THE PATRIARCHATE OF JUDAH I.
The Patriarch Judah I.--His Authority and
Reputation--Completion of the Mishna--The Last Generation
of Tanaites--Condition of the Jews under Marcus Aurelius,
Commodus, Septimius Severus, and Antoninus Caracalla--Character
and contents of the Mishna--Death of Judah.
175.219 C. E.
The last generation of the Tanaites had come back to the same point
from which they first had started, thus completing the whole circle.
In the same way as the first had found complete expression in a single
personality, Jochanan ben Zaccai, so also the last culminated in one
standard-bearer, who formed the central point of his times. The former
had been followed by several disciples, each possessing his peculiar
school, tendency, and system; and thus the material of tradition was
divided into a multiplicity of fractional parts. It was the Patriarch
Judah, the son of Simon II., who reunited them, and thus brought the
activity of the Tanaites to a conclusion. He was the chief authority
of the last generation, compared with whom the other teachers of the
Law were of no importance; he abandoned the old tendencies and prepared
the way for a new departure. In spite of the important position which
he occupies in Jewish history but little is known of Judah's life. It
was during a time of great affliction, when the calamitous consequences
of the Bar-Cochba war were still being felt, that his superior talents
and great parts developed themselves. He so distinguished himself by
mature questions and striking answers that his father and the college
advanced him to the foremost rank of the disciples while he was still
in his first youth. As though he felt that his vocation was to be the
collecting and arranging of the most dissimilar opinions, Judah did not
confine himself to any one school, but sought the society of several
teachers of the Law. This it was that saved him from that one-sidedness
and narrowness of mind which is given to upholding, with more fidelity
than love of truth, the words of one teacher against all other
doctrines. The most important of his teachers were Simon ben Jochai and
Eleazar ben Shamua, whose school was so crowded with students that six
of them were obliged to content themselves with one seat.
Judah was elevated to the dignity of Patriarch upon his father's
decease, and the cessation of the persecutions after Verus's death. He
was blessed with such extraordinary gifts of fortune that it used to
be said proverbially, "Judah's cattle-stalls are worth more than the
treasure-chambers of the King of Persia." Living very simply himself,
he made but small use of this wealth for his personal gratification,
but employed it in the maintenance of the disciples who during his
Patriarchate gathered around him in numbers from at home and abroad,
and were supported entirely at his cost. At the time of the awful
famine, which, together with the plague, raged for several years
during the reign of Marcus Aurelius throughout the whole extent of
the Roman empire, the Jewish prince threw open his storehouses and
distributed corn to the needy. At first he decided that those only
should be succored who were occupied in some way with the study of the
Law, thus excluding from his charity the rude and uneducated populace.
It was only when his over-conscientious disciple, Jonathan ben Amram,
refused to derive any material benefit from his knowledge of the Law,
exclaiming, "Succor me not because I am learned in the Law, but as you
would feed a hungry raven," that Judah perceived the mistake of trying
to set bounds to his charity, and he thenceforth distributed his gifts
without distinction. On another occasion Judah also yielded to his
better convictions and overcame his nature, which seems not to have
been entirely free from a touch of harshness. The daughters of Acher,
a man who had held the Law in contempt, having fallen into distress,
came to Judah for help. At first he repulsed them uncharitably,
remarking that the orphans of such a father deserved no pity. But when
they reminded him of their father's profound knowledge of the Law, he
immediately altered his mind.
Distinguished by his wealth and his intimate knowledge of the
subject-matter of the Halachas, he succeeded without trouble in doing
that which his predecessors had striven in vain to accomplish, namely,
to invest the Patriarchate with autocratic power, unfettered by the
presence of any rival authority, and to transfer the powers of the
Synhedrion to the person of the Patriarch. The seat of the principal
school and of the Synhedrion during the time of Judah, and after Usha
had lost its importance (a short time previously it seems to have
been the neighboring town of Shefaram), was first at Beth-Shearim,
northeast of Sepphoris, and later on at Sepphoris itself. Judah chose
this latter town for his residence, on account of its elevated and
healthy situation, in the hopes of recovering from a complaint from
which he had suffered for several years. In Sepphoris there seems
to have existed a complete council of seventy members, which was
entrusted with the decision of religious questions according to the
adopted routine. Judah's reputation was so great, however, that the
college itself transferred to him the sovereign power which up till
then had belonged to the whole body or to individual members. It was
rightly observed of Judah that since the time of Moses, knowledge of
the Law and possession of authority had not been united in any one
person as in him. A most important function which was conferred upon
this Patriarch, or rather which he got conferred on him, was that of
appointing the disciples as judges and teachers of the Law. He was
allowed to exercise this power without consulting the College, but
on the other hand the nominations of the high Council were invalid
without the Patriarch's confirmation. The nomination of spiritual
guides of the communities, the appointments to the judicial offices,
the filling up of vacancies in the Synhedrion, in a word, all Judæa
and the communities abroad, fell in this manner into dependence on the
Patriarch. That which his father and grandfather had striven in vain to
accomplish, came about, so to speak, at his touch. In his time there
was no longer a deputy (Ab-Beth-Din), nor a public speaker (Chacham).
Judah, the Prince (ha-Nassi), alone was all in all. Even the Synhedrion
itself had resigned its authority, and continued to exist henceforward
only in name; the Patriarch decided everything. By reason of his great
importance he was called simply Rabbi, as if, when compared with him,
no teacher of the Law were of any consequence, and he himself were the
personification of the Law.
He soon further increased his powers by deciding that even the most
capable were not competent to pronounce on any religious question
without having first been expressly authorized by him. How great was
the importance of this act may be seen from the circumstance that
the foreign communities, as well as those of Judæa, were obliged to
put themselves in direct communication with the Patriarch in order
to obtain their officials, judges, and teachers. The community of
Simonias, which lay to the south of Sepphoris, begged the Patriarch to
send them a man who should give public lectures, decide questions of
law, superintend the Synagogue, prepare copies of authentic writings,
teach their sons, and generally supply all the wants of the community.
