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HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

CHAPTER IV: THE INNER LIFE OF POLISH JEWRY AT ITS ZENITH

1. KAHAL AUTONOMY AND THE JEWISH DIETS

The peculiar position occupied by the Jews in Poland made
their social autonomy both necessary and possible. C.onstituting
an historical nationality, with an inner life of its own,
the Jews were segregated by the Government as a separate
estate, an independent social body. Though forming an integral
part of the urban population, the Jews were not officially
included in anyone of the general urban estates, whose affairs
were administered by the magistracy or the trade-unions.
Nor were they subjected to the jurisdiction of Christian law
courts as far as their internal affairs were concerned. They
formed an entirely independent class of citizens, and as such
were in need of independent agencies of self-government and
jurisdiction. The Jewish community constituted not only a
national and cultural, but also a civil, entity. It formed a
Jewish city within a Christian city, with its separate forms of
life, its own religious, administrative, judicial, and charitable
institutions. The Government of a country with sharply
divided estate.s could not but legalize the autonomy of the
Jewish Kahal, after having legalized the Magdeburg Law of
the Christian urban estates, in which the Germans constituted
the predominating element. As for the kings, in their capacity
as the official " guardians" of the Jews, they were especially
concerned in having the Kahals properly organized, since the
regular payment of the Jewish taxes was thereby assured.
Moreover, the Government found it more to its convenience to
\
104 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
deal with a well-defined body of representatives than with the
. unorganized masses.
As early as the period Of royal "paternalism," during the
reign of Sigismund 1., the king endeavored to extend his
fatherly protection to the Jewish system of communal selfgovernment.
The ·appointment of Michael Yosefovich as the
" senior" of the Lithuanian Jews, with a rabbi as expe"t
adviser', was designed to safeguard the interests of the exchequer
by concentrating the power in the hands of a federation
of Kahals in Lithuania. On more than one occasion
Sigismund I. confirmed the "spiritual judges," or rabbis
(judicss spirituales, doctores legis), elected by the Jews in
different parts of Poland, in their office. In 1518 he ratified,
at the request of the Jews of Posen, their election of two leading
rabbis, Moses and Mendel, to the posts of provincial judges
for all the communities of Great Poland, bestowing upon the
newly-elected officials the right of instructing and judging
their coreligionists in accordance with the Jewish law. In
Cracow, where the Jews were divided into two separate communiti~
ne of native Polish Jews and another of immigrants
from Bohemia,-the King empowered each of them to
elect its own rabbi. The choice fell upon Rabbi Asher for the
former, and upon Rabbi Peretz for the latter, community, and
when a dispute arose between the two communities as to the
ownership of the old synagogue, the King again intervened, and
decided the case in favor of the native community (1519/.
In 1531 Mendel Frank, the rabbi of Brest, complained to the
King that the Jews did not always respect his decisions, and
brought their cases before the royal starostas. Accordingly
Sigismund T. thought it necessary to warn the Jews to submit
• see pp. 72 and 73.
'l'HE iNNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 105
to the jurisdiction of their own" doctors," or rabbis, who dispensed
justice according to the" Jewish law," and were given
the right of imposing the" oath" (herem, excommunication)
and all kinds of other penalties upon insubordinates. In the
following year the King appointed as " senior," or chief rabbi,
of Cracow the well-known scholar Moses Fishel':"-who, it may
be added parenthetically, had taken the degree of Doctor 'of
Medicine in Padua-to succeed Rabbi Asher, referred to previously.
Pursuing the same policy of centralization, the King.
a few years later, in 1541, confirmed in their office as chief
rabbis (seniores) of the whole province of Little Poland two
men "learned in the Jewish law," the same Rabbi Moses
Fishel of Cracow, and the famous progenitor of Polish Talmudism,
Rabbi Shalom Shakhna of Lublin.
In the same measure, however, in which the communal organization
of the Jews gained in strength, and the functions
of the rabbis and Kahal elders became more clearly defined,
the Government gradually receded from its attitude of paternal
interference. The magna charta of Jewish autonomy may be
said to be represented by the charter of Sigismund Augustus,
issued on August 13, 1551, which embodies the fundamental
principles of self-government for the Jewish communities of
Great Poland.
According to this charter, the Jews are entitled to elect, by
general agreement,' their own rabbis and" lawful judges" to
take charge of their spiritual and social affairs. The rabbis
and judges, elected in this manner, are authorized to expound
all questions of the religious ritual, to perform marriages and
grant divorces, to execute the transfer of property and other
[' Unanimi voto et consensu are the exact words of the document.
See Bersohn, Dyplomatariu8z (Collection of ancient Polish enact·
ments relating to Jews), p. 61.] .
106 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
acts of a civil character, and to settle disputes between Jews in
accordance with the "Mosaic law" (iuxta ritum et morem
legis illorum Mosaicae ) and the supplementary Jewish legislation.
In conjunction with the Kahal elders they are empowered
to subject offenders against the law to excommunication
and other punishments, such as the Jewish customs may
prescribe. In case the person punished in this manner does not
recant within a month, the matter· is to be brought to the
knowledge of the king, who may sentence the incorrigible malefactor
to death and confiscate his property. The local officers
of the king are enjoined to lend their assistance in carrying
out the orders of the rabbis and elders.
This enactment, coupled with a number of similar charters,
which were subsequently promulgated for various provinces of
Poland, conferred upon the elective representatives of the J ewish
communities extensive autonomy in economic and administrative
as well as judicial affairs, at the same time insuring
its practical realization by placing at its disposal the power of
the royal administration.
The firm consolidation of the regime of the self-governing
community, the Kahal, dates from that period. In this appellation
two concepts were merged: the "community," the
aggregate of the local Jews, on the one hand, and, on the other,
the "communal administration," representing the totality of
all the Jewish institutions of a given locality, including the
rabbinate. The activity of the Kahals assumed particularly
large proportions beginning with the latter half of the sixteenth
century.
All cities and towns with a Jewish population had their
separate Kahal boards. Their size corresponded roughly to
that of the given community. In large centers the memberTHE
INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 107
ship of the Kahal board amounted to forty; in smaller towns
it was limited to ten. The members of the Kahal were elected
annually during the intermediate days of Passover. As a rule
the election proceeded according to a double-graded system.
Several electors (barerim), their number varying from nine
to five, were appointed by lot from among the members of all
synagogues, and these electors, after taking a solemn oath, chose
the Kahal elders. The elders were divided into groups.
Two of these, the rashim and tubim (the "heads" and
" optimates "), stood at the head of the administration, and
were in charge of the general affairs of the community. They
were followed by the dayyanim, or judges, and the gabbaim, or
directors, who managed the synagogues as well as the educational
and charitable institutions. The rashim and tubim
formed the nucleus of the Kahal, seven of them making a
quorum; in the smaller communities they were practically
identical with the Kahal board.
