THE PERIOD OF IMPROVEMENT (1492-1791)
The Jews of Spain went to Turkey, North Africa, Oriental countries, and
especially to Palestine. They came in such numbers that their language,
the so-called Ladino, became the language of the Jews in these countries,
taking the place of Arabic and Greek. Sultan Bajazed II, 1481-1513,
is reported to have said that he could not understand why Ferdinand
of Spain should be called a wise king, since he had impoverished his
own country and enriched Turkey. Jews stood very high at Court. Joseph
Hamon was physician to Sultans Bajazed II and Selim I (1512-1520) and
his son, Moses Hamon, to Sultan Soliman II (1520-1566). Joseph Mendes
(died 1579) and his aunt, Gracia, whose daughter Reyna he had married,
were Marranos who had fled from Spain to Antwerp, then to Venice, and
finally to Constantinople. Joseph was a special favorite of the Sultan,
who forced the Republic of Venice to surrender the property of Donna
Gracia, which had been confiscated. The Sultan made Joseph Duke of Naxos,
and he seriously contemplated the establishment of a Jewish state there.
Owing to Don Joseph’s influence, the Pope was forced to free a number of
Marranos who had been imprisoned in the Papal States and charged with
apostasy. A number of Jews, prompted by Messianic expectations, founded
settlements in Jerusalem and Safed.
In Italy the condition of the Jews changed for the worse. Venice
established the first ghetto, called thus after the gun foundry “Gietto”
in the vicinity. At the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the
sixteenth century the Popes employed Jewish physicians, such as Bonet
del Lattes under Leo X. But Paul IV and Pius V issued oppressive laws
against the Jews, restricting their commercial activity to trading in
cast-off clothing, enforcing the marks of distinction, Jew Badges, and
ordering the censorship of Hebrew literature. The reaction against
Protestantism and the foundation of the Jesuit order further tended to
make the condition of the Jews still worse. The Council of Trent, 1563,
prohibited the Talmud altogether, but later on modified its decree to the
effect that the word Talmud should not be printed on the title page of
the work and that every edition should be submitted to the ecclesiastic
censor aided by Jewish converts. Prominent among the latter were Elijah
and Solomon Romano, grandsons of Elijah Levita.
The Italian Jews, in order to obviate the dangers arising from
informations against Jewish literature, decided in 1564 that no book
should be printed without the consent of three prominent rabbis and the
trustees of the congregation in the district where the press was located.
By these measures the Hebrew printing trade, which had flourished in
Italy during the first half of the sixteenth century, was ruined and the
press transferred to Poland. There, owing to the low state of industry,
the art of printing declined.
The frequent expulsions and the constant oppressions fostered Messianic
hopes. In 1507 a Messianic pretender arose in Northern Italy. His name
was Asher Lemlein. Of the particulars of his career we know nothing. Of
greater importance is the appearance of a man who called himself David
Reubeni in Venice, 1522. He pretended to be the brother of the reigning
king of the tribe of Reuben, living in Arabia, and planned an alliance
of the Christian powers against the Mohammedans. For this he pledged
the aid of the ten tribes living there. The Pope sent him to Portugal,
where he made the acquaintance of Solomon Molcho, a young Marrano, who
returned with Reubeni to Italy, preached and prophesied there and became
a favorite of the Pope. The Jews feared the results of his eccentricities
and denounced him to the authorities as an apostate from Christianity,
but the Pope shielded him. Finally both went to Germany in 1530, where
they hoped to win Charles V to their plans. They were imprisoned; Molcho,
as an apostate, was burned at the stake and Reubeni sent to Portugal,
where every trace of him was lost. Who he was is not known. He seems to
have travelled in the East, and probably was an Arab.
The Reformation of 1517 at first influenced the condition of the Jews
for the better. The accusations that the Jews desecrated hosts ceased.
