Constitute a sort of nobility of the Jews, and it is the first object of
each parent that his sons shall, if possible, attain it. When, therefore,
a boy displays a peculiarly acute mind and studious habits, he is placed
before the twelve folio volumes of the Talmud, and its legion of
commentaries and epitomes, which he is made to pore over with an
intenseness which engrosses his faculties entirely, and often leaves him
in mind, and occasionally in body, fit for nothing else; and so vigilant
and jealous a discipline is exercised so to fence him round as to secure
his being exclusively Talmudical, and destitute of every other learning
and knowledge whatever, that one individual has lately met with three
young men, educated as rabbis, who were born and lived to manhood in the
middle of Poland, and yet knew not one word of its language. To speak
Polish on the Sabbath is to profane it--so say the orthodox Polish Jews.
If at the age of fourteen or fifteen years, or still earlier, (for the Jew
ceases to be a minor when thirteen years old,) this Talmudical student
realizes the hopes of his childhood, he becomes an object of research
among the wealthy Jews, who are anxious that their daughters shall attain
the honour of becoming the brides of these embryo santons; and often, when
he is thus young, and his bride still younger, the marriage is completed.
* * * * *