The sphere of the Kahal's activity was very large. Within
the area allotted to it the Kahal collected and turned over
to the exchequer the state taxes, arranged the assessment
of imposts, both of a general and a special character, took charge
of the synagogues, the Talmudic academies, the cemeteries,
and other communal institutions. The Kahal executed titledeeds
on real estate, regulated the instruction of the young,
organized the affairs appertaining to charity and to commerce
and handicrafts, and with the help of the dayyanim and the
rabbi settled disputes between the members of the community.
As for the rabbi, while exercising unrestricted authority in
religious affairs, he was in all else dependent on the Kahal
board, which invited him to his post for a definite term. Only
great authorities, far-famed on account of their Talmudic
108 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
erudition, were able to assert their influence in all departments
.• of communal life.
The Kahal of each city extended its authority to the adjacent
settlements and villages which did not possess autonomous
organizations of their own. Moreover, the Kahals of the large
centers kept under their jurisdiction the minor Kahale, or
prikahalki/ as they were officially called, of the towns and
townlets of their district, as far as the apportionment of taxes
and the judicial authority were concerned. This gave rise to
the" Kahal boroughs," or gheliloth (singular, galil). Often
disputes arose between the Kahal boroughs as to the boundaries
of their districts, the contested minor communities submitting
now to this, now to the other, "belligerent." On the whole,
however, the moderate centralization of self-government benefited
the Jewish population, since it introduced order and discipline
into the Kahal hierarchy, and enabled it to defend the
civil and national interests of Judaism more effectively.
The capstone of this Kahal organization were the so-called
Woods: the conferences or assemblies of rabbis and Kahal
leaders. These conferences received their original impetus from
the rabbis and judges. The rabbinical law courts, officially
endowed with extensive powers, were guided in their decisions
by the legislation embodied in the Bible and the Talmud, which
made full provision for all questions of religious, civil, and
domestic life as well as for all possible infractions of the law.
Yet it was but natural that even in this extensive system of law
disputed points ~hould arise for which the competency of a
single rabbi did not suffice. Moreover there were cases in
which the litigants appealed from the decision of one rabbinical
(1 Literally. By·Kahals.]
["a = short German a. In Hebrew '111.]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 109
court to another, more authoritative, court. Finally lawsuits
would occasionally arise between groups of the population, between
one community and another, or between a private person ~
and a Kahal board. For such emergencies conferences of rabbis
and elders would be called from time to time as the highest
court of appeal.
Beginning with the middle of the sixteenth century these
conferences met at the time of the great fairs, when large
numbers of people congregated from various places, and litigants
arrived in connection with their business affairs. The
chief meeting-place was the Lublin fair, owing to the fact that
Lublin was the residence of the father of Polish rabbinism,
the above-mentioned Rabbi Shalom Shakhna, who was officially
recognized as the "senior rabbi" of Little Poland. As far
back as in the reign of Sigismund I. the " Jewish doctors," or
rabbis, met there for the purpose of settling civil disputes
" according to their law." In the latter part of the sixteenth
century these conferences of rabbis and communal leaders,
assembling in connection with the Lublin fairs, became more
frequent, and led in a short time to the organization of regular,
periodic conventions, which were attended by representatives
from the principal Jewish communities of the whole of Poland.
The activity of these conferences, or conventions, passed,
by gradual expansion, from the judicial sphere into that of
administration and legislation. At these conventions laws were
adopted determining the order of Kahal elections, fixing the
competency of the rabbis and judges, granting permits for
publishing books, and so forth. Occasionally these assemblies
of Jewish notables endorsed by their authority the enactments
of the Polish Government. Thus, in 1580, the representatives
of the Polish-Jewish communities, who assembled in
110 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
. Lublin, gave their solemn sanction to the well-known Polish
law barring the Jews of the Crown, of Poland proper, from
farming state taxes and other public revenues, iil view of
the fact that" certain people, thirsting for gain and wealth, to
be obtained from extensive leases, might thereby expose the
community to great danger."
Towards the end of the sixteenth century the fair conferences
received a firmer organization. They were attended by the
rabbis and Kahal representatives of the following provinces:
Great Poland (the leading community being that of Posen),
Little Poland (Cracow and Lublin), Red Russia (Lemberg),
Volhynia (Ostrog and Kremenetz), and Lithuania
(Brest and Grodno). Originally the name of the assembly
varied with the number of provinces represented in it, and it
was designated as the Council of the Three, or the Four, or
the Five, Lands. Subsequently, when Lithuania withdrew
from the Polish Kahal organization, establishing a federation
of its own, and the four provinces of the Crown1began to send
their delegates regularly to these conferences,the name of the
assembly was ultimately fixed as "the Council of the Four
Lands" (Waad Arba Aratzoth).
The "Council" was made up of several leading rabbis of
Poland: and of one delegate for each of the principal Kahals
selected from among their elders-the number of the conferees
altogether amounting to about thirty. They met
periodically, once or twice a year, in Lublin and Yaroslav
(Galicia) alternately. As a rule, the Council assembled in
Lublin in early spring, between Purim and Passover, and in
Yaroslav at the end of the summer, before the high holidays.
[' Great Poland, Little Poland, Red Russia, and Volhynia. Volhynia
at first formed part of the Lithuanian Duchy, but was ceded
to the Crown, in 1669, by the Union of Lublin.]
• In the middle of the seventeenth century their number was six.
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 111
The representatives of the Four Lands-says a well-known
annalist of the first half of the seventeenth century '-reminded
one of the Sanhedrin, which in ancient days assemblej in the
Chamber of Hewn Stones (lishkath ha-gazith) of the temPle. They
dispensed justice to all the Jews of the Polish realm, issued preventive
measures and obligatory enactments (takkanoth), and
imposed penalties as they saw fit. All the difficult cases were
brought before their court. To facilitate matters the delegates of
the Four Lands appointed [a special commission of] so-called
••provincial judges" (dayyane mcdinoth) to settle disputes concerning
property, while they themselves [in plenary session] examined
criminal cases, matters appertaining to hazaka (priority of
possession) and other difficult points of law.
The Council of the Four Lands was the guardian of Jewish
civil interests in Poland. It sent its shtadlans' to the residential
city of Warsaw' and other meeting-places of the Polish
Diets for the purpose of securing from the king and his dignitaries
the ratification of the ancient Jewish privileges, which
had been violated by the local authorities, or of forestalling
contemplated restrictive laws and increased fiscal burdens for
the Jewish population.
But the main energy of the Waad was directed towards the
regUlation of the inner life of the Jews. The statute of 1607,
framed, aJ;the instance of the Waad, bv Joshua Falk Cohen,
1Nathan Hannover, in his Yeven Metzula [see p. 157, n. 1], ed.
Venice, 1663, p. 12.
[. A Hebrew term designating Tmblic-l'piriten Jews who defend
the interests of their coreligionists before the Government. In
Polish official documents they are referred to as ••General Syndics."
In Poland the shtadlans were regular officials maintained by the
Jewish community. Compothe article by L. Lewin, Der Schtadlan
im Posener Ghetto, in Festschrift published in honor of Dr. Wolf
Feilchenfeld (1907), pp. 31 et seq.]
• Towards the end of the sixteenth century Warsaw, instead of
Cracow, became the residence of the Polish kings. The Jews had
no right of domicile in Warsaw, and were permitted only to visit
it temporarily. [see p. 86.]
