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EDITED    BY 

JOSEPH   JACOBS 


I. 

JEWISH    LIFE 
IN    THE    MIDDLE   AGES 

ABRAHAMS 


d- 


^^  ^^'^ 


JEWISH   LIFE 


IN    THt:    MIDDLE   AGES 


BY 


ISRAEL    ABRAHAMS,  M.A. 


150612 


Hondon 
MACMILLAN    AND    CO.,    Ltd. 

NEW  YORK:  THE  MACMILLAN  CO. 

1896 

\^All  rights  reserved  1 


OXFORD 

HORACE   HART,    PRINTER    TO    THE   UNIVERSITY 


TO   MY  WIFE 


PREFACE 

Though  I  have  everywhere  referred  to  the  works  from 
which  I  have  derived  incidental  facts,  or  from  which  I  have 
borrowed  quotations,  there  are  three  writers  to  whom 
I  should  like  to  express  my  more  general  indebtedness. 
The  works  of  Dr.  M.  Gudemann,  Dr.  A.  Berliner,  and 
Mr.  Joseph  Jacobs  have  been  of  constant  service  to  me. 
One  thing  I  have  done  to  justify  my  frequent  use  of  their 
works.  I  have  verified  their  quotations  wherever  possible. 
Indeed,  I  honestly  believe  that  not  five  in  a  hundred  of 
the  many  citations  made  in  the  course  of  the  following 
pages  have  been  set  down  without  reference  to  the  original 
sources.  Moreover,  a  large  proportion  of  my  quotations,  and 
almost  all  my  citations  from  Responsa^  have  been  made 
at  first  hand. 

Apart  from  the  help  that  I  derived  from  his  published 
works,  I  owe  to  Mr.  Jacobs  many  valuable  suggestions 
made  while  this  book  was  passing  through  the  printer's 
hands.  A  similar  remark  applies  to  Professor  W.  Bacher 
of  Buda-Pesth,  who  kindly  read  the  proof-sheets  and 
gave  me  some  useful  hints.     I  am  deeply  grateful  to  both 


viii  Preface. 

these  gentlemen    for   the   services  which   they  so    readily 
rendered. 

My  indebtedness  to  another  friend  has  been  of  a  different 
character,  for  it  is  to  him  that  I  owe  the  very  possibility 
of  writing  this  book.  From  Mr.  S.  Schechter,  Reader  in 
Rabbinic  in  the  Cambridge  University,  I  learned  in  years 
gone  by  my  first  real  lessons  in  research  ;  he  introduced 
me  to  authorities,  he  gave  me  facts  from  the  store-house  of 
his  memory,  and  theories  from  the  spring  of  his  original 
thought.  To  him  my  final  word  of  thanks  is  affectionately 
written. 

July.   1896. 


CONTENTS 


Preface .     vn 

Introduction xvii 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  CENTRE  OF   SOCIAL   LIFE. 

Social  functions   of  the  synagogue.     Relations  of  the  Jewish  life         \. 
to    European   conditions  in   the  middle   ages.      The   synagogue 
gs_a  moral  agency.     Flagellation.     Announcements  of  business 
transactions  during  public  worship,   vjews  share  one  another's 
joys  and  sorrows.     The  wedding  odes.     Martyrologies  •         .         1-14 


CHAPTER  n. 

LIFE  IN   THE  SYNAGOGUE. 

Attitude   of  Jews   towards    the    synagogue.      Jewish   notion  of 

decorum  at  prayer.  Special  praying  dress.  Gossip  during  divine 
service.  Decay  of  the  sermon  in  the  middle  ages.  The  sale  of 
synagogal  'honours.'  Separation  of  the  sexes.  Ecclesiastical 
art.  Synagogue  architecture,  decoration,  and  music.  The 
synagogal  rights  of  boys.  Maintaining  discipline.  Synagogue 
and  school 15-34 


Contents. 
CHAPTER  III. 

COMMUNAL  ORGANIZATION. 


PAGH 


Rabbis  and  the  civil  government.  Rabbinical  synods.  The 
taxation  of  the  Jews.  The  poll-tax.  Growth  of  an  aristocracy 
of  wealth.  Severe  treatment  of  informers  by  the  Jewish  au- 
thorities ;  the  death  penalty.  Jewish  jurisdiction.  Prisons. 
Excommunication.  Jewish  communal  officers.  Date  and  method 
of  election.  The  Shamash  and  the  Schulklopfer.  Government 
by  tekanah  or  voluntary  ordinance.  Jewish  life  regulated  by 
a  series  of  such  communal  ordinances        ....         35-61 

CHAPTER  IV. 

INSTITUTION   OF  THE  GHETTO. 

Origin  of  the  name  'ghetto.'  Jewish  tendency  to  concentrate 
in  separate  quarters  of  the  town.  Various  synonyms  for  ghetto 
in  Spain  and  Germany.  Motive  for  founding  the  ghetto.  Over- 
crowding. Ghetto  rules  and  the  Jus  chazaka  or  tenant-right. 
The  public  bath.  The  Jews'  inn.  The  dancing-hall.  The 
cemetery  or  *  House  of  Life.'  Emblems  on  the  tombs.  Family 
vaults 62-82 


CHAPTER  V. 

SOCIAL  MORALITY. 


(pomestk  virtues  of  "tHe7e^^^.  The  Jewish  character.  \  The  man 
and  the  home.  Marital  fidelity.  Idealization  of  passion.  \The 
marriage  of  Rabbis.  \^  Absentee  husbands.  The  Jewish  badge 
and  moral  offences 83-95 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  SLAVE  TRADE. 


Cessation  of  slavery  among  Jews  after  the  Babylonian  exile.     The 
Church   and  slavery  in  the  middle   ages.     Jewish  slave-dealers 


Contents,  xi 

rAGB 

and  slave-owners.  Treatment  of  slaves.  The  general  subject  of 
social  morality  resumed  :  Jews  free  from  serious  crimes.  Clipping 
the  coinage.  Jew  and  Gentile.  Legal  fictions.  The  annulment 
of  vows 96-112 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MONOGAMY  AND  THE   HOME. 

Monogamy  a  Jewish  custom  in  pre-Christian  times.  Talmudic 
view  of  marriage  is  based  on  monogamy.  Bigamy  exceptionally 
allowed  both  by  Church  and  Synagogue.  Evil  influence  of  Islam. 
Prevalence  of  divorce.  Parents  and  children.  Jewish  salutations 
and  tokens  of  respect.  Home  discipline.  Religion  and  the 
..home  life.  The  married  Rabbi.  Friday  night ;  the  meal  and 
the  hymns.     Table-songs.     Coffee  and  tobacco    .         .        .     1 13-139 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HOME  LIFE  {continued). 

Family  feasts  and  fasts.  Jahrzeit.  Hospitality  and  the  growth 
of  travelling  mendicants.  'Commandment  meals.'  Taxes  on 
hospitality.  Stone  houses  of  the  Jews.  A  rich  Jew's  house  in 
Regensburg  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Hours  for  ^neals  on  week- 
days and  festivals.  Effects  of  mysticism  on  the  home  life  of  the 
Jews.  The  position  of  woman.  Christians  in  the  service  of  Jews. 
Jewish  domestics.     Effects  of  persecution     ....     140-162 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LOVE  AND  COURTSHIP. 

Hebrew  love-poems  by  Spanish  Jews.  Satires  on  women. 
Growth  of  child-marriage.  Chivalry.  The  professional  match- 
maker or  Shadchan.  Marriage  by  proxy.  Courtship  at  the 
fairs.  Results  of  early  marriage.  The  betrothal  ceremony. 
Introduction  of  the  wedding  ring.     Marriage  superstitions     .    163-185 


PAGE 


xii  Contents. 


CHAPTER  X. 

/  MARRIAGE  CUSTOMS. 

The  *  Memory  of  Zion.'  Wedding  hymns  and  epithalamia.  The 
bridal  procession.  The  wreath.  Faces  nuptiales.  Casting  nuts 
and  wheat  at  the  bride.  Christians  employed  to  provide  wedding 
music  on  the  Sabbath.  The  Marshallik.  The  marriage  dis- 
course. The  chuppah  or  bridal  canopy.  Liturgical  additions 
on  the  occasion  of  weddings.  The  well  of  St.  Keyne.  The 
wedding  ceremony  in  the  fifteenth  century.  The  Seven  Bene- 
dictions       186-210 


CHAPTER  XI. 

TRADES   AND  OCCUPATIONS. 

Benjamin  of  Tudela  and  Jewish  merchants  in  the  twelfth  century. 
International  trade.  Jews  as  commercial  intermediaries  between 
the  Orient  and  Europe.  Jewish  artisans :  dyers,  silk-manufac- 
turers, glass-workers,  makers  of  metal  implements,  printers,  cloth- 
manufacturers,  dealers  in  wool.  Jerusalem  in  1263.  Agricultural 
pursuits.  Opposition  of  the  medieval  guilds.  The  Bristol 
copper  trade.  Sicilian  Jews  as  makers  of  agricultural  implements. 
Rabbis  as  manual  workers 211-229 


CHAPTER  XII. 

TRADES    AND    OCCUPATIONS   {continued). 

Jews  prefer  employment  in  which  skilled  labour  is  needed. 
Dangerous  occupations.  Jews  as  soldiers  and  sailors.  Navigation. 
The  East  India  Company.  Jews  and  Columbus.  A  'famous 
Jewish  pirate.'  Jews  and  medicine.  A  day  in  the  life  of  Maimo- 
nides.  Usury.  Jews  forced  into  the  trade  in  money.  Jewish 
and  Christian  usurers.  A  benevolent  money-lender,  Yechiel  of 
Pisa.     Royal  usurers 230-244 

Appendices.    Occupations  of  the  Jews       .       .       .    245-250 


Contents.  xiii 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  JEWS  AND   THE   THEATRE. 

PAGE 

Ancient  antipathy  to  the  theatre  survives  in  the  middle  ages. 
Music  cultivated  by  medieval  Rabbis.  Jewish  jugglers  and  lion- 
tamers.  The  stage  Jew.  Jews  forced  to  supply  carnival  sports. 
Carnival-plays.  The  Jews  in  the  Elizabethan  drama.  Generosity 
to  the  Jewess  on  the  stage.     Shakespeare,  Marlowe,  and  Lessing. 

251-259 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  PURIM-PLAY  AND  THE  DRAMA   IN   HEBREW. 

Dramatic  performances  in  the  middle  ages.  The  growth  of  the 
Purim-play.  Joyous  licence  in  the  synagogue.  Earliest  Purim- 
plays.  The  drama  in  Hebrew  and  its  importance  in  the  social 
life  of  the  Jews.  Amsterdam  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Moses 
Zacut  and  Moses  Chayim  Luzzatto 260-272 


CHAPTER  XV. 

COSTUME  IN  LAW  AND  FASHION. 

'^The  ethics  of  dress.     The  attire  of  _worriea  and  4h€   marriage n<\ 

^settlements.  Covering  tlie  head  mprayer.  Was  there  a  Jewish 
costume  ?  Varying  costumes  of  the  Jews  in  different  countries. 
Restrictions  on  Jewish  dress  in  Mohammedan  lands.  Eastern 
fashions.     Costumes  in  illuminated  Hebrew  MSS.  Amulets.    273-290 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  JEWISH   BADGE. 

Extravagance  in  dress  and  the  Italian  sumptuary  laws.  Pope 
Innocent  III  introduces  the  Jewish  badge.  Motive  of  the  inno- 
vation. Shape,  size,  and  colour  of  the  badge  in  various  countries. 
Crescent  and  full  moon.  Two  tables  of  stone.  The  Jewess'  veil. 
Effects  of  the  badge  combined  with  enforced  life  in  the  ghetto. 
Deterioration  in  taste 291-306 


xiv  Contents, 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PRIVATE  AND   COMMUNAL  CHARITIES.      THE    RELIEF   OF 
THE  POOR. 

r-ACE 

The  rights  of  poverty.  Itinerant  mendicants.  Suppression  of 
ostentatious  pauperism.  Relief  in  kind,  tamchui.  Charity  and 
almsgiving.  The  universality  of  benevolence.  Communal  inn. 
The  kupah,  or  relief  in  money.  Collection  and  distribution  of 
charitable  funds.  Periodical  assessments  and  voluntary  con- 
tributions. The  tithe.  Circular  letters  granted  in  special 
cases 307-323 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

PRIVATE    AND    COMMUNAL     CHARITY     {continued).       THE     SICK 
AND  THE  CAPTIVE. 

Growth  of  benevolent  societies.  Description  of  charitable  societies 
in  Rome.  Visiting  the  sick.  Etiquette  in  the  sick-room.  Gene- 
rosity of  Jewish  physicians.  Epidemics.  The  Black  Death. 
Burial  societies  or  holy  leagues.  Ransoming  captives.  Suffer- 
ings of  Jewish  travellers 324-339 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  MEDIEVAL  SCHOOLS. 

The  Renaissance  and  the  Jews.  The  Talmudical  scheme  of  edu- 
cation. The  education  of  girls.  Learned  women.  Use  of  the 
vernacular  in  synagogue.  Translations  of  the  prayers.  Cere- 
mony of  introducing  the  boy  to  school.  Course  of  instruction 
in  the  elementary  schools.  The  love  for  books.  Verse-writing  in 
Spain.     Caligraphy 340-356 


INTRODUCTION 

The  expression  '  Middle  Ages '  is  often  employed  in  a  very 
elastic  sense,  but  as  applied  to  the  inner  life  of  the  Jews  it  has 
little  or  no  relevancy.  There  was  neither  more  nor  less  medie- 
valism about  Jewish  life  in  the  ninth  than  there  was  in  the 
fourteenth  century.  If  medievalism  implies  moral  servitude  to 
a  Church  and  material  servitude  to  a  polity — a  polity  known  in 
one  form  as  Imperialism  and  in  another  as  feudalism — the  Jews 
had  no  opportunity  for  the  latter  and  no  inclination  for  the  former. 
The  Synagogue  was  the  centre  of  life,  but  it  was  not  the  custodian 
of  thought.  If  Judaism  ever  came  to  exercise  a  tyranny  over 
the  Jewish  mind,  it  did  so  not  in  the  middle  ages  at  all,  but  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  A  revolt  against  medievalism 
such  as  occurred  in  Europe  during  and  at  the  close  of  the  Renais- 
sance may  be  said  to  have  marked  Jewish  life  towards  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

But  this  absence  of  medievalism  from  Jewish  life  is  quite 
consistent  with  the  fact  that  medievalism  produced  lasting  effects 
on  the  Jews.  On  the  Jews,  the  old  feudal  manners  left  traces 
which  endured  long  after  Europe  had  grown  to  modern  ways. 
As  Europe  emerges  from  the  medieval  period,  the  Jews  pass  more 
and  more  emphatically  into  a  special  relation  towards  the  govern- 
ment.    Instead  of  becoming  a  part  of  the  general  population^  as 

b 


xviii  Introduction. 

the  Jews  had  often  been  in  the  earHer  centuries  of  the  Christian 
era,  they  are  thrust  out  of  the  general  life  into  a  distinct  category. 
One  has  but  to  compare  the  Prayer  for  the  Queen  as  it  still  appears 
in  the  Anglo-Jewish  ritual  with  its  form  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  'May  the  supreme  King  of  kings/  says  the  Jewish 
version, '  in  His  mercy  put  compassion  into  her  heart  and  into  the 
hearts  of  her  counsellors  and  nobles,  that  they  may  deal  kindly 
with  us  and  with  all  Israel.'  The  modern  Jew  resents  this 
language,  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  its  medieval  tone  remains 
the  keynote  of  millions  of  Jewish  lives.  In  Russia  to-day  the 
Jews  are  subject  to  special,  distinctive  legislation,  similar  to  that 
under  which  Jews  groaned  everywhere  from  the  thirteenth  to  the 
eighteenth  centuries.  At  the  moment  of  writing,  news  comes  to 
hand  of  a  promised  amelioration  of  the  circumstances  of  the 
Russian  Jews.  '  It  is  generally  understood,'  says  the  Odessa 
correspondent  of  the  Daily  News  for  July  4,  'that  this  latest 
reopening  of  the  Russo-Hebrew  question  is  chiefly  due  to  the 
generous  and  sympathetic  instincts  of  the  young  Empress/  Here, 
then,  we  have  the  old  medieval  position  reproduced.  The  chattel 
of  the  ruler,  the  Jews  had  no  room  for  hope  but  in  the  ruler's 
personal  clemency  and  humanity.  The  fact  that  this  state  of  things 
survived  all  over  Europe  up  to  the  era  of  the  French  Revolution 
added  to  the  circumstance  that  in  the  sixteenth  to  eighteenth 
centuries  the  Jews  fell  under  a  subservience  to  Rabbinical 
authority  and  custom  which  can  only  be  described  as  medieval, 
rendered  it  impossible  for  me  to  confine  my  attention  to  the  life 
of  the  Jews  in  the  middle  ages  proper.  Though,  however,  I  have 
freely  carried  on  the  story  in  some  direction  to  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  I  have  for  the  most  part  avoided 
details  which  belong  to  periods  later  than  the  fifteenth  century. 
The  great  bulk  of  the  material  used  is  far  older  than  this.  But 
I  hope  that  I  shall  be  pardoned  for  sometimes  passing  the  limits 
assigned  by  the  most  liberal  interpretation  to  the  expression 
'  Middle  Ages.' 

Partly  by  good  fortune,  the  Jews  influenced  European  life  in 
the  middle  ages  proper,  despite  their  exceptional  treatment.     The 


Introduction.  xix 

year  1492  was  the  very  culminating  point  of  the  Renaissance. 
In  1492  the  expedition  of  Charles  VIII  to  Naples  opened  Italy 
to  French,  Spanish,  and  German  influences.  But  in  the  same 
year  the  Jews  were  also  driven  in  large  numbers  to  the  Italian 
coasts,  for  1492  by  a  strange  coincidence  saw  at  once  some  Jews 
steering  Columbus  to  the  New  World  across  the  ocean,  and 
others  cast  adrift  from  their  beloved  Spain.  How  much  these 
Spanish  exiles  did  for  the  culture  of  Northern  Europe  has  never 
yet  been  fully  told.  Baruch  Spinoza  was  but  the  most  eminent 
of  many  influential  personalities.  In  England  Jewish  influence 
was  spiritual,  not  personal.  There  were  no  Jews  round  the 
table  of  King  James  I's  compilers  of  the  Authorised  Version, 
but  David  Kimchi  was  present  in  spirit.  The  influence  of  his 
Commentary  on  the  Bible  is  evident  on  every  page  of  that  noble 
translation. 

It  is  more  important  to  consider  the  position  of  the  Jews  in 
the  earlier  stages  of  the  progress  from  old  to  new  forms  of  life  in 
Europe.  That  the  Jews  played  a  large  part  in  the  transmission  of 
the  Graeco- Arabic  philosophy  from  Islam  to  Christianity  is  unani- 
mously admitted.  Judaism  here  filled  the  mother's  function  in 
seeking  to  reconcile  her  two  daughters  in  the  spirit.  We  must 
speak  less  confidently  of  the  Jewish  influence  on  the  great 
European  Universities.  But  while  these  remained  cosmopolitan, 
as  they  did  till  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  it  is  obvious 
that  their  doors  were  not  closely  shut  against  Jews  and  Jewish 
ideas.  The  older  Universities  were  not  created  by  clerics,  though 
their  charters  were  subsequently  confirmed  from  Rome.  '  To  the 
Jews,'  says  Professor  Andrew  White  in  his  recent  Warfare  of 
Science  with  Theology  (ii.  33),  '  is  largely  due  the  building  up  of 
the  School  of  Salerno,  which  we  find  flourishing  in  the  tenth 
century.  .  .  .  Still  more  important  is  the  rise  of  the  School  of 
Montpellier;  this  was  due  almost  entirely  to  Jewish  physicians, 
and  it  developed  medical  studies  to  a  yet  higher  point,  doing 
much  to  create  a  medical  profession  worthy  of  the  name  through- 
out southern  Europe.'  Mr.  Rashdall,  on  the  other  hand,  in  his 
Universities   of  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages  (i.  80),  asserts  that 

b2 


XX  Introduction. 

Salerno  was  in  its  origin,  and  long  continued  to  be,  entirely 
independent  of  Oriental  influences.  But  Mr.  Rashdall  admits 
(ibid.  p.  85)  that  *  by  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  Arabic 
medicine  (i.e.  Jewish  medicine)  was  everywhere  in  full  possession 
of  the  Medical  Faculties.'  Nor  was  this  restricted  to  Italy.  Among 
the  books  prescribed  in  the  Statute  of  the  Faculty  of  Medicine  of 
the  Paris  University,  circ.  1270,  were  'the  works  of  the  Jewish 
physician  Isaac'  (op.  cit.,  i.  429).  It  is  not  easy  for  a  layman 
to  steer  a  safe  course  between  these  conflicting  statements,  but 
I  cannot  think  that  Mr.  Rashdall  has  done  justice  to  Jewish 
physicians  when  he  dismisses  their  claims  in  these  words :  '  The 
most  valuable  Arabic  contributions  to  medicine  were  chiefly  in 
the  region  of  Medical  Botany.  The  Arabs  added  some  new 
remedies  to  the  medieval  Pharmacopeia,  but  against  their  services 
in  this  respect  must  be  set  their  extensive  introduction  of  Astro- 
logical and  Alchemistic  fancies  into  the  theory  and  practice  of 
Medicine.'  The  researches  of  Dr.  Steinschneider,  which  seem  to 
have  been  entirely  overlooked  by  recent  writers,  would  make  one 
pause  before  accepting  this  sweeping  indictment.  If  there  was 
one  characteristic  excellence  in  Jewish  medicine  in  the  middle 
ages,  it  was  precisely  its  dependence,  not  on  authority  or  mystery, 
but  on  actual  trial  or  experiment.  'Do  not  apply  a  remedy 
which  thou  hast  not  thoroughly  tested,'  wrote  Judah  Ibn  Tibbon 
for  his  son's  guidance  in  the  twelfth  century.  Jewish  doctors 
were  placed  under  such  strict  and  jealous  surveillance  that  they 
urged  one  another  '  never  to  use  a  cure  the  efficacy  of  which 
they  could  not  prove  by  scientific  reasons.'  The  assertion  that 
the  great  Jewish  doctors  of  the  middle  ages  were  alchemists  and 
astrologers  is  very  far  indeed  from  the  truth.  So  imperfectly  are 
the  facts  yet  known  with  regard  to  Jewish  scientists  in  the  middle 
ages,  that  I  feel  convinced  that  further  information  will  render  it 
necessary  to  revise  such  strictures  as  I  have  made  (on  p.  234 
below)  on  the  unscientific  tastes  of  French  Jews.  Mr.  C.  Trice 
Martin,  of  the  Record  Office,  informs  me  that  he  has  found 
documents  proving  that  Franco-Jewish  doctors  were  in  repute 
in  England  before  the  thirteenth  century — a  fact  which  implies 


Introduction.  xxi 

more  knowledge  of  medicine  among  French  Jews  than  I  have 
allowed  for. 

I  have  written  at  some  length  on  this  subject,  for  it  is  obviously 
of  great  moment  to  realize  how  much  or  how  little  the  European 
movements  of  the  middle  ages  were  affected  by  Jewish  influences. 
It  seems  to  me  that  far  too  slighting  an  attitude  is  now  fashionable 
towards  the  function  of  intermediation.  That  the  Jews  were 
the  great  scientific,  commercial,  and  philosophical  intermediaries 
of  the  middle  ages  is  not  denied.  But  what  is  not  usually 
admitted  is,  how  much  of  progress  consists  simply  in  the  trans- 
mission of  ideas  and  the  exchange  of  articles  of  commerce.  Take 
the  great  medieval  University  of  Paris.  This  became  the  home 
of  Scholasticism,  but,  says  Mr.  Rashdall  (p.  354),  *  Aristotle  came 
to  Paris  in  an  orientalized  dress.'  The  matter  went  far  deeper 
than  the  dress,  however.  The  intellectual  movement  in  the 
maturity  of  the  nations  of  Europe  was  everywhere  preceded  by 
a  revolt  against  the  Church.  In  France  the  revolt  occurred  in 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries^  and  is  associated  with  the 
Albigensian  heresy.  In  England  the  fourteenth  century  saw  the 
rise  of  Lollardism ;  in  Bohemia  the  real  foundation  of  the  great 
Prague  University  was  connected,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  with 
the  reforms  of  the  Hussites.  Now  the  second  of  these  movements 
was,  from  the  theological  point  of  view,  undoubtedly  a  Judaic 
reaction.  As  to  the  first  and  third,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that 
the  ruling  powers  regarded  the  Jews  as  the  fomentors  of  the 
movements,  and  paid  them  in  bloody  coin  for  their  assumed 
participation.  To  assert  for  the  Jews  this  claim — that  they  were 
intermediaries  of  ideas  as  well  as  of  commercial  products — is, 
I  submit,  to  claim  for  them  a  great  and  not  ignoble  role.  The 
old  familiar  notion  that  the  medieval  Jew  was  a  ghoul  solely 
occupied  with  usury  and  other  blood-sucking  pastimes,  has  been 
too  often  shattered  to  need  a  word  of  further  argument.  The 
real  services  of  Jews  to  commerce  have,  however,  I  hope  been 
made  a  little  clearer  in  the  course  of  the  present  work.  Those 
who  would  prefer  to  read  some  of  the  story  in  the  work  of 
a  Christian  writer  may  be  recommended  to  Bedarride's  interesting 


xxii  Introduction. 

treatise  on  Les  Juifs  e7i  France^  en  Italie^  et  en  Espagne  (2nd 
ed.,  1861). 

Perhaps  of  more  importance  to  the  Jews  themselves  is  the 
reverse  phase  of  this  relation.  An  explanation  of  certain  defects 
of  Jewish  life  is  often  sought  in  the  superficial  generalization  that 
the  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  were  what  the  middle  ages  made  them. 
In  truth  the  effect  of  external  pressure  was  negative  rather  than 
positive.  The  Jews  suffered  more  from  the  dispiriting  calms  of  life 
within  the  ghetto  than  from  the  passionate  storms  of  death  that 
raged  without  it.  The  anti-social  crusade  of  the  medieval  Church 
against  the  Jews  did  more  than  slay  its  thousands.  It  deprived 
the  Jews  of  the  very  conditions  necessary  for  the  full  development 
of  their  genius.  The  Jewish  nature  does  not  produce  its  rarest 
fruits  in  a  Jewish  environment.  I  am  far  from  asserting  that 
Judaism  is  a  force  so  feeble  that  its  children  sink  into  decay  so 
soon  as  they  are  robbed  of  the  influence  of  forces  foreign  to  itself. 
But  it  was  ancient  Alexandria  that  produced  Philo,  medieval 
Spain  Maimonides,  modern  Amsterdam  Spinoza.  The  ghetto 
had  its  freaks,  but  the  men  just  named  were  not  born  in  ghettos. 
And  how  should  it  be  otherwise  ?  The  Jew  who  should  influence 
the  world  could  not  arise  in  the  absence  of  a  world  to  influence. 
You  cannot  tie  a  knot  without  a  cord ;  you  cannot  be  an  inter- 
mediary if  you  have  no  extremes  to  join.  The  Jewish  genius  is 
not  of  the  kind  that  plants  its  seed,  and  leaves  it  for  the  silent 
centuries  to  assimilate  it  and  mature  its  fruits.  It  needs  hving 
hearts  for  its  soil,  and  the  w^hole  world  is  only  wide  enough  to 
provide  them.  The  defects  of  the  Jewish  character  prove  this  as 
well  as  its  virtues.  Most  of  its  defects  are  the  result  either  of 
isolation,  or  of  reaction  after  isolation. 

Jews  themselves  are  rather  weary  of  the  discovery  that  there 
nevertheless  was  life  within  the  walls  of  the  ghettos ;  life  with 
ideals  and  aspirations ;  with  passions,  c  nd  even  human  nature. 
Abraham  Ibn  Ezra,  four  centuries  before  Shakespeare,  protested 
that  a  Jew  has  eyes ;  but  somehow  it  has  needed  Mr.  Zangwill  to 
rediscover  this  for  the  English  world.  I  confess  that  in  this  book 
I  have  ventured  to  take  so  much  for  granted.    Mr.  Zangwill's  real 


Introduction.  xxiii 

discovery  is  not  that  there  was  life,  but  that  there  was  independent 
life.  It  is  true  that  the  Jewish  mind  does  not  reach  its  highest  in 
a  narrow  environment^  but  it  does  reach  its  most  characteristic. 
Several  times  in  the  course  of  this  work  the  familiar  contrast  has 
been  drawn  between  the  Jews  of  Spain  and  those  of  Northern 
Europe,  mostly  to  the  advantage  of  the  former.  But  it  is 
a  striking  fact  that  the  '  German '  Jews,  more  characteristically 
Jewish  than  their  Spanish  brethren,  ended  by  gaining  control  of  the 
whole  of  European  Judaism.  The  Jewish  schools  in  the  Rhineland 
flourished  not,  as  in  Moorish  Spain,  in  imitation  of  neighbouring 
illumination,  but  in  contrast  to  surrounding  obscurantism. 
There  was  no  Christian  University  in  Germany  till  the  middle  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  but  the  Rhinelands  had  what  were  prac- 
tically Jewish  Universities  in  the  era  of  the  first  Crusade.  In 
Northern  Europe  generally  an  age  of  friars  succeeded  an  age  of 
monks,  and  this  further  made  Judaism  more  Jewish.  For  the 
friars  rendered  splendid  services  to  education,  but  their  interest 
in  education  was  not  intellectual.  It  was  purely  religious  ;  it  was 
a  means  to  an  end.  Hence  the  very  friars  who  helped  Christian 
Europe  to  the  Universities  drove  the  Jews  into  ghettos,  in  the 
hopes  of  securing  for  the  first,  and  torturing  from  the  latter, 
a  saving  belief  in  the  dogmas  of  the  Church.  The  cosmo- 
politanism of  the  older  European  Universities  of  Bologna  and 
Paris  might  have  resisted  this  narrowing  of  the  University  ideal, 
but  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  provincial  spirit  grew  in  Europe,  and 
the  result  was — national  Universities.  The  brilliant  intellectual 
promise  of  the  twelfth  century  renaissance  fell  before  the  influence 
of  the  friars  and  of  the  national  erections  which  replaced  feudalism. 
There  were  no  crowds  of  foreign  students  at  Bologna  and  Paris  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  as  there  had  been  in  the  more  illustrious 
youth  of  those  centres  of  medieval  learning.  If  feudalism  had 
no  obvious  place  for  the  Jews,  the  nationalism  of  the  fifteenth 
century  had  no  place  at  all  for  them.  The  nineteenth  century 
has  seen  a  new  reaction  towards  local  patriotisms,  and  the  intense 
territorial  nationalism  of  to-day  once  more  protests  against  the 
possibility  of  the  assimilation  of  different  races  into  one  nationality. 


xxiv  Introduction. 

Hence  modern  anti-vSemitism — fanned  no  doubt  by  certain 
obvious  Jewish  failings,  but  fuelled  by  the  provincial  fifteenth 
century  conception  of  what  a  nation  means. 

The  effect  of  this  on  the  Jews  was  obvious.  Great  religious 
movements,  or  at  least  new  aspects  of  old  ones,  distinguished 
Jewish  life,  but  these  influenced  only  the  Jews  themselves,  not 
the  world  at  large.  Mr.  Schechter,  in  his  Studies  in  Judaism^  has 
recently  proved  that  the  religious  horizon  of  the  Jews  was  a  very 
wide  one  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  It  is 
curious  that  the  movements  which  Mr.  Schechter  describes  all 
emanated  from  the  '  German '  Jews :  from  Jevvs  who  were  not 
uninfluenced  by  foreign  ideas,  but  who  were  not  moved  or 
dominated  by  them.  The  original  thought  of  these  Jews  was 
born  with  them ;  but  it  did  not  take  to  travelling.  In  brief, 
Judaism,  with  no  hope  and  no  dream  of  territorial  nationalism, 
nationalized  itself.  I  confess  that  when  I  undertook  to  write 
of  Jewish  life  in  the  middle  ages,  I  did  so  under  the  im- 
pression that  Jewish  life  was  everywhere  more  or  less  similar, 
and  that  it  would  be  possible  to  present  a  generic  image  of  it. 
Deeper  research  has  completely  dispelled  this  belief.  Possibly 
the  reader  may  note  with  disappointment  that  my  book  reveals 
no  central  principle,  that  it  is  a  survey  less  of  Jewish  Hfe 
than  of  Jewish  lives.  What  misled  me  into  attempting  the 
impossible  task  of  which  this  work  is  the  result  was  my 
perception  that,  since  the  fifteenth  century,  Judaism  has  worn 
the  same  family  face  all  over  Europe.  But  in  the  middle 
ages  this  was  certainly  not  the  case.  Judaism,  I  repeat,  became 
nationalized  by  the  fall  of  feudalism  and  the  rise  of  the  ghettos. 
The  superficial  appearance  of  a  national  entity  has,  I  fear, 
originated  the  movement  now  popular  with  some  modern  Jews 
in  favour  of  creating  a  Jewish  state,  politically  independent  and 
perhaps  religiously  homogeneous.  I  speak  regretfully,  because 
one  does  not  like  to  see  enthusiasm  wasted  over  a  conception 
which  has  no  roots  in  the  past  and  no  fruits  to  offer  for  the  future. 
The  idealized  love  of  Zion  which  grew  up  in  the  middle  ages  had 
no  connexion  whatever  with  this  process  of  nationalization  through 


Introduction.  xxv 

which  Judaism  passed.  Still  less  was  it  connected  with  an 
aspiration  for  religious  homogeneity  which  did  not  exist  in  the 
middle  ages,  and  is  not  likely  to  survive  in  Judaism  now  that  it 
has  once  more  become  denationalized.  National  aspirations  are 
nursed  by  persecution,  but  the  medieval  longing  for  the  Holy 
Land  grew  up  not  in  persecution,  but  in  the  sunshine  of  literature. 
The  Spanish-Jewish  poet,  to  use  Heine's  famous  figure,  came  to 
love  Jerusalem  as  the  medieval  troubadour  loved  his  lady,  and 
the  love  grew  with  the  lays.  Jehuda  Halevi  uses  the  very 
language  of  medieval  love  in  this  passionate  address  to  his 
'woe-begone  darhng.' 

Oh  !  who  will  lead  me  on 

To  seek  the  spots  where,  in  far-distant  years, 

The  angels  in  their  glory  dawned  upon 

Thy  messengers  and  seers  ? 

Oh  !  who  will  give  me  wings 

That  I  may  fly  away, 

And  there,  at  rest  from  all   my  wanderings, 

The  ruins  of  my  heart  among  thy  ruins  lay? 

The  same  Jehuda  Halevi  who  sings  thus,  declared  that  Israel 
was  to  the  nations  as  the  heart  to  the  body — not  a  nation  of  the 
nations,  but  a  vitalizing  element  to  them  all. 

The  change  in  point  of  view  between  Jewish  life  in  the  middle 
ages  and  in  the  sixteenth  century  is  well  represented  in  a  curious 
literary  phenomenon,  viz.  the  Rabbinical  correspondence.  If  my 
book  be  found  to  possess  any  originality,  it  will,  I  venture  to 
think,  be  due  to  the  extensive  use  I  have  made  of  the  facts 
revealed  in  the  Responsa  literature.  The  Geonim  of  Persia  who 
swayed  Judaism  during  the  seventh  to  the  eleventh  centuries,  and 
their  spiritual  successors  the  Rabbis  of  North  Africa  and  Spain, 
carried  on  a  world-wide  correspondence.  The  Answers  which  they 
made  to  questions  addressed  to  them  constitute  one  of  the  most 
fertile  sources  of  information  for  Jewish  life  in  the  middle  ages. 
I  have  explained  in  a  prefatory  note  to  the  first  Index  the  use 
which  I  have  made  of  these  Rabbinical  Responses,  but  a  word  or 
two  may  here  be  added  in  illustration  of  what  precedes.    The 


xxvi  Introduction. 

Responses  of  the  later  French  and  German  Jews  are  far  more 
local.  Meir  of  Rothenburg  was  probably  a  greater  man  with  a 
greater  mind  than  some  of  his  Spanish  contemporaries,  but  the 
latter  corresponded  with  a  far  wider  circle  of  Jews.  True,  the  codi- 
fication of  Jewish  law  was  inaugurated  by  Spanish  Jews  in  the 
'golden  age,'  but  the  Code  which  finally  became  the  accepted 
guide  of  Judaism  was  the  work  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Codi- 
fication implies  the  suppression  of  local  variation,  but  in  the 
Responsa  of  the  later  French  and  German  Rabbis  there  is  already 
far  less  heterogeneity  of  habits  than  in  the  Responsa  of  the 
Spanish  Jews,  and  certainly  of  the  Geonim.  And  this  is  quite 
natural.  If  your  horizon  is  narrow,  you  regard  your  own  conduct 
as  the  only  normal  or  praiseworthy  scheme  of  life.  Hence,  with- 
out any  conscious  resolve  to  suppress  varying  customs,  these  were 
as  a  matter  of  fact  much  contracted  by  the  local  tendencies  of  the 
great  French  Rabbis  who  became  the  authority  for  all  Judaism 
from  the  fourteenth  century  onwards.  After  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century,  even  the  Spanish  Jews  relied  on  their  German 
brethren  for  guidance  in  the  Talmud.  Before^  however,  a  tem- 
porary phase  of  rigidity  set  in,  an  era  of  dissolution  intervened. 
At  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  local  custom  was  in  a  very 
chaotic  condition  among  the  Jews,  and  I  have  attempted  to 
describe  some  of  the  disorganizing  effects  of  it  on  p.  i6o  below. 
Joseph  Caro's  Code  came  at  an  opportune  moment.  The 
Shulchan  Ariich  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  wTitten  in  the  age 
of  printing.  Compiled  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
this  Code  was  printed  within  a  decade  of  its  completion  and 
revision  by  the  author.  It  stimulated  that  uniformity  of  religious 
and  social  life  which  was  being  slowly  produced  by  the  German 
school  of  Rabbis  in  earlier  centuries.  I  say  social  as  well  as 
religious  uniformity,  for  the  age  of  the  ghettos  was  the  age  in 
which  Jewish  law  most  strongly  regulated  Jewish  life.  We  see 
in  modern  times  what  some  Jews  lamentingly  call  a  recru- 
descence of  the  old  chaos,  but  what  is  in  reality  a  return  to 
the  old  cosmopolitanism.  It  is  a  process  of  denationalizing 
Judaism  as  a  whole  in  proportion  to  the  nationalization  of  various 


Introduction. 


XXVll 


groups  of  Jews  in  the  local  patriotisms  of  the  world.  It  is  a 
completely  natural  process,  though  its  excesses  be  unnatural, 
and,  to  close  with  a  paradox,  if  not  medieval,  it  strikes  the 
same  note  of  freedom  which  sounded  through  the  Judaism  of 
the  middle  ages.  This  freedom  is  quite  consistent  with  devo- 
tion to  the  same  great  ideals,  for  heterogeneity  is  the  first  mark 
of  universalism. 


JEWISH    LIFE    IN    THE    MIDDLE 
AGES. 

CHAPTER   I. 

THE    CENTRE    OF    SOCIAL    LIFE. 

The  medieval  life  of  the  Jews  had  for  its  centre  the 
synagogue.  The  concentration  of  the  Jewish  populations 
into  separate  quarters  of  Christian  and  Moslem  towns 
was  initially  an  accident  of  Jewish  communal  life.  The 
Jewish  quarter  seems  to  have  grown  up  round  the  syna- 
gogue, which  was  thus  the  centre  of  Jewish  life,  locally 
as  well  as  religiously. 

This  concentration  round  the  synagogue  may  be  noted  in 
the  social  as  well  as  in  the  material  life  of  the  middle  ages. 
The  synagogue  tended,  with  ever-increasing  rapidity,  to 
absorb  and  to  develop  the  social  life  of  the  community,  both 
when  Jews  enjoyed  free  intercourse  with  their  neighbours  of 
other  faiths,  and  when  this  intercourse  was  restricted  to  the 
narrowest  possible  bounds.  It  was  the  political  emancipa- 
tion, which  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  witnessed, 
that  first  loosened  the  hold  of  the  synagogue  on  Jewish 
life.  Emancipation  so  changed  the  complexion  of  that  life 
that  the  Jewish  middle  ages  cannot  be  considered  to  have 

B 


2  The  Centre  of  Social  Life. 

ended  until  the  French  Revolution  was  well  in  sight.  But 
throughout  the  middle  ages  proper  the  synagogue  held 
undisputed  sway  in  all  the  concerns  of  Jews.  Nor  was 
this  absorption  a  new  phenomenon.  Already  in  Judea 
the  Temple  had  assumed  some  social  functions.  The 
tendency  first  reveals  itself  amid  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
Maccabean  revival,  when  the  Jev/s  felt  drawn  to  the  house 
of  prayer  for  social  as  well  as  for  religious  communion. 
The  Temple  itself  became  the  scene  of  some  festal 
gatherings  which  were  only  in  a  secondary  sense  religious 
in  character  ^  Political  meetings  were  held  within  its 
precincts^.  Its  courts  resounded  on  occasion  with  cries 
for  the  redress  of  grievances  ^.  King  and  Rabbi  alike 
addressed  the  assembled  Israelites  under  the  Colonnade, 
which  was  joined  to  the  Temple  by  a  bridge  *. 

The  synagogue  in  the  middle  ages  filled  a  place  at  once 
larger  and  smaller  than  the  Temple.  In  the  middle  ages 
politics  only  rarely  invaded  the  synagogue.  Bad  govern- 
ment, in  the  Jewish  view,  was  incompatible  with  the 
kingdom  of  God  ^  but  the  Jews  learned  from  bitter  ex- 
perience that  they  must  often  render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  that  were  God's.  The  Jews  of  the  middle  ages 
may  have  been  alive  to  the  current  corruption,  but  they 
readily  administered  the  public  trusts  which  were  some- 
times committed  to  their  care.  Though  they  doubtless 
used  their  power  at  times  to  the  advantage  of  their  co-reli- 
gionists, the  Jewish  holders  of  financial  offices  enjoyed 
a  high,  if  rather  '  unpopular,'  reputation  for  fidelity  to  their 
royal  employers.  Their  honesty,  as  well  as  their  amena- 
bility  to    kingly    pressure,    may    be    inferred    from    the 

'  Josephus,  Wars,  V.  5.      «  Wars,  I.  20.      ''  Wars,  II.  i.       *  Wars,  II.  16. 
^  Sec  S,  Schechter,  Jeivish  Quarterly  Review,  vii.  p.  209. 


Politics  in  the  Synagogue.  3 

frequency  which  they  were  entrusted  with  confidential  posts 
in  Spain  and  Italy.  But  the  despotic  government  of  the 
middle  ages  entailed  an  insecurity  of  political  status  which 
prevented  Jews  from  participating  much  in  the  discussion 
of  public  affairs.  The  Jews  gained  nothing  and  lost  much 
by  their  courageous  partisanship  of  Don  Pedro  of  Castile 
against  his  half-brother  Henry  de  Trastamara  (i  350-1 369) ^ 
Santob  de  Carrion,  a  Jewish  troubadour  of  that  age,  com- 
piled moral  and  political  maxims  for  the  king,  but  such 
an  incident  could  hardly  be  paralleled.  The  Jews,  on 
the  other  hand,  frequently  joined  the  general  population 
in  patriotic  movements  ;  but  beyond  the  regular  recita- 
tion of  a  prayer  for  the  sovereign  ^  politics  were  excluded 
from  the  liturgy.  Occasionally,  special  prayers  were 
inserted  which  involved  a  partisan  attitude  on  ques- 
tions of  the  day.  Thus  in  1188  the  Jews  of  Canterbury 
prayed  for  the  monks  as  against  the  archbishop  in  a  local 
dispute  ^.  At  a  much  later  date,  the  Jews  of  Rome  erected 
a  trophy  in  front  of  one  of  their  synagogues  in  honour  of 
the  temporary  establishment  of  a  republican  government  ^. 

Such  instances  of  political  partisanship  finding  expression 
in  the  synagogue  were  rare  in  the  middle  ages,  for  even 
under  the  most  favourable  circumstances  the  Jews  were 
subject  to  sudden  and  sweeping  changes  in  their  relations 
to  the  government.  But  it  would  be  an  error  to  suppose 
that  this  fact  carried  with  it  as  a  corollary  the  exclusion 
from  the  synagogue  of  wide  and  comprehensive  social 
interests.    The  seventeenth  was  the  gloomiest  century  in  the 


^  See  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews  (Eng.  trans.),  IV.  ch.  iv. 

2  Cf.  Philo,  Flacc.  §  7. 

^  J.  Jacobs,  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  p.  93. 

*  Berliner,  Geschichte  der  Juden  in  Rom,  II.  ii.  p.  i2D. 

B  % 


4  The  Centre  of  Social  Life. 

pre-emancipation  history  of  the  Jews,  but  until  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century  they  were  never  for  long  cut  off  from 
the  common  life  around  them.  Nay,  their  interests  were 
wider  than  those  of  their  environment,  for  they  had  the 
exceptional  interest  of  a  common  religion  destitute  of 
a  political  centre.  It  is  hard  to  exaggerate  the  impor- 
tance of  this  factor  in  moulding  Jewish  life.  Thus  was 
begotten  that  cosmopolitanism  which  broke  through  the 
walls  of  the  ghettos,  and  prevented  the  life  passed  within 
them  from  ever  becoming  quite  narrow  or  sordid. 

It  was  the  synagogue  that  made  this  influence  effective. 
Owing  to  the  love  of  travel  innate  in  the  Jewish  con- 
sciousness and  stimulated  by  repeated  expulsions,  the  Jew 
of  many  an  isolated  place  became  familiar  with  the  manners 
of  foreign  co-religionists  who  would  find  their  way  to 
the  local  synagogues.  The  vehicles  of  this  moral  traffic 
were  travelling  preachers  and  teachers,  bringing  new 
ideas  and  quaint  information  as  to  passing  events ; 
beggar-students  who,  when  the  conquering  Moslems,  and 
later  on  the  Christian  Crusaders,  demolished  the  schools 
in  one  town,  found  their  way  to  other  schools  of  repute 
whereat  to  continue  their  studies  ;  merchants  and  artisans 
who  plodded  many  a  weary  mile  in  search  of  work  \  and 
brought  with  them  new  fashions  and  new  handicrafts ; 
strolling  cantors  who  would  be  hailed  by  the  many  for 
their  new  hymns  and  new  tunes ;  pious  pilgrims  who  had 
set  out  from  home  for  the  Holy  Land  with  but  a  hazy 
perception  of  the  length  and  difficulty  of  their  proposed 
journey,  but  imbued  with  a  rich  fund  of  enthusiasm 
idealized  and  communicable ;  professional  wayfarers,  who 
would  bring,  by  word  of  mouth  or  by  letter,  the  moral 

^  E.  H.  Lindo,  The  Jews  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  p.  318. 


Widenmg  Influences.  5 

influence  of  great  Rabbinical  authorities,  who,  with  no 
organized  power  outside  their  own  local  congregations, 
yet  imparted  their  inspiration  to  a  widespread  circle, 
centering  now  in  Babylon,  now  in  Cordova,  at  one  time 
in  Cairo,  at  another  in  the  Rhine  country ;  excited  mystics 
who  carried  confused  but  rousing  tales  of  the  wondrous 
doings  of  ever-new  claimants  to  the  Messiahship,  and  fanned 
that  smouldering  dream  of  an  ideal  future  which  brightened 
the  present  hideous  reality  and  made  it  tolerable. 

Thus  Jewish  life  was  not  narrow,  though  its  locale  was 
limited.  As  a  legalized  institution  the  ghetto  itself  was 
unknown  till  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
Venetian  and  Roman  ghettos  being  erected  almost  con- 
temporaneously at  that  period.  Hence  the  predominance 
of  the  synagogue  in  medieval  Judaism  cannot  be  alto- 
gether attributed  to  the  isolation  of  Jews  from  the  social 
life  of  their  contemporaries.  There  were,  indeed,  influences 
enough  at  work  to  drive  the  Jews  from  the  world.  For 
centuries  they  were  legally  barred  from  professional  careers 
and  honourable  trades,  though  individual  Jews  contrived 
to  overleap  the  barriers  ;  they  were  forced  to  become 
usurers,  though  at  first  fully  conscious  of  the  obloquy 
attaching  to  a  traffic  banned  by  the  Church  and  despised 
by  the  men  of  honour  of  all  peoples  in  all  ages.  The 
cruellest  result  which  persecution  worked  was  to  produce 
insensibility  to  this  obloquy  on  the  part  of  many  Israelites. 
But  all  these  attempts  to  isolate  the  Jews  from  the  rest 
of  mankind  only  partially  succeeded.  Even  when  the 
persistent  efforts  of  Innocent  III  had  spent  themselves  in 
branding  the  Jews  as  a  race  outside  the  pale  of  humanity, 
when  the  Inquisition  had  done  its  worst,  when  the  Black 
Death   had    spread    its    baleful    cloud   between   Jew   and 


6  The  Centre  of  Social  Life. 

Gentile,  still  the  former  shared  something  of  the  general 
life.  In  Spain  and  Italy  this  participation  is  most  clearly- 
marked,  but  until  the  sixteenth  century  the  Jews  were 
nowhere  entirely  divorced  from  the  ordinary  national  life. 

But  this  general  life  lacked  centralization.  This  state- 
ment may  be  illustrated  by  the  phenomenon  that  no 
country  in  the  middle  ages  possessed  a  national  drama. 
National  drama  needs  a  national  centre,  and  not  even  the 
concentrating  genius  of  a  Charles  the  Great  could  bring 
homogeneity  into  the  heterogeneous  mass  over  which  he 
ruled.  This  lack  of  a  common  basis  for  national  life 
became  more  marked  when  feudalism  and  chivalry  fell. 
The  seething  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  show  us 
national  life  in  the  making,  not  national  life  made.  The 
Crescent  and  the  Cross  had  not  yet  divided  the  civilized 
world  between  them.  Until  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  Jews  were  hardly  subjected  to  those  deep-cut 
national  prejudices  which  thenceforward  barred  them  from 
the  world  until  the  era  of  the  French  Revolution.  The 
only  serious  exclusion  that  the  Jews  suffered  occurred  at 
the  Renaissance.  Except  in  Italy  the  Jews  shared  little  of 
the  elevating  effects  which  the  Renaissance  produced.  The 
causes  of  this  anomaly  will  be  examined  hereafter,  but  in  the 
middle  ages  proper,  Jewish  life,  with  all  the  innate  '  pro- 
vincialism '  from  which  it  has  never,  in  all  its  long  and 
chequered  history,  contrived  to  free  itself,  was  freshened 
and  affected  by  every  influence  of  the  time,  and  the  Syna- 
gogue, like  the  Church,  attracted  to  itself  and  focussed 
these  Influences,  providing  a  centre  which  the  ordinary  life 
of  the  nations  failed  to  create. 

The  life  within  the  synagogue  reflected  the  social  life 
of  the  Jews  in  all  its  essential  features.     In  northern  and 


Flagellation.  ^ 

central  Europe,  no  pursuit  or  interest  was  honourable,  in 
the  synagogue  as  in  the  church,  unless  it  had  some  religious 
flavouring.  The  liturgy  of  the  synagogue  created  social 
custom,  and  the  reaction  of  the  latter  on  the  former  was  at 
least  equally  great.  Amid  a  world  in  which  might  was  right, 
the  Jews  learned  from  their  common  oppression  to  respect 
each  other's  rights.  Any  Jew  who  conceived  that  he  had 
a  grievance  against  his  fellow  had  the  privilege  to  interrupt 
the  synagogue  service  until  he  had  gained  a  public  promise 
of  redress  ^  Naturally  this  privilege  was  open  to  abuse, 
and  the  right  was  restricted  and  eventually  suppressed  ^. 

Whether  the  synagogue  was  the  scene  of  flagellations  for 
offences  against  the  moral  and  religious  codes  is  open  to 
question.  Probably  this  punishment  was  inflicted  in  the 
synagogue  precincts,  and  the  statements  that  the  apostles 
were  liable  to  be  'beaten  in  the  synagogues^'  may  be 
literally  true.  It  is  certain  that  in  the  early  middle  ages 
flagellation  took  place  in  the  Beth  Din  (Jewish  Court  of 
Justice)  *,  but  on  the  day  preceding  the  Great  Fast  a  sym- 
bolical scourging  was  ^,  and  even  is,  usual  in  the  synagogue 
itself.  When  Uriel  Acosta  did  penance  in  Amsterdam 
in  i6^^  he  was  publicly  flogged  in  the  synagogue,  but  in 
a  retired  corner,  not  on  the  central  platform.  As  the 
culprit  always  had  to  strip  to  the  waist,  it  was  probably 
regarded  as  indecorous  to  execute  the  sentence  co^-am 
populo.  It  was  thought  no  irreverence,  however,  to  use  the 
synagogue  for  all  kinds  of  announcements  concerning  the 
just  payment  of  dues. 

^  Kolbo,  ed.  Rimini,  fol.  134  a,  §  116. 

^  See  the  quotations  in  Giidemann's  Quellenschriften,  p.  85. 

^  Matthew  x.  17,  Mark  xiii.  9.     Cf.  Vitringa,  De  Synagoga,  p.  768. 

*  Miiller,  Index  {Mafteach.  to  the  Responsa  of  the  Geonim,  p.  192. 

^  Maharil,  section  on  Day  of  Atonement. 


8  The  Centre  of  Social  Life, 

So  fully  was  this  fact  understood  by  the  governments 
of  Europe  that  it  was  occasionally  utilized  for  their  own 
purposes.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  for  instance,  the 
English  Government  compelled  the  Jews  to  announce  in 
their  synagogues  quittances  of  debts  owing  by  Christians. 
In  Spain,  by  the  Castilian  Code  of  12 12,  Jews  were  in 
certain  cases,  in  which  stolen  apparel  and  furniture  had 
been  pledged  with  them  by  Christians,  to  swear  on  oath 
in  synagogue  that  the  transaction  had  been  honest  in  in- 
tention '^.  The  ordinary  Spaniard  made  public  proclama- 
tions of  this  nature,  not  in  church  but  in  the  squares  and 
market-places  ^.  In  Rome,  at  a  later  date,  it  seems  that 
a  list  of  articles  stolen  during  the  year  was  read  out  on 
the  eve  of  the  Day  of  Atonement  to  warn  Jews  against 
buying  or  in  any  way  dealing  with  the  stolen  goods  ^'.  But 
the  voluntary  announcements  of  this  kind  were  at  least 
as  numerous  as  the  enforced.  The  inter-communal  organi- 
zation, which  will  be  described  in  another  chapter,  required 
the  periodical  proclamation  in  synagogue  of  the  Tekanoth, 
or  Ordinances,  which  everywhere  regulated  the  moral  and 
social  no  less  than  the  religious  life  of  the  Jews. 

It  was  an  ancient  custom  in  several  places  for  the  Shamash 
or  verger  to  announce  every  Saturday  the  results  of  law-suits, 
and  to  inform  the  congregation  that  certain  properties  were 
in  the  market  *.      The  Jews  did  not  exclude  their  every-day 

^  On  the  other  hand  the  Cortes  of  Tarragona  in  1234  enacted  :  '  The  oath 
is  not  to  be  taken  in  the  synagogue  or  a  private  place,  but  in  a  court  of 
justice,  or  the  place  where  oaths  are  administered  to  Christians.' 

'  Lindo,  p.  118, 

^  Berliner,  op.  cit.,  ii.  (2),  p.  202. 

*  Chayim  Benveniste  in  his  Responsa,  §  16,  calls  it  *  an  old  custom.' 
R.  David  Abi  Zimri  (Radbaz)  found  the  custom  established  in  North  Africa, 
but  he  suppressed  the  announcement  of  sales  on  Sabbath  (Neubauer,  Medieval 
Jewish  Chronicles,  i.  p.  158).     Cf.  Isaac  b.  Sheshet,  Responsa,  §  388. 


Dishonesty  Denounced.  9 

life  from  the  sphere  of  religion,  and  felt  rather  that  their 
business  was  hallowed  by  its  association  with  the  synagogue 
than  that  the  synagogue  was  degraded  by  the  intrusion  of 
worldly  concerns.  The  following  incident  is  typicaP. 
Rabbi  Meir  Halevi  of  Vienna  once  had  to  deal  with  a  Jew 
who  showed  a  disposition  to  go  back  on  a  business  bargain 
which  he  had  only  verbally  assented  to.  This  fourteenth- 
century  Rabbi  privately  remonstrated  with  the  delinquent, 
but  finding  him  still  contumelious,  ordered  the  officiating 
Reader  to  make  the  following  public  announcement  in  the 
synagogue :  '  Hear  all  present,  that  A.  B.  refuses  to  abide 
by  his  word,  given  under  such  and  such  circumstances ; 
thereby  he  has  excited  the  displeasure  of  the  Rabbis  and  is 
unworthy  to  be  regarded  as  a  member  of  the  congregation 
of  Israel,  to  whom  dishonesty  and  falsehood  are  an  abomi- 
nation, but  A.  B.  is  a  liar  and  a  deceiver.'  The  same  moral 
sensitiveness  is  manifested  in  a  large  class  of  synagogue 
announcements,  the  introduction  of  which  must  have  begun 
in  the  earlier  middle  ages,  though  the  traces  of  their 
existence  become  more  obvious  as  the  eighteenth  century 
approaches.  The  compulsory  institution  at  Rome  of  an 
annual  proclamation  of  stolen  goods  is  less  important  than 
the  voluntary  custom  to  the  same  effect  which  prevailed 
somewhat  later  in  Frankfort^.  The  '  Schulklopfer,'  an 
official  of  whom  more  will  be  said  hereafter^  took  his  stand 
before  the  ark,  proclaimed  that  certain  articles  had  been 
stolen  or  lost,  and  solemnly  ordered  that  any  worshipper  who 
knew  anything  of  the  property  must  give  instant  information 

^  Giidemann,  Geschichte  des  Ersiehnngswesens  und  der  Cultur  der  abend- 
Idndischen  Juden,  iii.  p,  55. 

*  Schudt,  B.  VI.  §  34.  That  this  was  a  very  old  custom  may  be  seen  from 
Leviticus  Rabba,  ch.  vi. 


TO  77?^  Centre  of  Social  Life. 

to  the  authorities.  Lost  articles  were  publicly  cried  in 
synagogue,  and  a  threat  of  excommunication  hung  over  all 
who  withheld  information^.  There  is  evidence  of  an  earlier 
custom  due  to  an  even  higher  sense  of  honesty.  At  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  century  it  was  necessary  for  a  man 
who  was  about  to  leave  any  town  in  Italy,  to  publicly 
announce  in  synagogue  that  he  was  leaving,  and  to  invite 
those  who  had  claims  against  him  to  proffer  them^.  Money 
disputes  were  similarly  dealt  with.  Any  individual  might 
rise  in  his  place  in  synagogue  and  call  upon  the  congregants 
to  come  forward  with  evidence  on  his  behalf^.  It  will  be 
more  convenient,  however,  to  deal  with  other  examples  of 
these  synagogue  regulations  in  another  connexion,  for  they 
belong  to  the  communal  organization.  Only  one  other 
instance  will  be  quoted,  because  it  relates  to  a  custom  still 
prevalent  in  some  Jewish  congregations  *.  '  In  our  place, 
when  a  man  wishes  to  sell  any  land,  a  proclamation  is  made 
in  the  synagogue  three  times  :  "  Whoever  has  any  claim  on 
this  land  must  lay  his  claim  before  the  Rabbinical  tribunal 
(Beth  Din)."  Hereafter,  no  claim  is  admitted,  and  a  record 
of  the  threefold  proclamation  in  synagogue  is  inserted  in 
the  deed  of  sale.' 

It  will  easily  be  inferred  that  the  synagogue  was  freely 
used  to  enforce  obedience  to  other  aspects  of  the  moral  law 
than  strict  commercial  honesty.  The  conjugal  rights  of 
husbands  ^  the  prerogatives  of  fathers  with  regard  to  their 
daughters'  marriages,  and  their  claims  on  their  sons' 
obedience^,  the   duty  of  women   to  observe  the  laws  of 

^  Maharil,  section  on  Ten  Days  of  Penitence.  Cf.  Shulchan  Aruch,  Choshen 
Mishpat,  §  267.  *  Tashbats,  Responsa,  i.  §  11,  and  iii.  §  231. 

■''  Shulchan  Aruch,  ibid.  §  28, 

*  Responsa,  Har  Hakarmel,  Choshen  Mishpat,  §  12,  ^  Tashbats,  ii.  175. 

•  A  very  old  custom.     See  Ruber's  Tanchuma,  p.  n^. 


Private  and  Communal  Joys.  n 

purity  \  the  obligation  to  make  an  honest  estimate  of  one's 
income  in  paying  the  communal  taxes  ^  which  were  rated  at 
various  percentages,  the  recital  of  a  special  benediction  for 
those  who  never  used  bad  language  nor  gossiped  during 
prayer^ — these  are  a  few  instances  culled  from  many  in 
which  the  synagogue  was  made  a  powerful  lever  to  elevate 
the  social  morality  of  the  people. 

This  desirable  end  was  attained  with  conspicuous  success 
by  another  feature  of  the  Jewish  medieval  life.  Every  Jew 
found  his  joy  and  his  sorrow  in  all  Jews'  joys  and  sorrows. 
He  took  a  personal  interest  in  the  family  life  of  the  com- 
munity, for  the  community  was  in  a  very  real  sense  of  the 
word  one  united  and  rather  inquisitive  family.  This  may 
be  illustrated  from  an  old  eastern  Jewish  custom  which  had 
already  become  stereotyped  in  Europe  by  the  eleventh 
century'*.  On  the  Sabbath  following  a  wedding,  the  bride- 
groom attended  synagogue  accompanied  by  a  concourse  of 
friends.  He  ascended  the  reading-desk  during  the  recitation 
of  the  weekly  portion  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  as  he  walked 
from  his  place  the  assembled  worshippers,  whether  related 
to  him  or  not,  broke  forth  into  gleeful  Hebrew  songs 
expressing  a  fourfold  greeting  in  the  name  of  God,  the  Law, 
the  Rabbis,  and  the  people.  One  such  poem — and  it  is  only 
an  average  instance — concludes  with  these  lines  ^: — 


Rejoice,  O  Bridegroom,  in  the  wife  of  thy  youth,  thy  comrade !         /  ^ 

Let  thy  heart  be  merry  now  and  when  thou  shalt  grow  old. 

Sons  to  thy  sons  shalt  thou  see,  thine  old  age's  crown  ; 

Sons  who  shall  prosper  and  work  in  place  of  their  pious  sires. 

Thy  days  in  good  shall  be  spent,  thy  years  in  pleasantness. 

'■  Maimonides,  Responsa,  §  149. 

'  Cf.  ch.  xvii.  below. 

^  Worms,  Pinkas.     See  Jewish  Chronicle,  1850,  p.  18. 

*  Machzor  Vitry,  p.  596. 

^  Monatsschrift  far  Gesch.  u.  IVissen.  d.  Judenth.,  xxxix.  p.  325. 


13  The  Centre  of  Social  Life. 

Floweth  thy  peace  as  a  stream,  riseth  thy  worth  as  its  waves, 

For  Peace  shall  be  found  in  thy  home.  Rest  shall  abide  in  thy  dwelling. 

Blessed  be  each  day's  work,  blessed  be  thine  all, 

And  thy  bliss  this  assembly  shall  share,  happy  in  thee. 

By  grace  of  us  all  ascend,  thou  and  thy  goodly  company; 

Rise  we,  too,  to  our  feet,  lovingly  to  greet  thee; 

One  hope  is  now  in  all  hearts,  one  prayer  we  utter, 

Blessed  be  thy  coming  in,  blessed  be  thy  going  forth. 

It  would  need  a  very  long  chapter  to  collect  anything 
like  a  complete  list  of  the  synagogal  gaieties  which  accom- 
panied a  wedding.  The  presence  of  a  bridegroom  was 
sufficient  to  cause  the  excision  from  the  daily  prayer  of  the 
passages  associated  with  sorrow.  The  ceremony  of  cir- 
cumcision was  another  occasion  on  which  the  community 
shared  a  private  joy.  So,  too,  private  sorrows  were  shared, 
and  a  mourner  would  come  to  synagogue  and  be  received 
with  formal  expressions  of  sympathy.  So  acutely  did  all 
feel  every  man's  grief,  that  many  objected  to  the  recital  of 
prayers  for  the  sick  on  the  Sabbath,  lest  the  congregation 
be  moved  to  tears  on  a  day  which  should  be  all  joy  ^.  For 
a  similar  reason  no  hesped,  or  eulogy  of  a  deceased  worthy, 
was  allowed  on  the  Sabbath  day.  Much  sympathy  was 
shown  to  penitent  apostates,  and  the  road  back  to  Judaism 
was  always  made  easy  in  the  middle  ages  by  the  Jews, 
despite  that  they  knew  full  well  the  risks  which  their 
conduct  submitted  them  to  of  wholesale  persecution  and 
possibly  martyrdom.  In  this  respect  considerable  advance, 
in  point  of  generous  forgetfulness,  may  be  detected  as  the 
middle  ages  advance^,  for,  somewhat  earlier,  the  resentment 
against  returned  apostates  was  unworthily  severe^.  Reverts, 
at  all  events  in  the  later  middle  ages,  were  admitted  to 

^  Talmud,  Sabbath,  ch.  i,  and  Caro,  Abkath  Rochel,  §  ii. 

'  Cf.  particularly  Responsa  of  M.  Melammed,  ii.  9. 

^  Mailer,  Mafteach,  p.  8.     But  contrast  Machzor  Vitry,  §  125. 


Martyrologies,  13 

synagogue  honours^,  and  though  little  countenance  was 
shown  to  the  victims  of  communal  excommunication, 
though  no  one  would  come  within  four  paces  of  them,  yet, 
even  in  the  older  and  more  severe  days,  they  were  per- 
mitted to  attend  public  worship-,  the  rite  of  the  Abrahamic 
covenant  was  allowed  to  their  infant  sons,  and  they  them- 
selves were  buried  with  sacred  rites,  but  stones  were  placed 
on  their  coffins  ^. 

That  the  communal  grief  as  well  as  the  communal 
joy  on  historical  anniversaries  should  lead  to  outbursts 
of  poignant  lamentation  or  of  unbounded  merriment 
goes  without  saying.  Local  fasts  and  feasts,  which  were 
not  uncommon  in  the  middle  ages,  perhaps  supplied  that 
political  element  which  the  Jewish  life  lacked,  for  these 
celebrations  mostly  turned  on  events  connected  with  the 
local  politics  in  so  far  as  they  affected  the  Jews.  More 
pathetic  than  the  fasts  themselves  were  the  martyrologies 
and  elegies  recited  in  the  synagogue  *.  These  sad  records 
are  scattered  over  the  medieval  history  of  the  Jews  with  an 
all  too  lavish  hand  ;  persecution  and  cruelty,  even  unto 
death,  knew  no  bounds  of  time  or  place.  But  the  recital  of 
these  elegies  generated  heroic  endurance  in  the  worshipper^s 
mind  rather  than  vindictiveness  ;  they  were  a  call  to  courage 
and  devotion,  and  if  they  appealed  to  God  for  revenge,  the 
revenge  was  idealized  almost  as  much  as  were  the  sorrows 
that  demanded  it. 

'  Responsa,  Chacham  Zebi,  §  112. 

2  Cf.  Muller,  Mafteach,  p.  281. 

'  The  last  custom  was  abolished  in  the  middle  ages,  but  was  prevalent  in 
the  tenth  century.     Cf.  Shaare  Tcshuba,  §  41. 

^  Zunz,  Die  synagogale  Poesie  des  Mittelalters,  chapter  on  Leiden.  An 
Engl,  trans,  of  this  chapter  appeared  in  Publ.  of  the  Soc,  of  Heb.  Literature, 
Part  I,  1872. 


14  The  Centre  of  Social  Life. 

Thy  son  is  once  more  sold, 

Redeem  him,  bring  Thou  relief! 
In  mercy  say  again :  My  son, 

I  know,   I  know  thy  grief^ 

Sometimes  the  cry  for  vengeance  is  harsher  than  this,  but 
the  Jewish  poets  of  the  middle  ages  would  have  been  less 
than  men  had  they  been  able  to  look  on  unmoved  at  the 
murderous  attacks  from  which  even  the  synagogue  itself 
could  not  protect  her  sons.  Yet  these  laments  were 
elevating  and  ennobling.  They  moved  ordinary  men  and 
women  to  play  the  parts  of  heroes;  they  made  devoted 
priests  of  them  ^,  ready  to  sacrifice  their  children  to  save 
them  from  apostasy ;  they  inspired  them  with  courage  to 
endure  all  things  for  that  which  they  held  more  precious 
than  all  things. 

By  sorrow's  yoke  distressed, 

More  joy  from  Him  I  gain 

Than  if  rewards  of  men 
Were  glittering  on  my  breast  ^ 

A  martyr's  widow  usually  remained  faithful  to  his  memory  : 
indeed,  the  re-marriage  of  such  a  woman  would  have 
outraged  the  public  opinion  of  any  Jewish  community  in 
the  middle  ages. 

^  Zunz,  Die  synagogale  Poesie  des  Mittelalters,  loc.  cit. 

^  The  fathers  are  often  compared  to  priests  in  these  elegies. 

^  Zunz,  ibid. 


CHAPTER    II. 

LIFE    IN    THE    SYNAGOGUE. 

The  attitude  of  the  medieval  Jew  towards  his  House  of 
God  was  characteristic  of  his  attitude  towards  Hfe.  Though 
the  Jew  and  the  Greek  gave  very  different  expressions  to 
the  conception,  the  Jew  shared  with  the  Greek  a  belief 
in  the  essential  unity  of  life  amidst  its  detailed  obligations. 
It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  Jew's  religion  absorbed 
his  life,  for  in  quite  as  real  a  sense  his  life  absorbed  his 
religion.  Hence  the  synagogue  was  not  a  mere  place  in 
which  he  prayed,  it  was  a  place  in  which  he  lived  ;  and 
just  as  life  has  its  earnest  and  its  frivolous  moments,  so  the 
Jew  in  synagogue  was  at  times  rigorously  reverent  and  at 
others  quite  at  his  ease.  In  this  respect  no  doubt  the 
medieval  Church  agreed  with  the  Synagogue.  '  Be  one  of 
the  first  in  synagogue/  writes  a  fourteenth-century  Jew  in 
his  last  testament  to  his  children.  '  Do  not  speak  during 
prayers,  but  repeat  the  responses,  and  after  the  service  do 
acts  of  kindness.  .  .  .  Wash  me  clean,  comb  my  hair  as  in 
my  lifetime,  in  order  that  I  may  go  clean  to  my  eternal 
resting-place,  just  as  I  used  to  go  every  Sabbath  evening  to 
the  synagogue  \'      This   writer's  sensitiveness  was  by  no 

^  Jewish  Quaiierly  Review,  iii.  p.  463. 


i6  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

means  exceptional.  Medieval  Europe  was  insanitary  and 
dirty,  and  the  Jewish  quarters  were  in  many  respects  the 
dirtiest.  Epidemics  made  havoc  in  the  Jewries  just  as 
they  did  in  the  other  parts  of  the  towns.  The  ghetto 
streets  were  the  narrowest  in  the  narrow  towns  of  the  middle 
ages.  But  all  these  disadvantages  were  to  a  large  extent 
balanced  by  a  strong  sense  of  personal  dignity.  It  was  not 
until  three  centuries  of  life  in  the  ghettos  had  made  their 
Jewish  inhabitants  callous  to  the  demands  of  fashion, 
indifferent  to  their  personal  appearance,  careless  in  their 
speech  and  general  bearing,  that  this  old  characteristic  of 
the  Jews  ceased  to  distinguish  them.  In  the  middle  ages, 
however,  the  Jews  justly  prided  themselves  on  their  regard 
for  the  amenities  of  cleanly  living  and  gentle  mannerliness  ^. 
This  cleanliness  in  person  and  speech,  this — unique  for 
its  age — complete  sense  of  personal  dignity,  was  a  direct 
consequence  of  the  religion,  and  it  was  the  synagogue 
again  which  enforced  a  valuable  social  influence.  Cleanly 
habits  were  in  fact  codified,  and,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  later 
chapter,  the  medieval  code-books  of  the  Jewish  religion 
contain  a  systematized  scheme  of  etiquette,  of  cleanly 
custom  and  of  good  taste.  The  codification  of  these  habits 
had  the  evil  effect  of  reducing  them  to  a  formality,  and 
later  on  even  the  ritual  hand-washing,  essential  in  many 
Jewish  ceremonies^  became  a  perfunctory  rite,  compatible 
with  much  personal  uncleanliness.  But  in  the  middle  ages 
this  was  not  yet  the  case.  A  quaint  detail  or  two  must 
suffice  here.     Jacob  Molin^  had  a  bag  suspended  on  the 

^  Jews  needed  the  special  sanction  of  Rabbis  to  permit  them  to  dress 
inelegantly  even  while  travelling.  Thus  Maharil  advises  such  a  course  to 
avoid  temptation  to  robbers.     Cf.  ch.  xv.  below. 

2  Maharil. 


Dressing  for  Prayer,  17 

wall  near  his  seat  in  synagogue,  containing  a  pocket- 
handkerchief  for  use  during  prayer,  an  article  of  attire 
unknown  in  the  ordinary  life  of  the  middle  ages.  A  me- 
dieval Jew  had,  as  already  remarked,  a  special  synagogue 
coat,  called  in  some  parts  a  SarabaP.  It  was  a  tunic 
which  hung  down  from  the  neck,  and  formed  part  of 
the  gifts  bestowed  by  parents  on  their  sons  when 
the  latter  married.  Gloves  were  forbidden  in  prayer 
because  humility  was  essential  to  a  proper  devotional 
demeanour,  and  much  vexing  of  spirit  was  caused  by 
young  men  and  old  who  would  carry  walking-sticks  with 
them  to  synagogue  2.  There  was  an  iron  scraper  at  the 
synagogue  doors  so  that  worshippers  might  wipe  their  feet 
on  entering.  Indeed,  special  synagogue  shoes  were  de 
rigueur^  for  a  regard  to  decent  foot-gear  was  a  very  old 
Jewish  characteristic.  He  who  yawned  in  synagogue  or 
during  prayers  was  ordered  to  place  his  hand  in  front  of 
his  mouth  ^.  Men  did  not  go  to  synagogue  with  the  small 
cap  worn  in  the  house,  but  changed  it  for  a  more  costly  one. 
With  regard  to  the  feet,  it  was  customary  to  pray  bare- 
footed or  in  list  slippers  on  the  ninth  of  Ab  or  on  the 
Day  of  Atonement,  on  the  '  eve '  of  which  many  passed  the 
night  in  the  synagogue.  Talmud  students  in  the  thirteenth 
century  often  went  barefooted  in  the  streets  * — from  poverty, 
however,  rather  than  from  piety ;  but  there  are  indications 
that  in  the  East  Jews  habitually  prayed  with  bare  feet. 
At  all  events  the  wooden  sandals  of  the  fifteenth  century  in 

^  For  a  full  account  of  this  see  Joseph  NOrdlingen  (Hahn),  Yosef  Omeiz, 
§  3.     The  term  itself  occurs  already  in  the  Talmud, 

^  Ibid.  §  16.  There  was  a  Talmudic  prohibition  against  appearing  on  the 
Temple  Mount  with  staff  and  girdle. 

*  A  Talmudic  custom.     Cf.  Or  Zarua,  i.  p.  37. 

^  Giidemann,  i.  p.  83. 

C 


i8  Life  in  the  Synagogue, 

Germany  were  forbidden  except  to  keep  the  feet  clean,  and 
in  some  places  Jewish  worshippers  were  forced  to  leave 
their  shoes  in  the  vestibule  before  entering  the  House  of 
God,  under  penalty  of  excommunication.  From  reverential 
motives  a  space  was  left  unpainted  on  the  wall  facing  the 
synagogue  door,  to  recall  the  glory  of  Zion  trailing  in  the 
dust  ^.  In  many  private  homes  a  similar  custom  prevailed. 
But  there  was  another  motive  at  the  back  of  the  prohibi- 
tion against  a  few  worshippers  using  cushioned  seats  while  the 
others  sat  on  the  bare  wood.  '  It  is  unseemly  to  make  such 
distinctions,  but  the  whole  congregation  may  use  cushions  -.' 
So,  too,  we  find  whole  congregations  denying  themselves 
the  luxury  of  wearing  the  Sargenos — or  white  surplice — on 
the  Day  of  Atonement,  for  fear  of  putting  to  the  blush 
the  poor  who  were  unable  to  provide  themselves  with 
the  attire.  This  regard  for  the  feelings  of  the  poor  was 
extended  to  the  unlearned.  In  Palestine  the  worshipper 
who  was  called  to  the  Law  read  his  section  from  the  scroll. 
But  very  early  there  were  many  Jews  who  were  unable  to 
do  this,  and  though  the  practice  continued  in  force  right 
through  the  middle  ages,  it  had  already  been  modified  in 
Babylon,  where  the  Chazmt,  or  officiating  reader,  always 
helped  in  the  reading  whether  the  individual  were  learned 
or  not  ^  in  order  to  avoid  putting  the  unlearned  to  the  blush. 
There  is  indeed  some  evidence  that  the  general  level  of 
Hebrew  knowledge  among  Jews  was  higher  in  the  middle 
ages  than  it  is  to-day.  There  were  more  professed  students 
of  Hebrew,  but  some  of  the  general  Jewish  public  seem 
to  have  been  unable  to  understand  any  but  the  most 
familiar  prayers  *. 

^  yow  rpv,   §  892.  ^  Responsa  of  Geonim,  ed.  Muller,  §  io6. 

-  Muller,  Chilluf  MinJiagim,  §  47.  *  See  Machzor  Vitry,  p.  i. 


Gossip  during  Worship.  19 

To  these  details  must  be  added  the  general  principle  that 
in  the  synagogue  the  worshipper  was  to  be  at  his  best, 
dignified,  simple-hearted,  respectful,  and  attentive.  But 
the  inroad  of  the  wider  conception  of  the  functions  of  the 
synagogue,  to  which  allusion  has  already  been  made, 
inevitably  produced  breaches  of  decorum,  which,  however, 
were  not  tolerated  without  vigorous  and  often  effective 
protest.  To  some  extent  the  more  educated  classes  were 
to  blame.  The  Rabbis  themselves  were  not  regular  atten- 
dants at  public  worship,  and  only  preached  at  rare  intervals^. 
This  was  due  to  their  habit  of  holding  semi-public  services 
in  their  own  houses,  primarily  for  the  special  benefit  of  their 
pupils.  But  the  custom  of  praying  at  home  naturally  led 
to  late  arrival  at  synagogue,  or  total  abstinence  from  it. 

Attendance  at  synagogue  was  enforced  by  penalties  in 
some  places  ^,  but  they  were  ineffective  in  preventing  late 
arrival.  When  there,  learned  men  would  often  prove  inat- 
tentive, for  they  had  already  prayed,  and  they  would  while 
away  the  time  over  their  learned  books  while  the  Chazan 
trilled  his  airs^.  It  was  not  unusual  for  the  whole  con- 
gregation to  talk  while  the  Precentor  sang  or  read  the 
Pentateuch^,  or,  what  must  have  been  equally  disturbing 
to  decorum,  the  worshippers  recited  their  prayers  aloud, 
going  their  own  way  while  the  Precentor  went  his.  Pray- 
ing aloud  was  a  long-standing  grievance  of  the  synagogue 
authorities^,  and  has  never  been  quite  eradicated.  Coming 
late  was  a  source  of  disturbance  which  it  was  also  hard  to 

^  Gudemann,  iii.  p.  49. 
'^  E.  g.  in  Candia  in  the  year  1228. 
•'  Or  Zarua,  i.  p.  22,  §  10. 

*  Alami  Iggereth  Ha-musar  (ed,  Jellinek),  p.  10;   Responsa  of  Solomon 
ben  Adret  (ed.  Venice),  §  380;  N.  Gabay  Responsa  Peath  Negeb,  §  2. 
'  MuUer,  Ma/teach,  p.  21. 

C  2 


ao  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

remove,  for  no  food  might  be  eaten  in  the  morning  until  after 
the  morning  prayer,  and  many  must  perforce  pray  at  home 
and  breakfast  before  going  to  synagogue.  In  synagogue,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  service  could  not  be  begun  late,  because 
the  rubrics  required  that  the  chief  part  of  the  prayer  be 
recited  within  three  hours  after  early  dawn.  Late  arrival 
was  thus  so  far  an  admitted  necessity  that  a  special  chapter 
in  the  code-book  provides  for  the  case  ^.  This  feature  was 
more  marked  on  the  Sabbath  ;  on  week-days,  when  the 
synagogue  service  was  held  at  a  very  early  hour,  workmen 
would  take  their  breakfasts  with  them  to  synagogue,  and, 
after  praying,  would  eat  their  meal  in  the  courtyard  before 
proceeding  to  their  work.  Still,  a  large  number  of  wor- 
shippers went  to  prayer  early  on  Sabbaths,  and  waited  till 
the  close  of  the  service  before  taking  any  food.  This  class 
had  claims  on  communal  recognition  which  seriously  inter- 
fered wath  one  of  the  chief  elements  of  divine  worship,  viz. 
the  homiletical  discourse.  Throughout  the  later  middle 
ages  the  sermon  falls  into  the  background.  In  the  Talmudic 
and  Gaonic  eras  ^  the  sermon  invariably  formed  part  of  the 
morning  service,  but  in  Europe  the  sermon  gradually  sank 
into  the  low  position  from  which  the  Mendelssohnian 
revival  raised  it  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Sermons  were  not  given  every  week,  were  transferred  as 
a  luxury  to  the  afternoon,  and  the  place  in  which  they 
were  delivered  became  the  school  and  not  the  synagogue, 
a  fact  which  tended  to  convert  the  homily  into  a  learned 
lecture.  The  sermon  was  spoken  in  the  vernacular,  but 
was  far  from  popular,  especially  in  Germany^.    The  preacher 

^  Shulchan  Aruch,  Orach  Chayim,  §  52. 

-  Roughly  speaking,  this  covers  the  period  up  till  the  eleventh  century. 

'  Maybaum,  Jiidische  Homiletik,  p.  13. 


Sermons.  21 

was  frequently  interrupted  by  questions,  as  was  indeed  the 
custom  in  some  medieval  churches.  It  is  interesting  to 
contrast  the  effect  of  suffering  on  Jews  and  other  sects  in 
regard  to  the  sermon.  With,  say,  the  Covenanters,  per- 
secution gave  a  new  point  to  the  homily,  and  placed  in 
the  preacher's  hand  a  sharpened  two-edged  sword.  The 
German  Jew  was  too  overwhelmed  by  his  fate  to  listen 
patiently  to  hopeful  prophecies  of  peace.  Yet  the  contrast 
is  more  formal  than  real,  for  the  Covenanter  could  be 
roused  to  armed  revolt,  a  resource  denied  to  Jewish  victims 
of  oppression.  Hence  to  the  Covenanter  the  love  of 
homilies  was  political  rather  than  religious ;  and  just 
because  the  Jew  had  no  political  hopes,  so  he  placed  less 
reliance  in  the  religious  consolation  provided  by  homiletical 
discourses.  Never  ceasing  to  be  the  teacher,  the  Rabbi 
ceased  almost  entirely  to  preach,  and  the  delivery  of 
sermons  was  left  to  a  class  of  itinerant  preachers  known 
as  Maggidun,  of  considerable  eloquence  and  power.  With 
emancipation  came  a  considerable  outburst  of  Jewish  pulpit 
eloquence ;  the  Rabbi  resumed  his  old  role  of  preacher. 

The  decay  of  the  sermon  in  the  middle  ages  was,  more- 
over, closely  connected  with  the  debasement  of  the  language 
of  the  Jews.  A  jargon  began  to  be  spoken  widely  in 
Germany  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century^,  and  this  no 
doubt  had  its  effect  in  killing  pulpit  eloquence.  Style  and 
art  are  only  possible  with  a  classical  idiom.  To  complete 
the  contrast  between  the  Synagogue  and  the  Conventicle, 
the  elegy  or  Selicha  flourished  in  the  former  as  luxuriantly 
as  the  sermon  did  in  the  latter.  The  poetical  form  was 
assumed,  for  Hebrew  was  the  medium  of  prayer,  and 
though  the  Hebrew  used  at  times  was  rugged,  it  was  never 

^  Kore  Hadoroth  (ed.  Cassel),  p.  29  a. 


22  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

debased.  What  the  Jews  lacked  in  political  hopes  they 
partly  made  up  by  their  love  for  an  idealized  Zion.  This 
love  for  Zion  was  created  anew  by  the  medieval  poets  of 
the  synagogue ;  and  in  many  a  gloomy  hour  Israel  found 
solace  in  the  hope  that  once  more  the  Law  would  go  forth 
from  Zion. 

But  even  the  best  of  motives  are  not  always  efficient  in 
rendering  conduct  free  from  blame.  One  of  the  noblest 
principles  of  Judaism  was  its  insistence  on  effort  in  well- 
doing. A  Jew  of  the  middle  ages  would  thus  be  as 
anxious  as  the  Jews  of  Temple  times  to  expend  his  means 
in  the  service  of  God.  He  would  always  value  more  highly 
an  act  that  needed  a  sacrifice  of  his  time  and  money  than 
one  which  made  no  such  claim.  Hence  it  came  that  he 
would  buy  the  right  to  participate  in  the  synagogue  service, 
since  he  could  no  longer  spend  his  means  at  the  Temple 
celebrations  in  Jerusalem.  The  Jewish  layman,  if  the  term 
can  be  used  when  there  was  no  clerical  caste,  performed  cer- 
tain of  the  religious  rites  in  the  synagogue,  and  the  privilege 
was  so  coveted  that  though,  in  later  times,  occasionally  appor- 
tioned by  lot\  in  the  middle  ages  it  went  literally  to  the 
highest  bidder^.  The  mitsvoth,  as  these  coveted  rites  were 
named,  were  sold  by  auction  in  synagogue,  and  each  con- 
gregation had  its  fixed  rules  regulating  the  method  and 
time  of  sale.  Sometimes  the  mitsvoth  were  sold  once  or 
twice  a  year,  sometimes  once  or  thrice  a  week,  most  often 
once  a  month.  Disputes  occasionally  arose  as  to  these 
auctions  ^,  and  the  function  led  to  considerable  disorder. 
Moreover,  the  poorer   members  of  the  congregation  were 

^  Menachem  Mendel,  Responsa,  pi!?  rroi* ,  §  25. 

^  Or  Zarua,  i.  p.  41. 

^  See  e.g.  Meir  b.  Isaac,  Responsa,  ii.  25. 


The  Sale  of  Honours.  23 

debarred  from  the  coveted  honour,  though  these  sometimes 
made  special  efforts  and  sacrifices  to  secure  the  privilege. 

Again,  the  announcement  in  synagogue  of  money  offerings 
for  benevolent  or  religious  purposes  gave  opportunity  for 
gossip  and  comment  ^  In  the  early  Church,  the  offerings 
of  Christians  were  made  publicly,  not  privately.  The  pre- 
siding officer  of  the  church  received  the  gifts,  and  solemnly 
dedicated  them  to  God  with  words  of  thanksgiving  and 
benediction  ^.  Yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  free 
and  easy  attitude  in  worship  was  associated  with  a  very 
sincere  piety.  The  same  authority^  who  applauds  the  sale 
of  mitsvoth  enforces  the  strictest  rules  for  reverent  behaviour 
during  prayer.  Pray  with  head  bent,  with  soft  utterance, 
with  feet  placed  neatly  together.  Spend  an  hour  in  the 
synagogue  in  silent  meditation  before  venturing  to  pray — 
and  so  forth.  Other  sources  of  disturbance,  especially  among 
Oriental  Jews,  were  the  custom  of  utilizing  the  synagogue 
for  inviting  guests  to  semi-religious  festivities,  the  putting 
on  and  off  of  the  sargenos  *,  laving  the  hands  of  the  Cohanim^ 
or  descendants  of  Aaron,  previous  to  their  recitation  of  the 
Priestly  Benediction^.  Yet,  on  the  whole,  the  abuses  of 
the  great  principle  that  the  Jew  was  at  home  in  his  place 
of  worship,  did  not  appreciably  lessen  devotion.  It  was 
only  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  Jews 
hovered  between  the  old  and  the  new,  that  this  familiar 
attitude  towards  God  became  indecorous ;  for  the  old  sense 
of  ease  was  retained,  but  there  was  a  loss  of  the  thorough- 
going piety  which,  seeing  God  everywhere  and  in  all  things, 

^  Mr.  Zangwill's  King  of  the  Schnorrers  amusingly  illustrates  this  curious 
fact.     Cf.  ch.  xvii.  below. 

^  Hatch,  Organisation  of  Early  Chtistian  Churches,  p.  40. 

=  Or  Zarua.  *  See  p.  18,  above.  ^  Numbers  vi.  22-27. 


24  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

looked  upon  him  as  a  partner  in  the  business  of  life,  rather 
than  as  a  superior  Being  to  be  approached  with  formal 
etiquette.  In  Oriental  lands  the  sense  of  incongruousness 
does  not  strike  the  observer  so  strongly  as  it  does  in 
Europe,  and  this  difference  in  itself  amounts  to  a  justification 
of  the  synagogue  of  the  middle  ages,  especially  in  France 
and  Germany,  where  the  warmth  of  Oriental  emotion  was 
retained.  In  Italy  and  Spain  there  was,  perhaps,  a  more 
stately  demeanour  in  synagogue  ;  there  was  unquestionably 
less  warmth  and  religious  intensity. 

Gossip  was  inevitable  in  synagogue,  for  the  latter  was 
the  chief  meeting-place  of  Jews.  The  licensed  conversation, 
however,  occurred  in  the  courtyard  ^,  not  in  the  synagogue 
itself;  and,  perhaps  to  encourage  the  people  to  congregate 
there  rather  than  in  the  sacred  building,  the  courtyard  was 
sometimes  laid  out  as  a  garden.  It  became  a  fashion,  even 
with  the  most  punctilious  Jews,  to  reassemble  after  the 
service  for  the  purpose  of  talking  over  the  news  of  the 
hour,  military  and  political  ^.  But  those  were  forbidden  to 
join  the  concourse  to  whom  such  gossip  proved  tedious,  for 
as  'the  Sabbath  is  a  delight,'  says  my  authority,  'none 
should  participate  in  the  function  if  it  wearies  or  bores 
them.' 

Probably  the  most  serious  difficulty  in  maintaining 
decorum  arose  from  the  children  ^.  The  Jews  were  not  the 
only  sect  so  troubled,  for  one  frequently  meets  with  Puritan 
diatribes  against  the  'wretched  boys.'  In  New  England 
churches  the  tithing-man  used  to  rap  the  knuckles  of  boys 
(and  even  of  elders)  to  wake  them  up  or  keep  them  well- 

^  MflUer,  Index,  p.  21. 

*  Isserlein,  Responsa,  j\nnno"nn,  §  61. 

^  Low,  Lebensalter  in  derjiid.  Literatur,  pp.  133,  134, 


Separation  of  the  Sexes.  25 

behaved  during  divine  serviced  Occasionally  a  similar 
measure  was  resorted  to  in  synagogue,  and,  especially  with 
the  Sephardic  Jews  (i.  e.  those  using  the  Spanish  Jewish 
ritual),  the  children  were  kept  in  order  by  an  official,  stick 
in  hand.  Some  authorities  resented  the  intrusion  of  young 
children  into  the  synagogue  at  all ;  indeed  the  trouble  must 
have  been  increased  by  the  separation  of  the  boys  from 
their  mothers. 

In  the  separation  of  the  sexes,  the  synagogue  only  re- 
flected their  isolation  in  the  social  life  outside.  The  sexes 
were  separated  at  Jewish  banquets  and  home  feasts  not  less 
than  in  the  synagogue.  If  they  did  not  pray  together 
neither  did  they  play  together.  The  rigid  separation  of 
the  sexes  in  prayer  seems  not  to  have  been  earlier,  however, 
than  the  thirteenth  century.  The  women  had  their  own 
'court'  in  the  Temple,  yet  it  is  not  impossible  that  they 
prayed  together  with  the  men  in  Talmudic  times  ^.  Pos- 
sibly the  rigid  separation  grew  out  of  the  medieval  custom 
— more  common  as  the  thirteenth  century  advances — which 
induced  men  and  women  to  spend  the  eve  of  the  Great  Fast 
in  synagogue.  By  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
perhaps  earlier,  Jewish  women  had  their  own  prayer- 
meetings  in  rooms  at  the  side  of  and  a  little  above  the 
men's  synagogue,  with  which  the  rooms  communicated  by 
a  small  window  or  balcony.  Or  if  the  women  had  no 
separate  apartments,  they  sat  at  the  back  of  the  men's 
synagogue  in  reserved  places,  screened  by  curtains.  There 
were  no  galleries  for  women  as  at  present  ^.     In  their  own 

^  Alice  M.  Earle,  The  Sabbath  in  Puritan  New  England,  p.  231. 

'^  Low,  Monatsschrift,  1884,  pp.  304,  463. 

^  Some  authorities  (on  Mishnah  Succah,  v.  2,  and  Middoth,  ii.  5)  believe 
that  temporary  galleries  were  erected  for  the  women  in  the  Temple  itself 
during  the  festivities  of  the  water  drawing. 


26  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

prayer-meetings  the  women  were  led  by  female  precentors, 
some  of  whom  acquired  considerable  reputation.  The 
epitaph  of  one  of  them,  Urania  of  Worms,  belonging 
perhaps  to  the  thirteenth  century,  runs  thus  ^ : — 

This  headstone  commemorates  the  eminent  and  excellent  lady  Urania,  the 

daughter  of  R.  Abraham,  who  was  the  chief  of  the  synagogue  singers. 

His  prayer  for  his  people  rose  up  unto  glory. 
And  as  to  her,  she,  too,  with  sweet  tunefulness,  officiated  before  the  female 

worshippers,  to  whom  she  sang  the  hymnal  portions.    In  devout  service 

her  memory  shall  be  preserved. 

The  tender  regard  for  woman,  despite  her  inequality  as 
regards  legal  and  religious  status,  was  shown  in  one  or  two 
features  of  which  considerations  of  space  cannot  justify  the 
omission.  Women,  when  away  from  home,  were  allowed  to 
light  their  Sabbath  candles  in  the  synagogue  ^.  It  was  not 
an  unknown  thing  even  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  when  the  exclusion  of  women  from  active  partici- 
pation in  the  public  worship  was  most  rigid,  to  use  a  woman's 
gold-embroidered  cloak  or  silver-braided  apron  as  a  curtain 
for  the  ark,  a  mantle  for  the  scroll  of  the  Law,  or  a  cover  for 
the  reading-desk  ^.  The  decoration  of  the  synagogue  was 
not  severely  simple.  '  The  Jews  may  not  enlarge,  elevate, 
or  beautify  their  synagogues'  enacted  Alfonso  X  in  1261'*. 
Thus  the  Talmudic  prescription  to  elevate  the  synagogue 
beyond  the  highest  building  in  the  town  was  impossible  in 
Spain.  The  difficulty  was  evaded  by  making  a  small 
symbolical  addition  to  the  height  of  the  synagogue  whenever 
a  higher  house  was  newly  built  ^,  and  it  is  barely  possible 
that   this   cause,    besides  imitation   of  the   ancient  Jewish 

^  A.  L6-wy,  Jewish  Chronicle,  December  30,  1892,  p.  11. 

'  Maharil,  Responsa,  §  53. 

3  Responsa,  Chavvath  Yair,  §  161 ;  Joel  b.  S.  Sirkes,  §  17. 

*  Lindo,  p.  99.  '  Low.  Monatsschrift,  1884,  p.  217. 


Ecclesiastical  Art.  27 

temple  and  of  the  medieval  mosque,  tended  to  preserve  the 
old  custom  of  the  leaving  the  synagogues  in  the  East 
without  roof  as  late  as  the  fifteenth  century.  Occasionally, 
however,  European  synagogues  were  very  high  ;  and  a  com- 
plaint is  recorded  that  the  synagogue  at  Sens  in  the  time 
of  Innocent  III  was  higher  than  the  neighbouring  church. 
Complaints  are  also  recorded  in  London  that,  owing  to  the 
proximity  of  the  synagogue,  the  church  prayers  were  inter- 
fered with  by  the  noise  of  the  Hebrew  hymns  ^.  But  in  Rome 
in  the  fourteenth  century  churches  were  erected  quite  close 
to  synagogues,  and  the  relations  between  the  two  sets  of 
worshippers  were  not  strained  by  any  such  recriminations. 

The  number  of  windows  in  a  synagogue  was  by  prefer- 
ence twelve  ^,  but  this  feature  was  neither  common  nor 
general.  More  regard  was  paid  to  the  Orientation  of  Euro- 
pean synagogues.  The  decorations  of  the  synagogue  were 
often  costly ;  and  legend  has  recorded  many  wonders  of  the 
Alexandrian  synagogue,  among  others.  Separate  parts  of 
that  building  are  said  to  have  been  reserved  for  special 
trades,  and  in  the  middle  ages  synagogues  for  Jews  of 
different  nationalities  were  common  especially  in  Italy  and 
on  the  Mediterranean  coasts.  Spanish  and  Italian  syna- 
gogues were  noted  for  their  beauty,  and  even  elsewhere  the 
floors  were  often  of  stone  or  marble  ^.  The  doors  of  the 
ark  were  sometimes  ornamented  with  figures  of  vines  or 
candlesticks,  or  stone-lions  graced  the  steps  leading  to  it  *. 

^  Tovey,  Anglia  Judaica,  p.  192.  Cf.  also  Gudemann,  ii.  pp.  27  and  224. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  church  and  synagogue  were 
built  in  close  proximity  to  one  another  in  Rome,  and  no  complaints  were 
made  (Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  p.  12). 

2  No  synagogue  was  built  without  windows ;  all  Jews  followed  the 
example  of  Daniel  (Dan.  vi.  10). 

2  Or  Zarua,  i.  p.  35.  *  Kaufmann,  /.  Q.  R.,  vol.  ix. 


28  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

The  lion  was,  indeed, a  favourite  Jewish  decorative  ornament. 
It  appears  in  the  modern  synagogue  in  every  available 
place,  on  the  Ark,  whether  in  relief  or  painted,  in  precious 
metal  on  the  plates  which  adorn  the  scrolls  of  the  Law, 
and  in  gold  embroidery  on  the  mantels  and  curtains,  and 
even  as  supports  to  tables  designed  for  semi-religious  use  ^ 
The  lamp,  burning  constantly  in  front  of  the  ark,  was  of 
gold  or  silver,  but  burnished  brass,  '  such  as  is  found  only  in 
the  houses  of  princes  ^,'  was  not  excluded.  So  popular  was 
the  presentation  of  such  gifts  to  the  synagogue  that  it 
became  necessary  to  restrict  the  liberality  of  individuals, 
and  no  lamp  was  admitted  as  a  gift  without  the  special 
permission  of  the  council  ^  The  privilege  of  supplying 
lights  for  the  sabbath  was  even  inherited*.  That  the 
synagogue  was  not  puritanically  averse  to  sensuous  attrac- 
tions, may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  rose-water  was, 
later  on,  used  for  washing  the  hands  of  the  'Priests'  on 
public  festivals^.  On  semi-private  festivities  rose-leaves  were 
strewn  in  the  ark  among  the  very  scrolls  of  the  Law.  On 
the  '  Rejoicing  of  the  Law  '  the  '  Bridegroom,'  as  the  layman 
selected  to  read  the  last  section  in  the  Pentateuch  was 
named,  held  a  reception  in  synagogue,  and  his  guests  were 
sprinkled  from  scented  sprays^.  These  remarks  apply 
more  to  the  East  than  to  Europe:  but  on  the  subject  of 
artistic  decoration  in  synagogue  one  general  remark  must 
suffice.    There  grew  up  a  strong  feeling  against  ornamenting 

^  See  S.  Krauss  in  Bloch's  Wochenschrift  (1896),  p.  91.     Cf.  Der  ungarische 
Israelii,  No.  4  (1896).    The  lion  was  protective  and  reminiscent  of  Gen.  xlix.  9. 
2  Chavvath  Yair,  §  68.  3  Ibid. 

*  Responsa,  Radbaz,  i.  387. 

'  The  simplest  Jewish  praying-room  had  some  decoration.    See  e.  g.  Kahn, 
Les  Juifs  de  Paris  au  XVIIP  Siecle,  p.  73. 

*  Responsa,  Beth  David,  §  293. 


150612 

Synagogue  Architecture.  99 

the  synagogue  with  representations  of  animals  other  than 
lions.  Some  authorities  applied  the  restriction  only  to  the 
human  figure,  or  to  designs  in  relief,  or  to  the  decoration  of 
the  side  of  the  synagogue  which  worshippers  faced  during 
prayer.  Others  forbade  all  representations  of  natural  objects. 
Still,  as  we  have  seen,  these  sentiments  were  not  universal, 
and  in  the  twelfth  century  the  Cologne  Synagogue  had 
painted  glass  windows,  and  it  was  not  an  unknown  thing  for 
birds  and  snakes,  probably  grotesques  rather  than  accurate 
representations,  to  appear  on  the  walls  of  the  synagogue 
without  the  Rabbinical  sanction  \  But  these  grotesques, 
like  the  seal  of  a  thirteenth  century  Jew,  cannot,  as  Tovey 
wittily  says^  *be  thought  a  breach  of  the  second  command- 
ment, for  it  is  the  likeness  of  nothing  that  is  in  heaven,  earth, 
or  water.'  Prayer-books  were  illuminated  and  pictorially 
embellished,  and  after  the  invention  of  printing,  wood-cuts 
depicting  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  and  the  ten  plagues  of 
Exodus  appeared  in  many  an  edition  of  the  Hebrew  prayer- 
book  used  in  synagogue  ^.  On  the  feast  of  Pentecost,  again, 
the  synagogue  was  decorated  with  flowers.  Grass  was 
strewn  on  the  synagogue  floor  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  less 
however  as  an  ornament  than  to  serve  as  a  softer  ground 
on  which  the  worshippers  might  prostrate  themselves  *. 

As  to  the  shape  of  synagogues,  no  special  form  can 
be  called  Jewish.  A  famous  authority  of  last  century 
maintained    that    no   Jewish    law,   old    or    new,    restricted 

^  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  175;  Berliner,  Aus  dem  inneren  Leben,  &c., 
p.  20.  Cf.  Meir  of  Kothenberg,  Respottsa  (ed.  Mekitse  Nirdamim),  §  547. 
See  Caro's  Abkath  Rochel,  §  63,  for  a  very  enlightened  opinion. 

^  Atigha  Judaica,  p.  183.     See  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  iii.  777. 

^  Meir  of  Rothenberg  mildly  disapproved  of  the  appearance  of  figures  of 
birds  and  beasts  in  prayer-books  and  on  walls  \^Responsa,  ed.  Cremona,  24). 

*  Tur,  Orach  Chayim,  §  iSi- 


30  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

the  fancy  of  synagogue  architects  ^  in  this  respect.  He 
himself  authorized  the  choice  of  an  octagonal  form,  and 
this  shape  is  now  rather  popular  on  the  continent. 

But  the  oblong  or  square  was  the  favourite  form  for  Jewish 
houses  of  prayer  from  very  early  times.  The  temple-courts 
— which  were  used  for  prayer-meetings — were  oblong  or 
square,  but  there  was  at  one  time  a  prevalent  notion  in 
England  that  synagogues  were  round.  Thomas  Fuller 
(circ.  1650)  remarks  that  the  'Round  Church  in  the  Jewry 
is  conjectured;  by  the  rotundity  of  the  structure,  to  have 
been  built  as  a  synagogue.'  Fuller  is  here  referring  to  the 
Cambridge  Round  Church  ;  while  Stow  ^  declined  to  admit 
that  Bakewell  Hall  was  once  a  synagogue,  because  forsooth 
it  was  not  round !  There  are  few  round  churches  in 
England  altogether,  but  hardly  any  of  these  have  not 
at  some  time  or  other  been  pronounced  to  have  been  built 
by  Jews.  These  round  churches  really  are  due  to  the 
activity  of  the  Templars^.  The  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  in  Jerusalem  was  round,  and  it  would  seem 
likely  enough  that  this  design  was  imitated  in  England 
during  the  Crusading  ages.  Epiphanius  indeed  says  that 
the  Samaritans,  like  the  Jews,  built  synagogues  'theatre-like' 
without  roofs  ;  but  he  does  not  make  it  clear  whether  he 
was  alluding  to  the  rooflessness  as  '  theatre-like,'  or  intended 
to  imply  that  Jewish  places  of  worship  were,  '  theatre-like,' 
round  in  shape.  But  the  only  design  which  could  arouse 
religious  opposition  from  Jews  would  be  the  cruciform  *. 

*  E.  Landau,  Noda  Biyudah,  i.  §  18.  ^  Jacobs,  Londovi  Jewry,  26. 

3  James  Essex,  Archaeologta,  vol.  vi. 

<  On  the  shape  of  the  Prague  synagogues,  M.  Popper  {Die  Inschnftcn 
des  alien  Prager  Judenfriedhofs,  p.  23)  says  that  the  Pinkas  synagogue  is 
a  simple  round  domed  edifice  ;  the  Meisel  synagogue  (built  1590)  is  more 
ornate,  with  a  cross-vaulted  central  roof  and  side  domes. 


Sacred  Music.  31 

The  synagogue  music  does  not  seem  to  have  been  very 
ornate  or  refined  ;  volume  of  sound  being  ascribed  to  it 
rather  than  delicacy.  The  singing  Precentor  (Chazan)  was 
not  tolerated  without  a  struggle,  though  he  eventually 
became  a  marked  feature  of  the  synagogue.  Much  con- 
servatism prevailed  regarding  synagogue  tunes  ^ ;  and  each 
locality  possessed  its  own  melodies.  No  serious  com- 
punction was  felt,  however,  against  introducing  popular 
airs  into  the  synagogue,  though  there  was  no  doubt  some 
feeling  against  it.  The  congregational  singing  was  vigorous 
and  probably  general,  for  we  find  in  later  times  some  resent- 
ment at  the  introduction  of  boys'  choirs  ^. 

This  leads  us  back  from  our  digression.  The  boys  had 
their  rights  in  the  synagogue  long  before  they  attained 
their  thirteenth  year,  after  which  they  were  accounted,  from 
a  religious  point  of  view,  as  adults.  The  Barmitzvah  rites, 
which  accompanied  the  completion  of  a  boy's  thirteenth  year, 
cannot  be  clearly  traced  earlier  than  the  fourteenth  century^. 
From  early  times,  however,  young  boys  were  encouraged 
to  recite  in  synagogue  the  Hallel  and  the  weekly  lesson 
from  the  Prophets  *  ;  boys  sometimes  lit  the  synagogue 
candles  on  the  eve  of  the  festivals  ^ ;  in  the  fifteenth  century 
boys  read  part  of  the  regular  service  to  congregations  of 
adults  ^  Boys  sometimes  made  announcements  in  syna- 
gogue, a  function  afterwards  filled  by  the  shamash  or 
beadle^.     Flags  in  hand,  boys  headed  the  procession  of  the 

^  See  Maharil,  passim.    On  synagogue  melodies  cf.  Steinschneider,y^e</;'A72 
Literature^  pp.  154-5. 

^  E.  g,  Steinhart,  Responsa,  Zichron  Yosef,  §  5. 

^  Low,  Lebensalter,  p.  210  *  Responsa^  Tashbats,  iii.  171. 

^  Responsa,  Beer  Esek,  §  38. 

^  S.  b.  Eleazar,  Preface  to  Baruch  Sheamar. 

'  Maharil  informs  us  that  the  boys  announced  i^n  nVy\ 


33  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

bearers  of  the  scrolls  on  the  '  Rejoicing  of  the  Law,'  they 
ascended  the  reading-desk  en  masse  on  that  occasion  during 
the  reading  of  the  Pentateuch  lesson,  some  of  them  even 
bare-headed  ^.  On  every  Sabbath  they  stood  by  the  steps  of 
the  Almemor  (reading-desk)  and  reverently  kissed  the 
sacred  Scroll^.  When  they  were  nine  or  ten  years  old, 
they  fasted  a  few  hours  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  and 
some  authorities  included  them  among  the  ten  adults 
requisite  for  minyan,  the  ritual  quorum  for  public  worship. 
The  boys  were  even  allowed  to  preach ;  and,  as  some 
authorities  assume,  were  admitted  to  administrative  honours. 
An  epitaph  of  the  third  century  describes  an  eight-year-old 
Roman  boy  as  an  Archon  of  the  synagogue  '■'.  But  the  title 
of  Archon  seems  to  have  been  hereditary  at  Rome  *,  and 
this  particular  boy  may  have  borne  the  title  in  virtue  of  his 
descent.  Boys  were  taught  to  show  the  greatest  respect 
to  their  parents  in  synagogue  ;  they  carried  their  fathers' 
prayer-books  for  them  ;  they  never  occupied  their  fathers' 
seats  ;  they  stood  while  their  fathers  stood,  and  their 
fathers  blessed  them  after  the  reading  of  the  Law,  or  at  the 
close  of  the  Sabbath  eve  service.  Fathers  refrained  from 
kissing  their  boys  in  synagogue  ^^  but  when  the  service  was 
over  the  children  kissed  the  Rabbi  s  hand,  which  he  raised 
to  the  children's  heads,  uttering  meanwhile  a  prayer  for 
their  welfare.  The  mother  was  not  excluded  from  these 
tokens  of  respect,  and  on  Friday,  in  the  interval  betv/een 
the  afternoon  and  evening  services,  the  boys  were  sent 
home  to  their  mothers,  to  intimate  that  the  Sabbath  was 

*  Adults  prayed  bare-headed  in  France.    See  Geiger's  Jiidische  Zeiischri/t, 
ii.  142. 

'  Schechter,  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  ii.  p.  21. 

*  Schiirer,  Die  Gentetndeverfassung  der  Juden  in  Rom,  p.  24. 

*  Berliner,  Rom^  i.  p.  68.  '"  Se/cr  Chassidtm,  §  255. 


Synagogue  and  School.  33 

about  to  begin  ^  and  that  the  Sabbath  candles  must  be 
kindled.  For  the  children's  sake  certain  verses  from  the 
book  of  Esther  were  sung  in  chorus  on  Purim,  and,  despite 
the  trouble  they  caused  there,  the  young  were  treated  as 
though  the  synagogue  was  their  second  home.  Indeed,  up 
till  the  ninth  or  tenth  centuries,  Asiatic  synagogues  were 
homes  for  travellers,  who  lodged  in  the  synagogues  and 
took  their  meals  there  ^.  The  Kiddush  or  Sanctification 
over  the  wine  which  has,  quaintly  enough,  survived  in  the 
modern  synagogue  ritual,  was  thus  in  its  origin  part  of  the 
Sabbath  meal  which  was  spread  in  the  synagogue  itself 
or  in  its  immediate  precincts  for  passing  strangers.  In 
the  European  synagogues  no  such  meals  took  place ;  the 
Sanctification  over  the  wine  became  a  symbol  rather  than 
part  of  the  meal,  and,  instead  of  the  Precentor,  a  boy  sipped 
the  wine  from  the  full  cup  handed  to  him. 

No  doubt  there  was,  as  the  middle  ages  closed,  a  tendency 
to  specialize,  and  subtract  from  the  synagogue  some  of  its 
functions.  Yet  the  association  between  the  school  and  the 
synagogue  always  remained  an  intimate  one.  It  was  a  very 
old  custom  for  pious  worshippers  to  repair  to  synagogue 
early  before  the  services,  with  the  object  of  studying  the 
Bible  and  the  Rabbinical  wTitings  ^.  Still,  the  school  and 
the  synagogue  were  independent  institutions,  though  praying 
was  usual  in  the  school,  and  learning  took  place  in  the 
synagogue.  The  term  schzile,  now  commonly  used  by  Jews 
to  mean  the  synagogue,  was,  according  to  Dr.  Giidemann  *, 
not  of  Jewish  invention,  being  first  applied  to  the  synagogue 
by  Christians,  who  found  it  inconvenient  to  designate  the 
synagogue  a    Church.     In    England  the    Norwich   school, 

^  Ra-ben,  §  342.  ^  Low,  p.  205. 

^  Responsa  of  Geonim  (ed.  Lyck),  p.  87.  *  iii.  p.  94,  note. 

D 


34  Life  in  the  Synagogue. 

built  before  1189,  was  not  identical  with  the  synagogue  \ 
and  the  same  remark  applies  to  the  capital.  In  Worms,  to 
cite  only  one  other  instance,  the  school  was  located  behind 
the  synagogue  ^.  Hence,  some  interesting  synagogue  rites 
connected  with  the  school  will  be  reserved  for  the  chapter 
on  education. 

^  Jacobs,  Angevin  England,  p.  275  ;  cf.  ibid.  p.  245. 
^  Gudemann,  Quellenschriften,  p.  219. 


CHAPTER    III. 

COMMUNAL  ORGANIZATION. 

The  original  identity  between  the  organizations  of 
Synagogue  and  Church  was  obliterated  by  the  earlier 
growth  within  the  latter  of  institutions.  The  Jewish  com- 
munal organization  provided  for  everything  that  the  Church 
supplied,  but  it  did  so  without  specialization,  without  dele- 
gating its  duties  to  semi-independent  bodies.  Thus,  while 
the  deacons  soon  ceased  to  be  the  general  relieving  officers 
of  the  Church  in  cases  of  sickness  and  poverty-^,  their 
Jewish  prototypes,  the  Parnassim,  or  lay  directors  of  the 
Synagogue,  retained  very  wide  functions  throughout  the 
middle  ages.  Until  the  thirteenth  century,  there  were  no 
Jewish  poor-houses  or  hospitals,  no  orphanages  for  the  young 
or  almshouses  for  the  aged  ;  but  the  Synagogue  organization 
fully  supplied  the  place  of  all  these,  and,  through  lack  of 
differentiation  of  its  functions,  strengthened  its  hold  on  the 
course  of  medieval  Judaism. 

There  was,  moreover,  nothing  in  European  Judaism 
parallel  to  the  Christian  diocese.  It  was  impossible  that 
such    a    parallel    should    exist,    for    the    bishop  ^   rapidly 

^  The  monasteries  revived  something  of  the  Jewish  system  in  the  eleventh 
century. 

^  The  Jewish  bishops,  of  whom  we  read  in  medieval  English  documents, 
were  not  ecclesiastics,  but  probably  were  lay  heads  or  Parnassim. 
Mr.  Jacobs,  however  {Angevin  England,  p,  43),  believes  that  they  were 
Dayanitn  or  Rabbinical  judges. 

D    2 


36  Communal  Organization. 

acquired  political  power,  and  in  the  eighth  century,  under 
Boniface's  vigorous  reforms,  the  bishop  became  permanently 
possessed  of  disciplinary  powers  such  as  no  Rabbi  ever 
wielded  or  claimed.  Even  the  Geonim,  who  enjoyed  a 
unique  sway  over  the  medieval  Jews  between  the  seventh 
and  the  eleventh  centuries,  and  while  resident  in  Persia  ruled 
the  Jewries  of  Europe,  rarely  interfered  with  local  custom, 
nay,  they  were  so  anxious  to  allow  local  freedom  that 
they  even  advocated  the  retention  of  local  minhagim,  or 
minor  rules  of  life,  of  which  they  personally  disapproved  '. 
Moreover  the  Geonim  never  forced  their  decrees  on  foreign 
congregations  ;  it  may  be  doubted  indeed  whether  they 
ever  interfered  in  Jewish  affairs  beyond  their  own  neigh- 
bourhood, unless  their  opinions  were  specifically  invited. 
It  was  only  the  latest  of  the  Geonim,  Hai,  that  displayed 
some  anxiety  to  have  his  ritual  and  legal  decisions  widely 
published,  and  this  eagerness  for  extensive  acceptance 
was  one  of  the  presages  of  the  decaying  authority  of  the 
Geonim.  As  the  centuries  rolled  on  these  differences  in 
local  custom  increased  rather  than  lessened.  By  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century  2,  the  number  of  independent 
cycles  of  customs  or  mijihagim — most  of  them  well  defined 
by  communal  enactments — was  so  large  that  Dr.  Giidemann 
is  able  to  enumerate  more  than  twenty,  though  his  list  is 
imperfect  even  for  Europe  (for  Italy  and  Spain  are 
omitted),  and  the  East  could  have  added  its  quotum  to  the 
imposing  array.  Custom  became  master,  and  custom  is 
a  tyrant.  Custom  survives  the  circumstances  which  give 
it  birth,  and  because  the  retention  of  it  is  based  on  senti- 
ment, it  is  not  amenable  to  the  assaults  of  reason.     But 

^  Mailer,  Maf teach,  p.  211. 
-  Cf.  Gudemann,  iii.  la. 


Rabbinical  Synods.  37 

despite  the  evils  resulting  from  this  multiplicity  of  customs^ ; 
despite  the  disorder  accruing,  for  instance,  from  the  con- 
stant presence  in  a  town  of  immigrant  Jews,  who  were  held 
free  to  follow  their  own  imported  minhagim  ;  Jewish  life 
gained  more  than  it  lost  by  the  freedom  of  the  individual, 
the  freshening  of  the  atmosphere,  and  the  avoidance  of 
clerical  arrogance,  by  the  co-existence  of  many  smaller 
varieties  within  the  body  general  of  Judaism. 

There  were,  moreover,  several  alleviations  of  this  anarchy 
in  customary  Judaism  of  the  middle  ages.  Individual  Rabbis 
won  so  world-wide  a  reputation  that  they  often  left  their 
impress  on  the  practices  of  several  generations  of  Jews  all 
the  world  over  ^.  The  responses  which  they  sent  to  corre- 
spondents often  formed  a  link  between  the  scattered  congre- 
gations of  Jews  in  many  parts  of  the  globe.  Then  came,  to 
the  aid  of  union,  the  codification  of  Jewish  law  and  custom 
which  flourished  in  Spain  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Finally, 
unity  of  custom  on  great  moral  questions  was  almost  com- 
pletely established  by  a  series  of  Rabbinical  synods.  These 
synods  were  attended  by  representatives  of  many  congre- 
gations, and  the  resolutions  arrived  at  dealt  with  many 
great  problems,  such  as  monogamy,  the  marriage  and 
divorce  laws,  the  laws  against  informers,  the  laws  of  inheri- 

^  Cf.  ch.  viii,  towards  the  end  of  the  chapter. 

^  A  noteworthy  instance  was  Simon  ben  Zemach  Duran,  of  Algiers, 
whose  twelve  regulations  (or  tekanoth), issued  in  1391,  were  widely  accepted, 
m'jnpn  nn"'  Dn^b?  oi'Jipi.  These  regulations  were  drawn  up  by  Duran  in  con- 
junction with  Isaac  ben  Sheshet  and  Isaac  Bonastruc.  The  most  important 
of  them  were  these  : — i.  and  ii.  A  maiden's  settlement  shall  amount  to 
50  per  cent  more  than  her  dowry  this  was  to  make  divorce  expensive), 
vi.  Further  additions  to  the  settlement  by  way  of  gift  are  the  inalienable 
property  of  the  wife.  viii.  In  any  case  of  dispute  between  husband  and 
wife,  the  case  must  be  tried  by  the  Jewish  court,  x.  Any  one  may  contract 
himself  out  of  these  tekanoth  provided  that  he  does  so  before  the  betrothal 
(y"2tDnn  n"i\c,  ii.  292). 


38  Communal  Organization. 

tance,  and  the  attitude  to  be  assumed  in  general  in  face  of 
the  aggressions  of  the  civil  government.  Jews  needed  to 
present  something  like  a  united  front  if  they  v^ere  to  face 
the  storms  which  raged  around  their  homes  and  lives,  and 
the  synods  were  honourably  distinguished  by  the  spirit  of 
unselfishness  which  they  introduced  into  Jewish  communal 
life.  Burdens  were  to  be  shared,  not  shirked.  These 
synods  chiefly  succeeded  in  introducing  unity  of  practice 
on  the  greater  questions  of  life,  and  from  the  eleventh 
century  they  became  fairly  continuous,  depending  no  doubt 
for  their  authority  on  the  great  regulations  of  their  presi- 
dents, foremost  among  them  Jacob  Tam  (1100-1171). 
Combined  action  of  a  more  or  less  imperfect  kind  was 
attempted  in  the  thirteenth  century  with  regard,  for  in- 
stance, to  the  exclusion  of  philosophy  from  Jewish 
education,  but  the  attempt  utterly  failed.  Alliances  for 
giving  practical  expression  to  the  religious  unity  of  Judaism 
were  indeed  not  so  common  after  as  they  were  until  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  later  alliances  were  almost  purely 
local,  or  were  confined  to  the  Jews  of  a  particular  nation. 
A  typical  instance  occurred  in  Italy  in  1416,  when  a  synod 
held  in  Bologna  created  an  alliance  for  internal  communal 
purposes  between  the  Jewish  congregations  of  Rome,  Padua, 
P^errara,  Bologna,  and  the  Romagna  and  Toscana  districts. 
This  union  was  caused  by  the  papal  schism  and  the  con- 
sequent insecurity  of  the  Italian  Jews^  In  the  sixteenth 
century  a  somewhat  similar,  though  more  lasting,  alliance 
for  communal  purposes  was  the  famous  VaadArba  Aratsoth, 
or  the  ^  Union  of  the  Four  Districts,'  which  for  a  long  time 
ruled  Polish  Judaism  and  its  organization.  At  its  head  was 
an  elective  president,  and  the  tribunal  over  which  he  ruled 

'  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  p.  66. 


Rabbi  and  Government. 


39 


had  even  criminal  jurisdiction.  But  this  Vaad  or  aUiance 
had  no  control  over  the  details  of  communal  life  ;  each 
congregation  retained  its  own  Rabbi  and  its  own  court  or 
Beth  Din  ^  Neighbouring  congregations,  naturally  enough, 
frequently  combined  for  some  general  purposes  in  a  more 
or  less  formal  manner,  Speyer,  Worms,  and  Mayence  offer 
a  noteworthy  instance,  but  the  famous  regulations  of  this 
union  are  in  no  sense  administrative  ^. 

These  synods  and  unions,  therefore,  did  not  attempt  to 
set  up  a  central  authority  as  regards  the  ordinary  com- 
munal organization.  The  local  Rabbi  claimed  local 
allegiance,  and,  as  I  have  said,  it  was  his  reputation,  and 
not  his  official  position,  which  won  him  any  power  beyond 
his  own  congregation.  He  was  removable  from  his  post, 
though  depositions  were  very  rare.  But  until  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century  the  Rabbi  enjoyed  a  certain  inde- 
pendence of  his  flock,  for,  though  he  was  an  officer  of  the 
synagogue,  he  was  not  a  regularly  salaried  servant  until 
the  period  just  named  ^.  Often  the  election  of  a  Rabbi 
was  subject  to  external  interference  and  needed  at  least 
confirmation  by  the  civil  power,  and  the  '  Prince  of  the 
Captivity'  in  Persia  and  the  Nagid  in  Egypt,  until  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  were  entrusted  by 
the  State  with  powers  unknown  to  the  Rabbis  of  Europe. 
In  Poland,  indeed,  in  the  reign  of  Sigismund  I  (1506-1548), 
the  Rabbi  was  confirmed  by  the  king,  and  was,  in  a  sense, 
an  agent  for  the  crown,  collecting  the  poll-tax  and  enjoying 
large  powers  of  civil  and  criminal  jurisdiction*.    Napoleon  I 

^  Graetz,  History  (E.  T.),  V.  ch.  i.     For  title  of  '  Rabbi,'  see  p.  356  below. 
^  The  d"i\D  r^-:\.T\  begin  to  date  from  the  thirteenth  century. 
^  Very  interesting  particulars  on  this  subject  are  given  in  the  Tashbats,  I. 
142  seq.,  and  in  the  Testaments  of  the  Asheri  family  (ed.  Schechter,  1885). 
*  Graetz,  History  (E.  T.),  IV.  ch.  xiii. 


40  Communal  Organization, 

so  completely  organized  French  Judaism  that  the  Rabbis  of 
France  are  now  practically  government  officers,  but  the 
State  has  never  once  interfered  in  France  to  override  the 
wishes  of  the  Jews  themselves.  So,  in  the  middle  ages, 
even  when  the  governments  ostensibly  claimed  the  right  to 
a  voice  in  the  election  of  Rabbis,  the  Jews  strongly  resented 
the  assumption  by  their  Rabbis  of  privileges  derived  from 
any  sanction  but  their  own  expressed  wishes^.  A  good 
case  in  point  may  be  cited  from  what  happened  in  Algiers 
in  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Simon  Duran 
was  elected  Rabbi  on  the  express  condition  that  he  waived 
the  formality  of  seeking  the  ratification  of  his  appointment 
from  the  government. 

Though,  however,  the  Jews  were  jealous  of  the  right  to 
manage  their  own  communal  affairs,  their  internal  organiza- 
tion was  largely  affected  by  their  relations  to  the  external 
civil  powers.  Their  organization,  indeed,  revolved  on  the 
pivot  of  the  taxes.  Wherever  and  whenever  one  casts  his 
eye  on  the  Jewish  communities  of  the  middle  ages,  the 
observer  always  finds  the  Jew  in  the  clutches  of  extor- 
tionate tax-collectors.  How  did  the  State  levy  these 
exactions,  which  were  mostly  of  three  kinds — poll-taxes, 
communal  taxes,  and  particular  fines  and  dues  for  individual 
transactions  and  privileges?  The  age  at  which  Jews  and 
Jewesses  became  liable  to  the  poll-tax  varied  considerably, 
but  the  age  was  very  young,  and  in  Spain,  as  in  England  in 
1273,  every  Jew  above  the  age  of  ten  was  rateable.  There 
is  no  general  information  on  the  subject  of  the  manner  in 

^  A  high-spirited  precentor  (pn)  in  the  middle  ages  refused  to  accept  his 
ofl&ce  at  the  hands  of  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  {Responsa  of  Meir  of 
Rothenburg,  Cremona,  §  190).  Galician  Rabbis  were  confirmed  in  their 
offices  by  the  government ;  an  interesting  document  dated  1741  may  be 
found  in  Buber  s  cc  nr:>*,  p.  236. 


Tallage  and  Poll-Tax.  41 

which  these  taxes  were  raised,  but  a  careful  consideration  of 
many  details  leads  me  to  the  conclusion  that  in  most  cases,  if 
not  in  all,  the  various  medieval  governments  exacted  the  taxes 
en  masse  from  the  Jewish  community,  and  left  the  collection 
of  this  lump  sum  to  the  officials  of  the  synagogue  ^.  This 
method  was  not  confined  to  England,  where  the  early  cen- 
tralization of  government  and  the  peculiar  form  of  feudalism 
prevalent  there  placed  the  Jews  in  a  unique  position  towards 
the  king.  In  England  we  hear  of '  Chief  Rabbis '  and  Jewish 
presbyters  with  central  authority  such  as  was  unknown 
amid  the  unsettled  and  decentralized  feudalisms  of  the 
continent.  Despite  this  difference,  however,  the  English 
mode  of  levying  the  Jewish  contributions  to  the  royal 
revenue  did  not  vary  essentially  from  the  system  prevailing 
in  Spain  and  elsewhere.  Briefly  told,  the  English  method 
was  this.  The  tallage,  which  constituted  the  main  source 
of  the  crown  revenue  from  the  Jewries,  was  a  purely 
arbitrary  tax.  Only  occasionally  was  it  levied  as  a  poll- 
tax  at  all,  mostly  it  was  levied  collectively,  each  Jew 
contributing  according  to  his  power  or  his  reputed  wealth  2. 

^  A  good  instance  of  how  the  two  methods  worked  together  is  supplied  by 
an  ordinance  passed  at  Anagni  in  1271.  In  Anjou  every  Jew  or  Jewess  was 
ordered  to  pay  10  sols  toumois  as  a  poll-tax.  Besides  this,  the  community 
as  a  whole  paid  200  livres  toumois  as  a  general  contribution.  But — and  this 
is  the  interesting  point — some  Jews,  like  the  non  podientes  in  Spain,  claimed 
to  be  too  poor  to  pay  this  poll-tax.  Hence  the  ordinance  decreed  that  the 
town  bailiflf  was  to  hold  the  Jewish  community  as  a  whole  responsible  for  the 
payment  of  the  poll-tax  for  1,000  individuals,  even  though  the  number  of  Jews 
in  Anjou  be  less  than  1,000.  The  Jews  were  represented  by  a  communal 
official  of  their  own  called  sindicus  et  procurator  universitatis  judeorum,  an 
officer  no  doubt  necessitated  by  the  method  of  collecting  the  taxes  just 
described  (Brunschvicg,  Juifs  d' Angers,  pp.  12-13). 

^  How  thoroughly  this  method  became  ingrained  on  the  Jewish  organi- 
zation may  be  seen  from  its  survival  to  our  own  times  in  Sephardic 
congregations.  Thus,  in  London  an  appreciable  part  of  the  revenue  of 
the  Spanish   and  Portuguese    congregation   consists  of  a  Finta   levied  by 


42  Communal  Organization. 

Jewish  assessors  were  appointed  because  they  would  be 
able  to  estimate  each  man's  property,  and  these  assessors 
or  tallagers  were  expected,  under  penalty  of  severe  fines, 
to  perform  their  duty  inexorably,  and  were  sometimes 
forced  to  aid  the  sheriff  in  levying  distress  on  Jewish  de- 
faulters ^.  When  there  were  no  Jewish  assessors,  but — as 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  I^ — Christian  collectors  were 
appointed,  a  few  wealthy  Jews  were  nominated  as  sureties, 
and  were  held  responsible  for  the  payment  of  the  collective 
tax.  The  total  sums  exacted  were  enormous.  In  England 
the  Jews  provided  one-twelfth  of  the  royal  revenue.  In 
another  country  the  Jews,  who  formed  a  tenth  of  the 
population,  supplied  a  fourth  of  the  public  funds  ^.  It  was 
often  resolved  to  throw  as  much  as  half  the  total  sums 
raised  on  to  the  shoulders  of  the  wealthy  ^. 

My  purpose  is,  however,  less  to  enter  into  details  of  this 
system  than  to  trace  its  effects  on  Jewish  social  life.  To 
sum  up  these  effects  in  a  single  sentence;  the  older  Jewish 

assessors  appointed  for  the  purpose.  In  this  method  of  raising  the  internal 
revenue  of  Jewish  congregations,  Jews  over  the  age  of  fifteen  were  liable 
to  contribute  (Eskapa's  Tekanoth,  §  2). 

^  Gross,  Exchequer  of  Jews  of  England  (in  '  Papers  read  at  Anglo-Jewish 
Exhibition,'  1887),  p.  196,  &c.  This  method  of  grouping  the  Jews  for 
purposes  of  taxation  and  leaving  the  collection  to  Jews  themselves  was 
also  existent  in  Spain  Jacobs,  Spain,  p.  xxiii).  An  equally  representative 
instance  may  be  cited  in  Germany  in  1381,  where  the  congregations  of 
Heidelberg,  Weinheim,  Lindenfels,  Eberbach,  Mosbach,  Sinsheim,  Wiesloch, 
Eppingen,  Bretten,  and  Ladenberg  were  taxed  en  masse  for  the  '  protection  ' 
rate  (LSwenstein,  Kurpfalz,  p.  12).  The  chain  of  evidence  is  completed  by  the 
statement  of  Aaron  Perachiah  (pn«  n'j:o  mc,  §  123%  that  in  Mohammedan 
countries  the  same  system  prevailed.  Cf.  the  information  on  the  taxes  levied 
in  Turkey  in  A.  Danon's  essay  in  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  52. 
Madox  {Exchequer,  i.  221   speaks  of  Jews  answerable  for  one  another's  tallages. 

'•*  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  497  ;  J.  Jacobs,  Angevin  England,  p.  328. 

2  This  must  have  been  the  result  of  the  decision  to  exact  the  communal 
burdens  half  as  a  poll-tax  and  half  by  assessment  (Juda  Minz,  §  42). 


An  Aristocracy  of  Wealth.  43 

aristocracy  of  learning  was  replaced  by  an  aristocracy  of 
wealth.  The  taxes  were  paid  by  the  richer  for  the  less 
rich,  or  at  least  the  former  class  contributed  more  than 
their  share  to  the  communal  burdens.  As  the  utility  of 
wealth  grew,  its  privileges  were  bound  to  keep  pace. 
Graetz  fixes  the  growth  of  an  aristocracy  of  wealth  among 
the  Jews  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  ^  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  phenomenon  then  becomes  most 
marked,  but  it  was  very  gradual  in  inception.  The  power 
of  wealth  is  always  seen  first  in  the  prestige  of  Jews  who 
held  state  offices.  In  other  words,  those  whose  wealth  was 
most  useful  to  the  community  won  a  position  of  influence 
by  it.  In  the  fourteenth  century  the  Jewish  organization 
in  Christian  Spain  was  already  in  the  hands  of  the  men 
who  enjoyed  Royal  favour,  but  the  Jewish  population  was 
at  the  time  able  to  resist  this  imposition,  and  sometimes 
chose  its  own  communal  officers  in  the  face  of  government 
opposition  2.  Originally,  the  organization  of  the  Jewry  was 
a  thoroughly  democratic  one  ;  the  only  aristocracy  being 
one  of  merit  and  learning,  not  of  property.  Nothing  can 
set  the  point  clearer  before  the  reader  than  the  following 
contrast  between  the  classes  into  which  the  Jews  were 
divided  in  the  fourteenth  and  the  eighteenth  centuries.  In 
the  former  period  we  hear  of  a  large  number  of  Jews  being 
present  in  synagogue  at  a  festivity,  and  the  congregation 
is  divided  into  '  Rabbis,  scholars,  students,  and  house- 
holders ^'  In  Avignon  in  1769  the  community  is  divided 
into  three  grades  :  '  The  first  grade  includes  persons  pos- 
sessed  of  30,000  livres  ;    the  second,  persons  possessed  of 

^  History  (English  trans.),  V.  ch.  vi.  ^  Zunz,  op.  cit.,  p.  511. 

"  This  included  all  the  ordinary  married  men  of  the  community  (M.  Minz, 
Responsa,  §  10 1). 


44  Communal  Organization. 

15.000  livres;  the  third,  persons  possessed  of  5,coo  livres^' 
— and  none  of  lesser  wealth  were  admitted  to  office.  The 
democratic  basis  of  the  Jewish  system  was  never,  of  course, 
completely  destroyed,  and  either  the  ordinary  business  men 
of  moderate  property  still  had  the  real  control  of  affairs  ^, 
or  a  compromise  was  reached  in  which  wealth  and  numbers 
were  equally  deferred  to  ^ — an  ideal  arrangement  which 
never  worked  without   friction. 

Another,  less  harmful  result,  was  the  strength  that  the 
.system  gave  to  the  bonds  of  the  communal  organization. 
It  gave  the  community  a  strong  control  over  its  individual 
members.  The  officers  appointed  by  the  congregation  itself 
to  levy  the  taxes  must  have  gained  an  intimate  knowledge 
of  each  Jew's  private  affairs  and  property.  The  assessment 
must  have  led  to  heart-burning  when  the  grandmotherly 
official  taxed  the  individual  below  the  latter's  own  estimate, 
and  was  deaf  to  his  pleading  to  be  allowed  to  pay  more. 
Mostly,  no  doubt,  the  trouble  was  of  quite  an  opposite 
nature,  and  throughout  the  middle  ages  Jewish  records  are 
full  of  complaints  of  unworthy,  if  natural,  efforts  made 
by  classes  and  individuals  to  evade  their  liability  and 
throw  the  whole  burden  on  to  a  few  broad  and  willing 
.shoulders.      (This    remark   applies   also   to   the  voluntary 

'  Statutes  of  Avignon    Annuaire  Etudes  Juives,  1885.  p.  169). 

^  Cf.  Shulchan  Aruch,  Yore  Deah,  §  250,  5. 

^  This  principle  was  that  a  poo  iTil  pon  a"n,  *a  majority  in  votes  and 
a  majority  in  wealth,'  was  needed  to  pass  a  communal  resolution ;  or,  to 
use  another  equally  alliterative  formula,  pn  iiii  po  mi.  Cf.  M.  Mendel 
of  Nicolsburg,  p2  no2  n""i\D,  §  i.  The  same  authority,  §  2,  reports  an 
attempt  to  appoint  a  committee  often  to  elect  Rabbi,  Chazan,  and  Shamash, 
and  to  decide  all  communal  affairs.  This  device  for  invading  the  democratic 
system  failed,  but  no  doubt  an  inner  circle  often  ruled  affairs.  See  below, 
p.  54,  n.  2.  At  Kremzir  (ibid.)  one  family,  we  are  told,  paid  three-fifths 
of  the  whole  communal  taxes.  At  an  earlier  period  in  the  Rhine-lands, 
the  appointment  of  Chazan  needed  a  unanimous  vote  {Or  Zarua,  i.  41). 


Taxes  on  Immigrants.  45 

taxes  raised  for  internal  communal  practices.)  Professional 
students,  young  or  old,  were  exempt  from  payment ;  Rabbis 
and  sometimes  doctors  ^  salaried  officers  generally  were 
exempt,  though  not  without  an  occasional  struggle  on  the 
part  of  the  mass  of  the  congregation  ^.  The  Rabbi's  widow 
enjoyed  immunity,  while  printers  in  some  communities 
were  equally  spared.  Men  who  lived  by  the  work  of  their 
hands  paid  the  poll-tax,  but  were  excused  from  all  other 
burdens  ^.  Another  source  of  trouble  accrued  from  the 
constant  immigration  of  foreign  Jews,  who  either  remained 
for  a  short  time  only,  or  who  attempted  to  form  inde- 
pendent organizations  and  refused  to  contribute  to  existent 
burdens  *. 

^  Cf.  Moses  the  Priest's  obv^  raiHD  n"iir,  §  33.  A  spirited  denunciation  of 
those  who  attempted  to  subject  every  one  to  the  taxes,  irrespective  of  his 
profession,  may  be  seen  in  J.  Caro's  "j^n  npaw,  p.  i. 

2  Much  controversy  raged  round  the  question  whether  the  Chazan  or 
precentor  should  be  included  among  the  classes  who  enjoyed  this  customary 
privilege  of  exemption.  Duran  {Tashbats,  iii.  254)  asserts  that  in  Moham- 
medan countries  the  precentor  was  free,  but  in  Christian  countries  he  was 
liable  to  pay.  A  similar  question  was  raised  about  exempting  men  who 
pursued  a  semi-religious  trade,  such  as  a  safer  or  writer  of  the  scrolls  of  the 
Law,  marriage  certificates,  divorces,  phylacteries,  and  mezuzas.  (Cf.  Eskapa's 
Tekanoth,  §  19.^ 

^   Danon,  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  loc.  cit.,  p.  59. 

*  Two  principles  were  applied  to  the  case  of  recent  immigrants,  depen- 
dent on  time  and  circumstance.  If  the  traveller  was  present  when  the 
annual  dues  were  being  fixed,  then,  unless  he  declared  that  his  visit  was 
temporary,  he  was  taxed  by  the  community  like  the  ordinary  Jewish 
inhabitant.  (Eskapa's  Tekanoth,  §  5,  and  J.  Sbncin,  y^ZJin''?  Ti^rM,  §  10.)  If 
the  new  settler  arrived  at  any  other  time  of  the  year,  then  for  the  first  three 
months  he  paid  half  the  tax,  after  which  he  was  liable  to  the  full  amount.  If, 
however,  he  brought  his  wife  with  him,  he  was  at  once  fully  liable.  One 
who  left  the  congregation  was  free  from  the  tax,  unless  he  returned  within 
the  year;  if  he  possessed  land  in  the  city,  then  the  absentee  owner  paid 
one-quarter  of  the  tax.  Special  relaxations  were  permitted  to  absentees 
who  had  gone  to  Palestine.  In  Metz  (Annuaire,  i.  96),  after  a  stay  of  eight 
days,  all  strangers  were  subject  to  the  communal  dues. 


