Revolt coinCoin of the Second Revolt of Bar Cochba, 132-135C. E.
Coin of the Second Revolt of Bar Cochba, 132-135C. E.
Coin of the Second Revolt of Bar Cochba, 132-135C. E.
(Nearly all the illustrations of coins used in this book have been taken from Madden's "Coins of the Jews," London: Trübner & Co.)
(Nearly all the illustrations of coins used in this book have been taken from Madden's "Coins of the Jews," London: Trübner & Co.)
Sorrowfully the Jews now took up the burden of life once more. In spite of dreadful devastation and dreary outlook the faith and spirit of the majority remained unbroken. Hadrian had tried to eradicate Judaism, but he had failed. The defeated were still the victors. In the year 138 Hadrian was succeeded by the more humane Antoninus Pius. The religious persecution was stopped, Rome's normal toleration of Judaism was resumed. The Sanhedrin was reopened at Oosha, the Presidency being still retained in the family of Hillel. Rabbi Simon, the Nasi, was the author of the maxim, "The world rests on three pillars—Truth, Justice and Peace." Compare the "world's three pillars" of Simon the Just. (p. 30).
Rabbi Mair was a unique figure of this time. He is said to have given one-third of his means to support poor students. Not at first recognized because of his youth, he gave expression to the maxim, "Look not at the vessel, but at that which it contains; for there are new flasks full of old wine and old flasks which contain not even new wine." Did not Rabbi Joshua express a similar sentiment?
Rabbi Mair was a broad man who gladly gathered knowledge from all, Jew and non-Jew alike. Mark this bit of wisdom: "Who studies the Law for its own sakeis worth the whole world and is loved by God and man." Is not the study of the Lawfor its own sakethe very essence of religion? He would illustrate his lessons by fables in the portrayal of which he was wonderfully gifted.
His wife, Beruria, is the most renowned—or perhaps the only renowned—woman in Talmudic annals. We might compare her to the Shunamite (IIKings, iv.), whom the Bible calls a "great" woman. Great was Beruria in strength of character, in dignity and withal in motherly affection. She was indeed a helpmeet to her husband and to many of her people in a time of storm and stress. Her own parents had been martyrs in the Hadrianic war. She was a scholar too. Her keen penetration and at the same time her womanly tenderness are revealed in her interpretation of the text, "Let sinners be consumed out of the earth." (Psalms civ. 35). Notsinners, butsin. Then indeed will be fulfilled the hope at the conclusion of the text—"The wicked will be no more."
Her strength of character is perhaps best revealed in the pathetic story told of the consoling way in which she broke to her husband the terrible news of the death of their two sons. Some "jewels" had been entrusted to her, which she so highly prized that it was hard to give them up; what should she do? They must be returned said R. Mair. In this way fortifying him with consolation for the sorrow awaiting him in this double bereavement, she gently led him to the chamber where the dead children lay.
As the epoch of the Tannäim opened, so now it closed, with a remarkable man—Rabbi Judah, calledpar excellenceThe Nasi, i.e., greatest of all. And no Nasi beforehim had been permitted to exercise so much power over the Sanhedrin,—now located in Sepphoris in Galilee.
Like so many of his predecessors, he devoted much of his wealth to the maintenance of students of the Law, and fed the poor during a famine. He came to be known as "the Saint." His most valuable service was the complete codification of all the Halachoth that had been gradually accumulating since post-Biblical time. While similar collections had been made before his time, commenced by Hillel, amplified by Rabbi Akiba and revised by Rabbi Mair, his final editing of the previous work became the officially accepted condensation of the Oral Law—the Mishna, superseding all earlier collections.
It is treated in the following chapter.
Rabbi Judah, not only compiled the teachings of others, but he left valuable maxims of his own:
"Be as careful of the observance of a light precept as of a weighty one.""Balance the material loss involved in the performance of a precept against its spiritual compensation and the present desirable fruits of a sinful deed against the injury to thine immortal soul.""Know what is above thee: A seeing eye, a hearing ear, and that all thy actions are written in a book."
"Be as careful of the observance of a light precept as of a weighty one."
"Balance the material loss involved in the performance of a precept against its spiritual compensation and the present desirable fruits of a sinful deed against the injury to thine immortal soul."
"Know what is above thee: A seeing eye, a hearing ear, and that all thy actions are written in a book."
No Nasi received so much reverential regard from the people at large. While he was dying, they gathered around his house, declaring in the exaggeration of grief that they would slay the person who would dare announce his death. At length there came forward Bar Kappara, a man of broad scientific attainments and withal a man of delicate imagination. In fact, he was a poet too, as may be judged by the way in which he announced Rabbi Judah's death: "Angels and mortals contended for theark of the covenant; the angels have conquered, the ark of the covenant is gone."
Just a passing word on other great men of this epoch. Rabbi Jochanan showed his breadth of view in encouraging the study of Greek and opening up its great literature to Jewish youth, and particularly in his recommendation of it for girls. This urging of the cultivation of the female mind formed a pleasing contrast to the prevailing practice—the comparative neglect of the education of women—which practice survives in some of our communities to-day!
To this period also belonged that keen logician, Resh Lakish, likewise renowned for his colossal strength and his scrupulous honesty. He discerned that the Book of Job was not a history, but a life problem put in the form of a story. He also taught that Hell has no real existence. Not that he or his age altogether denied a future retribution for the wicked. But Hell never appealed strongly to the conviction of the Jew. Certainly the Synagogue does not teach the doctrine of "everlasting punishment" to-day.
Another teacher, Rabbi Simlai, searched the Scriptures and enumerated 613 ordinances of Judaism—365 negative and 248 affirmative precepts. He found them further reduced to eleven principles in the 15th Psalm; in Isaiah xxxiii. to six; in Micah vi. 8 to three; in Isaiah lvi. to two; and in Amos v.-4 to one: "Seek ye Me and ye shall live"; to one also in Habbakuk ii.-4. "The just shall live by his Faith."