8
112 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Rabbi of Lublin, is typical of this solicitude. The following
rules are prescribed for the purpose of fostering piety and commercial
integrity among the Jewish people: to pay special
attention to the observance of the dietary laws, to refrain from
adopting the Christian form of dress; not to drink wine with
Christians in the pot-houses, in order not to be classed among
the disreputable members of the community; to watch over
the chastity of Jewish women, particularly ill the villages
where the Jewish arendars 1 with their families were isolated
in the midst of the Christian population. In the same statute
rules are also laid down tending to restrain the activities of
Jewish usurers and to regulate money credit in general.
In 1623 the Kahals of Lithuania withdrew from the federation
of the Four Lands, and established a provincial organization
of their own, which was centralized in the convention of
delegates from the three principal Kahals of Brest, Groduo, and
Pinsk. Subsequently, in 1652 and 1691, the Kahals of Vilna
and Slutzk were added. The Lithuanian assembly was generally
designated as the" Council of the Principal Communities
of the Province of Lithuania" (Waad J{ ehilloth Rashioth di-
Medinath Lita). The organic statute, framed by the first
Council, comprises many aspects of the social and spiritual life
of the Jews. It lays down rules concerning the mutual relationship
of the communities, the methods of apportioning the taxes
among them, the relations with the outside world (such as the
Polish Diets, the local authorities, the landed nobility, and the
urban estates), the elections of the Kahals, and the question of
popular education. The Lithuanian Waad met every three
years in various cities of Lithuania, but in cases of emergency
extraordinary conventions were called. During the first years
[' See p. 93, n. 1.]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 113
of its existence the Lithuanian Council was evidently subordinate
to that of Poland, but at a later date this dependence
ceased. .
In this way both the Crown, or Poland proper, and Lithuania
had their communal federations with central administrative
agencies. As was pointed out previously, the Polish federation
was composed of four provinces. l'he individual Kahals,
which were the component parts of each of tllese four provinces,
held their own provincial assemblies, which stood in the same
relation to the Waad as the " Dietines," or provincial Diets,
of Poland, to the national Diet of the whole country.' Thus
the communities of Great Poland had their own Great-Polish
" Dietine," those of Volhynia their own Volhynian " Dietine,"
and so forth. The provincial Kahal conventions met for the
purpose of allotting the taxes to the individual communities
of a given province, in proportion to the size of its population,
or of electing delegates to the federated Council. These Jewish
Dietines acted as the intermediate agencies of self-government,
standing half-way between the individual Kahals on the one
hand and ilie general Waads of the Crown and of Lithuania
un the other.
This firmly-knit organization of communal self-government
could not but foster among the Jews of Poland a spirit of discipline
and obedience to the law. It had an educational effect
on the Jewish populace, which was left by the Government to
itself, and had no share in the common life of the country. It
provided the stateless nation with a substitute for national and
political self-expression, keeping public spirit and civic virtue
alive in it, and upholding and unfolding its genuine culture.
[' See p. 76. n. 1.]
'114 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND

2. THE INSTRUCTION OF THE YOUNG

One of the mainstays of this genuine culture was the autonomous
school. The instruction of the rising generation was the
object of constant solicitude on the part of the Kahals and the
rabbis as well as the conventions and Councils. Elementary
and secondary education was centered in the heders, while
higher education was fostered in the yeshibahs. Attendance
at the heder was compulsory for all children of school age, approximately
from six to thirteen. The subjects of instruction
at these schools were the Bible in the original, accompanied by
a translation into the Judeo-German vernacular,' and the ,.
easier treatises of the Talmud with commentaries. In some
heders the study of Hebrew grammar and the four fundamental
operations of arithmetic were also admitted into the curriculutn.
The establishment of these heders was left to private
initiative, every melammed, or Jewish elementary teacher, being
allowed to open a heder for boys and to receive compensation
for his labors from their parents. Only the heders for poor
children or for orphans, the so-called Talmud Torahs, were
maintained by the community from public funds. Yet the
supervision of the Kahal extended not only to the public, but
also to the private, elementary schools. The Kahal prescribed
the curriculum of the heders, arranged examinations for the
scholars, fixed the remuneration of the teachers, determined the
(1 The so-called Jiidisch-Deutsch, which was by the Jews brought
from Germany to Poland and Lithuania. It was only in the
latter part of the seventeenth century that the dialect of Polish·
Lithuanian Jewry began to depart from the Jiidisch-Deutsch as
spoken by the ·German Jews, thus laying the foundation for
modern Yiddish. See l)ubnow's article ••On the Spoken Dialect
and the 'Popular Literature of the Polish and Lithuanian Jews in
the Sixteenth and the First Half of the Seventeenth Century," in
the periodical Yevreyskaya Starina, 1. (1909), pp. 1 et seq.]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 115
hours of instruction (which were generally from eight to
twelve a day), and took charge of the whole school work, in
some places even appointing a sort of school board (Hevrak
Talmud Torah) from among its own members.
The higher Talmudic school or college, the yeshibab, was
entirely under the care of the Kabal and the rabbis. This
school, which provided a complete religious and juridical education
based on the Talmud and the rabbinical codes of law,
received the sanction of the Polish Government. King Sigismund
Augustus granted the Jewish community of Lublin
permission to open a yeshibah, or " gymnazium " (gymnazium
ad instituendos homines illorum religionis), with a synagogue
attached to it, bestowing upon its president, a learned rabbi,
not only the title of " rector," but also extensive powers over
the affairs of the community (1567). Four years later the
same King granted an even larger license to "the learned Solomon
of Lemberg, whom the Jewish community of Lemberg and
the whole land of Russia 1have chosen for their' senior doctor'
(ab-beth-din, or rosh-yeshibah)," conferring upon him the
right to open schools in various cities, "to train the students
in the sciences," to keep them under his control, and to inure
them to a strict discipline.
In the course of time Talmudic yeshibahs sprang up in all the
cities of Poland and Lithuania. The functions of rector, or
rosh-yeshibah, were performed either by the local rabbi or by
a man especially selected for this post on account of his learning.
It seems that the combination of the two officesof rabbi
and college president in one person was limited to those com•.
munities in which the duties of the spiritual guide of the community
were not complex, and admitted of the simultaneous
[' 1. e. Red Russia, or Galicia.]
116 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
discharge of pedagogic functions. In the large centers, however,
where the public responsibilities were regularly divided,
the rosh-yeshibah was an independent dignitary, who was
clothed with considerable authority. Similar to the contemporary
rectors of Jesuit colleges, the rosh-yeshibah was absolute
master within the school walls; he exercised unrestricted
control over his pupils, subjecting them to a well-established
discipline and dispensing justice among them.
The c0Jitemporary chronicler quoted above, Rabbi Nathan
IIannover, of Zaslav, in Volhynia, portrays in vivid colors the
Jewish school life of Poland and Lithuania in the first half
of the seventeenth century.
In no country-quoth Rabbi Nathan '-was the study of the
Torah so widespread among the Jews as in the Kingdom of Pola~d.