46  Communal  Organization. 

The  taxes  were  of  two  kinds :  those  inflicted  from  with- 
out, and  those  levied  within  by  the  community  itself  for 
general  or  special  purposes.  There  was  a  danger  in  these 
voluntary  imposts,  for  the  civil  government  had  a  way 
of  stepping  in  and  laying  hands  on  the  sums  thus  raised. 
Quite  early  in  Jewish  history  in  Rome  such  a  case 
occurred.  All  the  Jews  in  the  diaspora  were  in  the  habit 
of  remitting  voluntary  contributions  to  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem.  After  the  destruction,  the  Roman  emperors 
converted  this  into  an  iniquitous  fiscus,  to  be  used  for 
imperial  and  even  idolatrous  purposes^.  The  voluntary 
contributions  to  Palestine  have,  however,  continued  without 
break  to  our  own  times,  and  most  congregations  still  make 
special  collections  for  the  poor  of  the  Holy  Land  2.  Another 
very  iniquitous  tax  was  the  levy  made  on  the  Jews  of 
Rome  for  the  support  of  the  House  of  Catechumens  ^ 
which  may  be  compared  to  the  compulsory  attendance  of 
Jews  three  times  a  year  at  Christian  sermons  against 
Judaism.  The  Jews  felt  themselves  fortunate  when  Sixtus  V* 
fixed  the  total  annual  tax  at  twelve  Giulii  a  head  on  all 
males  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty.  Before  that 
time  the  popes  simply  extorted  what  they  could.  Other 
less  strange  taxes  were  those  levied  for  military  and  naval 
armaments^.  In  Portugal  the  Jews  under  Sancho  H  were 
mulcted  in  a  Fleet-tax,  and  were  required  to  '  furnish  an 
anchor  and  a  new  cable  for  every  new  ship  fitted  out  by 

*  S.  Cassel,  Ersch  u.  Gruber,  vol.  xxvii.  6.  So,  too,  the  present  Russian 
Government  seizes  the  Jewish  meat-tax,  which  was  intended  for  internal 
religious  uses. 

^  Cf.  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  (i),  i8,  21,  25. 

*  Bull,  dated  October  22,  1586. 

'  Cf,  Jacobs,  MS.  Sources  of  History  of  Jews  in  Spain,  pp.  xxiv,  86,  89. 


Government  Extortions. 


47 


the  crown  ^.'  The  Jews  bore  a  large  part  in  aiding 
Columbus'  voyages  both  in  money  and  men.  The  billeting  ^^' 
of  soldiers  on  Jews  in  times  of  peace  was  a  frequent 
species  of  exaction,  the  burden  of  which,  however,  the  rich 
helped  the  poor  to  bear^.  When  rulers  were  refused 
special  levies  by  the  people,  the  Jews  were  at  least  forced 
to  pay,  and  did  not  escape  because  the  rest  of  the  popula- 
tion was  recalcitrant  ^.  Further,  the  Jews  were  made  to 
contribute  annually  to  the  costs  of  the  popular  sports 
and  entertainments  in  the  Roman  circuses,  at  first  (in  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century)  only  twelve  gold  pieces, 
but  in  1443  it  had  grown  to  1130  pieces^.  The  Jews  were 
also  forced  to  make  a  personal  participation  in  the  pageants 
which  their  money  helped  to  present.  Many  specially  galling 
taxes  were  also  inflicted  in  England,  but  the  general  burdens 
of  the  feudal  system  were  so  great  that  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  they  were  exceptionally  oppressed  ^.  In  Spain, 
the  Jews,  among  other  things,  had  to  pay  for  the  king's 
dinner  ;  they  were  subjected  to  a  hearth  tax,  to  a  coronation 
tax,  to  a  tax  on  meat  and  bread  ® — but  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  enumerate  all  the  vexatious  dues  exacted  from 
the  Jews  everywhere  throughout  the  middle  ages.  Whether 
the  tax  was  termed  a  '  protection  tax '  or  was  called  by  any 
other  name,  whether  the  king  or  noble  saved  them  from 
the  clutches  of  all  other  robbers  but  their  so-called  protector 
himself,  at  one  time  or  another  the  Jews  had  to  pay  for 
every  act  of  their  lives — for  leaving  or  entering  towns,  for 

^  Kayserling,  Christopher  Columbus,  p.  4. 
2  Thus  S.  b.  David,  nS2C  nbnD  r.^'iuj ,  §  10. 

^  This  happened  e.g.  in  1307  in  Rome.  ^  Berliner,  Rotu,  ii.    i)  61. 

'  Mr.  Jacobs  (see  above,  p.  42)  estimates  that  the  Jews  provided   one- 
twelfth  of  the  royal  revenue. 
*  Jacobs,  Spain,  Introduction. 


48  Communal  Organization. 

passing  through  gates  or  traversing  bridges  ^,  for  crossing 
the  frontiers  of  the  diminutive  Rhine  states,  for  buying  or 
selling,  for  marriage  or  sepulture.  The  tax  collector  stood 
by  the  sexton  and  stopped  the  burial  till  his  fee  of  two 
florins  was  handed  to  him  ^.  In  Granada,  the  Jews  had 
to  pay  the  Alfarda  or  '  strangers'  tax '  in  1480,  though  the 
Jews  were  far  older  settlers  in  Andalusia  than  were  they 
who  imposed  the  fine.  A  favourite  device  for  raising  money 
was  to  grant  only  temporary  licences  of  residence  to  Jews, 
and  for  the  triennial  renewals  a  large  fee  was  exacted. 
Similarly  in  the  Rhine-lands  the  Rabbi  had  to  be  con- 
firmed by  the  State  every  three  years,  and  this  not  only 
meant  a  heavy  fine  on  the  community,  but  it  unfortunately 
opened  the  door  to  internal  intrigues^.  Germany  indeed 
enjoyed  the  distinction  of  exacting  more  fees  on  more 
occasions  than  any  other  medieval  State.  The  Jewish 
poll-tax  lingered  on  latest  of  all  in  the  same  State.  It 
was  only  abolished  in  1803  on  payment  of  an  indemnity. 
The  taxes  outlined  above  are  closely  allied  to  the  com- 
munal taxes  imposed  by  Jews  on  Jews,  to  meet  the  claims 
of  extortionate  governments  as  well  as  the  costs  of  their 
own  organization.  Meat,  wine,  houses,  golden  and  silver 
ornaments,  jewels,  wedding-gifts,  imports  and  exports,  were 
all  taxed  for  these  purposes*.  Communal  officials  were 
even  paid  from  the  proceeds  of  collections  made  at  weddings 
in  Poland,  Russia,  and  Hungary  ^. 

^  At  Anjou,  in  1162,  Henri  II  enacted  '  Judei  si  detulerint  per  pontem 
vadimonia  sua  ad  vendendum,  dabunt  denarium  unum^  {Archives  Nationales 
cited  in  Jutfs  d^ Angers,  p,  7).     No  one  but  a  Jew  was  subject  to  this  tax. 

^  LSwenstein,  Geschichte  der  Juden  in  der  Kurpfalz,  p.  32. 

^  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  iii.  310. 

*  Eskapa's  Tehanoth,  in  f^iDD  miir  "irc. 

5  Or  Zarua.  i.  p.  40. 


Informers.  49 

Amidst  all  this  external  interference,  the  internal  govern- 
ment of  the  Jewries  was  largely  delegated  to  Jews  them- 
selves. One  of  the  supreme  duties  of  the  Jew  in  every  age, 
but  more  especially  after  the  beginning  of  the  Crusading 
epoch,  was  the  obligation  to  keep  Jewish  affairs  from  the 
ordinary  law-courts  ^  Very  often  they  obtained  the  right 
to  enforce  this  paramount  duty.  In  other  words,  the  Jewish 
communities  were  often  able  to  try  not  only  civil  but  even 
criminal  cases  in  which  Jews  were  involved  as  litigants  or 
malefactors.  The  two  lines  of  privilege  ran  closely  together, 
no  doubt,  especially  in  the  case  of  informers.  For  the 
informer  the  medieval  Jews  had  no  pity  ;  he  was  outside 
the  pale  of  humanity  ^.  Death  was  his  penalty,  and  execu- 
tions of  this  kind  were  far  from  rare.  The  greatest  Rabbis 
of  the  middle  ages  fearlessly  sentenced  informers  to  death, 
and  cases  of  this  severity  occurred  in  all  parts  of  the  Jewish 
world.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  rigour  which  cul- 
minated in  a  tragedy  was  perfectly  justifiable.  Denunciation 
was  the  canker  of  Jewish  medieval  society,  and  massacre 
and  exile  often  followed  the  lying  evidence  brought  against 
Jews  by  unprincipled  delatores.  Hence  there  was  no  room 
for  hesitation,  and  a  good  old  Talmudic  maxim — '  If  thou 
seest  a  man  in  the  very  act  of  slaying  thee,  and  no  alter- 
native presents  itself,  thou  may  est  prevent  him,  even  at  the 
cost  of  his  life  ^ ' — was  put  into  force  as  a  pure  measure  of 

^  The  famous  tekanah  of  R.  Tarn  on  this  subject  was  frequently  repeated 
in  later  times.     Cf.  p.  58  below. 

^  Cf.  Prof.  Kaufmann's  interesting  monograph  on  the  subject  in  the 
eighth  volume  of  the  Jewish  Quarterly  Review. 

^  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  strictly  forbidden,  by  the  Jewish  Council  held 
at  Lydda  under  Hadrian,  for  a  Jew  to  save  his  own  Hfe  at  the  cost  of 
another's.  There  was  a  popular  proverb  to  the  same  effect  :  '  How  knowest 
thou  that  thy  blood  is  redder  than  another's  V  i.  e.  how  can  you  tell  that 
your  life  is  the  more  valuable  ?    {Pesachim^  25  b.) 

E 


50  Communal  Organization. 

self-defence.  It  is  said  that  as  late  as  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century  a  Jewish  informer  was  put  to  death  in 
Poland,  where  the  dreadful  mischief  wrought  by  this  class 
was  slowest  to  be  eradicated.  At  last  the  Jews  fell  back 
on  prayers  and  imprecations,  and  'as  a  survival  of  this 
gloomy  phenomenon  of  medieval  history,  there  long  existed 
in  the  ritual  a  prayer,  which  was  repeated  on  Mondays  and 
Thursdays,  and  at  other  times,  against  this  evil  of  society  ^' 
Finally,  however,  even  this  last  trace  of  medievalism  has 
vanished  from  Jewish  life. 

But  it  must  not  be  imagined  that  these  executions  of 
informers  were  usually  secret  or  illegal.  In  Spain  we  have 
particular  evidence  that  the  capital  punishment  was  not  only 
never  inflicted  without  the  sanction  of  the  government,  but 
the  sentence  was  executed  by  its  officers.  Indeed,  the  Jews 
were  hardly  allowed  to  levy  taxes  upon  themselves  for  their 
own  internal  needs  without  the  sanction  of  the  civil  authori- 
ties 2.  Much  less  were  they  allowed  a  free  hand  in  criminal 
matters ;  but  a  large  measure  of  liberty  was  undoubtedly 
possessed  by  them  in  Spain  at  least  until  the  year  1379, 
up  to  which  date  the  Jewish  courts  could  inflict  the  death 
penalty  as  well  as  minor  punishments.  But  the  Jews  them- 
selves asked  that  the  execution  of  these  sentences  should  be 
left  to  the  Christian  bailiffs.     In  1360  the  Jews  of  Tudela, 

^  Kaufmann,  ibid. 

2  Cf.  e.g.  the  Ordinance  of  Valladolid  in  1412,  §  8  :  *  No  Aljama,  or  com- 
munity of  Jews  or  Moors,  shall  presume  to  levy  any  tax  or  contribution 
on  themselves,  or  impose  a  duty  on  any  article  (meat,  merchandise,  or  any 
other  object^,  without  the  royal  permission  or  order  ....  under  pain  of 
corporal  and  other  punishments,  and  no  Jew  or  Moor  shall  pay  such  con- 
tributions as  may  be  levied  without  the  royal  licence  and  order  being 
expressly  given  for  the  purpose.'  One  other  example  may  be  cited,  this 
dates  from  Avignon,  1779.  The  communal  statutes,  one  by  one,  have  to 
receive  the  authorization  of  the  Town  Council.     {Annuaire,  1885,  p.  199.) 


Jewish  Prisons.  51 

entreating  the  continuation  of  their  former  privileges,  ob- 
tained the  Viceroy's  assent  to  this  proposal :  '  That  he  would 
be  pleased  to  order  that  we  may  continue  the  Jewish  law 
as  our  ancestors  have  done  hitherto;  that  is,  that  when 
a  Jew  or  Jewess  commits  a  sin,  on  our  magistrates  applying 
to  the  bailiff,  and  notifying  to  him  the  sin  committed,  and 
the  punishment  it  deserves  according  to  Jewish  law,  the 
bailiff  shall  execute  it,  and  enforce  the  sentence  of  our  said 
magistrates,  whether  of  condemnation  or  acquittal  ^.'  The 
Jewish  congregations  had  either  their  own  prisons,  or  at  least 
separate  rooms  in  the  ordinary  prisons^  were  reserved  for 
the  use  of  Jewish  offenders.  In  Spain,  the  Jewish  prisoners 
are  kept  apart  from  the  rest  ^ ;  in  Avignon,  the  Jewish 
authorities  were  able  to  arrest  Jewish  offenders  and  have 
them  conveyed  to  prison  with  the  sanction  of  the  civil 
powers.  Such  prisoners  were  not  released  without  the 
permit  of  the  Jewish  officials  '.  In  the  Bastile,  Jewish 
prisoners  claimed  to  follow  their  own  religion ;  and  in  the 
French  prisons  generally  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Jews 
had  special  food,  retained  their  religious  books,  and  kept 
the  Sabbath  ^.     When  Meir  of  Rothenburg  was  imprisoned 

^  Lindo,  The  Jews  in  Spain,  p.  150.  Jews  had  their  own  jurisdiction 
almost  everyw^here  in  the  middle  ages.  For  England,  cf.  Jacobs,  Angevin 
England,  pp.  43,  49.  Criminal  cases  between  Jews,  except  for  the  greater 
felonies,  such  as  homicide  and  mayhem,  might  be  decided  in  England  f,by  the 
charter  of  Henry  II;  by  the  Jews  themselves,  and  in  accordance  with  their 
own  law^s.  (Jacobs,  ibid.  p.  331.)  Another  form  of  the  same  privilege  was 
to  allot  a  special  Christian  judge  to  try  Jewish  cases.  He  would  thus  be 
familiar  w^ith  Jewish  law  and  usages. 

"  See  Ephraim  b.  Jacob,  onct^  ni^TD  n"lTC ,  §  83,  in  which  it  is  decided  that 
the  communal  prison  must  have  a  mezuzah  affixed  to  it. 

^  Jacobs,  Spain,  xxvi.  139.  So,  too,  it  was  enacted  in  Majorca  in  1273 
that  Jews  and  Christians  were  to  be  imprisoned  in  separate  houses  {Revue 
des  tltudes  Juives^  iv.  34).  *  Annuaire,  i.  p.  215. 

^  Kahn,  Les  Juifs  de  Paris  sous  Louis  XV,  p.  33,  and  Les  Juifs  de  Paris  au 
XVIW  Siecle,  pp.  44-46. 

E  2 


52  Communal  Organization. 

in  the  tower  of  Ensisheim  in  Alsace  (June,  1286),  he,  Hke 
R.  Akiba  before  him,  was  permitted  'to  receive  visits,  to 
instruct  his  pupils,  and  to  perform  the  functions  of  Rabbi  \' 
Besides  these  privileges,  the  Jews  were  empowered  to 
maintain  discipline  within  their  ow^n  communal  bounds. 
They  inflicted  corporal  punishment  and  exacted  fines.  But 
their  chief  weapon  was  a  moral  one,  terrible  no  doubt  in  its 
effects,  but  the  wounds  it  caused  were  not  irremediable. 
Mostly  the  excommunication  lasted  only  for  a  brief  period, 
the  milder  form  (or  niddui)  enduring  for  thirty  days,  during 
which  the  culprit  wore  mourning  garb  and  was  denied  the 
society  of  his  brethren.  Excommunication  of  the  severer 
kind,  the  cherem  proper,  lasted  longer,  and  w^as  a  complete 
social  and  religious  boycott,  involving  the  culprit's  family 
unless  they  too  renounced  him.  The  externals  of  the 
penalty  were  aw^e-inspiring,  even  to  weirdness.  The  formal 
warning,  the  public  humiliation,  the  solemn  announcement, 
with  its  accompaniment  of  lighted  candles  extinguished  to 
the  blast  of  the  shofar  (or  ram's  horn),  the  oriental  com- 
pleteness and  verbose  vindictiveness  of  the  curses  pro- 
nounced in  the  synagogue,  were  a  fitting  prelude  to  the 
isolation  which  followed.  Similar  formalities  accompanied 
the  administration  of  a  public  oath  in  case  of  disputes.  '  We 
bring  the  funeral  bier,  and  place  thereon  a  cock ;  we  cover 
the  bier  with  a  fringed  garment  [tallith),  illuminate  the 
building,  strew  burnt  ashes  under  the  man's  feet,  introduce 
bladders  to  terrify  him,  while  children  and  horns  (shofars) 
add  to  the  din ;  then  we  seat  him  below  the  Ark,  and  the 
precentor,  standing  over  him  with  a  scroll  of  the  Law,  says : 
So-and-so  will  not  confess  the  truth  ^.'    Some  of  the  features 

^  Graetz,  History  (English  trans.).  III.  ch.  xviii. 
2  Responsa  of  Geonim  [Mafteach,  p.  229). 


Excommunication.  53 

of  the  later  penances  inflicted  on  excommunicated  Jews  wjre 
borrowed  from  the  medieval  Church  ^,  for  excommunication 
was  at  least  as  rife  in  Christendom  as  it  was  in  the  Jewry. 
The  luxuriant  growth  of  excommunication  in  Jewish  life 
is  not  earlier  than  the  tenth  century,  and  it  ended  by  be- 
coming so  common  that  it  lost  its  force,  for  it  ceased  to  be 
a  terror.  On  the  whole,  the  effect  of  excommunication  on 
Jewish  life  in  the  middle  ages  was  a  salutary  one  ;  it  was 
a  useful  weapon,  and  its  point  could  always  be  blunted  at 
the  will  of  the  offender.  It  was  the  more  serviceable  in 
that  its  most  prominent  use  was  less  against  individuals 
than  against  communities,  whose  members  voluntarily 
entered  into  certain  undertakings  under  penalty  of  excom- 
munication should  they  disregard  their  promises.  In  this 
way  great  moral  and  social  reforms  were  rendered  possible, 
and  the  whole  life  of  the  Jews  was  organized  by  a  series  of 
such  voluntary  promises  sanctioned  by  voluntary  acceptances 
of  the  dreaded  isolation  in  case  of  disobedience.  This  system 
must  now  be  a  little  more  fully  described. 

The  democratic  constitution  of  Jewish  society  in  the 
middle  ages  shows  itself  in  the  method  of  electing  the 
governing  body.  The  elections  mostly  took  place  in 
Germany  on  the  week-days  occurring  during  the  great 
spring  and  autumn  festivals  ^.  In  Italy  another  time  was 
chosen,   viz.    the    three    weeks    which    separate    the    two 

^  Graetz,  History  English  trans.),  V.  ch.  iii.  For  a  long,  though  hardly 
satisfactory,  history  of  Jewish  excommunication,  see  Wiesner's  Dcr  Bann 
(Leipzig,  1864). 

^  Maharil,  lyinn  "jin  niDbn  (beginning; ;  the  ^yr\  TS^ya  (of  Caro),  §  206, 
implies  that  it  was  a  widespread  custom  to  hold  the  elections  only  on  the 
middle  days  of  Tabernacles.  Cf.  Annuaire,  i.  p.  206.  In  Smyrna  the  elec- 
tions occurred  on  the  Saturday  night  after  Passover  (Eskapa's  Tekanoih, 
«m:d  rmiy  idc,  §  i). 


54  Communal  Orgamzation. 

summer  fasts  ^  In  Palermo  the  annual  election  occurred 
on  May  i ;  in  Marsala  on  Oct.  i6  2.  The  election  was  con- 
ducted either  by  lot  or  by  ballot,  the  voting  being  always 
secret.  The  officials  elected  were  essentially  the  same  in  all 
Jewish  congregations,  they  differed  little  from  those  enumer- 
ated in  the  Talmud,  or  from  those  familiar  to  students  of 
the  New  Testament  records  ^.  There  was  the  President  or 
par  excellence  P amass  *,  the  Treasurer  or  Gabay  ;  there  were 
sometimes  special  officers  to  whom  the  care  of  the  poor 
and  the  care  of  the  sick  were  entrusted,  and — except  that 
differentiation  of  functions  is  now  more  complete — the 
modern  organization  of  the  synagogue  existed  in  the 
middle  ages  with  very  slight  variation.  The  other  unpaid 
officials  were  the  Council,  mostly  of  seven  ■^,  and,  until  the 

*  Berliner,  /?om,  ii.  32.  Some  congregations  fixed  the  elections  for  the 
Thursday  preceding  Passover  and  Tabernacles  (cf.  Ascamot^  of  London, 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  Jews,  §  i). 

*  ZunZf  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  509.  See  ibid.  pp.  512  seq.,  on  the  various 
synagogue  officials  in  Spain,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  Spanish  con- 
gregations sometimes  delegated  their  rights  to  a  special  trio  of  respected 
members  or  D''3DJ«»:,  who — themselves  chosen  by  lot  from  thirty  selected 
names — nominated  their  three  successors  in  similar  fashion  triennially. 

3  Cf.  on  this  subject  Schiirer,  History  of  Jewish  People  (English  trans.),  II. 
(2)  p.  62  seq.  ;  and  Holtzmann,  Neutestamentlvhe  Zeitgeschichte,  p.  147,  &c. 

*  Mention  is  made  of  a  woman  entitled  Paniesessa  in  Rome  in  the 
sixteenth  century  (Berliner,  II.  (2)  33).  She  had  charge  of  the  charities  for 
poor  widows  and  orphans,  for  poor  brides  and  sick  women.  But  though  the 
title  was  rare,  the  office  seems  to  have  been  common  throughout  the  middle 
a^es.  (See  Maharil,  beginning  of  lyion  bin  nobn.)  In  far  earlier  times 
there  was  an  honorary  official  called  mater  synagogue  or  Pateressa  (Schurer, 
ii.  2,  p.  65  ;  Berliner,  I.  ch.  v),  and  women  of  great  heart  and  intellect,  like 
Donna  Gracia  Mendesia  (1510-68),  were  admittedly  heads  of  their  whole 
community.      (Graetz,  History  (English  trans.),  IV.  ch.  xvi.) 

^  Cf.  the  tekanah  of  R.  Tarn,  Kolbo,  §  117.  They  were  called  I'S-n  nra 
honi  urbis,  heads  of  the  congregation  or  Pamassim  (for  the  term  zy^z  originally 
included  all  the  Council).  The  number  of  the  honi  viri  varied,  being  mostly 
seven,  sometimes  being  twelve  (Giidemann,  iii.  92).  A  strong  feeling  pre- 
vailed in  the  middle  ages  against  electing  as  boni  viri  men  related  to  one 


The  '  Shamash'  55 

thirteenth  century,  the  Rabbi  and  two  Dayanim  (or  mem- 
bers of  the  court).  These  became  later  salaried  officers, 
and  the  class  of  paid  officials  included  the  Shochet  (or  officer 
to  superintend  the  slaughtering  of  cattle  for  Jewish  use), 
the  Chazan  or  precentor,  and  the  teacher.  But  the  most 
powerful  officer  of  all  was  the  Shamash  or  beadle. 

This  functionary  rapidly  became  ruler  of  the  synagogue. 
His  functions  were  so  varied,  his  duties  placed  him  in 
possession  of  such  detailed  information  of  members'  private 
affairs,  his  presence  so  permeated  the  synagogue  and  the 
home  on  public  and  private  occasions, — that  the  Shamash, 
instead  of  serving  the  congregation,  became  its  master. 
Unlike  the  parish  beadle,  the  characteristic  of  the 
Shamash  was  not  pompousness  so  much  as  over-familiarity. 
He  did  not  exaggerate  his  own  importance,  but  minimised 
the  importance  of  every  one  else.  He  was  at  once  the  over- 
seer of  the  synagogue,  and  the  executor  of  the  sentences 
of  the  Jewish  tribunal  or  Beth  Din  ^.  He  inflicted  corporal 
punishment  on  those  whom  the  Jewish  court  condemned 
to  the  penalty,  using  either  a  stout,  doubled  rope,  or  a 
leather  strap  ^.  But  his  functions  were  usually  less  violent 
and  more  picturesque.  From  early  times  the  beadle  was 
the    public   crier.     He    ascended    a   high    roof  on   Friday 

another.  These  honi  urhis  often  had  great  power,  and  could  even  force  their 
views  on  the  congregation  \^Kolbo,  §  ii6). 

^  The  irtD^  is  identical  with  the  nc3Dn  pn  often  mentioned  in  the  Talmud. 
The  use  of  the  word  Chazan  as  equivalent  to  precentor  belongs  to  the  middle 
ages.  Another  title  for  Shamash  common  in  the  Talmud  and  in  the  times 
of  the  Geonim  was  p  n^a  n^b\r  (cf.  Mafteach,  p.  192),  no  doubt  in  distinction 
to  the  112:?  n^';^,  the  older  title  for  precentor.  The  same  man  seems  not  to 
have  served  both  the  synagogue  and  Beth  Din  in  the  times  of  the  Geonim. 

^  A  passage  in  Mafteach,  p.  192,  asserts  that  a  strap  was  not  used  by 
the  Geonim.  But  in  naVtUn  nrtD,  §  16,  the  contrary  is  asserted  in  the  name 
of  Hai  Gaon. 


56  Communal  Organization. 

afternoons,  and  with  a  blast  of  the  trumpet,  thrice  repeated 
at  long  intervals,  notified  that  work  was  to  ceased  This 
very  old  Jewish  custom  was  not  carried  to  Babylon,  but 
was  retained  in  Palestine  ^.  The  favourite  substitute  for  the 
shofar  in  the  middle  ages  was  a  wooden  mallet.  A  series 
of  knocks  was  dealt  by  the  Shamash  or  other  official  ^  at  the 
door  of  the  synagogue  and  at  the  doors  of  all  the  Jews 
who  worshipped  thereat.  These  knocks  were  three  or  four 
in  number,  and  the  following  passage  from  the  testament  of 
A.  Siisskind  will  indicate  some  of  the  emotions  which,  in 
course  of  time,  these  early  morning  summonses  aroused. 
*  It  is  a  common  practice  with  Jews  that  when  a  member 
of  the  community  has  died  during  the  night,  the  Shamash^ 
when  he  comes  to  summon  us  to  synagogue,  gives  only 
two  instead  of  the  usual  three  knocks,  as  a  sign  of  death. 
When  he  only  knocked  twice,  I  sighed  ;  but  when  thrice, 
my  heart  leapt  up  with  joy!'  The  Shamash  also  made 
announcements  in  synagogue,  sometimes  interrupting  the 
prayers  to  do  so  *.  He  carried  the  invitations  to  private 
festivities  ^,  and  sometimes  the  Council  of  the  congregation 

'  Mishnah  Succah,  v.  5.  Cf.  Buber's  Tanchuma^  Numbers,  p.  158,  where 
full  references  are  given,  ^  MuUer,  D'jn:^  F]"i'?n,  §  21. 

^  This  official  was  termed  Schulklopfer,  called  also  Campanator.  The  title 
is  as  old  as  1225,  for  allusion  is  made  to  the  Schulklopfer  in  Folz's  carnival 
play,  Der  Juden  Messias^  of  that  date  (Fastnachtspiele  aus  dem  15.  Jahr. 
Stuttgart,  1853;.  Schudt  {Merkwiirdigkciten,  ii.  p.  218)  calls  him  Schulklopper 
as  well  as  Schulklopfer  (p.  287).  The  office  is  much  older  than  the  name, 
for  Talm.  Jerus.  Beza,  ch.  v,  cites  «n\D:3  un  ''UJip«  ^no.  Cf.  the  interesting 
comment  of  the  Mordecai  ad.  loc.  For  the  number  of  knocks  cf.  Schudt,  ibid., 
and  Giidemann,  iii.  95.  On  Sabbaths  the  mallet  was  not  used,  but  the  fist. 
Some  Jews  appointed  special  watchmen  to  summon  them  individually  to 
prayers  {^rywt  P]CV,  §  487).  On  the  fast  of  the  ninth  of  Ab,  the  Schul- 
klopfer did  not  make  his  usual  rounds  (Maharil). 

*  Ibid.  §  310. 

^  Annuaire,  i.  pp.  109,  no,  206,  211.  He  also  went  to  summon  the  Council 
to  their  meetings. 


Government  by  '  Tekanah!  57 

claimed  the  right  to  supervise  the  invitations,  and,  if  they 
thought  fit,  might  refuse  to  sanction  them.  The  Shamash 
was  despatched  to  remind  congregants  of  their  duties,  such 
as  leaving  their  boots  at  home  on  the  eve  of  the  Day  of 
Atonement,  and  observing  some  mourning  rites  on  the 
Sabbath  on  which  the  ninth  of  Ab  ^  fell.  As  regards 
attendance  at  synagogue,  this  was  mostly  voluntary  ;  but 
on  the  New  Year  and  the  Day  of  Atonement,  the  Jewish 
authorities  were  empowered  to  compel  ten  adult  males  to 
attend  and  thus  form  a  congregation  ^. 

Such  compulsory  adherence  to  communal  regulations  lay 
near  the  root  of  the  Jewish  medieval  organization.  The 
communal  life  was  regulated  by  what  was  known  as  the 
Tekanah  or  Ordinance.  The  tekanah  was  never  drawn  up 
without  the  local  Rabbi's  assent,  indeed  he  was  often  the 
originator  of  the  new  regulation.  When  it  had  been  passed 
by  the  chiefs  of  the  congregation,  the  new  law  was  pro- 
claimed in  synagogue  on  a  week-day  after  public  notice 
had  been  given,  and  it  was  held  that,  unless  a  formal, 
verbal  protest  was   immediately  lodged,  every   individual 

^  Maharil  (ed.  Warsaw,  1874),  pp.  45  a  and  33  a. 

^  Maharil,  §  on  d'SIIDH  D'D',  Israel  b.  Chayim  of  Brunn,  n"ic,  §  164,  main- 
tain that  the  congregation  must  provide  a  minyan  (or  ten  adult  male 
worshippers)  throughout  the  year.  The  Mishnah  assumes  that  in  every 
large  Jewish  congregation  ten  hatlanivn  or  men  of  leisure  were  always 
available  {Mishnah  Megilla,  i.  3).  In  the  middle  ages  it  became  customary 
to  appoint  certain  men  to  act  as  a  sort  of  permanent  congregation.  These 
were  already  paid  for  the  service  in  the  time  of  Israel  of  Brunn ;  and  no 
doubt  the  Bachurim  or  older  Talmud  students  were  chosen  for  the  purpose. 
At  first  these  official  batlanim  were  men  of  high  respectability  and  deep 
learning.  But  after  a  time  the  minyan  man  became  a  lower  type,  and  was 
indistinguishable  from  the  ne'er-do-well  paid  to  form  the  religious  quorum 
which  the  congregants  were  too  indifferent  to  form  by  their  own  presence. 
It  is  amusing  to  see  how  this  tradition  of  maintaining  ten  men  in  idleness  is 
still  retained  in  places  where  the  genuine  batlanim  are  already  only  too 
numerous.     Cf.  Smolenski's  fine  Hebrew  novel,  -non  miap,  ch.  i. 


58  Communal  Organization. 

fully  submitted  to  the  general  agreement,  and  became 
liable  to  the  penalties  which  would  accrue  in  the  event  of 
disobedience  to  the  tekanah  ^.  The  penalties  took  various 
forms :  fines,  public  rebuke,  deprivation  of  the  right  to  fill 
the  honorary  synagogal  offices,  flogging,  imprisonment  and 
excommunication.  The  tekanoth  were  mostly  enacted  for 
a  limited  term,  at  the  end  of  which  they  fell  into  disuse. 
Five  years  formed  the  favourite  duration  of  a  communal 
enactment,  but  a  clause  was  frequently  added  providing 
for  an  annual  public  confirmation  ^.  These  tekanoth  ranged 
over  the  whole  field  of  Jewish  life.  At  one  time  a  tekanah 
would  be  passed  to  enforce  monogamy  ^ :  at  another,  one 
would  prohibit  shaving  * ;  one  tekanah  would  stringently 
restrain  a  Jew  from  dragging  a  litigant  before  the  Christian 
civil  courts  ^  :  another  would  fix  the  tax  on  meat ;  one  would 
restrain  gambling  :  another  the  promiscuous  dancing  of  men 
and  women  ;  one  tekanah  would  practically  recast  the 
whole  of  the  laws  of  marriage  and  divorce :  another  would 
forbid  Jews  to  sell  wine  to  Mohammedans  ;  one  tekanah 
would  define  the  dress  and  the  ornaments  which  a  Jewess 
might  wear,  the  food  she  and  her  family  might  eat,  the 
number  of  visitors  they  might  admit  to  their  houses :  another 
tekanah  would  decide  the  hour  at  which  our  friend  the 
Schulklopfer  should  begin  his  communal  rounds.  A  very 
early  tekanah  enforced   the  presence    of   ten    males   at   a 

^  A  full  account  of  this  whole  process  is  given  at  the  end  of  the  Kolho  (ed. 
1526). 

^  The  twelve  Tekanoth  of  Simon  Duran  (see  above,  p.  37)  were  to  hold 
for  twenty  years. 

'  This  was  a  permanent  tekanah.     See  ch.  iv. 

*  In  this,  as  in  all  these  points,  there  were  many  local  differences,  some  of 
which  will  be  mentioned  in  other  parts  of  this  book. 

^  E.  g.  the  great  Tekanah  of  R.  Tarn,  Kolbo,  §  117  ;  cf.  J.  Jacobs' /^zfs  of 
Angevin  England,  pp.  47-49. 


Multiplicity  of  Ordinances.  59 

wedding  ceremony  ^ ;  another,  earlier  still,  that  the  widow's 
marriage  settlement  was  to  be  paid  from  the  movable 
property  of  the  husband  ^.  These  belong  to  the  ninth 
century  or  earlier.  Equally  early  was  the  tekanah  excom- 
municating any  man  who  used  the  name  of  God,  whether 
in  Hebrew  or  the  vernacular.  Stringent  communal  teka- 
noth  prevented  Jews  from  attempting  to  make  proselytes, 
indeed  the  Jews  went  so  far  as  to  denounce  to  the  govern- 
ment Christians  who  were  suspected  of  leanings  towards 
Judaism  ^.  A  local  tekanah  in  Sicily  forbade  adulteration 
of  wine,  raising  the  prices  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and 
the  practice  of  house-to-house  begging  ^.  A  local  tekanah 
of  later  date  involved  the  excommunication  of  a  correspon- 
dent who  omitted  to  add  after  the  name  of  a  living  person 
the  words  '  May  his  life  be  long  ^ ! '  Tekanoth  were  passed 
against  singing  secular  songs  on  fast-days  ^,  against  permitting 
any  one  but  the  local  Rabbi  to  preach  on  certain  days"^, 
against  electing  as  Rabbi  a  man  with  relatives  in  the 
congregation^.  A  large  series  of  tekanoth  dealt  with 
the  questions  of  rent^,  on  the  restriction   both  of  foreign 

^  Responsa  of  Geonim  ;  Miiller,  Mafteach,  §  103. 
^  Ibid.  §  loi ;  this  is  described  as  one  of  the  oldest  tekanoth. 
^  Giidemann,  iii.  155.     The  Jewish  authorities  dared  not  connive  at  prose- 
lytism.     Cf.  the  Askamoth  of  London  Sephardim. 

*  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  515. 

^  This  is  reported  by  Chagiz  in  his  nvj'^p  mDbrr  n"i;i:,  ii.  17.  Cf.  some 
extraordinary  fines  in  I.  of  Brunn's  n"i\r,  §  205,  &c. 

*  Chayim  Benveniste,  n"iTC,  §  44. 

^  Sabbath  after  the  ninth  of  Ab  (inn:  "td)  and  on  Chanukah.  E.  b.  Jacob's 
n"lTO,  §  63. 

*  A.  ben  Chayim,  'j^-sn^  rv£io  mo  n"iiD ,  §  44. 

®  Rent  was  not  to  be  raised  except  for  improvements  (Abraham  b.  Mor- 
decai,  omi  noa  n"i\r,  ii.  61).  New  settlers  raised  rents,  as  the  Jewish 
quarters  were  strictly  limited,  and  no  expansion  was  allowed  (N.  Gabay, 
T^''^'^y  §  33).  Poor  congregations  were  often  solicited  by  travelling  emis- 
saries, and  gave  them   help  which  they  needed   at  home   (S.   Morpurgo, 


6o  Communal  Organization. 

immigration  and  of  the  emigration  of  old  settlers  (parents 
might  not  settle  their  children  in  other  communities) ; 
there  were  tekanoth  against  assisting  the  poor  of  other 
congregations  to  the  detriment  of  the  local  poor,  against 
the  member  of  an  old  congregation  attending  a  new 
one  twice  in  succession  ^,  against  playing  into  the  hands 
of  non- Jewish  dealers  who  unfairly  raised  the  prices  of 
commodities  for  which  there  was  a  large  Jewish  demand''^; 
and  among  other  curiosities  may  be  noted  a  tekanah  against 
drinking  imported  wine'^  But  tekanoth  on  all  subjects  of 
social  morality  have  continued  to  be  formulated  until  the 
present  time.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  in  Lemberg*, 
for  instance,  some  most  severe  penalties  were  inflicted  on 
absconders,  on  those  pawnbrokers  who  lent  money  on 
articles  of  which  the  presumption  was  that  they  were 
stolen,  while  the  commission  of  an  agent  who  negotiated 
the  sale  of  a  house  was  fixed  at  one  per  cent  from  both 
parties  to  the  contract,  and  the  widow's  settlement  was 
made  a  first  charge  on  the  deceased  husband's  estate.  An 
interesting    Lemberg    tekanah^    forbade    the    building    of 

'r(^^'2  TTQTT  r\"^iv,  §  i9\  Jews  were  often  forbidden  by  their  communal  laws 
to  leave  their  own  place,  because  the  taxes  then  fell  with  increased  burden 
on  those  who  remained  (A.  b.  Chayim,  ibid.  §  54). 

'  At  Genoa,  see  Joseph  David,  in  nu,  ii.  103.  This  difficulty  gi-eatly 
increased  in  modern  times,  owing  to  the  dwindhng  of  the  Sephardic  congre- 
gations (cf.  Samuel  b.  Ezekiel  Landau,  ]V2  nr©  n"iTn,  §  5). 

*  See  pn:?  rro:?  n"iTD,  §  28  :  *  Once  the  non-Jewish  fishmongers  raised  the 
price  of  fish  when  they  saw  that  the  Jews  wanted  to  buy  it  for  Saturdays. 
The  chiefs  of  the  congregation  made  a  tekanah  that  for  two  months  no  Jew 
should  buy  any  fish.'  Similarl}'  the  Talmud  (Gittim,  45)  ordains  that  Jews 
should  not  ransom  Jewish  slaves  at  too  high  a  price,  lest  this  would  put 
a  premium  on  the  enslavement  of  Jews. 

•'  Samuel  de  Medena,  c"TC-\n 'pCD,  §  17. 

*  See  the  Tekanoth  in  Buber's  D«r  '\r:«,  pp.  222,  226,  &cc 
^  Ibid.  p.  229. 


Tenant-Right,  6i 

houses  which  blocked  the  road  to  the  synagogue.     Most 
of  the  medieval  tekanoth  had  no  retrospective  action  ^ 

But  despite  this  readiness  to  enter  into  voluntary  obli- 
gations, both  communal  and  (as  we  shall  see  elsewhere) 
personal,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  Jewish  organization 
alone  could  have  succeeded  as  well  as  it  did  in  keeping  up 
the  tone  of  Jewish  life.  The  organization  was  helped  and 
completed  by  a  sense  of  equity  which  became  ever  a 
stronger  tradition  as  the  darker  ages  of  ghetto-life  drew 
nearer.  This  sense  of  equity  was  summed  up  in  the  Tal- 
mudical  principle  of  Ckazaka,  or  the  rights  of  possession. 
The  same  phenomenon  reappears  in  modern  life  under  the 
form  of  Tenant-Right.  But  for  the  proper  understanding 
of  this  principle,  a  glance  must  be  had  at  the  new  condi- 
tions which  ensued  from  the  forcible  confinement  of  Jews 
within  ghettos. 

*  This  is  often  distinctly  stated.  Cf.  the  eleventh  clause  of  Duran's 
Tekanoth  (•^^"a'ajnn  n"'ttJ,  ii.  292),  and  the  much  later  repetition  of  the  same 
clause  in  the  Lemberg  Tekanoth  at  the  end  of  Buber  s  sc  '©3N. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

INSTITUTION    OF    TliE    GHETTO. 

Long  before  residence  within  a  restricted  quarter  or 
ghetto-^  was  compulsory,  the  Jews  almost  everywhere  had 
concentrated  in  separate  parts  of  the  towns  in  which  they 
lived  ^.  Though  the  era  of  the  ghetto  proper  begins  with 
the  sixteenth  century,  numerous  records  are  extant  of  the 
seclusion  of  Jews  in  special  quarters  several  centuries  earlier  ^. 
The  voluntary  congregation  of  Jews  in  certain  parts  of  the 
towns,  due  to  the  needs  of  the  communal  organization,  was 

^  The  word  ghetto  is  most  probably  derived,  as  Dr.  Berliner  maintains 
(Rom,  ii.  (2)  p.  26;,  from  the  Italian  geto  or  iron-foundry,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  which  the  first  ghetto  in  Italy  (in  Venice)  was  constituted  in  15 16. 
The  word  ghetlum  occurs  in  a  document  dated  1306  (Rieger,  p.  291).  Indeed, 
Dr.  Berliner's  may  now  be  regarded  as  the  accepted  theory.  Anyhow,  all 
other  suggestions  are  too  fanciful  to  deserve  even  a  mention. 

^  There  were  many  exceptions,  of  course,  e.g.  Lincoln  in  1290.  From 
the  records  published  in  the  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  viii.  p.  360,  it  is  clear 
that  was  no  Jewish  quarter  then.  On  the  other  hand,  the  'Jews'  Street' 
in  London  is  mentioned  as  early  as  1115  (Jacobs,  Angevin  England,  p.  13). 

^  Compulsory  ghettos  seem  to  have  been  in  vogue  in  Sicily  as  early  as  the 
fourteenth,  and  in  parts  of  Germany  even  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries.  In  Angers  in  the  fourteenth  century  there  was  a  Juiverte 
(Brunschvicg,  Juifs  d^ Angers,  p.  15).  But  until  after  the  foundation  of  the 
Roman  ghetto  in  1555,  little  rigour  was  shown  in  preventing  the  residence 
of  Jews  without  the  Jewish  quarter.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  no 
ghettos  in  Coblenz  and  Trier  as  late  as  the  seventeenth  century  {Jewish 
Quarterly  Review,  iii.  310).  In  Halle  there  was  a  Judendorf  before  the 
ghetto  period  ^Auerbach,  Geschichte  der  isr.  Gemeinde,  Halberstadt,  p.  15). 


The  Prague  '  Judenstadt!  63 

very  common  by  the  thirteenth  century.  In  Cologne  there 
was  a  Jews'  quarter  at  that  period  ;  though  in  that  city,  as 
well  as  in  most  places  where  voluntary  Jewish  quarters 
existed,  Jews  also  resided  outside  the  Jewish  district  ^  But 
the  distinction  one  achieves  is  not  as  the  distinction  that  is 
thrust  on  one.  Nowhere  is  this  more  strikingly  seen  than 
in  the  case  of  Prague.  There  the  Jews  who  lived  outside 
the  Jtide7tstadt^  determined  in  1473  to  voluntarily  throw  in 
their  lot  with  their  brethren  in  the  Jewish  town.  Now, 
Prague  came  in  for  its  own  sorry  share  of  persecution  and 
massacre,  but  on  the  whole  the  inhabitants  of  the  Prague 
Judenstadt  had  a  freer  and  fresher  life  than  was  possible  in 
other  compulsory  ghettos.  The  Judenstadt,  at  the  close  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  had  its  Jewish  town-hall,  and — privi- 
lege most  prized  of  all — a  small  bell  summoned  the  members 
to  deliberations  within  its  walls.  A  further  distinction  of 
the  Prague  Jews  was  the  right  to  bear  a  flag.  This  was 
conferred  on  them  in  1357  for  their  patriotic  services,  and 
the  flag  is  still  preserved  in  the  synagogue^.  Perhaps, 
however,  some  facts  connected  with  the  Roman  ghetto 
and  the  Spanish  juderias  will  make  the  difference  clearer 
between  a  voluntary  and  a  compulsory  massing  of  Jewish 
inhabitants  in  one  particular  part  of  a  town.  In  ^^^^, 
when  Paul  IV  established  the  ill-omened  ghetto  in  Rome, 
there  were  very  few  Jewish  families  resident  anywhere  else 
than  in  the  serraglio  delli  Jiebrei  or  septus  hebraicus'^,  as 
the  Jewish  quarter  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Tiber  was  called. 

^  See  Das  Judenschreinhuch  der  Laurempf.  zu  Koln^  pp.  23,  78.  There 
was  a  Jews'  Street,  ^"''yyr^'^r^  mm,  but  Jews  also  lived  in  the  D'lan  loro  (p.  41) — 
i.e.  in  the  Christian  quarters. 

"^  Philipsou,  Old  European  Jewries,  p.  106. 

^  Cf.  Rieger,  Geschtchte  der  Juden  in  Rom,  ii.  p.  290.  The  best  account  of 
the  Roman  ghetto  is  Berliner's  {Rom,  ii.  {2)  pp.  26,  27). 


64  Institution  of  the  Ghetto. 

But  though  few  Jews  dwelt  elsewhere,  many  of  the  noblest 
Christians  resided  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Jewish  quarter. 
Stately  palaces  and  churches  stood  in  the  near  neighbour- 
hood of  the  synagogue,  and  the  Roman  Christians  held  free 
and  friendly  intercourse  with  their  Jewish  fellow-inhabitants. 
When,  however,  the  ghetto  was  formally  constituted,  churches 
and  palaces  were  gradually  removed  or  divided  from  the 
contamination  of  the  neighbouring  Jewish  abodes  by  huge 
and  menacing  walls  \  This  same  thing  occurred  in  Spain, 
where,  however,  the  separation  of  the  Jews  from  the  rest  of 
the  inhabitants  was  never  completely  successful  because  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jews  occurred  in  1492,  just  before  the  dawn 
of  that  black  age  in  Jewish  life,  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  century  of  the  ghetto  and  degradation.  What  happened 
in  Spain  is  very  instructive,  and  enables  us  to  fix  the  rival 
tendencies  which  led  the  Church  to  the  device  of  creating 
distinct  Jewish  ghettos.  As  early  as  the  eleventh  century 
we  find  mention  of  a  'Jewish  barrier'  in  Tudela^.  In  Seville, 
in  1248,  Ferdinand  appropriated  three  parishes  to  the  Jews, 
and  surrounded  it  with  a  wall, '  extending  from  the  Alcazar 
to  the  gate  of  Carmona,'  in  order  to  protect  the  Jews^. 
Within  this  quarter  were  the  Jewish  'exchanges,  markets, 
courts  of  justice,  and  slaughter-houses,  and  in  an  adjacent 
field  their  cemetery.'  This  placing  of  the  burial-ground 
near  the  Jewish  quarter  was,  by  the  way,  not  uncommon 
all  over  Europe.  It  usually  lay  at  the  very  limit  of  the 
Jude7igasse,  often  right  on  the  rampart,  surrounded  some- 
times by  the  town-moat. 

But   to    return    to   the   Jewish   quarters    in    Spain.     At 

^  The  high  wall  separating  the  ruined  palace  of  the  Cenci  from  the  Piazza 
delle  Scuole  was  only  removed  in  1847.     Rieger,  292. 

'-'  Lindo,  Spain,  p.  71.  ^  Ibid.  p.  85. 


The  Ghetto  as  a  Privilege.  65 

first  the  ghetto  was  rather  a  privilege  than  a  disabiHty, 
and  sometimes  was  claimed  by  the  Jews  as  a  right  when 
its  demolition  was  threatened^.  In  141 2  the  ordinances 
of  Valladolid  take  on  a  more  persecuting  tone,  and  all 
Jews  and  Moors  are  ordered  to  dwell  within  separate 
enclosures.  But  though  the  Jews  of  Castile  were  only 
granted  a  term  of  eight  days  within  which  to  transfer 
themselves  to  their  separate  enclosures,  and  though  menaces 
were  held  out  of  corporal  punishment  and  confiscation 
of  property  should  any  Jew  or  Moor  be  found  outside 
these  enclosures  after  the  eight  days  had  passed,  only 
six  months  later  the  ordinance  at  Cifuentes  has  to  repeat 
the  same  injunction,  this  time  fixing  the  period  of  grace 
at  a  full  year^.  In  this  ordinance  we  meet  with  the 
familiar  ghetto  arrangement,  afterwards  common  all  over 
Europe,  by  which  the  town  appointed  two  officials  as 
gate-keepers  of  the  Jewry ".  This  arrangement,  by  the  way, 
was  certainly  no  hardship  ;  it  was  protective  quite  as  much 
as  disciplinary,  and  the  same  remark  applies  to  the  closing 
of  the  gates  in  all  the  ghettos  from  sunset  to  sunrise. 
Closing  the  gates  overnight  was  a  feature  of  all  medieval 
life,  and  the  Jews  never  complained  of  it.  Modern  writers 
have  here  misread  history  in  conjuring  up  a  grievance  in 

^  Thus,  in  the  year  1300,  such  a  case  occurred  in  Majorca.  Cf.  Revtie  des 
Etudes  Juives,  iv.  34 . 

^  Lindo,  Spain,  p.  202. 

^  The  Jews  probably  paid  for  these  watchmen.  They  paid  the  city  of 
Cologne  in  1341  twenty  marks  yearly  as  fee  to  the  officer  who  '  locked  the 
gates  at  sundown  and  unlocked  them  at  prime.'  (Philipson,  Old  European 
Jewries,  p.  29 ;  Stobbe,  Die  Juden  in  Deutschland,  p.  94.)  The  watchmen 
were  sometimes  Jews  ;  the  epitaph  of  some  who  died  in  1668  seq.  at  Prague 
may  be  seen  in  Fopper's  Lisc/Diften  des  Prager  Judenfriedhofs,  p.  20.  Simi- 
larly a  Jew  was  secretary  of  the  '  street  police'  ibid.).  Hence  there  is  no 
improbability  in  Travers'  assertion  that  the  Jews  of  Nantes  in  the  thirteenth 
centurj'  had  their  own  smichal  (Brunschvicg,  NanteSj  p.  4). 

F 


66  Institution  of  the  Ghetto. 

this  very  ordinary  factor  of  medieval  town-life.  Still  fixing 
our  attention  for  the  monaent  on  the  Iberian  peninsula,  it  is 
clear  that  right  up  to  the  initiation  of  the  Inquisition  in 
Spain,  the  Spanish  Jewries  were  not  rigidly  constituted. 
For  the  seventy-sixth  paragraph  of  the  decisions  arrived  at 
by  the  Cortes  of  Toledo  in  1480^,  held  after  the  union  of 
the  crowns  of  Aragon  and  Castile,  opens  with  a  clause  which 
proves  that  up  to  that  date  the  attempt  to  isolate  the  Jews 
had  utterly  failed :  '  As  great  injury  and  inconvenience 
results  from  the  constant  society  of  Jews  and  Moors  beiitg 
intermixed  with  Christians,  we  ordain  and  command  that 
all  Jews  and  Moors  of  every  city,  town,  and  place  in  these 
our  kingdoms  .  .  .  shall  have  their  distinct  Jewries  and 
Moories  by  themselves,  and  not  reside  intermixed  with 
Christians,  nor  have  enclosures  together  with  them,  8ic.' 
Herein  is  seen  the  real  atrocity  of  the  institution  of  the 
ghetto.  It  was  a  device  actually  to  separate  Jews  from 
Christians,  though  it  operated,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  rather  by 
separating  Christians  from  Jews  -.  The  old  protective  motive 
is  abandoned,  the  theory  and  practice  of  social  ostracism 

^  Lindo,  p.  245. 

2  Very  interesting  is  this  enactment  of  a  Council  held  in  Coyaca  in  the 
Asturias  in  1079  (Lindo's  Spain,  p.  51): — 'Canon  6. — That  no  Christian 
shall  reside  in  the  same  house  with  Jews,  nor  partake  of  their  food  ;  who- 
ever transgresses  this  decree  shall  perform  penance  for  seven  days,  or, 
refusing  to  do  it,  if  a  person  of  rank  ^  he  shall  be  excommunicated  for  a  year; 
if  of  an  inferior  degree,  he  shall  receive  100  lashes.'  It  is  instructive  to 
compare  this  with  the  decision  of  the  Council  of  Palencia  in  1388  (ibid, 
p.  168).  *  Christians  must  not  dwell  within  the  quarters  assigned  to  Jews 
and  Moors,  and  those  that  resided  within  them  were  to  remove  therefrom 
within  two  months  after  the  publication  of  this  decree  in  the  cathedral,  and 
if  they  did  not,  were  to  be  compelled  by  ecclesiastical  censure.'  It  is 
evident  that  many  Christians  lived  in  the  Jewish  quarters  before  the  ghetto 
days.  Since  the  ghettos  have  been  abolished,  the  old  Jewish  quarters  in 
European  towns  are  now  freely  used  by  Christians. 


Overcroivding.  67 

begins,  and  after  the  fifteenth  century  we  find  no  pretence 
that  the  ghetto  was  instituted  on  behalf  of  the  Jews.  It 
was  occasionally  a  protection,  no  doubt ;  the  ghetto  gates 
sometimes  rolled  back  outbursts  of  popular  cruelty,  and 
saved  the  Jews  from  massacre.  But  oftener  it  had  the  very 
opposite  effect,  for  when  bigots  wanted  their  Jews  to  kill, 
they  knew  where  to  find  them  eit  masse.  The  ghetto  en- 
closed them  in  one  defenceless  pen. 

Besides  the  isolation  which  the  ghettos  more  or  less 
perfectly  effected — I  say  more  or  less,  for  it  is  quite  cer- 
tain that  many  Jews  contrived  to  secure  the  privilege  of 
living  outside  the  ghetto  gates — the  most  serious  effect 
of  the  new  persecution  was  the  terrible  overcrowding 
that  necessarily  followed  from  herding  thousands  of  Jews 
in  confined  spaces.  The  Jewish  population  grew,  but 
the  ghettos  remained  practically  unchanged.  Enlarge- 
ments were  occasionally  permitted,  but  on  the  whole  the 
original  limits  of  the  ghettos  were  not  expanded.  Hence 
even  when  the  localities  in  which  the  ghettos  were  con- 
structed were  not  slums,  they  rapidly  became  so.  Some- 
times the  Jewish  quarter,  as  in  Cologne  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  was  the  narrowest  part  of  the  town,  and  was 
even  called  the  '  Narrow  Street  ^.'  In  Frankfort  the 
ghetto  was  situate  near  the  moat,  and  on  the  other  side 

^  "117  aim  «"ip3n  Dmn^n  nm  {Das  Judenschreinhuch^  p.  23).  The  German 
equivalent  was  Engegasse.  Dr.  Philipson  frequently  alludes  with  justice  to 
the  narrowness  of  the  ghetto  streets,  the  tallness  of  the  houses,  and  the 
obscuration  of  the  sunlight,  as  grievances.  But  these  features  were  not 
always  peculiar  to  the  ghettos.  Old  London  streets  must  have  been  as 
dark  and  sombre  as  any  medieval  Judengasse,  and  the  same  remark  applies 
to  most  continental  towns.  Daylight  and  medievalism  were  hardly  com- 
patible notions.  The  point  is,  of  course,  that  the  Jewish  quarters  retained 
their  medieval  aspect  long  after  the  towns  in  which  they  were  located  had 
widened  their  streets  and  added  generally  to  the  comforts  of  life. 

F  2 


68  Institution  of  the  Ghetto. 

of  it  lived  'gardeners  and  people  ennployed  in  the  woods 
by  the  day.'  But  when  4,000  persons  lived  in  190  houses  \ 
in  a  gloomy  street,  twelve  feet  wide,  with  its  houses  meeting 
at  the  top ;  and  when  persistently  the  authorities  restricted 
the  Jewish  population  to  this  one  street,  in  which  a  wagon 
could  not  turn;  when,  as  in  some  cities,  the  brothels  were 
placed  in  the  Judengasse  to  add  to  their  ill-repute^ — 
the  effects  on  the  population  made  themselves  marked  in 
many  ways  to  be  considered  hereafter.  The  effects  were 
almost  completely  external,  however,  and  produced  no 
serious  moral  evils.  The  purity  of  the  Jewish  home-life 
was  a  constant  antidote  to  the  poisonous  suggestions  of  life 
in  slums,  and  it  was  even  able  to  resist  the  terrible  squalor 
and  unhealthiness  which  prevailed  in  the  miserable  and 
infamous  Roman  ghetto,  where  at  one  time  as  many  as 
10,000  inhabitants  were  herded  into  a  space  less  than  a 
square  kilometre  ^  In  the  poorer  streets  of  this  ghetto, 
several  families  occupied  one  and  the  same  room.  The 
sufferings  of  the  Jews  in  that  hell  upon  earth  in  the  papal 
city  were  not  diminished  by  the  yearly  overflowing  of  the 
Tiber,  which  made  the  Roman  ghetto  a  dismal  and  plague- 
stricken  swamp. 

The  wide  development  of  the  doctrine  of  chazaka,  or 
respect  to  the  equitable  rights  of  others,  was  the  salvation 
of  a  society  thus  thrown  upon  itself  By  a  variety  of  severe 
tekanoth  Jews  were  forbidden  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
letter  of  the  civil  law  against  one  another.  It  is  only  possible 
to  follow  out  one  or  two  ramifications  of  this  system  of 
equity  and  loyalty  to  brethren  in  misfortune.  Originating 
long  before  the  days  of  the  ghetto,  the  principle  of  respecting 

^  Philipson,  p.  56.  ^  Stobbe,  p.  276. 

^  Rieger,  p.  294. 


Ghetto  Rules.  69 

old  rights,  which  the  State  ignored,  survived  the  fall  of  the 
ghetto  walls.  Thus  it  was  an  old  tekanah,  probably  dating 
from  the  tenth  century,  that  no  Jew  should  rent  a  house 
from  a  Christian  in  place  of  another  Jewish  tenant,  unless 
the  latter  assented  to  the  arrangement,  or  a  year  has  elapsed 
since  the  former  tenant  vacated  the  house  ^.  It  must  be 
understood  that  the  houses  occupied  by  Jews,  even  in  the 
ghettos,  were  often  owned  by  Christians,  who  charged  exor- 
bitant rents.  If  the  Jewish  organization  had  not  enforced 
some  such  law  as  the  one  just  quoted,  there  would  have 
been  no  limit  to  the  house-owner's  rapacity^.  A  series  of 
tekanoth  drawn  up  at  Ferrara,  on  the  very  eve  of  the  crea- 
tion of  the  Roman  ghetto,  has  so  many  points  of  interest 
that  I  quote  these  ordinances  in  full,  though  only  the  fifth 
article  bears  on  our  present  point.  These  enactments  were 
the  work  of  delegates  of  the  Jewish  congregations  of  Rome, 
Ferrara,  Mantua,  Romagna,  Bologna,  Riggio,  Modena  and 
Venice,  and  hence  they  applied  to  the  whole  of  Italy  ^. 

^  The  following  regulations  were  passed  at  a  ge7ieral 
meeting  of  the  undersigned  delegates,  held  in  the  city  of 
Ferrara,  on  Thursday,  June  i\st,  1554. 

'  May  it  be  the  divine  will  that  God's  grace  rest  on  our 
work,  and  that  his  purpose  be  fulfilled  through  us.    Amen  ! 

'  (i)  No  printer  shall  print  any  new  book  "^  without  the 
licence  and  approval  of  three  Rabbis  who  are  themselves 

1  Kolho,  §  116. 

^  Pope  Clement  VIII  was  bound  to  interfere  and  fix  the  rents  which 
might  be  charged  to  Jews  in  the  Roman  ghetto. 

3  These  Tekanoth  were  pubhshed  in  the  Hebrew  periodical,  02i^  nor, 
vol.  XV,  and  were  republished  in  1879  ^^  Brody. 

*  This  tekanah  was  often  re-enacted.  In  1554  the  Jews'  books  in  Rome 
and  Venice  were  confiscated  and  burnt.  The  Jewish  authorities  feared  lest 
some  handle  to  hostile  censorship  might  be  supplied  by  imprudent  contro- 
versialists.    Hence  this  tekanah. 


70  Institution  of  the  Ghetto. 

possessed  of  diplomas  from  three  Rabbis.  If  the  publication 
is  issued  in  a  small  town,  then  the  licence  of  the  lay-heads 
of  one  of  the  neighbouring  congregations  must  be  obtained  ; 
but  if  the  town  is  large,  then  the  licences  of  the  lay-heads 
of  that  town  and  of  the  three  Rabbis  will  suffice.  At  the 
head  of  every  book  the  names  of  the  licensors  shall  be 
printed.  No  Jew  may  buy  any  book  that  does  not  bear 
these  licences,  the  penalty  of  infringement  of  this  tekanah 
shall  be  a  fine  of  twenty-five  golden  scudi  in  each  individual 
case.     The  fines  shall  be  devoted  to  the  relief  of  the  poor. 

'  (ii)  Should  any  Jew  force  another  Jew  to  appear  in  the 
Christian  civil  courts,  then  the  latter  may  subsequently 
refuse  to  transfer  the  dispute  to  the  Jewish  Beth  Din  (or 
court  of  justice). 

'  (iiij  No  one  shall  write  a  decision  on  a  monetary  dispute 
without  the  consent  of  the  parties  to  the  dispute,  or  the 
consent  of  the  two  dayanim  (judges)  appointed  by  the  two 
parties  and  the  third  dayan  appointed  as  assessor.  Such 
a  decision  is  forbidden,  even  though  the  names  be  disguised 
as  Reuben  and  Simeon. 

'  (iv)  No  Rabbi  of  one  congregation  shall  interfere  with 
the  internal  affairs  of  another  congregation,  nor  shall 
any  of  his  decisions  be  valid  in  a  congregation  which  has 
its  own  Rabbi. 

'(v)  Whereas  there  are  some  who  infringe  the  tekanah 
of  Rabbenu  Gershom,  which  forbids  any  Jew  from  ousting 
another  Jew  from  a  house  rented  from  a  Christian  landlord, 
and  whereas  such  offenders  claim  that  when  the  landlord 
sells  his  house  the  Jewish  tenant  thereby  also  loses  his 
chazaka  (  =  his  rights  of  preferential  tenancy),  we  therefore 
decree  that  though  the  Christian  owner  sell  his  house,  the 
right  of  the  Jewish  tenant  to  retain  possession  is  unchanged, 


^  Jits  Casaca/  71 

and  any  Jew  who  ousts  him  Is  disobeying  the  tekanah  of 
R.  Gershom  and  also  this  tekanah,  now  newly  enacted. 

'  (vi)  Seeing  that  there  are  men  who  rely  on  an  authority 
who  declares  that  if  a  man  has  lived  ten  years  with  his  wife, 
and  has  not  fulfilled  the  law  of  propagation,  he  may  marry 
a  second  wife,  despite  the  tekanah  of  R.  Gershom  to  the  con- 
trary, we  hereby  decree  that  if  he  have  a  son  or  daughter 
[and  not  both],  although  he  has  not  thereby  fulfilled  the 
duty  of  increase,  nevertheless  he  may  not  marry  a  second 
wife  without  the  assent  and  pleasure  of  his  wife\  and  of 
one  of  her  near  relatives,  who  shall  formally  authorize  the 
remarriage  in  the  presence  of  trustworthy  witnesses. 

'  (vii)  Whoever  marries  in  the  presence  of  less  than  ten 
witnesses,  without  the  consent  of  her  parents,  or  if  she 
be  an  orphan,  of  two  of  her  nearest  relatives,  is  hereby 
excommunicated,  both  he  and  the  witnesses  present  at  such 
a  ceremony.' 

The  fifth  clause  is  perhaps  the  earliest  instance  of  the 
jus  casaca  ^,  which  gave  the  Jewish  tenant  of  a  Christian's 
house  in  the  ghetto  a  right  in  that  house  which  no  other 
Jew  could  usurp.  This  right  was  inherited,  so  that  the 
Jews  became  practically  leaseholders  in  perpetuity  of  their 
ghetto  homes.  They  sold  their  yV^j-  casaca  and  bestowed  it 
as  dowries  on  their  daughters.  T\iQJus  casaca  (also  spelt 
gazaga  ^)  was  transferable,  and  Clement  VIII  legalized  this 
Jewish  arrangement  by  practically  making  evictions  impos- 
sible so  long  as  the  rent  (also  fixed  by  him)  was  duly  paid. 
The  Jew  might  enlarge  or  alter  the  premises  at  will.  But 
this  concession  of  Clement  was  dearly  bought,  for  one  of 
his  successors  as  a  corollary  practically  made  the  community 

^  Cf.  p.  116  below.  ^  I.  e.  Jus  npin  (tenant-right). 

^  Berliner,  Rovn^  ii.  (2)  71. 


72  Institution  of  the  Ghetto. 

as  a  whole  responsible  for  the  rent  of  all  the  houses  in  the 
ghetto,  whether  the  houses  were  occupied  or  empty  ^. 
Similar  laws  of  chazaka  were  applicable  to  Jewish  land- 
owners ;  Duran,  for  instance,  reports  a  tekanah  which  ren- 
dered it  unlawful  for  a  Jew  to  evict  a  fellow- Israelite  by- 
raising  the  rent  or  by  any  other  device  whatsoever  ^.  Fur- 
ther, there  was  sometimes  a  communal  law^  against  the  rent- 
ing of  two  houses  by  one  tenant,  unless  for  educational 
purposes  ^.  Naturally,  the  sale  of  ghetto  houses  to  Chris- 
tians was  forbidden  *. 

The  internal  organization  of  the  medieval  Jewries  held 
nothing  human  to  be  beyond  its  ken.  Some  of  the  special 
directions  into  which  this  ubiquitous  gaze  strayed  can  only 
be  briefly  indicated  here,  further  details  being  reserved  for 
other  chapters.  The  congregational  authorities  were  bound 
to  provide  an  official  called  a  shocket,  or  slaughterer  of 
animals  for  Jewish  use.  But  they  also  provided  the  means 
for  cooking  the  animals  thus  slain.  Many  congregations  had 
a  communal  bakehouse  or  oveji^  which  was  used  once  a  year 
for  baking  the  passover  cakes,  and  once  a  week,  on  Fridays, 
for  cooking  the  shalent  or  schalet^^.  This,  as  well  as  other 
utensils  for  cooking  purposes,  was  supplied  at  the  communal 
cost.     Thus,  a  huge  copper  cauldron  belonged  to  the  com- 

^  Jews  attempted  to  boycott  apostates  by  refusing  to  inhabit  the  houses 
which  were  vacated  by  converts  on  leaving  the  ghetto.  The  popes  effec- 
tually stopped  this  proceeding  by  exacting  from  the  community  the  rent  of 
all  empty  houses  (cf.  Berliner,  ibid.  p.  72).  This  led  the  Jews  themselves 
to  put  some  limitations  on  the  jus  gazaga  (ibid.). 

^  V"^ujnn  n"iiu,  ii.  61.  ^  Jacob  Weil,  n"w,  §  118. 

*  Cf.  Annuaire  (Avignon),  i.  p.  168. 

5  This  communal  oven  was  possessed  by  all  German  congregations.  Cf. 
Gudemann,  iii.  91  ;  y^o^^<  rpv^  §  633.  See  also  the  references  in  the 
Judenschreinbuchj  p.  17,  where  mention  (date  1266)  is  made  of  the  *  Great 
Bakery.' 


The  Public  Bath.  73 

munity,  and  was  at  the  disposal  of  any  member  who  had 
a  wedding  feast  on  hand  and  wished  to  add  stews  to  the 
roasts^.  The  community  made  some  provision,  too,  for 
a  water  supply,  and  when  necessary  a  well  was  dug  within 
the  synagogue  enclosure,  probably  to  provide  the  water  for 
the  bath.  There  were  two  kinds  of  communal  baths — the 
ritual  bath  or  mikveh^  and  the  ordinary  public  bath^.  No 
congregation  was  destitute  of  the  former,  and  since  the  State 
often  forbade  the  Jews  to  bathe  in  the  rivers  Christians 
used,  many  congregations  had  perforce  to  provide  an 
ordinary  bath  also.  Above  the  bakehouse,  or  in  near 
proximity  to  it,  was  a  large  communal  hall  in  which 
marriages  were  solemnized.     This  hall  had  various  names, 

^  Maharil  :j'Nvmb  ni  b^ib  bnpb  mm^o  nn^rr  nbiu  ntnn3  mnp  pi  {HUchoth, 
1"1DN1  in'n).  The  richer  members  sometimes  paid  for  the  use  of  the  oven 
(cf.  AnnHaire,p.  214),  the  poor  used  it  without  charge.  Besides,  or  in  place 
of,  this  communal  oven  there  was  occasionally  a  house  which  was  a  sort  of 
guildhall  of  the  bakers.     Cf  Juda  Minz,  Responsa,  7. 

^  When  the  Jews  were  expelled  from  Heidelberg  in  1391,  the  following 
confiscated  properties  of  the  Jews  were  presented  to  the  University  :  the 
Judenschule  (or  synagogue),  with  its  neighbouring  houses  and  the  adjacent 
garden ;  various  private  houses  ;  and  the  Jewish  cemetery  with  its  house, 
court,  and  garden.  This  last  is  not  the  same  garden  as  the  synagogue 
garden,  but  was  the  hortus  Judeorum,  or  *  hortus  qui  fuit  olim  cimiterium 
Judeorum.'  (The  tombstones  were  sold  in  1397.)  In  the  inventory  of  the 
property  belonging  to  the  synagogue  in  1391  are  mentioned  '  duo  candelabra 
ferrea  magna,  que  fuerunt  Judeorum,'  and  a  vaulted  chamber  which  stood 
near  the  synagogue  and  ser\'ed  as  a  Jews  bath :  '  pro  testudine  que  quondam 
nominabatur  balneum  Judeorum.^  ^LOwenstein,  Geschichte  der  Juden  in  der 
Kurpfalz  (Frankfurt,  1895),  p.  17.')  The  Jews  of  Augsburg  in  1290  also  had 
a  special  Badehaus  {Monatsschrift,  1861,  p.  280).  If  Mr.  Jacobs'  suggestion 
{Angevin  England,  p.  236)  be  accepted,  and  Bakewell  Hall  =  Bathwell  Hall, 
then  the  Jews'  bath  of  London  must  have  been  a  noteworthy  building.  As 
to  the  prohibition  of  Jews  from  bathing  in  the  rivers,  such  edicts  were  very 
numerous.  Thus  in  the  fourteenth  century  the  Jews  of  Angers  were 
readmitted  to  the  town  on  several  onerous  conditions,  one  being  that  they 
would  not  bathe  in  the  river  Maine  (Brunschvicg,  Jui/s  d' Angers,  1895, 
P-  15). 


74  Institiitmi  of  the  Ghetto. 

and  the  Jews  were  very  keen  on  preserving  their  rights 
with  regard  to  it.  In  1288  the  attempt  of  an  individual 
to  deprive  the  congregation  of  Cologne  of  its  hall  was 
defeated  by  the  energetic  action  of  the  Jews,  who  declared 
that  '  it  had  been  the  property  of  the  congregation  for 
thirty  years.'  Whether  the  wedding  banquet  was  spread, 
and  the  ball  gaily  footed  in  the  same  hall,  is  uncertain, 
but  there  are  frequent  mentions  in  medieval  records  of 
both  a  guest-house  and  a  dancing-hall.  The  guest-house 
was  sometimes  called  the  Inn,  and  seems  to  have  been 
the  means  of  providing  for  passing  travellers,  for  whom 
private  entertainment  was  lacking.  The  'Jews'  Inn'  is 
found  in  early  Spanish  records  as  well  as  in  late  French, 
and  was  a  source  of  considerable  trouble  to  the  Parisian 
police  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Jews  were  then 
under  the  surveillance  of  a  special  police  inspector,  to 
whom  every  Jew  was  accountable  for  every  hour  of  his 
day  ^.  This  inspector  was  chiefly  anxious  to  extort  as  much 
blackmail  from  the  Jews  as  he  possibly  could,  but  by 
harbouring  travellers  in  the  '  Jews'  Inn,'  or  Auberge  jfuive, 
the  community  often  evaded  some  of  his  attempts  to  squeeze 
money  out  of  friendless  strangers.  Sometimes  there  were 
two  or  three  such  inns  in  Paris  at  the  same  time,  and  it 
is  diverting  to  note  the  ingenuity  of  the  police  in  their 
attempt  to  draw  the  guests  of  these  auberges  within  the 
expansive  nets  of  their  extortions.  First,  they  accused  these 
inns  of  being  'houses  of  ill  repute/  but  finding  that  this 
charge  brought  in  an  inadequate  revenue,  they  tried  an 
opposite  tack,  and  declared  that  the  Jews'  Inns  were 'a  kind 
of  synagogue,'  an  institution  apparently  more  obnoxious  to 

^  Leon  Kahn,  Les  Juifs  de  Paris  au  XVIII''  Steele  (Paris,  1894),  whence 
these  particulars  are  taken. 


The  Dancing-Hall.  75 

the  municipality  than  a  brothel  ^ !  These  inns,  however,  had 
by  the  eighteenth  century  become  private  enterprises  ;  the 
community  as  a  whole  no  longer  provided  them. 

A  more  general  adjunct  of  medieval  Jewish  communities 
was  the  '  dancing-hall '  or  Tanzhaus.  Dancing,  as  we  shall 
see  in  a  later  chapter,  was  a  favourite  Jewish  pastime. 
Even  if  this  Tanzhaus  was  designed  only  for  use  at 
weddings^ — yet  as  the  festivities  on  such  occasions  lasted 
for  a  week,  and  in  a  large  community  not  many  weeks 
can  have  passed  without  a  wedding — the  Tanzhaus  must 
have  been  in  pretty  constant  occupation  by  merry  parties. 
The  Tanzhans  became  very  popular,  and  soon  spread 
throughout  France  and  Germany ;  most  of  the  ghettos  had 
their  dancing-halls.  In  Spain  and  the  East  the  institution 
does  not  appear,  for  the  houses  of  the  Jews  w^ere  larger 
in  those  parts,  and  great  entertainments  could  be  given  in 
private  abodes  ^.  Dancing  in  these  halls  took  place  also 
on  festivals  and  Sabbaths,  but  of  that  more  must  be  re- 

^  Ibid.  p.  41. 

^  Gudemann,  iii.  138.  The  Tanzhaus  was  probably  identical  with  the 
m:nn  nu.  In  the  Judenschreinhuch  of  Cologne  the  same  building  is  termed 
pxiTC'^n  D'l  (p.  62),  m^nnn  nu  (p.  64),  and  in  the  Latin  documents  Speilhuz  or 
Speylhuz.  An  entry  at  Speyer  of  date  1354  speaks  of  the  great  '  Schulhof 
called  Dantzhus  or  Brutehus^  (=  bride's  house,  Frankel's  Monatsschrift, 
1863,  100;  Ersch  u.  Gruber,  Juden,  p.  100).  Later  evidence  of  this  identity 
is  provided  by  Schudt  {Merkwurdigkeiten,  ii.  p.  5),  where  the  Frankfort 
Tanzhaus  is  clearly  a  marriage-hall.  The  Frankfort  Tanzhaus  is  certainly 
older  than  1349,  that  in  Augsburg  dates  from  1290  (Monatsschrift,  1861, 
p.  280).  Dr.  Berliner  in  his  Aus  dem  inneren  Leben^  &c.,  p.  8,  takes  the 
Tanzhaus  to  have  been  a  public-hall  for  dancing,  not  only  at  weddings. 

^  It  is  possible  that  the  house  'in  Norwich  called  the  Musick  House, 
which,  according  to  Bloomfield  Norfolk,  iv.  76),  can  trace  to  the  twelfth 
or  even  eleventh  century'  (Jacobs,  Angevin  England,  p.  383),  may  have 
been  a  Jewish  marriage-hall.  An  interesting  reference  to  a  wedding-hall, 
^'t<i\r)^2'j  12  iwd'?  invan  nu,  is  made  in  the  MS.  Assufoth  (cf.  Gaster,  Sefer 
Assufoth,  p.  48). 


76  Institution  of  the  Ghetto. 

served  for  a  later  chapter.  The  latter  remark  applies  also 
to  some  far  more  important  features  of  the  communal  life, 
viz.  the  modes  in  which  provision  was  made  for  education 
and  for  the  relief  of  the  poor. 

The  Jews  possessed  no  regular  organization  in  the 
middle  ages  for  the  despatch  of  letters  to  a  distance,  but 
utilized  the  services  of  travellers  and  merchants  for  this 
purpose.  In  this  way  excellent  communication  was  main- 
tained between  very  distant  countries,  and  news  spread  very 
fast.  The  Rabbis  frequently  corresponded  between  various 
parts  of  Europe,  and  even  between  Asia,  Africa,  and  the 
European  Jewries.  Sometimes  a  special  messenger  was 
employed  for  a  special  purpose,  as  when  the  Jewish  court 
despatched  an  order  or  notification.  Except  for  the  trans- 
portation of  such  official  documents,  Jews  employed  the 
services  of  Christians  or  Mohammedans  who  were  going  on 
pilgrimages  or  in  caravans^.  Some  authorities"^  employed 
the  ordinary  medium  of  communication  for  delivering  a 
decree  of  divorce.  When  the  ghettos  were  established,  the 
German  Jews  had  their  own  regular  letter-carrier,  called — 
like  others  who  possessed  the  right  of  free  egress — Schutz- 
jiide,  or  *  protected  Jew.'  So  complete  were  the  Jewish 
means  of  communication  that  Jews  often  acted  as  intelli- 
gencers to  the  government.  The  Jewish  postmen  were 
bound  to  respect  the  privacy  of  the  letters  they  carried,  and 
a  special  formula  often  appeared  on  Jewish  despatches, 
reminding  the  bearer  that  he  was  forbidden  to  open  them  ^. 

^  Responsa  of  Geonim  (ed.  Harkavy),  p.  146. 

^  E.  g.  R.Tam.   For  a  special  Jewish  post  see  Brann,  Graetz-Jubelschrift,  226. 

^  Letters  still  sometimes  bear  the  abbreviation  a"-nn2,  referring  to  the 
rule  introduced  by  R.  Gershom  against  permitting  the  opening  of  letters  by 
the  carriers.  Cf.  my  articles  on  '  Jews  and  Letters  '  in  the  Jewish  Chronicle 
for  Jan.  i8go. 


The  'House  of  Life/  77 

Complete  as  was  the  care  for  the  living,  the  reverence 
and  affection  for  the  dead  showed  themselves  in  even  more 
loving  provisions.  In  every  Jewish  community,  the  last 
refuge  from  the  storms  of  life  was  the  most  sacred  spot  of 
all.  The  cemetery  was  the  House  of  Life,  the  Everlasting 
Abode,  the  Garden  of  tJie  jfezus^.  That  the  cemetery 
deserved  this  appellation  cannot  be  doubted.  Jews  tried 
to  beautify  their  burial-grounds  with  shrubs  and  trees,  and, 
when  they  could,  selected  for  the  repose  of  the  dead  sites 
well  placed  amidst  rural  surroundings  until  the  ghetto 
restrictions  made  this  impossible^.  Yet  this  hortiis  Jude- 
orum  must  not  be  confused  with  another  Jews'  garden^, 
which  surrounded  the  synagogue  and  was  used  as  a 
promenade.  In  the  ghettos  the  cemetery  was  situated 
at  the  end  of  the  street,  as  far  as  was  convenient  from  the 
houses,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  old  Jewish  custom  of  burying 
the  dead  at  least  fifty  paces  from  the  nearest  house  *. 
A  Jewish  intramural  cemetery  in  the  city  of  London, 
situated  in  Wood  Street,  is  mentioned  in  the  Patent  Roll 

^  The  title,  a""nn  n'2,  House  of  Life,  or  House  of  the  Living,  was  at  least 
as  old  as  the  fourteenth  century.  The  term  may  be  found  in  the  Tashbats, 
iii.  I.  robj?  nu  is  much  older  (Targum  to  Isaiah,  xlii.  ii ;  Koheleth  Rabb.  to 
X.  9 ;  Sanhedrin,  19  a).  For  the  title  hortus  Judcorum,  see  p.  73  above, 
note  2.  For  the  planting  of  trees,  cf.  Shulchan  Aruch,  Yore  Dealt,  368,  2. 
In  Barcelona  and  Gerona  the  Jewish  cemetery  was  on  a  hill  named  Mons 
Judaicus.     (^Kayserling,  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  viii.  491.) 

^  In  Heidelberg  the  cemetery  in  the  fourteenth  century  was  close  to  the 
royal  park.  (Cf.  Lowenstein,  Kitrpfalz,  p.  12.)  Later  on  the  cemeteries 
became  so  crowded  that  the  dead  as  well  as  the  living  w^ere  confined  to 
space,  two  and  sometimes  three  graves  being  placed  on  top  of  each  other, 
(Cf  Phihpson,  Old  European  Jewries,  p.  78.)  The  same  thing  happened  in 
London  in  the  eighteenth  century.  When  the  Brady  Street  Cemetery  was 
full,  'instead  of  purchasing  a  new  cemetery,  earth  was  carted  and  thrown 
over  the  old'  (Report  of  United  Synagogue,  London,  1895). 

2  Maharil,  near  end  (ed.  Warsaw,  p.  nc),  cites  a  ''^r\^7\  p. 

*  Mishnah  Baba  Bathra,  ii.  9. 


78  Institution  of  the  Ghetto. 

of  1285.  It  was  surrounded  with  a  stone  wall  to  keep  off 
marauders  ^  Until  the  reign  of  Henry  II  the  English  Jews 
were  forced  to  transport  their  dead  to  London,  for  they 
possessed  only  a  single  graveyard  in  the  whole  kingdom. 
In  many  parts  of  the  continent  the  Jews  were  not  able 
to  acquire  cemeteries  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  their 
homes.  The  Hamburg  Jews  buried  their  dead  in  the 
neighbouring  Altona,  the  Amsterdam  Jews  in  Audekerke  ^ 
— a  two  hours'  journey.  In  North  Africa  the  cemetery  was 
at  a  greater  distance  from  the  towns.  The  protective  wall 
was  a  usual  feature  of  the  Jewish  cemetery^ — a  most  neces- 
sary precaution,  for  the  desecration  and  spoliation  of  Jewish 
graves  was  a  common  offence  in  the  middle  ages.  Some- 
times indeed  the  government  itself  not  only  forbade  the 
use  of  tombstones,  but  confiscated  existent  monuments  and 
employed  them  for  building  the  walls  of  the  town  *.  Nor 
was  this  act  of  profanation  confined  to  Europe.  In  Egypt 
the  Mohammedans  stole  the  Jewish  tombstones,  obliterated 
the  inscriptions,  and  re-sold  them  to  Jews.  This  was  at  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  local  Rabbis  checkmated 
this  ghastly  traffic  by  forbidding  their  congregants  to  use 
any  but  newly-quarried  stones  for  monuments  to  the  dead^. 
The  use  of  inscriptions  and  epitaphs  was  not,  by  the  way, 
a  Jewish  custom  until  after  the  Christian  era.     The  habit 

^  Quoted  by  M.  D.  Davis  in  Notes  and  Queries,  8th  sect.  viii.  26.  Tovey, 
Atiglia  Judaica,  p.  8,  also  spealcs  of  the  Jewi  Garden. 

''■  Schudt,  Merkwiirdjgkeiten,  vi.  38,  §  2.  Cf.  Jacobs,  Angevin  England, 
p.  62.  Many  Jews  lived  in  isolation  from  their  family,  and  on  their  death 
wished  to  be  buried  at  considerable  distances.  In  1772  a  Jew  who  died  in 
Nantes  was  buried  in  Bordeaux  (Brunschvicg,  Juifs  de  Nantes,  p.  19).  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  special  permission  had  to  be  obtained  from  the  police 
before  the  body  could  be  transported. 

3  Cf.  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  (2)  62,  86. 

*  This  occurred  in  Rome  in   1560-73  (ibid.  p.  63).        '  Radbaz,  i.  741. 


Emblems  on  the  Tombs.  79 

was  probably  copied  from  the  Romans,  and  it  is  noteworthy 
that  tombs  in  the  Jewish  catacombs  bear  no  Hebrew  in- 
scriptions, Greek  and  more  rarely  Latin  was  used  \  the 
Greek  inscriptions  belonging  to  the  first  three  centuries 
of  the  Christian  era.  The  Jews  felt  a  strong  reluctance 
to  employ  Latin  as  their  vernacular,  the  memory  of  Titus 
was  scarcely  of  the  kind  to  make  the  Jews  love  the 
language  which  he  spoke. 

It  is  of  more  than  passing  importance  to  note  some  of 
the  peculiar  features  of  these  ancient  Roman  tombs.  They 
display  an  artistic  tendency  of  which  the  later  middle  ages 
show  revived  traces.  In  the  Jewish  catacombs  in  Rome 
the  tombs  were  adorned  with  a  variety  of  symbols  ^.  The 
most  characteristic  symbol  was  a  seven-branched  candle- 
stick, sometimes  with  red  ascending  flames.  No  Christian 
tomb  has  been  found  with  this  symbol,  but  it  has  remained 
the  traditional  emblem  of  the  Jews  of  Rome,  probably 
because  of  its  prominence  on  the  Arch  of  Titus  ^.  A  round 
fruit,  with  an  ear  springing  from  it,  is  another  common 
figure.  Where  the  fruit  appears  alone,  three  small  leaves 
are  present  at  the  top  '*.  The  palni-bra7ich  also  is  present 
on  the  tombs,  but  it  differs  from  the  palm  familiar  from 
the  Jewish  coins.  The  same  floral  emblem  was  typical  of 
martyrdom,  but  its  presence  on  the  tombs  was  probably 
suggested  by  the  Psalmist's  comparison  of  the  righteous 
to  the  palm-tree  ^.  Other  symbols  are  the  oil  vessel  and 
a  curved  object  variously  interpreted  as  a  Jiorn  (shofar)  or 

^  Berliner,  ibid.  i.  52,  58. 

^  For  my  knowledge  of  these  I  am  much  indebted  to  Berliner's  Rom, 
vol,  i.  p.  58, 

^  Modern  Jewish  tombs  in  Rome  are  again  being  adorned  with  this 
symbol. 

*  Is  this  a  Christian  symbol  ?  ^  Psalm  xcii. 


8o  Instihttion  of  the  Ghetto. 

a  scythe.  On  some  of  the  tombs,  the  ornamentation  is 
elaborate,  whole  scenes  being  depicted.  The  tomb  of 
Alexandra  Severa  bears  three  hens  by  the  side  of  a  fowl- 
house,  a  tree,  a  hut,  two  cocks  in  the  act  of  combat,  with 
a  palm-branch  in  the  centre.  Among  other  emblems  are 
Birds,  once  in  conjunction  with  a  beehive^  sheep,  the  head 
of  a  ram,  a  doubled-handled  ewer,  2.  flower-basket,  an  open 
book,  a  calf,  snuffers  (by  the  side  of  the  candlestick  and 
oil  vessel  above  mentioned),  the  budding  leaf — a  symbol 
never  absent  from  Christian  tombs  ^. 

Quite  in  keeping  with  this  early  adoption  of  grave 
symbols  was  the  series  of  emblems  which  distinguish 
some  of  the  German  Jewish  tombs  in  the  later  middle 
ages.  But  these  more  recent  symbols  represented  not 
fancies  connected  with  death  but  realities  of  life.  Thus 
in  Prague  a  pair  of  scissors  appears  on  a  tailor's  tomb, 
a  violin  or  harp  on  a  musician's,  a  bag  on  a  trunk-maker's, 
a  crown  and  two  chains  on  a  goldsmith's,  a  lion  chitching 
a  sword  on  a  doctor's,  a  mortar  on  an  apothecary's  ^.  At 
Frankfort  the  symbols  were  of  yet  another  type,  for  the 
signs  of  the  houses  in  which  the  departed  had  lived  were 
often  carved  on  the  tombs.  The  signs  included  figures  of 
dragons,  bears,  lions,  and  stars ".  The  tombs  of  cohanim 
or  priests  have  often  been  distinguished  by  the  two  open 
hands  as  displayed  in  the  priestly  benediction,  while 
a  Levite's  often   bears  a  water-jug.     Family  vaults  were 

^  The  beautiful  gilded  glasses  found  in  the  Roman  tombs,  with  their  ela- 
borate ornamentations  depicting  the  temple,  were  no  doubt  kiddush  cups 
used  for  the  wine  on  Sabbaths  and  festivals.  The  inscription,  *  Drink  and 
live,'  is  exactly  the  «"m  «nr:n,  '  Wine  and  life,'  of  the  Talmud. 

2  Cf.  M.  Popper,  Inschrifien  des  alien  Prager  Judmfriedhofs  (Bruns- 
wick, 1893).  These  tombs  belong  to  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  but  the  emblems  are  older. 

3  Cf.  Philipson,  Old  European  Jewries,  p.  78. 


Family   Vaults.  8r 

more  common  in  ancient  than  in  medieval  Judaism,  but 
they  are  not  unknown.  The  family  sepulchre  of  the  Macca- 
beans  at  Modin  (i  Mace.  xiii.  27),  with  its  carved  armour 
and  ships,  recalls  the  family  vaults  of  the  Bible.  In  the 
middle  ages,  however,  graves  were  inherited,  but  the  mother 
who  was  bequeathed  a  share  in  the  family  vault  was  not 
able  to  include  her  own  children  in  the  privilege  ^.  In 
Audekerke  the  Jewish  tombs  were  reached  by  steps,  and 
this  seems  to  imply  that  they  were  large,  family  vaults  ^. 
There  was  no  particular  shape  for  the  Jewish  tombstone, 
but  the  ordinary  oriental  practice  of  placing  the  stones 
erect  and  not  flat  came  to  be  the  mark  of  a  Jewish  grave 
in  Europe  ^.  The  monuments  varied  greatly  in  size  and 
cost,  but  the  tendency  towards  uniformity  and  the  avoid- 
ance of  display  was  never  quite  overthrown.  Some  of  the 
stones  were  of  huge  weight  and  dimensions,  one  of  those 
recently  discovered  by  Dr.  Kaufmann  at  Buda  Pesth,  and 
dating  from  the  thirteenth  century,  is  nearly  a  foot  thick 
and  five  feet  high  *.  These  remarks  on  the  externals  of 
the  cemetery  must  for  the  present  suffice.  The  communal 
organization  regarded  the  House  of  Life  as  one  of  its  fore- 
most cares.  Watchmen  were  provided  at  the  public  cost, 
and  a  small  building  or  synagogue  was  attached  to  the 
cemetery.  On  the  other  hand,  the  office  of  gravedigger 
does  not  seem  to  have  existed,  ordinary  workmen  being  em- 
ployed for  the  purpose.  The  grim  humours  of  the  sexton 
which  find  their  representative  in  the  Talmud  in  the  person 
of  Abba   Saul   strike   no   echo  in  the    medieval   Jewries. 

*  Shulchan  Aruch,  Yore  Dealt,  366,  2. 

^  Schudt,  Merkwiirdigkeiten,  part  vi.  ch.  38. 

^  Ibid.     The  flat  tombs  of  the  Portuguese  Jews  in  London  were  probably 
imitated  from  Christian  usage. 

*  Quoted  in  the  Jewish  Chronicle  of  October  11,  1895. 

G 


82  Institution  of  the  Ghetto. 

Life  was  altogether  too  serious  for  the  Jew  to  jest  of  death. 
But  a  later  opportunity  will  present  itself  for  giving  an 
account  of  the  loving  rites  with  which  the  dead  were 
accompanied  to  their  graves.  We  must  turn  aside  now 
into  brighter  paths,  and  must  consider  some  of  the  ways 
in  which  the  Jews  comported  themselves  towards  the 
living. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SOCIAL  MORALITY. 

Present-day  observers  are  commonly  struck  by  the 
domesticity  of  Jewish  men.  Even  the  working  man  among 
the  Jews  spends  his  leisure  at  home.  This  feature  of 
Jewish  life  dates  from  the  early  middle  ages,  and  is  easily 
explained.  Judaism  demanded  devout  attention  to  all  the 
details  of  life,  and  the  man  rather  than  the  woman  possessed 
the  knowledge  necessary  for  obeying  the  minutiae  of  the 
home  ritual.  A  large  section  of  these  details  concerned 
the  preparation  of  food,  the  family  regulations  for  the  Sab- 
bath, and  the  more  occasional  household  arrangements, 
such  as  the  Easter  cleansing  of  the  home  and  the  removal 
of  leaven.  Rabbi  Solomon  ben  Adret  had  a  lock  made  to 
his  stove  and  kept  the  key  over  the  Sabbath  to  prevent  his 
too  considerate  housemaid  from  lighting  a  fire  on  Saturdays^. 
Thus  the  Jewish  husband  played  a  personal  role  in  the 
kitchen  as  well  as  in  the  market-place.  He  was  especially 
busy  on  Thursdays  and  Fridays.  Eagerly  would  he 
bargain  for  Sabbath  dainties  in  the  crowded  market,  though, 
in  order  to  circumvent  the  trick  of  non-Jewish  fishmongers 

*  Responsa^  ed.  Venice,  §  857. 
G  a 


84  Social  Morality. 

who  raised  the  prices  on  Fridays,  he  would  sometimes 
reluctantly  abstain  from  purchasing  that  most  beloved 
article  of  Sabbath  food — fish  ^.  Mostly,  however,  he  would 
not  be  deprived  of  this  dainty,  and  would  hurry  home  with 
his  bargains,  breathless  and  eager  for  his  wife's  admiring 
approval.  He  knew  the  prices,  he  understood  qualities,  and 
was  an  adept  in  examining  fruits  and  vegetables.  He 
would  not  be  cheated  like  the  ordinary  man  of  to-day.  On 
Friday  the  husband  would  help  in  the  cleansing  of  the 
crockery  and  saucepans,  and  would  lovingly  join  his  wife  in 
spreading  the  table  for  the  adequate  reception  of  the 
Sabbath  Bride.  All  this  anxiety  on  the  part  of  the  hus- 
band must  have  made  him  something  of  a  nuisance :  he 
must  have  been  rather  too  much  of  a  critic  and  too  little  of 
an  admirer  to  please  thriftless  housewives.  But  I  fancy 
the  gain  far  outweighed  the  loss.  The  wife  had  a  home- 
loving  lord,  who  perhaps  derived  some  of  his  devotion  to 
his  family  from  his  intimate  participation  in  all  the  pleasures 
and  anxieties  of  home  management.  When  we  add  the 
reflections  that  the  Jewish  home  was  the  scene  of  some  of 
the  most  touching  and  inspiring  religious  rites,  that  the 
sanctity  of  the  home  was  an  affectionate  tradition  linking 
the  Jew  with  a  golden  chain  to  his  fathers  before  him,  that 
amidst  the  degradations  heaped  upon  him  throughout  the 
middle  ages  he  was  emancipated  at  least  in  one  spot  on 
earth,  that  he  learned  from  his  domestic  peace  to  look  with 
pitiful  rather  than  vindictive  ^yts  on  his  persecutors — we 
shall  realize  something  of  the  powerful  influence  which 
the  home  wielded  in  forming  and  softening  the  Jewish 
character. 

^  Rcsponsa,  Menachem  of  Nicolsburg,  §  28.     A  similar  interference  with 
prices  occurred  at  a  very  early  date.     Cf.  above,  p.  60. 


The  Jewish  Character.  85 

This  consideration  more  than  any  other  must  give  us 
pause  when  inclined  to  assent  to  the  harsh  judgement  current 
regarding  the  social  morality  of  the  Jews  in  the  middle  ages. 
The  tender  husband  and  self-sacrificing  father  can  hardly 
have  been  a  monster  of  malignity.  And  the  curious  point 
is  that  the  medieval  Jew  was  not  harshly  judged  by  his 
contemporaries.  Under  a  surface  ruffled  by  prejudice  and 
suspicion  there  runs  a  calm  current  of  respect  and  trustful- 
ness. The  populace,  when  left  to  its  own  devices,  found 
the  Jews  straightforward  and  companionable,  while  the 
Church  directed  its  persecution  against  the  Israelite  in 
the  hope  of  winning  him  over  to  itself.  Only  when  the  two 
streams  of  baffled  proselytism  and  unbridled  suspicion 
coalesced  was  the  character  of  the  Jew  blackened  beyond 
recognition.  Besides,  the  opinion  formed  of  the  Jews  during 
the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries  has 
dominated  the  nineteenth  to  the  obliteration  of  earlier 
impressions.  Yet  these  three  centuries  were  just  the  cen- 
turies of  ignorance ;  Europe  never  knew  less  of  the  Jews 
than  it  did  in  the  era  of  the  ghettos.  I  am  far  from 
denying  the  existence  of  an  antipathy  to  Jews  in  earlier 
centuries  ;  but  the  older  antipathy  was  one  of  fear,  the  later 
was  one  of  contempt.  A  careful  inquiry  into  the  social  life 
of  the  Jews  in  the  middle  ages  reveals  no  records  of  serious 
charges  against  them.  Negative  evidence  on  such  a  subject 
is  surely  weighty.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella's  edict  for  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain  in  1492  contains  absolutely 
no  charge  of  social  offence  ;  this  severe  measure  is  based 
exclusively  on  the  alleged  proselytizing  energy  of  the  Jews 
who  reclaimed  the  Marranos,  or  Hebrew  converts  to  Chris- 
tianity. We  shall  see  that  this  general  acquittal  must  be 
qualified   in  certain  directions,  but   the   fact  remains   that 


86  Social  Morality. 

by  almost  universal  consent  the  Jews  were  clear  of  the 
more  hideous  vices  which  eat  at  the  root  of  social  life  in 
civilized  states. 

This  brings  me  back  to  my  starting-point.  There  can 
be  little  question  that  the  state  of  opinion  as  to  the  relations 
of  men  and  women  is  an  index  to  the  social  ethics  of  an  age. 
Now,  though  there  is  room  for  hostile  criticism  of  the 
mental  attitude  of  medieval  Jews  on  this  question,  their 
moral  attitude  towards  the  problem  is  singularly  free  from 
reproach.  Jewish  literature  of  post-biblical  times  is  dis- 
tinguished by  a  most  delicate  and  refined  tone  in  its 
treatment  of  the  subject  of  intercourse  between  husband  and 
wife.  Jews  have  been  often  described  as  sensual  ^,  but  it  is 
strange  and  thoroughly  characteristic  of  Jewish  sentiment  to 
find  that  the  ethical  books  written  in  the  middle  ages  contain 
practical  and  eloquent  pleadings  directed  towards  elevating 
into  a  manly  virtue  of  self-restraint  the  satisfaction  of  the 
most  animal  of  instincts.  Time  after  time,  as  new  Messianic 
dreams  flitted  over  the  ghetto  horizon,  the  Jewish  wife 
would  ask  herself  whether  she  might  not  be  the  mother 
of  Israel's  harbinger  of  salvation.  The  Scriptures  had  used 
the  relation  of  husband  to  wife  as  a  type  of  God's  relation 
to  His  world.  Jewish  mystics  of  the  middle  ages  compared 
a  man's  love  to  God  with  a  man's  love  for  his  wife,  using 
the  most  sensuous  images,  but  thereby  refining  the  relations 
from  which  the  images  were  drawn.  If  the  first  duty  of 
a  Jew  was  to  beget  children,  his  religion  gave  the  sanction 
to  the  obligation  and  idealized  it,  transforming  a  carnal  act 
into  a  communion  with  the  Spirit  of  all  life  -.     It  would  be 

'  Tacitus,  Hist.,  v.  5. 

^  See  the  marvellous  prayer  (on  nvt)  by  Nachmanides.     It  is  found  in 
many  editions  of  the  Jewish  Prayer-book. 


Marital  Fidelity.  87 

irrelevant  to  quote  against  this  view  the  attacks  on  women 
and  the  contemptuous  tone  assumed  towards  them  in  the 
works  of  Jewish  satirists  in  the  middle  ages.  These  satires 
were  mostly  imitated  from  Arabic  and  other  Oriental 
originals,  and,  moreover,  the  point  of  the  wit  was  sharpened 
by  the  knowledge  that  the  mocking  charges  of  infidelity  and 
fickleness  were  exaggerated  or  untrue  ^.  So  you  find  the 
Jewish  satirists  exhausting  all  their  powers  of  drollery  over 
the  joys  of  drunkenness.  They  roar  till  their  sides  creak 
over  the  humours  of  the  wine-bibber.  They  laugh  at  him, 
but  also  with  him  ;  pleasantly  if  Ibn  Gebirol  be  the  songster, 
coarsely  if  Kalonymos  take  up  the  parable.  In  fact  wine 
shares  with  women  the  empire  over  Jewish  satirical  writers 
in  the  middle  ages.  Yet  we  know  well  enough  that  the 
authors  of  these  Hebrew  Anacreontic  lyrics  and  satires 
were  sober  men  who  rarely  indulged  in  over-much  strong 
drink. 

Fidelity  was  expected  from  the  husband  as  well  as  from 
the  wife  ^ ;  he  was  to  love  her,  to  honour  her,  and  be  true 
to  her.  If  there  was  no  love  before  marriage,  there  was 
no  infidelity  after  it.  The  wife  was  addressed  in  terms  of 
respect  and  endearment  ^.  '  Be  not  cruel  or  discourteous  to 
your  wife,'  says  a  thirteenth-century  father  *  ;  '  if  you  thrust 
her  from  you  with  your  left  hand,  draw  her  back  to  you 
with  your  right  hand  forthwith."*     '  Husbands  must  honour 


'  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,,  vi.  506. 

^  Rokeach.  At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  modern  spirit  creeps 
in,  and  the  man  is  allowed  more  licence  than  the  woman.  Giidemann, 
Quellenschriften,  p.  180.  But  Lancelot  Addison  in  his  Present  State  of  the 
Jews  (London,  1675)  asserts  that  in  the  matter  of  concubinage  the  '  Jews  in 
Barbary  are  very  abstemious.*     The  vice  in  question  was  a  European  one. 

2  Giidemann,  iii.  99,  108-110,  &c. ;  Maharil,  p.  85  a. 

*  Asheri,  died  1327  ;  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  iii.  457. 


88  Social  Morality. 

their  wives  more  than  themselves '  ^  ;  but  such  passages  are 
too  numerous  to  quote.  They  extend  in  an  unbroken  series 
over  the  whole  medieval  Jewish  literature,  and  a  seventeenth- 
century  writer  ^  says :  '  Never  quarrel  with  your  wife.  If 
she  ask  you  for  too  much  money,  say  to  her  :  "  My  darling, 
how  can  I  give  you  what  is  beyond  my  means  ?  Shall  I, 
God  forbid,  acquire  wealth  by  dishonesty  or  fraud  ?  " '  The 
Jewish  husband  was  warned  against  severity  in  his  household 
conduct.     He  was  not  to  be  a  terror  at  home. 

The  Jew  who  indulged  in  the  physical  ill-usage  of  his  wife 
was  regarded  as  a  monstrosity.  The  wife-beater  was  not 
altogether  an  unknown  figure  in  Jewish  life,  but  the  attitude 
of  public  opinion  towards  him  is  very  instructive.  A  wife 
could  not  obtain  a  divorce  on  the  ground  of  her  husband's 
violence,  but  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  the  wife-beater 
was  fined  to  the  utmost  limit  of  his  resources  ^.  Or  another 
method  was  adopted.  The  wife  was  urged  to  forgiveness, 
and  the  husband  was  compelled  to  add  as  much  as  he 
could  to  the  marriage  settlements*.  Rabbi  Tam,  of  the 
twelfth  century,  forced  the  wife-beater  to  provide  his  wife 
with  separate  maintenance.  At  a  considerably  later  period 
some  Jewish  tribunals  did  practically  force  the  husband  to 
free  his  wife  by  a  divorce  in  case  that  he  ill-treated  her  ^, 
but  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Jewish  law  of  divorce  was 
never  satisfactory.  In  the  fourteenth  century  occur  some 
rare  cases  of  husbands  ill-treating  their  wives  in  order  to 
procure   divorces.       There   was,    from   the   tenth    century 

*  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  iii.  462. 

'  Sheftel  Horwitz  in  his  Testament. 

^  Responsa  of  Geonim,  ed.  Constant.  §  137. 

*  Responsa,  Muller,  Mafteach,  p.  177. 

*  Responsa,  Tashbats,  ii.  8;  A.  de  Boton,  §  31;  Benjamin  of  Aria,  n"iir 
2S]  po'--5  88,  but  contrast  116. 


Absentee  Husbands.  89 

onwards,  a  growing  feeling  against  permitting  a  husband 
to  divorce  a  wife  against  her  will,  but  men,  if  sufficiently 
destitute  of  humanity,  found  means  to  procure  the  wife's 
assent  to  the  separation  ^.  These  cases  were  isolated. 
Rabbi  Tarn,  in  framing  his  regulation  cited  above,  says  of 
wife-beating  :  *  This  is  a  thing  not  done  in  Israel ; '  and 
a  little  later  on  Rabbi  Meir  of  Rothenburg  (thirteenth 
century)  remarks :  '  Jews  are  not  addicted  to  the  prevalent 
habit  of  ill-treating  wives  ^.'  Wife-desertion  was  an  evil 
which  it  was  harder  to  deal  with,  for,  owing  to  the  unsettle- 
ment  of  Jewish  life  under  continuous  persecution,  the 
husband  was  frequently  bound  to  leave  home  in  search 
of  a  livelihood,  and  perhaps  to  contract  his  services  for  long 
periods  to  foreign  employers  ^.  The  husband  endeavoured 
to  make  ample  provision  for  his  wife's  maintenance  during 
his  absence  *,  or,  if  he  failed  to  do  so,  the  wife  was  supported 
at  the  public  cost,  and  the  husband  compelled  to  refund 
the  sums  so  expended^.  These  absences  grew  to  such 
abnormal  lengths  that  in  the  twelfth  century  it  became 
necessary  to  protect  the  wife  by  limiting  the  absence  to 
eighteen  months,  an  interval  which  was  only  permitted 
to  husbands  who  had  obtained  the  formal  sanction  of  the 
communal  authorities.  On  his  return  the  husband  was 
compelled  to  remain  at  least  six  months  with  his  family 
before  again  starting  on  his  involuntary  travels.  During 
the  first  year  of  marriage  it  became  a  well-established  rule 

^  Responsa,  Tashbats,  ii.  20. 

^  Responsa^  ed.  Cremona,  291, 

^  He  was  even  forced  by  Jewish  law  to  do  this,  if  no  other  means  of 
living  were  procurable.     See  Responsa  of  Geonim,  Muller,  Mafteach,  285. 

*  Thus  we  read  of  a  husband  who  left  a  house  in  his  wife's  possession, 
the  rent  of  which  sufficed  for  her  support  (^Maimonides,  Responsa,  §  115). 

^  Mafteach,  p.  90. 


90  Social  Morality. 

of  conduct  that  the  husband  was  not  to  leave  home  on 
any  considerable  journey  ^  A  curious  corollary  of  these 
enforced  absences  must  not  pass  unnoticed.  A  husband  on 
leaving  home  would  hand  to  his  wife  a  conditional  divorce, 
which  would  only  take  effect  if  he  failed  to  reappear  within 
a  certain  term.  This  measure  was  really  dictated  by 
affection,  for  though  it  is  a  common  libel  to  assert  that  the 
Jewish  laws  of  marriage  and  divorce  were  all  too  elastic, 
yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Jewish  courts  of  justice  were 
very  loath  to  admit  any  but  ocular  testimony  of  a  husband's 
death.  Hence,  the  conditional  divorce  preserved  the  wife  \ 
from  the  lamentable  position  of  being  neither  maid,  nor  ) 
wife,  nor  widow.  An  even  more  considerate  step  was  the 
presentation  of  an  imperfect  divorce,  designed  to  protect 
the  wife  against  the  persecution  of  rapacious  representatives 
of  Government  during  her  husband's  absence.  She  would 
be  liable  to  imposts  which  she  had  no  means  of  paying, 
and  the  production  of  the  imperfect  divorce  would  often 
be  accepted  as  proof  that  she  had  no  responsibility^ — 
a  subterfuge,  no  doubt,  but  no  one  will  very  strongly 
condemn  the  device  who  recalls  what  pitiful  extortions 
were  perpetrated  against  the  families  of  absent  Jews  by  the 
medieval  Jacks  in  office. 

The  early  age  at  which  marriages  occurred^  must  have 
been  partly  responsible  for  the  chastity  of  Jews  in  the 
middle  ages.  In  Jerusalem,  in  particular,  no  man  over 
twenty  and  under  sixty  was  allowed  to  reside  without  a 
wife.  A  young  girl  was  not  married  to  an  old  husband — 
a  Talmudic  precaution  which  unfortunately  has  not  been 

^  See,  for  instance,  "prnn  "r,  §  549.     Cf.  Deut.  xxiv.  5. 
^  Cf.  Responsa  of  Geonim,  ed.  Harkavy,  p.  173. 
^  See  ch.  ix.  below. 


Married  Rabbis.  91 

always  adhered  to  by  Jews  in  modern  times  ^  So  delicate 
was  the  feeling  on  the  inviolability  of  marital  fidelity  that 
a  husband  who  suspected  his  wife's  chastity  was  not  allowed 
to  live  with  her.  Yet  some  of  the  language  used  in  medi- 
eval Jewish  books  regarding  the  temptations  of  unmarried 
men,  implies  that  the  vices  of  to-day  were,  in  varying  degrees, 
the  vices  of  all  times  and  all  peoples.  But  it  has  to  be 
remembered  that  the  unmarried  men  formed  a  very  small 
minority.  Even  the  young  students  at  the  Talmud  schools 
were  often  married,  and  no  breath  of  suspicion  ever  hovered 
round  them.  The  fact  that  the  rabbi,  unlike  the  priest, 
was  not  only  permissibly  married,  but  was  expected  and 
even  compelled  to  take  a  wife,  worked  powerfully  towards 
the  elevation  of  the  married  state.  There  was  one  class 
only  against  which  suspicion  pointed  its  finger — the  Chazan 
or  Precentor,  an  official  who  was  more  musician  than  minister, 
and  who  shared  some  of  the  frailties  apparently  associated 
with  the  artistic  disposition.  Yet  the  comparative  frequency 
with  which  the  chazan  was  suspected  of  unchastity  must 
not  lead  us  to  the  supposition  that  the  whole  order  was 
tainted  with  the  same  vice.  Learned  precentors,  chazanim 
noted  for  the  piety  and  purity  of  their  lives,  abound  in  medi- 
eval records.  If  public  opinion  was  occasionally  a  little 
lax  in  condoning  the  offences  of  the  chazan,  the  utmost 
severity  was  shown  in  the  popular  judgements  on  other 
officiants.  Thus,  an  unchaste  or  unmarried  Cohen — reputed 
descendant  of  Aaron — was  not  permitted  to  pronounce  the 
priestly  benediction  in  synagogue. 

The  separation  of  the  sexes  in  their  amusements  and  the 

^  Naturally,  such  a  union  was  allowed  in  ancient  times  if  the  girl  were 
strongly  desirous  of  it.  Cf.  Aboth  de  R.  Nathan,  ch.  xvi,  and  the  interesting 
discussion  in  Chayim  Azulai's  bsiu  D'-'n  n"iTr,  74. 


92  Social  Morality. 

resulting  denial  of  opportunities  for  flirtation  were,  as  we 
shall  see  in  a  later  chapter,  not  accepted  without  very 
practical  protest.  Strangely  enough,  the  more  nearly  we 
approach  modern  times,  the  less  effective  became  the  protest, 
the  more  rigid  the  barrier  erected  against  the  free  intercourse 
of  men  and  women  in  Jewish  life.  Embracing  and  kissing 
were  forbidden  even  to  betrothed  couples  in  the  eighteenth 
century^.  During  that  same  century  in  Rome  no  Jewess 
walked  abroad  without  a  girl  comrade ;  love-making  was 
by  the  billet-doux,  not  by  direct  verbal  address.  In  1697 
the  Jewesses  of  Metz  were  forbidden  to  appear  in  synagogue 
unveiled  ^,  and  half  a  century  later  the  rabbis  of  Amsterdam 
attempted  to  prevent  betrothed  girls  from  appearing  in 
public  with  uncovered  faces  ^.  All  this  is  the  more  remark- 
able, seeing  that  in  Oriental  lands,  where  veils  were  always 
de  riguetir,  there  are  many  indications  that  Jewesses  were  by 
no  means  so  punctilious  as  their  Mohammedan  sisters  with 
regard  to  concealing  their  features.  In  Europe,  however, 
this  prudery  of  the  Jews  was  so  well  understood  that 
advantage  was  sometimes  taken  of  it  in  a  very  amusing 
way*.  In  the  seventeenth  century  a  Jew,  Reuben,  allowed 
Simeon's  wife  to  describe  herself  momentarily  as  his  own 
spouse,  to  enable  her  to  cross  the  frontier.  Mrs.  Simeon  had 
no  passport,  but  Reuben's  passport  was  made  out  for  him- 
self and  wife,  though,  as  it  happened,  he  was  travelling 
alone.  The  frontier  official  had  his  suspicions.  '  If  she  is 
your  wife,'  he  said  to  Reuben,  '  then  kiss  her!     Of  course 


*  Landsofer,  '^(^^■^  b'ST),  §  19. 

2  Annuaire  de  la  Soc.  des  Etudes  Juives,  1881,  p.  112. 
2  R.  Meldola,  Cii  D''D  n"iTr,  iii.  28. 

*  The  author  of  My  Official  Wife  will  thus  find  that  a  leading  incident 
in  his  novel  had  been  anticipated  in  fact. 


The  Jewish  Badge,  93 

this  test  was  rejected,  and  the  deception  was  detected  ^.  To 
go  back  several  centuries,  in  travelHng,  indeed,  some  licence 
was  permitted  to  prevent  unpleasant  consequences,  Jewish 
women  were  allowed,  in  defiance  of  Scripture  ^,  to  dress  as 
men  to  escape  molestation,  and  the  men  were  allowed  to 
dress  as  Christians,  even  wearing  the  distinctive  garb  of 
clerics.  The  civil  law  also  came  to  the  assistance  of  the 
JewS;,  and  the  regulations  concerning  the  wearing  of  badges 
were  relaxed  in  the  case  of  travellers  who  discarded  the 
obnoxious  mark  on  their  journeys.  But  the  Jewish  wayfarer 
was  not  allowed  a  long  immunity.  Wherever  he  stayed  one 
night  he  was  forced  to  declare  himself  and  resume  his  tell- 
tale badge. 

Has  this  device — the  badge — any  tale  to  tell  on  the  subject 
of  Jewish  social  morality?  In  the  late  middle  ages  it  was 
asserted  that  Jews  were  forced  to  brand  themselves  on  their 
attire  in  order  to  diminish  the  alleged  offences  between  Jews 
and  Christian  women.  There  is  no  indication  in  Jewish 
authorities  that  these  alleged  offences  actually  occurred 
except  in  Italy,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  original 
institution  of  the  badge  the  reasons  assigned  express  a  fear 
lest  the  free  intercourse  of  Jews  and  Christians  might  lead 
to  intermarriage  and  conversion  to  Judaism,  as  well  as  to 
the  commission  of  sexual  offences.  Prostitution  was  an  un- 
known feature  in  Jewish  life  until  quite  recent  times,  and 
the  evidence  of  the  Church  canons  proves  most  conclusively 
that  the  restrictions  of  the  Church  were  aimed  less  against 
Jewish  than  against  Christian  offenders.  It  must  suffice 
to  record  the  facts.  A  large  number  of  regulations  were 
published  forbidding  Christian  women,  on  pain  of  severe 
penalties,  sometimes  on  pain  of  death,  from  entering  the 

^  J.  C.  Bacharach,  Responsa,  §  182.  ^  Deut.  xxii.  5. 


94  Social  Morality. 

Jewries  without  companions ;  while  there  were  a  smaller 
number  of  rules  forbidding  Jews  to  visit  the  houses  of 
Christian  women  in  the  absence  of  their  husbands,  unless 
the  Jews  w^ere  attended  by  two  Christian  men  or  women, 
except  '  physicians,  surgeons,  apothecaries,  and  mechanics  ^.' 
It  is  certainly  false  to  assume  that  Jews  felt  less  scruple 
in  violating  the  laws  of  chastity  where  women  of  another 
creed  were  concerned,  but  undoubtedly  the  opportunity  and 
the  temptation  was  greater^.  Yet  so  was  also  the  danger. 
Death  was  the  penalty  for  such  an  offence  ^  On  the  other 
hand  we  read  of  Jewesses  who  disguised  themselves  as  men 
in  order  to  secure  their  honour  against  ill-disposed  non-Jews 
who  were  travelling  with  them*.  When  such  offences 
between  Jews  and  Christians  were  found  to  prevail  to  any 
large  extent,  they  were  rigorously  suppressed  by  the  Jewish 
authorities,  who  exercised  their  full  powers  to  purify  their 
community^.  The  Jews  received  very  scant  justice  from 
the  medieval  governments  on  this  question.  At  one  place 
the  law  excluded  Jews  from  the  houses  of  ill-fame  ^ ;   at 

^  This  was  in  1438.  See  Lindo,  Spain,  p.  315  ;  but  several  similar  entries 
are  found  in  earlier  parts  of  that  book. 

*  One  hardly  knows  what  inference  to  draw  from  Alami's  caution  on  this 
subject  to  his  son  (-^cio  m^N,  ed.  Jellinek,  p.  17). 

3  The  same  dread  penalty  was  inflicted  on  a  Christian  who  offended  with 
a  Jewess.     Cf.  Lecky,  Rationalism,  ii.  p.  2.  *  Dn'cn  iec,  §  200. 

5  Cf  the  healthy  indignation  of  the  Jewish  communal  law  (1413)  against 
those  Italian  Jews  who,  sharing  the  lax  morality  of  their  day,  held  cc^n 
crr";-^!  mn.-no  mnsin  {Graetz  Jubelschrift,  p.  60,  Heb.  section).  Solomon  Ibn 
Parchon  (twelfth  century)  refers  to  the  same  subject  (s.  v.  bra  cf.  Bacher, 
Stade's  Zeiischrifl,  x.  p.  143).  The  Talmud  was  very  severe  against  the  same 
offence,  Synhedrin,  82  a,  on  the  basis  of  various  Biblical  texts.  For  rare 
cases  of  such  offences,  cf.  the  incident  of  the  burning  alive  of  a  Jew  in 
Majorca  in  1381  {Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  iv.  37),  and  with  regard  to  the 
thirteenth  century  in  Angers,  L.  Brunschvicg,  Les  Juifs  d^ Angers,  pp.  14,  15; 
for  eighteenth  century,  L.  Kahn,  Juifs  de  Paris,  pp.  49,  50. 

*  Sabatier,  Histoire  de  la  Legislation  sur  les  femmes  publiques,  p.  103,  cites 


Female  Slaves. 


95 


another  place  the  brothels  would  be  placed  in  the  Jewish 
quarter,  to  be  occasionally  withdrawn  as  the  result  of  the 
angry  Jewish  protest  against  the  presence  of  an  institution 
so  foreign  to  Jewish  ideals  \  Offences  between  Jewish  masters 
and  their  female  slaves  did  occur  '^,  but  the  penalty  exacted 
by  the  Jewish  authorities  was  a  severe  one.  The  slave  was 
taken  from  her  owner,  she  was  sold,  and  her  price  was 
distributed  among  the  poor.  Then  the  offender  was  flogged, 
his  head  was  shaved,  and  he  was  excommunicated  for  thirty 
days  ^  Or  the  owner,  to  escape  the  penalty  of  his  crime, 
voluntarily  gave  his  slave  her  liberty  and  recognized  her  son 
as  his  legitimate  offspring. 

a  statute  to  this  effect  passed  in  Avignon  in  1347.  Mr.  Lecky  (loc,  cit.) 
defends  the  authenticity  of  this  statute. 

^  Cf.  Stobbe,  Die  Juden  in  Dentschland,  p.  94,  for  an  instance  in  the  four- 
teenth century. 

2  Responsa  of  Geonim,  pi:?  nyu?,  §  38,  15.  ^  Ibid.  §  13. 


CHAPTER   VI. 


THE     SLAVE    TRADE. 


The  real  blot  on  the  social  morality  of  the  middle  ages 
lies  in  the  attitude  both  of  Church  and  Synagogue  towards 
slavery.  The  holding  of  slaves  and  the  trade  in  them,  nay, 
the  direct  enslavement  of  captives,  were  not  made  unlawful 
by  the  Church  until  the  thirteenth  century^.  Jews  had 
ceased  to  enslave  Jews  long  before  the  Christian  era  ^,  and 
the  notion  of  selling  Jews  to  foreigners  was  hateful  to  the 
national  sentiment  of  Judea.  King  Herod  greatly  outraged 
public  opinion  by  transporting  housebreakers  and  selling 
them  to  foreign  masters,  'which  punishment,'  says  Josephus^, 
'was  not  only  grievous  to  be  borne  by  the  offenders,  but 
contained  in  it  an  infringement  of  the  customs  of  our  fathers.' 
The  ransoming  of  slaves  early  became  a  primary  duty  of 
Jewish  congregations*,  and  as  late  as  the  present  century 
societies  for  the  freeing  of  slaves  were  dotted  over  the 
southern  shores  of  Europe  and  the  northern  coast  of  Africa. 
Though,  however,  the  holding  of  Jewish  slaves  was  illegal 

^  Biot,  U Abolition  de  V Esdavage^  p.  233. 

^  Maimonides,  Abadim,  i.  lo.     Cf.  Ingram,  History  of  Slavery^  p.  267. 

'  Antiq.,  XVI.  i.  I. 

*  Babylonian  Talmud,  Baba  Bathra,  f.  8.    Cf.  ch.  xviii.  below. 


The  Church  and  Slavery.  97 

in  Jewish  custom  ^  the  Jews  borrowed  from  the  Moham- 
medans a  species  of  service  which  was  not  distinguishable 
in  kind  from  slavery.  The  servant  was  the  hereditary 
possession  of  the  family,  yet  was  in  many  respects  treated 
as  a  member  of  it.  A  similar  remark  applies  to  the  Christian 
slaves  held  by  Jews.  A  great  Jewish  authority  of  the 
eleventh  century  indeed  advised  his  brethren  to  avoid  the 
holding  of  slaves  altogether.  The  members  of  the  house- 
hold should  be  trained  to  do  the  necessary  domestic 
service  themselves^.  In  theory  the  Jew  had  no  compunc- 
tion with  regard  to  holding  slaves  ;  in  practice  the  slave 
of  the  Jew  became  bound  to  his  owner  by  the  ties  of 
affection  and  mutual  consideration  ^.  Neither  Jew  nor 
Christian  looked  with  equanimity  on  the  enslavement  of  mem- 
bers of  his  own  religious  sect,  but  neither  raised  any  protest 
against  the  sin  which  slavery  commits  against  the  rights  of 
man  *.  The  lands  of  the  Church  itself  were  worked  by  slaves 
in  the  middle  ages  ^.  In  the  time  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Great, 
the  attack  on  Jewish  slave-holders  begins  to  grow  strong. 
Pope  Gregory  does  not  complain  that  Jews  hold  slaves,  but 
that  they  hold  Christian  slaves.  '  Quid  enim  sunt  Chris- 
tiani  omnes  nisi  membra  Christi?'  asks  Gregory^,  and  he 
continues :  '  atque  ideo  petimus  .  .  .  quod  fideles  illius  ab 
inimicis  eius  absolvitis.''  In  another  place  Gregory's  fear 
of  conversion  to  Judaism  is  the  reason  he  gives  for  objecting 
to  the  holding  of  slaves  by  Jews  "^  :   ''  Opportebat  quippe  te 

^  Shulchan  Aruch,  Yore  Deah,  267,  §  14. 

2  Responsa  of  R.  MeshuUam  (ed.  J.  Miiller),  p.  5  and  p.  12,  note  21. 
^  Cf.  chap.  viii.  below. 

*  The    finest   passage   on    this    subject   is   still   Job   xxxi ;    Maimonides, 
H.  Abadim,  ix,  8,  insists  on  kindness  to  slaves  on  similar  grounds. 
^  Hatch,  Bampton  Lectures,  p.  46. 

®  Letters,  ix.  109.  '  Letters,  iv.  21. 

H 


98  The  Slave   Trade. 

respectu  loci  tui  atque  Christianae  religionis  nullam  relin- 
quere  occasionem  ut  superstitione  ludaicae  simplices  animae 
non  tarn  suasionibus  quam  potestatis  iure  quodam  modo 
deservirent.'  Pope  Gelasius  formally  allowed  Jews  to 
introduce  into  Italy  slaves  from  Gaul  ^,  provided  that 
the  imported  victims  were  heathens  and  not  Christians. 
Obviously^  by  attempting  to  suppress  only  one  phase  of  the 
trade^  the  Church  left  a  wide  loophole  for  the  trade  also  in 
Christians.  It  is  abundantly  clear  that  in  the  early  middle 
ages  there  was  no  antipathy  to  slavery  based  on  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  man. 

The  connexion  of  the  Jews  with  this  hideous  traffic  must 
be  told  in  brief  outline.  In  the  sixth  century  Italy  was  the 
scene  of  barbarian  invasions,  which  rendered  the  slave  trade 
at  once  possible  and  profitable.  The  prisoners  furnished 
the  means,  the  desolate  fields  and  depopulated  country 
formed  the  need.  And  here  is  a  point  to  which  attention 
has  not  yet^  to  my  knowledge,  been  directed.  So  far  as 
the  Jews  are  concerned^  Christian  Europe  distinguished 
between  slave-holding  and  slave-dealing  by  Jews  ;  it  sup- 
pressed the  former,  but  did  not  set  its  face  against  the  latter. 
Charlemagne  in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  readily 
allowed  the  Jews  to  act  as  intermediaries  in  the  detestable 
trade  in  human  life  ^.  Later  on,  in  the  tenth  century,  the 
Spanish  Jews  often  owed  their  wealth  to  their  trade  in 
Slavonian  slaves,  whom  the  Caliphs  of  Andalusia  purchased 
to  form  their  bodyguards  ^.  In  Bohemia  the  Jews  there  pur- 
chased these  Slavonian  slaves  for  exportation  to  Spain  and 
the  west  of  Europe,  where  they  often  fell  into  the  kindly 


*  Graetz,  III.  ch.  ii.  ^  Ibid.  ch.  v. 

"  Ibid.  ch.  vii. 


Jezvish  Slave  Dealers.  99 

hands  of  Mohammedan  masters  ^.  The  Church  stirred  itself 
vigorously  to  buy  or  confiscate  these  slaves  from  the  Jewish 
dealers,  but  the  aristocracy  connived  at  and  profited  by  the 
trade.  William  the  Conqueror  is  reported  to  have  brought 
Gallo-Jewish  slave-dealers  with  him  from  Rouen.  There 
was  good  reason  for  the  solicitude  of  the  Church  and  for  its 
desire  to  prevent  Jews  from  retaining  Christian  slaves  in 
their  houses.  The  Talmud  and  all  later  Jewish  codes 
forbade  a  Jew  from  retaining  in  his  home  a  slave  who  was 
uncircumcised. 

On  the  other  hand^  such  slaves  were  only  rarely 
converted  to  Judaism.  No  doubt  they  often  drifted  into 
conformity  with  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  their  masters^ 
but  the  chief  thing  that  was  expected  of  the  slave 
was  to  abstain  from  work  on  Saturdays.  The  Jewish 
owner,  in  fact,  was  forbidden  to  derive  any  profit  from 
his  slave's  disobedience  to  the  Law  of  Moses.  Further, 
since  no  Jew  might  drink  wine  touched  by  an  uncircumcised 
person,  it  was  obvious  that  a  slave  who  had  not  undergone 
this  rite  was  a  useless  incumbrance.  But  the  rite  w^as  never 
forced  on  the  slave  up  to  the  tenth  century ;  curiously 
enough,  the  tendency  to  enforce  it  grows  with  the  middle 
ages,  and  we  find  the  curious  anomaly  that  the  sixteenth 
century  finds  Jews  more  resolute  in  this  matter  than  the 
tenth  century  found  them  ^.  Certainly  in  the  tenth  century 
any  Christian  slave  could  refuse  to  be  circumcised,  and  in 
that  case  his  master  w^as  unable  to  retain  him.     With  the 


^  The  mildness  of  the  slavery  pi^,,.'  nt  under  Mohammedans  is  well 
know^n.     See  Ingram,  History  of  Slavery,  p.  221. 

2  Contrast  the  very  interesting  statements  in  the  Responsa  of  the  Geonim. 
pi:?  "'^r"0,  p.  23  a  onwards,  with  the  Shulchan  Aruch,  Yore  Deah,  261, 
especially  the  superscription. 

U  2 


loo  The  Slave   Trade. 

female  slave,  however,  conversion  to  Judaism  was  much 
more  frequent  and  natural.  I  must  find  room  for  one  quota- 
tion from  a  Jewish  authority^  of  the  early  part  of  the 
eleventh  century :  '  In  certain  places,'  he  says,  '  there  are 
only  Egyptian^  female  slaves  in  the  market,  and  the  non-Jews 
permit  the  Jews,  as  in  Babylon,  to  buy  these  and  no  others. 
Some  of  them  become  Jewesses  at  once,  some  after  an 
interval,  some  refuse  altogether  to  be  converted.  The  Jews 
have  great  need  of  their  services  in  these  places,  otherwise 
their  own  sons  and  daughters  would  be  compelled  to  carry 
the  water  on  their  shoulders  from  the  springs,  and  go  to  the 
ovens  with  the  non-Jewish  maid-servants,  who  are  of  low 
character,  and  thus  the  daughters  of  Israel  might  fall  into 
disrepute  and  danger.  In  such  cases  Jews  may  retain  in 
their  services  female  slaves  without  converting  them,  but 
they  must  not  allow  them  to  do  any  manner  of  work  on  the 
Sabbath.  In  places  where  Jews  are  afraid  lest  their  slaves 
should  reveal  secrets  and  turn  informers  to  the  prejudice  of 
their  masters,  who,  for  this  reason,  abstain  from  converting 
them  —  such  slaves  must  not  be  retained.'  It  will  be 
obser\^ed  that  while  an  infringement  of  the  Jewish  law 
was  allowed  in  order  to  preserve  the  morality  of  Jewish 
women,  no  such  infringement  was  allowed  in  order  to  serve 
the  convenience  of  Jewish  men.  And,  out  of  the  mass  of 
Church  laws  and  Jewish  records  on  the  subject,  one  fact 
emerges  prominently.  The  Jewish  owners  of  slaves  were 
mild  and  affectionate  masters.  A  Jewish  owner  would 
not  sell  his  slave  to  a  harsh  master  ^.    Slaves  entreated  their 

^  Hai  Gaon.     For  reference,  see  previous  note. 

^  This  seems  a  mistake  for  Christian ;  the  words  ni'13  and  n!?0  being 
confused.  It  would  appear  that  in  Mohammedan  countries  Jews  were 
only  allowed  to  own  Christian  slaves.  ^  C'T'Cn  -\£r,  §  668. 


The  Treatment  of  Slaves.  loi 

masters  to  admit  them  to  Judaism,  because  they  knew  that 
they  would  never  again  pass  out  of  Jewish  hands  ^.  Their 
masters  treated  their  converted  slaves,  especially  those 
acquired  when  young,  as  their  own  children,  educated  them, 
often  freed  them^  took  the  same  concern  in  marrying  them 
as  they  did  where  their  own  children  were  concerned^  and 
the  slave  would  mourn  for  his  former  master  as  for  a  father  ^. 
In  later  centuries,  when  in  Mohammedan  lands  slave-owning 
was  not  illegal,  one  of  the  last  acts  of  the  dying  Jew  was 
frequently  the  manumission  of  his  slaves.  Sometimes  the 
slave  was  left  by  will  as  a  life-servant  of  the  widow,  and 
became  free  on  the  death  of  the  latter^.  Any  slave  who 
escaped  to  the  Holy  Land  became,  from  very  early  times, 
eo  ipso  a  free  man  *.  A  non- Jewish  slave  who  was  seriously 
injured  by  his  master  ceased  to  belong  to  the  latter^. 
'Mercy  is  the  mark  of  piety,'  says  the  Shulchan  Aruch^, 
quoting  the  language  of  far  earlier  authorities,  ^  and  no  man 
may  load  his  slave  with  a  grievous  yoke.  No  non-Jewish 
slave  may  be  oppressed;  he  must  receive  a  portion  from 
every  dainty  that  his  master  eats ;  he  must  be  degraded 
neither  by  word  nor  act ;  he  must  not  be  bullied  nor  scorn- 
fully entreated  ;  but  must  be  addressed  gently,  and  his  reply 
heard  with  courtesy.' 

I  have  given  prominence  to  these  considerations  on  the 
moral  attitude  towards  women  and  on  the  state  of  feeling 
regarding  the  rights  of  man,  because  these  constitute  the 
essence  of  the  social  ethics  of  any  age.  But  there  are  many 
other  points  which  go  to  make  up  our  estimate  of  character. 

^    p-IS   nrM',   §   19. 

2  Cf.  Respottsuy  cnE«  -ir\r,  §  91.  ^  Responsa,  icn  min,  §  45. 

*  Responsa  of  Geonim,  pi!?  nrtD,  §  12. 

^  Shulchan  Aruch,  Yore  Deah,  267,  §  27. 

®  Ibid.  §  17.     Cf.  Maimonides,  H.  Abadim,  ix.  8. 


I02  77?^  Slave   Trade, 

Often,  indeed,  these  more  superficial  features  are  so  pointed 
that  popular  judgement   relies  entirely  on  them.     I  have 
pointed  out  above  that  the  Jews  are  nowhere  charged  with 
serious  crimes.    There  is  both  negative  and  positive  evidence 
that  murder,  theft^  rape,  false  swearing,  are  offences  from 
which  Jews  were  singularly  free.     Charges  of  ritual  murder 
were   occasionally  raised,  but   these  were   never   seriously 
believed  by  the  popes  or  the  educated  classes  ^.     Of  course, 
on  the  theory  that  the  unknown  is  the  monstrous — and  the 
Jews  were  always  an  unknown  quantity  in  Europe — the  Jews 
of  the  middle  ages   were  pronounced  tricky,  vain,   proud, 
ostentatious,  luxurious.     Their  wealth,  in  the  literal  sense 
of  the  word,  was  fabulous.     They  refused  to  have  intercourse 
with  Christians.    Their  women  were  sorceresses.    But  amidst 
these  prejudices,  specific   and   provable   offences   are   con- 
spicuously absent.      Charges  of  forgery  were  very  rare^, 
and  in  Spain,  at  least,  the  more  disreputable  abuses  con- 
nected with  usury  were  sometimes  the  result  of  the  impor- 
tunate solicitations  of  the  Hidalgos.     Temptations  do  not 
seem  to  have  been  placed  in  the  way  of  the  nobility  by 
Jewish  money-lenders  of  the  middle  ages  ^,  whatever  may 
be  the  case  as  regards  the  Jewish  money-lenders  of  to-day. 
Italian  Christians,  indeed,  forbidden  by  the  Church  to  lend 
money  at  interest,  tempted  the  Jews  to  act  as  intermediaries 
and  to  become  their  agents  *.     So  little  was  dishonesty  the 
reputed  vice  of  Jews  that  we  find  them  constantly  employed 

'  Cf.  Strack,  Der  Blutaberglaube,p.  144  seq.  (fourth  edition,  1892). 

2  Mr.  Jacobs,  in   The  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  only  records  one  case 

(P-  175). 

^  Lindo,  Spain,  pp.  135,  179.  On  the  other  hand,  Jews  were  forbidden 
to  lend  money  in  Spain  to  university  students  (Jacobs,  Spain,  p.  xxv),  a 
regulation  which  has  an  ugly  look. 

*  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  66. 


Temperance  of  Jews.  103 

in  financial  offices,  partly,  no  doubt,  because  of  their  talents 
for  such  posts,  but  also  because  of  their  superior  trust- 
worthiness ^  There  is  a  curious  sub-current  of  evidence, 
moreover^  that  Jews  were  less  exacting  even  in  their  usurious 
demands  than  were  others  who  carried  on  similar  trades^. 
A  further  indication  that  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  do  not 
deserve  the  odious  reputation  of  pandering  to  other  people's 
vices  is  supplied  by  their  attitude  towards  another  social 
virtue — temperance.  In  Europe  the  Jews  have  always  been 
noted  for  their  moderation  in  drinking  intoxicants.  Drunken- 
ness was  licensed,  so  to  speak,  on  Purim,  and  less  markedly 
on  the  Rejoicing  of  the  Law  ^,  while  on  the  eve  of  the  Day 
of  Atonement  too  much  alcohol  was  sometimes  taken  to 
fortify  the  body  for  the  ordeal  of  the  fast^.  Drunkenness 
on  the  Sabbath  was  an  occasional  failing  of  the  Jews  in  later 
centuries  ^,  but  it  was  easily  suppressed  by  Jewish  authorities, 
one  of  whom  quaintly  complains  that  his  brethren  drank 
better  wine  on  Sundays  than  on  Saturdays^.  In  Moham- 
medan countries  there  is  another  tale  to  tell,  for  there  the 
Jews  have,  in  modern  times  at  least,  won  an  unworthy 
notoriety  for  intemperate  habits.  But  the  point  to  which 
I  wish  to  call  attention  is  this :  though  the  Jews  enjoyed 
the  right  to  sell  wine  in  Mohammedan  towns  '^,  they  often 
refused  to  sell  wine  to  Mohammedans^,  to  whom  wine  is 
a  forbidden  pleasure. 

^  Cf.  Lindo,  p.  178, 

2  Cf.  among  several  authorities,  Histotre  de  la  Ville  cCAlais  (Nimes,  1894), 
p.  89;  Gudemann,  i.  31;  ii.  246-8;  iii.  188-191.  The  Caursini  were  pro- 
nounced far  more  extortionate  than  their  Jewish  financial  rivals  (Mathew 
Paris,  Chronica  Majora^  anno  1253;   ed,  Luard,  v.  404).     Cf.  ch.  xii.  below. 

2  See  ch,  xix.  below. 

*  Maharil,  ed.  Warsaw  (1874),  p.  45. 

'  E.  g.  Yosef  Omez,  §  630.  ^  Ibid.  §  693. 

'  Schudt,  Merkwiirdigkeiten,  i.  204.  ^   Tashbats,  ii.  §  139. 


104  The  Slave   Trade. 

On  two  charges  brought  against  the  Jews  of  the  middle 
ages  there  is  some  evidence  ;  these  were  clipping  the  coinage 
and  receiving  stolen  goods.  The  charge  of  fraudulently- 
manipulating  the  coinage  is  too  well  attested  for  me  to  deny 
or  palliate  it.  Occasionally  we  find  Jew  accusing  Jew. 
Though  the  penalty  for  the  crime  was  death  or  mutilation  in 
England,  we  find  a  Jew  in  1205  denouncing  a  co-religionist 
as  guilty  of  '  falsifying  the  King's  money  ^.'  The  Jews, 
moreover,  were  not  the  only  offenders.  In  1125,  ^i"^? 
Henry  sent  orders  from  Normandy  that  all  the  English 
moneyers  should  be  mutilated,  and  this  was  done  '  with 
great  justice,  because  they  had  foredone  the  land  with  their 
great  quantity  of  false  money.'  The  Jews  were,  in  this  in- 
stance, not  named  as  the  offenders  at  all.  A  German  satirist 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  Hugo  of  Trimberg,  laments  the 
debased  condition  of  the  coinage,  but  does  not  name  the 
Jews  as  the  offenders.  A  Jewish  rabbi  of  the  same  century 
utters  his  complaint  of  the  same  abuse ;  he  asserts  that  in 
his  day  all  the  so-called  silver  coins  were  copper,  but  he 
does  not  hint  at  the  culpability  of  his  own  brethren  ^.  The 
threat  of  excommunication  was  held  over  any  Israelite  who 
used  counterfeit  coins,  even  in  the  days  when  a  debased 
coinage  was  everywhere  common  ^,  and  there  is  a  true 
ring  of  moral  indignation  in  the  language  used  by  Jewish 
medieval  rabbis  on  the  subject  *.  '  What !  make  a  com- 
^.  munal  regulation  against  the  use  of  false  coins  ?  You  must 
rXbe  a  scoundrel  indeed  to  need  such  a  regulation  to  keep  you 
^     honest.' 

