Chapters on Jewish Literature | Page 2

the scientific, poetical, and
philosophical tendencies of Jewish writers in the Middle Ages were due
to the interaction 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