As late as 1492 a number of Jews were burned for this supposed crime
at Sternberg in Mecklenburg. In 1510, thirty-nine Jews were burned at
Berlin for the same cause. But aside from this Protestantism in itself
stood for religious toleration. Luther, in the beginning of his career,
spoke of the Jews as “cousins of our Lord,” who should be treated with
kindness. He thought that his purified Christianity would win them over,
but, toward the end of his life, when he had failed in his efforts and
was embittered for other reasons, he wrote two pamphlets filled with
invective against the Jews. In these he advocated the confiscation of
their property, the destruction of their synagogues, and the forcible
baptism of their children. Still more bitter than Luther’s attacks were
those of John Eck, his Catholic opponent.
It seems, however, that the Reformation increased the number of Jewish
converts. Prominent among these was Emanuel Tremellius, an Italian, who
first became a monk and then a Protestant. He was a friend of Calvin,
and translated the Bible for him into Latin. He also translated Calvin’s
Catechism into Hebrew. Another convert was Luke Helic, who assisted the
Moravian Brethren in translating the Bible into the Slavic language. A
calumniator of Judaism was Antonius Margaritha, the son of a rabbi of
Ratisbon, named Jacob Margaliot, who in 1530 wrote a libel on Judaism.
Characteristic was the act of the Protestant Landgrave, Louis of Hesse,
who advised the suppression of an anti-Jewish book, “Jüdenfeind,” by
Nigrinus (1570) saying that the same arguments might just as well be used
by Catholics against Protestants.
The Renaissance, which produced the Reformation, also had a favorable
effect on the position of the Jews. When John Pfefferkorn, a convert
from Judaism, in 1506 accused the Jews of blaspheming Jesus in their
prayers and in their literature, and proposed the confiscation of
all their books, John Reuchlin, a famous diplomat and expert Hebrew
scholar, rendered an opinion in their favor. The Dominicans of Cologne,
among them a former rabbi, Victor von Karben, whose tool Pfefferkorn
had been, made the latter’s cause their own, but did not succeed. In
Frankfort-on-the-Main, where the books had been confiscated, they
were ordered to be returned to their owners, and a long and bitter
controversy, in which both parties engaged in vile attacks, ensued. In
the meantime the Reformation intervened; and the Pope, who had been
appealed to, ended the matter by an order in 1516 that both parties
should keep their peace. He reversed this decision in favor of the
Dominicans in 1520.
Such occasions as the calumniations of Pfefferkorn and others showed
the arbitrariness of municipalities and lords in the treatment of the
Jews, and pointed out the advisability of Jews appointing an advocate,
“Shtadlan,” who would always defend their rights when necessary. One of
the most famous of these was Josel Rosheim (1478-1554) who was originally
appointed as their advocate by the Jews of Alsace, and often acted in
behalf of all the Jews of Germany, here and there arbitrating dissensions
in congregations. He obtained various charters from Emperor Charles V,
in which protection to the Jews was promised. Among these stipulations,
one issued in 1530 is of special interest. The Emperor prohibited the
expulsion of Jews from his territory without his consent. This rule,
however, was not even observed in the immediate possessions of the
German rulers. At various times Ferdinand I, brother of Charles V, and
German Emperor (1522-1564) ordered expulsions from Austria in 1557, and
in 1541 and 1561 from Bohemia; they were hardly ever carried out. When
the expulsion from Bohemia was decreed, Mordecai Meisels, a wealthy Jew
of Prague, 1528-1601, and the descendant of the Italian family Soncino,
which in 1513 established a printing press in Prague, went to Rome and
obtained a bull from the Pope for the protection of the Jews. The law of
expulsion from Bohemia was repealed. Meisels was in other ways a great
benefactor of his co-religionists.
In Berlin, where the Jews had been expelled in 1510, Leopold (Lippold)
was a physician and favorite of the Margrave Joachim II of Brandenburg.
After the death of his master he was accused of having poisoned him and
executed in 1573. A new refuge was opened to the Jews in Holland, when
this country gained its independence from Spain. A family of fugitive
Marranos is said to have been driven to Emden, Hanover, by unfavorable
winds, and thence they were advised to go to Amsterdam (1593). Moses
ben Uri of Emden followed them and instructed them in Judaism. Some
other converts followed, among them monks, statesmen and scholars. One
of the most prominent rabbis of Amsterdam was Menasseh ben Israel, who
in 1654, tried to obtain from Cromwell official permission for the Jews
to resettle in England, whence they had been expelled in 1290. A bill
introduced into Parliament for the readmission failed to pass, but
prominent jurists rendered an opinion that the expulsion was not a legal
act. The Jews already in London were not molested, opened a synagogue and
acquired a cemetery in 1660. Charles II was favorable to the Jews, some
of whom had assisted him financially before he had ascended the throne;
in 1664 he confirmed their right of residence.
