influence of foreign literatures. Immanuel Romi, for example, at his
best, is an exponent of Provencal versification and scholastic
philosophy, while his lapses testify to the self-complacency and levity
characteristic of the times. Yehuda Romano, one of his contemporaries,
is said to have been teacher to the king of Naples. He was the first Jew
to attain to a critical appreciation of the vagaries of scholasticism,
but his claim to mention rests upon his translations from the Latin.
As Jews assisted at the birth of Arabic, French, and German, so they
have a share in the beginnings of Spanish, literature. Jews must be
credited with the first "Chronicle of the Cid," with the romance, _Comte
Lyonnais, Palanus_, with the first collection of tales, the first chess
poems, and the first troubadour songs. Again, the oldest collection of
the last into a _cancionera_ was made by the Jew Juan Alfonso de Baena.
Even distant Persia has proofs to show of Jewish ability and energy in
those days. One Jew composed an epic on a biblical subject in the
Persian language, another translated the Psalms into the vernacular.
The most prominent Jewish exponent of philosophy in this age of
strenuous interest in metaphysical speculations and contests was Levi
ben Gerson (Leon di Bannolas), theologian, scientist, physician, and
astronomer. One of his ancestors, Gerson ben Solomon, had written a work
typical of the state of the natural sciences in his day. Levi ben
Gerson's chief work became famous not among Jews alone. It was referred
to in words of praise by Pico della Mirandola, Reuchlin, Kepler, and
other Christian thinkers. He was the inventor of an astronomical
instrument, a description of which was translated into Latin at the
express command of Pope Clement VI., and carefully studied by Kepler.
Besides, Levi ben Gerson was the author of an arithmetical work. In
those days, in fact up to the seventeenth century, there was but a faint
dividing line between astronomy and mathematics, as between medicine and
natural history. John of Seville was a notable mathematician, the
compiler of a practical arithmetic, the first to make mention of decimal
fractions, which possibly may have been his invention, and in the Zohar,
the text-book of mediaeval Jewish mysticism, which appeared centuries
before Copernicus's time, the cause of the succession of day and night
is stated to be the earth's revolution on its axis.
In this great translation period scarcely a single branch of human
science escaped the mental avidity of Jews. They found worthy of
translation such essays as "Rules for the Shoeing and Care of Horses in
Royal Stables" and "The Art of Carving and Serving at Princely Boards."
Translations of works on scholasticism now took rank beside those from
Greek and Arabic philosophers, and to translations from the Arabic into
Hebrew were added translations from and into Latin, or even into the
vernacular idiom wherever literary forms had developed. The bold
assertion can be made good that not a single prominent work of ancient
science was left untranslated. On the other hand it is hard to speculate
what would have been the fate of these treasures of antiquity without
Jewish intermediation. Doubtless an important factor in the work was the
encouragement given Jewish scholars by enlightened rulers, such as
Emperor Frederick II., Charles and Robert of Anjou, Jayme I. of Aragon,
and Alfonso X. of Castile, and by popes, and private patrons of
learning. Mention has been made of Jewish contributions to the work of
the medical schools of Montpellier and Salerno. Under Jayme I. Christian
and Jewish savants of Barcelona worked together harmoniously to promote
the cause of civilization and culture in their native land. The first to
use the Catalan dialect for literary purposes was the Jew Yehuda ben
Astruc, and under Alfonso (X.) the Wise, Jews again attained to
prominence in the king's favorite science of astronomy. The Alfonsine
Tables were chiefly the work of Isaac ibn Sid, a Toledo _chazan_
(precentor). In general, the results reached by Jewish scholarship at
Alfonso's court were of the utmost importance, having been largely
instrumental in establishing in the age of Tycho de Brahe and Kepler the
fundamental principles of astronomy and a correct view of the orbits of
the heavenly bodies. Equal suggestiveness characterizes Jewish research
in mathematics, a science to which, rising above the level of
intermediaries and translators, Jews made original contributions of
importance, the first being Isaac Israeli's "The Foundation of the
Universe." Basing his observations on Maimuni's and Abraham ben Chiya's
statement of the sphericity of the earth, Israeli showed that the
heavenly bodies do not seem to occupy the place in which they would
appear to an observer at the centre of the earth, and that the two
positions differ by a certain angle, since known as parallax in the
terminology of science. To Judah Hakohen, a scholar in correspondence
with Alfonso the Wise, is ascribed the arrangement of the stars in
forty-eight constellations, and to another Jew, Esthori Hafarchi, we owe
the first topographical description of Palestine, whither he emigrated
when the Jews were expelled from France by Philip the Fair.
