more generally received notion that they were so called because they separated from tin rest ofth \ lieving themselves to be more holy, are at with the most ancient and most trustwortl y authorities upon this subject Beside8, to lake C>HB as meaning interpreter is contrary to its grammatical form, which, if transitive, ought to be HJIBO. Of course the separa- tion from that which was Levitically impun
rily implied separation from those who were defiled by Levitically impure objects. It musl be observed that the name Pharisees is given to them in tin Mishna (Jebatnoth, iv, 6, etc.) by their opponent- the Sadducees,
PHARISEE
PHARISEE
and that the names by which they were designated among themselves are D^HDH, sages, or, more modestly D^-PI l,'3*,oit!' disciples of the sages, but more gen- erally CH^n, associates. By the term Pharisees, 0"112J!H3, or its equivalent Chaberim, Q*1- t^iri, i. e. asso- ciates, is therefore meant all those Jews who separated themselves from every kind of Levitical impurity, and united together to keep the Mosaic laws of purity. As it was natural that all the students of the law would, as a matter of course, be the first to join this association, the appellation Chaber, "CPI, member, associate, or li*HB, Pharisee, became synonymous with student, disciple, lawyer, scribe, while those who refused to unite to keep the laws were regarded as "j'^Xlrj 05, country people, common people, illiterates, irreligious.
II. The Qualifications for Membership of the Pharisaic Association. — The most essential conditions which were enacted from every one who wished to become a Chaber or member of the Pharisaic association were two. Each candidate was required to promise in the presence of three members that — (i) He would set apart all the sa- cred tithes on the produce of the land, and refrain from eating anything which had not been tithed, or about the tithing of which there was any doubt ; and (ii) He would scrupulously observe the most essential laws of purity which so materially affected the eating of food and all family affairs.
To understand these laws, which may seem trivial and arbitrary, as well as to see the extraordinary influ- ence which they exercised upon the whole religious and social life of the Jewish nation in all its ramifications, the following facts must be borne in mind : The Mosaic law enjoins that besides the priestly heave - offering (fTCnn) every Israelite is annually to give to the Levites a tithe of all the produce (Numb, xviii, 21-24), which the Jewish canons call the first tithe ("liU5B ■ji'JJSO) ; that a second tithe ("^la ^?."?)> as ifc is termed in the same canons, is to be taken annually from the produce to Jerusalem, either in kind or specie, and consumed by the owner in the metropolis in festive cel- ebration (Deut. xii, 5-18), and that every third year this second tithe is to be given to the poor (Ueut. xiv, 28, 29), whence it is denominated the poor tithe ("1125513 ^S) in the ancient canons. Moreover, as each seventh year was a Sabbatic or fallow year, which yielded no harvest, it was tixed that in the first, second, fourth, and fifth years of the septennial cycle the second tithe is to be eaten by the owner in Jerusalem, while in the third and sixth years it is to be distributed among the poor, and be the poor tithe. When it is remembered that these tithal laws, which were originally enacted for Palestine, were in the post-exilian period extended to Egypt, Amnion, Moab, and to every land in which the Jews had possessions, that they had more of a relig- ious than civil import, that the portion of produce re- served as tithes was holy, that the eating of holy things was a deadly sin, and that the non- separation of the tithes rendered the whole produce unlawful, thus affect- ing every article of food, the paramount importance of the first condition which the Pharisees, who were the conservators of the divine law, exacted from the candi- dates for fellowship will readily be understood (comp. Mishna, Bekoroth, 30 b).
Of equal importance, and equally affecting the whole fabric of social and religious life, are the Mosaic laws upon the strength of which the second condition was exacted. These laws, which so rigidly enforce the eschewing of unclean food and defiling objects, even without the amplifications and expansion which ob- tained in the course of time, extend to and affect almost every action in public life and even' movement in fam- ily intercourse. Thus not only are numbers of animals proscribed as food, but their very carcasses are branded