About the middle of the seventeenth century a colony of Marranos from
Amsterdam settled in Brazil, which was then under Dutch rule. When the
Portuguese reconquered it (1654) the Jews were expelled and settled
in the Dutch West Indies and New York, then New Amsterdam. Governor
Stuyvesant objected to their landing, but the directors of the West India
Company, among whom there were several Jews, overruled his decision.
Meantime the Jews had settled in Rhode Island, where Roger Williams had
promulgated full religious freedom in 1657.
In Amsterdam the Portuguese community combined strict traditional piety
with secular learning and great commercial activity. To the Portuguese
Jews, Amsterdam owes its importance as the center of the diamond trade.
Uriel Acosta, who held high office in Spain and emigrated to Holland in
order to openly profess Judaism, became imbued with deistic ideas, was
tried as a heretic and did penance. Then, excommunicated as a backslider,
he became despondent and, having attempted to kill Rabbi Saul Morteira,
committed suicide in 1640. Baruch or Benedict Spinoza (1633-1677) was
also excommunicated, but disregarded all attempts to bring him back to
Judaism. He is the originator of a famous system of philosophy, called
Pantheism or Monism, laid down in his principal work, the “Ethics.” He
also occupies a prominent place in the history of Biblical Criticism
through his work, “Tractatus Theologico Politicus.”
In 1666, the year which the Christian Millenarians regarded as Messianic
by reason of a passage in Revelation xiii, 18, Judaism was stirred by
Sabbatai Zebi of Smyrna, who proclaimed himself the Messiah. Expelled
from that city he went to Egypt, where he received the enthusiastic
support of Raphael Joseph, a wealthy tax-farmer. In Palestine, whither he
went, he found many admirers, and the prophet, Nathan of Gaza, proclaimed
him the true Messiah. Being denounced for high treason, Sabbatai was
brought to Constantinople and imprisoned in the fort of Abydos, but
the means supplied by his followers enabled him to hold court like a
prince. Everywhere in Europe the majority of the Jews believed him to
be the Messiah. The representatives of the Jews in Poland sent two
prominent rabbis as a committee to him, but Nehemiah Hakohen, the Polish
Kabbalist, who had come to ascertain the truth, denounced him as an
impostor. Sabbatai Zebi was brought before the Sultan to answer a charge
of high treason; and, in order to save his life, he turned to Islam.
The Sultan gave him an office, and for ten years, until his death, he
remained in contact with the Jews. Many of his followers turned to Islam,
and still exist as a special sect called Donmah in Salonica. Others of
his followers who remained true to Judaism formed a mystic community,
which adopted the name of Hasidim. They were excommunicated by the most
prominent rabbis, but progressed rapidly, although many of them were
unmasked as frauds. Nehemiah Hayon, an Oriental, wrote a book in which
he taught the doctrine of the Trinity (1712) and Jacob Frank, a Polish
Jew, formed a Judæo-Christian sect. The latter was supported by those who
wished to convert the Jews to Christianity, and lived in princely style
in Offenbach, where he died in 1793.
The center of Hasidism was in Podolia and Volhynia; Israel Besht,
1695-1760, may be considered as its founder. His work was continued by
his disciples, among whom Baer Mezdzyrzecz (1700-1772) was the most
prominent. Later Nahman of Bratzlav (1779-1810) developed the theory
of miraculous powers of healing granted to favored individuals and the
mystic interpretation of the Bible and the Rabbinic commands. They still
have a great number of devotees in parts of Austrian and Russian Poland.
