THE JEWS
=Literature.=--_Hosmer_, Story of the Jews; _Clarke_, Ten Great
Religions; _Durrell_, New Life in Education; _Myers_, Ancient History;
Stoddard's Lectures; _Lord_, Beacon Lights of History; _Josephus_,
Antiquities of the Jews; _Morrison_, The Jews under Roman Rule;
_Larned_, History for Ready Reference; _Hegel_, Philosophy of History;
Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1895; _Peters_,
Justice to the Jew.
=Geography and History.=--The Jews were the ancient people of God, the
"chosen people," whose history is recorded in the Old Testament
Scriptures. They reached their greatest power and glory during the
reigns of David and Solomon, and they occupied Palestine, with Jerusalem
as their capital city. Within this small territory, some six thousand
square miles in extent, have occurred some of the most important events
of history, and the Jewish race has been the representative of God's
purposes toward man. The Almighty communicated directly with his people,
who were thus made acquainted with the divine will. The early Jews were
nomadic in their habits, living in tents, and tending their flocks. The
patriarch, who was at the head of a family or tribe, made laws for the
people under him and governed them according to the command of God,
whose representative he was. Because God directly or through the
patriarch led and instructed the people, their education, like their
government, is called _theocratic_.
The Jews lost their independence B.C. 63 in becoming subject to
the Romans, and in A.D. 70 Jerusalem was destroyed and the
Jews were dispersed. Since that time they have been wanderers on the
face of the earth, and there is no part of the world where they are not
to be found. They have maintained their racial characteristics with
remarkable purity. They were an agricultural people until the Babylonian
captivity, after which they became a commercial people. Persecutions,
which have universally followed them, making the acquirement of fixed
property unsafe, had much to do with this change.
=The Home.=--The Jewish family was the purest of antiquity. In general,
monogamy was practiced, and the wife was regarded as the companion and
equal of the husband. Children being accepted as the gift of God, the
father stood in the same relation to his children as Jehovah stood to
man. Therefore the father's highest aim was to bring up his children in
the knowledge and service of the Lord. We have here the highest and best
type of family training to be found in history, a characteristic that
still holds in Jewish families wherever they exist, and that has
contributed largely to the maintenance of the strong racial
peculiarities of the Jews. The father taught his boys reading and
writing, and the mother taught the girls household duties; but the
latter were not entirely excluded from intellectual training.
Great attention was given to the rites and ceremonies of the tabernacle
and the Jewish law. History was also taught as a means of stimulating
patriotism. The Jewish child was early made acquainted with the
Scriptures, and history, law, and prophecy became familiar to every Jew.
As there were no schools, this was all done in the home by the parents.
Religion was the central thought of all education, and preparation for
the service of the tabernacle and the worship of God was early given to
every child. Thus in an atmosphere of love and piety the Jew discharged
his sacred duty with care and faithfulness. Obedience to the commands of
parents, veneration for the aged, wholesome respect for their ancestors,
and familiarity with the Jewish law were instilled into the minds of all
children. Music and dancing were taught in every household, not for
pleasure, but as a means of religious expression. By prayer and holy
living, by precept and example, by word and deed, the father discharged
the duty committed to him by God, leading his children by careful
watchfulness toward the ideal manhood which was revealed to him by the
teachings of Holy Writ.
There were no castes among the Hebrews, and the same kind of training
was given to the children of rich and poor, high and low, alike. No
other race of people has given such careful home training to its
children, from earliest times to the present.
=The Jewish School.=--There were no elementary Jewish schools until
after the destruction of the nation and the loss of their civil liberty.
After the defeat at Jena the Prussians turned to education as the sole
means of retrieving their national greatness; the same was true of the
Austrians after the defeat of Sadowa, and of the French after the fall
of the empire at Sedan. But the Jewish people had set this example
eighteen centuries before. Dittes says, "If ever a people has
demonstrated the power of education, it is the people of Israel."
