that the very subjects of which it treated were no longer
in existence were matters of the past. The laws of pro-
perty could not be observed in an age of dispersion. The
administration of the criminal law had been wrested from
the hand of the Jew, when the Romans took possession
of Palestine. The sacrificial worship had necessarily ceased
when the second temple fell, and with it a large portion
of the hygienic laws became inoperative. Thus the
only portions of the whole of the Mosaic code of
which the practical fulfilment was then possible, were
the laws of the sabbath, fasts and festivals, the laws of
marriage and civil justice, and a part of the hygienic law,
to which latter belonged the laws of diet ; so that in
208 LECTURE X.
fact, the larger portion of the Mischna, at the very
time of its compilation, was mere matter, in part of
historical interest, and in part of antiquarian research
or speculation.
But in the Mischna itself, the resources of the
Mischna were not exhausted ; the pupils of B.
Jehuda, R. Chia, and R. Oschja, compiled a very im-
portant appendix called ' Beraita,' of which several rich
and lengthy fragments are still extant. Out of these
writings arose fresh researches and discussions. The
various conflicting opinions upon which the Mischna
aud Beraita had pronounced no final judgment, again
gave birth to new questions, as to which were the false,
which the true of these opinions. These works had be-
sides left untouched some matters relating both to theory
and practice. So again these discussions were reduced
to writing as a commentary on the Mischna, and were
designated as the ' Talmud' ; which work received its
final completion and with it its last appellation, ' Ge-
mara,' in the sixth century. After the death of Rabbi
Jehuda, two grand seats of Jewish erudition existed,
one in Palestine, the other in Babylon; and consequently
two Talmuds were compiled, one less voluminous and
of which the greater part has been lost, the Jerusa-
lem Talmud; the second and more complete work,
called either the Babylonian or oftener simply 'the
Talmud/ The Mischna therefore was the text, the
Talmud the commentary ; the latter was divided under
the same heads and has the same general plan as
the Mischna, though it far exceeds its model in the
chaotic treatment of its subjects, and is wholly devoid
of plan and arrangement. The Talmud is a work
whose process of elaboration lasted through seven en-
THE CONTENTS OF THE TALMUD. 209
tire centuries. The teachers of the Mischna were
entirely independent and self-relying in their re-
searches, copied no models, and expressed their own
opinions opinions wholly unsuggested by others. The
Talmud teachers on the contrary were bound to the
Mischna, merely asserting their independence in mat-
ters of which the Mischna had omitted the investigation,
or in cases in which Mischnaic opinions needed more
precise definitions.
With the termination of the Talmud, this self-reliance
of Jewish polemical writers ceased ; and it was not sub-
sequently deemed allowable to advance any opinion not
in strict conformity with those of the Mischna, Beraita,
and Talmud. At this juncture begins 'Rabbinism/
whose development assumed four distinct phases. 1st.
It sought to reduce the unsystematic, ill-arranged dis-
cussions and controversies of which the Talmud is
composed, into a systematic statement of the binding
and authentic statutes; and this, Alfosi in the llth,
Maimonides in the 12th, Semas in the 13th, Sur in the
14th, and, finally, the Schulchan Aruch in the 16th
centuries, consecutively and successfully accomplished.
2nd. Rabbinism produced numberless commentaries,
either on the whole or on a part of the Mischna. 3rd.
It aimed at the condensation of the explanations, which
the Talmud conveys in innumerable responses.* And
4thly, it sought to explain away, or to harmonise by
subtle and sophistical arguments,f the innumerable con-
tradictions and discrepancies with which the Talmud
and its commentators, particularly Maimonides, are
replete.
This intellectual system had two marked results. It
* n"B> t Pilpul.
p
210 LECTURE X.
established an extended and accepted dominion, which
(though its boundary line was clearly defined) exercised
undisputed and unrestricted rule over Judaism, down to
the middle of the last century. Its second result was
the opening of a vast field of literature, a portion
of whose fruits was multiplied by the press, while the
rest still lies hidden in manuscripts on the neglected
shelves of the library.
