CHAPTER III.

JEWISH SUPERSTITIONS.

THE TALMUD.

THE Talmud, (from the Hebrew lamad, to learn,) is the name given to the

great code of the Jewish civil and canonical law. It is divided, like the
Zendavesta, into two parts, the Mishna and the Gemara; the former being, as it
were, the text, and the latter the commentary and supplement. Of late years
public attention has been exceptionally drawn to it by the writings of the late
Emanuel Deutsch, and it has obtained, as we think, a wholly undeserved amount
of panegyric.

Deutsch, an enthusiast in his attachment to the land and religion of his
forefathers, put it forward as a wondrous treasure, the real value of which had
been wholly overlooked. It contained, he seemed to say, a complete corpus juris;
and, as an encyclopædia of law, should be compared with the corresponding
collections of Roman or of English law, with the Pandects of Justinian and the
Commentaries of Blackstone. Herein lies the excuse for rules that have been
considered unduly subtle, or in other ways offensive to modern taste. But it
contains something more than a body of law; it is also a collection of Jewish
poetry and legend, of Jewish science, and Jewish metaphysical speculation. The
Mishna is a development of the laws contained in the Pentateuch. The members
of the Sanhedrim, who were chiefly concerned in the formation of this law, were
obliged (so argues Deutsch) to be accomplished men. It was necessary that they
should possess some knowledge of physical science, or at least of zoology,
botany, and geography in their then condition. It was necessary also that they
should be good linguists, having some acquaintance with Latin and Greek, as
well as with Aramaic, Syriac, and Hebrew. Disreputable men were kept out, and
all were compelled to be married men and fathers of families. “The origin of the
Talmud,” he says, “is coeval with the return from the Babylonish captivity.” And
though it is the glory of Christianity to have carried into the heart of humanity at