.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, our literature has not yet been given a name that recommends
+itself to universal acceptance. Some have called it "Rabbinical
+Literature," because during the middle ages every Jew of learning bore
+the title Rabbi; others, "Neo-Hebraic"; and a third party considers it
+purely theological. These names are all inadequate. Perhaps the only one
+sufficiently comprehensive is "Jewish Literature." That embraces, as it
+should, the aggregate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> of writings produced by Jews from the earliest
+days of their history up to the present time, regardless of form, of
+language, and, in the middle ages at least, of subject-matter.</p>
+
+<p>With this definition in mind, we are able to sketch the whole course of
+our literature, though in the frame of an essay only in outline. We
+shall learn, as Leopold Zunz, the Humboldt of Jewish science, well says,
+that it is "intimately bound up with the culture of the ancient world,
+with the origin and development of Christianity, and with the scientific
+endeavors of the middle ages. Inasmuch as it shares the intellectual
+aspirations of the past and the present, their conflicts and their
+reverses, it is supplementary to general literature. Its peculiar
+features, themselves falling under universal laws, are in turn helpful
+in the interpretation of general characteristics. If the aggregate
+results of mankind's intellectual activity can be likened unto a sea,
+Jewish literature is one of the tributaries that feed it. Like other
+literatures and like literature in general, it reveals to the student
+what noble ideals the soul of man has cherished, and striven to realize,
+and discloses the varied achievements of man's intellectual powers. If
+we of to-day are the witnesses and the offspring of an eternal, creative
+principle, then, in turn, the present is but the beginning of a future,
+that is, the translation of knowledge into life. Spiritual ideals
+consciously held by any portion of mankind lend freedom to thought,
+grace to feeling, and by sailing up this one stream we may reach the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span>
+fountain-head whence have emanated all spiritual forces, and about
+which, as a fixed pole, all spiritual currents eddy."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The cornerstone of this Jewish literature is the Bible, or what we call
+Old Testament literature&mdash;the oldest and at the same time the most
+important of Jewish writings. It extends over the period ending with the
+second century before the common era; is written, for the most part, in
+Hebrew, and is the clearest and the most faithful reflection of the
+original characteristics of the Jewish people. This biblical literature
+has engaged the closest attention of all nations and every age. Until
+the seventeenth century, biblical science was purely dogmatic, and only
+since Herder pointed the way have its æsthetic elements been dwelt upon
+along with, often in defiance of, dogmatic considerations. Up to this
+time, Ernest Meier and Theodor Nöldeke have been the only ones to treat
+of the Old Testament with reference to its place in the history of
+literature.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the dogmatic air clinging to the critical introductions to the
+study of the Old Testament, their authors have not shrunk from treating
+the book sacred to two religions with childish arbitrariness. Since the
+days of Spinoza's essay at rationalistic explanation, Bible criticism
+has been the wrestling-ground of the most extravagant exegesis, of bold
+hypotheses, and hazardous conjectures. No Latin or Greek classic has
+been so ruthlessly attacked and dissected; no mediæval poetry so
+arbi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span>trarily interpreted. As a natural consequence, the æsthetic
+elements were more and more pushed into the background. Only recently
+have we begun to ridicule this craze for hypotheses, and returned to
+more sober methods of inquiry. Bible criticism reached the climax of
+absurdity, and the scorn was just which greeted one of the most
+important works of the critical school, Hitzig's "Explanation of the
+Psalms." A reviewer said: "We may entertain the fond hope that, in a
+second edition of this clever writer's commentary, he will be in the
+enviable position to tell us the day and the hour when each psalm was
+composed."</p>
+
+<p>The reaction began a few years ago with the recognition of the
+inadequacy of Astruc's document hypothesis, until then the creed of all
+Bible critics. Astruc, a celebrated French physician, in 1753 advanced
+the theory that the Pentateuch&mdash;the five books of Moses&mdash;consists of two
+parallel documents, called respectively Yahvistic and Elohistic, from
+the name applied to God in each. On this basis, German science after him
+raised a superstructure. No date was deemed too late to be assigned to
+the composition of the Pentateuch. If the historian Flavius Josephus had
+not existed, and if Jesus had not spoken of "the Law" and "the
+prophets," and of the things "which were written in the Law of Moses,
+and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms," critics would have been
+disposed to transfer the redaction of the Bible to some period of the
+Christian era. So wide is the divergence of opinions on the subject
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> two learned critics, Ewald and Hitzig, differ in the date assigned
+to a certain biblical passage by no less than a thousand years!</p>
+
+<p>Bible archæology, Bible exegesis, and discussions of grammatical
+niceties, were confounded with the history of biblical literature, and
+naturally it was the latter that suffered by the lack of
+differentiation. Orthodoxy assumed a purely divine origin for the Bible,
+while sceptics treated the holy book with greater levity than they would
+dare display in criticising a modern novel. The one party raised a hue
+and cry when Moses was spoken of as the first author; the other
+discovered "obscene, rude, even cannibalistic traits"<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> in the sublime
+narratives of the Bible. It should be the task of coming generations,
+successors by one remove of credulous Bible lovers, and immediate heirs
+of thorough-going rationalists, to reconcile and fuse in a higher
+conception of the Bible the two divergent theories of its purely divine
+and its purely human origin. Unfortunately, it must be admitted that
+Ernest Meier is right, when he says, in his "History of the National
+Poetry of the Hebrews," that this task wholly belongs to the future; at
+present it is an unsolved problem.</p>
+
+<p>The æsthetic is the only proper point of view for a full recognition of
+the value of biblical literature. It certainly does not rob the sacred
+Scriptures, the perennial source of spiritual comfort, of their exalted
+character and divine worth to assume that legend,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> myth, and history
+have combined to produce the perfect harmony which is their imperishable
+distinction. The peasant dwelling on inaccessible mountain-heights, next
+to the record of Abraham's shepherd life, inscribes the main events of
+his own career, the anniversary dates sacred to his family. The young
+count among their first impressions that of "the brown folio," and more
+vividly than all else remember</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"The maidens fair and true,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The sages and the heroes bold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whose tale by seers inspired</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In our Book of books is told.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The simple life and faith</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of patriarchs of ancient day</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Like angels hover near,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And guard, and lead them on the way."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Above all, a whole nation has for centuries been living with, and only
+by virtue of, this book. Surely this is abundant testimony to the
+undying value of the great work, in which the simplest shepherd tales
+and the naïvest legends, profound moral saws and magnificent images, the
+ideals of a Messianic future and the purest, the most humane conception
+of life, alternate with sublime descriptions of nature and the sweet
+strains of love-poems, with national songs breathing hope, or trembling
+with anguish, and with the dull tones of despairing pessimism and the
+divinely inspired hymns of an exalted theodicy&mdash;all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> blending to form
+what the reverential love of men has named the Book of books.</p>
+
+<p>It was natural that a book of this kind should become the basis of a
+great literature. Whatever was produced in later times had to submit to
+be judged by its exalted standard. It became the rule of conduct, the
+prophetic mirror reflecting the future work of a nation whose fate was
+inextricably bound up with its own. It is not known how and when the
+biblical scriptures were welded into one book, a holy canon, but it is
+probably correct to assume that it was done by the <i>Soferim</i>, the
+Scribes, between 200 and 150 B.C.E. At all events, it is certain that
+the three divisions of the Bible&mdash;the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the
+miscellaneous writings&mdash;were contained in the Greek version, the
+Septuagint, so called from the seventy or seventy-two Alexandrians
+supposed to have done the work of translation under Ptolemy
+Philadelphus.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek translation of the Bible marks the beginning of the second
+period of Jewish literature, the Judæo-Hellenic. Hebrew ceased to be the
+language of the people; it was thenceforth used only by scholars and in
+divine worship. Jewish for the first time met Greek intellect. Shem and
+Japheth embraced fraternally. "But even while the teachings of Hellas
+were pushing their way into subjugated Palestine, seducing Jewish
+philosophy to apostasy, and seeking, by main force, to introduce
+paganism, the Greek philosophers themselves stood awed by the majesty
+and power of the Jewish pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span>phets. Swords and words entered the lists as
+champions of Judaism. The vernacular Aramæan, having suffered the Greek
+to put its impress upon many of its substantives, refused to yield to
+the influence of the Greek verb, and, in the end, Hebrew truth, in the
+guise of the teachings of Jesus, undermined the proud structure of the
+heathen." This is a most excellent characterization of that literary
+period, which lasted about three centuries, ending between 100 and 150
+C. E. Its influence upon Jewish literature can scarcely be said to have
+been enduring. To it belong all the apocryphal writings which,
+originally composed in the Greek language, were for that reason not
+incorporated into the Holy Canon. The centre of intellectual life was no
+longer in Palestine, but at Alexandria in Egypt, where three hundred
+thousand Jews were then living, and thus this literature came to be
+called Judæo-Alexandrian. It includes among its writers the last of the
+Neoplatonists, particularly Philo, the originator of the allegorical
+interpretation of the Bible and of a Jewish philosophy of religion;
+Aristeas, and pseudo-Phokylides. There were also Jewish <i>littérateurs</i>:
+the dramatist Ezekielos; Jason; Philo the Elder; Aristobulus, the
+popularizer of the Aristotelian philosophy; Eupolemos, the historian;
+and probably the Jewish Sybil, who had to have recourse to the oracular
+manner of the pagans to proclaim the truths of Judaism, and to Greek
+figures of speech for her apocalyptic visions, which foretold, in
+biblical phrase and with prophetic ardor, the future of Israel and of
+the nations in contact with it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the word of the Bible was steadily gaining importance in
+Palestine. To search into and expound the sacred text had become the
+inheritance of the congregation of Jacob, of those that had not lent ear
+to the siren notes of Hellenism. Midrash, as the investigations of the
+commentators were called, by and by divided into two streams&mdash;Halacha,
+which establishes and systematizes the statutes of the Law, and Haggada,
+which uses the sacred texts for homiletic, historical, ethical, and
+pedagogic discussions. The latter is the poetic, the former, the
+legislative, element in the Talmudic writings, whose composition,
+extending over a thousand years, constitutes the third, the most
+momentous, period of Jewish literature. Of course, none of these periods
+can be so sharply defined as a rapid survey might lead one to suppose.
+For instance, on the threshold of this third epoch stands the figure of
+Flavius Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, who, at once an
+enthusiastic Jew and a friend of the Romans, writes the story of his
+nation in the Greek language&mdash;a character as peculiar as his age, which,
+listening to the mocking laughter of a Lucian, saw Olympus overthrown
+and its gods dethroned, the Temple at Jerusalem pass away in flame and
+smoke, and the new doctrine of the son of the carpenter at Nazareth
+begin its victorious course.</p>
+
+<p>By the side of this Janus-faced historian, the heroes of the Talmud
+stand enveloped in glory. We meet with men like Hillel and Shammaï,
+Jochanan ben Zakkaï, Gamaliel, Joshua ben Chananya, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> famous Akiba,
+and later on Yehuda the Prince, friend of the imperial philosopher
+Marcus Aurelius, and compiler of the Mishna, the authoritative code of
+laws superseding all other collections. Then there are the fabulist
+Meïr; Simon ben Yochaï, falsely accused of the authorship of the
+mystical Kabbala; Chiya; Rab; Samuel, equally famous as a physician and
+a rabbi; Jochanan, the supposed compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud; and
+Ashi and Abina, the former probably the arranger of the Babylonian
+Talmud. This latter Talmud, the one invested with authority among Jews,
+by reason of its varying fortunes, is the most marvellous literary
+monument extant. Never has book been so hated and so persecuted, so
+misjudged and so despised, on the other hand, so prized and so honored,
+and, above all, so imperfectly understood, as this very Talmud.</p>
+
+<p>For the Jews and their literature it has had untold significance. That
+the Talmud has been the conservator of Judaism is an irrefutable
+statement. It is true that the study of the Talmud unduly absorbed the
+great intellectual force of its adherents, and brought about a somewhat
+one-sided mental development in the Jews; but it also is true, as a
+writer says,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> that "whenever in troublous times scientific inquiry was
+laid low; whenever, for any reason, the Jew was excluded from
+participation in public life, the study of the Talmud maintained the
+elasticity and the vigor of the Jewish mind, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> rescued the Jew from
+sterile mysticism and spiritual apathy. The Talmud, as a rule, has been
+inimical to mysticism, and the most brilliant Talmudists, in propitious
+days, have achieved distinguished success in secular science. The Jew
+survived ages of bitterness, all the while clinging loyally to his faith
+in the midst of hostility, and the first ray of light that penetrated
+the walls of the Ghetto found him ready to take part in the intellectual
+work of his time. This admirable elasticity of mind he owes, first and
+foremost, to the study of the Talmud."</p>
+
+<p>From this much abused Talmud, as from its contemporary the Midrash in
+the restricted sense, sprouted forth the blossoms of the Haggada&mdash;that
+Haggada</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Where the beauteous, ancient sagas,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Angel legends fraught with meaning,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Martyrs' silent sacrifices,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Festal songs and wisdom's sayings,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Trope and allegoric fancies&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">All, howe'er by faith's triumphant</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Glow pervaded&mdash;where they gleaming,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Glist'ning, well in strength exhaustless.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And the boyish heart responsive</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Drinks the wild, fantastic sweetness,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Greets the woful, wondrous anguish,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yields to grewsome charm of myst'ry,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hid in blessed worlds of fable.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Overawed it hearkens solemn</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To that sacred revelation</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mortal man hath poetry called."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A story from the Midrash charmingly characterizes the relation between
+Halacha and Haggada. Two rabbis, Chiya bar Abba, a Halachist, and
+Abbahu, a Haggadist, happened to be lecturing in the same town. Abbahu,
+the Haggadist, was always listened to by great crowds, while Chiya, with
+his Halacha, stood practically deserted. The Haggadist comforted the
+disappointed teacher with a parable. "Let us suppose two merchants," he
+said, "to come to town, and offer wares for sale. The one has pearls and
+precious gems to display, the other, cheap finery, gilt chains, rings,
+and gaudy ribbons. About whose booth, think you, does the crowd
+press?&mdash;Formerly, when the struggle for existence was not fierce and
+inevitable, men had leisure and desire for the profound teachings of the
+Law; now they need the cheering words of consolation and hope."</p>
+
+<p>For more than a thousand years this nameless spirit of national poesy
+was abroad, and produced manifold works, which, in the course of time,
+were gathered together into comprehensive collections, variously named
+Midrash Rabba, Pesikta, Tanchuma, etc. Their compilation was begun in
+about 700 C. E., that is, soon after the close of the Talmud, in the
+transition period from the third epoch of Jewish literature to the
+fourth, the golden age, which lasted from the ninth to the fifteenth
+century, and, according to the law of human products, shows a season of
+growth, blossom, and decay.</p>
+
+<p>The scene of action during this period was west<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span>ern Asia, northern
+Africa, sometimes Italy and France, but chiefly Spain, where Arabic
+culture, destined to influence Jewish thought to an incalculable degree,
+was at that time at its zenith. "A second time the Jews were drawn into
+the vortex of a foreign civilization, and two hundred years after
+Mohammed, Jews in Kairwan and Bagdad were speaking the same language,
+Arabic. A language once again became the mediatrix between Jewish and
+general literature, and the best minds of the two races, by means of the
+language, reciprocally influenced each other. Jews, as they once had
+written Greek for their brethren, now wrote Arabic; and, as in
+Hellenistic times, the civilization of the dominant race, both in its
+original features and in its adaptations from foreign sources, was
+reflected in that of the Jews." It would be interesting to analyze this
+important process of assimilation, but we can concern ourselves only
+with the works of the Jewish intellect. Again we meet, at the threshold
+of the period, a characteristic figure, the thinker Sa'adia, ranking
+high as author and religious philosopher, known also as a grammarian and
+a poet. He is followed by Sherira, to whom we owe the beginnings of a
+history of Talmudic literature, and his son Haï Gaon, a strictly
+orthodox teacher of the Law. In their wake come troops of physicians,
+theologians, lexicographers, Talmudists, and grammarians. Great is the
+circle of our national literature: it embraces theology, philosophy,
+exegesis, grammar, poetry, and jurisprudence, yea, even astronomy and
+chro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span>nology, mathematics and medicine. But these widely varying subjects
+constitute only one class, inasmuch as they all are infused with the
+spirit of Judaism, and subordinate themselves to its demands. A mention
+of the prominent actors would turn this whole essay into a dry list of
+names. Therefore it is better for us merely to sketch the period in
+outline, dwelling only on its greatest poets and philosophers, the
+moulders of its character.</p>
+
+<p>The opinion is current that the Semitic race lacks the philosophic
+faculty. Yet it cannot be denied that Jews were the first to carry Greek
+philosophy to Europe, teaching and developing it there before its
+dissemination by celebrated Arabs. In their zeal to harmonize philosophy
+with their religion, and in the lesser endeavor to defend traditional
+Judaism against the polemic attacks of a new sect, the Karaites, they
+invested the Aristotelian system with peculiar features, making it, as
+it were, their national philosophy. At all events, it must be
+universally accepted that the Jews share with the Arabs the merit "of
+having cherished the study of philosophy during centuries of barbarism,
+and of having for a long time exerted a civilizing influence upon
+Europe."</p>
+
+<p>The meagre achievements of the Jews in the departments of history and
+history of literature do not justify the conclusion that they are
+wanting in historic perception. The lack of writings on these subjects
+is traceable to the sufferings and persecutions that have marked their
+pathway. Before their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> chroniclers had time to record past afflictions,
+new sorrows and troubles broke in upon them. In the middle ages, the
+history of Jewish literature is the entire history of the Jewish people,
+its course outlined by blood and watered by rivers of tears, at whose
+source the genius of Jewish poetry sits lamenting. "The Orient dwells an
+exile in the Occident," Franz Delitzsch, the first alien to give loving
+study to this literature, poetically says, "and its tears of longing for
+home are the fountain-head of Jewish poetry."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>That poetry reached its perfection in the works of the celebrated trio,
+Solomon Gabirol, Yehuda Halevi, and Moses ben Ezra. Their dazzling
+triumphs had been heralded by the more modest achievements of Abitur,
+writing Hebrew, and Adia and the poetess Xemona (Kasmune) using Arabic,
+to sing the praise of God and lament the woes of Israel.</p>
+
+<p>The predominant, but not exclusive, characteristic of Jewish poetry is
+its religious strain. Great thinkers, men equipped with philosophic
+training, and at the same time endowed with poetic gifts, have
+contributed to the huge volume of synagogue poetry, whose subjects are
+praise of the Lord and regret for Zion. The sorrow for our lost
+fatherland has never taken on more glowing colors, never been expressed
+in fuller tones than in this poetry. As ancient Hebrew poetry flowed in
+the two streams of prophecy and psalmody, so the Jewish poetry of the
+middle ages was divided into <i>Piut</i> and <i>Selicha</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> Songs of hope and
+despair, cries of revenge, exhortations to peace among men, elegies on
+every single persecution, and laments for Zion, follow each other in
+kaleidoscopic succession. Unfortunately, there never was lack of
+historic matter for this poetry to elaborate. To furnish that was the
+well-accomplished task of rulers and priests in the middle ages, alike
+"in the realm of the Islamic king of kings and in that of the apostolic
+servant of servants." So fate made this poetry classical and eminently
+national. Those characteristics which, in general literature, earn for a
+work the description "Homeric," in Jewish literature make a liturgical
+poem "Kaliric," so called from the poet Eliezer Kalir, the subject of
+many mythical tales, and the first of a long line of poets, Spanish,
+French, and German, extending to the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
+The literary history of this epoch has been written by Leopold Zunz with
+warmth of feeling and stupendous learning. He closes his work with the
+hope that mankind, at some future day, will adopt Israel's religious
+poetry as its own, transforming the elegiac <i>Selicha</i> into a joyous
+psalm of universal peace and good-will.</p>
+
+<p>Side by side with religious flourishes secular poetry, clothing itself
+in rhyme and metre, adopting every current form of poesy, and treating
+of every appropriate subject. Its first votary was Solomon Gabirol, that</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Human nightingale that warbled</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forth her songs of tender love,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In the darkness of the sombre,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gothic mediæval night.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">She, that nightingale, sang only,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sobbing forth her adoration,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To her Lord, her God, in heaven,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whom her songs of praise extolled."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Solomon Gabirol may be said to have been the first poet thrilled by
+<i>Weltschmerz</i>. "He produced hymns and songs, penitential prayers,
+psalms, and threnodies, filled with hope and longing for a blessed
+future. They are marked throughout by austere earnestness, brushing
+away, in its rigor, the color and bloom of life; but side by side with
+it, surging forth from the deepest recesses of a human soul, is humble
+adoration of God."</p>
+
+<p>Gabirol was a distinguished philosopher besides. In 1150, his chief
+work, "The Fount of Life," was translated into Latin by Archdeacon
+Dominicus Gundisalvi, with the help of Johannes Avendeath, an apostate
+Jew, the author's name being corrupted into Avencebrol, later becoming
+Avicebron. The work was made a text-book of scholastic philosophy, but
+neither Scotists nor Thomists, neither adherents nor detractors,
+suspected that a heretical Jew was slumbering under the name Avicebron.
+It remained for an inquirer of our own day, Solomon Munk, to reveal the
+face of Gabirol under the mask of a garbled name. Amazed, we behold that
+the pessimistic philosopher of to-day can as little as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> schoolmen of
+the middle ages shake himself free from the despised Jew. Schopenhauer
+may object as he will, it is certain that Gabirol was his predecessor by
+more than eight hundred years!</p>
+
+<p>Charisi, whom we shall presently meet, has expressed the verdict on his
+poetry which still holds good: "Solomon Gabirol pleases to call himself
+the small&mdash;yet before him all the great must dwindle and fall.&mdash;Who can
+like him with mighty speech appall?&mdash;Compared with him the poets of his
+time are without power&mdash;he, the small, alone is a tower.&mdash;The highest
+round of poetry's ladder has he won.&mdash;Wisdom fondled him, eloquence hath
+called him son&mdash;and clothing him with purple, said: 'Lo!&mdash;my first-born
+son, go forth, to conquest go!'&mdash;His predecessors' songs are naught with
+his compared&mdash;nor have his many followers better fared.&mdash;The later
+singers by him were taught&mdash;the heirs they are of his poetic
+thought.&mdash;But still he's king, to him all praise belongs&mdash;for Solomon's
+is the Song of Songs."</p>
+
+<p>By Gabirol's side stands Yehuda Halevi, probably the only Jewish poet
+known to the reader of general literature, to whom his name, life, and
+fate have become familiar through Heinrich Heine's <i>Romanzero</i>. His
+magnificent descriptions of nature "reflect southern skies, verdant
+meadows, deep blue rivers, and the stormy sea," and his erotic lyrics
+are chaste and tender. He sounds the praise of wine, youth, and
+happiness, and extols the charms of his lady-love, but above and beyond
+all he devotes his song to Zion and his people. The pearl of his poems<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Is the famous lamentation</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sung in all the tents of Jacob,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scattered wide upon the earth ...</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yea, it is the song of Zion,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Which Yehuda ben Halevy,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dying on the holy ruins,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sang of loved Jerusalem."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"In the whole compass of religious poetry, Milton's and Klopstock's not
+excepted, nothing can be found to surpass the elegy of Zion," says a
+modern writer, a non-Jew.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> This soul-stirring "Lay of Zion," better
+than any number of critical dissertations, will give the reader a clear
+insight into the character and spirit of Jewish poetry in general:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O Zion! of thine exiles' peace take thought,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The remnant of thy flock, who thine have sought!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From west, from east, from north and south resounds,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Afar and now anear, from all thy bounds,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And no surcease,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">"With thee be peace!"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In longing's fetters chained I greet thee, too,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My tears fast welling forth like Hermon's dew&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O bliss could they but drop on holy hills!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A croaking bird I turn, when through me thrills</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy desolate state; but when I dream anon,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Lord brings back thy ev'ry captive son&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">A harp straightway</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span><span style="margin-left: 7em;">To sing thy lay.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In heart I dwell where once thy purest son</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">At Bethel and Peniel, triumphs won;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">God's awesome presence there was close to thee,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whose doors thy Maker, by divine decree,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Opposed as mates</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">To heaven's gates.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor sun, nor moon, nor stars had need to be;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">God's countenance alone illumined thee</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On whose elect He poured his spirit out.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In thee would I my soul pour forth devout!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou wert the kingdom's seat, of God the throne,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And now there dwells a slave race, not thine own,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">In royal state,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Where reigned thy great.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O would that I could roam o'er ev'ry place</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where God to missioned prophets showed His grace!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And who will give me wings? An off'ring meet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'd haste to lay upon thy shattered seat,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Thy counterpart&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">My bruisèd heart.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Upon thy precious ground I'd fall prostrate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy stones caress, the dust within thy gate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And happiness it were in awe to stand</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">At Hebron's graves, the treasures of thy land,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And greet thy woods, thy vine-clad slopes, thy vales,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Greet Abarim and Hor, whose light ne'er pales,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">A radiant crown,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Thy priests' renown.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy air is balm for souls; like myrrh thy sand;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With honey run the rivers of thy land.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though bare my feet, my heart's delight I'd count</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To thread my way all o'er thy desert mount,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Where once rose tall</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span><span style="margin-left: 5em;">Thy holy hall,</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where stood thy treasure-ark, in recess dim,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Close-curtained, guarded o'er by cherubim.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My Naz'rite's crown would I pluck off, and cast</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">It gladly forth. With curses would I blast</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The impious time thy people, diadem-crowned,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy Nazirites, did pass, by en'mies bound</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">With hatred's bands,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">In unclean lands.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By dogs thy lusty lions are brutal torn</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And dragged; thy strong, young eaglets, heav'nward</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">borne,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By foul-mouthed ravens snatched, and all undone.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Can food still tempt my taste? Can light of sun</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Seem fair to shine</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">To eyes like mine?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Soft, soft! Leave off a while, O cup of pain!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My loins are weighted down, my heart and brain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With bitterness from thee. Whene'er I think</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of Oholah,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> proud northern queen, I drink</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy wrath, and when my Oholivah forlorn</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Comes back to mind&mdash;'tis then I quaff thy scorn,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Then, draught of pain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Thy lees I drain.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O Zion! Crown of grace! Thy comeliness</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hath ever favor won and fond caress.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy faithful lovers' lives are bound in thine;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">They joy in thy security, but pine</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">And weep in gloom</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span><span style="margin-left: 5em;">O'er thy sad doom.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From out the prisoner's cell they sigh for thee,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And each in prayer, wherever he may be,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Towards thy demolished portals turns. Exiled,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dispersed from mount to hill, thy flock defiled</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hath not forgot thy sheltering fold. They grasp</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy garment's hem, and trustful, eager, clasp,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">With outstretched arms,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Thy branching palms.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shinar, Pathros&mdash;can they in majesty</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With thee compare? Or their idolatry</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With thy Urim and thy Thummim august?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who can surpass thy priests, thy saintly just,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Thy prophets bold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And bards of old?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The heathen kingdoms change and wholly cease&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy might alone stands firm without decrease,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy Nazirites from age to age abide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy God in thee desireth to reside.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then happy he who maketh choice of thee</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To dwell within thy courts, and waits to see,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And toils to make,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Thy light awake.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On him shall as the morning break thy light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The bliss of thy elect shall glad his sight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In thy felicities shall he rejoice,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In triumph sweet exult, with jubilant voice,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">O'er thee, adored,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 7em;">To youth restored.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>We have loitered long with Yehuda Halevi, and still not long enough, for
+we have not yet spoken of his claims to the title philosopher, won for
+him by his book <i>Al-Chazari</i>. But now we must hurry on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> to Moses ben
+Ezra, the last and most worldly of the three great poets. He devotes his
+genius to his patrons, to wine, his faithless mistress, and to
+"bacchanalian feasts under leafy canopies, with merry minstrelsy of
+birds." He laments over separation from friends and kin, weeps over the
+shortness of life and the rapid approach of hoary age&mdash;all in polished
+language, sometimes, however, lacking euphony. Even when he strikes his
+lyre in praise and honor of his people Israel, he fails to rise to the
+lofty heights attained by his mates in song.</p>
+
+<p>With Yehuda Charisi, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the
+period of the epigones sets in for Spanish-Jewish literature. In
+Charisi's <i>Tachkemoni</i>, an imitation of the poetry of the Arab Hariri,
+jest and serious criticism, joy and grief, the sublime and the trivial,
+follow each other like tints in a parti-colored skein. His distinction
+is the ease with which he plays upon the Hebrew language, not the most
+pliable of instruments. In general, Jewish poets and philosophers have
+manipulated that language with surprising dexterity. Songs, hymns,
+elegies, penitential prayers, exhortations, and religious meditations,
+generation after generation, were couched in the idiom of the psalmist,
+yet the structure of the language underwent no change. "The development
+of the neo-Hebraic idiom from the ancient Hebrew," a distinguished
+modern ethnographer justly says, "confirms, by linguistic evidence, the
+plasticity, the logical acumen, the comprehensive and at the same time
+versatile intellectuality of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> the Jewish race. By the ingenious
+compounding of words, by investing old expressions with new meanings,
+and adapting the material offered by alien or related languages to its
+own purposes, it has increased and enriched a comparatively meagre
+treasury of words."<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>Side by side with this cosmopolitanism, illustrated in the Haggada,
+whose pages prove that nothing human is strange to the Jewish race, it
+reveals, in its literary development, as notably in the Halacha, a
+sharply defined subjectivity. Jellinek says: "Not losing itself in the
+contemplation of the phenomena of life, not devoting itself to any
+subject unless it be with an ulterior purpose, but seeing all things in
+their relation to itself, and subordinating them to its own boldly
+asserted <i>ego</i>, the Jewish race is not inclined to apply its powers to
+the solution of intricate philosophic problems, or to abstruse
+metaphysical speculations. It is, therefore, not a philosophic race, and
+its participation in the philosophic work of the world dates only from
+its contact with the Greeks." The same author, on the other hand,
+emphasizes the liberality, the broad sympathies, of the Jewish race, in
+his statement that the Jewish mind, at its first meeting with Arabic
+philosophy, absorbed it as a leaven into its intellectual life. The
+product of the assimilation was&mdash;as early as the twelfth century, mark
+you&mdash;a philosophic conception of life, whose broad liberality culminates
+in the sentiment expressed by two most eminent thinkers:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> Christianity
+and Islam are the precursors of a world-religion, the preliminary
+conditions for the great religious system satisfying all men. Yehuda
+Halevi and Moses Maimonides were the philosophers bold enough to utter
+this thought of far-reaching significance.</p>
+
+<p>The second efflorescence of Jewish poetry brings forth exotic romances,
+satires, verbose hymns, and humorous narrative poems. Such productions
+certainly do not justify the application of the epithet "theological" to
+Jewish literature. Solomon ben Sakbel composes a satiric romance in the
+Makamat<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> form, describing the varied adventures of Asher ben Yehuda,
+another Don Quixote; Berachya Hanakdan puts into Hebrew the fables of
+Æsop and Lokman, furnishing La Fontaine with some of his material;
+Abraham ibn Sahl receives from the Arabs, certainly not noted for
+liberality, ten goldpieces for each of his love-songs; Santob de Carrion
+is a beloved Spanish bard, bold enough to tell unpleasant truths unto a
+king; Joseph ibn Sabara writes a humorous romance; Yehuda Sabbataï, epic
+satires, "The War of Wealth and Wisdom," and "A Gift from a Misogynist,"
+and unnamed authors, "Truth's Campaign," and "Praise of Women."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A satirist of more than ordinary gifts was the Italian Kalonymos, whose
+"Touchstone," like Ibn Chasdaï's Makamat, "The Prince and the Dervish,"
+has been translated into German. Contemporaneous with them was Süsskind
+von Trimberg, the Suabian minnesinger, and Samson Pnie, of Strasburg,
+who helped the German poets continue <i>Parzival</i>, while later on, in
+Italy, Moses Rieti composed "The Paradise" in Hebrew <i>terza-rima</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the decadence of Jewish literature, the most prominent figure is
+Immanuel ben Solomon, or Manoello, as the Italians call him. Critics
+think him the precursor of Boccaccio, and history knows him as the
+friend of Dante, whose <i>Divina Commedia</i> he travestied in Hebrew. The
+author of the first Hebrew sonnet and of the first Hebrew novel, he was
+a talented writer, but as frivolous as talented.</p>
+
+<p>This is the development of Jewish poetry during its great period. In
+other departments of literature, in philosophy, in theology, in ethics,
+in Bible exegesis, the race is equally prolific in minds of the first
+order. Glancing back for a moment, our eye is arrested by Moses
+Maimonides, the great systematizer of the Jewish Law, and the connecting
+link between scholasticism and the Greek-Arabic development of the
+Aristotelian system. Before his time Bechaï ibn Pakuda and Joseph ibn
+Zadik had entered upon theosophic speculations with the object of
+harmonizing Arabic and Greek philosophy, and in the age immediately
+preceding that of Maimonides, Abraham ibn Daud, a writer of surprisingly
+liberal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> views, had undertaken, in "The Highest Faith," the task of
+reconciling faith with philosophy. At the same time rationalistic Bible
+exegesis was begun by Abraham ibn Ezra, an acute but reckless
+controversialist. Orthodox interpretations of the Bible had, before him,
+been taught in France by Rashi (Solomon Yitschaki) and Samuel ben Meïr,
+and continued by German rabbis, who, at the same time, were preachers of
+morality&mdash;a noteworthy phenomenon in a persecuted tribe. "How pure and
+strong its ethical principles were is shown by its religious poetry as
+well as by its practical Law. What pervades the poetry as a high ideal,
+in the application of the Law becomes demonstrable reality. The wrapt
+enthusiasm in the hymns of Samuel the Pious and other poets is embodied,
+lives, in the rulings of Yehuda Hakohen, Solomon Yitschaki, and Jacob
+ben Meïr; in the legal opinions of Isaac ben Abraham, Eliezer ha-Levi,
+Isaac ben Moses, Meïr ben Baruch, and their successors, and in the
+codices of Eliezer of Metz and Moses de Coucy. A German professor<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> of
+a hundred years ago, after glancing through some few Jewish writings,
+exclaimed, in a tone of condescending approval: 'Christians of that time
+could scarcely have been expected to enjoin such high moral principles
+as this Jew wrote down and bequeathed to his brethren in faith!'"</p>
+
+<p>Jewish literature in this and the next period consists largely of
+theological discussions and of commentaries on the Talmud produced by
+the hundred.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> It would be idle to name even the most prominent authors;
+their works belong to the history of theologic science, and rarely had a
+determining influence upon the development of genuine literature.</p>
+
+<p>We must also pass over in silence the numerous Jewish physicians and
+medical writers; but it must be remembered that they, too, belong to
+Jewish literature. The most marvellous characteristic of this literature
+is that in it the Jewish race has registered each step of its
+development. "All things learned, gathered, obtained, on its journeyings
+hither and thither&mdash;Greek philosophy and Arabic, as well as Latin
+scholasticism&mdash;all deposited themselves in layers about the Bible, so
+stamping later Jewish literature with an individuality that gave it an
+unique place among the literatures of the world."</p>
+
+<p>The travellers, however, must be mentioned by name. Their itineraries
+were wholly dedicated to the interests of their co-religionists. The
+first of the line is Eldad, the narrator of a sort of Hebrew Odyssey.
+Benjamin of Tudela and Petachya of Ratisbon are deserving of more
+confidence as veracious chroniclers, and their descriptions, together
+with Charisi's, complete the Jewish library of travels of those early
+days, unless, with Steinschneider, we consider, as we truly may, the
+majority of Jewish authors under this head. For Jewish writers a hard,
+necessitous lot has ever been a storm wind, tossing them hither and
+thither, and blowing the seeds of knowledge over all lands. Withal
+learning proved an enveloping, protecting cloak to these mendicant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> and
+pilgrim authors. The dispersion of the Jews, their international
+commerce, and the desire to maintain their academies, stimulated a love
+for travel, made frequent journeyings a necessity, indeed. In this way
+only can we account for the extraordinarily rapid spread of Jewish
+literature in the middle ages. The student of those times often chances
+across a rabbi, who this day teaches, lectures, writes in Candia,
+to-morrow in Rome, next year in Prague or Cracow, and so Jewish
+literature is the "wandering Jew" among the world's literatures.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth period, the Augustan age of our literature, closes with a
+jarring discord&mdash;the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, their second
+home, in which they had seen ministers, princes, professors, and poets
+rise from their ranks. The scene of literary activity changes: France,
+Italy, but chiefly the Slavonic East, are pushed into the foreground. It
+is not a salutary change; it ushers in three centuries of decay and
+stagnation in literary endeavor. The sum of the efforts is indicated by
+the name of the period, the Rabbinical, for its chief work was the
+development and fixation of Rabbinism.</p>
+
+<p>Decadence did not set in immediately. Certain beneficent forces, either
+continuing in action from the former period, or arising out of the new
+concatenation of circumstances, were in operation: Jewish exiles from
+Spain carried their culture to the asylums hospitably offered them in
+the Orient and a few of the European countries, notably Holland; the art
+of printing was spreading, the first presses in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> Italy bringing out
+Jewish works; and the sun of humanism and of the Reformation was rising
+and shedding solitary rays of its effulgence on the Jewish minds then at
+work.</p>
+
+<p>Among the noteworthy authors standing between the two periods and
+belonging to both, the most prominent is Nachmanides, a pious and
+learned Bible scholar. With logical force and critical candor he entered
+into the great conflict between science and faith, then dividing the
+Jewish world into two camps, with Maimonides' works as their shibboleth.
+The Aristotelian philosophy was no longer satisfying. Minds and hearts
+were yearning for a new revelation, and in default thereof steeping
+themselves in mystical speculations. A voluminous theosophic literature
+sprang up. The <i>Zohar</i>, the Bible of mysticism, was circulated, its
+authorship being fastened upon a rabbi of olden days. It is altogether
+probable that the real author was living at the time; many think that it
+was Moses de Leon. The liberal party counted in its ranks the two
+distinguished families of Tibbon and Kimchi, the former famed as
+successful translators, the latter as grammarians. Their best known
+representatives were Judah ibn Tibbon and David Kimchi. Curiously
+enough, the will of the former contains, in unmistakable terms, the
+opinion that "Property is theft," anticipating Proudhon, who, had he
+known it, would have seen in its early enunciation additional testimony
+to its truth. The liberal faction was also supported by Jacob ben
+Abba-Mari, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> friend of Frederick II. and Michael Scotus. Abba-Mari
+lived at the German emperor's court at Naples, and quoted him in his
+commentary upon the Bible as an exegete. Besides there were among the
+Maimunists, or rationalists, Levi ben Abraham, an extraordinarily
+liberal man; Shemtob Palquera, one of the most learned Jews of his
+century, and Yedaya Penini, a philosopher and pessimistic poet, whose
+"Contemplation of the World" was translated by Mendelssohn, and praised
+by Lessing and Goethe. Despite this array of talent, the opponents were
+stronger, the most representative partisan being the Talmudist Solomon
+ben Aderet.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time disputations about the Talmud, ending with its public
+burning at Paris, were carried on with the Christian clergy. The other
+literary current of the age is designated by the word Kabbala, which
+held many of the finest and noblest minds captive to its witchery. The
+Kabbala is unquestionably a continuation of earlier theosophic
+inquiries. Its chief doctrines have been stated by a thorough student of
+our literature: All that exists originates in God, the source of light
+eternal. He Himself can be known only through His manifestations. He is
+without beginning, and veiled in mystery, or, He is nothing, because the
+whole of creation has developed from nothing. This nothing is one,
+indivisible, and limitless&mdash;<i>En-Sof</i>. God fills space, He is space
+itself. In order to manifest Himself, in order to create, that is,
+disclose Himself by means of emanations, He contracts, thus producing
+vacant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> space. The <i>En-Sof</i> first manifested itself in the prototype of
+the whole of creation, in the macrocosm called the "son of God," the
+first man, as he appears upon the chariot of Ezekiel. From this
+primitive man the whole created world emanates in four stages: <i>Azila</i>,
+<i>Beria</i>, <i>Yezira</i>, <i>Asiya</i>. The <i>Azila</i> emanation represents the active
+qualities of primitive man. They are forces or intelligences flowing
+from him, at once his essential qualities and the faculties by which he
+acts. There are ten of these forces, forming the ten sacred <i>Sefiroth</i>,
+a word which first meaning number came to stand for sphere. The first
+three <i>Sefiroth</i> are intelligences, the seven others, attributes. They
+are supposed to follow each other in this order: 1. <i>Kether</i> (crown); 2.
+<i>Chochma</i> (wisdom); 3. <i>Beena</i> (understanding); 4. <i>Chesed</i> (grace), or
+<i>Ghedulla</i> (greatness); 5. <i>Ghevoora</i> (dignity); 6. <i>Tifereth</i>
+(splendor); 7. <i>Nezach</i> (victory); 8. <i>Hod</i> (majesty); 9. <i>Yesod</i>
+(principle); 10. <i>Malchuth</i> (kingdom). From this first world of the
+<i>Azila</i> emanate the three other worlds, <i>Asiya</i> being the lowest stage.
+Man has part in these three worlds; a microcosm, he realizes in his
+actual being what is foreshadowed by the ideal, primitive man. He holds
+to the <i>Asiya</i> by his vital part (<i>Nefesh</i>), to the <i>Yezira</i> by his
+intellect (<i>Ruach</i>), to the <i>Beria</i> by his soul (<i>Neshama</i>). The last is
+his immortal part, a spark of divinity.</p>
+
+<p>Speculations like these, followed to their logical issue, are bound to
+lead the investigator out of Judaism into Trinitarianism or Pantheism.
+Kabbalists, of course only in rare cases, realized the danger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> The sad
+conditions prevailing in the era after the expulsion from Spain, a third
+exile, were in all respects calculated to promote the development of
+mysticism, and it did flourish luxuriantly.</p>
+
+<p>Some few philosophers, the last of a long line, still await mention:
+Levi ben Gerson, Joseph Kaspi, Moses of Narbonne in southern France,
+long a seat of Jewish learning; then, Isaac ben Sheshet, Chasdaï
+Crescas, whose "Light of God" exercised deep influence upon Spinoza and
+his philosophy; the Duran family, particularly Profiat Duran, successful
+defender of Judaism against the attacks of apostates and Christians; and
+Joseph Albo, who in his principal philosophic work, <i>Ikkarim</i>, shows
+Judaism to be based upon three fundamental doctrines: the belief in the
+existence of God, Revelation, and the belief in future reward and
+punishment. These writers are the last to reflect the glories of the
+golden age.</p>
+
+<p>At the entrance to the next period we again meet a man of extraordinary
+ability, Isaac Abrabanel, one of the most eminent and esteemed of Bible
+commentators, in early life minister to a Catholic king, later on a
+pilgrim scholar wandering about exiled with his sons, one of whom,
+Yehuda, has fame as the author of the <i>Dialoghi di Amore</i>. In the train
+of exiles passing from Portugal to the Orient are Abraham Zacuto, an
+eminent historian of Jewish literature and sometime professor of
+astronomy at the university of Salamanca; Joseph ibn Verga, the
+historian of his nation; Amatus Lusitanus, who came close upon the
+discovery of the circulation of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span> blood; Israel Nagara, the most
+gifted poet of the century, whose hymns brought him popular favor;
+later, Joseph Karo, "the most influential personage of the sixteenth
+century," his claims upon recognition resting on the <i>Shulchan Aruch</i>,
+an exhaustive codex of Jewish customs and laws; and many others. In
+Salonica, the exiles soon formed a prosperous community, where
+flourished Jacob ibn Chabib, the first compiler of the Haggadistic tales
+of the Talmud, and afterwards David Conforte, a reputable historian. In
+Jerusalem, Obadiah Bertinoro was engaged on his celebrated Mishna
+commentary, in the midst of a large circle of Kabbalists, of whom
+Solomon Alkabez is the best known on account of his famous Sabbath song,
+<i>Lecho Dodi</i>. Once again Jerusalem was the objective point of many
+pilgrims, lured thither by the prevalent Kabbalistic and Messianic
+vagaries. True literature gained little from such extremists. The only
+work produced by them that can be admitted to have literary qualities is
+Isaiah Hurwitz's "The Two Tables of the Testimony," even at this day
+enjoying celebrity. It is a sort of cyclopædia of Jewish learning,
+compiled and expounded from a mystic's point of view.</p>
+
+<p>The condition of the Jews in Italy was favorable, and their literary
+products derive grace from their good fortune. The Renaissance had a
+benign effect upon them, and the revival of classical studies influenced
+their intellectual work. Greek thought met Jewish a third time. Learning
+was enjoying its resurrection, and whenever their wretched political
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> social condition was not a hindrance, the Jews joined in the
+general delight. Their misery, however, was an undiminishing burden,
+yea, even in the days in which, according to Erasmus, it was joy to
+live. In fact, it was growing heavier. All the more noteworthy is it
+that Hebrew studies engaged the research of scholars, albeit they showed
+care for the word of God, and not for His people. Pico della Mirandola
+studies the Kabbala; the Jewish grammarian Elias Levita is the teacher
+of Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo, and later of Paul Fagius and Sebastian
+Münster, the latter translating his teacher's works into Latin; popes
+and sultans prefer Jews as their physicians in ordinary, who, as a rule,
+are men of literary distinction; the Jews translate philosophic writings
+from Hebrew and Arabic into Latin; Elias del Medigo is summoned as
+arbiter in the scholastic conflict at the University of Padua;&mdash;all
+boots nothing, ruin is not averted. Reuchlin may protest as he will, the
+Jew is exiled, the Talmud burnt.</p>
+
+<p>In such dreary days the Portuguese Samuel Usque writes his work,
+<i>Consolaçam as Tribulações de Ysrael</i>, and Joseph Cohen, his chronicle,
+"The Vale of Weeping," the most important history produced since the day
+of Flavius Josephus,&mdash;additional proofs that the race possesses native
+buoyancy, and undaunted heroism in enduring suffering. Women, too, in
+increasing number, participate in the spiritual work of their nation;
+among them, Deborah Ascarelli and Sara Copia Sullam, the most
+distinguished of a long array of names.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The keen critic and scholar, Azariah de Rossi, is one of the literary
+giants of his period. His researches in the history of Jewish literature
+are the basis upon which subsequent work in this department rests, and
+many of his conclusions still stand unassailable. About him are grouped
+Abraham de Portaleone, an excellent archæologist, who established that
+Jews had been the first to observe the medicinal uses of gold; David de
+Pomis, the author of a famous defense of Jewish physicians; and Leo de
+Modena, the rabbi of Venice, "unstable as water," wavering between faith
+and unbelief, and, Kabbalist and rabbi though he was, writing works
+against the Kabbala on the one hand, and against rabbinical tradition on
+the other. Similar to him in character is Joseph del Medigo, an
+itinerant author, who sometimes reviles, sometimes extols, the Kabbala.</p>
+
+<p>There are men of higher calibre, as, for instance, Isaac Aboab, whose
+<i>Nomologia</i> undertakes to defend Jewish tradition against every sort of
+assailant; Samuel Aboab, a great Bible scholar; Azariah Figo, a famous
+preacher; and, above all, Moses Chayyim Luzzatto, the first Jewish
+dramatist, the dramas preceding his having interest only as attempts.
+He, too, is caught in the meshes of the Kabbala, and falls a victim to
+its powers of darkness. His dramas testify to poetic gifts and to
+extraordinary mastery of the Hebrew language, the faithful companion of
+the Jewish nation in all its journeyings. To complete this sketch of the
+Italian Jews of that period, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> should be added that while in intellect
+and attainments they stand above their brethren in faith of other
+countries, in character and purity of morals they are their inferiors.</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter literary interest centres in Poland, where rabbinical
+literature found its most zealous and most learned exponents. Throughout
+the land schools were established, in which the Talmud was taught by the
+<i>Pilpul</i>, an ingenious, quibbling method of Talmudic reasoning and
+discussion, said to have originated with Jacob Pollak. Again we have a
+long succession of distinguished names. There are Solomon Luria, Moses
+Isserles, Joel Sirkes, David ben Levi, Sabbataï Kohen, and Elias Wilna.
+Sabbataï Kohen, from whom, were pride of ancestry permissible in the
+republic of letters, the present writer would boast descent, was not
+only a Talmudic writer; he also left historical and poetical works.
+Elias Wilna, the last in the list, had a subtle, delicately poised mind,
+and deserves special mention for his determined opposition to the
+Kabbala and its offspring Chassidism, hostile and ruinous to Judaism and
+Jewish learning.</p>
+
+<p>A gleam of true pleasure can be obtained from the history of the Dutch
+Jews. In Holland the Jews united secular culture with religious
+devotion, and the professors of other faiths met them with tolerance and
+friendliness. Sunshine falls upon the Jewish schools, and right into the
+heart of a youth, who straightway abandons the Talmud folios, and goes
+out into the world to proclaim to wondering man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span>kind the evangel of a
+new philosophy. The youth is Baruch Spinoza!</p>
+
+<p>There are many left to expound Judaism: Manasseh ben Israel, writing
+both Hebrew and Latin books to plead the cause of the emancipation of
+his people and of its literary pre-eminence; David Neto, a student of
+philosophy; Benjamin Mussafia, Orobio de Castro, David Abenator Melo,
+the Spanish translator of the Psalms, and Daniel de Barrios, poet and
+critic&mdash;all using their rapidly acquired fluency in the Dutch language
+to champion the cause of their people.</p>
+
+<p>In Germany, a mixture of German and Hebrew had come into use among the
+Jews as the medium of daily intercourse. In this peculiar patois, called
+<i>Judendeutsch</i>, a large literature had developed. Before Luther's time,
+it possessed two fine translations of the Bible, besides numerous
+writings of an ethical, poetical, and historical character, among which
+particular mention should be made of those on the German legend-cycles
+of the middle ages. At the same time, the Talmud receives its due of
+time, effort, and talent. New life comes only with the era of
+emancipation and enlightenment.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few names shall be mentioned, the rest would be bound soon to
+escape the memory of the casual reader: there is an historian, David
+Gans; a bibliographer, Sabbataï Bassista, and the Talmudists Abigedor
+Kara, Jacob Joshua, Jacob Emden, Jonathan Eibeschütz, and Ezekiel
+Landau. It is delight to be able once again to chronicle the interest
+taken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> in long neglected Jewish literature by such Christian scholars as
+the two Buxtorfs, Bartolocci, Wolff, Surrenhuys, and De Rossi.
+Unfortunately, the interest dies out with them, and it is significant
+that to this day most eminent theologians, decidedly to their own
+disadvantage, "content themselves with unreliable secondary sources,"
+instead of drinking from the fountain itself.</p>
+
+<p>We have arrived at the sixth and last period, our own, not yet
+completed, whose fruits will be judged by a future generation. It is the
+period of the rejuvenescence of Jewish literature. Changes in character,
+tenor, form, and language take place. Germany for the first time is in
+the van, and Mendelssohn, its most attractive figure, stands at the
+beginning of the period, surrounded by his disciples Wessely, Homberg,
+Euchel, Friedländer, and others, in conjunction with whom he gives Jews
+a new, pure German Bible translation. Poetry and philology are zealously
+pursued, and soon Jewish science, through its votaries Leopold Zunz and
+S. J. Rappaport, celebrates a brilliant renascence, such as the poet
+describes: "In the distant East the dawn is breaking,&mdash;The olden times
+are growing young again."</p>
+
+<p><i>Die Gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden</i>, by Zunz, published in 1832,
+was the pioneer work of the new Jewish science, whose present
+development, despite its wide range, has not yet exhausted the
+suggestions made, by the author. Other equally important works from the
+same pen followed, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> then came the researches of Rappaport, Z.
+Frankel, I. M. Jost, M. Sachs, S. D. Luzzatto, S. Munk, A. Geiger, L.
+Herzfeld, H. Graetz, J. Fürst, L. Dukes, M. Steinschneider, D. Cassel,
+S. Holdheim, and a host of minor investigators and teachers. Their
+loving devotion roused Jewish science and literature from their secular
+sleep to vigorous, intellectual life, reacting beneficently on the
+spiritual development of Judaism itself. The moulders of the new
+literature are such men as the celebrated preachers Adolf Jellinek,
+Salomon, Kley, Mannheimer; the able thinkers Steinheim, Hirsch,
+Krochmal; the illustrious scholars M. Lazarus, H. Steinthal; and the
+versatile journalists G. Riesser and L. Philipson.</p>
+
+<p>Poetry has not been neglected in the general revival. The first Jewish
+poet to write in German was M. E. Kuh, whose tragic fate has been
+pathetically told by Berthold Auerbach in his <i>Dichter und Kaufmann</i>.
+The burden of this modern Jewish poetry is, of course, the glorification
+of the loyalty and fortitude that preserved the race during a calamitous
+past. Such poets as Steinheim, Wihl, L. A. Frankl, M. Beer, K. Beck, Th.
+Creizenach, M. Hartmann, S. H. Mosenthal, Henriette Ottenheimer, Moritz
+Rappaport, and L. Stein, sing the songs of Zion in the tongue of the
+German. And can Heine be forgotten, he who in his <i>Romanzero</i> has so
+melodiously, yet so touchingly given word to the hoary sorrow of the
+Jew?</p>
+
+<p>In an essay of this scope no more can be done than give the barest
+outline of the modern move<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span>ment. A detailed description of the work of
+German-Jewish lyrists belongs to the history of German literature, and,
+in fact, on its pages can be found a due appreciation of their worth by
+unprejudiced critics, who give particularly high praise to the new
+species of tales, the Jewish village, or Ghetto, tales, with which
+Jewish and German literatures have latterly been enriched. Their object
+is to depict the religious customs in vogue among Jews of past
+generations, their home-life, and the conflicts that arose when the old
+Judaism came into contact with modern views of life. The master in the
+art of telling these Ghetto tales is Leopold Kompert. Of his
+disciples&mdash;for all coming after him may be considered such&mdash;A. Bernstein
+described the Jews of Posen; K. E. Franzos and L. Herzberg-Fränkel,
+those of Poland; E. Kulke, the Moravian Jews; M. Goldschmied, the Dutch;
+S. H. Mosenthal, the Hessian, and M. Lehmann, the South German. To
+Berthold Auerbach's pioneer work this whole class of literature owes its
+existence; and Heinrich Heine's fragment, <i>Rabbi von Bacharach</i>, a model
+of its kind, puts him into this category of writers, too.</p>
+
+<p>And so Judaism and Jewish literature are stepping into a new arena, on
+which potent forces that may radically affect both are struggling with
+each other. Is Jewish poetry on the point of dying out, or is it
+destined to enjoy a resurrection? Who would be rash enough to prophesy
+aught of a race whose entire past is a riddle, whose literature is a
+question-mark? Of a race which for more than a thousand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> years has, like
+its progenitor, been wrestling victoriously with gods and men?</p>
+
+<p>To recapitulate: We have followed out the course of a literary
+development, beginning in grey antiquity with biblical narratives,
+assimilating Persian doctrines, Greek wisdom, and Roman law; later,
+Arabic poetry and philosophy, and, finally, the whole of European
+science in all its ramifications. The literature we have described has
+contributed its share to every spiritual result achieved by humanity,
+and is a still unexplored treasury of poetry and philosophy, of
+experience and knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is never full," saith the
+Preacher; so all spiritual currents flow together into the vast ocean of
+a world-literature, never full, never complete, rejoicing in every
+accession, reaching the climax of its might and majesty on that day
+when, according to the prophet, "the earth shall be full of the
+knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>THE TALMUD</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the whole range of the world's literatures there are few books with
+so checkered a career, so curious a fate, as the Talmud has had. The
+name is simple enough, it glides glibly from the tongue, yet how
+difficult to explain its import to the uninitiated! From the Dominican
+Henricus Seynensis, who took "Talmud" to be the name of a rabbi&mdash;he
+introduces a quotation with <i>Ut narrat rabbinus Talmud</i>, "As Rabbi
+Talmud relates"&mdash;down to the church historians and university professors
+of our day, the oddest misconceptions on the nature of the Talmud have
+prevailed even among learned men. It is not astonishing, then, that the
+general reader has no notion of what it is.</p>
+
+<p>Only within recent years the Talmud has been made the subject of
+scientific study, and now it is consulted by philologists, cited by
+jurists, drawn upon by historians, the general public is beginning to be
+interested in it, and of late the old Talmud has repeatedly been
+summoned to appear in courts of law to give evidence. Under these
+circumstances it is natural to ask, What is the Talmud? Futile to seek
+an answer by comparing this gigantic monument of the human intellect
+with any other book; it is <i>sui generis</i>. In the form in which it issued
+from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> the Jewish academies of Babylonia and Palestine, it is a great
+national work, a scientific document of first importance, the archives
+of ten centuries, in which are preserved the thoughts and opinions, the
+views and verdicts, the errors, transgressions, hopes, disappointments,
+customs, ideals, convictions, and sorrows of Israel&mdash;a work produced by
+the zeal and patience of thirty generations, laboring with a self-denial
+unparalleled in the history of literature. A work of this character
+assuredly deserves to be known. Unfortunately, the path to its
+understanding is blocked by peculiar linguistic and historical
+difficulties. Above all, explanations by comparison must be avoided. It
+has been likened to a legal code, to a journal, to the transactions of
+learned bodies; but these comparisons are both inadequate and
+misleading. To make it approximately clear a lengthy explanation must be
+entered upon, for, in truth, the Talmud, like the Bible, is a world in
+miniature, embracing every possible phase of life.</p>
+
+<p>The origin of the Talmud was simultaneous with Israel's return from the
+Babylonian exile, during which a wonderful change had taken place in the
+captive people. An idolatrous, rebellious nation had turned into a pious
+congregation of the Lord, possessed with zeal for the study of the Law.
+By degrees there grew up out of this study a science of wide scope,
+whose beginnings are hidden in the last book of the Bible, in the word
+<i>Midrash</i>, translated by "story" in the Authorized Version. Its true
+meaning is indicated by that of its root, <i>darash</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> to study, to
+expound. Four different methods of explaining the sacred Scriptures were
+current: the first aimed to reach the simple understanding of words as
+they stood; the second availed itself of suggestions offered by
+apparently superfluous letters and signs in the text to arrive at its
+meaning; the third was "a homiletic application of that which had been
+to that which was and would be, of prophetical and historical dicta to
+the actual condition of things"; and the fourth devoted itself to
+theosophic mysteries&mdash;but all led to a common goal.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the centuries the development of the Midrash, or study
+of the Law, lay along the two strongly marked lines of Halacha, the
+explanation and formulating of laws, and Haggada, their poetical
+illustration and ethical application. These are the two spheres within
+which the intellectual life of Judaism revolved, and these the two
+elements, the legal and the æsthetic, making up the Talmud.</p>
+
+<p>The two Midrashic systems emphasize respectively the rule of law and the
+sway of liberty: Halacha is law incarnate; Haggada, liberty regulated by
+law and bearing the impress of morality. Halacha stands for the rigid
+authority of the Law, for the absolute importance of theory&mdash;the law and
+theory which the Haggada illustrates by public opinion and the dicta of
+common-sense morality. The Halacha embraces the statutes enjoined by
+oral tradition, which was the unwritten commentary of the ages on the
+written Law, along with the discussions of the academies of Palestine
+and Babylonia, result<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span>ing in the final formulating of the Halachic
+ordinances. The Haggada, while also starting from the word of the Bible,
+only plays with it, explaining it by sagas and legends, by tales and
+poems, allegories, ethical reflections, and historical reminiscences.
+For it, the Bible was not only the supreme law, from whose behests there
+was no appeal, but also "a golden nail upon which" the Haggada "hung its
+gorgeous tapestries," so that the Bible word was the introduction,
+refrain, text, and subject of the poetical glosses of the Talmud. It was
+the province of the Halacha to build, upon the foundation of biblical
+law, a legal superstructure capable of resisting the ravages of time,
+and, unmindful of contemporaneous distress and hardship, to trace out,
+for future generations, the extreme logical consequences of the Law in
+its application. To the Haggada belonged the high, ethical mission of
+consoling, edifying, exhorting, and teaching a nation suffering the
+pangs, and threatened with the spiritual stagnation, of exile; of
+proclaiming that the glories of the past prefigured a future of equal
+brilliancy, and that the very wretchedness of the present was part of
+the divine plan outlined in the Bible. If the simile is accurate that
+likens the Halacha to the ramparts about Israel's sanctuary, which every
+Jew was ready to defend with his last drop of blood, then the Haggada
+must seem "flowery mazes, of exotic colors and bewildering fragrance,"
+within the shelter of the Temple walls.</p>
+
+<p>The complete work of expounding, developing, and finally establishing
+the Law represents the labor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> of many generations, the method of
+procedure varying from time to time. In the long interval between the
+close of the Holy Canon and the completion of the Talmud can be
+distinguished three historical strata deposited by three different
+classes of teachers. The first set, the Scribes&mdash;<i>Soferim</i>&mdash;flourished
+in the period beginning with the return from Babylonian captivity and
+ending with the Syrian persecutions (220 B.C.E.), and their work was the
+preservation of the text of the Holy Writings and the simple expounding
+of biblical ordinances. They were followed by the
+"Learners"&mdash;<i>Tanaïm</i>&mdash;whose activity extended until 220 C.E. Great
+historical events occurred in that period: the campaigns of the
+Maccabean heroes, the birth of Jesus, the destruction of the Temple by
+the Romans, the rebellion under Bar-Kochba, and the final complete
+dispersion of the Jews. Amid all these storms the <i>Tanaïm</i> did not for a
+moment relinquish their diligent research in the Law. The Talmud tells
+the story of a celebrated rabbi, than which nothing can better
+characterize the age and its scholars: Night was falling. A funeral
+cortege was moving through the streets of old Jerusalem. It was said
+that disciples were bearing a well-beloved teacher to the grave.
+Reverentially the way was cleared, not even the Roman guard at the gate
+hindered the procession. Beyond the city walls it halted, the bier was
+set down, the lid of the coffin opened, and out of it arose the
+venerable form of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkaï, who, to reach the Roman
+camp unmolested, had feigned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> death. He went before Vespasian, and,
+impressed by the noble figure of the hoary rabbi, the general promised
+him the fulfilment of any wish he might express. What was his petition?
+Not for his nation, not for the preservation of the Holy City, not even
+for the Temple. His request was simple: "Permit me to open a school at
+Jabneh." The proud Roman smilingly gave consent. He had no conception of
+the significance of this prayer and of the prophetic wisdom of the
+petitioner, who, standing on the ruins of his nation's independence,
+thought only of rescuing the Law. Rome, the empire of the "iron legs,"
+was doomed to be crushed, nation after nation to be swallowed in the
+vortex of time, but Israel lives by the Law, the very law snatched from
+the smouldering ruins of Jerusalem, the beloved alike of crazy zealots
+and despairing peace advocates, and carried to the tiny seaport of
+Jabneh. There Jochanan ben Zakkaï opened his academy, the gathering
+place of the dispersed of his disciples and his people, and thence,
+gifted with a prophet's keen vision, he proclaimed Israel's mission to
+be, not the offering of sacrifices, but the accomplishment of works of
+peace.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>The <i>Tanaïm</i> may be considered the most original expounders of the
+science of Judaism, which they fostered at their academies. In the
+course of centuries their intellectual labor amassed an abundant store
+of scientific material, together with so vast a number of injunctions,
+prohibitions, and laws that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> became almost impossible to master the
+subject. The task of scholars now was to arrange the accumulation of
+material and reduce it to a system. Rabbi after rabbi undertook the
+task, but only the fourth attempt at codification, that made by Yehuda
+the Prince, was successful. His compilation, classifying the
+subject-matter under six heads, subdivided into sixty-three tractates,
+containing five hundred and twenty-four chapters, was called Mishna, and
+came to be the authority appealed to on points of law.</p>
+
+<p>Having assumed fixity as a code, the Mishna in turn became what the
+Bible had been for centuries&mdash;a text, the basis of all legal development
+and scientific discussion. So it was used by the epigones, the
+<i>Amoraïm</i>, or Speakers, the expounders of the third period. For
+generations commenting on the Mishna was the sum-total of literary
+endeavor. Traditions unheeded before sprang to light. New methods
+asserted themselves. To the older generation of Halachists succeeded a
+set of men headed by Akiba ben Joseph, who, ignoring practical issues,
+evolved laws from the Bible text or from traditions held to be divine. A
+spiritual, truly religious conception of Judaism was supplanted by legal
+quibbling and subtle methods of interpretation. Like the sophists of
+Rome and Alexandria at that time, the most celebrated teachers in the
+academies of Babylonia and Palestine for centuries gave themselves up to
+casuistry. This is the history of the development of the Talmud, or more
+correctly of the two Talmuds, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> one, finished in 390 C. E., being the
+expression of what was taught at the Palestinian academies; the other,
+more important one, completed in 500 C. E., of what was taught in
+Babylonia.</p>
+
+<p>The Babylonian, the one regarded as authoritative, is about four times
+as large as the Jerusalem Talmud. Its thirty-six treatises
+(<i>Massichtoth</i>), in our present edition, cover upwards of three thousand
+folio pages, bound in twelve huge volumes. To speak of a completed
+Talmud is as incorrect as to speak of a biblical canon. No religious
+body, no solemn resolution of a synod, ever declared either the Talmud
+or the Bible a completed whole. Canonizing of any kind is distinctly
+opposed to the spirit of Judaism. The fact is that the tide of
+traditional lore has never ceased to flow.</p>
+
+<p>We now have before us a faint outline sketch of the growth of the
+Talmud. To portray the busy world fitting into this frame is another and
+more difficult matter. A catalogue of its contents may be made. It may
+be said that it is a book containing laws and discussions, philosophic,
+theologic, and juridic dicta, historical notes and national
+reminiscences, injunctions and prohibitions controlling all the
+positions and relations of life, curious, quaint tales, ideal maxims and
+proverbs, uplifting legends, charming lyrical outbursts, and attractive
+enigmas side by side with misanthropic utterances, bewildering medical
+prescriptions, superstitious practices, expressions of deep agony,
+peculiar astrological charms, and rambling digressions on law,
+zo
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span>
+
+ology, and botany, and when all this has been said, not half its
+contents have been told. It is a luxuriant jungle, which must be
+explored by him who would gain an adequate idea of its features and
+products.</p>
+
+<p>The Ghemara, that is, the whole body of discussions recorded in the two
+Talmuds, primarily forms a running commentary on the text of the Mishna.
+At the same time, it is the arena for the debating and investigating of
+subjects growing out of the Mishna, or suggested by a literature
+developed along with the Talmudic literature. These discussions,
+debates, and investigations are the opinions and arguments of the
+different schools, holding opposite views, developed with rare acumen
+and scholastic subtlety, and finally harmonized in the solution reached.
+The one firm and impregnable rock supporting the gigantic structure of
+the Talmud is the word of the Bible, held sacred and inviolable.</p>
+
+<p>The best translations&mdash;single treatises have been put into modern
+languages&mdash;fail to convey an adequate idea of the discussions and method
+that evolved the Halacha. It is easier to give an approximately true
+presentation of the rabbinical system of practical morality as gleaned
+from the Haggada. It must, of course, be borne in mind that Halacha and
+Haggada are not separate works; they are two fibres of the same thread.
+"The whole of the Haggadistic literature&mdash;the hitherto unappreciated
+archives of language, history, archæology, religion, poetry, and
+science&mdash;with but slight reservations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61"
+id="Page_61">61</a></span>
+may be called a national
+literature, containing as it does the aggregate of the views and
+opinions of thousands of thinkers belonging to widely separated
+generations. Largely, of course, these views and opinions are peculiar
+to the individuals holding them or to their time"; still, every
+Haggadistic expression, in a general way, illustrates some fundamental,
+national law, based upon the national religion and the national
+history.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Through the Haggada we are vouchsafed a glance into a
+mysterious world, which mayhap has hitherto repelled us as strange and
+grewsome. Its poesy reveals vistas of gleaming beauty and light,
+luxuriant growth and exuberant life, while familiar melodies caress our
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>The Haggada conveys its poetic message in the garb of allegory song, and
+chiefly epigrammatic saying. Form is disregarded; the spirit is
+all-important, and suffices to cover up every fault of form. The Talmud,
+of course, does not yield a complete system of ethics, but its practical
+philosophy consists of doctrines that underlie a moral life. The
+injustice of the abuse heaped upon it would become apparent to its
+harshest critics from a few of its maxims and rules of conduct, such as
+the following: Be of them that are persecuted,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62"
+id="Page_62">62</a></span> not of the
+persecutors.&mdash;Be the cursed, not he that curses.&mdash;They that are
+persecuted, and do not persecute, that are vilified and do not retort,
+that act in love, and are cheerful even in suffering, they are the
+lovers of God.&mdash;Bless God for the good as well as the evil. When thou
+hearest of a death, say, "Blessed be the righteous Judge."&mdash;Life is like
+unto a fleeting shadow. Is it the shadow of a tower or of a bird? It is
+the shadow of a bird in its flight. Away flies the bird, and neither
+bird nor shadow remains behind.&mdash;Repentance and good works are the aim
+of all earthly wisdom.&mdash;Even the just will not have so high a place in
+heaven as the truly repentant.&mdash;He whose learning surpasses his good
+works is like a tree with many branches and few roots, which a
+wind-storm uproots and casts to the ground. But he whose good works
+surpass his learning is like a tree with few branches and many roots;
+all the winds of heaven cannot move it from its place.&mdash;There are three
+crowns: the crown of the Law, the crown of the priesthood, the crown of
+kingship. But greater than all is the crown of a good name.&mdash;Four there
+are that cannot enter Paradise: the scoffer, the liar, the hypocrite,
+and the backbiter.&mdash;Beat the gods, and the priests will
+tremble.&mdash;Contrition is better than many flagellations.&mdash;When the
+pitcher falls upon the stone, woe unto the pitcher; when the stone falls
+upon the pitcher, woe unto the pitcher; whatever betides, woe unto the
+pitcher.&mdash;The place does not honor the man, the man honors the
+place.&mdash;He who humbles himself will be exalted; he who
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> exalts himself
+will be humbled,&mdash;Whosoever pursues greatness, from him will greatness
+flee; whosoever flees from greatness, him will greatness
+pursue.&mdash;Charity is as important as all other virtues combined.&mdash;Be
+tender and yielding like a reed, not hard and proud like a cedar.&mdash;The
+hypocrite will not see God.&mdash;It is not sufficient to be innocent before
+God; we must show our innocence to the world.&mdash;The works encouraged by a
+good man are better than those he executes.&mdash;Woe unto him that practices
+usury, he shall not live; whithersoever he goes, he carries injustice
+and death.</p>
+
+<p>The same Talmud that fills chapter after chapter with minute legal
+details and hairsplitting debates outlines with a few strokes the most
+ideal conception of life, worth more than theories and systems of
+religious philosophy. A Haggada passage says: Six hundred and thirteen
+injunctions were given by Moses to the people of Israel. David reduced
+them to eleven; the prophet Isaiah classified these under six heads;
+Micah enumerated only three: "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to
+do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Another
+prophet limited them to two: "Keep ye judgment, and do righteousness."
+Amos put all the commandments under one: "Seek ye me, and ye shall
+live"; and Habakkuk said: "The just shall live by his faith."&mdash;This is
+the ethics of the Talmud.</p>
+
+<p>Another characteristic manifestation of the idealism of the Talmud is
+its delicate feeling for women and children. Almost extravagant
+affection is displayed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> for the little ones. All the verses of Scripture
+that speak of flowers and gardens are applied in the Talmud to children
+and schools. Their breath sustains the moral order of the universe: "Out
+of the mouth of babes and sucklings has God founded His might." They are
+called flowers, stars, the anointed of God. When God was about to give
+the Law, He demanded of the Israelites pledges to assure Him that they
+would keep His commandments holy. They offered the patriarchs, but each
+one of them had committed some sin. They named Moses as their surety;
+not even he was guiltless. Then they said: "Let our children be our
+hostages." The Lord accepted them.</p>
+
+<p>Similarly, there are many expressions to show that woman was held in
+high esteem by the rabbis of the Talmud: Love thy wife as thyself; honor
+her more than thyself.&mdash;In choosing a wife, descend a step.&mdash;If thy wife
+is small, bend and whisper into her ear.&mdash;God's altar weeps for him that
+forsakes the love of his youth.&mdash;He who sees his wife die before him
+has, as it were, been present at the destruction of the sanctuary
+itself; around him the world grows dark.&mdash;It is woman alone through whom
+God's blessings are vouchsafed to a house.&mdash;The children of him that
+marries for money shall be a curse unto him,&mdash;a warning singularly
+applicable to the circumstances of our own times.</p>
+
+<p>The peculiar charm of the Haggada is best revealed in its legends and
+tales, its fables and myths, its apologues and allegories, its riddles
+and songs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span>
+The starting-point of the Haggada usually is some memory of
+the great past. It entwines and enmeshes in a magic network the lives of
+the patriarchs, prophets, and martyrs, and clothes with fresh, luxuriant
+green the old ideals and figures, giving them new life for a remote
+generation. The teachers of the Haggada allow no opportunity, sad or
+merry, to pass without utilizing it in the guise of an apologue or
+parable. Alike for wedding-feasts and funerals, for banquets and days of
+fasting, the garden of the Haggada is rifled of its fragrant blossoms
+and luscious fruits. Simplicity, grace, and childlike merriment pervade
+its fables, yet they are profound, even sublime, in their truth. "Their
+chief and enduring charm is their fathomless depth, their unassuming
+loveliness." Poems constructed with great artistic skill do not occur.
+Here and there a modest bud of lyric poesy shyly raises its head, like
+the following couplet, describing a celebrated but ill-favored rabbi:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Without charm of form and face.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But a mind of rarest grace."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Over the grave of the same teacher the Talmud wails:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"The Holy Land did beautify what womb of Shinar gave;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And now Tiberias' tear-filled eye weeps o'er her treasure's grave."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>On seeing the dead body of the Patriarch Yehuda, a rabbi laments:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Angels strove to win the testimony's ark.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Men they overcame; lo! vanished is the ark!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Another threnody over some prince in the realm of the intellect:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"The cedar hath by flames been seized;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Can hyssop then be saved?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Leviathan with hook was caught;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Alas! ye little fish!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The deep and mighty stream ran dry,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ah woe! ye shallow brooks!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Nor is humor lacking. "Ah, hamper great, with books well-filled, thou'rt
+gone!" is a bookworm's eulogy.</p>
+
+<p>Poets naturally have not been slow to avail themselves of the material
+stored in the Haggada. Many of its treasures, tricked out in modern
+verse, have been given to the world. The following are samples:<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">BIRTH AND DEATH</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"His hands fast clenched, his fingers firmly clasped,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So man this life begins.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He claims earth's wealth, and constitutes himself</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The heir of all her gifts.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He thinks his hand may snatch and hold</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whatever life doth yield.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But when at last the end has come,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">His hands are open wide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">No longer closed. He knoweth now full well,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That vain were all his hopes.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He humbly says, 'I go, and nothing take</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of all my hands have wrought.'"</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next, "Interest and Usury," may serve to give the pertinacious
+opponent of the Talmud a better opinion of its position on financial
+subjects:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Behold! created things of every kind</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lend each to each. The day from night doth take,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And night from day; nor do they quarrel make</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Like men, who doubting one another's mind,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">E'en while they utter friendly words, think ill.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The moon delighted helps the starry host,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And each returns her gift without a boast.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Tis only when the Lord supreme doth will</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That earth in gloom shall be enwrapped,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He tells the moon: 'Refrain, keep back thy light!'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And quenches, too, the myriad lamps of night.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From wisdom's fount hath knowledge ofttimes lapped,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While wisdom humbly doth from knowledge learn.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The skies drop blessings on the grateful earth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And she&mdash;of precious store there is no dearth&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Exhales and sends aloft a fair return.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Stern law with mercy tempers its decree,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And mercy acts with strength by justice lent.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Good deeds are based on creed from heaven sent,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In which, in turn, the sap of deeds must be.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Each creature borrows, lends, and gives with love,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Nor e'er disputes, to honor God above.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When man, howe'er, his fellowman hath fed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Then 'spite the law forbidding interest,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He thinketh naught but cursèd gain to wrest.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who taketh usury methinks hath said:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'O Lord, in beauty has Thy earth been wrought!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But why should men for naught enjoy its plains?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ask usance, since 'tis Thou that sendest rains.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Have they the trees, their fruits, and blossoms bought?</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">For all they here enjoy, Thy int'rest claim:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">For heaven's orbs that shine by day and night,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Th' immortal soul enkindled by Thy light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And for the wondrous structure of their frame.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But God replies: 'Now come, and see! I give</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With open, bounteous hand, yet nothing take;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The earth yields wealth, nor must return ye make.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But know, O men, that only while ye live,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You may enjoy these gifts of my award.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The capital's mine, and surely I'll demand</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The spirit in you planted by my hand,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And also earth will claim her due reward.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Man's dust to dust is gathered in the grave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">His soul returns to God who gracious gave."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>R. Yehuda ben Zakkaï answers his pupils who ask:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Why doth the Law with them more harshly deal</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That filch a lamb from fold away,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Than with the highwaymen who shameless steal</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thy purse by force in open day?"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Because in like esteem the brigands hold</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The master and his serving man.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Their wickedness is open, frank, and bold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">They fear not God, nor human ban.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The thief feels more respect for earthly law</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Than for his heav'nly Master's eye,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Man's presence flees in fear and awe,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Forgets he's seen by God on high."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>That is a glimpse of the world of the Haggada&mdash;a wonderful, fantastic
+world, a kaleidoscopic panorama of enchanting views. "Well can we
+understand the distress of mind in a mediæval divine, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> even in a
+modern <i>savant</i>, who, bent upon following the most subtle windings of
+some scientific debate in the Talmudical pages&mdash;geometrical, botanical,
+financial, or otherwise&mdash;as it revolves round the Sabbath journey, the
+raising of seeds, the computation of tithes and taxes&mdash;feels, as it
+were, the ground suddenly give way. The loud voices grow thin, the doors
+and walls of the school-room vanish before his eyes, and in their place
+uprises Rome the Great, the <i>Urbs et Orbis</i> and her million-voiced life.
+Or the blooming vineyards round that other City of Hills, Jerusalem the
+Golden herself, are seen, and white-clad virgins move dreamily among
+them. Snatches of their songs are heard, the rhythm of their choric
+dances rises and falls: it is the most dread Day of Atonement itself,
+which, in poetical contrast, was chosen by the 'Rose of Sharon' as a day
+of rejoicing to walk among those waving lily-fields and vine-clad
+slopes. Or the clarion of rebellion rings high and shrill through the
+complicated debate, and Belshazzar, the story of whose ghastly banquet
+is told with all the additions of maddening horror, is doing service for
+Nero the bloody; or Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian tyrant, and all his
+hosts, are cursed with a yelling curse&mdash;<i>à propos</i> of some utterly
+inappropriate legal point, while to the initiated he stands for Titus
+the&mdash;at last exploded&mdash;'Delight of Humanity.' ... Often&mdash;far too often
+for the interests of study and the glory of the human race&mdash;does the
+steady tramp of the Roman cohort, the password of the revolution, the
+shriek and clangor of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> bloody field, interrupt these debates, and
+the arguing masters and disciples don their arms, and, with the cry,
+'Jerusalem and Liberty,' rush to the fray."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Such is the world of the
+Talmud.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>THE JEW IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></h3>
+
+
+<p>In the childhood of civilization, the digging of wells was regarded as
+beneficent work. Guide-posts, visible from afar, marked their position,
+and hymns were composed, and solemn feasts celebrated, in honor of the
+event. One of the choicest bits of early Hebrew poetry is a song of the
+well. The soul, in grateful joy, jubilantly calls to her mates: "Arise!
+sing a song unto the well! Well, which the princes have dug, which the
+nobles of the people have hollowed out."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> This house, too, is a
+guide-post to a newly-found well of humanity and culture, a monument to
+our faithfulness and zeal in the recognition and the diffusion of truth.
+A scene like this brings to my mind the psalmist's beautiful words:<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>
+"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
+in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down
+upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his
+garment; as the dew of Hermon, running down upon the mountains of Zion;
+for there hath the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for
+evermore."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wondrous thoughts veiled with wondrous imagery! The underlying meaning
+will lead us to our feast of the well, our celebration in honor of
+newly-discovered waters. Our order is based upon the conviction that all
+men should be banded together for purposes of humanity. But what is
+humanity? Not philanthropy, not benevolence, not charity: it is "human
+culture risen to the stage on which man is conscious of universal
+brotherhood, and strives for the realization of the general good." In
+early times, leaders of men were anointed with oil, symbol of wisdom and
+divine inspiration. Above all it was meet that it be used in the
+consecration of priests, the exponents of the divine spirit and the Law.
+The psalmist's idea is, that as the precious ointment in its abundance
+runs down Aaron's beard to the hem of his garment, even so shall wisdom
+and the divine spirit overflow the lips of priests, the guides, friends,
+and teachers of the people, the promoters of the law of peace and love.</p>
+
+<p>"As the dew of Hermon, running down upon the mountains of Zion!" High
+above all mountains towers Hermon, its crest enveloped by clouds and
+covered with eternal snow. From that supernal peak grateful dew trickles
+down, fructifying the land once "flowing with milk and honey." From its
+clefts gushes forth Jordan, mightiest stream of the land, watering a
+broad plain in its course. In this guise the Lord has granted His
+blessing to the land, the blessing of civilization and material
+prosperity, from which spring as corollaries the duties of charity and
+universal humanity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A picture of the olden time this, a lodge-address of the days of the
+psalm singers. Days flee, time abides; men pass away, mankind endures.
+Filled with time-honored thoughts, inspired by the hopes of by-gone
+generations, striving for the goal of noble men in all ages, like the
+psalm singers in the days of early culture, we celebrate a feast of the
+well by reviewing the past and looking forward down the avenues of time.</p>
+
+<p>Less than fifty years ago a band of energetic, loyal Jews, on the other
+side of the Atlantic, founded our beloved Order. Now it has established
+itself in every part of the world, from the extreme western coast of
+America to the blessed meadows of the Jordan; yea, even the Holy Land,
+unfurling everywhere the banner of charity, brotherly love, and unity,
+and seeking to spread education and culture, the forerunners of
+humanity. Judaism, mark you, is the religion of humanity. By far too
+late for our good and that of mankind, we began to proclaim this truth
+with becoming energy and emphasis, and to demonstrate it with the
+joyousness of conviction. The question is, are we permeated with this
+conviction? Our knowledge of Judaism is slight; we have barely a
+suspicion of what in the course of centuries, nay, of thousands of
+years, it has done for the progress of civilization. In my estimation,
+our house-warming cannot more fittingly be celebrated than by taking a
+bird's-eye view of Jewish culture.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible is the text-book of general literature. Out of the Bible, more
+particularly from the Ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> Commandments, flashed from Sinai, mankind
+learned its first ethical lesson in a system which still satisfies its
+needs. To convey even a faint idea of what the Bible has done for
+civilization, morality, and the literature of every people&mdash;of the
+innumerable texts it has furnished to poets, and subjects to
+painters&mdash;would in itself require a literature.</p>
+
+<p>The conflicts with surrounding nations to which they were exposed made
+the Jews concentrate their forces, and so enabled them to wage
+successful war with nations mightier than themselves. Their heroism
+under the Maccabees and under Bar-Kochba, in the middle ages and in
+modern days, permits them to take rank among the most valiant in
+history. A historian of literature, a non-Jew, enumerates three factors
+constituting Jews important agents in the preservation and revival of
+learning:<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> First, their ability as traders. The Ph&oelig;nicians are
+regarded as the oldest commercial nation, but the Jews contested the
+palm with them. Zebulon and Asher in very early times were seafaring
+tribes. Under Solomon, Israelitish vessels sailed as far as Ophir to
+bring Afric's gold to Jerusalem. Before the destruction of the Holy
+City, Jewish communities established themselves on the westernmost coast
+of Europe. "The whole of the known world was covered with their
+settlements, in constant communication with one another through
+itinerant merchants, who effected an exchange of learning as well as of
+wares;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> while the other nations grew more and more isolated, and shut
+themselves off from even the sparse opportunities of mental culture then
+available."</p>
+
+<p>The second factor conducing to mental advancement was the schools which
+have flourished in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; and the
+third was the linguistic attainments of the Jews, which they owed to
+natural ability in this direction. Scarcely had Greek allied itself with
+Hebrew thought, when Jews in Alexandria wrote Greek comparable with
+Plato's, and not more than two hundred years after the settlement of
+Jews in Arabia we meet with a large number of Jewish poets among
+Mohammed's disciples, while in the middle ages they taught and wrote
+Arabic, Spanish, French, and German&mdash;versatility naturally favorable to
+intellectual progress.</p>
+
+<p>Jewish influence may be said to have begun to exercise itself upon
+general culture when Judaism and Hellenism met for the first time. The
+result of the meeting was the new product, Judæo-Hellenic literature.
+Greek civilization was attractive to Jews. The new ideas were
+popularized for all strata of the people to imbibe. Shortly before the
+old pagan world crumbled, Hellenism enjoyed a beautiful, unexpected
+revival in Alexandria. There, strange to say, Judaism, in its home
+antagonistic to Hellenism, had filled and allied itself with the Greek
+spirit. Its literature gradually adopted Greek traditions, and the ripe
+fruit of the union was the Jewish-Alexandrian religious philosophy, the
+mediation between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> two sharply contradictory systems, for the first time
+brought into close juxtaposition, and requiring some such new element to
+harmonize them. When ancient civilization in Judæa and in Hellas fell
+into decay, human endeavor was charged with the task of reconciling
+these two great historical forces diametrically opposed to each other,
+and the first attempt looking to this end was inspired by a Jewish
+genius, Jesus of Nazareth.</p>
+
+<p>The Jews of Alexandria were engaged in widespread trade and shipping,
+and they counted among them artists, poets, civil officers, and
+mechanics. They naturally acquired Greek customs, and along with them
+Hellenic vices. The bacchanalia of Athens were enthusiastically imitated
+in Jerusalem, and, as a matter of course, in Alexandria. This point
+reached, Roman civilization asserted itself, and the people sought to
+affiliate with their Roman victors, while the rabbis devoted themselves
+to the Law, not, however, to the exclusion of scientific work. In the
+ranks of physicians and astronomers we find Jewish masters and Jewish
+disciples. Medicine has always been held in high esteem by Jews, and
+Samuel could justly boast before his contemporaries that the intricate
+courses of the stars were as well known to him as the streets of
+Nehardea in Babylonia.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>The treasures of information on pedagogics, medicine, jurisprudence,
+astronomy, geography, zoology, botany, and last, though not least, on
+general<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> history, buried in the Talmud, have hitherto not been valued at
+their true worth. The rabbis of the Talmud stood in the front ranks of
+culture. They compiled a calendar, in complete accord with the Metonic
+cycle, which modern science must declare faultless. Their classification
+of the bones of the human body varies but little from present results of
+the science of anatomy, and the Talmud demonstrates that certain Mishna
+ordinances are based upon geometrical propositions, which could have
+been known to but few mathematicians of that time. Rabbi Gamaliel, said
+to have made use of a telescope, was celebrated as a mathematician and
+astronomer, and in 289 C. E., Rabbi Joshua is reported to have
+calculated the orbit of Halley's comet.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman conquest of Palestine effected a change in the condition of
+the Jews. Never before had Judah undergone such torture and suffering as
+under the sceptre of Rome. The misery became unendurable, and internal
+disorders being added to foreign oppression, the luckless insurrection
+broke out which gave the deathblow to Jewish nationality, and drove
+Judah into exile. On his thorny martyr's path he took naught with him
+but a book&mdash;his code, his law. Yet how prodigal his contributions to
+mankind's fund of culture!</p>
+
+<p>About five hundred years later Judah saw springing up on his own soil a
+new religion which appropriated the best and the most beautiful of his
+spiritual possessions. Swiftly rose the vast political<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> and intellectual
+structure of Mohammedan power, and as before with Greek, so Jewish
+thought now allied itself with Arabic endeavor, bringing forth in Spain
+the golden age of neo-Hebraic literature in the spheres of poetry,
+metaphysical speculation, and every department of scientific research.
+It is not an exaggerated estimate to say that the middle ages sustained
+themselves with the fruit of this intellectual labor, which, moreover,
+has come down as a legacy to our modern era. Two hundred years after
+Mohammed, the same language, Arabic, was spoken by the Jews of Kairwan
+and those of Bagdad. Thus equipped, they performed in a remarkable way
+the task allotted them by their talents and their circumstances, to
+which they had been devoting themselves with singular zeal for two
+centuries. The Jews are missioned mediators between the Orient and the
+Occident, and their activity as such, illustrated by their additions to
+general culture and science, is of peculiar interest. In the period
+under consideration, their linguistic accomplishments fitted them to
+assist the Syrians in making Greek literature accessible to the Arabic
+mind. In Arabic literature itself, they attained to a prominent place.
+Modern research has not yet succeeded in shedding light upon the
+development and spread of science among the Arabs under the tutelage of
+Syrian Christians. But out of the obscurity of Greek-Arabic culture
+beginnings gleam Jewish names, whose possessors were the teachers of
+eager Arabic disciples. Barely fifty years after the hosts of the
+Prophet had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> conquered the Holy Land, a Jew of Bassora translated from
+Syriac into Arabic the pandects by the presbyter Aaron, a famous medical
+work of the middle ages. In the annals of the next century, among the
+early contributors to Arabic literature, we meet with the names of Jews
+as translators of medical, mathematical, and astronomical works, and as
+grammarians, astronomers, scientists, and physicians. A Jew translated
+Ptolemy's "Almagest"; another assisted in the first translation of the
+Indian fox fables (<i>Kalila we-Dimna</i>); the first furnishing the middle
+ages with the basis of their astronomical science, the second supplying
+European poets with literary material. Through the instrumentality of
+Jews, Arabs became acquainted as early as the eighth century, some time
+before the learning of the Greeks was brought within their reach, with
+Indian medicine, astronomy, and poetry. Greek science itself they owed
+to Jewish mediation. Not only among Jews, but also among Greeks,
+Syrians, and Arabs, Jewish versatility gave currency to the belief that
+"all wisdom is of the Jews," a view often repeated by Hellenists, by the
+"Righteous Brethren" among the Arabs, and later by the Christian monks
+of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The academies of the Jews have always been pervaded by a scientific
+spirit. As they influenced others, so they permitted the science and
+culture of their neighbors to act upon their life and work. There is no
+doubt, for instance, that, despite the marked difference between the
+subjects treated by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> Arabs and Jews, the peculiar qualities of the old
+Arabic lyrics shaped neo-Hebraic poetry. Again, as the Hebrew acrostic
+psalms demonstrably served as models to the older Syrian Church poets,
+so, in turn, Syriac psalmody probably became the pattern synagogue
+poetry followed. Thus Hebrew poetry completed a circuit, which, to be
+sure, cannot accurately be followed up through its historical stages,
+but which critical investigations and the comparative study of
+literatures have established almost as a certainty.</p>
+
+<p>In the ninth century a bold, venturesome traveller, Eldad ha-Dani,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> a
+sort of Jewish Ulysses, appeared among Jews, and at the same time
+Judaism produced Sa'adia, its first great religious philosopher and
+Bible translator. The Church Fathers had always looked up to the rabbis
+as authorities; henceforth Jews were accepted by all scholars as the
+teachers of Bible exegesis. Sa'adia was the first of the rabbis to
+translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Arabic. Justly his work is said to
+"recognize the current of thought dominant in his time, and to express
+the newly-awakened desire for the reconciliation of religious practice,
+as developed in the course of generations, with the source of religious
+inspiration." Besides, he was the first to elaborate a system of
+religious philosophy according to a rigid plan, and in a strictly
+scientific spirit.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Knowing Greek speculations, he controverts them
+as vigor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span>ously as the <i>Kalâm</i> of Islam philosophy. His teachings form a
+system of practical ethics, luminous reflections, and sound maxims.
+Among his contemporaries was Isaac Israeli, a physician at Kairwan,
+whose works, in their Latin translation by the monk Constantine,
+attained great reputation, and were later plagiarized by medical
+writers. His treatise on fever was esteemed of high worth, a translation
+of it being studied as a text-book for centuries, and his dietetic
+writings remained authoritative for five hundred years. In general, the
+medical science of the Arabs is under great obligations to him.
+Reverence for Jewish medical ability was so exaggerated in those days
+that Galen was identified with the Jewish sage Gamaliel. The error was
+fostered in the <i>Sefer Asaf</i>, a curious medical fragment of uncertain
+authorship and origin, by its rehearsal of an old Midrash, which traces
+the origin of medicine to Shem, son of Noah, who received it from
+angels, and transmitted it to the ancient Chaldeans, they in turn
+passing it on to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>Though the birth of medicine is not likely to have taken place among
+Jews, it is indisputable that physicians of the Jewish race are largely
+to be credited with the development of medical science at every period.
+At the time we speak of, Jews in Egypt, northern Africa, Italy, Spain,
+France, and Germany were physicians in ordinary to caliphs, emperors,
+and popes, and everywhere they are represented among medical writers.
+The position occupied in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> the Arabian world by Israeli, in the Occident
+was occupied by Sabattaï Donnolo, one of the Salerno school in its early
+obscure days, the author of a work on <i>Materia medica</i>, possibly the
+oldest original production on medicine in the Hebrew language.</p>
+
+<p>The period of Jewish prosperity in Spain has been called a fairy vision
+of history. The culture developed under its genial influences pervaded
+the middle ages, and projected suggestions even into our modern era. One
+of the most renowned <i>savants</i> at the beginning of the period was the
+statesman Chasdaï ben Shaprut, whose translation of Dioscorides's "Plant
+Lore" served as the botanical textbook of mediæval Europe. The first
+poet was Solomon ibn Gabirol, the author of "The Source of Life," a
+systematic exposition of Neoplatonic philosophy, a book of most curious
+fortunes. Through the Latin translation, made with the help of an
+apostate Jew, and bearing the author's name in the mutilated form of
+Avencebrol, later changed into Avicebron, scholasticism became saturated
+with its philosophic ideas. The pious fathers of Christian philosophy,
+Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, took pains to refute them, while
+Duns Scotus and Giordano Bruno frequently consulted the work as an
+authority. In the struggle between the Scotists and the Thomists it had
+a prominent place as late as the fourteenth century, the contestants
+taking it to be the work of some great Christian philosopher standing on
+the threshold of the Occident and at the portals of philosophy. So it
+happened that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> author came down through the centuries, recognized by
+none, forgotten by his own, until, in our time, behind the
+Moorish-Christian mask of Avencebrol, Solomon Munk discovered the Jewish
+thinker and poet Solomon ibn Gabirol.</p>
+
+<p>The work <i>De Causis</i>, attributed to David, a forgotten Jewish
+philosopher, must be classed with Gabirol's "Source of Life," on account
+of its Neoplatonism and its paramount influence upon scholasticism. In
+fact, only by means of a searching analysis of these two works can
+insight be gained into the development and aberrations of the dogmatic
+system of mediæval philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>Other sciences, too, especially mathematics, flourished among them. One
+century after he wrote them, the works of Abraham ibn Ezra, renowned as
+an astronomer and mathematician, were translated into Latin by Italians,
+among whom his prestige was so great that, as may still be seen, he was
+painted among the expounders of mathematical science in an Italian
+church fresco representing the seven liberal arts. Under the name
+Abraham Judæus, later corrupted into Avenare, he is met with throughout
+the middle ages. Abraham ben Chiya, another distinguished scientist,
+known by the name Savasorda, compiled the first systematic outline of
+astronomy, and in his geographical treatise, he explained the sphericity
+of the earth, while the Latin translation of his geometry, based on
+Arabic sources, proves him to have made considerable additions to the
+stock of knowledge in this branch. Moses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> Maimuni's intellectual vigor,
+and his influence upon the schoolmen through his medical, and more
+particularly his religio-philosophical works, are too well known to need
+more than passing mention.</p>
+
+<p>Even in southern France and in Germany, whither the light of culture did
+not spread so rapidly as in Spain, Jews participated in the development
+of the sciences. Solomon ben Isaac, called Rashi, the great exegete, was
+looked up to as an authority by others beside his brethren in faith.
+Nicolas de Lyra, one of the most distinguished Christian Bible exegetes,
+confesses that his simple explanations of Scriptural passages are
+derived pre-eminently from Rashi's Bible commentary, and among
+scientific men it is acknowledged that precisely in the matter of
+exegesis this French monk exercised decisive influence upon Martin
+Luther. So it happens that in places Luther's Bible translation reveals
+Rashi seen through Nicolas de Lyra's spectacles.</p>
+
+<p>In the quickened intellectual life of Provence Jews also took active
+part. David Kimchi has come to be regarded as the teacher <i>par
+excellence</i> of Hebrew grammar and lexicography, and Judah ibn Tibbon,
+one of the most notable of translators, in his testament addressed to
+his son made a complete presentation of contemporary science, a
+cyclopædia of the Arabic and the Hebrew language and literature,
+grammar, poetry, botany, zoology, natural history, and particularly
+religious philosophy, the studies of the Bible and the Talmud.</p>
+
+<p>The golden age of letters was followed by a less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> creative period, a
+significant turning-point in the history of Judaism as of spiritual
+progress in general. The contest between tradition and philosophy
+affected every mind. Literature was widely cultivated; each of its
+departments found devotees. The European languages were studied, and
+connections established between the literatures of the nations. Hardly a
+spiritual current runs through the middle ages without, in some way,
+affecting Jewish culture. It is the irony of history that puts among the
+forty proscribers of the Talmud assembled at Paris in the thirteenth
+century the Dominican Albertus Magnus, who, in his successful efforts to
+divert scholastic philosophy into new channels, depended entirely upon
+the writings and translations of the very Jews he was helping to
+persecute. Schoolmen were too little conversant with Greek to read
+Aristotle in the original, and so had to content themselves with
+accepting the Judæo-Arabic construction put upon the Greek sage's
+teachings.</p>
+
+<p>Besides acting as intermediaries, Jews made original contributions to
+scholastic philosophy. For instance, Maimonides, the first to reconcile
+Aristotle's teachings with biblical theology, was the originator of the
+method adopted by schoolmen in the case of Aristotelian principles at
+variance with their dogmas. Frederick II., the liberal emperor, employed
+Jewish scholars and translators at his court; among them Jacob ben
+Abba-Mari ben Anatoli, to whom an annuity was paid for translating
+Aristotelian works. Michael Scotus, the imperial astrologer,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> was his
+intimate friend. His contemporaries were chiefly popular philosophers or
+mystics, excepting only the prominent Provençal Jacob ben Machir, or
+Profatius Judæus, as he was called, a member of the Tibbon family of
+translators. His observations on the inclination of the earth's axis
+were used later by Copernicus as the basis of further investigations. He
+was a famous teacher at the Montpellier academy, which reminds me to
+mention that Jews were prominently identified with the founding and the
+success of the medical schools at Montpellier and Salerno, they, indeed,
+being almost the only physicians in all parts of the known world.
+Salerno, in turn, suggests Italy, where at that period translations were
+made from Latin into Hebrew. Hillel ben Samuel, for instance, the same
+who carried on a lively philosophic correspondence with another
+distinguished Jew, Maestro Isaac Gayo, the pope's physician, translated
+some of Thomas Aquinas's writings, Bruno di Lungoburgo's book on
+surgery, and various other works, from Latin into Hebrew.</p>
+
+<p>These successors of the great intellects of the golden age of
+neo-Hebraic literature, thoroughly conversant with Arabic literature,
+busied themselves with rendering accessible to literary Europe the
+treasury of Indian and Greek fables. Their translations and compilations
+have peculiar value in the history of literary development. During the
+middle ages, when the memory of ancient literature had perished, they
+were the means of preserving the romances, fairy tales, and fables that
+have descended,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> by way of Spain and Arabia, from classical antiquity
+and the many-hued Oriental world to our modern literatures. Between the
+eleventh and the thirteenth century, the foundations were laid for our
+narrative literature, demonstrating the importance of delight in fable
+lore, stories of travel, and all sorts of narratives, for to it we owe
+the creation of new and the transformation of old, literary forms.</p>
+
+<p>In Germany at that time, a Jewish minnesinger and strolling minstrel,
+Süsskind von Trimberg, went up and down the land, from castle to castle,
+with the poets' guild; while Santob di Carrion, a Jewish troubadour,
+ventured to impart counsel and moral lessons to the Castilian king Don
+Pedro before his assembled people. A century later, another Jew, Samson
+Pnie, of Strasburg, lent his assistance to the two German poets at work
+upon the continuation of <i>Parzival</i>. The historians of German literature
+have not laid sufficient stress upon the share of the Jews, heavily
+oppressed and persecuted though they were, in the creation of national
+epics and romances of chivalry from the thirteenth to the fifteenth
+century. German Jews, being more than is generally recognized diligent
+readers of the poets, were well acquainted with the drift of mediæval
+poetry, and to this familiarity a new department of Jewish literature
+owed its rise and development. It is said that a Hebrew version of the
+Arthurian cycle was made as early as the thirteenth century, and at the
+end of the period we run across epic poems on Bible characters, composed
+in the <i>Nibelungen</i> metre, in imitation of old German legend lore and
+national poetry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If German Jews found heart for literary interests, it may be assumed as
+a matter of course that Spanish and Provençal Jews participated in the
+advancement of their respective national literatures and in Troubadour
+poetry. In these countries, too, the new taste for popular literature,
+especially in the form of fables, was made to serve moral ends. A Jew,
+Berachya ben Natronaï, was the precursor of Marie de France, the famous
+French fabulist, and La Fontaine and Lessing are indebted to him for
+some of their material. As in the case of Aristotelian philosophy and of
+Greek and Arabic medical science, Jews assumed the rôle of mediators in
+the transmission of fables. Indian fables reached their Arabic guise
+either directly or by way of Persian and Greek; thence they passed into
+Hebrew and Latin translations, and through these last forms became the
+property of the European languages. For instance, the Hebrew translation
+of the old Sanskrit fox fables was the one of greatest service in
+literary evolution. The translator of the fox fables is credited also
+with the translation of the romance of "The Seven Wise Masters," under
+the title <i>Mishlé Sandabar</i>. These two works gave the impetus to a great
+series in Occidental literature, and it seems altogether probable that
+Europe's first acquaintance with them dates from their Hebrew
+translation.</p>
+
+<p>In Arabic poetry, too, many a Jew deservedly attained to celebrity.
+Abraham ibn Sahl won such renown that the Arabs, notorious for
+parsimony, gave ten gold pieces for one of his songs. Other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> poets have
+come down to us by name, and Joseph Ezobi, whom Reuchlin calls <i>Judæorum
+poeta dulcissimus</i>, went so far as to extol Arabic beyond Hebrew poetry.
+He was the first to pronounce the dictum famous in Buffon's repetition:
+"The style is the man himself." Provence, the land of song, produced
+Kalonymos ben Kalonymos (Maestro Calo), known to his brethren in faith
+not only as a poet, but also as a scholar, whose Hebrew translations
+from the Arabic are of most important works on philosophy, medicine, and
+mathematics. As Anatoli had worked under Emperor Frederick II., so
+Kalonymos was attached to Robert of Naples, patron of Jewish scholars.
+At the same time with the Spanish and the German minstrel, there
+flourished in Rome Immanuel ben Solomon, the friend of Dante, upon whose
+death he wrote an Italian sonnet, and whose <i>Divina Commedia</i> inspired a
+part of his poetical works also describing a visit to paradise and hell.</p>
+
+<p>With the assiduous cultivation of romantic poetry, which was gradually
+usurping the place of moral romances and novels, grew the importance of
+Oriental legends and traditions, so pregnant with literary suggestions.
+This is attested by the use made of the Hebrew translation of Indian
+fables mentioned before, and of the famous collection of tales, the
+<i>Disciplina clericalis</i> by the baptized Jew Petrus Alphonsus. The Jews
+naturally introduced many of their own peculiar traditions, and thus can
+be explained the presence of tales from the Talmud and the Midrash in
+our modern fairy tale books.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to note again that the Jews in turn submitted to the
+influence of foreign literatures. Immanuel Romi, for example, at his
+best, is an exponent of Provençal versification and scholastic
+philosophy, while his lapses testify to the self-complacency and levity
+characteristic of the times. Yehuda Romano, one of his contemporaries,
+is said to have been teacher to the king of Naples. He was the first Jew
+to attain to a critical appreciation of the vagaries of scholasticism,
+but his claim to mention rests upon his translations from the Latin.</p>
+
+<p>As Jews assisted at the birth of Arabic, French, and German, so they
+have a share in the beginnings of Spanish, literature. Jews must be
+credited with the first "Chronicle of the Cid," with the romance, <i>Comte
+Lyonnais, Palanus</i>, with the first collection of tales, the first chess
+poems, and the first troubadour songs. Again, the oldest collection of
+the last into a <i>cancionera</i> was made by the Jew Juan Alfonso de Bæna.</p>
+
+<p>Even distant Persia has proofs to show of Jewish ability and energy in
+those days. One Jew composed an epic on a biblical subject in the
+Persian language, another translated the Psalms into the vernacular.</p>
+
+<p>The most prominent Jewish exponent of philosophy in this age of
+strenuous interest in metaphysical speculations and contests was Levi
+ben Gerson (Leon di Bannolas), theologian, scientist, physician, and
+astronomer. One of his ancestors, Gerson ben Solomon, had written a work
+typical of the state of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> the natural sciences in his day. Levi ben
+Gerson's chief work became famous not among Jews alone. It was referred
+to in words of praise by Pico della Mirandola, Reuchlin, Kepler, and
+other Christian thinkers. He was the inventor of an astronomical
+instrument, a description of which was translated into Latin at the
+express command of Pope Clement VI., and carefully studied by Kepler.
+Besides, Levi ben Gerson was the author of an arithmetical work. In
+those days, in fact up to the seventeenth century, there was but a faint
+dividing line between astronomy and mathematics, as between medicine and
+natural history. John of Seville was a notable mathematician, the
+compiler of a practical arithmetic, the first to make mention of decimal
+fractions, which possibly may have been his invention, and in the Zohar,
+the text-book of mediæval Jewish mysticism, which appeared centuries
+before Copernicus's time, the cause of the succession of day and night
+is stated to be the earth's revolution on its axis.</p>
+
+<p>In this great translation period scarcely a single branch of human
+science escaped the mental avidity of Jews. They found worthy of
+translation such essays as "Rules for the Shoeing and Care of Horses in
+Royal Stables" and "The Art of Carving and Serving at Princely Boards."
+Translations of works on scholasticism now took rank beside those from
+Greek and Arabic philosophers, and to translations from the Arabic into
+Hebrew were added translations from and into Latin, or even into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>
+vernacular idiom wherever literary forms had developed. The bold
+assertion can be made good that not a single prominent work of ancient
+science was left untranslated. On the other hand it is hard to speculate
+what would have been the fate of these treasures of antiquity without
+Jewish intermediation. Doubtless an important factor in the work was the
+encouragement given Jewish scholars by enlightened rulers, such as
+Emperor Frederick II., Charles and Robert of Anjou, Jayme I. of Aragon,
+and Alfonso X. of Castile, and by popes, and private patrons of
+learning. Mention has been made of Jewish contributions to the work of
+the medical schools of Montpellier and Salerno. Under Jayme I. Christian
+and Jewish savants of Barcelona worked together harmoniously to promote
+the cause of civilization and culture in their native land. The first to
+use the Catalan dialect for literary purposes was the Jew Yehuda ben
+Astruc, and under Alfonso (X.) the Wise, Jews again attained to
+prominence in the king's favorite science of astronomy. The Alfonsine
+Tables were chiefly the work of Isaac ibn Sid, a Toledo <i>chazan</i>
+(precentor). In general, the results reached by Jewish scholarship at
+Alfonso's court were of the utmost importance, having been largely
+instrumental in establishing in the age of Tycho de Brahe and Kepler the
+fundamental principles of astronomy and a correct view of the orbits of
+the heavenly bodies. Equal suggestiveness characterizes Jewish research
+in mathematics, a science to which, rising above the level of
+intermediaries and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> translators, Jews made original contributions of
+importance, the first being Isaac Israeli's "The Foundation of the
+Universe." Basing his observations on Maimuni's and Abraham ben Chiya's
+statement of the sphericity of the earth, Israeli showed that the
+heavenly bodies do not seem to occupy the place in which they would
+appear to an observer at the centre of the earth, and that the two
+positions differ by a certain angle, since known as parallax in the
+terminology of science. To Judah Hakohen, a scholar in correspondence
+with Alfonso the Wise, is ascribed the arrangement of the stars in
+forty-eight constellations, and to another Jew, Esthori Hafarchi, we owe
+the first topographical description of Palestine, whither he emigrated
+when the Jews were expelled from France by Philip the Fair.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the condition of the Jews, viewed from without and from
+within, had become most pitiable. The Kabbala lured into her charmed
+circle the strongest Jewish minds. Scientific aspirations seemed
+completely extinguished. Even the study of the Talmud was abandoning
+simple, undistorted methods of interpretation, and espousing the
+hairsplitting dialectics of the northern French school. Synagogue poetry
+was languishing, and general culture found no votaries among Jews.
+Occasionally only the religious disputations between Jews and Christians
+induced some few to court acquaintance with secular branches of
+learning. In the fourteenth century Chasdaï Crecas was the only
+philosopher with an original system, which in its arguments on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> free
+will and the nature of God anticipated the views of one greater than
+himself, who, however, had a different purpose in view. That later and
+greater philosopher, to whom the world is indebted for the evangel of
+modern life, was likewise a Jew, a descendant of Spanish-Jewish
+fugitives. His name is Baruch Spinoza.</p>
+
+<p>However sad their fortunes, the literature of the Jews never entirely
+eschewed the consideration of subjects of general interest. This
+receives curious confirmation from the re-introduction of Solomon
+Gabirol's peculiar views into Jewish religious philosophy, by way of
+Christian scholasticism, as formulated especially by Thomas Aquinas, the
+<i>Doctor angelicus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The Renaissance and the humanistic movement also reveal Jewish
+influences at work. The spirit of liberty abroad in the earth passed
+through the halls of Israel, clearing the path thenceforth to be trodden
+by men. Again the learned were compelled to engage the good offices of
+the Jews, the custodians of biblical antiquity. The invention of the
+printing press acted as a wonderful stimulus to the development of
+Jewish literature. The first products of the new machine were Hebrew
+works issued in Italy and Spain. Among the promoters of the Renaissance,
+and one of the most thorough students of religio-philosophical systems,
+was Elias del Medigo, the friend of Pico della Mirandola, and the umpire
+chosen by the quarrelling factions in the University of Padua. John
+Reuchlin, chief of the humanists,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> was taught Hebrew by Obadiah Sforno,
+a <i>savant</i> of profound scholarship, who dedicated his "Commentary on
+Ecclesiastes" to Henry II. of France. Abraham de Balmes was a teacher at
+the universities of Padua and Salerno, and physician in ordinary to
+Cardinal Dominico Grimani. The Kabbala was made accessible to the heroes
+of the Renaissance by Jochanan Alemanno, of Mantua, and there is pathos
+in the urgency with which Reuchlin entreats Jacob Margoles, rabbi of
+Nuremberg, to send him Kabbalistic writings in addition to those in his
+possession. Reuchlin's good offices to the Jews&mdash;his defense of them
+against the attacks of obscurantists&mdash;are a matter of general knowledge.
+Among the teachers of the humanists who revealed to them the treasures
+of biblical literature the most prominent was Elias Levita, the
+introducer, through his disciples Sebastian Münster and Paul Fagius, of
+Hebrew studies into Germany. He may be accounted a true humanist, a
+genuine exponent of the Renaissance. His Jewish coadjutors were Judah
+Abrabanel (Leo Hebræus), whose chief work was <i>Dialoghi di Amore</i>, an
+exposition of the Neoplatonism then current in Italy; Jacob Mantino,
+physician to Pope Paul III.; Bonet di Lattes, known as a writer on
+astronomical subjects, and the inventor of an astronomical instrument;
+and a number of others.</p>
+
+<p>While in Italy the Spanish-Jewish exiles fell into line in the
+Renaissance movement, the large numbers of them that sought refuge in
+Portugal turned their attention chiefly to astronomical research and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> to
+voyages of discovery and adventure, the national enterprises of their
+protectors. João II. employed Jews in investigations tending to make
+reasonably safe the voyages, on trackless seas, under unknown skies, for
+the discovery of long and ardently sought passages to distant lands. In
+his commission charged with the construction of an instrument to
+indicate accurately the course of a vessel, the German knight Martin
+Behaim was assisted by Jews&mdash;astronomers, metaphysicians, and
+physicians&mdash;chief among them Joseph Vecinho, distinguished for his part
+in the designing of the artificial globe, and Pedro di Carvallho,
+navigator, whose claim to praise rests upon his improvement of Leib's
+<i>Astrologium</i>, and to censure, upon his abetment of the king when he
+refused the request of the bold Genoese Columbus to fit out a squadron
+for the discovery of wholly unknown lands. But when Columbus's plans
+found long deferred realization in Spain, a Jewish youth, Luis de
+Torres, embarked among the ninety adventurers who accompanied him. Vasco
+da Gama likewise was aided in his search for a waterway to the Indies by
+a Jew, the pilot Gaspar, the same who later set down in writing the
+scientific results of the voyage, and two Jews were despatched to
+explore the coasts of the Red Sea and the island of Ormus in the Persian
+Gulf. Again, Vasco da Gama's plans were in part made with the valuable
+assistance of a Jew, a profound scholar, Abraham Zacuto, sometime
+professor of astronomy at the University of Salamanca, and after the
+banishment of Jews from Spain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> astronomer and chronographer to Manuel
+the Great, of Portugal. It was he that advised the king to send out Da
+Gama's expedition, and from the first the explorer was supported by his
+counsel and scientific knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Meritorious achievements, all of them, but they did not shield the Jews
+against impending banishment. The exiles found asylums in Italy and
+Holland, and in each country they at once projected themselves into the
+predominant intellectual movement. A physician, Abraham Portaleone,
+distinguished himself on the field of antiquarian research; another,
+David d'Ascoli, wrote a defense of Jews; and a third, David de Pomis, a
+defense of Jewish physicians. The most famous was Amatus Lusitanus, one
+of whose important discoveries is said to have brought him close up to
+that of the circulation of the blood. Before the banishment of Jews from
+Spain took effect, Antonio di Moro, a Jewish peddler of Cordova,
+flourished as the last of Spanish troubadours, and Rodrigo da Cota, a
+neo-Christian of Seville, as the first of Spanish dramatists, the
+supposed author of <i>Celestina</i>, one of the most celebrated of old
+Spanish dramatic compositions.</p>
+
+<p>The proscribed, in the guise of Marranos, and under the hospitable
+shelter of their new homes, could not be banished from literary Spain,
+even in its newest departures. Indeed, for a long time Spanish and
+Italian literatures were brought into contact with each other only
+through the instrumentality of Jews. Not quite half a century after the
+expulsion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> of Jews from Portugal and their settlement in Italy, a Jew,
+Solomon Usque, made a Spanish translation of Petrarch (1567), dedicated
+to Alessandro Farnese, duke of Parma, and wrote Italian odes, dedicated
+to Cardinal Borromeo.</p>
+
+<p>At the zenith of the Renaissance, Jews won renown as Italian poets, and
+did valiant work as translators from Latin into Hebrew and Italian. In
+the later days of the movement, in the Reformation period, illustrious
+Christian scholars studied Hebrew under Jewish tutorship, and gave it a
+place on the curriculum of the universities. Luther himself submitted to
+rabbinical guidance in his biblical studies.</p>
+
+<p>In great numbers the Spanish exiles turned to Turkey, where numerous new
+communities rapidly arose. There, too, in Constantinople and elsewhere,
+Jews, like Elias Mizrachi and Elias Kapsali, were the first to pursue
+scientific research.</p>
+
+<p>We have now reached the days of deepest misery for Judaism. Yet, in the
+face of unrelenting oppression, Jews win places of esteem as diplomats,
+custodians and advocates of important interests at royal courts. From
+the earliest period of their history, Jews manifested special talent for
+the arts of diplomacy. In the Arabic-Spanish period they exercised great
+political influence upon Mohammedan caliphs. The Fatimide and Omayyad
+dynasties employed Jewish representatives and ministers, Samuel ibn
+Nagdela, for instance, being grand vizir of the caliph of Granada.
+Christian sovereigns also valued their services: as is well known,
+Charlemagne sent a Jew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span>ish ambassador to Haroun al Rashid; Pope
+Alexander III. appointed Yechiel ben Abraham as minister of finance; and
+so late as in the fifteenth century the wise statesman Isaac Abrabanel
+was minister to Alfonso V., of Portugal, and, wonderful to relate, for
+eight years to Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain. At this time Jewish
+literature was blessed with a patron in the person of Joseph Nasi, duke
+of Naxos, whom, it is said, Sultan Selim II. wished to crown king of
+Cyprus. His rival was Solomon Ashkenazi, Turkish ambassador to the
+Venetian republic, who exercised decisive influence upon the election of
+a Polish king. And this is not the end of the roll of Jewish diplomats
+and ministers.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the Kabbala, whose spell was cast about even the most
+vigorous of Jewish minds, was the leading intellectual current of those
+sad days, the prevailing misery but serving to render her allurements
+more fascinating. But in the hands of such men as Abraham Herrera, who
+influenced Benedict Spinoza, even Kabbalistic studies were informed with
+a scientific spirit, and brought into connection with Neoplatonic
+philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>Mention of Spinoza suggests Holland where Jews were kindly received, and
+shortly after their arrival they interested themselves in the
+philosophical pursuits in vogue. The best index to their position in
+Holland is furnished by Manasseh ben Israel's prominent rôle in the
+politics and the literary ventures of Amsterdam, and by his negotiations
+with Oliver Cromwell. We may pardon the pride which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> made him say, "I
+have enjoyed the friendship of the wisest and the best of Europe." Uriel
+Acosta and Baruch Spinoza, though children of the Amsterdam
+<i>Judengasse</i>, were ardent patriots.</p>
+
+<p>The last great Spanish poet was Antonio Enrique de Gomez, the Jewish
+Calderon, burnt in effigy at Seville; while the last Portuguese poet of
+note was Antonio Jose de Silva, who perished at the stake for his faith,
+leaving his dramas as a precious possession to Portuguese literature.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the dreariest days of decadence, when the study of the Talmud
+seemed to engross their attention, Jews prosecuted scientific inquiries,
+as witness Moses Isserles's translation of <i>Theorica</i>, an astronomical
+treatise by Peurbach, the Vienna humanist.</p>
+
+<p>With the migration of Jews eastward, <i>Judendeutsch</i>, a Jewish-German
+dialect, with its literature, was introduced into Slavic countries. It
+is a fact not generally known that this jargon is the depository of
+certain Middle High German expressions and elements no longer used in
+the modern German, and that philologists are forced to resort to the
+study of the Polish-Jewish patois to reconstruct the old idiom. In 1523,
+the year of Luther's Pentateuch translation, a Jewish-German Bible
+dictionary was published at Cracow, and in 1540 appeared the first
+Jewish-German translation of the Pentateuch. The Germans strongly
+influenced the popular literature of the Jews. The two nationalities
+seized the same subjects, often imitating the same models, or using the
+same translations. The German "Till<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> Eulenspiegel" was printed in 1500,
+the Jewish-German in 1600. Besides incorporating German folklore,
+Jewish-German writings borrowed from German romances, assimilated
+foreign literatures, did not neglect the traditions of the Jews
+themselves, and embraced even folk-songs, some of which have perpetuated
+themselves until the modern era.</p>
+
+<p>Mention of the well-known fact that the Hebrew studies prosecuted by
+Christians in the eighteenth century were carried on under Jewish
+influence brings us to the threshold of the modern era, the period of
+the Jewish Renaissance. Here we are on well-worn ground. Since Jews have
+been permitted to enter at will upon the multifarious pursuits growing
+out of modern culture, their importance as factors of civilization is
+universally acknowledged, and it would be wearisome, and would far
+transgress the limits of a lecture, to enumerate their achievements.</p>
+
+<p>In trying to show what share the Jew has had in the world's
+civilization, I have naturally concerned myself chiefly with literature,
+for literature is the mirror of culture. It would be a mistake, however,
+to suppose that the Jew has been inactive in other spheres. His
+contributions, for instance, to the modern development of international
+commerce, cannot be overlooked. Commerce in its modern extension was the
+creation of the mercantile republics of mediæval Italy-Venice, Florence,
+Genoa, and Pisa&mdash;and in them Jews determined and regulated its course.
+When Ravenna contemplated a union with Venice, and formulated the
+conditions for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> alliance, one of them was the demand that rich Jews
+be sent thither to open a bank for the relief of distress. Jews were the
+first to obtain the privilege of establishing banks in the Italian
+cities, and the first to discover the advantages of a system of checks
+and bills of exchange, of unique value in the development of modern
+commerce.</p>
+
+<p>Even in art, a sphere from which their rigorous laws might seem to have
+the effect of banishing them, they were not wholly inactive. They always
+numbered among themselves handicraftsmen. In Venice, in the sixteenth
+century, we find celebrated Jewish wood engravers. Jacob Weil's rules
+for slaughtering were published with vignettes by Hans Holbein, and one
+of Manasseh ben Israel's works was adorned with a frontispiece by
+Rembrandt. In our own generation Jews have won fame as painters and
+sculptors, while music has been their staunch companion, deserting them
+not even in the darkest days of the Ghetto.</p>
+
+<p>These certainly are abundant proofs that the Jew has a share in all the
+phases and stages of culture, from its first germs unto its latest
+complex development&mdash;a consoling, elevating reflection. A learned
+historian of literature, a Christian, in discussing this subject, was
+prompted to say: "Our first knowledge of philosophy, botany, astronomy,
+and cosmography, as well as the grammar of the holy language and the
+results of biblical study, we owe primarily to Jews." Another historian,
+also a Christian, closes a review of Jewish national traits with the
+words: "Looking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> back over the course of history, we find that in the
+gloom, bareness, and intellectual sloth of the middle ages, Jews
+maintained a rational system of agriculture, and built up international
+commerce, upon which rests the well-being of the nations."</p>
+
+<p>Truly, there are reasons for pride on our part, but no less do great
+obligations devolve upon us. I cannot refrain from exhortation. In
+justice we should confess that Jews drew their love of learning and
+ability to advance the work of civilization from Jewish writings.
+Furthermore, it is a fact that these Jewish writings no longer excite
+the interest, or claim the devotion of Jews. I maintain that it is the
+duty of the members of our Order to take this neglected, lightly
+esteemed literature under their protection, and secure for it the
+appreciation and encouragement that are the offspring of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Modern Judaism presents a curious spectacle. The tiniest of national
+groups in Eastern Europe, conceiving the idea of establishing its
+independence, proceeds forthwith to create a literature, if need be,
+inventing and forging. Judaism possesses countless treasures of
+inestimable worth, amassed by research and experience in the course of
+thousands of years, and her latter-day children brush them aside with
+indifference, even with scorn, leaving it to the sons of the stranger,
+yea, their adversaries, to gather and cherish them.</p>
+
+<p>When Goethe in his old age conceived and outlined a scheme of universal
+literature, the first place was assigned to Jewish literature. In his
+pantheon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> of the world's poetry, the first tone uttered was to be that
+of "David's royal song and harp." But, in general, Jewish literature is
+still looked upon as the Cinderella of the world's literatures. Surely,
+the day will come when justice will be done, Cinderella's claim be
+acknowledged equal to that of her royal sisters, and together they will
+enter the spacious halls of the magnificent palace of literature.</p>
+
+<p>Among the prayers prescribed for the Day of Atonement is one of
+subordinate importance which affects me most solemnly. When the shadows
+of evening lengthen, and the light of the sun wanes, the Jew reads the
+<i>Neïlah</i> service with fervor, as though he would "burst open the portals
+of heaven with his tears," and the inmost depths of my nature are
+stirred with melancholy pride by the prayer of the pious Jew. He
+supplicates not for his house and his family, not for Zion dismantled,
+not for the restoration of the Temple, not for the advent of the
+Messiah, not for respite from suffering. All his sighs and hopes, all
+his yearning and aspiration, are concentrated in the one thought: "Our
+splendor and our glory have departed, our treasures have been snatched
+from us; there remains nothing to us but this Law alone." If this is
+true; if naught else is left of our former state; if this Law, this
+science, this literature, are our sole treasure and best inheritance,
+then let us cherish and cultivate them so as to have a legacy to
+bequeath to our children to stand them in good stead against the coming
+of the <i>Neïlah</i> of humanity, the day when brethren will "dwell together
+in unity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps that day is not far distant. Methinks I hear the rustling of a
+new spring-tide of humanity; methinks I discern the morning flush of new
+world-stirring ideas, and before my mind's eye rises a bridge, over
+which pass all the nations of the earth, Israel in their midst, holding
+aloft his ensign with the inscription, "The Lord is my banner!"&mdash;the one
+which he bore on every battlefield of thought, and which was never
+suffered to fall into the enemy's hand. It is a mighty procession moving
+onward and upward to a glorious goal: "Humanity, Liberty, Love!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>WOMEN IN JEWISH LITERATURE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Among the songs of the Bible there are two, belonging to the oldest
+monuments of poetry, which have preserved the power to inspire and
+elevate as when they were first uttered: the hymn of praise and
+thanksgiving sung by Moses and his sister Miriam, and the impassioned
+song of Deborah, the heroine in Israel.</p>
+
+<p>Miriam and Deborah are the first Israelitish women whose melody thrilled
+and even now thrills us&mdash;Miriam, the inspired prophetess, pouring forth
+her people's joy and sorrow, and Deborah, <i>Esheth Lapidoth</i>, the Bible
+calls her, "the woman of the flaming heart," an old writer ingeniously
+interprets the Scriptural name. They are the chosen exemplars of all
+women who, stepping across the narrow confines of home, have lifted up a
+voice, or wielded a pen, for Israel. The time is not yet when woman in
+literature can be discussed without an introductory justification. The
+prejudice is still deep-rooted which insists that domestic activity is
+woman's only legitimate career, that to enter the literary arena is
+unwomanly, that inspired songs may drop only from male lips. Woman's
+heart should, indeed, be the abode of the angels of gentleness, modesty,
+kindness, and patience. But no contradiction is involved in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> the belief
+that her mind is endowed with force and ability on occasion to grasp the
+spokes of fortune's wheel, or produce works which need not shrink from
+public criticism. Deborah herself felt that it would have better become
+a man to fulfil the mission with which she was charged&mdash;that a cozy home
+had been a more seemly place for her than the camp upon Mount Tabor. She
+says: "Desolate were the open towns in Israel, they were desolate....
+Was there a shield seen or a spear among forty thousand in Israel?...
+I&mdash;unto the Lord will I sing." Not until the fields of Israel were
+desert, forsaken of able-bodied men, did the woman Deborah arise for the
+glory of God. She refused to pose as a heroine, rejected the crown of
+victory, nor coveted the poet's laurel, meet recognition of her
+triumphal song. Modestly she chose the simplest yet most beautiful of
+names. She summoned the warriors to battle; the word of God was
+proclaimed by her lips; she pronounced judgment, and right prevailed;
+her courage sustained her on the battlefield, and victory followed in
+her footsteps&mdash;yet neither judge, nor poetess, nor singer, nor
+prophetess will she call herself, but only <i>Em beyisrael</i>, "a mother in
+Israel."</p>
+
+<p>This heroine, this "mother in Israel," in all the wanderings and
+vicissitudes of the Jewish people, was the exemplar of its women and
+maidens, the especial model of Israelitish poetesses and writers.</p>
+
+<p>The student of Jewish literature is like an astronomer. While the casual
+observer faintly discerns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> single stars dotted in the expanse of blue
+overhead, he takes in the whole sweep of the heavens, readily following
+the movements of the stars of every magnitude. The history of the Jewish
+race, its mere preservation during the long drawn out period of
+suffering&mdash;sad days of national dissolution and sombre middle age
+centuries&mdash;is a perplexing puzzle, unless regarded with the eye of
+faith. But that this race, cuffed, crushed, pursued, hounded from spot
+to spot, should have given birth to men, yea, even women ranking high in
+the realm of letters, is wholly inexplicable, unless the explanation of
+the unique phenomenon is sought in the wondrous gift of inspiration
+operative in Israel even after the last seer ceased to speak.</p>
+
+<p>Judaism has preserved the Jews! Judaism, that is, the Law with its
+development and ramifications of a great religious thought, was the
+sustaining power of the Jewish people under its burden of misery,
+suffering, torture, and oppression, enabling it to survive its
+tormentors. The Jews were the nation of hope. Like hope this people is
+eternal. The storms of fanaticism and race hatred may rage and roar, the
+race cannot be destroyed. Precisely in the days of its abject
+degradation, when its suffering was dire, how marvellous the conduct of
+this people! The conquered were greater than their conquerors. From
+their spiritual height they looked down compassionately on their
+victorious but ignorant adversaries, who, feeling the condescension of
+the victims, drove their irons deeper. The little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> nation grew only the
+stronger, and its religion, the flower of hope and trust, developed the
+more sturdily for its icy covering. Jews were mowed down by fire and
+sword, but Judaism continued to live. From the ashes of every pyre
+sprang the Jewish Law in unfading youth&mdash;that indestructible,
+ineradicable mentality and hope, which opponents are wont to call
+unconquerable Jewish defiance.</p>
+
+<p>The men of this great little race were preserved by the Law, the spirit,
+and the influences and effects of this same Law transformed weak women
+into God-inspired martyrs, dowered the daughters of Israel with courage
+to sacrifice life for the glory of the God-idea confessed by their
+ancestors during thousands of years. Purity of morals, confiding
+domesticity, were the safeguards against storm and stress. The outside
+world presented a hostile front to the Jew of the middle ages. Every
+step beyond Ghetto precincts was beset with peril. So his home became
+his world, his sanctuary, in whose intimate seclusion the blossom of
+pure family love unfolded. While spiritual darkness brooded over the
+nations, the great Messianic God-idea took refuge from the icy chill of
+the middle ages in his humble rooms, where it was cherished against the
+coming of a glorious future.</p>
+
+<p>"Every Jew has the making of a Messiah in him," says a clever modern
+author,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> "and every Jewess of a <i>mater dolorosa</i>," of which the first
+part is only an epigram, the second, a truth, an historic fact.
+Me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span>diæval Judaism knew many "sorrowful mothers," whose heroism passes
+our latter-day conception. Greece and Rome tell tales upon tales of
+womanly bravery under suffering and pain&mdash;Jewish history buries in
+silence the names of its thousands of woman and maiden martyrs, joyously
+giving up life in the vindication of their faith. Perhaps, had one woman
+been too weak to resist, too cowardly to court and embrace death, her
+name might have been preserved. Such, too, fail to appear in the Jewish
+annals, which contain but few women's names of any kind. Inspired
+devotion of strength and life to Judaism was as natural with a Jewess as
+quiet, unostentatious activity in her home. No need, therefore, to make
+mention of act or name.</p>
+
+<p>Jewish woman, then, has neither found, nor sought, and does not need, a
+Frauenlob, historian or poet, to proclaim her praise in the gates, to
+touch the strings of his lyre in her honor. Her life, in its simplicity
+and gentleness, its patience and exalted devotion, is itself a Song of
+Songs, more beautiful than poet ever composed, a hymn more joyous than
+any ever sung, on the prophetess's sublime and touching text, <i>Em
+beyisrael</i>, "a mother in Israel."</p>
+
+<p>As Miriam and Deborah are representative of womanhood during Israel's
+national life, so later times, the Talmudic periods, produced women with
+great and admirable qualities. Prominent among them was Beruriah, the
+gentle wife of Rabbi Meïr, the Beruriah whose heart is laid bare in the
+following touching story from the Talmud:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span><a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>One Sabbath her husband had been in the academy all day teaching the
+crowds that eagerly flocked to his lectures. During his absence from
+home, his two sons, distinguished for beauty and learning, died suddenly
+of a malignant disease. Beruriah bore the dear bodies into her sleeping
+chamber, and spread a white cloth over them. When the rabbi returned in
+the evening, and asked for his boys that, according to wont, he might
+bless them, his wife said, "They have gone to the house of God."</p>
+
+<p>She brought the wine-cup, and he recited the concluding prayer of the
+Sabbath, drinking from the cup, and, in obedience to a hallowed custom,
+passing it to his wife. Again he asked, "Why are my sons not here to
+drink from the blessed cup?" "They cannot be far off," answered the
+patient sufferer, and suspecting naught, Rabbi Meïr was happy and
+cheerful. When he had finished his meal, Beruriah said: "Rabbi, allow me
+to ask you a question." With his permission, she continued: "Some time
+ago a treasure was entrusted to me, and now the owner demands it. Shall
+I give it up?" "Surely, my wife should not find it necessary to ask this
+question," said the rabbi. "Can you hesitate about returning property to
+its rightful owner?" "True," she replied, "but I thought best not to
+return it until I had advised you thereof." And she led him into the
+chamber to the bed, and withdrew the cloth from the bodies. "O, my sons,
+my sons," lamented the father with a loud voice, "light of my eyes, lamp
+of my soul. I was your father, but you taught me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> the Law." Her eyes
+suffused with tears, Beruriah seized her grief-stricken husband's hand,
+and spoke: "Rabbi, did you not teach me to return without reluctance
+that which has been entrusted to our safekeeping? See, 'the Lord gave,
+and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'"
+"'Blessed be the name of the Lord,'" repeated the rabbi, accepting her
+consolation, "and blessed, too, be His name for your sake; for, it is
+written: 'Who can find a virtuous woman? for far above pearls is her
+value.... She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is
+upon her tongue.'"</p>
+
+<p>Surrounded by the halo of motherhood, richly dowered with intellectual
+gifts, distinguished for learning, gentleness, and refinement, Beruriah
+is a truly poetic figure. Incensed at the evil-doing of the unrighteous,
+her husband prayed for their destruction. "How can you ask that, Rabbi?"
+Beruriah interrupted him; "do not the Scriptures say: 'May <i>sins</i> cease
+from off the earth, and the wicked will be no more'? When <i>sin</i> ceases,
+there will be no more <i>sinners</i>. Pray rather, my rabbi, that they
+repent, and amend their ways."<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p>
+
+<p>That a woman could attain to Beruriah's mental poise, and make her voice
+heard and heeded in the councils of the teachers of the Law, and that
+the rabbis considered her sayings and doings worthy of record, would of
+itself, without the evidence of numerous other learned women of Talmud
+fame, prove, were proof necessary, the honorable position<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> occupied by
+Jewish women in those days. Long before Schiller, the Talmud said:<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>
+"Honor women, because they bring blessing." Of Abraham it is said: "It
+was well with him, because of his wife Sarah." Again: "More glorious is
+the promise made to women, than that to men: In Isaiah (xxxii. 9) we
+read: 'Ye women that are at ease, hear my voice!' for, with women it
+lies to inspire their husbands and sons with zeal for the study of the
+Law, the most meritorious of deeds." Everywhere the Talmud sounds the
+praise of the virtuous woman of Proverbs and of the blessings of a happy
+family life.</p>
+
+<p>A single Talmudic sentence, namely, "He who teaches his daughter the
+Law, teaches her what is unworthy," torn from its context, and falsely
+interpreted, has given rise to most absurd theories with regard to the
+views of Talmudic times on the matter of woman's education. It should be
+taken into consideration that its author, who is responsible also for
+the sentiment that "woman's place is at the distaff," was the husband of
+Ima Shalom, a clever, highly cultured, but irascible woman, who was on
+intimate terms with Jewish Christians, and was wont to interfere in the
+disputations carried on by men&mdash;in short, a representative Talmudic
+blue-stocking, with all the attributes with which fancy would be prone
+to invest such a one.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere the Talmud tells about Rabbi Nachman's wife Yaltha, the proud
+and learned daughter of a princely line. Her guest, the poor itinerant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span>
+preacher Rabbi Ulla, expressed the opinion that according to the Law it
+was not necessary to pass the wine-cup over which the blessing has been
+said to women. The opinion, surely not the withheld wine, so angered his
+hostess, that she shivered four hundred wine-pitchers, letting their
+contents flow over the ground.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> If the rabbis had such incidents in
+mind, crabbed utterances were not unjustifiable. Perhaps every
+rabbinical antagonist to woman's higher education was himself the victim
+of a learned wife, who regaled him, after his toilsome research at the
+academy, with unpalatable soup, or, worse still, with Talmudic
+discussions. Instances are abundant of erudite rabbis tormented by their
+wives. One, we are told, refused to cook for her husband, and another,
+day after day, prepared a certain dish, knowing that he would not touch
+it.</p>
+
+<p>But this is pleasantry. It would betray total ignorance of the Talmud
+and the rabbis to impute to them the scorn of woman prevalent at that
+time. The Talmud and its sages never weary of singing the praise of
+women, and at every occasion inculcate respect for them, and devotion to
+their service. The compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud, Rabbi Jochanan,
+whose life is crowned with the aureole of romance, pays a delicate
+tribute to woman by the question: "Who directed the first prayer of
+thanksgiving to God? A woman, Leah, when she cried out in the fulness of
+her joy: 'Now again will I praise the Lord.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Under the influence of such ideal views, and in obedience to such
+standards, Jewish woman led a modest, retired life of domestic activity,
+the help-meet and solace of her husband, the joy of his age, the
+treasure of his liberty, his comforter in sorrow. For, when the
+portentous catastrophe overwhelmed the Jewish nation, when Jerusalem and
+the Temple lay in ruins, when the noblest of the people were slain, and
+the remnant of Israel was made to wander forth out of his land into a
+hostile world, to fulfil his mission as a witness to the truth of
+monotheism, then Jewish woman, too, was found ready to assume the
+burdens imposed by distressful days.</p>
+
+<p>Israel, broken up into unresisting fragments, began his two thousand
+years' journey through the desert of time, despoiled of all possessions
+except his Law and his family. Of these treasures Titus and his legions
+could not rob him. From the ruins of the Jewish state blossomed forth
+the spirit of Jewish life and law in vigorous renewal. Judaism rose
+rejuvenated on the crumbling temples of Jupiter, immaculate in doctrine,
+incorruptible in practice. Israel's spiritual guides realized that
+adherence to the Law is the only safeguard against annihilation and
+oblivion. From that time forth, the men became the guardians of the
+<i>Law</i>, the women the guardians of the purity of <i>life</i>, both working
+harmoniously for the preservation of Judaism.</p>
+
+<p>The muse of history recorded no names of Jewish women from the
+destruction of the Temple to the eleventh century. Yet the student
+cannot fail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> to assign the remarkable preservation of the race to
+woman's gentle, quiet, though paramount influence by the side of the
+earnest tenacity of men. Among Jews leisure, among non-Jews knowledge,
+was lacking to preserve names for the instruction of posterity. Before
+Jews could record their suffering, the oppressor's hand again fell, its
+grasp more relentless than ever. For many centuries blood and tears
+constitute the chronicle of Jewish life, and at the sources of these
+streams of blood and rivers of tears, the genius of Jewish history sits
+lamenting.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever the sun of tolerance broke through the clouds of oppression,
+and for even a brief period shone upon the martyr race, its marvellous
+development under persecution and in despite of unspeakable suffering at
+once stood revealed. During these occasional breaks in the darkness,
+women appeared whose erudition was so profound as to earn special
+mention. As was said above, the first names of women distinguished for
+beauty and intellect come down to us from the eleventh century, and even
+then only Italy, Provence, Andalusia, and the Orient, were favored, Jews
+in these countries living unmolested and in comparative freedom, and
+zealously devoting their leisure to the study of the Talmud and secular
+branches of learning. In praise of Italy it was said: "Out of Bari goes
+forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Otranto." It is, therefore,
+not surprising to read in Jewish sources of the maiden Paula, of the
+family Deï Mansi (Anawim), the daughter of Abraham, and later the wife
+of Yechiel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> deï Mansi, who, in 1288, copied her father's abstruse
+Talmudic commentary, adding ingenious explanations, the result of
+independent research. But one grows somewhat sceptical over the account,
+by a Jewish tourist, Rabbi Petachya of Ratisbon, of Bath Halevi,
+daughter of Rabbi Samuel ben Ali in Bagdad, equally well-read in the
+Bible and the Talmud, and famous for her beauty. She lectured on the
+Talmud to a large number of students, and, to prevent their falling in
+love with her, she sat behind lattice-work or in a glass cabinet, that
+she might be heard but not seen. The dry tourist-chronicler fails to
+report whether her disciples approved of the preventive measure, and
+whether in the end it turned out to have been effectual. At all events,
+the example of the learned maiden found an imitator. Almost a century
+later we meet with Miriam Shapiro, of Constance, a beautiful Jewish
+girl, who likewise delivered public lectures on the Talmud sitting
+behind a curtain, that the attention of her inquisitive pupils might not
+be distracted by sight of her from their studies.</p>
+
+<p>Of the learned El Muallima we are told that she transplanted Karaite
+doctrines from the Orient to Castile, where she propagated them. The
+daughter of the prince of poets, Yehuda Halevi, is accredited with a
+soulful religious poem hitherto attributed to her father, and Rabbi
+Joseph ibn Nagdela's wife was esteemed the most learned and
+representative woman in Granada. Even in the choir of Arabic-Andalusian
+poets we hear the voice of a Jewish song<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span>stress, Kasmune, the daughter
+of the poet Ishmael. Only a few blossoms of her delicate poetry have
+been preserved.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Catching sight of her young face in the mirror, she
+called out:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"A vine I see, and though 'tis time to glean,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">No hand is yet stretched forth to cull the fruit.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Alas! my youth doth pass in sorrow keen,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A nameless 'him' my eyes in vain salute."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Her pet gazelle, raised by herself, she addresses thus:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"In only thee, my timid, fleet gazelle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Dark-eyed like thee, I see my counterpart;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">We both live lone, without companion dwell,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Accepting fate's decree with patient heart."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Of other women we are told whose learning and piety inspired respect,
+not only in Talmudic authorities, but, more than that, in their sisters
+in faith. Especially in the family of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac),
+immortal through his commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud, a number
+of women distinguished themselves. His daughter Rachel (Bellejeune), on
+one occasion when her father was sick, wrote out for Rabbi Abraham Cohen
+of Mayence an opinion on religious questions in dispute. Rashi's two
+granddaughters, Anna and Miriam, were equally famous. In questions
+relating to the dietary laws, they were cited as authorities, and their
+decisions accepted as final.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Zunz calls the wife of Rabbi Joseph ben Jochanan of Paris "almost a
+rabbi"; and Dolce, wife of the learned Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, supported
+her family with the work of her hands, was a thorough student of the
+dietary laws, taught women on Jewish subjects, and on Sabbath delivered
+public lectures. She wore the twofold crown of learning and martyrdom.