Every Jewish community maintained a yeshibah, paying its presi·
dent a large salary, so as to enable him to conduct the institution
without worry and to devote himself entirely to the pursuit of
learning. . .. Moreover, every Jewish community supported college
students (bahurs), giving them a certain amount of money
per week, so that they might study under the direction of the
president. Everyone of these bahurs was made to instruct at
least two boys, for the purpose of deepening his own studies and
gaining some experience in Talmudic discussions. The [poor]
boys obtained their food either from the charity fund or from the
public kitchen. A community of fifty Jewish families would support
no less than thirty of these young men and boys, one family
supplying board for one college student and his two pupils, the
former sitting at the family table like one of the sons.. . . . There
was scarcely a house in the whole Kingdom of Poland where the
Torah was not studied, and where either the head of the family
or his son or his son-in-law, or the yeshibah student boarding with
him, was not an expert in Jewish learning; frequently all of these
t Yellen Metzula [see p. 157, n. 1], towards the end.
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 117
could be found under one roof. For this reason every community
contained a large number of scholars. a community of fifty families
having as many as twenty learned men. who were styled
morenu 1 or haller." They were all excelled by the rosh-yeshibah.
all the scholars submitting to his authority and studying under
him at the yeshibah.
The program of study in Poland was as follows: The scholastic
term during which the young men and the boys were obliged to
study under the rosh-yeshibah lasted from the beginning of the
-month of Iyyar until the middle of Ab [approximately from April
until July] in the summer and from the first of the month of
Heshvan until the fifteenth of Shebat [October-June] in the winter.
Outside of these terms the young men and the boys were free to
choose their own place of study. From the beginning of the summer
term until Shabuoth and from the beginning of the winter
term until Hanukkah all the students of the yeshibah studied with
great intensity the Gemara [the Babylonian Talmud] and the commentaries
of Rashi " and the Tosafists.4
The scholars and young students of the community as well
as all interested in the study of the Law assembled daily at the
yeshibah. where the president alone occupied a chair, while
the scholars and college students stood around him. Before
the appearance of the rosh-yeshibah they would discuss questions
of Jewish law. and when he arrived every one laid his difficulties
before him. and received an explanation. Thereupon silence
was restored. and the rosh-yeshibah delivered his lecture. presenting
the new results of his study. At the conclusion of the
[1 Literally. " our teacher." a title bestowed since the Middle Ages
on every ordained rabbi.]
["Literally. ••companion." ••colleague." a title conferred upon
men who. without being ordained. have attained a high degree of
scholarship. ]
[" Abbreviation for Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (d. 1105). a famous
French rabbi. whose commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud
are marked by wonderful lucidity.]
[4A school of Talmudic authorities, mostly of French origin, who.
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. wrote Tosafoth (literally •
••Additions"). critical and exegetical annotations. distinguished
for their ingenuity.]
118 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
lecture he arranged a scientific argumentation (hilZuk), proceeding
in the following way: Various contradictions in the Talmud and
the commentaries were pointed out, and solutions were proposed.
These solutions were, in turn, shown to be contrad.lctory, and other
solutions were offered, this process being continued until the subject
of discussion was completely elucidated. These exercises
• continued in summer at least until midday. From the middle of
the two scholastic terms until their conclusion the rosh-yeshibah
paid less attention to these argumentations, and read instead the
religious codes, studying with the mature scholars the Turim 1
with commentaries, and with the [younger] students the compendium
of Alfas!.' • . .. Several weeks before the close of the term
the rosh-yeshibah would honor the members of his college, both the
scholars and the students, by inviting them to conduct the scientific
disputations on his behalf, though he himself would participate.
in the discussion in order to exercise the mental faculties of
all those attending the yeshibah.
Attached to the president of the yeshibah was an inspector, who
had the duty of visiting the elementary schools, or heders, daily,
and seeing to it that all boys, whether poor or rich, applied themselves
to study and did not loiter in the streets. On Thursdays
the pupils had to present themselves before the trustee (gabbai)
of the Talmud Torah, who examined them in what they had covered
during the week. The boy who knew nothing or who did not
answer adequately was by order of the trustee turned over to
the inspector, who subjected him, in the presence of his fellow-
pupils, to severe physical punishment and other painfuL
degradations, that he might firmly resolve to improve in his studies
during the following week. On Fridays the heder pupils presented
themselves in a body before the rosh-yeshibah himself, to undergo
[' Hebrew for "Rows," with reference to the four rows of
precious stones in the garment of the high priest (Ex. xxviii., 17)-
title of a code of laws composed by Rabbi Jacob ben Asher (died at
Toledo ab. 1340). It is divided into four parts, dealing respectively
with ritual, dietary, domestic, and civil laws. The Turim was the
forerunner of the Shulhan Arukh, for which it served as a model.]
[" Isaac ben Jacob :>1·Fasi (i. e. from Fez in North Africa) (died
1103), author of a famous Talmudic compendium.]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 119
a similar examination. This had a strong deterrent effect upon the
boys, and they devote4 themselves energetically to their studies .
. . . . The scholars, seeing this [the honors showered upon the
rosh-yeshibah], coveted the same distinction, that of becoming a
rosh-yeshibah in some community. They studied assiduously in
consequence. Prompted originally by self-interest, they gradually
came to devote themselves to the Torah from pure, unselfish
motives.
By way of contrast to this panegyric upon Polish-Jewish
school life, it is only fair that we should quote another contemporary,
who severely criticizes the methods of instruction
then in vogueat the yeshibahs.
The whole instruction at the yeshibah-writes the well-known
preacher Solomon Ephraim of Lenchitza (d. 1619)l---reduces itself
to mental equilibristics and empty argumentations called hilluk.
It is dreadful to contemplate that some venerable rabbi, presiding
over a yeshibah, in his anxiety to discover and communicate to
others some new interpretation, should offer a perverted explanation
of the Talmud, though he himself and every one else be fully
aware that the true meaning is different. Can it be God's will
that we sharpen our minds by fallacies and sophistries, spending
our time in vain and teaching the listeners to do likewise? And
all this for the mere ambition of passing for a great scholar! ...
I myself have more than once argued with the Talmudic celebrities
of our time, showing the need for abolishing the method of pUpul
and hilluk, without being abltl to convince them. This attitude can
only be explained by the eagerness of these scholars for honors and
rosh-yeshibah posts. These empty quibbles have a particularly
pernicious effect on our bahurs, for the reason that the bahur who
does not shine in the discussion is looked down upon as incapable,
and is practically forced to lay aside his studies, though he might
prove to be one of the best, if Bible, ,Mishnah, Talmud, and the
Codes were studied in a regular fashion. I myself have known
1W "'cv, ed. Lemberg, 1865, pp. 18b, 61b.
120 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
capable young men who, not having distinguished themselves in
pilpul, forfeited the respect of their fellow-students, and stopped
studying altogether a.fter their marriage.