He recommended to them for this purpose his best pupil, Levi bar Sissi.
It may be seen from this example how great were the requirements
demanded of the instructors of the people. Another disciple of Judah,
Rabba bar Chana by name, a native of Cafri in Babylon, was obliged to
obtain the authorization of the Patriarch before being able to decide
any questions of religion and law in his native land. In the same
manner a third of his disciples, Abba Areka, also a native of Babylon,
who later on became a great authority with the Babylonian communities,
obtained this influence solely by Judah's nomination. One dignity
alone, that of the Prince of the Captivity in Babylon, was on an equal
footing with the Patriarchate, and Judah was all the more jealous
thereof on account of its being conferred and upheld by the Parthian
authorities, while his office was at most merely tolerated by the Roman
rulers.
Invested with this autocratic power, Judah manifested unusual severity
towards his disciples, and displayed so great an irritability with them
that he never pardoned the least offense offered, even in jest, to his
dignity. The course of conduct which he enjoined upon his son from his
death-bed, namely, to treat his scholars with strict severity, was the
one which he himself had pursued all through the Patriarchate. Among
the numerous Babylonians who crowded to the Academy at Sepphoris was
a distinguished disciple, by name Chiya (an abbreviation of Achiya),
whom his contemporaries could hardly praise enough for his natural
gifts, his pious conduct, and his untiring endeavors to spread the
teachings of religion among the people. Judah himself valued him very
highly, and said of him: "From a land far off there came to me the
man of good counsel." But even him the Patriarch could not pardon an
insignificant jest. Judah had once said to him, "If Huna, the Prince
of the Captivity, were to come to Judæa, I should certainly not carry
my self-denial so far as to abdicate my office to him, but I would
honor him as a descendant in the male line from David." When Huna died
and his body was taken to Judæa, Chiya observed to the Patriarch,
"Huna is coming." Judah grew pale at the news, and when he found that
Chiya was referring to the corpse of Huna, he punished the joke by
excluding Chiya from his presence for thirty days. Judah showed himself
equally sensitive in his conduct towards Simon Bar-Kappara, one of his
disciples, who, with his knowledge of the Law, combined at the same
time poetical talent and a vein of delicate satire; as far as is known,
he was the only Hebrew poet of that period. The little that remains of
the productions of Bar-Kappara's muse indicates ready manipulation of
the Hebrew tongue in a regenerated form, and in all its pristine purity
and vigor; he composed fables, of which, however, no trace now remains.
On the occasion of a merry meeting, the witty Bar-Kappara indulged in
a jest at the expense of a certain Bar-Eleaza, the rich but proud and
ignorant son-in-law of the Patriarch. All the guests had put questions
to Judah, except the simple-minded Bar-Eleaza. Bar-Kappara incited him
to ask one as well, and in a whisper suggested one to him in the form
of a riddle. This riddle, to which no answer has been found to the
present day, contained in all likelihood allusions to certain persons
closely connected with Judah. It ran somewhat as follows:--
She looks from heaven on high,
And ceaseless is her cry,
Whom wingéd beings shun;
Youth doth she fright away.
And men with old age gray,
And loud shriek they who run.
But whom her net hath lured
Can ne'er of the sin be cured.
In all simplicity, Bar-Eleaza propounded this riddle. Judah must have
seen, however, by the satirical smile on Bar-Kappara's lips that it
was intended to banter him, and he therefore exclaimed angrily to
Bar-Kappara: "I refuse to recognize you as an appointed teacher."
It was not till later on, when Bar-Kappara failed to obtain his
appointment as an independent teacher of the Law, that he realized to
the full the meaning of these words.
One of the most celebrated of the Babylonian disciples, Samuel by name,
by whose medical treatment Judah had been cured of his long illness,
was unable to obtain the nomination necessary in order to become a
teacher of the Law. Judah was once desirous of excusing himself for
this slight to Samuel, to whom he owed the restoration of his health,
whereupon the latter answered him pleasantly, that it was so decreed in
the book of Adam, "that Samuel would be a wise man, but not appointed
Rabbi, and that thy illness should be cured by me." Chanina bar Chama,
another disciple, who, later on, was also regarded as an authority,
once remarked that a word which occurred in the Prophets ought to be
pronounced otherwise than Judah read it. Offended thereat, Judah asked
him where he had heard this; to which Chanina answered, "At the house
of Hamnuna, in Babylon." "Well, then," retorted Judah, "when you go
again to Hamnuna, tell him that I recognize you as a sage"; which
was equivalent to telling Chanina that Judah would never authorize
him to be a teacher. This irritability of the Patriarch, who was in
all other respects a noble character, was his one weak point. It is
possible, indeed, that this susceptibility was the result of his
ill-health. However that may be, it did not fail to arouse a certain
dissatisfaction and discontent, which never found public expression on
account of the deep reverence in which the Patriarch was held.
Once at a banquet, when the wine had loosened men's tongues and made
the guests oblivious of respect, the twin sons of Chiya gave utterance
to this feeling of discontent. These highly talented youths, by name
Judah and Chiskiya, whom the Patriarch himself had incited to gaiety
and loquacity, expressed it as their opinion "that the Messiah could
not appear until the fall of the two princely houses of Israel--the
house of the Patriarch in Judæa, and that of the Prince of the
Captivity in Babylon." The wine had caused them to betray their most
secret thoughts.
In consideration of the altered circumstances of his time, Judah, by
virtue of his independence and authority, abolished several rites and
customs which seemed to the people to be hallowed by age, and carried
through his design with perseverance, regardless of all consequences.
