“Section III. Women: of betrothal, marriage, divorce, &c.; also of vows.
“Section IV. Damages: including a great part of the civil and criminal law. It
treats of a law of trades, of buying and selling, and the ordinary monetary
transactions. Further, of the greatest crime known to the law, viz., idolatry. Next
of witnesses, of oaths, of legal punishments, and of the Sanhedrim itself. This
section concludes with the so-called ‘Sentences of the Fathers,’ containing some
of the sublimest ethical dicta known in the history of religious philosophy.
“Section V. Sacred Things: of sacrifices, the first-born, &c.; also of the
measurements of the Temple (Middoth).
“Section VI. Purifications: of the various Levitical and other Hygienic laws, of
impure things and persons, their purification, &c.”[22]
In defence of the Haggadah, with all its incongruities, puerilities, and
absurdities, it is only just to hear what Deutsch, its enthusiastic apostle, has to
say. And first he applies to it the rhyming apology which Bunyan put forward on
behalf of his great allegory,—which, by the way, Mr. Deutsch surely
misrepresents and misunderstands when he speaks of it as Haggadistic:—
“... Wouldst thou divert thyself from melancholy?
Wouldst thou be pleasant, yet be far from folly?
Wouldst thou read riddles and their explanation?
Or else be drownèd in thy contemplation?
Dost thou love picking meat? Or wouldst thou see
A man in the clouds, and hear him speak to thee?
Wouldst thou be in a dream, and yet not sleep?
Or wouldst thou in a moment laugh and weep?
Wouldst lose thyself, and catch no harm?
And find thyself again without a charm?
Wouldst read thyself, and read thou know’st not what
And yet know whether thou art blest or not
By reading the same lines? O then come hither,
And lay this book, thy head and heart together.”Mr. Deutsch thus seeks to disarm antagonists by a skilful concession. He does
not wonder—not he—that the so-called “Rabbinical stories,” submitted at
intervals to the English public, should have met with an unflattering reception.
The Talmud, which has always at hand a drastic word, says of their collectors:
—“They dived into an ocean, and brought up a potsherd.” But then, he says,