Nor must we forget that group of rabbis who, investigating the religious and educational condition of varioustowns and finding in one place no teachers, asked the magistrate to present the guardians of the city. He marched forth the armed men. "No," said the rabbis, "these are not the guardians, but the destroyers of a city. Its true guardians are the teachers."
Let us mention in this group, too, Rabbi Abbahu, the last of the great men of the Palestinian schools, renowned not so much as an expert on theHalachaas a keenHagadist. This is another way of saying that he was not so much a subtle jurist as a greatpreacher. He was a student of human nature. His keen insight on one occasion chose as the worthiest to pray for rain, a man bad by repute, but who, he had discerned, was noble in character.
For complete enumeration of the 613 precepts, see article "Commandments,"Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. iv.
Can the number of our duties be specified?
All the supplementary laws that grew up around thewrittenCodes of the Bible were called, by distinction, theOral Law. These included the decisions of the Scribes (p. 19), the Pairs (pp. 87-8) and the Tannäim (p. 186). Rabbi Judah the Nasi made a compilation of all of these and called it The Mishna. Derived from the Hebrew verbshanah, to learn or repeat, the Mishna is popularly known as the Second Law. It became the recognized code for all legal decisions, and the authorized text-book in all the schools.
It now took its place beside the Law of the Pentateuch, and just as that first Law was a text for further development, so too we shall see that this Second Law, containing Halachoth of theSopherim, thePairsand theTannäim, became the parent of a vast growth of precepts and prohibitions in the interpreting hands of the generations now to follow.
The Mishna is divided into six groups (Sedarim) containing sixty subdivisions (Mesechtas), as follows:
1, Introductory chapter on "Prayers"; 2, "Corners" of fields for the poor (Levit. xix., 9-10); 3, Doubtful produce (whether tithed or untithed); 4, Illegal mixtures (Deut. xxii. 9-11); 5, Sabbatic Year; 6, Priests' Tithes; 7, Levites' Tithes; 8, Secondary Tithes; 9, Dough offerings (Numbers xv., 17-21); 10, Prohibited fruits of first three years (Levit. xix., 23-25); 11, First fruits.
1, Sabbath; 2, Uniting localities to extend limit of Sabbath walk; 3, Passover; 4, Half-shekel tax (Ex. xxx., 11-16); 5, Day of Atonement; 6, Tabernacles; 7, Festival regulations; 8, New Year; 9, Fasts; 10, Purim; 11, Middle days of the Festivals; 12, Festival Pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
1, Levirate marriage (Deut. xxv., 5-10); 2, Marriage contracts; 3, Vows; 4, Nazarites (Numb. vi, and xxx); 5, The suspected sinner; 6, Divorce; 7, Betrothal.
1, First division—general; 2, Second division—Suits between master and servant, etc; 3, Third Division—Municipal and social regulations; 4, The Sanhedrin and Criminal Law; 5, Punishment by flogging; 6, Oaths; 7, Decisions between opposing traditions; 8, Idolatry (crime as well as sin); 9, Ethics of the Fathers; 10, Accidental Offences.
1, Sacrifices; 2, Meat offerings; 3, Slaughtered animals for food only; 4, The first born sacrifice; 5 and 6, Redemption and Exchange (see Levit. xxii); 7, Excommunication; 8, Profanation; 9, Temple sacrificial services; 10, Temple arrangements; 11, Offerings of poor (Levit. v, 1-10, and xii, 8).
1, Household furniture; 2, Tents and houses; 3, Leprosy; 4, The "Red Heifer" purification (Numb. xix.); 5, Lesser defilements; 6, Washing; 7, Periodic defilement; 8, Conditional impurities; 9, Open wounds; 10, Personal purification; 11, Washing of the hands; 12, Defilement of fruits.
About 150 authorities are quoted in the Mishna, involving about two thousand statements. Here are a few specimen sentences:
"From what time should we begin to read evening prayers (Shema)? From the hour when the priests enter to partake of their offering till the end of the first watch, according to R. Eleazer; (other) sages say till midnight. Rabban Gamaliel says, till dawn. Once it happened that his sons returned (late) from a feast. They said to him, 'We have not yet recited (the Shema).' He replied, 'If it is not yet dawn, the obligation to read it still abides; nay further, where the sages have said, 'till midnight,' their injunction extends it till dawn."—Opening paragraph ofMishna.R. Nechunjah b. Hakanah was accustomed to offer a short prayer on entering and leaving the Academy. His (disciples) asked the appropriateness of such prayer. He replied: "On entering I pray that no harm should happen through me, on departing I give thanks for my lot.""It is man's duty to offer a prayer at the occurrence of evil, just as he prays at good fortune; for Scripture says, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might,' 'With all thy heart'—with thy two inclinations of good and evil. 'With all thy soul' (life)—even though He (God) take thy life. 'With all thy might'—with all thy substance."—Prayers, i, 1."On New Year all who enter the world, pass before Him (God) like sheep to be judged, as Scripture says: He fashioneth their hearts alike, He understandeth all their doings.""On six (different) months messengers are sent forth (to report on the occurrence of the New Moon); On Nisan on account of the Passover; on Ab, on account of the Fast (ninth); on Ellul, on account of New Year; on Tishri, to adjust the Festivals; onKislev, on account of Hannukah; on Adar, on account of Purim. In the days when the temple stood they (the messengers) also went forth on Iyar, on account of Minor Passover" (see Numb. ix, 10-12).The following are prohibited from testifying:—he who gambles with dice, he who lends money on usury, he who trains doves for racing purposes, he who traffics in the produce of the seventh year and slaves.—New Year, ii, 8.
"From what time should we begin to read evening prayers (Shema)? From the hour when the priests enter to partake of their offering till the end of the first watch, according to R. Eleazer; (other) sages say till midnight. Rabban Gamaliel says, till dawn. Once it happened that his sons returned (late) from a feast. They said to him, 'We have not yet recited (the Shema).' He replied, 'If it is not yet dawn, the obligation to read it still abides; nay further, where the sages have said, 'till midnight,' their injunction extends it till dawn."—Opening paragraph ofMishna.