+On December 6, 1213, fanatic crusaders rushed into the rabbi's house,
+and most cruelly killed her and her two daughters, Bella and Anna.</p>
+
+<p>Israel having again fallen on evil times, the rarity of women writers
+during the next two centuries needs no explanation. In the sixteenth
+century their names reappear on the records, not only as Talmudic
+scholars, but also as writers of history in the German language. Litte
+of Ratisbon composed a history of King David in the celebrated "Book of
+Samuel," a poem in the <i>Nibelungen</i> stanza, and we are told that Rachel
+Ackermann of Vienna was banished for having written a piquant novel,
+"Court Secrets."</p>
+
+<p>These tentative efforts led the way to busy and widespread activity by
+Jewish women in various branches of literature at a somewhat later
+period, when the so-called <i>Judendeutsch</i>, also known as
+<i>Altweiberdeutsch</i> (old women's German), came into general use. Rebekah
+Tiktiner, daughter of Rabbi Meïr Tiktiner, attained to a reputation
+considerable enough to suggest her scholarly work to J. G. Zeltner, a
+Rostock professor, as the subject of an essay published in 1719. Her
+book, <i>Meneketh Ribka</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> deals with the duties of woman. Edel Mendels of
+Cracow epitomized "Yosippon" (History of the Jews after Josephus); Bella
+Chasan, who died a martyr's death, composed two instructive works on
+Jewish history, in their time widely read; Glikel Hamel of Hamburg wrote
+her memoirs, describing her contemporaries and the remarkable events of
+her life; Hannah Ashkenasi was the author of addresses on moral
+subjects; and Ella Götz translated the Hebrew prayers into
+Jewish-German.</p>
+
+<p>Litte of Ratisbon found imitators. Rosa Fischels of Cracow was the first
+to put the psalms into Jewish-German rhymes (1586). She turned the whole
+psalter "into simple German very prettily, modestly, and withal
+pleasantly for women and maidens to read." The authoress acknowledges
+that it was her aim to imitate the rhyme and melody of the "Book of
+Samuel" by her famed predecessor. Occasionally her paraphrase rises to
+the height of true poetry, as in the first and last verses of Psalm
+xcvi:</p>
+
+<p>"Sing to God a new song, sing to God all the land, sing to God, praise
+His name, show forth His ready help from day to day.... The field and
+all thereon shall show great joy; they will sing with all their leaves,
+the trees of the wood and the grove, before the Lord God who will come
+to judge the earth far and near. He judgeth the earth with righteousness
+and the nations with truth."</p>
+
+<p>Rosa Fischels was followed by a succession of women writers: Taube Pan
+in Prague, a poetess; Bella Hurwitz, who wrote a history of the House<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span>
+of David, and, in association with Rachel Rausnitz, an account of the
+settlement of Jews in Prague; and a number of scholarly women famous
+among their co-religionists for knowledge of the Talmud, piety, and
+broad, secular culture.</p>
+
+<p>In a rapid review like this of woman's achievements on the field of
+Jewish scholarship, the results recorded must appear meagre, owing
+partly to the paucity of available data, partly to the nature of the
+inquiry. Abstruse learning, pure science, original research, are by no
+means woman's portion. Such occupations demand complete surrender on the
+part of the student, uninterrupted attention to the subject pursued, and
+delicately organized woman is not capable of such absorption. Woman's
+perceptions are subtle, and she rests satisfied with her intuitions;
+while man strives to transmute his feelings, deeper than hers, into
+action. The external appeals to woman who comprehends easily and
+quickly, and, therefore, does not penetrate beneath the surface. Man, on
+the other hand, strives to pierce to the essence of things, apprehends
+more slowly, but thinks more profoundly, and tests carefully before he
+accepts. Hence we so rarely meet woman in the field of science, while
+her work in the domain of poetry and the humanities is abundant and
+attractive. Jewish women form no exception to the rule: a survey of
+Jewish poetry will show woman's share in its productions to have been
+considerable and of high quality. While there was little or no
+possibility to prosecute historic or scien<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span>tific inquiry during the
+harrowing days of persecution, the well-spring of Jewish poetry never
+ran dry. Poetry followed the race into exile, and clave to it through
+all vicissitudes, its solacement in suffering, the holy mediatrix
+between its past and future. "The Orient dwells an exile in the
+Occident, and its tears of longing for home are the fountain-head of
+Jewish poetry," says a Christian scholar. And at the altar of this
+poetry, whose sweetness and purity sanctified home life, and spread a
+sense of morality in a time when brutality and corruptness were general,
+the women singers of Israel offered the gifts of their muse. While the
+culture of that time culminated in the service of love (<i>Minnedienst</i>),
+in woman worship, so offensive to modern taste, Jewish poetry was
+pervaded by a pure, ideal conception of love and womanhood, testifying
+to the high ethical principles of its devotees.</p>
+
+<p>Judaism and Jewish poetry know naught of the sensual love so assiduously
+fostered by the cult of the Virgin. "Love," says a celebrated historian
+of literature, "was glorified in all shapes and guises, and represented
+as the highest aim of life. Woman's virtues, yea, even her vices, were
+invested with exaggerated importance. Woman became accustomed to think
+that she could be neither faithful nor faithless without turning the
+world topsy-turvy. She shared the fate of all objects of excessive
+adulation: flattery corrupted her. Thus it came about that love of woman
+overshadowed every other social force and every form of family
+affection, and so spent its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> power. The Jews were the only ones sane
+enough to subordinate sexual love to reverence for motherhood. Alexander
+Weill makes a Jewish mother say: 'Is it proper for a good Jewish mother
+to concern herself about love? Love is revolting idolatry. A Jewess may
+love only God, her husband, and her children.' Granny (<i>Alt-Babele</i>) in
+one of Kompert's tales says: 'God could not be everywhere, so he created
+mothers.' In Jewish novels, maternal love is made the basis of family
+life, its passion and its mystery. A Jewish mother! What an image the
+words conjure up! Her face is calm, though pale; a melancholy smile
+rests upon her lips, and her soulful eyes seem to hide in their depths
+the vision of a remote future."</p>
+
+<p>This is a correct view. Jewish poetry is interpenetrated with the breath
+of intellectual love, that is, love growing out of the recognition of
+duty, no less ideal than sensual love. In the heart of the Jew love is
+an infinite force. Too mighty to be confined to the narrow limits of
+personal passion, it extends so as to include future generations.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it happened that while in Christian poetry woman was the subject of
+song and sonnet, in Jewish poetry she herself sang and composed, and her
+productions are worthy of ranking beside the best poetic creations of
+each generation.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest blossoms of Jewish poetry by women unfolded in the
+spring-like atmosphere of the Renaissance under the blue sky of Italy,
+the home of the immortal trio, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> The
+first Jewish women writers of Italian verse were Deborah Ascarelli and
+Sara Copia Sullam, who, arrayed in the full panoply of the culture of
+their day, and as thoroughly equipped with Jewish knowledge, devoted
+their talents and their zeal to the service of their nation.</p>
+
+<p>Deborah Ascarelli of Rome, the pride of her sex, was the wife of the
+respected rabbi Giuseppe Ascarelli, and lived at Venice in the beginning
+of the seventeenth century. She made a graceful Italian translation of
+Moses Rieti's <i>Sefer ha-Hechal</i>, a Hebrew poem written in imitation of
+the <i>Divina Commedia</i>, and enjoying much favor at Rome. As early as
+1609, David della Rocca published a second edition of her translation,
+dedicating it to the charming authoress. To put the highly wrought,
+artificial poetry of the Hebrew Dante into mellifluous Italian verse was
+by no means easy. While Rieti's poetry is not distinguished by the vigor
+and fulness of the older classical productions of neo-Hebraic poetry,
+his rhythm is smooth, pleasant, and polished. Yet her rendition is
+admirable. Besides, she won fame as a writer of hymns in praise of the
+God of her people, who so wondrously rescued it from all manner of
+distress.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Let other poets of victory's trophies tell,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy song will e'er thy people's praises swell,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="non">says a Jewish Italian poet enchanted by her talent.</p>
+
+<p>A still more gifted poetess was Sara Copia Sul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span>lam, a particular star in
+Judah's galaxy.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> The only child of a wealthy Venetian at the end of
+the sixteenth century, she was indulged in her love of study, and
+afforded every opportunity to advance in the arts and sciences. "She
+revelled in the realm of beauty, and crystallized her enthusiasm in
+graceful, sweet, maidenly verses. Young, lovely, of generous impulses
+and keen intellectual powers, her ambition set upon lofty attainments, a
+favorite of the muses, Sara Copia charmed youth and age."</p>
+
+<p>These graces of mind became her misfortune. An old Italian priest,
+Ansaldo Çeba, in Genoa, published an Italian epic with the Esther of the
+Bible as the heroine. Sara was delighted with the choice of the subject.
+It was natural that a high-minded, sensitive girl with lofty ideals,
+stung to the quick by the injustice and contumely suffered by her
+people, should rejoice extravagantly in the praise lavished upon a
+heroine of her nation. Carried away by enthusiasm she wrote the poet, a
+stranger to her, a letter overflowing with gratitude for the pure
+delight his poem had yielded her. Her passionate warmth, betraying at
+once the accomplished poetess and the gifted thinker, did not fail to
+fascinate the old priest, who immediately resolved to capture this
+beautiful soul for the church. His desire brought about a lively
+correspondence, our chief source of information about Sara Copia. Her
+conversion became a passion with the highstrung priest, taking complete<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span>
+possession of him during the last years of his life. He brought to bear
+upon her case every trick of dialectics and flattery at his command. All
+in vain. The greatest successes of which he could boast were her promise
+to read the New Testament, and her consent to his praying for her
+conversion. Sara's arguments in favor of Judaism arouse the reader's
+admiration for the sharpness of intellect displayed, her poetic genius,
+and her intimate acquaintance with Jewish sources as well as philosophic
+systems.</p>
+
+<p>Ansaldo never abandoned the hope of gaining her over to Christianity.
+Unable to convince her reason, he attacked her heart. Though evincing
+singular love and veneration for her old admirer, Sara could not be
+moved from steadfast adherence to her faith. She sent him her picture
+with the words: "This is the picture of one who carries yours deeply
+graven on her heart, and, with finger pointing to her bosom, tells the
+world: 'Here dwells my idol, bow before him.'"</p>
+
+<p>With old age creeping upon him with its palsy touch, he continued to
+think of nothing but Sara's conversion, and assailed her in prose and
+verse. One of his imploring letters closes thus:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Life's fair, bright morn bathes thee in light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thy cheeks are softly flushed with youthful zest.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For me the night sets in; my limbs</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Are cold, but ardent love glows in my breast."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Sara having compared his poems with those of Amphion and Orpheus, he
+answered her:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"To Amphion the stones lent ear</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">When soft he touched his lute;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And beasts came trooping nigh to hear</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">When Orpheus played his flute.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">How long, O Sara, wilt thou liken me</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To those great singers of the olden days?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My God and faith I sought to give to thee,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In vain I proved the error of thy ways.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Their song had charms more potent than my own,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or art thou harder than a beast or stone?"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The query long remained unanswered, for just then the poetess was
+harassed by many trials. Serious illness prostrated her, then her
+beloved father died, and finally she was unjustly charged by the envious
+among her co-religionists with neglect of Jewish observances, and denial
+of the divine origin of the Law. She found no difficulty in refuting the
+malicious accusation, but she was stung to the quick by the calumnious
+attack, the pain it inflicted vanishing only in the presence of a grave
+danger. Balthasar Bonifacio, an obscure author, in a brochure published
+for that purpose, accused her of rejecting the doctrine of the
+immortality of the soul, a most serious charge, which, if sustained,
+would have thrown her into the clutches of the Inquisition. In two days
+she wrote a brilliant defense completely exonerating herself and
+exposing the spitefulness of the attack, a masterful production by
+reason of its vigorous dialectics, incisive satire, and noble enthusiasm
+for the cause of religion. Together with some few of her sonnets, this
+is all that has come down to us of her writings. She opened her
+vindication with the following sonnet:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"O Lord, Thou know'st my inmost hope and thought,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou know'st whene'er before Thy judgment throne</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I shed salt tears, and uttered many a moan,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Twas not for vanities that I besought.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O turn on me Thy look with mercy fraught,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And see how envious malice makes me groan!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The pall upon my heart by error thrown</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Remove; illume me with Thy radiant thought.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">At truth let not the wicked scorner mock,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">O Thou, that breath'dst in me a spark divine.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The lying tongue's deceit with silence blight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Protect me from its venom, Thou, my Rock,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And show the spiteful sland'rer by this sign</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That Thou dost shield me with Thy endless might."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Sara's vindication was complete. Her friend Çeba was kept faithfully
+informed of all that befell her, but he was absorbed in thoughts of her
+conversion and his approaching end. He wrote to her that he did not care
+to receive any more letters from her unless they announced her
+acceptance of the true faith.</p>
+
+<p>After Ansaldo's death, we hear nothing more about the poetess. She died
+at the beginning of 1641, and the celebrated rabbi, Leon de Modena,
+composed her epitaph, a poetic tribute to one whose life redounded to
+the glory of Judaism.</p>
+
+<p>Our subject now carries us from the luxuriant south to the dunes of the
+North Sea. Holland was the first to open the doors of its cities
+hospitably to the three hundred thousand Jews exiled from Spain, and its
+busy capital Amsterdam became the centre whither tended the intelligent
+of the Marranos, flee<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span>ing before the Holy Inquisition. Physicians,
+mathematicians, philologists, military men, and diplomats, poets and
+poetesses, took refuge there. Among the poetesses,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> the most
+prominent was Isabella Correa, distinguished for wit as well as poetic
+endowment, the wife of the Jewish captain and author, Nicolas de Oliver
+y Fullano, of Majorca. One of her contemporaries, Daniel de Barrios,
+says that "she was an accomplished linguist, wrote delightful letters,
+composed exquisite verses, played the lute like a <i>maestro</i>, and sang
+like an angel. Her sparkling black eyes sent piercing darts into every
+beholder's heart, and she was famed for beauty as well as intellect."
+She made a noble Spanish translation of <i>Pastor Fido</i>, the most popular
+Italian drama of the day, and published a volume of poems, also in
+Spanish. Antonio dos Reys sings her praises:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"<i>Pastor Fido!</i> no longer art thou read in thy own tongue, since Correa,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Faithfully rendering thy song, created thee anew in Spanish forms.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A laurel wreath surmounts her brow,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Because her right hand had cunning to strike tones from the tragic lyre.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On the mount of singers, a seat is reserved for her,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Albeit many a Batavian voice refused consent.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For, Correa's faith invited scorn from aliens,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And her own despised her cheerful serenity.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now, with greater justice, all bend a reverent knee to Correa, the Jewess,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Correa, who, it seems, is wholly like Lysia."</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Donna Isabella Enriquez, a Spanish poetess of great versatility, was her
+contemporary. She lived first in Madrid, afterwards in Amsterdam, and
+even in advanced age was surrounded by admirers. At the age of
+sixty-two, she presented the men of her acquaintance with amulets
+against love, notwithstanding that she had spoken and written against
+the use of charms. For instance, when an egg with a crown on the end was
+found in the house of Isaac Aboab, the celebrated rabbi at Amsterdam,
+she wrote him the following:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"See, the terror! Lo! the wonder!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Basilisk, the fabled viper!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Superstition names it so.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Look at it, I pray, with calmness,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Twas thy mind that was at fault.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">God's great goodness is displayed here;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He, I trow, rewards thy eloquence</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In the monster which thou seest:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">All this rounded whole's thy virtue,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wisdom's symbol is the crown!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Besides Isabella Correa and Isabella Enriquez, we have the names, though
+not the productions, of Sara de Fonseca Pina y Pimentel, Bienvenida
+Cohen Belmonte, and Manuela Nunes de Almeida. They have left but faint
+traces of their work, and fancy can fill in the sketch only with
+conjectures.</p>
+
+<p>After these Marrano poetesses, silence fell upon the women of Israel for
+a whole century&mdash;a century of oppression and political slavery, of
+isolation in noisome Ghettos, of Christian scorn and mockery.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> The Jews
+of Germany and Poland, completely crushed beneath the load of sorrow,
+hibernated until the gentle breath of a new time, levelling Ghetto walls
+and heralding a dawn when human rights would be recognized, awoke them
+to activity and achievement.</p>
+
+<p>Mighty is the spirit of the times! It clears a way for itself, boldly
+pushing aside every stumbling-block in the shape of outworn prejudices
+and decaying customs. A century dawned, the promise of liberty and
+tolerance flaming on its horizon, to none so sweet as to the Jew. Who
+has the heart to cast the first stone upon a much-tried race, tortured
+throughout the centuries, for surrendering itself to the unwonted joy of
+living, for drinking deep, intoxicating draughts from the newly
+discovered fount of liberty, and, alas! for throwing aside, under the
+burning sun of the new era, the perennial protection of its religion?
+And may we utterly condemn the daughters of Israel, the "roses of
+Sharon," and "lilies of the valleys," "unkissed by the dew, lost
+wanderers cheered by no greeting," who, now that all was sunshine,
+forgot their people, and disregarded the sanctity of family bonds, their
+shield and their refuge in the sorrow and peril of the dark ages?</p>
+
+<p>With emotion, with pain, not with resentment, Jewish history tells of
+those women, who spurned Judaism, knowing only its external appearance,
+its husk, not its essence, high ethical principles and philosophical
+truths&mdash;of Rahel Varnhagen, Henriette Herz, Regina Fröhlich, Dorothea
+Mendelssohn,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> Sarah and Marianne Meyer, Esther Gad, and many others,
+first products of German culture in alliance with Jewish wit and
+brilliancy.</p>
+
+<p>Rahel Levin was the foster-mother of "Young Germany," and leader in the
+woman's emancipation movement, so fruitful later on of deplorable
+excesses. Rahel herself never overstepped the limits of "<i>das
+Ewig-Weibliche</i>." No act of hers ran counter to the most exalted
+requirements of morality. Her being was pervaded by high seriousness,
+noble dignity, serene cheerfulness. "She dwelt always in the Holy of
+holies of thought, and even her most daring wishes for herself and
+mankind leapt shyly heavenwards like pure sacrificial flames." Nothing
+more touching can be found in the history of the human heart than her
+confession before death: "With sublime rapture I dwell upon my origin
+and the marvellous web woven by fate, binding together the oldest
+recollections of the human race and its most recent aspirations,
+connecting scenes separated by the greatest possible intervals of time
+and space. My Jewish birth which I long considered a stigma, a sore
+disgrace, has now become a precious inheritance, of which nothing on
+earth can deprive me."<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p>
+
+<p>The fact is that Rahel Levin was a great woman, great even in her
+aberrations, while her satellites, shining by reflected light, and
+pretending to perpetuate her spirit, transgressed the bounds of
+wom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span>anliness, and opened wide a door to riotous sensuality. Certain
+opponents of the woman's emancipation movement take malicious
+satisfaction in rehearsing that it was a Jewess who inaugurated it,
+prudently neglecting to mention that in the list of Rahel's followers,
+not one Jewish name appears.</p>
+
+<p>The spirit of Judaism and with it the spirit of morality can never be
+extinguished. They may flag, or vanish for a time, but their restoration
+in increased vigor and radiance is certain; for, they bear within
+themselves the guarantee of a future. Henriette Herz, the apostate
+daughter of Judaism chewing the cud of Schleiermacher's sentimentality
+and Schlegel's romanticism, had not yet passed away when England
+produced Jewish women whose deeds were quickened by the spirit of olden
+heroism, who walked in the paths of wisdom and faith, and, recoiling
+from the cowardice that counsels apostasy, would have fought, if need
+be, suffered, and bled, for their faith. What answer but the blush of
+shame mantling her cheek could the proud beauty have found, had she been
+asked by, let us say, Lady Judith Montefiore, to tell what it was that
+chained her to the ruins of the Jewish race?</p>
+
+<p>Lady Montefiore truly was a heroine, worthy to be named with those who
+have made our past illustrious, and her peer in intellect and strength
+of character was Charlotte Montefiore, whose early death was a serious
+loss to Judaism as well as to her family. Her work, "A Few Words to the
+Jews by one of themselves," containing that charming tale,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> "The Jewel
+Island," displays intellectual and poetic gifts.</p>
+
+<p>The most prominent of women writers in our era unquestionably is Grace
+Aguilar, in whom we must admire the rare union of broad culture and
+profound piety. She was born at Hackney in June of 1816, and early
+showed extraordinary talent and insatiable thirst for knowledge. In her
+twelfth year she wrote "Gustavus Vasa," an historical drama evincing
+such unusual gifts that her parents were induced to devote themselves
+exclusively to her education. It is a charming picture this, of a young,
+gifted girl, under the loving care of cultured parents actuated by the
+sole desire to imbue their daughter with their own taste for natural and
+artistic beauty and their steadfast love for Judaism, and content to
+lead a modest existence, away from the bustle and the opportunities of
+the city, in order to be able to give themselves up wholly to the
+education and companionship of their beloved, only daughter. Under the
+influence of a wise friend, Grace Aguilar herself tells us, she
+supplicated God to enable her to do something by which her people might
+gain higher esteem with their Christian fellow-citizens.</p>
+
+<p>God hearkened unto her prayer, for her efforts were crowned with
+success. Her first work was the translation of a book from the Hebrew,
+"Israel Defended." Next came "The Magic Wreath," a collection of poems,
+and then her well-known works, "Home Influence," "The Spirit of
+Judaism," her best production, "The Women of Israel," "The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> Jewish
+Faith," and "History of the Jews in England"&mdash;a rich harvest for one
+whose span of life was short. Her pen was dipped into the blood of her
+veins and the sap of her nerves; the sacred fire of the prophets burnt
+in her soul, and she was inspired by olden Jewish enthusiasm and
+devotion to a trust.</p>
+
+<p>So ardent a spirit could not long be imprisoned within so frail a body.
+In the very prime of life, just thirty-one years old, Grace Aguilar
+passed away, as though her beautiful soul were hastening to shake off
+the mortal coil. She rests in German earth, in the Frankfort Jewish
+cemetery. Her grave is marked with a simple stone, bearing an equally
+simple epitaph:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Give her of the fruit of her hands,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And let her own works praise her in the gates."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Her death was deeply lamented far and wide. She was a golden link in the
+chain of humanity&mdash;a bold, courageous, withal thoroughly womanly woman,
+a God-inspired daughter of her race and faith. "We are persuaded," says
+a non-Jewish friend of hers, "that had this young woman lived in the
+times of frightful persecution, she would willingly have mounted the
+stake for her faith, praying for her murderers with her last breath."
+That the nobility of a solitary woman, leaping like a flame from heart
+to heart, may inspire high-minded thoughts, and that Grace Aguilar's
+life became a blessing for her people and for humanity, is illustrated
+by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> following testimonial signed by several hundred Jewish women,
+presented to her when she was about to leave England:</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest Sister&mdash;Our admiration of your talents, our veneration for your
+character, our gratitude for the eminent services your writings render
+our sex, our people, our faith, in which the sacred cause of true
+religion is embodied: all these motives combine to induce us to intrude
+on your presence, in order to give utterance to sentiments which we are
+happy to feel and delighted to express. Until you arose, it has, in
+modern times, never been the case that a Woman in Israel should stand
+forth the public advocate of the faith of Israel; that with the depth
+and purity of feelings which is the treasure of woman, and with the
+strength of mind and extensive knowledge that form the pride of man, she
+should call on her own to cherish, on others to respect, the truth as it
+is in Israel.</p>
+
+<p>"You, dearest Sister, have done this, and more. You have taught us to
+know and appreciate our dignity; to feel and to prove that no female
+character can be ... more pure than that of the Jewish maiden, none more
+pious than that of the woman in Israel. You have vindicated our social
+and spiritual equality with our brethren in the faith: you have, by your
+own excellent example, triumphantly refuted the aspersion, that the
+Jewish religion leaves unmoved the heart of the Jewish woman. Your
+writings place within our reach those higher motives, those holier
+consolations, which flow from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> spirituality of our religion, which
+urge the soul to commune with its Maker and direct it to His grace and
+His mercy as the best guide and protector here and hereafter...."</p>
+
+<p>Her example fell like seed upon fertile soil, for Abigail Lindo, Marian
+Hartog, Annette Salomon, and especially Anna Maria Goldsmid, a writer of
+merit, daughter of the well-known Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, may be
+considered her disciples, the fruit of her sowing.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian poetess, Rachel Morpurgo, a worthy successor of Deborah
+Ascarelli and Sara Copia Sullam, was contemporaneous with Grace Aguilar,
+though her senior by twenty-six years. Our interest in her is heightened
+by her use of the Hebrew language, which she handled with such
+consummate skill that her writings easily take rank with the best of
+neo-Hebraic literature. A niece of the famous scholar S. D. Luzzatto,
+she was born at Triest, April 8, 1790. Until the age of twelve she
+studied the Bible, then she read Bechaï's "Duties of the Heart" and
+Rashi's commentary, and from her fourteenth to her sixteenth year she
+devoted herself to the Talmud and the Zohar&mdash;a remarkable course of
+study, pursued, too, in despite of adverse circumstances. At the same
+time she was taught the turner's art by Luzzatto's father, and later she
+learned tailoring. One of her poems having been published without her
+knowledge, she gives vent to her regret in a sonnet:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My soul surcharged with grief now loud complains,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And fears upon my spirit heavily weigh.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Thy poem we have heard,' the people say,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Who like to thee can sing melodious strains?'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'They're naught but sparks,' outspeaks my soul in chains,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Struck from my life by torture every day.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But now all perfume's fled&mdash;no more my lay</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shall rise; for, fear of shame my song restrains.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A woman's fancies lightly roam, and weave</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Themselves into a fairy web. Should I</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Refrain? Ah! soon enough this pleasure, too,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Will flee! Verily I cannot conceive</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Why I'm extolled. For woman 'tis to ply</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The spinning wheel&mdash;then to herself she's true."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This painful self-consciousness, coupled with the oppression of material
+cares, forms the sad refrain of Rachel Morpurgo's writings. She is a
+true poetess: the woes of humanity are reflected in her own sorrows, to
+which she gave utterance in soulful tones. She, too, became an exemplar
+for a number of young women. A Pole, Yenta Wohllerner, like Rachel
+Morpurgo, had to propitiate churlish circumstances before she could
+publish the gifts of her muse, and Miriam Mosessohn, Bertha Rabbinowicz,
+and others, emulated her masterly handling of the Hebrew language.</p>
+
+<p>The opening of the new era was marked by the appearance of a triad of
+Jewesses&mdash;Grace Aguilar in England, Rachel Morpurgo in Italy, and
+Henriette Ottenheimer in Germany. A native of the blessed land of
+Suabia, Henriette Ottenheimer was consecrated to poetry by intercourse
+with two mas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span>ters of song&mdash;Uhland and Rückert. Her poems, fragrant
+blossoms plucked on Suabian fields, for the most part are no more than
+sweet womanly lyrics, growing strong with the force of enthusiasm only
+when she dwells upon her people's sacred mission and the heroes of Bible
+days.</p>
+
+<p>Women like these renew the olden fame of the Jewess, and add
+achievements to her brilliant record. As for their successors and
+imitators, our contemporaries, whose literary productions are before us,
+on them we may not yet pass judgment; their work is still on probation.</p>
+
+<p>One striking circumstance in connection with their activity should be
+pointed out, because it goes to prove the soundness of judgment, the
+penetration, and expansiveness characteristic of Jews. While the
+movement for woman's complete emancipation has counted not a single
+Jewess among its promoters, its more legitimate successor, the movement
+to establish woman's right and ability to earn a livelihood in any
+branch of human endeavor&mdash;a right and ability denied only by prejudice,
+or stupidity&mdash;was headed and zealously supported by Jewesses, an
+assertion which can readily be proved by such names as Lina Morgenstern,
+known to the public also as an advocate of moderate religious reforms,
+Jenny Hirsch, Henriette Goldschmidt, and a number of writers on subjects
+of general and Jewish interest, such as Rachel Meyer, Elise Levi
+(Henle), Ulla Frank-Wolff, Johanna Goldschmidt, Caroline Deutsch, in
+Germany; Rebekah Eugenie Foa, Juli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span>anna and Pauline Bloch, in France;
+Estelle and Maria Hertzveld, in Holland, and Emma Lazarus, in America.</p>
+
+<p>One other name should be recorded. Fanny Neuda, the writer of "Hours of
+Devotion," and a number of juvenile stories, has a double claim upon our
+recognition, inasmuch as she is an authoress of the Jewish race who has
+addressed her writings exclusively to Jewish women.</p>
+
+<p>We have followed Jewish women from the days of their first flight into
+the realm of song through a period of two thousand years up to modern
+times, when our record would seem to come to a natural conclusion. But I
+deem it proper to bring to your attention a set of circumstances which
+would be called phenomenal, were it not, as we all know, that the
+greatest of all wonders is that true wonders are so common.</p>
+
+<p>It is a well-known fact, spread by literary journals, that the
+Rothschild family, conspicuous for financial ability, has produced a
+goodly number of authoresses. But it is less well known, and much more
+noteworthy, that many of the excellent women of this family have devoted
+their literary gifts and attainments to the service of Judaism. The
+palaces of the Rothschilds, the richest family in the world, harbor many
+a warm heart, whose pulsations are quickened by the thought of Israel's
+history and poetic heritage. Wealth has not abated a jot of their
+enthusiasm and loyal love for the faith. The first of the house of
+Rothschild to make a name for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> herself as an authoress was Lady
+Charlotte Rothschild, in London, one of the noblest women of our time,
+who, standing in the glare of prosperity, did not disdain to take up the
+cudgels in defense of her people, to go Sabbath after Sabbath to her
+poor, unfortunate sisters in faith, and expound to them, in the school
+established by her generosity, the nature and duties of a moral,
+religious life, in lectures pervaded by the spirit of truth and faith.
+Two volumes of these addresses have been published in German and English
+(1864 and 1869), and every page gives evidence of rare piety,
+considerable scholarship, thorough knowledge of the Bible, and a high
+degree of culture. Equal enthusiasm for Judaism pervades the two volumes
+of "Thoughts Suggested by Bible Texts" (1859), by Baroness Louise,
+another of the English Rothschilds.</p>
+
+<p>Three young women of this house, in which wealth is not hostile to
+idealism, have distinguished themselves as writers, foremost among them
+Clementine Rothschild, a gentle, sweet maiden, claimed by death before
+life with its storms could rob her of the pure ideals of youth. She died
+in her twentieth year, and her legacy to her family and her faith is
+contained in "Letters to a Christian Friend on the Fundamental Truths of
+Judaism," abundantly worthy of the perusal of all women, regardless of
+creed. This young woman displayed more courage, more enthusiasm, more
+wit, to be sure also more precise knowledge of Judaism, than thousands
+of men of our time, young and old, who fancy gran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span>diloquent periods
+sufficient to solve the great religious problems perplexing mankind.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, mention must be made of Constance and Anna de Rothschild, whose
+two volume "History and Literature of the Israelites" (1872) created a
+veritable sensation, and awakened the literary world to the fact that
+the Rothschild family is distinguished not only for wealth, but also for
+the talent and religious zeal of its authoresses.</p>
+
+<p>I have ventured to group these women of the Rothschild family together
+as a conclusion to the history of Jewish women in literature, because I
+take their work to be an earnest of future accomplishment. Such examples
+cannot fail to kindle the spark of enthusiasm slumbering in the hearts
+of Jewish women, and the sacred flame of religious zeal, tended once
+more by women, will leap from rank to rank in the Jewish army. As it is,
+a half-century has brought about a remarkable change in feeling towards
+Judaism. Fifty years ago the following lines by Caroline Deutsch, one of
+the above-mentioned modern German writers, could not have awakened the
+same responsive chord as now:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Little cruet in the Temple</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That didst feed the sacrificial flame,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What a true expressive symbol</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Art thou of my race, of Israel's fame!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou for days the oil didst furnish</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To illume the Temple won from foe&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So for centuries in my people</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Spirit of resistance ne'er burnt low.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">It was cast from home and country,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Gloom and sorrow were its daily lot;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet the torch of faith gleamed steady,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Courage, like thy oil, forsook it not.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mocks and jeers were all its portion,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Death assailed it in ten thousand forms&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet this people never faltered,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Hope, its beacon, led it through all storms.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Poorer than dumb, driven cattle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">It went forth enslaved from its estate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">All its footsore wand'rings lighted</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">By its consciousness of worth innate.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Luckless fortunes could not bend it;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Unjust laws increased its wondrous faith;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From its heart exhaustless streaming,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Freedom's light shone on its thorny path.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oil that burnt in olden Temple,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Eight days only didst thou give forth light!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Oil of faith sustained this people</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Through the centuries of darkest night!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>We can afford to look forward to the future of Judaism serenely. The
+signs of the times seem propitious to him whose eye is clear to read
+them, whose heart not too embittered to understand their message aright.</p>
+
+<p>Our rough and tumble time, delighting in negation and destruction,
+crushing underfoot the tender blossoms of poetry and faith, living up to
+its quasi motto, "What will not die of itself, must be put to death,"
+will suddenly come to a stop in its mad career of annihilation. That
+will mark the dawn of a new era, the first stirrings of a new
+spring-tide for storm-driven Israel. On the ruins will rise the Jew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span>ish
+home, based on Israel's world-saving conception of family life, which,
+having enlightened the nations of the earth, will return to the source
+whence it first issued. Built on this foundation, and resting on the
+pillars of modern culture, Jewish spirit, and true morality, the Jewish
+home will once more invite the nations to exclaim: "How beautiful are
+thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwellings, O Israel!"</p>
+
+<p>May the soft starlight of woman's high ideals continue to gleam on the
+thorny path of the thinker Israel; may they never depart from Israel,
+those God-kissed women that draw inspiration at the sacred fount of
+poesy, and are consecrated by its limpid waters to give praise and
+thanksgiving to Him that reigns on high; may the poet's words ever
+remain applicable to the matrons and maidens of Israel:<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Pure woman stands in life's turmoil</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A rose in leafy bower;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her aspirations and her toil</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Are tinted like a flower.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her thoughts are pious, kind, and true,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In evil have no part;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A glimpse of empyrean blue</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Is seen within her heart."</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>MOSES MAIMONIDES</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Who is Maimonides? For my part, I confess that I have merely heard the
+name." This naïve admission was not long since made by a well-known
+French writer in discussing the subject of a prize-essay, "Upon the
+Philosophy of Maimonides," announced by the <i>académie universitaire</i> of
+Paris. What short memories the French have for the names of foreign
+scholars! When the proposed subject was submitted to the French minister
+of instruction, he probably asked himself the same question; but he was
+not at a loss for an answer; he simply substituted Spinoza for
+Maimonides. To be sure, Spinoza's philosophy is somewhat better known
+than that of Maimonides. But why should a minister of instruction take
+that into consideration? The minister and the author&mdash;both presumably
+over twenty-five years of age&mdash;might have heard this very question
+propounded and answered some years before. They might have known that
+their colleague Victor Cousin, to save Descartes from the disgrace of
+having stood sponsor to Spinozism, had established a far-fetched
+connection between the Dutch philosopher and the Spanish, pronouncing
+Spinoza the devoted disciple of Maimonides. Perhaps they might have been
+expected to know, too, that Solo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>mon Munk, through his French
+translation of Maimonides' last work, had made it possible for modern
+thinkers to approach the Jewish philosopher, and that soon after this
+translation was published, E. Saisset had written an article upon Jewish
+philosophy in the <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>, in which he gave a popular
+and detailed exposition of Maimonides' religious views. All this they
+did not know, and, had they known it, they surely would not have been so
+candid as the German thinker, Heinrich Ritter, who, in his "History of
+Christian Philosophy," frankly admits: "My impression was that mediæval
+philosophy was not indebted to Jewish metaphysicians for any original
+line of thought, but M. Munk's discovery convinced me of my
+mistake."<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p>
+
+<p>Who was Maimonides? The question is certainly more justifiable upon
+German than upon French soil. In France, attention has been invited to
+his works, while in Germany, save in the circle of the learned, he is
+almost unknown. Even among Jews, who call him "Rambam," he is celebrated
+rather than known. It seems, then, that it may not be unprofitable to
+present an outline of the life and works of this philosopher of the
+middle ages, whom scholars have sought to connect with Spinoza, with
+Leibnitz, and even with Kant.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p>
+
+<p>While readers in general possess but little information about Maimonides
+himself, the period in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> which he lived, and which derives much of its
+brilliancy and importance from him, is well known, and has come to be a
+favorite subject with modern writers. That period was a very dreamland
+of culture. Under enlightened caliphs, the Arabs in Spain developed a
+civilization which, during the whole of the middle ages up to the
+Renaissance, exercised pregnant influence upon every department of human
+knowledge. A dreamland, in truth, it appears to be, when we reflect that
+the descendants of a highly cultured people, the teachers of Europe in
+many sciences, are now wandering in African wilds, nomads, who know of
+the glories of their past only through a confused legend, holding out to
+them the extravagant hope that the banner of the Prophet may again wave
+from the cathedral of Granada. Yet this Spanish-Arabic period bequeathed
+to us such magnificent tokens of architectural skill, of scientific
+research, and of philosophic thought, that far from regarding it as
+fancy's dream, we know it to be one of the corner-stones of
+civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Prominent among the great men of this period was the Jew Moses ben
+Maimon, or as he was called in Arabic, Abu Amran Musa ibn Maimûn Obaid
+Allah (1135-1204). It may be said that he represented the full measure
+of the scientific attainments of the age at the close of which he
+stood&mdash;an age whose culture comprised the whole circle of sciences then
+known, and whose conscious goal was the reconciliation of religion and
+philosophy. The sturdier the growth of the spirit of inquiry, the more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span>
+ardent became the longing to reach this goal, the keener became the
+perception of the problems of life and faith. Arabic and Jewish thinkers
+zealously sought the path leading to serenity. Though they never entered
+upon it, their tentative efforts naturally prepared the way for a great
+comprehensive intellect. Only a genius, master of all the sciences,
+combining soundness of judgment and clearness of insight with great
+mental vigor and depth, can succeed in reconciling the divergent
+principles of theology and speculation, if such reconciliation be within
+the range of the possible. At Cordova, in 1135, when the sun of Arabic
+culture reached its zenith, was born Maimonides, the man gifted with
+this all-embracing mind.</p>
+
+<p>Many incidents in his life, not less interesting than his philosophic
+development, have come down to us. His father was his first teacher. To
+escape the persecutions of the Almohades, Maimonides, then thirteen
+years old, removed to Fez with his family. There religious persecution
+forced Jews to abjure their faith, and the family of Maimon, like many
+others, had to comply, outwardly at least, with the requirements of
+Islam. At Fez Maimonides was on intimate terms with physicians and
+philosophers. At the same time, both in personal intercourse with them
+and in his writings, he exhorted his pseudo-Mohammedan brethren to
+remain true to Judaism. This would have cost him his life, had he not
+been rescued by the kindly offices of Mohammedan theologians. The
+feeling of insecurity induced his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> family to leave Fez and join the
+Jewish community in Palestine. "They embarked at dead of night. On the
+sixth day of their voyage on the Mediterranean, a frightful storm arose;
+mountainous waves tossed the frail ship about like a ball; shipwreck
+seemed imminent. The pious family besought God's protection. Maimonides
+vowed that if he were rescued from threatening death, he would, as a
+thank-offering for himself and his family, spend two days in fasting and
+distributing alms, and devote another day to solitary communion with
+God. The storm abated, and after a month's voyage, the vessel ran into
+the harbor of Accho."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> The travellers met with a warm welcome, but
+they tarried only a brief while, and finally settled permanently in
+Egypt. There, too, disasters befell Maimonides, who found solace only in
+his implicit reliance on God and his enthusiastic devotion to learning.
+It was then that Maimonides became the religious guide of his brethren.
+At the same time he attained to eminence in his medical practice, and
+devoted himself zealously to the study of philosophy and the natural
+sciences. Yet he did not escape calumny, and until 1185 fortune refused
+to smile upon him. In that year a son, afterwards the joy and pride of
+his heart, was born to him. Then he was appointed physician at the court
+of Saladin, and so great was his reputation that Richard Coeur de Lion
+wished to make him his physician in ordinary, but Maimonides refused the
+offer. Despite the fact that his works raised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> many enemies against him,
+his influence grew in the congregations of his town and province. From
+all sides questions were addressed to him, and when religious points
+were under debate, his opinion usually decided the issue. At his death
+at the age of seventy great mourning prevailed in Israel. His mortal
+remains were moved to Tiberias, and a legend reports that Bedouins
+attacked the funeral train. Finding it impossible to move the coffin
+from the spot, they joined the Jews, and followed the great man to his
+last resting-place. The deep reverence accorded him both by the moral
+sense and the exuberant fancy of his race is best expressed in the brief
+eulogy of the saying, now become almost a proverb: "From Moses, the
+Prophet, to Moses ben Maimon, there appeared none like unto Moses."</p>
+
+<p>In three different spheres Maimonides' work produced important results.
+First in order stand his services to his fellow-believers. For them he
+compiled the great Codex, the first systematic arrangement, upon the
+basis of Talmudic tradition, of all the ordinances and tenets of
+Judaism. He gave them a system of ethics which even now should be
+prized, because it inculcates the highest possible ethical views and the
+most ideal conception of man's duties in life. He explained to them,
+almost seven hundred years ago, Islam's service to mankind, and the
+mission Christianity was appointed by Providence to accomplish.</p>
+
+<p>His early writings reveal the fundamental prin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span>ciples of his subsequent
+literary work. An astronomical treatise on the Jewish calendar, written
+in his early youth, illustrates his love of system, but his peculiar
+method of thinking and working is best shown in the two works that
+followed. The first is a commentary on parts of the Talmud, probably
+meant to present such conclusions of the Babylonian and the Jerusalem
+Talmud as affect the practices of Judaism. The second is his Arabic
+commentary on the Mishna. He explains the Mishna simply and clearly from
+a strictly rabbinical point of view&mdash;a point of view which he never
+relinquished, permitting a deviation only in questions not affecting
+conduct. Master of the abundant material of Jewish literature, he felt
+it to be one of the most important tasks of the age to simplify, by
+methodical treatment, the study of the mass of written and traditional
+religious laws, accumulated in the course of centuries. It is this work
+that contains the attempt, praised by some, condemned by others, to
+establish articles of the Jewish faith, the Bible being used in
+authentication. Thirteen articles of faith were thus established. The
+first five naturally define the God-idea: Article 1 declares the
+existence of God, 2, His unity, 3, His immateriality, 4, His eternity,
+5, that unto Him alone, to whom all created life owes its being, human
+adoration is due; the next four treat of revelation: 6, of revelations
+made through prophets in general, 7, of the revelation made through
+Moses, 8, of the divine origin of the Law, 9, of the perfection of the
+Law, and its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> eternally binding force; and the rest dwell upon the
+divine government of the world: 10, Divine Providence, 11, reward and
+punishment, here and hereafter, 12, Messianic promises and hopes, and
+13, resurrection.</p>
+
+<p>Maimonides' high reputation among his own people is attested by his
+letters and responses, containing detailed answers to vexed religious
+questions. An especially valuable letter is the one upon "Enforced
+Apostasy," <i>Iggereth ha-Sh'mad</i>. He advises an inquirer what to do when
+menaced by religious persecutions. Is one to save life by accepting, or
+to court death by refusing to embrace, the Mohammedan faith? Maimonides'
+opinion is summed up in the words: "The solution which I always
+recommend to my friends and those consulting me is, to leave such
+regions, and to turn to a place in which religion can be practiced
+without fear of persecution. No considerations of danger, of property,
+or of family should prevent one from carrying out this purpose. The
+divine Law stands in higher esteem with the wise than the haphazard
+gifts of fortune. These pass away, the former remains." His responses as
+well as his most important works bear the impress of a sane,
+well-ordered mind, of a lofty intellect, dwelling only upon what is
+truly great.</p>
+
+<p>Also his second famous work, the above-mentioned Hebrew Codex, <i>Mishneh
+Torah</i>, "Recapitulation of the Law," was written in the interest of his
+brethren in faith. Its fourteen divisions treat of knowledge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> love, the
+festivals, marriage laws, sanctifications, vows, seeds, Temple-service,
+sacrifices, purifications, damages, purchase and sale, courts, and
+judges. "My work is such," says Maimonides, "that my book in connection
+with the Bible will enable a student to dispense with the Talmud." From
+whatever point of view this work may be regarded, it must be admitted
+that Maimonides carried out his plan with signal success, and that it is
+the only one by which method could have been introduced into the
+manifold departments of Jewish religious lore. But it is obvious that
+the thinker had not yet reached the goal of his desires. In consonance
+with his fundamental principle, a scientific systemization of religious
+laws had to be followed up by an explanation of revealed religion and
+Greek-Arabic philosophy, and by the attempt to bring about a
+reconciliation between them.</p>
+
+<p>Before we enter upon this his greatest book, it is well to dispose of
+the second phase of his work, his activity as a medical writer.
+Maimonides treated medicine as a science, a view not usual in those
+days. The body of facts relating to medicine he classified, as he had
+systematized the religious laws of the Talmud. In his methodical way, he
+also edited the writings of Galen, the medical oracle of the middle
+ages, and his own medical aphorisms and treatises are marked by the same
+love of system. It seems that he had the intention to prepare a medical
+codex to serve a purpose similar to that of his religious code. How
+great a reputation he enjoyed among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span> Mohammedan physicians is shown by
+the extravagantly enthusiastic verses of an Arabic poet:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Of body's ills doth Galen's art relieve,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Maimonides cures mind and body both,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">His wisdom heals disease and ignorance.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And should the moon invoke his skill and art,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her spots, when full her orb, would disappear;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He'd fill her breach, when time doth inroads make,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And cure her, too, of pallor caused by earth."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Maimonides' real greatness, however, must be sought in his philosophic
+work. Despite the wide gap between our intellectual attitude and the
+philosophic views to which Maimonides gave fullest expression, we can
+properly appreciate his achievements and his intellectual grasp by
+judging him with reference to his own time. When we realize that he
+absorbed all the thought-currents of his time, that he was their
+faithful expounder, and that, at the same time, he was gifted with an
+accurate, historic instinct, making him wholly objective, we shall
+recognize in him "the genius of his peculiar epoch become incarnate."
+The work containing Maimonides' deepest thought and the sum of his
+knowledge and erudition was written in Arabic under the name <i>Dalalat
+al-Haïrin</i>. In Hebrew it is known as <i>Moreh Nebuchim</i>, in Latin, as
+<i>Doctor Perplexorum</i>, and in English as the "Guide of the Perplexed." To
+this book we shall now devote our attention. The original Arabic text
+was supposed, along with many other literary treasures of the middle
+ages, to be lost, until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> Solomon Munk, the blind <i>savant</i> with clear
+vision, discovered it in the library at Paris, and published it. But in
+its Hebrew translation the book created a stir, which subsided only with
+its public burning at Montpellier early in the thirteenth century. The
+Latin translation we owe to Buxtorf; the German is, I believe,
+incomplete, and can hardly be said to give evidence of ripe
+scholarship.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
+
+<p>The question that naturally suggests itself is: What does the book
+contain? Does it establish a new system of philosophy? Is it a
+cyclopædia of the sciences, such as the Arab schools of that day were
+wont to produce? Neither the one nor the other. The "Guide of the
+Perplexed" is a system of rational theology upon a philosophic basis, a
+book not intended for novices, but for thinkers, for such minds as know
+how to penetrate the profound meaning of tradition, as the author says
+in a prefatory letter addressed to Joseph ibn Aknin, his favorite
+disciple. He believes that even those to whom the book appeals are often
+puzzled and confused by the apparent inconsistencies between the literal
+interpretation of the Bible and the evidence of reason, that they do not
+know whether to take Scriptural expressions as symbolic or allegoric, or
+to accept them in their literal meaning, and that they fall a prey to
+doubt, and long for a guide. Maimonides is prepared to lead them to an
+eminence on which religion and philosophy meet in perfect harmony.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Educated in the school of Arabic philosophers, notably under the
+influence of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Maimonides paid hero-worship to
+Aristotle, the autocrat of the middle ages in the realm of speculation.
+There is no question that the dominion wielded by the Greek philosopher
+throughout mediæval times, and the influence which he exercises even
+now, are chiefly attributable to the Arabs, and beside them,
+pre-eminently to Maimonides. For him, Aristotle was second in authority
+only to the Bible. A rational interpretation of the Bible, in his
+opinion, meant its interpretation from an Aristotelian point of view.
+Still, he does not consider Aristotle other than a thinker like himself,
+not by any means the infallible "organ of reason." The moment he
+discovers that a peripatetic principle is in direct and irreconcilable
+conflict with his religious convictions, he parts company with it, let
+the effort cost what it may. For, above all, Maimonides was a faithful
+Jew, striving to reach a spiritual conception of his religion, and to
+assign to theology the place in his estimation belonging to it in the
+realm of science. He stands forth as the most eminent intermediary
+between Greek-Arabic thought and Christian scholasticism. A century
+later, the most prominent of the schoolmen endeavored, in the same way
+as Maimonides, to reconcile divine with human wisdom as manifested by
+Aristotle. It has been demonstrated that Maimonides was followed by both
+Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, and that the new aims of philosophy,
+conceived at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> beginning of the thirteenth century, are, in part, to
+be traced to the influence of "Rabbi Moses of Egypt," as Maimonides was
+called by the first of these two celebrated doctors of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>What a marvellous picture is presented by the unfolding of the
+Aristotelian idea in its passage through the ages! And one of the most
+attractive figures on the canvas is Maimonides. Let us see how he
+undertakes to guide the perplexed. His path is marked out for him by the
+Bible. Its first few verses suffice to puzzle the believing thinker. It
+says: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." What! Is this
+expression to be taken literally? Impossible! To conceive of God as such
+that a being can be made in His image, is to conceive of Him as a
+corporeal substance. But God is an invisible, immaterial Intelligence.
+Reason teaches this, and the sacred Book itself prohibits image-worship.
+On this point Aristotle and the Bible are in accord. The inference is
+that in the Holy Scriptures there are many metaphors and words with a
+double or allegoric sense. Such is the case with the word "image." It
+has two meanings, the one usual and obvious, the other figurative. Here
+the word must be taken in its figurative sense. God is conceived as the
+highest Reason, and as reason is the specific attribute which
+characterizes the human mind, it follows that man, by virtue of his
+possession of reason, resembles God, and the more fully he realizes the
+ideal of Reason, the closer does he approach the form and likeness of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span>
+God. Such is Maimonides' method of reasoning. He does not build up a new
+system of philosophy, he adopts an existing system. Beginning with Bible
+exegesis, he leads us, step by step, up to the lofty goal at which
+philosophy and faith are linked in perfect harmony.</p>
+
+<p>The arguments for the existence, unity, and incorporeity of God divide
+the Arabic philosophers into two schools. Maimonides naturally espoused
+the view permitting the most exalted conception of God, that is, the
+conception of God free from human attributes. He recognizes none but
+negative attributes; in other words, he defines God by means of
+negations only. For instance, asserting that the Supreme Being is
+omniscient or omnipotent, is not investing Him with a positive
+attribute, it is simply denying imperfection. The student knows that in
+the history of the doctrine of attributes, the recognition of negative
+attributes marks a great advance in philosophic reasoning. Maimonides
+holds that the conception of the Deity as a pure abstraction is the only
+one truly philosophic. His evidences for the existence, the
+immateriality, and the unity of God, are conceived in the same spirit.
+In offering them he follows Aristotle's reasoning closely, adding only
+one other proof, the cosmological, which he took from his teacher, the
+Arab Avicenna. He logically reaches this proof by more explicitly
+defining the God-idea, and, at the same time, taking into consideration
+the nature of the world of things and their relation to one another.
+Acquainted with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> Ptolemy's "Almagest" and with the investigations of the
+Arabs, he naturally surpasses his Greek master in astronomical
+knowledge. In physical science, however, he gives undivided allegiance
+to the Aristotelian theory of a sublunary and a celestial world of
+spheres, the former composed of the sublunary elements in constantly
+shifting, perishable combinations, and the latter, of the stable,
+unchanging fifth substance (quintessence). But the question, how God
+moves these spheres, separates Maimonides from his master. His own
+answer has a Neoplatonic ring. He holds, with Aristotle, that there are
+as many separate Intelligences as spheres. Each sphere is supposed to
+aspire to the Intelligence which is the principle of its motion. The
+Arabic thinkers assumed ten such independent Intelligences, one
+animating each of the nine permanent spheres, and the tenth, called the
+"Active Intellect," influencing the sublunary world of matter. The
+existence of this tenth Intelligence is proved by the transition of our
+own intellect from possible existence to actuality, and by the varying
+forms of all transient things, whose matter at one time existed only in
+a potential state. Whenever the transition from potentiality to
+actuality occurs, there must be a cause. Inasmuch as the tenth
+Intelligence (<i>Sechel Hapoel</i>, Active Intellect) induces form, it must
+itself be form, inasmuch as it is the source of intellect, it is itself
+intellect. This is, of course, obscure to us, but we must remember that
+Maimonides would not have so charming and individual a personality,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span>
+were he not part and parcel of his time and the representative of its
+belief. Maimonides, having for once deviated from the peripatetic
+system, ventures to take another bold step away from it. He offers an
+explanation, different from Aristotle's, of the creation of the world.
+The latter repudiated the <i>creatio ex nihilo</i> (creation out of nothing).
+Like modern philosophers, he pre-supposed the existence of an eternal
+"First substance" (<i>materia prima</i>). His Bible does not permit our rabbi
+to avail himself of this theory. It was reserved for the modern
+investigator to demonstrate how the Scriptural word, with some little
+manipulation, can be so twisted as to be made to harmonize with the
+theories of natural science. But to such trickery the pure-minded guide
+will not stoop. Besides, the acceptance of Aristotle's theory would rule
+out the intervention of miracles in the conduct of the world, and that
+Maimonides does not care to renounce. Right here his monotheistic
+convictions force him into direct opposition to the Greek as well as to
+the Arabic philosophers. Upon this subject, he brooked neither trifling
+nor compromise with reason. It is precisely his honesty that so exalted
+his teachings, that they have survived the lapse of centuries, and
+maintain a place in the pure atmosphere of modern philosophic thought.</p>
+
+<p>According to Maimonides, man has absolute free-will, and God is
+absolutely just. Whatever good befalls man is reward, all his evil
+fortune, punishment. What Aristotle attributes to chance,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> and the
+Mohammedan philosophers to Divine Will or Divine Wisdom, our rabbi
+traces to the <i>merits of man</i> as its cause. He does not admit any
+suffering to be unmerited, or that God ordains trials merely to
+indemnify the sufferer in this or the future world. Man's susceptibility
+to divine influence is measured by his intellectual endowment. Through
+his "intellect," he is directly connected with the "Active Intellect,"
+and thus secures the grace of God, who embraces the infinite. Such views
+naturally lead to a conception of life in consonance with the purest
+ideals of morality, and they are the goal to which the "Guide" leads the
+perplexed. He teaches that the acquiring of high intellectual power, and
+the "possession of such notions as lead to true metaphysical opinions"
+about God, are "man's final object," and they constitute true human
+perfection. This it is that "gives him immortality," and confers upon
+him the dignity of manhood.</p>
+
+<p>The highest degree of perfection, according to Maimonides, is reached by
+him who devotes all his thoughts and actions to perfecting himself in
+divine matters, and this highest degree he calls prophecy. He is
+probably the first philosopher to offer so rationalistic an explanation,
+and, on that account, it merits our attention. What had previously been
+regarded as supernatural inspiration, the "Guide" reduces to a
+psychological theory. "Prophecy," he says, "is, in truth and reality, an
+emanation sent forth by the Divine Being through the medium of the
+Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span> rational faculty, and
+then to his imaginative faculty; it is the highest degree ... of
+perfection man can attain; it consists in the most perfect development
+of the imaginative faculty." Maimonides distinguishes eleven degrees of
+inspiration, and three essential conditions of prophecy: 1. Perfection
+of the natural constitution of the imaginative faculty, 2. mental
+perfection, which may partially be acquired by training, and 3. moral
+perfection. Moses arrived at the highest degree of prophecy, because he
+understood the knowledge communicated to him without the medium of the
+imaginative faculty. This spiritual height having been scaled, the
+"Guide" needs but to take a step to reach revelation, in his estimation
+also an intellectual process: man's intellect rises to the Supreme
+Being.</p>
+
+<p>In the third part of his work, Maimonides endeavors to reconcile the
+conclusions of philosophy with biblical laws and Talmudical traditions.
+His method is both original and valuable; indeed, this deserves to be
+considered the most important part of his work. Detailed exposition of
+his reasoning may prove irksome; we shall, therefore, consider it as
+briefly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Maimonides laid down one rule of interpretation which, almost without
+exception, proves applicable: The words of Holy Writ express different
+sets of ideas, bearing a certain relation to each other, the one set
+having reference to physical, the other to spiritual, qualities. By
+applying this rule, he thinks that nearly all discrepancies between the
+literal in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span>terpretation of the Bible and his own philosophic theories
+disappear. Having passed over the domain of metaphysical speculation, he
+finally reaches the consideration of the practical side of the Bible,
+that is to say, the Mosaic legislation. These last investigations of his
+are attractive, not only by reason of the satisfactory method pursued,
+but chiefly from the fact that Maimonides, divesting himself of the
+conservatism of his contemporaries, ventures to inquire into the reasons
+of biblical laws. For many of them, he assigns local and historical
+reasons; many, he thinks, owe their origin to the desire to oppose the
+superstitious practices of early times and of the Sabeans, a mythical,
+primitive race; but all, he contends, are binding, and with this solemn
+asseveration, he puts the seal upon his completed work.</p>
+
+<p>When Maimonides characterized the "Guide of the Perplexed" as "the true
+science of the Bible," he formed a just estimate of his own work. It has
+come to be the substructure of a rational theology based upon
+speculation. Maimonides cannot be said to have been very much ahead of
+his own age; but it is altogether certain that he attained the acme of
+the possibilities of the middle ages. In many respects there is a
+striking likeness between his life and work and those of the Arabic
+freethinker Averroës, whom we now know so well through Ernest Renan.
+While the Jewish theologian was composing his great work, the Arabic
+philosopher was writing his "Commentaries on Aristotle." The two had
+similar ends in view&mdash;the one to enthrone "the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> Stagirite" as the
+autocrat of philosophy in the Mosque, the other, in the Synagogue. We
+have noted the fact that, some centuries later, the Church also entered
+the federation subject to Aristotelian rule. Albertus Magnus uses
+Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas joins him, and upon them depend the other
+schoolmen. Recent inquirers follow in their train. Philosophy's noblest
+votary, Benedict Spinoza himself, is influenced by Maimonides. He quotes
+frequently and at great length the finest passages of the "Guide."
+Again, Moses Mendelssohn built his system on the foundations offered by
+Maimonides, and an acute critic assures us that, in certain passages,
+Kant's religious philosophy breathes the spirit of Maimonides.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>The "Guide of the Perplexed" did not, however, meet with so gracious a
+reception in the Synagogue. There, Maimonides' philosophic system
+conjured up violent storms. The whole of an epoch, that following
+Maimonides' death, was absorbed in the conflict between philosophy and
+tradition. Controversial pamphlets without number have come down to us
+from those days. Enthusiasts eulogized, zealots decried. Maimonides'
+ambiguous expressions about bodily resurrection, seeming to indicate
+that he did not subscribe to the article of the creed on that subject,
+caused particularly acrimonious polemics. Meïr ben Todros ha-Levi, a
+Talmudist and poet of Toledo, denounced the equivocation in the
+following lines:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"If those that rise from death again must die,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For lot like theirs I ne'er should long and sigh.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If graves their bones shall once again confine,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I hope to stay where first they bury mine."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, Maimonides' followers were quick to retort:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"His name, forsooth, is Meïr 'Shining.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">How false! since <i>light</i> he holds in small esteem.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Our language always contrast loveth,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Twi<i>light</i>'s the name of ev'ning's doubtful gleam."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Another of Maimonides' opponents was the physician Judah Alfachar, who
+bore the hereditary title <i>Prince</i>. The following pasquinade is
+attributed to him:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Forgive, O Amram's son, nor deem it crime,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That he, deception's master, bears thy name.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Nabi</i> we call the prophet of truths sublime,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Like him of Ba'al, who doth the truth defame."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Maimonides, in his supposed reply to the Prince, played upon the word
+<i>Chamor</i>, the Hebrew word for <i>ass</i>, the name of a Hivite prince
+mentioned in the Bible:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"High rank, I wot, we proudly claim</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">When sprung from noble ancestor;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Henceforth my mule a <i>prince</i> I'll name</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Since once a prince was called <i>Chamor</i>."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It seems altogether certain that this polemic rhyming is the fabrication
+of a later day, for we know that the controversies about Maimonides'
+opinions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> in Spain and Provence broke out only after his death, when his
+chief work had spread far and wide in its Hebrew translation. The
+following stanza passed from mouth to mouth in northern France:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Be silent, 'Guide,' from further speech refrain!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thus truth to us was never brought.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Accursed who says that Holy Writ's a trope,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And idle dreams what prophets taught."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon the Provençals returned:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Thou fool, I pray thou wilt forbear,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Nor enter on this consecrated ground.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or trope, or truth&mdash;or vision fair,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Or only dream&mdash;for thee 'tis too profound."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The homage paid to Maimonides' memory in many instances produced most
+extravagant poetry. The following high-flown lines, outraging the canons
+of good taste recognized in Hebrew poetry, are supposed to be his
+epitaph:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here lies a man, yet not a man,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And if a man, conceived by angels,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">By human mother only born to light;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Perhaps himself a spirit pure&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Not child by man and woman fostered&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">From God above an emanation bright."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Such hyperbole naturally challenged opposition, and Maimonides'
+opponents did not hesitate to give voice to their deep indignation, as
+in the following:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Alas! that man should dare</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To say, with reckless air,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That Holy Scripture's but a dream of night;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That all we read therein</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Has truly never been,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Is naught but sign of meaning recondite.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And when God's wondrous deeds</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The haughty scorner reads,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Contemptuous he cries, 'I trust my sight.'"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>A cessation of hostilities came only in the fourteenth century. The
+"Guide" was then given its due meed of appreciation by the Jews. Later,
+Maimonides' memory was held in unbounded reverence, and to-day his
+"Guide of the Perplexed" is a manual of religious philosophy treasured
+by Judaism.</p>
+
+<p>If we wish once more before parting from this earnest, noble thinker to
+review his work and attitude, we can best do it by applying to them the
+standard furnished by his own reply to all adverse critics of his
+writings: "In brief, such is my disposition. When a thought fills my
+mind, though I be able to express it so that only a single man among ten
+thousand, a thinker, is satisfied and elevated by it, while the common
+crowd condemns it as absurd, I boldly and frankly speak the word that
+enlightens the wise, never fearing the censure of the ignorant herd."</p>
+
+<p>This was Maimonides&mdash;he of pure thought, of noble purpose; imbued with
+enthusiasm for his faith, with love for science; ruled by the loftiest
+moral principles; full of disinterested love and the milk of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> human
+kindness in his intercourse with those of other faiths and other views;
+an eagle-eyed thinker, in whom were focused and harmoniously blended the
+last rays of the declining sun of Arabic-Jewish-Spanish culture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>JEWISH TROUBADOURS AND MINNESINGERS</h3>
+
+
+<p>A great tournament at the court of Pedro I.! Deafening fanfares invite
+courtiers and cavaliers to participate in the festivities. In the
+brilliant sunshine gleam the lances of the knights, glitter the spears
+of the hidalgos. Gallant paladins escort black-eyed beauties to the
+elevated balcony, on which, upon a high-raised throne, under a gilded
+canopy, surrounded by courtiers, sit Blanche de Bourbon and her
+illustrious lord Dom Pedro, with Doña Maria de Padilla, the lady of his
+choice, at his left. Three times the trumpets have sounded, announcing
+the approach of the troubadours gathered from all parts of Castile to
+compete with one another in song. Behold! a venerable old man, with
+silvery white beard flowing down upon his breast, seeks to extricate
+himself from the crowd. With admiring gaze the people respectfully make
+way, and enthusiastically greet him: "Rabbi Don Santo! Rabbi Don Santo!"</p>
+
+<p>The troubadour makes a low obeisance before the throne. Dom Pedro nods
+encouragement, Maria de Padilla smiles graciously, only Doña Blanca's
+pallid face remains immobile. The hoary bard begins his song<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span>:<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My noble king and mighty lord,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A discourse hear most true;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Tis Santob brings your Grace the word,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of Carrion's town the Jew.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In plainest verse my thought I tell,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With gloss and moral free,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Drawn from Philosophy's pure well,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">As onward you may see."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>A murmur of approval runs through the crowd; grandees and hidalgos press
+closer to listen. In well-turned verse, fraught with worldly-wise
+lessons, and indifferent whether his hortations meet with praise or with
+censure, the poet continues to pour out words of counsel and moral
+teachings, alike for king, nobles, and people.</p>
+
+<p>Who is this Rabbi Don Santob? We know very little about him, yet, with
+the help of "bright-eyed fancy," enough to paint his picture. The real
+name of this Jew from Carrion de los Condes, a city of northern Spain,
+who lived under Alfonso XI and Peter the Cruel, was, of course, not
+Santob, but Shem-Tob. Under Alfonso the intellectual life of Spain
+developed to a considerable degree, and in Spain, as almost everywhere,
+we find Jews in sympathy with the first intellectual strivings of the
+nation. They have a share in the development of all Romance languages
+and literatures. Ibn Alfange, a Moorish Jew, after his conversion a high
+official, wrote the first "Chronicle of the Cid," the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> oldest source of
+the oft-repeated biography, thus furnishing material to subsequent
+Spanish poets and historians. Valentin Barruchius (Baruch), of Toledo,
+composed, probably in the twelfth century, in pure, choice Latin, the
+romance <i>Comte Lyonnais, Palanus</i>, which spread all over Europe,
+affording modern poets subject-matter for great tragedies, and forming
+the groundwork for one of the classics of Spanish literature. A little
+later, Petrus Alphonsus (Moses Sephardi) wrote his <i>Disciplina
+Clericalis</i>, the first collection of tales in the Oriental manner, the
+model of all future collections of the kind.</p>
+
+<p>Three of the most important works of Spanish literature, then, are
+products of Jewish authorship. This fact prepares the student to find a
+Jew among the Castilian troubadours of the fourteenth century, the
+period of greatest literary activity. The Jewish spirit was by no means
+antagonistic to the poetry of the Provençal troubadours. In his didactic
+poem, <i>Chotham Tochnith</i> ("The Seal of Perfection," together with "The
+Flaming Sword"), Abraham Bedersi, that is, of Béziers (1305), challenges
+his co-religionists to a poetic combat. He details the rules of the
+tournament, and it is evident that he is well acquainted with all the
+minutiæ of the <i>jeu parti</i> and the <i>tenso</i> (song of dispute) of the
+Provençal singers, and would willingly imitate their <i>sirventes</i> (moral
+and political song). His plaint over the decadence of poetry among the
+Jews is characteristic: "Where now are the marvels of Hebrew poetry?
+Mayhap thou'lt find them in the Provençal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> or Romance. Aye, in Folquet's
+verses is manna, and from the lips of Cardinal is wafted the perfume of
+crocus and nard"&mdash;Folquet de Lunel and Peire Cardinal being the last
+great representatives of Provençal troubadour poetry. Later on,
+neo-Hebraic poets again show acquaintance with the regulations governing
+song-combats and courts of love. Pious Bible exegetes, like Samuel ben
+Meïr, do not disdain to speak of the <i>partimens</i> of the troubadours, "in
+which lovers talk to each other, and by turns take up the discourse."
+One of his school, a <i>Tossafist</i>, goes so far as to press into service
+the day's fashion in explaining the meaning of a verse in the "Song of
+Songs": "To this day lovers treasure their mistress' locks as
+love-tokens." It seems, too, that Provençal romances were heard, and
+their great poets welcomed, in the houses of Jews, who did not scruple
+occasionally to use their melodies in the synagogue service.</p>
+
+<p>National customs, then, took root in Israel; but that Jewish elements
+should have become incorporated into Spanish literature is more
+remarkable, may, indeed, be called marvellous. Yet, from one point of
+view, it is not astonishing. The whole of mediæval Spanish literature is
+nothing more than the handmaiden of Christianity. Spanish poetry is
+completely dominated by Catholicism; it is in reality only an expression
+of reverence for Christian institutions. An extreme naturally induces a
+counter-current; so here, by the side of rigid orthodoxy, we meet with
+latitudinarianism and secular delight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> in the good things of life. For
+instance, that jolly rogue, the archpriest of Hita, by way of relaxation
+from the tenseness of church discipline, takes to composing <i>dansas</i> and
+<i>baladas</i> for the rich Jewish bankers of his town. He and his
+contemporaries have much to say about Jewish generosity&mdash;unfortunately,
+much, too, about Jewish wealth and pomp. Jewish women, a Jewish
+chronicler relates, are tricked out with finery, as "sumptuously as the
+pope's mules." It goes without saying that, along with these accounts,
+we have frequent wailing about defection from the faith and neglect of
+the Law. Old Akiba is right: "History repeats itself!" ("<i>Es ist alles
+schon einmal da gewesen!</i>").</p>
+
+<p>Such were the times of Santob de Carrion. Our first information about
+him comes from the Marquis de Santillana, one of the early patrons and
+leaders of Spanish literature. He says, "In my grandfather's time there
+was a Jew, Rabbi Santob, who wrote many excellent things, among them
+<i>Proverbios Morales</i> (Moral Proverbs), truly commendable in spirit. A
+great troubadour, he ranks among the most celebrated poets of Spain."
+Despite this high praise, the marquis feels constrained to apologize for
+having quoted a passage from Santob's work. His praise is endorsed by
+the critics. It is commonly conceded that his <i>Consejos y Documentos al
+Rey Dom Pedro</i> ("Counsel and Instruction to King Dom Pedro"), consisting
+of six hundred and twenty-eight romances, deserves a place among the
+best creations of Castilian poetry, which, in form<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> and substance, owes
+not a little to Rabbi Santob. A valuable manuscript at the Escurial in
+Madrid contains his <i>Consejos</i> and two other works, <i>La Doctrina
+Christiana</i> and <i>Dansa General</i>. A careless copyist called the whole
+collection "Rabbi Santob's Book," so giving rise to the mistake of
+Spanish critics, who believe that Rabbi Santob, indisputably the author
+of <i>Consejos</i>, became a convert to Christianity, and wrote, after his
+conversion, the didactic poem on doctrinal Christianity, and perhaps
+also the first "Dance of Death."<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> It was reserved for the acuteness
+of German criticism to expose the error of this hypothesis. Of the three
+works, only <i>Consejos</i> belongs to Rabbi Santob, the others were
+accidentally bound with it. In passing, the interesting circumstance may
+be noted that in the first "Dance of Death" a bearded rabbi (<i>Rabbi
+barbudo</i>) dances toward the universal goal between a priest and an
+usurer. Santob de Carrion remained a Jew. His <i>consejos</i>, written when
+he was advanced in age, are pervaded by loyalty to his king, but no less
+to his faith, which he openly professed at the royal court, and whose
+spiritual treasures he adroitly turned to poetic uses.</p>
+
+<p>Santob, it is interesting to observe, was not a writer of erotic poetry.
+He composed poems on moral subjects only, social satires and
+denunciations of vice. Such are the <i>consejos</i>. It is in his capacity as
+a preacher of morality that Santob is to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span> classed among troubadours.
+First he addressed himself, with becoming deference, to the king,
+leading him to consider God's omnipotence:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"As great, 'twixt heav'n and earth the space&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That ether pure and blue&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So great is God's forgiving grace</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Your sins to lift from you.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And with His vast and wondrous might</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He does His deeds of power;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But yours are puny in His sight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">For strength is not man's dower."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>At that time it required more than ordinary courage to address a king in
+this fashion; but Santob was old and poor, and having nothing to lose,
+could risk losing everything. A democratic strain runs through his
+verses; he delights in aiming his satires at the rich, the high-born,
+and the powerful, and takes pride in his poverty and his fame as a poet:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"I will not have you think me less</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Than others of my faith,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who live on a generous king's largess,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Forsworn at every breath.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And if you deem my teachings true,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Reject them not with hate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Because a minstrel sings to you</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Who's not of knight's estate.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The fragrant, waving reed grows tall</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">From feeble root and thin,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And uncouth worms that lowly crawl</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Most lustrous silk do spin.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Because beside a thorn it grows</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The rose is not less fair;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though wine from gnarlèd branches flows,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Tis sweet beyond compare.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The goshawk, know, can soar on high,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Yet low he nests his brood.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A Jew true precepts doth apply,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Are they therefore less good?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Some Jews there are with slavish mind</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Who fear, are mute, and meek.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My soul to truth is so inclined</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That all I feel I speak.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">There often comes a meaning home</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Through simple verse and plain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">While in the heavy, bulky tome</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">We find of truth no grain.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Full oft a man with furrowed front,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Whom grief hath rendered grave,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whose views of life are honest, blunt,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Both fool is called and knave."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It is surely not unwarranted to assume that from these confessions the
+data of Santob's biography may be gathered.</p>
+
+<p>Now as to Santob's relation to Judaism. Doubtless he was a faithful Jew,
+for the views of life and the world laid down in his poems rest on the
+Bible, the Talmud, and the Midrash. With the fearlessness of conviction
+he meets the king and the people, denouncing the follies of both. Some
+of his romances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> sound precisely like stories from the Haggada, so
+skilfully does he clothe his counsel in the gnomic style of the Bible
+and the Talmud. This characteristic is particularly well shown in his
+verses on friendship, into which he has woven the phraseology of the
+Proverbs:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"What treasure greater than a friend</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Who close to us hath grown?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Blind fate no bitt'rer lot can send</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Than bid us walk alone.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For solitude doth cause a dearth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Of fruitful, blessed thought.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The wise would pray to leave this earth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">If none their friendship sought.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet sad though loneliness may be,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That friendship surely shun</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That feigns to love, and inwardly</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Betrays affections won."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The poem closes with a prayer for the king, who certainly could not have
+taken offense at Santob's frankness:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"May God preserve our lord and king</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With grace omnipotent,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Remove from us each evil thing,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And blessed peace augment.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The nations loyally allied</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Our empire to exalt,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">May God, in whom we all confide,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">From plague keep and assault.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If God will answer my request,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Then will be paid his due&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Your noble father's last behest&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To Santob, Carrion's Jew."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Our troubadour's poetry shows that he was devotedly attached to his
+prince, enthusiastically loved his country, and was unfalteringly loyal
+to his faith; that he told the king honest, wholesome truths disguised
+in verse; that he took no pains to conceal his scorn of those who, with
+base servility, bowed to the ruling faith, and permitted its yoke to be
+put upon their necks; that he felt himself the peer of the high in rank,
+and the wealthy in the goods of this world; that he censured, with
+incisive criticism, the vices of his Spanish and his Jewish
+contemporaries&mdash;all of which is calculated to inspire us with admiration
+for the Jewish troubadour, whose manliness enabled him to meet his
+detractors boldly, as in the verses quoted above:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Because beside a thorn it grows,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The rose is not less fair;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Though wine from gnarlèd branches flows,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Tis sweet beyond compare.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A Jew true precepts doth apply,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Are they therefore less good?"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>History does not tell us whether Pedro rewarded the Jewish troubadour as
+the latter, if we may judge by the end of his poem, had expected. Our
+accounts of his life are meagre; even his fellow-be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span>lievers do not make
+mention of him. We do know, however, that the poor poet's prayers for
+his sovereign, his petitions for the weal and the glory of his country
+were not granted. Pedro lost his life by violence, quarrels about the
+succession and civil wars convulsed the land, and weakened the royal
+power. Its decline marked the end of the peace and happiness of the Jew
+on Castilian soil.</p>
+
+<p>As times grew worse, and persecutions of the Jews in Christian Spain
+became frequent, many forsook the faith of their fathers, to bask in the
+sunshine of the Church, who treated proselytes with distinguished favor.
+The example of the first Jewish troubadour did not find imitators. Among
+the converts were many poets, notably Juan Alfonso de Bæna, who, in the
+fifteenth century, collected the oldest troubadour poetry, including his
+own poems and satires, and the writings of the Jewish physician Don
+Moses Zarzal, into a <i>cancionera general</i>. Like many apostates, he
+sought to prove his devotion to the new faith by mocking at and reviling
+his former brethren. The attacked were not slow to answer in kind, and
+the Christian world of poets and bards joined the latter in deriding the
+neophytes. Spanish literature was not the loser by these combats, whose
+description belongs to general literary criticism. Lyric poetry, until
+then dry, serious, and solemn, was infused by the satirist with flashing
+wit and whimsical spirit, and throwing off its connection with the
+drama, developed into an independent species of poetry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The last like the first of Spanish troubadours was a Jew,<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> Antonio di
+Montoro (Moro), <i>el ropero</i> (the tailor), of Cordova, of whom a
+contemporary says,</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"A man of repute and lofty fame;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">As poet, he puts many to shame;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Anton di Montoro is his name."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The tailor-poet was exposed to attacks, too. A high and mighty Spanish
+<i>caballero</i> addresses him as</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"You Cohn, you cur,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You miserable Jew,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You wicked usurer."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It must be admitted that he parries these thrusts with weak, apologetic
+appeals, preserved in his <i>Respuestas</i> (Rhymed Answers). He claims his
+high-born foe's sympathy by telling him that he has sons, grandchildren,
+a poor, old father, and a marriageable daughter. In extenuation of his
+cowardice it should be remembered that Antonio di Montoro lived during a
+reign of terror, under Ferdinand and Isabella, when his race and his
+faith were exposed to most frightful persecution. All the more
+noteworthy is it that he had the courage to address the queen in behalf
+of his faith. He laments plaintively that despite his sixty years he has
+not been able to eradicate all traces of his descent (<i>reato de su
+origen</i>), and turns his irony against himself:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Ropero, so sad and so forlorn,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now thou feelest pain and scorn.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Until sixty years had flown,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou couldst say to every one,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Nothing wicked have I known.'</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Christian convert hast thou turned,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Credo</i> thou to say hast learned;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Willing art now bold to view</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Plates of ham&mdash;no more askew.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mass thou hearest,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Church reverest,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Genuflexions makest,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Other alien customs takest.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now thou, too, mayst persecute</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Those poor wretches, like a brute."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>"Those poor wretches" were his brethren in faith in the fair Spanish
+land. With a jarring discord ends the history of the Jews in Spain. On
+the ninth of Ab, 1492, three hundred thousand Jews left the land to
+which they had given its first and its last troubadour. The irony of
+fate directed that at the selfsame time Christopher Columbus should
+embark for unknown lands, and eventually reach America, a new world, the
+refuge of all who suffer, wherein thought was destined to grow strong
+enough "to vanquish arrogance and injustice without recourse to
+arrogance and injustice"&mdash;a new illustration of the old verse: "Behold,
+he slumbereth not, and he sleepeth not&mdash;the keeper of Israel."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p>A great tournament at the court of the lords of Trimberg, the Franconian
+town on the Saale! From high battlements stream the pennons of the noble
+race, announcing rare festivities to all the country round. The
+mountain-side is astir with knights equipped with helmet, shield, and
+lance, and attended by pages and armor-bearers, minnesingers and
+minstrels. Yonder is Walther von der Vogelweide, engaged in earnest
+conversation with Wolfram von Eschenbach, Otto von Botenlaube, Hildebold
+von Schwanegau, and Reinmar von Brennenberg. In that group of notables,
+curiously enough, we discern a Jew, whose beautiful features reflect
+harmonious soul life.</p>
+
+<p>"Süsskind von Trimberg," they call him, and when the pleasure of the
+feast in the lordly hall of the castle is to be heightened by song and
+music, he too steps forth, with fearlessness and dignity, to sing of
+freedom of thought, to the prevalence of which in this company the
+despised Jew owed his admission to a circle of knights and poets:<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"O thought! free gift to humankind!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">By thee both fools and wise are led,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But who thy paths hath all defined,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A man he is in heart and head.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">With thee, his weakness being fled,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He can both stone and steel command,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy pinions bear him o'er the land.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O thought that swifter art than light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That mightier art than tempest's roar!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Didst thou not raise me in thy flight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">What were my song, my minstrel lore,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And what the gold from <i>Minne's</i> store?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beyond the heights an eagle vaunts,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O bear me to the spirit's haunts!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>His song meets with the approval of the knights, who give generous
+encouragement to the minstrel. Raising his eyes to the proud, beautiful
+mistress of the castle, he again strikes his lyre and sings:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Pure woman is to man a crown,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For her he strives to win renown.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Did she not grace and animate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">How mean and low the castle great!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By true companionship, the wife</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Makes blithe and free a man's whole life;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her light turns bright the darkest day.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her praise and worth I'll sing alway."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The lady inclines her fair head in token of thanks, and the lord of
+castle Trimberg fills the golden goblet, and hands it, the mark of
+honor, to the poet, who drains it, and then modestly steps back into the
+circle of his compeers. Now we have leisure to examine the rare man.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Rüdiger Manesse, a town councillor of Zürich in the fourteenth century,
+raised a beautiful monument to bardic art in a manuscript work, executed
+at his order, containing the songs of one hundred and forty poets,
+living between the twelfth and the fourteenth century. Among the authors
+are kings,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> princes, noblemen of high rank and low, burgher-poets, and
+the Jew Süsskind von Trimberg. Each poet's productions are accompanied
+by illustrations, not authentic portraits, but a series of vivid
+representations of scenes of knight-errantry. There are scenes of war
+and peace, of combats, the chase, and tourneys with games, songs, and
+dance. We see the storming of a castle of Love (<i>Minneburg</i>)&mdash;lovers
+fleeing, lovers separated, love triumphant. Heinrich von Veldeke
+reclines upon a bank of roses; Friedrich von Hausen is on board a boat;
+Walther von der Vogelweide sits musing on a wayside stone; Wolfram von
+Eschenbach stands armed, with visor closed, next to his caparisoned
+horse, as though about to mount. Among the portraits of the knights and
+bards is Süsskind von Trimberg's. How does Rüdiger Manesse represent
+him? As a long-bearded Jew, on his head a yellow, funnel-shaped hat, the
+badge of distinction decreed by Pope Innocent III. to be worn by Jews.
+That is all! and save what we may infer from his six poems preserved by
+the history of literature, pretty much all, too, known of Süsskind von
+Trimberg.</p>
+
+<p>Was it the heedlessness of the compiler that associated the Jew with
+this merry company, in which he was as much out of place as a Gothic
+spire on a synagogue? Süsskind came by the privilege fairly. Throughout
+the middle ages the Jews of Germany were permeated with the culture of
+their native land, and were keenly concerned in the development of its
+poetry. A still more important cir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span>cumstance is the spirit of tolerance
+and humanity that pervades Middle High German poetry. Wolfram von
+Eschenbach based his <i>Parzival</i>, the herald of "Nathan the Wise," on the
+idea of the brotherhood of man; Walther von der Vogelweide ranged
+Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans together as children of the one God;
+and Freidank, reflecting that God lets His sun shine on the confessors
+of all creeds, went so far as to repudiate the doctrine of the eternal
+damnation of Jews. This trend of thought, characterizing both Jews and
+Christians, suffices to explain how, in Germany, and at the very time in
+which the teachers of the Church were reviling "the mad Jews, who ought
+to be hewn down like dogs," it was possible for a Jew to be a
+minnesinger, a minstrel among minstrels, and abundantly accounts for
+Süsskind von Trimberg's association with knights and ladies. Süsskind,
+then, doubtless journeyed with his brother-poets from castle to castle;
+yet our imagination would be leading us astray, were we to accept
+literally the words of the enthusiastic historian Graetz, and with him
+believe that "on vine-clad hills, seated in the circle of noble knights
+and fair dames, a beaker of wine at his side, his lyre in his hand, he
+sang his polished verses of love's joys and trials, love's hopes and
+fears, and then awaited the largesses that bought his daily bread."<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p>
+
+<p>Süsskind's poems are not at all like the joyous, rollicking songs his
+mates carolled forth; they are sad and serious, tender and chaste. Of
+love there is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> not a word. A minnesinger and a Jew&mdash;irreconcilable
+opposites! A minnesinger must be a knight wooing his lady-love, whose
+colors he wears at the tournaments, and for whose sake he undertakes a
+pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Jew's minstrelsy is a lament for Zion.</p>
+
+<p>In fact what is <i>Minne</i>&mdash;this service of love? Is it not at bottom the
+cult of the Virgin Mary? Is it not, in a subtle, mysterious way, a phase
+of Christianity itself? How could it have appealed to the Jew Süsskind?
+True, the Jews, too, have an ideal of love in the "Song of Songs": "Lo,
+thou art beautiful, my beloved!" it says, but our old sages took the
+beloved to be the Synagogue. Of this love Princess Sabbath is the ideal,
+and the passion of the "Song of Songs" is separated from German <i>Minne</i>
+by the great gap between the soul life of the Semite and that of the
+Christian German. Unbridled sensuousness surges through the songs rising
+to the chambers of noble ladies. Kabbalistic passion glows in the
+mysterious love of the Jew. The German minstrel sings of love's
+sweetness and pain, of summer and its delights, of winter and its woes,
+now of joy and happiness, again of ill-starred fortunes. And what is the
+burden of the exiled Hebrew's song? Mysterious allusions, hidden in a
+tangle of highly polished, artificial, slow-moving rhymes, glorify, not
+a sweet womanly presence, but a fleeting vision, a shadow, whose elusive
+charms infatuated the poet in his dreams. Bright, joyous, blithe,
+unmeasured is the one; serious, gloomy, chaste, gentle, the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Yet, Süsskind von Trimberg was at once a Jew and a minnesinger. Who can
+fathom a poet's soul? Who can follow his thoughts as they fly hither and
+thither, like the thread in a weaver's shuttle, fashioning themselves
+into a golden web? The minnesingers enlisted in love's cause, yet none
+the less in war and the defense of truth, and for the last Süsskind von
+Trimberg did valiant service. The poems of his earliest period, the
+blithesome days of youth, have not survived. Those that we have bear the
+stamp of sorrow and trouble, the gifts of advanced years. With
+self-contemptuous bitterness, he bewails his sad lot:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"I seek and nothing find,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That makes me sigh and sigh.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lord Lackfood presses me,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of hunger sure I'll die;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My wife, my child go supperless,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My butler is Sir Meagreness."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Süsskind von Trimberg's poems also breathe the spirit of Hebrew
+literature, and have drawn material from the legend world of the
+Haggada. For the praise of his faithful wife he borrows the words of
+Solomon, and the psalm-like rhythm of his best songs recalls the
+familiar strains of our evening-prayer:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Almighty God! That shinest with the sun,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That slumb'rest not when day grows into night!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou Source of all, of tranquil peace and joy!</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou King of glory and majestic light!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou allgood Father! Golden rays of day</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And starry hosts thy praise to sing unite,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Creator of heav'n and earth, Eternal One,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That watchest ev'ry creature from Thy height!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Like Santob, Süsskind was poor; like him, he denounced the rich, was
+proud and generous. With intrepid candor, he taught knights the meaning
+of true nobility&mdash;of the nobility of soul transcending nobility of
+birth&mdash;and of freedom of thought&mdash;freedom fettered by neither stone, nor
+steel, nor iron; and in the midst of their rioting and feasting, he
+ventured to put before them the solemn thought of death. His last
+production as a minnesinger was a prescription for a "virtue-electuary."
+Then he went to dwell among his brethren, whom, indeed, he had not
+deserted in the pride of his youth:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Why should I wander sadly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">My harp within my hand,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O'er mountain, hill, and valley?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">What praise do I command?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Full well they know the singer</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Belongs to race accursed;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sweet <i>Minne</i> doth no longer</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Reward me as at first.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Be silent, then, my lyre,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">We sing 'fore lords in vain.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'll leave the minstrels' choir,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And roam a Jew again.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My staff and hat I'll grasp, then,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And on my breast full low,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By Jewish custom olden</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">My grizzled beard shall grow.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My days I'll pass in quiet,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Those left to me on earth&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor sing for those who not yet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Have learned a poet's worth."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Thus spake the Jewish poet, and dropped his lyre into the stream&mdash;in
+song and in life, a worthy son of his time, the disciple of Walther von
+der Vogelweide, the friend of Wolfram von Eschenbach&mdash;disciple and
+friend of the first to give utterance, in German song, to the idea of
+the brotherhood of man. Centuries ago, he found the longed-for quiet in
+Franconia, but no wreath lies on his grave, no stone marks the
+wanderer's resting-place. His poems have found an abiding home in the
+memory of posterity, and in the circle of the German minnesingers the
+Jew Süsskind forms a distinct link.</p>
+
+<p>In a time when the idea of universal human brotherhood seems to be
+fading from the hearts of men, when they manifest a proneness to forget
+the share which, despite hatred and persecution, the Jew of every
+generation has had in German literature, in its romances of chivalry and
+its national epics, and in all the spiritual achievements of German
+genius, we may with just pride revive Süsskind's memory.&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>On the wings of fancy let us return to our castle on the Saale. After
+the lapse of many years, the procession of poets again wends its way in
+the sunshine up the slope to the proud mansion of the Trimbergs. The
+venerable Walther von der Vogelweide again opens the festival of song.
+Wolfram<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> von Eschenbach, followed by a band of young disciples, musingly
+ascends the mountain-side. The ranks grow less serried, and in solitude
+and sadness, advances a man of noble form, his silvery beard flowing
+down upon his breast, a long cloak over his shoulder, and the peaked
+hat, the badge of the mediæval Jew, on his head. In his eye gleams a ray
+of the poet's grace, and his meditative glance looks into a distant
+future. Süsskind von Trimberg, to thee our greeting!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>HUMOR AND LOVE IN JEWISH POETRY</h3>
+
+
+<p>One of the most remarkable discoveries of the last ten years is that
+made in Paris by M. Ernest Renan. He maintains as the result of
+scientific research that the Semitic races, consequently also the Jews,
+are lacking in humor, in the capacity for laughter. The justice of the
+reproach might be denied outright, but a statement enunciated with so
+much scientific assurance involuntarily prompts questioning and
+investigation.</p>
+
+<p>In such cases the Jews invariably resort to their first text-book, the
+Bible, whose pages seem to sustain M. Renan. In the Bible laughing is
+mentioned only twice, when the angel promises a son to Sarah, and again
+in the history of Samson, judge in Israel, who used foxes' tails as
+weapons against the Philistines. These are the only passages in which
+the Bible departs from its serious tone.</p>
+
+<p>But classical antiquity was equally ignorant of humor as a distinct
+branch of art, as a peculiar attitude of the mind towards the problems
+of life. Aristophanes lived and could have written only in the days when
+Athenian institutions began to decay. It is personal discomfort and the
+trials and harassments of life that drive men to the ever serene, pure
+regions of humor for balm and healing. Fun and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> comedy men have at all
+times understood&mdash;the history of Samson contains the germs of a
+mock-heroic poem&mdash;while it was impossible for humor, genuine humor, to
+find appreciation in the youth of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>In those days of healthy reliance upon the senses, poetic spirits could
+obtain satisfaction only in love and in the praise of the good world and
+its Maker. The sombre line of division had not yet been introduced
+between the physical and the spiritual world, debasing this earth to a
+vale of tears, and consoling sinful man by the promise of a better land,
+whose manifold delights were described, but about which there was no
+precise knowledge, no traveller, as the Talmud aptly puts it, having
+ever returned to give us information about it. Those were the days of
+perfect harmony, when man crept close to nature to be taught untroubled
+joy in living. In such days, despite the storms assailing the young
+Israelitish nation, a poet, his heart filled with the sunshine of joy,
+his mind receptive, his eyes open wide to see the flowers unfold, the
+buds of the fig tree swell, the vine put forth leaves, and the
+pomegranate blossom unfurl its glowing petals, could carol forth the
+"Song of Songs," the most perfect, the most beautiful, the purest
+creation of Hebrew literature and the erotic poetry of all
+literatures&mdash;the song of songs of stormy passion, bidding defiance to
+ecclesiastical fetters, at once an epic and a drama, full of childlike
+tenderness and grace of feeling. Neither Greece, nor the rest of the
+Orient has produced anything to compare with its marvellous union of
+voluptuous sensu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span>ousness and immaculate chastity. Morality, indeed, is
+its very pulse-beat. It could be sung only in an age when love reigned
+supreme, and could presume to treat humor as a pretender. So lofty a
+song was bound to awaken echoes and stimulate imitation, and its music
+has flowed down through the centuries, weaving a thread of melody about
+the heart of many a poet.</p>
+
+<p>The centuries of Israelitish history close upon its composition,
+however, were favorable to neither the poetry of love nor that of humor.
+But the poetry of love must have continued to exercise puissant magic
+over hearts and minds, if its supreme poem not only was made part of the
+holy canon, but was considered by a teacher of the Talmud the most
+sacred treasure of the compilation.</p>
+
+<p>The blood of the Maccabean heroes victorious over Antiochus Epiphanes
+again fructified the old soil of Hebrew poetry, and charmed forth
+fragrant blossoms, the psalms designated as Maccabean by modern
+criticism. Written in troublous times, they contain a reference to the
+humor of the future: "When the Lord bringeth back again the captivity of
+Zion, then shall we be like dreamers, then shall our mouth be filled
+with laughter, and our tongue with singing."</p>
+
+<p>Many sad days were destined to pass over Israel before that future with
+its solacement of humor dawned. No poetic work could obtain recognition
+next to the Bible. The language of the prophets ceased to be the
+language of the people, and every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> mind was occupied with interpreting
+their words and applying them to the religious needs of the hour. The
+opposition between Jewish and Hellenic-Syrian views became more and more
+marked. Hellas and Judæa, the two great theories of life supporting the
+fabric of civilization, for the first time confronted each other. An
+ancient expounder of the Bible says that to Hellas God gave beauty in
+the beginning, to Judæa truth, as a sacred heritage. But beauty and
+truth have ever been inveterate foes; even now they are not reconciled.</p>
+
+<p>In Judæa and Greece, ancient civilization found equally perfect, yet
+totally different, expression. The Greek worships nature as she is; the
+Jew dwells upon the origin and development of created things, hence
+worships their Creator. The former in his speculations proceeds from the
+multiplicity of phenomena; the latter discerns the unity of the plan. To
+the former the universe was changeless actuality; to the latter it meant
+unending development. The world, complete and perfect, was mirrored in
+the Greek mind; its evolution, in the Jewish. Therefore the Jewish
+conception of life is harmonious, while among the Greeks grew up the
+spirit of doubt and speculation, the product of civilization, and the
+soil upon which humor disports.</p>
+
+<p>Israel's religion so completely satisfied every spiritual craving that
+no room was left for the growth of the poetic instinct. Intellectual
+life began to divide into two great streams. The Halacha continued the
+instruction of the prophets, as the Hag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span>gada fostered the spirit of the
+psalmists. The province of the former was to formulate the Law, of the
+latter to plant a garden about the bulwark of the Law. While the one
+addressed itself to reason, the other made an appeal to the heart and
+the feelings. In the Haggada, a thesaurus of the national poetry by the
+nameless poets of many centuries, we find epic poems and lyric
+outbursts, fables, enigmas, and dramatic essays, and here and there in
+this garden we chance across a little bud of humorous composition.</p>
+
+<p>Of what sort was this humor? In point of fact, what is humor? We must be
+able to answer the latter question before we may venture to classify the
+folklore of the Haggada.</p>
+
+<p>To reach the ideal, to bring harmony out of discord, is the recognized
+task of all art. This is the primary principle to be borne in mind in
+æsthetic criticism. Tragedy idealizes the world by annihilation,
+harmonizes all contradictions by dashing them in pieces against each
+other, and points the way of escape from chaos, across the bridge of
+death, to the realm beyond, irradiated by the perpetual morning-dawn of
+freedom and intellect.</p>
+
+<p>Comedy, on the other hand, believes that the incongruities and
+imperfections of life can be justified, and have their uses. Firmly
+convinced of the might of truth, it holds that the folly and aberrations
+of men, their shortcomings and failings, cannot impede its eventual
+victory. Even in them it sees traces of an eternal, divine principle.
+While tragedy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> precipitates the conflict of hostile forces, comedy,
+rising serene above folly and all indications of transitoriness,
+reconciles inconsistencies, and lovingly coaxes them into harmony with
+the true and the absolute.</p>
+
+<p>When man's spirit is thus made to re-enter upon the enjoyment of eternal
+truth, its heritage, there is, as some one has well said, triumph akin
+to the joy of the father over the home-coming of a lost son, and the
+divine, refreshing laughter by which it is greeted is like the meal
+prepared for the returning favorite. Is Israel to have no seat at the
+table? Israel, the first to recognize that the eternal truths of life
+are innate in man, the first to teach, as his chief message, how to
+reconcile man with himself and the world, whenever these truths suffer
+temporary obscuration? So viewed, humor is the offspring of love, and
+also mankind's redeemer, inasmuch as it paralyzes the influence of anger
+and hatred, emanations from the powers of change and finality, by laying
+bare the eternal principles and "sweet reasonableness" hidden even in
+them, and finally stripping them of every adjunct incompatible with the
+serenity of absolute truth. In whatever mind humor, that is, love and
+cheerfulness, reigns supreme, the inconsistencies and imperfections of
+life, all that bears the impress of mutability, will gently and
+gradually be fused into the harmonious perfection of absolute, eternal
+truth. Mists sometimes gather about the sun, but unable to extinguish
+his light, they are forced to serve as his mirror, on which he throws<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span>
+the witching charms of the Fata Morgana. So, when the eternal truths of
+life are veiled, opportunity is made for humor to play upon and
+irradiate them. In precise language, humor is a state of perfect
+self-certainty, in which the mind serenely rises superior to every petty
+disturbance.</p>
+
+<p>This placidity shed its soft light into the modest academies of the
+rabbis. Wherever a ray fell, a blossom of Haggadic folklore sprang up.
+Every occurrence in life recommends itself to their loving scrutiny:
+pleasures and follies of men, curse turned into blessing, the ordinary
+course of human events, curiosities of Israel's history and mankind's.
+As instances of their method, take what Midrashic folklore has to say
+concerning the creation of the two things of perennial interest to
+poets: wife and wine.</p>
+
+<p>When the Lord God created woman, he formed her not from the head of man,
+lest she be too proud; not from his eye, lest she be too coquettish; not
+from his ear, lest she be too curious; not from his mouth, lest she be
+too talkative; not from his heart, lest she be too sentimental; not from
+his hands, lest she be too officious; nor from his feet, lest she be an
+idle gadabout; but from a subordinate part of man's anatomy, to teach
+her: "Woman, be thou modest!"</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the vine, the Haggada tells us that when Father Noah was
+about to plant the first one, Satan stepped up to him, leading a lamb, a
+lion, a pig, and an ape, to teach him that so long as man does not drink
+wine, he is innocent as a lamb;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> if he drinks temperately, he is as
+strong as a lion; if he indulges too freely, he sinks to the level of
+swine; and as for the ape, his place in the poetry of wine is as well
+known to us as to the rabbis of old.</p>
+
+<p>With the approach of the great catastrophe destined to annihilate
+Israel's national existence, humor and spontaneity vanish, to be
+superseded by seriousness, melancholy, and bitter plaints, and the
+centuries of despondency and brooding that followed it were not better
+calculated to encourage the expression of love and humor. The pall was
+not lifted until the Haggada performed its mission as a comforter. Under
+its gentle ministrations, and urged into vitality by the religious needs
+of the synagogue, the poetic instinct awoke. <i>Piut</i> and <i>Selicha</i>
+replaced prophecy and psalmody as religious agents, and thenceforth the
+springs of consolation were never permitted to run dry. Driven from the
+shores of the Jordan and the Euphrates, Hebrew poetry found a new home
+on the Tagus and the Manzanares, where the Jews were blessed with a
+second golden age. In the interval from the eleventh to the thirteenth
+century, under genial Arabic influences, Andalusian masters of song
+built up an ideal world of poetry, wherein love and humor were granted
+untrammelled liberty.</p>
+
+<p>To the Spanish-Jewish writers poetry was an end in itself. Along with
+religious songs, perfect in rhythm and form, they produced lyrics on
+secular subjects, whose grace, beauty, harmony, and wealth of thought
+rank them with the finest creations of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> age. The spirit of the
+prophets and psalmists revived in these Spanish poets. At their head
+stands Solomon ibn Gabirol, the Faust of Saragossa, whose poems are the
+first tinged with <i>Weltschmerz</i>, that peculiar ferment characteristic of
+a modern school of poets.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> Our accounts of Gabirol's life are meagre,
+but they leave the clear impression that he was not a favorite of
+fortune, and passed a bleak childhood and youth. His poems are pervaded
+by vain longing for the ideal, by lamentations over deceived hopes and
+unfulfilled aspirations, by painful realization of the imperfection and
+perishability of all earthly things, and the insignificance and
+transitoriness of life, in a word, by <i>Weltschmerz</i>, in its purest,
+ideal form, not merely self-deception and irony turned against one's own
+soul life, but a profoundly solemn emotion, springing from sublime pity
+for the misery of the world read by the light of personal trials and
+sorrows. He sang not of a mistress' blue eyes, nor sighed forth
+melancholy love-notes&mdash;the object of his heart's desire was Zion, his
+muse the fair "rose of Sharon," and his anguish was for the suffering of
+his scattered people. Strong, wild words fitly express his tempestuous
+feelings. He is a proud, solitary thinker. Often his <i>Weltschmerz</i>
+wrests scornful criticism of his surroundings from him. On the other
+hand, he does not lack mild, conciliatory humor, of which his famous
+drinking-song is a good illustration. His miserly host had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> put a single
+bottle of wine upon a table surrounded by many guests, who had to have
+recourse to water to quench their thirst. Wine he calls a
+septuagenarian, the letters of the Hebrew word for wine (<i>yayin</i>)
+representing seventy, and water a nonagenarian, because <i>mayim</i> (water)
+represents ninety:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 9em;">WATER SONG</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: .25em;">Chorus:&mdash;Of wine, alas! there's not a drop,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Our host has filled our goblets to the top</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">With water.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">When monarch wine lies prone,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">By water overthrown,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">How can a merry song be sung?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">For naught there is to wet our tongue</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">But water.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>:&mdash;Of wine, alas! etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">No sweetmeats can delight</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">My dainty appetite,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">For I, alas! must learn to drink,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">However I may writhe and shrink,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Pure water.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>:&mdash;Of wine, alas! etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Give Moses praise, for he</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Made waterless a sea&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Mine host to quench my thirst&mdash;the churl!&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Makes streams of clearest water purl,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Of water.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>:&mdash;Of wine, alas! etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">To toads I feel allied,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">To frogs by kinship tied;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">For water drinking is no joke,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Ere long you all will hear me croak</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">Quack water!</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span><span style="margin-left: 5.5em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>:&mdash;Of wine, alas! etc.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">May God our host requite;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">May he turn Nazirite,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Ne'er know intoxication's thrill,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Nor e'er succeed his thirst to still</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8.5em;">With water!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span>:&mdash;Of wine, alas! etc."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Gabirol was a bold thinker, a great poet wrestling with the deepest
+problems of human thought, and towering far above his contemporaries and
+immediate successors. In his time synagogue poetry reached the zenith of
+perfection, and even in the solemn admonitions of ritualistic
+literature, humor now and again asserted itself. One of Gabirol's
+contemporaries or successors, Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat, for
+instance, often made his whole poem turn upon a witticism.</p>
+
+<p>Among the writers of that age, a peculiar style called "mosaic"
+gradually grew up, and eventually became characteristic of neo-Hebraic
+poetry and humor. For their subjects and the presentation of their
+thoughts, they habitually made use of biblical phraseology, either as
+direct quotations or with an application not intended by the original
+context. In the latter case, well-known sentences were invested with new
+meanings, and this poetic-biblical phraseology afforded countless
+opportunities for the exercise of humor, of which neo-Hebraic poetry
+availed itself freely. The "mosaics" were collected not only from the
+Bible; the Targum, the Mishna, and the Talmud were rifled of sententious
+expressions, woven together, and with the license of art<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span> placed in
+unexpected juxtaposition. An example will make clear the method. In
+Genesis xviii. 29, God answers Abraham's petition in behalf of Sodom
+with the words: "I will not do it for the sake of forty," meaning, as
+everybody knows, that forty men would suffice to save the city from
+destruction. This passage Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat audaciously
+connects with Deuteronomy xxv. 3, where forty is also mentioned, the
+forty stripes for misdemeanors of various kinds:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"If you see men the path of right forsake,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To bring them back you must an effort make.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Perhaps, if they but hear of stripes, they'll quake,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And say, 'I'll do it not for forty's sake.'"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This "mosaic" style, suggesting startling contrasts and surprising
+applications of Bible thoughts and words, became a fruitful source of
+Jewish humor. If a theory of literary descent could be established, an
+illustration might be found in Heine's rapid transitions from tender
+sentiment to corroding wit, a modern development of the flashing humor
+of the "mosaic" style.</p>
+
+<p>The "Song of Songs" naturally became a treasure-house of "mosaic"
+suggestions for the purposes of neo-Hebraic love poetry, which was
+dominated, however, by Arab influences. The first poet to introduce the
+sorrow of unhappy love into neo-Hebraic poetry was Moses ibn Ezra. He
+was in love with his niece, who probably became the wife of one of his
+brothers, and died early on giving birth to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> son. His affection at
+first was requited, but his brothers opposed the union, and the poet
+left Spain, embittered and out of sorts with fate, to find peace and
+consolation in distant lands. Many of his poems are deeply tinged with
+gloom and pessimism, and the natural inference is that those in which he
+praises nature, and wine, and "bacchanalian feasts under leafy canopies
+with merry minstrelsy of birds" belong to the period of his life
+preceding its unfortunate turning-point, when love still smiled upon
+him, and hope was strong.</p>
+
+<p>Some of his poems may serve as typical specimens of the love-poetry of
+those days:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"With hopeless love my heart is sick,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Confession bursts my lips' restraint</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That thou, my love, dost cast me off,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Hath touched me with a death-like taint.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I view the land both near and far,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To me it seems a prison vast.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Throughout its breadth, where'er I look,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">My eyes are met by doors locked fast.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And though the world stood open wide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Though angel hosts filled ev'ry space,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To me 'twere destitute of charm</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Didst thou withdraw thy face."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Here is another:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Perchance in days to come,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">When men and all things change,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">They'll marvel at my love,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">And call it passing strange.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Without I seem most calm,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">But fires rage within&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Gainst me, as none before,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou didst a grievous sin.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What! tell the world my woe!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That were exceeding vain.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With mocking smile they'd say,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'You know, he is not sane!'"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>When his lady-love died, he composed the following elegy:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"In pain she bore the son who her embrace</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Would never know. Relentless death spread straight</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">His nets for her, and she, scarce animate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Unto her husband signed: I ask this grace,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My friend, let not harsh death our love efface;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To our babes, its pledges, dedicate</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thy faithful care; for vainly they await</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A mother's smile each childish fear to chase.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And to my uncle, prithee, write. Deep pain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I brought his heart. Consumed by love's regret</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He roved, a stranger in his home. I fain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Would have him shed a tear, nor love forget.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He seeketh consolation's cup, but first</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">His soul with bitterness must quench its thirst."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Moses ibn Ezra's cup of consolation on not a few occasions seems to have
+been filled to overflowing with wine. In no other way can the joyousness
+of his drinking-songs be accounted for. The following are
+characteristic:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Wine cooleth man in summer's heat,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And warmeth him in winter's sleet.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My buckler 'tis 'gainst chilling frost,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">My shield when rays of sun exhaust."</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"If men will probe their inmost heart,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">They must condemn their crafty art:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For silver pieces they make bold</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To ask a drink of liquid gold."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>To his mistress, naturally, many a stanza of witty praise and coaxing
+imagery was devoted:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My love is like a myrtle tree,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">When at the dance her hair falls down.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her eyes deal death most pitiless,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Yet who would dare on her to frown?"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Said I to sweetheart: 'Why dost thou resent</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The homage to thy grace by old men paid?'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">She answered me with question pertinent:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">'Dost thou prefer a widow to a maid?'"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>To his love-poems and drinking-songs must be added his poems of
+friendship, on true friends, life's crowning gift, and false friends,
+basest of creatures. He has justly been described as the most subjective
+of neo-Hebraic poets. His blithe delight in love, exhaling from his
+poems, transfigured his ready humor, which instinctively pierced to the
+ludicrous element in every object and occurrence: age dyeing its hair,
+traitorous friendship, the pride of wealth, or separation of lovers.</p>
+
+<p>Yet in the history of synagogue literature this poet goes by the name
+<i>Ha-Sallach</i>, "penitential poet," on account of his many religious
+songs, bewailing in elegiac measure the hollowness of life, and the
+vanity of earthly possessions, and in ardent words advocating humility,
+repentance, and a con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span>trite heart. The peculiarity of Jewish humor is
+that it returns to its tragic source.</p>
+
+<p>No mediæval poet so markedly illustrates this characteristic as the
+prince of neo-Hebraic poetry, Yehuda Halevi, in whose poems the
+principle of Jewish national poesy attained its completest expression.
+They are the idealized reflex of the soul of the Jewish people, its
+poetic emotions, its "making for righteousness," its patriotic love of
+race, its capacity for martyrdom. Whatever true and beautiful element
+had developed in Jewish soul life, since the day when Judah's song first
+rang out in Zion's accents on Spanish soil, greets us in its noblest
+garb in his poetry. A modern poet<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> says of him:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Ay, he was a master singer,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Brilliant pole star of his age,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Light and beacon to his people!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wondrous mighty was his singing&mdash;</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Verily a fiery pillar</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Moving on 'fore Israel's legions,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Restless caravan of sorrow,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Through the exile's desert plain."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>In his early youth the muse of poetry had imprinted a kiss upon Halevi's
+brow, and the gracious echo of that kiss trembles through all the poet's
+numbers. Love, too, seems early to have taken up an abode in his
+susceptible heart, but, as expressed in the poems of his youth, it is
+not sensuous, earthly love, nor Gabirol's despondency and unselfish
+grief,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> nor even the sentiment of Moses ibn Ezra's artistically
+conceived and technically perfect love-plaint. It is tender, yet
+passionate, frankly extolling the happiness of requited love, and as
+naively miserable over separation from his mistress, whom he calls Ophra
+(fawn). One of his sweetest songs he puts upon her lips:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Into my eyes he loving looked,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">My arms about his neck were twined,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And in the mirror of my eyes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">What but his image did he find?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Upon my dark-hued eyes he pressed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">His lips with breath of passion rare.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The rogue! 'Twas not my eyes he kissed;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">He kissed his picture mirrored there."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Ophra's "Song of Joy" reminds one of the passion of the "Song of Songs":</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"He cometh, O bliss!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fly swiftly, ye winds,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ye odorous breezes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And tell him how long</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I've waited for this!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O happy that night,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When sunk on thy breast,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy kisses fast falling,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And drunken with love,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My troth I did plight.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Again my sweet friend</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Embraceth me close.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yes, heaven doth bless us,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And now thou hast won</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My love without end."</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His mistress' charms he describes with attractive grace:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My sweetheart's dainty lips are red,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With ruby's crimson overspread;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her teeth are like a string of pearls;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Adown her neck her clust'ring curls</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In ebon hue vie with the night;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And o'er her features dances light.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The twinkling stars enthroned above</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Are sisters to my dearest love.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">We men should count it joy complete</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To lay our service at her feet.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But ah! what rapture in her kiss!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A forecast 'tis of heav'nly bliss!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>When the hour of parting from Ophra came, the young poet sang:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"And so we twain must part! Oh linger yet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Let me still feed my glance upon thine eyes.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forget not, love, the days of our delight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And I our nights of bliss shall ever prize.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In dreams thy shadowy image I shall see,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh even in my dream be kind to me!"<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Yehuda Halevi sang not only of love, but also, in true Oriental fashion,
+and under the influence of his Arabic models, of wine and friendship. On
+the other hand, he is entirely original in his epithalamiums, charming
+descriptions of the felicity of young conjugal life and the sweet
+blessings of pure love. They are pervaded by the intensity of joy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> and
+full of roguish allusions to the young wife's shamefacedness, arousing
+the jest and merriment of her guests, and her delicate shrinking in the
+presence of longed-for happiness. Characteristically enough his
+admonitions to feed the fire of love are always followed by a sigh for
+his people's woes:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"You twain will soon be one,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And all your longing filled.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ah me! will Israel's hope</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">For freedom e'er be stilled?"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It is altogether probable that these blithesome songs belong to the
+poet's early life. To a friend who remonstrates with him for his love of
+wine he replies:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My years scarce number twenty-one&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wouldst have me now the wine-cup shun?"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="non">which would seem to indicate that love and wine were the pursuits of his
+youth. One of his prettiest drinking songs is the following:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My bowl yields exultation&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I soar aloft on song-tipped wing,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Each draught is inspiration,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">My lips sip wine, my mouth must sing.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dear friends are full of horror,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Predict a toper's end for me.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">They ask: 'How long, O sorrow,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Wilt thou remain wine's devotee?'</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Why should I not sing praise of drinking?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">The joys of Eden it makes mine.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If age will bring no cowardly shrinking,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Full many a year will I drink wine."</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But little is known of the events of the poet's career. History's
+niggardliness, however, has been compensated for by the prodigality of
+legend, which has woven many a fanciful tale about his life. Of one fact
+we are certain: when he had passed his fiftieth year, Yehuda Halevi left
+his native town, his home, his family, his friends, and disciples, to
+make a pilgrimage to Palestine, the land wherein his heart had always
+dwelt. His itinerary can be traced in his songs. They lead us to Egypt,
+to Zoan, to Damascus. In Tyre silence suddenly falls upon the singer.
+Did he attain the goal he had set out to reach? Did his eye behold the
+land of his fathers? Or did death overtake the pilgrim singer before his
+journey's end? Legend which has beautified his life has transfigured his
+death. It is said, that struck by a Saracen's horse Yehuda Halevi sank
+down before the very gates of Jerusalem. With its towers and battlements
+in sight, and his inspired "Lay of Zion" on his lips, his pure soul
+winged its flight heavenward.</p>
+
+<p>With the death of Yehuda Halevi, the golden age of neo-Hebraic poetry in
+Spain came to an end, and the period of the epigones was inaugurated. A
+note of hesitancy is discernible in their productions, and they
+acknowledge the superiority of their predecessors in the epithet
+"fathers of song" applied to them. The most noted of the later writers
+was Yehuda ben Solomon Charisi. Fortune marked him out to be the critic
+of the great poetic creations of the brilliant epoch just closed, and
+his fame rests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> upon the skill with which he acquitted himself of his
+difficult task. As for his poetry, it lacks the depth, the glow, the
+virility, and inspiration of the works of the classical period. He was a
+restless wanderer, a poet tramp, roving in the Orient, in Africa, and in
+Europe. His most important work is his divan <i>Tachkemoni</i>, testifying to
+his powers as a humorist, and especially to his mastery of the Hebrew
+language, which he uses with dexterity never excelled. The divan touches
+upon every possible subject: God and nature, human life and suffering,
+the relations between men, his personal experiences, and his adventures
+in foreign parts. The first Makamat<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> writer among Jews, he furnished
+the model for all poems of the kind that followed; their first genuine
+humorist, he flashes forth his wit like a stream of light suddenly
+turned on in the dark. That he measured the worth of his productions by
+the generous meed of praise given by his contemporaries is a venial
+offense in the time of the troubadours and minnesingers. Charisi was
+particularly happy in his use of the "mosaic" style, and his short poems
+and epigrams are most charming. Deep melancholy is a foil to his humor,
+but as often his writings are disfigured by levity. The following may
+serve as samples of his versatile muse. The first is addressed to his
+grey hair:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Those ravens black that rested</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Erstwhile upon my head,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Within my heart have nested,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Since from my hair they fled."</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The second is inscribed to love's tears:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Within my heart I held concealed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">My love so tender and so true;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But overflowing tears revealed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">What I would fain have hid from view.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My heart could evermore repress</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The woe that tell-tale tears confess."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Charisi is at his best when he gives the rein to his humor. Sparks fly;
+he stops at no caustic witticism, recoils from no satire; he is malice
+itself, and puts no restraint upon his levity. The "Flea Song" is a
+typical illustration of his impish mood:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"You ruthless flea, who desecrate my couch,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And draw my blood to sate your appetite,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You know not rest, on Sabbath day or feast&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Your feast it is when you can pinch and bite.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My friends expound the law: to kill a flea</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Upon the Sabbath day a sin they call;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But I prefer that other law which says,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Be sure a murd'rer's malice to forestall."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>That Charisi was a boon companion is evident from the following drinking
+song:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Here under leafy bowers,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Where coolest shades descend,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Crowned with a wreath of flowers,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Here will we drink, my friend.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who drinks of wine, he learns</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That noble spirits' strength</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But steady increase earns,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">As years stretch out in length.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A thousand earthly years</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Are hours in God's sight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A year in heav'n appears</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A minute in its flight.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I would this lot were mine:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">To live by heav'nly count,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And drink and drink old wine</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">At youth's eternal fount."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Charisi and his Arabic models found many imitators among Spanish Jews.
+Solomon ibn Sakbel wrote Hebrew Makamat which may be regarded as an
+attempt at a satire in the form of a romance. The hero, Asher ben
+Yehuda, a veritable Don Juan, passes through most remarkable
+adventures.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> The introductory Makama, describing life with his
+mistress in the solitude of a forest, is delicious. Tired of his
+monotonous life, he joins a company of convivial fellows, who pass their
+time in carousal. While with them, he receives an enigmatic love letter
+signed by an unknown woman, and he sets out to find her. On his
+wanderings, oppressed by love's doubts, he chances into a harem, and is
+threatened with death by its master. It turns out that the pasha is a
+beautiful woman, the slave of his mysterious lady-love, and she promises
+him speedy fulfilment of his wishes. Finally, close to the attainment of
+his end, he discovers that his beauty is a myth, the whole a practical
+joke perpetrated by his merry companions. So Asher ben Yehuda in quest
+of his mistress is led from adventure to adventure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Internal evidence testifies against the genuineness of this romance, but
+at the same time with it appeared two other mock-heroic poems, "The Book
+of Diversions" (<i>Sefer Sha'ashuim</i>) by Joseph ibn Sabara, and "The Gift
+of Judah the Misogynist" (<i>Minchatk Yehuda Soneh ha-Nashim</i>) by Judah
+ibn Sabbataï, a Cordova physician, whose poems Charisi praised as the
+"fount of poesy." The plot of his "Gift," a satire on women, is as
+follows:<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> His dying father exacts from Serach, the hero of the
+romance, a promise never to marry, women in his sight being the cause of
+all the evil in the world. Curious as the behest is, it is still more
+curious that Serach uncomplainingly complies, and most curious of all,
+that he finds three companions willing to retire with him to a distant
+island, whence their propaganda for celibacy is to proceed. Scarcely has
+the news of their arrival spread, when a mass meeting of women is
+called, and a coalition formed against the misogynists. Korbi, an old
+hag, engages to make Serach faithless to his principles. He soon has a
+falling out with his fellow-celibates, and succumbs to the fascinations
+of a fair young temptress. After the wedding he discovers that his
+enemies, the women, have substituted for his beautiful bride, a hideous
+old woman, Blackcoal, the daughter of Owl. She at once assumes the reins
+of government most energetically, and answers her husband's groan of
+despair by the following curtain lecture:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Up! up! the time for sleep is past!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And no resistance will I brook!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Away with thee, and look to it</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That thou bringst me what I ask:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gowns of costly stuff,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Earrings, chains, and veils;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A house with many windows;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mortars, lounges, sieves,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Baskets, kettles, pots,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Glasses, settles, brooms,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beakers, closets, flasks,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shovels, basins, bowls,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Spindle, distaff, blankets,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Buckets, ewers, barrels,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Skillets, forks, and knives;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Vinaigrettes and mirrors;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Kerchiefs, turbans, reticules,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Crescents, amulets,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rings and jewelled clasps;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Girdles, buckles, bodices,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Kirtles, caps, and waists;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Garments finely spun,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rare byssus from the East.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">This and more shalt thou procure,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">No matter at what cost and sacrifice.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou art affrighted? Thou weepest?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My dear, spare all this agitation;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou'lt suffer more than this.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The first year shall pass in strife,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The second will see thee a beggar.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A prince erstwhile, thou shalt become a slave;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Instead of a crown, thou shalt wear a wreath of straw."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Serach in abject despair turns for comfort to his three friends, and it
+is decided to bring suit for divorce in a general assembly. The women
+appear at the meeting, and demand that the despiser<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> of their sex be
+forced to keep his ugly wife. One of the trio of friends proposes that
+the matter be brought before the king. The poet appends no moral to his
+tale; he leaves it to his readers to say: "And such must be the fate of
+all woman-haters!"</p>
+
+<p>Judah Sabbataï was evidently far from being a woman-hater himself, but
+some of his contemporaries failed to understand the point of his
+witticisms and ridiculous situations. Yedaya Penini, another poet,
+looked upon it as a serious production, and in his allegory, "Woman's
+Friend," destitute of poetic inspiration, but brilliant in dialectics,
+undertook the defense of the fair sex against the misanthropic
+aspersions of the woman-hater.</p>
+
+<p>Such works are evidence that we have reached the age of the troubadours
+and minnesingers, the epoch of the Renaissance, when, under the blue sky
+of Italy, and the fostering care of the trio of master-poets, Dante,
+Petrarch, and Boccaccio, the first germs of popular poetry were
+unfolding. The Italian Jews were carried along by the all-pervading
+spirit of the times, and had a share in the vigorous mental activity
+about them. Suggestions derived from the work of the Renaissance leaders
+fell like electric sparks into Jewish literature and science, lighting
+them up, and bringing them into rapport with the products of the
+humanistic movement. Provence, the land of song, gave birth to Kalonymos
+ben Kalonymos, later a resident of Italy, whose work, "Touchstone"
+(<i>Eben Bochan</i>) is the first true satire in neo-Hebraic poetry. It is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span>
+mirror of morals held up before his people, for high and low, rabbis and
+leaders, poets and scholars, rich and poor, to see their foibles and
+follies. The satire expresses a humorous, but lofty conception of life,
+based upon profound morality and sincere faith. It fulfils every
+requirement of a satire, steering clear of the pitfall caricature, and
+not obtruding the didactic element. The lesson to be conveyed is
+involved in, not stated apart from the satire, an emanation from the
+poet's disposition. His aim is not to ridicule, but to improve,
+instruct, influence. One of the most amusing chapters is that on woman's
+superior advantages, which make him bewail his having been born a
+man:<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Truly, God's hand lies heavy on him</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who has been created a man:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Full many a trial he must patiently bear,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And scorn and contumely of every kind.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">His life is like a field laid waste&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fortunate he is if it lasts not too long!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Were I, for instance, a woman,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">How smooth and pleasant were my course.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A circle of intimate friends</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Would call me gentle, graceful, modest.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Comfortably I'd sit with them and sew,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With one or two mayhap at the spinning wheel.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On moonlight nights</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gathered for cozy confidences,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">About the hearthfire, or in the dark,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">We'd tell each other what the people say,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">The gossip of the town, the scandals,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Discuss the fashions and the last election.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I surely would rise above the average&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I would be an artist needlewoman,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Broidering on silk and velvet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The flowers of the field,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And other patterns, copied from models,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So rich in color as to make them seem nature&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Petals, trees, blossoms, plants, and pots,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And castles, pillars, temples, angel heads,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And whatever else can be imitated with needle by her</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who guides it with art and skill.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sometimes, too, though 'tis not so attractive,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I should consent to play the cook&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">No less important task of woman 'tis</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To watch the kitchen most carefully.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I should not be ruffled</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By dust and ashes on the hearth, by soot on stoves and pots;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor would I hesitate to swing the axe</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And chop the firewood,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And not to feed and rake the fire up,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Despite the ashy dust that fills the nostrils.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My particular delight it would be</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To taste of all the dishes served.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And if some merry, joyous festival approached,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then would I display my taste.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I would choose most brilliant gems for ear and hand,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For neck and breast, for hair and gown,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Most precious stuffs of silk and velvet,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whatever in clothes and jewels would increase my charms.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And on the festal day, I would loud rejoice,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sing, and sway myself, and dance with vim.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When I reached a maiden's prime,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With all my charms at their height,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What happiness, were heaven to favor me,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Permit me to draw a prize in life's lottery,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A youth of handsome mien, brave and true,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">With heart filled with love for me.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If he declared his passion,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I would return his love with all my might.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Then as his wife, I would live a princess,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Reclining on the softest pillows,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My beauty heightened by velvet, silk, and tulle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By pearls and golden ornaments,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Which he with lavish love would bring to me,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To add to his delight and mine."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>After enumerating additional advantages enjoyed by the gentler sex, the
+poet comes to the conclusion that protesting against fate is vain, and
+closes his chapter thus:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Well, then, I'll resign myself to fate,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And seek consolation in the thought that life comes to an end.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Our sages tell us everywhere</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That for all things we must praise God,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With loud rejoicing for all good,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In submission for evil fortune.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So I will force my lips,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">However they may resist, to say the olden blessing:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My Lord and God accept my thanks</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That thou has made of me a man."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>One of Kalonymos's friends was Immanuel ben Solomon of Rome, called the
+"Heine of the middle ages," and sometimes the "Jewish Voltaire." Neither
+comparison is apt. On the one hand, they give him too high a place as a
+writer, on the other, they do not adequately indicate his characteristic
+qualities. His most important work, the <i>Mechabberoth</i>, is a collection
+of disjointed pieces, full of bold witticisms, poetic thoughts, and
+linguis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span>tic charms. It is composed of poems, Makamat, parodies, novels,
+epigrams, distichs, and sonnets&mdash;all essentially humorous. The poet
+presents things as they are, leaving it to reality to create ridiculous
+situations. He is witty rather than humorous. Rarely only a spark of
+kindliness or the glow of poetry transfigures his wit. He is uniformly
+objective, scintillating, cold, often frivolous, and not always chaste.
+To produce a comic effect, to make his readers laugh is his sole desire.
+Friend and admirer of Dante, he attained to a high degree of skill in
+the sonnet. In neo-Hebraic poetry, his works mark the beginning of a new
+epoch. Indelicate witticisms and levity, until then sporadic in Jewish
+literature, were by him introduced as a regular feature. The poetry of
+the earlier writers had dwelt upon the power of love, their muse was
+modest and chaste, a "rose of Sharon," a "lily of the valleys."
+Immanuel's was of coarser fibre; his witty sallies remind one of Italian
+rather than Hebrew models. A recent critic of Hebrew poetry speaks of
+his Makamat as a pendant to "Tristan and Isolde,"&mdash;in both sensuality
+triumphs over spirituality. He is at his best in his sonnets, and of
+these the finest are in poetic prose. Female beauty is an unfailing
+source of inspiration to him, but of trust in womankind he has none:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"No woman ever faithful hold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Unless she ugly be and old."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="non">The full measure of mockery he poured out upon a deceived husband, and
+the most cutting sarcasm at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> his command against an enemy is a
+comparison to crabbed, ugly women:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"I loathe him with the hot and honest hate</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That fills a rake 'gainst maids he can not bait,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With which an ugly hag her glass reviles,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And prostitutes the youths who 'scape their wiles."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>His devotion to woman's beauty is altogether in the spirit of his
+Italian contemporaries. One of his most pleasing sonnets is dedicated to
+his lady-love's eyes:<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My sweet gazelle! From thy bewitching eyes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A glance thrills all my soul with wild delight.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Unfathomed depths beam forth a world so bright&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With rays of sun its sparkling splendor vies&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">One look within a mortal deifies.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thy lips, the gates wherethrough dawn wings its flight,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Adorn a face suffused with rosy light,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whose radiance puts to shame the vaulted skies.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Two brilliant stars are they from heaven sent&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Their charm I cannot otherwise explain&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By God but for a little instant lent,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Who gracious doth their lustrous glory deign,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To teach those on pursuit of beauty bent,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Beside those eyes all other beauty's vain."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Immanuel's most congenial work, however, is as a satirist. One of his
+best known poems is a chain of distichs, drawing a comparison between
+two maidens, Tamar the beautiful, and Beria the homely:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Tamar raises her eyelids, and stars appear in the sky;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her glance drops to earth, and flowers clothe the knoll whereon she stands.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beria looks up, and basilisks die of terror;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Be not amazed; 'tis a sight that would Satan affright.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tamar's divine form human language cannot describe;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The gods themselves believe her heaven's offspring.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beria's presence is desirable only in the time of vintage,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When the Evil One can be banished by naught but grimaces.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tamar! Had Moses seen thee he had never made the serpent of copper,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With thy image he had healed mankind.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beria! Pain seizes me, physic soothes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I catch sight of thee, and it returns with full force.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tamar, with ringlets adorned, greets early the sun,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who quickly hides, ashamed of his bald pate.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beria! were I to meet thee on New Year's Day in the morning,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">An omen 'twere of an inauspicious year.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tamar smiles, and heals the heart's bleeding wounds;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">She raises her head, the stars slink out of sight.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beria it were well to transport to heaven,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then surely heaven would take refuge on earth.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tamar resembles the moon in all respects but one&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Her resplendent beauty never suffers obscuration.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beria partakes of the nature of the gods; 'tis said,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">None beholds the gods without most awful repentance.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tamar, were the Virgin like thee, never would the sun</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pass out of Virgo to shine in Libra.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beria, dost know why the Messiah tarries to bring deliverance to men?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Redemption time has long arrived, but he hides from thee."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>With amazement we see the Hebrew muse, so serious aforetimes,
+participate in truly bacchanalian dances under Immanuel's guidance. It
+is curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> that while, on the one hand, he shrinks from no frivolous
+utterance or indecent allusion, on the other, he is dominated by deep
+earnestness and genuine warmth of feeling, when he undertakes to defend
+or expound the fundamentals of faith. It is characteristic of the trend
+of his thought that he epitomizes the "Song of Songs" in the sentence:
+"Love is the pivot of the <i>Torah</i>." By a bold hypothesis it is assumed
+that in Daniel, his guide in Paradise (in the twenty-eighth canto of his
+poem), he impersonated and glorified his great friend Dante. If true,
+this would be an interesting indication of the intimate relations
+existing between a Jew and a circle devoted to the development of the
+national genius in literature and language, and the stimulating of the
+sense of nature and truth in opposition to the fantastic visions and
+grotesque ideals of the past.</p>
+
+<p>Everywhere, not only in Italy, the Renaissance and the humanistic
+movement attract Jews. Among early Castilian troubadours there is a Jew,
+and the last troubadour of Spain again is a Jew. Naturally Italian Jews
+are more profoundly than others affected by the renascence of science
+and art. David ben Yehuda, Messer Leon, is the author of an epic,
+<i>Shebach Nashim</i> ("Praise of Women"), in which occurs an interesting
+reference to Petrarch's Laura, whom, in opposition to the consensus of
+opinion among his contemporaries, he considers, not a figment of the
+imagination, but a woman of flesh and blood. Praise and criticism of
+women are favorite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> themes in the poetic polemics of the sixteenth
+century. For instance, Jacob ben Elias, of Fano, in his "Shields of
+Heroes," a small collection of songs in stanzas of three verses,
+ventures to attack the weaker sex, for which Judah Tommo of Porta Leone
+at once takes up the cudgels in his "Women's Shield." At the same time a
+genuine song combat broke out between Abraham of Sarteano and Elias of
+Genzano. The latter is the champion of the purity of womanhood, impugned
+by the former, who in fifty tercets exposes the wickedness of woman in
+the most infamous of her sex, from Lilith to Jezebel, from Semiramis to
+Medea. An anonymous combatant lends force to his strictures by an
+arraignment of the lax morals of the women of their own time, while a
+fourth knight of song, evidently intending to conciliate the parties,
+begins his "New Song," only a fragment of which has reached us, with
+praise, and ends it with blame, of woman. Such productions, too, are a
+result of the Renaissance, of its romantic current, which, as it
+affected Catholicism, did not fail to leave its mark upon the Jews,
+among whom romanticists must have had many a battle to fight with
+adherents of traditional views.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, neo-Hebraic poetry had "fallen into the sear, the yellow
+leaf." Poetry drooped under the icy breath of rationalism, and vanished
+into the abyss of the Kabbala. At most we occasionally hear of a polemic
+poem, a keen-edged epigram. For the rest, there was only a monotonous
+succession of religious poems, repeating the old formulas, dry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> bones of
+habit and tradition, no longer informed with true poetic, religious
+spirit. Yet the source of love and humor in Jewish poetry had not run
+dry. It must be admitted that the sentimentalism of the minneservice,
+peculiar to the middle ages, never took root in Jewish soil. Pale
+resignation, morbid despair, longing for death, unmanly indulgence in
+regret, all the paraphernalia of chivalrous love, extolled in every key
+in the poetry of the middle ages, were foreign to the sane Jewish mind.
+Women, the object of unreasoning adulation, shared the fate of all
+sovereign powers: homage worked their ruin. They became accustomed to
+think that the weal and woe of the world depended upon their constancy
+or disloyalty. Jews alone were healthy enough to subordinate sexual love
+to reverence for maternity. Holding an exalted idea of love, they
+realized that its power extends far beyond the lives of two persons, and
+affects the well-being of generations unborn. Such love, intellectual
+love, which Benedict Spinoza was the first to define from a scientific
+and philosophic point of view, looks far down the vistas of the future,
+and gives providential thought to the race.</p>
+
+<p>While humor and romanticism everywhere in the middle ages appeared as
+irreconcilable contrasts, by Jews they were brought into harmonious
+relationship. When humor was banished from poetry, it took refuge in
+Jewish-German literature, that spiritual undercurrent produced by the
+claims of fancy as opposed to the aggressive, all absorbing de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span>mands of
+reason. Not to the high and mighty, but to the lowly in spirit, the
+little ones of the earth, to women and children, it made its appeal, and
+from them its influence spread throughout the nation, bringing
+refreshment and sustenance to weary, starved minds, hope to the
+oppressed, and consolation to the afflicted. Consolation, indeed, was
+sorely needed by the Jews on their peregrinations during the middle
+ages. Sad, inexpressibly sad, was their condition. With fatal
+exclusiveness they devoted themselves to the study of the Talmud.
+Secular learning was deprecated; antagonism to science and vagaries
+characterized their intellectual life; philosophy was formally
+interdicted; the Hebrew language neglected; all their wealth and force
+of intellect lavished upon the study of the Law, and even here every
+faculty&mdash;reason, ingenuity, speculation&mdash;busied itself only with highly
+artificial solutions of equally artificial problems, far-fetched
+complications, and vexatious contradictions invented to be harmonized.
+Under such grievous circumstances, oppression growing with malice,
+Jewish minds and hearts were robbed of humor, and the exercise of love
+was made a difficult task. Is it astonishing that in such days a rabbi
+in the remote Slavonic East should have issued an injunction restraining
+his sisters in faith from reading romances on the Sabbath&mdash;romances
+composed by some other rabbi in Provence or Italy five hundred years
+before?</p>
+
+<p>Sorrow and suffering are not endless. A new day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span> broke for the Jews. The
+walls of the Ghetto fell, dry bones joined each other for new life, and
+a fresh spirit passed over the House of Israel. Enervation and decadence
+were succeeded by regeneration, quickened by the spirit of the times, by
+the ideas of freedom and equality universally advocated. The forces
+which culminated in their revival had existed as germs in the preceding
+century. Silently they had grown, operating through every spiritual
+medium, poetry, oratory, philosophy, political agitation. In the
+sunshine of the eighteenth century they finally matured, and at its
+close the rejuvenation of the Jewish race was an accomplished fact in
+every European country. Eagerly its sons entered into the new
+intellectual and literary movements of the nations permitted to enjoy
+another period of efflorescence, and Jewish humor has conquered a place
+for itself in modern literature.</p>
+
+<p>Our brief journey through the realm of love and humor must certainly
+convince us that in sunny days humor rarely, love never, forsook Israel.
+Our old itinerant preachers (<i>Maggidim</i>), strolling from town to town,
+were in the habit of closing their sermons with a parable (<i>Mashai</i>),
+which opened the way to exhortation. The manner of our fathers
+recommends itself to me, and following in their footsteps, I venture to
+close my pilgrimage through the ages with a <i>Mashal</i>. It transports us
+to the sunny Orient, to the little seaport town of Jabneh, about six
+miles from Jerusalem, in the time immediately succeeding the destruction
+of the Temple.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span> Thither with a remnant of his disciples, Jochanan ben
+Zakkaï, one of the wisest of our rabbis, fled to escape the misery
+incident to the downfall of Jerusalem. He knew that the Temple would
+never again rise from its ashes. He knew as well that the essence of
+Judaism has no organic connection with the Temple or the Holy City. He
+foresaw that its mission is to spread abroad among the nations of the
+earth, and of this future he spoke to the disciples gathered about him
+in the academy at Jabneh. We can imagine him asking them to define the
+fundamental principle of Judaism, and receiving a multiplicity of
+answers, varying with the character and temper of the young
+missionaries. To one, possibly, Judaism seemed to rest upon faith in
+God, to another upon the Sabbath, to a third upon the <i>Torah</i>, to a
+fourth upon the Decalogue. Such views could not have satisfied the
+spiritual cravings of the aged teacher. When Jochanan ben Zakkaï rises
+to give utterance to his opinion, we feel as though the narrow walls of
+the academy at Jabneh were miraculously widening out to enclose the
+world, while the figure of the venerable rabbi grows to the noble
+proportions of a divine seer, whose piercing eye rends the veil of
+futurity, and reads the remote verdict of history: "My disciples, my
+friends, the fundamental principle of Judaism is love!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>THE JEWISH STAGE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Perhaps no people has held so peculiar a position with regard to the
+drama as the Jews. Little more than two centuries have passed since a
+Jewish poet ventured to write a drama, and now, if division by race be
+admissible in literary matters, Jews indisputably rank among the first
+of those interested in the drama, both in its composition and
+presentation.</p>
+
+<p>Originally, the Hebrew mind felt no attraction towards the drama. Hebrew
+poetry attained to neither dramatic nor epic creations, because the
+all-pervading monotheistic principle of the nation paralyzed the free
+and easy marshalling of gods and heroes of the Greek drama.
+Nevertheless, traces of dramatic poetry appear in the oldest literature.
+The "Song of Songs" by many is regarded as a dramatic idyl in seven
+scenes, with Shulammith as the heroine, and the king, the ostensible
+author, as the hero. But this and similar efforts are only faint
+approaches to dramatic composition, inducing no imitations.</p>
+
+<p>Greek and Roman theatrical representations, the first they knew, must
+have awakened lively interest in the Jews. It was only after Alexander
+the Great's triumphal march through the East, and the establishment of
+Roman supremacy over Judæa, that a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> foothold was gained in Palestine by
+the institutions called theatre by the ancients; that is, <i>stadia</i>;
+circuses for wrestling, fencing, and combats between men and animals;
+and the stage for tragedies and other plays. To the horror of pious
+zealots, the Jewish Hellenists, in other words, Jews imbued with the
+secular culture of the day, built a gymnasium for the wrestling and
+fencing contests of the Jewish youth of Jerusalem, soon to be further
+defiled by the circus and the <i>stadium</i>. According to Flavius Josephus,
+Herod erected a theatre at Jerusalem twenty-eight years before the
+present era, and in the vicinity of the city, an amphitheatre where
+Greek players acted, and sang to the accompaniment of the lyre or flute.</p>
+
+<p>The first, and at his time probably the only, Jewish dramatist was the
+Greek poet Ezekielos (Ezekiel), who flourished in about 150 before the
+common era. In his play, "The Exodus from Egypt," modelled after
+Euripides, Moses, as we know him in the Bible, is the hero. Otherwise
+the play is thoroughly Hellenic, showing the Greek tendency to become
+didactic and reflective and use the heroes of sacred legend as human
+types. Besides, two fragments of Jewish-Hellenic dramas, in trimeter
+verse, have come down to us, the one treating of the unity of God, the
+other of the serpent in Paradise.</p>
+
+<p>To the mass of the Jewish people, particularly to the expounders and
+scholars of the Law, theatrical performances seemed a desecration, a
+sin. A violent struggle ensued between the <i>Beth ha-Midrash</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> and the
+stage, between the teachers of the Law and lovers of art, between
+Rabbinism and Hellenism. Mindful of Bible laws inculcating humanity to
+beasts and men, the rabbis could not fail to deprecate gladiatorial
+contests, and in their simple-mindedness they must have revolted from
+the themes of the Greek playwright, dishonesty, violence triumphant, and
+conjugal infidelity being then as now favorite subjects of dramatic
+representations. The immorality of the stage was, if possible, more
+conspicuous in those days than in ours.</p>
+
+<p>This was the point of view assumed by the rabbis in their exhortations
+to the people, and a conspiracy against King Herod was the result. The
+plotters one evening appeared at the theatre, but their designs were
+frustrated by the absence of the king and his suite. The plot betrayed
+itself, and one of the members of the conspiracy was seized and torn
+into pieces by the mob. The most uncompromising rabbis pronounced a
+curse over frequenters of the theatre, and raised abstinence from its
+pleasures to the dignity of a meritorious action, inasmuch as it was the
+scene of idolatrous practices, and its <i>habitués</i> violated the
+admonition contained in the first verse of the psalms. "Cursed be they
+who visit the theatre and the circus, and despise our laws," one of them
+exclaims.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> Another interprets the words of the prophet: "I sat not in
+the assembly of the mirthful, and was rejoiced," by the prayer: "Lord of
+the universe, never have I visited a theatre<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span> or a circus to enjoy
+myself in the company of scorners."</p>
+
+<p>Despite rampant antagonism, the stage worked its way into the affection
+and consideration of the Jewish public, and we hear of Jewish youths
+devoting themselves to the drama and becoming actors. Only one has come
+down to us by name: the celebrated Alityros in Rome, the favorite of
+Emperor Nero and his wife Poppæa. Josephus speaks of him as "a player,
+and a Jew, well favored by Nero." When the Jewish historian landed at
+Puteoli, a captive, Alityros presented him to the empress, who secured
+his liberation. Beyond a doubt, the Jewish <i>beaux esprits</i> of Rome
+warmly supported the theatre; indeed, Roman satirists levelled their
+shafts against the zeal displayed in the service of art by Jewish
+patrons.</p>
+
+<p>A reaction followed. Theatrical representations were pursued by Talmudic
+Judaism with the same bitter animosity as by Christianity. Not a matter
+of surprise, if account is taken of the licentiousness of the stage, so
+depraved as to evoke sharp reproof even from a Cicero, and the hostility
+of playwrights to Jews and Christians, whom they held up as a butt for
+the ridicule of the Roman populace. Talmudic literature has preserved
+several examples of the buffooneries launched against Judaism. Rabbi
+Abbayu tells the following:<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> A camel covered with a mourning blanket
+is brought upon the stage, and gives rise to a conversation. "Why is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span>
+the camel trapped in mourning?" "Because the Jews, who are observing the
+sabbatical year, abstain from vegetables, and refuse to eat even herbs.
