The complete work of expounding, developing, and finally est_Jewish Literature and Other Essays

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,

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