R. Nechunjah b. Hakanah was accustomed to offer a short prayer on entering and leaving the Academy. His (disciples) asked the appropriateness of such prayer. He replied: "On entering I pray that no harm should happen through me, on departing I give thanks for my lot."
"It is man's duty to offer a prayer at the occurrence of evil, just as he prays at good fortune; for Scripture says, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might,' 'With all thy heart'—with thy two inclinations of good and evil. 'With all thy soul' (life)—even though He (God) take thy life. 'With all thy might'—with all thy substance."—Prayers, i, 1.
"On New Year all who enter the world, pass before Him (God) like sheep to be judged, as Scripture says: He fashioneth their hearts alike, He understandeth all their doings."
"On six (different) months messengers are sent forth (to report on the occurrence of the New Moon); On Nisan on account of the Passover; on Ab, on account of the Fast (ninth); on Ellul, on account of New Year; on Tishri, to adjust the Festivals; onKislev, on account of Hannukah; on Adar, on account of Purim. In the days when the temple stood they (the messengers) also went forth on Iyar, on account of Minor Passover" (see Numb. ix, 10-12).
The following are prohibited from testifying:—he who gambles with dice, he who lends money on usury, he who trains doves for racing purposes, he who traffics in the produce of the seventh year and slaves.—New Year, ii, 8.
Here is a specimen piece from Sanhedrin, with accompanying notes, translated for a forthcoming work,Library of Post-biblical Hebrew Literature:
They (the Judges[1]) examined them (the witnesses) with seven searching questions: "In what sabbatical year? In what year? In what month? What date of the month? What day? What hour? What place?" R. Jose said, "What day. What hour? What place? Did you know him? Did you warn him?[2]In a case of idolatry, whom did he serve? And with what did he serve?"The more searching a judge is in his examinations, the more praiseworthy he is. It happened that the son of Zaccai examined (even) concerning the stems of the figs.[3]And what difference is there between investigations and examinations? In investigations if one should say, "I don't know," his testimony is worthless. In examinations, if one should say, "I don't know," and even two should say, "We don't know," their testimony stands. Whether in investigations or examinations, when they contradict each other, their testimony is worthless.One witness said, "on the second of the month," and another witness said, "the third of the month," their testimony stands; because one knows of the intercalary month, and another does not know of the intercalary month.[4]One said, "on the third," and another said, "on the fifth," their testimony is worthless. R. Judah said "it stands." One said, "on thefifth," and another said, "on the seventh," their testimony is worthless, because at the fifth (hour) the sun is in the east, and at the seventh the sun is in the west.And afterwards they introduce the second (witness[5]) and examine him. If both their statements agree, they open the case for the defense. If one witness says, "I possess information to clear him," or one of the disciples (of the Sanhedrin) says: "I possess information to condemn," they are ordered to keep silence. If one of the disciples says, "I possess information to clear him," they bring him up, and seat him between the judges, and he does not go down during the whole day.[6]If there be substantial information, they give him a hearing. And even when he (the accused) says, "I possess information for clearing myself," the judges give him a hearing; only there must be substantial information in his words. If the judges find him not guilty, they release him, but if not, they defer his verdict to the next day.[7]
They (the Judges[1]) examined them (the witnesses) with seven searching questions: "In what sabbatical year? In what year? In what month? What date of the month? What day? What hour? What place?" R. Jose said, "What day. What hour? What place? Did you know him? Did you warn him?[2]In a case of idolatry, whom did he serve? And with what did he serve?"
The more searching a judge is in his examinations, the more praiseworthy he is. It happened that the son of Zaccai examined (even) concerning the stems of the figs.[3]And what difference is there between investigations and examinations? In investigations if one should say, "I don't know," his testimony is worthless. In examinations, if one should say, "I don't know," and even two should say, "We don't know," their testimony stands. Whether in investigations or examinations, when they contradict each other, their testimony is worthless.
One witness said, "on the second of the month," and another witness said, "the third of the month," their testimony stands; because one knows of the intercalary month, and another does not know of the intercalary month.[4]One said, "on the third," and another said, "on the fifth," their testimony is worthless. R. Judah said "it stands." One said, "on thefifth," and another said, "on the seventh," their testimony is worthless, because at the fifth (hour) the sun is in the east, and at the seventh the sun is in the west.
And afterwards they introduce the second (witness[5]) and examine him. If both their statements agree, they open the case for the defense. If one witness says, "I possess information to clear him," or one of the disciples (of the Sanhedrin) says: "I possess information to condemn," they are ordered to keep silence. If one of the disciples says, "I possess information to clear him," they bring him up, and seat him between the judges, and he does not go down during the whole day.[6]If there be substantial information, they give him a hearing. And even when he (the accused) says, "I possess information for clearing myself," the judges give him a hearing; only there must be substantial information in his words. If the judges find him not guilty, they release him, but if not, they defer his verdict to the next day.[7]
FOOTNOTES:[1]Criminal cases were judged by a regularly constituted court of three-and-twenty qualified members.[2]No punishment could be inflicted if the culprit had not been warned that he was charged with a crime and forewarned as to its consequences.[3]The witnesses testified that the crime has been committed under a fig tree.[4]i. e., one knew that the preceding month was what is called a complete month, counting thirty days, and the days of the celebration of the New Moon (Rosh Hodesh) belonged to the following month; while the other believed that the preceding month was what is called a defective month, counting only twenty-nine days, and that the semi-holyday of the new moon was observed on two days, the first of which belonged to the preceding month.[5]It was forbidden to examine a witness in the presence of another one.[6]Even if his information is worthless, he remains seated besides the Judges, the whole day, in order not to degrade him before the public.[7]A verdict of guilty cannot be pronounced on the same day as that on which the trial was held.
[1]Criminal cases were judged by a regularly constituted court of three-and-twenty qualified members.
[1]Criminal cases were judged by a regularly constituted court of three-and-twenty qualified members.
[2]No punishment could be inflicted if the culprit had not been warned that he was charged with a crime and forewarned as to its consequences.
