Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-02-27
The Talmndists.

To those doctrines of the law, the Old
Testament, from beginning to end, was
| a congeries of riddles, to the solution of
which they dedicated their lives. In
comparison with their own tortuous and
mystical explanations, the plain gram
matical sense had little interest for
them. The inspired text they used to
compare to water; but their Mishna, or
| oral tradition to wine, and their Gemara
or commentary to spiced wine. Every
| verbal resemblance, however superb
cial, every variation of spelling and
popularity of arrangement or order.
suggested to them a mystery out of
texts arbitrarily placed together, mean
| Jugs were evolved for which not o
shadow of warrant could be found |;
| from the mere metaphors latent in COM
mon speech pOrtentious conclusions
were deduced; in the numerical values
| of the letters of which words were com.
posed occult meanings were discovered.
The results may be imagined, and were
| perhaps surprising even to the scribes
themselves in their saner moments, for
among their traditions is one which de-
picts the amazement of Moses, when in
q vision he saw some Rabbi of the fu
| ture extracting whole Dushel-loads of
meanings and decisions from every an.
gle, curl, and horn of every letter of the
law. We shall try, by few specimens
of the more quotable sort, to give an idea
of the Rabbinical style of handling
| Scripture. 1t might seem to an unso-
| phlsticated reader rather difficult to de-
termine from the text-"The OK know
eth his owner, and the ass his masters
crib; but Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider"-what kind
of scourge should be used to inflict the
"forty stripes save one" on those who
broke the law. But the ingenuity of
the Rabbis was not to be foiled. Ought
not the men who know not to be beaten
| by the animals whose knowledge shames
them? Then twist together thongs of
OK hide and ass hide, aud lay the COM
pounded lash on the back of the guilty.
Out of Laban's invitation to Abraham's
servant-"Come in, for have prepared
the house, and room for the camels"-
evidence was extracted to show that the
piety of the great father of the faithful
was so transcendent and contagious as
to be shared even by his camels, for by
imagining some occult connection be.
tween the phrases for 'making ready
the house" and removing the idols, +"
the meaning was reached that the cam
els piously declined to enter till the EN-
blems of idolatry had been cleared out
In praise of the phylacteries or little
leathern boxes ccntaining texts from
the law, which the jews were accus-
toned to bind on the brow and left arm,
proof that they were worn by Jeho.
yah Himself was found in the text ::
Jehovah hath sworn by His right
hand and the arm of his streugth'-a
g., the left arm bound with one of those
curious amulets. But on entering q
cemetery it was ruled that they should
be taken off, on the ground that those
/ who wore them in the presence of the
dead would be guilty of the insolent
ostentation condemned in the passage,
Whose mocketh the poor reproacheth
his maker" On the narrative which
relates that the news of the capture of
Lot was brought to Abraham by lone
that had escaped" the curious myth
was founded of the escape of Og, the
King of Bashan, from the Deluge, his
| gigantic stature being supposed to have
enabled him to wade beside the ark till
the waters subsided.-B -Black,0ood's Mag
aziae.