Xlbe ©pen Court
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE
2)evote& to tbe Sctence of iReligion, tbc IReligion ot Science, an& tbe Bitension ot tbe "ReUoious parliament f ^ea
Founded by Edward C. Hegeler
VOL. XXXII (No. 4) APRIL, 1918 NO. 743
CONTENTS:
PAGB
Frontispiece. Interior of the Kondo, Chief Sanctuary of Koyasan Monastery.
The Word or the Sivord? Franklin Kent Gifford 193
The Koyasan Monastery and its Art Treasures. Harada Jiro 203
The Prophecy of Libusha. C. E. Eggert 215
Bohemian Independence. Emil Reach 222
Hebrew Education in School and Society. During the Period of Reaction
to Foreign Influences. Fletcher H. Swift 228
Miscellaneotis.
A Woman Free 253
Mysticism and Modern Life 256
Zhc ©pen Court ff^ubUsbing Companig
CHICAGO
Per copy, 10 cents (sixpence). Yearly, $1.00 (in the U.P.U., Ss. 6A).
• — — — ■■»■-
Entered as Second-Qass Matter March 26, 1897, at the Post Office at Chicago, IlL, under Act of March 3, 1879 Copyright by The Open Court Publishing Company, 1918
THE GOSPEL OF BUDDHA
By
DR. PAUL CARUS
Pocket Edition. Illustrated. Cloth, $i.oo; flexible leather, $1.30
This edition is a photographic reproduction of the edition de luxe which was printed in Leipsic in 1913 and ready for shipment in time to be caught by the embargo Great Britain put on all articles exported from Germany. Luckily two copies of the above edition escaped, and these were used to make the photographic reproduction of this latest edition. While the Buddhist Bible could not in any way be consid- ered a contraband of war yet the publishers were forced to hold back many hundred orders for the book on account of orders in council of Great Britain.
When the book was first published His Majesty, the King of Siam, sent the following communication through his private secretary :
"Dear Sir: I am commanded by His Most Gracious Majesty, the King of Siam, to acknowledge, with many thanks, the receipt of your letter and the book, The Gospel of Buddha, which he esteems very much; and he expresses his sincerest thanks for the very hard and difficult task of compilation you have considerately undertaken in the interest of our religion. I avail myself of this favorable oppor- tunity to wish the book every success."
His Royal Highness, Prince Chandradat Chudhadham, official dele- gate of Siamese Buddhism to the Chicago Parliament of Religions, writes :
"As regards the contents of the book, and as far as I could see, it is one of the best Buddhist Scriptures ever published Those who wish to know the life of Buddha and the spirit of his Dhanna may be recommended to read this work which is so ably edited that it comprises almost all knowledge of Buddhism itseli"
The book has been introduced as a reader in private Buddhist schools of Ceylon. Mrs. Marie H. Higgins, Principal of the Musaeus School and Orphanage for Buddhist Girls, Cinnamon Gardens, Ceylon, writes as follows :
"It is the best work I have read on Buddhism. This opinion !s endorsed by all who read it here. I propose to make it a text-book of study for my girls."
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
122 S. MICHIGAN AVENUE CHICAGO ILLINOIS
INTERIOR OF THE KONDO, CHIEF SANCTUARY OF KOYASAN
MONASTERY.
Frontispiece to The Open Court.
The Open Court
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE
Devoted, to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, and the Extension of the Religious Parliament Idea.
VOL. XXXII (No. 4) APRIL, 1918 NO. 743
Copyright by" The Open Court Publishing Company, 1918
THE WORD OR THE SWORD?
BY FRANKF.IN KENT GIFFORD.
IN the year 40 A. D., as now reckoned, the King of Parthia sat in his cabinet, awaiting the coming of his Vizier, and meanwhile breaking his fast with a small dish of flat, unleavened bread and a cup of wine. x\ noiseless attendant bestowed these things ; and then, at a sign from his master, withdrew, leaving the King alone.
Though a cabinet, the room was spacious, making with its rare and costly hangings a fit setting for this majestic man, the King. The front of Moses or Jove, the calm, stern eye, touched with benevolence, and all the hall-marks of a powerful, reigning personal- ity were in this man. Neither was anything assumed ; but all was natural, unforced, and unconscious.
Presently, the Mzier entered, saluted, and paused at attention, while the King held him in a contemplative glance.
The Vizier was a young man of about thirty, with features stamped with idealism. Austerely clad, in spite of his office, he was a fine, flaming picture of unfallen youth, such as might once have belonged to the King yonder.
But if the thought occurred to the monarch, his countenance remained impassive as he motioned his minister to a seat. Then, drawing from beneath his robe a small "roll of papyrus, he tossed it down beside the bread and the wine, saying:
'This roll was found in thy quarters and handed to me. I have therefore summoned thee to explain if thou canst, the presence of this revolutionary document among the papers of a king's of- ficer."
The young man turned pale, and sat a moment with his eyes held by the fascination of the roll of papyrus, lying on the table
194 THE OPEN COURT.
before the King. Then recovering himself, in part, he began his defence :
"Your Majesty has been so good as to commend certain acts of my administration, whereby the reahn has been eased of in- justice ; and the cry of the poor has been heard ; and the hire of the laborer is not kept back. But Sire, if aught has been done that is worthy of your praise, the honor is due to the words of yonder roll which men call 'The Good News.' "
A great shadow swept athwart the face of the King; his eyes blurred, and his royal robe heaved with a powerful emotion, till presently, it passed and left him as before, serene and august.
"It is high praise for a small roll of papyrus," he observed. "But smaller rolls have hurled kings from their thrones, ere now ; and who shall say what this one may do, if it be not rigorously suppressed ?"
The Vizier was silent.
"Speak!" said the King. "Canst thou honestly deny that the doctrine of this roll is destructive of all kingship?"
"Sire," returned the Vizier, like a man fronting death without fear, "the day will come when kings will be no more ; but mean- while, even kings may learn from this roll how to govern."
"Well spoken !" said the King. "It is weariness to hear ever- more nothing but lies ; and because thou art a born truth-speaker, I have chosen thee out of all Parthia, when many are made for thy office. But one fault thou hast : a too easy confidence in men. And therefore have I summoned thee before me: not to convict thee of possessing this notorious document. What are papyrus rolls to me? No, but to bid thee beware of thine enemies. Hide yonder roll where no eye may see it but thine. Or better yet, burn it at once in yonder brazier."
"No! No! your Majesty! No!" protested the young man, pale with apprehension. "Already, this roll is your Majesty's salvation! It hath made us countless friends; and the whole people rallies around the King. To burn it now would be to burn — nay, to crucify our saviour!"
Again the great shadow darkened the face of the King, whose blurred eyes dwelt on vacancy.
"Friends!" he echoed, grimly. "Ay, and enemies too! Hide it, then, young man, deep as the grave ; and learn from me the rea- son why. Yea, why it is necessary to do good by stealth, or be cut off untimely, like your Nazarene of the papyrus yonder. Young man, I have read thy roll ; and thinkest thou it hath told me aught?
THE WORD OR THE SWORD? 195
Ay, as some old lesson that men learn and teach and so forget, till they hear it, one day. on the lips of others."
The Vizier's trouhled amazement was decently veiled, hut not hid from the King.
"Young man, if it sound like madness — what I am ahout to relate — believe me. as' thou believest yonder roll, I, the King of Parthia. can tell a tale which is fellow to that. Thy Nazarene, his good news and life and death — what is it but my very own?"
The \ izier's face was a study in astonishment which he vainly stro\'e to curb into the semblance of understanding.
*Tt is true, Sire," he stammered, "that the Nazarene himself has prophesied concerning many who should bear his cross ; and . . . ." he paused in confusion.
"And of these," prompted the King, "it is possible 1 am one? Ay, it is possible !"" he smiled, with a secret irony. "Pie bore, as thou observest, my own name which, indeed, was common in that country, where I dwelt in my youth. And 1 bear, as thou mayest note, certain marks in my hands."
Whereat he spread them out. eyed them with stern thought ful- ness, and added :
"Likewise in my feet. The marks of the Romans, which few have borne and lived to tell the tale.
"And the Romans bear," he continued with the wild light of justice crossing his countenance, "the marks of my sword. A defeat so crushing as they have but newly received at the hands of a Parthian king, they will not soon forget."
The face of the young A'izier wore a mingled look of incred- ulous horror and compassion for the King who Ijore the marks of a crucified slave. Then the King drew the royal robe over his scars and resumed his narrative.
"Young man, thou art touched with this passion of the Naza- rene for a thankless world. Have I not felt it ? Yea, and as good as died for it. These scars bear me witness how I won the hatred of the Roman assassins and the good people of the little province I had hoped to save from its littleness. I was a young dreamer, like thy Nazarene, whose garbled speeches thou readest in the little papyrus thou art so zealous to hide. But have no fear of the King. These thoughts were my own in those days. Mine, say I ? The thoughts of all generous youth, with souls awake to the world- passion. Ay, surely, thy Nazarene was a man."
"Ay, your ^Majesty." said the Vizier; "and some there be who begin to call him a god."
196 THE OPEN COURT,
The King- nodded with a certain colossal irony. "If so, it would not be the first," said he. "It was ever the way of men: to first crucify and then deify a son of man ; and so return every one to his own way. and make the cross of none efifect.
"In those days, mark well, my sympathies were with the world. The poor, damned world of suffering, blundering fellow men ! What better could I do with my life than lay it down, if need be, for these my friends?
"But trust me, young Sir, he who has given his life, and then contemplates the result, will feel otherwise. His sympathies will return, at last, to himself ; to one man against the world. Why not? When David fought Goliath, that vast bully and braggart, is not our sympathy with David against the giant, who says to the generous youth : 'Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the birds and beasts.' One man against the world, that vaster Goliath ! Yet the man outwits the monster and brings it to its knees ! Harken, young man, to the story of that battle ; and if thou art still convinced that the world may be conquered by such weapons as generous youth would employ — why, go to your Nazarene and be crucified. I warn thee, it will come to that."
"Ay, and why not, O King?" said the Vizier calmly.
"My tale shall be thy answer," returned the King, with an equal calm. "Thy Jesus died: but had he lived? Had he sur- vived the Roman cross, as I did, by a sort of miracle, or chance,' or favor of God? Call it what thou wilt. When will the world cease to quarrel about words?
"Once upon a time, a spirit came to the young man yonder and offered him a sword. Thinkest thou it was no temptation? With the Romans in the land, robbing, killing, enslaving a once free people? A people, mark thou, whose genius was to the Roman as Hyperion to a satyr. With the sword of David on his thigh, what might he not have done ? Yet the young man refused the sword, and called him Satan who offered it.
"Ay, but had he lived, as I lived and survived the Roman cross, what would he then have called him? For I too have met him and turned him away : and long afterward I met him again : and his face was as the face of an angel. I took the sword he offered and smote the Romans : and young man, I reign : and the earth still holds a nation that causes the Romans to quake in their beds : and that nation is Parthia."
The Mzier sat pale and confounded by this fabulous past of his august master, the greatest mind and strongest hand of the
THE WORD OR THE SWORD? 197
whole East. It was a tale, the like of which he had not read in parchment or vellum : this escape of the rehel and gallows-hird to a throne !
"Ay, thou mayest wonder." said the King, as he took up his par- able which he had lived. "But hast thou ever wondered howl earned these scars? Men say, in battle. Ay, but no such battle as late I fought with the Romans, and rode them down to the last man ; so that he who escaped the sword, the arrow overtook. And there was weeping in proud Rome, and lamentation among her mothers ; and as they had done to others, so did we unto them."
The young A-'izier winced, and held his peace with an efifort ; but the wound did not escape the keen eye of the King.
"Thou wincest!" said he. "At this reversal of the Christian rule by one who has taught it to others! Ay, but hast thou never marked how the baser lesson succeeds, where the nobler fails with such as the Romans? Even as a contentious woman, that mocks at kindness and rewards the hard hand with her obedience — ay, and with her love! — such, O young man, is this Roman world of ours, where all lessons are lost but one. And that one?" PTe lifted the right hand that had slain the Roman legionaries, and let it fall like retribution.
The Mzier winced again ; but the King paid no heed, till pres- ently, rousing as from a dream, he resumed :
"Not so was the battle of my youth, wherein I obtained these scars ; but it happened in this wise.
"He that refuseth the sword hath already put his trust in the word, — a mightier weapon, if it take time to its ally. Such was my weapon in those days ; and with it. I braved the might of Rome ; yea, and of mine own oppressed native land. And yet, I made head against them all ; for the common people heard me gladly, even as your Nazarene, until tribulation and persecution. . . .
"But why tell what is better told in yonder roll? Of a young man's sublime hope? His faith in men? His betrayal? His con- demnation? His cross? Ay, and why not? Thousands have hung there for less ; and why not I, for bearding the Romans and their lackeys, and preaching release to the captives? This was ever the way to the cross ; and shall be for ages to come. And yet, I planned to right the ageless wrong, and that within the lifetime of a single man ! Neither did I shrink from the utmost penalty of my calling, but paid it in full.
"To cherish a vain hope, to fail by treachery, to bear a cross in weakness, to feel the nails driven home, to hang eternities long,
198 THE OPEN COURT.
to call on God in vain, and then to call on Death, .such, O young man, is the reward laid up for him who would preach release to the captives of a Roman world. At length it was finished ; and the noble youth was no more."
"But his resurrection, Sire?" interrupted the eager Vizier. "Could such a youth remain in the grave?"
"Thousands ! Whom the world hath forgot ;" answered the grim old King. "Or if a single one be remembered, the hand of God must intervene against the ingratitude of Man. Did I share this intervention with your dreamer? Perhaps. Who can say? There remained, however, this difference.
"The disciples of your Nazarene dispute, I have heard, as to the manner of his resurrection. Be that as it may : I rose in the body. Or to tell it as it happened, I found myself lifted on the shoulders of men or angels and borne from the cavern where I had been laid. After that I slept and dreamed endlessly, and awoke at last in a remote village among friends. When sufficiently re- covered, I joined a caravan with which I journeyed to a far country. So I regained my bodily strength and practised myself in feats of horsemanship. Ay, and of arms !"
The Vizier sat in growing fascination, his countenance of a. marble pallor, while the King resumed his tale.
"He that awaketh from the dead after his crucifixion will awake a new creature. Perha])s a better, perhaps a worse ; but certes another man ; and which of these awakened with me, let God be judge.