Secular studies were not included in the curriculum of the
yeshibahs. The religious codes composed during that period
allow the study of "the other sciences" only "on occasion,"
and only to those who have completely mastered Talmudic and
rabbinic literature. Needless to say, no yeshibah student
could lay claim to such mastery until the completion. of the
college course. Moreover, the secular sciences had to be
excluded from the yeshibah, for the external reason that
the latter was generally located in a sacred place, near the
synagogue, where the mere presence of a secular book was
regarded as a profanation. Yet it occasionally happened that
young men strayed away from the path of the Talmud, and
secretly indulged in the study of secular sciences and of Aristotelian
philosophy. This fact is attested by the great rabbinical
authority of the sixteenth century, Rabbi Solomon Luria. "I
myself "-he writes indignantly-" have seen the prayer of
Aristotle copied in the prayer-books of the bahurs." This
somewhat veiled expression indicates, in all likelihood, that
among the books of the yeshibah students" contraband" was
occasionally discovered, in the shape of manuscripts of philosophic
content. Unfortunately we hear nothing more definite
as to the way in which the Jewish youth of that period became
infatuated with anathematized philosophy. We have reason to
assume, however, that such deviations from the rigorous discipline
of rabbinical scholarship were few and far between.
'rhe yeshibahs, providing as they did an academic training,
were the nurseries of that intellectual aristocracy which subsequently
became so powerful a factor in the life of Polish-LithuTHE
INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 121
anian Jewry. ,'l'his numerically considerable class of scholars
looked down upon the uneducated multitude. Yet the level of
literacy even among the latter was comparatively high. All
boys, without exception, attended the heder, where they studied
the Hebrew language and the Bible, while many devoted themselves
to the Talmud. A different attitude is observable towards
female education. Girls remained outside the school, their instruction
not being considered obligatory according to the
Jewish law. No heders for g.irls are mentioned in any of the
documents of the time. Nor did a single woman attain to literary
fame among the Jews of Poland and Lithuania. The girls
were taught at home to read the prayers, but they were seldom
instructed in the Hebrew language, so that the majority of
women had but a very imperfect notion of the meaning of the
prayers in the original. In consequence, the women began at
that time to use the translations of the prayers in the Jewish
vernacular, the so-called Ju,disch-Deutsch.

3. THE HIGH-WATER MARK OF RABBINIC LEARNING

The high intellectual level of the Polish Jews was the result
of their relative economic prosperity. As for the character of
their mental productivity, it was the direct outcome of their
social autonomy. The vast system of Kahal self-government
enhanced not only the authority of the rabbi, but also that of
the learned Talmudist and of every layman familial' with J ewish
law. 'fhe rabbi discharged, within the limits of his community,
the functions of spiritual guide, head of the yeshibah,
and inspector of elementary schools, as well as those of legislator
and judge. An acquaintance with the vast and complicated
Talmudic law was to a certain extent necessary even for
the layman who occupied the office of an elder (parnas, or
124 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
When, a few years later, the latter published his own code,
under the name of Shulhan Arukh (" The Dressed Table "),
Isserles called attention to the fact that its author, being a
Sephardic Jew, had failed in many cases to utilize the investigations
of the rabbinic authorities among the Ashkenazim,
and had left out of consideration the local religious customs, or
minhagirn, which were current among various groups of
German-Polish Jewry. These omissions were carefully noted
and supplied by Isserles. He supplemented the text of the
Shulhan Arukh by a large nu#er of new laws, which he had
framed on the basis of the above-mentioned popular customs
or of the religious and legal practice of the Ashkenazic rabbis.
Caro's code having been named by the author" The Dressed
Table," Isserles gave his supplements thereto the title" Tablecloth"
(Mappa) " In this supplemented form the Shulhan
Arukh was introduced, as a code of Jewish rabbinic law, into
the religious and everyday life of the Polish Jews. The first
edition of this combined code of Caro and Issel'les appeared in
Cracow in 1578, followed by numerous reprints, which testify
to the extraordinary popularity of the work.
The Shulhan Arukh became the substructure for the further
development of Polish rabbinism. Only very few scholars of
consequence had the courage to challenge the authority of this
generally acknowledged code of laws. One of these courageous
men was the contemporary and correspondent of Isserles, Solomon
Luria, known by the abbreviated name of ReS HaL '
(ab. 1510-1573). Solomon Luria was a native of Posen,
whither his grandfather had immigrated from Germany. Endowed
with a subtle, analytic mind, Luria was a determined
1 Popularly, however, Isserles' supplements are called Haugahoth
(" Annotations").
• "'W'l[initials of Rabbi SHelomo Luria].
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 125
opponent of the new school dialectics (pilpul), taking for his
model the old casuistic method of the Tosafists: which consisted
in a detailed criticism and an ingenious analysis of the
Talmudic texts. In this spirit he began to compose his remarkable
commentary on the Talmud (Yam shel Shelomo,
"Sea of Solomon" 2), but succeeded, in interpreting only a
few tractates.
In all his investigations Luria manifested boldness of
thought and independence of judgment, without sparing the
authorities whenever he believed them to be in the wrong.
Of the Shulhan Arukh and its author Luria spoke slightingly,
claiming that Joseph Caro had used his sources without the
necessary discrimination, and had decided many moot points of
law arbitrarily. In consequence of this independence of judgment,
Solomon Luria had many enemies in the scholarly world,
but he had, on the other hand, many enthusiastic admirers and
devoted disciples. In the middle of the sixteenth century he
occupied the post of rabbi in the city of Ostrog, in Volhynia.
By his Talmudic lectures, which attracted students from the
whole region, he made this city the intellectual center of Volhynian
and Lithuanian Jewry. The last years of his life he
spent in Lublin, where to this day there exists a synagogue
which bears his name.
Luria and Isserles were looked upon as the pillars of Polish
rabbinisnt. Questions of Jewish ritual and law were submitted
to them for decision, not only from various parts of their own
country but also from Western Europe, from Italy, Germany,
and Bohemia. Their replies to these inquiries, or " Responsa "
(Shaaloth u-Teshuboth), have been gathered in special collections.
[' See p. 117, n. 4.]
[' Allusion to I Kings vii. 23-26.]
126 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
These two rabbis also carried on a scientific correspondence
with each other. As a result of their divergent characte~ and
trend of mind, heated discussions frequently took place between
them. Thus Luria, in spite of all his sobriety of intellect,
gravitated towards the Cabala, while Isserles, with all his rabbinic
conservatism, devoted part of his leisure to philosophy.
The two scholars rebuked each other for their respective
" weaknesses." Luria maintained that the wisdom of the
"uncircumcised Aristotle" could be of no benefit, while
Isserles tried to prove that many views of the Cabala were not
in accord with the ideas of the Talmud, and that mysticism was
more dangerous to faith than a moderate philosophy.
Isserles was right. The philosophy with which he occupied
himself could scarcely be destructive of Orthodoxy. This is
shown by his large work Torath ha-'Olah (" The Law of the
Burnt-Offering," 1570)" which represents a weird mixture of
religious and philosophic discussions on themes borrowed from
Maimonides' "Guide of the Perplexed," interspersed with
speculations about the various classes of angels or the architecture
of the Jerusalem temple, its vesselsand order of sacrifices.
