love of the Creator and His creature; that Mofes com¬ 
mands it in the name of God ; fee Leviticus, chap. xix. 
33, 34. And they quote one of their rabbis, who fays, 
« Our doftors declare, that the man who is compaffionate 
towards his fellow is in our eyes as dear to 11s as if he had 
defcended from the race of Abraham. That every If- 
raelite is obliged to love as his brethren thofe who obferve 
the noachides, (thefe mean the precepts given to Noah,) vi- 
fit the infirm, ,afiift their poor, &c. whatever may be their 
religion.” 
The fixth decifion relates to civil and political duties. It 
is declared, that it is a religious duty for the Ifraelite to 
love the kingdom in which he is born, or refides, as his 
country; and its fovereign as his own. Thus Daniel 
faid to Darius, that he had been laved from the rage of 
jhe lions only becaufe he had been equally faithful to his 
&od and his king ; chap. vi. 23. That Jeremiah exhorts 
all the Hebrews to confider Babylon as their own coun¬ 
try; chap. iv. See alfo in the fame book, chap. xl. 9, the 
oath which Gedaliah offers to the Ifraelites to remain 
faithful to the king of Babylon. “ Fear God and thy 
Jcing,” fays Solomon, Prov. chap. xxiv. 21. That all 
obliges the Jew never to infulate his intereft from the 
public interelf, nor to feparate the profperity of his af¬ 
fairs from the public welfare ; to afflift hirufelf with its 
calamities, and to rejoice in its triumphs. In a word, the 
great fanhedrim declares, that the Ifraelite is to ferve and de¬ 
fend his country, and to obey its civil laws. There is one re¬ 
markable decifion concluding this article. The great fan¬ 
hedrim declares,’ that every Ifraelite called to military fervice 
is difpenfed by the law, during the time of that fervice, 
from obferving all religious ordinances and cere\nonies which 
are incompatible with military fervice. > 
Here we lol'e fight of the ferJes of queftions ; of the 7th, 
8th, and 9th, refpedting the rabbis, no notice is taken; 
but the feventh decifion turns on ufeful profeffwns. The 
great fanhedrim are defirous of enlightening the Ifraelites, 
on the neceflity and the advantages refulting from agri¬ 
cultural purl'uits, to become land-holders, to praftife arts 
and trades, and to cultivate the fciences which will en¬ 
able them to embrace liberal profeftions; and reflecting 
that hitherto the Ifraelites have been compelled, from va¬ 
rious impediments, to renounce mechanics and manufac¬ 
tures, and above all, the cultivation of land, which had 
been from the earlieft times their favourite occupation ; 
this fatal abandonment can only be attributed to the vi- 
ciflitudes of their unhappy ftate; to the uncertainty of 
their perfonal fecurity, either with regard to their pro¬ 
perty, or to the numerous obftacles which the laws or 
cuftotns of other nations have oppofed to the free 
developement of their induftry and their a&ivity. That 
this apathy and abandonment have in no wife refulted 
from the principles of their religion, nor the interpre¬ 
tations of their doctors, but in truth, are only an un¬ 
fortunate effeft of habits, which the privation of a free 
exercife of their induflrious faculties has made them con¬ 
tract. That the Mofaic legiflation man!fells that all ma¬ 
nual labours were honourable among the children of If- 
rael; and that there is no mechanical art which is inter¬ 
dicted to them; but, on the contrary, the holy writings 
excite them to aCts of indullry. Pfalm cxxviii: “ When 
thou eatelL-the labour of thine hands, thou (halt be bleffed, 
and it {hall be well with thee.” Proverbs, chap, xxviii. 
v. 19: “He that tilleth his land fhall be fatisfied with 
bread, but he that folioweth the idle fhall be filled with po¬ 
verty.” Chap. xxiv. v. 27 : “ Prepare thy work without, 
and make ready thy things in the field, and after build 
thine houfe.” Their rabbis in the Miftma are alfo quoted 
as authorities, which inculcate that there is a-religious 
merit in purfuing induflrious trades; and in the Talmud 
it is declared, that the father who does not educate his 
Ton to fome profefiion is rearing a thief. 
