History of the Jews, Vol. 2 (of 6)

Invested with this autocratic power, Judah manifested unusual severity towards his disciples, and displayed so great an irritability with them that he never pardoned the least offense offered, even in jest, to his dignity. The course of conduct which he enjoined upon his son from his death-bed, namely, to treat his scholars with strict severity, was the one which he himself had pursued all through the Patriarchate. Among the numerous Babylonians who crowded to the Academy at Sepphoris was a distinguished disciple, by name Chiya (an abbreviation of Achiya), whom his contemporaries could hardly praise enough for his natural gifts, his pious conduct, and his untiring endeavors to spread the teachings of religion among the people. Judah himself valued him very highly, and said of him: "From a land far off there came to me the man of good counsel." But even him the Patriarch could not pardon an insignificant jest. Judah had once said to him, "If Huna, the Prince of the Captivity, were to come to Judæa, I should certainly not carry my self-denial so far as to abdicate my office to him, but I would honor him as a descendant in the male line from David." When Huna died and his body was taken to Judæa, Chiya observed to the Patriarch, "Huna is coming." Judah grew pale at the news, and when he found that Chiya was referring to the corpse of Huna, he punished the joke by excluding Chiya from his presence for thirty days. Judah showed himself equally sensitive in his conduct towards Simon Bar-Kappara, one of his disciples, who, with his knowledge of the Law, combined at the same time poetical talent and a vein of delicate satire; as far as is known, he was the only Hebrew poet of that period. The little that remains of the productions of Bar-Kappara's muse indicates ready manipulation of the Hebrew tongue in a regenerated form, and in all its pristine purity and vigor; he composed fables, of which, however, no trace now remains. On the occasion of a merry meeting, the witty Bar-Kappara indulged in a jest at the expense of a certain Bar-Eleaza, the rich but proud and ignorant son-in-law of the Patriarch. All the guests had put questions to Judah, except the simple-minded Bar-Eleaza. Bar-Kappara incited him to ask one as well, and in a whisper suggested one to him in the form of a riddle. This riddle, to which no answer has been found to the present day, contained in all likelihood allusions to certain persons closely connected with Judah. It ran somewhat as follows: —

She looks from heaven on high,And ceaseless is her cry,Whom wingéd beings shun;Youth doth she fright away.And men with old age gray,And loud shriek they who run.But whom her net hath luredCan ne'er of the sin be cured.

In all simplicity, Bar-Eleaza propounded this riddle. Judah must have seen, however, by the satirical smile on Bar-Kappara's lips that it was intended to banter him, and he therefore exclaimed angrily to Bar-Kappara: "I refuse to recognize you as an appointed teacher." It was not till later on, when Bar-Kappara failed to obtain his appointment as an independent teacher of the Law, that he realized to the full the meaning of these words.

One of the most celebrated of the Babylonian disciples, Samuel by name, by whose medical treatment Judah had been cured of his long illness, was unable to obtain the nomination necessary in order to become a teacher of the Law. Judah was once desirous of excusing himself for this slight to Samuel, to whom he owed the restoration of his health, whereupon the latter answered him pleasantly, that it was so decreed in the book of Adam, "that Samuel would be a wise man, but not appointed Rabbi, and that thy illness should be cured by me." Chanina bar Chama, another disciple, who, later on, was also regarded as an authority, once remarked that a word which occurred in the Prophets ought to be pronounced otherwise than Judah read it. Offended thereat, Judah asked him where he had heard this; to which Chanina answered, "At the house of Hamnuna, in Babylon." "Well, then," retorted Judah, "when you go again to Hamnuna, tell him that I recognize you as a sage"; which was equivalent to telling Chanina that Judah would never authorize him to be a teacher. This irritability of the Patriarch, who was in all other respects a noble character, was his one weak point. It is possible, indeed, that this susceptibility was the result of his ill-health. However that may be, it did not fail to arouse a certain dissatisfaction and discontent, which never found public expression on account of the deep reverence in which the Patriarch was held.

Once at a banquet, when the wine had loosened men's tongues and made the guests oblivious of respect, the twin sons of Chiya gave utterance to this feeling of discontent. These highly talented youths, by name Judah and Chiskiya, whom the Patriarch himself had incited to gaiety and loquacity, expressed it as their opinion "that the Messiah could not appear until the fall of the two princely houses of Israel – the house of the Patriarch in Judæa, and that of the Prince of the Captivity in Babylon." The wine had caused them to betray their most secret thoughts.

