BY-PATHS
IN HEBRAIC BOOKLAND
BY-PATHS
IN HEBRAIC BOOKLAND
BY
ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, D. D., M. A.
Author of “Jewish Life in the Middle Ages,” “Chapters on
Jewish Literature,” etc.
[Illustration]
PHILADELPHIA
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
1920
COPYRIGHT, 1920,
BY
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA
PREFACE
Wayfarers sometimes use by-paths because the highways are closed. In
the days of Jael, so the author of Deborah’s Song tells us, circuitous
side-tracks were the only accessible routes. In the unsettled condition
of Israel those who journeyed were forced to seek their goal by
roundabout ways.
But, at other times, though the open road is clear, and there is no
obstacle on the way of common trade, the traveller may of choice turn
to the by-ways and hedges. Not that he hates the wider track, but he
may also love the less frequented, narrower paths, which carry him into
nooks and glades, whence, after shorter or longer detours, he reaches
the highway again. Not only has he been refreshed, but he has won, by
forsaking the main road, a fuller appreciation of its worth.
Originally written in 1913 for serial publication, the papers collected
in this volume were designed with some unity of plan. Branching off the
main line of Hebraic development, there are many by-paths of the kind
referred to above--by-paths leading to pleasant places, where it is a
delight to linger for a while. Some of the lesser expressions of the
Jewish spirit disport themselves in those out-of-the-way places. Though
oft neglected, they do not deserve to be treated as negligible.
None can surely guide another to these places. But the first
qualification of a guide, a qualification which may atone for serious
defects, is that he himself enjoys the adventure. In the present
instance this qualification may be claimed. For the writer has turned
his attention chiefly to his own favorites, choosing books or parts
of books which appealed to him in a long course of reading, and which
came back to him with fragrant memories as he set about reviewing
some of the former intimates of his leisure hours. The review is not
formal; the method is that of the causerie, not of the essay. Some of
the books are of minor value, curiosities rather than masterpieces; in
others the Jewish interest is but slight. Yet in all cases the object
has been to avoid details, except in so far as details help even the
superficial observer to get to the author’s heart, to place him in the
history of literature or culture. Not quite all the authors noted in
this volume were Jews--the past tense is used because it was felt best
to include no writers living when the volume was compiled. It seemed,
however, right that certain types of non-Jewish workers in the Hebraic
field ought to find a place, partly from a sense of gratitude, partly
because, without laboring the point, the writer conceives that as all
cultures have many points in common, so it is well to bear in mind that
many cultures have contributed their share to produce that complex
entity--the Jewish spirit. Complex yet harmonious, influenced from
without yet dominated by a strong inner and original power, the Jewish
spirit reveals itself in these by-paths as clearly as on the main line.
But, though some such general idea runs through the volume, it was the
author’s intention to interest rather than instruct, to suggest the
importance of certain authors and books, perhaps to rouse the reader
to probe deeper than the writer himself has done into subjects of
which here the mere surface is touched. The writer could have added
indefinitely to these papers, but this selection is long enough to
argue against extending it, at all events for the present.
Having decided to stray into the by-paths, it sometimes became
necessary to resist the temptation to turn to the main road. This
necessity accounts for another fact. Fewer books are treated of
the older period. For the older period is dominated by Bible and
Talmud, and these were _ex hypothesi_ outside the range. So, too,
the scholastic masterpieces and the greater products of mysticism
and law are passed over. Yet, though the writer did not consciously
start with such a design, it will be seen that accidentally a great
fact or two betray themselves. One is that, in the Jewish variety,
technical learning can never be wholly dissociated from what we more
commonly name literature. Some books which, at first sight, are merely
the expression of scholarly specialism are seen, on investigation,
to belong to culture in the æsthetic no less than in the rational or
legal sense. Again, there becomes apparent the vital truth that Jewish
thought, dependent as it always has been on environment, is also
independent. For we see how Jews in the midst of Hellenistic absolutism
remained pragmatical, how under the medieval devotion to a stock-taking
of the past Jews were to a certain extent creative, and how the
modernist tendency to disintegration was resisted by an impulse towards
constructiveness.
But, to repeat what has already been indicated, the author had no
such grave intentions as these. Many of the papers appeared in a
popular weekly, the London _Jewish World_, the editor of which kindly
conceded to the writer the privilege of collecting them into a book.
Some, however, were specially written for this volume. All have been
considerably revised, in the effort to make them more worthy of the
reader’s attention. The writer feels that this effort, despite the
valuable help rendered by Dr. Halper while the proofs were under
correction, has been imperfectly successful. The papers can have little
in them to deserve attention. Nevertheless there is this to be urged.
Some of the topics raised are apt to be ignored. Yet it is not only
from the outstanding masterpieces of literature that we may learn
wisdom and derive pleasure. “A small talent,” said Joubert, “if it
keeps within its limits and rightly fulfils its task, may reach the
goal just as well as a greater one.” This remark may be applied to
what may seem to many the minor products of genius or talent. Hence,
be they termed minor or major, the books discussed in this volume
were worthy of consideration. Beyond doubt most of them belong to the
category of the significant and some of them even attain the rank of
the epoch-making. And so, without further preface, these papers are
offered to those familiar as well as to those unfamiliar with the
works themselves. For to both classes may be applied the Latin poet’s
invocation: “Now learn ye to love that loved never; and ye that have
loved, love anew.”
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 5
PART I
THE STORY OF AHIKAR 17
PHILO ON THE “CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE” 24
JOSEPHUS AGAINST APION 32
CAECILIUS ON THE SUBLIME 39
THE PHOENIX OF EZEKIELOS 46
THE LETTER OF SHERIRA 53
NATHAN OF ROME’S DICTIONARY 60
THE SORROWS OF TATNU 67