Persecutions in the seventeenth century are of rarer occurrence than
in former times. The most serious one was that which, with several
interruptions, lasted from 1648 to 1655, and the leader of which was the
Cossack captain Chmelnicki. The Cossacks, who were under the sovereignty
of the Polish king, rebelled against their masters, and the Jews had to
suffer, partly because they were unable to protect themselves, and partly
because, as tax-farmers, they had been the instrument of the extortion
practised by the Polish nobles. Thousands were massacred, and since that
time the 20th of Sivan is observed as a fast-day in Poland. They fled in
all directions, and many great Talmudists among them became rabbis in
Western Europe.
The Jesuits in Poland and in those places where the Catholic Church had
succeeded in crushing the Reformation became very powerful and fostered
hatred of the Jews, often resulting in mob violence. In 1664 such a
massacre occurred in Lemberg. The Jews were accused of the murder of
Christians; similar charges were often made. In 1659 two prominent Jews
were put to death on Rosh Hashanah in Rossieny, Lithuania, under the
charge of ritual murder; in 1694 Lazarus Abeles and a friend of his were
imprisoned in Prague, charged with having killed the son of Abeles, who
wanted to become a Christian. Abeles hanged himself and his friend was
cruelly put to death. In Vienna and Prague mission services, which the
Jews were compelled to attend every Sabbath, were held by the Jesuits
since 1630. In 1670 Emperor Leopold I expelled the Jews from Vienna,
influenced partly by the hatred of the citizens and partly by the bigotry
of the Empress, a Spanish princess. Some of the refugees were given
permission by the Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg to settle in
Berlin. At about the same time Halle, Halberstadt and Dessau were opened
to them. In 1670 Herz Levi of Metz was accused of having murdered a
Christian child and was put to death. His innocence was afterwards proved.
Peculiar to the history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were
the court Jews, Hof-Jude, Hof-factor, Minister-Resident. Prominent among
them were Elijah Gomperz of Cleve, Moses Benjamin Wolf of Dessau, Jost
Libman of Berlin, Behrendt Lehman of Dresden, and Samuel Oppenheimer and
Samson Wertheimer of Vienna. These Jews did service as jewelers, bankers,
general brokers and army contractors, and, as such, were exempt from
Jewish taxes and certain disabilities. They possessed great influence,
which they used to good advantage for their fellow-Jews. Samuel
Oppenheimer, who died in 1703, obtained from Emperor Leopold an order
of confiscation of an anti-Jewish book, “Entdecktes Judenthum,” by J.
A. Eisenmenger (1700), which, up to date, has served as a repertory for
anti-Semitic writers.
In 1614 a serious riot broke out in Frankfort-on-the-Main, led by the
guilds, which accused the patricians controlling the municipal council of
partiality to the Jews. The council, aided by imperial troops, succeeded
in suppressing the rebellion after considerable difficulty. Vincent
Fettmilch, the leader, was quartered, his home demolished, and his family
expelled from the city. Other ringleaders were beheaded. While the city
council thus showed its sincere intention to have the law respected
even with regard to the Jews, the new legal regulation for the Jews
of Frankfort, “Juden-Staettigkeit,” was a specimen of mediæval ideas,
maintaining the usual restrictions on occupation, marriage, residence and
quite a number of measures, like the yellow badge, meant to disgrace a
Jew. It remained in force until 1807.
The political condition of the Jews at this time nevertheless shows
steady improvement, although their threatened expulsion from the city of
Metz and their actual expulsion from Vienna and the province of Lower
Austria in 1670 were a relapse into the conditions of the fifteenth
century. Still, such events are local and few and far between; on the
other hand, an improvement is manifest in various instances where Jews
were admitted to countries or cities from which they had been expelled in
mediæval times. Particularly important was their settlement in Hamburg
and Berlin at this time. In Hamburg the municipal council gave to some
Portuguese Marranos, who came there to escape from the Inquisition,
the right of residence in spite of clerical protest. The first
settlers were soon followed by Jews from Germany in the course of the
seventeenth century, and finally (1710), they formed a legally-organized
congregation. Similarly Portuguese Jews had found a haven of refuge in
various cities of Southern France, although there in a Catholic country
they had to conceal their Judaism.