"I had died, mark well, for the people ; the world ; the truth ; and now I found myself alive — risen, as it were, from the grave — the question rose with me : 'Was it worth while ?' Not that I had died in vain. At any rate, I had died for the supreme passion wherewith men are tempted for the welfare of Man ; the greatest, my friend, to which man can yield. And now I woke from death with that passion somewhat cooled ; and asking myself : 'Was it worth while? Is the world worth saving — in that way? Was he a devil or was he an angel who offered me the sword?'
"So musing, I found myself in another mood of mind toward men I had formerly condemned. Toward C?esar, for example ; the great Julius, who employed the one force to which the men of his day were prepared to bow. Other talents he had, as thou readest in the scroll of vellum yonder. If not so great as mine, why great, none the less ; but what availed they against the Beast whose name was Rome? To plead in the Roman Senate or Forum for justice,
THE WORD OR THE SWORD? 199
mercy, and a humble walk with God, — what should that bring him but the fate of the Gracchi, of whom thou readest in the same chronicles? Ay, and not their death alone, but their failure? The fruitless sacrifice that awaits all noble youth who perish for brute beasts which obey naught but the lash !
"Yea, and it came to me that the enemies of mankind do more assist them in these brute days, than all the friends they do betray and crucify and forget !
"Nay, young man, I know the word on thy lips. Thou wouldst say : the Xazarene is an exception. Him, at least, they have not forgotten ? Nay, but he is no exception ; for what have they done but make him Caesar? And to have made him Caesar is to have forgotten him."
So saying, the King paused in stern triumph that challenged contradiction ; while the young Vizier cleared his throat and with dry lips faltered out :
"It is true. Sire, that many have forgotten; and are content to endow him with a kingly crown ; but others there be who re- member."
"Ay. and thou art one." smiled the King. "One in a million of his followers who shall more and more content themselves with the shadow of power and glory such as men squander on every base usurper. Thinkest thou he ever sought such baubles, or valued them? Nay, not even the crown wherewith that devil-angel tempted him, did he value for itself, but that he might right the wrongs of men !" cried the King with an up-wave of passion that leaped and fell like a dying fire.
Then, as if ashamed of the rare outburst, he resumed his normal tone of dispassionate calm.
"Such was now my attitude to the world for which I had lately died. I still retained my love to man ; but touched now with contempt ; the love of a father for a froward child that owns no rule but that of the rod. Yet for this thankless child I had poured out my blood! A wretch had betrayed me; .but to whom or what? To wretches like himself. To a world of traitors with itching palms, eager to sell themselves and one another for somewhat to put in their craven bellies, ere the grave should open and swallow them.
"Thinkest thou I longer dreamed of casting pearls before such swine? Nay, but for them that are unworthy of the word, God hath appointed the sword ; and of this weapon I now made proof.
"Long had I pondered these things, when the appointed day
200 THE OPEN COURT.
found me with the guard of a great caravan, traveHng from Arabia into Parthia. Thence, as we marched, we encountered the Roman legionaries, marching toward us. There was no escape. We fell upon them ; and I, seized with an ancient fury for the wrongs of my race, caught up the sword and shield of a fallen Parthian and slew and slew. I was as an avenging angel, and Jehovah strength- ened mine arm. Thrice I rallied the Parthians ; and when the battle was won, and the last Roman overtaken and slain, the bleeding Parthians hailed me as saviour. They gave me a captaincy ; and when the king heard of that way, he confirmed it with an oath ; and in due time I was made captain of the host. Again we met the Romans ; and again we let not one escape ; for the arrow outran their swiftest horse.
"With this victorious army, I put myself where wisdom is sel- dom found : upon a throne. The king was dead in battle ; the kingdom torn with dissensions ; I alone could save it. I accepted the task ; and none denied the conqueror of the Romans his right to reign."
The Vizier cleared his throat and stammered a question :
"But Sire, the cross? The divine sacrifice?"
"Ay, of the higher to the lower! Of man to brutes! Of God to Satan ! Young man," said the King sternly, "the saviours of the future will not allow themselves to be eaten by dogs ; why, then, should one of them permit it to-day? Lice, it is said, devoured Democritus ; and other lice killed Socrates ; but thinkest thou the children of maggots will forever have their way with the children of light? Nay, but already thou seest how a single man has known how to put maggots in their places."
The Vizier made no answer, but sat as one appalled.
"Yet think not," said the King, "that here in my day of power, I deride my youth. Never, young man ! Never ! And why have I chosen thee out of all Parthia to be my Vizier? Because in thee have I seen the generous purpose that brought me to the cross ; and that my choice standeth approved, know all men by these signs : that in Parthia, the hire of the laborer is not kept back ; and in all my realm no man ventures to devour widows' houses or trample the faces of the poor, in whom is the strength of the nation. For what shall the king himself do without his good, strong choppers and fishers and plowmen and bowmen that, whether in peace or war, do fight his battles? Yea, and the battles of all prideful fools that call themselves nobles and are not ! And this, O young man, have I conquered with my sword, where once my word — "
THE WORD OR THE SWORD? 201
He ceased for choking indignation ; and cleared his throat with a swallow of wine.
"Thou seest!" he observed. "It irks me yet, to think how little the world is moved by a power which, if men were men, and not brutes, would reign supreme. Small wonder if such as mine was wasted on a world like this. It was a pearl cast before swine ; and verily, as thy private papyrus stateth, they trampled it under foot. But swine will have naught but a driver : and a driver they had in me at last ; for whoso is deaf to the word shall barken to the sword.
"Nay, if they will, they shall be men : but so long as they are swine — " he lifted his hand and let it fall. "They shall have masters like me, seeing they will have no other. They shall lick base hands for favors, such as thou and I have granted for the sake of noble youth. Ay, and for this mustard seed of justice, the king may any day receive a dagger! A poisoned cup!"
The A'izier stirred, cleared his throat, and wetted his dry lips for a question :
"O King, live forever! Yet tell me: thinkest thou, in the days to come, when men shall put their trust in better things, it is Parthia they shall remember, or Galilee?"
"It is Galilee," said the stern old King. "The Nazarene, and not I. But thou, O young man, answer me this. In the day that now is. and in this Parthia of ours, (which can laugh and weep as well as any generation unborn), which, think you, is remembered, when the people rejoice: the Nazarene or the King?"
The young \'izier arose and, bowing low before the King, re- plied :
"Sire, it is thou."
So saying, he would have gone ; but the King detained him.
"Stay! Thou art ghastly pale! A morsel of bread and a sup of wine before thou goest?"
And with his own hand, the King poured a cup and offered it.
The youth stood marble-pale in awe-struck fascination.
"Look!" said he. "The unleavened bread! — and the wine! Sire, who art thou?"
"I am the King of Parthia," said the monarch. "Eat, my friend and drink — to the Noble Youth."
INTERIOR OF THE TAHOTO, SHOWING GOCHI NYORAL
THE KOYASAN MONASTERY AND ITS ART TREASURES.
203
THE KOYASAN MONASTERY AND ITS ART TREASURES.
BY HARADA JIRO.
THE Koyasan is the greatest Buddhist monastery in Japan. It was founded by Kobo Daislii, the most celebrated of all Japa- nese Buddhist saints, in 816 A. D., in the reign of Emperor Saga, who made a grant of an extensive piece of land for that purpose. I^foperly speaking, Koyasan is the name of a mountain not very
FUDO MYO-0.
GOZAXZE AlYO-0.
far from Nara, the capital of Japan from 709 to 184 A. D. But it is popularly applied to the monastery situated on that mountain on a table land some 3000 feet above the sea level. The place was chosen by Kobo Daishi as best suited for spiritual meditation and religious discipline, being far removed from human habitations and
204
THE OPEN COURT.
surrounded by two rows of eight peaks each, symbolic of a lotus flower, the flower which stands for the purity of religion — growing out of quagmire and blooming, as it does, pure and unsoiled.
During the eleven hundred years of its existence, the monastery has had its history. Once it had more than two thousand temples, with an extensive dominion for its support. Now there are only about one hundred temples, the land having been taken over by the government soon after the restoration of 1868. However, they have thousands of tributary temples throughout Japan and annually tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the empire visit the mauso-
THE FUDO-DO.
leum of Kobo Daishi on Koyasan, and the monastery still has a great influence over the minds of the people. Until about forty- five years ago, no women pilgrims were allowed on the mountain, and it was only a few years ago that they were permitted to dwell on its sacred soil. The priests have omitted flesh and fish from their diet, strictly following one of the Five Rules :
"Kill not — for Pity's sake — and lest ye slay The meanest thing upon its upward way."
The priests and pilgrims to the present day subsist on vege- tables only, still following the will of its founder.
THE KOYASAN MONASTERY AND ITS ART TREASURES.
205
Repeated conflagrations, the most of which were caused by lightning, destroyed many temples, though they have been rebuilt from time to time. The latest great fire lasted for two days and de- stroyed buildings of more than seventy temples. Such being the case, in spite of its long history, the number of very old buildings is remarkably small. The oldest building on the mountain is the Fudo-do {do meaning a sort of chapel with an object of worship) now under the special protection of the central government. It was built 720 years ago and now contains nine wooden images of surpassing workmanship classed as "National Treasures." They are Fudo Myo-o, God Immovable, and Hachi Dai Doji, or the
INTERIOR OF FUDO-DO, SHOWING FUDO MYO-0.
Eight Great Boys attendant on Fudo Alyo-o. Of these Kongari Doji personifies obedience and wisdom and along with Seitaka Doji most usually accompanies Fudo ]\Iyo-o. The Tahoto, a pagoda, in the complex of the Kongo Sammai-in, in meaning "temple," is nearly seven hundred years old and is also under special govern- ment protection, containing five wooden sculptures representative of serene religious qualities, known as Gochi Xyorai, Gochi mean- ing "Five Wisdoms," A^yorai being a title of honor for all Buddhas. These figures, in excellent state of preservation, are also included among the "National Treasures."" The central figure is Dainichi
206
THE OPEN COURT.
Nyorai, the personification of wisdom and absolute purity, while to the right of it is Ashiku Nyorai, signifying non-movement, non- anger and steadfastness in helping to destroy all evil thoughts and in fostering pure religious aspirations. On the left is Shaku Nyorai, the founder of Buddhism. Behind them is visible only a part of the halos of the other two: of Hosho Nyorai, controlling the life
KONGARA DOJI.
SEITAKA DOJI.
of all things with the power to bestow the enjoyment of life ; and of Amida Nyorai, an ideal of boundless light.
The most stately building in the whole monastery is the Kondo, the chief sanctuary. In the interior, in a mass of flame, stands the figure of Gozanze Myo-o, who overcame the evils that hinder the soul's upward aspirations. The present building is only about sixty years old, now containing, among others, seven wonderful specimens
THE KOYASAN INIONASTERY AND ITS ART TREASURES.
207
of wood sculpture, attributed to Kobo Daishi himself, and included among the ''National Treasures."
Kobo Daishi, the founder of the monastery, who died in <S34
THE KONGO SAMMAMN, ONE OF THE OLDEST TEMPLES.
THE TAHOTO.
A. D., was celebrated equally as preacher, painter, sculptor, callig- raphist and traveler. Like Unkei, the famous medieval sculptor of Buddhistic images in wood, and like Hidari Jingoro, the left-
208 THE OPEN COURT.
handed wood carver of unusual talent and skill, who died in 1634, Kobo Daishi, even if his life had lasted six hundred years instead of sixty-one, as it actually did, could not have written all the sutras,
KONGO YOSHA MYO-0, ONE OF THE FIVE GREAT DIVINITIES.
carved all the sculptures and painted all the paintings now popularly ascribed to him. However, history conclusively shows that he was truly a wonderful person and a genius in art.
THE KOYASAN MONASTERY AND ITS ART TREASURES.
209
Though there are comparatively few really old buildings on the mountain, the monastery is rich in old art and historical relics. No one place in Japan has such a splendid collection of Buddhist art. as emperors and feudal lords richly endowed and embellished the temples in the days of yore. The proposed art museum, the work on which has already begun, on Koyasan is bound to be a most valuable institution of the kind.
Beside those above mentioned, there is a large number of splendid wooden sculptures, as the Shingon sect of Buddhism, to which the Koyasan monastery belongs, has given fitting and plastic
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THE KONDO, THE CHIEF SANCTUARY OF KOYASAN.
expression to all forms of religious ideals. The tenets of the Shin- gon sect were introduced into Japan by Kobo Daishi, who studied them when he was sent to China as a student in 804 and was charged by his great teacher Abbot Hei-kwa to carry back to Japan the teachings of the sect, which aims at the direct interpretation of the perfected mind of Buddha, and occupies itself greatly with mystic formulas, magic spells and incantations. The Aizen-do contains three excellent images in wood : Aizen Myo-o, the fierce-looking god of love, and Jinja Taisho, a converted demon serving as a guardian of Buddhism in a grewsome form, and Kongo Taisho, another
210
THE OPEN COURT.
powerful guardian of Buddhism. The figures are remarkable for their expression of power and strength.
For the expression of power, two small wooden figures at the Henjoko-in are also remarkable. They are Jikoku-ten and Tamon- ten, two of the four heavenly kings guarding the four quarters of the horizon, Jikoku-ten guarding the east and bringing peace to the nation, and Tamon-ten, also called Bishamon-ten, guarding
JINJA TAISHO.
JIKOKU-TEN.
the north and bestowing wealth and happiness on mankind. These two figures are classed as "National Treasures." The Bishamon-ten of the Bishamon-do, belonging to Eko-in, is one of the most popular images on Koyasan. Though little heed may be given to the popular belief that it was carved by Kobo Daishi, it is old, possessing some good qualities in its simplicity.
There are a large number of excellent images of Fudo Myo-o (the god immovable) on the mountain. Perhaps the most famous
THE KOYASAN MONASTERY AND ITS ART TREASURES.
211
is the one known as "Namikiri Fudo" (naini meaning "waves," kiri "to cut") which is said to have been carved by Kobo Daishi from his memory of a vision appearing on the tempestuous sea on his way back to Japan from China. With his sword, Fudo cut the turbulent waves and enabled Kobo Daishi to return safely. It is a standing figure, though Fudo is usually in sitting posture. The famous Fudo of the Fudo-do and of the Kondo — the former at-
I —
TAAION-TEX.
BISHAMON-TEx\.
tributed to Unkei and the latter to Kobo Daishi — and of the Okuno- in, at the mausoleum, are all in sitting form and of excellent work- manship. It is invariably with kayen (flames) carved in wood and painted red. Fudo Myo-o generally has two attendants, Seitaka Doji and Kongara Doji, and is the highest among the myo-o, those closely related to Dainichi Nyorai, the personification of wisdom and absolute purity, and he occupies the central position in Godai- son, or Godai Myo-o, meaning five great divinities. We have al-
212
THE OPEN COURT.
ready mentioned these attendants as among the eight "Great Boys," among whom another, Eki Doji, symboHzes the fulness of good luck and wisdom.