In consideration of the altered circumstances of his time, Judah, by virtue of his independence and authority, abolished several rites and customs which seemed to the people to be hallowed by age, and carried through his design with perseverance, regardless of all consequences. Contrary to the principles of his teacher and predecessor, who had treated the Samaritans as heathens, Judah decreed that the evidence of a Samaritan in matters concerning marriage was admissible and of equal weight with the testimony of an Israelite. The views of these teachers of the Law of Moses, who agreed on the chief principles of their religion, varied in other matters according to the predominance of friendly or inimical feelings towards the heathens. For some time past difficulties had been constantly occurring between the Jews and the Samaritans. Eleazar, the son of Simon ben Jochai, and a contemporary of Judah, who had made himself acquainted with the Samaritan Torah, reproached them with having altered certain passages of the holy text. The peaceable relations between Jew and Cuthæan since the war of Hadrian were gradually changed to a state of ill-feeling, which was as bitter on the one side as on the other. One day when Ishmael b. José was passing through Neapolis (Shechem) in order to go and pray at Jerusalem (for which purpose the Jews seem to have required the permission of Marcus Aurelius), the Samaritans jeered at the tenacity of the Jews, saying that it was certainly better to pray upon their holy mount (Gerizim) than upon the heap of ruins at Jerusalem. Traveling through the land of Samaria must have now become less dangerous than it had formerly been. The teachers of the Law had frequently to pass through the strip of land lying between Judæa and Sepphoris. Although the seat of the Synhedrion was now in Galilee, and Sepphoris was thus to a certain extent the center of the entire Jewish community, nevertheless Judæa was, for various reasons, regarded as holier than the northern district. The patriarch could not officiate in person when the appearance of the new moon was announced, but had to send a representative for the purpose (which office Chiya once filled); the place where the announcement was made was at this time Ain-tab, probably in the province of Judæa. This trifling superiority was still left to that district, the scene of so many holy ceremonies and ancient memories. The journey to Ain-tab was made through Samaria.

On another point, also, Judah deviated from the ancient customs and the Halachic laws: he rendered less oppressive the laws relating to the year of release and to the tithes. In spite of the fall of the Jewish state, and of the numerous catastrophes which had befallen the Jews, these laws still continued in unimpaired force, and were doubly oppressive to a people impoverished by the disturbances of war, by taxes, and by the extortion of money. The Patriarch therefore turned his attention to this matter, and determined, if not entirely to abrogate, at least to moderate the harshness of these laws. Furthermore he decreed that the territory of certain border cities, which had up till then been considered as forming a part of Judæa, should henceforth not enjoy the privilege of sanctity which attached to Jewish ground. This in so far constituted a relief, as these cities were thereby exempted from the payment of tithes, and doubtless also from the laws relating to the year of release. For the most part these border cities were inhabited by Greeks and Romans, and had not always been subject to Jewish rule. These alleviations of the burdens of the people drew down reproaches on the Patriarch from certain of his relatives, to whom he replied that his predecessors had left this duty to him. He had even the intention of entirely abolishing the laws relative to the year of release, but was unwilling to take so important a step without first consulting such persons as were likely to entertain scruples on this point. At that time Pinchas ben Jaïr was regarded as the model of austere piety. He was a son-in-law of Simon ben Jochai, and possessed so gloomy a disposition as to cause him to entertain doubts as to the efficacy of any human institutions. He used to remark that, "since the destruction of the Temple the members and the freemen are put to shame, those who conform to the Law are confused, violence and sycophancy carry the day, and no one cares for those who are deserted; we have no hope but in God." In particular, Pinchas adhered strictly to the prescriptions of the law relating to the tithes, and for this reason never accepted any invitation to a meal. It was with this same Pinchas that Judah took counsel relative to the abolition of the year of release. It is probable that a year of scarcity necessitated the adoption of some such measure. To the Patriarch's question, "How goes it with the corn?" Pinchas answered reprovingly, "There will be a very good crop of endives," meaning that if necessary it was better to live on herbs rather than abrogate the Law. In consequence of Pinchas' dislike of this scheme Judah abandoned his project entirely. But the Zealot, having noticed some mules in the court of the Patriarch's house, to keep which was not in exact accordance with the Law, refused to accept Judah's invitation, and left him on the spot, vowing never to come near him again.