In confequence of all this, the great fanhedrim, in 
virtue of the powers inverted in them, ordain, “that all 
Ifraelites, and particularly thofe of France and Italy, who 
now enjoy civil and political rights, fhall feek for means, 
and adopt them, to infpire their youth with the love of 
labour, and an ambition to excel in ufeful trades and li¬ 
beral arts, as thefe laudable purfuits are conformable to 
our holy religion, and ferviceable to the country; which,, 
in men unoccupied and without fome calling, can only 
fee dangerous citizens.” The great fanhedrim further 
invites the Ifraelites of France and Italy to purchafe lands, 
as a means to attach themfelves more ftrongly to their 
country, and to renounce thofe baler occupations which 
degrade men in the' eyes of their fellow-citizens, and 
finally to acquire their efteem and kindnefs by induftri- 
ous habits. 
The 10th queftion, ufury, was the fubjeCt of the eighth 
and ninth doCtrlSial points. The eighth point was on 
loans to an Ifraelite. The great fanhedrim feel the evil 
confequences which have followed from an erroneous 
translation of the 19th verfe of chap, xxiii. of Deuterono¬ 
my, wherein the Hebrew word nefiech is improperly trarif- 
lated ufury, inftead of interrjl. It fignifies intereft of any 
kind, and not ufurious intereft. The Bible of Oftervald, 
and that of the Portuguefe Jews, tranflate njhech by in¬ 
tereft, which Sacy, from the Vulgate, has called ufury. 
When the law prohibited the Jew lending another Jew 
any thing and requiring interef for this loan, it was only 
to bind clofer the bond of brotherhood, to infpire a reci¬ 
procal kindneTs,-and to love one another with difintereft- 
ednefs. The divine law and its interpreters permit in¬ 
tereft, according to the ufe which is made of money. If 
the loan is intended to affift an unfortunate family, inte¬ 
reft is prohibited. Lend to the poor, fays Mofes. The idea 
of appearing agreeable in the eyes of the Eternal, is the 
only intereft the Jew can accept. In commercial fpecu- 
lations it is allowed to receive a juft intereft, becaufe the 
lender rilks his capital with the borrower. 
The ninth doCtrinal point is on loans from an Ifraelite 
to a jlranger. The great fanhedrim, defirous of correct¬ 
ing that error which attributes to Ifraelites the faculty of 
praCtifing ufurious aCts with thofe who are not of their 
religion, allowed both by their Law and their Talmudi- 
cal doClors ; and further confidering that this imputation 
Has occafioned ftrong prejudices again!! them, declare that 
the text which authorifes loans on intereft, to the jlranger, 
is to be confined to thofe foreign nations on the borders 
of their Jewilh territories, who had an intercourfe with 
the ancient Ifraelites, and who themfelves lent to the 
Jews; and that the word nockri is only applicable to the 
individuals of thofe foreign nations, and not to thole in¬ 
dividuals among whom the Hebrews live as fellow-citi¬ 
zens. That even this intereft is never permitted to be 
exeeffive and ruinous, for that would be an abominable 
iniquity. Therefore they declare, that henceforward all 
Ifraelites are to make no diftinCtion in their loans to their 
brethren or their fellow-citizens, or e,ven foreigners, but 
are to confider this ordinance as a religious duty ; and. 
that ufury is an abominable iniquity. 
The prefident Furtado acfdrelfed the fanhedrim on thefe 
two lalt decifiorrs : “ The fubjeCt of thefe two decifions 
have often produced polemical difeufiions. Divines and 
politicians have fpoken in direCl oppolition to each other. 
The firft would not permit any intereft whatever for loans; 
but the other, afpiring only to that degree of moral per¬ 
fection which is adequate to human powers, have per¬ 
mitted it in fome cafes, and prohibited it in others. 
Among political enquirers, fome have confidered that 
fixing the rate of intereft was favourable to the well-being 
of man; while others have deemed this regulation as 
hurtful to the free circulation of commercial capitals, and 
confequently to a greater developement of national in¬ 
duftry. It is not our bufinefs to reconcile thefe oppofite 
lyftems, but merely to ftate the doCtrine of our holy le- 
giflator, 
“The Ifraelites have been accufed that their religion 
authorifed them to take ufury; accufed by men of ano¬ 
ther religion, which religion is founded on the divinity 
