Sabbath Through all their Offices there is still something peculiarly relating to the hastening of Elias to the end that he may not only loose their knots or resolve their scruples but give them timely notice of the advent of the Messias But notwithstanding that their Offices for the Sabbath contain excellent things according to their way of Worship yet they have therein many things apparently trivial and ridiculous Of which we may give example in their praying over the Lamps Wine and Spices which are brought unto the Synagogue Where the Wine being consecrated it is carried home that therewith they may sprinkle their houses to preserve them from Witchcraft and Sorcerous Incantations Some likewise wash therewith the parts of the Body that are infirm and conceive that the consecrate Wine yields present cure The Spices also being hallowed are made use of to refresh the Soul that is left alone in the Body when the Sabbath is ended for on that day only they hold that every Male Jew has two Souls But the consecrate Wine and Spices have yet an higher purpose and vertue For with the Spices they refresh the Souls below on the week-dayes because the fire of Purgatory thereon is believed to send forth a very grievous stench And by pouring some of the consecrate Wine upon the ground they imagine Corah and his fellow-Mutineers to be assisted For they are of Opinion that that factious crew are still living in flames under ground It cannot be denyed that albeit the Sabbath Offices of the Jews are taken for the greater part out of Scripture but that they entertain a very Carnal sense thereof and that the whole Rest tends more to gratifie the Body than to serve God And to engross this Ease unto themselves and to show that the Sabbath was purposely appointed for their sakes and that none other have thereunto any right or title as also to declare their just Dominion over all other people in the world the Jews in Barbary imploy their Slaves in all manner of servile Offices upon this day And on it too give solemn thanks unto God That he has put no less difference between Israel and the Gentiles than between light and darkness the six days and the seventh Mr. Selden observes out of their Rabbins that there were three things peculiarly commanded the Israelites namely Circumcision the Tephillim and the Sabbath The first was expresly commanded Gen. 17. the second in Exod. 13. and the third Exod. 31. Now this last was so particularly commanded to the Israelites that the Jews think no Gentile has any share therein that they are not bound to its observation and therefore cannot be punished for the breach thereof And upon this account as we but now intimated they imploy their servants and slaves who are not of their Religion in every sort of drudgery upon the Sabbath that their Doctrine may be illustrated by their Practice And for a further Argument of the appropriation of the Sabbath to the Jews they wear thereon no Phylacteries because without those the Celebration of the Sabbath is thought sufficient to distinguish them from all other Religions in the World The Jewish Masters have raised no few disputes concerning the cause and reason of the Institution of the Sabbath with the persons to whom it belongs the time when its observation began together with its obligation both upon the Originarie and Proselyte Jews All which are industriously collected and learnedly discoursed by Mr. Selden lib. 3. cap. 10 11 12 13 c. de jure Nat. Gentium juxta Disciplinam Hebraeorum What we have already set down concerning these Sabbatine Rites hath respect unto the Jews in Barbary whom I find to harmonize herein with the Jews of other Countries Now because the Sabbath and its Rites make up a great part of their present Religion I thought it not improper to insert the Rules of the Sabbath which are practised by the European Hebrews as they are set down by Mr. Buxtorf in the tenth and eleventh Chapters of his Synagogue I have been enforced to make use of a young Pen in the Translation thereof and to deliver them to the Press without either Perusal or Transcribing and therefore desire the Reader to correct and pardon what faults may therein occur CHAP. XVI How the Jews Prepare themselves for the Sabbath and how they begin it WE read how the Jews prepared themselves on the sixth day according to that of Exodus 16.5 23. To morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth that which ye will seeth Which they interpret of providing all necessary things against the Sabbath that they may the better honour it but especially all Dyet is to be prepared and dress'd that they may have the better leasure to hallow the Day And to this end whatsoever they intend to eat on the Sabbath they make ready on Friday before night the women chiefly are employed in making sweet-meats of divers sorts and when they make ready their dough they make it in a great lump undivided but if the lump be so great as it is in large families that it must be divided the remaining part is kept covered lest a neighbour seeing it may be ashamed that others have provided for the next Sabbath and he not for the present Every one according to his Ability hallows the Day with three splendid Banquets They begin the first on Friday-night before the Sabbath the second on Saturday at noon the last in the evening of the Sabbath And they justifie the performance of this Ceremony from Moses his writings where concerning Manna it is thus expressed Exod. 16.25 Eat that to day for to day is a Sabbath unto the Lord to day ye shall not find it in the fields Here the Rabbies say that Moses meant by repeating the word Day three times that they should in their Banquets on the Sabbath thrice eat of the Manna But the repetition of those Banquets hath some other meaning as is evident by their Book of Ceremonies written in the German Dialect For unless they had been commanded to eat at three set-times they would have so indulged themselves that the whole Sabbath would have been a time only to eat and drink but because all knew when they were present at one Banquet that they must attend on two more every one observed that moderation agreeable to their particular appetites and befitting such a Solemnity thinking on the dainties which they should again shortly taste What is moreover meant by this Banquet and how much they reckon of it shall a little after be declared Moreover none whether noble rich or wise ought to think it beneath him to do something in the honour of the Day For though a man have an hundred maids yea though he have the command of a thousand servants yet he himself ought with his own hands to do something in the honour of the Sabbath And so we read
dinner and supper Which if they reckon right make up the sum At the saying of the Benediction for Gods giving them the Law they stand up with their heels joyn'd together and their toes opened bowing their heads toward Hierusalem They have also a Prayer which is said by the Priest alone wherein he desires God that he would be pleased to pardon all those who have been negligent and unattentive at the time of Prayer But I could not finde this Prayer in their Breviary though with some curiosity I perused it to that purpose Besides the Sabbath they keep Monday and Thursday as weekly Holy days On each of which they read three Sections of the Law the first by a Koên whom they suppose to be descended of Aaron the second by a Reputed Levite and the third Section by a Common Jew As concerning the keeping of Monday and Thursday Holy and reading the Law thereon as well as on the Sabbath after a more Solemn manner the Vulgar Jews give no other account thereof but Custom and the Pleasure of the Masters But those who pretend to give a Rationale of their Rites refer it to an Institution of Ezdras grounded upon the peoples wandring three dayes without water in the Desart of Sur in memory whereof he appointed the Law to be thrice solemnly read every week Now to be without water say they is to be without the Law for which interpretation they bring Esay 55.1 Others think that Thursday and Monday are set apart for the solemn Lesson of the Law in memory of Moses's going the second time into the Mountain to renew the Tables of the Law which hapned say the favourers of this Opinion upon a Thursday and to have returned thence upon a Monday Upon which dayes some of the preciser sort keep a strict Fast like those in St. Luke 18. and in all probability for the same end On these two dayes they have besides the usual Office a proper Prayer which from the first words thereof bears the title of Vehu-rachum which is said with singular attention Of old this Prayer used to work Miracles but by reason of some great delinquency in the present Jews it has lost this Efficacy CHAP. XV. Their Ceremonies about the Book of the Law Their Manner of Celebrating the Sabbath The Offices which thereon are Solemniz'd c. IT is a Canon strictly observed by the Jews That a Book of the Law is necessary to the Constitution of a Synagogue And therefore the first thing they provide in order to set up a Synagogue is a Copy of the Law and a Chest or Ark wherein to lay it up Now that which is called the Book of the Law is The Pentateuch written in a large Character on Parchment which is dressed according to the manner of the Phylacteries The Parchment is rolled up upon two staves to make it the more convenient to be carried in Procession It is also usually wrapt up in a covering of Linnen Silk Tissue c. As for the piece of Tapistry pictured with divers Birds which was the old-fashion'd Covering of the Ark the Jews in Barbary use no such thing for they abhor all manner of Imagery in their Service as minding them of the Idolatry of their Fathers for which they conceive themselves to be still punished and also out of an averseness to be thought to imitate those Christians who have offensively introduced Pictures into their Oratories not only for Ornament but Veneration But to return to the Law The Jews pay the five Books of Moses so great a Reverence that they never suffer them to be taken out of the Chest or looked upon but on three dayes namely Monday Thursday and Sunday when they are read and this too in the Morning because it is esteemed the purest part of the day 'T is true they use also to show the Law to the people on the Sabbath-night but it is because the whole day is hallowed The taking out of the Law belongs to a Noted Rabbi or in his absence to one of the more ancient and Devouter Jews But to carry it in Procession within the Synagogue is sold to him who is able to give most for the Place As we have observed in the Officers of the Synagogue At the taking out of the Law the Officer turns himself to the people and repeats this Versicle Come and extol God with me and let us praise his Name together And at the Elevation of the Law the people bow their Faces toward it and make a long Respond wherein they declare their own vileness and magnifie the Majesty of God And when the Rabbi holds up the Law and opens it he speaks these words This is the Law which Moses laid before the Children of Israel and which proceeded from God whose ways are all just The word of the Lord is pure and a defence to all those who believe it When the Law is carried