CHAPTERS ON JEWISH LITERATURE
BY
ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, M.A.
_Author of "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages"_
PHILADELPHIA
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Lord Baltimore Press
BALTIMORE, MD., U.S.A.
PREFACE
These twenty-five short chapters on Jewish Literature open with the fall
of Jerusalem in the year 70 of the current era, and end with the death
of Moses Mendelssohn in 1786. Thus the period covered extends over more
than seventeen centuries. Yet, long as this period is, it is too brief.
To do justice to the literature of Judaism even in outline, it is
clearly necessary to include the Bible, the Apocrypha, and the writings
of Alexandrian Jews, such as Philo. Only by such an inclusion can the
genius of the Hebrew people be traced from its early manifestations
through its inspired prime to its brilliant after-glow in the centuries
with which this little volume deals.
One special reason has induced me to limit this book to the scope
indicated above. The Bible has been treated in England and America in a
variety of excellent text-books written by and for Jews and Jewesses. It
seemed to me very doubtful whether the time is, or ever will be, ripe
for dealing with the Scriptures from the purely literary stand-point in
teaching young students. But this is the stand-point of this volume.
Thus I have refrained from including the Bible, because, on the one
hand, I felt that I could not deal with it as I have tried to deal with
the rest of Hebrew literature, and because, on the other hand, there was
no necessity for me to attempt to add to the books already in use. The
sections to which I have restricted myself are only rarely taught to
young students in a consecutive manner, except in so far as they fall
within the range of lessons on Jewish History. It was strongly urged on
me by a friend of great experience and knowledge, that a small text-book
on later Jewish Literature was likely to be found useful both for home
and school use. Such a book might encourage the elementary study of
Jewish literature in a wider circle than has hitherto been reached.
Hence this book has been compiled with the definite aim of providing an
elementary manual. It will be seen that both in the inclusions and
exclusions the author has followed a line of his own, but he lays no
claim to originality. The book is simply designed as a manual for those
who may wish to master some of the leading characteristics of the
subject, without burdening themselves with too many details and dates.
This consideration has in part determined also the method of the book.
In presenting an outline of Jewish literature three plans are possible.
One can divide the subject according to _Periods_. Starting with the
Rabbinic Age and closing with the activity of the earlier Gaonim, or
Persian Rabbis, the First Period would carry us to the eighth or the
ninth century. A well-marked Second Period is that of the Arabic-Spanish
writers, a period which would extend from the ninth to the fifteenth
century. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century forms a Third
Period with distinct characteristics. Finally, the career of Mendelssohn
marks the definite beginning of the Modern Period. Such a grouping of
the facts presents many advantages, but it somewhat obscures the varying
conditions prevalent at one and the same time in different countries
where the Jews were settled. Hence some writers have preferred to
arrange the material under the different _untries_. It is quite
possible to draw a map of the world's civilization by merely marking the
successive places in which Jewish literature has fixed its
head-quarters. But, on the other hand, such a method of classification
has the disadvantage that it leads to much overlapping. For long
intervals together, it is impossible to separate Italy from Spain,
France from Germany, Persia from Egypt, Constantinople from Amsterdam.