Among many objects of worship, which are said to have been carved by the founder of the monastery, there is a small portable shrine, a "National Treasure," known as "makura honzon," makura
EKI DOJI,
one of the eight Great Boys.
JIZO BOSATSU.
meaning "pillow," honson, "the main deity," in possession of the Fumon-in. According to the inscription on the back of it, it was donated to the temple in prayer for the welfare of the soul of Honda, the lord of the province of Hida. The shrine contains an image of Shakamuni, the founder of Buddhism, with Seishi, who awakens a desire in the human soul to follow the ways of Buddha, and
THE KOYASAN MONASTERY AND ITS ART TREASURES.
213
Kwannon, who helps to foster that desire, on either side. These figures are covered over with an intricate pierced carving of angels, trees, Niwo, two guardian kings, and fi^ires in worshiping attitude. The carving is well done.
No image of Amida, a powerful deity, the ideal of boundless
k
THE MAKURA HONZON AT THE FUMON-IN.
light, has such grace of form, dignity of pose, and spritual radiance of the countenance as that of the Shojoshin-in. The work is at- tributed to Unkei. Remarkable also is an image of Jizo Bosatsu, the compassionate Buddhist helper of those who are in trouble, in charge of the Myo-o-in. The sculpture is classed among "National
214
THE OPEN COURT.
Treasures" and ascribed to Ono Takamura, a man of letters and artist of high attainment, who died in 852. It is a standing figure with a benevolent countenance holding a staff called shakujo with metal rings attached to the top of it and a jewel, hoju, in his left hand. The jewel represents the bodai-shin, bodai meaning Buddhist knowledge, shin meaning mind: the wish to know the ways of Buddha, the righteous awakening of humanity. The inmost desire, the yearning of the human soul, is kept constantly awake by the
KYO-DO, OR SUTRA-BUILDING, A REVOLVING LIBRARY OF SACRED BOOKS.
sound of the shakujo, thus assisting the soul in its upward struggle. This masterpiece in sculpture strongly resembles a smaller counter- part at the Henjoko-in, also included among "National Treasures." The exquisite flow of the lines of the robe, the peaceful and benev- olent countenance of the shaven priest, seem to express deep inner qualities of a spiritual helper, of which this is a visual represen- tation.
'THE PROrHECY OF LIBUSHA. 215
The Koyasan has many more masterpieces in wood. No less in number and in importance are the Buddhistic paintings which have also served as objects of worship. The monastery is justly proud of possessing an unusually large collection of illuminated sutras. There are also many pieces of lacquer and porcelain of highly artistic value. All in all, the Koyasan is a rare storehouse of valuable Buddhistic art objects.
THE PROPHECY OF LIBUSHA.
BY C. E. EGGERT.
LIBUSHA is the legendary ancestress of the royal family of J Bohemia, which bore the name of Pi'emysl from her husband, and ruled until 1526, when the sovereignty passed to the house of Hapsburg by election. This house founded its greatness on the success of Kaiser Rudolf I in contracting successful marriages for his numerous offspring, one of whom married the daughter of Pfemysl Ottokar, King of Bohemia, who was slain in the battle of Diirnkrut in 1278. Consequently through this and other mar- riages, the present Kaiser Karl of Austria has in his veins the blood of Libusha, and to him Bohemians would be enthusiastically loyal if — he would voluntarily accord Bohemia what he could not deny to Hungary.
Unfortunately Bohemia occupies a position analogous to that of Ireland toward its masters, only Ireland has yielded its Keltic idiom before the march of the all-conquering English, while the Czechish revival of the early nineteenth century arrested a similar process of Germanization in Bohemia, and it too has its Ulster in the fringe of German counties, which are as irreconcilable as ever the followers of Sir Edward Carson tried to be. As in Ireland, so in Bohemia, the religious question has played a terrible and decisive role. Cromwell settled by force a militant colony of "God- fearing" Scotch Presbyterians in Erin for the express purpose of keeping the Green Island straight according to English notions. Just three hundred years ago the harsh attempts of Ferdinand II to undo the work of the Reformation turned Bohemia into a shambles for thirty hideous years, and the wealthy land of the ancient "Golden King," Ottokar, became a waste. The Catholic party was successful and Bohemia is to-day outwardly devotedly Roman Catholic, but there burns within the proud race a sullen conviction that the German has been the source of all their past
216 THE OPEN COURT.
misery, and for three hundred years they have yearned for revenge and freedom. Do what it may, the House of Hapsburg has been unable to concihate das herrliche Bohmen, "splendid Bohemia." The destinies of the polyglot monarchy have been again and again confided to the leadership of some Czechish lord, as in the case of the present Count Czernin von Chudenic, but not even this is enough. Bohemia has taken to heart the prophecy of Libusha.
Tradition says that the Czechs came from Croatia in the seventh century into a land that had been vacated by the Keltic Boii and German Marcomanni. One of their yeomanry, Krok by name, took up his abode in a forest near three oaks of striking beauty. One day he started to fell one of these when very hviman groans caused him to desist, and he was rewarded by the gratitude and later by the helpful counsels of an unseen form. From this time he prospered and was finally elevated to the dukedom of his people while the wood nymph, whose tree he had spared, became his bride and bore him three daughters, the youngest of whom was Libusha. On the death of Krok the three sisters divided the realm between them but they soon found that men were rough and little willing to yield to their gentle sway. The wealthy Vladik Domas- lav would buy Libusha's hand with his sleek cattle and though she declined to be purchased, she found it difficult to assert her in- dependence. Old Bohemian chronicles relate the details of an Ama- zonian war in which the Czechish Penthesilea, Libusha, is ably seconded by her sturdy relative, and later rival in love, Wlasta.
At length the queen yields to pressure and directs her tor- mentors across the mountain to the little village, Stadic, where they will find a peasant ploughing his field with two dappled oxen with marks easily distinguishable.
"So be it, Lords, I promise you a man. Behold the horse, the selfsame palfrey white, That bore me once to Budesch on that day When I, in search for herbs, did find a crown.
"But lead him by the rein to those three oaks Where part the paths that lead into the wood, Then loose the rein and follow close his trail, And whither he in search of former haunts And stable takes his course, his master's close. There enter in. A yeoman there you'll find In plowman's garb, who then, for noon's the hour. From iron table takes his lonely meal, Enjoying simple fare. Bring him to me. In him you'll find the man, your quest and mine."
THE PROPHECY OF LIBUSHA. 217
Following this injunction of their mistress, so suggestive of the language of the fairy tale, the Wladiks, as they are called, followed the horse which, on reaching his former master, dropped to his knees and neighed from joy. Undoubtedly awed by the prophetic insight of Libusha, the Wladiks made known their mission whereupon Premysl invited his guests to his simple re- past, the oxen disappeared, and on rising he put the shoes of bast, which he had worn, into his bosom and rode away to the queen. Their nuptials were soon celebrated, shoes and plow were preserved as honored relics to show the people on solemn occasions, and the couple ruled thirteen years when Libusha felt her end approach. She called her family and her nobles together, prophe- sying both good and evil to her husband, which he was to bear with hopeful patience, and requesting the nobles to afford him their obedient assistance.
Somewhere about 1541 the Czechish chronicler Vaclav Hagek wrote down the story of Libusha accompanying it with most of those legendary details which go to make the relight ful story given to the German people in the J^olksmarchcn der DeutscJien of Musaeus (1782-1786) and the beautiful poem. Die Fiirstcntaf el, in Herder's Stimmen der ]\ilker. In 1815 Clemens Brentano dedicated Die Griindung Prags, his "drama" of upward of four hundred pages of rhymed verses, to a Grand Duchess of Oldenburg, the "most exalted lady of Slavic race," a book in which he soon forgot his original purpose and ended by delivering a compendium of the legendary life and times of Libusha. The really beautiful poetry of this book was wasted through the author's mistaken plan of putting in one drama what should have formed a trilogy: The Maids' War, The Founding of Prague, and Trinitas, the last in celebration of the triumph of Christianity over Slavic paganism.
Perhaps this book, or at least the projected Drahomira, called the attention of the Austrian Franz Grillparzer to the subject, which followed him through life, somewhat as the problem of Faust did Goethe. The complete drama was rescued from his posthumous works and the late Richard H. Meyer ventured the prediction that it would prove to be in the verdict of posterity the most poetical of the Austrian dramatist's works. It is hardly necessary to say that the rationalist son of an enthusiastic Voltairian came near doing with the poetry of the legend what the eighteenth- century rationalists did to the miracles of the Bible. What a pity he did not save more of the fairy poetry of which the legend is so suggestive. Instead we have a modern psychological study, for
218 THE OPEN COURT.
Grillparzer's idea is the tragedy of a gentle and poetic soul amid a rude environment, a theme akin to Goethe's Tasso. His Libusha is made miserable by the conflict with an order of society which seeks its ideal in material, social and political prosperity. Realizing the hopelessness of her opposition and yet admiring the consistent per- severance of her husband who merited his name, of which the trans- lation is "forethought," Libusha yields to him who had mused:
"For let the husband be not thrall of wife, But wife means husband's helpmate, so 't is right."
Feeling intuitively the presence in his wife of that warning power, so near akin to the mother instinct, which enables a woman to foresee any threatened peril for the beloved object of her care and solicitude, Pi^emysl urges Libusha to utter a prophetic blessing upon his projected city, the Prague to be, and she utters the lines of which, with apologies to the great Austrian, I submit the follow- ing translation :
"Go build your city, for it will thrive and bloom, Uniting firm the people like a banner. This people will be sturdy, true and honest, Awaiting patiently the coming of its day. For all the peoples on this wide flown earth Shall step upon the stage in due succession. Now those hold power who dwell by Po and Alps, But soon their sway shall pass to Pyrenaean lands. Then those who quaff the waters of the Seine And Rhone, an actor race, shall play the lord. The Briton from his isle then casts his net And drives the fish into his golden web. Yes, e'en the folk beyond your mountains, The blue-eyed people full of brutal power That must e'er forward go or lose its strength. But blind, when it acts, inactive when it thinks. It too receives its gleam of sun all ruling. As heir of all the ages, bright its star. Of you and of your brothers then's the turn. It is the final effort of a world tired out. Long service brings the mastery at last. Yet broad and far its range not high nor deep; From its source and fount, the distance great, Its might recedes, borrowed as it is. But you will rule and stamp your name as seal Upon the time to come."
Now, while every race, people, or tribe has had one or more prophets, who felt inspired to regard the command in Genesis i. 28
THE PROPHECY OF LIBUSHA. 219
as directed to his or their fellow-men, the above quoted words had and have a deep and far reaching significance. As dramatic poet, Grillparzer undoubtedly tried to be objective and impartial, at least as much so as, say, a fair-minded Englishman could be when treating a dramatic subject from Irish history or legend. How difficult such a moral tour de force must have been for him, becomes apparent when we read some of the prose thoughts of that ardent follower of the political ideals of Joseph II. He did his best to pen those lines, but he hoped the prophecy, like so many others, w^ould never reach fulfilment, for, say what you may, the poet was a German at heart, and the German has been fighting the Slavic westward urge since before the times of Attila. Whatever lands he possesses east of the Elbe river and the Alps he has rewon from the stubborn invader by the fiercest struggles in the annals of the race, and while he won, colonized and Germanized the lands in which are located Vienna, Berlin, Leipsic, Dresden, Breslau, Danzig and Konigsberg, the stubborn, cautious Czech maintains to this day the Slavic wedge separateing German Austria from Prussia. This is what the Austrian writer Rudolf Hans Bartsch calls Das deutsche Leid, the name of one of his novels written not long before the great war.
A study of Grillparzer's dramatic labors on "Libusha" reveals the date of its probable conception as somewhere after the Congress of Vienna, dominated by the commanding influence of Czar Alexan- der I, and of its completion as falling near that time when the first Pan-Slavic congress met in Prague. Perhaps it is rather the warn- ing voice of the Austrian patriot and ''truer Diener seines Herrn" than that of the Czechish Queen which utters the prophecy quoted from the drama.
It is more than probable that Grillparzer's studies prehminary to the composition of his drama Konig Ottokar's Gliick und Ende re- vealed to him the dangers for his dearly beloved Austria from a Bohemia which cherished the dream of expanding over Slovackian Hungary to the East and down to Slovenian Austria on the South. While the words which he puts in the mouth of his dying heroine admit the possible future destiny of Slavdom, it is also easy to read between them the difficulty of the admission, and his un- willingness to concede to Slavic peoples the same greatness of his- torical development to which other nations attained.
We do not care to discuss whether the fruition of Libusha's prophecy would have been a Slavic federation including Danzig, Posen, Ratibor, Bohemia, perhaps even Vienna, and certainly Car-
220 THE OPEN COURT.
niola down to the Adriatic on the West, under a Slavic presi- dent or a monarchy under a Czar, but there is no question that the Czechish queen's supposed ideas voice the hopes of the Czechish people and the dread of the Germans of Austria and the Empire. The growing power of mighty Slavic Russia was destined sooner or later to awaken a sense of solidarity, even though it be a fictitious one, of all Slavic nations. The great influence of Alexander I in the crushing of Napoleon and in the reconstruction of Europe gave a tremendous impetus to the growth of Slavic consciousness. While Germany in her disintegrated weakness became more and more cosmopolitan in the eighteenth century, the fate of Poland seemed to arouse a contrary sentiment in every Slavic soul, to which no less a German than Herder gave great encouragement. The wave of Romanticism which swept over Europe from about the time of the Reign of Terror awakened a sympathetic interest in the history, literature and art of all peoples, great and small, ancient and contemporary. Even such a pretty apparently non- political but purely literary subject as Herder's poem Die Fiirsten- tafel helped to keep alive the movement which was later powerfully strengthened by the works of the Slovack poet, John Kollar, from Mossocz in Slovackian Hungary, of the philologian Dobrowsky, of the historian Pelzel, and numerous others who re-created a Bohemian national literature, to be sure not entirely independent of the powerful surrounding currents, but yet an earnest of bet- ter things to come. The Czechish revival of the nineteenth cen- tury whereby the process of Germanization. as introduced by the Empress Maria Theresia and continued with headstrong and im- politic vehemence by her son, Joseph H, seemed sure of triumph and was then arrested, brought to a standstill, and changed to a Czechish renaissance of political, social, literary and artistic life, this movement is one of the marvels of history. Let us cast a glance at some of the explanations of the phenomenon.
