





THE JEWISH POPULATION. 205 i 



them. The landholding community complain that the 

 lands are passing away from them to the Jews. They 

 are, because the former have preferred borrowing money 

 from the Jews to enable them to live in a certain style, 

 to curtailing their display, and thus reducing their 

 expenditure, or to labour working with their own hands 



' converting the soul.' They consequently form their opinion of Christianity from the 

 conduct of men who are only nominally Christian. If they have never seen what they 

 consider the beauty of holiness in Christians, and if all that they do see, and hear, 

 tends to confirm their belief that Christians are utterly devoid of true religion, their 

 prejudices against Christianity must become very strong. We accordingly find them 

 frequently employing the term Christian as synonymous with blackguard. They need, 

 therefore, ' living epistles ' to teach them, ' without the word,' that the Gospel ' is the 

 power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.' 



3. From what they see and know of the ecclesiastical creeds and ceremonies of 

 Christians, the}' consider them as polytheists and idolaters, tritheists, and worshippers 

 of saints, with dressed up representations of the virgin, and representations of God, 

 which they consider blasphemous, as well as grotesque, and where such are not made 

 use of, with conceptions of God scarcely less grotesque, while they have been taught to 

 hold that God is a spirit, whom no man hath seen or can see. 



4. Their usual criterion of learning is acquaintance with the Talmud. To this 

 Christians attach no importance, and know little or nothing about it, and they are con- 

 sequently despised. As in the days of our Lord so now, they make the commandment 

 of God of none effect by their tradition. To the Jews it was commanded ' When ye 

 reap the harvest of your land, ye shall not wholly reap the corners of thy field ; thou 

 shalt leave them for the poor of thy people.' Upon this command, there are raised such 

 questions as these : How much must be left, if the fie'd be four square ? How much, 

 if it be triangular? How much, and in what form, if it be semicircular ? How much, 

 in what form, and where, if it be circular? 



In listening to a. Jew expatiating on such subjects, one is forcibly reminded of the 

 saying of our Lord, ' Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe 

 of mint, and anise, and cummin, and ye neglect the weightier matters of the law, 

 judgement, mercy, and faith.' Such questions are discussed in the Talmud, and 

 the first desire of an ambitious youth amongst the Jews is to study the Talmud. An 

 acquaintance with several of the sciences is necessary to success; and in general the 

 student devotes himself to the study of these with the closest application, that he may 

 afterwards overcome the difficulties to be encountered in his subsequent progress. 



They appear to have a passion for such pursuits ; even boys at school challenge each 

 other to a trial of skill in expounding the Talmud. In such cases they go to the Rabbi, 

 and inform him of their design ; he then appoints them a passage, and they seat them- 

 selves at the extremities of the room, or in different apartments, to perform their 

 task. In a given time they each produce a written exposition of the passage 

 prescribed. These are submitted to the Rabbi, and the contest is determined by his 

 decision on their respective merits. 



It occasionally happens, when the children of wealthy Jews marry, that the father 

 of the bridegroom challenges the father of the bride to support the newly married pair 

 and their family for twenty years, or some other terra of years, on condition of his 

 doing the same. If the challenge be accepted, contracts are executed, and the young 

 man generally devotes himself with close application to the study of the Talmud. If 

 his success be considerable, his friends boast of his achievements, and congratulate 

 themselves sa3'ing, ' Aye, he'll be a Rabbi yet !' 



To attain this dignity it is necessary in some provinces to go through a protracted 

 course of severe study. It is rarely the case that this can be completed before the 

 student has reached his thirtieth year. If it be accomplished at an earlier age, the 

 hair of the student, prematurely grey, generally testifies to his mental effort. 



II does not appear to be avarice, or ambition, or the desire of usefulness, which alone 

 prompts to the laborious and self-de lying life of a student of the Talmud. Combined 

 with one or more of these motives, is the hope of having made some attainment 

 whereof they may glory before God. ' They have a zeal of God, but not according to 