from the Ark to the place where it is appointed to be read all the people there present sing the Hymn of Moses Numb 10.35 Rise up Lord and let thine Enemies be scatter'd and let them that hate thee flee before thee By which they wish and pray for the Destruction of all those who are not of their Religion When they carry the Law either to the Reading-place or in Procession there is always one who steps up to him that carries it and kisseth the Covering thereof for it were to defile the Law to kiss either the Letters thereof or the Parchment whereon they are written And he who doth this with a Voice moderately elevated blesseth God for having made the Jews his peculiar people and that he hath given them his Law When the Book returns from Procession and has put on its Coverings all the Males in the Synagogue kiss it in Order as the Papists do their Pax and when they have done the Officer gives the Book an Elevation and so lays it up in the Chest And as it returns thither they say the words of Moses at the resting of the Ark Numb 10.36 Return O Lord unto the ten thousand thousands of Israel The Pentateuch is divided into fifty two Sections to the end that it may be read over upon the fifty two Sundaies in the Year And in reading it they are bound to be very plain audible and articulate Because every tittle thereof is of singular weight and moment The last Lesson constantly falls upon September the twenty fifth which immediately follows the Feast of Tabernacles And when this Section is read over the Chasans or those who read the Law declare a great joy and satisfaction that they lived to make an end of the Annual Lesson They also praise God that notwithstanding the many Miserie 's befaln them they are still in possession of the Law in which all other Blessings are abridg'd On the day when this last Section is read all the Copies of the Law are brought forth of the Ark about which the people dance in
imitation and remembrance of David 2 Sam. 6.16 During the time that the Law is out of the Ark they place burning Torches therein in token that the Law performs all the duties of a light to those that obey it On this day also the Elder Jews make themselves merry in seeing the Youth scramble for the fruits they cast among them On this day also are sold the Offices of the Synagogue to them that will give most And all being orderly consummate every one leaves the Synagogue with this Prayer The Lord preserve my going out and my coming in from henceforth and for ever The next thing that we are to account for in this Chapter is the Manner of their keeping the Sabbath and the Offices thereon celebrated A Theme large enough for a whole Volume if we were to give an exact description of all Rites and Cases thereunto belonging But I shall confine the discourse at present to the Customs of the Jews in Barbary among whom and the rest of the Jewish Nation there is but small disagreement in the Sabbatarian Ritual Though it must be confessed that the barbary-Barbary-Jews are neither so strict nor Ceremonious in this matter as the Jews of other Countries if we may believe the account which good Authours have given of the later The whole Nation of the Jews sufficiently accord in the notice of the word Sabbath and grant that it barely signifies no more than Rest and that sometimes too it is used both for working-working-dayes and Festivals and that it puts on a more peculiar and restrained sense when it is concisely taken for that seventh day which God set apart for his Worship And in the Observation of this Sabbath or Rest the Jews practice numerous Ceremonies some antecedent and relating to their preparation and others concomitant or waiting upon the day Their antecedent Ceremonies are seen in dressing and preparing on the Eve of the Sabbath the Victuals that are thereon to be eaten According to the Commandment Exod. 16.23 To Morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath unto the Lord bake that which ye will bake to day and seeth that ye will seeth c. From which they conclude That all things necessary to the Sabbath and for the Honor thereof ought to be provided over night that there may be nothing to interrupt this Rest If it falls out that the Servants are not able to make all things ready the Masters assist them to the end that the Sabbath by no bodily labour may be transgressed And they are able to cite many great Rabbins who have help'd their Servants in preparing for this Rest But this strict Custom of dressing no Victuals upon the Sabbath is not universal with the Jews we now speak off With whom I have been entertain'd with good cheer on the Sabbath that was thereon prepared And asking them how they durst or would act so contrary to their own pretences the Reply was That they thought the Crime of a low nature if it was done without giving scandal to others that is secretly Which was then the Case Every Sabbath is observed with three Feasts and four Offices The first Feast is upon the Friday-night or rather at the very entrance and begining of the Sabbath The second is their Sabbath-dinner and the third Feast concludes the Sabbath Now the Custom of this triple Feast they deduce from the triple repetition which Moses used of the word To day when he gave out Orders concerning gathering of the Manna Exod. 16.25 Some of the more hospitable and wealthier Jews keep their Tables spread during the whole time of the Sabbath And in this as other things they generally tread in their Fore-fathers steps who were excellent at turning the power and intention of the Law into Carnal Form and Superstition But besides their greater apparatus in Diet for the Sabbath they use other preparative Rites in order to the Solemnity of This Great Day All which are bodily and external and not worth our recital if it were not to let us see into what follies a people may fall in Religion when they have once renounced the Truth All the Friday-afternoon is usually taken up in Sabbatical preparations as washing of the head and hands the trimming of their beards whose corners the Graver sort suffer not to be cut according to Law and in a peculiar Superstition of paring their nails on which parings they are forbid to tread in prevention whereof they usually burn or bury them In like manner they spend no small time in whetting the Knives and preparing other Utensils of the Table The women on the Friday comb and dress their heads and make ready all accoutrements of the body For they esteem a neglect in any of these particulars a down-right violation of the Rest And because their Masters use a word for Sabbath signifying Queen they think it reasonable that they as duly prepare themselves thereunto as they would for the reception of so great a Personage And he saith the Jewish Canon is greatly to be praised who honoureth the Sabbath with his Body Clothes and Dyet with his body by duely dressing it with his clothes by having a Sabbath-days Suit and with his dyet which on the Sabbath should be both more and better than on other dayes In Barbary they have their Sabbath-Lamps which are lighted by the women to which being lighted they hold up their hands and say this Benediction Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the World who hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and commanded us to light the Sabbatine-Lamps If any mans curiosity lead him to enquire into the reason why the Office of lighting these Lamps belongs to the women I shall only tell him that among many other reasons pretended to be given hereof the chief is the keeping the women in minde of the transgression of Eve who seducing Adam to disobedience thereby put out say they and extinguished his Light and Glory But the women do it upon the account of a received Opinion among them that thereby they facilitate their Child-birth There being these three Precepts recommended to them for that end viz. To keep the Sabbath-bread light the Lamps and carefully to attend their Months The Sabbath-lights we now speak of are so contrived that they may last the whole Sabbath on which they are not allowed so much as to snuff them for fear of transgressing the fourth Precept But notwithstanding that the Jews in this part of the World are sufficiently rigorous in the observation of the Sabbath yet I neither could finde nor hear of any of them who would if surprised with the Sabbath expose themselves to the danger of abiding in Woods and Desarts rather than on the Sabbath to travel a few furlongs to gain a safer residence For they are willing to let things necessary to save mans life thereon to be provided for And some will not doubt to say that if ever they be Masters again of Hierusalem they will not loose it for
in the Talmud that Rabbi Chasdam cut the Pot-herbs Rabbi Joseph clave the Wood Rabbi Sira kindled the Fire Rabbi Nachman swept the House and covered the Table Their Meat whether roast or boyled is kept hot in a Cauldron as being then most delightful The Table is night and day whilest the Sabbath lasts kept covered for which they have a particular reason as shall be afterwards shewed They wash their heads the men if it be the Custom are shaved the women comb their hair plaiting it decently and binding it with Fillets they either wash their hands and feet or else bathe themselves in hot Baths They every Fryday superstitiously pare their nails beginning with the left hand they first pare the nail of the fourth finger then of the second then of the fifth then of the third and end with the thumb so doing they never cut the nails of two fingers together but still leave one betwixt When they pare the nails of the right hand they begin with the second finger and so pass to the fourth and so on to the rest 'T is impious to cast the excrescencies under foot for so the Devil gets power over them but he who burieth them is reputed just and he who burns them is righteous and obtains a full pardon And all this is grounded upon the place before mentioned Exod. 16. And the sixth day they made ready c. Furthermore every one pollisheth and whets his Knife and that is justified from Job And thou shalt visit thy Habitation and know that thy Tabernacle shall be in peace c. Hence the Jewish Doctors observe that if the Knife be dull that it will not cut there is no peace to the House or Table They have Garments designed only for the honour of the day and every one is according to his ability decently clad because Esaiah sayes Esay 58.13 Thou shalt honour him And how canst thou do it in thy everyâ—ays vile habit as the Talmud has it and â—herefore the Jews have costly Garments pecuâ—iar for those days The Rabbies call the Sabbath Malkah i. e. Queen and therefore the Royal Apparel must be put on or otherwise the Queen is disgraced They cover the Table with clean white â—innen provide Cups Napkins Seats and other things convenient that the Queen viz. the Sabbath coming may find all things decently placed and he that honours the day with his Body his Rayment Meat and Drink is very commendable 'T was antiently a Custom to winde a Horn or sound a Trumpet six times that every one might prepare for the Sabbath but now in well-order'd Assemblies 't is proclaimed by a Cryer That they may cease from work and provide honourably to entertain the