'  Jacobs,  Angevin  England,  p.  233. 

*  Giidemann,  iii.  190. 

'  See.  e.  g.  S.  de  Modena,  Responsa,  i.  124. 

*  Solomon  Hak-kohen,  Responsa,  iii.  108.     Against  the  use  of  light  coins, 
of.  Responsa  of  Geonim,  Mafteach,  p.  99. 


Clipping  the  Coinage.  105 

Similar  remarks  apply  to  receiving  and  purchasing  stolen 
goods.  The  Jewish  moral  code  condemned  these  offences ; 
the  Jew  in  practice  occasionally  committed  them.  'Not 
the  mouse,  but  the  hole  is  the  thief/  says  a  Talmudic 
proverb  \  and  it  needed  some  centuries  of  restriction  to  retail 
trade  to  foster  in  a  Jew  here  and  there  the  meanness  which 
lets  I  dare  not  wait  upon  I  would.  The  Jewish  record  is 
by  no  means  black  even  on  this  black  subject.  The  law 
in  the  twelfth  century  seems  to  have  permitted  German 
Jews  to  take  stolen  goods  in  pledge,  but  the  Jewish  authori- 
ties indignantly  repudiated  the  privilege^.  Casting  our 
glance  over  Asia,  our  eyes  fall  upon  a  strange  practice  of 
the  Jews  in  Persia.  They  bought  stolen  goods  in  the  tenth 
century— with  the  object  of  returning  the  articles  to  their 
real  owners  '^  The  gravamen  of  the  charge  against  the  Jews 
in  Europe  was  that  they  took  in  pledge  sacred  vestments 
and  blood-stained  garments — two  classes  of  pledge  which 
were  frequently  forbidden  by  statute*.  The  law  showed 
no  disposition  to  protect  its  subjects  by  making  the 
reception  of  stolen  goods  in  general  either  difficult  or 
dangerous. 

Contempt  for  the  goy  ^  created  in  the  lower  minds  among 
the  Jews  the  feeling  that  a  Christian  or  Mohammedan  was 
fair  game  for  commercial  '  cuteness.'  There  is  no  note  of 
this  in  Italy,  where  the  Jews  were  neither  the  only  nor 
the  most  prominent  representatives  of  trade.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  inquire  how  far  the  characteristics  ascribed 
to  Jews  in  the  middle  ages  are  simply  the  characteristics  of 

*  Gittin,  45.  -  ZOpfl,  iii.  205;  Giidemann,  i.  262.  ^  Mafteach,  197. 

*  The  reception  of  such  pledges  by  Jews  was  also  forbidden  by 
R.  Gershom,  Cf.  nncn  '•nnD  to  Choshen  Mishpat,  §  356,  n.  1.  Jacobs, 
Angevin  England,  p.  331. 

^  Non-Jew. 


io6  The  Slave   Trade. 

the  commercial  mind  as  viewed  by  non-trading  observers. 
I  have  just  spoken  of  the  demoraHzation  of  the  lower 
Jewish  mind.  Is  it  not  a  remarkable  phenomenon  that 
never  was  the  average  Jewish  mind  morally  higher  than  in 
the  centuries  during  which  persecution  was  most  grinding  ? 
When  the  Jews  were  the  recipients  of  the  most  cruel  treat- 
ment, when  they  were  glad  to  be  received  with  a  sneer 
because  a  gibe  is  more  friendly  than  a  frown — they  were 
more  convinced  than  ever  that  to  cheat  a  non-Jew  was  a 
double  crime :  it  was  an  act  of  robbery,  and  it  involved 
a  profanation  of  God's  holiness.  If  preferential  treatment 
was  shown  by  Jews,  it  was  against  Jews  and  not  in  their 
favour.  The  prices  that  they  charged  their  co-religionists 
were  higher  than  the  prices  they  charged  Gentiles^.  That 
it  was  a  greater  offence  against  Judaism  to  cheat  a  Christian 
than  to  cheat  a  Jew  is  the  constant  burden  of  the  Jewish 
moral  books  of  the  middle  ages.  These  books  were  not 
read  by  mere  students^,  they  were  the  food  on  which  the 
ordinary  Jewish  mind  was  nourished,  and  the  maxims 
enunciated  in  them  were  the  most  familiar  of  household 
words.  I  cannot  remember  a  moral  book  of  those  times 
from  which  this  doctrine  is  absent.  'A  Jew  sins  more 
against  God  by  cheating  and  robbing  a  Christian  than 
when  he  cheats  or  robs  a  Jew,  because,  though  both  acts 
are  dishonest  and  criminal,  in  the  case  of  a  Christian  the 
Jew  offends  not  only  against  the  moral  law,  hut  profanes  the 
sacred  name  of  God^/  'Ah!  Ariel,  Ariel!  Shall  men  say 
there  is  no  God  in  Israel  ? '  cries  another  Rabbinical  denun- 
ciant  of  those  who  cheated  Christians  2.     This  was  in  1328. 

^   Tashbats,  iii.  151. 

2  Semak,  85  and  275.     Cf.  Sefer  Chassidim,  §  661. 

^  Gudemann,  ii.  308. 


Jew  and  Gentile.  107 

Equally  stern  were  Jewish  moral  books  against  undetected 
dishonesty.  '  If  a  man  steals  property  and  his  heirs  know- 
ingly share  in  his  offence,  and — because  no  evidence  exists 
of  their  crime — they  and  their  heirs  retain  the  ill-gotten 
possessions,  let  them  beware !  Hell  opens  itself  wide  to 
receive  them  all,  throughout  their  generations^.'  'A  thief 
is  a  thief,  though  he  steal  a  trifle,  be  the  defrauded  person 
Jew  or  be  he  Gentile  ^.'  There  were  lapses  from  this  high 
teachings  but  such  lapses  were  not  condoned.  A  Jew  was 
not  permitted  to  withhold  evidence  against  a  fellow-Jew 
who  was  in  litigation  with  a  Christian  ^ ;  and  well-founded 
as  was  the  antipathy  of  Jews  to  summon  one  another  before 
any  but  their  own  tribunals,  yet  one  of  the  chief  medieval 
formulators  of  Jewish  custom  delivered  up,  of  his  own  initia- 
tive, a  Jew  to  justice  if  he  had  robbed  a  non-Jew*.  In  fact, 
the  authorities  of  the  eighth  to  tenth  centuries  made  it  their 
practice  to  denounce  to  the  Governments  Jews  who  bought 
stolen  goods  ^.  The  tendencies  of  ages  of  Jewish  teach- 
ing are  finally  summed  up  in  the  clear  and  emphatic  pro- 
nouncements in  the  sixteenth  century  code-book,  which  still 
largely  regulates  Jewish  life :  '  It  is  forbidden  to  purchase 
stolen  goods,  for  such  an  act  is  a  great  iniquity.  It 
encourages  crimes  and  causes  dishonesty.  If  there  were 
no  receiver  there  would  be  no  thief .  .  .  Any  article  concern- 
ing which  there  is  even  a  presumption  that  it  is  stolen,  must 
not  be  purchased.  Sheep  from  a  shepherd,  household  goods 
from  servants,  must  not  be  accepted,  for  the  probability  is 
that  the  property  belongs  to  their  masters  ...  It  is  prohibited 
to  rob  or  cheat  any  one,  even  to  the  smallest  extent,  and 

^  Sefer  Chassidim,  ed.  Wistinetzki,  p.  25,  §  21. 

^  Shulchan  Aruch,  n"n.  "^  Ibid.  28,  §  3.  *  Mafteach,  p.  182. 

5  Ibid.,  cf.  also  191. 


io8  The  Slave   Trade. 

the   same   law  applies  to  the   case   of  Jew  and   non-Jew 
alike  ^' 

Evasions  demoralize,  and  in  a  ceremonial  religion,  whose 
followers  have  to  maintain  old  customs  in  new  environments, 
evasions  seem  inevitable.  The  effect  of  this  on  the  Jewish 
character  has  been  a  bad  one  as  far  as  it  has  gone,  but 
in  fact  it  has  not  gone  very  far.  Two  points  only  need 
be  referred  to  here ;  the  first  deals  with  the  absolution 
of  vows.  '  Let  no  oath  rise  to  your  lips ; '  '  hold  thyself 
far  from  vows  and  oaths  ; '  '  swear  not  at  all,'  say  Rabbis 
of  all  centuries  in  the  middle  ages  ^.  Soj  too,  with 
the  Talmud,  on  which  Jewish  custom  in  this  respect  was 
uniformly  based.  '  The  general  principle  is  :  Let  thy  yea 
be  yea,  and  thy  nay  be  nay  (Baba  Mezia^  49  a) ;  and  even 
a  silent  determination  in  the  heart  is  considered  as  the 
spoken  word  which  must  not  be  withdrawn  or  changed 
{Maccoth,  24  a),  for  he  who  changes  his  word  commits  as 
heavy  a  sin  as  he  who  worships  idols  [Sanhedrin,  92  a),  and 
he  who  utters  an  untruth  is  excluded  from  the  divine  presence 
[Sotah,  42  a).  We  can  thus  conceive  with  what  abhorrence 
the  Rabbis  must  have  condemned  every  false  or  vain  oath. 
Indeed,  such  offences  belong  to  the  seven  capital  sins  which 
provoke  the  severest  judgement  of  God  on  the  world  {Aboik, 
V.  11).  A  false  oath,  even  if  made  unconsciously,  involves 
man  in  sin  and  is  punished  as  such  [Gittin,  35  a)  ^.'  '  Love 
truth  and  uprightness,'  said  Maimonides  *,  '  for  they  are  the 
ornaments  of  the  soul ;  cleave  to  them,  prosperity  so 
obtained  is  built  on  a  sure  rock.      Keep   firmly  to  your 

^  Shulchan  Aruch,  Choshen  Mishpat,  chs,  366-369. 

*  E.  g.  Rokeach  (Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  131  f.  and  147). 

2  S.  Schechter :  Appendix  to  Montefiore's  Hibbert  Lectures,  1892,  p.  558. 

*  In  his  Testament  (Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  iii.  p.  452;. 


The  Annulment  of  Vows, 


109 


word  ;  let  not  a  legal  contract  or  the  presence  of  witnesses 
be  more  binding  than  your  verbal  promise  even  privately 
made.  Disdain  reservations  and  subterfuges,  sharp  practices 
and  evasions.  Woe  to  him  who  builds  his  house  thereon.'  No 
doubt  Jews  sometimes  fell  away  from  these  high  counsels, 
and  used  the  vow  as  a  prop  to  a  weak  will.  It  is  amusing 
to  find  a  Jew  of  the  sixteenth  century  breaking  the  maxim 
to  keep  it :  swearing  that  he  would  never  swear  ^.  If  men 
vowed  rashly,  a  door  was  opened  to  them  for  reconsideration 
by  a  Rabbinical  absolution  for  the  offender.  Sometimes 
men  would  vow  to  follow  certain  courses  of  conduct  which 
conflicted  with  their  social  or  domestic  duties  ;  and  the 
absolution  m.erely  implied  that  the  reawakened  sense  of 
duty  overrid  a  rash  or  impossible  undertaking.  Such 
absolution  had  no  immoral  tendency,  for  it  was  safeguarded 
and  restricted  with  the  utmost  care.  Some  Rabbis  in  the 
middle  ages  were  very  complacent  in  releasing  their  con- 
gregants from  vows,  but  strong  Rabbinical  authorities 
always  set  their  face  against  the  practice.  And,  at  the 
worst,  just  those  vows  or  oaths  which  involved  the  social 
relations  between  a  man  and  his  fellows,  just  those  vows  the 
breach  of  which  might  have  demoralizing  consequences, 
were  the  ones  to  which  absolution  was  most  strenuously 
denied.  No  Rabbi  or  Rabbinical  tribunal  could  absolve 
an  oath  or  vow  which  a  man  was  charged  to  make  by 
a  Jewish  court  of  justice  ^.  So,  in  the  age  of  the  Geonim, 
no  dissolution  of  business  contracts  made  on  oath  was  per- 
mitted. Oaths  uttered  over  the  Scroll  of  the  Law  were 
indissoluble  ^.     Jewish  law  always  cast  a  severer  censure  on 

*  S.  b.  Isaac  Chayim,  Responsa,  'js'in'C  ^D3,  p.  54  c. 

2  Cf.  Schechter,  ibid.  p.  561. 

^  Responsa  of  Geonim,  Prague,  123. 


no  The  Slave  Trade. 

public  vice  than  on  private,  because  public  vice  involved 
social  as  well  as  religious  evil.  A  public  vow  was  incapable 
of  annulment  ^  This  was  in  the  tenth  century.  It  is 
obvious,  however,  that  the  differences  which  subsequently- 
prevailed  in  Rabbinical  practice  were  due  to  irreconcilable 
theories  of  human  nature.  This  is  seen  very  clearly  with 
a  type  of  vow  which  became  extremely  common  in  the 
later  middle  ages.  It  was  a  most  ordinary  thing  for  a  Jew 
to  undertake  an  oath  that  he  would  not  indulge  in  gambling 
or  games  of  chance.  Could  such  a  vow  be  annulled? 
Some  authorities  resisted  the  suggestion  with  a  most  sturdy 
disregard  of  consequences.  Others  argued:  '  The  temptation 
is  too  strong  for  this  man's  will,  he  will  play  in  despite  of  his 
vow  ;  let  us  annul  his  promise  and  save  him  from  an  additional 
sin.'  Judaism  always  sought  to  make  its  moral  code  a 
possible  one ;  its  ideals  were  all  attainable  by  the  best  life. 
The  Rabbi  who  argued  thus  against  an  intemperate  devotion 
to  temperance  may  not  have  been  weakening  the  moral 
sense  after  all. 

More  detrimental,  however,  were  the  cases  of  legal  fictions 
which  grew  up  luxuriantly  in  Jewish  life.  Yet  it  is  hard 
to  see  how  Jews  were  to  act  otherwise  than  they  did. 
For  instance,  by  a  legal  fiction  groups  of  houses  were 
combined  and  considered  as  one  private  enclosure  with 
regard  to  certain  aspects  of  the  Sabbath  law ;  without 
this  fiction  Jews  could  not  have  lived  at  all  in  the  middle 
ages.  In  the  course  of  centuries  the  fiction  has  been 
abolished,  and  Jews,  consciously  yielding  to  the  pressure 
of  circumstances,  have  openly  abandoned  the  Jewish  law 
rather  than  submit  to  the  demoralization  of  fictions,  however 
legal.     Another  legal  fiction  was  connected  with  money- 

^  Geonim,  Ma/teach,  p.  8.     Cf.  ibid.  99,  157. 


Final  Verdict.  m 

lending.  A  Jew — as  we  shall  see  later  on — was  forbidden 
by  Rabbinical  law  to  lend  money  to  a  brother  Jew.  Hence 
a  Christian  middle-man  was  inserted,  and  by  this  legal 
fiction  the  transaction  evaded  the  Rabbinical  prohibition  ^. 
That  the  Jewish  mind  has  so  easily  emancipated  itself 
from  this  moral  danger  is  clear  proof  that  it  did  not  eat 
deeply  into  their  medieval  character.  So,  too,  a  strict  adher- 
ence to  the  Sabbath  and  the  Passover  law  was  absolutely 
irreconcilable  with  those  partnerships  between  Jews  and 
Christians  which  were  far  more  common  in  the  middle 
ages  than  is  thought.  The  Jew  would  derive  no  profit  from 
the  Sabbath  trade,  and  in  the  time  of  the  Geonim  all  the 
Sabbath  profits  were  scrupulously  assigned  to  the  Christian 
partner  2.  Yet  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  compromise,  though 
honest  enough  in  inception,  would  be  practically  impossible. 
Again,  the  Jewish  law  forbade  in  perpetuity  the  use  or 
enjoyment  of  any  profit  from  '  leaven  which  has  been  kept 
during  the  Passover,'  and  leaven,  as  the  Jewish  code  under- 
stands it,  includes  a  multitude  of  things.  The  Jew  would 
sell  the  contents  of  his  wine-cellar  to  a  Christian  before 
the  Passover  and  buy  it  back  at  a  nominal  price  after  the 
festival.  This  was  a  distinctly  petty  invasion  ;  but  again 
the  Rabbis  insisted  that  the  sale  must  be  an  effective  07ie,  so 
that  if  the  purchaser  held  the  seller  to  his  bargain,  the  Jew 
had  no  legal  claim  for  the  return  of  the  property  ^. 

All  these  and  similar  devices,  growing  out  of  the  attempt 

^  Cf.  M.  D.  Davis,  Shetaroth,  p.  47.  ^  Geonim,  Mafteach,  153,  &c. 

^  A  very  similar  evasion  led,  in  England,  to  the  Statute  of  Mortmain. 
Landowners  pretended  to  give  their  lands  to  the  Church,  and  then  took 
them  back  as  tenants  of  the  Church,  thus  freeing  themselves  of  their  feudal 
obligations  to  lay  superiors.  Equally  curious  were  the  extraordinary 
evasions  by  which  Christian  merchants  sought  to  escape  the  impossible 
canon  laws  against  usury  (Lecky,  Rationalism,  ii.  258,  &c.). 


iia  The  Slave   Trade. 

to  live  an  old  form  of  life  amid  completely  new  conditions, 
were  temporary  and  tentative  phases  in  the  thousand-years 
story  of  Judaism.  The  meaner  traits  which,  inflicted  from 
without,  marred  the  medieval  Jewish  character,  and  left  a 
brand  on  the  modern  Jew,  belong  to  the  same  category. 
Above  all  these  defects  soars  high  a  practical  and  elevated 
sense  of  duty,  which  preserved  the  Jewish  race  from  organic, 
moral  degeneration  ^. 

^  '  Researching  in  the  Conversation  of  the  Jews,  it  seemed  to  be  very 
regular,  and  agreeable  to  the  laws  of  a  well-civilized  conduct.  For  setting 
aside  the  AHifices  of  Commerce  and  Collusions  of  Trade,  they  cannot  be 
charged  with  anj^  of  those  Debauches  which  are  grown  into  reputation  with 
whole  Nations  of  Christians,  to  the  scandal  and  contradiction  of  their  Name 
and  Profession,  Fornication,  Adultry,  Drunkenness,  Gluttony,  Pride  of 
Apparel,  &c.,  are  so  far  from  being  in  request  with  them,  that  they  are 
scandalized  at  their  frequent  practice  in  Christians.  And  out  of  a  malitious 
insinuation,  are  sorry  to  hear  that  any  of  their  Nation  should  give  a  Name 
to,  and  die  for  a  people  of  such  Vices.' — L.  Addison,  op.  cit.,  p.  13. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

MONOGAMY  AND   THE   HOME. 

Heine  has  familiarized  the  modern  world  with  an  im- 
posing feature  of  Jewish  home  Hfe  in  the  middle  ages. 
The  Jewish  home  was  a  haven  of  rest  from  the  storms  that 
raged  round  the  very  gates  of  the  ghettos,  nay,  a  fairy 
palace  in  which  the  bespattered  objects  of  the  mob's  deri- 
sion threw  off  their  garb  of  shame  and  resumed  the  royal 
attire  of  freemen.  The  home  was  the  place  where  the  Jew 
was  at  his  best.  In  the  market-place  he  was  perhaps  hard 
and  sometimes  ignoble  ;  in  the  world  he  helped  his  judges 
to  misunderstand  him  ;  in  the  home  he  was  himself. 

It  is  a  common  mistake  to  believe  that  Jewish  life 
derived  one  of  the  most  civilizing  of  its  elements  from 
the  European  world  in  which  it  moved.  I  refer  to  the 
custom  of  monogamy.  Monogamy  was  not  the  condition 
and  basis  of  a  pure  home  life  ;  the  assertion  that  it  was  so 
transposes  cause  and  effect.  Monogamy  was  the  result  and 
not  the  cause  of  an  idealized  conception  of  the  family  rela- 
tions. The  hallowing  of  the  home  was  one  of  the  earliest 
factors  in  the  development  of  Judaism  after  the  Babylonian 
exile,  and  the  practice  of  monogamy  grew  up  then  as  a 
flower  on  the  family  hearth  ^.  The  whole  of  the  Talmud 
is  based  on  monogamous  custom.    The  allusions  to  women 

^  Z.  Frankel,  Grundliiiien  des  mosaisch'talmudischen  Eherechts,  xi. 

I 


114  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

throughout  its  pages  invariably  presuppose  such  a  custom, 
for  although  the  Jewish  law  permitted  polygamy,  Jewish 
practice  very  early  abrogated  the  licence.  The  last  chapter 
of  the  Biblical  book  of  Proverbs,  written  not  later  than  the 
fourth  century  B.  C,  is  obviously  monogamous  ^  and  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  narrative  of  the  Creation  in  the  Book 
of  Genesis,  as  well  as  of  all  the  Apocryphal  books,  notedly 
Tobit  and  Judith.  Of  the  array  of  Rabbis  named  in  the 
Talmud,  not  a  solitary  instance  can  be  found  of  a  bigamist. 
Constant  references  are  made  in  Rabbinical  literature  to 
a  man's  wife,  never  once  to  his  wives.  There  is  moreover 
the  note  of  a  perfect  unity  of  love  in  the  contents  of  these 
references  to  the  married  state.  y^h^^ 

Nothing  in  modern  life  can  excel  the  courtly  respect 
and  single-hearted  devotion  which  the  Talmudic  husband 
displays  towards  his  wife.  '  He  loves  her  as  himself^  but 
honours  her  more  than  himself^.  .  .  .  God's  presence  dwells 
in  a  pure  and  loving  home  ^.  ...  In  a  home  where  the  wife 
is  the  daughter  of  a  God-fearing  man,  the  husband  has 
God  for  a  father-in-law*.  ...  Not  money  but  character 
is  the  best  dowry  of  a  wife.  .  .  .  Who  is  rich  ?  He  whose 
wife's  actions  are  comely  ^.  Who  is  happy  ?  He  whose 
wife  is  modest  and  gentle  ®.  .  .  .  When  his  wife  dies,  a  man's 
world  is  darkened,  his  step  is  slow,  his  mind  is  heavy ; 
she  dies  in  him,  he  in  her.  ...  A  man  must  not  make 
a  woman  weep,  for  God  counts  her  tears.  .  .  .  Marriages 
are  made  in  heaven  '^.  .  .  .  A  man's  happiness  is  all  of  his 

^  This  fact  is  strangely  overlooked  by  Mr.  Lecky  in  his  European  Morals, 
i.  p.  104. 

'^  Sank.  76  b  ;  Yebam.  62  b.  ^  Kiddushin,  71. 

*  Ibid.  70.  ^  Sabh.  25. 

^  Aboth  de  R.  Nathan,  i.  7  (ed.  Schechter).  ''  Sabb.  22  a-b. 


Talmudic   View  of  Marriage.  us 

wife's  creation  ^  .  .  .  Many  go  to  sea,  and  the  majority 
come  safely  home.  It  is  the  few  who  go  and  return  not. 
Thus  many  take  a  wife  and  most  of  them  prosper.  It  is 
only  the  few  who  stumble  2.'  Such  sentiments  as  these 
have  always  dominated  Jewish  life,  and  the  anomaly  is 
presented  of  women  filling  legally  a  very  low  position 
indeed,  but  morally  a  most  exalted  one,  in  Jewish  esteem. 

To  all  this  indirect  evidence  that  the  Talmudic  scheme 
of  married  life  is  framed  on  a  monogamous  basis,  some 
curious  direct  proofs  can  be  added.  In  the  second  century 
of  the  present  era,  the  son  of  Judah  the  prince,  following 
the  custom  of  his  time,  left  his  youthful  spouse  to  go  in 
search  of  wisdom.  His  absence,  however,  at  college  was 
unusually  prolonged,  and  when  he  returned  he  found  his 
wife  prematurely  infirm.  Rabbi  Judah  said  to  him,  'My 
son,  if  you  divorce  her  the  world  will  say,  "  Is  this  the 
return  for  her  faithful  devotion  ? "  If  you  marry  another 
wife,  they  will  say,  '•  The  one  is  his  wife,  and  the  other 
his  mistress."  So  he  prayed  to  God  on  her  behalf,  and 
her  youth  was  restored  ^.'  This  story,  whatever  else 
may  be  said  of  it,  is  surely  evidence  of  a  strong  popular 
prejudice  in  favour  of  monogamy,  and  the  same  may  be  pre- 
dicated of  another  curious  fact.  According  to  the  Mishnah, 
there  was  much  anxiety  that  the  High  Priest  should  have 
a  wife  living  on  the  Day  of  Atonement,  but  though  it  was 
felt  to  be  a  possible  accident  for  her  to  die  suddenly,  the 
suggestion  that  the  High  Priest  might  be  expected  to 
possess  a  second  wife  was  not  contemplated  as  an  escape 
from  the  difficulty  *. 

^  B.  Mezia,  59  a.  "^  Bam.  Rabb.  §  9. 

3  Kethuboth^  62  a.  Cf.  Buchholz,  Die  Familie  nach  mosaisch-talmudischer 
Lehre,  p.  66. 

*  Cf.  Maimonides,  Isure  Bia,  xvii.  13.     Mishnah,  Yoma,  i.  §  i. 

I  a. 


ii6  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

Thus  Jewish  custom  overrid  Jewish  law,  and  established 
monogamy  long  before  Christianity  had  made  the  old 
Roman  view  on  the  question  predominant  in  Europe.  It 
is  important  to  follow  up  this  triumph  of  practice  over 
theory  a  little  further.  In  the  ninth  century  A.D.  the 
Rabbis  of  Babylon  explained  that  the  law  did  not  permit 
a  man  to  marry  a  second  wife  without  the  consent  of  the 
first  ^.  Should  she  refuse,  then  the  husband  might  be  com- 
pelled to  restore  her  to  liberty  and  pay  all  the  settlements. 
The  dignified  position  which  Jewish  practice  had  always 
assigned  to  women  became  partially  legalized  during  the 
eighth  to  tenth  centuries  ^.  Though  the  wife  was  never 
placed  on  an  equality  with  regard  to  the  initiative  in 
divorce,  yet  throughout  these  centuries  there  may  be 
detected  a  tendency  to  refuse  to  the  husband  the  right  to 
divorce  the  wife  frivolously  without  her  consent  ^.  These 
two  tendencies  were  focussed  by  one  of  the  greatest  Jews 
of  the  middle  ages,  a  man  who  has  gone  down  to  posterity 
as  '  the  light  of  the  exile.'  Rabbi  Gershom  (960-1028)  not 
only  prohibited  bigamy  on  pain  of  excommunication,  not 
only  did  he  forbid  the  forcible  divorce  of  the  wife,  but, 
without  any  synodal  authority,  he  won  the  complete  assent 
of  Western  Jews  to  his  views.  Since  his  day  monogamy  has 
been  the  law  as  well  as  the  custom  of  all  Western  Jews. 

Thus  the  institution  of  monogamy  was  not  borrowed  by 
Judaism  from  medieval  Christianity.  The  New  Testament 
gives   no  hint   that   polygamy  was  a  Jewish   practice   in 


^  Responsa  of  Geonim,  y"c,  p.  60  ;  Mafteach,  p.  282. 

'  Cf.  ibid.  pp.  93,  123. 

2  The  husband  no  doubt  might  practically  force  this  consent  by  neglecting 
or  ill-treating  his  wife  see  y"aTrn  n"iu:,  ii.  20  ,  but  there  is  no  ground  for 
believing  that  such  brutality  was  common. 


Bigamy  exceptionally  allowed.  117 

early  Christian  times.  In  the  middle  ages  the  Church 
was  no  nearer  than  the  Synagogue  to  a  complete  solution 
of  the  marriage  problem.  For,  during  the  first  eight  or 
nine  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  the  language  of  several 
popes  was  by  no  means  sternly  monogamous,  and  the 
'  Church  sometimes  permitted  simultaneous  marriage  with 
two  persons  in  case  of  the  wife's  infirmity,  and  was  not 
powerful  enough  to  check  them  generally  in  the  Carolingian 
era^.'  As  late  as  Luther's  day,  bigamy  was  permitted  to 
the  Landgraf  Philip  of  Hesse,  and  in  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries  it  is  hard  to  reconcile  the  evidence  of 
conjugal  infidehty  in  Europe  with  the  supposition  that 
monogamy  was  anything  more  than  a  name.  What  are 
chiefly  interesting,  however,  are  the  grounds  on  which  the 
medieval  Church  occasionally  licensed  departures  from 
the  monogamous  principle,  for  Jewish  authorities  practically 
allowed  similar  ''"cence  under  similar  conditions.  The 
Church  Council  of  Vermene  in  A.  D.  752  enacted  that  when 
a  wife  refused  to  accompany  her  husband  on  a  journey,  the 
husband  might  marry  again  if  he  had  no  hope  of  returning 
home.  In  the  second  place,  the  sterility  of  the  wife  was 
regarded  by  some  Christian  authorities  as  sufficient  ground 
for  permitting  an  act  of  bigamy  ^.  Some  Rabbis  were  less 
compliant  in  the  latter  case  ;  but  it  was  generally  held  that 
if  a  wife  had  been  forcibly  captured,  and  thus  the  husband 
was  robbed  of  her  society,  he  might  marry  again.  So  if 
she  deserted  him,  declined  to  join  him  on  a  pilgrimage 
to  Jerusalem,  or  refused  to  cohabit^.     If  the  wife  became 

'   Smith,  Did.  Chr.  Anttq,,  p.  207. 

^  Ibid.,  Art.  Maniage.     See  also  p.  1102. 

^  According  to  the  Resp.  y"2U?n,  ii.  175,  the  husband  was  allowed  to 
forcibly  divorce  the  wife  in  such  a  case,  but  bigamy  was  forbidden.  Samuel 
de  Medina  {Resp.  ii.  120),  on  the  other  hand,  permits  the  double  marriage. 


ii8  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

insane  or  infirm  and  was  without  children,  it  was  thought, 
even  in  the  later  middle  ages,  a  kinder  act  to  her  to  permit 
the  husband  to  remarry  than  to  insist  on  his  divorcing 
her^ 

There  was  evidently  a  close  parallel  between  the  practice 
of  Synagogue  and  Church  with  regard  to  the  legality  of 
a  second  marriage  under  special  circumstances.  A  similar 
identity  manifests  itself  in  an  unpleasant  phenomenon  which 
may  be  discerned  in  Mohammedan  lands.  For  though 
Christianity  had  little  to  do  with  the  inclusion  of  monogamy 
among  the  customs  of  the  Jews,  Mohammedanism  unfor- 
tunately wielded  a  deleterious  influence  on  the  Jews  who 
fell  under  its  sway.  Serious  lapses  from  rigid  monogamy 
occurred  in  Islamic  lands,  and  cases  of  similar  offences  are 
not  unknown  at  the  present  day  ^.  Herein  lies,  to  my  mind, 
the  cause  of  the  popular  error  to  which  I  alluded  above.  It 
was  the  relapse  into  polygamy  which  Judaism  owed  to 
external  influences,  while  its  acceptance  of  monogamy  had 
been  an  original,  not  an  acquired,  virtue.  The  Church, 
too,  often  found  it  difficult  to  enforce  strict  monogamy  on 
Eastern  Christians  ^.  In  the  East,  as  well  as  in  Spain  under 
the  Moors,  in  the  Le\ant  and  Southern  Italy,  the  mono- 

^  Resp..  I.  b.  S.  Sirkes,  §93;  in  the  opposite  sense,  I.  b.  S.  Adarbi,  Resp., 
§  294;  M.  Alshec,  Resp.,  §  86.  D.  Pardo  in  Resp.  ^''^  -m'j  CHDO,  §  8,  sup- 
ports the  first  view. 

2  They  are,  however,  rare.  In  Morocco  much  contempt  is  felt  by  Jews 
for  one  of  their  number  who  commits  bigamy.     He  is  practically  boycotted. 

2  Writing  of  the  Nicene  Canons  against  bigamy,  J.  M.  Ludlow  (Smith, 
Did.  Chr.  Antiq.,  p.  205)  says  :  '  It  is  difficult  to  attribute  Nicene  authority 
to  these  Canons,  which  show  so  vividly  the  corruptions  that  grew  up  in  the 
more  distant  Oriental  churches.  But  whether  illustrative  of  the  degeneracy 
of  Arabian  Christendom  before  the  rise  of  Mohammedanism  in  the  seventh 
century,  or  of  the  influence  of  Mohammedan  polygamy  itself  upon  it  at  a 
later  period,  they  are  not  the  less  valuable.' 


Influence  of  Islam.  119 

gamous  enactment  of  Rabbi  Gershom  was  never  formally 
recognized  by  the  Jews. 

Bigamy  was  rather  common  among  the  Jews  of  Spain  as 
late  as  the  fourteenth  century.  In  each  individual  instance 
it  was  necessary  to  obtain  the  royal  assent  on  penalty  of 
death  ^.  It  is  true  that  these  incidents  took  place  in  Chris- 
tian Spain,  but  the  old  Islamic  influences  still  prevailed 
there.  Spanish  Jews  like  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra,  however, 
maintained,  with  a  tinge  of  cynicism,  that  '  one  wife  was 
enough  for  any  man.'  In  Algiers  in  the  fifteenth  century 
it  was  held  by  Solomon  Duran^  that  polygamy  was  lawful, 
but  he  added  the  rider  that  the  husband  must  provide  a 
separate  house  for  each  of  his  wives — thus  practically  pro- 
hibiting what  he  theoretically  allowed.  A  European  Jew 
who  settled  in  the  East  was  held  bound  by  the  monogamous 
law  of  Rabbi  Gershom.  Much  ingenuity  was  expended  to 
prove  that  the  Cherem  ^,  as  it  was  termed,  only  extended 
to  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  but  this 
attempt  to  limit  the  incidence  of  the  law  absolutely  failed. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  religious  duty  of  begetting 
a  family  was  so  paramount  in  the  Jewish  scheme  of  life, 
that  many  an  Israelite  felt  himself  reluctantly  compelled 
to  divorce  his  first  wife  if  she  had  not  presented  him  with 
a  son  and  a  daughter,  providing  that  she  had  remained 
childless  for  ten  years.     In  case  the  wife  refused  to  accept 

1  A  similar  licence  was  permitted  to  the  Jews  of  Christian  Spain  from 
about  1230  (Lindo,  p.  83).  But  these  Jews  were  probably  of  Oriental 
origin,  and  the  Government  derived  pecuniary  advantage  from  the  privilege, 
as  the  Jews  paid  for  the  right  to  marry  another  wife.  (J.  Jacobs,  Jews  in 
Spain,  p.  25,  §  104.)     Cf.  Kayserling,  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  viii.  792. 

2  iraMJin  -idc,  §  75. 

2  I.  e.  'excommunication.'  Many  regulations  were  popularly  described  by 
this  term  Cherem. 


120  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

a  divorce,  some  Rabbis  maintained,  just  as  the  Church 
authorities  did,  that  the  law  of  monogamy  might  be  in- 
fringed. Even  so,  the  road  to  bigamy  was  made  as  hard 
as  possible.  Sometimes  the  husband  was  forced  to  pay 
over  the  marriage  settlement  to  the  Beth  Din  or  Jewish 
Court  before  the  question  of  his  re-marriage  would  be 
entertained  ^. 

But  the  greatest  Jewish  authorities,  the  men  of  light 
and  leading  in  the  middle  ages,  forbade  bigamy  under 
each  and  every  circumstance.  Children  or  no  children, 
one  man  one  wife  was  the  rigid  principle  enforced  by 
such  world-wide  authorities  as  Rabbis  Nissim  and  Judah 
Minz^  The  Pentateuchal  law  of  the  Levirate  marriage 
was  a  persistent  but  not  very  serious  difficulty.  But  as 
it  was  still  open  to  a  low-minded  individual  to  argue  that 
the  Rabbis  were  going  beyond  the  letter  of  the  Jewish 
law  in  forbidding  bigamy,  a  device  was  resorted  to  at  least 
as  early  as  the  twelfth  century  (probably  even  earlier)  by 
which  the  bridegroom  entered  into  a  voluntary  engage- 
ment on  oath  which  bound  him  to  observe  the  strict 
law  of  monogamy.  An  oath  to  this  effect  was  included 
in  the  marriage  contract,  and  the  following  were  its  exact 
terms  in  Africa^:  'The  said  bridegroom,  N.N.,  hereby 
promises  that  he  will  not  marry  a  second  wife  during  the 
Hfetime  of  the  said  bride,  M.  M.,  except  with  her  consent, 
and  if  he  transgress  this  oath  and  marries  a  second  wife 
during  her  lifetime  and  without  her  consent,  he  shall  give 

*  R.  Meldola,  o'li  U"0  n"itr,  iii.  4- 

2  Responsa,  ed.  Venice,  §  lo. 

2  y"2Trn  n"ic,  i.  94.  An  early  document  (communicated  by  Mr.  S. 
Schechter)  containing  a  similar  proviso  is  preserved  in  the  MSS.  of  the 
Cambridge  University.     In  that  document  the  marriage  occurred  in  Fostat 

(Egypt). 


Prevalence  of  Divorce.  121 

her  every  tittle  of  what  is  written  in  the  marriage  settle- 
ments, together  with  all  the  voluntary  additions  herein 
detailed,  paying  all  to  her  up  to  the  last  farthing,  and  he 
shall  free  her  by  regular  divorce  instantly  and  with  fitting 
solemnity.'  What  is  of  most  interest  concerning  this  pro- 
vision in  the  marriage  contract  is  this.  It  was  only  added 
in  countries  where  Mohammedanism  prevailed,  and  there 
is  full  evidence  that  it  was  more  than  a  mere  formality, 
but  that  it  was  regularly  enforced  ^  That  divorces  were 
of  frequent  occurrence  is  painfully  clear.  But  several  facts 
mitigated  the  evil  ^.  Marriages  were  contracted  at  so  young 
an  age  that  divorce  often  occurred  before  the  marriage  was 
really  consummated.  Divorced  girls  easily  re-married,  for 
divorce  carried  no  stigma  with  it.  Divorces  among  adults, 
who  had  lived  long  together,  were  quite  exceptional  in 
Jewish  life.  When  such  occurred,  the  treatment  of  the 
divorced  wife  by  her  former  husband  was  tender  and  con- 
siderate in  the  extreme.  In  most  countries^  moreover,  the 
Jewish  law  of  divorce  has  practically  assimilated  itself  to 
the  laws  prevailing  with  the  general  public.  It  is  perhaps 
regrettable  that  this  assimilation  has  not  been  admitted  into 
the  Jewish  code-books. 

The  difference  in  practice  between  Eastern  and  Western 
Jews  was  less  marked  than  was  the  variation  in  theory.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  civilized  polygamous  countries, 
monogamy  necessarily  prevails  with  the  majority,  for  only 
the  rich  can  afford  the  luxury  of  several  wives.  At  all 
events,  among  the  Jews  of  the  Orient  monogamy  was  and  is 

^  Communal  regulations  were  made  to  this  effect.  One  of  the  year  1377 
is  quoted  in  Y'^iiT^  ri"vr  (Salonicaj,  ii.  §  96.  Cf.  also  D^n  ncuJ  n""iir  (Salonica, 
1818),  p.  26  d. 

^  Cf.  p.  175  below. 


ista 


Aloiiogajjiy  and  the  Home. 


the  rule  and  polygamy  the  exception  ^.  The  taint,  however, 
had  some  little  influence  on  the  Jewish  disposition.  There 
was  less  warmth  in  the  Oriental  Jewish  home,  less  of  that 
tenderness  which  was  once  a  common  characteristic  of  Jews 
all  the  world  over,  but  came  in  process  of  time  to  distin- 
guish Western  Jews  from  their  gayer  but  more  shallow 
brethren  of  the  East.  One  seems  to  detect  a  feebler  sense 
of  responsibility  in  the  mental  attitude  of  an  Oriental  father 
to  his  offspring,  just  as  one  detects  more  volubility  but  less 
intensity  in  the  Oriental  Jew's  prayers.  Yet  the  difference 
was  only  in  degree.  The  Jewish  home  life  was  ever>^where 
serene  and  lovely,  for  if  Judaism  had  virtue  at  all  it  dis- 
played it  in  the  home.  We  have  already  seen  something  of 
the  relations  that  subsisted  between  husband  and  wife.  It 
is  more  difficult  to  outline  the  relations  which  prevailed 
between  Jewish  parents  and  their  children.  For  here  we 
are  dealing  with  an  impalpable  sentiment  which  pervaded 
the  home  and  but  imperfectly  materialized  itself  in  quaint 
and  ennobling  customs.  The  full  pathos  of  the  love  w^hich 
linked  a  Jewish  father  to  his  son  cannot  be  set  down  in 
words.  Is  it  so  curious  that  the  Jewish  law-books  fail  us 
here  ?  If  the  duties  of  parents  to  children  and  of  children 
to  parents  were  very  incompletely  codified  2,  the  omission  is 

^  '  But  the  (Barbary")  Jews  of  whom  I  write,'  says  L.  Addison,  Present  Statt 
of  the  Jrws^  p.  73  (1675),  '  though  they  greatly  magnifie  and  extol  the  con- 
cession of  Polygamy,  3'et  they  are  not  verj'^  fond  of  its  practice.' 

-  In  the  Bible  no  enactment  compels  the  parents  to  provide  for  their 
children's  maintenance.  But  the  love  of  God  to  man  is  constantly  compared 
b3'-  the  Biblical  poets  and  prophets  to  the  love  of  mother  and  father  to  their 
offspring.  This  love  imphed  more  than  asiy  legal  code  could  have  enjoined. 
In  the  second  centurj^  a.  d.  the  S3"nod  of  Hosa  first  made  it  legalh^  compul- 
sory for  fathers  to  maintain  their  children  till  the  age  of  adolescence ;  the 
duty  was  legally  incident  only  till  the  child  reached  his  seventh  year  (Babyl. 
Talmud,  Kethuboth,  49  b).     Among  other  duties  incumbent  on  the  father 


Parents  and  Children. 


123 


ver}'  instructi\e.     For  once,  the  JewLh  heart  allowed  free 
play  to  its  emotions. 

The  Bible  itself  places  the  duty  of  honouring  parents  in 
a  special  category,  suggesting  longevity  as  a  reward  for  ob- 
servance of  the  obligation,  but  specifying  no  penalty  for 
its  neglect.  The  Jewish  Prayer-book,  quoting  the  Mishnah, 
includes  'honouring  of  parents'  among  those  things,  'the 
fruits  of  which  a  man  enjoys  in  this  world,  while  the  stock 
remains  for  him  for  the  world  to  come^.'  In  the  middle 
ages,  however,  both  the  rewards  and  the  penalties  fell 
into  the  background,  for  the  love  grew  too  deep  to  need 
legal  encouragements  or  restraints.  Yet  the  love  was  of 
its  own  ge?ire.  The  same  courtliness  of  etiquette  which 
was  observed  between  parents  and  children  in  England 
a  generation  or  two  ago  prevailed  in  Jewish  life  for  several 
centuries  -.  The  Jewish  son  stood  in  his  father's  presence, 
and  never  on  any  consideration  occupied  his  seat  or  left 
or  entered  the  room  before  him.  In  synagogue,  while 
the  father  was  '  called  to  the  Law,'  the  son  reverently 
rose  from  his  seat  and  remained  standing  until  his  father 
had  completed  his  duty  and  returned  to  his  place  ^. 
There   was    little    demonstrativeness   of   affection.      Even 

were  :  the  circumcision  of  the  5on,  the  redemption  of  the  firstborn,  the 
initiation  of  his  son  in  the  study  of  the  Torah,  the  pro\-ision  for  his  early 
marriage  ^this  apphed  also  to  the  daughter),  and  for  his  training  as  an 
artisan.  Some  authorities  included  instruction  in  swnmming  and  in  politics. 
Cf.  L.  L6w,  Die  Lebensalter  in  der  Jiidischen  Literattir.  p.  129.  But  these 
specific  enactments  by  no  means  exhausted  the  full  import  of  the  paternal 
love  of  which  Jewish  authorities  in  all  ages  speak  with  unmeasured  tender- 
ness and  enthusiasm. 

^  Authorized  Daily  Prayer-book,  ed.  S.  Singer,  p.  5.     Mishnah.  Peak,  ch.  i. 

*  I  regret  that  space  fails  for  a  fuller  account  of  the  respect  shown  by 
the  young  to  the  old.     But  see  Low,  ibid.  p.  265. 

'  This  and  several  others  of  the  customs  here  enumerated  are  still  very 
prevalent  in  Jewish  life. 


124  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

in  modern  times  the  fondling  of  children  is  somewhat 
foreign  to  Jewish  sentiment  ^.  Love  found  a  deeper  form 
of  expression.  Yet  it  is  hazardous  to  generalize  on  this 
subject,  for  the  inroad  of  mysticism  into  Jewish  life  gave 
the  kiss  a  new  meaning  and  vitality.  The  caressing  of 
children  was  chiefly  held  objectionable  during  or  antecedent 
to  prayer-time  ^.  The  kiss  was  not  a  favourite  token  of  love 
between  the  sexes.  Kissing  on  the  lips  was  unusual  between 
Jewish  brothers  and  sisters ;  between  engaged  couples  it 
was  barred.  Brothers,  however,  kissed  one  another  on  their 
lips,  their  sisters  they  saluted  by  a  kiss  on  the  hand  ^ 

In  the  middle  ages,  some  slight  variation  occurred  in  the 
old  Hebrew  forms  of  greeting  friends  and  acquaintances. 
The  ancient  Biblical  salutation  '  Peace  be  to  thee '  was 
retained  ;  in  the  middle  ages  the  response  took  the  form 
*  (To  thee)  a  goodly  blessing  ^'  The  Jews,  indeed,  adopted 
the  ordinary  national  greetings  in  German,  French,  Arabic, 
Italian,  and  Spanish.  They  were  very  punctilious  in 
greeting  Christians,  and  naturally  used  the  vernacular  for 
the  purpose.  Even  among  themselves  the  Jews  used  the 
ordinary  appellations,  such  as  Don  and  Donna  in  Spain  and 
Hausfrau  in  Germany.  But  over  and  above  these  forms 
of  salutation,  the  medieval  Jews  not  only  retained  the 
Biblical  and  Talmudical  formulae,  but  they  considerably 
developed  these  on  their  own  lines.  On  entering  the  room, 
the  visitor  paused,  drew  back  two  or  three  paces,  and  then 
bowed  \    A  kiss  on  the  forehead  and  cheeks  often  followed, 

1  ^3TiD  mi  n""i^  (Warsaw,  1867),  p.  38  a. 
^  Sefer  Chassidim,  §  18. 
^  See  Jewish  Quarterly  Review.,  iii.  p.  477. 

*  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  304  seq.     Much  valuable  information  on  Jewish 
salutations  and  commemorative  formulae  is  there  given. 
5  MuUer,  Mafteach,  p.  28.     Cf.  Sefer  Chassidim,  §  96. 


Jewish  Salutations.  125 

but  the  Jews  early  adopted  the  Persian  modification  of  the 
custom  and  kissed  on  the  hand  ^.  The  chief  greetings  were 
of  the  nature  of  benedictions  containing  wishes  for  peace, 
health,  prosperity,  and  longevity.  These  were  perpetuated 
not  only  in  verbal  greetings,  but  also  as  introductory  com- 
pliments at  the  head  of  letters.  '  Length  of  days  and  years 
of  life,  and  peace  shall  they  add  to  thee '  (Prov.  iii.  2)  was 
the  favourite  text  cited,  and  a  formula  was  contrived  from 
the  last  four  words  of  the  Hebrew  of  this  verse  ^. 

On  occasions  of  joy,  a  Jew's  friends  congratulated  him 
with  the  words,  '  So  be  it  with  thee  in  future  and  for  many 
years.'  When  two  Jews  drank  together,  the  one  exclaimed 
*  For  life,'  and  the  other  answered  '  P'or  a  happy  life.'  Or 
the  good  wishes  would  take  the  form,  '  Good  luck,'  '  Be 
strong,'  *  May  thy  power  increase ' — all  in  Hebrew.  Should 
a  mishap  be  recounted,  or  reference  made  to  an  unpleasant 
subject,  the  speaker  would  add  in  a  parenthesis,  *Far  be 
it  from  thee,'  or  '  God  guard  thee  from  it.'  In  fact.  Jewish 
etiquette  became  excessively,  not  to  say  superstitiously, 
sensitive  on  such  points.  From  the  end  of  the  eleventh 
century  it  grew  customary  to  invariably  tack  on  the  wish, 
'God  protect  him,'  to  the  name  of  any  one  addressed  in 
writing.  Or  the  phrase  used  might  be,  '  May  his  Rock  keep 
him.'  Rabbis,  kings,  nobles,  were  not  named  without  the 
accompanying  formula, '  May  his  glory  be  exalted.'  A  son 
never  named  his  father  without  the  epithet,  '  My  lord '  or 
'My  master.'     From  the  fourteenth  century  the  favourite 

^  Kissing  the  hand  as  a  sign  of  respect  comes  strongly  to  the  fore  in  the 
Zohar  thirteenth  century).  Cf.  Bacher,  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives  (xxii.  137 
and  xxiii.  133^  to  which  the  same  writer  now  adds  references  to  Jehuda 
Halevi's  Divan  (ed.  Brody,  p,  150,  No.  98,  line  22)  and  Dunash  ben  Labrat 
against  Menachem,  verse  52. 

^  y''  tm.     Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  305. 


126  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

and  habitual  phrase  for  all  living  Israelites  was,  '  May  his 
light  shine  on.'  A  Spanish  Jewish  greeting  of  this  class 
was,  *May  his  end  be  fortunate.'  When  a  woman  was 
named,  she  was  honoured  by  the  Biblical  phrase  '  Blessed 
above  women '  (Judges  v.  24).  The  dead  were  spoken  of 
with  the  respectful  rider,  'His  (or  her)  memory  be  for  a 
blessing,'  '  Peace  be  upon  him,'  '  May  his  merit  protect  us,' 
'  His  resting-place  is  Eden.'  Sacred  associations  clung 
round  certain  cities,  and  these  \^'ere  not  mentioned  without 
some  such  hope  as  'May  God  protect  it,'  'May  it  be 
speedily  rebuilt.' 

Reverting  to  the  relations  of  father  and  son,  it  must  be 
said  that  the  child  life  of  the  middle  ages  was  in  many 
ways  a  hard  one.  Discipline  was  severe  and  corporal 
punishment  habituaP.  At  the  table  the  utmost  self- 
denial  was  demanded  of  the  child  in  the  presence  of 
guests,  and  the  latter  were  forbidden,  by  a  really  salutary 
piece  of  etiquette,  to  '  spoil '  their  entertainer's  child. 
Some  parents  were  naturally  more  complacent  than  others, 
and  medieval  moral  and  casuistical  books  contain  frequent 
laments  that  the  children  were  allowed  too  much  licence 
at  table,  in  synagogue,  and  in  the  presence  of  their  elders 
generally.  In  the  school  curriculum  no  regular  provision 
was  made  for  play,  but  the  rule  often  was  from  early 
morning  synagogue  to  school,  and  from  school  to  bed^, 
the  only  interval  being  for  an  early  midday  dinner.  Play 
was  frequent,  but  not  regular.  Toys  were  common,  and 
included  balls  ornamented  with  figures  ^  Jewish  children 
were  put  in  a  sort  of  go-cart  when  learning  to  walk  *. 

^  Contrast,  however,  the  milder  views  of  Isaac  of  Posen,  1V£}  zb,  ch.  ix. 

2  Statutes,  rr^inn  ^in,  in  Gudemann,  i.  p.  271. 

3  Responsa  of  Geonim,  Maficach,  p.  49.  *  LOw,  Lebensalier,  p.  287. 


Child  Life.  137 

In  most  of  these  particulars  I  hardly  think  that  the  life  of 
the  Jewish  child  differed  from  that  of  his  Gentile  brother. 
But  the  Jewish  view  of  domesticity  showed  itself  in  the 
success  with  which  life  was  made  lovable  to  the  child,  not- 
withstanding the  rigours  of  the  discipline  to  which  he  was 
subjected.  By  an  infinitude  of  devices  he  was  made  to 
love  his  home  and  his  religion.  On  the  passover  eve  the 
child  was  the  hero  of  that  most  ancient  of  domestic  rites 
extant,  a  rite  in  which  the  departure  from  Egypt  was  retold 
with  weeping  and  with  laughter,  to  the  accompaniment  of 
song  and  good  cheer,  the  boy,  like  his  sire,  quaffing  the  four 
cups  of  wine  and  firing  a  volley  of  questions  at  his  elder's 
head  which  the  elder  rejoiced  to  hear  and  to  answer.  The 
boys  were  encouraged  to  do  more  than  ask  questions,  they 
were  persuaded  to  act.  How  ancient  some  of  these  customs 
are  cannot  easily  be  said.  The  boy  took  a  niatsa  or  un- 
leavened passover  cake,  bound  it  in  a  cloth,  put  it  on  his 
shoulder  and  strutted  proudly  about  the  room,  in  symbolic 
allusion  to  the  escape  from  Pharaonic  bondage  Or,  midway 
in  the  service,  the  boy  would  creep  outside  the  door  and 
stumble  mirthfully  into  the  room  at  the  identical  moment 
when  the  service  was  resumed  after  supper,  probably  to 
typify  the  entrance  of  Elijah  as  the  harbinger  of  the 
Messiah.  A  more  elaborate  custom,  of  which,  however, 
I  have  found  no  early  description,  ran  somewhat  as  fol- 
lows ^ : — A  boy,  dressed  as  a  pilgrim  with  a  staff  in  his 
hand,  and  a  wallet  containing  bread  on  his  shoulders,  enters, 
and  the  master  of  the  house  inquires :  '  Whence  comest 
thou,  O  pilgrim  ?  '     '  From  Egypt.'     '  Art  thou  delivered 

^  Benjamin  II,  Eight  Years  in  Asia,  &c.,  p.  328.  My  belief  that  this 
custom  is  old  is  based  on  a  comparison  with  such  various  hints  as  are 
contained  in  the  Travels,  TDD  j2><,  i.  89  a,  and  the  yoix  rpv,  §  788. 


128  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

from  bondage  ?'  '  Yes  ;  I  am  free.'  '  Whither  goest  thou  ?  ' 
'To  Jerusalem.'  'Nay,  tarry  with  us  to  read  the  recital 
of  the  Passover.'  The  story  of  the  Exodus  follows  this 
pretty  prelude. 

When  the  house  was  being  searched  for  leaven  on  the 
previous  night,  the  boys  played  many  a  prank.  They 
concealed  particles  of  bread  in  corners,  and  great  was 
their  glee  when  they  eluded  the  vigilance  of  the  searchers, 
and  triumphantly  produced  the  incriminating  morsels. 
When  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  was  over,  the  boys  made 
bonfires  of  the  boughs  and  leaves  with  which  the  booths 
were  roofed,  and  roasted  apples  in  the  flames  ^.  But  a 
full  treatment  of  customs  like  this  belongs  to  a  history  of 
the  Jewish  religion.  The  point  that  concerns  us  here  is  the 
success  with  which  the  influence  of  religion  was  lovingly 
turned  to  domestic  uses.  Her  religion  strengthened  the 
Jewish  mother  in  her  resolve  not  to  have  her  infant  child 
sleep  with  her  lest  she  overlay  it.  The  lower  animals  were 
treated  with  uniform  kindness.  Jews  did  not  make  domestic 
pets  of  animals — another  form  of  cruelty — until  the  fifteenth 
century^.  Pious  Jews  asked  Christians  to  milk  their  cows 
on  the  Sabbath  and  retain  the  milk,  for  though  the  Jews 
would  not  derive  profit  from  work  done  on  Saturday, 
they  would  not  let  their  animals  suffer  pain^.  On  the 
other  hand,  hens  were  sometimes   kept    in  the  house,  so 

^  Maharil. 

2  At  least  so  I  gather  from  rsxy  failure  to  find  allusion  to  such  pets  earlier 
than  Isserlein.  See  his  Response^  C3i'^3"i  C'pzc,  §  105  : — '  You  may  cut  a  bird's 
tongue  to  make  it  speak,  and  crop  a  dog's  ears  and  tail  to  make  it  pretty, 
since  all  these  animals  were  made  for  man's  good.'  Cf.  also  Berliner, 
Inn.  Leben,  p.  17,  where  citations  are  made  in  which  pets  are  pronounced 
useless.  *  Spend  the  money  on  the  poor,'  says  the  Se/er  Chassidim,  §  1042 
(see  also  Mid.  Koheleth  Rabba,  vi.  11^. 

^  Mafteach^  p.  22. 


Religion  and  the  Home.  129 

that  the  Jew  might  fulfil  the  injunction  of  the  law  ^  which 
bade  him  to  feed  his  animals  before  he  fed  himself. 

Live  fish  in  bowls  of  water  were  also  to  be  found  in 
some  houses,  but  the  motive  for  this  was  utilitarian  ; 
Jews  never  ate  fish  that  was  not  perfectly  fresh  ^.  Re- 
ligion lay  at  the  root  of  the  sensitiveness  which  forbade 
repetition,  to  a  man  who  put  on  a  new  pair  of  boots,  of  the 
greeting :  *  May  they  get  old,  and  may  you  have  a  new  pair ' 
— a  form  of  congratulation  common  when  a  new  article  of 
attire  was  first  worn.  In  the  case  of  boots,  skin  was  needed, 
and  as  this  involved  the  death  of  an  animal,  the  usual  greet- 
ing was  prohibited.  Bread  crumbs  might  be  thrown  to  the 
birds  on  the  Sabbath  ^.  '  The  table  at  which  I  study,"  wrote 
a  Rabbi  to  Maharil,  '  contains  a  board  on  which  the  body 
of  my  wife  Jutta  was  washed  previous  to  her  interment.' 
Similarly,  the  coffins  of  Rabbis  were  made  out  of  the  wood 
of  the  tables  at  which  they  studied,  or  at  which  their  poor 
guests  were  seated  when  receiving  the  Rabbis'  hospitality  ^. 
There  was  no  detail  of  the  home  life  that  was  not  thus 
hallowed,  and  the  medieval  Jewish  code-books  teem  with 
instances  in  which  the  Jew's  religion  made  for  decency 
and  gentleness. 

In  the  poorest  ghettos  of  the  middle  ages,  when  the  houses 
were  mostly  large  but  each  family's  accommodation  limited, 
the  religious  etiquette  of  Judaism  mostly  preserved  the 
masses  from  that  degrading  indifference  to  decency  which 
is  so  terrible  a  feature  of  modern  poverty.  So,  too,  with 
regard  to  cleanliness.     The  medieval  lack  of  sensitiveness 

^  Sefer  Chassidim,  §  531  ;  and  Gudemann,  iii,  216.     Deut.  xi.  15. 

*  A  similar  remark  applies  also  to  poultry.  Maharil,  ed.  Warsaw  (1874% 
p.  25. 

*  Maharil,  p.  29.  *  Gudemann,  iii.  no. 


I30  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

on  the  subject  of  personal  cleanliness  was  tempered  in 
the  case  of  Jew  by  his  Semitic  instincts.  He  took  a  bath 
every  Friday,  for  here  the  religion  of  the  Jew  worked  with 
elevating  effect.  Though  theological  criticism  of  Judaism 
has  justly  seen  much  to  blame  in  the  excessive  punctilious- 
ness of  Pharisaism  regarding  ritual  purification,  nevertheless 
the  medieval  Jew  gained  more  than  he  lost  by  it.  He 
washed  his  hands  before  partaking  of  bread,  and,  what  is 
more,  this  ritual  washing  included  the  rubbing  off  stains 
and  the  cleansing  of  the  nails  ^.  At  large  banquets,  as  in 
Talmudic  times,  the  handw^ashing  occurred  at  table,  while 
after  the  meal  bowls  of  water  were  passed  round  and  each 
member  of  the  company  dipped  his  fingers  into  the  liquid, 
which  was  sometimes  perfumed.  The  Jews  who  lived  amid 
Mohammedans  were  much  more  punctilious  in  this  respect 
than  were  they  who  resided  in  Europe.  But  European  as 
well  as  Eastern  Jews  carefully  wiped  their  fingers  after  the 
ritual  handwashing,  for  it  was  a  fine  principle  with  Jews  not 
on  any  pretext  to  allow  food  to  become  loathsome  to  look 
upon^.  No  medieval  Jew  would  eat  raw  fruit  without 
first  carefully  examining  it  for  worms,  but  in  the  middle 
ages  a  taste  for  fruit  was  not  general  with  Jews.  Spiders' 
webs  were  most  conscientiously  swept  from  the  corners 
of  the  rooms,  but  for  this  no  doubt  a  mystical  rather  than 


^  This  ceremonial  washing  has  degenerated  in  modern  times  into  a  mere 
form,  and  is  unhappily  consistent  with  much  lack  of  cleanliness.  One  of  the 
most  obvious  evils  of  ghetto  life  has  been  this  change  in  Jewish  habits. 

^  It  would  need  a  whole  chapter  to  enumerate  the  practical  conclusions,  in 
the  way  of  cleanliness,  that  were  drawn  from  this  admirable  maxim.  The 
maxim  was  derived  from  Ezekiel  iv.  13.  One  of  its  most  pretty  results  was 
the  habit  of  covering  the  loaves  with  an  embroidered  cloth  during  the 
kiddush  or  sanctification  over  wine,  which  on  Sabbaths  and  festivals  pre- 
ceded the  breaking  of  the  bread.      This  prevented  the  wine  soiling  the  bread. 


The  Married  Rabbi.  131 

a  sanitary  motive  must  be  assigned.  The  Jew  did  not 
drink  at  dinner  without  first  wiping  his  mouth.  He  was 
very  moderate  in  his  eating,  and,  unlike  the  ordinary  diner 
of  his  day^  felt  it  disgraceful  to  rise  from  table  heavy  with 
food,  for  gluttony  was  the  worst  of  reproaches  ^  It  was 
a  commonplace  to  call  the  table  the  altar  of  God ;  hence, 
around  it,  the  Jews  must  become  pure  as  priests.  The 
educational  exercises  common  at  meal-time  grew  from  the 
same  principle  ^,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jewish 
life  was  immensely  the  gainer  from  the  marriage  of 
Rabbis. 

The  Rabbi  was  not  only  permitted,  he  was  compelled  to 
marry.  Hence  the  Rabbi's  home  became  at  once  the  centre 
of  a  bright,  cultured  circle,  and  the  model  which  other 
homes  imitated.  The  patriarchal  spirit  revived  in  the 
middle  ages,  and  the  Jewish  father  has  only  recently  ceased 
to  be  a  household  teacher  and  domestic  moralist.  He 
called  his  family  round  him  on  Friday  nights,  and  blessed 
his  wife  and  each  child  individually,  and  included  the 
servants  in  the  rite  ^\  Similarly  with  the  Saturday  night. 
The  Bible  and  the  Prayer-book  were  regularly  studied  in 
family  conclave,  and  the  many  Jewish  moral  books  of  the 
middle  ages  found  their  public  in  the  Jewish  home.  Special 
books  were  indeed  reserved  for  home  reading,  but  woe  betide 
the  child  who  treated  the  volumes  with  disrespect  or  soiled 
them  during  use  at  table !  When  the  book  was  finished, 
a  merry  siytiin  or  family  party  marked  the  event*.     The 

^  Maimonides  said  :  '  He  who  habitually  shows  moderation  at  his  meals  is 
more  praiseworthy  than  the  occasional  faster.' 

2  Cf.  Mishnah,  Ahoth,  iii.  §  3. 

^  Isserlein  had  his  boys'  hats  removed  before  blessing  them.  Leket  Yosher, 
i.  74  b. 

*  ym«  rjcv,  §  130. 

K  ^ 


132  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

child  kissed  a  Hebrew  book  when  he  opened  or  closed  it, 
or  if  it  accidentally  fell  ^ 

All-night  sittings  for  prayer  and  for  reading  semi- 
sacred  books  occurred  at  stated  intervals,  mostly  twice 
a  year.  A  large  number  of  Jews  rose  regularly  at  mid- 
night to  pray,  and  then  retired  again  to  rest.  No  pious 
Jew  sought  his  couch  without  first  seeking  to  survey  the 
events  of  the  past  twenty-four  hours,  without  first  confessing 
his  sins,  not  to  a  priest,  but  in  the  silence  of  his  room  to  his 
God.  During  the  month  of  Elul,  roughly  our  September, 
such  confession  of  sins  was  repeated  daily  before  every 
meaP.  Early  rising  was  habitual,  and  a  ewer  of  water 
stood  close  to  the  bedside  so  that  the  hands  might  be 
washed  immediately  on  waking. 

Sermons  in  the  home  were  a  common  feature  of  Jewish 
life  ^.  These  sermons  often  took  the  form  of  learned  discus- 
sions, and  a  distinguished  guest  repaid  his  host's  hospitality 
by  a  chiddush  *.  Boys  on  their  thirteenth  birthday  delivered 
orations  at  table,  but  the  custom  does  not  present  itself  much 
earlier  than  the  sixteenth  century.  The  transition  from  such 
religious  exercises  to  ordinary  table-talk  was  easy.  Table- 
talk,  the  sallies  of  those  licensed  jesters,  the  Marshallik  and 
the  Badchan,  short  dramatic  performances,  especially  at 
weddings  and  on  Purim,  were  all  extremely  popular.  Rid- 
dles were  a  regular  table  game,  and  all  the  great  Hebrew 
poets  of  the  middle  ages  composed  acrostics  and  enigmas 
of  considerable  merit  ^. 


'  See  e.  g.  Isaac  ben  Eliakim's  iv^s  nb,  ch.  ix  ;  Maharil,  p.  i"c. 

-  Maharil,  35.  ^  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  80,  81. 

*  The  umn  =  novelty,  was  some  new  thought  on  religious  topics,  or  some 
ingenious  explanation  of  a  Biblical  difficulty. 

*  Cf.  ch.  xxi.  below. 


Friday  Night  133 

But  easy  as  the  transition  was  between  a  religious  dis- 
course and  secular  table-talk,  a  bridge  was  built  to  make 
the  crossing  even  more  facile.  The  Jewish  table-songs  were 
the  bridge  between  the  human  and  the  divine,  they  were  at 
once  serious  and  jocular,  they  were  at  once  prayers  and 
merry  glees.  These  table-songs  belong  entirely  to  the 
middle  ages,  and  are  all  later  than  the  tenth  century.  On 
Friday  evenings  in  the  winter,  the  family  would  remain  for 
hours  round  the  table,  singing  these  curious  but  beautiful 
hymns.  The  women  would  mostly  remain  silent,  but  the 
mother  would  see  that  her  boys  joined  in  with  vigorous 
voices.  The  girls,  however,  sang  choruses  of  their  own, 
and  husband  and  wife  would  sometimes  inaugurate  the 
Sabbath  with  a  duet  sung  to  musical  accompaniment  \ 
The  quotation  that  follows  is  really  a  composite  from 
several  medieval  table-hymns  sung  after  the  meal  on  Friday 
evenings  or  Saturday  mornings  -. 

This  is  the  sanctified  Rest-day ; 
Happy  the  man  who  obser\^es  it, 
Thinks  of  it  over  the  wine-cup, 
Feeling  no  pang  at  his  heart-strings 
For  that  his  purse-strings  are  empty, 
Joyous,  and  if  he  must  borrow, 
God  will  repay  the  good  lender, 
Meat,  wine  and  fish  in  profusion — 
See  no  delight  is  deficient. 
Let  but  the  table  be  spread  well. 
Angels  of  God  answer  '  Amen  ! ' 
So,  when  a  soul  is  in  dolour, 
Cometh  the  sweet,  restful  Sabbath, 

^  These  hymns  were  sung  before  the  Sabbath  commenced  so  as  to  permit 
of  musical  accompaniment.  Bacharach  reports  such  a  case,  Jeivish  Quarterly 
Review,  iii.  298.  Cf.  also  Popper,  Inschriften  des  Prager  Judenfriedhofs,  pp. 
24,  25  ;  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  p.  393. 

^  I.  Zangwill's  Children  of  the  Ghetto,  ch.  xxi.  The  whole  description  in 
that  wonderful  chapter  applies  in  most  details  to  the  middle  ages. 


134  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

Singing  and  joy  in  its  footsteps, 
Rapidly  floweth  Sambatyon 
Till  that,  of  God's  love  the  symbol. 
Sabbath,  the  holy,  the  peaceful, 
Husheth  its  turbulent  waters. 


Bless  Him,  O  constant  companions, 
Rock  from  whose  store  we  have  eaten, 
Eaten  have  we  and  have  left,  too. 
Just  as  the  Lord  hath  commanded 
Father  and  Shepherd  and  feeder. 
His  is  the  bread  we  have  eaten, 
His  is  the  wine  we  have  drunken, 
Wherefore  with  lips  let  us  laud  Him, 
Lord  of  the  land  of  our  fathers. 
Gratefully,   ceaselessly  chanting, 
'  None  like  Jehovah  is  holy.' 


Light  and  rejoicing  to  Israel, 
Sabbath,   the  soother  of  sorrows, 
Comfort  of  downtrodden  Israel, 
Healing  the  hearts  that  were  broken  ! 
Banish  despair  !     Here  is  Hope  come. 
What !    A  soul  crushed  !    Lo,   a  stronger 
Bringeth  the  balsamous  Sabbath. 
Build,   O  rebuild  Thou,  Thy  temple, 
Fill  again  Zion,  Thy  city. 
Clad  with  delight  will  we  go  there. 
Other  and  new  songs  to  sing  there, 
Merciful  One  and  All-holy, 
Praised  for  ever  and  ever. 


Space  unhappily  prevents  more  than  one  other  quotation, 
which  I  have  translated  from  a  table-hymn  composed  by 
Abraham  Ibn  Ezra  for  the  feast  of  Chanukah,  commemora- 
tive of  Judas  Maccabeus'  victories.  It  is  more  rollicking 
and  lighthearted  than  the  songs  from  which  my  first  quota- 
tion w^as  made. 


Hymns  for  the  Home.  135 


Eat  dainty  foods  and  fine, 

And  bread  baked  well  and  white, 
With  pigeons,  and  red  wine. 

On  this  Sabbath  Chanukah  night. 

Chorus. 

Your  chattels  and  your  lands 
Go  and  pledge,  go  and  sell  ! 

Put  money  in  your  hands, 
To  feast  Chanukah  well. 

Capons  of  finest  breed 

From  off  the  well-turned  spit 
The  roasts  that  next  succeed 

Each  palate  will  surely  fit. 

Joints  tender,  poultry  young, 

Rich  cakes  baked  brown  in  pan  ; 

'A-greed'  is  on  every  tongue, 
'  Set-to '  laughs  every  man. 

No  water  here  they  carry. 
Their  steps  fade  fast  away ; 

Over  wine  w^e  all  will  tarry, 
Two  nights  in  every  day. 

Our  ears  no  more  shall  tingle 

At  sound  of  the  water's  fall ; 
But,  red-wine  in  cups  come   mingle. 

And  shout  in  chorus  all, 
Our  fields  and  our  lands 

We  will  pledge,  we  will  sell, 
To  put  money  in  our  hands 

To  feast  Chanukah  well. 


It  must  not  be  thought  that  because  these  early  hymns 
retained  their  popular  hold  on  the  Jewish  affections  up 
to  the  present  time,  fresh  hymns  of  the  same  class  were 
not  composed.  On  the  contrary,  the  later  jargon  literature 
is  very  rich  in  fine  specimens,  for  one  of  which  space  may 
be  spared. 


136  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 


SONG    FOR   FRIDAY   NIGHT. 

Thou  beautiful  Sabbath,  thou  sanctified  day, 

That  chasest  our  cares  and  our  sorrows  away, 

O  come  with  good  fortune,  with  joy  and  with  peace, 

To  the  homes  of  thy  pious,   their  bHss  to  increase  ! 

In  honour  of  thee  are  the  tables  decked  white  ; 
From  the  clear  candelabra  shine  many  a  light; 
All  men  in  the  finest  of  garments  are  dress'd, 
As  far  as  his  purse,  each  hath  got  him  the  best. 

For  as  soon  as  the  Sabbath-hat's  put  on  the  head, 
New  feelings  are  born  and  old  feelings  are  dead  ; 
Yea,  suddenly  vanish  black  care  and  grim  sorrow, 
None  troubles  concerning  the  things  of  to-morrow. 

New  heavenly  powers  are  given  to  each  ; 

Of  everyday  matters  now  hush'd  is  all  speech  ; 

At  rest  are  all  hands  that  have  toil'd  with  much  pain  ; 

Now  peace  and  tranquillity  everywhere  reign. 

Not  the  choicest  of  wines  at  a  banqueting  board 
Can  ever  such  exquisite  pleasure  afford 
As  the  Friday-night  meal   when  prepared  with  due  zest 
To  honour  thee,  Sabbath,  thou  day  of  sweet  rest ! 

With  thy  angels  attending  thee,   one  at  each  side. 
Come  on  Friday  betimes  in  pure  homes  to  abide. 
In  the  homes  of  the  faithful  that  shine  in  their  bliss, 
Like  souls  from  a  world  which  is  better  than  this  ! 

One  Angel,  the  good  one,   is  at  thy  right  hand. 
At  thy  left  doth  the  other,  the  bad  Angel,  stand  ; 
Compell'd  'gainst  his  will  to  say  '  Amen,'  and  bless 
"With  the  blessing  he  hears  the  good  Angel  express  : 

That  when  Sabbath,  dear  Sabbath,  thou  comest  again. 
We  may  lustily  welcome  thee,  free  from  all  pain. 
In  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  with  joy  in  our  heart, 
And  again  keep  thee  holy  till  thou  shalt  depart  ! 


Table  Songs.  137 

Then  come  with  good  fortune,  with  joy  and  with  peace, 
To  the  homes  of  thy  pious,  their  bhss  to  increase ! 
Already  we've  now  been  awaiting  thee  long, 
All  eager  to  greet  thee  with  praise  and  with  song  i. 

The  Jewish  table-songs  were  not,  however,  uniformly  of 
this  character.  Praises  of  wine  and  love,  both  in  Hebrew 
and  in  the  vernacular,  found  their  way  into  Jewish  circles, 
especially  in  Spain,  where  the  example  of  the  Moors  was 
contagious.  These  secular  songs  were  even  interpolated 
into  the  grace  after  meals  and  were  set  to  Arabian  tunes ^. 
Naturally  many  Rabbis  were  much  scandalized  by  these 
proceedings,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  puritanical 
opinion  won  the  day.  For,  centuries  later,  we  find  the 
same  love  for  sensuous  table-songs  prevalent  in  Germany^. 
Yet  the  favourite  Jewish  wine-songs  were  of  an  altogether 
different  type,  they  were  merry  but  they  contained  not  one 
syllable  of  licentiousness. 

Drunkenness  was  never  a  prevalent  vice  *.  The  sanctified 
use  of  wine  at  every  Jewish  ceremony  produced  a  real 
instinct  for  temperance  without  destroying  an  equally  strong 
instinct  for  sociability.  The  early  love  of  Jews  for  tobacco 
and  coffee  emanated  on  the  one  hand  from  their  sobriety, 
on  the  other  hand   from  their   love   of  social    intercourse 


^  Translated  by  the  Rev.  I.  Myers  from  Winter  and  Wunsche's  Die 
Judische  Litteratur,  iii.  p.  588. 

2  Solomon  Alami's  icT3  m:x.  He  lived  in  the  second  half  of  the  four- 
teenth century  in  Portugal. 

^  pn  nn\ro3  crpD  ?a:b  d'tt^x  nnin  "p-'yyc  r^^  ir^onc  See  ^^v^  ?]-r,  §  133.  In 
the  Talmud  some  such  abuse  is  also  noted  {Sanhedrin,  91  a). 

*  Still  less  was  indecent  talk.  Even  in  the  Targum  Shent,  Vashti  boasts  : 
'  My  ancestor  Belshazzar  drank  as  much  wine  as  1,000  persons,  yet  it  never 
made  him  indecent  in  his  talk.'  In  the  fourth  century  the  people  of  Mechuza 
were  noted  for  drunkenness  [Taanith,  26  a},  but  they  were  not  regarded 
as  pure  Jews. 


138  Monogamy  and  the  Home. 

with  their  fellows.  Coffee,  indeed,  was  known  as  the 
'Jewish  drink'  in  Egypt  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  \  it  was  drunk  at  dawn  before  morning  prayers  as 
a  safeguard  against  influenza,  and  immediately  after  grace 
at  formal  meals  ^.  Coffee  was  introduced  into  England  by 
Jews ".  Tobacco,  so  far  as  its  use  in  Europe  is  concerned, 
was  also  discoveied  by  a  Jew,  Luis  de  Torres,  a  companion 
of  Columbus  *.  The  Church,  as  is  well  known,  raised  many 
objections  to  the  use  of  tobacco,  and  King  James  I's  pedantic 
treatise  only  voiced  general  prejudice.  Jewish  Rabbis,  on 
the  other  hand,  hailed  the  use  of  tobacco  as  an  aid  to 
sobriety. 

Owing  to  this  difterence  in  the  attitude  of  Christianity 
and  Judaism,  the  habit  of  smoking  spread  far  more  rapidly 
in  the  East  than  in  Europe.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
it  was  much  more  prevalent  with  the  Jews  of  Cairo  than 
with  the  Jews  of  Poland  ^.  The  only  differences  of  opinion, 
however,  in  Jewish  circles  concerned  not  the  use  of  tobacco 
generally,  but  [a]  its  use  on  festivals.  Sabbaths,  and  fasts, 
and  (h)  the  necessity  for  a  benediction  before  beginning  to 
smoke.  On  fasts  it  became  usual  to  abstain  from  tobacco 
until  the  afternoon,  on  Sabbaths  smoking  was  forbidden 
altogether.  But  the  latter  decision  was  not  accepted  with- 
out a  severe  struggle.  Some  filled  a  hooka  overnight  on 
Friday  and  thus  kept  the  tobacco  alight  for  Sabbath  use. 

^  ■'"ihJp  i^-ip:n  "jj-Ji^"  npt?o  in  A.  Isaaci's  Drni«  ym  n"itt;,  i.  §  §  2-3.  Cf.  n"ic 
C^n  "npo  §  2,  where  coffee  is  termed  a  second  nature  with  some  Jews. 

2  rrnn'  n*2  "jia^n  n"T<L%  §  2,  and  M.  b.  Mordecai  Zacut's  n"i^  ^Venice,  1760), 
§  59;  also  cmi  n;a,  iii.  §  i. 

'  Howell,  Familiar  Letters  (ed.  Jacobs\  p.  662, 

*  Kayserling,  Christopher  Columbus  and  the  Participation  of  the  Jews  in  the 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  Discoveries,  p.  94. 

*  Cf.  Low,  Lebensalter,  p.  353  seq. 


Tobacco.  139 

Snuff  was  not  forbidden^.  The  dev^iccs  resorted  to  by 
inveterate  smokers  were  often  highly  amusing.  Thus  one 
gentleman  used  to  visit  his  Mohammedan  friend  on  the 
Sabbath  and  sit  in  his  room  while  the  latter  smoked  ^.  The 
tobacco  of  the  eastern  Jews  was  perfumed,  and  sweetened 
with  honey.  It  is  worth  noting  that  Jews  early  took  to  the 
trade  in  tobacco,  a  trade  which  they  almost  monopolize  in 
England  to-day  ^. 

1  J.  Chagiz,  mr-p  maVn  n"ic,  §  loi. 

2  N.  Mizrachi's  \np  noij^,  §  4. 

^  Busch,  Handb.  d.  Erf.,  12,  7  ;  Low,  pp.  356.  437,  438. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HOME  LIFE  {continued). 

If  then  the  synagogue  reproduced  the  home,  the  home 
was  the  analogue  of  the  synagogue.  All  the  ritual  cere- 
monies of  the  latter  had  their  counterpart  in  the  domestic 
preparations.  Passover,  Pentecost,  Tabernacles,  Chanuka, 
Purim,  were  all  home  feasts ^.  Jewish  history,  too,  was  taught 
in  the  home  by  the  occasional  fast-days,  the  rites  observed 
tending  to  fill  the  child's  heart  with  loyalty  to  the  past  and 
faith  in  the  present.  But  what  I  think  more  remarkable 
was  the  series  of  private  family  fasts  and  feasts.  Each 
family  had  its  own  mournful  anniversaries,  its  Jahrzeits'^, 

^  Educational  home-rites  were  associated  with  Pentecost.  See  p.  348 
below. 

^  This  commemoration  of  the  dead  was  probably  of  Persian  origin  (cf. 
Schorr,  yi'jnn,  vol.  vi),  but  in  the  middle  ages  the  popularity  of  the  custom 
was  strengthened  by  imitation  of  the  Catholic  masses.  Besides  the  fast, 
two  principal  rites  distinguished  the  Jahrzeit :  {a)  the  Kaddish  prayer,  which 
was  not  due  to  Christian  influence,  and  (6)  the /aAr^^/Might,  which  was  kept 
burning  for  twenty-four  hours  on  every  anniversary  of  the  death.  This  light 
is  emphatically  pronounced  by  Dr.  GUdemann  (iii.  132)  to  be  of  Christian 
origin,  and  already  Bacharach  (Index,  94  a)  could  give  no  Jewish  explana- 
tion of  it.  The  very  term  Jahrzeit  was  used  in  the  Church  of  the  masses  in 
memory  of  the  dead.  But  I  do  not  think  that  we  have  yet  got  to  the 
bottom  of  this  custom,  on  w^hich  investigators  of  folklore  have  not  said 
their  last  word.  R.  Judah  Hanasi  ordered  a  seat  and  light  to  be  kept  ready 
in  his  wonted  place  after  his  death  {T.  B.  Kethuboth,  103  a).  This  associa- 
tion of  a  flame  with  the  soul  is  certainly  pre-Christian.  A  similar  remark 
applies  to  the  Day  of  Atonement  candles,  though  here  Christian  influence  is 
much  more  obvious. 


Family  Feasts  and  Fasts.  141 

observed  on  the  death-day  of  departed  relatives  year  by 
year.  The  fast  varied  in  duration,  sometimes  lasting  for 
half  a  day  only  ^ ;  and  the  particular  custom  became 
a  family  tradition.  These  fasts  must  not  be  confused  with 
the  minor  communal  fasts  such  as  on  Sabbath  afternoons  - 
— in  memory  of  the  death  of  Moses — or  on  Sundays — in 
memory  of  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  which  occurred 
on  that  day".  The  medieval  Jew's  calendar  was  thickly 
studded  with  fasts,  indeed  some  must  have  abstained  from 
food  for  quite  half  the  year.  But  the  feasts  were  more 
popular  than  the  fasts,  and  some  most  remarkable  sump- 
tuary laws  were  enacted  to  curb  the  hospitable  excesses  of 
Jews  on  festive  occasions. 

Hospitality  was  at  first  a  luxury  and  subsequently  a  neces- 
sity in  Jewish  life.  The  Crusades  mark  the  turning-point. 
Impoverishment  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  warriors  of 
the  Cross,  many  Jewish  communities  were  ruined,  others 
reduced  to  beggary,  and  a  good  many  schools  were  thus 
forcibly  closed.  Thus  there  grew  up  among  the  Jews 
a  class  of  travelling  mendicants  and  a  class  of  poor  itinerant 
students,  who  wandered  from  place  to  place  to  sell  their 
wares  or  to  learn  the  Law.  On  their  peregrinations  these 
students  suffered  terrible  privations,  and  of  necessity  lived 
entirely  on  fruits  and   vegetables.     The  entertainment   of 


'  J.  Q.  R.,  iii.  469  and  515.  David  Altaras  (in  his  TZ?"ai  P|"l2?,  Venice,  1714) 
orders  his  children  to  fast  on  the  following  days  : — (i)  the  day  of  his  death, 
(2)  at  the  end  of  the  week  of  mourning,  (3)  at  the  end  of  the  month,  (4)  at 
the  end  of  the  eleventh  month,  (5)  at  the  end  of  the  full  year.  In  modern 
times  there  has  been  a  tendency  to  turn  the  Jahrseit  into  a  joyous  cele- 
bration.    See  Aryeh  Balchuber,  m>?  au:  r\"w,  §  14. 

-  See  Prof.  Kaufmann's  article  on  this  subject  in  J.  Q.  R.,  vi.  754.  Cf. 
Machzor  Vitry,  §  141. 

"  yoix  F]oV,  §  374- 


142  Home  Life. 

poor  wayfarers  became  a  necessary  branch  of  communal 
organization,  and  the  strain  was  met  by  distributing  the 
guests  among  the  various  households  of  the  town  at  which 
they  broke  their  journeys  for  awhile  ^  This  system,  like 
all  humane  systems  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  increased 
the  evil  which  it  sought  to  mitigate,  and  was  no  doubt 
responsible  for  the  creation  of  that  troublesome  feature  of 
modern  Jewish  life,  the  professional  mendicant  traveller, 
who  is  less  a  tramp  than  a  licensed  blackmailer. 

In  the  middle  ages  the  treatment  of  poor  Jewish  travel- 
lers was  considerate  beyond  description.  Nothing  might  be 
done  to  put  the  poor  guest  to  shame.  In  the  Jewish  Grace 
after  Meals  occurs  the  Psalmist's  optimistic  saying  :  *  I  have 
been  young,  and  now  am  old  ;  yet  have  I  not  seen  the 
righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed  begging  their  bread '  (Ps. 
xxxvii.  25).  This  was  said  in  a  soft  undertone,  lest  the 
poor  guest,  seated  at  the  table,  might  be  put  to  the  blush. 
In  Talmudical  times  it  was  usual  to  keep  the  door  open 
during  meals,  so  that  any  hungry  person  might  enter-. 
In  the  middle  ages  this  was  restricted  to  the  custom  of 
opening  the  door  to  the  hungry  on  Passover  eve,  but 
the  custom  has  ended  by  becoming  a  mere  symbol.  The 
medieval  Jew  never  lost   sight   of  the  principle  that  the 


'  Earlier  than  the  sixteenth  century  there  grew  up  a  system  of  Pleiten, 
i.  e.  '  bills  for  the  payment  for  poor  students  and  travellers  to  whom  hospi- 
tality was  shown.'     Kaufmann,/.  Q.  /?.,  iii.  512. 

^  This  is  especially  mentioned  of  R.  Huna.  Already  in  the  time  of  the 
Geonim  the  custom  was  abrogated  {Mafteach,  p.  138).  Another  Passover- 
eve  rite  that  became  a  mere  symbol  was  the  reclining  at  table.  Originally 
this  was  the  ordinary  Graeco- Roman  style  in  use  at  banquets  of  freemen, 
the  slaves  sitting  on  lower  seats.  Already,  in  the  time  of  Maharil,  it  was 
seen  that  in  the  changed  etiquette  of  Europe  reclining,  so  far  from  being 
a  token  of  freedom,  was  rather  indicative  of  ill  health. 


^  Commandment  Meals/  143 

table  was  the  altar  and  the  meals  provided  for  the  poor 
were  the  best  of  offerings  to  God. 

Under  the  blended  feelings  of  pity  and  hospitality,  en- 
gendered by  necessity  and  sociality,  ostentation  and  luxury 
were  bound  to  make  encroaching  inroads  on  the  simplicity 
of  Jewish  home  life.  The  '  diner-out '  was  not  a  typical 
figure  in  Jewish  society,  for  a  stigma  attached  to  any  man 
who  was  observed  too  often  at  other  people's  tables  ^ 
But  it  was  not  merely  permissible,  it  was  religiously 
praiseworthy,  to  attend  certain  hospitable  assemblages  of 
a  semi-religious  kind.  These  opportunities  for  display  and 
extravagance  were  only  too  numerous.  They  included  what 
were  known  as  '  Commandment  meals  ^,'  viz.  banquets  [a)  at 
milah  or  circumcision  of  an  infant  boy,  [b)  at  the  redemption 
of  the  first-born,  {c)  at  a  feast  of  betrothal,  {d)  at  a  marriage, 

^  How  unusual  it  was  to  take  meals  away  from  home  in  the  middle  ages 
may  be  seen  from  the  language  of  the  Kolbo  (§  on  Meals)  : — bDix  ci»v\L'D  in'^ 
cmDi  n'j'TD  nnan  paD  "iiin  n^ai.  The  diner-out  is  denounced  in  the  Talmud 
{Pesachim,  49  b). 

^  The  Hebrew  term  for  these  was  m^D  nnrc  (see  Talmud  Pesachim,  114). 
With  regard  to  the  benth  milah,  the  night  before  the  ceremony,  during 
which  Lilith  was  supposed  to  be  most  inimical  to  the  new-born  babe,  w^as 
known  as  JVachnacht.  This  was  already  know^n  to  Jew^s  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  but  is  probably  of  non- Jewish  origin.  The  night  was  spent  in 
watching,  hence  its  title  Watchnight.  The  suggestion  of  A.  Cahen  that  the 
meaning  is  Badesnacht  (bath-night)  has  no  probability.  During  the  night 
the  watchers  feasted  and  prayed.  More  Jewish  was  the  visit  paid  to  the 
boy  on  the  Sabbath  before  the  beyith,  called  Sabbath  Zachar.  This  may  or 
may  not  be  identical  with  the  Talmudical  '  week  of  the  son '  which  LOw 
{Lebensalter,  pp.  89,  384)  connects  with  the  Greek  rite  of  hebdomenonomena. 
observed  on  the  seventh  day  after  the  birth  of  a  child.  This  probably  had 
no  connexion  originally  w^ith  berith  milah,  indeed  mention  is  also  made 
of  '  the  week  of  the  daughter.'  In  the  middle  ages  the  two  ceremonies,  the 
Jewish  and  the  Greek,  were  assimilated,  and  the  rites  of  the  latter  carried 
over  to  the  former.  (Cf.  Sche^chi^r ,  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  ii.6.)  Regard- 
ing the  Pidyon  Haben,  see  Low,  p.  no  seq.  This  ceremony  was  biblical  in 
origin. 


144  Home  Life. 

[e)  at  a  siyutn  when  a  Talmudical  tractate  was  completed  or 
any  event  of  family  interest  occurred  ^,  (/)  on  the  Saturday 
night  preceding  the  milah,  called  Sabbath  Zachar,  (g)  at 
a  banquet  in  honour  of  the  visit  paid  by  a  Chacham  or 
noted  scholar.  Some  other  occasions  for  festivities  were 
general  but  not  universal.  In  Germany  many  observed 
the  greater  and  lesser  Spinholz,  on  the  two  Sabbaths  pre- 
ceding a  wedding^,  while  from  the  fifteenth  century  large 
parties  were  held  at  the  barmitsvah  or  confirmation  of  the 
thirteen-year-old  boy  ^.  Thus  though  Jewish  authorities 
set  their  faces  against  all  banquets  except  those  of  a  semi- 
religious  character^,  it  early  became  necessary  to  curb  the 
hospitable  excesses  which  occurred  on  the  lawful  occasions. 
The  luxury  and  dimensions  of  these  meals  are  seen  from 
the  sumptuary  regulations  which  were  enacted  throughout 
the  middle  ages.  No  restriction  was  placed  on  the  number 
of  poor  students  whom  the  Rabbi  might  entertain,  and  it  is 
said  that  the  famous  Isaiah  Horwitz  (1622)  had  never  less 
than  eighty  persons  at  his  table  ^.     A  tax  was  frequently 

'  Thus  when  a  boy  recited  the  haftara  (lesson  from  the  prophets)  in 
synagogue,  some  fathers  invited  the  whole  congregation  to  a  meal, 
S,  Duran,  n"TC,  §  160. 

^  Maharil,  p.  jb,  only  knew  of  one  such  Sabbath,  but  yo"i«  F]DV,  §  657, 
mentions  two.  Possibly  Spinholz  =  s/owsa/ia,  though  others  more  probably 
connect  the  word  with  Spindle.  See  Giidemann,  iii.  119,  and  Abraham 
Cahen,  Annuaire  des  J^tudes  Juives,  1881,  i.  p.  89. 

^  A  curious  rite  was  connected  with  cutting  the  barmitzvah  boy's  hair. 
Schudt  fii.  295)  tells  us  that  the  boy  wore  a  wig  on  the  occasion.  The 
hair-cutting  on  the  thirteenth  birthday  in  Tetuan  is  described  in  Benjamin  II, 
P-  333  ■>  perhaps  it  is  modern.  In  other  parts  of  the  East,  in  Arabia  and 
Palestine,  the  first  hair-cutting  of  the  boy  after  his  fourth  birthday  is  cele- 
brated with  much  formality,  and  all  the  guests  participate  in  the  honour  of 
shearing  off  a  few  hairs.  An  account  may  be  found  in  Luncz's  Jerusalem, 
vol.  ii.     Cf.  Schechter,  /.  Q.  R.,  ii.  p.  16. 

*  Cf.  Gudemann,  iii.  260  (f.)  and  references. 

5  Sheftel  Horwitz,  in  the  preface  to  cmDrn  '"i. 


Taxes  on  Hospitality,  145 

levied  on  other  forms  of  hospitality,  especially  in  Italy, 
where  display  was  most  common ^  In  141 8,  in  Forli,  e.g. 
the  Jewish  communal  authorities  resolved  that  no  one  might 
invite  to  a  wedding  more  than  twenty  men,  ten  women,  five 
girls  and  all  the  relatives  till  the  third  generation  —a  suffi- 
ciently generous  allowance^.  If  the  bride  came  from  a 
distance,  the  company  that  escorted  her  was  restricted  to 
ten  horsemen  and  four  attendants  on  foot.  To  a  milah 
(Ceremony  of  Initiation)  only  ten  men  and  five  women 
guests  might  be  added  to  the  relatives.  Any  one  who 
infringed  this  law  had  to  pay  to  the  synagogue  a  fine  of 
one  ducat  for  each  extra  guest  invited.  Similar  teka7ioth 
or  regulations  were  very  frequently  enacted,  partly  in  the 
interests  of  thrift,  partly  to  prevent  envy,  and  partly  to 
protect  the  poorer  Jews  from  the  humiliating  necessity  of 
foregoing  the  banquet  altogether. 

The  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  collecting  such 
a  tax  on  the  luxury  of  hospitality  were  not  so  great  as 
might  at  first  sight  appear.  In  the  first  place  the  synagogue 
authorities,  both  Rabbinical  and  secular,  were  ex  officio 
invited  to  all  family  festivities,  and  they  were  able,  there- 
fore, to  gauge  the  extent  to  which  the  sumptuary  limitations 
were  exceeded.  Then  the  invitations  to  these  banquets 
were  conveyed  by  the  Shamash  ^,  and  he  could  keep  the 
authorities  well  posted.  Not  only,  however,  were  there 
communal  tekaiioth  to  regulate  the  number  of  the  guests, 
but  in  the  seventeenth  century  similar  laws  applied  to  the 
table   appointments.      At    Metz    wine   goblets    might    not 

^  Cf.  the  satires  of  Immanuel  of  Rome  and  Kalonymos. 
^  See  similar  regulations  made  in  Metz  in  1694  {Annxiaire  de  la  Socie'te  des 
Etudes  J nives,  1881,  p.  108). 
^  See  p.  55  above. 

L 


146  Home  Life. 

exceed   ten    ounces    in   weight  ^.      That   the   Jews   of  the 
middle  ages  spent  a  good  deal  on  their  table  appointments 
and  on  furnishing  their  homes  is  evident   from  a  variety 
of  indications.     The  dietary  laws  necessitated  the  appro- 
priation of  one  set  of  utensils  for  meat  and  another  set 
for  butter.     A  case  is  recorded  of  a  very  punctilious  indi- 
vidual who   maintained  two  complete  households  for  this 
very  purpose ".     But  even  in  ordinary  abodes,  the  Passover 
must  have  entailed  the  possession  of  a  good  deal  of  extra 
crockery.     No  doubt  the  poor  borrowed  the  appointments 
used  at  banquets^,  just  as  in  more  modern  times;  but  few 
Jewish  families  in  the  middle  ages  but  possessed  their  gold 
or  silver  drinking-cup  for  the  '  sanctification '  {kiddush)  on 
Sabbaths  and  festivals  *,  and  an  ornamental  seven-branched 
lamp  for  Friday  nights.    These  cups  and  lamps  were  at  first 
but  rarely  embossed  with  figured  designs  ^,  but  painted  and 
inlaid  platters  were  common,  and  the  table-covers  (even  of 
the  poorer  Jews)  were  richly  embroidered  and  worked  with 
golden  birds  and  fishes.    Wooden  vessels,  dyed  and  figured, 
were   also   used    for    hot    food    in    Persia    as    well    as    in 
Germany^.    The  inside  walls  of  the  richer  houses  were  some- 
times decorated  with  paintings  of  Old  Testament  scenes'^, 
and  on  the  outside,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  even  secular 
subjects   were   similarly  displayed.     A  thirteenth  century 
mystical    book,    compiled    by   a    Spanish   Jew,    represents 

^  Annuaire,  ibid.  p.  94,  article  20.  ^  Maharil,  p.  n"D. 

^  See  e.  g.  J.  ben  Enoch,  xmn*  n^n  "prn  n"i^,  §  52. 

*  Silver  spoons  were  much  rarer,  indeed  they  were  termed  '  non-Jewish  ' 
in  Madizor  Vitry,  §  256,  a^^a  h"^  nr^. 

^  Embossed  lamps  were  especially  forbidden.  See  Joseph  of  Trani, 
n"it:,  §  35- 

"  Responsa  of  Geonim    Ma/teach.  219,  226),  and  Maharil  (marrn  m^bn). 

^  Maharil ;  Rashi  to  Sabbath,  149,  and  Aruch,  s.  v.  ;pvi.  Cf.  Berliner,  Aus 
detn  tttneren  Leben,  notes  98  and  99.    Isaac  and  Goliath  were  favourite  figures. 


Ornaments  in  the  Home. 


147 


Pharaoh  to  have  had  Sarah's  portrait  painted  on  the  wall 
of  his  chamber^.  The  revival  of  art  at  the  Renaissance 
left  Jews  quite  untouched  except  in  Italy.  In  Germany 
portraits  were  not  to  be  found  in  Jewish  houses  till  the 
seventeenth  century  ^ ;  in  Italy,  however,  these  were  known 
almost  two  centuries  earlier. 

Before  the  art  of  portrait-painting  was  popular  with 
Europeans,  other  ornamental  objects  were  familiar  features 
of  the  Jewish  abodes.  Cut  flowers  were  placed  in  water 
on  the  tables  ^,  daggers  and  swords  seem  to  have  adorned 
the  walls,  and  fancy  objects,  such  as  clocks  with  weights 
and  apparatus  for  striking  the  hours,  were  used  by  Jews 
almost  as  soon  as  invented  *.  Candlesticks  shaped  like 
human  heads  had  in  the  seventeenth  century  established 
themselves  as  a  fashion  rendered  lawful  by  antiquity^. 
That  these  latter  remarks  apply  only  to  the  houses  of  the 
rich  need  hardly  be  said,  for  we  find  some  Jews  reduced  to 
the  use  of  egg-shells  for  holding  the  Sabbath  Chanukah 
lights.  So,  too,  it  could  only  have  been  the  wealthy  who 
were  able  to  display  on  the  Passover  the  gold  and  silver 
ornaments  and  utensils  pledged  by  non-Jews.  Though 
these  might  not  be  worn  or  used,  they  might  be  displayed 
on  the  Passover  in  the  dining-rooms  ^. 

^  Zohar  to  Gen.  xii.  15. 

^  Dr.  Berliner  put  them  as  late  as  the  eighteenth  centur3^  But  Jair 
Chayim  Bacharach  (died  1702)  already  approved  not  only  of  the  custom  of 
having  a  portrait,  but  hung  it  in  his  room,  mi:?  i«  lo:?y  mi!?  T'ii'j  -nr'i>J  px 
mnn  Dmbnbi  va«.     See  /.  Q.  R.,  iii.  512.     Cf.  Schudt,  Jud.  Merckw.,  iv.  173, 

^  Maharil,  p.  tn":^.  These  were  perhaps  restricted,  as  Dr.  Berliner,  p.  20, 
asserts,  to  the  Sabbath. 

*  Jacob  Weil,  n"'ni:,  §  116.  Rabbis  in  later  centuries  were  much  troubled 
to  decide  whether  alarm  clocks  might  be  used  on  Sabbaths.  Cf.  A.  Rosen- 
baum,  mm'  p  r\"w  (Pressburg,  1871),  §  151. 

^  Joseph  David  of  Salonica,  IM  n''a  7)"w,  ii.  75.  *  Maharil,  p.  ;'\ 

L  2, 


148  Home  Life. 

Similar  differences  no  doubt  prevailed  with  regard  to  the 
houses  of  rich  and  poor.  Stone  was  the  favourite  material 
used  for  building  the  fine  houses  of  Jews.  Ihering  rightly  ^ 
calls  the  preference  for  stone  houses  a  Semitic  instinct, 
and  curiously  enough  Mr.  Joseph  Jacobs  has  argued  that 
the  Jews  were  the  first  people  in  England  to  possess 
dwelling-houses  built  with  stone,  '  probably  for  purposes 
of  protection  as  well  as  comfort  ^.'  This  protective  use  can 
hardly  have  been  everywhere  desired,  for  apparently  in 
Spain  the  Jewish  houses  were  not  always  strongly  built  ^. 

The  Jewish  houses  were  of  varying  sizes,  but  in  central 
Europe  they  were  mostly  very  large,  and  many  families  lived 
together  under  the  same  roof  ^.  The  doors  were  barred,  but 
could  be  opened  by  a  latch  ^.  These  large  houses  were 
surrounded  by  court-yards  containing  vegetable  gardens 
and  buildings  suitable  for  use  in  warmer  weather  ^.  Jews, 
indeed,  were  very  successful  gardeners  until  they  were 
cooped  up  within  their  narrow  ghettos  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  Syria  in  ancient  times  was  famous  for  its  gardens  : 
Multa  Syrorum  olera  is  a  proverb  cited  by  Pliny.  In  the 
thirteenth  century  the  Jews  were  noted  for  their  vineyards 
and  their  orchards  in  southern  France,  and,  as  will  be  seen 
in  a  later  chapter,  also  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 

^  Vorgeschichten  der  Indoeuropder,  p.  139.  Prof.  Bacher  adds  {J.  Q.  R., 
viii.  187)  that  in  the  Bibhcal  laws  regarding  leprous  houses  :Lev.  xiv. 
33-53)7  only  stone  dwellings  are  mentioned.  So,  too,  the  beautiful  house 
of  Samuel  Belassar  of  Regensburg  in  the  fifteenth  century  was  of  stone. 

^  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  p.  xiv. 

^  See  an  epitaph  on  Samuel  ben  Shealtiel,  who  died  in  Valencia  in  1097 
from  the  fall  of  his  house.  So  R.  Chanoch  was  killed  in  Cordova  in  1014  by 
the  collapse  of  the  reading-desk  in  synagogue. 

*  Das  Jiidensclireinbuch  der  Laurez.  zu  Koln,  passim. 

5  Meir  of  Roth enburg,  7?^5/)ohs«    ed.  Mekitse  Nirdamim,  §  22). 

''  Das  Judcnsclireinbuch,  anno  1282. 


A   Rich  Jew's  House.  149 

The  ordinary  Jewish  home  of  the  middle  ages  had 
two  distinct  rooms,  the  inner  and  the  outer  room,  the 
latter  being  mostly  employed  in  warm  weather.  The  duty 
of  dwelling  in  booths  during  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles^ 
was  joyously  performed  throughout  the  middle  ages,  the 
booths  being  decorated  with  much  taste  and  often  with 
costliness^.  Decency  and  even  comfort  as  regards  house- 
room  grew  up  much  earlier  among  ordinary  Jews  than 
among  the  generality  of  Europeans  of  the  middle  ages^. 
So,  too,  the  wealthy  Jews  seem  to  have  surpassed  wealthy 
Christians  of  the  middle  ages  in  the  comfort  and  luxurious- 
ness  of  their  homes.  This  is  the  description  given  by 
a  fifteenth-century  Christian  chronicler  of  a  rich  Jew's  house 
in  Regensburg*;  the  contrast  between  the  exterior  and 
interior  was  probably  frequent  in  Jewish  residences  : — 

The  house  was  a  dark-grey,  moss-covered,  hideous  pile  of  stones,  pro- 
vided with  closely -barred  windows  of  various  sizes,  irregularly  placed.  It 
seemed  scarcely  habitable.  A  passage,  more  than  80  feet  in  length,  feebly 
lighted  on  the  Sabbath,  led  to  a  dark,  partly-decayed,  winding  staircase, 
from  which  one  had  to  grope  one's  way  in  the  gloom  along  the  walls  to 
reach  the  structure  in  the  rear.  A  well-protected  door  opened,  and  one 
entered  into  an  apartment  cheerfully  decorated  with  flowers,  with  costly 
and  splendid  furniture,  richly  and  splendidly  appointed.  Here,  the  walls 
pannelled  and  decorated  with  polished  wood,  with  many-coloured  waving 
and  winding  hangings  and  artistic  carved  work,  was  the  owner's  domestic 
temple,  in  which  the  Sabbath  festival  was  celebrated  with  alternate  religious 
exercises  and  luxurious  regalements.  A  costly  carpet,  rich  in  colour  and 
design,  covered  the  brightly-scrubbed  floor.  A  flame-red  cloth  of  finest 
wool  overlay  the  round  table,  which  rested  on  gilt  legs,  and  above  it  hung, 
fastened  to  a  shining  metal  chain,  the  seven-armed  lamp,  bright  as  when 

^  Leviticus  xxiii. 

2  Maharil  has  a  long  description  of  the  Succah. 

=  See  Berliner,  Inn.  Leben,  p.  20.  In  the  Mishnah  the  size  of  the  average 
dining-room  was  15  ft.  square  {Baba  Bathra,  vi.  4). 

*  Anselm  of  Parengar  in  Jahrbuch  (Wertheimer\  1856,  p.  168.  Also 
Berliner,  loc.  cit.,  p.  21.     This  wealthy  Jew  is  described  as  Hochmeister. 


I50  Home  Life. 

fresh  from  the  casting,  and  streaming  with  radiance  from  seven  points. 
The  festal  board,  adorned  with  heavy  silver  goblets,  the  work  of  a  master- 
hand,  was  surrounded  by  high-backed,  gilt-decorated  chairs,  and  cushions  of 
shorn  velvet.  In  a  niche  a  massive  silver  urn,  with  a  golden  tap,  invited  you 
to  the  ceremonial  hand-washing,  and  the  finest  linen  interwoven  with  costly 
silk  dried  the  purified  hands.  A  superbly  inlaid  oak-table,  girt  with  garlands 
of  flowers,  was  laden  with  the  festive  viands  and  the  glittering  wine-jug ; 
a  couch  of  oriental  design,  with  swelling  side-cushions,  and  a  silver  cup- 
board filled  with  jewels,  golden  chains  and  bangles,  gilt  and  silver  vessels, 
rare  and  precious  antiques,  formed  the  rich  frame  which  worthily  embraced 
this  picture  of  splendour  and  magnificence — the  Hochmeister  s  domestic 
temple. 

Though  the  quantity  and  quality  of  the  food  naturally 
varied  with  the  wealth  of  the  family,  there  was  nevertheless 
an  identity  of  type  in  the  Jewish  meals  of  the  middle  ages. 
The  chief  meal  was  taken  at  midday,  both  on  week-days 
and  on  Sabbaths.  A  long  evening  meal  was  exclusively 
reserved  for  Fridays,  festivals,  and  large  gatherings  of 
a  formal  character.  Three  meals  were  de  rigticiir  on  the 
Sabbath  with  rich  and  poor  alike^,  viz.  on  Friday  evening, 
on  Sabbath  at  midday,  while  a  third  meal  was  spread 
before  evening  on  the  Saturday  ^  In  winter,  this  third 
meal  was  a  mere  formality  and  consisted  mainly  of  dessert, 
in  the  Rhine-land  hard-boiled  eggs  being  preferred  in 
summer^.  Fish  was  the  favourite  delicacy  for  Friday 
evenings,  and  like  most  Jewish  dishes  of  the  middle  ages, 
it  was  highly  seasoned  with  pepper  and  garlic  ^.  Poultry 
was  likewise  much  loved,  but  it  hardly  seems  that  the 
famous  Sabbath  schalet  was  originally  an  individual  dish, 

^  Man}^  Jews  kept  the  table-cloth  spread  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
Sabbath.     Maharil,  p.  28  a. 

2  Ibid. 

^  Mystical  reasons  were  given  for  the  use  of  fish  in  the  middle  ages,  but 
the  fondness  for  it  was  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  laws  of  Shechita 
(slaughtering)  did  not  here  apply. 


Sabbath  and  Festival  Foods.  151 

it  was  rather  a  generic  term  for  food  kept  hot  in  the  oven 
overnight  ^. 

Special  dishes  were  reserved  for  special  occasions,  thus 
on  the  New  Year's  eve  a  sheep's  head  was  often  eaten, 
and  fruit  sweetened  with  honey.  On  the  other  hand, 
nuts  were  not  eaten  till  the  last  day  of  Tabernacles. 
Of  course  the  thin  unleavened  cakes  or  matsoth  were 
reserved  for  the  Passover.  These  were  almost  always  round 
in  shape  ^.  On  Fridays,  as  well  as  on  the  day  preceding 
the  Passover,  it  was  customary  to  eat  very  sparingly,  so 
as  to  build  up  a  keen  appetite  for  the  evening  meal. 
Special  cakes  were  made  for  the  Sabbath  q.^\^^ pasdida"^ , 
they  were,  however,  restricted  to  Germany,  and  were 
certainly  unknown  in  Poland.  A  fritter,  made  in  the  shape 
of  a  ladder  with  seven  rungs,  was  eaten  on  Pentecost  as  an 
emblem  of  the  '  seven  heavens  which  God  rent  at  the  giving 
of  the  Law  to  manifest  that  there  no  God  but  he  ^.' 

But  with  all  this  care  for  the  delights  of  the  tabled  there 

^  This  goes  on  the  supposition  that  the  word  is  connected  with  O.  F. 
chald  —  modern  chaud. 

2  Frankl,  in  his  Jews  of  the  East  (E.  T.),  i.  103,  mentions  a  square  variety. 
Since  machinery  was  introduced  an  attempt  was  made  to  popularize  square 
trtotsas,  but  without  success. 

3  yo\v  rpv,  §  616.  The  story  is  added  (§612^  of  a  Jewish  child,  captured 
by  brigands,  who  cried  so  pitifully  on  Friday  night  for  his  Sabbath  cake  that 
he  was  eventually  discovered  by  Jews  and  ransomed. 

*  Ibid.  §  854.  Special  cakes  were  also  made  for  Chanuka  (Kalonyraos, 
r^^2  p**).  The  pastry  for  Pentecost  was  known  as  Sinai  Cake  in  the  middle 
ages,     Minhagim,  16 a  (Gudemann,  iii.  112;. 

5  In  his  witty  Pitrim  tractate,  Kalonymos  {fourteenth  century),  enumerates 
the  following  foods  as  customary  with  Jews  on  that  merry  anniversary-  :— 
Pies,  chestnuts,  turtle-doves,  pancakes,  small  tarts,  gingerbread,  ragout, 
venison,  roast  goose,  chicken,  stuffed  pigeons,  ducks,  pheasants,  partridges, 
quails,  macaroons,  and  salad.  Beef  was  too  ordinary  a  thing  to  be  used 
on  so  festive  an  occasion.  There  were,  according  to  Dante's  friend, 
Immanuel  of  Rome  {Divan,  xxv),  many  houses  in  the   papal  city  where 


152  Home  Life. 

was  an  equal  fastidiousness  with  regard  to  the  spiritual 
accompaniments  of  eating.  Besides  the  table-hymns  de- 
scribed above,  there  were  a  large  number  of  special  home 
prayers  which  were  recited  before  the  meal  or  as  an  adjunct 
to  the  grace  which  followed  it.  In  presence  of  the  bridal 
pair,  or  of  a  mourner^  or  in  the  house  blessed  with  a  new- 
born boy,  passages  were  interpolated  into  the  grace  after 
meals,  while  some  beautiful  penitential  prayers  were  uttered 
by  pietists  before  their  regular  daily  repasts  ^.  Some  in- 
serted the  23rd  Psalm, '  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd,  I  shall  not 
want,'  before  breaking  bread.  Isaac  Loria  Ashkenazi  (1534- 
1572),  in  his  short  life,  originated  many  customs  of  this  kind, 
mainly  with  a  mystical  significance.  Mysticism  had  some 
evil  effects  on  Jewish  home-life,  and  gave  a  fresh  lease  of 
popularity  to  many  superstitions.  Blessing  the  moon, 
kissing  the  mezuzah  ^,  inscribing  angelic  and  demoniacal 
charms  in  the  bedroom  where  a  child  was  just  born, 
carrying  the  scroll  of  the  Law  into  the  presence  of  the 
mother;  the  recital  of  Psalm  91  before  going  to  sleep  on 
Sabbath  afternoons,  the  refusal  to  speak  any  language  but 
Hebrew  on  the  Sabbath,  puerile  punctiliousness  as  to  the 
number  of  loaves,  the  seizure  of  the  bread  with  the  whole 
ten  fingers,  the  covering  of  the  bread  during  the  blessing  of 
the  wine  and  the  covering  of  knives  during  grace,  the  choice 
of  foods,  the  abstention  from  meat  because  of  a  belief  in 

this  luxury  prevailed.  Jews  were  particularly  fond  of  the  goose  in  Germany 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  especially  the  liver  ;  as  also  of  what  the  Poles 
called  lokshen  or  frimsels.  Pike  was  a  favourite  fish.  Roast  goose  is  named 
as  a  dainty  as  early  as  the  Targuvn  Sheni  to  Esther.  Cheese  was  taken 
on  Chanuka,  because  Judith  gave  Holofernes  milk  to  drink  (in  the  Hebrew 
version  of  the  Apocryphal  'Judith,'  in  the  Greek  this  detail  is  wanting). 

^  n"'nD  111'p,  §  On  eating. 

"^  See  Deut.  vi.  9.  For  superstitions  in  general,  see  Giidemann,  vol.  i. 
ch.  vii.  and  elsewhere. 


Mysticism  and  Superstition.  153 

transmigration^,  the  retention  of  the  custom  of  killing  a 
white  cock  on  the  day  before  the  great  fast  of  the  tenth 
of  Tishri — all  these  and  many  more  old  customs  of  a  semi- 
religious  character,  and  in  origin  tainted  with  no  superstitious 
implications,  were  seized  upon  by  the  mystics  and  emphasized 
into  full-blown  superstitions.  The  mysticism  of  the  middle 
ages  was  responsible  for  much  of  that  narrowing  of  the 
Jewish  home-life  which  gives  it  its  borne  appearance  to 
modern  eyes.  It  out-Judaized  Judaism  in  its  insistence  on 
custom  here  and  custom  there,  until  it  bound  its  adherents 
hand  and  foot  within  the  coils  of  a  superstitious  code.  But 
it  had  its  good  side  too.  If  mysticism  chained  men's  hands 
and  feet  it  never  dominated  the  freedom  of  their  minds ;  it 
lent  wings  to  their  imagination  and  was  in  the  main  a 
powerful  spiritualizing  force.  The  mystics  were  the  best 
prayer-writers  of  the  middle  ages,  and  one  would  seek  in 
vain  for  a  Jewish  Thomas  a  Kempis  outside  the  ranks  of 
the  mystics. 

Before^  however,  I  trace  the  effects  of  this  mysticism  on 
the  Jewish  home-life  of  the  middle  ages^  I  must  find  space 
to  indicate  one  other  characteristic  feature  of  that  life  on 
which  sufficient  stress  has  not  been  laid.  The  grhetto-life 
made  the  Jew  a  sloven,  it  never  made  him  a  brute.  The 
Jew  was  beyond  everything  considerate  to  all  with  whom 
he  had  very  intimate  relations.  This  considerateness  was 
inculcated  in  the  child  from  its  earliest  years.  Envy, 
jealousy,  anger,  violence,  the  use  of  oaths,  were  tabooed 
by  the  Jewish  domestic  code.  It  is  true  that  Jewish  law 
tended,  as  the  centuries  rolled  on,  to  lose  its  elasticity  and 

^  The  doctrine  of  transmigration  was  not  accepted  by  any  of  the  great 
Jewish  writers  of  the  middle  ages.  The  Jewish  mystics,  however,  employed 
the  belief  as  the  corner-stone  of  their  religious  structure. 


154  Home  Life. 

to  disregard  the  weaknesses  of  men.  But  it  was  always 
lenient  towards  women.  Relaxations  of  the  ceremonial 
law  were  constantly  made,  from  considerateness  for  the 
woman's  intenser  nature  and  more  absorbing  cares.  Her 
position  in  the  home  was  always  anomalous,  for  she  was 
regarded  as  at  once  men's  inferior  and  superior.  But, 
to  pass  from  a  straining  of  contrasts,  it  was  she  who 
initiated  the  most  marked  stage  in  the  approach  of  the 
Sabbath,  by  kindling  the  Sabbath  lamp,  exemplifying 
the  old  Jewish  proverb,  '  The  lamp  is  lit,  and  sorrows  flit  ^.' 
In  her  honour  the  Jewish  husband  recited  on  Friday  eve 
at  table  the  Eulogy  of  the  Virtuous  Woman  (Proverbs 
xxxi.  lo).  It  was  the  Jewess  who  had  the  most  well- 
defined  of  the  lighter  and  brighter  domestic  privileges ; 
she  abstained  from  work,  for  instance,  on  the  New 
Moon  ^,  and  in  the  East  did  not  ply  her  ordinary 
occupations  after  sunset  during  the  Omer  ^.  She  was 
excused  from  participation  in  the  habdala  or  ceremonial 
leave-taking  of  the  Sabbath,  because  her  household 
duties  were  particularly  absorbing  after  a  complete  day 
of  rest  ^.  She  joined  in  the  home  prayers,  read  the  grace, 
and  a  girl  was  sometimes  the  spokesman  for  the  family. 
'  Maharil  was  at  his  father-in-law's  table  one  Passover 
eve,  and  his  daughter  said  :  "  Father,  why  hast  thou  raised 

^  Berliner,  loc,  cit. 

^  It  early  became  usual  to  abstain  merely  from  certain  occupations,  such 
as  spinning.      Tashbats,  iii.  244. 

^  This  period  extended  from  Passover  to  Pentecost.  A.  b.  E.  Salem,  in 
his  -^c^<  n'j:o  n"i;D  (Salonica,  1748),  §  31,  describes  this  custom  as  already 
old.  For  the  abstinence  from  work  on  New  Moon  see  Shulchan  Aruch, 
lY'n,  §  417. 

*  That  the  usual  explanations  of  this  custom  are  wrong  is  clear  from  the 
fact  that  in  the  time  of  the  Geonim  the  habdala  wine  was  not  drunk  by  the 
household  at  all.     Maf teach,  143. 


'  Women  of  surpassing  merit'  155 

the  dish  ? "  Then  he  proceeded  at  once  with  the  re- 
cital :  "  We  were  servants  of  Pharaoh  in  Egypt  "  ^.'  Thus 
this  young  lady's  query  was  allowed  to  replace  the  ritual 
questions  set  down  in  the  prayer-book,  a  clear  token, 
moreover,  that  in  the  middle  ages  ritual  had  not  gained 
that  mastery  over  Jewish  life  which  it  enjoyed  after  the 
close  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

It  is  in  connexion  with  the  Passover,  too,  that  we  find 
a  general  statement  regarding  men's  estimate  of  women, 
which  ought  to  be  written  in  letters  of  gold.  By  law, 
a  Jewess  was  not  compelled  to  'recline  at  table ^'  unless 
she  were  a  woman  of  extraordinary  note.  '  Noivadays, 
however,'  says  a  thirteenth-century  authority,  '  all  Jewesses 
are  wo^neii  of  surpassing  merit  ^.'  Again,  woman  was  re- 
garded as  less  yielding  to  the  lower  passions  than  a  man. 
A  Jewish  girl  never  said,  '  I  am  in  love  with  such  and 
such  a  man,  and  will  marry  him  *.'  On  the  other  hand, 
songs  in  praise  of  a  woman's  beauty  were  rejected  in 
the  middle  ages  as  indecorous,  though  the  Talmud  had 
allowed  them^.  Again,  women  were  in  certain  cases 
allowed  to  light  the  Chanuka  lamp  in  behalf  of  their 
absent  husbands,  who  became  freed  from  the  duty  by  the 
vicarious  act  of  their  wives  ^.  Indeed,  some  women  of  the 
middle  ages  were  as  skilled  as  their  husbands  in  the  ritual 
laws  of  Judaism,  and  it  was  said  of  them,  '  if  they  are 
not  prophetesses,  they  are  the  daughters  of  prophets'^.' 
The  point  to  observe  in  all  this  is,  however,  the  practical 

^  Maharil,    section    on    the    Hagada.      Sometimes    she    said    Kaddish^ 
V  mn,  222. 

"^  See  p.  142  above. 

^  Mordecai :— n"ii"nrn  )'^"nn  y^  □•'■cdh  b3  ^{OT'xn.     Maharil,  p.  14. 

*  Cf.  p.  166  below.  ^  Mafteach,  49. 

°  Maharil,  Laws  of  Chanucah.  ''  Cf.  Gudemann,  i.  232. 


156  Home  Life. 

consequence  drawn  from  such  a  statement,  A  woman's 
opinion  was  to  be  deferred  to,  and  her  statements  con- 
cerning customs  were  to  be  treated  with  consideration^. 
The  Talmud  had  already  appreciated  the  finer  perceptions 
of  women,  they  were  better  judges  of  a  guest's  character, 
said  the  Rabbis,  than  men  were.  A  picture  of  the  ordinary 
Jewess's  home  life  of  the  middle  ages  is  drawn  in  the 
Testament  of  a  Jew,  written  before  1357  ^.  '  My 
daughters  must  respect  their  husbands  exceedingly,  and 
they  must  be  always  amiable  to  them  ;  husbands  must 
honour  their  wives  more  than  themselves.  My  daughters 
ought  not  to  laugh  and  speak  much  with  strangers,  nor  to 
dance.  They  ought  always  to  be  at  home  and  not  gadding 
about.  They  must  not  stand  at  the  door  (to  watch  what 
their  neighbours  are  doing).  Most  strongly  I  beg,  most 
strictly  I  command,  that  the  daughters  of  my  house  be  not, 
God  forbid,  without  work  to  do,  for  idleness  leads  to  sin, 
but  they  must  spin,  or  cook,  or  sew,  and  be  patient  and 
modest  in  all  their  ways.'  This  does  not  tell  us  the  whole 
truth,  however.  For,  as  we  saw  in  an  earlier  chapter,  the 
husband  was  often  compelled  to  leave  his  wife  for  con- 
siderable periods,  either  to  study  or  to  trade.  During  his 
absence  the  wife  became  a  business-woman^,  and  she 
often  supported  her  husband  at  ordinary  times,  despite 
the  contempt  in  which  a  Jew  was  held  for  allowing  his 
wife  to  play  the  man  for  him  ^. 

*  ^irrva  \rs  "prDcb  wi ,  ibid. 

^  I  have  given  this  document  in  full  in  /.  Q.  R.,  iii.  461. 
^  Raben.  115,  and  Meir  of  Rothenburg,  Responsa  (Lemberg),  57  ;  Chayim 
Or  Zarua,  250. 

*  This  reliance  on  the  wife  became  more  marked  in  later  centuries. 
Authors  frequently  allude  to  it  in  the  prefaces  of  their  books.  Cf.  e.g. 
Aaron  ben  Meir,  ^^r^H  nn:^  (Neuhof,  1792). 


Christians  in  Service  of  Jews.  157 

I  have  insisted  on  the  characteristic  Jewish  virtue  of 
consider ateness.  In  no  point  was  it  more  admirably  shown 
than  in  the  treatment  of  inferiors.  How  far  this  was  carried 
in  the  relief  of  poverty  cannot  be  told  here  ;  I  must  reserve 
my  space  for  the  behaviour  of  Jews  towards  those  who 
served  them  in  their  homes.  The  efforts  of  zealous  Church- 
men much  diminished  the  numbers  of  the  Christian  servants 
who  lived  in  Jewish  homes  ^.  Unless,  however,  Jews  had 
agreed  to  accept  the  Karaitic  innovation  and  spend  the 
Sabbath  in  darkness  and  cold,  they  were  compelled  to  seek 
the  aid  of  non-Jews  to  kindle  fires  and  attend  to  the  candles 
and  lamps  on  the  Sabbath  day.  The  question  was  one  of 
great  difficulty,  for  the  Jews  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact 
that  he  who  employs  another  to  work  for  him  is,  morally 
speaking,  working  himself.  In  Spain,  a  great  pietist  like 
Solomon  ben  Adret  (died  about  13 10)  found  it  very 
difficult  to  evade  the  attentions  of  a  kind-hearted  Christian 
housemaid.  Though  I  have  mentioned  the  incident  before, 
it  is  worth  citing  the  Rabbi's  own  words :  '  Though  in 
France  they  allow  non-Jews  to  light  a  fire  on  Sabbaths 
in  winter,  I  do  not  allow  it.  Two  or  three  times  I  saw 
that  my  maidservant  heated  the  oven,  though  I  had 
repeatedly  forbidden  it.  So  I  had  a  lock  put  on,  and 
I  remove  the  key  on  Friday  evening,  and  only  replace 
it  on  Saturday  night  ^Z  On  the  other  hand,  an  equally 
celebrated  authority  freely  permitted  non-Jews  to  do  indis- 
pensable work   for  Jews  on  the  Sabbath  ^.     The  question 

^  This  subject  will  be  dealt  with  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  The  reverse 
relations  also  subsisted,  and  Jewesses  acted  as  laundresses  for  Christians, 
Isserlein,  |-«r-irt  nmin,  §  152. 

^  S.  ben  Adret,  n""i^  (ed,  Venice),  §  857.  An  exactly  similar  story  is 
told  of  Meir  of  Rothenburg  ;Gudemann,  i.  p.  255). 

^  y"uU;n,  iii.  225. 


158  Home  Life. 

resolved  itself  into  a  compromise,  and  the  Sabbath  goy, 
as  well  as  the  Sabbath  goya  ^ — itinerant  servitors  of  the 
ghettos,  who  went  about  stirring  fires,  snuffing  candles, 
and  heating  the  j-^//<2/^/— became  recognized  necessaries 
of  Jewish  life^.  It  led  unhappily  to  a  certain  amount  of 
hypocrisy,  for  many  Jews  somewhat  dulled  their  conscience 
by  the  assumption  that  an  indirect  order  to  a  servant 
was  less  culpable  than  a  straightforward  and  direct  in- 
junction. They  would  hint  a  command,  but  they  would  not 
speak  it. 

The  Jewish  servant  was,  in  every  sense,  a  member  of 
the  family,  and  though  the  servant  did  not  usually  eat 
with  the  master,  he  or  she  received  a  portion  of  every 
dish  before  it  came  to  table.  '  A  man  must  never  put 
unnecessary  burdens  on  a  servant,''  says  the  Book  of  the 
Pious  ^.  A  party  of  bachurim  (students)  at  a  drinking- 
bout  in  the  fifteenth  century,  in  Vienna,  were  playing 
practical  jokes  with  one  another,  and  one  of  the  party 
threw  a  dish  at  the  servant's  head.  The  miscreant  barely 
escaped  excommunication  for  the  offence,  and  was  sub- 
jected to  most  severe  penalties.  In  the  Talmud  the  rela- 
tions between  masters  and  servants  were  most  amicable. 
R.  Gamliel's  attendant  Tobi  was  a  special  favourite,  and 
his  doings  are  often  quoted.  A  saying  of  the  maidservant 
of  R.  Jehuda  became  the  proverbial  formula  for  dismissing 
guests  when  the  meal  was  over  :  '  The  can  has  reached  the 
bottom  of  the  cask,  let  the  eagles  hie  them  to  their  nests.' 


^  The  objection  to  her  long  continued.  Cf.  y^m«  F]CV,  §  608,  B.  Wesel, 
yrci  nipo  (1755),  §  2,  &c. 

*  The  employment  of  a  non-Jew  to  attend  to  the  candles  in  synagogue  on 
the  Day  of  Atonement  was  licensed  by  many  authorities, — Maharil,  p.  46. 

'  §  665. 


Jewish  Servants.  159 

When,  however,  the  pause  was  merely  an  interval  between 
the  courses  she  remarked  :  '  Another  follows  its  like,  the 
can  floats  on  the  cask  like  a  ship  on  the  sea  ^.'  Similar 
familiarity  prevailed  in  the  middle  ages.  The  Jews  were 
always  generous  masters.  Presents  were  given  to  servants 
on  Purim,  even  when  the  servants  were  not  Jews  ^.  The 
treatment  of  servants  may  be  inferred  from  the  remark  of 
Bacharach,  that  '  it  is  not  the  custom  for  mistresses '  to 
deduct  the  cost  of  broken  crockery  from  the  servant's 
wages  ^. 

Naturally  the  servants  shared  in  the  Sabbath  rest,  and 
participated  in  home  prayers  and  religious  rites.  Before 
they  lit  the  candles  on  Saturday  nights,  the  servant-girl  said, 
*  Blessed  be  he  who  separates  between  holy  and  profane.' 
They  frequently  sat  at  table  with  the  family  on  Sabbaths 
and  on  the  Passover  eve,  and  it  was  on  these  occasions 
that  the  innate  Jewish  mannerliness  revealed  itself  The 
servant  was  not  to  be  put  to  shame  *,  and  was  not  to  be 
asked  to  perform  her  ordinary  duties  while  at  table. 
'  When  I  was  a  child,'  says  I.  Liipschiitz  ^,  '  and  I  asked 
the  servant  who  zvas  sitting  at  table  with  tis  to  give  me 
some  water,  my  mother  rebuked  me.' 

I  can  best  indicate  the  extent  to  which  this  quality  was 
carried  by  recalling  that  it  was  found  necessary  at  Metz, 
in  1694,  to  insert  in  the  communal  regulations  a  clause 
restraining  masters  from  too  lavish  an  expenditure  at  their 
servants'  weddings.  It  was  forbidden  to  invite  more  than 
thirty-two  guests  (besides  the  communal  authorities)  to  the 


^  Ernbin,  53  b. 

"^  Meir  of  Rothenburg,  ri""iiri,  ed.  Lemberg,  184. 

^  TN^  mn,  §103.  *  Book  of  the  Pious,  §  665. 

5  See/.  Q.R.,  iii.  p.  478. 


i6o  Home   Life. 

festivities  which  the  master  organized  in  celebration  of  his 
servant's  nuptials  ^ 

To  return  from  this  digression.  When  one  thinks  what 
human  life  was  for  the  majority  of  men  in  the  middle 
ages,  '  how  little  of  a  feast  for  their  senses  it  could  possibly 
be,  one  understands  the  charm  for  them  of  a  refuge  offered 
in  the  heart  and  the  imagination  ^.'  More  than  to  any 
others,  this  remark  applies  to  the  Jews.  As  the  middle 
ages  closed  for  the  rest  of  Europe  the  material  horizon 
of  the  Jews  narrowed.  Prejudice  and  proscription  robbed 
them  of  the  attractions  of  public  life  and  threw  them 
within  themselves,  to  find  their  happiness  in  their  own 
idealized  hopes.  But  the  fancies  on  which  they  fed  were 
not,  for  the  moment,  of  the  kind  that  expand  the 
imagination. 

Jews  were  not  inaccessible  to  ideas,  for  they  never  con- 
fused the  land  of  Philistia  with  the  land  of  the  children  of 
light.  But  the  ideas  which  came  to  them  in  the  really 
dark  ages  of  Jewish  life  were  not  the  ideas  which  freshened 
Europe  and  roused  it  from  its  mystic  medieval  dreams. 
Indeed,  Judaism  became  more  mystical  as  Europe  became 
more  rational,  it  clasped  its  cloak  tighter  as  the  sun  burned 
warmer.  The  Renaissance,  which  drew  half  its  inspiration 
from  Hebraism,  left  the  Jews  untouched  on  the  artistic  side. 
The  Protestant  Reformation,  which  took  its  life-blood  from 
a  rational  Hebraism,  left  the  Jews  unaffected  on  the  moral 
side.  It  was,  in  a  sense,  a  misfortune  for  the  Synagogue 
that  it  had  not  sunk  into  the  decadence  from  which  the 
Reformation  roused  the  Church.  As  it  was  not  corrupt  it 
needed  no  rousing  moral  regeneration,  and  so  it  escaped, 

^  Annuaire  de  la  Societe  des  Etudes  Jutves,  1885,  p.  109. 

^  Matthew  Arnold,  Essays  in  Criticism  (Eversley  ed.),  p.  213. 


Ejfeds  of  Persecution.  i6r 

through  its  own  inherent  virtues,  that  general  stirring-up 
of  life  which  results  from  great  efforts  for  the  redress  of 
great  vices. 

Moreover,  Judaism  in  the  home  kept  pace  with  its 
fortunes  in  the  world,  but  could  not  overstep  the  bounds 
thus  set.  For,  without,  Judaism  at  the  close  of  the  Re- 
naissance had  become  thoroughly  disorganized.  The 
disgraceful  persecutions  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  completed  what  the  Crusades  had  begun,  and 
split  the  Jewish  communities  into  national  groups.  There 
were  in  many  towns  not  only  Italian,  Greek,  Spanish, 
Portuguese,  German,  and  Moorish  congregations  side  by 
side,  but  there  were  innumerable  sections  within  each  of 
these  groups.  Each  of  these  congregations  had  its  own 
managers,  its  own  ritual,  its  own  Rabbis.,  its  own  charities, 
its  own  jealousies,  its  own  prejudices  ^.  They  were  not 
only  independent  of  one  another,  they  were  often  antago- 
nistic ;  they  rarely  worked  together  for  common  aims. 
Then  two  or  three  centuries  of  retrogression  or  stagnation 
followed  the  tremendous  blow  inflicted  on  medieval  Juda- 
ism by  the  expulsion  of  its  most  enlightened  representatives 
from  Spain.  At  a  stroke,  the  Spanish  Inquisition  cancelled 
the  painfully-earned  right  of  Jews  to  admission  into  the 
wider  world,  just  when  the  maritime  discoveries  of  the 
fifteenth  century  were  expanding  the  material  horizon  of 
Europe,  and  the  revival  of  interest  in  the  old  masterpieces 
of  Hebraic  and  Hellenic  literature  was  enlarging  the  range 
of  men's  minds.  Jewish  life,  like  the  Jewish  organization, 
became  for  a  while  a  mass  and  maze  of  detail,  without 
starting-point  and  without  goal.  The  details  were  clung 
to  the  more  desperately  because  the  Jews  dared  not  leave 

^  Cf.  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews  (English  trans. \  IV.  ch.  xv. 
M 


i62  Home  Life. 

them,  having  lost  sense  of  the  central  idea  which  the  details 
exemplified.  They  could  not  prune  the  branches,  because 
root  and  branch  were  intermingled.  Home  religion  became 
an  etiquette,  a  provincial  code  of  manners  formalized  against 
foreign  intrusions.  It  is  remarkable  that  this  internal  de- 
moralization lasted  for  so  short  a  time.  Before  the  six- 
teenth century  was  three-fourths  over,  the  recovery  was 
already  manifesting  itself^.  An  era  of  rigidity  followed 
a  period  of  disorganization.  Then,  with  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  came  the  longed-for  touch  of  the 
modern  spirit  of  tolerance  from  without,  and  lo  !  the  evil 
humours  fled  one  by  one  into  the  night,  and  the  Tree  of 
Life  revived,  erect  and  expansive.  For  its  roots  were  fixed 
in  the  home,  and  the  Jewish  home,  whatever  its  faults  or 
limitations,  was  never  tainted  with  moral  corruption. 

^  Cf.  the  remarks  on  this  subject  in  the  Introduction. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

LOVE   AND   COURTSHIP. 


The  prevalence  of  child-marriages  in  the  middle  ages 
■  reduced  Jewish  courtship  to  an  expression  of  the  will  of 
Vhe  parents.  But  the  sons  of  Israel  did  not  quite  forget 
that  the  noblest  of  love  poems  is  contained  in  the  Hebrew 
Bible.  The  Song  of  Songs  was  perhaps  the  most  popular 
of  all  the  Books  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  was  read  in 
synagogue,  and  its  imagery  has  left  its  mark  on  many  pages 
of  the  Jewish  liturgy.  Through  a  happy  misunderstanding 
of  its  meaning,  this  idealization  of  love  became  a  tradition 
which  tinged  the  most  matter-of-fact  marriage  bargains 
with  some  colour  of  romance.  Nay,  there  has  never  been 
an  age  in  which  Jewish  love-stories  have  not  relieved  the 
monotony  of  made-up  marriages.  In  the  Talmud  and 
the  medieval  Jewish  records  may  be  found  genuine  cases 
of  courtship,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word. 

There  is  no  need  to  quote  stray  instances,  for  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Jewish  poets  of  the  middle  ages  leaves  no  room 
for  doubt.  Moses  Ibn  Ezra  (born  in  1070)  was  so  weighted 
by  the  sense  of  man's  misery  that  his  liturgical  pieces  turn 
mostly  on  the  subject  of  sin  and  reconciliation.  This  serious 
Spanish-Jewish  writer,  surnamed  the  '  poet  of  penitence,' 
was,  nevertheless,  the  author  of  Hebrew  love-songs  worthy 
of  the  most  light-hearted  troubadour.     His  passion,  he  tells 

M  2 


i64  Love  and  Courtship. 

us,  was  never  equalled  before;  the  world  had  never  seen 
the  like  of  his  love  or  of  his  loved  one.  Though  she  frown 
on  him  and  smile  on  others,  his  life  would  be  a  slavery  if 
he  were  released  from  her  bonds.  The  more  she  spurns 
him,  the  more  ardent  grows  his  flame.  He  is  love-sick,  but 
asks  no  healing,  for  death  would  be  more  tolerable  than  the 
quenching  of  his  passion.  '  Live  on,'  he  cries  to  the  irre- 
sponsive object  of  his  affection, '  though  thy  lips  drop  honey 
for  others  to  sip  ;  live  on  breathing  myrrh  for  others  to 
inhale.  Though  thou  art  false  to  me,  till  the  cold  earth 
claims  her  own  again,  I  shall  remain  true  to  thee.  My 
heart  loves  to  hear  the  nightingale's  song,  though  the 
songster  is  above  me  and  afar  ^.' 

Jehuda  Halevi,  the  greatest  Jewish  poet  of  the  middle 
ages,  wrote  numerous  love-songs  which  display  a  similar 
abandonment  to  romantic  passion.  '  Ophrah  bathes  her 
garment  in  the  water  of  my  tears,  and  dries  it  in  the  sun- 
shine of  her  bright  eyes.'  Of  the  Hebrew  wedding  odes, 
however,  an  opportunity  will  soon  present  itself  to  speak. 
Let  it  be  noted  that  Jehuda  Halevi,  who  sings  of  love, 
added  scores  of  fine  hymns  to  the  prayer-book,  and  became 
the  exemplar  of  Judaism  for  his  own  contemporaries  and 
for  all  later  centuries^  It  is  in  the  works  just  of  the  poets 

jfThis'drasSjTHe  men  who  left  their  impression  their  people's 
jacred  liturgy  and  innermost  life,  that  women  are  treated 

ith  the  utmost  reverence,  and  love  is  idealized  2.  It  was 
noTtill  the  thirteenth  century  that  a  Spanish  Jew,  Judah 
ben  Sabbatai  of  Barcelona,  composed  a  diatribe  against  the 

'  Kaempf,  Nichtandalusische  Poesie  andalusischer  Dtchter(Beila.gen,  p.  209). 