Contrary to the principles of his teacher and predecessor, who had
treated the Samaritans as heathens, Judah decreed that the evidence
of a Samaritan in matters concerning marriage was admissible and of
equal weight with the testimony of an Israelite. The views of these
teachers of the Law of Moses, who agreed on the chief principles of
their religion, varied in other matters according to the predominance
of friendly or inimical feelings towards the heathens. For some
time past difficulties had been constantly occurring between the
Jews and the Samaritans. Eleazar, the son of Simon ben Jochai, and
a contemporary of Judah, who had made himself acquainted with the
Samaritan Torah, reproached them with having altered certain passages
of the holy text. The peaceable relations between Jew and Cuthæan since
the war of Hadrian were gradually changed to a state of ill-feeling,
which was as bitter on the one side as on the other. One day when
Ishmael b. José was passing through Neapolis (Shechem) in order to
go and pray at Jerusalem (for which purpose the Jews seem to have
required the permission of Marcus Aurelius), the Samaritans jeered
at the tenacity of the Jews, saying that it was certainly better to
pray upon their holy mount (Gerizim) than upon the heap of ruins at
Jerusalem. Traveling through the land of Samaria must have now become
less dangerous than it had formerly been. The teachers of the Law had
frequently to pass through the strip of land lying between Judæa and
Sepphoris. Although the seat of the Synhedrion was now in Galilee, and
Sepphoris was thus to a certain extent the center of the entire Jewish
community, nevertheless Judæa was, for various reasons, regarded as
holier than the northern district. The patriarch could not officiate in
person when the appearance of the new moon was announced, but had to
send a representative for the purpose (which office Chiya once filled);
the place where the announcement was made was at this time Ain-tab,
probably in the province of Judæa. This trifling superiority was still
left to that district, the scene of so many holy ceremonies and ancient
memories. The journey to Ain-tab was made through Samaria.
On another point, also, Judah deviated from the ancient customs and
the Halachic laws: he rendered less oppressive the laws relating to
the year of release and to the tithes. In spite of the fall of the
Jewish state, and of the numerous catastrophes which had befallen the
Jews, these laws still continued in unimpaired force, and were doubly
oppressive to a people impoverished by the disturbances of war, by
taxes, and by the extortion of money. The Patriarch therefore turned
his attention to this matter, and determined, if not entirely to
abrogate, at least to moderate the harshness of these laws. Furthermore
he decreed that the territory of certain border cities, which had up
till then been considered as forming a part of Judæa, should henceforth
not enjoy the privilege of sanctity which attached to Jewish ground.
This in so far constituted a relief, as these cities were thereby
exempted from the payment of tithes, and doubtless also from the laws
relating to the year of release. For the most part these border cities
were inhabited by Greeks and Romans, and had not always been subject
to Jewish rule. These alleviations of the burdens of the people drew
down reproaches on the Patriarch from certain of his relatives, to
whom he replied that his predecessors had left this duty to him. He
had even the intention of entirely abolishing the laws relative to the
year of release, but was unwilling to take so important a step without
first consulting such persons as were likely to entertain scruples
on this point. At that time Pinchas ben Jaïr was regarded as the
model of austere piety. He was a son-in-law of Simon ben Jochai, and
possessed so gloomy a disposition as to cause him to entertain doubts
as to the efficacy of any human institutions. He used to remark that,
"since the destruction of the Temple the members and the freemen are
put to shame, those who conform to the Law are confused, violence and
sycophancy carry the day, and no one cares for those who are deserted;
we have no hope but in God." In particular, Pinchas adhered strictly
to the prescriptions of the law relating to the tithes, and for this
reason never accepted any invitation to a meal. It was with this same
Pinchas that Judah took counsel relative to the abolition of the year
of release. It is probable that a year of scarcity necessitated the
adoption of some such measure. To the Patriarch's question, "How goes
it with the corn?" Pinchas answered reprovingly, "There will be a very
good crop of endives," meaning that if necessary it was better to live
on herbs rather than abrogate the Law. In consequence of Pinchas'
dislike of this scheme Judah abandoned his project entirely. But the
Zealot, having noticed some mules in the court of the Patriarch's
house, to keep which was not in exact accordance with the Law, refused
to accept Judah's invitation, and left him on the spot, vowing never to
come near him again.
But the most important of Judah's acts, a work on which reposes
his claim to an enduring name, and whereby he created a concluding
epoch, was the completion of the Mishna (about 189). Since the
completion, two generations before, of the oldest compilation under
the name of Adoyot, the subject-matter of the Law had accumulated to
an enormous extent. New cases, some drawn from older ones, others
deduced from the Scripture, had helped to swell the mass. The various
schools and systems had left many points of law in doubt, which now
awaited decision. Judah therefore based his compilation on Akiba's
partially arranged collection of laws as taught and corrected by Meïr,
retaining the same order. He examined the arguments for and against
every opinion, and established the Halachic precepts according to
certain ordinances and principles. He endeavored to observe a certain
systematic order in dealing with the various traditional laws relating
to the prayers, to benedictions, taxes on agricultural produce, the
Sabbath, festivals and fasts, marriage customs, vows and Nazarites,
civil and criminal jurisdiction, the system of sacrifices, levitical
purity, and many other points. His efforts were not, however, crowned
with complete success, partly on account of the various parts of his
subject being by their nature incapable of connection, and partly
by reason of his desire to retain the order and divisions already
employed. The style of Judah's Mishna is concise, well rounded, and
intelligent, and is thereby well adapted to impress itself firmly on
the memory. He in no way intended his Mishna, however, to be regarded
as the sole standard, having in fact only composed it, like his
predecessors and contemporaries, for his own use, in order to possess
a text-book for his lectures. But by reason of his great authority with
his disciples and contemporaries his compilation gradually obtained
exclusive authority, and finally superseded all previous collections,
which for that reason have fallen into oblivion. It retained the
ancient name of _Mishna_, but at first with the addition of the words
"di Rabbi Judah." Gradually, however, these words were dropped, and
it began to be considered as the sole legitimate, recognized and
authorized Mishna. His disciples disseminated it through distant lands,
using it as a text-book for their lectures, and as a religious and
judicial code. This Mishna, however, like the older compilations, was
not committed to writing, it being at that time regarded as a religious
offense to put on paper the precepts of tradition; it was thus handed
down for many centuries by word of mouth. The Agadas only were now and
then collected and written down, and even this was severely censured
by various teachers of the Law. It is true that scarce or remarkable
Halachas were sometimes written upon scrolls by certain teachers, but
this was done so secretly, that they acquired from this circumstance
the name of "Secret Scrolls."