In Berlin and the Margravate of Brandenburg, the Elector Frederick
William I allowed some Jews, expelled from Vienna, to settle in his
states on their plea that they were persecuted for conscience’ sake
(1671). Still more important was the readmission of the Jews to England
by Cromwell in 1654; and, although the bill for their readmission did not
pass, their settlement was quietly overlooked and declared by jurists to
be legally justified. Another new country was opened to Jewish settlement
by the end of the sixteenth century when the Spanish Netherlands had made
themselves independent of the Spanish crown. The constitution of the new
country was based on perfect religious freedom, and naturally fugitives
from the Inquisition were among the first to avail themselves of this
opportunity. They were soon joined by the settlers from other countries,
and in the seventeenth century Amsterdam was one of the leading Jewish
communities of the world.
The greatest importance, however, attaches to the settlement of the
Jews in the New World. While in the Spanish colonies there was not only
no religious liberty but even persecutions of Marranos culminating
in autos-da-fe, as in the mother country, the conquest of Brazil by
the Dutch in 1624 resulted in the first organized Jewish community on
the American continent. The loss of Brazil in 1654 forced the Jews to
emigrate, and some settled in the Dutch and British possessions in
Central and South America, Surinam, Curacoa and Jamaica. But the most
important settlement was that of New York in 1654. The intolerance of
the Dutch, governor Stuyvesant drove some of the newcomers to Newport, R.
I. (1657), where Roger Williams had proclaimed full religious liberty.
In 1733 some Portuguese Jews from England availed themselves of the
opportunity created by James Oglethorpe, who made Georgia an asylum for
convicts who were willing to reform. They sent some of their poor to
Savannah. As the governor was unfavorable to the settlement of the Jews,
fearing that their presence would prejudice the success of the colony,
some Jews went to South Carolina, for which the philosopher John Locke
had drafted a liberal constitution (1697). He expressly declared equal
rights for non-Christians. They formed a congregation at Charleston in
1750, for a long time the most flourishing Jewish settlement in the
territory now comprised in the United States. Yet up to the end of the
eighteenth century only six Jewish communities are known: New York,
Newport, R. I., Savannah, Ga., Charleston, S. C., Philadelphia, and
Lancaster, Pa. These Jews took part in the American Revolution, and their
patriotism was expressly recognized in the reply of George Washington to
their addresses of congratulation when he was elected President.
An English law of 1740 gave to the Jews in the American colonies full
rights of naturalization, also extended to Canada when it became a
British possession. The growth of Jewish population was slow and did
not begin until the reactionary governments of Europe, after the July
revolution of 1830, made the hope of any improvement appear vain. Thus,
since 1830 large streams of Jewish immigrants have settled all over
the United States. Another far stronger current of immigration began in
consequence of the persecutions in Russia in 1881. The Jewish population
of America may now accordingly be figured at 2,000,000 souls. In Spanish
America the only settlement of any consequence is in Argentine.
INTELLECTUAL AND LITERARY LIFE
The Reformation was promoted by the Renaissance, essentially a critical
examination of traditional views. While this movement had not a very
deep influence on the Jews, it did not pass entirely unnoticed. Elijah
Mizrahi, Chief Rabbi of Constantinople (1455-1525), took notice of
the Copernican system, and in his supercommentary on Rashi, tried to
harmonize this modern conception of the cosmos with Rabbinic statements.
He also wrote a text-book of arithmetic, a commentary on Euclid’s
elements, an astronomical book, besides various Talmudic works.
More evident is the influence on Elijah Levita, born in
Neustadt-an-der-Aisch, Bavaria, 1468, died in Venice, 1549. Elijah Levita
was a teacher of many prominent Christian theologians, both Catholic and
Protestant, then very much interested in the study of Hebrew. He wrote
various works on Hebrew grammar, among them “Bahur” (1518), a glossary of
Rabbinic words, “Tishbi” (1541), and a book on the Massorah, “Massoret
ha-Massoret” (1548), in which he laid down the bold and since that time
generally-accepted theory that the vowel points and accents were not
invented until the eighth century. He was also a writer of popular works,
translated the Psalms into Judæo-German and published the Bobo book, a
translation of an Italian romance based on the English story of “Sir
Bevis of Hampton,” underlying Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (1540).