2  These  poems  found  their  way  into  the  liturgy  itself.  Cf.  the  Yemen 
Prayer-book,  Brit.  Mus.  MS.  Or.  2227,  where  many  of  Jehuda  Halevi's 
wedding  odes  are  introduced. 


Satires  on   Women,  165 

fair  sex.  But  can  one  compare  him  in  importance  with 
the  writer  who  repHed  to  Judah's  Woman  Hater  with  a 
ponderous  yet  chivalrous  plea  in  defence  of  the  daughters 
of  Israel  ?  Yedaya  Bedaresi,  who  entered  the  lists  on 
woman's  behalf  was  the  writer  of  perhaps  the  most  popular 
ethical  prose-poem  written  in  Hebrew  during  the  whole 
middle  ages !  It  is  undeniable  that  the  wit  was  on  the 
side  of  the  enemy ;  it  is  undeniable  that  the  folk-tales  of 
the  Jews,  betraying  their  Indian  origin,  are  misogynist  to 
a  degree  never  exceeded,  hardly  equalled,  in  other  litera- 
ture. But  the  compilers  of  these  satires  were  simply 
using  good  tales  and  smart  epigrams  without  overmuch 
thought  of  their  tendency,  and  reproduced  the  Seven  Wise 
Masters  or  Honein's  Maxims  of  the  Philosophers,  not  because 
of  the  sages'  sneers  against  woman's  fidelity,  but  because 
the  stories  they  told  were  ingenious  and  enthralling.  The 
selection  of  good  motives  for  tales  lay  within  a  very 
restricted  area  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
until  Boccaccio  and  Chaucer  went  to  other  fields  than  India 
or  Arabia  for  their  lore.  Thus  we  find  Zabara,  writing 
a  Book  of  Delight  in  Hebrew  in  1 2co,  crowding  his  pages 
with  narratives  full  of  point  and  sting,  stories  which  tell 
of  women's  wickedness  and  infidelity,  of  their  weakness  of 
intellect  and  fickleness  of  will.  But  there  is  a  marked 
divergence  between  Zabara's  stories  and  the  moral  which 
he  draws  from  them.  His  misogynist  satires  are  never 
without  a  philogynist  tag.  And  the  reason  is  obvious. 
Zabara  did  not  invent  the  tales ;  they  were  the  common 
folk-stock  of  the  medieval  poets.  But  he  did  invent  his 
own  morals  \ 

'  Cf.  the  writer's  remarks  in  the  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  vi.  p.  506.      See 
also  p.  87  above. 


i66  Love  and  Courtship. 

The  love  of  which  the  Hebrew  versifiers  of  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries  sing  was,  however,  the  prerogative  of 
the  poets.     So  far  as  the  ordinary  Jews  shared  such  feelings, 
courtship  .was  entirely  of  the  mans  makingwAs  the  Tal- 
/mud   prettily  puts  it,  one'" who  has  lost  a  treasure  must 
seek  it  again,  the  treasure  does  not  look  for  him.     Eve  was 
taken    from  Adam,  hence  Adam's  sons  since  born  go  in 
I  search    of  their   Eves.     That   the  woman    should   display 
pre-nuptial  love  was  repulsive  to  the  Jewish  conception  of 
\  womanliness.  Says  a  tenth  or  eleventh  century  authority^: — 
»  '  It  is  the  habit  of  all  Jewish  maidens,  even  if  they  be  as 
'  much  as  twenty  years  old,  to  leave  the  arrangement  of  their 
marriage  in  the  hands  of  their  fathers  ;    nor  are  they  in- 
delicate or  impudent  enough  to  express  their  own  fancies, 
and  to  say,  "  I  would  like  to  wed  such  and  such  a  one."  ' 
There  is  even   more  in  this  sentiment  than  at  first  sight 
appears,    for  it   marks   the   chasm    separating  the  concep- 
tion  of   marriage   which    the    medieval    Jews   entertained 
from    the   views    which    find  expression    in   the   Talmud. 
In    point    of    fact    the     Talmudical    view    is    the    much 
nearer   allied    of    the   two    to   the    prevailing    opinion    of 
modern  Europe.     '  A  man,'  says  the  Talmud,  '  must  not 
betroth    his    daughter   while    she    is    a    minor ;    he    must 
wait    till    she    attains    her    majority,   and    says,   "  I    love 
this  man'-.'" 


^  Harkavy,  Responsa  of  Geonim,  p.  87.  The  passage  is  so  important  that 
I  give  the  original : — ni  ib^cNi  mji2  Ti'in  ivi  Nma  Nnm  ^'rw  b^-iio'  nm  b3T  njn:Q 

^  Talmud,  Kiddushin^  41  a.  The  age  of  marriage  was  not  unanimously 
agreed  upon  in  Talmudic  times.  '  In  Babylon  a  man  first  marries  and  then 
studies  the  Torah,  in  Palestine  he  first  learns  Torah  and  then  marries ' 
(Mailer,  D'3n:D  rji^n,   §  70.     Cf.   Kiddushin,   29  h).     In  the  Midrash,  Echa 


Child  Marriage.  167 

It  will  readily  be  seen  that  from  the  sentimental  objection 
which  grew  up  in  the  middle  ages  against  a  Jewish  maiden 
expressing  her  feelings  on  the  subject  of  love,  the  step  to 
early  marriage  was  an  easy  one.  For,  if  her  father  might 
choose  her  husband  for  her,  why  should  he  not  tie  the  bond 
while  she  had  no  power  to  interfere  ?  The  legal  minority 
I  of  a  girl  extended  to  the  day  after  she  had  completed  her 

/  twelfth  year,  and  by  the  thirteenth  century  a  large  pro- 

portion of  Jewish  girls  were  married  during  their  minority^. 
The  husbands  were  not  much  older,  though  with  them  the 
Mishnaic  admonition  to  regard  eighteen  as  normal  age  for 
marriage^  was  not  altogether  abandoned  by  medieval  Jews. 
Maimonides  explained  that  the  Mishnaic  phrase,  '  eighteen 
years  old,'  used  of  the  age  proper  to  a  Jewish  bridegroom, 
meant  *  in  his  eighteenth  year,'  thus  reducing  the  marriage 
age  to  seventeen.  In  the  recognized  Jewish  code^  the 
following  rule  is  laid  down  : — '  It  is  the  duty  of  every 
Jewish  man  to  marry  a  wife  in  his  eighteenth  year,  but 
he  who  anticipates  and  marries  earlier  is  following  the 
more  laudable  course,  but  no  one  should  marry  before 
he  is  thirteen.' 

The  motive  for  these  early  marriages  was  a  moral  one, 
the  promotion  of  chastity  being  one  of  the  most  pronounced 

Rabbathi  (to  Lamentations  i.  i,  section  beginning  cr*  'nn'"^^rn),  occurs  this 
remark  : — '  A  Jew  used  to  marry  his  son  when  he  was  twelve  years  old  to 
a  maiden  who  had  reached  the  period  of  puberty  ;  he  would  marry  his 
grandson  when  he  too  was  twelve,  and  thus  a  man  of  twenty-six  was 
already  a  grandfather.'  This  was  evidently  the  national  ideal — not  realized 
when  this  passage  was  written. 

^  Cf.  Tosafoth  to  Kiddushin,  41  a,  and  many  authorities,   e.  g.   the  cna?, 

i-  §  3- 

*  Mishnah  Aboth,  v.  §  24. 

'  Shulchan  Aruch,  -\xsri  pN,  i.  3.  Cf.  LOw's  Lebensalter,  p.  165  seq.,  for 
further  details  on  this  point. 


t68  Love  and  Courtship. 

of  Jewish  social  ideals.  At  times,  however,  marriages 
occurred  at  an  even  earlier  age  than  any  yet  cited.  In 
the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  bridegroom 
was  frequently  not  more  than  ten  years  old,  and  the  bride 
was  younger  still  ^.  A  deep  mystical  thought  lay  behind 
this  epidemic  of  child-unions.  The  period  was  deeply  stirred 
by  visionary  expectations,  and  Messianic  hopes — never 
long  absent  from  the  day-dreamers  of  the  ghetto — clustered 
luxuriantly  round  the  person  of  that  arch-impostor,  Sabbatai 
Zevi.  Jewish  tradition  had  it  that  the  Messianic  era  could 
not  dawn  until  all  the  souls  created  by  God  from  the 
primeval  chaos  had  been  fitted  to  the  earthly  bodies  destined 
for  their  reception  here  below.  To  hurry  on  the  great  day, 
mothers  and  fathers  eagerly  joined  their  children  in  wed- 
lock, each  mother  dreaming  perhaps  that  in  the  child  of 
her  own  offspring  God  would  deign  to  plant  the  soul  of  the 
longed-for  redeemer. 

Two  other  reasons,  at  once  more  prosaic  and  more  pathetic 
than  the  sentimental  or  moral  motives  previously  considered, 
are  assigned  by  medieval  authorities  for  encouraging,  or  at 
least  permitting,  marriages  to  take  place  at  an  earlier  age 
than  the  Talmud  regarded  as  legal  or  laudable.  These 
justifications  are  worthy  of  more  than  passing  attention,  for 
they  throw  a  lurid  light  on  the  darkening  circumstances  of 
the  Jews.  Child-marriages,  indeed,  were  not  restricted  to 
Jews,  nor  to  the  East.  Thus,  in  1211,  St.  Elizabeth,  the 
four-year-old  Hungarian  princess,  was  married  to  a  bride- 
groom of  the   mature  age  of  eleven.      Her   transportation 


'  mwpn  min  n^  14  b,  cited  by  Law,  p.  402,  note  140.  For  a  case  of  very 
early  marriage,  see  Jacob  Weil,  n"iTr,  112  (the  bride  was  ten).  Much  earlier, 
girls  were  married  at  the  same  age.     Cf.  Muller,  Ma/teach,  p.  115. 


Chivalry.  169 

to  her  boy-husband's  home  in  a  silver  cradle  gave  rise  to 
the  oft-quoted  lines  ^ : — 

Eine  Hochzeit  sie  begingen, 
Brautlauf  sie  empfingen, 
Mit  den  zwein  jungen  Kinden, 
Eine  Eh'  sie  wollten  binden, 
Festen  und  starken. 

Here,  no  doubt,  political  exigencies  played  their  part,  but 
it  cannot  be  maintained  that  love  marriages  were  usual  in 
Europe  until  after  the  Crusades.  Now,  the  same  events 
which  gave  chivalrous  romance  a  commanding  influence  in 
the  marriage  customs  of  Christian  Europe  produced  an 
exactly  opposite  effect  in  Jewish  circles.  There  are  two 
ends  to  a  spear,  and  while  the  Christian  knight  handled  the 
butt- end,  the  Jew  was  only  acquainted  with  the  pointy  'As 
to  our  custom,'  says  a  twelfth  century  Jewish  authority^, 
'  of  betrothing  our  daughters  before  they  are  fully  twelve 
years  old,  the  cause  is  that  persecutions  are  more  frequent 
every  day,  and  if  a  man  can  afford  to  give  his  daughter 
a  dowry,  he  fears  that  to-morrow  he  may  not  be  able  to  do 
it,  and  then  his  daughter  would  remain  for  ever  unmarried.' 
In  the  fourteenth  century,  to  the  uncertainty  of  the  dowry 
was  added  the  scarcity  of  eligible  men.  '  The  Talmudic 
prohibition  of  child-marriages,'  says  Perez  of  Corbeil  ^ 
*  applied  only  to  the  period  when  many  Jewish  families 
were  settled  in  the  same  town.  Now,  however  (after  the 
Crusades),  when  our  numbers  are  reduced  and  our  people 

^  Cf.    Emil  Friedberg's  Ehe  und  Eheschliessung  im  deutschen  Mittelalter, 

P-  15- 

2  Tosafoth,  as  cited  above.  This  is  quoted,  too,  from  Mr.  S.  Schechter's 
translation,  in  J.  Jacobs'  Angevin  England,  p.  52. 

'^  Cf.  Kolbo,  §  86  a,  TDia"?,  p.  26  b,  §  8,  cites  both  reasons.     Cf.  Low,  p.  171. 


I70  Love  and  Courtship. 

I  scattered,  we  are  in  the  habit  of  marrying  girls  under  the 
age  of  twelve,  should  an  eligible  husband  present  himself.' 
The  first  stage  on  the  downward  road  to  the  made-up 
marriage  was  reached  when  it  was  held  lawful  to  betroth 
a  girl  without  her  knowledge,  though  it  remained  necessary 
to  seek  her  assent  before  completing  the  wedding  ^  But  it 
is  a  universal  truth  that  love  laughs  at  rules,  and  Isaac  and 
Rebekah  would  often  settle  their  love  affairs  without  the 
paternal  sanction. 

The  professional  match-maker  or  sJiadchan  comes  into 
L  prominence  and  enjoys  a  legal  status  at  least  as  early  as  the 
I  twelfth  century^.  It  is  hardly  open  to  doubt  that  this 
^"enterprising  professional  owed  his  existence  to  the  same 
cycle  of  events  which  resulted  in  the  systematization  of 
early  marriages.  When  Jewish  society  became  disintegrated 
by  the  massacres  and  expulsions  of  the  Crusading  era,  its 
scattered  items  could  only  be  re-united  through  the  agency 
of  some  peripatetic  go-between.  There  was  nothing 
essentially  unromantic  about  the  method,  for  the  shadchan 
was  often  a  genuine  enthusiast  for  marriage.  The  evil  came 
in  when,  like  the  Roman  pro7iiiba  or  the  Moslem  katbeh, 
the  shadchan  made  up  marriages  for  a  fee,  or,  happening 
to  be  a  travelling  merchant,  hawked  hearts  as  well  as 
trinkets.  A  good  deal  of  misery  resulted  from  the 
marriages  rashly  contracted  between  strangers,  for  desertion 
or  indigence  would  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  hapless  Jewesses 
who  were  wed  to  men  coming  they  hardly  knew  whence, 

^  Natronai  Gaon  (ninth  cent.)  records  the  fact  that  in  his  time  such  cases 
were  of  daily  occurrence  :  — -jbn:  ij'ni  inpn'^  pciT«  i^CJ  to:'N  inDi  DV  733  D'\urm 
fttJITp  nrttj  -ir  ni,  M  tiller,  Maf teach,  p.  115. 

^  The  fact  that  the  shadchan  was  regarded  as  an  agent  and  could  legally 
exact  a  fee  is  already  quoted  by  the  otiQ  {Baba  Kamma,  ch.  x),  from  the 
Or  Zarua  in  the  name  of  R.  Simchah. 


The  'Shadchan.'  171 

with  past  records  which  veiled  their  less  presentable  features 
from  the  careless  scrutiny  of  fathers  in  a  hurry,  but  were 
revealed  all  too  surely  at  the  repentant  leisure  of  the  poor 
young  brides.  Neither  the  marriages  nor  the  brokers, 
however,  were  originally  of  this  type.  '  Whenever  you  are 
arranging  a  marriage  between  two  parties,  never  exaggerate, 
but  always  tell  the  literal  truth,'  says  a  seventeenth  century 
writer^;  and,  he  adds, '  in  earlier  times,  none  but  students  of 
the  law  were  shadchanim  (or  match-makers).'  This  state- 
ment is  undoubtedly  true.  That  famous  authority,  to 
whose  memoirs  I  have  had  and  shall  have  to  make  such 
frequent  recourse,  Jacob  Molin,  known  as  the  Maharil,  main- 
tained himself  by  the  income  derived  from  his  match- 
making operations.  On  the  other  hand,  he  devoted  the 
whole  of  his  salary  as  Rabbi  to  the  support  of  his  students-. 
His  reputation  as  a  successful  marriage-agent  extended 
throughout  the  Rhine-land,  and  his  probity  and  prudence 
endeared  him  to  youths  and  maidens  alike.  Such  a  Rabbi 
was  the  natural  go-between  in  the  middle  ages,  when 
fathers  were  much  more  anxious  to  obtain  learned  and 
respectable  than  wealthy  sons-in-law. 

With  the  French  and  German  Jews,  the  bacJmr  or 
theological  student  occupied  the  position  filled  by  the 
curate  in  modern  English  society.  Nay,  just  as  in  Bible 
times  wives  were  won  by  bold  feats  on  the  battle-field, 
so  in  the  middle  ages  the  way  to  a  maiden's  heart  was 
often  made  by  the  brilliant  exploits  of  a  young,  budding 

^  Jonah  Landsofer's  n><ii!?.  He  informs  us,  moreover,  that  by  his  day  the 
age  at  which  marriages  were  common  had  considerably  risen.  Eighteen  is 
the  age  which  he  recommends.  See  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  iii.  p.  480  ; 
Giidemann,  Quellenschriften,  p.  135. 

^  Another  noted  Rabbi- shadchan  was  Jacob  Margolis,  a  contemporary 
of  M.  Minz  (see  latter's  n"i\D,  74). 


172  Love  and  Courtship, 

Talmudist  on  the  field  of  Rabbinical  controversy  \  For 
the  shadchmi  was  not  necessarily  brought  into  requisition, 
as  the  youths  might  display  their  intellectual  prowess  under 
the  gaze  of  their  future  wives.  In  the  Talmud  public 
opportunities  for  courtship  were  already  a  popular  insti- 
tution, or  rather  were  a  survival  of  a  primitive  folk-custom^. 
There  were  no  more  joyous  festivals  in  Israel  than  the 
fifteenth  of  Ab  and  the  Day  of  Atonement.  On  these 
days  the  maidens  of  Jerusalem  used  to  pass  out  in  pro- 
cession, arrayed  in  white  garments,  which  all  borrowed,  in 
order  not  to  put  to  the  blush  those  who  possessed  no  fitting 
attire  of  their  own.  They  went  out  to  the  vineyards  and 
danced.  Then  they  sang — '  Young  man,  lift  up  thine  eyes 
and  see  whom  thou  are  about  to  choose.  Fix  not  thine 
eyes  on  beauty,  but  rather  look  to  the  piety  of  the  bride's 
family.  Gracefulness  is  deceit,  and  beauty  is  a  vain  thing, 
but  the  woman  who  fears  the  Lord,  she  is  worthy  of 
praise.'  The  Talmud,  perceiving  that  this  appeal  would 
come  best  from  the  lips  of  those  devoid  of  personal  charms, 
provides  a  different  formula  for  the  lovelier  daughters  of 
Israel :  ''  See  how  fair  we  are,  choose  your  bride  for  beauty.' 
Such  a  scene  would  have  shocked  the  medieval  notion  of 
propriety,  but  the  young  Jews  and  Jewesses,  deprived  of  all 
opportunities  for  meeting  amid  romantic  and  rural  surround- 
ings, substituted  the  fairs  for  the  vineyards,  and  the  aggressive 
fascinations  of  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem  were  replaced  by 
the  more  passive  charmings  of  the  girls  of  Lemberg.     '  To 


Cf.  Graetz,  vol.  IV.  ch.  xviii.  This  was  specially  noteworthy  in  Poland 
in  the  sbcteenth  century. 

For  the  dance  and  choruses  of  girls  in  the  vineyards,  see  Judges  xxi.  21. 
Cf.  Nowack,  Lehrhuch  der  Hehr.  Archdologie,  i.  p.  185;  Benzinger,  Hebr. 
Arch.,  pp.  271  and  468. 


The  Fair  at  Lemberg.  173 

the  fairs  held  at  Lemberg  and  Lubh'n,  came  young  students 
and  their  teachers  in  shoals.  He  who  had  a  son  or  a 
daughter  to  marry  journeyed  to  the  fair  and  there  made 
a  match,  for  every  one  found  his  like  and  his  suit.  At  every 
fair,  hundreds  of  matches  were  made  up,  sometimes 
thousands  ;  and  the  children  of  Israel,  men  and  women, 
used  to  repair  to  the  fair  in  their  finest  attire,  for  they  were 
held  in  respect  by  the  kings  and  the  people  ^.' 

But  the  shadchan  was  the  favourite  means  of  arranging 
a  marriage  in  the  middle  ages.  Not  that  his  task  was  an 
easy  one.  To  but  few  professional  match-makers  could  it 
be  applied,  as  it  was  applied  to  Maharil  in  his  function  as 
shadchan,  the  passage  in  Job^: — 

Unto  me  men  gave  ear,  and  waited, 
And  kept  silence  for  my  counsel. 
After  my  words  they  spake  not  again, 
And  my  speech  dropped  upon  them. 

Nay,  the  shadchan  often  toiled  in  vain  ^,  and  earned  his  fee 
by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  As  regards  his  legal  status,  the 
shadchan  was  included  in  the  class  of  agents*,  and  his  fees 
became  due  when  the  match  was  arranged,  even  if  the 
parties  afterwards  receded  from  their  compact  ^.  It  is  not 
clear  how  large  the  shadchan  s  fee  was,  the  usual  plan  was 

^  nbivn  p'  (ed.  Venice,  1653).  The  passage  no  doubt  greatly  exaggerates 
the  number  of  the  marriages  contracted  at  these  fairs. 

^  Job  xxix.  21,  22. 

^  pnb  D'yr  cisiu?  nrD3  Mordecai  to  ^<-\n2  hv\ir\  "d. 

*  Choshen  Mishpat,  185,  §  10.     Cf.  ^"td,  ad  loc. 

^  This  w^as  not  universally  the  custom.  Isserlein  ^DUnDi  DVCD,  85^  says  : — 
'  When  the  match  is  made,  the  shadchan's  work  is  done  and  his  wages 
earned.  But  in  our  place  we  are  not  wont  to  pay  the  shadchan's  fee  till 
the  marriage  is  celebrated.  Elsewhere  they  pay  immediately  the  contract 
is  drawn  up '  (::apn  D^in). 


174  Love  and  Courtship, 

to  estimate  it  at  some  fixed  percentage  on  the  dowry.  In 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  shadchan  in  the 
Black  Forest  district  received  one  and  a  half  per  cent  on 
dowries  of  600  gulden,  and  one  per  cent  on  dowries  of 
larger  amount ;  he  received  this  percentage,  be  it  noted,  from 
both  sides.  Outside  the  Black  Forest  country  the  shad- 
chan's  fee  was  two  per  cent  ^.  In  earlier  times,  much  more 
was  often  paid,  for  the  fee  could  always  be  made  a  matter 
of  special  bargain  which  would  override  the  current  rule. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Jewish  match-maker  was 
almost  invariably  a  male.  With  the  Easterns,  generally, 
the  reverse  is  the  fact,  the  marriage-broker  being  usually 
a  woman.  Rare  cases  in  which  women  figured  as  match- 
makers did,  however,  occur  in  Jewish  life  2. 

For  a  moment  we  must  digress  to  consider  one  or  two 
social  consequences  which  resulted  from  the  system  of  child- 
marriage.  It  is  clear  that  a  boy  in  his  teens  would  be  un- 
able to  set  up  a  house  of  his  own.  As  a  matter  of  necessity, 
therefore,  the  youthful  husband  often  resided  in  the  home 
of  his  bride's  father  or  was  maintained  by  the  latter  for 
a  period  more  or  less  definitely  fixed  beforehand.  Formal 
contracts  to  this  effect  abound  in  the  Hebrew  documents 
preserved  from  the  middle  ages.  In  the  betrothal  contract 
between  R.  Yomtob  ben  Moses  of  Norwich  and  Solomon 
ben  Eliab;,  his  daughter's  bridegroom,  drawn  up  in  England 
in  1249  ^>  these  clauses  occur : — 

^  Orient.  Ltieraturblatt,  1845,  column  308.  In  the  tekanoth  of  Lemberg 
(Buber  cc  'c:y,  p.  225)  the  rate  varies  between  one  and  three  per  cent. 

^  Cf.  S.  Amarillo's  nobtD  Di^  (17 19),  i.  24.  In  the  case  there  cited,  the 
shadchanith  makes  a  false  representation  as  to  the  age  of  the  young  lady, 
whom  the  agent  describes  as  sixteen  though  she  is  really  only  twelve. 

3  M.  D.  Davis,  Hebrew  Deeds  of  English  Jews  be/ore  1290,  p.  32.  If  there 
were  no  father,  the  brother  or  brothers  of  the  girl  made  similar  undertakings 


Results  of  Early  Marriage.  i-is 

The  father  gives  his  daughter  Zeuna  in  marriage,  promising  a  dowry 
of  ten  marks  at  the  time  of  the  nuptials  and  a  further  sum  of  five  marks 
a  year  later.  He  will  provide  both  with  weekday  and  Sabbath  apparel, 
and  give  them  ample  board  and  lodging.  He  will  support  them  an  entire 
year  in  his  house,  furnish  them  with  all  they  require,  clothe  them  and 
'shoe'  them,  and  discharge  their  talliage,  if  any  be  imposed  on  them  during 
the  aforesaid  year.  He  will  likewise  engage  a  teacher  to  instruct  the 
husband  during  the  twelvemonth  after  marriage. 

The  fault  of  this  method  was  that  it  often  unfitted  the 
husband  for  the  battle  of  life,  and  encouraged  a  habit  of 
dependence.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  marriage  would  have 
otherwise  been  very  difficult  for  Jews  in  the  middle  ages. 
We  have  just  seen  that  feudal  burdens  might,  in  England, 
fall  on  the  newly-wedded  pair  when  they  were  unable  to  bear 
them.  Besides,  taxes  on  marriage  were  so  frequent  ^,  that 
their  incidence  would  have  been  a  bar  to  the  tying  of  the 
nuptial  knot  had  not  the  social  arrangements  relieved  the 
youthful  husband  of  some  of  his  responsibility  at  the  out- 
set of  his  married  life.  In  the  eighteenth  century,  another 
motive  may  have  helped  to  prevent  a  newly-married  Jewish 
pair  in  central  Europe  from  setting  up  house  for  themselves. 
From  1745  till  1848,  by  an  amazing  law,  only  the  eldest 
son  of  a  Jewish  house  was  allowed  to  '  build  up  a  family^.' 

Another  consequence  of  this  system  was  the  prevalence 
of  divorce.  But,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  this  was 
a  lesser  social  evil  than  might  at  first  appear.  For  the 
divorce  often  occurred  before  the  marriage  had,  in  the  true 
sense,  been  completed,  and  the  wife's  re-marriage  was  prac- 
tically secure.     Further,  the  treatment  of  the  divorced  wife 

(ibid.  p.  43).  This  was  the  most  common  arrangement ;  less  frequently, 
if  the  bride's  father  was  wealthy  he  presented  his  daughter  with  a  house  on 
her  marriage  (ibid.  p.  95). 

^  Cf.  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  504  ;  Graetz,  x.  268. 

^  Graetz,  Geschichte,  xi.  393.     Cf  I.  H.  Weiss  'm3"n3T  (near  beginning). 


176  Love  and  Courtship. 

by  her  former  husband  was  invariably  considerate  and 
even  tender.  The  Talmud  already  laid  it  down  as  a  rule 
of  conduct  that  if  a  man's  divorced  wife  fell  into  need,  '  he 
should  remember  that  she  had  been  his  flesh,  and  must 
stretch  out  his  hand  to  succour  her  ^.'  This  maxim  was  in 
general  force  in  the  middle  ages,  and  some  of  the  anomalies 
of  the  Jewish  marriage  law  were  mitigated  and  rendered 
innocuous  by  it. 

Finally,  the  system  encouraged  the  growth  of  marriage 
by  proxy,  which  was,  however,  common  to  the  whole  of 
medieval  Europe  A  formula  for  such  marriages  is 
included  in  several  medieval  Jewish  books : — '  Be  thou 
sanctified  to  M.  the  son  of  N.  by  this  ring,  in  accordance 
with  the  law  of  Moses  and  Israel  ^.' 

Whether  the  preliminaries  were  conducted  through  a 
professional  intermediary  or  not,  the  first  stage  in  the 
arrangement  of  a  Jewish  marriage  lay  through  the  shiddnchin 
or  friendly  pourparlers  ^.  A  marriage  effected  without  this 
preliminary  was  hardly  held  respectable,  and  a  lover  who 
ventured  to  travel  his  own  road  and  wedded  a  wife  without  the 
usual  negotiations  received  corporal  punishment  in  Talmudic 
times  *.     But  the  shidduchi^i  did  not  constitute  a  legal  bond, 

'  T.  Jerns.  Kethub.  xi.  3  ;  Midrash,  Levit,  Rabba,  §  xxxiv  ;  Bereshit  Rabba, 
§  xxxiii.     Cf.  p.  121  above. 

2  Machzor  Vitry,  p.  586;  Rokeach,  §  351.  ■'ii'JD  13  '2^,Vd'j  ncTpO  n«  NHD 
:  "rtrrcr*")  nco  ms  n  nrntii.  Cf.  with  this  formula  that  given  on  p.  206  below. 
The  Talmud  permits  of  marriage  by  a  double  set  of  proxies ;  but  it  gives 
no  formula. 

-  This  is  the  meaning  of  pn^tD— sweet,  or  soothing  utterances.  The 
piTD  is  thus,  literally,  the  'charmer.'  The  old  Indian  marriage  rite  also 
included  the  same  threefold  process  which  Jewish  custom  long  preserved 
viz.  :  {a  the  arrangement  of  the  marriage,  fb)  the  wedding  ceremony  or 
betrothal,  and  (c)  the  actual  reception  of  the  bride  in  the  husband's  home. 
Cf.  Winternitz,  Das  altindische  Horhzeitsrituell,  p   3. 

*   T.  B.  Kiddushin,  12  b. 


Betrothal. 


177 


and  the  match  might  be  broken  off  by  either  party  at  will. 
The  knot  was  tied  at  the  ceremony  of  betrothal  or  erusin  ^. 
But  though  the  couple  were  thenceforth  man  and  wife,  and 
could  not  part  company  without  a  regular  divorce,  the 
actual  marriage^ — which  consisted  in  the  reception  of  the 
bride  in  the  husband's  abode  or  in  their  cohabitation — 
did  not  necessarily  follow  the  betrothal  till  a  whole  year  had 
elapsed  ^.  This  Talmudical  arrangement  did  not  continue 
in  the  middle  ages,  for  a  scheme  by  which  a  legally  united 
couple  went  on  living  apart  was  obviously  a  bad  one. 

The  previously  insignificant  preliminary  or  shidduchin 
increased  in  importance  owing  to  this  change.  In  place 
of  a  half-complete  marriage  union,  to  be  consummated 
after  an  interval  medieval  custom  adopted  a  legal  contract 
binding  the  couple  to  marry  at  some  fixed  or  unfixed  date, 
and  defining  a  monetary  penalty  to  be  paid  by  the  party 
desirous  of  abandoning  the  match  *.  Like  the  English  of 
to-day.  the  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  never  entered  into  any 
important  business  without  a  public  dinner.  Hence  the 
shidduchin  were  accompanied  by  a  banquet  provided  by 
the  bridegroom.  This  festivity,  at  which  much  excess 
occurred,  was  termed  Kitas-Mahl  (or  Penalty -feast) — a 
hybrid  expression,  part  Hebrew,  part  German,  symbolizing 
the  whole  of  the  Jewish  marriage  customs  of  the  middle 
ages,  which  were  a  strange  combination  of  the  ways  of  the 
Orient   with    the   manners   of  Europe.      The  Knas-Mahl 


^  The  ^'CTT«. 

^  The  px'ni:''^  or  ]"©"n'p.  In  the  middle  ages  the  wedding  ceremony  was 
beautifully  known  as  'The  Blessing'  or  n3~ii  (so  Maharil). 

'  Mishnah  Kidd.  v.  2. 

*  On  the  connexion  of  this  fine  (c:p)  and  the  betrothal  gifts  (n"!2"i'>2-) 
mentioned  below,  cf.  Perles  in  the  Graetz-Jubclschrift,  p.  6,  Cf.  Israel 
Isserlein,  P^sfl^?'m,  §§  67  and  74. 

N 


178  Love  and  Courtship. 

derived  its  designation  from  the  stipulated  sums  and 
penalties  mutually  agreed  upon,  as  explained  above.  The 
process  by  which  the  betrothal  passed  into  the  mere  en- 
gagement to  pay  a  fine  in  case  of  breach  of  promise  seems  to 
have  reached  an  intermediate  stage  in  the  tenth  or  eleventh 
century,  when  both  the  betrothal  and  the  Knas  are  found 
side  by  side  ^  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  eleventh  century 
it  was  already  customary  to  solemnize  both  the  betrothal 
and  the  marriage  proper  on  the  same  day,  either  contem- 
poraneously or  with  an  interval  of  a  few  hours,  during 
which  the  bridal  party  feasted  merrily  at  the  new  husband's 
cost.  This  practice  of  allowing  half  the  day  to  elapse 
between  the  two  ceremonies  was  abandoned  owing  to  the 
expense  entailed  by  the  double  banquet  ^. 

The  diminution  of  the  interval  between  ceremonial 
betrothal  and  marriage  did  not  carry  with  it  a  shortening 
of  engagements.  In  Italy,  in  particular,  engagements 
based  on  a  pecuniary  contract  lasted  long  ^,  and  the  same 
fact  may  be  noted  in  other  parts  of  the  Jewish  world. 
To  a  certain  extent,  the  longer  engagement  implied  more 
love-making,  and  it  certainly  entailed  the  frequent  exchange 
of  gifts.     In  one  medieval  instance  recorded  in  England^  an 

^  That  there  was  a  customary  fine  in  the  Gaonic  period  is  clear  from 
this  passage: — D"rN  lp^  "ja  c:p  vby  sn*  m23'  vh^  in  inn'  ds^  pnn  by  ]'im3 
:  c:p  in'j^i  2"inD  ioipo2\D  vm^  3n:^Q  -inv  "japir,  Muller,  Mafteach,  p.  283.  It 
is  equally  clear  that  the  older  form  of  psrw  was  prevalent  in  the  same 
epoch. 

^  Cf.  the  ^"^iro  mircn  cited  in  the  Machzor  Vttry  (ed.  Hurwitz,  p.  587)  : — 
'n^tn  vi')  ni  ;™n  •  n^nri  nnmc  in«  ova  p><-aj':T  j^dii^n  raia  I'Siioc  cipo  S^'<rm^ 
'  nn«  C1D  br  pTitD  p3"i20  p«  "ff*  •  nn«  cipon  nnw^b  ]»Vji  iroipon  bza  •  mpo  □i^rn. 
Again,  ibid.  p.  588,  the  remark  is  added  :  ynw:^  pm^N  DMDVb  ^:n:^D  m  jtodtt 
:  pDiTw"?  miyo  niTrr'j  c^m  crs\c  '•e'j  in^2. 

3  Moses  ben  Mordecai  Zacuth,  n"^T,  §  48.  Cf.  n"m%  Joseph  of  Traui,  i. 
§  131.     See  also  Kolbo,  87  d  ;  Muller,  Mafteach,  p.  133. 

*  M.  D.  Davis,  Hebrew  Deeds,  Sec,  p.  299. 


Wedding  Gifts.  179 

interval  of  four  years  is  fixed  between  the  engagement  and 
the  marriage.  But  trouble  arose  over  the  separation  of 
sexes,  of  which  more  anon.  The  culmination  of  the  feel- 
ing was  reached  in  the  objection  to  interviews  between 
engaged  couples.  In  the  eighteenth  century  this  sentiment 
became  so  marked  that  an  engaged  Polish  Jew  often  swore 
on  oath  that  he  would  rigidly  abjure  the  pleasure  of  visiting 
his  intended.  Here  is  a  specimen  of  these  most  self-denying 
ordinances : — 

I,  Aaron  ben  Ephraim,  solemnly  agree,  on  my  oath,  that  from  this  day 
forward  it  is  forbidden  to  me  to  go  to  the  residence  of  my  intended.  I  will 
not  go  there  at  any  time,  whether  by  day  or  by  night,  until  my  wedding. 
If  I  infringe  this  undertaking,  I  am  to  be  adjudged  as  one  who  breaks  his 
oath,  and  I  shall  become  liable  to  every  penalty,  fine,  censure  and  contempt. 
Witness  my  signature,  Tuesday,  Ellul  26,  1783^ 

At  the  bottom  of  this  sensitiveness  lay  a  suspicion  which 
did  little  credit  to  those  who  entertained  it.  A  less  prurient 
ground  for  the  objection  is  given  by  an  early  authority, — 
'familiarity  breeds  contempt^.'  Engaged  couples,  how- 
ever, exchanged  gifts  at  the  festivals,  and  the  custom 
survived  the  wedding,  as  recent  brides  received  presents 
of  rings,  garments,  and  money  from  their  friends  on  the 
Purim  succeeding  the  marriage  ^.  Presents  from  the  bride- 
groom were  so  customary  in  Talmudical  times  that  some 
authorities  regarded  the  sablonoth — as  the  Jewish  do7ia 
sponsalitia  were  named — so  far  presumptive  evidence  of 
actual  marriage  that  the  recipient  could  not  marry  any 
other  man  unless  she  obtained  a  divorce  from  the  donor*. 
When  we  come  to  later  times,  it  is  hard  to  draw  a  line 
between  these  sablorioth  and  another  type  of  offering,  the 

*  Buber,  did  '\c:>»,  p.  232. 

'  Kolbo,  87  d,  I'-Ti  m  n«  m  ^'niiw  r^'our:^  nxicj  n-''?  iNiy  kdit. 

3  Muller,  Mafteach,  28.  *  T.  B.  Kiddushin,  60  b. 

N  2 


i8o  Love  and  Courtship. 

shoshbinuth^ ,  which  were  originally  bestowed  on  the  bride  on 
the  wedding-day  by  the  shoshbin,  the  best  man  or  particular 
friend  (later  called  Unterfiihrer)  of  the  bridegroom.  To  act 
as  shoshbin  was  a  much-prized  honour,  for  did  not  God 
himself  lead  Eve  to  Adam  and  act  as  her  best-man^? 

In  the  middle  ages  wedding  presents  were  profusely  given. 
A  favourite  gift  was  a  prayer-book,  an  article  of  so  much 
cost  that  it  sometimes  appears  in  the  marriage  settlements^. 
The  ritual  for  the  Passover  eve,  known  as  the  haggada,  was 
coloured  and  illuminated  to  serve  as  a  choice  wedding  gift  ^. 
It  was  felt  necessary  in  Italy — the  home  of  luxury  in  dress 
and  food  in  the  middle  ages — to  limit  the  gifts  which 
might  be  exchanged  at  betrothals  and  weddings,  but  the 
particulars  on  these  heads  belong  to  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  ^.  Sweets  and  confections  were  a 
much-prized  present,  and  these  in  particular  were  bestowed 
to  excess.  Girdles  and  ornaments  for  the  hair  were  given 
to  girls  immediately  on  their  engagement  ^. 

Engagement  rings  were  worn  rather  by  the  men  than 
by  the  women.  In  Germany  a  gold  ring  was  presented 
to  the  bridegroom  by  his  intended's  father  some  time 
before  the  wedding,  whereas  the  lady  only  received  her 
engagement  ring  on  her  wedding  morn.  The  Greco- 
Turkish  Jewish  maiden  usually  wore  a  ring  immediately 

^   T.  B.  Baba  Bathra,  144  b.  ^  Genesis  ii.  22;   T.  B.  Erubin,  18  b. 

^  Cf.  M.  D.  Davis,  ibid.  p.  298,  where  a  MS.  Bible  is  the  chief  dowry 
of  the  bride.  See  also  the  case  in  the  mi  iiN  cn  n"iTr,  §  2.  On  the  flyleaf 
of  the  British  Museum  copy  of  M.  b.  J.  Chagiz's  onVn  'nuj  it  appears  that 
this  particular  volume  was  a  wedding  present  from  Hirscb  Bondet  to  Moses 
Frankl,  at  Berlin,  Ellul  15,  1787. 

*  See  the  inscription  in  MS.  Additional  (British  Museum),  No.  27210. 
^  Cf.  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  (2)  p.  197  ;  Buber  D©  ^\D2^j,  p.  231. 

•  Cf.  Perles,  Graetz-Jubelsrhrtft,  p.  6.  The  antiquity  of  the  predilection 
for  sweets  as  a  wedding  gift  may  be  seen  from  Winternitz  (op.  cit),  p.  71. 


Betrothal  Rings.  i8i 

on  her  engagement,  and  much  ceremonial  etiquette  was 
connected  with  the  presentation.  Some  of  the  elders  of 
the  congregation,  accompanied  by  a  crowd  of  members, 
visited  the  future  bride,  and  bestowed  the  ring  on  her^ 
In  Italy  the  wearing  of  rings  was  the  delight  of  both  sexes, 
so  much  so  that  in  141 6  it  was  necessary  to  enact  in  a 
communal  tekanah  or  ordinance  ^  : 

No  man  shall  bear  more  than  one  gold  ring,  which  he  may  place  on  any 
finger  of  either  hand.  No  woman  shall  put  on  more  than  two  rings  on  the 
same  occasion,  or  at  the  utmost  she  may  wear  three  rings. 

These  rings,  however,  were  for  ordinary  use.  A  large 
number  of  genuine  betrothal  rings  are  extant  in  various  col- 
lections. But  these  so-called  rings  were  not  worn.  They  are 
of  great  size,  the  huge  hoops  terminating  not  in  an  ordinary 
bezel,  but  bearing  artistic  designs  worked  in  gold,  repre- 
senting a  turretted  building,  often  with  a  movable  weather- 
cock on  the  apex  ^.  Some  of  these  splendid  specimens  are 
said  to  belong  to  the  thirteenth  century,  and  several,  if  not 
most,  bear  the  Hebrew  inscription  viazal  fob  or  ''  Good 
Luck ! '  It  is  said  that  a  sprig  of  myrtle  was  placed  inside 
the  ring ;  the  size  of  the  hoop  would  thus  be  accounted  for. 
In  short  these  ornaments  are  possibly  not  rings  at  all  in  the 
ordinary  sense,  but  are  bouquet-holders.  This  explanation 
is  not  improbable,  for  the  medieval  episcopal  rings  also  had 
very  large  hoops,  but  to  permit  of  their  being  worn  even 
over  the  cleric's  gloves  *,  the  rings  are  smooth,  while  these 
so-called  Jewish  betrothal  rings  cannot,  as  a  practical 
experiment  proves,  be  worn  without  pain  amounting  to 
torture,  owing  to  the  projecting  points  of  the  ornamentation 

^  Perles,  ibid.  6,  note  i.  -  Ibid,  (^Hebrew  section)  p.  59. 

^  Several  such  rings  are  described  in  Jones'  Finger-ring  Lore,  p.  299,  and 
in  the  Catalogue  of  the  Anglo-Jewish  Historical  Exhibition,  pp.  115  and  124. 
*  Encycl.  Britannica,  vol.  xx.  p.  561. 


i82  Love  and  Courtship. 

on  some  of  them.  In  the  middle  ages,  many  rings  made 
by  and  belonging  to  Christians  were  inscribed  with  Cab- 
balistic inscriptions,  and  were  in  great  request  for  use  at 
weddings  ^.  It  may  be  that  the  Hebrew  inscription  mazal 
fob  on  these  betrothal  rings  belongs  to  the  same  category, 
but  it  is  more  probable  that  the  expression  '  Good  luck ' 
had  lost  its  astrological  meaning  by  the  time  it  was  em- 
ployed to  adorn  the  Jewish  betrothal  and  wedding  rings  ^. 

The  ornamental  building  worked  on  the  ring  always 
represents  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem  or  one  of  its  more 
modern  counterparts  —  a  synagogue.  This  was  not  a 
medieval  design,  but  can  be  traced  back  as  far  as  the 
fourth  century.  In  a  Roman  tomb  there  has  been  found 
a  glass — probably  made  by  a  Jewish  artificer — which  bears 
an  elaborate  picture  of  the  Temple,  with  the  pillared  porch 
of  Solomon,  the  columns  known  as  Jachin  and  Boaz,  the 
seven-branched  candlestick,  and  other  typically  Jewish 
emblems.  There  are  two  inscriptions  in  Greek  (the  lan- 
guage of  the  Jews  in  Rome  for  several  centuries) :  *  House 
of  Peace,  take  the  blessing,'  and  '  Drink  and  live  with  all 
thine.'  This  glass  may  possibly  have  been  a  wedding 
glass,  but  at  all  events  the  Temple  design  is  a  very 
old  one^. 

Ornate  as  were  the  rings  referred  to  in  the  previous 
paragraph,  the  true  wedding  rings  were  innocent  of  jewels. 
A  gemmed  ring  could  not   lawfully  be  used  at  a  Jewish 

*  Encycl.  Bntannica,  vol.  xx.  p.  562. 

^  Anciently,  a  talisman  or  amulet  was  sometimes  given  to  the  Jewish 
bride  to  protect  her  from  the  'evil-eye'  {Pesikta  R.  §  5,  ed.  Friedmann, 
p.  21  b).  In  much  more  recent  times  seal-rings  w^ere  engraved  as  charms 
with  the  name  of  God  on  them  {ya.-'  mn,  §  16).  Eastern  Jews  have  always 
been  addicted  to  this  species  of  superstition. 

^  Berliner,  Rom,  i.  (i)  p.  61.     Benzinger,  Hebr.  Archaeologte,  p.  251. 


Wedding  Rings.  183 

wedding^;  it  would  need  a  specialist  or  a  dealer  to  esti- 
mate accurately  the  value  of  a  jewel,  and  the  bride  might 
be  easily  deceived.  This  consideration  was  important. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  ring  in  Jewish  cere- 
mony simply  replaced  the  old  gift  of  money  or  of  some 
article  of  value,  which  itself  was  a  symbolical  survival  of 
the  yet  older  acquisition  of  a  bride  by  direct  purchase. 
The  wedding  ring  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Talmud,  nor 
was  it  regularly  introduced  into  Jewish  ceremony  until  the 
seventh  or  eighth  century.  Probably  it  was  used  in  Pales- 
tine somewhat  earlier  than  in  Babylon,  owing  to  Roman 
influence  ^.  The  Jewish  wedding  ring  was  not  necessarily 
made  of  gold,  but  no  deception  might  be  practised  on  the 
bride.  It  could  be  silver-gilt  or  even  brazen,  but  the  bride 
had  to  be  informed  that  it  was  composed  of  baser  metal. 
It  seems  probable  that  Jones  ^  is  correct  in  stating  that  the 
use  of  the  wedding  ring  appeared   as  a  Jewish    marriage 

^  R.  Tam  was  the  author  of  this  rule.  Cf.  A.  de  Boton,  n  uvi^,  §  20. 
'Nowadays,'  said  Rashba,  'the  daughters  of  Israel  modestly  cover  their 
faces  with  veils  and  do  not  look  at  the  ring.'  Kolbo^  86  d.  That  some 
Jewish  authorities  permitted  the  use  of  jewelled  rings  is  clear  from  cases 
in  which  a  ring  ornamented  with  two  pearls  was  used.  Cf.  l"-JD  ^^D  n"ic, 
ii.  76,  and  A.  de  Boton,  loc.  cit. 

^  This  is  perhaps  the  meaning  of  the  statement  (Muller,  Cjni'D  rji'jn,  §  25) 
that  '  In  the  East  they  do  not  regard  the  marriage  ring,  in  the  land  of  Israel 
they  do  regard  it.'  The  difficulty,  however,  is  that  in  the  time  of  the 
Geonim  the  wedding  ring  was  a  well-established  favourite  with  the  Jews 
of  Babylon  (cf.  Harkavy,  D''j'^X3rr  mmirn,  §  65}.  Muller  suggests  an  ex- 
planation which  may  be  compared  with  what  has  been  said  above  concerning 
the  sahlonoth.  In  Babylon,  the  fact  that  a  ring  had  been  presented  was  not 
regarded  as  in  itself  constituting  a  complete  marriage,  whereas  in  Palestine 
it  would  be  held  evidence  of  the  marriage.  Hence  the  phrase  ii  vci'il 
'•  with  this  ring''  in  the  marriage  formula,  i.  e.  a  specific  statement  was  needed 
that  this  particular  ring  effected  the  marriage.  Yet  these  significant  words 
were   not  a  fixed  part  of  the  formula  till  a  much  later  period  (cf.  Kolbo, 

'  Finger-ring  Lore,  p.  297. 


184  Love  and  Courtship. 

custom  before  the  Church  adopted  it.  Pope  Nicholas 
(8co  A.  D.j  is.  I  believe,  the  first  to  distinctly  allude  to  the 
Christian  use  of  the  ring,  whereas  it  must  then  have  been 
in  use  among  the  Palestinian  Jews  for  some  centuries.  Both 
Synagogue  and  Church  accepted  the  ring  from  heathen 
Rome,  indeed  the  modern  wedding  customs  of  all  races 
and  creeds  are  largely  indebted  to  heathen  sources. 

The  Jews  owed  other  items  on  their  marriage  list  to 
Rome.  The  study  of  superstitions  is  often  disappointing, 
because  people  are  too  imitative.  The  Jews  had  certain 
notions  about  lucky  and  unlucky  times  for  marrying,  but  the 
most  important  of  their  superstitions  on  this  head  was  bor- 
rowed from  the  Romans.  Between  Passover  and  Pentecost 
— custom  varies  as  to  the  days  on  which  an  exception  is 
allowed — no  Jewish  marriage  takes  place  even  at  the 
present  time.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  we  are  here 
i  in  presence  of  a  variant  of  the  Roman  superstition  which 
•  forbade  marriages  in  May^.  The  origin  of  the  Jewish 
j  custom  was  unknown  to  the  Rabbis  themselves  in  the  eighth 
century,  and  an  improbable  connexion  between  this  mar- 
riage superstition  and  the  recorded  mortality  of  a  large 
number  of  R.  Akiba's  pupils  in  the  second  century  was 
suggested  to  explain  the  prevalence  of  this  mysterious 
mourning  rite.  The  tendency  to  give  fanciful  reasons  for 
rites  of  which  the  origin  had  faded  from  memory  is  character- 
istically Jewish,  and  must  be  held  responsible  for  a  good 
many  of  those  customs  which  would  be  honoured  in  the 
breach  but  persist  in  the  observance. 

^  Cf.  the  monograph  by  Dr.  Julius  Landsberger  in  Geiger's  Jiidtsche  Zeit- 
schrift  fur  Wissenschaft  und  Leben,  voL  vii.  His  chief  references  are  to 
the  Tur  Orach  Chayim^  §  493,  R.  Jeruchara's  mm  cnw  ICD  5,  4,  T£p'?n  "bix: 
7,  74,  and  the  Responsa  of  the  Geonim  rriiurn  nrt:  (ed.  Leipzig)  §  278.  See 
also  'Aliquis'  (Dr.  A.  Asherj,  in  The  Jewish  Pulpit  (London,  1886). 


Marriage  Superstitions.  185 

Of  similarly  non-Jewish  origin  was  a  widespread  medieval 
dread  of  marrj'ing  except  at  the  new  or  full  moon.  Both 
these  superstitions  can  be  paralleled  in  ancient  Indo- 
Germanic  rites,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century 
Bishop  Burchard  of  Worms  castigates  those  who  would 
neither  begin  to  build  a  house  nor  marry  except  at  the 
new  moon^  Jews,  however,  shared  this  old  objection  to 
the  full".  In  Spain  the  Jews  copied  the  Greek  custom 
of  marr>'ing  only  on  the  new  moon^.  Elsewhere,  many 
Jews  preferred  to  inaugurate  a  new  enterprise,  or  to  begin 
a  new  book,  on  the  new  moon  *.  In  fact,  the  middle  ages 
encouraged  a  perfect  free  trade  in  superstitions,  and  Jewsv  y 
and  Christians  borrowed  terrors  from  one  another  with  the  A 
utmost  enthusiasm.  In  Germany,  Spain,  France,  and  Italy 
the  same  phenomena  of  imitation  present  themselves ''. 

^  Wintemitz,  Das  altindische  Hochzeitsrituell^  pp.  4,  27,  and  30.  See  also 
Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,  p.  xxxvi,  ibid-  p.  406. 

^  CL  r|Cr  *pra  to  Alfasi,  Synhedrin.  ch-  vii;  Yore  Deak,  179,  2;  Eben 
Haezer,  64,  3.  Possibly,  as  Landsberger  suggests  (op.  dt,  p.  i8\  the 
Talmud  in  Chtilin,  95  b,  already  knew  of  this  superstition.  See  Jost's 
Annalen,  1841,  p.  82.  R.  Akiba  Synhedrin,  65)  and  in  later  times 
Maimonides  and  other  authorities  did  their  utmost  to  suppress  these 
superstitions  concerning  times  and  seasons. 

•*  Nachmanides,  n^'TC,  §  283. 

*  Yore  Deah,  179.  2.  C£  par.  4.  ibid.  Semak.  136,  dtes  another  reason  for 
the  latter  rule :  it  was  to  enable  traveUing  students  to  know  when  to  present 
themselves  at  the  various  schools. 

'  a.  Gudemann,  i.  199  and  iL  229.  A  current  Jewish  superstition  pre- 
vented the  marriage  of  a  man  with  a  girl  whose  father's  name  was  identical 
with  his  own  n>«"nr  of  Judah  Chassid).  See  Wintemitz,  opt  at.,  p.  57,  for 
parallels  in  Indo-Germanic  custom. 


CHAPTER    X. 

MARRIAGE    CUSTOMS. 

The  choice  of  certain  days  of  the  week  on  which  to 
celebrate  Jewish  marriages  was,  however,  quite  free  from 
superstitious  motives.  The  favourite  wedding  day  in  the 
middle  ages  was  Friday^.  The  selection  of  this  day  was 
entirely  against  the  Talmudic  prescriptions  on  the  subject^, 
but  the  convenience  of  marrying  on  Friday  was  so  obvious 
that  medieval  authorities,  while  deploring  the  custom,  did  not 
seriously  attempt  to  effect  a  change.  Wednesday  was  also 
a  not  uncommon  day  for  the  marriage  of  virgins,  and 
Thursday  for  widows,  but  Friday  carried  off  the  palm  for 
popularity. 

There  were  several  reasons  for  this.  Though  marriage 
was  forbidden  on  the  Sabbath  (as  well  as  on  festivals), 
nevertheless  the  proximity  in  time  to  the  day  of  rest, 
and  the  opportunity  given  for  associating  the  wedding 
with  the  synagogue  service  of  the  following  day,  gave 
to  Friday  a  peculiar  appropriateness.     For  the   marriage 

^  See  Mordecai  to  Beza,  v ;  Kolbo,  87  a :  Tmnb,  Hilch.  Kiddushin,  63,  3 ; 
Maharil  (cited  in  full  below) ;  Simeon  b.  Zemach  Duran,  raiDDn  'C 
(Constant.  1576  ?) ;  Rokeach,  §  353 ;  Machzor,  K":?DTi  yr\yo  (ed.  Constanti- 
nople, 1573). 

'^  Wednesday  and  Thursday  were  the  marriage  days  of  the  Mishnali 
(^Mishnah  Kethuboth,  i.  i). 


The  Memory  of  Zion.  187 

day,  amid  all  its  uproarious  merrymakings,  possessed 
a  solemnity  illustrated  by  many  customs.  The  bride  and 
bridegroom  fasted  on  the  wedding  morn,  and  regarded  the 
occasion  as  one  on  which  to  make  special  penitence.  Ashes 
were  strewn  over  the  heads  of  the  bridal  pair  during  the 
wedding  ceremony.  In  Germany  the  bridegroom  wore 
a  cowl — a  typical  mourning  garb.  Fur  was  an  ordinary 
trimming  for  the  wedding  dresses  :  this  was  equally  a  sign 
of  grief.  The  bride  wore  over  her  more  festive  attire 
a  white  sargenes  or  shroud. 

These  and  similar  tokens  of  grief  did  not  imply  that 
marriage  was  other  than  a  joy,  but  arose  from  a  twofold 
sentiment,  on  the  one  hand  from  a  desire  to  keep  even 
men's  joys  tempered  by  more  serious  thoughts,  and  on 
the  other  hand  from  the  never-forgotten  memory  of  the 
mourning  for  Zion,     As  Byron  put  it  : — 

These  Oriental  writings  on  the  wall, 

Quite  common  in  those  countries,  are  a  kind 
Of  monitors  adapted  to  recall, 

Like  skulls  at  Memphian  banquets,  to  the  mind 
The  words  which  shook  Belshazzar  in  his  hall, 

And  took  his  kingdom  from  him  ;    you  will  find, 
Though  sages  may  pour  out  their  wisdom's  treasure, 

There  is  no  sterner  moralist  than  pleasure. 

Probably  both  these  motives,  the  moralizing  of  pleasure 
and  the  memory  of  Zion,  combined  in  equal  degrees  to 
popularize  what  has  become  a  most  characteristic  feature  of 
Jewish  weddings,  namely  the  breaking  of  a  glass  ^,  the  pieces 
of  which  were  eagerly  picked  up  by  unmarried  girls.    More 

^  Cf.  T.  B.  Berachothj  30  b,  which  suggests  that  the  former  reason  pre- 
dominated. 'When  the  son  of  Rabina  was  married,  the  father  saw  that  the 
Rabbis  present  at  the  marriage  feast  were  in  an  uproarious  mood,  so  he 
took  a  costly  vase  of  white  porcelain  worth  400  zuzim  {=£2oT)  and  broke 
it  before  them  to  curb  their  spirits.'     See  Tosafoth,  ad  loc. 


1 88  Marriage  Customs. 

fanciful  explanations  have  been  suggested  for  the  glass 
breaking,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  sentimental  thoughts 
have  encouraged  the  retention  of  the  practice.  A  similar 
association  of  the  serious  with  the  joyous  prompted  the 
chorus  of  a  rabbi  at  a  wedding  feast  ^ : — 

Woe  to  us,  we  must  die  ! 
Woe  to  us,  we  must  die ! 
Where  is  the  Law? 
Where  is  the  deed  ? 
The  Law  and  good  deeds  will  save  us  from  death  ! 

Though  the  wedding  songs  of  the  Jews  seldom  repeat 
this  dirgeful  note,  the  memory  of  Zion  recurs,  especially  in 
the  wedding  odes  of  Jehuda  Halevi,  as  a  pathetic  refrain: — 

A  dove  of  rarest  worth 

And  sweet  exceedingly  ; 

Alas,  why  does  she  turn 

And  fly  so  far  from  me? 

In  my  fond  heart  a  tent. 

Should  aye  prepared  be. 

My  poor  heart  she  has  caught 

With  magic  spells  and  wiles. 

I  do  not  sigh  for  gold. 

But  for  her  mouth  that  smiles ; 

Her  hue  it  is  so  bright. 

She  half  makes  blind  my  sight. 


The  day  at  last  is  here 

Filled  full  of  love's  sweet  fire; 

The  twain  shall  soon  be  one. 

Shall  stay  their  fond  desire. 

Ah !   would  my  tribe  should  chance 

On  such  deliverance  '^ ! 


^  Berachoth,  31a. 

'^  This  beautiful  translation  of  Jehuda  Halevi's  ode  (written  by  the  late 
Amy  Levy)  is  taken  from  Lady  yidignns'  Jewish  Portraits,  p.  24.  A  reference 
to  the  restoration  of  Zion's  glories  is  made  in  the  ordinary  Jewish  wedding 
benedictions  cited  at  the  close  of  this  chapter. 


Bridal  Hymns.  189 

Another  of  this  poet's  wedding  hymns  closes  with  the 
same  idea.  I  have  attempted  to  preserve  the  rhyme  and 
rhythm  of  the  original : — 

Thus,  with  one  accord, 
When  Zion  is  restored, 
When,  on  her  hill,  the  Lord 
Refuge  from  the  sword, 
Granteth ; 

Her  King,  before  her  face, 
Her  captive  from  disgrace. 
Her  victor  in  the  race. 
Each  his  songs  of  grace, 
Chanteth, 

But  from  the  compositions  of  the  other  medieval  writers 
of  Hebrew  love-songs  this  mournful  memory  of  Zion's  dis- 
tress is  absent.  The  following  epithalamium,  by  Abraham 
Ibn  Ezra,  is  a  typical  specimen  of  such  songs,  and  it  will  be 
seen  that  this  Spanish- Jewish  writer  is  not  wanting  in  passion 
when  treating  of  love  : — 

'Thy  breath  is  far  sweeter  than  honey. 

Thy  radiance  brightens  the  day ; 
Thy  voice  is  e'en  softer  than  lyre-note. 

Yet  hear  I  its  echoes  alway. 
Thy  wit  is  as  pure  as  thy  witchery, 

And  both  in  thy  face  are  displayed  ; 
Alas  !    mid  the  maze  of  thy  pleasaunce, 

From  the  path  to  thy  heart  I  have  strayed.' 

Soft  on  my  couch  sleeping,   dreaming, 

I  heard  this,  my  lover's  fond  w^ord ; 
Blushing  a  blush  of  new  rapture, 

Methought  that  I  whispered,   '  My  lord  ! 
If  thou  can'st  desire  my  poor  beauty 

Stand  not  outside  or  afar ; 
Come,  I  will  lead  to  thy  garden, 

For  thine  all  my  pleasaunces  are.' 


I90  Marriage  Customs. 

'  Beloved,  thy  words  of  allurement, 

Like  dew-drops  refreshen  my  heart. 
My  soul  boundeth  free  from  its  fetters, 

'iiy  life  leaves  its  longing  and  smart. 
Come  yield  now  th\'  lips  to  thy  lover, 

Come  3-ield  me  the  sweets  of  thy  heart' 

The  later  wedding  odes  become  more  ornate ;  there  is 
much  punning  on  the  names  of  the  bridegroom  and  his 
bride,  there  is  a  much  more  elaborate  use  of  metaphor. 
The  finest  writer  of  Hebrew  after  the  decay  of  the  Spanish 
school  of  Jewish  poets  w^as  Moses  Chayim  Luzzatto. 
He  belongs,  it  is  true,  to  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
centur>%  but  his  muse  was  centuries  older.  His  con- 
stant model  was  the  Italian  poet  Guarini,  whose  dramatic 
Pastor  Fido  was  perhaps  more  imitated  than  any  other 
medieval  poem^.  Luzzatto  composed  mostly  without 
rhyme,  but  his  skill  in  writing  metrical  Hebrew  is  inimi- 
table. Like  Jehuda  Halevi,  Luzzatto  was  much  in 
demand  as  a  turner  of  marriage  verses,  and  sometimes 
his  efforts  in  this  direction  rise  to  a  considerable  height  of 
merit.  I  give  an  extract  from  the  ode  which  he  composed 
in  honour  of  the  nuptials  of  his  pupil  Isaac  Marini  and 
Judith  Italia^.  The  poet  plays  round  these  names,  wittily 
takes  Marini  in  its  literal  sense  (sea),  while  Italia  represents 
the  land.  The  land  and  sea  contend  for  love's  prize,  each 
asserting  its  claims  to  superior  notice.  When  each  has 
argued  its  claim  at  length,  the  poet  continues  : — 

Ye  daughters  of  Song,   come  tell 

Wherein  doth  yoMV  Spirit  dwell. 

Do  j'ou  dive  to  the  heart  of  the  Sea  for  your  song, 

Or  find  yt.  3'our  music  Land's  high  hills  among? 

'  Of  course    Fletcher's   Faithful   Shepherdess  was   based    on   the   same 
original. 

'  The  Hebrew  is  printed  in  Schorr's  Hechaluts,  vol.  ii.  p.  105. 


Epithalamia.  191 

Love  wandered  o'er  the  verdured  plains, 
Love  stra^-ed  between  the  rising  waters, 
To  fire  the  flashing  children  of  his  bow, 
But  held  his  hand, 

Till  by  the  shore,   united  each  to  each  other, 
Land  and  Water  kissed. 

*  Land  and  Water,'  quoth  he, 

*  Be  ye  the  target  both,  of  these  my  lo\'ing  shafts. 
Thou  son  of  royal  sires,   of  ancient  kings, 

From  thy  sea-depths  arise, 

With  waves  of  sense  and  science  girt 

And  come,  too,  thou  maiden  rare, 

Beauteous  as  Tirzah  famed, 

Come,  bring  with  thee  thy  crown  of  virgin  sweetness. 

*  Not  Sea  or  Land  alone 

May  win  my  wished-for  tribute, 
But  Land  and  Sea  together 
Shall  share  the  robe  of  victory. 

'A  desert,  Earth,  art  thou  and  silent, 
Dumb  till  thy  fields  are  laved  by  freshening  dews. 
By  blessed  streams  that  give  thee  life. 

'Ah!    Sea  of  wasting  waters !   storm-stricken, 
The  note  thou  roarest  forth  is  drear  destruction's  signal. 
Till  Earth's  fond  arms  embrace  thee  ; 
Then  singest  thou  a  rippling  song  of  peace. 

*  Now  bind  ye  tvvain  your  hearts, 
Join  depths  of  wisdom's  Sea 

To  height  of  Earth's  adornments, 
And  sing  for  e'er  in  unison, 
The  song  that  a  flowing  river 
Sings  as  it  glides  through  a  garden, 
In  your  earthly  paradise.' 

No  more  need  the  daughters  of  song  to  roam. 

In  your  heart  of  hearts  they  fix  their  home ; 

They  sing  their  glees  with  love  and  pride, 

And  enter  their  heritage  \vith  bridegroom  and  bride. 

Songs  of  this  type  were  sung  in  the  home  or  in  the  wedding 
house  rather  than  in  the  synagogue,  though,  as  \\ 


192  Marriage  Customs. 

the  Yemen  Jews  appear  to  have  chanted  the  wedding  odes 
of  Jehuda  Halevi  during  pubHc  worship.  But  songs  of 
another  type  were  composed  in  large  numbers  for  actual 
synagogue  use.  These  songs  were  generic,  and  date  from 
the  tenth  century,  while  the  individual  odes,  those  I  mean 
written  for  some  particular  wedding,  are  not  older  than 
Jehuda  Halevi.  In  making  this  statement,  I  am  alluding 
only  to  medieval  Jewish  custom,  for  the  Bible  already  con- 
tains in  Psalm  xlv  a  magnificent  marriage  song,  obviously 
written  to  celebrate  some  monarch's  nuptials  with  a  foreign 
princess.  The  generic  songs  to  which  I  have  just  referred 
were  prayers  like  the  typical  one  cited  above  on  page  ii. 
They  were  sung  in  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath  after  the 
wedding,  and  formed  part  of  the  regular  liturgy  on  such 
occasions.  I  have  little  doubt  that  this  habit  was  confirmed 
by  the  solemnization  of  marriages  on  Fridays,  for  the  event 
was  then  so  recent  that  all  the  congregation  could  enter 
with  full  heartiness  into  the  spirit  of  the  celebration  on  the 
next  day. 

Some  of  the  prettiest  synagogue  rites  prevailed  in  the 
East ;  indeed,  the  Oriental  Jewish  weddings,  though  similar 
in  type  to  those  in  Europe,  were  far  more  picturesque. 
The  Oriental  Jews  had  better  eyes  for  colour,  a  finer  taste 
for  decoration,  and  a  readier  flow  of  cultured  wit,  if  a  more 
shallow  humour.  The  Jews  who  remained  in  contact  with 
Easterns  imitated  their  neighbours,  just  as  European  Jews 
did,  but  somehow  they  chose  the  prettier  things  to  adopt 
as  their  own.  But  all  the  world  over  the  Jewish  marriage 
customs  were  decidedly  dainty,  and  only  occasionally  a  little 
gross. 

Time  refined  away  the  grosser  elements.  The  bridal 
procession — as  old  as  the  Bible — was  originally  the  actual 


The  Bridal  Procession.  193 

transference  of  the  bride  to  her  husband's  home,  and  the 
chiippah,  or  canopy,  under  which  Jewish  marriages  are 
still  celebrated,  was  in  ancient  time  either  the  canopied 
litter  occupied  by  the  bride  during  the  procession,  or 
the  actual  apartment  to  which  the  married  couple  retired 
when  the  wedding  had  been  solemnized  ^.  It  was  this 
act  that  marked  off  the  nisszdn  or  marriage  proper  from 
the  erusin  or  betrothal.  But  the  procession  changed  its 
character  in  the  middle  ages,  and  led  to  the  synagogue 
rather  than  to  the  bridal  chamber.  The  Spanish  Jews 
turned  the  procession  into  a  mimic  tourney,  with  gay 
crowds  of  horsemen  and  lance-breakers^.  In  Egypt  the 
bride  wore  a  helmet  and,  sword  in  hand,  led  the  procession 
and  the  dance.  The  bridegroom,  not  to  fail  in  his  share  of 
the  frolic,  donned  feminine  attire,  and  the  youths  wore  girls' 
clothes  and  put  the  favourite  hen7ia  dye  on  their  finger-nails  ^. 
This  was  more  than  medieval  rabbis  would  allow,  and  the 
custom  seem.s  never  to  have  become  common*.  The  wed- 
ding procession  was  rarely  as  objectionable  as  this,  but  the 
rites  connected  with  it  differed  greatly  in  their  antiquity 
and  significance. 

To   begin  with,  the   bridal    pair  wore   crowns   of  roses 

^  This  act  was  originally  public  {Semachoth,  ch,  viii\  As  late  as  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII  the  same  indelicacy  prevailed  in  England  {Calendar  of  State 
Papers,  Henry  VIII,  vol.  i.  p.  86i).  It  still  has  a  symbolical  force  in  modern 
India  (cf.  Winternitz,  ibid.  p.  92,  for  some  amazing  facts).  The  celebration 
of  Jev^sh  weddings  at  night  still  occurs  in  the  East,  and  in  Europe  frequently 
took  place  late  on  Friday  just  before  sunset. 

^  Cf.  Perles,  Monatsschrift,  i860.      Zunz,  Ziir  Geschichte,  174. 

2  Many  Jewesses  in  the  East  dyed  their  hands  for  beauty.  Cf.  Moses 
ben  Nachman,  Pseud.  r('y<D  (Venice,  1519),  §  124. 

*  Maimonides  □'^min,  p.  51  a.  (cf.  Perles,  loc.  cit.\  But  the  Geonim  (Muller, 
Mafteach,  p.  49")  already  complain  that  in  Egypt  the  women  clashed  cymbals 
and  danced  in  public  at  Jewish  weddings.  The  Geonim  especially  objected 
to  this  being  done  by  women  in  the  presence  of  men. 

O 


194  Marriage  Customs. 

and  myrtles  and  olive  branches,  intertwined  with  salt-stones 
and  pyrites  amid  threads  of  gold  and  crimson^.  These 
wreaths  were  often  made  by  the  hands  of  students  and 
scholars,  who  thus  gave  evidence  of  their  sense  of  the 
importance  and  dignity  attached  to  the  wedded  state  ^. 
Here  we  have  a  very  ancient  custom,  for  it  is  probable  that 
the  bridegroom's  crown  belongs  to  the  oldest  of  Hebrew 
wedding  ornaments.  The  wreath  worn  by  the  bride  was 
apparently  a  later  introduction,  for  Isaiah,  in  a  famous 
though  difficult  passage  ^,  says  :  '  I  will  greatly  rejoice  in  the 
Lord,  my  soul  shall  be  joyfuMnjmy  God ;  for  He  hath 
clothed  me  with  the  garm'^rits  of  sn^vnt^'^n,  H^  hath  covered 
me  with  the  robe  of  righteousness,  as  a  bridegroom  decketh 
himself  with  a  garland,  and  as  a  bride  adorneth  herself  with 
her  jewels.'  tJnder  Hellenistic  influence,  the  garland  both 
of  men  and  women  became  more  conspicuous  in  Jewish 
festivities,  and  just  as  the  Hellenistic  boon  companions  cry 
in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  '  Let  us  crown  ourselves  with 
rosebuds  before  they  be  withered  *,'  so  in  the  time  of  the 
author  of  the  third  book  of  the  Maccabees  (iv.  8)  the  garland 
of  the  bride  comes  equally  to  the  fore. 

After  the  final  struggle  against  Vespasian,  the  garland 
was  discontinued   at  Jewish  weddings^,  but  it  was  subse- 

^  Sota,  49  b  ;  3  Mace.  iv.  8.     LSw,  Gesammelte  Schriften^  iii.  415. 

'  Gittin,  7  a. 

'  Is.  Ixi.  10.  The  oniTTp  of  the  bride  (Jer.  ii.  32)  was  a  girdle,  not  a  wreath, 
as  Low  suggests  (Gesammelte  Schri/ten,  iii.  412) ;  though  in  the  Talmud  the 
word  -wrp  is  employed  of  head-gear  {Chagtga,  13  b).  Nor  does  n'?3  i^bride) 
mean,  as  Low  maintains,  'the  garlanded  maiden.'  Delitzsch  appears  in  the 
right  when  he  supposes  that  the  bride  was  so  called  because  she  became 
included  in  her  husband's  family  (Nowack,  Hebr.  Archdeol.,  i.  162-3).  Cf. 
Song  of  Solomon  iii.  11 ;  but  this  may  be  due  to  Greek  influence. 

*  Wisdom  of  Solomon  ii.  8. 

*  Mishnah  Sot  a,  ix.  14. 


The  'Faces  Nitptiales/  195 

quently  resumed,  and  the  myrte^ikranz,  or  wreath  of 
myrtles,  became  an  established  feature  of  the  bridal  attire 
in  the  middle  ages.  The  sufferings  endured  under  the 
cruelty  of  Vespasian  left  their  mark,  however,  on  the  bride's 
garland,  for  no  gold  or  silver  trimming  was  permitted,  in 
order  to  accentuate  the  bitter  memories  associated  with  the 
older  joys  ^. 

But  I  must  resist  the  temptation  to  devote  more  space 
to  these  attractive  details.  So  many  foreign  rites  found 
their  way  into  this  department  of  the  Jewish  wedding  that 
a  study  of  a  medieval  marriage  in  the  synagogue  would  be 
a  liberal  education  in  folk-lore.  T\i^  faces  miptiales  of  the 
Romans  were  early  introduced,  and  young  maidens  met  the 
bridal  pair  with  torches  ^.  Later,  the  Arabian  Jews  bore 
a  long  pole  with  a  burning  light  poised  on  high  at  the  head 
of  the  procession  ^.  In  Persia  a  further  modern  variation  of 
this  custom  may  be  noted,  for  in  Bagdad  a  crowd  accom- 
panies the  bridegroom  by  torchlight  to  the  bride's  house, 
where  the  canopy  is  erected.  The  procession,  which  starts 
towards  evening,  grows  at  every  step.  The  poor  cast  live 
lambs  in  front  of  the  bridegroom,  crying  out  korban  (offer- 
ing). The  bridegroom  carefully  steps  over  the  lamb,  and 
gives  the  poor  half  a  florin  on  each  occasion  ^.  This  Indian 
rite  ^  was  localized  among  the  Jews  of  Persia,  but  another 
Aryan  custom  was  older  and  more  common.  Traces  of 
the  well-known  stepping  of   the    bride  into   seven  circles 

^  Shulchan  Aruch,  Orach  Chayim,  560,  §  4.  Cf.  D^3n:o  mp'D,  §  70,  p,  100. 
The  bridegroom's  crown  was  altogether  discontinued.  See,  e.  g.  Machzor, 
n«"2DTi  yryyr^  (Constantinople,  1573). 

^  Matthew  xxvi.  ^  Zunz,  Gesch.  und  Lit.,  p.  489. 

*  Schur  (Heb.),  Reisebilder,  51-2.  For  a  full  description  of  an  eastern 
Jewish  wedding,  see  Eben  Sappir,  i.  81  a,  and  ii.  74. 

^  Cf.  Winternitz,  op.  cit.,  p.  3. 

O  2 


196  Marriage  Customs. 

towards  the  bridegroom  appear  in  some  forms  of  the  Jewish 
wedding  service.  The  Jewish  bridegroom  was  placed  in 
the  centre,  and  the  bride  turned  round  him  thrice  ^.  Or 
the  bride  and  bridegroom  were  seated  side  by  side,  and 
the  assembled  company  danced  round  them,  the  young 
being  joined  by  the  old^,  for,  as  the  Talmudic  proverb 
has  it,  '  the  woman  of  sixty  runs  to  the  sound  of  music 
like  the  girl  of  six  ".' 

In  honour  of  the  bridal  pair  an  old  Persian  custom 
was  followed  in  Talmudic  times,  and  nuts  and  wheat  were 
cast  about  the  path  on  which  they  strode  ^.  Barley  was 
sown  in  a  flower-vase  a  few  days  before  the  wedding  as 
an  emblem  of  fertility  ^,  and  was  thrown  over  the  young 
couple,  as  in  modern  times.  When  a  boy  was  born 
a  cedar  was  planted,  and  at  the  birth  of  a  girl  an  acacia. 
The  trees  were  felled  before  their  wedding  to  provide  the 
wood  for  the  bridal  canopy  or  litter  ^.  The  people  of  Tur 
Malka,  with  less  delicacy,  carried  a  pair  of  fowls  before  the 
bridal  procession.  These  ancient  rites  all  survived  into 
the  middle  ages.  A  live  fish  played  a  part  in  Oriental 
Jewish  weddings,  and  the  newly-married  pair  leapt  thrice 
over  the  bowl  in  which  the  fish  disported  itself. 

It  has  been  seen  that  wedding  odes  were  characteristic  of 
medieval  Jewish  weddings.  But  so  were  songs  and  jests  of 
another  character,  in  which  wit  and  merriment  scintillated 
to  the  end,  that  the  '  heart  of  bridegroom  and  bride  might 
be  rejoiced.'     The  seven-days  wedding  feast  was  marked  by 

^  D'aTOD  'iip'^,  p.  104.  2  Machzor  Vt'try,  p.  602. 

'  Moed  Katon,  9  b,     Cf.  Dukes,  Blumenlese,  p.  134. 

*  Berachoth,  50  b  ;  Semachoth,  viii.  Cf.  Winternitz,  ibid.  p.  59,  for  Indo- 
Germanic  parallels. 

5  Kethub.  8  a;  Aboda  Zara,  8  b;  Maharil ;  cf.  Pedes,  loc.  cit. 

*  Gtttin,  57  a. 


IVedding  Music.  197 

incessant  musical  performances,  which  not  even  the  Sabbath 
day  itself  interrupted.  Indeed,  as  the  Sabbath  was  the  day 
immediately  succeeding  the  ceremony,  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  prevent  the  employment  of  musicians  on  the 
Saturday^.  Christian  musicians  were  employed  for  that 
purpose,  and  Christian  guests  were  entertained — this  even 
after  the  inauguration  of  the  ghettos.  It  was  left  for 
modern  Oriental  governments  to  permit  the  invasion  of 
Jewish  homes  by  rowdy  mobs  of  roughs — a  survival  per- 
chance of  the  old  detestable  claim  of  th^  jus  primae  noctis, 
of  which  so  much  complaint  is  made  by  early  Jewish 
chroniclers  ^. 

The  wedding  music,  to  return  to  a  more  pleasant  topic, 
was  not  abolished  even  under  the  ascetic  wave  which 
swept  over  Judaism  after  the  destruction  of  the  temple. 
In  the  middle  ages  the  music  was  provided,  Saturdays 
excepted,  by  Jewish  professionals.  The  ghetto  musicians 
were  in  much  vogue,  and  were  often  employed  at  Christian 
banquets.  Dramatic  performances  were  a  usual  feature  of 
Jewish  weddings  in  the  seventeenth  century,  indeed  most 
of  the  Hebrew  plays  extant  were  written  either  for  weddings 
or  for  the  feast  of  Esther — Purim.    But  the  most  character- 


^  Isserlein,  ^nn  riDTin,  7,  describes  the  banquet  on  the  Sabbath  as  'the 
chief  element  in  the  wedding  joys.'  The  employment  of  Christian  musicians 
is  attested  by  the  Mordecai  {Beza,  v),  as  well  as  by  Maharil  (mii'n  'aiTy  "ri). 
According  to  the  Radbaz  {Responsa,  iv.  132)  this  was  forbidden  in  Palestine, 
Egypt,  and  Damascus.  Christian  musicians  seem  (ibid.)  to  have  come  to 
Jewish  weddings  uninvited,  in  which  case  no  objections  were  raised  by  the 
Rabbis.  Radbaz  himself  suppressed  the  custom.  Cf.  Neubauer,  Medieval 
Jemsk  Chronicles,  i.  p.  157.  Many  sumptuary  enactments  had  to  be  made  to 
restrict  extravagant  expenditure  in  this  direction. 

^  Cf.  on  this  subject  Israel  Levi's  articles  in  the  Revue  des  Etudes  Jiiives, 
vol.  XXX.  See  Winternitz,  p.  88.  For  the  outrages  in  modern  times, 
cf.  C.  Wills,  Persia  as  it  is,  p.  231. 


198  Marriage  Customs. 

istic  element  in  the  proceedings  was  th^jest.  In  the  later 
middle  ages  the  marshallik  ^  became  an  indispensable  guest 
at  every  Jewish  wedding.  He  was  a  merry  jester  to  whom 
the  utmost  licence  was  allowed,  none  being  safe  from  his 
ready  and  often  caustic  wit.  Not  even  the  bride  herself 
was  spared,  and  many  a  time  and  oft  in  the  middle  ages 
the  marshallik  obeyed  the  stern  '  forbear-to-exaggerate '  of 
Shammai  and,  holding  the  mirror  up  to  nature,  told  an 
ugly  bride  the  truth  ^.  *  The  litter  is  his  grave,'  said  the 
Talmudic  jester  to  a  handsome  husband  wedded  to  an 
unattractive  bride  ^.  But  these  liberties  were  rarer  than 
the  praises.  '  Every  bride  is  beautiful,'  said  the  genial 
Hillel,  and  most  medieval  marshalliks  accepted  this  rose- 
coloured  axiom. 

Wit  of  another  kind  was  displayed  at  table.  The  wed- 
ding discourse  by  the  rabbi  was  a  conspicuous  function.  This 
discourse  was  delivered  not,  as  now,  during  the  marriage 
ceremony,  but  afterwards,  at  the  banquet  ^.  Many  objec- 
tions   were    felt    against    the   propriety   of   introducing   a 


^  This  word  is  German,  not  Hebrew.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  old  German 
Marschalk  (see  Grimm,  p.  1674)  or  Marshal.  The  Marshal  of  the  feast  easily 
became  the  buffoon,  as  in  the  Lord  of  Misrule,  excesses  once  so  common  all 
over  Europe.  Grimm  quotes  a  similar  sport  in  which  occur  the  characters  of 
a  mock  '■  KOnig  und  der  Marschalk,'  which  shows  that  this  official  was  some- 
times so  named  in  a  playful  signification.  The  suggestion  that  the  w^ord  is 
connected  with  the  Hebrew  mashal  i^=  proverb,  or  anecdote)  is  without 
foundation. 

^  Cf  Derech  Eretz,  ch.  v  ;  Nedarim,  51  a;  Yebamothj  43  b. 

"  Midrash  to  Ps.  xxiv.  i.  Cf.  Buber,  ad.  loc.  Another  jest  {Ber.  8  a), 
'nstd'  or  'x20?'  was  a  play  on  two  texts,  and  contrasted  the  happiness  of 
the  husband  who  had  won  a  good  wife  with  the  misery  of  one  who  was 
mated  to  a  shrew  (cf.  Perles,  loc.  cit.). 

*  Dahne  thinks  that  the  so-called  '  Fourth  Book  of  the  Maccabees '  was 
such  a  wedding  discourse.  But  there  is  no  probability  in  the  view.  Cf. 
Freudenthal,  IV  Makkabderbuch,  p.  11. 


The   Wedding  Discourse.  199 

religious  discourse,  with  all  the  medieval  ingenuity  and 
elaboration,  at  a  jovial  feast  ^.  This  consideration  has, 
no  doubt,  led  to  the  transference  of  the  address  from  the 
home  to  the  synagogue.  In  Eastern  Europe  the  wedding 
gifts  came  to  be  called  Derashaschenk,  i.e.  'discourse 
presents,'  for  the  bridegroom  delivered  a  table  sermon,  and 
the  wedding  gifts  followed  upon  its  close.  An  intermediate 
stage  between  the  wedding  ode  and  the  derasha  or  discourse 
was  filled  by  the  didactic  wedding  poem,  such  as  the  Silver 
Bowl^  written  in  1270  in  Provence,  by  Joseph  Ezobi.  It  is 
a  complete  ethical  code,  inculcating  a  temperate,  intellectual, 
righteous  life,  in  which,  however,  the  emotions  are  to  have 
a  part.  That  a  father  should  send  his  son  such  a  wedding 
gift  is  surely  worthy  of  note  ^. 

The  religious  concomitants  of  a  Jewish  marriage  were 
the  subject  of  continuous  development  in  the  middle  ages. 
The  priestly  benediction  is  mentioned  neither  in  the  Bible 
nor  the  Talmud.  But  the  Talmud  already  recommended 
that  a  '  congregation '  should  be  constituted  for  the  purpose 
of  celebrating  a  wedding,  i.e.  the  presence  of  ten  adult 
males  was  regarded  as  desirable  ^.  In  the  middle  ages 
many  Jewish  communities  converted  this  desire  into  a 
binding  statute.  In  the  tenth  century  marriages  were  per- 
formed before  a  '  congregation '  in  the  bridegroom's  abode, 


*  Cf.  Israel  of  Brunn,  Responsa,  231.  That  the  derasha  or  discourse  occurred 
at  the  table  is  shown  by  the  same  authority  (227),  where  he  alludes  to 
nmycn  br  m\D"n.     Cf.  Gudemann,  iii.  121  ;  Schudt,  ii*.  5. 

'■^  A  complete  translation  of  the  Silver  Bowl,  by  D.  I.  Freedman,  may 
be  found  in  the  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  viii. 

^  rmrri  C^^nn  nsia,  T.  J.  Kethuboth,  i.  i.  Cf.  Ruth  iv.  2:  'And  he  (Boaz) 
took  ten  men  of  the  elders  of  the  city.'  See  also  Masecheth  n'jD,  ed.  Coronel, 
p.  I  a.  This  must  not  be  confused  with  the  legal  requirement  of  the  presence 
of  ten  in  witnessing  the  betrothal  contract. 


aoo  Marriage  Customs. 

or  in  the  synagogue.  In  either  case  the  congregational 
reader  was  present  and  officiated  \  and  for  a  long  time 
it  became  customary  for  weddings  to  be  solemnized  in  the 
synagogue. 

This  medieval  custom  was  not  universal,  for  some 
Jews  preferred  to  perform  the  ceremony  under  the 
open  sky,  in  the  courtyard  of  the  synagogue  and  not 
within  the  synagogue  building  ^.  A  practical  reason  may 
be  assigned  for  this,  viz.  the  impossibility  of  accommodating 
the  numerous  guests  and  spectators  within  the  walls  of  the 
synagogue  or  of  the  wedding  house.  The  changes  which 
took  place  in  the  signification  of  the  chtcppah  point  in  the 
same  religious  direction.  In  the  East  the  association  of 
the  actual  cohabitation  (chuppah)  with  the  marriage  cere- 
mony long  continued,  but  in  Europe  by  the  fourteenth 
century  the  chuppah  had  become  a  mere  religious  emblem. 
Instead  of  a  real  room,  it  became  a  symbolical  room  ^, 
a  canopy,  or  even  a  veil  or  garment  (tallith)  thrown  over 
the  heads  of  the  bridal  pair,  typical  of  their  union.  In 
the  tenth  century,  the  introduction  of  liturgical  marriage 
hymns  begins  to  make  itself  noticeable*.  Moreover— and 
this  was  a  feature  more  marked  with  Oriental  than  with 
Western  Jews — a  religious  turn  was  given  even  to  a  frankly 
'  made-up  '  marriage  by  the  practical  belief  that  marriages 
were  really  made  in  heaven  ^.     From  this  motive,  when  the 

^  Miiller,  Mafteach,  p.  i6.  The  regular  presence  of  a  Rabbi  at  a  wedding 
is  not  earlier  than  the  fourteenth  century. 

2  For  the  history  of  this  custom  see  LQw,  Gesamntelte  Schrifien^  iii.  200. 
The  Talmud,  Ktdd.  12  b,  tells  how  Rab  had  a  woman  flogged  for  perpetrating 
the  same  custom.      Rab  regarded  an  open-air  ceremony  as  indecent. 

'  In  Germany  this  canopy,  supported  on  four  poles  and  richly  decorated, 
was  borne  by  four  boys  (Schudt,  Merkwiirdigkeiten,  ii*.  3). 

*  Cf.  above,  p.  11. 

'  On  this  subject  cf.  my  article  in  the  Jewish  Qua)ierly  Review,  ii.  172.     On 


^And  Abraham  was  old/  201 

bridegroom  visited  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath  following 
his  marriage,  the  congregation  chanted  the  chapter  of 
Genesis  in  which  is  narrated  the  story  of  Isaac's  marriage, 
which  as  Abraham's  servant  claimed,  was  providentially 
directed.  This  chapter  was  sung  not  only  in  Hebrew,  but 
in  Arabic-speaking  lands,  in  the  language  of  the  country. 
These  special  readings  seem  to  have  fallen  but  of  use  in 
Europe  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  they  are  still  re- 
tained in  the  East. 

The  refining  influence  of  this  close  association  with 
religion  was  strengthened  by  the  high  ideal  which  Jews 
always  and  everywhere  entertained  on  the  subject  of 
marriage.  The  Jewish  moralists  of  the  middle  ages  with 
one  voice  said  that  character  and  not  gold  must  be  the 
qualification  of  a  life  companion^,  and  the  famous  Book 
of  the  Pious  emphatically  says :  '  The  offspring  of  a  Jew 
who  married  a  wife  not  of  the  Jewish  race,  but  who  was 
a  woman  of  good  heart  and  modesty  and  charity,  must  be 
preferred  to  the  children  of  a  Jewess  by  birth  who  is, 
however,  destitute  of  the  same  good  qualities  ^.'  Jews  seem, 
on  the  whole,  to  have  been  tolerant  as  regards  intermarriage 
between  sects.  The  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  may  have  rarely 
intermarried,  but  there  was  no  prohibition  in  the  Rabbinical 
law.  Some  medieval  authorities  were,  on  the  other  hand, 
somewhat  more  emphatic  against   intermarriages  between 

the  history  of  the  Hturgical  expression  given  to  the  behef  that  '  marriages 
are  made  in  heaven,'  see  the  elaborate  notes  in  Reifmann's  nsnpn  inbir, 
(Berlin,  1882),  p.  iDp  seq. 

^  Cf.  Kolho^  88  c,  and  on^Dn  -IDD,  §  374-377-  The  Talmud  sets  an  excellent 
example  on  this  head  :  ^  Marry  the  daughter  of  a  man  of  character,  for  as  the 
tree,  so  are  its  fruits '  {Pesachim^  49) ;  *  A  good  and  virtuous  wife  expands 
a  man's  character '  {Ber.  57  b). 

^  Dn^Dnn  -iec,  §  377 ;  ed.  Wistinetzki,  §  1097. 


202  Marriage  Customs. 

Rabbinical  Jews  and  the  Karaites,   but  opinion   was  not 
entirely  in  favour  of  prohibition  ^. 

But,  arising  mainly  from  laudable  considerations,  a  serious 
difficulty  was  presented  in  the  middle  ages  with  regard  to 
marriage  with  strangers,  of  whose  past  nothing  was  definitely 
known.  This,  as  was  seen  above,  has  always  been  a  specifically 
Jewish  trouble,  for  in  no  other  community  were  there  so 
many  new  settlers,  driven  from  their  homes  by  stress  of 
persecution  or  the  innate  Jewish  love  of  travel.  Social 
exclusiveness  came  to  the  aid  here  of  prudence,  and  often 
Jews  would  disdain  to  intermarry  with  the  families  of  new- 
comers against  whom  nothing  but  good  was  reported  ^. 
It  was  long  before  the  Sephardic  Jews — those,  that  is,  who 
were  descended  from  Jews  who  had  lived  in  Spain — could 
reconcile  themselves  to  the  truth  that  they  did  not  degrade 
themselves  by  intermarriage  with  their  so-called  '  German ' 
brethren.  But  pride  of  family  was  always  a  Jewish  cha- 
racteristic, and  in  judging  the  Jewish  exclusiveness  with 
regard  to  other  races,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  a  similar 
feeling  prevailed  within  the  racial  circle  between  Jews  of 
different  degrees  ^. 

But,  to  combine  some  of  the  preceding  details  into 
a  complete  picture,  let  us  imagine  ourselves  transferred  in 
place  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Rhine,  and  in  time  to 
the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century.     A  Jewish  wedding 


^  The  famous  Gaon,  Elijah  Wihia  (1720-1779),  forbade  intermarriage  with 
the  sect  of  the  new-Chassidim  (Graetz,  Geschichte  der  Juden,  xi.  125), 

^  Cf  a  communal  enactment  in  Rome  in  1705,  w^hich  forbade  intermarriage 
with  a  stranger  without  the  sanction  of  Rabbi  and  other  communal  authori- 
ties.    BerUner,  Rom,  ii.  (2)  p,  103. 

*  The  Talmud  is  particular  in  urging  a  man  to  attach  great  importance  to 
the  family  position  of  the  wife.  See,  e.g.  T.  Jerusalem,  Kiddiishm,  ii.  5.  Cf. 
Winternitz,  op.  cit.,  p.  38,  for  ancient  Indian  parallels. 


The  Well  of  St.  Keyne,  203 

is  in  progress,  and  we  naay  see  it  with  the  eye  of  an  actual 
spectator  ^.  If  we  were  in  the  habit  of  attending  Christian 
weddings  in  the  same  time  and  place,  we  should  find  the 
two  types  of  ceremony  identical  in  essence,  though  divergent 
in  most  of  the  details  ^.  Probably  the  give-and-take 
between  Church  and  Synagogue  is  more  marked  in  the  wed- 
ding than  in  any  other  social  rites  of  the  middle  ages.  Most 
of  the  superstitions,  even,  were  common.  Thus,  in  Germany, 
as  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  the  belief  was  current  that  if 
the  bridegroom  put  his  foot  on  the  bride's  while  the  nuptial 
knot  was  being  tied,  he  was  sure  of  post-marital  mastery 
over  her  ^.  A  Jewish  superstition  combines  this  quaint 
belief  with  another  popular  notion  associated  in  this  country 
with  the  well  of  St.  Keyne  *. 

But  our  fifteenth  century  Jewish  wedding-party  is 
growing  impatient,  and  we  must  not  keep  the  ceremony 
waiting  for  us  any  longer.  The  narrative  that  follows  is 
taken  verbally  from  the  report  of  a  pupil  of  the  officiating 
Rabbi. 

^  Maharil. 

^  Compare,  with  the  following  description,  E.  Friedberg's  Ehe  und  Ehe- 
schliessung  im  deutschcn  Mittelalter^  p.  32  seq. 

^  Cf.  Freiberg,  op.  cit.,  p,  26. 

*  The  following  passage  from  the  forty-eighth  chapter  of  DmaN"?  ncn,  by 
Abraham  Azulai  (died  1644),  will  interest  folk-lorists  :  '  If  the  bridegroom 
places  his  right  foot  over  the  left  foot  of  the  bride  when  the  seven  blessings 
are  being  said,  he  will  rule  over  her  all  his  days,  she  will  be  obedient  to 
him,  and  v/ill  hearken  to  all  his  words.  If  the  bride  is  careful  to  set  her  left 
foot  over  the  bridegroom's  right,  she  will  rule  over  him  all  her  days.  Now 
it  happened  that  the  bridegroom  put  his  right  foot  over  the  left  foot  of  the 
bride  during  the  seven  blessings,  to  gain  dominion  over  her,  and  when  the 
bride  told  her  father  w^hat  had  occurred,  he  advised  her  that  when  the 
marriage  was  about  to  be  consummated,  she  should  ask  her  husband  for 
a  glass  of  water.  This  gave  her  the  dominion  all  her  days,  and  the  expedient 
is  an  excellent  antidote  for  overcoming  the  influence  of  the  placing  of  the 
foot  by  the  bridegroom,  and  the  bride  can  thereby  obtain  the  mastery.' 


204  Marriage  Customs. 

'  At  dawn  on  Friday,  when  the  beadle  called  the  people 
to  prayer,  he  summoned  the  bridegroom  to  the  Meieii  ^ 
ceremony.  The  Rabbi  led  the  way  with  the  bridegroom 
to  the  courtyard  of  the  synagogue,  and  a  crowd  of  people 
followed,  brandishing  lighted  torches  and  playing  on  musical 
instruments.  Having  escorted  the  bridegroom,  the  torch- 
bearers  and  musicians  retraced  their  steps  and  soon  returned 
with  the  bride  and  her  company  ^.  When  she  reached  the 
entrance  of  the  courtyard,  the  Rabbi  and  other  notables 
brought  the  bridegroom  forward  to  receive  her.  He  took 
her  hand,  and  as  they  stood  there  clasped  together, 
all  the  assemblage  cast  wheat  over  their  heads,  and  said 
three  times,  "  Be  fruitful  and  multiply !  "  Together  the 
pair  walked  as  far  as  the  door  of  the  synagogue,  where 
they  remained  seated  awhile.  Next,  the  bride  was  taken 
home  again  and  dressed  herself  in  a  sargeJies  or  white 
shroud  which  covered  all  her  other  attire  ;  she  threw  a  veil 
over  her  face,  and  put  on  a  fur  robe  in  place  of  her  usual 
dress  or  sarbel.  The  bridegroom  meantime  was  led  into 
the  synagogue  building,  dressed  in  Sabbath  attire,  with 
a  cowled  or  hooded  garment  suspended  from  his  neck,  in 

^  Meien,  in  M.  H.  D.  =  '  to  make  merry '  (cf.  Giidemann,  iii.  120).  As 
late  as  in  the  time  of  Moses  Schreiber  (noiD  cnn,  iii.  98),  the  Meien  ceremony 
was  common  throughout  Germany. 

^  It  is  impossible  to  enter  into  the  many  variations  of  custom  regarding 
the  etiquette  enforced  on  the  bride.  In  the  Gaonic  age  (Muller,  Mafteach, 
p.  49)  the  bride  was  taken  from  her  father's  house  on  the  evening  preceding 
her  marriage.  She  remained  overnight  as  a  guest  at  one  of  her  kinsmen's 
abode.  Next  day  she  was  conducted  to  her  husband's  house,  and  at  both 
places  the  seven  benedictions  were  recited.  A  similar  custom  still  prevails 
with  the  Jews  in  some  parts  of  the  East.  It  is  almost  universally  the  custom 
with  Jews  that  the  bridegroom  and  bride  shall  not  meet  from  sunset  of  the 
day  before  until  the  wedding.  Sometimes  neither  the  Jewish  bride  nor 
bridegroom  left  the  house  for  the  eight  days  preceding  the  marriage  (Schudt, 
ii-  3)- 


The  Wedding  Ceremony,  205 

memory  of  the  destruction  of  the  Temple,  as  is  the  manner 
in  the  Rhinelands  ^. 

'  The  bridegroom  was  placed  by  the  ark,  on  the  north- 
east side  of  the  synagogue.  Then  the  congregation 
chanted  the  hymn  "  Lord  of  the  world  "  and  the  morning 
Psalms,  but  omitted  the  techina  (or  penitential  prayer). 
While  this  was  proceeding,  her  friends  decorated  the  bride 
with  garlands  and  gave  her  rings  ^.  The  wedding  ceremony 
occurred  directly  after  the  morning  service,  and  the  Rabbi 
wore  his  Sabbath  clothes,  as  did  all  the  relatives  of  the  bride- 
groom and  bride.  The  Rabbi  wore  his  week-day  tallith 
or  praying-shawl,  but  when  his  own  daughter  was  wed,  he 
substituted  the  tallith  which  he  only  used  on  Sabbaths. 

*  The  bride  had  by  this  time  been  reconducted  to  the 
synagogue  door,  amid  musical  accompaniments.  There, 
however,  she  paused  while  the  Rabbi  placed  the  bride- 
groom on  the  platform  which  stood  in  the  middle  of  the 
synagogue.  The  Rabbi  strewed  ashes  from  a  furnace  on 
the  bridegroom's  head,  under  the  cowl,  in  the  place  where 
the  phylacteries  ^  are  worn — once  more  in  memory  of  the 
destruction  of  Zion.  Joined  by  the  notables,  the  Rabbi 
proceeded  to  the  door  to  receive  the  bride.    He  took  her  by 


^  This  was  a  common  German  mourning  garb.     Cf.  Giidemann,  ibid.  121. 

^  A  usual  gift  to  the  bride  was  a  girdle.  This  was  given  to  her  on  the 
Thursday,  by  the  Rabbi  or  by  a  leading  lay  official  (cf.  above,  p.  180)  in  the 
name  of  the  bridegroom.  A  gift  of  stringed  coins  is  still  made  to  the  bride 
in  the  East  on  the  Sabbath  before  the  wedding  (cf.  C.  Pontremoli,  ^-112  nn-'Di', 
§  5).  Some  other  rites,  e.  g.  Spinholz  (above,  p.  144),  also  preceded  the 
wedding.  These  may  be  likened  to  the  more  ancient  irpcuToyafxia  ceremonies 
which  the  Jews  adopted  from  the  Greeks,  including  festivities  on  both  the 
preceding  and  succeeding  Sabbaths  (T.  Jer.  Demai,  iv ;  Shebiith,  iv ;  and 
Levit.  R.  ch.  xi).     Cf.  Fiirst,  Glossarium  Graeco-Hebraeum,  p.  181, 

'  According  to  the  Kolbo,  86  d,  p.  181,  some  Jewish  bridegrooms  wore 
their  tephillin  as  an  ornament.    The  bridegroom  also  wore  white  shoes  (ibid.). 


2o6  Marriage  Customs. 

the  robe,  not  by  the  hand,  and  they  placed  the  bride  at  the 
right  of  her  future  husband  ^  The  faces  of  the  bridal  pair 
were  turned  to  the  south  ;  their  mothers  both  stood  near 
the  bride.  Then  men  took  the  corner  of  the  bridegroom's 
hood  and  placed  it  over  the  head  of  the  bride,  so  as  to  form 
a  canopy  over  them  twain.  But  when  his  own  daughter  was 
married,  Maharil  took  the  end  of  her  veil  and  threw  it  over 
the  bridal  pair  as  a  canopy,  for,  said  he,  this  was  the  old 
custom  ^  but  it  had  been  forgotten. 

'  They  held  in  readiness  two  wine-glasses,  one  for  the 
betrothal,  the  other  for  the  wedding,  using,  moreover,  one 
set  of  glasses  for  a  maiden,  another  set  for  the  nuptials  of 
a  widow.  Then  the  Rabbi  sang  the  blessings  of  betrothal  ^ ; 
when  he  had  finished,  he  called  for  two  witnesses,  showed 
them  the  ring,  and  asked, 

' "  You  see  this  ring,  do  you  think  it  has  some  value  ?  " 

'  "  Yes,"  answered  the  witnesses. 

'  If  the  bride  was  a  minor  (under  twelve),  the  Rabbi 
questioned  her  as  to  her  age.  Then  he  bade  the  witnesses 
observe  that  the  bridegroom  wedded  the  bride  with  the 
formula  : — 

'Behold  thou  art  consecrated  unto  me  by  this  ring^  according 
to  the  Law  of  Moses  and  of  Israel. 

'  Thereupon  the  bridegroom  placed  the  ring  on  the  fore- 

^  'At  thy  right  hand  doth  stand  the  queen,'  says  the  wedding  ode  in 
Psalm  xlv.  lo.  Jewish  fancy  went  further  than  the  mere  imitation  of  this 
passage,  and  read  the  word  bride  (nba)  in  the  final  letters  of  the  words  of 
the  text  just  quoted,  im^b  ^yia  r\y2.l  (read  backwards).      Cf.  Rokeach,  §  353. 

2  Cf.  Genesis  xxiv.  65  :  '  And  she  (Rebekah)  took  her  veil  and  covered 
herself  when  she  met  her  future  husband,  Isaac. 

^  Cf.  S.  Singer,  Authorized  Daily  Prayer-book,  p.  278  seq.  In  the 
Karaitic  prayer-book  (ed.  Vienna,  1854)  the  service  occupies  twelve  large 
pages.  The  thirty-first  chapter  of  Proverbs  (b^n  ntu«)  was  included.  The 
same  addition  may  be  found  in  the  Yemen  MSS. 


The  Seven  Benedictions.  207 

finger  of  the  bride's  right  hand^.  Two  other  witnesses 
were  then  called  to  testify  to  the  Kethuba  ^  and  marriage 
settlements,  but  the  Rabbi  did  not  read  the  contents  of  the 
document  aloud.  The  Rabbi  stood  all  this  time  with  his 
face  to  the  East,  saying  the  Seven  Benedictions,  of  which 
the  fourth  ran  thus  : — 

'Blessed  art  Thou,  O  Lord  our  God,  King  of  the  Universe, 
who  hast  made  man  ifi  Thine  image,  after  Thy  likeness,  and 
hast  prepared  unto  him,,  out  of  his  very  self,  a  perpetual 
fabric.     Blessed  art  Thou,  O  Lord,  Creator  of  man. 

'  But  when,  in  the  recitation  of  the  subsequent  blessings, 
the  Rabbi  reached  the  words  : — 

*  O  make  the  loved  companions  greatly  to  rejoice^  even  as  of 
old  Thou  didst  gladden  Thy  creature  in  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
he  turned  his  face  to  the  bridal  pair  and  continued  : — 

'  Thou  didst  create  joy  and  gladness,  bridegroom  and  bride, 
mirth  and  extdtation,  pleasure  and  delight,  love,  comradeships 
peace  and  fellowship.  Soon  may  there  be  heard  in  the  cities 
of  Jtidah,  and  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  the  voice  of  joy 
and  gladness,  the  voice  of  the  bridegroom,  and  the  voice  of 
the    bride,    the  jtibilant   notes   of  bridegrooms  from   their 

^  Cf.  Rokeach,  §351;  M.  Minz,  §  109.  As  the  ring  was  intended  to  be 
a  token  of  marriage,  it  was  worn  on  the  most  prominent  finger  (see  mpo 
D'3n3D,  p.  105).  At  present,  Jewesses  transfer  the  ring  from  the  right  to  the 
left  hand  after  the  ceremony. 

2  The  Kethuba,  or  written  marriage  contract,  dates  from  the  Hellenistic 
period;  it  was  introduced  by  Simon  ben  Shetach  (first  century  B.C.). 
Cf.  N.  Krochmal,  More  Nehuche  Hazeman,  p.  185  a.  The  Kethuba  included 
the  wife's  settlements ;  indeed,  the  word  Kethuba  came  to  mean  the  settle- 
ments themselves.  The  amount  contracted  to  the  bride  greatly  varied  in 
diff'erent  parts.  Cf.  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  177.  The  marriage  document 
was  sometimes  ornamented  with  portraits  of  the  bridegroom  and  bride 
(A.  de  Boton,  ni  onb  n"iir,  §  15%  or  even  with  nude  figures  representing 
Adam  and  Eve  in  Paradise.  Reading  the  Kethuba  aloud  to  the  bride  was  at 
first  an  eastern  Jewish  custom  (in^bt^  mi^*,  p.  160).     It  is  now  general. 


2o8  Marriage  Customs. 

canopies,  aiid  of  youths  fro'^n  their  feasts  of  song.  Blessed 
art  Thou,  O  Lord,  who  makes t  the  bridegroom  to  rejoice 
with  the  bride. 

*  At  the  end  of  the  ''  blessing  ^' — as  the  wedding  ceremony- 
was  aptly  termed  in  the  middle  ages  ^ — the  Rabbi  passed 
the  wine  to  the  bridegroom  and  then  to  the  bride.  He 
retained  the  glass  in  his  hand  while  they  sipped  its  contents, 
but  he  now  gave  it  to  the  bridegroom,  who  turned  round, 
faced  the  north,  and  threw  the  glass  at  the  wall,  breaking 
it  ^.  Thereupon  the  assembled  company  rushed  at  the 
bridegroom,  uttering  expressions  of  joy,  and  conveyed 
him — before  the  bride — to  the  wedding-house  ^. 

'  After  the  ceremony  was  over,'  continues  our  informant,  '  it 
was  an  ancient  rite  for  the  married  couple  to  eat  an  (igg  and 
a  hen  in  the  wedding-house  by  themselves,  with  only  one 
person — a  female  relative — in  attendance*.  Then  all  the 
relatives  and  whoever  wished  entered,  in  order  to  increase 
the  merry-making.  Now,  however,'  continues  our  fourteenth 
century  authority,  '  this  custom  has  been  forgotten,  and  all 
flock  in  together,  and  there  is  no  tete-a-tete  for  the  happy 
pair — a  change  which  is  improper.  During  the  seven 
days  after  the  wedding  public  entertainments  are  given  ^, 


'  Cf,  p.  177  above. 

2  It  is  nowadays  usual  to  have  a  separate  glass  for  this  purpose.  The 
bridegroom  breaks  it  vi^ith  his  foot.     See  above,  p.  187. 

^  Either  his  own  abode  or  the  public  hall  mentioned  above,  p.  74. 

*  Sometimes  this  first  meal  consisted  of  milk  and  honey,  and  salt  ('it  is 
a  covenant  of  salt  for  ever,'  Num.  xviii.  19)  was  strewn  in  the  house  ( Rokeach, 
§  353)-  Oil  the  second  day  after  the  wedding,  fish  was  a  favourite  dish 
{Rokeach,  §  354).  Special  foods  on  the  various  days  succeeding  a  marriage 
were  common  with  the  ancient  people  of  India,  but  salt  was  avoided  i^Win- 
ternitz,  ibid,). 

'  In  the  Sephardic  custom  the  bride  used  to  remain  under  the  chuppa  or 
canopy  all  day,  receiving  the  guests'  congratulations    Schudt,  ii*.  p.  5). 


The  Sabbath  Rejoicings,  209 

and  during  all  this  period,  if  a  stranger  is  seated  at  the 
table  who  was  not  present  at  the  wedding,  they  repeat 
the  Wedding  Benedictions.  On  the  next  Friday  evening 
the  young  men  assemble  for  the  evening  prayer  in  the 
home  of  the  bridal  couple,  for  the  latter  do  not  go  to 
synagogue. 

'  On  the  Sabbath  morning,  when  the  congregation  have 
finished  the  early  Psalms,  the  leading  members  leave  the 
service  and  escort  the  bridegroom  to  synagogue,  with  his  hat 
on  in  the  usual  manner,  not  suspended  as  a  hood  from  his 
neck  as  at  his  marriage.  He  is  placed  in  the  north-east  of 
the  synagogue,  near  the  ark.  Next,  the  fathers  of  the  bride- 
groom and  bride  choose  groomsmen,  and  seat  them  by  his 
side.  All  these  men  are  "  called  up  "  to  the  Law — sometimes 
there  are  more  than  the  usual  seven  (who  are  "  called  up  " 
every  Sabbath).  Then  the  Precentor  sings  various  special 
hymns  ^  while  the  bridegroom  and  his  company  ascend  the 
reading-desk.  More  hymns  are  sung,  offerings  are  made  for 
providing  wax  candles,  for  a  wrap  for  the  Scroll  of  the  Law, 
for  alms  to  the  poor,  for  supporting  the  school,  and  for 
providing  dowries  for  poor  maidens.  In  the  afternoon  of 
the  Sabbath,  the  bridegroom  mostly  remains  at  home, 
so  that  certain  passages  ^  need  not  be  omitted.  In  some 
parts  the  bridegroom  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  wears 
a  tallith  (the  praying-vestment  worn  by  male  worshippers) 
on  the  occasion  of  his  wedding".    When  I  w^as  myself  wed,^ 

^  See  pp.  II  and  ii8  above. 

'  pni?  inpi!?.  Authorized  Daily  Prayer-hook^  ed.  Rev.  S.  Singer,  ed.  iv. 
p.  176.  On  this  point  see  Tur,  Orach  Chayim,  §  131,  where  we  are  told 
pnn  n'an  whz^:i  jV,  showing  that  the  service  was  held  in  the  bridegroom's 
private  house.  Later  on  (cf.  Joseph  Caro,  loc.  cit.)  the  custom  was  for  the 
bridegroom  to  go  to  synagogue. 

^  This  would   not   be   unnatural,   seeing   that  marriages  were  so   early. 

P 


2IO  Marriage  Customs. 

adds  our  informant, '  a  large  body  of  the  chief  members  and 
a  concourse  of  young  men  came  with  me  by  water  for  three 
miles,  from  Mayence  to  Oppenheim.' 

Possibly  we  have  here  the  origin  of  a  modern  custom — the  bride  presents 
the  bridegroom  with  the  silken  tallith  in  which  he  is  wed.  In  the  middle 
ages  the  tallith  sometimes  served  as  a  chuppa.  Cf.  Rokeach,  §  353,  and 
above,  p.  206. 


CHAPTER    XL 

TRADES   AND  OCCUPATIONS. 

In  the  year  1160,  or  thereabouts,  a  Jewish  merchant  left 
Tudela,  his  native  town  in  Navarre,  on  a  journey  round 
the  world.  Of  the  incidents  of  this  journey,  Benjamin 
of  Tudela's  Itinerary  has  preserved  the  precious  record  \ 
Benjamin  travelled  from  Saragossa  by  way  of  Catalonia, 
the  South  of  France,  Italy,  Greece,  the  Archipelago,  Rhodes, 
Cyprus,  and  Cilicia,  to  Syria,  Palestine,  the  lands  of  the 
Caliphate,  and  Persia.  His  return  route  took  him  to  the 
Indian  Ocean,  the  coast  towns  of  Yemen,  Egypt,  Sicily,  and 
Castile,  whither  he  returned,  after  an  absence  of  about 
fourteen  years  ^.  This  Benjamin  was  a  typical  Jewish 
trader  of  the  middle  ages,  yet  he  was  no  financier,  usurer, 
hawker,  or  dealer  in  secondhand  goods.  As  a  merchant, 
he  records  the  state  of  trade,  and  the  nature  of  the  products, 
of  each  country  which  he  visited.  His  Itinerary  furnishes 
the  oldest  material  for  the  history  of  the  commerce  of 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  in  the  twelfth  century.  But  with 
an  almost  modern  large-mindedness,  Benjamin  was  equally 
interested  in  the  general  life  of  the  peoples  into  whose 
midst   he    strayed.     Countries   and    men    interest  him  as 

1  The  best  edition  (Hebrew  and  English)  is  The  Itinerary  of  R.  Benjamin 
of  Tudela^  ed.  A.  Asher,  2  vols.  (London,  1840-1). 

2  Cf.  Zunz,  op.  cit.,  ii.  p.  251. 

P  2 


212  Trades  and  Occupations. 

much  as  their  commerce  and  handicrafts.  Courtly  gossip, 
popular  superstitions,  are  entered  in  his  diary  side  by  side 
with  business-like  statements  concerning  trade  and  traders. 
Here,  says  he,  may  be  obtained  the  brightest  pearls.  There, 
he  tells  us,  again,  arose  the  latest  new  Persian-Jewish 
Messiah.  Art  and  archaeology  have  attractions  for  him. 
He  revels  in  the  picturesque  with  all  the  ardour  of  an 
enthusiastic  sightseer.  He  invariably  tells  us  the  number 
of  Jewish  residents  in  the  various  parts  of  the  world  through 
which  he  passed,  and  reports  on  their  manner  of  life,  their 
schools,  and  their  trades.  But  he  devotes  much  of  his 
space  to  topics  of  wider  interest.  He  describes  the  Assassins 
in  Syria  and  Persia,  the  dangers  of  navigating  the  China 
seas  ;  he  gives  a  full  account  of  Rome,  with  its  buildings 
and  relics ;  he  has  several  brilliant  paragraphs  descriptive 
of  Constantinople  and  Bagdad ;  Jerusalem  and  Damascus 
are  depicted  vigorously  and  vividly.  Kings  and  peoples, 
their  learning  and  their  customs,  their  dress  and  their 
burials,  all  fall  within  the  purview  of  this  medieval 
merchant.  His  Hebrew  style  is  that  of  a  plain  merchant, 
but  it  says  a  good  deal  that  a  plain  merchant  could  write 
with  so  much  simplicity  and  with  so  many  graceful  touches. 
Jews  of  the  type  represented  by  Benjamin  of  Tudela 
were  not  confined  to  Spain.  The  double  motive  of  feeling 
and  preserving  the  magic  bond  between  Jews  scattered  to 
the  four  corners  of  the  world  and  of  finding  new  outlets 
for  trade,  made  the  Jewish  merchants  of  Italy  and  the 
Levant  active  and  far-seeing  beyond  their  confreres  of  other 
faiths.  Greed  for  information  and  greed  for  gain  form 
a  not  undesirable  business  combination.  But,  for  the 
moment,  our  interest  lies  in  the  Jewish  mercantile  opera- 
tions, in  so  far  as  they  brought  nation  into  contact  with 


Benjamin  of  Tiidela.  213 

nation.  Montpellier  in  the  twelfth  century  was  a  convenient 
clearing-house  for  the  trade  between  Italy  and  the  Levant. 
'  You  meet  there,'  says  Benjamin  of  Tudela^, '  with  Christian 
and  Mohammedan  merchants  from  all  parts  :  from  Portugal, 
Lombardy,  the  Roman  Empire,  from  Egypt,  Palestine, 
Greece,  France,  Spain,  and  England.  People  of  all  tongues 
are  met  there,  principally  in  consequence  of  the  traffic  of 
the  Genoese  and  of  the  Pisans.'  Yet  Montpellier  was  the 
seat  of  an  extremely  active  and  wealthy  commercial  colony 
of  Jews,  as  well  as  of  a  learned  and  famous  Rabbinical 
college.  A  similar  remark  applies  to  Marseilles  and  to  all 
the  Mediterranean  seaports.  Regensburg,  to  take  a  typical 
town  of  another  description,  formed  one  of  the  chief  inland 
centres  from  which  the  products  of  the  East  reached  Central 
and  Northern  Germany.  From  Constantinople  the  cargo- 
boats  filled  with  Eastern  commodities  worked  up  the  Danube 
until  they  reached  Regensburg,  and  the  vessels  returned 
laden  with  the  agricultural  products  and  manufactured 
articles  of  Germany-.  In  this  international  trade  the  Jews 
took  a  foremost  part,  and  their  extensive  wholesale  opera- 
tions had  an  excellent  effect  on  the  traffic,  which  extended 
to  and  from  Germany  in  all  directions. 

Another  characteristic  instance  is  supplied  by  Narbonne. 
This  southern  French  town  was  a  noted  centre  of  Jewish 
learning  from  the  eleventh  century  onwards.  It  also  stood 
in  direct  commercial  communication  with  the  East.  Literary 
and  industrial  intercourse  was  maintained  by  way  of  Kairo- 
wan  and  southern  Italy.  As  late  as  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries  the  Jews  succeeded  in  performing  a 
similarly  important  service  to  central  Europe.      In  those 

^  Ed.  Asher,  i.  p.  33. 

^  Berliner,  Aus  deni  inneren  Lcben  der  deut.  Juden.,  p.  43. 


214  Trades  and  Occupations. 

centuries  the  nobility  and  peasantry  of  Poland  had  no  com- 
prehension of  the  value  of  their  own  native  products.  But 
in  Silesia  the  raw  materials  of  Poland  found  a  ready  market. 
Two-thirds  of  this  very  considerable  trade  was  in  the  hands 
of  enterprising  Jewish  merchants,  who  carried  the  pro- 
ducts of  Poland  to  Breslau  and  exchanged  them  for  the 
products  and  manufactures  of  Germany  ^.  This  striking  fact 
is  certain.  In  all  the  great  inland  ganglia  of  commerce  in 
the  middle  ages,  no  less  than  at  the  peripheral  seaports, 
Jewish  merchants  congregated  in  large  numbers.  Indeed, 
as  Mr.  Lecky  maintains,  Jews  were  for  centuries  the  only 
representatives  of  international  commercial  activity.  '  By 
travelling  from  land  to  land  till  they  had  become  intimately 
acquainted  both  with  the  wants  and  the  productions  of  each, 
by  practising  money-lending  on  a  large  scale  and  with 
consummate  skill,  by  keeping  up  a  constant  and  secret^ 
correspondence,  and  organizing  a  system  of  exchange  which 
was  then  unparalleled  in  Europe,  the  Jews,'  says  Mr.  Lecky, 
'succeeded  in  making  themselves  absolutely  indispensable 
to  the  Christian  community^.' 

Passing  from  this  general  question,  it  is  probable  that 
Oriental  products  owed  a  good  share  of  their  acclimatization 
in  Europe  to  Jewish  importers,  to  the  quickness  of  percep- 
tion and  resourcefulness  of  the  medieval  Jewish  middle- 
men. This  is  not  only  true  of  coffee  and  tobacco*,  but 
also  of  sugar.  It  was  the  Portuguese  Jews  who  in  1548 
transplanted  the  sugar-cane  from  the  island  of  Madeira  to 
Brazil  ^.      European  Jews  also  imported  sugar  to  Vienna 

^  Brann,  in  the  Gractz-Jubelschrift,  p.  225. 

'  Mr.  Lecky  is  mistaken  in  supposing  that  this  correspondence  was  neces- 
sarily or  usually  secret. 

■'  Rationalism  in  Europe,  ii.  p.  283.  *  Above,  p.  137. 

'  G.  Kohut  in  Publ.  Jew.  American  Hist.  Soc.  iv.  p.  103. 


International  Commerce.  ai*, 

from  Candia  ^.  Spices  of  all  descriptions  were  also  im- 
ported by  Jews,  partly  because  of  the  ritual  laws  for  the 
Passover,  which  required  absolute  purity  in  all  the  condi- 
ments used  during  that  festival.  Religious  needs  also 
induced  the  Jews  of  various  parts  of  Europe  to  import 
myrtles  from  France  and  citrons  from  the  coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean. 

In  all  these  directions  the  Jewish  mercantile  activity 
was  thus  useful  to  the  general  community,  and  productive 
of  an  enlightened  spirit  among  the  Jews  themselves.  The 
narratives  of  the  Jewish  travellers  of  the  middle  ages  are 
extraordinarily  free  from  mythical  elements^  and  rich  in 
notes  useful  for  the  social  history  of  the  times.  Every 
Jewish  congregation  had  its  'travellers'  tales,'  but  these 
tales  were  records  of  fact  as  well  as  of  fiction.  This  partly 
accounts  for  the  absence  of  original  Jewish  fairy  tales  in 
the  middle  ages.  The  Jews  interpreted  to  Europe  the 
folklore  of  the  East,  w^hich  they  brought  with  them  on 
their  many  travels.  But  as  they  carried  with  them  facts 
as  well  as  fancies,  they  were  unwilling  or  unable  to  weave 
fresh  imaginative  designs  in  imitation  of  those  already 
existing.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  in  the  Jewish 
satires  of  the  middle  ages  a  remarkable  use  of  folklore 
elements  so  far  as  the  form  is  concerned,  Joseph  Zabara, 
for  instance,  is  probably  the  first  European  to  employ  the 
Indian  framework  and  chain  of  stories  for  the  purposes  of 
satire.  Far  more,  however,  than  this  was  acquired  by 
means  of  the  merchant  and  Rabbi  travellers  of  the  middle 
ages.  Not  all  Jewish  scholars  were  so  restless  as  Abraham 
Ibn  Ezra,  who  wandered  to  and  fro  all  over  Europe,  even 

^  Berliner,  loc.  cit.,  p.  45. 

^  Petachia's  narrative,  it  is  true,  is  far  more  *  fabulous '  than  Benjamin's. 


2i6  Trades  and  Occupations. 

visiting  England  twice,  and  leaving  behind  him,  as  the 
signposts  of  his  journeys,  works  which  breathe  the  spirit 
of  an  observer  who  has  known  many  men  and  many  lands. 
But  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  scarcely  a  great  Rabbi  of 
the  middle  ages  ended  his  career  in  the  land  in  which  he 
was  born. 

We  shall  soon  see  that  the  Jews  suffered  in  two  distinct 
ways  from  the  opposition  between  the  theological  spirit  and 
the  commercial  which  dominated  the  general  thought  of  the 
middle  ages.  For  the  present  we  must  fix  our  attention  on 
the  fact  that  the  Jews  were  the  only  great  merchants,  prac- 
tically without  rivals  in  Christian  circles,  until  the  great 
Italian  republics  reorganized  themselves  on  a  commercial 
basis.  The  Jews  were  also  intermediaries  of  the  retail, 
as  well  as  of  the  wholesale  trade  of  Europe.  If  the  Jew 
was  a  familiar  figure  at  the  seaports,  he  was  equally  in 
evidence  at  the  fair  and  the  inland  market  ^.  Just  as  the 
enterprising  merchant  travelled  to  little-known  lands  in 
search  of  profit  as  well  as  of  knowledge,  so  the  motives  of 
the  lesser  Jewish  merchants  were  made  generous  by  the 
noble  alloy  of  intellectual  curiosity.  For  visitors  from 
Cologne,  Mainz,  and  Worms  would  betake  themselves,  say, 
to  the  fair  at  Troyes,  not  merely  in  order  to  display  their 
wares,  to  introduce  fresh  commodities,  to  push  a  newly- 
imported  spice,  to  arrange  a  marriage  or  buy  a  trinket  for 
their  wives.  They  would  go  thither  to  sit  at  the  feet  of 
Rashi,  or  at  least  to  breathe  the  atmosphere  purified  by  the 
near  neighbourhood  of  that  great  Rabbinical  luminary  of 
the  eleventh  century.     While  Eastern  Jews  were  venerating 

^  See  p.  173  above;  Brunschvicg,  Les  Juifs  d Angers,  p.  17;  Graetz 
(E.  T.),  IV.  ch.  xviii ;  LOwenstein,  Kurpfah,  p.  8  and  passim;  Bacharach, 
Resp.  TN"*  mn,  p.  230  a ;  Depping,  p.  132. 


Jewish  Dyers.  217 

the  relics  of  dead  saints,  the  Jewish  hawker  in  Europe  was 
expending  his  heart's  overflowing  reverence  at  the  shrine  of 
some  great  living  teacher  whose  reputation  and  works,  and 
not  his  dead  relics,  became  a  precious  heirloom  to  the  Jews 
of  all  succeeding  ages. 

But  the  ubiquity  and  the  range  of  Jewish  commercial 
enterprises,  their  curious  combination  of  religion  with  every- 
day life,  are  not  the  only  object-lessons  read  to  us  by  the 
narrative  of  Benjamin  of  Tudela.  He  introduces  us  not 
only  to  Jewish  traders,  but  also  to  Jewish  artisans.  He 
shows  us  not  only  what  Jews  did  when  congregated  in  large 
numbers  in  cities,  where  the  arts  and  handicrafts  were  more 
or  less  completely  barred  against  them,  but  he  also  informs 
us  of  the  manner  in  which  Jews  worked  with  their  hands 
in  countries  where  the  guilds  or  parallel  institutions  were 
unknown.  Benjamin  often  came  across  solitary  Jews  living 
in  isolation  from  their  brethren.  This  is,  indeed,  a  note- 
worthy point.  For  Benjamin  found  small  congregations  of 
Jews,  or  even  single  families,  scattered  in  several  places  on 
his  route.  In  later  centuries  such  a  phenomenon  becomes 
far  rarer.  The  supposed  gregariousness  of  Jews  in  large 
towns  was  no  innate  instinct,  but  was  a  characteristic 
enforced  by  the  necessities  of  European  life.  In  these 
small  congregations  of  Jews,  Benjamin  invariably  found 
his  brethren  engaged  in  handicrafts.  I  give  a  few  of  Ben- 
jamin's entries  in  his  own  words,  some  referring  to  larger, 
others  to  smaller,  Jewish  congregations : — 

One  day's  journey  (from  Taranto)  to  Brindisi  on  the  sea  coast,  containing 
about  ten  Jews,  who  are  dyers'^. 

Three  days  (from  Corinth)  to  the  large  city  of  Thebes,  with  about  two 
thousand  Jewish  inhabitants.  These  are  the  most  eminent  manufacturers  of 
silk  and  purple-cloth  in  all  Greece  2. 

^  Ed.  Asher,  p.  45.  ^  Ibid.  p.  47. 


2i8  Trades  and  Occupations. 

The  town  of  Saluniki  .  .  .  contains  about  five  hundred  Jewish  inhabitants 
.  .  .  who  live  by  the  exercise  of  handicrafts^. 

In  Constantinople  many  of  the  Jews  are  manufacturers  of  silk  cloth,  many 
others  are  merchants,  some  of  them  being  extremely  rich;  but  no  Jew  is 
allowed  to  ride  on  a  horse  except  R.  Solomon  the  Egyptian,  who  is  the 
king's  ph3'sician,  and  by  whose  influence  the  Jews  enjoy  many  advantages, 
even  in  their  state  of  oppression  ^. 

Antioch  stands  on  the  banks  of  the  Makloub  .  .  .  and  is  overlooked  by 
a  very  high  mountain.  A  wall  surrounds  this  height,  on  the  summit  of 
which  is  situated  a  well.  The  inspector  of  the  well  distributes  the  water  by 
subterranean  aqueducts,  and  provides  the  houses  of  the  principal  inhabitants 
of  the  city  therewith.  .  .  .  Antioch  contains  about  ten  Jews,  who  are  glass 
manufacturers  ^. 

New  Tyre  is  a  very  beautiful  city,  being  guarded  from  the  sea  by  two 
towers,  within  which  vessels  ride  at  anchor.  The  officers  of  the  customs 
draw  an  iron  chain  from  tower  to  tower  every  night,  thereby  effectually 
preventing  any  thieves  or  robbers  to  escape  by  boats  .  ,  .  The  Jews  of  Tyre 
are  shipowners  and  manufacturers  of  the  far-renowned  Tyrian  glass.  Purple 
dye  is  also  found  in  this  neighbourhood*. 

To  St.  George,  the  ancient  Luz  (Judges  i.  26),  half  a  day's  journey.  One 
Jew  only  lives  there;  he  is  a  dyer^. 

The  dyeing  house  (in  Jerusalem)  is  rented  by  the  year,  and  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  carrying  on  this  trade  is  purchased  by  the  Jews,  two  hundred  of 
whom  dwell  in  one  corner  of  the  city,  under  the  tower  of  David  ^. 

Two  Jews  live  at  Beith  Nabi,  and  both  are  dyers.  At  Jaffa  only  one  Jew 
resides;  he,  too,  is  a  dyer.  Similarly  at  Cariateen  Benjamin  found  a  solitary 
Jew,  also  a  dyer  (p.  87).  One  day  and  a  half  to  Serain,  the  ancient  Jezreel, 
a  city  containing  a  remarkably  large  fountain;  one  Jewish  inhabitant,  a 
dyer''. 

Thus  in  several  Asiatic  and  Southern  European  districts 
Benjamin  found  Jews  engaged  in  handicrafts.  In  truth,  the 
same  remark  applies  to  the  Jews  of  Northern  and  Central 
Europe.  Until  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
though  they  were  much  hampered  by  distinctive  legislation, 
the  Jews  pursued  the  same  handicrafts  as  the  rest  of  the 
world  ^     Naturally,  the  Jews  had  their  favourite  arts.     In 

1  Ed.  Asher,  p.  50.  2  p.  53,  3  p  ^g. 

*  P-  63-  ^  p.  65.  *^  p.  69.  ■^  pp.  78,  79,  80. 

^  i^enan,  Le  Judaisine  et  le  Christianisme,  p.  22. 


Jerusalem  in  1263.  219 

Asia,  as  Benjamin  shows,  the  Jews  were  specially  noted 
as  dyers  and  manufacturers  of  silk.  In  Italy  the  Jewish 
dyers  were  only  less  noted  than  their  Sicilian  brethren  who 
plied  the  same  art.  It  even  appears  that  the  Jewish  tax  in 
Southern  Europe  was  sometimes  called  Tignta  Judaeorum, 
as  it  was  levied  as  an  impost  on  dyed  goods  ■^.  Subsequent 
travellers  in  Syria  found  the  Jews,  few  and  scattered  as 
they  were,  engaged  in  the  same  pursuit — dyeing.  When 
Petachia  visited  Jerusalem  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  Nach- 
manides  in  the  thirteenth,  the  only  Jewish  residents  in  the 
Holy  City  were  dyers.  Nachmanides  writes  2,  and  I  quote 
the  whole  passage  to  show  the  conflicting  feelings  of  this 
Rabbi,  who,  driven  from  Spain  because  of  his  unwilling 
victory  in  the  theological  dispute  at  Barcelona  in  1263, 
passed  his  last  days  far  from  his  beloved  Spain,  but  near 
his  beloved  Zion  : — 

A  mournful  sight  I  have  perceived  in  thee  (Jerusalem;.  Only  one  J ev*.' 
is  here,  a  dyer,  persecuted,  oppressed,  and  despised.  At  his  house  gather 
great  and  small  v^rhen  they  can  get  Minyan  ^.  They  are  wretched  folk,  with- 
out occupation  and  trade,  consisting  of  a  few  pilgrims  and  beggars,  though 
the  fruit  of  the  land  is  still  magnificent  and  the  harvests  rich.  Indeed  it  is 
still  a  blessed  country,  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  .  .  .  Oh  I  I  am  a  man 
who  have  seen  afHiction.  I  am  banished  from  my  table,  removed  far  away 
from  friend  and  kinsman,  and  too  long  is  the  distance  for  me  to  meet  them 
again  ...  I  left  my  family.  I  forsook  my  house.  And  there  with  my  sons 
and  daughters,  and  with  the  sweet  and  dear  children  whom  I  have  brought 
up  on  my  knees,  I  left  also  my  soul.  My  heart  and  my  ej^es  will  dwell  with 
them  for  ever  .  .  .  But  the  loss  of  all  this  and  of  every  other  glory  my  eyes 
saw  is  compensated  by  having  now  the  joy  of  being  a  day  in  thy  courts, 
O  Jerusalem,  visiting  the  ruins  of  the  Temple,  and  crying  over  the  desolate 


^  Cf.  Giidemann,  ii.  p.  312. 

^  Quoted  by  S.  Schechter  in  his  fine  article  on  Nachmanides  (in  the 
Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  v.  87). 

^  Minyan  (or  number)  is  the  technical  Hebrew  term  for  a  '  congregation  ' 
(of  at  least  ten  adult  males)  for  public  worship. 


220  Trades  and  Occupations. 

sanctuary  ;  where  I  am  permitted  to  caress  thy  stones,  to  fondle  thy  dust, 
and  to  weep  over  thy  ruins.  I  wept  bitterly,  but  I  found  joy  in  my  tears. 
I  tore  my  garments,  but  I  felt  relieved  by  it. 

In  Sicily  the  production  of  silk  was  largely  in  Jewish 
hands,  and  the  Jews  paid  heavily  for  the  privilege  in  con- 
tributions to  the  government  exchequer.  They  exported 
silk  to  Italy  and  France.  But  they  were  not  left  in  the 
quiet  enjoyment  of  the  industry  which  they  had  created, 
for  when  they  carried  their  silks  to  the  annual  market 
at  Reggio,  the  Christian  merchants  of  Lucca  and  Genoa 
contrived,  after  many  attempts,  to  suppress  their  Jewish 
rivals  by  destroying  the  industry  of  the  latter,  and  exiling 
the  Jewish  silk-producers  from  their  homes  on  the  coast 
and  islands  of  Southern  Italy  ^.  So  far,  however,  as  they 
were  allowed  to  engage  in  them,  the  Jews  of  the  middle 
ages  pursued  a  whole  cycle  of  these  handicrafts,  in  which 
artistic  taste  as  well  as  manual  skill  was  needed.  Jewish 
preference  was  almost  always  for  occupations  of  that 
class,  and  it  is  strange  that,  this  being  so,  they  developed 
no  originality  in  art  or  architecture.  But  they  showed 
some  bent  for  artistic  mechanical  inventions,  such  as 
the  construction  of  water-clocks.  Quite  early  after  the 
introduction  of  playing-cards,  Jews  in  the  Rhinelands  were 
engaged  in  the  painting  of  cards  used  in  that  most  fasci- 
nating pastime  of  medieval  and  modern  Europe  ^.  Artistic 
bookbinding,  and  the  illumination  of  manuscripts,  were 
carried  to  some  proficiency  by  Jews,  but  these  arts  they 
probably  learned  from  the  monks.  The  Hebrew  illuminated 
MSS.  are  very  beautiful,  but,  characteristically  enough,  the 
skill  of  the  Jewish  artists  is  displayed  less  in  figure-work 

^  Gudemann,  ii.  p.  240. 
^  See  p.  397  below. 


Printing.  221 

than  in  grotesques  and  initial  and  marginal  decorations. 
These  do  not  date  earlier  than  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
caligraphy  of  the  Jewish  scribes  was  of  a  very  high  order. 
Gold  embroidery  was  another  branch  of  the  same  decorative 
art,  and  here  the  Jews  undoubtedly  excelled.  They  were, 
naturally,  clever  gold  and  silver-smiths.  Their  methods 
of  refining  and  wire-drawing  metals,  especially  silver,  were 
noted  for  their  excellence.  The  Jev/s  who  in  1446  were 
expelled  from  Lyons,  established  a  silver  industry  in 
Trevoux,  which  was  unrivalled^. 

It  may  be  best  to  point  out  here  that  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  Jews  found  another  occupation  in  which  mind  and 
hand  were  united.  The  invention  of  printing  found  an  enthu- 
siastic welcome  among  the  Jews.  As  Dr.  Steinschneider 
points  out^,  several  old  Hebrew  printed  books  contain 
poems  in  praise  of  the  art  which  '  enables  one  man  to  write 
with  many  pens.'  The  Jewish  printer  was  not  regarded 
as  a  mere  artisan,  but  he  was  '  the  performer  of  a  holy  work  ' 
— to  use  the  formula  which  is  still  prevalent  with  regard 
to  Jewish  compositors.  The  only  restraint  on  the  spread  of 
printing  among  the  Jews  arose  from  the  ritual  injunction 
that  the  scrolls  of  the  law  and  certain  legal  documents, 
such  as  divorces,  must  be  written  by  hand.  But  religious 
books,  including  the  Bible,  were  permitted  to  be  printed, 
and  the  high  estimation  in  which  printing  was  held  by  the 
Jews  may  be  seen  from  an  amusing  attempt  which  was 
early  made  to  prove  that  the  art  was  already  alluded  to 
in  the  Talmud.  In  point  of  fact  the  Talmud  does  refer  to 
various  methods  of  shortening  the  labour  of  writing  several 

^  Depping,  Les  Jtnfs  au  Moyen  Age,  p.  315. 

*  Art.  Judische  Typographic  in  Ersch  and  Gruber,  Allgemetne  Encyklopddie, 
ii.  vol.  28.     Many  of  the  facts  which  follow  are  derived  from  this  source. 


2223  Trades  and  Occupations. 

copies  of  the  same  text ;  it  also  knew  of  a  species  of  short- 
hand writing-,  and  it  developed  the  use  of  abbreviations 
into  a  system  \  But  of  the  art  of  printing  the  Talmud 
was  quite  ignorant.  Printing  was  begun  by  Jews  about 
thirty-five  years  after  its  invention,  the  first  Jewish  press 
being  established  in  Italy,  though  the  actual  compositors 
were  German  Jews.  From  Italy  Jewish  printing  spread 
to  Spain,  but  enjoyed  only  a  short  career  there,  as  the 
expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain  occurred  before  the 
fifteenth  century  closed.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  art 
spread  to  the  Jews  of  Turkey  and  the  Orient ;  a  little  later 
to  Germany,  the  Slavic  lands  and  Holland.  Two  main 
species  of  type  were  used,  the  square  and  the  Rabbinical 
characters  ;  in  the  eighteenth  century  a  cursive  type  for 
printing  Jewish-German  books  was  introduced.  The  sizes 
of  the  oldest  Hebrew  books  were  folio  and  quarto,  the  paper 
was  stout  but  somewhat  yellow  in  appearance.  Editions 
de  luxe  on  blue  and  red  papers  are  also  extant,  and 
some  of  these  are  as  beautiful  as  the  finest  handwork. 
The  ink  used  was  nearly  always  black,  but  red  ink  was 
occasionally  substituted.  Further  details  may  be  found  in 
the  authority  already  cited.  It  is  sufficient  to  remark 
that  the  best  of  the  earliest  specimens  of  Italian  and 
Dutch  Hebrew  printing  have  not  been  excelled  in  modern 
times.  Jewish  women  also  followed  the  same  occupation, 
and  female  compositors  were  often  employed  in  Jewish 
printing-houses. 