In his old age Judah undertook another revision of his compilation, and
made certain alterations which brought his Mishna into harmony with his
new views. Various additions were also made after his death by his son.
The language in which the Mishna is written is Hebrew in a rejuvenated
form, interspersed with many Aramaic, Greek, and Latin words in general
use. Judah evinced a predilection for the Hebrew tongue, despising
Syriac, which was then indigenous to Galilee, on account of its
characteristic inexactness. Syriac, he asserted, was superfluous in
Judæa, and that either Hebrew or Greek should be spoken by every one.
As a matter of fact, the Hebrew language was in nowise foreign to the
population of Judæa, especially to such of them as lived in the towns.
Even Judah's female domestic slave and tyrant was so well acquainted
with Hebrew that many a foreign scholar applied to her for information
respecting certain words of which he was ignorant. The Hebrew language
was so easily and fluently spoken that many legal terms and delicate
distinctions, which were the outcome of the spirit of the times, found
their way into Jewish circles, and were there provided with proper
Hebrew equivalents.
Thus tradition was at last codified and sanctioned. During the four
centuries since the time of the Maccabees, when the doctrine of the
father, as handed down to the son, had first begun to acquire an
influence on the development of history, tradition had remained, so
to speak, in suspense. Accepted by the Pharisees, rejected by the
Sadducees, confined by Shammai's school within narrow boundaries,
extended in its application by the school of Hillel, and greatly
enriched by the followers of the latter, it was through Judah that
tradition first acquired a settled form, and was able to exercise, by
means of its contents and its mode of exposition, a spiritual influence
during a number of centuries. Concurrently with the Bible, the Mishna
was the principal source of intellectual activity and research; it
sometimes even succeeded in entirely supplanting the Scripture, and in
asserting its claim to sole authority. It was the intellectual bond
which held together the scattered members of the Jewish nation. The
Mishna--the child of the Patriarchate--by which it had been brought
into the world and endowed with authority, slew, so to speak, its own
parent, for the latter dignity lost by degrees its importance and
influence.
The appearance of the Mishna brought the line of Tanaites to a
conclusion, and put an end to independent teaching. "Nathan and
Judah are the last of the Tanaites," says a Sibylline chronicle,
the apocryphal book of Adam. The Mishna necessitated henceforth
the employment of a new method of study, which possessed but little
similarity with the Tanaite mode of teaching.
The period of the compilation of the Mishna was by no means a happy one
for the Jews. Marcus Aurelius, the best and most moral of the Roman
emperors, bore them no good will; he seems even to have cherished a
special aversion to them. When he came to Judæa, in the summer of
175, after the death of the rebel Avidius Cassius, he found the Jews
clamorous; they had not come respectfully to pay him homage, but to ask
exemption from the heavy taxes imposed on them; and he, greatly vexed
at this want of reverence, is reported to have exclaimed, "At last I
have discovered a people who are more restless than the Marcomani, the
Quadi, or the Sarmati!" In Judah's time, the communities in Judæa were
subjected to a tax, called the "crown money" (aurum coronarium), which
was so oppressive that the inhabitants of Tiberias took to flight in
order to escape its burden. There is not in existence a single law of
Marcus Aurelius in favor of the Jews.
But few Jews can have taken part in the short-lived rebellion of
Avidius Cassius (175). With the sensual and bloodthirsty blockhead,
Commodus (180-192), the son of the Emperor philosopher, ends the series
of good or tolerable emperors, and there opens a succession of tyrants
who cut one another's throats. In his reign Judæa was doubtless exposed
to all sorts of extortions and oppression. The barbarous, savage and
dissolute Pescennius Niger, who after the murder of the two preceding
rulers set up as emperor in company with Severus and a third candidate
(193,) and took up his residence in Antioch, displayed especial
harshness to the Jews. Once when they prayed him to lighten their
burden of taxes, which had now become intolerable, he answered them in
the following words: "You ask me to relieve your lands of their taxes;
would that I were able to tax the very air that you breathe!"
In the war that ensued between him and Severus, the latter was
victorious, and his opponent's adherents paid heavily for their
mistake. During his short stay in Palestine (200), after he had
wasted, but not subdued, the country of the Parthians, Adiabene, and
Mesopotamia, Severus promulgated several laws, which were certainly
not favorable to Palestine. Amongst these laws was one forbidding
heathens, under penalty of severe punishment, to embrace Judaism, or
even Christianity. He permitted those, however, who were "imbued with
the Jewish superstitions" to hold unpaid municipal offices and to be
invested with the dignities of the magistracy; but they were obliged
to submit to the claims made on them by reason of their occupation of
these posts, such as providing costly plays and supporting various
other heavy expenses, as long as no violation of their religion was
thereby occasioned.