This has induced other writers to propose a third method and to trace
_Influences_, to indicate that, whereas Rabbinism may be termed the
native product of the Jewish genius, the scientific, poetical, and
philosophical tendencies of Jewish writers in the Middle Ages were due
to the interaction of external and internal forces. Further, in this
arrangement, the Ghetto period would have a place assigned to it as
such, for it would again mark the almost complete sway of purely Jewish
forces in Jewish literature. Adopting this classification, we should
have a wave of Jewish impulse, swollen by the accretion of foreign
waters, once more breaking on a Jewish strand, with its contents in
something like the same condition in which they left the original
spring. All these three methods are true, and this has impelled me to
refuse to follow any one of them to the exclusion of the other two. I
have tried to trace _influences_, to observe _periods_, to distinguish
_countries_. I have also tried to derive color and vividness by
selecting prominent personalities round which to group whole cycles of
facts. Thus, some of the chapters bear the names of famous men, others
are entitled from periods, others from countries, and yet others are
named from the general currents of European thought. In all this my aim
has been very modest. I have done little in the way of literary
criticism, but I felt that a dry collection of names and dates was the
very thing I had to avoid. I need not say that I have done my best to
ensure accuracy in my statements by referring to the best authorities
known to me on each division of the subject. To name the works to which
I am indebted would need a list of many of the best-known products of
recent Continental and American scholarship. At the end of every
chapter I have, however, given references to some English works and
essays. Graetz is cited in the English translation published by the
Jewish Publication Society of America. The figures in brackets refer to
the edition published in London. The American and the English editions
of S. Schechter's "Studies in Judaism" are similarly referred to.
Of one thing I am confident. No presentation of the facts, however bald
and inadequate it be, can obscure the truth that this little book deals
with a great and an inspiring literature. It is possible to question
whether the books of great Jews always belonged to the great books of
the world. There may have been, and there were, greater legalists than
Rashi, greater poets than Jehuda Halevi, greater philosophers than
Maimonides, greater moralists than Bachya. But there has been no greater
literature than that which these and numerous other Jews represent.
Rabbinism was a sequel to the Bible, and if like all sequels it was
unequal to its original, it nevertheless shared its greatness. The works
of all Jews up to the modern period were the sequel to this sequel.
Through them all may be detected the unifying principle that literature
in its truest sense includes life itself; that intellect is the handmaid
to conscience; and that the best books are those which best teach men
how to live. This underlying unity gave more harmony to Jewish
literature than is possessed by many literatures more distinctively
national. The maxim, "Righteousness delivers from death," applies to
books as well as to men. A literature whose consistent theme is
Righteousness is immortal. On the very day on which Jerusalem fell, this
theory of the interconnection between literature and life became the
fixed principle of Jewish thought, and it ceased to hold undisputed sway
only in the age of Mendelssohn. It was in the "Vineyard" of Jamnia that
the theory received its firm foundation. A starting-point for this
volume will therefore be sought in the meeting-place in which the
Rabbis, exiled from the Holy City, found a new fatherland in the Book of
books.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 5
CHAPTER
I THE "VINEYARD" AT JAMNIA 19
Schools at Jamnia, Lydda, Usha, and Sepphoris.--The
Tannaim compile the Mishnah.--Jochanan, Akiba, Meir,
Judah.--Aquila.
II FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS AND THE JEWISH SIBYL 33
III THE TALMUD 43
The Amoraim compile the Palestinian Talmud and the
Babylonian Talmud.--Representative Amoraim:
I (220-280) Palestine--Jochanan, Simon,
Joshua, Simlai; Babylonia--Rab and Samuel.
II (280-320) Palestine--Ami, Assi, Abbahu,
Chiya; Babylonia--Huna and Zeira.
III (320-380) Babylonia--Rabba, Abayi, Rava.
IV (380-430) Babylonia--Ashi (first compilation
of the Babylonian Talmud).
V and VI (430-500) Babylonia--Rabina
(completion of the Babylonian Talmud).
IV THE MIDRASH AND ITS POETRY 55
Mechilta, Sifra, Sifre, Pesikta, Tanchuma,
Midrash Rabbah, Yalkut.--Proverbs.--Parables.--Fables.
V THE LETTERS OF THE GAONIM 68
Representative Gaonim:
Achai, Amram, Zemach, Saadiah, Sherira, Samuel, Hai.
VI THE KARAITIC LITERATURE 75
Anan, Nahavendi, Abul-Faraj, Salman, Sahal, al-Bazir,
Hassan, Japhet, Kirkisani, Judah Hadassi, Isaac Troki.
VII THE NEW-HEBREW PIYUT 83
Kalirian and Spanish Piyutim (Poems).--Jannai.--Kalir.