The rabbis required, A.D. 64, that every community should
support a school, and that attendance should be compulsory. This is the
first instance of compulsory education on record. If a town was divided
by a stream without a connecting bridge, a school was supported in each
part. Not more than twenty-five pupils could be assigned to one
teacher, and where the number was greater an assistant was employed. If
there were forty pupils, there were two teachers. It will thus be seen
that the Jews put into practice eighteen centuries ago a condition of
things which, owing to the complexity of our civilization, is with us
to-day largely an unrealized ideal.
Teachers were respected even more than parents, for it was held that
parents prepared their children for the present, but teachers for the
future. None but mature married men were employed as teachers. It was
said that "he who learns of a young master is like a man who eats green
grapes, and drinks wine fresh from the press; but he who has a master of
mature years is like a man who eats ripe and delicious grapes, and
drinks old wine."
The child entered school at six. Previous to that age physical exercise
and bodily growth were to be the ends sought. "When he enters school,"
says the Talmud, "load him like an ox." Other authorities, however,
encouraged giving him tasks according to his strength. The subjects
taught were reading, writing, natural history, arithmetic, geometry, and
astronomy. The Scriptures were taught to all the children, and all were
versed in religious rites.
The methods were good and attractive, great effort being made to lead
the children to understand, even though it might be necessary to repeat
four hundred times. The discipline was humane. According to the Talmud,
"children should be punished with one hand and caressed with two."
Corporal punishment was administered only to children over eleven years
of age.
=The Schools of the Rabbis.=--Karl Schmidt says: "Culture in a people
begins with the creation of a literature and the use of writing." The
oldest monument of writing among the Israelites is found in the tables
of stone containing the Ten Commandments. Moses, David, Solomon, and
Isaiah, and the other prophets were the founders of the Hebrew
literature.
Among the instrumentalities of higher education were the Schools of the
Prophets, which taught philosophy, medicine, poetry, history, and law to
the sons of prophets and priests, and of leading families. These schools
were influential in stimulating the production of the historical,
poetical, and prophetic books of the Old Testament.
But more important as direct means of higher education were the Schools
of the Rabbis. These sprang up in Alexandria, Babylon, and Jerusalem in
the early centuries of the Christian era. They were private institutions
founded by celebrated teachers. Doubtless it was in such a school as
this that St. Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. The principal
subjects studied were theology and law,--politics, history, mathematics
and science being excluded. The collection of the sayings and
discussions was begun in the second century A.D. and afterward
took form in the Talmud.
=Criticism of Jewish Education.=--1. It exalted the home and insisted on
the control of children by their parents.
2. It gave to woman an honored place in the home.
3. It gave an intelligent interpretation of the school and its
functions. In regard to school attendance, the number of pupils under
one teacher, the respect due to teachers, the course of study, and many
other matters, it showed practical wisdom.
4. It taught obedience, patriotism, and religion.
5. It provided only for Jewish children.
6. It was mild and generally wise in discipline, though mistaken in
forbidding corporal punishment before the eleventh year, while admitting
its use after that.
7. It developed an honest, intelligent, progressive, God-fearing people.
8. It produced some of the greatest poets and historians of the world.
THE TALMUD[12]
This book, as we have seen, is the outgrowth of the discussions of the
rabbis, whose sayings, collected from the second to the sixth century
A.D., are herein contained. It proclaims with great minuteness
rules of life which the faithful Jew still rigidly observes. It has
aided in perpetuating Jewish laws, ceremonies, customs, and religion,
and has been the most potent means of preserving the national and racial
characteristics of the Jews for nearly two thousand years. Driven from
one country to another, they have always carried the Talmud with them
and have been guided and kept united by its teachings. During the last
quarter of the nineteenth century the study of the Talmud has been
revived, not only among the Jews, but also among Christians and students
of all classes.
EXTRACTS FROM THE TALMUD
1. Even if the gates of heaven are shut to prayer, they are open to
tears.
2. Teach thy tongue to say, "I do not know."
3. If a word spoken in its time is worth one piece of money, silence is
worth two.
4. Not the place honors the man, but the man the place.
5. The world is saved by the breath of school children.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] See Peters, "Justice to the Jew."