But the most important of Judah's acts, a work on which reposes his claim to an enduring name, and whereby he created a concluding epoch, was the completion of the Mishna (about 189). Since the completion, two generations before, of the oldest compilation under the name of Adoyot, the subject-matter of the Law had accumulated to an enormous extent. New cases, some drawn from older ones, others deduced from the Scripture, had helped to swell the mass. The various schools and systems had left many points of law in doubt, which now awaited decision. Judah therefore based his compilation on Akiba's partially arranged collection of laws as taught and corrected by Meïr, retaining the same order. He examined the arguments for and against every opinion, and established the Halachic precepts according to certain ordinances and principles. He endeavored to observe a certain systematic order in dealing with the various traditional laws relating to the prayers, to benedictions, taxes on agricultural produce, the Sabbath, festivals and fasts, marriage customs, vows and Nazarites, civil and criminal jurisdiction, the system of sacrifices, levitical purity, and many other points. His efforts were not, however, crowned with complete success, partly on account of the various parts of his subject being by their nature incapable of connection, and partly by reason of his desire to retain the order and divisions already employed. The style of Judah's Mishna is concise, well rounded, and intelligent, and is thereby well adapted to impress itself firmly on the memory. He in no way intended his Mishna, however, to be regarded as the sole standard, having in fact only composed it, like his predecessors and contemporaries, for his own use, in order to possess a text-book for his lectures. But by reason of his great authority with his disciples and contemporaries his compilation gradually obtained exclusive authority, and finally superseded all previous collections, which for that reason have fallen into oblivion. It retained the ancient name of Mishna, but at first with the addition of the words "di Rabbi Judah." Gradually, however, these words were dropped, and it began to be considered as the sole legitimate, recognized and authorized Mishna. His disciples disseminated it through distant lands, using it as a text-book for their lectures, and as a religious and judicial code. This Mishna, however, like the older compilations, was not committed to writing, it being at that time regarded as a religious offense to put on paper the precepts of tradition; it was thus handed down for many centuries by word of mouth. The Agadas only were now and then collected and written down, and even this was severely censured by various teachers of the Law. It is true that scarce or remarkable Halachas were sometimes written upon scrolls by certain teachers, but this was done so secretly, that they acquired from this circumstance the name of "Secret Scrolls."

In his old age Judah undertook another revision of his compilation, and made certain alterations which brought his Mishna into harmony with his new views. Various additions were also made after his death by his son. The language in which the Mishna is written is Hebrew in a rejuvenated form, interspersed with many Aramaic, Greek, and Latin words in general use. Judah evinced a predilection for the Hebrew tongue, despising Syriac, which was then indigenous to Galilee, on account of its characteristic inexactness. Syriac, he asserted, was superfluous in Judæa, and that either Hebrew or Greek should be spoken by every one. As a matter of fact, the Hebrew language was in nowise foreign to the population of Judæa, especially to such of them as lived in the towns. Even Judah's female domestic slave and tyrant was so well acquainted with Hebrew that many a foreign scholar applied to her for information respecting certain words of which he was ignorant. The Hebrew language was so easily and fluently spoken that many legal terms and delicate distinctions, which were the outcome of the spirit of the times, found their way into Jewish circles, and were there provided with proper Hebrew equivalents.

Thus tradition was at last codified and sanctioned. During the four centuries since the time of the Maccabees, when the doctrine of the father, as handed down to the son, had first begun to acquire an influence on the development of history, tradition had remained, so to speak, in suspense. Accepted by the Pharisees, rejected by the Sadducees, confined by Shammai's school within narrow boundaries, extended in its application by the school of Hillel, and greatly enriched by the followers of the latter, it was through Judah that tradition first acquired a settled form, and was able to exercise, by means of its contents and its mode of exposition, a spiritual influence during a number of centuries. Concurrently with the Bible, the Mishna was the principal source of intellectual activity and research; it sometimes even succeeded in entirely supplanting the Scripture, and in asserting its claim to sole authority. It was the intellectual bond which held together the scattered members of the Jewish nation. The Mishna – the child of the Patriarchate – by which it had been brought into the world and endowed with authority, slew, so to speak, its own parent, for the latter dignity lost by degrees its importance and influence.

The appearance of the Mishna brought the line of Tanaites to a conclusion, and put an end to independent teaching. "Nathan and Judah are the last of the Tanaites," says a Sibylline chronicle, the apocryphal book of Adam. The Mishna necessitated henceforth the employment of a new method of study, which possessed but little similarity with the Tanaite mode of teaching.