The numerous bands of marauders which had collected together during
the war between Severus and Niger do not seem to have been entirely
suppressed in Judæa, but continued to exist in this land after the
departure of Severus. The Romans, who regarded these marauders as
highwaymen, dispatched troops to hunt them out of their hiding-places
in the mountains, but were unable to disperse them entirely. Two
famous teachers of the Law of this period, Eleazar, the son of Simon
ben Jochai (who in his time had been hostile to the Romans), and
Ishmael, the son of José the Prudent, were induced to aid the Romans,
to keep a watch over the Jewish freebooters, and to deliver them into
the hands of the Roman authorities, who put them to death. Public
opinion, however, was loud in its blame of these men for thus allowing
themselves to become the tools of the Roman tyrants against their own
countrymen. Joshua b. Karcha (according to certain authorities the
son of Akiba) reproached Eleazar most bitterly for his behavior. "Oh,
thou vinegar!" he exclaimed, "the produce of wine (unworthy son of a
worthy father), how much longer dost thou intend to deliver up God's
people to the executioner?" When Eleazar attempted to excuse himself
by saying that he only desired "to clear the vineyard of thorns,"
Joshua retorted: "Let the lord of the vineyard root out the thorns
himself." Later on Eleazar repented of his share in the pursuit of
the Jewish freebooters, and is said to have done penance in the most
painful manner. Although he was an Halachic authority, to whom at
times the Patriarch submitted, the feeling which he had excited by
affording assistance to the Romans was so bitter that he was afraid
that after his death the last honors would be denied his corpse by
the teachers of the Law. He therefore enjoined upon his wife not to
bury him immediately, but to allow his body to remain in a room for
several days. When after his death Judah the Patriarch sought his widow
in marriage, she rejected his suit, annoyed probably at the slight
inflicted on her husband, and answered him: "A vessel intended for holy
purposes must not be put to profane uses."
Ishmael ben José was also visited with the disapprobation of the people
on account of his prosecution of the Jewish marauders. His excuse that
he had received an order from the Roman authorities, of which he was
unable to relieve himself, was met by the retort: "Did not thy father
flee? Thou also then wast able to escape."
Judah, the Patriarch, was a witness of all these sad scenes after
having held his office for more than thirty years. With great
equanimity he prepared to die, awaiting his dissolution with
tranquillity. He summoned his sons and learned comrades before him,
and informed them of his last wishes. He conferred the dignity of
Patriarch on Gamaliel, his elder son, and appointed Simon the younger
to the office of Chacham (speaker). To both of them he recommended his
widow, who was doubtless their stepmother, and commanded them to pay
her all respect after his death, and to make no alterations in his
domestic establishment. He strongly impressed on the future Patriarch
the policy of treating his disciples with severity, but recommended
a departure from his principle of only allowing two disciples to be
ordained, and suggested that all who were capable and deserving should
be admitted to ordination. He particularly enjoined on Gamaliel the
obligation of conferring the dignity of teacher, first and foremost
on Chanina bar Chama, to whom he believed himself indebted. His two
servants, José, of Phaeno, and Simon the Parthian, who served him with
great affection during his lifetime, were commanded to take charge
of his corpse after his death. He besought the Synhedrion to bury
him without any great pomp, to allow no mourning ceremonies to be
performed for him in the towns, and to re-open the Assembly of Teachers
after the short interval of thirty days. Many of the inhabitants of
the neighboring towns had gathered in Sepphoris at the news of the
Patriarch's approaching death, in order to show him their sympathy.
As if it were impossible that he could die, the populace threatened
to put to death whosoever should announce the sad news to them. The
suspense and agitation were, in fact, so great that some violent
explosion of the grief of the crowd was apprehended. The intelligence
of the Patriarch's death was, however, indirectly communicated to the
people by Bar-Kappara. With his head veiled and his garments torn, he
spoke the following words: "Angels and mortals contended for the ark
of the covenant; the angels have conquered, and the ark has vanished."
Hereupon the people uttered a cry of pain and exclaimed "He is dead,"
to which Bar-Kappara made answer, "Ye have said it." Their lamentations
are said to have been heard at Gabbata, three miles from Sepphoris. A
numerous funeral train accompanied Judah's corpse from Sepphoris to
Beth-Shearim, and memorial sermons were preached for him in eighteen
different synagogues. Even the descendants of Aaron paid the last
honors to his corpse, although this was in direct opposition to the
Law. "For this day," it was said, "the consecrated character of the
priests is suspended." Synhedrion and priests readily subordinated
themselves to him who represented the Law in his own person. After his
death he was called "the Holy" (ha-Kadosh), though later generations
seem to have been unable to offer any explanation of the title.