Bride viz. the Sabbath And therefore when the Evening draws nigh they do no business abroad but early begin the Sabbath solemnizing some part of the remaining week they repair to the Synagogue and hallow the time with Hymns and Prayer Now when the Sun begins to leave their Hemisphere the Candles appointed only for the Sabbath are set up as soon as they are kindled a Jewish woman lifts up both hands towards them and sayes Blessed art thou O Lord God King of the World that thou hast devoted us to thy Service and hast commanded us to light Candles on the Sabbath And the like Custom is observed by them on Holy-day-Eves If it be troublesome weather so that the skie be cloudy the hens teach them their duty for when they see them going to roost then the time of providing Candles is approaching but if any live without the City where they want such information they are instructed by Ravens and Daws for those Birds provide themselves a Lodging in the evening But the reasons that women light up the Candles and not men are by tradition chiefly two The first is when Eve after eating the forbidden fruit perceived by certain tokens that she should dye she perswaded her husband to taste it too and told him If I must die thou shalt die with me but when her perswasions prevailed not over his constancie she brake off a branch from the tree and beat him till he did eat as it is expressed in Genesis 3.2 The Woman which thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the Tree that is she pluck't off a bough from the Tree and with it beat me and I did eat so it is expounded in the Book Chajim that is the way of Life And by this means poor Adam was subject to his wife brake the command of God and brought death upon himself and bequeathed it to all his posterity But before Eve had sinned the Sun shined bright as it will in the World to come on the just then they wanted not the instruction of Hens and Daws to teach them their duty but as soon as she had transgressed the Sun was clouded and the Light of Heaven was soon darkned The second reason why the women light the Candles is because they are alwayes at home but the men often abroad Moreover we read Exod. 27.20 Thou shalt command the Children of Israel that they bring thee pure oil-olive beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn alwayes in the Tabernacle before the testimony The Rabbies moreover count that if a godly woman attend on the lighting of the Candles she doth as holy a deed as if she had kindled Candles for the Golden Candlesticks in the Holy Temple at Hierusalem Moreover we have it in the Talmud that a woman guilty of these sins shall die in Childbed first if she have not provided a Cake secondly if she have not lighted up the Candles thirdly if she have not taken great care of her menstruous cloaths But if the women diligently observe these Precepts they sooner conceive and are easier delivered Of these Candles they have commonly two some times more according to the capacity of the house or dining-bed And in those Candles all the members of man and womans bodies are secretly contained according to Jewish Anatomizing men have 248 members women 252 which being added together make 500 which number the Hebrew word Ner signifying a Candle doth signifie They use Candles of two sorts because the light of life lost in Eden may be restored again both to man and woman The reason that they lift up both hands towards the light is to guard their faces from the rayes of the Candle whilest they repeat a short Prayer which is not to be said till the Candles are lighted up The matter whereof the wekes of these Candles is made and what oyl they make the Candles with may be seen at large in the Talmud to which I refer the Reader That they set apart some time of the week-dayes in which they early begin the Sabbath is in love to the dead whose Souls they say come from Hell or Purgatory to keep the Sabbath for as soon as they enter the Synagogue they sing a short Hymn at the hearing of which the Souls
these to be meer fictions I shall instance some pleasant passages out of the Talmud relating to the same purpose Where we read that one Rabbi Chaja fortuned to lodge one Sabbath with a Butcher and there was set before him a Golden Table burthen enough for sixteen men on which there hung sixteen silver Chains and on it many vessels of the like Metal were set as Spoons Plates and Cups furnished with plenty of dainties When all things were set in order he praised God thus The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and when the Banquet was ended he gave thanks after this manner The Heavens are the Lords but the Earth hath he given to the sons of men And then the Rabbi began to enquire of the Butcher how he had gotten such riches and what good works he had done the Butcher replyed Hitherto have I been a Butcher and when ever I lighted on a Beast fatter than usual I reserved it for the Sabbath that I might do as I am commanded and therefore God has given me much riches for the honour I do to his day And when the Rabbi heard this he gave God thanks that he had bestowed on him such abundance And here we leave the Butcher Moreover we read in the same Page of a man truly Charitable named Joseph if any thing extraordinary came to the Market especially Fish he spared no charge to buy it and he had a rich neighbour who would often mock him asking him what good this strict observing Sabbath-duties did him thou gettest nought by it saith he I am much richer than thou yet do not observe it so punctually but Joseph took of his words but little notice and answered That God was able to recompence him And at the same time there came Astrologers to the rich man saying What good hast thou of thy riches thou darest not buy a good Fish with it we finde that the Fates have given all thy store to Joseph the Sabbath-observer he spares no charge to honour the day The rich man took some notice of what they said and went and sold all his possessions and with it bought Jewels and hung them in his hat and resolved to travel to secure his riches from Joseph and taking ship he was so toss'd with a Tempest that he lost his Hat and Jewels in the Sea there came a great Fish and swallowed them up and a little after the same Fish was brought into the Market to be sold many cheapened it but thought it too dear at length came this Joseph and soon bought it and dressing it found the Hat and Jewels which the rich Traveller had lost So the Astrologers Predictions were verified and Joseph grew Rich on a sudden Then there came a Wise Old man to Joseph and said He who bestows much on the Sabbath him the day recompenseth but he that of a little bestows a little to him God gives fourfold We read of another Passage in the Talmud concerning Feasts how a certain Rabbi every Friday sent his Servants into the Market to buy off all the Herbs which the Sellers could not vent and then he cast them into the River and the Rabbies inquiring the cause why he had not distributed them to the poor Israelites the Answer was this That if he had given them to the Poor then they in expectation of having them given still would not have provided for the Sabbath and therefore if it should happen that the Sellers had sold all and the Poor not provided for themselves then the Sabbath would not have had its due honour But why then did he not cause them to be given to the Cattel it had been better to do so than to cast them carelesly away The Answer was That he would not give those things to Cattel which men might eat and from which they might have profit for they might perchance take them out of the water But why did he command them to be bought the Reason is That those who sold such Commodities might willinglier come to the Market for suppose them to come often and sell nought they would soon be weary and not frequent the Market and then the Poor would have had nothing to eat on the Sabbath and thereby would have deprived it of its due honour Moreover we read in a Treatise of the Sabbath that if any one on the Sabbath let loose the Reins to pleasure and so pass the day that God giveth him an Heritage for ever as it is written When thou shalt call the Sabbath a Delight then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the Earth and feed thee with the Heritage of thy Father Jacob of which Heritage it is largely spoken For thou shalt be spread abroad to the East and to the West and to the North and to the South Rabbi Mackman saith He that feeds high on the Sabbath and is joyful shall be free from the Servitude of Kings as it is I will lift thee above the high places of the Earth and thy Enemies shall be found Lyars Another Rabbi saith That he who merrily passeth the Sabbath hath whatsoever he will ask of God as 't is written Delight thou in the Lord and he will give thee thy hearts desire Seeing therefore that the Jews have not conquered their Enemies nor obtained their desire that they have not yet subdued the Christians nor are Lords of the whole Earth according to their prayers on the Sabbath and feast-Feast-days may be imputed to their want of a right Hallowing the Sabbath or at least that they have not thereon been sufficiently merry When they have thus joyfully finished the first Banquet they again go to Prayers but the Table is kept covered and the Candles burn till the evening of the Sabbath And they dispute much what is to be done with those Candles whether it be lawful to catch Fleas or Lice with them but reading by them is forbidden lest when the light is dim he that reads should snuff the Candle and so violate the Sabbath And because the Sabbath is called a Delight they often marrie on it and enjoy the society of their Wives they say those who are conceived on the Sabbath live to a good age if their Parents don't respect the pleasure as the honour of the day Finally when a Jew travelleth on Friday and hath a greater Journey than the Sabbath alloweth of he ought to take up his Lodgings in the Fields or Woods at the approaching of the Sabbath and there to continue till it be ended exposing himself to the danger of Thieves and want of sustenance There is a memorable Story in their Histories to this purpose Three Jews on a time took a Journey on Friday when the Evening drew nigh and the Sabbath approached two of them spake thus to each other What shall we do we are in certain danger the way is beset with Thieves and the wood barbours wild Beasts we had