An  extensive  Jewish  trade  was  carried  on  in  cloth  and 
wool.  Here  the  Jews  of  Spain  came  to  the  front.  They 
had  large  connexions  with  the  wool  and  cloth  trade,  which 
formed  the  staple  industry  of  England  in  the  middle  ages. 

'  Cf.  ch.  xix.  p.  351  below. 


The  Cloth   Trade.  223 

References  are  made  in  Spanish-Jewish  documents^  to 
'cloth  of  London,'  'cloth  of  Vristor  (  =  Bristol),  while 
*  Orabuena,  on  behalf  of  the  Jews,  has  to  settle  with 
Messrs.  Cella  and  Co.  for  cloth  from  England.'  In  England 
itself  the  Jews  were  deeply  interested  in  the  corn  and  wool 
crops  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  appear  to  have  traded 
largely  in  these  commodities^.  The  cloth  trade  was  also 
carried  on  by  the  Jews  of  Rome  in  the  fourteenth  century  ^. 
It  is  not  probable  that  any  but  the  Spanish  Jews  partici- 
pated in  the  mamifactiire  of  cloth.  Two  causes — the  one 
compulsory,  the  other  voluntary — combined  to  restrain  the 
Jews  from  this  industry.  In  the  first  place,  the  Jews  were 
sometimes  forbidden  to  manufacture  cloth,  as,  for  instance, 
in  Majorca*,  where  in  the  fourteenth  century  only  converted 
Jews  were  permitted  to  learn  or  exercise  the  art  of  weaving 
wool  and  manufacturing  cloth.  On  the  other  hand,  Jews 
themselves  were  loth  to  engage  in  this  industry.  Weaving 
was  regarded  in  the  Talmud  as  a  degraded  occupation,  and 
in  France  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  similar  antipathy  was 
felt^  So,  too,  we  know  that  in  very  early  times  the  fine 
cloths  used  in  Palestine  were  imported  and  were  not  of 
home  manufacture.  The  ground  for  the  objection  to 
weaving  was  that  it  brought  men  into  relations  with 
women,  the  women  being  the  chief  spinners  and  weavers  of 
ancient  and  medieval  times.  We  know,  however,  that  Jewish 
women  were  constantly  engaged  in  spinning  in  their  homes. 
Though,  then,  this  point  must  be  left  doubtful,  there  is  no 


^  J.  Jacobs,  Jews  in  Spain,  p.  xxxix. 

^  B.  L.  Abrahams,  Jews  of  Hereford  {Transactions  of  the  Jewish  Historical 
Society  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  141). 
^  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  (i),  p.  60. 
*  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  iv.  39.  '   Tashbats,  i.  §  16. 


224  Trades  and  Occupations. 

question  that  the  medieval  Jews  were  busily  occupied  in 
preparing  the  manufactured  cloth  for  wear.  Tailoring  be- 
came in  course  of  time  the  most  common  Jewish  occupation, 
and  in  the  ghettos  on  a  summer  day  the  Jews  might  be  seen 
seated  by  hundreds  at  their  doors  plying  their  needles  and 
shears.  By  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  three- 
fourths  of  the  Roman  Jews  were  tailors  \  and  a  large  propor- 
tion of  Jews  at  the  present  day  pursue  the  same  handicraft. 
The  Jewish  women  at  this  late  period  were  noted  as  button- 
hole makers,  and  were  employed  as  such  also  by  Christian 
tailors  in  Rome.  This  state  of  affairs,  however,  did  not 
prevail  in  earlier  centuries,  and  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  Jews  often  had  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  right  to 
maintain  even  one  or  two  Jewish  tailors  to  make  clothes 
for  Jewish  wear  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of 
the  Biblical  laws^.  Jewish  bakers  were  also  a  religious 
necessity,  for  few  pious  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  would 
have  eaten  bread  prepared  by  a  non-Jew.  A  similar 
remark  applies  to  wine.  Indeed  Jews  often  supplied  the 
wine  used  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  just  as,  in 
the  ninth  century,  they  made  the  vestments  of  the  Roman 
bishops  ^. 

The  Jews  took  a  very  active  part  in  the  manufacture 
of  wine  everywhere.  In  Asia  and  Southern  Europe  they 
owned  mills  and  vineyards,  and  the  manufacture  of  wine 
was  carried  on  by  Jews  in  Germany  and  France  when 
permitted.  They  were  stimulated  to  this  activity  by  the 
fact  just  noted  that  they  would  not  drink  wine  prepared 
by    non-Jews.      But    the    ritual    law    showed   itself   very 

^  Berliner,  Rotn,  ii.  (2),  p.  86. 

^  For  the  Biblical  Laws  see  Lev.  xix.  19,  Deut.  xxii.  11. 

^  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  ;^i),  p.  7.     Giidemann,  ii.  48. 


AgncHUMrul  Pmrsmts. 


reasonable  on  another  a^ect  of  tliB  gnrsfinn,  and 

the  middle  da3rs  of  the  Feast  (^  Tabennaes  the  Sahbis 

permitted  Jews  to  occupy  themsehfcs  with  the  trinta^^ 

^Kmld  tibe  Yaiious  VXkaQs.  authmilies  fix  tibat  time  fix*  the 

amiaal  prepaiatioii  of  wine  far  the  mzrirt:      Z  tre 

they  did  not  own  die  ¥ineyaids  thems^ 

not  very  generally  the  case,  the  Jews  c 

on  a  retafl  trade  in  wine,  horses,  ponltr 

The  truth  is  that  so  i^  from  feeing  an 

coltoral  parsDitSy  the  Jews  were  newer  > 

they  were  employing  their  capital  in  tl 

products.     In  Persia  the  Jews  were  the 

olive-presses^,  which  diey  lent  en  hire  : 

Sabbaths.     The  Jewish  gardeners  of  the 

held  in  soch  repute  that  they  woe  eiiqik;ti 

landowners^. 

The  opposition  of  the  mefiewal  golds  was  feit  in  this  as 
wdl  as  in  all  other  ocmpationsL  TheAnstrian  Jewsiri  ijif 
were  forbidden  to  make  dothr%  on  pain  di 
garments  so  made^  How  complctd^  this 
guilds  succeeded  in  drnrii^  die  Jews  to 
in  £iTODr  of  retail  trade  in  second-hand  goods  <w  of  pe: 
how,  especially  after  the  Crnsades^  the  Jens  were  gn 
and  persistently  denied  die  ri^it  iA  partityaliiig  ir 
commercial  andertakfi^^  and  were  re^ricted  to  die 
in  money,  are  &cts  too  wdQ  tmown  to  need  rrpcfitinL: 
Their  alienation  finom  haiMliriafi-^  and  Iror-  -  -  —  — e^-:^ 
rally  was  slow  and  inconqilete;  bu~  iic  c 


Ig-t&e 


226  Trades  and  Occupations. 

rule  all  the  more  cruel  both  against  the  Jews  and  the  rest  of 
the  population,  for  sometimes  the  whole  of  the  industries 
of  a  people  were  disorganized  and  retarded  by  the  alter- 
nate permission  and  prohibition  of  the  Jews  to  participate 
in  them.  Under  the  Spanish  rule,  though  the  Church 
never  allowed  the  kings  for  long  at  a  time  to  deal 
fairly  with  the  Jews,  the  latter  were  nevertheless  less 
violently  robbed  of  their  right  to  work  than  they  were 
in  other  parts  of  Europe.  But  at  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  the  Inquisition  obtaining  full  control 
over  the  policy  of  Ferdinand,  expulsions  of  the  Jews 
were  everywhere  the  order  of  the  day  in  his  Catholic 
majesty's  dominions. 

Sicily  had  long  been  the  seat  of  a  wide  industry  in  metal 
manufactories  conducted  mainly  by  Jews.  The  Jewish  ac- 
quaintance with  chemistry  stood  them  here  in  good  stead, 
and  partly  accounts  for  the  skill  of  medieval  Jews  in  all  kinds 
of  metal  work.  The  medieval  Jews  were  largely  concerned 
in  inhiing^  and  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  were  instrumental 
in  introducing  into  England  improved  methods  of  reducing 
copper  alloy. 

The  .mining  incident  alluded  to  in  the  previous  sentence 
is  worth  detailing,  as  it  forms  a  link  in  the  chain  of  evidence 
which  proves  that  Jews  resided  and  worked  in  England  in 
the  sixteenth  century.  It  has  moreover  several  other  points 
of  interest.  In  the  year  1581  one  Jeochim  Gaunz  proposed 
to  supply  the  English  Government  with  information  con- 
cerning new  methods  of  manufacturing  copper,  vitriol,  and 
copperas,  and  of  preparing  copper  for  commerce.  His 
plans  included  suggestions  for  improvements  in  smelting 
copper  and  lead  ores.  Gaunz,  or  Gaunse,  actually  conducted 
experiments  in  Cumberland,  in  the  mining  districts  of  Kes- 


Bristol  Copper  Trade.  227 

wick.  *  For  some  eight  or  nine  years/  says  Mr.  Lee  \  *  Gaunz 
lodged  in  Blackfriars,  but  in  September,  1589,  he  visited 
Bristol,  and  Richard  Crawley,  a  minister  of  religion  there, 
discovered  that  he  could  speak  Hebrew.'  Crawley  was  also 
something  of  a  Hebrew  scholar,  and  as  a  result  of  frequent 
discussion  added  to  current  rumour,  Gaunz's  Jewish  opinions 
leaked  out.  The  Jew  was  taken  in  custody  before  the  Bristol 
magistrates,  and  '  in  answer  to  inquiries  the  prisoner  stated 
that  he  was  a  Jew,  was  born  in  Prague  in  Bohemia,  was 
brought  up  in  the  Talmud  of  the  Jews,  was  never  baptized, 
and  did  not  believe  any  articles  of  the  Christian  faith. 
The  magistrates,  in  doubt  how  to  deal  with  him,  sent 
him  before  the  Privy  Council  at  Whitehall,  and  he  was 
probably  banished.'  In  the  inroad  of  foreign  merchants 
which  occurred  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  Jews 
must  have  found  their  way  into  England,  and  it  may 
well  be  that  they  helped  considerably  to  extend  English 
trade  with  the  Levant,  as  well  as  to  promote  English 
mining.  All  the  fashionable  doctors  of  Elizabethan 
England  were  foreigners,  and  Mr.  Lee  has  detected  Jews 
among  them. 

But  to  return  to  Sicily.  When  the  edict  of  expulsion 
reached  that  island  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  state  coun- 
sellors saw  the  ruin  which  such  an  act  implied  also  for 
the  Christians.  They  entreated  Ferdinand  to  delay  the 
measure  he  contemplated,  for,  said  they,  '  nearly  all  the 
artisans  in  the  realm  are  Jews.  In  case  all  of  them  are 
expelled  at  once,  we  shall  lack  craftsmen  capable  of  sup- 
plying mechanical  utensils,  especially  those  made  of  iron, 

^  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Domestic  Series,  1581-90,  pp.  49,  617  ;  and 
S.  Lee,  Elizabethan  England  and  the  Jews  (Trans.,  New  Shakespeare  Soc, 
1 888,  p.  159) ;  Wolf,  Publ.  Angl.  Jew.  Exh.  i.  p.  71. 

Q2 


228  Trades  and  Occupations. 

as  horseshoes,  agricultural  implements  and  equipments 
for  ships,  galleys,  and  other  conveyances.  Hence,  if  the 
Jews  are  banished  e7t  masse,  it  will  be  impossible  for 
Christian  artisans  to  replace  them,  except  after  con- 
siderable delay,  and  apart  from  the  inconvenience  which 
must  result  from  a  cessation  of  the  supply  of  these 
necessary  implements,  there  will  be  the  further  detriment 
that  the  few  Christian  artisans  who  are  able  to  make  the 
required  articles  will  be  in  a  position  to  enormously  raise 
the  price  ^.' 

It  is  obvious  from  this,  as  also  from  many  other  indi- 
cations, that  the  old  Jewish  estimation  of  handicrafts  sur- 
vived in  the  middle  ages.  Labour  was  dignified,  not  only 
by  the  words,  but  by  the  acts  of  Rabbis  who  practised 
handicrafts  besides  eulogizing  them.  Many  a  Talmudic 
Rabbi  was  an  artisan  who,  so  far  from  using  the  Law  as 
a  spade  to  dig  with,  earned  his  living  by  hard  work  in  the 
actual  fields  that  lay  in  the  neighbourhoods  where  the 
schools  were  fixed.  Agriculture  was  the  most  highly 
esteemed  of  occupations  ;  but  of  all  handicrafts  the  Rabbis 
said  '  Great  is  labour,  for  it  honours  its  practisers  ^.'  As 
we  have  seen  above,  the  medieval  Rabbis  earned  a  living  as 
artisans,  physicians,  merchants,  authors,  penmen,  marriage- 
brokers,  finance  ministers,  men  of  science,  and  it  was  not 
till  the  fourteenth  century  that  the  Rabbis  became  de- 
pendent on  the  support  of  their  congregations  ^.  Maimo- 
nides,  the  hard  working  physician-Rabbi   of   the   twelfth 

^  La  Lumia,  Gli  Ebrci  Sta'liam  (Palermo,  1870),  ii.  38,  50.  Cf.  Giidemann, 
ii.  288. 

^  Nedarim,  49  b ;  B.  Kamma,  79  b. 

^  See  above,  pp.  39,  55.  For  a  Rabbi  who  was  also  engaged  in  business  as 
late  as  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  see  Chayim  J.  Eliezer,  nncc  n"i© 
NTim,  19. 


Manual  Labour.  229 

century,  said  'A  single  coin  earned  by  one's  own  manual 
labour  is  worth  more  than  the  whole  revenue  of  the  Prince 
of  the  Captivity,  derived  as  it  is  from  the  gifts  of  others  ^' 
When  Spinoza  refused  a  professorship,  and  preferred  to 
earn  a  meagre  living  as  a  polisher  of  lenses,  he  was  con- 
tinuing a  most  estimable  Jewish  tradition  ^. 

^  Maimonides  in  his  letter  to  Joseph  Aknin  :  Munk,  Notice  sur  Joseph  ben 
Jehoiida  (Paris,  1842),  p.  28.  Maimonides  adds :  '  I  advise  you  to  devote 
your  attention  to  commerce  and  the  study  of  medicine,  occupying  yourself 
also  with  the  study  of  the  Torah  (Law),  in  accordance  with  the  right 
method,' 

^  Pearson,  Mind,  viii.  p.  339,     Cf.  xi,  p.  99. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

TRADES  AND  OCCUPATIONS  (continued). 

The  medieval  Jews,  however,  even  where  they  were  free 
to  choose  their  own  handicrafts,  were  not  very  prone  to 
select  those  which  involved  mere  physical  exertion.  They 
were  not  so  much  wanting  in  endurance,  they  were  not 
so  much  given  to  shirking  bodily  toil,  as  they  were  con- 
temptuous of  unskilled  labour.  The  restrictions  placed 
upon  them,  which  more  and  more  converted  the  Jew 
into  a  head-worker,  emphasized  a  laudable  inclination 
to  use  the  body  as  the  servant  of  the  mind.  This 
tendency  produced  some  evil  consequences  upon  the 
Jewish  physique  as  well  as  on  the  Jewish  character,  and 
gave  point  and  truth  to  the  jargon  proverb  which  the  Jews 
themselves  became  wont  to  use — 

Save  me  from  Christian  Koach, 
Save  me  from  Jew^ish  Moach  ^ 

M.  Anatole  Leroy-Beaulieu  is  more  than  just  to  the 
Jews  when  he  ascribes  all  the  evils  of  this  tendency  to 
the  life  in  the  ghettos.  On  the  other  hand,  though  it  be 
certain  that  the  Jews  had  little  opportunity  for  arduous 
physical    undertakings,  they  were  by  no  means  averse  to 

Koach  (n3)  =  strength,  and  Moach  (mro)  =  brains.  Both  words  are 
Hebrew. 


Dangerous  Occupations.  231 

dangerous  occupations.  One  rarely  sees  a  Jewish  brick- 
layer nowadays,  but  the  reason  is  to  be  sought  not  in  the 
danger  of  the  occupation,  but  in  the  fact  that  it  reduces 
the  man  to  a  mere  instrument  for  the  exertion  of  brute 
strength.  A  most  common  Jewish  occupation  is  that  of 
the  glazier,  which  is  not  free  from  danger,  but  makes  less 
demand  on  the  strength.  So  too  the  Jewish  peddler  of 
recent  centuries  was  no  coward  ;  had  he  lacked  courage, 
he  must  have  remained  at  home.  The  whole  array  of 
Jewish  travellers  in  the  middle  ages,  when  a  journey  was 
as  hazardous  as  a  battle  is  now^  proves  the  same  possession 
of  manliness.  Jewish  soldiers  and  sailors  abounded,  and 
so  did  Jewish  martyrs.  Tradition  has  it  that  the  first  man 
to  sight  America  was  a  Jewish  sailor  on  board  one  of 
Columbus'  vessels.  It  is  true  that  the  same  qualification 
might  here  again  be  entered  ;  the  Jews  were  more  often 
navigators  in  the  theoretical  than  in  the  practical  sense. 
A  Jewish  astronomer  prepared  nautical  tables  or  invented 
nautical  instruments,  a  Jewish  financier  would  pay  for  build- 
ing a  ship  to  use  them,  but  the  crew  would  only  contain 
a  straggling  Jewish  sailor  or  two.  Yet  these  generalizations 
are  very  precarious.  The  Jews  of  Spain  not  only  fitted  out 
fleets  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  but  they 
displayed  their  patriotic  zeal  personally  as  well  as  scientifi- 
cally and  financially  ^.  Jayme  III,  the  last  king  of  Mallorca, 
testifies  in  1334  that  Juceff  Faquin,  a  Jew  of  Barcelona, 
'  had  navigated  the  whole  of  the  then  known  w^orld.'  In 
the  Portuguese  Armada,  which  captured  Mauritania  in  141 5, 
there  were  many  Jews.  Jewish  travellers  were  of  direct 
service   in  times  of  war ;   they  were   the  Intelligencers  of 

^  Kayserling,  Christopher  Columbus  and  the  participation  of  the  Jews  in  the 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  discoveries^  p.  3,  &c. 


232  Trades  and  Occupations. 

Cromwell  as  well  as  of  Julius  Caesar.  But  their  chief 
services  to  the  navigation  of  the  middle  ages  were  services 
of  peace.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  assert  that  but  for 
Jewish  encouragement  Columbus  would  never  have  sailed. 
The  Jews  were  noted  map-drawers,  cartography  in  the 
fifteenth  century  being  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
Mallorcan  Jews.  Jafuda  Cresques  was  called  the  *  Map-Jew,' 
just  as  his  friend  Moses  Rimos  was  popularly  known  as 
the  '  parchment-maker  ^'  Besides  cosmography  Jews  were 
proficient  in  the  manufacture  of  nautical  instruments,  and 
it  is  commonly  asserted  that  the  Portuguese  Jews  deserve 
a  large  share  of  praise  for  the  most  important  medieval 
improvements. 

Vasco  de  Gama  was  materially  aided  on  his  voyages 
by  Jewish  pilots  and  navigators.  Another  Jew  was  the 
constant  companion  and  most  intimate  friend  of  another 
noted  Portuguese  admiral,  Alfonso  d' Albuquerque  ^. 

Evidence  is  indeed  accumulating  to  prove  that  the  Jews 
were  personally  concerned  in  most  of  the  great  exploring 
enterprises  in  the  middle  ages.  A  striking  instance  con- 
nected with  the  East  India  Company  may  be  here  cited. 
A  Jew,  born  in  the  Barbary  States,  but  domiciled  for  some 
time  in  England,  and  well  acquainted  with  the  English 
language,  sailed  with  Captain  James  Lancaster  in  t6ot 
on  the  first  expedition  of  the  East  India  Company,  and 
rendered  great  service  as  an  interpreter  between  the  English 
and  the  Arabic-speaking  Sultan  of  Achin  in  Sumatra  ^. 

It  must  not  be  assumed,  therefore,  that  dangerous  occu- 
pations were  foreign  to  the  Jews.     Jewish  travellers,  such 

^  Kayserling,  op.  cit,  p.  6.  ^  Op.  cit.,  pp.  113,  119. 

3  The  records  bearing  on  this  incident  will  be  published  by  Mr.  B.  L. 
Abrahams  in  the  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  ix. 


'  The  Famous  Pirate.  *  233 

as  those  cited  above,  bring  back  stirring  stories  of  Hebrew 
hordes  of  hardy  and  indomitable  warriors  in  Asia.  The 
middle  ages  rang  with  echoes  of  the  military  prowess 
of  the  Ten  Tribes.  These  fabulous  reports  would  not 
have  found  such  ready  credence  in  Christian  Europe  had 
the  Jews  there  been  notorious  cowards.  So  far  from 
this  being  the  case,  the  Spanish  armies  contained  a  large 
number  of  Jewish  soldiers  who  fought  under  the  Cross  or 
the  Crescent  in  the  great  wars  that  raged  between  the 
Christians  and  the  Moors.  The  martial  spirit  of  the  Jews 
of  Spain  showed  itself  in  their  constant  claim  of  the  right 
to  wear  arms  and  engage  in  knightly  pastimes.  Spanish 
mobs  did  not  attack  the  Jewish  quarters  with  impunity, 
and  elsewhere  in  Europe  and  in  the  East  the  Jews  occa- 
sionally displayed  a  courage  and  a  proficiency  in  self-help 
which,  had  it  been  more  frequently  exercised,  would  have 
put  an  entirely  different  complexion  on  the  relations  be- 
tween the  governments  of  many  States  and  their  Jewish 
subjects  in  later  centuries.  A  curious  side-light  is  thrown 
on  the  courage  of  Jews  by  the  fact  that  the  royal 
lion-tamers  in  Spain  were  Jews^.  The  English  State 
Papers  of  the  year  1521  bear  witness  to  the  exploits  of 
a  notorious  dare-devil  Jew  :  '  As  to  Coron,  it  was  reported 
at  Rome  a  few  days  ago  that  Andrea  Doria  was  informed 
that  the  famous  Jewish  pirate  had  prepared  a  strong  fleet 
to  meet  the  Spanish  galleys  which  are  to  join  Doria's 
nineteen  2.'  We  find  Jews  too  in  Germany  engaged  in 
the   dangerous  occupation    of   manufacturing   gunpowder. 

^  Kayserling,  Revue  des  £tudes  Juives,  vol.  xxv.  p.  255.  Cf.  Jacobs,  MS. 
Sources  of  the  Hist,  of  the  Jews  in  Spain,  p.  xxxvii. 

^  Letters  and  Papers  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  VHI,  vi.  427  (Kayserling, 
Christopher  Columbus,  p.  121). 


234  Trades  and  Occupations. 

When  Jews  were  non-combatants  they  nevertheless  fre- 
quently accompanied  expeditions  as  commissaries,  pro- 
viding the  armies  with  food,  accoutrements,  and  often 
sacrificed  their  lives  as  well  as  their  goods.  In  these 
partially  dangerous  occupations  the  Jews  excelled.  The 
close  relations  which  their  commercial  undertakings  estab- 
lished between  the  Jews  of  various  countries,  their  know- 
ledge of  routes  and  languages,,  their  rigid  fidelity,  and,  it 
must  be  added,  their  com.bined  cautiousness  and  daring, 
equipped  the  Jews  to  act  as  State  envoys,  as  the  purveyors 
of  confidential  messages,  and  as  the  collectors  of  necessary 
information. 

An  occupation  in  which  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  par- 
ticularly excelled  was  medicine.  In  North  France  and 
Germany  this  was  not  the  case,  for  there  the  Jews  were 
altogether  indifferent  to  scientific  pursuits.  In  this  they 
only  imitated  their  neighbours  of  other  faiths,  and  the  Jews, 
like  the  Christians,  cured  sicknesses,  especially  such  as  affected 
women  and  children,  by  using  charms  and  specifics  of  the 
most  superstitious  character.  Yet  even  in  these  countries 
the  Jewish  MoJiel  knew  some  surgery,  and  the  Shochet  some 
anatomy.  This  state  of  ignorance  in  North  Europe  changed 
after  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain.  The  Jewish 
physicians  of  Spain  and  Italy  were  unrivalled,  except  by 
the  Moors.  It  was  their  scientific  skill  which  gave  Jewish 
Rabbi-statesmen  their  peculiar  position  at  the  courts  of 
Spain  and  Portugal.  These  Jewish  ministers  of  State  often 
started  on  their  career  as  the  royal  physicians,  and  the 
influence  which  they  thus  won  over  their  patients'  minds 
was,  with  some  justice,  resented  by  the  Church.  The 
meaner  suspicions  of  foul  play  sometimes  raised  against 
Jewish   doctors   were   entirely   without    foundation.      The 


How  Maimonides   Worked.  235 

frequency  with  which  the  Jewish  Rabbis  followed  the  pro- 
fession of  medicine  was  due  in  part  to  the  regard  which 
Judaism  teaches  for  bodily  health,  and  in  part  to  the 
great  compatibility  of  this  profession  with  the  Rabbinical 
function  ^ ;  for  a  fine  feature  of  the  Jewish  medical  man 
of  the  middle  ages  was  his  devotion  to  the  poor.  In  the 
year  1199  Maimonides  thus  writes  from  Cairo  in  reply  to 
Samuel  Ibn  Tibbon,  who  proposed  to  visit  the  famous 
Jewish  Rabbi  in  order  to  discuss  some  literary  points  : — 

Now  God  knows  that,  in  order  to  write  this  to  you,  I  have  escaped  to 
a  secluded  spot,  where  people  w^ould  not  think  to  find  me,  sometimes  leaning 
for  support  against  the  wall,  sometimes  lying  down  on  account  of  my  exces- 
sive weakness,  for  I  have  become  old  and  feeble. 

But  with  respect  to  your  wish  to  come  here  to  me,  I  cannot  but  say  how 
greatty  your  visit  would  delight  me,  for  I  truly  long  to  commune  with  you, 
and  would  anticipate  our  meeting  with  even  greater  joy  than  you.  Yet 
I  must  advise  you  not  to  expose  yourself  to  the  perils  of  the  voyage,  for 
beyond  seeing  me,  and  my  doing  all  I  could  to  honour  you,  you  would  not 
derive  any  advantage  from  your  visit.  Do  not  expect  to  be  able  to  confer 
with  me  on  any  scientific  subject  for  even  one  hour,  either  by  day  or  by 
night,  for  the  following  is  my  daily  occupation  :  I  dwell  in  Mizr  (Fostat),  and 
the  Sultan  resides  at  Kahira  (Cairo) ;  these  two  places  are  two  Sabbath  days' 
journeys  (about  one  mile  and  a  half)  distant  from  each  other.  My  duties  to 
the  Sultan  are  very  heavy.  I  am  obliged  to  visit  him  every  day,  early  in  the 
morning;  and  when  he  or  any  of  his  children,  or  any  of  the  inmates  of  his 
harem,  are  indisposed,  I  dare  not  quit  Kahira,  but  must  stay  during  the 
greater  part  of  the  day  in  the  palace.  It  also  frequently  happens  that  one  or 
two  of  the  royal  officers  fall  sick,  and  I  must  attend  to  their  healing.  Hence, 
as  a  rule,  I  repair  to  Kahira  very  early  in  the  day,  and  even  if  nothing 
unusual  happens  I  do  not  return  to  Mizr  until  the  afternoon.  Then  I  am 
almost  dying  with  hunger.  I  find  the  antechambers  filled  with  people,  both 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  nobles  and  common  people,  judges  and  bailiffs,  friends 
and  foes — a  mixed  multitude,  who  await  the  time  of  my  return.  I  dismount 
from  my  animal,  wash  my  hands,  go  forth  to  my  patients,  and  entreat  them 
to  bear  with  me  while  I  partake  of  some  slight  refreshment,  the  only  meal 

^  This  combination  of  functions  is  now  very  rare,  but  among  the  delegates 
who  attended  Napoleon's  Jewish  conference  in  1806  was  the  Rabbi-physician 
Grazziado  Nappi. 


236  Trades  and  Occupations. 

I  take  in  the  twenty-four  hours.  Then  I  go  forth  to  attend  to  my  patients, 
write  prescriptions  and  directions  for  their  various  ailments.  Patients  go  in 
and  out  until  nightfall,  and  sometimes  even,  I  solemnly  assure  you,  until  two 
hours  and  more  in  the  night.  I  converse  with  and  prescribe  for  them  while 
lying  down  from  sheer  fatigue  ;  and  when  night  falls  I  am  so  exhausted  that 
I  can  scarcely  speak.  In  consequence  of  this,  no  Israelite  can  have  any 
private  interview  with  me,  except  on  the  Sabbath.  On  that  day  the  whole 
congregation,  or  at  least  the  majority  of  the  members,  come  to  me  after  the 
morning  service,  when  I  instruct  them  as  to  their  proceedings  during  the 
whole  week  ;  we  study  together  a  little  until  noon,  when  they  depart.  Some 
of  them  return,  and  read  with  me  after  the  afternoon  ser\-ice  until  evening 
prayers.  In  this  manner  I  spend  that  day.  I  have  here  related  to  you  onl}^ 
a  part  of  what  you  would  see  if  you  were  to  visit  me. 

Now,  when  you  have  completed  for  our  brethren  the  translation  you  have 
commenced,  I  beg  that  you  will  come  to  me,  but  not  with  the  hope  of  deriving 
any  advantage  from  your  visit  as  regards  your  studies ;  for  my  time  is,  as 
I  have  shown  you,  so  excessively  occupied  K 

Needless  to  state,  the  Church  never  reconciled  itself  to 
the  reputation  won  by  Jewish  physicians,  and  the  influence 
which  it  gave  them  over  their  patients.  Efforts  were 
constantly  made  to  suppress  these  doctors,  but  the  kings 
and  popes  themselves  disobeyed  the  Church  canons  on 
the  subject.  When,  however,  the  Christian  Universities 
taught  medicine  scientifically,  the  Jewish  and  Arabian  pre- 
dominance died  a  natural  death.  Until  this  happened, 
however,  there  was  scarcely  a  court  or  bishopric  in  Europe 
which  did  not  boast  its  Jewish  doctor. 

Though  the  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  were  the  first  to 
appreciate  the  commercial  advantages  of  permitting  the 
loan  of  money  at  interest,  Judaism  as  a  religion  cast  a  by 
no  means  favourable  eye  on  the  money-lender.  When 
borrowers  were  the  poor,  men  who  required  loans  to  meet 
their  pressing  personal  wants  and  were  not  seeking  capital 
to  use  at  a  profit — and  the  borrowers  of  the  early  middle 

^  Translated  by  Dr.  H.  Adler,  Miscellany  of  Hebrew  Literature  (^ London, 
1872,  vol.  i),  p.  223  ;  cf  Munk,  op.  cit.,  p.  30. 


Usury. 


237 


ages  belonged  largely  to  this  class — then  the  lending  of 
money  was  only  another  form  of  relieving  distress.  The 
Church  was  certainly  not  more  vigorous  than  the  Synagogue 
against  those  who  levied  usury  against  borrowers  of  this 
type.  '  A  usurer  is  comparable  to  a  murderer,'  cries 
a  Talmudical  Rabbi  ^,  '  for  the  crimes  of  both  are  equally 
irremediable.'  This  essential  fact,  that  the  Talmud  as  well 
as  the  Old  Testament  had  the  poor  and  needy  in  view 
where  Jewish  borrowers  were  concerned,  but  the  com- 
mercial class  where  foreign  borrowers  appeared  on  the 
scene,  accounts  for  the  difference  of  attitude  as  regards 
taking  interest  on  loans  made  to  native  Jews  and  foreigners. 
The  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  came  to  recognize  the  im- 
portance of  this  distinction  while  the  Church  was  proving 
that  interest  generally  was  forbidden  by  Scripture  as  well 
as  antagonistic  to  the  laws  of  nature.  Aristotle's  strange 
plea  that  gold  was  barren  was  frequently  repeated  by  the 
medieval  Churchmen,  who  until  the  sixteenth  century  -  drew 
no  distinction  between  fair  and  extortionate  interest,  between 
loans  to  the  poor  and  advances  to  capitalists.  Interest  was 
robbery  whether  the  lender  demanded  five  or  fifty  per  cent. 
When  the  '  Monti  di  Pieta '  were  formed  in  Italy  at  a  later 
date  a  more  just  distinction  had,  however,  begun  to  estab- 
lish itself  in  European  public  opinion.  It  is  an  interesting 
fact  that  some  theologians  stigmatized  as  usury  the 
small  charges  exacted  by  these  Monti  di  Pieta — instituted 
though  they  were  with  benevolent  motives  and  as  an 
antidote  to  the  degenerate  Jewish  usurers  of  later  times  ^. 

Allusion   has   been   made   to   the  variation  in   attitude 
assumed  by  Jews  towards  the  acceptance  of  interest  from 

^   T.  B.,  B.  Baihra,  90;  B.  Kamma,  84.  ^  Ashley,  i.  154,  ii.  ch.  vi. 

2  Lecky,  Rationalism,  iL  259. 


238  Trades  and  Occupations, 

their  brethren  and  from  non-Jews.  This  distinction  must 
be  a  little  further  discussed.  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  Church  drew  a  distinction  of  its  own  and  con- 
nived at,  if  it  did  not  formally  grant,  the  right  to  Jews 
of  accepting  interest  which  they  refused  to  Christians. 
Jewish  tradition  attempted  to  draw  a  similar  distinction,  and 
explained  that  the  well-known  text  in  Deuteronomy,  which 
is  usually  taken  to  permit  lending  money  to  a  foreigner  at 
interest,  refers  not  to  the  lender  but  to  the  borrower^. 
This  interpretation  was  upheld  by  many  medieval  Jewish 
authorities,  who  maintained  that,  though  the  Bible  allowed 
a  Jew  to  pay  interest  to  a  foreigner,  the  acceptance  of  interest 
from  a  foreigner  was  unlawful.  Jews  did  not  for  the  most 
part  act  upon  this  principle,  but  so  far  as  official  Judaism  is 
concerned,  but  a  narrow  line  separated  the  obloquy  attach- 
ing to  the  man  who  took  interest  from  a  fellow-Jew  and 
the  discredit  resting  on  him  if  his  client  were  a  non-Jew. 
'  If  a  usurer,'  says  the  Jewish  Code,  'is  anxious  to  recover 
the  privilege  of  being  legally  admissible  as  a  witness ' 
(a  right  of  which  his  traffic  deprived  him),  '  then  he  must 
of  his  own  accord  tear  up  the  records  of  the  debts  due 
to  him,  he  must  entirely  abandon  his  business,  so  that 
he  never  more  lend  money  on  interest  even  to  a  non-Jew^ 
he  must  restore  all  that  he  has  earned  by  taking  interest, 
and  if  he  cannot  identify  the  parties  he  must  employ  the 
whole  sum  on  public  works  ^.'     Older  Jewish  authorities 

*  The  translation  of  Deut.  xxiii.  20  would,  in  accordance  with  the  Talmudic 
tradition  {B.  Mezia,  61  a,  70  b,  75  b),  run  thus  :  'Thou  shalt  not  pay  interest 
to  thy  brother,  interest  of  money,  interest  of  victuals,  interest  of  anything 
that  is  lent  upon  interest.  Unto  a  foreigner  thou  mayest  pay  interest,  but 
unto  thy  brother  thou  shalt  not  pay  interest.'  Cf.  Mr.  Arthur  Davis  in  Jewish 
Chronicle  (London),  April  6,  1894,  p.  9. 

^  Shulchan  Aruch,  '£E«jr:rT  ];cn,  xxxiv.  29. 


ihe   Trade  in  Money.  239 

were  even  more  emphatic  in  applying  to  Jews  who  never 
accepted  interest  from  non-Jews,  the  magnificent  eulogy  of 
Psalm  XV :  'He  that  putteth  not  out  his  money  to  usury 
shall  never  be  moved  ^,'  the  phrase  being  applied  by  great 
Rabbis  to  interest  taken  from  a  non-Jew  as  well  as  from 
a  Jew^.  This  high  ideal  was  not  maintained  throughout  the 
middle  ages,  for  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century 
some  Jews  distinguished  and  applied  the  verse  only  to  their 
brethren  in  the  faith.  The  transition  is  marked  in  another 
passage  from  the  Jewish  Code  where  we  read,  '  Our  sages 
forbade  the  taking  of  interest  even  from  a  non-Jew^  unless 
the  loan  were  necessary  for  the  livelihood  of  the  borrower, 
hut  now  it  is  permitted^' 

These  last  are  very  significant  words,  for  they  indicate 
an  attitude  towards  trading  in  money  which  differs  from 
the  prejudice  against  it  which  Jews  undoubtedly  shared  in 
the  earlier  centuries.  The  change  was  due  in  the  first 
instance  to  the  commercial  instincts  of  the  Jews  which 
gave  them  an  early  insight  into  the  true  principles  on 
which  trade  must  be  maintained.  Probably  the  word 
instinct  is  a  wrong  one  to  use,  for  it  is  scarcely  demonstrable 
that  the  ancient  Jews  had  any  conception  of  the  value  of 
international  commerce.  The  intensity  of  their  contempt 
for  foreigners  generally  is  hardly  compatible  with  the 
existence  of  a  large  commercial  class  among  the  ancient 
Israelites. 

^  The  importance  attached  to  this  Psalm  may  be  seen  from  its  inclusion  in 
the  service  at  the  consecration  of  a  Jewish  house  as  well  as  at  the  laying  of 
tombstones  {Authorized  Daily  Prayer-book^  ed.  Rev.  S.  Singer,  p.  300^. 

^  Maimonides,  Rashi,  &c.  Cf.  the  emphatic  utterance  of  the  Gaon  R. 
Amram  (MuUer,  Mafteach,  p.  128),  n>T-i2  njb  mibn?  "nct<. 

'  This  was  in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries,  e.  g.  (T.  B.  Makkoth,  24  a,  and 
Baba  Metsia,  70  b).  *   Yore  Deah,  139,  §  i. 


240  Trades  and  Occupations. 

Herzfeld  indeed  attempts  to  prove  that  the  ancient 
Jews  were  a  commercial  people  ^  but  M.  Loeb  is  un- 
doubtedly right  in  rejecting  this  supposition.  King 
Solomon  made  a  beginning  of  a  commercial  development, 
but  this  was  so  alien  to  the  Jewish  genius  that  the  begin- 
ning led  to  no  permanent  results.  After  the  return  from 
the  Babylonian  exile  the  chief  popular  feasts  in  Jerusalem 
continued  to  be  essentially  agricultural.  But,  during  the 
interval  that  elapsed  between  the  days  of  Alexander  the 
Great  and  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  numerous  Jewish 
colonies  were  founded  all  over  the  world,  and  this  dis- 
persion must  have  given  the  emigrant  Jews  a  taste  for 
occupations  which  did  not  need  long  settlement  on  the 
soil.  Moreover  they  did  not  obtain  the  right  to  hold  land, 
and  even  if  they  had  gained  the  right  they  would  have 
been  ignorant  of  the  methods  of  cultivation  prevalent  in 
the  various  places  to  which  they  found  their  way.  Up  till 
the  fifth  century  the  Jews,  however,  remained  agricul- 
turists in  all  their  large  colonies  except  Alexandria, 
After  this  period  trade  became  the  chief  Jewish  pursuit 
all  over  the  world.  The  experience  they  gained  developed 
that  taste  for  commerce  which  supplied  Europe  with  its 
industrial  and  commercial  instruments  until  the  Italian 
trading  states  became  converted  to  the  Jewish  methods. 

The  Jews  thus  acquired  a  taste  for  finance,  but  the  taste 
did  not  pass  through  a  natural  development.  That  money- 
lending  had  undoubted  attractions  for  the  Jews  is  certain, 
but  how  far  this  attraction  would  have  gone  cannot  easily 
be  decided.  The  whole  policy  of  the  Church  in  the  middle 
ages  forced  the  Jews  to  become  money-lenders.     Restric- 

This  thesis,  however,  he   only  maintains  in  a  tentative  way.      Cf.   his 
Handelsgeschichte  der  Juden  (ed.  ii,  Brunswick,  1894),  p.  271  seq. 


Finance  forced  on  the  Jews.  241 

tions  on  their  handicrafts,  on  their  trades,  were  everywhere 
common.  Even  in  Spain  Jews  were  forbidden  to  act  as 
physicians,  as  bakers,  millers;  they  were  prohibited  from 
selling  bread,  wine,  flour,  oil,  or  butter  in  the  markets; 
no  Jew  might  be  a  smith,  carpenter,  tailor,  shoemaker, 
currier,  or  clothier,  for  Christians  ;  he  might  not  sell  them 
shoes,  doublets,  or  any  other  article  of  clothing ;  he  might 
not  be  a  carrier  nor  employ  or  be  employed  by  Christians 
in  any  profession  or  trade  whatsoever^.  Naturally  these 
severe  restrictions  to  a  certain  extent  defeated  themselves, 
but  the  constant  pressure  of  the  law  gradually  made  itself 
felt.  In  other  parts  of  Europe  these  restrictions  were  far 
more  rigidly  enforced  than  in  Spain.  It  may  safely  be 
said  that  the  Jewish  trader  in  the  later  middle  ages  was 
bound  hand  and  foot.  In  England  money-lending  was 
absolutely  the  only  profession  open  to  the  Jew.  On  the 
continent,  the  Jews  were  taxed  when  they  entered  a  market 
and  taxed  when  they  left  it ;  they  were  only  permitted 
to  enter  the  market-places  at  inconvenient  hours,  and  the 
Church  ended  by  leaving  the  Jews  nothing  to  trade  in  but 
money  and  second-hand  goods,  allowing  them  as  a  choice 
of  commodities  in  which  to  deal  new  eold  or  old  iron. 

Forced  into  this  position,  the  Jews  found  themselves 
in  a  peculiar  relation  to  the  law  of  the  state  which  possibly 
w^as  not  without  its  fascinations.  Money-lending  was, 
throughout  the  middle  ages,  of  doubtful  legality ;  it  was 
speculative  and  open  to  grave  risks.  It  thereby  provided 
to  great  Jewish  operators  something  of  the  excitement 
attending  the  commercial  enterprises  of  the  middle  ages, 
when  active  participation  in  these  was  no  longer  permitted 

^  Depping,  p.  371.  These  restrictions  may  be  found  in  the  Ordinances  of 
Valladohd  (1412).     Cf.  p.  409  below. 

R 


242  Trades  and  Occupations. 

to  the  Jews.  Jewish  financiers  were  thus  enabled  to  share 
in  great  military  undertakings;  in  the  colonization  of  Ireland 
by  Henry  II  and  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus, 
in  the  contests  between  Moors  and  Hidalgoes  in  Spain, 
just  as  many  centuries  before  they  had  been  of  similar 
service  to  Julius  Caesar  in  his  world-wide  designs^.  The 
middle  ages  lumped  together  the  banker  and  the  usurer, 
regarding  both  with  equal  abhorrence.  But  looking  back 
with  modern  eyes,  one  can  easily  perceive  that  among  the 
Jewish  medieval  dealers  in  money  there  were  many  high- 
minded  and  cultured  men.  Such  a  one  was  the  noble 
Yechiel  of  Pisa.  This  fifteenth-century  controller  of  the 
money-market  of  Tuscany  was  a  man  of  noble  mind  and 
tender  heart ;  he  was  deeply  interested  in  literature,  which 
he  generously  patronized,  and  spent  a  large  portion  of  his 
wealth  in  works  of  enlightened  benevolence.  When  the 
Jews  were  expelled  from  Spain,  Yechiel's  sons  spent  their 
wealth  and  health  on  the  ransom  of  their  afflicted  brethren. 
True,  he  charged  twenty  per  cent,  on  the  loans  that  he  made, 
but  this  was  the  rate  legalized  and  undoubtedly  necessary 
under  the  existing  conditions  in  Italy.  As  Bentham 
proved,  the  mere  attempt  to  fix  the  rate  of  interest  by 
law  led,  by  natural  causes,  to  an  increase  in  the  rates 
charged.  Undoubtedly  the  rates  charged  by  Jews  were 
very  high,  but  in  every  country  where  this  occurred  there 
is  overwhelming  proof  that  the  Jews  were  forced  by  the 
rapacity  of  the  governments  to  make  exorbitant  charges. 
There  is  a  constant  consensus  of  statement  in  the  authori- 
ties to  the  effect   that  the  Jews  were  sometimes   incom- 

^  Rosenthal,  Monatsschrift,  1879,  p.  321 ;  Mommsen,  iii.  p.  549  (eighth 
Germ,  ed.)  ;  Manfrin,  Gli  Ehrei  soito  la  duminazione  romana,  ii.  192  (^quoted 
in  Berliner,  Rom,  i.  17) ;  Jacobs,  Angevin  England,  p.  51. 


Royal  Usurers.  243 

parably  more  lenient  creditors  than  those  who  belonged 
to  another  faith  ^.  Thomas  Wilson  in  his  famous  Discourse 
upofi  Usury  has  this  striking  passage  ^  : — 

And  for  this  cause  they  (the  Jews)  were  hated  in  England,  and  so 
banyshed  worthelye,  with  whom  I  woulde  wyshe  ail  these  Englishemen 
were  sent,  that  lende  their  money  or  other  goods  whatsoever  for  gayne,  for 
I  take  them  to  be  no  better  than  Jewes.  Nay,  shall  I  saye  :  they  are  worse 
than  Jew^es,  for  go  whither  you  will  throughout  Christendom,  and  deale 
with  them,  and  you  shall  have  under  tenne  in  the  hundred,  yea  sometimes 
for  five  at  their  handes,  whereas  enghshe  usurers  exceed  all  goddes  mercye, 
and  wdll  take  they  care  not  howe  muche,  without  respecte  had  to  the  partye 
that  borroweth,  what  losse,  daunger,  or  hinderaunce  soever  the  borrower 
sustayneth.  And  howe  can  these  men  be  of  God,  that  are  so  farr  from 
charitie,  that  care  not  howe  they  get  goods  so  they  may  have  them. 

The  excessive  demands  which  were  made  upon  the  Jews 
by  kings  and  princes  absolutely  forbade  a  fair  rate  of 
interest.  All  over  Europe  the  same  phenomenon  manifests 
itself.  The  Jews  were  unwilling  '  sponges,'  by  means  of  which 
a  large  part  of  the  subjects'  wealth  found  its  way  into  the 
royal  exchequer.  The  kings  and  princes  of  Europe  were 
the  arch-usurers  of  the  middle  ages.  Their  example  was 
not  lost  on  the  lesser  nobility,  among  which  must  be  in- 
cluded some  leading  clerics,  who  entrusted  sums  of  money 
to  the  Jews'whom  they  protected,  in  order  that  the  latter 
might   earn   profits   for   their   lords  ^.     Nowhere  was   this 

^  Cf.  above,  p.  103.  See  also  Graetz  (E.  T.),  iii.  571.  Bernhard  of  Clair- 
vaux  said  in  1146:  'Pejus  Judaizare  dolemus  Christianos  foeneratores,  si 
tamen  Christianos,  et  non  magis  baptizatos  Judaeos  convenit  appellare " 
(Hahn,  Gesch.  d.  Ketzer,  iii,  16 ;  Giidemann,  i.  131). 

^  Ed.  1572,  fol.  37  b. 

^  Cf.  Ashley,  An  Introduction  to  English  Economic  History  and  Theory^ 
i.  p.  203  seq. ;  Trail,  Social  England,  i.  471.  The  writer  adds  :  'The  influence 
which  the  Jews  exerted  upon  English  commerce  in  the  thirteenth  centurj' 
was  undoubtedly  of  benefit  to  the  civic  population,  since  they  served  as 
a  buffer  between  the  native  traders  and  the  dominant  landed  interest,*  Cf. 
B.  L.  Abrahams,  The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290,  pp,  21,  23, 
45,  &c.  ;  and  especially  J.  Jacobs,  Jews  of  Angevin  England  (Introduction). 

R  2, 


244  Trades  and  Occupations. 

system  more  clearly  exhibited  than  in  England.  Owing 
to  the  somewhat  tantalizing  vacillation  of  the  English 
rulers,  the  English  Jews  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  saw  opening  out  before  them  attractive  hopes 
that  they  might  soon  be  permitted  to  own  land  and  become 
as  other  Englishmen.  But  these  dreams  invariably  ended 
in  the  sordid  reality  of  the  Exchequer  of  the  Jews.  This 
was  not  the  worst,  for  owing  to  the  competition  of  the 
Italian  money-lenders  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I,  the  Jews 
were  no  longer  necessary  to  him.  It  needs  little  imagi- 
nation to  conceive  the  fate  awaiting  an  unnecessary  Jew 
in  the  middle  ages. 


APPENDIX   TO   CHAPTERS    XI  &   XII 


A. 


OCCUPATIONS    OF    THE   JEWS    OF    ROME    BEFORE    THE 
FOURTH    CENTURY^. 


Trading  merchants. 

Butcher. 

Painter. 

Tailor. 

Actor. 

Smith. 

Poet. 

Beggars. 

Singer. 

B. 

OCCUPATIONS  OF  THE  JEWS  OF  THE  LEVANT,  PERSIA, 
SYRIA,  AND  THE  EAST  GENERALLY  (CHIEFLY  UP 
TO    THE    TWELFTH    CENTURy)  ^. 


Landowners  (many). 

Agricultural  labourers  (many). 

Millers. 

Fruit-growers. 

Tree-planters. 

Vineyard-owners. 

Wine- sellers. 

Corn-dealers. 

Builders. 

Slave-owners. 

Cattle-dealers. 


Travelling    merchants   (travelled 

great  distances). 
General  dealers. 
Clothiers. 
Booksellers. 
Dealers  in  ship-stores. 
Goldsmiths  (rare). 
Agents  and  brokers. 
Makers  of  water-clocks. 
Soldiers. 
Owners  of  olive-presses. 


^  Berliner,  Rom,  i.  (i),  p.  98. 

^  The  Responsa  of  Geonim,  the  Itinerary  of  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  and  other 
sources. 


246 


Trades  and  Occupations. 


Dealers  in  houses. 

Innkeepers. 

Tanners. 

Dyers  (many). 

Manufacturers  of  silk  and  purple 

cloth  (Greece  and  Turkey). 
Artisans  (general). 


Glass-manufacturers  (Antioch  and 

Tyre). 
Ship-owners  (Tyre). 
Physicians  (rare). 
Musicians. 

Scholars  (of  little  note). 
Pearl-dealers. 


OCCUPATIONS    OF    THE   JEWS    OF    GERMANY,    NORTH 
FRANCE,    AND    ENGLAND  ^ 


Scholars. 

Professional  scribes. 

Money-lenders  (many). 

Financiers. 

Merchants  (many). 

A^iculturists. 

Vintners  (many). 

Smiths. 

Sailors  (rare). 

Hunters  (rare). 

Soldiers. 

Travellers. 

Masons. 

Tanners. 

Bookbinders. 

Card-painters. 

Sculptors. 

Armourers. 

Coiners  (many). 

Stone-engravers. 

Innkeepers. 

Doctors  (comparatively  rare). 


Bakers. 

Dairymen  and  cheesemakers. 

Butchers. 

Tailors. 

Women-traders. 

Goldsmiths. 

Retail  dealers  in  general  stores. 

Glaziers. 

Grinders. 

Turners. 

Assayers. 

Box-makers. 

Cowl-makers. 

Makers  of  mousetraps. 

Barterers. 

Booksellers. 

Spice-importers  (many). 

Peddlers  (especially  dealers  in 
ornaments  such  as  gold- 
embroidered  gloves  and  head- 
cloths,  furs,  and  dyes). 

Salt-dealers. 


^  See  chiefly  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte  u.  Ltteratur,  p.  173;  Gudemann,  iii. 
170;  Berliner,  Aus  deiii  inncrcn  Leben,  43,  47;  Jacobs,  Angevin  England 
and  the  Responsa  literature,  e.  g.  Muller's  R.  Meschullam  b.  Kalonymus,  p.  7. 
But  few  of  these  trades  were  caiTied  on  in  England. 


Jewish  Occupations. 


247 


D. 


OCCUPATIONS  OF  THE  JEWS  OF  SOUTH  FRANCE,  SPAIN, 
AND  ITALY,  BEFORE  THE  END  OF  THE  FOURTEENTH 
CENTURY  \ 


Physicians  (very  many). 

Carriage-dealers. 

Clerks  of  the  Treasury. 

Cloth-merchants. 

Corn-dealers. 

Fur-merchants. 

Horse-dealers. 

Leather-merchants. 

Lion-tamers. 

Jugglers. 

Mule-sellers. 

Bullion-merchants. 

Surgeons. 

Tailors. 

Timber-merchants. 

Upholsterers. 

Wine-merchants. 

Slave-dealers. 

Goldsmiths. 

Astronomers. 

Pawnbrokers. 

Apothecaries. 

Farm-stewards. 

Finance  ministers. 

Majordomos. 

Revenue  officers. 

Merchants. 


Royal  minters. 
Soldiers. 
Navigators. 
Collectors  of  crops. 
Founders. 
Shoemakers. 

Hide-dressers  and  tanners. 
Silk-mercers. 
Spice-dealers. 
Silversmiths. 
Weavers. 
Peddlers. 

Owners  of  vineyards. 
PubHc  officials  (many). 
Scholars  and  poets. 
Metal-workers. 
Mechanics. 

Officers  of  Papal  Household  (be- 
fore thirteenth  century). 
Gilders. 
Carpenters. 
Herdsmen. 
Locksmiths. 
Blacksmiths. 
Basket-makers. 
Curriers. 
Makers  of  Scientific  Instruments. 


1  J.  Jacobs,  MS.  Sources  of  the  History  of  the  Jews  in  Spain,  p.  xxxvii,  and 
the  State  documents  printed  throughout  Lurdo's  History  of  the  Jews  of  Spain, 
and  Amador  de  los  Rios,  Historia  de  los  Judios  de  Espana,  ii.  521 ;  M.  F.  Fita, 
Boletin  de  la  real  Academia  de  la  historia,  iii.  '^Madrid;,  p.  321  seq. 


248 


Trades  and  Occupations. 


OCCUPATIONS  OF  THE  JEWS  OF  PRAGUE  IN  THE 
SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY  \ 


Tailors  (many  cases). 

Shoemakers. 

Tanners. 

Dyers. 

Furriers. 

Hat-makers. 

Glove-maker. 

Harness-makers. 

Saddler. 

Butchers. 

Carpenter. 

Locksmiths. 

Hatchet-makers. 

Nail-maker. 

Tinman. 

Ironmongers. 

Glaziers. 

Potters. 

Quilt-maker. 

Upholsterer. 

Candle-maker. 

Writers. 

Hospital  nurses. 

Domestic  servants. 

Cooks. 

Citron  importers. 

Porters. 

Innkeeper. 

Pastrycooks. 

Vintners. 


Publicans. 

Spirit-dealers. 

Tobacconist. 

Watchmen. 

Street  police. 

Toll-keeper. 

Woodcutters. 

Timber-merchant. 

Horse-dealer. 

Charcoal-burner. 

Architect. 

Painters. 

Musicians. 

Singers. 

String-maker. 

Goldsmiths  (many). 

Pearl-setters. 

Lace-maker. 

Stone-graver. 

Optician. 

Glass-polisher. 

Wheelvi^rights. 

Wagon-makers. 

Doctors  (many). 

Barbers. 

Apothecaries. 

Midwives. 

Printers  (many). 

Booksellers. 

Bookbinders. 


^  From  the  epitaphs  published  by  M.  Popper  in  Die  Inschriften  des  alien 
Prager  Judenfriedhofs  (Brunswick,  1893);  many  of  these  artisans  must  have 
worked  exclusively  for  the  Jewish  community. 


Jewish   Occupations.  249 


PROP^ESSIONS    OF  THE   JEWISH    DELEGATES    TO    THE 

PARIS  CONFERENCE  SUMMONED    BY    NAPOLEON    IN    1806. 

Landholders  (several).  Shipowner. 

Merchants.  Cloth-merchant. 

Clock-manufacturer.  Leather-manufacturer. 

Silk-merchant.  Horse-dealer. 

Tobacco-manufacturer.  Officer  in  army. 

Banker.  Municipal  officials  (several). 

Rabbi-physician. 


G. 

JEWISH    COMMERCIAL    ACTIVITY    IN    THE 
MIDDLE    AGES. 

M.  Isidor  Loeb  arrived  at  the  following  conclusions  as  the  result  of 
his  inquiries^ : — 

1.  The  Jews  rendered  conspicuous  services  to  Europe  by  teaching 
it  commerce  ;  by  creating,  in  the  teeth  of  the  Church,  that  instrument 
of  credit  and  exchange  without  which  the  existence  of  a  State  is 
impossible ;  and  by  developing  the  circulation  of  capital,  to  the  great 
advantage  of  both  agriculture  and  industry. 

2.  When  the  medieval  Jews  devoted  themselves  largely  to  com- 
merce and  money-lending,  they  were  not  obeying  a  natural  taste 
nor  a  special  instinct,  but  were  led  to  these  pursuits  by  the  force  of 
circumstances,  by  exclusive  laws,  and  by  the  express  desire  of  kings 
and  peoples.  The  Jews  were  constrained  to  adopt  these  modes  of 
obtaining  a  livelihood  by  the  irresistible  material  and  moral  forces 
opposed  to  them. 

3.  Christian  rivals  in  these  branches  of  enterprise  have  not  been 
unable  to  hold  their  own  against  the  Jews,  on  the  contrary  the  Christian 
operators  have  often  crushed  their  Jewish  rivals  by  the  superior  weight 
of  their  capital. 

'  Reflexions  sur  les  Juifs  in  the  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  t.  xxviii.  p.  19. 


250  Trades  and  Occupations. 

4.  The  trade  in  money  rarely  profited  the  Jews,  who  remained 
mostly  poor  or  possessed  of  very  moderate  wealth  ;  the  real  gainers 
were  the  kings,  the  aristocracy,  and  the  towns. 

5.  The  rates  of  interest  demanded  by  Jewish  money-lenders  were, 
considering  the  scarcity  of  specie,  and  the  extraordinary  risks  incurred, 
far  from  excessive,  and  were  sometimes  considerably  lower  than  the 
rates  exacted  by  Christian  financiers.  The  Jews  were  not  '  usurers ' 
in  the  modern  sense  of  the  term,  but  the  outcries  against  Jewish  usury 
were  due  mainly  to  the  medieval  ignorance  of  the  elements  of 
economics,  while  the  prejudice  against  lending  money  for  interest 
was  derived  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  which  both  then  and 
now  regarded  the  practice  as  most  blameworthy. 


H. 

For  an  account  of  the  modern  occupations  of  Jews,  see  Joseph 
Jacobs,  Studies  in  JewisJi  Statistics  (London,  1891),  pp.  22-40. 


CHAPTER   XIIL 

THE    JEWS    AND    THE    THEATRE. 

About  thirty-five  years  ago  a  certain  Solomon  Benoliel 
built  a  theatre  in  Gibraltar  with  the  intention  of  letting  it 
for  dramatic  performances.  Some  scruples  were  felt  as  to 
the  lawfulness  of  his  conduct,  and  application  was  made 
to  a  foreign  Rabbi  for  his  opinion  on  the  subject^.  His 
reply  was  the  reverse  of  favourable,  but  he  allowed 
a  distinction  to  be  drawn  between  the  performances  of 
modern  and  ancient  times.  Many  distinguished  men,  it 
was  added,  nowadays  go  to  the  theatre  to  while  away  an 
hour  harmlessly.  Exactly  two  centuries  before,  a  Rabbi 
of  Venice  ^  expressed  himself  appalled  at  the  establishment 
of  theatres  by  Venetian  Jews,  wherein  men,  women,  and 
children  assembled  to  hear  *  frivolous  and  indecent  remarks.' 
He  regretted  that  he  had  no  hope  of  suppressing  the 
obnoxious  gatherings.  But  the  opposition  to  the  theatre 
from  certain  sections  of  Jewish  opinion  is  even  now  so 
strong  that  in  some  Hebrew  prayer-books,  the  words  that 
a  Talmudic  sage  uttered  in  the  first  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian era;  are  still  ordered  to  be  recited  every  morning  on 

^  See  the  ^on  'j\d  i"i3  r\"w,  f.  3  b. 
2  Samuel  Aboab,  ^«iaiiJ  im  n"ic,  §  4. 


252  77?^  Jews  and  the   Theatre. 

entering  the  synagogue : — '  I  give  thanks  to  thee,  O  Lord, 
my  God,  and  God  of  my  fathers,  that  thou  hast  placed  my 
portion  among  those  who  sit  in  the  House  of  Learning, 
and  the  House  of  Prayer,  and  didst  not  cast  my  lot  among 
those  who  frequent  theatres  and  circuses^.  For  I  labour,  and 
they  labour ;  I  wait,  and  they  wait ;  I  to  inherit  paradise, 
they  the  pit  of  destruction.'  It  is  well  that  these  typical 
phenomena  should  be  pointed  out,  side  by  side  with  the 
unquestionable  fact  that  Jews  are  at  the  present  day 
among  the  most  devoted  lovers  of  the  stage.  For,  the 
Puritanical  sentiment  which  still  keeps  many  thousands 
of  English  Christians  from  the  playhouse  is  strongly  shared 
by  thousands  of  modern  Jews. 

It  is  superfluous  to  quote  the  opinions  scattered  through 
early  Jewish  literature,  in  which  the  circus  and  theatre  are 
denounced.  The  Jewish  objections  to  the  theatre  were 
fourfold.  (])  The  theatre  was  immoral  and  idolatrous. 
(2)  It  was  the  scene  of  scoffing  and  mockery.  (3)  It  en- 
couraged wanton  bloodshed.  (4)  Attendance  at  the  shows 
was  an  idle  waste  of  time.  The  last  argument  is  certainly 
open  to  question,  and  an  opposite  opinion  is  on  record  ^ ; 
but  the  other  three  were  only  too  fully  justified  by  indu- 
bitable facts.  The  ancient  drama  grew  out  of  the  pagan 
religious  rites,  and  many  of  the  performances  in  the  circus 
were  in  origin  unmistakably  idolatrous.  Nor  is  this  all. 
In  the  Augustan  age,  as  has  been  often  pointed  out,  the 
favourite  plays  of  the  masses  were  not  the  masterpieces 
of  Sophocles,  ^schylus,  and  Euripides ;  were  not  even  the 
comedies   of   Menander   and    Plautus.      Actual   scenes   of 

'  This  is  the  reading  of  the  Jerusalem  Talmud.     The  Babylonian  Talmud 
{Berachoih,  28  b)  reads  : — m;-ip  •<i\LV,  which  may  mean  '  traders  '  or  *  idlers.' 
*  Midrash,  Genesis  Rabba,  par.  80. 


Music  and  the   Talmud.  253 

immorality  were  enacted  on  the  stage,  the  loves  of  Jupiter 
and  Danae,  of  Leda  and  Ganymede,  were  exhibited  in 
detail  by  the  mimes.  When  Rome  became  Christian  there 
was  little  change  at  first,  and  we  find  heathen  writers 
denouncing  Christian  actors  for  obscenity  ^ 

There  were  other  moral  objections  to  the  theatre.  No 
Jew  might  listen  to  a  woman's  voice.  Even  when  some 
concession  was  made  in  the  fourth  century,  women  might  at 
most  join  in  choruses  with  men,  but  might  not  sing  solos'^. 
Yet  music  was  impossible  without  female  co-operation, 
unless  the  men  were  particularly  gifted.  There  is,  how- 
ever, no  reason  to  doubt  De  Saulcy's  view  that  the  ancient 
Jews  were  deficient  in  musical  skill  ^.  Few,  if  any,  of  the 
Talmud ic  Rabbis  are  quoted  as  proficient  musicians.  The 
destruction  of  the  Temple  for  a  time  made  the  Jews  avoid 
music  and  song,  even  at  weddings.  But  there  gradually 
intruded  itself  into  Jewish  thought  a  notion  that  instru- 
mental music  was  un-Jewish  '^,  and  this  notion — so  opposed 
to  the  clear  language  of  the  Bible — still  so  far  dominates 
'  orthodox '  Judaism  at  the  present  day,  that  the  organ  in 
the  synagogue  is  a  symbol  of  reform^.  The  Jews  early 
showed  themselves  intolerant  of  attempts  to  suppress  their 
musical  instincts,  and  certain  classes  were  permitted  to 
lighten  their  toil  by  singing  choruses.  Curiously  enough, 
the  classes  favoured  were  ploughmen  and  sailors,  who,  even 
to-day,  are  most  given  to  accompany  their  work  with 
snatches  of  song  ^.     The  general  prohibition  of  music  con- 

1  Smith,  Did.  Christian  Antiquities^  arts.  Actors  and  Theatre. 

^  Cf.  Low,  Lebensalter,  p.  309. 

3  F.  de  Saulcy,  Histoire  de  I'Art  Judaique,  p.  121. 

*  Jer.  Megilla,  iii.  2 ;   T.  B.  Giitin,  7  a. 

5  The  fervour  of  Jewish  worship  has  gained  by  this  antipathy. 

*  Soia,  48  a. 


254  The  Jews  and  the  Theatre. 

tinued  in  the  middle  ages,  but  it  grew  less  forcible  and 
effective,  and  was  even  removed  by  some  authorities  of 
note  \  Music  was  especially  permitted  on  Purim  and 
at  weddings,  while  many  Jews  employed  Christian  and 
Mohammedan  musicians  to  amuse  them  on  the  Sabbaths 
and  festivals  -.  Recent  investigation  has  discovered  in  the 
Spanish  records  the  names  of  Jewish  lion-tamers  and 
jugglers  in  Navarre.  Payments  from  the  royal  exchequers 
were  made  to  both  classes,  and  it  is  rather  curious  that 
among  the  Spanish-Jewish  jugglers  in  the  fourteenth 
century  are  the  names  of  two  sons  of  a  noted  physician, 
Samuel  Alfaqui  of  Pamplona,  who  cured  an  English 
Knight,  and  received  for  his  services  the  special  thanks 
of  the  Queen  Leonora  of  Navarre ".  But  by  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  several  communities  possessed  Jewish 
orchestras,  which  were  often  employed  by  Christians.  In 
1648  the  Sultan  Ibrahim  utilized  the  services  of  Jewish 
fiddlers  and  dancers,  while  in  the  reign  of  Mahomet  IV 
{1675),  at  a  royal  banquet  in  Adrianople,  Jewish  dancers 
and  mimics  passed  from  tent  to  tent,  performing  tricks. 
In  the  same  year,  at  the  betrothal  of  Mustapha,  a  Jew 
and  a  Turk  performed  on  a  rope^. 

A  most  remarkable  feature  about  the  change  implied 
in  such  facts  as  these,  especially  as  regards  musical  skill, 
must  be  noted.  While  the  Rabbis  of  the  Talmud  were 
not  themselves  proficient  in  the  musical  art,  the  Bachurim 
or    Talmud    students    of    the    middle    ages    were    often 


^  E.g.  R,  Tarn.     Cf.  nma^  po,  cccxxxviii.  4.     Cf.  Low,  op.  cit.,  p,  311. 
-  See  above,  p.  197  ;  below,  ch.  xxii. 

•*  Jacobs,  Sources  of  the  Histoty  of  the  Jews  in  Spain  ;  Kayserling,  Jewish 
Quarterly  Review,  viii.  p.  489. 

*  See  the  quotations  in  Schudt,  Merkwiirdigkeiteyi,  i.  58. 


The  Stage  Jeiv.  255 

accomplished  musicians.  The  Jewish  liturgy,  so  far  as 
vocal  music  was  concerned,  grew  more  and  more  ornate. 
Medieval  Rabbis  of  the  widest  reputation,  like  Jacob  Molin 
were  noted  lovers  of  vocal  melody;  and  this  fourteenth- 
century  Rabbi  was  the  forerunner  of  a  whole  class  of 
clerical  musicians.  The  chazan  or  precentor  became 
less  a  reader  than  a  singer,  less  a  singer  than  a  spirited 
declaimer.  He  gave  to  his  emotions  an  expression 
which  can  only  be  described  as  dramatic  ;  he  wept  or 
was  glad  as  the  prayers  called  for  it.  The  curious  pheno- 
menon of  hymns  in  dialogue^  must  be  mentioned  in  this 
connexion.  The  congregation  and  precentor  prayed,  too, 
in  dialogue  ;  the  melodies  differed  for  the  two  parts.  The 
Torah  or  law  was  declaimed  with  sensitive  emphasis,  and  in 
many  other  ways  the  growth  of  the  dramatic  instinct  is  dis- 
cernible. It  is  hardly  surprising  that  a  large  proportion  of 
successful  opera-singers  in  modern  times  have  been  sons  or 
daughters  of  Jewish  precentors. 

Despite  the  lingering  opposition  to  which  sufficient  allu- 
sion has  already  been  made,  the  moral  and  religious  grounds 
of  Jewish  antipathy  to  the  stage  thus  almost  vanished  in  the 
middle  ages.  But  another  feature  of  the  relation  of  Judaism 
to  the  stage  remains  to  be  unfolded,  and  this  is  of  great 
significance  in  the  story  of  medieval  Jewish  life.  The  stage 
has  dealt  hardly  with  the  Jews  in  many  ways.  The  Jew 
has  been  the  object  of  an  outrage  and  insult  which  has 
continued  till  our  own  times.  In  parts  of  Persia,  whenever 
a  provincial  governor  holds  high  festival,  the  pieces  de 
resistance  are  '  fireworks  and  Jew^s.'  The  latter  are  cast 
into  muddy  tanks,  and  their  efforts  to  extricate  themselves 

^  Cf.  the  specimens  translated  by  Miss  Nina  Davis  in  the  Jewish  Quarterly 
Review  for  January,  1896. 


256  The  Jews  and  the   Theatre. 

are  the  chief  element  of  the  fun  ^.  This  may  be  compared 
with  the  medieval  pleasantries  indulged  in  at  Rome  during 
the  Carnival.  From  the  fourteenth  century  the  Jews  had 
to  contribute  heavily  towards  the  cost  of  the  public  fes- 
tivities ^.  But  in  the  fifteenth  century  a  more  personal  role 
was  forced  upon  the  Roman  Jews.  '  On  Monday,  the  first 
day  of  the  Carnival,  at  least  eight  Jews  were  forced  to 
present  themselves  to  open  the  foot-races.  Half  clad,  often 
amid  heavy  showers  of  rain,  whipped  and  jeered  at,  they 
were  compelled  amid  the  wild  shouts  of  the  mob  to  cover 
the  whole  length  of  the  race-course,  which  was  about  1,100 
yards  long.  Occasionally  the  poor  victims  succumbed  to 
their  exertions  and  fell  dead  on  the  course.  On  the  same 
black  Monday  of  the  Carnival,  the  Fattori  (lay  heads),  the 
Rabbis,  and  other  leading  Jews  were  forced  to  walk  on  foot 
at  the  head  of  the  procession  of  the  senators  from  one  end 
of  the  Corso  to  the  other,  offering  a  ready  butt  for  the 
insults  and  derision  of  the  assembled  crowd.'  Such  indig- 
nities must  have  been  harder  to  bear  than  the  coarser 
cruelties  of  the  ancient  arena,  in  which  thousands  of  Jewish 
captives  were  flung  by  Titus  as  victims  to  wild  beasts.  In 
those  old  days  Jews  were  forced  to  fight  one  another  under 
the  eyes  of  their  former  sovereign — a  fitting  sight  for 
fitting  eyes.  But  this  martyrdom  was  less  grievous  than 
the  petty  irritations  which  in  the  middle  ages  sometimes 
took  their  place. 

The  indignities  which  Jews  suffered  on  the  stage  were 
mostly  of  another  type.  The  ridicule  of  Judaism  dates  far 
back  in  the  history  of  the  drama.  It  is  true  that  there 
is  no  direct  evidence  that  in  Rome  such  insults  were  per- 

'  C.  J.  Wills,  Persia  as  it  is,  p.  230.  -  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  p.  46  seq. 


Carnival  Plays.  257 

petrated  ^,  but  if  the  Roman  satirists,  who  used  foreigners 
generally  as  the  object  of  their  wit,  did  not  spare  the  Jews, 
it  is  not  probable  that  the  mimes  were  more  generous  to 
them.  At  all  events,  it  is  certain  that  in  the  Roman 
plays,  as  performed  in  Syria,  a  favourite  topic  for  raillery 
was  provided  by  Judaism.  The  clowns  or  mimes  laughed 
at  the  Pentateuch  and  at  the  Jewish  sabbath^.  Jewish 
women  were  publicly  forced  to  eat  swine's  flesh  in  the 
theatre^.  With  such  examples  the  medieval  playwrights 
had  no  hesitation  as  to  the  use  to  be  made  of  the  Jews. 
In  the  Carnival  plays  and  in  similar  comedies  the  Jews 
were  uniformly  reviled  or  laughed  at^  Then  the  tale  of 
abuse  was  taken  up  by  the  dramatists  of  all  countries. 
The  legend  of  the  ritual  murder  of  Christian  children 
inevitably  found  its  way  on  to  the  stage.  It  may  almost 
be  asserted  that  a  convention  was  entered  into,  in  ac- 
cordance with  which  no  Jew  could  be  introduced  upon 
the  stage,  except  in  a  grotesque  or  odious  character. 

But  from  the  outset  a  distinction  must  be  drawn.  The 
Jewess  enjoyed  an  extraordinary  immunity  from  attack^; 
she  was  as  much  lauded  as  the  Jew  was  reviled.  The  stage 
Jewess  was  always  beautiful,  and  was  always  intended  to  be 
loveworthy.  Shakespeare's  Jessica  and  Marlowe's  Abigail 
were  evidently  drawn  as  foils  and  contrasts  to  Shylock  and 
Barabas.  Partly  this  sympathetic  treatment  was  designed 
to  lead  up  to  the  conversion  of  these  Jewesses  to  Chris- 
tianity, but  one  may  feel  justified  in  attributing  the  kindness 

*  Cf.  Berliner,  Rom,  i.  p.  loo.  2  £cha  Rabba,  Introduction. 
3  Philo,  In  Flaccitm,  sec.  11,  ed.  Mangey,  ii.  529-531. 

*  Giidemann,  iii.  p.  ^04  seq. 

*  Cf.  M.  Maurice  Bloch's  La  femme  juive  dans  le  Roman  et  an  Theatre 
{Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  No.  46,  1892). 

S 


258  The  Jews  and  the   Theatre. 

of  dramatists  to  their  generosity  and  gallantry.  Even  Scott 
reserves  all  his  tenderness  for  Rebecca,  and  has  none  to 
spare  for  her  father.  With  all  his  originality,  Scott  felt 
himself  trammelled  by  the  example  of  his  predecessors  ^ 

In  England,  on  the  other  hand,  as  Mr.  Sidney  Lee  has 
shown  2,  even  in  the  sixteenth  century  some  few  dramatists 
gave  favourable  presentments  of  Jews. 

In  The  Three  Ladies  of  London,  a  tedious  production 
which  *  marks  the  slow  transition  from  the  morality-play 
to  the  genuine  drama.'  an  Italian  merchant,  Mercatore,  is 
harassed  by  a  Jewish  creditor  named  Gerontus.  The 
Italian,  to  evade  his  debt,  pleads  that  he  has  turned  Moslem 
(the  scene  passes  in  Turkey),  and  '  has  thus,  according  to 
a  recognized  Turkish  law,  relieved  himself  of  his  debts.' 
But  while  the  merchant  is  repeating  after  the  judge  a 
formal  renunciation  of  Christianity,  the  Jew  interrupts — 

Geront.     Stay  there,  most  puissant  judge.     Signer  Mercatore,  consider 
what  you  do. 
Pay  me  the  principal ;  as  for  the  interest,  I  forgive  it  you. 
Mer.     No  point  da  interest,  no  point  da  principal. 
Geront.     Then  pay  me  now  one-half,  if  you  will  not  pay  me  all. 
Mer.     No  point  da  half,  no  point  denier  ;  me  will  be  a  Turk,  I  say. 
Me  be  weary  of  my  Christ's  religion. 

'  Gerontus,'  continues  Mr.  Lee, '  confesses  himself  shocked 
by  the  merchant's  dishonest  conversion,  and  rather  than  be 
a  party  to  it,  releases  him  from  the  debt.  Mercatore  returns 
to  his  old  faith,  and  congratulates  himself  on  cheating  the 
Jew  of  his  money.  The  judge  adds — "Jews  seek  to  excel 
in   Christianity,  and  Christians   in   Jewishness" — and   the 

'  That  this  is  true  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  the  subsidiary  names  of 
the  Jewish  characters  in  Ivanhoe  are  all  borrowed  from  \\\^  Jew  of  Malta. 

'  Elizabethan  England  and  the  Jews  (Transactions,  New  Shakespeare 
Society,  1888). 


Shakespeare  and  Lessing,  259 

episode  closes.'  It  is  noticeable  that  in  this  scene,  in 
which  the  Jew  plays  no  ignoble  part,  the  Italian  and  not 
the  Jew  uses  broken  English.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Jews  spoke  a  very  refined  and  literary  language  until  their 
style  of  expression  became  degenerate  in  the  ghettos. 

Besides  this  appearance  of  a  Jew  on  the  Elizabethan 
stage  in  a  favourable  light,  Richard  Brome  wrote  a  play, 
now  lost,  entitled  The  Jewish  Gentleman — a  title  which 
*  suggests  an  appreciative  treatment  of  the  Jewish  character.' 
The  incidental  references  made  to  Jews  by  Elizabethan 
dramatists  were  seldom  complimentary,  but  in  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  Custom  of  the  Country,  Zabulon,  a  Jew,  plays 
a  conspicuous  role,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Lee,  'an 
attempt  is  made  there  to  do  some  justice  to  his  racial 
characteristics.' 

But  Shylock  has  so  completely  dominated  the  English 
stage,  that  no  great  English  dramatist  since  Shakespeare 
has  attempted  to  introduce  Jewish  characters.  So  wonder- 
ful, however,  was  the  sensation  produced  throughout  the 
civilized  world  by  the  career  of  Moses  Mendelssohn  ('  Nathan 
der  Weise '),  and  his  friendship  with  Lessing,  that  even  in 
England  a  small  band  of  well  intentioned  writers,  headed 
by  Richard  Cumberland,  set  about-doing  justice  to  the  Jew 
on  the  stage.  This  was  towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 


S  2 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE   PURIM-PLAY   AND  THE   DRAMA   IN    HEBREW. 

Though  the  Jews  received  rough  treatment  in  the  Car- 
nival sports,  they  yet  were  not  able  to  resist  the  tempta- 
tion to  imitate  them.  Purim,  or  the  Feast  of  Esther, 
occurs  at  about  the  same  time  as  Lent,  and  thus  Purim 
became  the  Jewish  Carnival.  The  Jewish  children  in 
Italy  used  to  range  themselves  in  rows,  then  they  pelted 
one  another  with  nuts ;  while  the  adults  rode  through 
the  streets  with  fir-branches  in  their  hands,  shouted 
or  blew  trumpets  round  a  doll  representing  Haman,  which 
was  finally  burnt  with  due  solemnity  at  the  stake.  Such 
uproarious  fun  was,  however,  neither  new  or  rare.  In  the 
Talmud  may  be  found  accounts  of  wedding  jollities  in 
which  Rabbis  would  juggle  with  three  sticks,  throwing  them 
up  and  catching  them.  So,  too,  at  the  feast  of  the  Water- 
drawing  during  Tabernacles,  Rabbi  Simeon  ben  Gamaliel 
took  eight  torches  and  threw  them  up  one  after  another 
Avithout  their  touching.  This  species  of  merrymaking  was 
at  its  height  in  the  medieval  celebrations  of  Purim.  On 
Purim  everything,  or  almost  everything,  was  lawful ;  so 
the  common  people  argued.    They  laughed  at  their  Rabbis, 


Plays  in  Jargon.  261 

they  wore  grotesque  masks,  the  men  attired  themselves 
in  women's  clothes  and  the  women  went  clad  as  men. 
This  point,  let  me  say  in  passing,  was  made  a  ground  of 
objection  to  the  theatre  altogether.  On  the  one  hand,  pious 
Jews  would  not  listen  to  the  voices  of  women,  and,  on  the 
other^,  would  not  approve  of  dramatic  performances  in 
which  men  were  dressed  in  women's  attire.  For  it  must  be 
remembered  that  in  ancient  Greece  there  were  no  female 
actors,  and  the  same  thing  applied  to  the  later  English 
stage.  Shakespeare  wrote  his  Juliet  and  Ophelia  for  boys 
who  always  performed  the  women's  parts.  So  that  on  the 
whole  one  can  understand  that  those  who  objected  to  dis- 
obeying the  Biblical  command,  'A  man  shall  not  put  on 
a  woman's  garments  V  would  necessarily  set  their  faces 
against  the  theatre  of  the  sixteenth  and  even  seventeenth 
centuries.  On  this  very  ground,  among  others,  the  English 
Puritans  succeeded  in  closing  the  theatres  for  many  years 
during  the  Commonwealth. 

But  on  Purim  the  frolicsomeness  of  the  Jew  would  not  be 
denied  ;  and  the  demand  for  Purim  amusements  was  loud 
and  universal.  Now,  a  demand  is  not  long  in  creating  the 
corresponding  supply ;  hence  the  rise  of  a  class  of  Ptirim- 
Spiele  or  Purim-plays. 

Purim-plays,  written  in  Jewish-German  jargon,  attained 
a  very  rapid  popularity  among  Jews  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Previously  to  that  period  Purim  was 
indeed  the  time  of  frolic  and  jollity  in  the  ghettos,  and 
there  also  seems  to  me  some  evidence  that  set  plays  were 
produced  before  the  decade  ending  with  the  year  1710^.  In 
the  Gaonic  age  (ninth  or  tenth  century)  we  read  of  Purim 
buffooneries   and  play-acting,  and   of  a   dramatization   of 

^  Cf.  ch.  XV.  below.  ^  See  the  evidence  in  Low,  Sect.  viii. 


262       The  Purim-Play  and  the  Drama  in  Hebrew. 

the  story  of  Esther.  In  the  fourteenth  century  the 
Jews  of  France  and  Germany  were  in  the  habit  of  per- 
forming masquerades  on  the  subject  of  Haman's  plot  and 
penalty,  but  again  the  dialogue,  if  any,  was  extemporized, 
and  the  chief  fun  was  gained  by  men  dressing  up  as  women, 
wearing  masks,  and  indulging  in  grotesque  pranks.  On 
Purim  the  Rabbis  were  not  stern  in  their  expectations,  and 
though  they  never  encouraged,  nay  often  denounced,  these 
infringements  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  they  more  or  less  turned 
their  blind  eye  towards  such  innocent  and  mirth-provoking 
gambols. 

Indeed,  '  Purim '  and  the  '  Rejoicing  of  the  Law '  were 
occasions  on  which  much  joyous  licence  was  permitted 
even  within  the  walls  of  the  synagogue.  The  former  of 
the  two  feasts,  which  falls  in  March,  may  be  regarded,  from 
this  point  of  view,  as  the  carnival  of  European  Jews.  The 
second,  which  occurs  in  October,  was  on  the  other  hand  the 
carnival  of  the  Jews  who  reside  in  the  Orient.  The 
synagogal  merry-making  on  these  anniversaries  some- 
times included  dancing,  the  introduction  of  amusing  effigies, 
the  playing  of  musical  instruments,  the  burning  of  incense, 
and  even  the  explosion  of  fireworks.  Pageants,  approaching 
very  closely  the  real  drama  in  its  pantomimic  phase,  thus 
early  fell  within  the  scope  of  Jewish  recreations  ^. 

Hence,  though  the  Purim-play  proper  is  a  phenomenon 
of  the  eighteenth,  and  the  drama  in  Hebrew  of  the  seven- 
teenth, centuries,  no  account  of  the  life  of  the  Jews  in  the 
middle  ages  would  be  complete  without  a  reference  to  both 
forms  of  art.     The  Purim-play  was  the   natural  develop- 

For  dancing  and  burning  incense  on  the  '  Rejoicing  of  the  Law  '  (to 
some  extent  a  post-Biblical  feast%  see  Muller,  Mafteach,  p.  22.  For  the 
other  festivities,  cf.  e.g.  D.  Pardo,  Responsa,  nnb  Dn30,  §  19. 


Earliest  Purim- Plays.  263 

ment  of  a  well-established  form  of  Jewish  recreation  in  the 
middle  ages.  Though  set,  formal  plays  do  not  occur  in  the 
medieval  Jewish  records,  the  germs  of  the  Purim  dramas  are 
easily  discernible.  The  dialogue  belongs  to  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  the  characters  and  plots  are 
traditional.  Nothing  marks  the  continuity  of  Jewish  life 
more  clearly  than  the  survival  of  these  Purim-plays  into 
modern  times.  On  the  other  hand,  the  dramas  written 
in  Hebrew  are  interesting  for  an  opposite  reason.  They, 
to  a  certain  extent,  mark  the  coming  close  of  the  Jewish 
middle  ages.,  or  at  all  events  they  are  signals  of  the  ap- 
proaching emancipation.  The  jargon  plays  for  Purim 
show  us  the  conservative  side  of  Jewish  life,  the  dramas 
in  classical  Hebrew  show  us  Jewish  life  in  its  adaptability 
to  changing  circumstances.  For,  to  put  the  same  point 
differently,  the  jargon  play  is  a  product  of  the  ghetto, 
while  the  Hebrew  drama  was  only  possible  when  the 
ghetto  walls  were  tottering  to  their  fall.  The  composi- 
tion of  dramas  in  Hebrew  always  synchronized  with  a  new 
participation  of  the  Jews  in  the  national  life  of  the  European 
states  in  which  they  lived. 

Strangely  enough,  the  story  of  Esther  and  Haman  was 
not  the  only  subject  that  was  represented  at  Purim  time. 
The  Sale  of  Joseph,  and  David  and  Goliath,  enjoyed 
equal  popularity  with  the  'Ahasuerus-play.'  Bermann  of 
Limburg  was  the  author  of  a  play  on  the  first-named 
subject,  and  the  first  performance,  of  which  a  full  record  is 
extant,  occurred,  I  think,  in  17 13.  The  play  excited  great 
interest,  and  many  Christians  were  present,  and  two  soldiers 
were  employed  to  keep  off  the  crowd.  It  was  performed  in 
Frankfort  in  the  house  '  zum  weissen  oder  silbernen  Rand,' 
then  tenanted  by  Low  Worms.    The  landlord  of  the  house 


264       The  Purim-Play  and  the  Drama  in  Hebrew. 

was  David  Ulff,  Rabbi  of  Mannheim.  The  actors  were 
Jewish  students  from  Prague  and  Hamburg.  There  is 
nothing  surprising  in  this,  for  the  mystery  and  morality- 
plays  were  often  performed  in  churches  by  priests.  The 
comic  man  of  the  piece  was  grotesquely  named  '  Pickle- 
herring/  and  in  subsequent  performances  he  no  doubt  intro- 
duced many  '  gags '  on  topics  of  local  and  passing  interest. 
This  character,  Pickle-herring,  was  not  a  Jewish  invention,  but 
figured  as  the  funny  man  in  other  earlier  and  contemporary 
dramas.  The  same  comedy  was  acted  again  at  Metz  in 
Lorraine,  and  several  of  the  actors  who  had  previously 
played  in  it  at  Frankfort  came  to  Metz  for  the  purpose.  We 
thus  already  find  a  mention  at  that  early  date  of  Jewish 
travelling  companies.  In  confidence,  says  Schudt,  who  gives 
us  all  these  facts\  a  Jew  informed  me  that  they  would  never 
perform  the  play  again  even  if  better  times  came  for  them, 
because  shortly  afterwards,  a  great  many  more  people  died 
than  usual ;  a  sure  sign  of  God's  anger,  for  he  could  not  be 
pleased  with  Pickle-herring  and  his  foolish  jokes,  and  God's 
word  should  not  be  added  to,  but  held  in  respect  and  fear. 
The  compunction  of  the  Jews  did  not  last  very  long,  for  in 
17 16,  on  May  18,  the  Jews  of  Prague  celebrated  the  birth  of 
Leopold,  Prince  of  Austria,  in  ornate  and  pompous  proces- 
sions and  performances ;  they  erected  a  triumphal  arch,  and 
for  three  days  illuminated  their  houses. 

The  'Ahasuerus-Spiel/  the  Purim-play/^r  excellence,  v^di?, 
first  printed  in  1708.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  Italian 
Jewish  dramas  on  the  subject  of  Esther  were  current,  but 
the  original  jargon  title-page  of  the  Jewish  German  version 
is  amusing  enough  to  bear  reproduction.  'A  beautiful  new 
Ahasuerus-Spiel,  composed  with  all  possible  art,  never  in 

^  Jiid.  Merkwiirdigkeiten,  ii.  314. 


The  '  Ahasuerus-Play/  265 

all  its  lifetime  will  another  be  made  so  nicely,  with  pretty, 
beautiful  lamentations  in  rhyme.  We  hope  that  whoever 
will  buy  it  will  not  regret  his  expenditure ;  because  God 
has  commanded  us  to  be  merry  on  Purim,  therefore  have 
we  made  this  Ahasuerus-play  nice  and  beautiful.  There- 
fore, also,  you  householders  and  boys  come  quickly  and 
buy  from  me  this  play;  you  will  not  regret  the  cost.  If 
you  read  it,  you  will  find  that  you  have  value  for  your 
money.' 

Here  is  some  of  the  dialogue  freely  rendered.  Each 
character  on  his  entrance,  it  will  be  noted,  addresses  him- 
self to  the  audience. 


Haman:  Herr  Haman  I  am  named.  In  gluttony  and  debauchery  I  am  an 
adept.     Brother  Scribe,  let  us  sing  a  jolly  song. 

Scribe  :  That  we  will,  till  the  furniture  shakes  with  merriment. 

Haman  :  Happy  evening  and  h.^ppy  time  !  You  want  to  know  why  I  am 
here?  I  couldn't  stand  the  best  of  Jews  even  if  I  were  compelled  to  leave 
the  King's  land.  The  best  of  Jews  is  worthy  of  being  stabbed,  and  when 
my  noble  King  enters  I  will  complain  against  the  wicked  Jews.  Come  in, 
all  who  serve  my  gracious  King. 

Hatach  :  Bless  you  all,  rich  and  poor.  Do  you  wish  to  know  why  I  am 
come  ?  My  name  is  Hatach,  my  mother  knows  me  well.  I  ask  the  gentle- 
men present  why  they  are  armed  with  swords,  I  advise  you  to  sing-in  the 
King.     You  have  never  seen  such  a  great  King ! 

Chorus  :  Noble,  high-born  King !  Sir  Father,  step  in  !  We  have  mead 
and  wine,  mead  and  wine,  and  hens  and  fish.     In  he  comes,  in  he  comes  ! 

King  :  God  bless  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  one  and  all.  I  am  named 
Ahasuerus.  And  I  gave  a  great  feast  to  all,  rich  and  poor.  The  Jews  didn't 
eat,  but  they  drank. 

And  so  forth.  Haman  in  the  end  is  hanged  and  falls  dead.  Then  the 
following  revival  occurs. 

King  :  Put  a  glass  to  his  ears  ;  perhaps  he  will  come  to  life  again. 
.  Haman  (rises)  :   I  have  been  into  the  next  world  and  I  have  seen  much 
money. 

Hatach  :  Fool !     Why  didn't  you  take  some  ? 

Haman  :  I  was  afraid. 

Chorus  :  Here  we  stand  around  the  purse.  To  ask  you  for  ducats 
would  be  too  much  ;  we  will  be  content  with  thalers. 


366       The  Piirim-Play  and  the  Drama  in  Hebrew. 

Evidently  a  collection  followed  the  performance. 

The  more  recent  imitations  of  these  plays  have  been 
reverent  reproductions  of  the  Scriptural  story  of  Esther, 
or  secondly,  adaptations  of  Racine's  Esther,  or  thirdly, 
harmless  parodies  ^  of  the  Bible  narrative. 

Sometimes  the  Purim-play  attempts  a  higher  flight, 
and  becomes  a  dramatized  philosophy.  One,  written  in 
Italy,  in  1710,  by  Corcos,  is  the  reverse  of  merry,  for 
it  is  a  very  serious,  not  to  say  heavy,  production^.  But 
for  the  most  part,  these  Purim-plays,  written  in  the  ver- 
nacular jargon,  belong  to  the  class  of  folk-comedies. 
A  literary  Jewish  drama  hardly  exists,  for  though  Jewish 
poets  composed  meritorious  plays  in  Spanish,  the  drama  in 
Hebrew  was  a  late  exotic.  Yet  it  is  an  interesting  enough  phe- 
nomenon. As  we  shall  immediately  see,  the  Hebrew  drama 
fills  a  definite  place  in  the  social  history  of  the  seventeenth- 
century  Jews. 

There  are  indeed  some  historians  who  would  carry  the 
Hebrew  drama  back  at  least  as  far  as  the  Hellenistic 
period.  The  Song  of  Solomon  is  placed  in  that  epoch  by 
some  prominent  advocates  of  the  theory  that  this  Biblical 
love-poem  is  a  genuine  drama.  This  is  a  fascinating  and 
a  not  altogether  improbable  idea.  But  Professor  Budde 
has  recently  rendered  it  difficult  and  hazardous  to  retain 
the  notion  any  longer ''^.  Budde  goes  so  far  as  to  assert 
that  *  the  entire  Semitic  literature,  so  far  as  we  are  yet 
acquainted  with  it,  does  not  know  the  drama.'  But  in 
Alexandria,    a    Greek    drama    was    composed    by   a   Jew, 

'  For  Purim  Parodies^  see  p.  383  below. 

'"  Discorso  accademico  del  Rabbi  T.  V.  Corcos,  p.  10. 

^  See  Budde's  article  in  the  New  World  (1894),  P-  5^  seq.,  and  the  criticism 
of  it  by  Russell  Martineau,  in  the  American  Journal  of  Philology,  vol.  xvi. 
p.  435.     Luther  was  not  the  last  to  see  dramatic  form  also  in  Job  and  Tobit. 


Hebrew  Drama.  267 

Ezekiel,  and  it  is  quite  in  accordance  with  later  phenomena 
that  a  Hebrew  drama  should  have  been  created  at  that 
particular  moment.  The  Alexandrian  Jews  were  in  the 
enjoyment  of  emancipation,  they  were  proud  of  their  new 
country,  and  they  were  anxious  to  show  Judaism  to  be 
a  cultured  religion.  We  have  here  all  the  conditions 
requisite  for  the  creation  of  a  drama,  and  the  wonder 
would  be  if  a  Jewish  drama  had  7iot  made  its  appearance 
in  Alexandria. 

The  earliest  Hebrew  drama,  of  whose  date  we  have 
certain  information,  belongs  to  the  seventeenth  century. 
Its  composition  is  an  interesting  incident  in  Jewish  social 
life.  Hence  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  produced 
deserve  some  words  of  explanation. 

Menasseh  ben  Israel,  to  whom  the  English  Jews  owed  the 
favour  shown  to  them  by  Cromwell,  was  still  a  young  Rabbi 
in  Amsterdam  when  he  co-operated  with  the  other  leaders  of 
the  Jewish  community  there  to  establish  a  school  for  the 
study  of  Hebrew.  This  school  was  designed  to  meet  the 
needs  of  certain  Marranos,  or  forced  converts  to  Christianity, 
who,  finding  themselves  welcome  settlers  in  Amsterdam, 
then  the  freest  city  in  the  world,  desired  to  return  to  Judaism. 
But  they  could  not  read  Hebrew.  The  children  of  these 
reverts  to  their  ancestral  religion  were  at  all  events  now 
able  to  acquire  the  rudiments  of  Hebrew,  or  if  they  were  so 
inclined  they  might,  by  passing  through  the  seven  classes 
into  which  the  school  was  divided,  leave  the  institution  with 
considerable  knowledge  of  the  Talmud  also. 

To  this  school,  soon  after  its  foundation,  went  the  boy 
Baruch  Spinoza,  and  no  doubt  he  looked  with  the  customary 
awe  of  the  new-comer  on  a  rather  older  lad,  fourteen  or 
fifteen  years  of  age,  who  then  stood   at   the  head  of  the 


268       77?^  Pvirim-Play  and  the  Drama  in  Hebrew. 

school.  This  boy  was  Moses  7.2,qx!X^  afterwards  famous  as 
a  mystic,  but  interesting  to  us  in  this  connexion  as  the 
author  of  the  first  drama  written  in  the  Hebrew  language 
subsequent  to  the  completion  of  the  Canon.  The  only 
subsequent  author  of  good  Hebrew  plays,  Moses  Chayim 
Luzzatto  (i 707-1 747),  an  imitation  of  the  Italian  Guarini, 
was  also  a  mystic,  and  also,  like  Moses  Zacut,  wrote  his 
plays  in  Amsterdam.  The  first  part  of  the  coincidence 
is  certainly  not  accidental,  for  the  Biblical  Psalms  already 
prove  that  the  poet  and  mystic  are  nearly  allied.  The 
most  determined  opponent  of  Jewish  mysticism,  Maimo- 
nides,  was  destitute  of  poetical  power  ;  almost  alone  among 
the  great  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  he  reasoned  without 
much  rhyming.  With  the  medieval  Jew  the  possession 
of  poetical  imagination  implies  a  tendency  to  mysticism  as 
surely  as  cause  implies  effect.  For  such  a  Jew  must  let  his 
fancy  play  round  the  only  real  subjects  of  his  thought, 
round  God  and  destiny,  round  the  world  and  its  spheric 
harmonies  ;  he  must,  in  fact,  become  a  mystic  because  he  is 
a  poet.  Both  Moses  Zacut  and  Moses  Luzzatto  wrote  their 
dramas  in  their  youth,  and  became  mystics  later  on ;  both, 
indeed,  were  dramatists  before  they  were  more  than  seven- 
teen years  of  age. 

To  return,  however,  to  the  genesis  of  the  drama  in 
Hebrew,  which,  as  already  remarked,  took  place  in  Am- 
sterdam at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century.  At 
that  period  Amsterdam  was  the  centre  of  a  national  and 
literary  movement  which  gave  Holland  the  greatest  of  her 
patriots  and  her  poets.  The  Chambers  of  Rhetoric,  with 
their  quaint,  fanciful  names  and  their  old-world  prize  com- 
petitions, made  way  for  a  national  theatre,  on  whose  boards 
were  re-enacted  the  deeds  of  the  Dutch  heroes  of  the  past 


Amsterdam  in  the  Seventeenth  Century.  269 

and  of  the  Hebrew  heroes  of  Old  Testament  story.  National 
feeling  is  at  its  highest  and  best  when  it  creates  a  national 
drama,  and  England,  like  Holland,  and  almost  contem- 
poraneously with  her,  was  aglow  with  national  hopes,  and, 
like  her,  England  produced  a  series  of  dramatists  since 
unrivalled.  Holland,  however,  differed  from  England  in 
an  important  point  as  regards  the  dramatic  movement.  In 
Joost  van  Vondel,  the  greatest  Dutch  writer  of  all  time, 
Holland  possessed  a  dramatist  from  whom  Milton  perhaps 
drew  inspiration,  for  his  finest  plays  dealt  with  Biblical 
subjects.  In  England  the  new  drama  was  secular ;  in 
Holland  it  was,  on  the  classical  side,  religious. 

Now,  it  is  hardly  wonderful  that  under  these  circumstances 
the  Jews  of  Holland  should  share  the  dramatic  aspirations 
of  their  country  to  the  full.  Jewish  dramatists  had  existed 
before  in  Spain,  but  they  had  written  in  Spanish  ^  Why  did 
the  Jews  of  Holland  compose  dramas  in  Hebrew  and  not 
in  Dutch  ?  Does  this  not  look  rather  as  though  the  writers 
stood  outside  the  national  movement  and  not  within  it? 
At  first  sight  this  seems  an  obvious  inference,  but,  like  most 
obvious  inferences,  it  is  altogether  false.  For  had  Moses 
Zacut  written  in  his  vernacular  he  must  have  used  Spanish, 
which  in  Holland  would  have  been  trebly  unpatriotic.  The 
Jews  of  Amsterdam  were  slow  to  use  Dutch  as  their  lan- 
guage, just  as  the  re-admitted  Jews  in  England  did  not 
at  once  adopt  English.  It  has  further  to  be  remem- 
bered that  in  Zacut's  day  no  obscure  Jewish  dramatist 
would  have  had  much  chance  of  breaking  through  the 
barriers  which  the  literary  trade-union  of  Holland  still  kept 
up  around  the  boards  of  the  theatre.  He  would  not  have 
been  able  to  gain  a  hearing.     Being  forced  to  write  for  his 

^  See  below,  ch.  xx. 


270       The  Piirim-Play  and  the  Drama  in  Hebrew. 

brethren,  he  wrote  in  Hebrew.  But  we  have  seen  that 
Hebrew  was  not  yet  a  famiHar  language  with  the  bulk 
of  Amsterdam  Jews.  The  very  force  of  their  new  patriotic 
emotions  led  them  to  cultivate  Hebrew  ;  they  would  put 
their  best  foot  forward,  they  would  prove  to  their  fellow- 
countrymen  in  Holland  that  the  sacred  language  lived,  that 
it  was  a  flexible  and  human  tongue^  that  it  was  even  capable 
of  dramatic  form. 

But,  beyond  this  mere  patriotism,  Moses  Zacut  was  moved 
to  write  a  drama  in  Hebrew  by  that  same  inspiring  belief  in 
his  people's  mission,  which  impelled  Menasseh  ben  Israel  to 
cross  the  channel  and  clear  the  way  to  a  return  of  the  Jews 
to  Puritan  England.  In  proof  of  this,  I  would  point  to  the 
subject  which  Zacut  chose  for  his  Yesod  Olam,  the  '  Founda- 
tion of  the  World.'  Hebrew  dramatists  either  restricted 
themselves  to  such  incidents  in  Scripture  as  involved  little 
of  the  supernatural,  e.g.  the  stories  of  Esther,  of  Joseph,  of 
Saul,  and  of  Samson,  or,  like  Luzzatto,  preferred  to  go  out- 
side the  Bible  in  search  of  material.  Most  of  the  modern 
Hebrew  plays,  indeed,  are  morality-plays,  allegories  in 
which  God  Himself  is  kept  off  the  stage.  Moses  Zacut 
shows  great  skill  here.  He  chose  the  Biblical  story  of 
Abraham,  and  yet  managed  to  eliminate  the  supernatural, 
except  in  so  far  as  Abraham  is  saved  miraculously  from 
Nimrod's  persecutions.  Zacut  carefully  welds  together  the 
Bible  story  with  the  Midrashic  or  traditional  accretions  to 
it,  and  thus  what  he  lacks  in  original  fancy  he  makes  up  by 
pictorial  reminiscence.  For,  though  the  poet  feels  con- 
strained to  keep  within  the  bounds  of  the  records  when  he 
deals  with  the  Bible,  yet  he  includes  in  those  records  the 
Midrash  also.  But  this  help  was  not  without  its  drawbacks. 
For  just  as  the  Jewish  liturgical  poets  were  inspired  by  the 


Moses  Zacut.  271 

Psalms,  and  at  the  same  time  hampered  by  their  dread  of 
departing  from  such  great  models,  so  the  Jewish  secular 
poets  were  trammelled  by  a  desire  to  keep  within  the  lines  of 
the  Midrash,  from  which  they  derived  the  accessory  materials 
of  their  plays.  This  has  always  been  a  difficulty  with  the 
writers  of  Hebrew  dramas. 

Dr.  Berliner,  who  first  printed  this  play  in  1874,  thinks 
that  the  author's  motive  was  to  expose  the  Inquisition  to 
scorn,  and  maintains  that  in  Abraham's  steadfastness 
against  Nimrod,  and  in  his  legendary  escape  from  the 
fiery  furnace,  were  typified  the  Jewish  fortunes  in  Spain. 
If  the  play  was  written  for  Purim  evening,  as  Jewish 
plays  so  often  were,  this  idea  would  be  a  natural  enough 
one  for  a  night  on  which  Haman's  crime  and  penalty  are 
told  again  amid  laughter  and  tears.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  opening  scene,  as  well  as  several  others  in 
the  play,  show  a  desire  to  portray  the  thought  that  the 
mission  of  Israel  was  for  the  world,  to  bear  a  light  to  the 
nations.  Hence,  Abraham's  persistent  attempts  in  the 
Yesod  Olam  to  convert  not  only  Terah,  his  father,  but  all 
who  came  within  the  circle  of  his  influence.  The  very 
choice  of  Abraham  for  his  hero  suggests  this,  for  had  Zacut 
intended  only  to  depict  the  fires  of  the  Inquisition,  why  did 
he  not  take  Daniel  as  his  hero  ?  Abraham  was  the  very 
type  of  the  universality  of  man,  and  Zacut,  amid  the  world- 
emotions  which  moved  him  and  Menasseh  ben  Israel  too, 
turned  back  for  the  hero  of  the  first  Hebrew  drama  to  the 
man  in  whom  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed. 
Moreover,  the  most  popular  epic  of  Zacut's  youth  was  the 
famous  Week  of  Salluste  du  Bartas.  This  was  translated 
into  many  languages,  and  Vondel  spent  some  years  of  his 
life  in  turning  parts  of  it  into  Dutch.     It  almost  seems  as  if 


272       The  Purim-Play  and  the  Drama  in  Hebrew. 

Moses  Zacut  had  this  before  his  mind.  Vondel  produced 
a  piece  which  he  called  Noah,  or  the  Destruction  of  the 
World.  Zacut  appears  to  have  said  :  '  I  will  prove  the  anti- 
thesis ;  I  will  deal  with  Abraham  and  the  Re-foundation  of 
the  World  ;  I  will  remind  my  country  of  Israel's  still  unful- 
filled mission.' 

Whatever  the  mission  of  Israel,  however,  may  be,  it  is 
obvious  that  the  production  of  dramatic  masterpieces  was 
no  portion  of  it. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

COSTUME   IN   LAW  AND  FASHION. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  find  in  older  Jewish  literature 
a  parallel  to  the  Oriental  proverb  that  '  the  shirt  does  not 
change  the  colour  of  the  wearer's  skin.'  On  the  other  side, 
it  is  easy  to  philosophize  too  subtly  on  the  subject  of 
clothes,  for  it  is  a  mere  exaggeration  to  assert  that  costume 
is  '  the  impression  and  expression  of  a  people''s  thought  and 
feeling,'  that '  dress  mirrors  forth  a  nation's  pain  and  sorrow, 
its  pleasure  and  its  joy  ^'  Yet,  in  a  more  limited  sense,  dress 
is  a  measure  of  civilization,  and  progress  only  begins  where 
a  people  has  ceased  to  go  unclad.  To  the  Jew,  costume 
was  not  a  fashion  at  all  ;  it  was  a  direct  consequence  of  his 
morality.  Such  a  law  as  the  Mosaic  injunction  which 
forbids  men  and  women  to  dress  alike,  had  a  moral  origin ; 
and  the  Puritans  showed  themselves  wise  in  retaining  this 
restriction,  though  they  abandoned  the  Mosaic  regulation 
against  the  use  of '  linsey-woolsey,'  to  cite  the  quaint  six- 
teenth-century phrase  ^.  Jews  themselves  have  used  a  similar 

^  A.  Briill  in  his  excellent  Trachten  der  Juden  (1873),  ^  work  unfortunately 
still  incomplete. 

2  Baker,  the  redoubted  opponent  of  Prynne,  cites  the  Puritan's  retention 
of  the  prohibition  against  men  -wearing  female  attire  (Deut.  xxii.  5),  but  con- 
tinues: '  But  where  findes  he  this  Precept?  even  in  the  same  place  where 
he  findes  also  that  we  must  not  wear  Cloaihs  of  Linsey-woolsey ;  and  seeing 
that  we  lawfully  now  wear  cloaths  of  Linsey-woolsey^  why  may  it  not  be  as 
lawfull  for  Men  to  put  on  Women's  Garments  ? ' 

T 


274  Costume  in  Law  and  Fashion. 

discrimination,   attaching  great   importance   to  the   moral 
injunction,  and  neglecting  somewhat  the  ritual  one. 

In  the  middle  ages  the  dress-problem  was  always  pre- 
senting itself  for  solution  to  Jews  and  Christians  alike  ^. 
Luther  declared  that  men  might  masquerade  as  women 
for  sport  and  play,  but  not  as  a  usual  thing  in  sober,  earnest 
moments.  A  great  fifteenth-century  Rabbi  ^  maintained  a 
similar  attitude,  and  opinion  was  much  divided  on  the 
question  of  the  lawfulness  of  men  and  women  commingling 
freely  and  wearing  masks  to  avoid  recognition  on  Purim  and 
at  wedding  festivities.  '  Every  one  who  fears  God  will  ex- 
hort the  members  of  his  household,  and  those  who  defer  to 
his  opinions,  to  avoid  such  frivolities,'  says  a  medieval  Jewish 
purist  whose  views  were  widely  shared,  though  popular 
opinion  took  the  opposite  direction.  But  public  opinion,  as 
already  pointed  out,  allowed  this  laxity  if  it  were  occasional 
and  not  habitual.  Every  effort  was  made  by  Jews  to  differ- 
entiate the  ordinary  attire  of  a  man  from  that  of  a  woman. 
The  straps  of  the  phylacteries  used  in  prayer  were  never 
made  of  red  leather,  lest  '  they  would  look  like  the  dress  of 
women  •^'  From  a  similar  motive,  the  Jewish  men  in  some 
localities  abstained  from  donning  garments  of  coloured  wool 
or  linen ;  dyed  silks  did  not  fall  within  the  same  category 
of  forbidden  stuffs*.  But  though  there  was  great  variety 
in  local  custom  on  all  such  matters,  disguises  which  ren- 
dered it  difficult  to  discern  the  wearer's  sex  might  be  freely 
worn  on  journeys  for  the  protection  of  women  ^.  Jewesses 
assumed  false   beards  and  girded  themselves  with  swords 

'  Cf.  p.  261  above. 

"^  J.  Minz,  Responsa,  §  17.  Cf.  Shulchan  Aruch,  c^'n  n"n«,  ch.  696,  §  8, 
and  the  ic'n  i>4a,  ad.  loc,  note  13. 

^  Responsa  of  Geonim,  Muller  {Mafteach),  p.  125,  in  name  of  Amram. 
*  Op.  cit.,  p.  227.  *  D'Tcn  ncr,  §§  200,  201. 


Ethics  of  Dress.  275 

during  sieges  to  be  mistaken  for  men,  and  thus  be  saved 
from  insult.  They  also  put  on  the  characteristic  garb  of 
nuns  to  ensure  a  similar  immunity  ^.  Male  Israelites  were 
forced  to  adopt  similar  devices  owing  to  the  hazards  which 
beset  a  Jewish  traveller  in  the  middle  ages.  They  dressed 
as  Christian  priests,  joined  pilgrimages  and  sang  Latin 
psalms,  to  avoid  betraying  the  dangerous  fact  of  their 
Jewish  identity^.  Similarly,  at  a  later  period,  Jews  who 
resided  under  Islamic  governors,  wore  white  garments  on 
their  journeys  in  order  to  pass  as  Moslems  ^. 

But  moments  of  exalted  joy  or  of  pressing  danger  do  not 
make  up  a  lifetime.  Under  all  ordinary  circumstances 
the  underlying  motives  which  inspired  Jewish  ideas  on 
costume  were  a  sense  of  personal  dignity  and  a  keen  regard 
for  decency.  The  moral  or  ethical  side  of  costume  comes 
out  strongly  in  all  Jewish  literature  *.  To  go  naked  in  the 
streets  is  to  deny  God  and  man  :  *  the  glory  of  God  is  man, 
the  glory  of  man  is  his  attire  ^.'  '  Put  the  costly  on  thee, 
and  the  cheap  m  thee,'  said  the  Rabbinical  proverb  which 
set  clothes  higher  than  food  ®.  Cleanliness  and  neatness  in 
outward  garb  distinguished  the  Talmid  Chacham  or  student 
of  theology.  '  It  is  a  disgrace  for  a  student  to  go  in  the 
streets  with  soiled  boots'^;'  'the  scholar  on  whose  robe 
is  seen  a  dirt-spot  is  worthy  of  death,'  for  wisdom  whose 
representative  he  is  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  is  degraded  by 
his   slovenliness  ^.     '  By  four  signs   a   scholar   reveals   his 

^  D'TDn  "lED,  §  702.  ^  Ibid.  §  220.    Cf.  Gudemann,  i.  p.  65. 

2  P.  Cassel  in  Ersch  und  Gruber,  II,  xxvii,  p.  236. 

*  Cf.  A.  Briill,  op,  cit.,  which  contains  a  fine  collection  of  passages. 

5  Jebamoth,  63  b,  Derech  Eretz  Zutta.  Transparent  garments,  through 
which  the  body  was  visible  in  outline,  were  forbidden  for  use  in  prayer 
in  the  middle  ages  {Rcsponsa  of  Geonim,  Miiller,  pp.  32  and  268). 

«  B.  Mezia,  52  a.     Cf.  Chullin,  84  b.  "^  Sabb.  114  a.  ^  Ibid.  114  a., 

T  'i 


276  Costume  in  Law  and  Fashion. 

character:  in  his  money,  in  his  cups,  in  his  anger,  in  his 
attire  \'  Clothing,  we  have  seen,  took  precedence  of  food 
among  the  necessaries  of  life.  A  curious  practical  turn  was 
given  to  this  moral  principle.  A  poor  man  who  sought 
public  relief  and  asked  for  articles  of  clothing  was  at  once 
satisfied  without  preliminary  cross-examination  as  to  his 
real  need.  If,  however,  he  asked  for  food,  he  might  be 
questioned  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  his  was  a  deserving 
case  -.  Other  Jewish  authorities  took  the  reverse  view,  but 
all  agreed  that  if  the  petitioner  had  'come  down  in  the 
world '  and  had  been  used  to  wear  fine  and  elegant  attire, 
such  was  to  be  given  to  him  now*^.  With  women  dress  was 
of  even  greater  importance,  and  the  Talmud  treats  their 
claims  with  marked  generosity.  A  full  year  was  allowed  for 
preparing  the  bride's  trousseau  ^  After  marriage,  the 
husband  was  legally  bound  to  provide  his  wife  not  only  with 
dwelling  and  food,  but  with  a  head-dress,  a  girdle,  a  new 
pair  of  shoes,  at  each  of  the  three  great  festivals,  and  other 
clothing  items  at  ordinary  times,  at  least  to  the  annual 
value  of  fifty  zuzim  or  shillings.  This,  says  the  Talmud,  was 
exclusive  of  the  voluntary  gifts,  chiefly  of  clothes,  '  with 
which  a  man  must  rejoice  his  wife's  heart  ^.'  Clauses  to 
this  effect  were  inserted  in  Jewish  marriage  contracts  in  the 
middle  ages,  and  they  still  appear  in  all  modern  documents 
of  the  same  class.  Provision  is  specially  made  for  'gar- 
ments for  everyday  wear  as  well  as  garments  for  Sabbath 
use^.'  The  medieval  Jews  were  most  sensitive  on  this 
subject.     '  Accustom  yourselves  and  wives,  your  sons  and 

^  Derech  Eretz  Zutta  ;  Erubin,  65  b.  ^  ^  Bathra,  9  a. 

'  Jcrns.  Peak,  viii.  7.    A  similar  generosity  was  sometimes  advocated  with 
regard  to  the  food  suppHed  to  the  needy. 

*  Kethub.  57  a.  5  Kethub.  64  b  ;  Pesachim,  109  a. 

*  Cf.  e.g.  M.  D.  Davis,  Shetaroth,  p.  300. 


Women's  Attire, 


211 


daughters,  always  to  wear  nice  and  clean  clothes,  that  God 
and  men  may  love  and  honour  you ' — is  the  advice  of 
a  Jewish  parent  to  his  children  in  the  fourteenth  century  ^ 
Two  centuries  earlier,  the  famous  translator  of  Maimonides 
wrote  to  his  son  : — 

Honour  thyself,  thy  household  and  thy  children,  by  providing  proper 
clothing  as  far  as  thy  means  allow,  for  it  is  unbecoming  in  a  man,  when  he 
is  not  at  work,  to  go  shabbily  dressed.  Withhold  from  thy  belly,  and  put  it 
on  thy  back. 

When,  as  we  shall  soon  see,  Jewish  men  were  forbidden 
by  civil  and  ecclesiastical  law  to  dress  as  they  pleased,  they 
nevertheless  attempted  to  exempt  their  wives  from  the 
indignities  to  which  they  were  themselves  subjected.  The 
king  of  Castile  once  demanded  of  the  Jews  an  explanation 
of  the  splendid  attire,  the  silks  and  embroideries,  worn  by 
their  wives  and  children^.  The  incriminated  Jews  replied  : 
'  It  is  only  our  women  who  are  richly  attired  ;  we,  the  men, 
go  clad  in  sober  black  as  your  Majesty  has  commanded. 
But  we  imagined  that  the  sumptuary  law  applied  only 
to  us  men,  and  that  the  king  gallantly  left  our  women  at 
liberty  to  dress  as  they  wished.' — '  It  is  not  fair.'  answered 
the  king,  'that  you  should  go  like  a  coalman's  donkey, 
while  your  wives  prance  about  harnessed  like  the  mule  of 
the  Pope.'  It  may  w^ell  be  conceived  how  bitterly  Jews 
resented  these  intolerable  interferences  with  one  of  their 
most  sacred  ideals,  viz.  the  dignity  of  their  women.  No 
legal  restrictions  or  sumptuary  laws,  however,  succeeded 
in  making  the  Jewish  husband  inattentive  to  his  wife's 
dress.      An    irresistible    desire   of  the  men   for   finery   in 


^  See  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  iii.  454,  463. 
^  This  may  be  found  in  Ibn  Virga's  mirr  TLlC 


278  Costume  in  Law  and  Fashion. 

female  atttire   continued   a   marked    Jewish   characteristic 
throughout  the  middle  ages. 

In  another  direction,  religious  scrupulosity  determined 
an  important  Jewish  fashion  in  dress.  It  is  not  easy  to 
explain  how  the  medieval  Jews  came  to  intensify  and 
stereotype  the  custom  of  covering  their  heads,  not  only 
in  worship,  but  when  engaged  on  secular  employments. 
Anciently,  the  habit  was  at  most  a  piece  of  occasional 
etiquette,  though  it  afterwards  became  a  strict  and  general 
ritual  ordinance.  The  Oriental  code  of  manners  showed 
respect  by  covering  the  head  and  uncovering  the  feet,  in 
exact  contradiction  to  the  prevailing  custom  of  Europe. 
In  the  early  Rabbinical  literature  there  is  no  trace,  how- 
ever, that  such  a  custom  v/as  crystallized  into  a  legal 
precept^.  Slaves  stood  covered  in  the  presence  of  their 
masters  as  a  token  of  respect  ;  the  man  of  fearless  courage, 
when  he  desired  to  display  his  valour,  stood  bare-headed  ^. 
This  distinction  seems  not  to  have  survived,  for  covering 
the  head  came  to  be  a  sign  of  respectful  greeting.  '  Rabina 
sat  before  R.  Jeremiah  of  Diphte,  and  a  man  came  in 
without  covering  his  head.  Then  said  Rabina :  What  an 
impudent  boor  it  is  ^ ! '  We  see,  however,  the  transition 
in  a  beautiful  Rabbinical  simile,  which  shows  how  the  Jews, 
though  reverent  towards  God,  did  not  stand  before  Him  in 
the  attitude  of  slaves.  'A  human  king,'  says  the  Midrash**, 
'  sends  an  edict  to  a  province,  and  all  the  inhabitants  read 
it,  standing  and  uncovered,  trembling  with  fear  and  anxiety. 
This,  says  God,  I  do  not  ask  of  you.     I  do  not  trouble  you 

^  Cf.  Low,  Gesam.  Schrift.,  ii.  p.  314  seq.  St.  Paul  (i  Cor.  xi)  also  seems 
to  imply  that  covering  the  head  was  not  customary  with  the  Jews  of  his  time. 

"^  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Targum  Onkelos  to  Exod.  xiv.  8  translates 
thus  :  '  the  children  of  Israel  went  forth  with  uncovered  heads  ('bj  Trni).* 

'  Kiddushin,  33  a.  *  Leviticus  Rabba,  ch.  xxvii. 


Covering  the  Head.  279 

to  stand  or  imcover  your  heads  when  you  read  the  Sheina  ^.' 
Thus  the  covering  of  the  head  in  prayer  was  at  once  a 
privilege,  and  a  mark  that  the  respect  the  Jew  had  to  his  God 
was  the  reverence  of  a  free  man.  If  we  add  to  this  the 
Oriental  susceptibility  to  changes  of  temperature,  we  shall 
not  be  surprised  to  find  the  custom  of  always  appearing 
with  covered  head  justified  on  hygienic  grounds.  Rheuma- 
tism will  come  to  the  lazy  wight  who  neglects  to  cover  his 
head,  says  the  Midrash^. 

The  custom  was  a  Babylonian  rather  than  a  Palestinian 
one,  and  its  local  prevalence  among  the  Persians  must  have 
helped  to  convert  what  had  been  a  merely  personal  act  of 
piety  into  a  general  rule  for  all  Jews.  In  the  middle  ages, 
the  custom  is  first  noticeable  in  Spain,  under  the  Moors, 
where  again  Oriental  manners  prevailed.  In  the  twelfth 
century,  covering  the  head  during  prayer  was  apparently 
not  usual  with  the  Jews  of  France.  Ivlaimonides  generalized 
from  the  example  of  R.  Huna,  and  laid  it  down  that  no 
students  of  the  Torah  should  go  (^^r^-headed  ^,  for  to  do  so 
was  a  mark  of  immodesty  and  pride.  But  though  other 
great  authorities  supported  Maimonides,  it  nevertheless  was 
not  customary  in  France  for  even  learned  Jews  to  habitually 
cover  their  heads ^  but  during  the  grace  after  meals  the  person 
who  said  the  blessing  covered  his  head  with  a  cap  or  the 
corner  of  his   coat^.     In  the   thirteenth  century,  boys  in 


^  I.  e.  Deuteronomy  vi.  4  seq.  ^  Levit  R.,  ch.  xix. 

3  Hilchoth  Deoth,  v.  6  ;  More  Nebuchintj  iii.  52.  That  Maimonides  wrote 
under  Moslem  influence  in  Egypt,  is  clear  from  his  adding  that  the  Jew 
should  not  go  barefooted  where  the  wearing  of  shoes  was  a  customary  sign 
of  respect.     Low,  ibid.  p.  321. 

*  The  author  of  y'7\yon,  Laws  on  nbcn,  §  45>  says :  rdi^  □in'?  ^•)  pn^  p'"? 
Dn3  iMj^'  -i-iDD  '\d:n  b2  3n:QD  obiyn  m37o  nxnioT  mr::?  yu  ;rx^n  'icoi. 

5  Ibid.  Hilchoth  mire,  §  12. 


28o  Costume  in  Law  and  Fashion. 

Germany  and  adults  in  France  were  called  to  the  Law  in 
synagogue  bare-headed  ^  How  certain  it  is  that  Jewish 
authorities  did  not  regard  praying  with  covered  heads  as 
an  essential  part  of  the  synagogue  rites,  is  shown  by  the 
attitude  of  the  famous  Solomon  Luria  on  the  question.  He 
says  that  he  knows  no  reason  why  Jews  pray  with  covered 
heads,  but  he  is  especially  disturbed  that  many  Jews  will 
never  go  bare-headed  even  in  the  secular  pursuits,  *  imagin- 
ing that  such  is  the  Jewish  law.  and  not  merely  an  instance  of 
superlative  scrupulosity  ^.'  Somewhat  later  the  idea  became 
fixed  in  the  Jewish  mind  that  to  pray  bare-headed  belongs 
to  those  '  customs  of  the  Gentiles '  ^  which  must  not  be 
imitated. 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  notice  one  or  two  other 
directions  in  which  the  desire  to  avoid  imitating  non- 
Jewish  habits  affected  Jewish  fashions  in  dress,  but  it  may 
be  asserted  in  general  that  there  was  no  distinctive  Jewish 
dress  until  the  law  forced  it  upon  the  Jews.  The  main 
element  of  distinctiveness  which  existed  before  the  thir- 
teenth century  was  produced  by  the  migration  of  Jews  from 
place  to  place.  They  often  carried  with  them  the  fashions 
of  one  country  to  another,  and  continued  to  attire  them- 
selves in  their  new  abodes  as  they  had  done  in  their  old 
ones.  Thus  even  before  the  Jews  lost  their  political  inde- 
pendence,  they  had    begun    to    show   cosmopolitanism    in 

^  See  rrc:o  "3"n  to  Tur,  Orach  Chayim,  282,  note  3.  Cf.  Or  Zarua,  ii.  20, 
No.  43;  Geiger's  Jiid.  Zeitschnft,  iii.  p.  142;  and  LSw,  Lebensalter,  p.  410, 
note  70  :  TNni  ]mpT  nD"i2  3n:o3  v^h^  Vn:i  w"dt  rrbiJD  c;«-i2  nN-ip"?  ]r:pb  -ncMi 
rt^no.  It  may  be  further  noted  that  in  the  Kolbo,  p.  8  b,  the  two  opposed 
views  are  both  stated.  R.  Meir  ben  Baruch  of  Rothenburg  says  :  iidk  I^n 
c.«n  ^^b:2  -jb^:. 

^  niTcn  nrjrrn.  Luria,  Respoiisa,  p.  36  a.  Cf.  Brull,  Trachten  der  Juden, 
p.  II,  note  2. 

^  WMTi  nipn.     Cf.  2m  mc  to  Orach  Chayim,  viii.  3. 


Head-dress.  281 

dress,  and  the  same  phenomenon  may  be  noted  throughout 
Jewish  history. 

A  very  quaint  custom  compelled  Jewish  women  to  cover 
their  hair  on  all  occasions.  In  the  Mishnah  this  custom 
is  already  described  as  a  •'  Jewish  Ordinance  ^,'  and  the 
Jewess  who  went  abroad  with  her  hair  exposed  was  liable 
to  divorce.  Later  on  the  custom  was  explained  by  a 
reference  to  Numbers  v.  18,  "And  the  priest  shall  set  the 
woman  before  the  Lord,  and  let  the  hair  of  the  woman's 
head  go  loose 2.'  This  injunction  was  held  to  imply  that 
in  ordinary  circumstances  the  Hebrew  woman  covered  her 
hair.  What  may  at  first  have  been  a  modest  etiquette 
grew  into  a  scrupulous  rule,  and  by  the  time  of  Tertullian 
Jewish  women  could  be  distinguished  by  the  manner  in 
which  they  hid  their  hair  •\  Indeed,  if  a  Jewish  girl  went 
with  uncovered  head,  it  was  presumptive  evidence  that  she 
was  unmarried  ^.  A  Jew  might  not  pray  in  the  presence 
of  a  woman  whose  hair  was  visible.  In  the  middle  ages 
the  Jewesses  who  scrupulously  cut  or  shaved  off  their  own 
tresses,  sought  an  antidote  to  the  disfigurement  by  donning 
wigs.  Jewish  moralists  protested  against  this  innovation, 
and  pointed  to  the  example  of  the  nuns  as  worthy  of 
imitation  by  the  daughters  of  Israeli  The  preser\-ation 
of  this  old  habit  in  medieval  life  helped  to  confirm  that 
distinctiveness  in  Jewish  dress  which  grew  out  of  the  trans- 

^  Mishnah  Kethiiboth,  x\\.  6 ;  B.  Kamma,  \\n.  6 ;  Tosefta,  Sota  ix.  See  also 
St.  Paul's  remark  in  i  Cor.  xi.  5.    For  real  origin  see  Conybeare,/.  Q.  R.,  viiL 

2  T.  B.  Kethitboth,  72  a;  Si/re,  i.  11. 

3  '  Apud  ludaeos  tarn  solenne  est  feminis  eorum  velamen  capitis,  ut  inde 
noscantur   De  cor.  iv). 

*  Mishnah  Kethithoth,  ii.  10 ;   T.  B.  Bemchoth,  24  a. 

5  Samuel  J.  Katzenellenbogen,  nrii,  ed.  Venice,  8  a.  Quoted  in  Brull's 
Jahrhiicher  fiir  jiidische  Geschichte  und  Litteraiur  (\-iii.  51),  from  which  this 
paragraph  is  mainly  derived. 


232  Costume  ill  Law  and  Fashion. 

ference  of  fashions  from  lands  in  which  they  were  indigenous 
to  other  lands  in  which  they  were  foreign.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Jews  of  Metz  passed 
what  may  be  termed  a  resolution  of  '  transference,'  so 
interesting  from  many  points  of  view,  that  I  cite  it  in  full : — 

Art.  iii.  All  women  must  wear  veils  when  they  go  to  synagogue.  Young 
brides,  aged  twelve,  thirteen,  or  fourteen  years,  are  excused  from  this  law 
during  the  first  year  of  their  marriage ;  those  who  wed  when  fifteen  years 
old,  are  free  from  wearing  a  veil  for  three  months.  At  the  service  on  Saturday 
evening,  on  the  evening  when  the  festivals  conclude,  on  week-nights  and  on 
Purim  eve,  all  women  are  free  to  discard  the  veil.  The  same  law  applies  to 
mantles. 

Besides,  however,  this  transference  of  fashion,  the  natural 
tendency  of  Judaism  towards  conservatism  in  custom  dis- 
played itself  in  retaining  the  original  costumes  of  various 
nations  after  these  had  become  obsolete.  Some  such 
explanation  as  this  accounts  for  the  retention  among  the 
Russian  Jews  of  the  kaftan,  once  a  national  Polish  costume, 
now,  however,  restricted  to  Jewish  use.  In  England  the 
three-cornered  hat  was  retained  in  synagogue  long  after 
it  had  ceased  to  be  a  general  fashion.  '  Change  not  the 
customs  of  your  fathers,'  said  many  a  Jewish  moralist,  with 
special  application  to  costume.  '  'Tis  measure  for  measure,' 
cried  Solomon  Alami  in  1415,  in  bitter  resentment  of  the 
Jewish  Badge.  '  Since  we  assumed  the  garb  of  non-Jews, 
the  latter  have  forced  on  us  a  garb  which  marks  us  out  for 
scorn.'  But  the  very  words  of  this  complaint  prove  that 
there  was  no  narrow  bigotry  against  adopting  the  national 
costumes  of  the  various  countries  in  which  Jews  dwelt.  On 
the  contrary,  if  the  Jew  remained  old-fashioned  in  dress  at 
the  one  end  of  the  scale,  he  became  the  leader  of  new 
vogues  at  the  other  end.  Moreover,  the  more  vigorous 
traces  of  the   agitation  against  wearing  non- Jewish  attire 


Was  there  a  Jewish  Costume  ?  283 

belong  to  the  sixteenth  century,  an  age  marked  at  once  by 
the  progress  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  the  initia- 
tions of  the  ghettos.  A  cleft  between  Jewish  and  Gentile 
life  was  then  produced,  which  went  far  deeper  than  that 
caused  by  the  enforced  wearing  of  a  Jew's  badge  three 
centuries  earlier. 

The  one  thing  that  is  clear  is  that  the  growth  of  a 
specifically  Jewish  costume  was  the  effect  of  external,  and 
not  of  internal  causes.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out 
that  on  journeys  Jews  dressed  as  Christian  priests  ;  this 
fact  must  not  be  pressed,  however.  But  the  underlying 
principle  with  medieval  Rabbis  was  not  that  Jews  must 
dress  differently  to  others,  but  that  they  were  forbidden  to 
use  any  article  of  attire  which  the  Christian  or  Moham- 
medan wore  as  a  token  of  his  faith.  A  similar  remark 
applies  to  dressing  the  hair.  Thus  while  the  Jew  would 
not  wear  the  ^lohammedan  '  heaven-lock.'  he  was  by  no 
means  cordially  devoted  to  the  love-lock  pendant  from  his 
ears,  which  became  in  the  middle  ages  a  feature  of  the 
Jewish  toilet.  In  Northern  Africa  the  Jews  satisfied  them- 
selves by  leaving  a  single  hair  to  represent  the  'corner^.' 
Shaving  was  common  in  Majorca  in  the  fifteenth  centur>^-, 
and  a  similar  state  of  things  existed  in  Leghorn  later  on, 
where  a  tekana  had  to  be  introduced  to  enforce  the  use  of 
scissors  or  a  pilatory  in  preference  to  a  razors  It  appears 
that  the  Jews  resident  in  ^loslem  lands  allowed  their  beards 
to  grow  without  even  trimxming  them,  while  in  Christian 
countries,   especially   in    Italy,   trimming    the    beard   was 

^  Responsa  Tashhats,  ii.  90.  Elsewhere  (iii.  93.  Duran  describes  this 
custom  of  shaving  the  '  corners '  as  n:nr;n  ro^,  though  in  Algiers  itself  he 
succeeded  in  enforcing  the  custom  of  leaving  the  m«E  untouched. 

*  Ibid.  iii.  227. 

-  Chajim  Azulai,  7i*c  Z">rT  -\iz  r"*r.  §  6. 


284  Costume  in  Law  and  Fashion. 

customary'.  Parchon,  the  famous  Jewish  grammarian 
who  wrote  in  Southern  Italy  in  1160,  condemned  the  Jews 
of  Christian  lands  who  refrained  from  cutting  the  hair  of 
their  head^.  Here,  again,  it  is  clear  that  the  Jews  were 
endeavouring  to  assimilate  their  customs  to  local  fashion, 
for,  as  hardly  needs  to  be  said,  the  retention  of  the  beard 
was  common  to  all  Oriental  peoples,  and  the  Jews  were  most 
rigorous  against  shaving  in  the  very  countries  where  the 
removal  of  the  beard  was  antipathetic  to  the  sentiment 
generally  prevailing.  In  Italy,  Jewish  parents  cut  their 
boys'  hair  in  such  a  way  that  they  left  a  curl  on  the  top, 
after  the  common  wont.  They  did  this  that  their  children 
might  not  be  noticeable  among  Christian  boys^.  Jews  did 
not  display  the  small  fringed  garment  which  they  wore  in 
fulfilment  of  Deuteronomy.  They  refrained  from  walking 
through  the  streets  without  shoes  on  fast-days  from  a  similar 
disinclination  to  make  themselves  conspicuously  different  to 
their  neighbours*. 

Naturally,  Jews  were  divided  as  to  how  far  this  com- 
placency might  go.  In  Spain,  where  the  relations  between 
Jews  and  Christians  were  very  cordial,  Jewish  savants 
w^ore  the  cope,  which  was  really  an  ecclesiastical  vestment. 
In  15^16  Eliah  Mizrachi,  w^hose  Rabbinical  authority 
extended  over  the  Jews  of  Constantinople,  forbade  Jewish 
savants  and  their  pupils  to  wear  such  a  cope  thrown  loosely 
over  their  shoulders,  because  he  considered  the   garment 

^  Samson  Marpurgo  has  a  most  interesting  discussion  of  the  whole  subject 
in  his  npi2  Trot.",  p.  102  a.  He  mentions  that  in  Salonica  Italian  travellers 
were  sometimes  forbidden  by  the  Rabbis  to  cut  their  beards,  though  at 
other  times  the  Jewish  visitors  in  Constantinople,  Adrianople,  Smyrna,  and 
Salonica  were  allowed  to  follow  their  own  wishes  in  the  matter. 

^  Parchon's  Machbereth,  Art.  nba ;  Bacher,  in  Stade's  Zeitschrift,  x.  143. 

-  J.  Ayas,  r^^^rv  'la  n"i\r,  95.  *  See  ref.  note  i  above. 


Islamic  Restrictions.  285 

to  belong  to  the  category  of  a  specifically  Christian 
costume.  Many  of  these  savants,  who  had  migrated  to 
Turkey  from  Spain  after  the  expulsion  in  1492,  protested 
against  this  interference,  on  the  pretext  that  as  they  had 
always  worn  the  cope  in  Spain,  they  had  an  inalienable 
right  to  continue  their  old  practice.  Messer  David  Leon  ^ 
was  invited  to  give  an  opinion,  and  supported  Mizrachi's 
view.  But,  apart  from  the  fact  that  Mizrachi's  prohibition 
referred  specially  to  the  Sabbath,  his  decision  was  not 
unanimously  shared,  and  other  authorities  decided  in  favour 
of  the  cope  ^.  The  conflict  which  arose  between  these  two 
sentiments — between  a  willingness  to  dress  as  non-Jews  did 
and  a  natural  repulsion  against  wearing  the  specific  symbols 
of  other  religions — was  solved  with  something  very  like  a 
liberal  use  of  common-sense.  It  must  not  be  imagined  that 
the  difficulty  only  arose  where  Jews  lived  in  a  Christian 
society.  Green  veils  were  avoided  by  the  Jews  of  Moslem 
countries,  for  these  were  the  distinctive  garb  of  the  descendants 
of  the  Prophet.  Prohibition  came  to  the  aid  of  common- 
sense,  for  while  Christian  rulers  forbade  Jews  to  wear  the 
priestly  cappae^  the  Oriental  governments  denied  to  Jews 
the  right  to  wear  green  veils.  But  this  point  will  recur  later 
on.  It  remains  to  point  out  that  the  best  Jewish  authorities 
maintained  that  '  all  colours  not  exclusively  Mohammedan 
may  be  worn  by  Jews^.' 

The  religious  scruples  entertained  by  Jews  against  the 
free  adoption  of  national  costumes  were  thus  mild  in  in- 
tensity and  diminutive  in  extent.  The  Jews  of  the  middle 
ages  were  in  point  of  fact  engaged  in  a  constant  crusade 

^  See  S.  Schechter  in  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  xxiv.  p.  130. 

^  Cf.  e.  g.  Dbiy  n3in3  n""i\D,  §  74 ;  besides  Joseph  Colon,  n"ittj,  §  88. 

3  Moses  Ha-Kohen,  cbi2?  roirrD  n"it:,  §  75. 


286  Costume  in  Law  and  Fashion. 

against  the  attempts — at  first  abortive,  and  in  the  thirteenth 
century  all  too  successful — to  force  upon  them  a  distinction 
in  dress  which  they  detested.  The  story  of  this  degrada- 
tion will  soon  be  told.  Some  further  evidence  must  first 
be  adduced  that,  when  left  untrammelled  by  external  law, 
the  Jews  dressed  as  their  neighbours  of  other  faiths.  The 
Hebrew  illuminated  MSS.  of  the  middle  ages  present 
a  large  number  of  Jewish  costumes  which,  amid  all  their 
vagaries  and  anachronisms,  in  the  main  are  identical  with 
the  national  fashions  of  the  country  and  time  in  which 
the  MSS.  were  written  ^  Further,  when  Pope  Innocent  III 
introduced  the  Jewish  badge  in  12 15,  he  distinctly  asserted 
that  theretofore  the  Jews  had  dressed  like  the  rest  of  the 

^  Of  the  illuminated  Hebrew  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  the  following 
among  others  may  be  particularly  noted  :  Add.  14,761,  26,957,  27.210  ;  Or. 
1404,  2737,  and  2884.  The  third  named  is  Spanish  (early  fourteenth 
century).  All  the  men  have  their  hair  loose,  and  wear  simple  tunics  of 
bright  colours.  These  are  sometimes  prettily  embroidered,  and  come  to 
a  point  in  front.  The  women  wear  an  outer  mantle  which  has  no  sleeves, 
but  passes  over  the  head,  leaving  the  breast  bare.  The  female  hat  is  large, 
placed  somewhat  on  one  side  ;  and  while  the  back  of  the  hat  is  bent  up 
and  elevated,  the  front  is  flat.  This  hat  was  common  at  the  time  in  France 
and  Southern  Europe.  The  men  have  a  little  circle  shaved  on  the  chin  in  the 
centre  of  the  beard.  In  Add.  27,210  (also  of  the  fourteenth  century)  a  Greek 
style  predominates,  and  the  MS.  probably  emanates  from  Corfu.  The  women 
wear  a  long  flowing  Greek  dress,  rather  tight-fitting,  without  waist,  and 
fastening  very  high,  MS.  Add.  14,761  is  French  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
Men  wear  a  hood,  long  overcoat  without  sleeves  and  a  cape.  The  musicians 
wear  a  parti-coloured  dress.  Earlier  than  the  foregoing  is  Add.  26,95-7 
(Roman  rite,  dated  a.d.  1269).  The  women,  with  tight-fitting,  low-necked 
dresses,  and  their  close-drawn,  jewelled  hair  fastened  in  nets  and  caps,  are 
obviously  Italian  types  ;  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  clothing  the  men,  the 
artist  mingles  every  age  and  every  nation.  In  Or.  2884  (fourteenth  century) 
again  the  predominating  costumes  are  French  ;  in  2737  they  are  Italian.  It 
is  worth  noting  that  in  these  MSS.  of  the  Passover  Hagada,  the  wicked  son 
is  almost  invariably  depicted  as  a  soldier  in  military  dress.  Could  anything 
speak  more  feelingly  regarding  the  relation  in  which  the  Jews  of  these  cen- 
turies alone  came  to  close  quarters  with  soldiers  ? 