The remaining parts of the sacred writings had been
at the same early period subjected to the like process of
examination and amplification, though that examination
and amplification were somewhat more unfettered in
their character and spirit. The unshackled creations of
the intellect were here put forth, under such limitations
only as the national peculiarities and the general
laws of morality imposed. The Agada, or to use its
specific appellation, the Midrasch, thus spontaneously
resolved itself into the ' Mashal.' In it parables,
allegories, and allusions were combined and amalga-
mated with historical truths; and to these were
superadded traditions and legends. The inherent orien-
tal genius of the people had therein wider scope ; and
the full tide of myths, gnomes and poesy, gushed
freely forth. The greater part of this Midrasch has
been lost, having been partly destroyed by the vicis-
situdes of time, partly having disappeared in the
collection of extracts Jalkut Schimeoni. The Mi-
drasch subsequently assumed two successive forms, the
first being the irregular 'Drash/ or lecture of the
' Magidim ' ; the second, the regular sermon of the
present century.
Although therefore, by far the larger portion of the
Talmudic discussions had no relation whatever to exist-
THE CONTENTS OF THE TALMUD. 211
ing realities, aiid were either merely incidental to the
study of scripture or to the desire for consistency, yet do
we clearly perceive, that the Jews sought and found in
the Talmud in some sort a new intellectual Palestine,
which afforded them partial compensation for the true
Palestine they had lost. This abstract land of promise
possessed the one great advantage; that the dweller
therein could remain undisturbed by the neighbouring
foe ; that of its treasures he could not be deprived, and
that he could carry it with him in all his wanderings.
The more cruel the persecutions that broke in upon the
Jew from without, the more deeply did he feel the
spiritual elevation which a withdrawal into the dominion
of this abstract Talmudic Palestine afforded him. In
that land of dreams the temple stood unscathed, the
great assembly of the sages uninvaded in that land
the examination of the most minute point of contro-
versy was invested with the same importance as a nego-
ciation of which the issue had involved the fate of the
whole people. In that land the despised Jew found
renown and acceptance, the persecuted Hebrew conso-
lation and spiritual refreshment. How then can we
wonder that the Talmud became the object of such
profound and general reverence throughout Jewdom?
It was a free utterance of the people, not of any sect or
of any class ; for its authors were children of the people,
and for the people the Talmud, with all its peculiarities,
was elaborated. It betrays no fancy ; it has at most some
extravagancies, and a few images taken from the simplest
forms, but no poetic nights. In it we find sound and sig-
nificant aphorisms, but no sublime and elevating words
of consolation ; and yet was it the city of refuyo, the
asylum of the way-worn Jew during 1500 years. And
212 LECTURE X.
wherefore? Because it furnished occupation for the
thoughts, and by means of its hair-splitting distinc-
tions, gave acuteness to the intellect, and thus adminis-
tered alike intellectual and religious nourishment. Of
such labour the human mind does not weary. Such
being the conditions of its formation, the occasional
admixture of some repulsive phrases ought not to be
matter of grave and general reproach to the Talmud,
since they are the utterances of some individual
writer; and are amply counterbalanced by a hundred
healthy and sound axioms breathing the spirit of kind-
liness and justice, furnished by other contributors.
We must in fine, in passing judgment on the Talmud,
endeavour to penetrate the depth of the whole system and
its true fundamental idea.
The less I deem myself at liberty to wander amid the
mazes into which a detailed delineation of the whole of
the Talmudic civil and ritual law would conduct me,
the more imperative on me does it become to endeavour
to place before you, my hearers, a clear conception of
the leading tenets of the Talmudic system. Of these
there are two ; the first that pertains to the past, the
second to the future. The Talmudic fundamental prin-
ciple as to the past is the preservation of Mosaism in
its complete integrity ; that for the future, the belief
in the Messiah. Talmudism did not, like the Koran
and the New Testament, proclaim itself to be a new
revelation, by which Mosaism was to be superseded. It
claimed to be but an exposition and interpretation of
Mosaism, a circumvallation of Mosaism with conser-
vative enactments, in the centre of which, I repeat,
Mosaism was to be maintained in its entire integrity.
Though the development which it imparted to Mosaism
THE CONTENTS OP THE TALMUD. 213
was wholly directed to its outward form and not to its
inward spirit, so that the rank weeds of the former
choked up the growth of the latter; though Talmudism
and its results led far away from the religious idea; still
Mosaism, and within Mosaism the pure Divine Idea,
remained as a germ, imbued with undiminished vitality,
waiting a resuscitation, to be imparted by the indwelling
force of that Idea itself.