Meanwhile the condition of the Jews, viewed from without and from
within, had become most pitiable. The Kabbala lured into her charmed
circle the strongest Jewish minds. Scientific aspirations seemed
completely extinguished. Even the study of the Talmud was abandoning
simple, undistorted methods of interpretation, and espousing the
hairsplitting dialectics of the northern French school. Synagogue poetry
was languishing, and general culture found no votaries among Jews.
Occasionally only the religious disputations between Jews and Christians
induced some few to court acquaintance with secular branches of
learning. In the fourteenth century Chasdai Crecas was the only
philosopher with an original system, which in its arguments on free
will and the nature of God anticipated the views of one greater than
himself, who, however, had a different purpose in view. That later and
greater philosopher, to whom the world is indebted for the evangel of
modern life, was likewise a Jew, a descendant of Spanish-Jewish
fugitives. His name is Baruch Spinoza.
However sad their fortunes, the literature of the Jews never entirely
eschewed the consideration of subjects of general interest. This
receives curious confirmation from the re-introduction of Solomon
Gabirol's peculiar views into Jewish religious philosophy, by way of
Christian scholasticism, as formulated especially by Thomas Aquinas, the
_Doctor angelicus_.
The Renaissance and the humanistic movement also reveal Jewish
influences at work. The spirit of liberty abroad in the earth passed
through the halls of Israel, clearing the path thenceforth to be trodden
by men. Again the learned were compelled to engage the good offices of
the Jews, the custodians of biblical antiquity. The invention of the
printing press acted as a wonderful stimulus to the development of
Jewish literature. The first products of the new machine were Hebrew
works issued in Italy and Spain. Among the promoters of the Renaissance,
and one of the most thorough students of religio-philosophical systems,
was Elias del Medigo, the friend of Pico della Mirandola, and the umpire
chosen by the quarrelling factions in the University of Padua. John
Reuchlin, chief of the humanists, was taught Hebrew by Obadiah Sforno,
a _savant_ of profound scholarship, who dedicated his "Commentary on
Ecclesiastes" to Henry II. of France. Abraham de Balmes was a teacher at
the universities of Padua and Salerno, and physician in ordinary to
Cardinal Dominico Grimani. The Kabbala was made accessible to the heroes
of the Renaissance by Jochanan Alemanno, of Mantua, and there is pathos
in the urgency with which Reuchlin entreats Jacob Margoles, rabbi of
Nuremberg, to send him Kabbalistic writings in addition to those in his
possession. Reuchlin's good offices to the Jews--his defense of them
against the attacks of obscurantists--are a matter of general knowledge.
Among the teachers of the humanists who revealed to them the treasures
of biblical literature the most prominent was Elias Levita, the
introducer, through his disciples Sebastian Muenster and Paul Fagius, of
Hebrew studies into Germany. He may be accounted a true humanist, a
genuine exponent of the Renaissance. His Jewish coadjutors were Judah
Abrabanel (Leo Hebraeus), whose chief work was _Dialoghi di Amore_, an
exposition of the Neoplatonism then current in Italy; Jacob Mantino,
physician to Pope Paul III.; Bonet di Lattes, known as a writer on
astronomical subjects, and the inventor of an astronomical instrument;
and a number of others.
