DISSERTATION I. ON THE TALMUDICAL AND RABBINICAL WRITINGS. THE principal compilations and writings of the Jewish Doctors are the TALMUDS,-the TARGUMS,-DIGESTS of Hebrew Jurisprudence,-COMMENTARIES ON THE SCRIPTURES, and the MASORA and CABALA. 1. THE TALMUDS. THERE are two Talmuds, designated from the respective places where they were compiled, the Talmud of Jerusalem and the Talmud of Babylon. The Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in the year of Christ, 230, (or, according to some, in the year 300,) for the use of the Jews living in Judea, by Rabbi Jochanan, who for many years presided over the Synagogues of "the land of Israel."-It comprises a much smaller number of doctrinal and legal questions and decisions than the later Talmud of Babylon; and, being written in the peculiar dialect of Judea, is difficult to be understood. On these accounts the voluminous Talmud of Babylon is preferred to the earlier Talmud of Jerusalem, by the Jews in general, among whom the Jerusalem Talmud is become so completely obsolete, that the use of the term "Talmud” is almost exclusively appropriated to the Talmud of Babylon. The Jerusalem Talmud was printed at Venice, in 1523, by D. Bomberg, in 1 vol. folio; and again, with marginal glosses, at Cracow, 1609, in 1 vol. folio. The Talmud of Babylon was compiled for the use of Jews dwelling in Babylon and other foreign countries, and completed about A. D. 500. It is an immense work, containing the Traditions of the Jews, their Canon Law, and the questions and decisions of the Hebrew Doctors relative to their doctrines and usages. This Talmud has been several times printed:-in 1520, in 12 vols. folio, including the Comments of Jarchi, Ben Asher, and Maimonides, by D. Bomberg, at Venice:-in 1581, by Frobenius, at Basil, in which those passages are expunged that were directed against Christianity:-at Cracow, in which the passages left out in the Basil edition were restored:-at Amsterdam, in 1644, by Immanuel Benbenisti, in large quarto, on two kinds of paper: (Wagenseil says, there were two editions, one correct, the other incorrect :) but the best edition is said to be that printed at Berlin and Francfort, in 12 vols. folio, 1715. The Talmuds are composed of the Mishna, or Oral Law, which is the text, and the Gemaras, or decisions of the Jewish Doctors on the Mishna, prior to the compilation of the Talmuds. The Mishna, or Oral Law, consists of the traditionary explanations of the Law of Moses, said to have been given by God himself to Moses, on Mount Sinai, who transmitted them by Oral communications, through Aaron and his sons, to Joshua and the Prophets, and by them to the members of the great Sanhedrim, who committed them in a similar way to their successors, till the time of R. Judah Hakkadosh, or the holy, who flourished about A. D. 150: of whose compilation of the Mishna, David Levi, (" Ceremonies of the Jews," p. 285,) gives the following account: "Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh was the compiler of the Mishna; for, having seriously considered the state of our nation in his time; and also perceiving that the captivity had already continued a long time; (he having lived about 100 years after the destruction of the temple;) and that those learned in the Oral Law began to decrease: And justly apprehending that the face of affairs might one day grow worse, he came to the resolution of compiling and digesting into one body, all those Doctrines and Practices of our church, which had been preserved and conveyed down to posterity by Oral Tradition, from the time of the Elders and the Prophets, the men of the Great Synagogue, and also the Mishnical Doctors down to his own time. All these he committed to writing and arranged under six general heads, called Sedorim, orders or classes."