The writer accuses ( p. 4 of the American reprint, contained in the Literary Remains [X. V. 11-I74J) the investigators of the Talmud of mistaking the grimy stone caricatures over our cathedrals for the gleaming statues of the saints within. But, entering into the ca- thedrals of the Talmud and beholding these saints, we hear, in the treatise Aboda Sara, fol. 17, col. 1, of rabbi
Eiieser, T^-^Vj ^1 sb'j cbi^a rnx nrT n-^sn xba
(we dare not translate this sentence into English, but we give it in Latin: " Non erat meretrix in terra quacum non fornicatus esset"). When rabbi Nachman (we read Tr. Yoma, fol. 12, col. 2) went to Shanuzib, he proclaimed
(this also we dare not translate into English, but we give it in Latin : " Rab quum Tarsura intraret proclama- bat quam vellet [uxoremj in diem''). Of rabbi Abuha we read (Tr. Berakoth, fol. 44, col. 1) that he was such a strong eater that a fly could not rest upon his fore- head; and {ibiil.) of rabbi Ami and rabbi Assi that they ate so much that the hair fell from their heads; and of rabbi Simeon, the son of Lakesh, that he ate so much that he lost his senses. In Tr. Buba Metsia, fol. 84, col. 1, we read that rabbi Ismael, the son of rabbi Jose, and rabbi Eleazar, the son of rabbi Simeon, were so corpulent that when they stood face to face a pair of oxen could pass under them without touching them. Of the honestj' of rabbi Samuel and rabbi Cahauna we read a nice story in Tr. Buba Kamma, fol. 1 13, col. 2, which we had better pass over, for enough has been said of some of the Talmudical saints.
The writer in the Quar/erli/ is astonished at the fact that the Talmud has so often been burned. But it is an old saying, " Habent sua ftita libelli." The followers of the Arabian prophet burned the great library at Alex- andria, and they still do the same with every book which they believe is written against their religion. The Jews have burned and excommunicated the books of their own great Maimonides (q. v.), and considered him a heretic. The\f have burned, and still burn, the Hebrew Old Test, because of the Latin headings and crosses, to say nothing of the New Test. The Koman Catholics burn the Protestant Bible. Why should the Talmud have escaped? Besides, ignorance and fa- naticism, in all ages and countries, have burned the books which they supposed were against their system. This was especially the case with the Talmud, A.D. 1240, when a conference was held in Paris between Nicolaus Donin and some Jewish rabbins concerning certain blasphemies contained in the Talmud and writ- ten against Jesus and Mar}'. R. Jechiel, the most prominent of the Jewish rabbins at that conference, would not admit that the Jesus spoken of in the Tal- mud was Jesus of Nazareth, but another Jesus, a dis- covery which was copied by later writers. But modern Jews acknowledge the failure of this argument, for, says Dr. Levin, in his prize-essay Die ReU'iionsdisputa- tion des R. Jechiel von Paris, etc., published in Griitz's Monatsschrift (1869), p. 193, "We must regard the at- tempt of R. Jechiel to ascertain that there were two by the name of Jesus as unfortunate, original as the idea may be." The result of this conference was that the Talmud in wagon-loads was burned at Paris in 1242. This was the first attack. When, however, the writer in the Quarterly states that Justinian in A.D. 553 al- ready honored the Talmud by a special interdictory no- vella (146 rifpi 'E/3paiujj'), we must regard such a state- ment as erroneous and superficial, for, as Dr. Griitz, in
his Gesch. der Jiiden, v, 392, shows, this novella has no reference to the Talmud at all (comp. also vol. vii [ 1873 J, p. 441 sq.). In our days, such accusations against the Talmud as that preferred by Donin were impossible, because all these ottensive passages have been removed — not so much by the hands of the censor, as by the Jews themselves, as the following document or circular letter, addressed by a council of elders, convened in Po- land in the .lewish year 5391 (i. e. A.D. 1631), to their coreligionists, which at the same time contains the clue why in later editions of the Talmud certain passages are wanting, will show. The circular runs thus in the . translation of Ch. Leslie (in A tS/io7-t and Easy Method with the Jetcs, p. 2 sq. [Lond. 1812], where the original Hebrew is also found) :
"Great peace to our beloved brethren of the house of Israel.
"Havins received information that many Christians have applied thenis^elves with great care to acquire the knowledge of the language in which our books are writ- teu, we therefore enjoin yon, under the ])enally of the great ban (to be inflicted upon such of you as shall trans- gress this onr statute), that yon do not, in any new edition either of the Mishna or Gemara, publish anything relative to Jesus of Nazareth ; and you take special care not to write anything concerning him, either good or bad, so that neiilier ourselves nor onr religion may be exposed to any injury. For we know what those men of Belial, the Munnim, have done to us, when they became Christians, and how iheir representations against ns have obtained credit. Therefore, let this make you cautious. If yoa should not pay strict attention to this our letter, but act contrary thereto, and continue to publish our books in the same manner as before, you may occasion, both to us and yourselves, greater afflictions than we have hitherto experienced, and be the means of onr being comjielled to embrace the Christian religion, as we were formerly ; and thus our latter troul)les might be W(n'se than the former. For these reasons we command you that, if you publish any new edition of those books, let the places relating to Jesus the Nazarene be left in blank, and fill up the siiace with a circle like this, o. But the rabbins and teachers of children will know how to instinct the youth by word of mouth. Then Christians will no longer have anything to show against us upon this sul)ject, and we may expect deliverance from the afflictions we have formerly labored under, and reasonably hope to live in peace."