+They eat only thistles, and the camel is mourning because he is deprived
+of his favorite food."</p>
+
+<p>Another time a buffoon appears on the stage with head shaved close. "Why
+is the clown mourning?" "Because oil is so dear." "Why is oil dear?" "On
+account of the Jews. On the Sabbath day they consume everything they
+earn during the week. Not a stick of wood is left to make fire whereby
+to cook their meals. They are forced to burn their beds for fuel, and
+sleep on the floor at night. To get rid of the dirt, they use an immense
+quantity of oil. Therefore, oil is dear, and the clown cannot grease his
+hair with pomade." Certainly no one will deny that the patrons of the
+Roman theatre were less critical than a modern audience.</p>
+
+<p>Teachers of the Law had but one answer to make to such attacks&mdash;a
+rigorous injunction against theatre-going. On this subject rabbis and
+Church Fathers were of one mind. The rabbi's declaration, that he who
+enters a circus commits murder, is offspring of the same holy zeal that
+dictates Tertullian's solemn indignation: "In no respect, neither by
+speaking, nor by seeing, nor by hearing, have we part in the mad antics
+of the circus, the obscenity of the theatre, or the abominations of the
+arena." Such expressions prepare one for the passion of another
+remonstrant who, on a Sabbath, ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span>plained to his audience that
+earthquakes are the signs of God's fierce wrath when He looks down upon
+earth, and sees theatres and circuses flourish, while His sanctuary lies
+in ruins.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p>
+
+<p>Anathemas against the stage were vain. One teacher of the Law, in the
+middle of the second century, went so far as to permit attendance at the
+circus and the <i>stadium</i> for the very curious reason that the spectator
+may haply render assistance to the charioteers in the event of an
+accident on the race track, or may testify to their death at court, and
+thus enable their widows to marry again. Another pious rabbi expresses
+the hope that theatres and circuses at Rome at some future time may "be
+converted into academies of virtue and morality."</p>
+
+<p>Such liberal views were naturally of extremely rare occurrence. Many
+centuries passed before Jews in general were able to overcome antipathy
+to the stage and all connected with it. Pagan Rome with its artistic
+creations was to sink, and the new Christian drama, springing from the
+ruins of the old theatre, but making the religious its central idea, was
+to develop and invite imitation before the first germ of interest in
+dramatic subjects ventured to show itself in Jewish circles. The first
+Jewish contribution to the drama dates from the ninth century. The story
+of Haman, arch-enemy of the Jews, was dramatized in celebration of
+<i>Purim</i>, the Jewish carnival. The central figure was Haman's effigy
+which was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span> burnt, amid song, music, and general merrymaking, on a small
+pyre, over which the participants jumped a number of times in gleeful
+rejoicing over the downfall of their worst enemy&mdash;extravagance
+pardonable in a people which, on every other day of the year, tottered
+under a load of distress and oppression.</p>
+
+<p>This dramatic effort was only a sporadic phenomenon. Real, uninterrupted
+participation in dramatic art by Jews cannot be recorded until fully six
+hundred years later. Meantime the Spanish drama, the first to adapt
+Bible subjects to the uses of the stage, had reached its highest
+development. By reason of its choice of subjects it proved so attractive
+to Jews that scarcely fifty years after the appearance of the first
+Spanish-Jewish playwright, a Spanish satirist deplores, in cutting
+verse, the Judaizing of dramatic poetry. In fact, the first original
+drama in Spanish literature, the celebrated <i>Celestina</i>, is attributed
+to a Jew, the Marrano Rodrigo da Cota. "Esther," the first distinctly
+Jewish play in Spanish, was written in 1567 by Solomon Usque in Ferrara
+in collaboration with Lazaro Graziano. The subject treated centuries
+before in a roughshod manner naturally suggested itself to a genuine
+dramatist, who chose it in order to invest it with the dignity conferred
+by poetic art. This first essay in the domain of the Jewish drama was
+followed by a succession of dramatic creations by Jews, who, exiled from
+Spain, cherished the memory of their beloved country, and, carrying to
+their new homes in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span> Italy and Holland, love for its language and
+literature, wrote all their works, dramas included, in Spanish after
+Spanish models. So fruitful was their activity that shortly after the
+exile we hear of a "Jewish Calderon," the author of more than twenty-two
+plays, some long held to be the work of Calderon himself, and therefore
+received with acclamation in Madrid. The real author, whose place in
+Spanish literature is assured, was Antonio Enriquez di Gomez, a Marrano,
+burnt in effigy at Seville after his escape from the clutches of the
+Inquisition. His dramas in part deal with biblical subjects. Samson is
+obviously the mouthpiece of his own sentiments:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"O God, my God, the time draws quickly nigh!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Now let a ray of thy great strength descend!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Make firm my hand to execute the deed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">That alien rule upon our soil shall end!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Portuguese language
+usurped the place of Spanish among Jews, and straightway we hear of a
+Jewish dramatist, Antonio Jose de Silva (1705-1739), one of the most
+illustrious of Portuguese poets, whose dramas still hold their own on
+the repertory of the Portuguese stage. He was burnt at the stake, a
+martyr to his faith, which he solemnly confessed in the hour of his
+execution: "I am a follower of a faith God-given according to your own
+teachings. God once loved this religion. I believe He still loves it,
+but because you maintain that He no longer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span> turns upon it the light of
+His countenance, you condemn to death those convinced that God has not
+withdrawn His grace from what He once favored." It is by no means an
+improbable combination of circumstances that on the evening of the day
+whereon Antonio Jose de Silva expired at the stake, an operetta written
+by the victim himself was played at the great theatre of Lisbon in
+celebration of the auto-da-fé.</p>
+
+<p>Jewish literature as such derived little increase from this poetic
+activity among Jews. In the period under discussion a single Hebrew
+drama was produced which can lay claim to somewhat more praise than is
+the due of mediocrity. <i>Asireh ha-Tikwah</i>, "The Prisoners of Hope,"
+printed in 1673, deserves notice because it was the first drama
+published in Hebrew, and its author, Joseph Pensa de la Vega, was the
+last of Spanish, as Antonio de Silva was the last of Portuguese, Jewish
+poets. The three act play is an allegory, treating of the victory of
+free-will, represented by a king, over evil inclinations, personified by
+the handsome lad Cupid. Though imbued with the solemnity of his
+responsibilities as a ruler, the king is lured from the path of right by
+various persons and circumstances, chief among them Cupid, his
+coquettish queen, and his sinful propensities. The opposing good forces
+are represented by the figures of harmony, Providence, and truth, and
+they eventually lead the erring wanderer back to the road of salvation.
+The <i>dramatis personæ</i> of this first Hebrew drama are ab<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span>stractions,
+devoid of dramatic life, mere allegorical personifications, but the
+underlying idea is poetic, and the Hebrew style pure, euphonious, and
+rhythmical. Yet it is impossible to echo the enthusiasm which greeted
+the work of the seventeen year old author in the Jewish academies of
+Holland. Twenty-one poets sang its praises in Latin, Hebrew, and Spanish
+verse. The following couplet may serve as a specimen of their eulogies:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"At length Israel's muse assumes the tragic cothurn,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And happily wends her way through the metre's mazes."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Pensa, though the first to publish, was not the first Hebrew dramatist
+to write. The distinction of priority belongs to Moses Zacuto, who wrote
+his Hebrew play, <i>Yesod Olam</i><a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> ("The Foundation of the World") a
+quarter of a century earlier. His subject is the persecution inflicted
+by idolaters upon Abraham on account of his faith, and the groundwork is
+the Haggadistic narrative about Abraham's bold opposition to idolatrous
+practices, and his courage even unto death in the service of the true
+God. According to Talmudic interpretation a righteous character of this
+description is one of the corner-stones of the universe. It must be
+admitted that Zacuto's work is a drama with a purpose. The poet wished
+to fortify his exiled, harassed people with the inspiration and hope
+that flow from the contempla<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span>tion of a strong, bold personality. But the
+admission does not detract from the genuine merits of the poem. On the
+other hand, this first dramatic effort naturally is crude, lacking in
+the poetic forms supplied by highly developed art. Dialogues, prayers,
+and choruses follow each other without regularity, and in varying
+metres, not destitute, however, of poetic sentiment and lyric beauties.
+Often the rhythm rises to a high degree of excellence, even elevation.
+Like Pensa, Zacuto was the disciple of great masters, and a comparison
+of either with Lope de Vega and Calderon will reveal the same southern
+warmth, stilted pathos, exuberance of fancy, wealth of imagery,
+excessive playing upon words, peculiar turns and phrases, erratic style,
+and other qualities characteristic of Spanish dramatic poetry in that
+period.</p>
+
+<p>Another century elapsed before the muse of the Hebrew drama escaped from
+leading strings. Moses Chayyim Luzzatto (1707-1747) of Padua was a poet
+of true dramatic gifts, and had he lived at another time he might have
+attained to absolute greatness of performance. Unluckily, the
+sentimental, impressionable youth became hopelessly enmeshed in the
+snares of mysticism. In his seventeenth year he composed a biblical
+drama, "Samson and the Philistines," the preserved fragments of which
+are faultless in metre. His next effort was an allegorical drama,
+<i>Migdal Oz</i> ("Tower of Victory"), the style and moral of which show
+unmistakable signs of Italian inspiration, derived particularly from
+Gua<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span>rini and his <i>Pastor Fido</i>, models not wholly commendable at a time
+when Maffei's <i>Merope</i> was exerting wholesome influence upon the Italian
+drama in the direction of simplicity and dignity. Nothing, however,
+could wean Luzzatto from adherence to Spanish-Italian romanticism. His
+happiest creation is the dramatic parable, <i>Layesharim Tehillah</i>
+("Praise unto the Righteous!"). The poetry of the Bible here celebrates
+its resurrection. The rhythm and exuberance of the Psalms are reproduced
+in the tone and color of its language. "All the fragrant flowers of
+biblical poetry are massed in a single bed. Yet the language is more
+than a mosaic of biblical phrases. It is an enamel of the most superb
+and the rarest of elegant expressions in the Bible. The peculiarities of
+the historical writings are carefully avoided, while all modifications
+of style peculiar to poetry are gathered together to constitute what may
+fairly be called a vocabulary of poetic diction."<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p>
+
+<p>The allegory <i>Layesharim Tehillah</i> is full of charming traits, but lacks
+warmth, naturalness, and human interest, the indispensable elements of
+dramatic action. The first act treats of the iniquity of men who prize
+deceit beyond virtue, and closes with the retirement of the pious sage
+to solitude. The second act describes the hopes of the righteous man and
+his fate, and the third sounds the praise of truth and justice. The
+thread of the story is slight, and the characters are pale phantoms,
+instead of warm-blooded men. Yet the work must be pronounced a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span> gem of
+neo-Hebraic poetry, an earnest of the great creations its author might
+have produced, if in early youth he had not been caught in the swirling
+waters, and dragged down into the abysmal depths of Kabbalistic
+mysticism. Despite his vagaries his poems were full of suggestiveness
+and stimulation to many of his race, who were inspired to work along the
+lines laid down by him. He may be considered to have inaugurated another
+epoch of classical Hebrew literature, interpenetrated with the modern
+spirit, which the Jewish dramas of his day are vigorously successful in
+clothing in a Hebrew garb.</p>
+
+<p>In the popular literature in Jewish-German growing up almost unnoticed
+beside classical Hebrew literature, we find popular plays, comedies,
+chiefly farces for the <i>Purim</i> carnival. The first of them, "The Sale of
+Joseph" (<i>Mekirath Yoseph</i>, 1710), treats the biblical narrative in the
+form and spirit of the German farcical clown dialogues, Pickelhering
+(Merry-Andrew), borrowed from the latter, being Potiphar's servant and
+counsellor. No dramatic or poetic value of any kind attaches to the
+play. It is as trivial as any of its models, the German clown comedies,
+and possesses interest only as an index to the taste of the public,
+which surely received it with delight. Strangely enough the principal
+scene between Joseph and Selicha, Potiphar's wife, is highly discreet.
+In a monologue, she gives passionate utterance to her love. Then Joseph
+appears, and she addresses him thus:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Be welcome, Joseph, dearest one,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My slave who all my heart has won!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I beg of thee grant my request!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So oft have I to thee confessed,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My love for thee is passing great.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In vain for answering love I wait.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Have not so tyrannous a mind,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Be not so churlish, so unkind&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I bear thee such affection, see,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Why wilt thou not give love to me?"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Joseph answers:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"I owe my lady what she asks,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet this is not among my tasks.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I pray, my mistress, change thy mind;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou canst so many like me find.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">How could I dare transgress my state,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And my great trust so violate?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My lord hath charged me with his house,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Excepting only his dear spouse;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yet she, it seems, needs watching too.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now, mistress, fare thee well, adieu!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Selicha then says:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"O heaven now what shall I do?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He'll list not to my vows so true.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Come, Pickelhering, tell me quick,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What I shall do his love to prick?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'll die if I no means can find</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To bend his humor to my mind.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'll give thee gold, thou mayst depend,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If thou'lt but help me to my end."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Pickelhering appears, and says:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My lady, here I am, thy slave,</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">My wisest counsel thou shalt have.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou must lay violent hand on him,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And say: 'Unless thou'lt grant my whim,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I'll drive thee hence from out my court,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And with thy woes I'll have my sport,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nor will I stay thy punishment,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Till drop by drop thy blood is spent.'</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Perhaps he will amend his way,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">If thou such cruel words wilt say."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Selicha follows his advice, but being thwarted, again appeals to
+Pickelhering, who says:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"My lady fair, pray hark to me,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">My counsel now shall fruitful be.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A garbled story shalt thou tell</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The king, and say: 'Hear what befell:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thy servant Joseph did presume</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To enter in my private room,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">When no one was about the house</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who could protect thy helpless spouse.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">See here his mantle left behind.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Seize him, my lord, the miscreant find.'"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Potiphar appears, Selicha tells her tale, and Pickelhering is sent in
+quest of Joseph, who steps upon the scene to be greeted by his master's
+far from gentle reproaches:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Thou gallowsbird, thou good-for-naught!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thou whom so true and good I thought!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'Twere just to take thy life from thee.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But no! still harsher this decree:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In dungeon chained shalt thou repine,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where neither sun nor moon can shine.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forever there bewail thy lot unheard;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now leave my sight, begone, thou gallowsbird.'"</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This ends the scene. Of course, at the last, Joseph escapes his doom,
+and, to the great joy of the sympathetic public, is raised to high
+dignities and honors.</p>
+
+<p>This farce was presented at Frankfort-on-the-Main by Jewish students of
+the city, aided by some from Hamburg and Prague, with extravagant
+display of scenery. Tradition ascribes the authorship to a certain
+Beermann.</p>
+
+<p>"Ahasverus" is of similar coarse character, so coarse, indeed, that the
+directors of the Frankfort Jewish community, exercising their rights as
+literary censors, forbade its performance, and had the printed copies
+burnt. A somewhat more refined comedy is <i>Acta Esther et Achashverosh</i>,
+published at Prague in 1720, and enacted there by the pupils of the
+celebrated rabbi David Oppenheim, "on a regular stage with drums and
+other instruments." "The Deeds of King David and Goliath," and a
+travesty, "Haman's Will and Death" also belong to the category of Purim
+farces.</p>
+
+<p>By an abrupt transition we pass from their consideration to the Hebrew
+classical drama modelled after the pattern of Moses Chayyim Luzzatto's.
+Greatest attention was bestowed upon historical dramas, notably those on
+the trials and fortunes of Marranos, the favorite subjects treated by
+David Franco Mendez, Samuel Romanelli, and others. Although their
+language is an almost pure classical Hebrew, the plot is conceived
+wholly in the spirit of modern times. At the end of the eighteenth
+cen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span>tury, a large number of writers turned to Bible heroes and heroines
+for dramatic uses, and since then Jewish interest in the drama has never
+flagged. The luxuriant fruitfulness of these late Jewish playwrights,
+standing in the sunlight of modern days, fully compensates for the
+sterility of the Jewish dramatic muse during the centuries of darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The first Jewish dramatist to use German was Benedict David Arnstein, of
+Vienna, author of a large number of plays, comedies and melodramas, some
+of which have been put upon the boards of the Vienna imperial theatre
+(<i>Burgtheater</i>). He was succeeded by L. M. Büschenthal, whose drama,
+"King Solomon's Seal," was performed at the royal theatre of Berlin.
+Since his time poets of Jewish race have enriched dramatic literature in
+all its departments. Their works belong to general literature, and need
+not be individualized in this essay.</p>
+
+<p>In the province of dramatic music, too, Jews have made a prominent
+position for themselves. It suffices to mention Meyerbeer and Offenbach,
+representatives of two widely divergent departments of the art. Again,
+to assert the prominence of Jews as actors is uttering a truism. Adolf
+Jellinek, one of the closest students of the racial characteristics of
+Jews, thinks that they are singularly well equipped for the theatrical
+profession by reason of their marked subjectivity, which always induces
+objective, disinterested devotion to a purpose, and their
+cosmopolitanism, which enables them to transport themselves with ease
+into a new world of thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span>.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> "It is natural that a race whose
+religious, literary, and linguistic development in hundreds of instances
+proves unique talent to adapt itself with marvellous facility to the
+intellectual life of various countries and nations, should bring forth
+individuals gifted with power to project themselves into a character
+created by art, and impersonate it with admirable accuracy in the
+smallest detail. What the race as a whole has for centuries been doing
+spontaneously and by virtue of innate characteristics, can surely be
+done with greater perfection by some of its members under the
+consciously accepted guidance of the laws of art." Many Jewish race
+peculiarities&mdash;quick perception, vivacity, declamatory pathos, perfervid
+imagination&mdash;are prime qualifications for the actor's career, and such
+names as Bogumil Davison, Adolf Sonnenthal, Rachel Felix, and Sarah
+Bernhardt abundantly illustrate the general proposition.</p>
+
+<p>Strenuous efforts to ascertain the name of the first Jewish actor in
+Germany have been unavailing. Possibly it was the unnamed artist for
+whom, at his brother's instance, Lessing interceded at the Mannheim
+national theatre.</p>
+
+<p>Legion is the name of the Jewish artists of this century who have
+attained to prominence in every department of the dramatic art, in every
+country, even the remotest, on the globe. Travellers in Russia tell of
+the crowds that evening after evening flock to the Jewish-German
+theatres at Odessa, Kiev, and Warsaw. The plays performed are
+adaptations of the best dramatic works of all modern<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span> nations. We
+outside of Russia have been made acquainted with the character of these
+performances by the melodrama "Shulammith," enacted at various theatres
+by a Jewish-German <i>opera bouffe</i> company from Warsaw, and the writer
+once&mdash;can he ever forget it?&mdash;saw "Hamlet" played by jargon actors. When
+Hamlet offers advice to Ophelia in the words: "Get thee to a nunnery!"
+she promptly retorts: <i>Mit Eizes bin ich versehen, mein Prinz!</i> (With
+good advice I am well supplied, my lord!).</p>
+
+<p>The actor recalled by the recent centennial celebration of the first
+performance of "The Magic Flute" must have been among the first Jews to
+adopt the stage as a profession. The first presentation, at once
+establishing the success of the opera, took place at Prague. According
+to the <i>Prager Neue Zeitung</i> an incident connected with that original
+performance was of greater interest than the opera itself: "On the tenth
+of last month, the new piece, 'The Magic Flute,' was produced. I
+hastened to the theatre, and found that the part of Sarastro was taken
+by a well-formed young man with a caressing voice who, as I was told to
+my great surprise, was a Jew&mdash;yes, a Jew. He was visibly embarrassed
+when he first appeared, proving that he was a human being subject to the
+ordinary laws of nature and to the average mortal's weaknesses. Noticing
+his stage-fright, the audience tried to encourage him by applause. It
+succeeded, for he sang and spoke his lines with grace and dignity. At
+the end he was called out and applauded vigorously.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span> In short, I found
+the Prague public very different from its reputation with us. It knows
+how to appreciate merit even when possessed by an Israelite, and I am
+inclined to think that it criticises harshly only when there is just
+reason for complaint. Hartung, the Jewish actor, will soon appear in
+other rôles, and doubtless will justify the applause of the public."</p>
+
+<p>To return, in conclusion, to the classical drama in Hebrew. Though
+patterned after the best classical models, and enriched by the noble
+creations of S. L. Romanelli, M. E. Letteris, the translator of <i>Faust</i>,
+A. Gottloeber, and others, Hebrew dramas belong to the large class of
+plays for the closet, unsuited for the stage. This dramatic literature
+contains not only original creations; the masterpieces of all
+literatures&mdash;the works of Shakespere, Racine, Molière, Goethe, Schiller,
+and Lessing&mdash;have been put into the language of the prophets and the
+psalmists, and, infected by the vigor of their thought, the ancient
+tongue has been re-animated with the vitality of undying youth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>THE JEW'S QUEST IN AFRICA</h3>
+
+
+<p>Citizens of ancient Greece conversing during the <i>entr'actes</i> of a first
+performance at the national theatre of Olympia were almost sure to ask
+each other, after the new play had been discussed: "What news from
+Africa?" Through Aristotle the proverb has come down to us: "Africa
+always brings us something new." Hence the question: <i>Quid novi ex
+Africa?</i><a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p>
+
+<p>If ever two old rabbis in the <i>Beth ha-Midrash</i> at Cyrene stole a chat
+in the intervals of their lectures, the same question probably passed
+between them. For, Africa has always claimed the interest of the
+cultured. Jewish-German legend books place the scenes of their most
+mysterious myths in the "Dark Continent," and I remember distinctly how
+we youngsters on Sabbath afternoons used to crowd round our dear old
+grandmother, who, great bowed spectacles on her nose, would read to us
+from "Yosippon." On many such occasions an unruly listener, with a view
+to hurrying the distribution of the "Sabbathfruit," would endanger the
+stability of the dish by vigorous tugging at the table-cloth, and elicit
+the reproof suggested by our reading: "You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> are a veritable
+Sambation!"&mdash;Aristotle, Pliny, Olympia, Cyrene, "Yosippon," and
+grandam&mdash;all unite to whet our appetite for African novelties.</p>
+
+<p>Never has interest in the subject been more active than in our
+generation, and the question, "What is the quest of the Jews in Africa?"
+might be applied literally to the achievements of individual Jewish
+travellers. But our inquiry shall not be into the fortunes of African
+explorers of Jewish extraction; not into Emin Pasha's journey to Wadelai
+and Magungo; not into the advisability of colonizing Russian Jews in
+Africa; nor even into the rôle played by a part of northern Africa in
+the development of Jewish literature and culture: briefly, "The Jew's
+quest in Africa" is for the remnants of the ten lost tribes.</p>
+
+<p>For more than eight hundred years, Israel, entrenched on his own soil,
+bade defiance to every enemy. After the death of Solomon (978 B. C. E.),
+the kingdom was divided, its power declining in consequence. The
+world-monarchy Assyria became an adversary to be feared after Ahaz, king
+of Judah, invited it to assist him against Pekah. Tiglath-Pileser
+conquered a part of the kingdom of Israel, and, in about the middle of
+the eighth century, carried off its subjects captive into Assyria. In
+the reign of Hosea, Shalmaneser finished what his predecessor had begun
+(722), utterly destroying the kingdom of the north in the two hundred
+and fifty-eighth year of its independence. Before the catastrophe, a
+part of its inhabitants had emigrated to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span> Arabia, so that there were
+properly speaking only nine tribes, called by their prophets, chief
+among them Hosea and Amos, Ephraim from the most powerful member of the
+confederacy. Another part went to Adiabene, a district on the boundary
+between Assyria and Media, and thence scattered in all directions
+through the kingdom of the Medes and Persians.</p>
+
+<p>The prophets of the exile still hope for their return. Isaiah says:<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a>
+"The Lord will put forth His hand again the second time to acquire the
+remnant of his people, which shall remain, from Asshur, and from Egypt,
+and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and
+from Chamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he will lift up an
+ensign unto the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel; and
+the dispersed of Judah will he collect together from the four corners of
+the earth.... Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not assail
+Ephraim.... And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian
+sea.... And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people,
+which shall remain from Asshur, like as it was to Israel on the day that
+they came up out of the land of Egypt." In Jeremiah<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> we read: "Behold
+I will bring them from the north country, and I will gather them from
+the farthest ends of the earth ... for I am become a father to Israel,
+and Ephraim is my first-born." Referring to this passage, the Talmud
+maintains that the prophet Jeremiah led the lost tribes back to
+Palestine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The second Isaiah<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> says "to the prisoners, Go forth; to those that
+are in darkness, Show yourselves." "Ye shall be gathered up one by
+one.... And it shall come to pass on that day that the great cornet
+shall be blown, and then shall come those that are lost in the land of
+Asshur, and those who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall
+prostrate themselves before the Lord on the holy mount at Jerusalem."</p>
+
+<p>And Ezekiel:<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> "Thou son of man, take unto thyself one stick of wood,
+and write upon it, 'For Judah, and for the children of Israel his
+companions'; then take another stick, and write upon it, 'For Joseph,
+the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions':
+and join them one to the other unto thee as one stick; and they shall
+become one in thy hand."</p>
+
+<p>These prophetical passages show that at the time of the establishment of
+the second commonwealth the new homes of the ten tribes were accurately
+known. After that, for more than five hundred years, history is silent
+on the subject. From frequent allusions in the prophetical writings, we
+may gather that efforts were made to re-unite Judah and the tribes of
+Israel, and it seems highly probable that they were successful, such of
+the ten tribes as had not adopted the idolatrous practices of the
+heathen returning with the exiles of Judah. In the Samaritan book of
+Joshua, it is put down that many out of the tribes of Israel migrated to
+the north of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> Palestine at the time when Zerubbabel and Ezra brought the
+train of Babylonian exiles to Jerusalem.</p>
+
+<p>In Talmudic literature we occasionally run across a slight reference to
+the ten tribes, as, for instance, Mar Sutra's statement that they
+journeyed to Iberia, at that time synonymous with Spain, though the
+rabbi probably had northern Africa in mind. Another passage relates that
+the Babylonian scholars decided that no one could tell whether he was
+descended from Reuben or from Simon, the presumption in their mind
+evidently being that the ten tribes had become amalgamated with Judah
+and Benjamin. If they are right, if from the time of Jeremiah to the
+Syrian domination, a slow process of assimilation was incorporating the
+scattered of the ten tribes into the returned remnant of Judah and
+Benjamin, then the ten lost tribes have no existence, and we are dealing
+with a myth. But the question is still mooted. The prophets and the
+rabbis continually dwell upon the hope of reunion. The Pesikta is the
+first authority to locate the exile home of the ten tribes on the
+Sambation. A peculiarly interesting conversation on the future of the
+ten tribes between two learned doctors of the Law, Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi
+Eliezer, has been preserved. Rabbi Eliezer maintains: "The Eternal has
+removed the ten tribes from their soil, and cast them forth into another
+land, as irrevocably as this day goes never to return." Rabbi Akiba, the
+enthusiastic nationalist, thinks very differently: "No, day sinks, and
+passes into night only to rise again in renewed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> brilliance. So the ten
+tribes, lost in darkness, will reappear in refulgent light."</p>
+
+<p>It is not unlikely that Akiba's journeys, extending into Africa, and
+undertaken to bring about the restoration of the independence of Judæa,
+had as their subsidiary, unavowed purpose, the discovery of the ten lost
+tribes. The "Dark Continent" played no unimportant rôle in Talmudic
+writings, special interest attaching to their narratives of the African
+adventures of Alexander the Great.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> On one occasion, it is said, the
+wise men of Africa appeared in a body before the king, and offered him
+gifts of gold. He refused them, being desirous only of becoming
+acquainted with the customs, statutes, and law, of the land. They,
+therefore, gave him an account of a lawsuit which was exciting much
+attention at the time: A man had bought a field from his friend and
+neighbor, and while digging it up, had found a treasure which he refused
+to keep, as he considered it the property of the original owner of the
+field. The latter maintained that he had sold the land and all on and
+within it, and, therefore, had no claim upon the treasure. The doctors
+of the law put an end to the dispute by the decision that the son of the
+one contestant was to take to wife the daughter of the other, the
+treasure to be their marriage portion. Alexander marvelled greatly at
+this decision. "With us," he said, "the government would have had the
+litigants killed, and would have confiscated the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> treasure." Hereupon
+one of the wise men exclaimed: "Does the sun shine in your land? Have
+you dumb beasts where you live? If so, surely it is for them that God
+sends down the rain, and lets the sun shine!"</p>
+
+<p>In biblical literature, too, frequent mention is made of Africa. The
+first explorer of the "Dark Continent" was the patriarch Abraham, who
+journeyed from Ur of the Chaldees through Mesopotamia, across the
+deserts and mountains of Asia, to Zoan, the metropolis of ancient Egypt.
+When Moses fled from before Pharaoh, he found refuge, according to a
+Talmudic legend, in the Soudan, where he became ruler of the land for
+forty years, and later on, Egypt was the asylum for the greater number
+of Jewish rebels and fugitives. As early as the reign of King Solomon,
+ships freighted with silver sailed to Africa, and Jewish sailors in part
+manned the Ph&oelig;nician vessels despatched to the coasts of the Red Sea
+to be loaded with the gold dust of Africa, whose usual name in Hebrew
+was <i>Ophir</i>, meaning gold dust. In the Talmud Africa is generally spoken
+of as "the South," owing to its lying south of Palestine. One of its
+proverbs runs thus: "He who would be wise, must go to the South." The
+story of Alexander the Great and the African lawyers is probably a
+sample of the wisdom lauded. Nor were the doctors of the Talmud ignorant
+of the physical features of the country. A scoffer asked, "Why have
+Africans such broad feet." "Because they live on marshy soil, and must
+go barefoot," was the ready answer given by Hillel the Great.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the course of a discussion about the appearance of the cherubim,
+Akiba pointed out that in Africa a little child is called "cherub."
+Thence he inferred that the faces of cherubim resembled those of little
+children. On his travels in Africa, the same rabbi was appealed to by a
+mighty negro king: "See, I am black, and my wife is black. How is it
+that my children are white?" Akiba asked him whether there were pictures
+in his palace. "Yes," answered the monarch, "my sleeping chamber is
+adorned with pictures of white men." "That solves the puzzle," said
+Akiba. Evidently civilization had taken root in Africa more than
+eighteen hundred years ago.</p>
+
+<p>To return to the lost tribes: No land on the globe has been considered
+too small, none too distant, for their asylum. The first country to
+suggest itself was the one closest to Palestine, Arabia, the bridge
+between Asia and Africa. In the first centuries of this era, two great
+kingdoms, Yathrib and Chaibar, flourished there, and it is altogether
+probable that Jews were constantly emigrating thither. As early as the
+time of Alexander the Great, thousands were transported to Arabia,
+particularly to Yemen, where entire tribes accepted the Jewish faith.
+Recent research has made us familiar with the kingdom of Tabba (500) and
+the Himyarites. Their inscriptions and the royal monuments of the old
+African-Jewish population prove that Jewish immigrants must have been
+numerous here, as in southern Arabia. When Mohammed unfurled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> the banner
+of the Prophet, and began his march through the desert, his followers
+counted not a few Jews. In similar numbers they spread to northern
+Africa, where, towards the end of the first thousand years of the
+Christian era, they boasted large communities, and played a prominent
+rôle in Jewish literature, as is attested by the important contributions
+to Jewish law, grammar, poetry, and medicine, by such men as Isaac
+Israeli, Chananel, Jacob ben Nissim, Dunash ben Labrat, Yehuda Chayyug,
+and later, Isaac Alfassi. When this north-African Jewish literature was
+at its zenith, interest in the whereabouts of the ten tribes revived,
+first mention of them being made in the last quarter of the ninth
+century. One day there appeared in the academy at Kairwan an adventurer
+calling himself Eldad, and representing himself to be a member of the
+tribe of Dan. Marvellous tales he told the wondering rabbis of his own
+adventures, which read like a Jewish Odyssey, and of the independent
+government established by Jews in Africa, of which he claimed to be a
+subject. Upon its borders, he reported, live the Levitical singers, the
+descendants of Moses, who, in the days of Babylonish captivity, hung
+their harps upon the willows, refusing to sing the songs of Zion upon
+the soil of the stranger, and willing to sacrifice limb and life rather
+than yield to the importunities of their oppressors. A cloud had
+enveloped and raised them aloft, bearing them to the land of Chavila
+(Ethiopia). To protect them from their enemies, their refuge in a trice
+was gir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span>dled by the famous Sambation, a stream, not of waters, but of
+rapidly whirling stones and sand, tumultuously flowing during six days,
+and resting on the Sabbath, when the country was secured against foreign
+invasion by a dense cloud of dust. With their neighbors, the sons of
+Moses have intercourse only from the banks of the stream, which it is
+impossible to pass.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p>
+
+<p>This clever fellow, who had travelled far and wide, and knew men and
+customs, gave an account also of a shipwreck which he had survived, and
+of his miraculous escape from cannibals, who devoured his companions,
+but, finding him too lean for their taste, threw him into a dungeon.
+Homer's Odyssey involuntarily suggests itself to the reader. In Spain we
+lose trace of the singular adventurer, who must have produced no little
+excitement in the Jewish world of his day.</p>
+
+<p>Search for the ten tribes had now re-established itself as a subject of
+perennial interest. In the hope of the fulfilment of the biblical
+promise: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
+between his feet, until he comes to Shiloh," even the most famous Jewish
+traveller of the middle ages, Benjamin of Tudela, did not disdain to
+follow up the "traces of salvation." Nor has interest waned in our
+generation. Whenever we hear of a Jewish community whose settlement in
+its home is tinged with mystery, we straightway seek to establish its
+connection with the ten lost tribes. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> have been placed in Armenia,
+Syria, and Mesopotamia, where the Nestorian Christians, calling
+themselves sons of Israel, live to the number of two hundred thousand,
+observing the dietary laws and the Sabbath, and offering up sacrifices.
+They have been sought in Afghanistan, India, and Western Asia, the land
+of the "Beni Israel," with Jewish features, Jewish names, such as
+Solomon, David, and Benjamin, and Jewish laws, such as that of the
+Levirate marriage. One chain of hills in their country bears the name
+"Solomon's Mountains," another "Amram Chain," and the most warlike tribe
+is called Ephraim, while the chief tenet of their law is "eye for eye,
+tooth for tooth." Search for the lost has been carried still further, to
+the coast of China, to the settlements of Cochin and Malabar, where
+white and black Jews write their law upon scrolls of red goatskin.</p>
+
+<p>Westward the quest has reached America: Manasseh ben Israel and Mordecai
+Noah, the latter of whom hoped to establish a Jewish commonwealth at
+Ararat near Buffalo, in the beginning of this century, believed that
+they had discovered traces of the lost tribes among the Indians. The
+Spaniards in Mexico identified them with the red men of Anahuac and
+Yucatan, a theory suggested probably by the resemblance between the
+Jewish and the Indian aquiline nose. These would-be ethnologists
+obviously did not take into account the Mongolian descent of the Indian
+tribes and their pre-historic migration from Asia to America across
+Behring Strait.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Europe has not escaped the imputation of being the refuge of the lost
+tribes. When Alfonso XI. expelled the Saracens from Toledo, the Jews of
+the city asked permission to remain on the plea that they were not
+descendants of the murderers of Jesus, but of those ten tribes whom
+Nebuchadnezzar had sent to Tarshish as colonists. The petition was
+granted, and their explanation filed among the royal archives at Toledo.</p>
+
+<p>The English have taken absorbing interest in the fate of the lost
+tribes, maintaining by most elaborate arguments their identity with the
+inhabitants of Scandinavia and England. The English people have always
+had a strong biblical bias. To this day they live in the Bible, and are
+flattered by the hypothesis that the Anglo-Saxons and kindred tribes,
+who crossed over to Britain under Hengist and Horsa in the fifth
+century, were direct descendants of Abraham, their very name
+<i>Sakkasuna</i>, that is, sons of Isaac, vouching for the truth of the
+theory. The radical falseness of the etymology is patent. The gist of
+their argument is that the tribe of Dan settled near the source of the
+Jordan, becoming the maritime member of the Israelitish confederacy, and
+calling forth from Deborah the rebuke that the sons of Dan tarried in
+ships when the land stood in need of defenders. And now comes the most
+extravagant of the vagaries of the etymological reasoner: he suggests a
+connection between Dan, Danube, Danaï, and Danes, and so establishes the
+English nation's descent from the tribes of Israel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the third decade of this century, when Shalmaneser's obelisk was
+found with the inscription "Tribute of Jehu, son of Omri," English
+investigators, seeking to connect it with the Cimbric Chersonese in
+Jutland, at once took it for "Yehu ibn Umry." An Irish legend has it
+that Princess Tephi came to Ireland from the East, and married King
+Heremon, or Fergus, of Scotland. In her suite was the prophet Ollam
+Folla, and his scribe Bereg. The princess was the daughter of Zedekiah,
+the prophet none other than Jeremiah, and the scribe, as a matter of
+course, Baruch. The usefulness of this fine-spun analogy becomes
+apparent when we recall that Queen Victoria boasts descent from Fergus
+of Scotland, and so is furnished with a line of descent which would
+justify pride if it rested on fact instead of fancy. On the other hand,
+imagine the dismay of Heinrich von Treitschke, Saxon <i>par excellence</i>,
+were it proved that he is a son of the ten lost tribes!</p>
+
+<p>"Salvation is of the Jews!" is the motto of a considerable movement
+connected with the lost tribes in England and America. More than thirty
+weekly and monthly journals are discharging a volley of eloquence in the
+propaganda of the new doctrine, and lecturers and societies keep
+interest in it alive. An apostolic believer in the Israelitish descent
+of the British has recently turned up in the person of a bishop, and the
+identity of the ancient and the modern people has been raised to the
+dignity of a dogma of the Christian Church by a sect which, according to
+a recent utterance of an Indianapolis preacher,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> holds the close advent
+of Judgment Day. Yet the ten lost tribes may be a myth!</p>
+
+<p>One thing seems certain: If scattered remnants do exist here and there,
+they must be sought in Africa, in that part, moreover, most accessible
+to travellers, that is to say, Abyssinia, situated in the central
+portion of the great, high tableland of eastern Africa between the basin
+of the Nile and the shores of the Red and the Arabian Sea&mdash;a tremendous,
+rocky, fortress-like plateau, intersected closely with a network of
+river-beds, the Switzerland of Africa, as many please to call it.
+Alexander the Great colonized many thousands of Jews in Egypt on the
+southern and northern coasts of the Mediterranean, and in south-eastern
+Africa. Thence they penetrated into the interior of Abyssinia, where
+they founded a mighty kingdom extending to the river Sobat. Abyssinian
+legends have another version of the history of this realm. It is said
+that the Queen of Sheba bore King Solomon a son, named Menelek, whom he
+sent to Abyssinia with a numerous retinue to found an independent
+kingdom. In point of fact, Judaism seems to have been the dominant
+religion in Abyssinia until 340 of the Christian era, and the <i>Golah</i> of
+Cush (the exiles in Abyssinia) is frequently referred to in mediæval
+Hebrew literature.</p>
+
+<p>The Jewish kingdom flourished until a great revolution broke out in the
+ninth century under Queen Judith (Sague), who conquered Axum, and
+reigned over Abyssinia for forty years. The Jewish ascend<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span>ancy lasted
+three hundred and fifty years. Rüppell,<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> a noted African explorer,
+gives the names of Jewish dynasties from the ninth to the thirteenth
+century. In the wars of the latter and the following century, the Jews
+lost their kingdom, keeping only the province of Semen, guarded by
+inaccessible mountains. Benjamin of Tudela describes it as "a land full
+of mountains, upon whose rocky summits they have perched their towns and
+castles, holding independent sway to the mortal terror of their
+neighbors." Combats, persecutions, and banishments lasted until the end
+of the eighteenth century. Anarchy reigned, overwhelming Gideon and
+Judith, the last of the Jewish dynasty, and proving equally fatal to the
+Christian empire, whose Negus Theodore likewise traced his descent from
+Solomon. So, after a thousand years of mutual hostility, the two ancient
+native dynasties, claiming descent from David and Solomon, perished
+together, but the memory of the Jewish princes has not died out in the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>The Abyssinian Jews are called Falashas, the exiled.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> They live
+secluded in the province west of Takazzeh, and their number is estimated
+by some travellers to be two hundred and fifty thousand, while my friend
+Dr. Edward Glaser judges them to be only twenty-five thousand strong.
+Into the dreary wastes inhabited by these people, German and English
+missionaries have found their way to spread among them the blessings of
+Christianity. The purity of these blessings may be inferred from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span> the
+names of the missionaries: Flad, Schiller, Brandeis, Stern, and
+Rosenbaum.</p>
+
+<p>Information about the misery of the Falashas penetrated to Europe, and
+induced the <i>Alliance Israélite Universelle</i> to despatch a Jewish
+messenger to Abyssinia. Choice fell upon Joseph Halévy, professor of
+Oriental languages at Paris, one of the most thorough of Jewish
+scholars, than whom none could be better qualified for the mission. It
+was a memorable moment when Halévy, returned from his great journey to
+Abyssinia, addressed the meeting of the <i>Alliance</i> on July 30, 1868, as
+follows:<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> "The ancient land of Ethiopia has at last disclosed the
+secret concerning the people of whom we hitherto knew naught but the
+name. In the midst of the most varied fortunes they clung to the Law
+proclaimed on Sinai, and constant misery has not drained them of the
+vitality which enables nations to fulfil the best requirements of modern
+society."</p>
+
+<p>Adverse circumstances robbed Halévy of a great part of the material
+gathered on his trip. What he rescued and published is enough to give us
+a more detailed and accurate account of the Falashas than we have
+hitherto possessed. He reports that they address their prayers to one
+God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that they feel pride in
+belonging to the old, yet ever young tribe which has exercised dominant
+influence upon the fate of men; that love for the Holy Land fills their
+hearts; and that the memory of Israel's glorious past is their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span>
+spiritual stay. One of the articles of their faith is the restoration of
+Jewish nationality.</p>
+
+<p>The Falashas speak two languages, that of the land, the Amharic, a
+branch of the ancient Geez, and the Agau, a not yet classified dialect.
+Their names are chiefly biblical. While in dress they are like their
+neighbors, the widest difference prevails between their manners and
+customs and those of the other inhabitants of the land. In the midst of
+a slothful, debauched people, they are distinguished for simplicity,
+diligence, and ambition. Their houses for the most part are situated
+near running water; hence, their cleanly habits. At the head of each
+village is a synagogue called <i>Mesgid</i>, whose Holy of holies may be
+entered only by the priest on the Day of Atonement, while the people
+pray in the court without. Next to the synagogue live the monks
+(<i>Nesirim</i>). The priests offer up sacrifices, as in ancient times, daily
+except on the Day of Atonement, the most important being that for the
+repose of the dead. On the space surrounding the synagogue stand the
+houses of the priests, who, in addition to their religious functions,
+fill the office of teachers of the young. The Falashas are well
+acquainted with the Bible, but wholly ignorant of the Hebrew language.
+Their ritual has been published by Joseph Halévy, who has added a Hebrew
+translation, showing its almost perfect identity with the traditional
+form of Jewish prayer. About their devotional exercises Halévy says:
+"From the holy precincts the prayers of the faithful rise aloft to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span>
+heaven. From midnight on, we hear the clear, rhythmical, melancholy
+intonation of the precentor, the congregation responding in a monotonous
+recitative. Praise of the Eternal, salvation of Israel, love of Zion,
+hope of a happy future for all mankind&mdash;these form the burden of their
+prayers, calling forth sighs and tears, exclamations of hope and joy.
+Break of day still finds the worshippers assembled, and every evening
+without fail, as the sun sinks to rest, their loud prayer (beginning
+with <i>Abba! Abba!</i> Lord! Lord!) twice wakes the echoes."<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p>
+
+<p>Their well kept houses are presided over by their women, diligent and
+modest. Polygamy is unknown. There are agriculturists and artisans,
+representatives of every handicraft: smiths, tailors, potters, weavers,
+and builders. Commerce is not esteemed, trading with slaves being held
+in special abhorrence. Their laws permit the keeping of a slave for only
+six years. If at the expiration of that period he embraces their
+religion, he is free. They are brave warriors, thousands of them having
+fought in the army of Negus Theodore.</p>
+
+<p>It must be confessed that intellectually they are undeveloped. They have
+a sort of Midrash, which apparently has been handed down from generation
+to generation by word of mouth. The misfortunes they have endured have
+predisposed them to mysticism, and magicians and soothsayers are
+numerous and active among them. But they are eager for information.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span></p>
+
+<p>King Theodore protected them, until missionaries poisoned his mind
+against the Falashas. In 1868 he summoned a deputation of their elders,
+and commanded them to accept Christianity. Upon their refusal the king
+ordered his soldiers to fire on the rebels. Hundreds of heads were
+raised, and the men, baring their breasts, cried out: "Strike, O our
+King, but ask us not to perjure ourselves." Moved to admiration by their
+intrepidity, the king loaded the deputies with presents, and dismissed
+them in peace.</p>
+
+<p>The missionaries&mdash;Europe does not yet know how often the path of these
+pious men is marked by tears and blood&mdash;must be held guilty of many of
+the bitter trials of the Falashas. In the sixties they succeeded in
+exciting Messianic expectations. Suddenly, from district to district,
+leapt the news that the Messiah was approaching to lead Israel back to
+Palestine. A touching letter addressed by the elders of the Falashas to
+the representatives of the Jewish community at Jerusalem, whom it never
+reached, was found by a traveller, and deserves to be quoted:</p>
+
+<p>"Has the time not yet come when we must return to the Holy Land and Holy
+City? For, we are poor and miserable. We have neither judges nor
+prophets. If the time has arrived, we pray you send us the glad tidings.
+Great fear has fallen upon us that we may miss the opportunity to
+return. Many say that the time is here for us to be reunited with you in
+the Holy City, to bring sacrifices in the Temple of our Holy Land. For
+the sake of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> love we bear you, send us a message. Peace with you and
+all dwelling in the land given by the Lord to Moses on Sinai!"</p>
+
+<p>Filled with the hope of redemption, large numbers of the Falashas, at
+their head venerable old men holding aloft banners and singing pious
+songs, at that time left their homes. Ignorant of the road to be taken,
+they set their faces eastward, hoping to reach the shores of the Red
+Sea. The distance was greater than they could travel. At Axum they came
+to a stop disabled, and after three years the last man had succumbed to
+misery and privation.</p>
+
+<p>The distress of the Falashas is extreme, but they count it sweet
+alleviation if their sight is not troubled by missionaries. At a time
+when the attention of the civilized world is directed to Africa,
+European Jews should not be found wanting in care for their unfortunate
+brethren in faith in the "Dark Continent." Abundant reasons recommend
+them to our loving-kindness. They are Jews&mdash;they would suffer a thousand
+deaths rather than renounce the covenant sealed on Sinai. They are
+unfortunate; since the civil war, they have suffered severely under all
+manner of persecution. Mysticism and ignorance prevail among them&mdash;the
+whole community possesses a single copy of the Pentateuch. Finally, they
+show eager desire for spiritual regeneration. When Halévy took leave of
+them, a handsome youth threw himself at his feet, and said: "My lord,
+take me with you to the land of the Franks. Gladly will I undergo the
+hardships of the journey. I want<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span> neither silver nor gold&mdash;all I crave
+is knowledge!" Halévy brought the young Falasha to Paris, and he proved
+an indefatigable student, who acquired a wealth of knowledge before his
+early death.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the incubus of African barbarism, this little Jewish tribe on
+the banks of the legend-famed Sabbath stream has survived with Jewish
+vitality unbroken and purity uncontaminated. With longing the Falashas
+are awaiting a future when they will be permitted to join the councils
+of their Israelitish brethren in all quarters of the globe, and confess,
+in unison with them and all redeemed, enlightened men, that "the Lord is
+one, and His name one."</p>
+
+<p>The steadfastness of their faith imposes upon us the obligation to bring
+them redemption. We must unbar for them not only Jerusalem, but the
+whole world, that they may recognize, as we do, the eternal truth
+preached by prophet and extolled by psalmist, that on the glad day when
+the unity of God is acknowledged, all the nations of the earth will form
+a single confederacy, banded together for love and peace.</p>
+
+<p>The open-eyed student of Jewish history, in which the Falashas form a
+very small chapter, cannot fail to note with reverence the power and
+sacredness of its genius. The race, the faith, the confession, all is
+unparalleled. Everything about it is wonderful&mdash;from Abraham at Ur of
+the Chaldees shattering his father's idols and proclaiming the unity of
+God, down to Moses teaching awed mankind the highest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> ethical lessons
+from the midst of the thunders and flames of Sinai; to the heroes and
+seers, whose radiant visions are mankind's solace; to the sweet singers
+of Israel extolling the virtues of men in hymns and songs; to the
+Maccabean heroes struggling to throw off the Syrian yoke; to venerable
+rabbis proof against the siren notes of Hellenism; to the gracious bards
+and profound thinkers of Andalusia. The genius of Jewish history is
+never at rest. From the edge of the wilderness it sweeps on to the lands
+of civilization, where thousands of martyrs seal the confession of God's
+unity with death on ruddy pyres; on through tears and blood, over
+nations, across thrones, until the sun of culture, risen to its zenith,
+sends its rays even into the dark Ghetto, where a drama enacts itself,
+melancholy, curious, whose last act is being played under our very eyes.
+Branch after branch is dropping from the timeworn, weatherbeaten trunk.
+The ground is thickly strewn with dry leaves. Vitality that resisted
+rain and storm seems to be blasted by sunshine. Yet we need not despair.
+The genius of Jewish history has the balsam of consolation to offer. It
+bids us read in the old documents of Israel's spiritual struggles, and
+calls to our attention particularly a parable in the Midrash, written
+when the need for its telling was as sore as to-day: A wagon loaded with
+glistening axes was driven through the woods. Plaintive cries arose from
+the trees: "Woe, woe, there is no escape for us, we are doomed to swift
+destruction." A solitary oak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> towering high above the other trees stood
+calm, motionless. Many a spring had decked its twigs with tender,
+succulent green. At last it speaks; all are silent, and listen
+respectfully: "Possess yourselves in peace. All the axes in the world
+cannot harm you, if you do not provide them with handles."</p>
+
+<p>So every weapon shaped to the injury of the ancient tree of Judaism will
+recoil ineffectual, unless her sons and adherents themselves furnish the
+haft. There is consolation in the thought. Even in sad days it feeds the
+hope that the time will come, whereof the prophet spoke, when "all thy
+children shall be disciples of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of
+thy children."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>A JEWISH KING IN POLAND</h3>
+
+
+<p>There is a legend that a Jewish king once reigned in Poland. It never
+occurs to my mind without at the same time conjuring before me two
+figures. The one is that charming creation of Ghetto fancy, old Malkoh
+"with the stout heart," in Aaron Bernstein's <i>Mendel Gibbor</i>, who
+introduces herself with the proud boast: <i>Wir sennen von königlichein
+Geblüt</i> ("We are of royal descent"). The other is a less ideal, less
+attractive Jew, whom I overheard in the Casimir, the Jewish quarter at
+Cracow, in altercation with another Jew. The matter seemed of vital
+interest to the disputants. The one affirmed, the other denied as
+vigorously, and finally silenced his opponent with the contemptuous
+argument: "Well, and if it comes about, it will last just as long as
+Saul Wahl's <i>Malchus</i> (reign)."</p>
+
+<p>Legend has always been the companion of history. For each age it creates
+a typical figure, in which are fixed, for the information of future
+times, the fleeting, subtle emotions as well as the permanent effects
+produced by historical events, and this constitutes the value of
+legendary lore in tracing the development and characteristics of a
+people. At the same time its magic charms connect the links in the chain
+of generations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The legend about Saul Wahl to be known and appreciated must first be
+told as it exists, then traced through its successive stages, its
+historical kernel disentangled from the accretions of legend-makers,
+Saul, the man of flesh and blood discovered, and the ethical lessons it
+has to teach derived.</p>
+
+<p>In 1734, more than a century after Saul's supposed reign, his
+great-grandson, Rabbi Pinchas, resident successively in Leitnik,
+Boskowitz, Wallerstein, Schwarzburg, Marktbreit, and Anspach, related
+the story of his ancestor: "Rabbi Samuel Judah's son was the great Saul
+Wahl of blessed memory. All learned in such matters well know that his
+surname <i>Wahl</i> (choice) was given him, because he was chosen king in
+Poland by the unanimous vote of the noble electors of the land. I was
+told by my father and teacher, of blessed memory, that the choice fell
+upon him in this wise: Saul Wahl was a favorite with Polish noblemen,
+and highly esteemed for his shrewdness and ability. The king of Poland
+had died. Now it was customary for the great nobles of Poland to
+assemble for the election of a new king on a given day, on which it was
+imperative that a valid decision be reached. When the day came, many
+opinions were found to prevail among the electors, which could not be
+reconciled. Evening fell, and they realized the impossibility of
+electing a king on the legally appointed day. Loth to transgress their
+own rule, the nobles agreed to make Saul Wahl king for the rest of that
+day and the following night, and thus conform with the letter of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span>
+law. And so it was. Forthwith all paid him homage, crying out in their
+own language: 'Long live our lord and king!' Saul, loaded with royal
+honors, reigned that night. I heard from my father that they gave into
+his keeping all the documents in the royal archives, to which every king
+may add what commands he lists, and Wahl inscribed many laws and decrees
+of import favorable to Jews. My father knew some of them; one was that
+the murderer of a Jew, like the murderer of a nobleman, was to suffer
+the death penalty. Life was to be taken for life, and no ransom
+allowed&mdash;a law which, in Poland, had applied only to the case of
+Christians of the nobility. The next day the electors came to an
+agreement, and chose a ruler for Poland.&mdash;That this matter may be
+remembered, I will not fail to set forth the reasons why Saul Wahl
+enjoyed such respect with the noblemen of Poland, which is the more
+remarkable as his father, Rabbi Samuel Judah, was rabbi first at Padua
+and then at Venice, and so lived in Italy. My father told me how it came
+about. In his youth, during his father's lifetime, Saul Wahl conceived a
+desire to travel in foreign parts. He left his paternal home in Padua,
+and journeying from town to town, from land to land, he at last reached
+Brzesc in Lithuania. There he married the daughter of David Drucker, and
+his pittance being small, he led but a wretched life.</p>
+
+<p>It happened at this time that the famous, wealthy prince, Radziwill, the
+favorite of the king, undertook a great journey to see divers lands, as
+is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> custom of noblemen. They travel far and wide to become
+acquainted with different fashions and governments. So this prince
+journeyed in great state from land to land, until his purse was empty.
+He knew not what to do, for he would not discover his plight to the
+nobles of the land in which he happened to be; indeed, he did not care
+to let them know who he was. Now, he chanced to be in Padua, and he
+resolved to unbosom himself to the rabbi, tell him that he was a great
+noble of the Polish land, and borrow somewhat to relieve his pressing
+need. Such is the manner of Polish noblemen. They permit shrewd and
+sensible Jews to become intimate with them that they may borrow from
+them, rabbis being held in particularly high esteem and favor by the
+princes and lords of Poland. So it came about that the aforesaid Prince
+Radziwill sought out Rabbi Samuel Judah, and revealed his identity, at
+the same time discovering to him his urgent need of money. The rabbi
+lent him the sum asked for, and the prince said, 'How can I recompense
+you, returning good for good?' The rabbi answered, 'First I beg that you
+deal kindly with the Jews under your power, and then that you do the
+good you would show me to my son Saul, who lives in Brzesc.' The prince
+took down the name and place of abode of the rabbi's son, and having
+arrived at his home, sent for him. He appeared before the prince, who
+found him so wise and clever that he in every possible way attached the
+Jew to his own person, gave him many proofs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> of his favor, sounded his
+praises in the ears of all the nobles, and raised him to a high
+position. He was so great a favorite with all the lords that on the day
+when a king was to be elected, and the peers could not agree, rather
+than have the day pass without the appointment of a ruler, they
+unanimously resolved to invest Saul with royal power, calling him Saul
+Wahl to indicate that he had been <i>chosen</i> king.&mdash;All this my father
+told me, and such new matter as I gathered from another source, I will
+not fail to set down in another chapter."&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"This furthermore I heard from my pious father, when, in 1734, he lay
+sick in Fürth, where there are many physicians. I went from Marktbreit
+to Fürth, and stayed with him for three weeks. When I was alone with
+him, he dictated his will to me, and then said in a low voice: 'This I
+will tell you that you may know what happened to our ancestor Saul Wahl:
+After the nobles had elected a king for Poland, and our ancestor had
+become great in the eyes of the Jews, he unfortunately grew haughty. He
+had a beautiful daughter, Händele, famed throughout Poland for her wit
+as well as her beauty. Many sought her in marriage, and among her
+suitors was a young Talmudist, the son of one of the most celebrated
+rabbis. (My father did not mention the name, either because he did not
+know, or because he did not wish to say it, or mayhap he had forgotten
+it.) The great rabbi himself came to Brzesc with his learned son to urge
+the suit. They both lodged with the chief elder of the congregation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span>
+But the pride of our ancestor was overweening. In his heart he
+considered himself the greatest, and his daughter the best, in the land,
+and he said that his daughter must marry one more exalted than this
+suitor. Thus he showed his scorn for a sage revered in Israel and for
+his son, and these two were sore offended at the discourtesy. The Jewish
+community had long been murmuring against our ancestor Saul Wahl, and it
+was resolved to make amends for his unkindness. One of the most
+respected men in the town gave his daughter to the young Talmudist for
+wife, and from that day our ancestor had enemies among his people, who
+constantly sought to do him harm. It happened at that time that the wife
+of the king whom the nobles had chosen died, and several Jews of Brzesc,
+in favor with the powerful of the land, in order to administer
+punishment to Saul Wahl, went about among the nobles praising his
+daughter for her exceeding beauty and cleverness, and calling her the
+worthiest to wear the queenly crown. One of the princes being kindly
+disposed to Saul Wahl betrayed their evil plot, and it was
+frustrated.'"<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p>
+
+<p>Rabbi Pinchas' ingenuous narrative, charming in its simple directness,
+closes wistfully: "He who has not seen that whole generation, Saul Wahl
+amid his sons, sons-in-law, and grandsons, has failed to see the union
+of the Law with mundane glory, of wealth with honor and princely
+rectitude. May the Lord God bless us by permitting us to rejoice thus in
+our children and children's children!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Other rabbis of that time have left us versions of the Saul Wahl legend.
+They report that he founded a <i>Beth ha-Midrash</i> (college for Jewish
+studies) and a little synagogue, leaving them, together with numerous
+bequests, to the community in which he had lived, with the condition
+that the presidency of the college be made hereditary in his family.
+Some add that they had seen in Brzesc a gold chain belonging to him, his
+coat of arms emblazoned with the lion of Judah, and a stone tablet on
+which an account of his meritorious deeds was graven. Chain, escutcheon,
+and stone have disappeared, and been forgotten, the legend alone
+survives.</p>
+
+<p class="dots">* *<br />*</p>
+
+<p>Now, what has history to say?</p>
+
+<p>Unquestionably, an historical kernel lies hidden in the legend. Neither
+the Polish chronicles of those days nor Jewish works mention a Jewish
+king of Poland; but from certain occurrences, hints can be gleaned
+sufficient to enable us to establish the underlying truth. When Stephen
+Báthori died, Poland was hard pressed. On all sides arose pretenders to
+the throne. The most powerful aspirant was Archduke Maximilian of
+Austria, who depended on his gold and Poland's well-known sympathy for
+Austria to gain him the throne. Next came the Duke of Ferrara backed by
+a great army and the favor of the Czar, and then, headed by the
+crown-prince of Sweden, a crowd of less powerful claimants, so motley
+that a Polish nobleman justly exclaimed: "If you think any one will do
+to wear Po<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span>land's crown upon his pate, I'll set up my coachman as king!"
+Great Poland espoused the cause of Sweden, Little Poland supported
+Austria, and the Lithuanians furthered the wishes of the Czar. In
+reality, however, the election of the king was the occasion for bringing
+to a crisis the conflict between the two dominant families of Zamoiski
+and Zborowski.</p>
+
+<p>The election was to take place on August 18, 1587. The electors, armed
+to the teeth, appeared on the place designated for the election, a
+fortified camp on the Vistula, on the other side of which stood the
+deputies of the claimants. Night was approaching, and the possibility of
+reconciling the parties seemed as remote as ever. Christopher Radziwill,
+the "castellan" of the realm, endeavoring to make peace between the
+factions, stealthily crept from camp to camp, but evening deepened into
+night, and still the famous election cry, "<i>Zgoda!</i>" (Agreed!), was not
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>According to the legend, this is the night of Saul Wahl's brief royalty.
+It is said that he was an agent employed by Prince Radziwill, and when
+the electors could not be induced to come to an agreement, it occurred
+to the prince to propose Saul as a compromise-king. With shouts of "Long
+live King Saul!" the proposal was greeted by both factions, and this is
+the nucleus of the legend, which with remarkable tenacity has
+perpetuated itself down to our generation. For the historical truth of
+the episode we have three witnesses. The chief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span> is Prince Nicholas
+Christopher of Radziwill, duke of Olyka and Nieswiesz, the son of the
+founder of this still flourishing line of princes. His father had left
+the Catholic church, and joined the Protestants, but he himself returned
+to Catholicism, and won fame by his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, described
+in both Polish and Latin in the work <i>Peregrinatio Hierosolymitana</i>.
+Besides, he offered 5000 ducats for the purchase of extant copies of the
+Protestant "Radziwill Bible," published by his father, intending to have
+them destroyed. On his return journey from the Holy Land he was attacked
+at Pescara by robbers, and at Ancona on a Palm Sunday, according to his
+own account, he found himself destitute of means. He applied to the
+papal governor, but his story met with incredulity. Then he appealed to
+a Jewish merchant, offering him, as a pawn, a gold box made of a piece
+of the holy cross obtained in Palestine, encircled with diamonds, and
+bearing on its top the <i>Agnus dei</i>. The Jew advanced one hundred crowns,
+which sufficed exactly to pay his lodging and attendants. Needy as
+before, he again turned to the Jew, who gave him another hundred crowns,
+this time without exacting a pledge, a glance at his papal passport
+having convinced him of the prince's identity.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p>
+
+<p>This is Radziwill's account in his itinerary. As far as it goes, it
+bears striking similarity to the narrative of Rabbi Pinchas of Anspach,
+and leads to the certain conclusion that the legend rests upon an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span>
+historical substratum. A critic has justly remarked that the most vivid
+fancy could not, one hundred and thirty-one years after their
+occurrence, invent, in Anspach, the tale of a Polish magnate's
+adventures in Italy. Again, it is highly improbable that Saul Wahl's
+great-grandson read Prince Radziwill's Latin book, detailing his
+experiences to his contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>There are other witnesses to plead for the essential truth of our
+legend. The rabbis mentioned before have given accounts of Saul's
+position, of his power, and the splendor of his life. Negative signs, it
+is true, exist, arguing against the historical value of the legend.
+Polish history has not a word to say about the ephemeral king. In fact,
+there was no day fixed for the session of the electoral diet. Moreover,
+critics might adduce against the probability of its correctness the
+humble station of the Jews, and the low esteem in which the Radziwills
+were then held by the Polish nobility. But it is questionable whether
+these arguments are sufficiently convincing to strip the Saul Wahl
+legend of all semblance of truth. Polish historians are hardly fair in
+ignoring the story. Though it turn out to have been a wild prank, it has
+some historical justification. Such practical jokes are not unusual in
+Polish history. Readers of that history will recall the <i>Respublika
+Babinska</i>, that society of practical jokers which drew up royal
+charters, and issued patents of nobility. A Polish nobleman had founded
+the society in the sixteenth century, its membership being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span> open only to
+those distinguished as wits. It perpetrated the oddest political jokes,
+appointing spendthrifts as overseers of estates, and the most
+quarrelsome as justices of the peace. With such proclivities, Polish
+factions, at loggerheads with each other, can easily be imagined uniting
+to crown a Jew, the most harmless available substitute for a real king.</p>
+
+<p>Our last and strongest witness&mdash;one compelling the respectful attention
+of the severest court and the most incisive attorney general&mdash;is the
+Russian professor Berschadzky, the author of an invaluable work on the
+history of the Jews in Lithuania. He vouches, not indeed for the
+authenticity of the events related by Rabbi Pinchas, but for the reality
+of Saul Wahl himself. From out of the Russian archives he has been
+resurrected by Professor Berschadzky, the first to establish that Saul
+was a man of flesh and blood.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> He reproduces documents of
+incontestable authority, which report that Stephen Báthori, in the year
+1578, the third of his reign, awarded the salt monopoly for the whole of
+Poland to Saul Juditsch, that is, Saul the Jew. Later, upon the payment
+of a high security, the same Saul the Jew became farmer of the imposts.
+In 1580, his name, together with the names of the heads of the Jewish
+community of Brzesc, figures in a lawsuit instituted to establish the
+claim of the Jews upon the fourth part of all municipal revenues. He
+rests the claim on a statute of Grandduke Withold, and the verdict was
+favorable to his side. This was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> time of the election of Báthori's
+successor, Sigismund III., and after his accession to the throne, Saul
+Juditsch again appears on the scene. On February 11, 1588, the king
+issued the following notice: "Some of our councillors have recommended
+to our attention the punctilious business management of Saul Juditsch,
+of the town of Brzesc, who, on many occasions during the reigns of our
+predecessors, served the crown by his wide experience in matters
+pertaining to duties, taxes, and divers revenues, and advanced the
+financial prosperity of the realm by his conscientious efforts." Saul
+was now entrusted, for a period of ten years, with the collection of
+taxes on bridges, flour, and brandies, paying 150,000 gold florins for
+the privilege. A year later he was honored with the title <i>sluga
+królewski</i>, "royal official," a high rank in the Poland of the day, as
+can be learned from the royal decree conferring it: "We, King of Poland,
+having convinced ourself of the rare zeal and distinguished ability of
+Saul Juditsch, do herewith grant him a place among our royal officials,
+and that he may be assured of our favor for him we exempt him and his
+lands for the rest of his life from subordination to the jurisdiction of
+any 'castellan,' or any municipal court, or of any court in our land, of
+whatever kind or rank it may be; so that if he be summoned before the
+court of any judge or district, in any matter whatsoever, be it great or
+small, criminal or civil, he is not obliged to appear and defend
+himself. His goods may not be distrained, his estates not used as
+security, and he himself can neither be arrested, nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span> kept a prisoner.
+His refusal to appear before a judge or to give bail shall in no wise be
+punishable; he is amenable to no law covering such cases. If a charge be
+brought against him, his accusers, be they our subjects or aliens, of
+any rank or calling whatsoever, must appeal to ourself, the king, and
+Saul Juditsch shall be in honor bound to appear before us and defend
+himself."</p>
+
+<p>This royal patent was communicated to all the princes, lords,
+<i>voivodes</i>, marshals, "castellans," starosts, and lower officials, in
+town and country, and to the governors and courts of Poland. Saul
+Juditsch's name continues to appear in the state documents. In 1593, he
+pleads for the Jews of Brzesc, who desire to have their own
+jurisdiction. In consequence of his intercession, Sigismund III. forbids
+the <i>voivodes</i> (mayors) and their proxies to interfere in the quarrels
+of the Jews, of whatever kind they may be. The last mention of Saul
+Juditsch's name occurs in the records of 1596, when, in conjunction with
+his Christian townsmen, he pleads for the renewal of an old franchise,
+granted by Grandduke Withold, exempting imported goods from duty.</p>
+
+<p>Saul Wahl probably lived to the age of eighty, dying in the year 1622.
+The research of the historian has established his existence beyond a
+peradventure. He has proved that there was an individual by the name of
+Saul Wahl, and that is a noteworthy fact in the history of Poland and in
+that of the Jews in the middle ages.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="dots">* *<br />*</p>
+
+<p>After history, criticism has a word to say. A legend, as a rule, rests
+on analogy, on remarkable deeds, on notable events, on extraordinary
+historical phenomena. In the case of the legend under consideration, all
+these originating causes are combined. Since the time of Sigismund I.,
+the position of the Jews in Lithuania and Poland had been favorable. It
+is regarded as their golden period in Poland. In general, Polish Jews
+had always been more favorably situated than their brethren in faith in
+other countries. At the very beginning of Polish history, a legend,
+similar to that attached to Saul Wahl's name, sprang up. After the death
+of Popiel, an assembly met at Kruszwica to fill the vacant throne. No
+agreement could be reached, and the resolution was adopted to hail as
+king the first person to enter the town the next morning. The guard
+stationed at the gate accordingly brought before the assembly the poor
+Jew Abraham, with the surname Powdermaker (<i>Prochownik</i>), which he had
+received from his business, the importing of powder. He was welcomed
+with loud rejoicing, and appointed king. But he refused the crown, and
+pressed to accept it, finally asked for a night's delay to consider the
+proposal. Two days and two nights passed, still the Jew did not come
+forth from his room. The Poles were very much excited, and a peasant,
+Piast by name, raising his voice, cried out: "No, no, this will not do!
+The land cannot be without a head, and as Abraham does not come out, I
+will bring him out." Swinging his axe, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> rushed into the house, and
+led the trembling Jew before the crowd. With ready wit, Abraham said,
+"Poles, here you see the peasant Piast, he is the one to be your king.
+He is sensible, for he recognized that a land may not be without a king.
+Besides, he is courageous; he disregarded my command not to enter my
+house. Crown him, and you will have reason to be grateful to God and His
+servant Abraham!" So Piast was proclaimed king, and he became the
+ancestor of a great dynasty.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult to discover how much of truth is contained in this
+legend of the tenth century. That it in some remote way rests upon
+historical facts is attested by the existence of Polish coins bearing
+the inscriptions: "Abraham <i>Dux</i>" and "<i>Zevach</i> Abraham" ("Abraham the
+Prince" and "Abraham's Sacrifice"). Casimir the Great, whose <i>liaison</i>
+with the Jewess Esterka has been shown by modern historians to be a pure
+fabrication, confirmed the charter of liberties (<i>privilegium
+libertatis</i>) held by the Jews of Poland from early times, and under
+Sigismund I. they prospered, materially and intellectually, as never
+before. Learning flourished among them, especially the study of the
+Talmud being promoted by three great men, Solomon Shachna, Solomon
+Luria, and Moses Isserles.</p>
+
+<p>Henry of Anjou, the first king elected by the Diet (1573), owed his
+election to Solomon Ashkenazi, a Jewish physician and diplomat, who
+ventured to remind the king of his services: "To me more than to any one
+else does your Majesty owe your election.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> Whatever was done here at the
+Porte, I did, although, I believe, M. d'Acqs takes all credit unto
+himself." This same diplomat, together with the Jewish prince Joseph
+Nasi of Naxos, was chiefly instrumental in bringing about the election
+of Stephen Báthori. Simon Günsburg, the head of the Jewish community of
+Posen, had a voice in the king's council, and Bona Sforza, the Italian
+princess on the Polish throne, was in the habit of consulting with
+clever Jews. The papal legate Commendoni speaks in a vexed tone, yet
+admiringly, of the brilliant position of Polish Jews, of their extensive
+cattle-breeding and agricultural interests, of their superiority to
+Christians as artisans, of their commercial enterprise, leading them as
+far as Dantzic in the north and Constantinople in the south, and of
+their possession of that sovereign means which overcomes ruler, starost,
+and legate alike.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p>
+
+<p>These are the circumstances to be borne in mind in examining the
+authenticity of the legend about the king of a night. As early as the
+beginning of his century, recent historians inform us, three Jews,
+Abraham, Michael, and Isaac Josefowicz, rose to high positions in
+Lithuania. Abraham was made chief rabbi of Lithuania, his residence
+being fixed at Ostrog; Isaac became starost of the cities of Smolensk
+and Minsk (1506), and four years later, he was invested with the
+governorship of Lithuania. He always kept up his connection with his
+brothers, protected his co-religionists, and appointed Michael<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span> chief
+elder of the Lithuanian Jews. On taking the oath of allegiance to Albert
+of Prussia, he was raised to the rank of a nobleman. A Jew of the
+sixteenth century a nobleman! Surely, this fact is sufficiently
+startling to serve as the background of a legend. We have every
+circumstance necessary: An analogous legend in the early history of
+Poland, the favored condition of the Jews, the well-attested reality of
+Saul Juditsch, and an extraordinary event, the ennobling of a Jew. Saul
+Wahl probably did not reign&mdash;not even for a single night&mdash;but he
+certainly was attached to the person of the king, and later, ignorant of
+grades of officials, the Jews were prone to magnify his position.
+Indeed, the abject misery of their condition in the seventeenth century
+seems better calculated to explain the legend than their prosperity in
+the fifteenth and the sixteenth century. Bogdan Chmielnicki's campaign
+against the rebellious Cossacks wrought havoc among the Jews. From the
+southern part of the Ukraine to Lemberg, the road was strewn with the
+corpses of a hundred thousand Jews. The sad memory of a happy past is
+the fertile soil in which legends thrive. It is altogether likely that
+at this time of degradation the memory of Saul Wahl, redeemer and hero,
+was first celebrated, and the report of his coat of arms emblazoned with
+a lion clutching a scroll of the Law, and crowning an eagle, of his
+golden chain, of his privileges, and all his memorials, spread from
+house to house.</p>
+
+<p>Parallel cases of legend-construction readily sug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span>gest themselves. In
+our own time, in the glare of nineteenth century civilization, legends
+originate in the same way. Here is a case in point: In 1875, the
+Anthropological Society of Western Prussia instituted a series of
+investigations, in the course of which the complexion and the color of
+the hair and eyes of the children at the public schools were to be
+noted, in order to determine the prevalence of certain racial traits.
+The most extravagant rumors circulated in the districts of Dantzic,
+Thorn, Kulm, all the way to Posen. Parents, seized by unreasoning
+terror, sent their children, in great numbers, to Russia. One rumor said
+that the king of Prussia had lost one thousand blonde children to the
+sultan over a game of cards; another, that the Russian government had
+sold sixty thousand pretty girls to an Arab prince, and to save them
+from the sad fate conjectured to be in store for them, all the pretty
+girls at Dubna were straightway married off.&mdash;Similarly, primitive man,
+to satisfy his intellectual cravings, explained the phenomena of the
+heavens, the earth, and the waters by legends and myths, the germs of
+polytheistic nature religions. In our case, the tissue of facts is
+different, the process the same.</p>
+
+<p>But legends express the idealism of the masses; they are the highest
+manifestations of spiritual life. The thinker's flights beyond the
+confines of reality, the inventor's gift to join old materials in new
+combinations, the artist's creative impulse, the poet's inspiration, the
+seer's prophetic vision&mdash;every emanation from man's ideal nature clothes
+itself with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span> sinews, flesh, and skin, and lives in a people's legends,
+the repositories of its art, poetry, science, and ethics.</p>
+
+<p>Legends moreover are characteristic of a people's culture. As a child
+delights in iridescent soap-bubbles, so a nation revels in
+reminiscences. Though poetry lend words, painting her tints,
+architecture a rule, sculpture a chisel, music her tones, the legend
+itself is dead, and only a thorough understanding of national traits
+enables one to recognize its ethical bearings. From this point of view,
+the legend of the Polish king of a night is an important historical
+argument, testifying to the satisfactory condition of the Jews of Poland
+in the fifteenth and the sixteenth century. The simile that compares
+nations, on the eve of a great revolution, to a seething crater, is true
+despite its triteness, and if to any nation, is applicable to the Poland
+of before and after that momentous session of the Diet. Egotism, greed,
+ambition, vindictiveness, and envy added fuel to fire, and hastened
+destruction. Jealousy had planted discord between two families, dividing
+the state into hostile, embittered factions. Morality was undermined,
+law trodden under foot, duty neglected, justice violated, the promptings
+of good sense disregarded. So it came about that the land was flooded by
+ruin as by a mighty stream, which, a tiny spring at first, gathers
+strength and volume from its tributaries, and overflowing its bounds,
+rushes over blooming meadows, fields, and pastures, drawing into its
+destructive depths the peasant's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> every joy and hope. That is the soil
+from which a legend like ours sprouts and grows.</p>
+
+<p>This legend distinctly conveys an ethical lesson. The persecutions of
+the Jews, their ceaseless wanderings from town to town, from country to
+country, from continent to continent, have lasted two thousand years,
+and how many dropped by the wayside! Yet they never parted with the
+triple crown placed upon their heads by an ancient sage: the crown of
+royalty, the crown of the Law, and the crown of a good name. Learning
+and fair fame were indisputably theirs: therefore, the first, the royal
+crown, never seemed more resplendent than when worn in exile. The glory
+of a Jewish king of the exile seemed to herald the realization of the
+Messianic ideal. So it happens that many a family in Poland, England,
+and Germany, still cherishes the memory of Rabbi Saul the king, and that
+"Malkohs" everywhere still boast of royal ancestry. Rabbis, learned in
+the Law, were his descendants, and men of secular fame, Gabriel Riesser
+among them, proudly mention their connection, however distant, with Saul
+Wahl. The memory of his deeds perpetuates itself in respectable Jewish
+homes, where grandams, on quiet Sabbath afternoons, tell of them, as
+they show in confirmation the seal on coins to an awe-struck progeny.</p>
+
+<p>Three crowns Israel bore upon his head. If the crown of royalty is
+legendary, then the more emphatically have the other two an historical
+and ethical value. The crown of royalty has slipped from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> us, but the
+crown of a good name and especially the crown of the Law are ours to
+keep and bequeath to our children and our children's children unto the
+latest generation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>JEWISH SOCIETY IN THE TIME OF MENDELSSOHN</h3>
+
+
+<p>On an October day in 1743, in the third year of the reign of Frederick
+the Great, a delicate lad of about fourteen begged admittance at the
+Rosenthal gate of Berlin, the only gate by which non-resident Jews were
+allowed to enter the capital. To the clerk's question about his business
+in the city, he briefly replied: "Study" (<i>Lernen</i>). The boy was Moses
+Mendelssohn, and he entered the city poor and friendless, knowing in all
+Berlin but one person, his former teacher Rabbi David Fränkel. About
+twenty years later, the Royal Academy of Sciences awarded him the first
+prize for his essay on the question: "Are metaphysical truths
+susceptible of mathematical demonstration?" After another period of
+twenty years, Mendelssohn was dead, and his memory was celebrated as
+that of a "sage like Socrates, the greatest philosophers of the day
+exclaiming, 'There is but one Mendelssohn!'"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>The Jewish Renaissance of a little more than a century ago presents the
+whole historic course of Judaism. Never had the condition of the Jews
+been more abject than at the time of Mendelssohn's appearance on the
+scene. It must be remembered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span> that for Jews the middle ages lasted three
+hundred years after all other nations had begun to enjoy the blessings
+of the modern era. Veritable slaves, degenerate in language and habits,
+purchasing the right to live by a tax (<i>Leibzoll</i>), in many cities still
+wearing a yellow badge, timid, embittered, pale, eloquently silent, the
+Jews herded in their Ghetto with its single Jew-gate&mdash;they, the
+descendants of the Maccabees, the brethren in faith of proud Spanish
+grandees, of Andalusian poets and philosophers. The congregations were
+poor; immigrant Poles filled the offices of rabbis and teachers, and
+occupied themselves solely with the discussion of recondite problems.
+The evil nonsense of the Kabbalists was actively propagated by the
+Sabbatians, and on the other hand the mystical <i>Chassidim</i> were
+beginning to perform their witches' dance. The language commonly used
+was the <i>Judendeutsch</i> (the Jewish German jargon) which, stripped of its
+former literary dignity, was not much better than thieves' slang. Of
+such pitiful elements the life of the Jews was made up during the first
+half of the eighteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there burst upon them the great, overwhelming Renaissance! It
+seemed as though Ezekiel's vision were about to be fulfilled:<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> "The
+hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the
+Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span>...
+there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very
+dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I
+answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon
+these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
+Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause
+breath to enter into you, and ye shall live ... and ye shall know that I
+am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied,
+there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together,
+bone to his bone ... the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the
+skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he
+unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the
+wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and
+breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he
+commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood
+up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son
+of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel."</p>
+
+<p>Is this not a description of Israel's history in modern days? Old
+Judaism, seeing the marvels of the Renaissance, might well exclaim: "Who
+hath begotten me these?" and many a pious mind must have reverted to the
+ancient words of consolation: "I remember unto thee the kindness of thy
+youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the wilderness,
+through a land that is not sown."</p>
+
+<p>In the face of so radical a transformation, Herder,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span> poet and thinker,
+reached the natural conclusion that "such occurrences, such a history
+with all its concomitant and dependent circumstances, in brief, such a
+nation cannot be a lying invention. Its development is the greatest poem
+of all times, and still unfinished, will probably continue until every
+possibility hidden in the soul life of humanity shall have obtained
+expression."<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p>
+
+<p>An unparalleled revival had begun; and in Germany, in which it made
+itself felt as an effect of the French Revolution, it is coupled first
+and foremost with the name of Moses Mendelssohn.</p>
+
+<p>Society as conceived in these modern days is based upon men's relations
+to their families, their disciples, and their friends. They are the
+three elements that determine a man's usefulness as a social factor. Our
+first interest, then, is to know Mendelssohn in his family.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> Many
+years were destined to elapse, after his coming to Berlin, before he was
+to win a position of dignity. When, a single ducat in his pocket, he
+first reached Berlin, the reader remembers, he was a pale-faced, fragile
+boy. A contemporary of his relates: "In 1746 I came to Berlin, a
+penniless little chap of fourteen, and in the Jewish school I met Moses
+Mendelssohn. He grew fond of me, taught me reading and writing, and
+often shared his scanty meals with me. I tried to show my gratitude by
+doing him any small service<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span> in my power. Once he told me to fetch him a
+German book from some place or other. Returning with the book in hand, I
+was met by one of the trustees of the Jewish poor fund. He accosted me,
+not very gently, with, 'What have you there? I venture to say a German
+book!' Snatching it from me, and dragging me to the magistrate's, he
+gave orders to expel me from the city. Mendelssohn, learning my fate,
+did everything possible to bring about my return; but his efforts were
+of no avail." It is interesting to know that it was the grandfather of
+Herr von Bleichröder who had to submit to so relentless a fate.</p>
+
+<p>German language and German writing Mendelssohn acquired by his unaided
+efforts. With the desultory assistance of a Dr. Kisch, a Jewish
+physician, he learnt Latin from a book picked up at a second-hand book
+stall. General culture was at that time an unknown quantity in the
+possibilities of Berlin Jewish life. The schoolmasters, who were not
+permitted to stay in the city more than three years, were for the most
+part Poles. One Pole, Israel Moses, a fine thinker and mathematician,
+banished from his native town, Samosz, on account of his devotion to
+secular studies, lived with Aaron Gumpertz, the only one of the famous
+family of court-Jews who had elected a better lot. From the latter,
+Mendelssohn imbibed a taste for the sciences, and to him he owed some
+direction in his studies; while in mathematics he was instructed by
+Israel Samosz, at the time when the latter, busily engaged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span> with his
+great commentary on Yehuda Halevi's <i>Al-Chazari</i>, was living at the
+house of the Itzig family, on the <i>Burgstrasse</i>, on the very spot where
+the talented architect Hitzig, the grandson of Mendelssohn's
+contemporary, built the magnificent Exchange. To enable himself to buy
+books, Mendelssohn had to deny himself food. As soon as he had hoarded a
+few <i>groschen</i>, he stealthily slunk to a dealer in second-hand books. In
+this way he managed to possess himself of a Latin grammar and a wretched
+lexicon. Difficulties did not exist for him; they vanished before his
+industry and perseverance. In a short time he knew far more than
+Gumpertz himself, who has become famous through his entreaty to Magister
+Gottsched at Leipsic, whilom absolute monarch in German literature: "I
+would most respectfully supplicate that it may please your worshipful
+Highness to permit me to repair to Leipsic to pasture on the meadows of
+learning under your Excellency's protecting wing."</p>
+
+<p>After seven years of struggle and privation, Moses Mendelssohn became
+tutor at the house of Isaac Bernhard, a silk manufacturer, and now began
+better times. In spite of faithful performance of duties, he found
+leisure to acquire a considerable stock of learning. He began to
+frequent social gatherings, his friend Dr. Gumpertz introducing him to
+people of culture, among others to some philosophers, members of the
+Berlin Academy. What smoothed the way for him more than his sterling
+character and his fine intellect was his good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span> chess-playing. The Jews
+have always been celebrated as chess-players, and since the twelfth
+century a literature in Hebrew prose and verse has grown up about the
+game. Mendelssohn in this respect, too, was the heir of the peculiar
+gifts of his race.</p>
+
+<p>In a little room two flights up in a house next to the Nicolai
+churchyard lived one of the acquaintances made by Mendelssohn through
+Dr. Gumpertz, a young newspaper writer&mdash;Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
+Lessing was at once strongly attracted by the young man's keen,
+untrammelled mind. He foresaw that Mendelssohn would "become an honor to
+his nation, provided his fellow-believers permit him to reach his
+intellectual maturity. His honesty and his philosophic bent make me see
+in him a second Spinoza, equal to the first in all but his errors."<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a>
+Through Lessing, Mendelssohn formed the acquaintance of Nicolai, and as
+they were close neighbors, their friendship developed into intimacy.
+Nicolai induced him to take up the study of Greek, and old Rector Damm
+taught him.</p>
+
+<p>At this time (1755), the first coffee-house for the use of an
+association of about one hundred members, chiefly philosophers,
+mathematicians, physicians, and booksellers, was opened in Berlin.
+Mendelssohn, too, was admitted, making his true entrance into society,
+and forming many attachments. One evening it was proposed at the club
+that each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> of the members describe his own defects in verse; whereupon
+Mendelssohn, who stuttered and was slightly hunchbacked, wrote:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Great you call Demosthenes,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Stutt'ring orator of Greece;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hunchbacked Æsop you deem wise;&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In your circle, I surmise,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I am doubly wise and great.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">What in each was separate</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">You in me united find,&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hump and heavy tongue combined."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile his worldly affairs prospered; he had become bookkeeper in
+Bernhard's business. His biographer Kayserling tells us that at this
+period he was in a fair way to develop into "a true <i>bel esprit</i>"; he
+took lessons on the piano, went to the theatre and to concerts, and
+wrote poems. During the winter he was at his desk at the office from
+eight in the morning until nine in the evening. In the summer of 1756,
+his work was lightened; after two in the afternoon he was his own
+master. The following year finds him comfortably established in a house
+of his own with a garden, in which he could be found every evening at
+six o'clock, Lessing and Nicolai often joining him. Besides, he had laid
+by a little sum, which enabled him to help his friends, especially
+Lessing, out of financial embarrassments. Business cares did, indeed,
+bear heavily upon him, and his complaints are truly touching: "Like a
+beast of burden laden down, I crawl through life, self-love
+unfortunately whispering into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span> my ear that nature had perhaps mapped out
+a poet's career for me. But what can we do, my friends? Let us pity one
+another, and be content. So long as love for science is not stifled
+within us, we may hope on." Surely, his love for learning never
+diminished. On the contrary, his zeal for philosophic studies grew, and
+with it his reputation in the learned world of Berlin. The Jewish
+thinker finally attracted the notice of Frederick the Great, whose poems
+he had had the temerity to criticise adversely in the "Letters on
+Literature" (<i>Litteraturbriefe</i>). He says in that famous criticism:<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a>
+"What a loss it has been for our mother-tongue that this prince has
+given more time and effort to the French language. We should otherwise
+possess a treasure which would arouse the envy of our neighbors." A
+certain Herr von Justi, who had also incurred the unfavorable notice of
+the <i>Litteraturbriefe</i>, used this review to revenge himself on
+Mendelssohn. He wrote to the Prussian state-councillor: "A miserable
+publication appears in Berlin, letters on recent literature, in which a
+Jew, criticising court-preacher Cramer, uses irreverent language in
+reference to Christianity, and in a bold review of <i>Poésies diverses</i>,
+fails to pay the proper respect to his Majesty's sacred person." Soon an
+interdict was issued against the <i>Litteraturbriefe</i>, and Mendelssohn was
+summoned to appear before the attorney general Von Uhden. Nicolai has
+given us an account of the interview between the high and mighty officer
+of the state and the poor Jewish philosopher:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Attorney General: "Look here! How can you venture to write against
+Christians?"</p>
+
+<p>Mendelssohn: "When I bowl with Christians, I throw down all the pins
+whenever I can."</p>
+
+<p>Attorney General: "Do you dare mock at me? Do you know to whom you are
+speaking?"</p>
+
+<p>Mendelssohn: "Oh yes. I am in the presence of privy councillor and
+attorney general Von Uhden, a just man."</p>
+
+<p>Attorney General: "I ask again: What right have you to write against a
+Christian, a court-preacher at that?"</p>
+
+<p>Mendelssohn: "And I must repeat, truly without mockery, that when I play
+at nine-pins with a Christian, even though he be a court-preacher, I
+throw down all the pins, if I can. Bowling is a recreation for my body,
+writing for my mind. Writers do as well as they can."</p>
+
+<p>In this strain the conversation continued for some time. Another version
+of the affair is that Mendelssohn was ordered to appear before the king
+at Sanssouci on a certain Saturday. When he presented himself at the
+gate of the palace, the officer in charge asked him how he happened to
+have been honored with an invitation to come to court. Mendelssohn said:
+"Oh, I am a juggler!" In point of fact, Frederick read the objectionable
+review some time later, Venino translating it into French for him. It
+was probably in consequence of this vexatious occurrence that
+Mendelssohn made application for the privilege to be considered a
+<i>Schutzjude</i>, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span> is, a Jew with rights of residence. The Marquis
+d'Argens who lived with the king at Potsdam in the capacity of his
+Majesty's philosopher-companion, earnestly supported his petition: "<i>Un
+philosophe mauvais catholique supplie un philosophe mauvais protestant
+de donner le privilège à un philosophe mauvais juif. Il y a trop de
+philosophie dans tout ceci que la raison ne soit pas du côté de la
+demande.</i>" The privilege was accorded to Mendelssohn on November 26,
+1763.</p>
+
+<p>Being a <i>Schutzjude</i>, he could entertain the idea of marriage. Everybody
+is familiar with the pretty anecdote charmingly told by Berthold
+Auerbach. Mendelssohn's was a love-match. In April 1760, he undertook a
+trip to Hamburg, and there became affianced to a "blue-eyed maiden,"
+Fromet Gugenheim. The story goes that the girl shrank back startled at
+Mendelssohn's proposal of marriage. She asked him: "Do you believe that
+matches are made in heaven?" "Most assuredly," answered Mendelssohn;
+"indeed, a singular thing happened in my own case. You know that,
+according to a Talmud legend, at the birth of a child, the announcement
+is made in heaven: So and so shall marry so and so. When I was born, my
+future wife's name was called out, and I was told that she would
+unfortunately be terribly humpbacked. 'Dear Lord,' said I, 'a deformed
+girl easily gets embittered and hardened. A girl ought to be beautiful.
+Dear Lord! Give me the hump, and let the girl be pretty, graceful,
+pleasing to the eye.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His engagement lasted a whole year. He was naturally desirous to improve
+his worldly position; but never did it occur to him to do so at the
+expense of his immaculate character. Veitel Ephraim and his associates,
+employed by Frederick the Great to debase the coin of Prussia, made him
+brilliant offers in the hope of gaining him as their partner. He could
+not be tempted, and entered into a binding engagement with Bernhard. His
+married life was happy, he was sincerely in love with his wife, and she
+became his faithful, devoted companion.</p>
+
+<p>Six children were the offspring of their union: Abraham, Joseph, Nathan,
+Dorothea, Henriette, and Recha. In Moses Mendelssohn's house, the one in
+which these children grew up, the barriers between the learned world and
+Berlin general society first fell. It was the rallying place of all
+seeking enlightenment, of all doing battle in the cause of
+enlightenment. The rearing of his children was a source of great anxiety
+to Mendelssohn, whose means were limited. One day, shortly before his
+death, Mendelssohn, walking up and down before his house in Spandauer
+street, absorbed in meditation, was met by an acquaintance, who asked
+him: "My dear Mr. Mendelssohn, what is the matter with you? You look so
+troubled." "And so I am," he replied; "I am thinking what my children's
+fate will be, when I am gone."</p>
+
+<p>Moses Mendelssohn was wholly a son of his age, which perhaps explains
+the charm of his personality.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span> His faults as well as his fine traits
+must be accounted for by the peculiarities of his generation. From this
+point of view, we can understand his desire to have his daughters make a
+wealthy match. On the other hand, he could not have known, and if he had
+known, he could not have understood, that his daughters, touched by the
+breath of a later time, had advanced far beyond his position. The Jews
+of that day, particularly Jewish women, were seized by a mighty longing
+for knowledge and culture. They studied French, read Voltaire, and drew
+inspiration from the works of the English freethinkers. One of those
+women says: "We all would have been pleased to be heroines of romance;
+there was not one of us who did not rave over some hero or heroine of
+fiction." At the head of this band of enthusiasts stood Dorothea
+Mendelssohn, brilliant, captivating, and gifted with a vivid
+imagination. She was the leader, the animating spirit of her companions.
+To the reading-club organized by her efforts all the restless minds
+belonged. In the private theatricals at the houses of rich Jews, she
+filled the principal rôles; and the mornings after her social triumphs
+found her a most attentive listener to her father, who was in the habit
+of holding lectures for her and her brother Joseph, afterward published
+under the name <i>Morgenstunden</i>. And this was the girl whom her father
+wished to see married at sixteen. When a rich Vienna banker was proposed
+as a suitable match, he said, "Ah! a man like Eskeles would greatly
+please my pride!" Dorothea did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span> marry Simon Veit, a banker, a worthy
+man, who in no way could satisfy the demands of her impetuous nature.
+Yet her father believed her to be a happy wife. In her thirtieth year
+she made the acquaintance, at the house of her friend Henriette Herz, of
+a young man, five years her junior, who was destined to change the
+course of her whole life. This was Friedrich von Schlegel, the chief of
+the romantic movement. Dorothea Veit, not beautiful, fascinated him by
+her brilliant wit. Under Schleiermacher's encouragement, the relation
+between the two quickly assumed a serious aspect. But it was not until
+long after her father's death that Dorothea abandoned her husband and
+children, and became Schlegel's life-companion, first his mistress,
+later his wife. As Gutzkow justly says, his novel "Lucinde" describes
+the relation in which Schlegel "permitted himself to be discovered. Love
+for Schlegel it was that consumed her, and led her to share with him a
+thousand follies&mdash;Catholicism, Brahmin theosophy, absolutism, and the
+Christian asceticism of which she was a devotee at the time of her
+death." Neither distress, nor misery, nor care, nor sorrow could
+alienate her affections. Finally, she became a bigoted Catholic, and in
+Vienna, their last residence, the daughter of Moses Mendelssohn was
+seen, a lighted taper in her hand, one of a Catholic procession wending
+its way to St. Stephen's Cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>The other daughter had a similar career. Henriette Mendelssohn filled a
+position as governess first in Vienna, then in Paris. In the latter
+city, her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span> home was the meeting-place of the most brilliant men and
+women. She, too, denied her father and her faith. Recha, the youngest
+daughter, was the unhappy wife of a merchant of Strelitz. Later on she
+supported herself by keeping a boarding-school at Altona. Nathan, the
+youngest son, was a mechanician; Abraham, the second, the father of the
+famous composer, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, established with the
+oldest, Joseph, a still flourishing banking-business. Abraham's children
+and grandchildren all became converts to Christianity, but Moses and
+Fromet died before their defection from the old faith. Fromet lived to
+see the development of the passion for music which became hereditary in
+the family. It is said that when, at the time of the popularity of
+Schulz's "Athalia," one of the choruses, with the refrain <i>tout
+l'univers</i>, was much sung by her children, the old lady cried out
+irritably, "<i>Wie mies ist mir vor tout l'univers</i>" ("How sick I am of
+'all the world!'").<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p>
+
+<p>To say apologetically that the circumstances of the times produced such
+feeling and action may be a partial defense of these women, but it is
+not the truth. Henriette Mendelssohn's will is a characteristic
+document. The introduction runs thus: "In these the last words I address
+to my dear relatives, I express my gratitude for all their help and
+affection, and also that they in no wise hindered me in the practice of
+my religion. I have only myself to blame if the Lord God did not deem me
+worthy to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span> be the instrument for the conversion of all my brothers and
+sisters to the Catholic Church, the only one endowed with saving grace.
+May the Lord Jesus Christ grant my prayer, and bless them all with the
+light of His countenance. Amen!" Such were the sentiments of Moses
+Mendelssohn's daughters!</p>
+
+<p>The sons inclined towards Protestantism. Abraham is reported to have
+said that at first he was known as the son of his father, and later as
+the father of his son. His wife was Leah Salomon, the sister of Salomon
+Bartholdy, afterwards councillor of legation. His surname was really
+only Salomon; Bartholdy he had assumed from the former owner of a garden
+in Köpenikerstrasse on the Spree which he had bought. To him chiefly the
+formal acceptance of Christianity by Abraham's family was due. When
+Abraham hesitated about having his children baptized, Bartholdy wrote:
+"You say that you owe it to your father's memory (not to abandon
+Judaism). Do you think that you are committing a wrong in giving your
+children a religion which you and they consider the better? In fact, you
+would be paying a tribute to your father's efforts in behalf of true
+enlightenment, and he would have acted for your children as you have
+acted for them, perhaps for himself as I am acting for myself." This
+certainly is the climax of frivolity! So it happened that one of
+Mendelssohn's grandsons, Philip Veit, became a renowned Catholic church
+painter, and another, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, one of the most
+celebrated of Protestant composers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After his family, we are interested in the philosopher's disciples. They
+are men of a type not better, but different. What in his children sprang
+from impulsiveness and conviction, was due to levity and imitativeness
+in his followers. Mendelssohn's co-workers and successors formed the
+school of <i>Biurists</i>, that is, expounders. In his commentary on the
+Pentateuch he was helped by Solomon Dubno, Herz Homberg, and Hartwig
+Wessely. Solomon Dubno, the tutor of Mendelssohn's children, was a
+learned Pole, devoted heart and soul to the work on the Pentateuch. His
+literary vanity having been wounded, he secretly left Mendelssohn's
+house, and could not be induced to renew his interest in the
+undertaking. Herz Homberg, an Austrian, took his place as tutor. When
+the children were grown, he went to Vienna, and there was made imperial
+councillor, charged with the superintendence of the Jewish schools of
+Galicia. It is a mistake to suppose that he used efforts to further the
+study of the Talmud among Jews. From letters recently published, written
+by and about him, it becomes evident that he was a common informer.
+Mendelssohn, of course, was not aware of his true character. The noblest
+of all was Naphtali Hartwig Wessely, a poet, a pure man, a sincere lover
+of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>The other prominent members of Mendelssohn's circle were: Isaac Euchel,
+the "restorer of Hebrew prose," as he has been called, whose chief
+purpose was the reform of the Jewish order of service and Jewish
+pedagogic methods; Solomon Maimon, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span> wild fellow, who in his
+autobiography tells his own misdeeds, by many of which Mendelssohn was
+caused annoyance; Lazarus ben David, a modern Diogenes, the apostle of
+Kantism; and, above all, David Friedländer, an enthusiastic herald of
+the new era, a zealous champion of modern culture, a pure, serious
+character with high ethical ideals, whose aims, inspired though they
+were by most exalted intentions, far overstepped the bounds set to him
+as a Jew and the disciple of Mendelssohn. Kant's philosophy found many
+ardent adherents among the Jews at that time. Beside the old there was
+growing up a new generation which, having no obstructions placed in its
+path after Mendelssohn's death, aggressively asserted its principles.</p>
+
+<p>The first Jew after Mendelssohn to occupy a position of prominence in
+the social world of Berlin was his pupil Marcus Herz, with the title
+professor and aulic councillor, "praised as a physician, esteemed as a
+philosopher, and extolled as a prodigy in the natural sciences. His
+lectures on physics, delivered in his own house, were attended by
+members of the highest aristocracy, even by royal personages."</p>
+
+<p>In circles like his, the equalization of the Jews with the other
+citizens was animatedly discussed, by partisans and opponents. In the
+theatre-going public, a respectable minority, having once seen "Nathan
+the Wise" enacted, protested against the appearance upon the stage of
+the trade-Jew, speaking the sing-song, drawling German vulgarly supposed
+to be peculiar to all Jews (<i>Mauscheln</i>). As early as 1771,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span> Marcus Herz
+had entered a vigorous protest against <i>mauscheln</i>, and at the first
+performance of "The Merchant of Venice" on August 16, 1788, the famous
+actor Fleck declaimed a prologue, composed by Ramler, in which he
+disavowed any intention to "sow hatred against the Jews, the brethren in
+faith of wise Mendelssohn," and asserted the sole purpose of the drama
+to be the combating of folly and vice wherever they appear.</p>
+
+<p>Marcus Herz's wife was Henriette Herz, and in 1790, when Alexander and
+Wilhelm Humboldt first came to her house, the real history of the Berlin
+<i>salon</i> begins. The Humboldts' acquaintance with the Herz family dates
+from the visit of state councillor Kunth, the tutor of the Humboldt
+brothers, to Marcus Herz to advise with him about setting up a
+lightning-rod, an extraordinary novelty at the time, on the castle at
+Tegel. Shortly afterward, Kunth introduced his two pupils to Herz and
+his wife. So the Berlin <i>salon</i> owed its origin to a lightning-rod;
+indeed, it may itself be called an electrical conductor for all the
+spiritual forces, recently brought into play, and still struggling to
+manifest their undeveloped strength. Up to that time there had been
+nothing like society in the city of intelligence. Of course there was no
+dearth of scholars and clever, brilliant people, but insuperable
+obstacles seemed to prevent their social contact with one another.
+Outside of Moses Mendelssohn's house, until the end of the eighties the
+only <i>rendezvous</i> of wits, scholars, and literary men, the prefer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span>ence
+was for magnificent banquets and noisy carousals, each rank entertaining
+its own members. In the middle class, the burghers, the social instinct
+had not awakened at all. Alexander Humboldt significantly dated his
+first letter to Henriette Herz from <i>Schloss Langeweile</i>. In the course
+of time the desire for spiritual sympathy led to the formation of
+reading clubs and <i>conversazioni</i>. These were the elements that finally
+produced Berlin society.</p>
+
+<p>The prototype of the German <i>salon</i> naturally was the <i>salon</i> of the
+rococo period. Strangely enough, Berlin Jews, disciples, friends, and
+descendants of Moses Mendelssohn, were the transplanters of the foreign
+product to German soil. Untrammelled as they were in this respect by
+traditions, they hearkened eagerly to the new dispensation issuing from
+Weimar, and they were in no way hampered in the choice of their
+hero-guides to Olympus. Berlin irony, French sparkle, and Jewish wit
+moulded the social forms which thereafter were to be characteristic of
+society at the capital, and called forth pretty much all that was
+charming in the society and pleasing in the light literature of the
+Berlin of the day.</p>
+
+<p>To judge Henriette Herz justly we must beware alike of the extravagance
+of her biographer and the malice of her friend Varnhagen von Ense; the
+former extols her cleverness to the skies, the other degrades her to the
+level of the commonplace. The two seem equally unreliable. She was
+neither extremely witty nor extremely cultured. She had a singularly
+clear mind, and possessed the rare faculty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span> of spreading about her an
+atmosphere of ease and cheer&mdash;good substitutes for wit and
+intellectuality. Upon her beauty and amiability rested the popularity of
+her <i>salon</i>, which succeeded in uniting all the social factors of that
+period.</p>
+
+<p>The nucleus of her social gatherings consisted of the representatives of
+the old literary traditions, Nicolai, Ramler, Engel, and Moritz, and
+they curiously enough attracted the theologians Spalding, Teller,
+Zöllner, and later Schleiermacher, whose intimacy with his hostess is a
+matter of history. Music was represented by Reichardt and Wesseli; art,
+by Schadow; and the nobility by Bernstorff, Dotina, Brinkmann, Friedrich
+von Gentz, and the Humboldts. Her drawing-room was the hearth of the
+romantic movement, and as may be imagined, her example was followed for
+better and for worse by her friends and sisters in faith, so that by the
+end of the century, Berlin could boast a number of <i>salons</i>,
+meeting-places of the nobility, literary men, and cultured Jews, for the
+friendly exchange of spiritual and intellectual experiences. Henriette
+Herz's <i>salon</i> became important not only for society in Berlin, but also
+for German literature, three great literary movements being sheltered in
+it: the classical, the romantic, and, through Ludwig Börne, that of
+"Young Germany." Judaism alone was left unrepresented. In fact, she and
+all her cultured Jewish friends hastened to free themselves of their
+troublesome Jewish affiliations, or, at least, concealed them as best
+they could. Years afterwards, Börne spent his ridicule<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> upon the
+Jewesses of the Berlin <i>salons</i>, with their enormous racial noses and
+their great gold crosses at their throats, pressing into Trinity church
+to hear Schleiermacher preach. But justice compels us to say that these
+women did not know Judaism, or knew it only in its slave's garb. Had
+they had a conception of its high ethical standard, of the wealth of its
+poetic and philosophic thoughts, being women of rare mental gifts and
+broad liberality, they certainly would not have abandoned Judaism. But
+the Judaism of their Berlin, as represented by its religious teachers
+and the leaders of the Jewish community, most of them, according to
+Mendelssohn's own account, immigrant Poles, could not appeal to women of
+keen, intellectual sympathies, and tastes conforming to the ideals of
+the new era.</p>
+
+<p>As for Mendelssohn's friends who flocked to his hospitable home&mdash;their
+names are household words in the history of German literature. Nicolai
+and Lessing must be mentioned before all others, but no one came to
+Berlin without seeking Moses Mendelssohn&mdash;Goethe, Herder, Wieland,
+Hennings, Abt, Campe, Moritz, Jerusalem. Joachim Campe has left an
+account of his visit at Mendelssohn's house, which is probably a just
+picture of its attractions.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> He says: "On a Friday afternoon, my wife
+and myself, together with some of the distinguished representatives of
+Berlin scholarship, visited Mendelssohn. We were chatting over our
+coffee, when Mendelssohn, about an hour before sundown, rose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> from his
+seat with the words: 'Ladies and gentlemen, I must leave you to receive
+the Sabbath. I shall be with you again presently; meantime my wife will
+enjoy your company doubly.' All eyes followed our amiable
+philosopher-host with reverent admiration as he withdrew to an adjoining
+room to recite the customary prayers. At the end of half an hour he
+returned, his face radiant, and seating himself, he said to his wife:
+'Now I am again at my post, and shall try for once to do the honors in
+your place. Our friends will certainly excuse you, while you fulfil your
+religious duties.' Mendelssohn's wife excused herself, joined her
+family, consecrated the Sabbath by lighting the Sabbath lamp, and
+returned to us. We stayed on for some hours." Is it possible to conceive
+of a more touching picture?</p>
+
+<p>When Duchess Dorothea of Kurland, and her sister Elise von der Recke
+were living at Friedrichsfelde near Berlin in 1785, they invited
+Mendelssohn, whom they were eager to know, to visit them. When dinner
+was announced, Mendelssohn was not to be found. The companion of the two
+ladies writes in her journal:<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> "He had quietly slipped away to the
+inn at which he had ordered a frugal meal. From a motive entirely worthy
+I am sure, this philosopher never permits himself to be invited to a
+meal at a Christian's house. Not to be deprived of Mendelssohn's society
+too long, the duchess rose from the table as soon as possible."
+Mendelssohn returned, stayed a long time, and, on bidding adieu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span> to the
+duchess, he said: "To-day, I have had a chat with mind."</p>
+
+<p>This was Berlin society at Mendelssohn's time, and its toleration and
+humanity are the more to be valued as the majority of Jews by no means
+emulated Mendelssohn's enlightened example. All their energies were
+absorbed in the effort of compliance with the charter of Frederick the
+Great, which imposed many vexatious restrictions. On marrying, they were
+still compelled to buy the inferior porcelain made by the royal
+manufactory. The whole of the Jewish community continued to be held
+responsible for a theft committed by one of its members. Jews were not
+yet permitted to become manufacturers. Bankrupt Jews, without
+investigation of each case, were considered cheats. Their use of land
+and waterways was hampered by many petty obstructions. In every field an
+insurmountable barrier rose between them and their Christian
+fellow-citizens. Mendelssohn's great task was the moral and spiritual
+regeneration of his brethren in faith. In all disputes his word was
+final. He hoped to bring about reforms by influencing his people's inner
+life. Schools were founded, and every means used to further culture and
+education, but he met with much determined opposition among his
+fellow-believers. Of Ephraim, the debaser of the coin, we have spoken;
+also of the king's manner towards Jews. Here is another instance of his
+brusqueness: Abraham Posner begged for permission to shave his beard.
+Frederick wrote on the margin of his peti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span>tion: "<i>Der Jude Posner soll
+mich und seinen Bart ungeschoren lassen.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Lawsuits of Jews against French and German traders made a great stir in
+those days. It was only after much annoyance that a naturalization
+patent was obtained by the family of Daniel Itzig, the father-in-law of
+David Friedländer, founder of the Jews' Free School in Berlin. In other
+cases, no amount of effort could secure the patent, the king saying:
+"Whatever concerns your trade is well and good. But I cannot permit you
+to settle tribes of Jews in Berlin, and turn it into a young
+Jerusalem."&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>This is a picture of Jewish society in Berlin one hundred years ago. It
+united the most diverse currents and tendencies, emanating from
+romanticism, classicism, reform, orthodoxy, love of trade, and efforts
+for spiritual regeneration. In all this queer tangle, Moses Mendelssohn
+alone stands untainted, his form enveloped in pure, white light.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>LEOPOLD ZUNZ<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84">
+</a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">
+<span style="font-size:85%;
+font-weight:300;">[84]</span></a></h3>
+
+
+<p>We are assembled for the solemn duty of paying a tribute to the memory
+of him whose name graces our lodge. A twofold interest attaches us to
+Leopold Zunz, appealing, as he does, to our local pride, and, beyond and
+above that, to our Jewish feelings. Leopold Zunz was part of the Berlin
+of the past, every trace of which is vanishing with startling rapidity.
+Men, houses, streets are disappearing, and soon naught but a memory will
+remain of old Berlin, not, to be sure, a City Beautiful, yet filled for
+him that knew it with charming associations. A precious remnant of this
+dear old Berlin was buried forever, when, on one misty day of the spring
+of 1886, we consigned to their last resting place the mortal remains of
+Leopold Zunz. Memorial addresses are apt to abound in such expressions
+as "immortal," "imperishable," and in flowery tributes. This one shall
+not indulge in them, although to no one could they more fittingly be
+applied than to Leopold Zunz, a pioneer in the labyrinth of science, and
+the architect of many a stately palace adorning the path but lately
+discovered by himself. Surely, such an one deserves the cordial
+recognition and enduring gratitude of posterity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Despite the fact that Zunz was born at Detmold (August 10, 1794), he was
+an integral part of old Berlin&mdash;a Berlin citizen, not by birth, but by
+vocation, so to speak. His being was intertwined with its life by a
+thousand tendrils of intellectual sympathy. The city, in turn, or, to be
+topographically precise, the district between <i>Mauerstrasse</i> and
+<i>Rosenstrasse</i> knew and loved him as one of its public characters. Time
+was when his witticisms leapt from mouth to mouth in the circuit between
+the Varnhagen <i>salon</i> and the synagogue in the <i>Heidereutergasse</i>,
+everywhere finding appreciative listeners. An observer stationed <i>Unter
+den Linden</i> daily for more than thirty years might have seen a peculiar
+couple stride briskly towards the <i>Thiergarten</i> in the early afternoon.
+The loungers at Spargnapani's <i>café</i> regularly interrupted their endless
+newspaper reading to crane their necks and say to one another, "There go
+Dr. Zunz and his wife."</p>
+
+<p>In his obituary notice of the poet Mosenthal, Franz Dingelstedt
+roguishly says: "He was of poor, albeit Jewish parentage." The same
+applies to Zunz, only the saying would be truer, if not so witty, in
+this form: "He was of Jewish, hence of poor, parentage." Among German
+Jews throughout the middle ages and up to the first half of this
+century, poverty was the rule, a comfortable competency a rare
+exception, wealth an unheard of condition. But Jewish poverty was
+relieved of sordidness by a precious gift of the old rabbis, who said:
+"Have a tender care of the children of the poor;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span> from them goeth forth
+the Law"; an admonition and a prediction destined to be illustrated in
+the case of Zunz. Very early he lost his mother, and the year 1805 finds
+him bereft of both parents, under the shelter and in the loving care of
+an institution founded by a pious Jew in Wolfenbüttel. Here he was
+taught the best within the reach of German Jews of the day, the <i>alpha</i>
+and <i>omega</i> of whose knowledge and teaching were comprised in the
+Talmud. The Wolfenbüttel school may be called progressive, inasmuch as a
+teacher, watchmaker by trade and novel-writer by vocation, was engaged
+to give instruction four times a week in the three R's. We may be sure
+that those four lessons were not given with unvarying regularity.</p>
+
+<p>In his scholastic home, Leopold Zunz met Isaac Marcus Jost, a waif like
+himself, later the first Jewish historian, to whom we owe interesting
+details of Zunz's early life. In his memoirs<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> he tells the following:
+"Zunz had been entered as a pupil before I arrived. Even in those early
+days there were evidences of the acumen of the future critic. He was
+dominated by the spirit of contradiction. On the sly we studied grammar,
+his cleverness helping me over many a stumbling-block. He was very
+witty, and wrote a lengthy Hebrew satire on our tyrants, from which we
+derived not a little amusement as each part was finished. Unfortunately,
+the misdemeanor was detected, and the <i>corpus delicti</i> consigned to the
+flames, but the sobriquet <i>chotsuf</i> (impudent fellow) clung to the
+writer."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is only just to admit that in this <i>Beth ha-Midrash</i> Zunz laid the
+foundation of the profound, comprehensive scholarship on Talmudic
+subjects, the groundwork of his future achievements as a critic. The
+circumstance that both these embryo historians had to draw their first
+information about history from the Jewish German paraphrase of
+"Yosippon," an historical compilation, is counterbalanced by careful
+instruction in Rabbinical literature, whose labyrinthine ways soon
+became paths of light to them.</p>
+
+<p>A new day broke, and in its sunlight the condition of affairs changed.
+In 1808 the <i>Beth ha-Midrash</i> was suddenly transformed into the
+"Samsonschool," still in useful operation. It became a primary school,
+conducted on approved pedagogic principles, and Zunz and Jost were among
+the first registered under the new, as they had been under the old,
+administration. Though the one was thirteen, and the other fourteen
+years old, they had to begin with the very rudiments of reading and
+writing. Campe's juvenile books were the first they read. A year later
+finds them engaged in secretly studying Greek, Latin, and mathematics
+during the long winter evenings, by the light of bits of candles made by
+themselves of drippings from the great wax tapers in the synagogue.
+After another six months, Zunz was admitted to the first class of the
+Wolfenbüttel, and Jost to that of the Brunswick, <i>gymnasium</i>. It
+characterizes the men to say that Zunz was the first, and Jost the
+third, Jew in Germany to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> enter a <i>gymnasium</i>. Now progress was rapid.
+The classes of the <i>gymnasium</i> were passed through with astounding ease,
+and in 1811, with a minimum of luggage, but a very considerable mental
+equipment, Zunz arrived in Berlin, never to leave it except for short
+periods. He entered upon a course in philology at the newly founded
+university, and after three years of study, he was in the unenviable
+position to be able to tell himself that he had attained to&mdash;nothing.</p>
+
+<p>For, to what could a cultured Jew attain in those days, unless he became
+a lawyer or a physician? The Hardenberg edict had opened academical
+careers to Jews, but when Zunz finished his studies, that provision was
+completely forgotten. So he became a preacher. A rich Jew, Jacob Herz
+Beer, the father of two highly gifted sons, Giacomo and Michael Beer,
+had established a private synagogue in his house, and here officiated
+Edward Kley, C. Günsburg, J. L. Auerbach, and, from 1820 to 1822,
+Leopold Zunz. It is not known why he resigned his position, but to infer
+that he had been forced to embrace the vocation of a preacher by the
+stress of circumstances is unjust. At that juncture he probably would
+have chosen it, if he had been offered the rectorship of the Berlin
+university; for, he was animated by somewhat of the spirit that urged
+the prophets of old to proclaim and fulfil their mission in the midst of
+storms and in despite of threatening dangers.</p>
+
+<p>Zunz's sermons delivered from 1820 to 1822 in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span> the first German reform
+temple are truly instinct with the prophetic spirit. The breath of a
+mighty enthusiasm rises from the yellowed pages. Every word testifies
+that they were indited by a writer of puissant individuality, disengaged
+from the shackles of conventional homiletics, and boldly striking out on
+untrodden paths. In the Jewish Berlin of the day, a rationalistic,
+half-cultured generation, swaying irresolutely between Mendelssohn and
+Schleiermacher, these new notes awoke sympathetic echoes. But scarcely
+had the music of his voice become familiar, when it was hushed. In 1823,
+a royal cabinet order prohibited the holding of the Jewish service in
+German, as well as every other innovation in the ritual, and so German
+sermons ceased in the synagogue. Zunz, who had spoken like Moses, now
+held his peace like Aaron, in modesty and humility, yielding to the
+inevitable without rancor or repining, always loyal to the exalted ideal
+which inspired him under the most depressing circumstances. He dedicated
+his sermons, delivered at a time of religious enthusiasm, to "youth at
+the crossroads," whom he had in mind throughout, in the hope that they
+might "be found worthy to lead back to the Lord hearts, which, through
+deception or by reason of stubbornness, have fallen away from Him."</p>
+
+<p>The rescue of the young was his ideal. At the very beginning of his
+career he recognized that the old were beyond redemption, and that, if
+response and confidence were to be won from the young, the expounding of
+the new Judaism was work, not for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span> the pulpit, but for the professor's
+chair. "Devotional exercises and balmy lotions for the soul" could not
+heal their wounds. It was imperative to bring their latent strength into
+play. Knowing this to be his pedagogic principle, we shall not go far
+wrong, if we suppose that in the organization of the "Society for Jewish
+Culture and Science" the initial step was taken by Leopold Zunz. In 1819
+when the mobs of Würzburg, Hamburg, and Frankfort-on-the-Main revived
+the "Hep, hep!" cry, three young men, Edward Gans, Moses Moser, and
+Leopold Zunz conceived the idea of a society with the purpose of
+bringing Jews into harmony with their age and environment, not by
+forcing upon them views of alien growth, but by a rational training of
+their inherited faculties. Whatever might serve to promote intelligence
+and culture was to be nurtured: schools, seminaries, academies, were to
+be erected, literary aspirations fostered, and all public-spirited
+enterprises aided; on the other hand, the rising generation was to be
+induced to devote itself to arts, trades, agriculture, and the applied
+sciences; finally, the strong inclination to commerce on the part of
+Jews was to be curbed, and the tone and conditions of Jewish society
+radically changed&mdash;lofty goals for the attainment of which most limited
+means were at the disposal of the projectors. The first fruits of the
+society were the "Scientific Institute," and the "Journal for the
+Science of Judaism," published in the spring of 1822, under the
+editorship of Zunz. Only three numbers appeared, and they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span> met with so
+small a sale that the cost of printing was not realized. Means were
+inadequate, the plans magnificent, the times above all not ripe for such
+ideals. The "Scientific Institute" crumbled away, too, and in 1823, the
+society was breathing its last. Zunz poured out the bitterness of his
+disappointment in a letter written in the summer of 1824 to his Hamburg
+friend Immanuel Wohlwill:</p>
+
+<p>"I am so disheartened that I can nevermore believe in Jewish reform. A
+stone must be thrown at this phantasm to make it vanish. Good Jews are
+either Asiatics, or Christians (unconscious thereof), besides a small
+minority consisting of myself and a few others, the possibility of
+mentioning whom saves me from the imputation of conceit, though, truth
+to say, the bitterness of irony cares precious little for the forms of
+good society. Jews, and the Judaism which we wish to reconstruct, are a
+prey to disunion, and the booty of vandals, fools, money-changers,
+idiots, and <i>parnassim</i>.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> Many a change of season will pass over this
+generation, and leave it unchanged: internally ruptured; rushing into
+the arms of Christianity, the religion of expediency; without stamina
+and without principle; one section thrust aside by Europe, and
+vegetating in filth with longing eyes directed towards the Messiah's ass
+or other member of the long-eared fraternity; the other occupied with
+fingering state securities and the pages of a cyclopædia, and constantly
+oscillating between wealth and bankruptcy, oppression and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span> tolerance.
+Their own science is dead among Jews, and the intellectual concerns of
+European nations do not appeal to them, because, faithless to
+themselves, they are strangers to abstract truth and slaves of
+self-interest. This abject wretchedness is stamped upon their
+penny-a-liners, their preachers, councillors, constitutions,
+<i>parnassim</i>, titles, meetings, institutions, subscriptions, their
+literature, their book-trade, their representatives, their happiness,
+and their misfortune. No heart, no feeling! All a medley of prayers,
+banknotes, and <i>rachmones</i>,<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> with a few strains of enlightenment and
+<i>chilluk</i>!<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a>&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Now, my friend, after so revolting a sketch of Judaism, you will hardly
+ask why the society and the journal have vanished into thin air, and are
+missed as little as the temple, the school, and the rights of
+citizenship. The society might have survived despite its splitting up
+into sections. That was merely a mistake in management. The truth is
+that it never had existence. Five or six enthusiasts met together, and
+like Moses ventured to believe that their spirit would communicate
+itself to others. That was self-deception. <i>The only imperishable
+possession rescued from this deluge is the science of Judaism. It lives
+even though not a finger has been raised in its service since hundreds
+of years. I confess that, barring submission to the judgment of God, I
+find solace only in the cultivation of the science of Judaism.</i></p>
+
+<p>As for myself, those rough experiences of mine shall assuredly not
+persuade me into a course of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> action inconsistent with my highest
+aspirations. I did what I held my duty. I ceased to preach, not in order
+to fall away from my own words, but because I realized that I was
+preaching in the wilderness. <i>Sapienti sat</i>.... After all that I have
+said, you will readily understand that I cannot favor an unduly
+ostentatious mode of dissolution. Such a course would be prompted by the
+vanity of the puffed-out frog in the fable, and affect the Jews ... as
+little as all that has gone before. There is nothing for the members to
+do but to remain unshaken, and radiate their influence in their limited
+circles, leaving all else to God."</p>
+
+<p>The man who wrote these words, it is hard to realize, had not yet passed
+his thirtieth year, but his aim in life was perfectly defined. He knew
+the path leading to his goal, and&mdash;most important circumstance&mdash;never
+deviated from it until he attained it. His activity throughout life
+shows no inconsistency with his plans. It is his strength of character,
+rarest of attributes in a time of universal defection from the Jewish
+standard, that calls for admiration, accorded by none so readily as by
+his companions in arms. Casting up his own spiritual accounts, Heinrich
+Heine in the latter part of his life wrote of his friend Zunz:<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> "In
+the instability of a transition period he was characterized by
+incorruptible constancy, remaining true, despite his acumen, his
+scepticism, and his scholarship, to self-imposed promises, to the
+exalted hobby of his soul. A man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span> of thought and action, he created and
+worked when others hesitated, and sank discouraged," or, what Heine
+prudently omitted to say, deserted the flag, and stealthily slunk out of
+the life of the oppressed.</p>
+
+<p>In Zunz, strength of character was associated with a mature, richly
+stored mind. He was a man of talent, of character, and of science, and
+this rare union of traits is his distinction. At a time when the
+majority of his co-religionists could not grasp the plain, elementary
+meaning of the phrase, "the science of Judaism," he made it the loadstar
+of his life.</p>
+
+<p>Sad though it be, I fear that it is true that there are those of this
+generation who, after the lapse of years, are prompted to repeat the
+question put by Zunz's contemporaries, "What is the science of Judaism?"
+Zunz gave a comprehensive answer in a short essay, "On Rabbinical
+Literature," published by Mauer in 1818:<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> "When the shadows of
+barbarism were gradually lifting from the mist-shrouded earth, and light
+universally diffused could not fail to strike the Jews scattered
+everywhere, a remnant of old Hebrew learning attached itself to new,
+foreign elements of culture, and in the course of centuries enlightened
+minds elaborated the heterogeneous ingredients into the literature
+called rabbinical." To this rabbinical, or, to use the more fitting name
+proposed by himself, this neo-Hebraic, Jewish literature and science,
+Zunz devoted his love, his work, his life. Since centuries this field
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> knowledge had been a trackless, uncultivated waste. He who would
+pass across, had need to be a pathfinder, robust and energetic, able to
+concentrate his mind upon a single aim, undisturbed by distracting
+influences. Such was Leopold Zunz, who sketched in bold, but admirably
+precise outlines the extent of Jewish science, marking the boundaries of
+its several departments, estimating its resources, and laying out the
+work and aims of the future. The words of the prophet must have appealed
+to him with peculiar force: "I remember unto thee the kindness of thy
+youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the wilderness,
+through a land that is not sown."</p>
+
+<p>Again, when there was question of cultivating the desert soil, and
+seeking for life under the rubbish, Zunz was the first to present
+himself as a laborer. The only fruit of the Society for Jewish Culture
+and Science, during the three years of its existence, was the "Journal
+for the Science of Judaism," and its publication was due exclusively to
+Zunz's perseverance. Though only three numbers appeared, a positive
+addition to our literature was made through them in Zunz's biographical
+essay on Rashi, the old master expounder of the Bible and the Talmud. By
+its arrangement of material, by its criticism and grouping of facts, and
+not a little by its brilliant style, this essay became the model for all
+future work on kindred subjects. When the society dissolved, and Zunz
+was left to enjoy undesired leisure, he continued to work on the lines
+laid down therein.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span> Besides, Zunz was a political journalist, for many
+years political editor of "Spener's Journal," and a contributor to the
+<i>Gesellschafter</i>, the <i>Iris</i>, <i>Die Freimütigen</i>, and other publications
+of a literary character. From 1825 to 1829, he was a director of the
+newly founded Jewish congregational school; for one year he occupied the
+position of preacher at Prague; and from 1839 to 1849, the year of its
+final closing, he acted as trustee of the Jewish teachers' seminary in
+Berlin. Thereafter he had no official position.</p>
+
+<p>As a politician he was a pronounced democrat. Reading his political
+addresses to-day, after a lapse of half a century, we find in them the
+clearness and sagacity that distinguish the scientific productions of
+the investigator. Here is an extract from his words of consolation
+addressed to the families of the heroes of the March revolution of
+1848:<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></p>
+
+<p>"They who walked our streets unnoticed, who meditated in their quiet
+studies, toiled in their workshops, cast up accounts in offices, sold
+wares in the shops, were suddenly transformed into valiant fighters, and
+we discovered them at the moment when like meteors they vanished. When
+they grew lustrous, they disappeared from our sight, and when they
+became our deliverers, we lost the opportunity of thanking them. Death
+has made them great and precious to us. Departing they poured unmeasured
+wealth upon us all, who were so poor. Our heads, parched like a summer
+sky, produced no fruitful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> rain of magnanimous thoughts. The hearts in
+our bosoms, turned into stone, were bereft of human sympathies. Vanity
+and illusions were our idols; lies and deception poisoned our lives;
+lust and avarice dictated our actions; a hell of immorality and misery,
+corroding every institution, heated the atmosphere to suffocation, until
+black clouds gathered, a storm of the nations raged about us, and
+purifying streaks of lightning darted down upon the barricades and into
+the streets. Through the storm-wind, I saw chariots of fire and horses
+of fire bearing to heaven the men of God who fell fighting for right and
+liberty. I hear the voice of God, O ye that weep, knighting your dear
+ones. The freedom of the press is their patent of nobility, our hearts,
+their monuments. Every one of us, every German, is a mourner, and you,
+survivors, are no longer abandoned."</p>
+
+<p>In an election address of February 1849,<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> Zunz says: "The first step
+towards liberty is to miss liberty, the second, to seek it, the third,
+to find it. Of course, many years may pass between the seeking and the
+finding." And further on: "As an elector, I should give my vote for
+representatives only to men of principle and immaculate reputation, who
+neither hesitate nor yield; who cannot be made to say cold is warm, and
+warm is cold; who disdain legal subtleties, diplomatic intrigues, lies
+of whatever kind, even when they redound to the advantage of the party.
+Such are worthy of the confi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span>dence of the people, because conscience is
+their monitor. They may err, for to err is human, but they will never
+deceive."</p>
+
+<p>Twelve years later, on a similar occasion, he uttered the following
+prophetic words:<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> "A genuinely free form of government makes a people
+free and upright, and its representatives are bound to be champions of
+liberty and progress. If Prussia, unfurling the banner of liberty and
+progress, will undertake to provide us with such a constitution, our
+self-confidence, energy, and trustfulness will return. Progress will be
+the fundamental principle of our lives, and out of our united efforts to
+advance it will grow a firm, indissoluble union. Now, then, Germans! Be
+resolved, all of you, to attain the same goal, and your will shall be a
+storm-wind scattering like chaff whatever is old and rotten. In your
+struggle for a free country, you will have as allies the army of mighty
+minds that have suffered for right and liberty in the past. Now you are
+split up into tribes and clans, held together only by the bond of
+language and a classic literature. You will grow into a great nation, if
+but all brother-tribes will join us. Then Germany, strongly secure in
+the heart of Europe, will be able to put an end to the quailing before
+attacks from the East or the West, and cry a halt to war. The empire,
+some one has said, means peace. Verily, with Prussia at its head, the
+German empire means peace."</p>
+
+<p>Such utterances are characteristic of Zunz, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span> politician. His best
+energies and efforts, however, were devoted to his researches. Science,
+he believed, would bring about amelioration of political conditions;
+science, he hoped, would preserve Judaism from the storms and calamities
+of his generation, for the fulfilment of its historical mission.
+Possessed by this idea, he wrote <i>Die Gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der
+Juden</i> ("Jewish Homiletics," 1832), the basis of the future science of
+Judaism, the first clearing in the primeval forest of rabbinical
+writings, through which the pioneer led his followers with steady step
+and hand, as though walking on well trodden ground. Heinrich Heine, who
+appreciated Zunz at his full worth, justly reckoned this book "among the
+noteworthy productions of the higher criticism," and another reviewer
+with equal justice ranks it on a level with the great works of Böckh,
+Diez, Grimm, and others of that period, the golden age of philological
+research in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>Like almost all that Zunz wrote, <i>Die Gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der
+Juden</i> was the result of a polemic need. By nature Zunz was a
+controversialist. Like a sentinel upon the battlements, he kept a sharp
+lookout upon the land. Let the Jews be threatened with injustice by
+ruler, statesman, or scholar, and straightway he attacked the enemy with
+the weapons of satire and science. One can fancy that the cabinet order
+prohibiting German sermons in the synagogue, and so stifling the
+ambition of his youth, awakened the resolve to trace the development of
+the sermon among Jews, and show that thousands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span> of years ago the
+well-spring of religious instruction bubbled up in Judah's halls of
+prayer, and has never since failed, its wealth of waters overflowing
+into the popular Midrash, the repository of little known, unappreciated
+treasures of knowledge and experience, accumulated in the course of many
+centuries.</p>
+
+<p>In the preface to this book, Zunz, the democrat, says that for his
+brethren in faith he demands of the European powers, "not rights and
+liberties, but right and liberty. Deep shame should mantle the cheek of
+him who, by means of a patent of nobility conferred by favoritism, is
+willing to rise above his <i>co-religionists</i>, while the law of the land
+brands him by assigning him a place among the lowest of his
+<i>co-citizens</i>. Only in the rights common to all citizens can we find
+satisfaction; only in unquestioned equality, the end of our pain.
+Liberty unshackling the hand to fetter the tongue; tolerance delighting
+not in our progress, but in our decay; citizenship promising protection
+without honor, imposing burdens without holding out prospects of
+advancement; they all, in my opinion, are lacking in love and justice,
+and such baneful elements in the body politic must needs engender
+pestiferous diseases, affecting the whole and its every part."</p>
+
+<p>Zunz sees a connection between the civil disabilities of the Jews and
+their neglect of Jewish science and literature. Untrammelled,
+instructive speech he accounts the surest weapon. Hence the homilies of
+the Jews appear to him to be worthy, and to stand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span> in need, of
+historical investigation, and the results of his research into their
+origin, development, and uses, from the time of Ezra to the present day,
+are laid down in this epoch-making work.</p>
+
+<p>The law forbidding the bearing of German names by Jews provoked Zunz's
+famous and influential little book, "The Names of the Jews," like most
+of his later writings polemic in origin, in which respect they remind
+one of Lessing's works.</p>
+
+<p>In the ardor of youth Zunz had borne the banner of reform; in middle age
+he became convinced that the young generation of iconoclasts had rushed
+far beyond the ideal goal of the reform movement cherished in his
+visions. As he had upheld the age and sacred uses of the German sermon
+against the assaults of the orthodox; so for the benefit and instruction
+of radical reformers, he expounded the value and importance of the
+Hebrew liturgy in profound works, which appeared during a period of ten
+years, crystallizing the results of a half-century's severe application.
+They rounded off the symmetry of his spiritual activity. For, when
+Midrashic inspiration ceased to flow, the <i>piut</i>&mdash;synagogue
+poetry&mdash;established itself, and the transformation from the one into the
+other was the active principle of neo-Hebraic literature for more than a
+thousand years. Zunz's vivifying sympathies knit the old and the new
+into a wondrously firm historical thread. Nowhere have the harmony and
+continuity of Jewish literary development found such adequate expression
+as in his <i>Synagogale Poesie des Mittelal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span>ters</i> ("Synagogue Poetry of
+the Middle Ages," 1855), <i>Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes</i> ("The
+Ritual of the Synagogue," 1859), and <i>Litteraturgeschichte der
+synagogalen Poesie</i> ("History of Synagogue Poetry," 1864), the capstone
+of his literary endeavors.</p>
+
+<p>In his opinion, the only safeguard against error lies in the pursuit of
+science, not, indeed, dryasdust science, but science in close touch with
+the exuberance of life regulated by high-minded principles, and
+transfigured by ideal hopes. Sermons and prayers in harmonious relation,
+he believed,<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> will "enable some future generation to enjoy the fruits
+of a progressive, rational policy, and it is meet that science and
+poetry should be permeated with ideas serving the furtherance of such
+policy. Education is charged with the task of moulding enlightened minds
+to think the thoughts that prepare for right-doing, and warm,
+enthusiastic hearts to execute commendable deeds. For, after all is said
+and done, the well-being of the community can only grow out of the
+intelligence and the moral life of each member. Every individual that
+strives to apprehend the harmony of human and divine elements attains to
+membership in the divine covenant. The divine is the aim of all our
+thoughts, actions, sentiments, and hopes. It invests our lives with
+dignity, and supplies a moral basis for our relations to one another.
+Well, then, let us hope for redemption&mdash;for the universal recognition of
+a form of government under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> which the rights of man are respected. Then
+free citizens will welcome Jews as brethren, and Israel's prayers will
+be offered up by mankind."</p>
+
+<p>These are samples of the thoughts underlying Zunz's great works, as well
+as his numerous smaller, though not less important, productions:
+biographical and critical essays, legal opinions, sketches in the
+history of literature, reviews, scientific inquiries, polemical and
+literary fragments, collected in his work <i>Zur Geschichte und
+Litteratur</i> ("Contributions to History and Literature," 1873), and in
+three volumes of collected writings. Since the publication of his
+"History of Synagogue Poetry," Zunz wrote only on rare occasions. His
+last work but one was <i>Deutsche Briefe</i> (1872) on German language and
+German intellect, and his last, an incisive and liberal contribution to
+Bible criticism (<i>Studie zur Bibelkritik</i>, 1874), published in the
+<i>Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft</i> in Leipsic.
+From that time on, when the death of his beloved wife, Adelheid Zunz, a
+most faithful helpmate, friend, counsellor, and support, occurred, he
+was silent.</p>
+
+<p>Zunz had passed his seventieth year when his "History of Synagogue
+Poetry" appeared. He could permit himself to indulge in well-earned
+rest, and from the vantage-ground of age inspect the bustling activity
+of a new generation of friends and disciples on the once neglected field
+of Jewish science.</p>
+
+<p>Often as the cause of religion and civil liberty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> received a check at
+one place or another, during those long years when he stood aside from
+the turmoil of life, a mere looker-on, he did not despair; he continued
+to hope undaunted. Under his picture he wrote sententiously: "Thought is
+strong enough to vanquish arrogance and injustice without recourse to
+arrogance and injustice."</p>
+
+<p>Zunz's life and work are of incalculable importance to the present age
+and to future generations. With eagle vision he surveyed the whole
+domain of Jewish learning, and traced the lines of its development.
+Constructive as well as critical, he raised widely scattered fragments
+to the rank of a literature which may well claim a place beside the
+literatures of the nations. Endowed with rare strength of character, he
+remained unflinchingly loyal to his ancestral faith, "the exalted hobby
+of his soul"&mdash;a model for three generations. Jewish literature owes to
+him a scientific style. He wrote epigrammatic, incisive, perspicuous
+German, stimulating and suggestive, such as Lessing used. The reform
+movement he supported as a legitimate development of Judaism on
+historical lines. On the other hand, he fostered loyalty to Judaism by
+lucidly presenting to young Israel the value of his faith, his
+intellectual heritage, and his treasures of poetry. Zunz, then, is the
+originator of a momentous phase in our development, producing among its
+adherents as among outsiders a complete revolution in the appreciation
+of Judaism, its religious and intellectual aspects. Together with
+self-knowledge he taught<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span> his brethren self-respect. He was, in short, a
+clear thinker and acute critic; a German, deeply attached to his beloved
+country, and fully convinced of the supremacy of German mind; at the
+same time, an ardent believer in Judaism, imbued with some of the spirit
+of the prophets, somewhat of the strength of Jewish heroes and martyrs,
+who sacrificed life for their conviction, and with dying lips made the
+ancient confession: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is
+one!"</p>
+
+<p>His name is an abiding possession for our nation; it will not perish
+from our memory. "Good night, my prince! O that angel choirs might lull
+thy slumbers!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>HEINRICH HEINE AND JUDAISM</h3>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>I</b></p>
+
+<p>No modern poet has aroused so much discussion as Heinrich Heine. His
+works are known everywhere, and quotations from them&mdash;gorgeous
+butterflies, stinging gnats, buzzing bees&mdash;whizz and whirr through the
+air of our century. They are the <i>vade mecum</i> of modern life in all its
+moods and variations.</p>
+
+<p>This high regard is a recent development. Within the last thirty years a
+complete change has taken place in public opinion. Soon after the poet's
+death, he was entirely neglected. The <i>Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung</i>,
+whose columns had for decades been enriched with his contributions, took
+three months to get up a little obituary notice. Then followed a period
+of acrimonious detraction; at last, cordial appreciation has come.</p>
+
+<p>The conviction has been growing that in Heine the German nation must
+revere its greatest lyric poet since Goethe, and as time removes him
+from us, the baser elements of his character recede into the background,
+his personality is lost sight of, and his poetry becomes the paramount
+consideration.</p>
+
+<p>What is the attitude of Judaism? Does it ac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span>knowledge Heine as its son?
+Is it disposed to accept <i>cum beneficio inventarii</i> the inheritance he
+has bequeathed to it? To answer these questions we must review Heine's
+life, his relations to Judaism, his opinions on Jewish subjects, and the
+qualities which prove him heir to the peculiarities of the Jewish race.</p>
+
+<p>Heine's family was Jewish. On the paternal side it can be traced to
+Meyer Samson Popert and Fromet Heckscher of Altona; on the maternal side
+further back, to Isaac van Geldern, who emigrated in about 1700 from
+Holland to the duchy of Jülich-Berg. He and his son Lazarus van Geldern
+were people of importance at Düsseldorf, and his other sons, Simon and
+Gottschalk, were known and respected beyond the confines of their city.
+Simon van Geldern was the author of "The Israelites on Mount Horeb," a
+didactic poem in English, and on his trip to the East he kept a Hebrew
+journal, which can still be seen. His younger brother Gottschalk was a
+distinguished physician, and occupied a position of high dignity in the
+Jewish congregations in the duchies of Jülich and Berg. It is said that
+he provided for the welfare of his brethren in faith "as a father
+provides for his children." His only daughter Betty (Peierche) van
+Geldern, urged by her family and in obedience to the promptings of her
+own heart, married Samson Heine, and became the mother of the poet.
+Heine himself has written much about his family,<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> particularly about
+his mother's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span> brother. Of his paternal grandfather, he knew only what
+his father had told him, that he was "a little Jew with a great beard."
+On the whole, his education was strictly religious, but it was tainted
+with the deplorable inconsistency so frequently found in Jewish homes.
+Themselves heedless of religious ceremonies, parents exact from their
+children punctilious observance of minute regulations. Samson Heine was
+one of the Jews often met with in the beginning of this century who,
+lacking true culture, caught up some of the encyclopædist phrases with
+which the atmosphere of the period was heavy. Heine describes his
+father's extraordinary buoyancy: "Always azure serenity and fanfares of
+good humor." The reproach is characteristic which he addressed to his
+son, when the latter was charged with atheism: "Dear son! Your mother is
+having you instructed in philosophy by Rector Schallmeier&mdash;that is her
+affair. As for me, I have no love for philosophy; it is nothing but
+superstition. I am a merchant, and need all my faculties for my
+business. You may philosophize as much as you please, only, I beg of
+you, don't tell any one what you think. It would harm my business, were
+people to discover that my son does not believe in God. Particularly the
+Jews would stop buying velvets from me, and they are honest folk, and
+pay promptly. And they are right in clinging to religion. Being your
+father, therefore older than you, I am more experienced, and you may
+take my word for it, atheism is a great sin."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Two instances related by Joseph Neunzig, one of his playmates, show how
+rigorously Harry was compelled to observe religious forms in his
+paternal home. On a Saturday the children were out walking, when
+suddenly a fire broke out. The fire extinguishers came clattering up to
+the burning house, but as the flames were spreading rapidly, all
+bystanders were ordered to range themselves in line with the firemen.
+Harry refused point-blank to help: "I may not do it, and I will not,
+because it is <i>Shabbes</i> to-day." But another time, when it jumped with
+his wishes, the eight year old boy managed to circumvent the Law. He was
+playing with some of his schoolmates in front of a neighbor's house. Two
+luscious bunches of grapes hung over the arbor almost down to the
+ground. The children noticed them, and with longing in their eyes passed
+on. Only Harry stood still before the grapes. Suddenly springing on the
+arbor, he bit one grape after another from the bunch. "Red-head Harry!"
+the children exclaimed horrified, "what are you doing?" "Nothing wrong,"
+said the little rogue. "We are forbidden to pluck them with our hands,
+but the law does not say anything about biting and eating." His
+education was not equable and not methodical. Extremely indulgent
+towards themselves, the parents were extremely severe in their treatment
+of their children. So arose the contradictions in the poet's character.