therefore better keep on our Journy and save our lives than with certain danger both of body and life hallow the Sabbath But the third repli'd Truly we ought not to stir hence but here to keep the Sabbath God who hath commanded us so to do is able to preserve 〈◊〉 safe The other two persisted and broke the Sabbath but the third pitched his Tent and there abode he covered the Ground instead of a Table with a Cloth and on it laid the Provision he had with him and so betook himself to Prayers that being ended he satâ— down to eat of the first Banquet of the Sabbath the Attendance he had was a terrible Bear almost pin'd with hunger the good Jew was almost afraid and gave the Guest a piecâ— of Bread and had faith that God would preserve him the Bear took the Bread and attended on him The Jew after supper betook himself again to prayer and so to sleep and the Bear lay down by him in the morn hâ— was very glad that the hungrie Bear was sâ— kinde as to spare his flesh and for it gave God â—hanks and so provided for his Morning-prayers he then dined and after sup't and did all his duty When the Sabbath was ended he went on his Journey the Bear still following him The same night it fortuned that his Companions fell among Thieves who stripped them of all they had At length this devout Jew and the Bear overtook them and though the Beast was so kinde to him it was not for want of natural fietceness for he soon tore the other two in pieces Then the Godly Jew began to be afraid but whilst he mused with himself the Thieves beset him and asked who he was whence he came and whither he was going he told them he was a Jew and that he came from the Kings Palace they asked whence he had that Bear he answered The King gave it as a Companion One of the Thieves told the other that surely this Person was beloved of the King that he had given him such a guard The other said Let us give him all our money and follow him through this Wood that the Bear hurt us not So they gave him all their money to conceal them and going far with him at length departed the Bear also returned to the Wood. And from this storie the Jews conclude that they ought to observe the Sabbath in whatsoever place they are and commit themselves wholly to the protection of God Almighty CHAP. XVII How the Jews hallow the Sabbath and how they end it IN the morning they rise not up so early as on other days but for the greater pleasure in honouring the day they sleep a good part of the morning And for this custom the Rabbies have consulted the Writings of Moses and finde in Numb 28. where it is spoken of daily Offerings that it is expressed by the word Babboker mane that is the morning but when it is spoken of the Offering of the Seventh day it is expressed by the words Die Sabbathi that is the Sabbath day intending this meaning that the daily Offerings were to be performed Antelucano tempore that is at break of day and instead of this on the Sabbath they had Morning-prayers and referred their Offering till later in the morn therefore the Jews sleep longer than on other daies to prepare them for Prayers When they repair to the Synagogue they pray as on other but longer and sing more Hymns to honour the day they put not on their Phylacteries as on other daies because they think the Sabbath it self is a sufficient signe of the Jewish Faith and ordained only for them to hallow and have therefore no need of Circumcision and Phylacteries though both are signes by which Jews are distinguished and known They bring the Book of the Law out of the Ark after the same manner as is declared in the ninth Chapter They read a Section out of the Law and divide each Section into seven Lessons to be read by seven choice men After the reading of the Law they read Lessons out of the Prophets which are agreeable to the Writings of Moses of which custom this is the Original When in old time they were forbidden to read Moses they chose a Section out of the Prophets which agreed with the Writings of Moses of this there is mention in the Acts of the Apostles Act. 13.27 They which dwell at Jerusalem and their Rulers knew him not nor the Voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day And again Act. 15.21 Moses of old time hath in every City them that Preach him being read in the Synagogue every Sabbath But though they are not forbidden the reading of Moses yet they keep the Old custom and read the Prophets after Moses They pray also for the Souls of the dead who have not kept the Sabbath aright For the Rabbies suppose that they both before and after the Sabbath are tortured in Hell-fire and therefore they pray for them on the Sabbath that thereon they may have rest They continue in prayer not after the sixth hour of the day being forbidden to fast or pray longer as they plead from the place so often recited Thou shalt call the Sabbath a Delight Here they say that the word signifying in Hebrew Delight is written without the Letter ד which signifies six by which the Prophet meant implicitly that they should pray but till the sixth hour When Morning-prayer is ended they provide for the second Banquet and to honour the day they generally indulge their Appetites but if it happen that any one have a strange Dream as if he should see the Book of the Law or his house burn or his teeth strook out or suchlike portending evil he has liberty to abstain from meat till the evening He who in a dream is offended with meat and delights in fasting may do as he himself pleaseth and he that is so grieved that he cannot refrain from tears he may weep for by it grief is eased and such pleasant weeping honours the day but he that fasts on purpose on the Sabbath is bound to fast the next day after that thereby he may do Penance for detracting from the honour of the day After Dinner the Rabbies have thought fit to studie or read in Sacred Writ for one of the chief Rabbies relates that the Sabbath made complaint that God had given to every thing a companion and equal except to it and God answered Israel shall be thy companion for on the Sabbath they shall learn the Law whereas others are idle The Law also came and complained saying When Isarel returns into his own Land one possesseth his Vine another his Field Who then shall regard me To which God said Israel shall respect thee for on the Sabbath they shall not labour And considering this they have thought it fit to spend some time after dinner in studying the word of God that the Sabbath or the Law might have no
the Souls of the wicked may again enter in it sends forth an ill sent and these Spices are preservatives against it as they say They spill a little of the Wine in the consecration as a signe of plenty and abundance in their houses for they say where the Wine is not spilt there is no blessing some think it is done to refresh Core and his company whom the Earth swallowed up as if they were yet alive and could perceive refreshment from this waste They take strict notice of their nails because of their soon growing for though they pare them every Friday they grow up again by the next Some say it is by reason of the great difference betwixt the nails and the flesh which made Adam so much to wonder when he saw the world dark and cried out Ah me miserable creature for my fault was the world darkned and hereupon God was so merciful to him that he gave him discretion to knock two Flints together from which there came fire with which he lighted a Candle and when he saw himself all naked save only the tops of his fingers he burst out into admiration and praised God To prove their Opinion of the stench of Hell they produce this story out of the Talmud One Turnus Ruphus a wicked fellow asked one of the Rabbies what the Sabbath was better than other week-daies whom the Rabbi asked again Why art thou more honourable than other men he answered Because it was the good pleasure of his Lord and King So saith the Rabbi it was the good pleasure of the Lord of Hosts to command us to prefer the Sabbath before other days But saith Turnus How knowest thou that the seventh day is your true Sabbath it may be some other day perhaps the first second third c. The Rabbi told him that this was first revealed to them by a certain River which flows so strong six days that it hurls with it great stones and is not navigable all the week but on the Sabbath it moveth not at all A second Proof of it saith the Rabbi is from thy own Fathers Sepulchre which all the week is infected with a loathsome vapor caused by the stench of Hell-fire in which he is tormented but on the seventh day it hath no ill smell because on the Sabbath thy Father cometh from Hell and the evil Spirits have no power over him and therefore also Hell-fire has no ill smell on the Sabbath When Turnus heard this Perhaps saith he his punishment is ended The Rabbi bid him go to the Sepulchre after the Sabbath and he should smell a stench When Turnus had made trial and found it so he by the help of Magick raised his Father's Ghost and spake thus to him Whilst thou livedst thou did'st not regard the Sabbath but now thou art dead thou hallowest it How long hast thou been a Jew His Father answered Dear Son he who living observeth not the Sabbath willingly in Hell shall be forced to do it His Son proceeds What is your imployment in Hell on week days His Father answered We are tortured in the fire but on the Sabbath we enjoy our ease for Friday in the evening which is the preparation for the Sabbath Proclamation is made in Hell 'T is a time of rest therefore rest ye wicked so are we eased and do hallow the Sabbath but at the end of the Sabbath when the Jews have ended their customary Prayers an evil Spirit called Dumah who is our Ruler calleth us back again to Hell because the people of Israel have ended the Sabbath where we renew our torments and endure them till the next Sabbath And this is our Employment He who desireth to know more of this let him consult Rabbi Bochai in his Exposition of the eighteenth Chapter of Exodus where he writes much concerning the Sabbath And because God hath commanded in the Law that not only Man but Beast also should rest on the Sabbath they make great inquiry how far a Horse or an Ass may travel on the Sabbath and whether it may carry any thing on it And here they say that no beast ought to carry any thing on the Sabbath but that with which it is led as a Horse or Ass may carry a Bridle or Halter and these too must be put on on Friday before the Sabbath begins They ought not to let a Horse go abroad with a Saddle on much less must one ride upon it If any one come home on the Sabbath with a Saddle on they may loose the Girts but not take off the Saddle if the Horse shake it off then the Jew is free The Cock is not to be let loose with a piece of cloth tied to his leg or wing but is to be loosed on Friday that it may rest on the Sabbath If a Beast fall into a Pit on the Sabbath and cannot get forth of it self it is to be fed in the place till the Sabbath is ended and then to be holpen out If the place be so deep that the beast is in danger of being drowned then they are to put straw and such-like stuff under it to preserve it and if it get out of it self then the Jew is free But this seems to contradict that answer Christ made to the Jews when they blamed him for healing on the sabbath-Sabbath-day Mat. 12.11 Which of you saith he having an Ox or an Ass fallen into a pit will not straightway help him out on the Sabbath-day But this is the injunction of the Talmud On the Sabbath a Christian may milk the Jews Cows or Goats but the Jews must not eat the milk unless they buy it of the Christians as they usually do The men or women must not run on the Sabbath unless they be commanded of God neither must they step more than the length of a Cubit at once lest they hurt the eye-sight No man ought to carry any sort of weapon neither must a Taylor carry needles on his sleeve If any one be lame or sick so that he cannot walk without a staff he may use it but he who is blinde may not They must not use Stilts to help them over the water for though they seem to carry a man yet are they born of him and any burthen is forbidden on the Sabbath They must carry no moneys with them on the Sabbath They may shake off the dirt from their shoos against a wall but not on the ground lest they may seem to fill the ditch If any one have dirt on his hands he may wipe them on his horse-mane but washing is forbidden They are forbidden to catch Flies or Gnats which stick on their Garments or creep on the ground but if they offend them they may catch them not hurting them and throw them away A Louse may be killed but one of the Rabbies saith He who kills a Louse on the Sabbath breaks it as much as he who kills a Camel and this raiseth a dispute what was to be done