The period of the compilation of the Mishna was by no means a happy one for the Jews. Marcus Aurelius, the best and most moral of the Roman emperors, bore them no good will; he seems even to have cherished a special aversion to them. When he came to Judæa, in the summer of 175, after the death of the rebel Avidius Cassius, he found the Jews clamorous; they had not come respectfully to pay him homage, but to ask exemption from the heavy taxes imposed on them; and he, greatly vexed at this want of reverence, is reported to have exclaimed, "At last I have discovered a people who are more restless than the Marcomani, the Quadi, or the Sarmati!" In Judah's time, the communities in Judæa were subjected to a tax, called the "crown money" (aurum coronarium), which was so oppressive that the inhabitants of Tiberias took to flight in order to escape its burden. There is not in existence a single law of Marcus Aurelius in favor of the Jews.

But few Jews can have taken part in the short-lived rebellion of Avidius Cassius (175). With the sensual and bloodthirsty blockhead, Commodus (180–192), the son of the Emperor philosopher, ends the series of good or tolerable emperors, and there opens a succession of tyrants who cut one another's throats. In his reign Judæa was doubtless exposed to all sorts of extortions and oppression. The barbarous, savage and dissolute Pescennius Niger, who after the murder of the two preceding rulers set up as emperor in company with Severus and a third candidate (193,) and took up his residence in Antioch, displayed especial harshness to the Jews. Once when they prayed him to lighten their burden of taxes, which had now become intolerable, he answered them in the following words: "You ask me to relieve your lands of their taxes; would that I were able to tax the very air that you breathe!"

In the war that ensued between him and Severus, the latter was victorious, and his opponent's adherents paid heavily for their mistake. During his short stay in Palestine (200), after he had wasted, but not subdued, the country of the Parthians, Adiabene, and Mesopotamia, Severus promulgated several laws, which were certainly not favorable to Palestine. Amongst these laws was one forbidding heathens, under penalty of severe punishment, to embrace Judaism, or even Christianity. He permitted those, however, who were "imbued with the Jewish superstitions" to hold unpaid municipal offices and to be invested with the dignities of the magistracy; but they were obliged to submit to the claims made on them by reason of their occupation of these posts, such as providing costly plays and supporting various other heavy expenses, as long as no violation of their religion was thereby occasioned.

The numerous bands of marauders which had collected together during the war between Severus and Niger do not seem to have been entirely suppressed in Judæa, but continued to exist in this land after the departure of Severus. The Romans, who regarded these marauders as highwaymen, dispatched troops to hunt them out of their hiding-places in the mountains, but were unable to disperse them entirely. Two famous teachers of the Law of this period, Eleazar, the son of Simon ben Jochai (who in his time had been hostile to the Romans), and Ishmael, the son of José the Prudent, were induced to aid the Romans, to keep a watch over the Jewish freebooters, and to deliver them into the hands of the Roman authorities, who put them to death. Public opinion, however, was loud in its blame of these men for thus allowing themselves to become the tools of the Roman tyrants against their own countrymen. Joshua b. Karcha (according to certain authorities the son of Akiba) reproached Eleazar most bitterly for his behavior. "Oh, thou vinegar!" he exclaimed, "the produce of wine (unworthy son of a worthy father), how much longer dost thou intend to deliver up God's people to the executioner?" When Eleazar attempted to excuse himself by saying that he only desired "to clear the vineyard of thorns," Joshua retorted: "Let the lord of the vineyard root out the thorns himself." Later on Eleazar repented of his share in the pursuit of the Jewish freebooters, and is said to have done penance in the most painful manner. Although he was an Halachic authority, to whom at times the Patriarch submitted, the feeling which he had excited by affording assistance to the Romans was so bitter that he was afraid that after his death the last honors would be denied his corpse by the teachers of the Law. He therefore enjoined upon his wife not to bury him immediately, but to allow his body to remain in a room for several days. When after his death Judah the Patriarch sought his widow in marriage, she rejected his suit, annoyed probably at the slight inflicted on her husband, and answered him: "A vessel intended for holy purposes must not be put to profane uses."

Ishmael ben José was also visited with the disapprobation of the people on account of his prosecution of the Jewish marauders. His excuse that he had received an order from the Roman authorities, of which he was unable to relieve himself, was met by the retort: "Did not thy father flee? Thou also then wast able to escape."

