Hebrew Literature. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ in their decisions. Like Christian leaders in later times, they strove to exceed each other in learning and pride. Hillel, called also the second Ezra, was born in Babylon. His thirst for learning drove him to Jerusalem. He was so poor he could not fee the porter of the college. So he used to listen at the window. One bitter winter's night he became insensible from cold, and the snow falling fast covered him up. The darkened window called the attention of those inside to his form without. He was then brought in, and soon restored to life. It is said that afterward “he had eighty scholars: thirty of them were fit that the divine glory should rest upon them, as it did upon Moses—thirty others were worthy that the sun should stand still for them, as it did for Joshua—and twenty were of a form between.”

      By a sort of legal fiction both schools are supposed to be of equal authority. A Bath Kol5 or holy echo, supplying the place of departed Urim and Thummim, and of oracles long since silent, is related to have established it. “There came forth a divine voice at Jabneh and said, The words of the one and of the other are the words of the living God, but the certain determination of the thing is according to the School of Hillel, and whosoever transgresseth against the words of the School of Hillel deserves death.” Both schools were Pharisees, but the School of Shammai was the straiter sect. Seven different shades of character have been attributed to the Pharisees of that age: there were those who served God [pg 016] from selfishness—those who did it gradually—those who avoided the sight of women—saints in office—those who asked you to name some duty which they ought to perform—those who were pious from fear of God—and those who were pious from love of Him. Popular opinion differed with regard to them. Some said, “If only two men be saved, one must be a Pharisee”; while others defined a Pharisee to be “one who wished to play the part of Zimri, and to claim the reward of Phinehas.” The great opponents of the Pharisees were the Sadducees, who arose b.c. 300, and were followers of Baithos and Sadok. Their rivals on the other side were the Mehestanites, who returned from the Captivity versed in the doctrines of Zoroaster—in astrology, and in the influences of good and bad spirits. To these might be added the Misraimites, who studied the Kabbala, specially in reference to the forms of letters. The letter Koph, for example, has its curved part severed from its stem, and thus teaches that “the door of mercy is always open to the penitent.” The numerical value of the letters of Messiah and Nachash (serpent) is the same, and this teaches that “the Messiah will overcome the Serpent.”

      The Kabbalists believed nothing but what they “received.” Their teachers received from the prophets—the prophets received from angels—David from the Angel Michael, Moses from Metatron, Isaac from Raphael, Shem from Yophiel—and the angels themselves from God. The Metatron is the connecting link between the Divine Spirit and the world of matter. It resembles the Demiurgos of the Gnostics. It is the mystical expression for the Being that forms a union between God and nature, or, as the Zohar puts it, between the “King and the Queen.” There were also the Essenes, who allegorized the Law; the Hellenists, who mixed it up with Greek philosophy; the Therapeutists, who thought supreme happiness to be meditation; the political Herodians; the Zealots; and other petty sects who formed the great mass of the people, and held either with or against the two great schools. The decisions of both schools are remarkable for their concise brevity. A phrase suggests many thoughts—a single word awakes a whole train of reasoning. A German writer has said of the Mishna, that “it is a firmament of telescopic [pg 017] stars, containing many a cluster of light, which no unaided eye has ever resolved.” Some of its sayings are of touching beauty. Such are the words of Rabbi Tarphon, “The day is short—the labor vast;—but the laborers are slothful, though the reward is great, and the Master of the house presseth for despatch.” Some of its sayings are extravagant—some are loathsome—and some are blasphemous. But mixed up as they are together, they form an extraordinary monument of “human industry, human wisdom, and human folly.”

      The Talmud contains a system of casuistry in reference to the doctrines of intention and legal uncleanness. It proportions responsibility to the amount of intention, and thereby hands over tender consciences to the control of the Rabbis. It proportions legal uncleanness to every degree of approach to the source, or, as it is called, “the father” of uncleanness; and this again renders necessary continual appeals to the decision of the Rabbis.

      Predestination and free will are both taught. “Everything is in the hands of heaven, except the fear of heaven.” “All things are ordained of God, but men's actions are their own.” When men wish to sin they are enjoined to go to a place where they are unknown, and to clothe themselves in black so as not to dishonor God openly. Hereditary sin was denied by the early Kabbalists, but the later ones allow it. They believe that all souls were created in Adam, and therefore partake of his fall. Every kind of philosophy known at the time of its compilation is more or less introduced into the Talmud, and all more or less tinged with Magian superstition. From this superstition grew the mysticism of the Jewish schools. All the arts and sciences, under some form or other, are alluded to, and references to historical events abound in its pages. When it is dangerous to speak of them openly they are veiled under some figure known only to the initiated. Some observations seem to anticipate future discoveries. The Antipodes are hinted at. And the Jerusalem Gemara says that Alexander the Great was represented as carrying a ball in his hand because he believed the figure of the earth to be a sphere. Astronomy is fully discussed. The planets are “moving stars.” Mercury is “the star”; Venus, “splendor”; Mars, [pg 018] “redness”; Jupiter, “rightness”; Saturn, “the Sabbath star.” The signs of the Zodiac have the same names as are now used. The Galaxy is “the river of light.” Comets are “burning arrows.” And it is said that when a comet passes through Orion it will destroy the world. A certain Ishmaelite merchant is related to have invited Rabba to come and see where the heavens and the earth touched. Rabba took his bread basket and placed it on the window while he prayed. He afterward looked for it, but it was gone. He asked the Ishmaelite, “Are there thieves here?” “No,” he replied, “but your basket has gone up in the revolving of the firmament. It will return if you wait till morning when the revolving of the firmament returns where it was before.”

      Astrology is treated as a science which governs the life of man. The stars make men wise. The stars make them rich. “A man born on the first day of the week will excel in only one quality. He that is born on the second day will be an angry man, because on that day the waters were divided. He that is born on the third day of the week will be rich and licentious, because on it the herbs were created. He that is born on the fourth day will be wise and of good memory, because on that day the lights were hung up. He that is born on the fifth day will be charitable, because on that day the fishes and fowls were created. He that is born on the Sabbath, on the Sabbath he also shall die, because on his account they profaned the great Sabbath day.” Rabba bar Shila says, “He shall be eminently holy.” Rabbi Chanina says, “The influence of the stars makes wise, the influence of the stars makes rich, and Israel is under the influence of the stars.” Rabbi Jochanan says, “Israel is not under the influence of the stars. Whence is it proved? ‘Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them’ (Jer. x. 2). The heathen, but not Israel.” “An eclipse of the sun is an evil sign to the nations of the world; an eclipse of the moon is an evil sign to Israel, for Israel reckons by the moon, the nations of the world by the sun.” It is also said that Saturn and Mars are the baleful stars, and whosoever begins a work, or walks in the way, when either of these two is in the ascendant, will come to sorrow. Astrology naturally leads to [pg 019] amulets and charms. Amulets are divided into two classes, approved and disapproved. An approved amulet is “one that has cured three persons, or has been made by a man who has cured three persons with other amulets.”

      Charms are abundantly provided against accidents. “For bleeding of the nose let a man be brought to a priest named Levi, and let the name Levi be written backward. If there be not a priest, get a layman, who is to write backward ‘Ana pipi Shila bar Sumki,’ or ‘Taam dli bemi ceseph, taam dli bemi pagam’; or let him take a root of grass, and the cord of an old bed, and paper, and saffron, and the red part of the inside of a palm tree, and let him burn them together, and let him take some wool, and twist two threads, and dip them in vinegar, СКАЧАТЬ