Eastern  Fashions.  287 

population,  with  the  result  that  intermarriages  between 
Jews  and  Christians  had  often  occurred  ^  The  strenuous 
resistance  offered  by  the  Jews  of  Spain,  Italy,  and  Southern 
France  to  this  attack  on  their  liberty  shows  how  keenly  the 
Jews  prized  the  right  to  follow  the  ordinary  national  tastes 
and  fashions  in  dress.  It  is  obvious  that  if  there  had  been 
such  a  thing  as  a  '  Jewish  costume,'  such  a  costume  would 
have  been  common  to  the  Jews  of  several  countries.  Of 
such  an  identity  there  is  no  direct  evidence,  and  all  the 
indirect  evidence  is  entirely  against  it.  In  one  part  of 
the  East,  for  instance,  the  Jews  affected  a  military  costume  2. 
The  head  of  the  Jewish  academy  in  Bagdad  was  '  clothed 
in  golden  and  coloured  garments  like  the  king :  his  palace 
also  is  hung  with  costly  tapestry  like  that  of  the  king^.' 
The  twelfth-century  Jewish  traveller,  who  gives  us  this 
information,  was  himself  dressed  differently  to  the  ordinary 
Eastern  Jews  whom  he  visited"^.  In  Europe  the  Jews,  as 
was  pointed  out  above,  refrained  from  exhibiting  the  fringes 
which  the  Mosaic  law  prescribed  on  four-cornered  garments  ^ 
Petachia  was  struck  by  the  fact  that  the  Persian  Jews  wore 
large  and  full  outside  wraps  with  fringes^ — naturally  this 
would  be  in  keeping  with  the  flowing  robes  of  Orientals. 
Petachia  noted  that  the  Jews  of  Babylon  prayed  in  syna- 
gogue bare-footed  ^. 

^  Graetz,  Hist,  of  Jews  (E.  T.),  III.  ch.  xv.  ^  Muller,  Mafteach,  p.  52. 

^  Travels  of  R.  Petachia  (ed.  Benisch),  p.  43,  Cf.  Benjamin  of  Tudela  ;^ed. 
Asher),  i.  p.  loi.  *  Petachia^  p.  11. 

*  In  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  with  some  Jews  a  mark  of  piety  to 
exhibit  one  of  these  fringes  outside  the  dress.  (See  yoiN  rjcv,  §  232.)  But 
this  was  at  a  time  when  Jews  were  living  in  ghettos. 

*  Petachia^  p.  15. 

^  Page  45.  As  a  further  fact,  I  should  mention  that  in  Eastern  lands  the 
Jews  often  sit  on  the  ground  cross-legged  at  prayer.  In  the  East  generally 
there  are  no  seats  in  the  synagogues. 


288  Costume  in  Law  and  Fashion. 

Such  differences  between  the  Jews  of  Asia  and  of  Europe 
preckide  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  pronounced  Jewish 
type  of  dress.  The  Jewish  Rabbis  and  other  synagogue 
officers  wore  no  specific  uniform  ^,  but  all  Jews  endeavoured 
to  reserve  a  special  suit  for  use  in  synagogue  and  on 
Sabbath.  It  must  be  remembered  that  many  medieval 
Christians  also  had  a  special  form  of  dress  for  use  in  church, 
indeed  the  clerical  vestments  were  at  first  worn  by  all 
church-goers.  Jews  did  not  permit  themselves  to  go  to 
synagogue  with  an  over-all  thrown  over  their  household 
dress,  but  put  on  a  closely-fitting  tunic  under  the  mantle 
which  they  mostly  wore  as  well  2.  The  outer  mantle 
hence  had  a  tendency  to  become  sleeveless,  and  it  seems 
to  have  been  a  feature  of  the  Jewish  sarbel  or  outermost 
garment  that  there  w^as  only  one  opening  in  it,  viz.  on 
the  right-hand  side  •'.  Even  if  he  prayed  at  home  and 
in  private,  the  medieval  Jew  put  on  a  better  cap  than 
the  one  habitually  worn  in  the  house  in  Germany^.  The 
Jews  declared  for  decency,  simplicity,  and  cleanliness  as 
well  as  for  alteration  in  the  garments  worn  in  prayer  and  in 
study.  In  the  thirteenth  century  Jewish  students  kept  an 
entirely  separate  dress  for  use  at  their  studies  ^.  Even  the 
poor  made  some  changes  in  their  attire  for  synagogue 
and  Sabbath  use.  This  was  a  Talmudical  prescript  also. 
R.  Chanina  says  that  *  every  one  must  have  two  suits,  the 

1  The  '  gerifFelte  Mantel '  worn  by  some  aged  Rabbis  and  other  aged 
people  (Gudemann,  iii.  137)  was  only  exceptionally  used  (ibid.  p.  275). 

*  This  seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  tekanoth  published  by  Gudemann,  i. 
p.  261. 

'  Cf.  Gudemann,  i.  pp.  137,  259.  The  Sabbath  sarbel  was  closed  on  the 
right  (yoiw  P]DV,  §  592)  to  restrain  the  right  hand  from  easily  breaking  the 
Sabbatical  laws. 

*  ^i^  TjCv,  3.  5  See  the  minn  ^in  (p.  348  below),  B.  §  3. 


Amulets.  289 

one  for  week-days,  the  other  for  sabbaths/  Once  R.  Simlai 
was  lecturing  on  this  subject,  when  some  one  in  his  audience 
interrupted  :  '  Rabbi,  alas  !  we  are  poor,  and  have  no  second 
suits.'  *  Then,'  rejoined  the  Rabbi,  '  arrange  your  one  suit 
differently  ^'  Similarly,  the  medieval  German  Jews  wore 
thick,  heavy  sandals  over  their  feet,  and  on  entering  the 
synagogue  they  removed  these  so  as  to  avoid  soiling  the 
floor  of  the  synagogue  2.  Possibly  they  carried  another 
pair  of  shoes  with  them,  which  they  substituted  for  the 
others,  or  wore  the  other  pair  under  the  holzschtihe^  as  they 
were  named  ^. 

On  the  subject  of  shoes  more  will  be  said  anon,  but 
we  will  pass  to  some  other  indications  that  the  Jews 
favoured  no  particular  fashions  of  their  own  in  dress.  In 
the  East,  Jewesses  dyed  their  eyebrows  and  hands  after 
the  ordinary  Oriental  manner*,  but  they  did  not  carry 
the  custom  with  them  to  Europe.  In  Europe,  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  Jewish  men  powdered  their  hair^ — 
a  thoroughly  European  habit,  which  was  quite  unknown 
to  the  Jews  of  the  East. 

Amulets,  again,  were  and  are  a  common  ornament  among 

^  J.  Peak,  viii.  7  ;  B.  Sabbath,  113  a. 

2  Jews  were  always  very  punctilious  about  wearing  decent  shoes.  '  It  is 
a  disgrace  for  a  student  to  walk  in  the  streets  with  soiled  boots  '  {T.  B. 
Sabbath,  114  a).  Further,  among  the  classes  estranged  from  heaven  are 
'the  man  who  has  no  wife  and  the  man  who  wears  no  shoes'  (ibid.  113  b). 
The  last  remark  was  probably  directed  against  the  Essenes.  '  A  man  shall 
sell  the  beams  of  his  roof  to  get  money  for  buying  shoes  '  (ibid.  129  a).  It 
may  easily  be  conceived  hov^r  deeply  aggrieved  the  Jews  were  in  those 
Moslem  lands  in  which  they  were  forced  to  walk  bare-footed  whenever  they 
quitted  the  mellah  or  Jewish  quarter. 

*  Gudemann,  iii.  267.     Cf.  p.  18  above. 

*  Responsa  of  Geonim  ;  Muller,  Mafteach,  p.  22,  where  the  dyeing  was  only 
forbidden  on  the  Sabbath. 

*  Aryeh  b.  Chayim,  nnN  '3Q  n'^tt.",  6. 

U 


290  Costume  in  Law  and  Fashion. 

the  Jews  of  the  Orient,  where  such  trinkets  were  always 
popular  with  the  general  population^.  In  Europe,  how- 
ever, amulets,  though  not  altogether  unknown^,  were  so 
antipathetic  to  Jewish  sentiment  that  in  the  eighteenth 
century  a  serious  conflict  arose  out  of  the  attempt  to 
acclimatize  a  superstitious  species  of  amulets  and  talismans 
in  the  European  Jewries  ^.  Amulets,  in  the  form  of  in- 
scriptions on  the  walls  and  doors  for  the  protection  of 
mothers  and  their  new-born  babes,  were  universal  in  the 
middle  ages,  and  the  inroad  of  mysticism  into  Jewish 
thought  was  responsible  for  strengthening  if  not  creating 
a  similar  superstition  among  the  Jews  ^.  On  the  other 
hand,  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra,  who  boldly  maintained  a 
sceptical  attitude  towards  demons  and  spirits  in  the  twelfth 
century,  was  one  of  the  first  medieval  theologians  of  church 
or  synagogue  to  denounce  the  popular  belief  in  the  ubiquity 
of  minor  representatives  of  the  supernatural. 

*  Muller,  Maf teach,  p.  49. 

^  Cf.  e.  g.  Solomon  Luria,  Responsa,  47. 
^  Graetz,  History  (E.  T.),  V.  ch.  vii. 

*  R.  Judah  Chassid,  who,  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  and  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  was  responsible  not  only  for  a  splendid  outburst  of 
spirituality,  but  also  for  a  deplorable  accretion  of  these  superstitions,  was  in 
the  latter  direction  entirely  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  contemporary  Judaism. 
See  S.  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  p.  350  seq.,  and  the  references  there 
given.     Cf.  LOw,  Lebensalter,  p.  77. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 


THE   JEWISH    BADGE. 


The  close  alliance  between  Jewish  and  general  costume 
in  the  middle  ages  is  perhaps  seen  most  clearly  in  the 
exaggerations  of  fashion  which  reached  their  climax  in 
Italy  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century.  It  will 
be  unnecessary  to  enter  into  much  detail  here  with  regard 
to  the  sumptuary  laws  on  the  subject  of  extravagance  in 
dress,  for  incidental  allusions  have  been  already  made  to 
several  such  attempts  to  check  the  ruinous  excess  which 
the  Italian  States  vainly  sought  to  suppress  with  a  strong 
hand.  Jewish  moralists  and  preachers  shouted  themselves 
hoarse  in  exhortations  towards  greater  moderation  ^  '  Jews 
should  don  humble  raiment  and  not  flaunt  coloured  robes/ 
was  already  a  Jewish  maxim  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
*  Even  on  Sabbaths,  when  they  may  dress  better,  they  should 
only  wear  simple  dresses  of  camelot.'  Linen  might  be  worn 
close  to  the  skin  only  on  Sabbaths,  on  all  other  days  a 
thick  woollen  garment  was  put  undermost.  This  form  of 
self-denial,  when  it  took  a  moral  form,  did  somewhat  hamper 
the  Jews  from  adopting  national  costumes,  but  it  cannot  be 
attributed   to    their    sensitiveness    as   a    fault   that   Jewish 

^  Cf.  Gudemann,  ii.  p.  215,  and  the  quotations  in  the  same  volume, 
P-  330. 

U   2 


892  77?^  Jewish  Badge. 

authorities  denounced  the  prevalent  fashion  of  young  Italian 
men  wearing  short  tunics  which  left  the  legs  bare.  Jewish 
preachers  applied  the  scriptural  verse  : — 

Let  not  the  foot  of  pride  come  against  me, 

And  let  not  the  hand  of  the  wicked  drive  me  away, 

to  the  feet  of  those  who  wore  shoes  which  left  the  upper 
part  of  the  foot  uncovered  ^  But — and  this  is  the  interest- 
ing point — all  the  efforts  of  Jewish  moralists  were  powerless 
against  the  contagion  of  national  example.  It  is  true  that 
Jewish  sumptuary  laws  against  extravagance  in  dress  are 
old  and  widespread.  In  the  Talmudical  code,  litigants  in 
civil  cases  were  expected  to  dress  alike  so  as  not  to  influ- 
ence the  judges  by  their  appearance^.  In  criminal  cases 
the  accused  dressed  in  black,  and  let  his  beard  grow  wild 
in  token  of  anxiety.  Similarly,  an  excommunicated  Jew 
wore  black  for  thirty  days^.  White,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  the  colour  of  joy  *.     The  wearing  of  gold  embroidery 


^  Ps.  xxxvi.  II.  The  second  part  of  the  verse  was  held  by  many  to  forbid 
the  wearing  of  gloves  during  prayer.  The  famous  Jewish  preacher,  known 
as  the  '  Dubno  Maggid/  to  whom  all  good  Jewish  clerical  stories  are  freely 
attributed,  preaching  on  Ps.  xxiv,  on  the  verses,  'Who  shall  ascend  unto  the 
hill  of  the  Lord  ?  ...  He  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart,'  wittily 
remarked  that  this  does  not  offer  salvation  as  the  reward  of  wearing  gloves 
on  one's  hand  or  displaying  a  clean  shirt  over  one's  heart.  I  greatly  regret 
that  space  will  not  permit  me  to  deal  at  greater  length  with  the  Jewish 
Maggidim.  Against  appearing  in  public  with  unlaced  shoes,  see  Derech 
Eretz  Rabba,  :  min  "^cyQ  m  nn  yinb  N:^n  vbvi'O  Tnn. 

^  T.  J.  Synhedrin,  iii.  9.  A  similar  instance  of  equality  in  dress  was 
quoted  p.  172  above. 

3  Cf.  Josephus,  Antiq.,  XIV.  ix.  4. 

*  T.  B.  Sabbath,  114  a;  T.  J.  Rosh  Hashana,  i.  3.  On  the  New  Year  and 
the  Day  of  Atonement  Jews  wore  white,  originally  as  a  sign  of  joy,  but 
later  on  the  custom  came  to  be  associated  with  the  white  shrouds  worn  by 
the  dead.  Yet  in  olden  times  some  Jews  wore  coloured  shrouds  (cf.  first 
reference ,. 


Luxury  in  Dress.  293 

was  regarded  as  a  token  of  pride  ^  Throughout  the  middle 
ages,  this  objection  to  gold  trimmings  continued,  and  plain, 
modest  black  was  the  universal  colour  of  the  Jews,  so  far 
as  they  had  a  favourite  colour  at  alP.  The  Jews  of  all 
countries  wore  black ;  in  Spain,  Germany,  and  Italy  the 
phenomenon  was  equally  marked  ^.  Black  being  the  colour 
of  grief,  the  Jews — '  mourners  of  Zion/  as  they  were  called 
— were  no  doubt  strengthened  in  their  predilection  for  black 
on  the  score  of  modesty,  by  its  applicability  to  their  perse- 
cuted state  *.  But,  here  again,  it  is  obvious  that  the  use 
of  black  was  not  an  anti-national  choice,  for  in  the  Orient, 
where  black  is  antagonistic  to  the  national  sentiment,  the 
Jews  avoided  dark  colours  as  scrupulously  as  they  strove 
to  wear  them  in  Europe  ^.  Unfortunately,  as  we  shall  see, 
Jews  were  forced  by  many  Mohammedan  rulers  to  wear 
black  even  against  their  inclination. 

Luxury  in  dress,  to  return  to  my  point,  was  not  restricted 
to  the  Jews  of  any  one  land.  Often  we  find  Jewish  osten- 
tation put  forward  as  a  ground  for  repression  by  the  State. 
The  English  chroniclers,  in  explanation  of  the  frequent  riots 
against  the  Jews,  were  much  struck  by  the  display  which 
the   Jews   made   of  their   wealth^.     Jews   themselves   at- 

^   T.  J.  Yoma,  vii.  3. 

^  ITD'H  "ip,  §  82  ;  Berliner,  Inn.  Leben,  pp.  36,  37. 

2  Cf,  the  strong  insistence  on  the  exclusive  use  of  black  in  the  tekanoth 
published  in  Mantua  in  1644. 

*  In  the  mourning  for  Jerusalem,  Jews  were  allowed  by  the  Talmud  to 
wear  black  shoes  {Baba  Kamma,  59  b),  though  these  were  usually  avoided  as 
a  distinctively  Roman  custom.  (Jews,  however,  borrowed  from  the  Romans 
the  superstition  that  it  was  unlucky  to  put  on  the  left  boot  first.)  In  the 
middle  ages  there  was  a  sect  of  Jews  who  continued  to  wear  black  as 
a  deliberate  sign  of  mourning.    Cf.  Benjamin  of  Tudela  (ed.  Asher),  i.  p.  113. 

5  Cf.  the  letter  of  Isaac  Zarfati  to  the  Jews  of  Germany,  cited  Berliner, 
op.  cit,  p.  37. 

«  J.  Jacobs,  Angevin  England,  pp.  339,  385- 


294  The  Jewish  Badge. 

tempted  to  curb  their  own  ostentation  from  motives  of 
prudence  as  well  as  of  modesty.  The  two  arguments  are 
frequently  combined.  '  Luxury  in  dress  must  be  avoided, 
for  it  rouses  envy  against  us  and  is  a  mark  of  pride  ^.'  This 
was  written  in  Germany,  and  similar  remarks  occur  in 
many  Jewish  books  ^. 

But,  strange  to  tell,  the  Jews  excited  no  such  envy  in 
Italy,  the  home  and  fount  of  extravagance  in  the  middle 
ages.  Here  the  Jews  imitated  the  national  failing  m. 
a  way  which  indicates  how  little  the  Jews  really  favoured 
a  voluntary  distinctiveness  in  their  attire.  If  we  can 
believe  the  Italian  Jewish  satirists  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
Italian  Jews  and  Jewesses  did  not  fall  in  the  least  behind 
their  Christian  brothers  and  sisters  of  Florence  and  the 
other  republics.  Sumptuary  laws  against  extravagance  were 
frequently  enacted  by  the  Italian  governments,  and  the 
Jewish  authorities  were  equally  vigorous  in  attempting  to 
restrain  the  ever-growing  vitiation  of  taste.  Severe  re- 
pressive regulations  were  made  over  and  over  again,  and, 
in  the  utmost  detail,  male  and  female  alike  were  ad- 
monished what  they  might  wear  and  what  they  must 
discard.  In  some  cases  these  regulations  were  published 
on  large  posters  and  affixed  to  the  walls  of  the  synagogue  ^. 
These  attempted  to  define  the  colour  and  style  of  male  and 


^  R.  Chanoch  Henoch's  omDn  n'urxi  (seventeenth  century).  Cf.  Gude- 
mann,  Quelleitschriften,  p.  300. 

2  Cf.  e.g.  the  Italian  Jewish  tekanoth  quoted  in  the  Graetz-Jubelschrift, 
p.  58.  These  tekanoth  date  from  the  year  1416.  A  similarly  powerful 
attack  on  luxury  in  dress  emanates  from  Portugal  in  14 15.  See  Alami's 
-1CI0  m;s,  ed.  Jellinek,  p.  27. 

3  It  is  obvious  that  this  is  the  case  with  a  series  of  stringent  laws  printed 
in  Mantua  in  1644.  This  is  printed  on  one  side  only.  A  copy  of  this  poster 
is  in  the  library  of  the  British  Museum. 


Sumptuary  Laws.  295 

female  attire ;  the  breadth  of  the  veils ;  the  number  of 
jewels,  '  precious  or  imitation,'  that  might  be  displayed ; 
how  necklets  must  be  worn.  '  Necklets  or  chains  may  be 
wound  twice  round  the  neck  and  not  more,  and  the 
remainder  must  be  well  tucked  inside  the  dress  so  as  to 
be  invisible.  .  .  .  Earrings  may  be  worn  with  pearls,  but 
not  with  precious  gems.  .  .  .  No  woman  may  wear  more 
than  three  rings,  the  wedding  ring  included.  .  .  .  Brides,  in 
their  homes,  may  dress  as  they  please  ^.'  The  penalty  for 
infringem.ent  in  this  instance  was :  a  male  offender  was 
ineligible  to  be  '  called  to  the  Law,'  a  female  offender  was 
to  be  denounced  by  name  in  all  synagogues,  once  a  month, 
until  she  yielded  to  the  communal  regulation  and  promised 
not  to  offend  again.  That  such  laws  were  ineffectual  need 
hardly  be  said.  The  women  obeyed  them  in  letter  but  not 
in  spirit,  and  the  greater  the  details  into  which  the  tekanoth 
entered,  the  easier  it  became  to  evade  them  by  inventing 
slight  variations  in  fashion^.  The  sumptuary  laws  of  all 
lands  and  peoples  in  all  ages  have  invariably  failed  in  their 
well-meant  but  unattainable  objects. 

So  far,  then,  as  the  Jews  were  allowed  a  free  choice, 
their  costumes  did  not  much  differ  from  those  of  ordinary 
men  and  women.  But  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century  there  dawned  on  the  Jews  of  Europe  a  new  era, 
dark  with  degradation  and  misery.     The  Church  resolved 

1  It  is  very  interesting  to  notice  that  in  this  code  (Mantua,  1644'  a  special 
exception  is  made  in  favour  of  the  Jewish  physician,  Benjamin  Portaleone, 
who  was  allowed  to  dress  as  he  hked  so  long  as  he  avoided  gold  and  silver 
jewellery.  The  exception  is,  however,  quite  in  keeping  with  Jewish  ideas. 
The  Kolbo,  e.g.  exempts  Jews  in  official  positions  from  the  duty  of  not 
wearing  garments  considered  to  be  emblems  of  non-Jewish  religions.  This 
relaxation  was  granted  to  save  the  officials  from  ridicule  and  degradation. 

^  That  this  was  a  common  feminine  device  may  be  seen  from  the  remark  in 
the  Metz  regulations    Annuaire  des  Etudes  Jidves,  i.  p.  98). 


296  The  Jewish  Badge. 

in  1 2 15  that  thenceforward  Jews  and  Mohammedans  must 
be  marked  off  from  their  fellows  by  a  badge  prominently 
fastened  to  their  outermost  garment.  The  exact  motive 
for  inflicting  this  distressful  stigma  cannot  be  discovered, 
but,  as  the  ostensible  reason,  Innocent  III  advanced  the 
argument  that  the  measure  was  imperative  if  intermarriage 
or  concubinage  was  to  be  prevented  between  Christians 
and  non-believers^.  This  desire  to  inhibit  concubinage  and 
perhaps  intermarriage  is  repeated  in  many  subsequent  bulls, 
and  may  be  regarded  as  the  official  justification  of  the  badge 
which  Jews  were  doomed  to  wear  for  several  pitiful  centuries. 
An  attempt  was  indeed  made  to  show  that  Moses  had 
already  commanded  the  Jews  to  wear  a  distinctive  mark  on 
their  garments,  but  this  application  of  the  law  of  the  fringes  ^ 
to  the  law  of  the  badge  was  an  insult  added  to  injury. 

Clear  and  emphatic  in  its  demand  that  the  Jews  must  wear 
badges,  the  Lateran  Council  nevertheless  avoided  details. 
It  left  the  definition  of  the  size,  colour,  and  character  of  the 
degrading  mark  to  the  taste  of  local  governors  and  states. 
Rarely,  the  Jews  themselves  were  left  to  their  own  devices, 
and  were  allowed  to  choose  their  own  badges  ^.     The  shape 


*  '  Contingit  interdum  quod  per  errorem  Christiani  ludaeorum  seu  Sara- 
cenorum  et  ludaei  seu  Saraceni  Christianorum  mulieribus  commisceantur. 
Ne  igitur  tarn  damnatae  commixtionis  excessus  per  velamentum  erroris 
huiusmodi  excusationis  ulterius  possint  habere  difFugium,  statuimus  ut  tales 
utriusque  sexus  in  omni  Christianorum  provincia  et  omni  tempore  qualitate 
habitus  publici  ab  aliis  populis  distinguantur*  (Labbe,  Sacrosancfa  concilia  ad 
regiam  editionem  exacta,  xiii.  col.  1003  and  1006).  Cf.  the  bull  of  Pope 
Alexander  IV,  in  1257  j  see  Ulysse  Robert's  Les  Signes  d'Infamie  au  Moyen 
Age  ed.  1891),  p.  8.  This  last-named  book  is  an  admirable  collection  of 
facts  on  the  whole  subject  of  badges  and  other  medieval  'signs  of  infamy.' 

^  Numbers  xv.  38. 

^  Scheid,  Joselmann  de  Rosheim  (in  the  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  xiii. 
67  &  70).     Cf.  p.  299  below. 


Crescent  and  Full  Moon. 


297 


was  by  no  means  uniform,  but  the  circular  mark  was 
undoubtedly  the  most  usual.  It  is  unnecessary  to  seek  any 
deep  significance  in  the  choice  of  the  circular  form  of 
badge.  Some  have  seen  in  it  a  representation  of  a  coi7t, 
in  allusion  to  the  financial  pursuits  of  the  Jews  or  to  the 
thirty  pieces  received  by  Judas  Iscariot  as  the  price  of 
his  betrayal.  Others  have  discerned  in  it  the  form  of 
the  Host,  an  emblem  of  Christianity  which  the  Jews 
refused  to  accept,  but  which  they  were  now  forced  to  wear 
over  their  hearts.  Yet  a  third  explanation  is  worthy  of 
mention.  The  badge  was  itself  perhaps  derived  by  Inno- 
cent III  from  the  Mohammedans.  If  so,  the  circle  or  full- 
moo7t  would  be  an  antithesis  to  the  Crescent  of  Islam  ^. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  circular  form  of  badge,  though 
the  most  common,  was  not  the  only  one  in  use.  Changes 
were  effected  in  one  and  the  same  country,  and  it  does  not 
seem  that  the  English  design,  imitative  of  the  tivo  tables 
of  stone,  was  introduced  into  this  country  earlier  than 
1275.  These  tablets  were  apparently  worn  on  the  hem  of 
the  outer  garment.  On  the  other  hand  a  badge,  two  inches 
wide  and  four  inches  long,  was  imposed  on  English  Jews  in 
1222^.  Similarly  a  modification  was  made  in  England 
with  regard  to  the  colour.  Originally  ^  the  badge  was 
white,  but  Edward  I  altered  this  to  yellow,  and  fixed  seven 
as  the  age  at  which  the  badge  became  compulsory  *.  It 
does  not  appear  that  the  English  Jews  were  forced  to  wear 
distinctive  garments  as  well  as  the  badge,  but  in  Austria  in 

*  P.  Cassel,  in  Ersch  und  Gruber,  II.  xxvii.  p.  75. 
^  Tovey,  Anglia  ludaica,  p.  82. 

^  Tovey,  p.  205. 

*  The  Close  Rolls  of  Edward  I  (10  Ed.  I  m.  8.  d.)  contains  an  entry 
entitled  Quod  ludeae  portent  tabtdas  sicut  et  ludeu  Cf.  B.  L.  Abrahams  in 
Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  viii.  360. 


298  The  Jewish  Badge. 

the  thirteenth,  and  in  Germany  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  the  Jews  were  compelled  to  use  a  special  hat, 
known  as  the  '  Judenhut.'  It  was  pointed  at  the  top,  and 
the  brim  was  often  twisted  into  the  shape  of  a  pair  of 
horns  \  Red  was  the  favourite  colour.  It  is  not  clear 
whether  the  Jews  of  Germany  wore  this  hideous  hat  as 
a  substitute  for  the  circular  wheel  or  in  addition  to  it^. 
Other  kings  preferred  other  colours,  thus  in  1713  Frederick 
William  imposed  a  green  hat  on  the  Jews  of  his  realm  ^. 
It  is  certain  that  the  wheel-badge  was  usual  in  Germany  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  the  predominant  colour  being  yellow  or 
saffron.  Jews  fixed  it  on  their  breast,  while  Jewesses  were 
obliged  to  bear  two  blue  stripes  on  their  veils  or  cloaks  ^ 
The  size  of  the  wheel  varied,  sometimes  it  was  fixed  at  an 
inch  in  diameter,  sometimes  it  was  as  big  as  a  florin, 
sometimes  it  resembled  a  crown,  sometimes  it  was  as 
much  as  100  millimetres  across.  Occasionally  the  letter  S 
[  —  signuni)  appeared  in  the  yellow  circle.  In  Switzerland, 
in  1435,  the  badge  took  the  form  of  a  piece  of  red  cloth, 
shaped  like  a  pointed  hat  ^ ;  in  1508  it  had  become  a  wheel 
fixed  on  the  back.  In  Crete,  the  obnoxious  circular  sign  was 
also  inscribed  on  the  doors  of  houses  occupied  by  Jews  ^. 


*  Weiss,  Kostiimkunde,  p.  147.  2  q(  \j    Robert,  p.  91. 
^  Schudt,  Merkwiirdigkeiten,  i.  5. 

*  These  words  occur  in  the  bull  dated  1452  (quoted  by  Schudt,  vl  244, 
245)  : — *  Hinc  nos  prout  in  aliis  nationis  locis  ordinavimus,  praesentiura 
tenore  declaramus  signum  huiusmodi  esse  debere  circulum  de  croceis  filis 
visibiliter  consutum,  cuius  diameter  communis  hominis  digito  minor  non  sit, 
ante  pectus  quoad  masculos  in  veste  extrinseca,  ita  quod  omnium  eos 
intuentium  oculis  appareat ;  et  duae  rigae  blavei  coloris  in  peplo  mulierum 
in  signum  differentiae  a  Christianis  discernantur.' 

'  Ulrich,  Sammlung  judischer  Geschichten  in  der  Schweiz,  p.  463.  Cf. 
Robert,  op.  cit.,  p,  100. 

®  Sathas,  "EKkqviKa  dveKdora,  p.  xxvi. 


The  French  Badge.  299 

France  may  claim  the  honour  of  inventing  the  circular 
badge,  which  was  already  known  in  Paris  in  1 208  ^.  In 
Marseilles,  indeed,  the  Jews  were  permitted  an  alternative  ; 
they  might  wear  either  a  yellow  calotte  or  head-dress,  or  if 
they  preferred  they  might  adopt  the  wheeP.  Here,  too, 
the  age  at  which  the  badge  must  be  borne  was  fixed  at 
seven  years.  In  general,  the  rule  in  France  was  that  Jew 
and  Jewess  alike  wore  the  circular  mark,  though  in  the  case 
of  the  women  it  was  often  replaced  by  a  veil.  Some  variation 
occurs  in  the  age  at  which  Jews  began  to  wear  the  badge. 
In  Marseilles  the  age  was  seven,  in  Aries  (1234)  thirteen  for 
boys  and  twelve  for  girls  ^,  in  Avignon  the  age  was  raised  (in 
1326)  for  boys  to  fourteen.  In  France  the  wheel  was  worn 
mostly  on  the  breast,  or  at  least  above  the  waist ;  but  some- 
times a  second  circle  was  added,  to  be  placed  on  the  back, 
retro  in  dorso.  Sometimes  it  was  placed  on  the  hat,  or 
on  the  girdle  ;  it  might  be  pinned  or  sewn  on  to  the 
garment  which  it  disfigured.  In  other  instances  the  badge 
was  worn  on  the  left  shoulder  *.  As  to  the  material  used, 
no  prescription  existed,  but  the  bull  of  Gregory  IX  (1233) 
probably  represents  the  usual  custom.  If  this  be  so,  the 
badge  must  have  been  made  of  felt  or  cloth,  and  more 
rarely  of  cord,  leather,  or  silk.  In  France,  as  elsewhere, 
the  common  colour  of  the  badge  was  yellow ;  but 
occasionally  the  wheel  was  parti-coloured,  white  and  red. 

^  Robert,  p.  ii. 

2  'Statuimus  quod  omnes  ludaei  a  septem  annis  portent  vel  deferant 
calotam  croceam,  vel,  si  noluerint,  portent  in  pectore  unam  rotam.'  For 
references  on  the  badge  in  France,  see  Robert,  op.  cit.,  p.  14  seq.  This 
charming  booklet  is  naturally  fullest  in  its  treatment  of  the  badges  worn  by 
the  French  Jews. 

3  This  seems  to  have  been  adopted  from  Jewish  custom,  for  these  are  the 
ages  at  which  the  legal  minonty  ceases  in  Rabbinical  law. 

*  Robert,  p.  49. 


3o<> 


The  Jewish  Badge. 


More  rarely  still  the  circular  mark  was  green.  The  same 
variations  in  size  which  were  indicated  above  in  the  case  of 
Germany  and  Austria  occur  in  the  French  badges  ^,  but  on 
the  whole  the  French  badges  were  rather  smaller  than  the 
German.  It  must  be  stated,  to  the  honour  of  the  Church, 
that  though  the  clergy  were  responsible  for  the  infliction  of 
the  badge,  the  secular  authorities  acted  on  their  own 
initiative  when  they  enforced  the  canonical  regulation  by 
heavy  fines  and  penalties.  Any  informer  received  as 
a  reward  the  garment  from  which  the  Jew  had  dared  to 
omit  the  distinguishing  mark  ^.  In  Nice,  the  town  council 
and  the  informer  divided  the  spoils  between  them.  The 
threat  of  corporal  punishment  and  the  menaces  of  death  seem, 
however,  to  have  usually  resolved  themselves  into  monetary 
fines.  Probably  the  Jews  had  to  buy  the  badges  from  the 
public  authorities,  and  Philippe  le  Bel  devised  the  sale  of 
badges  as  a  fresh  source  of  income  for  the  royal  exchequer. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  details  with  regard  to  the 
Jews  of  Italy  and  Spain.  Here  the  same  general  facts 
present  themselves ;  the  motive  and  the  manner  in  which 
the  object  was  attained  were  identical  with  the  motive  and 
its  execution  in  the  rest  of  Europe  ".  The  chief  difference 
lay  in  this — that  in  Spain,  Italy,  and  Southern  France  the 
Jews  were  able  to  resist  the  infliction  of  the  badge  with 
more  or  less  success  for  a  considerable  period  *.     Moreover, 


^  Robert,  p.  27. 

^  '  Et  si  quis  ludaeus  postmodum  sine  praedicto  signo  in  publico  inventus 
fuerit,  inventori  vestis  superior  concedatur.'     Op.  cit,  p.  32. 

^  Innocent  IV  in  his  bull  to  Ferdinand  III  of  Castile  says  : — '  Licet  in 
sacro  generali  concilio  provida  fuerit  deliberatione  statutum  ut  ludaei  a 
Christianis  habitu  distinguantur,  ne  illorum  isti  vel  istorum  illi  mulieribus 
possint  dampnabiliter  commisceri.' 

*  Graetz,  History  of  Jews  (E.  T.),  III.  ch.  iv. 


77?^  Spanish  Badge.  301 

many  Jews  In  these  more  favoured  lands  were  able  to  buy 
personal  exemptions.  The  same  remark  applies  to  other 
countries,  but  the  exemptions  were  most  numerous  in  Spain 
and  Italy.  In  Spain,  moreover,  Jews  enjoyed  in  general 
a  privilege  only  exceptionally  granted  elsewhere.  They 
were  permitted  to  discard  the  badge  on  their  journeys. 
It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  when  Bonami,  son  of  Joce, 
settled  in  France  after  his  expulsion  from  England  in  1290, 
Philippe  le  Bel  exempted  him  from  the  duty  of  wearing  the 
badge,  and  temporarily  allowed  Bonami's  son  a  similar 
licence  ^. 

A  few  words  must  be  added  before  this  tale  of  infamy 
can  be  said  to  be  complete.  The  previous  narrative  has 
dealt  exclusively  with  Christian  countries.  How  stood  the 
matter  in  realms  where  Islam  held  sway  over  men's  con- 
duct ?  The  answer  is  saddening.  For,  though  they  them- 
selves were  fellow-sufferers  with  the  Jews  in  Spain,  the 
Moslems  felt  little  fellow-feeling  for  the  Jew  in  the  East 
and  in  the  Levant.  There  was  hardly  a  Mohammedan 
land  in  which  the  Jews  were  not  compelled  to  live  in  a 
separate  quarter  and  adopt  some  distinctiveness  in  dress. 
The  difference  was  that  the  brand  took  a  negative  form 
where  the  Crescent  ruled,  and  a  positive  one  where  the 
Cross  prevailed.  In  other  words,  under  Islam  the  Jews 
were  forbidden  to  wear  certain  articles  of  dress,  they  were 
restricted  in  their  choice  of  colours,  they  were  forced  to 
dress  in  black  or  yellow,  and  to  appear  barefooted, 
as  was  pointed  out  above,  but  they  were  not  compelled 
to  bear  on  their  breasts  a  peculiar  badge  of  shame.     This 


1  Langlois,  Formulaires  et  lettres  du  XII%  du  XIII^j  et  du  XIV^  Steele, 
p.  18. 


302  The  Jewish  Badge, 

is  sufficiently  curious  if  the  badge  was  originally  a  Moham- 
medan invention.  The  prohibition  of  colour  was  less 
irksome  to  the  Jews,  seeing  that  they  themselves  were 
in  Europe  at  least  inclined  to  regard  bright  colours  with 
moral  aversion.  They  wore  small,  black,  brimless  caps, 
being  often  forbidden  the  use  of  the  red  fez  '.  To  don  the 
turban  became  equivalent  with  the  Jews  of  Turkey  for  con- 
version to  Islam.  Green,  the  Moslem  qoXovcc  par  excellence^ 
was  avoided  by  Jews  as  well  as  prohibited.  Where  the 
turban  was  worn  by  Jews,  it  was  mostly  black  and  not 
coloured  ;  occasionally,  as  in  Tripoli,  a  parti-coloured  turban 
marked  the  Jew.  These  restrictions,  however,  were  not  early, 
nor  were  they  very  stringently  enforced.  Hence  the  decay 
of  taste  and  manners  which  occurred  among  the  Jews  of 
Europe  was  by  no  means  paralleled  in  the  Orient.  Op- 
pression almost  invariably  prevailed,  but  as  Moslems  were 
affected  equally  with  the  Jews,  the  latter  did  not  suffer  by 
contrast  so  much  as  they  did  in  Christian  Europe. 

The  effects  produced  by  this  system  of  branding  the 
Jews  as  a  pariah  class  were  as  deplorable  as  they  were 
inevitable.  The  Jew  became  the  mark  for  the  meanest  of 
insults.  *  Beaten,  reviled,  scorned,  abused  by  every  one,  .  .  . 
he  was  made  to  swallow  abuse  like  water,  he  was  not 
allowed  to  take  offence  at  anything  2.'  He  lost  his  old 
refinements.  Of  old,  no  people  had  paid  more  attention  to 
accuracy  and  polish  in  speech,  to  decency  and  cleanliness 
in  dress,  to  self-respect  in  their  manners  and  bearing. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  fatal  edict  of  Innocent  III, 
a  Hebrew  poet  with  sad  premonition  used  metaphorically, 

^  Cf.  Lancelot  Addison,  The  Present  State  of  the  Jews  {t.6']^\  p.  lo. 
^  Leroy-Beaulieu,  Israel  among  the  Nations,  p.  197.      Cf.  Graetz,  History 
of  the  Jews  (E.  T.),  III.  ch.  xv. 


Effects  of  the  Badge.  303 

with  regard  to  persecuted  Israel,  language  which  but  a  little 
later  became  literally  true. 

Erst  radiant  the  Bride  adored 
On  whom  rich  wedding  gifts  are  poured; 
She  weeps,  sore  wounded,  overthrown, 
Exiled  and  outcast,  shunned  and  lone. 

Laid  all  aside  her  garments  fair. 

The  pledges  of  a  bond  divine, 
A  wandering  beggar-woman's  wear 

Is  hers  in  lieu  of  raiment  fine. 

Chaunted  hath  been  in  every  land 

The  beauty  of  her  crown  and  zone ; 

Now  doomed,  dethroned  she  maketh  moan, 
Bemocked — a  byeword — cursed  and  banned. 

An  airy,  joyous  step  was  hers 

Beneath  Thy  wing.     But  now  she  crawls 

Along,  and  mourns  her  sons  and  errs 
At  every  step,  and,  worn  out,  falls. 

And  yet  to  Thee  she  clingeth  tight ; 
Vain,  vain  to  her  man's  mortal  might 
Which  in  a  breath  to  naught  is  hurled ; 
Thy  smile  alone  makes  up  her  worlds 


Later  on,  this  figure  of  speech  developed  into  a  portrait. 
The  bitter  resentment  of  the  Jews  shows  itself  in  a  growing 
use  of  the  figure  of  the  Law,  attired  in  mourning  garb  as 
a  woe-begone  maiden,  to  typify  desolate  Israel.  Meir  of 
Rothenburg,  whose  birth  almost  synchronized  with  the 
invention  of  the  Jews'  badge,  makes  a  powerful  use  of  the 
figure  in  his  fierce  and  heart-rending  dirge  on  '  The  Burning 

^  Jacobs,  Angevin  England^  p.  8i  (the  translation  is  by  Mr.  Israel  Zangwill). 
The  initials  form  the  acrostic  '  Elchanan,'  the  author's  name.  (Cf.  Zunz, 
Synagogale  Poesie,  249.) 


304  The  Jewish  Badge. 

of  the  Law^.'     Addressing  the  sacred  mantled  scroll  he 
cries  : — 

Ah  !    sweet  'twould  be  unto  mine  eyes,  alway, 

Waters  of  tears  to  pour, 
To  sob  and  drench  thy  sacred  robes,  till  they 

Could  hold  no  more. 

But  lo  !    my  tears  are  dried,  when,  fast  outpoured, 

They  down  my  cheeks  are  shed  ; 
Scorched  by  the  fire  within:    because  thy  Lord 

Hath  turned  and  sped. 


In  sackcloth  I  will  clothe,   and  sable  band. 

For  well-beloved  by  me 
Were  they  whose  lives  were  many  as  the  sand, 

The  slain  of  thee. 

Gird  on  the  sackcloth  of  thy  misery 

For  that  devouring  fire, 
Which  went  forth  ravenous,   degrading  thee 

To  ruins  dire. 

Even  as  when  thy  Rock  afflicted  thee 

He  will  assuage  thy  woe. 
And  turn  again  the  tribes'  captivity 

And  raise  the  low. 

Yet  shalt  thou  wear  thy  scarlet  raiment  choice, 

And  sound  the  timbrels  high, 
And  glad  amid  the  dancers  shall  rejoice, 

With  joyful  cry. 

My  heart  shall  be  uplifted  on  the  day 

Thy  Rock  shall  be  thy  light, 
When  he  shall  make  thy  gloom  to  pass  away, 

Thy  darkness  bright '. 

^  '  When  I  was  in  France,'  says  Meir  [Responsa,  ed.  Mekitze  Midamim, 
p.  8,  §  28;,  'we  used  to  wear  wheels  on  our  garments,  for  this  was  decreed 
against  the  Jews  then.'  This  remark  implies  that,  outside  France,  Meir  did 
not  wear  the  badge.  Some,  he  tells  us,  made  the  badge  a  part  of  the 
garment,  others  made  it  of  leather  and  stitched  it  on. 

'  From  Miss  Nina  Davis'  translation  in  Jewish  Quarterly  Review^  vol.  viii. 


The  Expulsion  from  Spain.  305 

In  this  manner,  by  idealizing  their  sorrows,  and  by  an 
imaginative  transference  of  their  woes  to  the  Law  and  to 
God,  the  Jews  contrived  to  resist  the  immediate  deteriora- 
tion which  the  badge  threatened.  In  two  countries  the 
Jews  were  able  indefinitely  to  postpone  the  incidence  of  the 
papal  decree.  These  were  Italy  and  Spain,  and  this 
respite  had  a  valuable  effect  in  mitigating  the  violence  of 
the  blow  which  the  edict  of  Innocent  III  dealt.  In  the 
latter  country  several  causes  promoted  toleration.  The 
Moors  had  made  Andalusia  the  home  of  a  civilization 
which  knew  no  distinction  of  creed.  The  air  of  Spain  was 
fresh  with  breezes  of  perpetual  intersectarian  friendliness. 
Christian  monarchs  like  Alfonso  the  Wise  imitated  and 
excelled  the  majestic,  broad-minded  culture  of  Abdul- 
rahman  III.  Moor,  Jew,  and  Hidalgo  lived  together  in 
Christian  Toledo  or  Moslem  Granada  on  terms  of  an 
equality  and  toleration  unparalleled  in  medieval  history. 
Hence  the  Jews  of  Spain  succeeded  in  resisting  the  bull  of 
Innocent  III,  and  for  some  two  centuries  were  comparatively 
free  from  the  restrictions  with  which  their  European  brethren 
were  laden.  The  happier  lot  of  the  Jews  in  Spain  did  much 
to  preserve  the  rest  of  their  brethren  from  demoralization. 
The  French  or  German  Jew  who  bore  his  badge  could  still 
hold  up  his  head  when  he  thought  of  Cordova,  Toledo, 
Barcelona,  and  Seville.  He  himself  might  be  dejected 
and  degraded,  but  the  mention  of  Spain  revived  his  hope, 
re-aroused  his  pride.  Thus  we  do  not  find  that  the  bearing 
of  the  badge  produced  its  worst  consequences  until  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  the  fifteenth  century 
the  Jews  of  Spain  were  subjected  to  trials  which  betokened 
the  coming  end.  The  Inquisition  was  established  in  1391, 
and  this  event  was  almost  simultaneous  with  the  weakening 

X 


3r6  The  Jewish  Badge. 

of  the  power  of  the  Moors.  To  these  two  events  must  be 
added  the  union  of  the  crowns  of  Aragon  and  Castile  under 
one  rule.  By  this  circumstance  the  rivalry  of  the  two 
kingdoms  was  ended,  and  the  Jews  could  no  longer  find 
refuge  alternately  in  each  from  the  persecutions  of  the 
other.  In  1492  the  blow  fell,  and  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jews  from  Spain  temporarily  annihilated  Jewish  dignity 
and  self-reliance.  This  bright  star  in  the  dark-clouded 
Jewish  firmament  was  set  in  an  eternal  eclipse,  and  the 
Jewish  horizon  grew  blacker  everywhere.  Soon  the 
ghettos  were  built  to  hold  the  sorrow-stricken  race,  pointed 
at  by  the  finger  of  scorn  as  well  as  of  fate.  The  effects  of 
Innocent  Ill's  badges  were  completed  by  Paul  IV's 
ghettos,  and  from  the  combined  injuries  which  it  thus 
received  in  the  three  centuries  nearest  to  the  one  in  which 
we  live,  the  Jewish  character  was  disfigured  by  those  super- 
ficial deformities  from  which  it  is  now  endeavouring  to  free 
itself. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

PRIVATE    AND   COMMUNAL    CHARITIES.       THE    RELIEF    OF 
THE    POOR. 

Lancelot  Addison,  in  his  entertaining  account  of  the 
Jews  of  Barbary\  is  at  some  pains  to  dispel  the  belief 
prevalent  at  his  time  that  "  the  Jews  have  no  beggars.' 
He  attributes  this  error  to  the  '  regular  and  commendable ' 
methods  by  which  the  Jews  supplied  the  needs  of  their 
poor,  and  '  much  concealed  their  poverty.'  The  medieval 
notion  that  all  Hebrews  were  rich,  possibly  owes  its  present 
vitality  to  this  same  cause.  Deep-rooted  in  the  Jewish 
heart  lay  the  sentiment  that  poverty  had  rights  as  well  as 
disabilities,  and  the  first  of  those  rights  demanded  that  the 
poor  need  not  appeal  for  sympathy  by  exhibiting  their 
sorrows.  In  this  characteristic  the  Jew  was  never  Oriental, 
but  struck  out  an  original  line  of  his  own.  Like  Coriolanus. 
he  might  have  exclaimed,  against  an  alleviative  or  fraternal 
service  bought  by  exposure  and  publicity : — 

Let  me  o'erleap  that  custom  ;  for  I  cannot 

Put  on  the  gown,  stand  naked,  and  entreat  them, 

For  my  wounds'  sake,  to  give  their  suffrage  :    please  you, 

That  I  may  pass  this  doing. 

^   The  Present  State  of  the  Jews  (London,  1675  ;  a  second  edition  appeared 
in  the  following  year),  ch.  xxv. 

X  2 


3o8  Private  and  Communal  Charities. 

No  argument  in  favour  of  checking  pauperism  was  held 
to  justify  the  policy  of  putting  the  poor  to  shame.  '  Better 
give  no  alms  at  all,  than  give  them  in  public  \'  and  even 
those  who  in  the  middle  ages  thought  that  almsgiving 
under  any  and  all  circumstances  had  a  shade  of  merit, 
declared  that  they  who  gave  publicly  and  with  ostentation 
would  never  get  farther  than  the  outskirts  of  paradise^. 

Delicacy  in  the  manner  of  giving  was  traced  directly 
to  the  Scriptures,  and  many  tender  rules  for  sparing  the 
blushes  of  the  poor  were  derived  in  the  Rabbinical  literature 
of  early  centuries  and  of  the  middle  ages  from  the  verse  ^: — 

Blessed  is  he  that  considereth  the  poor : 
The  Lord  will  deliver  him  in  the  day  of  evil ; 

the  Stress  being  laid  on  the  duty  of  consider ateness.  Con- 
sideration for  the  poor  was  sometimes  one  of  the  motives 
for  severe  sumptuary  laws  as  regards  the  dress  of  the  rich. 
But  one  of  the  chief  forms  which  this  considerateness 
assumed  was  to  discountenance  begging  from  door  to  door  *. 
Nor  were  the  poor  to  be  forced  to  come  and  draw  tickets 
from  an  urn  before  obtaining  relief.  Where  the  system  of 
ticket-relief  prevailed,  the  Parnass,  or  President  of  the 
congregation,  and  not  the  recipient  of  help,  had  to  extract 
the  tickets  ^.  It  is  true  that  in  larger  Jewish  congregations 
street  and  door  begging  became  common  when,  in  place 
of  freedom  to  reside  in  any  part  of  the  town,  Jews  were 
restricted  to  certain  streets  or  quarters.     Within  the  ghetto, 

^   T.  B.  Chagiga,  5  a. 

^  Midrash  y"\y,  Jellinek,  Beth  Hamidrash,  iii.  123. 

'  Psalm  xli,  i. 

*  Lancelot  Addison  notices  this  feature ;  cf.  y^iN  F]CV,  §  547. 

*  Judah  Minz  (fol.  14  a)  orders  that  this  must  be  done  in  Treviso,  where 
the  custom  was  introduced  'Dbpn  JO  J'pnD  «':Jinb  in  order  to  discourage 
begging. 


Itinerant  Mendicants, 


309 


the  Jews  formed  one  large  family,  and  house-to-house 
begging  wore  a  different  look.  Moreover,  publicity  in  the 
sense  that  Christians  would  observe  the  beggar's  progress, 
was  no  longer  probable  in  the  sixteenth  and  later  centuries. 

But  before  the  ghetto  age,  and  especially  in  smaller 
towns,  it  might  almost  be  asserted  that  there  were  no  Jewish 
beggars  at  all.  The  fact  that  the  Jews  formed  distinct 
communities  in  the  midst  of  contemptuously  indifferent  or 
actively  hostile  environments,  caused  them  '  to  draw  nearer 
and  closer  to  each  other,  and  tended  to  soften  and  bridge 
over  the  differences  of  poverty  and  position  ^.'  Hence  in 
most  Jewish  communities  before  the  thirteenth  century, 
though  the  inroad  of  itinerant  mendicants  was  a  grievous 
burden  on  Jewish  benevolence,  the  number  of  settled,  resi- 
dent beggars  was  very  small.  The  production  of  this  result 
entailed  much  expenditure  of  money  and  care,  but  the 
highest  form  of  almsgiving  was  reached,  in  the  Jewish 
view,  by  taking  such  measures  as  made  the  poor  self- 
supporting  and  enabled  them  to  live  by  their  own 
exertions  ^. 

The  Talmud  alludes  to  a  regular  class  of  professional 
mendicants  who  practised  self-mutilation  in  order  to  attract 


'  C.  G.  Montefiore,  '  Hebrew  Charity '  m  Jewish  Chronicle  (London),  May, 
1884. 

^  Maimonides  (n^Dy  m:nD,  ch,  vii)  thus  arranges  the  ranks  of  the  givers 
of  charity,  (i)  He  who  helps  the  poor  to  sustain  himself  by  giving  a  loan 
or  taking  him  into  business  with  him ;  (2)  He  who  gives  to  the  poor 
without  knowing  to  whom  he  gives,  while  the  recipient  is  also  ignorant  of 
the  giver;  (3)  He  who  gives  secretly,  knowing  the  recipient,  but  the  latter 
remaining  ignorant  as  to  his  benefactor's  name  ;  (4)  He  who  gives  not 
knowing  the  recipient,  but  the  recipient  knows  from  whom  he  obtains  relief ; 
(5)  He  who  gives  (both  knowing)  before  he  is  asked ;  (6)  He  who  gives 
after  he  is  asked;  (7)  He  who  gives  inadequately  but  with  a  good  grace; 
(8)  He  who  gives  with  a  bad  grace. 


3IO 


Private  and  Communal  Charities. 


the  sympathetic  notice  of  passers-by.  Such  beggars  were 
regarded  with  contempt  and  aversion,  but  this  class  no 
longer  existed  in  the  middle  ages^.  The  system  of  house- 
to-house  begging  was  occasionally  favoured  by  wealthier 
Jews,  but  the  ordinary  middle  class  were  opposed  to 
it  and  their  view  carried  the  day^.  In  the  seventeenth 
century  the  system  was  revived  in  another  form,  as  we 
shall  soon  see,  and,  besides  this,  on  Fridays  and  the  eves 
of  festivals,  the  Jewish  poor  went  about  from  house  to 
house  gathering  alms.  In  modern  Jewish  life  this  system 
became  a  full-blown  abuse,  and  irrepressible  crowds  of  push- 
ing beggars  assembled  round  the  synagogue  doors.  But 
this  grew  out  of  the  poverty  which  three  centuries  of  ghetto- 
life  produced.  In  the  middle  ages,  life  was  simpler  and  its 
needs  fewer,  and  men  more  enduring.  Among  the  medieval 
Jews  the  public  solicitation  of  alms  was  extremely  rare. 

Ostentatious  pauperism  was  undoubtedly  diminished  by 
the  complete  measures  adopted  for  relieving  orphans  and 
widows  from  want.  The  orphans  were  married  and  the 
widows  pensioned.  The  provision  of  dowries  for  poor  girls, 
even  when  their  fathers  were  still  living,  was,  and  continues, 
a  strong  feature  of  Jewish  benevolence.  This  was  a  religious 
duty,  and  as  the  bestowal  of  contributions  to  these  dowries 
hardly  fell  within  the  category  of  almsgiving,  so  the 
acceptance  of  the  dowries  was  not  quite  considered  to  be 
aims-receiving.     It  cannot  be  too  strongly  emphasized  that 

'  The  number  of  Jewish  cripples  and  confirmed  invalids  cannot  have 
been  great,  for  we  occasionally  find  in  medieval  records  individuals  de- 
scribed by  such  titles  as  '  Moses  the  invalid  '  pcVDn),  or  '  Samuel  the  Cripple.' 
K^Das  Judenschreinhuch '  &c,,  published  by  the  '  Historische  Commission  fur 
Geschichte  der  Juden,'  1888,  pp.  21  and  32.)  These  epithets  would  hardly 
have  been  distinctive  had  there  been  many  to  whom  they  would  be  applicable. 

^  Cf.  Shulchan  Aruch,  nyn  mv,  250,  §  5. 


Relief  in  Kind,  311 

this  relation  between  giver  and  taker  was  in  itself  a  strong 
preventive  to  pauperism  in  the  modern  sense.  But  it  is 
undeniable  that  it  led  to  that  insolence  in  the  Jewish  beggar 
which,  growing  out  of  the  theory  that  the  recipient  of  the 
gift  was  enabling  the  donor  to  perform  a  religious  duty, 
and  was  in  a  sense  the  benefactor  of  the  donor,  made  the 
schnorrer^  or  beggar,  come  to  be  a  most  persistent  and 
troublesome  figure  in  modern  Jewish  society. 

The  whole  system  of  Jewish  poor- relief  was  radically 
affected  by  the  increase  of  travelling  mendicants,  whose 
numbers  were  recruited  from  the  wholesale  expatriations 
which  followed  in  the  wake  of  the  Crusades.  In  the  middle 
ages  we  find  for  instance  an  important  change  in  habit. 
For  while  in  the  Talmudic  period  the  distribution  of  relief 
in  kind  was  a  regular  feature  of  Jewish  charity,  in  the 
middle  ages  this  was  no  longer  a  universal  method  of 
supplying  the  needs  of  the  poor.  The  tamchtd  or  daily 
distribution  of  food  continued  in  many  congregations  \  but 
it  was  gradually  superseded  by  three  other  methods,  {a)  the 
reception  of  poor  travellers  in  the  homes  of  the  rich,  [h)  the 
provision  for  vagrants  in  communal  hostelries  or  Inns,  and 
(c)  the  benevolent  activity  of  special  societies  formed  for 
the  succour  and  entertainment  of  the  resident  poor  and  of 
strangers.  The  relief  in  kind  undoubtedly  coexisted  side  by 
side  with  these  arrangements.  A  favourite  form  of  Jewish 
charity  in  the  middle  ages  was  the  purchase  of  food  to 
be  retailed  to  the  poor  at  cost  price  in  times  of  scarcity  ^. 

^  '  Give  of  all  thy  food  a  portion  to  God.  Let  God's  portion  be  the  best, 
and  give  it  to  the  poor '  {Ethical  Will  of  Eleazar  ben  Isaac  of  Worms,  eleventh 
century).  A  similar  sentiment  occurs  in  the  Will  of  Sabbatai  Hurwitz  : 
*  If  a  beggar  comes  to  you,  give  him  what  you  can  and  do  not  put  him  to 
shame,  for  God  stands  at  his  right  hand.'  In  the  time  of  Maimonides  the 
relief  in  kind  had  ceased  to  be  general.  ^  Sefer  Chassidim,  §  949. 


312 


Private  and  Communal  Charities. 


Again,  we  read  of  a  Jewish  butcher  in  Prague  who 
weighed  his  children  three  times  a  year,  and  gave  their 
weight  in  meat  to  the  poor  ^.  Another  characteristic 
instance  is  furnished  by  an  epitaph  which  is  worth  re- 
quoting  for  the  insight  it  gives  into  the  life  of  the  Jewess. 

This  particular  lady  lived  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
and  died  in  1628  ^.  '  She  supplied  scholars  with  Bibles,  and 
the  plundered  with  prayer-books ;  she  ran  like  a  bird  to 
weddings,  and  frequently  asked  the  poor  to  dine  with  her 
in  her  own  home  ;  she  clothed  the  naked,  herself  preparing 
hundreds  of  shirts  for  distribution  among  the  poor.'  Such 
personal  efforts  on  behalf  of  the  poor  were  always  common 
with  Jews  ;  there  was  at  least  sentimental  appropriateness 
in  the  long-continued  rule  that  on  fast-days  food  was  to  be 
distributed  to  the  poor  in  provision  for  the  evening  meal  ^. 
But  the  daily  distribution  of  food  known  as  the  tamchui 
gave  way  before  other  methods  of  poor  relief*.  In  some 
forms  relief  in  kind,  however,  remained  universal  in  Jewish 
life.  Such  expensive  but  necessary  luxuries  as  the  matsoth 
or  unleavened  bread  used  on  Passover,  and  the  wine  needed 
for  various  ceremonial  rites,  seem  to  have  been  regularly 
supplied  to  the  poor.     A  similar   remark   applies   to   the 

^  Rabbinical  parallels  to  this  act  are  not  wanting.  The  mother  of  Doeg 
ben  Joseph  weighed  her  child  every  day,  and  distributed  his  increased 
weight  in  gold  to  the  poor  {Echa  Rabba,  ch.  i).  Of  a  somewhat  different 
form  was  the  equally  generous  conduct  of  R.  Tanchum.  Whenever  he 
purchased  a  pound  of  meat  for  his  own  use,  he  bought  a  second  pound  for 
the  poor  (Mid.  ^yyyiDxy  dvi,  Jellinek,  iv.  138). 

^  Cf.  Montefiore,  loc.  cit. 

"  Shulchan  Aruch,  Yore  Deah,  cclvi.  §  2. 

*  The  transition  may  be  noted  in  such  regulations  as  are  contained  in  the 
Shulchan  Aruch,  rWT  mv,  256,  §  i,  where  the  term  tamchui  is  applied  not 
only  to  contributions  of  food,  such  as  bread  or  fruits,  but  also  to  gifts  of 
money.  The  word  tamchui  thus  came  to  mean  the  casual  relief,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  kupah  or  regular  relief. 


Charity  and  Almsgiving.  313 

feast  of  Esther.  But  in  this  case,  every  Jew  sent  gifts  of 
food  and  dainties  to  every  other  Jew,  and  the  poor  merely 
received  a  larger  share  of  the  affectionate  attentions  which 
fell  to  the  lot  of  all.  So  thorough  was  the  solidarity  of 
Jewish  social  life,  that  it  is  impossible  to  draw  a  clear  line 
between  a  friendly  interchange  of  services  and  what  we 
now  should  describe  as  deeds  of  charity. 

None  of  the  medieval  methods  of  poor-relief  adopted  by 
the  Jews  were  entirely  unknown  to  the  Talmud.  In  the 
Bible  the  system  of  poor-relief  was  intimately  connected 
with  the  agricultural  character  of  the  national  occupations. 
But  in  the  Talmud,  charity  was  not  only  the  highest  of 
virtues,  it  was  also  the  broadest.  Only  one  other  virtue 
competed  with  it,  and  that  was  the  study  of  the  Law,  which 
was  higher  only  in  this  sense,  that  it  included  all  virtues. 
No  social  code  of  morals  ever  took  a  wider  view  of  the 
all-pervading  claims  of  charity  than  the  Talmud  upholds 
on  every  page.  The  Talmud  distinguished  between  ahns, 
which  meant  a  gift  of  money  or  property,  and  the  charity 
of  love,  which  meant  a  gift  of  one's  self  In  this  higher 
sense  the  Talmudic  doctors  included,  under  the  head  of 
charity,  kindliness  and  fraternal  love  in  all  the  social  rela- 
tions of  life,  in  hospitality  to  the  living  and  generosity  to  the 
dead,  in  visiting  and  nursing  the  sick,  in  words  and  works 
of  mercy,  in  attendance  at  weddings  ^.     This  being  the  case, 

^  The  following  passage  from  the  Mishnah  (JPeah,  i)  occurs  in  the  every- 
day morning  service  of  the  synagogue  {^Authorized  Hebrew  Prayer-hook, 
p.  5):— 'These  are  the  things,  the  fruits  of  which  a  man  enjoys  in  this 
world,  while  the  stock  remains  for  him  for  the  world  to  come  :  viz.  honour- 
ing father  and  mother,  the  practice  of  charity,  timely  attendance  at  the 
house  of  study  morning  and  evening,  hospitality  to  wayfarers,  visiting  the 
sick,  dowering  the  bride,  attending  the  dead  to  the  grave,  devotion  in 
prayer,  and  making  peace  between  man  and  his  fellow;  but  the  study 
of  the  Law  is  equal  to  them  all.' 


3^4 


Private  and  Communal  Charities. 


it  may  safely  be  said  that  all  the  most  humane  methods 
of  poor-relief  ever  devised  by  the  wit  of  man,  may  be  found 
developed  or  at  least  adumbrated  in  the  Talmud.  In  the 
middle  ages  the  Jews,  however,  gave  more  prominence  to 
some  of  these  methods  than  they  did  to  others. 

For  instance,  the  relief  of  travellers  was  a  more  pressing 
question  in  the  twelfth  century  than  in  the  fourth  or  fifth. 
In  the  Talmud,  reference  is  made  to  public  inns  at  which  no 
money  was  taken.  But  the  communal  Inn  ^  became  a  most 
necessary  institution  after  the  Crusading  era,  when  the 
number  of  homeless  Jewish  poor  greatly  increased.  Every 
Jewish  congregation  made  arrangements  of  some  kind  for 
the  lodging  and  feeding  of  poor  or  sick  travellers.  Some- 
times the  ordinary  Jewish  innkeepers  were  paid  from  the 
communal  funds,  and  tramps  or  wandering  mendicants 
were  freely  entertained  on  the  ground  floor,  while  the  more 
respectable,  paying  guests  occupied  the  upper  storey  of  the 
Inn.  Sometimes,  again,  the  poor  traveller  was  lodged  with 
a  private  family,  in  which  case  the  latter  offered  gratuitous 
hospitality  or  received  a  fee  from  the  communal  revenues. 
This  admission  of  the  poor  to  the  ordinary  Jewish  family 
life  gave  point  to  the  metaphor  which  described  the  dining- 
table  as  the  *  Altar  of  God.'  Most  marked  change  of  all, 
however,  was  the  growth  of  charitable  associations.  Certain 
difficulties  were  experienced  with  regard  to  those  charitable 
duties  which  were  felt  to  be  incumbent  on  individuals  and  yet 
were  beyond  the  means  of  individuals.  Hence  voluntary 
societies  were  created  to  meet  these  cases,  which  grew  in 
number  and  variety  as  the  conditions  of  life  became  more 
complex.  This  subject,  however,  must  be  deferred  for 
a  while,  and  a  few  words  must  be  written  on  the  methods 

*  Cf.  above,  p.  74 ;  and  see  T.  B.  Sota,  10  a. 


Charity  Overseers.  315 

adopted  for  raising  the  ktipah  or  general  relief  funds  in 
various  Jewish  congregations  in  the  middle  ages. 

The  popular  device  for  raising  funds  was  the  periodical 
assessment  of  the  various  members  of  the  congregation  by 
officials  appointed  as  Charity  Overseers.  The  duty  was  not 
usually  entrusted  to  a  single  individual,  but  occasionally  this 
was  the  case^.  A  dual  directorate  was  mostly  held  desirable 
for  granting  relief.  The  distribution  of  charitable  funds  was 
always  regarded  by  Jews  as  more  onerous  than  the  collec- 
tion ^.  The  administrators  of  poor  relief  sometimes  were  the 
objects  of  much  abuse  from  the  poor  ^,  but  on  the  whole  the 
overseers  were  men  of  the  highest  reputation  and  enjoyed 
the  full  confidence  of  their  brethren.  No  enforced  audit  of 
their  accounts  was  exacted,  but  they  were  expected  in  the 
sixteenth  century  to  make  a  voluntary  statement  and  to 
present  a  balance  sheet  *. 

The  total  sum  needed  was  approximately  fixed  by 
the  treasurers,  and  each  member  contributed  according  to 
his  reputed  means.  The  collections  for  the  kttpah  were 
made  either  weekly,  monthly,  or  thrice  a  year.  No  one 
escaped  from  this  duty^,  even  women  and  children 
contributed,  though  it  was  unlawful  to  accept  large  sums 
from  them.  The  poor  themselves  were  taxed  for  the 
relief  of  their  own  class,  for  charity  was  a  universal  duty 
which  none  must  evade.  While,  however,  the  assessors 
were  warned  against  demanding  too  much  from  willing  but 

1  In  the  Or  Zarua,  i.  p.  13,  the  author  says:  'It  is  customary  now  to 
appoint  only  one  treasurer,  but  I  think  that  there  should  be  two.'  In  the 
fifteenth  century  these  officials  were  not  identical  with  the  treasurers  of  the 
ordinary  communal  funds.     (Maharil,  lyrarr  'j"in"n,  beginning.) 

2  T.  B.  Sabbath,  118  a.  '  Maharil,  ibid. 
*   T.  B.  Baha  Bathra,  9  a  ;  Shulchan  Aruch,   nri  mv,  257,  2. 

'  Kolbo,  92  d. 


3i6  Private  and  Communal  Charities. 

straitened  donors,  they  were  armed  with  strong  powers 
against  members  who  sought  to  underrate  their  own  capacity 
to  give.  The  assessors  were  licensed  to  make  distraint  on 
the  recalcitrant's  property  and  to  forcibly  seize  the  amount 
which,  it  was  estimated,  he  ought  to  subscribe  ^.  It  some- 
times occurred  that  the  civil  authorities  expressly  conferred 
on  the  Jews  this  right  to  distrain  the  goods  of  members 
of  the  Jewish  community  who  refused  to  share  the  duty 
of  providing  for  their  poor  ^. 

Side  by  side  with  the  compulsory  system,  voluntary 
methods  of  contributing  flourished  luxuriantly.  Bridging 
over  the  two  systems  were  the  regular  fines  inflicted  for 
offences  against  communal  tekanoth  or  regulations,  such 
fines  being  often  appropriated  to  purposes  of  charity  ^. 
Further,  charitable  offerings  which  were  only  partially 
voluntary  in  essence  though  completely  voluntary  in  form, 
were  the  donations  publicly  announced  in  synagogue  on 
special  occasions. 

A  very  early  instance  of  this  form  of  benevolence  has 
lately  been  published  by  Dr.  Neubauer*.     The  place  was 

^  For  forcible  charity  see  ^TTt  "IW,  i.  p.  13  ;  compare  Shulchan  Aruch, 
Yore  Deah,  ch.  248.  The  various  methods  of  estimating  the  sum  to  be 
contributed  by  each  individual  Jew  are  thus  summarized  by  R.  Solomon 
ben  Adret  (cf.  Beth  Joseph  to  Tur  Yore  Deah,  §  250  end)  :  'The  amount  of 
a  man's  gifts  must  be  proportionate  to  his  means.  In  some  places,  however, 
each  man  gives  as  much  as  he  pleases,  in  others  he  contributes  in  the  same 
proportion  as  he  contributes  to  the  royal  taxes,  but  most  blessed  of  all  is  he 
who  gives  to  the  utmost  of  his  power.' 

^  In  Jan.  1759,  such  a  power  was  granted  to  the  Jews  of  Amsterdam  (see 
the  interestmg  sheet  of  which  a  copy  is  preserved  in  the  British  Museum, 
1982,  b.  i). 

"  Cf.  •s^■^^  ti^,  i.  p.  17  (§  26). 

*  Medieval  Jewish  Chronicles,  ii.  p.  128.  The  ^DHV  ICD  from  which  this  is 
cited  was  written  in  1055,  in  rhymed  prose.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
though  the  author  describes  in  details  those  who  were  present  in  synagogue, 


Synagogal  Collections.  317 

Kahira,  the  capital  of  Egypt,  the  occasion  was  the  Day  of 
Atonement.  R.  Paltiel  was  '  called  to  the  Law '  in  syna- 
gogue. All  the  assembled  congregation  rose  in  his  honour, 
but  he  bade  all  but  the  children  to  remain  seated,  threatening 
that  otherwise  he  would  not  accept  the  office.  When  his 
reading  was  finished,  he  offered  '  5,000  dinars,  good,  sound, 
full-weighted.'  The  sum  he  distributed  as  follows:  i,oco 
for  the  school,  1,000  for  the  poor  of  Jerusalem,  1,000  for  the 
college  in  Babylon,  1,000  to  various  congregations  for  the 
general  purposes  of  poor-relief,  1,000  in  honour  of  the  law 
to  purchase  oils.  Next  morning  he  rose  early  to  fulfil  his 
promises,  for  he  ever  was  quick  to  perform  his  word  lest  his 
second  thoughts  should  prove  less  generous.  He  summoned 
a  band  of  riders  on  horses  and  mules,  and  sent  them  with 
the  caravan  unto  the  desert,  laden  with  the  gold  that 
he  had  vowed.  At  his  death,  his  son  distributed  20,000 
drachmae  on  similar  benevolent  objects  ^. 

Every  Jew  subscribed  to  the  poor-box  when  he  married, 
or  on  any  occasion  of  joy,  as  well  as  on  sadder  anniver- 
saries -.  Such  donations  were  so  much  a  matter  of  rule, 
that  they  could  hardly  be  termed  voluntary,  except  in  so 
far  as  the  amount  was  concerned.  Regular  collections 
were  m.ade  in  synagogue  on  Purim,  and  on  ordinary 
week-days  the  prayers  were  interrupted  in  order  to  collect 
donations^.  Many  Jews  made  it  a  regular  practice  to 
contribute  to  the  poor-box  every  morning  before   leaving 

naming  the  '  spiritual  and  lay  heads,  young  men  and  old.  lads,  boys,  infants 
and  children,'  the  women  are  not  mentioned.  Evidently  they  were  not 
present. 

1  Op  cit.,  p.  130. 

2  Gifts  to  the  poor  accompanied  the  prayers  for  the  dead  (moc:  niDin)^ 
See  rm  -lit*,  loc.  cit. ;  cf.  npn,  §  217. 

3  Machzor  Vttry,  p.  7. 


3i8  Private  and  Communal  Charities. 

the  synagogue.  Similarly,  private  collections  were  made 
in  the  home  on  occasion  of  all  family  gatherings  and 
festivities  ^. 

Special  taxes  were  sometimes  apportioned  to  the  cause 
of  poor-relief,  or  the  fines  which  accrued  from  the  extra- 
vagant infringement  of  sumptuary  laws  were,  in  a  spirit 
of  poetical  justice,  reserved  for  the  entertainment  of  the 
poor.  Of  a  more  voluntary  nature  were  the  gifts  bestowed 
on  the  synagogue  as  permanent  funds  for  charitable  uses. 
This  would  take  various  forms.  The  donor  might  give  a 
large  sum  of  which  only  the  interest  was  to  be  spent  ^.  Or 
he  would  buy  a  scroll  of  the  Law  and  deposit  it  in  the 
synagogue.  This  scroll  would  be  sold  from  time  to  time, 
still  remaining  the  possession  of  the  synagogue,  but  the 
new  owner's  name  would  be  inscribed  on  it.  The  sum  so 
obtained  would  be  used  for  the  poor  ^  Funds  also  accu- 
mulated from  legacies,  for  rarely  would  a  wealthy  Jew  die 
without  bequeathing  a  considerable  sum  to  the  synagogue 
funds. 

Even  more  interesting  was  a  species  of  self-taxation,  to 
which  some  medieval  Jews  resorted.  Thus  a  fifteenth 
century  Jew  ^  who  was  no  ascetic,  but  was  fond  of  a  good 
dinner  and  a  glass  of  wine,  taxed  his  own  pleasures 
and  gave  a  gold  piece  in  charity  for  every  extra  glass 
of  wine  he  drank.  This  he  also  did  at  every  opportunity, 
be  the  occasion  'the  enjoyment  of  a  tasteful  dish,  or  a 
good  bargain,  or  the  birth  of  a  child,  or  the  marrying  of 
a  daughter.'     If  he  omitted  reading  the  Sabbath  Scriptural 

^  Communal  regulations  later  on  compelled  such  collections  at  all  ni!iD  nmyD 
(cf.  e.g.  nbnpn  m^pn,  Amsterdam,  1708,  §  70). 

^  ym  -n^},  i.  p.  18,  §  30.  3  Cf.  Lancelot  Addison,  p.  214. 

*  C£  S.  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  p.  167. 


The   Tithe.  319 

lesson  thrice^  he  fined  himself  two  gold  pieces  ;  if  he  failed 
to  partake  of  three  meals  on  the  Sabbath,  he  paid  half 
a  gold-piece.  So  with  everything  he  bought,  he  'salted 
his  wealth  with  charity,'  and  if  he  indulged  in  an  expensive 
garment  the  poor  rejoiced  with  him. 

The  most  important  fact  about  this  same  fifteenth  century 
Jew's  private  charities,  is  the  scrupulous  care  with  which  he 
set  aside  a  tithe  of  his  income  for  distribution  to  the  poor. 
His  ow^n  words  on  the  subject  are  worth  reproducing^: — 

I  shall  also,  between  New  Year  and  the  Day  of  Atonement  in  each  year, 
calculate  my  profits  during  the  past  year  and  (after  deducting  expenses) 
give  a  tithe  thereof  to  the  poor.  Should  I  be  unable  to  make  an  accurate 
calculation,  then  I  will  give  approximately.  This  tithe  I  shall  put  aside, 
together  with  the  other  money  for  a  religious  (charitable)  purpose,  to 
dispose  of  it  as  I  shall  deem  best.  I  also  propose  to  have  the  liberty  of 
employing  the  money  in  any  profitable  speculation  with  a  view  of  aug- 
menting it  (for  the  use  of  the  poor).  But  all  I  have  written  above  I  shall 
not  hold  myself  guilty  if  I  transgress,  if  such  transgression  be  the  result 
of  forgetfulness  ;  but  in  order  to  guard  against  it,  I  shall  read  this  through 
weekly. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  benevolent  individual  must  have 
devoted  a  large  portion  of  his  income  to  charitable  purposes. 
The  Talmud  fixed  the  outside  limit  to  which  a  generous 
man  might  go  at  one-fifth  of  his  property^.  As,  however, 
the  Talmud  defines  this  limit  with  the  desire  of  protecting 
the  donor  against  his  own  excessive  generosity,  and  implies 
that  he  who  gives  more  than  a  fifth  may  impoverish  himself-^, 
there  may  have  been  many  who  exceeded  these  prescribed 
bounds,  adequate  though  they  were.  The  average  Jew  was 
always  expected  to  give  in  all  one  tithe  of  his  income  ^. 

»  S.  Schechter,  loc.  cit.  ^   i.  B.  Kethuboth,  50  a. 

'  On  the  other  hand,  a  later  Jewish  moralist  finely  says :  '■  No  man  ever 
became  poor  through  giving  too  much  in  charity '  (Joel  Shamariah's  Ethical 
Will). 

*  Maimonides,  D":y  m:ntt,  vii.  §  5. 


3ao 


Private  and  Communal  Charities, 


But  in  the  middle  ages  it  was  often  felt  desirable 
to  make  the  tithe  an  exact  charge,  and  not  to  rely  on 
a  rough  and  ready  computation^.  It  remained  a  volun- 
tary undertaking,  however,  and  no  congregation  ever 
seems  to  have  attempted  to  enforce  the  payment  of  the 
tithe  in  the  case  of  unwilling  donors.  In  fact  the  tithe 
continued  to  be  a  personal  or  family  institution,  the  son 
promising  to  continue  the  father's  custom,  and  only 
occasionally  did  a  number  of  Jews  bind  themselves  by 
a  joint  voluntary  promise  to  give  an  exact  tithe  to  the 
poor.  This  might  happen  on  the  initiative  of  a  Rabbinical 
authority  of  great  weight,  such  as  the  famous  Asher  ben 
Yechiel  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century.  When 
he  was  still  in  Germany,  his  congregants  all  bestowed  a 
tithe  of  their  income  on  the  poor.  On  settling  in  Toledo, 
he  and  his  sons  continued  the  practice.  Gradually,  how- 
ever, they  seem  to  have  grown  to  the  custom  until,  in  the 
month  of  September,  1346,  they  entered  into  a  formal 
promise  in  the  following  terms  ^: — 

'  We,  the  undersigned,  accept  an  ordinance  which  we 
have  in  the  handwriting  of  our  father  R.  Asher,  and  which 
he  worded  thus  :  Hear  my  son  the  instruction  of  thy  father, 
and  do  not  forget  the  law  of  thy  mother.  Seeing  that  in 
the  land  whence  we  are  come  hither  to  Spain,  our  fathers 
and  our  fathers'  fathers  were  wont  to  set  aside  for  charitable 
purposes  a  tithe  of  all  their  business  profits,  in  accordance 
with  our  sages'  prescription  ^,  we  hereby  undertake  to  follow 


^  Cf.  37m  m^«,  i.  p.  15 ;  Maharil,  n"i\D  '^Cremona,  1556,  56  &c.). 

^  The  Testament  of  J  udah  Asheri  (ed.  Schechter),  p.  15.  He  says:  *I  add 
the  form  of  promise  lest  perchance  any  one  who  sees  it  may  desire  to 
receive  upon  himself  this  same  obligation.' 

3  Pestkta  R.  xi. 


Charity  Organization.  321 

in  their  footsteps,  and  have  received  upon  ourselves  the 
obligation  to  devote  to  the  poor  one-tenth  of  our  profits 
earned  in  business,  derived  from  the  loan  of  capital  or  from 
commercial  undertakings.  Three-fourths  of  this  tithe  we 
will  hand  over  to  a  kupah  (or  general  fund),  which  shall  be 
administered  by  two  treasurers.  This  duty  we  undertake 
for  ourselves  and  our  children.' 

Then  follow  the  signatures  of  Asher  and  his  sons,  who 
on  their  part  add  that  in  giving  the  tithe  they  will  include 
property  which  comes  to  them  from  every  source,  by  in- 
heritance, gift,  or  from  marriage  settlements.  They  further 
agree  to  pay  the  tithe  within  eight  days  of  its  falling  due. 
The  signatures  of  the  children  of  the  original  covenanters 
are  also  added  at  a  later  date,  and  thus  we  see  how 
a  family  tradition  became  fully  established.  The  tithe, 
without  ever  becoming  universal,  must  have  been  pretty 
common.  In  the  fourteenth  century  it  was  in  vogue  in 
Germany  \  and  probably  elsewhere. 

Jewish  charitable  methods  in  the  middle  ages  con- 
tinuously tended  towards  differentiation.  By  the  thirteenth 
century,  philanthropic  societies  for  various  purposes  make 
themselves  apparent,  but  several  centuries  elapsed  before 
the  synagogue  finally  delegated  most  of  its  benevolent 
functions  to  semi-independent  bodies  ^.  In  the  sixteenth 
century   the    impoverishment   of  the   Jews    became    most 


'  'They  shall  give  in  charity  an  exact  tithe  of  their  property  and  shall 
never  turn  away  a  poor  man  empty-handed,  but  they  shall  give  him  what 
they  can,  be  it  much  or  little.  If  he  asks  for  a  lodging  over  night  and  they 
know  him  not,  they  shall  supply  him  with  money  that  he  may  pay  an 
innkeeper.'     {Ethical  Will  of  Eleazar  the  Levite  of  Mayence,  who  died  in 

1357- ) 

2  The  differentiation  was  anticipated  by  the  practice  of  allotting  certain 
proportions  of  the  general  charitable  funds  to  definite  objects. 

Y 


32a  Private  and  Communal  Charities. 

marked,  and  the  number  of  the  poor  increased.  In  former 
times,  Jewish  kindliness  had  bridged  over  the  gulf  between 
wealth  and  poverty,  now  the  gulf  itself  narrowed.  Perhaps 
it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  wealth  fell  into 
far  fewer  hands,  and  thus  the  bulk  of  the  Jews  were  all 
more  or  less  unable  to  meet  great  demands  on  their 
means.  They  compensated  for  the  lack  of  money  by  the 
energy  with  which  they  rendered  personal  services,  and 
the  comparatively  few  rich  men  bore  their  burden  manfully. 

Another  point  must  be  noted.  In  the  ghettos,  house- 
to-house  begging  might  be  carried  on  without  publicity, 
so  far  at  least  as  the  Christian  world  was  concerned.  Hence 
this  system  received  a  new  impetus  in  the  ghetto  centuries, 
and  re-established  itself  in  Jewish  life.  But  the  begging 
was  restricted  in  time,  and  only  occurred  on  Fridays  and  on 
the  middle  days  of  the  festivals  ^  Begging  in  the  streets 
of  the  ghetto,  or  in  front  of  the  synagogue,  was.  however, 
sternly  forbidden  2.  In  Rome  the  Fattori,  or  communal 
officers,  continued  to  carry  relief  to  the  houses  of  widows 
and  the  sick  in  order  to  spare  them  the  irksomeness  of 
soliciting  help  in  person.  As  the  number  of  Jews  settled 
in  Palestine  increased,  it  became  a  pressing  duty  to  provide 
for  the  settlers,  and  collections  were  regularly  made  for  the 
purpose.  Envoys  were  dispatched  from  the  Holy  Land,  and 
these  were  permitted  to  solicit  help  in  every  possible  way. 

Similarly,  individuals,  whether  strangers  or  members  of 
the  local  congregation,  were  allowed  in  special  cases  to  make 
special  appeals  to  the  benevolent,  though  not  in  person. 
'If  a  poor  man,'  says  Leon  di  Modena^  (1571-1648),  'has 

^  Cf.  p.  Rieger,  Geschichte  der  Juden  in  Rom,  ii,  p.  315. 
^  Berliner,  Ront,  ii.  2,  56  seq. 
^  Cf.  Montefiore,  loc.  cit. 


Circular  Letters.  323 

occasion  for  extraordinary  charity — as,  if  he  has  a  daughter 
to  marry,  or  would  redeem  any  of  his  family  that  are 
slaves,  whether  he  is  one  who  lives  with  them  or  a  stranger, 
'tis  all  one,  the  overseers  of  the  synagogue  procure  him  a 
promise  from  every  one :  which  is  done  thus.  The  chanter 
goes  round  and  says  to  every-  one.  calling  him  by  name, 
*  God  bless  so  and  so.  who  will  contribute  so  much  to  such 
a  charitable  design."  And  because  this  is  done  on  the 
Sabbath,  upon  which  day  they  touch  no  money,  every  one 
promises  by  word  of  mouth  what  he  thinks  fit:  and  the 
week  after  every  one  readily  pays  what  he  promised  to 
the  overseer ;  and  when  they  have  gathered  it  they  give  it 
to  the  poor  man.'  Circular  letters  were  also  granted  in 
such  cases,  and  the  father  who  had  a  daughter  to  marry  or 
a  relative  to  bury  or  release  would  readily  obtain  the 
succour  he  needed.  Mostly,  such  circular  letters  had  to 
be  presented  to  the  synagogal  authorities  at  each  stage 
of  the  itinerant  collector's  journey ;  for  he  needed  a  local 
licence  before  he  could  make  a  demand  upon  the  purses 
of  the  benevolent.  This  system  of  travelling  mendicancy' 
may  be  traced  as  early  as  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  -. 

-  S^/er  Chassuhm,  §  955. 


Y  2 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

PRIVATE    AND    COMMUNAL    CHARITIES    {continued). 
THE    SICK    AND    THE    CAPTIVE. 

It  is  obvious  that  if  the  charitable  organization  was  to 
keep  pace  with  the  wants  of  the  sick  and  the  poor,  special 
arrangements  had  to  be  made  for  meeting  the  various  types 
of  necessity.  '  Societies '  were  already  instituted  at  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century  ^,  but  a  most  luxuriant  crop  of 
benevolent  agencies  grew  up  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  By  that  time  the  differentiation  of  charitable  en- 
terprises had  reached  its  utmost  limit.  Elijah  ben  Solomon 
the  Levite,  who  lived  in  Smyrna  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  was  the  author  of  a  very  popular  ethical  code  entitled 
^  the  Rod  of  Reproof,'  also  compiled  an  elaborate  treatise 
on  charity.  This  book^  contains  nearly  2,000  paragraphs, 
which  take  the  form  of  learned  comments  on  charitable 
maxims  which  occur  in  the  Talmud  and  medieval  Hebrew 
literature ;  the  learning  being  interrupted  by  spirited 
homilies  and  striking  anecdotes.     At  one  point,  he  stays 

*  Nissim  Gerondi,  writing  circa  1350,  enumerates  five  societies  at  Per- 
pignan  :  for  the  study  of  the  Law,  visiting  the  sick,  providing  light,  relief  of 
the  poor,  and  for  burials  (Responsa,  §  84).     Cf.  Gudemann,  i.  50. 

"'  npi:^  "j'ro,  1731. 


Grozvth  of  Benevolent  Agencies.  325 

to  enumerate  the  various  charities  to  which  pious  Jews  of  his 
day  were  wont  to  subscribe.  '  The  Hst  is  very  badly  drawn 
up,  and  many  particulars  recur  twice,  and  even  three  times  ; 
but  after  all  due  curtailment  on  the  score  of  repetition, 
there  yet  remain  seventy  heads  of  charity,  covering  the 
widest  field.  First  there  are  the  charities  given  for  par- 
ticular objects,  such  as  clothing  the  poor,  paying  for 
their  education,  paying  dowries,  paying  burials,  paying  for 
doctor  and  medicine  for  sick  persons  and  lying-in  women, 
defraying  the  legal  expenses  of  persons  unjustly  accused, 
paying  nurses  for  orphan  children,  the  travelling  expenses  of 
the  poor,  and  so  on.  Then  come  charities  given  on  particular 
occasions — for  instance,  on  the  Sabbath  eve,  on  festivals, 
on  fast-days,  on  marriage,  on  recovery  from  an  illness, 
beginning  and  end  of  a  journey,  during  an  epidemic,  after 
a  bad  dream,  and  many  more.  Then  there  are  the  public 
charities,  contributing  to  Kupah  and  Tamchui,  to  the 
societies  for  the  ransom  of  prisoners,  to  collections  at 
dinners,  and  to  the  maintenance  of  the  public  hostelries. 
Then  there  remain  a  number  of  miscellaneous  charities, 
such  as  paying  taxes  for  the  poor,  sending  money  secretly 
to  persons  who  are  unwilling  to  make  their  poverty  known, 
lending  books,  and  several  other  items  too  numerous  to 
mention.  The  whole  list'  adds  Mr.  Montefiore  ^  'seems 
to  show  that  the  Talmudic  ascription  of  charity  to  Israel, 
as  a  mark  and  token  of  his  race,  is  not  exaggerated  or 
undeserved.' 

This  multiplicity  of  demands  was  met  by  the  foun- 
dation of  societies,  which  were  almost  as  numerous  as  the 
various  classes  of  charity  which  were  enumerated  above. 
Some   of    them    possessed    considerable    property,   which 

'  Jeivish  Chronicle,  loc.  cit. 


336  Private  and  Communal  Charities. 

accumulated  as  the  years  rolled  by.  Rome  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  may  be  taken  as  a  typical  instance.  The 
benevolent  societies  in  the  Roman  ghetto  were  grouped 
under  four  heads  ^;    {a)  those  for  the  relief  of  the  poor, 

(b)  those  which  were  concerned  with  the  burial  of  the  dead, 

[c)  those  which  provided  for  the  aged,  {d)  those  which  served 
religious  and  educational  objects.  At  this  period  seven 
societies  devoted  their  energies  to  the  provision  of  clothes, 
shoes,  linen,  beds,  and  warm  winter  bed-coverings  for 
young  children,  school  children,  the  poor,  especially  women, 
widows  and  prisoners  ^.  Two  societies  provided  trousseaus 
and  dowries  for  poor  brides^ — under  which  category  was 
sometimes  included  the  loan  of  jewellery  to  those  who 
possessed  none;  another  society  brought  help  to  the 
houses  of  those  who  met  with  sudden  deaths,  and  yet 
another  was  founded  for  visiting  the  sick  *.  Other  societies 
performed  the  last  loving  services  to  the  dying,  conducted 
the  purification  before  interment, and  attended  to  the  burial^. 

The  women  of  Rome  had  their  own  society,  too,  though 


^  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  (v),  p.  184.  In  Hebrew  these  were  societies  for  -iiir 
□'■?!,  Dncn  rhny,  D^:p  2«no,  and  d'^tdj^  iditt. 

^  Rieger,  loc.  cit.     These  societies  were  called  a'^Diir  ttJu'^n,  D^i"?'  rrCDn, 

^  Rieger,  loc.  cit. ,  mbini  min  and  t^-'ain  rrhtt.  These  societies  were  often 
the  cause  of  serious  abuse.  Indigent  parents  promised  their  daughters  large 
dowries,  and  when  the  bridegroom  refused  to  proceed  with  the  wedding 
unless  the  dowry  were  forthcoming,  the  fathers  went  in  tears  to  the 
managers  of  the  society  and  demanded  help.  In  1618  this  society  resolved 
that  no  father  who  promised  his  daughter  more  than  200  scudi  was  eligible 
for  help.  It  was  also  found  necessary  to  limit  the  number  of  cases  dealt 
with  annually  to  twelve.  In  societies  of  this  kind,  the  girls  often  drew  lots 
to  decide  which  should  receive  dowries.  The  lucky  maidens  were  in  much 
demand  with  amorous  bachelors.     Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  (2),  p.  57. 

*  Rieger,  loc.  cit.,  ^aZYi  piriD  and  o'bin  Tipu. 

5  Rieger,  loc.  cit,  D"n  rm«,  ct.d  n'lb,  and  ns'm  "n. 


Societies. 


327 


even  when  this  was  not  the  case,  they  were  associated  with 
the  men  in  administering  such  charities  as  were  concerned 
with  the  relief  of  their  own  sex^  In  addition  to  these 
societies,  a  special  association  devoted  itself  to  collecting  alms 
for  the  Holy  Land  ^.  Eleven  societies  were  engaged  in  pro- 
moting educational  and  religious  aims.  One  met  for  daily 
devotions  and  study,  another  for  the  same  purposes  on 
Sabbaths,  a  third  for  night  prayers  on  the  eves  of  the 
seventh  day  of  Passover,  the  first  day  of  the  Feast  of  Pente- 
cost, and  the  seventh  day  of  Tabernacles  ^.  Two  societies 
existed  for  providing  the  necessary  legal  mhiyan,  quorum 
of  ten  adult  males,  at  the  memorial  services  held  daily  in 
the  private  houses  of  mourners,  and  another  society  supplied 
the  mi?iyan  in  the  evenings  ^  The  Abrahamic  rite  was 
directed  by  a  special  society,  which  also  provided  necessaries 
and  dainties  for  the  mother  of  the  new-born  boy  ;  yet 
another  society  busied  itself  with  the  prayers  held  on  the 
evening   which    preceded    the    ceremony^.     In    order    to 

'  In  161 7  there  was  a  □■•\r:  man  in  Rome  (Rieger,  p.  316). 

'  □''jCJiT  "n  or  SsiMJ^  y-ix  "n. 

'  These  were  called  mii'a  mi?  "n,  n:ra«"i  no^?  nmio,  and  cip  "'^Jipo  "n 
(Rieger,  p.  317).  The  Societies  for  studying  the  Scriptures  and  Rabbinical 
literature  were  mostly  called  r\-\'\r\  Tiobn  "n ;  the  associations  for  prayer 
sometimes  ipb  Dn)3Tir  "n.  On  these  last-named  Societies,  which  date  from 
the  sixteenth  century,  cf  Steinschneider,  Jewish  Literature,  p.  242.  Many 
of  these  societies  were  known  by  other,  but  similar,  names  to  those  noted 
above.  It  is  impossible  to  give  the  variants  in  anything  like  completeness. 
A  few  may  be  added,  nbrin  mm;  d^qh'  'bijo  p"n,  nbii:  nbD  nD3Dn  p"n,  mtsr  p^n 
D'3pi  (for  the  relief  of  the  aged)  ;  also  D^:pT  rai'TUO  (for  the  same  object)  ;  pn  "n 
nwb ;  c"ii:n  man  (for  Talmud) ;  mi>?Dn  nvLV  Dncn  nb'Qj  ;  nbina  bio  man ;  y?  mnn 
D"n  (for  educational  purposes).  See  Zedner's  catalogue  of  the  Heb,  books 
in  Brit.  Mus.,  pp.  48,  49,  92,  279,  447,  510,  and  770.  In  finding  titles  for 
such  societies  there  was  no  limit  to  the  fancy.  Every  Bible  phrase  that  was 
apt  (or  not  apt)  for  the  purpose  was  chosen  at  one  time  or  another. 

*  These  were  the  mobs  r]z:^'0  D'b2^<  Dn:o,  and  nnio  ^ir^ao,  Rieger,  p.  318. 

*  Rieger,  loc.  cit.     They  were  named  nna  'bri  "n  and  N'l^n  n'bi*. 


33B  Privat€  mid  Communal  Charities. 

pro\'ide  the  poor  with  the  materials  for  fulfilling  certain 
religious  duties,  such  as  the  affixing  to  the  doorposts  of 
the  mszuzah  (Deut.  vi.  9).  the  illuminations  on  the  feast 
of  Dedication,  and  the  kindling  of  the  Sabbath-lights,  three 
societies  were  established  ^.  Lastly,  there  were  two  further 
associations  in  Rome  formed  for  literary  purposes  of  a 
religious  character^. 

Such  a  maze  of  societies,  it  is  true^,  did  not  exist  in  every 
Jewish  community " ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  this  Roman 
list  elaborate  though  it  be,  is  by  no  means  exhaustive. 
Jewidi  benevolence  was  unbounded,  and  needed  an  incal- 
culable number  of  outlets  for  its  abundant  energies.  Besides, 
these  benevolent  societies  performed  a  useful  social  function. 
TTie  members  met  together  at  regular  intervals  to  dine 
or  to  play,  they  prayed  and  studied  together,  and  were 
united  each  to  each  in  bonds  of  a  peculiar  friendliness. 
The  synp.gogue  as  a  body  did  not  entirely  dissociate  itself 
from  these  philanthropic  enterprises.  On  the  contrary 
it  aided  them  in  various  ways.  The  communal  authorities 
appointed  certain  times  at  which  public  offerings  or 
collections  might  be  made  in  synagogues  in  fav^our  of  the 
various  charities.  Mostly  the  individual  leaders  of  the 
synagogue  were  also  very  prominent  in  the  management 
and  support  of  the  benevolent  societies.     Besides  this,  at  all 

^  Their  names  were  rniTro  n^itr,  rein  7"^-r2,  and  riitr  t:  ^p^TD. 
*  Thej'  were  known  as  the  rmn  "ni^":;  and  rmn'T  c\-ir  yaip- 
"  In  1630.  in  Mantua  or  San  Martino,  seven  charities  are  enumerated  by 
Samuel  Portaleone  (see  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  v.  p.  514) ;  several  of  these 
are  generic  terms  which  may.  however,  have  included  many  subdivisions. 
The  seven  charities  are :  btntr-  pw  nnp ,  rmn  iiobn  njnp ,  nnon  r\ymy  n^y. 
tr^jm  nrip,  rrrrD  vrurr.  rx^n^,  rr':r  rcriE  ncip,  and  cmn©  nnp,  i.e.  (a)  the  box 
(fund)  for  the  Land  of  Israel,  (b)  the  box  for  studying  the  Law,  (c)  the  box 
for  burying  the  dead,  [d)  the  box  of  Mercy,  {e)  the  box  for  a  maiden's  dowry, 
(y)  the  box  for  maintaining  the  poor,  and  (^)  the  box  for  redeeming  captives. 


Visiting  the  Sick. 


320 


periods  wealthy  Jews  expended  large  sums,  either  directly 
or  through  the  communal  organizations,  in  the  support  of 
poor  students. 

There  were  at  least  two  acts  of  mercy  which  seem  to 
have  called  a  special  machiner>'  into  existence  at  an 
earlier  period  of  Jewish  life.  The  first  of  these  dealt 
with  the  sick  and  the  d\-ing.  The  Communal  Hosteliy- 
may  have  served  as  an  infirmary  or  hospital,  but  the 
medieval  Jews  preferred  to  treat  each  patient  in  his 
own  home.  The  attendance  on  the  sufiferers  from  disease 
or  bodily  weakness  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
duties  which  Jews  of  all  times  included  under  the  general 
head  of  charity.  This  duty  was  incumbent  on  every 
Jew.  rich  and  poor,  and  was  extended  towards  patients 
of  all  classes  and  creeds.  Though  the  Jews  of  the  middle 
ages  were  strongly  averse  to  accepting  alms  or  other 
charitable  services  from  any  but  their  co-religionists. 
they  felt  no  similar  scruples  in  rendering  such  help^. 
On  the  contrar}*.  Jewish  charity  knew  no  bounds  of  creed. 
Naturally,  however.  Jews  were  the  chief  recipients  of 
Jewish  charity. 

Much  tenderness  was  shown  in  visiting  those  who  were 
confined  to  their  houses  by  prostrating  illness.  After  s\Tia- 
gogue  ser\'ice  on  the  Sabbath  morning,  the  worshippers 
paid   regular  visits  to  the  sick  before   returning  home  to 


^  Cf.  Shxilchaii  Arach.  Yore  Deah,  cclu  i.  cccxatv.  9 :  ccclxviL  1 ;  Maimo- 
nides.  viiL  and  ZT^s  "rr,  x.  12 ;  err  r'-^n  "n ;  Isseries  to  Yort  Demk,  ccfi.  i 
and  cxlix.  4 ;  Orach  Chayim,  dcsciv.  3.  These  are  bat  a  small  fracdoii  of 
the  numerous  prescriptions  m  Jewkh  antborities  of  all  ages)  which  <xdain 
the  paramount  duty  of  relieving  non-Jewish  pocur  with,  and  in  preference 
to,  the  Jewish  poor.  For  further  passages  see  HofFmann,.  Der  Sktdtkmn 
Arttck,  Sac,  p.  72  seq.  As  to  tfie  ncn-acccptance  of  gifts  from  otliefs  than 
Jews,  c£  MuUer,  Mmfimck,  131. 


330  Private  and  Communal  Charities. 

partake  of  their  meaP.  This  general  concern  with  such 
matters  partly  accounts  for  the  fact  that  so  little  '  parish 
visiting '  was  done  by  the  Rabbis  in  the  middle  ages ;  this 
function  was  performed  by  the  laity  in  general  and  by 
the  lay-heads  of  the  congregation  in  particular.  The  Rabbi 
merely  performed  his  share  like  other  pious  members  of 
the  community. 

The  Jewish  etiquette  at  such  visits  was  almost  beyond 
praise.  It  was  thought  bad  manners  for  any  but  his  most 
familiar  friends  to  call  upon  the  patient  too  soon  after  he 
fell  ill,  for  such  precipitancy  might  make  him  appear  in 
a  worse  plight  than  he  actually  was.  No  visitor  was  to 
become  a  nuisance  by  making  too  long  a  stay ;  nor  was 
he  to  present  himself  when  the  sufferer  was  in  acute  pain. 
The  patient  was  to  be  cheered,  and  not  depressed  by 
conversation  on  dismal  topics  of  death  and  misfortune. 
A  man's  personal  enemy  was  to  refrain  from  visiting 
the  sufferer,  for  his  presence  might  be  misconstrued  as 
implying  a  desire  to  gloat  over  his  foe's  prostration.  An 
essential  of  the  visit  was  the  prayer  uttered  on  the  patient's 
behalf  Women  were  notoriously  tender  to  the  sick,  hence 
their  evidence  was  not  accepted  as  to  the  inability  of  the 
invalid  to  fast  on  the  Day  of  Atonement.  Just  as  occurs 
at  the  present  day  in  our  hospitals,  Jewish  men  were  nursed 
by  women,  but  the  women  were  not  nursed  by  men. 

It  does  not  seem  that  the  community  found  it  necessary 
to  make  its  own  arrangements  for  the  medical  treatment 
of  the  poor  until  a  late  period.  The  Jewish  physicians 
attended  the  poor  without  charge^,  a  physician  would 
train    his    son    to    regard    that    as    the    proper    course    of 

'    Or  Zarua   ii.  p.  22. 

-  Cf.  the  aclivitj-  of  Maimonides.  p.  235  above. 


Epidemics,  331 

conduct  ^  and  at  all  times  Jewish  doctors  charged  very 
moderately  for  their  services.  To  add  another  to  the  in- 
stances cited  in  previous  chapters,  Saul  Astruc  Cohen,  a 
popular  physician  and  scholar  of  Algiers  at  the  close  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  not  only  practised  his  art  gratuitously, 
'  but  spent  his  fortune  in  relieving  both  Mohammedan 
and  Jewish  poor^.'  A  medical  officer  was  often  attached 
to  a  benevolent  society,  which  will  soon  be  described. 
Such  societies  were  chiefly  called  into  existence  by  the 
various  epidemics  which  devastated  Europe  in  the  middle 
ages.  Under  the  strain  of  extraordinary  needs,  the  usual 
methods  for  providing  medical  attendance  broke  down, 
and  benevolent  societies  sprang  into  existence  as  rapidly 
as  the  demand  for  them  arose. 

It  may  be  convenient  to  inquire  at  this  point  into  the 
question  whether  the  Jews  were  more  or  less  subject  to 
medieval  epidemics  than  the  rest  of  Europe.  We  may 
pass  over  as  exceptional  the  serious  cases  of  epidemic 
disease  which  affected  the  Jews  when  herded  together  in 
emigrant  ships  after  their  expulsion  from  Spain  and 
Portugal.  Under  average  circumstances,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  it  was  generally  believed  that  the  Jews  suffered  less 
than  the  Christian  populations  from  various  forms  of 
disease  ^.  Their  manner  of  life  undoubtedly  preserved 
them  from  those  epidemics  which  depended  upon  con- 
trollable circumstances,  or  arose  from  causes  to  which  the 
Jews   were    not    subjected.      Jews   were    free    both    from 

'  'Thou  mayest  accept  fees  from  the  rich,'  said  Judah  Ibn  Tibbon  to  his 
son,  'but  heal  the  poor  gratuitously.'  He  adds:  'Examine  thy  drugs  and 
medicinal  herbs  regularly  once  a  week,  and  never  apply  a  remedy-  which 
thou  hast  not  thoroughly  tested.' 

''■  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews  (E.  T.),  IV.  ch.  vi. 

*  Cf.  e.g.  ■  A.R.,'  A  View  of  the  Jewish  Religion  (London,  1656',  p.  399. 


332 


Private  and  Communal  Charities. 


'  Anglorum  fames '  and  the  '  Francorum  ignis.'  The 
standard  of  living  was  higher  than  the  average  with  the 
Jews  in  the  middle  ages,  and  the  famine-pestilences  slew 
fewer  victims  in  the  ghettos  than  in  the  quarters  inhabited 
by  non-Jews.  Agrarian  epidemics,  such  as  the  '  Francorum 
ignis '  or  gangrene,  were  the  scourge  of  the  peasantry,  not 
of  the  dwellers  in  towns.  Leprosy  was  certainly  less 
common  among  Jews  than  among  Christians  ^,  and  again 
the  explanation  is  reasonably  simple.  The  medieval  leprosy 
seems  to  have  arisen  from  the  large  consumption  of  badly 
salted  meat  and  fish,  which,  when  eaten  by  the  poor,  was 
often  in  a  semi-putrid  condition  2.  Now  the  Jews,  however 
poor,  rarely  ate  any  but  fresh  meat,  and  their  religion 
prevented  them  from  using  it  as  food  when  it  had  become 
putrid. 

Further,  Jews  seem  to  have  suffered  little  from  cholera 
and  allied  diseases.  On  the  other  hand,  they  were  martyrs 
to  malaria  in  the  Roman  ghetto^,  into  which  the  Tiber 
constantly  overflowed.  Small-pox  marked  down  a  large 
number  of  Jewish  victims  ^.  In  the  terrible  scourge  known 
as  the  Black  Death,  which  devastated  the  civilized  world  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  the  Jews  were  great  sufferers.  In 
the  middle  ages,  the  popular  imagination  invariably  flew  to 
poisoning  as  the  explanation  of  epidemics,  and  the  Jews 
were  massacred  by  thousands  during  the  outburst  of 
fanatical  madness  which  seized  upon  Europe  in  conse- 
quence of  the  Black  Death.  It  is  now  known,  however,  that 
the  Jews  suffered  equally  with   the   Christians   in  Vienna, 

^  A  mj'lh  that  there  were  manj'  Jewish  lepers  in  France  grew  out  of  the 
identit}'  in  form  of  the  badge  worn  bj^  Jews  and  lepers  in  the  middle  ages. 
2  C.  Creighton,  A  History  of  Epidemics  in  Britain,  p.  no  seq. 
-^  But  see  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  p.  360. 


*  Holy  Leagues.  * 


333 


Goslar,  Regensburg,  Avignon,  and  Rome  \  Many  Jewish 
cemeteries  were  enlarged  at  this  period  to  receive  the  bodies 
of  those  who  died  from  the  plague  or  fell  martyrs  to  a 
foolish  myth  ^. 

Jewish  burial  societies,  called  *  Holy  Leagues  '  [chevra 
kadisha)  ^,  have,  with  some  plausibility,  been  traced  back 
as  far  as  the  fourth  century.  In  the  first  century,  the 
interment  of  the  dead  was  a  duty  undertaken  by  the  whole 
community.  'AH  who  pass  by  when  one  is  buried,'  says 
Josephus  *,  '  must  accompany  the  funeral  and  join  in  the 
lamentation.'  But  outside  Palestine  the  Jews  did  rather 
more  than  this.  Every  Babylonian  Jew  ceased  from  his 
work  the  moment  that  he  was  informed  of  a  death,  and 
participated  in  the  preparations  for  burial.  '  Rav  Ham- 
nuna  (died  about  320)  chanced  to  be  in  a  town  named 
Daro.  Suddenly  he  heard  the  note  of  a  horn,  and  knew 
by  this  signal  that  some  one  had  just  died.  To  his 
surprise,  he  saw  that  some  people  continued  at  their  work 
as  if  nothing  had  happened  (to  need  their  immediate 
attention).  Hamnuna  demanded :  "  Ought  not  these  men 
to  be  severely  punished,  since,  knowing  that  a  death  has 
just  occurred,  they  still  continue  their  ordinary  avoca- 
tions?"    ''There   is  an  association    in  the   town,"  he  was 


^  R.  Hoeniger,  Der  Schwarse  Tod  in  Deutschland  (Berlin,  1882),  p.  42. 
Cf.  Haeser,  Lehrhuch  der  Geschichte  der  Medicin  und  der  Volkskrankheiten 
(Jena,  1882),  iii.  p.  156. 

■-'  A  'therichtes  Marchen,'  Hoeniger  calls  it  (loc.  cit.\ 

^  This  title  j^TCnp  sian  was  also  used,  in  a  generic  sense,  of  any  society 
formed  for  a  religious  purpose.  One  frequently  meets  in  Jewish  records 
with  mm  y\y±ir\  p"n,  and  so  forth.  See  e.g.  Gudemann,  Quellenschrifien^ 
p.  301,  where  the  Frankfort  society,  whose  objects  are  educational,  is 
termed  STUnp  miirin.  Further,  several  benevolent  societies  in  Amsterdam 
were  known  as  i^"r\  (cf.  Zedner,  Catalogue,  p.  49). 

^  Against  Apion,  ii.  27. 


334 


Private  and  Communal  Charities. 


toldj  "  and  therefore  all    men   need  not   discontinue   their 
work  to  attend  to  the  dead^'" 

The  general  cessation  of  work  when  a  death  occurred 
continued  in  some  Jewish  congregations  for  many  centuries. 
In  1730  all  shops  were  shut  in  Sofia  whenever  a  Jew  died  ^, 
and  throughout  the  middle  ages  information  of  a  death 
was  conveyed  to  every  member  of  most  congregations  by 
methods  already  described,  or  by  the  pouring  forth  of  all 
the  water  in  the  house  wherein  the  dead  lay  unburied  ^. 
Still,  the  inconvenience  and  the  dislocation  of  business 
caused  by  a  general  cessation  from  work  must  have  power- 
fully helped  forward  the  formation  of  Holy  Leagues,  which 
assumed  the  duties  of  tending  the  sick,  supplying  medicines 
and  warm  clothing,  preparing  the  dead  for  burial,  pro- 
viding graves  and  tombstones,  arranging  for  the  celebration 
of  the  proper  rites  in  the  house  of  mourning,  and  relieving 
the  immediate  distress  of  those  whom  the  funeral  and  the 
attendant  loss  of  the  wage-earners'  income  plunged  into 
temporary  want. 

Epidemics  were  also  a  fruitful  cause  of  the  formation  of 
these  leagues  or  brotherhoods.  At  such  periods  the  need 
of  a  special  organization  was  much  felt,  and  no  fear  of 
personal  danger  from  contagion  restrained  the  pious  from 

'  T.  B.  Moed  Katon,  27  b.  This  is  the  usual  explanation  of  the  passage 
(cf.  M.  Adler  in  Jewish  Chronicle,  Oct.  7,  1892),  but  it  is  by  no  means  clear 
that  the  Talmud  refers  to  a  burial  society.  The  phrase,  SD"'N  xnnar,  may 
simply  mean  (as  Rashi  explains)  that  each  section,  rmzr,  of  the  community 
attended  to  its  own  dead,  and  that  the  whole  community  did  not  need  to 
concern  itself  with  evety  funeral.  For  a  possible  reference  to  a  burial  society 
see  Setnaihoth,  ch.  xii.  It  should  be  added  that  the  correct  reading  in  Moed 
Katon,  27  a,  is  the  town  Dard,  and  not  the  south  (cf.  Dikduke  Sofenm,  ad  loc). 

^  R.  Meldola's  wy\  CO  n"iTr,  ii.  65. 

^  R.  Nissim  (to  Moed  Katon,  27  b)  states  that  this  was  the  usual  signal 
of  a  death  in  his  time. 


Ransoming  Captives.  335 

devoting  themselves  to  the  task  of  affording  decent  and 
loving  attention  to  the  dying  and  the  dead.  Another 
occasional  motive  for  the  formation  of  such  leagues  was 
the  distance  of  the  cemeteries  from  the  Jewish  quarters. 
We  have  seen  above  that  the  cemetery  was  mostly  near 
the  ghetto,  but  this  was  not  always  the  case.  The  cost 
and  toil  involved  where  the  coffin  had  to  be  conveyed  a 
great  distance,  led  to  unbecoming  methods  of  transporta- 
tion. In  such  case  a  Holy  League  would  be  created 
to  provide  for  the  decorous  conveyance  of  the  bodies  and 
their  interment  in  the  distant  cemeteries  ^.  The  members 
of  these  Holy  Leagues  enjoyed  much  respect  and  some 
religious  and  social  privileges,  for  kindness  shown  to  the 
dead  was,  in  the  Jewish  view,  the  highest  form  of  charity, 
in  that  it  was  rendered  without  possibility  of  gratitude  or 
reward  from  the  recipient. 

Another  imperative  call  was  frequently  made  on  Jewish 
generosity  in  the  middle  ages.  Jews  from  the  earliest 
periods  regarded  the  duty  of  ransoming  captives  as  one 
of  their  most  pressing  obligations  ^.  The  revolt  against 
Rome  resulted  in  the  enslavement  of  a  large  number  of 
the  sons  of  Judah,  many  of  whom  were  freed  by  their  co- 
religionists. The  cost  of  purchasing  the  freedom  of  Jewish 
slaves  was  always  a  first  charge  on  the  synagogal  resources. 
At  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  Moses  ben  Chanoch  was 
carried  to  Cordova  as  a  prisoner  by  the  captain  of  the  vessel 
in  which  he  and  his  family  had  taken  passage  to  Spain.    The 

^  An  interesting  case  of  this  kind  is  recorded  by  Joseph  Sambary  (Neu- 
bauer,  Anccdota  Oxoniensia,  Medieval  Jewish  Chronicles,  i.  p.  157).  This 
occurred  near  the  year  1500. 

'  Cf.  Maimonides,  D"2y  m:n7::,  viii.  §§  10-15;  Shulchan  Aruch,  Yore  Deah, 
§  252  ;  Kolbo,  93  a.  See  also  Tosefta,  end  of  first  chapter  of  Shekalim  ;  and 
Or  Zarua,  i.  p.  14.    The  duty  is  frequently  referred  to  in  the  Talmud. 


3s6  Private  and  Communal  Charities. 

Cordovese  Jews,  little  knowing  the  important  role  that  the 
stranger  was  destined  to  play,  ransomed  him  as  a  matter  of 
coursed 

In  the  course  of  centuries,  how^ever,  the  burden  of  ran- 
soming Jewish  prisoners  became  excessively  onerous.  The 
need  of  inter-communal  action  was  severely  felt,  and  inde- 
pendent Jewish  congregations  banded  themselves  together 
for  the  purpose.  The  scene  of  the  worst  experiences  in  this 
direction  lay  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  in  Spain 
and  Italy.  The  Barbary  corsairs  of  the  eighteenth  century 
had  their  analogues  in  the  fifteenth.  Heart-rending  indeed 
were  the  sufferings  endured  by  the  Jews  who  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  bandits  and  pirates,  who  took  advantage 
of  the  cruel  necessity  which  drove  the  Jews  from  shore 
to  shore  in  vain  search  for  a  friendly  and  peaceful  resting- 
place.  When  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Alfonso  V  of  Portugal  captured  the  African  seaports, 
Arzilla  and  Tangier,  he  carried  off  250  Jews  of  both  sexes 
and  ever}^  age.  and  sold  them  as  slaves  throughout  the 
kingdom.  The  Portuguese  Jews  applied  to  Yechiel  of 
Pisa,  financier  and  philanthropist,  and  he  generously  assisted 
his  brethren.  Lisbon  Jews  formed  a  representative  com- 
mittee of  twelve  members,  and  the  famous  statesman- 
scholar,  Don  Isaac  Abarbanel^,  himself  travelled  over  the 
whole  country  and  redeemed  the  Jewish  slaves,  often  at 
a  high  price.  '  The  ransomed  Jews  and  Jewesses,  adults 
and  children,  were  clothed,  lodged,  and  maintained  until 
they  had  learned  the  language  of  the  country  and  were 
able  to  support  themselves  ^.' 

Soon,  however,  the  Jews  of  Italy  found  their  resources 

^  Graetz.  History  of  ihe  Jews  (E.T.),  III.  ch.  vu. 
^  Graetz,  op.  cit,  ch.  xi. 


Sufferings  of  Emigrants.  337 

taxed  to  the  utmost.  The  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from 
Spain  in  1492  cast  many  thousands  of  exiles  on  the  rest 
of  Europe.  Except  in  Rome,  the  Jews  of  Italy  every^vhere 
strained  their  fullest  powers  to  provide  for  the  burden  thus 
cast  upon  them.  In  Naples,  King  Ferdinand  behaved 
with  the  bravest  humanity,  and  in  the  teeth  of  much 
popular  opposition  allowed  the  Jewish  exiles  to  settle 
outside  the  town,  and  provided  hospital  accommodation  for 
them.  At  Pisa  the  sons  of  the  wealthy  Yechiel  fairly  took 
up  their  abode  on  the  quay  \  to  prevent  delay  in  receiving 
and  entertaining  wanderers.  In  many  places,  moreover, 
the  reception  of  the  Jews  was  rendered  the  more  costly. 
seeing  that  the  fugitives  had  to  be  purchased  by  their 
Jewish  benefactors.  The  captains  of  the  vessels  in  which 
the  Jews  sailed  frequently  claimed  the  passengers  as  their 
slaves.  In  the  Greek  islands  of  Corfu  and  Candia,  the 
Jews  sold  the  gold  from  their  synagogue  ornaments  to 
raise  money  for  freeing  such  slaves.  In  Turkey  the  Jews 
were  received  by  the  Sultan,  Bajazet  II,  with  extraordinary' 
kindness,  and  the  native  Jews  of  his  realm  vied  with  their 
Italian  brethren  in  the  efforts  they  made  to  ser\'e  the 
Spanish  exiles.  Moses  Kapsali,  the  most  noted  Turkish 
Rabbi  of  the  time,  travelled  from  congregation  to  congre- 
gation, and  levied  a  tax  on  the  native  Jews  to  defray  the 
cost  of  '  liberating  the  Spanish  captives.'  But  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  add  further  details.  The  horrors  of  the  expulsion 
from  Spain  are  such,  that  a  Jewish  writer  willingly  refrains 
from  repeating  the  oft-told  tale  of  suffering  and  degradation. 
But  the  horrors  are  somewhat  relieved  by  the  superhuman 
efforts  made  by  the  Jews  themselves  to  rescue  their 
brethren  from  death  or  ser\-itude. 

-rij'.z.  op.  cit..  ch-  xii.     Cf.  p.  242  above. 
Z 


338  Private  and  Communal  Charities. 

The  troubles  of  the  Jews  were  not  relaxed  after  the 
settlement  in  new  abodes  of  those  of  the  Spanish  exiles 
who  survived  the  perils  of  their  expulsion.  In  the  middle 
of  the  sixteenth  century  the  vessels  of  the  Italian  republic 
or  of  African  buccaneers  captured  many  Jews  and  reduced 
them  to  slavery.  The  frequent  oppressions  in  other  parts 
of  Europe  produced  similar  but  not  such  extensive  results. 
Everywhere  the  Jews  bestirred  themselves  to  purchase  the 
freedom  of  their  brethren.  Unhappily  this  readiness  of 
the  Jews  to  pay  ransom,  encouraged  the  man-stealers  to 
further  exertions.  The  capture  of  Jews  was  too  profitable 
a  business  to  fail  of  many  willing  and  enterprising  recruits. 
The  Jews  tried  to  protect  themselves  by  refusing  to  pay  too 
high  a  price  for  the  freedom  they  so  generously  bought. 
Not  often,  however,  were  they  able  to  resist  the  temptation 
to  ransom  their  brethren  at  all  costs.  If  they  hesitated,  the 
captors  knew  how  to  put  on  the  screw^  and  the  prisoners 
were  maltreated,  starved,  and  deprived  of  their  wearing 
apparel  until  their  price  was  forthcoming.  To  give  a  fillip 
to  their  co-religionists'  pity,  the  prisoners  were  sometimes 
mutilated,  their  ears  and  noses  being  lopped  off^  The 
Jewish  communities  were  mulcted  to  a  considerable  extent, 
and  their  property  squeezed  from  them.  Occasionally, 
the  ransomed  prisoners  were  able  to  refund  the  sums  paid 
for  them:  thus  in  1543  a  leading  Jew  of  Algiers  was 
ransomed  for  sixty  or  seventy  crowns,  and  promptly  repaid 
the  amount  ^. 


'  Isidore  Loeb,  Josef  Haccohen,  p.  23. 

^  The  need  of  *  ransoming  captives '  has  been  felt  in  Jewish  congregations 
almost  to  the  present  time.  A  few  years  ago  the  Sephardic  congregations 
in  London  retained  the  office  of  honorary  superintendent  of  the  fund  for 
the  '  Cautivos,'  and  possibly  the  office  is  still  in  existence. 


The  Ransomed  Prisoners. 


339 


On  regaining  their  liberty,  many  of  these  ransomed  Jews 
were  forced  to  beg  to  obtain  the  necessaries  of  life.  The 
impoverishment  of  the  Jews,  which  synchronized  with  the 
Reformation,  rendered  them  less  and  less  able  to  cope 
with  the  distress  into  which  these  miserable  victims  of 
medieval  misgovernment  were  regularly  plunged.  The 
climax  of  Jewish  impoverishment  was  reached  at  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  the  dawn  of  a 
better  day  was  visible  before  the  close  of  that  dark  century 
in  Jewish  life. 


Z  1 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE    MEDIEVAL    SCHOOLS. 

The  Renaissance  produced  a  violent  transformation  in 
the  relative  excellence  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  systems 
of  education  in  Europe.  Before  the  revival  of  letters,  the 
Jews  were  probably  better  educated  than  any  other  section 
of  the  European  population.  The  average  Jew  could 
always  read  and  write  ^,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said 
of  the  ordinary  layman  in  the  middle  ages.  But  at  the 
Renaissance,  Christian  education  not  only  took  a  vast 
stride  forwards,  but  a  backward  blow  was  administered  at 
the  Jews,  except  those  who  dwelt  in  Italy,  which  left  them 
far  in  the  rear  for  some  centuries.  Moreover,  the  literary 
and  religious  upheavals  which  modernized  the  rest  of 
Europe  seem  by  a  species  of  natural  as  well  as  deliberate 
reaction  to  have  cast  the  Jews  into  their  one  real  experience 
of  medieval  gloom.  The  Jewish  middle  ages  began  just 
when  the  medieval  cloud  vanished  from  Christian  society. 

Hence  during  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth 
centuries — the  ghetto  centuries,  be  it  noted — the  Jews 
entirely  lost  the  educational  supremacy  which  they  had 
previously   enjoyed.     During   those    centuries   they    were 

^  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte  und  Literatur  (1845),  p.  177. 


Talmudical  Educatioyi,  341 

worse  and  not  better  taught  than  the  rest  of  Europe,  and 
the  deterioration  in  educational  method  was  accompanied 
by  a  diminution  in  the  scope  which  Jewish  cuhure  em- 
braced. That  these  evil  effects  were  not  more  damaging 
was  due  entirely  to  the  fortunate  circumstance  that  the 
Talmudical  school  system  was  far  in  advance  of  its  age  ^ 
The  Jews,  when  thrown  upon  themselves  in  their  dark 
ages,  naturally  turned  to  their  Rabbinical  traditions  as 
their  guide  and  norm.  They  endeavoured  to  obey  the 
Talmudical  prescriptions  with  regard  to  the  education  of 
children,  and  as  these  prescriptions  were  so  fundamentally 
sound  that  they  are  not  even  now  obsolete,  the  Jews  of 
the  ghetto  period  were  preserved  from  anything  like  a  com- 
plete intellectual  collapse. 

Reverting  to  the  pre-ghetto  period,  the  educational  status 
of  the  Jews  in  various  parts  of  Europe  was  by  no  means 
uniform.  This,  however,  applies  only  to  the  acquirements 
of  adults.  Jewish  children  were  educated  much  in  the 
same  way  all  over  the  civilized  world,  and  the  divergence 
only  becomes  apparent  when  the  years  of  boyhood  have 
passed.  The  term  boyhood  is  employed  designedly,  for  no 
regular  provision  was  made  for  the  education  of  Jewish 
girls.  In  the  later  medieval  centuries,  Christian  women 
were  far  better  equipped  than  their  brothers  and  husbands, 
and  thus  the  Jewish  women  would  have  suffered  doubly  by 


^  For  an  excellent  account  of  the  Talmudical  views  on  education  see 
Strassburger's  Geschichte  der  Erziehung  bet  den  Israeliten  (^Stuttgart,  1885). 
This  book  is  not  so  useful  for  later  periods,  but  this  is  the  less  regrettable 
seeing  that  the  works  of  M.  Gudemann  are  a  complete  armoury  of  in- 
formation on  the  medieval  period.  To  his  Geschichte  des  Erziehungswesens 
und  der  Cultur  der  Juden  (Vienna,  1880,  1884,  1888)  must  be  added  the 
same  author's  Quellenschriften  zur  Geschichte  des  Unterrichts  und  der  Erziehung 
bei  den  deutschen  Juden  (Berlin,  1891). 


343 


The  Medieval  Schools. 


comparison  with  their  Christian  sisters.  But  this  neglect 
of  female  education  by  the  Jews  does  not  imply  that  the 
women  were  hopelessly  ignorant.  The  Jewess  married 
early,  and  even  had  she  been  provided  with  a  school 
career,  her  years  of  study  must  have  been  very  few.  But 
with  a  large  number  of  ritual  prescriptions  she  was  perforce 
made  acquainted,  and  the  just  fulfilment  of  her  ordinary 
household  duties  entailed  a  considerable  knowledge  of 
Biblical  and  Rabbinical  law. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  a  goodly  number  of  Jewish 
women  deserved  the  title  of  learned.  This  learning  they 
acquired  at  home  from  the  lips  of  their  parents  and 
brothers,  for,  as  a  medieval  Rabbi  naYvely  remarks,  though 
it  be  wrong  to  teach  women,  there  is  no  reason  why  they 
should  not  obtain  knowledge  of  their  own  initiative  ^ 
There  is  another  important  fact  to  be  derived  from 
a  further  statement  of  the  same  Rabbi.  He  asserts  in 
so  many  words  that  many  Jewesses  in  South  Germany 
were,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  noted  for 
their  learning,  a  fact  which  is  strengthened  by  many 
particular  instances  on  record  in  the  Talmud  and  in 
medieval  annals  of  the  Jews  of  other  countries  as  well  as 
Germany^.  These  women  entered  into  learned  discussions 
with  famous  Rabbis,  and  the  opinions  of '  Lady  Rabbinists ' 
were  cited  often  with  approval. 

Jewish  women  did  not  as  a  rule  learn  to  write,  but 
occasionally  they  were  accomplished  scribes,  assisted 
their  husbands  in  their  literary  correspondence,  and  with 

*  Responsa,  Maharil  (Cremona,  1556),  199. 

^  Some  interesting  cases  are  collected  by  Kayserling  in  his  Die  Jiidischen 
Frauen  (Leipzig,  1879),  p.  134  seq.,  and  Nahida  Remy,  The  Jewish  Woman 
(Philadelphia,  1896),  passim.     Cf.  also  Zunz,  op.  cit.,  p.  172. 


Learned  Women.  343 

their  own  hands  made  copies  of  books  of  reference  and  of 
other  learned  works  for  them.  Some  of  these  copies,  still 
extant,  display  a  neat  and  clear  hand,  and — what  is  more — 
scrupulous  accuracy.  These  women  were  adepts  in  other 
arts  besides  a  knowledge  of  the  Talmud.  They  were 
often  musicians,  and  instructed  their  sisters  in  the  tunes 
to  which  the  synagogue  hymns  must  be  sung.  The 
Jewish  women  were  able  to  play  on  musical  instruments, 
and  would  sing  the  verses  which  their  husbands  composed, 
with  musical  accompaniments  ^.  H ence,  when  the  eighteenth 
century  saw  a  revival  in  Jewish  culture,  the  women  were 
the  first  to  emerge  into  the  new  light.  Wealthy  Jews, 
subject  to  the  disapprobation  of  rigidly  orthodox  Rabbis, 
engaged  music-masters  to  teach  their  daughters  the  art 
of  playing  on  instruments^.  The  phenomenal  success  of 
Jewesses  as  leaders  of  salons  in  the  Mendelssohnian  era 
of  intellectual  emancipation,  was  prepared  by  a  long  process 
of  self-elevation,  which  was  steadily  but  silently  developed 
in  the  female  life  of  the  ghettos. 

Some  of  these  Jewish  women  were  even  public  teachers. 
Samuel  ben  AH  of  Bagdad,  one  of  the  '  Princes  of  the 
Captivity'  in  the  twelfth  century,  had  no  sons,  but  only 
one  daughter.  '  She  is  expert  in  the  Scripture  and  Talmud/ 
says  Petachia  ^.  '  She  gives  instruction  in  Scripture  to 
young  men  through  a  window.  She  herself  is  within  the 
building,  whilst  the  disciples  are  below  outside  and  do  not 
see  her.'  The  same  precaution  was  adopted  by  another 
Jewess  who  emulated  Hypatia.    This  was  Miriam  Schapira, 

^  Cf.  Kaufmann  in  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  iii.  p.  298. 

"^  See  yow  F]DV,  §  890,  pDiuj  Dn^inrmD  no  "jna  iicn'?  'rri  icto  tno  rra 

^   Travels  of  R.  Petachia  (ed.  Benisch),  p.  19. 


344 


The  Medieval  Schools. 


the  ancestress  of  the  Loria  family.  She  seems  to  have 
conducted  a  regular  college,  which  was  attended  by  many 
youths.  She  sat  behind  a  veil  or  curtain  while  delivering 
her  lectures  \  Yet  another  woman,  Dulcie,  the  daughter 
of  Eliezer  of  Worms,  held  public  discourses  on  the  Sabbath. 
She  supported  her  husband  and  family,  and  with  her  two 
daughters  suffered  a  martyr's  death  in  1213  or  12 14  at  the 
hands  of  two  Knights  of  the  Cross. 

If  the  Jewess  made  but  rare  appearances  as  a  public 
teacher,  she  was  present  in  every  home  as  a  private 
instructress.  Several  medieval  Rabbis  declared,  in  after 
life,  that  their  first  and  best  teachers  were  their  mothers. 
The  average  Jewess  was  not  equal  to  such  a  burden  as  this, 
but  the  education  of  her  boys  regularly  fell  on  her  shoulders 
until  they  attained  their  fifth  year.  Subsequently  her  part 
was  that  of  the  moral  monitress  rather  than  the  intellectual 
guide.  But  this  involved  some  important  consequences. 
After  the  art  of  printing  was  invented,  the  favourite 
literature  of  Jewish  women  comprised  simple  ethical 
treatises,  which  eulogized  the  domestic  virtues  and  in- 
culcated pure  ideals.  These  she  imparted  to  her  sons  and 
daughters.  Moreover,  the  very  fact  that  she  did  not  know 
much  Hebrew  rendered  it  necessary  for  her  to  pray  in  the 
vernacular,  and  to  teach  her  children  to  pray  in  the  same 
language.  The  boy  was  early  accustomed  to  easy  Hebrew 
prayers,  but  he  must  have  also  become  familiar  with 
prayers  in  his  ordinary  language.  Portions  of  the  home 
ritual  recited  on  the  Passover  eve  were  translated  by  the 
father  for  the  sake  of  the  women  and  children  ^. 

^  Kayserling,  op,  cit.,  p.  138. 

'  rrri^  ^tdon"?  Da^^n'1  nanco  no  idik  (Muller,  Mafteach,  p.  no).     Hymns  in 
German  and  '  jargon  '  found  their  way  into  the  same  home  rite  at  a  later  date. 


The    Vernacular  in  Prayer.  345 

The  vernacular  was  also  introduced  into  the  synagogue 
for  the  benefit  of  the  women.  For  their  pleasure,  an 
Arabic  translation  of  the  twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Genesis 
was  sung  in  the  East  on  the  Sabbath  after  a  wedding^. 
In  other  congregations  the  lessons  from  the  prophets  were 
on  certain  occasions  translated  into  Spanish  ■'^.  The  old 
Aramaic  paraphrase  was,  in  fact,  replaced  quite  early  by 
a  vernacular  version^.  The  prophetical  lesson  for  the 
Day  of  Atonement— the  Book  of  Jonah — was  read  in 
Greek  in  those  localities  where  Greek  was  the  ordinary 
language  in  use^.  Similarly,  the  tractate  Sofcrhn  (be- 
ginning of  the  ninth  century)  lays  it  down  as  a  duty 
to  translate,  for  the  women,  the  weekly  readings  from 
the  Pentateuch  and  the  Prophets  before  the  close  of  the 
service.  The  translation  was  not  read  verse  by  verse  after 
the  Hebrew,  but  as  one  continuous  passage  ^. 

In  the  fourteenth  century,  the  Book  of  Esther  was  read 
on  Purim  in  Spanish  from  a  translation,  for  the  pleasure 
of  the  women,  in  various  parts  of  Spain.  The  rigorous 
pietist,  Isaac  ben  Sheshet,  was  scandalized  to  find  this 
custom  in  force  at  Saragossa  when,  in  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth    century,    he    was    appointed    Rabbi    to    that 

1  Jacob  ben  Israel  of  Morea,  n"i(r,  §  82  (p.  174  t>). 

2  This  was  done  on  the  Passover,  Pentecost,  and  the  fast  of  the  Ninth 
of  Ab  (cf.  R.  Meldola,  wr\  D'O  n"m%  §  13)-  On  the  seventh  day  of  Passover 
a  boy  sometimes  acted  as  translator  (Machzor  Vitry,  p.  304). 

3  Responsa  of  Geonim,  Muller,  p.  103.  nco  DiJ^nn  x^\•\■^^  p\ro  mmpn  nrw 
:  crb  nm^n.  The  two  habits  were  even  retained  side  by  side,  for  Simon 
Duran  (Responsa,  iii.  121)  says  that  there  were  congregations  in  which  the 
Aramaic  translation  was  retained  for  the  prophetical  lessons  of  Passover 
and  Pentecost,  while  the  Song  of  Deborah  was  translated  into  Arabic. 

*  Judah  Minz,  Responsa,  §  78. 

5  Massecheth  Soferim,  xviii.  (ed.  Muller,  p.  35,  and  notes,  p.  256).  This 
custom  of  reading  the  translated  passage  as  a  whole  was  usual  with  the 
Byzantine  Jews  in  the  ninth  century. 


346  77?^  Medieval  Schools. 

congregation.  Local  Rabbis  were  more  complacent  than 
the  new  arrival,  who  set  himself,  with  the  aid  of  Nissim 
Gerundi,  to  crush  the  custom  which  had  been  in  existence 
at  Saragossa  for  a  third  of  a  century.  The  ground  of 
their  objection  is  described  by  Graetz  as  'sophistical^,' 
and  it  certainly  deserves  a  harsh  epithet.  They  argued 
that  as  the  reader  understood  Hebrew  it  was  unlawful 
for  him  to  read  the  Scroll  of  Esther  in  any  other  language, 
though  the  women,  who  did  not  understand  the  Hebrew, 
might  lawfully  hear  it  in  Spanish.  Another  argument  was 
more  weighty.  Isaac  ben  Sheshet  questioned  the  accuracy 
of  the  translation  ^.  It  seems  as  though  his  zeal  triumphed, 
for  we  do  not  find  any  later  references  to  the  use  of  the 
vernacular  on  the  Feast  of  Esther. 

The  incident  just  described  is,  however,  very  im.portant. 
It  shows  that  the  vernacular  was  far  more  common  in 
the  medieval  than  in  the  modern  synagogue.  Indeed, 
German  hymns  on  the  unity  of  God  and  the  Thirteen 
CreedS;  formulated  by  Maimonides,  were  so  popular  in  the 
fourteenth  century  that  they  were  the  exclusive  religious 
literature  of  many  Jews  ^  Jewesses  had,  however,  ceased 
to  pray  in  the  vernacular  by  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, for,  in  the  words  of  a  sixteenth-century  writer,  'this 
beautiful  and  worthy  custom  '  was,  to  his  regret,  extinct 
when  he  wrote  '^.  But  the  eclipse  can  only  have  been  local 
or  of  short  duration.  John  Evelyn  in  his  Diary  (anno  1641) 
tells  us  of  his  acquaintance,  '  a  Burgundian  Jew,  who  had 
married   an   apostate   Kentish   woman.    ...    He   showed 

^  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews  (E.  T.),   IV.  ch.  v. 
^  Isaac  ben  Sheshet,  Responsa,  §  388  seq. 

^  Maharil  (in  the  D'TOip"?).     The  Talmud  permitted  the  use  of  the  vernacular 
in  some  of  the  most  important  prayers  (T.  B.  Soia,  32  a). 
*  S.  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  p.  393. 


Translations  of  the  Prayers.  347 

me  several  books  of  their  devotion,  which  he  had  translated 
into  English /<?r  the  instruction  of  his  wife^,^  It  is  pro- 
bable that  similar  concessions  to  women  were  made  by 
other  seventeenth-century  Jews  than  those  whose  wives 
were  born  in  a  different  creed.  Translations  of  the  Hebrew 
prayer-book  into  the  vernacular  grow  very  common  in  the 
course  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  as  these  translations 
were  sometimes  printed  without  the  Hebrew  text,  it  may  be 
inferred  that  some  women,  if  not  men,  still  prayed  in  the 
vernacular^.  In  quite  modern  times,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  has  been  a  remarkable  increase  in  the  number  of 
Jewesses  who  are  well  acquainted  with  Hebrew. 

Indirectly,  too,  the  Jewish  women  rendered  services  to 
education  in  the  middle  ages.  They  were  always  proud  of 
their  reputation  for  zeal  in  encouraging  their  husbands 
and  sons  to  study.  In  place  of  buying  trinkets  with  their 
husbands'  presents,  they  would  purchase  books.  They 
would  freely  offer  hospitality  to  poor  travelling  scholars. 
Wives  would  rise  very  early  and  retire  to  rest  very  late  in 
order  to  welcome  their  husbands  on  their  return  from  the 
Beth  Hamidrash^  or  house  of  study  ^.  The  mothers,  too, 
took  their  sons  to  school ;  and  of  the  several  reasons  which 
made  Jews  prefer  to  employ  married  teachers,  one  was 
the  constant  presence  in  the  schools  of  the  mothers  of 
the  boys*. 

Both  the  mother  and  father,  indeed,  participated  in 
the  important  function  of  introducing  the  boy  to  school 

'  Evelyn's  Diary  (ed.  Bray),  i,  p.  27. 

2  Thus  Nieto's  Spanish  translation  (London,  1740  and  1771)  contains  no 
Hebrew  text ;  a  similar  remark  applies  to  other  Spanish  and  French  trans- 
lations (Amsterdam,  1648;  Nice,  1776).  Possibly  these  translations  were 
used  side  by  side  with  the  Hebrew  text. 

^  Sefer  Chassidim ;  Maharil,  mnQTD  "n.  *  Kolho,  88  b. 