and humane Frailties they are hourly liable conclude that the most vigilant and wary among them cannot live without contracting some stain and pollution which must be cleansed ere they can enter that place of rest whereof they esteem the Holy of Holies to have been a figure But lest the doing away of this pollution should by any means be thought a work of the Holy Ghost whom by way of Derision they call the Christians Sanctifier they have resolved upon a Purgatory for this purpose Wherein all the Relicks of Uncleanness which Repentance had left uncleansed are to be done away How the Jews Purgatory differs from that of Virgil Cicero and Plato it will not be worth our travail to set down Yet I cannot but observe that they speak herein much after the manner of those Platonists who assigned a punishment to every sin yet held that all such punishments whether now or hereafter did only tend to purge the Soul from her Enormities S. Aug. Civitat Dei lib. 21. cap. 13. Neither would it more avail our present purpose to compare the Jewish with the Papal Purgatory which how much soever they may differ in other Circumstances do sufficiently harmonize in vain and groundless extravagancies The Papists 't is true have much disputed the place of their Purgatory and were not resolved therein till Saint Patrick obtain'd the Key and open'd the Receptacle But the Jews without controverting the scituation thereof unanimously agree except a few that place it in transmigration of Souls that it is in Hell From whence they can never be deliver'd but by the power of the Kaddisch which is a Prayer that being for the space of a year repeated once a day by some surviving Relation of the party in Purgatory is able thence to deliver him And therefore if the dying person leave any behind who will be so courteous as to repeat the Kaddisch he need not fear that the pains of Purgatory shall endure above a year And indeed the Jews generally hold that there shall none of them stay above twelve months under this purgation though they have dyed never so impenitent or devoid of Remorse and that they shall not tarry there above seven dayes if at their Decease they were penitent and sorrowful for what they had done Now if any ones Sins are so great and many that a years Purgatory will not atone them then the Soul is to return into a Body to finish the Penance And to support this Opinion these Jews hold a transmigration of the Soul from one body to another but without changing of the Species or the Jewish Nation And by this transmigration they hold that the Soul shall satisfie in the second body what it had done amiss in the first and so successively till it come to the seventh where it is sure of a Sabbath and rests from its penance and satisfaction And if the Soul in all the seven bodies has sin'd more than it has satisfied for yet having suffer'd what was appointed God they say in mercy gives it a release But the portion of bliss allotted to this incompleat penance is far less than that of the Soul which has made entire satisfaction And they so greatly magnify the penitent that they think him of greater value than one who never sin'd and that one day spent therein is more worth than Eternity But a man would think the Jews needed not load Repentance with such great Encomiums seeing that the future bliss may be attain'd for thirteen Moons durance in Purgatory To the expiation of those faults whereby the neighbour is injured the repentance of the offender and compassion of the offended is strictly required by the Jewish Casuists The Jews in Barbary entertain no thoughts of Merit in a Papal sense but smile to hear any should be so vain as to imagine they can do more than the Law requires They hold that all reward proceeds from Divine Bounty and that obedience is the only thing looked upon in mans service and that every one shall receive according to their obsequiousness to the Law But that we may not imagine the Jews to design the Christian any kindness by this Doctrine we must observe that all hope and promise of future Reward is confined to themselves and that to those who are not of their Religion they allow nothing but a total perdition of their Being Both the Jews and Moors are of Opinion that the infernal Torments shall have an End and that the faln Angels after many years of punishment shall be received to mercy Which saith St. Aug. Civit. Dei lib. 21. cap. 17. was the judgment of some tender hearts among the Old Christians and gives the Example in Origen whom for his Circumvolution and Rotation of bliss and misery the Church did Excommunicate And to carry this remark a little further some of the Masters are of opinion that when God after the Resurrection shall take accounts of mens actions he will not to magnifie his power and justice condemn any one to endless tortures but that it is more agreable to Gods nature and the dayly expresses of his Providence to save all And notwithstanding they place the punishment of the Christians in a sort of Annihilation yet to any of their own Nation they hold no other misery shall remain after the last Judgment but a lesser measure of Happiness As to what relates to the Consummation of the World the Jews do not place it in a confused Destruction of its present order and beauty but in its restauration to that purity and perfection which say they it possessed at the Creation And that every part of this lower World shall attain that perfection whereunto it was at first designed and that seeing he is the inexhaustible Fountain of all Goodness that God will at last invest the Creatures with happiness according to their Capacities And though in lesser matters opinions of no ordinary extravagancie may be better indured yet it is hainous to see them so loose in their judgment concerning that Universal Article The Resurrection of the Body which they will not permit to go beyond their own Tribes for they plainly affirm that none shall be capable of the Resurrection who do not die in the Communion of the Synagogue And that this may not be thought the sentiment only of the less cultivated Jews in Barbary we find it to be the general position of their Masters Who affirm that there are four priviledges so peculiar to the Hebrews that no other Nation can thereof communicate And these are the Land of Canaan the Law of Moses the Gift of Prophesie and the Resurrection And that this last might not be looked upon as a meer Talmud-fancy they deny the Resurrection to all but themselves upon the account of Esay 26.14 They are dead they shall not live they are deceased they shall not rise But while they utterly expunge out of their Creed the Resurrection of other Nations it were well if they agreed
quantity according to the plenty or nearness of his fortunes David we find being but poor gave for his Wife so many skins of the Philistins but Sechem being a man of wealth was willing to give as much for Dinah as ever they would demand Of old they say that the Dowry of a Virgin was fifty Shekels which sum is constantly set down in the present form of their Matrimonial Letters or Dowry-bill And this they collect from Exod. 22.17 compared with Deut. 22.29 In the Dowry-bills made to Widows but half the sum is given in Barbary which they give to Virgins The Dowries being settled they pass to the affiancing wherein the Woman is given to the Man by some of her near kindred in this form of words Behold take her after the Law of Moses And the Man replies Be thou unto me a Wife according to the Law of Moses and Israel There is but one form of Dowry-bill or Matrimonial Letters in present use among all the Jews whereof we have a Copy translated by Cornelius Bertram out of the Babylon-Talmud and another in Buxtorfs Gram. Chald. p. 389. betwixt which there is some small variance but the sum of both amounts to the ensuing Copy A Copy of the Dowry-bill now in use among the Jews in Barbary UPon the sixth of the Week the fourth of the Month _____ in the year _____ of the Creation of the World according to the Computation which We use here at Arzila a Town situate on the Sea-shore of Barbary the Bridegroom Rabbi _____ the Son of Rabbi _____ said unto the Bridewife _____ the Daughter of Rabbi _____ Merchant in Alcazar Be unto me a Wife according to the Law of Moses and Israel and I according to the word of God will worship honour maintain and govern thee according to the manner of Husbands among the Jews who do faithfully worship honour maintain and govern their Wives I also bestow upon thee the Dowry of thy Virginity amounting to fifty Shekels which belong unto thee by the Law And moreover thy food thy rayment and sufficient necessaries as likewise the knowledge of thee according to the Custom of all the Earth And these words being thus pronounced the Virgin from that time forward becomes the mans Wife To this form of honouring and worshiping the Wife some think the Scripture alludeth 1 St. Pet. 3.7 And that due Benevolence spoken of 1. Cor. 7.3 is that is here called knowing of the Wife according to the Custom of all the Earth Though 't is true the Jews by the same phrase express both Death and Marriage But to return this Dowry-bill at the day of wedding is delivered into the custody of the Bride who thereby is impower'd to challenge from her Husband Food Apparel and the Right of the Bed And according to the Law Exod. 21.10 If the Husband take him another Wife he cannot withhold or diminish from the former the Food Rayment and Duty of Marriage CHAP. V. Of other Ceremonies relating to their Marriages AMong the Ancient Jews there was ever a competent time intervening betwixt their Betrothing and Marriage which Custom they deduced from the answer given by Rabecca's friends to Abraham's servant when they desired that the Maid might not depart presently but remain after the Espousals ten daies Gen. 24.55 which yet seems rather to imply the Mothers unwillingness so soon to part with her Daughter than any legal intervention of time between the affiancing and confirmation of Marriage But however the old Jews were perswaded in this particular the modern of whom we now treat of think it very disagreeable to the nature of Amours to use any protraction of their Accomplishment And therefore they stay no longer for Marriage after the betrothing than is sufficient to make preparation for so great a Solemnity For after the Dowry-bill is finished the day of Marriage is appointed and in the interim the Bride prepares her self for the Celebration And for eight daies useth bathing Upon the Marriage-Eve at the going