[2]No punishment could be inflicted if the culprit had not been warned that he was charged with a crime and forewarned as to its consequences.
[3]The witnesses testified that the crime has been committed under a fig tree.
[3]The witnesses testified that the crime has been committed under a fig tree.
[4]i. e., one knew that the preceding month was what is called a complete month, counting thirty days, and the days of the celebration of the New Moon (Rosh Hodesh) belonged to the following month; while the other believed that the preceding month was what is called a defective month, counting only twenty-nine days, and that the semi-holyday of the new moon was observed on two days, the first of which belonged to the preceding month.
[4]i. e., one knew that the preceding month was what is called a complete month, counting thirty days, and the days of the celebration of the New Moon (Rosh Hodesh) belonged to the following month; while the other believed that the preceding month was what is called a defective month, counting only twenty-nine days, and that the semi-holyday of the new moon was observed on two days, the first of which belonged to the preceding month.
[5]It was forbidden to examine a witness in the presence of another one.
[5]It was forbidden to examine a witness in the presence of another one.
[6]Even if his information is worthless, he remains seated besides the Judges, the whole day, in order not to degrade him before the public.
[6]Even if his information is worthless, he remains seated besides the Judges, the whole day, in order not to degrade him before the public.
[7]A verdict of guilty cannot be pronounced on the same day as that on which the trial was held.
[7]A verdict of guilty cannot be pronounced on the same day as that on which the trial was held.
While the Mishna is strictly a code only, still its underlying structure is religious. The moral is everywhere impressed. One of its sections is a Book of Morals called Ethics of the Fathers, iv. 9, from which rabbinic sayings have already been quoted. A complete translation of this section will be found in the Sabbath Afternoon Service of the Prayer Book.
We find no system of doctrines in the Mishna and no formulated creed. A bad life is summed up in the general term—epicurean, which probably meant sensual self-indulgence and scoffing scepticism. The Jew is not asked to believe in God's existence. That is taken for granted; atheism hardly came within his ken. He is asked rather to shun anything that tends to polytheism. Revelation and Resurrection are regarded as fundamental beliefs. He who denies them will be deprived of future life. To withhold immortality from him who disbelieves it we might call poetic justice.
While the ceremonial law was rigorous, its observance was saved from being mechanical by the importance laid on sincerity of intention and on inner devotion. Not the brazen serpent but the repentant heart cured afflicted Israel in the wilderness, the Mishna reminds us, pointing its moral with the quotation from the prophet Joel, "Rend your hearts, not your garments." To go beyond the Law in the keeping of one's word merits the highest praise. Many prohibitions were imposed against actions not wrong in themselves, as barriers against possible wrong. These formed a "fence around the Law."
The acceptance of the Mishna as the Canon of Jewish Law curtailed—theoretically at least—the freedomof the rabbis who now followed, in the evolving of new Law. This later group of teachers was henceforth at liberty only toexpoundthe Mishna. They are therefore calledAmoräim, expounders, to distinguish them from the Tannäim, that class of teachers who interpreted direct from the Scriptures and whose work closed with the Mishna.
The Mishna tended still further to emphasize the legal character of Judaism (p. 19). While it may have robbed the individual of spontaneity of religious action, it strengthened the bulwarks of moral law.
Another collection similar to the Mishna and arranged on the same plan, was calledTosephta(addenda). This contains for the most part commentaries on Scripture and much of what has been called Agada (p. 187).
Read article "Prof. Schürer on Life Under the Law," by Israel Abrahams inJewish Quarterly Review, vol. xi., and "The Law and Recent Criticism," Schechter, vol. iii.
"The Mishna is for the most part, free from the blemishes of the Roman code. There are fewer contradictory laws, fewer repetitions, fewer interpolations than in the digests: ... as regards a certain outspokenness in bodily things ... its language is infinitely purer than that of the mediaeval casuists."—E. Deutsch,The Talmud, J. P. S. A.
"The Mishna is for the most part, free from the blemishes of the Roman code. There are fewer contradictory laws, fewer repetitions, fewer interpolations than in the digests: ... as regards a certain outspokenness in bodily things ... its language is infinitely purer than that of the mediaeval casuists."—E. Deutsch,The Talmud, J. P. S. A.
What is Revelation, and how did the sages apply it to the Oral Law? (See "Ethics of the Fathers," ch. i), Sabbath Afternoon Service, Prayer Book.)
Emperors of Rome.Rabbis of the Academies.Antoninus Pius138Rabbi Mair and Simon b. Yochai flourished140Marcus Aurelius161Jehuda ha-Nasi, Pres. of Sanhedrin165Commodus180Jehuda ha-Nasi compiles Mishna189Alexander Severus222-235Rab opens Academy at Sora220Diocletian284Mar Samuel, Judge at Nehardea, about225Constantine320Academy of Pumbaditha247Constantius337-363Rab Huna dies297Neo-Persian Dynasty 226Constantine's anti-Jewish decrees 315Council of Nicea widens gulf between Judaism and Christianity 325
Ever since the Bar Cochba war, the numerical centre of gravity of the Jews had shifted to Babylonia, and soon after the compilation of the Mishna in Palestine, Babylonia became the religious centre too.
This fertile country, in which history began, lay between the Euphrates and Tigris, with the Persian Gulf at the south. The name Babylon is sometimes used in Jewish annals to include the surrounding lands, with a southwestern boundary, as far as the Arabian Desert. This second "Land of Israel" had been a home for the Jews since the first forced exile there in the year 600B. C. E., in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. From Babylon came both Ezra and Hillel, though in the four centuries intervening between these two men, we hear nothing of Jewish life in Babylon.
This land had varied fortunes. The home of the Babylonians—one of the most important of the Semitic families and one of the most ancient civilizations—it was conquered by Cyrus the Persian, about 540B. C. E.About the year 330 it was taken by Alexander in his triumphant march through Asia and became part of the Seleucidan Empire, (see p. 28). This brought into it something of a Greek atmosphere. In the year 160B. C. E.it was conquered by Parthia—an Asiatic nation dwelling south of the Caspian Sea. This regime continued for four centuries, though the Parthians exercised no influence whatever on the Jews. In the year 226A. C. E.a Neo-Persian dynasty was re-established. This continued till the coming of the Arabs in the seventh century—a later story.