-" As soon as the Mishna was committed to writing," adds the same learned Jew, "it was received by all our nation with a general consent, and was so universally approved of by them, that it was embraced as an authentic body of the Law, (as it undoubtedly was, being delivered by God to Moses as an explanation of the Written Law, and handed down by tradition, as already shown,) and taught in all our public schools in the Holy Land, as also in Babylon." The Gemaras are expositions of the Mishna; for the Mishna, being delivered in aphorisms or short sentences, as not being intended to be committed to writing, but delivered by tradition, was thought to need some larger explications to render it the more easy and intelligible. "This task," observes the author already quoted, "was begun within a short time after its first publication, by several of the most eminent and learned men in the nation, who, in their respective ages and schools, taught and expounded to their scholars the meaning of those short sentences, and illustrated all the difficult and less obvious passages of the Mishna, with proper and useful Comments; and those Comments and Expositions are, what we call Gemara, that is, the Complement, because, by them the Mishna is fully explained, and the whole traditionary doctrine of our law and religion completed; for the Mishna is the text, and the Gemara is the comment, and both together is what we call the Talmud."-The comments thus collected by R. Jochanan in the third century of the Christian era, and appended to the Mishna, constitute, with it, the Jerusalem Talmud; and the comments and expositions collected by R. Ashe and his successors in the presidentship of the Jewish academy at Sora, and completed about the year 500, form, with the Mishna, the Babylonish Talmud; and are sometimes called the Talmud, though without the text, or Mishna. The Mishna, or text, is the same in both Talmuds, the difference being in the Gemaras or Com ments. The Mishna has been frequently printed separately, with and without commentaries:-two editions, in folio, were printed at Naples, in 1492, with the commentary of Maimonides, by Joshua Solomon of Soncini :-another edition, with the Comments of Maimonides and Bartenora, was published at Venice, A. D. 1606, in folio, and again with brief and useful scholia in 1609, in 8vo.-There have also been separate portions printed both by Jews and Christians; those by Christians are generally accompanied with translations, chiefly in Latin, except two titles or sections-Shabbath and Eruvin, in English, by Dr. Wotten, accompanied with learned notes, in a rare and valuable work, entitled, "Miscellaneous Discourses relating to the Traditions and Usages of the Scribes and Pharisees in our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ's time." 2 vols. 8vo., London, 1718. The most complete and useful edition of the entire Mishna, is that by Surenhusius entitled, "MISCHNA, sive totius Hebræorum Juris, Rituum, Antiquitatum, ac Legum Oralium Systema. Heb. et Lat. cum Commentariis Maimonidis, Bartenoræ et aliorum: Interprete, Editore et Notatore, Guil. Surenhusio." Amst. 1698-1703, 6 volumes folio.-"This is a very beautiful and correct work," says a learned commentator and bibliographer, "necessary to the library of every biblical critic and divine. He who has it, need be solicitous for nothing more on this subject." The Talmuds, being compiled by men of various talents and learning during a course of successive ages, contain, as we might justly expect, many highly figurative illustrations of Jewish opinions, many extravagant and absurd expositions of Scripture, and violent invectives against Christ and Christianity, with numberless fabulous relations and additions to Scripture facts. The English reader who wishes to form an opinion of the ridiculous fables and monstrous absurdities, to be found in these volumes and other Rabbinical works, may consult the Rev. J. P. Stehelin's "RABBINICAL LITERATURE; or, the Traditions of the Jews, contained in their Talmud and other mystical Writings." London, 1748, 2 vols., 8vo.-The Talmudic writings have, of late, however, found an ingenious defender in Mr. Hyman Hurwitz, who, in an Essay prefixed to his "HEBREW TALES," has advocated the cause of the Hebrew writers with considerable ability and learning; and in the "Hebrew Tales" themselves has presented the reader with several pleasing and important apologues, selected from their writings, and conveyed in an elegant and spirited translation. But whatever may be the judgment formed of the contents of the Talmuds, it must be matter of regret to every candid lover of literature, that they should have been so frequently and vigorously prohibited and suppressed; for, "if the Talmud was received with great applause by the Jews," says the Rev. J. P. Stehelin, "the Christians looked upon it as a book very pernicious, abounding with ridiculous fables, insignificant decisions, and manifest con * Dr. Adam Clarke. |