Judah, the Patriarch, was a witness of all these sad scenes after having held his office for more than thirty years. With great equanimity he prepared to die, awaiting his dissolution with tranquillity. He summoned his sons and learned comrades before him, and informed them of his last wishes. He conferred the dignity of Patriarch on Gamaliel, his elder son, and appointed Simon the younger to the office of Chacham (speaker). To both of them he recommended his widow, who was doubtless their stepmother, and commanded them to pay her all respect after his death, and to make no alterations in his domestic establishment. He strongly impressed on the future Patriarch the policy of treating his disciples with severity, but recommended a departure from his principle of only allowing two disciples to be ordained, and suggested that all who were capable and deserving should be admitted to ordination. He particularly enjoined on Gamaliel the obligation of conferring the dignity of teacher, first and foremost on Chanina bar Chama, to whom he believed himself indebted. His two servants, José, of Phaeno, and Simon the Parthian, who served him with great affection during his lifetime, were commanded to take charge of his corpse after his death. He besought the Synhedrion to bury him without any great pomp, to allow no mourning ceremonies to be performed for him in the towns, and to re-open the Assembly of Teachers after the short interval of thirty days. Many of the inhabitants of the neighboring towns had gathered in Sepphoris at the news of the Patriarch's approaching death, in order to show him their sympathy. As if it were impossible that he could die, the populace threatened to put to death whosoever should announce the sad news to them. The suspense and agitation were, in fact, so great that some violent explosion of the grief of the crowd was apprehended. The intelligence of the Patriarch's death was, however, indirectly communicated to the people by Bar-Kappara. With his head veiled and his garments torn, he spoke the following words: "Angels and mortals contended for the ark of the covenant; the angels have conquered, and the ark has vanished." Hereupon the people uttered a cry of pain and exclaimed "He is dead," to which Bar-Kappara made answer, "Ye have said it." Their lamentations are said to have been heard at Gabbata, three miles from Sepphoris. A numerous funeral train accompanied Judah's corpse from Sepphoris to Beth-Shearim, and memorial sermons were preached for him in eighteen different synagogues. Even the descendants of Aaron paid the last honors to his corpse, although this was in direct opposition to the Law. "For this day," it was said, "the consecrated character of the priests is suspended." Synhedrion and priests readily subordinated themselves to him who represented the Law in his own person. After his death he was called "the Holy" (ha-Kadosh), though later generations seem to have been unable to offer any explanation of the title.

History has little more to relate of Judah's successor, Gamaliel III (about 210 to 225) than that he faithfully executed his father's commands. Such of his sayings as have been preserved are well worthy of consideration, as throwing a strong light on the state of the times. "It is good to be occupied in the study of religion, if some secular business is carried on at the same time; the labor devoted to both prevents sin from gaining ground. The study of the Law, when prosecuted without some other occupation, must ultimately be lost and is productive of sin. He who attends to the affairs of the community should do so for the sake of his duty to God, and without any selfish motives of his own; then will the merit of his forefathers second his efforts, and his righteousness will endure to all eternity. To you, however," he said to his disciples, "I promise as great a reward as if your efforts had been directed to practical ends. Act cautiously in all your relations with the (Roman) powers that be, for they only flatter you to further their own purposes; they are your friends when they can derive any benefit from your friendship, but they never stand by you in trouble. Do God's will in such a manner that you prefer His will to yours; then will he make your will His own." The admonition thus given to his disciples, to exercise caution in their dealings with the Roman authorities, and not to allow themselves to be seduced by their promises, evidently contained an underlying political meaning. For after the death of the harsh Severus, the Roman empire acquired, and outwardly retained, for nearly a quarter of a century, through the influence of three emperors and their Syrian mothers, a certain Syrian appearance which was nearly allied with that of Judæa; servile Rome adopted Syrian habits, and filled her Pantheon with Eastern gods. By this means the gulf existing between Roman and Jew was to a certain extent narrowed. Julia Domna (Martha), the wife of Severus, was a native of Emesa in Syria, and her son Caracalla, who was officially called Antoninus (211–217), was in nowise ashamed of his Syrian descent. It was he who extended the full right of citizenship to every inhabitant of the Roman Empire, and although this law was merely intended to allow the imposition of heavier taxes on the population of the provinces, it had the good effect of abolishing the marked distinction between Roman and non-Roman. Although Caracalla and his pretended son Elegabalus so disgraced the purple and humanity itself by their vices, that Roman history of this period has nothing to relate but assassinations and unnatural excesses such as allow of no other explanation than the derangement of the minds of these two emperors, there was still a certain method in their madness. They contemplated the gradual effacement of Roman gods and Roman customs by the introduction of Syrian fashions. It does not appear that Caracalla possessed special tenderness for the Jews. This much is certain, however, that the condition of the Jews under this emperor was at least tolerable, and that, although they enjoyed no especial favors, they at any rate had not to complain of excessive oppression. This intermediate and tolerable position of the Jews, equally removed from happiness and persecution, is described by Jannaï, one of Judah's disciples, in the following words: "We neither enjoy the happiness of the wicked, nor endure the misfortunes of the just."