VIII SAADIAH OF FAYUM 91
Translation of the Bible into Arabic.--Foundation of
a Jewish Philosophy of Religion.
IX DAWN OF THE SPANISH ERA 99
Chasdai Ibn Shaprut.--Menachem and Dunash, Chayuj
and Janach.--Samuel the Nagid.
X THE SPANISH-JEWISH POETS (I) 107
Solomon Ibn Gebirol.--"The Royal Crown."--Moses
Ibn Ezra.--Abraham Ibn Ezra.--The Biblical
Commentaries of Ibn Ezra and the Kimchis.
XI RASHI AND ALFASSI 119
Nathan of Rome.--Alfassi.--Rashi.--Rashbam.
XII THE SPANISH-JEWISH POETS (II) 126
Jehuda Halevi.--Charizi.
XIII MOSES MAIMONIDES 134
Maimon, Rambam--R. Moses, the son of Maimon,
Maimonides.--His Yad Hachazaka and Moreh
Nebuchim.--Gersonides.--Crescas.--Albo.
XIV THE DIFFUSION OF SCIENCE 144
Provençal Translators.--The Ibn Tibbons.--Italian
Translators.--Jacob Anatoli.--Kalonymos.--Scientific
Literature.
XV THE DIFFUSION OF FOLK-TALES 153
Barlaam and Joshaphat.--The Fables of Bidpai.--Abraham
Ibn Chisdai.--Berachya ha-Nakdan.--Joseph Zabara.
XVI MOSES NACHMANIDES 160
French and Spanish Talmudists.--The Tossafists,
Asher of Speyer, Tam, Isaac of Dompaire, Baruch
of Ratisbon, Perez of Corbeil.--Nachmanides'
Commentary on the Pentateuch.--Public controversies
between Jews and Christians.
XVII THE ZOHAR AND LATER MYSTICISM 169
Kabbala.--The Bahir.--Abulafia.--Moses of Leon.--The
Zohar.--Isaac Lurya.--Isaiah Hurwitz.--Christian
Kabbalists.--The Chassidim.
XVIII ITALIAN JEWISH POETRY 178
Immanuel and Dante.--The Machberoth.--Judah
Romano.--Kalonymos.--The Eben Bochan.--Moses
Rieti.--Messer Leon.
XIX ETHICAL LITERATURE 189
Bachya Ibn Pekuda.--Choboth ha-Lebaboth.--Sefer
ha-Chassidim.--Rokeach.--Yedaiah Bedaressi's
Bechinath Olam.--Isaac Aboab's Menorath ha-Maor.--Ibn
Chabib's "Eye of Jacob."--Zevaoth, or Ethical
Wills.--Joseph Ibn Caspi.--Solomon Alami.
XX TRAVELLERS' TALES 200
Eldad the Danite.--Benjamin of Tudela.--Petachiah
of Ratisbon.--Esthori Parchi.--Abraham
Farissol.--David Reubeni and Molcho.--Antonio de
Montesinos and Manasseh ben Israel.--Tobiah
Cohen.--Wessely.
XXI HISTORIANS AND CHRONICLERS 211
Order of the Tannaim and Amoraim.--Achimaaz.--Abraham
Ibn Daud.--Josippon.--Historical Elegies, or
Selichoth.--Memorial Books.--Abraham Zacuto.--Elijah
Kapsali.--Usque.--Ibn Verga.--Joseph Cohen.--David
Gans.--Gedaliah Ibn Yachya.--Azariah di Rossi.
XXII ISAAC ABARBANEL 225
Abarbanel's Philosophy and Biblical
Commentaries.--Elias Levita.--Zeëna u-Reëna.--Moses
Alshech.--The Biur.