Christianity and Mahomedanism had essentially mo-
dified the religious idea, and had amalgamated it with
heathen elements. Christianity and Mahomedanism
had wholly destroyed the unity of the idea and the life.
Talmudism did not modify the religious idea, it only
vsurrounded it with the puerile childish extravagancies of
the age. Talmudism enforced, with affecting and
almost superstitious devotion, the unity of the idea and
the life: as fragment after fragment of this material
realization was torn asunder by a force from without, it
sought to gather the scattered morsels within its fold,
and to breathe into them ideal, if not real life. Talmudic
conceptions and delineations of the Divinity are, it is
true, crude in their Oriental simplicity. Sometimes
God laments over His own dispensations, sometimes He
insists on the most trivial ceremonial regulations, some-
times He discusses and teaches like a Jewish philosopher.
But God is ever the one God, in His absolute unity and
immateriality, ever God in His providence that ruleth
all things for the good of man, ever God the revealer,
who leadeth man to the knowledge of truth. In the
Talmud we find no original sin, no Satan with his
legions of fallen spirits, no excommunication, no conflict
with unbelievers, no election, no exclusion. Talmudism
adheres inflexibly to the equality of justice and right,
214 LECTURE X.
and to individual freedom; to justice stern and unbend-
ing in judgment, without respect of person or fortune.
Entire independence of the judicial and the political
authorities, open courts, verbal procedure, the very rare
infliction of capital punishment,* and finally, its entire
abolition ; the positive claims of the needy, a systematic
development of the regulations for the relief of the poor,
suited to the altered necessity of the age : such are the
adornments of the Talmud, which entitle it to be con-
sidered as the preserver of the Life of Mosaism. Thus
Mosaism was bequeathed to modern times by the
Talmud, not as a worn-out, superseded, though hitherto
valuable and much-used relique of antiquity, but as the
revelation of the religious idea, as the foundation of the
unity of the idea and the life, as a wholly valid, life-
ruling, life-inspiring truth.
But the more self-conscious was Talmudism of the
uncertain and fragmentary character of its tenure in
reality, the more numerous were the obstacles consequent
on the loss of Palestine, to the fulfilment by the Jew of the
Talmudic law, the more imminent became the necessity
that Talmudism should seek another fundamental prin-
ciple in the Future. Prophetism had paved the way
for this, since a central point of its activity was the
extension of the Divine Idea to the whole human race.f
Prophetism had connected the realisation of this union
of mankind in the Divine Idea of a one and only God,
of universal peace and love, with the people of
Israel, by recognising that people as the bearers of the
religious idea until it should universally prevail among
* Maccoth : the tribunal that once in seven years had insti-
tuted one capital punishment, was termed sanguinary,
t Isaiah. So also, 5. Moses 4. 5, 6. A.M.G.
