J E 



Jwt. marls OH Ike mean* of improving the civil condition of 

 ^Y" ' tke Jemt, which called forth several pamphlets on the 

 same topic, of which the beat were those of Schlotzer 

 and Michaelis. In Holland, the condition of the Jews 

 has long been favourable. In Italy, the first attempts 

 were nude to prepare the minds ot the people for their 

 toleration. Simone Lauarato, of Venice, is mention- 

 ed as a pleader in their cause ; the friends of the Socini, 

 also, were thought to entertain sentiments favourable 

 to them ; but the interference of the inquisition in 

 1546, to suppress the club of Vicenza, proved preju- 

 dicial to the Jews, in depriving them of several of their 

 most sealous advocates or apologists. In Spain, they 

 obtained a footing after the Mahomedan conquest of 

 that country, but they were driven out of it by the 

 decrees of Ferdinand and Isabella. Mr Semple, in his 

 mad Journey in Spain, relates, that the Jews of Bar- 

 bary, Smyrna, and Constantinople, generally speak 

 corrupted Spanish, which he considers as a clear proof 

 of the amaxing numbers of that people that must have 

 been driven out of Spain, and scattered all over the 

 OOMtt of the Mediterranean. The laws, both of Spain 

 and Portugal, are still most cruel against them, though 

 they are not now often strictly enforced. 



The Jews have long been very numerous and very 

 favourably treated in Poland : it is said that they owe 

 their privileges to Esther, a fair Jewess, the favourite 

 mistress at Cawknir the Great ; but it is probable that 



... 



Ji protected and encouraged them in his 

 rather because in his time, 



were the richest and m 



In Aiii ad 

 MMs* 



(A. D. 1370), 

 st commercial individuals 



in Europe. They still carry on the principal retail 

 trade in all parts of Poland and Lithuania : a poll-tax 

 U levied .pon then. 



Though it was not till after the Mahomedan con- 

 qoest that the Jew* obtained a " resting place for their 

 reef" in Asia and southern Europe, yet in most of the 

 Mahomedaa state* at the present day, they are treated 

 with great cruelty and indignity. Mr Semple says, 

 that the insults to which Christians are exposed in the 

 Mate* of Barbery, are nothing when compared with 

 tlio** which the Jews must hourly suffer. The Jews 

 have larger seulsmnti, and more permanent abodes in 



; 



India, than they have any where in Europe. In Bar- 

 bery, there are several thousand Jews, who do not re- 

 fuse to coanaamcate with the Mussulmans, or to bear 

 arms. Caahsnerv also contains a Urge colony, supposed 

 by Bernier to have settled there during the Babylonish 

 captivity. 



1 1 1. The Jewish history is generally divided into two 

 periods : the first reaching from Abraham to Christ ; 

 the other from Christ to the present time ; and the Jews 

 of these two periods have been respectively distinguish- 

 ed as ancient and modern. The same distinction ought 

 to be made with regard to Judaism, or the opinions, 



'^ '" ' emonies, oftheJews. Ancient 



I aa the system of doctrines and 

 in the Old Testament ; these were re- 

 I in their most essential points, though much cor- 

 rupted, till the time of Christ : modern Judaism com- 

 prehend* the opinion*, traditions, rites and ceremonies, 

 which began to be received before thj destruction of 

 the second temple, were afterwards systematized and 

 embodied in the Cabalistic and Talmudic writing*; and 

 haw been followed and professed by the great body of 

 the Jewish nation ever since. Ancient Judaism is 

 fldly detailed in those part* of the Old Testament 



W S. 749 



which treat of the kw of Moses ; in the remainder Jews. 

 of this article, we propose to confine ourselves to a V -""V / 

 brief account of the most important parts of modern 

 Judaism. 



The Jews divide the books of the Old Testament in- Their divi- 

 to three classes : the law, the prophets, and the hagio- sion of the 

 grapha, or holy writings. They have counted not only Bible, 

 the large and small sections, the verses and the words, 

 but even the letters in some of the books ; and they 

 have likewise reckoned which is the middle letter of 

 the Pentateuch, which is the middle clause of each 

 book, and how often each letter of the alphabet occurs 

 in the Hebrew scriptures. Besides the scriptures, the 

 Jews pay great attention to the Targums, or Chaldee Tar 

 paraphrases of them: it seems probable that these were 

 written either during the Babylonish captivity, or im- 

 mediately afterwards, when the Jews had forgotten their 

 own language, and acquired the Chaldee of the Tar- 

 gums, at present received by the Jews; the most ancient 

 are that of Onkelos on the Law, and that of Jonathan 

 Ben Uzliel on the Prophets : the former is supposed to 

 be of greater antiquity than the latter, and it approaches 

 in simplicity and purity of style to the Chald- e of Da- 

 niel and Ezra. The Targum on the prophets is believed 

 to have been written before the birth of Christ, and 

 though inferor in respect of style to the Targum of 

 Onkelos, is much superior to any other Targum. 



The Jews also regard, with great veneration, what Talmud. 

 is called the Talmud. This work consists of two parts; 

 the Mishna, which signifies a second law; and the Ge- 

 mara, which means either a supplement or a commen- 

 tary. The Jews suppose that God first dictated the 

 text of the law to Moses, which he commanded to be 

 put in writing, and which exists in the Pentateuch, and 

 then gave him an explication of every thing compre- 

 hended in it, which he ordered to be committed to me- 

 mory. Hence the former is called the written, and the 

 latter the oral law. These two laws were recited by 

 Moses to Aaron four times, to his sons three times, to 

 the seventy elders twice, and to the rest of the people 

 once ; aAer this the repetition was renewed by Aaron, 

 his two sons, and the seventy elders. The last month 

 of Moses' life was spent, according to the Jews, in re- 

 peating and explaining the law to the people, and es- 

 pecially to Joshua his successor. A prophet might 

 suspend any law, or authorise the violation of any pre- 

 cept, except those against idolatry. If there was any 

 difference of opinion respecting the meaning of any 

 few or precept, it was determined by the majority. 

 When Joshua died, all the interpretations he had re- 

 ceived from Moses, as well as those made in his time, 

 were transmitted to the elders ; these conveyed them to 

 the prophets, and by one prophet they were delivered to 

 another. This law was only oral, till the days of Rabbi 

 Jehuda, who perceiving that the students of the iaw 

 were gradually decreasing, and that the Jews were dis- 

 persed over the face of the earth, collected all the tra- 

 ditions, arranged them under distinct heads, and form- 

 ed them into a methodical code of traditional law ; 

 thus the Mishna was formed. It is written in a con- 

 cise style, chiefly in the form of aphorisms, which ad- 

 mit of a variety of interpretations. On this account, 

 a gemara or commentary was written by a president of 

 a school in Palestine, which, together with the mishna, 

 forms the Jerusalem Talmud. The Jews in Chaldea, 

 however, not being satisfied with this gemara, one of 

 their Rabbis compiled another wliich, together with 

 the mishna, forms the Babylonian Talmud. 