down of the Sun she has her Tabila or Cistern filled full of pure water whereinto she is put by two discreet Matrons who are very diligent that not an hair of her head appear above water for if any part about her remain uncover'd with water she the second time must be put into her Tabila For this Bath they say ought to be very exact because it is to supply whatever was defective in the other circumstances of the Brides preparations When she comes out of this cold Wash her hair with great curiosity is tied up and her person secluded from the eyes of all men it being not allowed for her Father or Brothers to look upon her till she be delivered to her Husband In some places as I have been told the Bride goes to this Bath through the Streets accompanied with several women who dance and sing as they pass and name the party that is shortly to be married But this is a freedom would be very scandalous to the Jews neighbourhood in Barbary besides the modesty to which from their infancy the women here are inured will not in the least admit of this liberty The dressing of the Brides hair when she comes out of the Bath which was but now intimated though the common people may look upon it as a meer act of handsomness and adorning yet their Masters teach it for an instance of Religion and as a thing very acceptable to God And those words And brought her unto the Man Gen. 2.22 they thus expound And God brought Eve to Adam after the same manner that a Bride is brought to her husband that is elegantly dressed with her hair curiously curl'd and plated and with joy and dancing Upon the day of Marriage the Bride puts on her wedding-Garment and adorns her self as sumptuously as her fortunes will allow and in an apartment by her self spends the time until the usual hour of Marriage in Fasting and Devotion And though they have no Canonical hours for this Solemnity yet it is most usually kept toward night which some gather from St. Matt. 25.1 was the custom of the Jews in our Saviours time Though the Parable think others relates rather to the Marriage-feast than the Marriage it self The Bridegroom likewise spends several hours in private Devotion before the Marriage And recommends his Condition unto God begging happiness upon his wedlock After these private Devotions are ended he goes to the Service of the Synagogue whence he usually returns accompanied with some choice friends who straightway conduct him to the chamber where the Bride sits in a chair on purpose to receive him having a Virgin on each hand as her attendants And she changes not this posture till some Rabbi or other aged Jew skilful in the Law reads the Dowry-bill with an audible and distinct voice and the Bridegroom hath put the Kedusim or wedding-Ring of pure Gold and without a Stone on the Brides thumb or third or any finger of her right
For they are so generally fruitful that she who proves otherwise is said to have no Mazal in the Firmament or to have been married under no good Planet And as the Jewish Women in this Country are fruitful in Children so they are laudably decent in their Travails observing therein such orderly deportment as is agreeable to all well civilized humanity 'T is true the Rabbins who too much play the Poets with all their Rites have not forborn even those of Child-birth but have devised several fabulous Stories and impertinent Rites concerning it A taste whereof we shall here insert for the satisfaction of the Inquisitive And in the first place the Rabbins have appointed that the Father of the Family or any other religious Jew in his stead upon the approach of Child-birth shall draw several Circles in the Chamber of the impregnate as also upon the doors both within and without on the walls and about the bed Inscribing every Circle with these words Adam Chava chutz Lilis that is Adam Eve be gon Lilis The meaning of which Conjuration depends upon the right understanding of what is meant by Lilis Now the Jews are not unanimous in their account hereof yet the best we could collect take as foloweth When God had made Adam and saw that it was not good for him to be alone he created a Woman and gave him her for a Wife and she was called Lilis But being no sooner brought unto Adam than she began to brawle and contend and would not acknowledge that power over her wherewith Adam was invested And when he advised her of her subjection and that she ought to obey his commands she insultingly replyed That subjection arose from inequality and therefore could have no place between them who were equal by Creation And in this pelting and quarrelsom humour they lived so long that Lilis foreseeing little likelyhood either of its ending or amendment she named The most Holy Name and thereupon was immediately rapt out of Adam's sight into the Air. Adam seeing this suddain departure of his Wife is said thus to have addressed himself unto God O King of the World the Wife which thou gavest me has forsaken me Hereupon three Angels Senoi Sanfenoi and Saumangeloph were commanded to pursue and bring her back and to threaten her with severe punishments in case she refused The Angels pursuing overtook her at the Sea wherein afterwards the Egyptians were drowned which then was stormy and tempestuous But Lilis refused to return and pleaded that she was not made to be subject to any Man but that the design of her Creation was to molest and destroy the Male-Children for eight daies and the Female for twenty after their Birth But the Angels not approving her reasoning they endeavoured to force her to return but perceiving in her a shreud resistance they agreed to dismiss her upon this Condition That she should never hurt any Infants wherever she saw their Names written And to this end the Jews use to write the Angels Names in a Table or Parchment and to hang them for Amulets about their Childrens Necks As to the inscribing of the foremention'd Circles with Adam Eve chutz Lilis they imply that if the Mother bring forth a boy God would not give him such a brawling Wife as Lilis but one like Eve who would be mild and peaceable loving and obsequious and such an one as may build his house in Peace But enough of this story But the chief intent of these Circles is to fortifie the Chamber appointed for the Teeming woman against all Haggs and Goblins When the great Belly finds her pangs to be near she calls some discreet Matron to assist her delivery but she must be one of their own Religion For nothing but insuperable necessity can induce them to admit either Christian or Moorish Women to be at their Travails out of a jealousie that some mischief may befal the Child Nor is this the fancy only of the suspicious Mother but a strict prescription of their Masters who in no case but that wherein necessity gives a Dispensation will give leave that a strange Woman should be Midwife to a daughter of Israel When the Woman is brought to Bed the joy and festivity is according to the sex that is born At the birth of a daughter they use but little exultation because she cannot support the family which is extinct without Males Whence they have a saying The Family of the Mother is not called a Family And the Hebrew word for Woman is fetcht from a root signifying forgetfulness because the Fathers Family is forgotten in marriage of a daughter But if the Woman be delivered of a Boy there is great joy in the Family and the Father in testimony thereof presently begins the Feast for his Sons Circumcision which is never deferr'd beyond the eighth day unless want of health in the Child prevent it The first seven daies after the Childs Nativity are wholly spent in festival Entertainments at which none can be a Guest who has not past his thirteenth year Neither must there be fewer than ten at this Feast Upon the Eve of the Circumcision the Women visit their Gossip with whom they usually pass the whole night in mirth and freedom On purpose to console and recreate the Mother that she may not be over-troubled for the pains of her Sons Circumcision as also to prevent those mischiefs to which they imagine Childbed-women are very liable the seventh night after their Delivery CHAP. VII Of the Rites of Circumcision and Purification CIrcumcision has so peculiar a veneration among the present Jews that if all other parts of their Religion were to be changed this like Mount Sion would stand immoveable And though many other Nations of old and at this day the whole profession of Mahumedism use Circumcision yet none but the Hebrews embrace it as a Sacrament Concerning the figurative Circumcision of the Heart Lips and Ears whereof the Scripture makes mention there is no considerable disagreement among Christians or Jews nor is their harmony less about the literal Circumcision for both grant it to be of Divine Institution and appointed both for a signe and seal of the Covenant God made with the Jews as St. Paul Rom. 4.11 interprets Moses Gen. 17.11 But the discoursing of this point belongs not to this place whereby the Method we have proposed in this Treatise the modern Rites of Circumcision are plainly to be recounted And in the first place the Jews of whom I now write are very conformable in their observation of the time appointed for the celebration of Circumcision For where they enjoy the free exercise of their Religion they never defer it longer than the eighth day But they Circumcise indifferently at home or the Synagogue Though for the greater parade the wealthier Jews seldom neglect to carry their children to the Synagogue The chief Officer at Circumcision is the Mohel or he that Circumciseth who is not bound to be of the