History has little more to relate of Judah's successor, Gamaliel III
(about 210 to 225) than that he faithfully executed his father's
commands. Such of his sayings as have been preserved are well worthy
of consideration, as throwing a strong light on the state of the
times. "It is good to be occupied in the study of religion, if some
secular business is carried on at the same time; the labor devoted
to both prevents sin from gaining ground. The study of the Law, when
prosecuted without some other occupation, must ultimately be lost and
is productive of sin. He who attends to the affairs of the community
should do so for the sake of his duty to God, and without any selfish
motives of his own; then will the merit of his forefathers second his
efforts, and his righteousness will endure to all eternity. To you,
however," he said to his disciples, "I promise as great a reward as
if your efforts had been directed to practical ends. Act cautiously
in all your relations with the (Roman) powers that be, for they only
flatter you to further their own purposes; they are your friends when
they can derive any benefit from your friendship, but they never
stand by you in trouble. Do God's will in such a manner that you
prefer His will to yours; then will he make your will His own." The
admonition thus given to his disciples, to exercise caution in their
dealings with the Roman authorities, and not to allow themselves to be
seduced by their promises, evidently contained an underlying political
meaning. For after the death of the harsh Severus, the Roman empire
acquired, and outwardly retained, for nearly a quarter of a century,
through the influence of three emperors and their Syrian mothers, a
certain Syrian appearance which was nearly allied with that of Judæa;
servile Rome adopted Syrian habits, and filled her Pantheon with
Eastern gods. By this means the gulf existing between Roman and Jew
was to a certain extent narrowed. Julia Domna (Martha), the wife of
Severus, was a native of Emesa in Syria, and her son Caracalla, who was
officially called Antoninus (211-217), was in nowise ashamed of his
Syrian descent. It was he who extended the full right of citizenship
to every inhabitant of the Roman Empire, and although this law was
merely intended to allow the imposition of heavier taxes on the
population of the provinces, it had the good effect of abolishing the
marked distinction between Roman and non-Roman. Although Caracalla
and his pretended son Elegabalus so disgraced the purple and humanity
itself by their vices, that Roman history of this period has nothing
to relate but assassinations and unnatural excesses such as allow of
no other explanation than the derangement of the minds of these two
emperors, there was still a certain method in their madness. They
contemplated the gradual effacement of Roman gods and Roman customs by
the introduction of Syrian fashions. It does not appear that Caracalla
possessed special tenderness for the Jews. This much is certain,
however, that the condition of the Jews under this emperor was at
least tolerable, and that, although they enjoyed no especial favors,
they at any rate had not to complain of excessive oppression. This
intermediate and tolerable position of the Jews, equally removed from
happiness and persecution, is described by Jannaï, one of Judah's
disciples, in the following words: "We neither enjoy the happiness of
the wicked, nor endure the misfortunes of the just."
A certain religious law which this same Jannaï was at this time induced
to repeal, proves that the condition of the Jews of Palestine was not
too enviable during the period in question. They were obliged to pay
their taxes, even during the year of Release, in natural produce,
destined for the use of the standing army. Up till then they had been
exempted, by virtue of a special favor originally accorded them by
Julius Cæsar, from delivering these supplies in every seventh year,
by reason of the fact that no harvest was gathered in this year, it
being the one during which the land was commanded by the Law to be
left fallow. In consequence of this dictatorial measure, and probably
during Caracalla's campaign in Parthia (in 216, which just happened to
be a year of Release), Jannaï, who was the authority of that period,
issued a proclamation, in which he declared that henceforward it would
be permissible to cultivate the land during the year of Release. He
laid especial stress on the circumstance that it was only permissible
to transgress the Law relative to the year of Release on account of the
payment of the tax being required of them, and that its abrogation was
in nowise intended.
The youthful emperor Elegabalus, formerly priest of the Sun-god
in Emesa, whom Mæsa, his crafty grandmother, had put forward as
Caracalla's son, was entirely devoid of any predilection for the Jews,
although appearances seem to lend color to the opposite view. This
living epitome of all vices, who disgraced the Roman world for four
years (218-222), and who seems to have possessed no other vocation in
history than publicly to degrade his heathen gods and Roman Cæsarism,
and to convince every one of their worthlessness, seems, in fact, to
have done and attempted many things in his methodical madness that bear
a Jewish complexion. He offered himself for circumcision, and refused
to partake of pork, only in obedience, however, to the commands of his
Sun-god. He proposed to introduce the Jewish, Samaritan, and Christian
worshipers publicly into Rome, but to subordinate them to his Sun-god,
Baal.
During the reigns of these two emperors, Caracalla and Elegabalus,
the younger contemporaries of Judah had ample time to continue his
work. The Mishnaic compilation had not, in fact, included many laws,
partly because they were not possessed of absolute legal force, and
partly because they were as special cases included in the general
formulæ. These neglected Halachas were collected by Judah's successors,
as a supplement to the Mishna. Among these collectors may be named
Jannaï, whose academy was at Acbara; Chiya, and his twin-sons, Judah
and Chiskiya, Bar-Kappara, Levi bar Sissi, Ushaya the elder, surnamed
"the father of the Mishna"; and finally Abba-Areka (Rab); all of
them half-Tanaites. Judah's compilation had, however, obtained so
undisputed an authority that its votaries considered every word of
it to be sacred, and contended that not a line ought to be added to
it. The new compilation therefore possessed but a secondary value in
comparison with the principal Mishna, and their mutual relations were
of such a character that the former were referred to as "the apocryphal
Mishnas" (Matnita boraïta, or simply Boraïta), in the same way as the
books not included in the canonical Bible are called "the Apocrypha"
(apocryphal books). The compilations of Chiya and Ushaya alone acquired
an authority nearly equal to that of the principal Mishna, on account
of their contents.
The distinctive feature of the Mishna, which was accepted as the
recognized code, is the severely legal and even judicial character
which it impressed on Judaism for all time. Everything comprised in
Judaism--the commandments and prohibitions, the precepts contained in
the Pentateuch and those deduced from it--all are considered by the
Mishna as edicts and decrees of God, which may neither be criticized
nor questioned; they must be carried out in strict accordance with the
letter. It is impossible not to perceive that the conflicts which had
convulsed Judaism, the violent attacks of Hellenism under Antiochus
Epiphanes, the bitter opposition of the Sadducees, the allegorical
misinterpretation and the subtleties of the Alexandrian philosophers,
and, finally, the attitude of hostility to the Law assumed by Pauline
Christianity and the Gnostics, had all assisted to bring out and
accentuate the strictly legal character of the Jewish faith. In
direct opposition to the tendency of the Alexandrian and Gnostic
schools to give especial prominence to the view that God's love was
the characteristic feature of Judaism, the Mishna, the first positive
code of Judaism, cautions its readers against this opinion, and orders
silence to be imposed on one who desired to express this view in
prayer: "Thy love extendeth even to the nest of the bird." For this
reason everything in the Mishna is legally ordered, little being left
to personal decision; there it is settled how much a pauper may demand
of public charity, and even how many children a father ought to bring
into the world in order to fulfil his duty of helping to populate the
earth, "which God did not create to be desolate." In general the Mishna
assumes that the whole of the Torah, including such of the precepts
of the Law as do not appear immediately in the Pentateuch, is composed
of ancient traditions, received by Moses on Sinai, communicated by
him to Joshua, who handed them down to the Elders, who in their turn
transmitted them to the Prophets, who finally handed them down to
the members of the great assembly. All such laws as do not appear in
the Pentateuch are designated in the Mishna by the term, "the saying
of those learned in the Scripture" (_Dibre Soferim_), although its
component parts are not rigorously divided into these two categories.