While in Italy the Spanish-Jewish exiles fell into line in the
Renaissance movement, the large numbers of them that sought refuge in
Portugal turned their attention chiefly to astronomical research and to
voyages of discovery and adventure, the national enterprises of their
protectors. Joao II. employed Jews in investigations tending to make
reasonably safe the voyages, on trackless seas, under unknown skies, for
the discovery of long and ardently sought passages to distant lands. In
his commission charged with the construction of an instrument to
indicate accurately the course of a vessel, the German knight Martin
Behaim was assisted by Jews--astronomers, metaphysicians, and
physicians--chief among them Joseph Vecinho, distinguished for his part
in the designing of the artificial globe, and Pedro di Carvallho,
navigator, whose claim to praise rests upon his improvement of Leib's
_Astrologium_, and to censure, upon his abetment of the king when he
refused the request of the bold Genoese Columbus to fit out a squadron
for the discovery of wholly unknown lands. But when Columbus's plans
found long deferred realization in Spain, a Jewish youth, Luis de
Torres, embarked among the ninety adventurers who accompanied him. Vasco
da Gama likewise was aided in his search for a waterway to the Indies by
a Jew, the pilot Gaspar, the same who later set down in writing the
scientific results of the voyage, and two Jews were despatched to
explore the coasts of the Red Sea and the island of Ormus in the Persian
Gulf. Again, Vasco da Gama's plans were in part made with the valuable
assistance of a Jew, a profound scholar, Abraham Zacuto, sometime
professor of astronomy at the University of Salamanca, and after the
banishment of Jews from Spain, astronomer and chronographer to Manuel
the Great, of Portugal. It was he that advised the king to send out Da
Gama's expedition, and from the first the explorer was supported by his
counsel and scientific knowledge.
Meritorious achievements, all of them, but they did not shield the Jews
against impending banishment. The exiles found asylums in Italy and
Holland, and in each country they at once projected themselves into the
predominant intellectual movement. A physician, Abraham Portaleone,
distinguished himself on the field of antiquarian research; another,
David d'Ascoli, wrote a defense of Jews; and a third, David de Pomis, a
defense of Jewish physicians. The most famous was Amatus Lusitanus, one
of whose important discoveries is said to have brought him close up to
that of the circulation of the blood. Before the banishment of Jews from
Spain took effect, Antonio di Moro, a Jewish peddler of Cordova,
flourished as the last of Spanish troubadours, and Rodrigo da Cota, a
neo-Christian of Seville, as the first of Spanish dramatists, the
supposed author of _Celestina_, one of the most celebrated of old
Spanish dramatic compositions.
The proscribed, in the guise of Marranos, and under the hospitable
shelter of their new homes, could not be banished from literary Spain,
even in its newest departures. Indeed, for a long time Spanish and
Italian literatures were brought into contact with each other only
through the instrumentality of Jews. Not quite half a century after the
expulsion of Jews from Portugal and their settlement in Italy, a Jew,
Solomon Usque, made a Spanish translation of Petrarch (1567), dedicated
to Alessandro Farnese, duke of Parma, and wrote Italian odes, dedicated
to Cardinal Borromeo.
At the zenith of the Renaissance, Jews won renown as Italian poets, and
did valiant work as translators from Latin into Hebrew and Italian. In
the later days of the movement, in the Reformation period, illustrious
Christian scholars studied Hebrew under Jewish tutorship, and gave it a
place on the curriculum of the universities. Luther himself submitted to
rabbinical guidance in his biblical studies.
In great numbers the Spanish exiles turned to Turkey, where numerous new
communities rapidly arose. There, too, in Constantinople and elsewhere,
Jews, like Elias Mizrachi and Elias Kapsali, were the first to pursue
scientific research.
We have now reached the days of deepest misery for Judaism. Yet, in the
face of unrelenting oppression, Jews win places of esteem as diplomats,
custodians and advocates of important interests at royal courts. From
the earliest period of their history, Jews manifested special talent for
the arts of diplomacy. In the Arabic-Spanish period they exercised great
political influence upon Mohammedan caliphs. The Fatimide and Omayyad
dynasties employed Jewish representatives and ministers, Samuel ibn
Nagdela, for instance, being grand vizir of the caliph of Granada.
Christian sovereigns also valued their services: as is well known,
Charlemagne sent a Jewish ambassador to Haroun al Rashid; Pope
Alexander III. appointed Yechiel ben Abraham as minister of finance; and
so late as in the fifteenth century the wise statesman Isaac Abrabanel
was minister to Alfonso V., of Portugal, and, wonderful to relate, for
eight years to Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain. At this time Jewish
literature was blessed with a patron in the person of Joseph Nasi, duke
of Naxos, whom, it is said, Sultan Selim II. wished to crown king of
Cyprus. His rival was Solomon Ashkenazi, Turkish ambassador to the
Venetian republic, who exercised decisive influence upon the election of
a Polish king. And this is not the end of the roll of Jewish diplomats
and ministers.