+He is one of those to whom childhood's religion is a bitter-sweet
+remembrance unto the end of days. Jewish sympathies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span> were his
+inalienable heritage, and from this point of view his life must be
+considered.</p>
+
+<p>The poet's mother was of a different stamp from his father. Like most of
+the Jews in the Rhenish provinces, his father hailed Napoleon, the first
+legislator to establish equality between Jews and Christians, as a
+savior. His mother, on the other hand, was a good German patriot and a
+woman of culture, who exercised no inconsiderable influence upon the
+heart and mind of her son. Heine calls her a disciple of Rousseau, and
+his brother Maximilian tells us that Goethe was her favorite among
+authors.</p>
+
+<p>The boy was first taught by Rintelsohn at a Jewish school, but his
+knowledge of Hebrew seems to have been very limited. It is an
+interesting fact that his first poem, "Belshazzar," which he tells us he
+wrote at the age of sixteen, was inspired by his childhood's faith and
+is based upon Jewish history. Towards the end of his life he said to a
+friend:<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> "Do you know what inspired me? A few words in the Hebrew
+hymn, <i>Wayhee bechatsi halaïla</i>, sung, as you know, on the first two
+evenings of the Passover. This hymn commemorates all momentous events in
+the history of the Jews that occurred at midnight; among them the death
+of the Babylonian tyrant, snatched away at night for desecrating the
+holy Temple vessels. The quoted words are the refrain of the hymn, which
+forms part of the Haggada, the curious medley of legends and songs,
+recited by pious Jews at the <i>Seder</i>." Ay, the Passover cele<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span>bration,
+the <i>Seder</i>, remained in the poet's memory till the day of his death. He
+describes it still later in one of his finest works:<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> "Sweetly sad,
+joyous, earnest, sportive, and elfishly mysterious is that evening
+service, and the traditional chant with which the Haggada is recited by
+the head of the family, the listeners sometimes joining in as a chorus,
+is thrillingly tender, soothing as a mother's lullaby, yet impetuous and
+inspiring, so that Jews who long have drifted from the faith of their
+fathers, and have been pursuing the joys and dignities of the stranger,
+even they are stirred in their inmost parts when the old, familiar
+Passover sounds chance to fall upon their ears."</p>
+
+<p>My esteemed friend Rabbi Dr. Frank of Cologne has in his possession a
+Haggada, admirably illustrated, an heirloom at one time of the Van
+Geldern family, and it is not improbable that it was out of this
+artistic book that Heinrich Heine asked the <i>Mah nishtannah</i>, the
+traditional question of the <i>Seder</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Heine left home very young, and everybody knows that he was apprenticed
+to a merchant at Frankfort, and that his uncle Solomon's kindness
+enabled him to devote himself to jurisprudence. But this, of important
+bearing on our subject, is not a matter of common knowledge: <i>Always and
+everywhere, especially when he had least intercourse with Jews, Jewish
+elements appear most prominently in Heine's life.</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A merry, light-hearted student, he arrived in Berlin in 1821. A curious
+spectacle is presented by the Jewish Berlin of the day, dominated by the
+<i>salons</i>, and the women whose tact and scintillating wit made them the
+very centre of general society. The traditions of Rahel Levin, Henriette
+Herz, and other clever women, still held sway. But the state frustrated
+every attempt to introduce reforms into Judaism. Two great parties
+opposed each other more implacably than ever, the one clutching the old,
+the other yearning for the new. Out of the breach, salvation was in time
+to sprout. In the first quarter of our century, more than three-fourths
+of the Jewish population of Berlin embraced the ruling faith. This was
+the new, seditious element with which young Heine was thrown. His
+interesting personality attracted general notice. All circles welcomed
+him. The <i>salons</i> did their utmost to make him one of their votaries.
+Romantic student clubs at Lutter's and Wegener's wine-rooms left nothing
+untried to lure him to their nocturnal carousals. Even Hegel, the
+philosopher, evinced marked interest in him. To whose allurements does
+he yield? Like his great ancestor, he goes to "his brethren languishing
+in captivity." Some of his young friends, Edward Gans, Leopold Zunz, and
+Moses Moser, had formed a "Society for Jewish Culture and Science," with
+Berlin as its centre, and Heinrich Heine became one of its most active
+members. He taught poor Jewish boys from Posen several hours a week in
+the school established by the society, and all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span> questions that came up
+interested him. Joseph Lehmann took pleasure in repeatedly telling how
+seriously Heine applied himself to a review which he had undertaken to
+write on the compilation of a German prayer-book for Jewish women.</p>
+
+<p>To the Berlin period belongs his <i>Almansor</i>, a dramatic poem which has
+suffered the most contradictory criticism. In my opinion, it has usually
+been misunderstood. <i>Almansor</i> is intelligible only if regarded from a
+Jewish point of view, and then it is seen to be the hymn of vengeance
+sung by Judaism oppressed. Substitute the names of a converted Berlin
+banker and his wife for "Aly" and "Suleima," Berlin under Frederick
+William III. for "Saragossa," the Berlin Thiergarten for the "Forest,"
+and the satire stands revealed. The following passage is characteristic
+of the whole poem:<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Go not to Aly's castle! Flee</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That noxious house where new faith breeds.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">With honeyed accents there thy heart</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Is wrenched from out thy bosom's depths,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A snake bestowed on thee instead.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hot drops of lead on thy poor head</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Are poured, and nevermore thy brain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">From madding pain shall rid itself.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Another name thou must assume,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That if thy angel warning calls,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And calls thee by thy olden name,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He call in vain."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Such were Heine's views at that time, and with them he went to
+Göttingen. There, though Jewish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> society was entirely lacking, and
+correspondence with his Berlin friends desultory, his Jewish interests
+grew stronger than ever. There, inspired by the genius of Jewish
+history, he composed his <i>Rabbi von Bacharach</i>, the work which, by his
+own confession, he nursed with unspeakable love, and which, he fondly
+hoped, would "become an immortal book, a perpetual lamp in the dome of
+God." Again Jewish conversions, a burning question of the day, were made
+prominent. Heine's solution is beyond a cavil enlightened. The words are
+truly remarkable with which Sarah, the beautiful Jewess, declines the
+services of the gallant knight:<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> "Noble sir! Would you be my knight,
+then you must meet nations in a combat in which small praise and less
+honor are to be won. And would you be rash enough to wear my colors,
+then you must sew yellow wheels upon your mantle, or bind a blue-striped
+scarf about your breast. For these are my colors, the colors of my
+house, named Israel, the unhappy house mocked at on the highways and the
+byways by the children of fortune."</p>
+
+<p>Another illustration of Heine's views at that time of his life, and with
+those views he one day went to the neighboring town of Heiligenstadt&mdash;to
+be baptized.</p>
+
+<p>Who can sound the depths of a poet's soul? Who can divine what Heine's
+thoughts, what his hopes were, when he took this step? His letters and
+confessions of that period must be read to gain an idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span> of his inner
+world. On one occasion he wrote to Moser, to whom he laid bare his most
+intimate thoughts:<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> "Mentioning Japan reminds me to recommend to you
+Golovnin's 'Journey to Japan.' Perhaps I may send you a poem to-day from
+the <i>Rabbi</i>, in the writing of which I unfortunately have been
+interrupted again. I beg that you speak to nobody about this poem, or
+about what I tell you of my private affairs. A young Spaniard, at heart
+a Jew, is beguiled to baptism by the arrogance bred of luxury. He sends
+the translation of an Arabic poem to young Yehuda Abarbanel, with whom
+he is corresponding. Perhaps he shrinks from directly confessing to his
+friend an action hardly to be called admirable.... Pray do not think
+about this."</p>
+
+<p>And the poem? It is this:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">TO EDOM</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Each with each has borne, in patience</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Longer than a thousand year&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Thou</i> dost tolerate my breathing,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>I</i> thy ravings calmly hear.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sometimes only, in the darkness,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou didst have sensations odd,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And thy paws, caressing, gentle,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Crimson turned with my rich blood.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now our friendship firmer groweth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Daily keeps on growing straight.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">I myself incline to madness,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Soon, in faith, I'll be thy mate."</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A few weeks later he writes to Moser in a still more bitter strain: "I
+know not what to say. Cohen assures me that Gans is preaching
+Christianity, and trying to convert the children of Israel. If this is
+conviction, he is a fool; if hypocrisy, a knave. I shall not give up
+loving him, but I confess that I should have been better pleased to hear
+that Gans had been stealing silver spoons. That you, dear Moser, share
+Gans's opinions, I cannot believe, though Cohen assures me of it, and
+says that you told him so yourself. I should be sorry, if my own baptism
+were to strike you more favorably. I give you my word of honor&mdash;if our
+laws allowed stealing silver spoons, I should not have been baptized."
+Again he writes mournfully: "As, according to Solon, no man may be
+called happy, so none should be called honest, before his death. I am
+glad that David Friedländer and Bendavid are old, and will soon die.
+Then we shall be certain of them, and the reproach of having had not a
+single immaculate representative cannot be attached to our time. Pardon
+my ill humor. It is directed mainly against myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon how true a basis the myth of the wandering Jew rests!" he says in
+another letter. "In the lonely wooded valley, the mother tells her
+children the grewsome tale. Terror-stricken the little ones cower close
+to the hearth. It is night ... the postilion blows his horn ... Jew
+traders are journeying to the fair at Leipsic. We, the heroes of the
+legend, are not aware of our part in it. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span> white beard, whose tips
+time has rejuvenated, no barber can remove." In those days he wrote the
+following poem, published posthumously:<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">TO AN APOSTATE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Out upon youth's holy flame!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Oh! how quickly it burns low!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Now, thy heated blood grown tame,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou agreest to love thy foe!</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And thou meekly grovell'st low</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">At the cross which thou didst spurn;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Which not many weeks ago,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou didst wish to crush and burn.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fie! that comes from books untold&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">There are Schlegel, Haller, Burke&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yesterday a hero bold,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Thou to-day dost scoundrel's work."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The usual explanation of Heine's formal adoption of Christianity is that
+he wished to obtain a government position in Prussia, and make himself
+independent of his rich uncle. As no other offers itself, we are forced
+to accept it as correct. He was fated to recognize speedily that he had
+gained nothing by baptism. A few weeks after settling in Hamburg he
+wrote: "I repent me of having been baptized. I cannot see that I have
+bettered my position. On the contrary, I have had nothing but
+disappointment and bad luck." Despite his baptism, his enemies called
+him "the Jew," and at heart he never did become a Christian.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At Hamburg, in those days, Heine was repeatedly drawn into the conflict
+between reform and orthodoxy, between the Temple and the synagogue. His
+uncle Solomon Heine was a warm supporter of the Temple, but Heine, with
+characteristic inconsistency, admired the old rigorous rabbinical system
+more than the modern reform movement, which often called forth his
+ridicule. Yet, at bottom, his interest in the latter was strong, as it
+continued to be also in the Berlin educational society, and its "Journal
+for the Science of Judaism," of which, however, only three numbers were
+issued. He once wrote from Hamburg to his friend Moser: "Last Saturday I
+was at the Temple, and had the pleasure with my own ears to hear Dr.
+Salomon rail against baptized Jews, and insinuate that they are tempted
+to become faithless to the religion of their fathers only by the hope of
+preferment. I assure you, the sermon was good, and some day I intend to
+call upon the man. Cohen is doing the generous thing by me. I take my
+<i>Shabbes</i> dinner with him; he heaps fiery <i>Kugel</i> upon my head, and
+contritely I eat the sacred national dish, which has done more for the
+preservation of Judaism than all three numbers of the Journal. To be
+sure, it has had a better sale. If I had time, I would write a pretty
+little Jewish letter to Mrs. Zunz. I am getting to be a thoroughbred
+Christian; I am sponging on the rich Jews."</p>
+
+<p>They who find nothing but jest in this letter, do not understand Heine.
+A bitter strain of disgust, of unsparing self-denunciation, runs through
+it&mdash;the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span> feelings that dictate the jests and accusations of his
+<i>Reisebilder</i>. This was the period of Heine's best creations: for as
+such his "Book of Songs," <i>Buch der Lieder</i>, and his <i>Reisebilder</i> must
+be considered. With a sudden bound he leapt into greatness and
+popularity.</p>
+
+<p>The reader may ask me to point out in these works the features to be
+taken as the expression of the genius of the Jewish race. To understand
+our poet, we must keep in mind that <i>Heinrich Heine was a Jew born in
+the days of romanticism in a town on the Rhine</i>. His intellect and his
+sensuousness, of Jewish origin, were wedded with Rhenish fancy and
+blitheness, and over these qualities the pale moonshine of romanticism
+shed its glamour.</p>
+
+<p>The most noteworthy characteristic of his writings, prose and verse, is
+his extraordinary subjectivity, pushing the poet's <i>ego</i> into the
+foreground. With light, graceful touch, he demonstrates the possibility
+of unrestrained self-expression in an artistic guise. The boldness and
+energy with which "he gave voice to his hidden self" were so novel, so
+surprising, that his melodies at once awoke an echo. This subjectivity
+is his Jewish birthright. It is Israel's ingrained combativeness, for
+more than a thousand years the genius of its literature, which
+throughout reveals a predilection for abrupt contrasts, and is studded
+with unmistakable expressions of strong individuality. By virtue of his
+subjectivity, which never permits him to surrender himself
+unconditionally, the Jew establishes a connection between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> his <i>ego</i> and
+whatever subject he treats of. "He does not sink his own identity, and
+lose himself in the depths of the cosmos, nor roam hither and thither in
+the limitless space of the world of thought. He dives down to search for
+pearls at the bottom of the sea, or rises aloft to gain a bird's-eye
+view of the whole. The world encloses him as the works of a clock are
+held in a case. His <i>ego</i> is the hammer, and there is no sound unless,
+swinging rhythmically, itself touches the sides, now softly, now
+boldly." Not content to yield to an authority which would suppress his
+freedom of action, he traverses the world, and compels it to promote the
+development of his energetic nature. To these peculiarities of his race
+Heine fell heir&mdash;to the generous traits growing out of marked
+individuality, its grooves deepened by a thousand years of martyrdom, as
+well as to the petty faults following in the wake of excessive
+self-consciousness; which have furnished adversaries of the Jews with
+texts and weapons.</p>
+
+<p>This subjectivity, traceable in his language and in his ancient
+literature, it is that unfits the Jew for objective, philosophic
+investigation. It is, moreover, responsible for that energetic
+self-assertiveness for which the Aramæan language has coined the word
+<i>chutspa</i>, only partially rendered by arrogance. Possibly it is the root
+of another quality which Heine owes to his Jewish extraction&mdash;his wit
+Heine's scintillations are composed of a number of elements&mdash;of English
+humor, French sparkle, German irony, and Jewish wit, all of which,
+saving the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span> last, have been analyzed by the critics. Proneness to
+censure, to criticism, and discussion, is the concomitant of keen
+intellect given to scrutiny and analysis. From the buoyancy of the
+Jewish disposition, and out of the force of Jewish subjectivity, arose
+Jewish wit, whose first manifestations can be traced in the Talmud and
+the Midrash. Its appeals are directed to both fancy and heart. It
+delights in antithesis, and, as was said above, is intimately connected
+with Jewish subjectivity. Its distinguishing characteristic is the
+desire to have its superiority acknowledged without wounding the
+feelings of the sensitive, and an explanation of its peculiarity can be
+found in the sad fate of the Jews. The heroes of Shakespere's tragedies
+are full of irony. Frenzy at its maddest pitch breaks out into merry
+witticisms and scornful laughter. So it was with the Jews. The waves of
+oppression, forever dashing over them, strung their nerves to the point
+of reaction. The world was closed to them in hostility. There was
+nothing for them to do but laugh&mdash;laugh with forced merriment from
+behind prison bars, and out of the depths of their heartrending
+resignation. Complaints it was possible to suppress, but no one could
+forbid their laughter, ghastly though it was. M. G. Saphir, one of the
+best exponents of Jewish wit, justly said: "The Jews seized the weapon
+of wit, since they were interdicted the use of every other sort of
+weapon." Whatever humdrum life during the middle ages offered them, had
+to submit to the scalpel of their wit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As a rule, Jewish wit springs from a lively appreciation of what is
+ingenious. A serious beginning suddenly and unexpectedly takes a merry,
+jocose turn, producing in Heine's elegiac passages the discordant
+endings so shocking to sensitive natures. But it is an injustice to the
+poet to attribute these rapid transitions to an artist's vain fancy. His
+satire is directed against the ideals of his generation, not against the
+ideal. Harsh, discordant notes do not express the poet's real
+disposition. They are exaggerated, romantic feeling, for which he
+himself, led by an instinctively pure conception of the good and the
+beautiful, which is opposed alike to sickly sentimentality and jarring
+dissonance, sought the outlet of irony.</p>
+
+<p>Heine's humor, as I intimated above, springs from his recognition of the
+tragedy of life. It is an expression of the irreconcilable difference
+between the real and the ideal, of the perception that the world,
+despite its grandeur and its beauty, is a world of folly and
+contradictions; that whatever exists and is formed, bears within itself
+the germ of death and corruption; that the Lord of all creation himself
+is but the shuttlecock of irresistible, absolute force, compelling the
+unconditional surrender of subject and object.</p>
+
+<p>Humor, then, grows out of the contemplation of the tragedy of life. But
+it does not stop there. If the world is so pitiful, so fragile, it is
+not worth a tear, not worth hatred, or contempt. The only sensible
+course is to accept it as it is, as a nothing,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> an absolute
+contradiction, calling forth ridicule. At this point, a sense of tragedy
+is transformed into demoniac glee. No more is this a permanent state.
+The humorist is too impulsive to accept it as final. Moreover, he feels
+that with the world he has annihilated himself. In the phantom realm
+into which he has turned the world, his laughter reverberates with
+ghostlike hollowness. Recognizing that the world meant more to him than
+he was willing to admit, and that apart from it he has no being, he
+again yields to it, and embraces it with increased passion and ardor.
+But scarcely has the return been effected, scarcely has he begun to
+realize the beauties and perfections of the world, when sadness,
+suffering, pain, and torture, obtrude themselves, and the old
+overwhelming sense of life's tragedy takes possession of him. This train
+of thought, plainly discernible in Heine's poems, he also owes to his
+descent. A mind given to such speculations naturally seeks poetic solace
+in <i>Weltschmerz</i>, which, as everybody knows, is still another heirloom
+of his race.</p>
+
+<p>These are the most important characteristics, some admirable, some
+reprehensible, which Heine has derived from his race, and they are the
+very ones that raised opponents against him, one of the most interesting
+and prominent among them being the German philosopher Arthur
+Schopenhauer. His two opinions on Heine, expressed at almost the same
+time, are typical of the antagonism aroused by the poet. In his book,
+"The World as Will and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span> Idea,"<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> he writes: "Heine is a true humorist
+in his <i>Romanzero</i>. Back of all his quips and gibes lies deep
+seriousness, <i>ashamed</i> to speak out frankly." At the same time he says
+in his journal, published posthumously: "Although a buffoon, Heine has
+genius, and the distinguishing mark of genius, ingenuousness. On close
+examination, however, his ingenuousness turns out to have its root in
+Jewish shamelessness; for he, too, belongs to the nation of which Riemer
+says that it knows neither shame nor grief."</p>
+
+<p>The contradiction between the two judgments is too obvious to need
+explanation; it is an interesting illustration of the common experience
+that critics go astray when dealing with Heine.</p>
+
+
+<p class="c top5"><b>II</b></p>
+
+<p>When, as Heine puts it, "a great hand solicitously beckoned," he left
+his German fatherland in his prime, and went to Paris. In its sociable
+atmosphere, he felt more comfortable, more free, than in his own home,
+where the Jew, the author, the liberal, had encountered only prejudices.
+The removal to Paris was an inauspicious change for the poet, and that
+he remained there until his end was still less calculated to redound to
+his good fortune. He gave much to France, and Paris did little during<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span>
+his life to pay off the debt. The charm exercised upon every stranger by
+Babylon on the Seine, wrought havoc in his character and his work, and
+gives us the sole criterion for the rest of his days. Yet, despite his
+devotion to Paris, home-sickness, yearning for Germany, was henceforth
+the dominant note of his works. At that time Heine considered Judaism "a
+long lost cause." Of the God of Judaism, the philosophical
+demonstrations of Hegel and his disciples had robbed him; his knowledge
+of doctrinal Judaism was a minimum; and his keen race-feeling, his
+historical instinct, was forced into the background by other sympathies
+and antipathies. He was at that time harping upon the long cherished
+idea that men can be divided into <i>Hellenists</i> and <i>Nazarenes</i>. Himself,
+for instance, he looked upon as a well-fed Hellenist, while Börne was a
+Nazarene, an ascetic. It is interesting, and bears upon our subject,
+that most of the verdicts, views, and witticisms which Heine fathers
+upon Börne in the famous imaginary conversation in the Frankfort
+<i>Judengasse</i>, might have been uttered by Heine himself. In fact, many of
+them are repeated, partly in the same or in similar words, in the
+jottings found after his death.</p>
+
+<p>This conversation is represented as having taken place during the Feast
+of <i>Chanukka</i>. Heine who, as said above, took pleasure at that time in
+impersonating a Hellenist, gets Börne to explain to him that this feast
+was instituted to commemorate the victory of the valiant Maccabees over
+the king of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span> Syria. After expatiating on the heroism of the Maccabees,
+and the cowardice of modern Jews, Börne says:<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Baptism is the order of the day among the wealthy Jews. The evangel
+vainly announced to the poor of Judæa now flourishes among the rich. Its
+acceptance is self-deception, if not a lie, and as hypocritical
+Christianity contrasts sharply with the old Adam, who will crop out,
+these people lay themselves open to unsparing ridicule.&mdash;In the streets
+of Berlin I saw former daughters of Israel wear crosses about their
+necks longer than their noses, reaching to their very waists. They
+carried evangelical prayer books, and were discussing the magnificent
+sermon just heard at Trinity church. One asked the other where she had
+gone to communion, and all the while their breath smelt. Still more
+disgusting was the sight of dirty, bearded, malodorous Polish Jews,
+hailing from Polish sewers, saved for heaven by the Berlin Society for
+the Conversion of Jews, and in turn preaching Christianity in their
+slovenly jargon. Such Polish vermin should certainly be baptized with
+cologne instead of ordinary water."</p>
+
+<p>This is to be taken as an expression of Heine's own feelings, which come
+out plainly, when, "persistently loyal to Jewish customs," he eats,
+"with good appetite, yes, with enthusiasm, with devotion, with
+conviction," <i>Shalet</i>, the famous Jewish dish, about which he says:
+"This dish is delicious, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span> is a subject for painful regret that
+the Church, indebted to Judaism for so much that is good, has failed to
+introduce <i>Shalet</i>. This should be her object in the future. If ever she
+falls on evil times, if ever her most sacred symbols lose their virtue,
+then the Church will resort to <i>Shalet</i>, and the faithless peoples will
+crowd into her arms with renewed appetite. At all events the Jews will
+then join the Church from conviction, for it is clear that it is only
+<i>Shalet</i> that keeps them in the old covenant. Börne assures me that
+renegades who have accepted the new dispensation feel a sort of
+home-sickness for the synagogue when they but smell <i>Shalet</i>, so that
+<i>Shalet</i> may be called the Jewish <i>ranz des vaches</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Heine forgot that in another place he had uttered this witticism in his
+own name. He long continued to take peculiar pleasure in his dogmatic
+division of humanity into two classes, the lean and the fat, or rather,
+the class that continually gets thinner, and the class which, beginning
+with modest dimensions, gradually attains to corpulency. Only too soon
+the poet was made to understand the radical falseness of his definition.
+A cold February morning of 1848 brought him a realizing sense of his
+fatal mistake. Sick and weary, the poet was taking his last walk on the
+boulevards, while the mob of the revolution surged in the streets of
+Paris. Half blind, half paralyzed, leaning heavily on his cane, he
+sought to extricate himself from the clamorous crowd, and finally found
+refuge in the Louvre, almost empty during the days of excitement. With
+difficulty he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span> dragged himself to the hall of the gods and goddesses of
+antiquity, and suddenly came face to face with the ideal of beauty, the
+smiling, witching Venus of Milo, whose charms have defied time and
+mutilation. Surprised, moved, almost terrified, he reeled to a chair,
+tears, hot and bitter, coursing down his cheeks. A smile was hovering on
+the beautiful lips of the goddess, parted as if by living breath, and at
+her feet a luckless victim was writhing. A single moment revealed a
+world of misery. Driven by a consciousness of his fate, Heine wrote in
+his "Confessions": "In May of last year I was forced to take to my bed,
+and since then I have not risen. I confess frankly that meanwhile a
+great change has taken place in me. I no longer am a fat Hellenist, the
+freest man since Goethe, a jolly, somewhat corpulent Hellenist, with a
+contemptuous smile for lean Jews&mdash;I am only a poor Jew, sick unto death,
+a picture of gaunt misery, an unhappy being."</p>
+
+<p>This startling change was coincident with the first symptoms of his
+disease, and kept pace with it. The pent-up forces of faith pressed to
+his bedside; religious conversations, readings from the Bible,
+reminiscences of his youth, of his Jewish friends, filled his time
+almost entirely. Alfred Meissner has culled many interesting data from
+his conversations with the poet. For instance, on one occasion Heine
+breaks out with:<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Queer people this! Downtrodden for thousands of years, weeping always,
+suffering always,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span> abandoned always by its God, yet clinging to Him
+tenaciously, loyally, as no other under the sun. Oh, if martyrdom,
+patience, and faith in despite of trial, can confer a patent of
+nobility, then this people is noble beyond many another.&mdash;It would have
+been absurd and petty, if, as people accuse me, I had been ashamed of
+being a Jew. Yet it were equally ludicrous for me to call myself a
+Jew.&mdash;As I instinctively hold up to unending scorn whatever is evil,
+timeworn, absurd, false, and ludicrous, so my nature leads me to
+appreciate the sublime, to admire what is great, and to extol every
+living force." Heine had spoken so much with deep earnestness. Jestingly
+he added: "Dear friend, if little Weill should visit us, you shall have
+another evidence of my reverence for hoary Mosaism. Weill formerly was
+precentor at the synagogue. He has a ringing tenor, and chants Judah's
+desert songs according to the old traditions, ranging from the simple
+monotone to the exuberance of Old Testament cadences. My wife, who has
+not the slightest suspicion that I am a Jew, is not a little astonished
+by this peculiar musical wail, this trilling and cadencing. When Weill
+sang for the first time, Minka, the poodle, crawled into hiding under
+the sofa, and Cocotte, the polly, made an attempt to throttle himself
+between the bars of his cage. 'M. Weill, M. Weill!' Mathilde cried
+terror-stricken, 'pray do not carry the joke too far.' But Weill
+continued, and the dear girl turned to me, and asked imploringly:
+'Henri, pray tell me what sort of songs these are.' 'They are our
+Ger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span>man folk songs,' said I, and I have obstinately stuck to that
+explanation."</p>
+
+<p>Meissner reports an amusing conversation with Madame Mathilde about the
+friends of the family, whom the former by their peculiarities recognized
+as Jews. "What!" cried Mathilde, "Jews? They are Jews?" "Of course,
+Alexander Weill is a Jew, he told me so himself;&mdash;why he was going to be
+a rabbi." "But the rest, all the rest? For instance, there is Abeles,
+the name sounds so thoroughly German." "Rather say it sounds Greek,"
+answered Meissner. "Yet I venture to insist that our friend Abeles has
+as little German as Greek blood in his veins." "Very well! But
+Jeiteles&mdash;Kalisch&mdash;Bamberg&mdash;Are they, too.... O no, you are mistaken,
+not one is a Jew," cried Mathilde. "You will never make me believe that.
+Presently you will make out Cohn to be a Jew. But Cohn is related to
+Heine, and Heine is a Protestant." So Meissner found out that Heine had
+never told his wife anything about his descent. He gravely answered:
+"You are right. With regard to Cohn I was of course mistaken. Cohn is
+certainly not a Jew."</p>
+
+<p>These are mere jests. In point of fact, his friends' reports on the
+religious attitude of the Heine of that period are of the utmost
+interest. He once said to Ludwig Kalisch, who had told him that the
+world was all agog over his conversion:<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> "I do not make a secret of
+my Jewish allegiance, to which I have not returned, because I never
+abjured it. I was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span> baptized from aversion to Judaism, and my
+professions of atheism were never serious. My former friends, the
+Hegelians, have turned out scamps. Human misery is too great for men to
+do without faith."</p>
+
+<p>The completest picture of the transformation, truer than any given in
+letters, reports, or reminiscences, is in his last two productions, the
+<i>Romanzero</i> and the "Confessions." There can be no more explicit
+description of the poet's conversion than is contained in these
+"confessions." During his sickness he sought a palliative for his
+pains&mdash;in the Bible. With a melancholy smile his mind reverted to the
+memories of his youth, to the heroism which is the underlying principle
+of Judaism. The Psalmist's consolations, the elevating principles laid
+down in the Pentateuch, exerted a powerful attraction upon him, and
+filled his soul with exalted thoughts, shaped into words in the
+"Confessions":<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> "Formerly I felt little affection for Moses,
+probably because the Hellenic spirit was dominant within me, and I could
+not pardon the Jewish lawgiver for his intolerance of images, and every
+sort of plastic representation. I failed to see that despite his hostile
+attitude to art, Moses was himself a great artist, gifted with the true
+artist's spirit. Only in him, as in his Egyptian neighbors, the artistic
+instinct was exercised solely upon the colossal and the indestructible.
+But unlike the Egyptians he did not shape his works of art out of brick
+or granite. His pyra<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span>mids were built of men, his obelisks hewn out of
+human material. A feeble race of shepherds he transformed into a people
+bidding defiance to the centuries&mdash;a great, eternal, holy people, God's
+people, an exemplar to all other peoples, the prototype of mankind: he
+created Israel. With greater justice than the Roman poet could this
+artist, the son of Amram and Jochebed the midwife, boast of having
+erected a monument more enduring than brass.</p>
+
+<p>As for the artist, so I lacked reverence for his work, the Jews,
+doubtless on account of my Greek predilections, antagonistic to Judaic
+asceticism. My love for Hellas has since declined. Now I understand that
+the Greeks were only beautiful youths, while the Jews have always been
+men, powerful, inflexible men, not only in early times, to-day, too, in
+spite of eighteen hundred years of persecution and misery. I have learnt
+to appreciate them, and were pride of birth not absurd in a champion of
+the revolution and its democratic principles, the writer of these
+leaflets would boast that his ancestors belonged to the noble house of
+Israel, that he is a descendant of those martyrs to whom the world owes
+God and morality, and who have fought and bled on every battlefield of
+thought."</p>
+
+<p>In view of such avowals, Heine's return to Judaism is an indubitable
+fact, and when one of his friends anxiously inquired about his relation
+to God, he could well answer with a smile: <i>Dieu me pardonnera; c'est
+son metier.</i> In those days Heine made his will, his true, genuine will,
+to have been the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span> first to publish which the present writer will always
+consider the distinction of his life. The introduction reads: "I die in
+the belief in one God, Creator of heaven and earth, whose mercy I
+supplicate in behalf of my immortal soul. I regret that in my writings I
+sometimes spoke of sacred things with levity, due not so much to my own
+inclination, as to the spirit of my age. If unwittingly I have offended
+against good usage and morality, which constitute the true essence of
+all monotheistic religions, may God and men forgive me."</p>
+
+<p>With this confession on his lips Heine passed away, dying in the thick
+of the fight, his very bier haunted by the spirits of antagonism and
+contradiction....</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Greek joy in life, belief in God of Jew,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And twining in and out like arabesques,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ivy tendrils gently clasp the two."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>In Heine's character, certainly, there were sharp contrasts. Now we
+behold him a Jew, now a Christian, now a Hellenist, now a romanticist;
+to-day laughing, to-morrow weeping, to-day the prophet of the modern
+era, to-morrow the champion of tradition. Who knows the man? Yet who
+that steps within the charmed circle of his life can resist the
+temptation to grapple with the enigma?</p>
+
+<p>One of the best known of his poems is the plaint:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Mass for me will not be chanted,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Kadosh</i> not be said,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Naught be sung, and naught recited,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Round my dying bed."</span><br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The poet's prophecy has not come true. As this tribute has in spirit
+been laid upon his grave, so always thousands will devote kindly thought
+to him, recalling in gentleness how he struggled and suffered, wrestled
+and aspired; how, at the dawn of the new day, enthusiastically
+proclaimed by him, his spirit fled aloft to regions where doubts are set
+at rest, hopes fulfilled, and visions made reality.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>THE MUSIC OF THE SYNAGOGUE<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></h3>
+
+
+<p>Ladies and Gentlemen:&mdash;Let the emotions aroused by the notes of the
+great masters, now dying away upon the air, continue to reverberate in
+your souls. More forcibly and more eloquently than my weak words, they
+express the thoughts and the feelings appropriate to this solemn
+occasion.</p>
+
+<p>A festival like ours has rarely been celebrated in Israel. For nearly
+two thousand years the muse of Jewish melody was silent; during the
+whole of that period, a new chord was but seldom won from the unused
+lyre. The Talmud<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> has a quaint tale on the subject: Higros the
+Levite living at the time of the decadence of Israel's nationality, was
+the last skilled musician, and he refused to teach his art. When he sang
+his exquisite melodies, touching his mouth with his thumb, and striking
+the strings with his fingers, it is said that his priestly mates,
+transported by the magic power of his art, fell prostrate, and wept.
+Under the Oriental trappings of this tale is concealed regretful anguish
+over the decay of old Hebrew song. The altar at Jerusalem was
+demolished, and the songs of Zion, erst sung by the Levitical choirs
+under the leadership of the Korachides,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span> were heard no longer. The
+silence was unbroken, until, in our day, a band of gifted men disengaged
+the old harps from the willows, and once more lured the ancient melodies
+from their quavering strings.</p>
+
+<p>Towering head and shoulders above most of the group of restorers is he
+in whose honor we are assembled, to whom we bring greeting and
+congratulation. To you, then, Herr Lewandowski, I address myself to
+offer you the deep-felt gratitude and the cordial wishes of your
+friends, of the Berlin community, and, I may add, of the whole of
+Israel. You were appointed for large tasks&mdash;large tasks have you
+successfully performed. At a time when Judaism was at a low ebb, only
+scarcely discernible indications promising a brighter future, Providence
+sent you to occupy a guide's position in the most important, the
+largest, and the most intelligent Jewish community of Germany. For fifty
+years your zeal, your diligence, your faithfulness, your devotion, your
+affectionate reverence for our past, and your exalted gifts, have graced
+the office. Were testimony unto your gifts and character needed, it
+would be given by this day's celebration, proving, as it does, that your
+brethren have understood the underlying thought of your activities, have
+grasped their bearing upon Jewish development, and have appreciated
+their influence.</p>
+
+<p>You have remodelled the divine service of the Jewish synagogue,
+superadding elements of devotion and sacredness. Under your touch old
+lays have clothed themselves with a modern garb&mdash;a new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span> rhythm vibrates
+through our historic melodies, keener strength in the familiar words,
+heightened dignity in the cherished songs. Two generations and all parts
+of the world have hearkened to your harmonies, responding to them with
+tears of joy or sorrow, with feelings stirred from the recesses of the
+heart. To your music have listened entranced the boy and the girl on the
+day of declaring their allegiance to the covenant of the fathers; the
+youth and the maiden in life's most solemn hour; men and women in all
+the sacred moments of the year, on days of mourning and of festivity.</p>
+
+<p>A quarter of a century ago, when you celebrated the end of twenty-five
+years of useful work, a better man stood here, and spoke to you. Leopold
+Zunz on that occasion said to you: "Old thoughts have been transformed
+by you into modern emotions, and long stored words seasoned with your
+melodies have made delicious food."</p>
+
+<p>This is your share in the revival of Jewish poesy, and what you have
+resuscitated, and remodelled, and re-created, will endure, echoing and
+re-echoing through all the lands. In you Higros the Levite has been
+restored to us. But your melodies will never sink into oblivious
+silence. They have been carried by an honorable body of disciples to
+distant lands, beyond the ocean, to communities in the remote countries
+of civilization. Thus they have become the perpetual inheritance of the
+congregation of Jacob, the people that has ever loved and wooed music,
+only direst distress succeeding in flinging the pall of silence over
+song and melody.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Holy Writ places the origin of music in the primitive days of man,
+tersely pointing out, at the same time, music's conciliatory charms: it
+is the descendant of Cain, the fratricide, a son of Lemech, the slayer
+of a man to his own wounding, who is said to be the "father of all such
+as play on the harp and guitar" (<i>Kinnor</i> and <i>Ugab</i>). Another of
+Lemech's sons was the first artificer in every article of copper and
+iron, the inventor of weapons of war, as the former was the inventor of
+stringed instruments. Both used brass, the one to sing, the other to
+fight. So music sprang from sorrow and combat. Song and roundelay,
+timbrels and harp, accompanied our forefathers on their wanderings, and
+preceded the armed men into battle. So, too, the returning victor was
+greeted, and in the Temple on Moriah's crest, joyful songs of gratitude
+extolled the grace of the Lord. From the harp issued the psalm dedicated
+to the glory of God&mdash;love of art gave rise to the psalter, a song-book
+for the nations, and its author David may be called the founder of the
+national and Temple music of the ancient Hebrews. With his song, he
+banished the evil spirit from Saul's soul; with his skill on the
+psaltery, he defeated his enemies, and he led the jubilant chorus in the
+Holy City singing to the honor and glory of the Most High.</p>
+
+<p>Compare the Hebrew and the Hellenic music of ancient times: Orpheus with
+his music charms wild beasts; David's subdues demons. By means of
+Amphion's lyre, living walls raise themselves; Israel's cornets make
+level the ramparts of Jericho.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span> Arion's melodies lure dolphins from the
+sea; Hebrew music infuses into the prophet's disciples the spirit of the
+Lord. These are the wondrous effects of music in Israel and in Hellas,
+the foremost representatives of ancient civilization. Had the one united
+with the other, what celestial harmonies might have resulted! But later,
+in the time of Macedonian imperialism, when Alexandria and Jerusalem
+met, the one stood for enervated paganism, the other for a Judaism of
+compromise, and a union of such tones produces no harmonious chords.</p>
+
+<p>But little is known of the ancient Hebrew music of the Temple, of the
+singers, the songs, the melodies, and the instruments. The Hebrews had
+songs and instrumental music on all festive, solemn occasions,
+particularly during the divine service. At their national celebrations,
+in their homes, at their diversions, even on their journeys and their
+pilgrimages to the sanctuary, their hymns were at once religious,
+patriotic, and social.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> They had the viol and the cithara, flutes,
+cymbals, and castanets, and, if our authorities interpret correctly, an
+organ (<i>magrepha</i>), whose volume of sound surpassed description. When,
+on the Day of Atonement, its strains pealed through the chambers of the
+Temple, they were heard in the whole of Jerusalem, and all the people
+bowed in humble adoration before the Lord of hosts. The old music ceased
+with the overthrow of the Jewish state. The Levites hung their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span> harps on
+the willows of Babylon's streams, and every entreaty for the "words of
+song" was met by the reproachful inquiry: "How should we sing the song
+of the Lord on the soil of the stranger?" Higros the Levite was the last
+of Israelitish tone-artists.</p>
+
+<p>Israel set out on his fateful wanderings, his unparalleled pilgrimage,
+through the lands and the centuries, along an endless, thorny path,
+drenched with blood, watered with tears, across nations and thrones,
+lonely, terrible, sublime with the stern sublimity of tragic scenes.
+They are not the sights and experiences to inspire joyous songs&mdash;melody
+is muffled by terror. Only lamentation finds voice, an endless,
+oppressive, anxious wail, sounding adown, through two thousand years,
+like a long-drawn sigh, reverberating in far-reaching echoes: "How long,
+O Lord, how long!" and "When shall a redeemer arise for this people?"
+These elegiac refrains Israel never wearies of repeating on all his
+journeyings. Occasionally a fitful gleam of sunlight glides into the
+crowded Jewish quarters, and at once a more joyous note is heard, rising
+triumphant above the doleful plaint, a note which asserts itself
+exultingly on the celebration in memory of the Maccabean heroes, on the
+days of <i>Purim</i>, at wedding banquets, at the love-feasts of the pious
+brotherhood. This fusion of melancholy and of rejoicing is the keynote
+of mediæval Jewish music growing out of the grotesque contrasts of
+Jewish history. Yet, despite its romantic woe, it is informed with the
+spirit of a remote past, making it the legitimate off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span>spring of ancient
+Hebrew music, whose characteristics, to be sure, we arrive at only by
+guesswork. Of that mediæval music of ours, the poet's words are true:
+"It rejoices so pathetically, it laments so joyfully."</p>
+
+<p>Whoever has heard, will never forget Israel's melodies, breaking forth
+into rejoicing, then cast down with sadness: flinging out their notes to
+the skies, then sinking into an abyss of grief: now elated, now
+oppressed; now holding out hope, now moaning forth sorrow and pain. They
+convey the whole of Judah's history&mdash;his glorious past, his mournful
+present, his exalted future promised by God. As their tones flood our
+soul, a succession of visions passes before our mental view: the Temple
+in all its unexampled splendor, the exultant chorus of Levites, the
+priests discharging their holy office, the venerable forms of the
+patriarchs, the lawgiver-guide of the people, prophets with uplifted
+finger of warning, worthy rabbis, pale-faced martyrs of the middle ages;
+but the melodies conjuring before our minds all these shadowy figures
+have but one burden: "How should we sing the song of the Lord on the
+soil of the stranger?"</p>
+
+<p>That is the ever-recurring <i>motif</i> of the Jewish music of the middle
+ages. But the blending of widely different emotions is not favorable in
+the creation of melody. Secular occurrences set their seal upon
+religious music, of which some have so high a conception as to call it
+one of the seven liberal arts, or even to extol it beyond poetry. Jacob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span>
+Levi of Mayence (Maharil), living at the beginning of the fifteenth
+century, is considered the founder of German synagogue music, but his
+productions remained barren of poetic and devotional results. He drew
+his best subjects from alien sources. At the time of the Italian
+Renaissance, music had so firmly established itself in the appreciation
+of the people that a preacher, Judah Muscato, devoted the first of his
+celebrated sermons to music, assigning to it a high mission among the
+arts. He interpreted the legend of David's Æolian harp as a beautiful
+allegory. Basing his explanation on a verse in the Psalms, he showed
+that it symbolizes a spiritual experience of the royal bard. Another
+writer, Abraham ben David Portaleone, found the times still riper; he
+could venture to write a theory of music, as taught him by his teachers,
+Samuel Arkevolti and Menahem Lonsano, both of whom had strongly opposed
+the use of certain secular melodies then current in Italy, Germany,
+France, and Turkey for religious songs. Among Jewish musicians in the
+latter centuries of the middle ages, the most prominent was Solomon
+Rossi. He, too, failed to exercise influence on the shaping of Jewish
+music, which more and more delighted in grotesqueness and aberrations
+from good taste. The origin of synagogue melodies was attributed to
+remoter and remoter periods; the most soulful hymns were adapted to
+frivolous airs. Later still, at a time when German music had risen to
+its zenith, when Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven flourished,
+the Jewish strolling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span> musician <i>Klesmer</i>, a mendicant in the world of
+song as in the world of finance, was wandering through the provinces
+with his two mates.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a new era dawned for Israel, too. The sun of humanity sent a
+few of its rays into the squalid Ghetto. Its walls fell before the
+trumpet blast of deliverance. On all sides sounded the cry for liberty.
+The brotherhood of man, embracing all, did not exclude storm-baptized
+Israel. The old synagogue had to keep pace with modern demands, and was
+arrayed in a new garb. Among those who designed and fashioned the new
+garment, he is prominent in whose honor we have met to-day.</p>
+
+<p>From our short journey through the centuries of music, we have returned
+to him who has succeeded in the great work of restoring to its honorable
+place the music of the synagogue, sorely missed, ardently longed for,
+and bringing back to us old songs in a new guise. An old song and a new
+melody! The old song of abiding love, loyalty, and resignation to the
+will of God! His motto was the beautiful verse: "My strength and my song
+is the Lord"; and his unchanging refrain, the jubilant exclamation:
+"Blessed be thou, fair Musica!" A wise man once said: "Hold in high
+honor our Lady of Music!" The wise man was Martin Luther&mdash;another
+instance this of the conciliatory power of music, standing high above
+the barriers raised by religious differences. It is worthy of mention,
+on this occasion, that at the four hundredth anniversary celebration in
+honor of Martin Luther, in the Sebaldus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span> church at Nuremberg, the most
+Protestant of the cities of Germany, called by Luther himself "the eye
+of God," a psalm of David was sung to music composed by our guest of the
+day.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold in high honor our Lady of Music!" We will be admonished by the
+behest, and give honor to the artist by whose fostering care the music
+of the synagogue enjoys a new lease of life; who, with pious zeal, has
+collected our dear old melodies, and has sung them to us with all the
+ardor and power with which God in His kindness endowed him.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"The sculptor must simulate life, of the poet I demand intelligence;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The soul can be expressed only by Polyhymnia!"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>An orphan, song wandered hither and thither through the world, met,
+after many days, by the musician, who compassionately adopted it, and
+clothed it with his melodies. On the pinions of music, it now soars
+whithersoever it listeth, bringing joy and blessing wherever it alights.
+"The old song, the new melody!" Hark! through the silence of the night
+in this solemn moment, one of those old songs, clad by our <i>maestro</i> in
+a new melody, falls upon our ears: "I remember unto thee the kindness of
+thy youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the
+wilderness, through a land that is not sown!"</p>
+
+<p>Hearken! Can we not distinguish in its notes, as they fill our ears, the
+presage of a music of the future, of love and good-will? We seem to hear
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span> rustle of the young leaves of a new spring, the resurrection
+foretold thousands of years agone by our poets and prophets. We see
+slowly dawning that great day on which mankind, awakened from the fitful
+sleep of error and delusion, will unite in the profession of the creed
+of brotherly love, and Israel's song will be mankind's song, myriads of
+voices in unison sending aloft to the skies the psalm of praise:
+Hallelujah, Hallelujah!</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span></p>
+
+<h3>INDEX</h3>
+
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Aaron, medical writer, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li>Abbahu, Haggadist, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+<li>Abbayu, rabbi, quoted, <a href="#Page_232">232-233</a></li>
+
+<li>Abina, rabbi, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>Abitur, poet, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+<li>Aboab, Isaac, writer, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+<li>Aboab, Samuel, Bible scholar, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+<li>Abrabanel, Isaac, scholar and statesman, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li>Abrabanel, Judah, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham in Africa, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham Bedersi, poet, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham ben Chiya, scientist, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham ben David Portaleone, musician, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham de Balmes, physician, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham deï Mansi, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham ibn Daud, philosopher, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham ibn Ezra, exegete, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>
+<ul><li>mathematician, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Abraham ibn Sahl, poet, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham Judæus. See Abraham ibn Ezra</li>
+
+<li>Abraham of Sarteano, poet, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham Portaleone, archæolegist, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li>Abraham Powdermaker, legend of, <a href="#Page_285">285-286</a></li>
+
+<li>Abt and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+
+<li>Abyssinia, the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_262">262-263</a></li>
+
+<li>Ackermann, Rachel, novelist, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+<li>Acosta, Uriel, alluded to, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Acta Esther et Achashverosh</i>, drama, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+
+<li>Actors, Jewish, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247-248</a></li>
+
+<li>Adia, poet, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+<li>Adiabene, Jews settle in, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+
+<li>Æsop's fables translated into Hebrew, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+<li>"A few words to the Jews by one of themselves," by Charlotte Montefiore, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+
+<li>Afghanistan, the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Africa, interest in, <a href="#Page_249">249-250</a>
+<ul><li>in the Old Testament, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>
+<li>the Talmud on, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li>
+<li>the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Agau spoken by the Falashas, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+<li>Aguilar, Grace, author, <a href="#Page_134">134-137</a>
+<ul><li>testimonial to, <a href="#Page_136">136-137</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Ahasverus," farce, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+
+<li>Ahaz, king, alluded to, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+<li>Akiba ben Joseph, rabbi, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Albert of Prussia, alluded to, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+
+<li>Albertus Magnus and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>
+<ul><li>philosopher, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+<li>proscribes the Talmud, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Albo, Joseph, philosopher, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li>Al-Chazari, by Yehuda Halevi, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>
+<ul><li>commentary on, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Alemanno, Jochanan, Kabbalist, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Alessandro Farnese, alluded to, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Alexander III, pope, and Jewish diplomats, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li>Alexander the Great, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li>
+
+<li>Alexandria, centre of Jewish life, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>
+<ul><li>philosophy in, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Alfonsine Tables compiled, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li>Alfonso V of Portugal and Isaac Abrabanel, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li>Alfonso X, of Castile, patron of Jewish scholars, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>Alfonso XI, of Castile, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li>
+
+<li>Alityros, actor, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+<li>Alkabez, Solomon, poet, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Alliance Israélite Universelle</i>, and the Falashas, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>
+
+<li>"Almagest" by Ptolemy translated, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>
+<ul><li>read by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Almansor</i> by Heine, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li>
+
+<li>Almohades and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Altweiberdeutsch.</i> See <i>Judendeutsch</i></li>
+
+<li>Amatus Lusitanus, physician, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li>Amharic spoken by the Falashas, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+<li>Amoraïm, Speakers, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+<li>Amos, prophet, alluded to, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+
+<li>Amsterdam, Marrano centre, <a href="#Page_128">128-129</a></li>
+
+<li>Anahuac and the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Anatoli. See Jacob ben Abba-Mari ben Anatoli</li>
+
+<li>Anatomy in the Talmud, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li>Anna, Rashi's granddaughter, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+<li>Anti-Maimunists, <a href="#Page_39">39-40</a></li>
+
+<li>Antiochus Epiphanes, alluded to, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li>
+
+<li>Antonio di Montoro, troubadour, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180-181</a></li>
+
+<li>Antonio dos Reys, on Isabella Correa, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+
+<li>Antonio Enriquez di Gomez. See Enriquez, Antonio.</li>
+
+<li>Antonio Jose de Silva, dramatist, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236-237</a></li>
+
+<li>Aquinas, Thomas, philosopher, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>
+<ul><li>and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+<li>under Gabirol's influence, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+<li>works of, translated, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Arabia, Jews settle in, <a href="#Page_250">250-251</a>
+<ul><li>the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_256">256-257</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Arabs influence Jews, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>
+<ul><li>relation of, to Jews, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Argens, d', and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li>
+
+<li>Aristeas, Neoplatonist, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>Aristobulus, Aristotelian, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>Aristotle, alluded to, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>
+<ul><li>and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+<li>interpreted by Jews, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Arkevolti, Samuel, grammarian, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+
+<li>Armenia, the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Arnstein, Benedict David, dramatist, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+
+<li>Art among Jews, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+<li>"Art of Carving and Serving at Princely Boards, The" translated, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li>Arthurian legends in Hebrew, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+
+<li>Ascarelli, Deborah, poetess, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+<li>Asher ben Yehuda, hero of a romance, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+<li>Ashi, compiler of the Babylonian Talmud, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>Ashkenasi, Hannah, authoress, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Asireh ha-Tikwah</i>, by Joseph Pensa, <a href="#Page_237">237-238</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Asiya</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Astruc, Bible critic, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li>Auerbach, Berthold, novelist, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Auerbach, J. L., preacher, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung</i> and Heine, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li>
+
+<li>Avenare. See Abraham ibn Ezra</li>
+
+<li>Avencebrol. See Gabirol, Solomon</li>
+
+<li>Avendeath, Johannes, translator of "The Fount of Life," <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+<li>Averröes and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_163">163-164</a></li>
+
+<li>Avicebron. See Gabirol, Solomon</li>
+
+<li>Avicenna and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+<li>Azariah de Rossi, scholar, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Azila</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Barrios, de, Daniel, critic, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+
+<li>Barruchius, Valentin, romance writer, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li>Bartholdy, Salomon, quoted, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+
+<li>Bartolocci, Hebrew scholar, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>Bassista, Sabbataï, bibliographer, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Bath Halevi, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li>Bechaï ibn Pakuda, philosopher, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+<li>Beck. K., poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Beena</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Beer, Jacob Herz, establishes a synagogue, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li>
+
+<li>Beer, M., poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Behaim, Martin, scientist, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>Belmonte, Bienvenida Cohen, poetess, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+<li>"Belshazzar" by Heine, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+<li>Bendavid. See Lazarus ben David</li>
+
+<li>"Beni Israel" and the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Benjamin of Tudela, traveller, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Berachya ben Natronaï (Hanakdan), fabulist, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li>Beria, a character in Immanuel Romi's poem, <a href="#Page_221">221-222</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Beria</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Bernhard, employer of Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+
+<li>Bernhardt, Sarah, actress, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+<li>Bernstein, Aaron, Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Bernstorff, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Berschadzky on Saul Wahl, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+<li>Beruriah, wife of Rabbi Meïr, <a href="#Page_110">110-112</a></li>
+
+<li>Bible. See Old Testament, The</li>
+
+<li>Bible critics, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+<li>Bible dictionary, Jewish German, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+<li>"Birth and Death" from the Haggada, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Biurists</i>, the Mendelssohn school, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+
+<li>Blackcoal, a character in "The Gift of Judah," <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li>Blanche de Bourbon, wife of Pedro I, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+<li>Bleichroeder quoted, <a href="#Page_296">296-297</a></li>
+
+<li>Bloch, Pauline, writer, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li>Boccaccio, alluded to, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+<li>Böckh, alluded to, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li>
+
+<li>Bonet di Lattes, astronomer, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Bonifacio, Balthasar, accuser of Sara Sullam, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+
+<li>"Book of Diversions, The" by Joseph ibn Sabara, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li>"Book of Samuel," by Litte of Ratisbon, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li>"Book of Songs" by Heine, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li>
+
+<li>Börne, Ludwig, quoted, <a href="#Page_313">313-314</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359-361</a></li>
+
+<li>Borromeo, cardinal, alluded to, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Brinkmann, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Bruno di Lungoborgo, work of, translated, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li>Bruno, Giordano, philosopher, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Buch der Lieder</i> by Heine, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li>
+
+<li>Buffon quoted, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+<li>Büschenthal, L. M., dramatist, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+
+<li>Buxtorf, father and son, scholars, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>
+<ul><li>translates "The Guide of the Perplexed," <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+
+<li>Calderon, alluded to, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+<li>Calderon, the Jewish, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+<li>Calendar compiled by the rabbis, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li>Caliphs and Jewish diplomats, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Campe, Joachim, on Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_314">314-315</a></li>
+
+<li>Cardinal, Peire, troubadour, <a href="#Page_171">171-172</a></li>
+
+<li>Casimir the Great, Jews under, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>Cassel, D., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_19">19-20</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Castro de, Orobio, author, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Çeba, Ansaldo, and Sara Sullam, <a href="#Page_125">125-128</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Celestina</i>, by Rodrigo da Cota, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+
+<li>Chananel, alluded to, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li>
+
+<li>Chanukka, story of, <a href="#Page_359">359-360</a></li>
+
+<li>Charlemagne and Jewish diplomats, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Charles of Anjou, patron of Hebrew learning, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li>Chasan, Bella, historian, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li>Chasdaï ben Shaprut, statesman, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li>Chasdaï Crescas, philosopher, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93-94</a></li>
+
+<li>Chassidism, a form of Kabbalistic Judaism, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Chesed</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Children in the Talmud, <a href="#Page_63">63-64</a></li>
+
+<li>Chiya, rabbi, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>Chiya bar Abba, Halachist, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+<li>Chmielnicki, Bogdan, and the Jews, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Chochma</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Chotham Tochnith</i> by Abraham Bedersi, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li>"Chronicle of the Cid," the first, by a Jew, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>
+
+<li>Cicero and the drama, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+<li>Clement VI, pope, and Levi ben Gerson, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li>Cochin, the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Cohen, friend of Heine, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li>
+
+<li>Cohen, Abraham, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+<li>Cohen, Joseph, historian, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li>Coins, Polish, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>Columbus, alluded to, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>
+<ul><li>and Jews, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Comedy, nature of, <a href="#Page_195">195-196</a></li>
+
+<li>Commendoni, legate, on the Polish Jews, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+<li>"Commentaries on Aristotle" by Averroës, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+<li>"Commentary on Ecclesiastes" by Obadiah Sforno, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Commerce developed by Jews, <a href="#Page_101">101-102</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Comte Lyonnais, Palanus</i>, romance, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li>"Confessions" by Heine, quoted, <a href="#Page_365">365-366</a></li>
+
+<li>Conforte, David, historian, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Consejos y Documentos al Rey Dom Pedro</i> by Santob de Carrion, <a href="#Page_173">173-174</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Consolaçam as Tribulações de Ysrael</i> by Samuel Usque, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li>Constantine, translator, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+<li>"Contemplation of the World" by Yedaya Penini, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+<li>"Contributions to History and Literature" by Zunz, <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li>
+
+<li>Copernicus and Jewish astronomers, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li>Correa, Isabella, poetess, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+
+<li>Cota, da, Rodrigo, dramatist, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+
+<li>"Counsel and Instruction to King Dom Pedro" by Santob de Carrion, <a href="#Page_173">173-174</a></li>
+
+<li>"Court Secrets" by Rachel Ackermann, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+<li>Cousin, Victor, on Spinoza, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+<li>Creation, Maimonides' theory of, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li>
+
+<li>Creed, the Jewish, by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_151">151-152</a></li>
+
+<li>Creizenach, Th., poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Cromwell, Oliver, and Manasseh ben Israel, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Dalalat al-Haïrin</i>, "Guide of the Perplexed," <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li>
+
+<li>Damm, teacher of Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li>
+
+<li>"Dance of Death," attributed to Santob, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+<li>Daniel, Immanuel Romi's guide in Paradise, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Dansa General</i>, attributed to Santob, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+<li>Dante and Immanuel Romi, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li>Dante, the Hebrew, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+<li>"Dark Continent, The." See Africa</li>
+
+<li>David, philosopher, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+
+<li>David ben Levi, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>David ben Yehuda, poet, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li>David d'Ascoli, physician, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li>David della Rocca, alluded to, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+<li>David de Pomis, physician, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li>Davison, Bogumil, actor, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+<li>Deborah, as poetess, <a href="#Page_106">106-107</a></li>
+
+<li><i>De Causis</i>, by David, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+
+<li>Decimal fractions first mentioned, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li>"Deeds of King David and Goliath, The," drama, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+
+<li>Delitzsch, Franz, quoted, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+<li>Del Medigo, Elias. See Elias del Medigo and Joseph del Medigo</li>
+
+<li>De Rossi, Hebrew scholar, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>Deutsch, Caroline, poetess, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142-143</a></li>
+
+<li>Deutsch, Emanuel, on the Talmud, <a href="#Page_68">68-70</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Deutsche Briefe</i> by Zunz, <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Dialoghi di Amore</i> by Judah Abrabanel, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Dichter und Kaufmann</i> by Berthold Auerbach, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Die Freimütigen</i>, Zunz contributor to, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Die gottesdienstlichen Vorträge der Juden</i> by Zunz, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333-335</a></li>
+
+<li>Diez, alluded to, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li>
+
+<li>Dingelstedt, Franz, quoted, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+
+<li>Dioscorides, botanist, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Disciplina clericalis</i>, a collection of tales, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Divina Commedia</i>, travestied, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>
+<ul><li>imitated, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Doctor angelicus</i>, Thomas Aquinas, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Doctor Perplexorum</i>, "Guide of the Perplexed," <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+
+<li>Document hypothesis of the Old Testament, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+<li>Dolce, scholar and martyr, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+<li>Donnolo, Sabattaï, physician, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li>Dorothea of Kurland and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
+
+<li>Dotina, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Drama, the, among the ancient Hebrews, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>
+<ul><li>classical Hebrew, <a href="#Page_244">244-245</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+<li>first Hebrew, published, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+<li>first Jewish, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>
+<li>Jewish German, <a href="#Page_246">246-247</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Drama, the German, Jews in, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>
+<ul><li>the Portuguese, Jews in, <a href="#Page_236">236-237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li>
+<li>the Spanish, Jews in, <a href="#Page_235">235-236</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Dramatists, Jewish, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+<li>Drinking songs, <a href="#Page_200">200-201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212-213</a></li>
+
+<li>Dubno, Solomon, commentator, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+
+<li>Dukes, L., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Dunash ben Labrat, alluded to, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li>
+
+<li>"Duties of the Heart" by Bechaï, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Eben Bochan</i>, by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, <a href="#Page_216">216-219</a></li>
+
+<li>Egidio de Viterbo, cardinal, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li>Eibeschütz, Jonathan, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Eldad ha-Dani, traveller, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257-258</a></li>
+
+<li>Elias del Medigo, scholar, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li>Elias Kapsali, scholar, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Elias Levita, grammarian, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Elias Mizrachi, scholar, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Elias of Genzano, poet, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>Elias Wilna, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>Eliezer, rabbi, quoted, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+
+<li>Eliezer ha-Levi, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Eliezer of Metz, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>El Muallima, Karaite, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Em beyisrael</i>, Deborah, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li>Emden, Jacob, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Emin Pasha, alluded to, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+<li>"Enforced Apostasy," by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+<li>Engel, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Enriquez, Antonio, di Gomez, dramatist, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>
+
+<li>Enriquez, Isabella, poetess, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+<li><i>En-Sof</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Ephraim, the Israelitish kingdom, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+
+<li>Ephraim, Veitel, financier, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li>
+
+<li>Erasmus, quoted, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Esheth Lapidoth</i>, Deborah, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+<li>Eskeles, banker, alluded to, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+<li>Esterka, supposed mistress of Casimir the Great, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>"Esther," by Solomon Usque, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+
+<li>Esthori Hafarchi, topographer, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>Ethiopia. See Abyssinia</li>
+
+<li>Euchel, Isaac, Hebrew writer, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+
+<li>Eupolemos, historian, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>Euripides, alluded to, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+<li>Ewald, Bible critic, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+<li>"Exodus from Egypt, The" by Ezekielos, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+<li>Ezekiel, prophet, quoted, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294-295</a></li>
+
+<li>Ezekielos, dramatist, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+<li>Ezra, alluded to, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Fables translated by Jews, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86-87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li>Fagius, Paul, Hebrew scholar, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Falashas, the, and the missionaries, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>
+<ul><li>and the Negus Theodore, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+<li>customs of, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li>
+<li>described by Halévy, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>
+<li>history of, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+<li>intellectual eagerness of, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li>
+<li>Messianic expectations of, <a href="#Page_267">267-268</a></li>
+<li>religious customs of, <a href="#Page_265">265-266</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Faust of Saragossa, Gabirol, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Faust</i> translated into Hebrew, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+<li>Felix, Rachel, actress, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+<li>Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and Isaac Abrabanel, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li>Ferrara, duke of, candidate in Poland, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+<li>Figo, Azariah, rabbi, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+<li>Fischels, Rosa, translator of the Psalms, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li>"Flaming Sword, The," by Abraham Bedersi, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li>"Flea Song" by Yehuda Charisi, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+<li>Fleck, actor, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+<li>Foa, Rebekah Eugenie, writer, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>Folquet de Lunel, troubadour, <a href="#Page_171">171-172</a></li>
+
+<li>Fonseca Pina y Pimentel, de, Sara, poetess, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+<li>"Foundation of the Universe, The," by Isaac Israeli, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>"Foundation of the World, The," by Moses Zacuto, <a href="#Page_238">238-239</a></li>
+
+<li>"Fount of Life, The," by Gabirol, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+<li>Fox fables translated, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li>Frank, Rabbi Dr., alluded to, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li>
+
+<li>Fränkel, David, teacher of Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_293">293</a></li>
+
+<li>Frankel, Z, scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Frankl, L. A., poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Frank-Wolff, Ulla, writer, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>Franzos, K. E., Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li>Frederick II, emperor, patron of Hebrew learning, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li>Frederick the Great and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_301">301-303</a>
+<ul><li>and the Jews, <a href="#Page_316">316-317</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Freidank, German author, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li>
+
+<li>Friedländer, David, disciple of Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li>
+
+<li>Fröhlich, Regina, writer, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+<li>Fürst, J., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Gabirol, Solomon, philosopher, <a href="#Page_26">26-27</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82-83</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>
+<ul><li>poet, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25-26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Gad, Esther, alluded to, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li>Galen and Gamaliel, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>
+<ul><li>works of, edited by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Gama, da, Vasco, and Jews, <a href="#Page_96">96-97</a></li>
+
+<li>Gamaliel, rabbi, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+<li>Gans, David, historian, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Gans, Edward, friend of Heine, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li>
+
+<li>Gaspar, Jewish pilot, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>Gayo, Isaac, physician, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li>Geiger, Abraham, scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Geldern, van, Betty, mother of Heine, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+<li>Geldern, van, Gottschalk, Heine's uncle, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+<li>Geldern, van, Isaac, Heine's grandfather, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+<li>Geldern, van, Lazarus, Heine's uncle, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+<li>Geldern, van, Simon, author, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+<li>Gentz, von, Friedrich, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Geometry in the Talmud, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li>German literature cultivated by Jews, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+
+<li>Gerson ben Solomon, scientist, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Gesellschafter</i>, Zunz contributor to the, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Ghedulla</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Ghemara, commentary on the Mishna, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+
+<li>Ghetto tales, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Ghevoora</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Gideon, Jewish king in Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+
+<li>"Gift from a Misogynist, A," satire, by Yehuda ibn Sabbataï, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214-216</a></li>
+
+<li>Glaser, Dr. Edward, on the Falashas, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+
+<li>Goethe, alluded to, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>
+<ul><li>and Jewish literature, <a href="#Page_103">103-104</a></li>
+<li>on Yedaya Penini, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Goldschmidt, Henriette, writer, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>Goldschmidt, Johanna, writer, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>Goldschmied, M., Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li>Goldsmid, Anna Maria, writer, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+<li>Goldsmid, Isaac Lyon, alluded to, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+<li>Gottloeber, A., dramatist, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+<li>Götz, Ella, translator, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li>Graetz, Heinrich, historian, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Graziano, Lazaro, dramatist, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+
+<li>Greece and Judæa contrasted, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li>
+
+<li>Grimani, Dominico, cardinal, alluded to, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Grimm, alluded to, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li>
+
+<li>Guarini, dramatist, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+<li>Gugenheim, Fromet, wife of Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Guide of the Perplexed, The," contents of, <a href="#Page_157">157-163</a>
+<ul><li>controversy over, <a href="#Page_164">164-166</a></li>
+<li>English translation of, 155 (note)</li>
+<li>purpose of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Gumpertz, Aaron, and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Gundisalvi, Dominicus, translator of "The Fount of Life," <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+<li>Günsburg, C., preacher, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li>
+
+<li>Günsburg, Simon, confidant of Stephen Báthori, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+<li>"Gustavus Vasa" by Grace Aguilar, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+<li>Gutzkow, quoted, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Haggada and Halacha contrasted, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194-195</a></li>
+
+<li>Haggada, the, characterized, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54-55</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60-61</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64-70</a>
+<ul><li>cosmopolitan, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+<li>described by Heine, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+<li>ethical sayings from, <a href="#Page_61">61-63</a></li>
+<li>poetic quotations from, <a href="#Page_65">65-68</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Haggada, the, at the Passover service, <a href="#Page_344">344-345</a></li>
+
+<li>Haï, Gaon, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+
+<li>Halacha and Haggada contrasted, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194-195</a></li>
+
+<li>Halacha, the, characterized, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54-55</a>
+<ul><li>subjective, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Halévy, Joseph, and the Falashas, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_265">265-266</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Halley's comet and Rabbi Joshua, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li>"Haman's Will and Death," drama, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+
+<li>Hamel, Glikel, historian, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li>Händele, daughter of Saul Wahl, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+
+<li>Hariri, Arabic poet, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, 34 (note)</li>
+
+<li>Haroun al Rashid, embassy to, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li>Hartmann, M., poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Hartog, Marian, writer, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+<li>Hartung, actor, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Ha-Sallach</i>, Moses ibn Ezra, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+<li>Hebrew drama, first, published, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+
+<li>Hebrew language, plasticity of, <a href="#Page_32">32-33</a></li>
+
+<li>Hebrew studies among Christians, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47-48</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Heckscher, Fromet, ancestress of Heine, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+<li>Hegel and Heine, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></li>
+
+<li>Heine, Heinrich, poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>
+<ul><li>and Venus of Milo, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></li>
+<li>appreciation of, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li>
+<li>characterized by Schopenhauer, <a href="#Page_357">357-358</a></li>
+<li>character of, <a href="#Page_367">367</a></li>
+<li>conversion of, <a href="#Page_348">348-351</a></li>
+<li>family of, <a href="#Page_341">341-342</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+<li>Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+<li>in Berlin, <a href="#Page_346">346-347</a></li>
+<li>in Göttingen, <a href="#Page_347">347-348</a></li>
+<li>in Paris, <a href="#Page_358">358-359</a></li>
+<li>Jewish traits of, <a href="#Page_345">345-348</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353-357</a></li>
+<li>on Gabirol, <a href="#Page_25">25-26</a></li>
+<li>on the Jews, <a href="#Page_362">362-363</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365-366</a></li>
+<li>on Yehuda Halevi, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>on Zunz, <a href="#Page_327">327-328</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+<li>religious education of, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li>
+<li>return of, to Judaism, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></li>
+<li>wife of, <a href="#Page_363">363-364</a></li>
+<li>will of, <a href="#Page_366">366-367</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Heine, Mathilde, wife of Heinrich Heine, <a href="#Page_363">363-364</a></li>
+
+<li>Heine, Maximilian, quoted, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+<li>"Heine of the middle ages," Immanuel Romi, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li>Heine, Samson, father of Heinrich Heine, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li>
+
+<li>Heine, Solomon, uncle of Heinrich Heine, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li>
+
+<li>Hellenism and Judaism, <a href="#Page_75">75-76</a></li>
+
+<li>Hellenists, Heine on, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></li>
+
+<li>Hennings, alluded to, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+
+<li>Henry of Anjou, election of, in Poland, <a href="#Page_286">286-287</a></li>
+
+<li>Herder, poet, and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Hermeneutics by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_162">162-163</a></li>
+
+<li>Herod and the stage, <a href="#Page_230">230-231</a></li>
+
+<li>Herrera, Abraham, Kabbalist, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li>Hertzveld, Estelle and Maria, writers, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li>Herz, Henriette, alluded to, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133-346</a>
+<ul><li>and Dorothea Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+<li>character of, <a href="#Page_312">312-313</a></li>
+<li><i>salon</i> of, <a href="#Page_311">311-314</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Herz, Marcus, physicist, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+<li>Herzberg-Fränkel, L., Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li>Herzfeld, L., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Hess, M., quoted, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+<li>"Highest Faith, The" by Abraham ibn Daud, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Higros the Levite, musician, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></li>
+
+<li>Hildebold von Schwanegau, minnesinger, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+
+<li>Hillel, rabbi, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Hillel ben Samuel, translator <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li>Himyarites and Jews, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li>
+
+<li>Hirsch, scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Hirsch, Jenny, writer, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>"History and Literature of the Israelites" by Constance and Anna Rothschild, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li>
+
+<li>"History of Synagogue Poetry" by Zunz, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li>
+
+<li>"History of the Jews in England" by Grace Aguilar, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+
+<li>"History of the National Poetry of the Hebrews" by Ernest Meier, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+<li>Hitzig, architect, alluded to, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>
+
+<li>Hitzig, Bible critic, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Hod</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Holbein, Hans, illustrates a Jewish book, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+<li>Holdheim, S., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Holland, exiles in, <a href="#Page_128">128-129</a></li>
+
+<li>Homberg, Herz disciple of Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+
+<li>"Home Influence" by Grace Aguilar, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+<li>Hosea, king, alluded to, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+<li>Hosea, prophet, alluded to, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>
+<ul><li>"Hours of Devotion" by</li>
+<li>Fanny Neuda, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Humanism and the Jews, <a href="#Page_94">94-95</a></li>
+
+<li>Humboldts, the, and Hennriette Herz, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Humor in antiquity, <a href="#Page_191">191-192</a>
+<ul><li>in Jewish German literature, <a href="#Page_225">225-226</a></li>
+<li>nature of, <a href="#Page_195">195-195</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356-357</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Hurwitz, Bella, historian, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li>Hurwitz, Isaiah, Kabbalist, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Ibn Alfange, writer, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>
+
+<li>Ibn Chasdaï, Makamat writer, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+<li>Ibn Sina and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Iggereth ha-Sh'mad</i> by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Ikkarim</i> by Joseph Albo, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li>Ima Shalom, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+<li>Immanuel ben Solomon, poet, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219-221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222-223</a>
+<ul><li>and Dante, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Immanuel Romi. See Immanuel ben Solomon</li>
+
+<li>India, the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Indians and the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Innocent III, pope, alluded to, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+
+<li>Intelligences, Maimonides' doctrine of the, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+<li>"Interest and Usury" from the Haggada, <a href="#Page_67">67-68</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Iris</i>, Zunz contributor to the, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaac Alfassi, alluded to, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaac ben Abraham, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaac ben Moses, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaac ben Sheshet, philosopher, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat, poet, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaac ibn Sid, astronomer, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaac Israeli, mathematician, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaac Israeli, physician, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li>
+
+<li>Isaiah, prophet, quoted, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li>
+
+<li>Ishmael, poet, alluded to, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+<li>Israel, kingdom of, <a href="#Page_250">250-251</a></li>
+
+<li>"Israel Defended" translated by Grace Aguilar, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+<li>"Israelites on Mount Horeb, The," by Simon van Geldern, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+<li>Isserles, Moses, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>Italy, Jews of <a href="#Page_45">45-46</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+
+<li>Itzig, Daniel, naturalization of, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+<li>Jabneh, academy at, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227-228</a></li>
+
+<li>Jacob ben Abba-Mari ben Anatoli, scholar, <a href="#Page_39">39-40</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+
+<li>Jacob ben Elias, poet, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>Jacob ben Machir, astronomer, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li>Jacob ben Meïr, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Jacob ben Nissim, alluded to, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li>
+
+<li>Jacob ibn Chabib, Talmudist <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>Jason, writer, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>Jayme, J, of Aragon, patron of Hebrew learning, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li>Jellinek, Adolf, preacher, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245-246</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Jeremiah, prophet, quoted, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+
+<li>Jerusalem, friend of Moses Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+
+<li>Jerusalem, Kabbalists in, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>Jesus, mediator between Judaism and Hellenism, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>
+<ul><li>quotes the Old Testament, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Jewish Calderon, The," Antonio Enriquez di Gomez, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish drama, the first, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>
+
+<li>"Jewish Faith, The," by Grace Aguilar, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish German drama, the, <a href="#Page_246">246-247</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish historical writings, lack of, <a href="#Page_23">23-24</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish history, spirit of, <a href="#Page_269">269-271</a></li>
+
+<li>"Jewish Homiletics" by Zunz, <a href="#Page_333">333-335</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish literature and Goethe, <a href="#Page_103">103-104</a>
+<ul><li>characterized, <a href="#Page_11">11-12</a></li>
+<li>comprehensiveness of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+<li>definition of, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+<li>extent of, <a href="#Page_9">9-10</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+<li>Hellenic period of, <a href="#Page_16">16-17</a></li>
+<li>in Persia, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+<li>love in, <a href="#Page_122">122-123</a></li>
+<li>name of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+<li>rabbinical period of, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Jewish philosophers, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish poetry, and Syrian, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>
+<ul><li>future of, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+<li>subjects of, <a href="#Page_24">24-25</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Jewish poets, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish race, the, liberality of, <a href="#Page_33">33-34</a>
+<ul><li>morality of, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+<li>preservation of, <a href="#Page_108">108-109</a></li>
+<li>subjectivity of, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353-354</a></li>
+<li>versatility of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Jewish scholars, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish Sybil, the, <a href="#Page_17">17-18</a></li>
+
+<li>"Jewish Voltaire, The," Immanuel Romi, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+<li>Jewish wit, <a href="#Page_354">354-356</a></li>
+
+<li>Jews, academies of, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>
+<ul><li>and Columbus, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+<li>and commerce, <a href="#Page_101">101-102</a></li>
+<li>and Frederick the Great, <a href="#Page_316">316-317</a></li>
+<li>and the invention of printing, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+<li>and the national poetry of Germany, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+<li>and the Renaissance, <a href="#Page_43">43-44</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74-75</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94-95</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+<li>and troubadour poetry, <a href="#Page_171">171-173</a></li>
+<li>and Vasco da Gama, <a href="#Page_96">96-97</a></li>
+<li>as diplomats, <a href="#Page_98">98-99</a></li>
+<li>as economists, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+<li>as interpreters of Aristotle, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+<li>as linguists, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li>as literary mediators, <a href="#Page_97">97-98</a></li>
+<li>as physicians, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81-82</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+<li>as scientific mediators, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+<li>as teachers of Christians, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+<li>as traders, <a href="#Page_74">74-75</a></li>
+<li>as translators, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86-87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91-92</a></li>
+<li>as travellers, <a href="#Page_37">37-38</a></li>
+<li>as wood engravers, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+<li>characterized by Heine, <a href="#Page_362">362-363</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365-366</a></li>
+<li>defended by Reuchlin, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+<li>in Arabia, <a href="#Page_256">256-257</a></li>
+<li>in Holland, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+<li>in Italy, <a href="#Page_45">45-46</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+<li>in Poland, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286-288</a></li>
+<li>in the modern drama, <a href="#Page_235">235-237</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+<li>in the sciences, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+<li>of Germany, in the middle ages, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+<li>of Germany, poverty of, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+<li>of the eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li>
+<li>relation of, to Arabs, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+<li>under Arabic influences, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+<li>under Hellenic influences, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+<li>under Roman influences, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>João II, of Portugal, employs Jewish scholars, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>Jochanan, compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
+
+<li>Jochanan ben Zakkaï, rabbi, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-57</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+<li>John of Seville, mathematician, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li>Josefowicz brothers in Lithuania, <a href="#Page_287">287-288</a></li>
+
+<li>Joseph ben Jochanan, wife of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+<li>Joseph del Medigo, scholar, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+<li>Joseph Ezobi, poet, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+<li>Joseph ibn Aknin, disciple of Maimonides, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+
+<li>Joseph ibn Nagdela, wife of, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li>Joseph ibn Sabara, satirist, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li>Joseph ibn Verga, historian, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li>Joseph ibn Zaddik, philosopher, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+<li>Josephus, Flavius, historian, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>
+<ul><li>at Rome, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Joshua, astronomer, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li>Joshua, Samaritan book of, on the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li>
+
+<li>Joshua ben Chananya, rabbi, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+
+<li>Joshua, Jacob, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Jost, Isaac Marcus, historian, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>
+<ul><li>on Zunz, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Journal for the Science of Judaism," <a href="#Page_324">324-325</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li>
+
+<li>Juan Alfonso de Bæna, poet, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+<li>Judæa and Greece contrasted, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li>
+
+<li>Judæo-Alexandrian period, <a href="#Page_16">16-17</a></li>
+
+<li>Judah Alfachar and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+<li>Judah Hakohen, astronomer, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>Judah ibn Sabbataï, satirist, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li>Judah ibn Tibbon, translator, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+<li>Judah Tommo, poet, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>Judaism and Hellenism, <a href="#Page_75">75-76</a>
+<ul><li>served by women, <a href="#Page_115">115-116</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Judendeutsch</i>, patois, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>
+<ul><li>literature in, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100-101</a></li>
+<li>philological value of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+<li>used by women, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Judges, quoted, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+<li>Judith, queen of the Jewish kingdom in Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Kabbala, the, attacked and defended, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>
+<ul><li>influence of, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+<li>studied by Christians, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+<li>supposed author of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+<li>system of, outlined, <a href="#Page_40">40-41</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Kabbalists, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Kalâm</i>, Islam theology, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Kalila we-Dimna</i>, fox fables, translated, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li>Kalir, Eliezer, poet, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+<li>"Kaliric," classical in Jewish literature, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+<li>Kalisch, Ludwig, quoted, <a href="#Page_364">364-365</a></li>
+
+<li>Kalonymos ben Kalonymos as a satirist, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216-219</a>
+<ul><li>as a scholar, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Kant and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>
+<ul><li>'s philosophy among Jews, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Kara, Abigedor, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Karaite doctrines in Castile, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li>Karo, Joseph, compiler of the <i>Shulchan Aruch</i>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>Kasmune (Xemona), poetess, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+<li>Kaspi, Joseph, philosopher, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li>Kayserling, M., quoted, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>
+
+<li>Kepler and Jewish astronomers, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Kether</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Kimchi, David, grammarian, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+<li>"King Solomon's Seal" by Büschenthal, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+
+<li>Kisch, teacher of Moses Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Klesmer</i>, musician, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></li>
+
+<li>Kley, Edward, preacher, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a></li>
+
+<li>Kohen, Sabbataï, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>Kompert, Leopold, Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li>Korbi, character in "The Gift of Judah," <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li>Krochmal, scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Kuh, M. E., poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Kulke, Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li>Kunth, tutor of the Humboldts, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+
+<li><i>La Doctrina Christiana</i>, attributed to Santob, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+<li>La Fontaine, and Hebrew fable translations, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li>Landau, Ezekiel, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Laura (Petrarch's) in "Praise of Women," <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Layesharim Tehillah</i> by Luzzatto, <a href="#Page_240">240-241</a></li>
+
+<li>"Lay of Zion" by Yehuda Halevi, <a href="#Page_28">28-31</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li>
+
+<li>Lazarus ben David, philosopher, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li>
+
+<li>Lazarus, Emma, poetess, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li>Lazarus, M., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Lecho Dodi</i>, Sabbath song, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>Legend-making, <a href="#Page_288">288-289</a></li>
+
+<li>Legends, value of, <a href="#Page_289">289-292</a></li>
+
+<li>Lehmann, M., Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+<li>Leibnitz and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Leibzoll</i>, tax, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li>
+
+<li>Lemech, sons of, inventions of, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></li>
+
+<li>Leo de Modena, rabbi, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+<li>Leo Hebræus. See Judah Abrabanel</li>
+
+<li>Leon di Bannolas. See Levi ben Gerson</li>
+
+<li>Lessing, alluded to, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>
+<ul><li>and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+<li>as fabulist, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+<li>on Yedaya Penini, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Letteris, M. E., dramatist, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+<li>"Letters to a Christian Friend on the Fundamental Truths of Judaism," by Clementine Rothschild, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li>Levi ben Abraham, philosopher, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+<li>Levi ben Gerson, philosopher, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90-91</a></li>
+
+<li>Levi (Henle), Elise, writer, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>Levi of Mayence, founder of German synagogue music, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+
+<li>Levin (Varnhagen), Rahel, alluded to, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>
+<ul><li>and Judaism, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+<li>and the emancipation movement, <a href="#Page_132">132-133</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Levita, Elias. See Elias Levita</li>
+
+<li>Lewandowski, musician, work of, <a href="#Page_370">370-371</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377-378</a></li>
+
+<li>"Light of God" by Chasdaï Crescas, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li>Lindo, Abigail, writer, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+<li>Lithuania, Jews in, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+<li>Litte of Ratisbon, historian, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Litteraturbriefe</i> by Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Litteraturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie</i> by Zunz, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li>
+
+<li>Lokman's fables translated into Hebrew, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+<li>Lonsano, Menahem, writer on music, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+
+<li>Lope de Vega, alluded to, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+<li>Love in Hebrew poetry, <a href="#Page_122">122-123</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+<li>Love in Jewish and German poetry, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+
+<li>Lucian, alluded to, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+
+<li>"Lucinde" by Friedrich von Schlegel, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+<li>Luis de Torres accompanies Columbus, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>Luria, Solomon, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>Luther, Martin, and Rashi, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></li>
+<li>under Jewish influences, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Luzzatto, Moses Chayyim, dramatist, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239-241</a></li>
+
+<li>Luzzatto, S. D., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Maffei, dramatist, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Maggidim</i>, itinerant preachers, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>
+
+<li>"Magic Flute, The," first performance of, <a href="#Page_247">247-248</a></li>
+
+<li>"Magic Wreath, The," by Grace Aguilar, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+<li>Maharil, founder of German synagogue music, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+
+<li>Maimon, Solomon, and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li>
+
+<li>Maimonides, Moses, philosopher, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>
+<ul><li>and Aristotle, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+<li>and Averroës, <a href="#Page_163">163-164</a></li>
+<li>and Ibn Sina, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+<li>and modern philosophy, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+<li>and scholasticism, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+<li>as astronomer, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+<li>career of, <a href="#Page_147">147-150</a></li>
+<li>in France, <a href="#Page_145">145-146</a></li>
+<li>medical works of, <a href="#Page_153">153-154</a></li>
+<li>on man's attributes, <a href="#Page_160">160-161</a></li>
+<li>on prophecy, <a href="#Page_161">161-162</a></li>
+<li>on resurrection, <a href="#Page_164">164-165</a></li>
+<li>on revelation, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+<li>on the attributes of God, <a href="#Page_157">157-158</a></li>
+<li>on the Mosaic legislation, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+<li>philosophic work of, 154 ff.</li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+<li>religious works of, <a href="#Page_150">150-153</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Maimunists, <a href="#Page_39">39-40</a></li>
+
+<li>Makamat, a form of Arabic poetry, 34 (note)</li>
+
+<li>Malabar, the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Malchuth</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Manasseh ben Israel, author, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99-100</a>
+<ul><li>and Rembrandt, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+<li>on the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Manesse, Rüdiger, compiler, <a href="#Page_183">183-184</a></li>
+
+<li>Mannheimer, N., preacher, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Manoello. See Immanuel ben Solomon</li>
+
+<li>Mantino, Jacob, physician, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Manuel, of Portugal, alluded to, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li>Margoles, Jacob, Kabbalist, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Maria de Padilla, mistress of Pedro I, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+<li>Marie de France, fabulist, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li>Mar Sutra on the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Mashal</i>, parable, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Massichtoth</i>, Talmudic treatises, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Mauscheln</i>, Jewish slang, <a href="#Page_310">310-311</a></li>
+
+<li>Maximilian, of Austria, candidate for the Polish crown, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Mechabberoth</i> by Immanuel Romi, <a href="#Page_219">219-220</a></li>
+
+<li>Medicine, origin of, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+<li>Meier, Ernest, Bible critic, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>
+<ul><li>quoted, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Meïr, rabbi, fabulist, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111-112</a></li>
+
+<li>Meïr ben Baruch, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Meïr ben Todros ha-Levi, quoted, <a href="#Page_164">164-165</a></li>
+
+<li>Meissner, Alfred, recollections of, of Heine, <a href="#Page_362">362-364</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Mekirath Yoseph</i> by Beermann, <a href="#Page_241">241-244</a></li>
+
+<li>Melo, David Abenator, translator, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Mendel Gibbor</i>, quoted, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendels, Edel, historian, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendelssohn, Abraham, son of Moses Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendelssohn, Dorothea, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305-306</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendelssohn, Henriette, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_306">306-308</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendelssohn, Joseph, son of Moses Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendelssohn, Moses, philosopher, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>
+<ul><li>and Lessing, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+<li>and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+<li>as critic, <a href="#Page_301">301-302</a></li>
+<li>as reformer, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li>
+<li>as translator, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+<li>children of, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+<li>disciples of, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+<li>friends of, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314-315</a></li>
+<li>in Berlin, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, 296 ff</li>
+<li>marriage of, <a href="#Page_303">303-304</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Mendelssohn, Nathan, son of Moses Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendelssohn, Recha, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+
+<li>Mendez, David Franco, dramatist, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Meneketh Ribka</i>, by Rebekah Tiktiner, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+<li>Menelek, son of the Queen of Sheba, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Merope</i> by Maffei, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Mesgid</i>, Falasha synagogue, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+<li>Mesopotamia, the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Messer Leon, poet, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li>Meyer, Marianne, alluded to, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li>Meyer, Rachel, writer, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>Meyer, Sarah, alluded to, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></li>
+
+<li>Meyerbeer, alluded to, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+
+<li>Midrash, commentary, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53-54</a></li>
+
+<li>Midrash Rabba, a Talmudic work, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Migdal Oz</i> by Luzzatto, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Minchath Yehuda Soneh ha-Nashim</i>, by Judah ibn Sabbataï, <a href="#Page_214">214-216</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Minnedienst</i> absent from Jewish poetry, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></li>
+
+<li>Minnesingers, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+
+<li>Miriam, as poetess, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+<li>Miriam, Rashi's granddaughter, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Mishlé Sandabar</i>, romance, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li>Mishna, the, commentary on, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>
+<ul><li>compilation of, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+<li>in poetry, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Mishneh Torah</i> by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_152">152-153</a></li>
+
+<li>Missionaries in Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_263">263-267</a></li>
+
+<li>Mohammedanism, rise of, <a href="#Page_77">77-78</a></li>
+
+<li>Montefiore, Charlotte, writer, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+
+<li>Montefiore, Judith, philanthropist, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+
+<li>Montpellier, "Guide of the Perplexed" burnt at, 155 Jews at academy of, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Moreh Nebuchim</i> by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161-162</a></li>
+
+<li>Morgenstern, Lina, writer, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Morgenstunden</i> by Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+<li>Moritz, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+
+<li>Morpurgo, Rachel, poetess, <a href="#Page_137">137-138</a></li>
+
+<li>Mosaic legislation, the, Maimonides on, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+<li>"Mosaic" style in Hebrew poetry, <a href="#Page_201">201-202</a></li>
+
+<li>Mosenthal, S. H., Ghetto novelist, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>
+<ul><li>Dingelstedt on, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Moser, Moses, friend of Heine, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>
+<ul><li>letters to, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Moses, prophet, characterized by Heine, <a href="#Page_365">365-366</a>
+<ul><li>in Africa, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Moses de Coucy, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Moses ibn Ezra, poet, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202-206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+<li>Moses, Israel, teacher of Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_297">297-298</a></li>
+
+<li>Moses of Narbonne, philosopher, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+<li>Moses Rieti, the Hebrew Dante, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+<li>Moses Sephardi. See Petrus Alphonsus</li>
+
+<li>Mosessohn, Miriam, writer, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+<li>Munk, Solomon, scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>
+<ul><li>and Gabirol, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+<li>translates <i>Moreh Nebuchim</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Münster, Sebastian, Hebrew scholar, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Muscato, Judah, preacher, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+
+<li>Music among Jews, <a href="#Page_372">372-376</a></li>
+
+<li>Mussafia, Benjamin, author, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Nachmanides, exegete, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+<li>Nagara, Israel, poet, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>"Names of the Jews, The," by Zunz, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li>
+
+<li>Nasi, Joseph, statesman, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>
+<ul><li>and the Polish election, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Nathan the Wise" and tolerance, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310-311</a></li>
+
+<li>Nazarenes, defined by Heine, <a href="#Page_359">359</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Nefesh</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Neïlah</i> prayer, A, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+<li>Neo-Hebraic literature. See Jewish literature</li>
+
+<li>Nero, alluded to, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Neshama</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Nesirim</i>, Falasha monks, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+<li>Nestorians and the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Neto, David, philosopher, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>Neuda, Fanny, writer, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+<li>Neunzig, Joseph, on Heine, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li>
+
+<li>"New Song," anonymous poem, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Nezach</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Nicolai, friend of Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+
+<li>Nicolas de Lyra, exegete, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+<li>Noah, Mordecai, and the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Nöldeke, Theodor, Bible critic, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Nomologia</i>, by Isaac Aboab, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+<li>Numbers, book of, quoted, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+
+<li>Nunes, Manuela, de Almeida, poetess, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Obadiah Bertinoro, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>Obadiah Sforno, teacher of Reuchlin, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Offenbach, J., alluded to, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+
+<li>Old Testament, the, Africa in, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>
+<ul><li>document hypothesis of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+<li>humor in, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li>
+<li>in poetry, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+<li>interpretation of, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li>
+<li>literary value of, <a href="#Page_14">14-16</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73-74</a></li>
+<li>quoted by Jesus, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+<li>study of, <a href="#Page_12">12-13</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+<li>time of compilation of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+<li>time of composition of, <a href="#Page_13">13-14</a></li>
+<li>translations of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Oliver y Fullano, de, Nicolas, author, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+
+<li>"On Rabbinical Literature" by Zunz, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Ophir</i>, Hebrew name for Africa, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>
+
+<li>Ophra in Yehuda Halevi's poems, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+<li>Oppenheim, David, rabbi at Prague, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+
+<li>Ormus, island, explored by Jews, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>Ottenheimer, Henriette, poetess, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138-139</a></li>
+
+<li>Otto von Botenlaube, minnesinger, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+
+<li>Owl, character in "The Gift of Judah," <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Padua, University of, and Elias del Medigo, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li>Palestine described, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>Palquera, Shemtob, philosopher, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+<li>Pan, Taube, poetess, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+<li>"Paradise, The" by Moses Rieti, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+<li>Parallax computed by Isaac Israeli, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Parzival</i>, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>
+<ul><li>Jewish contributions to, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Pastor Fido</i> by Guarini, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+<li>Paul III, pope, alluded to, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>Paula deï Mansi, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_116">116-117</a></li>
+
+<li>Pedro I, of Castile, and Santob de Carrion, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>
+
+<li>Pedro di Carvallho, navigator, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>Pekah, king, alluded to, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+<li>Pensa, Joseph, de la Vega, dramatist, <a href="#Page_237">237-238</a></li>
+
+<li>Pentateuch, the Jewish German translation of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>
+<ul><li>Mendelssohn's commentary on, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Peregrinatio Hierosolymitana</i> by Radziwill, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li>
+
+<li>Persia, Jewish literature in, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li>Pesikta, a Talmudic work, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+<li>Petachya of Ratisbon, traveller, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li>Petrarch, translated into Spanish, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Petrus Alphonsus, writer, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li>Peurbach, humanist, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+<li>Philipson, L., journalist, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Philo, philosopher, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>Philo the Elder, writer, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>Phokylides (pseudo-), Neoplatonist, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>Physicians, Jewish, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+<li>Pickelhering, a character in <i>Mekirath Yoseph</i>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li>
+
+<li>Pico della Mirandola alluded to, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>
+<ul><li>and Levi ben Gerson, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+<li>and the Kabbala, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Pilpul</i>, Talmudic method, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>Pinchas, rabbi, chronicler of the Saul Wahl story, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Piut</i>, a form of liturgic Hebrew poetry, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+
+<li>"Plant Lore" by Dioscorides, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li>Pliny, alluded to, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+<li>Pnie, Samson, contributes to <i>Parzival</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Poésies diverses</i> by Frederick the Great, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+
+<li>Poland, election of king in, <a href="#Page_278">278-279</a>
+<ul><li>Jews in, <a href="#Page_286">286-288</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Pollak, Jacob, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>Popert, Meyer Samson, ancestor of Heine, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+<li>Popiel, of Poland, alluded to, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+<li>Poppæa, empress, alluded to, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+<li>"Praise of Women," anonymous work, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+<li>"Praise of Women," by David ben Yehuda, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li>"Praise unto the Righteous," by Luzzatto, <a href="#Page_240">240-241</a></li>
+
+<li>"Prince and the Dervish, The," by Ibn Chasdaï, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+<li>Printing, influence of, on Jewish literature, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+<li>"Prisoners of Hope, The," by Joseph Pensa, <a href="#Page_237">237-238</a></li>
+
+<li>Prophecy defined by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_161">161-162</a></li>
+
+<li>Proudhon anticipated by Judah ibn Tibbon, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+<li>Psalm cxxxiii., <a href="#Page_71">71-72</a></li>
+
+<li>Psalms, the, translated into Jewish German, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>
+<ul><li>into Persian, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Ptolemy Philadelphus and the Septuagint, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+<li>Ptolemy's "Almagest" translated, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Rab, rabbi, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>Rabbinical literature. See Jewish literature</li>
+
+<li>Rabbinowicz, Bertha, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Rabbi von Bacharach</i> by Heine, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li>
+
+<li>Rachel (Bellejeune), Talmudist, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+<li>Radziwill, Nicholas Christopher, and Saul Wahl, <a href="#Page_274">274-276</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279-280</a></li>
+
+<li>"Radziwill Bible, The," <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li>
+
+<li>Rambam, Jewish name for Maimonides, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li>Ramler and Jews, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Rappaport, Moritz, poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Rappaport, S., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Rashi. See Solomon ben Isaac</li>
+
+<li>Rausnitz, Rachel, historian, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>
+
+<li>Ravenna and Jewish financiers, <a href="#Page_101">101-102</a></li>
+
+<li>"Recapitulation of the Law" by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_152">152-153</a></li>
+
+<li>Recke, von der, Elise, and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li>
+
+<li>Red Sea, coasts of, explored by Jews, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>Reichardt, musician, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Reinmar von Brennenberg, minnesinger, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Reisebilder</i> by Heine, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li>
+
+<li>Rembrandt illustrates a Jewish book, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+<li>Renaissance, the, and the Jews, <a href="#Page_43">43-44</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74-75</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94-95</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>Renaissance, the Jewish, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293-295</a></li>
+
+<li>Renan, Ernest, alluded to, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Respublika Babinska</i>, a Polish society, <a href="#Page_281">281-282</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Respuestas</i> by Antonio di Montoro, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></li>
+
+<li>Resurrection, Maimonides on, <a href="#Page_164">164-165</a></li>
+
+<li>Reuchlin, John, and Jewish scholars, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94-95</a>
+<ul><li>and the Talmud, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Revelation defined by Maimonides, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+
+<li>Richard I, of England, and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+<li>Riemer quoted, <a href="#Page_358">358</a></li>
+
+<li>Riesser, Gabriel, journalist, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a></li>
+
+<li>"Righteous Brethren, The" an Arabic order, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+<li>Rintelsohn, teacher of Heine, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+<li>Ritter, Heinrich, on Maimonides, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li>"Ritual of the Synagogue, The," by Zunz, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes</i> by Zunz, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li>
+
+<li>Robert of Anjou, patron of Hebrew learning, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li>Robert of Naples, patron of Hebrew learning, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+<li>Rodenberg, Julius, quoted, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li>
+
+<li>Romanelli, Samuel L., dramatist, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Romanzero</i> by Heine, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></li>
+
+<li>Rossi, Solomon, musician, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+
+<li>Rothschild, Anna, historian, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>
+<ul><li>Charlotte, philanthropist, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+<li>Clementine, writer, <a href="#Page_141">141-142</a></li>
+<li>Constance, historian, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Rothschild family, women of the, <a href="#Page_140">140-142</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Ruach</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Rückert, poet, alluded to, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>"Rules for the Shoeing and Care of Horses in Royal Stables," translated, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+<li>Rüppell, explorer, quoted, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Sa'adia, philosopher, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80-81</a></li>
+
+<li>Sachs, M., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Saisset, E., on Maimonides, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+<li>"Sale of Joseph, The" by Beermann, <a href="#Page_241">241-244</a></li>
+
+<li>Salerno, Jews at academy of, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li>Salomon, Annette, writer, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+<li>Salomon, G., preacher, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Salomon, Leah, wife of Abraham Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Salon</i>, the German, established by Jews, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+<li>Salonica, Spanish exiles in, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>Sambation, fabled stream, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li>
+
+<li>Samson, history of, dramatized, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>
+<ul><li>humor in the, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Samson and the Philistines" by Luzzatto, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+<li>"Samsonschool" at Wolfenbüttel, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li>
+
+<li>Samuel, astronomer, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+<li>Samuel, physician, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>Samuel ben Ali, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li>Samuel ben Meïr, exegete, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li>
+
+<li>Samuel ibn Nagdela, grand vizir, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>Samuel Judah, father of Saul Wahl, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+
+<li>Samuel the Pious, hymnologist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Santillana, de, on Santob de Carrion, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+
+<li>Santo. See Santob de Carrion</li>
+
+<li>Santob de Carrion, troubadour, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169-170</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174-175</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>
+<ul><li>characterized, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+<li>character of, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175-176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177-178</a></li>
+<li>relation of, to Judaism, <a href="#Page_176">176-177</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Saphir, M. G., quoted, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li>
+
+<li>Sarah, a character in <i>Rabbi von Bacharach</i>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li>
+
+<li>Sarastro, played by a Jew, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+
+<li>Satirists, <a href="#Page_213">213-223</a></li>
+
+<li>Saul Juditsch. See Saul Wahl</li>
+
+<li>Saul Wahl, in the Russian archives, <a href="#Page_282">282-284</a>
+<ul><li>relics of, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+<li>story of, <a href="#Page_273">273-277</a></li>
+<li>why so named, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Savasorda. See Abraham ben Chiya</li>
+
+<li>Schadow, sculptor, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Schallmeier, teacher of Heine, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li>
+
+<li>Schlegel, von, Friedrich, husband of Dorothea Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+<li>Schleiden, M. J., quoted, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74-75</a></li>
+
+<li>Schleiermacher and the Jews, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+<li>Schopenhauer, Arthur, anticipated by Gabirol, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>
+<ul><li>on Heine, <a href="#Page_357">357-358</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Schutzjude</i>, a privileged Jew, <a href="#Page_302">302-403</a></li>
+
+<li>Scotists and Gabirol, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+<li>Scotus, Duns, philosopher, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li>Scotus, Michael, scholar, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+
+<li>Scribes, the compilers of the Old Testament, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+<li>"Seal of Perfection, The," by Abraham Bedersi, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Sechel Hapoel</i>, Active Intellect, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Seder</i> described by Heine, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Sefer Asaf</i>, medical fragment, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Sefer ha-Hechal</i> by Moses Rieti, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Sefer Sha'ashuim</i> by Joseph ibn Sabara, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Sefiroth</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Selicha, a character in "The Sale of Joseph," <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Selicha</i>, a form of Hebrew liturgical poetry, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+
+<li>Septuagint, contents of the, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+<li>Serach, hero of "The Gift of Judah," <a href="#Page_214">214-216</a></li>
+
+<li>"Seven Wise Masters, The," romance, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+<li>Seynensis, Henricus, quoted, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+<li>Shachna, Solomon, Talmudist, alluded to, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Shalet</i>, a Jewish dish, <a href="#Page_360">360-361</a></li>
+
+<li>Shalmaneser, conquers Israel, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>
+<ul><li>obelisk of, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Shammaï, rabbi, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+
+<li>Shapiro, Miriam, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Shebach Nashim</i> by David ben Yehuda, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li>Shem-Tob. See Santob de Carrion</li>
+
+<li>Sherira, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+
+<li>"Shields of Heroes," by Jacob ben Elias, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>"Shulammith," Jewish German drama, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Shulchan Aruch</i>, code, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>Sigismund I, Jews under, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>Sigismund III, and Saul Wahl, <a href="#Page_283">283-284</a></li>
+
+<li>Simon ben Yochaï, supposed author of the Kabbala, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>Sirkes, Joel, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>"Society for Jewish Culture and Science," in Berlin, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Soferim</i>, Scribes, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+
+<li>Solomon, king, alluded to, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>
+<ul><li>and Africa, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Solomon Ashkenazi, diplomat, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286-287</a></li>
+
+<li>Solomon ben Aderet, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+<li>Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), exegete, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>
+<ul><li>essay on, by Zunz, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>
+<li>family of, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Solomon ben Sakbel, satirist, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+<li>Solomon Yitschaki. See Solomon ben Isaac</li>
+
+<li>"Song of Joy" by Yehuda Halevi, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+<li>"Song of Songs," a dramatic idyl, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>
+<ul><li>alluded to, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+<li>characterized, <a href="#Page_192">192-193</a></li>
+<li>epitomized, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+<li>explained, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li>
+<li>in later poetry, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Sonnenthal, Adolf, actor, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+<li>Soudan, the, Moses in, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>
+
+<li>"Source of Life, The" by Gabirol, <a href="#Page_82">82-83</a></li>
+
+<li>"South, the," Talmud name for Africa, <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>
+
+<li>Spalding, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>"Spener's Journal," Zunz editor of, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+<li>Spinoza, Benedict (Baruch), philosopher, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>
+<ul><li>and Maimonides, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+<li>influenced by Chasdaï Crescas, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+<li>under Kabbalistic influence, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Spirit of Judaism, The," by Grace Aguilar, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+<li>Stein, L., poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Steinheim, scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Steinschneider, M., scholar, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Steinthal, H., scholar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Stephen Báthori, of Poland, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Studie zur Bibelkritik</i> by Zunz, <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li>
+
+<li>Sullam, Sara Copia, poetess, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124-128</a></li>
+
+<li>Surrenhuys, scholar, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>Süsskind von Trimberg, minnesinger, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>
+<ul><li>and Judaism, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li>
+<li>character of, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+<li>poetry of, <a href="#Page_185">185-186</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_182">182-183</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187-188</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188-189</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><i>Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters</i>, by Zunz, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li>
+
+<li>"Synagogue Poetry of the Middle Ages" by Zunz, <a href="#Page_336">336</a></li>
+
+<li>Syria, the Ten Tribes in, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+<li>Syrian and Jewish poetry, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+
+<li>Syrian Christians as scientific mediators, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Tachkemoni</i> by Yehuda Charisi, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+<li>Talmud, the, burnt, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>
+<ul><li>character of, <a href="#Page_52">52-53</a></li>
+<li>compilers of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57-58</a></li>
+<li>composition of, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+<li>contents of, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68-70</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76-77</a></li>
+<li>in poetry, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+<li>on Africa, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li>
+<li>on the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+<li>origin of, <a href="#Page_53">53-54</a></li>
+<li>study of, <a href="#Page_17">17-18</a></li>
+<li>translations of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a></li>
+<li>woman in, <a href="#Page_110">110-114</a></li>
+<li>women and children in, <a href="#Page_63">63-64</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Talmud, the Babylonian, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>
+<ul><li>compiler of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Talmud, the Jerusalem, compiler of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>Talmudists, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+<li>Talmudists (women), <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+<li>Tamar, a character in Immanuel Romi's poem, <a href="#Page_221">221-222</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Tanaïm</i>, Learners, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+<li>Tanchuma, a Talmudic work, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+<li>Targum, the, in poetry, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+<li>Telescope, the, used by Gamaliel, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+<li>Teller, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Ten Tribes, the, English views of, <a href="#Page_260">260-262</a>
+<ul><li>Irish legend of, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></li>
+<li>the prophets on, <a href="#Page_251">251-252</a></li>
+<li>the Samaritan Hexateuch on, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li>
+<li>the supposed homes of, <a href="#Page_256">256-262</a></li>
+<li>the Talmud on, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Tertullian quoted, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li>
+
+<li>Theatre, the, and the rabbis, <a href="#Page_230">230-234</a></li>
+
+<li>Theodore, Negus of Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Theorica</i> by Peurbach, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+<li>Thomists and Gabirol, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+<li>"Thoughts suggested by Bible Texts" by Louise Rothschild, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Tifereth</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>Tiglath-Pileser conquers Israel, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+<li>Tiktiner, Rebekah, scholar, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+<li>"Till Eulenspiegel," the Jewish German, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>
+
+<li>Tolerance in Germany, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+<li>"Touchstone" by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216-219</a></li>
+
+<li>"Tower of Victory" by Luzzatto, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+<li>Tragedy, nature of, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li>
+
+<li>Travellers, Jewish, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+
+<li>"Tristan and Isolde" compared with the <i>Mechabberoth</i>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+
+<li>Troubadour poetry and the Jews, <a href="#Page_171">171-173</a></li>
+
+<li>Troubadours, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+<li>"Truth's Campaign," anonymous work, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+<li>Turkey, Jews in, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+<li>"Two Tables of the Testimony, The," by Isaiah Hurwitz, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>Tycho de Brahe and Jewish astronomers, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Uhden, von, and Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li>
+
+<li>Uhland, poet, alluded to, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>Ulla, itinerant preacher, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
+
+<li>"Upon the Philosophy of Maimonides," prize essay, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+<li>Usque, Samuel, poet, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li>Usque, Solomon, poet, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+
+
+<li>"Vale of Weeping, The," by Joseph Cohen, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li>Varnhagen, Rahel. See Levin, Rahel</li>
+
+<li>Varnhagen von Ense, German <i>littérateur</i>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+<li>Vecinho, Joseph, astronomer, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>Veit, Philip, painter, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+
+<li>Veit, Simon, husband of Dorothea Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+<li>Venino, alluded to, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li>
+
+<li>Venus of Milo and Heine, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></li>
+
+<li>Vespasian and Jochanan ben Zakkaï, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Walther von der Vogelweide, minnesinger, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+<li>Wandering Jew, the, myth of, <a href="#Page_350">350</a></li>
+
+<li>"War of Wealth and Wisdom, The," satire, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+<li>"Water Song" by Gabirol, <a href="#Page_200">200-201</a></li>
+
+<li>Weil, Jacob, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+<li>Weill, Alexander, and Heine, <a href="#Page_363">363-364</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Weltschmerz</i> in Gabirol's poetry, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>
+<ul><li>in Heine's poetry, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Wesseli, musician, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Wessely, Naphtali Hartwig, commentator, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+
+<li>Wieland, poet, alluded to, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+
+<li>Wihl, poet, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+<li>Wine, creation of, <a href="#Page_197">197-198</a></li>
+
+<li>Withold, grandduke, and the Lithuanian Jews, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li>
+
+<li>Wohllerner, Yenta, poetess, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+<li>Wohlwill, Immanuel, friend of Zunz, letter to, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+
+<li>Wolfenbüttel, Jews' free school at, <a href="#Page_320">320-321</a></li>
+
+<li>Wolff, Hebrew scholar, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>Wolfram von Eschenbach, minnesinger, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+<li>Woman, creation of, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>
+<ul><li>in Jewish annals, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+<li>in literature, <a href="#Page_106">106-107</a></li>
+<li>in the Talmud, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110-114</a></li>
+<li>mental characteristics of, <a href="#Page_121">121-122</a></li>
+<li>satirized and defended, <a href="#Page_223">223-224</a></li>
+<li>services of, to Judaism, <a href="#Page_115">115-116</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Woman's Friend" by Yedaya Penini, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li>
+
+<li>Women, Jewish, in the emancipation movement, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+<li>"Women of Israel, The" by Grace Aguilar, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+<li>"Women's Shield," by Judah Tommo, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+<li>"World as Will and Idea, The," by Schopenhauer, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Xemona. See Kasmune</li>
+
+
+<li>Yaltha, wife of Rabbi Nachman, <a href="#Page_113">113-114</a></li>
+
+<li>Yechiel ben Abraham, financier, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+<li>Yechiel deï Mansi, alluded to, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+
+<li>Yedaya Penini, poet, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li>
+
+<li>Yehuda ben Astruc, scientist, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+<li>Yehuda ben Zakkaï quoted, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+<li>Yehuda Charisi, poet, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, 34 (note), <a href="#Page_210">210-213</a>
+<ul><li>on Gabirol, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+<li>traveller, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Yehuda Chayyug, alluded to, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li>
+
+<li>Yehuda Hakohen, Talmudist, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>Yehuda Halevi, as philosopher, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>
+<ul><li>as poet, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27-28</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206-210</a></li>
+<li>daughter of, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Yehuda Romano, translator, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+<li>Yehuda Sabbataï, satirist, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+<li>Yehuda the Prince, Mishna compiler, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>
+<ul><li>lament over, <a href="#Page_65">65-66</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Yemen, Judaism in, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Yesod</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Yesod Olam</i> by Moses Zacuto, <a href="#Page_238">238-239</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Yezira</i>, Kabbalistic term, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>"Yosippon," an historical compilation, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a></li>
+
+<li>Yucatan and the Ten Tribes, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Zacuto, Abraham, astronomer, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96-97</a></li>
+
+<li>Zacuto, Moses, dramatist, <a href="#Page_238">238-239</a></li>
+
+<li>Zarzal, Moses, physician, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft</i>, Zunz contributor to, <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li>
+
+<li>Zeltner, J. G., on Rebekah Tiktiner, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+<li>Zerubbabel, alluded to, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+
+<li>Zohar, the, astronomy in, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>
+<ul><li>authorship of, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Zöllner, friend of Henriette Herz, <a href="#Page_313">313</a></li>
+
+<li>Zunz, Adelheid, wife of Leopold Zunz, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li>
+
+<li>Zunz, Leopold, scholar, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>
+<ul><li>and religious reform, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li>
+<li>as journalist, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+<li>as pedagogue, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li>
+<li>as politician, <a href="#Page_330">330-332</a></li>
+<li>as preacher, <a href="#Page_322">322-323</a></li>
+<li>characterized by Heine, <a href="#Page_327">327-328</a></li>
+<li>described by Jost, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+<li>education of, <a href="#Page_320">320-322</a></li>
+<li>friend of Heine, <a href="#Page_346">346</a></li>
+<li>importance of, for Judaism, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></li>
+<li>in Berlin, <a href="#Page_318">318-319</a></li>
+<li>quoted, <a href="#Page_11">11-12</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325-327</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></li>
+<li>style of, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>"Zur Geschichte und Litteratur" by Zunz, <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c">PUBLICATIONS<br />
+<span class="smcap"> of the</span><br />
+<span class="lg">Jewish Publication Society</span><br />OF AMERICA</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">outlines of jewish history</span>. From the Return from Babylon to the Present
+Time. By Lady Magnus. (Revised by M. Friedländer.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">think and thank</span>. By Samuel W. Cooper.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">rabbi and priest</span>. By Milton Goldsmith.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">the persecution of the jews in russia.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">voegele's marriage and other tales</span>. By Louis Schnabel.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">children of the ghetto: being pictures of a peculiar people</span>. by i. zangwill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">some jewish women.</span> By Henry Zirndorf.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">history of the jews</span>. By Prof. H. Graetz.</p>
+
+<table summary="vols"
+cellspacing="0"
+cellpadding="0"
+style="margin-left:10%;">
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.&nbsp;I.</td><td>From the Earliest Period to the Death of Simon the Maccabee (135 B.C.E.).</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.&nbsp;II.</td><td>From the Reign of Hyrcanus to the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud (500 C.E.).</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.&nbsp;III.</td><td>From the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud to the Expulsion of the Jews from England (1290 C.E.).</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.&nbsp;IV.</td><td>From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C.E.) to the Permanent Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C.E.).</td></tr>
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.&nbsp;V.</td><td>In preparation.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">sabbath hours</span>. Thoughts. By Liebman Adler.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">papers of the jewish women's congress</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">old european jewries</span>. By David Philipson, D.D.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 10%;" />
+<p class="c">Dues, $3.00 per Annum</p>
+
+<p class="c smcap">all publications for sale by the trade and at the society's office</p>
+
+<p class="c">SPECIAL TERMS TO SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 10%;" />
+
+<p class="c lg">The Jewish Publication Society of America</p>
+<p class="c">Office, 1015 Arch St.</p>
+<p class="c">P. O. Box 1164 <span style="margin-left: 6em;">PHILADELPHIA, PA.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c lg">OUTLINES OF JEWISH HISTORY.</p>
+
+<p class="c">From the Return from Babylon to the Present Time,<br />1890.</p>
+
+<p class="c">With Three Maps, a Frontispiece and Chronological Tables,</p>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">By LADY MAGNUS.</span></p>
+
+<p class="c smcap">Revised by m. friedländer, ph.d.</p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</b></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 10%;" />
+<p>The entire work is one of great interest; it is written with moderation,
+and yet with a fine enthusiasm for the great race which is set before
+the reader's mind.&mdash;<i>Atlantic Monthly.</i></p>
+
+<p>We doubt whether there is in the English language a better sketch of
+Jewish history. The Jewish Publication Society is to be congratulated on
+the successful opening of its career. Such a movement, so auspiciously
+begun, deserves the hearty support of the public.&mdash;<i>Nation</i> (New York).</p>
+
+<p>Of universal historical interest.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Ledger.</i></p>
+
+<p>Compresses much in simple language.&mdash;<i>Baltimore Sun.</i></p>
+
+<p>Though full of sympathy for her own people, it is not without a singular
+value for readers whose religious belief differs from that of the
+author.&mdash;<i>New York Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>One of the clearest and most compact works of its class produced in
+modern times.&mdash;<i>New York Sun.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Jewish Publication Society of America has not only conferred a favor
+upon all young Hebrews, but also upon all Gentiles who desire to see the
+Jew as he appears to himself.&mdash;<i>Boston Herald.</i></p>
+
+<p>We know of no single-volume history which gives a better idea of the
+remarkable part played by the Jews in ancient and modern history.&mdash;<i>San
+Francisco Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+<p>A succinct, well-written history of a wonderful race.&mdash;<i>Buffalo
+Courier.</i></p>
+
+<p>The best hand-book of Jewish history that readers of any class can
+find.&mdash;<i>New York Herald.</i></p>
+
+<p>A convenient and attractive hand-book of Jewish history.&mdash;<i>Cleveland
+Plain Dealer.</i></p>
+
+<p>The work is an admirable one, and as a manual of Jewish history, it may
+be commended to persons of every race and creed.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>Altogether it would be difficult to find another book on this subject
+containing so much information.&mdash;<i>American</i> (Philadelphia).</p>
+
+<p>Lady Magnus' book is a valuable addition to the store-house of
+literature that we already have about the Jews.&mdash;<i>Charleston (S. C.)
+News.</i></p>
+
+<p>We should like to see this volume in the library of every school in the
+State.&mdash;<i>Albany Argus.</i></p>
+
+<p>A succinct, helpful portrayal of Jewish history.&mdash;<i>Boston Post.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth. Price, postpaid, $1.00, Library Edition.<br />
+75 cents. School Edition.</p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c lg"><b>"THINK AND THANK."</b></p>
+
+<p class="c"><b>A Tale for the Young, Narrating in Romantic Form the Boyhood of Sir
+Moses Montefiore.</b></p>
+
+<p class="c smcap"><b>with six illustrations.</b></p>
+
+<p class="c lg">By SAMUEL W. COOPER.</p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</b></p>
+
+<p>A graphic and interesting story, full of incident and adventure, with an
+admirable spirit attending it consonant with the kindly and sweet,
+though courageous and energetic temper of the distinguished
+philanthropist.&mdash;<i>American</i> (Philadelphia).</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">think and thank</span> is a most useful corrective to race prejudice. It is
+also deeply interesting as a biographical sketch of a distinguished
+Englishman.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Ledger.</i></p>
+
+<p>A fine book for boys of any class to read.&mdash;<i>Public Opinion</i>
+(Washington).</p>
+
+<p>It will have especial interest for the boys of his race, but all
+school-boys can well afford to read it and profit by it.&mdash;<i>Albany
+Evening Journal.</i></p>
+
+<p>Told simply and well.&mdash;<i>New York Sun.</i></p>
+
+<p>An excellent story for children.&mdash;<i>Indianapolis Journal.</i></p>
+
+<p>The old as well as the young may learn a lesson from it.&mdash;<i>Jewish
+Exponent.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is a thrilling story exceedingly well told.&mdash;<i>American Israelite.</i></p>
+
+<p>The book is written in a plain, simple style, and is well adapted for
+Sunday School libraries.&mdash;<i>Jewish Spectator.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is one of the very few books in the English language which can be
+placed in the hands of a Jewish boy with the assurance of arousing and
+maintaining his interest.&mdash;<i>Hebrew Journal.</i></p>
+
+<p>Intended for the young, but may well be read by their elders.&mdash;<i>Detroit
+Free Press.</i></p>
+
+<p>Bright and attractive reading.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Press.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">think and thank</span> will please boys, and it will be found popular in Sunday
+School libraries.&mdash;<i>New York Herald.</i></p>
+
+<p>The story is a beautiful one, and gives a clear insight into the
+circumstances, the training and the motives that gave impulse and energy
+to the life-work of the great philanthropist.&mdash;<i>Kansas City Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>We should be glad to know that this little book has a large circulation
+among Gentiles as well as among the "chosen people." It has no trace of
+religious bigotry about it, and its perusal cannot but serve to make
+Christian and Jew better known to each other.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Telegraph.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth.<span style="margin-left: 5em;">  Price, postpaid, 50c.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c lg"><b>RABBI AND PRIEST.</b></p>
+
+<p class="c">A STORY.</p>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">By Milton Goldsmith.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+<p class="c"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</b></p>
+
+<p>The author has attempted to depict faithfully the customs and practices
+of the Russian people and government in connection with the Jewish
+population of that country. The book is a strong and well-written story.
+We read and suffer with the sufferers.&mdash;<i>Public Opinion</i> (Washington).</p>
+
+<p>Although addressed to Jews, with an appeal to them to seek freedom and
+peace in America, it ought to be read by humane people of all races and
+religions. Mr. Goldsmith is a master of English, and his pure style is
+one of the real pleasures of the story.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Bulletin.</i></p>
+
+<p>The book has the merit of being well written, is highly entertaining,
+and it cannot fail to prove of interest to all who may want to acquaint
+themselves in the matter of the condition of affairs that has recently
+been attracting universal attention.&mdash;<i>San Francisco Call.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Rabbi and Priest</span> has genuine worth, and is entitled to a rank among the
+foremost of its class.&mdash;<i>Minneapolis Tribune.</i></p>
+
+<p>The writer tells his story from the Jewish standpoint, and tells it
+well.&mdash;<i>St. Louis Republic.</i></p>
+
+<p>The descriptions of life in Russia are vivid and add greatly to the
+charm of the book.&mdash;<i>Buffalo Courier.</i></p>
+
+<p>A very thrilling story.&mdash;<i>Charleston (S.C.) News.</i></p>
+
+<p>Very like the horrid tales that come from unhappy Russia.&mdash;<i>New Orleans
+Picayune.</i></p>
+
+<p>The situations are dramatic; the dialogue is spirited.&mdash;<i>Jewish
+Messenger.</i></p>
+
+<p>A history of passing events in an interesting form.&mdash;<i>Jewish Tidings.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Rabbi and Priest</span> will appeal to the sympathy of every reader in its
+touching simplicity and truthfulness.&mdash;<i>Jewish Spectator.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth.<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Price, postpaid, $1.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c"><b>SPECIAL SERIES NO. 1.</b></p>
+
+<p class="c lg"><b>The Persecution of the Jews in Russia.</b></p>
+
+<p class="c smcap">with a map, showing the pale of jewish settlement.</p>
+
+<p class="c">Also, an Appendix, giving an Abridged Summary of Laws,</p>
+
+<p class="c">Special and Restrictive, relating to the Jews in</p>
+
+<p class="c">Russia, brought down to the year 1890.</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</b></p>
+
+<p>The pamphlet is full of facts, and will inform people very fully in
+regard to the basis of the complaints made by Jews against Russia. We
+hope it will be very widely circulated.&mdash;<i>Public Opinion</i> (Washington).</p>
+
+<p>The laws and regulations governing Jews in Russia, subjecting them to
+severe oppression, grievous restrictions and systematic persecution, are
+stated in condensed form with precise references, bespeaking exactness
+in compilation and in presenting the case of these unfortunate
+people.&mdash;<i>Galveston News.</i></p>
+
+<p>This pamphlet supplies information that is much in demand, and which
+ought to be generally known in enlightened countries.&mdash;<i>Cincinnati
+Commercial Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>Considering the present agitation upon the subject it is a very timely
+publication.&mdash;<i>New Orleans Picayune.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is undoubtedly the most compact and thorough presentation of the
+Russo-Jewish question.&mdash;<i>American Israelite.</i></p>
+
+<p>Better adapted to the purpose of affording an adequate knowledge of the
+issues involved in, and the consequences of, the present great crisis in
+the affairs of the Jews of Russia than reams of rhetoric.&mdash;<i>Hebrew
+Journal.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">Paper.<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Price, postpaid, 25c.</span></p>
+
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c"><b>SPECIAL SERIES NO. 2.</b></p>
+
+<p class="c lg"><b>Voegele's Marriage and Other Tales.</b></p>
+
+<p class="c"><span class="smcap">By LOUIS SCHNABEL.</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</b></p>
+
+<p>A series of nine well-written short stories based upon love and
+religion, which make quite interesting reading.&mdash;<i>Burlington Hawkeye.</i></p>
+
+<p>A pamphlet containing several sketches full of high moral principle, and
+of quite interesting developments of simple human emergencies.&mdash;<i>Public
+Opinion</i> (Washington, D. C.)</p>
+
+<p>Interesting alike to Hebrew and Gentile.&mdash;<i>Minneapolis Tribune.</i></p>
+
+<p>In addition to being interesting, is written with a purpose, and carries
+with it a wholesome lesson.&mdash;<i>San Francisco Call.</i></p>
+
+<p>This is a collection of brief stories of Jewish life, some of which are
+of great interest, while all are well written.&mdash;<i>Charleston (S. C.) News
+and Courier.</i></p>
+
+<p>The little volume as a whole is curious and interesting, aside from its
+claims to artistic merit.&mdash;<i>American Bookseller</i> (New York).</p>
+
+<p>Short tales of Jewish life under the oppressive laws of Eastern Europe,
+full of minute detail.&mdash;<i>Book News</i> (Philadelphia).</p>
+
+<p>Written in delightful style, somewhat in the manner of Kompert and
+Bernstein.... To many the booklet will be a welcome visitor and be
+greatly relished.&mdash;<i>Menorah Monthly.</i></p>
+
+<p>These stories are permeated with the Jewish spirit which is
+characteristic of all Mr. Schnabel's works.&mdash;<i>American Hebrew.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">Paper. <span style="margin-left: 5em;">Price, postpaid, 25c.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c lg sans">CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO</p>
+
+<p class="c sans"><i>BEING</i></p>
+
+<p class="c sans"><b>PICTURES OF A PECULIAR PEOPLE.</b></p>
+<hr class="line" />
+<p class="c smcap">by i. zangwill.</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+<p>The art of a Hogarth or a Cruikshank could not have made types of
+character stand out with greater force or in bolder relief than has the
+pen of this author.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Record.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is one of the best pictures of Jewish life and thought that we have
+seen since the publication of "Daniel Deronda."&mdash;London <i>Pall Mall
+Gazette</i>.</p>
+
+<p>This book is not a mere mechanical photographic reproduction of the
+people it describes, but a glowing, vivid portrayal of them, with all
+the pulsating sympathy of one who understands them, their thoughts and
+feelings, with all the picturesque fidelity of the artist who
+appreciates the spiritual significance of that which he seeks to
+delineate.&mdash;<i>Hebrew Journal.</i></p>
+
+<p>Its sketches of character have the highest value.... Not often do we
+note a book so fresh, true and in every way helpful.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia
+Evening Telegraph.</i></p>
+
+<p>A strong and remarkable book. It is not easy to find a parallel to it.
+We do not know of any other novel which deals so fully and so
+authoritatively with Judæa in modern London.&mdash;<i>Speaker, London.</i></p>
+
+<p>Among the notable productions of the time.... All that is here portrayed
+is unquestionable truth.&mdash;<i>Jewish Exponent.</i></p>
+
+<p>Many of the pictures will be recognized at once by those who have
+visited London or are at all familiar with the life of that
+city.&mdash;<i>Detroit Free Press.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is a succession of sharply-penned realistic portrayals.&mdash;<i>Baltimore
+American.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">TWO VOLUMES.</p>
+
+
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth. <span style="margin-left: 5em;">Price, postpaid, $2.50.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c lg"><b>SOME JEWISH WOMEN.</b></p>
+
+<p class="c smcap">by</p>
+
+<p class="c">HENRY ZIRNDORF.</p>
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c"><b><i>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</i></b></p>
+
+<p>Moral purity, nobility of soul, self-sacrifice, deep affection and
+devotion, sorrow and happiness all enter into these biographies, and the
+interest felt in their perusal is added to by the warmth and sympathy
+which the author displays and by his cultured and vigorous style of
+writing.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Record.</i></p>
+
+<p>His methods are at once a simplification and expansion of Josephus and
+the Talmud, stories simply told, faithful presentation of the virtues,
+and not infrequently the vices, of characters sometimes legendary,
+generally real.&mdash;<i>New York World.</i></p>
+
+<p>The lives here given are interesting in all cases, and are thrilling in
+some cases.&mdash;<i>Public Opinion</i> (Washington, D.C.).</p>
+
+<p>The volume is one of universal historic interest, and is a portrayal of
+the early trials of Jewish women.&mdash;<i>Boston Herald.</i></p>
+
+<p>Though the chapters are brief, they are clearly the result of deep and
+thorough research that gives the modest volume an historical and
+critical value.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is an altogether creditable undertaking that the present author has
+brought to so gratifying a close&mdash;the silhouette drawing of Biblical
+female character against the background of those ancient historic
+times.&mdash;<i>Minneapolis Tribune.</i></p>
+
+<p>Henry Zirndorf ranks high as a student, thinker and writer, and this
+little book will go far to encourage the study of Hebrew
+literature.&mdash;<i>Denver Republican.</i></p>
+
+<p>The book is gracefully written, and has many strong touches of
+characterizations.&mdash;<i>Toledo Blade.</i></p>
+
+<p>The sketches are based upon available history and are written in clear
+narrative style.&mdash;<i>Galveston News.</i></p>
+
+<p>Henry Zirndorf has done a piece of work of much literary excellence in
+"<span class="smcap">Some Jewish Women</span>."&mdash;S<i>t. Louis Post-Dispatch.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is an attractive book in appearance and full of curious biographical
+research.&mdash;<i>Baltimore Sun.</i></p>
+
+<p>The writer shows careful research and conscientiousness in making his
+narratives historically correct and in giving to each heroine her just
+due.&mdash;<i>American Israelite</i> (Cincinnati).</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth, Ornamental, Gilt Top. Price, postpaid, $1.25.</p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+<p class="c lg"><b>HISTORY OF THE JEWS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c smcap">by</p>
+
+<p class="c">PROFESSOR H. GRAETZ</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<table summary="vols2"
+cellspacing="0"
+cellpadding="3">
+
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.</td><td align="right">I.</td><td>From the Earliest Period to the Death of Simon the Maccabee (135
+B.C.E.).</td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.</td><td align="right">II.</td><td>From the Reign of Hyrcanus to the Completion of the Babylonian
+Talmud (500 C.E.).</td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.</td><td align="right">III.</td><td>From the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud to the Banishment
+of the Jews from England (1290 C.E.).</td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.</td><td align="right">IV.</td><td>From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C.E.) to the Permanent
+Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C.E.).</td></tr>
+
+<tr valign="top"><td>Vol.</td><td align="right">V.</td><td>In preparation.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p class="c"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</b></p>
+
+<p>Professor Graetz's History is universally accepted as a conscientious
+and reliable contribution to religious literature.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia
+Telegraph.</i></p>
+
+<p>Aside from his value as a historian, he makes his pages charming by all
+the little side-lights and illustrations which only come at the beck of
+genius.&mdash;<i>Chicago Inter-Ocean.</i></p>
+
+<p>The writer, who is considered by far the greatest of Jewish historians,
+is the pioneer in his field of work&mdash;history without theology or
+polemics.... His monumental work promises to be the standard by which
+all other Jewish histories are to be measured by Jews for many years to
+come.&mdash;<i>Baltimore American.</i></p>
+
+<p>Whenever the subject constrains the author to discuss the Christian
+religion, he is animated by a spirit not unworthy of the philosophic and
+high-minded hero of Lessing's "Nathan the Wise."&mdash;<i>New York Sun.</i></p>
+
+<p>It is an exhaustive and scholarly work, for which the student of history
+has reason to be devoutly thankful.... It will be welcomed also for the
+writer's excellent style and for the almost gossipy way in which he
+turns aside from the serious narrative to illumine his pages with
+illustrative descriptions of life and scenery.&mdash;<i>Detroit Free Press.</i></p>
+
+<p>One of the striking features of the compilation is its succinctness and
+rapidity of narrative, while at the same time necessary detail is not
+sacrificed.&mdash;<i>Minneapolis Tribune.</i></p>
+
+<p>Whatever controversies the work may awaken, of its noble scholarship
+there can be no question.&mdash;<i>Richmond Dispatch.</i></p>
+
+<p>If one desires to study the history of the Jewish people under the
+direction of a scholar and pleasant writer who is in sympathy with his
+subject because he is himself a Jew, he should resort to the volumes of
+Graetz.&mdash;<i>Review of Reviews</i> (New York).</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Price, postpaid, $3 per Volume</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c lg"><b>SABBATH HOURS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c"><b>THOUGHTS</b></p>
+
+<p class="c smcap">By Liebman Adler</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+<p class="c"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS</b></p>
+
+<p>Rabbi Adler was a man of strong and fertile mind, and his sermons are
+eminently readable.&mdash;<i>Sunday School Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>As one turns from sermon to sermon, he gathers a wealth of precept
+which, if he would practice, he would make both himself and others
+happier. We might quote from every page some noble utterance or sweet
+thought well worthy of the cherishing by either Jew or
+Christian.&mdash;<i>Richmond Dispatch.</i></p>
+
+<p>The topics discussed are in the most instances practical in their
+nature. All are instructive, and passages of rare eloquence are of
+frequent occurrence.&mdash;<i>San Francisco Call.</i></p>
+
+<p>The sermons are simple and careful studies, sometimes of doctrine, but
+more often of teaching and precept.&mdash;<i>Chicago Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>He combined scholarly attainment with practical experience, and these
+sermons cover a wide range of subject. Some of them are singularly
+modern in tone.&mdash;<i>Indianapolis News.</i></p>
+
+<p>They are modern sermons, dealing with the problems of the day, and
+convey the interpretation which these problems should receive in the
+light of the Old Testament history.&mdash;<i>Boston Herald.</i></p>
+
+<p>While this book is not without interest in those communities where there
+is no scarcity of religious teaching and influence, it cannot fail to be
+particularly so in those communities where there is but little Jewish
+teaching.&mdash;<i>Baltimore American.</i></p>
+
+<p>The sermons are thoughtful and earnest in tone and draw many forcible
+and pertinent lessons from the Old Testament records.&mdash;<i>Syracuse
+Herald.</i></p>
+
+<p>They are saturated with Bible lore, but every incident taken from the
+Old Testament is made to illustrate some truth in modern life.&mdash;<i>San
+Francisco Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+<p>They are calm and conservative, ... applicable in their essential
+meaning to the modern religious needs of Gentile as well as Jew. In
+style they are eminently clear and direct.-<i>-Review of Reviews</i> (New
+York).</p>
+
+<p>Able, forcible, helpful thoughts upon themes most essential to the
+prosperity of the family, society and the state.&mdash;<i>Public Opinion</i>
+(Washington, D.C.).</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth <span style="margin-left: 5em;">Price, postpaid, $1.25</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<p class="c lg">PAPERS</p>
+
+<p class="c">OF THE</p>
+
+<p class="c lg">Jewish Women's Congress</p>
+
+<p class="c">Held at Chicago, September, 1893</p>
+
+
+<p class="c top5"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS</b></p>
+
+<p>This meeting was held during the first week of September, and was marked
+by the presentation of some particularly interesting addresses and
+plans. This volume is a complete report of the sessions.&mdash;<i>Chicago
+Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>The collection in book form of the papers read at the Jewish Women's
+Congress ... makes an interesting and valuable book, of the history and
+affairs of the Jewish women of America.&mdash;<i>St. Louis Post-Dispatch.</i></p>
+
+<p>A handsome and valuable souvenir of an event of great significance to
+the people of the Jewish faith, and of much interest and value to
+intelligent and well informed people of all faiths.&mdash;<i>Kansas City
+Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Congress was a branch of the Parliament of Religions and was a great
+success, arousing the interest of Jews and Christians alike, and
+bringing together from all parts of the country women interested in
+their religion, following similar lines of work and sympathetic in ways
+of thought.... The papers in the volume are all of interest.&mdash;<i>Detroit
+Free Press.</i></p>
+
+<p>The Jewish Publication Society of America has done a good work in
+gathering up and issuing in a well-printed volume the "Papers of the
+Jewish Women's Congress."&mdash;<i>Cleveland Plain-Dealer.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth  <span style="margin-left: 5em;">Price, postpaid, $1</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+<p class="c lg">OLD<br />EUROPEAN JEWRIES</p>
+
+<p class="c smcap">By DAVID PHILIPSON, D.D.</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+<p class="c"><b>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS</b></p>
+
+<p>A good purpose is served in this unpretending little book, ... which
+contains an amount and kind of information that it would be difficult to
+find elsewhere without great labor. The author's subject is the Ghetto,
+or Jewish quarter in European cities.&mdash;<i>Literary World</i> (Boston).</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting ... to see the foundation of ... so much fiction that
+is familiar to us&mdash;to go, as the author here has gone in one of his
+trips abroad, into the remains of the old Jewries.&mdash;<i>Baltimore Sun.</i></p>
+
+<p>His book is a careful study limited to the official Ghetto.&mdash;<i>Cincinnati
+Commercial-Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>Out-of-the-way information, grateful to the delver in antiquities, forms
+the staple of a work on the historic Ghettos of Europe&mdash;<i>Milwaukee
+Sentinel.</i></p>
+
+<p>He tells the story of the Ghettos calmly, sympathetically and
+conscientiously, and his deductions are in harmony with those of all
+other intelligent and fair-minded men.&mdash;<i>Richmond Dispatch.</i></p>
+
+<p>A striking study of the results of a system that has left its mark upon
+the Jews of all countries.&mdash;<i>San Francisco Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+<p>He has carefully gone over all published accounts and made
+discriminating use of the publications, both recent and older, on his
+subject, in German, French and English.&mdash;<i>Reform Advocate</i> (Chicago).</p>
+
+<hr class="line" />
+
+
+<p class="c">Bound in Cloth   <span style="margin-left: 5em;">Price, postpaid, $1.25</span></p>
+
+<hr class="page" />
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Zunz, <i>Gesammelte Schriften</i>, I., 42.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> G. Scherr, <i>Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur</i>, I., p.
+62.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> F. Freiligrath, <i>Die Bilderbibel</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> D. Cassel, <i>Lehrbuch der jüdischen Geschichte und
+Literatur</i>, p. 198.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Heine, <i>Romanzero, Jehuda ben Halevy</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> F. Delitzsch, <i>Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Poesie</i>, p.
+165.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Heine, <i>l. c.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Heine, <i>l. c.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> M. J. Schleiden, <i>Die Bedeutung der Juden für die Erhaltung
+der Wissenschaften im Mittelalter</i>, p. 37.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Ezek. xxiii. 4. [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Ad. Jellinek, <i>Der jüdische Stamm</i>, p. 195.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> "Makama (plural, Makamat), the Arabic word for a place
+where people congregate to discuss public affairs, came to be used as
+the name of a form of poetry midway between the epic and the drama."
+(Karpeles, <i>Geschichte der jüdischen Literatur</i>, vol. II., p. 693.) The
+most famous Arabic poet of Makamat was Hariri of Bassora, and the most
+famous Jewish, Yehuda Charisi. See above, p. 32, and p. 211 [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Hirt, <i>Bibliothek</i>, V., p. 43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Midrash Echah</i>, I., 5; Mishna, <i>Rosh Hashana</i>, chap. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Cmp. Wünsche, Die Haggada des jerusalemischen Talmud, and
+the same author's great work, Die Haggada des babylonischen Talmud, IL;
+also W. Bacher, Die Agada der Tannaiten, Die Agada der babylonischen
+Amoräer, and Die Agada der palästinensischen Amoräer, Vol. I.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> M. Sachs, <i>Stimmen vom Jordan und Euphrat</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Emanuel Deutsch, "Literary Remains," p. 45.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Address at the dedication of the new meeting-house of the
+Independent Order B'nai B'rith, at Berlin.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Numbers, xxi. 17, 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Psalm cxxxiii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> M. J. Schleiden: <i>Die Bedeutung der Juden für die
+Erhaltung der Wissenschaften im Mittelalter</i>, p. 7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Moed Katan</i>, 26<i>a</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Cmp. "Israel's Quest in Africa," pp. 257-258</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Cmp. Gutmann, <i>Die Religiousphilosophie des Saâdja</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> M. Hess, <i>Rom und Jerusalem</i>, p. 2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Midrash <i>Yalkut</i> on Proverbs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Berachoth</i>, 10<i>a</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Baba Metsiah</i>, 59<i>a</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>Sota</i>, 20<i>a</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Berachoth</i>, 51<i>b</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Cmp. W. Bacher in <i>Frankel-Graetz Monatsschrift</i>, Vol.
+XX., p. 186.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Cmp. E. David, <i>Sara Copia Sullam, une héroïne juive au
+XVII^e siècle</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> For the following, compare Kayserling, <i>Sephardim</i>, p. 250
+<i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Cmp. <i>Rahel, ein Buch des Andenkens für ihre Freunde</i>,
+Vol. I., p. 43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> By Julius Rodenberg.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Ritter, <i>Geschichte der christlichen Philosophie</i>, Vol.
+I., p. 610 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Joel, <i>Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie</i>, Vol. II.,
+p. 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Graetz, <i>Geschichte der Juden</i>, Vol. VI., p. 298 <i>f.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> "The Guide of the Perplexed," the English translation,
+consulted in this work, was made by M. Friedländer, Ph. D., (London,
+Trübner &amp; Co., 1885). [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Joel, <i>l. c.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Cmp. Kayserling, <i>Sephardim</i>, p. 23 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Translation by Ticknor. [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Cmp. F. Wolf, <i>Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen
+Nationalliteratur</i>, p. 236 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Cmp. Kayserling, <i>l. c.</i> p. 85 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Livius Fürst in <i>Illustrirte Monatshefte für die gesammten
+Interessen des Judenthums</i>, Vol. I., p. 14 ff. Cmp. also, Hagen,
+<i>Minnesänger</i>, Vol. II., p. 258, Vol. IV., p. 536 ff., and W. Goldbaum,
+<i>Entlegene Culturen</i>, p. 275 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Graetz, <i>Geschichte der Juden</i>, Vol. VI., p. 257.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> For Gabirol, cmp. A. Geiger, <i>Salomon Gabirol</i>, and M.
+Sachs, <i>Die religiöse Poesie der Juden in Spanien</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> H. Heine, <i>Romanzero</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Translation by Emma Lazarus. [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> See note, p. 34. [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> J. Schor in <i>He-Chaluz</i>, Vol. IV., p. 154 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> S. Stein in <i>Freitagabend</i>, p. 645 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> H. A. Meisel, <i>Der Prüfstein des Kalonymos</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Livius Fürst in <i>Illustrirte Monatshefte</i>, Vol. I., p. 105
+<i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>Aboda Sara</i> 18<i>b</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Midrash on Lamentations, ch. 3, v. 13 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Jerusalem Talmud, <i>Berachoth</i>, 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Cmp. Berliner, <i>Yesod Olam, das älteste bekannte
+dramatische Gedicht in hebräischer Sprache</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Delitzsch, <i>Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Poesie</i>, p. 88.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Jellinek, <i>Der jüdische Stamm</i>, p. 64.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Aristotle, <i>Hist. Anim.</i>, 8, 28. Nicephorus Gregoras,
+<i>Hist. Byzant.</i>, p. 805.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Isaiah xi. 11-16.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Jeremiah xxxi. 8-9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Isaiah xlix. 9 and xxvii. 13.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Ezekiel xxxvii. 16-17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Cmp. Spiegel, <i>Die Alexandersagen bei den Orientalen</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Cmp. A. Epstein, <i>Eldad ha-Dani</i>, p. x.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Rüppell, <i>Reisen in Nubien</i>, p. 416.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Cmp. Epstein, <i>l. c.</i>, p. 141.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> <i>Alliance</i> Report for 1868.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Halévy, <i>Les prières des Falashas</i>, Introduction.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Cmp. Edelmann, <i>Gedulath Shaul</i>, Introduction.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Cmp. H. Goldbaum, <i>Entlegene Culturen</i>, p. 299 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> <i>Woschod</i>, 1889, No. 10 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Graetz, <i>Geschichte der Juden</i>, IX., p. 480.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Ezekiel xxxvii. 1-11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> J. G. Herder.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> M. Kayserling: <i>Moses Mendelssohn</i>, and L. Geiger,
+<i>Geschichte der Juden in Berlin</i>, II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Lessing, <i>Gesammelte Schriften</i>, Vol. XII., p. 247.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Mendelssohn, <i>Gesammelte Schriften</i>, Vol. IV^2, 68 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Hensel, <i>Die Familie Mendelssohn</i>, Vol. I., p. 86.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> Cmp. I. Heinemann, <i>Moses Mendelssohn</i>, p. 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Cmp. Buker and Caro, <i>Vor hundert Jahren</i>, p. 123.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Address delivered at the installation of the Leopold Zunz
+Lodge at Berlin.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> In <i>Sippurim</i>, I., 165 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> Administrators of the secular affairs of Jewish
+congregations. [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> Compassion, charity. [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Talmudical dialectics. [Tr.]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Cmp. Strodtmann: <i>H. Heine</i>, Vol. I., p. 316.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Zunz, <i>Gesammelte Schriften</i>, Vol. I., p. 3 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 301.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 310.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 316.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 133.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Cmp. <i>Memoiren</i> in his Collected Works, Vol. VI., p. 375
+<i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Ludwig Kalisch, <i>Pariser Skizzen</i>, p. 331.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Collected Works, Vol. IV., p. 227.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Vol. III., p. 13.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Vol. IV., p. 257 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Vol. VIII., p. 390 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Vol. I., p. 196.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Vol. II., p. 110. Cmp. Frauenstädt, <i>A. Schopenhauer</i>, p.