During all these changes in the controlling power, the Jews continued in Babylonia undisturbed. When Judea fell, in the year 70, almost an annihilating catastrophe to those at hand, their life went on without a break, except that it brought to the new home a large number of Jewish refugees. So that by the second century after the Christian era, Babylon had become the centre of greatest Jewish influence and activity. Trajan had tried to conquer the land, but failed (p. 203). So Babylonian Jews remained out of the reach of the Roman grasp.
What was their status here? Since the time of Cyrus the government had been Persian. Given almost complete political independence, the Jews simply paid taxes to the ruling power. As Persia had granted to theJews the privilege of administering their own affairs in Judea so, naturally, the same permission was granted in Babylonia. There was this important difference. The head of the Judean community had been the High Priest; those were the days when the Temple stood. When we turn to Babylon in the century following Jerusalem's overthrow, we find the governor of the Jewish community was called Exilarch orResh Galutha, Head of the Exile.Galuthwas a word freighted with emotional meaning to our fathers.
The Resh Galutha, as distinct from the High Priest of an earlier day, was entirely a civil functionary, and the office carried more power. As Exilarch he was recognized by the government and occupied a place among the Persian nobility. At first but collectors of revenue, these officials were later treated as princes—perhaps as a mark of gratitude for the Jewish support when Parthia was fighting Rome. A good deal of pomp came to be associated with the office. These Exilarchs were all chosen from the House of David, and so represented a quasi-royalty. The line continued unbroken till the eleventh century. They exercised complete judicial authority among their own people. Unlike the Patriarch or Nasi of Judea, with whom we may also compare them, they were not necessarily learned in the Law.
The Jews of Babylonia were for the most part engaged in agriculture, commerce and handicrafts, and even in work on the canals. Fortunate indeed were they to have again secured a home beyond Rome's cruel control, where, undisturbed, they might live their own life. In the study of the Law they found inexhaustible material for intellectual and religious activity. But how was religion taught and the continuity of Judaism maintained in Babylonia?
At first they were entirely dependent on the Palestinian Academies established in Jamnia and Lydda and other places after the fall of Jerusalem, and were altogether subject to the Judean Sanhedrin. Many students traveled to Palestine to study at its schools. But after a time the community grew strong enough intellectually to establish academies of its own. The heads of the Academies corresponded to the Judean Patriarchs, only that all civil power was vested in the Resh Galutha, above mentioned.
Step by step the Babylonian students increased in learning; and, acquiring confidence, came to feel less the need of the guidance of the parent authority. Soon this settlement further east claimed independent jurisdiction. This was bitterly resented in Palestine. The removal of the Sanhedrin to Jamnia had been the first wrench. The second was the removal of the central authority from the Holy Land altogether, to distant Babylonia. But Palestine could not stem the tide. As the fortunes of the Jews declined there, its schools declined with them. Steadily waned, too, the authority of the Patriarch.
Babylonian schools also produced great scholars, some as renowned as those of Palestine. For reasons given on p. 227 they are allAmoräim, notTannäim. Let us mention firstAbba Areka, popularly called by his many disciples Rab (Rabbi), "theteacher," who flourished in Babylonia a few years after the Mishna had been compiled in Palestine. Apart from his duties as expounder of the Law, the Resh Galutha appointed him to the position of supervisor of weights and measures. Occasionedby this occupation to travel in outlying districts, he discovered the ignorance of the remoter congregations. This led to his establishment of the Academy of Sora about the year 220. It continued a seat of Jewish study for eight hundred years. Hundreds of pupils flocked to Rab's Academy. Some he maintained from his own purse. At the same time the study hours were arranged to give pupils the opportunity of earning their living. Some lectures were delivered to the public at large. An Academy almost as famous was established at Pumbeditha; another at Nehardea.
It was not only in the expounding of ritual and civil law to which Rab devoted his energies, but also to raising the ethical standard of the people. For the austere simplicity and purity of Jewish life had sadly degenerated in Babylonia. Wonderfully salutary and effective was the influence of Rab in his moral crusade. He made the betrothal and marriage laws more strict and more decorous. He also strengthened the authority of the Courts of Justice by resort to excommunication of refractory persons. Deservedly was this modest man called the Hillel of his day.
Usually associated with the name of Rab was the versatileMar Samuel, his contemporary. He was essentially the rationalist of his age who discouraged with his hard common sense the dreamers who were awaiting the speedy and miraculous coming of the Messiah. In Jewish Law his ability chiefly was directed toward the interpretation of civil jurisprudence, for which he was especially fitted. As judge of the Court of Nehardea, he made a brilliant record. His most famous decision and that which most affected the Jews, was expressed in the phrase,dina d'malchuthah dina,—"The law of theland is the law for us." This means that it is our duty as Jews to obey the laws of the countries in which we live. This principle tended to reconcile our fathers to the lands of their exile, taught them their true relation to them, and was in the spirit of the message of Jeremiah to the very first exiles in Babylon—"Seek the peace of the country whither ye are exiled and pray to the Lord for its welfare." The ultimate result of Samuel's dictum was that the better the Jew, the better the patriot.
Samuel had the courage of his convictions. For when the Persian king, Shabur I (under whose rule the Babylonian Jews were living), was engaged in war against Asia Minor, many Jews fell, who were fighting in the ranks on the opposing side. Yet he would not countenance mourning for his fallen coreligionists since they had fought against his king!