The author professes to detect in all the details of the temple
service a profound symbolism. Notwithstanding the strange
plan of the book there are many chapters in it that show the
intimate familiarity of Isserles with the philosophic literature
of the Sephardim, a remarkable record for an Ashkenazic
rabbi of the sixteenth century.
The intimate connection between rabbinic learning and Jewish
life stood out in bold relief from the moment the" Council
of the Four Lands" began to discharge its regular functions.
The Council had frequent occasion to decide, for practical
purposes, complicated questions appertaining to domestic,
[' AlluBion to Lev. vi. 2.]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 127
civil, and criminal law, or relating to legal procedure and
religious practice, and the rabbis who participated in these
conferences as legal experts were forced to accomplish a
'large amount of concrete, tangible work for themselves and
their colleagues. Questions of law and ritual were everywhere
assiduously investigated and elaborated, with that subtle
analysis peculiar to the Jewish mind, which pursues every
idea to its remotest consequences and its most trifling details.
The subject as well as the method of investigation depended,
as a rule, on the social position of the investigator. The rabbis
of higher rank, who took an active part in the Kahal administration,
and participated in the meetings of the Councils, either
of the Crown or of Lithuania, paid particular attention to the
practical application of Talmudic law. One of the oldest
scholars of this category during the period under discussion
was Mordecai J aife (died 1612), a native of Bohemia, who
occupied the post of rabbi successively in Grodno, Lublin,
Kremenetz, Prague, and Posen. Towards the end of the sixteenth
century he presided a number of times over the conferences
of the " Council of the Four Lands." Though a pupil
of Moses Isserles, Jaffe did not consider the Shulhan Arukh
as supplemented by his teacher the last word in codification.
He objected to the fact that its juridical conclusions were
formulated dogmatically, without sufficient motivation.
For this reason he undertook the composition of a new and
more elaborate code of laws, arranged in the accepted order of
the four books of the Turim,' which is known as Lebushim, or
" Raiments." • The method of Mordecai Jaffe differs from
P See p. 118, n. 1.]
[" The titles of the various parts of his work are all composed of
the word Lebu8h (" Raiment ") and some additional epithet, borrowed,
with reference to the author's name, from the description of
Mordecai's garments, in Esther viii. 15.]
I
128 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
that of Joseph Caro and Isserles in the wealth of the scientific
discussions which accompany every legal clause. At first
Jaffe's code created a split in the rabbinical world, and
threatened to weaken the authority of the Shulhan Arukh.
In the end, however, the latter prevailed, and was acknowledged
as the only authoritative guide for the religious and juridical
practice of Judaism. Apart from his code, Mordecai Jaffe
wrote, under the same general title Lebushim, five more
volumes, containing Bible commentaries, synagogue sermons,
and annotations to Maimonides' " Guide," as well as Cabalistic
speculations.
Jaffe's successor as leading rabbi and president of the
" Council of the Four Lands" was, in all likelihood, Joshua
Falk Cohen (died 1616), Rabbi of Lublin and subsequently
rector of the Talmudic yeshibah in Lemberg. He attained to
fame through his commentary to the Hoshen Mishpal, the part
of Caro's code dealing with civil law,' which he called Sepher
Me~rath'Ena~m, " A Book of the Enlightenment of the Eyes" S
(abbreviated to SeM'A) . He also framed, at the instance of
the Waad, a large part of the above-mentioned regulations of
1607: which were issued for the purpose of establishing piety
and good morals more firmly among the Jews of Poland.
A more scholastic and less practical tendency is noticeable
in the labors of Joshua Falk's contemporary, Melr of Lublin
(1554-1616), known by the abbreviated name of MaHaHaM:
[1 The 8hulhan Arukh, following the arrangement of the Turim
(see above, p. 118, n. 1), is divided into four parts, the fourth
of which, dealing with civil law, is called Hoshen Mishpat, ••Breastplate
of Judgment," with reference to Ex. xxviii. 16.]
[S Allusion to Ps. xix. 9.]
• See pp. 111 and 112.
• C",nc [initials ot Morenu (see p. 117, n. 1) Ha-rab (the
rabbi) Rabbi Meir.]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 129
He was active as rabbi in Cracow, Lemberg, and Lublin, delivered
Talmudic discourses before large audiences, wrote ingenious,
casuistic commentaries to the most important treatises
of the Talmud (entitled Me"ir'Ene Hahamim, "Enlightening
the Eyes of the Wise "), and was busy replying to the numerous
inquiries addressed to him by scholars from all parts (Shaalolh
u-Teshubolh Maharam). Laying particular stress on subtle
analysis, Rabbi Meir of Lublin looked down upon the codifiers
and systematic writers of the class to which Isserles and
Jde belonged. The trifling minuteness of his investigations
may be illustrated by the fact that he considered it
necessary to write a special "opinion" about the question
whether a woman is guilty of conjugal infidelity, if she is
convicted of having had relations with the devil, the latter
having visited her first in the shape of her husband and afterwards
in the disguise of a Polish nobleman.
In the domain of dialectics Rabbi Meir found a successful
rival in the person of Samuel Edels, known by the abbreviated
name of MaHaRSHO 1 (died 1631), who occupied the post
of rabbi in Posen, Lublin, and Ostrog. In his comprehensive
expositions to all the sections of the Talmudic Halakha (Hiddushe
Halakholh, "Novel Expositions of the Halakha "), he
endeavored principally to ex-ercisethe thinking faculties and
the memory of his students by an ingenious comparison of
texts and by other scholastic intricacies. The dialectic commentary
of Edels became one of the most important handbooks
for the study of the Talmud in the heders and yeshibahs,
and is frequently used there in our own days. His commentary
on the Talmudic Haggada is strewn over with Cabalistic and
1 N'~'nt:l [initials of Morenu Ha-rab Rabbi SHemue!
E(N =o)dels. Compo the preceding note].
130 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
religio-philosophic ideas of the conservative Jewish thinkers of
the Middle Ages.
In the middle of the seventeenth century the authority of the
Shulhan Arukh, as edited by Isserles, had been so firmly established
in Poland that this code was studied a~d expounded with
even greater zeal than the Talmud. Joel Sirkis (died 1640)
delivered lectures on Jewish Law on the basis of the Turim
and the Shulhan Arukh. He wrote a commentary to the
. former under the name of Beth Hadash (" New House," abbreviated
to BaH), and published a large number of opinions on
questions of religious law. He held the Cabala in esteem, while
condemning philosophy violently. His younger contemporaries
devoted themselves exclusively to the exposition of the
Shulhan Arukh, particularly to the section called Yore I!e'a:
dealing with the Jewish ritual, such as the religious customs of
the home, the dietary laws, etc. Two elaborate commentaries
to the Yore De'a appeared in 1646, the one composed by David
Halevi, rabbi in Lemberg and Ostrog, under the title Ture
ZahalJ: and the other written by the famous Vilna scholar
Sabbatai Kohen, under the name Sifthe Kohen (" Lips of
the Priest")" These two commentaries, known by their
abbreviated titles of TaZ and ShaK, have since that time been
published together with the text of the Shulhan Arukh.