348  The  Medieval  Schools.  ' 

for  the  first  time.  This  occurred  when  the  boy  was  five, 
but  it  was  deferred  for  a  couple  of  years  in  case  the  child 
was  weak  or  sickly.  The  ceremony  of  initiation  was 
performed  partly  in  a  school  and  partly  in  the  synagogue, 
and  the  favourite  occasion  was  the  Feast  of  Pentecost  ^ — 
the  traditional  anniversary  of  the  revelation  on  Mount 
Sinai.  Early  in  the  morning  the  boy  was  dressed  in  new 
clothes,  and  three  cakes  of  fine  flour  and  honey  were  baked 
for  him  by  a  young  maiden.  Three  eggs  were  boiled,  and 
apples  and  other  fruit  were  gathered  in  profusion.  Then 
the  child  was  taken  in  the  arms  of  the  Rabbi  or  another 
learned  friend  first  to  the  school  and  then  to  the  synagogue, 
or  vice  versa.  The  child  was  placed  on  the  reading-daTs 
before  the  Scroll,  from  which  the  Ten  Commandments  were 
read  as  the  lesson  of  the  day.  In  the  school,  he  received 
his  first  lesson  in  reading  Hebrew.  On  a  slate  were 
smeared  in  honey  some  of  the  letters  of  the  Hebrew 
alphabet,  or  simple  texts,  such  as  '  Moses  commanded  us 
a  law,  an  inheritance  for  the  assembly  of  Jacob'  (Deut. 
xxxiii.  4) ;  and  the  child  lisped  the  letters  as  he  ate  the 
honey,  the  cakes,  and  the  other  delicacies,  that  the  words  of 
the  Law  might  be  sweet  in  his  lips.  The  child  was  then 
handed  over  to  the  arms  of  his  mother,  who  had  stood  by 
during  this  delightful  scene  ^. 

The  real  school  work  then  commenced,  and  was  continued 
for  at  least   seven  years.     For  the   most  part  boys  who 

^  Sometimes  the  first  of  Nisan  was  the  date  selected.  Cf.  mmn  'pin 
(Giidemann,  i.  267).  From  this  early  thirteenth-century  code  of  education 
several  of  the  details  in  this  chapter  are  taken.    Cf.  Jacobs,  Ang.  Engl.,  343. 

*  This  account  chiefly  follows  the  Machzor  Vitry,  p.  628.  For  slightly 
different  versions  of  the  same  custom,  see  Gudemann,  i.  p.  50.  In  some 
cases  the  names  of  angels  were  invoked  to  open  the  child's  heart  and 
improve  his  powers  of  retention.     Cf.  Schechter,  p.  368. 


Elementary  Schools.  349 

were  not  destined  for  professions,  remained  at  school  till 
they  were  thirteen  or  even  fifteen.  Elementary  schools 
existed  in  every  Jewish  community,  but  were  not  all  sup- 
ported by  public  funds.  The  father  was  rightly  thought 
by  some  to  be  disqualified  from  teaching  his  own  children^, 
but  he  was  bound  to  pay  a  teacher  for  them.  The  higher 
colleges  for  advanced  pupils,  or  yeshibas,  were  only  public 
in  so  far  that  they  were  supported  by  the  community. 

At  these  higher  schools,  to  which  mostly  professional 
students  repaired,  the  students  lived  together  in  the  house 
of  the  principal  or  in  a  special  building.  But  the  elemen- 
tary schools  seem  mostly  to  have  been  private  in  the  sense 
that  the  teachers,  though  elected  or  authorized  by  the  com- 
munity, received  their  fees  directly  from  the  parents^. 
The  teachers  were  not,  however,  left  without  control.  The 
excellent  Talmudical  prescription",  that  the  number  of 
pupils  taught  by  one  master  must  not  exceed  twenty-five, 
was  rigidly  enforced  in  the  middle  ages,  and  the  pupil- 
teacher  system  was  well  developed.  Thus  if  the  class 
numbered  forty,  one  qualified  teacher  and  one  pupil-teacher 
were  held  sufficient.  The  pupil-teacher  was  paid  by  the 
community  ^  In  the  advanced  Talmudical  schools  these 
restrictions,  however,  had  no  relevancy.  The  teaching 
being  by  lecture,  there  was  no  reason  why  the  audience 
should  be  limited  in  number. 

The  hours  of  instruction  were  long,  and  in  winter  the 
children  went  to  school  one  or  two  hours  before  daylight. 

*  nn'Dn  n^c,  §  946.  '  Cf.  S.  Duran,  y"a\Dnn,  i.  §  64. 

'  B.  Bathra,  2t  a.  Where  there  was  any  infringement  of  this  rule,  it 
was  in  the  direction  of  greater  severity.  In  the  minn  'pin,  §  vi,  ten  is  the 
number  of  pupils  assigned  to  each  teacher. 

*  S.  Duran,  ibid.,  speaks  of  the  iiim  3in  ^20  mpirnn  US  roc^c  F^nn  imi 


350  The  Medieval  Schools. 

Sometimes  the  signal  for  school  was  the  jingling  of  the  silver 
bells  which  fringed  the  mantles  of  the  Scrolls  of  the  Law  \ 
The  boys  continued  at  their  lessons  until  the  time  for  morn- 
ing prayer,  when  their  teacher  took  them  to  synagogue,  or 
had  a  private  service  in  his  own  house.  The  children  then 
went  home  for  a  hasty  breakfast,  after  which  lessons  were 
resumed  until  eleven  o'clock,  when  there  was  a  break  for 
the  midday  meal,  all  the  pupils  re-assembling  exactly  at 
twelve.  There  was  another  very  short  interval  between 
two  and  three  o'clock,  and  work  was  continued  until  the 
time  for  evening  prayer,  after  which  the  children  returned 
home.  Night  preparation  was  encouraged  in  the  Jewish 
homes. 

Corporal  punishment  was  generally,  though  not  quite 
universally,  approved.  '  At  first  the  child  is  allured,  in 
the  end  the  strap  is  laid  upon  his  back  2.'  But  the 
punishment  was  not  severe.  It  was  a  salutary  rule  that 
corporal  punishment  was  a  momentary  expedient  which 
should  only  produce  momentary  effects.  No  teacher  was 
allowed  to  punish  a  child  with  sufficient  vigour  to  leave 
marks  or  cause  other  injurious  effects.  A  teacher  with  a 
violent  temper  was  at  once  superseded. 

The  boys  were  first  taught  Hebrew  reading,  beginning 
with  the  alphabet,  which  absorbed  a  month.  The  teacher 
used  a  small  wooden  pointer,  called  in  France  a  tendeur, 
with  which  he  indicated  the  letters  ^.  When  the  letters  were 
known,  the  vowel  signs  were  taken,  to  which  another  month 
was  devoted,  and  lastly  the  pupil  learnt  the  combination  of 
consonants  and  vowels  into  syllables.     Three  months  ap- 

1  Rashi  on  Sahh.,  58  b.  The  schools  were  quite  near  the  synagogues, 
when  not  in  the  same  buildings.     Cf.  ch.  ii.  above. 

'  Machzor  Vitry,  p.  628 ;  against  corporal  punishment  see  cn^cn  "c,  §  306. 
'  onxn  "c,  §  893- 


Learning  to  Read.  351 

parently  sufficed  for  this  difficult  step.  In  the  fourth  month 
the  reading  of  the  Pentateuch  was  started  with  the  Book  of 
Leviticus.  During  the  second  three  months  the  boy  read 
a  portion  of  the  weekly  lesson  in  Hebrew.  The  following 
six  months  were  used  in  translating  the  weekly  lessons  into 
the  vernacular.  By  that  time  the  boy  was  six  years  old. 
Books  were  naturally  scarce,  but  the  teacher  took  a  tablet 
or  slate  and  wrote  on  it  three  or  four  verses,  or  even  whole 
chapters,  and  this  served  as  the  week's  lesson  \  The  words 
were  then  rubbed  off  and  a  fresh  section  written  on  the 
same  slate. 

In  his  next  year's  course  the  boy  was  taught  the 
Aramaic  version  of  the  Pentateuch,  which  he  translated 
into  the  vernacular  ;  the  next  two  years  were  devoted  to 
the  prophetical  books  and  the  hagiographa.  At  the  age 
of  ten  the  boy  began  the  Mishnah,  and  by  the  age  of 
thirteen  he  had  read  a  selection  of  the  most  important 
of  the  smaller  tractates  of  the  Talmud  -.     Those  who  were 


^  The  method  is  cited  in  the  name  of  Maimon,  father  of  Maimonides,  by- 
Simon  Duran  (y";Trrn  n"TC,  §2  .  The  Hebrew  inscribed  on  the  slate  was 
written  curiously ;  not  more  than  three  words  on  one  line  and  then  tw^o 
on  the  next,  while  every  word  was  marked  with  quotation  signs,  thus: — 

This  bizarre  method  was  intended  to  accustom  the  boy  to  the  thought  that 
the  text  of  Scripture,  when  written  in  the  ordinary  style,  w^as  not  to  be 
deleted  or  tampered  with.  A  remarkable  method  of  learning  Hebrew  by- 
alphabetical  tables  or  groups  in  Palestine  and  Egypt  is  described  by  Saadya 
in  his  Commentaire  sur  le  SeferYesira  {ed.  Lambert,  p.  81  ;  French  translation, 
p.  104).  The  children  wrote  the  letter-groups  in  their  exercise-books 
(cf.  Bacher,  in  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  xxiii.  p.  247,  note  i).  'When  the 
child,'  says  Saadya,  '  has  learnt  these  groups,  he  has  also  learnt  to  spell 
everything.'     Cf.  Friedlander,  Proc.  Soc.  Btbl.  Arch.,  1896;  /.  O,  i?.,  \iii. 

2  Tractate  Berachoih,  and  the  whole  of  the  Order  Moed  (relating  to  the 
Festivals), 


352 


The  Medieval  Schools. 


destined  to  qualify  as  professional  students  devoted  the 
next  seven  years  to  the  greater  tractates  of  the  Talmud. 

As  the  pupil  grew  older,  greater  importance  was  attached 
to  repetition.  The  same  lesson  was  delivered  by  the  teacher 
three  times,  and  the  pupils  repeated  it  at  home  in  the 
evening.  There  were,  in  addition,  regular  recapitulations 
at  weekly  or  monthly  intervals.  Equally  important  was 
the  rule  that  the  teacher  was  bound  to  instruct  from  the 
book  and  not  by  heart.  It  has  already  been  mentioned 
that  books  were  scarce  and  dear,  a  copy  of  the  Pentateuch 
costing  nearly  as  much  as  would  pay  four  months'  salary  of 
the  teacher  ^.  It  followed  that  most  Jews  were  unprovided 
with  books  in  synagogue,  and  thus  the  precentor  recited 
most  of  the  service  aloud,  repeating  the  portions  which,  in 
accordance  with  the  rubrics,  he  himself  first  said  in  silence. 
To  this  scarcity  of  books  and  the  consequent  habit  of 
many  craning  their  necks  to  look  into  the  same  volume, 
the  Jewish  habit  of  swaying  the  body  in  prayer  has  been 
with  some  plausibility  assigned^.  The  same  cause,  no 
doubt,  increased  the  instinctive  reverence  with  which  Jews 
always  regarded  books  in  the  middle  ages^. 

But  unlike  most  modern  bibliophiles,  they  were  very 
willing  lenders.  '  If  A  has  two  sons,  one  of  whom  is  averse 
to  lending  his  books,  and  the  other  does  so  willingly,  the 
father  should  have  no  doubt  in  leaving  all  his  library  to 
the  second  son,  even  if  he  be  the  younger^.'     This  twelfth- 

^  Such  a  book  cost  three  marks  in  1150,  while  the  teacher's  salary  was 
then  ten  marks  per  annum.  On  the  prices  of  books  at  various  times,  see 
Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  211.  ^  Cuzari,  ii.  80    Cassel,  p.  189). 

^  Some  of  the  quaint  remarks  on  this  subject  by  the  author  of  the  Book 
of  the  Pious  were  translated  into  English  by  the  Rev.  M.  Adler  in  the 
Bookworm,  1891,  p.  251  seq. 

*  The  Book  of  the  Pious,  §  875. 


Care  of  Books. 


353 


century  piece  of  advice  comes  from  Germany  ;  another, 
emanating  at  about  the  same  period  from  Provence,  contains 
the  following  directions  from  Judah  Ibn  Tibbon  to  his  son : 
*Take  particular  care  of  your  books;  cover  your  shelves 
with  a  fine  covering,  guard  them  against  damp  and  mice. 
Write  a  complete  catalogue  of  your  books,  and  examine 
the  Hebrew  books  once  a  month,  the  Arabic  every  two 
months,  and  the  bound  volumes  once  a  quarter.  When 
you  lend  a  book  to  any  one,  make  a  memorandum  of  it 
before  it  leaves  your  house,  and  when  it  is  returned  cancel 
the  entry.  Every  Passover  and  Tabernacles  call  in  all 
your  books  that  are  out  on  loan.' 

This  love  of  books  had  an  aesthetic  influence  on  Jewish 
education,  and  on  this  point  a  short  digression  must 
be  made.  The  Spanish  Jews  were  dilettanti  as  regards 
accuracy  in  style  and  fine  caligraphy.  Literary  polish 
was  acquired  by  the  habit  of  Hebrew  verse-making,  an 
art  with  which  the  Spanish  and  Proven9al  Jews  were  all 
familiar.  To  be  unable  to  write  verses  was  to  argue 
yourself  possessed  of  a  '  barren  soul  ^'  Classical  models 
were  strictly  followed,  for  Spanish  poets  took  rather  less 
liberties  with  the  Hebrew  language  than  Kalir  and  the 
French  school  of  Jewish  liturgical  versifiers  allowed  them- 
selves. My  present  point  is  that  this  tendency  towards 
a  chaste  style  was  a  marked  feature  of  the  education  of  the 
young  Jews  in  Spain.  *  Use  no  strained  constructions  or 
foreign  words/  writes  Judah  Ibn  Tibbon  to  his  son,  'en- 
deavour to  cultivate  a  concise  and  elegant  style ;  attempt 
no  rhymes  unless  your  versification  is  perfect.'  As  will 
soon  appear,  the  study  of  grammar  went  hand  in  hand  with 

*  Joseph    Ezobi's    Silver  Bowl  (written   in   Provence    in    the    thirteenth 
century).     See  below,  p.  354,  note  2. 

A  a 


354 


The  Medieval  Schools. 


this  feeling  for  style,  but  the  aesthetic  element  is  the  one 
which  is  now  under  consideration. 

The  charm  of  a  beautiful  handwriting  was  strongly  felt  by 
all  Jews  \  but  most  powerfully  of  all  by  those  who  lived  in 
Spain  and  Provence.  '  Improve  your  handwriting,'  says  the 
same  father  whom  I  have  just  quoted,  '  for  beauty  of  hand- 
writing, excellence  of  pen,  paper,  and  ink,  are  an  index  of  the 
writer's  worth.  You  have  seen  books  in  my  handwriting, 
and  know  how  the  son  of  R.  Jacob  your  master  expressed 
his  admiration  in  your  presence.'  Or  again,  to  give  an 
instance  from  the  thirteenth  century,  another  father  thus 
addresses  his  son  ^  : — 

And  like  thy  father  sing  in  tunefulness  : 

Hark  thou,  a  barren  soul  is  profitless. 

Purge  well  thy  soul,  no  stain  therein  to  leave, 

Remove  its  grosser  parts  in  virtue's  sieve. 

When  thou  a  letter  sendest  to  thy  friend, 

Is  it  neatly  written  ?    nay  ?    'twill  sure  offend ; 

For  in  his  penmanship  man  stands  revealed — 

Purest  intent  by  chastest  style  is  sealed. 

Be  heedful  then  when  thou  dost  pen  thy  songs  ; 

To  lofty  strains  a  goodly  hand  belongs. 

There  is  a  note  of  intense  love  of  external  as  well  as 
internal  beauty  in  books  in  another  noble  remark  of  Judah 
Ibn  Tibbon :  '  Avoid  bad  society,'  he  says,  '  but  make  your 
books  your  companions.  Let  your  bookcases  and  shelves 
be  your  gardens  and  your  pleasure-grounds.  Pluck  the 
fruit  that  grows  therein.,  gather  the  roses,  the  spices,  and 
the  myrrh.     If  your  soul  be  satiate  and  weary,  change  from 

^  In  praise  of  Jewish  calligraphy  cf  Renan  (and  Neubauer),  Ecrivains  Juifs 
francais  du  XIV'  Steele,  p.  393.  On  the  different  styles  of  character  used, 
see  Zunz,  Zur  Geschi'-hte,  pp.  206,  207. 

*  Joseph  Ezobi's  Silver  Bowl,  cf  the  Engl.  Trans,  by  D.  I.  Friedmann 
in  the  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  viii. 


Caligraphy. 


355 


garden  to  garden,  from  furrow  to  furrow,  from  sight  to 
sight.  Then  will  your  desire  renew  itself  and  your  soul 
be  satisfied  with  delight.' 

A  similar  feeling  dominates  the  scheme  of  studies  pre- 
fixed by  the  Spanish  Jew,  Profiat  Duran,  to  the  Hebrew 
Grammar  which  he  wrote  before  1403.  Though  only  a 
portion  of  his  canons  have  an  aesthetic  application,  I  give 
a  summary  of  them  all,  as  they  throw  considerable  light  on 
the  manner  in  which  a  cultured  Jew  studied.  It  will  be 
noticed  that  his  canons  apply  to  men  of  business  as  well  as 
to  professional  students. 

(i)  Work  in  conjunction  with  a  fellow-student,  (ii)  Use 
works  w^hich  are  brief  or  systematic,  (iii)  Attend  to  what 
you  read,  and  understand  as  you  go.  (iv)  Use  mnemonics 
as  an  aid  to  memory,  (v)  Keep  to  one  book  at  a  time. 
(vi)  Use  only  books  which  are  beautifully  written,  on  good 
paper,  and  well  and  handsomely  bound.  Read  in  a  pretty 
well-furnished  room,  let  your  eye  rest  on  beautiful  objects 
so  that  you  may  love  your  work.  Beauty  must  be  every- 
where, in  your  books  and  in  your  house.  '  The  wealthy 
must  honour  the  Law,'  says  the  Talmud  ;  let  them  do  this 
by  paying  for  beautiful  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  (vii)  Use 
eye  and  ear  ;  read  aloud,  do  not  work  in  silent  poring, 
(viii)  Sing  as  you  read,  especially  the  Bible ;  in  olden 
times  the  Mishnah,  too,  was  sung\  (ix)  See  that  your 
text-books  are  written  in  square  characters,  as  these  are 
more  original  and  more  beautiful,     (x)  Use  books  which 

^  Singing  during  study  was  common  to  Jews  everywhere.  Cf.  Gude- 
mann,  i.  p.  54.  On  the  singing  of  the  Mishnah  and  Talmud,  cf.  Steinschneider, 
Jewish  LiieraUire,  p.  154,  and  the  presence  of  musical  accents  in  some  MSS. 
of  the  Talmud,  e.  g.  S.  Schechter  and  S.  Singer,  Fragments  of  Talmudical 
MSS.  in  the  Bodleian  (Cambridge,  University  Press,  1896),  Introduction. 

A  a  2 


356  The  Medieval  Schools. 

are  written  in  a  large  hand  with  firm  strokes,  rather  than 
thin  and  faint,  for  these  make  a  stronger  impression  on  the 
eyes  and  understanding,  (xi)  Learn  by  teaching,  (xii) 
Study  for  the  pure  love  of  knowledge,  (xiii)  Study  regu- 
larly at  fixed  hours,  and  do  not  say,  Within  such  and  such 
a  time  I  will  finish  so  and  so  much.  If  you  are  occupied 
in  business  all  day,  read  at  night  when  your  day's  work  is 
over,  (xiv)  The  road  to  knowledge  lies  through  prayer ; 
pray  that  God  may  grant  you  the  knowledge  that  you 
seek  ^. 

'  These  canons  draw  no  distinction  between  the  professional  and  the  lay 
student.  In  the  fourteenth  century  it  was  found  desirable  in  Germany 
to  institute  the  formal  conferment  of  the  Morenu  diploma,  which  entitled 
the  recipient  to  act  as  a  Rabbinical  dayan  or  judge.  Previously,  the  title 
Rav  or  Rabbi  had  become  quite  general,  and  from  the  twelfth  century  every 
adult  male  was  so  designated,  probably  to  distinguish  the  Rabbanites  from 
the  Karaites,  who  disputed  the  validity  of  the  Rabbinical  traditions.  Hence 
the  need  of  a  distinctive  Rabbinical  diploma  was  felt.  Its  conferment  was 
in  no  sense  an  *  ordination,'  but  merely  a  venia  docendi  from  teacher  to 
pupil.  The  new  title  conferred  no  authority  beyond  that  which  the  repu- 
tation of  the  teacher  and  the  will  of  the  congregation  allowed.  (Graetz,  IV. 
ch.  iv  J  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  185  seq.  ;  Giidemann,  iii.  31  seq.) 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    SCOPE    OF    EDUCATION. 

Up  to  the  thirteenth  year  the  education  of  Jewish  boys 
all  the  world  over  was  practically  identical.  Religion  was 
the  foundation  of  the  school  curriculum,  and  the  training 
that  the  child  received  was  designed  to  form  his  character  as 
well  as  his  mind.  Herein  lay  the  advantage  of  the  medieval 
method,  for  the  Bible  was  at  once  food  for  the  mind  and  the 
heart.  The  Hebrew  Scriptures  were  taught  to  children  as 
language  and  as  ethics  concurrently^.  Hence  resulted  the 
hallowing  of  knowledge — produced  by  the  joint  action  of 
synagogue  and  school.  It  was  customary  in  the  middle 
ages  for  all  Jews  to  spend  a  good  deal  of  time  in  synagogue 
on  festivals  and  Sabbaths  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the 
Bible  and  Rabbinical  literature  2. 

There  was  no  learned  caste  in  Judaism,  for  every  Israelite 
studied  the  Law.  Boys  about  thirteen  years  old  were 
often  competent  to  read  the  prayers  for  the  congregation ^ 
but  by  no   means  all  Jews  were  able  to  read   Hebrew — 

'  Dn'cn  ^2D,  §  304. 

*  Natronai  Gaon  {Responsa  of  Geonim,  ed.  Lyk,  87).  Cf.  Muller,  Masse- 
cheth  Soferim,  p.  257. 

3  Maharil.  Cf.  Responsa  of  Solomon  ben  Adret  (Venice,  1546),  §  450, 
whence  it  is  clear  that  many  Jews  were  capable  of  acting  as  readers,  and 
that  the  appointment  of  an  official  precentor  was  partly  intended  to  end  the 
competition  for  the  right  to  read  the  prayers. 


358  The  Scope  of  Education. 

as  it  appears  in  the  Scrolls  used  in  synagogue — without 
vowel-signs  or  punctuation.  Right  through  the  middle 
ages,  indeed,  the  never  obsolete  note,  'Ah,  the  good  old 
times!'  is  sounded  by  Jewish  authorities^,  but  the  point 
is  less  important  historically  than  practically.  It  is  a 
warning  to  modern  critics  of  the  present  that  their  lament 
for  the  loss  of  the  good  old  times  is  no  more  reasonable 
than  were  similar  regrets  in  the  middle  ages. 

But  though  this  same  principle,  viz.  the  combination  of 
moral  with  intellectual  training,  ruled  Jewish  life  everywhere, 
it  was  modified  in  some  countries  by  rival  tendencies.  The 
study  of  Hebrew  grammar  is  a  typical  case.  In  Spain  and 
Italy,  grammar  was  taught  as  a  special  subject  in  and  for 
itself.  Scientific  Hebrew  philology  had  been  founded 
in  the  tenth  century  by  Saadya,  not,  as  has  been  com- 
monly assumed,  by  the  Karaites^.  On  the  other  hand, 
when  the  great  German  Talmudist,  Asheri,  went  to  Toledo 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  he  confessed  that  his  Hebrew 
grammar  was  so  weak  that  he  could  not  teach  the  Bible 
to  the  Spanish  Jews.  Hebrew  grammar,  however,  was  not 
entirely  neglected  in  the  Jewish  schools  of  Germany  and 
Northern  France,  it  simply  had  no  independent  place  in 
the   school   curriculum^.      It    was   learnt   as    a   means   to 

^  For  charges  of  ignorance  see  Responsa  of  Geonim,  Mafteach,  p.  25  ; 
Maharil,  Hilchoth  Pesach,  nn3TEn  nnm  nns- ;  Responsa,  ^"^sor,  ii.  39,  where 
he  says  *  all  bridegrooms  are  ignorant,  and  cannot  read  the  weekly  portion 
from  the  Scroll;'  Elia  Mizrachi,  w'pyciS  D^O,  13  ;  and  S.  Morpurgo,  npi2  icott:, 
p.  102  c. 

*  Cf.  W.  Bacher,  Die  Anfdnge  der  Hehr.  Grammatik  (Leipzig,  1895,  p,  2) : 
'  Bisher  ist  durch  Nichts  erwiesen,  dass  schon  vor  ihm  ( =  Saadya)  der 
eine  oder  andere  Kardische  Lehrer  unter  der  Einwirkung  der  arabischen 
Sprachwissenschaft  zu  ahnlichen  Anfangen  der  hebraischen  Grammatik 
gelangt  ware  wie  Saadya.' 

^  On  the  French  and  German  Hebrew  Grammarians  of  the  middle  ages, 
see  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  107  seq. 


Jewish   '-Jargons/  359 

an  end,  that  end  being  the  true  exposition  of  the 
Scriptures. 

That  grammar — in  the  practical  sense — was  not  over- 
looked in  these  countries  may  be  seen  from  this  fact.  In 
no  part  of  the  world  did  the  medieval  Jews  speak  a  jargon. 
They  spoke  Arabic,  Spanish,  Italian,  German,  or  French 
with  accuracy,  and  wrote  it  with  precision,  though  they  pro- 
bably employed  Hebrew  characters.  Jewish  jargons  arose 
in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the  phenomenon 
was  due  less  to  ignorance  than  to  too  much  knowledge.  The 
Jews  were  always  bilingual,  but  in  the  fifteenth  century  there 
was  hardly  a  congregation  in  which  a  large  foreign  element 
had  not  been  forced  to  settle  by  continued  expulsions  from 
their  native  land.  A  jargon  was  inevitable,  for  as  the  only 
linguistic  element  common  to  all  the  Jews  was  the  Hebrew, 
it  came  that  many  Hebrew  words  were  introduced  into  the 
vernacular.  Another  source  of  the  inroad  of  Hebrew  words 
into  the  common  speech  of  Jews  was  the  practice  of  teaching 
young  children  the  Hebrew  names  of  ordinary  domestic 
objects  to  improve  their  Hebrew  vocabulary. 

The  Hebrew  words  introduced  into  Ladino  were  not, 
however,  of  this  class.  Ladino  was  a  Jewish-Spanish 
dialect  carried  by  the  Jews  from  Spain  into  their  exile. 
The  Hebrew  words  which  occur  in  this  language  are  not 
the  names  of  common  objects.  They  are  religious  terms, 
sympathetic  terms — such  as  the  words  for  widow,  father, 
pity,  love — in  which  Hebrew  is  particularly  rich,  or  they 
are  emphatic  ejaculations  and  colloquialisms  ^.  It  is 
worth  noting  that  precisely  these  types  of  words  are  still 
common   with   Jews  who    otherwise    speak    the    ordinary 

1  M.  Grunhaum,  Judisch-Spam'sche  Chrestomathie  (Frankfurt,  1896),  Intro., 
p.  2  ;  on  German  jargon,  see  his  Jiid.-Deutsche  Chrest.  (Leipzig,  1882). 


36o  The  Scope  of  Education. 

vernaculars  with  purity  and  precision.  The  truth  is  that 
Hebrew  possesses  a  weahh  of  emotional  terms,  which  find 
but  feeble  representatives  in  modern  languages.  Moreover, 
centuries  of  loving  association  have  given  to  such  Hebrew 
terms  an  intensity  of  meaning  which  the  English  and  other 
modern  equivalents  lack. 

But  the  fact  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Jews  always 
had  a  literary  language  as  well  as  these  jargons,  and  that 
language  was  the  neo-Hebrew,  which,  despite  the  debase- 
ment to  which  it  became  subjected,  remained  on  the  whole 
chaste  and  pure,  and  only  changed  in  the  direction  of  greater 
flexibility  and  handiness.  The  Hebrew  used  by  the  Jews 
remained  entirely  free  from  foreign  elements,  for  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  Hebrew  poetry  of  the  middle  ages  (as 
well  as  the  Hebrew  prose)  was  built  entirely  on  literary  and 
not  on  national  instincts.  This  is  a  very  rare  phenomenon, 
the  growth  of  a  genuine  poetry  in  a  language  which  was  not 
the  language  spoken  by  the  poets. 

Before  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  Jews 
spoke  the  vernacular  grammatically,  even  if  they  some- 
times interlarded  it  with  Hebraisms.  Vernacular  poetry 
was  written  by  medieval  Jews  not  only  in  Arabic  and 
Spanish,  but  also  in  Latin,  Italian,  German,  and  French  ^. 
In  the  tenth  century,  Saadya  translated  the  Bible  into 
Arabic,  the  language  no  doubt  more  popular  as  a  literary 
vehicle  with  Jews  of  Arabian  Spain  than  other  vernaculars 
were  with  the  Jews  of  the  rest  of  Europe.  For  the  use  of 
Jews  in  France  and  Germany  the  works,  whether  of  Jews  or 
Mohammedans,  which  were  written  in  Arabic,  were  translated 

^  Cf.  Steinschneider,  Jewish  Literature^  pp.  169  and  178.  Leo  de  Modena 
in  the  sixteenth  century  had  so  much  command  of  Italian  that  he  was  able 
to  write  lines  which  made  good  sense  whether  read  as  Hebrew  or  Itahan. 


A  Jewish   Troubadour.  361 

into  Hebrew.  This,  in  passing,  be  it  noted,  implies  that  the 
French  and  German  Jews  were  not  altogether  destitute  of 
interest  in  extra-Biblical  and  Talmudical  studies. 

A  paragraph  or  two  more  must  be  devoted  to  a  few  of 
the  compositions  written  by  medieval  Jews  in  the  various 
languages  of  Europe.  Samuel  the  Nagid  (died  1055) 
addressed  King  Habus  of  Granada  '  in  a  poem  of  seven 
Beit,  each  of  which  was  in  a  different  language ;  and  in 
several  Muwasseh — poems  in  which  the  rhymes  recur  every 
seventh  line  like  pearls  in  an  elaborately  arranged  necklace 
— of  Jehuda  Halevi  (twelfth  century),  the  point  of  the  whole 
consists  in  an  Arabic  distich.  The  oldest  authority  for  the 
tradition  of  the  Cid  is  his  "officer/'  the  apostate  (Jew) 
Ibn  Alfange.  To  the  highly-prized  poets  of  Spain  belong 
Abraham  Ibn  ol  Fakkhar  (died  1239?),  Abraham  Ibn  Sahl 
(1200-1250)5  Ibn  el  Mudawwer,and  the  poetess  Kasmune  ^' 
Contemporaneously  with  these  may  be  noticed  a  rarer 
spectacle,  a  German  Jew  in  the  guise  of  a  Minnesinger. 
This  was  Siisskind  of  Trimberg.  In  the  castle  of  the  lord 
of  Trimberg,  which  lay  perched  on  the  ridge  of  a  vine-clad 
hill,  and  which  threw  its  shadow  into  the  winding  Saale,  or 
perhaps  in  the  abodes  of  neighbouring  knights,  the  Jewish 
lyrical  poet,  to  the  plaudits  of  knights  of  high  degree 
and  their  beautiful  dames,  '  poured  forth,  lute  in  hand,  his 
melodious  strains,  and  the  largesses  which  were  showered 
on  him  proved  his  sole  means  of  support  -.'  Siisskind  was 
not  quite  alone  in  his  love  for  the  troubadour's  art.  Love- 
songs  and  ballads  were  read  in  the  twelfth  century  by  Jews, 
though  the  reading  of  the  Romance  was  not  recommended 
as  a  holy  recreation^.     The  Franco- Jewish  poet,  Yedayah 

*  Steinschneider,  Jewish  Literature,  p.  170. 

2  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews  (E.  T.),  III.  ch.  xiii.  '  Gudemann,  i.  32. 


362  The  Scope  of  Education, 

Penini.  perhaps  imitated  the  methods  of  the  troubadours 
in  his  Defence  of  Wovian^  written  in  Hebrew  in  i2io^ 

Another  Jewish  troubadour,  Santob  de  Carrion,  flourished 
in  Castile  in  the  fourteenth  century.  Of  his  Book  of 
Maxims,  written  in  Spanish  in  1350,  Ticknor  says  that  '  the 
measure  is  the  old  redondilla,  and  is  uncommonly  easy  and 
flowing  for  the  age.'  The  poem  still  enjoyed  considerable 
reputation  in  the  fifteenth  century  for  its  '  quaint  and 
pleasant'  lines-.  Much  similar  literature  is  recorded  in 
Spain  and  Portugal,  and  the  Jews  of  Germany,  too,  loved 
the  legends  of  national  heroes  which  they  preserved  in  the 
vernacular,  but  sometimes  in  Hebrew  characters^.  Natu- 
rally, too,  religious  literature  was  cultivated  in  the  ver- 
nacular. A  Jewess  of  Regensburg,  named  Litte,  wrote 
the  History  of  David  in  the  contemporary  German  dialect, 
using  German  rhymes  interspersed  with  a  few  Hebraisms^. 
Later,  a  Jewess  of  Venice,  Deborah  Ascarelli,  translated 
Hebrew  hymns  into  elegant  Italian  verses  ^  Translations 
of  the  Bible,  made  by  Jews  in  Spanish,  were  already 
printed  at  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Some 
of  these  Jewish  translations  were  apparently  employed  by 
the  Protestants  of  Spain  ^. 

A  final  word  must  be  added  with  regard  to  the  con- 
tributions made  by  Jews  to  the  vernacular  drama.  The 
dramatic  dialogues  of  Samuel  Usque  (1553)  played  a  double 
role.     Not  only  were  they  written  in  excellent  Portuguese 

^  This    suggestion    of  Professor    Kaufmann  is  disputed  by  Renan  (and 
Neubauer)  in  Les  Ecrivains  Juifs  frangais  du  XI V^  Steele,  p.  25. 
^  Ticknor,  History  of  Spanish  Literature,  i.  pp.  93,  95. 
2  Steinschneider,  op.  cit.,  p.  178. 

*  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte  und  Literatur,  p.  173. 

*  Graetz,  op.  cit.,  V.  ch.  iii, 

*  Ticknor,  op.  cit.,  pp.  48,  49. 


Latin.  363 

by  their  author-,  but  they  were  translated  into  Italian. 
He  himself  rendered  Petrarch  into  Spanish.  But  of  the 
Jewish  dramatists  of  this  time  the  most  famous  was  the 
Portuguese  Jew,  Antonio  Enriques  Gomez,  the  contem- 
porary of  Calderon.  This  gallant  soldier,  for  he  also  won 
his  spurs  as  a  knight,  composed  some  twenty-tsvo  comedies, 
some  of  which  were  received  with  much  applause  in  Madrid-. 
His  services  to  Mars  and  the  Muses  did  not,  however,  win 
immunity  for  him.  Persecuted  by  the  Inquisition,  he  fled 
to  France.,  where  he  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Richelieu,  and 
produced  a  vast  array  of  epics  and  elegies  in  the  vernacular. 
Finally,  he  found  a  resting-place  in  the  then  home  of 
freedom,  Amsterdam^  where  he  heard,  with  grim  satis- 
faction, that  he  had  been  burnt  in  effig\^  at  an  auto-da-fe 
in  Seville.  This  was  in  1660.  The  poet  died  in  the  same 
year. 

But  the  chief  drawback  to  the  medieval  Jews  was  their 
general  dislike  of  Latin,  the  language  npt  only  of  the 
destroyer  of  the  Temple,  but  also  the  religions  language  of 
the  medieval  Church -^  In  Spain  and  Italy  this  repulsion 
was  less  keenly  felt,  and  many  a  Jewish  statesman  in  the 
Iberian  peninsula  conducted  diplomatic  correspondence  in 
the  Latin  tongue.  It  is  certain  that  at  least  in  these 
countries  Jews  were  quite  familiar  with  Latin  throughout 
the  middle  ages.  The  intellectual  intercourse  between 
Jews  and  Christians  was  therefore  easier  in  Spain  and  Italy. 

^  Julius  Steinschneider,  in  the  Festschrift  zmn  X.  Stifiungsfest  des 
Akadeniischen  Vereins  fiir  jiidische  Geschichte  utid  Litteratur  ^Berlin,  1893), 
has  a  long  study  on  Samuel  Usque's  Consolation  of  IsrcuL 

'  Ticknor,  op.  cit.,  ii.  p.  497. 

'  This  was  probably  the  reason  why  Latin  is  described  by  Jews  as  the 
priestly  tongue  (z'rnj  r2\"D).  Dr.  Gudemann  (i.  229)  holds  that  the 
designation  implies  that  no  one  but  the  priests  could  read  and  write  it. 


364  The  Scope  of  Education. 

An  Italian  Bible  was  regarded  with  something  of  the  same 
reverence  that  was  felt  for  the  Hebrew  text  itself  ^  a  feeling 
quite  foreign  to  the  Jews  of  Northern  France  or  Germany. 
Jews  translated  works  by  Christian  writers  into  Hebrew, 
and  cited  them  even  in  their  Biblical  commentaries.  But 
their  chief  activity  as  translators  was  displayed  in  the 
realm  of  science  and  philosophy.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  Europe  owed  to  the  Jewish  translators  its  knowledge 
of  Mohammedan  culture,  which  until  the  Renaissance 
included  the  Classical  as  welP. 

The  school  curricula  of  the  Jews  of  Spain  and  Italy  in 
the  middle  ages  were,  to  use  the  medieval  phrase,  encyclopedic 
in  character.  There  was  no  early  specialization  as  with 
modern  systems,  but  all  men  of  culture  went  through  a 
wide  and  liberal  course.  In  the  case  of  Italy,  indeed,  it  is 
hard  to  speak  of  a  curriculum  at  all,  for  the  very  breadth  of 
culture  there,  especially  when  it  began  to  absorb  the  best 
blood  of  Spain,  introduced  an  amazing  variety  into  the 
educational  notions.  It  should  be  remembered,  too,  that 
the  Jews  everywhere  acted  on  the  principle  that  particular 
cases  must  not  be  forced  under  general  rules,  and  the 
idiosyncrasies  of  the  individual  pupil  were  carefully  ob- 
served and  respected. 

But  nowhere  was  there  so  much  variety  in  the  method  of 
teaching  as  in  Italy.  This  may  account,  too,  for  a  certain 
free  thought  and  laxity  such  as  one  seeks  for  in  vain  in 
the  great  Talmudical  schools  of  the  Rhinelands,  where, 
if  the  educational   curriculum   was  narrower  in  extent,  it 

^  Gudemann,  ii.  p.  206. 

"^  See  the  great  work  of  Dr.  Steinschneider,  Die  Hebrdischen  Ueber- 
setzungen  des  Mittelalters  (2  vols.,  Berlin,  1893).  For  the  services  of  Jews 
to  the  propagation  of  Folklore,  cf.  J.  Jacobs,  Jewish  Ideals^  p.  135  seq. 


Hispano- Jewish  Culture.  365 

was  deeper  in  intent.  After  the  thirteenth  century,  all 
the  original  Talmudical  work  emanated  from  the  French 
and  German,  not  from  the  Spanish  or  Italian  schools. 
Spain  itself  was  Gallicized  so  far  as  its  Talmudical  studies 
were  concerned  by  Franco-German  emigrations  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  just  as,  three  centuries  later,  Turkey 
and  the  rest  of  Europe  were  Arabicized  by  the  accession  of 
the  Spanish  exiles.  The  Jewish  educational  curriculum  in 
Italy — and  this,  be  it  remarked,  long  before  the  Renais- 
sance— included  the  whole  domain  of  intellectual  pursuits : 
Theology,  Poetry,  Philosophy,  and  Natural  Science  in  all 
its  branches.  The  curriculum  in  Arabian  Spain  is,  how- 
ever, even  more  important,  as  it  dates  from  an  earlier 
period  than  the  Italian,  and  its  broad  lines  could  not  have 
been  paralleled  outside  Spain  in  the  early  middle  ages. 

The  ordinary  course  of  Ilispano-Jewish  study  was,  in  the 
twelfth  century^,  Bible,  Hebrew,  Poetry  (satirical,  eulogy, 
and  love-poem),  Talmud,  the  relation  of  Philosophy  and 
Revelation^  the  Logic  of  Aristotle,  the  Elements  of  Euclid, 
Arithmetic,  the  mathematical  works  of  Nicomachus,  Theo- 
dosius,  Menelaus,  Archimedes,  and  others  ;  Optics,  Astro- 
nomy, Music,  Mechanics,  Medicine,  Natural  Science,  and, 
finally,  Metaphysics.  This  wide  and  liberal  curriculum  was 
continued  in  later  ages  with  unimportant  variations,  except 
in  detail.  In  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Jehuda 
ben  Samuel  Ibn  Abbas  ^  includes  in  the  school  curriculum 
Reading,  Translation  of  the  Pentateuch,  the  Historical  Books 


^  From  the  seventh  chapter  of  Joseph  ben  Jehuda  Aknin's  Arabic  work 
DlEa"JS  rw  (Heb.  ^-.-^  rtDio)  ;  Steinschneider,  Hebr.  Uebersetzungen,  p.  33; 
Gudemann,  Das  Judische  Untcrrichtswesen,  &c.  (Vienna,  1873),  p.  42  seq. 

2  In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  his  rro  T«',  Steinschneider,  op.  cit.,  p.  35  ; 
Gudemann,  p.  147  seq.     Cf.  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra's  Yesod  Mom. 


366  The  Scope  of  Education, 

of  the  Old  Testament,  Hebrew  Grammar  (treatises  by  Ibn 
Janach,  Kimchi,  Chayuj,  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra),  Talmud^  (with 
Rashis  commentary  and  the  additional  glosses  known  as 
Tossafoth).  moral  works  such  as  Ibn  Aknin's  Cure  of  the  Soul 
and  Honein's  Ethics  of  the  Philosophers.  When  the  religious 
curriculum  was  completed,  the  pupil  '  tasted  the  honey  of 
science/  beginning,  strangely  enough,  with  Medicine,  for 
which  a  complete  library  of  works  are  named ^.  Next  fol- 
lowed *  Indian '  Arithmetic.  The  boy  must  have  been  fifteen 
or  sixteen  before  he  began  Arithmetic,  but  this  accounts  for 
the  fact  that  it  was  taught  without  the  expenditure  of  much 
time  over  first  principles.  These  would  already  have  been 
acquired  during  the  ordinary  intellectual  development  of  the 
youth.  As  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra's  Arithmetic^  was  much 
used,  it  may  be  well  to  point  out  that  the  order  of  subjects 
is  a  rather  curious  one :  Multiplication,  Division,  Addition, 
Subtraction,  Fractions,  Proportion,  Square  Root.  As,  how- 
ever, Addition  starts  with  the  summation  of  series,  it  is  not 
so  strange  that  it  succeeds  Multiplication  and  Division. 
After  Arithmetic  and  other  mathematical  subjects,  including 
Music,  the  pupil  commenced  the  study  of  Aristotle's  Logic 
as  interpreted  by  Averroes.  It  is  necessary  to  point  out 
that  the  only  immediate  disciples  whom  this  great  Arabian 
philosopher  inspired  were  Jews.  Then  the  student  took 
a  systematic  course  of  Natural  Science  and  Metaphysics. 

The  Spanish  Jews  were,  as  the  result  of  this  training,  men 
of  the  widest  possible  culture.  One  detects  no  note  of 
medievalism  at  all  in  their  works  and  their  lives,  unless  it 
be  the  absence  of  special  bent.     Whatever  their  ultimate 

*  The  order  is  the  usual  one  :  first  Berachoth,  then  Moed,  then  the  larger 
Orders,  Nashim,  Nezikim,  &c.  ^  Steinschneider,  loc.  cit. 

'   The  Book  of  Numbers  (nccon  iSD),  ed.  M.  Silberberg  (Frankfort,  1895). 


Popular  Ignorance.  367 

business  in  life  was  to  be,  the  Jew  of  this  liberal  school  was 
trained  in  all  the  arts  and  sciences  of  the  day.  The  Rabbi, 
the  financier,  the  man  of  letters,  was  also  poet,  philosopher, 
and  often  physician. 

In  contrast  with  this  breadth,  the  acquirements  of  the 
medieval  Jews  in  the  rest  of  Europe  shrink  to  insignificance. 
It  is  certain,  however,  that  their  culture  was  far  higher  than 
is  usually  supposed.  Zunz,  writing  in  the  middle  of  the 
present  century,  when  the  struggle  for  enlightenment  in 
Jewish  educational  methods  was  only  half  won,  was  scarcely 
just  to  the  French  and  German  Jews  of  the  middle  ages  \ 
He  agrees,  however,  that  the  Jews  were  better  educated 
than  their  Christian  contemporaries,  but  says  with  truth 
that  a  great  deal  of  ignorance  prevailed  on  natural 
phenomena,  and  that  the  Jewish  atmosphere  as  well  as  the 
Christian  was  filled  with  demons  and  monsters.  Birds 
grew  spontaneously  in  the  air  on  the  trees  -,  and  the  Sea  of 
Galilee  flowed  into  the  ocean  •'.  Jews  in  the  thirteenth 
century  took  omens  from  dreams  like  the  rest  of  the  world. 
The  mystical  movements  of  the  middle  ages  were  also  the 
source  of  the  admission  into  Jewish  life  of  a  good  deal  of 
ignorant  superstition.  Jews  knew  of  men  who  had  no 
shadows,  of  evil  spirits  lurking  in  caverns  *,  they  feared  the 
evil-eye,  believed  in  witches  and  ghouls  who  devoured 
children,  trusted  to  spells  and  incantations.  In  all  this  the 
Jews  were  in  the  same  position  as  the  Christians. 

Admitting  these  and  many  similar  facts,  it  still  remains 

1  Zur  Gesr.hichte  (1845),  p.  177. 

°  Meir  of  Rothenburg,  Responsa  (ed.  Lemberg),  160. 

'  Raben,  54.     Cf.  Gudemann,  i.  p.  117. 

*  Spanish  Rabbis  like  Maimonides  were  remarkably  free  from  such 
superstitions.  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra  even  denied  in  set  terms  the  existence  of 
demons  ;  a  remarkable  feat  for  the  twelfth  century. 


368  77?^  Scope  of  Education. 

clear  that  the  intellectual  attainments  of  the  Jews  of  Europe, 
even  outside  the  realms  of  theology,  were  by  no  means  in- 
considerable. Zunz  remarks  that  a  Rabbi  like  Samson  of 
Sens  had  got  no  farther  in  his  mathematical  knowledge  of  a 
squcre  than  the  certainty  that  *  the  diagonal  must  be  more 
than  seven-fifths  of  the  side.'  But  surely  this  was  a  very  ac- 
curate approximation.  Similarly,  the  great  eleventh-century 
French  Rabbi,  Rashi,  obviously  knew  no  '  Indian  Arith- 
metic,' but  the  calculations  in  his  commentaries,  though 
cumbersome,  are  completely  accurate,  and  display  a  real 
grasp  of  first  principles  ^.  Some  mathematical  knowledge  is 
displayed  by  the  French  Rabbi,  known  as  Rashbam,  in  his 
famous  Commentary  on  the  Pentateuch  ^.  It  was,  in  fact, 
impossible  to  understand  certain  parts  of  the  Talmud  as 
the  students  in  the  great  continental  yeshibas  did,  without 
a  considerable  knowledge  of  mathematical  principles,  and 
it  is  instructive  that  in  the  seventeenth  century  we  find 
appended  to  the  legal  decisions  of  a  German  Rabbi  a  list 
of  propositions  of  Euclid  needed  for  the  elucidation  of  the 
Law  ^.  The  Jewish  calendar,  which  the  French  and  German 
Rabbis  thoroughly  understood,  demanded  some  astrono- 
mical knowledge.  It  is  the  fact,  too,  that  out  of  such 
a  school  there  arose,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  accom- 
plished mathematicians  like  the  so-called  Gaon,  Elijah  of 
Wilna.  Jewish  children,  be  it  remembered,  in  the  middle 
ages  were  taught  the  meaning  of  numbers  together  with 
the  alphabet  *.     The  Jews  of  Northern   France  were  well 

^  See  Rashi  to  T.  B.  Succah,  8  a ;  Zebachim,  59  b. 
See  e.  g.  on  Exodus  xxvi.  9,  &c. 

3  See  the  end  of  Jonah  Landsofer's  npis  rrc,  where  he  proves  Euclid  I. 
I,  9,  11,22,  &c. 

*  Cf.  Gudemann,  i.  118.     They  were  taught  that  N  =  i,  2  =  2,  a  =  3,  and 
so  forth. 


Theology  and  Philosophy.  369 

acquainted  with  French,  and  transcribed  it  in  Hebrew 
characters  with  phonetic  precision  \  Maharil,  the  great 
German  Rabbi  of  the  fourteenth  century,  was  an  adept  at 
vocal  music,  and  records  many  melodies. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  the  mass  of  the  Jews  failed  to 
attain  the  lofty  level  of  the  Arabo-Spanish  culture.  The 
deficiency  was  great  in  volume,  but  greater  in  point  of  view. 
The  difference  was  one  of  mental  attitude  rather  than  of 
mental  attainments.  To  the  Jews  of  Spain,  Italy,  and 
Provence,  theology  did  not  exhaust  culture.  Elsewhere 
nothing  but  the  literature  of  religion  was  considered  worthy 
of  study.  Theology  absorbed  the  whole  mind,  and  the  dab- 
bling of  the  young  in  metaphysics  was  not  only  considered 
useless,  but  also  dangerous.  It  sapped  faith  and  produced 
a  divided  allegiance  to  God.  The  violent  reaction  against 
philosophical  inquiry  which  broke  out,  even  in  Spain  and 
Provence,  over  the  remains  of  Maimonides  was  not  stayed 
in  Jewish  life  until  the  era  of  the  French  Revolution.  In 
the  intervening  centuries  the  Jews  were  driven  in  masses 
to  the  non-cultured  lands  of  Europe,  and  the  Universities 
were  closed  to  them  except  by  the  road  of  baptism.  The 
Jews  were  expelled  from  France  and  Spain,  and  the  only 
cultured  land  left  open  to  them  was  commercial  Italy. 
For  a  long  period  the  Jews  of  Turkey  continued  the  Spanish 
tradition,  and  only  lost  their  old  culture  in  modern  times 
under  the  stress  of  internal  and  external  degeneration. 

I  have  just  said  that  the  Jews  of  Italy  and  Spain  did 
not  bound  their  intellectual  horizon  on  all  sides  by  theology. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say,  that  while 
they  regarded  Religion  as  the  ultimate  goal  of  education, 

*  Some  of  the  oldest  French  extant  is  to  be  found  in  the  glosses  of  Rashi. 
Cf.  E.  Renan  (and  Neubauer),  Eirivains  Juifs  fran<;ais  du  XIV^  Siklc,  p.  389. 

Bb 


370  The  Scope  of  Education, 

they  still  considered  other  subjects  necessary  as  handmaids 
or  adjuncts  to  theology.  Joseph  Ibn  Caspi,  in  the  early 
decades  of  the  fourteenth  century,  agreed  that  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  Judaism  were  not  to  believe  but  to 
rationally  know  that  God  is,  that  He  is  one,  that  man  must 
love  and  fear  Him  ^.  '  How  can  I  know  God  and  that  He 
is  one,  unless  I  know  what  knowing  means,  and  what  con- 
stitutes unity?  Why  should  these  things  be  left  to  non- 
Jewish  philosophers?  Why  should  Aristotle  retain  sole 
possession  of  treasures  that  he  stole  from  Solomon^?  No 
one  really  knows  the  true  meaning  of  loving  God  and 
fearing  Him,  unless  he  is  acquainted  with  natural  science 
and  metaphysics,  for  we  love  not  God  as  a  man  loves  his 
wife  and  children,  nor  fear  we  Him  as  we  would  a  mighty 
man.  I  do  not  say  that  all  men  can  reach  this  intellectual 
height,  but  I  maintain  that  it  is  the  degree  of  highest 
excellence,  though  those  who  stand  below  it  may  still  be 
good.  Strive  thou,  my  son,  to  attain  this  degree ;  yet  be 
not  hasty  in  commencing  metaphysical  studies,  and  con- 
stantly read  moral  books.'  It  was  undoubtedly  a  narrowing 
of  religion  to  make  Aristotle's  works  in  Maimonized  form 
the  only  road  to  it.  Ibn  Caspi's  assumption  would 
inevitably  restrict  the  number  of  those  who  can  serve  God 
with  truth,  for  the  ordinary  mortal  is  not  a  philosopher. 
One  can  understand  the  vigour  and  temper  with  which 
the  non-philosophers  resented  this  attitude  and,  throwing 
themselves  into  the  opposite  extreme,  asserted  that  meta- 
physics led  not  to,  but  from,  God. 

Ibn  Caspi  was  no  doubt  doing  himself  less  than  justice. 

^  Joseph  Ibn  Caspi's  icion  icd  in  Eleazar  Ashkenazi's  C'zpi  cm  (1854). 

*  For  the  legend  that  Aristotle  derived  his  philosophy  from  Solomon 
on  his  supposed  visit  to  Jerusalem  with  Alexander  the  Great,  cf.  my  article 
in  Mind^  July,  1888.     See  also  the  Frankel-Griitz  Monatsschrift  for  i860. 


The  Renaissance, 


371 


He  meant  that  there  were  other  interests  in  life  besides  reli- 
gion, but  he  asserted  that  these  other  interests  were  religious. 
Another  Jew  of  the  same  school  placed  the  matter  in 
a  clearer  light.  Yedaya  Bedaressi  (i 280-1 340),  the  poet- 
philosopher,  was  satisfied  to  prove  that  secular  and  scientific 
occupations  were  not  inconsistent  with  a  complete  belief 
in  God  or  devotion  to  the  demands  of  religion.  In  his 
famous  letter  ^  to  the  half-hearted  opponent  of  secular 
studies,  Solomon  ben  Adret,  he  reveals  the  strength  of 
his  own  convictions.  He  even  adds :  '  It  is  certain  that 
if  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun  arose  to  forbid  the  Proven9al 
Jews  to  study  the  works  of  Maimonides,  he  would  scarcely 
succeed.  For  they  have  the  firm  intention  to  sacrifice  their 
fortunes  and  even  their  lives  in  defence  of  the  philosophical 
works  of  Maimonides.'  The  men  who  wrote  in  this  strain 
would  certainly  have  stood  in  the  van  of  the  literary 
Renaissance  had  not  persecution  laid  its  cold  hand  on  their 
enthusiasm  for  knowledge. 

Modern  investigations  make  it  clearer  and  clearer  that  the 
medieval  Jews  were  kept  from  their  share  in  the  Renaissance 
by  external  and  accidental  causes.  In  Italy  alone  did  they 
participate  in  the  new  expansion  of  men's  minds.  Elsewhere 
they  were  denied  the  chance.  But  they  were,  in  truth,  the 
pioneers  of  the  Renaissance,  whose  fruits  they  did  not  share. 
As  the  Arab  science  dwindled  and  Latin  learning  took  its 
place,  the  Jews  of  Provence  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  were  well  equipped  to  lead  the  change.     *  The  Jews,' 

^  Cf.  Renan  (and  Neubauer),  Les  ^crivains  Juifs  fran<^ais  du  XIV«  Steele, 
p.  31  seq.  *  Comme  tous  les  savants  Juifs  du  moyen  age,  Yedaya  etait 
universe!.  Nous  aurons  bientot  a  apprecier  le  philosophe  et  le  moraliste. 
II  soccupa  egalement  des  etudes  talmudiques,  notamment  de  la  partie 
agadique,  sur  laquelle  il  fit  des  commentaires.  Ajoutons  qu'il  etait  medecin, 
puisqu'il  a  fait  des  gloses  sur  le  Canon  d'Avicenne  '  (op.  cit.,  p.  13). 

B  b  2 


372  The  Scope  of  Education. 

says  Renan,  *  ought  to  have  played  a  great  part  in  the  work 
of  the  Renaissance.  One  of  the  reasons  why  France  was  slow 
in  gaining  by  the  great  transformation  is  that,  about  1500, 
France  was  quite  destitute  of  a  Jewish  element.  The  Jews 
to  whom  Francis  I  was  forced  to  have  recourse  for  the 
foundation  of  his  college,  le  Canosse,  Guidacier,  were  Italian 
Jews  ^.' 

When  at  last  it  did  come,  the  Renaissance  for  which 
it  had  waited  fell  on  Jewish  life  like  a  strong  stream 
swollen  by  a  long-gathered  accumulation  of  waters.  The 
sharpening  of  the  mind  produced  by  several  centuries' 
devotion  to  Talmudical  dialectics  provided  the  Jews  with 
a  keen  instrument  for  cultivating  the  fields  fertilized  by  the 
rushing  streams  of  emancipation.  The  postponement  of 
the  Jewish  middle  ages  until  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the 
late  birth  of  the  Renaissance  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth, 
produced  effects  which  could  not  vanish  in  a  day.  But 
because  it  came  late,  the  Jewish  Renaissance  was  all  the  more 
comprehensive.  It  will  need,  however,  the  lapse  of  at  least 
another  generation  before  its  full  effects,  for  good  or  evil, 
will  have  unfolded  themselves. 

^  Renan,  Les  ^crivains  Juifs  fran^ais  du  XI V^  Siecle,  p.  393 :  '  A  partir 
de  la  seconde  moitie  du  xiii"  siecle,  I'arabe  n'est  plus  connu  des  Juifs  de 
Provence,  a  moins  d'une  etude  speciale ;  mais,  d'un  autre  cote,  ces  Juifs 
proven9aux,  pour  I'astronomie  et  la  medecine,  avaient  des  sources  d'exci- 
tations  toutes  particulieres.  A  mesure  que  la  science  arabe  disparaissait, 
la  science  latine  naissait ;  cette  evolution  nouvelle  de  I'esprit  humain  allait 
donner  au  travail  Israelite  tout  son  prix.  Les  Juifs  devaient  avoir  une  part 
considerable  dans  I'ceuvre  de  la  Renaissance.  Une  des  raisons  pour 
lesquelles  la  France  fut  en  retard  dans  cette  grande  transformation,  c'est 
que,  vers  1500,  elle  s'etait  a  peu  pres  privee  de  I'element  juif.  Les  Juifs 
auxquels  Fran9ois  I*"'  dut  avoir  recours  pour  la  fondation  de  son  College,  le 
Canosse,  Guidacier,  etaient  des  Juifs  itaiiens.' 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

MEDIEVAL    PASTIMES    AND    INDOOR    AMUSEMENTS. 

A  MERRY  spirit  smiled  on  Jewish  life  in  the  middle  ages, 
joyousness  forming,  in  the  Jewish  conception,  the  coping- 
stone  of  piety.  There  can  be  no  greater  mistake  than 
to  imagine  that  the  Jews  allowed  their  sufferings  to  blacken 
their  life  or  cramp  their  optimism.  Few  pastimes  of  the 
middle  ages  were  excluded  from  the  Jewish  sphere.  The 
Jew  rarely  invented  a  game,  but  he  adopted  a  good  thing 
when  he  saw  it.  The  stern,  restraining  hand  of  religion 
only  occasionally  checked  the  mirth  and  light-heartedness 
with  which  the  Jew  yielded  himself  to  all  the  various 
pleasures  of  which  his  life  was  capable. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  day  of  rest  was  not  a  day 
of  gloom.  To  walk  abroad  in  the  fresh  air  on  the  Sabbath 
was  a  favourite  delight  of  the  Jews  in  the  middle  ages.  On 
the  festivals  they  strolled  by  brooks  and  streams,  and 
watched  the  fishes  disporting  themselves  in  the  water. 
They  carried  food  Vvith  them  which  they  threw  into  the 
streams,  and  derived  a  simple  pleasure  from  the  pastime, 
even  though  it  was  not  strictly  in  accordance  with  Jewish 
ritual  law  ^.     The  service  in  synagogue  was  not  lengthened 

^  Maharil,  nyicn  bin  no'^rr. 


374     Medieval  Pastimes  and  Indoor  Amusements. 

beyond  measure,  so  as  to  '  preserve  the  pleasure  of  the 
festivaP.'  Industrious  as  the  Jewish  women  were,  they 
had  many  holidays.  On  the  new  moon  they  did  no  work, 
but  amused  themselves  in  ways  to  be  described  below, 
while  the  men  and  women,  besides  their  other  home- 
games,  spent  part  of  Purim  in  light  and  pleasant  reading, 
in  making  preparations  for  a  forthcoming  wedding,  or  in 
embroidering  gay  garments  for  future  wear^. 

Joyous  wedding  parties  and  bridal  feasts  were  held  even 
on  the  Sabbath — the  day  of  peace,  but  not  of  repression — 
singing  and  dancing  occurred  sometimes  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  instrumental  music,  and,  as  we  shall  soon 
note,  indoor  amusements,  such  as  chess  and  other  table- 
games,  were  permitted  on  the  seventh  day.  The  board 
was  spread  with  the  choicest  viands  that  the  husband's 
purse  could  buy,  the  wine  flowed,  and  conversation  tripped 
along,  witty,  religious,  and  cheery,  interspersed  with  semi- 
religious  songs  set  to  merry  tunes.  If  the  Jew  visited  his 
Rabbi,  he  heard  many  a  humorous  anecdote  or  quaint  intel- 
lectual quip,  told  with  a  smile  to  a  responsively  smiling 
audience,  who  the  more  willingly  applied  the  moral  because 
they  enjoyed  the  tale.  The  Jewish  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  was  strict  but  not  sombre  ;  it  was  Judaic  and  not 
Puritanical — two  terms  far  from  identical  in  significance. 
Life  was  transfigured  on  the  Sabbath-day,  and  a  tone  of 
elevated  joy  was  the  prevailing  note. 

Religion  did,  however,  seriously  affect  the  Jewish  amuse- 
ments in  two  significant  particulars.  These  were  the 
suppression   of  gambling  and   the   interference  with  such 

'  See  e.  g.  the  interesting  statement  to  this  effect  in  the  Machzor  Romania 
(Constant.  1573J,  New  Year,  30  a. 
'^  ]VV  ini>  |-'«\D  -ai  "td,  Kolbo,  46  b. 


Intellectual  Games,  37^ 

recreations  as  involved  free  intercourse  between  the  two 
sexes.  These  points,  however,  will  best  be  approached 
in  the  process  of  a  general  treatment  of  the  favourite 
Jewish  recreations  of  the  middle  ages. 

Intellectual  pastimes  were  far  more  common  than  physical 
as  the  middle  ages  advanced.  But  in  the  fourth  century 
Jerome,  when  on  a  visit  to  Syria,  saw  '  large,  heavy  stones 
which  Jewish  boys  and  youths  handled  and  held  aloft  in 
the  air  to  train  their  muscular  strength^.'  At  the  same 
period,  the  Palestinian  Jews  were  wont  to  practise  archery, 
probably  as  a  form  of  recreation  ^.  Considerably  earlier 
TacituS;,  a  hostile  witness,  says  that  '  the  bodies  of  the 
Jews  are  sound  and  healthy,  and  hardy  to  bear  burdens  ^' 
Unhappily  everything  connected  with  the  ancient  gymnasia 
became  distasteful  to  the  Jews  after  the  wars  with  Rome, 
and  athletic  exercises  became  a  portion  of '  foreign  culture  ' 
which  was  tabooed'^. 

Jewish  antipathy  to  another  favourite  sport — hunting — 
was  much  deeper.  Already  in  the  Bible  the  figures  intro- 
duced as  devoted  hunters — Nimrod  and  Esau — are  by  no 
means  presented  in  a  favourable  light.  Herod  is  the  first 
person  described  in  post-Biblical  Jewish  history  as  '  a  most 
excellent  hunter,  in  which  sport  he  generally  had  great 
success  owing  to  his  skill  in  riding,  for  in  one  day  he  once 
killed  forty  wild  beasts  ^.'  Herod  was  also  a  '  most  straight 
javelin-thrower  and  a  most  unerring  archer.'     Now,  as  the 

^  On  Zechariah  xii.  4. 

*  See  Bacher,  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  xxvi.  pp.  63-68.  The  recreation 
is  described  by  the  phrase  D'^jn  mip. 

'  Hist.,  V.  6  :   'Corpora  hominum  salubria  et  ferentia  laborum.' 

*  That  athletics  were  included  by  the  Talmud  under  r.^:v  nDDn,  *  Greek 
wisdom,'  may  be  seen  from  B.  Kama,  83  a,  and  Sota,  49  b. 

*  Josephus,  Wars,  I.  xxi.  13. 


376     Medieval  Pastimes  and  Indoor  Amusements. 

Jews  were  frequently  forbidden  in  the  middle  ages  to  cany 
arms,  even  in  Spain,  and  as,  moreover,  Jews  were  never 
noted  riders^,  it  is  obvious  that  the  moral  objection  to 
sports  in  which  weapons  and  horses  were  necessary  acces- 
sories must  have  gained  overwhelming  strength  from  com- 
pulsion. Hunting  in  particular  was  resented  as  cruel,  and 
therefore  un-Jewish.  '  He  who  hunts  game  with  dogs,  as 
non-Jews  do,  will  not  participate  in  the  joy  of  the  Levia- 
than,' says  a  great  medieval  Jew^.  The  very  vehemence  of 
this  prohibition  prepares  us  to  expect  that,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  Jews  did  at  least  occasionally  participate  in  hunting. 
Nor  are  indications  wanting  that  this  was  the  case,  though 
rarely,  throughout  the  middle  ages.  Zunz  cites  an  in- 
stance^. In  Provence,  too,  the  Jews  possessed  trained 
falcons,  and  used  them  in  hawking,  themselves  riding  on 
horseback '^. 

Mr.  Joseph  Jacobs  has  unearthed  an  even  more  interesting 
case,  which  occurred  in  Colchester  in  1267.  '  A  certain  doe  ' 
was  started  in  Wildenhaye  Wood  by  the  dogs  of  Sir  John 
de  Burgh,  and  in  her  flight  came  by  the  top  of  the  city  of 
Colchester.  '  And  there  issued  forth  Saunte  son  of  Ursel, 
Jew  of  Colchester,  Cok  son  of  Aaron,  and  Samuel  son  of 
the  same,  Isaac  the  Jewish  chaplain,  Copin  and  Elias,  Jews, 
and  certain  Christians  of  the  said  city.  And  these  with 
a  mighty  clamour  chased  the  same  doe  through  the  south 
gate  into  the  aforesaid  city,  and  they  so  worried  her  by 
their  shouting  that  they  forced  her  to  jump  over  a  wall, 

^  Nowack,  Lehrbuch  der  Hehr.  Archdologie,  i,  p.  367. 

'^  Meir  of  Rothenburg,  n"i^  (ed.  Mekitse  Nirdamim),  p.  7,  §  27.  Cf.  Talmud 
B.  Aboda  Zara,  18  b.  The  feast  on  the  flesh  of  the  Leviathan  typified  the 
joys  of  paradise. 

'  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  173. 

*  Berliner,  Aus  dem  inneren  Leben,  p.  17. 


Himtmg.  377 

and  she  thus  broke  her  neck,  .  .  And  there  came  upon 
them  Walter  the  bailiff  and  Robert  the  Toller,  beadle  of 
the  same  city,  and  carried  thence  the  game,  and  had 
their  will  of  it^'  Evidently  the  Jews  could  not  resist  the 
instinct  of  joining  in  the  chase  when  the  animal  crossed 
their  path.  But  though  other  instances  are  on  record, 
it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  Jews,  even  when  their 
relations  with  Christians  were  friendly,  could  heartily  par- 
ticipate in  the  chase,  seeing  that  they  could  not  eat  the 
game  so  killed,  in  company  with  Christians  ^. 

With  more  readiness,  however, the  Jews  surrendered  them- 
selves to  the  pleasures  of  the  tourney  and  other  knightly 
exercises  which  involved  no  cruelty  to  animals.  We  have 
seen  above  that  in  their  wedding  festivities  Jews  often 
performed  mimic  fights.  Jewish  duellists  were  not  un- 
known^. They  would  no  doubt  have  been  ready  to  join 
in  martial  sports  had  they  been  permitted.  But  in  most 
places  the  Jews  were  not  allowed  to  bear  arms  even  in 
their  own  quarters  and  for  self-defence.  In  1181  it  was 
enacted  in  England  that  '  no  Jew  shall  keep  with  him  mail 
or  hauberk,  but  let  him  sell  or  give  them  away,  or  in  some 

^  J.  Jacobs,  Jewish  Ideals^  p.  226.  The  narrative  is  from  the  Forest  Roll 
of  the  county  of  Essex  (1277).  The  Jews  were  severely  punished  for  this 
breach  of  the  forest  laws. 

2  It  will  be  noticed  that  in  the  Colchester  case  the  Jews  did  not  eat  the 
doe,  for  an  animal  slain  in  the  chase  is  unfit  for  the  Jewish  table.  At 
a  much  later  date  Jews  who  indulged  in  hunting  abstained  from  eating  the 
hunted  animal  (S.  Marpurgo,  npi:?  mjomj  T<'y^,  p.  66  b).  For  other  (late) 
references  to  Jewish  hunters,  see  -lED  orn,  Y''  "n,  §§  52,  53;  J.  Reischer, 
apr'  miMJ,  ii.  §  63.  The  chief  Jewish  objection  to  hunting  was  based  on  its 
cruelty.  Yet  Isserlein  mentions  the  cropping  of  a  dog's  ears  and  tail  to  im- 
prove its  looks  (canDT  cp^c,  105^.     Cf.  p.  128  above. 

3  Depping,  Les  Juifs  dans  leMoyenAge,  p.  182  :  '  Judicatum  est  quod  Calfot 
Judaeus  poterit  sequi  Abraham  Judaeum  per  duellum  de  Kemino '  ( =  in  an 
open  road).     The  date  of  this  entry  is  1207. 


3/8     Medieval  Pastimes  and  Indoor  Amusements. 

other  way  remove  them  from  him  ^'  Before  that  date 
several  English  Jews  seem  to  have  ranked  as  knights.  The 
Jews  of  Worms  were  practised  in  bearing  arms-,  while  in 
Prague  this  was  even  more  notably  the  case  ^ 

In  Spain  the  Jews  highly  prized  the  privilege  of  wearing 
arms,  styling  themselves  knights,  and  bearing  stately  names. 
Frequent  attempts  were  made  to  prevent  this,  especially 
towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  In  1390  the 
Jews  of  Majorca  were  forbidden  to  carry  arms  in  their 
ghetto*:  in  141 2  the  King  of  Castile  resolved  that  no 
Jews  might  '  carry  swords,  daggers,  or  similar  arms  in  the 
cities,  towns,  and  places  of  my  kingdoms^.'  In  Portugal 
as  late  as  1481  the  following  representations  were  made  to 
John  II :  '  We  notice  Jewish  cavaliers,  mounted  on  richly 
caparisoned  horses  and  mules,  in  fine  cloaks,  cassocks,  silk 
doublets,  closed  hoods,  and  with  gilt  swords  ^.'  The  Jews 
in  Italy  held  sportive  tourneys,  in  which  the  boys  fought  on 
foot  with  nuts  as  pellets,  w^hile  their  elders  rode  on  horse- 
back through  the  streets,  flourishing  wooden  staves,  and,  to 
the  blast  of  horns  and  bugles,  tilted  at  an  effigy  repre- 
senting Haman,  which  was  subsequently  burnt  on  a  mock 
funeral  pyre'.  Possibly  the  Jews  actually  took  part  in 
real  tourneys  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  an  instance 
of  such  participation  is  recorded  in  Weissenfels  in  1386®. 

^  Jacobs,  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  cf.  p.  75  with  p.  260. 
'  Rokeach,  §  196. 

*  G.  Wolf,  Die  Juden  (of  Austro- Bohemia),  p.  8,     Cf.  ch.  iv.  above. 

*  Revue  des  Etudes  Juives,  iv.  38. 

*  The  Ordinance  of  Cifuentes,  §  7  ;  Lindo,  p.  204. 

'  Tlte  Cortes  of  Evoia,  Lindo,  p.  317.  "^  Kalonymos,  cmD  n3CD. 

*  Hecht,  Wertheimer's  Jahrhuch,  iii.  169.  But  compare  Berliner,  op.  cit., 
p.  16.  and  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  184,  from  which  it  would  seem  that  the 
fight  was  not  in  sport,  but  earnest,  and  that  the  Jews  merely  defended  them- 
selves against  the  attack  of  a  party  of  armed  bandits. 


Athletic  Amusements. 


379 


The  old  religious  objections  to  the  classical  gymnasia 
would  probably  have  left  little  impress  on  medieval  Jews 
had  the  latter  been  allowed  a  free  choice. 

Other  amusements,  of  a  more  or  less  athletic  nature, 
were  also  much  favoured  by  Jews.  They  were  extremely 
fond  of  foot-races.  Both  men  and  women  frequently 
played  games  in  which  balls  were  used.  The  scene  of 
this  pastime  was  the  street,  or  a  public  open  space,  and 
in  France  the  game  seems  to  have  resembled  tennis.  Some 
authorities  even  permitted  the  game  to  be  pubHcly  played 
by  women  on  festivals,  others  restricted  the  licence  to 
children^.  In  place  of  a  ball,  round  fruits,  such  as  nuts 
and  apples,  or  even  eggs  and  spherical  stones,  were  some- 
times used.  The  nuts  were  placed  in  a  heap,  and  the  object 
of  the  player  was  to  throw  them  down.  This  game  was 
played  both  on  the  bare  ground  and  on  mats  or  carpets, 
women  being  particularly  fond  of  it  from  very  ancient 
times-.  They  also  played  a  game  which  was  scMnething 
like  skittles,  a  mark  being  set  up  to  be  thrown  down  by 
small  stone  pellets  ■\  Sometimes  victory  in  the  nut-game 
was  won  by  breaking  the  opponent's  nuts.  Another  game 
with  nuts  needed  a  large  urn,  but  the  details  of  the  game  are 
not  recorded"*.  The  Jewish  children  also  played  at  blind- 
man's-buff  ^  and  enjoyed  games  in  which  sides  were  taken, 
such  as  the  modern  '  prisoner  s  base.'     Each  party  appointed 

^  cnn  marc  "^"'2  i"r7;  si"-i7r  pT^  "'''"1-2  77rT^r27.  Tossafoth  to  Beza.  12  a 
(near  foot).  In  the  Shulchan  Aruch  (^Orach  Chayim,  308,  45;,  ball-playing 
is  forbidden  on  Sabbaths  and  festivals  ;but  the  note  is  added  that  some 
authorities  permit  it ;  cf.  ibid.,  §  518,  i  note).  In  Midrash  Echa  Rabba,  ii.  4, 
ball-playing  on  the  Sabbath  is  cited  as  one  of  the  causes  of  the  destruction 
of  the  temple. 

2   T.  B.  Enibin^  104  a ;  cf.  Kolbo,  41  a. 

2  That  is,  I  think,  the  game  called  m:-rw  in  the  Talmud. 

*  Berliner,  A  us  dent  imieren  Leben,  p.  12.  ^  Zunz,  Zur  Gesckichte,  173. 


38o     Medieval  Pastimes  and  Indoor  Amusements. 

a.  chieftain  or  king,  and  the  game  consisted  in  endeavour- 
ing to  capture  the  hostile  representatives.  So,  too,  they 
probably  played  at  leap-frog  ^. 

But  by  far  the  most  popular  athletic  amusement  of  the 
Jews  in  the  middle  ages  was  t/ie  dance.  Dancing,  however, 
was  not  so  much  a  personal  pleasure  as  a  means  of  rousing 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  assembled  company.  Hence  gesticu- 
lationSj  violent  leaps  and  bounds,  hopping  in  a  circle,  rather 
than  graceful  pose  or  soft  rhythmic  movement,  characterized 
the  Jewish  dances  both  of  ancient  and  medieval  times  ^. 
Apart  from  moral  considerations,  it  is  clear  that  pro- 
miscuous dancing  between  the  two  sexes  was  quite  out 
of  keeping  with  the  style  in  which  the  art  was  per- 
formed by  men.  The  women  danced  in  line  or  circle, 
without  any  prescribed  steps ;  but  the  leader  would  im- 
provise a  movement  which  the  rest,  striking  cymbals  the 
while,  would  attempt  to  imitate.  They  danced  for  the 
amusement,  not  of  themselves,  but  of  the  onlookers,  though 
naturally  the  two  elements  were  not  dissociated.  How 
strongly  dancing  was  beloved  by  the  Jews  has  been  in- 
dicated several  times  in  the  course  of  previous  chapters^. 
But  in  the  middle  ages,  despite  the  natural  inappro- 
priateness  of  promiscuous  dancing  already  indicated,  a 
tendency  towards  combined  dances  between  men  and 
women  manifests  itself.  Against  this  innovation  the  voice 
of  the  Synagogue  was  unanimous.  The  Scriptural  text 
(Prov.  xi.  2i) : — 

Hand  to  hand  shall  not  go  unpunished, 

was  hurled  with  much  effect  at  the  offenders.     '  Men  and 


Low,  Lebensalter,  p.  288. 

Cf.  Nowack,  Lehrbuch  der  Hehr.  Archaologie,  i.  p.  279. 

Cf.  above,  especially  the  chapters  on  Marriage. 


Dancing,  381 

women  shall  neither  rejoice  nor  mourn  together,'  said  the 
Jewish  pietists  of  all  ages^.  Even  young  children  only  played 
in  the  streets  with  their  own  sex  -.  The  single  relaxation 
allowed  was  that  a  husband  might  dance  with  his  own  wife, 
a  father  with  his  daughter,  a  mother  with  her  son,  a  brother 
with  his  sister  ^.  This  concession  was  far  from  meeting  the 
popular  demands.  Many  Jews,  especially  young  men  and 
maidens,  with  some  married  couples,  disobeyed  the  Rab- 
binical rule,  and  not  only  danced  together,  but  did  so  in 
the  comm.unal  dancing-hall  on  the  Sabbath  and  festivals. 
The  result  was  sometimes  disastrous,  for  many  Jewish 
husbands  seriously  objected  to  their  wives  dancing  with 
other  men  *.  During  the  religious  mania  induced  by  the 
enthusiasm  aroused  by  the  pseudo-Messiah,  Sabatai  Zevi, 
a  good  deal  of  temporary  licentiousness  resulted  from  the 
indiscriminate  dancing  in  which  the  followers  of  Sabatai 
indulged  °. 

Another  class  of  Jewish  pastimes  was  of  a  more  intel- 
lectual   nature.     Arithmetical   tricks   known   as  gematria 

^  c^n^  mmx,  chapter  on  nnr:'C , 

'^  The  Dn'cn  iz:d,  §  168,  9.  Cf.  against  promiscuous  dancing,  op. 
cit.,  §  393 ;  DTicn,  19  c ;  Kolbo,  §  66 ;  and  other  references  in  Zunz,  Zur 
Geschichte,  p.  171. 

^  Responsa,  David  Cohen  (1440  ?),  §  14.  Cf.  too,  C.  Azulai,  '^'O'H.  -dv  ri"ic, 
§  103,  where  this  arrangement  is  described  as  '  an  ancient  cherem.' 

*  David  Cohen,  §  14.  He  raises  no  objection  to  the  occurrence  of  dancing 
on  the  Sabbath,  but  merely  objects  to  the  dancing  of  men  with  women 
except  in  the  cases  already  specified.  Other  authorities  objected  to  amuse- 
ments of  this  kind  on  the  Sabbath  altogether.  Cf.  the  interesting  discussion 
in  7311  npit*,  §  206,  where  '  young  men  of  Toledo '  located  in  Mayence 
insisted  on  their  right  to  amuse  themselves  outside  the  city  in  play-houses. 
b'".;'?  nnnvn  mnipcn  I'rb  yino  n2\ri  b>^M\  The  custom  of  dancing,  men  and 
women  together,  on  festivals  and  to  musical  accompaniment,  survived  later 
on  (cf.  J,  Steinhart,  vpy>  p^i  -"ic,  17).  Here,  again,  the  objection  was  to 
mixed  dancing,  not  to  the  amusement  as  such. 

^  Graetz,  Geschichte^  x.  222. 


383     Medieval  Pastimes  and  Indoor  Armtsements. 

were  old  favourites :  perhaps  instances  of  them  are  not 
unknown  in  the  Old  Testament  ^  At  all  events,  they 
were  very  much  fancied  in  the  middle  ages,  and  formed 
the  recreation  of  great  Rabbinical  scholars.  The  Hebrew 
letters  have  a  numerical  as  well  as  phonetic  value,  and 
thus  endless  entertainment  could  be  obtained  by  the  dis- 
covery that  certain  words  had  the  same  arithmetical 
equivalents  as  other  words,  which  might  then  be  connected 
with  them  for  moral  or  humorous  purposes.  The  Talmud, 
for  instance,  humorously  says  that  a  good  Jew  must  drink 
wine  on  Purim  until  he  can  no  longer  distinguish  be- 
tween '  Blessed  be  Mordecai '  and  '  Cursed  be  Haman.' 
The  point  of  this  remark  was  derived  from  the  numerical 
identity  of  the  Hebrew^  words  forming  the  two  phrases  ^. 
Besides  the  gematrias,  word-games  were  popular.  One 
boy  cited  a  Hebrew  text,  and  the  next  player  had  to  cap 
the  quotation  by  another  verse  which  began  with  the  same 
letter  which  terminated  the  first  quotation  ^.  Somewhat 
of  a  similar  nature  was  the  gajne  of  Samech  a?id  Pe. 
These  two  Hebrew  letters  frequently  appear  in  the 
Hebrew  Pentateuch  to  mark  two  kinds  of  paragraphs. 
One  boy  chose  Samech,  the  other  Pe,  and  the  book 
would  be  opened  haphazard  at  any  page.  The  game  was 
decided  by  the  number  of  times  each  letter  occurred  on 
the  page  thus  turned  up  *. 

There  were  three  weeks  in  the  year  during  which  Jewish 
boys  enjoyed  a  close  time.  Corporal  punishment  was 
forbidden  between  the  17th  of  Tammuz  and  the  9th  of 

'  See  Stade's  Zeitschrift    1896;,  p.  122. 

^  The  letters  occurring  in  the  sentences  ^y\yo  -[Tia  and  jcn  mis  each  amount 
numericallj'-  to  502. 

'  Book  of  the  Pious,  §  644.  *  LOw,  Lcbensalier,  p.  289. 


Parodies.  383 

Ab — =not  even  a  strap  may  be  used,'  says  the  code  ^ 
ominous  of  what  occurred  at  other  periods  of  the  year. 
During  this  happy  period  must  be  placed  several  boys' 
games,  which  could  hardly  have  been  perpetrated  with 
impunity  at  other  times.  The  Rabbi  game,  in  which  the 
boys  donned  the  garments  and  affected  the  st}-le  of  their 
teachers,  was  a  delightful  episode  in  the  boy-life  of  the 
middle  ages.  But  their  elders  were  not  slow  to  participate 
in  the  fun,  especially  on  that  licensed  day  of  the  year, 
Purim.  ]Men  must  laugh,  and  they  laugh  loudest  at  what 
interests  them  most.  The  more  men's  minds  are  full  of 
their  faith,  the  more  ready  they  are  to  parody  it  and  to 
get  amusement  out  of  it.  To  make  sport  of  sacred  things 
is  by  no  means  identical  with  irreverence.  In  the  pre- 
Protestant  ages,  monks  themselves  connived  at  the  buf- 
fooneries of  the  Lord  Abbot  of  Misrule,  the  Boy-Bishop, 
the  President  of  Fools,  or  whatever  else  the  mock  repre- 
sentatives of  the  highest  ecclesiastics  were  called.  The 
Jews,  too,  on  mirthful  occasions,  appointed  scurrilous  indi- 
viduals gifted  with  a  ready  wit  to  act  as  pseudo-Rabbis, 
in  whom  was  vested  the  inalienable  right  of  laughing  at 
sacred  things,  caricaturing  the  prayer-book,  and  ridiculing  the 
real  Rabbi,  with  his  tricks  of  speech  and  gait  and  manner. 

The  most  literary  of  these  efforts  were  the  Purim- 
parodiesl  which  were  of  two  types.  Some  caricature 
the  Rabbinical  style  of  argument,  some  parody  the  prayers, 
all  are  boisterous  eulogies  of  the  pleasures  of  wine.     The 

1  Shulchan  Aruch,  n"n  m-^.  551.  §   18.     Ci.  Rokmch.  §  309,  and  the  '"r 

ad  loc. 

»  For  a  bibliography  of  these  parodies— of  which  some  are  as  old  as  the 
fourteenth  century— see  Steinschneider,  Leticrbode,  vol.  \'ii.  1-13.  ^<^  '^■ 
45-58. 


384     Medieval  Pastimes  and  Indoor  Afnusements. 

former  included  '  Orders  of  Service  for  the  Night  of 
Drunkenness  ^,'  which  were  far  more  legitimately  amusing 
than  were  the  imitations  of  the  prayers. 

Riddles  were,  however,  the  most  characteristic  of  Jewish 
table-amusements  in  the  middle  ages.  In  their  origin,  riddles 
were  an  attempt  of  early  races  to  solve  the  mysteries  of 
life ;  they  were  pieces  of  primitive  science  dependent  on 
the  discovery  of  somewhat  remote  analogies.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  differentiate  between  the  riddle  and  the 
metaphor.  But  be  their  origin  what  it  may,  the  ancient 
Hebrews  were  adepts  in  the  construction  and  enjoyment 
of  riddles.  The  thirtieth  chapter  of  Proverbs  is  a  series  of 
moral  riddles,  and  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  Ezekiel  unfolds 
a  most  beautiful  and  elaborate  enigma  with  a  moral  signi- 
fication. In  the  Talmud  and  Rabbinical  literature,  a  large 
number  of  famous  sayings  are  put  in  the  form  of  riddles. 
Who  is  mighty  ?  Who  is  a  fool  ?  Who  is  happy?  A  whole 
class  of  popular  phrases  in  the  Talmud  and  Midrash  are 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  folk-riddles^  the  chief  exponents 
being  women-servants  and  children,  but  distinguished  Rabbis 
also  utilized  this  '  language  of  wisdom  ^.'  Ethical  works 
of  the  middle  ages,  like  Gabirols  '  Choice  of  Pearls/  abound 
in  philosophical  riddles.  Riddles  found  their  way  into  the 
prayer-book  for  the  Passover  eve  ^.  It  goes  without  saying, 
therefore,  that  many  Hebrew  riddles  of  the  middle  ages 
were  serious  intellectual  exercises.  The  most  famous 
instance   of  this  type,  as  well  as  the  most  popular,  was 

*  cmDu;  b'b  for  cnrauj  b'b. 

^  Cf.  on  this  whole  subject,  A.  Wunsche,  Die  Rdthselweisheit  bet  den 
Hebrdern  (Leipzig,  1883). 

'  The  curious  'Who  knows  one?  I  know  one,'  &c.  According  to  Perles 
this  hymn  was  imitated  from  a  German  folk-song  {Graetz-Juhehchrift. 
P-  37). 


Riddles.  385 

Ibn  Ezra's  grammatical  treatise,  written  in  the  form  of 
an  enigma  ^  Every  line  of  this  riddle  is  full  of  point  and 
wit,  but  it  is  too  technical  for  quotation.  '  If  you  want 
to  know  the  answer,'  says  Ibn  Ezra,  '  ask  the  King  of 
Israel.'  Now  the  Hebrew  name  of  one  of  the  kings  of  Israel. 
Jehu  2,  does  indeed  contain  the  letters  on  which  Ibn  Ezra  was 
riddling. 

Arithmetical  puzzles,  set  in  the  form  of  Hebrew  acrostics, 
were  also  a  popular  amusement  with  Jews  of  all  ages. 
Abraham  Ibn  Ezra  was  the  author  of  several  fine  speci- 
mens, and  many  were  subsequently  composed,  especially 
for  use  on  the  Feast  of  Dedication  ^  These  riddles  are 
a  combination  of  pirns  and  arithmetical  niceties,  but  often 
— especially  in  Ibn  Ezra's  hands — make  very  pretty  play 
with  the  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  letters.  These  are  hard 
to  quote,  as  they  need  much  citation  of  Hebrew  for 
their  elucidation.  '  There  was  a  she-mule  in  my  house  : 
I  opened  the  door,  and  she  became  a  heifer' — this  is  a 
typical  instance  ^.  Strictly  numerical  riddles  were  also 
constructed  :  '  Take  thirty  from  thirty  and  the  remainder 
is  sixty  ^.'  To  Ibn  Ezra  is,  with  some  probability,  ascribed 
the  famous  arithmetical  puzzle  containing  the  device  by 
which  the   hero    and  his   friends   saved   themselves    from 

^  On  the  letters  >inN,  often  published  and  contained  in  many  MSS.,  cf. 
W.  Bacher,  Abraham  Ibn  Esra  als  Grammatiker  (Jahresbericht  of  the  Landes- 
rabbinerschule,  Budapest,  1881),  p.  23.  -  i^irp. 

2  These  turn  on  the  letters  HDion  (=  Dedication),  and  are  often  acrostics. 
A  large  number  of  such  Hebrew  riddles  are  extant  in  print  and  MSS.  For 
the  use  of  puns  in  general,  and  in  connexion  with  the  word  n^^zn  in  particular, 
cf.  Briill's  Jahrbuch,  ix.  p.  18  seq. 

*  From  Heb.  mic  {  =  she  mule)  remove  i  (pronounced  •rh^^door)^  and  there 
remains  mo  i^^heifer^.  Cf.  for  other  instances  Brull,  op.  cit.,  p.  54..  and 
Jellinek,  D"aD"in  CTC:ip  (2nd  ed.,  Vienna,  1893),  Appendix 

5  From  zy^dy^  (  =  3°)  take  the  7  (=^30,,  and  the  remainder  is  zncc  (  =  60). 

C  C 


386     Medieval  Pastimes  and  Indoor  Amusements. 

being  thrown  overboard  during  a  storm.  The  same  ver- 
satile Rabbi  is  said  to  have  written  a  pretty  arithmetical 
riddle  on  the  subject  of  chess. 

The  poetical  riddle  also  had  its  devoted  admirers. 
Most  of  the  Jewish  versifiers  of  the  middle  ages  composed 
riddles  which  display  a  considerable  amount  of  fancy. 
Some  of  the  Hebrew  riddles  by  Jehuda  Halevi  were  dainty 
beyond  the  average  ^. 

Foreign  riddles  were  early  acclimatized  on  Jewish  soil, 
and  thus  some  of  the  best  known  of  the  folk-riddles  of  all 
lands  were  current  in  Jewish  circles  in  the  middle  ages. 
These  imported  riddles  were  often  associated  with  inter- 
esting historical  personages,  such  as  King  Solomon  and  the 
Queen  of  Sheba,  and  the  former  sat  in  a  crystal  house  while 
the  queen  in  vain  plied  him  with  mystic  puzzles.  In  the 
thirteenth  century  many  of  the  riddles  contained  in  such 
folk-legends  as  Solomon  and  Marconi  were  already  known 
to  the  Jews. 

The  most  Jewish  type  of  this  form  of  recreation  was 
the  table-riddle.  The  Greeks  were  no  doubt  adepts  at  this 
form  of  wit,  but  in  the  middle  ages  the  Jews  and  Arabs 
were  the  chief  admirers  of  it.  The  thirteenth-century 
Hebrew  romances  of  Charizi  and  Zabara,  the  contemporary 
social  satires  of  Dante's  Jewish  friend,  Immanuel  of  Rome, 
abound  in  good  table-riddles.  The  Talmud  also  has  some 
fair  specimens  :  '  Bake  him  with  his  brother,  place  him  in 
his  father,  eat  him  in  his  son.  and  then  drink  his  father^.' 


'  Some  of  these  may  be  found  in  Mr.  J.  Jacobs'  Jewish  Ideals,  p.  io8. 

*  I.  e.  bake  the  fish  in  salt,  its  brother  (for  salt  water  comes  with  the  fish 
from  the  sea;,  place  him  in  his  father  (  =  water),  eat  him  in  his  son  (i.  e.  the 
juice  or  gravy),  and  then  take  a  draught  of  water.  See  T.  B.  Moed  Katon, 
zi  a. 


Legendary  Lore.  387 

At  all  Jewish  home  festivities  the  flow  of  witty  puzzles 
was  ceaseless.  In  this  way,  too,  over  the  festive  board, 
were  retailed  those  folk-tales  and  Eastern  myths  in  the 
diffusion  of  which  to  Europe  the  Jews  played  so  great 
a  part.  Cabbalistic  lore  gave  the  children  the  'Boy'  Angel 
Sandalphon^  the  patron  saint  of  youthful  joys.  At  their 
games  the  children  addressed  to  him  the  invocation : 
'  Sandalphon,  lord  of  the  forest,  protect  us  from  pain  ^' 
The  Cabbala,  by  many  such  loving  touches,  imparted  new 
poetry  to  medieval  life. 

^  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  p.  370. 


C  C  2 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

MEDIEVAL    PASTIMES    [continued). 
CHESS    AND    CARDS. 

Though  it  is  open  to  grave  doubt  whether  the  game  of 
chess  is  referred  to  in  the  Talmud,  it  was  already  a  well- 
known  Jewish  pastime  in  the  twelfth  century^.  It  seems 
to  have  first  made  its  way  into  Jewish  circles  as  a  women's 
game ;  indeed  most  of  the  indoor  games  of  the  Jews  in  the 
middle  ages  started  on  their  career  under  the  patronage 
of  the  fair  sex.  It  must  be  remembered  that  games  were 
not  played  every  day,  but  only  on  occasions  of  leisure,  such 
as  festivals.  Women,  as  we  have  already  seen,  were  privi- 
leged in  this  respect,  and  were  allowed  a  licence  denied  to 
the  men  ^.  But  the  men  also  played  chess  on  Sabbaths  as 
the  middle  ages  advanced,  and  no  serious  opposition  be 
raised.  In  order  to  mark  the  honour  of  the  occasion,  the 
chessmen  used  on  the  Sabbath  were  made  of  silver  ^,  and 
this  habit  became  a  stereotyped  custom  in  the  sixteenth 
century. 

^  Rashi,  on  Erubin,  6i  a,  explains  the  Talmudical  "i^©Ti3  to  be  identical 
with  chess.  Levy,  sub  voce,  seems  inclined  to  this  view,  but  L6w,  Lebensalier, 
p.  327,  argues  strongly  against  it.  For  the  use  of  chess  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  see  D'Tcn  ^DD,  §  400,  and  Steinschneider,  as  cited  below. 

'  Cf,  in  addition  to  the  passages  cited  above,  Machzor  Vitry,  p.  291. 

3  Shilte  Gibborim,  Erubin,  127  b. 


Chess.  389 

No  voice  was  raised  against  chess  as  a  pastime  until  the 
seventeenth  century.  Maimonides  is  sometimes  quoted  as 
an  opponent  of  chess  \  But  Maimonides  only  includes 
chess  under  the  category  of  forbidden  pastimes  if  it  be 
played  for  money.  The  winning  of  money  at  any  amuse- 
ment was  rigidly  denounced  by  many  authorities  who  had 
no  objection  to  games  of  chance  as  such.  Maimonides,  it 
is  interesting  to  note,  already  refers  to  a  kind  of  chess 
m  which  the  object  was  to  force  a  mate,  and  this  is  impor- 
tant for  the  history  of  chess,  as  the  variety  is  well  known 
in  modern  times  ^.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  some  voices 
were  heard  against  chess,  on  the  ground  that  it  entailed 
a  lamentable  waste  of  time.  No  doubt  this  complaint 
was  well  founded  against  passionate  lovers  of  the  mimic 
warfare,  who,  according  to  one  authority",  spent  many  hours 
daily  at  the  game.  '  They  say  that  they  play  to  sharpen 
their  intellects,  but  the  study  of  the  Law  would  be  a  more 
efficient  mental  tonic.  Moreover,  I  am  not  aw^are  that 
when  their  minds  have — as  they  claim — been  sharpened, 
these  men  display  their  keener  wits  over  serious  intellec- 
tual pursuits.'  As  against  this  rare  opponent,  many  Jews 
favoured  the  game  just  because  it  entailed  so  few  evil 
consequences. 

Some  even  taught  their  children  chess  to  wean  them  from 

*   Lew,  Lebensalter,  p.  328. 

^  Maimonides,  Commentary  to  the  Mtshnah,  Sanhedrin,  iii.  That  chess  was 
played  for  a  money-stake  is  clear  from  this,  that  some  Rabbis,  when  formally 
allowing  the  game  on  the  Sabbath,  stipulated  that  no  money  was  to  change 
hands  on  that  day  (cf.  Low,  Lebensalter,  loc.  cit.).  Kalonymos,  in  his 
^mi  ps^  (ed.  Lemberg,  p.  28),  also  attacked  chess  when  played  for  money. 

^  The  noiD  :C3xr?  (ch.  42)  disapproves  of  chess  on  any  terms,  whether 
played  for  money  or  not.  There  were  a  number  of  Jews  who  objected  to 
all  games  under  any  and  every  condition,  but  these  pietists  failed  to  influence 
the  general  action. 


390  Medieval  Pastimes.      Chess  and  Cards. 

cards  and  other  games  of  chance  ^  Similarly,  anti-gambling 
laws  in  England  were  sometimes  passed  in  the  interest  of 
better  sports,  such  as  archery.  At  all  events,  some  distin- 
guished Jewish  Rabbis  of  the  twelfth  century  themselves 
eagerly  played  chess,  and  Jews  of  the  fourteenth  century 
wrote  poems  in  its  honour^. 

In  crafty  guise  is  their  battle  fought, 
With  cunning  art  is  their  contest  wrought. 
When  these  prevail  o'er  their  foemen  all. 
Behold,  'tis  then  that  the  dead  men  fall. 
Yet  they  from  death  may  rise  again, 
And  cast  their  enemies  amid  the  slain  ^ 

Friendly  as  they  were  to  chess,  the  Jewish  moralists  of 
all  ages  raised  their  protest  in  vain  against  games  of  chance. 
The  ancient  Israelites  were  ignorant  of  games  of  chance, 
and  did  not  adopt  dice,  the  most  popular  gambling  game 
of  antiquity,  until  the  age  of  Herod.  The  Mishnah  de- 
clared dicing  infamous,  and  excluded  players  of  the  game 
from  the  right  to  give  evidence  in  a  court  of  justice^. 
The  money  won  at  dice  was  dishonestly  won  ^,  and  the 
gambler  was  occupied  in  a  pastime  '  not  calculated  to  serve 

'  Schudt,  Merkwiirdigkeiten,  ii*.  i. 

'^  Cusart,  V.  20;  but  cf.  Steinschneider,  p.  157.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
famous  chess-players  of  the  present  century  have  been  Jews. 

^  Another  Hebrew  poem  descriptive  of  the  game  of  chess  may  be  found 
translated  into  English  in  the  Jewish  Chronicle,  Sept.  6, 1895.  The  translator 
is  Miss  Nina  Davis.  An  unrhymed  translation  of  Ibn  Ezra's  poem  was  also 
contributed  to  the  same  periodical  by  Miss  Davis.  Steinschneider,  in  Van 
der  Linde's  Geschichte  und  Litteratur  des  Schachspiels  (Berlin,  1874),  vol.  i. 
p.  155  seq.,  argues,  with  too  much  emphasis,  however,  against  the  view  that 
these  Hebrew  verses  are  by  Ibn  Ezra. 

*  R.  Judah  ben  Ilai  attempted  to  draw  a  distinction  between  those  who 
played  merely  for  amusement  and  those  who  used  the  game  as  a  profession 
Mishnah,  Synhedrin,  ii.  3), 

^   T.  B.  Synhedrin,  24  b. 


Games  of  Chance.  391 

the  interests  of  society  ^'  This,  in  the  final  resort,  is  the  only 
fundamental  objection  to  gambling.  But  dice  and  several 
other  gambling  games  were  known  to  the  medieval  Jews, 
especially  in  France  and  Germany,  such  as  the  games 
of  'Odd  or  Even'  [hidere par  et  impar\  'Whole  or  Half.' 
'  Back  or  Edge  2,'  betting  on  pigeon  races,  and  lotteries 
by  means  of  the  teetotum  and  similar  toys. 

In  the  fifteenth  century,  however,  the  game  of  cards 
usurped  the  first  place  in  the  minds  of  all  in  search  of 
a  pastime.  The  origin  of  cards  is  still  unknown,  but  it  is 
certain  that  the  Jews  were  not  among  the  first  Europeans 
to  adopt  the  game.  From  the  year  141 5,  however,  the 
Jews  fell  under  its  strong  fascination. 

Despite  frequent  assertions  to  the  contrary  3,  there  is  no 
reference  to  cards  in  Jewish  sources  before  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  by  which  time  the  game  was 
already  known  all  over  Europe.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  century  the  references  are  quite  common  ^.  The 
rage  for  the  game  rapidly  spread.     As  with  contemporary 

^   T.  B.  Synhedrin,  24  b,  nbiy  b©  iniu^a  )''P"iDy  ^^SIP  ^th. 

^  Cf.  Berliner,  Aus  dem  inneren  Leben,  p.  12.  This  game  was  played  with 
a  knife,  which  apparently  was  thrown  in  the  air,  and  the  decision  depended 
on  which  side  fell  uppermost.  Probably  the  game  was  something  like  the 
modern  'head  or  tail.' 

^  It  is  usually  asserted  (e.g.  Low,  p.  329)  that  Kalonymos  b.  Kalonymos 
alludes  to  cards  in  his  jmi  pN.  If  this  were  true,  this  would  constitute  the 
oldest  clear  reference  to  the  game,  as  Kalonymos  wrote  in  the  year  1322. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  reading  c'Dbp  ('  cards '),  which  appears  in  the  Lemberg 
edition  of  the  jmi  p?*,  is  an  error.  The  editio  pHnceps  (Naples,  1489)  reads 
><'npl  p2D!?Dn  n>D2?0  ^"73,  and  not  D'Dbpn  (MS.  Brit.  Museum  Add.  19,948 
has  the  same  reading  as  the  editio  princeps).  Kalonymos  probably  refers 
to  draughts,  as  I  imagine  yciJD  to  be  the  same  as  CCDD  (  =  Greek  i/^rjcpos). 
ivyyp  and  DCCD  are  associated  in  T.  J.  Rosh  Hasliana,  as  quoted  in  Levy, 
sub  voce,  DC'CD. 

*  Cf.  Low,  loc.  cit.  Isserlein,  in  ;tmn  HQiiP,  ii.  186,  asserts  that  Maharil 
referred  to  cards  in  his  sermons. 


392  Medieval  Pastimes.      Chess  and  Cards. 

Christians,  the  passion  did  not  manifest  itself  merely  in 
ignorant  and  uncultured  minds.  The  learned  and  the 
great  sometimes  fell  victims  to  its  fatal  spells.  One  of 
the  saddest  cases,  that  of  Leon  Modena,  somewhat  reminds 
one  of  the  experience  of  Charles  James  Fox.  Leon  Modena 
was  a  learned  man  and  scientific  thinker,  and  migrated  to 
Venice  towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century.  There 
he  taught  and  preached.  But  a  stumbling-block  stood 
in  his  path  to  success :  his  love  for  card-playing.  He  was 
fully  aware  of  the  evils  of  gambling,  for  at  the  precocious 
age  of  fourteen  he  wrote  against  it  a  diatribe  in  dialogue, 
which  has  been  translated  into  several  languages  ^.  Though 
he  often  resolved  to  abandon  the  vice,  of  which  he  was 
deeply  ashamed,  he  never  succeeded  in  doing  so,  even  in 
his  old  age.  The  Rabbis  of  Venice  published  an  order 
excommunicating  any  member  of  the  congregation  who 
played  cards  within  a  period  of  six  years  from  the  date 
of  the  promulgation  of  the  decree.  This  was  in  1628,  and 
was  probably  directed  against  him  ;  at  all  events,  he  suc- 
cessfully summoned  all  his  learning  and  force  to  defeat 
this  attempt  to  fetter  his  freedom  ^. 

Such  efforts  towards  the  suppression  of  card-playing  were 
almost  as  old  as  the  game  itself.  As  Low  has  pointed 
out,  the  measures  devised  were  threefold,  [a]  personal  and 
voluntary  pledges,  {b)  communal  tekanoth  or  restrictions, 
and  [c]  literary  and  ethical  satires  and  homilies. 

Personal  vows  to  abstain  from  games  of  chance  took 
a  severely  formal  character.     The  oath  was  registered  and 

^  The  ipns  T'obn. 

•^  Cf,  Isaac  Reggio,  n?apn  nrn:,  p.  ix.  Leo  Modena  was  unable  to  resist 
the  fascination  of  gambling  because  of  his  fatalism.  He  believed  that  his  acts 
were  predestined,  and  this  weakened  his  efforts  to  amend.  Cf.  also  pns»  IHE 
s.v.  Din. 


Vozvs  of  Abstinence. 


393 


signed  in  the  presence  of  witnesses,  often  of  Rabbis.  In 
the  year  1464,  a  Jew  presented  himself  before  the  Notary 
of  Aries  and  entered  into  a  legal  undertaking  that  he 
would  not  play  dice  or  any  other  game  except  on  his  own 
or  his  brother's  wedding-day  or  on  three  days  during  the 
feast  of  Passover.  In  penalty  for  any  infringement  of  this 
promise,  the  Jew's  hand  might  be  amputated^.  Such 
certificates  of  vows  against  gambling  in  general  are  some- 
times found  in  the  fly-leaves  of  Hebrew  MSS.^ ;  they  are 
alluded  to  in  almost  every  ethical  or  ritual  book  dating 
from  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  onwards  ^. 
One,  signed  at  five  o  clock  in  the  morning  of  April  i,  1491. 
runs  thus  : — '  May  this  be  for  a  good  memory,  Amen  ! 
At  the  twenty-third  hour  of  the  beginning  of  April, 
149 1,  the  undersigned  received  upon  himself  by  oath  on 
the  Ten  Commandments  chat  he  would  not  play  any 
game,  nor  incite  another  to  play  for  him,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  draughts  or  chess*,  and  this  oath  shall  have 
force  for  ten  full  years.'  Then  Jekuthiel,  the  son  of 
Gershom,  takes  the  oath  before  Abraham  Farisol  of 
Avignon.  The  second  instance  is  even  more  emphatic. 
'  Ferara,  Thursday,  Sivan  25,  1535.  I  have  sworn  before  the 
Rabbis  David  Bensusan  and  Moses  de  Castro,  and  in  the 


•  Depping,  Les  Juifs  dans  le  Moyen  Age,  p.  326. 

2  Cf.  Brit.  Mus.  Add.  4,709  and  Add.  17,053  (where  such  a  document 
occurs  on  the  last  leaf).  These  instances  were  published  by  Dukes  in  the 
Ben  Chananja  (1864),  cols.  682,  738.     Cf.  LOw,  p.  331. 

3  Cf.  Maharil  (additions  at  end). 

*  This  is  probably  what  is  meant  by  ^iTSn,  though  perhaps  the  French 
game  of  marelle  is  meant.  Cf.  Gudemann's  note,  Graetz-JubelschHft  (Heb. 
part),  p.  63.  There  is  much  difficulty  in  identifying  the  games  referred  to 
in  Hebrew  sources,  as  medieval  Jewish  writers  continued  to  employ  the 
Talmudical  term  wuir  lit.  =  kv&os  or  dice)  to  include  all  forms  of  games  of 
chance. 


394  Medieval  Pastimes.     Chess  and  Cards. 

presence  of  the  sons  of  the  Rabbi  Israel  Ohab,  that  I  will 
never  play  any  game  in  the  world' 

Thus  the  limit  of  the  obligation  depended  on  the  will 
of  the  individual.  So,  too,  he  could  exclude  certain  games 
from  the  circle  of  restricted  pleasures ;  thus  chess  was  often 
excluded  from  the  ban.  Or  he  might  permit  himself  the 
indulgence  in  games  of  chance  on  certain  stated  occasions. 
When  once  he  had  made  the  formal  vow — and  those  cited 
above  are  by  no  means  the  earliest  instances — the  victim  of 
his  own  abstinence  would  often  be  as  eager  to  absolve  him- 
self from  the  oath  as  he  had  been  to  take  it.  Or  he  would 
evade  his  obligation  if  he  could.  He  would  play  for  money's 
worth  if  he  might  not  play  for  money,  and  would  substitute 
fruit  for  coins  ^.  But  for  the  most  part  the  Rabbis  were 
immovable,  and  the  vow  was  held  indissoluble  by  many 
authorities  -. 

A  more  important  measure  of  repression  was  the  coni- 
munal  enactment  against  gambling.  Such  enactments  were 
most  common  in  Italy,  where  indeed  games  of  chance  were 
very  rife  in  the  fifteenth  century.  An  important  instance 
of  such  a  general  undertaking  occurred  in  Forli  in  the  year 
141 6  3.- — 

'  We  also  resolved  that  from  this  day  forth  and  for  ten 
years,  no  Jew  shall  assemble  in  his  house  or  premises 
a  party  for  gambling ;  neither  Jews  nor  Christians  ;  nor 
may  any  Jew  play  dice,  or  cards,  or  any  other  games  of 
chance  ;   neither  he  himself  nor  any  one  else  for  him,  nor 

'  Cf.  the  Tekanah,  Giidemann,  i.  260,  which,  however,  permits  it  during  the 
middle  days  of  a  festival. 

'^  LCw,  Lebensalter,  p.  331,  especially  the  stringent  decision  of  R.  Tam  on 
the  basis  of  T.  Jer.  Nedaritn,  v.  4,  8.  R.  Perez  ben  Elia  of  Corbeil,  and 
R.  Tobia  ben  Elia  and  others  were  more  yielding.     Cf.  also  p.  no  above. 

^  S.  Halberstam,  Graetz-Jnhelschrift  (Hebrew  section),  p.  57. 


Card- Playing,  395 

he  for  others  ;  neither  with  Jews  nor  Christians ;  neither 
in  his  own  house  nor  in  the  house  of  others  ;  except  the 
game  of  draughts  with  dice,  or  chess  without  dice,  pro- 
vided always  that  these  permitted  games  are  never  played 
for  a  higher  stake  than  four  silver  bolognini.  Also  on 
fast-days,  or  if,  God  forbid,  any  one  is  sick,  they  may 
play  cards  to  relieve  their  distress,  but  only  on  condition 
that  they  stake  not  more  than  one  qnattrino  at  any 
game. 

'Whoever  transgresses  this  resolution  is  a  sinner,  and 
he  must  pay  one  ducat  as  forfeit  for  every  offence.  If  he 
refuses  to  pay,  he  shall  be  punished  as  follows  : — He  shall 
not  count  as  one  of  the  ten  necessary  to  form,  a  quorum  for 
public  worship,  he  shall  not  be  permitted  to  read  in  the 
Scroll  of  the  Pentateuch  in  synagogue,  nor  shall  he  be 
entrusted  with  the  honour  of  rolling  the  Scroll — until  he 
repents  of  his  wickedness  and  pays  the  fine.  If  any  one 
know^s  of  another  Jew  dwelling  in  these  cities  who  has 
done  this  wrong,  he  must  denounce  the  offender,  for  if  he 
fail  and  remain  silent,  he  renders  himself  liable  to  the 
self-same  penalties.' 

This  typical  instance  indicates  four  things :  that  the  law 
was  temporary  ^ ;  that  it  was  only  binding  on  native  Jews 
and  not  on  immigrants  or  visitors— a  most  important 
point  ;  thirdly,  that  Jews  and  Christians  played  together 
in  Italy  in  the  fifteenth  century  ;  and  lastly,  that  on  certain 
exceptional  occasions  card-playing  was  regarded  as  lawful. 
As  regards  the  second  point,  there  was  much  sensitiveness 
aeainst   interferincr  with   local   custom.      Hence  a  foreign 

^  When  no  time-limit  was  fixed,  the  tekanah  was  nevertheless  not  held  to 
be  perpetual,  '  because  the  custom  was  to  fix  a  limit '  (S.  Duran,  y"2^rrr, 
iii.  107). 


396  Medieval  Pastimes.      Che^s  and  Cards. 

visitor,  who  when  at  home  lived  in  a  town  where  games  of 
chance  were  permitted,  continued  to  enjoy  the  same  privilege 
when  he  was  staying  in  a  place  where  a  prohibitive  policy 
prevailed.  But  he  was  only  allowed  to  play  in  private. 
With  regard  to  the  occasions  on  which  card-playing  was 
allowed,  there  was  much  difference  of  local  habit.  Women 
were  allowed  greater  relaxation  than  men.  but  the  favourite 
occasions  for  allowing  card-playing  and  other  games  of 
chance  were — new  moon,  days  on  which  no  penitential 
prayers  were  said,  the  festivals  of  Chanucah  and  Purim. 
on  the  weekdays  of  the  Passover  and  Tabernacles  ^.  at 
weddings,  and  on  the  night  before  a  boy  was  named. 
Sometimes,  as  was  also  the  case  with  the  Christian  students 
of  the  Cambridge  University  in  the  age  of  Milton,  card- 
playing  was  permitted  by  Jews  at  Christmas  -. 

There  was  a  stronger  weapon  against  gambling  than 
compulsion.  Persuasion  took  the  form  of  satire,  moral 
exhortation,  and  private  admonition  of  child  by  father. 
Kalonymos  in  his  Touchstone  ^  applied  some  scathing  re- 
bukes to  those  who  filled  their  purses  at  the  expense  of 
less  fortunate  wights,  whom  they  stripped  of  their  attire  and 
robbed  of  their  lives.  Moral  books,  like  the  Book  of  the  Pious, 
denounced  gambling  with  hearty  vigour,  and  regarded  with 

^  Responsa,  Israel  Bruna,  136.  and  pns'  "IHE  s.v.  D"\n.  On  the  middle-daj's 
of  Tabernacles  cards  were  allowed  only  in  the  Tabernacle  itself,  not  else- 
where;  on  Passover,  some  would  not  use  card,  as  paste  (i.e.  leaven)  was 
employed  in  their  mounting  (Isserlein,  cprc,  186).  Between  the  New 
Year  and  the  Da}'  of  Atonement  games  were  prohibited.  Cf  Berliner,  Atis 
dan  imicnn  Lcben,  pp.  10,  11. 

■•*  Masson,  Life  and  Times  of  Milton  (ed.  2\  vol.  i.  p.  136.  CL  W.  H.  Will- 
shire,  A  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Playing  and  other  Cards  in  tlie  British 
Museum  (1876),  p.  6. 

^  I.  e.  "pM  px,  ed.  Lemberg,  p.  28,  According  to  the  satirist,  all  classes 
suffered  from  the  passion  for  play,  TCT  CKi  bi  n:N  cv  732  D^'r^sn  "OH"'  UXD. 


A  Jewish   Card-Painter. 


397 


abhorrence  the  ill-gotten  winnings  of  the  gamester  ^.  Poets 
continued  for  centuries  to  write  against  gambling;  and 
songs,  in  Hebrew  and  doggerel  jargon,  some  composed 
by  women,  took  up  the  same  parable  against  the  ruinous 
results  both  of  winning  and  losine- 

But  far  earlier  than  this,  Jewish  parents  imposed  upon 
their  sons  the  same  moral  aversion  to  gaming.  '  At 
gambling,'  said  Maimonides,  '  the  player  always  loses. 
Though  he  may  win  money,  he  weaves  a  spider's  web 
round  himself.'  '  Play  no  games  for  money,'  said  Judah 
Asheri  to  his  son.  '  for  gambling  is  robbery.'  '  As  to  gam- 
bling games,'  says  another  —  a  fourteenth-century — father, 
*  I  earnestly  entreat  my  children  never  to  play  at  them, 
except  on  festivals,  and  the  women  on  new  moon,  but  even 
then  without  money,  and  for  stakes  of  food  or  eggs  ^.' 

These  well-intentioned  efforts  remained  without  serious 
effect.  A  curious  case  is  recorded  in  1520  which  shows 
how  popular  cards  must  have  been,  for  an  official  of  the 
synagogue  was  a  card-painter.  In  the  year  named,  Joseph 
Jud  brought  a  petition  before  the  governor  of  a  place  near 
the  Rhine  about  his  son-in-law,  Meyer  Chayn,  the  schtil- 
klopfer^  an  official  who.  as  we  saw  above,  was  commissioned 
to  summon  the  congregation  to  the  synagogue  for  morning 
prayer.  This  scJmlklcpfer  was  a  card-painter  by  trade,  and 
he  complained  that  his  business  was  being  spoilt  by  other 
Jews  who  imported  cards  made  elsewhere ". 

^  Cf.  also  the  tekanah  against  pla^-ing  for  money,  quoted  in  Gudemann, 
i.  260,  and  the  references  in  note  6  of  vol.  ill.  p.  139. 

'■*  This  distinction  was  frequently  made,  but  many  refused  to  allow 
even  this  concession.  Cf.  cntDi  n'CiO,  quoted  in  Gudemann,  Qucllen- 
schriften,  p.  300.  For  the  quotations  in  this  paragraph,  see  Jewish  Quarterly 
Review,  iii.  p.  436  seq. 

3  Mone's  Zeitschnjt  fUr  die  Geschi.hte  des  Oberrheins,  xvii.  255.  Reuchiin 
also  refers  to  the  incident.     Cf.  Berliner,  p.  47. 


398  Medieval  Pastimes.      Chess  and  Cards. 

As  a  general  rule,  the  Jews  established  no  independent 
standard  of  conduct  with  regard  to  their  amusements. 
They  played  the  same  games  as  their  Christian  neighbours, 
and  played  them  with  the  same  rules  and  at  the  same 
tables.  This  will  lead  us  to  the  facts  to  be  related  in  the 
following  chapters. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

PERSONAL    RFXATIONS    BETWEEN    JEWS    AND 
CHRISTIANS. 

If  the  legal  status  of  the  Jews  were  our  sole  criterion, 
the  picture  of  their  relations  with  medieval  Christians  would 
need  to  be  painted  in  very  sombre  hues.  Laws,  however, 
were  made  to  be  broken,  and  the  actual  relations  between 
Jews  and  Christians  were  for  long  periods  far  different  to 
those  which  the  Church  Councils  and,  to  a  less  degree,  the 
Jewish  ritual  code  tended  to  produce.  Jews  and  Christians 
often  defied  the  laws  which  sought  to  keep  them  asunder. 

With  but  rare  exceptions,  the  general  trend  of  the  Church 
influence  on  medieval  legislation  was  towards  the  creation 
of  barriers  between  Jews  and  Christians.  Anti-social  in 
the  main,  Church  Council  vied  with  Church  Council  in  its 
proposals  for  marking  off  the  Jews  as  a  separate  class, 
with  ever-growing  completeness.  Periods  and  epochs  can, 
however,  be  assigned  for  greater  or  less  severity. 

The  great  change  occurred  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
Till  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  personal  relations 
between  Jews  and  Christians  were  on  the  whole  friendly. 
In  England  the  turning-point  was  the  accession  of  King 
Richard    I,  in  Northern  France  the  death  of  Louis  VII. 


400    Personal  Relations  between  Jews  and  Christians. 

With  the  exception  of  Italy  and  Spain,  the  Crusades,  the 
thirteenth-century  heresies  and  monastic  developments,  the 
baneful  influence  of  Pope  Innocent  III.  the  Black  Death 
in  1349,  the  religious  turmoils  resulting  in  the  Protestant 
Reformation,  the  ghetto  legislation  in  the  sixteenth  century 
— these  are  landmarks  in  the  history  of  Jewish  repression  all 
over  Europe.  For  Spain,  the  critical  moment  came  at  the 
troubled  year  1391,  but  its  full  consequences  were  delayed 
till  the  advent  of  Torquemada  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century. 

For  this  curious  phenomenon  presents  itself.  Just  as  the 
Crusades  produced  no  massacres  in  Spain  or  Italy,  so  it 
was  almost  a  tradition  with  the  popes  of  Rome  to  protect 
the  Jews  who  were  near  at  hand,  however  severely  their 
official  bulls  condemned  to  persecution  the  Jews  who  in- 
habited more  distant  countries.  The  tradition  was  broken 
at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  by  Innocent  III, 
but  even  in  later  times,  certainly  till  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  the  Jews — ill-treated  as  a  class — enjoyed 
in  the  two  countries  named  much  personal  respect  and 
a  certain  degree  of  toleration. 

Or  the  same  fact  may  be  put  in  another  way.  As  will 
be  soon  pointed  out,  unfriendliness  to  the  Jews  flowed  from 
the  higher  to  the  lower  levels.  Anti-Jewish  prejudice  origi- 
nated among  the  classes,  not  among  the  masses.  But  this 
statement,  true  of  the  rest  of  Europe,  is  untrue  of  Italy. 
In  the  latter  country  such  anti-Jewish  feeling  as  was  pre- 
valent in  the  twelfth  century  was  a  popular  growth.  But 
because  it  emanated  from  below,  it  was  controllable  by 
those  in  authority.  The  priests  in  Italy  were  not  fanatical 
instigators  of  the  mob  until  the  fifteenth  century  was  all 
but  passed.     The  Italian  poets  w^ere  far  kinder  to  the  Jews 


Italian  Friendliness,  401 

than  were  the  German,  and  the  friendship  between  Dante 
and  his  Jewish  imitator  Immanuel  was  typical  of  this 
gentler  attitude  of  the  Italian  muse.  Again,  in  Italy,  trade 
was  far  from  being  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews,  and 
thus  the  commercial  aristocracy  of  Italy  could— until  trade 
rivalry  embittered  them— place  them.-elves  above  the  pre- 
judices elsewhere  felt  by  the  landed  aristocracies  of  Europe 
against  the  owners  of  wealth  which  was  not  derived  directly 
from  the  soil. 

Moreover,  the  independence  of  the  separate  Italian  re- 
publics made  the  Jews  certain  of  an  asylum  in  a  neigh- 
bouring state,  and  thus  enabled  them  to  weather  many 
a  temporary  storm.  It  has  already  been  shown  that  the 
same  immunity  from  crushing  persecution  was  enjoyed 
by  the  Jews  of  Spain  while  the  kingdoms  of  Leon,  Aragon 
and  Castile  were  independent.  A  similar  remark  applies 
to  the  independent  principalities  of  medieval  Germany, 
before  the  era  of  the  friars.  The  thought  may  be  hazarded 
that  had  the  government  in  England  been  less  centralized 
than  it  was  by  the  genius  of  Edward  I,  the  Jews  would  not 
have  been  expelled  from  the  whole  of  England  as  they  were 
in  1290.  An  evil  consequence  of  the  independence  of  parts 
of  the  same  country  was  that  the  Inquisition  found  it  need- 
ful to  obtain  a  strong  footing  in  such  states.  At  all  events, 
in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  identity  of  culture 
overcame  divergence  of  religion  in  Italy.  Theology  seemed 
to  rule  with  a  stronger  hand  as  it  drew  further  from  Rome. 
From  the  thirteenth  century,  Dissent  had  to  be  crushed  in 
proportion  to  its  distance  from  the  central  seat  of  Roman 
Catholicism,  and  in  the  campaign  against  Dissent  the  Jews 
suffered  with  the  Christian  heretics.  For,  as  a  whole, 
heresy  was  a  reversion  to  Old  Testament  and  even  Jewish 

Dd 


402    Personal  Relations  between  Jews  and  Christians. 

ideals.  It  is  indubitable  that  the  heretical  doctrines  of  the 
Southern-French  Albigenses  in  the  beginning  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  as  of  the  Hussites  in  the  fifteenth,  were 
largely  the  result  of  friendly  intercourse  between  Christians 
and  educated  Jews  \  In  the  bloody  measures  against 
Raymund  of  Toulouse — the  friend  of  heretics,  and  the  pro- 
tector and  employer  of  Jews — the  latter  suffered  severely 
from  the  anger  of  Innocent  III.  At  the  Council  of  Avignon 
(September,  1209),  Raymund  and  all  the  barons  of  free 
cities  were  forced  to  bind  themselves  by  oath  to  entrust 
no  office  whatever  to  Jews,  nor  permit  Christian  servants 
to  be  employed  in  their  houses. 

The  indirect  effects  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  were 
equally  deleterious  to  the  Jews.  The  popes  themselves 
were  less  fanatical  than  the  agents  on  whom  they  relied 
for  the  maintenance  of  their  supremacy.  The  wander- 
ing friars,  as  they  passed  further  from  Rome,  became  the 
bearers  of  a  fierce  orthodoxy  which  could  not  tolerate  the 
Jews.  Their  efforts  were  seconded  by  Jewish  apostates 
to  Christianity,  some  of  whom  felt  themselves  bound  to 
justify  their  secession  by  attacks  on  their  former  brethren 
in  faith.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  Order  of  Jesuits 
was  founded,  as  a  reaction  to  the  Protestant  movement. 
Wherever  these  emissaries  of  Loyola  penetrated,  their 
secret  insinuations  poisoned  the  minds  of  rulers  and  ruled 
against  the  sons  of  Israel.  In  Poland,  which  in  the  fifteenth 
century  was  a  haven  of  refuge  for  the  exiled  Jews  of 
Germany  and  Central  Europe,  Casimir  IV  had  bestowed 
on  the  Jews  social  privileges  such  as  they  then  enjoyed 
nowhere  else.  Among  minor  points,  Jews  might  bathe 
together  in  the    same    river  with  Christians — a  right  fre- 

1  Graetz,  History  (E.  T.),  HI.  ch.  xv. 


The  Lutheran  Reformation.  403 

quently  denied  them  1.  Further,  any  Christian  who  brought 
the  baseless  charge  of  ritual  murder  against  a  Jew,  and 
was  unable  to  substantiate  his  charge  on  credible  testi- 
mony, was  held  punishable  with  death.  But  the  inroad  of 
the  Jesuits  into  Poland  changed  all  this.  The  spirit  of  the 
Polish  heretics  had  to  be  crushed,  and  the  Jesuits  utilized 
the  trade  jealousies  of  the  German  dealers  in  Poland  to 
rouse  animosities  against  the  Jews,  which  culminated  in 
the  cruelties  which  they  suffered  during  the  revolt  of  the 
Cossacks^. 

From  the  Protestant  side,  the  Jews  received  little  better 
treatment.  The  ground  for  the  Protestant  animosity  is  not 
easily  discerned.  Possibly,  it  was  that  the  ferments  of  the 
Reformation  induced  a  leaning  towards  anti-Trinitarianism. 
That  such  a  movement  synchronized  with  the  Lutheran 
and  Calvinistic  reformation  is  certain,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  term  semi-judaei  was  applied  to  its  leaders. 
Be  the  cause  what  it  may,  Luther  adopted  a  most  unfriendly 
attitude  towards  the  Jews,  though — in  the  preparation  of  his 
German  Bible — he  made  much  use  of  Jewish  assistants.  It 
may  be  that  Luther  was  unconsciously  influenced  by  the 
notorious  Catholic,  John  Eck,  and  could  not  allow  himself 
to  be  behind  his  opponent  in  detestation  of  those  who 
denied  the  Trinity. 

At  all  events,  Luther's  pronouncements  against  the  Jews 
had  an  effect  which  still  persists.  His  utterances  are  the 
armoury  of  modern  anti-Semitism  just  as,  a  thousand  years 
before,  Jerome's  confession  of  faith  had  proved  a  continued 
source  of  intolerance.  Jerome's  instance  is  instructive  =^.  He 
was  closely  connected  with  individual  Jews  from  whom  he 

'  Lindo,  p.  193.     So,  too,  Jews  were  often  forbidden  to  use  the  public 
promenades.  »  Op.  cit.,  V.  ch.  i.  ^  II.  xxii. 

D  d  2 


404    Personal  Relations  between  Jews  and  Christians. 

acquired  a  knowledge  of  Hebrew,  and  as  a  result  he  was 
suspected  of  heretical  leanings.  He  accordingly  purged 
himself  of  this  suspicion,  and  justified  his  faith  by  pro- 
nouncing his  undying  abhorrence  of  the  Jews.  This 
phenomenon  frequently  recurs  in  the  middle  ages  on  both 
sides  of  the  account.  The  Jews,  as  a  class,  were  often 
condemned  by  Christian^-,  such  as  Wlilfer  and  Wagenseil, 
who  formed  deep  personal  friendships  with  individual  Jews, 
while  the  latter  sometimes  defended  their  friendly  inter- 
course with  individual  Christians  by  descanting  on  their 
opposition  to  the  special  tenets  of  Christianity. 

In  defining  the  practical  relations  between  Jews  and 
Christians,  it  is  important  to  consider  the  origin  of  the 
antipathy  which  undoubtedly  existed  throughout  the  middle 
ages  and  survived  into  modern  times.  In  brief,  popular 
prejudice  against  the  Jews  was  an  artificial  creation. 
Medieval  history  displays  no  deep-seated,  natural  ani- 
mosity, but  at  the  most  a  latent  suspicion  which  needed 
fanning  from  above  if  it  was  to  blaze  forth  into  a  destruc- 
tive conflagration.  During  the  first  Crusade,  the  masses 
in  the  Rhine-lands  protected  the  Jews  against  the  Knights 
of  the  Cross,  but  during  the  second  Crusade  the  fiery  elo- 
quence of  the  monk  Rudolph  roused  the  masses  to  the 
desire  of  converting  or  annihilating  the  infidels. 

It  is  instructive  to  remember  what  happened  in  France. 
Though  Louis  VII  himself  joined  the  second  Crusade, 
and  Peter  of  Clugny  argued  that  it  was  useless  'to  go 
forth  to  seek  the  enemies  of  Christendom  in  distant  lands 
while  the  blasphemous  Jews,  who  are  worse  than  the 
Saracens,  are  permitted  in  our  very  midst  to  scoff  with 
impunity  at  Christ,'  though  he  counselled  that  the  Jews 
were  not  to  be  slain  but  '  resei*ved  for  greater  ignominy,  for 


Bernard  of  Clairvaux.  405 

an  existence  more  bitter  than  death' — still  in  the  kingdom 
of  Louis  VII  the  Jews  had  nothing  worse  to  suffer  than 
the   confiscation  of  their  property. 

Bernard  of  Clairvaux  stands  out  as  a  noble  and  adorable 
figure.  At  the  risk  of  his  own  life  he  implored  the  people, 
excited  by  Rudolph,  to  show  more  humanity  to  the  Jews. 
But  Bernard  was  also  an  eloquent  advocate  of  the  second 
Crusade,  and  the  monk  Rudolph's  influence  was  more 
powerful  because  he  was  more  consistent.  By  the  time 
Bernard  could  personally  interfere,  the  people  had  got  out 
of  hand,  as  the  indirect  result  of  the  crusading  enthusiasm 
and  the  direct  consequence  of  the  powerful  harangues  of  the 
monk,  who  went  from  town  to  town,  and  village  to  village, 
piteously  appealing  to  his  auditors  with  simple  pathos  and 
eloquent  tears,  moving  them  with  the  heart-rending  story 
of  the  Passion  and  the  Crucifixion.  Wholesale  massacres  of 
Jewish  congregations  followed,  but  it  cannot  be  said  that 
the  outburst  was  of  popular  origin.  The  same  phenomena 
repeat  themselves  in  all  the  great  crises  of  Jewish  life 
throughout  their  medieval  history  \ 

From  one  point  of  view  it  may  even  be  said  that  a  com- 
petition arose  between  the  Church  and  the  Kings.  The 
former  (who  sometimes  succeeded  and  sometimes  failed  in 
carrying  the  masses  with  it)  cried:  'Expel  the  crticifiers.' 
The  Kings  retorted  :  '  No  ;  we  will  let  them  remain,  but 
will  make  them  pay  for  the  privilege!  It  needed,  however, 
a  monarch  of  strong  determination  to  resist  the  Church 
for  long,  and  a  Torquemada  might  always  be  sure  of 
triumphing  in  the  end  over  the  scruples  of  an  Isabella. 

Another  typical  instance  of  the  manner  in  which  anti- 
Jewish  feeling  was  propagated  from  above  may  be  seen  in 

^  Cf.  Depping,  Les  Juifs  dans  le  Moyen  Age,  pp.  396,  397. 


4o6    Personal  Relations  between  Jews  and  Christians. 

the  action  of  scholasticism.  With  one  hand,  it  has  been 
well  said,  Albertus  Magnus  would  turn  with  loving  touch 
the  pages  of  Maimonides — in  a  sense  a  Jewish  father  of 
Christian  scholasticism — while  with  his  other  hand  Albertus 
would  endorse  a  decree  committing  the  Talmud  to  the 
flames.  Scholasticism  treated  practical  questions  from 
the  point  of  view  of  pure  reason,  but  its  conclusions  were 
applied  by  the  masses  without  reason.  Thomas  Aquinas 
studied  Jewish  books,  and  regarded  their  authors  with 
respect.  He  went  far  in  friendly  tolerance.  He,  unlike 
other  scholastics,  such  as  Duns  Scotus,  objected  to  forcible 
conversions  of  the  Jews,  and  thought  the  latter  should  be 
allowed  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion.  Necessary 
intercourse  with  Jews  was  quite  permissible  to  pious 
Christians,  provided  that  the  latter  were  sufficiently  firm 
in  their  faith  to  incur  no  danger  of  being  shaken  by 
familiarity  with  unbelievers^.  But  in  his  De  regimine 
Judaeoriim  the  whole  weight  of  his  authority  is  cast  into 
the  other  scale,  and  Thomas  of  Aquino  uses  of  the  Jews 
language  which  must  logically  tend  to  their  expulsion, 
robbery,  and  massacre.  Scholasticism  in  fact  treated  the 
question  of  religious  intolerance  as  an  academic  topic.     So 


^  '  Primo  ergo  modo  non  interdicit  ecclesia  fidelibus  communionem  infi- 
delium,  qui  nullo  modo  fidem  christianam  receperunt  (scilicet  paganorum  vel 
ludaeorum),  quia  non  habet  de  eis  iudicare  spirituali  iudicio  sed  temporali  in 
casu,  cum  inter  Christianos  commorantes  aliquam  culpam  committunt  et  per 
fideles  temporaliter  puniuntur.  .  .  .  Sed  quantum  ad  secundum  modum  videtur 
esse  distinguendum  secundum  diversas  conditiones  personarum  et  negotiorum 
et  temporum.  Si  enim  aliqui  fuerint  firmi  in  fide  ita,  quod  ex  communione 
eorum  cum  infidelibus  conversio  infidelium  magis  sperari  possit  quam  a  fide 
aversio,  non  sunt  prohibendi  infidelibus  communicare,  qui  fidem  non  susce- 
perunt  (scilicet  paganis  vel  ludaeis)  et  maxime,  si  necessitas  urgeat,'  &c. 
Summa  Theologiae,  ii.  2,  qu.  10,  art.  9.  Cf.  Guttmann,  Das  Verhaliniss  des 
T.  V.  Aquino  sum  Judenthum,  p.  7. 


Effects  of  Scholasticism,  407 

treated,  the  problem  has  undoubtedly  two  sides,  but  the 
conclusions  of  scholasticism,  harmless  enough  for  the  study, 
were  terribly  injurious  for  the  street.  Philosophy  has  often, 
undesignedly,  seconded  the  enemies  of  progress  through 
its  inability  to  discriminate  between  political  theory  and 
practical  politics. 

The  specific  accusations  on  which  the  Jews  were  hated  in 
the  middle  ages  were  also  the  creation  of  the  leaders.  The 
most  awful  of  myths  that  embittered  the  life  of  the  Jews — 
the  most  prolific  cause  of  the  hatred  and  suspicion  with 
which  they  were  regarded — viz.  the  charge  of  ritual  murder, 
can  always  be  traced  to  fanatical  instigators  who  created  an 
ill-feeling  which  did  not  otherwise  exist.  The  mendicant 
friars  fostered  this  ill-feeling,  and  so  did  the  medieval  poets  of 
France  and  Germany.  Usury  undoubtedly  helped  to  make 
the  Jews  unpopular,  but  here  again  the  masses  were  less 
affected  than  the  classes,  as  it  was  from  the  nobility  and 
aristocracy  that  the  Jews  drew  their  most  frequent 
clients. 

The  masses  never  charged  the  Jews  with  the  fault  most 
common  in  attacks  on  them,  viz.  lack  of  the  social  instinct. 
Observing  that  the  Jewish  dietary  laws  raised  some  obstacles 
to  free  intercourse,  and  observing  further  the  unbending 
tenacity  with  which  Jews  refused  to  accept  the  religion 
of  the  dominant  majority,  it  was  the  theologians  who 
proclaimed  the  Jews  anti-social  and  the  haters  of  their 
kind.  This  supposed  enmity  of  the  Jews  towards  the 
human  race  was  dinned  into  the  ears  of  the  masses  until 
the  calumny  became  part  of  the  popular  creed.  The  poets 
formulated  the  idea  for  the  gentry,  the  friars  brought  it 
to  the  folk.  If  the  people  came  to  believe  that  the  very 
blood  of  the  Jews  was  black  and  putrid,  that  their  ignoble 


4o8    Personal  Relations  between  Jews  and  Christians. 

and  degraded  estate  was  even  perceptible  by  a  disgusting 
odour  which  only  baptism  could  remove  : — 

Abluitur  ludaeus  Odor  Baptismate  divo, 
Et  nova  Progenies  reddita  surgit  aquis, 
Vincens  Ambrosios  suavi  spiramine  roras  ^, 

— if  the  masses  came  to  think  the  Jews  poisoners  of  wells, 
and  sorcerers  — the  leaders  of  the  Church  and  the  aristocracy 
were  responsible.  The  Church  persecutions  were  no  doubt 
often  '  chastisements  of  love,'  directed  towards  the  absorption 
of  the  Jews  within  the  embrace  of  the  cross.  But  what 
could  the  average  man  think  when  he  saw  the  most 
rigorous  laws  passed  at  every  Church  Council ;  when  he 
saw  the  Talmud  confiscated  and  burnt,  and  the  Jews  them- 
selves slain  by  the  Inquisition  ;  when  he  heard  papal  bulls 
denouncing  them,  and  warning  faithful  Christians  to  avoid 
them  as  a  pest,  to  receive  no  services  from  them  nor  render 
services  to  them  ;  when  Jews  and  harlots  were  conjoined  in 
the  statutes  as  unclean  and  rendering  unclean  ^  ? 

As  early  as  the  reign  of  Constantine,  the  Council  of  Elvira 
forbade  Christians  to  hold  any  communication  with  Jews. 
This  anti-social  policy  was  continued  almost  without  a  break 
until  the  date  of  the  French  Revolution.  The  mitigations  of 
friendly  popes  and  rulers  were  but  small  oases  in  a  desert 
of  arid  repression.  The  worst  feature  in  the  unfriendly 
interference  with  the  Church  was  that  it  mostly  stepped  in 
at  the  very  moments  when  the  masses  were  opening  their 
hearts  most  freely  to  the  Jews.  In  the  fifteenth  century 
the  German  population  was  rapidly  recovering  from  the 

'  Bishop  Venantius  (end  of  sixth  centur3'),  cited  by  Tovey,  Anglia  Jiidaica^ 
p.  95.     Schudt,  ii.  344. 

^  '  Statuimus  quod  ludaei  nee  meretrices  non  audeant  tangere  manu  panem 
vel  fructus  qui  exponuntur  venalcs,'  &c.  Statutes  of  Avignon  in  Depping, 
Lcs  Juifs  dans  le  Moyen  Age^  p.  323. 