It is true that in the Mishna the remembrance of the dissatisfaction of
many Tanaites is still apparent, especially in the complaint that the
numerous decisions which Joshua arrived at by means of interpretation,
"resemble mountains hanging by a hair," that is to say, are
far-fetched; but, nevertheless, the Mishna holds up as an inviolable
standard all the Halachic laws which had been in force up to this time.
There repeatedly occurs in the Mishna the assertion of the equivalence
of all religious commands and duties. The maxims of Rabbi, its
compiler, might fitly be placed on the first page as an inscription:
"Which road should man choose? One which is creditable to the
traveler, and honorable in the eyes of mankind. Be as exact
in thine observance of the minor precepts as of the most
important, for thou knowest not what reward is attached to each
command. Balance the (temporal) loss sustained in consequence
of the performance of a duty with its (spiritual) reward, and
the gain of a transgression with its disadvantages. Bear always
three things in mind, so that thou commit no offense: There is
an Eye that sees all, an Ear that hears all, and a Hand that
inscribes all thy deeds in a book."
The Mishna is pervaded with these views from beginning to end. The
reward of a conscientious observance of the precepts of the Law will
be the participation in a future world, which awaits every Israelite
unless he refuse to believe in a resurrection, or in the revelation of
the Torah by God, or unless he live (or think) as an Epicurean. But
pious conduct is also rewarded in this world. He who conscientiously
fulfils one religious duty will be favored by Heaven, his life will be
lengthened, and he will be allowed to enjoy a share of the Holy Land.
At the same time the attempt is made to establish a reconciliation
between the worldly promises held out by the Bible and the reward of
the world to come, a dogma which first assumed a distinct form in the
period following the Captivity. The discharge of certain duties secures
the enjoyment of reward on earth and in the world to come; such are
the veneration of parents, charity, timely attendance at the school,
hospitality, the endowment of (indigent) brides, the accompanying of
corpses to the grave, devout prayer, peace-making, and especially the
pursuit of religious studies (Talmud Torah). As to future punishment,
the Mishna is unacquainted therewith, as also with a hell. For crimes
and transgressions, mention is made of judicial punishment during this
life only, varying of course with the seriousness of the offense;
thus there were scourging, and execution by the Synhedrion in four
degrees (by sword, by the rope, by fire, and by stoning), and finally
a premature death at the hand of God (Kharat). The most heinous and
atrocious sins were expiated by death, and lesser ones by repentance
and the Day of Atonement, while pardon was obtained for sins of
negligence by sacrifice. Of course, crimes committed against persons
were not expiated until their victims were indemnified, satisfied, and
appeased. Every righteous and moral deed, as well as every misdeed,
possessed its religious importance; but the religious point of view was
not predominant over, but subordinate to, the secular.
The Mishna regarded as the greatest virtue the study of the doctrines
of Judaism and the knowledge of the Law or of the Halachas (Talmud
Torah). Occupation in these subjects possessed peculiar merit or
justification (Zechut Torah); it protected and advanced a person here
and hereafter. "He who is acquainted with the Bible and tradition,
and is careful of his behavior, will not easily fall into sin." The
learning, appropriation, retention, and theoretical comprehension and
advancement of the existing principles of religion--that is to say, the
conservation and furtherance of Judaism in the path of orthodoxy--gave
the direction to the ideas and tendencies of that period. For this
reason, he who is learned in the Law holds a very high rank, and
although he be a bastard, takes precedence of a high priest who is
ignorant of it. A disciple must honor his teacher even more than his
father, or in case of conflict in his duty to one or the other, must
first fulfil his duty to the former; for a wise teacher brings man to
life in the world to come. It is incumbent on a father to teach his
son the Torah, or to provide for his instruction in it. The Mishna
does not decide the question as to whether a father ought to instruct
his daughters in the Torah, but advances two opposite views on this
subject: one advocated by Ben-Azai, who is in favor of the practice, or
at least considers it permissible; the other, defended by the austere
Eleazar ben Hyrcanus, who condemns it; "to initiate one's daughters
in the Torah is as good as to initiate them in prostitution." This
latter theory, which finally prevailed, exercised a most pernicious
influence in after-times; for while every community was careful to
provide elementary and advanced schools for its boys, the girls were
systematically kept in complete ignorance.
But although great weight was laid by the Mishnaic code on the exact
observance of the letter of the Law, a something higher than this
observance of the Law was recognized as piety; namely, the possession
of a certain elevation of mind, of which the boundaries were far more
widely extended than those of the Law. A conscientious man should
keep his word in questions relating to property, although he be not
bound thereto by the terms of the written law. He who pays his debt in
the year of release, although not under a legal obligation to do so;
he who pays to the heirs of a proselyte the debt due to the latter,
without being legally compelled to satisfy their claim; and generally
he who abides by his word--these are the men in whom the sages delight.