Unfortunately, the Kabbala, whose spell was cast about even the most
vigorous of Jewish minds, was the leading intellectual current of those
sad days, the prevailing misery but serving to render her allurements
more fascinating. But in the hands of such men as Abraham Herrera, who
influenced Benedict Spinoza, even Kabbalistic studies were informed with
a scientific spirit, and brought into connection with Neoplatonic
philosophy.
Mention of Spinoza suggests Holland where Jews were kindly received, and
shortly after their arrival they interested themselves in the
philosophical pursuits in vogue. The best index to their position in
Holland is furnished by Manasseh ben Israel's prominent role in the
politics and the literary ventures of Amsterdam, and by his negotiations
with Oliver Cromwell. We may pardon the pride which made him say, "I
have enjoyed the friendship of the wisest and the best of Europe." Uriel
Acosta and Baruch Spinoza, though children of the Amsterdam
_Judengasse_, were ardent patriots.
The last great Spanish poet was Antonio Enrique de Gomez, the Jewish
Calderon, burnt in effigy at Seville; while the last Portuguese poet of
note was Antonio Jose de Silva, who perished at the stake for his faith,
leaving his dramas as a precious possession to Portuguese literature.
Even in the dreariest days of decadence, when the study of the Talmud
seemed to engross their attention, Jews prosecuted scientific inquiries,
as witness Moses Isserles's translation of _Theorica_, an astronomical
treatise by Peurbach, the Vienna humanist.
With the migration of Jews eastward, _Judendeutsch_, a Jewish-German
dialect, with its literature, was introduced into Slavic countries. It
is a fact not generally known that this jargon is the depository of
certain Middle High German expressions and elements no longer used in
the modern German, and that philologists are forced to resort to the
study of the Polish-Jewish patois to reconstruct the old idiom. In 1523,
the year of Luther's Pentateuch translation, a Jewish-German Bible
dictionary was published at Cracow, and in 1540 appeared the first
Jewish-German translation of the Pentateuch. The Germans strongly
influenced the popular literature of the Jews. The two nationalities
seized the same subjects, often imitating the same models, or using the
same translations. The German "Till Eulenspiegel" was printed in 1500,
the Jewish-German in 1600. Besides incorporating German folklore,
Jewish-German writings borrowed from German romances, assimilated
foreign literatures, did not neglect the traditions of the Jews
themselves, and embraced even folk-songs, some of which have perpetuated
themselves until the modern era.
Mention of the well-known fact that the Hebrew studies prosecuted by
Christians in the eighteenth century were carried on under Jewish
influence brings us to the threshold of the modern era, the period of
the Jewish Renaissance. Here we are on well-worn ground. Since Jews have
been permitted to enter at will upon the multifarious pursuits growing
out of modern culture, their importance as factors of civilization is
universally acknowledged, and it would be wearisome, and would far
transgress the limits of a lecture, to enumerate their achievements.
In trying to show what share the Jew has had in the world's
civilization, I have naturally concerned myself chiefly with literature,
for literature is the mirror of culture. It would be a mistake, however,
to suppose that the Jew has been inactive in other spheres. His
contributions, for instance, to the modern development of international
commerce, cannot be overlooked. Commerce in its modern extension was the
creation of the mercantile republics of mediaeval Italy-Venice, Florence,
Genoa, and Pisa--and in them Jews determined and regulated its course.
When Ravenna contemplated a union with Venice, and formulated the
conditions for the alliance, one of them was the demand that rich Jews
be sent thither to open a bank for the relief of distress. Jews were the
first to obtain the privilege of establishing banks in the Italian
cities, and the first to discover the advantages of a system of checks
and bills of exchange, of unique value in the development of modern
commerce.