The early history of Bohemia from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries was practically that of an independent nation which owed at best only a very loose allegiance to the Holy Roman Em- pire. The native population was entirely devoted to a rather primi- tive agriculture while mining, manufacturing and commerce were carried on by German colonists who came into the country and founded cities on the invitation of various monarchs of the house of Premysl. The royal house itself and the nobility intermarried with German princes and nobles, and one of these figures, at the mention of whose name the Bohemian thrills with pride, Premysl
THE PROPHECY OF LIBUSHA. . 221
Ottokar II was the great grandson of mighty Barbarossa, through his mother, Kimigunde, daughter of the Hohenstaufen Kaiser Phihp. It is interesting to note that this Bohemian king led two crusades against the heathen. Pohsh-speaking Prussians, whom he converted to the true faith, building in their midst the city of Kralove Radec, or as it is now called : Konigsberg, where the now German-speaking Prussian kings are crowned. Whether Rudolf of Habsburg, later his successful rival for the imperial crown, served under him on this cusade is possibly a myth, but certain it is that the poet Dante pictures Ottokar as comforting Rudolf in purgatory. At the time of his greatest power he ruled over Bohemia and Moravia to which he added by conquest from the king of Hungary, the lands com- prising the present duchies of Upper and Lower Austria and Steiermark. to which were added by bequest the crownlands of Carinthia and Carniola. including Gorz and Trieste. His power and wealth caused him for many years to be known as the "Golden King." and had he been able to attain the highest goal of his am- bition, he would have gathered the immense Hohenstaufen heritage under his sway as Holy Roman Emperor, but the corrupt German princes thought best to further their interests by electing a man who they thought would not disturb them, and in the ensuing con- tests Ottokar finally fell at Diirnkrut in 1278. A nation with such memories cannot be extinguished.
It is claimed that Czechish literature is the oldest in development of all the Slavic world, and the establishment of the first German university by Kaiser Karl IV at Prague in 1348 failed to accomplish its task of becoming a bulwark of Germanization, for the next century finds the commanding figure of the later martyr, John Hus, as the center of a Slavic scholastic group which had tempo- rarily driven the German from academic Prague to the newly founded University of Leipsic. In 1415 Hus was burned by the Council of Constance in utter contempt of Kaiser Sigismund's "safe conduct." However, this act led to the terrible Hussite wars in which the reformers maintained their religious independence so that a reluctant Rome made concessions in order to prevent a schism. Perhaps these Bohemian "Utraquists" may have paved the way for Luther's later success. The Czechish victories of Prokop and 2iska in the Hussite Wars were, it is true, nullified by the Catholic reaction during the Thirty Years' War, and a new Catholic Bohemia ap- parently forgot its patriotic teacher and reformer, but when in August of 1903 a monument to the great heretic was unveiled in Prague, a grand demonstration took place which might have re-
222 THE OPEN COURT.
suited in something far more serious than the actual smashing of the windows of the officers' Casino, had not the vigilance of the Austrian garrison on Hradschin and through the town held the situation in firm control. Hus, the heretic, was forgotten, not so the Czechish patriot.
It would be idle to speculate upon the future, and I shall leave that to a future, or present, Libusha, but this much is certain, Czech and German must find some formula to reconcile their differences. Would the Czech have been happier in a Pan-Slavic, that is Pan- Muscovite Russian federation? When we consider the wonderful development of the literature and life of small peoples as illustrated by free, little Norway, the question occurs, would larger, richer Bohemia be willing to be only a satellite of her big neighbor, or would she prefer her independence? The future must find some way of giving the little states the fullest means of self-expression while allowing that same right in others. Suppose the idea of Thomas Jefferson were the solution of the European problem: a federation of republics, each with the fullest amount of liberty con- sonant with the safety and best interests of the whole?
BOHEMIAN INDEPENDENCE.
BY EMIL REACH.
WHAT a tiny spot on the map it is, this "kingdom" of Bohemia ! Georgia is almost three times as large, and Texas thirteen times. Yet writers of legend and history have much to say about it, having filled page after page with its life and ambition and tur- moil; and just now we hear the Slav of Prague blend his protest against Teuton domination with the shrieks of other nations above the deafening clash of battle.
And when was it that Slav and Teuton first met in Bohemia and threw their hats into the ring to wrestle in the fever heat of centuries? The answer is not quite simple. While it is averred in the fourth volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica (p. 123) that "recent archeological research has proved the existence of Slavic inhabitants in Bohemia as far back as the beginning of the Christian era," we read in the seventh volume (p. 723) that Czech scholars "by craniological studies and a thorough examination of the fields where the dead were burned. .. .have arrived at the conclusion that parts of the country were inhabited by Czechs, or at least by
BOHEMIAN INDEPENDENCE. 223
Slavs, long before the Christian era, perhaps about the year 500 B. C"
But according to written tradition the country up to the year 12 or 8. B. C. was inhabited by the Celtic tribe of the Boii, from whose capital Boiohemum the country takes its name. The Boii were conquered by the Germanic tribe of the Marcomanni, followed by other Germanic tribes, until in the fifth century according to some, and toward the end of the sixth according to others, the Czechs forcibly took possession of the country.
We recall this fact that the Germans are no less at home in Bohemia than the Czechs, because the former are opposed to Bo- hemian independence just as the Ulsterites are opposed to Irish independence. The Czechs hope that the boundaries of their in- dependent state will be so drawn as to include Moravia and Silesia. In 1910 Z7 % of the population of Bohemia were German, of Mo- ravia 27.6%, and of Silesia 43.9%. The Germans predominate in a number of towns ; for example, they are 66 % in Briinn, which is the capital and by far the largest place in Moravia.
It was ninety-four years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, at a time in which religious strife sweeping through Europe almost monopolized the political stage, that the crown of Bohemia was given to a Hapsburg and the kingdom joined with that of Austria. And with the exception of one year these two crowns have ever since remained united ; and ever since the Slav element of Bohemia has harbored the wish and hope for independence; and ever since, and even centuries before that time, the Czech child, has been taught to hate the Austrian and the German. What a heritage of hate ! Who will expect anything but dissatisfaction to grow on such soil?
When the American, after hastily partaking of his ration of political food doled out by the daily papers, thinks or talks about Bohemia, whose cause as stated by the Czechish patriots he is in- clined to espouse, he generally fails to take into consideration the well-known and weighty circumstance that distances in Europe are short ; he does not easily realize how closely the capital city of Prague is crowded in between the great military and commercial centers of the German nation — a blade of barley in a field of wheat. There is Vienna only one hundred and fifty miles to the south-east; Berlin, one hundred and eighty-six miles to the north ; while the beautiful capital of Saxony with over half a million inhabitants is
224 THE OPEN COURT.
separated only by seventy-five miles of rail ; and long before enter- ing Dresden the train carries the traveler through German-speaking and German-feeling territory.
Let us for a moment imagine that Albany, N. Y., and its sur- rounding counties extending southwestward into Pennsylvania were to form an independent state with a population hostile to New York City in the south and to Buffalo and Rochester in the north. All traffic between the northern and southern portion of New York state would then have to reckon with the customs-tarififs, railway- and river-tariffs, and postal regulations of that unfriendly kingdom or republic in time of peace ; and in time of war with a third country the unfriendly commonwealth would have to be carefully watched, while the cooperative and prompt mobilization of the troops of Buffalo and New York would be impeded to a degree that would imply gravest danger. We may safely venture to assert that the people of New York state would never tolerate such an independent state of Albany to exist in their midst, and what we would not want for ourselves, we should hardly desire for others.
All this is so plain as to render well-nigh superfluous any further reply to those who are continually advocating the doctrine about "the consent of the governed" and the right of populations lo "self-determination." To be sure, without weighty and just pur- pose no people should be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not desire to live. Would we, however, permit those who inhabit the Panama Canal Zone to change their allegiance according to their own sweet will? Or was Lincoln wrong in his attitude toward the South ? And how about the patent disinclination among the statesmen of the Entente Allies to favor plebiscites for the settlement of the vexed problems of Ireland and of Alsace-Lorraine? Whatever might be the proper solutions of these two problems, one fact remains indisputable: namely, that all the world over practical statesmen have a very limited confidence in the ability of populations to decide for themselves.
But the Slavs of Bohemia claim to be oppressed. The present writer has no precise knowledge of what happened there during the war ; the distance is great, the reports are meagre and unreliable. A residence of many years in Prague has, however, matured in him the conviction that Austria has not oppressed the Slav during the decades immediately preceding the terrible bloodshed. Of course, in a country where passions of rival nations attain the temperature
BOPIEMIAN INDEPENDENCE. 225
of liquid iron, no one can reasonably expect nearly so much democ- racy as in other countries in which conditions are normal. But when I say that the Czechs have not been oppressed during the period preceding the war, I simply mean that the government of Vienna has honestly striven to stand as a fair-minded and even- handed arbiter between Czech and German, and that no legislation whatever has been enacted with the purpose of dwarfing the devel- opment of the Czech nation in any way or needlessly to ofifend Slav sensibilities.
The fact that the Czechs are dissatisfied proves nothing. Our South had also been dissatisfied for a long time without being treated unjustly. The A''iennese government does not allow the Czech to denationalize the German inhabitants just as fast as he would like to do it, and it spends Bohemian tax money in other provinces of Austria that are less wealthy than Bohemia and could not well get along if dependent exclusively on their own resources. It is my opinion that this policy of the Austrian government is right and just, however wrong it may appear to the Czech.
By far most of the quarrels between Teuton and Slav in the Hapsburg monarchy turn about the cultivation and use of their respective languages. There is above all the eternal complaint that the elementary schools are being used for the purposes of Germani- zation.
The Statesman's Ycarhopk for 1916 records Austrian popu- lation figures from the census of 1910 and Austrian school statistics of 1912. The German population of Austria is given as 9,950,268, the Czech population as 6,435,983; while the language of instruction was German in 8508 elementary schools, and Czech in 5367 ele- mentary schools. Surely, if the Austrian government made efiforts to denationalize the Czech element, if it did not compel the German municipalities of Bohemia and Moravia to maintain schools for the Czech minorities, these figures would be very different, as many Czech parents, in spite of all the Czech schools within their reach, insist on sending their children to German schools.
And zvhy do they insist? Simply because the German language is needed by most men or women who have to make a living in that corner of the globe. In the stores of the principal streets of Prague, now an overwhelmingly Czechish city, every clerk has to know German. This knowledge is forced upon him by the power of circumstance; namely, by the circumstance that if you travel from
226 THE OPEN COURT.
any point in Bohemia or Moravia either north or south for a couple of hours on a fast train you are sure to get into a town or county where German is spoken more than Czech or at least as much.
And that explains also why Czech students are constantly crowding into the University of Vienna, although they have a uni- versity of their own in Prague. Naturally enough the University of Vienna is the foremost of the Austrian Empire, and the Czech student has to know German anyhow, no matter where he studies ; he can not get along in life without the hated tongue of his rival.
He shouts at the top of his voice that all languages are of the same value, that none is superior to his own ; he considers a German street sign in a Czech town to be an insult to all right-minded citizens ; he refuses to understand why German is the language of debate in the federal parliament of Austria and shudders with anguish at the thought that German is also the language of com- mand in the army barracks of Prague or other Bohemian cities. The bottom of his heart is the color of a canary bird, as is said, being saturated with envy, and confluent envy and pride are fed from memories of shameful wrongs endured by his nation in past centuries.
The result is a succession of riot and revolution, necessitating restrictions of freedom, measures which form a basis for new grievances. And thus the vicious circle never ends, just as in
Ireland.
* * *
As the Irish nationalists are decidedly opposed to the adminis- trative separation of Ulster from the rest of their country, thus year after year have the Czech politicians, under display of an incredible amount of oratory, made obstinate opposition to the establishment of ethnographic frontiers within Bohemia. They have claimed that their country is a sacred historic unit, one and in- divisible, now and forever. At the same time the establishment of ethnographic boundaries outside of their little kingdom, in- volving a partition not of BoJiemia (or Moravia) but of Austria^ would delight their hearts. Why is that so? Simply because they want to denationalize the German counties of Behemia with all possible dispatch. Assisted by a high birth rate, they are seeking national expansion, hiding their intention under the ample folds of a cloak consisting of protestations concerning freedom and justice.
British pamphleteers and essayists have contrasted Ireland with Prussian Poland. They have not found it difficult to review the
BOHEMIAN INDEPENDENCE. 227
admirable efforts Great Britain has made in the last thirty-five years to placate and uplift Ireland, and to wind up with a panegyric on Great Britain plus the customary damnation of Prussianism.
But British spokesmen seem not to be inclined to compare Ireland with Bohemia, and when clamoring for the partition of Austria they relegate their opposition to Irish independence to the most remote corner of their consciousness. We have to remember in this connection that the enactments of the Austrian Reichsrat and the Bohemian Landtag favorably compare (as far as such comparison is possible) with British legislation ; and that under Austrian rule and protection the former kingdom of Libusha has risen to a state of development and strength as yet undreamt of in "John Bull's other island."
TJie Saturday Review (London) of September 11, 1897, and The Engineer (London) of September 25, 1914, have both been quoted in previous issues of The Open Court. It is obvious that the advantages they expect from the ruination of Germany would likewise result (if also in a less degree) from the partition of Austria, especially as the latter is a connecting link between Berlin and the East ; and those who wish ill to Austria can point to the heterogeneity of her structure as convenient pretext.
Hence the cry that Austria has to go. that she must not appear on the post helium map. Still we hope that on the contrary it will prove to be more than a mere conjecture and wish of an Austrian optimist, when a recent writer argues :
"Universal suft'rage introduced [in Austria] in 1907 was in- tended among other things as a cooling application to the national fever heat. The socialists became the relatively strongest party of the first absolutely democratic parliament, but were unable to lay at once the nationalistic ghosts. But the process of healing will undoubtedly go rapidly, since sooner or later the class feeling will oust a hypernational sensitiveness, in order finally to make room for a sentiment embracing the whole state" (Rudolf Kommer in The Open Court for June 1917). For sound policy is not based on nationalistic sentiments that constantly have to be fed by press campaigns to be kept alive, nor on nationalistic pretensions that correspond to no actual need, nor on the fallacy that historic boundaries or ethnographic boundaries or any other boundaries insure infallibility to majorities. Sound policy is suggested by cool common sense on the strength of geographic environment ; on the strength of past social and economic development and with due re- gard to the economic interest of all countries within the radius of
228 THE OPEN COURT.
its influence ; sound policy means for small commonwealths co- operation zvith their neighbors and a fancied loss of independence, zvhile for bigger countries it means a certain degree of centralisa- tion. Such policy will be productive of maximum efficiency, of maximum wealth production, and of a minimum of international friction.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY.
