Studies in Judaism 1

Studies in Judaism 1

Studies in Judaism, First Series

Author: Solomon Schechter

CONTENTS

 

 

Preface

Introduction

I. The Chassidim

II. Nachman Krochmal and the "Perplexities Of The Time"

III. Rabbi Elijah Wilna, Gaon

IV. Nachmanides

V. A Jewish Boswell

VI. The Dogmas Of Judaism

VII. The History of Jewish Tradition

VIII. The Doctrine of Divine Retribution in Rabbinical Literature

IX. The Law And Recent Criticism

X. The Hebrew Collection of the British Museum

XI. Titles of Jewish Books

XII. The Child in Jewish Literature

XIII. Woman in Temple and Synagogue

XIV. The Earliest Jewish Community in Europe

Index

Footnotes

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cover Art]

 

[Transcriber's Note: The above cover image was produced by the submitter

at Distributed Proofreaders, and is being placed into the public domain.]

 

 

 

 

 

TO

 

THE EVER-CHERISHED MEMORY

 

OF

 

THE LATE DR. P. F. FRANKL, RABBI IN BERLIN

 

THESE STUDIES ARE REVERENTLY

 

DEDICATED

 

 

 

 

 

PREFACE

 

 

These studies appeared originally in their first form in _The Jewish

Quarterly_ and _The Jewish Chronicle_. To the Editors of these periodicals

my best thanks are due for their readiness in placing the articles at my

disposal for the purposes of the present volume. The Introductory Essay is

new. I desire to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. J. G. Frazer, Fellow

of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Dr. J. Sutherland Black, of London, for

their great kindness in revising the proofs, and for many a valuable

suggestion. To Mr. Claude G. Montefiore I am indebted for the English

version of the Essay on "Chassidim"--my first literary effort in this

country, written at his own suggestion.

 

In the transliteration of Hebrew names, I have given the familiar English

forms of the authorised version. As regards post-Biblical names, I have

with few exceptions followed Zedner's _Catalogue of the Hebrew Books in

the Library of the British Museum_. A Hebrew word will be found here and

there in the text; I have purposely avoided bewildering devices for

representing the actual sound of the word, contenting myself with the

ordinary Roman alphabet, in spite of its shortcomings.

 

The authorities used for the various Essays will be found indicated in the

Notes at the end of the volume, where the reader will also find short

biographical and bibliographical notices, together with brief explanations

of technical terms for which no exact equivalent exists in English. The

index will, it is hoped, facilitate reference.

 

_S. S._

 

CAMBRIDGE, _February 1896_.

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

The essays published in this volume under the title of _Studies in

Judaism_ have been written on various occasions and at long intervals.

There is thus no necessary connection between them. If some sort of unity

may be detected in the book, it can only be between the first three

essays--on the Chassidim, Krochmal, and the Gaon--in which there is a

certain unity of purpose. The purpose in view was, as may easily be

gathered from the essays themselves, to bring under the notice of the

English public a type of men produced by the Synagogue of the Eastern

Jews. That Synagogue is widely different from ours. Its places of worship

have no claims to "beauty of holiness," being in their outward appearance

rather bare and bald, if not repulsive; whilst those who frequent them are

a noisy, excitable people, who actually dance on the "Season of Rejoicing"

and cry bitterly on the "Days of Mourning." But among all these

vagaries--or perhaps because of them--this Synagogue has had its moments of

grace, when enthusiasm wedded to inspiration gave birth to such beautiful

souls as Baalshem, such fine sceptics as Krochmal, and such saintly

scholars as Elijah Wilna. The Synagogue of the West is certainly of a more

presentable character, and free from excesses; though it is not devoid of

an enthusiasm of its own which finds its outlet in an ardent and self-

sacrificing philanthropic activity. But owing to its practical tendency

there is too little room in it for that play of intellectual forces which

finds its extravagant __EXPRESSION__ in the saint on the one hand, and the

learned heretic on the other.

 

Eight of these essays are more or less of a theological nature. But in

reading the proofs I have been struck by the fact that there is assumed in

them a certain conception of the Synagogue which, familiar though it be to

the Jewish student, may appear obscure and even strange to the general

English reader. For brevity's sake I will call it the High Synagogue,

though it does not correspond in all details to what one is accustomed to

understand under the term of High Church. The High Synagogue has a history

which is not altogether without its points of interest.

 

Some years ago when the waves of the Higher Criticism of the Old Testament

reached the shores of this country, and such questions as the

heterogeneous composition of the Pentateuch, the comparatively late date

of the Levitical Legislation, and the post-exilic origin of certain

Prophecies as well as of the Psalms began to be freely discussed by the

press and even in the pulpit, the invidious remark was often made: What

will now become of Judaism when its last stronghold, the Law, is being

shaken to its very foundations?

 

Such a remark shows a very superficial acquaintance with the nature of an

old historical religion like Judaism, and the richness of the resources it

has to fall back upon in cases of emergency.

 

As a fact, the emergency did not quite surprise Judaism. The alarm signal

was given some 150 years ago by an Italian Rabbi, Abiad Sar Shalom

Bazilai, in his pamphlet _The Faith of the Sages_. The pamphlet is, as the

title indicates, of a polemical character, reviewing the work of the

Jewish rationalistic schools; and after warming up in his attacks against

their heterodox views, Bazilai exclaims: "Nature and simple meaning, they

are our misfortune." By "nature and simple meaning" Bazilai, who wrote in

Hebrew, understood what we would call Natural Science and Philology. With

the right instinct of faith, Bazilai hit on the real sore points. For

though he mostly argues against the philosophical systems of Aristotle and

his commentators, he felt that it is not speculation that will ever

seriously endanger religion. There is hardly any metaphysical system, old

or new, which has not in course of time been adapted by able dialecticians

to the creed which they happened to hold. In our own time we have seen the

glorious, though not entirely novel spectacle, of Agnosticism itself

becoming the rightful handmaid of Queen Theology. The real danger lies in

"nature" (or Natural Science) with its stern demand of law and regularity

in all phenomena, and in the "simple meaning" (or Philology) with its

inconsiderate insistence on truth. Of the two, the "simple meaning" is the

more objectionable. Not only is it very often at variance with Tradition,

which has its own code of interpretation, but it is constantly increasing

the difficulties raised by science. For if words could only have more than

one meaning, there would be no objection to reading the first words of

Genesis, "In _a_ beginning God _evolved_." The difficulties of science

would then be disposed of easily enough. Maimonides, who was as bold an

interpreter as he was a deep metaphysician, hinted plainly enough that

were he as convinced of the eternity of matter as he was satisfied of the

impossibility of any corporeal quality in the deity, he would feel as

little compunction in explaining (figuratively) the contents of the first

chapter of Genesis as he did in allegorising the anthropomorphic passages

of the Bible. Thus in the end all the difficulties resolve themselves into

the one great difficulty of the "simple meaning." The best way to meet

this difficulty was found to be to shift the centre of gravity in Judaism

and to place it in the secondary meaning, thus making religion independent

of philology and all its dangerous consequences.

 

This shifting work was chiefly done, perhaps not quite consciously, by the

historical school which followed upon that of Mendelssohn and his first

successors. The historical school, which is still in the ascendant,

comprises many of the best Jewish writers who either by their learning or

by their ecclesiastical profession as Rabbis and preachers in great

communities have acquired some important position among their brethren.

The men who have inaugurated this movement were Krochmal (1785-1841), Rapoport (1790-1867), and Zunz (1794-1886).