This literary productivity was largely stimulated by the
rapid growth of Jewish typography in Poland. The first Jew-
[' Literally, .•Teaching Knowledge" (from Isaiah xxv111.9), the
title of the second part of the Shulhan Arukh. See above, p. 128,
n.l.]
[t ••Rows of Gold," allusion to the T.rim (see above, p. 118, n.
I), with a clever play on the similarly sounding words in Cant.
l. 11.-Subsequently David Halevi extended his commentary to the
other parts of the Shulhan Arukh.]
[t Allusion to Mal. U. 7.-Later Sabbatai extended his commentary
to the civil section of the Bhulhan Arukh, called Ho.1I.en
JlM1I.pat (see p. 128, n. 1).]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 131
ish book printed in that country is the Pentateuch (Cracow,
1530). In the second half of the sixteenth century two
large printing-presses, those of 'Cracow and Lublin, were active
in publishing a vast number of old and new books from the
domain of Talmudic, Rabbinic, and popular-didactic literature.
In 1566 King Sigismund Augustus granted Benedict Levita,
of Cracow, the monopoly of importing into Poland Jewish
books from abroad. Again, in 1578, Stephen Batory bestowed
on a certain Kalman the right of printing Jewish books in Lublin,
owing to the difficulty of importing them from abroad.
One of the causes of this intensified typographic activity in
Poland was the papal censorship of the Talmud, which was
established in Italy in 1564. From that time the printingoffices
of Cracow and Lublin competed successfully with the
technically perfected printing-presses of Venice and Prague,
and the Polish book-market, as a result, was more and more
dominated by local editions.

4. SECULAR SCIENCES, PHILOSOPHY, CABALA, AND APOLOGETICS

The Talmudiq and Rabbinic science of law, absorbing as it
did the best mental energies of Polish Jewry, left but little
room for the other branches of literary endeavor. Among the
daring "swimmers in the Talmudic ocean," contending for
mastery in erudition and dialectic skill, there were but few
with deeper spiritual longings who evinced an interest in
questions of philosophy and natural science. The only exceptions
were the physicians, who, on account of their profession,
received a secular education at the universities of that period.
Originally the Jewish physicians of Poland were natives
ejther of Spain, whence they had been expelled in 1492, or of
132 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Italy, being in the latter case graduates of the Catholic
University of Padua. Several of these foreign medical men
became the body-physicians of Polish kings, such as Isaac
Hispanus under John Albrecht and Alexander; Solomon Ashkenazi
(who subsequently was physician and diplomat at
the court of the Turkish Sultan Selim II.) under King Sigismund
Augustus; Solomon Calahora under Stephen Batory,
and others. But as early as the first part of the sixteenth century
these foreigners were rivaled by native Jewish physicians,
who traveled from Poland to Padua for the special purpose of
receiving a medical training. Such was, for example, the case
in 1530 with Moses Fishel, of Cracow,who was at once rabbi
and physician. These trips to Italy became very frequent
in the second part of the sixteenth century, and the number of
Polish Jewish students in Padua was on the increase down
to the eighteenth century. It is characteristic that the Christian
Poles studying in Padua refused to enter their Jewish
compatriots upon their "national register," in order, as is
stated in their statutes, "not to mar the memory of so many
celebrated men by the name of an infidel" (1654). In the
university registers the Jewish students appeared as H ebraei
Poloni.
As for religious philosophy, which was then on the wane in
Western Europe, it formed in Poland merely the object of
amateurish exercises on the part of several representatives of
Rabbinic learning. Moses Isserles and Mordecai Jaffe commented,
as was pointed out above,on the" Guide" of Maimonides
in a superficial manner, fighting shy of its inconvenient
rationalistic deductions. The favorite book of the theologians
of that period was Ikkarim (" Principles "), the system of
dogmatic Judaism formulated by the conservative Sephardic
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 133
thinker Joseph Albo. Commentaries to this book were written
by Jacob Koppelman, of Brest-Kuyavsk 1 (Ohel Ya'lcob, "Tent
of Jacob,'" Cracow, 1599), and Gedaliah Lifshitz, of Lublin
(Btz Shathul, "Planted Tree," 1 1618). The former, a lover
of mathematics, loaded his commentary with geometrical and
astronomical arguments, being of the opinion that it was poss- .
ible in this way to prove scientifically the existence of God and
the correlation of all phenomena. The latter was more inclined
towards metaphysics and morals. How far this commentator
was from grasping the true meaning of the original may
be seen from his 'annotations to the introductory theses of
the book. Commenting on the passage in which Albo states
that" the happiness of man depends on the perfection of his
thought and conduct," Lifshitz makes the following observation:
"By human happiness is understood the life beyond the
grave, for the goal of man in this world consists only in the
attainment of eternal bliss after death."
In this way the Polish rabbis fashioned philosophy after theil"
own pattern, and thereby rendered it "harmless." Free research
was impossible, and perhaps not unattended by danger
in an environment where tradition reigned supreme. The
Chief Rabbi of Cracow, the above-mentioned Joel Sirkis, expressed
the view that philosophy was the mother of all heresies,
and that it was the" harlot" of which the wise king had said,
"None that go unto her return again" (Proverbs ii. 19).
He who becomes infatuated with philosophy and neglects the
secret wisdom of the Cabala is liable, in Sirkis' opinion, to
excommunication, and has no place among the faithful. The
well-known mathematician and philosopher Joseph Solomon
[' See p. 76. n. 2.]
[" Allusion to Gen. xxv. 27.]
[" Allusion to Ps. 1. 3.]
134 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
Delmedigo (called in abbreviated form" YaSHaR of Candia
"1), who spent nearly four years in Poland and Lithuania
(1620-1624), arraigns the Polish Jews for their opposition to
the secular sciences:
Behold-he says in Biblical phraseology '--darkness covereth the
earth, and the ignorant are numerous. For the breadth of thy
land is full of yeshibahs and houses of Talmud study. . .• [The
Jews of Poland] are opposed to the sciences •.... saying, The Lord
hath no deUght in the sharpened arrows of the grammarians, poets,
and logicians, nor in the measurements of the mathematicians and
the calculations of the astronomers.
The Cabala, which might be designated as an Orthodox
counter-philosophy, made constant progress in Poland. The
founder of the Polish Cabala was Mattathiah Delacruta, a
native of Italy, who lived in Cracow. In 1594 he published in
that city the system of Theoretic Cabala, entitled "Gates of
Light" (Sha' are Ora), by a Sephardic writer of the fourteenth
century, Joseph Gicatilla, accompanying it by an elaborate
commentary of his own. Delacruta was,as far as the subject of
the " hidden science" was concerned, the teacher of the versatile
Rabbi Mordecai Jaffe, who, in turn, wrote a supercommentary
to the mystical Bible cOIllmentaryby the Italian
Menahem Recanati. .
Beginning with the seventeenth century, the old Theoretic
Cabala is gradually superseded in Poland by the Practical
Cabala: taught by the new school of ARI' and Vital." The
1 tc~')i'C'''16~[initials of Yosef BHelomo Rofe (physician)].