THE CONTENTS OF THE TALMUD. 215
men. It predicted their preparation for the fulfilment
of their holy mission ; their restoration after they should
have been morally purified by means of the chastise-
ment of which material vicissitudes had been the instru-
ments. Amid the then general oppression of Jewdom
and the suspension of the whole Mosaic system, Tal-
mudism naturally seized upon the restoration of the
people of Israel as the one essential and tangible point
of all the doctrines of Prophetism, and enlarged upon
the restoration of the Hebrew race, combining it with
glowing descriptions of the renewal of their political
power, and of the re-establishment of the Temple and
of the sacrificial worship, as essential elements of the
fulfilment of the whole law ; associating therewith the
advent of a human Messiah, deputed and empowered by
God to be the instrument of this consummation. For
Talmudism this was doubly necessary. In the first
place it was compelled, in accordance with its own sys-
tem, to pre-suppose the assured fulfilment of each and
all of its own enactments. In the second, the condition
of the Jewish race at that time obliged it to promise to
that race, for self-sacrifice a reward in place of its per-
secuted present, a brilliant future existence instead of
present impotency, future authority of rejection, resto-
ration of scorn, highest honour. Further, the belief
in the coming of the future Messiah, which prevailed
throughout Talmudism, assumed the same direction here
as was imparted to it by Mosaism, and all the true rami-
fications of Mosaism. While it taught that for the indi-
vidual man the immortality of his soul was his Futurity,
it taught also that for the individuality of the race of
Israel was destined a compensating futurity on earth,
the time of the Messiah. The constitution of the
216 LECTURE X.
Talmud itself will at once lead you, my hearers, to two
evident conclusions ; that it adopted, in the detailed
descriptions of the Messianic age, the simple, fanciful,
metaphorical, and plastic style ever peculiar to the
East ; and secondly, that among the several conceptions
of that age which it contains, there exist numerous and
important differences. The most material conception
of a human Messiah and of the political restoration of
the Jews, and the most ideal conception of an age in
which the religious idea shall prevail universally among
mankind, and in which the ceremonial law shall have
been wholly abrogated, are equally to be found in the
pages of the Talmud. Nay, in some passages it even
goes so far as expressly to deny the prospective coming
of a human Messiah, without (be it incidentally re-
marked) this difference of doctrine giving rise to any
polemical conflict, or to any mutual imputations of
heresy. So long as pure Talmudism survived and did
not petrify into Rabbinism, it granted, while displaying
fanatical zeal for the law, free scope to the idea.
Thus Talmudism linked itself with two worlds,
stretching one hand over the Mosaic past, and with the
other embracing the Messianic future ; while by means
of its materialised daily life, it incorporated itself with
the present. Whithersoever turned the mental glance
of the Jew, he descried objects, attractive, fascinating,
and of overpowering interest.
Thus we recognise Talmudism to have been the pre-
server of the religious idea in its integrity, by means
of the protective web of material ordinances which it
spun around it, and which kept it (as the shell keeps
the kernel) from corruption. In Talmudism, we fur-
ther discern the sole means of self-maintenance left to
THE CONTENTS OF THE TALMUD. 217
Jewdom during the middle ages, since it secured to the
Jew in the first place an intellectual domain whence
he drew support for his intellectual vitality ; and secondly
it stamped him with the peculiar character of its re-
ligious ceremonial, which, combined with his political
position, preserved the Jew from amalgamation with
other nations, and prevented his acceptance of their
church system; a system presenting a direct antago-
nism to the religious idea. So far the Talmud is per-
fectly intelligible. But if we now enquire of the
Talmud, in what way this religious idea itself was
understood by its compilers, we shall at once perceive
its third leading principle, which confined its utility
strictly to a period (though a lengthened one) of transi-
tion, and renders it wholly inapplicable to the generality
of mankind. Mosaism, while originating and pro-
claiming the religious idea, simultaneously adapted it
in form, for the people of Israel only. It invested with
a national law, suited to the idiosyncrasy of the Hebrew
race, its grand principles of brotherly love, individual
freedom, equality of rights and of property, and the
subjection of the temporal and sensual to the dictates
of the moral consciousness. The national existence of
the people of Israel closed, and the form of the con-
tinued existence of that people, assumed that of a
federation bound by community of race and religion.
Instead of the aim of Talmudism being directed to the
extraction of the Mosaic idea from the code of national
laws of which the fulfilment had become impossible,
and to the establishment of institutions, which should
combine the two necessary conditions of being suited
to the exigencies of the time, and of realising the idea
of Mosaism, it adhered closely to the letter of the law,
218 LECTURE X.
and transformed it, the Mosaic national code, as far as
it was possible, into a law for individuals.
The measures to be taken in following this course, were
twofold. First, Talmudism held fast to the fulfilment of
every possible fragment of the Mosaic law, even where,
by the departure from Palestine, their actuating idea and
their true connection, were wholly abrogated. For
instance, with the cessation of sacrificial worship, the
idea of the priesthood as a class must have ceased likewise ;
in fact, Talmudism had virtually superseded it, by the
Talmudic writers' free assumption of the office of people-
teachers. Still Talmudism maintained the priestly order
in full force, not only in respect of descent, but in
respect of the individual and restrictive ordinances as to
marriage and the burial of the dead to which the priest-
hood were subjected, and which were referable merely to
the sacrificial service in the temple.* Sndly. Where a
Mosaic institution had fallen into complete and unavoid-
able desuetude, the Talmud replaced it by another that
accorded with it in form but not with its idea, and made
it binding on the individual, instead of the whole people.