Another exponent of the Renaissance was Azariah dei Rossi of Ferrara
(1511-1578), who in his work, “Meor Enayim,” a collection of critical
essays, defended the theory that the Talmudic writings are not
authoritative on matters of history and science, but merely on Rabbinic
law. Joseph Solomo del Medigo, born in Crete, 1591, died at Prague,
1655, was an ambiguous character and adventurer, a wanderer during
most of his life. In his work, “Elim” (1629), he had the courage to
criticize Rabbinic theology, and especially the Kabbala. Leon Modena of
Venice (1571-1648), who was a very prolific author, went still further,
attacking the Rabbinic law as in many instances incongruous with the
Bible, and recommending a change of the religious practices. In the works
which he published he merely indicated his liberal ideas; he clearly
stated them in works that remained unpublished for two centuries.
In Italy, where secular education was not held in such abhorrence as
was the case in Northern Europe, in the seventeenth century two women
wrote Italian poetry and made translations from Hebrew. These are
Deborah Ascarelli and Sarah Copia Sullam. An attempt to rationalize
Talmudic passages was made as early as the beginning of the sixteenth
century. Jacob ibn Habib, who was among the exiles from Spain, settled in
Constantinople, and collected the Haggadic passages of the Talmud, with
the intention of publishing them with an apologetic commentary. He died
in 1516 after having finished only part of his work; it was edited after
his death by his son. It is even now, as “En Jacob,” a very popular book
for the study of Talmudic ethics.
While on one side there was a liberal tendency noticeable in Rabbinic
Judaism, on the other a consolidation of the Rabbinic legalism and a
progress of mysticism were noticeable. Joseph Caro (1488-1575), a native
of Spain who toward the end of his life lived in Safed, Palestine,
compiled a brief compendium of the Rabbinic law, “Shulhan Aruk.” It
was printed during the author’s lifetime in Venice in 1564, and often
reprinted afterwards. The author followed the arrangement of Jacob ben
Asher, but otherwise is quite independent. It was his object to give the
whole Rabbinic law in one volume, without showing its development and
without regard to different opinions. He prepared himself for his work
by writing exhaustive commentaries on the codes of Maimonides and Jacob
ben Asher. During his lifetime the book was annotated by Moses Isserls
of Cracow (1520-1572), who called his notes “Mappah” (tablecloth). It
was his object to lay down the practice of the German Jews, neglected by
Joseph Caro as a rule. This codification was strongly attacked by some
of the more liberal rabbis of the time. Solomon Luria (1500-1573), rabbi
of Lublin, but of German descent, took a more critical view of the old
sources, although apart from legal decisions he proclaimed his absolute
faith in traditions and condemned the liberal tendencies of Abraham ibn
Esra and Maimonides.
A strong opponent of Azariah Dei Rossi was Loewe Ben Bezalel (1530-1609),
rabbi of Posen and Prague and the hero of many legends. He maintained
the absolute belief in Rabbinic authority in every respect. In spite of
occasional opposition the “Shulhan Aruk” soon attained general popularity
and was considered an authoritative book, to which many prominent
rabbis, as Abraham Gombiner, Sabbatai Cohen and David Halevi added their
glosses. These were in the later editions added to the “Shulhan Aruk,”
the authority of which is indicated by the fact that the glossaries are
called “Aharonim” (epigones).
The sufferings which Jews had to endure during the fifteenth century and
of which the expulsion from Spain and Portugal was the culmination, were
the cause of a strengthening of mysticism. Particularly in Palestine,
to which quite a number of Spanish Jews were drawn by Messianic hopes,
such a center was formed. In Safed, where Joseph Caro wrote his “Shulhan
Aruk,” a number of disciples gathered around Isaac Luria, who preached
a religion based on the belief in the mysterious. He did not write, but
numerous disciples put his ideas in writing. Among them were Hayyim
Vital, who was considered a worker of miracles, and Elijah de Vidas,
whose work, “The Beginning of Wisdom,” became a favorite book for
edification. Another Kabbalistic author of the same circle was Solomon
Halevi Alkabez, best known by his popular Sabbath hymn, “Lekah Dodi,”
which also has a Kabbalistic tendency.