XXIII THE SHULCHAN ARUCH 232
Asheri's Arba Turim.--Chiddushim and
Teshuboth.--Solomon ben Adereth.--Meir of
Rothenburg.--Sheshet and Duran.--Moses and Judah
Minz.--Jacob Weil, Israel Isserlein, Maharil.--David
Abi Zimra.--Joseph Karo.--Jair Bacharach.--Chacham
Zevi.--Jacob Emden.--Ezekiel Landau.
XXIV AMSTERDAM IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 243
Manasseh ben Israel.--Baruch Spinoza.--The Drama
in Hebrew.--Moses Zacut, Joseph Felix Penso, Moses
Chayim Luzzatto.
XXV MOSES MENDELSSOHN 253
Mendelssohn's German Translation of the
Bible.--Phædo.--Jerusalem.--Lessing's Nathan the
Wise.
INDEX 263
CHAPTERS ON JEWISH LITERATURE
CHAPTER I
THE "VINEYARD" AT JAMNIA
Schools at Jamnia, Lydda, Usha, and Sepphoris.--The Tannaim
compile the Mishnah.--Jochanan, Akiba, Meir, Judah.--Aquila.
The story of Jewish literature, after the destruction of the Temple at
Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Christian era, centres round the city of
Jamnia. Jamnia, or Jabneh, lay near the sea, beautifully situated on the
slopes of a gentle hill in the lowlands, about twenty-eight miles from
the capital. When Vespasian was advancing to the siege of Jerusalem, he
occupied Jamnia, and thither the Jewish Synhedrion, or Great Council,
transferred itself when Jerusalem fell. A college existed there
already, but Jamnia then became the head-quarters of Jewish learning,
and retained that position till the year 135. At that date the learned
circle moved further north, to Galilee, and, besides the famous school
at Lydda in Judea, others were founded in Tiberias, Usha, and Sepphoris.
The real founder of the College at Jamnia was Jochanan, the son of
Zakkai, called "the father of wisdom." Like the Greek philosophers who
taught their pupils in the gardens of the "Academy" at Athens, the
Rabbis may have lectured to their students in a "Vineyard" at Jamnia.
Possibly the term "Vineyard" was only a metaphor applied to the
meeting-place of the Wise at Jamnia, but, at all events, the result of
these pleasant intellectual gatherings was the Rabbinical literature.
Jochanan himself was a typical Rabbi. For a great part of his life he
followed a mercantile pursuit, and earned his bread by manual labor. His
originality as a teacher lay in his perception that Judaism could
survive the loss of its national centre. He felt that "charity and the
love of men may replace the sacrifices." He would have preferred his
brethren to submit to Rome, and his political foresight was justified
when the war of independence closed in disaster. As Graetz has well
said, like Jeremiah Jochanan wept over the desolation of Zion, but like
Zerubbabel he created a new sanctuary. Jochanan's new sanctuary was the
school.
In the "Vineyard" at Jamnia, the Jewish tradition was the subject of
much animated inquiry. The religious, ethical, and practical literature
of the past was sifted and treasured, and fresh additions were made. But
not much was written, for until the close of the second century the new
literature of the Jews was _oral_. The Bible was written down, and read
from scrolls, but the Rabbinical literature was committed to memory
piecemeal, and handed down from teacher to pupil. Notes were perhaps
taken in writing, but even when the Oral Literature was collected, and
arranged as a book, it is believed by many authorities that the book so
compiled remained for a considerable period an oral and not a written
book.
This book was called the _Mishnah_ (from the verb _shana_, "to repeat"
or "to learn"). The Mishnah was not the work of one man or of one age.
So long was it in growing, that its birth dates from long before the
destruction of the Temple. But the men most closely associated with the
compilation of the Mishnah were the Tannaim (from the root _tana_, which
has the same meaning as _shana_). There were about one hundred and
twenty of these Tannaim between the years 70 and 200 C.E., and they may
be conveniently arranged in four generations. From each generation one
typical representative will here be selected.
THE TANNAIM
First Generation, 70 to 100 C.E.