[' In his book Ma'1lan Gannim (" Fountain of Gardens," allusion
to Cant. iv. 16), Introduction.]
[" ({abbalah ma'asith. a phase of the Cabala which endeavors to
influence the course of nature by Cabalistic practices, in other
words, by performing miracles.]
[' Initials of Ashkenazi Rabbi Isaac [Luria]; he died at Sated
in Palestine in 1672.]
[" Hayyim Vital, also of Saled, died 1620.]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 135
Cabalist Isaiah Horowitz, author of the famous work on
ascetic morals called SHeLoH: had been trained in the yeshiba.
hs of Cracow and Lemberg, and for several years (1600-
1606) occupied the post of rabbi in Volhynia. Ris son, She:ftel
Horowitz, who was rabbi in Posen (1641-1658), published the
mystical work of his father, adding from his own pen a moralist
treatise under the title Vave ha-'Amudim.· Nathan Spira,
preacher and rector of the Talmudic academy in Cracow (1585-
1633), made a specialty of the Practical Cabala. His morc
ingenious than thoughtful book, " Discovering Deep Things" 1
(Megalle 'Amukoth, Cracow, 1637), contains an exposition in
two hundred and fifty-two different ways of Moses' plea before
God for permission to enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy
iii. 23). It consists of an endless chain of Cabalistic wordcombinations
and obscure symbolic allusions, yielding some
inconceivable deductions, such as that Moses prayed to God
concerning the appearance of the two Messiahs of the house
of Joseph and David, or that Moses endeavored to eliminate
the power of evil and to expiate in advance all the sins
that would ever be committed by the Jewish people. Nathan
Spira applied to the Cabala the method of the Rabbinical
pilpul, and created a new variety of dialectic mysticism, which
was just as far removed from sound theology as the scholastic
speculations of the pilpulists were from scientific thinking.
More wholesome and more closely related to life was the
trend of the Jewish apologetic literature which sprang up in
Poland in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The
religious unrest which had been engendered by the Refor-
[' Abbreviation of SHne Luhoth Ha-brith, ••The Two Tables of
the Covenant" (Deut. ix. 15).]
p ••Hooks of the Pillars," allusion to Ex. xxvii. 11.]
[" Allusion to Job xii. 22.]
136 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
mation gave. rise to several rationalistic sects with radical,
anti-ecclesiastic tendencies. Nearest of all to the tenets of
Judaism was the sect of the Anti-Trinitarians (called Unitarians,
Arians, or Socinians 1), who denied the dogma of the
Trinity and the divine nature of Jesus, but recognized the
religious and moral teachings of the Gospels. Amongthe Anti-
Trinitarian leaders were the theologian Simon Budny, of
Vilna, and Martin Chekhovich, of Lublin. Stung by the fact
that the Catholic clergy applied to them the contemptuous appellation
of "J udaizers," or semi-Jews, the sectarians were
anxious to demonstrate to the world that their doctrine had
nothing in common with Judaism. For this purpose they
carried on oral disputes with the rabbis, and tried to expose
the " Jewish falsehoods" in their works.
Martin Chekhovichwas particularly zealousin holding theological
disputations, both in Lublin and in other cities, "with
genuine as well as pseudo-Jews." The results of these disputations
are embodied in several chapters of his books entitled
"Christian Dialogues" (1575) and "Catechism" (1580).
One of his Jewish opponents, Jacob (Nahman) of Belzhytz,'
found it necessaryto answer him in public in a little bookwritten
in the Polish language (Odpis na dya10gi Ozechowicza,
"Retort to the Dialogues of Chekhovich," 1581). Jacob of
Belzhytz defends the simple dogmas of Judaism, and accuses
his antagonists of desiring to arouse hostility to the Jewish
people. The' following observation of Jacob is interesting as
showing the methods of disputation then in vogue:
[1 See above, p. 91, n. 1. There were, however, considerable
differences of opinion among the various factions.]
P A town in the province of Lublin. Jacob became subsequently
court physician c..fSigismund III.; see Kraushar, Hi8toryja Zlldow
w Polsce, ii. 268, n. 1. On his name, see Geiger's Nachgela88ene
Schritten, ili. 213.]
THE INNER LIFE AT ITS ZENITH 137
It often happens that a Christian puts a question to me from
Holy Writ, to which I reply also from Holy Writ, and I try to
argue it properly. But suddenly he will pick out another passage
[from the Bible], saying: "How do you understand this?" and
thus he does not finish the first question, on which it would be
necessary to dwell longer. This is exactly what happens when
the hunter's dogs are hounding the rabbit which fiees from the
road into a by-path, and, while the dogs are trying to catch it,
slips away into the bushes. For this reason the Jew too has to
interrupt the Christian in the midst of his speech, lest the latter
escape like the rabbit as soon as he has finished speaking.
Chekhovich replied to Jacob's pamphlet in print in the same
year. While defending his "Dialogues," he criticized the
errors of the Talmud, and made sport of several Jewish
customs, such as the use of tefillin, mezuza, and tzitzith.
A serious retort to the Christian theologians came from Isaac
Troki, a cultured Karaite,' who died in 1594. He argued
with Catholics, Lutherans, and Arians in Poland, not as a
dilettante, but as a profound student of the Gospels and of
Christian theology. About 1593 he wrote his remarkable
apolog.etic treatise under the title Hizz'lJ,k Em'lJ,na (" Fortification
of the Faith "). In the first part of his book, the author
defends Judaism against the attacks of the Christian theologians,
while in the second he takes the offensive and criticizes
the teachings of the Church. He detects a whole series of contradictions
in the texts of the Synoptic Gospels, pointing out
the radical deviations of the New Testament from the Old and
the departure of the later dogmatism of the Church from the
New Testament itself. With calmness and assurance he proves
the logical and historical impossibility of the interpretations of
the well-known Biblical prophecies which serve as the substructure
of the Christian dogma.
1Some deny that he was a Karaite.
138 THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND
For a long time no one was bold enough to print this" dreadful
treatise," and it was circulated in manuscript both in the
Hebrew original and in a Spanish and German version. The
Hebrew original, accompanied. by a Latin translation, was
printed for the first time from a defective copy by the German
scholar Wagenseil, Professor of Law in Bavaria. Wagenseil
published the treatise Hizzuk Emuna in his collection of anti-
Christian writings, to which he gave the awe-inspiring title
"The Fiery Arrows of Satan" (Tela 19nea Satanae, 1681),
and which were published for missionary purposes, "in order
that the Christians may refute this book, which may otherwise
fortify the Jews in their errors." The pious German professor
could not foresee that his edition would be subsequently employed
by men of the type of Voltaire and the French encyclopedists
of the eighteenth century as a weapon to attack
the doctrine of the Church. Voltaire commented on the book
of Isaac Troki in these words: "N ot even the most decided
opponents of religion have brought forward any arguments
which could not be found in the' Fortification of the Faith '
by Rabbi Isaac." In modern times the Hizzu7c Emuna has
been reprinted from more accurate copies, and has been translated
into several European languages.'
[1An English translation by Moses Mocatta appeared in London
in 1851 under the title "Faith Strengthened."]

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