German Jews came to Palestine to join the circle of mystics. One was
Isaiah Horowitz (1550-1630), who had been rabbi of Frankfort-on-the-Main
and Prague. Of his works a large Kabbalistic compendium, “The Two Tablets
of the Covenant” (Shelah), became very popular. Abstracts of it were made
and translated into Judæo-German. Even in Italy, where secular culture
was far more general among Jews than in any other country in Europe,
Kabbala had a strong hold on the people. A great enthusiast for the
doctrine of mysticism was Moses Hayyim Luzzatto (1707-1747), who wrote
allegorical dramas in Hebrew, one of which, “Praise to the Righteous,”
is a masterpiece of modern Hebrew literature. His ethical treatise, “The
Path of the Righteous,” is also deservedly popular. He went to Palestine
hoping to receive prophetic inspiration there, and died at the age of
forty of the plague.
Talmudic literature monopolized the activities of the German and Polish
Jews, the latter being considered the leaders in this line and filling
most of the Rabbinic positions in Western Europe during the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. Among the most prominent dialecticians
may be mentioned Jacob Joshua of Lemberg (1680-1756), rabbi of
Frankfort-on-the-Main, Aryeh Loeb of Minsk, rabbi of Metz (1700-1786),
Ezekiel Landau (1713-1793), rabbi of Prague, and Jonathan Eybeschuetz
(1690-1764), rabbi of Metz and Altona, whose works show the highest
development in this branch. Already in the eighteenth century a sounder
development of Rabbinic studies, showing the beginnings of criticism and
an interest in historical and archæological questions, began.
Among those who led to the scientific presentation of Rabbinic literature
in modern times are to be mentioned Jair Hayyim Bacharach (1634-1702),
rabbi of Worms, of whose works very little has been preserved but who
was interested in the scientific presentation of Rabbinic theology as
the theory of oral tradition, and Jacob Emden (1696-1776), the bitter
opponent of Jonathan Eybeschuetz, who gathered historical material on
Sabbatai Zebi, and the mystics who followed him and had the boldness,
although a believer in Kabbala, to state that the Zohar, as we possess
it, is not the work of Simeon ben Johai. An emancipation from the strict
Rabbinic dialectics by better attention to correct Rabbinic texts and
to the study of philological and archæological questions is found in
the works of Joseph Steinhart (1706-1776), rabbi of Fuerth, Isaiah Pick
(1720-1799), and Elijah of Wilna (1720-1797).
The sufferings of the Jews in Spain stimulated interest in historical
literature and various authors, chiefly prompted by a desire to keep up
the courage of the Jews in the midst of persecutions, wrote historical
works. Among them may be mentioned Gedaliah ibn Yahya, an Italian who
wrote the “Chain of Tradition,” Solomon ibn Verga, a Spaniard who
emigrated to Turkey and wrote “Shebet Jehudah,” Joseph Cohen of Avignon,
who wrote “The Valley of Weeping,” and Samuel Usque, who wrote a work in
Portuguese called “Consolations in Tribulation,” all of the sixteenth
century. Somewhat later David Gans (died at Prague in 1617) wrote a dry
compilation of events in Jewish and general history under the title
“Zemah David.”
To the seventeenth century belongs the Oriental, David Conforte, his
“Kore Hadorot” being chiefly valued for its accounts of Rabbinic
literature in the Orient. Jehiel Heilprin of Minsk, eighteenth century,
wrote a history in the style of a chronicle, beginning with Creation.
It shows a naive belief in the historicity of the Midrash but is very
valuable by reason of its collection of historic passages from Rabbinic
literature. Secular education was slowly beginning to find its way among
the Jews. Quite a number of German Jews studied medicine in Italy,
chiefly from a practical point of view. Tobias Cohen of Metz (1652-1729)
studied in Frankfort-on-the-Oder, being supported by the Elector of
Brandenburg. In his later years he lived in the Orient, where he wrote a
compilation on various scientific subjects, “Maaseh Tobiyah.” In this he
shows sound knowledge of medicine.