JOCHANAN, the son of Zakkai
Second Generation, 100 to 130 C.E.
AKIBA
Third Generation, 130 to 160 C.E.
MEIR
Fourth Generation, 160 to 200 C.E.
JUDAH THE PRINCE
The Tannaim were the possessors of what was perhaps the greatest
principle that dominated a literature until the close of the eighteenth
century. They maintained that _literature_ and _life_ were co-extensive.
It was said of Jochanan, the son of Zakkai, that he never walked a
single step without thinking of God. Learning the Torah, that is, the
Law, the authorized Word of God, and its Prophetical and Rabbinical
developments, was man's supreme duty. "If thou hast learned much Torah,
ascribe not any merit to thyself, for therefor wast thou created." Man
was created to learn; literature was the aim of life. We have already
seen what kind of literature. Jochanan once said to his five favorite
disciples: "Go forth and consider which is the good way to which a man
should cleave." He received various answers, but he most approved of
this response: "A good heart is the way." Literature is life if it be a
heart-literature--this may be regarded as the final justification of the
union effected in the Mishnah between learning and righteousness.
Akiba, who may be taken to represent the second generation of Tannaim,
differed in character from Jochanan. Jochanan had been a member of the
peace party in the years 66 to 70; Akiba was a patriot, and took a
personal part in the later struggle against Rome, which was organized by
the heroic Bar Cochba in the years 131 to 135. Akiba set his face
against frivolity, and pronounced silence a fence about wisdom. But his
disposition was resolute rather than severe. Of him the most romantic of
love stories is told. He was a herdsman, and fell in love with his
master's daughter, who endured poverty as his devoted wife, and was
glorified in her husband's fame. But whatever contrast there may have
been in the two characters, Akiba, like Jochanan, believed that a
literature was worthless unless it expressed itself in the life of the
scholar. He and his school held in low esteem the man who, though
learned, led an evil life, but they took as their ideal the man whose
moral excellence was more conspicuous than his learning. As R. Eleazar,
the son of Azariah, said: "He whose knowledge is in excess of his good
deeds is like a tree whose branches are many and its roots scanty; the
wind comes, uproots, and overturns it. But he whose good deeds are more
than his knowledge is like a tree with few branches but many roots, so
that if all the winds in the world come and blow upon it, it remains
firm in its place." Man, according to Akiba, is master of his own
destiny; he needs God's grace to triumph over evil, yet the triumph
depends on his own efforts: "Everything is seen, yet freedom of choice
is given; the world is judged by grace, yet all is according to the
work." The Torah, the literature of Israel, was to Akiba "a desirable
instrument," a means to life.
Among the distinctions of Akiba's school must be named the first literal
translation of the Bible into Greek. This work was done towards the
close of the second century by Aquila, a proselyte, who was inspired by
Akiba's teaching. Aquila's version was inferior to the Alexandrian Greek
version, called the Septuagint, in graces of style, but was superior in
accuracy. Aquila followed the Hebrew text word by word. This translator
is identical with Onkelos, to whom in later centuries the Aramaic
translation (_Targum_ Onkelos) of the Pentateuch was ascribed. Aramaic
versions of the Bible were made at a very early period, and the Targum
Onkelos may contain ancient elements, but in its present form it is not
earlier than the fifth century.
Meir, whom we take as representative of the third generation of Tannaim,
was filled with the widest sympathies. In his conception of truth,
everything that men can know belonged to the Torah. Not that the Torah
superseded or absorbed all other knowledge, but that the Torah needed,
for its right study, all the aids which science and secular information
could supply. In this way Jewish literature was to some extent saved
from the danger of becoming a merely religious exercise, and in later
centuries, when the mass of Jews were disposed to despise and even
discourage scientific and philosophical culture, a minority was always
prepared to resist this tendency and, on the ground of the views of some
of the Tannaim like Meir, claimed the right to study what we should now
term secular sciences. The width of Meir's sympathies may be seen in his
tolerant conduct towards his friend Elisha, the son of Abuya. When the
latter forsook Judaism, Meir remained true to Elisha. He devoted himself
to the effort to win back his old friend, and, though he failed, he
never ceased to love him. Again, Meir was famed for his knowledge of
fables, in antiquity a branch of the wisdom of all the Eastern world.
