Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-05-18
WORKS OF THE RABBINS.
The TaImud and Other Jewish Books
A Supposed Dangerous Work, and
What was Done to Suppress ii
The Great Changes
Wrought by Time.
How the TaImud Originated and Of what
il COnsists-The Ten Targums or
interpretations OF Scripture
The MasOra and Ca.
bala.

4
capuchin fcar, who completely subdued hlt
opponent by a learned quotation from "Rabo
Talmud," there are doubtless many, even IN
this age of general intelligence and lnforma'
ton, who unhesitatingly believe that the
Talmud is not book, bnt man. Strange
as it may appear, the average newspaper
reader knows but little of the peculiar tenets
and religious belief of his Jewish fellow-clti-
Zens, and still less of the wonderful works
which for centuries have been cherished 10y
that denomination with a veneration almott
equal to that in which the bible itself is
held by the civilized world. To the majority
of scholars even, and to the masses OF the
Jews themselves, these celebrated writing {
are known only by name, or, at best, by the
occasional references to them which appear
from time to time in the literature of the pc
rod. Until within a comparatively recent
date the popular prejudice against the Jews
extended also to their literature, which, being
regarded as the chief cause of the obstinacy
with which they cling to their ancestral and
supposed souldestroying faith, was, by the
highest ecclesiastical authorities OF the chris
tan church, deemed dangerous to
the spiritual welfare of the public,
unfit to read. The Talmud, as the representa-
tive of this class of presumed perniciouss
writings, was especially an object of hatred
and persecution. Emanuel Deutsch, one OF
its latest and ablest indicators. asserts that
'Justinian, who, as early as $50 AID, hon
ored it by a special introductory; Novella.
down to Clement VIII, and later-a space OF
over thousand years-both the secular and
spiritual powers, kings and emperors, popes
and anti-popes, Wed with each other in hurl-
ing anathemas and bulls and edicts of whole
sale confscation and conhagration against his
luckless book. Then, within period of less
than fifty years-and these forming the latter
half of the sixteenth century-it was publicly
burned no less than six different times, and
the wagon-load." Notwithstanding this
united attempt of nearly all chrlstendoin at
its determination, this "damnable book
could not be kept out of the reach
of the infatuated Jews. The printing
presses in the dominions of the Cres-
cent sent forth numerous copies, many
of which found their way back to those coun-
Indeed, it often happened that christian
princes themselves, unable to withstand Jew
ish Establishments and Jewish gold, connived
at the reproduction of the book. The church,
therefore, was compelled to have recourse to
another measure, which was to purge the
Talmud and the whole of Jewish literature
from their supposed evils and impurities. At
one time it was even gravely suggested that
the original text of the bible should be
amended by the Vulgate. Inscriptions
renegades from Judaism advocated this
scheme, for who could better undertake the
task of purging the Talmud than those who,
from their former connection with the faith,
would be most likely to know all the baneful
and disappearing passages which poisoned
the Jewish mind against the teachings of the
church. Thus the most absurd and ludicrous
alterations were made in the text. When,
for example, the censor found some ancient
Roman in the book swearing by the capitol.
or by Jupiter of Rome, he at once concluded
that that; the ,i Roman nanito, must ths be v.ti
can, and Jupiter the pope. Accord
lngiy, he struck out Rome and substituted
Persia, Babel, or any other place that he
could think of. In like manner, whenever
the word Gentle" occurred, it mattered not
to the erudite censor whether the ''Gentile"
was good or bad, whether he resided in Rome
or Canaan, he must necessarily have been
christian in disguise, and so the word was
changed according to fancy, and the Gen
tile became an Egyptian" an "Amale
kite" ''Negro." an "Arab," etc. But
many of these apostates were not satisfied
with thus mutilat1ng the work, but strove
diligently to stir up and rekindle the popular
Indignation against it in order to envoke
new decree for its determination. Foremost
among these traitors was the notorious PET
fercorD, who, in the latter half of the sixteenth
"
imilian, endeavored to rouse the whole of
Germany against the Talmud, and at length
succeeded in having a decree issued for its
confscation. Before it was burned, however,
the renowned Reuchln, one of the most
learned christians of the time, and an emf
nent Hebraist, was appointed on the commit
tee which was to justify the emperor's de-
cree. He declined the honor, but in its place
set to work patiently examining the book, and
then wrote brilliant defense of it, which
noble task, while subjecting him to severe
persecution and fearful suffering, gave rise
to contest which spread all over Europe,
and which lent a powerful impetus to that
healthful reformation which finally shook
the papal structure to its very foundation.
The Talmud this time, instead of perishing
in the flames, went through its first complete
edition at Venice, and in the same year, 1920
A. D., Martin Luther burned the pope's bull
at Wittenberg. 1t must not be supposed,
however, that the great German reformer was
friendly either to the Jews or their writings.
On the contrary, sincere and Jealous as he
was in his struggle with the superstitution of
the Catholic church, he was only half eman-
cipated from the fatal errors of theological
bigotry, and savagely proposed that all Jew
ish synagogues, schools, houses, prayer books,
and Talmuds should be burned; that the
rabbis should be fol hidden, under penalty of
death, to give instruction; that the youth of
both sexes should be compelled to do manual
labor; that the right of protection on the
highways should be denied to all Jews; that
they be lodged in stables like gypses; all of
which was to be done ''for the glory of our
Lord and christianity" The contrast between
the past and the present is, indeed, as strik-
ing as it is gratifying. The Jews and
the Talmud have outlived their prosecutors,
and while the former, in almost all civilized
countries, are enjoying the full rights of citi-
fkal okk Goo hao
sure of scholastic observers, the cyclopean
work to which reference is made for intorma
ton upon nearly all subjects in the realm of
modern learning. So marvellous is the change
which has been wrought by the hand of time
that, while in 1886 Honorius " wrote to the
archbishop of Canterbury admonishing him
to see that nobody read that "damnable
book" since ''all other evils flow out of it,
in 1873 the archbishop of Canterbury visited
the college of Sir Moses Montefore at Rams
gate, founded chiefly for the study of that
work, and evinced considerable interest and
pleasure in all that he saw and heard in that
institution. The principal compilations of
the rabbis are the Talmuds, the Targums,
the Digcsts, the Scriptural Commentaries,
the Masora, and the Cabara. According to
the teachings of orthodox Judaism there are
two laws, the written law, or the Pentateuch
and the oral law, or the Mishna. The latter
of these consists of the Evolutionary expla-
nations of the former, and to have been
given by God to Moses during the
forty days the legislator spent on Mount
Sinai; by Moses transmitted orally to Joshua
and his cotemporaries, by them to the elders,
who in turn communicated them to the
prophets, from whom the members of the
great Sanhedrim received them, and thus
they were handed down from generation to
generation until about one hundred and fifty
years after the destruction of the second tenn
pie, when the president of the Sanhedrim,
Rabbi Judah the prince, surnamed Hakka-
dosh, or the holy, fearing that in consequence
of the dispersion of the Jews and the decline
of literature the oral law would eventually
become lost, conceived and executed the task
of reducing it to writing. 1t is this work
which is known by the name of the Mishna,
and which forms the primary element of the
Talmud. 1t is divided into six sections, which
are respectively subdivided into eleven,
twelve, seven, ten, eleven and twelve chap
tiers, the whole containing five hundred and
twenty-four paragraphs. The compilation
of this work was most prohahlY comnleted