Babylonia, with its broad unbroken plains that gave such wide survey of the heavens, had early become the cradle of astronomy, and Babylonian Jews were expert in this science. So versed was Samuel in the course of the stars that he once said, "The tracks of the heavens are as familiar to me as the streets of Nehardea." His astronomical knowledge enabled him to arrange a fixed calendar and made Babylon further independent of Judea in deciding the dates of the festivals. As already stated (p. 186) these had previously been decided by the appearance of the New Moon in Palestine. Samuel was also a renowned physician and applied rational remedies, when the world of his day clung to superstitious nostrums. But medicine and astronomy were characteristic accomplishments of the Jewish rabbis. Samuel did not scorn to learn from the Persian sages. While greatly esteemed, not all of his contemporaries realized howprofound a scholar he was. For in a sense he was a man in advance of his time. We understand him better to-day.
With all his intellectual gifts, he was modest, self-denying and wonderfully tender-hearted. He had many laws passed to safeguard the interests of the poor and helpless, and, decided that the Court must take orphans under its fatherly protection.
In the patriotic incident above mentioned, it was seen that he practised what he preached. Here is another instance. He had laws passed against exorbitant prices. When grain he had purchased cheaply, rose in price, he still sold it cheaply to the poor. What a needed lesson for our times! Here are two of his maxims:—
"Deceive neither Jew nor pagan.""Respect the man in the slave."
"Deceive neither Jew nor pagan.""Respect the man in the slave."
What was the religion of Israel's Babylonian neighbors? The Parthians were inclined toward Hellenism and exercised no religious influence on the Jews. But when the Persians again gained control of Babylonia (226C. E.,) they brought with them their own religion—Zoroastrism. Zoroaster or Zarathustra was a great religious genius who flourished about 800B.C.E.He reformed the old cult of theMagi, i. e., a caste of Persian priests and sages. His teachings are contained in the Parsee bible—theAvesta. The cardinal doctrine of this faith was dualism; that is, it explained the existence of evil in the world as the persistent conflict of two great spirits—Ormuzd, spirit of light and good (God), and Ahriman (devil), spirit of darkness and evil. In the process of ages Ormuzd and good will prevail. The sun is the visible representation of Ormuzd and fire the expressionof his energy. So Ormuzd was worshipped under the symbol of fire. This worship spread over a large part of Asia. It did not deserve to be classed with the idolatries of the heathen world that brought so many immoralities in their train, for we see even while we must disagree with its recognition of a devil, that it expressed exalted ideas and urged its followers to live moral lives. But the rise of this Neo-Persian dynasty, awakening new religious energy, led later to a passing persecution of all non-fire-worshippers.
At the opening of the sixth century, Mazdak, a new zealot for the religion of the Magi in Babylonia, tried to impose on all under his rule certain dangerous doctrines of his own that tended to undermine the moral foundations of society. Naturally the Jews, always normally a chaste people, stoutly resisted. This meant fight. Again must they lay down the book for the sword, or rather, take up the sword for the cause of the Book. Led by the Resh Galutha Mar Zutra II, they actually succeeded in throwing off the Persian yoke altogether for some seven years; but they were, of course, ultimately brought into subjection, and consequently many martyrs were added to the Jewish roll of honor.
This incident carries us ahead of our narrative. To return:
The Babylonian schools—Metibta, as each was called (Yeshiba, Hebrew), continued to grow until they drew far more students than had been reached in Palestine, many of whom became great Amoraim. Babylon, in fact, was now a very large Jewish colony regulated by the laws of the Bible and Mishna as interpreted in theAcademies. Even the Resh Galutha was in later times often a Jewish scholar, as for example, Mar Ukba. In addition to theResh Metibta—head of the School—there was aResh Kallah, President of the General Assembly—an institution not found in the Palestinian Academies. These were for the benefit of visiting students and met twice a year in the months of Adar and Elul.
Most renowned of Rab's successors was Rab Huna, who died in 297. Following the recognized precedent, not to use the Law as a spade, he earned his living by farming.
Reverence was shown to Judea now only in so far that the pious desired to be buried there. Later persecutions in Roman provinces, of which Judea was one, brought still more refugees to Babylonia.
The next generation of scholars we must pass over rapidly with just a word. In Pumbeditha we may mention Rabba, who believed in the saving sense of humor, and also set himself the more serious occupation of classifying the Halachoth accumulated since the Mishna had been compiled. He gave to his students this fine principle,—"He who does good for reasons other than the good itself, it were better he had never been born." The method of deduction as taught in the Babylonian Schools was more subtle than that of Judea. Its hair-splitting tendency in the next generation of Amoräim occasionally degenerated into casuistry. But even that was the fault of a virtue.
Mar Samuel's theory and practice best answered the query of the anti-Semite, Goldwin Smith, "Can Jews be Patriots?" The American Jews had to face this problemin the Civil War of 1861, when they fought in both the Union and the Confederate ranks.
Read Dr. Mielziner'sIntroduction to the Talmud, (Bloch Publ. Co.), chap. iv.
This book is particularly recommended in connection with the chapters on Mishna, Talmud and the Academies.
Read Article "Babylonia,"Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. ii.
Is the Jew's first duty to his countryman or to his coreligionist?
Now we must turn our glance westward again—to Rome. At the death of Antoninus Pius in 161, two emperors reigned conjointly—Varus, a degenerate, and Marcus Aurelius, a philosopher. The Roman Empire was becoming steadily demoralized. It was at the mercy of a series of degraded creatures who engaged in scandalous conflicts for the bauble of royal power. At times the purple was offered to the highest bidder.
But in 222 the throne came into the hands of the high-minded Alexander Severus. Unlike most of his predecessors, he respected Judaism, and Hillel's Golden Rule was inscribed on the walls of his palace. So his reign meant thirteen pleasant years for the Jews—a little break of sunshine through the lowering clouds.
After the death of Severus, degeneracy again set in and usurper after usurper seized the throne. Rarely was the monotony of upstart emperors broken by a better type of man such as Diocletian. The demoralized condition of the State was reflected in the people at large. Paganism, even at its best, had failed as a scheme of life. Roman society was hopelessly corrupt and on the eve of collapse. The people no longer believed in the supposed divinities Jupiter and Apollo. The philosophers tried to explain them away as abstract ideas. The ceremoniesof the temple became mummeries. The augurs (priests who were supposed to indicate the nature of events by the flight and cries of birds) could not look each other in the face without laughing.
