Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 20, scan section 27

" The Talmud has at different times been variously judged on the most heterogeneous assumptions, it has been condemned and consigned to the flames ; simply because it was presented in its unfavorable aspect without taking into consideration its actual merits. It cannot be denied that the Babylonian Tal- mud labors under some defects, like any other mental product, which pursues a single course with inexorable consistency and tmdeviating dogmatism. These defects may be classified under foiir heads: the Talmud contains some unessential and trival subjects, which it treats with much importance and a serious air ; it has adopted from its Persian surroundings superstitious practices and views, which presuppose the agency of interme- diate spiritual beings, witchcraft, exorcising formulas, magical cures and interpretations of dreams and, hence, are in conflict with the spirit of Judaism ; it further contains several uncharit- able utterances and provisions against members of other na- tions and creeds ; lastly it favors a bad interpretation of Scrip- ture, absurd, forced and frequently false commentations. For these faults the whole Talmud has been held responsible and been denounced as a work devoted to trifles, as a source of im- morality and trickery, without taking into consideration that it is not a work of a single author who must be responsible OPINIONS OF GENTILES. 79 for every word, and if it be so, then the whole Jewish people was its author. Over six centuries are crystallized in the Tal- mud with animated distinctness, in their peculiar costumes, modes of speech and of thought, so to say a literary Hercula- neum and Pompeii, not weakened by artistic imitation, which transfers a colossal picture to the narrow limits of a miniature. It is, therefore, no wonder, if in this world sublime and mean, great and small, serious and ridiculous, Jewish and heathen elements, the altar and the ashes, are found in motley mixture. Those odious dicta of which Jew-haters have taken hold were in most cases nothing else but the utterances of a momentary indignation, to which an individual had given vent and which were preserved and embodied in the Talmud by over-zealous disciples, who were unwilling to omit a single expression of the revered ancients. But these utterances are richly counterbal- anced by the maxims of benevolence and philanthropy towards every man, regardless of creed and nationality, which are also preserved in the Talmud. As coimterpoise to the rank super- stition, there are found therein sharp warnings against super- stitious, heathen practices (Darke Emori),to which subject a whole section, under the name of Perek Emorai, is devoted.* "The Babylonian Talmud is especially characterized and distinguished from the Palestinian, by high-soaring contempla- tions, a keen understanding, and flashes of thought which fit- fully dart through the mental horizon. An incalculable store of ideas and incentives to thinking is treasured in the Talmud, but not in the form of finished themes that may be appro- priated in a semi-somnolent state, but with the fresh coloring of their inception. The Babylonian Talmud leads into the laboratory of thought, and its ideas may be traced from their embryonic motion up to a giddy height, whither they at times soar into the region of the incomprehensible. For this reason it became, more than the Jerusalemean, the national property, the vital breath, the soul of the Jewish people " * Sabbath, 66a ; Toseptha, Ch. VIL, VIII. PART II. ETHICS OF THE TALMUD. CHAPTER I. TALMUDICAL ETHICS. " Ethics is the flower and fruit on the tree of religion. The ultimate aim of religion is to ennoble man's inner and outer life, so that he may love and do that only which is right and good. This is a biblical teaching which is emphatically re- peated in almost every book of Sacred Scriptures. Let me only refer to the sublime word of the prophet Micah : ' He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord re- quire of thee, but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with thy God?' (Micah vi., 8.) " As far as concerns the Bible, its ethical teachings are gen- erally known. Translated into all languages of the world, that holy book is accessible to every one and whoever reads it with open eyes and with an unbiased mind will admit that it teaches the highest principles of morality, principles which have not been surpassed and superseded by any ethical system of an- cient or modem philosophy. " But how about the Talmud, that immense literary work whose authority was long esteemed second to that of the Bible ? What are the ethical teachings of the Talmud ? " Although mainly engaged with discussions of the Law, as developed on the basis of the Bible during Israel's second com- monwealth down to the sixth century of the Christian era, the Talmud devotes also much attention to ethical subjects. Not only are one treatise of the Mishna (Ptrke Aboth) and some Boraithoth (as Aboth d'R. Nathan and Derech Eretz) almost exclusively occupied with ethical teachings, but such teachings are also very abundantly contained in the Hagadic (homiletical) ETHICS. ^ 81 passages which are so frequently interspersed in the legal dis- cussions throughout all parts of the Talmud.* " It must be borne in mind that the Talmudical literature embraces a period of about eight centuries, and that the nu- merous teachers whose ethical views and utterances are recorded in that vast literature, rank differently in regard to mind and authority. At the side of the great luminaries, we find also lesser ones. At the side of utterances of great, clear-sighted and broad-minded masters with lofty ideas, we meet also with utterances of peculiar views which never obtained authority. Not every ethical remark or opinion quoted in that literature can, therefore, be regarded as an index of the standard of Tal- mudical ethics, but such opinions only can be so regarded which are expressed with authority and which are in harmony with the general spirit that pervades the Talmudic literature. " Another point to be observed is the circumstance that the Talmud does not treat of ethics in a coherent, philosophical system. The Talmudic sages made no claim of being philos- ophers ; they were public teachers, expotmders of the Law, popu- lar lecturers. As such, they did not care for a methodically arranged system. All they wanted was to spread among the people ethical teachings in single, concise, pithy, pointed sen- tences, well adapted to impress the minds and hearts, or in parables or legends illustrating certain moral duties and virtues. And this, their method, fully answered its purpose. Their ethical teachings did actually reach the Jewish masses, and in- fluenced their conduct of life, while among the Greeks, the ethical theories and systems remained a matter that concerned