We instance in proof of this what follows. The sacrificial
service had ceased, amidst which (as we have remarked
in an earlier lecture) entire freedom was allowed to the
individual in the matter of divine worship, but in which
meanwhile the intimate national general religious
connection of the whole people was embodied. Tal-
mudism replaced the offerings by prayer, imposing
certain prayers, nay more, a certain number of words
of prayer, as a duty on the individual, in lieu of the
prescribed amount of offerings; thus annulling per-
sonal freedom. From the smooth texture of the
* According to Mosaism itself.
THE CONTENTS OF THE TALMUD. 219
Mosaic national code, Talmudism and Rabbinism in
succession, thus drew ligatures with which to bind the in-
dividual ; attached to these other threads ; and of these
again, wove the thick fabric whose ample folds en-
veloped the whole life. All matters, from the most
important to the most trivial incidents of life, were thus
invested for the Jew in a certain determinate legislative
form. All, all was subjected to the dominion of this
law of form, from the first breath which he drew at
birth, to the last which closed his career in death ; with-
out these forms retaining any real religious character
or any real religious purport, except just so much as
they derived from the circumstance of their fulfilment
being thus legislatively considered an act of religion.
Though we have adduced repeated proofs that this
direction was a historical necessity, and that by virtue
of this direction Talmudism became the means by which
the Divine Idea was preserved in its integrity, and by
which Jewdom during its dispersion in the middle ages
was enabled to survive, yet do we clearly and fully recog-
nise the fact, that thus the Idea became subservient to
the Form. In pure Talmudism, all vitality of the
Idea ceased. For example, Talmudism is inimical to
the explanation of the principles, the thought, in the
commandments; and notwithstanding the production
of the Kabbalah, in connection with the Talmud, as
a fanciful mystic dogma on the one hand, and the
rise and progress, on the other, of the Aristotelian
philosophy of Maimonides ; Talmudism remained un-
shaken, scarcely taking note of the existence of its
rival, until the latter expiring through inanition, left
it to the strong arm of the Talmudic ceremonial law to
wield the sceptre unopposed. One, and only one bene-
220 LECTURE X.
ficial effect thence ensued. Out of Talmudism no contro-
versial conflict ever arose, since in it there was no idea of
power enough to sustain such a contest. In the second
place it followed, that all personal freedom was annulled
in the enforced obedience to the ritual. The most im-
minent danger to life was the only condition which
exonerated the follower of the Talmud from perform-
ance of the smallest ritual observance, and then only in
the moment of danger and in the slightest degree.
If we now again refer to the facts deducible from our
examination of this third Talmudic principle, we shall
find that the chief was the extraction, from the Mosaic
national code, of a law of form for the individual, in
which the religious idea lay as in an inner germ, by
which its general character was for a time destroyed.
Talmudism thus became the exact contrast to Prophet-
ism, since the latter extracted the ideal, the former the
material portion only of Mosaism. Talmudism circum-
scribed material life, adapting it to Jews only.
Prophetism developed the ideal conception. Thus both
individually prepare the way for a fourth grand
phase in which the unity of the Idea and the Life,
according to the spiritual conception of Mosaism, shall
again develop itself and prevail. This Talmudism ad-
mits. It recognises the future union of mankind as
a bequeathed truth ; but it does not demand universal
acceptance of its ritual by mankind. On the contrary,
it expresses the belief that its law will be no longer in
force among the Hebrew race itself. Talmudism was
adapted in its whole system to a transition period only,
of the religious idea; it protected it with the shield
of its ritual, till the latent vitality of that idea should
be aroused into all its activity.
THE CONTENTS OP THE TALMUD. 221
We have now, my hearers, passed through the three
great historical epochs of Judaism; Mosaism, Pro-
phetism, and Talmudism. We have recognised in Mo-
saism the establishment of the Religious Idea, in the
unity of the idea and the life; in Prophetism the
victory of the religious idea over heathenism, its in-
strument being the Jewish people : the separation of
the idea and the life, and the development of the
religious idea, being the conditions of its universal
acceptance by mankind. We have further determined
Talmudism to have been the preserver of the religious
idea, by investing and surrounding it with a ritual