80 HAUPT— TOBIT'S BLINDNESS AND SARA'S HYSTERIA. 



the daughter of a merchant, whose two former husbands had per- 

 ished in the bridal night. The dead brother is on guard in the bridal 

 chamber and slays the dragon which threatens to kill the groom 

 (GJV* 3, 241). Seventeen variants of the fable of the Grateful 

 Dead were given by Simrock in " Der gute Gerhard und die dank- 

 baren Toten " (Bonn, 1856). Dr. Ember called my attention to 

 some similar stories in the Talmud and the Midrash Tanhiima. 



At the end of the tract Shabbath (156^; BT i, 716, 1. 24) we 

 read : Rabbi Aqiba had a daughter. Astrologers had told him that 

 when she would enter the bridal chamber, a snake would bite her, 

 and she would die. He was much disturbed by this prediction. On 

 that day she took the (nuptial) crown and stuck it into the wall, and 

 it chanced to strike the eyes of a snake. When she pulled out the 

 crown in the morning, the snake was affixed to it. Her father 

 asked her. What did you do? She told him. In the evening a poor 

 man called at the door. All the people were busy with their meal, 

 so that no one heard him. But I got up and gave him my portion 

 you had given me. He said to her. Thou hast done a good deed. 

 Then Acjiba went out and preached : Righteousness delivers from 

 death, not only from a natural death, but also from an unnatural 

 death. RigJitcousncss delivers from death is a quotation from 

 Prov. 10, 2. In this story the bride, not the bridegroom, is threat- 

 ened with death in the wedding-night. 



The name Akiba is familiar to us, because a rabbi Ben Akiba 

 figures in Gutzkow's tragedy "Uriel Acosta." Acosta committed 

 suicide in 1647. Spinoza was about fifteen at that time. But the 

 Talmudic Rabbi Aqiba was tortured and killed by the Romans in 

 135 A.D. after Hadrian's suppression of the Jewish rebellion under 

 the leadership of Barcochebas who was recognized by Rabbi Aqiba 

 as Messiah. Over half a million Jews were slaughtered at that time. 

 Hadrian had forbidden circumcision as illegal mutilation. He de- 

 stroyed Jerusalem and founded a Roman colony, JElia Capitolina, 

 on the site of the holy city. He also replaced the Temple of Jhvh 

 by a temple of Jupiter (EB" 15, 402''), Lazarus Goldschmidt 

 translates hairpin instead of crown, and knocked at the door instead 

 of called at tlie door; but niakbanta, which Dalman renders necklace, 