Priesthood for any has liberty to Circumcise who has skill therein The Rich admit none to perform this office upon their children who have not been bred thereunto and long make it their Profession And it is usual to serve a sort of Apprenticeship to gain the Art and Credit of a skilful Mohel To this end those who herein intend to be Artists deal with the indigent Jews to Circumcise their Sons giving their Fathers money for so doing and having gain'd a competent skill and experience they set up for Circumcisers Who are easily discerned to be of that Profession by their Thumb-nails which they keep sharp and long as a badge of their Calling And from one of these Mohels I received this following account of Circumcision according to the Use of the Synagogue in Fez the place of his Practice and Abode The time intervening between the Childs Birth and Circumcision is spent in frequent bathing it which with more than ordinary Circumspection is washt at the time it is presented to this Sacrament Of which it is altogether incapable if the least filth be left about it So that if any natural Evacuation happen as it is brought to the Mohel or before the Prepuce be taken away he cannot proceed in his Office till the Child be new washed The morning is the usual time of Circumcising out of this supposal that the flux of blood is then least and the child will be most patient but this they do not by the advice of the Rabbi but Physician it being no rite of their Religion but a rule in their Dispensatory Upon the day when Circumcision is celebrated there are two seats set close by the Ark in the Synagogue the one for Elias whose presence they still expect at this Solemnity and another for the Baal-Berith or Godfather By these two Seats stand the Mohel and the Jews that are invited Then the child is brought in Parade with several boys whereof one carries a Torch of twelve lights denoting the twelve Tribes of Israel another brings a dish of Sand another the Circumcising Instrument which is of Wood Stone Iron c. Oyl soft Linnen Rags In some places they have a Cordial ready in case the Child should faint And when the Men in the Synagogue have sung the Song of Moses as it is extant Exod. 15. and have Notice that the Women have brought the Child to the Door of the Synagogue the whole Company stands up and the Baal-Berith goes to receive and bring in the Child to the Congregation who receive him with this Acclamation Blessed is he that cometh which they understand either of the Child who is so happy as to come to Circumcision or of Elias whom they believe to come along with the Child and to take his place by the Godfather to observe and testifie that all things concerning Circumcision were duly administer'd When the Congregation are setled in good order the Godfather holds the Child to the Mohel who gives God thanks that in Abraham he gave them this Sacrament and thereby signed and sealed them for his peculiar people Then he takes away the Foreskin and in the interim the Father praiseth the Lord that he gave Abraham a heart to fulfil the Law of Circumcision and preserved him to see this his Son Circumcised The Foreskin being cut off the Mohel casts it into the dish of Sand with no less mystical intimation than that the Seed of the Child should be numerous as the grains of that Sand and that the Nation of the Jews to whom God gave this Sacrament might still verifie what was observed of them Numb 23.10 But I rather think it to reflect upon Abraham's blessing Gen. 22.17 When the Mohel has thus disposed of the Prepuce he prays that the Child may live and see his Sons thus initiated into the Covenant may keep the Law and do good works Then he takes a cup of Wine and blesseth God that he hath created the Vine and given it a power to exhilarate and nourish then he dips the little finger of his left hand thrice in the Wine and lets it drop into the Childs mouth and having tasted of it himself reaches it to the Congregation This done the Mohel again gives thanks that God sanctified the child in the Womb and has brought it to the Foederal Sacrament He prayes likewise that the children of this child may obey the Law Then he takes the Infant from the Baal-Berith and delivering it to the Father giveth it a Name praying for him that by that Name there given him he may quickly be healed live prosperously be a joy to his Parents and beget children who may be zealous Assertors of the Law And thus far I have transcribed my old Mohel who assured me that the whole Ritual of Circumcision was summarily contain'd in what is now set down They have such a great esteem for this Sacrament that they still enjoyn it under its old penalty That Soul shall be cut off from his people Gen. 17. Which some interpret of Excommunication or the bodily death of the Parents who out of contempt or neglect of the Institution omit the Circumcision of their Males and others understand it of those who at years of Maturity took not care to perform that themselves which through their Parents negligence was omitted in their infancy And though the party delinquent herein incur this penalty yet these Jews do not so expound the precept of Circumcising the eighth day as if it admitted of no relaxation For in case of the childs sickness they generally hold that its Circumcision may be put off till seven daies after its recovery And those likewise who are born where there is no Toleration of their Rites do not incur this censure if they take care to be Circumcisied when they come where their Religion is Tolerated And they prove from the first Institution of Circumcision that Age can priviledge none from undergoing it Abraham being ninety years old and nine when he was Circumcised in the flesh of his Foreskin Gen. 17.24 And I knew one Jacob Israel Belgara who being born in Spain and a long time Student 〈◊〉 Physick at Saragosa coming to Barbary Anno Dom. 1667. was Circumcised in the fortieth year of his Age. And they are careful not to delay the first occasion of being Circumcised because every moment of such delay is a distinct breach of the Commandment 'T is true instances of the Parents negligence in this particular is very unusual they being so far from omitting this Sacrament that they are but too rigorous in exacting it But if any omission happen herein through the Parents default then the Masters of the Synagogue have power to convene and Excommunicate or to cut off from the Communion of the Synagogue the offending party and to take and Circumcise the child If a child die ere the eighth day it is Circumcised at the place of burial but without any furder Ceremonies than giving a Name and praying
the N. T. is often taken for any place of publick concourse But its usual acception is either Civil or Ecclesiastick In the former acception it denotes the place of their Consistories and Judicatures in the later the House or Room where the Law and Prophets are read and expounded and the whole System of publick worship performed The Rulers or Chief of the Synagogue or such as negotiated their Mysteries were different from the Rulers of the Consistory or Judicature But we are here to speak of the Synagogue as a place wherein they tolerated the publick Exercise of Religious Solemnities Which Toleration the Jews in Barbary purchase with their Coin For it is usual with the Moresco Governours when faln into any Exigence of Moneys to shut up the Jews Synagogue out of certain experience that its Redemption is the readiest Subsidie In this part of the World the sense of their Ambulatory condition will not permit the Jews to be at the pains and charges of Erecting new Synagogues But they hire Houses or single Apartments proportionable to their Number to assemble in In whose Furniture they seem to neglect all other Ornament and Sumptuousness but cleanliness and decency But as if they vyed the store of Moresco Moschs they strive much to have their Synagogues numerous And in this they do not recede from the practice of their Ancestors who had four hundred and eighty Synagogues at once in Hierusalem So Sigonius de Rep. Hebr. lib. 2. c. 8. And in other Provinces and Cities as we read in the Acts there was the like plenty And the numerousness of these Holy Houses may easily be granted seeing that a very few make up a Jewish Congregation For they have a Tradition that wheresoever ten men of Israel are there ought to be a Synagogue Of old the Jews wrote the Entrances of their Synagogues with devout and cautionary Sentences as Buxtorf hath observed in several Pages of his Abbreviatures which Custom is wholly out of fashion with the Jews here discoursed of which seems chiefly to be imputed to the uncertain tenure of the Houses which they hire for Synagogues and not to any dislike of the practice For doubtless the Inscriptions now spoken of were very laudable as directing those who enter'd in their deportment in the Divine Worship Of old the Walls within as well as Entrances of the Synagogues were written with Sentences tending to the same purpose As Enter the House of the Lord thy God with humility Be attentive in time of Prayer Think upon thy Creator c. To every Synagogue there belongs six Officers first the Summas or Sacristan answerable to our Sexton whose Office is to sweep keep clean the Synagogue and to trim the Lamps The Second is the Pernas to whom belongs the care of providing the Holy Wine which is given to the Youth at the entrance and end of their Sabbaths and Festivals The Third Officer is the Mari-Acatab who folds up and unfolds the Law and shows it to the people The fourth whose title I remember not is he to whom belongs the Elevation of the Law and the bearing it in procession through the Synagogue which is an honourable Imployment and his who gives most The fifth Office belongs to the Elhaim or those who touch the two staves which they call the trees of life whereon the Law is rolled up when it is carryed in procession The sixth is the Chesau or Praecentor All these Offices are bought and sold upon the day when the last Section of the Law is read and without a new Election are not held above a year by the same persons To express their Zeal to the Service of God they canvas for these Offices and give Monies to obtain them which goes to the Poor-stock The folding up and unfolding of the Law being an Office of the greatest esteem none carry it but he who is able to give liberally to the Corban by which they raise a comfortable subsistance for those are grown indigent as in another Chapter we shall have occasion to discourse Their times of repairing to the Synagogue or hours of Prayer are next to be considered To the Holy Exercise of Prayer the Jews thrice every day assemble at their Oratories first at Sun-rising which they call Tephilla Sabarit or Morning-Prayer Their second time of going to the Synagogue is about three in the Afternoon which is their Tephilla Mincha or Evening-Prayer The last is after Sun-set and this they call the Tephilla Arvit or Night-Prayer To every one of which times there are proper Offices appointed as is to be seen in the Sepher Tephilot But the Office for the Morning far exceeds the other two in length For they are above two hours in the Synagogue at Morning-Prayer and not above half so much at both the other They have no perfect difference between Proseuchae Synagogues Schools and Houses of Prayer as was of old For if there be or ever was herein â—ny distinction it is swallowed up into the one Title of Synagogue by which is barely to be understood the place where the Jews gather together for Religious purposes and may well be called an Oratory or House of Prayer because that is the main Duty for which they repair thither CHAP. XII Of the Jews Preparation to the Synagogue THe apprehension of the Divine Greatness and Majesty of God which by all Civilized Religions is acknowledged for the sole and proper object of their Worship hath moved men of all Faiths to ordain some Rites of preparation to so solemn an Address This I have already observed in Mahumedism the most considerable Religion for secular Grandeur in the World And the present Judaism is no way thereunto inferiour in this particular For before the Jews go to the Synagogue to celebrate the Publick Service of God they carefully observe all such preparations as they have learned from Custom Superstition or their Masters In whose observation they are rather too punctual and precise than any way negligent or remiss And first of all the Jews are vigilant to Pray betimes in the morning out of an Opinion that the more early the Oraison the more acceptable it is to God And this they found on the third Verse of the fifth Psalm My voice shalt thou hear betimes O Lord early in the Morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up When at any time they find themselves backward to these Morning-Devotions they upbraid it with their forwardness to pursue their Secular interest and shew how far the concerns of Religion doth exceed all worldly business and that their care to seek God ought at least to equal that in seeking Mammon There is a saying common to all Jews That in Winter they raise the day and in Summer the day them The meaning whereof depends upon their rising before day to Prayers from the fifteenth of June till Pentecost and after from Pentecost till the fifteenth of June Let the Reader understand it