Anti-Social  Edicts.  409 

lurid  effects  of  the  Black  Death  scare.  Friendly  intercourse 
was  again  growing  common.  But  the  Church  interposed, 
forbade '  bathing,  eating  or  drinking  in  common  with  Jews,' 
and  enforced  upon  the  masses  the  belief  that  the  Jews  were 
the  enemies  alike  of  God  and  of  man  ^ 

That  these  anti- Jewish  and  anti-social  regulations  needed 
constant  confirmation  is  in  itself  an  evidence  that  the  mass  of 
the  Christian  population,  except  in  times  of  fanatical  religious 
upheaval,  or  under  the  maddening  impulse  of  mysterious 
epidemics,  were  not  impregnated  with  a  deep  hatred  of  the 
Jews.  That  this  was  so,  that,  as  we  shall  see,  personal  relations 
between  Christians  and  Jews  were  at  least  on  occasion 
friendly  and  intimate,  was  not  the  fault  of  the  law.  The 
law  certainly  left  no  stone  unturned  to  prevent  such  friend- 
ships. It  would  be  impossible  to  summarize  the  measures 
adopted  with  this  aim^  some  of  them — the  institution  of 
the  ghetto  and  the  infliction  of  the  badge — have  already 
been  recorded  at  length.  The  chain  of  repression  stretched 
over  the  eighth  to  the  eighteenth  centuries.  When  the 
French  Revolution  was  well  in  sight,  there  was  issued  in 
Rome  an  Edict  against  the  Jews,  which  forms  a  black  page 
in  the  history  of  humanity  ^  This  Edict,  which  merely 
recapitulates  and  codifies  old  enactments,  is  completely 
anti-social.     Of  its  44  Articles,  the  31st  runs  thus : — 

Jews  and  Christians  are  forbidden  to  play,  eat,  drink,  hold  intercourse,  or 
exchange  confidences  of  ever  so  trifling  a  nature  with  one  another.     Such 

1  Full  accounts  of  the  various  anti-Jewish  Bulls,  dating  from  the  energetic 
crusade  of  John  of  Capistrano  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  may  be 
found  in  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews  (E.  T.),  Vol.  IV.  ch.  viii.  seq.  I  have 
given  no  references  to  incidents  which  may  be  found  in  the  ordinary  his- 
torical text-books  or  at  greater  length  in  Giidemann  and  Graetz. 

"^  The  Edict  is  translated  (into  German)  in  full  in  Berliner's  Geschichte  der 
Juden  in  Rom,  ii.  (2;,  107. 


4IO    Personal  Relations  between  Jews  and  Christians. 

shall  not  be  allowed  in  palaces,  houses,  or  vineyards,  in  the  streets,  in  taverns, 
in  neither  shops  nor  any  other  place.  Nor  shall  the  tavern-keeper,  inn- 
keeper, nor  shop  proprietor  permit  any  converse  between  Jews  and  Christians. 
The  Jews  who  offend  in  this  matter  shall  incur  the  penalties  of  a  fine  of  lo 
scudt  a.nd  imprisonment;  Christians,  a  similar  fine  and  corporal  punishment. 

How  Stood  the  matter  on  the  Jewish  side?  It  may  be 
answered  that  the  Jews  on  the  whole  reciprocated  the 
feehngs  with  which  they  were  regarded  by  the  rest  of 
the  world.  They  retaliated  on  love  with  love,  and  opposed 
hatred  with  contempt.  As  regards  the  manifestation  of 
better  feelings,  however,  a  curious  contrast  reveals  itself. 
Toleration  in  the  Jewry  came  from  above,  the  toleration  of 
Christendom  came  from  below.  As  I  have  endeavoured 
to  show,  the  Christian  masses  were  on  the  whole  more 
tolerant  than  their  priests  and  rulers.  But  the  Jewish 
masses  were  less  tolerant  than  their  spiritual  and  intellectual 
heads. 

The  reason  is  not  far  to  find.  The  Christian  theologian 
was  animated  with  a  desire  to  convert  the  Jew,  the 
Jewish  theologian  felt  no  similar  desire  to  convert  the 
Christian.  In  the  medieval  Jewish  view,  salvation  might  be 
reached  by  the  Gentile  by  other  roads  than  the  one  that 
led  through  the  synagogue.  Medieval  Judaism  being  thus 
essentially  tolerant,  its  leading  spirits  felt  none  of  that 
anguish  to  proselytize  which  passes  so  easily  into  persecu- 
tion and  animosity.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  neglect  of 
proselytism  engendered  a  good  deal  of  race-pride  on  the 
part  of  the  mass  of  those  who  stood  within  the  privileged 
pale.  Proselytism  ^  was,  of  course,  a  dangerous  enterprise 
in  the  middle  ages — dangerous  to  the  convert  as  well  as 
to  those  who  received  him.     A  single  instance  must  suffice. 

■  Cf.  Alfonso's  Seven  Codes  (1261),  Lindo,  pp.  92,  235. 


Jew  and  Gentile.  411 

In  1222  a  Christian  deacon  was  executed  at  Oxford  for 
no  other  offence  than  his  apostasy  to  Judaism^. 

The  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain  was  largely  due  to 
the  readmission  into  the  synagogue  of  Marranos,  or  Jewish- 
Christians.  At  various  periods  in  the  middle  ages  con- 
version to  Judaism  occurred  ^,  but  the  Jews  were  too  much 
terrorized  to  seek  conversions ",  besides  being  free  from  any 
theological  impulse  to  do  so.  The  Jewish  race  thus  re- 
mained fairly  free  from  foreign  admixture,  and  it  retained 
a  certain  sense  of  its  own  superiority. 

Another  cause  of  prejudice  on  the  part  of  Jews  was 
produced  by  the  ritual  law.  Many  of  the  old  ritual  laws 
relating  to  'idolaters'  remained  in  the  Jewish  code-books, 
and  though  the  greatest  Jewish  authorities  of  the  middle 
ages  unanimously  declared  that  the  term  'idolater'  did 
not  include  Christian  or  Moslem,  many  of  these  ceremonial 
laws  remained  in  force  with  the  masses  and — in  practice — 
with  the  very  men  who  pronounced  in  theory  that  the 
followers  of  Christ  and  Mohammed  were  not  idolaters !  The 
conservatism  of  religious  custom  and,  what  is  even  more 
tyrannical,  of  religious  formulas^  was  here  a  serious  bar  to 
Jewish  enlightenment.  The  dietary  laws  were  in  themselves 
something  of  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  social  intercourse, 
but,  curiously  enough,  this  obstacle  was  not  so  insurmount- 
able as  one  might  imagine.  But  the  knowledge  that  wine 
manufactured  by  a  Gentile  might  not  be  used,  that  food 
cooked  by  a  Gentile  might  not  be  eaten,  that  the  evidence 

^  Matthew  Paris,  Chronica  Majora  (ed.  Luard,  iii.  p.  71). 

^  Cf.  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews  (E.  T.),  III.  ch.  vi.  (p.  172),  The  well- 
known  story  of  the  Arabian  conversions  (ibid.  p.  62),  and  the  conversion 
of  the  Chozars  (p.  141),  are  but  striking  instances  of  a  not  infrequent 
phenomenon. 

'  Gregorovius,  Gesch.  Rom,  vii.  492. 


412    Personal  Relations  between  Jews  and  Christians. 

of  a  Gentile  was  inadmissible  in  a  Jewish  tribunal,  that  the 
Gentile  altogether  stood  on  a  lower  moral  level  than  the 
Jew — rules  justly  applied  by  the  Talmud  to  *  idolaters,'  but 
misapplied  by  the  Jewish  masses  to  all  but  the  children 
of  Israel — affected  the  uncultured  Jew  with  a  prejudice 
which  w^as  antagonistic  to  a  spirit  of  respect  and  confidence. 
Moreover,  amid  the  massacres  of  the  crusades  and  the 
persecutions  of  the  Inquisition,  in  the  petty  but  perpetual 
restrictions  to  which  they  were  daily  subjected,  the  ordinary 
Jew  beheld  Christianity  in  its  ugliest  aspects.  The  cul- 
tured Israelite,  on  the  other  hand,  knew  other  aspects  of 
Christianity — knew  it  at  its  best  as  well  as  its  worst.  The 
Jewish  tolerance  towards  Christianity  accordingly  emanated 
from  the  cultured  classes,  and  to  a  large  extent  remained 
the  property  of  the  cultured. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

PERSONAL  RELATIONS  (continued), 

LITERARY    FRIENDSHIPS. 

Some  fine  illustrations  of  this  last  phenomenon — 
namely,  the  power  of  great  medieval  Jews  to  rise  above 
their  personal  experiences  in  order  to  form  a  fair  estimate 
of  another  faith — will  lead  us  to  one  of  the  most  fertile 
causes  promotive  of  personal  intercourse  between  Jews  and 
Christians  in  the  middle  ages.  Maimonides  was  himself 
a  sufferer  from  Mohammedan  fanaticism,  and  his  father 
and  family  fled  for  their  lives  from  Cordova  when  the 
persecuting,  if  pure,  Unitarianism  of  Ibn  Tumart  offered 
to  heretics  the  Koran  or  the  sword.  But  the  fact  that 
Islam  persecuted  Judaism  was,  in  his  view,  no  reason 
why  Judaism  should  libel  Islam.  '  The  Moslems,'  he  says, 
'ascribe  to  God  a  perfect  unity,  a  unity  in  which  there 
is  no  stumbling-block.'  He  refused  to  describe  as  super- 
stitious the  customs — such  as  prostration  in  prayer,  and  the 
stone-throwing  at  the  Kaaba — which  Islam  had  taken  ov^er 
from  paganism.  Maimonides  was  as  tolerant  in  regard  to 
the  doctrines  of  Christ  as  he  was  to  those  of  Mohammed. 
'The  teachings  of  Christ,  and  of  Mohammed  who  arose 
after  him,'  said  Maimonides,  'tend  to  bring  to  perfection 


414  Literary  Friendships. 

all  mankind,  so  that  they  may  serve  God  with  one  consent. 
For  since  the  whole  world  is  thus  full  of  the  words  of  the 
Messiah,  of  the  words  of  the  Holy  Writ  and  the  Command- 
ments— these  words  have  spread  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
even  if  any  men  deny  the  binding  character  of  them  now. 
And  when  the  Messiah  comes  all  will  return  from  their 
errors  ^.' 

This  was  written  in  the  twelfth  century ;  some  fifty 
years  earlier,  Jehuda  Halevi  put  the  same  thought  in  more 
poetical  terms.  'The  wise  providence  of  God  towards 
Israel  may  be  compared  to  the  planting  of  a  seed  of  corn. 
It  is  placed  in  the  earth,  where  it  seems  to  be  changed  into 
soil,  and  water,  and  rottenness,  and  the  seed  can  no  longer 
be  recognized.  But  in  very  truth  it  is  the  seed  that  has 
changed  the  earth  and  water  into  its  own  nature,  and  then 
the  seed  raises  itself  from  one  stage  to  another,  transforms 
the  elements,  and  throws  out  shoots  and  leaves.  .  .  .  Thus 
it  is  with  Christians  and  Moslems.  The  Law  of  Moses  has 
changed  them  that  come  into  contact  with  it,  even  though 
they  seem  to  have  cast  the  Law  aside.  These  religions  are 
the  preparation  and  the  preface  to  the  Messiah  we  expect, 
who  is  the  fruit  Himself  of  the  seed  originally  sown,  and  all 
men,  too,  will  be  fruit  of  God's  seed  when  they  acknowledge 
Him,  and  all  become  one  mighty  tree^.' 

This  toleration  towards  Christianity  was  deep-seated. 
Jehuda  Halevi  uses  Christian  ideas  and  even  phraseology ; 

^  Maimonides,  Mishneh  Torah,  C'D^O  "n,  towards  the  end.  Cf.  also  the 
quotations  by  L.  M.  Simmons  in  his  paper  on  'Maimonides  and  Islam' 
{Publications  of  Jews   College  Lit.  Sac,  London,  1887). 

''  Jehuda  Halevi,  Cmari,  iv.  23.  'Remember,'  says  Mr.  J.  Jacobs  in  com- 
menting on  this  passage,  *  that  these  words  were  spoken  when  Israel  was 
being  persecuted  by  both  branches  of  the  tree,  and  its  noble  tolerance  cannot 
fail  to  strike  you  '  'Jewish  Ideals,  p.  118}. 


Toleration  towards  Christianity. 


415 


the  father  of  Maimonides  employs  Mohammedan  theological 
terms  with  equal  freedom.     Indeed,  some  of  his  paragraphs 
sound  almost    like   an   echo  from  the  Koran  ^     Bachya's 
famous    moral   treatise,    The   Duties   of  the   Hearty   lauds 
Christian   monasticism   with   hearty   enthusiasm  2.     Joseph 
Albo  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  shows,  in 
his  work  on  the  Jewish  religion,  unmistakable  evidence  of 
Christian  influence  ^.     Isaac  Abarbanel  quotes,  in  his  com- 
mentaries, Christian  authorities  such  as  Jerome  and  Thomas 
Aquinas  with  respect.     This  attitude  was  not  confined  to 
Spain.     In  the  tenth  century,  a  Jewish  questioner  of  the 
great  Babylonian  authority,  Hai  Gaon,  was  unable  to  under- 
stand  the    meaning   of   Psalm    141,   verse   5.      Hai    Gaon 
referred   him   to   a    Christian   priest,   who  gave   the    Jew 
a    satisfactory   interpretation*.       Such    tolerance   goes    far 
back  in  Jewish  history.      '  He  who  communicates  a  word 
of  wisdom,  even  if  he  be  a  non-Jew,  desei-ves  the  title  of 
wise  ^.'     '  Christians    are    not    idolaters '    was    the    burden 
of  many  Jewish  utterances:  'they  make  mention  of  Jesus, 
but  their  thought  Is  to  the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth  ^.' 
'He  who  sees  a  Christian  sage,'  says  the  Shulchan  Aruch"^, 
'must  utter  the  benediction:   "Blessed  art  Thou,  O  Lord, 
King  of  the  World,  who  hast  bestowed  of  Thy  wisdom 
on  man.'" 

^  L.  M.  Simmons,  The  Letter  of  Consolation  of  Maimun  ben  Joseph,  p.  4. 

^  Graetz,  History  of  the  Jews  (E.  T.),  Ill,  ch.  ix. 

'  Graetz,  op.  cit.,  IV.  ch.  vii. 

*  Berliner,  Personliche  Beziehungen  zwischen  Christen  und  Juden,  p.  7. 

^  con,  the  usual  designation  of  Talmudic  Rabbis  {Megilla,  16  a). 

'■  R.  Jerucham,  xvii.  5,  159  c  (cited,  with  many  similar  passages,  by 
D.  Hoffmann,  Der  Schulchan  Aruch,  &c.,  pp.  11,  16,  114,  115).  This  opinion 
was  just  as  common  with  the  Jews  of  the  tenth  as  with  those  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  (cf.  op.  cit.,  p.  67,  note  21). 

^  Orach  Chayim,  ccxxiv.  §  7. 


4i6  Literary  Friendships. 

The  proverbial  bitterness  of  the  odium  theologicum  did 
not  interfere  with  friendly  intercourse  between  Jews  and 
Christians  until  the  thirteenth  century.  In  the  second 
century,  intimacies  occurred  between  Rabbis  and  repre- 
sentatives of  the  new  religion.  In  the  Talmud  there  are 
few  violent  polemics  against  Christianity,  and  a  medieval 
controversialist  like  Jehuda  Hadassi  speaks  with  much 
tenderness  of  the  person  of  Jesus  ^.  The  only  theological 
controversies  recorded  in  England  were  of  an  equally 
friendly  character,  they  belong  to  the  very  end  of  the 
eleventh  century^. 

A  new  spirit  was  introduced  by  the  zealous  convert 
Donin  on  his  entry  into  the  Christian  fold^.  It  was 
he  who  obtained,  in  1239,  the  papal  bull  for  burning  the 
Talmud.  These  Jewish  converts  to  Christianity  became 
more  Christian  than  the  Christians,  and  originated  that  most 
cruel  device — public  theological  controversies.  The  Jews 
in  vain  struggled  to  escape  from  the  subtle  net  thus  spread 
for  them.  They  were  forced  to  put  in  an  appearance,  and 
the  result  was  inevitable.  Theological  passions  were  in- 
flamed, popular  prejudice  grew,  and  each  great  controversy 
ended  either  in  a  massacre  of  the  Jews  or  a  confiscation 
of  their  religious  books.  The  first  real  attempt  to  suppress 
the  Talmud  occurred  in  the  thirteenth  century  as  a  direct 
consequence  of  the  anti-Jewish  zeal  of  the  former  Jew, 
Nicholas  Donin. 

Another  baptized  Jew,  Pablo  Christiani,  was,  however, 
the  prime  instigator  of  public  discussions  between  repre- 

^  Cf.  Neubauer,  Jewish  Controversy  and  the  Pugio  Fidei  {Expositor,  3rd 
series,  vii.  p.  81  seq.). 

'  Before  1096.     Cf.  Jacobs,  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  p.  7. 
"  Cf.  Neubauer,  loc.  cit.,  and  Graetz,  Vol.  III.  passim. 


Public  Controversies.  417 

sentatives  of  Judaism  and  Christianity.  The  Barcelona 
disputation  in  1263,  at  which  Pablo  met  a  sturdy  foeman  in 
the  noted  Rabbi  and  mystic  Nachmanides,  was  followed 
by  what  was  worse  than  confiscation  of  the  Talmud, 
namely,  by  its  censorship  by  the  Dominicans.  It  is 
a  pity  that  space  cannot  be  spared  for  a  description  of 
the  mutilations  to  which  Jewish  books  were  subjected,  for 
the  matter  has  its  humorous  side.  Nachmanides  himself 
was  banished  from  Spain  for  '  blasphemy,'  and  spent  his  last 
years  a  solitary  exile  in  Jerusalem  ^. 

In  the  following  century  the  theological  controversies 
became  even  more  embittered.  Every  scrap  of  anti- 
Christian  prejudice  which  the  most  malicious  scrutiny  could 
discover  in  Jewish  books  was  collected  and  published 
broadcast  by  the  foes  of  the  synagogue^.  Jewish  contro- 
versialists were  not  invariably  fair  or  prudent,  but  never 
was  bigotry  or  ignorance  visited  more  severely  on  the 
heads  of  those  who  were  guilty  of  them.  In  the  year  1413, 
the  most  memorable  of  these  public  disputes  was  begun  in 
Tortosa.  It  lasted  for  a  year  and  nine  months,  and  greatly 
augmented  popular  feeling  against  the  Jews.  Vincent 
Ferrer  resorted  to  the  most  theatrical  tricks ;  the  cross 
was  brought  in  amid  sacred  chants,  and  fiery  exhortations 
were  addressed  to  the  Jews,  entreating  them  to  acknowledge 
the  truth  of  Christianity.  As  in  1391,  so  in  1413,  a  large 
number  of  Jews  were  baptized,  but  the  Marranos — as 
these  half-hearted  converts  were  named — proved  a  fertile 
danger  to  the  Jews.  Their  constant  relapses  into  Judaism 
strengthened  the  arm  of  the  Inquisition,  and  finally  led  to 
the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain. 

The  compulsory  attendance  of  a  contingent  of  Jews  at 

^  Cf.  above,  p.  219.  ^  Graetz,  IV.  ch.  vi ;  V.  ch.  v. 

E  e 


418  Literary  Friendships. 

church  to  hear  sermons  against  Judaism  was  more  rigidly 
enforced  as  a  result  of  the  proselytizing  zeal  displayed  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century.  This  institution, 
so  vigorously  satirized  by  Browning  in  his  poem  on  *  Holy 
Cross  Day,'  was  much  older  than  the  fifteenth  century, 
for  in  1278  it  was  already  known  in  Lombardy^.  In  the 
fifteenth  century,  however,  the  practice  was  much  more 
general,  especially  in  Italy.  The  ears  of  the  Jews  were 
examined  on  entering  the  churches,  for  they  were  suspected 
of  stopping  them  with  cotton.  Overseers  were  appointed 
to  ensure  that  the  Jews  remained  awake  during  the  two- 
hours'  sermon  delivered  to  them^.  The  conversion  of  at 
least  one  Jew  was  a  necessary  part  of  the  function  in  some 
instances.  It  is  impossible,  however,  to  go  into  further 
details,  but  a  quotation  from  the  bull  of  Benedict  XIII, 
issued  in  Valencia  in  1415,  will  suffice.  This  bull  closes 
with  the  following  paragraph : — 

In  all  cities,  towns,  and  villages,  where  there  dwell  the  number  of  Jews 
the  diocesan  may  deem  sufficient,  three  public  sermons  are  to  be  preached 
annually :  one  on  the  second  Sunday  in  Advent ;  one  on  the  festival  of  the 
Resurrection ;  and  the  other  on  the  Sunday  when  the  Gospel,  *  And  Jesus 
approached  Jerusalem,'  is  chaunted.  All  Jews  above  twelve  years  of  age 
shall  be  compelled  to  attend  to  hear  these  sermons.  The  subjects  are  to 
be— the  first,  to  show  them  that  the  true  Messiah  has  already  come,  quoting 
the  passages  of  the  Holy  Scripture  and  the  Talmud  that  were  argued  in  the 
disputation  of  Jerome  of  Santa  Fe  ;  the  second,  to  make  them  see  that  the 
heresies,  vanities,  and  errors  of  the  Talmud  prevent  their  knowing  the  truth ; 
and  the  third,  explaining  to  them  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  and  the  city 
of  Jerusalem,  and  the  perpetuity  of  their  captivity,  as  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  other  prophets  had  prophesied.  And  at  the  end  of  these  sermons 
this  bull  is  to  be  read,  that  the  Jews  may  not  be  ignorant  of  any  of  its 
decrees. 

But  side  by  side  with  the  theological  conferences  between 

^  Giidemann,  ii.  p.  235. 

'  Berliner,  Rom^  ii.  (2),  p.  87.  His  description  is  of  a  later  period,  but 
much  the  same  arrangements  were  probably  in  vogue  earlier. 


Dante  and  ImmanueL 


419 


Jews  and  Christians,  there  existed  a  number  of  literary 
friendships  in  which  there  was  no  admixture  of  evil  motive. 
This  remark  applies  with  greatest  force  to  Italy.  Italy 
indeed  was  the  scene  in  all  ages  of  close  literary  friend- 
ships between  Jews  and  Christians,  such  as  no  other  country 
could  show  in  the  same  profusion.  In  the  tenth  century,  two 
Italians,  the  Jewish  scholar-physician  Donnoloand  Nilusthe 
Christian  abbot,  were  affectionate  friends  from  their  youth 
upwards ;  they  held  literary  converse  with  one  another,  and 
had  a  lively  concern  in  each  other's  health  ^.  The  friend- 
ship between  Anatoli  and  Michael  Scotus,  under  the  benign 
influence  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  II,  was  a  worthy 
pendant  to  the  intimacy  between  Nilus  and  Donnolo^. 
From  this,  as  from  similar  friendships,  resulted  some  of 
those  translations  of  Arabic  works  which  brought  to  Europe 
the  literature  and  science  of  ancient  Greece.  The  Jews 
turned  the  Arabic  into  Hebrew,  and  helped  their  Christian 
friends  to  render  the  Hebrew  into  Latin  ^.  The  Italian  Jews 
showed  little  originality,  but  their  sei-vices  were  great  as 
translators  of  medical,  scientific,  philosophical,  and  even 
folklore  Hterature,  such  as  the  popular  Kalila  ve-Dimna  ^. 

Of  the  literary  intimacies  between  Jews  and  Christians 
in  Italy,  no  more  remarkable  instance  is  recorded  than  that 
between  Dante  and  his  Jewish  imitator,  Immanuel  of  Rome. 
Before  their  time,  the  Hebrew  satirist  Kalonymos,  and 
another  co-religionist,  Leo  Romano,  enjoyed  the  personal 
esteem  of  that  princely  friend  of  learning,  Robert  of  Anjou, 
King  of  Naples -^ 

^  Cf.  Gudemann,  ii.  23  ;  Berliner,  Personltche  Beziehungen^  p.  4. 
'  On  Anatoli's  Christian  friends,  cf.  Gudemann,  op.  cit,  226  seq. ;  Berliner, 
10  seq.  ^  Steinschneider,  Hebr.  Uebersetzungen,  passim. 

*  See  J.  Jacobs,  'Jewish  Diffusion  of  Folk-tales,'  in  his  Jewish  Ideals. 

*  Berliner,  p.  13. 

E  e  a 


420  Literary  Friendships. 

But  Dante  and  Immanuel  must  have  been  bound  in 
the  bonds  of  a  more  than  ordinary  affection ;  for  at  the 
former's  death,  the  lawyer  Bosone  of  Agobbio  sent  a 
sonnet  to  Immanuel  to  console  the  Jew  for  the  death  of 
the  great  Christian  poet^.  No  theological  prejudices  stood 
in  the  way  of  this  mutual  regard,  for,  as  Immanuel  himself 
wrote  in  one  of  his  rare  Italian  sonnets :  '  Love  has  never 
read  the  Ave  Maria,  Love  knows  no  law  or  creed.  Love 
cannot  be  barred  by  a  Paternoster,  but  to  all  who  question 
his  supreme  power  Love  answers,  "  It  is  my  will."  '  Some 
centuries  later,  not  even  the  old  instinctive  hatred  of  pagan 
worship  restrained  Italian  Rabbis  from  introducing — under 
the  impulse  of  the  Renaissance — classical  mythology  into 
their  sermons  just  as  Romanelli  did  into  his  Hebrew  dramas. 
David  del  Bene",  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
dazzled  his  audiences  by  quotations  from  Italian  writers 
and  the  national  poets.  On  one  occasion  he  even  referred 
in  a  synagogue  oration  to  '  quella  santa  Diana ' — the  holy 
goddess.  Samuel  Portaleone,  a  preacher  of  a  century  later, 
used  Italian  proverbs  to  point  a  moral  ^.  The  tradition  of 
personal  friendliness  between  Jews  and  Christians  was  long 
and  honourably  preserved  in  Italy.  It  is  noteworthy  that 
even  Reuchlin's  famous  literary  friendships  with  Jews  grew 
up  on  Italian  soil.  At  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
he  met  Obadiah  Sforno  at  Rome,  though  another, 
and  perhaps  more  momentous,  intimacy  with  a  Jew — the 

'  See,  on  the  question  of  the  relations  between  Dante  and  Immanuel, 
Geiger,  Judische  Zeitschrift,  v.  268;  Steinschneider,  i"'3'.nn,  xi.  52,  xiii.  115; 
Graetz,  Geschichte  der  Juden,  v.  289;  Giidemann,  op.  cit,,  p.  137. 

''■  Cf.  Kaufmann,  Jewish  Qvimierly  Review,  viii.  511  seq. 

'  Cf.  the  quotations  from  MS.  sources  in  the  Jewish  Quarterly  Review, 
V.  507. 


Influence  of  the  Cabbala.  421 

imperial  physician  Jacob  Loans — was  made  at  Frederick  IFs 
Court  in  Linz. 

The  fascination  which  drew  Reuchlin  to  the  Jews  was  not 
only  his  common  interest  with  them  in  the  Hebrew  scrip- 
tures. The  Cabbala  or  Jewish  mysticism  charmed  many 
Christian  students  besides  Reuchlin  to  the  feet  of  Jewish 
instructors.  The  most  remarkable  Italian  figure  of  the 
latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  Count  Giovanni  Pico 
di  Mirandola,  found  in  the  Jews  Elias  del  Medigo  and 
Jochanan  Aleman,  instructors  in  Hebrew  and  mysticism, 
and  trusted  personal  friends.  It  is  interesting  to  contrast 
what  happened  more  than  two  centuries  earlier  in  France 
and  Germany.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  mysticism  formed 
a  spiritual  link  between  Judaism  and  Christianity  in  central 
Europe,  but  the  personal  relations  between  Jews  and 
Christians  were  not  improved  by  the  common  affection 
for  mystical  thought  ^.  Never  Avere  the  spiritual  relations 
between  Judaism  and  Christianity  closer  than  in  the  era 
at  which  a  deep  cleft  began  to  make  itself  permanently 
evident  between  their  lives.  In  France  and  Germany,  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  mysticism  (i.  e.  religion)  bound  the 
soul  of  a  Jew  to  the  soul  of  a  Christian,  but  theology 
(i.  e.  dogma)  divided  their  lives. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  interest  in  Judaism  has  always 
led  to  an  equal  interest  in  Jews.  In  seventeenth-century 
England  this  undoubtedly  did  occur,  but  it  was  chiefly  in 
Italy  that  the  tw^o  phenomena  existed  side  by  side.  But 
at  the  very  moment  when  Pico  di  Mirandola  and  crowds  of 
other  Christian  youths  were  absorbing  instruction  from  the 
lips  of  Jewish  teachers  in  Padua  and  Florence,  the  Pope  was 

i  Gudemann,  i.  153. 


422  Literary  Friendships, 

excommunicating  such  Spanish  Christians  as  regarded  the 
Jews  with  friendly  eyes. 

Indeed,  so  keen  and  close  was  the  learned  and  personal 
intercourse  between  Jews  and  Christians  in  Italy,  that  a 
curious  controversy  arose  within  the  Jewish  camp  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  religious  arguments  between 
Rabbis  and  Cardinals  were  completely  friendly.  In  the 
earlier  periods  they  were  of  the  nature  of  a  mere  interchange 
of  witty  questions  and  answers.  As  late  as  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  Pope  Clement  VII  (1523-1534) 
actually  designed  a  Latin  translation  of  the  Old  Testament, 
in  which  Jews  and  Christians  were  to  co-operate^.  But 
many  Christians  naturally  undertook  the  study  of  Hebrew 
and  of  Jewish  mysticism  with  the  object  of  providing  them- 
selves with  weapons  of  offence  and  defence  against  Judaism. 

Under  these  circumstances,  was  it  lawful  for  a  Jew 
to  teach  a  Christian  the  Cabbala,  and  introduce  him 
into  the  innermost  recesses  of  Judaism  ?  Naturally,  some 
Jews  were  vigorous  opponents  of  such  a  course.  Maimo- 
nides,  however,  had  taken  his  stand  on  the  opposite  side, 
and,  with  his  usual  tolerance,  said,  *  A  Jew  may  teach  the 
Commandments  to  Christians,  for  they  admit  that  our  Law 
is  divine,  and  they  preserve  it  in  its  entirety  ^!  The  bigotry 
of  those  who  opposed  this  view  had  no  practical  weight 
in  Italy  after  the  Renaissance.  Besides  the  cases  that  have 
already  been  named,  Abraham  de  Balmes  was  the  teacher  of 
Cardinal  Guinani,  Guido  Rangoni  was  instructed  by  Jacob 

^  Berliner,  Geschichte  der  Juden  in  Rom,  ii.  (i),  p.  104. 

"^  Maimonides,  Responsa  (ed.  Leipzig,  §  58).     I  quote  the  passage  in  full : 

□mm  D'-iDw  Dm  iTD-iDb  mn'©  dhd  mdd  ®'  >d  •ciwm  ^\y<Qr^^  an^ii:"?  m^nn  ydh  h\y^ 
Db2«  nnna  «>m  r('t  i3'm  niUQ  n^  "jj?  1:"?  niinarr  «>n  cnxDn  p  «>n  n«T  i:'m"in  o 
p«i  nicitDS  Dnnn  on  orra  hddi  n^bnD  d:'«\d  d^:d  "hy  D^orD"?  "^  nmD'bu?2nu 


Rabbi  and  Cardinal.  423 

Mantino,  Lazarus  de  Viterbo  corresponded  on  the  Bible  with 
Cardinal  Sirleto  (by  the  way,  in  Latin). 

Perhaps  the  most  noted  instance  was  the  activity  of  Elias 
Levita — the  founder  of  modern  Hebrew  Grammar,  and  the 
teacher  of  many  Christians.  He,  with  Jacob  Loans  and 
Obadiah  Sforno,  must  be  allowed  a  large  share  in  produc- 
ing the  Protestant  Reformation  ^.  Levita 's  relations  with 
Cardinal  Egidio  were  indeed  of  so  touching  a  nature, 
and  so  well  reveal  the  opposition  already  referred  to,  that 
room  must  be  spared  for  a  quotation  from  Levita's  auto- 
biographical preface  to  his  principal  work^: — 

Now  I  swear  by  my  Creator,  that  a  certain  Christian  (Cardinal  Egidio) 
encouraged  me  and  brought  me  thus  far.  He  was  my  pupil  for  ten  years 
uninterruptedly.  I  resided  at  his  house  and  instructed  him,  for  which  there 
was  a  great  outcry  against  me,  and  it  was  not  considered  right  of  me.  And 
several  of  the  Rabbis  would  not  countenance  me,  and  pronounced  woe  to  my 
soul  because  I  taught  the  law  to  a  Christian,  owing  to  the  interpretation 
assigned  to  the  words,  'And  as  for  my  judgements,  they  (i.e.  the  Gentiles) 
are  not  to  know  them'  (Ps.  cxlvii.  20).  .  .  . 

When  the  prince  (i.  e.  Egidio)  heard  my  statement,  he  came  to  me  and 
kissed  me  with  the  kisses  of  his  mouth,  saying,  '  Blessed  be  the  God  of 
the  Universe  who  has  brought  thee  hither.  Now  abide  with  me  and  be  my 
teacher,  and  I  shall  be  to  thee  as  a  father,  and  shall  support  thee  and  thy 
house,  and  give  thee  thy  corn  and  thy  wine  and  thy  olives,  and  fill  thy  purse 
and  bear  all  thy  wants.'  Thus  we  took  sweet  counsel  together,  iron  sharpen- 
ing iron.  I  imparted  my  spirit  to  him,  and  learned  from  him  excellent  and 
valuable  things,  which  are  in  accordance  with  truth. 

Though  these  literary  friendships  were  almost  entirely 
confined  to  Italy,  some  other  causes  of  friendly  intercourse 
were  somewhat  more  general.  Commerce  brought  the 
Jews   into  personal   contact   with   Christians,  and  business 

^  Cf.  Ginsburg,  in  his  edition  of  Levita's  Masoreth  Hamasoreth,  p.  38. 

*  Op.  cit..  Introduction  (Ginsburg,  p.  96).  For  other  instances  of  similar 
friendship  at  various  earlier  periods  in  Italy,  cf.  Gudemann,  ii.  228,  289 ; 
Berliner,  passim. 


424  Literary  Friendships. 

partnerships  were  contracted  in  all  parts  of  Europe,  indeed 
of  the  civilized  world,  in  the  sixteenth  as  well  as  in  earlier 
centuries.  The  evidence  on  this  head  is  complete.  We 
read  of  partnerships  in  Persia  in  the  tenth  century,  of  Jews 
employed  by  Christians,  and  of  Christians  by  Jews^.  Jews, 
at  that  time  and  place,  employed  non-Jews  even  to  make 
the  unleavened  passover  bread  under  Jewish  supervision^. 
In  France  and  Germany  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
century  the  same  commercial  toleration  occurred,  and  Jews 
employed  Christian  builders,Christian  postmen,  and  Christian 
laundry-men ".  In  the  thirteenth  century  in  Greece,  Jews 
were  in  the  employment  of  Christian  masters^.  In  the 
Rhine-lands  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  they 
worked  together  in  the  vineyards^, and  Jews  were  permitted 
by  their  Rabbi  to  use  the  summer-houses  of  the  Christian 
villagers  as  the  booths  prescribed  by  the  Mosaic  law^.  It 
is  even  more  important  to  know  that  such  business  inter- 
course continued  in  Germany  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
in  Rome  in  the  sixteenth"^. 

The  legislation  of  the  middle  ages  seriously  impeded 
these  opportunities  of  friendly  commercial  intercourse,  but 
never  entirely  suppressed  them.  The  same  remark  applies 
to  j-^a^/ intercourse.  Up  till  the  rule  of  Innocent  III  indeed, 
the  social  relations  of  Jews  and  Christians  were  close  and 
cordial.  We  have  already  had  several  instances  of  Jews 
and  Christians  amusing  themselves  together.  That  this 
should  have  been  so  before  the  ghetto  period  is  hardly 

^  See  Responsa  of  Geonim  (ed.  Lyck),  66  seq.  Cf.  also  Muller,  Mafteach, 
p.  153- 

^  Maf teach,  p.  219.  ^  Machzor  Viiry,  pp.  124,  288. 

*  Giidemann,  ii.  p.  311.  •'■  Maharil,  riDic  mD?rt. 

'  Lev.  xxiii.  42.     Maharil,  loc,  cit. 

'  Isserlein,  ^cnn  nonr,  §  152 ;  Berliner,  Rom,  ii.  20. 


Godeliva  and  the  Jewess.  425 

to  be  wondered  at,  for  the  Jews  and  Christians  dressed 
alike,  spoke  alike,  and  were  named  alike  ^.  Religious 
differences  did  not  seriously  restrict  intercourse,  for  a  most 
friendly  desire  to  meet  each  other  half-way  may  be  easily 
discerned. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  the  market-day 
was  transferred  from  Saturday  to  Sunday  in  Lyons  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Jews^  A  German  knight  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  who  frequently  received  Jewish  visitors,  removed 
the  Crucifix  from  his  mantel  on  these  occasions,  so  that  the 
Jews  might  feel  no  hesitation  in  greeting  him  with  a  bow — 
a  fine  piece  of  courtesy.  Christians  made  gifts  to  the 
synagogues,  and  Christian  workmen  built  them  ^;  Christians 
were  present  at  Jewish  religious  ceremonies,  and — even  as 
late  as  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries — observed  the  Sabbath 
in  common  with  the  Jews^. 

On  their  side,  the  Jews  were  fully  responsive.  If  there 
went  on  a  process  of  Judaising  Christianity,  the  reverse 
action  was  equally  noted,  and  Jews  adopted  many  Chris- 
tian habits  and  even  interchanged  superstitions.  In  1193 
a  curious  instance  of  this  occurred  in  Canterbury.  A 
Christian  woman,  Godeliva,  'was  passing  through  the 
hospitmm  (inn)  of  a  certain  Jew,  and  entered  it  at  the 
invitation  of  a  Jewish  woman ;  for,  being  skilled  in 
charms  and  incantations,  she  was  accustomed  to  charm 
the  weak  foot  of  the  Jewess^.'  These  attentions  were  re- 
turned,  and   a    Christian   knight  would    beg   of   a    Rabbi 


^  Zunz,  Zur  Geschichte,  p.  174.  ^  Graetz,  Geschichte,  v.  219. 

°  Gudemann,  iii.  p.  151.     Cf.  Orach  Chayim,  ccxliv.  (Dm2«  po),  §  8. 

*  Op.  cit,,  ii.  30  seq.     Church  Councils  in  791  and  855  intervened  to  put 
an  end  to  this  state  of  things. 

*  Jacobs,  Angevin  England^  p.  153. 


426  Literary  Friendships. 

a  mezuza  or  parchment-roll  containing  certain  Hebrew 
texts,  to  act  as  a  protective  amulet  for  the  walls  of  his 
castled  The  Jew  gave  gifts  to  Christians  on  the  thirty- 
third  day  of  the  Omer  (a  Jewish  religious  feast  midway 
between  the  Passover  and  Pentecost),  on  the  Feast  of 
Esther — occasions  on  which  Jews  exchanged  gifts  with 
Jews — and,  what  was  even  more  friendly,  sent  gifts  to 
Christians  on  the  festivals  of  the  church  2.  A  Jew  would 
petition  a  judge  on  a  Jewish  festival  to  accept  bail  for 
the  release  of  a  Christian^.  Jews  visited  Christians  and 
drank  wine  with  them,  though  this  was  against  the 
weight  of  religious  opinion.  Some  Jewish  authorities, 
however,  permitted  it  in  order  to  encourage  friendly 
intercourse  *. 

But  it  was  chiefly  their  amusements  that  brought  Jews 
and  Christians  together.  Rabbis  in  the  fifteenth  century 
freely  invited  Christians  to  their  houses,  and  visited  them 
in  their  own  abodes^.  A  Frankfort  Christian,  in  the  year 
1377,  would  apply  to  a  deceased  Jew  the  friendly  epithet 
selig^.  The  Jewish  records,  already  quoted  in  the  preceding 
chapters,  prove  conclusively  that  Jews  lived  in  the  same 
local  quarters  with  Christians  till  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  while  in  Italy  Jews  and  Christians  played  cards 
together,  and  ate,  drank,  and  danced  together  '^. 


^   Deut.  vii.  9;  Berliner,  Personliche  Beztehungen,  p.  i6. 

^  Berliner,  Aus  dent  Inneren  Lehen^  i8 ;  Orach  Chayim,  dcxciv.  3;  Giide- 
mann,  iii.  135 ;  Isserlein,  op.  cit,  195. 

3  Maharil,  Hilchoth  Yom  Toh. 

*  Muller,  D'lrtzo  f^ibn,  §  10,  Mafteach^  p.  9 ;  Gudemann,  i.  48 ;  Jacobs,  op. 
cit.,  269 ;  and  the  references  in  Zunz,  op.  cit.,  p.  iBo. 

'•"  Maharil. 

"  Berliner,  Personliche  Beztehungen,  p.  17. 

'  Cf.  also  Berliner's  Aus  dent  Inneren  Leben,  33;  Gudemann,  iii.  139. 


Common  Amusements,  427 

The  same  thing  occurred  in  a  modified  degree  everywhere 
else.  Jews  employed  Christian  musicians  in  Germany  on 
the  Sabbath,  and  played  games  of  chance  with  them  on  all 
and  every  occasion.  It  is  hard  to  conceive  how  closely  this 
community  in  amusement  might  have  drawn  Jews  and 
Christians  but  for  the  violent  interference  of  external  causes. 
An  interesting  and  instructive  case  of  this  popular  friendliness 
and  external  interference  may  be  cited  from  an  English  record 
of  the  date  1286  ^  In  that  year,  one  of  the  chief  Jewish 
families  of  Hereford  gave  a  wedding  feast,  with  'displays 
of  silk  and  cloth  of  gold,  horsemanship  and  an  equestrian 
procession,  stage-playing,  sports  and  minstrelsy,'  all  in  so 
magnificent  a  style  as  to  induce  many  Christians  to  attend 
it,  just  as  Christians  attended  Jewish  weddings  in  Germany. 
Bishop  Swinfield  threatened  to  excommunicate  any  Here- 
ford Christian  who,  on  the  occasion  just  referred  to,  dared 
to  accept  Jewish  hospitality. 

The  bishop  carried  out  his  threat.  Indeed,  the  Church 
very  successfully  raised  barriers  between  Jews  and  Christians 
as  the  thirteenth  century  closed.  At  one  time  Jews  were 
allowed  to  retain  the  services  of  Christians  for  performing 
necessary  work  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  Some  Jews  them- 
selves objected  to  this  on  the  religious  ground  that  work 
which  a  Jew  might  not  himself  do  on  the  Sabbath  was 
forbidden  also  to  any  of  his  servants.  But  the  Jews  were 
not  allowed  a  perfectly  free  choice  in  the  matter,  for  they 
could  only  employ  Christian  servants  on  Saturdays  or  any 
other  day  by  evading  the  stringent  restrictive  canons  passed 
by  various   councils,  or  enacted   in   various  papal  bulls  ^. 

1  B.  L.  Abrahams,  Transactions  of  the  Jewish  Historical  Society  of  England, 

i.  p.  141. 

2  Canons  against  Jews  employing  Christian  servants  began  in  the  eleventh 


428       Personal  Relations.     Literary  Friendships. 

Jews  were  prohibited  from  attending  sick  Christians  and 
rendering  them  friendly  services.  These  measures  were 
far  too  rigid  to  succeed.  They  were  constantly  evaded ; 
the  popes  themselves  employed  Jewish  doctors,  in  the  teeth 
of  their  own  decrees  to  the  contrary,  in  Rome  in  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century;  Christians  did  cook  and 
work  for  Jews  on  the  sabbaths  and  festivals.  Buxtorf — 
though  he  was  fined  loo  gulden  for  the  offence — attended 
at  the  naming  of  the  eight-days  old  son  of  a  Jew  who 
had  helped  him  in  editing  the  Basel  Bible,  while  a  Jew 
of  Frankfort  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
stood  godfather  to  a  Christian  child  ^  Another  Christian 
scholar,  Johann  Christoph  Wagenseil,  visited  the  Rabbis  of 
Vienna  in  1650.  He  attended  synagogue  in  order  to 
observe  the  ceremonies  performed  there.  On  a  certain 
Saturday  a  burning  candle  fell,  and  Wagenseil  promptly 
extinguished  it,  for  he  knew  that  the  Jews  were  unable  to 
*  touch  fire '  on  their  day  of  rest  ^. 

Instances  of  this  mutual  personal  regard  were  more 
common  in  the  sixteenth  and  succeeding  centuries  than  is 
commonly  believed.  But  the  continuous  action  of  forces 
devised  against  such  friendly  intercourse  made  themselves 
very  strongly  and  universally  felt.  The  ghetto's  plague 
and  the  garb's  disgrace  helped  on  the  efforts  of  theologians 
to  deny  Christian  fellowship  to  the  outcast  sons  of  Israel. 
The  extraordinary  fact  is  not  that  Jews  and  Christians  so 
rarely  formed  friendships  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries ;  the  marvel  is  that  they  formed  such  friendships 

century,  but  they  become  far  severer  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries. 

^  Schechter,  Studies  in  Judaism,  p.  354. 

^  Kaufmann,  Die  letzte  Vertreibung  der  Juden  aus  Wien,  p.  69. 


Heroes  of  Toleration.  429 

at  all.  No  more  fitting  close  to  this  history  suggests  itself 
than  a  word  of  honour  to  those  noble  spirits  on  both  sides, 
whom  neither  persecution  on  the  one  hand  nor  prejudice 
on  the  other  could  separate,  for  their  hearts  beat  together 
in  sympathetic  aspiration  towards  all  that  strengthens  the 
bonds  of  a  common  human  brotherhood. 


INDEX   I. 

HEBREW  AUTHORITIES. 


This  list  includes  many,  but  not  all,  of  the  Hebrew  works  to  which  I  have 
had  direct  resort  in  writing  the  previous  pages.  Books  referred  to,  but  not 
actually  consulted,  have  been  omitted  from  both  Indexes.  It  will  be  noted  that 
reference  has  been  made  to  a  large  number  of  Responsa,  but  the  list  would 
have  been  much  increased,  had  I  included  those  which  are  cited  merely  as 
modern  illustrations  of  statements  in  the  text.  The  Hebrew  Responsa  literature 
contains  a  vast  store  of  information,  otherwise  inaccessible,  in  the  form  of 
Responses  by  Rabbinical  authorities  to  questions  proposed  to  them  for  decision. 
In  the  course  of  their  replies,  murh  information  is  often  given  relating  to  far 
earlier  periods.  Thus,  though  Solomon  Hak-kohen  wrote  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  he  cites  dated  documents  relating  to  the  fourteenth  century.  So,  too, 
the  customs  alluded  to  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  century  Responsa^  are 
sometimes  described  as  'very  old' — an  epithet  which  is  probably  deserved. 
It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  so  far  as  the  internal  organization  of  Jewish 
life  is  concerned,  no  serious  break  with  the  middle  ages  occurred  until  the  very 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  I  have  added  the  century  in  which  the 
authorities  cited  lived,  only  in  those  cases  in  which  the  date  of  the  publication 
of  the  work  differs  considerably  from  the  period  at  which  the  work  was  written. 
Here  and  there  I  have  given  no  date  owing  to  my  own  uncertainty.  I  have 
not  cited  particular  editions  of  some  works  which  have  been  very  often  printed. 

Aaron  b.  Joseph  (d.  1293),  "iirnn  "d  (Venice,  1600),  p.  90. 

Abraham  Ibn  Ezra  (12th  cent.),  nDDon  "iDD  (ed.  M.  Silberberg,  Frankfurt  a/M,, 

1895),  366. 

(Poems,  &c.,  ed.  Achiasaf,  1893),  119,  134,  189,  385. 

Abraham  b.  Mordecai  Azulai  (d.  1640),  cmiN'?  -\zx\  (Amsterdam,  1685),  203. 
Abraham  b,  Nathan  Yarchi  (13th  cent.),  rnion  ncD,  279. 

Ahimaaz  (nth  cent.),  1^zr\y  icd  (in  Neubauer,  Med.  Jew.  Chron.,  vol.  ii),  316. 
Alami,  Solomon  (end  of  14th  cent.),  nDion  m3«  (ed.  Jellinek,  Vienna,  1872), 

I9>  94.  137.  282,  294. 
Altaras,  David,  cj"n  r^'y^  not?  (Venice,  1714),  141. 

Bacharach,  Jair  Chayim  (17th  cent.),  {see  Kaufmann,  J.  Q.  R.,  iii),  133,  140, 

147,  159.     See  also  Responsa. 
Bachya  Ibn  Pakuda  (13th  cent.),  mia'jn  nmn,  415. 


432  /.     Index  of  Hebrew  Authorities. 

Bedaressi,  Yedaya  (1210),  c'caD  "jl^s  (ed.  Neubauer,  entitled  xyxDi  2m^*,  1884), 

165,  361-362. 

n^b2:nn  mjt^,  371. 

Benjamin  of  Tudela  (mid.  12th  cent.),  The  Itinerary  of  Benjaniin  of  Tudela 

(ed.  A.  Asher,  London,  1840),  211,  213,  217,  245,  287,  293. 
Book  of  the  Pious.     See  Judah  (Chasid). 
Brit.  Museum  MSS.,  286,  391,  393. 
Buber,  S.,  ctd  '«;:«  (Krakau,  1895),  40,  60,  174,  179. 

Caro,  Joseph  ben  Ephraim  (1488- 15 75),  Shulchan  Aruch  (and  Commentaries), 
10,  20,  77,  81,  99,  loi,  105,  107,  108,  154,  167,  173,  185,  195,  238,  239, 
254,  274,  310,  312,  315,  316,  329,  335,  379,  383,  415,  425,  426.  See  also 
Responsa. 

Coronel,  N.,  C'DTiiiip  n-iDn  (Vienna,  1864),  199. 

Davis,  M.  D.,  Shetaroth,  Hebrew  Deeds  of  English  Jews  before  1290  (London, 

1888),  III,  174,  178,  180,  276. 
Duran,  Isaac  b.  Moses,  Efodi,  -\z,^  rt'cro  ild  (Vienna,  1865),  355. 
Duran,  Simeon  ben  Tsemach  (i  361-1444),  nnn^n  '^c  (Constantinople,  1516?), 

186.    See  also  Responsa. 

Eleazar  (the  Levite)  of  Mayence  (d.  1357),  n^^Ti!?  (Gudemann,  Quellenschriffen, 

p.  295),  321. 
Eleazar  ben  Judah  of  Worms  (13th  cent.),  rrplin  ice,  cited  as  Rokeach,  many 

editions,  176,  i86>  206,  207,  20S,  210,  378,  383. 
Elijah  b.  Solomon  (17th  cent.),  npiL>  Vr^  (Smyrna,  1731),  325. 

i-io  '£2C  (Constantinople,  1712),  389. 

Eskapa,  Joseph  b,  Saul  (17th  cent.),  n;uq  vcwin  lED  (1846),  42,  45,  48,  53. 

Gabirol,   Solomon    (1021-1070),   A    Choice    of  Pearls    (ed.    B,   H.   Ascher, 

London,  1859),  3^4- 
Gaster,  M.,  Sefer  Assufoth  {Report,  Montefiore  College,  London,  1893),  75. 

Halberstam,  S.,  nV3Dip  m3pn  {Graetz-Jubelschrift,  1887),  394. 
He-Chahits,  yV-prt  (Lemberg,  1852,  &c.),  190. 

Honein  ibn  Ishak,  c^Ei::iri:rr  nziD  {Jehuda  Alcharizi,  ed.  A.  Lowenthal, 
Frankfurt,  1S96),  165. 

Immanuel  of  Rome  (i3th-i4th  cents.),  Poems  and  mino,  145,  151,  386,  420. 
Isaac  b.  Joseph,  of  Corbeil  (i,',th  cent.),  "li-p  nrro  iCC  (Semak),  ic6,  185. 
Isaac  b.  Mo=es,  of  Vienna  (circ.  1250),  rni  m«  (1862),  19,  22,  25,  27,  44,  48, 

170,  280,  315,  316,  317,  318,  320. 
Isaiah  b.  Abraham  Horwitz  (1622),  n"'jc  -nii'p,  152. 

Jacob  ben  Asher  (1280-1340),  cnvD  rni«,  29,  184,  280.     See  Judah  b.  Asher. 

Jacob  b.  Moses  Molin  (d.  1427),  cited  as  Maharil,  y'nrro  (Warsaw,  1874), 
7,  10,  16,  31,  53,  54,  56,  57,  73,  77,  87,  103,  128,  132,  142,  144,  146,  147, 
149,  150,  155,  158,  171,  173,  177,  186,  196,  197,  203,  206,  315,  346,  347, 

357.  358*  369,  373,  .^93,  424,  426. 
Jacob,  Tam,  ben  Meir  (12th  cent.),  Tekanoth  and  Decisions,  49,  54,  58,  88, 

183.  254,  394. 
Jehuda  Halevi  (1086-1142),   Cuzari  and   Poems,   125,    164,   188,   352,  3S6, 

390,  414. 
Jellinek,  A.,  rnT-n  n^n  (Leipzig,  1853,  &c.),  308,  312. 
□"20-in  CT.::ip  (Vienna,  1893),  385. 


/.     Index  of  Hebrew  Authorities,  433 

Jonah  Landsofer  (17th  cent.),  n^^Tis  (/.  Q.  R.,  iii),  171. 

Joseph  Ezobi  (13th  cent.),  f^cd  myp  {see  J.  Q.  R.,  viii),  199,  353,  354. 

Joseph  ben  Jehuda  Aknin  (13th  cent.),  TTCi''  ns-in,  365,  366. 

Joseph  ben  Phineas  (Nordlingen),  Hahn  (circ.  1630),  yoi«  r|-v  -iCD  (Frankfurt 

a/M.,  1723),  17,  18,  56,  72,  103,  127,  131,  137,  141,  144,  151,  158,  287, 

288,  343. 
Joseph  Ibn  Caspi  (begin.  14th  cent.),  "icinn  ncD,  370-371. 
Joseph  Sambary  (17th  cent.),  '  Chronicle'  (Neubauer,  Med.  Jew.  Chron.,  vol.  i), 

335- 
Judah  ben  Asher  (d.  1349),  ^^'""'^  (o^  Judah  and  Jacob  ben  Asher,  ed.  Schechter, 

1885),  39,  320,  397. 
Judah  (Chasid)  ben  Samuel  (1200),  nn^DH  iCD  (many  editions),  32,  94,  100, 

106,  107,  124,  128,  158,  159,  185,  201,  274,  275,  311,  347,  349,  350,  352, 

357,  381,  382,  396 
Judah  ben  Sabbatai  (1208),  xy^-^i  WitD,  164. 
Judah  b.  Samuel  Ibn  Abbas  (mid.  13th  cent.),  I'ra  T«%  365. 
Judah  ben  Verga  (15th  cent.),  mm'  r;3\ri,  277, 
Judah  Ibn  Tibbon  (12th  cent.),  see  D'lVii  -yn  (ed.  Edelmann,  London,  1852), 

331,  353,  354- 

Kalonymos  b.  Kalonymos  (i 287-1377),  pn  |2«  (ed.  Naples,   1489,  and  ed. 

Lemberg,  1865),  omo  men  (Venice,  1552),  87,  145,  151,  378,  389,  391, 

396- 
Kolbo  (14th  cent.),  in  "ja  (Rimini,  1526),  55,  58,  143,  169,  178,  179,  183,  186, 

201,  205,  280,  315,  335,  347,  379,  381. 
Krochmal,  N.,  pin  'Sia:  mra  (Leopoli,  1851),  207. 

Lamperonti,  Isaac  b.  Samuel  (d.  1756),  '^r\':r'  nno,  392. 

Leo  de  Modena,  imbn  l^rv:i  (Leipzig,  1683),  392. 

Levitas,  Elijah  (i6th  cent.),  micon  mien  (ed.  Ginsburg,  London,  1867),  423. 

Lewysohn,  A.,  cnnso  mpn  (Berlin,  1846),  195,  196. 

Luzzatto,  Moses  Chayim  (i 704-1 747),  Poems,  190,  268. 

Machzor  Romania  (ed.  Constantinople,  1573),  186,  195. 

Machzor  Vitry  (12th  cent.),  (Berlin,  1894),  11,  18,  141,  146,  176,  178,  196,  317, 

350,  388,  424. 
Maimun  ben  Joseph  (12th  cent.).  Letter  of  Consolation  (ed.  L.  M.  Simmons, 

/.  Q.  R.,  ii),  415. 
Midrash,  10,  56,  61,  77,  115,  128,  137,  182,  198,  257,  278,  279,  308,  312, 

320,  379- 
Mishnah,  25,  56,  57,  77,  131,  167,  177,  186,  194,  281,  313,  389,  390. 
Mordecai  b.  Abraham  Yafeh  (i6th  cent.),  niDbn  \n2b  ied,  167,  169,  186, 
Mordecai  b.  Hillel  (circ.  1300),  ^^TiDn  IDD  (in  editions  of  Talmud),  56,  155, 

170,  173,  186,  197. 
Moses  Ibn  Ezra  (12th  cent.).  Poems,  164. 
Moses  b,  Maimon  (Maimonides)  (i 1 35-1 204),  min  n3\rno,  96,  97,  115,  279,  309, 

311,  319,329,  335,  413,  414- 

n^^n^  (ed.  Edelmann,  cnra  "]"n,  London,  1852),  108,  131,  277,  397. 

Commentary  to  the  Mishnah,  389. 

D'Dii:  mio  (many  editions),  279,  369,  371. 

Letter  to  Joseph  Aknin  (Munk,  Notice  sur  Joseph  b .  Jehottdd),  229. 

Moses  b.  Nachman  (Nachmanides)  (13th  cent.),  (Prayer  in  □''nn  l-n,  Siddured. 

Stettin,  1865,  P-  303),  86. 

Letter  from  Jerusalem,  219,  417. 

Mueller,  Joel,  onciD  racD  (Leipzig,  1878),  345,  357. 

Ff 


434  /•     Index  of  Hebrew  Authorities. 

Nathan  Nata  b.  Moses  Hannover,  r<y\'2x:i  jv  "d  (Venice,  1653),  173. 
Neubauer,  A.,  Medieval  Jewish  Chronicles  (Oxford,  1887  and  1896),  8,  197, 
316,  317,  335- 

Orchoth  Tsadikim,  D''pn2  mniN  (15th  cent.),  381. 

Parchon,  Solomon  Ibn  (12th  cent.),  mino  {see  Bacher,  Stade's  Zeitsckrifl,  x), 

94,  284. 
Perles,  J.,  'Die  Berner  Handschrift  des  Kleinen  Aruch'  {Graetz-Jubelschriff), 

177,  180,  181,  384. 
Petachia  b.  Jacob  (12th  cent.),  Travels  (ed.  Benisch),  215,  219,  225,  287,  343. 

Reggio,  I.,  nVnpn  nrm  (Goritiae,  1852),  392. 
Reifmann,  D.,  n^npn  )m^  (Berlin,  1882),  201. 

RESPONSA  : 

Aaron  b.  Chayim  Perachia,  \-\rxA  htcd  mc  (Amsterdam,  1703),  42,  59,  60. 
Abraham  b.  Moses  de   Boton  (i6th  cent.),  2i   en"?  (Smyrna,  1660), 

88,  183. 
Abraham  b.  Mordecai,  nnii  rwy  (Constantinople,  1716-1717),  59. 
Ayas,  Judah,  rrwrv  '32  (Livorno,  1758),  284. 
Azulai,  Chayim,  bi^^D  □"n  idd  (Leghorn,  1 792-1 795),  91,  283. 

Bacharach,  Jair  Chayim  (17th  cent.),  tn'  nin  (Frankfurt  a/M.,  1699), 

26,  28,  93,  182,  216. 
Benjamin,  b.  Mattathia  of  Aria  (15th  cent.),  i«i  pD':2  (Venice,  1539),  88. 

Caro,  Joseph  ben  Ephraim  (i6th  cent,),  h'yrs  npn«  (Leipzig,  1859),  12, 

29,  381. 
Chasdai  b.  Samuel  Perachia,  ion  mm  "d  (Salcnica,  1722),  loi. 
Chayim  ben  Isaac,  ^r\-\  -nx  C"n  n"iTD  (Leipzig,  i860),  156,  180. 
Chayim  Benveniste  (17th  cent.),  n"iTD  (Constantinople,  1743),  8,  59. 

Da\'id  ben  Chayim  Cohen  (1400  ?),  n"i^  (Constantinople,  1537),  381. 

David  ben  Solomon  Abi  Zimra  (17th  cent.),  V'mn  t\'^t,  quoted  as 
Radbaz  (Leghorn,  1651,  &c.),  8,  28,  78,  197. 

Duran,  Simeon  ben  Tsemach  (begin.  15th  cent.),  y"nmn  "lED  (Amster- 
dam, 1738),  cited  as  Tashbats,  10,  31,  37,  39,  45,  58,  61,  72,  77, 
88,  89,  103,  106,  116,  117,  154,  157,  223,  283,  349,  358,  395. 

Duran,  Solomon  ben  Simeon  (1437),  ^"'^^  "cmrin  -idd  (Livorno,  1742), 
119,  144. 

Duran,  Solomon  b.  Tsemach  (1593).     See  preceding. 

Elijah  b.  Abraham  Mizrachi  (15th- 16th  cents.),  c^iO];'  □'•n  (Venice,  1647), 

284,  358. 
Ephraim  b.  Jacob,  cnD><  irt:  (Sulzbach,  1688),  51,  59,  loi. 

Gabay,  Nissim,  u:  nxD,  (Salonica,  1797),  19,  59. 
Geonim  (7th  to  i>th  cents.). 
Chiefly  cited  from  Joel  Miiller,  D^3Wjn  mnTcnb  nncn,  or  Einleitung 
in  die  Responsen  der  baby  Ionise  hen  Geonen  (Berlin,  1891),  as  Index 
or  Mafteach,  7,  12,  13,  18,  19,  24,  36,  52,  55,  59,  88,  89,  104,  105, 
107,  no,  III,  116,  124,  128,  142,  146, 154,  155,  168, 170,  178,  179, 
193,  200,  204,  225,  239,  245,  262,  274,  275,  287,  289,  290,  329,  344, 
358,  424,  426. 
Musafia,  J.,  □'jiwjn  maim  (Lyck,  1864),  33,  357. 


/.     Index  of  Hebrew  Authorities.  435 

RESPONSA  {continued) : 
Geonim  {continued)  : 

Modai,  Nissim,  pi:?  nrtu  ICD  (Salonica,  1792),  95,  99,  loi,  116. 
Solomon   Kabuli,   n>2'i><j  "?©  mnicm   mb**©  (Constantinople,    1575), 

88,  109. 
Harkavy,  A.,  Responsen  der  Geonim  {Publ.  Soc.  M'Kise  Nirdamim, 

Berlin,  1887),  76,  166,  183. 
David  Loria,  nmcn  nrc  (Leipzig,  1858),  13,  55,  184. 

Isaac  b.  Samuel  Adarbi,  man  nm  (Salonica,  1582),  118. 

Isaac  b.  Sheshet  Barfath  (14th  cent.),  maicn  (Constantinople,  1546), 

^       8,  37,  345,  346. 

Israel  b.  Chayim  of  Briinn,  n"ic  (Salonica,  1798),  57,  59,  199,  396. 

Isserlein,  Israel  b.  Petachia  (15th  cent.),  D'aroi  D'pDD  (Venice,  1519), 

128,  173,  177,  377,  396. 
\XD^T^  rann  "d  (Venice,  1519),  24,  157,  197,  391,  424,  426. 

Jacob  ben  Israel  of  Morea  (Venice,  1632),  345. 

Jacob  b.  Moses  Molin  (Maharil,  d.  1427),  n"ic  (Cremona,  1556),  26, 

320,  342. 
Jacob  b.  Samuel  Chagiz  (d.  1689),  m:r:p  ma^rt  n""ic  (Venice,  1704), 

59»  138- 
Jacob  Weil  (15th  cent.),  n"iTr  (Venice,  1549),  72. 
Joel  b.  Samuel  Sirkes  (d.  1640),  n"ic  (Frankfurt,  1697),  118. 
Jonah  Landsofer  (17th  cent.),  npi!?  'TrD  (Prague,  1756),  92. 
Joseph  Colon  (d.  1480),  (Venice,  1519),  285. 
Joseph  David,  Tn  n>2  (Salonica,  17*40),  28,  60,  147. 
Joseph  b.  Moses  of  Trani  (ci.  1639),  '"'""'c  (Ftiith,  1768),  146,  178. 
Joshua  Soncin,  rcm^b  7^^T^l  (Constantinople,  1731),  45. 
Judah  ben  Enoch  (17th  cent.),  rmrr  n^a  "]i:>n  (Frankfurt,  1708),  146. 
Judah  Minz  (d.  1508),  m'js\L-i  Q'pci:  cd"?  sn  (Venice,  1553),  42,  73,  120, 

274,  308,  345. 

Landau,  Ezekiel  ben  Judah,  nnrra  m:  (Prague,  1776),  30,  60. 

Mayo,  Rephael  Isaac,  en  nstr  (Salonica,  18 18),  121. 

Meir  ben  Baruch  of  Rothenburg  (13th  cent.),  (various  editions),  29,  48, 
89,  148,  156,  157,  159,  280,  303,  304,  376. 

Meir  ben  Isaac  Katzenellenbogen  (Venice,  1553),  22. 

Meir  b.  Shem-tob  Melammed,  pi!J  '^cu:^  "c  (Salonica,  1615,  &c.),  12. 

Meldola,  Rephael  b.  Eleazar,  en  d'D  idd  (Amsterdam,  1737),  92, 
120,  334. 

Menachem  Mendel  ben  Abraham,  pns  nos  (Amsterdam,  1675),  22, 
44,  84. 

Meshullam  ben  Kalonymos  (nth  cent.),  (M tiller,  Bericht  der  Lehr- 
anstalt  fiir  die  Wiss.  des  Judenthums,  Berlin,  1893),  97,  246. 

Morpurgo,  Samson,  r^'^-y-^  roir  (Venice,  1743),  59,  284,  358,  377. 

Moses  b.  Chayim  Alshec  (i6th  cent.),  (Venice,  1605),  11 8. 

Moses  b.  Maimon  (Maimonides,  1 135-1204),  □"I'Din  nmcn  j^2ip  (in- 
cluding Letters,  Leipzig,  1859),  n*  89,  193,  235,  422. 

Moses  b.  Nachman  (Nachmanides),  Pseud.  rC^n:  (Venice,  1519),  185, 193. 

Moses  b.  Isaac  Minz  (15th  cent),  n"ic  (Cracow,  1617),  43,  171,  207. 

Moses  the  Priest,  d^ys  roinD  "d  (Constantinople,  1740),  285. 

Nissim  Gerondi  (circ.  1350),  n"itt'  (Rome,  1545),  324« 
Y  i  2, 


436  /.     Index  of  Hebrew  Authorities. 

RESPONSA  {continued)  : 

Pardo,  David  b.  Jacob,  Tnb  cnao  idd  (Salonica,  1772),  118,  262. 

Reischer,  Jacob,  npr'  mi^  (Halle,  1709),  377. 

Salem,  Asher  b.  E.,  -iir«  rn:o  (Salonica,  1748),  154. 

Samuel  b.  Abraham  Aboab  (1650),  ^h?"ior  nm  (Venice,  1702),  251. 

Samuel  b.  David,  nric  nbnD  (Amsterdam,  1667),  47, 

Samuel  b.  Isaac  Chayim,  '7h?io*vr  ':2  (Salonica,  16 13),  109. 

Shabtai  Beer,  per  -l^«l  "c  (Venice,  1674),  31. 

Solomon  b.  Abraham  Hak-koheu  (Salonica,  1586),  104,  121,  183. 

Solomon  ben  Adret  (d.  13 10),  mbt^r  mnu;n  (Venice,  1546),  19,  83,  183, 

157,  316,  357.  371.       „ 
Solomon  b.  Jechiel  Luria,  n  itJ  (Lublin,  1574),  280,  290. 
Steinhart,  Joseph  b.  Menachem,  rpv  p3i  (Fiirth,  1773),  31,  381. 

Zacut,  Moses  b.  Mordecai  (17th  cent.),  n"i«r  (Venice,  1760),  138,  178. 
Zebi  b.  Jacob  (17th  cent.),  ^22  DDn  n"i\D  (Amsterdam,  171 2),  13. 

Saadya  ben  Joseph  (d.  941),  Commentaire  sur  le  Sefer  Yesira  (ed.  Lambert, 

Paris,  1891),  351. 
Safir,  Jacob,  ted  ps  (Lyck,  Mainz,  1866-1874),  127,  195. 
Samson  b.  Eliezer,  iont  "j"ni  ^Sklow,  1804),  31. 
Samuel  b.  Meir  (12th  cent.),  Commentary  on  Pentateuch,  368. 
Samuel  ben  Moses  de  Medina  (d.  1589),  □"nujnn  'poD  (Salonica,  1580-1582), 

60,  104,  117. 
Samuel  Portaleone  (1630),  {see  J.  Q.  R.,  v),  328,  346,  420. 
Schechter,  S.,  vn^ii  ur^Jirr  p  rmn'  Y'n  nwi2  (1885),  39. 
Schechter,  S.,  and  S.  Singer,  Fragments  of  Talmudical  MSS.  in  the  Bodleian 

(Cambridge,  1896),  355. 
Schur,  W.,  •:^'''X\r\  nvno  (Vienna,  1884),  195. 
Sefer  Chassidim.    See  Judah  (Chasid). 

Sheftel    Sabbatai)  Horwitz  (161 2),  nNn:^  (Frankfurt,  1690),  88,  311. 
Shulcha7i  Aruch.     See  Caro,  Joseph. 
Singer,  S.,  Authorized  Daily  Prayer  Book  (London,  1891,  &cO,  123,  206,  209, 

239.     See  also  Schechter. 
Solomon  ben  Isaac  (Rashi)  (d.  1105),  Commentary  to  Talmud,  146,  334,  350, 

368,  369,  388. 
Siisskind,  A.,  n^n^  {see  J.  Q.  R.,  iii),  56. 

Talmud,  49,  56,  77,  91,  96,  105,  114,  115,  122,  137,  140,  143,  149,  156,  159, 
166,  167,  168,  169,  170,  176,  177,  179,  180,  187,  188,  193,  194,  196,  198, 
200,  202,  205,  222,  223,  228,  237,  238,  239,  252,  253,  275,  276,  278,  281, 
288,  289,  292,  293,  308,  309,  312,  313,  314,  315,  319,  324,  334,  335,  341, 

345,  346,  349,  550,  368,  375,  37^,  379,  388»  39°,  39^,  393,  394,  416. 
Tashbats.     See  Responsa,  Duran,  Simeon  b.  Tsemach. 

Weiss,  I.  H.,  \-n:n3i  (Warsaw,  1895),  175. 

Zacut,  Moses  b.    Mordecai,  cSir'  -nc   (Drama,  ed.   Berliner,  Berlin,   1874), 

268  seq. 
Zabara,  Joseph  (circ.  1200),  n'riC?©  lED  (for  editions,  see  J.  Q.  R.,  vi.  502), 

165,  215,  386. 
Zedner,  Joseph,  Catalogue  Hebrew  Books  in  British  Museum  (1867),  327,  333. 


INDEX  II. 


GENERAL    INDEX. 


Aaron  b.  Meir,  quoted,  156. 

Ab,  fast  of,  17,  57,  345. 

Abdulrahman  III,  Caliph,  305. 

Abraham  de  Balmes,  422. 

Abraham  Ibn  Ezra,  216,  290. 

Abraham  Ibn  ol  Fakkhar,  361. 

Abraham  Ibn  Sahl,  361. 

Abraham  Izaaki,  quoted,  138. 

Abrahams,  B.  L.,  quoted,  62,  &c.,  233, 
244,  &c. 

Absentee  husbands,  89. 

Achin,  Jews  interpreters  at,  232. 

Acrostics,  385. 

Addison,  L.,  quoted,  87,  112,  &c. 

Adler,  H.,  quoted,  239. 

Adler,  M.,  quoted,  334,  352. 

Adrianople,  Jews  of,  254,  284. 

Africa,  cemeteries,  78 ;  costume  in, 
283  ;  prisoners,  336,  338. 

Agricultural  pursuits,  213,  225. 

Akiba  and  May  marriages,  184. 

Alais,  Jews  of,  103. 

Albertus  Magnus,  406. 

Albigenses  and  Jews,  202. 

Albuquerque  (navigator),  232. 

Alexandria,  ancient  settlement  in,  240, 
266. 

Alfonso  V  of  Portugal,  336. 

Alfonso  the  Wise,  305. 

Algiers,  polygamy  in,  119;  costume 
in,  283  ;  pirates  in,  338. 

Alms,  see  Poor. 

Alphabet,  how  taught,  350. 

Amram,  Gaon  (9th  century),  239. 

Amsterdam,  Hebrew  school,  267  ; 
Jews  of,  270  seq. ;  charity  organi- 
zation, 316,  333  ;  vernacular  prayers, 
347  ;  Marranos  in,  363. 

Amulets,  182,  289. 

Amusements,  262,  chs.  xxi,  xxii. 


Anagni,  taxation  at,  41. 

Anatoli  and  Michael  Scotus,  419. 

Andalusia  under  the  Moors,  305. 

Angers,  Jewish  quarter,  62  ;  Jews  for- 
bidden to  bathe  in  Maine,  73  ; 
immorality  in,  94. 

Anjou,  tax  on  crossing  bridge,  48. 

Anselm  of  Parengar,  149. 

Antioch,  glass  manufactory,  218. 

Antipathy  to  Jews,  85,  400  seq. 

Apostates,  12,  402. 

Aquinas,  Thomas,  406. 

A.   R.    (=  Alexander  Ross),  quoted, 

331- 

Arabic,  in  prayer,  201,  345  ;  in  litera- 
ture, 353,  360,  371. 

Arabo-Spanish  culture,  369  seq. 

Aragon,  66,  306,  401. 

Aramaic  in  prayer,  345,  351.  See 
Targum. 

Archery,  375. 

Archimedes,  365. 

Architecture,  29,  220. 

Archon  of  the  synagogue,  32. 

Aristotle,  237,  365-370- 

Arithmetic  in  school,  365  ;  puzzles, 
385. 

Aries,  Jews  of,  298,  392. 

Arms,  Jews  forbidden  the  use  of,  376, 
377  ;  Jews  bear  arms  in  Prague,  63  ; 
in  Spain,  378. 

Art,  ecclesiastical,  27,  28  seq. ;  secu- 
lar, 220  seq. 

Artisans,  Jewish,  217,  227  seq. 

Aryeh  b.  Chayim,  289. 

Arzilla,  336. 

Ascarelli,  Deborah,  362. 

Asher  b.  Yechiel,  320,  321,  358. 

Ashley,  W.,  quoted,  237. 

Asia,  Jewish  occupations  in,  219,  224. 


438 


//.      General  Index. 


Astronomy,  231,  365. 
Athletics,  375. 

Atonement,  Day  of,  8,  17,  18,  25,  29, 
32,   103,   172,  292,  317,  330,  345, 

396. 
Atiberge Jtnve,  74. 
Audekerke,  cemetery  at,  78. 
Auerbach  on  Jews  of  Halberstadt,  62. 
Augsburg,  73. 

Austria,  Jews  of,  225,  300,  378. 
Averroes,  366. 
Avicenna,  371. 
Avignon,  Jews  of,  42,  50,  51,  72,  298, 

333,  393,  402. 

Babylon,  Jews  of,  183,  317,  333. 

Bacher,  W.,  quoted,  94,  125,  358,  385. 

Bcuhur  (student),  57,  171,  254. 

Back  or  Edge  (game),  391. 

Badchan  (jester),  132. 

Badge,  93,  ch,  xvi,  409. 

Bagdad,  195,  212,  343. 

Bajazet  II  (Sultan),  337. 

Bakehouse,  communal,  72. 

Baker,  Sir  R.,  273. 

Bakewell  Hall,  73. 

Balchuber,  Aryeh,  quoted,  141. 

Ball,  game  of,  379. 

Ballot,  voting  by,  54. 

Banquets,  130. 

Barbary  States,  232. 

Barcelona,  219,  231,  305,  417. 

Bare-headed  in  prayer  (France),  280. 

Barmitzvah,  31,  132,  144. 

Bastile,  Jews  in,  51. 

Bath  (public),  73. 

Bathing  in  river  forbidden,  73,  402. 

Beards,  283. 

Bedarride,  J.,  quoted,  Introduction. 

Beggars,    house-to-house,    307,    309, 

310,  322. 
Beith  Nabi,  dyers  at,  218. 
Benjamin  Portaleone,  295. 
Benjamin  II  (J.  J.),  quoted,  127. 
Benzinger,  J.,  quoted,  172. 
Berith  Milah,  143,  327. 
Berliner,  A,,  quoted,  3,  &c.,  29,  &c. 

415,  &c. 
Bermann  of  Limburg,  263. 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  243,  405. 
Beth  Din,  10,  55. 
Beth  Hamidrash,  347. 
Betrothal,  177,  206;  rings,  181. 
Bible,  study  of,  365. 


Bigamy,  117. 

Billeting  of  soldiers  on  Jews,  47. 

Bishops,  Jewish,  35 ;  Bishop  and 
Rabbi,  ib. 

Black  Death,  6,  332,  400. 

Black  in  costume,  292,  302. 

Black  Forest  District,  Shadchan  in, 
174. 

Blind  mart's  buff  {gzvatjy  379. 

Bloch,  M.,  quoted,  257. 

Boccaccio,  165. 

Bohemia,  Jews  of,  98,  227. 

Bologna,  38,  69. 

Boni  Urbis,  54. 

Books,  binding,  220;  printing,  221; 
care  for,  352,  353,  355. 

Bordeaux,  78. 

Bosoni  of  Agobbio  and  Dante,  420. 

Boys,  education  of,  341  seq. ;  games 
of,  378  seq.    See  Children. 

Brann,  M.,  quoted,  76,  214. 

Breslau,  214. 

Bride  and  bridegroom,  193  seq. 

Brindisi,  dyers  at,  217. 

Bristol,  cloth  trade,  223;  copper  in- 
dustry, 227. 

Brome,  R.,  quoted,  259. 

Brothels  placed  in  ghetto,  94. 

Briill,  A.,  quoted,  273,  281. 

Brunschvicg,  L.,  quoted,  41 ,  &c. 

Buber,  S.,  quoted,  10,  56,  61,  198. 

Buchholz,  P.,  quoted,  115. 

Buda  Pesth,  tombs,  81. 

Budde,  K.,  quoted,  266. 

Burial,    tax,    48 ;   societies  for,    326, 

333- 
Buxtorf  as  Sandek,  428. 
Byzantine  Jews,  345. 

Cabbala  and  home-life,  152  ;  charms, 
182 ;  poetical  influence  of,  387 ; 
Christian  students  of,  422. 

Cahen,  A.,  quoted,  144. 

Cairo,  Maimonides  at,  235. 

Caligraphy,  353. 

Caliphs,  Jews  under,  98,    211,   305, 

365- 
Cambridge   students  and  Christmas, 

396- 
Candia,  19,  215,  337. 
Candles  on  Day  of  Atonement,  140. 
Canopy,  bridal,  193. 
Canterbury,  3,  425. 
Cantor,  see  Chazan. 


//.     General  Index. 


439 


Capital  punishment  inflicted  by  Jews, 

49- 

Cappae,  285. 

Captives,  ransom  of,  96,  ch.  xviii. 

Card-painting,  397. 

Cards,  game  of,  220,  ch,  xxii. 

Cariateen,  dyer  at,  218. 

Carnival,  Jews  insulted  at,  256  ;  plays, 
257  ;  sports  imitated  by  Jews,  260. 

Casimir  IV  befriends  Jews,  402, 

Cassel,  D.,  quoted,  352. 

Cassel,  P.,  quoted,  46,  275,  297, 

Castile,  Jews  of,  8,  65,  66,  211,  277, 
300,  378,  401. 

Catacombs  in  Rome,  79. 

Catechumens,  House  of,  Jews  taxed 
for,  46. 

Caursini  and  Jews,  103. 

Cavaliers,  Jewish,  378. 

Cemeteries,  77  seq.,  335. 

Censorship  of  books,  69,  417. 

Chambers  of  Rhetoric  in  Amsterdam, 
268. 

Chanuka,  155,  385,  396. 

Charities,  private  and  communal,  chs. 
xvii,  xviii. 

Charizi,  386. 

Charlemagne,  6,  98. 

Chassidim,  202. 

Chastity,  90,  167. 

Chaucer,  165. 

Chayim  J.  Eliezer,  quoted,  228. 

Chayuj  (grammarian),  366. 

Chazaka,  see  Tenant-right. 

Chazan  (cantor,  precentor),  18,  19, 
44,  45>  91.  200. 

Chazan,  M.  J.,  quoted,  251. 

Cherem,  see  Excommunication. 

Chess,  ch.  xxii. 

Chevra  Kadisha^  333. 

Children,  in  synagogue,  24,  31 ;  life  of, 
127;  marriage  of,  168;  education, 
chs.  xix,  XX. 

Cholera,  332. 

Chozars  converted  to  Judaism,  411. 

Christians  and  Jews,  64,  66,  and  chs. 
xxiii,  xxiv. 

Chuppah,  see  Canopy. 

Church  Councils — at  Valladolid  en- 
forces residence  in  Juderia,  65 ; 
against  slavery,  93  ;  allow  bigamy 
under  special  circumstances,  117; 
Lateran  Council  inflicts  Jewish 
badge,    296 ;    anti-social,    399  ;    at 


Elvira   forbids   communication  be- 
tween   Jews   and   Christians,   408 ; 
forbids  observance  by  Christians  of 
Jewish  festivals,  425. 
Church  and  kings,  405  ;  —  and  slavery, 

97. 
Cid  and  Jewish  soldiers,  361. 
Cifuentes,  Cortes  of,  65,  378. 
Circus  at  Rome,  47,  256. 
Citrons,  importation  of,  215. 
Civil  Courts,  Jews  refrain  from,  70. 
Cleanliness,  16,  129. 
Clipping  the  coinage,  103. 
Cloth  trade,  222. 
Coblenz,  no  ghetto  at,  62. 
Coffee   introduced    into   England   by 

Jews,  138,  214. 
Cohanim     (reputed     descendants     of 

Aaron^,  23,  80,  91. 
Colchester,  hunting-incident  at,  376. 
Cologne,  Jews  of,  63,  65,  67,  74,  75, 

216. 
Columbus  and  the  Jews,  47,  231,  232, 

242. 
Commandmeitt  Meals,  143,  318. 
Commerce,  Jewish  services  to,   214, 

249  ;    as  a    humanizing  influence, 

423- 
Commonwealth  in  England  and  Jews, 

261,  267. 
Communal  organization,  chs.  iii  and 

iv. 
Communication,  methods  of,  76. 
Confession  of  sins,  132. 
*  Congregation,'  quorum  for,  see  Min- 

yan. 
Constantine,  Emperor,  and  Jews,  408. 
Constantinople,  Jews  of,  212,  213,  218, 

283. 
Controversies,  religious,  416  seq. 
Conversion — of  Christians  to  Judaism 

forbidden  by  Jews,  59  ;  forbidden 

by  Alfonso's   '  Seven  Codes,'  410  ; 

forbidden  in  England,   411  ;  —  of 

Jews  to  Christianity,  416;  forcible 

attendance  at  sermons,  417. 
Cookery,  150-1, 
Copper,  Gaunz  introduces  new  method 

of  refining,  226. 
Corcos,  T.  v.,  quoted,  266. 
Cordova,  5,  336,  413. 
Corfu,  Jews  sell  synagogue  vestments 

for  ransom  of  captives,  337. 
Corinth,  silk  manufacture  at,  217. 


440 


//.     General  Index. 


Corporal  punishment,  126,  350,  382. 
Costume,  see  Dress. 
Council  of  Seven,  54- 
Courtship,  ch.  ix. 
Courtyard  of  synago^e,  24,  200, 
Coyaca,  Council  of,  66. 
Crawley,  R.,  and  Gaunz,  227. 
Creed,  the  Thirteen  Articles  of,  346. 
Creighton,  C,  quoted,  332. 
Criminal  jurisdiction  of  Jews,  50. 
Cripples,  rarity  of,  310. 
Cromwell  and  the  Jews,  232,  267. 
Crusades,  effects  of,  on  Jews,  4,  141, 

169,  311,  314,  400,  404. 
Cumberland,  Richard,  259. 
Custom  and  Law,  36  seq. 

Dahne,  A.  F.,  quoted,  198. 

Dance,  196,  254,  380. 

Dancing-hall,  75. 

Danon,  A.,  quoted,  42,  45. 

Dante  and  Immanuel,  386,  401,  419- 

20. 
Danube,  Jewish  trade  along,  213. 
Daro,  Burials  at,  333. 
David  Conforte  (seventeenth  century), 

quoted,  21. 
David  del  Bene  and  Renaissance,  420. 
David  and  Goliath  (drama),  263. 
Da\'id  Leon,  Messer,  285. 
Davis,  A.,  quoted,  238. 
Davis,  Nina,  quoted,  255,  304,  390. 
Dayan,  office  of,  35,  356. 
Dead,  anniversaries  of,  140 ;  prayers 

for,  317. 
Decoration     of    synagogue,     26;     of 

houses,  147. 
Decorum  in  worship,  15  seq. 
Delitzsch,  F.,  quoted,  194. 
Democratic  organization   of  Jewries, 

44. 
Depping,  G.  B.,  quoted,  132,  &c. 
Derashascheyik,  199. 
De  Saulcy,  F.,  quoted,  253. 
Dice,  game  of,  390. 
Dietary  laws,  146,  411,  426. 
Discipline  in  home,  126;  in  school, 

350»  382. 
Diseases,  331. 
Divorce,  88,  90;  prevalence  of,   121, 

175- 
Doctors,  45,  227,  234,  428. 
Doeg  b.  Joseph,  312. 
Domestic  life,  83,  chs.  vii,  viii. 


Donin,  Nicolas,  416. 

Donnolo,  419. 

Dowries,  175;  for  poor  girls,  209, 
325-6. 

Drama,  chs.  xiii,  xiv;  at  weddings, 
197  ;  ancient  Jewish  antipathy  to, 
251  ;  the  Stage  Jew,  255;  carnival 
plays,  257  ;  vernacular  plays,  261, 
362  ;  Purim-plays,  260  seq. ;  drama 
in  Hebrew,  266  ;  Moses  Zacut,  267 
seq. 

Draughts,  game  of,  391. 

Dress,  chs.  xv,  xvi;  in  prayer,  17  ;  at 
excommunication,  52 ;  sumptuary 
laws,  58,  181,  282,  295;  married 
and  unmarried  women,  92,  276 ; 
disguises,  94;  benedictions  on  new 
garments,  129;  wedding  and  be- 
trothal rings,  180  seq. ;  garlands, 
193  ;  at  the  marriage  ceremony,  204 
seq.  ;  dyeing,  art  of,  among  Jews, 
219;  tailoring,  224;  separation  of 
sexes  in  costume,  262,  274  ;  trous- 
seau, 276;  colours,  choice  of,  274 
seq.,  285,  293  ;  covering  the  head, 
278  seq.;  transference  of  fashion, 
282  ;  no  Jewish  costume,  283  seq.; 
Islamic  restrictions,  285  ;  amulets, 
289;  the  badge,  93,  ch.  xvi; 
clothes  for  the  poor,  276,  326. 

Drunkenness  rare,  137  ;  satirists  on, 
87  ;  puns  on,  382. 

Dubno  Maggid,  292. 

Duels,  377. 

Dukes,  L.,  quoted,  196,  393. 

Dulcie,  daughter  of  Eliezer  of  Worms, 

344- 
Dunash   b.    Labrat    (tenth    century), 

quoted,  125. 
Duns  Scotus  and  Jews,  406. 
Dyeing,  art  of,  217,  218. 

Earle,  Alice,  quoted,  25. 

East,  see  Orient. 

East  India  Company,  232. 

Education,  chs.  xix-xx;  educational 
societies,  327  ;  before  and  after  Re- 
naissance, 340;  women,  341  seq.; 
educational  methods,  350  seq. ; 
curriculum,  350  ;  in  Spain  and  Italy, 
365  ;  in  France  and  Germany,  367. 

Edward  I  of  England,  42,  244,  401. 

Egidio,  Cardinal,  423. 

Egypt,  marriages,  193;  trade  in,  211- 


//.     General  Index. 


441 


213  ;  Maimonides  in,  235  ;  costume 
in,  279  ;  Paltiel  in,  317  ;  education 
in,  351- 

Elections,  synagogal,  53. 

Elegies  on  Jewish  martyrdoms,  13  ; 
on  burning  of  books,  304. 

Elias  del  Medigo,  421. 

Eliezer  of  Worms,  344. 

Elijah  b.  Ezekiel,  quoted,  10. 

Elijah  Wilna,  Gaon,  quoted,  202,  368. 

Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  226, 
227  ;  —  of  Hungary,  168. 

Elvira,  Council  of,  408. 

Emblems  on  medieval  tombs,  80. 

Embroidery,  292. 

Engagement  rings,  180. 

England :  Jews  and  Canterbury  monks, 
3  ;  under  Edward  I,  42  ;  Jewries 
in,  62  ;  Bakewell  Hall,  73  ;  Nor- 
wich '  Musick  House,'  75  ;  ceme- 
teries in,  77 ;  stone-houses,  148  ; 
betrothal  contracts,  1 74  ;  marriage 
in,  193  ;  trade  with,  213  ;  Ibn  Ezra 
in,  216;  Jewish  miners,  226;  money- 
lending,  241  seq. ;  Jews  and  Eliza- 
bethan drama,  258,  269;  Jewish 
badge,  293,  297,  301 ;  English 
translation  of  prayers,  347  ;  Jewish 
knights,  378  ;  under  Richard  I,  399  ; 
expulsion  from  England,  243,  401 ; 
religious  controversy  in,  416  ;  Gode- 
liva  and  the  Jewess,  425;  friendli- 
ness, 427. 

Enoch  b.  Judah(i7th  century), quoted, 
294. 

Envoys,  Jews  as,  234. 

Epidemics,  331. 

Epitaphs,  26,  78  seq. 

Ertisin,  193. 

Essenes,  went  barefooted,  2  89. 

Essex,  James,  quoted,  289. 

Esther,  book  of,  read  in  Spanish,  345. 

Esther,  dramas  on,  264. 

Esther,  feast  of,  see  Purim. 

Ethical  wills,  156,  277,  354. 

Etiquette,  16,  123-126,  330. 

Euclid,  study  of,  368. 

Evelyn,  John,  quoted,  347. 

Evil  spirits,  290,  367. 

Evora,  ordinance  of,  378. 

Excommunication,  52,  292. 

Ezekiel,  Jewish  dramatist,  267. 

Faces  nuptiales,  195. 


Fairs,  172  seq.,  216. 

Fairytales,  215,  387. 

Falconry,  376. 

Famine,  Jews  little  affected  by,  332. 

Fashion,  see  Dress. 

Fasts,  see  Ab,  Atonement. 

Fasts  and  feasts,  local,  1 3 ;  family, 
142  seq. 

Father  and  son,  122  seq. 

Fattori  in  Rome,  256,  322. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  64,  85,  226. 

Ferdinand  of  Naples,  337. 

Ferdinand  of  Sicily,  227. 

Ferdinand  HI  of  Castile,  300. 

Ferrara,  communal  laws  of,  69,  393. 

Festivals,  middle  days  of,  53,  225, 
322,  396;  charity  on,  310,  325; 
games  on,  374,  379,  388.  See  Pass- 
over, Purim,  Tabernacles,  &c. 

Fez,  head-dress,  302. 

Financiers,  2,  103,  228,  236,  242-243. 

Finta,  41,  44. 

Fiscus  Judcortan,  46. 

Fish  as  an  article  of  food,  84,  150 ;  in 
wedding  ceremony,  196. 

Flagellation,  7. 

Fleets,  Jew  s  taxed  for,  46 ;  fitted  out 
by  Jews,  231. 

Fletcher,  John,  quoted,  190. 

Florence,  luxury  in,  294 ;  friendliness 
in,  421. 

Flowers  in  sjTiagogue,  29 ;  in  home, 

147. 

Folklore,  Jews  as  propagators  of,  215, 
363,  387,  419. 

Foods,  150  seq. 

Forest-laws,  applied  against  Jews  of 
Colchester,  377. 

Forli,  communal  laws  at,  145,  394. 

Fostat,  120,  235. 

France,  Jewish  prisons,  51  ;  Auberge 
Juive,  74 ;  trade  in  Montpellier, 
Marseilles,  and  Narbonne,&c.,  213, 
215,  246;  weaving,  223;  vintage, 
224;  Purim  masquerades,  262; 
praying  bare-headed,  279-80;  the 
badge,  299,  305 ;  education  in, 
35S  seq.;  games,  379;  Louis  VII 
of,  399,  404  ;  mendicant  friars  in, 
407;  Mysticism,  421. 

Frankel,  Z.,  quoted,  113. 

Frankfort,  crying  stolen  goods,  9 ; 
position  of  ghetto,  67 ;  Tanzhaus, 
75  ;  symbols  on  graves,  80  ;  Purim- 


442 


//.     General  Index. 


plays,  263  ;  Chevra  Kadisha,  333  ; 
friendliness,  426. 

Frankl,  L.  A.,  quoted,  151. 

Frederick  William,  298. 

Frederick  II,  419,  421. 

French  language,  347,  360. 

French  Revolution,  2,  408. 

Freudenthal,  J.,  quoted,  198. 

Friars  preach  against  Jews,  407. 

Friday,  the  night  ceremonies,  133; 
weddings  on,  186;  poor-relief  on, 
310,322. 

Friedberg,  E.,  quoted,  169,  203. 

Friedberg,  M.,  quoted,  124. 

Friedlander,  M.,  quoted,  351. 

Friedmann,  M.,  quoted,  182,  320. 

Friendships  between  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians, chs.  xxiii,  xxiv. 

Fringes,  287,  296. 

Furst,  J.,  quoted,  205. 

Gabay  or  Treasurer,  54. 

Gallery  in  synagogue,  25. 

Gambling,  communal  enactments 
against,  390,  394. 

Games,  chs.  xxi-xxii. 

Gaonim,  5,  20,  36,  116,  261.  See 
Responsa. 

Gardens,  77. — Jews'  garden  =  ceme- 
tery, 148. 

Gaul,  slave-dealers  in,  98. 

Gaunz,  Jeochim,  226. 

Gefnah'ia,  381. 

Genoa,  60,  213,  220. 

German  language,  384 ;  hymns  in, 
346 ;  vernacular,  362. 

Germany,  election  of  Rabbi,  48  ;  elec- 
tion of  other  officials,  53 ;  ghetto,  71 
seq. ;  Spinholz,  144;  portraits  in, 
147;  Sabbath  foods,  151;  betrothal 
rings,  180;  bridal  canopy,  200; 
occupations  in,  213,  222-225,  233, 
246 ;  Purim,  262 ;  children  pray 
bare-headed,  280 ;  black,  the 
favourite  colour,  293  ;  extravagance 
in  dress  denounced,  294 ;  the  Juden- 
hut  and  badge,  298  seq.;  tithes,  321  ; 
neglect  of  the  study  of  grammar, 
358  ;  German  as  vernacular,  360-2  ; 
education  in  Germany,  367  ;  card- 
playing,  391  ;  mysticism  in,  421. 

Gershom,  Light  of  the  Exile,  70,  71, 
76,  105 ;  formulates  monogamy, 
116,  119. 


Ghetto,  ch.  iv,  derivation  of  name,  62  ; 

voluntary  ghettos,   63 ;    ghetto   as 

privilege,  65  ;  flag  of  Prague  Jews, 

65 ;     gate-keeper    of    Jewry,    65 ; 

various  designations  of  ghetto,  ibid.; 

overcrowding  in  ghettos,  67  ;  their 

situation,  ibid. ;  effects  of,  on  Jews, 

161,  332,  409. 
Gibraltar,  theatre  at,  251. 
Gifts,  at  weddings,   1 80  ;    on  Purim, 

313  ;  interchanged  between  Jews  and 

Christians,  426. 
Ginsburg,  C,  quoted,  423. 
Girdles,  180,  194,  205. 
Girls,  education  of,  341. 
Glass-breaking  at  wedding,  182,  187, 

208. 
Glass  manufacture,  218. 
Gloves  forbidden  in  prayer,  17. 
Goblets,  146,  182. 
Godeliva  of  Canterbury,  425. 
Goldsmiths,  221,  293. 
Gomez,  Antonio  Enriques,  363. 
Goslar,  black  death  at,  333. 
Goy    and  goya,    105,    23S;    Sabbath 

Goy,  158,  197,  428. 
Grace  after  meals,  142,  152. 
Graetz,  H.,  quoted,  passim. 
Grammar,   study  of,  in   Spain,    358, 

366. 
Granada,  Jews  of,  305. 
Greece,  Jews  of,  211,  213,  217. 
Greek,  language,  79,  182,  345. 
'  Greek  Wisdom,'  369,  375. 
Green  garments,  285,  302. 
Greeting,  methods  of,  124. 
Gregorovius,  F.,  quoted,  411. 
Grimm,  J.,  quoted,  198. 
Gross,  C,  quoted,  42. 
Griinbaum,  M.,  quoted,  359. 
Guarini,  quoted,  190. 
Giidemann,  M.,  quoted,  passim. 
Guest-house,  74. 
Guidacier,  372. 
Guido  Rangoni,  422. 
Guilds  and  Jews,  225. 
Guinani,  Cardinal,  422. 
Gunpowder,  Jews  manufacture,  233. 
Guttmann,  J.,  quoted,  406. 
Gymnasia,  375,  379. 

Habdala,  154. 

Habus  (King),  and  Samuel  the  Nagid, 
361. 


//.     General  Index. 


443 


Haeser,  H.,  quoted,  333. 

Hagada,  see  Passover. 

Hai  Gaon,  55,  100,  415. 

Hair,     covering     by     women,     281  ; 

Heaven-lock,  283;  powdering  hair, 

289. 
Halle,  Judendorf  at,  62. 
Haman,  effigy  of,  378. 
Hamburg,  Jewish  cemetery  at  Altona, 

78. 
Hamnuna,  H.,  Rabbi,  333. 
Handicrafts,  217,  220. 
Hands,  kissing,  125;  washing,  130; 

dyeing,  193. 
Harkavy,  A.,  quoted,  90,  166,  183. 
Hatch,  E.,  quoted,  23,  97. 
Head,  covering  in  prayer,  278. 
Hebrew,    knowledge    of,     18,    267 ; 

ignorance  of,  358;  praying  in,  344; 

education  in,  365. 
Heidelberg,  taxation  at,  42  ;  property 

of  Jews   given  to  University,    73 ; 

cemetery  in,  77. 
Hellenism,  113,  194,  207,  266. 
Henry  II  of  England,  51,  78,  242. 
Henry  de  Trastamara,  3. 
Hereford,    Christians  attend    Jewish 

wedding,  427. 
Heresy  in  the  Church  and  the  Jews, 

400,  401. 
Herod,  96,  375,  390. 
Herzfeld,  L.,  quoted,  240. 
Hillel,  198. 

Hispano-Jewish  culture,  365. 
Hoffmann,  D.,  quoted,  329,  415. 
Holland,  Jews  of,  222,  268  seq. 
Holtzmann,  O.,  quoted,  54. 
'  Holy  Cross  Day,'  418. 
Holy  Land,  loi ;  contributions  raised 

for  Jews  of,  46,  322,  327  seq. 

*  Holy  Leagues '  for  burial,  333. 
Holzschuhe,  289. 

Home,  chs.  vii  and  viii ;  Jewish  love  of, 
84  ;  religion  in,  127  ;  feasts  in,  140; 
discipline  in,  153;  narrowing  of 
horizon,  160;  collections  for  poor, 
318. 

Honein,  quoted,  366. 

Honiger,  R.,  quoted,  63,  &c.,  333. 

Honouring  parents,  123. 

Hortus  Jicdeorum,  77. 

*  Hospice,'  see  Hostelries. 
Hospitality,  141  seq. 
Hostelries,  74,  311,  314. 


'  House  of  Life,'  =  cemetery,  77. 
Houses  of  Jews,  147  seq. 
Huna,  Rabbi,  142,  279, 
Hungary,  officials'  salary,  48. 
Hunting,  375,  376. 
Husbands  and  wives,  87  seq. 
Hussites  and  Jews,  Introduction,  402. 
Hymns,  ii,  14,  133,  188,  255,  346. 

Ibn  Alfange,  361. 

Ibn  el  Maduwwer,  361. 

Ibn   Tumart  and   the   Mohammedan 

Unitarians,  413. 
Ibrahim  (Sultan),  254. 
Ihering,  R.  von,  quoted,  148. 
Illuminated  MSS.,  220,  286. 
Imitation  in  fashions,  280. 
Immanuel  of  Rome,  and  Dante,  401. 
Immigrants,  taxes  on,  45. 
Informers,  severe  measures  against,  49. 
Ingram,  J.  K.,  quoted,  99. 
Inns,  74,  311,  314. 
Inquisition   and  the  Jews,  161,   226, 

305,363,401.  408,417- 

Intellectual  pastimes,  375. 

Intelligencers,  Jews  as,  231-2. 

Intercourse  between  various  communi- 
ties, 4,  76. 

Interest  on  loans,  237  seq. 

Intermarriage  between  sects,  201. 

Intermediaries  in  commerce,  Jews  as, 
ch.  xi  (beginning). 

International  commerce,  212  seq. 

Invalids,  rarity  of,  316. 

Iron-workers,  Jewish,  227  seq. 

Isaac  Abarbanel,  336,  415. 

Isaac  b.  Eliakim  (1620),  quoted,  132. 

Isaac  Bonastruc,  37. 

Isaac  Zarfati,  quoted,  293. 

Isaiah  b.  Elijah  Trani  (13th  cent.), 
388. 

Isaiah  Horwitz  and  his  guests,  144. 

Islam  and  Judaism,  413. 

Israel  Ohab,  394. 

Italy,  departures  announced,  10 ; 
synagogal  elections.  53  ;  Lex  Cha- 
zaka,  69  ;  immorality,  94 ;  slavery, 
98 ;  tolerance  towards  Jews,  105, 
400,  401,  419,  422;  bigamy  in 
S.  Italy,  118;  sumptuary  laws,  145, 
181;  portraits,  147;  trades,  211 
seq.,  220;  printing,  222;  costume, 
284,  294 ;  badge  in,  293,  300 ; 
ransoming  of  captives,  337  ;  educa- 


444 


//.     General  Index, 


tion,  358  seq.,  372  ;  Italian,  written 
by  Jews,  362  ;  Italian  drama,  363  ; 
Italian  Bible,  364;  amusements,  378. 
Itinerant  preachers,  4 ;  mendicants, 
309- 

Jacob  Loans,  421. 

Jacob  Margolis,  171. 

Jacobs,  Joseph,  quoted,  passim. 

Jafuda  Cresques,  232. 

Jahrzeit,  140. 

Janach,  the  grammarian,  366. 

Jargons  spoken  by  Jews,  21,  135,  261, 

359.  397- 

Jayme  III,  king,  231. 

Jeremiah  of  Diphte,  278. 

Jerome,  371,  375'  403- 

Jerome  of  Santa  Fe,  418. 

Jerucham  R.,  quoted,  415. 

Jerucham  b.  Meshullam  (i6th  cent.), 
quoted,  184. 

Jerusalem,  visited  by  Benjamin  of 
Tudela,  212;  condition  in  13th 
century,  219;  'Mourners  of  Zion,' 
293;  charities  for,  317  {see  Holy 
Land)  ;  Nachmanides  in,  219,  417. 

Jester,  see  Badchan  and  Marsh allik. 

Jesuits,  403. 

Jesus,  attitude  of  Jews  towards,  41 3  seq. 

Jewess  and  the  stage,  257. 

Jewish-German  jargon,  261. 

Jewish-Spanish  jargon,  359. 

Jews  and  Christians,  moral  relations, 
106  seq. ;  against  cheating  a  Chris- 
tian, ibid. ;  usury,  238  ;  distinction 
in  dress,  283 ;  imitation,  284 ; 
intellectual  intercourse,  363 ;  com- 
mon amusements,  395,  398  ;  literary 
friendships,  ch.  xxiv ;  friendly  rela- 
tions, 421. 

Jezreel,  218. 

Job,  book  of,  266. 

Jochanan  Aleman,  teaches  Pico  di 
Mirandola,  421. 

Joel  Shamariah,  quoted,  319. 

John  of  Capistrano,  409. 

John  II  of  Portugal,  378. 

Jonah,  book  of,  345. 

Jones,  W.,  quoted,  181,  183. 

Joseph  Albo  (15th  cent.),  415. 

Joseph  b.  Jehuda  Aknin,  365. 

Josephus,  Flavins,  quoted,  2,  96,  292, 

333,  375- 
Joy,  tokens  of,  293. 


Juceff  Faquin,  navigator,  231. 

Judah  b.  Ilai,  390. 

Judah  Chassid,  290. 

Judah  Hadassi,  416. 

Judah  Hanasi,  140. 

/udendo7'f,  62. 

Judengasse,  64,  68. 

Jndenhut^  298. 

Judenstadt,  63. 

Judith,  book  of,  152. 

Julius  Caesar  and  Jews,  232,  242. 

Jurisdiction,  independent,  49. 

Jtis  Casaca,  see  Tenant  Right. 

Jus  primae  nodis,  197. 

Kaddisk,  155. 

Kaempf,  S.,  quoted,  164. 

Kaftan  (a  garment),  282. 

Kahira  =  Cairo,  235,  317. 

Kahn,  L.,  quoted,  28,  51,  74,  94. 

Kairowan,  213. 

Kalila  ve-Dimna,  419. 

Kalonymos  b.  Kalonymos,  419. 

Karaites,  the  Sabbath,  157;  inter- 
marriage with  Rabbanites,  202 ; 
their  wedding  ceremony,  206  ;  study 
of  grammar,  358 ;  Judah  Hadassi, 
416. 

Kasmune,  the  poetess,  361. 

Katzenellenbogen,  S.  J.,  quoted,  281. 

Kaufmann,  D.,  quoted,  49,  &c.,  133, 
&c.,  428. 

Kayserling,  M.,  quoted,  47,  &c.,  77, 
&c.,  342. 

Kethicba,  207. 

Kiddush  in  synagogue,  33. 

Kimchi,  366. 

Kissing,  92,  124. 

Knas-Mahl,  177. 

Knights,  English  Jews  as,  37S ; 
knightly  exercises,  233. 

Kohut,  G.,  quoted,  214. 

Krauss,  S.,  quoted,  28. 

Kupah  (poor  relief),  312,  315,  325. 

Labbe,  P.,  quoted,  296. 
Labour,  dignity  of,  228. 
Ladino  (Hebrew-Spanish),  359. 
La  Lumia,  I.,  quoted,  228. 
Lamb  in  wedding  ceremony,  195. 
Lambert,  M.,  quoted,  351. 
Lamps,  146,  147. 
Lancaster,  Captain  James,  232. 
Landsberger,  J.,  quoted,  184. 


//.     General  Index. 


445 


Langlois,  C.  V.,  quoted,  301. 
Lateran  Council  and  the  Badge,  296. 
Latin  language,  79,  360,  363,  371. 
Law,  *  calling  to,'  11,  123,  280,  317; 

study  of,  313. 
Lazarus  de  Viterbo,  423. 
Leap-frog  (game),  380. 
Lecky,  W.  E.,  quoted,  94,  &c.,  114. 
Lee,  Sidney,  quoted,  227,  258. 
Leghorn,  283. 
Lemberg,  60,  172. 
Leo  de  Modena,  322,  360. 
Leo  Romano,  419. 
Leonore,  Queen  of  Navarre,  254. 
Leopold  of  Austria,  264. 
Leprosy  in  middle  ages,  332. 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  A.,  quoted,  231,  302. 
Lessing,  259. 
Levant,  bigamy  in,   118;  trade  with, 

212  seq.,  245  ;  costume  in,  301. 
Levites,  80. 
Leviticus,  study  of  Bible  begun  with, 

351- 
Levy,  Amy,  quoted,  188. 
Levy,  J.,  quoted,  388. 
Lindo,  E.  H.,  quoted,  4,  8,  &c. 
Linsey-woolsey,  273. 
Linz,  218,  421. 
Lion,  as  Jewish  emblem,  28. 
Lion  tamers,  Jewish,  233,  254. 
Lisbon,  prisoners  at,  336. 
Literary  friendships  between  Jews  and 

Christians,  ch.  xxiv. 
Litte  of  Regensburg,  362. 
Liturgy,  see  Hymns,  11,  345. 
Loans,  Jacob,  423. 
Loeb,  I.,  quoted,  240,  249,  338. 
Logic,  365  seq. 
Lombardy,  213. 

London,  77,  223,  347.     See  England. 
Loria,  family,  152,  280,  344. 
Louis  VII,  399,  404. 
Love  and  courtship,  86,  ch.  ix ;  love 

songs,  188,  361. 
Low,  L.,  quoted,  passim. 
Lowenstein,  L.,   quoted,  48,   73,  77, 

216. 
Low  Worms,  263. 
Loyola,  402. 
Lucas,  Mrs.  H.,  Songs  of  Zion,  quoted. 

Introduction. 
Lucca,  220. 

Ludlow,  J.  M.,  quoted,  118. 
Luepschuetz,  L,  quoted,  159. 


Luther  and  the  Jews,  266,  403. 
Luxury,  145,  277,  290. 
Lyons,  silver  industry,   221 ;  market- 
day  on  Sunday,  425. 

Maccabean  tombs,  81. 
Madeira,  sugar  plantations,  214. 
Madox,  T.,  quoted,  42. 
7^/(2^/^  (preacher),  21,  292. 
Magnus,  K.,  quoted,  188. 
Mahommedan    lands,   Jews    in,    loi, 

103,  118,  121,  279,  283,  287,  301. 
Maimon,  351. 
Maimonides,  on  manual  labour,  229; 

as  physician,  235  ;  on  Christianity, 

413,  422.    See  Responsa. 
Majorca,  Jews  have  separate  prisons, 

51;    ghetto,    65;    immorality,  94; 

cloth  manufacture  forbidden,  223  ; 

shaving,    283;    Jews   forbidden   to 

carry  arms,  378. 
Malaria,  in  Rome,  332. 
Mallorca,  231. 
Manasseh  b.  Israel,  270. 
Manfrin,  P.,  quoted,  242. 
Mantua,  communal  organization,  69  ; 

tombs   desecrated,   78 ;    sumptuary 

laws,  293-5  ;  charities,  328. 
Manufactures,  223  seq. 
'Map-Jew,'  232. 
Marelle  (game),  393. 
Marlowe,  257. 

Marranos,  267,  317,  403,  411,  417. 
Marriage,  chs.  ix  and  x  ;  hall  for,  74; 

early  marriage,  90,  167;  contract  in 

Africa,    120;    marriage   by  proxy, 

176  ;  customs,  186  seq.  ;  *  marriages 

are  made  in  heaven,'  200. 
Marsala,  54. 

Marseilles,  trade,  213;  badge,  299. 
Marshallik,  132,  198, 
Martineau,  R.,  quoted,  266. 
Martyr's  widow  did  not  re-marry,  14. 
Masson,  D.,  quoted,  396. 
Match-makers,     170  seq.     See  Shad- 

chan. 
Mathematics,  study  of,  368. 
Matsoth,  127,  151,  312. 
Matthew  Paris,  quoted,  103,  411. 
May,  marriages  in,  184. 
Maybaum,  S.,  quoted,  20. 
Mayence,  union  of  congregations,  39  ; 

marriage  at,  described,  203  ;    trade 

at,  216;  Sabbath  amusements,  381. 


446 


//.      General  Index. 


Mazaltob,  i8i. 

Meals,  in  synagogue,  33  ;  table  hymns, 
133;  commandment  meals,  141; 
etiquette  at,  142 ;  opening  door 
during,  ibid.',  hours  of,  150;  wed- 
ding banquet,  198. 

Medicine,  Jews  and,  Introduction,  234 
seq.,  365,  366. 

Mediterranean,  213,  215,  376.  See 
Levant. 

Meien  (ceremony),  204. 

Meir  Halevi,  of  Vienna,  9. 

Meldola,  R.,  quoted,  345. 

Mendesia,  Donna  Gracia,  54. 

Messianic  hopes,  5,  134,  168. 

Metal  manufactures,  226. 

Metaphysics,  study  of,  368. 

Metz,  strangers  and  the  taxes,  45  ; 
veils  in  synagogue,  92,  282  ;  sump- 
tuary laws,  145,  159,  295;  plays  at, 
264. 

Mezuzah,  328. 

Michael  Scotus,  419. 

Middle  Ages,  Jewish,  Introduction,  i, 

340- 
Midrash,  influence  of,  on  Jewish  poetry, 

270,  271. 
Mikveh,  73. 

Milton  and  Vondel,  269,  396. 
Minkagim,  36. 
Mining,  226. 

Minnesinger,  Jewish,  361. 
Minyan,  57,  199,  219,  327  ;  Minyan- 

men,  57  n, 
Miriam  Schapira,  343. 
Mishnah,  study  of,  351  ;  intoned,  355. 
Mitsvoth,  22  seq. 
Modena,  organization  at,  69. 
Mohel,  234. 

Mommsen,  Th.,  quoted,  242. 
Money-lending,   how   the   trade   was 

developed,   225,  236-240;    Jewish 

and  Christian  financiers,  103,  243. 
Monogamy,  71,  ch.  vii. 
Montefiore,  C.  G.,  quoted,  309  seq. 
Monti  di  Pieta,  237. 
Montpellier,  a  trade-centre,  213. 
Moors  and  Jews,  66,  305. 
Morality,  chs.  v  and  vi. 
Morenu  (title),  356. 
Moses  ben  Chanoch,  335. 
Moses  b.  Israel  Isserles,  quoted,  280. 
Moses  b.  S.,  Sofer,  quoted,  204,  377. 
Moses  de  Castro,  393. 


Moses  de  Leon  (13th  cent.),  147. 

Moses  Kapsali,  337. 

Moses  Mendelssohn,  21,  259. 

Moses  Rimos,  232. 

Mothers  and  children,  32,  133,  344- 

347- 

'  Mourners  of  Zion,'  293. 

Mourning  rites,  12,  187,  293,  334. 

MSS.,  illuminated,  221,  2 86. 

Munk,  S.,  quoted,  229,  236. 

Music,  in  synagogue,  31  ;  Jewish 
musicians,  197  ;  music  on  Sabbath, 
^97?  374;  prohibition  of  music, 
253;  studied  at  school,  365,  366; 
Christian  musicians  employed  by 
Jews,  197,  427;  songs,  137,    163, 

384- 
Myers,  I.,  quoted,  137. 
Mysticism,  44,  86,  152,  367,  420,  422. 

Nagid,  39. 

Nantes,  Jewish  sdn^chal  at,  65. 
Narbonne,  trade  centre,  213. 
Nathan  b.  Yechiel  (d.  1106),  quoted, 

146. 
Natronai,  Gaon,  170,357. 
Natural  science,  studied,  365. 
Nautical  tables,  231. 
Neubauer,  A.,  quoted,  416,  &c. 
New  Year  festival,  151,  292,  319,  396. 
Nice,  Jewish  badge  at,  300;  vernacular 

prayers,  347. 
Nicene  Canons,  118. 
Nieto,  Isaac,  quoted,  347. 
Nilus  and  his  Jewish  friends,  419. 
Nissim  Gerondi,  120,  334,  346. 
Nissuiji,  193. 
Norwich,  75. 
Nowack,  W.,  quoted,  172,  194,  376, 

380. 
Nuts,  games  with,  379. 

Oaths,  107. 

Obadiah  Sforno,  420,  423. 

Occupations,  chs.  xi,  xli ;  lists  of,  245 

seq. 
Odd  or  even  (game),  391. 
Odes  at  wedding,  196. 
Offerings     in     synagogue,     22,    209, 

316,  317- 
Officials  of  synagogue,  35  seq.,  55,  65, 

145- 
Olive-presses,  225. 
Organization,  chs.    iii  and   iv;   local 


//.     General  Index. 


447 


freedom,  39  ;  grouping  of  congre- 
gations, 38)  39.  42-  -S'^^  Tekanoth, 
Charity,  Sumptuary  laws,  &c. 

Orient,  Jews  of,  24,  190,  213,  214, 
222,  245,  262,  290,  293. 

Ornaments,  in  home,  147  ;  rings,  182 ; 
amulets,  289;  sumptuary  laws,  295. 

Orphans,  provision  for,  310. 

Ostentation  of  Jews,  293,  294. 

Oven  for  communal  use,  72. 

Overseer  for  Poor  Relief,  315. 

Oxford,  deacon  burnt  for  apostasy  to 
Judaism,  411. 

Pablo  Christiani,  416. 

Padua,  Jews  teach  Christian  students 
at,  421. 

Pageants,  262. 

Paintings  in  synagogue,  27  ;  on  walls 
of  houses,  146;  portraits,  147. 

Palermo  elections  in  May,  54. 

Palestine,  reading  law  in,  18  ;  pil- 
grimages to,  4 ;  in  the  12th  century, 
211,  ?12;  in  the  13th,  219;  cloth 
imported  to,  223  ;  burials  in,  333  ; 
contributions  for,  322;  schools  in, 
351  ;     wedding    ring    early    used, 

183.         ^ 

Palm  branch,  79. 

Paltiel,  R.,  317- 

Pamplona,  jugglers  at,  254. 

Parents  and  children,  32, 123  seq.,  344- 

Paris,  Jews  of,  51,  74»  299- 

Farnass,  35.  54.  3o8,  328. 

ParnessessUy  in  Rome,  54. 

Parodies  of  prayers,  383. 

Partnerships  between  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians, 424. 

Pasdida,  151. 

Passover,  feast  of,  102,  no,  146, 
154.  155.  159.  215.  327.  344.  345. 
353.  384,  396. 

Pastimes,  chs.  xxi,  xxn. 

Pearson,  K.,  quoted,  229. 

Peddlers,  231. 

Pedro  of  Castile,  3. 

Penalty  feast,  177. 

Pentateuch  taught,  351,  350. 

Pentecost,  feast  of,  29,  154,  327.  345. 

348- 
Perez  of  Corbeil,  169. 
Perles,  J.,  quoted,  193. 
Perpignan,  societies  at,  324. 
Persia,   wedding  customs,   195;  Ben- 


jamin of  Tudela,  211,  212  ;  olive- 
presses  owned  by  Jews,  225;  gar- 
deners, ibid. ;  occupations  in,  245  ; 
Jews  insulted,  255. 

Personal  relations  between  Jews  and 
Christians,  chs.  xxiii  and  xxiv. 

Pestilence,  332. 

Peter  of  Clugny,  404. 

Pets,  domestic,  128,  377. 

Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  201. 

Philanthropic  societies,  321. 

Philippe  le  Bel,  300,  301. 

Philip  of  Hesse,  117. 

Philipson,  D.,  quoted,  63,  &c. 

Philo,  quoted,  3,  257. 

Philosophy,  study  of,  365,  369. 

Phylacteries,  205,  274. 

'Pickle-herring,'  in  drama,  264. 

Pico  de  Mirandola,  421, 

Pidyon  Haben,\M. 

Pirate,  Jewish,  233. 

Pisa,  213,  337. 

P let  ten,  142. 

Poetry,  poems  on  love,  163;  poetry 
studied,  365  ;  poems  against  gam- 
bling, 397  ;  on  chess,  390.  See  also 
Hymns. 

Poland,  Jews  of,  48,  151,  214,  402, 

403- 
Poll-tax,  39,  41  ;  abolished,  48. 
Poor  relief,  chs.  xvii  and  xviii. 
Popes  and  the  Jews,  400,  428. 
Benedict  XIH,  418. 
Boniface,  36. 
Clement  Vn,  422. 
Clement  Vni,  69,  71. 
Gelasius,  98. 
Gregory  the  Great,  97. 
Innocent  HI,  286,  296  seq.,  305, 

400  seq.,  424. 
Innocent  IV,  300. 
Nicholas,  184. 
Paul  IV,  63,  306. 
Sextus  V,  46. 
Popper,  M.,  quoted,  30,  &c. 
Portraits,  147,  207. 
Portugal,  Fleet-tax,  46;    trade,  213; 
Portuguese   Jews   transplant   sugar 
in  Brazil,  214  ;  expulsion  from,  331  ; 
captives  in,  336  ;  Jewish  writers  in 
Portuguese,  362  ;    Jewish  cavaliers 
in  Portugal,  378. 
Postmen,  76,  424. 
Prague,  ghetto  at,  63-65;    emblems 


448 


//.     General  Index. 


on  tombs,  80 ;  Gatinz  of  Prague, 
227  ;  occupations  of  Jews,  248  ; 
charity    at,    312;     bear   arms,    64, 

378.         ^ 
Prayer,  see  Synagogue. 
Precentor,  209,  255.    See  also  Chazan, 
Prince  of  the  captivity,  39,  229,  287, 

343- 
Printing,  69,  221. 
<  Prisoner's  base  '  (game),  379. 
Prisons,  51. 

Procession,  bridal,  192  seq. 
Proselytism,  59,  410,  411. 
Protestants  and  Jews,  362,  403. 
Provence,  Jews  of,  353,  369,  371,  372, 

376. 

Proxy,  marriage  by,  170- 

Prynne,  273. 

Puns,  385. 

Pupil  teachers,  employed,  349. 

Purim,  amusements  in  synagogue,  33, 
262  ;  drunkenness  on,  103,  382 ; 
gifts  to  non-Jews,  159;  plays  per- 
formed on,  197,  and  ch.  xiv  ;  buf- 
fooneries on,  273  ;  charity  on,  313, 
317;  Book  of  Esther  in  Spanish, 
345;  parodies,  383;  card-playing 
on,  396. 

Puritans,  25,  261,  313. 

Puzzles,  381. 

Rabbi,  holds  private  worship,  19; 
Rabbi  and  Bishop  compared,  36 ; 
Rabbinical  influence,  37  ;  Rabbi  and 
State,  40  ;  election  of,  44  ;  salary  of, 
45  ;  independence  of  local  Rabbis, 
70;  marriage  of  Rabbi,  91,  131; 
Rabbi  at  wedding,  205  ;  occupations 
of  Rabbi,  228,  234;  costume  of, 
288  ;  not  a  '  parish  worker,'  330 ; 
Rabbinical  diploma,  356  ;  culture 
of  French  Rabbis,  367. 

Rabbi  (game),  383. 

Rabbinovicz,  R.,  quoted,  334. 

Rabina,  278. 

Races,  256,  379- 

Racine's  '  Esther,'  266. 

Rashdall,  H.,  quoted,  Introduction. 

Rashi,  216. 

Raymond  of  Toulouse,  402. 

Reading,  350,  365. 

Reclining  at  table,  142. 

Recreations,  chs.  xxi,  xxii. 

Reformation  and  Jews,  160,  400,  402. 


Regensburg,  149,  213,  332,  362. 

Reggio,  69,  220. 

Rejoicing  of  the  Law,  festival  of,  28, 
32,  103,  262. 

Relics,  217. 

Remy,  Nahida,  quoted,  6,  147,  342. 

Renaissance,  Jews  unaffected  by,  160, 
340,  371*372,  420. 

Renan,  E.,  quoted,  354,  &c. 

Retail  trade,  225  seq. 

Reuchlin  and  Jews,  420,  421. 

Revenues,  Jewish  contributions  to,  42, 

Rhinelands,  44,  48,  150,  202,  397, 
404. 

Rhodes,  211. 

Rhyming,  353. 

Richard  I,  of  England,  399. 

Richelieu  and  Gomez,  363. 

Riddles,  132,  384. 

Riding,  376. 

Rieger,  P.,  quoted,  63,  &c.,  326. 

Rings,  engagement  rings,  180;  be- 
trothal, 181;  wedding,  183;  orna- 
mental, 207. 

Ritual   murder  myth,   loi,  102,   257, 

403- 

Robert  of  Anjou,  419. 

Robert,  Ulysse,  quoted,  296,  &c. 

Romagna,  69. 

Romances,  Jewish  fondness  for,  361, 
386. 

Romanelli's  Hebrew  dramas,  420. 

Rome,  trophy  in  front  of  synagogue, 
3  ;  crying  stolen  goods,  8  ;  taxes 
on  Jews,  46  ;  the  ghetto,  62  seq. ; 
communal  organization,  69-71  ; 
Clement  VIIT  and  the  Jus  casaca, 
71;  Roman  tombs,  78  seq.,  182; 
love-making  at,  92  ;  money-lending, 
102  ;  Roman  superstitions,  184  seq.; 
intermarriage  with  strangers  for- 
bidden, 202  ;  Benjamin  of  Tudela 
at,  212  ;  cloth  trade,  223,  224;  occu- 
pations in,  245 ;  carnival  sports, 
256 ;  charitable  societies  in,  326 
seq. ;  malaria  in  ghetto,  332  ; 
black  death  at,  333 ;  Roman  Jews 
refuse  to  succour  poor  immigrants, 
337  ;  friendliness  between  Jews  and 
Christians  in  Rome,  400  seq. 

Rosenbaum,  A.,  quoted,  147. 

Rosenthal,  quoted,  242. 

Rudolph,  monk,  404,  405. 

Russia,  48. 


//.      General  Index. 


449 


Saadya,  358. 
Sabatier,  quoted,  94, 
Sabbatai,  Zevi,  168. 
Sabbath,  wedding  hymns  on,  11,  209, 
345 ;  how  the  Sabbath  was  spent, 
12,  24,  76,  83,  197,  373  ;  Sabbath 
in  prison,  51  ;  announcement  of 
Sabbath,  56;  dancing  on,  76,  381  ; 
Sabbath  and  fire,  S3 ;  slaves  and 
servants  on,  100,  157  seq.  ;  Sabbath 
profits,  no.  III,  225  ;  milking  the 
cows,  128;  feeding  birds,  129; 
Kiddiish,  130,  146;  Friday  night, 
^33;  146;  Sabbath  afternoon,  I4I  ; 
Sabbath  light,  33,  147,  150,  154, 
328;  Sabbath ^i9j/,  158,427  ;  music 
on,  197  ;  study  and  discourses  on, 
236,  327,  344  {see  Sermons) ;  cos- 
tume on,  285,  288,  289,  291  ;  charity 
for,  323,  325  ;  chess  played  on 
Sabbath,  388,  389. 

Sablonuth,  179. 

Sailors,  Jewish,  23 £. 

St.  George,  dyer  at,  218. 

Sale  of  Joseph  (drama),  263, 

Salluste  du  Bartas,  271. 

Salonica,  218,  284. 

Salutation,  methods  of,  124  seq. 

Samech  and Pe  (game),  382, 

Samson  of  Sens,  368. 

Samuel  Alfarqui,  254. 

Samuel  b.  Ali  of  Bagdad,  343. 

Samuel  Ibn  Tibbon,  235. 

Samuel  the  Nagid,  361. 

Samuel  Usque,  363. 

Sancho  II,  46. 

Sandalphon,  the  boy  angel,  387. 

Santob  de  Carrion,  3,  362. 

San  Martino,  charities  in,  328. 

Sarabal,  17,  204.  288. 

Saragossa,  211,  345. 

Sargenes,  18,  23,  204,  292. 

Satires  on  women,  164. 

Schalet,  72,  150. 

Schechter,S., quoted,  32,  &c.,  114, 285. 

Scheid,  quoted,  296. 

Schttorrer,  see  Beggar. 

Scholasticism  and  Judaism,  406. 

Schools,  33,  chs.  xix  and  xx. 

Schudt,  J.,  quoted,  9,  &c. 

Schtde  =  syn2igog\xQ,  33. 

Schulklopfer,  9,  56,  58,  397. 

Schulfzjude,  76. 

Schurer,  E.  quoted,  32,  54. 


Scott,  Sir  W.,  258. 

Scriptures  taught,  357. 

Selicha  (prayer),  21. 

Sephardic  Jews,  202,  208.    See  Spain. 

Sepulchres,  family,  81. 

Serain,  Jewish  dyer  at,  218. 

Sermons  in  vernacular,  20 ;  Maggi- 
dim,  q.v. ;  in  church,  46,  418. 

Serraglio  delli  hebrei,  63. 

Servants,  157  seq.,  402,407.    ^^i?  Gov. 

Seville,  64,  305,  363. 

Sexes,  separation  of,  in  synagogue,  25  ; 
in  amusements,  91,  380;  in  court- 
ship, 179;  iu  costume,  274. 

Sextons,  81. 

Shadchan,  170  seq, 

Shalent,  see  Schalet. 

Shamash  (Beadle),  8,  44,  55,  145. 

Shammai,  R.,  198. 

Shaving,  2S3. 

Shetna,  279. 

Shiddtuhin,  176. 

Shochet,  72,  234. 

Shoes,  17,  205,  289.  292. 

Shofar  (ram's  horn),  sounded  in  ex- 
communication ceremony,  52;  for 
announcing  Sabbath,  56 ;  for  an- 
nouncing deaths,  333. 

Shoshbinuth,  180. 

Shrouds,  see  Sargenes. 
Shylock,  259. 

Sicily,  ghetto   in,  62  ;    Jewish  dyers, 
219;  silk  manufacture,  220;  metal 
industry,  227  seq. 
Sick,  treatment  of,  324  seq. 
Sigismund  I  of  Poland,  39. 
Simmons,  L.  M.,  quoted,  414. 
Silk  manufacture,  218,  220. 
Silversmiths,  221. 
Simeon  b.  Gamaliel,  260. 
Simlai,  Rabbi,  289. 
Sinai  Cake,  151. 
Singing,  at  worship,  31,  253  ;  at  study, 

355.     See  Music. 
Siyum,  144. 
Skittles  (game),  379. 
Slavery,  95  seq. 
Slave  trade,  97  seq. 
Smith,  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.,  quoted, 

107,  253. 
Smolenski,  P.,  quoted,  57. 
Smyrna,  53,  284,  324. 
Societies,  benevolent,  324  seq. 
Sofer,  or  Scribe,  45. 


Gg 


4  so 


//.     General  Index. 


Sofia,  shops  shut  on  occasion  of  death, 

334- 

Soldiers,  Jewish,  231-233. 

Solomon  (King),  240,  370,  386. 

Solomon  Benoliel,  251. 

Solomon  and  Marconi,  386. 

Solomon  b.  J.  Amarillo,  quoted,  174. 

Song  of  Solomon,  163,  266. 

Songs,  see  Hymns,  Music. 

Spain,  Castilian  code  of  121 2,  8; 
taxation  in,  47  ;  capital  punishment 
inflicted  by  Jews,  50  ;  prisons,  51 ; 
synagogue  officials,  54;  Juderias, 
64  seq.  ;  Jews'  Inn,  74 ;  expulsion 
in  1492,  85,  306,  331  ;  Jews  and 
Christians,  94,  400  seq. ;  slave-trade, 
98  ;  usury  rare,  102  ;  bigamy  under 
Islamic  influence,  118;  houses  of 
Jews,  148;  marriage  customs,  185, 
193,  &c.  ;  printing,  222  ;  occupa- 
tions of  Jews,  223  seq.,  231  seq., 
241,  247  ;  Spanish  dramas  written 
by  Jews,  266,  362  ;  costume,  284 
seq. ;  luxury  in  dress,  293 ;  the 
badge,  300  seq. ;  captives,  336  ; 
Spanish  language,  345,  362;  in 
prayer,  347,  362  ;  culture  of  Spanish 
Jews,  353  seq.  ;  Tourney,  376  ; 
public  religious  controversies,  417 
seq. ;  Marranos,  267,  411. 

Speyer,  39. 

Spinhoh,  144,  205. 

Spinoza,  229,  267. 

Steinschneider,  J.,  quoted,  363. 

Steinschneider,  M.,  quoted,  388,  &c. 

Stobbe,  O.,  quoted,  65,  &c.,  68,  95. 

Stolen  goods,  104. 

Stone  houses,  148. 

Strack,  H.,  quoted,  102. 

Strassburger,  B.,  quoted,  341. 

Students,  free  from  taxes,  48 ;  travel- 
ling, 141  ;  dress  of,  288.  See  also 
Bachur. 

Sugar  industry,  214. 

Sumatra,  232. 

Sumptuary  laws,  145,  i8r,  277,  291, 

294,  295. 
Superstition,  152  seq.,  184,   185,  203, 

367- 
Susskind  of  Trimberg,  361. 
Swaying  in  prayer,  352. 
Swinfield,  Bishop,  427. 
Switzerland,  298. 
Symbols,  Jewish,  79  seq. 


Synagogue,  centre  of  social  life,  chs.  i 
and  ii ;  service  interrupted  for  re- 
dress of  grievances,  7  ;  announce- 
ments of  quittances  of  debts,  &c., 
8  seq. ;  decorum  in,  15  seq. ;  dress 
for,  15  ;  praying  with  bare  feet,  17; 
praying  aloud,  19;  late  arrival  at, 
ibid. ;  sale  of  mitsvoth,  22 ;  the 
courtyard,  24;  children  in,  ibid. 
and  31  seq.  ;  separation  of  sexes, 
25;  ornaments  in,  26  seq. ;  height 
of,  26 ;  proximity  to  churches,  27  ; 
Orientation  of,  ibid. ;  the  perpetual 
lamp,  28 ;  shape  of  synagogues, 
29 ;  music,  31  ;  synagogue  and 
school,  33  ;  election  of  officials,  53  ; 
summoning  to  prayer,  55,  56  ;  wed- 
ding songs,  II  seq.,  164,  192  ; 
prayer  against  theatre,  252  ;  covering 
the  head  in  prayer,  278 ;  merry- 
makings on  Purim,  and  Rejoicing 
the  Law,  362  ;  synagogue  and 
charity,  317,  323,  328;  swaying  at 
prayer,   352 ;    service  on   festivals, 

374- 
Synhedrin,  at  Paris,  249. 
Synods,  37,  41,  122. 
Syria,  211,  212,  219,  257,  295,  375. 

Tabernacles,  feast  of,   53,  128,  151, 

225,  260,  327,  353,  390. 
Table,  discourses,  132,  198  ;  hymns, 

133;  decorations,  145;  riddles,  386. 
Tables  of  stone  (badge),  297. 
Tacitus,  quoted,  86,  375. 
Tailoring,  224. 
Tallage,  41,  42. 
Tallith,  in  wedding  ceremony,   205, 

209. 
Talmid  Ckacham,  275.    See  Bachur. 
Talmud,  study  of,  351,  365  seq.,  386; 

burnt,  408,  416. 
Tanuhui,  311  seq.,  325. 
Tanchum,  R.,  312. 
Tangiers,  336. 
Tanzhaus,  75. 
Taranto,  217. 
Targum,  quoted,  152,  278. 
Taxes,  40  seq. 
Teachers,  349  seq. 
Tee-to-tum  (game),  391. 
Tekanah,  45,  57  seq. 
Temperance  of  Jews,  87,  102. 
Temple,  its  social  functions,  2. 


//.     General  Index. 


451 


Tenant  right,  62  seq. 
Tendeur,  350. 
Tennis  fgame),  379. 
Ten  Tribes,  233. 
Tertullian,  281. 
Theatre,  ch.  xiii. 
Theodosius,  365. 
Theology  and  philosophy,  369. 
Tiber,  overflowing  of,  332. 
Ticknor,  G.,  quoted,  362. 
Tignta  Judaeorum  ,219. 
Tithes,  319  seq. 
Titus,  arch  of,  79  ;  Latin,  256. 
Tobacco,  139,  214. 
Tobi,  servant  of  R.  Gamaliel,  158. 
Tobit,  266. 

Toledo,  Jewry  at,  66;  under  Christian 
sway,    305;    Asheri    family,    320, 

358. 

Toleration,  413,  424  seq. 

Tombstones,  78. 

Torquemada,  400, 

Tortosa,  public  dispute  at,  417. 

Tourney,  193,  377,  378. 

Tovey,  D'Blossiers,  quoted,  27,  &c. 

Town  hall  at  Prague,  63. 

Trades,  chs.  xi  and  xii. 

Trail,  H.  D.,  quoted,  243. 

Translations,  of  prayers,  346 ;  of 
scientific  books,  360;  of  Bible,  362 
seq.,  422. 

Travellers,  entertainment  of,  33,  142  ; 
travelling  merchants,  89,  211,  215 
seq.,  234  ;  explorers,  232  ;  costume 
in  travelling,  284,  301  ;  the  Com- 
munal Inn  or  '  Hospice,'  74,  314. 

Trevoux,  221. 

Trier,  62. 

Trinkets,  295. 

Troubadours,  Jewish,  362. 

Trousseau,  276,  326. 

Troyes,  fair  at,  216. 

Tudela,  50,  64,  211, 

Turkey,  printing  in,  222  ;  Spanish 
Jews  find  an  asylum  in,  285,  337  ; 
education  in,  365,  369. 

Tur  Malka,  196. 

Tyre,  glass  manufacture  at,  218. 

Ulrich,  quoted,  298. 
Universities  and  the  Jews,  Introduc- 
tion, 236. 
Unterfiihrer,  180. 
Urania  of  Worms,  26. 


Uriel  Acosta,  7- 
Usury,  103,  237  seq. 

Vaad  Arba  Aratsoth,  38, 

Valladolid,  ordinances  of,  50,  65,  241. 

Vasco  de  Gama,  232. 

Veils,  92,  282. 

Venantius,  quoted,  408. 

Venice,  the  ghetto,  62  ;  organization, 
69;  theatre  at,  251  ;  Deborah  As- 
carelli,  362 ;  card-players  excom- 
municated, 392. 

Vernacular,  79,  266,  269,  344,  346, 
359  seq.,  420. 

Verse  writing,  353. 

Vespasian,  194. 

Vestments,  clerical,  2  88. 

Vienna,  214,  332. 

Vincent  Ferrer,  417. 

Vintage,  Jews  and,  172,  225,  424. 

Vitringa,  quoted,  7. 

Vondel,  Joost  von,  269  seq. 

Vows,  108  ;  against  gambling,  392. 

Wachnacht,  143. 

Wagenseil,  404,  428, 

War,  Jews  and,  233. 

Water-clocks,  220. 

Water-drawing,  Talmudic  feast  of, 
260. 

Weaving,  223. 

Wedding,  house  for,  208 ;  publicly 
celebrated,  199;  festivities  at,  196, 
260,  374,  427;  poems,  199;  de- 
scription of  ceremony,  202  seq. ; 
card-playing  at,  396, 

Weiss,  H.,  quoted,  298. 

Weissenfels,  tourney  at,  378. 

Well  of  St.  Keyne,  203. 

Wesel,  B.,  quoted,  393. 

Wheat  cast  on  bride,  196. 

White,  Andrew  D.,  quoted,  Intro- 
duction. 

White,  colour  of  joy.  292. 

Whole  or  half  {g3.m€),  391. 

Widows,  provision  for,  310,  326. 

Wiesner,  J.,  quoted,  53. 

Wigs,  281. 

Wills,  C.  J.,  quoted,  197,  256. 

Willshire,  W.  H.,  quoted,  396. 

Wilson,  T.,  quoted,  243. 

Wine,  manufacture  of,  224. 

Winternitz,  M.,  quoted,  176,  &c. 

Wire-drawing,  221. 


452 


//.      General  Index. 


Wisdom  of  Solomon,  194. 

Wistinetzki,  J.,  quoted,  201. 

Wives,  treatment  of,  88  seq.,  114,  276. 

Wolf,  G.,  quoted,  378. 

Women,  at  prayer,  25  ;  female  pre- 
centors, 26 ;  enjoy  synagogue 
honours,  54;  treatment  of,  by  hus- 
bands, 88 ;  women  and  their  chil- 
dren, 32,  133,  346  seq.  ;  eulogy  of 
women,  I54seq.,  165;  home  life  of, 
156;  satires  on  women,  164; 
'Woman's  voice,'  253;  costume, 
274  seq.  ;  covering  hair,  281  ; 
societies  of  women,  326  seq. ;  learned 
women,  342  seq.;  holidays,  374; 
games,  379,  388. 

Wool  trade,  222. 


Worms,  Jews  of,  11,  39,  216,  378, 

Wreaths,  194. 

Writing,  342,  351. 

Wulfer,  404. 

Wunsche,  A.,  quoted,  384. 

Yechiel  of  Pisa,  242,  336. 
Yemen  Jews,  192,  206,  211. 
Yeshiba,  368. 

Zachar,  Sabbath,  143. 

Zangwill,  I.,  quoted,  23,  133,  303. 

Zion,  grief  for,  18;  idealized  love  of, 

22  ;  memory  of,  134, 187,  195,  204, 

205>  293.  •' 

Zunz,  L.,  quoted,  passim. 


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