DURING THE PERIOD OF REACTION TO FOREIGN INFLUENCES,
BY FLETCHER H. SWIFT.
"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom." — Proverbs iv. 7.
"The fear of Jehovah is -the beginning of wis- dom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is under- standing."— Proverbs ix. 10.
"The law of Jehovah is perfect. .. .The precepts of Jehovah are right.... The judgments of Jeho- vah are true. . . .More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold." — Psalm xix. 7-10
(Extracts).
"There is no love such as the love of the Torah The words of the Torah are as difficult to acquire as silken garments, and are lost as easily as linen ones."* — Babylonian Talmud, Tract Aboth of Rabbi Nathan, 24.
WARNED by the oblivion which had overtaken the tribes of the northern kingdom, the religious leaders of subject Judah set about to save the people of the little kingdom from a similar fate. As the one-time hope of national and political independence and greatness waned a new hope arose, that of preserving the nation through preserving its religion. There was only one way of achiev- ing this end, that was by universal education. Zeal for education was further fostered by three important beliefs: (1) the belief that national calamities were pimishments visited upon the people be- cause they had not been faithful to Yahweh and his laws ;^ (2) that
* Or "as difficult to acquire as golden vessels and as easily destroyed as glass ones."
1 This is the underlying philosophy of the book of Judges. See Judges iv. 1 and 2; vi. 1 and elsewhere.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 229
if Yahweh's laws were kept, national prosperity would return; (3) the belief that the divinely appointed mission of Ji^^dah was to make known to the other nations of the world Yahweh, the only true God. Educational zeal resulted in an ever increasing tendency to organize and institutionalize education. In this process of or- ganization and institutionalization, each of the following five move- ments played an important part : ( 1 ) the development of a complete code of laws (the Priestly Code) governing every phase of life; (2) the state adoption of the Priestly Code, which made its obser- vance binding upon every member of the Jewish state and conse- quently a knowledge of it necessary; (3) a vast growth of sacred literature, both oral and written, including works specially written as texts-books, such as Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus ; (4) the organ- ization of the Scribes into a teaching guild; (5) the rise of schools, elementary and advanced.
The passages quoted at the opening of the present article bear witness to the supreme importance attached to the Torah, the Law of Yahweh, in the centuries following the Babylonian Exile. This position of supremacy had been attained gradually. In the earliest periods of Hebrew life, religion was but one. albeit a most im- portant one, of many interests in life and education. Gradually, however, the vision of Yahweh, his power and his kingdom enlarged. He came to be regarded as the founder of the state and of all its institutions, civic and political as well as religious. He was accepted as the author of all its laws whether criminal, moral, or religious, and of all institutions. The Law, in other words religion, and with it morality, became the supreme interest, the chief study and the all determining force in public and in private life at home and in school. It is doubtful whether history contains a more tragic illus- tration of devotion to an ideal than the story of Simon ben Shetach's son. Certainly no other incident reveals as forcibly the supreme place accorded to the Law in the hearts of the devout Jews. The story is related by Graetz in the following words ;
"On account of his unsparing severity, Simon ben Shetach brought upon himself such hatred of his opponents that they de- termined upon a fearful revenge. They incited two false witnesses to accuse his son of a crime punishable with death, in consequence of which he was actually condemned to die. On his way to the place of execution the young man uttered such vehement protesta- tions of innocence that at last the witnesses themselves were afifected and confessed to their tissue of falsehoods. But when the judges
230 THE OPEN COURT.
were about to set free the condemned, the prisoner himself drew their attention to their violation of the Law, which enjoined that no belief was to be given witnesses who withdrew their previous testi- mony. 'If you wish,' said the condemned youth to his father, 'that the salvation of Israel should be wrought by your hand, consider me but the threshold over which you must pass without compunc- tion.' Both father and son showed themselves worthy of their sublime task, that of guarding the integrity of the Law ; for to uphold it one sacrificed his life, and the other his paternal love. Simon, the Judaean Brutus, let the law pursue its course, although he, as well as all the judges, were convinced of his son's innocence.""
In the educational ideal of the Native Period, the physical, the esthetic and the industrial aspects of personality as well as the intellectual, moral and religious were recognized. The educational ideal of the post-Exilic period was the scribe,'^ the man learned in and obedient to the Law. Such obedience implied complete con- secration to Yahweh and a consequent separation from all duties and activities not related to him. The vast development of the law during and following the Exile, the multitude of legal interpreta- tions and precedents made leisure a prerequisite for all who would become learned and left the student of the Law little time for attention to anything else.* Despite the fact that the great cultural heritage of Greece and of Hellenized Rome was at their very doors, the faithful Jews not only remained indifferent to the physical, esthetic and intellectual interests of their pagan conquerors but studiously excluded them from their schools and from their ambi- tions. Narrow as this may seem, it is doubtful whether any other course would have saved the Jews from paganism, amalgamation, and oblivion.
Had the native interests of the Hebrews which characterized the pre-Exilic period been allowed free development it is possible that physical education among the Hebrews might have had an entirely different history. The solemn duty resting upon every Jew of mastering an ever increasing body of sacred literature left little time for anything else. To be sure, the high priest Jason
- H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II, S4c-55a. '
3 A further discussion of the educational ideal is given below; see also note 15.
4 Cf. with these statements those relating to the scribes' attitude toward manual work in a paragraph on Support .endnote IS. An interesting suggestion of a broader attitude is the Ral^binical comment to Genesis ix. 27, in which ("Tractate Megillah," 9b) the esthetic clement in Greek culture is praised.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 231
who had purchased his office'^ from Antiochus IV, Epiphanes (r. 175-164 B.C.)," built a Greek gymnasium under the very tower.'' Moreover "many of the priests took their place in the arena,"^ and "the high priest even sent three hundred drachmas to Tyre for a sacrifice to Hercules."^ Nevertheless the faithful Jews looked upon the Greek physical sports with abhorrence/ and the establish- ment of Greek gymnasia, far from introducing physical training into Jewish education, led to an identification of physical education with paganism and to a consequent hostility to it.^^
TEACHERS.
Throughout the period of foreign influence, education remained for the most part a masculine privilege. With the exception of the synagogue, of the temple and of certain festivals, the home was the sole institution providing training and instruction for girls and women. All schools were boys' schools and all teachers were men.
Reference has already been made to the growth of the political importance of the priests following the restoration of Jerusalem after the return from captivity. More and more their numbers, wealth and power increased. It was no longer possible for all the members of this vast army to be actively engaged all the time in rites and ceremonials. Consequently they were organized into twenty-four courses or families. The courses rotated, each course serving one week in turn and beginning its duties by ofl:'ering the Sabbath evening sacrifice. The existence of a vast priestly code setting forth in detail regulations governing every phase of con- duct did away with the need of the type of instruction given by the priests and prophets in earlier times. This function could now be entrusted to lay teachers whose task would be transmitting and interpreting the already existing laws. This fact combined with the increase in the number, complexity and elaborateness of the temple rites and in the increase of the political and administrative activities of the priests resulted in the gradual transfer of the major portion of the teaching function from the priests and proph- ets to a newly arisen teaching order, the soferim or scribes.
It must not be inferred, however, that the priests ceased to
5 H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 443. ^ I. J. Peritz, Old Testament History, p. 293. '^ H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 443 and footnote, s See 2 Maccabees iv. 9-12; cf. 1 Maccabees i. 13-14. 0 I. J. Peritz, Old Testament History, p. 294.
1" H. Graetz, History of the Jezi.'S, I. pp. 444-446, gives much interesting material.
232 THE OPEN COURT.
teach. The soferim, it is true, became the teachers of the Law, but the priests still continued to be the people's great teachers in forms of worship. In addition to this, some of the priests were also famous scribes, and in this capacity were professed teachers of the Law.
THE SOFERIM.
The art of writing, as already shown, had been known and employed from early times by priests, prophets, secretaries and others. It has also been shown how the Exilic renaissance increased greatly the body of • literature. The original meaning of the term "soferim" was "people who know how to write. "^^ It was, therefore, applied to court chroniclers or royal secretaries. Because ability to write came to be generally accepted as the mark of the educated or learned man, the term came to be emi)loyed for a wise man (1 Chron. xxvii. 32)."
Following the restoration, the Jewish community, under the leadership of the priest-scribe, Ezra, bound itself to the observance of the written Law.^- If the Law was to be kept it must be known and understood ; there must be teachers and interpreters. But the Law was written in ancient Hebrew, a tongue almost unknown to the masses, most of whom spoke Aramaic or Greek. As the result of these conditions, those able to read the Scriptures in the original Hebrew and to interpret them to the people came to form a distinct teaching class. At length "soferim" came to be used to designate specifically this great body of teachers from the time of Ezra to that of Simeon the Just (a contemporary of Alexander the Great). "It seems that after Simeon the Just the teachers were more gen- erally styled 'Elders,' ickcnim, later 'the wise ones,' hakhamim, (Shab.64b; Suk. 46a) while soferim was sometimes used as an honorific appelation (Sotah 15a). In still later times soferim became synonymous with 'teachers of little children' {Ibid., 49a)." As conditions became more settled throughout Judea the scribes made their way to its remotest parts. In time a powerful scribe- guild was organized to which all teachers belonged, and which monopolized the teaching profession. By the time of the Chron- icler, three ranks of teachers appear: (1) the hazzan or elementary teacher; (2) the scribe; (3) the sage.^^
The following paragraphs, written by Jesus ben Sira (who
11 Max Seligsohn, "Scribes," Jczvish Encyclopedia, II, 123.
12 H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, pp. 393-5, discredits this story en- tirely.
13 A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hasting' s Bible Dictionary, I, 650b.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 233
flourished in the first third of the second century B. C.)^* present the most complete description of the ideal scribe that has descended to us from that period. The divorce made by Sira between the life of study and that of industrial occupations, and his contempt for manual labor must not, however, be regarded as necessarily representing a universal attitude.^^
JESUS BEN SIRA ON THE GLORY OF BEING A SCRIBE. (Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 24--xxxix. 11.)
"The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure : and he that hath little business shall become wise.
"How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plow, and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labors, and whose talk is of bullocks ? He giveth his mind to make furrows ; and is diligent to give the kine fodder.
"So every carpenter and workmaster, that laboreth night and day ; and they that cut and grave seals, and are diligent to make great variety, and give themselves to counterfeit imagery, and watch to finish a work :
"The smith also sitting by the anvil, and considering the iron work, the vapor of the fire wasteth his flesh, and he fighteth with the heat of the furnace ; and the noise of hammer and the anvil is ever in his ears, and his eyes look still upon the pattern of the thing that he maketh ; he setteth his mind to finish his work, and watcheth to polish it perfectly ;
"So doth the potter sitting at his work, and turning the wheel about with his feet, who is always carefully set at his work, and maketh all his work by number ;
"He fashioneth the clay with his arm, and boweth down his strength before his feet ; he applieth himself to lead it over ; and he is diligent to make clean his furnace :
"All these trust in their hands : and every one is wise in his work.
"Without these cannot a city be inhabited : and they shall not dwell where they will, nor go up and down. They shall not be sought for in public council, nor sit high in the congregation ; they shall not sit on the judges seat, nor understand the sentence of
!■* I. Levi, "The Wisdom of Jesus Sirach," The Jeidsh Encyclopedia, XI, 389a.
1^ See Franz Delitzsch, Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus, pp. 76-77. for opinions opposite to those of Sira regarding the possibility of combining study with handicraft.
234 THE OPEN COURT.
judgment; they cannot declare justice and judgment; and they shall not be found where parables are spoken. But they will maintain the state of the world, and (all) their desire is in the work of their craft.
"But he that giveth his mind to the law of the Most High and is occupied in the meditation thereof, will seek out the wisdom of all the ancient, and be occupied in prophecies. He will keep the sayings of renowned men ; and where subtil parables are, he will be there also.
"He will seek out the secrets of grave sentences and be con- versant in dark parables.
"He shall serve among great men, and appear before princes ; he will travel through strange countries ; for he hath tried the good and the evil among men.
"He will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him, and will pray before the Most High, and will open his mouth in prayer, and make supplication for his sins.
"He shall show forth that which he hath learned, and shall glory in the law of the covenant of the Lord.
"If he die he shall leave a greater name than a thousand: and if he live he shall increase it."
The sof erim regarded their work as a holy one : to them had been entrusted the sacred task of transmitting the laws given by Yahweh himself. Through their literary and educational activities they eventually gained almost complete control over religious thought and education. They interpreted the Law for the masses. They furnished the texts upon which instruction was based. They estab- lished elementary schools and colleges. They taught public and select groups of pupils. It was their aim "to raise up many disciples," as is said in the Talmud, Tract Aboth, I, 2. On occasions of public worship they translated the scriptures written in a tongue almost unknown to the masses in the post-Exilic period into the language of the people. In their teaching and in their lives they represented the new educational and religious ideal of the times, Judaism. Within their schools arose that oral literature which developed into the Talmud.
Despite the sincere efforts of the sof erim to adjust the Law to changing conditions they soon became burdened with such a mass
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 235
of traditions and precedents that readjustment and progress became extremely ditficult if not impossible. Their standpoint as legalists led to such emphasis upon technical adherence to details that the great principles were frequently lost sight of. Political, social and religious life came to be dominated by a burdensome system of traditions, laws and minute regulations, the external form of which instead of the spirit and underlying principles came to be the focus of interest and attention."
RABBIS.
Originally the leader of any union of workmen, even the leader of the hangmen, was called rabbi (literally, "my master"). Rabbi was applied to the head of the weavers (Talmud, Tract Abodah Zarahl/b), and to the head of the gladiators (Talmud Tract Baba Mezia 84a). It was commonly applied to teachers, but did not, however, entitle its possessor to preach or teach. It, apparently, was not used distinctively as a teacher's title till after the time of Christ."
THE PERUSHBI OR PHARISEES.
