THE JEWISH POPULATION. 203 



thronged with Jews in their gabardines ready to turn an 

 honest penny by exchanging the foreign money of travel- 

 lers for the coin of the realm, and trying thus while 

 serving the traveller to make their plack a bawbee as 

 many a Scotsman does by honest trading, the stranger 

 may find reason to conclude that there is nothing surpri- 



same, the expressions similiar to those which characterised the prayer presented by 

 that prophet, and recorded in the 9th chapter of the book which bears his name : 



'O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that 

 love him, and to them that keep his commandments ; we have sinned and have committed 

 iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy pre- 

 cepts and from thy judgments ; neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the 

 prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, OUT princes, and our fathers, and to 

 all the people of the land. . . O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to 

 our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. . . O my God, 

 incline thine ear, and hear ; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city 

 which is called by thy name : for we do not present our supplications before thee for 

 our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear ; O Lord, forgive ; O Lord, 

 hearken and do ; deftr not, for thine own sake, O my God ; for thy city and thy people 

 are called by thy name.' 



This Rabbi led an abstemious life. On one occasion, when offered a little wine he 

 declined. In a short but thrilling reply (to which I cannot do justice in a translation), 

 he stated his reasons for acting thus: 'I read,' said he, 'that wine makes glad the 

 heart of man ; and 1 can I be joyful while the city of the Lord is trampled under foot ? 

 Can I be joyful while the name of Jehovah is blasphemed? Can I be joyful while the 

 people of God, having turned their back upon the Lord, are weltering in sin ? ' Is 

 not this the spirit expressed by the Psalmist,' If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my 

 right hand forget her cunning. If T do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave unto 

 the roof of my mouth : if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.' 



On another occasion he slipped away from a marriage feast at which he had been 

 present. He was soon missed ; and one and another of the guests exclaimed at once, 

 'Where is the Rabbi V' A search was made, but nowhere could he be found. At 

 length some one inquired, 'Have you been to the synagogue?' The parents of the 

 bridegroom and bride caught at the suggestion they hastened thither, and there they 

 found him in the dark, engaged in prayer. They entreated him to rejoin the party and to 

 bless the youthful couple with his presence. He replied, ' No, I cannot. You are joyful as 

 is befitting the occasion of your meeting, but my heart is sad sad ; sad, when I think 

 of the condition of my people.' They still urged him ; when, to meet their wishes, he 

 consented to rejoin the party on the condition that all music should be laid aside. A 

 marriage party without music was an incident almost unknown amongst the Jews ; but 

 such was the attachment of his flock to the Rabbi, that the concession was made at 

 once. And on his rejoining the party, marked attention was given to several addresses 

 which he delivered, in the course of the evening, on the sins to which they and their 

 nation were addicted. 



Religion is the same in all, however different may be its manifestations in different 

 circumstances ; and I was informed that similar manifestations of its influence were not 

 uncommon amongst the more humble of the Rabbies. 



There was at that time a very prevalent expectation that the Messiah would appear 

 in the course of that year. The expectation was founded on calculations made by many 

 of the Taltnudists, from data drawn from prophecies in the Old Testament Scriptures ; 

 and I was told of one learned Talmudist, who had declared that if the Messiah did not 

 appear in the course of that year, they were shut up to the conclusion that he must 

 have already come ; and if so, that Jesus of Nazareth must have been he. I have had 

 no opportunity of learning the effects of the disappointment which followed this 

 expectation. 



Amongst the more learned of the Jews in those regions, I have reason to believe 

 there were many who were not satisfied with Judaism. I made the acquaintance of one 



