Chapters on Jewish Literature | Page 2

of external and internal forces. Further, in this arrangement, the Ghetto period would have a place assigned to it as such, for it would again mark the almost complete sway of purely Jewish forces in Jewish literature. Adopting this classification, we should have a wave of Jewish impulse, swollen by the accretion of foreign waters, once more breaking on a Jewish strand, with its contents in something like the same condition in which they left the original spring. All these three methods are true, and this has impelled me to refuse to follow any one of them to the exclusion of the other two. I have tried to trace influences, to observe periods, to distinguish countries. I have also tried to derive color and vividness by selecting prominent personalities round which to group whole cycles of facts. Thus, some of the chapters bear the names of famous men, others are entitled from periods, others from countries, and yet others are named from the general currents of European thought. In all this my aim has been very modest. I have done little in the way of literary criticism, but I felt that a dry collection of names and dates was the very thing I had to avoid. I need not say that I have done my best to ensure accuracy in my statements by referring to the best authorities known to me on each division of the subject. To name the works to which I am indebted would need a list of many of the best-known products of recent Continental and American scholarship. At the end of every chapter I have, however, given references to some English works and essays. Graetz is cited in the English translation published by the Jewish Publication Society of America. The figures in brackets refer to the edition published in London. The American and the English editions of S. Schechter's "Studies in Judaism" are similarly referred to.
Of one thing I am confident. No presentation of the facts, however bald and inadequate it be, can obscure the truth that this little book deals with a great and an inspiring literature. It is possible to question whether the books of great Jews always belonged to the great books of the world. There may have been, and there were, greater legalists than Rashi, greater poets than Jehuda Halevi, greater philosophers than Maimonides, greater moralists than Bachya. But there has been no greater literature than that which these and numerous other Jews represent.
Rabbinism was a sequel to the Bible, and if like all sequels it was unequal to its original, it nevertheless shared its greatness. The works of all Jews up to the modern period were the sequel to this sequel. Through them all may be detected the unifying principle that literature in its truest sense includes life itself; that intellect is the handmaid to conscience; and that the best books are those which best teach men how to live. This underlying unity gave more harmony to Jewish literature than is possessed by many literatures more distinctively national. The maxim, "Righteousness delivers from death," applies to books as well as to men. A literature whose consistent theme is Righteousness is immortal. On the very day on which Jerusalem fell, this theory of the interconnection between literature and life became the fixed principle of Jewish thought, and it ceased to hold undisputed sway only in the age of Mendelssohn. It was in the "Vineyard" of Jamnia that the theory received its firm foundation. A starting-point for this volume will therefore be sought in the meeting-place in which the Rabbis, exiled from the Holy City, found a new fatherland in the Book of books.

CONTENTS
PAGE PREFACE 5
CHAPTER
I
THE "VINEYARD" AT JAMNIA 19
Schools at Jamnia, Lydda, Usha, and Sepphoris.--The Tannaim compile the Mishnah.--Jochanan, Akiba, Meir, Judah.--Aquila.
II FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS AND THE JEWISH SIBYL 33
III THE TALMUD 43
The Amoraim compile the Palestinian Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud.--Representative Amoraim:
I (220-280) Palestine--Jochanan, Simon, Joshua, Simlai; Babylonia--Rab and Samuel. II (280-320) Palestine--Ami, Assi, Abbahu, Chiya; Babylonia--Huna and Zeira. III (320-380) Babylonia--Rabba, Abayi, Rava. IV (380-430) Babylonia--Ashi (first compilation of the Babylonian Talmud). V and VI (430-500) Babylonia--Rabina (completion of the Babylonian Talmud).
IV THE MIDRASH AND ITS POETRY 55
Mechilta, Sifra, Sifre, Pesikta, Tanchuma, Midrash Rabbah, Yalkut.--Proverbs.--Parables.--Fables.
V THE LETTERS OF THE GAONIM 68
Representative Gaonim: Achai, Amram, Zemach, Saadiah, Sherira, Samuel, Hai.
VI THE KARAITIC LITERATURE 75
Anan, Nahavendi, Abul-Faraj, Salman, Sahal, al-Bazir, Hassan, Japhet, Kirkisani, Judah Hadassi, Isaac Troki.
VII THE NEW-HEBREW PIYUT 83
Kalirian and Spanish Piyutim (Poems).--Jannai.--Kalir.
VIII SAADIAH OF FAYUM 91
Translation of the Bible into Arabic.--Foundation of a Jewish Philosophy of Religion.
IX DAWN OF THE SPANISH ERA 99
Chasdai Ibn Shaprut.--Menachem and Dunash, Chayuj and Janach.--Samuel the Nagid.
X THE SPANISH-JEWISH POETS (I) 107
Solomon Ibn Gebirol.--"The Royal Crown."--Moses Ibn Ezra.--Abraham Ibn Ezra.--The Biblical Commentaries of Ibn Ezra and the Kimchis.
XI RASHI AND ALFASSI 119
Nathan of Rome.--Alfassi.--Rashi.--Rashbam.
XII