+467 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Collected Works, Vol. VII., p. 255 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> Alfred Meissner, <i>Heinrich Heine</i>, p. 138 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> Ludwig Kalisch, <i>Pariser Skizzen</i>, p. 334.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> Collected Works, Vol. VII., 473 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> Address at the celebration of Herr Lewandowski's fiftieth
+anniversary as director of music.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> <i>Yoma</i>, 38<i>a</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Cmp. Fétis, <i>Histoire générale de la Musique</i>, Vol. I.,
+p. 563 <i>ff.</i></p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Jewish Literature and Other Essays, by Gustav Karpeles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jewish Literature and Other Essays
+
+Author: Gustav Karpeles
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2009 [EBook #27901]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEWISH LITERATURE AND OTHER ESSAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was
+produced from scanned images of public domain material
+from the Google Print project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+AND OTHER ESSAYS
+
+JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+AND
+
+OTHER ESSAYS
+
+BY
+
+GUSTAV KARPELES
+
+PHILADELPHIA THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA 1895
+
+Copyright 1895, by
+THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
+
+Press of
+The Friedenwald Co.
+Baltimore
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following essays were delivered during the last ten years, in the
+form of addresses, before the largest associations in the great cities
+of Germany. Each one is a dear and precious possession to me. As I once
+more pass them in review, reminiscences fill my mind of solemn occasions
+and impressive scenes, of excellent men and charming women. I feel as
+though I were sending the best beloved children of my fancy out into the
+world, and sadness seizes me when I realize that they no longer belong
+to me alone--that they have become the property of strangers. The living
+word falling upon the ear of the listener is one thing; quite another
+the word staring from the cold, printed page. Will my thoughts be
+accorded the same friendly welcome that greeted them when first they
+were uttered?
+
+I venture to hope that they may be kindly received; for these addresses
+were born of devoted love to Judaism. The consciousness that Israel is
+charged with a great historical mission, not yet accomplished, ushered
+them into existence. Truth and sincerity stood sponsor to every word. Is
+it presumptuous, then, to hope that they may find favor in the New
+World? Brethren of my faith live there as here; our ancient watchword,
+"Sh'ma Yisrael," resounds in their synagogues as in ours; the old
+blood-stained flag, with its sublime inscription, "The Lord is my
+banner!" floats over them; and Jewish hearts in America are loyal like
+ours, and sustained by steadfast faith in the Messianic time when our
+hopes and ideals, our aims and dreams, will be realized. There is but
+one Judaism the world over, by the Jordan and the Tagus as by the
+Vistula and the Mississippi. God bless and protect it, and lead it to
+the goal of its glorious future!
+
+To all Jewish hearts beyond the ocean, in free America, fraternal
+greetings!
+
+GUSTAV KARPELES
+
+BERLIN, Pesach 5652/1892.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+A GLANCE AT JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+THE TALMUD
+
+THE JEW IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION
+
+WOMEN IN JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+MOSES MAIMONIDES
+
+JEWISH TROUBADOURS AND MINNESINGERS
+
+HUMOR AND LOVE IN JEWISH POETRY
+
+THE JEWISH STAGE
+
+THE JEW'S QUEST IN AFRICA
+
+A JEWISH KING IN POLAND
+
+JEWISH SOCIETY IN THE TIME OF MENDELSSOHN
+
+LEOPOLD ZUNZ
+
+HEINRICH HEINE AND JUDAISM
+
+THE MUSIC OF THE SYNAGOGUE
+
+
+
+
+A GLANCE AT JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+
+In a well-known passage of the _Romanzero_, rebuking Jewish women for
+their ignorance of the magnificent golden age of their nation's poetry,
+Heine used unmeasured terms of condemnation. He was too severe, for the
+sources from which he drew his own information were of a purely
+scientific character, necessarily unintelligible to the ordinary reader.
+The first truly popular presentation of the whole of Jewish literature
+was made only a few years ago, and could not have existed in Heine's
+time, as the most valuable treasures of that literature, a veritable
+Hebrew Pompeii, have been unearthed from the mould and rubbish of the
+libraries within this century. Investigations of the history of Jewish
+literature have been possible, then, only during the last fifty years.
+
+But in the course of this half-century, conscientious research has so
+actively been prosecuted that we can now gain at least a bird's-eye view
+of the whole course of our literature. Some stretches still lie in
+shadow, and it is not astonishing that eminent scholars continue to
+maintain that "there is no such thing as an organic history, a logical
+development, of the gigantic neo-Hebraic literature"; while such as are
+acquainted with the results of late research at best concede that
+Hebrew literature has been permitted to garner a "tender aftermath."
+Both verdicts are untrue and unfair. Jewish literature has developed
+organically, and in the course of its evolution it has had its
+spring-tide as well as its season of decay, this again followed by
+vigorous rejuvenescence.
+
+Such opinions are part and parcel of the vicissitudes of our literature,
+in themselves sufficient matter for an interesting book. Strange it
+certainly is that a people without a home, without a land, living under
+repression and persecution, could produce so great a literature;
+stranger still, that it should at first have been preserved and
+disseminated, then forgotten, or treated with the disdain of prejudice,
+and finally roused from torpid slumber into robust life by the breath of
+the modern era. In the neighborhood of twenty-two thousand works are
+known to us now. Fifty years ago bibliographers were ignorant of the
+existence of half of these, and in the libraries of Italy, England, and
+Germany an untold number awaits resurrection.
+
+In fact, our literature has not yet been given a name that recommends
+itself to universal acceptance. Some have called it "Rabbinical
+Literature," because during the middle ages every Jew of learning bore
+the title Rabbi; others, "Neo-Hebraic"; and a third party considers it
+purely theological. These names are all inadequate. Perhaps the only one
+sufficiently comprehensive is "Jewish Literature." That embraces, as it
+should, the aggregate of writings produced by Jews from the earliest
+days of their history up to the present time, regardless of form, of
+language, and, in the middle ages at least, of subject-matter.
+
+With this definition in mind, we are able to sketch the whole course of
+our literature, though in the frame of an essay only in outline. We
+shall learn, as Leopold Zunz, the Humboldt of Jewish science, well says,
+that it is "intimately bound up with the culture of the ancient world,
+with the origin and development of Christianity, and with the scientific
+endeavors of the middle ages. Inasmuch as it shares the intellectual
+aspirations of the past and the present, their conflicts and their
+reverses, it is supplementary to general literature. Its peculiar
+features, themselves falling under universal laws, are in turn helpful
+in the interpretation of general characteristics. If the aggregate
+results of mankind's intellectual activity can be likened unto a sea,
+Jewish literature is one of the tributaries that feed it. Like other
+literatures and like literature in general, it reveals to the student
+what noble ideals the soul of man has cherished, and striven to realize,
+and discloses the varied achievements of man's intellectual powers. If
+we of to-day are the witnesses and the offspring of an eternal, creative
+principle, then, in turn, the present is but the beginning of a future,
+that is, the translation of knowledge into life. Spiritual ideals
+consciously held by any portion of mankind lend freedom to thought,
+grace to feeling, and by sailing up this one stream we may reach the
+fountain-head whence have emanated all spiritual forces, and about
+which, as a fixed pole, all spiritual currents eddy."[1]
+
+The cornerstone of this Jewish literature is the Bible, or what we call
+Old Testament literature--the oldest and at the same time the most
+important of Jewish writings. It extends over the period ending with the
+second century before the common era; is written, for the most part, in
+Hebrew, and is the clearest and the most faithful reflection of the
+original characteristics of the Jewish people. This biblical literature
+has engaged the closest attention of all nations and every age. Until
+the seventeenth century, biblical science was purely dogmatic, and only
+since Herder pointed the way have its aesthetic elements been dwelt upon
+along with, often in defiance of, dogmatic considerations. Up to this
+time, Ernest Meier and Theodor Noeldeke have been the only ones to treat
+of the Old Testament with reference to its place in the history of
+literature.
+
+Despite the dogmatic air clinging to the critical introductions to the
+study of the Old Testament, their authors have not shrunk from treating
+the book sacred to two religions with childish arbitrariness. Since the
+days of Spinoza's essay at rationalistic explanation, Bible criticism
+has been the wrestling-ground of the most extravagant exegesis, of bold
+hypotheses, and hazardous conjectures. No Latin or Greek classic has
+been so ruthlessly attacked and dissected; no mediaeval poetry so
+arbitrarily interpreted. As a natural consequence, the aesthetic
+elements were more and more pushed into the background. Only recently
+have we begun to ridicule this craze for hypotheses, and returned to
+more sober methods of inquiry. Bible criticism reached the climax of
+absurdity, and the scorn was just which greeted one of the most
+important works of the critical school, Hitzig's "Explanation of the
+Psalms." A reviewer said: "We may entertain the fond hope that, in a
+second edition of this clever writer's commentary, he will be in the
+enviable position to tell us the day and the hour when each psalm was
+composed."
+
+The reaction began a few years ago with the recognition of the
+inadequacy of Astruc's document hypothesis, until then the creed of all
+Bible critics. Astruc, a celebrated French physician, in 1753 advanced
+the theory that the Pentateuch--the five books of Moses--consists of two
+parallel documents, called respectively Yahvistic and Elohistic, from
+the name applied to God in each. On this basis, German science after him
+raised a superstructure. No date was deemed too late to be assigned to
+the composition of the Pentateuch. If the historian Flavius Josephus had
+not existed, and if Jesus had not spoken of "the Law" and "the
+prophets," and of the things "which were written in the Law of Moses,
+and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms," critics would have been
+disposed to transfer the redaction of the Bible to some period of the
+Christian era. So wide is the divergence of opinions on the subject
+that two learned critics, Ewald and Hitzig, differ in the date assigned
+to a certain biblical passage by no less than a thousand years!
+
+Bible archaeology, Bible exegesis, and discussions of grammatical
+niceties, were confounded with the history of biblical literature, and
+naturally it was the latter that suffered by the lack of
+differentiation. Orthodoxy assumed a purely divine origin for the Bible,
+while sceptics treated the holy book with greater levity than they would
+dare display in criticising a modern novel. The one party raised a hue
+and cry when Moses was spoken of as the first author; the other
+discovered "obscene, rude, even cannibalistic traits"[2] in the sublime
+narratives of the Bible. It should be the task of coming generations,
+successors by one remove of credulous Bible lovers, and immediate heirs
+of thorough-going rationalists, to reconcile and fuse in a higher
+conception of the Bible the two divergent theories of its purely divine
+and its purely human origin. Unfortunately, it must be admitted that
+Ernest Meier is right, when he says, in his "History of the National
+Poetry of the Hebrews," that this task wholly belongs to the future; at
+present it is an unsolved problem.
+
+The aesthetic is the only proper point of view for a full recognition of
+the value of biblical literature. It certainly does not rob the sacred
+Scriptures, the perennial source of spiritual comfort, of their exalted
+character and divine worth to assume that legend, myth, and history
+have combined to produce the perfect harmony which is their imperishable
+distinction. The peasant dwelling on inaccessible mountain-heights, next
+to the record of Abraham's shepherd life, inscribes the main events of
+his own career, the anniversary dates sacred to his family. The young
+count among their first impressions that of "the brown folio," and more
+vividly than all else remember
+
+    "The maidens fair and true,
+      The sages and the heroes bold,
+    Whose tale by seers inspired
+      In our Book of books is told.
+
+    The simple life and faith
+      Of patriarchs of ancient day
+    Like angels hover near,
+      And guard, and lead them on the way."[3]
+
+Above all, a whole nation has for centuries been living with, and only
+by virtue of, this book. Surely this is abundant testimony to the
+undying value of the great work, in which the simplest shepherd tales
+and the naivest legends, profound moral saws and magnificent images, the
+ideals of a Messianic future and the purest, the most humane conception
+of life, alternate with sublime descriptions of nature and the sweet
+strains of love-poems, with national songs breathing hope, or trembling
+with anguish, and with the dull tones of despairing pessimism and the
+divinely inspired hymns of an exalted theodicy--all blending to form
+what the reverential love of men has named the Book of books.
+
+It was natural that a book of this kind should become the basis of a
+great literature. Whatever was produced in later times had to submit to
+be judged by its exalted standard. It became the rule of conduct, the
+prophetic mirror reflecting the future work of a nation whose fate was
+inextricably bound up with its own. It is not known how and when the
+biblical scriptures were welded into one book, a holy canon, but it is
+probably correct to assume that it was done by the _Soferim_, the
+Scribes, between 200 and 150 B.C.E. At all events, it is certain that
+the three divisions of the Bible--the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the
+miscellaneous writings--were contained in the Greek version, the
+Septuagint, so called from the seventy or seventy-two Alexandrians
+supposed to have done the work of translation under Ptolemy
+Philadelphus.
+
+The Greek translation of the Bible marks the beginning of the second
+period of Jewish literature, the Judaeo-Hellenic. Hebrew ceased to be the
+language of the people; it was thenceforth used only by scholars and in
+divine worship. Jewish for the first time met Greek intellect. Shem and
+Japheth embraced fraternally. "But even while the teachings of Hellas
+were pushing their way into subjugated Palestine, seducing Jewish
+philosophy to apostasy, and seeking, by main force, to introduce
+paganism, the Greek philosophers themselves stood awed by the majesty
+and power of the Jewish prophets. Swords and words entered the lists as
+champions of Judaism. The vernacular Aramaean, having suffered the Greek
+to put its impress upon many of its substantives, refused to yield to
+the influence of the Greek verb, and, in the end, Hebrew truth, in the
+guise of the teachings of Jesus, undermined the proud structure of the
+heathen." This is a most excellent characterization of that literary
+period, which lasted about three centuries, ending between 100 and 150
+C. E. Its influence upon Jewish literature can scarcely be said to have
+been enduring. To it belong all the apocryphal writings which,
+originally composed in the Greek language, were for that reason not
+incorporated into the Holy Canon. The centre of intellectual life was no
+longer in Palestine, but at Alexandria in Egypt, where three hundred
+thousand Jews were then living, and thus this literature came to be
+called Judaeo-Alexandrian. It includes among its writers the last of the
+Neoplatonists, particularly Philo, the originator of the allegorical
+interpretation of the Bible and of a Jewish philosophy of religion;
+Aristeas, and pseudo-Phokylides. There were also Jewish _litterateurs_:
+the dramatist Ezekielos; Jason; Philo the Elder; Aristobulus, the
+popularizer of the Aristotelian philosophy; Eupolemos, the historian;
+and probably the Jewish Sybil, who had to have recourse to the oracular
+manner of the pagans to proclaim the truths of Judaism, and to Greek
+figures of speech for her apocalyptic visions, which foretold, in
+biblical phrase and with prophetic ardor, the future of Israel and of
+the nations in contact with it.
+
+Meanwhile the word of the Bible was steadily gaining importance in
+Palestine. To search into and expound the sacred text had become the
+inheritance of the congregation of Jacob, of those that had not lent ear
+to the siren notes of Hellenism. Midrash, as the investigations of the
+commentators were called, by and by divided into two streams--Halacha,
+which establishes and systematizes the statutes of the Law, and Haggada,
+which uses the sacred texts for homiletic, historical, ethical, and
+pedagogic discussions. The latter is the poetic, the former, the
+legislative, element in the Talmudic writings, whose composition,
+extending over a thousand years, constitutes the third, the most
+momentous, period of Jewish literature. Of course, none of these periods
+can be so sharply defined as a rapid survey might lead one to suppose.
+For instance, on the threshold of this third epoch stands the figure of
+Flavius Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, who, at once an
+enthusiastic Jew and a friend of the Romans, writes the story of his
+nation in the Greek language--a character as peculiar as his age, which,
+listening to the mocking laughter of a Lucian, saw Olympus overthrown
+and its gods dethroned, the Temple at Jerusalem pass away in flame and
+smoke, and the new doctrine of the son of the carpenter at Nazareth
+begin its victorious course.
+
+By the side of this Janus-faced historian, the heroes of the Talmud
+stand enveloped in glory. We meet with men like Hillel and Shammai,
+Jochanan ben Zakkai, Gamaliel, Joshua ben Chananya, the famous Akiba,
+and later on Yehuda the Prince, friend of the imperial philosopher
+Marcus Aurelius, and compiler of the Mishna, the authoritative code of
+laws superseding all other collections. Then there are the fabulist
+Meir; Simon ben Yochai, falsely accused of the authorship of the
+mystical Kabbala; Chiya; Rab; Samuel, equally famous as a physician and
+a rabbi; Jochanan, the supposed compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud; and
+Ashi and Abina, the former probably the arranger of the Babylonian
+Talmud. This latter Talmud, the one invested with authority among Jews,
+by reason of its varying fortunes, is the most marvellous literary
+monument extant. Never has book been so hated and so persecuted, so
+misjudged and so despised, on the other hand, so prized and so honored,
+and, above all, so imperfectly understood, as this very Talmud.
+
+For the Jews and their literature it has had untold significance. That
+the Talmud has been the conservator of Judaism is an irrefutable
+statement. It is true that the study of the Talmud unduly absorbed the
+great intellectual force of its adherents, and brought about a somewhat
+one-sided mental development in the Jews; but it also is true, as a
+writer says,[4] that "whenever in troublous times scientific inquiry was
+laid low; whenever, for any reason, the Jew was excluded from
+participation in public life, the study of the Talmud maintained the
+elasticity and the vigor of the Jewish mind, and rescued the Jew from
+sterile mysticism and spiritual apathy. The Talmud, as a rule, has been
+inimical to mysticism, and the most brilliant Talmudists, in propitious
+days, have achieved distinguished success in secular science. The Jew
+survived ages of bitterness, all the while clinging loyally to his faith
+in the midst of hostility, and the first ray of light that penetrated
+the walls of the Ghetto found him ready to take part in the intellectual
+work of his time. This admirable elasticity of mind he owes, first and
+foremost, to the study of the Talmud."
+
+From this much abused Talmud, as from its contemporary the Midrash in
+the restricted sense, sprouted forth the blossoms of the Haggada--that
+Haggada
+
+    "Where the beauteous, ancient sagas,
+    Angel legends fraught with meaning,
+    Martyrs' silent sacrifices,
+    Festal songs and wisdom's sayings,
+
+    Trope and allegoric fancies--
+    All, howe'er by faith's triumphant
+    Glow pervaded--where they gleaming,
+    Glist'ning, well in strength exhaustless.
+
+    And the boyish heart responsive
+    Drinks the wild, fantastic sweetness,
+    Greets the woful, wondrous anguish,
+    Yields to grewsome charm of myst'ry,
+
+    Hid in blessed worlds of fable.
+    Overawed it hearkens solemn
+    To that sacred revelation
+    Mortal man hath poetry called."[5]
+
+A story from the Midrash charmingly characterizes the relation between
+Halacha and Haggada. Two rabbis, Chiya bar Abba, a Halachist, and
+Abbahu, a Haggadist, happened to be lecturing in the same town. Abbahu,
+the Haggadist, was always listened to by great crowds, while Chiya, with
+his Halacha, stood practically deserted. The Haggadist comforted the
+disappointed teacher with a parable. "Let us suppose two merchants," he
+said, "to come to town, and offer wares for sale. The one has pearls and
+precious gems to display, the other, cheap finery, gilt chains, rings,
+and gaudy ribbons. About whose booth, think you, does the crowd
+press?--Formerly, when the struggle for existence was not fierce and
+inevitable, men had leisure and desire for the profound teachings of the
+Law; now they need the cheering words of consolation and hope."
+
+For more than a thousand years this nameless spirit of national poesy
+was abroad, and produced manifold works, which, in the course of time,
+were gathered together into comprehensive collections, variously named
+Midrash Rabba, Pesikta, Tanchuma, etc. Their compilation was begun in
+about 700 C. E., that is, soon after the close of the Talmud, in the
+transition period from the third epoch of Jewish literature to the
+fourth, the golden age, which lasted from the ninth to the fifteenth
+century, and, according to the law of human products, shows a season of
+growth, blossom, and decay.
+
+The scene of action during this period was western Asia, northern
+Africa, sometimes Italy and France, but chiefly Spain, where Arabic
+culture, destined to influence Jewish thought to an incalculable degree,
+was at that time at its zenith. "A second time the Jews were drawn into
+the vortex of a foreign civilization, and two hundred years after
+Mohammed, Jews in Kairwan and Bagdad were speaking the same language,
+Arabic. A language once again became the mediatrix between Jewish and
+general literature, and the best minds of the two races, by means of the
+language, reciprocally influenced each other. Jews, as they once had
+written Greek for their brethren, now wrote Arabic; and, as in
+Hellenistic times, the civilization of the dominant race, both in its
+original features and in its adaptations from foreign sources, was
+reflected in that of the Jews." It would be interesting to analyze this
+important process of assimilation, but we can concern ourselves only
+with the works of the Jewish intellect. Again we meet, at the threshold
+of the period, a characteristic figure, the thinker Sa'adia, ranking
+high as author and religious philosopher, known also as a grammarian and
+a poet. He is followed by Sherira, to whom we owe the beginnings of a
+history of Talmudic literature, and his son Hai Gaon, a strictly
+orthodox teacher of the Law. In their wake come troops of physicians,
+theologians, lexicographers, Talmudists, and grammarians. Great is the
+circle of our national literature: it embraces theology, philosophy,
+exegesis, grammar, poetry, and jurisprudence, yea, even astronomy and
+chronology, mathematics and medicine. But these widely varying subjects
+constitute only one class, inasmuch as they all are infused with the
+spirit of Judaism, and subordinate themselves to its demands. A mention
+of the prominent actors would turn this whole essay into a dry list of
+names. Therefore it is better for us merely to sketch the period in
+outline, dwelling only on its greatest poets and philosophers, the
+moulders of its character.
+
+The opinion is current that the Semitic race lacks the philosophic
+faculty. Yet it cannot be denied that Jews were the first to carry Greek
+philosophy to Europe, teaching and developing it there before its
+dissemination by celebrated Arabs. In their zeal to harmonize philosophy
+with their religion, and in the lesser endeavor to defend traditional
+Judaism against the polemic attacks of a new sect, the Karaites, they
+invested the Aristotelian system with peculiar features, making it, as
+it were, their national philosophy. At all events, it must be
+universally accepted that the Jews share with the Arabs the merit "of
+having cherished the study of philosophy during centuries of barbarism,
+and of having for a long time exerted a civilizing influence upon
+Europe."
+
+The meagre achievements of the Jews in the departments of history and
+history of literature do not justify the conclusion that they are
+wanting in historic perception. The lack of writings on these subjects
+is traceable to the sufferings and persecutions that have marked their
+pathway. Before their chroniclers had time to record past afflictions,
+new sorrows and troubles broke in upon them. In the middle ages, the
+history of Jewish literature is the entire history of the Jewish people,
+its course outlined by blood and watered by rivers of tears, at whose
+source the genius of Jewish poetry sits lamenting. "The Orient dwells an
+exile in the Occident," Franz Delitzsch, the first alien to give loving
+study to this literature, poetically says, "and its tears of longing for
+home are the fountain-head of Jewish poetry."[6]
+
+That poetry reached its perfection in the works of the celebrated trio,
+Solomon Gabirol, Yehuda Halevi, and Moses ben Ezra. Their dazzling
+triumphs had been heralded by the more modest achievements of Abitur,
+writing Hebrew, and Adia and the poetess Xemona (Kasmune) using Arabic,
+to sing the praise of God and lament the woes of Israel.
+
+The predominant, but not exclusive, characteristic of Jewish poetry is
+its religious strain. Great thinkers, men equipped with philosophic
+training, and at the same time endowed with poetic gifts, have
+contributed to the huge volume of synagogue poetry, whose subjects are
+praise of the Lord and regret for Zion. The sorrow for our lost
+fatherland has never taken on more glowing colors, never been expressed
+in fuller tones than in this poetry. As ancient Hebrew poetry flowed in
+the two streams of prophecy and psalmody, so the Jewish poetry of the
+middle ages was divided into _Piut_ and _Selicha_. Songs of hope and
+despair, cries of revenge, exhortations to peace among men, elegies on
+every single persecution, and laments for Zion, follow each other in
+kaleidoscopic succession. Unfortunately, there never was lack of
+historic matter for this poetry to elaborate. To furnish that was the
+well-accomplished task of rulers and priests in the middle ages, alike
+"in the realm of the Islamic king of kings and in that of the apostolic
+servant of servants." So fate made this poetry classical and eminently
+national. Those characteristics which, in general literature, earn for a
+work the description "Homeric," in Jewish literature make a liturgical
+poem "Kaliric," so called from the poet Eliezer Kalir, the subject of
+many mythical tales, and the first of a long line of poets, Spanish,
+French, and German, extending to the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
+The literary history of this epoch has been written by Leopold Zunz with
+warmth of feeling and stupendous learning. He closes his work with the
+hope that mankind, at some future day, will adopt Israel's religious
+poetry as its own, transforming the elegiac _Selicha_ into a joyous
+psalm of universal peace and good-will.
+
+Side by side with religious flourishes secular poetry, clothing itself
+in rhyme and metre, adopting every current form of poesy, and treating
+of every appropriate subject. Its first votary was Solomon Gabirol, that
+
+    "Human nightingale that warbled
+    Forth her songs of tender love,
+    In the darkness of the sombre,
+    Gothic mediaeval night.
+
+    She, that nightingale, sang only,
+    Sobbing forth her adoration,
+    To her Lord, her God, in heaven,
+    Whom her songs of praise extolled."[7]
+
+Solomon Gabirol may be said to have been the first poet thrilled by
+_Weltschmerz_. "He produced hymns and songs, penitential prayers,
+psalms, and threnodies, filled with hope and longing for a blessed
+future. They are marked throughout by austere earnestness, brushing
+away, in its rigor, the color and bloom of life; but side by side with
+it, surging forth from the deepest recesses of a human soul, is humble
+adoration of God."
+
+Gabirol was a distinguished philosopher besides. In 1150, his chief
+work, "The Fount of Life," was translated into Latin by Archdeacon
+Dominicus Gundisalvi, with the help of Johannes Avendeath, an apostate
+Jew, the author's name being corrupted into Avencebrol, later becoming
+Avicebron. The work was made a text-book of scholastic philosophy, but
+neither Scotists nor Thomists, neither adherents nor detractors,
+suspected that a heretical Jew was slumbering under the name Avicebron.
+It remained for an inquirer of our own day, Solomon Munk, to reveal the
+face of Gabirol under the mask of a garbled name. Amazed, we behold that
+the pessimistic philosopher of to-day can as little as the schoolmen of
+the middle ages shake himself free from the despised Jew. Schopenhauer
+may object as he will, it is certain that Gabirol was his predecessor by
+more than eight hundred years!
+
+Charisi, whom we shall presently meet, has expressed the verdict on his
+poetry which still holds good: "Solomon Gabirol pleases to call himself
+the small--yet before him all the great must dwindle and fall.--Who can
+like him with mighty speech appall?--Compared with him the poets of his
+time are without power--he, the small, alone is a tower.--The highest
+round of poetry's ladder has he won.--Wisdom fondled him, eloquence hath
+called him son--and clothing him with purple, said: 'Lo!--my first-born
+son, go forth, to conquest go!'--His predecessors' songs are naught with
+his compared--nor have his many followers better fared.--The later
+singers by him were taught--the heirs they are of his poetic
+thought.--But still he's king, to him all praise belongs--for Solomon's
+is the Song of Songs."
+
+By Gabirol's side stands Yehuda Halevi, probably the only Jewish poet
+known to the reader of general literature, to whom his name, life, and
+fate have become familiar through Heinrich Heine's _Romanzero_. His
+magnificent descriptions of nature "reflect southern skies, verdant
+meadows, deep blue rivers, and the stormy sea," and his erotic lyrics
+are chaste and tender. He sounds the praise of wine, youth, and
+happiness, and extols the charms of his lady-love, but above and beyond
+all he devotes his song to Zion and his people. The pearl of his poems
+
+    "Is the famous lamentation
+    Sung in all the tents of Jacob,
+    Scattered wide upon the earth ...
+
+    Yea, it is the song of Zion,
+    Which Yehuda ben Halevy,
+    Dying on the holy ruins,
+    Sang of loved Jerusalem."[8]
+
+"In the whole compass of religious poetry, Milton's and Klopstock's not
+excepted, nothing can be found to surpass the elegy of Zion," says a
+modern writer, a non-Jew.[9] This soul-stirring "Lay of Zion," better
+than any number of critical dissertations, will give the reader a clear
+insight into the character and spirit of Jewish poetry in general:
+
+    O Zion! of thine exiles' peace take thought,
+    The remnant of thy flock, who thine have sought!
+    From west, from east, from north and south resounds,
+    Afar and now anear, from all thy bounds,
+              And no surcease,
+              "With thee be peace!"
+
+    In longing's fetters chained I greet thee, too,
+    My tears fast welling forth like Hermon's dew--
+    O bliss could they but drop on holy hills!
+    A croaking bird I turn, when through me thrills
+    Thy desolate state; but when I dream anon,
+    The Lord brings back thy ev'ry captive son--
+              A harp straightway
+              To sing thy lay.
+
+    In heart I dwell where once thy purest son
+    At Bethel and Peniel, triumphs won;
+    God's awesome presence there was close to thee,
+    Whose doors thy Maker, by divine decree,
+          Opposed as mates
+          To heaven's gates.
+
+    Nor sun, nor moon, nor stars had need to be;
+    God's countenance alone illumined thee
+    On whose elect He poured his spirit out.
+    In thee would I my soul pour forth devout!
+    Thou wert the kingdom's seat, of God the throne,
+    And now there dwells a slave race, not thine own,
+          In royal state,
+          Where reigned thy great.
+
+    O would that I could roam o'er ev'ry place
+    Where God to missioned prophets showed His grace!
+    And who will give me wings? An off'ring meet,
+    I'd haste to lay upon thy shattered seat,
+          Thy counterpart--
+          My bruised heart.
+
+    Upon thy precious ground I'd fall prostrate,
+    Thy stones caress, the dust within thy gate,
+    And happiness it were in awe to stand
+    At Hebron's graves, the treasures of thy land,
+    And greet thy woods, thy vine-clad slopes, thy vales,
+    Greet Abarim and Hor, whose light ne'er pales,
+          A radiant crown,
+          Thy priests' renown.
+
+    Thy air is balm for souls; like myrrh thy sand;
+    With honey run the rivers of thy land.
+    Though bare my feet, my heart's delight I'd count
+    To thread my way all o'er thy desert mount,
+          Where once rose tall
+          Thy holy hall,
+
+    Where stood thy treasure-ark, in recess dim,
+    Close-curtained, guarded o'er by cherubim.
+    My Naz'rite's crown would I pluck off, and cast
+    It gladly forth. With curses would I blast
+    The impious time thy people, diadem-crowned,
+    Thy Nazirites, did pass, by en'mies bound
+          With hatred's bands,
+          In unclean lands.
+
+    By dogs thy lusty lions are brutal torn
+    And dragged; thy strong, young eaglets, heav'nward
+    borne,
+    By foul-mouthed ravens snatched, and all undone.
+    Can food still tempt my taste? Can light of sun
+          Seem fair to shine
+          To eyes like mine?
+
+    Soft, soft! Leave off a while, O cup of pain!
+    My loins are weighted down, my heart and brain,
+    With bitterness from thee. Whene'er I think
+    Of Oholah,[10] proud northern queen, I drink
+    Thy wrath, and when my Oholivah forlorn
+    Comes back to mind--'tis then I quaff thy scorn,
+          Then, draught of pain,
+          Thy lees I drain.
+
+    O Zion! Crown of grace! Thy comeliness
+    Hath ever favor won and fond caress.
+    Thy faithful lovers' lives are bound in thine;
+    They joy in thy security, but pine
+          And weep in gloom
+          O'er thy sad doom.
+
+    From out the prisoner's cell they sigh for thee,
+    And each in prayer, wherever he may be,
+    Towards thy demolished portals turns. Exiled,
+    Dispersed from mount to hill, thy flock defiled
+    Hath not forgot thy sheltering fold. They grasp
+    Thy garment's hem, and trustful, eager, clasp,
+              With outstretched arms,
+              Thy branching palms.
+
+    Shinar, Pathros--can they in majesty
+    With thee compare? Or their idolatry
+    With thy Urim and thy Thummim august?
+    Who can surpass thy priests, thy saintly just,
+              Thy prophets bold,
+              And bards of old?
+
+    The heathen kingdoms change and wholly cease--
+    Thy might alone stands firm without decrease,
+    Thy Nazirites from age to age abide,
+    Thy God in thee desireth to reside.
+    Then happy he who maketh choice of thee
+    To dwell within thy courts, and waits to see,
+              And toils to make,
+              Thy light awake.
+
+    On him shall as the morning break thy light,
+    The bliss of thy elect shall glad his sight,
+    In thy felicities shall he rejoice,
+    In triumph sweet exult, with jubilant voice,
+              O'er thee, adored,
+              To youth restored.
+
+We have loitered long with Yehuda Halevi, and still not long enough, for
+we have not yet spoken of his claims to the title philosopher, won for
+him by his book _Al-Chazari_. But now we must hurry on to Moses ben
+Ezra, the last and most worldly of the three great poets. He devotes his
+genius to his patrons, to wine, his faithless mistress, and to
+"bacchanalian feasts under leafy canopies, with merry minstrelsy of
+birds." He laments over separation from friends and kin, weeps over the
+shortness of life and the rapid approach of hoary age--all in polished
+language, sometimes, however, lacking euphony. Even when he strikes his
+lyre in praise and honor of his people Israel, he fails to rise to the
+lofty heights attained by his mates in song.
+
+With Yehuda Charisi, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the
+period of the epigones sets in for Spanish-Jewish literature. In
+Charisi's _Tachkemoni_, an imitation of the poetry of the Arab Hariri,
+jest and serious criticism, joy and grief, the sublime and the trivial,
+follow each other like tints in a parti-colored skein. His distinction
+is the ease with which he plays upon the Hebrew language, not the most
+pliable of instruments. In general, Jewish poets and philosophers have
+manipulated that language with surprising dexterity. Songs, hymns,
+elegies, penitential prayers, exhortations, and religious meditations,
+generation after generation, were couched in the idiom of the psalmist,
+yet the structure of the language underwent no change. "The development
+of the neo-Hebraic idiom from the ancient Hebrew," a distinguished
+modern ethnographer justly says, "confirms, by linguistic evidence, the
+plasticity, the logical acumen, the comprehensive and at the same time
+versatile intellectuality of the Jewish race. By the ingenious
+compounding of words, by investing old expressions with new meanings,
+and adapting the material offered by alien or related languages to its
+own purposes, it has increased and enriched a comparatively meagre
+treasury of words."[11]
+
+Side by side with this cosmopolitanism, illustrated in the Haggada,
+whose pages prove that nothing human is strange to the Jewish race, it
+reveals, in its literary development, as notably in the Halacha, a
+sharply defined subjectivity. Jellinek says: "Not losing itself in the
+contemplation of the phenomena of life, not devoting itself to any
+subject unless it be with an ulterior purpose, but seeing all things in
+their relation to itself, and subordinating them to its own boldly
+asserted _ego_, the Jewish race is not inclined to apply its powers to
+the solution of intricate philosophic problems, or to abstruse
+metaphysical speculations. It is, therefore, not a philosophic race, and
+its participation in the philosophic work of the world dates only from
+its contact with the Greeks." The same author, on the other hand,
+emphasizes the liberality, the broad sympathies, of the Jewish race, in
+his statement that the Jewish mind, at its first meeting with Arabic
+philosophy, absorbed it as a leaven into its intellectual life. The
+product of the assimilation was--as early as the twelfth century, mark
+you--a philosophic conception of life, whose broad liberality culminates
+in the sentiment expressed by two most eminent thinkers: Christianity
+and Islam are the precursors of a world-religion, the preliminary
+conditions for the great religious system satisfying all men. Yehuda
+Halevi and Moses Maimonides were the philosophers bold enough to utter
+this thought of far-reaching significance.
+
+The second efflorescence of Jewish poetry brings forth exotic romances,
+satires, verbose hymns, and humorous narrative poems. Such productions
+certainly do not justify the application of the epithet "theological" to
+Jewish literature. Solomon ben Sakbel composes a satiric romance in the
+Makamat[12] form, describing the varied adventures of Asher ben Yehuda,
+another Don Quixote; Berachya Hanakdan puts into Hebrew the fables of
+AEsop and Lokman, furnishing La Fontaine with some of his material;
+Abraham ibn Sahl receives from the Arabs, certainly not noted for
+liberality, ten goldpieces for each of his love-songs; Santob de Carrion
+is a beloved Spanish bard, bold enough to tell unpleasant truths unto a
+king; Joseph ibn Sabara writes a humorous romance; Yehuda Sabbatai, epic
+satires, "The War of Wealth and Wisdom," and "A Gift from a Misogynist,"
+and unnamed authors, "Truth's Campaign," and "Praise of Women."
+
+A satirist of more than ordinary gifts was the Italian Kalonymos, whose
+"Touchstone," like Ibn Chasdai's Makamat, "The Prince and the Dervish,"
+has been translated into German. Contemporaneous with them was Suesskind
+von Trimberg, the Suabian minnesinger, and Samson Pnie, of Strasburg,
+who helped the German poets continue _Parzival_, while later on, in
+Italy, Moses Rieti composed "The Paradise" in Hebrew _terza-rima_.
+
+In the decadence of Jewish literature, the most prominent figure is
+Immanuel ben Solomon, or Manoello, as the Italians call him. Critics
+think him the precursor of Boccaccio, and history knows him as the
+friend of Dante, whose _Divina Commedia_ he travestied in Hebrew. The
+author of the first Hebrew sonnet and of the first Hebrew novel, he was
+a talented writer, but as frivolous as talented.
+
+This is the development of Jewish poetry during its great period. In
+other departments of literature, in philosophy, in theology, in ethics,
+in Bible exegesis, the race is equally prolific in minds of the first
+order. Glancing back for a moment, our eye is arrested by Moses
+Maimonides, the great systematizer of the Jewish Law, and the connecting
+link between scholasticism and the Greek-Arabic development of the
+Aristotelian system. Before his time Bechai ibn Pakuda and Joseph ibn
+Zadik had entered upon theosophic speculations with the object of
+harmonizing Arabic and Greek philosophy, and in the age immediately
+preceding that of Maimonides, Abraham ibn Daud, a writer of surprisingly
+liberal views, had undertaken, in "The Highest Faith," the task of
+reconciling faith with philosophy. At the same time rationalistic Bible
+exegesis was begun by Abraham ibn Ezra, an acute but reckless
+controversialist. Orthodox interpretations of the Bible had, before him,
+been taught in France by Rashi (Solomon Yitschaki) and Samuel ben Meir,
+and continued by German rabbis, who, at the same time, were preachers of
+morality--a noteworthy phenomenon in a persecuted tribe. "How pure and
+strong its ethical principles were is shown by its religious poetry as
+well as by its practical Law. What pervades the poetry as a high ideal,
+in the application of the Law becomes demonstrable reality. The wrapt
+enthusiasm in the hymns of Samuel the Pious and other poets is embodied,
+lives, in the rulings of Yehuda Hakohen, Solomon Yitschaki, and Jacob
+ben Meir; in the legal opinions of Isaac ben Abraham, Eliezer ha-Levi,
+Isaac ben Moses, Meir ben Baruch, and their successors, and in the
+codices of Eliezer of Metz and Moses de Coucy. A German professor[13] of
+a hundred years ago, after glancing through some few Jewish writings,
+exclaimed, in a tone of condescending approval: 'Christians of that time
+could scarcely have been expected to enjoin such high moral principles
+as this Jew wrote down and bequeathed to his brethren in faith!'"
+
+Jewish literature in this and the next period consists largely of
+theological discussions and of commentaries on the Talmud produced by
+the hundred. It would be idle to name even the most prominent authors;
+their works belong to the history of theologic science, and rarely had a
+determining influence upon the development of genuine literature.
+
+We must also pass over in silence the numerous Jewish physicians and
+medical writers; but it must be remembered that they, too, belong to
+Jewish literature. The most marvellous characteristic of this literature
+is that in it the Jewish race has registered each step of its
+development. "All things learned, gathered, obtained, on its journeyings
+hither and thither--Greek philosophy and Arabic, as well as Latin
+scholasticism--all deposited themselves in layers about the Bible, so
+stamping later Jewish literature with an individuality that gave it an
+unique place among the literatures of the world."
+
+The travellers, however, must be mentioned by name. Their itineraries
+were wholly dedicated to the interests of their co-religionists. The
+first of the line is Eldad, the narrator of a sort of Hebrew Odyssey.
+Benjamin of Tudela and Petachya of Ratisbon are deserving of more
+confidence as veracious chroniclers, and their descriptions, together
+with Charisi's, complete the Jewish library of travels of those early
+days, unless, with Steinschneider, we consider, as we truly may, the
+majority of Jewish authors under this head. For Jewish writers a hard,
+necessitous lot has ever been a storm wind, tossing them hither and
+thither, and blowing the seeds of knowledge over all lands. Withal
+learning proved an enveloping, protecting cloak to these mendicant and
+pilgrim authors. The dispersion of the Jews, their international
+commerce, and the desire to maintain their academies, stimulated a love
+for travel, made frequent journeyings a necessity, indeed. In this way
+only can we account for the extraordinarily rapid spread of Jewish
+literature in the middle ages. The student of those times often chances
+across a rabbi, who this day teaches, lectures, writes in Candia,
+to-morrow in Rome, next year in Prague or Cracow, and so Jewish
+literature is the "wandering Jew" among the world's literatures.
+
+The fourth period, the Augustan age of our literature, closes with a
+jarring discord--the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, their second
+home, in which they had seen ministers, princes, professors, and poets
+rise from their ranks. The scene of literary activity changes: France,
+Italy, but chiefly the Slavonic East, are pushed into the foreground. It
+is not a salutary change; it ushers in three centuries of decay and
+stagnation in literary endeavor. The sum of the efforts is indicated by
+the name of the period, the Rabbinical, for its chief work was the
+development and fixation of Rabbinism.
+
+Decadence did not set in immediately. Certain beneficent forces, either
+continuing in action from the former period, or arising out of the new
+concatenation of circumstances, were in operation: Jewish exiles from
+Spain carried their culture to the asylums hospitably offered them in
+the Orient and a few of the European countries, notably Holland; the art
+of printing was spreading, the first presses in Italy bringing out
+Jewish works; and the sun of humanism and of the Reformation was rising
+and shedding solitary rays of its effulgence on the Jewish minds then at
+work.
+
+Among the noteworthy authors standing between the two periods and
+belonging to both, the most prominent is Nachmanides, a pious and
+learned Bible scholar. With logical force and critical candor he entered
+into the great conflict between science and faith, then dividing the
+Jewish world into two camps, with Maimonides' works as their shibboleth.
+The Aristotelian philosophy was no longer satisfying. Minds and hearts
+were yearning for a new revelation, and in default thereof steeping
+themselves in mystical speculations. A voluminous theosophic literature
+sprang up. The _Zohar_, the Bible of mysticism, was circulated, its
+authorship being fastened upon a rabbi of olden days. It is altogether
+probable that the real author was living at the time; many think that it
+was Moses de Leon. The liberal party counted in its ranks the two
+distinguished families of Tibbon and Kimchi, the former famed as
+successful translators, the latter as grammarians. Their best known
+representatives were Judah ibn Tibbon and David Kimchi. Curiously
+enough, the will of the former contains, in unmistakable terms, the
+opinion that "Property is theft," anticipating Proudhon, who, had he
+known it, would have seen in its early enunciation additional testimony
+to its truth. The liberal faction was also supported by Jacob ben
+Abba-Mari, the friend of Frederick II. and Michael Scotus. Abba-Mari
+lived at the German emperor's court at Naples, and quoted him in his
+commentary upon the Bible as an exegete. Besides there were among the
+Maimunists, or rationalists, Levi ben Abraham, an extraordinarily
+liberal man; Shemtob Palquera, one of the most learned Jews of his
+century, and Yedaya Penini, a philosopher and pessimistic poet, whose
+"Contemplation of the World" was translated by Mendelssohn, and praised
+by Lessing and Goethe. Despite this array of talent, the opponents were
+stronger, the most representative partisan being the Talmudist Solomon
+ben Aderet.
+
+At the same time disputations about the Talmud, ending with its public
+burning at Paris, were carried on with the Christian clergy. The other
+literary current of the age is designated by the word Kabbala, which
+held many of the finest and noblest minds captive to its witchery. The
+Kabbala is unquestionably a continuation of earlier theosophic
+inquiries. Its chief doctrines have been stated by a thorough student of
+our literature: All that exists originates in God, the source of light
+eternal. He Himself can be known only through His manifestations. He is
+without beginning, and veiled in mystery, or, He is nothing, because the
+whole of creation has developed from nothing. This nothing is one,
+indivisible, and limitless--_En-Sof_. God fills space, He is space
+itself. In order to manifest Himself, in order to create, that is,
+disclose Himself by means of emanations, He contracts, thus producing
+vacant space. The _En-Sof_ first manifested itself in the prototype of
+the whole of creation, in the macrocosm called the "son of God," the
+first man, as he appears upon the chariot of Ezekiel. From this
+primitive man the whole created world emanates in four stages: _Azila_,
+_Beria_, _Yezira_, _Asiya_. The _Azila_ emanation represents the active
+qualities of primitive man. They are forces or intelligences flowing
+from him, at once his essential qualities and the faculties by which he
+acts. There are ten of these forces, forming the ten sacred _Sefiroth_,
+a word which first meaning number came to stand for sphere. The first
+three _Sefiroth_ are intelligences, the seven others, attributes. They
+are supposed to follow each other in this order: 1. _Kether_ (crown); 2.
+_Chochma_ (wisdom); 3. _Beena_ (understanding); 4. _Chesed_ (grace), or
+_Ghedulla_ (greatness); 5. _Ghevoora_ (dignity); 6. _Tifereth_
+(splendor); 7. _Nezach_ (victory); 8. _Hod_ (majesty); 9. _Yesod_
+(principle); 10. _Malchuth_ (kingdom). From this first world of the
+_Azila_ emanate the three other worlds, _Asiya_ being the lowest stage.
+Man has part in these three worlds; a microcosm, he realizes in his
+actual being what is foreshadowed by the ideal, primitive man. He holds
+to the _Asiya_ by his vital part (_Nefesh_), to the _Yezira_ by his
+intellect (_Ruach_), to the _Beria_ by his soul (_Neshama_). The last is
+his immortal part, a spark of divinity.
+
+Speculations like these, followed to their logical issue, are bound to
+lead the investigator out of Judaism into Trinitarianism or Pantheism.
+Kabbalists, of course only in rare cases, realized the danger. The sad
+conditions prevailing in the era after the expulsion from Spain, a third
+exile, were in all respects calculated to promote the development of
+mysticism, and it did flourish luxuriantly.
+
+Some few philosophers, the last of a long line, still await mention:
+Levi ben Gerson, Joseph Kaspi, Moses of Narbonne in southern France,
+long a seat of Jewish learning; then, Isaac ben Sheshet, Chasdai
+Crescas, whose "Light of God" exercised deep influence upon Spinoza and
+his philosophy; the Duran family, particularly Profiat Duran, successful
+defender of Judaism against the attacks of apostates and Christians; and
+Joseph Albo, who in his principal philosophic work, _Ikkarim_, shows
+Judaism to be based upon three fundamental doctrines: the belief in the
+existence of God, Revelation, and the belief in future reward and
+punishment. These writers are the last to reflect the glories of the
+golden age.
+
+At the entrance to the next period we again meet a man of extraordinary
+ability, Isaac Abrabanel, one of the most eminent and esteemed of Bible
+commentators, in early life minister to a Catholic king, later on a
+pilgrim scholar wandering about exiled with his sons, one of whom,
+Yehuda, has fame as the author of the _Dialoghi di Amore_. In the train
+of exiles passing from Portugal to the Orient are Abraham Zacuto, an
+eminent historian of Jewish literature and sometime professor of
+astronomy at the university of Salamanca; Joseph ibn Verga, the
+historian of his nation; Amatus Lusitanus, who came close upon the
+discovery of the circulation of the blood; Israel Nagara, the most
+gifted poet of the century, whose hymns brought him popular favor;
+later, Joseph Karo, "the most influential personage of the sixteenth
+century," his claims upon recognition resting on the _Shulchan Aruch_,
+an exhaustive codex of Jewish customs and laws; and many others. In
+Salonica, the exiles soon formed a prosperous community, where
+flourished Jacob ibn Chabib, the first compiler of the Haggadistic tales
+of the Talmud, and afterwards David Conforte, a reputable historian. In
+Jerusalem, Obadiah Bertinoro was engaged on his celebrated Mishna
+commentary, in the midst of a large circle of Kabbalists, of whom
+Solomon Alkabez is the best known on account of his famous Sabbath song,
+_Lecho Dodi_. Once again Jerusalem was the objective point of many
+pilgrims, lured thither by the prevalent Kabbalistic and Messianic
+vagaries. True literature gained little from such extremists. The only
+work produced by them that can be admitted to have literary qualities is
+Isaiah Hurwitz's "The Two Tables of the Testimony," even at this day
+enjoying celebrity. It is a sort of cyclopaedia of Jewish learning,
+compiled and expounded from a mystic's point of view.
+
+The condition of the Jews in Italy was favorable, and their literary
+products derive grace from their good fortune. The Renaissance had a
+benign effect upon them, and the revival of classical studies influenced
+their intellectual work. Greek thought met Jewish a third time. Learning
+was enjoying its resurrection, and whenever their wretched political
+and social condition was not a hindrance, the Jews joined in the
+general delight. Their misery, however, was an undiminishing burden,
+yea, even in the days in which, according to Erasmus, it was joy to
+live. In fact, it was growing heavier. All the more noteworthy is it
+that Hebrew studies engaged the research of scholars, albeit they showed
+care for the word of God, and not for His people. Pico della Mirandola
+studies the Kabbala; the Jewish grammarian Elias Levita is the teacher
+of Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo, and later of Paul Fagius and Sebastian
+Muenster, the latter translating his teacher's works into Latin; popes
+and sultans prefer Jews as their physicians in ordinary, who, as a rule,
+are men of literary distinction; the Jews translate philosophic writings
+from Hebrew and Arabic into Latin; Elias del Medigo is summoned as
+arbiter in the scholastic conflict at the University of Padua;--all
+boots nothing, ruin is not averted. Reuchlin may protest as he will, the
+Jew is exiled, the Talmud burnt.
+
+In such dreary days the Portuguese Samuel Usque writes his work,
+_Consolacam as Tribulacoes de Ysrael_, and Joseph Cohen, his chronicle,
+"The Vale of Weeping," the most important history produced since the day
+of Flavius Josephus,--additional proofs that the race possesses native
+buoyancy, and undaunted heroism in enduring suffering. Women, too, in
+increasing number, participate in the spiritual work of their nation;
+among them, Deborah Ascarelli and Sara Copia Sullam, the most
+distinguished of a long array of names.
+
+The keen critic and scholar, Azariah de Rossi, is one of the literary
+giants of his period. His researches in the history of Jewish literature
+are the basis upon which subsequent work in this department rests, and
+many of his conclusions still stand unassailable. About him are grouped
+Abraham de Portaleone, an excellent archaeologist, who established that
+Jews had been the first to observe the medicinal uses of gold; David de
+Pomis, the author of a famous defense of Jewish physicians; and Leo de
+Modena, the rabbi of Venice, "unstable as water," wavering between faith
+and unbelief, and, Kabbalist and rabbi though he was, writing works
+against the Kabbala on the one hand, and against rabbinical tradition on
+the other. Similar to him in character is Joseph del Medigo, an
+itinerant author, who sometimes reviles, sometimes extols, the Kabbala.
+
+There are men of higher calibre, as, for instance, Isaac Aboab, whose
+_Nomologia_ undertakes to defend Jewish tradition against every sort of
+assailant; Samuel Aboab, a great Bible scholar; Azariah Figo, a famous
+preacher; and, above all, Moses Chayyim Luzzatto, the first Jewish
+dramatist, the dramas preceding his having interest only as attempts.
+He, too, is caught in the meshes of the Kabbala, and falls a victim to
+its powers of darkness. His dramas testify to poetic gifts and to
+extraordinary mastery of the Hebrew language, the faithful companion of
+the Jewish nation in all its journeyings. To complete this sketch of the
+Italian Jews of that period, it should be added that while in intellect
+and attainments they stand above their brethren in faith of other
+countries, in character and purity of morals they are their inferiors.
+
+Thereafter literary interest centres in Poland, where rabbinical
+literature found its most zealous and most learned exponents. Throughout
+the land schools were established, in which the Talmud was taught by the
+_Pilpul_, an ingenious, quibbling method of Talmudic reasoning and
+discussion, said to have originated with Jacob Pollak. Again we have a
+long succession of distinguished names. There are Solomon Luria, Moses
+Isserles, Joel Sirkes, David ben Levi, Sabbatai Kohen, and Elias Wilna.
+Sabbatai Kohen, from whom, were pride of ancestry permissible in the
+republic of letters, the present writer would boast descent, was not
+only a Talmudic writer; he also left historical and poetical works.
+Elias Wilna, the last in the list, had a subtle, delicately poised mind,
+and deserves special mention for his determined opposition to the
+Kabbala and its offspring Chassidism, hostile and ruinous to Judaism and
+Jewish learning.
+
+A gleam of true pleasure can be obtained from the history of the Dutch
+Jews. In Holland the Jews united secular culture with religious
+devotion, and the professors of other faiths met them with tolerance and
+friendliness. Sunshine falls upon the Jewish schools, and right into the
+heart of a youth, who straightway abandons the Talmud folios, and goes
+out into the world to proclaim to wondering mankind the evangel of a
+new philosophy. The youth is Baruch Spinoza!
+
+There are many left to expound Judaism: Manasseh ben Israel, writing
+both Hebrew and Latin books to plead the cause of the emancipation of
+his people and of its literary pre-eminence; David Neto, a student of
+philosophy; Benjamin Mussafia, Orobio de Castro, David Abenator Melo,
+the Spanish translator of the Psalms, and Daniel de Barrios, poet and
+critic--all using their rapidly acquired fluency in the Dutch language
+to champion the cause of their people.
+
+In Germany, a mixture of German and Hebrew had come into use among the
+Jews as the medium of daily intercourse. In this peculiar patois, called
+_Judendeutsch_, a large literature had developed. Before Luther's time,
+it possessed two fine translations of the Bible, besides numerous
+writings of an ethical, poetical, and historical character, among which
+particular mention should be made of those on the German legend-cycles
+of the middle ages. At the same time, the Talmud receives its due of
+time, effort, and talent. New life comes only with the era of
+emancipation and enlightenment.
+
+Only a few names shall be mentioned, the rest would be bound soon to
+escape the memory of the casual reader: there is an historian, David
+Gans; a bibliographer, Sabbatai Bassista, and the Talmudists Abigedor
+Kara, Jacob Joshua, Jacob Emden, Jonathan Eibeschuetz, and Ezekiel
+Landau. It is delight to be able once again to chronicle the interest
+taken in long neglected Jewish literature by such Christian scholars as
+the two Buxtorfs, Bartolocci, Wolff, Surrenhuys, and De Rossi.
+Unfortunately, the interest dies out with them, and it is significant
+that to this day most eminent theologians, decidedly to their own
+disadvantage, "content themselves with unreliable secondary sources,"
+instead of drinking from the fountain itself.
+
+We have arrived at the sixth and last period, our own, not yet
+completed, whose fruits will be judged by a future generation. It is the
+period of the rejuvenescence of Jewish literature. Changes in character,
+tenor, form, and language take place. Germany for the first time is in
+the van, and Mendelssohn, its most attractive figure, stands at the
+beginning of the period, surrounded by his disciples Wessely, Homberg,
+Euchel, Friedlaender, and others, in conjunction with whom he gives Jews
+a new, pure German Bible translation. Poetry and philology are zealously
+pursued, and soon Jewish science, through its votaries Leopold Zunz and
+S. J. Rappaport, celebrates a brilliant renascence, such as the poet
+describes: "In the distant East the dawn is breaking,--The olden times
+are growing young again."
+
+_Die Gottesdienstlichen Vortraege der Juden_, by Zunz, published in 1832,
+was the pioneer work of the new Jewish science, whose present
+development, despite its wide range, has not yet exhausted the
+suggestions made, by the author. Other equally important works from the
+same pen followed, and then came the researches of Rappaport, Z.
+Frankel, I. M. Jost, M. Sachs, S. D. Luzzatto, S. Munk, A. Geiger, L.
+Herzfeld, H. Graetz, J. Fuerst, L. Dukes, M. Steinschneider, D. Cassel,
+S. Holdheim, and a host of minor investigators and teachers. Their
+loving devotion roused Jewish science and literature from their secular
+sleep to vigorous, intellectual life, reacting beneficently on the
+spiritual development of Judaism itself. The moulders of the new
+literature are such men as the celebrated preachers Adolf Jellinek,
+Salomon, Kley, Mannheimer; the able thinkers Steinheim, Hirsch,
+Krochmal; the illustrious scholars M. Lazarus, H. Steinthal; and the
+versatile journalists G. Riesser and L. Philipson.
+
+Poetry has not been neglected in the general revival. The first Jewish
+poet to write in German was M. E. Kuh, whose tragic fate has been
+pathetically told by Berthold Auerbach in his _Dichter und Kaufmann_.
+The burden of this modern Jewish poetry is, of course, the glorification
+of the loyalty and fortitude that preserved the race during a calamitous
+past. Such poets as Steinheim, Wihl, L. A. Frankl, M. Beer, K. Beck, Th.
+Creizenach, M. Hartmann, S. H. Mosenthal, Henriette Ottenheimer, Moritz
+Rappaport, and L. Stein, sing the songs of Zion in the tongue of the
+German. And can Heine be forgotten, he who in his _Romanzero_ has so
+melodiously, yet so touchingly given word to the hoary sorrow of the
+Jew?
+
+In an essay of this scope no more can be done than give the barest
+outline of the modern movement. A detailed description of the work of
+German-Jewish lyrists belongs to the history of German literature, and,
+in fact, on its pages can be found a due appreciation of their worth by
+unprejudiced critics, who give particularly high praise to the new
+species of tales, the Jewish village, or Ghetto, tales, with which
+Jewish and German literatures have latterly been enriched. Their object
+is to depict the religious customs in vogue among Jews of past
+generations, their home-life, and the conflicts that arose when the old
+Judaism came into contact with modern views of life. The master in the
+art of telling these Ghetto tales is Leopold Kompert. Of his
+disciples--for all coming after him may be considered such--A. Bernstein
+described the Jews of Posen; K. E. Franzos and L. Herzberg-Fraenkel,
+those of Poland; E. Kulke, the Moravian Jews; M. Goldschmied, the Dutch;
+S. H. Mosenthal, the Hessian, and M. Lehmann, the South German. To
+Berthold Auerbach's pioneer work this whole class of literature owes its
+existence; and Heinrich Heine's fragment, _Rabbi von Bacharach_, a model
+of its kind, puts him into this category of writers, too.
+
+And so Judaism and Jewish literature are stepping into a new arena, on
+which potent forces that may radically affect both are struggling with
+each other. Is Jewish poetry on the point of dying out, or is it
+destined to enjoy a resurrection? Who would be rash enough to prophesy
+aught of a race whose entire past is a riddle, whose literature is a
+question-mark? Of a race which for more than a thousand years has, like
+its progenitor, been wrestling victoriously with gods and men?
+
+To recapitulate: We have followed out the course of a literary
+development, beginning in grey antiquity with biblical narratives,
+assimilating Persian doctrines, Greek wisdom, and Roman law; later,
+Arabic poetry and philosophy, and, finally, the whole of European
+science in all its ramifications. The literature we have described has
+contributed its share to every spiritual result achieved by humanity,
+and is a still unexplored treasury of poetry and philosophy, of
+experience and knowledge.
+
+"All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is never full," saith the
+Preacher; so all spiritual currents flow together into the vast ocean of
+a world-literature, never full, never complete, rejoicing in every
+accession, reaching the climax of its might and majesty on that day
+when, according to the prophet, "the earth shall be full of the
+knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
+
+
+
+
+THE TALMUD
+
+
+In the whole range of the world's literatures there are few books with
+so checkered a career, so curious a fate, as the Talmud has had. The
+name is simple enough, it glides glibly from the tongue, yet how
+difficult to explain its import to the uninitiated! From the Dominican
+Henricus Seynensis, who took "Talmud" to be the name of a rabbi--he
+introduces a quotation with _Ut narrat rabbinus Talmud_, "As Rabbi
+Talmud relates"--down to the church historians and university professors
+of our day, the oddest misconceptions on the nature of the Talmud have
+prevailed even among learned men. It is not astonishing, then, that the
+general reader has no notion of what it is.
+
+Only within recent years the Talmud has been made the subject of
+scientific study, and now it is consulted by philologists, cited by
+jurists, drawn upon by historians, the general public is beginning to be
+interested in it, and of late the old Talmud has repeatedly been
+summoned to appear in courts of law to give evidence. Under these
+circumstances it is natural to ask, What is the Talmud? Futile to seek
+an answer by comparing this gigantic monument of the human intellect
+with any other book; it is _sui generis_. In the form in which it issued
+from the Jewish academies of Babylonia and Palestine, it is a great
+national work, a scientific document of first importance, the archives
+of ten centuries, in which are preserved the thoughts and opinions, the
+views and verdicts, the errors, transgressions, hopes, disappointments,
+customs, ideals, convictions, and sorrows of Israel--a work produced by
+the zeal and patience of thirty generations, laboring with a self-denial
+unparalleled in the history of literature. A work of this character
+assuredly deserves to be known. Unfortunately, the path to its
+understanding is blocked by peculiar linguistic and historical
+difficulties. Above all, explanations by comparison must be avoided. It
+has been likened to a legal code, to a journal, to the transactions of
+learned bodies; but these comparisons are both inadequate and
+misleading. To make it approximately clear a lengthy explanation must be
+entered upon, for, in truth, the Talmud, like the Bible, is a world in
+miniature, embracing every possible phase of life.
+
+The origin of the Talmud was simultaneous with Israel's return from the
+Babylonian exile, during which a wonderful change had taken place in the
+captive people. An idolatrous, rebellious nation had turned into a pious
+congregation of the Lord, possessed with zeal for the study of the Law.
+By degrees there grew up out of this study a science of wide scope,
+whose beginnings are hidden in the last book of the Bible, in the word
+_Midrash_, translated by "story" in the Authorized Version. Its true
+meaning is indicated by that of its root, _darash_, to study, to
+expound. Four different methods of explaining the sacred Scriptures were
+current: the first aimed to reach the simple understanding of words as
+they stood; the second availed itself of suggestions offered by
+apparently superfluous letters and signs in the text to arrive at its
+meaning; the third was "a homiletic application of that which had been
+to that which was and would be, of prophetical and historical dicta to
+the actual condition of things"; and the fourth devoted itself to
+theosophic mysteries--but all led to a common goal.
+
+In the course of the centuries the development of the Midrash, or study
+of the Law, lay along the two strongly marked lines of Halacha, the
+explanation and formulating of laws, and Haggada, their poetical
+illustration and ethical application. These are the two spheres within
+which the intellectual life of Judaism revolved, and these the two
+elements, the legal and the aesthetic, making up the Talmud.
+
+The two Midrashic systems emphasize respectively the rule of law and the
+sway of liberty: Halacha is law incarnate; Haggada, liberty regulated by
+law and bearing the impress of morality. Halacha stands for the rigid
+authority of the Law, for the absolute importance of theory--the law and
+theory which the Haggada illustrates by public opinion and the dicta of
+common-sense morality. The Halacha embraces the statutes enjoined by
+oral tradition, which was the unwritten commentary of the ages on the
+written Law, along with the discussions of the academies of Palestine
+and Babylonia, resulting in the final formulating of the Halachic
+ordinances. The Haggada, while also starting from the word of the Bible,
+only plays with it, explaining it by sagas and legends, by tales and
+poems, allegories, ethical reflections, and historical reminiscences.
+For it, the Bible was not only the supreme law, from whose behests there
+was no appeal, but also "a golden nail upon which" the Haggada "hung its
+gorgeous tapestries," so that the Bible word was the introduction,
+refrain, text, and subject of the poetical glosses of the Talmud. It was
+the province of the Halacha to build, upon the foundation of biblical
+law, a legal superstructure capable of resisting the ravages of time,
+and, unmindful of contemporaneous distress and hardship, to trace out,
+for future generations, the extreme logical consequences of the Law in
+its application. To the Haggada belonged the high, ethical mission of
+consoling, edifying, exhorting, and teaching a nation suffering the
+pangs, and threatened with the spiritual stagnation, of exile; of
+proclaiming that the glories of the past prefigured a future of equal
+brilliancy, and that the very wretchedness of the present was part of
+the divine plan outlined in the Bible. If the simile is accurate that
+likens the Halacha to the ramparts about Israel's sanctuary, which every
+Jew was ready to defend with his last drop of blood, then the Haggada
+must seem "flowery mazes, of exotic colors and bewildering fragrance,"
+within the shelter of the Temple walls.
+
+The complete work of expounding, developing, and finally establishing
+the Law represents the labor of many generations, the method of
+procedure varying from time to time. In the long interval between the
+close of the Holy Canon and the completion of the Talmud can be
+distinguished three historical strata deposited by three different
+classes of teachers. The first set, the Scribes--_Soferim_--flourished
+in the period beginning with the return from Babylonian captivity and
+ending with the Syrian persecutions (220 B.C.E.), and their work was the
+preservation of the text of the Holy Writings and the simple expounding
+of biblical ordinances. They were followed by the
+"Learners"--_Tanaim_--whose activity extended until 220 C.E. Great
+historical events occurred in that period: the campaigns of the
+Maccabean heroes, the birth of Jesus, the destruction of the Temple by
+the Romans, the rebellion under Bar-Kochba, and the final complete
+dispersion of the Jews. Amid all these storms the _Tanaim_ did not for a
+moment relinquish their diligent research in the Law. The Talmud tells
+the story of a celebrated rabbi, than which nothing can better
+characterize the age and its scholars: Night was falling. A funeral
+cortege was moving through the streets of old Jerusalem. It was said
+that disciples were bearing a well-beloved teacher to the grave.
+Reverentially the way was cleared, not even the Roman guard at the gate
+hindered the procession. Beyond the city walls it halted, the bier was
+set down, the lid of the coffin opened, and out of it arose the
+venerable form of Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai, who, to reach the Roman
+camp unmolested, had feigned death. He went before Vespasian, and,
+impressed by the noble figure of the hoary rabbi, the general promised
+him the fulfilment of any wish he might express. What was his petition?
+Not for his nation, not for the preservation of the Holy City, not even
+for the Temple. His request was simple: "Permit me to open a school at
+Jabneh." The proud Roman smilingly gave consent. He had no conception of
+the significance of this prayer and of the prophetic wisdom of the
+petitioner, who, standing on the ruins of his nation's independence,
+thought only of rescuing the Law. Rome, the empire of the "iron legs,"
+was doomed to be crushed, nation after nation to be swallowed in the
+vortex of time, but Israel lives by the Law, the very law snatched from
+the smouldering ruins of Jerusalem, the beloved alike of crazy zealots
+and despairing peace advocates, and carried to the tiny seaport of
+Jabneh. There Jochanan ben Zakkai opened his academy, the gathering
+place of the dispersed of his disciples and his people, and thence,
+gifted with a prophet's keen vision, he proclaimed Israel's mission to
+be, not the offering of sacrifices, but the accomplishment of works of
+peace.[14]
+
+The _Tanaim_ may be considered the most original expounders of the
+science of Judaism, which they fostered at their academies. In the
+course of centuries their intellectual labor amassed an abundant store
+of scientific material, together with so vast a number of injunctions,
+prohibitions, and laws that it became almost impossible to master the
+subject. The task of scholars now was to arrange the accumulation of
+material and reduce it to a system. Rabbi after rabbi undertook the
+task, but only the fourth attempt at codification, that made by Yehuda
+the Prince, was successful. His compilation, classifying the
+subject-matter under six heads, subdivided into sixty-three tractates,
+containing five hundred and twenty-four chapters, was called Mishna, and
+came to be the authority appealed to on points of law.
+
+Having assumed fixity as a code, the Mishna in turn became what the
+Bible had been for centuries--a text, the basis of all legal development
+and scientific discussion. So it was used by the epigones, the
+_Amoraim_, or Speakers, the expounders of the third period. For
+generations commenting on the Mishna was the sum-total of literary
+endeavor. Traditions unheeded before sprang to light. New methods
+asserted themselves. To the older generation of Halachists succeeded a
+set of men headed by Akiba ben Joseph, who, ignoring practical issues,
+evolved laws from the Bible text or from traditions held to be divine. A
+spiritual, truly religious conception of Judaism was supplanted by legal
+quibbling and subtle methods of interpretation. Like the sophists of
+Rome and Alexandria at that time, the most celebrated teachers in the
+academies of Babylonia and Palestine for centuries gave themselves up to
+casuistry. This is the history of the development of the Talmud, or more
+correctly of the two Talmuds, the one, finished in 390 C. E., being the
+expression of what was taught at the Palestinian academies; the other,
+more important one, completed in 500 C. E., of what was taught in
+Babylonia.
+
+The Babylonian, the one regarded as authoritative, is about four times
+as large as the Jerusalem Talmud. Its thirty-six treatises
+(_Massichtoth_), in our present edition, cover upwards of three thousand
+folio pages, bound in twelve huge volumes. To speak of a completed
+Talmud is as incorrect as to speak of a biblical canon. No religious
+body, no solemn resolution of a synod, ever declared either the Talmud
+or the Bible a completed whole. Canonizing of any kind is distinctly
+opposed to the spirit of Judaism. The fact is that the tide of
+traditional lore has never ceased to flow.
+
+We now have before us a faint outline sketch of the growth of the
+Talmud. To portray the busy world fitting into this frame is another and
+more difficult matter. A catalogue of its contents may be made. It may
+be said that it is a book containing laws and discussions, philosophic,
+theologic, and juridic dicta, historical notes and national
+reminiscences, injunctions and prohibitions controlling all the
+positions and relations of life, curious, quaint tales, ideal maxims and
+proverbs, uplifting legends, charming lyrical outbursts, and attractive
+enigmas side by side with misanthropic utterances, bewildering medical
+prescriptions, superstitious practices, expressions of deep agony,
+peculiar astrological charms, and rambling digressions on law,
+zoology, and botany, and when all this has been said, not half its
+contents have been told. It is a luxuriant jungle, which must be
+explored by him who would gain an adequate idea of its features and
+products.
+
+The Ghemara, that is, the whole body of discussions recorded in the two
+Talmuds, primarily forms a running commentary on the text of the Mishna.
+At the same time, it is the arena for the debating and investigating of
+subjects growing out of the Mishna, or suggested by a literature
+developed along with the Talmudic literature. These discussions,
+debates, and investigations are the opinions and arguments of the
+different schools, holding opposite views, developed with rare acumen
+and scholastic subtlety, and finally harmonized in the solution reached.
+The one firm and impregnable rock supporting the gigantic structure of
+the Talmud is the word of the Bible, held sacred and inviolable.
+
+The best translations--single treatises have been put into modern
+languages--fail to convey an adequate idea of the discussions and method
+that evolved the Halacha. It is easier to give an approximately true
+presentation of the rabbinical system of practical morality as gleaned
+from the Haggada. It must, of course, be borne in mind that Halacha and
+Haggada are not separate works; they are two fibres of the same thread.
+"The whole of the Haggadistic literature--the hitherto unappreciated
+archives of language, history, archaeology, religion, poetry, and
+science--with but slight reservations may be called a national
+literature, containing as it does the aggregate of the views and
+opinions of thousands of thinkers belonging to widely separated
+generations. Largely, of course, these views and opinions are peculiar
+to the individuals holding them or to their time"; still, every
+Haggadistic expression, in a general way, illustrates some fundamental,
+national law, based upon the national religion and the national
+history.[15] Through the Haggada we are vouchsafed a glance into a
+mysterious world, which mayhap has hitherto repelled us as strange and
+grewsome. Its poesy reveals vistas of gleaming beauty and light,
+luxuriant growth and exuberant life, while familiar melodies caress our
+ears.
+
+The Haggada conveys its poetic message in the garb of allegory song, and
+chiefly epigrammatic saying. Form is disregarded; the spirit is
+all-important, and suffices to cover up every fault of form. The Talmud,
+of course, does not yield a complete system of ethics, but its practical
+philosophy consists of doctrines that underlie a moral life. The
+injustice of the abuse heaped upon it would become apparent to its
+harshest critics from a few of its maxims and rules of conduct, such as
+the following: Be of them that are persecuted, not of the
+persecutors.--Be the cursed, not he that curses.--They that are
+persecuted, and do not persecute, that are vilified and do not retort,
+that act in love, and are cheerful even in suffering, they are the
+lovers of God.--Bless God for the good as well as the evil. When thou
+hearest of a death, say, "Blessed be the righteous Judge."--Life is like
+unto a fleeting shadow. Is it the shadow of a tower or of a bird? It is
+the shadow of a bird in its flight. Away flies the bird, and neither
+bird nor shadow remains behind.--Repentance and good works are the aim
+of all earthly wisdom.--Even the just will not have so high a place in
+heaven as the truly repentant.--He whose learning surpasses his good
+works is like a tree with many branches and few roots, which a
+wind-storm uproots and casts to the ground. But he whose good works
+surpass his learning is like a tree with few branches and many roots;
+all the winds of heaven cannot move it from its place.--There are three
+crowns: the crown of the Law, the crown of the priesthood, the crown of
+kingship. But greater than all is the crown of a good name.--Four there
+are that cannot enter Paradise: the scoffer, the liar, the hypocrite,
+and the backbiter.--Beat the gods, and the priests will
+tremble.--Contrition is better than many flagellations.--When the
+pitcher falls upon the stone, woe unto the pitcher; when the stone falls
+upon the pitcher, woe unto the pitcher; whatever betides, woe unto the
+pitcher.--The place does not honor the man, the man honors the
+place.--He who humbles himself will be exalted; he who exalts himself
+will be humbled,--Whosoever pursues greatness, from him will greatness
+flee; whosoever flees from greatness, him will greatness
+pursue.--Charity is as important as all other virtues combined.--Be
+tender and yielding like a reed, not hard and proud like a cedar.--The
+hypocrite will not see God.--It is not sufficient to be innocent before
+God; we must show our innocence to the world.--The works encouraged by a
+good man are better than those he executes.--Woe unto him that practices
+usury, he shall not live; whithersoever he goes, he carries injustice
+and death.
+
+The same Talmud that fills chapter after chapter with minute legal
+details and hairsplitting debates outlines with a few strokes the most
+ideal conception of life, worth more than theories and systems of
+religious philosophy. A Haggada passage says: Six hundred and thirteen
+injunctions were given by Moses to the people of Israel. David reduced
+them to eleven; the prophet Isaiah classified these under six heads;
+Micah enumerated only three: "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to
+do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." Another
+prophet limited them to two: "Keep ye judgment, and do righteousness."
+Amos put all the commandments under one: "Seek ye me, and ye shall
+live"; and Habakkuk said: "The just shall live by his faith."--This is
+the ethics of the Talmud.
+
+Another characteristic manifestation of the idealism of the Talmud is
+its delicate feeling for women and children. Almost extravagant
+affection is displayed for the little ones. All the verses of Scripture
+that speak of flowers and gardens are applied in the Talmud to children
+and schools. Their breath sustains the moral order of the universe: "Out
+of the mouth of babes and sucklings has God founded His might." They are
+called flowers, stars, the anointed of God. When God was about to give
+the Law, He demanded of the Israelites pledges to assure Him that they
+would keep His commandments holy. They offered the patriarchs, but each
+one of them had committed some sin. They named Moses as their surety;
+not even he was guiltless. Then they said: "Let our children be our
+hostages." The Lord accepted them.
+
+Similarly, there are many expressions to show that woman was held in
+high esteem by the rabbis of the Talmud: Love thy wife as thyself; honor
+her more than thyself.--In choosing a wife, descend a step.--If thy wife
+is small, bend and whisper into her ear.--God's altar weeps for him that
+forsakes the love of his youth.--He who sees his wife die before him
+has, as it were, been present at the destruction of the sanctuary
+itself; around him the world grows dark.--It is woman alone through whom
+God's blessings are vouchsafed to a house.--The children of him that
+marries for money shall be a curse unto him,--a warning singularly
+applicable to the circumstances of our own times.
+
+The peculiar charm of the Haggada is best revealed in its legends and
+tales, its fables and myths, its apologues and allegories, its riddles
+and songs. The starting-point of the Haggada usually is some memory of
+the great past. It entwines and enmeshes in a magic network the lives of
+the patriarchs, prophets, and martyrs, and clothes with fresh, luxuriant
+green the old ideals and figures, giving them new life for a remote
+generation. The teachers of the Haggada allow no opportunity, sad or
+merry, to pass without utilizing it in the guise of an apologue or
+parable. Alike for wedding-feasts and funerals, for banquets and days of
+fasting, the garden of the Haggada is rifled of its fragrant blossoms
+and luscious fruits. Simplicity, grace, and childlike merriment pervade
+its fables, yet they are profound, even sublime, in their truth. "Their
+chief and enduring charm is their fathomless depth, their unassuming
+loveliness." Poems constructed with great artistic skill do not occur.
+Here and there a modest bud of lyric poesy shyly raises its head, like
+the following couplet, describing a celebrated but ill-favored rabbi:
+
+    "Without charm of form and face.
+    But a mind of rarest grace."
+
+Over the grave of the same teacher the Talmud wails:
+
+    "The Holy Land did beautify what womb of Shinar gave;
+    And now Tiberias' tear-filled eye weeps o'er her treasure's grave."
+
+On seeing the dead body of the Patriarch Yehuda, a rabbi laments:
+
+    "Angels strove to win the testimony's ark.
+    Men they overcame; lo! vanished is the ark!"
+
+Another threnody over some prince in the realm of the intellect:
+
+    "The cedar hath by flames been seized;
+    Can hyssop then be saved?
+    Leviathan with hook was caught;
+    Alas! ye little fish!
+    The deep and mighty stream ran dry,
+    Ah woe! ye shallow brooks!"
+
+Nor is humor lacking. "Ah, hamper great, with books well-filled, thou'rt
+gone!" is a bookworm's eulogy.
+
+Poets naturally have not been slow to avail themselves of the material
+stored in the Haggada. Many of its treasures, tricked out in modern
+verse, have been given to the world. The following are samples:[16]
+
+    BIRTH AND DEATH
+
+    "His hands fast clenched, his fingers firmly clasped,
+    So man this life begins.
+    He claims earth's wealth, and constitutes himself
+    The heir of all her gifts.
+    He thinks his hand may snatch and hold
+    Whatever life doth yield.
+
+    But when at last the end has come,
+    His hands are open wide,
+    No longer closed. He knoweth now full well,
+    That vain were all his hopes.
+    He humbly says, 'I go, and nothing take
+    Of all my hands have wrought.'"
+
+The next, "Interest and Usury," may serve to give the pertinacious
+opponent of the Talmud a better opinion of its position on financial
+subjects:
+
+    "Behold! created things of every kind
+      Lend each to each. The day from night doth take,
+      And night from day; nor do they quarrel make
+    Like men, who doubting one another's mind,
+    E'en while they utter friendly words, think ill.
+      The moon delighted helps the starry host,
+      And each returns her gift without a boast.
+    'Tis only when the Lord supreme doth will
+    That earth in gloom shall be enwrapped,
+      He tells the moon: 'Refrain, keep back thy light!'
+      And quenches, too, the myriad lamps of night.
+    From wisdom's fount hath knowledge ofttimes lapped,
+    While wisdom humbly doth from knowledge learn.
+      The skies drop blessings on the grateful earth,
+      And she--of precious store there is no dearth--
+    Exhales and sends aloft a fair return.
+    Stern law with mercy tempers its decree,
+      And mercy acts with strength by justice lent.
+      Good deeds are based on creed from heaven sent,
+    In which, in turn, the sap of deeds must be.
+      Each creature borrows, lends, and gives with love,
+      Nor e'er disputes, to honor God above.
+
+    When man, howe'er, his fellowman hath fed,
+      Then 'spite the law forbidding interest,
+      He thinketh naught but cursed gain to wrest.
+    Who taketh usury methinks hath said:
+    'O Lord, in beauty has Thy earth been wrought!
+      But why should men for naught enjoy its plains?
+      Ask usance, since 'tis Thou that sendest rains.
+    Have they the trees, their fruits, and blossoms bought?
+    For all they here enjoy, Thy int'rest claim:
+      For heaven's orbs that shine by day and night,
+      Th' immortal soul enkindled by Thy light,
+    And for the wondrous structure of their frame.'
+    But God replies: 'Now come, and see! I give
+      With open, bounteous hand, yet nothing take;
+      The earth yields wealth, nor must return ye make.
+    But know, O men, that only while ye live,
+    You may enjoy these gifts of my award.
+      The capital's mine, and surely I'll demand
+      The spirit in you planted by my hand,
+    And also earth will claim her due reward.'
+      Man's dust to dust is gathered in the grave,
+      His soul returns to God who gracious gave."
+
+R. Yehuda ben Zakkai answers his pupils who ask:
+
+    "Why doth the Law with them more harshly deal
+      That filch a lamb from fold away,
+    Than with the highwaymen who shameless steal
+      Thy purse by force in open day?"
+
+    "Because in like esteem the brigands hold
+      The master and his serving man.
+    Their wickedness is open, frank, and bold,
+      They fear not God, nor human ban.
+
+    The thief feels more respect for earthly law
+      Than for his heav'nly Master's eye,
+    Man's presence flees in fear and awe,
+      Forgets he's seen by God on high."
+
+That is a glimpse of the world of the Haggada--a wonderful, fantastic
+world, a kaleidoscopic panorama of enchanting views. "Well can we
+understand the distress of mind in a mediaeval divine, or even in a
+modern _savant_, who, bent upon following the most subtle windings of
+some scientific debate in the Talmudical pages--geometrical, botanical,
+financial, or otherwise--as it revolves round the Sabbath journey, the
+raising of seeds, the computation of tithes and taxes--feels, as it
+were, the ground suddenly give way. The loud voices grow thin, the doors
+and walls of the school-room vanish before his eyes, and in their place
+uprises Rome the Great, the _Urbs et Orbis_ and her million-voiced life.
+Or the blooming vineyards round that other City of Hills, Jerusalem the
+Golden herself, are seen, and white-clad virgins move dreamily among
+them. Snatches of their songs are heard, the rhythm of their choric
+dances rises and falls: it is the most dread Day of Atonement itself,
+which, in poetical contrast, was chosen by the 'Rose of Sharon' as a day
+of rejoicing to walk among those waving lily-fields and vine-clad
+slopes. Or the clarion of rebellion rings high and shrill through the
+complicated debate, and Belshazzar, the story of whose ghastly banquet
+is told with all the additions of maddening horror, is doing service for
+Nero the bloody; or Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian tyrant, and all his
+hosts, are cursed with a yelling curse--_a propos_ of some utterly
+inappropriate legal point, while to the initiated he stands for Titus
+the--at last exploded--'Delight of Humanity.' ... Often--far too often
+for the interests of study and the glory of the human race--does the
+steady tramp of the Roman cohort, the password of the revolution, the
+shriek and clangor of the bloody field, interrupt these debates, and
+the arguing masters and disciples don their arms, and, with the cry,
+'Jerusalem and Liberty,' rush to the fray."[17] Such is the world of the
+Talmud.
+
+
+
+
+THE JEW IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION[18]
+
+
+In the childhood of civilization, the digging of wells was regarded as
+beneficent work. Guide-posts, visible from afar, marked their position,
+and hymns were composed, and solemn feasts celebrated, in honor of the
+event. One of the choicest bits of early Hebrew poetry is a song of the
+well. The soul, in grateful joy, jubilantly calls to her mates: "Arise!
+sing a song unto the well! Well, which the princes have dug, which the
+nobles of the people have hollowed out."[19] This house, too, is a
+guide-post to a newly-found well of humanity and culture, a monument to
+our faithfulness and zeal in the recognition and the diffusion of truth.
+A scene like this brings to my mind the psalmist's beautiful words:[20]
+"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
+in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down
+upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his
+garment; as the dew of Hermon, running down upon the mountains of Zion;
+for there hath the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for
+evermore."
+
+Wondrous thoughts veiled with wondrous imagery! The underlying meaning
+will lead us to our feast of the well, our celebration in honor of
+newly-discovered waters. Our order is based upon the conviction that all
+men should be banded together for purposes of humanity. But what is
+humanity? Not philanthropy, not benevolence, not charity: it is "human
+culture risen to the stage on which man is conscious of universal
+brotherhood, and strives for the realization of the general good." In
+early times, leaders of men were anointed with oil, symbol of wisdom and
+divine inspiration. Above all it was meet that it be used in the
+consecration of priests, the exponents of the divine spirit and the Law.
+The psalmist's idea is, that as the precious ointment in its abundance
+runs down Aaron's beard to the hem of his garment, even so shall wisdom
+and the divine spirit overflow the lips of priests, the guides, friends,
+and teachers of the people, the promoters of the law of peace and love.
+
+"As the dew of Hermon, running down upon the mountains of Zion!" High
+above all mountains towers Hermon, its crest enveloped by clouds and
+covered with eternal snow. From that supernal peak grateful dew trickles
+down, fructifying the land once "flowing with milk and honey." From its
+clefts gushes forth Jordan, mightiest stream of the land, watering a
+broad plain in its course. In this guise the Lord has granted His
+blessing to the land, the blessing of civilization and material
+prosperity, from which spring as corollaries the duties of charity and
+universal humanity.
+
+A picture of the olden time this, a lodge-address of the days of the
+psalm singers. Days flee, time abides; men pass away, mankind endures.
+Filled with time-honored thoughts, inspired by the hopes of by-gone
+generations, striving for the goal of noble men in all ages, like the
+psalm singers in the days of early culture, we celebrate a feast of the
+well by reviewing the past and looking forward down the avenues of time.
+
+Less than fifty years ago a band of energetic, loyal Jews, on the other
+side of the Atlantic, founded our beloved Order. Now it has established
+itself in every part of the world, from the extreme western coast of
+America to the blessed meadows of the Jordan; yea, even the Holy Land,
+unfurling everywhere the banner of charity, brotherly love, and unity,
+and seeking to spread education and culture, the forerunners of
+humanity. Judaism, mark you, is the religion of humanity. By far too
+late for our good and that of mankind, we began to proclaim this truth
+with becoming energy and emphasis, and to demonstrate it with the
+joyousness of conviction. The question is, are we permeated with this
+conviction? Our knowledge of Judaism is slight; we have barely a
+suspicion of what in the course of centuries, nay, of thousands of
+years, it has done for the progress of civilization. In my estimation,
+our house-warming cannot more fittingly be celebrated than by taking a
+bird's-eye view of Jewish culture.
+
+The Bible is the text-book of general literature. Out of the Bible, more
+particularly from the Ten Commandments, flashed from Sinai, mankind
+learned its first ethical lesson in a system which still satisfies its
+needs. To convey even a faint idea of what the Bible has done for
+civilization, morality, and the literature of every people--of the
+innumerable texts it has furnished to poets, and subjects to
+painters--would in itself require a literature.
+
+The conflicts with surrounding nations to which they were exposed made
+the Jews concentrate their forces, and so enabled them to wage
+successful war with nations mightier than themselves. Their heroism
+under the Maccabees and under Bar-Kochba, in the middle ages and in
+modern days, permits them to take rank among the most valiant in
+history. A historian of literature, a non-Jew, enumerates three factors
+constituting Jews important agents in the preservation and revival of
+learning:[21] First, their ability as traders. The Phoenicians are
+regarded as the oldest commercial nation, but the Jews contested the
+palm with them. Zebulon and Asher in very early times were seafaring
+tribes. Under Solomon, Israelitish vessels sailed as far as Ophir to
+bring Afric's gold to Jerusalem. Before the destruction of the Holy
+City, Jewish communities established themselves on the westernmost coast
+of Europe. "The whole of the known world was covered with their
+settlements, in constant communication with one another through
+itinerant merchants, who effected an exchange of learning as well as of
+wares; while the other nations grew more and more isolated, and shut
+themselves off from even the sparse opportunities of mental culture then
+available."
+
+The second factor conducing to mental advancement was the schools which
+have flourished in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; and the
+third was the linguistic attainments of the Jews, which they owed to
+natural ability in this direction. Scarcely had Greek allied itself with
+Hebrew thought, when Jews in Alexandria wrote Greek comparable with
+Plato's, and not more than two hundred years after the settlement of
+Jews in Arabia we meet with a large number of Jewish poets among
+Mohammed's disciples, while in the middle ages they taught and wrote
+Arabic, Spanish, French, and German--versatility naturally favorable to
+intellectual progress.
+
+Jewish influence may be said to have begun to exercise itself upon
+general culture when Judaism and Hellenism met for the first time. The
+result of the meeting was the new product, Judaeo-Hellenic literature.
+Greek civilization was attractive to Jews. The new ideas were
+popularized for all strata of the people to imbibe. Shortly before the
+old pagan world crumbled, Hellenism enjoyed a beautiful, unexpected
+revival in Alexandria. There, strange to say, Judaism, in its home
+antagonistic to Hellenism, had filled and allied itself with the Greek
+spirit. Its literature gradually adopted Greek traditions, and the ripe
+fruit of the union was the Jewish-Alexandrian religious philosophy, the
+mediation between two sharply contradictory systems, for the first time
+brought into close juxtaposition, and requiring some such new element to
+harmonize them. When ancient civilization in Judaea and in Hellas fell
+into decay, human endeavor was charged with the task of reconciling
+these two great historical forces diametrically opposed to each other,
+and the first attempt looking to this end was inspired by a Jewish
+genius, Jesus of Nazareth.
+
+The Jews of Alexandria were engaged in widespread trade and shipping,
+and they counted among them artists, poets, civil officers, and
+mechanics. They naturally acquired Greek customs, and along with them
+Hellenic vices. The bacchanalia of Athens were enthusiastically imitated
+in Jerusalem, and, as a matter of course, in Alexandria. This point
+reached, Roman civilization asserted itself, and the people sought to
+affiliate with their Roman victors, while the rabbis devoted themselves
+to the Law, not, however, to the exclusion of scientific work. In the
+ranks of physicians and astronomers we find Jewish masters and Jewish
+disciples. Medicine has always been held in high esteem by Jews, and
+Samuel could justly boast before his contemporaries that the intricate
+courses of the stars were as well known to him as the streets of
+Nehardea in Babylonia.[22]
+
+The treasures of information on pedagogics, medicine, jurisprudence,
+astronomy, geography, zoology, botany, and last, though not least, on
+general history, buried in the Talmud, have hitherto not been valued at
+their true worth. The rabbis of the Talmud stood in the front ranks of
+culture. They compiled a calendar, in complete accord with the Metonic
+cycle, which modern science must declare faultless. Their classification
+of the bones of the human body varies but little from present results of
+the science of anatomy, and the Talmud demonstrates that certain Mishna
+ordinances are based upon geometrical propositions, which could have
+been known to but few mathematicians of that time. Rabbi Gamaliel, said
+to have made use of a telescope, was celebrated as a mathematician and
+astronomer, and in 289 C. E., Rabbi Joshua is reported to have
+calculated the orbit of Halley's comet.
+
+The Roman conquest of Palestine effected a change in the condition of
+the Jews. Never before had Judah undergone such torture and suffering as
+under the sceptre of Rome. The misery became unendurable, and internal
+disorders being added to foreign oppression, the luckless insurrection
+broke out which gave the deathblow to Jewish nationality, and drove
+Judah into exile. On his thorny martyr's path he took naught with him
+but a book--his code, his law. Yet how prodigal his contributions to
+mankind's fund of culture!
+
+About five hundred years later Judah saw springing up on his own soil a
+new religion which appropriated the best and the most beautiful of his
+spiritual possessions. Swiftly rose the vast political and intellectual
+structure of Mohammedan power, and as before with Greek, so Jewish
+thought now allied itself with Arabic endeavor, bringing forth in Spain
+the golden age of neo-Hebraic literature in the spheres of poetry,
+metaphysical speculation, and every department of scientific research.
+It is not an exaggerated estimate to say that the middle ages sustained
+themselves with the fruit of this intellectual labor, which, moreover,
+has come down as a legacy to our modern era. Two hundred years after
+Mohammed, the same language, Arabic, was spoken by the Jews of Kairwan
+and those of Bagdad. Thus equipped, they performed in a remarkable way
+the task allotted them by their talents and their circumstances, to
+which they had been devoting themselves with singular zeal for two
+centuries. The Jews are missioned mediators between the Orient and the
+Occident, and their activity as such, illustrated by their additions to
+general culture and science, is of peculiar interest. In the period
+under consideration, their linguistic accomplishments fitted them to
+assist the Syrians in making Greek literature accessible to the Arabic
+mind. In Arabic literature itself, they attained to a prominent place.
+Modern research has not yet succeeded in shedding light upon the
+development and spread of science among the Arabs under the tutelage of
+Syrian Christians. But out of the obscurity of Greek-Arabic culture
+beginnings gleam Jewish names, whose possessors were the teachers of
+eager Arabic disciples. Barely fifty years after the hosts of the
+Prophet had conquered the Holy Land, a Jew of Bassora translated from
+Syriac into Arabic the pandects by the presbyter Aaron, a famous medical
+work of the middle ages. In the annals of the next century, among the
+early contributors to Arabic literature, we meet with the names of Jews
+as translators of medical, mathematical, and astronomical works, and as
+grammarians, astronomers, scientists, and physicians. A Jew translated
+Ptolemy's "Almagest"; another assisted in the first translation of the
+Indian fox fables (_Kalila we-Dimna_); the first furnishing the middle
+ages with the basis of their astronomical science, the second supplying
+European poets with literary material. Through the instrumentality of
+Jews, Arabs became acquainted as early as the eighth century, some time
+before the learning of the Greeks was brought within their reach, with
+Indian medicine, astronomy, and poetry. Greek science itself they owed
+to Jewish mediation. Not only among Jews, but also among Greeks,
+Syrians, and Arabs, Jewish versatility gave currency to the belief that
+"all wisdom is of the Jews," a view often repeated by Hellenists, by the
+"Righteous Brethren" among the Arabs, and later by the Christian monks
+of Europe.
+
+The academies of the Jews have always been pervaded by a scientific
+spirit. As they influenced others, so they permitted the science and
+culture of their neighbors to act upon their life and work. There is no
+doubt, for instance, that, despite the marked difference between the
+subjects treated by Arabs and Jews, the peculiar qualities of the old
+Arabic lyrics shaped neo-Hebraic poetry. Again, as the Hebrew acrostic
+psalms demonstrably served as models to the older Syrian Church poets,
+so, in turn, Syriac psalmody probably became the pattern synagogue
+poetry followed. Thus Hebrew poetry completed a circuit, which, to be
+sure, cannot accurately be followed up through its historical stages,
+but which critical investigations and the comparative study of
+literatures have established almost as a certainty.
+
+In the ninth century a bold, venturesome traveller, Eldad ha-Dani,[23] a
+sort of Jewish Ulysses, appeared among Jews, and at the same time
+Judaism produced Sa'adia, its first great religious philosopher and
+Bible translator. The Church Fathers had always looked up to the rabbis
+as authorities; henceforth Jews were accepted by all scholars as the
+teachers of Bible exegesis. Sa'adia was the first of the rabbis to
+translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Arabic. Justly his work is said to
+"recognize the current of thought dominant in his time, and to express
+the newly-awakened desire for the reconciliation of religious practice,
+as developed in the course of generations, with the source of religious
+inspiration." Besides, he was the first to elaborate a system of
+religious philosophy according to a rigid plan, and in a strictly
+scientific spirit.[24] Knowing Greek speculations, he controverts them
+as vigorously as the _Kalam_ of Islam philosophy. His teachings form a
+system of practical ethics, luminous reflections, and sound maxims.
+Among his contemporaries was Isaac Israeli, a physician at Kairwan,
+whose works, in their Latin translation by the monk Constantine,
+attained great reputation, and were later plagiarized by medical
+writers. His treatise on fever was esteemed of high worth, a translation
+of it being studied as a text-book for centuries, and his dietetic
+writings remained authoritative for five hundred years. In general, the
+medical science of the Arabs is under great obligations to him.
+Reverence for Jewish medical ability was so exaggerated in those days
+that Galen was identified with the Jewish sage Gamaliel. The error was
+fostered in the _Sefer Asaf_, a curious medical fragment of uncertain
+authorship and origin, by its rehearsal of an old Midrash, which traces
+the origin of medicine to Shem, son of Noah, who received it from
+angels, and transmitted it to the ancient Chaldeans, they in turn
+passing it on to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Arabs.
+
+Though the birth of medicine is not likely to have taken place among
+Jews, it is indisputable that physicians of the Jewish race are largely
+to be credited with the development of medical science at every period.
+At the time we speak of, Jews in Egypt, northern Africa, Italy, Spain,
+France, and Germany were physicians in ordinary to caliphs, emperors,
+and popes, and everywhere they are represented among medical writers.
+The position occupied in the Arabian world by Israeli, in the Occident
+was occupied by Sabattai Donnolo, one of the Salerno school in its early
+obscure days, the author of a work on _Materia medica_, possibly the
+oldest original production on medicine in the Hebrew language.
+
+The period of Jewish prosperity in Spain has been called a fairy vision
+of history. The culture developed under its genial influences pervaded
+the middle ages, and projected suggestions even into our modern era. One
+of the most renowned _savants_ at the beginning of the period was the
+statesman Chasdai ben Shaprut, whose translation of Dioscorides's "Plant
+Lore" served as the botanical textbook of mediaeval Europe. The first
+poet was Solomon ibn Gabirol, the author of "The Source of Life," a
+systematic exposition of Neoplatonic philosophy, a book of most curious
+fortunes. Through the Latin translation, made with the help of an
+apostate Jew, and bearing the author's name in the mutilated form of
+Avencebrol, later changed into Avicebron, scholasticism became saturated
+with its philosophic ideas. The pious fathers of Christian philosophy,
+Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, took pains to refute them, while
+Duns Scotus and Giordano Bruno frequently consulted the work as an
+authority. In the struggle between the Scotists and the Thomists it had
+a prominent place as late as the fourteenth century, the contestants
+taking it to be the work of some great Christian philosopher standing on
+the threshold of the Occident and at the portals of philosophy. So it
+happened that the author came down through the centuries, recognized by
+none, forgotten by his own, until, in our time, behind the
+Moorish-Christian mask of Avencebrol, Solomon Munk discovered the Jewish
+thinker and poet Solomon ibn Gabirol.
+
+The work _De Causis_, attributed to David, a forgotten Jewish
+philosopher, must be classed with Gabirol's "Source of Life," on account
+of its Neoplatonism and its paramount influence upon scholasticism. In
+fact, only by means of a searching analysis of these two works can
+insight be gained into the development and aberrations of the dogmatic
+system of mediaeval philosophy.
+
+Other sciences, too, especially mathematics, flourished among them. One
+century after he wrote them, the works of Abraham ibn Ezra, renowned as
+an astronomer and mathematician, were translated into Latin by Italians,
+among whom his prestige was so great that, as may still be seen, he was
+painted among the expounders of mathematical science in an Italian
+church fresco representing the seven liberal arts. Under the name
+Abraham Judaeus, later corrupted into Avenare, he is met with throughout
+the middle ages. Abraham ben Chiya, another distinguished scientist,
+known by the name Savasorda, compiled the first systematic outline of
+astronomy, and in his geographical treatise, he explained the sphericity
+of the earth, while the Latin translation of his geometry, based on
+Arabic sources, proves him to have made considerable additions to the
+stock of knowledge in this branch. Moses Maimuni's intellectual vigor,
+and his influence upon the schoolmen through his medical, and more
+particularly his religio-philosophical works, are too well known to need
+more than passing mention.
+
+Even in southern France and in Germany, whither the light of culture did
+not spread so rapidly as in Spain, Jews participated in the development
+of the sciences. Solomon ben Isaac, called Rashi, the great exegete, was
+looked up to as an authority by others beside his brethren in faith.
+Nicolas de Lyra, one of the most distinguished Christian Bible exegetes,
+confesses that his simple explanations of Scriptural passages are
+derived pre-eminently from Rashi's Bible commentary, and among
+scientific men it is acknowledged that precisely in the matter of
+exegesis this French monk exercised decisive influence upon Martin
+Luther. So it happens that in places Luther's Bible translation reveals
+Rashi seen through Nicolas de Lyra's spectacles.
+
+In the quickened intellectual life of Provence Jews also took active
+part. David Kimchi has come to be regarded as the teacher _par
+excellence_ of Hebrew grammar and lexicography, and Judah ibn Tibbon,
+one of the most notable of translators, in his testament addressed to
+his son made a complete presentation of contemporary science, a
+cyclopaedia of the Arabic and the Hebrew language and literature,
+grammar, poetry, botany, zoology, natural history, and particularly
+religious philosophy, the studies of the Bible and the Talmud.
+
+The golden age of letters was followed by a less creative period, a
+significant turning-point in the history of Judaism as of spiritual
+progress in general. The contest between tradition and philosophy
+affected every mind. Literature was widely cultivated; each of its
+departments found devotees. The European languages were studied, and
+connections established between the literatures of the nations. Hardly a
+spiritual current runs through the middle ages without, in some way,
+affecting Jewish culture. It is the irony of history that puts among the
+forty proscribers of the Talmud assembled at Paris in the thirteenth
+century the Dominican Albertus Magnus, who, in his successful efforts to
+divert scholastic philosophy into new channels, depended entirely upon
+the writings and translations of the very Jews he was helping to
+persecute. Schoolmen were too little conversant with Greek to read
+Aristotle in the original, and so had to content themselves with
+accepting the Judaeo-Arabic construction put upon the Greek sage's
+teachings.
+
+Besides acting as intermediaries, Jews made original contributions to
+scholastic philosophy. For instance, Maimonides, the first to reconcile
+Aristotle's teachings with biblical theology, was the originator of the
+method adopted by schoolmen in the case of Aristotelian principles at
+variance with their dogmas. Frederick II., the liberal emperor, employed
+Jewish scholars and translators at his court; among them Jacob ben
+Abba-Mari ben Anatoli, to whom an annuity was paid for translating
+Aristotelian works. Michael Scotus, the imperial astrologer, was his
+intimate friend. His contemporaries were chiefly popular philosophers or
+mystics, excepting only the prominent Provencal Jacob ben Machir, or
+Profatius Judaeus, as he was called, a member of the Tibbon family of
+translators. His observations on the inclination of the earth's axis
+were used later by Copernicus as the basis of further investigations. He
+was a famous teacher at the Montpellier academy, which reminds me to
+mention that Jews were prominently identified with the founding and the
+success of the medical schools at Montpellier and Salerno, they, indeed,
+being almost the only physicians in all parts of the known world.
+Salerno, in turn, suggests Italy, where at that period translations were
+made from Latin into Hebrew. Hillel ben Samuel, for instance, the same
+who carried on a lively philosophic correspondence with another
+distinguished Jew, Maestro Isaac Gayo, the pope's physician, translated
+some of Thomas Aquinas's writings, Bruno di Lungoburgo's book on
+surgery, and various other works, from Latin into Hebrew.
+
+These successors of the great intellects of the golden age of
+neo-Hebraic literature, thoroughly conversant with Arabic literature,
+busied themselves with rendering accessible to literary Europe the
+treasury of Indian and Greek fables. Their translations and compilations
+have peculiar value in the history of literary development. During the
+middle ages, when the memory of ancient literature had perished, they
+were the means of preserving the romances, fairy tales, and fables that
+have descended, by way of Spain and Arabia, from classical antiquity
+and the many-hued Oriental world to our modern literatures. Between the
+eleventh and the thirteenth century, the foundations were laid for our
+narrative literature, demonstrating the importance of delight in fable
+lore, stories of travel, and all sorts of narratives, for to it we owe
+the creation of new and the transformation of old, literary forms.
+
+In Germany at that time, a Jewish minnesinger and strolling minstrel,
+Suesskind von Trimberg, went up and down the land, from castle to castle,
+with the poets' guild; while Santob di Carrion, a Jewish troubadour,
+ventured to impart counsel and moral lessons to the Castilian king Don
+Pedro before his assembled people. A century later, another Jew, Samson
+Pnie, of Strasburg, lent his assistance to the two German poets at work
+upon the continuation of _Parzival_. The historians of German literature
+have not laid sufficient stress upon the share of the Jews, heavily
+oppressed and persecuted though they were, in the creation of national
+epics and romances of chivalry from the thirteenth to the fifteenth
+century. German Jews, being more than is generally recognized diligent
+readers of the poets, were well acquainted with the drift of mediaeval
+poetry, and to this familiarity a new department of Jewish literature
+owed its rise and development. It is said that a Hebrew version of the
+Arthurian cycle was made as early as the thirteenth century, and at the
+end of the period we run across epic poems on Bible characters, composed
+in the _Nibelungen_ metre, in imitation of old German legend lore and
+national poetry.
+
+If German Jews found heart for literary interests, it may be assumed as
+a matter of course that Spanish and Provencal Jews participated in the
+advancement of their respective national literatures and in Troubadour
+poetry. In these countries, too, the new taste for popular literature,
+especially in the form of fables, was made to serve moral ends. A Jew,
+Berachya ben Natronai, was the precursor of Marie de France, the famous
+French fabulist, and La Fontaine and Lessing are indebted to him for
+some of their material. As in the case of Aristotelian philosophy and of
+Greek and Arabic medical science, Jews assumed the role of mediators in
+the transmission of fables. Indian fables reached their Arabic guise
+either directly or by way of Persian and Greek; thence they passed into
+Hebrew and Latin translations, and through these last forms became the
+property of the European languages. For instance, the Hebrew translation
+of the old Sanskrit fox fables was the one of greatest service in
+literary evolution. The translator of the fox fables is credited also
+with the translation of the romance of "The Seven Wise Masters," under
+the title _Mishle Sandabar_. These two works gave the impetus to a great
+series in Occidental literature, and it seems altogether probable that
+Europe's first acquaintance with them dates from their Hebrew
+translation.
+
+In Arabic poetry, too, many a Jew deservedly attained to celebrity.
+Abraham ibn Sahl won such renown that the Arabs, notorious for
+parsimony, gave ten gold pieces for one of his songs. Other poets have
+come down to us by name, and Joseph Ezobi, whom Reuchlin calls _Judaeorum
+poeta dulcissimus_, went so far as to extol Arabic beyond Hebrew poetry.
+He was the first to pronounce the dictum famous in Buffon's repetition:
+"The style is the man himself." Provence, the land of song, produced
+Kalonymos ben Kalonymos (Maestro Calo), known to his brethren in faith
+not only as a poet, but also as a scholar, whose Hebrew translations
+from the Arabic are of most important works on philosophy, medicine, and
+mathematics. As Anatoli had worked under Emperor Frederick II., so
+Kalonymos was attached to Robert of Naples, patron of Jewish scholars.
+At the same time with the Spanish and the German minstrel, there
+flourished in Rome Immanuel ben Solomon, the friend of Dante, upon whose
+death he wrote an Italian sonnet, and whose _Divina Commedia_ inspired a
+part of his poetical works also describing a visit to paradise and hell.
+
+With the assiduous cultivation of romantic poetry, which was gradually
+usurping the place of moral romances and novels, grew the importance of
+Oriental legends and traditions, so pregnant with literary suggestions.
+This is attested by the use made of the Hebrew translation of Indian
+fables mentioned before, and of the famous collection of tales, the
+_Disciplina clericalis_ by the baptized Jew Petrus Alphonsus. The Jews
+naturally introduced many of their own peculiar traditions, and thus can
+be explained the presence of tales from the Talmud and the Midrash in
+our modern fairy tale books.
+
+It is necessary to note again that the Jews in turn submitted to the
+influence of foreign literatures. Immanuel Romi, for example, at his
+best, is an exponent of Provencal versification and scholastic
+philosophy, while his lapses testify to the self-complacency and levity
+characteristic of the times. Yehuda Romano, one of his contemporaries,
+is said to have been teacher to the king of Naples. He was the first Jew
+to attain to a critical appreciation of the vagaries of scholasticism,
+but his claim to mention rests upon his translations from the Latin.
+
+As Jews assisted at the birth of Arabic, French, and German, so they
+have a share in the beginnings of Spanish, literature. Jews must be
+credited with the first "Chronicle of the Cid," with the romance, _Comte
+Lyonnais, Palanus_, with the first collection of tales, the first chess
+poems, and the first troubadour songs. Again, the oldest collection of
+the last into a _cancionera_ was made by the Jew Juan Alfonso de Baena.
+
+Even distant Persia has proofs to show of Jewish ability and energy in
+those days. One Jew composed an epic on a biblical subject in the
+Persian language, another translated the Psalms into the vernacular.
+
+The most prominent Jewish exponent of philosophy in this age of
+strenuous interest in metaphysical speculations and contests was Levi
+ben Gerson (Leon di Bannolas), theologian, scientist, physician, and
+astronomer. One of his ancestors, Gerson ben Solomon, had written a work
+typical of the state of the natural sciences in his day. Levi ben
+Gerson's chief work became famous not among Jews alone. It was referred
+to in words of praise by Pico della Mirandola, Reuchlin, Kepler, and
+other Christian thinkers. He was the inventor of an astronomical
+instrument, a description of which was translated into Latin at the
+express command of Pope Clement VI., and carefully studied by Kepler.
+Besides, Levi ben Gerson was the author of an arithmetical work. In
+those days, in fact up to the seventeenth century, there was but a faint
+dividing line between astronomy and mathematics, as between medicine and
+natural history. John of Seville was a notable mathematician, the
+compiler of a practical arithmetic, the first to make mention of decimal
+fractions, which possibly may have been his invention, and in the Zohar,
+the text-book of mediaeval Jewish mysticism, which appeared centuries
+before Copernicus's time, the cause of the succession of day and night
+is stated to be the earth's revolution on its axis.
+
+In this great translation period scarcely a single branch of human
+science escaped the mental avidity of Jews. They found worthy of
+translation such essays as "Rules for the Shoeing and Care of Horses in
+Royal Stables" and "The Art of Carving and Serving at Princely Boards."
+Translations of works on scholasticism now took rank beside those from
+Greek and Arabic philosophers, and to translations from the Arabic into
+Hebrew were added translations from and into Latin, or even into the
+vernacular idiom wherever literary forms had developed. The bold
+assertion can be made good that not a single prominent work of ancient
+science was left untranslated. On the other hand it is hard to speculate
+what would have been the fate of these treasures of antiquity without
+Jewish intermediation. Doubtless an important factor in the work was the
+encouragement given Jewish scholars by enlightened rulers, such as
+Emperor Frederick II., Charles and Robert of Anjou, Jayme I. of Aragon,
+and Alfonso X. of Castile, and by popes, and private patrons of
+learning. Mention has been made of Jewish contributions to the work of
+the medical schools of Montpellier and Salerno. Under Jayme I. Christian
+and Jewish savants of Barcelona worked together harmoniously to promote
+the cause of civilization and culture in their native land. The first to
+use the Catalan dialect for literary purposes was the Jew Yehuda ben
+Astruc, and under Alfonso (X.) the Wise, Jews again attained to
+prominence in the king's favorite science of astronomy. The Alfonsine
+Tables were chiefly the work of Isaac ibn Sid, a Toledo _chazan_
+(precentor). In general, the results reached by Jewish scholarship at
+Alfonso's court were of the utmost importance, having been largely
+instrumental in establishing in the age of Tycho de Brahe and Kepler the
+fundamental principles of astronomy and a correct view of the orbits of
+the heavenly bodies. Equal suggestiveness characterizes Jewish research
+in mathematics, a science to which, rising above the level of
+intermediaries and translators, Jews made original contributions of
+importance, the first being Isaac Israeli's "The Foundation of the
+Universe." Basing his observations on Maimuni's and Abraham ben Chiya's
+statement of the sphericity of the earth, Israeli showed that the
+heavenly bodies do not seem to occupy the place in which they would
+appear to an observer at the centre of the earth, and that the two
+positions differ by a certain angle, since known as parallax in the
+terminology of science. To Judah Hakohen, a scholar in correspondence
+with Alfonso the Wise, is ascribed the arrangement of the stars in
+forty-eight constellations, and to another Jew, Esthori Hafarchi, we owe
+the first topographical description of Palestine, whither he emigrated
+when the Jews were expelled from France by Philip the Fair.
+
+Meanwhile the condition of the Jews, viewed from without and from
+within, had become most pitiable. The Kabbala lured into her charmed
+circle the strongest Jewish minds. Scientific aspirations seemed
+completely extinguished. Even the study of the Talmud was abandoning
+simple, undistorted methods of interpretation, and espousing the
+hairsplitting dialectics of the northern French school. Synagogue poetry
+was languishing, and general culture found no votaries among Jews.
+Occasionally only the religious disputations between Jews and Christians
+induced some few to court acquaintance with secular branches of
+learning. In the fourteenth century Chasdai Crecas was the only
+philosopher with an original system, which in its arguments on free
+will and the nature of God anticipated the views of one greater than
+himself, who, however, had a different purpose in view. That later and
+greater philosopher, to whom the world is indebted for the evangel of
+modern life, was likewise a Jew, a descendant of Spanish-Jewish
+fugitives. His name is Baruch Spinoza.
+
+However sad their fortunes, the literature of the Jews never entirely
+eschewed the consideration of subjects of general interest. This
+receives curious confirmation from the re-introduction of Solomon
+Gabirol's peculiar views into Jewish religious philosophy, by way of
+Christian scholasticism, as formulated especially by Thomas Aquinas, the
+_Doctor angelicus_.
+
+The Renaissance and the humanistic movement also reveal Jewish
+influences at work. The spirit of liberty abroad in the earth passed
+through the halls of Israel, clearing the path thenceforth to be trodden
+by men. Again the learned were compelled to engage the good offices of
+the Jews, the custodians of biblical antiquity. The invention of the
+printing press acted as a wonderful stimulus to the development of
+Jewish literature. The first products of the new machine were Hebrew
+works issued in Italy and Spain. Among the promoters of the Renaissance,
+and one of the most thorough students of religio-philosophical systems,
+was Elias del Medigo, the friend of Pico della Mirandola, and the umpire
+chosen by the quarrelling factions in the University of Padua. John
+Reuchlin, chief of the humanists, was taught Hebrew by Obadiah Sforno,
+a _savant_ of profound scholarship, who dedicated his "Commentary on
+Ecclesiastes" to Henry II. of France. Abraham de Balmes was a teacher at
+the universities of Padua and Salerno, and physician in ordinary to
+Cardinal Dominico Grimani. The Kabbala was made accessible to the heroes
+of the Renaissance by Jochanan Alemanno, of Mantua, and there is pathos
+in the urgency with which Reuchlin entreats Jacob Margoles, rabbi of
+Nuremberg, to send him Kabbalistic writings in addition to those in his
+possession. Reuchlin's good offices to the Jews--his defense of them
+against the attacks of obscurantists--are a matter of general knowledge.
+Among the teachers of the humanists who revealed to them the treasures
+of biblical literature the most prominent was Elias Levita, the
+introducer, through his disciples Sebastian Muenster and Paul Fagius, of
+Hebrew studies into Germany. He may be accounted a true humanist, a
+genuine exponent of the Renaissance. His Jewish coadjutors were Judah
+Abrabanel (Leo Hebraeus), whose chief work was _Dialoghi di Amore_, an
+exposition of the Neoplatonism then current in Italy; Jacob Mantino,
+physician to Pope Paul III.; Bonet di Lattes, known as a writer on
+astronomical subjects, and the inventor of an astronomical instrument;
+and a number of others.
+
+While in Italy the Spanish-Jewish exiles fell into line in the
+Renaissance movement, the large numbers of them that sought refuge in
+Portugal turned their attention chiefly to astronomical research and to
+voyages of discovery and adventure, the national enterprises of their
+protectors. Joao II. employed Jews in investigations tending to make
+reasonably safe the voyages, on trackless seas, under unknown skies, for
+the discovery of long and ardently sought passages to distant lands. In
+his commission charged with the construction of an instrument to
+indicate accurately the course of a vessel, the German knight Martin
+Behaim was assisted by Jews--astronomers, metaphysicians, and
+physicians--chief among them Joseph Vecinho, distinguished for his part
+in the designing of the artificial globe, and Pedro di Carvallho,
+navigator, whose claim to praise rests upon his improvement of Leib's
+_Astrologium_, and to censure, upon his abetment of the king when he
+refused the request of the bold Genoese Columbus to fit out a squadron
+for the discovery of wholly unknown lands. But when Columbus's plans
+found long deferred realization in Spain, a Jewish youth, Luis de
+Torres, embarked among the ninety adventurers who accompanied him. Vasco
+da Gama likewise was aided in his search for a waterway to the Indies by
+a Jew, the pilot Gaspar, the same who later set down in writing the
+scientific results of the voyage, and two Jews were despatched to
+explore the coasts of the Red Sea and the island of Ormus in the Persian
+Gulf. Again, Vasco da Gama's plans were in part made with the valuable
+assistance of a Jew, a profound scholar, Abraham Zacuto, sometime
+professor of astronomy at the University of Salamanca, and after the
+banishment of Jews from Spain, astronomer and chronographer to Manuel
+the Great, of Portugal. It was he that advised the king to send out Da
+Gama's expedition, and from the first the explorer was supported by his
+counsel and scientific knowledge.
+
+Meritorious achievements, all of them, but they did not shield the Jews
+against impending banishment. The exiles found asylums in Italy and
+Holland, and in each country they at once projected themselves into the
+predominant intellectual movement. A physician, Abraham Portaleone,
+distinguished himself on the field of antiquarian research; another,
+David d'Ascoli, wrote a defense of Jews; and a third, David de Pomis, a
+defense of Jewish physicians. The most famous was Amatus Lusitanus, one
+of whose important discoveries is said to have brought him close up to
+that of the circulation of the blood. Before the banishment of Jews from
+Spain took effect, Antonio di Moro, a Jewish peddler of Cordova,
+flourished as the last of Spanish troubadours, and Rodrigo da Cota, a
+neo-Christian of Seville, as the first of Spanish dramatists, the
+supposed author of _Celestina_, one of the most celebrated of old
+Spanish dramatic compositions.
+
+The proscribed, in the guise of Marranos, and under the hospitable
+shelter of their new homes, could not be banished from literary Spain,
+even in its newest departures. Indeed, for a long time Spanish and
+Italian literatures were brought into contact with each other only
+through the instrumentality of Jews. Not quite half a century after the
+expulsion of Jews from Portugal and their settlement in Italy, a Jew,
+Solomon Usque, made a Spanish translation of Petrarch (1567), dedicated
+to Alessandro Farnese, duke of Parma, and wrote Italian odes, dedicated
+to Cardinal Borromeo.
+
+At the zenith of the Renaissance, Jews won renown as Italian poets, and
+did valiant work as translators from Latin into Hebrew and Italian. In
+the later days of the movement, in the Reformation period, illustrious
+Christian scholars studied Hebrew under Jewish tutorship, and gave it a
+place on the curriculum of the universities. Luther himself submitted to
+rabbinical guidance in his biblical studies.
+
+In great numbers the Spanish exiles turned to Turkey, where numerous new
+communities rapidly arose. There, too, in Constantinople and elsewhere,
+Jews, like Elias Mizrachi and Elias Kapsali, were the first to pursue
+scientific research.
+
+We have now reached the days of deepest misery for Judaism. Yet, in the
+face of unrelenting oppression, Jews win places of esteem as diplomats,
+custodians and advocates of important interests at royal courts. From
+the earliest period of their history, Jews manifested special talent for
+the arts of diplomacy. In the Arabic-Spanish period they exercised great
+political influence upon Mohammedan caliphs. The Fatimide and Omayyad
+dynasties employed Jewish representatives and ministers, Samuel ibn
+Nagdela, for instance, being grand vizir of the caliph of Granada.
+Christian sovereigns also valued their services: as is well known,
+Charlemagne sent a Jewish ambassador to Haroun al Rashid; Pope
+Alexander III. appointed Yechiel ben Abraham as minister of finance; and
+so late as in the fifteenth century the wise statesman Isaac Abrabanel
+was minister to Alfonso V., of Portugal, and, wonderful to relate, for
+eight years to Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain. At this time Jewish
+literature was blessed with a patron in the person of Joseph Nasi, duke
+of Naxos, whom, it is said, Sultan Selim II. wished to crown king of
+Cyprus. His rival was Solomon Ashkenazi, Turkish ambassador to the
+Venetian republic, who exercised decisive influence upon the election of
+a Polish king. And this is not the end of the roll of Jewish diplomats
+and ministers.
+
+Unfortunately, the Kabbala, whose spell was cast about even the most
+vigorous of Jewish minds, was the leading intellectual current of those
+sad days, the prevailing misery but serving to render her allurements
+more fascinating. But in the hands of such men as Abraham Herrera, who
+influenced Benedict Spinoza, even Kabbalistic studies were informed with
+a scientific spirit, and brought into connection with Neoplatonic
+philosophy.
+
+Mention of Spinoza suggests Holland where Jews were kindly received, and
+shortly after their arrival they interested themselves in the
+philosophical pursuits in vogue. The best index to their position in
+Holland is furnished by Manasseh ben Israel's prominent role in the
+politics and the literary ventures of Amsterdam, and by his negotiations
+with Oliver Cromwell. We may pardon the pride which made him say, "I
+have enjoyed the friendship of the wisest and the best of Europe." Uriel
+Acosta and Baruch Spinoza, though children of the Amsterdam
+_Judengasse_, were ardent patriots.
+
+The last great Spanish poet was Antonio Enrique de Gomez, the Jewish
+Calderon, burnt in effigy at Seville; while the last Portuguese poet of
+note was Antonio Jose de Silva, who perished at the stake for his faith,
+leaving his dramas as a precious possession to Portuguese literature.
+
+Even in the dreariest days of decadence, when the study of the Talmud
+seemed to engross their attention, Jews prosecuted scientific inquiries,
+as witness Moses Isserles's translation of _Theorica_, an astronomical
+treatise by Peurbach, the Vienna humanist.
+
+With the migration of Jews eastward, _Judendeutsch_, a Jewish-German
+dialect, with its literature, was introduced into Slavic countries. It
+is a fact not generally known that this jargon is the depository of
+certain Middle High German expressions and elements no longer used in
+the modern German, and that philologists are forced to resort to the
+study of the Polish-Jewish patois to reconstruct the old idiom. In 1523,
+the year of Luther's Pentateuch translation, a Jewish-German Bible
+dictionary was published at Cracow, and in 1540 appeared the first
+Jewish-German translation of the Pentateuch. The Germans strongly
+influenced the popular literature of the Jews. The two nationalities
+seized the same subjects, often imitating the same models, or using the
+same translations. The German "Till Eulenspiegel" was printed in 1500,
+the Jewish-German in 1600. Besides incorporating German folklore,
+Jewish-German writings borrowed from German romances, assimilated
+foreign literatures, did not neglect the traditions of the Jews
+themselves, and embraced even folk-songs, some of which have perpetuated
+themselves until the modern era.
+
+Mention of the well-known fact that the Hebrew studies prosecuted by
+Christians in the eighteenth century were carried on under Jewish
+influence brings us to the threshold of the modern era, the period of
+the Jewish Renaissance. Here we are on well-worn ground. Since Jews have
+been permitted to enter at will upon the multifarious pursuits growing
+out of modern culture, their importance as factors of civilization is
+universally acknowledged, and it would be wearisome, and would far
+transgress the limits of a lecture, to enumerate their achievements.
+
+In trying to show what share the Jew has had in the world's
+civilization, I have naturally concerned myself chiefly with literature,
+for literature is the mirror of culture. It would be a mistake, however,
+to suppose that the Jew has been inactive in other spheres. His
+contributions, for instance, to the modern development of international
+commerce, cannot be overlooked. Commerce in its modern extension was the
+creation of the mercantile republics of mediaeval Italy-Venice, Florence,
+Genoa, and Pisa--and in them Jews determined and regulated its course.
+When Ravenna contemplated a union with Venice, and formulated the
+conditions for the alliance, one of them was the demand that rich Jews
+be sent thither to open a bank for the relief of distress. Jews were the
+first to obtain the privilege of establishing banks in the Italian
+cities, and the first to discover the advantages of a system of checks
+and bills of exchange, of unique value in the development of modern
+commerce.
+
+Even in art, a sphere from which their rigorous laws might seem to have
+the effect of banishing them, they were not wholly inactive. They always
+numbered among themselves handicraftsmen. In Venice, in the sixteenth
+century, we find celebrated Jewish wood engravers. Jacob Weil's rules
+for slaughtering were published with vignettes by Hans Holbein, and one
+of Manasseh ben Israel's works was adorned with a frontispiece by
+Rembrandt. In our own generation Jews have won fame as painters and
+sculptors, while music has been their staunch companion, deserting them
+not even in the darkest days of the Ghetto.
+
+These certainly are abundant proofs that the Jew has a share in all the
+phases and stages of culture, from its first germs unto its latest
+complex development--a consoling, elevating reflection. A learned
+historian of literature, a Christian, in discussing this subject, was
+prompted to say: "Our first knowledge of philosophy, botany, astronomy,
+and cosmography, as well as the grammar of the holy language and the
+results of biblical study, we owe primarily to Jews." Another historian,
+also a Christian, closes a review of Jewish national traits with the
+words: "Looking back over the course of history, we find that in the
+gloom, bareness, and intellectual sloth of the middle ages, Jews
+maintained a rational system of agriculture, and built up international
+commerce, upon which rests the well-being of the nations."
+
+Truly, there are reasons for pride on our part, but no less do great
+obligations devolve upon us. I cannot refrain from exhortation. In
+justice we should confess that Jews drew their love of learning and
+ability to advance the work of civilization from Jewish writings.
+Furthermore, it is a fact that these Jewish writings no longer excite
+the interest, or claim the devotion of Jews. I maintain that it is the
+duty of the members of our Order to take this neglected, lightly
+esteemed literature under their protection, and secure for it the
+appreciation and encouragement that are the offspring of knowledge.
+
+Modern Judaism presents a curious spectacle. The tiniest of national
+groups in Eastern Europe, conceiving the idea of establishing its
+independence, proceeds forthwith to create a literature, if need be,
+inventing and forging. Judaism possesses countless treasures of
+inestimable worth, amassed by research and experience in the course of
+thousands of years, and her latter-day children brush them aside with
+indifference, even with scorn, leaving it to the sons of the stranger,
+yea, their adversaries, to gather and cherish them.
+
+When Goethe in his old age conceived and outlined a scheme of universal
+literature, the first place was assigned to Jewish literature. In his
+pantheon of the world's poetry, the first tone uttered was to be that
+of "David's royal song and harp." But, in general, Jewish literature is
+still looked upon as the Cinderella of the world's literatures. Surely,
+the day will come when justice will be done, Cinderella's claim be
+acknowledged equal to that of her royal sisters, and together they will
+enter the spacious halls of the magnificent palace of literature.
+
+Among the prayers prescribed for the Day of Atonement is one of
+subordinate importance which affects me most solemnly. When the shadows
+of evening lengthen, and the light of the sun wanes, the Jew reads the
+_Neilah_ service with fervor, as though he would "burst open the portals
+of heaven with his tears," and the inmost depths of my nature are
+stirred with melancholy pride by the prayer of the pious Jew. He
+supplicates not for his house and his family, not for Zion dismantled,
+not for the restoration of the Temple, not for the advent of the
+Messiah, not for respite from suffering. All his sighs and hopes, all
+his yearning and aspiration, are concentrated in the one thought: "Our
+splendor and our glory have departed, our treasures have been snatched
+from us; there remains nothing to us but this Law alone." If this is
+true; if naught else is left of our former state; if this Law, this
+science, this literature, are our sole treasure and best inheritance,
+then let us cherish and cultivate them so as to have a legacy to
+bequeath to our children to stand them in good stead against the coming
+of the _Neilah_ of humanity, the day when brethren will "dwell together
+in unity."
+
+Perhaps that day is not far distant. Methinks I hear the rustling of a
+new spring-tide of humanity; methinks I discern the morning flush of new
+world-stirring ideas, and before my mind's eye rises a bridge, over
+which pass all the nations of the earth, Israel in their midst, holding
+aloft his ensign with the inscription, "The Lord is my banner!"--the one
+which he bore on every battlefield of thought, and which was never
+suffered to fall into the enemy's hand. It is a mighty procession moving
+onward and upward to a glorious goal: "Humanity, Liberty, Love!"
+
+
+
+
+WOMEN IN JEWISH LITERATURE
+
+
+Among the songs of the Bible there are two, belonging to the oldest
+monuments of poetry, which have preserved the power to inspire and
+elevate as when they were first uttered: the hymn of praise and
+thanksgiving sung by Moses and his sister Miriam, and the impassioned
+song of Deborah, the heroine in Israel.
+
+Miriam and Deborah are the first Israelitish women whose melody thrilled
+and even now thrills us--Miriam, the inspired prophetess, pouring forth
+her people's joy and sorrow, and Deborah, _Esheth Lapidoth_, the Bible
+calls her, "the woman of the flaming heart," an old writer ingeniously
+interprets the Scriptural name. They are the chosen exemplars of all
+women who, stepping across the narrow confines of home, have lifted up a
+voice, or wielded a pen, for Israel. The time is not yet when woman in
+literature can be discussed without an introductory justification. The
+prejudice is still deep-rooted which insists that domestic activity is
+woman's only legitimate career, that to enter the literary arena is
+unwomanly, that inspired songs may drop only from male lips. Woman's
+heart should, indeed, be the abode of the angels of gentleness, modesty,
+kindness, and patience. But no contradiction is involved in the belief
+that her mind is endowed with force and ability on occasion to grasp the
+spokes of fortune's wheel, or produce works which need not shrink from
+public criticism. Deborah herself felt that it would have better become
+a man to fulfil the mission with which she was charged--that a cozy home
+had been a more seemly place for her than the camp upon Mount Tabor. She
+says: "Desolate were the open towns in Israel, they were desolate....
+Was there a shield seen or a spear among forty thousand in Israel?...
+I--unto the Lord will I sing." Not until the fields of Israel were
+desert, forsaken of able-bodied men, did the woman Deborah arise for the
+glory of God. She refused to pose as a heroine, rejected the crown of
+victory, nor coveted the poet's laurel, meet recognition of her
+triumphal song. Modestly she chose the simplest yet most beautiful of
+names. She summoned the warriors to battle; the word of God was
+proclaimed by her lips; she pronounced judgment, and right prevailed;
+her courage sustained her on the battlefield, and victory followed in
+her footsteps--yet neither judge, nor poetess, nor singer, nor
+prophetess will she call herself, but only _Em beyisrael_, "a mother in
+Israel."
+
+This heroine, this "mother in Israel," in all the wanderings and
+vicissitudes of the Jewish people, was the exemplar of its women and
+maidens, the especial model of Israelitish poetesses and writers.
+
+The student of Jewish literature is like an astronomer. While the casual
+observer faintly discerns single stars dotted in the expanse of blue
+overhead, he takes in the whole sweep of the heavens, readily following
+the movements of the stars of every magnitude. The history of the Jewish
+race, its mere preservation during the long drawn out period of
+suffering--sad days of national dissolution and sombre middle age
+centuries--is a perplexing puzzle, unless regarded with the eye of
+faith. But that this race, cuffed, crushed, pursued, hounded from spot
+to spot, should have given birth to men, yea, even women ranking high in
+the realm of letters, is wholly inexplicable, unless the explanation of
+the unique phenomenon is sought in the wondrous gift of inspiration
+operative in Israel even after the last seer ceased to speak.
+
+Judaism has preserved the Jews! Judaism, that is, the Law with its
+development and ramifications of a great religious thought, was the
+sustaining power of the Jewish people under its burden of misery,
+suffering, torture, and oppression, enabling it to survive its
+tormentors. The Jews were the nation of hope. Like hope this people is
+eternal. The storms of fanaticism and race hatred may rage and roar, the
+race cannot be destroyed. Precisely in the days of its abject
+degradation, when its suffering was dire, how marvellous the conduct of
+this people! The conquered were greater than their conquerors. From
+their spiritual height they looked down compassionately on their
+victorious but ignorant adversaries, who, feeling the condescension of
+the victims, drove their irons deeper. The little nation grew only the
+stronger, and its religion, the flower of hope and trust, developed the
+more sturdily for its icy covering. Jews were mowed down by fire and
+sword, but Judaism continued to live. From the ashes of every pyre
+sprang the Jewish Law in unfading youth--that indestructible,
+ineradicable mentality and hope, which opponents are wont to call
+unconquerable Jewish defiance.
+
+The men of this great little race were preserved by the Law, the spirit,
+and the influences and effects of this same Law transformed weak women
+into God-inspired martyrs, dowered the daughters of Israel with courage
+to sacrifice life for the glory of the God-idea confessed by their
+ancestors during thousands of years. Purity of morals, confiding
+domesticity, were the safeguards against storm and stress. The outside
+world presented a hostile front to the Jew of the middle ages. Every
+step beyond Ghetto precincts was beset with peril. So his home became
+his world, his sanctuary, in whose intimate seclusion the blossom of
+pure family love unfolded. While spiritual darkness brooded over the
+nations, the great Messianic God-idea took refuge from the icy chill of
+the middle ages in his humble rooms, where it was cherished against the
+coming of a glorious future.
+
+"Every Jew has the making of a Messiah in him," says a clever modern
+author,[25] "and every Jewess of a _mater dolorosa_," of which the first
+part is only an epigram, the second, a truth, an historic fact.
+Mediaeval Judaism knew many "sorrowful mothers," whose heroism passes
+our latter-day conception. Greece and Rome tell tales upon tales of
+womanly bravery under suffering and pain--Jewish history buries in
+silence the names of its thousands of woman and maiden martyrs, joyously
+giving up life in the vindication of their faith. Perhaps, had one woman
+been too weak to resist, too cowardly to court and embrace death, her
+name might have been preserved. Such, too, fail to appear in the Jewish
+annals, which contain but few women's names of any kind. Inspired
+devotion of strength and life to Judaism was as natural with a Jewess as
+quiet, unostentatious activity in her home. No need, therefore, to make
+mention of act or name.
+
+Jewish woman, then, has neither found, nor sought, and does not need, a
+Frauenlob, historian or poet, to proclaim her praise in the gates, to
+touch the strings of his lyre in her honor. Her life, in its simplicity
+and gentleness, its patience and exalted devotion, is itself a Song of
+Songs, more beautiful than poet ever composed, a hymn more joyous than
+any ever sung, on the prophetess's sublime and touching text, _Em
+beyisrael_, "a mother in Israel."
+
+As Miriam and Deborah are representative of womanhood during Israel's
+national life, so later times, the Talmudic periods, produced women with
+great and admirable qualities. Prominent among them was Beruriah, the
+gentle wife of Rabbi Meir, the Beruriah whose heart is laid bare in the
+following touching story from the Talmud:[26]
+
+One Sabbath her husband had been in the academy all day teaching the
+crowds that eagerly flocked to his lectures. During his absence from
+home, his two sons, distinguished for beauty and learning, died suddenly
+of a malignant disease. Beruriah bore the dear bodies into her sleeping
+chamber, and spread a white cloth over them. When the rabbi returned in
+the evening, and asked for his boys that, according to wont, he might
+bless them, his wife said, "They have gone to the house of God."
+
+She brought the wine-cup, and he recited the concluding prayer of the
+Sabbath, drinking from the cup, and, in obedience to a hallowed custom,
+passing it to his wife. Again he asked, "Why are my sons not here to
+drink from the blessed cup?" "They cannot be far off," answered the
+patient sufferer, and suspecting naught, Rabbi Meir was happy and
+cheerful. When he had finished his meal, Beruriah said: "Rabbi, allow me
+to ask you a question." With his permission, she continued: "Some time
+ago a treasure was entrusted to me, and now the owner demands it. Shall
+I give it up?" "Surely, my wife should not find it necessary to ask this
+question," said the rabbi. "Can you hesitate about returning property to
+its rightful owner?" "True," she replied, "but I thought best not to
+return it until I had advised you thereof." And she led him into the
+chamber to the bed, and withdrew the cloth from the bodies. "O, my sons,
+my sons," lamented the father with a loud voice, "light of my eyes, lamp
+of my soul. I was your father, but you taught me the Law." Her eyes
+suffused with tears, Beruriah seized her grief-stricken husband's hand,
+and spoke: "Rabbi, did you not teach me to return without reluctance
+that which has been entrusted to our safekeeping? See, 'the Lord gave,
+and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'"
+"'Blessed be the name of the Lord,'" repeated the rabbi, accepting her
+consolation, "and blessed, too, be His name for your sake; for, it is
+written: 'Who can find a virtuous woman? for far above pearls is her
+value.... She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is
+upon her tongue.'"
+
+Surrounded by the halo of motherhood, richly dowered with intellectual
+gifts, distinguished for learning, gentleness, and refinement, Beruriah
+is a truly poetic figure. Incensed at the evil-doing of the unrighteous,
+her husband prayed for their destruction. "How can you ask that, Rabbi?"
+Beruriah interrupted him; "do not the Scriptures say: 'May _sins_ cease
+from off the earth, and the wicked will be no more'? When _sin_ ceases,
+there will be no more _sinners_. Pray rather, my rabbi, that they
+repent, and amend their ways."[27]
+
+That a woman could attain to Beruriah's mental poise, and make her voice
+heard and heeded in the councils of the teachers of the Law, and that
+the rabbis considered her sayings and doings worthy of record, would of
+itself, without the evidence of numerous other learned women of Talmud
+fame, prove, were proof necessary, the honorable position occupied by
+Jewish women in those days. Long before Schiller, the Talmud said:[28]
+"Honor women, because they bring blessing." Of Abraham it is said: "It
+was well with him, because of his wife Sarah." Again: "More glorious is
+the promise made to women, than that to men: In Isaiah (xxxii. 9) we
+read: 'Ye women that are at ease, hear my voice!' for, with women it
+lies to inspire their husbands and sons with zeal for the study of the
+Law, the most meritorious of deeds." Everywhere the Talmud sounds the
+praise of the virtuous woman of Proverbs and of the blessings of a happy
+family life.
+
+A single Talmudic sentence, namely, "He who teaches his daughter the
+Law, teaches her what is unworthy," torn from its context, and falsely
+interpreted, has given rise to most absurd theories with regard to the
+views of Talmudic times on the matter of woman's education. It should be
+taken into consideration that its author, who is responsible also for
+the sentiment that "woman's place is at the distaff," was the husband of
+Ima Shalom, a clever, highly cultured, but irascible woman, who was on
+intimate terms with Jewish Christians, and was wont to interfere in the
+disputations carried on by men--in short, a representative Talmudic
+blue-stocking, with all the attributes with which fancy would be prone
+to invest such a one.[29]
+
+Elsewhere the Talmud tells about Rabbi Nachman's wife Yaltha, the proud
+and learned daughter of a princely line. Her guest, the poor itinerant
+preacher Rabbi Ulla, expressed the opinion that according to the Law it
+was not necessary to pass the wine-cup over which the blessing has been
+said to women. The opinion, surely not the withheld wine, so angered his
+hostess, that she shivered four hundred wine-pitchers, letting their
+contents flow over the ground.[30] If the rabbis had such incidents in
+mind, crabbed utterances were not unjustifiable. Perhaps every
+rabbinical antagonist to woman's higher education was himself the victim
+of a learned wife, who regaled him, after his toilsome research at the
+academy, with unpalatable soup, or, worse still, with Talmudic
+discussions. Instances are abundant of erudite rabbis tormented by their
+wives. One, we are told, refused to cook for her husband, and another,
+day after day, prepared a certain dish, knowing that he would not touch
+it.
+
+But this is pleasantry. It would betray total ignorance of the Talmud
+and the rabbis to impute to them the scorn of woman prevalent at that
+time. The Talmud and its sages never weary of singing the praise of
+women, and at every occasion inculcate respect for them, and devotion to
+their service. The compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud, Rabbi Jochanan,
+whose life is crowned with the aureole of romance, pays a delicate
+tribute to woman by the question: "Who directed the first prayer of
+thanksgiving to God? A woman, Leah, when she cried out in the fulness of
+her joy: 'Now again will I praise the Lord.'"
+
+Under the influence of such ideal views, and in obedience to such
+standards, Jewish woman led a modest, retired life of domestic activity,
+the help-meet and solace of her husband, the joy of his age, the
+treasure of his liberty, his comforter in sorrow. For, when the
+portentous catastrophe overwhelmed the Jewish nation, when Jerusalem and
+the Temple lay in ruins, when the noblest of the people were slain, and
+the remnant of Israel was made to wander forth out of his land into a
+hostile world, to fulfil his mission as a witness to the truth of
+monotheism, then Jewish woman, too, was found ready to assume the
+burdens imposed by distressful days.
+
+Israel, broken up into unresisting fragments, began his two thousand
+years' journey through the desert of time, despoiled of all possessions
+except his Law and his family. Of these treasures Titus and his legions
+could not rob him. From the ruins of the Jewish state blossomed forth
+the spirit of Jewish life and law in vigorous renewal. Judaism rose
+rejuvenated on the crumbling temples of Jupiter, immaculate in doctrine,
+incorruptible in practice. Israel's spiritual guides realized that
+adherence to the Law is the only safeguard against annihilation and
+oblivion. From that time forth, the men became the guardians of the
+_Law_, the women the guardians of the purity of _life_, both working
+harmoniously for the preservation of Judaism.