It is true that there are certain prescribed forms of prayer, but it
is lawful, nevertheless, to pray in any language; the principal thing
is to pray with devotion and earnestness. Men ought to thank Heaven
for bad fortune as well as for good. The Mishna displays altogether a
tendency to emphasize the spiritual value of religion. The sounding of
the cornet on the New Year, the Festivals, and the Atonement Day of
the year of Jubilee, as prescribed by the Law, ought not to remain an
outward, material deed, but ought rather to create a certain frame of
mind which raises the soul to God. As illustrations of this view the
following instances are cited: it was not the fact of Moses lifting up
his hands which gave the Israelites the victory over Amalek, nor the
erection of a brazen serpent in the wilderness which cured them of the
bites of the scorpions, but the turning of their hearts to God. But
this tendency of the Mishna remains only a tendency, and received no
wide development; more confidence is placed in an obligatory law than
in a conscience which creates its own standard.
Besides the juridical feature, and perhaps as a consequence of it,
the Mishna possesses another peculiarity which is more formal than
essential; it is characterized by a desire to devise and group
together all possible sorts of cases, however remote they may be, in
order to apply the most dissimilar laws to their decision (a species
of casuistry). This peculiarity, which in after-times exerted an
influence at once favorable and prejudicial to advancement, and
which was conducive at the same time both to logical acuteness and
to sophistry, seems to have first made its appearance in the public
academies of Jabne and Usha, and in the numerous other schools. It was
probably the ingenious Meïr and his disciples who most contributed to
its cultivation. As if it were not sufficient to consider and decide
such cases as really occurred, according to the already existing laws
and principles of the Pentateuch and tradition, teachers occupied
themselves in depicting fantastic and intricate situations, simply to
show, for example, that it was occasionally possible for several laws
to apply to a single act. The Mishna admitted all these hypothetical
cases constructed by the schools, and perhaps added to their number.
This casuistic peculiarity was especially employed in order to give a
clear idea of certain cases where cumulative punishments or atonements
were incurred.
It is noteworthy that the Mishnaic compilation contains no Halachas of
a character hostile to the Jewish professors of Christianity; it does
not touch on this subject in any place, not even declaring whether it
is allowed or prohibited to eat meat cooked by the Minæans. It appears
that the danger with which Judaism had been threatened by the Jewish
Christians, since the destruction of the Temple until the Bar-Cochba
war, had already been averted, and that danger was now no longer
to be dreaded. On the other hand, and in order to avoid the least
appearance of participation in idolatry, the Mishna contains numerous
laws directed against heathenism and intercourse with the heathens. The
teachers of Christianity immediately experienced the want of some such
protective laws for the preservation of the Christian communities, and
Tertullian, one of the Fathers of the Church (a younger contemporary
of Judah the Patriarch, and the first Christian author who wrote
in Latin), expressed a desire that the Christians should be kept
apart from the heathens just as strictly as the Jews were by the
prescriptions of the Mishna; the reason for this was that heathenism
had continued to make its way into Palestine since the Bar-Cochba war,
and had gained possession not only of coast towns, but even of inland
places. It was necessary, therefore, to regulate the conduct of the
people accordingly. The Mishna devotes a special treatise (Aboda Zara)
to this subject; it prohibits the intercourse with heathens for three
days before their principal public festivals, such as the kalends of
January, the Saturnalia, the anniversary of the accession or the death
of the emperor. It also commands the people not to frequent such of
the shops of the heathens as are decorated with laurel wreaths. The
Jews are forbidden to sell ornaments or other objects for the use of
idols to the heathens, or to let to them any houses in Palestine,
because they would be desecrated by the introduction of images of
idols. On account of the hatred entertained against them by the heathen
inhabitants of Palestine, the Jews are further commanded not to allow
themselves to be attended during any illness by the heathens, or even
to allow their beards to be shaved by the latter; and in particular
are ordered not to remain alone with them in any lonely spot, lest
they should be secretly murdered by them. The Roman heathens having
introduced the barbarous custom of setting men to fight with wild
beasts, the Mishna interdicts the sale to them by the Jews of bears,
lions, and all other animals by which any injury can be caused, and
further prohibits the Jews from building their basilica, places of
execution, or stadia, because they serve to promote the shedding of
innocent blood. In order not to pander to the unnatural vices (sodomy)
of the heathens, the Jews are commanded not to commit any animals to
their charge; the Mishna even forbids the Jewish midwives or nurses to
offer their services to the heathen women, because they would thereby
help to bring into the world a new child of idolatry. All enjoyment
derived from objects of reverence to the idolaters is interdicted,
and the Jews are not even allowed to sit in the shade of an image of
an idol, and are particularly forbidden to drink of the wine of which
a portion has been, or may have been, offered by a heathen to his
gods. Most of the laws relative to the separation of the Jews from the
heathen world, introduced with great zeal and precipitancy shortly
before the destruction of the Temple, are retained and extended by the
Mishna. Notwithstanding all its hatred of the heathens generally, and
especially those in Palestine (the Mishna paid but little attention
to foreign countries), the Jewish legislation was unable to entirely
belie the distinctive trait of Judaism, its universal love of mankind.
Together with these hostile laws, there was also adopted one which was
favorable to the heathens, due probably to the initiative of Rabban
Gamaliel I: their poor were given access to the fields, and possessed,
equally with the Jews, the right of gleaning. A special treatise,
called "The Sayings of the Fathers" (Pirke Aboth), is devoted to the
teachings of a higher morality, and contains the maxims and short
sentences of the sopheric teachers and sages from the earliest times.
These laws of morality, however, are concealed, and, as it were,
overgrown by a mass of law relating to the ritual.
With the completion of the Mishna and the almost equally important
Boraïtas, the Tanaites had accomplished their task of imparting a
settled form and lasting shape to the hitherto uncertain and transitory
matter of tradition; they had called it to life, and presented it to
the Jewish nation as common property. After completing their task
with noble assiduity, untiring zeal, and unexampled self-denial, they
disappeared from the scene, leaving to future generations the result of
their efforts, from which to receive their education and imbibe a love
of their religion and nationality.