Chapters on Jewish Literature | Page 3

SPANISH ERA 99
Chasdai Ibn Shaprut.--Menachem and Dunash, Chayuj and
Janach.--Samuel the Nagid.
X THE SPANISH-JEWISH POETS (I) 107
Solomon Ibn Gebirol.--"The Royal Crown."--Moses Ibn
Ezra.--Abraham Ibn Ezra.--The Biblical Commentaries of Ibn Ezra and
the Kimchis.
XI RASHI AND ALFASSI 119

Nathan of Rome.--Alfassi.--Rashi.--Rashbam.
XII THE SPANISH-JEWISH POETS (II) 126
Jehuda Halevi.--Charizi.
XIII MOSES MAIMONIDES 134
Maimon, Rambam--R. Moses, the son of Maimon, Maimonides.--His
Yad Hachazaka and Moreh Nebuchim.--Gersonides.--Crescas.--Albo.
XIV THE DIFFUSION OF SCIENCE 144
Provençal Translators.--The Ibn Tibbons.--Italian Translators.--Jacob
Anatoli.--Kalonymos.--Scientific Literature.
XV THE DIFFUSION OF FOLK-TALES 153
Barlaam and Joshaphat.--The Fables of Bidpai.--Abraham Ibn
Chisdai.--Berachya ha-Nakdan.--Joseph Zabara.
XVI MOSES NACHMANIDES 160
French and Spanish Talmudists.--The Tossafists, Asher of Speyer, Tam,
Isaac of Dompaire, Baruch of Ratisbon, Perez of
Corbeil.--Nachmanides' Commentary on the Pentateuch.--Public
controversies between Jews and Christians.
XVII THE ZOHAR AND LATER MYSTICISM 169
Kabbala.--The Bahir.--Abulafia.--Moses of Leon.--The Zohar.--Isaac
Lurya.--Isaiah Hurwitz.--Christian Kabbalists.--The Chassidim.
XVIII ITALIAN JEWISH POETRY 178
Immanuel and Dante.--The Machberoth.--Judah
Romano.--Kalonymos.--The Eben Bochan.--Moses Rieti.--Messer
Leon.

XIX ETHICAL LITERATURE 189
Bachya Ibn Pekuda.--Choboth ha-Lebaboth.--Sefer
ha-Chassidim.--Rokeach.--Yedaiah Bedaressi's Bechinath Olam.--Isaac
Aboab's Menorath ha-Maor.--Ibn Chabib's "Eye of Jacob."--Zevaoth, or
Ethical Wills.--Joseph Ibn Caspi.--Solomon Alami.
XX TRAVELLERS' TALES 200
Eldad the Danite.--Benjamin of Tudela.--Petachiah of
Ratisbon.--Esthori Parchi.--Abraham Farissol.--David Reubeni and
Molcho.--Antonio de Montesinos and Manasseh ben Israel.--Tobiah
Cohen.--Wessely.
XXI HISTORIANS AND CHRONICLERS 211
Order of the Tannaim and Amoraim.--Achimaaz.--Abraham Ibn
Daud.--Josippon.--Historical Elegies, or Selichoth.--Memorial
Books.--Abraham Zacuto.--Elijah Kapsali.--Usque.--Ibn
Verga.--Joseph Cohen.--David Gans.--Gedaliah Ibn Yachya.--Azariah
di Rossi.
XXII ISAAC ABARBANEL 225
Abarbanel's Philosophy and Biblical Commentaries.--Elias
Levita.--Zeëna u-Reëna.--Moses Alshech.--The Biur.
XXIII THE SHULCHAN ARUCH 232
Asheri's Arba Turim.--Chiddushim and Teshuboth.--Solomon ben
Adereth.--Meir of Rothenburg.--Sheshet and Duran.--Moses and Judah
Minz.--Jacob Weil, Israel Isserlein, Maharil.--David Abi
Zimra.--Joseph Karo.--Jair Bacharach.--Chacham Zevi.--Jacob
Emden.--Ezekiel Landau.
XXIV AMSTERDAM IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 243
Manasseh ben Israel.--Baruch Spinoza.--The Drama in
Hebrew.--Moses Zacut, Joseph Felix Penso, Moses Chayim Luzzatto.

XXV MOSES MENDELSSOHN 253
Mendelssohn's German Translation of the
Bible.--Phædo.--Jerusalem.--Lessing's Nathan the Wise.
INDEX 263
CHAPTERS
ON JEWISH LITERATURE
CHAPTER I
THE "VINEYARD" AT JAMNIA
Schools at Jamnia, Lydda, Usha, and Sepphoris.--The Tannaim compile
the Mishnah.--Jochanan, Akiba, Meir, Judah.--Aquila.
The story of Jewish literature, after the destruction of the Temple at
Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Christian era, centres round the city of
Jamnia. Jamnia, or Jabneh, lay near the sea, beautifully situated on the
slopes of a gentle hill in the lowlands, about twenty-eight miles from
the capital. When Vespasian was advancing to the siege of Jerusalem,
he occupied Jamnia, and thither the Jewish Synhedrion, or Great
Council, transferred itself when Jerusalem fell. A college existed there
already, but Jamnia then became the head-quarters of Jewish learning,
and retained that position till the year 135. At that date the learned
circle moved further north, to Galilee, and, besides the famous school
at Lydda in Judea, others were founded in Tiberias, Usha, and
Sepphoris.
The real founder of the College at Jamnia was Jochanan, the son of
Zakkai, called "the father of wisdom." Like the Greek philosophers
who taught their pupils in the gardens of the "Academy" at Athens, the
Rabbis may have lectured to their students in a "Vineyard" at Jamnia.
Possibly the term "Vineyard" was only a metaphor applied to the
meeting-place of the Wise at Jamnia, but, at all events, the result of
these pleasant intellectual gatherings was the Rabbinical literature.

Jochanan himself was a typical Rabbi. For a great part of his life he
followed a mercantile pursuit, and earned his bread by manual labor.
His originality as a teacher lay in his perception that Judaism could
survive the loss of its national centre. He felt that "charity and the love
of men may replace the sacrifices." He would have preferred his
brethren to submit to Rome, and his political foresight was justified
when the war of independence closed in disaster. As Graetz has well
said, like Jeremiah Jochanan wept over the desolation of Zion, but like
Zerubbabel he created a new sanctuary. Jochanan's new sanctuary was
the school.
In the "Vineyard" at Jamnia, the Jewish tradition was the subject of
much animated inquiry. The religious, ethical, and practical literature
of the past was sifted and treasured, and fresh additions were made. But
not much was written, for until the close of the second century the new
literature of the Jews was oral. The Bible was written down, and read
from scrolls, but the Rabbinical literature was committed to memory
piecemeal, and handed down from teacher to pupil. Notes were perhaps
taken in writing, but even when the Oral Literature was collected, and
arranged as a book, it is believed by many authorities that the book so
compiled remained for a considerable period an oral and not a written
book.
This book was called the Mishnah (from the verb shana, "to repeat" or
"to learn"). The Mishnah was not the work of one man or of one age.
So long was