During the latter part of the second century B. C. there came into prominence among the Jews two important sects or parties, the Perushim or Pharisees, and the Zedukim or Saducees.^^ The Perushim or Separatists were simply later exponents of a tendency older than the time of Ezra. This tendency had its beginnings in the earliest impulses of a certain portion of the Jews to re- gard the devout observance of the laws of Yahweh as the supreme aim of individual and national life. They believed the Jews could realize this aim only by holding themselves aloof from all for- eign innovations and b}' emphasizing those elements and cus- toms of Jewish life that marked off the Jews as a distinct and peculiar people. They "insisted upon all political undertakings, all public transactions being tried by the standard of religion. "^^ In both of these positions they were opposed by the Saducees. They dift"ered further from the Zedukim or Saducees in accepting and throwing the weight of their influence in favor of the oral law of the Scribes and many beliefs not set forth in the Pentateuch,
16 For a contrary view see S. Schechter, "The Law and Recent Criticism. . in Schechter's Studies in Judaism, Vol. I, pp. 233-251.
1" A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hasting's Bible Dictionary, I, 650b.
IS H. P. Smith, Old Testament History, p. 479.
39 H. Graetz, History of the Iczvs, II, 17.
236 THE OPEN COURT.
such as the doctrine of the resurrection and the behef in the exist- ence of angels and future rewards and punishments.
Many of the most prominent of the scribes were Perushim, but the Perushim were in no sense a teaching order. Rather they constituted a rehgious sect or party which inckided men of every rank and occupation. Their educational importance grew out of the sup- port they gave to the cause of Judaism and to the teachings and educational efiforts of the Soferim.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
Universal compulsory education for the sake of preserving the nation is a state policy familiar to the modern world. The gradual development of this policy among the Jews of Palestine is the most interesting and most significant feature of the history of education from the time of the restoration of the Jewish community in the sixth century B. C. to the end of the Jewish state 70 A. D. The realization of this policy was made possible by two distinct but nevertheless inseparable movements : first, the evolution of a pro- fessional teaching class ; second, the rise of educational institutions. The Native Period had been a period without schools, the period of foreign influence was marked by the rise of three types of edu- cative institutions: (1) the synagogue ; (2) boys' elementary schools ; (3) the scribes' (or higher) schools.
The most important steps in the rise of the policy of universal education may be stated as follows: (1) the public adoption of the sacred canon and solemn covenant to keep the Law of Yahweh ; (2) the provision of universal opportunities for instruction through the rise and gradual spread of the synagogue; (3) the rise of ele- mentary schools, (attendance voluntary) ; (4) 70 B. C, ordinance (of Simon ben Shetach) making compulsory the education of orphan boys over sixteen years of age; (5) boys' compulsory elementary education by edict of Joshua ben Gamala, high priest 64 A. D.
THE SYNAGOGUE.
Jewish tradition traces the synagogue back to the time of Moses. Nevertheless it is not expressly mentioned until the last century of the second Temple but then as an institution long existing, uni- versal, and the center of Jewish life.-" It may have arisen during the Exile. Sacrifice could be ofifered only in Jerusalem, but prayer and the study of the Law could be carried on regardless of place.
20 W. Baclier, "Synagogue," Hasiing's Bible Dictionary, IV, 636d.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 237
The Sabbath, already observed as a day of rest in pre-Exihc times,-^ offered the exiles leisure and opportunity for study. The custom of assembling on the Sabbath for worship and study may have arisen in Babylon, whence it may have been carried back to Jerusalem and there institutionalized in the synagogue. After the restoration of Jerusalem, the synagogue spread throughout Judea and the entire Jewish world. --
The term synagogue, applied originally to the assembly, came in time to be applied to the building in which the assembly met. The use of the term "church" illustrates a similar transference of a title from a group of people to the building occupied by the group. Although used as public halls, court rooms and places for scourging malefactors, the synagogues never ceased to be chiefly houses of instruction and worship. In communities too small or too poor to erect a separate building, a room in some building might be devoted to the purpose. The interior of buildings erected as synagogues was generally round or rectangular.-" Beyond the middle rose the bema or platform.-* On the center of this stood the lectern or pulpit. Farther back stood the "ark," the chest containing the scrolls of Scripture.-^ The manner in which worship and instruction were combined in synagogal religious exercises is revealed by the order of service.
Synagogue services were held twice on the Sabbath ; on all feast and fast days ; and on the two weekly market days, Monday and Thursday.-*' Although the service varied somewhat with the day and the hour,-" the general order was the same: that of the Sabbath morning may be taken as a type. An analysis of the Sabbath morning service shows that it consisted of two main divi- sions : one, liturgical ; the other, instructional. The liturgical portion consisted of the recitation by all 'adult males-' of the Shema-' pre- ceded and followed by a number of "benedictions," prayers or eulogies-' recited by one individual especially deputed for the occa-
-'^ Exodus xxiii. 12. Nothing is said in this earHest legislation about spe- cial religious observance. See T. G. Soares, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, pp. 168ff. C. H. W. Johns, "The Babylonian and Assyrian Sabbath," Encyclopcedia Brittannica, 11th edition, XXIII, 961d-962d.
-- W. Bacher, "Synagogue," Hasting's Bible Dictionary, IV, 637b.
23 Alfred Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, p. 254.
^* Ibid., 261.
23 Ibid., 262.
20 Ibid., 277d-278a.
27 Ibid., 268a.
28 Ibid., 275c.
238 THE OPEN COURT.
sion, the congregation simply responding ''Amen."-^ The Shema is commonly characterized as the national creed or confession.-^ It is composed of three scriptural passages.-" Deuteronomy vi. 4-9 ; Deu- teronomy xi. 13-21 ; Numbers xv. 37-41. It begins: "Hear O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone," a passage which offers many difficulties in translation as may be seen from the variant translations in the marginal note of the American* Revised Version. It is named Shema from its initial Hebrew word shema, meaning "hear." The liturgical portion of the service offered definite systematic training on three or more days per week in worship and acts of devotion. The instructional portion consisted in the reading from the Law and then • from the Prophets in the original Hebrew passages assigned to the day, which were forthwith translated into the vernacular by the meturgeman or translator who stood beside the reader.-^
It is unnecessary to dwell upon the educational significance of a custom which resulted in insuring the reading to the Aramaic or Greek speaking masses their native literature in the original tongue. The Pentateuch was so divided that its reading extended over three or three and a half years."" The section for the day was subdivided in such a manner that at least seven persons might be called upon to read a portion of not less than three verses each.^" The Law was read and translated verse by verse. The reading and translating of the Prophets was presented in passages of three verses each.^^
The synagogue service provided training in worship and oral instruction in the Scriptures for every man, woman and child in the community. Furthermore, it furnished a powerful stimulus to every man and boy to become an earnest student of the native lit- erature, for any male, even a minor, might act either as reader or meturgeman,^- and the public esteem attached to fulfilling such an office made it the pious ambition of all, through the many oppor- tunities it furnished to those qualified, for active participation in its services. Moreover, one individual especially deputed for the occa- tion led in the recitation of the benedictions or prayers^^ which constituted so large a part of the liturgical portion of the service, the congregation simply responding "Amen.""^ Finally, the reading of the Scriptures was followed by the derashah, an address or exposition which consisted of the explanation and application of
20 Ibid., 277-279.
30 Ibid., 277.
31 Ibid., 279a
32 Ibid., 278.
33 Ibid., 275.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 239
the day's lesson or some portion of it.^* Here again we find first a custom providing, on the one hand, instruction for the mass of the people, and on the other hand, an incentive for earnest study, for any learned man present might be called upon to act as the darshan or expositor. The manner in which the synagogue combined wor- ship and education, instruction for the masses and incentives to study for those having leisure and ability, will appear from the following outline"^ of the Sabbath morning order of service.
ORDER OF SYNAGOGUE SERVICE (SABBATH MORNING.) PART 1. LITURGICAL OR DEVOTIONAL.
I. Lectern Devotions."^
1. Two "Benedictions."
2. The Shema — recited by all adult males.
3. One "Benediction."
II. Devotions Before the "Ark."36
4. Various "Benedictions."
The number apparently varied from twelve in earlier times to eighteen or nineteen in later times. 2''
5. The Priestly Benediction (Numbers vi. 23-24). ^s
To be recited by a descendant of Aaron if any such were present, otherwise by the leader of the devotions.^^
PART II. INSTRUCTIONAL.
1. The Scripture Lessons.
1. "Benediction" by first reader.^^
2. Reading and translation of selections from the Law.
3. Reading and translation of selections from the Prophets.
4. "Benediction" by the last reader.s^
2. The Exposition or Derashah.
The synagogue was the earliest, the most wide-spread and the most enduring of all the educational institutions after the Exile. It was the first institution to offer systematic instruction to both
34 Ibid., 279b-c.
35 Ibid., 268ff. Edersheim states in a footnote on page 268 that his descrip- tion is based on a study of the Mishna.
36 "The 'Shema' and its accompanying 'benedictions' seem to have been .said.... at the lectern; whereas for the next series of prayers the leader of the devotions went forward and stood before the ark." Ibid., 272a.
37 Ibid., 272-275.
38 Ibid., 275.
39 Ibid., 277.
240 THE OPEN COURT.
sexes. It was the parent of the scribe college and the elementary school. Out of it arose the movement which resulted in universal education. Under its influence and that of the scribes all Jews became students of the Law ; the Law became the most reverenced of all studies, and the center of religious and intellectual interest,
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.
It was but a step from using the synagogue on Sabbaths and feast days as a place of instruction to using it every day as a place for teaching boys whose parents would permit them to come. A school was a common feature of Babylonian temples, and if the synagogue arose during the Exile it may be that the elementary school arose at this time also as an adjunct to the synagogue. On the other hand, it may not have arisen till after the Exile and then not in any sense as a borrowed institution but merely as a natural result of the increasing conviction that the salvation of the Jews depended upon every Jew knowing and keeping the law.**'
When such schools first became universal is still an open c|ues- tion. The universality of teachers in the first part of the first cen- tury A. D. and, by inference, of schools is shown by passages in the New Testament such as Luke v. 17: "There were Pharisees and doctors of the law, sitting by, who were come out of every vil- lage of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem." In the year 64 A. D. the ordinance of Gamala*^ required that one or more elementary schools be established in every community. The elementary school was always located in the synagogue proper, or in some room attached to the synagogue or in the master's house.*- If, as is generally agreed, teachers and synagogues were practically universal in Pal- estine in the first century B.C., it does not seem unreasonable to conclude that, whether elementary education was compulsory or not at this time, elementary schools were exceedingly wide spread, perhaps practically universal. Moreover, if the claims of Shetach be admitted, and if his law refers, as some maintain, to already existing schools, it is possible that elementary schools were all but universal even earlier than the first century B. C, how much earlier cannot be conjectured.*^
*o In time the name most commonly given to such a school was Bet ha- Sefer, or "House of the Book" ; this however is a post-biblical term and is consequently avoided in the present account.
*i The claims of Shetach and the ordinance of Gamala will be discussed in the immediately following paragraphs.
42 A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hasting's Bible Dictionary, I, p. 649.
43 Giidemann's conclusions given in a subsequent paragraph should be consulted at this point.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 241
COMPULSORY EDUCATION.
The widespread existence of elementary schools proved in itself insufficient to guarantee an education to every boy. To insure this a law was passed requiring- every community to establish one or more elementary schools and making attendance compulsory for boys over seven years. It is a matter of dispute whether this law was passed early in the first century B. C. or in the latter part of the first century A. D. Some writers give the credit to a decree issued 75 B. C. by Simon ben Shetach, brother-in-law of the Jewish King Alexander Jannaeus (r. 104-78 B. C.) and president of the San- hedrin. Kennedy, in his brief but scholarly account, asserts there is no good reason for rejecting the tradition regarding Shetach's eiTorts on behalf of popular education, but fails to state what he considers this tradition to include.** Graetz, recounting the reign of Queen Alexandra, writes :
"Simon ben Shetach, the brother of the queen, the oracle of the Pharisaic party, stood high in her favor. So great a part did he play in the history of that time that it was called by many 'the days of Simon ben Shetach and of Queen Salome.'*^ But Simon was not an ambitious man and he determined to waive his own rights (to the presidency of the Great Council) ... .in favor of Jndah ben Tabbai, who was then residing in Alexandria, of whose profound learning
and excellent character he had formed a high estimate These
two men have, therefore, been called 'Restorers of the Law,' who 'brought back to the Crown (the Law) its ancient splendor.**^. . . .
"One of the reforms of this time expressly attributed to Simon ben Shetach was the promotion of better instruction. Li all large towns, high schools for the use of young men from the age of six- teen sprang up at his instance. But all study, we may presume, was entirely confined to the Holy Scriptures, and particularly to the Pentateuch and the study of the Law. Many details or smaller points in the Law which had been partly forgotten and partly neglected" during the long rule of the Saducees, that is to say, from Hyrcanus's oppression of the Pharisees until the commencement of Salome's reign, were once more introduced into daily life."*''
The passage in the Jerusalem Talmud which records the ser- vices rendered to education by Simon ben Shetach reads as follows :
** A. R. S. Kennedj^ "Education," Hastiiig's Bible Dictionary, I, p. 649. 45 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II, 48d. ■*•' Ibid., p. 49a and d. ^- Ibid., pp. 50d-51a.
242 THE OPEN COURT.
"Simon ben Shetach ordained three things : that a man may do business with the kethnhah (a sum of money stipulated in the mar- riage contract) ; that people should send their children to school ; that glassware be subject to contamination.''^*
It is evident that the brevity and vagueness of the reference to education in this passage are such as to furnish basis for much discussion but at the same time such as to make exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, any conclusions as to what Shetach actually did.
Giidemann,*^ Grossmann and Kandel,^° Laurie,^^ Leipziger,^- and Spiers,°^ while crediting Shetach with educational reforms, re- gard the law issued in 64 A. D. by the high priest Joshua ben Gamala as the ordinance by which elementary education was first made universal and compulsory for boys over six or seven. The defenders of the claims of Gamala assert that the law of Shetach applied either only to orphan boys over sixteen years of age, or only to Jerusalem, or only to Jerusalem and other large cities. If the first of these positions be accepted, it would follow that the first step toward compulsory education was the establishment in 75 B. C. of higher schools for orphan boys over sixteen years of age. Giidemann sums up the situation as follows :
"The scribes, at first, restricted their educational activities to adults, giving free lectures in synagogues and schools while the education of children remained in the hands of the parents as in olden times. But as boys often lacked this advantage, the state employed teachers in Jerusalem (B. B.21a) to whose care the children from the provinces were entrusted ; and as these did not suffice, schools were also established in the country towns. This arrangement must probably be referred to an ordinance of R. Simon
ben Shetach (Yer. Keth. VIII end) These district schools
were intended only for youths of sixteen and seventeen years of age who could provide for themselves away from home. The High Priest Joshua ben Gamala instituted schools for boys of six and seven years in all cities of Palestine.""*
*8 Jerusalem Tahnnd, "Kethuboth," VIII, end. Tr. by Rabbi S. N. Dei- nard.