Even in art, a sphere from which their rigorous laws might seem to have
the effect of banishing them, they were not wholly inactive. They always
numbered among themselves handicraftsmen. In Venice, in the sixteenth
century, we find celebrated Jewish wood engravers. Jacob Weil's rules
for slaughtering were published with vignettes by Hans Holbein, and one
of Manasseh ben Israel's works was adorned with a frontispiece by
Rembrandt. In our own generation Jews have won fame as painters and
sculptors, while music has been their staunch companion, deserting them
not even in the darkest days of the Ghetto.
These certainly are abundant proofs that the Jew has a share in all the
phases and stages of culture, from its first germs unto its latest
complex development--a consoling, elevating reflection. A learned
historian of literature, a Christian, in discussing this subject, was
prompted to say: "Our first knowledge of philosophy, botany, astronomy,
and cosmography, as well as the grammar of the holy language and the
results of biblical study, we owe primarily to Jews." Another historian,
also a Christian, closes a review of Jewish national traits with the
words: "Looking back over the course of history, we find that in the
gloom, bareness, and intellectual sloth of the middle ages, Jews
maintained a rational system of agriculture, and built up international
commerce, upon which rests the well-being of the nations."
Truly, there are reasons for pride on our part, but no less do great
obligations devolve upon us. I cannot refrain from exhortation. In
justice we should confess that Jews drew their love of learning and
ability to advance the work of civilization from Jewish writings.
Furthermore, it is a fact that these Jewish writings no longer excite
the interest, or claim the devotion of Jews. I maintain that it is the
duty of the members of our Order to take this neglected, lightly
esteemed literature under their protection, and secure for it the
appreciation and encouragement that are the offspring of knowledge.
Modern Judaism presents a curious spectacle. The tiniest of national
groups in Eastern Europe, conceiving the idea of establishing its
independence, proceeds forthwith to create a literature, if need be,
inventing and forging. Judaism possesses countless treasures of
inestimable worth, amassed by research and experience in the course of
thousands of years, and her latter-day children brush them aside with
indifference, even with scorn, leaving it to the sons of the stranger,
yea, their adversaries, to gather and cherish them.
When Goethe in his old age conceived and outlined a scheme of universal
literature, the first place was assigned to Jewish literature. In his
pantheon of the world's poetry, the first tone uttered was to be that
of "David's royal song and harp." But, in general, Jewish literature is
still looked upon as the Cinderella of the world's literatures. Surely,
the day will come when justice will be done, Cinderella's claim be
acknowledged equal to that of her royal sisters, and together they will
enter the spacious halls of the magnificent palace of literature.
Among the prayers prescribed for the Day of Atonement is one of
subordinate importance which affects me most solemnly. When the shadows
of evening lengthen, and the light of the sun wanes, the Jew reads the
_Neilah_ service with fervor, as though he would "burst open the portals
of heaven with his tears," and the inmost depths of my nature are
stirred with melancholy pride by the prayer of the pious Jew. He
supplicates not for his house and his family, not for Zion dismantled,
not for the restoration of the Temple, not for the advent of the
Messiah, not for respite from suffering. All his sighs and hopes, all
his yearning and aspiration, are concentrated in the one thought: "Our
splendor and our glory have departed, our treasures have been snatched
from us; there remains nothing to us but this Law alone." If this is
true; if naught else is left of our former state; if this Law, this
science, this literature, are our sole treasure and best inheritance,
then let us cherish and cultivate them so as to have a legacy to
bequeath to our children to stand them in good stead against the coming
of the _Neilah_ of humanity, the day when brethren will "dwell together
in unity."
Perhaps that day is not far distant. Methinks I hear the rustling of a
new spring-tide of humanity; methinks I discern the morning flush of new
world-stirring ideas, and before my mind's eye rises a bridge, over
which pass all the nations of the earth, Israel in their midst, holding
aloft his ensign with the inscription, "The Lord is my banner!"--the one
which he bore on every battlefield of thought, and which was never
suffered to fall into the enemy's hand. It is a mighty procession moving
onward and upward to a glorious goal: "Humanity, Liberty, Love!"
WOMEN IN JEWISH LITERATURE
Among the songs of the Bible there are two, belonging to the oldest
monuments of poetry, which have preserved the power to inspire and
elevate as when they were first uttered: the hymn of praise and
thanksgiving sung by Moses and his sister Miriam, and the impassioned
song of Deborah, the heroine in Israel.