+
+The muse of history recorded no names of Jewish women from the
+destruction of the Temple to the eleventh century. Yet the student
+cannot fail to assign the remarkable preservation of the race to
+woman's gentle, quiet, though paramount influence by the side of the
+earnest tenacity of men. Among Jews leisure, among non-Jews knowledge,
+was lacking to preserve names for the instruction of posterity. Before
+Jews could record their suffering, the oppressor's hand again fell, its
+grasp more relentless than ever. For many centuries blood and tears
+constitute the chronicle of Jewish life, and at the sources of these
+streams of blood and rivers of tears, the genius of Jewish history sits
+lamenting.
+
+Whenever the sun of tolerance broke through the clouds of oppression,
+and for even a brief period shone upon the martyr race, its marvellous
+development under persecution and in despite of unspeakable suffering at
+once stood revealed. During these occasional breaks in the darkness,
+women appeared whose erudition was so profound as to earn special
+mention. As was said above, the first names of women distinguished for
+beauty and intellect come down to us from the eleventh century, and even
+then only Italy, Provence, Andalusia, and the Orient, were favored, Jews
+in these countries living unmolested and in comparative freedom, and
+zealously devoting their leisure to the study of the Talmud and secular
+branches of learning. In praise of Italy it was said: "Out of Bari goes
+forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Otranto." It is, therefore,
+not surprising to read in Jewish sources of the maiden Paula, of the
+family Dei Mansi (Anawim), the daughter of Abraham, and later the wife
+of Yechiel dei Mansi, who, in 1288, copied her father's abstruse
+Talmudic commentary, adding ingenious explanations, the result of
+independent research. But one grows somewhat sceptical over the account,
+by a Jewish tourist, Rabbi Petachya of Ratisbon, of Bath Halevi,
+daughter of Rabbi Samuel ben Ali in Bagdad, equally well-read in the
+Bible and the Talmud, and famous for her beauty. She lectured on the
+Talmud to a large number of students, and, to prevent their falling in
+love with her, she sat behind lattice-work or in a glass cabinet, that
+she might be heard but not seen. The dry tourist-chronicler fails to
+report whether her disciples approved of the preventive measure, and
+whether in the end it turned out to have been effectual. At all events,
+the example of the learned maiden found an imitator. Almost a century
+later we meet with Miriam Shapiro, of Constance, a beautiful Jewish
+girl, who likewise delivered public lectures on the Talmud sitting
+behind a curtain, that the attention of her inquisitive pupils might not
+be distracted by sight of her from their studies.
+
+Of the learned El Muallima we are told that she transplanted Karaite
+doctrines from the Orient to Castile, where she propagated them. The
+daughter of the prince of poets, Yehuda Halevi, is accredited with a
+soulful religious poem hitherto attributed to her father, and Rabbi
+Joseph ibn Nagdela's wife was esteemed the most learned and
+representative woman in Granada. Even in the choir of Arabic-Andalusian
+poets we hear the voice of a Jewish songstress, Kasmune, the daughter
+of the poet Ishmael. Only a few blossoms of her delicate poetry have
+been preserved.[31] Catching sight of her young face in the mirror, she
+called out:
+
+    "A vine I see, and though 'tis time to glean,
+      No hand is yet stretched forth to cull the fruit.
+    Alas! my youth doth pass in sorrow keen,
+      A nameless 'him' my eyes in vain salute."
+
+Her pet gazelle, raised by herself, she addresses thus:
+
+    "In only thee, my timid, fleet gazelle,
+      Dark-eyed like thee, I see my counterpart;
+    We both live lone, without companion dwell,
+      Accepting fate's decree with patient heart."
+
+Of other women we are told whose learning and piety inspired respect,
+not only in Talmudic authorities, but, more than that, in their sisters
+in faith. Especially in the family of Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac),
+immortal through his commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud, a number
+of women distinguished themselves. His daughter Rachel (Bellejeune), on
+one occasion when her father was sick, wrote out for Rabbi Abraham Cohen
+of Mayence an opinion on religious questions in dispute. Rashi's two
+granddaughters, Anna and Miriam, were equally famous. In questions
+relating to the dietary laws, they were cited as authorities, and their
+decisions accepted as final.
+
+Zunz calls the wife of Rabbi Joseph ben Jochanan of Paris "almost a
+rabbi"; and Dolce, wife of the learned Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, supported
+her family with the work of her hands, was a thorough student of the
+dietary laws, taught women on Jewish subjects, and on Sabbath delivered
+public lectures. She wore the twofold crown of learning and martyrdom.
+On December 6, 1213, fanatic crusaders rushed into the rabbi's house,
+and most cruelly killed her and her two daughters, Bella and Anna.
+
+Israel having again fallen on evil times, the rarity of women writers
+during the next two centuries needs no explanation. In the sixteenth
+century their names reappear on the records, not only as Talmudic
+scholars, but also as writers of history in the German language. Litte
+of Ratisbon composed a history of King David in the celebrated "Book of
+Samuel," a poem in the _Nibelungen_ stanza, and we are told that Rachel
+Ackermann of Vienna was banished for having written a piquant novel,
+"Court Secrets."
+
+These tentative efforts led the way to busy and widespread activity by
+Jewish women in various branches of literature at a somewhat later
+period, when the so-called _Judendeutsch_, also known as
+_Altweiberdeutsch_ (old women's German), came into general use. Rebekah
+Tiktiner, daughter of Rabbi Meir Tiktiner, attained to a reputation
+considerable enough to suggest her scholarly work to J. G. Zeltner, a
+Rostock professor, as the subject of an essay published in 1719. Her
+book, _Meneketh Ribka_, deals with the duties of woman. Edel Mendels of
+Cracow epitomized "Yosippon" (History of the Jews after Josephus); Bella
+Chasan, who died a martyr's death, composed two instructive works on
+Jewish history, in their time widely read; Glikel Hamel of Hamburg wrote
+her memoirs, describing her contemporaries and the remarkable events of
+her life; Hannah Ashkenasi was the author of addresses on moral
+subjects; and Ella Goetz translated the Hebrew prayers into
+Jewish-German.
+
+Litte of Ratisbon found imitators. Rosa Fischels of Cracow was the first
+to put the psalms into Jewish-German rhymes (1586). She turned the whole
+psalter "into simple German very prettily, modestly, and withal
+pleasantly for women and maidens to read." The authoress acknowledges
+that it was her aim to imitate the rhyme and melody of the "Book of
+Samuel" by her famed predecessor. Occasionally her paraphrase rises to
+the height of true poetry, as in the first and last verses of Psalm
+xcvi:
+
+"Sing to God a new song, sing to God all the land, sing to God, praise
+His name, show forth His ready help from day to day.... The field and
+all thereon shall show great joy; they will sing with all their leaves,
+the trees of the wood and the grove, before the Lord God who will come
+to judge the earth far and near. He judgeth the earth with righteousness
+and the nations with truth."
+
+Rosa Fischels was followed by a succession of women writers: Taube Pan
+in Prague, a poetess; Bella Hurwitz, who wrote a history of the House
+of David, and, in association with Rachel Rausnitz, an account of the
+settlement of Jews in Prague; and a number of scholarly women famous
+among their co-religionists for knowledge of the Talmud, piety, and
+broad, secular culture.
+
+In a rapid review like this of woman's achievements on the field of
+Jewish scholarship, the results recorded must appear meagre, owing
+partly to the paucity of available data, partly to the nature of the
+inquiry. Abstruse learning, pure science, original research, are by no
+means woman's portion. Such occupations demand complete surrender on the
+part of the student, uninterrupted attention to the subject pursued, and
+delicately organized woman is not capable of such absorption. Woman's
+perceptions are subtle, and she rests satisfied with her intuitions;
+while man strives to transmute his feelings, deeper than hers, into
+action. The external appeals to woman who comprehends easily and
+quickly, and, therefore, does not penetrate beneath the surface. Man, on
+the other hand, strives to pierce to the essence of things, apprehends
+more slowly, but thinks more profoundly, and tests carefully before he
+accepts. Hence we so rarely meet woman in the field of science, while
+her work in the domain of poetry and the humanities is abundant and
+attractive. Jewish women form no exception to the rule: a survey of
+Jewish poetry will show woman's share in its productions to have been
+considerable and of high quality. While there was little or no
+possibility to prosecute historic or scientific inquiry during the
+harrowing days of persecution, the well-spring of Jewish poetry never
+ran dry. Poetry followed the race into exile, and clave to it through
+all vicissitudes, its solacement in suffering, the holy mediatrix
+between its past and future. "The Orient dwells an exile in the
+Occident, and its tears of longing for home are the fountain-head of
+Jewish poetry," says a Christian scholar. And at the altar of this
+poetry, whose sweetness and purity sanctified home life, and spread a
+sense of morality in a time when brutality and corruptness were general,
+the women singers of Israel offered the gifts of their muse. While the
+culture of that time culminated in the service of love (_Minnedienst_),
+in woman worship, so offensive to modern taste, Jewish poetry was
+pervaded by a pure, ideal conception of love and womanhood, testifying
+to the high ethical principles of its devotees.
+
+Judaism and Jewish poetry know naught of the sensual love so assiduously
+fostered by the cult of the Virgin. "Love," says a celebrated historian
+of literature, "was glorified in all shapes and guises, and represented
+as the highest aim of life. Woman's virtues, yea, even her vices, were
+invested with exaggerated importance. Woman became accustomed to think
+that she could be neither faithful nor faithless without turning the
+world topsy-turvy. She shared the fate of all objects of excessive
+adulation: flattery corrupted her. Thus it came about that love of woman
+overshadowed every other social force and every form of family
+affection, and so spent its power. The Jews were the only ones sane
+enough to subordinate sexual love to reverence for motherhood. Alexander
+Weill makes a Jewish mother say: 'Is it proper for a good Jewish mother
+to concern herself about love? Love is revolting idolatry. A Jewess may
+love only God, her husband, and her children.' Granny (_Alt-Babele_) in
+one of Kompert's tales says: 'God could not be everywhere, so he created
+mothers.' In Jewish novels, maternal love is made the basis of family
+life, its passion and its mystery. A Jewish mother! What an image the
+words conjure up! Her face is calm, though pale; a melancholy smile
+rests upon her lips, and her soulful eyes seem to hide in their depths
+the vision of a remote future."
+
+This is a correct view. Jewish poetry is interpenetrated with the breath
+of intellectual love, that is, love growing out of the recognition of
+duty, no less ideal than sensual love. In the heart of the Jew love is
+an infinite force. Too mighty to be confined to the narrow limits of
+personal passion, it extends so as to include future generations.
+
+Thus it happened that while in Christian poetry woman was the subject of
+song and sonnet, in Jewish poetry she herself sang and composed, and her
+productions are worthy of ranking beside the best poetic creations of
+each generation.
+
+The earliest blossoms of Jewish poetry by women unfolded in the
+spring-like atmosphere of the Renaissance under the blue sky of Italy,
+the home of the immortal trio, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The
+first Jewish women writers of Italian verse were Deborah Ascarelli and
+Sara Copia Sullam, who, arrayed in the full panoply of the culture of
+their day, and as thoroughly equipped with Jewish knowledge, devoted
+their talents and their zeal to the service of their nation.
+
+Deborah Ascarelli of Rome, the pride of her sex, was the wife of the
+respected rabbi Giuseppe Ascarelli, and lived at Venice in the beginning
+of the seventeenth century. She made a graceful Italian translation of
+Moses Rieti's _Sefer ha-Hechal_, a Hebrew poem written in imitation of
+the _Divina Commedia_, and enjoying much favor at Rome. As early as
+1609, David della Rocca published a second edition of her translation,
+dedicating it to the charming authoress. To put the highly wrought,
+artificial poetry of the Hebrew Dante into mellifluous Italian verse was
+by no means easy. While Rieti's poetry is not distinguished by the vigor
+and fulness of the older classical productions of neo-Hebraic poetry,
+his rhythm is smooth, pleasant, and polished. Yet her rendition is
+admirable. Besides, she won fame as a writer of hymns in praise of the
+God of her people, who so wondrously rescued it from all manner of
+distress.
+
+    "Let other poets of victory's trophies tell,
+    Thy song will e'er thy people's praises swell,"
+
+says a Jewish Italian poet enchanted by her talent.
+
+A still more gifted poetess was Sara Copia Sullam, a particular star in
+Judah's galaxy.[32] The only child of a wealthy Venetian at the end of
+the sixteenth century, she was indulged in her love of study, and
+afforded every opportunity to advance in the arts and sciences. "She
+revelled in the realm of beauty, and crystallized her enthusiasm in
+graceful, sweet, maidenly verses. Young, lovely, of generous impulses
+and keen intellectual powers, her ambition set upon lofty attainments, a
+favorite of the muses, Sara Copia charmed youth and age."
+
+These graces of mind became her misfortune. An old Italian priest,
+Ansaldo Ceba, in Genoa, published an Italian epic with the Esther of the
+Bible as the heroine. Sara was delighted with the choice of the subject.
+It was natural that a high-minded, sensitive girl with lofty ideals,
+stung to the quick by the injustice and contumely suffered by her
+people, should rejoice extravagantly in the praise lavished upon a
+heroine of her nation. Carried away by enthusiasm she wrote the poet, a
+stranger to her, a letter overflowing with gratitude for the pure
+delight his poem had yielded her. Her passionate warmth, betraying at
+once the accomplished poetess and the gifted thinker, did not fail to
+fascinate the old priest, who immediately resolved to capture this
+beautiful soul for the church. His desire brought about a lively
+correspondence, our chief source of information about Sara Copia. Her
+conversion became a passion with the highstrung priest, taking complete
+possession of him during the last years of his life. He brought to bear
+upon her case every trick of dialectics and flattery at his command. All
+in vain. The greatest successes of which he could boast were her promise
+to read the New Testament, and her consent to his praying for her
+conversion. Sara's arguments in favor of Judaism arouse the reader's
+admiration for the sharpness of intellect displayed, her poetic genius,
+and her intimate acquaintance with Jewish sources as well as philosophic
+systems.
+
+Ansaldo never abandoned the hope of gaining her over to Christianity.
+Unable to convince her reason, he attacked her heart. Though evincing
+singular love and veneration for her old admirer, Sara could not be
+moved from steadfast adherence to her faith. She sent him her picture
+with the words: "This is the picture of one who carries yours deeply
+graven on her heart, and, with finger pointing to her bosom, tells the
+world: 'Here dwells my idol, bow before him.'"
+
+With old age creeping upon him with its palsy touch, he continued to
+think of nothing but Sara's conversion, and assailed her in prose and
+verse. One of his imploring letters closes thus:
+
+    "Life's fair, bright morn bathes thee in light,
+      Thy cheeks are softly flushed with youthful zest.
+    For me the night sets in; my limbs
+      Are cold, but ardent love glows in my breast."
+
+Sara having compared his poems with those of Amphion and Orpheus, he
+answered her:
+
+    "To Amphion the stones lent ear
+      When soft he touched his lute;
+    And beasts came trooping nigh to hear
+      When Orpheus played his flute.
+
+    How long, O Sara, wilt thou liken me
+      To those great singers of the olden days?
+    My God and faith I sought to give to thee,
+      In vain I proved the error of thy ways.
+    Their song had charms more potent than my own,
+    Or art thou harder than a beast or stone?"
+
+The query long remained unanswered, for just then the poetess was
+harassed by many trials. Serious illness prostrated her, then her
+beloved father died, and finally she was unjustly charged by the envious
+among her co-religionists with neglect of Jewish observances, and denial
+of the divine origin of the Law. She found no difficulty in refuting the
+malicious accusation, but she was stung to the quick by the calumnious
+attack, the pain it inflicted vanishing only in the presence of a grave
+danger. Balthasar Bonifacio, an obscure author, in a brochure published
+for that purpose, accused her of rejecting the doctrine of the
+immortality of the soul, a most serious charge, which, if sustained,
+would have thrown her into the clutches of the Inquisition. In two days
+she wrote a brilliant defense completely exonerating herself and
+exposing the spitefulness of the attack, a masterful production by
+reason of its vigorous dialectics, incisive satire, and noble enthusiasm
+for the cause of religion. Together with some few of her sonnets, this
+is all that has come down to us of her writings. She opened her
+vindication with the following sonnet:
+
+    "O Lord, Thou know'st my inmost hope and thought,
+      Thou know'st whene'er before Thy judgment throne
+      I shed salt tears, and uttered many a moan,
+    'Twas not for vanities that I besought.
+    O turn on me Thy look with mercy fraught,
+      And see how envious malice makes me groan!
+      The pall upon my heart by error thrown
+    Remove; illume me with Thy radiant thought.
+      At truth let not the wicked scorner mock,
+      O Thou, that breath'dst in me a spark divine.
+      The lying tongue's deceit with silence blight,
+      Protect me from its venom, Thou, my Rock,
+      And show the spiteful sland'rer by this sign
+      That Thou dost shield me with Thy endless might."
+
+Sara's vindication was complete. Her friend Ceba was kept faithfully
+informed of all that befell her, but he was absorbed in thoughts of her
+conversion and his approaching end. He wrote to her that he did not care
+to receive any more letters from her unless they announced her
+acceptance of the true faith.
+
+After Ansaldo's death, we hear nothing more about the poetess. She died
+at the beginning of 1641, and the celebrated rabbi, Leon de Modena,
+composed her epitaph, a poetic tribute to one whose life redounded to
+the glory of Judaism.
+
+Our subject now carries us from the luxuriant south to the dunes of the
+North Sea. Holland was the first to open the doors of its cities
+hospitably to the three hundred thousand Jews exiled from Spain, and its
+busy capital Amsterdam became the centre whither tended the intelligent
+of the Marranos, fleeing before the Holy Inquisition. Physicians,
+mathematicians, philologists, military men, and diplomats, poets and
+poetesses, took refuge there. Among the poetesses,[33] the most
+prominent was Isabella Correa, distinguished for wit as well as poetic
+endowment, the wife of the Jewish captain and author, Nicolas de Oliver
+y Fullano, of Majorca. One of her contemporaries, Daniel de Barrios,
+says that "she was an accomplished linguist, wrote delightful letters,
+composed exquisite verses, played the lute like a _maestro_, and sang
+like an angel. Her sparkling black eyes sent piercing darts into every
+beholder's heart, and she was famed for beauty as well as intellect."
+She made a noble Spanish translation of _Pastor Fido_, the most popular
+Italian drama of the day, and published a volume of poems, also in
+Spanish. Antonio dos Reys sings her praises:
+
+  "_Pastor Fido!_ no longer art thou read in thy own tongue, since Correa,
+  Faithfully rendering thy song, created thee anew in Spanish forms.
+  A laurel wreath surmounts her brow,
+  Because her right hand had cunning to strike tones from the tragic lyre.
+  On the mount of singers, a seat is reserved for her,
+  Albeit many a Batavian voice refused consent.
+  For, Correa's faith invited scorn from aliens,
+  And her own despised her cheerful serenity.
+  Now, with greater justice, all bend a reverent knee to Correa, the Jewess,
+  Correa, who, it seems, is wholly like Lysia."
+
+Donna Isabella Enriquez, a Spanish poetess of great versatility, was her
+contemporary. She lived first in Madrid, afterwards in Amsterdam, and
+even in advanced age was surrounded by admirers. At the age of
+sixty-two, she presented the men of her acquaintance with amulets
+against love, notwithstanding that she had spoken and written against
+the use of charms. For instance, when an egg with a crown on the end was
+found in the house of Isaac Aboab, the celebrated rabbi at Amsterdam,
+she wrote him the following:
+
+    "See, the terror! Lo! the wonder!
+    Basilisk, the fabled viper!
+    Superstition names it so.
+    Look at it, I pray, with calmness,
+    'Twas thy mind that was at fault.
+    God's great goodness is displayed here;
+    He, I trow, rewards thy eloquence
+    In the monster which thou seest:
+    All this rounded whole's thy virtue,
+    Wisdom's symbol is the crown!"
+
+Besides Isabella Correa and Isabella Enriquez, we have the names, though
+not the productions, of Sara de Fonseca Pina y Pimentel, Bienvenida
+Cohen Belmonte, and Manuela Nunes de Almeida. They have left but faint
+traces of their work, and fancy can fill in the sketch only with
+conjectures.
+
+After these Marrano poetesses, silence fell upon the women of Israel for
+a whole century--a century of oppression and political slavery, of
+isolation in noisome Ghettos, of Christian scorn and mockery. The Jews
+of Germany and Poland, completely crushed beneath the load of sorrow,
+hibernated until the gentle breath of a new time, levelling Ghetto walls
+and heralding a dawn when human rights would be recognized, awoke them
+to activity and achievement.
+
+Mighty is the spirit of the times! It clears a way for itself, boldly
+pushing aside every stumbling-block in the shape of outworn prejudices
+and decaying customs. A century dawned, the promise of liberty and
+tolerance flaming on its horizon, to none so sweet as to the Jew. Who
+has the heart to cast the first stone upon a much-tried race, tortured
+throughout the centuries, for surrendering itself to the unwonted joy of
+living, for drinking deep, intoxicating draughts from the newly
+discovered fount of liberty, and, alas! for throwing aside, under the
+burning sun of the new era, the perennial protection of its religion?
+And may we utterly condemn the daughters of Israel, the "roses of
+Sharon," and "lilies of the valleys," "unkissed by the dew, lost
+wanderers cheered by no greeting," who, now that all was sunshine,
+forgot their people, and disregarded the sanctity of family bonds, their
+shield and their refuge in the sorrow and peril of the dark ages?
+
+With emotion, with pain, not with resentment, Jewish history tells of
+those women, who spurned Judaism, knowing only its external appearance,
+its husk, not its essence, high ethical principles and philosophical
+truths--of Rahel Varnhagen, Henriette Herz, Regina Froehlich, Dorothea
+Mendelssohn, Sarah and Marianne Meyer, Esther Gad, and many others,
+first products of German culture in alliance with Jewish wit and
+brilliancy.
+
+Rahel Levin was the foster-mother of "Young Germany," and leader in the
+woman's emancipation movement, so fruitful later on of deplorable
+excesses. Rahel herself never overstepped the limits of "_das
+Ewig-Weibliche_." No act of hers ran counter to the most exalted
+requirements of morality. Her being was pervaded by high seriousness,
+noble dignity, serene cheerfulness. "She dwelt always in the Holy of
+holies of thought, and even her most daring wishes for herself and
+mankind leapt shyly heavenwards like pure sacrificial flames." Nothing
+more touching can be found in the history of the human heart than her
+confession before death: "With sublime rapture I dwell upon my origin
+and the marvellous web woven by fate, binding together the oldest
+recollections of the human race and its most recent aspirations,
+connecting scenes separated by the greatest possible intervals of time
+and space. My Jewish birth which I long considered a stigma, a sore
+disgrace, has now become a precious inheritance, of which nothing on
+earth can deprive me."[34]
+
+The fact is that Rahel Levin was a great woman, great even in her
+aberrations, while her satellites, shining by reflected light, and
+pretending to perpetuate her spirit, transgressed the bounds of
+womanliness, and opened wide a door to riotous sensuality. Certain
+opponents of the woman's emancipation movement take malicious
+satisfaction in rehearsing that it was a Jewess who inaugurated it,
+prudently neglecting to mention that in the list of Rahel's followers,
+not one Jewish name appears.
+
+The spirit of Judaism and with it the spirit of morality can never be
+extinguished. They may flag, or vanish for a time, but their restoration
+in increased vigor and radiance is certain; for, they bear within
+themselves the guarantee of a future. Henriette Herz, the apostate
+daughter of Judaism chewing the cud of Schleiermacher's sentimentality
+and Schlegel's romanticism, had not yet passed away when England
+produced Jewish women whose deeds were quickened by the spirit of olden
+heroism, who walked in the paths of wisdom and faith, and, recoiling
+from the cowardice that counsels apostasy, would have fought, if need
+be, suffered, and bled, for their faith. What answer but the blush of
+shame mantling her cheek could the proud beauty have found, had she been
+asked by, let us say, Lady Judith Montefiore, to tell what it was that
+chained her to the ruins of the Jewish race?
+
+Lady Montefiore truly was a heroine, worthy to be named with those who
+have made our past illustrious, and her peer in intellect and strength
+of character was Charlotte Montefiore, whose early death was a serious
+loss to Judaism as well as to her family. Her work, "A Few Words to the
+Jews by one of themselves," containing that charming tale, "The Jewel
+Island," displays intellectual and poetic gifts.
+
+The most prominent of women writers in our era unquestionably is Grace
+Aguilar, in whom we must admire the rare union of broad culture and
+profound piety. She was born at Hackney in June of 1816, and early
+showed extraordinary talent and insatiable thirst for knowledge. In her
+twelfth year she wrote "Gustavus Vasa," an historical drama evincing
+such unusual gifts that her parents were induced to devote themselves
+exclusively to her education. It is a charming picture this, of a young,
+gifted girl, under the loving care of cultured parents actuated by the
+sole desire to imbue their daughter with their own taste for natural and
+artistic beauty and their steadfast love for Judaism, and content to
+lead a modest existence, away from the bustle and the opportunities of
+the city, in order to be able to give themselves up wholly to the
+education and companionship of their beloved, only daughter. Under the
+influence of a wise friend, Grace Aguilar herself tells us, she
+supplicated God to enable her to do something by which her people might
+gain higher esteem with their Christian fellow-citizens.
+
+God hearkened unto her prayer, for her efforts were crowned with
+success. Her first work was the translation of a book from the Hebrew,
+"Israel Defended." Next came "The Magic Wreath," a collection of poems,
+and then her well-known works, "Home Influence," "The Spirit of
+Judaism," her best production, "The Women of Israel," "The Jewish
+Faith," and "History of the Jews in England"--a rich harvest for one
+whose span of life was short. Her pen was dipped into the blood of her
+veins and the sap of her nerves; the sacred fire of the prophets burnt
+in her soul, and she was inspired by olden Jewish enthusiasm and
+devotion to a trust.
+
+So ardent a spirit could not long be imprisoned within so frail a body.
+In the very prime of life, just thirty-one years old, Grace Aguilar
+passed away, as though her beautiful soul were hastening to shake off
+the mortal coil. She rests in German earth, in the Frankfort Jewish
+cemetery. Her grave is marked with a simple stone, bearing an equally
+simple epitaph:
+
+    "Give her of the fruit of her hands,
+    And let her own works praise her in the gates."
+
+Her death was deeply lamented far and wide. She was a golden link in the
+chain of humanity--a bold, courageous, withal thoroughly womanly woman,
+a God-inspired daughter of her race and faith. "We are persuaded," says
+a non-Jewish friend of hers, "that had this young woman lived in the
+times of frightful persecution, she would willingly have mounted the
+stake for her faith, praying for her murderers with her last breath."
+That the nobility of a solitary woman, leaping like a flame from heart
+to heart, may inspire high-minded thoughts, and that Grace Aguilar's
+life became a blessing for her people and for humanity, is illustrated
+by the following testimonial signed by several hundred Jewish women,
+presented to her when she was about to leave England:
+
+"Dearest Sister--Our admiration of your talents, our veneration for your
+character, our gratitude for the eminent services your writings render
+our sex, our people, our faith, in which the sacred cause of true
+religion is embodied: all these motives combine to induce us to intrude
+on your presence, in order to give utterance to sentiments which we are
+happy to feel and delighted to express. Until you arose, it has, in
+modern times, never been the case that a Woman in Israel should stand
+forth the public advocate of the faith of Israel; that with the depth
+and purity of feelings which is the treasure of woman, and with the
+strength of mind and extensive knowledge that form the pride of man, she
+should call on her own to cherish, on others to respect, the truth as it
+is in Israel.
+
+"You, dearest Sister, have done this, and more. You have taught us to
+know and appreciate our dignity; to feel and to prove that no female
+character can be ... more pure than that of the Jewish maiden, none more
+pious than that of the woman in Israel. You have vindicated our social
+and spiritual equality with our brethren in the faith: you have, by your
+own excellent example, triumphantly refuted the aspersion, that the
+Jewish religion leaves unmoved the heart of the Jewish woman. Your
+writings place within our reach those higher motives, those holier
+consolations, which flow from the spirituality of our religion, which
+urge the soul to commune with its Maker and direct it to His grace and
+His mercy as the best guide and protector here and hereafter...."
+
+Her example fell like seed upon fertile soil, for Abigail Lindo, Marian
+Hartog, Annette Salomon, and especially Anna Maria Goldsmid, a writer of
+merit, daughter of the well-known Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, may be
+considered her disciples, the fruit of her sowing.
+
+The Italian poetess, Rachel Morpurgo, a worthy successor of Deborah
+Ascarelli and Sara Copia Sullam, was contemporaneous with Grace Aguilar,
+though her senior by twenty-six years. Our interest in her is heightened
+by her use of the Hebrew language, which she handled with such
+consummate skill that her writings easily take rank with the best of
+neo-Hebraic literature. A niece of the famous scholar S. D. Luzzatto,
+she was born at Triest, April 8, 1790. Until the age of twelve she
+studied the Bible, then she read Bechai's "Duties of the Heart" and
+Rashi's commentary, and from her fourteenth to her sixteenth year she
+devoted herself to the Talmud and the Zohar--a remarkable course of
+study, pursued, too, in despite of adverse circumstances. At the same
+time she was taught the turner's art by Luzzatto's father, and later she
+learned tailoring. One of her poems having been published without her
+knowledge, she gives vent to her regret in a sonnet:
+
+    "My soul surcharged with grief now loud complains,
+      And fears upon my spirit heavily weigh.
+      'Thy poem we have heard,' the people say,
+    'Who like to thee can sing melodious strains?'
+    'They're naught but sparks,' outspeaks my soul in chains,
+      'Struck from my life by torture every day.
+      But now all perfume's fled--no more my lay
+    Shall rise; for, fear of shame my song restrains.'
+      A woman's fancies lightly roam, and weave
+      Themselves into a fairy web. Should I
+      Refrain? Ah! soon enough this pleasure, too,
+      Will flee! Verily I cannot conceive
+      Why I'm extolled. For woman 'tis to ply
+      The spinning wheel--then to herself she's true."
+
+This painful self-consciousness, coupled with the oppression of material
+cares, forms the sad refrain of Rachel Morpurgo's writings. She is a
+true poetess: the woes of humanity are reflected in her own sorrows, to
+which she gave utterance in soulful tones. She, too, became an exemplar
+for a number of young women. A Pole, Yenta Wohllerner, like Rachel
+Morpurgo, had to propitiate churlish circumstances before she could
+publish the gifts of her muse, and Miriam Mosessohn, Bertha Rabbinowicz,
+and others, emulated her masterly handling of the Hebrew language.
+
+The opening of the new era was marked by the appearance of a triad of
+Jewesses--Grace Aguilar in England, Rachel Morpurgo in Italy, and
+Henriette Ottenheimer in Germany. A native of the blessed land of
+Suabia, Henriette Ottenheimer was consecrated to poetry by intercourse
+with two masters of song--Uhland and Rueckert. Her poems, fragrant
+blossoms plucked on Suabian fields, for the most part are no more than
+sweet womanly lyrics, growing strong with the force of enthusiasm only
+when she dwells upon her people's sacred mission and the heroes of Bible
+days.
+
+Women like these renew the olden fame of the Jewess, and add
+achievements to her brilliant record. As for their successors and
+imitators, our contemporaries, whose literary productions are before us,
+on them we may not yet pass judgment; their work is still on probation.
+
+One striking circumstance in connection with their activity should be
+pointed out, because it goes to prove the soundness of judgment, the
+penetration, and expansiveness characteristic of Jews. While the
+movement for woman's complete emancipation has counted not a single
+Jewess among its promoters, its more legitimate successor, the movement
+to establish woman's right and ability to earn a livelihood in any
+branch of human endeavor--a right and ability denied only by prejudice,
+or stupidity--was headed and zealously supported by Jewesses, an
+assertion which can readily be proved by such names as Lina Morgenstern,
+known to the public also as an advocate of moderate religious reforms,
+Jenny Hirsch, Henriette Goldschmidt, and a number of writers on subjects
+of general and Jewish interest, such as Rachel Meyer, Elise Levi
+(Henle), Ulla Frank-Wolff, Johanna Goldschmidt, Caroline Deutsch, in
+Germany; Rebekah Eugenie Foa, Julianna and Pauline Bloch, in France;
+Estelle and Maria Hertzveld, in Holland, and Emma Lazarus, in America.
+
+One other name should be recorded. Fanny Neuda, the writer of "Hours of
+Devotion," and a number of juvenile stories, has a double claim upon our
+recognition, inasmuch as she is an authoress of the Jewish race who has
+addressed her writings exclusively to Jewish women.
+
+We have followed Jewish women from the days of their first flight into
+the realm of song through a period of two thousand years up to modern
+times, when our record would seem to come to a natural conclusion. But I
+deem it proper to bring to your attention a set of circumstances which
+would be called phenomenal, were it not, as we all know, that the
+greatest of all wonders is that true wonders are so common.
+
+It is a well-known fact, spread by literary journals, that the
+Rothschild family, conspicuous for financial ability, has produced a
+goodly number of authoresses. But it is less well known, and much more
+noteworthy, that many of the excellent women of this family have devoted
+their literary gifts and attainments to the service of Judaism. The
+palaces of the Rothschilds, the richest family in the world, harbor many
+a warm heart, whose pulsations are quickened by the thought of Israel's
+history and poetic heritage. Wealth has not abated a jot of their
+enthusiasm and loyal love for the faith. The first of the house of
+Rothschild to make a name for herself as an authoress was Lady
+Charlotte Rothschild, in London, one of the noblest women of our time,
+who, standing in the glare of prosperity, did not disdain to take up the
+cudgels in defense of her people, to go Sabbath after Sabbath to her
+poor, unfortunate sisters in faith, and expound to them, in the school
+established by her generosity, the nature and duties of a moral,
+religious life, in lectures pervaded by the spirit of truth and faith.
+Two volumes of these addresses have been published in German and English
+(1864 and 1869), and every page gives evidence of rare piety,
+considerable scholarship, thorough knowledge of the Bible, and a high
+degree of culture. Equal enthusiasm for Judaism pervades the two volumes
+of "Thoughts Suggested by Bible Texts" (1859), by Baroness Louise,
+another of the English Rothschilds.
+
+Three young women of this house, in which wealth is not hostile to
+idealism, have distinguished themselves as writers, foremost among them
+Clementine Rothschild, a gentle, sweet maiden, claimed by death before
+life with its storms could rob her of the pure ideals of youth. She died
+in her twentieth year, and her legacy to her family and her faith is
+contained in "Letters to a Christian Friend on the Fundamental Truths of
+Judaism," abundantly worthy of the perusal of all women, regardless of
+creed. This young woman displayed more courage, more enthusiasm, more
+wit, to be sure also more precise knowledge of Judaism, than thousands
+of men of our time, young and old, who fancy grandiloquent periods
+sufficient to solve the great religious problems perplexing mankind.
+
+Finally, mention must be made of Constance and Anna de Rothschild, whose
+two volume "History and Literature of the Israelites" (1872) created a
+veritable sensation, and awakened the literary world to the fact that
+the Rothschild family is distinguished not only for wealth, but also for
+the talent and religious zeal of its authoresses.
+
+I have ventured to group these women of the Rothschild family together
+as a conclusion to the history of Jewish women in literature, because I
+take their work to be an earnest of future accomplishment. Such examples
+cannot fail to kindle the spark of enthusiasm slumbering in the hearts
+of Jewish women, and the sacred flame of religious zeal, tended once
+more by women, will leap from rank to rank in the Jewish army. As it is,
+a half-century has brought about a remarkable change in feeling towards
+Judaism. Fifty years ago the following lines by Caroline Deutsch, one of
+the above-mentioned modern German writers, could not have awakened the
+same responsive chord as now:
+
+    "Little cruet in the Temple
+      That didst feed the sacrificial flame,
+    What a true expressive symbol
+      Art thou of my race, of Israel's fame!
+    Thou for days the oil didst furnish
+      To illume the Temple won from foe--
+    So for centuries in my people
+      Spirit of resistance ne'er burnt low.
+    It was cast from home and country,
+      Gloom and sorrow were its daily lot;
+    Yet the torch of faith gleamed steady,
+      Courage, like thy oil, forsook it not.
+    Mocks and jeers were all its portion,
+      Death assailed it in ten thousand forms--
+    Yet this people never faltered,
+      Hope, its beacon, led it through all storms.
+    Poorer than dumb, driven cattle,
+      It went forth enslaved from its estate,
+    All its footsore wand'rings lighted
+      By its consciousness of worth innate.
+    Luckless fortunes could not bend it;
+      Unjust laws increased its wondrous faith;
+    From its heart exhaustless streaming,
+      Freedom's light shone on its thorny path.
+    Oil that burnt in olden Temple,
+      Eight days only didst thou give forth light!
+    Oil of faith sustained this people
+      Through the centuries of darkest night!"
+
+We can afford to look forward to the future of Judaism serenely. The
+signs of the times seem propitious to him whose eye is clear to read
+them, whose heart not too embittered to understand their message aright.
+
+Our rough and tumble time, delighting in negation and destruction,
+crushing underfoot the tender blossoms of poetry and faith, living up to
+its quasi motto, "What will not die of itself, must be put to death,"
+will suddenly come to a stop in its mad career of annihilation. That
+will mark the dawn of a new era, the first stirrings of a new
+spring-tide for storm-driven Israel. On the ruins will rise the Jewish
+home, based on Israel's world-saving conception of family life, which,
+having enlightened the nations of the earth, will return to the source
+whence it first issued. Built on this foundation, and resting on the
+pillars of modern culture, Jewish spirit, and true morality, the Jewish
+home will once more invite the nations to exclaim: "How beautiful are
+thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwellings, O Israel!"
+
+May the soft starlight of woman's high ideals continue to gleam on the
+thorny path of the thinker Israel; may they never depart from Israel,
+those God-kissed women that draw inspiration at the sacred fount of
+poesy, and are consecrated by its limpid waters to give praise and
+thanksgiving to Him that reigns on high; may the poet's words ever
+remain applicable to the matrons and maidens of Israel:[35]
+
+    "Pure woman stands in life's turmoil
+      A rose in leafy bower;
+    Her aspirations and her toil
+      Are tinted like a flower.
+
+    Her thoughts are pious, kind, and true,
+      In evil have no part;
+    A glimpse of empyrean blue
+      Is seen within her heart."
+
+
+
+
+MOSES MAIMONIDES
+
+
+"Who is Maimonides? For my part, I confess that I have merely heard the
+name." This naive admission was not long since made by a well-known
+French writer in discussing the subject of a prize-essay, "Upon the
+Philosophy of Maimonides," announced by the _academie universitaire_ of
+Paris. What short memories the French have for the names of foreign
+scholars! When the proposed subject was submitted to the French minister
+of instruction, he probably asked himself the same question; but he was
+not at a loss for an answer; he simply substituted Spinoza for
+Maimonides. To be sure, Spinoza's philosophy is somewhat better known
+than that of Maimonides. But why should a minister of instruction take
+that into consideration? The minister and the author--both presumably
+over twenty-five years of age--might have heard this very question
+propounded and answered some years before. They might have known that
+their colleague Victor Cousin, to save Descartes from the disgrace of
+having stood sponsor to Spinozism, had established a far-fetched
+connection between the Dutch philosopher and the Spanish, pronouncing
+Spinoza the devoted disciple of Maimonides. Perhaps they might have been
+expected to know, too, that Solomon Munk, through his French
+translation of Maimonides' last work, had made it possible for modern
+thinkers to approach the Jewish philosopher, and that soon after this
+translation was published, E. Saisset had written an article upon Jewish
+philosophy in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, in which he gave a popular
+and detailed exposition of Maimonides' religious views. All this they
+did not know, and, had they known it, they surely would not have been so
+candid as the German thinker, Heinrich Ritter, who, in his "History of
+Christian Philosophy," frankly admits: "My impression was that mediaeval
+philosophy was not indebted to Jewish metaphysicians for any original
+line of thought, but M. Munk's discovery convinced me of my
+mistake."[36]
+
+Who was Maimonides? The question is certainly more justifiable upon
+German than upon French soil. In France, attention has been invited to
+his works, while in Germany, save in the circle of the learned, he is
+almost unknown. Even among Jews, who call him "Rambam," he is celebrated
+rather than known. It seems, then, that it may not be unprofitable to
+present an outline of the life and works of this philosopher of the
+middle ages, whom scholars have sought to connect with Spinoza, with
+Leibnitz, and even with Kant.[37]
+
+While readers in general possess but little information about Maimonides
+himself, the period in which he lived, and which derives much of its
+brilliancy and importance from him, is well known, and has come to be a
+favorite subject with modern writers. That period was a very dreamland
+of culture. Under enlightened caliphs, the Arabs in Spain developed a
+civilization which, during the whole of the middle ages up to the
+Renaissance, exercised pregnant influence upon every department of human
+knowledge. A dreamland, in truth, it appears to be, when we reflect that
+the descendants of a highly cultured people, the teachers of Europe in
+many sciences, are now wandering in African wilds, nomads, who know of
+the glories of their past only through a confused legend, holding out to
+them the extravagant hope that the banner of the Prophet may again wave
+from the cathedral of Granada. Yet this Spanish-Arabic period bequeathed
+to us such magnificent tokens of architectural skill, of scientific
+research, and of philosophic thought, that far from regarding it as
+fancy's dream, we know it to be one of the corner-stones of
+civilization.
+
+Prominent among the great men of this period was the Jew Moses ben
+Maimon, or as he was called in Arabic, Abu Amran Musa ibn Maimun Obaid
+Allah (1135-1204). It may be said that he represented the full measure
+of the scientific attainments of the age at the close of which he
+stood--an age whose culture comprised the whole circle of sciences then
+known, and whose conscious goal was the reconciliation of religion and
+philosophy. The sturdier the growth of the spirit of inquiry, the more
+ardent became the longing to reach this goal, the keener became the
+perception of the problems of life and faith. Arabic and Jewish thinkers
+zealously sought the path leading to serenity. Though they never entered
+upon it, their tentative efforts naturally prepared the way for a great
+comprehensive intellect. Only a genius, master of all the sciences,
+combining soundness of judgment and clearness of insight with great
+mental vigor and depth, can succeed in reconciling the divergent
+principles of theology and speculation, if such reconciliation be within
+the range of the possible. At Cordova, in 1135, when the sun of Arabic
+culture reached its zenith, was born Maimonides, the man gifted with
+this all-embracing mind.
+
+Many incidents in his life, not less interesting than his philosophic
+development, have come down to us. His father was his first teacher. To
+escape the persecutions of the Almohades, Maimonides, then thirteen
+years old, removed to Fez with his family. There religious persecution
+forced Jews to abjure their faith, and the family of Maimon, like many
+others, had to comply, outwardly at least, with the requirements of
+Islam. At Fez Maimonides was on intimate terms with physicians and
+philosophers. At the same time, both in personal intercourse with them
+and in his writings, he exhorted his pseudo-Mohammedan brethren to
+remain true to Judaism. This would have cost him his life, had he not
+been rescued by the kindly offices of Mohammedan theologians. The
+feeling of insecurity induced his family to leave Fez and join the
+Jewish community in Palestine. "They embarked at dead of night. On the
+sixth day of their voyage on the Mediterranean, a frightful storm arose;
+mountainous waves tossed the frail ship about like a ball; shipwreck
+seemed imminent. The pious family besought God's protection. Maimonides
+vowed that if he were rescued from threatening death, he would, as a
+thank-offering for himself and his family, spend two days in fasting and
+distributing alms, and devote another day to solitary communion with
+God. The storm abated, and after a month's voyage, the vessel ran into
+the harbor of Accho."[38] The travellers met with a warm welcome, but
+they tarried only a brief while, and finally settled permanently in
+Egypt. There, too, disasters befell Maimonides, who found solace only in
+his implicit reliance on God and his enthusiastic devotion to learning.
+It was then that Maimonides became the religious guide of his brethren.
+At the same time he attained to eminence in his medical practice, and
+devoted himself zealously to the study of philosophy and the natural
+sciences. Yet he did not escape calumny, and until 1185 fortune refused
+to smile upon him. In that year a son, afterwards the joy and pride of
+his heart, was born to him. Then he was appointed physician at the court
+of Saladin, and so great was his reputation that Richard Coeur de Lion
+wished to make him his physician in ordinary, but Maimonides refused the
+offer. Despite the fact that his works raised many enemies against him,
+his influence grew in the congregations of his town and province. From
+all sides questions were addressed to him, and when religious points
+were under debate, his opinion usually decided the issue. At his death
+at the age of seventy great mourning prevailed in Israel. His mortal
+remains were moved to Tiberias, and a legend reports that Bedouins
+attacked the funeral train. Finding it impossible to move the coffin
+from the spot, they joined the Jews, and followed the great man to his
+last resting-place. The deep reverence accorded him both by the moral
+sense and the exuberant fancy of his race is best expressed in the brief
+eulogy of the saying, now become almost a proverb: "From Moses, the
+Prophet, to Moses ben Maimon, there appeared none like unto Moses."
+
+In three different spheres Maimonides' work produced important results.
+First in order stand his services to his fellow-believers. For them he
+compiled the great Codex, the first systematic arrangement, upon the
+basis of Talmudic tradition, of all the ordinances and tenets of
+Judaism. He gave them a system of ethics which even now should be
+prized, because it inculcates the highest possible ethical views and the
+most ideal conception of man's duties in life. He explained to them,
+almost seven hundred years ago, Islam's service to mankind, and the
+mission Christianity was appointed by Providence to accomplish.
+
+His early writings reveal the fundamental principles of his subsequent
+literary work. An astronomical treatise on the Jewish calendar, written
+in his early youth, illustrates his love of system, but his peculiar
+method of thinking and working is best shown in the two works that
+followed. The first is a commentary on parts of the Talmud, probably
+meant to present such conclusions of the Babylonian and the Jerusalem
+Talmud as affect the practices of Judaism. The second is his Arabic
+commentary on the Mishna. He explains the Mishna simply and clearly from
+a strictly rabbinical point of view--a point of view which he never
+relinquished, permitting a deviation only in questions not affecting
+conduct. Master of the abundant material of Jewish literature, he felt
+it to be one of the most important tasks of the age to simplify, by
+methodical treatment, the study of the mass of written and traditional
+religious laws, accumulated in the course of centuries. It is this work
+that contains the attempt, praised by some, condemned by others, to
+establish articles of the Jewish faith, the Bible being used in
+authentication. Thirteen articles of faith were thus established. The
+first five naturally define the God-idea: Article 1 declares the
+existence of God, 2, His unity, 3, His immateriality, 4, His eternity,
+5, that unto Him alone, to whom all created life owes its being, human
+adoration is due; the next four treat of revelation: 6, of revelations
+made through prophets in general, 7, of the revelation made through
+Moses, 8, of the divine origin of the Law, 9, of the perfection of the
+Law, and its eternally binding force; and the rest dwell upon the
+divine government of the world: 10, Divine Providence, 11, reward and
+punishment, here and hereafter, 12, Messianic promises and hopes, and
+13, resurrection.
+
+Maimonides' high reputation among his own people is attested by his
+letters and responses, containing detailed answers to vexed religious
+questions. An especially valuable letter is the one upon "Enforced
+Apostasy," _Iggereth ha-Sh'mad_. He advises an inquirer what to do when
+menaced by religious persecutions. Is one to save life by accepting, or
+to court death by refusing to embrace, the Mohammedan faith? Maimonides'
+opinion is summed up in the words: "The solution which I always
+recommend to my friends and those consulting me is, to leave such
+regions, and to turn to a place in which religion can be practiced
+without fear of persecution. No considerations of danger, of property,
+or of family should prevent one from carrying out this purpose. The
+divine Law stands in higher esteem with the wise than the haphazard
+gifts of fortune. These pass away, the former remains." His responses as
+well as his most important works bear the impress of a sane,
+well-ordered mind, of a lofty intellect, dwelling only upon what is
+truly great.
+
+Also his second famous work, the above-mentioned Hebrew Codex, _Mishneh
+Torah_, "Recapitulation of the Law," was written in the interest of his
+brethren in faith. Its fourteen divisions treat of knowledge, love, the
+festivals, marriage laws, sanctifications, vows, seeds, Temple-service,
+sacrifices, purifications, damages, purchase and sale, courts, and
+judges. "My work is such," says Maimonides, "that my book in connection
+with the Bible will enable a student to dispense with the Talmud." From
+whatever point of view this work may be regarded, it must be admitted
+that Maimonides carried out his plan with signal success, and that it is
+the only one by which method could have been introduced into the
+manifold departments of Jewish religious lore. But it is obvious that
+the thinker had not yet reached the goal of his desires. In consonance
+with his fundamental principle, a scientific systemization of religious
+laws had to be followed up by an explanation of revealed religion and
+Greek-Arabic philosophy, and by the attempt to bring about a
+reconciliation between them.
+
+Before we enter upon this his greatest book, it is well to dispose of
+the second phase of his work, his activity as a medical writer.
+Maimonides treated medicine as a science, a view not usual in those
+days. The body of facts relating to medicine he classified, as he had
+systematized the religious laws of the Talmud. In his methodical way, he
+also edited the writings of Galen, the medical oracle of the middle
+ages, and his own medical aphorisms and treatises are marked by the same
+love of system. It seems that he had the intention to prepare a medical
+codex to serve a purpose similar to that of his religious code. How
+great a reputation he enjoyed among Mohammedan physicians is shown by
+the extravagantly enthusiastic verses of an Arabic poet:
+
+    "Of body's ills doth Galen's art relieve,
+    Maimonides cures mind and body both,--
+    His wisdom heals disease and ignorance.
+    And should the moon invoke his skill and art,
+    Her spots, when full her orb, would disappear;
+    He'd fill her breach, when time doth inroads make,
+    And cure her, too, of pallor caused by earth."
+
+Maimonides' real greatness, however, must be sought in his philosophic
+work. Despite the wide gap between our intellectual attitude and the
+philosophic views to which Maimonides gave fullest expression, we can
+properly appreciate his achievements and his intellectual grasp by
+judging him with reference to his own time. When we realize that he
+absorbed all the thought-currents of his time, that he was their
+faithful expounder, and that, at the same time, he was gifted with an
+accurate, historic instinct, making him wholly objective, we shall
+recognize in him "the genius of his peculiar epoch become incarnate."
+The work containing Maimonides' deepest thought and the sum of his
+knowledge and erudition was written in Arabic under the name _Dalalat
+al-Hairin_. In Hebrew it is known as _Moreh Nebuchim_, in Latin, as
+_Doctor Perplexorum_, and in English as the "Guide of the Perplexed." To
+this book we shall now devote our attention. The original Arabic text
+was supposed, along with many other literary treasures of the middle
+ages, to be lost, until Solomon Munk, the blind _savant_ with clear
+vision, discovered it in the library at Paris, and published it. But in
+its Hebrew translation the book created a stir, which subsided only with
+its public burning at Montpellier early in the thirteenth century. The
+Latin translation we owe to Buxtorf; the German is, I believe,
+incomplete, and can hardly be said to give evidence of ripe
+scholarship.[39]
+
+The question that naturally suggests itself is: What does the book
+contain? Does it establish a new system of philosophy? Is it a
+cyclopaedia of the sciences, such as the Arab schools of that day were
+wont to produce? Neither the one nor the other. The "Guide of the
+Perplexed" is a system of rational theology upon a philosophic basis, a
+book not intended for novices, but for thinkers, for such minds as know
+how to penetrate the profound meaning of tradition, as the author says
+in a prefatory letter addressed to Joseph ibn Aknin, his favorite
+disciple. He believes that even those to whom the book appeals are often
+puzzled and confused by the apparent inconsistencies between the literal
+interpretation of the Bible and the evidence of reason, that they do not
+know whether to take Scriptural expressions as symbolic or allegoric, or
+to accept them in their literal meaning, and that they fall a prey to
+doubt, and long for a guide. Maimonides is prepared to lead them to an
+eminence on which religion and philosophy meet in perfect harmony.
+
+Educated in the school of Arabic philosophers, notably under the
+influence of Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Maimonides paid hero-worship to
+Aristotle, the autocrat of the middle ages in the realm of speculation.
+There is no question that the dominion wielded by the Greek philosopher
+throughout mediaeval times, and the influence which he exercises even
+now, are chiefly attributable to the Arabs, and beside them,
+pre-eminently to Maimonides. For him, Aristotle was second in authority
+only to the Bible. A rational interpretation of the Bible, in his
+opinion, meant its interpretation from an Aristotelian point of view.
+Still, he does not consider Aristotle other than a thinker like himself,
+not by any means the infallible "organ of reason." The moment he
+discovers that a peripatetic principle is in direct and irreconcilable
+conflict with his religious convictions, he parts company with it, let
+the effort cost what it may. For, above all, Maimonides was a faithful
+Jew, striving to reach a spiritual conception of his religion, and to
+assign to theology the place in his estimation belonging to it in the
+realm of science. He stands forth as the most eminent intermediary
+between Greek-Arabic thought and Christian scholasticism. A century
+later, the most prominent of the schoolmen endeavored, in the same way
+as Maimonides, to reconcile divine with human wisdom as manifested by
+Aristotle. It has been demonstrated that Maimonides was followed by both
+Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, and that the new aims of philosophy,
+conceived at the beginning of the thirteenth century, are, in part, to
+be traced to the influence of "Rabbi Moses of Egypt," as Maimonides was
+called by the first of these two celebrated doctors of the Church.
+
+What a marvellous picture is presented by the unfolding of the
+Aristotelian idea in its passage through the ages! And one of the most
+attractive figures on the canvas is Maimonides. Let us see how he
+undertakes to guide the perplexed. His path is marked out for him by the
+Bible. Its first few verses suffice to puzzle the believing thinker. It
+says: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." What! Is this
+expression to be taken literally? Impossible! To conceive of God as such
+that a being can be made in His image, is to conceive of Him as a
+corporeal substance. But God is an invisible, immaterial Intelligence.
+Reason teaches this, and the sacred Book itself prohibits image-worship.
+On this point Aristotle and the Bible are in accord. The inference is
+that in the Holy Scriptures there are many metaphors and words with a
+double or allegoric sense. Such is the case with the word "image." It
+has two meanings, the one usual and obvious, the other figurative. Here
+the word must be taken in its figurative sense. God is conceived as the
+highest Reason, and as reason is the specific attribute which
+characterizes the human mind, it follows that man, by virtue of his
+possession of reason, resembles God, and the more fully he realizes the
+ideal of Reason, the closer does he approach the form and likeness of
+God. Such is Maimonides' method of reasoning. He does not build up a new
+system of philosophy, he adopts an existing system. Beginning with Bible
+exegesis, he leads us, step by step, up to the lofty goal at which
+philosophy and faith are linked in perfect harmony.
+
+The arguments for the existence, unity, and incorporeity of God divide
+the Arabic philosophers into two schools. Maimonides naturally espoused
+the view permitting the most exalted conception of God, that is, the
+conception of God free from human attributes. He recognizes none but
+negative attributes; in other words, he defines God by means of
+negations only. For instance, asserting that the Supreme Being is
+omniscient or omnipotent, is not investing Him with a positive
+attribute, it is simply denying imperfection. The student knows that in
+the history of the doctrine of attributes, the recognition of negative
+attributes marks a great advance in philosophic reasoning. Maimonides
+holds that the conception of the Deity as a pure abstraction is the only
+one truly philosophic. His evidences for the existence, the
+immateriality, and the unity of God, are conceived in the same spirit.
+In offering them he follows Aristotle's reasoning closely, adding only
+one other proof, the cosmological, which he took from his teacher, the
+Arab Avicenna. He logically reaches this proof by more explicitly
+defining the God-idea, and, at the same time, taking into consideration
+the nature of the world of things and their relation to one another.
+Acquainted with Ptolemy's "Almagest" and with the investigations of the
+Arabs, he naturally surpasses his Greek master in astronomical
+knowledge. In physical science, however, he gives undivided allegiance
+to the Aristotelian theory of a sublunary and a celestial world of
+spheres, the former composed of the sublunary elements in constantly
+shifting, perishable combinations, and the latter, of the stable,
+unchanging fifth substance (quintessence). But the question, how God
+moves these spheres, separates Maimonides from his master. His own
+answer has a Neoplatonic ring. He holds, with Aristotle, that there are
+as many separate Intelligences as spheres. Each sphere is supposed to
+aspire to the Intelligence which is the principle of its motion. The
+Arabic thinkers assumed ten such independent Intelligences, one
+animating each of the nine permanent spheres, and the tenth, called the
+"Active Intellect," influencing the sublunary world of matter. The
+existence of this tenth Intelligence is proved by the transition of our
+own intellect from possible existence to actuality, and by the varying
+forms of all transient things, whose matter at one time existed only in
+a potential state. Whenever the transition from potentiality to
+actuality occurs, there must be a cause. Inasmuch as the tenth
+Intelligence (_Sechel Hapoel_, Active Intellect) induces form, it must
+itself be form, inasmuch as it is the source of intellect, it is itself
+intellect. This is, of course, obscure to us, but we must remember that
+Maimonides would not have so charming and individual a personality,
+were he not part and parcel of his time and the representative of its
+belief. Maimonides, having for once deviated from the peripatetic
+system, ventures to take another bold step away from it. He offers an
+explanation, different from Aristotle's, of the creation of the world.
+The latter repudiated the _creatio ex nihilo_ (creation out of nothing).
+Like modern philosophers, he pre-supposed the existence of an eternal
+"First substance" (_materia prima_). His Bible does not permit our rabbi
+to avail himself of this theory. It was reserved for the modern
+investigator to demonstrate how the Scriptural word, with some little
+manipulation, can be so twisted as to be made to harmonize with the
+theories of natural science. But to such trickery the pure-minded guide
+will not stoop. Besides, the acceptance of Aristotle's theory would rule
+out the intervention of miracles in the conduct of the world, and that
+Maimonides does not care to renounce. Right here his monotheistic
+convictions force him into direct opposition to the Greek as well as to
+the Arabic philosophers. Upon this subject, he brooked neither trifling
+nor compromise with reason. It is precisely his honesty that so exalted
+his teachings, that they have survived the lapse of centuries, and
+maintain a place in the pure atmosphere of modern philosophic thought.
+
+According to Maimonides, man has absolute free-will, and God is
+absolutely just. Whatever good befalls man is reward, all his evil
+fortune, punishment. What Aristotle attributes to chance, and the
+Mohammedan philosophers to Divine Will or Divine Wisdom, our rabbi
+traces to the _merits of man_ as its cause. He does not admit any
+suffering to be unmerited, or that God ordains trials merely to
+indemnify the sufferer in this or the future world. Man's susceptibility
+to divine influence is measured by his intellectual endowment. Through
+his "intellect," he is directly connected with the "Active Intellect,"
+and thus secures the grace of God, who embraces the infinite. Such views
+naturally lead to a conception of life in consonance with the purest
+ideals of morality, and they are the goal to which the "Guide" leads the
+perplexed. He teaches that the acquiring of high intellectual power, and
+the "possession of such notions as lead to true metaphysical opinions"
+about God, are "man's final object," and they constitute true human
+perfection. This it is that "gives him immortality," and confers upon
+him the dignity of manhood.
+
+The highest degree of perfection, according to Maimonides, is reached by
+him who devotes all his thoughts and actions to perfecting himself in
+divine matters, and this highest degree he calls prophecy. He is
+probably the first philosopher to offer so rationalistic an explanation,
+and, on that account, it merits our attention. What had previously been
+regarded as supernatural inspiration, the "Guide" reduces to a
+psychological theory. "Prophecy," he says, "is, in truth and reality, an
+emanation sent forth by the Divine Being through the medium of the
+Active Intellect, in the first instance to man's rational faculty, and
+then to his imaginative faculty; it is the highest degree ... of
+perfection man can attain; it consists in the most perfect development
+of the imaginative faculty." Maimonides distinguishes eleven degrees of
+inspiration, and three essential conditions of prophecy: 1. Perfection
+of the natural constitution of the imaginative faculty, 2. mental
+perfection, which may partially be acquired by training, and 3. moral
+perfection. Moses arrived at the highest degree of prophecy, because he
+understood the knowledge communicated to him without the medium of the
+imaginative faculty. This spiritual height having been scaled, the
+"Guide" needs but to take a step to reach revelation, in his estimation
+also an intellectual process: man's intellect rises to the Supreme
+Being.
+
+In the third part of his work, Maimonides endeavors to reconcile the
+conclusions of philosophy with biblical laws and Talmudical traditions.
+His method is both original and valuable; indeed, this deserves to be
+considered the most important part of his work. Detailed exposition of
+his reasoning may prove irksome; we shall, therefore, consider it as
+briefly as possible.
+
+Maimonides laid down one rule of interpretation which, almost without
+exception, proves applicable: The words of Holy Writ express different
+sets of ideas, bearing a certain relation to each other, the one set
+having reference to physical, the other to spiritual, qualities. By
+applying this rule, he thinks that nearly all discrepancies between the
+literal interpretation of the Bible and his own philosophic theories
+disappear. Having passed over the domain of metaphysical speculation, he
+finally reaches the consideration of the practical side of the Bible,
+that is to say, the Mosaic legislation. These last investigations of his
+are attractive, not only by reason of the satisfactory method pursued,
+but chiefly from the fact that Maimonides, divesting himself of the
+conservatism of his contemporaries, ventures to inquire into the reasons
+of biblical laws. For many of them, he assigns local and historical
+reasons; many, he thinks, owe their origin to the desire to oppose the
+superstitious practices of early times and of the Sabeans, a mythical,
+primitive race; but all, he contends, are binding, and with this solemn
+asseveration, he puts the seal upon his completed work.
+
+When Maimonides characterized the "Guide of the Perplexed" as "the true
+science of the Bible," he formed a just estimate of his own work. It has
+come to be the substructure of a rational theology based upon
+speculation. Maimonides cannot be said to have been very much ahead of
+his own age; but it is altogether certain that he attained the acme of
+the possibilities of the middle ages. In many respects there is a
+striking likeness between his life and work and those of the Arabic
+freethinker Averroes, whom we now know so well through Ernest Renan.
+While the Jewish theologian was composing his great work, the Arabic
+philosopher was writing his "Commentaries on Aristotle." The two had
+similar ends in view--the one to enthrone "the Stagirite" as the
+autocrat of philosophy in the Mosque, the other, in the Synagogue. We
+have noted the fact that, some centuries later, the Church also entered
+the federation subject to Aristotelian rule. Albertus Magnus uses
+Maimonides, Thomas Aquinas joins him, and upon them depend the other
+schoolmen. Recent inquirers follow in their train. Philosophy's noblest
+votary, Benedict Spinoza himself, is influenced by Maimonides. He quotes
+frequently and at great length the finest passages of the "Guide."
+Again, Moses Mendelssohn built his system on the foundations offered by
+Maimonides, and an acute critic assures us that, in certain passages,
+Kant's religious philosophy breathes the spirit of Maimonides.[40]
+
+The "Guide of the Perplexed" did not, however, meet with so gracious a
+reception in the Synagogue. There, Maimonides' philosophic system
+conjured up violent storms. The whole of an epoch, that following
+Maimonides' death, was absorbed in the conflict between philosophy and
+tradition. Controversial pamphlets without number have come down to us
+from those days. Enthusiasts eulogized, zealots decried. Maimonides'
+ambiguous expressions about bodily resurrection, seeming to indicate
+that he did not subscribe to the article of the creed on that subject,
+caused particularly acrimonious polemics. Meir ben Todros ha-Levi, a
+Talmudist and poet of Toledo, denounced the equivocation in the
+following lines:
+
+    "If those that rise from death again must die,
+    For lot like theirs I ne'er should long and sigh.
+    If graves their bones shall once again confine,
+    I hope to stay where first they bury mine."
+
+Naturally, Maimonides' followers were quick to retort:
+
+    "His name, forsooth, is Meir 'Shining.'
+      How false! since _light_ he holds in small esteem.
+    Our language always contrast loveth,--
+      Twi_light_'s the name of ev'ning's doubtful gleam."
+
+Another of Maimonides' opponents was the physician Judah Alfachar, who
+bore the hereditary title _Prince_. The following pasquinade is
+attributed to him:
+
+    "Forgive, O Amram's son, nor deem it crime,
+      That he, deception's master, bears thy name.
+    _Nabi_ we call the prophet of truths sublime,
+      Like him of Ba'al, who doth the truth defame."
+
+Maimonides, in his supposed reply to the Prince, played upon the word
+_Chamor_, the Hebrew word for _ass_, the name of a Hivite prince
+mentioned in the Bible:
+
+    "High rank, I wot, we proudly claim
+      When sprung from noble ancestor;
+    Henceforth my mule a _prince_ I'll name
+      Since once a prince was called _Chamor_."
+
+It seems altogether certain that this polemic rhyming is the fabrication
+of a later day, for we know that the controversies about Maimonides'
+opinions in Spain and Provence broke out only after his death, when his
+chief work had spread far and wide in its Hebrew translation. The
+following stanza passed from mouth to mouth in northern France:
+
+    "Be silent, 'Guide,' from further speech refrain!
+      Thus truth to us was never brought.
+    Accursed who says that Holy Writ's a trope,
+      And idle dreams what prophets taught."
+
+Whereupon the Provencals returned:
+
+    "Thou fool, I pray thou wilt forbear,
+      Nor enter on this consecrated ground.
+    Or trope, or truth--or vision fair,
+      Or only dream--for thee 'tis too profound."
+
+The homage paid to Maimonides' memory in many instances produced most
+extravagant poetry. The following high-flown lines, outraging the canons
+of good taste recognized in Hebrew poetry, are supposed to be his
+epitaph:
+
+    "Here lies a man, yet not a man,
+    And if a man, conceived by angels,
+      By human mother only born to light;
+    Perhaps himself a spirit pure--
+    Not child by man and woman fostered--
+      From God above an emanation bright."
+
+Such hyperbole naturally challenged opposition, and Maimonides'
+opponents did not hesitate to give voice to their deep indignation, as
+in the following:
+
+    "Alas! that man should dare
+    To say, with reckless air,
+      That Holy Scripture's but a dream of night;
+    That all we read therein
+    Has truly never been,
+      Is naught but sign of meaning recondite.
+    And when God's wondrous deeds
+    The haughty scorner reads,
+      Contemptuous he cries, 'I trust my sight.'"
+
+A cessation of hostilities came only in the fourteenth century. The
+"Guide" was then given its due meed of appreciation by the Jews. Later,
+Maimonides' memory was held in unbounded reverence, and to-day his
+"Guide of the Perplexed" is a manual of religious philosophy treasured
+by Judaism.
+
+If we wish once more before parting from this earnest, noble thinker to
+review his work and attitude, we can best do it by applying to them the
+standard furnished by his own reply to all adverse critics of his
+writings: "In brief, such is my disposition. When a thought fills my
+mind, though I be able to express it so that only a single man among ten
+thousand, a thinker, is satisfied and elevated by it, while the common
+crowd condemns it as absurd, I boldly and frankly speak the word that
+enlightens the wise, never fearing the censure of the ignorant herd."
+
+This was Maimonides--he of pure thought, of noble purpose; imbued with
+enthusiasm for his faith, with love for science; ruled by the loftiest
+moral principles; full of disinterested love and the milk of human
+kindness in his intercourse with those of other faiths and other views;
+an eagle-eyed thinker, in whom were focused and harmoniously blended the
+last rays of the declining sun of Arabic-Jewish-Spanish culture.
+
+
+
+
+JEWISH TROUBADOURS AND MINNESINGERS
+
+
+A great tournament at the court of Pedro I.! Deafening fanfares invite
+courtiers and cavaliers to participate in the festivities. In the
+brilliant sunshine gleam the lances of the knights, glitter the spears
+of the hidalgos. Gallant paladins escort black-eyed beauties to the
+elevated balcony, on which, upon a high-raised throne, under a gilded
+canopy, surrounded by courtiers, sit Blanche de Bourbon and her
+illustrious lord Dom Pedro, with Dona Maria de Padilla, the lady of his
+choice, at his left. Three times the trumpets have sounded, announcing
+the approach of the troubadours gathered from all parts of Castile to
+compete with one another in song. Behold! a venerable old man, with
+silvery white beard flowing down upon his breast, seeks to extricate
+himself from the crowd. With admiring gaze the people respectfully make
+way, and enthusiastically greet him: "Rabbi Don Santo! Rabbi Don Santo!"
+
+The troubadour makes a low obeisance before the throne. Dom Pedro nods
+encouragement, Maria de Padilla smiles graciously, only Dona Blanca's
+pallid face remains immobile. The hoary bard begins his song:[41]
+
+    "My noble king and mighty lord,
+      A discourse hear most true;
+    'Tis Santob brings your Grace the word,
+      Of Carrion's town the Jew.
+
+    In plainest verse my thought I tell,
+      With gloss and moral free,
+    Drawn from Philosophy's pure well,
+      As onward you may see."[42]
+
+A murmur of approval runs through the crowd; grandees and hidalgos press
+closer to listen. In well-turned verse, fraught with worldly-wise
+lessons, and indifferent whether his hortations meet with praise or with
+censure, the poet continues to pour out words of counsel and moral
+teachings, alike for king, nobles, and people.
+
+Who is this Rabbi Don Santob? We know very little about him, yet, with
+the help of "bright-eyed fancy," enough to paint his picture. The real
+name of this Jew from Carrion de los Condes, a city of northern Spain,
+who lived under Alfonso XI and Peter the Cruel, was, of course, not
+Santob, but Shem-Tob. Under Alfonso the intellectual life of Spain
+developed to a considerable degree, and in Spain, as almost everywhere,
+we find Jews in sympathy with the first intellectual strivings of the
+nation. They have a share in the development of all Romance languages
+and literatures. Ibn Alfange, a Moorish Jew, after his conversion a high
+official, wrote the first "Chronicle of the Cid," the oldest source of
+the oft-repeated biography, thus furnishing material to subsequent
+Spanish poets and historians. Valentin Barruchius (Baruch), of Toledo,
+composed, probably in the twelfth century, in pure, choice Latin, the
+romance _Comte Lyonnais, Palanus_, which spread all over Europe,
+affording modern poets subject-matter for great tragedies, and forming
+the groundwork for one of the classics of Spanish literature. A little
+later, Petrus Alphonsus (Moses Sephardi) wrote his _Disciplina
+Clericalis_, the first collection of tales in the Oriental manner, the
+model of all future collections of the kind.
+
+Three of the most important works of Spanish literature, then, are
+products of Jewish authorship. This fact prepares the student to find a
+Jew among the Castilian troubadours of the fourteenth century, the
+period of greatest literary activity. The Jewish spirit was by no means
+antagonistic to the poetry of the Provencal troubadours. In his didactic
+poem, _Chotham Tochnith_ ("The Seal of Perfection," together with "The
+Flaming Sword"), Abraham Bedersi, that is, of Beziers (1305), challenges
+his co-religionists to a poetic combat. He details the rules of the
+tournament, and it is evident that he is well acquainted with all the
+minutiae of the _jeu parti_ and the _tenso_ (song of dispute) of the
+Provencal singers, and would willingly imitate their _sirventes_ (moral
+and political song). His plaint over the decadence of poetry among the
+Jews is characteristic: "Where now are the marvels of Hebrew poetry?
+Mayhap thou'lt find them in the Provencal or Romance. Aye, in Folquet's
+verses is manna, and from the lips of Cardinal is wafted the perfume of
+crocus and nard"--Folquet de Lunel and Peire Cardinal being the last
+great representatives of Provencal troubadour poetry. Later on,
+neo-Hebraic poets again show acquaintance with the regulations governing
+song-combats and courts of love. Pious Bible exegetes, like Samuel ben
+Meir, do not disdain to speak of the _partimens_ of the troubadours, "in
+which lovers talk to each other, and by turns take up the discourse."
+One of his school, a _Tossafist_, goes so far as to press into service
+the day's fashion in explaining the meaning of a verse in the "Song of
+Songs": "To this day lovers treasure their mistress' locks as
+love-tokens." It seems, too, that Provencal romances were heard, and
+their great poets welcomed, in the houses of Jews, who did not scruple
+occasionally to use their melodies in the synagogue service.
+
+National customs, then, took root in Israel; but that Jewish elements
+should have become incorporated into Spanish literature is more
+remarkable, may, indeed, be called marvellous. Yet, from one point of
+view, it is not astonishing. The whole of mediaeval Spanish literature is
+nothing more than the handmaiden of Christianity. Spanish poetry is
+completely dominated by Catholicism; it is in reality only an expression
+of reverence for Christian institutions. An extreme naturally induces a
+counter-current; so here, by the side of rigid orthodoxy, we meet with
+latitudinarianism and secular delight in the good things of life. For
+instance, that jolly rogue, the archpriest of Hita, by way of relaxation
+from the tenseness of church discipline, takes to composing _dansas_ and
+_baladas_ for the rich Jewish bankers of his town. He and his
+contemporaries have much to say about Jewish generosity--unfortunately,
+much, too, about Jewish wealth and pomp. Jewish women, a Jewish
+chronicler relates, are tricked out with finery, as "sumptuously as the
+pope's mules." It goes without saying that, along with these accounts,
+we have frequent wailing about defection from the faith and neglect of
+the Law. Old Akiba is right: "History repeats itself!" ("_Es ist alles
+schon einmal da gewesen!_").
+
+Such were the times of Santob de Carrion. Our first information about
+him comes from the Marquis de Santillana, one of the early patrons and
+leaders of Spanish literature. He says, "In my grandfather's time there
+was a Jew, Rabbi Santob, who wrote many excellent things, among them
+_Proverbios Morales_ (Moral Proverbs), truly commendable in spirit. A
+great troubadour, he ranks among the most celebrated poets of Spain."
+Despite this high praise, the marquis feels constrained to apologize for
+having quoted a passage from Santob's work. His praise is endorsed by
+the critics. It is commonly conceded that his _Consejos y Documentos al
+Rey Dom Pedro_ ("Counsel and Instruction to King Dom Pedro"), consisting
+of six hundred and twenty-eight romances, deserves a place among the
+best creations of Castilian poetry, which, in form and substance, owes
+not a little to Rabbi Santob. A valuable manuscript at the Escurial in
+Madrid contains his _Consejos_ and two other works, _La Doctrina
+Christiana_ and _Dansa General_. A careless copyist called the whole
+collection "Rabbi Santob's Book," so giving rise to the mistake of
+Spanish critics, who believe that Rabbi Santob, indisputably the author
+of _Consejos_, became a convert to Christianity, and wrote, after his
+conversion, the didactic poem on doctrinal Christianity, and perhaps
+also the first "Dance of Death."[43] It was reserved for the acuteness
+of German criticism to expose the error of this hypothesis. Of the three
+works, only _Consejos_ belongs to Rabbi Santob, the others were
+accidentally bound with it. In passing, the interesting circumstance may
+be noted that in the first "Dance of Death" a bearded rabbi (_Rabbi
+barbudo_) dances toward the universal goal between a priest and an
+usurer. Santob de Carrion remained a Jew. His _consejos_, written when
+he was advanced in age, are pervaded by loyalty to his king, but no less
+to his faith, which he openly professed at the royal court, and whose
+spiritual treasures he adroitly turned to poetic uses.
+
+Santob, it is interesting to observe, was not a writer of erotic poetry.
+He composed poems on moral subjects only, social satires and
+denunciations of vice. Such are the _consejos_. It is in his capacity as
+a preacher of morality that Santob is to be classed among troubadours.
+First he addressed himself, with becoming deference, to the king,
+leading him to consider God's omnipotence:
+
+    "As great, 'twixt heav'n and earth the space--
+      That ether pure and blue--
+    So great is God's forgiving grace
+      Your sins to lift from you.
+
+    And with His vast and wondrous might
+      He does His deeds of power;
+    But yours are puny in His sight,
+      For strength is not man's dower."
+
+At that time it required more than ordinary courage to address a king in
+this fashion; but Santob was old and poor, and having nothing to lose,
+could risk losing everything. A democratic strain runs through his
+verses; he delights in aiming his satires at the rich, the high-born,
+and the powerful, and takes pride in his poverty and his fame as a poet:
+
+    "I will not have you think me less
+      Than others of my faith,
+    Who live on a generous king's largess,
+      Forsworn at every breath.
+
+    And if you deem my teachings true,
+      Reject them not with hate,
+    Because a minstrel sings to you
+      Who's not of knight's estate.
+
+    The fragrant, waving reed grows tall
+      From feeble root and thin,
+    And uncouth worms that lowly crawl
+      Most lustrous silk do spin.
+
+    Because beside a thorn it grows
+      The rose is not less fair;
+    Though wine from gnarled branches flows,
+      'Tis sweet beyond compare.
+
+    The goshawk, know, can soar on high,
+      Yet low he nests his brood.
+    A Jew true precepts doth apply,
+      Are they therefore less good?
+
+    Some Jews there are with slavish mind
+      Who fear, are mute, and meek.
+    My soul to truth is so inclined
+      That all I feel I speak.
+
+    There often comes a meaning home
+      Through simple verse and plain,
+    While in the heavy, bulky tome
+      We find of truth no grain.
+
+    Full oft a man with furrowed front,
+      Whom grief hath rendered grave,
+    Whose views of life are honest, blunt,
+      Both fool is called and knave."
+
+It is surely not unwarranted to assume that from these confessions the
+data of Santob's biography may be gathered.
+
+Now as to Santob's relation to Judaism. Doubtless he was a faithful Jew,
+for the views of life and the world laid down in his poems rest on the
+Bible, the Talmud, and the Midrash. With the fearlessness of conviction
+he meets the king and the people, denouncing the follies of both. Some
+of his romances sound precisely like stories from the Haggada, so
+skilfully does he clothe his counsel in the gnomic style of the Bible
+and the Talmud. This characteristic is particularly well shown in his
+verses on friendship, into which he has woven the phraseology of the
+Proverbs:
+
+    "What treasure greater than a friend
+      Who close to us hath grown?
+    Blind fate no bitt'rer lot can send
+      Than bid us walk alone.
+
+    For solitude doth cause a dearth
+      Of fruitful, blessed thought.
+    The wise would pray to leave this earth,
+      If none their friendship sought.
+
+    Yet sad though loneliness may be,
+      That friendship surely shun
+    That feigns to love, and inwardly
+      Betrays affections won."
+
+The poem closes with a prayer for the king, who certainly could not have
+taken offense at Santob's frankness:
+
+    "May God preserve our lord and king
+      With grace omnipotent,
+    Remove from us each evil thing,
+      And blessed peace augment.
+
+    The nations loyally allied
+      Our empire to exalt,
+    May God, in whom we all confide,
+      From plague keep and assault.
+
+    If God will answer my request,
+      Then will be paid his due--
+    Your noble father's last behest--
+      To Santob, Carrion's Jew."
+
+Our troubadour's poetry shows that he was devotedly attached to his
+prince, enthusiastically loved his country, and was unfalteringly loyal
+to his faith; that he told the king honest, wholesome truths disguised
+in verse; that he took no pains to conceal his scorn of those who, with
+base servility, bowed to the ruling faith, and permitted its yoke to be
+put upon their necks; that he felt himself the peer of the high in rank,
+and the wealthy in the goods of this world; that he censured, with
+incisive criticism, the vices of his Spanish and his Jewish
+contemporaries--all of which is calculated to inspire us with admiration
+for the Jewish troubadour, whose manliness enabled him to meet his
+detractors boldly, as in the verses quoted above:
+
+    "Because beside a thorn it grows,
+      The rose is not less fair;
+    Though wine from gnarled branches flows,
+      'Tis sweet beyond compare.
+
+    A Jew true precepts doth apply,
+      Are they therefore less good?"
+
+History does not tell us whether Pedro rewarded the Jewish troubadour as
+the latter, if we may judge by the end of his poem, had expected. Our
+accounts of his life are meagre; even his fellow-believers do not make
+mention of him. We do know, however, that the poor poet's prayers for
+his sovereign, his petitions for the weal and the glory of his country
+were not granted. Pedro lost his life by violence, quarrels about the
+succession and civil wars convulsed the land, and weakened the royal
+power. Its decline marked the end of the peace and happiness of the Jew
+on Castilian soil.
+
+As times grew worse, and persecutions of the Jews in Christian Spain
+became frequent, many forsook the faith of their fathers, to bask in the
+sunshine of the Church, who treated proselytes with distinguished favor.
+The example of the first Jewish troubadour did not find imitators. Among
+the converts were many poets, notably Juan Alfonso de Baena, who, in the
+fifteenth century, collected the oldest troubadour poetry, including his
+own poems and satires, and the writings of the Jewish physician Don
+Moses Zarzal, into a _cancionera general_. Like many apostates, he
+sought to prove his devotion to the new faith by mocking at and reviling
+his former brethren. The attacked were not slow to answer in kind, and
+the Christian world of poets and bards joined the latter in deriding the
+neophytes. Spanish literature was not the loser by these combats, whose
+description belongs to general literary criticism. Lyric poetry, until
+then dry, serious, and solemn, was infused by the satirist with flashing
+wit and whimsical spirit, and throwing off its connection with the
+drama, developed into an independent species of poetry.
+
+The last like the first of Spanish troubadours was a Jew,[44] Antonio di
+Montoro (Moro), _el ropero_ (the tailor), of Cordova, of whom a
+contemporary says,
+
+    "A man of repute and lofty fame;
+    As poet, he puts many to shame;
+    Anton di Montoro is his name."
+
+The tailor-poet was exposed to attacks, too. A high and mighty Spanish
+_caballero_ addresses him as
+
+    "You Cohn, you cur,
+    You miserable Jew,
+    You wicked usurer."
+
+It must be admitted that he parries these thrusts with weak, apologetic
+appeals, preserved in his _Respuestas_ (Rhymed Answers). He claims his
+high-born foe's sympathy by telling him that he has sons, grandchildren,
+a poor, old father, and a marriageable daughter. In extenuation of his
+cowardice it should be remembered that Antonio di Montoro lived during a
+reign of terror, under Ferdinand and Isabella, when his race and his
+faith were exposed to most frightful persecution. All the more
+noteworthy is it that he had the courage to address the queen in behalf
+of his faith. He laments plaintively that despite his sixty years he has
+not been able to eradicate all traces of his descent (_reato de su
+origen_), and turns his irony against himself:
+
+    "Ropero, so sad and so forlorn,
+    Now thou feelest pain and scorn.
+    Until sixty years had flown,
+    Thou couldst say to every one,
+    'Nothing wicked have I known.'
+
+    Christian convert hast thou turned,
+    _Credo_ thou to say hast learned;
+    Willing art now bold to view
+    Plates of ham--no more askew.
+    Mass thou hearest,
+    Church reverest,
+    Genuflexions makest,
+    Other alien customs takest.
+    Now thou, too, mayst persecute
+    Those poor wretches, like a brute."
+
+"Those poor wretches" were his brethren in faith in the fair Spanish
+land. With a jarring discord ends the history of the Jews in Spain. On
+the ninth of Ab, 1492, three hundred thousand Jews left the land to
+which they had given its first and its last troubadour. The irony of
+fate directed that at the selfsame time Christopher Columbus should
+embark for unknown lands, and eventually reach America, a new world, the
+refuge of all who suffer, wherein thought was destined to grow strong
+enough "to vanquish arrogance and injustice without recourse to
+arrogance and injustice"--a new illustration of the old verse: "Behold,
+he slumbereth not, and he sleepeth not--the keeper of Israel."
+
+* * *
+
+A great tournament at the court of the lords of Trimberg, the Franconian
+town on the Saale! From high battlements stream the pennons of the noble
+race, announcing rare festivities to all the country round. The
+mountain-side is astir with knights equipped with helmet, shield, and
+lance, and attended by pages and armor-bearers, minnesingers and
+minstrels. Yonder is Walther von der Vogelweide, engaged in earnest
+conversation with Wolfram von Eschenbach, Otto von Botenlaube, Hildebold
+von Schwanegau, and Reinmar von Brennenberg. In that group of notables,
+curiously enough, we discern a Jew, whose beautiful features reflect
+harmonious soul life.
+
+"Suesskind von Trimberg," they call him, and when the pleasure of the
+feast in the lordly hall of the castle is to be heightened by song and
+music, he too steps forth, with fearlessness and dignity, to sing of
+freedom of thought, to the prevalence of which in this company the
+despised Jew owed his admission to a circle of knights and poets:[45]
+
+    "O thought! free gift to humankind!
+      By thee both fools and wise are led,
+    But who thy paths hath all defined,
+      A man he is in heart and head.
+      With thee, his weakness being fled,
+    He can both stone and steel command,
+    Thy pinions bear him o'er the land.
+
+    O thought that swifter art than light,
+      That mightier art than tempest's roar!
+    Didst thou not raise me in thy flight,
+      What were my song, my minstrel lore,
+      And what the gold from _Minne's_ store?
+    Beyond the heights an eagle vaunts,
+    O bear me to the spirit's haunts!"
+
+His song meets with the approval of the knights, who give generous
+encouragement to the minstrel. Raising his eyes to the proud, beautiful
+mistress of the castle, he again strikes his lyre and sings:
+
+    "Pure woman is to man a crown,
+    For her he strives to win renown.
+    Did she not grace and animate,
+    How mean and low the castle great!
+    By true companionship, the wife
+    Makes blithe and free a man's whole life;
+    Her light turns bright the darkest day.
+    Her praise and worth I'll sing alway."
+
+The lady inclines her fair head in token of thanks, and the lord of
+castle Trimberg fills the golden goblet, and hands it, the mark of
+honor, to the poet, who drains it, and then modestly steps back into the
+circle of his compeers. Now we have leisure to examine the rare man.--
+
+Ruediger Manesse, a town councillor of Zuerich in the fourteenth century,
+raised a beautiful monument to bardic art in a manuscript work, executed
+at his order, containing the songs of one hundred and forty poets,
+living between the twelfth and the fourteenth century. Among the authors
+are kings, princes, noblemen of high rank and low, burgher-poets, and
+the Jew Suesskind von Trimberg. Each poet's productions are accompanied
+by illustrations, not authentic portraits, but a series of vivid
+representations of scenes of knight-errantry. There are scenes of war
+and peace, of combats, the chase, and tourneys with games, songs, and
+dance. We see the storming of a castle of Love (_Minneburg_)--lovers
+fleeing, lovers separated, love triumphant. Heinrich von Veldeke
+reclines upon a bank of roses; Friedrich von Hausen is on board a boat;
+Walther von der Vogelweide sits musing on a wayside stone; Wolfram von
+Eschenbach stands armed, with visor closed, next to his caparisoned
+horse, as though about to mount. Among the portraits of the knights and
+bards is Suesskind von Trimberg's. How does Ruediger Manesse represent
+him? As a long-bearded Jew, on his head a yellow, funnel-shaped hat, the
+badge of distinction decreed by Pope Innocent III. to be worn by Jews.
+That is all! and save what we may infer from his six poems preserved by
+the history of literature, pretty much all, too, known of Suesskind von
+Trimberg.
+
+Was it the heedlessness of the compiler that associated the Jew with
+this merry company, in which he was as much out of place as a Gothic
+spire on a synagogue? Suesskind came by the privilege fairly. Throughout
+the middle ages the Jews of Germany were permeated with the culture of
+their native land, and were keenly concerned in the development of its
+poetry. A still more important circumstance is the spirit of tolerance
+and humanity that pervades Middle High German poetry. Wolfram von
+Eschenbach based his _Parzival_, the herald of "Nathan the Wise," on the
+idea of the brotherhood of man; Walther von der Vogelweide ranged
+Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans together as children of the one God;
+and Freidank, reflecting that God lets His sun shine on the confessors
+of all creeds, went so far as to repudiate the doctrine of the eternal
+damnation of Jews. This trend of thought, characterizing both Jews and
+Christians, suffices to explain how, in Germany, and at the very time in
+which the teachers of the Church were reviling "the mad Jews, who ought
+to be hewn down like dogs," it was possible for a Jew to be a
+minnesinger, a minstrel among minstrels, and abundantly accounts for
+Suesskind von Trimberg's association with knights and ladies. Suesskind,
+then, doubtless journeyed with his brother-poets from castle to castle;
+yet our imagination would be leading us astray, were we to accept
+literally the words of the enthusiastic historian Graetz, and with him
+believe that "on vine-clad hills, seated in the circle of noble knights
+and fair dames, a beaker of wine at his side, his lyre in his hand, he
+sang his polished verses of love's joys and trials, love's hopes and
+fears, and then awaited the largesses that bought his daily bread."[46]
+
+Suesskind's poems are not at all like the joyous, rollicking songs his
+mates carolled forth; they are sad and serious, tender and chaste. Of
+love there is not a word. A minnesinger and a Jew--irreconcilable
+opposites! A minnesinger must be a knight wooing his lady-love, whose
+colors he wears at the tournaments, and for whose sake he undertakes a
+pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Jew's minstrelsy is a lament for Zion.
+
+In fact what is _Minne_--this service of love? Is it not at bottom the
+cult of the Virgin Mary? Is it not, in a subtle, mysterious way, a phase
+of Christianity itself? How could it have appealed to the Jew Suesskind?
+True, the Jews, too, have an ideal of love in the "Song of Songs": "Lo,
+thou art beautiful, my beloved!" it says, but our old sages took the
+beloved to be the Synagogue. Of this love Princess Sabbath is the ideal,
+and the passion of the "Song of Songs" is separated from German _Minne_
+by the great gap between the soul life of the Semite and that of the
+Christian German. Unbridled sensuousness surges through the songs rising
+to the chambers of noble ladies. Kabbalistic passion glows in the
+mysterious love of the Jew. The German minstrel sings of love's
+sweetness and pain, of summer and its delights, of winter and its woes,
+now of joy and happiness, again of ill-starred fortunes. And what is the
+burden of the exiled Hebrew's song? Mysterious allusions, hidden in a
+tangle of highly polished, artificial, slow-moving rhymes, glorify, not
+a sweet womanly presence, but a fleeting vision, a shadow, whose elusive
+charms infatuated the poet in his dreams. Bright, joyous, blithe,
+unmeasured is the one; serious, gloomy, chaste, gentle, the other.
+
+Yet, Suesskind von Trimberg was at once a Jew and a minnesinger. Who can
+fathom a poet's soul? Who can follow his thoughts as they fly hither and
+thither, like the thread in a weaver's shuttle, fashioning themselves
+into a golden web? The minnesingers enlisted in love's cause, yet none
+the less in war and the defense of truth, and for the last Suesskind von
+Trimberg did valiant service. The poems of his earliest period, the
+blithesome days of youth, have not survived. Those that we have bear the
+stamp of sorrow and trouble, the gifts of advanced years. With
+self-contemptuous bitterness, he bewails his sad lot:
+
+    "I seek and nothing find,--
+    That makes me sigh and sigh.
+    Lord Lackfood presses me,
+    Of hunger sure I'll die;
+    My wife, my child go supperless,
+    My butler is Sir Meagreness."
+
+Suesskind von Trimberg's poems also breathe the spirit of Hebrew
+literature, and have drawn material from the legend world of the
+Haggada. For the praise of his faithful wife he borrows the words of
+Solomon, and the psalm-like rhythm of his best songs recalls the
+familiar strains of our evening-prayer:
+
+    "Almighty God! That shinest with the sun,
+    That slumb'rest not when day grows into night!
+    Thou Source of all, of tranquil peace and joy!
+    Thou King of glory and majestic light!
+    Thou allgood Father! Golden rays of day
+    And starry hosts thy praise to sing unite,
+    Creator of heav'n and earth, Eternal One,
+    That watchest ev'ry creature from Thy height!"
+
+Like Santob, Suesskind was poor; like him, he denounced the rich, was
+proud and generous. With intrepid candor, he taught knights the meaning
+of true nobility--of the nobility of soul transcending nobility of
+birth--and of freedom of thought--freedom fettered by neither stone, nor
+steel, nor iron; and in the midst of their rioting and feasting, he
+ventured to put before them the solemn thought of death. His last
+production as a minnesinger was a prescription for a "virtue-electuary."
+Then he went to dwell among his brethren, whom, indeed, he had not
+deserted in the pride of his youth:
+
+    "Why should I wander sadly,
+      My harp within my hand,
+    O'er mountain, hill, and valley?
+      What praise do I command?
+
+    Full well they know the singer
+      Belongs to race accursed;
+    Sweet _Minne_ doth no longer
+      Reward me as at first.
+
+    Be silent, then, my lyre,
+      We sing 'fore lords in vain.
+    I'll leave the minstrels' choir,
+      And roam a Jew again.
+
+    My staff and hat I'll grasp, then,
+      And on my breast full low,
+    By Jewish custom olden
+      My grizzled beard shall grow.
+
+    My days I'll pass in quiet,--
+      Those left to me on earth--
+    Nor sing for those who not yet
+      Have learned a poet's worth."
+
+Thus spake the Jewish poet, and dropped his lyre into the stream--in
+song and in life, a worthy son of his time, the disciple of Walther von
+der Vogelweide, the friend of Wolfram von Eschenbach--disciple and
+friend of the first to give utterance, in German song, to the idea of
+the brotherhood of man. Centuries ago, he found the longed-for quiet in
+Franconia, but no wreath lies on his grave, no stone marks the
+wanderer's resting-place. His poems have found an abiding home in the
+memory of posterity, and in the circle of the German minnesingers the
+Jew Suesskind forms a distinct link.
+
+In a time when the idea of universal human brotherhood seems to be
+fading from the hearts of men, when they manifest a proneness to forget
+the share which, despite hatred and persecution, the Jew of every
+generation has had in German literature, in its romances of chivalry and
+its national epics, and in all the spiritual achievements of German
+genius, we may with just pride revive Suesskind's memory.--
+
+On the wings of fancy let us return to our castle on the Saale. After
+the lapse of many years, the procession of poets again wends its way in
+the sunshine up the slope to the proud mansion of the Trimbergs. The
+venerable Walther von der Vogelweide again opens the festival of song.
+Wolfram von Eschenbach, followed by a band of young disciples, musingly
+ascends the mountain-side. The ranks grow less serried, and in solitude
+and sadness, advances a man of noble form, his silvery beard flowing
+down upon his breast, a long cloak over his shoulder, and the peaked
+hat, the badge of the mediaeval Jew, on his head. In his eye gleams a ray
+of the poet's grace, and his meditative glance looks into a distant
+future. Suesskind von Trimberg, to thee our greeting!
+
+
+
+
+HUMOR AND LOVE IN JEWISH POETRY
+
+
+One of the most remarkable discoveries of the last ten years is that
+made in Paris by M. Ernest Renan. He maintains as the result of
+scientific research that the Semitic races, consequently also the Jews,
+are lacking in humor, in the capacity for laughter. The justice of the
+reproach might be denied outright, but a statement enunciated with so
+much scientific assurance involuntarily prompts questioning and
+investigation.
+
+In such cases the Jews invariably resort to their first text-book, the
+Bible, whose pages seem to sustain M. Renan. In the Bible laughing is
+mentioned only twice, when the angel promises a son to Sarah, and again
+in the history of Samson, judge in Israel, who used foxes' tails as
+weapons against the Philistines. These are the only passages in which
+the Bible departs from its serious tone.
+
+But classical antiquity was equally ignorant of humor as a distinct
+branch of art, as a peculiar attitude of the mind towards the problems
+of life. Aristophanes lived and could have written only in the days when
+Athenian institutions began to decay. It is personal discomfort and the
+trials and harassments of life that drive men to the ever serene, pure
+regions of humor for balm and healing. Fun and comedy men have at all
+times understood--the history of Samson contains the germs of a
+mock-heroic poem--while it was impossible for humor, genuine humor, to
+find appreciation in the youth of mankind.
+
+In those days of healthy reliance upon the senses, poetic spirits could
+obtain satisfaction only in love and in the praise of the good world and
+its Maker. The sombre line of division had not yet been introduced
+between the physical and the spiritual world, debasing this earth to a
+vale of tears, and consoling sinful man by the promise of a better land,
+whose manifold delights were described, but about which there was no
+precise knowledge, no traveller, as the Talmud aptly puts it, having
+ever returned to give us information about it. Those were the days of
+perfect harmony, when man crept close to nature to be taught untroubled
+joy in living. In such days, despite the storms assailing the young
+Israelitish nation, a poet, his heart filled with the sunshine of joy,
+his mind receptive, his eyes open wide to see the flowers unfold, the
+buds of the fig tree swell, the vine put forth leaves, and the
+pomegranate blossom unfurl its glowing petals, could carol forth the
+"Song of Songs," the most perfect, the most beautiful, the purest
+creation of Hebrew literature and the erotic poetry of all
+literatures--the song of songs of stormy passion, bidding defiance to
+ecclesiastical fetters, at once an epic and a drama, full of childlike
+tenderness and grace of feeling. Neither Greece, nor the rest of the
+Orient has produced anything to compare with its marvellous union of
+voluptuous sensuousness and immaculate chastity. Morality, indeed, is
+its very pulse-beat. It could be sung only in an age when love reigned
+supreme, and could presume to treat humor as a pretender. So lofty a
+song was bound to awaken echoes and stimulate imitation, and its music
+has flowed down through the centuries, weaving a thread of melody about
+the heart of many a poet.
+
+The centuries of Israelitish history close upon its composition,
+however, were favorable to neither the poetry of love nor that of humor.
+But the poetry of love must have continued to exercise puissant magic
+over hearts and minds, if its supreme poem not only was made part of the
+holy canon, but was considered by a teacher of the Talmud the most
+sacred treasure of the compilation.
+
+The blood of the Maccabean heroes victorious over Antiochus Epiphanes
+again fructified the old soil of Hebrew poetry, and charmed forth
+fragrant blossoms, the psalms designated as Maccabean by modern
+criticism. Written in troublous times, they contain a reference to the
+humor of the future: "When the Lord bringeth back again the captivity of
+Zion, then shall we be like dreamers, then shall our mouth be filled
+with laughter, and our tongue with singing."
+
+Many sad days were destined to pass over Israel before that future with
+its solacement of humor dawned. No poetic work could obtain recognition
+next to the Bible. The language of the prophets ceased to be the
+language of the people, and every mind was occupied with interpreting
+their words and applying them to the religious needs of the hour. The
+opposition between Jewish and Hellenic-Syrian views became more and more
+marked. Hellas and Judaea, the two great theories of life supporting the
+fabric of civilization, for the first time confronted each other. An
+ancient expounder of the Bible says that to Hellas God gave beauty in
+the beginning, to Judaea truth, as a sacred heritage. But beauty and
+truth have ever been inveterate foes; even now they are not reconciled.
+
+In Judaea and Greece, ancient civilization found equally perfect, yet
+totally different, expression. The Greek worships nature as she is; the
+Jew dwells upon the origin and development of created things, hence
+worships their Creator. The former in his speculations proceeds from the
+multiplicity of phenomena; the latter discerns the unity of the plan. To
+the former the universe was changeless actuality; to the latter it meant
+unending development. The world, complete and perfect, was mirrored in
+the Greek mind; its evolution, in the Jewish. Therefore the Jewish
+conception of life is harmonious, while among the Greeks grew up the
+spirit of doubt and speculation, the product of civilization, and the
+soil upon which humor disports.
+
+Israel's religion so completely satisfied every spiritual craving that
+no room was left for the growth of the poetic instinct. Intellectual
+life began to divide into two great streams. The Halacha continued the
+instruction of the prophets, as the Haggada fostered the spirit of the
+psalmists. The province of the former was to formulate the Law, of the
+latter to plant a garden about the bulwark of the Law. While the one
+addressed itself to reason, the other made an appeal to the heart and
+the feelings. In the Haggada, a thesaurus of the national poetry by the
+nameless poets of many centuries, we find epic poems and lyric
+outbursts, fables, enigmas, and dramatic essays, and here and there in
+this garden we chance across a little bud of humorous composition.
+
+Of what sort was this humor? In point of fact, what is humor? We must be
+able to answer the latter question before we may venture to classify the
+folklore of the Haggada.
+
+To reach the ideal, to bring harmony out of discord, is the recognized
+task of all art. This is the primary principle to be borne in mind in
+aesthetic criticism. Tragedy idealizes the world by annihilation,
+harmonizes all contradictions by dashing them in pieces against each
+other, and points the way of escape from chaos, across the bridge of
+death, to the realm beyond, irradiated by the perpetual morning-dawn of
+freedom and intellect.
+
+Comedy, on the other hand, believes that the incongruities and
+imperfections of life can be justified, and have their uses. Firmly
+convinced of the might of truth, it holds that the folly and aberrations
+of men, their shortcomings and failings, cannot impede its eventual
+victory. Even in them it sees traces of an eternal, divine principle.
+While tragedy precipitates the conflict of hostile forces, comedy,
+rising serene above folly and all indications of transitoriness,
+reconciles inconsistencies, and lovingly coaxes them into harmony with
+the true and the absolute.
+
+When man's spirit is thus made to re-enter upon the enjoyment of eternal
+truth, its heritage, there is, as some one has well said, triumph akin
+to the joy of the father over the home-coming of a lost son, and the
+divine, refreshing laughter by which it is greeted is like the meal
+prepared for the returning favorite. Is Israel to have no seat at the
+table? Israel, the first to recognize that the eternal truths of life
+are innate in man, the first to teach, as his chief message, how to
+reconcile man with himself and the world, whenever these truths suffer
+temporary obscuration? So viewed, humor is the offspring of love, and
+also mankind's redeemer, inasmuch as it paralyzes the influence of anger
+and hatred, emanations from the powers of change and finality, by laying
+bare the eternal principles and "sweet reasonableness" hidden even in
+them, and finally stripping them of every adjunct incompatible with the
+serenity of absolute truth. In whatever mind humor, that is, love and
+cheerfulness, reigns supreme, the inconsistencies and imperfections of
+life, all that bears the impress of mutability, will gently and
+gradually be fused into the harmonious perfection of absolute, eternal
+truth. Mists sometimes gather about the sun, but unable to extinguish
+his light, they are forced to serve as his mirror, on which he throws
+the witching charms of the Fata Morgana. So, when the eternal truths of
+life are veiled, opportunity is made for humor to play upon and
+irradiate them. In precise language, humor is a state of perfect
+self-certainty, in which the mind serenely rises superior to every petty
+disturbance.
+
+This placidity shed its soft light into the modest academies of the
+rabbis. Wherever a ray fell, a blossom of Haggadic folklore sprang up.
+Every occurrence in life recommends itself to their loving scrutiny:
+pleasures and follies of men, curse turned into blessing, the ordinary
+course of human events, curiosities of Israel's history and mankind's.
+As instances of their method, take what Midrashic folklore has to say
+concerning the creation of the two things of perennial interest to
+poets: wife and wine.
+
+When the Lord God created woman, he formed her not from the head of man,
+lest she be too proud; not from his eye, lest she be too coquettish; not
+from his ear, lest she be too curious; not from his mouth, lest she be
+too talkative; not from his heart, lest she be too sentimental; not from
+his hands, lest she be too officious; nor from his feet, lest she be an
+idle gadabout; but from a subordinate part of man's anatomy, to teach
+her: "Woman, be thou modest!"
+
+With regard to the vine, the Haggada tells us that when Father Noah was
+about to plant the first one, Satan stepped up to him, leading a lamb, a
+lion, a pig, and an ape, to teach him that so long as man does not drink
+wine, he is innocent as a lamb; if he drinks temperately, he is as
+strong as a lion; if he indulges too freely, he sinks to the level of
+swine; and as for the ape, his place in the poetry of wine is as well
+known to us as to the rabbis of old.
+
+With the approach of the great catastrophe destined to annihilate
+Israel's national existence, humor and spontaneity vanish, to be
+superseded by seriousness, melancholy, and bitter plaints, and the
+centuries of despondency and brooding that followed it were not better
+calculated to encourage the expression of love and humor. The pall was
+not lifted until the Haggada performed its mission as a comforter. Under
+its gentle ministrations, and urged into vitality by the religious needs
+of the synagogue, the poetic instinct awoke. _Piut_ and _Selicha_
+replaced prophecy and psalmody as religious agents, and thenceforth the
+springs of consolation were never permitted to run dry. Driven from the
+shores of the Jordan and the Euphrates, Hebrew poetry found a new home
+on the Tagus and the Manzanares, where the Jews were blessed with a
+second golden age. In the interval from the eleventh to the thirteenth
+century, under genial Arabic influences, Andalusian masters of song
+built up an ideal world of poetry, wherein love and humor were granted
+untrammelled liberty.
+
+To the Spanish-Jewish writers poetry was an end in itself. Along with
+religious songs, perfect in rhythm and form, they produced lyrics on
+secular subjects, whose grace, beauty, harmony, and wealth of thought
+rank them with the finest creations of the age. The spirit of the
+prophets and psalmists revived in these Spanish poets. At their head
+stands Solomon ibn Gabirol, the Faust of Saragossa, whose poems are the
+first tinged with _Weltschmerz_, that peculiar ferment characteristic of
+a modern school of poets.[47] Our accounts of Gabirol's life are meagre,
+but they leave the clear impression that he was not a favorite of
+fortune, and passed a bleak childhood and youth. His poems are pervaded
+by vain longing for the ideal, by lamentations over deceived hopes and
+unfulfilled aspirations, by painful realization of the imperfection and
+perishability of all earthly things, and the insignificance and
+transitoriness of life, in a word, by _Weltschmerz_, in its purest,
+ideal form, not merely self-deception and irony turned against one's own
+soul life, but a profoundly solemn emotion, springing from sublime pity
+for the misery of the world read by the light of personal trials and
+sorrows. He sang not of a mistress' blue eyes, nor sighed forth
+melancholy love-notes--the object of his heart's desire was Zion, his
+muse the fair "rose of Sharon," and his anguish was for the suffering of
+his scattered people. Strong, wild words fitly express his tempestuous
+feelings. He is a proud, solitary thinker. Often his _Weltschmerz_
+wrests scornful criticism of his surroundings from him. On the other
+hand, he does not lack mild, conciliatory humor, of which his famous
+drinking-song is a good illustration. His miserly host had put a single
+bottle of wine upon a table surrounded by many guests, who had to have
+recourse to water to quench their thirst. Wine he calls a
+septuagenarian, the letters of the Hebrew word for wine (_yayin_)
+representing seventy, and water a nonagenarian, because _mayim_ (water)
+represents ninety:
+
+WATER SONG
+
+Chorus:--Of wine, alas! there's not a drop,
+         Our host has filled our goblets to the top
+                 With water.
+
+         When monarch wine lies prone,
+         By water overthrown,
+         How can a merry song be sung?
+         For naught there is to wet our tongue
+                 But water.
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc.
+
+         No sweetmeats can delight
+         My dainty appetite,
+         For I, alas! must learn to drink,
+         However I may writhe and shrink,
+                 Pure water.
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc.
+
+         Give Moses praise, for he
+         Made waterless a sea--
+         Mine host to quench my thirst--the churl!--
+         Makes streams of clearest water purl,
+                 Of water.
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc.
+
+         To toads I feel allied,
+         To frogs by kinship tied;
+         For water drinking is no joke,
+         Ere long you all will hear me croak
+                 Quack water!
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc.
+
+         May God our host requite;
+         May he turn Nazirite,
+         Ne'er know intoxication's thrill,
+         Nor e'er succeed his thirst to still
+                 With water!
+           CHORUS:--Of wine, alas! etc."
+
+Gabirol was a bold thinker, a great poet wrestling with the deepest
+problems of human thought, and towering far above his contemporaries and
+immediate successors. In his time synagogue poetry reached the zenith of
+perfection, and even in the solemn admonitions of ritualistic
+literature, humor now and again asserted itself. One of Gabirol's
+contemporaries or successors, Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat, for
+instance, often made his whole poem turn upon a witticism.
+
+Among the writers of that age, a peculiar style called "mosaic"
+gradually grew up, and eventually became characteristic of neo-Hebraic
+poetry and humor. For their subjects and the presentation of their
+thoughts, they habitually made use of biblical phraseology, either as
+direct quotations or with an application not intended by the original
+context. In the latter case, well-known sentences were invested with new
+meanings, and this poetic-biblical phraseology afforded countless
+opportunities for the exercise of humor, of which neo-Hebraic poetry
+availed itself freely. The "mosaics" were collected not only from the
+Bible; the Targum, the Mishna, and the Talmud were rifled of sententious
+expressions, woven together, and with the license of art placed in
+unexpected juxtaposition. An example will make clear the method. In
+Genesis xviii. 29, God answers Abraham's petition in behalf of Sodom
+with the words: "I will not do it for the sake of forty," meaning, as
+everybody knows, that forty men would suffice to save the city from
+destruction. This passage Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat audaciously
+connects with Deuteronomy xxv. 3, where forty is also mentioned, the
+forty stripes for misdemeanors of various kinds:
+
+    "If you see men the path of right forsake,
+    To bring them back you must an effort make.
+    Perhaps, if they but hear of stripes, they'll quake,
+    And say, 'I'll do it not for forty's sake.'"
+
+This "mosaic" style, suggesting startling contrasts and surprising
+applications of Bible thoughts and words, became a fruitful source of
+Jewish humor. If a theory of literary descent could be established, an
+illustration might be found in Heine's rapid transitions from tender
+sentiment to corroding wit, a modern development of the flashing humor
+of the "mosaic" style.
+
+The "Song of Songs" naturally became a treasure-house of "mosaic"
+suggestions for the purposes of neo-Hebraic love poetry, which was
+dominated, however, by Arab influences. The first poet to introduce the
+sorrow of unhappy love into neo-Hebraic poetry was Moses ibn Ezra. He
+was in love with his niece, who probably became the wife of one of his
+brothers, and died early on giving birth to a son. His affection at
+first was requited, but his brothers opposed the union, and the poet
+left Spain, embittered and out of sorts with fate, to find peace and
+consolation in distant lands. Many of his poems are deeply tinged with
+gloom and pessimism, and the natural inference is that those in which he
+praises nature, and wine, and "bacchanalian feasts under leafy canopies
+with merry minstrelsy of birds" belong to the period of his life
+preceding its unfortunate turning-point, when love still smiled upon
+him, and hope was strong.
+
+Some of his poems may serve as typical specimens of the love-poetry of
+those days:
+
+    "With hopeless love my heart is sick,
+      Confession bursts my lips' restraint
+    That thou, my love, dost cast me off,
+      Hath touched me with a death-like taint.
+
+    I view the land both near and far,
+      To me it seems a prison vast.
+    Throughout its breadth, where'er I look,
+      My eyes are met by doors locked fast.
+
+    And though the world stood open wide,
+      Though angel hosts filled ev'ry space,
+    To me 'twere destitute of charm
+      Didst thou withdraw thy face."
+
+Here is another:
+
+    "Perchance in days to come,
+      When men and all things change,
+    They'll marvel at my love,
+      And call it passing strange.
+
+    Without I seem most calm,
+      But fires rage within--
+    'Gainst me, as none before,
+      Thou didst a grievous sin.
+
+    What! tell the world my woe!
+      That were exceeding vain.
+    With mocking smile they'd say,
+      'You know, he is not sane!'"
+
+When his lady-love died, he composed the following elegy:
+
+    "In pain she bore the son who her embrace
+      Would never know. Relentless death spread straight
+      His nets for her, and she, scarce animate,
+    Unto her husband signed: I ask this grace,
+    My friend, let not harsh death our love efface;
+      To our babes, its pledges, dedicate
+      Thy faithful care; for vainly they await
+    A mother's smile each childish fear to chase.
+    And to my uncle, prithee, write. Deep pain
+      I brought his heart. Consumed by love's regret
+    He roved, a stranger in his home. I fain
+      Would have him shed a tear, nor love forget.
+    He seeketh consolation's cup, but first
+    His soul with bitterness must quench its thirst."
+
+Moses ibn Ezra's cup of consolation on not a few occasions seems to have
+been filled to overflowing with wine. In no other way can the joyousness
+of his drinking-songs be accounted for. The following are
+characteristic:
+
+    "Wine cooleth man in summer's heat,
+    And warmeth him in winter's sleet.
+    My buckler 'tis 'gainst chilling frost,
+    My shield when rays of sun exhaust."
+
+    "If men will probe their inmost heart,
+    They must condemn their crafty art:
+    For silver pieces they make bold
+    To ask a drink of liquid gold."
+
+To his mistress, naturally, many a stanza of witty praise and coaxing
+imagery was devoted:
+
+    "My love is like a myrtle tree,
+      When at the dance her hair falls down.
+    Her eyes deal death most pitiless,
+      Yet who would dare on her to frown?"
+
+    "Said I to sweetheart: 'Why dost thou resent
+      The homage to thy grace by old men paid?'
+    She answered me with question pertinent:
+      'Dost thou prefer a widow to a maid?'"
+
+To his love-poems and drinking-songs must be added his poems of
+friendship, on true friends, life's crowning gift, and false friends,
+basest of creatures. He has justly been described as the most subjective
+of neo-Hebraic poets. His blithe delight in love, exhaling from his
+poems, transfigured his ready humor, which instinctively pierced to the
+ludicrous element in every object and occurrence: age dyeing its hair,
+traitorous friendship, the pride of wealth, or separation of lovers.
+
+Yet in the history of synagogue literature this poet goes by the name
+_Ha-Sallach_, "penitential poet," on account of his many religious
+songs, bewailing in elegiac measure the hollowness of life, and the
+vanity of earthly possessions, and in ardent words advocating humility,
+repentance, and a contrite heart. The peculiarity of Jewish humor is
+that it returns to its tragic source.
+
+No mediaeval poet so markedly illustrates this characteristic as the
+prince of neo-Hebraic poetry, Yehuda Halevi, in whose poems the
+principle of Jewish national poesy attained its completest expression.
+They are the idealized reflex of the soul of the Jewish people, its
+poetic emotions, its "making for righteousness," its patriotic love of
+race, its capacity for martyrdom. Whatever true and beautiful element
+had developed in Jewish soul life, since the day when Judah's song first
+rang out in Zion's accents on Spanish soil, greets us in its noblest
+garb in his poetry. A modern poet[48] says of him:
+
+    "Ay, he was a master singer,
+    Brilliant pole star of his age,
+    Light and beacon to his people!
+    Wondrous mighty was his singing--
+
+    Verily a fiery pillar
+    Moving on 'fore Israel's legions,
+    Restless caravan of sorrow,
+    Through the exile's desert plain."
+
+In his early youth the muse of poetry had imprinted a kiss upon Halevi's
+brow, and the gracious echo of that kiss trembles through all the poet's
+numbers. Love, too, seems early to have taken up an abode in his
+susceptible heart, but, as expressed in the poems of his youth, it is
+not sensuous, earthly love, nor Gabirol's despondency and unselfish
+grief, nor even the sentiment of Moses ibn Ezra's artistically
+conceived and technically perfect love-plaint. It is tender, yet
+passionate, frankly extolling the happiness of requited love, and as
+naively miserable over separation from his mistress, whom he calls Ophra
+(fawn). One of his sweetest songs he puts upon her lips:
+
+    "Into my eyes he loving looked,
+      My arms about his neck were twined,
+    And in the mirror of my eyes,
+      What but his image did he find?
+
+    Upon my dark-hued eyes he pressed
+      His lips with breath of passion rare.
+    The rogue! 'Twas not my eyes he kissed;
+      He kissed his picture mirrored there."
+
+Ophra's "Song of Joy" reminds one of the passion of the "Song of Songs":
+
+    "He cometh, O bliss!
+    Fly swiftly, ye winds,
+    Ye odorous breezes,
+    And tell him how long
+    I've waited for this!
+
+    O happy that night,
+    When sunk on thy breast,
+    Thy kisses fast falling,
+    And drunken with love,
+    My troth I did plight.
+
+    Again my sweet friend
+    Embraceth me close.
+    Yes, heaven doth bless us,
+    And now thou hast won
+    My love without end."
+
+His mistress' charms he describes with attractive grace:
+
+    "My sweetheart's dainty lips are red,
+    With ruby's crimson overspread;
+    Her teeth are like a string of pearls;
+    Adown her neck her clust'ring curls
+    In ebon hue vie with the night;
+    And o'er her features dances light.
+
+    The twinkling stars enthroned above
+    Are sisters to my dearest love.
+    We men should count it joy complete
+    To lay our service at her feet.
+    But ah! what rapture in her kiss!
+    A forecast 'tis of heav'nly bliss!"
+
+When the hour of parting from Ophra came, the young poet sang:
+
+    "And so we twain must part! Oh linger yet,
+      Let me still feed my glance upon thine eyes.
+    Forget not, love, the days of our delight,
+      And I our nights of bliss shall ever prize.
+    In dreams thy shadowy image I shall see,
+      Oh even in my dream be kind to me!"[49]
+
+Yehuda Halevi sang not only of love, but also, in true Oriental fashion,
+and under the influence of his Arabic models, of wine and friendship. On
+the other hand, he is entirely original in his epithalamiums, charming
+descriptions of the felicity of young conjugal life and the sweet
+blessings of pure love. They are pervaded by the intensity of joy, and
+full of roguish allusions to the young wife's shamefacedness, arousing
+the jest and merriment of her guests, and her delicate shrinking in the
+presence of longed-for happiness. Characteristically enough his
+admonitions to feed the fire of love are always followed by a sigh for
+his people's woes:
+
+    "You twain will soon be one,
+      And all your longing filled.
+    Ah me! will Israel's hope
+      For freedom e'er be stilled?"
+
+It is altogether probable that these blithesome songs belong to the
+poet's early life. To a friend who remonstrates with him for his love of
+wine he replies:
+
+    "My years scarce number twenty-one--
+    Wouldst have me now the wine-cup shun?"
+
+which would seem to indicate that love and wine were the pursuits of his
+youth. One of his prettiest drinking songs is the following:
+
+    "My bowl yields exultation--
+      I soar aloft on song-tipped wing,
+    Each draught is inspiration,
+      My lips sip wine, my mouth must sing.
+
+    Dear friends are full of horror,
+      Predict a toper's end for me.
+    They ask: 'How long, O sorrow,
+      Wilt thou remain wine's devotee?'
+
+    Why should I not sing praise of drinking?
+      The joys of Eden it makes mine.
+    If age will bring no cowardly shrinking,
+      Full many a year will I drink wine."
+
+But little is known of the events of the poet's career. History's
+niggardliness, however, has been compensated for by the prodigality of
+legend, which has woven many a fanciful tale about his life. Of one fact
+we are certain: when he had passed his fiftieth year, Yehuda Halevi left
+his native town, his home, his family, his friends, and disciples, to
+make a pilgrimage to Palestine, the land wherein his heart had always
+dwelt. His itinerary can be traced in his songs. They lead us to Egypt,
+to Zoan, to Damascus. In Tyre silence suddenly falls upon the singer.
+Did he attain the goal he had set out to reach? Did his eye behold the
+land of his fathers? Or did death overtake the pilgrim singer before his
+journey's end? Legend which has beautified his life has transfigured his
+death. It is said, that struck by a Saracen's horse Yehuda Halevi sank
+down before the very gates of Jerusalem. With its towers and battlements
+in sight, and his inspired "Lay of Zion" on his lips, his pure soul
+winged its flight heavenward.
+
+With the death of Yehuda Halevi, the golden age of neo-Hebraic poetry in
+Spain came to an end, and the period of the epigones was inaugurated. A
+note of hesitancy is discernible in their productions, and they
+acknowledge the superiority of their predecessors in the epithet
+"fathers of song" applied to them. The most noted of the later writers
+was Yehuda ben Solomon Charisi. Fortune marked him out to be the critic
+of the great poetic creations of the brilliant epoch just closed, and
+his fame rests upon the skill with which he acquitted himself of his
+difficult task. As for his poetry, it lacks the depth, the glow, the
+virility, and inspiration of the works of the classical period. He was a
+restless wanderer, a poet tramp, roving in the Orient, in Africa, and in
+Europe. His most important work is his divan _Tachkemoni_, testifying to
+his powers as a humorist, and especially to his mastery of the Hebrew
+language, which he uses with dexterity never excelled. The divan touches
+upon every possible subject: God and nature, human life and suffering,
+the relations between men, his personal experiences, and his adventures
+in foreign parts. The first Makamat[50] writer among Jews, he furnished
+the model for all poems of the kind that followed; their first genuine
+humorist, he flashes forth his wit like a stream of light suddenly
+turned on in the dark. That he measured the worth of his productions by
+the generous meed of praise given by his contemporaries is a venial
+offense in the time of the troubadours and minnesingers. Charisi was
+particularly happy in his use of the "mosaic" style, and his short poems
+and epigrams are most charming. Deep melancholy is a foil to his humor,
+but as often his writings are disfigured by levity. The following may
+serve as samples of his versatile muse. The first is addressed to his
+grey hair:
+
+    "Those ravens black that rested
+      Erstwhile upon my head,
+    Within my heart have nested,
+      Since from my hair they fled."
+
+The second is inscribed to love's tears:
+
+    "Within my heart I held concealed
+      My love so tender and so true;
+    But overflowing tears revealed
+      What I would fain have hid from view.
+    My heart could evermore repress
+    The woe that tell-tale tears confess."
+
+Charisi is at his best when he gives the rein to his humor. Sparks fly;
+he stops at no caustic witticism, recoils from no satire; he is malice
+itself, and puts no restraint upon his levity. The "Flea Song" is a
+typical illustration of his impish mood:
+
+    "You ruthless flea, who desecrate my couch,
+      And draw my blood to sate your appetite,
+    You know not rest, on Sabbath day or feast--
+      Your feast it is when you can pinch and bite.
+
+    My friends expound the law: to kill a flea
+      Upon the Sabbath day a sin they call;
+    But I prefer that other law which says,
+      Be sure a murd'rer's malice to forestall."
+
+That Charisi was a boon companion is evident from the following drinking
+song:
+
+    "Here under leafy bowers,
+      Where coolest shades descend,
+    Crowned with a wreath of flowers,
+      Here will we drink, my friend.
+
+    Who drinks of wine, he learns
+      That noble spirits' strength
+    But steady increase earns,
+      As years stretch out in length.
+
+    A thousand earthly years
+      Are hours in God's sight,
+    A year in heav'n appears
+      A minute in its flight.
+
+    I would this lot were mine:
+      To live by heav'nly count,
+    And drink and drink old wine
+      At youth's eternal fount."
+
+Charisi and his Arabic models found many imitators among Spanish Jews.
+Solomon ibn Sakbel wrote Hebrew Makamat which may be regarded as an
+attempt at a satire in the form of a romance. The hero, Asher ben
+Yehuda, a veritable Don Juan, passes through most remarkable
+adventures.[51] The introductory Makama, describing life with his
+mistress in the solitude of a forest, is delicious. Tired of his
+monotonous life, he joins a company of convivial fellows, who pass their
+time in carousal. While with them, he receives an enigmatic love letter
+signed by an unknown woman, and he sets out to find her. On his
+wanderings, oppressed by love's doubts, he chances into a harem, and is
+threatened with death by its master. It turns out that the pasha is a
+beautiful woman, the slave of his mysterious lady-love, and she promises
+him speedy fulfilment of his wishes. Finally, close to the attainment of
+his end, he discovers that his beauty is a myth, the whole a practical
+joke perpetrated by his merry companions. So Asher ben Yehuda in quest
+of his mistress is led from adventure to adventure.
+
+Internal evidence testifies against the genuineness of this romance, but
+at the same time with it appeared two other mock-heroic poems, "The Book
+of Diversions" (_Sefer Sha'ashuim_) by Joseph ibn Sabara, and "The Gift
+of Judah the Misogynist" (_Minchatk Yehuda Soneh ha-Nashim_) by Judah
+ibn Sabbatai, a Cordova physician, whose poems Charisi praised as the
+"fount of poesy." The plot of his "Gift," a satire on women, is as
+follows:[52] His dying father exacts from Serach, the hero of the
+romance, a promise never to marry, women in his sight being the cause of
+all the evil in the world. Curious as the behest is, it is still more
+curious that Serach uncomplainingly complies, and most curious of all,
+that he finds three companions willing to retire with him to a distant
+island, whence their propaganda for celibacy is to proceed. Scarcely has
+the news of their arrival spread, when a mass meeting of women is
+called, and a coalition formed against the misogynists. Korbi, an old
+hag, engages to make Serach faithless to his principles. He soon has a
+falling out with his fellow-celibates, and succumbs to the fascinations
+of a fair young temptress. After the wedding he discovers that his
+enemies, the women, have substituted for his beautiful bride, a hideous
+old woman, Blackcoal, the daughter of Owl. She at once assumes the reins
+of government most energetically, and answers her husband's groan of
+despair by the following curtain lecture:
+
+    "Up! up! the time for sleep is past!
+    And no resistance will I brook!
+    Away with thee, and look to it
+    That thou bringst me what I ask:
+    Gowns of costly stuff,
+    Earrings, chains, and veils;
+    A house with many windows;
+    Mortars, lounges, sieves,
+    Baskets, kettles, pots,
+    Glasses, settles, brooms,
+    Beakers, closets, flasks,
+    Shovels, basins, bowls,
+    Spindle, distaff, blankets,
+    Buckets, ewers, barrels,
+    Skillets, forks, and knives;
+    Vinaigrettes and mirrors;
+    Kerchiefs, turbans, reticules,
+    Crescents, amulets,
+    Rings and jewelled clasps;
+    Girdles, buckles, bodices,
+    Kirtles, caps, and waists;
+    Garments finely spun,
+    Rare byssus from the East.
+    This and more shalt thou procure,
+    No matter at what cost and sacrifice.
+    Thou art affrighted? Thou weepest?
+    My dear, spare all this agitation;
+    Thou'lt suffer more than this.
+    The first year shall pass in strife,
+    The second will see thee a beggar.
+    A prince erstwhile, thou shalt become a slave;
+    Instead of a crown, thou shalt wear a wreath of straw."
+
+Serach in abject despair turns for comfort to his three friends, and it
+is decided to bring suit for divorce in a general assembly. The women
+appear at the meeting, and demand that the despiser of their sex be
+forced to keep his ugly wife. One of the trio of friends proposes that
+the matter be brought before the king. The poet appends no moral to his
+tale; he leaves it to his readers to say: "And such must be the fate of
+all woman-haters!"
+
+Judah Sabbatai was evidently far from being a woman-hater himself, but
+some of his contemporaries failed to understand the point of his
+witticisms and ridiculous situations. Yedaya Penini, another poet,
+looked upon it as a serious production, and in his allegory, "Woman's
+Friend," destitute of poetic inspiration, but brilliant in dialectics,
+undertook the defense of the fair sex against the misanthropic
+aspersions of the woman-hater.
+
+Such works are evidence that we have reached the age of the troubadours
+and minnesingers, the epoch of the Renaissance, when, under the blue sky
+of Italy, and the fostering care of the trio of master-poets, Dante,
+Petrarch, and Boccaccio, the first germs of popular poetry were
+unfolding. The Italian Jews were carried along by the all-pervading
+spirit of the times, and had a share in the vigorous mental activity
+about them. Suggestions derived from the work of the Renaissance leaders
+fell like electric sparks into Jewish literature and science, lighting
+them up, and bringing them into rapport with the products of the
+humanistic movement. Provence, the land of song, gave birth to Kalonymos
+ben Kalonymos, later a resident of Italy, whose work, "Touchstone"
+(_Eben Bochan_) is the first true satire in neo-Hebraic poetry. It is a
+mirror of morals held up before his people, for high and low, rabbis and
+leaders, poets and scholars, rich and poor, to see their foibles and
+follies. The satire expresses a humorous, but lofty conception of life,
+based upon profound morality and sincere faith. It fulfils every
+requirement of a satire, steering clear of the pitfall caricature, and
+not obtruding the didactic element. The lesson to be conveyed is
+involved in, not stated apart from the satire, an emanation from the
+poet's disposition. His aim is not to ridicule, but to improve,
+instruct, influence. One of the most amusing chapters is that on woman's
+superior advantages, which make him bewail his having been born a
+man:[53]
+
+    "Truly, God's hand lies heavy on him
+    Who has been created a man:
+    Full many a trial he must patiently bear,
+    And scorn and contumely of every kind.
+    His life is like a field laid waste--
+    Fortunate he is if it lasts not too long!
+    Were I, for instance, a woman,
+    How smooth and pleasant were my course.
+    A circle of intimate friends
+    Would call me gentle, graceful, modest.
+    Comfortably I'd sit with them and sew,
+    With one or two mayhap at the spinning wheel.
+    On moonlight nights
+    Gathered for cozy confidences,
+    About the hearthfire, or in the dark,
+    We'd tell each other what the people say,
+    The gossip of the town, the scandals,
+    Discuss the fashions and the last election.
+    I surely would rise above the average--
+    I would be an artist needlewoman,
+    Broidering on silk and velvet
+    The flowers of the field,
+    And other patterns, copied from models,
+    So rich in color as to make them seem nature--
+    Petals, trees, blossoms, plants, and pots,
+    And castles, pillars, temples, angel heads,
+    And whatever else can be imitated with needle by her
+    Who guides it with art and skill.
+    Sometimes, too, though 'tis not so attractive,
+    I should consent to play the cook--
+    No less important task of woman 'tis
+    To watch the kitchen most carefully.
+    I should not be ruffled
+    By dust and ashes on the hearth, by soot on stoves and pots;
+    Nor would I hesitate to swing the axe
+    And chop the firewood,
+    And not to feed and rake the fire up,
+    Despite the ashy dust that fills the nostrils.
+    My particular delight it would be
+    To taste of all the dishes served.
+    And if some merry, joyous festival approached,
+    Then would I display my taste.
+    I would choose most brilliant gems for ear and hand,
+    For neck and breast, for hair and gown,
+    Most precious stuffs of silk and velvet,
+    Whatever in clothes and jewels would increase my charms.
+    And on the festal day, I would loud rejoice,
+    Sing, and sway myself, and dance with vim.
+    When I reached a maiden's prime,
+    With all my charms at their height,
+    What happiness, were heaven to favor me,
+    Permit me to draw a prize in life's lottery,
+    A youth of handsome mien, brave and true,
+    With heart filled with love for me.
+    If he declared his passion,
+    I would return his love with all my might.
+    Then as his wife, I would live a princess,
+    Reclining on the softest pillows,
+    My beauty heightened by velvet, silk, and tulle,
+    By pearls and golden ornaments,
+    Which he with lavish love would bring to me,
+    To add to his delight and mine."
+
+After enumerating additional advantages enjoyed by the gentler sex, the
+poet comes to the conclusion that protesting against fate is vain, and
+closes his chapter thus:
+
+    "Well, then, I'll resign myself to fate,
+    And seek consolation in the thought that life comes to an end.
+    Our sages tell us everywhere
+    That for all things we must praise God,
+    With loud rejoicing for all good,
+    In submission for evil fortune.
+    So I will force my lips,
+    However they may resist, to say the olden blessing:
+    My Lord and God accept my thanks
+    That thou has made of me a man."
+
+One of Kalonymos's friends was Immanuel ben Solomon of Rome, called the
+"Heine of the middle ages," and sometimes the "Jewish Voltaire." Neither
+comparison is apt. On the one hand, they give him too high a place as a
+writer, on the other, they do not adequately indicate his characteristic
+qualities. His most important work, the _Mechabberoth_, is a collection
+of disjointed pieces, full of bold witticisms, poetic thoughts, and
+linguistic charms. It is composed of poems, Makamat, parodies, novels,
+epigrams, distichs, and sonnets--all essentially humorous. The poet
+presents things as they are, leaving it to reality to create ridiculous
+situations. He is witty rather than humorous. Rarely only a spark of
+kindliness or the glow of poetry transfigures his wit. He is uniformly
+objective, scintillating, cold, often frivolous, and not always chaste.
+To produce a comic effect, to make his readers laugh is his sole desire.
+Friend and admirer of Dante, he attained to a high degree of skill in
+the sonnet. In neo-Hebraic poetry, his works mark the beginning of a new
+epoch. Indelicate witticisms and levity, until then sporadic in Jewish
+literature, were by him introduced as a regular feature. The poetry of
+the earlier writers had dwelt upon the power of love, their muse was
+modest and chaste, a "rose of Sharon," a "lily of the valleys."
+Immanuel's was of coarser fibre; his witty sallies remind one of Italian
+rather than Hebrew models. A recent critic of Hebrew poetry speaks of
+his Makamat as a pendant to "Tristan and Isolde,"--in both sensuality
+triumphs over spirituality. He is at his best in his sonnets, and of
+these the finest are in poetic prose. Female beauty is an unfailing
+source of inspiration to him, but of trust in womankind he has none:
+
+    "No woman ever faithful hold,
+    Unless she ugly be and old."
+
+The full measure of mockery he poured out upon a deceived husband, and
+the most cutting sarcasm at his command against an enemy is a
+comparison to crabbed, ugly women:
+
+    "I loathe him with the hot and honest hate
+    That fills a rake 'gainst maids he can not bait,
+    With which an ugly hag her glass reviles,
+    And prostitutes the youths who 'scape their wiles."
+
+His devotion to woman's beauty is altogether in the spirit of his
+Italian contemporaries. One of his most pleasing sonnets is dedicated to
+his lady-love's eyes:[54]
+
+    "My sweet gazelle! From thy bewitching eyes
+      A glance thrills all my soul with wild delight.
+      Unfathomed depths beam forth a world so bright--
+    With rays of sun its sparkling splendor vies--
+    One look within a mortal deifies.
+      Thy lips, the gates wherethrough dawn wings its flight,
+      Adorn a face suffused with rosy light,
+    Whose radiance puts to shame the vaulted skies.
+    Two brilliant stars are they from heaven sent--
+      Their charm I cannot otherwise explain--
+    By God but for a little instant lent,
+      Who gracious doth their lustrous glory deign,
+    To teach those on pursuit of beauty bent,
+      Beside those eyes all other beauty's vain."
+
+Immanuel's most congenial work, however, is as a satirist. One of his
+best known poems is a chain of distichs, drawing a comparison between
+two maidens, Tamar the beautiful, and Beria the homely:
+
+  "Tamar raises her eyelids, and stars appear in the sky;
+  Her glance drops to earth, and flowers clothe the knoll whereon she stands.
+  Beria looks up, and basilisks die of terror;
+  Be not amazed; 'tis a sight that would Satan affright.
+  Tamar's divine form human language cannot describe;
+  The gods themselves believe her heaven's offspring.
+  Beria's presence is desirable only in the time of vintage,
+  When the Evil One can be banished by naught but grimaces.
+  Tamar! Had Moses seen thee he had never made the serpent of copper,
+  With thy image he had healed mankind.
+  Beria! Pain seizes me, physic soothes,
+  I catch sight of thee, and it returns with full force.
+  Tamar, with ringlets adorned, greets early the sun,
+  Who quickly hides, ashamed of his bald pate.
+  Beria! were I to meet thee on New Year's Day in the morning,
+  An omen 'twere of an inauspicious year.
+  Tamar smiles, and heals the heart's bleeding wounds;
+  She raises her head, the stars slink out of sight.
+  Beria it were well to transport to heaven,
+  Then surely heaven would take refuge on earth.
+  Tamar resembles the moon in all respects but one--
+  Her resplendent beauty never suffers obscuration.
+  Beria partakes of the nature of the gods; 'tis said,
+  None beholds the gods without most awful repentance.
+  Tamar, were the Virgin like thee, never would the sun
+  Pass out of Virgo to shine in Libra.
+  Beria, dost know why the Messiah tarries to bring deliverance to men?
+  Redemption time has long arrived, but he hides from thee."
+
+With amazement we see the Hebrew muse, so serious aforetimes,
+participate in truly bacchanalian dances under Immanuel's guidance. It
+is curious that while, on the one hand, he shrinks from no frivolous
+utterance or indecent allusion, on the other, he is dominated by deep
+earnestness and genuine warmth of feeling, when he undertakes to defend
+or expound the fundamentals of faith. It is characteristic of the trend
+of his thought that he epitomizes the "Song of Songs" in the sentence:
+"Love is the pivot of the _Torah_." By a bold hypothesis it is assumed
+that in Daniel, his guide in Paradise (in the twenty-eighth canto of his
+poem), he impersonated and glorified his great friend Dante. If true,
+this would be an interesting indication of the intimate relations
+existing between a Jew and a circle devoted to the development of the
+national genius in literature and language, and the stimulating of the
+sense of nature and truth in opposition to the fantastic visions and
+grotesque ideals of the past.
+
+Everywhere, not only in Italy, the Renaissance and the humanistic
+movement attract Jews. Among early Castilian troubadours there is a Jew,
+and the last troubadour of Spain again is a Jew. Naturally Italian Jews
+are more profoundly than others affected by the renascence of science
+and art. David ben Yehuda, Messer Leon, is the author of an epic,
+_Shebach Nashim_ ("Praise of Women"), in which occurs an interesting
+reference to Petrarch's Laura, whom, in opposition to the consensus of
+opinion among his contemporaries, he considers, not a figment of the
+imagination, but a woman of flesh and blood. Praise and criticism of
+women are favorite themes in the poetic polemics of the sixteenth
+century. For instance, Jacob ben Elias, of Fano, in his "Shields of
+Heroes," a small collection of songs in stanzas of three verses,
+ventures to attack the weaker sex, for which Judah Tommo of Porta Leone
+at once takes up the cudgels in his "Women's Shield." At the same time a
+genuine song combat broke out between Abraham of Sarteano and Elias of
+Genzano. The latter is the champion of the purity of womanhood, impugned
+by the former, who in fifty tercets exposes the wickedness of woman in
+the most infamous of her sex, from Lilith to Jezebel, from Semiramis to
+Medea. An anonymous combatant lends force to his strictures by an
+arraignment of the lax morals of the women of their own time, while a
+fourth knight of song, evidently intending to conciliate the parties,
+begins his "New Song," only a fragment of which has reached us, with
+praise, and ends it with blame, of woman. Such productions, too, are a
+result of the Renaissance, of its romantic current, which, as it
+affected Catholicism, did not fail to leave its mark upon the Jews,
+among whom romanticists must have had many a battle to fight with
+adherents of traditional views.
+
+Meantime, neo-Hebraic poetry had "fallen into the sear, the yellow
+leaf." Poetry drooped under the icy breath of rationalism, and vanished
+into the abyss of the Kabbala. At most we occasionally hear of a polemic
+poem, a keen-edged epigram. For the rest, there was only a monotonous
+succession of religious poems, repeating the old formulas, dry bones of
+habit and tradition, no longer informed with true poetic, religious
+spirit. Yet the source of love and humor in Jewish poetry had not run
+dry. It must be admitted that the sentimentalism of the minneservice,
+peculiar to the middle ages, never took root in Jewish soil. Pale
+resignation, morbid despair, longing for death, unmanly indulgence in
+regret, all the paraphernalia of chivalrous love, extolled in every key
+in the poetry of the middle ages, were foreign to the sane Jewish mind.
+Women, the object of unreasoning adulation, shared the fate of all
+sovereign powers: homage worked their ruin. They became accustomed to
+think that the weal and woe of the world depended upon their constancy
+or disloyalty. Jews alone were healthy enough to subordinate sexual love
+to reverence for maternity. Holding an exalted idea of love, they
+realized that its power extends far beyond the lives of two persons, and
+affects the well-being of generations unborn. Such love, intellectual
+love, which Benedict Spinoza was the first to define from a scientific
+and philosophic point of view, looks far down the vistas of the future,
+and gives providential thought to the race.
+
+While humor and romanticism everywhere in the middle ages appeared as
+irreconcilable contrasts, by Jews they were brought into harmonious
+relationship. When humor was banished from poetry, it took refuge in
+Jewish-German literature, that spiritual undercurrent produced by the
+claims of fancy as opposed to the aggressive, all absorbing demands of
+reason. Not to the high and mighty, but to the lowly in spirit, the
+little ones of the earth, to women and children, it made its appeal, and
+from them its influence spread throughout the nation, bringing
+refreshment and sustenance to weary, starved minds, hope to the
+oppressed, and consolation to the afflicted. Consolation, indeed, was
+sorely needed by the Jews on their peregrinations during the middle
+ages. Sad, inexpressibly sad, was their condition. With fatal
+exclusiveness they devoted themselves to the study of the Talmud.
+Secular learning was deprecated; antagonism to science and vagaries
+characterized their intellectual life; philosophy was formally
+interdicted; the Hebrew language neglected; all their wealth and force
+of intellect lavished upon the study of the Law, and even here every
+faculty--reason, ingenuity, speculation--busied itself only with highly
+artificial solutions of equally artificial problems, far-fetched
+complications, and vexatious contradictions invented to be harmonized.
+Under such grievous circumstances, oppression growing with malice,
+Jewish minds and hearts were robbed of humor, and the exercise of love
+was made a difficult task. Is it astonishing that in such days a rabbi
+in the remote Slavonic East should have issued an injunction restraining
+his sisters in faith from reading romances on the Sabbath--romances
+composed by some other rabbi in Provence or Italy five hundred years
+before?
+
+Sorrow and suffering are not endless. A new day broke for the Jews. The
+walls of the Ghetto fell, dry bones joined each other for new life, and
+a fresh spirit passed over the House of Israel. Enervation and decadence
+were succeeded by regeneration, quickened by the spirit of the times, by
+the ideas of freedom and equality universally advocated. The forces
+which culminated in their revival had existed as germs in the preceding
+century. Silently they had grown, operating through every spiritual
+medium, poetry, oratory, philosophy, political agitation. In the
+sunshine of the eighteenth century they finally matured, and at its
+close the rejuvenation of the Jewish race was an accomplished fact in
+every European country. Eagerly its sons entered into the new
+intellectual and literary movements of the nations permitted to enjoy
+another period of efflorescence, and Jewish humor has conquered a place
+for itself in modern literature.
+
+Our brief journey through the realm of love and humor must certainly
+convince us that in sunny days humor rarely, love never, forsook Israel.
+Our old itinerant preachers (_Maggidim_), strolling from town to town,
+were in the habit of closing their sermons with a parable (_Mashai_),
+which opened the way to exhortation. The manner of our fathers
+recommends itself to me, and following in their footsteps, I venture to
+close my pilgrimage through the ages with a _Mashal_. It transports us
+to the sunny Orient, to the little seaport town of Jabneh, about six
+miles from Jerusalem, in the time immediately succeeding the destruction
+of the Temple. Thither with a remnant of his disciples, Jochanan ben
+Zakkai, one of the wisest of our rabbis, fled to escape the misery
+incident to the downfall of Jerusalem. He knew that the Temple would
+never again rise from its ashes. He knew as well that the essence of
+Judaism has no organic connection with the Temple or the Holy City. He
+foresaw that its mission is to spread abroad among the nations of the
+earth, and of this future he spoke to the disciples gathered about him
+in the academy at Jabneh. We can imagine him asking them to define the
+fundamental principle of Judaism, and receiving a multiplicity of
+answers, varying with the character and temper of the young
+missionaries. To one, possibly, Judaism seemed to rest upon faith in
+God, to another upon the Sabbath, to a third upon the _Torah_, to a
+fourth upon the Decalogue. Such views could not have satisfied the
+spiritual cravings of the aged teacher. When Jochanan ben Zakkai rises
+to give utterance to his opinion, we feel as though the narrow walls of
+the academy at Jabneh were miraculously widening out to enclose the
+world, while the figure of the venerable rabbi grows to the noble
+proportions of a divine seer, whose piercing eye rends the veil of
+futurity, and reads the remote verdict of history: "My disciples, my
+friends, the fundamental principle of Judaism is love!"