*^ Giidemann, "Education," Jeivish Encyclopedia, V, p. 43c.
50 Grossmann and Kandel, "Jewish Education," Monroe, Cyclopedia of Education, III, p. S42d.
51 S. S. Laurie, Pre-Christian Education, p. 93.
52 H. M. Leipziger, Education of the Jezvs, p. 197.
53 B. Spiers, The School System of the Talmud, pp. 9-10.
54 M. Giidemann, "Education," Jewish Encyclopedia, V, p. 43.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 243
The section of the Babylonian Tahiiud recounting the work of Gamala is of such importance in the history of Jewish education that no account, however summary, can aiYord to omit it. The passage is valuable not only for its account of Gamala's work but for the light it throws on earlier conditions.
"A'erily let it be remembered to that man for good. Rabbi Joshua ben Gamala is his name, for had he not been, the Law would have been forgotten in Israel. At first every one that had a father re- ceived from him instruction in the Law, but he that had no father learned not the Law. . . . Thereafter teachers for the children were appointed in Jerusalem. . . . But even this measure sufficed not, for he that had a father was brought by him to school and was taught there, but he that had no father was not brought to be taught there. In consequence of this, it is ordained that teachers should be ap- pointed in every district, to whom children were sent when they were sixteen or seventeen years of age. When a teacher became angry with a scholar, the latter stamped his feet and ran away. In this condition education remained until the time of Joshua ben Ga- mala, who ordained that in every province and in every town there should be teachers appointed to whom children should be brought at the age of six or seven years. "^^
Any such legislation as that described in the foregoing para- graphs, would, of course, have been ineffective had it not been supported by a widespread sentiment in favor of education.
THE ORGANIZATION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. All schools were for boys only and all teachers were men. The ordinance of Gamala required communities to provide one teacher for twenty-five pupils or less ; for any number over twenty-five and less than fifty, one teacher and one assistant ; for fifty pupils, two teachers and two classes."*' In the beginning probably any scribe or any officer of the synagogue who had the leisure taught the ele- mentary classes. In time, however, the master of the elementary school came to hold membership in the powerful scribes' guild and to bear the distinct title of hazaan.^'^ Kennedy asserts that the hazzan- of the elementary schools was distinct from the synagogue officer of the same title whose work consisted largely of menial duties connected with the synagogue, including even the whipping
^^ Der Babylojiische Taliitud, "Baba Bathra," tr. by Wiinsche; A. R. S. Kennedy, Hastiiig's Bible Dictionary, I, 250b. I have taken Kennedy's trans- lation of Wiinsche here in preference to Rodkinson's.
56 Talmud, "Baba Bathra." 21a.
57 A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hasting's Bible Dictionary, I, 650.
244 THE OPEN COURT.
of criminals.^® Other writers consider that the two may have been identical.
Although the scribes taught without pay and supported them- selves, if necessary, by plying a trade, the hassan probably received a regular though small wage.^^ The greatest reward, however, of the teachers of every rank was the love, gratitude, esteem and ven- eration in which they were held by the community. In public and in private they were treated with a marked and particular respect, and no man in, a Jewish community occupied a more esteemed or a more enviable position. Moral character, knowledge of the law and pious observance of all its ordinances were undoubtedly the qualities most sought for in a teacher.
Before the boy began going to school he had learned at home many passages of Scripture, some prayers, some songs and many sacred traditions of his race. He had also witnessed and partici- pated in many feasts and festivals and listened to the explanations of the origin and significance of each act. The aim of the elemen- tary school was to give every boy a complete mastery of the Law and thus prepare him for assuming upon reaching his majority, responsibility for the Law.
Probably the only subjects taught in the elementary school were reading, writing and the elements of arithmetic. Learning to read and to write was far from an easy task. No language was per- mitted other than the ancient Hebrew,*^" a tongue almost unknown to the children of this period, in the majority of whose homes Ara- maic or Greek was spoken. The difficulty of learning to read and write was further increased by the fact that in writing ancient Hebrew, vowel sounds were not indicated. Thus Yahweh was written YHWH. Consequently, a large element in reading con- sisted in reproducing from memory the vowel sounds.
The work of the elementary school centered about memorizing the Law in its threefold content. — ceremonial, civil and criminal. No doubt Hebrew education like that of every other oriental people made great demands upon the child's memory. However, we should never lose sight of the fact that passages which the boy would be required to learn by heart, setting forth the details of rites and laws and which to a Gentile of to-day are vague, unreal and ex- ceedingly difficult to remember, were in many cases merely descrip-
58 Ibid.
5»D. Eaton, "Scribes," Hasfing's Bible Dictionary, _IV, 422 d ; Cf. Acts xviii. 3; M. Schloessinger, "Hazzan," Jczuish Encyclopedia, VI, 284c-d.
^^ A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hasting's Bible Dictionary, I, 651.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 245
tions of acts the pupil had witnessed from his earliest years. They had been presented concretely again and again in a manner which could not fail to impress them vividly upon his mind long before he was assigned the task of committing them to memory. From the very first, his parents had explained to him, as far as his years and understanding permitted, the origin, real or traditional, and the significance of all that entered into law or rite. In view of the relation that the Law in its threefold content held to the life of the community, it will be seep that this work of the schools, far from being remote from life, was in reality a distinctly socializing process. The only way to comprehend the breadth of studies of the ele- mentary school is by recalling the varied nature of the contents of the Scriptures. Upon this basis, it will be seen that religion, morals, manners, history and law as well as the three R's were studied in the elementary school, for all these are contained in the great litera- ture there taught to the child.
The books included in the Scriptures, especially those con- stituting the Pentateuch, were the chief school texts. The Psalms, owing to their important place in the Temple worship, undoubtedly received much attention in the school. Two other books which must have held a prominent place in the schools were Proverbs and the apocryphal book, Ecclesiasticus. Both arose during this period ; both were specifically designed as texts for instruction ; both are compilations of moral and religious maxims, instruction in man- ners, intermingled with eulogies of the Law, its study, and its stu- dents and the virtues it extols. In later times there were prepared as texts for little children small parchment rolls containing portions of the Scriptures such as the Shema,*'^ the Hallel (Psalms cxiii- cxviii), history from the Creation to the Flood, the first eight chap- ters of Leviticus.*^- How early such texts were employed cannot be determined.
The hair-splitting methods of the scholars of this period, as well as the sanctity attached to every word and every letter of the Law made it necessary that it be memorized exactly word for word and letter for letter. Absolute accuracy was imperative owing to the fact that many Hebrew characters are almost identical (e. g., Ji and '^h) and that the interchange of two such characters frequently gives not only difl:'erent but opposite meanings : thus Jiallel means "to praise," ^hallel means "to desecrate." To achieve this end countless memoriter exercises and constant repetitions were em- ^'^ See above p. 237 and note 27. *'- A. Edersheim, In tJie Days of Christ, p. 117.
246 THE OPEN COURT,
ployed. The Rabbinical saying "to review one hundred and one times is better than to review one hundred times" indicates much regarding the character of the school work.
A large part of the literature committed to memory was no doubt interesting to the child, nevertheless, many portions of it must have been indescribably dull and taxing. The great veneration in which the Law was held and the fact that through it alone was there access to the highest positions in state and society were no doubt sufficient incentives to spur on the older boys to diligent study.
But the commendations of corporal punishment to be found in the Scriptures,^" as well as the Jewish conception of child nature, leave no doubt that punishment was used freely in the school to keep the younger and less studious at their tasks.
The Jews of this period have already been described as a "people of the book." It is scarcely necessary to add that education in the schools was thoroughly bookish. The Greeks had sought in vain to induce the Jews to include in their course of study physical culture, the golden classics of Greece, and Greek science. Never- theless, the boy who had completed the studies of the elementary school was master of one of the greatest literatures any race has ever produced. He probably knew by heart most of the Penta- teuch as well as selections from many other books of the Scriptures. He was ready to explain the origin and meaning of the sacred rites and customs, public and private, which played a part in the events of each day. He was steeped in the religious consciousness of his people and was united with them in thought, knowledge and sympathies. Ellis writes :
"An interesting commentary on the (elementary) education of the time is that of Jesus. He never attended one of the rabbin- ical schools (Mark vi. 2, 3), and this allows us to see what advan- tages the common people had. His knowledge of the Scriptures was remarkable and unchallenged. He could read Hebrew and was often called upon to officiate in the synagogue (Luke iv. 16; Mark i. 21, etc.)."«*
SCHOOLS OF THE SOFERIM.
From earliest times it was necessary for prospective soferim (scribes) to receive special professional training. The increase,
63 "Hebrew Education in the Family After the Exile," Open Court, Jan- uary, 1918, p. 16. These statements should be compared with such Talmudic statements as those in Aboth 2:6 where it is asserted that a hasty (or pas- sionate) man cannot teach.
6^ H. G. Ellis, Origin and Development of Jezvish Education, Pedagogical Seminar, 1902, Vol. 9, p. 58.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 247
after the Exile, in the functions of the soferim, in their numbers,* importance, and in the body of Hterature to be mastered by them made necessary prolonged and careful training. Those who were called upon daily to declare and administer the Law must possess not a merely superior knowledge of the Law itself. They must know all possible interpretations, methods of interpretation and the precedents created by former decisions and applications. In Temple court or in synagogue, noted scribes gathered about them- selves groups of youth and men. In time each famous scribe appears to have had his own group or school.*''''' In some cases the distinc- tive character of the master's teaching resulted in the development of rival schools, such as those of Shammai and Hillel."*' The latter's grandson, Gamaliel, it will be recalled, Avas the teacher of Saul of Tarsus. "^
In some scribe schools, Greek learning may have been given a place but in all the major part of the time was probably devoted to the study of the sacred writings of the Hebrews and to the memorizing of the ever increasing mass of oral literature. This mass of oral learning consisted of two elements, — the Halakah or legal element and the Hagadah or non-legal element.
The Halakah was composed chiefly of oral laws growing out of the attempts of the scribes to adapt the written law to the ever changing social and political conditions. In time these oral laws, decisions and interpretations acquired fixed form and with fixed form, sanctity. Upon the basis of Exodus xxiv. 12 ("1 will give thee tables of stone and a lazv') it was asserted that Moses had received from Yahweh upon Mt. Sinai, in addition to the written law, an oral law, namely, the halakali.^^ For many centuries the Halakah was forbidden to be written and consequently must be committed to memory by every prospective scribe. Every sentence, every word was sacred and must be memorized exactly as given by the teacher. All possible interpretations were presented and dis- cussed. A^arious methods of interpretation must be learned and practised.
* One of the aims of the soferim was "to raise up many disciples" (Aboth. 1:2).
*^5 In later times commonly known as Beth Hammidrash, but this is a post- biblical term and is consequently avoided in the present account.
•"^ Associated with (by tradition, President of) the Sanhedrin 30 B. C. Wm. Bacher, "Hillel," Encyclopadia Britannica, XIII, 467 c-d.
^"^ A. R. S. Kennedy, "Education," Hasting's Bible Dictionary, I, 6S0d.
•^8 Arthur Ernest Cowley, "Hebrew Literature," EncyclopcFdia Britannica, 11th edition, XIII, 170b-c.
248 THE OPEN COURT.
The Hagadah (literally "narrative") was not distinguishable in method from the Halakah. But whereas the Halakah was de- voted to religious law, the Hagadah included literature of consider- able range and variety. Though much of it was ethical, exegetical or homiletical it included, as well, proverbs, fables, traditions, history and science. In a word it embraced all topics except the more strictly legal elements, which might be drawn into the discursive discus- sions of a group of scholars seeking to amplify and explain in a somewhat popular manner laws, institutions and customs. This oral literature developed into the two monumental encyclopedias, known as the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud."^
The main theme of the instruction given by the soferim was the oral law. Their instruction was consequently entirely oral. In order to assist their pupils to retain their words, they cast many of their teachings in the form of proverbs, precepts, epigrams. They presented concrete cases, real or imaginary, to train their pupils in the application of legal principles. Parable and allegory were employed for illustration. Public discussions between differ- ent scribes were frequently held. Upon Sabbaths and feast days, it was customary for various scribes to assemble "on the terrace of the Temple and there publicly to teach and expound, the utmost liberty being given of asking questions, discussing, objecting and otherwise taking intelligent part in the lectures. "'° In their groups of select pupils as well as in public they made large use of the question and answer method, the pupils as well as the master asking questions.
The study and the teaching of the Law were alike sacred tasks. The Soferim would have regarded charging fixed fees for their ser- vices as trafficking in the wisdom of the Most High. Those without private incomes commonly supported themselves by some craft or trade.'^^
FESTIVALS.
The great national holidays of the Jews were national holy days. Through them the Jews recognized their dependence upon God for the fruits of the held, for the joys of home, for deliver- ance from enemies and for past and future prosperity. Every
"» In form, the Talmud consists of two parts, — the Mishna compiled about 190 A. D., and the Gemara or Commentary upon the Mishna, produced during the next three hundred years and compiled about 500 A. D.
■^0 Alfred Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, p. 120.
■^1 Franz Delitzsch, Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus, (tr. by B. Pick), pp. IZ, 81. For a list of the various trades followed by Rabbis, see article on "Rabbi," Jczvish Encyclopedia.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY.
249
period in Hebrew history contributed its portion to the heritage of national festivals. From nomadism came the Passover, originally a spring festival when the firstlings of the flock were offered up to Yahweh.'- From the agricultural stage came Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles.
The Jewish year included three hundred and fifty-four days. In the period of later Judaism, more than thirty days in the year, in addition to New Moons and Sabbaths, were devoted to cere- monial observances of some sort.'^^ The following table shows'* the more important of these feasts, their duration, and time of celebration.
Table of Most Important Jewish Feasts and Festivals (Pos/ A/accabaean
Period. )
|
Feast |
No. OF Days |
Jew Days |
ISH Month |
Approximate Current Calendar Time |
|
Passover 75 or Feast of Unleavened Bread |
7 |
From even- ing of I4tli to 2ist of |
Nisan Nisan |
The month of Nisan began with the New Moon of March and extended to the New Moon of April |
|
Pentecost 75 |
I |
6th of |
Sivvan |
Siwan included part of May and part of June |
|
Feast of Trumpets |
I |
ist of |
Tishri |
Tishri included part of Sep- tember and part October |
|
Day of Atonement (Strictly a fast, not a feast) |
I |
loth |
||
|
Feast of Tabernacles 75 |
7 |
15th to 21SI inclusive |
Tishri |
|
|
Shemini Atzereth Eight or Day of Conclusion |
I |
22nd |
Tishri |
|
|
Feast of Dedication |
8 |
25th ff. |
Kislew |
Kislew included part of Nov- ember and part of December |
|
Purim |
2 |
14th to 15th |
Adar |
Adar included parts of Feb- ruary and March |
From the standpoint of education, the significance of the fes- tivals was manifold. Probably no other factor in Jewish life played a more important part in stimulating and developing the racial re- ligious consciousness, national and individual. They formed a cycle of religious and patriotic revivals extending throughout the year. Through them each new generation was taught the story of
"- T. G. Soares, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, p. 173 ; Exodus xiii. 12.