The more earnest prayed for something better. Had Judaism not been discredited and under a ban and its observers spurned as an alien race, it might have been more largely sought—though its ceremonial code was exacting, its moral code severe, and its sole spiritual God seemed abstract and aloof to worshippers of divinities that could be seen. Judaism made not an iota of concession to win a single pagan to the fold. As it was, in spite of discouraging conditions, many would-be proselytes knocked at the doors of the Synagogue.
But for many reasons, Christianity was in a better condition to make converts. Most of its adherents had come through conversion, and proselytism was a cardinal item in its program. The eagerness of the Christians to bring a religious message to the heathen, deserves high praise and must not be underrated, though they betrayed weakness in being too ready to make concessions to pagan nations for the sake of winning converts. The semi-idolatrous idea that Jesus was at once man and God was a familiar conception to the pagan mind. The dramatic picture of his dying on the cross to save mankind appealed to their emotions. The treatment of the Hebrew expression "holy spirit," as a being—a separate divinity, introduced a third element into the God-idea—the "Holy Ghost," (old English: spirit.) This made the Christian divinity a Trinity: God, the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Ghost. But a three-headedGod, so revolting to Jewish ideas, was quite a recognized theological notion in the heathen world.
With these additions, so alluring to the pagan mind, the nobler Jewish teachings, which were Christianity's ethical foundations, were more readily accepted. Christianity became popular in Rome. Its adherents were found in all ranks. When they were a small and feeble group, the Roman emperors had persecuted them. But now, they were in the majority. The tables were turned. Only minorities are persecuted. Alas the Jews remained a minority.
Thus it was that an emperor named Constantine decided first to give toleration to all cults and ultimately to adopt Christianity—"partly from a genuine moral sympathy, yet doubtless far more in the well-grounded belief that he had more to gain from the zealous sympathy of its professors than to lose by the aversion of those who still cultivated a languid paganism." This act made it the religion of the empire. But since Rome was mistress of half the civilized world, this acquisition of power and numbers at once gave to the new Faith an eminence it has never lost. The effect of this promotion was profound and lasting and vitally affected the destiny of Israel.
The attitude of enthroned Christianity was at once inimical to the parent Faith. At first sight it would seem that it might be more kindly disposed to a religion to which it owed so much and to which it was soclosely related. Alas to confess it—for such is human nature—the very closeness of the relationship was the cause of its enmity. It regarded the very persistence of Judaism as a denial of its theories and as a challenge to its claims. Christianity declared the law abrogated; Judaism called it religion's keystone. Christianity declared that the Messiah had come; Judaism maintained he had not. Christians called Jesus a divinity—Son of God; the Jews spurned this as blasphemy. The Church taught a Trinity; the Synagogue made the indivisible Unity of God its cardinal principle. Spiritual monotheism became for the Jew a passion.
The first act by which Christianity exercised its new power was to prohibit Jews from making converts to Judaism and to reward those who deserted it. Thus it conspired for the gradual elimination of the Jewish Faith.
As its ranks rapidly swelled, Christianity continued to make consciously and unconsciously more and more concessions to the heathen beliefs and customs that were deeply rooted in the hearts of people, who accepted the new creed more or less superficially. The original Essene ideas from which it had sprung were completely lost to view. Taking the imperial government as its model, the Church reproduced Roman administration in its systematic organization, even to its despotic demand of sole sway. It enforced a rigid uniformity of doctrine; it organized a hierarchy of patriarchs and bishops whose power was enforced by the State and whose provinces corresponded with the administrative divisions of the Empire, the emperor being head of the Church. In the year 325 a Council was called at Nicæa (Asia Minor) to draw up the official creed of Christianity. For it laidgreat stress onbelief. This marked another distinction from Judaism, which, so far, had formulated no creed and had no particular theory of salvation. The Nicæan Council condemned the doctrines of the followers of Arius, a Christian whose idea of God was closer to Judaism, and declared the equal eternity and divinity of the three persons of the Trinity, with more decided emphasis. So the Arians were henceforth regarded as heretics. It further decided, that the Festival of Easter (which was the Jewish Passover readapted to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus) should now be arranged independently of the Jewish calendar.
The policy of suppression directed against Judaism commenced by Constantine was continued with greater ardor by his son, Constantius. He forbade intermarriage and imposed the penalty of death on Jews who made proselytes of Christian slaves. He even prohibited their converting heathen slaves. Further prohibitive acts followed. This hostile attitude was continued for centuries.
Thus the Jews in the Roman Empire were transferred from a heathen to a Christian regime. Quietly they continued on the even tenor of their way and prayed with greater fervency for the restoration of their ancestral home and for the speedy coming of the Messiah; it meant for them the coming of light and liberty.
It became necessary for Hillel II., Palestinian Patriarch, in 359, to establish a fixed calendar based on that of Samuel of Babylon, (p. 234) to guide the people as to the time of celebrating New Moon and Festivals, as in these troublous times they could not always transmit the news obtained by observing the heavens. But the"second" day of the Festivals, for lands outside of Palestine, now no longer needed, was maintained as a matter of sentiment and is maintained still in conservative Judaism.
This planning of a Jewish calendar by which the Festivals were computed perpetually and yet kept in their natural seasons, was a wonderful piece of astronomical and arithmetical ingenuity. For a lunar year of twelve months is shorter than a solar year of three-hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days. To average the difference and thus prevent, for example, Passover eventually occurring in Autumn and Tabernacles in Spring, an additional month (second Adar) was added seven times in every nineteen years. Further, the calendar had to be so devised that certain Festivals should not fall on undesirable days—for example to prevent the Day of Atonement falling on Friday or Sunday. This ancient calendar is still our guide for the Jewish year.