+
+
+
+
+THE JEWISH STAGE
+
+
+Perhaps no people has held so peculiar a position with regard to the
+drama as the Jews. Little more than two centuries have passed since a
+Jewish poet ventured to write a drama, and now, if division by race be
+admissible in literary matters, Jews indisputably rank among the first
+of those interested in the drama, both in its composition and
+presentation.
+
+Originally, the Hebrew mind felt no attraction towards the drama. Hebrew
+poetry attained to neither dramatic nor epic creations, because the
+all-pervading monotheistic principle of the nation paralyzed the free
+and easy marshalling of gods and heroes of the Greek drama.
+Nevertheless, traces of dramatic poetry appear in the oldest literature.
+The "Song of Songs" by many is regarded as a dramatic idyl in seven
+scenes, with Shulammith as the heroine, and the king, the ostensible
+author, as the hero. But this and similar efforts are only faint
+approaches to dramatic composition, inducing no imitations.
+
+Greek and Roman theatrical representations, the first they knew, must
+have awakened lively interest in the Jews. It was only after Alexander
+the Great's triumphal march through the East, and the establishment of
+Roman supremacy over Judaea, that a foothold was gained in Palestine by
+the institutions called theatre by the ancients; that is, _stadia_;
+circuses for wrestling, fencing, and combats between men and animals;
+and the stage for tragedies and other plays. To the horror of pious
+zealots, the Jewish Hellenists, in other words, Jews imbued with the
+secular culture of the day, built a gymnasium for the wrestling and
+fencing contests of the Jewish youth of Jerusalem, soon to be further
+defiled by the circus and the _stadium_. According to Flavius Josephus,
+Herod erected a theatre at Jerusalem twenty-eight years before the
+present era, and in the vicinity of the city, an amphitheatre where
+Greek players acted, and sang to the accompaniment of the lyre or flute.
+
+The first, and at his time probably the only, Jewish dramatist was the
+Greek poet Ezekielos (Ezekiel), who flourished in about 150 before the
+common era. In his play, "The Exodus from Egypt," modelled after
+Euripides, Moses, as we know him in the Bible, is the hero. Otherwise
+the play is thoroughly Hellenic, showing the Greek tendency to become
+didactic and reflective and use the heroes of sacred legend as human
+types. Besides, two fragments of Jewish-Hellenic dramas, in trimeter
+verse, have come down to us, the one treating of the unity of God, the
+other of the serpent in Paradise.
+
+To the mass of the Jewish people, particularly to the expounders and
+scholars of the Law, theatrical performances seemed a desecration, a
+sin. A violent struggle ensued between the _Beth ha-Midrash_ and the
+stage, between the teachers of the Law and lovers of art, between
+Rabbinism and Hellenism. Mindful of Bible laws inculcating humanity to
+beasts and men, the rabbis could not fail to deprecate gladiatorial
+contests, and in their simple-mindedness they must have revolted from
+the themes of the Greek playwright, dishonesty, violence triumphant, and
+conjugal infidelity being then as now favorite subjects of dramatic
+representations. The immorality of the stage was, if possible, more
+conspicuous in those days than in ours.
+
+This was the point of view assumed by the rabbis in their exhortations
+to the people, and a conspiracy against King Herod was the result. The
+plotters one evening appeared at the theatre, but their designs were
+frustrated by the absence of the king and his suite. The plot betrayed
+itself, and one of the members of the conspiracy was seized and torn
+into pieces by the mob. The most uncompromising rabbis pronounced a
+curse over frequenters of the theatre, and raised abstinence from its
+pleasures to the dignity of a meritorious action, inasmuch as it was the
+scene of idolatrous practices, and its _habitues_ violated the
+admonition contained in the first verse of the psalms. "Cursed be they
+who visit the theatre and the circus, and despise our laws," one of them
+exclaims.[55] Another interprets the words of the prophet: "I sat not in
+the assembly of the mirthful, and was rejoiced," by the prayer: "Lord of
+the universe, never have I visited a theatre or a circus to enjoy
+myself in the company of scorners."
+
+Despite rampant antagonism, the stage worked its way into the affection
+and consideration of the Jewish public, and we hear of Jewish youths
+devoting themselves to the drama and becoming actors. Only one has come
+down to us by name: the celebrated Alityros in Rome, the favorite of
+Emperor Nero and his wife Poppaea. Josephus speaks of him as "a player,
+and a Jew, well favored by Nero." When the Jewish historian landed at
+Puteoli, a captive, Alityros presented him to the empress, who secured
+his liberation. Beyond a doubt, the Jewish _beaux esprits_ of Rome
+warmly supported the theatre; indeed, Roman satirists levelled their
+shafts against the zeal displayed in the service of art by Jewish
+patrons.
+
+A reaction followed. Theatrical representations were pursued by Talmudic
+Judaism with the same bitter animosity as by Christianity. Not a matter
+of surprise, if account is taken of the licentiousness of the stage, so
+depraved as to evoke sharp reproof even from a Cicero, and the hostility
+of playwrights to Jews and Christians, whom they held up as a butt for
+the ridicule of the Roman populace. Talmudic literature has preserved
+several examples of the buffooneries launched against Judaism. Rabbi
+Abbayu tells the following:[56] A camel covered with a mourning blanket
+is brought upon the stage, and gives rise to a conversation. "Why is
+the camel trapped in mourning?" "Because the Jews, who are observing the
+sabbatical year, abstain from vegetables, and refuse to eat even herbs.
+They eat only thistles, and the camel is mourning because he is deprived
+of his favorite food."
+
+Another time a buffoon appears on the stage with head shaved close. "Why
+is the clown mourning?" "Because oil is so dear." "Why is oil dear?" "On
+account of the Jews. On the Sabbath day they consume everything they
+earn during the week. Not a stick of wood is left to make fire whereby
+to cook their meals. They are forced to burn their beds for fuel, and
+sleep on the floor at night. To get rid of the dirt, they use an immense
+quantity of oil. Therefore, oil is dear, and the clown cannot grease his
+hair with pomade." Certainly no one will deny that the patrons of the
+Roman theatre were less critical than a modern audience.
+
+Teachers of the Law had but one answer to make to such attacks--a
+rigorous injunction against theatre-going. On this subject rabbis and
+Church Fathers were of one mind. The rabbi's declaration, that he who
+enters a circus commits murder, is offspring of the same holy zeal that
+dictates Tertullian's solemn indignation: "In no respect, neither by
+speaking, nor by seeing, nor by hearing, have we part in the mad antics
+of the circus, the obscenity of the theatre, or the abominations of the
+arena." Such expressions prepare one for the passion of another
+remonstrant who, on a Sabbath, explained to his audience that
+earthquakes are the signs of God's fierce wrath when He looks down upon
+earth, and sees theatres and circuses flourish, while His sanctuary lies
+in ruins.[57]
+
+Anathemas against the stage were vain. One teacher of the Law, in the
+middle of the second century, went so far as to permit attendance at the
+circus and the _stadium_ for the very curious reason that the spectator
+may haply render assistance to the charioteers in the event of an
+accident on the race track, or may testify to their death at court, and
+thus enable their widows to marry again. Another pious rabbi expresses
+the hope that theatres and circuses at Rome at some future time may "be
+converted into academies of virtue and morality."
+
+Such liberal views were naturally of extremely rare occurrence. Many
+centuries passed before Jews in general were able to overcome antipathy
+to the stage and all connected with it. Pagan Rome with its artistic
+creations was to sink, and the new Christian drama, springing from the
+ruins of the old theatre, but making the religious its central idea, was
+to develop and invite imitation before the first germ of interest in
+dramatic subjects ventured to show itself in Jewish circles. The first
+Jewish contribution to the drama dates from the ninth century. The story
+of Haman, arch-enemy of the Jews, was dramatized in celebration of
+_Purim_, the Jewish carnival. The central figure was Haman's effigy
+which was burnt, amid song, music, and general merrymaking, on a small
+pyre, over which the participants jumped a number of times in gleeful
+rejoicing over the downfall of their worst enemy--extravagance
+pardonable in a people which, on every other day of the year, tottered
+under a load of distress and oppression.
+
+This dramatic effort was only a sporadic phenomenon. Real, uninterrupted
+participation in dramatic art by Jews cannot be recorded until fully six
+hundred years later. Meantime the Spanish drama, the first to adapt
+Bible subjects to the uses of the stage, had reached its highest
+development. By reason of its choice of subjects it proved so attractive
+to Jews that scarcely fifty years after the appearance of the first
+Spanish-Jewish playwright, a Spanish satirist deplores, in cutting
+verse, the Judaizing of dramatic poetry. In fact, the first original
+drama in Spanish literature, the celebrated _Celestina_, is attributed
+to a Jew, the Marrano Rodrigo da Cota. "Esther," the first distinctly
+Jewish play in Spanish, was written in 1567 by Solomon Usque in Ferrara
+in collaboration with Lazaro Graziano. The subject treated centuries
+before in a roughshod manner naturally suggested itself to a genuine
+dramatist, who chose it in order to invest it with the dignity conferred
+by poetic art. This first essay in the domain of the Jewish drama was
+followed by a succession of dramatic creations by Jews, who, exiled from
+Spain, cherished the memory of their beloved country, and, carrying to
+their new homes in Italy and Holland, love for its language and
+literature, wrote all their works, dramas included, in Spanish after
+Spanish models. So fruitful was their activity that shortly after the
+exile we hear of a "Jewish Calderon," the author of more than twenty-two
+plays, some long held to be the work of Calderon himself, and therefore
+received with acclamation in Madrid. The real author, whose place in
+Spanish literature is assured, was Antonio Enriquez di Gomez, a Marrano,
+burnt in effigy at Seville after his escape from the clutches of the
+Inquisition. His dramas in part deal with biblical subjects. Samson is
+obviously the mouthpiece of his own sentiments:
+
+    "O God, my God, the time draws quickly nigh!
+      Now let a ray of thy great strength descend!
+    Make firm my hand to execute the deed
+      That alien rule upon our soil shall end!"
+
+Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Portuguese language
+usurped the place of Spanish among Jews, and straightway we hear of a
+Jewish dramatist, Antonio Jose de Silva (1705-1739), one of the most
+illustrious of Portuguese poets, whose dramas still hold their own on
+the repertory of the Portuguese stage. He was burnt at the stake, a
+martyr to his faith, which he solemnly confessed in the hour of his
+execution: "I am a follower of a faith God-given according to your own
+teachings. God once loved this religion. I believe He still loves it,
+but because you maintain that He no longer turns upon it the light of
+His countenance, you condemn to death those convinced that God has not
+withdrawn His grace from what He once favored." It is by no means an
+improbable combination of circumstances that on the evening of the day
+whereon Antonio Jose de Silva expired at the stake, an operetta written
+by the victim himself was played at the great theatre of Lisbon in
+celebration of the auto-da-fe.
+
+Jewish literature as such derived little increase from this poetic
+activity among Jews. In the period under discussion a single Hebrew
+drama was produced which can lay claim to somewhat more praise than is
+the due of mediocrity. _Asireh ha-Tikwah_, "The Prisoners of Hope,"
+printed in 1673, deserves notice because it was the first drama
+published in Hebrew, and its author, Joseph Pensa de la Vega, was the
+last of Spanish, as Antonio de Silva was the last of Portuguese, Jewish
+poets. The three act play is an allegory, treating of the victory of
+free-will, represented by a king, over evil inclinations, personified by
+the handsome lad Cupid. Though imbued with the solemnity of his
+responsibilities as a ruler, the king is lured from the path of right by
+various persons and circumstances, chief among them Cupid, his
+coquettish queen, and his sinful propensities. The opposing good forces
+are represented by the figures of harmony, Providence, and truth, and
+they eventually lead the erring wanderer back to the road of salvation.
+The _dramatis personae_ of this first Hebrew drama are abstractions,
+devoid of dramatic life, mere allegorical personifications, but the
+underlying idea is poetic, and the Hebrew style pure, euphonious, and
+rhythmical. Yet it is impossible to echo the enthusiasm which greeted
+the work of the seventeen year old author in the Jewish academies of
+Holland. Twenty-one poets sang its praises in Latin, Hebrew, and Spanish
+verse. The following couplet may serve as a specimen of their eulogies:
+
+    "At length Israel's muse assumes the tragic cothurn,
+    And happily wends her way through the metre's mazes."
+
+Pensa, though the first to publish, was not the first Hebrew dramatist
+to write. The distinction of priority belongs to Moses Zacuto, who wrote
+his Hebrew play, _Yesod Olam_[58] ("The Foundation of the World") a
+quarter of a century earlier. His subject is the persecution inflicted
+by idolaters upon Abraham on account of his faith, and the groundwork is
+the Haggadistic narrative about Abraham's bold opposition to idolatrous
+practices, and his courage even unto death in the service of the true
+God. According to Talmudic interpretation a righteous character of this
+description is one of the corner-stones of the universe. It must be
+admitted that Zacuto's work is a drama with a purpose. The poet wished
+to fortify his exiled, harassed people with the inspiration and hope
+that flow from the contemplation of a strong, bold personality. But the
+admission does not detract from the genuine merits of the poem. On the
+other hand, this first dramatic effort naturally is crude, lacking in
+the poetic forms supplied by highly developed art. Dialogues, prayers,
+and choruses follow each other without regularity, and in varying
+metres, not destitute, however, of poetic sentiment and lyric beauties.
+Often the rhythm rises to a high degree of excellence, even elevation.
+Like Pensa, Zacuto was the disciple of great masters, and a comparison
+of either with Lope de Vega and Calderon will reveal the same southern
+warmth, stilted pathos, exuberance of fancy, wealth of imagery,
+excessive playing upon words, peculiar turns and phrases, erratic style,
+and other qualities characteristic of Spanish dramatic poetry in that
+period.
+
+Another century elapsed before the muse of the Hebrew drama escaped from
+leading strings. Moses Chayyim Luzzatto (1707-1747) of Padua was a poet
+of true dramatic gifts, and had he lived at another time he might have
+attained to absolute greatness of performance. Unluckily, the
+sentimental, impressionable youth became hopelessly enmeshed in the
+snares of mysticism. In his seventeenth year he composed a biblical
+drama, "Samson and the Philistines," the preserved fragments of which
+are faultless in metre. His next effort was an allegorical drama,
+_Migdal Oz_ ("Tower of Victory"), the style and moral of which show
+unmistakable signs of Italian inspiration, derived particularly from
+Guarini and his _Pastor Fido_, models not wholly commendable at a time
+when Maffei's _Merope_ was exerting wholesome influence upon the Italian
+drama in the direction of simplicity and dignity. Nothing, however,
+could wean Luzzatto from adherence to Spanish-Italian romanticism. His
+happiest creation is the dramatic parable, _Layesharim Tehillah_
+("Praise unto the Righteous!"). The poetry of the Bible here celebrates
+its resurrection. The rhythm and exuberance of the Psalms are reproduced
+in the tone and color of its language. "All the fragrant flowers of
+biblical poetry are massed in a single bed. Yet the language is more
+than a mosaic of biblical phrases. It is an enamel of the most superb
+and the rarest of elegant expressions in the Bible. The peculiarities of
+the historical writings are carefully avoided, while all modifications
+of style peculiar to poetry are gathered together to constitute what may
+fairly be called a vocabulary of poetic diction."[59]
+
+The allegory _Layesharim Tehillah_ is full of charming traits, but lacks
+warmth, naturalness, and human interest, the indispensable elements of
+dramatic action. The first act treats of the iniquity of men who prize
+deceit beyond virtue, and closes with the retirement of the pious sage
+to solitude. The second act describes the hopes of the righteous man and
+his fate, and the third sounds the praise of truth and justice. The
+thread of the story is slight, and the characters are pale phantoms,
+instead of warm-blooded men. Yet the work must be pronounced a gem of
+neo-Hebraic poetry, an earnest of the great creations its author might
+have produced, if in early youth he had not been caught in the swirling
+waters, and dragged down into the abysmal depths of Kabbalistic
+mysticism. Despite his vagaries his poems were full of suggestiveness
+and stimulation to many of his race, who were inspired to work along the
+lines laid down by him. He may be considered to have inaugurated another
+epoch of classical Hebrew literature, interpenetrated with the modern
+spirit, which the Jewish dramas of his day are vigorously successful in
+clothing in a Hebrew garb.
+
+In the popular literature in Jewish-German growing up almost unnoticed
+beside classical Hebrew literature, we find popular plays, comedies,
+chiefly farces for the _Purim_ carnival. The first of them, "The Sale of
+Joseph" (_Mekirath Yoseph_, 1710), treats the biblical narrative in the
+form and spirit of the German farcical clown dialogues, Pickelhering
+(Merry-Andrew), borrowed from the latter, being Potiphar's servant and
+counsellor. No dramatic or poetic value of any kind attaches to the
+play. It is as trivial as any of its models, the German clown comedies,
+and possesses interest only as an index to the taste of the public,
+which surely received it with delight. Strangely enough the principal
+scene between Joseph and Selicha, Potiphar's wife, is highly discreet.
+In a monologue, she gives passionate utterance to her love. Then Joseph
+appears, and she addresses him thus:
+
+    "Be welcome, Joseph, dearest one,
+    My slave who all my heart has won!
+    I beg of thee grant my request!
+    So oft have I to thee confessed,
+    My love for thee is passing great.
+    In vain for answering love I wait.
+    Have not so tyrannous a mind,
+    Be not so churlish, so unkind--
+    I bear thee such affection, see,
+    Why wilt thou not give love to me?"
+
+Joseph answers:
+
+    "I owe my lady what she asks,
+    Yet this is not among my tasks.
+    I pray, my mistress, change thy mind;
+    Thou canst so many like me find.
+    How could I dare transgress my state,
+    And my great trust so violate?
+    My lord hath charged me with his house,
+    Excepting only his dear spouse;
+    Yet she, it seems, needs watching too.
+    Now, mistress, fare thee well, adieu!"
+
+Selicha then says:
+
+    "O heaven now what shall I do?
+    He'll list not to my vows so true.
+    Come, Pickelhering, tell me quick,
+    What I shall do his love to prick?
+    I'll die if I no means can find
+    To bend his humor to my mind.
+    I'll give thee gold, thou mayst depend,
+    If thou'lt but help me to my end."
+
+Pickelhering appears, and says:
+
+    "My lady, here I am, thy slave,
+    My wisest counsel thou shalt have.
+    Thou must lay violent hand on him,
+    And say: 'Unless thou'lt grant my whim,
+    I'll drive thee hence from out my court,
+    And with thy woes I'll have my sport,
+    Nor will I stay thy punishment,
+    Till drop by drop thy blood is spent.'
+    Perhaps he will amend his way,
+    If thou such cruel words wilt say."
+
+Selicha follows his advice, but being thwarted, again appeals to
+Pickelhering, who says:
+
+    "My lady fair, pray hark to me,
+    My counsel now shall fruitful be.
+    A garbled story shalt thou tell
+    The king, and say: 'Hear what befell:
+    Thy servant Joseph did presume
+    To enter in my private room,
+    When no one was about the house
+    Who could protect thy helpless spouse.
+    See here his mantle left behind.
+    Seize him, my lord, the miscreant find.'"
+
+Potiphar appears, Selicha tells her tale, and Pickelhering is sent in
+quest of Joseph, who steps upon the scene to be greeted by his master's
+far from gentle reproaches:
+
+    "Thou gallowsbird, thou good-for-naught!
+    Thou whom so true and good I thought!
+    'Twere just to take thy life from thee.
+    But no! still harsher this decree:
+    In dungeon chained shalt thou repine,
+    Where neither sun nor moon can shine.
+    Forever there bewail thy lot unheard;
+    Now leave my sight, begone, thou gallowsbird.'"
+
+This ends the scene. Of course, at the last, Joseph escapes his doom,
+and, to the great joy of the sympathetic public, is raised to high
+dignities and honors.
+
+This farce was presented at Frankfort-on-the-Main by Jewish students of
+the city, aided by some from Hamburg and Prague, with extravagant
+display of scenery. Tradition ascribes the authorship to a certain
+Beermann.
+
+"Ahasverus" is of similar coarse character, so coarse, indeed, that the
+directors of the Frankfort Jewish community, exercising their rights as
+literary censors, forbade its performance, and had the printed copies
+burnt. A somewhat more refined comedy is _Acta Esther et Achashverosh_,
+published at Prague in 1720, and enacted there by the pupils of the
+celebrated rabbi David Oppenheim, "on a regular stage with drums and
+other instruments." "The Deeds of King David and Goliath," and a
+travesty, "Haman's Will and Death" also belong to the category of Purim
+farces.
+
+By an abrupt transition we pass from their consideration to the Hebrew
+classical drama modelled after the pattern of Moses Chayyim Luzzatto's.
+Greatest attention was bestowed upon historical dramas, notably those on
+the trials and fortunes of Marranos, the favorite subjects treated by
+David Franco Mendez, Samuel Romanelli, and others. Although their
+language is an almost pure classical Hebrew, the plot is conceived
+wholly in the spirit of modern times. At the end of the eighteenth
+century, a large number of writers turned to Bible heroes and heroines
+for dramatic uses, and since then Jewish interest in the drama has never
+flagged. The luxuriant fruitfulness of these late Jewish playwrights,
+standing in the sunlight of modern days, fully compensates for the
+sterility of the Jewish dramatic muse during the centuries of darkness.
+
+The first Jewish dramatist to use German was Benedict David Arnstein, of
+Vienna, author of a large number of plays, comedies and melodramas, some
+of which have been put upon the boards of the Vienna imperial theatre
+(_Burgtheater_). He was succeeded by L. M. Bueschenthal, whose drama,
+"King Solomon's Seal," was performed at the royal theatre of Berlin.
+Since his time poets of Jewish race have enriched dramatic literature in
+all its departments. Their works belong to general literature, and need
+not be individualized in this essay.
+
+In the province of dramatic music, too, Jews have made a prominent
+position for themselves. It suffices to mention Meyerbeer and Offenbach,
+representatives of two widely divergent departments of the art. Again,
+to assert the prominence of Jews as actors is uttering a truism. Adolf
+Jellinek, one of the closest students of the racial characteristics of
+Jews, thinks that they are singularly well equipped for the theatrical
+profession by reason of their marked subjectivity, which always induces
+objective, disinterested devotion to a purpose, and their
+cosmopolitanism, which enables them to transport themselves with ease
+into a new world of thought.[60] "It is natural that a race whose
+religious, literary, and linguistic development in hundreds of instances
+proves unique talent to adapt itself with marvellous facility to the
+intellectual life of various countries and nations, should bring forth
+individuals gifted with power to project themselves into a character
+created by art, and impersonate it with admirable accuracy in the
+smallest detail. What the race as a whole has for centuries been doing
+spontaneously and by virtue of innate characteristics, can surely be
+done with greater perfection by some of its members under the
+consciously accepted guidance of the laws of art." Many Jewish race
+peculiarities--quick perception, vivacity, declamatory pathos, perfervid
+imagination--are prime qualifications for the actor's career, and such
+names as Bogumil Davison, Adolf Sonnenthal, Rachel Felix, and Sarah
+Bernhardt abundantly illustrate the general proposition.
+
+Strenuous efforts to ascertain the name of the first Jewish actor in
+Germany have been unavailing. Possibly it was the unnamed artist for
+whom, at his brother's instance, Lessing interceded at the Mannheim
+national theatre.
+
+Legion is the name of the Jewish artists of this century who have
+attained to prominence in every department of the dramatic art, in every
+country, even the remotest, on the globe. Travellers in Russia tell of
+the crowds that evening after evening flock to the Jewish-German
+theatres at Odessa, Kiev, and Warsaw. The plays performed are
+adaptations of the best dramatic works of all modern nations. We
+outside of Russia have been made acquainted with the character of these
+performances by the melodrama "Shulammith," enacted at various theatres
+by a Jewish-German _opera bouffe_ company from Warsaw, and the writer
+once--can he ever forget it?--saw "Hamlet" played by jargon actors. When
+Hamlet offers advice to Ophelia in the words: "Get thee to a nunnery!"
+she promptly retorts: _Mit Eizes bin ich versehen, mein Prinz!_ (With
+good advice I am well supplied, my lord!).
+
+The actor recalled by the recent centennial celebration of the first
+performance of "The Magic Flute" must have been among the first Jews to
+adopt the stage as a profession. The first presentation, at once
+establishing the success of the opera, took place at Prague. According
+to the _Prager Neue Zeitung_ an incident connected with that original
+performance was of greater interest than the opera itself: "On the tenth
+of last month, the new piece, 'The Magic Flute,' was produced. I
+hastened to the theatre, and found that the part of Sarastro was taken
+by a well-formed young man with a caressing voice who, as I was told to
+my great surprise, was a Jew--yes, a Jew. He was visibly embarrassed
+when he first appeared, proving that he was a human being subject to the
+ordinary laws of nature and to the average mortal's weaknesses. Noticing
+his stage-fright, the audience tried to encourage him by applause. It
+succeeded, for he sang and spoke his lines with grace and dignity. At
+the end he was called out and applauded vigorously. In short, I found
+the Prague public very different from its reputation with us. It knows
+how to appreciate merit even when possessed by an Israelite, and I am
+inclined to think that it criticises harshly only when there is just
+reason for complaint. Hartung, the Jewish actor, will soon appear in
+other roles, and doubtless will justify the applause of the public."
+
+To return, in conclusion, to the classical drama in Hebrew. Though
+patterned after the best classical models, and enriched by the noble
+creations of S. L. Romanelli, M. E. Letteris, the translator of _Faust_,
+A. Gottloeber, and others, Hebrew dramas belong to the large class of
+plays for the closet, unsuited for the stage. This dramatic literature
+contains not only original creations; the masterpieces of all
+literatures--the works of Shakespere, Racine, Moliere, Goethe, Schiller,
+and Lessing--have been put into the language of the prophets and the
+psalmists, and, infected by the vigor of their thought, the ancient
+tongue has been re-animated with the vitality of undying youth.
+
+
+
+
+THE JEW'S QUEST IN AFRICA
+
+
+Citizens of ancient Greece conversing during the _entr'actes_ of a first
+performance at the national theatre of Olympia were almost sure to ask
+each other, after the new play had been discussed: "What news from
+Africa?" Through Aristotle the proverb has come down to us: "Africa
+always brings us something new." Hence the question: _Quid novi ex
+Africa?_[61]
+
+If ever two old rabbis in the _Beth ha-Midrash_ at Cyrene stole a chat
+in the intervals of their lectures, the same question probably passed
+between them. For, Africa has always claimed the interest of the
+cultured. Jewish-German legend books place the scenes of their most
+mysterious myths in the "Dark Continent," and I remember distinctly how
+we youngsters on Sabbath afternoons used to crowd round our dear old
+grandmother, who, great bowed spectacles on her nose, would read to us
+from "Yosippon." On many such occasions an unruly listener, with a view
+to hurrying the distribution of the "Sabbathfruit," would endanger the
+stability of the dish by vigorous tugging at the table-cloth, and elicit
+the reproof suggested by our reading: "You are a veritable
+Sambation!"--Aristotle, Pliny, Olympia, Cyrene, "Yosippon," and
+grandam--all unite to whet our appetite for African novelties.
+
+Never has interest in the subject been more active than in our
+generation, and the question, "What is the quest of the Jews in Africa?"
+might be applied literally to the achievements of individual Jewish
+travellers. But our inquiry shall not be into the fortunes of African
+explorers of Jewish extraction; not into Emin Pasha's journey to Wadelai
+and Magungo; not into the advisability of colonizing Russian Jews in
+Africa; nor even into the role played by a part of northern Africa in
+the development of Jewish literature and culture: briefly, "The Jew's
+quest in Africa" is for the remnants of the ten lost tribes.
+
+For more than eight hundred years, Israel, entrenched on his own soil,
+bade defiance to every enemy. After the death of Solomon (978 B. C. E.),
+the kingdom was divided, its power declining in consequence. The
+world-monarchy Assyria became an adversary to be feared after Ahaz, king
+of Judah, invited it to assist him against Pekah. Tiglath-Pileser
+conquered a part of the kingdom of Israel, and, in about the middle of
+the eighth century, carried off its subjects captive into Assyria. In
+the reign of Hosea, Shalmaneser finished what his predecessor had begun
+(722), utterly destroying the kingdom of the north in the two hundred
+and fifty-eighth year of its independence. Before the catastrophe, a
+part of its inhabitants had emigrated to Arabia, so that there were
+properly speaking only nine tribes, called by their prophets, chief
+among them Hosea and Amos, Ephraim from the most powerful member of the
+confederacy. Another part went to Adiabene, a district on the boundary
+between Assyria and Media, and thence scattered in all directions
+through the kingdom of the Medes and Persians.
+
+The prophets of the exile still hope for their return. Isaiah says:[62]
+"The Lord will put forth His hand again the second time to acquire the
+remnant of his people, which shall remain, from Asshur, and from Egypt,
+and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and
+from Chamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he will lift up an
+ensign unto the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel; and
+the dispersed of Judah will he collect together from the four corners of
+the earth.... Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not assail
+Ephraim.... And the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian
+sea.... And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people,
+which shall remain from Asshur, like as it was to Israel on the day that
+they came up out of the land of Egypt." In Jeremiah[63] we read: "Behold
+I will bring them from the north country, and I will gather them from
+the farthest ends of the earth ... for I am become a father to Israel,
+and Ephraim is my first-born." Referring to this passage, the Talmud
+maintains that the prophet Jeremiah led the lost tribes back to
+Palestine.
+
+The second Isaiah[64] says "to the prisoners, Go forth; to those that
+are in darkness, Show yourselves." "Ye shall be gathered up one by
+one.... And it shall come to pass on that day that the great cornet
+shall be blown, and then shall come those that are lost in the land of
+Asshur, and those who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall
+prostrate themselves before the Lord on the holy mount at Jerusalem."
+
+And Ezekiel:[65] "Thou son of man, take unto thyself one stick of wood,
+and write upon it, 'For Judah, and for the children of Israel his
+companions'; then take another stick, and write upon it, 'For Joseph,
+the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions':
+and join them one to the other unto thee as one stick; and they shall
+become one in thy hand."
+
+These prophetical passages show that at the time of the establishment of
+the second commonwealth the new homes of the ten tribes were accurately
+known. After that, for more than five hundred years, history is silent
+on the subject. From frequent allusions in the prophetical writings, we
+may gather that efforts were made to re-unite Judah and the tribes of
+Israel, and it seems highly probable that they were successful, such of
+the ten tribes as had not adopted the idolatrous practices of the
+heathen returning with the exiles of Judah. In the Samaritan book of
+Joshua, it is put down that many out of the tribes of Israel migrated to
+the north of Palestine at the time when Zerubbabel and Ezra brought the
+train of Babylonian exiles to Jerusalem.
+
+In Talmudic literature we occasionally run across a slight reference to
+the ten tribes, as, for instance, Mar Sutra's statement that they
+journeyed to Iberia, at that time synonymous with Spain, though the
+rabbi probably had northern Africa in mind. Another passage relates that
+the Babylonian scholars decided that no one could tell whether he was
+descended from Reuben or from Simon, the presumption in their mind
+evidently being that the ten tribes had become amalgamated with Judah
+and Benjamin. If they are right, if from the time of Jeremiah to the
+Syrian domination, a slow process of assimilation was incorporating the
+scattered of the ten tribes into the returned remnant of Judah and
+Benjamin, then the ten lost tribes have no existence, and we are dealing
+with a myth. But the question is still mooted. The prophets and the
+rabbis continually dwell upon the hope of reunion. The Pesikta is the
+first authority to locate the exile home of the ten tribes on the
+Sambation. A peculiarly interesting conversation on the future of the
+ten tribes between two learned doctors of the Law, Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi
+Eliezer, has been preserved. Rabbi Eliezer maintains: "The Eternal has
+removed the ten tribes from their soil, and cast them forth into another
+land, as irrevocably as this day goes never to return." Rabbi Akiba, the
+enthusiastic nationalist, thinks very differently: "No, day sinks, and
+passes into night only to rise again in renewed brilliance. So the ten
+tribes, lost in darkness, will reappear in refulgent light."
+
+It is not unlikely that Akiba's journeys, extending into Africa, and
+undertaken to bring about the restoration of the independence of Judaea,
+had as their subsidiary, unavowed purpose, the discovery of the ten lost
+tribes. The "Dark Continent" played no unimportant role in Talmudic
+writings, special interest attaching to their narratives of the African
+adventures of Alexander the Great.[66] On one occasion, it is said, the
+wise men of Africa appeared in a body before the king, and offered him
+gifts of gold. He refused them, being desirous only of becoming
+acquainted with the customs, statutes, and law, of the land. They,
+therefore, gave him an account of a lawsuit which was exciting much
+attention at the time: A man had bought a field from his friend and
+neighbor, and while digging it up, had found a treasure which he refused
+to keep, as he considered it the property of the original owner of the
+field. The latter maintained that he had sold the land and all on and
+within it, and, therefore, had no claim upon the treasure. The doctors
+of the law put an end to the dispute by the decision that the son of the
+one contestant was to take to wife the daughter of the other, the
+treasure to be their marriage portion. Alexander marvelled greatly at
+this decision. "With us," he said, "the government would have had the
+litigants killed, and would have confiscated the treasure." Hereupon
+one of the wise men exclaimed: "Does the sun shine in your land? Have
+you dumb beasts where you live? If so, surely it is for them that God
+sends down the rain, and lets the sun shine!"
+
+In biblical literature, too, frequent mention is made of Africa. The
+first explorer of the "Dark Continent" was the patriarch Abraham, who
+journeyed from Ur of the Chaldees through Mesopotamia, across the
+deserts and mountains of Asia, to Zoan, the metropolis of ancient Egypt.
+When Moses fled from before Pharaoh, he found refuge, according to a
+Talmudic legend, in the Soudan, where he became ruler of the land for
+forty years, and later on, Egypt was the asylum for the greater number
+of Jewish rebels and fugitives. As early as the reign of King Solomon,
+ships freighted with silver sailed to Africa, and Jewish sailors in part
+manned the Phoenician vessels despatched to the coasts of the Red Sea
+to be loaded with the gold dust of Africa, whose usual name in Hebrew
+was _Ophir_, meaning gold dust. In the Talmud Africa is generally spoken
+of as "the South," owing to its lying south of Palestine. One of its
+proverbs runs thus: "He who would be wise, must go to the South." The
+story of Alexander the Great and the African lawyers is probably a
+sample of the wisdom lauded. Nor were the doctors of the Talmud ignorant
+of the physical features of the country. A scoffer asked, "Why have
+Africans such broad feet." "Because they live on marshy soil, and must
+go barefoot," was the ready answer given by Hillel the Great.
+
+In the course of a discussion about the appearance of the cherubim,
+Akiba pointed out that in Africa a little child is called "cherub."
+Thence he inferred that the faces of cherubim resembled those of little
+children. On his travels in Africa, the same rabbi was appealed to by a
+mighty negro king: "See, I am black, and my wife is black. How is it
+that my children are white?" Akiba asked him whether there were pictures
+in his palace. "Yes," answered the monarch, "my sleeping chamber is
+adorned with pictures of white men." "That solves the puzzle," said
+Akiba. Evidently civilization had taken root in Africa more than
+eighteen hundred years ago.
+
+To return to the lost tribes: No land on the globe has been considered
+too small, none too distant, for their asylum. The first country to
+suggest itself was the one closest to Palestine, Arabia, the bridge
+between Asia and Africa. In the first centuries of this era, two great
+kingdoms, Yathrib and Chaibar, flourished there, and it is altogether
+probable that Jews were constantly emigrating thither. As early as the
+time of Alexander the Great, thousands were transported to Arabia,
+particularly to Yemen, where entire tribes accepted the Jewish faith.
+Recent research has made us familiar with the kingdom of Tabba (500) and
+the Himyarites. Their inscriptions and the royal monuments of the old
+African-Jewish population prove that Jewish immigrants must have been
+numerous here, as in southern Arabia. When Mohammed unfurled the banner
+of the Prophet, and began his march through the desert, his followers
+counted not a few Jews. In similar numbers they spread to northern
+Africa, where, towards the end of the first thousand years of the
+Christian era, they boasted large communities, and played a prominent
+role in Jewish literature, as is attested by the important contributions
+to Jewish law, grammar, poetry, and medicine, by such men as Isaac
+Israeli, Chananel, Jacob ben Nissim, Dunash ben Labrat, Yehuda Chayyug,
+and later, Isaac Alfassi. When this north-African Jewish literature was
+at its zenith, interest in the whereabouts of the ten tribes revived,
+first mention of them being made in the last quarter of the ninth
+century. One day there appeared in the academy at Kairwan an adventurer
+calling himself Eldad, and representing himself to be a member of the
+tribe of Dan. Marvellous tales he told the wondering rabbis of his own
+adventures, which read like a Jewish Odyssey, and of the independent
+government established by Jews in Africa, of which he claimed to be a
+subject. Upon its borders, he reported, live the Levitical singers, the
+descendants of Moses, who, in the days of Babylonish captivity, hung
+their harps upon the willows, refusing to sing the songs of Zion upon
+the soil of the stranger, and willing to sacrifice limb and life rather
+than yield to the importunities of their oppressors. A cloud had
+enveloped and raised them aloft, bearing them to the land of Chavila
+(Ethiopia). To protect them from their enemies, their refuge in a trice
+was girdled by the famous Sambation, a stream, not of waters, but of
+rapidly whirling stones and sand, tumultuously flowing during six days,
+and resting on the Sabbath, when the country was secured against foreign
+invasion by a dense cloud of dust. With their neighbors, the sons of
+Moses have intercourse only from the banks of the stream, which it is
+impossible to pass.[67]
+
+This clever fellow, who had travelled far and wide, and knew men and
+customs, gave an account also of a shipwreck which he had survived, and
+of his miraculous escape from cannibals, who devoured his companions,
+but, finding him too lean for their taste, threw him into a dungeon.
+Homer's Odyssey involuntarily suggests itself to the reader. In Spain we
+lose trace of the singular adventurer, who must have produced no little
+excitement in the Jewish world of his day.
+
+Search for the ten tribes had now re-established itself as a subject of
+perennial interest. In the hope of the fulfilment of the biblical
+promise: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
+between his feet, until he comes to Shiloh," even the most famous Jewish
+traveller of the middle ages, Benjamin of Tudela, did not disdain to
+follow up the "traces of salvation." Nor has interest waned in our
+generation. Whenever we hear of a Jewish community whose settlement in
+its home is tinged with mystery, we straightway seek to establish its
+connection with the ten lost tribes. They have been placed in Armenia,
+Syria, and Mesopotamia, where the Nestorian Christians, calling
+themselves sons of Israel, live to the number of two hundred thousand,
+observing the dietary laws and the Sabbath, and offering up sacrifices.
+They have been sought in Afghanistan, India, and Western Asia, the land
+of the "Beni Israel," with Jewish features, Jewish names, such as
+Solomon, David, and Benjamin, and Jewish laws, such as that of the
+Levirate marriage. One chain of hills in their country bears the name
+"Solomon's Mountains," another "Amram Chain," and the most warlike tribe
+is called Ephraim, while the chief tenet of their law is "eye for eye,
+tooth for tooth." Search for the lost has been carried still further, to
+the coast of China, to the settlements of Cochin and Malabar, where
+white and black Jews write their law upon scrolls of red goatskin.
+
+Westward the quest has reached America: Manasseh ben Israel and Mordecai
+Noah, the latter of whom hoped to establish a Jewish commonwealth at
+Ararat near Buffalo, in the beginning of this century, believed that
+they had discovered traces of the lost tribes among the Indians. The
+Spaniards in Mexico identified them with the red men of Anahuac and
+Yucatan, a theory suggested probably by the resemblance between the
+Jewish and the Indian aquiline nose. These would-be ethnologists
+obviously did not take into account the Mongolian descent of the Indian
+tribes and their pre-historic migration from Asia to America across
+Behring Strait.
+
+Europe has not escaped the imputation of being the refuge of the lost
+tribes. When Alfonso XI. expelled the Saracens from Toledo, the Jews of
+the city asked permission to remain on the plea that they were not
+descendants of the murderers of Jesus, but of those ten tribes whom
+Nebuchadnezzar had sent to Tarshish as colonists. The petition was
+granted, and their explanation filed among the royal archives at Toledo.
+
+The English have taken absorbing interest in the fate of the lost
+tribes, maintaining by most elaborate arguments their identity with the
+inhabitants of Scandinavia and England. The English people have always
+had a strong biblical bias. To this day they live in the Bible, and are
+flattered by the hypothesis that the Anglo-Saxons and kindred tribes,
+who crossed over to Britain under Hengist and Horsa in the fifth
+century, were direct descendants of Abraham, their very name
+_Sakkasuna_, that is, sons of Isaac, vouching for the truth of the
+theory. The radical falseness of the etymology is patent. The gist of
+their argument is that the tribe of Dan settled near the source of the
+Jordan, becoming the maritime member of the Israelitish confederacy, and
+calling forth from Deborah the rebuke that the sons of Dan tarried in
+ships when the land stood in need of defenders. And now comes the most
+extravagant of the vagaries of the etymological reasoner: he suggests a
+connection between Dan, Danube, Danai, and Danes, and so establishes the
+English nation's descent from the tribes of Israel.
+
+In the third decade of this century, when Shalmaneser's obelisk was
+found with the inscription "Tribute of Jehu, son of Omri," English
+investigators, seeking to connect it with the Cimbric Chersonese in
+Jutland, at once took it for "Yehu ibn Umry." An Irish legend has it
+that Princess Tephi came to Ireland from the East, and married King
+Heremon, or Fergus, of Scotland. In her suite was the prophet Ollam
+Folla, and his scribe Bereg. The princess was the daughter of Zedekiah,
+the prophet none other than Jeremiah, and the scribe, as a matter of
+course, Baruch. The usefulness of this fine-spun analogy becomes
+apparent when we recall that Queen Victoria boasts descent from Fergus
+of Scotland, and so is furnished with a line of descent which would
+justify pride if it rested on fact instead of fancy. On the other hand,
+imagine the dismay of Heinrich von Treitschke, Saxon _par excellence_,
+were it proved that he is a son of the ten lost tribes!
+
+"Salvation is of the Jews!" is the motto of a considerable movement
+connected with the lost tribes in England and America. More than thirty
+weekly and monthly journals are discharging a volley of eloquence in the
+propaganda of the new doctrine, and lecturers and societies keep
+interest in it alive. An apostolic believer in the Israelitish descent
+of the British has recently turned up in the person of a bishop, and the
+identity of the ancient and the modern people has been raised to the
+dignity of a dogma of the Christian Church by a sect which, according to
+a recent utterance of an Indianapolis preacher, holds the close advent
+of Judgment Day. Yet the ten lost tribes may be a myth!
+
+One thing seems certain: If scattered remnants do exist here and there,
+they must be sought in Africa, in that part, moreover, most accessible
+to travellers, that is to say, Abyssinia, situated in the central
+portion of the great, high tableland of eastern Africa between the basin
+of the Nile and the shores of the Red and the Arabian Sea--a tremendous,
+rocky, fortress-like plateau, intersected closely with a network of
+river-beds, the Switzerland of Africa, as many please to call it.
+Alexander the Great colonized many thousands of Jews in Egypt on the
+southern and northern coasts of the Mediterranean, and in south-eastern
+Africa. Thence they penetrated into the interior of Abyssinia, where
+they founded a mighty kingdom extending to the river Sobat. Abyssinian
+legends have another version of the history of this realm. It is said
+that the Queen of Sheba bore King Solomon a son, named Menelek, whom he
+sent to Abyssinia with a numerous retinue to found an independent
+kingdom. In point of fact, Judaism seems to have been the dominant
+religion in Abyssinia until 340 of the Christian era, and the _Golah_ of
+Cush (the exiles in Abyssinia) is frequently referred to in mediaeval
+Hebrew literature.
+
+The Jewish kingdom flourished until a great revolution broke out in the
+ninth century under Queen Judith (Sague), who conquered Axum, and
+reigned over Abyssinia for forty years. The Jewish ascendancy lasted
+three hundred and fifty years. Rueppell,[68] a noted African explorer,
+gives the names of Jewish dynasties from the ninth to the thirteenth
+century. In the wars of the latter and the following century, the Jews
+lost their kingdom, keeping only the province of Semen, guarded by
+inaccessible mountains. Benjamin of Tudela describes it as "a land full
+of mountains, upon whose rocky summits they have perched their towns and
+castles, holding independent sway to the mortal terror of their
+neighbors." Combats, persecutions, and banishments lasted until the end
+of the eighteenth century. Anarchy reigned, overwhelming Gideon and
+Judith, the last of the Jewish dynasty, and proving equally fatal to the
+Christian empire, whose Negus Theodore likewise traced his descent from
+Solomon. So, after a thousand years of mutual hostility, the two ancient
+native dynasties, claiming descent from David and Solomon, perished
+together, but the memory of the Jewish princes has not died out in the
+land.
+
+The Abyssinian Jews are called Falashas, the exiled.[69] They live
+secluded in the province west of Takazzeh, and their number is estimated
+by some travellers to be two hundred and fifty thousand, while my friend
+Dr. Edward Glaser judges them to be only twenty-five thousand strong.
+Into the dreary wastes inhabited by these people, German and English
+missionaries have found their way to spread among them the blessings of
+Christianity. The purity of these blessings may be inferred from the
+names of the missionaries: Flad, Schiller, Brandeis, Stern, and
+Rosenbaum.
+
+Information about the misery of the Falashas penetrated to Europe, and
+induced the _Alliance Israelite Universelle_ to despatch a Jewish
+messenger to Abyssinia. Choice fell upon Joseph Halevy, professor of
+Oriental languages at Paris, one of the most thorough of Jewish
+scholars, than whom none could be better qualified for the mission. It
+was a memorable moment when Halevy, returned from his great journey to
+Abyssinia, addressed the meeting of the _Alliance_ on July 30, 1868, as
+follows:[70] "The ancient land of Ethiopia has at last disclosed the
+secret concerning the people of whom we hitherto knew naught but the
+name. In the midst of the most varied fortunes they clung to the Law
+proclaimed on Sinai, and constant misery has not drained them of the
+vitality which enables nations to fulfil the best requirements of modern
+society."
+
+Adverse circumstances robbed Halevy of a great part of the material
+gathered on his trip. What he rescued and published is enough to give us
+a more detailed and accurate account of the Falashas than we have
+hitherto possessed. He reports that they address their prayers to one
+God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that they feel pride in
+belonging to the old, yet ever young tribe which has exercised dominant
+influence upon the fate of men; that love for the Holy Land fills their
+hearts; and that the memory of Israel's glorious past is their
+spiritual stay. One of the articles of their faith is the restoration of
+Jewish nationality.
+
+The Falashas speak two languages, that of the land, the Amharic, a
+branch of the ancient Geez, and the Agau, a not yet classified dialect.
+Their names are chiefly biblical. While in dress they are like their
+neighbors, the widest difference prevails between their manners and
+customs and those of the other inhabitants of the land. In the midst of
+a slothful, debauched people, they are distinguished for simplicity,
+diligence, and ambition. Their houses for the most part are situated
+near running water; hence, their cleanly habits. At the head of each
+village is a synagogue called _Mesgid_, whose Holy of holies may be
+entered only by the priest on the Day of Atonement, while the people
+pray in the court without. Next to the synagogue live the monks
+(_Nesirim_). The priests offer up sacrifices, as in ancient times, daily
+except on the Day of Atonement, the most important being that for the
+repose of the dead. On the space surrounding the synagogue stand the
+houses of the priests, who, in addition to their religious functions,
+fill the office of teachers of the young. The Falashas are well
+acquainted with the Bible, but wholly ignorant of the Hebrew language.
+Their ritual has been published by Joseph Halevy, who has added a Hebrew
+translation, showing its almost perfect identity with the traditional
+form of Jewish prayer. About their devotional exercises Halevy says:
+"From the holy precincts the prayers of the faithful rise aloft to
+heaven. From midnight on, we hear the clear, rhythmical, melancholy
+intonation of the precentor, the congregation responding in a monotonous
+recitative. Praise of the Eternal, salvation of Israel, love of Zion,
+hope of a happy future for all mankind--these form the burden of their
+prayers, calling forth sighs and tears, exclamations of hope and joy.
+Break of day still finds the worshippers assembled, and every evening
+without fail, as the sun sinks to rest, their loud prayer (beginning
+with _Abba! Abba!_ Lord! Lord!) twice wakes the echoes."[71]
+
+Their well kept houses are presided over by their women, diligent and
+modest. Polygamy is unknown. There are agriculturists and artisans,
+representatives of every handicraft: smiths, tailors, potters, weavers,
+and builders. Commerce is not esteemed, trading with slaves being held
+in special abhorrence. Their laws permit the keeping of a slave for only
+six years. If at the expiration of that period he embraces their
+religion, he is free. They are brave warriors, thousands of them having
+fought in the army of Negus Theodore.
+
+It must be confessed that intellectually they are undeveloped. They have
+a sort of Midrash, which apparently has been handed down from generation
+to generation by word of mouth. The misfortunes they have endured have
+predisposed them to mysticism, and magicians and soothsayers are
+numerous and active among them. But they are eager for information.
+
+King Theodore protected them, until missionaries poisoned his mind
+against the Falashas. In 1868 he summoned a deputation of their elders,
+and commanded them to accept Christianity. Upon their refusal the king
+ordered his soldiers to fire on the rebels. Hundreds of heads were
+raised, and the men, baring their breasts, cried out: "Strike, O our
+King, but ask us not to perjure ourselves." Moved to admiration by their
+intrepidity, the king loaded the deputies with presents, and dismissed
+them in peace.
+
+The missionaries--Europe does not yet know how often the path of these
+pious men is marked by tears and blood--must be held guilty of many of
+the bitter trials of the Falashas. In the sixties they succeeded in
+exciting Messianic expectations. Suddenly, from district to district,
+leapt the news that the Messiah was approaching to lead Israel back to
+Palestine. A touching letter addressed by the elders of the Falashas to
+the representatives of the Jewish community at Jerusalem, whom it never
+reached, was found by a traveller, and deserves to be quoted:
+
+"Has the time not yet come when we must return to the Holy Land and Holy
+City? For, we are poor and miserable. We have neither judges nor
+prophets. If the time has arrived, we pray you send us the glad tidings.
+Great fear has fallen upon us that we may miss the opportunity to
+return. Many say that the time is here for us to be reunited with you in
+the Holy City, to bring sacrifices in the Temple of our Holy Land. For
+the sake of the love we bear you, send us a message. Peace with you and
+all dwelling in the land given by the Lord to Moses on Sinai!"
+
+Filled with the hope of redemption, large numbers of the Falashas, at
+their head venerable old men holding aloft banners and singing pious
+songs, at that time left their homes. Ignorant of the road to be taken,
+they set their faces eastward, hoping to reach the shores of the Red
+Sea. The distance was greater than they could travel. At Axum they came
+to a stop disabled, and after three years the last man had succumbed to
+misery and privation.
+
+The distress of the Falashas is extreme, but they count it sweet
+alleviation if their sight is not troubled by missionaries. At a time
+when the attention of the civilized world is directed to Africa,
+European Jews should not be found wanting in care for their unfortunate
+brethren in faith in the "Dark Continent." Abundant reasons recommend
+them to our loving-kindness. They are Jews--they would suffer a thousand
+deaths rather than renounce the covenant sealed on Sinai. They are
+unfortunate; since the civil war, they have suffered severely under all
+manner of persecution. Mysticism and ignorance prevail among them--the
+whole community possesses a single copy of the Pentateuch. Finally, they
+show eager desire for spiritual regeneration. When Halevy took leave of
+them, a handsome youth threw himself at his feet, and said: "My lord,
+take me with you to the land of the Franks. Gladly will I undergo the
+hardships of the journey. I want neither silver nor gold--all I crave
+is knowledge!" Halevy brought the young Falasha to Paris, and he proved
+an indefatigable student, who acquired a wealth of knowledge before his
+early death.
+
+Despite the incubus of African barbarism, this little Jewish tribe on
+the banks of the legend-famed Sabbath stream has survived with Jewish
+vitality unbroken and purity uncontaminated. With longing the Falashas
+are awaiting a future when they will be permitted to join the councils
+of their Israelitish brethren in all quarters of the globe, and confess,
+in unison with them and all redeemed, enlightened men, that "the Lord is
+one, and His name one."
+
+The steadfastness of their faith imposes upon us the obligation to bring
+them redemption. We must unbar for them not only Jerusalem, but the
+whole world, that they may recognize, as we do, the eternal truth
+preached by prophet and extolled by psalmist, that on the glad day when
+the unity of God is acknowledged, all the nations of the earth will form
+a single confederacy, banded together for love and peace.
+
+The open-eyed student of Jewish history, in which the Falashas form a
+very small chapter, cannot fail to note with reverence the power and
+sacredness of its genius. The race, the faith, the confession, all is
+unparalleled. Everything about it is wonderful--from Abraham at Ur of
+the Chaldees shattering his father's idols and proclaiming the unity of
+God, down to Moses teaching awed mankind the highest ethical lessons
+from the midst of the thunders and flames of Sinai; to the heroes and
+seers, whose radiant visions are mankind's solace; to the sweet singers
+of Israel extolling the virtues of men in hymns and songs; to the
+Maccabean heroes struggling to throw off the Syrian yoke; to venerable
+rabbis proof against the siren notes of Hellenism; to the gracious bards
+and profound thinkers of Andalusia. The genius of Jewish history is
+never at rest. From the edge of the wilderness it sweeps on to the lands
+of civilization, where thousands of martyrs seal the confession of God's
+unity with death on ruddy pyres; on through tears and blood, over
+nations, across thrones, until the sun of culture, risen to its zenith,
+sends its rays even into the dark Ghetto, where a drama enacts itself,
+melancholy, curious, whose last act is being played under our very eyes.
+Branch after branch is dropping from the timeworn, weatherbeaten trunk.
+The ground is thickly strewn with dry leaves. Vitality that resisted
+rain and storm seems to be blasted by sunshine. Yet we need not despair.
+The genius of Jewish history has the balsam of consolation to offer. It
+bids us read in the old documents of Israel's spiritual struggles, and
+calls to our attention particularly a parable in the Midrash, written
+when the need for its telling was as sore as to-day: A wagon loaded with
+glistening axes was driven through the woods. Plaintive cries arose from
+the trees: "Woe, woe, there is no escape for us, we are doomed to swift
+destruction." A solitary oak towering high above the other trees stood
+calm, motionless. Many a spring had decked its twigs with tender,
+succulent green. At last it speaks; all are silent, and listen
+respectfully: "Possess yourselves in peace. All the axes in the world
+cannot harm you, if you do not provide them with handles."
+
+So every weapon shaped to the injury of the ancient tree of Judaism will
+recoil ineffectual, unless her sons and adherents themselves furnish the
+haft. There is consolation in the thought. Even in sad days it feeds the
+hope that the time will come, whereof the prophet spoke, when "all thy
+children shall be disciples of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of
+thy children."
+
+
+
+
+A JEWISH KING IN POLAND
+
+
+There is a legend that a Jewish king once reigned in Poland. It never
+occurs to my mind without at the same time conjuring before me two
+figures. The one is that charming creation of Ghetto fancy, old Malkoh
+"with the stout heart," in Aaron Bernstein's _Mendel Gibbor_, who
+introduces herself with the proud boast: _Wir sennen von koeniglichein
+Gebluet_ ("We are of royal descent"). The other is a less ideal, less
+attractive Jew, whom I overheard in the Casimir, the Jewish quarter at
+Cracow, in altercation with another Jew. The matter seemed of vital
+interest to the disputants. The one affirmed, the other denied as
+vigorously, and finally silenced his opponent with the contemptuous
+argument: "Well, and if it comes about, it will last just as long as
+Saul Wahl's _Malchus_ (reign)."
+
+Legend has always been the companion of history. For each age it creates
+a typical figure, in which are fixed, for the information of future
+times, the fleeting, subtle emotions as well as the permanent effects
+produced by historical events, and this constitutes the value of
+legendary lore in tracing the development and characteristics of a
+people. At the same time its magic charms connect the links in the chain
+of generations.
+
+The legend about Saul Wahl to be known and appreciated must first be
+told as it exists, then traced through its successive stages, its
+historical kernel disentangled from the accretions of legend-makers,
+Saul, the man of flesh and blood discovered, and the ethical lessons it
+has to teach derived.
+
+In 1734, more than a century after Saul's supposed reign, his
+great-grandson, Rabbi Pinchas, resident successively in Leitnik,
+Boskowitz, Wallerstein, Schwarzburg, Marktbreit, and Anspach, related
+the story of his ancestor: "Rabbi Samuel Judah's son was the great Saul
+Wahl of blessed memory. All learned in such matters well know that his
+surname _Wahl_ (choice) was given him, because he was chosen king in
+Poland by the unanimous vote of the noble electors of the land. I was
+told by my father and teacher, of blessed memory, that the choice fell
+upon him in this wise: Saul Wahl was a favorite with Polish noblemen,
+and highly esteemed for his shrewdness and ability. The king of Poland
+had died. Now it was customary for the great nobles of Poland to
+assemble for the election of a new king on a given day, on which it was
+imperative that a valid decision be reached. When the day came, many
+opinions were found to prevail among the electors, which could not be
+reconciled. Evening fell, and they realized the impossibility of
+electing a king on the legally appointed day. Loth to transgress their
+own rule, the nobles agreed to make Saul Wahl king for the rest of that
+day and the following night, and thus conform with the letter of the
+law. And so it was. Forthwith all paid him homage, crying out in their
+own language: 'Long live our lord and king!' Saul, loaded with royal
+honors, reigned that night. I heard from my father that they gave into
+his keeping all the documents in the royal archives, to which every king
+may add what commands he lists, and Wahl inscribed many laws and decrees
+of import favorable to Jews. My father knew some of them; one was that
+the murderer of a Jew, like the murderer of a nobleman, was to suffer
+the death penalty. Life was to be taken for life, and no ransom
+allowed--a law which, in Poland, had applied only to the case of
+Christians of the nobility. The next day the electors came to an
+agreement, and chose a ruler for Poland.--That this matter may be
+remembered, I will not fail to set forth the reasons why Saul Wahl
+enjoyed such respect with the noblemen of Poland, which is the more
+remarkable as his father, Rabbi Samuel Judah, was rabbi first at Padua
+and then at Venice, and so lived in Italy. My father told me how it came
+about. In his youth, during his father's lifetime, Saul Wahl conceived a
+desire to travel in foreign parts. He left his paternal home in Padua,
+and journeying from town to town, from land to land, he at last reached
+Brzesc in Lithuania. There he married the daughter of David Drucker, and
+his pittance being small, he led but a wretched life.
+
+It happened at this time that the famous, wealthy prince, Radziwill, the
+favorite of the king, undertook a great journey to see divers lands, as
+is the custom of noblemen. They travel far and wide to become
+acquainted with different fashions and governments. So this prince
+journeyed in great state from land to land, until his purse was empty.
+He knew not what to do, for he would not discover his plight to the
+nobles of the land in which he happened to be; indeed, he did not care
+to let them know who he was. Now, he chanced to be in Padua, and he
+resolved to unbosom himself to the rabbi, tell him that he was a great
+noble of the Polish land, and borrow somewhat to relieve his pressing
+need. Such is the manner of Polish noblemen. They permit shrewd and
+sensible Jews to become intimate with them that they may borrow from
+them, rabbis being held in particularly high esteem and favor by the
+princes and lords of Poland. So it came about that the aforesaid Prince
+Radziwill sought out Rabbi Samuel Judah, and revealed his identity, at
+the same time discovering to him his urgent need of money. The rabbi
+lent him the sum asked for, and the prince said, 'How can I recompense
+you, returning good for good?' The rabbi answered, 'First I beg that you
+deal kindly with the Jews under your power, and then that you do the
+good you would show me to my son Saul, who lives in Brzesc.' The prince
+took down the name and place of abode of the rabbi's son, and having
+arrived at his home, sent for him. He appeared before the prince, who
+found him so wise and clever that he in every possible way attached the
+Jew to his own person, gave him many proofs of his favor, sounded his
+praises in the ears of all the nobles, and raised him to a high
+position. He was so great a favorite with all the lords that on the day
+when a king was to be elected, and the peers could not agree, rather
+than have the day pass without the appointment of a ruler, they
+unanimously resolved to invest Saul with royal power, calling him Saul
+Wahl to indicate that he had been _chosen_ king.--All this my father
+told me, and such new matter as I gathered from another source, I will
+not fail to set down in another chapter."--
+
+"This furthermore I heard from my pious father, when, in 1734, he lay
+sick in Fuerth, where there are many physicians. I went from Marktbreit
+to Fuerth, and stayed with him for three weeks. When I was alone with
+him, he dictated his will to me, and then said in a low voice: 'This I
+will tell you that you may know what happened to our ancestor Saul Wahl:
+After the nobles had elected a king for Poland, and our ancestor had
+become great in the eyes of the Jews, he unfortunately grew haughty. He
+had a beautiful daughter, Haendele, famed throughout Poland for her wit
+as well as her beauty. Many sought her in marriage, and among her
+suitors was a young Talmudist, the son of one of the most celebrated
+rabbis. (My father did not mention the name, either because he did not
+know, or because he did not wish to say it, or mayhap he had forgotten
+it.) The great rabbi himself came to Brzesc with his learned son to urge
+the suit. They both lodged with the chief elder of the congregation.
+But the pride of our ancestor was overweening. In his heart he
+considered himself the greatest, and his daughter the best, in the land,
+and he said that his daughter must marry one more exalted than this
+suitor. Thus he showed his scorn for a sage revered in Israel and for
+his son, and these two were sore offended at the discourtesy. The Jewish
+community had long been murmuring against our ancestor Saul Wahl, and it
+was resolved to make amends for his unkindness. One of the most
+respected men in the town gave his daughter to the young Talmudist for
+wife, and from that day our ancestor had enemies among his people, who
+constantly sought to do him harm. It happened at that time that the wife
+of the king whom the nobles had chosen died, and several Jews of Brzesc,
+in favor with the powerful of the land, in order to administer
+punishment to Saul Wahl, went about among the nobles praising his
+daughter for her exceeding beauty and cleverness, and calling her the
+worthiest to wear the queenly crown. One of the princes being kindly
+disposed to Saul Wahl betrayed their evil plot, and it was
+frustrated.'"[72]
+
+Rabbi Pinchas' ingenuous narrative, charming in its simple directness,
+closes wistfully: "He who has not seen that whole generation, Saul Wahl
+amid his sons, sons-in-law, and grandsons, has failed to see the union
+of the Law with mundane glory, of wealth with honor and princely
+rectitude. May the Lord God bless us by permitting us to rejoice thus in
+our children and children's children!"
+
+Other rabbis of that time have left us versions of the Saul Wahl legend.
+They report that he founded a _Beth ha-Midrash_ (college for Jewish
+studies) and a little synagogue, leaving them, together with numerous
+bequests, to the community in which he had lived, with the condition
+that the presidency of the college be made hereditary in his family.
+Some add that they had seen in Brzesc a gold chain belonging to him, his
+coat of arms emblazoned with the lion of Judah, and a stone tablet on
+which an account of his meritorious deeds was graven. Chain, escutcheon,
+and stone have disappeared, and been forgotten, the legend alone
+survives.
+
+* * *
+
+Now, what has history to say?
+
+Unquestionably, an historical kernel lies hidden in the legend. Neither
+the Polish chronicles of those days nor Jewish works mention a Jewish
+king of Poland; but from certain occurrences, hints can be gleaned
+sufficient to enable us to establish the underlying truth. When Stephen
+Bathori died, Poland was hard pressed. On all sides arose pretenders to
+the throne. The most powerful aspirant was Archduke Maximilian of
+Austria, who depended on his gold and Poland's well-known sympathy for
+Austria to gain him the throne. Next came the Duke of Ferrara backed by
+a great army and the favor of the Czar, and then, headed by the
+crown-prince of Sweden, a crowd of less powerful claimants, so motley
+that a Polish nobleman justly exclaimed: "If you think any one will do
+to wear Poland's crown upon his pate, I'll set up my coachman as king!"
+Great Poland espoused the cause of Sweden, Little Poland supported
+Austria, and the Lithuanians furthered the wishes of the Czar. In
+reality, however, the election of the king was the occasion for bringing
+to a crisis the conflict between the two dominant families of Zamoiski
+and Zborowski.
+
+The election was to take place on August 18, 1587. The electors, armed
+to the teeth, appeared on the place designated for the election, a
+fortified camp on the Vistula, on the other side of which stood the
+deputies of the claimants. Night was approaching, and the possibility of
+reconciling the parties seemed as remote as ever. Christopher Radziwill,
+the "castellan" of the realm, endeavoring to make peace between the
+factions, stealthily crept from camp to camp, but evening deepened into
+night, and still the famous election cry, "_Zgoda!_" (Agreed!), was not
+heard.
+
+According to the legend, this is the night of Saul Wahl's brief royalty.
+It is said that he was an agent employed by Prince Radziwill, and when
+the electors could not be induced to come to an agreement, it occurred
+to the prince to propose Saul as a compromise-king. With shouts of "Long
+live King Saul!" the proposal was greeted by both factions, and this is
+the nucleus of the legend, which with remarkable tenacity has
+perpetuated itself down to our generation. For the historical truth of
+the episode we have three witnesses. The chief is Prince Nicholas
+Christopher of Radziwill, duke of Olyka and Nieswiesz, the son of the
+founder of this still flourishing line of princes. His father had left
+the Catholic church, and joined the Protestants, but he himself returned
+to Catholicism, and won fame by his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, described
+in both Polish and Latin in the work _Peregrinatio Hierosolymitana_.
+Besides, he offered 5000 ducats for the purchase of extant copies of the
+Protestant "Radziwill Bible," published by his father, intending to have
+them destroyed. On his return journey from the Holy Land he was attacked
+at Pescara by robbers, and at Ancona on a Palm Sunday, according to his
+own account, he found himself destitute of means. He applied to the
+papal governor, but his story met with incredulity. Then he appealed to
+a Jewish merchant, offering him, as a pawn, a gold box made of a piece
+of the holy cross obtained in Palestine, encircled with diamonds, and
+bearing on its top the _Agnus dei_. The Jew advanced one hundred crowns,
+which sufficed exactly to pay his lodging and attendants. Needy as
+before, he again turned to the Jew, who gave him another hundred crowns,
+this time without exacting a pledge, a glance at his papal passport
+having convinced him of the prince's identity.[73]
+
+This is Radziwill's account in his itinerary. As far as it goes, it
+bears striking similarity to the narrative of Rabbi Pinchas of Anspach,
+and leads to the certain conclusion that the legend rests upon an
+historical substratum. A critic has justly remarked that the most vivid
+fancy could not, one hundred and thirty-one years after their
+occurrence, invent, in Anspach, the tale of a Polish magnate's
+adventures in Italy. Again, it is highly improbable that Saul Wahl's
+great-grandson read Prince Radziwill's Latin book, detailing his
+experiences to his contemporaries.
+
+There are other witnesses to plead for the essential truth of our
+legend. The rabbis mentioned before have given accounts of Saul's
+position, of his power, and the splendor of his life. Negative signs, it
+is true, exist, arguing against the historical value of the legend.
+Polish history has not a word to say about the ephemeral king. In fact,
+there was no day fixed for the session of the electoral diet. Moreover,
+critics might adduce against the probability of its correctness the
+humble station of the Jews, and the low esteem in which the Radziwills
+were then held by the Polish nobility. But it is questionable whether
+these arguments are sufficiently convincing to strip the Saul Wahl
+legend of all semblance of truth. Polish historians are hardly fair in
+ignoring the story. Though it turn out to have been a wild prank, it has
+some historical justification. Such practical jokes are not unusual in
+Polish history. Readers of that history will recall the _Respublika
+Babinska_, that society of practical jokers which drew up royal
+charters, and issued patents of nobility. A Polish nobleman had founded
+the society in the sixteenth century, its membership being open only to
+those distinguished as wits. It perpetrated the oddest political jokes,
+appointing spendthrifts as overseers of estates, and the most
+quarrelsome as justices of the peace. With such proclivities, Polish
+factions, at loggerheads with each other, can easily be imagined uniting
+to crown a Jew, the most harmless available substitute for a real king.
+
+Our last and strongest witness--one compelling the respectful attention
+of the severest court and the most incisive attorney general--is the
+Russian professor Berschadzky, the author of an invaluable work on the
+history of the Jews in Lithuania. He vouches, not indeed for the
+authenticity of the events related by Rabbi Pinchas, but for the reality
+of Saul Wahl himself. From out of the Russian archives he has been
+resurrected by Professor Berschadzky, the first to establish that Saul
+was a man of flesh and blood.[74] He reproduces documents of
+incontestable authority, which report that Stephen Bathori, in the year
+1578, the third of his reign, awarded the salt monopoly for the whole of
+Poland to Saul Juditsch, that is, Saul the Jew. Later, upon the payment
+of a high security, the same Saul the Jew became farmer of the imposts.
+In 1580, his name, together with the names of the heads of the Jewish
+community of Brzesc, figures in a lawsuit instituted to establish the
+claim of the Jews upon the fourth part of all municipal revenues. He
+rests the claim on a statute of Grandduke Withold, and the verdict was
+favorable to his side. This was the time of the election of Bathori's
+successor, Sigismund III., and after his accession to the throne, Saul
+Juditsch again appears on the scene. On February 11, 1588, the king
+issued the following notice: "Some of our councillors have recommended
+to our attention the punctilious business management of Saul Juditsch,
+of the town of Brzesc, who, on many occasions during the reigns of our
+predecessors, served the crown by his wide experience in matters
+pertaining to duties, taxes, and divers revenues, and advanced the
+financial prosperity of the realm by his conscientious efforts." Saul
+was now entrusted, for a period of ten years, with the collection of
+taxes on bridges, flour, and brandies, paying 150,000 gold florins for
+the privilege. A year later he was honored with the title _sluga
+krolewski_, "royal official," a high rank in the Poland of the day, as
+can be learned from the royal decree conferring it: "We, King of Poland,
+having convinced ourself of the rare zeal and distinguished ability of
+Saul Juditsch, do herewith grant him a place among our royal officials,
+and that he may be assured of our favor for him we exempt him and his
+lands for the rest of his life from subordination to the jurisdiction of
+any 'castellan,' or any municipal court, or of any court in our land, of
+whatever kind or rank it may be; so that if he be summoned before the
+court of any judge or district, in any matter whatsoever, be it great or
+small, criminal or civil, he is not obliged to appear and defend
+himself. His goods may not be distrained, his estates not used as
+security, and he himself can neither be arrested, nor kept a prisoner.
+His refusal to appear before a judge or to give bail shall in no wise be
+punishable; he is amenable to no law covering such cases. If a charge be
+brought against him, his accusers, be they our subjects or aliens, of
+any rank or calling whatsoever, must appeal to ourself, the king, and
+Saul Juditsch shall be in honor bound to appear before us and defend
+himself."
+
+This royal patent was communicated to all the princes, lords,
+_voivodes_, marshals, "castellans," starosts, and lower officials, in
+town and country, and to the governors and courts of Poland. Saul
+Juditsch's name continues to appear in the state documents. In 1593, he
+pleads for the Jews of Brzesc, who desire to have their own
+jurisdiction. In consequence of his intercession, Sigismund III. forbids
+the _voivodes_ (mayors) and their proxies to interfere in the quarrels
+of the Jews, of whatever kind they may be. The last mention of Saul
+Juditsch's name occurs in the records of 1596, when, in conjunction with
+his Christian townsmen, he pleads for the renewal of an old franchise,
+granted by Grandduke Withold, exempting imported goods from duty.
+
+Saul Wahl probably lived to the age of eighty, dying in the year 1622.
+The research of the historian has established his existence beyond a
+peradventure. He has proved that there was an individual by the name of
+Saul Wahl, and that is a noteworthy fact in the history of Poland and in
+that of the Jews in the middle ages.
+
+* * *
+
+After history, criticism has a word to say. A legend, as a rule, rests
+on analogy, on remarkable deeds, on notable events, on extraordinary
+historical phenomena. In the case of the legend under consideration, all
+these originating causes are combined. Since the time of Sigismund I.,
+the position of the Jews in Lithuania and Poland had been favorable. It
+is regarded as their golden period in Poland. In general, Polish Jews
+had always been more favorably situated than their brethren in faith in
+other countries. At the very beginning of Polish history, a legend,
+similar to that attached to Saul Wahl's name, sprang up. After the death
+of Popiel, an assembly met at Kruszwica to fill the vacant throne. No
+agreement could be reached, and the resolution was adopted to hail as
+king the first person to enter the town the next morning. The guard
+stationed at the gate accordingly brought before the assembly the poor
+Jew Abraham, with the surname Powdermaker (_Prochownik_), which he had
+received from his business, the importing of powder. He was welcomed
+with loud rejoicing, and appointed king. But he refused the crown, and
+pressed to accept it, finally asked for a night's delay to consider the
+proposal. Two days and two nights passed, still the Jew did not come
+forth from his room. The Poles were very much excited, and a peasant,
+Piast by name, raising his voice, cried out: "No, no, this will not do!
+The land cannot be without a head, and as Abraham does not come out, I
+will bring him out." Swinging his axe, he rushed into the house, and
+led the trembling Jew before the crowd. With ready wit, Abraham said,
+"Poles, here you see the peasant Piast, he is the one to be your king.
+He is sensible, for he recognized that a land may not be without a king.
+Besides, he is courageous; he disregarded my command not to enter my
+house. Crown him, and you will have reason to be grateful to God and His
+servant Abraham!" So Piast was proclaimed king, and he became the
+ancestor of a great dynasty.
+
+It is difficult to discover how much of truth is contained in this
+legend of the tenth century. That it in some remote way rests upon
+historical facts is attested by the existence of Polish coins bearing
+the inscriptions: "Abraham _Dux_" and "_Zevach_ Abraham" ("Abraham the
+Prince" and "Abraham's Sacrifice"). Casimir the Great, whose _liaison_
+with the Jewess Esterka has been shown by modern historians to be a pure
+fabrication, confirmed the charter of liberties (_privilegium
+libertatis_) held by the Jews of Poland from early times, and under
+Sigismund I. they prospered, materially and intellectually, as never
+before. Learning flourished among them, especially the study of the
+Talmud being promoted by three great men, Solomon Shachna, Solomon
+Luria, and Moses Isserles.
+
+Henry of Anjou, the first king elected by the Diet (1573), owed his
+election to Solomon Ashkenazi, a Jewish physician and diplomat, who
+ventured to remind the king of his services: "To me more than to any one
+else does your Majesty owe your election. Whatever was done here at the
+Porte, I did, although, I believe, M. d'Acqs takes all credit unto
+himself." This same diplomat, together with the Jewish prince Joseph
+Nasi of Naxos, was chiefly instrumental in bringing about the election
+of Stephen Bathori. Simon Guensburg, the head of the Jewish community of
+Posen, had a voice in the king's council, and Bona Sforza, the Italian
+princess on the Polish throne, was in the habit of consulting with
+clever Jews. The papal legate Commendoni speaks in a vexed tone, yet
+admiringly, of the brilliant position of Polish Jews, of their extensive
+cattle-breeding and agricultural interests, of their superiority to
+Christians as artisans, of their commercial enterprise, leading them as
+far as Dantzic in the north and Constantinople in the south, and of
+their possession of that sovereign means which overcomes ruler, starost,
+and legate alike.[75]
+
+These are the circumstances to be borne in mind in examining the
+authenticity of the legend about the king of a night. As early as the
+beginning of his century, recent historians inform us, three Jews,
+Abraham, Michael, and Isaac Josefowicz, rose to high positions in
+Lithuania. Abraham was made chief rabbi of Lithuania, his residence
+being fixed at Ostrog; Isaac became starost of the cities of Smolensk
+and Minsk (1506), and four years later, he was invested with the
+governorship of Lithuania. He always kept up his connection with his
+brothers, protected his co-religionists, and appointed Michael chief
+elder of the Lithuanian Jews. On taking the oath of allegiance to Albert
+of Prussia, he was raised to the rank of a nobleman. A Jew of the
+sixteenth century a nobleman! Surely, this fact is sufficiently
+startling to serve as the background of a legend. We have every
+circumstance necessary: An analogous legend in the early history of
+Poland, the favored condition of the Jews, the well-attested reality of
+Saul Juditsch, and an extraordinary event, the ennobling of a Jew. Saul
+Wahl probably did not reign--not even for a single night--but he
+certainly was attached to the person of the king, and later, ignorant of
+grades of officials, the Jews were prone to magnify his position.
+Indeed, the abject misery of their condition in the seventeenth century
+seems better calculated to explain the legend than their prosperity in
+the fifteenth and the sixteenth century. Bogdan Chmielnicki's campaign
+against the rebellious Cossacks wrought havoc among the Jews. From the
+southern part of the Ukraine to Lemberg, the road was strewn with the
+corpses of a hundred thousand Jews. The sad memory of a happy past is
+the fertile soil in which legends thrive. It is altogether likely that
+at this time of degradation the memory of Saul Wahl, redeemer and hero,
+was first celebrated, and the report of his coat of arms emblazoned with
+a lion clutching a scroll of the Law, and crowning an eagle, of his
+golden chain, of his privileges, and all his memorials, spread from
+house to house.
+
+Parallel cases of legend-construction readily suggest themselves. In
+our own time, in the glare of nineteenth century civilization, legends
+originate in the same way. Here is a case in point: In 1875, the
+Anthropological Society of Western Prussia instituted a series of
+investigations, in the course of which the complexion and the color of
+the hair and eyes of the children at the public schools were to be
+noted, in order to determine the prevalence of certain racial traits.
+The most extravagant rumors circulated in the districts of Dantzic,
+Thorn, Kulm, all the way to Posen. Parents, seized by unreasoning
+terror, sent their children, in great numbers, to Russia. One rumor said
+that the king of Prussia had lost one thousand blonde children to the
+sultan over a game of cards; another, that the Russian government had
+sold sixty thousand pretty girls to an Arab prince, and to save them
+from the sad fate conjectured to be in store for them, all the pretty
+girls at Dubna were straightway married off.--Similarly, primitive man,
+to satisfy his intellectual cravings, explained the phenomena of the
+heavens, the earth, and the waters by legends and myths, the germs of
+polytheistic nature religions. In our case, the tissue of facts is
+different, the process the same.
+
+But legends express the idealism of the masses; they are the highest
+manifestations of spiritual life. The thinker's flights beyond the
+confines of reality, the inventor's gift to join old materials in new
+combinations, the artist's creative impulse, the poet's inspiration, the
+seer's prophetic vision--every emanation from man's ideal nature clothes
+itself with sinews, flesh, and skin, and lives in a people's legends,
+the repositories of its art, poetry, science, and ethics.
+
+Legends moreover are characteristic of a people's culture. As a child
+delights in iridescent soap-bubbles, so a nation revels in
+reminiscences. Though poetry lend words, painting her tints,
+architecture a rule, sculpture a chisel, music her tones, the legend
+itself is dead, and only a thorough understanding of national traits
+enables one to recognize its ethical bearings. From this point of view,
+the legend of the Polish king of a night is an important historical
+argument, testifying to the satisfactory condition of the Jews of Poland
+in the fifteenth and the sixteenth century. The simile that compares
+nations, on the eve of a great revolution, to a seething crater, is true
+despite its triteness, and if to any nation, is applicable to the Poland
+of before and after that momentous session of the Diet. Egotism, greed,
+ambition, vindictiveness, and envy added fuel to fire, and hastened
+destruction. Jealousy had planted discord between two families, dividing
+the state into hostile, embittered factions. Morality was undermined,
+law trodden under foot, duty neglected, justice violated, the promptings
+of good sense disregarded. So it came about that the land was flooded by
+ruin as by a mighty stream, which, a tiny spring at first, gathers
+strength and volume from its tributaries, and overflowing its bounds,
+rushes over blooming meadows, fields, and pastures, drawing into its
+destructive depths the peasant's every joy and hope. That is the soil
+from which a legend like ours sprouts and grows.
+
+This legend distinctly conveys an ethical lesson. The persecutions of
+the Jews, their ceaseless wanderings from town to town, from country to
+country, from continent to continent, have lasted two thousand years,
+and how many dropped by the wayside! Yet they never parted with the
+triple crown placed upon their heads by an ancient sage: the crown of
+royalty, the crown of the Law, and the crown of a good name. Learning
+and fair fame were indisputably theirs: therefore, the first, the royal
+crown, never seemed more resplendent than when worn in exile. The glory
+of a Jewish king of the exile seemed to herald the realization of the
+Messianic ideal. So it happens that many a family in Poland, England,
+and Germany, still cherishes the memory of Rabbi Saul the king, and that
+"Malkohs" everywhere still boast of royal ancestry. Rabbis, learned in
+the Law, were his descendants, and men of secular fame, Gabriel Riesser
+among them, proudly mention their connection, however distant, with Saul
+Wahl. The memory of his deeds perpetuates itself in respectable Jewish
+homes, where grandams, on quiet Sabbath afternoons, tell of them, as
+they show in confirmation the seal on coins to an awe-struck progeny.
+
+Three crowns Israel bore upon his head. If the crown of royalty is
+legendary, then the more emphatically have the other two an historical
+and ethical value. The crown of royalty has slipped from us, but the
+crown of a good name and especially the crown of the Law are ours to
+keep and bequeath to our children and our children's children unto the
+latest generation.
+
+
+
+
+JEWISH SOCIETY IN THE TIME OF MENDELSSOHN
+
+
+On an October day in 1743, in the third year of the reign of Frederick
+the Great, a delicate lad of about fourteen begged admittance at the
+Rosenthal gate of Berlin, the only gate by which non-resident Jews were
+allowed to enter the capital. To the clerk's question about his business
+in the city, he briefly replied: "Study" (_Lernen_). The boy was Moses
+Mendelssohn, and he entered the city poor and friendless, knowing in all
+Berlin but one person, his former teacher Rabbi David Fraenkel. About
+twenty years later, the Royal Academy of Sciences awarded him the first
+prize for his essay on the question: "Are metaphysical truths
+susceptible of mathematical demonstration?" After another period of
+twenty years, Mendelssohn was dead, and his memory was celebrated as
+that of a "sage like Socrates, the greatest philosophers of the day
+exclaiming, 'There is but one Mendelssohn!'"--
+
+The Jewish Renaissance of a little more than a century ago presents the
+whole historic course of Judaism. Never had the condition of the Jews
+been more abject than at the time of Mendelssohn's appearance on the
+scene. It must be remembered that for Jews the middle ages lasted three
+hundred years after all other nations had begun to enjoy the blessings
+of the modern era. Veritable slaves, degenerate in language and habits,
+purchasing the right to live by a tax (_Leibzoll_), in many cities still
+wearing a yellow badge, timid, embittered, pale, eloquently silent, the
+Jews herded in their Ghetto with its single Jew-gate--they, the
+descendants of the Maccabees, the brethren in faith of proud Spanish
+grandees, of Andalusian poets and philosophers. The congregations were
+poor; immigrant Poles filled the offices of rabbis and teachers, and
+occupied themselves solely with the discussion of recondite problems.
+The evil nonsense of the Kabbalists was actively propagated by the
+Sabbatians, and on the other hand the mystical _Chassidim_ were
+beginning to perform their witches' dance. The language commonly used
+was the _Judendeutsch_ (the Jewish German jargon) which, stripped of its
+former literary dignity, was not much better than thieves' slang. Of
+such pitiful elements the life of the Jews was made up during the first
+half of the eighteenth century.
+
+Suddenly there burst upon them the great, overwhelming Renaissance! It
+seemed as though Ezekiel's vision were about to be fulfilled:[76] "The
+hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the
+Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones...
+there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very
+dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I
+answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon
+these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
+Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause
+breath to enter into you, and ye shall live ... and ye shall know that I
+am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied,
+there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together,
+bone to his bone ... the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the
+skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he
+unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the
+wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and
+breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he
+commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood
+up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son
+of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel."
+
+Is this not a description of Israel's history in modern days? Old
+Judaism, seeing the marvels of the Renaissance, might well exclaim: "Who
+hath begotten me these?" and many a pious mind must have reverted to the
+ancient words of consolation: "I remember unto thee the kindness of thy
+youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the wilderness,
+through a land that is not sown."
+
+In the face of so radical a transformation, Herder, poet and thinker,
+reached the natural conclusion that "such occurrences, such a history
+with all its concomitant and dependent circumstances, in brief, such a
+nation cannot be a lying invention. Its development is the greatest poem
+of all times, and still unfinished, will probably continue until every
+possibility hidden in the soul life of humanity shall have obtained
+expression."[77]
+
+An unparalleled revival had begun; and in Germany, in which it made
+itself felt as an effect of the French Revolution, it is coupled first
+and foremost with the name of Moses Mendelssohn.
+
+Society as conceived in these modern days is based upon men's relations
+to their families, their disciples, and their friends. They are the
+three elements that determine a man's usefulness as a social factor. Our
+first interest, then, is to know Mendelssohn in his family.[78] Many
+years were destined to elapse, after his coming to Berlin, before he was
+to win a position of dignity. When, a single ducat in his pocket, he
+first reached Berlin, the reader remembers, he was a pale-faced, fragile
+boy. A contemporary of his relates: "In 1746 I came to Berlin, a
+penniless little chap of fourteen, and in the Jewish school I met Moses
+Mendelssohn. He grew fond of me, taught me reading and writing, and
+often shared his scanty meals with me. I tried to show my gratitude by
+doing him any small service in my power. Once he told me to fetch him a
+German book from some place or other. Returning with the book in hand, I
+was met by one of the trustees of the Jewish poor fund. He accosted me,
+not very gently, with, 'What have you there? I venture to say a German
+book!' Snatching it from me, and dragging me to the magistrate's, he
+gave orders to expel me from the city. Mendelssohn, learning my fate,
+did everything possible to bring about my return; but his efforts were
+of no avail." It is interesting to know that it was the grandfather of
+Herr von Bleichroeder who had to submit to so relentless a fate.
+
+German language and German writing Mendelssohn acquired by his unaided
+efforts. With the desultory assistance of a Dr. Kisch, a Jewish
+physician, he learnt Latin from a book picked up at a second-hand book
+stall. General culture was at that time an unknown quantity in the
+possibilities of Berlin Jewish life. The schoolmasters, who were not
+permitted to stay in the city more than three years, were for the most
+part Poles. One Pole, Israel Moses, a fine thinker and mathematician,
+banished from his native town, Samosz, on account of his devotion to
+secular studies, lived with Aaron Gumpertz, the only one of the famous
+family of court-Jews who had elected a better lot. From the latter,
+Mendelssohn imbibed a taste for the sciences, and to him he owed some
+direction in his studies; while in mathematics he was instructed by
+Israel Samosz, at the time when the latter, busily engaged with his
+great commentary on Yehuda Halevi's _Al-Chazari_, was living at the
+house of the Itzig family, on the _Burgstrasse_, on the very spot where
+the talented architect Hitzig, the grandson of Mendelssohn's
+contemporary, built the magnificent Exchange. To enable himself to buy
+books, Mendelssohn had to deny himself food. As soon as he had hoarded a
+few _groschen_, he stealthily slunk to a dealer in second-hand books. In
+this way he managed to possess himself of a Latin grammar and a wretched
+lexicon. Difficulties did not exist for him; they vanished before his
+industry and perseverance. In a short time he knew far more than
+Gumpertz himself, who has become famous through his entreaty to Magister
+Gottsched at Leipsic, whilom absolute monarch in German literature: "I
+would most respectfully supplicate that it may please your worshipful
+Highness to permit me to repair to Leipsic to pasture on the meadows of
+learning under your Excellency's protecting wing."
+
+After seven years of struggle and privation, Moses Mendelssohn became
+tutor at the house of Isaac Bernhard, a silk manufacturer, and now began
+better times. In spite of faithful performance of duties, he found
+leisure to acquire a considerable stock of learning. He began to
+frequent social gatherings, his friend Dr. Gumpertz introducing him to
+people of culture, among others to some philosophers, members of the
+Berlin Academy. What smoothed the way for him more than his sterling
+character and his fine intellect was his good chess-playing. The Jews
+have always been celebrated as chess-players, and since the twelfth
+century a literature in Hebrew prose and verse has grown up about the
+game. Mendelssohn in this respect, too, was the heir of the peculiar
+gifts of his race.
+
+In a little room two flights up in a house next to the Nicolai
+churchyard lived one of the acquaintances made by Mendelssohn through
+Dr. Gumpertz, a young newspaper writer--Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
+Lessing was at once strongly attracted by the young man's keen,
+untrammelled mind. He foresaw that Mendelssohn would "become an honor to
+his nation, provided his fellow-believers permit him to reach his
+intellectual maturity. His honesty and his philosophic bent make me see
+in him a second Spinoza, equal to the first in all but his errors."[79]
+Through Lessing, Mendelssohn formed the acquaintance of Nicolai, and as
+they were close neighbors, their friendship developed into intimacy.
+Nicolai induced him to take up the study of Greek, and old Rector Damm
+taught him.
+
+At this time (1755), the first coffee-house for the use of an
+association of about one hundred members, chiefly philosophers,
+mathematicians, physicians, and booksellers, was opened in Berlin.
+Mendelssohn, too, was admitted, making his true entrance into society,
+and forming many attachments. One evening it was proposed at the club
+that each of the members describe his own defects in verse; whereupon
+Mendelssohn, who stuttered and was slightly hunchbacked, wrote:
+
+    "Great you call Demosthenes,
+    Stutt'ring orator of Greece;
+    Hunchbacked AEsop you deem wise;--
+    In your circle, I surmise,
+    I am doubly wise and great.
+    What in each was separate
+    You in me united find,--
+    Hump and heavy tongue combined."
+
+Meanwhile his worldly affairs prospered; he had become bookkeeper in
+Bernhard's business. His biographer Kayserling tells us that at this
+period he was in a fair way to develop into "a true _bel esprit_"; he
+took lessons on the piano, went to the theatre and to concerts, and
+wrote poems. During the winter he was at his desk at the office from
+eight in the morning until nine in the evening. In the summer of 1756,
+his work was lightened; after two in the afternoon he was his own
+master. The following year finds him comfortably established in a house
+of his own with a garden, in which he could be found every evening at
+six o'clock, Lessing and Nicolai often joining him. Besides, he had laid
+by a little sum, which enabled him to help his friends, especially
+Lessing, out of financial embarrassments. Business cares did, indeed,
+bear heavily upon him, and his complaints are truly touching: "Like a
+beast of burden laden down, I crawl through life, self-love
+unfortunately whispering into my ear that nature had perhaps mapped out
+a poet's career for me. But what can we do, my friends? Let us pity one
+another, and be content. So long as love for science is not stifled
+within us, we may hope on." Surely, his love for learning never
+diminished. On the contrary, his zeal for philosophic studies grew, and
+with it his reputation in the learned world of Berlin. The Jewish
+thinker finally attracted the notice of Frederick the Great, whose poems
+he had had the temerity to criticise adversely in the "Letters on
+Literature" (_Litteraturbriefe_). He says in that famous criticism:[80]
+"What a loss it has been for our mother-tongue that this prince has
+given more time and effort to the French language. We should otherwise
+possess a treasure which would arouse the envy of our neighbors." A
+certain Herr von Justi, who had also incurred the unfavorable notice of
+the _Litteraturbriefe_, used this review to revenge himself on
+Mendelssohn. He wrote to the Prussian state-councillor: "A miserable
+publication appears in Berlin, letters on recent literature, in which a
+Jew, criticising court-preacher Cramer, uses irreverent language in
+reference to Christianity, and in a bold review of _Poesies diverses_,
+fails to pay the proper respect to his Majesty's sacred person." Soon an
+interdict was issued against the _Litteraturbriefe_, and Mendelssohn was
+summoned to appear before the attorney general Von Uhden. Nicolai has
+given us an account of the interview between the high and mighty officer
+of the state and the poor Jewish philosopher:
+
+Attorney General: "Look here! How can you venture to write against
+Christians?"
+
+Mendelssohn: "When I bowl with Christians, I throw down all the pins
+whenever I can."
+
+Attorney General: "Do you dare mock at me? Do you know to whom you are
+speaking?"
+
+Mendelssohn: "Oh yes. I am in the presence of privy councillor and
+attorney general Von Uhden, a just man."
+
+Attorney General: "I ask again: What right have you to write against a
+Christian, a court-preacher at that?"
+
+Mendelssohn: "And I must repeat, truly without mockery, that when I play
+at nine-pins with a Christian, even though he be a court-preacher, I
+throw down all the pins, if I can. Bowling is a recreation for my body,
+writing for my mind. Writers do as well as they can."
+
+In this strain the conversation continued for some time. Another version
+of the affair is that Mendelssohn was ordered to appear before the king
+at Sanssouci on a certain Saturday. When he presented himself at the
+gate of the palace, the officer in charge asked him how he happened to
+have been honored with an invitation to come to court. Mendelssohn said:
+"Oh, I am a juggler!" In point of fact, Frederick read the objectionable
+review some time later, Venino translating it into French for him. It
+was probably in consequence of this vexatious occurrence that
+Mendelssohn made application for the privilege to be considered a
+_Schutzjude_, that is, a Jew with rights of residence. The Marquis
+d'Argens who lived with the king at Potsdam in the capacity of his
+Majesty's philosopher-companion, earnestly supported his petition: "_Un
+philosophe mauvais catholique supplie un philosophe mauvais protestant
+de donner le privilege a un philosophe mauvais juif. Il y a trop de
+philosophie dans tout ceci que la raison ne soit pas du cote de la
+demande._" The privilege was accorded to Mendelssohn on November 26,
+1763.
+
+Being a _Schutzjude_, he could entertain the idea of marriage. Everybody
+is familiar with the pretty anecdote charmingly told by Berthold
+Auerbach. Mendelssohn's was a love-match. In April 1760, he undertook a
+trip to Hamburg, and there became affianced to a "blue-eyed maiden,"
+Fromet Gugenheim. The story goes that the girl shrank back startled at
+Mendelssohn's proposal of marriage. She asked him: "Do you believe that
+matches are made in heaven?" "Most assuredly," answered Mendelssohn;
+"indeed, a singular thing happened in my own case. You know that,
+according to a Talmud legend, at the birth of a child, the announcement
+is made in heaven: So and so shall marry so and so. When I was born, my
+future wife's name was called out, and I was told that she would
+unfortunately be terribly humpbacked. 'Dear Lord,' said I, 'a deformed
+girl easily gets embittered and hardened. A girl ought to be beautiful.
+Dear Lord! Give me the hump, and let the girl be pretty, graceful,
+pleasing to the eye.'"
+
+His engagement lasted a whole year. He was naturally desirous to improve
+his worldly position; but never did it occur to him to do so at the
+expense of his immaculate character. Veitel Ephraim and his associates,
+employed by Frederick the Great to debase the coin of Prussia, made him
+brilliant offers in the hope of gaining him as their partner. He could
+not be tempted, and entered into a binding engagement with Bernhard. His
+married life was happy, he was sincerely in love with his wife, and she
+became his faithful, devoted companion.
+
+Six children were the offspring of their union: Abraham, Joseph, Nathan,
+Dorothea, Henriette, and Recha. In Moses Mendelssohn's house, the one in
+which these children grew up, the barriers between the learned world and
+Berlin general society first fell. It was the rallying place of all
+seeking enlightenment, of all doing battle in the cause of
+enlightenment. The rearing of his children was a source of great anxiety
+to Mendelssohn, whose means were limited. One day, shortly before his
+death, Mendelssohn, walking up and down before his house in Spandauer
+street, absorbed in meditation, was met by an acquaintance, who asked
+him: "My dear Mr. Mendelssohn, what is the matter with you? You look so
+troubled." "And so I am," he replied; "I am thinking what my children's
+fate will be, when I am gone."
+
+Moses Mendelssohn was wholly a son of his age, which perhaps explains
+the charm of his personality. His faults as well as his fine traits
+must be accounted for by the peculiarities of his generation. From this
+point of view, we can understand his desire to have his daughters make a
+wealthy match. On the other hand, he could not have known, and if he had
+known, he could not have understood, that his daughters, touched by the
+breath of a later time, had advanced far beyond his position. The Jews
+of that day, particularly Jewish women, were seized by a mighty longing
+for knowledge and culture. They studied French, read Voltaire, and drew
+inspiration from the works of the English freethinkers. One of those
+women says: "We all would have been pleased to be heroines of romance;
+there was not one of us who did not rave over some hero or heroine of
+fiction." At the head of this band of enthusiasts stood Dorothea
+Mendelssohn, brilliant, captivating, and gifted with a vivid
+imagination. She was the leader, the animating spirit of her companions.
+To the reading-club organized by her efforts all the restless minds
+belonged. In the private theatricals at the houses of rich Jews, she
+filled the principal roles; and the mornings after her social triumphs
+found her a most attentive listener to her father, who was in the habit
+of holding lectures for her and her brother Joseph, afterward published
+under the name _Morgenstunden_. And this was the girl whom her father
+wished to see married at sixteen. When a rich Vienna banker was proposed
+as a suitable match, he said, "Ah! a man like Eskeles would greatly
+please my pride!" Dorothea did marry Simon Veit, a banker, a worthy
+man, who in no way could satisfy the demands of her impetuous nature.
+Yet her father believed her to be a happy wife. In her thirtieth year
+she made the acquaintance, at the house of her friend Henriette Herz, of
+a young man, five years her junior, who was destined to change the
+course of her whole life. This was Friedrich von Schlegel, the chief of
+the romantic movement. Dorothea Veit, not beautiful, fascinated him by
+her brilliant wit. Under Schleiermacher's encouragement, the relation
+between the two quickly assumed a serious aspect. But it was not until
+long after her father's death that Dorothea abandoned her husband and
+children, and became Schlegel's life-companion, first his mistress,
+later his wife. As Gutzkow justly says, his novel "Lucinde" describes
+the relation in which Schlegel "permitted himself to be discovered. Love
+for Schlegel it was that consumed her, and led her to share with him a
+thousand follies--Catholicism, Brahmin theosophy, absolutism, and the
+Christian asceticism of which she was a devotee at the time of her
+death." Neither distress, nor misery, nor care, nor sorrow could
+alienate her affections. Finally, she became a bigoted Catholic, and in
+Vienna, their last residence, the daughter of Moses Mendelssohn was
+seen, a lighted taper in her hand, one of a Catholic procession wending
+its way to St. Stephen's Cathedral.
+
+The other daughter had a similar career. Henriette Mendelssohn filled a
+position as governess first in Vienna, then in Paris. In the latter
+city, her home was the meeting-place of the most brilliant men and
+women. She, too, denied her father and her faith. Recha, the youngest
+daughter, was the unhappy wife of a merchant of Strelitz. Later on she
+supported herself by keeping a boarding-school at Altona. Nathan, the
+youngest son, was a mechanician; Abraham, the second, the father of the
+famous composer, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, established with the
+oldest, Joseph, a still flourishing banking-business. Abraham's children
+and grandchildren all became converts to Christianity, but Moses and
+Fromet died before their defection from the old faith. Fromet lived to
+see the development of the passion for music which became hereditary in
+the family. It is said that when, at the time of the popularity of
+Schulz's "Athalia," one of the choruses, with the refrain _tout
+l'univers_, was much sung by her children, the old lady cried out
+irritably, "_Wie mies ist mir vor tout l'univers_" ("How sick I am of
+'all the world!'").[81]
+
+To say apologetically that the circumstances of the times produced such
+feeling and action may be a partial defense of these women, but it is
+not the truth. Henriette Mendelssohn's will is a characteristic
+document. The introduction runs thus: "In these the last words I address
+to my dear relatives, I express my gratitude for all their help and
+affection, and also that they in no wise hindered me in the practice of
+my religion. I have only myself to blame if the Lord God did not deem me
+worthy to be the instrument for the conversion of all my brothers and
+sisters to the Catholic Church, the only one endowed with saving grace.
+May the Lord Jesus Christ grant my prayer, and bless them all with the
+light of His countenance. Amen!" Such were the sentiments of Moses
+Mendelssohn's daughters!
+
+The sons inclined towards Protestantism. Abraham is reported to have
+said that at first he was known as the son of his father, and later as
+the father of his son. His wife was Leah Salomon, the sister of Salomon
+Bartholdy, afterwards councillor of legation. His surname was really
+only Salomon; Bartholdy he had assumed from the former owner of a garden
+in Koepenikerstrasse on the Spree which he had bought. To him chiefly the
+formal acceptance of Christianity by Abraham's family was due. When
+Abraham hesitated about having his children baptized, Bartholdy wrote:
+"You say that you owe it to your father's memory (not to abandon
+Judaism). Do you think that you are committing a wrong in giving your
+children a religion which you and they consider the better? In fact, you
+would be paying a tribute to your father's efforts in behalf of true
+enlightenment, and he would have acted for your children as you have
+acted for them, perhaps for himself as I am acting for myself." This
+certainly is the climax of frivolity! So it happened that one of
+Mendelssohn's grandsons, Philip Veit, became a renowned Catholic church
+painter, and another, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, one of the most
+celebrated of Protestant composers.
+
+After his family, we are interested in the philosopher's disciples. They
+are men of a type not better, but different. What in his children sprang
+from impulsiveness and conviction, was due to levity and imitativeness
+in his followers. Mendelssohn's co-workers and successors formed the
+school of _Biurists_, that is, expounders. In his commentary on the
+Pentateuch he was helped by Solomon Dubno, Herz Homberg, and Hartwig
+Wessely. Solomon Dubno, the tutor of Mendelssohn's children, was a
+learned Pole, devoted heart and soul to the work on the Pentateuch. His
+literary vanity having been wounded, he secretly left Mendelssohn's
+house, and could not be induced to renew his interest in the
+undertaking. Herz Homberg, an Austrian, took his place as tutor. When
+the children were grown, he went to Vienna, and there was made imperial
+councillor, charged with the superintendence of the Jewish schools of
+Galicia. It is a mistake to suppose that he used efforts to further the
+study of the Talmud among Jews. From letters recently published, written
+by and about him, it becomes evident that he was a common informer.
+Mendelssohn, of course, was not aware of his true character. The noblest
+of all was Naphtali Hartwig Wessely, a poet, a pure man, a sincere lover
+of mankind.
+
+The other prominent members of Mendelssohn's circle were: Isaac Euchel,
+the "restorer of Hebrew prose," as he has been called, whose chief
+purpose was the reform of the Jewish order of service and Jewish
+pedagogic methods; Solomon Maimon, a wild fellow, who in his
+autobiography tells his own misdeeds, by many of which Mendelssohn was
+caused annoyance; Lazarus ben David, a modern Diogenes, the apostle of
+Kantism; and, above all, David Friedlaender, an enthusiastic herald of
+the new era, a zealous champion of modern culture, a pure, serious
+character with high ethical ideals, whose aims, inspired though they
+were by most exalted intentions, far overstepped the bounds set to him
+as a Jew and the disciple of Mendelssohn. Kant's philosophy found many
+ardent adherents among the Jews at that time. Beside the old there was
+growing up a new generation which, having no obstructions placed in its
+path after Mendelssohn's death, aggressively asserted its principles.
+
+The first Jew after Mendelssohn to occupy a position of prominence in
+the social world of Berlin was his pupil Marcus Herz, with the title
+professor and aulic councillor, "praised as a physician, esteemed as a
+philosopher, and extolled as a prodigy in the natural sciences. His
+lectures on physics, delivered in his own house, were attended by
+members of the highest aristocracy, even by royal personages."
+
+In circles like his, the equalization of the Jews with the other
+citizens was animatedly discussed, by partisans and opponents. In the
+theatre-going public, a respectable minority, having once seen "Nathan
+the Wise" enacted, protested against the appearance upon the stage of
+the trade-Jew, speaking the sing-song, drawling German vulgarly supposed
+to be peculiar to all Jews (_Mauscheln_). As early as 1771, Marcus Herz
+had entered a vigorous protest against _mauscheln_, and at the first
+performance of "The Merchant of Venice" on August 16, 1788, the famous
+actor Fleck declaimed a prologue, composed by Ramler, in which he
+disavowed any intention to "sow hatred against the Jews, the brethren in
+faith of wise Mendelssohn," and asserted the sole purpose of the drama
+to be the combating of folly and vice wherever they appear.
+
+Marcus Herz's wife was Henriette Herz, and in 1790, when Alexander and
+Wilhelm Humboldt first came to her house, the real history of the Berlin
+_salon_ begins. The Humboldts' acquaintance with the Herz family dates
+from the visit of state councillor Kunth, the tutor of the Humboldt
+brothers, to Marcus Herz to advise with him about setting up a
+lightning-rod, an extraordinary novelty at the time, on the castle at
+Tegel. Shortly afterward, Kunth introduced his two pupils to Herz and
+his wife. So the Berlin _salon_ owed its origin to a lightning-rod;
+indeed, it may itself be called an electrical conductor for all the
+spiritual forces, recently brought into play, and still struggling to
+manifest their undeveloped strength. Up to that time there had been
+nothing like society in the city of intelligence. Of course there was no
+dearth of scholars and clever, brilliant people, but insuperable
+obstacles seemed to prevent their social contact with one another.
+Outside of Moses Mendelssohn's house, until the end of the eighties the
+only _rendezvous_ of wits, scholars, and literary men, the preference
+was for magnificent banquets and noisy carousals, each rank entertaining
+its own members. In the middle class, the burghers, the social instinct
+had not awakened at all. Alexander Humboldt significantly dated his
+first letter to Henriette Herz from _Schloss Langeweile_. In the course
+of time the desire for spiritual sympathy led to the formation of
+reading clubs and _conversazioni_. These were the elements that finally
+produced Berlin society.
+
+The prototype of the German _salon_ naturally was the _salon_ of the
+rococo period. Strangely enough, Berlin Jews, disciples, friends, and
+descendants of Moses Mendelssohn, were the transplanters of the foreign
+product to German soil. Untrammelled as they were in this respect by
+traditions, they hearkened eagerly to the new dispensation issuing from
+Weimar, and they were in no way hampered in the choice of their
+hero-guides to Olympus. Berlin irony, French sparkle, and Jewish wit
+moulded the social forms which thereafter were to be characteristic of
+society at the capital, and called forth pretty much all that was
+charming in the society and pleasing in the light literature of the
+Berlin of the day.
+
+To judge Henriette Herz justly we must beware alike of the extravagance
+of her biographer and the malice of her friend Varnhagen von Ense; the
+former extols her cleverness to the skies, the other degrades her to the
+level of the commonplace. The two seem equally unreliable. She was
+neither extremely witty nor extremely cultured. She had a singularly
+clear mind, and possessed the rare faculty of spreading about her an
+atmosphere of ease and cheer--good substitutes for wit and
+intellectuality. Upon her beauty and amiability rested the popularity of
+her _salon_, which succeeded in uniting all the social factors of that
+period.
+
+The nucleus of her social gatherings consisted of the representatives of
+the old literary traditions, Nicolai, Ramler, Engel, and Moritz, and
+they curiously enough attracted the theologians Spalding, Teller,
+Zoellner, and later Schleiermacher, whose intimacy with his hostess is a
+matter of history. Music was represented by Reichardt and Wesseli; art,
+by Schadow; and the nobility by Bernstorff, Dotina, Brinkmann, Friedrich
+von Gentz, and the Humboldts. Her drawing-room was the hearth of the
+romantic movement, and as may be imagined, her example was followed for
+better and for worse by her friends and sisters in faith, so that by the
+end of the century, Berlin could boast a number of _salons_,
+meeting-places of the nobility, literary men, and cultured Jews, for the
+friendly exchange of spiritual and intellectual experiences. Henriette
+Herz's _salon_ became important not only for society in Berlin, but also
+for German literature, three great literary movements being sheltered in
+it: the classical, the romantic, and, through Ludwig Boerne, that of
+"Young Germany." Judaism alone was left unrepresented. In fact, she and
+all her cultured Jewish friends hastened to free themselves of their
+troublesome Jewish affiliations, or, at least, concealed them as best
+they could. Years afterwards, Boerne spent his ridicule upon the
+Jewesses of the Berlin _salons_, with their enormous racial noses and
+their great gold crosses at their throats, pressing into Trinity church
+to hear Schleiermacher preach. But justice compels us to say that these
+women did not know Judaism, or knew it only in its slave's garb. Had
+they had a conception of its high ethical standard, of the wealth of its
+poetic and philosophic thoughts, being women of rare mental gifts and
+broad liberality, they certainly would not have abandoned Judaism. But
+the Judaism of their Berlin, as represented by its religious teachers
+and the leaders of the Jewish community, most of them, according to
+Mendelssohn's own account, immigrant Poles, could not appeal to women of
+keen, intellectual sympathies, and tastes conforming to the ideals of
+the new era.
+
+As for Mendelssohn's friends who flocked to his hospitable home--their
+names are household words in the history of German literature. Nicolai
+and Lessing must be mentioned before all others, but no one came to
+Berlin without seeking Moses Mendelssohn--Goethe, Herder, Wieland,
+Hennings, Abt, Campe, Moritz, Jerusalem. Joachim Campe has left an
+account of his visit at Mendelssohn's house, which is probably a just
+picture of its attractions.[82] He says: "On a Friday afternoon, my wife
+and myself, together with some of the distinguished representatives of
+Berlin scholarship, visited Mendelssohn. We were chatting over our
+coffee, when Mendelssohn, about an hour before sundown, rose from his
+seat with the words: 'Ladies and gentlemen, I must leave you to receive
+the Sabbath. I shall be with you again presently; meantime my wife will
+enjoy your company doubly.' All eyes followed our amiable
+philosopher-host with reverent admiration as he withdrew to an adjoining
+room to recite the customary prayers. At the end of half an hour he
+returned, his face radiant, and seating himself, he said to his wife:
+'Now I am again at my post, and shall try for once to do the honors in
+your place. Our friends will certainly excuse you, while you fulfil your
+religious duties.' Mendelssohn's wife excused herself, joined her
+family, consecrated the Sabbath by lighting the Sabbath lamp, and
+returned to us. We stayed on for some hours." Is it possible to conceive
+of a more touching picture?
+
+When Duchess Dorothea of Kurland, and her sister Elise von der Recke
+were living at Friedrichsfelde near Berlin in 1785, they invited
+Mendelssohn, whom they were eager to know, to visit them. When dinner
+was announced, Mendelssohn was not to be found. The companion of the two
+ladies writes in her journal:[83] "He had quietly slipped away to the
+inn at which he had ordered a frugal meal. From a motive entirely worthy
+I am sure, this philosopher never permits himself to be invited to a
+meal at a Christian's house. Not to be deprived of Mendelssohn's society
+too long, the duchess rose from the table as soon as possible."
+Mendelssohn returned, stayed a long time, and, on bidding adieu to the
+duchess, he said: "To-day, I have had a chat with mind."
+
+This was Berlin society at Mendelssohn's time, and its toleration and
+humanity are the more to be valued as the majority of Jews by no means
+emulated Mendelssohn's enlightened example. All their energies were
+absorbed in the effort of compliance with the charter of Frederick the
+Great, which imposed many vexatious restrictions. On marrying, they were
+still compelled to buy the inferior porcelain made by the royal
+manufactory. The whole of the Jewish community continued to be held
+responsible for a theft committed by one of its members. Jews were not
+yet permitted to become manufacturers. Bankrupt Jews, without
+investigation of each case, were considered cheats. Their use of land
+and waterways was hampered by many petty obstructions. In every field an
+insurmountable barrier rose between them and their Christian
+fellow-citizens. Mendelssohn's great task was the moral and spiritual
+regeneration of his brethren in faith. In all disputes his word was
+final. He hoped to bring about reforms by influencing his people's inner
+life. Schools were founded, and every means used to further culture and
+education, but he met with much determined opposition among his
+fellow-believers. Of Ephraim, the debaser of the coin, we have spoken;
+also of the king's manner towards Jews. Here is another instance of his
+brusqueness: Abraham Posner begged for permission to shave his beard.
+Frederick wrote on the margin of his petition: "_Der Jude Posner soll
+mich und seinen Bart ungeschoren lassen._"
+
+Lawsuits of Jews against French and German traders made a great stir in
+those days. It was only after much annoyance that a naturalization
+patent was obtained by the family of Daniel Itzig, the father-in-law of
+David Friedlaender, founder of the Jews' Free School in Berlin. In other
+cases, no amount of effort could secure the patent, the king saying:
+"Whatever concerns your trade is well and good. But I cannot permit you
+to settle tribes of Jews in Berlin, and turn it into a young
+Jerusalem."--
+
+This is a picture of Jewish society in Berlin one hundred years ago. It
+united the most diverse currents and tendencies, emanating from
+romanticism, classicism, reform, orthodoxy, love of trade, and efforts
+for spiritual regeneration. In all this queer tangle, Moses Mendelssohn
+alone stands untainted, his form enveloped in pure, white light.
+
+
+
+
+LEOPOLD ZUNZ[84]
+
+
+We are assembled for the solemn duty of paying a tribute to the memory
+of him whose name graces our lodge. A twofold interest attaches us to
+Leopold Zunz, appealing, as he does, to our local pride, and, beyond and
+above that, to our Jewish feelings. Leopold Zunz was part of the Berlin
+of the past, every trace of which is vanishing with startling rapidity.
+Men, houses, streets are disappearing, and soon naught but a memory will
+remain of old Berlin, not, to be sure, a City Beautiful, yet filled for
+him that knew it with charming associations. A precious remnant of this
+dear old Berlin was buried forever, when, on one misty day of the spring
+of 1886, we consigned to their last resting place the mortal remains of
+Leopold Zunz. Memorial addresses are apt to abound in such expressions
+as "immortal," "imperishable," and in flowery tributes. This one shall
+not indulge in them, although to no one could they more fittingly be
+applied than to Leopold Zunz, a pioneer in the labyrinth of science, and
+the architect of many a stately palace adorning the path but lately
+discovered by himself. Surely, such an one deserves the cordial
+recognition and enduring gratitude of posterity.
+
+Despite the fact that Zunz was born at Detmold (August 10, 1794), he was
+an integral part of old Berlin--a Berlin citizen, not by birth, but by
+vocation, so to speak. His being was intertwined with its life by a
+thousand tendrils of intellectual sympathy. The city, in turn, or, to be
+topographically precise, the district between _Mauerstrasse_ and
+_Rosenstrasse_ knew and loved him as one of its public characters. Time
+was when his witticisms leapt from mouth to mouth in the circuit between
+the Varnhagen _salon_ and the synagogue in the _Heidereutergasse_,
+everywhere finding appreciative listeners. An observer stationed _Unter
+den Linden_ daily for more than thirty years might have seen a peculiar
+couple stride briskly towards the _Thiergarten_ in the early afternoon.
+The loungers at Spargnapani's _cafe_ regularly interrupted their endless
+newspaper reading to crane their necks and say to one another, "There go
+Dr. Zunz and his wife."
+
+In his obituary notice of the poet Mosenthal, Franz Dingelstedt
+roguishly says: "He was of poor, albeit Jewish parentage." The same
+applies to Zunz, only the saying would be truer, if not so witty, in
+this form: "He was of Jewish, hence of poor, parentage." Among German
+Jews throughout the middle ages and up to the first half of this
+century, poverty was the rule, a comfortable competency a rare
+exception, wealth an unheard of condition. But Jewish poverty was
+relieved of sordidness by a precious gift of the old rabbis, who said:
+"Have a tender care of the children of the poor; from them goeth forth
+the Law"; an admonition and a prediction destined to be illustrated in
+the case of Zunz. Very early he lost his mother, and the year 1805 finds
+him bereft of both parents, under the shelter and in the loving care of
+an institution founded by a pious Jew in Wolfenbuettel. Here he was
+taught the best within the reach of German Jews of the day, the _alpha_
+and _omega_ of whose knowledge and teaching were comprised in the
+Talmud. The Wolfenbuettel school may be called progressive, inasmuch as a
+teacher, watchmaker by trade and novel-writer by vocation, was engaged
+to give instruction four times a week in the three R's. We may be sure
+that those four lessons were not given with unvarying regularity.
+
+In his scholastic home, Leopold Zunz met Isaac Marcus Jost, a waif like
+himself, later the first Jewish historian, to whom we owe interesting
+details of Zunz's early life. In his memoirs[85] he tells the following:
+"Zunz had been entered as a pupil before I arrived. Even in those early
+days there were evidences of the acumen of the future critic. He was
+dominated by the spirit of contradiction. On the sly we studied grammar,
+his cleverness helping me over many a stumbling-block. He was very
+witty, and wrote a lengthy Hebrew satire on our tyrants, from which we
+derived not a little amusement as each part was finished. Unfortunately,
+the misdemeanor was detected, and the _corpus delicti_ consigned to the
+flames, but the sobriquet _chotsuf_ (impudent fellow) clung to the
+writer."
+
+It is only just to admit that in this _Beth ha-Midrash_ Zunz laid the
+foundation of the profound, comprehensive scholarship on Talmudic
+subjects, the groundwork of his future achievements as a critic. The
+circumstance that both these embryo historians had to draw their first
+information about history from the Jewish German paraphrase of
+"Yosippon," an historical compilation, is counterbalanced by careful
+instruction in Rabbinical literature, whose labyrinthine ways soon
+became paths of light to them.
+
+A new day broke, and in its sunlight the condition of affairs changed.
+In 1808 the _Beth ha-Midrash_ was suddenly transformed into the
+"Samsonschool," still in useful operation. It became a primary school,
+conducted on approved pedagogic principles, and Zunz and Jost were among
+the first registered under the new, as they had been under the old,
+administration. Though the one was thirteen, and the other fourteen
+years old, they had to begin with the very rudiments of reading and
+writing. Campe's juvenile books were the first they read. A year later
+finds them engaged in secretly studying Greek, Latin, and mathematics
+during the long winter evenings, by the light of bits of candles made by
+themselves of drippings from the great wax tapers in the synagogue.
+After another six months, Zunz was admitted to the first class of the
+Wolfenbuettel, and Jost to that of the Brunswick, _gymnasium_. It
+characterizes the men to say that Zunz was the first, and Jost the
+third, Jew in Germany to enter a _gymnasium_. Now progress was rapid.
+The classes of the _gymnasium_ were passed through with astounding ease,
+and in 1811, with a minimum of luggage, but a very considerable mental
+equipment, Zunz arrived in Berlin, never to leave it except for short
+periods. He entered upon a course in philology at the newly founded
+university, and after three years of study, he was in the unenviable
+position to be able to tell himself that he had attained to--nothing.
+
+For, to what could a cultured Jew attain in those days, unless he became
+a lawyer or a physician? The Hardenberg edict had opened academical
+careers to Jews, but when Zunz finished his studies, that provision was
+completely forgotten. So he became a preacher. A rich Jew, Jacob Herz
+Beer, the father of two highly gifted sons, Giacomo and Michael Beer,
+had established a private synagogue in his house, and here officiated
+Edward Kley, C. Guensburg, J. L. Auerbach, and, from 1820 to 1822,
+Leopold Zunz. It is not known why he resigned his position, but to infer
+that he had been forced to embrace the vocation of a preacher by the
+stress of circumstances is unjust. At that juncture he probably would
+have chosen it, if he had been offered the rectorship of the Berlin
+university; for, he was animated by somewhat of the spirit that urged
+the prophets of old to proclaim and fulfil their mission in the midst of
+storms and in despite of threatening dangers.
+
+Zunz's sermons delivered from 1820 to 1822 in the first German reform
+temple are truly instinct with the prophetic spirit. The breath of a
+mighty enthusiasm rises from the yellowed pages. Every word testifies
+that they were indited by a writer of puissant individuality, disengaged
+from the shackles of conventional homiletics, and boldly striking out on
+untrodden paths. In the Jewish Berlin of the day, a rationalistic,
+half-cultured generation, swaying irresolutely between Mendelssohn and
+Schleiermacher, these new notes awoke sympathetic echoes. But scarcely
+had the music of his voice become familiar, when it was hushed. In 1823,
+a royal cabinet order prohibited the holding of the Jewish service in
+German, as well as every other innovation in the ritual, and so German
+sermons ceased in the synagogue. Zunz, who had spoken like Moses, now
+held his peace like Aaron, in modesty and humility, yielding to the
+inevitable without rancor or repining, always loyal to the exalted ideal
+which inspired him under the most depressing circumstances. He dedicated
+his sermons, delivered at a time of religious enthusiasm, to "youth at
+the crossroads," whom he had in mind throughout, in the hope that they
+might "be found worthy to lead back to the Lord hearts, which, through
+deception or by reason of stubbornness, have fallen away from Him."
+
+The rescue of the young was his ideal. At the very beginning of his
+career he recognized that the old were beyond redemption, and that, if
+response and confidence were to be won from the young, the expounding of
+the new Judaism was work, not for the pulpit, but for the professor's
+chair. "Devotional exercises and balmy lotions for the soul" could not
+heal their wounds. It was imperative to bring their latent strength into
+play. Knowing this to be his pedagogic principle, we shall not go far
+wrong, if we suppose that in the organization of the "Society for Jewish
+Culture and Science" the initial step was taken by Leopold Zunz. In 1819
+when the mobs of Wuerzburg, Hamburg, and Frankfort-on-the-Main revived
+the "Hep, hep!" cry, three young men, Edward Gans, Moses Moser, and
+Leopold Zunz conceived the idea of a society with the purpose of
+bringing Jews into harmony with their age and environment, not by
+forcing upon them views of alien growth, but by a rational training of
+their inherited faculties. Whatever might serve to promote intelligence
+and culture was to be nurtured: schools, seminaries, academies, were to
+be erected, literary aspirations fostered, and all public-spirited
+enterprises aided; on the other hand, the rising generation was to be
+induced to devote itself to arts, trades, agriculture, and the applied
+sciences; finally, the strong inclination to commerce on the part of
+Jews was to be curbed, and the tone and conditions of Jewish society
+radically changed--lofty goals for the attainment of which most limited
+means were at the disposal of the projectors. The first fruits of the
+society were the "Scientific Institute," and the "Journal for the
+Science of Judaism," published in the spring of 1822, under the
+editorship of Zunz. Only three numbers appeared, and they met with so
+small a sale that the cost of printing was not realized. Means were
+inadequate, the plans magnificent, the times above all not ripe for such
+ideals. The "Scientific Institute" crumbled away, too, and in 1823, the
+society was breathing its last. Zunz poured out the bitterness of his
+disappointment in a letter written in the summer of 1824 to his Hamburg
+friend Immanuel Wohlwill:
+
+"I am so disheartened that I can nevermore believe in Jewish reform. A
+stone must be thrown at this phantasm to make it vanish. Good Jews are
+either Asiatics, or Christians (unconscious thereof), besides a small
+minority consisting of myself and a few others, the possibility of
+mentioning whom saves me from the imputation of conceit, though, truth
+to say, the bitterness of irony cares precious little for the forms of
+good society. Jews, and the Judaism which we wish to reconstruct, are a
+prey to disunion, and the booty of vandals, fools, money-changers,
+idiots, and _parnassim_.[86] Many a change of season will pass over this
+generation, and leave it unchanged: internally ruptured; rushing into
+the arms of Christianity, the religion of expediency; without stamina
+and without principle; one section thrust aside by Europe, and
+vegetating in filth with longing eyes directed towards the Messiah's ass
+or other member of the long-eared fraternity; the other occupied with
+fingering state securities and the pages of a cyclopaedia, and constantly
+oscillating between wealth and bankruptcy, oppression and tolerance.
+Their own science is dead among Jews, and the intellectual concerns of
+European nations do not appeal to them, because, faithless to
+themselves, they are strangers to abstract truth and slaves of
+self-interest. This abject wretchedness is stamped upon their
+penny-a-liners, their preachers, councillors, constitutions,
+_parnassim_, titles, meetings, institutions, subscriptions, their
+literature, their book-trade, their representatives, their happiness,
+and their misfortune. No heart, no feeling! All a medley of prayers,
+banknotes, and _rachmones_,[87] with a few strains of enlightenment and
+_chilluk_![88]--
+
+Now, my friend, after so revolting a sketch of Judaism, you will hardly
+ask why the society and the journal have vanished into thin air, and are
+missed as little as the temple, the school, and the rights of
+citizenship. The society might have survived despite its splitting up
+into sections. That was merely a mistake in management. The truth is
+that it never had existence. Five or six enthusiasts met together, and
+like Moses ventured to believe that their spirit would communicate
+itself to others. That was self-deception. _The only imperishable
+possession rescued from this deluge is the science of Judaism. It lives
+even though not a finger has been raised in its service since hundreds
+of years. I confess that, barring submission to the judgment of God, I
+find solace only in the cultivation of the science of Judaism._
+
+As for myself, those rough experiences of mine shall assuredly not
+persuade me into a course of action inconsistent with my highest
+aspirations. I did what I held my duty. I ceased to preach, not in order
+to fall away from my own words, but because I realized that I was
+preaching in the wilderness. _Sapienti sat_.... After all that I have
+said, you will readily understand that I cannot favor an unduly
+ostentatious mode of dissolution. Such a course would be prompted by the
+vanity of the puffed-out frog in the fable, and affect the Jews ... as
+little as all that has gone before. There is nothing for the members to
+do but to remain unshaken, and radiate their influence in their limited
+circles, leaving all else to God."
+
+The man who wrote these words, it is hard to realize, had not yet passed
+his thirtieth year, but his aim in life was perfectly defined. He knew
+the path leading to his goal, and--most important circumstance--never
+deviated from it until he attained it. His activity throughout life
+shows no inconsistency with his plans. It is his strength of character,
+rarest of attributes in a time of universal defection from the Jewish
+standard, that calls for admiration, accorded by none so readily as by
+his companions in arms. Casting up his own spiritual accounts, Heinrich
+Heine in the latter part of his life wrote of his friend Zunz:[89] "In
+the instability of a transition period he was characterized by
+incorruptible constancy, remaining true, despite his acumen, his
+scepticism, and his scholarship, to self-imposed promises, to the
+exalted hobby of his soul. A man of thought and action, he created and
+worked when others hesitated, and sank discouraged," or, what Heine
+prudently omitted to say, deserted the flag, and stealthily slunk out of
+the life of the oppressed.
+
+In Zunz, strength of character was associated with a mature, richly
+stored mind. He was a man of talent, of character, and of science, and
+this rare union of traits is his distinction. At a time when the
+majority of his co-religionists could not grasp the plain, elementary
+meaning of the phrase, "the science of Judaism," he made it the loadstar
+of his life.
+
+Sad though it be, I fear that it is true that there are those of this
+generation who, after the lapse of years, are prompted to repeat the
+question put by Zunz's contemporaries, "What is the science of Judaism?"
+Zunz gave a comprehensive answer in a short essay, "On Rabbinical
+Literature," published by Mauer in 1818:[90] "When the shadows of
+barbarism were gradually lifting from the mist-shrouded earth, and light
+universally diffused could not fail to strike the Jews scattered
+everywhere, a remnant of old Hebrew learning attached itself to new,
+foreign elements of culture, and in the course of centuries enlightened
+minds elaborated the heterogeneous ingredients into the literature
+called rabbinical." To this rabbinical, or, to use the more fitting name
+proposed by himself, this neo-Hebraic, Jewish literature and science,
+Zunz devoted his love, his work, his life. Since centuries this field
+of knowledge had been a trackless, uncultivated waste. He who would
+pass across, had need to be a pathfinder, robust and energetic, able to
+concentrate his mind upon a single aim, undisturbed by distracting
+influences. Such was Leopold Zunz, who sketched in bold, but admirably
+precise outlines the extent of Jewish science, marking the boundaries of
+its several departments, estimating its resources, and laying out the
+work and aims of the future. The words of the prophet must have appealed
+to him with peculiar force: "I remember unto thee the kindness of thy
+youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the wilderness,
+through a land that is not sown."
+
+Again, when there was question of cultivating the desert soil, and
+seeking for life under the rubbish, Zunz was the first to present
+himself as a laborer. The only fruit of the Society for Jewish Culture
+and Science, during the three years of its existence, was the "Journal
+for the Science of Judaism," and its publication was due exclusively to
+Zunz's perseverance. Though only three numbers appeared, a positive
+addition to our literature was made through them in Zunz's biographical
+essay on Rashi, the old master expounder of the Bible and the Talmud. By
+its arrangement of material, by its criticism and grouping of facts, and
+not a little by its brilliant style, this essay became the model for all
+future work on kindred subjects. When the society dissolved, and Zunz
+was left to enjoy undesired leisure, he continued to work on the lines
+laid down therein. Besides, Zunz was a political journalist, for many
+years political editor of "Spener's Journal," and a contributor to the
+_Gesellschafter_, the _Iris_, _Die Freimuetigen_, and other publications
+of a literary character. From 1825 to 1829, he was a director of the
+newly founded Jewish congregational school; for one year he occupied the
+position of preacher at Prague; and from 1839 to 1849, the year of its
+final closing, he acted as trustee of the Jewish teachers' seminary in
+Berlin. Thereafter he had no official position.
+
+As a politician he was a pronounced democrat. Reading his political
+addresses to-day, after a lapse of half a century, we find in them the
+clearness and sagacity that distinguish the scientific productions of
+the investigator. Here is an extract from his words of consolation
+addressed to the families of the heroes of the March revolution of
+1848:[91]
+
+"They who walked our streets unnoticed, who meditated in their quiet
+studies, toiled in their workshops, cast up accounts in offices, sold
+wares in the shops, were suddenly transformed into valiant fighters, and
+we discovered them at the moment when like meteors they vanished. When
+they grew lustrous, they disappeared from our sight, and when they
+became our deliverers, we lost the opportunity of thanking them. Death
+has made them great and precious to us. Departing they poured unmeasured
+wealth upon us all, who were so poor. Our heads, parched like a summer
+sky, produced no fruitful rain of magnanimous thoughts. The hearts in
+our bosoms, turned into stone, were bereft of human sympathies. Vanity
+and illusions were our idols; lies and deception poisoned our lives;
+lust and avarice dictated our actions; a hell of immorality and misery,
+corroding every institution, heated the atmosphere to suffocation, until
+black clouds gathered, a storm of the nations raged about us, and
+purifying streaks of lightning darted down upon the barricades and into
+the streets. Through the storm-wind, I saw chariots of fire and horses
+of fire bearing to heaven the men of God who fell fighting for right and
+liberty. I hear the voice of God, O ye that weep, knighting your dear
+ones. The freedom of the press is their patent of nobility, our hearts,
+their monuments. Every one of us, every German, is a mourner, and you,
+survivors, are no longer abandoned."
+
+In an election address of February 1849,[92] Zunz says: "The first step
+towards liberty is to miss liberty, the second, to seek it, the third,
+to find it. Of course, many years may pass between the seeking and the
+finding." And further on: "As an elector, I should give my vote for
+representatives only to men of principle and immaculate reputation, who
+neither hesitate nor yield; who cannot be made to say cold is warm, and
+warm is cold; who disdain legal subtleties, diplomatic intrigues, lies
+of whatever kind, even when they redound to the advantage of the party.
+Such are worthy of the confidence of the people, because conscience is
+their monitor. They may err, for to err is human, but they will never
+deceive."
+
+Twelve years later, on a similar occasion, he uttered the following
+prophetic words:[93] "A genuinely free form of government makes a people
+free and upright, and its representatives are bound to be champions of
+liberty and progress. If Prussia, unfurling the banner of liberty and
+progress, will undertake to provide us with such a constitution, our
+self-confidence, energy, and trustfulness will return. Progress will be
+the fundamental principle of our lives, and out of our united efforts to
+advance it will grow a firm, indissoluble union. Now, then, Germans! Be
+resolved, all of you, to attain the same goal, and your will shall be a
+storm-wind scattering like chaff whatever is old and rotten. In your
+struggle for a free country, you will have as allies the army of mighty
+minds that have suffered for right and liberty in the past. Now you are
+split up into tribes and clans, held together only by the bond of
+language and a classic literature. You will grow into a great nation, if
+but all brother-tribes will join us. Then Germany, strongly secure in
+the heart of Europe, will be able to put an end to the quailing before
+attacks from the East or the West, and cry a halt to war. The empire,
+some one has said, means peace. Verily, with Prussia at its head, the
+German empire means peace."
+
+Such utterances are characteristic of Zunz, the politician. His best
+energies and efforts, however, were devoted to his researches. Science,
+he believed, would bring about amelioration of political conditions;
+science, he hoped, would preserve Judaism from the storms and calamities
+of his generation, for the fulfilment of its historical mission.
+Possessed by this idea, he wrote _Die Gottesdienstlichen Vortraege der
+Juden_ ("Jewish Homiletics," 1832), the basis of the future science of
+Judaism, the first clearing in the primeval forest of rabbinical
+writings, through which the pioneer led his followers with steady step
+and hand, as though walking on well trodden ground. Heinrich Heine, who
+appreciated Zunz at his full worth, justly reckoned this book "among the
+noteworthy productions of the higher criticism," and another reviewer
+with equal justice ranks it on a level with the great works of Boeckh,
+Diez, Grimm, and others of that period, the golden age of philological
+research in Germany.
+
+Like almost all that Zunz wrote, _Die Gottesdienstlichen Vortraege der
+Juden_ was the result of a polemic need. By nature Zunz was a
+controversialist. Like a sentinel upon the battlements, he kept a sharp
+lookout upon the land. Let the Jews be threatened with injustice by
+ruler, statesman, or scholar, and straightway he attacked the enemy with
+the weapons of satire and science. One can fancy that the cabinet order
+prohibiting German sermons in the synagogue, and so stifling the
+ambition of his youth, awakened the resolve to trace the development of
+the sermon among Jews, and show that thousands of years ago the
+well-spring of religious instruction bubbled up in Judah's halls of
+prayer, and has never since failed, its wealth of waters overflowing
+into the popular Midrash, the repository of little known, unappreciated
+treasures of knowledge and experience, accumulated in the course of many
+centuries.
+
+In the preface to this book, Zunz, the democrat, says that for his
+brethren in faith he demands of the European powers, "not rights and
+liberties, but right and liberty. Deep shame should mantle the cheek of
+him who, by means of a patent of nobility conferred by favoritism, is
+willing to rise above his _co-religionists_, while the law of the land
+brands him by assigning him a place among the lowest of his
+_co-citizens_. Only in the rights common to all citizens can we find
+satisfaction; only in unquestioned equality, the end of our pain.
+Liberty unshackling the hand to fetter the tongue; tolerance delighting
+not in our progress, but in our decay; citizenship promising protection
+without honor, imposing burdens without holding out prospects of
+advancement; they all, in my opinion, are lacking in love and justice,
+and such baneful elements in the body politic must needs engender
+pestiferous diseases, affecting the whole and its every part."
+
+Zunz sees a connection between the civil disabilities of the Jews and
+their neglect of Jewish science and literature. Untrammelled,
+instructive speech he accounts the surest weapon. Hence the homilies of
+the Jews appear to him to be worthy, and to stand in need, of
+historical investigation, and the results of his research into their
+origin, development, and uses, from the time of Ezra to the present day,
+are laid down in this epoch-making work.
+
+The law forbidding the bearing of German names by Jews provoked Zunz's
+famous and influential little book, "The Names of the Jews," like most
+of his later writings polemic in origin, in which respect they remind
+one of Lessing's works.
+
+In the ardor of youth Zunz had borne the banner of reform; in middle age
+he became convinced that the young generation of iconoclasts had rushed
+far beyond the ideal goal of the reform movement cherished in his
+visions. As he had upheld the age and sacred uses of the German sermon
+against the assaults of the orthodox; so for the benefit and instruction
+of radical reformers, he expounded the value and importance of the
+Hebrew liturgy in profound works, which appeared during a period of ten
+years, crystallizing the results of a half-century's severe application.
+They rounded off the symmetry of his spiritual activity. For, when
+Midrashic inspiration ceased to flow, the _piut_--synagogue
+poetry--established itself, and the transformation from the one into the
+other was the active principle of neo-Hebraic literature for more than a
+thousand years. Zunz's vivifying sympathies knit the old and the new
+into a wondrously firm historical thread. Nowhere have the harmony and
+continuity of Jewish literary development found such adequate expression
+as in his _Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters_ ("Synagogue Poetry of
+the Middle Ages," 1855), _Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes_ ("The
+Ritual of the Synagogue," 1859), and _Litteraturgeschichte der
+synagogalen Poesie_ ("History of Synagogue Poetry," 1864), the capstone
+of his literary endeavors.
+
+In his opinion, the only safeguard against error lies in the pursuit of
+science, not, indeed, dryasdust science, but science in close touch with
+the exuberance of life regulated by high-minded principles, and
+transfigured by ideal hopes. Sermons and prayers in harmonious relation,
+he believed,[94] will "enable some future generation to enjoy the fruits
+of a progressive, rational policy, and it is meet that science and
+poetry should be permeated with ideas serving the furtherance of such
+policy. Education is charged with the task of moulding enlightened minds
+to think the thoughts that prepare for right-doing, and warm,
+enthusiastic hearts to execute commendable deeds. For, after all is said
+and done, the well-being of the community can only grow out of the
+intelligence and the moral life of each member. Every individual that
+strives to apprehend the harmony of human and divine elements attains to
+membership in the divine covenant. The divine is the aim of all our
+thoughts, actions, sentiments, and hopes. It invests our lives with
+dignity, and supplies a moral basis for our relations to one another.
+Well, then, let us hope for redemption--for the universal recognition of
+a form of government under which the rights of man are respected. Then
+free citizens will welcome Jews as brethren, and Israel's prayers will
+be offered up by mankind."
+
+These are samples of the thoughts underlying Zunz's great works, as well
+as his numerous smaller, though not less important, productions:
+biographical and critical essays, legal opinions, sketches in the
+history of literature, reviews, scientific inquiries, polemical and
+literary fragments, collected in his work _Zur Geschichte und
+Litteratur_ ("Contributions to History and Literature," 1873), and in
+three volumes of collected writings. Since the publication of his
+"History of Synagogue Poetry," Zunz wrote only on rare occasions. His
+last work but one was _Deutsche Briefe_ (1872) on German language and
+German intellect, and his last, an incisive and liberal contribution to
+Bible criticism (_Studie zur Bibelkritik_, 1874), published in the
+_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft_ in Leipsic.
+From that time on, when the death of his beloved wife, Adelheid Zunz, a
+most faithful helpmate, friend, counsellor, and support, occurred, he
+was silent.
+
+Zunz had passed his seventieth year when his "History of Synagogue
+Poetry" appeared. He could permit himself to indulge in well-earned
+rest, and from the vantage-ground of age inspect the bustling activity
+of a new generation of friends and disciples on the once neglected field
+of Jewish science.
+
+Often as the cause of religion and civil liberty received a check at
+one place or another, during those long years when he stood aside from
+the turmoil of life, a mere looker-on, he did not despair; he continued
+to hope undaunted. Under his picture he wrote sententiously: "Thought is
+strong enough to vanquish arrogance and injustice without recourse to
+arrogance and injustice."
+
+Zunz's life and work are of incalculable importance to the present age
+and to future generations. With eagle vision he surveyed the whole
+domain of Jewish learning, and traced the lines of its development.
+Constructive as well as critical, he raised widely scattered fragments
+to the rank of a literature which may well claim a place beside the
+literatures of the nations. Endowed with rare strength of character, he
+remained unflinchingly loyal to his ancestral faith, "the exalted hobby
+of his soul"--a model for three generations. Jewish literature owes to
+him a scientific style. He wrote epigrammatic, incisive, perspicuous
+German, stimulating and suggestive, such as Lessing used. The reform
+movement he supported as a legitimate development of Judaism on
+historical lines. On the other hand, he fostered loyalty to Judaism by
+lucidly presenting to young Israel the value of his faith, his
+intellectual heritage, and his treasures of poetry. Zunz, then, is the
+originator of a momentous phase in our development, producing among its
+adherents as among outsiders a complete revolution in the appreciation
+of Judaism, its religious and intellectual aspects. Together with
+self-knowledge he taught his brethren self-respect. He was, in short, a
+clear thinker and acute critic; a German, deeply attached to his beloved
+country, and fully convinced of the supremacy of German mind; at the
+same time, an ardent believer in Judaism, imbued with some of the spirit
+of the prophets, somewhat of the strength of Jewish heroes and martyrs,
+who sacrificed life for their conviction, and with dying lips made the
+ancient confession: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is
+one!"
+
+His name is an abiding possession for our nation; it will not perish
+from our memory. "Good night, my prince! O that angel choirs might lull
+thy slumbers!"
+
+
+
+
+HEINRICH HEINE AND JUDAISM
+
+
+I
+
+No modern poet has aroused so much discussion as Heinrich Heine. His
+works are known everywhere, and quotations from them--gorgeous
+butterflies, stinging gnats, buzzing bees--whizz and whirr through the
+air of our century. They are the _vade mecum_ of modern life in all its
+moods and variations.
+
+This high regard is a recent development. Within the last thirty years a
+complete change has taken place in public opinion. Soon after the poet's
+death, he was entirely neglected. The _Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung_,
+whose columns had for decades been enriched with his contributions, took
+three months to get up a little obituary notice. Then followed a period
+of acrimonious detraction; at last, cordial appreciation has come.
+
+The conviction has been growing that in Heine the German nation must
+revere its greatest lyric poet since Goethe, and as time removes him
+from us, the baser elements of his character recede into the background,
+his personality is lost sight of, and his poetry becomes the paramount
+consideration.
+
+What is the attitude of Judaism? Does it acknowledge Heine as its son?
+Is it disposed to accept _cum beneficio inventarii_ the inheritance he
+has bequeathed to it? To answer these questions we must review Heine's
+life, his relations to Judaism, his opinions on Jewish subjects, and the
+qualities which prove him heir to the peculiarities of the Jewish race.
+
+Heine's family was Jewish. On the paternal side it can be traced to
+Meyer Samson Popert and Fromet Heckscher of Altona; on the maternal side
+further back, to Isaac van Geldern, who emigrated in about 1700 from
+Holland to the duchy of Juelich-Berg. He and his son Lazarus van Geldern
+were people of importance at Duesseldorf, and his other sons, Simon and
+Gottschalk, were known and respected beyond the confines of their city.
+Simon van Geldern was the author of "The Israelites on Mount Horeb," a
+didactic poem in English, and on his trip to the East he kept a Hebrew
+journal, which can still be seen. His younger brother Gottschalk was a
+distinguished physician, and occupied a position of high dignity in the
+Jewish congregations in the duchies of Juelich and Berg. It is said that
+he provided for the welfare of his brethren in faith "as a father
+provides for his children." His only daughter Betty (Peierche) van
+Geldern, urged by her family and in obedience to the promptings of her
+own heart, married Samson Heine, and became the mother of the poet.
+Heine himself has written much about his family,[95] particularly about
+his mother's brother. Of his paternal grandfather, he knew only what
+his father had told him, that he was "a little Jew with a great beard."
+On the whole, his education was strictly religious, but it was tainted
+with the deplorable inconsistency so frequently found in Jewish homes.