"" T. G. Soares, The Social Institutions and Ideals of the Bible, p. 178.
■'■* Exclusive of New Moons and Sabbath. The data in this table have been compiled from various sources. See especially Elmer E. Harding, "Feasts and Fasts," Hasting's Bible Dictionary, I.
"^^ One of the three srrcat annual feasts.
250 THE OPEN COURT.
the great religious and political experiences of the race. Every religious festival was a period of training in connection with wor- ship; in connection with many of them definite provision was made for religious instruction. Parents were directed to instruct their children in advance or during the celebration in the origin of mean- ing of the festival. This private instruction was frequently supple- mented by instruction given in public by priests and scribes.
THE TEMPLE. Despite the rise of the teaching order of soferim and the multi- plication of synagogues, the Temple at Jerusalem never ceased to be a national center of religious education. Hither the people re- sorted to celebrate the great national festivals and here they were trained in forms of worship. Here, too, the carefully trained choirs of Levites sang the national songs of praise and in singing them taught them to the people. Indeed it was the Temple, accord- ing to Graetz, which furnished the pattern for the service in the thousand synagogues scattered throughout Judea and the diaspora. "The form of prayer used in the Temple became the model of the services in all prayer houses or houses of gathering."^" "The in- habitants of the country towns introduced in their own congrega- tions an exact copy of the divine service as it was conducted in (the Temple in) Jerusalem. "'^^ More than this it was at the hours of temple worship that the Jews everywhere gathered in their local synagogues," and it was toward the Holy City that every Jew, alone or in the congregation, turned his face when he prayed. The resemblance of the synagogue service to that of the temple will be seen by comparing the outline of service given above on page 239 with the following order of the temple morning song service which followed the dawn sacrifice.'^
ORDER OF TEMPLE MORNING PRAYER AND SONG SERVICE.
1. Selected psalms of praise and thanksgiving.
2. Response by the congregation.
3. Prayer and thanksgiving.
4. Reading of selections from the Law.
5. The Ten Commandments.
6. The Shema.
In addition to the instruction and training given through the services, public instruction was often given in the temple courts. T6 H. Graetz, History of the Jews, I, 399a. " Ibid., 401a. 78 Ibid., 399.
HEBREW EDUCATION IN SCHOOL AND SOCIETY. 251
This custom, probably antedating the time of Jeremiah, was followed in the days of Jesus and undoubtedly continued till the final destruc- tion of the Temple 70 A. D.
The Temple and its public services were national institutions.
"The Temple was the approach of the nation to their God
Its standard rites were performed in the name and for the sake of the whole people. The Tamid or standing sacrifice offered twice a day on the high altar was the offering of the nation. Every Jew contributed to its maintenance.'**. . . . Each of its celebrations was attended by a formal committee of the nation. . . ."^°
It is not within the purpose of the present account to enter upon a history of the Temple and its varying fortunes nor to describe the magnificence of its structure and of its services.*^ It arose aloft above the city on its holy hill like the temples of Athens. Here as in Greece, the lofty eminence and conspicuousness of its position contributed toward keeping it ever before the minds of the inhabi- tants of the city. Every day was ushered in by a national sacrifice, marked midway by a second one and closed with a national service of prayer.
"After midnight the Captain of the Temple together with a number of priests arose from their beds and with torches in their hands went through the Temple. ... to see if everything was in a state of preparation for worship at the dawn of day. As soon as the watchers upon the Tempel ramparts could perceive in the morning light the city of Hebron, the signal was given: 'the light shines on Hebron' and the sacrificial victim fell under the hand of the priest,"
"Immediately after the immolation came a service of prayer with music and song. This was followed by the burning of incense upon the golden altar, at which the priestly blessing was pronounced. The sacrificing priest then performed his functions at the Altar of Burnt-oft'ering, while the Levites sang psalms, accompanied by the sound of tnnnpets. Two hours and a half from mid-day the even- ing worship began with the slaughter of the sacrificial lamb. Im- mediately after sunset the evening service of prayer was closed. "^^
^» By a decree of the council issued in the reign of Salome Alexandria, every Israelite, proselytes and freed slaves inchided, was required to pay at least one-half shekel a year to the support of the Temple. H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II, 52.
80 G. A. Smith, Jerusalem— to 70 A. D., II, 522d-523b.
81 For Biblical descriptions see 2 Chronicles xxix. 19-. [ ; Ezekiel xl-xli.
82 Condensed from M. Seidel, In the Time of Jesus, pp. 119-120.
81 For Biblical descriptions see 2 Chronicles xxix. 19-36; Ecclesiasticus 1 1-21 ; Ezekiel xl-xli.
252 THE OPEN COURT.
Not only was the Temple service fraught throughout with sym- bolism but the structure and organization of the Temple made it a monumental object lesson teaching the holiness, majesty and om- nipotence of Yahweh. "If Josephus be right, the vast entrance of the porch symbolized heaven ; the columns of the first veil, the ele- ments ; the seven lamps, the seven planets ; the twelve loaves of the Presence, the signs of the zodiac, and the circuit of the year ; the Altar of Incense. . . .that God is the possessor of all things."*^
The multitude of private sacrifices required of every Jew re- sulted in making the influence of the Temple individual as well as national. To visit Jerusalem and worship in the Temple became a life desire of every Jew. Thousands of pilgrims journeyed thither each year. The three great annual festivals, the Passover, the Pentecost, the Feast of the Tabernacles brought together Jews from all over the world. Many such returned home inspired and strength- ened in their faith, and better instructed in the approved methods of religious observances. Thus through the Temple religion and religious education were unified, standardized and nationalized.
The eft'ect of the Temple service in the first century of the Christian era upon a Hebrew child has been beautifully set forth by Edersheim and forms a fitting close to the discussion of the educative influence of the Temple.
"No one who had ever worshiped within the courts of Jehovah's house at Jerusalem could ever have forgotten the scenes he had witnessed or the words he had heard. Standing in that gorgeous, glorious building, and looking up its terraced vista, the child would watch with solemn awe, not unmingled with wonderment as the great throng of white-robed priests busily moved about, while the smoke of the sacrifice rose from the altar of burnt-offering. Then, amid the hushed silence of that vast multitude, they had all fallen down to worship at the time of incense. Again, on those steps that led up to the innermost sanctuary the priests had lifted their hands and spoken over the people the words of blessing ; and then, while the drink-oft'ering was poured out, the Levites' chant of Psalms had risen and swelled into a mighty volume ; the exquisite treble of the Levite children's voices being sustained by the rich round notes of the men, and accompanied by instrumental music. The Jewish child knew many of these words. They had been the earliest songs he had heard — almost his first lesson when clinging at a 'taph' to his mother. But now, in those white-marbled, gold-adorned halls, 83 G. A. Smith, Jerusalem— to 70 A. D., II, p. 257.
MISCELLANEOUS. 253
under heaven's bine canopy, and with such surroundings, they would fall upon his ear like sounds from another world, to wdiich the pro- longed threefold blasts from the silver trumpets of the priests would seem to waken him. And they were sounds from another world ; for, as his father would tell him, all that he saw was after the exact pattern of heavenly things which God had shown to Moses on Mount Sinai ; all that he heard was God-uttered, spoken by Jehovah Him- self through the mouth of His servant David, and of the other sweet singers of Israel. "^^'
MISCELLANEOUS.
A WOMAN FREE. A JVoiitaii Free and Other Pocuis^ is a collection of verses by Ruth Le Prade with an introduction by no less a personage than Edwin Markhani, and indeed the verses before us do not lack poetic inspiration and originality. Per- haps it is characteristic for the authoress that she seeks for freedom and does not know what freedom means. She declares her freedom saying:
"I am a woman free. Too long I was held captive in the dust. Too long My soul was surfeited with toil or ease And rotted as the pla3'thing of a slave. I am a woman free at last After the crumbling centuries of time. Free to achieve and understand; Free to become and live."
This is perhaps the historical explanation of the development of woman and she now becomes typical of "the free woman." Further down she joyfully exclaims :
"I am the free woman.
No longer a slave to man.
Or any thing in all the universe — • •
Not even to myself.
I am the free woman.
I hold and seek that which is mine :
Strength is mine and purity;
World work and cosmic love;
The glory and joy of ]\Iotherhood."
What is the woman free? Her sympathy is broad. She says:
"I have loved winds that wander, tossing the trees, tossing the silver leaves; Touching my body softly or with rude strength ; Blowing thru my hair; saluting me and passing on.
s-t A. Edersheim, In the Days of Christ, pp. 108-109.
1 A Woman Free and Other Poems. By Ruth. Published by J. F. Rowny Press, 937 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, Cal.
254 THE OPEN COURT.
"I have loved flowers that blow : Silver lilies, purple poppies, orange flowers, honeysuckles, pansies, lilacs, geraniums, violets.
"I have loved winds that wander — But I have loved men more.
I have passionately loved the flowers : poppies, orange flowers, geraniums, violets — •
"But more passionately have I loved the human flowers : The babies, the little children, the schoolboy and the schoolgirl, the young lovers, the old lovers, the mother, the father, the worker.
"Because I have clasped hands with nature I can clasp hands more know- ingly with man.
"Oh more than everything have I loved man. I have loved man more than God — For man is God made manifest."
"I am a woman and I love : I am a woman and I love — Not one man only, but all men ; Not one child only, but all children ; And not one nation, but the world."
One poem ends with the italicized lines :
"There is no price too great to pay for love. It is not possible to love too much!"
Her patron saint is Whitman :
"Dear Father, you called for those who were to justify you. Behold they appear!
"Oh why did you ask to be justified? To the understanding you are already justified; And to the rest you can never be.
"Does the earth need to be justified? or the sun? Wise men once said the earth was flat. The earth in its greatness was silent. And if I, gazing at the sun, Contend it gives no light — I merely prove myself a fool."
Our authoress is rather hard on the dry professor and devotes these lines to him :
"I said to the dry professor. In the midst of his dust and cobwebs: 'There is something higher than reason.' He laughed, thinking me a fool.
"Oh these exalters of reason, of the cold intellect ; These worshippers at the tombs of the dead; These men of petty vision and of rules !
MISCELLANEOUS. 255
With dead languages, dead philosophies, dead thoughts They shut themselves from the sunlight, And demand that others do likewise.
"They are but ghouls Feasting on the dead."
Possibly the professor praises reason as the best methods to argue about the truth, but he may after all know that life is worth more than an argument about life, and the health of the body better than an essay on health.
Formerly the body was regarded as the seat of sin ; the "free woman" praises it saying:
"I sing the beauty of the body ; The body of the man, of the woman, of the child, The body of youth, maturity, old age. I sing the beauty of the body, The human body strong and potent. The human body marvelous and strange!"
There are more poems containing the touch of true poetry such as lines on the caged bird and the caged tiger (pp. 45-46), the serpent in the grass (p. 54) ; on "the pane of glass" between the hungry man and food (p. 61), or "the man and the mirror" (p. 62), or "the flower of love" (p. 68) ; but we must leave them to the reader to find out that the free woman has a heart as good and womanly as ever a woman had. We will conclude by quoting the last poem, "Out of Chaos," which refers to the European war from the stand-, point of internationalism :
Out of Chaos.
"I sit alone and gaze over the world, I see Europe ravaged by the Fiend of War. I see the whole world tremble 'neath its feet.
"I see the men of Germany hating the men of England. I see the men of England hating the men of Germany. I see them butchering each other upon the bloody fields ; Dropping bombs upon each other ; Killing each other with poisonous gases. I see the men in the submarines sinking the huge vessels. I see the people leap into the black water — and disappear.
"I see the race warring against itself With all the hellish cruelty of civilization.
"Each nation prays unto its God for victory.
"I see the harvest of the thing called Patriotism Which was planted in the human heart as good — But which yields only race hatred, murder, cruelty, bestiality, ignorance.
"I see the harvest of the thing called Nationalism Which sets the nations at each other's throats.
"I sit alone and gaze over the world. Filled with unutterable anguish, dumb with pain.
J56 THE OPEN COURT.
"I sit alone and gaze over the world. And then my soul is lifted in a mighty shout Prophetic of the unity of man.
"I am a child of the world. I owe allegiance to no country more than another country; To no flag more than another flag; The boundary of no nation hems me in;
And I love no race of people more than another race of people. All humanity to me is sacred, And all humanity is one.
"(Shall the head be at war with the feet; And the hands seek to tear out the heart ; And the organism through ignorance destroy itself?)
"Oh a man is a man ! He is sacred and marvelous. It matters not where he was born ; Or the language that he speaks. His blood is precious. His flesh is wonderful. He is the child of God.
"I refuse to be robbed of my sanity. I refuse to murder my brother — who is part of myself. I extend my hands to him saying, 'You are my comrade and I love you.' "
Mysticism and Modern Life. By John IVright Buckham. New York: Abing- don Press, 1915. Pp. 256. Price $1.00 net. Dr. Buckham, for many years professor of Christian theology at Pacific Theological Seminary, has contributed largely to the modern literature and thought relating to mysticism in the religious life. He says at the start that this volume would, npt be so forbidding to the casual reader if he had sub- stituted "religious experience" for the much abused term "mysticism," but he uses the latter because he wishes to write of exactly that intense and significant type of religious experience. He defines mysticism as "spiritual enlighten- ment," and quotes among others Pepper's definition, "the realization of one's self with God." He says it is very near being synonymous with what is known as personal religion. "Any one who has, or believes he has, a direct experience of God is to that extent a mystic."' Dr. Buckham is doubtless justified in saying that it is by confounding mysticism as a whole with its exaggerated forms that certain popular misconceptions have become widespread and are not easily uprooted. A mystic is not a mere visionary. "Don Quixote is too far from genuine mysticism to be even a parody of it." In a chapter on "health mysticism," Dr. Buckham calls attention to certain inconsistencies of Christian Science and similar mystical cults that over-emphasize the physical and ma- terial. P
LIBRARY IDEALS
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Geometrical Lectures of Isaac Barrow
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