But a brief check was made on Christian advance and its pitiless attempt to suppress Judaism in the coming to the throne of Julian in 361. For this emperor did not endorse the new religion, but accepted the old Roman cult of the Pantheon, though in its most idealized form, preferring to purify instead of abolishing it. But it was too late; it had been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
Julian, whom the Church styled "the Apostate," was both tolerant and philanthropic, and a man who fostered learning. As between Christianity and Judaism, though bred in the former, to which he continued to grant perfect freedom of observance, his inclination turned rather toward the latter, and he held it in high esteem. He removed the restrictive laws and special taxes against Judaism, imposed by his predecessors. He even took steps for the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem. The Jews were transported with delight and began at once sending contributions toward its erection with greater zeal than was even shown, according to Scripture, by that generation in the wilderness in their gifts toward the Tabernacle. The Christians looked on with consternation, and regarded every unfavorable interruption as the miraculous intervention of heaven. Not a supposed miracle however, but a real event, brought the project to nought. Julian died on the battlefield.
In the meantime Rome was failing fast. The conflict for the throne on the death of each new emperor, showed that the Empire was crumbling from within. Long before the days of Constantine armies were electing their generals to the imperial dignity all over the empire. The throne was propped up a little longer by gaudy trappings, but this meant heavier taxation and further slavery. Finally the overgrown and undermined body split in twain, each half maintaining a separate existence. Byzantium, afterwards called Constantinople, was the capital of the Roman Empire of the East, while the city of Rome remained the centre of the Western half. The division was finally completed in the year 395. Although both were Christian, the duel empires were menaced by too many enemies from without to have the leisure to renew the anti-Jewish laws—for a time.
The influx of "barbarians," as all people outside of Rome were called, now came thick and fast. While some were absorbed in a friendly way, impressed with Rome's grandeur, and even served in its army, younger and healthier peoples looked contemptuously upon the decaying Empire and sought to absorb it rather than be absorbed. Even before the division, Julian had to keep off the incursions of the Franks and Alemanni (Germans). Theodosius, called the Great, bravely resisted the inflowing races, but he fought against destiny and therefore fought in vain. Driven by the Huns, a Scythian people from Tartary, under the leadership of Attila, the Goths crossed the Danube into the Romanterritory as refugees; but cruelly treated, became enemies and began devastating the Western division of the empire. Alaric in 410 had sacked the imperial city itself. The Goths, to whom after much fighting, Rome granted important concessions, also—like Rome—fell into two divisions—the Ostragoths (Eastern), who settled on the Black Sea, and the Visigoths (Western), who occupied Dacia from the Dnieper to the Danube.
These details make dry reading; but the break-up of the Roman Empire after occupying the centre of the world's stage for four hundred years, marks the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. This change of his environment was in a measure to change the Jew.
Let us complete this general survey. Already hordes of Suevi, Burgundians, Alemanni and Vandals had invaded Gaul and set up a Vandal Empire in Spain, where they contended with the Visigoths for control. Genseric, called the scourge of God, invaded Africa in 429 and devastated the coast from Gibraltar to Carthage. It was he, by the way, who seized the Temple vessels that Titus had taken from Jerusalem. They had passed, like their first owners, through many vicissitudes. Next, the Huns began laying waste the Western Empire, though finally defeated by the Gothic king, Theodoric. At last Odoacer, in 476, at the head of barbarian mercenaries, dethroned the last emperor, and the Roman Empire of the West came to an end in that year.
In the meantime Christianity held the reins of power in the surviving eastern half of the Roman Empire. Its Church Fathers began to regard it as a part of their function to preach against Judaism. The people at largefollowed by burning synagogues or turning them into churches. But the Emperor Theodosius I. protected the Jews. Later, Bishop Cyril cruelly drove them out of Alexandria where they had had such an illustrious career since the days of Alexander the Great. No redress was made to them for loss of home and property. His disciples, following this barbarous precedent, seized the cultured Hypatia, a teacher of Platonic philosophy, whose rare learning had made her home a gathering place for students and scholars,—and the fanatic crowd rent her limb from limb.
But it was a bigoted and savage age. In mentioning the cruelly fanatic bishops, let us not forget the kind ones—Bishop Hilary of Poictiers in Gaul, at whose funeral the sympathetic Jews expressed their sorrow in the recital of Hebrew Psalms.
With Theodosius II, emperor of the eastern division of the Roman Empire, who came to this Byzantine throne in 408, began the systematic restraint of Judaism—the harsh discrimination against Jews before the law. They were prohibited from building new synagogues, from exercising jurisdiction between Christian and Jew, and from owning Christian slaves. The bishops and clergy began fomenting attacks in different localities, forcing baptism on some by threat. Ultimately the Patriarchate of Judea, the office of Nasi, was abolished in 425, after the Hillel family had enjoyed this dignity for three and a half centuries.
Israel suffered, too, at the hands of Christian ascetics who went to grotesque extremes and imposed absurd privations upon themselves to express religious zeal. Some condemned themselves to stand on pillars—hence called "pillar saints"; some to live as hermits in the desert. Butwith them all Jewish persecution was deemed a kind of piety, the logic being that Jewish beliefs were opposed to the truth and the Jews were the enemies of God. The most famous of these pillar saints was Simeon, surnamed Stylites, meaning pillar. As long as the Roman Empire of the West lasted, Jews were excluded from most public offices. The monies hitherto voluntarily contributed to maintain the Patriarchate were, now that this Palestinian official was deposed, demanded perforce to continue as a Jewish tax to aid a hostile State. Thus did Christian Rome follow the precedent of pagan Rome. This was the kind of treatment that they were now to meet in all Christian lands, marking the beginning of the JewishMiddle Ages.
Still Christian divines were glad enough to sit at the feet of Jewish scholars and learn from them the Hebrew tongue. In this way Jerome was enabled to make from the Hebrew a new translation of the Bible into Latin. It was called theVulgate(Latin Vulgata, for public use). It has remained the authorized translation of the Catholic Church to this day.
The Holy Roman Empire, Bryce; chapter ii and iii. (Burt, New York.)
Hypatia, Kingsley.
On the Emperor Julian's relations with the Jews, especially with regard to his proposition of rebuilding the Temple, see two articles in theJewish Quarterly Reviewvols. v. and x.
What right had theEastern(Byzantine) Empire to the title "Roman?"