Meir's large-mindedness was matched by his large-heartedness, and in his
wife Beruriah he possessed a companion whose tender sympathies and fine
toleration matched his own.
The fourth generation of Tannaim is overshadowed by the fame of Judah
the Prince, _Rabbi_, as he was simply called. He lived from 150 to 210,
and with his name is associated the compilation of the Mishnah. A man of
genial manners, strong intellectual grasp, he was the exemplar also of
princely hospitality and of friendship with others than Jews. His
intercourse with one of the Antonines was typical of his wide culture.
Life was not, in Rabbi Judah's view, compounded of smaller and larger
incidents, but all the affairs of life were parts of the great divine
scheme. "Reflect upon three things, and thou wilt not fall into the
power of sin: Know what is above thee--a seeing eye and a hearing
ear--and all thy deeds are written in a book."
The Mishnah, which deals with things great and small, with everything
that concerns men, is the literary expression of this view of life. Its
language is the new-Hebrew, a simple, nervous idiom suited to practical
life, but lacking the power and poetry of the Biblical Hebrew. It is a
more useful but less polished instrument than the older language. The
subject-matter of the Mishnah includes both law and morality, the
affairs of the body, of the soul, and of the mind. Business, religion,
social duties, ritual, are all dealt with in one and the same code. The
fault of this conception is, that by associating things of unequal
importance, both the mind and the conscience may become incapable of
discriminating the great from the small, the external from the
spiritual. Another ill consequence was that, as literature corresponded
so closely with life, literature could not correct the faults of life,
when life became cramped or stagnant. The modern spirit differs from the
ancient chiefly in that literature has now become an independent force,
which may freshen and stimulate life. But the older ideal was
nevertheless a great one. That man's life is a unity; that his conduct
is in all its parts within the sphere of ethics and religion; that his
mind and conscience are not independent, but two sides of the same
thing; and that therefore his religious, ethical, æsthetic, and
intellectual literature is one and indivisible,--this was a noble
conception which, with all its weakness, had distinct points of
superiority over the modern view.
The Mishnah is divided into six parts, or Orders (_Sedarim_); each Order
into Tractates (_Massechtoth_); each Tractate into Chapters (_Perakim_);
each Chapter into Paragraphs (each called a _Mishnah_). The six Orders
are as follows:
ZERAIM ("Seeds"). Deals with the laws connected with Agriculture, and
opens with a Tractate on Prayer ("Blessings").
MOED ("Festival"). On Festivals.
NASHIM ("Women"). On the laws relating to Marriage, etc.
NEZIKIN ("Damages"). On civil and criminal Law.
KODASHIM ("Holy Things"). On Sacrifices, etc.
TEHAROTH ("Purifications"). On personal and ritual Purity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE MISHNAH.
Graetz.--_History of the Jews_, English translation,
Vol. II, chapters 13-17 (character of the Mishnah, end of ch. 17).
Steinschneider.--_Jewish Literature_ (London, 1857), p. 13.
Schiller-Szinessy.--_Encyclopedia Britannica_ (Ninth Edition),
Vol. XVI, p. 502.
De Sola and Raphall.--_Eighteen Tractates from the Mishnah_
(English translation, London).
C. Taylor.--_Sayings of the Jewish Fathers_ (Cambridge, 1897).
A. Kohut.--_The Ethics of the Fathers_ (New York, 1885).
G. Karpeles.--_A Sketch of Jewish History_ (Jewish Publication
Society of America, 1895), p. 40.
AQUILA.
F.C. Burkitt.--_Jewish Quarterly Review_, Vol. X, p. 207.