+Themselves heedless of religious ceremonies, parents exact from their
+children punctilious observance of minute regulations. Samson Heine was
+one of the Jews often met with in the beginning of this century who,
+lacking true culture, caught up some of the encyclopaedist phrases with
+which the atmosphere of the period was heavy. Heine describes his
+father's extraordinary buoyancy: "Always azure serenity and fanfares of
+good humor." The reproach is characteristic which he addressed to his
+son, when the latter was charged with atheism: "Dear son! Your mother is
+having you instructed in philosophy by Rector Schallmeier--that is her
+affair. As for me, I have no love for philosophy; it is nothing but
+superstition. I am a merchant, and need all my faculties for my
+business. You may philosophize as much as you please, only, I beg of
+you, don't tell any one what you think. It would harm my business, were
+people to discover that my son does not believe in God. Particularly the
+Jews would stop buying velvets from me, and they are honest folk, and
+pay promptly. And they are right in clinging to religion. Being your
+father, therefore older than you, I am more experienced, and you may
+take my word for it, atheism is a great sin."
+
+Two instances related by Joseph Neunzig, one of his playmates, show how
+rigorously Harry was compelled to observe religious forms in his
+paternal home. On a Saturday the children were out walking, when
+suddenly a fire broke out. The fire extinguishers came clattering up to
+the burning house, but as the flames were spreading rapidly, all
+bystanders were ordered to range themselves in line with the firemen.
+Harry refused point-blank to help: "I may not do it, and I will not,
+because it is _Shabbes_ to-day." But another time, when it jumped with
+his wishes, the eight year old boy managed to circumvent the Law. He was
+playing with some of his schoolmates in front of a neighbor's house. Two
+luscious bunches of grapes hung over the arbor almost down to the
+ground. The children noticed them, and with longing in their eyes passed
+on. Only Harry stood still before the grapes. Suddenly springing on the
+arbor, he bit one grape after another from the bunch. "Red-head Harry!"
+the children exclaimed horrified, "what are you doing?" "Nothing wrong,"
+said the little rogue. "We are forbidden to pluck them with our hands,
+but the law does not say anything about biting and eating." His
+education was not equable and not methodical. Extremely indulgent
+towards themselves, the parents were extremely severe in their treatment
+of their children. So arose the contradictions in the poet's character.
+He is one of those to whom childhood's religion is a bitter-sweet
+remembrance unto the end of days. Jewish sympathies were his
+inalienable heritage, and from this point of view his life must be
+considered.
+
+The poet's mother was of a different stamp from his father. Like most of
+the Jews in the Rhenish provinces, his father hailed Napoleon, the first
+legislator to establish equality between Jews and Christians, as a
+savior. His mother, on the other hand, was a good German patriot and a
+woman of culture, who exercised no inconsiderable influence upon the
+heart and mind of her son. Heine calls her a disciple of Rousseau, and
+his brother Maximilian tells us that Goethe was her favorite among
+authors.
+
+The boy was first taught by Rintelsohn at a Jewish school, but his
+knowledge of Hebrew seems to have been very limited. It is an
+interesting fact that his first poem, "Belshazzar," which he tells us he
+wrote at the age of sixteen, was inspired by his childhood's faith and
+is based upon Jewish history. Towards the end of his life he said to a
+friend:[96] "Do you know what inspired me? A few words in the Hebrew
+hymn, _Wayhee bechatsi halaila_, sung, as you know, on the first two
+evenings of the Passover. This hymn commemorates all momentous events in
+the history of the Jews that occurred at midnight; among them the death
+of the Babylonian tyrant, snatched away at night for desecrating the
+holy Temple vessels. The quoted words are the refrain of the hymn, which
+forms part of the Haggada, the curious medley of legends and songs,
+recited by pious Jews at the _Seder_." Ay, the Passover celebration,
+the _Seder_, remained in the poet's memory till the day of his death. He
+describes it still later in one of his finest works:[97] "Sweetly sad,
+joyous, earnest, sportive, and elfishly mysterious is that evening
+service, and the traditional chant with which the Haggada is recited by
+the head of the family, the listeners sometimes joining in as a chorus,
+is thrillingly tender, soothing as a mother's lullaby, yet impetuous and
+inspiring, so that Jews who long have drifted from the faith of their
+fathers, and have been pursuing the joys and dignities of the stranger,
+even they are stirred in their inmost parts when the old, familiar
+Passover sounds chance to fall upon their ears."
+
+My esteemed friend Rabbi Dr. Frank of Cologne has in his possession a
+Haggada, admirably illustrated, an heirloom at one time of the Van
+Geldern family, and it is not improbable that it was out of this
+artistic book that Heinrich Heine asked the _Mah nishtannah_, the
+traditional question of the _Seder_.
+
+Heine left home very young, and everybody knows that he was apprenticed
+to a merchant at Frankfort, and that his uncle Solomon's kindness
+enabled him to devote himself to jurisprudence. But this, of important
+bearing on our subject, is not a matter of common knowledge: _Always and
+everywhere, especially when he had least intercourse with Jews, Jewish
+elements appear most prominently in Heine's life._
+
+A merry, light-hearted student, he arrived in Berlin in 1821. A curious
+spectacle is presented by the Jewish Berlin of the day, dominated by the
+_salons_, and the women whose tact and scintillating wit made them the
+very centre of general society. The traditions of Rahel Levin, Henriette
+Herz, and other clever women, still held sway. But the state frustrated
+every attempt to introduce reforms into Judaism. Two great parties
+opposed each other more implacably than ever, the one clutching the old,
+the other yearning for the new. Out of the breach, salvation was in time
+to sprout. In the first quarter of our century, more than three-fourths
+of the Jewish population of Berlin embraced the ruling faith. This was
+the new, seditious element with which young Heine was thrown. His
+interesting personality attracted general notice. All circles welcomed
+him. The _salons_ did their utmost to make him one of their votaries.
+Romantic student clubs at Lutter's and Wegener's wine-rooms left nothing
+untried to lure him to their nocturnal carousals. Even Hegel, the
+philosopher, evinced marked interest in him. To whose allurements does
+he yield? Like his great ancestor, he goes to "his brethren languishing
+in captivity." Some of his young friends, Edward Gans, Leopold Zunz, and
+Moses Moser, had formed a "Society for Jewish Culture and Science," with
+Berlin as its centre, and Heinrich Heine became one of its most active
+members. He taught poor Jewish boys from Posen several hours a week in
+the school established by the society, and all questions that came up
+interested him. Joseph Lehmann took pleasure in repeatedly telling how
+seriously Heine applied himself to a review which he had undertaken to
+write on the compilation of a German prayer-book for Jewish women.
+
+To the Berlin period belongs his _Almansor_, a dramatic poem which has
+suffered the most contradictory criticism. In my opinion, it has usually
+been misunderstood. _Almansor_ is intelligible only if regarded from a
+Jewish point of view, and then it is seen to be the hymn of vengeance
+sung by Judaism oppressed. Substitute the names of a converted Berlin
+banker and his wife for "Aly" and "Suleima," Berlin under Frederick
+William III. for "Saragossa," the Berlin Thiergarten for the "Forest,"
+and the satire stands revealed. The following passage is characteristic
+of the whole poem:[98]
+
+    "Go not to Aly's castle! Flee
+    That noxious house where new faith breeds.
+    With honeyed accents there thy heart
+    Is wrenched from out thy bosom's depths,
+    A snake bestowed on thee instead.
+    Hot drops of lead on thy poor head
+    Are poured, and nevermore thy brain
+    From madding pain shall rid itself.
+    Another name thou must assume,
+    That if thy angel warning calls,
+    And calls thee by thy olden name,
+    He call in vain."
+
+Such were Heine's views at that time, and with them he went to
+Goettingen. There, though Jewish society was entirely lacking, and
+correspondence with his Berlin friends desultory, his Jewish interests
+grew stronger than ever. There, inspired by the genius of Jewish
+history, he composed his _Rabbi von Bacharach_, the work which, by his
+own confession, he nursed with unspeakable love, and which, he fondly
+hoped, would "become an immortal book, a perpetual lamp in the dome of
+God." Again Jewish conversions, a burning question of the day, were made
+prominent. Heine's solution is beyond a cavil enlightened. The words are
+truly remarkable with which Sarah, the beautiful Jewess, declines the
+services of the gallant knight:[99] "Noble sir! Would you be my knight,
+then you must meet nations in a combat in which small praise and less
+honor are to be won. And would you be rash enough to wear my colors,
+then you must sew yellow wheels upon your mantle, or bind a blue-striped
+scarf about your breast. For these are my colors, the colors of my
+house, named Israel, the unhappy house mocked at on the highways and the
+byways by the children of fortune."
+
+Another illustration of Heine's views at that time of his life, and with
+those views he one day went to the neighboring town of Heiligenstadt--to
+be baptized.
+
+Who can sound the depths of a poet's soul? Who can divine what Heine's
+thoughts, what his hopes were, when he took this step? His letters and
+confessions of that period must be read to gain an idea of his inner
+world. On one occasion he wrote to Moser, to whom he laid bare his most
+intimate thoughts:[100] "Mentioning Japan reminds me to recommend to you
+Golovnin's 'Journey to Japan.' Perhaps I may send you a poem to-day from
+the _Rabbi_, in the writing of which I unfortunately have been
+interrupted again. I beg that you speak to nobody about this poem, or
+about what I tell you of my private affairs. A young Spaniard, at heart
+a Jew, is beguiled to baptism by the arrogance bred of luxury. He sends
+the translation of an Arabic poem to young Yehuda Abarbanel, with whom
+he is corresponding. Perhaps he shrinks from directly confessing to his
+friend an action hardly to be called admirable.... Pray do not think
+about this."
+
+And the poem? It is this:
+
+    TO EDOM
+
+    "Each with each has borne, in patience
+      Longer than a thousand year--
+    _Thou_ dost tolerate my breathing,
+      _I_ thy ravings calmly hear.
+
+    Sometimes only, in the darkness,
+      Thou didst have sensations odd,
+    And thy paws, caressing, gentle,
+      Crimson turned with my rich blood.
+
+    Now our friendship firmer groweth,
+      Daily keeps on growing straight.
+    I myself incline to madness,
+      Soon, in faith, I'll be thy mate."
+
+A few weeks later he writes to Moser in a still more bitter strain: "I
+know not what to say. Cohen assures me that Gans is preaching
+Christianity, and trying to convert the children of Israel. If this is
+conviction, he is a fool; if hypocrisy, a knave. I shall not give up
+loving him, but I confess that I should have been better pleased to hear
+that Gans had been stealing silver spoons. That you, dear Moser, share
+Gans's opinions, I cannot believe, though Cohen assures me of it, and
+says that you told him so yourself. I should be sorry, if my own baptism
+were to strike you more favorably. I give you my word of honor--if our
+laws allowed stealing silver spoons, I should not have been baptized."
+Again he writes mournfully: "As, according to Solon, no man may be
+called happy, so none should be called honest, before his death. I am
+glad that David Friedlaender and Bendavid are old, and will soon die.
+Then we shall be certain of them, and the reproach of having had not a
+single immaculate representative cannot be attached to our time. Pardon
+my ill humor. It is directed mainly against myself."
+
+"Upon how true a basis the myth of the wandering Jew rests!" he says in
+another letter. "In the lonely wooded valley, the mother tells her
+children the grewsome tale. Terror-stricken the little ones cower close
+to the hearth. It is night ... the postilion blows his horn ... Jew
+traders are journeying to the fair at Leipsic. We, the heroes of the
+legend, are not aware of our part in it. The white beard, whose tips
+time has rejuvenated, no barber can remove." In those days he wrote the
+following poem, published posthumously:[101]
+
+    TO AN APOSTATE
+
+    "Out upon youth's holy flame!
+      Oh! how quickly it burns low!
+    Now, thy heated blood grown tame,
+      Thou agreest to love thy foe!
+
+    And thou meekly grovell'st low
+      At the cross which thou didst spurn;
+    Which not many weeks ago,
+      Thou didst wish to crush and burn.
+
+    Fie! that comes from books untold--
+      There are Schlegel, Haller, Burke--
+    Yesterday a hero bold,
+      Thou to-day dost scoundrel's work."
+
+The usual explanation of Heine's formal adoption of Christianity is that
+he wished to obtain a government position in Prussia, and make himself
+independent of his rich uncle. As no other offers itself, we are forced
+to accept it as correct. He was fated to recognize speedily that he had
+gained nothing by baptism. A few weeks after settling in Hamburg he
+wrote: "I repent me of having been baptized. I cannot see that I have
+bettered my position. On the contrary, I have had nothing but
+disappointment and bad luck." Despite his baptism, his enemies called
+him "the Jew," and at heart he never did become a Christian.
+
+At Hamburg, in those days, Heine was repeatedly drawn into the conflict
+between reform and orthodoxy, between the Temple and the synagogue. His
+uncle Solomon Heine was a warm supporter of the Temple, but Heine, with
+characteristic inconsistency, admired the old rigorous rabbinical system
+more than the modern reform movement, which often called forth his
+ridicule. Yet, at bottom, his interest in the latter was strong, as it
+continued to be also in the Berlin educational society, and its "Journal
+for the Science of Judaism," of which, however, only three numbers were
+issued. He once wrote from Hamburg to his friend Moser: "Last Saturday I
+was at the Temple, and had the pleasure with my own ears to hear Dr.
+Salomon rail against baptized Jews, and insinuate that they are tempted
+to become faithless to the religion of their fathers only by the hope of
+preferment. I assure you, the sermon was good, and some day I intend to
+call upon the man. Cohen is doing the generous thing by me. I take my
+_Shabbes_ dinner with him; he heaps fiery _Kugel_ upon my head, and
+contritely I eat the sacred national dish, which has done more for the
+preservation of Judaism than all three numbers of the Journal. To be
+sure, it has had a better sale. If I had time, I would write a pretty
+little Jewish letter to Mrs. Zunz. I am getting to be a thoroughbred
+Christian; I am sponging on the rich Jews."
+
+They who find nothing but jest in this letter, do not understand Heine.
+A bitter strain of disgust, of unsparing self-denunciation, runs through
+it--the feelings that dictate the jests and accusations of his
+_Reisebilder_. This was the period of Heine's best creations: for as
+such his "Book of Songs," _Buch der Lieder_, and his _Reisebilder_ must
+be considered. With a sudden bound he leapt into greatness and
+popularity.
+
+The reader may ask me to point out in these works the features to be
+taken as the expression of the genius of the Jewish race. To understand
+our poet, we must keep in mind that _Heinrich Heine was a Jew born in
+the days of romanticism in a town on the Rhine_. His intellect and his
+sensuousness, of Jewish origin, were wedded with Rhenish fancy and
+blitheness, and over these qualities the pale moonshine of romanticism
+shed its glamour.
+
+The most noteworthy characteristic of his writings, prose and verse, is
+his extraordinary subjectivity, pushing the poet's _ego_ into the
+foreground. With light, graceful touch, he demonstrates the possibility
+of unrestrained self-expression in an artistic guise. The boldness and
+energy with which "he gave voice to his hidden self" were so novel, so
+surprising, that his melodies at once awoke an echo. This subjectivity
+is his Jewish birthright. It is Israel's ingrained combativeness, for
+more than a thousand years the genius of its literature, which
+throughout reveals a predilection for abrupt contrasts, and is studded
+with unmistakable expressions of strong individuality. By virtue of his
+subjectivity, which never permits him to surrender himself
+unconditionally, the Jew establishes a connection between his _ego_ and
+whatever subject he treats of. "He does not sink his own identity, and
+lose himself in the depths of the cosmos, nor roam hither and thither in
+the limitless space of the world of thought. He dives down to search for
+pearls at the bottom of the sea, or rises aloft to gain a bird's-eye
+view of the whole. The world encloses him as the works of a clock are
+held in a case. His _ego_ is the hammer, and there is no sound unless,
+swinging rhythmically, itself touches the sides, now softly, now
+boldly." Not content to yield to an authority which would suppress his
+freedom of action, he traverses the world, and compels it to promote the
+development of his energetic nature. To these peculiarities of his race
+Heine fell heir--to the generous traits growing out of marked
+individuality, its grooves deepened by a thousand years of martyrdom, as
+well as to the petty faults following in the wake of excessive
+self-consciousness; which have furnished adversaries of the Jews with
+texts and weapons.
+
+This subjectivity, traceable in his language and in his ancient
+literature, it is that unfits the Jew for objective, philosophic
+investigation. It is, moreover, responsible for that energetic
+self-assertiveness for which the Aramaean language has coined the word
+_chutspa_, only partially rendered by arrogance. Possibly it is the root
+of another quality which Heine owes to his Jewish extraction--his wit
+Heine's scintillations are composed of a number of elements--of English
+humor, French sparkle, German irony, and Jewish wit, all of which,
+saving the last, have been analyzed by the critics. Proneness to
+censure, to criticism, and discussion, is the concomitant of keen
+intellect given to scrutiny and analysis. From the buoyancy of the
+Jewish disposition, and out of the force of Jewish subjectivity, arose
+Jewish wit, whose first manifestations can be traced in the Talmud and
+the Midrash. Its appeals are directed to both fancy and heart. It
+delights in antithesis, and, as was said above, is intimately connected
+with Jewish subjectivity. Its distinguishing characteristic is the
+desire to have its superiority acknowledged without wounding the
+feelings of the sensitive, and an explanation of its peculiarity can be
+found in the sad fate of the Jews. The heroes of Shakespere's tragedies
+are full of irony. Frenzy at its maddest pitch breaks out into merry
+witticisms and scornful laughter. So it was with the Jews. The waves of
+oppression, forever dashing over them, strung their nerves to the point
+of reaction. The world was closed to them in hostility. There was
+nothing for them to do but laugh--laugh with forced merriment from
+behind prison bars, and out of the depths of their heartrending
+resignation. Complaints it was possible to suppress, but no one could
+forbid their laughter, ghastly though it was. M. G. Saphir, one of the
+best exponents of Jewish wit, justly said: "The Jews seized the weapon
+of wit, since they were interdicted the use of every other sort of
+weapon." Whatever humdrum life during the middle ages offered them, had
+to submit to the scalpel of their wit.
+
+As a rule, Jewish wit springs from a lively appreciation of what is
+ingenious. A serious beginning suddenly and unexpectedly takes a merry,
+jocose turn, producing in Heine's elegiac passages the discordant
+endings so shocking to sensitive natures. But it is an injustice to the
+poet to attribute these rapid transitions to an artist's vain fancy. His
+satire is directed against the ideals of his generation, not against the
+ideal. Harsh, discordant notes do not express the poet's real
+disposition. They are exaggerated, romantic feeling, for which he
+himself, led by an instinctively pure conception of the good and the
+beautiful, which is opposed alike to sickly sentimentality and jarring
+dissonance, sought the outlet of irony.
+
+Heine's humor, as I intimated above, springs from his recognition of the
+tragedy of life. It is an expression of the irreconcilable difference
+between the real and the ideal, of the perception that the world,
+despite its grandeur and its beauty, is a world of folly and
+contradictions; that whatever exists and is formed, bears within itself
+the germ of death and corruption; that the Lord of all creation himself
+is but the shuttlecock of irresistible, absolute force, compelling the
+unconditional surrender of subject and object.
+
+Humor, then, grows out of the contemplation of the tragedy of life. But
+it does not stop there. If the world is so pitiful, so fragile, it is
+not worth a tear, not worth hatred, or contempt. The only sensible
+course is to accept it as it is, as a nothing, an absolute
+contradiction, calling forth ridicule. At this point, a sense of tragedy
+is transformed into demoniac glee. No more is this a permanent state.
+The humorist is too impulsive to accept it as final. Moreover, he feels
+that with the world he has annihilated himself. In the phantom realm
+into which he has turned the world, his laughter reverberates with
+ghostlike hollowness. Recognizing that the world meant more to him than
+he was willing to admit, and that apart from it he has no being, he
+again yields to it, and embraces it with increased passion and ardor.
+But scarcely has the return been effected, scarcely has he begun to
+realize the beauties and perfections of the world, when sadness,
+suffering, pain, and torture, obtrude themselves, and the old
+overwhelming sense of life's tragedy takes possession of him. This train
+of thought, plainly discernible in Heine's poems, he also owes to his
+descent. A mind given to such speculations naturally seeks poetic solace
+in _Weltschmerz_, which, as everybody knows, is still another heirloom
+of his race.
+
+These are the most important characteristics, some admirable, some
+reprehensible, which Heine has derived from his race, and they are the
+very ones that raised opponents against him, one of the most interesting
+and prominent among them being the German philosopher Arthur
+Schopenhauer. His two opinions on Heine, expressed at almost the same
+time, are typical of the antagonism aroused by the poet. In his book,
+"The World as Will and Idea,"[102] he writes: "Heine is a true humorist
+in his _Romanzero_. Back of all his quips and gibes lies deep
+seriousness, _ashamed_ to speak out frankly." At the same time he says
+in his journal, published posthumously: "Although a buffoon, Heine has
+genius, and the distinguishing mark of genius, ingenuousness. On close
+examination, however, his ingenuousness turns out to have its root in
+Jewish shamelessness; for he, too, belongs to the nation of which Riemer
+says that it knows neither shame nor grief."
+
+The contradiction between the two judgments is too obvious to need
+explanation; it is an interesting illustration of the common experience
+that critics go astray when dealing with Heine.
+
+
+II
+
+When, as Heine puts it, "a great hand solicitously beckoned," he left
+his German fatherland in his prime, and went to Paris. In its sociable
+atmosphere, he felt more comfortable, more free, than in his own home,
+where the Jew, the author, the liberal, had encountered only prejudices.
+The removal to Paris was an inauspicious change for the poet, and that
+he remained there until his end was still less calculated to redound to
+his good fortune. He gave much to France, and Paris did little during
+his life to pay off the debt. The charm exercised upon every stranger by
+Babylon on the Seine, wrought havoc in his character and his work, and
+gives us the sole criterion for the rest of his days. Yet, despite his
+devotion to Paris, home-sickness, yearning for Germany, was henceforth
+the dominant note of his works. At that time Heine considered Judaism "a
+long lost cause." Of the God of Judaism, the philosophical
+demonstrations of Hegel and his disciples had robbed him; his knowledge
+of doctrinal Judaism was a minimum; and his keen race-feeling, his
+historical instinct, was forced into the background by other sympathies
+and antipathies. He was at that time harping upon the long cherished
+idea that men can be divided into _Hellenists_ and _Nazarenes_. Himself,
+for instance, he looked upon as a well-fed Hellenist, while Boerne was a
+Nazarene, an ascetic. It is interesting, and bears upon our subject,
+that most of the verdicts, views, and witticisms which Heine fathers
+upon Boerne in the famous imaginary conversation in the Frankfort
+_Judengasse_, might have been uttered by Heine himself. In fact, many of
+them are repeated, partly in the same or in similar words, in the
+jottings found after his death.
+
+This conversation is represented as having taken place during the Feast
+of _Chanukka_. Heine who, as said above, took pleasure at that time in
+impersonating a Hellenist, gets Boerne to explain to him that this feast
+was instituted to commemorate the victory of the valiant Maccabees over
+the king of Syria. After expatiating on the heroism of the Maccabees,
+and the cowardice of modern Jews, Boerne says:[103]
+
+"Baptism is the order of the day among the wealthy Jews. The evangel
+vainly announced to the poor of Judaea now flourishes among the rich. Its
+acceptance is self-deception, if not a lie, and as hypocritical
+Christianity contrasts sharply with the old Adam, who will crop out,
+these people lay themselves open to unsparing ridicule.--In the streets
+of Berlin I saw former daughters of Israel wear crosses about their
+necks longer than their noses, reaching to their very waists. They
+carried evangelical prayer books, and were discussing the magnificent
+sermon just heard at Trinity church. One asked the other where she had
+gone to communion, and all the while their breath smelt. Still more
+disgusting was the sight of dirty, bearded, malodorous Polish Jews,
+hailing from Polish sewers, saved for heaven by the Berlin Society for
+the Conversion of Jews, and in turn preaching Christianity in their
+slovenly jargon. Such Polish vermin should certainly be baptized with
+cologne instead of ordinary water."
+
+This is to be taken as an expression of Heine's own feelings, which come
+out plainly, when, "persistently loyal to Jewish customs," he eats,
+"with good appetite, yes, with enthusiasm, with devotion, with
+conviction," _Shalet_, the famous Jewish dish, about which he says:
+"This dish is delicious, and it is a subject for painful regret that
+the Church, indebted to Judaism for so much that is good, has failed to
+introduce _Shalet_. This should be her object in the future. If ever she
+falls on evil times, if ever her most sacred symbols lose their virtue,
+then the Church will resort to _Shalet_, and the faithless peoples will
+crowd into her arms with renewed appetite. At all events the Jews will
+then join the Church from conviction, for it is clear that it is only
+_Shalet_ that keeps them in the old covenant. Boerne assures me that
+renegades who have accepted the new dispensation feel a sort of
+home-sickness for the synagogue when they but smell _Shalet_, so that
+_Shalet_ may be called the Jewish _ranz des vaches_."
+
+Heine forgot that in another place he had uttered this witticism in his
+own name. He long continued to take peculiar pleasure in his dogmatic
+division of humanity into two classes, the lean and the fat, or rather,
+the class that continually gets thinner, and the class which, beginning
+with modest dimensions, gradually attains to corpulency. Only too soon
+the poet was made to understand the radical falseness of his definition.
+A cold February morning of 1848 brought him a realizing sense of his
+fatal mistake. Sick and weary, the poet was taking his last walk on the
+boulevards, while the mob of the revolution surged in the streets of
+Paris. Half blind, half paralyzed, leaning heavily on his cane, he
+sought to extricate himself from the clamorous crowd, and finally found
+refuge in the Louvre, almost empty during the days of excitement. With
+difficulty he dragged himself to the hall of the gods and goddesses of
+antiquity, and suddenly came face to face with the ideal of beauty, the
+smiling, witching Venus of Milo, whose charms have defied time and
+mutilation. Surprised, moved, almost terrified, he reeled to a chair,
+tears, hot and bitter, coursing down his cheeks. A smile was hovering on
+the beautiful lips of the goddess, parted as if by living breath, and at
+her feet a luckless victim was writhing. A single moment revealed a
+world of misery. Driven by a consciousness of his fate, Heine wrote in
+his "Confessions": "In May of last year I was forced to take to my bed,
+and since then I have not risen. I confess frankly that meanwhile a
+great change has taken place in me. I no longer am a fat Hellenist, the
+freest man since Goethe, a jolly, somewhat corpulent Hellenist, with a
+contemptuous smile for lean Jews--I am only a poor Jew, sick unto death,
+a picture of gaunt misery, an unhappy being."
+
+This startling change was coincident with the first symptoms of his
+disease, and kept pace with it. The pent-up forces of faith pressed to
+his bedside; religious conversations, readings from the Bible,
+reminiscences of his youth, of his Jewish friends, filled his time
+almost entirely. Alfred Meissner has culled many interesting data from
+his conversations with the poet. For instance, on one occasion Heine
+breaks out with:[104]
+
+"Queer people this! Downtrodden for thousands of years, weeping always,
+suffering always, abandoned always by its God, yet clinging to Him
+tenaciously, loyally, as no other under the sun. Oh, if martyrdom,
+patience, and faith in despite of trial, can confer a patent of
+nobility, then this people is noble beyond many another.--It would have
+been absurd and petty, if, as people accuse me, I had been ashamed of
+being a Jew. Yet it were equally ludicrous for me to call myself a
+Jew.--As I instinctively hold up to unending scorn whatever is evil,
+timeworn, absurd, false, and ludicrous, so my nature leads me to
+appreciate the sublime, to admire what is great, and to extol every
+living force." Heine had spoken so much with deep earnestness. Jestingly
+he added: "Dear friend, if little Weill should visit us, you shall have
+another evidence of my reverence for hoary Mosaism. Weill formerly was
+precentor at the synagogue. He has a ringing tenor, and chants Judah's
+desert songs according to the old traditions, ranging from the simple
+monotone to the exuberance of Old Testament cadences. My wife, who has
+not the slightest suspicion that I am a Jew, is not a little astonished
+by this peculiar musical wail, this trilling and cadencing. When Weill
+sang for the first time, Minka, the poodle, crawled into hiding under
+the sofa, and Cocotte, the polly, made an attempt to throttle himself
+between the bars of his cage. 'M. Weill, M. Weill!' Mathilde cried
+terror-stricken, 'pray do not carry the joke too far.' But Weill
+continued, and the dear girl turned to me, and asked imploringly:
+'Henri, pray tell me what sort of songs these are.' 'They are our
+German folk songs,' said I, and I have obstinately stuck to that
+explanation."
+
+Meissner reports an amusing conversation with Madame Mathilde about the
+friends of the family, whom the former by their peculiarities recognized
+as Jews. "What!" cried Mathilde, "Jews? They are Jews?" "Of course,
+Alexander Weill is a Jew, he told me so himself;--why he was going to be
+a rabbi." "But the rest, all the rest? For instance, there is Abeles,
+the name sounds so thoroughly German." "Rather say it sounds Greek,"
+answered Meissner. "Yet I venture to insist that our friend Abeles has
+as little German as Greek blood in his veins." "Very well! But
+Jeiteles--Kalisch--Bamberg--Are they, too.... O no, you are mistaken,
+not one is a Jew," cried Mathilde. "You will never make me believe that.
+Presently you will make out Cohn to be a Jew. But Cohn is related to
+Heine, and Heine is a Protestant." So Meissner found out that Heine had
+never told his wife anything about his descent. He gravely answered:
+"You are right. With regard to Cohn I was of course mistaken. Cohn is
+certainly not a Jew."
+
+These are mere jests. In point of fact, his friends' reports on the
+religious attitude of the Heine of that period are of the utmost
+interest. He once said to Ludwig Kalisch, who had told him that the
+world was all agog over his conversion:[105] "I do not make a secret of
+my Jewish allegiance, to which I have not returned, because I never
+abjured it. I was not baptized from aversion to Judaism, and my
+professions of atheism were never serious. My former friends, the
+Hegelians, have turned out scamps. Human misery is too great for men to
+do without faith."
+
+The completest picture of the transformation, truer than any given in
+letters, reports, or reminiscences, is in his last two productions, the
+_Romanzero_ and the "Confessions." There can be no more explicit
+description of the poet's conversion than is contained in these
+"confessions." During his sickness he sought a palliative for his
+pains--in the Bible. With a melancholy smile his mind reverted to the
+memories of his youth, to the heroism which is the underlying principle
+of Judaism. The Psalmist's consolations, the elevating principles laid
+down in the Pentateuch, exerted a powerful attraction upon him, and
+filled his soul with exalted thoughts, shaped into words in the
+"Confessions":[106] "Formerly I felt little affection for Moses,
+probably because the Hellenic spirit was dominant within me, and I could
+not pardon the Jewish lawgiver for his intolerance of images, and every
+sort of plastic representation. I failed to see that despite his hostile
+attitude to art, Moses was himself a great artist, gifted with the true
+artist's spirit. Only in him, as in his Egyptian neighbors, the artistic
+instinct was exercised solely upon the colossal and the indestructible.
+But unlike the Egyptians he did not shape his works of art out of brick
+or granite. His pyramids were built of men, his obelisks hewn out of
+human material. A feeble race of shepherds he transformed into a people
+bidding defiance to the centuries--a great, eternal, holy people, God's
+people, an exemplar to all other peoples, the prototype of mankind: he
+created Israel. With greater justice than the Roman poet could this
+artist, the son of Amram and Jochebed the midwife, boast of having
+erected a monument more enduring than brass.
+
+As for the artist, so I lacked reverence for his work, the Jews,
+doubtless on account of my Greek predilections, antagonistic to Judaic
+asceticism. My love for Hellas has since declined. Now I understand that
+the Greeks were only beautiful youths, while the Jews have always been
+men, powerful, inflexible men, not only in early times, to-day, too, in
+spite of eighteen hundred years of persecution and misery. I have learnt
+to appreciate them, and were pride of birth not absurd in a champion of
+the revolution and its democratic principles, the writer of these
+leaflets would boast that his ancestors belonged to the noble house of
+Israel, that he is a descendant of those martyrs to whom the world owes
+God and morality, and who have fought and bled on every battlefield of
+thought."
+
+In view of such avowals, Heine's return to Judaism is an indubitable
+fact, and when one of his friends anxiously inquired about his relation
+to God, he could well answer with a smile: _Dieu me pardonnera; c'est
+son metier._ In those days Heine made his will, his true, genuine will,
+to have been the first to publish which the present writer will always
+consider the distinction of his life. The introduction reads: "I die in
+the belief in one God, Creator of heaven and earth, whose mercy I
+supplicate in behalf of my immortal soul. I regret that in my writings I
+sometimes spoke of sacred things with levity, due not so much to my own
+inclination, as to the spirit of my age. If unwittingly I have offended
+against good usage and morality, which constitute the true essence of
+all monotheistic religions, may God and men forgive me."
+
+With this confession on his lips Heine passed away, dying in the thick
+of the fight, his very bier haunted by the spirits of antagonism and
+contradiction....
+
+    "Greek joy in life, belief in God of Jew,
+    And twining in and out like arabesques,
+    Ivy tendrils gently clasp the two."
+
+In Heine's character, certainly, there were sharp contrasts. Now we
+behold him a Jew, now a Christian, now a Hellenist, now a romanticist;
+to-day laughing, to-morrow weeping, to-day the prophet of the modern
+era, to-morrow the champion of tradition. Who knows the man? Yet who
+that steps within the charmed circle of his life can resist the
+temptation to grapple with the enigma?
+
+One of the best known of his poems is the plaint:
+
+    "Mass for me will not be chanted,
+      _Kadosh_ not be said,
+    Naught be sung, and naught recited,
+      Round my dying bed."
+
+The poet's prophecy has not come true. As this tribute has in spirit
+been laid upon his grave, so always thousands will devote kindly thought
+to him, recalling in gentleness how he struggled and suffered, wrestled
+and aspired; how, at the dawn of the new day, enthusiastically
+proclaimed by him, his spirit fled aloft to regions where doubts are set
+at rest, hopes fulfilled, and visions made reality.
+
+
+
+
+THE MUSIC OF THE SYNAGOGUE[107]
+
+
+Ladies and Gentlemen:--Let the emotions aroused by the notes of the
+great masters, now dying away upon the air, continue to reverberate in
+your souls. More forcibly and more eloquently than my weak words, they
+express the thoughts and the feelings appropriate to this solemn
+occasion.
+
+A festival like ours has rarely been celebrated in Israel. For nearly
+two thousand years the muse of Jewish melody was silent; during the
+whole of that period, a new chord was but seldom won from the unused
+lyre. The Talmud[108] has a quaint tale on the subject: Higros the
+Levite living at the time of the decadence of Israel's nationality, was
+the last skilled musician, and he refused to teach his art. When he sang
+his exquisite melodies, touching his mouth with his thumb, and striking
+the strings with his fingers, it is said that his priestly mates,
+transported by the magic power of his art, fell prostrate, and wept.
+Under the Oriental trappings of this tale is concealed regretful anguish
+over the decay of old Hebrew song. The altar at Jerusalem was
+demolished, and the songs of Zion, erst sung by the Levitical choirs
+under the leadership of the Korachides, were heard no longer. The
+silence was unbroken, until, in our day, a band of gifted men disengaged
+the old harps from the willows, and once more lured the ancient melodies
+from their quavering strings.
+
+Towering head and shoulders above most of the group of restorers is he
+in whose honor we are assembled, to whom we bring greeting and
+congratulation. To you, then, Herr Lewandowski, I address myself to
+offer you the deep-felt gratitude and the cordial wishes of your
+friends, of the Berlin community, and, I may add, of the whole of
+Israel. You were appointed for large tasks--large tasks have you
+successfully performed. At a time when Judaism was at a low ebb, only
+scarcely discernible indications promising a brighter future, Providence
+sent you to occupy a guide's position in the most important, the
+largest, and the most intelligent Jewish community of Germany. For fifty
+years your zeal, your diligence, your faithfulness, your devotion, your
+affectionate reverence for our past, and your exalted gifts, have graced
+the office. Were testimony unto your gifts and character needed, it
+would be given by this day's celebration, proving, as it does, that your
+brethren have understood the underlying thought of your activities, have
+grasped their bearing upon Jewish development, and have appreciated
+their influence.
+
+You have remodelled the divine service of the Jewish synagogue,
+superadding elements of devotion and sacredness. Under your touch old
+lays have clothed themselves with a modern garb--a new rhythm vibrates
+through our historic melodies, keener strength in the familiar words,
+heightened dignity in the cherished songs. Two generations and all parts
+of the world have hearkened to your harmonies, responding to them with
+tears of joy or sorrow, with feelings stirred from the recesses of the
+heart. To your music have listened entranced the boy and the girl on the
+day of declaring their allegiance to the covenant of the fathers; the
+youth and the maiden in life's most solemn hour; men and women in all
+the sacred moments of the year, on days of mourning and of festivity.
+
+A quarter of a century ago, when you celebrated the end of twenty-five
+years of useful work, a better man stood here, and spoke to you. Leopold
+Zunz on that occasion said to you: "Old thoughts have been transformed
+by you into modern emotions, and long stored words seasoned with your
+melodies have made delicious food."
+
+This is your share in the revival of Jewish poesy, and what you have
+resuscitated, and remodelled, and re-created, will endure, echoing and
+re-echoing through all the lands. In you Higros the Levite has been
+restored to us. But your melodies will never sink into oblivious
+silence. They have been carried by an honorable body of disciples to
+distant lands, beyond the ocean, to communities in the remote countries
+of civilization. Thus they have become the perpetual inheritance of the
+congregation of Jacob, the people that has ever loved and wooed music,
+only direst distress succeeding in flinging the pall of silence over
+song and melody.
+
+Holy Writ places the origin of music in the primitive days of man,
+tersely pointing out, at the same time, music's conciliatory charms: it
+is the descendant of Cain, the fratricide, a son of Lemech, the slayer
+of a man to his own wounding, who is said to be the "father of all such
+as play on the harp and guitar" (_Kinnor_ and _Ugab_). Another of
+Lemech's sons was the first artificer in every article of copper and
+iron, the inventor of weapons of war, as the former was the inventor of
+stringed instruments. Both used brass, the one to sing, the other to
+fight. So music sprang from sorrow and combat. Song and roundelay,
+timbrels and harp, accompanied our forefathers on their wanderings, and
+preceded the armed men into battle. So, too, the returning victor was
+greeted, and in the Temple on Moriah's crest, joyful songs of gratitude
+extolled the grace of the Lord. From the harp issued the psalm dedicated
+to the glory of God--love of art gave rise to the psalter, a song-book
+for the nations, and its author David may be called the founder of the
+national and Temple music of the ancient Hebrews. With his song, he
+banished the evil spirit from Saul's soul; with his skill on the
+psaltery, he defeated his enemies, and he led the jubilant chorus in the
+Holy City singing to the honor and glory of the Most High.
+
+Compare the Hebrew and the Hellenic music of ancient times: Orpheus with
+his music charms wild beasts; David's subdues demons. By means of
+Amphion's lyre, living walls raise themselves; Israel's cornets make
+level the ramparts of Jericho. Arion's melodies lure dolphins from the
+sea; Hebrew music infuses into the prophet's disciples the spirit of the
+Lord. These are the wondrous effects of music in Israel and in Hellas,
+the foremost representatives of ancient civilization. Had the one united
+with the other, what celestial harmonies might have resulted! But later,
+in the time of Macedonian imperialism, when Alexandria and Jerusalem
+met, the one stood for enervated paganism, the other for a Judaism of
+compromise, and a union of such tones produces no harmonious chords.
+
+But little is known of the ancient Hebrew music of the Temple, of the
+singers, the songs, the melodies, and the instruments. The Hebrews had
+songs and instrumental music on all festive, solemn occasions,
+particularly during the divine service. At their national celebrations,
+in their homes, at their diversions, even on their journeys and their
+pilgrimages to the sanctuary, their hymns were at once religious,
+patriotic, and social.[109] They had the viol and the cithara, flutes,
+cymbals, and castanets, and, if our authorities interpret correctly, an
+organ (_magrepha_), whose volume of sound surpassed description. When,
+on the Day of Atonement, its strains pealed through the chambers of the
+Temple, they were heard in the whole of Jerusalem, and all the people
+bowed in humble adoration before the Lord of hosts. The old music ceased
+with the overthrow of the Jewish state. The Levites hung their harps on
+the willows of Babylon's streams, and every entreaty for the "words of
+song" was met by the reproachful inquiry: "How should we sing the song
+of the Lord on the soil of the stranger?" Higros the Levite was the last
+of Israelitish tone-artists.
+
+Israel set out on his fateful wanderings, his unparalleled pilgrimage,
+through the lands and the centuries, along an endless, thorny path,
+drenched with blood, watered with tears, across nations and thrones,
+lonely, terrible, sublime with the stern sublimity of tragic scenes.
+They are not the sights and experiences to inspire joyous songs--melody
+is muffled by terror. Only lamentation finds voice, an endless,
+oppressive, anxious wail, sounding adown, through two thousand years,
+like a long-drawn sigh, reverberating in far-reaching echoes: "How long,
+O Lord, how long!" and "When shall a redeemer arise for this people?"
+These elegiac refrains Israel never wearies of repeating on all his
+journeyings. Occasionally a fitful gleam of sunlight glides into the
+crowded Jewish quarters, and at once a more joyous note is heard, rising
+triumphant above the doleful plaint, a note which asserts itself
+exultingly on the celebration in memory of the Maccabean heroes, on the
+days of _Purim_, at wedding banquets, at the love-feasts of the pious
+brotherhood. This fusion of melancholy and of rejoicing is the keynote
+of mediaeval Jewish music growing out of the grotesque contrasts of
+Jewish history. Yet, despite its romantic woe, it is informed with the
+spirit of a remote past, making it the legitimate offspring of ancient
+Hebrew music, whose characteristics, to be sure, we arrive at only by
+guesswork. Of that mediaeval music of ours, the poet's words are true:
+"It rejoices so pathetically, it laments so joyfully."
+
+Whoever has heard, will never forget Israel's melodies, breaking forth
+into rejoicing, then cast down with sadness: flinging out their notes to
+the skies, then sinking into an abyss of grief: now elated, now
+oppressed; now holding out hope, now moaning forth sorrow and pain. They
+convey the whole of Judah's history--his glorious past, his mournful
+present, his exalted future promised by God. As their tones flood our
+soul, a succession of visions passes before our mental view: the Temple
+in all its unexampled splendor, the exultant chorus of Levites, the
+priests discharging their holy office, the venerable forms of the
+patriarchs, the lawgiver-guide of the people, prophets with uplifted
+finger of warning, worthy rabbis, pale-faced martyrs of the middle ages;
+but the melodies conjuring before our minds all these shadowy figures
+have but one burden: "How should we sing the song of the Lord on the
+soil of the stranger?"
+
+That is the ever-recurring _motif_ of the Jewish music of the middle
+ages. But the blending of widely different emotions is not favorable in
+the creation of melody. Secular occurrences set their seal upon
+religious music, of which some have so high a conception as to call it
+one of the seven liberal arts, or even to extol it beyond poetry. Jacob
+Levi of Mayence (Maharil), living at the beginning of the fifteenth
+century, is considered the founder of German synagogue music, but his
+productions remained barren of poetic and devotional results. He drew
+his best subjects from alien sources. At the time of the Italian
+Renaissance, music had so firmly established itself in the appreciation
+of the people that a preacher, Judah Muscato, devoted the first of his
+celebrated sermons to music, assigning to it a high mission among the
+arts. He interpreted the legend of David's AEolian harp as a beautiful
+allegory. Basing his explanation on a verse in the Psalms, he showed
+that it symbolizes a spiritual experience of the royal bard. Another
+writer, Abraham ben David Portaleone, found the times still riper; he
+could venture to write a theory of music, as taught him by his teachers,
+Samuel Arkevolti and Menahem Lonsano, both of whom had strongly opposed
+the use of certain secular melodies then current in Italy, Germany,
+France, and Turkey for religious songs. Among Jewish musicians in the
+latter centuries of the middle ages, the most prominent was Solomon
+Rossi. He, too, failed to exercise influence on the shaping of Jewish
+music, which more and more delighted in grotesqueness and aberrations
+from good taste. The origin of synagogue melodies was attributed to
+remoter and remoter periods; the most soulful hymns were adapted to
+frivolous airs. Later still, at a time when German music had risen to
+its zenith, when Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven flourished,
+the Jewish strolling musician _Klesmer_, a mendicant in the world of
+song as in the world of finance, was wandering through the provinces
+with his two mates.
+
+Suddenly a new era dawned for Israel, too. The sun of humanity sent a
+few of its rays into the squalid Ghetto. Its walls fell before the
+trumpet blast of deliverance. On all sides sounded the cry for liberty.
+The brotherhood of man, embracing all, did not exclude storm-baptized
+Israel. The old synagogue had to keep pace with modern demands, and was
+arrayed in a new garb. Among those who designed and fashioned the new
+garment, he is prominent in whose honor we have met to-day.
+
+From our short journey through the centuries of music, we have returned
+to him who has succeeded in the great work of restoring to its honorable
+place the music of the synagogue, sorely missed, ardently longed for,
+and bringing back to us old songs in a new guise. An old song and a new
+melody! The old song of abiding love, loyalty, and resignation to the
+will of God! His motto was the beautiful verse: "My strength and my song
+is the Lord"; and his unchanging refrain, the jubilant exclamation:
+"Blessed be thou, fair Musica!" A wise man once said: "Hold in high
+honor our Lady of Music!" The wise man was Martin Luther--another
+instance this of the conciliatory power of music, standing high above
+the barriers raised by religious differences. It is worthy of mention,
+on this occasion, that at the four hundredth anniversary celebration in
+honor of Martin Luther, in the Sebaldus church at Nuremberg, the most
+Protestant of the cities of Germany, called by Luther himself "the eye
+of God," a psalm of David was sung to music composed by our guest of the
+day.
+
+"Hold in high honor our Lady of Music!" We will be admonished by the
+behest, and give honor to the artist by whose fostering care the music
+of the synagogue enjoys a new lease of life; who, with pious zeal, has
+collected our dear old melodies, and has sung them to us with all the
+ardor and power with which God in His kindness endowed him.
+
+    "The sculptor must simulate life, of the poet I demand intelligence;
+    The soul can be expressed only by Polyhymnia!"
+
+An orphan, song wandered hither and thither through the world, met,
+after many days, by the musician, who compassionately adopted it, and
+clothed it with his melodies. On the pinions of music, it now soars
+whithersoever it listeth, bringing joy and blessing wherever it alights.
+"The old song, the new melody!" Hark! through the silence of the night
+in this solemn moment, one of those old songs, clad by our _maestro_ in
+a new melody, falls upon our ears: "I remember unto thee the kindness of
+thy youth, the love of thy espousals, thy going after me in the
+wilderness, through a land that is not sown!"
+
+Hearken! Can we not distinguish in its notes, as they fill our ears, the
+presage of a music of the future, of love and good-will? We seem to hear
+the rustle of the young leaves of a new spring, the resurrection
+foretold thousands of years agone by our poets and prophets. We see
+slowly dawning that great day on which mankind, awakened from the fitful
+sleep of error and delusion, will unite in the profession of the creed
+of brotherly love, and Israel's song will be mankind's song, myriads of
+voices in unison sending aloft to the skies the psalm of praise:
+Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Aaron, medical writer, 79
+
+Abbahu, Haggadist, 21
+
+Abbayu, rabbi, quoted, 232-233
+
+Abina, rabbi, 19
+
+Abitur, poet, 24
+
+Aboab, Isaac, writer, 45, 130
+
+Aboab, Samuel, Bible scholar, 45
+
+Abrabanel, Isaac, scholar and statesman, 42, 99
+
+Abrabanel, Judah, 42, 95
+
+Abraham in Africa, 255
+
+Abraham Bedersi, poet, 171
+
+Abraham ben Chiya, scientist, 83, 93
+
+Abraham ben David Portaleone, musician, 376
+
+Abraham de Balmes, physician, 95
+
+Abraham dei Mansi, Talmudist, 116
+
+Abraham ibn Daud, philosopher, 35
+
+Abraham ibn Ezra, exegete, 36
+  mathematician, 83
+
+Abraham ibn Sahl, poet, 34, 88
+
+Abraham Judaeus. See Abraham ibn Ezra
+
+Abraham of Sarteano, poet, 224
+
+Abraham Portaleone, archaeolegist, 45, 97
+
+Abraham Powdermaker, legend of, 285-286
+
+Abt and Mendelssohn, 314
+
+Abyssinia, the Ten Tribes in, 262-263
+
+Ackermann, Rachel, novelist, 119
+
+Acosta, Uriel, alluded to, 100
+
+_Acta Esther et Achashverosh_, drama, 244
+
+Actors, Jewish, 232, 246, 247-248
+
+Adia, poet, 24
+
+Adiabene, Jews settle in, 251
+
+AEsop's fables translated into Hebrew, 34
+
+"A few words to the Jews by one of themselves," by Charlotte
+    Montefiore, 133
+
+Afghanistan, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Africa, interest in, 249-250
+  in the Old Testament, 255
+  the Talmud on, 254
+  the Ten Tribes in, 262
+
+Agau spoken by the Falashas, 265
+
+Aguilar, Grace, author, 134-137
+  testimonial to, 136-137
+
+"Ahasverus," farce, 244
+
+Ahaz, king, alluded to, 250
+
+Akiba ben Joseph, rabbi, 19, 58
+  quoted, 253, 256
+
+Albert of Prussia, alluded to, 288
+
+Albertus Magnus and Maimonides, 156, 164
+  philosopher, 82
+  proscribes the Talmud, 85
+
+Albo, Joseph, philosopher, 42
+
+Al-Chazari, by Yehuda Halevi, 31
+  commentary on, 298
+
+Alemanno, Jochanan, Kabbalist, 95
+
+Alessandro Farnese, alluded to, 98
+
+Alexander III, pope, and Jewish diplomats, 99
+
+Alexander the Great, 229, 254
+
+Alexandria, centre of Jewish life, 17
+  philosophy in, 75
+
+Alfonsine Tables compiled, 92
+
+Alfonso V of Portugal and Isaac Abrabanel, 99
+
+Alfonso X, of Castile, patron of Jewish scholars, 92, 93
+
+Alfonso XI, of Castile, 170, 260
+
+Alityros, actor, 232
+
+Alkabez, Solomon, poet, 43
+
+_Alliance Israelite Universelle_, and the Falashas, 264
+
+"Almagest" by Ptolemy translated, 79
+  read by Maimonides, 159
+
+_Almansor_ by Heine, 347
+
+Almohades and Maimonides, 148
+
+_Altweiberdeutsch._ See _Judendeutsch_
+
+Amatus Lusitanus, physician, 42, 97
+
+Amharic spoken by the Falashas, 265
+
+Amoraim, Speakers, 58
+
+Amos, prophet, alluded to, 251
+
+Amsterdam, Marrano centre, 128-129
+
+Anahuac and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Anatoli. See Jacob ben Abba-Mari ben Anatoli
+
+Anatomy in the Talmud, 77
+
+Anna, Rashi's granddaughter, 118
+
+Anti-Maimunists, 39-40
+
+Antiochus Epiphanes, alluded to, 193
+
+Antonio di Montoro, troubadour, 97, 180-181
+
+Antonio dos Reys, on Isabella Correa, 129
+
+Antonio Enriquez di Gomez. See Enriquez, Antonio.
+
+Antonio Jose de Silva, dramatist, 100, 236-237
+
+Aquinas, Thomas, philosopher, 82
+  and Maimonides, 156, 164
+  under Gabirol's influence, 94
+  works of, translated, 86
+
+Arabia, Jews settle in, 250-251
+  the Ten Tribes in, 256-257
+
+Arabs influence Jews, 80
+  relation of, to Jews, 22
+
+Argens, d', and Mendelssohn, 303
+
+Aristeas, Neoplatonist, 17
+
+Aristobulus, Aristotelian, 17
+
+Aristotle, alluded to, 250
+  and Maimonides, 156
+  interpreted by Jews, 85
+  quoted, 249
+
+Arkevolti, Samuel, grammarian, 376
+
+Armenia, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Arnstein, Benedict David, dramatist, 245
+
+Art among Jews, 102
+
+"Art of Carving and Serving at Princely Boards, The" translated, 91
+
+Arthurian legends in Hebrew, 87
+
+Ascarelli, Deborah, poetess, 44, 124
+
+Asher ben Yehuda, hero of a romance, 34, 213
+
+Ashi, compiler of the Babylonian Talmud, 19
+
+Ashkenasi, Hannah, authoress, 120
+
+_Asireh ha-Tikwah_, by Joseph Pensa, 237-238
+
+_Asiya_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Astruc, Bible critic, 13
+
+Auerbach, Berthold, novelist, 49, 50
+  quoted, 303
+
+Auerbach, J. L., preacher, 322
+
+_Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung_ and Heine, 340
+
+Avenare. See Abraham ibn Ezra
+
+Avencebrol. See Gabirol, Solomon
+
+Avendeath, Johannes, translator of "The Fount of Life," 26
+
+Averroees and Maimonides, 163-164
+
+Avicebron. See Gabirol, Solomon
+
+Avicenna and Maimonides, 156, 158
+
+Azariah de Rossi, scholar, 45
+
+_Azila_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+
+Barrios, de, Daniel, critic, 47, 129
+
+Barruchius, Valentin, romance writer, 171
+
+Bartholdy, Salomon, quoted, 308
+
+Bartolocci, Hebrew scholar, 48
+
+Bassista, Sabbatai, bibliographer, 47
+
+Bath Halevi, Talmudist, 117
+
+Bechai ibn Pakuda, philosopher, 35, 137
+
+Beck. K., poet, 49
+
+_Beena_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Beer, Jacob Herz, establishes a synagogue, 322
+
+Beer, M., poet, 49
+
+Behaim, Martin, scientist, 96
+
+Belmonte, Bienvenida Cohen, poetess, 130
+
+"Belshazzar" by Heine, 344
+
+Bendavid. See Lazarus ben David
+
+"Beni Israel" and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Benjamin of Tudela, traveller, 37, 258
+  quoted, 263
+
+Berachya ben Natronai (Hanakdan), fabulist, 34, 88
+
+Beria, a character in Immanuel Romi's poem, 221-222
+
+_Beria_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Bernhard, employer of Mendelssohn, 298, 300, 304
+
+Bernhardt, Sarah, actress, 246
+
+Bernstein, Aaron, Ghetto novelist, 50
+  quoted, 272
+
+Bernstorff, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Berschadzky on Saul Wahl, 282
+
+Beruriah, wife of Rabbi Meir, 110-112
+
+Bible. See Old Testament, The
+
+Bible critics, 12, 13, 14
+
+Bible dictionary, Jewish German, 100
+
+"Birth and Death" from the Haggada, 66
+
+_Biurists_, the Mendelssohn school, 309
+
+Blackcoal, a character in "The Gift of Judah," 214
+
+Blanche de Bourbon, wife of Pedro I, 169
+
+Bleichroeder quoted, 296-297
+
+Bloch, Pauline, writer, 140
+
+Boccaccio, alluded to, 35
+
+Boeckh, alluded to, 333
+
+Bonet di Lattes, astronomer, 95
+
+Bonifacio, Balthasar, accuser of Sara Sullam, 127
+
+"Book of Diversions, The" by Joseph ibn Sabara, 214
+
+"Book of Samuel," by Litte of Ratisbon, 119, 120
+
+"Book of Songs" by Heine, 353
+
+Boerne, Ludwig, quoted, 313-314, 359-361
+
+Borromeo, cardinal, alluded to, 98
+
+Brinkmann, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Bruno di Lungoborgo, work of, translated, 86
+
+Bruno, Giordano, philosopher, 82
+
+_Buch der Lieder_ by Heine, 353
+
+Buffon quoted, 89
+
+Bueschenthal, L. M., dramatist, 245
+
+Buxtorf, father and son, scholars, 48
+  translates "The Guide of the Perplexed," 155
+
+
+Calderon, alluded to, 239
+
+Calderon, the Jewish, 100
+
+Calendar compiled by the rabbis, 77
+
+Caliphs and Jewish diplomats, 98
+
+Campe, Joachim, on Mendelssohn, 314-315
+
+Cardinal, Peire, troubadour, 171-172
+
+Casimir the Great, Jews under, 286
+
+Cassel, D., scholar, 49
+    quoted, 19-20
+
+Castro de, Orobio, author, 47
+
+Ceba, Ansaldo, and Sara Sullam, 125-128
+
+_Celestina_, by Rodrigo da Cota, 97, 235
+
+Chananel, alluded to, 257
+
+Chanukka, story of, 359-360
+
+Charlemagne and Jewish diplomats, 98
+
+Charles of Anjou, patron of Hebrew learning, 92
+
+Chasan, Bella, historian, 120
+
+Chasdai ben Shaprut, statesman, 82
+
+Chasdai Crescas, philosopher, 42, 93-94
+
+Chassidism, a form of Kabbalistic Judaism, 46
+
+_Chesed_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Children in the Talmud, 63-64
+
+Chiya, rabbi, 19
+
+Chiya bar Abba, Halachist, 21
+
+Chmielnicki, Bogdan, and the Jews, 288
+
+_Chochma_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+_Chotham Tochnith_ by Abraham Bedersi, 171
+
+"Chronicle of the Cid," the first, by a Jew, 90, 170
+
+Cicero and the drama, 232
+
+Clement VI, pope, and Levi ben Gerson, 91
+
+Cochin, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Cohen, friend of Heine, 350
+
+Cohen, Abraham, Talmudist, 118
+
+Cohen, Joseph, historian, 44
+
+Coins, Polish, 286
+
+Columbus, alluded to, 181
+  and Jews, 96
+
+Comedy, nature of, 195-196
+
+Commendoni, legate, on the Polish Jews, 287
+
+"Commentaries on Aristotle" by Averroes, 163
+
+"Commentary on Ecclesiastes" by Obadiah Sforno, 95
+
+Commerce developed by Jews, 101-102
+
+_Comte Lyonnais, Palanus_, romance, 90, 171
+
+"Confessions" by Heine, quoted, 365-366
+
+Conforte, David, historian, 43
+
+_Consejos y Documentos al Rey Dom Pedro_ by Santob de Carrion, 173-174
+
+_Consolacam as Tribulacoes de Ysrael_ by Samuel Usque, 44
+
+Constantine, translator, 81
+
+"Contemplation of the World" by Yedaya Penini, 40
+
+"Contributions to History and Literature" by Zunz, 337
+
+Copernicus and Jewish astronomers, 86
+
+Correa, Isabella, poetess, 129
+
+Cota, da, Rodrigo, dramatist, 97, 235
+
+"Counsel and Instruction to King Dom Pedro" by Santob de Carrion, 173-174
+
+"Court Secrets" by Rachel Ackermann, 119
+
+Cousin, Victor, on Spinoza, 145
+
+Creation, Maimonides' theory of, 160
+
+Creed, the Jewish, by Maimonides, 151-152
+
+Creizenach, Th., poet, 49
+
+Cromwell, Oliver, and Manasseh ben Israel, 99
+
+
+_Dalalat al-Hairin_, "Guide of the Perplexed," 154
+
+Damm, teacher of Mendelssohn, 299
+
+"Dance of Death," attributed to Santob, 174
+
+Daniel, Immanuel Romi's guide in Paradise, 223
+
+_Dansa General_, attributed to Santob, 174
+
+Dante and Immanuel Romi, 35, 89, 220, 223
+
+Dante, the Hebrew, 124
+
+"Dark Continent, The." See Africa
+
+David, philosopher, 83
+
+David ben Levi, Talmudist, 46
+
+David ben Yehuda, poet, 223
+
+David d'Ascoli, physician, 97
+
+David della Rocca, alluded to, 124
+
+David de Pomis, physician, 45, 97
+
+Davison, Bogumil, actor, 246
+
+Deborah, as poetess, 106-107
+
+_De Causis_, by David, 83
+
+Decimal fractions first mentioned, 91
+
+"Deeds of King David and Goliath, The," drama, 244
+
+Delitzsch, Franz, quoted, 24
+
+Del Medigo, Elias. See Elias del Medigo and Joseph del Medigo
+
+De Rossi, Hebrew scholar, 48
+
+Deutsch, Caroline, poetess, 139, 142-143
+
+Deutsch, Emanuel, on the Talmud, 68-70
+
+_Deutsche Briefe_ by Zunz, 337
+
+_Dialoghi di Amore_ by Judah Abrabanel, 42, 95
+
+_Dichter und Kaufmann_ by Berthold Auerbach, 49
+
+_Die Freimuetigen_, Zunz contributor to, 330
+
+_Die gottesdienstlichen Vortraege der Juden_ by Zunz, 48, 333-335
+
+Diez, alluded to, 333
+
+Dingelstedt, Franz, quoted, 319
+
+Dioscorides, botanist, 82
+
+_Disciplina clericalis_, a collection of tales, 89, 171
+
+_Divina Commedia_, travestied, 35
+  imitated, 89, 124
+
+_Doctor angelicus_, Thomas Aquinas, 94
+
+_Doctor Perplexorum_, "Guide of the Perplexed," 154, 155
+
+Document hypothesis of the Old Testament, 13
+
+Dolce, scholar and martyr, 119
+
+Donnolo, Sabattai, physician, 82
+
+Dorothea of Kurland and Mendelssohn, 315
+
+Dotina, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Drama, the, among the ancient Hebrews, 229
+    classical Hebrew, 244-245, 248
+    first Hebrew, published, 239
+    first Jewish, 234
+    Jewish German, 246-247
+
+Drama, the German, Jews in, 245
+    the Portuguese, Jews in, 236-237, 238
+    the Spanish, Jews in, 235-236
+
+Dramatists, Jewish, 230, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 244, 245, 248
+
+Drinking songs, 200-201, 204, 205, 209, 212-213
+
+Dubno, Solomon, commentator, 309
+
+Dukes, L., scholar, 49
+
+Dunash ben Labrat, alluded to, 257
+
+"Duties of the Heart" by Bechai, 137
+
+
+_Eben Bochan_, by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, 216-219
+
+Egidio de Viterbo, cardinal, 44
+
+Eibeschuetz, Jonathan, Talmudist, 47
+
+Eldad ha-Dani, traveller, 37, 80, 257-258
+
+Elias del Medigo, scholar, 44, 94
+
+Elias Kapsali, scholar, 98
+
+Elias Levita, grammarian, 44, 95
+
+Elias Mizrachi, scholar, 98
+
+Elias of Genzano, poet, 224
+
+Elias Wilna, Talmudist, 46
+
+Eliezer, rabbi, quoted, 253
+
+Eliezer ha-Levi, Talmudist, 36
+
+Eliezer of Metz, Talmudist, 36
+
+El Muallima, Karaite, 117
+
+_Em beyisrael_, Deborah, 107
+
+Emden, Jacob, Talmudist, 47
+
+Emin Pasha, alluded to, 250
+
+"Enforced Apostasy," by Maimonides, 152
+
+Engel, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Enriquez, Antonio, di Gomez, dramatist, 100, 236
+
+Enriquez, Isabella, poetess, 130
+
+_En-Sof_, Kabbalistic term, 40, 41
+
+Ephraim, the Israelitish kingdom, 251
+
+Ephraim, Veitel, financier, 304, 316
+
+Erasmus, quoted, 44
+
+_Esheth Lapidoth_, Deborah, 106
+
+Eskeles, banker, alluded to, 305
+
+Esterka, supposed mistress of Casimir the Great, 286
+
+"Esther," by Solomon Usque, 235
+
+Esthori Hafarchi, topographer, 93
+
+Ethiopia. See Abyssinia
+
+Euchel, Isaac, Hebrew writer, 48, 309
+
+Eupolemos, historian, 17
+
+Euripides, alluded to, 230
+
+Ewald, Bible critic, 14
+
+"Exodus from Egypt, The" by Ezekielos, 230
+
+Ezekiel, prophet, quoted, 252, 294-295
+
+Ezekielos, dramatist, 17, 230
+
+Ezra, alluded to, 253
+
+
+Fables translated by Jews, 79, 86-87, 88
+
+Fagius, Paul, Hebrew scholar, 44, 95
+
+Falashas, the, and the missionaries, 263, 267
+  and the Negus Theodore, 267
+  customs of, 266
+  described by Halevy, 264
+  history of, 263
+  intellectual eagerness of, 266, 268
+  Messianic expectations of, 267-268
+  religious customs of, 265-266
+
+Faust of Saragossa, Gabirol, 199
+
+_Faust_ translated into Hebrew, 248
+
+Felix, Rachel, actress, 246
+
+Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and Isaac Abrabanel, 99
+
+Ferrara, duke of, candidate in Poland, 278
+
+Figo, Azariah, rabbi, 45
+
+Fischels, Rosa, translator of the Psalms, 120
+
+"Flaming Sword, The," by Abraham Bedersi, 171
+
+"Flea Song" by Yehuda Charisi, 212
+
+Fleck, actor, 311
+
+Foa, Rebekah Eugenie, writer, 139
+
+Folquet de Lunel, troubadour, 171-172
+
+Fonseca Pina y Pimentel, de, Sara, poetess, 130
+
+"Foundation of the Universe, The," by Isaac Israeli, 93
+
+"Foundation of the World, The," by Moses Zacuto, 238-239
+
+"Fount of Life, The," by Gabirol, 26
+
+Fox fables translated, 79
+
+Frank, Rabbi Dr., alluded to, 345
+
+Fraenkel, David, teacher of Mendelssohn, 293
+
+Frankel, Z, scholar, 49
+
+Frankl, L. A., poet, 49
+
+Frank-Wolff, Ulla, writer, 139
+
+Franzos, K. E., Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Frederick II, emperor, patron of Hebrew learning, 40, 85, 89, 92
+
+Frederick the Great and Mendelssohn, 301-303
+  and the Jews, 316-317
+
+Freidank, German author, 185
+
+Friedlaender, David, disciple of Mendelssohn, 48, 317, 350
+
+Froehlich, Regina, writer, 131
+
+Fuerst, J., scholar, 49
+
+
+Gabirol, Solomon, philosopher, 26-27, 82-83, 94
+  poet, 24, 25-26, 27, 199
+
+Gad, Esther, alluded to, 132
+
+Galen and Gamaliel, 81
+  works of, edited by Maimonides, 153
+
+Gama, da, Vasco, and Jews, 96-97
+
+Gamaliel, rabbi, 18, 77, 81
+
+Gans, David, historian, 47
+
+Gans, Edward, friend of Heine, 324, 346, 350
+
+Gaspar, Jewish pilot, 96
+
+Gayo, Isaac, physician, 86
+
+Geiger, Abraham, scholar, 49
+
+Geldern, van, Betty, mother of Heine, 341, 344
+
+Geldern, van, Gottschalk, Heine's uncle, 341
+
+Geldern, van, Isaac, Heine's grandfather, 341
+
+Geldern, van, Lazarus, Heine's uncle, 341
+
+Geldern, van, Simon, author, 341
+
+Gentz, von, Friedrich, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Geometry in the Talmud, 77
+
+German literature cultivated by Jews, 87
+
+Gerson ben Solomon, scientist, 90
+
+_Gesellschafter_, Zunz contributor to the, 330
+
+_Ghedulla_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Ghemara, commentary on the Mishna, 60
+
+Ghetto tales, 50
+
+_Ghevoora_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Gideon, Jewish king in Abyssinia, 263
+
+"Gift from a Misogynist, A," satire, by Yehuda ibn Sabbatai, 34, 214-216
+
+Glaser, Dr. Edward, on the Falashas, 263
+
+Goethe, alluded to, 314
+  and Jewish literature, 103-104
+  on Yedaya Penini, 40
+
+Goldschmidt, Henriette, writer, 139
+
+Goldschmidt, Johanna, writer, 139
+
+Goldschmied, M., Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Goldsmid, Anna Maria, writer, 137
+
+Goldsmid, Isaac Lyon, alluded to, 137
+
+Gottloeber, A., dramatist, 248
+
+Goetz, Ella, translator, 120
+
+Graetz, Heinrich, historian, 49
+  quoted, 185
+
+Graziano, Lazaro, dramatist, 235
+
+Greece and Judaea contrasted, 194
+
+Grimani, Dominico, cardinal, alluded to, 95
+
+Grimm, alluded to, 333
+
+Guarini, dramatist, 239
+
+Gugenheim, Fromet, wife of Mendelssohn, 303
+  quoted, 307
+
+"Guide of the Perplexed, The," contents of, 157-163
+  controversy over, 164-166
+  English translation of, 155 (note)
+  purpose of, 155
+
+Gumpertz, Aaron, and Mendelssohn, 297, 299
+  quoted, 298
+
+Gundisalvi, Dominicus, translator of "The Fount of Life," 26
+
+Guensburg, C., preacher, 322
+
+Guensburg, Simon, confidant of Stephen Bathori, 287
+
+"Gustavus Vasa" by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+Gutzkow, quoted, 306
+
+
+Haggada and Halacha contrasted, 21, 60, 194-195
+
+Haggada, the, characterized, 18, 54-55, 60-61, 64-70
+  cosmopolitan, 33
+  described by Heine, 20
+  ethical sayings from, 61-63
+  poetic quotations from, 65-68
+
+Haggada, the, at the Passover service, 344-345
+
+Hai, Gaon, 22
+
+Halacha and Haggada contrasted, 21, 60, 194-195
+
+Halacha, the, characterized, 18, 54-55
+  subjective, 33
+
+Halevy, Joseph, and the Falashas, 264
+  quoted, 265-266
+
+Halley's comet and Rabbi Joshua, 77
+
+"Haman's Will and Death," drama, 244
+
+Hamel, Glikel, historian, 120
+
+Haendele, daughter of Saul Wahl, 276
+
+Hariri, Arabic poet, 32, 34 (note)
+
+Haroun al Rashid, embassy to, 99
+
+Hartmann, M., poet, 49
+
+Hartog, Marian, writer, 137
+
+Hartung, actor, 248
+
+_Ha-Sallach_, Moses ibn Ezra, 205
+
+Hebrew drama, first, published, 237
+
+Hebrew language, plasticity of, 32-33
+
+Hebrew studies among Christians, 44, 47-48, 95, 98
+
+Heckscher, Fromet, ancestress of Heine, 341
+
+Hegel and Heine, 346
+
+Heine, Heinrich, poet, 49
+  and Venus of Milo, 362
+  appreciation of, 340
+  characterized by Schopenhauer, 357-358
+  character of, 367
+  conversion of, 348-351
+  family of, 341-342, 344
+  Ghetto novelist, 50
+  in Berlin, 346-347
+  in Goettingen, 347-348
+  in Paris, 358-359
+  Jewish traits of, 345-348, 353-357
+  on Gabirol, 25-26
+  on the Jews, 362-363, 365-366
+  on Yehuda Halevi, 27
+  on Zunz, 327-328, 333
+  quoted, 9, 20, 28, 206
+  religious education of, 343
+  return of, to Judaism, 366
+  wife of, 363-364
+  will of, 366-367
+
+Heine, Mathilde, wife of Heinrich Heine, 363-364
+
+Heine, Maximilian, quoted, 344
+
+"Heine of the middle ages," Immanuel Romi, 219
+
+Heine, Samson, father of Heinrich Heine, 341, 342
+
+Heine, Solomon, uncle of Heinrich Heine, 345, 352
+
+Hellenism and Judaism, 75-76
+
+Hellenists, Heine on, 359, 362
+
+Hennings, alluded to, 314
+
+Henry of Anjou, election of, in Poland, 286-287
+
+Herder, poet, and Mendelssohn, 314
+  quoted, 296
+
+Hermeneutics by Maimonides, 162-163
+
+Herod and the stage, 230-231
+
+Herrera, Abraham, Kabbalist, 99
+
+Hertzveld, Estelle and Maria, writers, 140
+
+Herz, Henriette, alluded to, 131, 133-346
+  and Dorothea Mendelssohn, 306
+  character of, 312-313
+  _salon_ of, 311-314
+
+Herz, Marcus, physicist, 310, 311
+
+Herzberg-Fraenkel, L., Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Herzfeld, L., scholar, 49
+
+Hess, M., quoted, 109
+
+"Highest Faith, The" by Abraham ibn Daud, 36
+
+Higros the Levite, musician, 369, 374
+
+Hildebold von Schwanegau, minnesinger, 182
+
+Hillel, rabbi, 18
+  quoted, 255
+
+Hillel ben Samuel, translator 86
+
+Himyarites and Jews, 256
+
+Hirsch, scholar, 49
+
+Hirsch, Jenny, writer, 139
+
+"History and Literature of the Israelites"
+ by Constance and Anna Rothschild, 142
+
+"History of Synagogue Poetry" by Zunz, 336
+
+"History of the Jews in England" by Grace Aguilar, 135
+
+"History of the National Poetry of the Hebrews" by Ernest Meier, 14
+
+Hitzig, architect, alluded to, 298
+
+Hitzig, Bible critic, 13, 14
+
+_Hod_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Holbein, Hans, illustrates a Jewish book, 102
+
+Holdheim, S., scholar, 49
+
+Holland, exiles in, 128-129
+
+Homberg, Herz disciple of Mendelssohn, 48, 309
+
+"Home Influence" by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+Hosea, king, alluded to, 250
+
+Hosea, prophet, alluded to, 251
+  "Hours of Devotion" by
+  Fanny Neuda, 140
+
+Humanism and the Jews, 94-95
+
+Humboldts, the, and Hennriette Herz, 311, 312, 313
+
+Humor in antiquity, 191-192
+  in Jewish German literature, 225-226
+  nature of, 195-195, 356-357
+
+Hurwitz, Bella, historian, 120
+
+Hurwitz, Isaiah, Kabbalist, 43
+
+
+Ibn Alfange, writer, 170
+
+Ibn Chasdai, Makamat writer, 35
+
+Ibn Sina and Maimonides, 156
+
+_Iggereth ha-Sh'mad_ by Maimonides, 152
+
+_Ikkarim_ by Joseph Albo, 42
+
+Ima Shalom, Talmudist, 113
+
+Immanuel ben Solomon, poet, 35, 89, 90, 219-221, 222-223
+  and Dante, 35, 89, 220, 223
+  quoted, 220, 221, 222
+
+Immanuel Romi. See Immanuel ben Solomon
+
+India, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Indians and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Innocent III, pope, alluded to, 184
+
+Intelligences, Maimonides' doctrine of the, 159
+
+"Interest and Usury" from the Haggada, 67-68
+
+_Iris_, Zunz contributor to the, 330
+
+Isaac Alfassi, alluded to, 257
+
+Isaac ben Abraham, Talmudist, 36
+
+Isaac ben Moses, Talmudist, 36
+
+Isaac ben Sheshet, philosopher, 42
+
+Isaac ben Yehuda ibn Ghayyat, poet, 201, 202
+
+Isaac ibn Sid, astronomer, 92
+
+Isaac Israeli, mathematician, 93
+
+Isaac Israeli, physician, 81, 82, 257
+
+Isaiah, prophet, quoted, 251, 252
+
+Ishmael, poet, alluded to, 118
+
+Israel, kingdom of, 250-251
+
+"Israel Defended" translated by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+"Israelites on Mount Horeb, The," by Simon van Geldern, 341
+
+Isserles, Moses, Talmudist, 46, 100, 286
+
+Italy, Jews of 45-46, 116
+
+Itzig, Daniel, naturalization of, 317
+
+Jabneh, academy at, 57, 227-228
+
+Jacob ben Abba-Mari ben Anatoli, scholar, 39-40, 85
+
+Jacob ben Elias, poet, 224
+
+Jacob ben Machir, astronomer, 86
+
+Jacob ben Meir, Talmudist, 36
+
+Jacob ben Nissim, alluded to, 257
+
+Jacob ibn Chabib, Talmudist 43
+
+Jason, writer, 17
+
+Jayme, J, of Aragon, patron of Hebrew learning, 92
+
+Jellinek, Adolf, preacher, 49
+  quoted, 33, 245-246
+
+Jeremiah, prophet, quoted, 251
+
+Jerusalem, friend of Moses Mendelssohn, 314
+
+Jerusalem, Kabbalists in, 43
+
+Jesus, mediator between Judaism and Hellenism, 76
+  quotes the Old Testament, 13
+
+"Jewish Calderon, The," Antonio Enriquez di Gomez, 236
+
+Jewish drama, the first, 234
+
+"Jewish Faith, The," by Grace Aguilar, 135
+
+Jewish German drama, the, 246-247
+
+Jewish historical writings, lack of, 23-24
+
+Jewish history, spirit of, 269-271
+
+"Jewish Homiletics" by Zunz, 333-335
+
+Jewish literature and Goethe, 103-104
+  characterized, 11-12
+  comprehensiveness of, 37
+  definition of, 328
+  extent of, 9-10, 22
+  Hellenic period of, 16-17
+  in Persia, 90
+  love in, 122-123
+  name of, 10
+  rabbinical period of, 38
+
+Jewish philosophers, 17, 22, 23, 35, 40, 42
+
+Jewish poetry, and Syrian, 80
+  future of, 50
+  subjects of, 24-25
+
+Jewish poets, 49
+
+Jewish race, the, liberality of, 33-34
+  morality of, 36
+  preservation of, 108-109
+  subjectivity of, 33, 353-354
+  versatility of, 79
+
+Jewish scholars, 49
+
+Jewish Sybil, the, 17-18
+
+"Jewish Voltaire, The," Immanuel Romi, 219
+
+Jewish wit, 354-356
+
+Jews, academies of, 75, 79
+  and Columbus, 96
+  and commerce, 101-102
+  and Frederick the Great, 316-317
+  and the invention of printing, 38
+  and the national poetry of Germany, 87
+  and the Renaissance, 43-44, 74-75, 94-95, 223, 224
+  and troubadour poetry, 171-173
+  and Vasco da Gama, 96-97
+  as diplomats, 98-99
+  as economists, 103
+  as interpreters of Aristotle, 85
+  as linguists, 75
+  as literary mediators, 97-98
+  as physicians, 19, 37, 44, 45, 81-82, 86, 95, 97
+  as scientific mediators, 78
+  as teachers of Christians, 95, 98
+  as traders, 74-75
+  as translators, 44, 79, 86-87, 88, 89, 90, 91-92
+  as travellers, 37-38
+  as wood engravers, 102
+  characterized by Heine, 362-363, 365-366
+  defended by Reuchlin, 95
+  in Arabia, 256-257
+  in Holland, 46
+  in Italy, 45-46, 116
+  in Poland, 46, 286-288
+  in the modern drama, 235-237, 245
+  in the sciences, 102
+  of Germany, in the middle ages, 186
+  of Germany, poverty of, 319
+  of the eighteenth century, 294
+  relation of, to Arabs, 22
+  under Arabic influences, 78, 80
+  under Hellenic influences, 76
+  under Roman influences, 76, 77
+
+Joao II, of Portugal, employs Jewish scholars, 96
+
+Jochanan, compiler of the Jerusalem Talmud, 19, 114
+
+Jochanan ben Zakkai, rabbi, 18, 56-57, 228
+
+John of Seville, mathematician, 91
+
+Josefowicz brothers in Lithuania, 287-288
+
+Joseph ben Jochanan, wife of, 119
+
+Joseph del Medigo, scholar, 45
+
+Joseph Ezobi, poet, 89
+
+Joseph ibn Aknin, disciple of Maimonides, 155
+
+Joseph ibn Nagdela, wife of, 117
+
+Joseph ibn Sabara, satirist, 34, 214
+
+Joseph ibn Verga, historian, 42
+
+Joseph ibn Zaddik, philosopher, 35
+
+Josephus, Flavius, historian, 13, 18, 44
+  at Rome, 232
+  quoted, 230
+
+Joshua, astronomer, 77
+
+Joshua, Samaritan book of, on the Ten Tribes, 252
+
+Joshua ben Chananya, rabbi, 18
+
+Joshua, Jacob, Talmudist, 47
+
+Jost, Isaac Marcus, historian, 49, 321
+  on Zunz, 320
+
+"Journal for the Science of Judaism," 324-325, 329, 352
+
+Juan Alfonso de Baena, poet, 90, 179
+
+Judaea and Greece contrasted, 194
+
+Judaeo-Alexandrian period, 16-17
+
+Judah Alfachar and Maimonides, 165
+
+Judah Hakohen, astronomer, 93
+
+Judah ibn Sabbatai, satirist, 34, 214
+
+Judah ibn Tibbon, translator, 39, 84
+
+Judah Tommo, poet, 224
+
+Judaism and Hellenism, 75-76
+  served by women, 115-116
+
+_Judendeutsch_, patois, 47, 294
+  literature in, 47, 100-101
+  philological value of, 100
+  used by women, 119
+
+Judges, quoted, 107
+
+Judith, queen of the Jewish kingdom in Abyssinia, 262, 263
+
+
+Kabbala, the, attacked and defended, 45, 46
+  influence of, 93, 99
+  studied by Christians, 44
+  supposed author of, 19
+  system of, outlined, 40-41
+
+Kabbalists, 43, 95, 99
+
+_Kalam_, Islam theology, 81
+
+_Kalila we-Dimna_, fox fables, translated, 79
+
+Kalir, Eliezer, poet, 25
+
+"Kaliric," classical in Jewish literature, 25
+
+Kalisch, Ludwig, quoted, 364-365
+
+Kalonymos ben Kalonymos as a satirist, 35, 216-219
+  as a scholar, 89
+
+Kant and Maimonides, 146, 164
+  's philosophy among Jews, 310
+
+Kara, Abigedor, Talmudist, 47
+
+Karaite doctrines in Castile, 117
+
+Karo, Joseph, compiler of the _Shulchan Aruch_, 43
+
+Kasmune (Xemona), poetess, 24, 118
+
+Kaspi, Joseph, philosopher, 42
+
+Kayserling, M., quoted, 300
+
+Kepler and Jewish astronomers, 91, 92
+
+_Kether_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Kimchi, David, grammarian, 39, 84
+
+"King Solomon's Seal" by Bueschenthal, 245
+
+Kisch, teacher of Moses Mendelssohn, 297
+
+_Klesmer_, musician, 377
+
+Kley, Edward, preacher, 49, 322
+
+Kohen, Sabbatai, Talmudist, 46
+
+Kompert, Leopold, Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Korbi, character in "The Gift of Judah," 214
+
+Krochmal, scholar, 49
+
+Kuh, M. E., poet, 49
+
+Kulke, Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Kunth, tutor of the Humboldts, 311
+
+
+_La Doctrina Christiana_, attributed to Santob, 174
+
+La Fontaine, and Hebrew fable translations, 34, 88
+
+Landau, Ezekiel, Talmudist, 47
+
+Laura (Petrarch's) in "Praise of Women," 223
+
+_Layesharim Tehillah_ by Luzzatto, 240-241
+
+"Lay of Zion" by Yehuda Halevi, 28-31, 210
+
+Lazarus ben David, philosopher, 310, 350
+
+Lazarus, Emma, poetess, 140
+
+Lazarus, M., scholar, 49
+
+_Lecho Dodi_, Sabbath song, 43
+
+Legend-making, 288-289
+
+Legends, value of, 289-292
+
+Lehmann, M., Ghetto novelist, 50
+
+Leibnitz and Maimonides, 146
+
+_Leibzoll_, tax, 294
+
+Lemech, sons of, inventions of, 372
+
+Leo de Modena, rabbi, 45, 128
+
+Leo Hebraeus. See Judah Abrabanel
+
+Leon di Bannolas. See Levi ben Gerson
+
+Lessing, alluded to, 246
+  and Mendelssohn, 299, 300, 314
+  as fabulist, 88
+  on Yedaya Penini, 40
+
+Letteris, M. E., dramatist, 248
+
+"Letters to a Christian Friend on the Fundamental Truths of Judaism,"
+  by Clementine Rothschild, 141
+
+Levi ben Abraham, philosopher, 40
+
+Levi ben Gerson, philosopher, 42, 90-91
+
+Levi (Henle), Elise, writer, 139
+
+Levi of Mayence, founder of German synagogue music, 376
+
+Levin (Varnhagen), Rahel, alluded to, 131, 346
+  and Judaism, 132
+  and the emancipation movement, 132-133
+
+Levita, Elias. See Elias Levita
+
+Lewandowski, musician, work of, 370-371, 377-378
+
+"Light of God" by Chasdai Crescas, 42
+
+Lindo, Abigail, writer, 137
+
+Lithuania, Jews in, 282, 285
+
+Litte of Ratisbon, historian, 119
+
+_Litteraturbriefe_ by Mendelssohn, 301
+
+_Litteraturgeschichte der synagogalen Poesie_ by Zunz, 336
+
+Lokman's fables translated into Hebrew, 34
+
+Lonsano, Menahem, writer on music, 376
+
+Lope de Vega, alluded to, 239
+
+Love in Hebrew poetry, 122-123, 225
+
+Love in Jewish and German poetry, 186
+
+Lucian, alluded to, 18
+
+"Lucinde" by Friedrich von Schlegel, 306
+
+Luis de Torres accompanies Columbus, 96
+
+Luria, Solomon, Talmudist, 46, 286
+
+Luther, Martin, and Rashi, 84
+  quoted, 377
+  under Jewish influences, 98
+
+Luzzatto, Moses Chayyim, dramatist, 45, 239-241
+
+Luzzatto, S. D., scholar, 49, 137
+
+
+Maffei, dramatist, 240
+
+_Maggidim_, itinerant preachers, 227
+
+"Magic Flute, The," first performance of, 247-248
+
+"Magic Wreath, The," by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+Maharil, founder of German synagogue music, 376
+
+Maimon, Solomon, and Mendelssohn, 310
+
+Maimonides, Moses, philosopher, 34, 35, 84
+  and Aristotle, 156
+  and Averroes, 163-164
+  and Ibn Sina, 156
+  and modern philosophy, 164
+  and scholasticism, 85, 156, 164
+  as astronomer, 93
+  career of, 147-150
+  in France, 145-146
+  medical works of, 153-154
+  on man's attributes, 160-161
+  on prophecy, 161-162
+  on resurrection, 164-165
+  on revelation, 162
+  on the attributes of God, 157-158
+  on the Mosaic legislation, 163
+  philosophic work of, 154 ff.
+  quoted, 152, 167
+  religious works of, 150-153
+
+Maimunists, 39-40
+
+Makamat, a form of Arabic poetry, 34 (note)
+
+Malabar, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+_Malchuth_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Manasseh ben Israel, author, 47, 99-100
+  and Rembrandt, 102
+  on the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Manesse, Ruediger, compiler, 183-184
+
+Mannheimer, N., preacher, 49
+
+Manoello. See Immanuel ben Solomon
+
+Mantino, Jacob, physician, 95
+
+Manuel, of Portugal, alluded to, 97
+
+Margoles, Jacob, Kabbalist, 95
+
+Maria de Padilla, mistress of Pedro I, 169
+
+Marie de France, fabulist, 88
+
+Mar Sutra on the Ten Tribes, 253
+
+_Mashal_, parable, 227
+
+_Massichtoth_, Talmudic treatises, 59
+
+_Mauscheln_, Jewish slang, 310-311
+
+Maximilian, of Austria, candidate for the Polish crown, 278
+
+_Mechabberoth_ by Immanuel Romi, 219-220
+
+Medicine, origin of, 81
+
+Meier, Ernest, Bible critic, 12
+  quoted, 14
+
+Meir, rabbi, fabulist, 19, 111-112
+
+Meir ben Baruch, Talmudist, 36
+
+Meir ben Todros ha-Levi, quoted, 164-165
+
+Meissner, Alfred, recollections of, of Heine, 362-364
+
+_Mekirath Yoseph_ by Beermann, 241-244
+
+Melo, David Abenator, translator, 47
+
+_Mendel Gibbor_, quoted, 272
+
+Mendels, Edel, historian, 120
+
+Mendelssohn, Abraham, son of Moses Mendelssohn, 307, 308
+
+Mendelssohn, Dorothea, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, 131, 305-306
+
+Mendelssohn, Henriette, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, 306-308
+
+Mendelssohn, Joseph, son of Moses Mendelssohn, 305, 307
+
+Mendelssohn, Moses, philosopher, 48
+  and Lessing, 299, 300, 314
+  and Maimonides, 164
+  as critic, 301-302
+  as reformer, 316
+  as translator, 40
+  children of, 304
+  disciples of, 309
+  friends of, 299, 314-315
+  in Berlin, 293, 296 ff
+  marriage of, 303-304
+  quoted, 300, 301
+
+Mendelssohn, Nathan, son of Moses Mendelssohn, 307
+
+Mendelssohn, Recha, daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, 307
+
+Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, 307, 308
+
+Mendez, David Franco, dramatist, 244
+
+_Meneketh Ribka_, by Rebekah Tiktiner, 119
+
+Menelek, son of the Queen of Sheba, 262
+
+_Merope_ by Maffei, 240
+
+_Mesgid_, Falasha synagogue, 265
+
+Mesopotamia, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Messer Leon, poet, 223
+
+Meyer, Marianne, alluded to, 132
+
+Meyer, Rachel, writer, 139
+
+Meyer, Sarah, alluded to, 132
+
+Meyerbeer, alluded to, 245
+
+Midrash, commentary, 20, 53-54
+
+Midrash Rabba, a Talmudic work, 21
+
+_Migdal Oz_ by Luzzatto, 239
+
+_Minchath Yehuda Soneh ha-Nashim_, by Judah ibn Sabbatai, 214-216
+
+_Minnedienst_ absent from Jewish poetry, 122
+
+Minnesingers, 182
+
+Miriam, as poetess, 106
+
+Miriam, Rashi's granddaughter, 118
+
+_Mishle Sandabar_, romance, 88
+
+Mishna, the, commentary on, 60
+  compilation of, 58
+  in poetry, 201
+
+_Mishneh Torah_ by Maimonides, 152-153
+
+Missionaries in Abyssinia, 263-267
+
+Mohammedanism, rise of, 77-78
+
+Montefiore, Charlotte, writer, 133
+
+Montefiore, Judith, philanthropist, 133
+
+Montpellier, "Guide of the Perplexed"
+  burnt at, 155 Jews at academy of, 86, 92
+
+_Moreh Nebuchim_ by Maimonides, 146, 154, 161-162
+
+Morgenstern, Lina, writer, 139
+
+_Morgenstunden_ by Mendelssohn, 305
+
+Moritz, friend of Henriette Herz, 313, 314
+
+Morpurgo, Rachel, poetess, 137-138
+
+Mosaic legislation, the, Maimonides on, 163
+
+"Mosaic" style in Hebrew poetry, 201-202
+
+Mosenthal, S. H., Ghetto novelist, 49, 50
+  Dingelstedt on, 319
+
+Moser, Moses, friend of Heine, 324, 346
+  letters to, 350, 352
+
+Moses, prophet, characterized by Heine, 365-366
+  in Africa, 255
+
+Moses de Coucy, Talmudist, 36
+
+Moses ibn Ezra, poet, 24, 32, 202-206, 207
+
+Moses, Israel, teacher of Mendelssohn, 297-298
+
+Moses of Narbonne, philosopher, 42
+
+Moses Rieti, the Hebrew Dante, 35, 124
+
+Moses Sephardi. See Petrus Alphonsus
+
+Mosessohn, Miriam, writer, 138
+
+Munk, Solomon, scholar, 49
+  and Gabirol, 26, 83
+  translates _Moreh Nebuchim_, 146, 155
+
+Muenster, Sebastian, Hebrew scholar, 44, 95
+
+Muscato, Judah, preacher, 376
+
+Music among Jews, 372-376
+
+Mussafia, Benjamin, author, 47
+
+
+Nachmanides, exegete, 39
+
+Nagara, Israel, poet, 43
+
+"Names of the Jews, The," by Zunz, 335
+
+Nasi, Joseph, statesman, 99
+  and the Polish election, 287
+
+"Nathan the Wise" and tolerance, 185, 310-311
+
+Nazarenes, defined by Heine, 359
+
+_Nefesh_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+_Neilah_ prayer, A, 104
+
+Neo-Hebraic literature. See Jewish literature
+
+Nero, alluded to, 232
+
+_Neshama_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+_Nesirim_, Falasha monks, 265
+
+Nestorians and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Neto, David, philosopher, 47
+
+Neuda, Fanny, writer, 140
+
+Neunzig, Joseph, on Heine, 343
+
+"New Song," anonymous poem, 224
+
+_Nezach_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Nicolai, friend of Mendelssohn, 299, 300, 313, 314
+
+Nicolas de Lyra, exegete, 84
+
+Noah, Mordecai, and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+Noeldeke, Theodor, Bible critic, 12
+
+_Nomologia_, by Isaac Aboab, 45
+
+Numbers, book of, quoted, 71
+
+Nunes, Manuela, de Almeida, poetess, 130
+
+
+Obadiah Bertinoro, Talmudist, 43
+
+Obadiah Sforno, teacher of Reuchlin, 95
+
+Offenbach, J., alluded to, 245
+
+Old Testament, the, Africa in, 255
+  document hypothesis of, 13
+  humor in, 191, 193
+  in poetry, 201
+  interpretation of, 54
+  literary value of, 14-16, 73-74
+  quoted by Jesus, 13
+  study of, 12-13, 18
+  time of compilation of, 16
+  time of composition of, 13-14
+  translations of, 16, 47, 48, 80
+
+Oliver y Fullano, de, Nicolas, author, 129
+
+"On Rabbinical Literature" by Zunz, 328
+
+_Ophir_, Hebrew name for Africa, 255
+
+Ophra in Yehuda Halevi's poems, 207
+
+Oppenheim, David, rabbi at Prague, 244
+
+Ormus, island, explored by Jews, 96
+
+Ottenheimer, Henriette, poetess, 49, 138-139
+
+Otto von Botenlaube, minnesinger, 182
+
+Owl, character in "The Gift of Judah," 214
+
+
+Padua, University of, and Elias del Medigo, 94
+
+Palestine described, 93
+
+Palquera, Shemtob, philosopher, 40
+
+Pan, Taube, poetess, 120
+
+"Paradise, The" by Moses Rieti, 35
+
+Parallax computed by Isaac Israeli, 93
+
+_Parzival_, by Wolfram von Eschenbach, 185
+  Jewish contributions to, 35, 87
+
+_Pastor Fido_ by Guarini, 129, 240
+
+Paul III, pope, alluded to, 95
+
+Paula dei Mansi, Talmudist, 116-117
+
+Pedro I, of Castile, and Santob de Carrion, 87, 169, 170
+
+Pedro di Carvallho, navigator, 96
+
+Pekah, king, alluded to, 250
+
+Pensa, Joseph, de la Vega, dramatist, 237-238
+
+Pentateuch, the Jewish German translation of, 100
+  Mendelssohn's commentary on, 309
+
+_Peregrinatio Hierosolymitana_ by Radziwill, 280
+
+Persia, Jewish literature in, 90
+
+Pesikta, a Talmudic work, 21
+
+Petachya of Ratisbon, traveller, 37, 117
+
+Petrarch, translated into Spanish, 98
+
+Petrus Alphonsus, writer, 89, 171
+
+Peurbach, humanist, 100
+
+Philipson, L., journalist, 49
+
+Philo, philosopher, 17
+
+Philo the Elder, writer, 17
+
+Phokylides (pseudo-), Neoplatonist, 17
+
+Physicians, Jewish, 81, 95, 97, 179
+
+Pickelhering, a character in _Mekirath Yoseph_, 241
+
+Pico della Mirandola alluded to, 94
+  and Levi ben Gerson, 91
+  and the Kabbala, 44
+
+_Pilpul_, Talmudic method, 46
+
+Pinchas, rabbi, chronicler of the Saul Wahl story, 273, 277, 280
+
+_Piut_, a form of liturgic Hebrew poetry, 24, 198
+
+"Plant Lore" by Dioscorides, 82
+
+Pliny, alluded to, 250
+
+Pnie, Samson, contributes to _Parzival_, 35, 87
+
+_Poesies diverses_ by Frederick the Great, 301
+
+Poland, election of king in, 278-279
+  Jews in, 286-288
+
+Pollak, Jacob, Talmudist, 46
+
+Popert, Meyer Samson, ancestor of Heine, 341
+
+Popiel, of Poland, alluded to, 285
+
+Poppaea, empress, alluded to, 232
+
+"Praise of Women," anonymous work, 34
+
+"Praise of Women," by David ben Yehuda, 223
+
+"Praise unto the Righteous," by Luzzatto, 240-241
+
+"Prince and the Dervish, The," by Ibn Chasdai, 35
+
+Printing, influence of, on Jewish literature, 94
+
+"Prisoners of Hope, The," by Joseph Pensa, 237-238
+
+Prophecy defined by Maimonides, 161-162
+
+Proudhon anticipated by Judah ibn Tibbon, 39
+
+Psalm cxxxiii., 71-72
+
+Psalms, the, translated into Jewish German, 120
+  into Persian, 90
+
+Ptolemy Philadelphus and the Septuagint, 16
+
+Ptolemy's "Almagest" translated, 79
+
+
+Rab, rabbi, 19
+
+Rabbinical literature. See Jewish literature
+
+Rabbinowicz, Bertha, 138
+
+_Rabbi von Bacharach_ by Heine, 50, 348, 349
+
+Rachel (Bellejeune), Talmudist, 118
+
+Radziwill, Nicholas Christopher, and Saul Wahl, 274-276, 279-280
+
+"Radziwill Bible, The," 280
+
+Rambam, Jewish name for Maimonides, 146
+
+Ramler and Jews, 311, 313
+
+Rappaport, Moritz, poet, 49
+
+Rappaport, S., scholar, 49
+
+Rashi. See Solomon ben Isaac
+
+Rausnitz, Rachel, historian, 121
+
+Ravenna and Jewish financiers, 101-102
+
+"Recapitulation of the Law" by Maimonides, 152-153
+
+Recke, von der, Elise, and Mendelssohn, 215
+
+Red Sea, coasts of, explored by Jews, 96
+
+Reichardt, musician, 313
+
+Reinmar von Brennenberg, minnesinger, 182
+
+_Reisebilder_ by Heine, 353
+
+Rembrandt illustrates a Jewish book, 102
+
+Renaissance, the, and the Jews, 43-44, 74-75, 94-95, 223, 224
+
+Renaissance, the Jewish, 101, 227, 293-295
+
+Renan, Ernest, alluded to, 163, 191
+
+_Respublika Babinska_, a Polish society, 281-282
+
+_Respuestas_ by Antonio di Montoro, 180
+
+Resurrection, Maimonides on, 164-165
+
+Reuchlin, John, and Jewish scholars, 91, 94-95
+  and the Talmud, 44
+  quoted, 89
+
+Revelation defined by Maimonides, 162
+
+Richard I, of England, and Maimonides, 149
+
+Riemer quoted, 358
+
+Riesser, Gabriel, journalist, 49, 291
+
+"Righteous Brethren, The" an Arabic order, 79
+
+Rintelsohn, teacher of Heine, 344
+
+Ritter, Heinrich, on Maimonides, 146
+
+"Ritual of the Synagogue, The," by Zunz, 336
+
+_Ritus des synagogalen Gottesdienstes_ by Zunz, 336
+
+Robert of Anjou, patron of Hebrew learning, 92
+
+Robert of Naples, patron of Hebrew learning, 89
+
+Rodenberg, Julius, quoted, 144
+
+Romanelli, Samuel L., dramatist, 244, 248
+
+_Romanzero_ by Heine, 9, 27, 365
+
+Rossi, Solomon, musician, 376
+
+Rothschild, Anna, historian, 142
+  Charlotte, philanthropist, 141
+  Clementine, writer, 141-142
+  Constance, historian, 142
+
+Rothschild family, women of the, 140-142
+
+_Ruach_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Rueckert, poet, alluded to, 139
+
+"Rules for the Shoeing and Care of Horses in Royal Stables," translated, 91
+
+Rueppell, explorer, quoted, 263
+
+
+Sa'adia, philosopher, 22, 80-81
+
+Sachs, M., scholar, 49
+
+Saisset, E., on Maimonides, 146
+
+"Sale of Joseph, The" by Beermann, 241-244
+
+Salerno, Jews at academy of, 86, 92
+
+Salomon, Annette, writer, 137
+
+Salomon, G., preacher, 49
+
+Salomon, Leah, wife of Abraham Mendelssohn, 308
+
+_Salon_, the German, established by Jews, 312
+
+Salonica, Spanish exiles in, 43
+
+Sambation, fabled stream, 249, 258
+
+Samson, history of, dramatized, 236
+  humor in the, 191, 192
+
+"Samson and the Philistines" by Luzzatto, 239
+
+"Samsonschool" at Wolfenbuettel, 321
+
+Samuel, astronomer, 76
+
+Samuel, physician, 19
+
+Samuel ben Ali, Talmudist, 117
+
+Samuel ben Meir, exegete, 36, 172
+
+Samuel ibn Nagdela, grand vizir, 98
+
+Samuel Judah, father of Saul Wahl, 273, 274
+
+Samuel the Pious, hymnologist, 36
+
+Santillana, de, on Santob de Carrion, 173
+
+Santo. See Santob de Carrion
+
+Santob de Carrion, troubadour, 34, 87, 169-170, 174-175, 188
+  characterized, 173
+  character of, 178
+  quoted, 169, 175-176, 177-178
+  relation of, to Judaism, 176-177
+
+Saphir, M. G., quoted, 355
+
+Sarah, a character in _Rabbi von Bacharach_, 348
+
+Sarastro, played by a Jew, 247
+
+Satirists, 213-223
+
+Saul Juditsch. See Saul Wahl
+
+Saul Wahl, in the Russian archives, 282-284
+  relics of, 278
+  story of, 273-277
+  why so named, 276
+
+Savasorda. See Abraham ben Chiya
+
+Schadow, sculptor, 313
+
+Schallmeier, teacher of Heine, 342
+
+Schlegel, von, Friedrich, husband of Dorothea Mendelssohn, 306
+
+Schleiden, M. J., quoted, 28, 74-75
+
+Schleiermacher and the Jews, 313, 314, 323
+
+Schopenhauer, Arthur, anticipated by Gabirol, 27
+  on Heine, 357-358
+
+_Schutzjude_, a privileged Jew, 302-403
+
+Scotists and Gabirol, 26
+
+Scotus, Duns, philosopher, 82
+
+Scotus, Michael, scholar, 40, 85
+
+Scribes, the compilers of the Old Testament, 16
+
+"Seal of Perfection, The," by Abraham Bedersi, 171
+
+_Sechel Hapoel_, Active Intellect, 159
+
+_Seder_ described by Heine, 345
+
+_Sefer Asaf_, medical fragment, 81
+
+_Sefer ha-Hechal_ by Moses Rieti, 124
+
+_Sefer Sha'ashuim_ by Joseph ibn Sabara, 214
+
+_Sefiroth_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Selicha, a character in "The Sale of Joseph," 241
+
+_Selicha_, a form of Hebrew liturgical poetry, 24, 25, 198
+
+Septuagint, contents of the, 16
+
+Serach, hero of "The Gift of Judah," 214-216
+
+"Seven Wise Masters, The," romance, 88
+
+Seynensis, Henricus, quoted, 52
+
+Shachna, Solomon, Talmudist, alluded to, 286
+
+_Shalet_, a Jewish dish, 360-361
+
+Shalmaneser, conquers Israel, 250
+  obelisk of, 261
+
+Shammai, rabbi, 18
+
+Shapiro, Miriam, Talmudist, 117
+
+_Shebach Nashim_ by David ben Yehuda, 223
+
+Shem-Tob. See Santob de Carrion
+
+Sherira, Talmudist, 22
+
+"Shields of Heroes," by Jacob ben Elias, 224
+
+"Shulammith," Jewish German drama, 247
+
+_Shulchan Aruch_, code, 43
+
+Sigismund I, Jews under, 285, 286
+
+Sigismund III, and Saul Wahl, 283-284
+
+Simon ben Yochai, supposed author of the Kabbala, 19
+
+Sirkes, Joel, Talmudist, 46
+
+"Society for Jewish Culture and Science," in Berlin, 324, 346
+
+_Soferim_, Scribes, 56
+
+Solomon, king, alluded to, 250
+  and Africa, 255
+
+Solomon Ashkenazi, diplomat, 96, 286-287
+
+Solomon ben Aderet, Talmudist, 40
+
+Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), exegete, 36, 84, 137
+  essay on, by Zunz, 329
+  family of, 118
+
+Solomon ben Sakbel, satirist, 34, 213
+
+Solomon Yitschaki. See Solomon ben Isaac
+
+"Song of Joy" by Yehuda Halevi, 207
+
+"Song of Songs," a dramatic idyl, 229
+  alluded to, 207
+  characterized, 192-193
+  epitomized, 223
+  explained, 172
+  in later poetry, 202
+  quoted, 186
+
+Sonnenthal, Adolf, actor, 246
+
+Soudan, the, Moses in, 255
+
+"Source of Life, The" by Gabirol, 82-83
+
+"South, the," Talmud name for Africa, 255
+
+Spalding, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+"Spener's Journal," Zunz editor of, 330
+
+Spinoza, Benedict (Baruch), philosopher, 47, 100
+  and Maimonides, 145, 146, 164
+  influenced by Chasdai Crescas, 94
+  under Kabbalistic influence, 99
+
+"Spirit of Judaism, The," by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+Stein, L., poet, 49
+
+Steinheim, scholar, 49
+
+Steinschneider, M., scholar, 37, 49
+
+Steinthal, H., scholar, 49
+
+Stephen Bathori, of Poland, 278, 282, 287
+
+_Studie zur Bibelkritik_ by Zunz, 337
+
+Sullam, Sara Copia, poetess, 44, 124-128
+
+Surrenhuys, scholar, 48
+
+Suesskind von Trimberg, minnesinger, 35, 87, 182, 184
+  and Judaism, 187
+  character of, 188
+  poetry of, 185-186
+  quoted, 182-183, 187-188, 188-189
+
+_Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters_, by Zunz, 335
+
+"Synagogue Poetry of the Middle Ages" by Zunz, 336
+
+Syria, the Ten Tribes in, 259
+
+Syrian and Jewish poetry, 80
+
+Syrian Christians as scientific mediators, 78
+
+
+_Tachkemoni_ by Yehuda Charisi, 211
+
+Talmud, the, burnt, 40, 44
+  character of, 52-53
+  compilers of, 56, 57-58
+  composition of, 16
+  contents of, 59-60, 68-70, 76-77
+  in poetry, 201
+  on Africa, 254
+  on the Ten Tribes, 253
+  origin of, 53-54
+  study of, 17-18
+  translations of, 60
+  woman in, 110-114
+  women and children in, 63-64
+
+Talmud, the Babylonian, 54
+  compiler of, 17
+
+Talmud, the Jerusalem, compiler of, 17
+
+Talmudists, 22, 36, 40, 43, 46, 47, 117, 286
+
+Talmudists (women), 116, 117, 118
+
+Tamar, a character in Immanuel Romi's poem, 221-222
+
+_Tanaim_, Learners, 56, 57
+
+Tanchuma, a Talmudic work, 19
+
+Targum, the, in poetry, 201
+
+Telescope, the, used by Gamaliel, 77
+
+Teller, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Ten Tribes, the, English views of, 260-262
+  Irish legend of, 261
+  the prophets on, 251-252
+  the Samaritan Hexateuch on, 252
+  the supposed homes of, 256-262
+  the Talmud on, 253
+
+Tertullian quoted, 233
+
+Theatre, the, and the rabbis, 230-234
+
+Theodore, Negus of Abyssinia, 263, 267
+
+_Theorica_ by Peurbach, 100
+
+Thomists and Gabirol, 24
+
+"Thoughts suggested by Bible Texts" by Louise Rothschild, 141
+
+_Tifereth_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+Tiglath-Pileser conquers Israel, 250
+
+Tiktiner, Rebekah, scholar, 119
+
+"Till Eulenspiegel," the Jewish German, 101
+
+Tolerance in Germany, 185, 189
+
+"Touchstone" by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, 33, 216-219
+
+"Tower of Victory" by Luzzatto, 239
+
+Tragedy, nature of, 195
+
+Travellers, Jewish, 80
+
+"Tristan and Isolde" compared with the _Mechabberoth_, 220
+
+Troubadour poetry and the Jews, 171-173
+
+Troubadours, 223
+
+"Truth's Campaign," anonymous work, 32
+
+Turkey, Jews in, 98
+
+"Two Tables of the Testimony, The," by Isaiah Hurwitz, 43
+
+Tycho de Brahe and Jewish astronomers, 92
+
+
+Uhden, von, and Mendelssohn, 302
+
+Uhland, poet, alluded to, 139
+
+Ulla, itinerant preacher, 114
+
+"Upon the Philosophy of Maimonides," prize essay, 145
+
+Usque, Samuel, poet, 44
+
+Usque, Solomon, poet, 98, 235
+
+
+"Vale of Weeping, The," by Joseph Cohen, 44
+
+Varnhagen, Rahel. See Levin, Rahel
+
+Varnhagen von Ense, German _litterateur_, 312
+
+Vecinho, Joseph, astronomer, 96
+
+Veit, Philip, painter, 308
+
+Veit, Simon, husband of Dorothea Mendelssohn, 306
+
+Venino, alluded to, 302
+
+Venus of Milo and Heine, 362
+
+Vespasian and Jochanan ben Zakkai, 57
+
+
+Walther von der Vogelweide, minnesinger, 182, 189
+
+Wandering Jew, the, myth of, 350
+
+"War of Wealth and Wisdom, The," satire, 34
+
+"Water Song" by Gabirol, 200-201
+
+Weil, Jacob, Talmudist, 102
+
+Weill, Alexander, and Heine, 363-364
+
+_Weltschmerz_ in Gabirol's poetry, 199
+  in Heine's poetry, 357
+
+Wesseli, musician, 313
+
+Wessely, Naphtali Hartwig, commentator, 48, 309
+
+Wieland, poet, alluded to, 314
+
+Wihl, poet, 49
+
+Wine, creation of, 197-198
+
+Withold, grandduke, and the Lithuanian Jews, 282, 284
+
+Wohllerner, Yenta, poetess, 138
+
+Wohlwill, Immanuel, friend of Zunz, letter to, 325
+
+Wolfenbuettel, Jews' free school at, 320-321
+
+Wolff, Hebrew scholar, 48
+
+Wolfram von Eschenbach, minnesinger, 182, 185, 189
+
+Woman, creation of, 197
+  in Jewish annals, 110
+  in literature, 106-107
+  in the Talmud, 64, 110-114
+  mental characteristics of, 121-122
+  satirized and defended, 223-224
+  services of, to Judaism, 115-116
+
+"Woman's Friend" by Yedaya Penini, 216
+
+Women, Jewish, in the emancipation movement, 133, 139
+
+"Women of Israel, The" by Grace Aguilar, 134
+
+"Women's Shield," by Judah Tommo, 224
+
+"World as Will and Idea, The," by Schopenhauer, 357
+
+
+Xemona. See Kasmune
+
+
+Yaltha, wife of Rabbi Nachman, 113-114
+
+Yechiel ben Abraham, financier, 99
+
+Yechiel dei Mansi, alluded to, 116
+
+Yedaya Penini, poet, 40, 216
+
+Yehuda ben Astruc, scientist, 92
+
+Yehuda ben Zakkai quoted, 68
+
+Yehuda Charisi, poet, 32, 34 (note), 210-213
+  on Gabirol, 27
+  quoted, 214
+  traveller, 37
+
+Yehuda Chayyug, alluded to, 257
+
+Yehuda Hakohen, Talmudist, 36
+
+Yehuda Halevi, as philosopher, 31, 34
+  as poet, 24, 27-28, 206-210
+  daughter of, 117
+
+Yehuda Romano, translator, 90
+
+Yehuda Sabbatai, satirist, 34, 214
+
+Yehuda the Prince, Mishna compiler, 19, 58
+  lament over, 65-66
+
+Yemen, Judaism in, 256
+
+_Yesod_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+_Yesod Olam_ by Moses Zacuto, 238-239
+
+_Yezira_, Kabbalistic term, 41
+
+"Yosippon," an historical compilation, 120, 249, 250, 321
+
+Yucatan and the Ten Tribes, 259
+
+
+Zacuto, Abraham, astronomer, 42, 96-97
+
+Zacuto, Moses, dramatist, 238-239
+
+Zarzal, Moses, physician, 179
+
+_Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft_,
+  Zunz contributor to, 337
+
+Zeltner, J. G., on Rebekah Tiktiner, 119
+
+Zerubbabel, alluded to, 253
+
+Zohar, the, astronomy in, 91
+  authorship of, 39
+
+Zoellner, friend of Henriette Herz, 313
+
+Zunz, Adelheid, wife of Leopold Zunz, 337, 352
+
+Zunz, Leopold, scholar, 25, 48
+  and religious reform, 335
+  as journalist, 330
+  as pedagogue, 324
+  as politician, 330-332
+  as preacher, 322-323
+  characterized by Heine, 327-328
+  described by Jost, 320
+  education of, 320-322
+  friend of Heine, 346
+  importance of, for Judaism, 338
+  in Berlin, 318-319
+  quoted, 11-12, 119, 323, 325-327, 330, 331, 332, 334, 336, 371
+  style of, 338
+
+"Zur Geschichte und Litteratur" by Zunz, 337
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+PUBLICATIONS OF THE Jewish Publication Society OF AMERICA
+
+OUTLINES OF JEWISH HISTORY. From the Return from Babylon to the Present
+Time. By Lady Magnus. (Revised by M. Friedlaender.)
+
+THINK AND THANK. By Samuel W. Cooper.
+
+RABBI AND PRIEST. By Milton Goldsmith.
+
+THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.
+
+VOEGELE'S MARRIAGE AND OTHER TALES. By Louis Schnabel.
+
+CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO: BEING PICTURES OF A
+
+PECULIAR PEOPLE. By I. Zangwill.
+
+SOME JEWISH WOMEN. By Henry Zirndorf.
+
+HISTORY OF THE JEWS. By Prof. H. Graetz.
+
+Vol. I.   From the Earliest Period to the Death of Simon
+  the Maccabee (135 B.C.E.).
+
+Vol. II. From the Reign of Hyrcanus to the Completion of
+  the Babylonian Talmud (500 C.E.).
+
+Vol. III. From the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud to
+  the Expulsion of the Jews from England (1290 C.E.).
+
+Vol. IV. From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C.E.)
+  to the Permanent Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C.E.).
+
+Vol. V.   In preparation.
+
+SABBATH HOURS. Thoughts. By Liebman Adler.
+
+PAPERS OF THE JEWISH WOMEN'S CONGRESS.
+
+OLD EUROPEAN JEWRIES. By David Philipson, D.D.
+
+Dues, $3.00 per Annum
+
+ALL PUBLICATIONS FOR SALE BY THE TRADE AND AT THE SOCIETY'S OFFICE
+
+SPECIAL TERMS TO SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES
+
+
+THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
+Office, 1015 Arch St.
+P. O. Box 1164
+PHILADELPHIA, PA.
+
+
+OUTLINES OF JEWISH HISTORY.
+
+From the Return from Babylon to the Present Time, 1890.
+
+With Three Maps, a Frontispiece and Chronological Tables,
+
+BY LADY MAGNUS.
+
+REVISED BY M. FRIEDLAeNDER, PH.D.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+The entire work is one of great interest; it is written with moderation,
+and yet with a fine enthusiasm for the great race which is set before
+the reader's mind.--_Atlantic Monthly._
+
+We doubt whether there is in the English language a better sketch of
+Jewish history. The Jewish Publication Society is to be congratulated on
+the successful opening of its career. Such a movement, so auspiciously
+begun, deserves the hearty support of the public.--_Nation_ (New York).
+
+Of universal historical interest.--_Philadelphia Ledger._
+
+Compresses much in simple language.--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+Though full of sympathy for her own people, it is not without a singular
+value for readers whose religious belief differs from that of the
+author.--_New York Times._
+
+One of the clearest and most compact works of its class produced in
+modern times.--_New York Sun._
+
+The Jewish Publication Society of America has not only conferred a favor
+upon all young Hebrews, but also upon all Gentiles who desire to see the
+Jew as he appears to himself.--_Boston Herald._
+
+We know of no single-volume history which gives a better idea of the
+remarkable part played by the Jews in ancient and modern history.--_San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+A succinct, well-written history of a wonderful race.--_Buffalo
+Courier._
+
+The best hand-book of Jewish history that readers of any class can
+find.--_New York Herald._
+
+A convenient and attractive hand-book of Jewish history.--_Cleveland
+Plain Dealer._
+
+The work is an admirable one, and as a manual of Jewish history, it may
+be commended to persons of every race and creed.--_Philadelphia Times._
+
+Altogether it would be difficult to find another book on this subject
+containing so much information.--_American_ (Philadelphia).
+
+Lady Magnus' book is a valuable addition to the store-house of
+literature that we already have about the Jews.--_Charleston (S. C.)
+News._
+
+We should like to see this volume in the library of every school in the
+State.--_Albany Argus._
+
+A succinct, helpful portrayal of Jewish history.--_Boston Post._
+
+Bound in Cloth. Price, postpaid, $1.00, Library Edition.
+
+75 cents. School Edition.
+
+
+"THINK AND THANK."
+
+A Tale for the Young, Narrating in Romantic Form the Boyhood of Sir
+Moses Montefiore.
+
+WITH SIX ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+BY SAMUEL W. COOPER.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+A graphic and interesting story, full of incident and adventure, with an
+admirable spirit attending it consonant with the kindly and sweet,
+though courageous and energetic temper of the distinguished
+philanthropist.--_American_ (Philadelphia).
+
+THINK AND THANK is a most useful corrective to race prejudice. It is
+also deeply interesting as a biographical sketch of a distinguished
+Englishman.--_Philadelphia Ledger._
+
+A fine book for boys of any class to read.--_Public Opinion_
+(Washington).
+
+It will have especial interest for the boys of his race, but all
+school-boys can well afford to read it and profit by it.--_Albany
+Evening Journal._
+
+Told simply and well.--_New York Sun._
+
+An excellent story for children.--_Indianapolis Journal._
+
+The old as well as the young may learn a lesson from it.--_Jewish
+Exponent._
+
+It is a thrilling story exceedingly well told.--_American Israelite._
+
+The book is written in a plain, simple style, and is well adapted for
+Sunday School libraries.--_Jewish Spectator._
+
+It is one of the very few books in the English language which can be
+placed in the hands of a Jewish boy with the assurance of arousing and
+maintaining his interest.--_Hebrew Journal._
+
+Intended for the young, but may well be read by their elders.--_Detroit
+Free Press._
+
+Bright and attractive reading.--_Philadelphia Press._
+
+THINK AND THANK will please boys, and it will be found popular in Sunday
+School libraries.--_New York Herald._
+
+The story is a beautiful one, and gives a clear insight into the
+circumstances, the training and the motives that gave impulse and energy
+to the life-work of the great philanthropist.--_Kansas City Times._
+
+We should be glad to know that this little book has a large circulation
+among Gentiles as well as among the "chosen people." It has no trace of
+religious bigotry about it, and its perusal cannot but serve to make
+Christian and Jew better known to each other.--_Philadelphia Telegraph._
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, 50c.
+
+
+RABBI AND PRIEST.
+
+A STORY.
+
+BY MILTON GOLDSMITH.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+The author has attempted to depict faithfully the customs and practices
+of the Russian people and government in connection with the Jewish
+population of that country. The book is a strong and well-written story.
+We read and suffer with the sufferers.--_Public Opinion_ (Washington).
+
+Although addressed to Jews, with an appeal to them to seek freedom and
+peace in America, it ought to be read by humane people of all races and
+religions. Mr. Goldsmith is a master of English, and his pure style is
+one of the real pleasures of the story.--_Philadelphia Bulletin._
+
+The book has the merit of being well written, is highly entertaining,
+and it cannot fail to prove of interest to all who may want to acquaint
+themselves in the matter of the condition of affairs that has recently
+been attracting universal attention.--_San Francisco Call._
+
+RABBI AND PRIEST has genuine worth, and is entitled to a rank among the
+foremost of its class.--_Minneapolis Tribune._
+
+The writer tells his story from the Jewish standpoint, and tells it
+well.--_St. Louis Republic._
+
+The descriptions of life in Russia are vivid and add greatly to the
+charm of the book.--_Buffalo Courier._
+
+A very thrilling story.--_Charleston (S.C.) News._
+
+Very like the horrid tales that come from unhappy Russia.--_New Orleans
+Picayune._
+
+The situations are dramatic; the dialogue is spirited.--_Jewish
+Messenger._
+
+A history of passing events in an interesting form.--_Jewish Tidings._
+
+RABBI AND PRIEST will appeal to the sympathy of every reader in its
+touching simplicity and truthfulness.--_Jewish Spectator._
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $1.
+
+
+SPECIAL SERIES NO. 1.
+
+The Persecution of the Jews in Russia.
+
+WITH A MAP, SHOWING THE PALE OF JEWISH SETTLEMENT.
+
+Also, an Appendix, giving an Abridged Summary of Laws,
+
+Special and Restrictive, relating to the Jews in
+
+Russia, brought down to the year 1890.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+The pamphlet is full of facts, and will inform people very fully in
+regard to the basis of the complaints made by Jews against Russia. We
+hope it will be very widely circulated.--_Public Opinion_ (Washington).
+
+The laws and regulations governing Jews in Russia, subjecting them to
+severe oppression, grievous restrictions and systematic persecution, are
+stated in condensed form with precise references, bespeaking exactness
+in compilation and in presenting the case of these unfortunate
+people.--_Galveston News._
+
+This pamphlet supplies information that is much in demand, and which
+ought to be generally known in enlightened countries.--_Cincinnati
+Commercial Gazette._
+
+Considering the present agitation upon the subject it is a very timely
+publication.--_New Orleans Picayune._
+
+It is undoubtedly the most compact and thorough presentation of the
+Russo-Jewish question.--_American Israelite._
+
+Better adapted to the purpose of affording an adequate knowledge of the
+issues involved in, and the consequences of, the present great crisis in
+the affairs of the Jews of Russia than reams of rhetoric.--_Hebrew
+Journal._
+
+Paper.
+Price, postpaid, 25c.
+
+
+SPECIAL SERIES NO. 2.
+
+Voegele's Marriage and Other Tales.
+
+BY LOUIS SCHNABEL.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+A series of nine well-written short stories based upon love and
+religion, which make quite interesting reading.--_Burlington Hawkeye._
+
+A pamphlet containing several sketches full of high moral principle, and
+of quite interesting developments of simple human emergencies.--_Public
+Opinion_ (Washington, D. C.)
+
+Interesting alike to Hebrew and Gentile.--_Minneapolis Tribune._
+
+In addition to being interesting, is written with a purpose, and carries
+with it a wholesome lesson.--_San Francisco Call._
+
+This is a collection of brief stories of Jewish life, some of which are
+of great interest, while all are well written.--_Charleston (S. C.) News
+and Courier._
+
+The little volume as a whole is curious and interesting, aside from its
+claims to artistic merit.--_American Bookseller_ (New York).
+
+Short tales of Jewish life under the oppressive laws of Eastern Europe,
+full of minute detail.--_Book News_ (Philadelphia).
+
+Written in delightful style, somewhat in the manner of Kompert and
+Bernstein.... To many the booklet will be a welcome visitor and be
+greatly relished.--_Menorah Monthly._
+
+These stories are permeated with the Jewish spirit which is
+characteristic of all Mr. Schnabel's works.--_American Hebrew._
+
+Paper.
+Price, postpaid, 25c.
+
+
+CHILDREN OF THE GHETTO
+
+_BEING_
+
+PICTURES OF A PECULIAR PEOPLE.
+
+BY I. ZANGWILL.
+
+
+The art of a Hogarth or a Cruikshank could not have made types of
+character stand out with greater force or in bolder relief than has the
+pen of this author.--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+It is one of the best pictures of Jewish life and thought that we have
+seen since the publication of "Daniel Deronda."--London _Pall Mall
+Gazette_.
+
+This book is not a mere mechanical photographic reproduction of the
+people it describes, but a glowing, vivid portrayal of them, with all
+the pulsating sympathy of one who understands them, their thoughts and
+feelings, with all the picturesque fidelity of the artist who
+appreciates the spiritual significance of that which he seeks to
+delineate.--_Hebrew Journal._
+
+Its sketches of character have the highest value.... Not often do we
+note a book so fresh, true and in every way helpful.--_Philadelphia
+Evening Telegraph._
+
+A strong and remarkable book. It is not easy to find a parallel to it.
+We do not know of any other novel which deals so fully and so
+authoritatively with Judaea in modern London.--_Speaker, London._
+
+Among the notable productions of the time.... All that is here portrayed
+is unquestionable truth.--_Jewish Exponent._
+
+Many of the pictures will be recognized at once by those who have
+visited London or are at all familiar with the life of that
+city.--_Detroit Free Press._
+
+It is a succession of sharply-penned realistic portrayals.--_Baltimore
+American._
+
+TWO VOLUMES.
+
+Bound in Cloth.         Price, postpaid, $2.50.
+
+
+SOME JEWISH WOMEN.
+
+BY
+
+HENRY ZIRNDORF.
+
+
+=_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS._=
+
+Moral purity, nobility of soul, self-sacrifice, deep affection and
+devotion, sorrow and happiness all enter into these biographies, and the
+interest felt in their perusal is added to by the warmth and sympathy
+which the author displays and by his cultured and vigorous style of
+writing.--_Philadelphia Record._
+
+His methods are at once a simplification and expansion of Josephus and
+the Talmud, stories simply told, faithful presentation of the virtues,
+and not infrequently the vices, of characters sometimes legendary,
+generally real.--_New York World._
+
+The lives here given are interesting in all cases, and are thrilling in
+some cases.--_Public Opinion_ (Washington, D.C.).
+
+The volume is one of universal historic interest, and is a portrayal of
+the early trials of Jewish women.--_Boston Herald._
+
+Though the chapters are brief, they are clearly the result of deep and
+thorough research that gives the modest volume an historical and
+critical value.--_Philadelphia Times._
+
+It is an altogether creditable undertaking that the present author has
+brought to so gratifying a close--the silhouette drawing of Biblical
+female character against the background of those ancient historic
+times.--_Minneapolis Tribune._
+
+Henry Zirndorf ranks high as a student, thinker and writer, and this
+little book will go far to encourage the study of Hebrew
+literature.--_Denver Republican._
+
+The book is gracefully written, and has many strong touches of
+characterizations.--_Toledo Blade._
+
+The sketches are based upon available history and are written in clear
+narrative style.--_Galveston News._
+
+Henry Zirndorf has done a piece of work of much literary excellence in
+"SOME JEWISH WOMEN."--S_t. Louis Post-Dispatch._
+
+It is an attractive book in appearance and full of curious biographical
+research.--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+The writer shows careful research and conscientiousness in making his
+narratives historically correct and in giving to each heroine her just
+due.--_American Israelite_ (Cincinnati).
+
+Bound in Cloth, Ornamental, Gilt Top. Price, postpaid, $1.25.
+
+
+HISTORY OF THE JEWS
+
+BY
+
+PROFESSOR H. GRAETZ
+
+
+Vol. I. From the Earliest Period to the Death of Simon the Maccabee (135
+B.C.E.).
+
+Vol. II. From the Reign of Hyrcanus to the Completion of the Babylonian
+Talmud (500 C.E.).
+
+Vol. III. From the Completion of the Babylonian Talmud to the Banishment
+of the Jews from England (1290 C.E.).
+
+Vol. IV. From the Rise of the Kabbala (1270 C.E.) to the Permanent
+Settlement of the Marranos in Holland (1618 C.E.).
+
+Vol. V. In preparation.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.=
+
+Professor Graetz's History is universally accepted as a conscientious
+and reliable contribution to religious literature.--_Philadelphia
+Telegraph._
+
+Aside from his value as a historian, he makes his pages charming by all
+the little side-lights and illustrations which only come at the beck of
+genius.--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._
+
+The writer, who is considered by far the greatest of Jewish historians,
+is the pioneer in his field of work--history without theology or
+polemics.... His monumental work promises to be the standard by which
+all other Jewish histories are to be measured by Jews for many years to
+come.--_Baltimore American._
+
+Whenever the subject constrains the author to discuss the Christian
+religion, he is animated by a spirit not unworthy of the philosophic and
+high-minded hero of Lessing's "Nathan the Wise."--_New York Sun._
+
+It is an exhaustive and scholarly work, for which the student of history
+has reason to be devoutly thankful.... It will be welcomed also for the
+writer's excellent style and for the almost gossipy way in which he
+turns aside from the serious narrative to illumine his pages with
+illustrative descriptions of life and scenery.--_Detroit Free Press._
+
+One of the striking features of the compilation is its succinctness and
+rapidity of narrative, while at the same time necessary detail is not
+sacrificed.--_Minneapolis Tribune._
+
+Whatever controversies the work may awaken, of its noble scholarship
+there can be no question.--_Richmond Dispatch._
+
+If one desires to study the history of the Jewish people under the
+direction of a scholar and pleasant writer who is in sympathy with his
+subject because he is himself a Jew, he should resort to the volumes of
+Graetz.--_Review of Reviews_ (New York).
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $3 per Volume
+
+
+SABBATH HOURS
+
+=THOUGHTS=
+
+BY LIEBMAN ADLER
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS=
+
+Rabbi Adler was a man of strong and fertile mind, and his sermons are
+eminently readable.--_Sunday School Times._
+
+As one turns from sermon to sermon, he gathers a wealth of precept
+which, if he would practice, he would make both himself and others
+happier. We might quote from every page some noble utterance or sweet
+thought well worthy of the cherishing by either Jew or
+Christian.--_Richmond Dispatch._
+
+The topics discussed are in the most instances practical in their
+nature. All are instructive, and passages of rare eloquence are of
+frequent occurrence.--_San Francisco Call._
+
+The sermons are simple and careful studies, sometimes of doctrine, but
+more often of teaching and precept.--_Chicago Times._
+
+He combined scholarly attainment with practical experience, and these
+sermons cover a wide range of subject. Some of them are singularly
+modern in tone.--_Indianapolis News._
+
+They are modern sermons, dealing with the problems of the day, and
+convey the interpretation which these problems should receive in the
+light of the Old Testament history.--_Boston Herald._
+
+While this book is not without interest in those communities where there
+is no scarcity of religious teaching and influence, it cannot fail to be
+particularly so in those communities where there is but little Jewish
+teaching.--_Baltimore American._
+
+The sermons are thoughtful and earnest in tone and draw many forcible
+and pertinent lessons from the Old Testament records.--_Syracuse
+Herald._
+
+They are saturated with Bible lore, but every incident taken from the
+Old Testament is made to illustrate some truth in modern life.--_San
+Francisco Chronicle._
+
+They are calm and conservative, ... applicable in their essential
+meaning to the modern religious needs of Gentile as well as Jew. In
+style they are eminently clear and direct.-_-Review of Reviews_ (New
+York).
+
+Able, forcible, helpful thoughts upon themes most essential to the
+prosperity of the family, society and the state.--_Public Opinion_
+(Washington, D.C.).
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $1.25
+
+
+PAPERS
+
+OF THE
+
+Jewish Women's Congress
+
+Held at Chicago, September, 1893
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS=
+
+This meeting was held during the first week of September, and was marked
+by the presentation of some particularly interesting addresses and
+plans. This volume is a complete report of the sessions.--_Chicago
+Times._
+
+The collection in book form of the papers read at the Jewish Women's
+Congress ... makes an interesting and valuable book, of the history and
+affairs of the Jewish women of America.--_St. Louis Post-Dispatch._
+
+A handsome and valuable souvenir of an event of great significance to
+the people of the Jewish faith, and of much interest and value to
+intelligent and well informed people of all faiths.--_Kansas City
+Times._
+
+The Congress was a branch of the Parliament of Religions and was a great
+success, arousing the interest of Jews and Christians alike, and
+bringing together from all parts of the country women interested in
+their religion, following similar lines of work and sympathetic in ways
+of thought.... The papers in the volume are all of interest.--_Detroit
+Free Press._
+
+The Jewish Publication Society of America has done a good work in
+gathering up and issuing in a well-printed volume the "Papers of the
+Jewish Women's Congress."--_Cleveland Plain-Dealer._
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $1
+
+
+OLD EUROPEAN JEWRIES
+
+BY DAVID PHILIPSON, D.D.
+
+
+=OPINIONS OF THE PRESS=
+
+A good purpose is served in this unpretending little book, ... which
+contains an amount and kind of information that it would be difficult to
+find elsewhere without great labor. The author's subject is the Ghetto,
+or Jewish quarter in European cities.--_Literary World_ (Boston).
+
+It is interesting ... to see the foundation of ... so much fiction that
+is familiar to us--to go, as the author here has gone in one of his
+trips abroad, into the remains of the old Jewries.--_Baltimore Sun._
+
+His book is a careful study limited to the official Ghetto.--_Cincinnati
+Commercial-Gazette._
+
+Out-of-the-way information, grateful to the delver in antiquities, forms
+the staple of a work on the historic Ghettos of Europe--_Milwaukee
+Sentinel._
+
+He tells the story of the Ghettos calmly, sympathetically and
+conscientiously, and his deductions are in harmony with those of all
+other intelligent and fair-minded men.--_Richmond Dispatch._
+
+A striking study of the results of a system that has left its mark upon
+the Jews of all countries.--_San Francisco Chronicle._
+
+He has carefully gone over all published accounts and made
+discriminating use of the publications, both recent and older, on his
+subject, in German, French and English.--_Reform Advocate_ (Chicago).
+
+Bound in Cloth.
+Price, postpaid, $1.25
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Zunz, _Gesammelte Schriften_, I., 42.
+
+[2] G. Scherr, _Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur_, I., p. 62.
+
+[3] F. Freiligrath, _Die Bilderbibel_.
+
+[4] D. Cassel, _Lehrbuch der juedischen Geschichte und Literatur_, p.
+198.
+
+[5] Heine, _Romanzero, Jehuda ben Halevy_.
+
+[6] F. Delitzsch, _Zur Geschichte der juedischen Poesie_, p. 165.
+
+[7] Heine, _l. c._
+
+[8] Heine, _l. c._
+
+[9] M. J. Schleiden, _Die Bedeutung der Juden fuer die Erhaltung der
+Wissenschaften im Mittelalter_, p. 37.
+
+[10] Ezek. xxiii. 4. [Tr.]
+
+[11] Ad. Jellinek, _Der juedische Stamm_, p. 195.
+
+[12] "Makama (plural, Makamat), the Arabic word for a place where people
+congregate to discuss public affairs, came to be used as the name of a
+form of poetry midway between the epic and the drama." (Karpeles,
+_Geschichte der juedischen Literatur_, vol. II., p. 693.) The most famous
+Arabic poet of Makamat was Hariri of Bassora, and the most famous
+Jewish, Yehuda Charisi. See above, p. 32, and p. 211 [Tr.]
+
+[13] Hirt, _Bibliothek_, V., p. 43.
+
+[14] _Midrash Echah_, I., 5; Mishna, _Rosh Hashana_, chap. II.
+
+[15] Cmp. Wuensche, Die Haggada des jerusalemischen Talmud, and the same
+author's great work, Die Haggada des babylonischen Talmud, IL; also W.
+Bacher, Die Agada der Tannaiten, Die Agada der babylonischen Amoraeer,
+and Die Agada der palaestinensischen Amoraeer, Vol. I.
+
+[16] M. Sachs, _Stimmen vom Jordan und Euphrat_.
+
+[17] Emanuel Deutsch, "Literary Remains," p. 45.
+
+[18] Address at the dedication of the new meeting-house of the
+Independent Order B'nai B'rith, at Berlin.
+
+[19] Numbers, xxi. 17, 18.
+
+[20] Psalm cxxxiii.
+
+[21] M. J. Schleiden: _Die Bedeutung der Juden fuer die Erhaltung der
+Wissenschaften im Mittelalter_, p. 7.
+
+[22] _Moed Katan_, 26_a_.
+
+[23] Cmp. "Israel's Quest in Africa," pp. 257-258
+
+[24] Cmp. Gutmann, _Die Religiousphilosophie des Saadja_.
+
+[25] M. Hess, _Rom und Jerusalem_, p. 2.
+
+[26] Midrash _Yalkut_ on Proverbs.
+
+[27] _Berachoth_, 10_a_.
+
+[28] _Baba Metsiah_, 59_a_.
+
+[29] _Sota_, 20_a_.
+
+[30] _Berachoth_, 51_b_.
+
+[31] Cmp. W. Bacher in _Frankel-Graetz Monatsschrift_, Vol. XX., p. 186.
+
+[32] Cmp. E. David, _Sara Copia Sullam, une heroine juive au XVII^e
+siecle_.
+
+[33] For the following, compare Kayserling, _Sephardim_, p. 250 _ff._
+
+[34] Cmp. _Rahel, ein Buch des Andenkens fuer ihre Freunde_, Vol. I., p.
+43.
+
+[35] By Julius Rodenberg.
+
+[36] Ritter, _Geschichte der christlichen Philosophie_, Vol. I., p. 610
+ff.
+
+[37] Joel, _Beitraege zur Geschichte der Philosophie_, Vol. II., p. 9.
+
+[38] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, Vol. VI., p. 298 _f._
+
+[39] "The Guide of the Perplexed," the English translation, consulted in
+this work, was made by M. Friedlaender, Ph. D., (London, Truebner & Co.,
+1885). [Tr.]
+
+[40] Joel, _l. c._
+
+[41] Cmp. Kayserling, _Sephardim_, p. 23 _ff._
+
+[42] Translation by Ticknor. [Tr.]
+
+[43] Cmp. F. Wolf, _Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen
+Nationalliteratur_, p. 236 _ff._
+
+[44] Cmp. Kayserling, _l. c._ p. 85 _ff._
+
+[45] Livius Fuerst in _Illustrirte Monatshefte fuer die gesammten
+Interessen des Judenthums_, Vol. I., p. 14 ff. Cmp. also, Hagen,
+_Minnesaenger_, Vol. II., p. 258, Vol. IV., p. 536 ff., and W. Goldbaum,
+_Entlegene Culturen_, p. 275 _ff._
+
+[46] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, Vol. VI., p. 257.
+
+[47] For Gabirol, cmp. A. Geiger, _Salomon Gabirol_, and M. Sachs, _Die
+religioese Poesie der Juden in Spanien_.
+
+[48] H. Heine, _Romanzero_.
+
+[49] Translation by Emma Lazarus. [Tr.]
+
+[50] See note, p. 34. [Tr.]
+
+[51] J. Schor in _He-Chaluz_, Vol. IV., p. 154 _ff._
+
+[52] S. Stein in _Freitagabend_, p. 645 _ff._
+
+[53] H. A. Meisel, _Der Pruefstein des Kalonymos_.
+
+[54] Livius Fuerst in _Illustrirte Monatshefte_, Vol. I., p. 105 _ff._
+
+[55] _Aboda Sara_ 18_b_.
+
+[56] Midrash on Lamentations, ch. 3, v. 13 _ff._
+
+[57] Jerusalem Talmud, _Berachoth_, 9.
+
+[58] Cmp. Berliner, _Yesod Olam, das aelteste bekannte dramatische
+Gedicht in hebraeischer Sprache_.
+
+[59] Delitzsch, _Zur Geschichte der juedischen Poesie_, p. 88.
+
+[60] Jellinek, _Der juedische Stamm_, p. 64.
+
+[61] Aristotle, _Hist. Anim._, 8, 28. Nicephorus Gregoras, _Hist.
+Byzant._, p. 805.
+
+[62] Isaiah xi. 11-16.
+
+[63] Jeremiah xxxi. 8-9.
+
+[64] Isaiah xlix. 9 and xxvii. 13.
+
+[65] Ezekiel xxxvii. 16-17.
+
+[66] Cmp. Spiegel, _Die Alexandersagen bei den Orientalen_.
+
+[67] Cmp. A. Epstein, _Eldad ha-Dani_, p. x.
+
+[68] Rueppell, _Reisen in Nubien_, p. 416.
+
+[69] Cmp. Epstein, _l. c._, p. 141.
+
+[70] _Alliance_ Report for 1868.
+
+[71] Halevy, _Les prieres des Falashas_, Introduction.
+
+[72] Cmp. Edelmann, _Gedulath Shaul_, Introduction.
+
+[73] Cmp. H. Goldbaum, _Entlegene Culturen_, p. 299 _ff._
+
+[74] _Woschod_, 1889, No. 10 _ff._
+
+[75] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, IX., p. 480.
+
+[76] Ezekiel xxxvii. 1-11.
+
+[77] J. G. Herder.
+
+[78] M. Kayserling: _Moses Mendelssohn_, and L. Geiger, _Geschichte der
+Juden in Berlin_, II.
+
+[79] Lessing, _Gesammelte Schriften_, Vol. XII., p. 247.
+
+[80] Mendelssohn, _Gesammelte Schriften_, Vol. IV^2, 68 _ff._
+
+[81] Hensel, _Die Familie Mendelssohn_, Vol. I., p. 86.
+
+[82] Cmp. I. Heinemann, _Moses Mendelssohn_, p. 21.
+
+[83] Cmp. Buker and Caro, _Vor hundert Jahren_, p. 123.
+
+[84] Address delivered at the installation of the Leopold Zunz Lodge at
+Berlin.
+
+[85] In _Sippurim_, I., 165 _ff._
+
+[86] Administrators of the secular affairs of Jewish congregations.
+[Tr.]
+
+[87] Compassion, charity. [Tr.]
+
+[88] Talmudical dialectics. [Tr.]
+
+[89] Cmp. Strodtmann: _H. Heine_, Vol. I., p. 316.
+
+[90] Zunz, _Gesammelte Schriften_, Vol. I., p. 3 _ff._
+
+[91] _Ibid._, p. 301.
+
+[92] _Ibid._, p. 310.
+
+[93] _Ibid._, p. 316.
+
+[94] _Ibid._, p. 133.
+
+[95] Cmp. _Memoiren_ in his Collected Works, Vol. VI., p. 375 _ff._
+
+[96] Ludwig Kalisch, _Pariser Skizzen_, p. 331.
+
+[97] Collected Works, Vol. IV., p. 227.
+
+[98] _Ibid._, Vol. III., p. 13.
+
+[99] _Ibid._, Vol. IV., p. 257 _ff._
+
+[100] _Ibid._, Vol. VIII., p. 390 _ff._
+
+[101] _Ibid._, Vol. I., p. 196.
+
+[102] Vol. II., p. 110. Cmp. Frauenstaedt, _A. Schopenhauer_, p. 467
+_ff._
+
+[103] Collected Works, Vol. VII., p. 255 _ff._
+
+[104] Alfred Meissner, _Heinrich Heine_, p. 138 _ff._
+
+[105] Ludwig Kalisch, _Pariser Skizzen_, p. 334.
+
+[106] Collected Works, Vol. VII., 473 _ff._
+
+[107] Address at the celebration of Herr Lewandowski's fiftieth
+anniversary as director of music.
+
+[108] _Yoma_, 38_a_.
+
+[109] Cmp. Fetis, _Histoire generale de la Musique_, Vol. I., p. 563
+_ff._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jewish Literature and Other Essays, by
+Gustav Karpeles
+
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