Zizith is an observation of the whole Law Credat Judaeus Now as to the form and matter of the Zizith it is a quadrangular piece of Linnen-cloth or Silk c. with Fringes worn next the Shirt hanging down upon the Breast and Shoulders At the putting of it on they use these words Bendito tu A. N. B. Rey del mundo c. Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the World who hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and commanded us to wear the Zizith To this Religious Utensil no fewer Miracles are ascribed then to the Cowle of St. Francis for the Jews say it can deliver from sin and make Proselytes to their Faith And that it is an Amulet against Sorceries and preserves those from receiving any hurt from evil Angels who constantly put it on But all are not admitted to the honour of wearing this Holy Ornament for it being a part of the habit to be worn at the Synagogue the women are totally forbid it as being excluded the publick Service Their next Prayer-Ornament is the Tephillim which are Scrowles of Parchment written with several Sentences of the Law and tyed upon their Fore-heads and left-Arms And this they observe upon the account of the sixth of Deut. the sixth and eighth Verses The Sentences wherewith the Phylacteries were antiently inscribed are conjectured to have been Exod. 13. from verse the 11 th to the 17 th Exod. 13.2 to the 11 th Deut. 6. from verse 4. to the 10 th and Deut. 11. from the 13 th to the 22. Others are of Opinion that the Phylacteries were written with the Decalogue But for mine own part I believe the Inscription to be concealed for the Jews with whom I have practised in this particular would not be moved either to show or explain their Phylacteries At the putting them on they say this Eucharist Bendito tu c. Blessed be thou O God our Lord Governour of the Universe who hast hallowed us with thy Law and commanded us to wear the Tephillim i. e. Phylacteries The Phylactery worn upon the Fore-head is folded up and hangs between the brows so as they may see it and thereby be minded of walking according to Gods Statutes There has been no small dispute among the Criticks and Interpreters concerning the Name and Office of the Tephillim but if they will acquiesce in the meaning which the Modern Jews give thereof they signifie no more than Ornaments to be worn at publick Prayer in which such Sentences of Scripture are written as they deem most proper to remember them of their Duties according to the first appointment hereof Exod. 13.16 Deut. 6.8 'T is true the first plain and wholesome intent thereof has in course of time been much corrupted chiefly by the Schismatical Pharisees who in stead of binding them for a sign upon their hands and as Frontlets between their Eyes hung them as Charms about their Necks supposing in them a secret Power to defend them from Dangers Out of which corruption 't is probable did arise that superstitious Custom of some women in St. Hierom's time of wearing their Parvula Evangelia or short Sentences of the Gospel to keep them from Inchantments and other Mischiefs And at this day the Papists permit the wearing about their Necks the beginning of St. John's Gospel as a Defensative from Evil. That the wearing hereof was not unlawful some produce Christs wearing them for a convincing Argument St. Luke 8.44 but the Fringe or Border of the Garment there mention'd may belong to the Zizith but no way to the Tephillim However the Jews were not condemn'd by our Saviour for the use but superstition of this Ornament and because they made their Phylacteries larger and broader than commanded and this too to the end that they might appear more holy than others And we may conceive the whole matter to be briefly thus Tephillim or Phylacteries are with the later Jews become a great part of their Religion which they ground upon the last mention'd Texts taking them in a literal which were intended in a figurative sense according to their explication Deut. 6.7 But this carnal people which have ever been apt to turn all inward Piety into outward form and to make that matter of Ambition and Ostentation which was designed for humility and holiness understand the Precept concerning the Phylacteries meerly according to the Letter And therefore make them Scrowles of Parchment in which they write the four Sections of the Pentateuch which were named before and wear them on their Arms and Foreheads As we have said already In preparing these Scrowles these Ceremonies are still in use first the skins whereof they are made must be of Beasts which the Law has pronounced clean Secondly none but a Jew must kill the Beast and dress the skin for this purpose for if a Christian or in their Language any other Edomite have a hand therein it is wolly polluted and unserviceable Thirdly the Ink wherewith the Sections of the Law are writ must not be black nor of the ordinary confection Fourthly they must be writ with the right hand without interlining These with other niceties concerning columning and cutting the Parchments are used about the Phylacteries And being thus Canonically made they sit and apply them to their Foreheads and Hand-wrists and call them Tephillim because they are especially used in Praying The Greek Phylacteria relates to the end hereof namely to keep the Law in memory Though there is a present superstition which layes claim to the Phylacteries because they keep those that wear them from Sorceries and Diseases and the Malus Genius Now what is principally blameable herein is their affixing on God their own carnal observation and frivolous Ceremonies of these Tephillim as if they were his own Institution and Appointment And it was the peculiar fault of the Pharisees to wear the Tephillim of a greater breadth than any other Jews that they might be looked upon as persons of a greater Sanctity than the rest CHAP. XIV Of the Jews hastening to Morning-Prayer Their Manner of Entrance into and Deportment in the Synagogue c. THrice every day as we have said the Jews repair to the Synagogue and herein they express a great chearfulness and delight For they leave their houses in a hasty posture and with great willingness and seem to strive who shall be first at the Synagogue But they return thence in a far different manner For when they leave the Synagogue they go backward and use a very slow pace therein By which they testifie their delight in Gods publick Worship and their unwillingness to go from it And they interpret Hosea 6.3 of that dispatch readyness and alacrity wherewith they ought to come unto Gods House And to those who are backward and come late to the Synagogue they apply that of Esay 50.2 Wherefore when I came was there no man when I called was there no man to answer And of him who comes not to Prayers at all
they understand Esay 50.10 11. At the Entrance of the Synagogue they either make clean or put off their shooes in obedience to Eccles 4.17 and Exod. 3.5 Put off thy shooes c. And this saves them the uncovering of their Heads for their little black brimless Caps are never moved all the time they stay in the Synagogue At their stepping into the Synagogue they first spend a few minutes in the meditation of his Attributes whom they come to invoke which is to beget in them a Deportment humble and reverend And when they have duly possessed their minds with an awful reverence of Gods Majesty they repeat to themselves Numb 24.5 How goodly are thy Tents O Jacob and thy Tabernacles O Israel And Psalm 26.8 O Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth And the 6 th Verse of Psalm 95. O come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our Maker This Meditation being ended they lay the right hand upon the heart and bowing their bodies toward the Chest where the Law is laid up they begin the publick Service with the 7 th of the fifth Psalm I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies and humble my self with fear in the Temple of thy Holiness So it is Verbatim in an old Spanish Translation of the Jewish Lyturgie They Pray standing girt with their faces toward Canaan their heads moderately bowed down and hands upon their heart They utter their Prayers in a sort of Plain-Song sometimes straining their Voices to a very harsh and unpleasant Note and then on a sudden letting it fall into a kind of whisper Their bodies are always in a wagging unsteddy posture which they say expresses joy and satisfaction in Devotion But to him that knows not the intent hereof this wavering and sometime exulting of the body will seem very careless and negligent and that they Pray with none or very little intention and devotion of mind Those which cannot read the Service in Hebrew who are but few are bound to learn when to say Amen A thing the more easily attain'd unto because they have a prescript Form And how heedless soever they may appear in other parts of Prayer yet they use a signal diligence in the right timing and pronouncing of the Amen Because whosoever saith it with all his might the Gate of the Garden of Eden is open'd to him In time of Prayers none are permitted openly to spit belch yawn or blow the Nose All which they do with great Secrecy in the Synagogue when they have occasion Neither may they spit or any such thing to the right hand or before them because of the Angels which have made those places their Situation in the Synagogue And from this short Account of the Jews entering and behaviour in the Synagogue we come to take a general view of the Prayers made therein And here we shall follow the Breviary in present use with the Jews in Barbary which was Printed at Venice in the 1622 Year of Grace And first of all they begin the Morning-Service with the eighteen Benedictions of which saith Moses Maimon Ezra was the Author For when the Israelites returned from the Captivity their Native Language was so corrupted with that of their Bondage that they were not able to praise or serve God in a continued Speech And upon this occasion Ezra is thought to have composed eighteen short Benedictions wherein they might praise God and beg at his hands the supply of his dayly blessings But others are of opinion that these eighteen Benedictions were composed as a Directory whereby they might guide themselves both in the private and publick Service of God to which purpose they are imployed at this day After the Benedictions follows a large Office for Sacrifice and Oblations which begins with the History of Abraham's going to Offer up his Son To this succeeds a long course of Psalms then a tedious Thanksgiving Then a Confession of Sins at the saying whereof they throw themselves prostrate and express a great sense of their own vileness and misery and that they have no strength but in the Almighty Then all on the sudden they start up and comfort themselves with the Oath God made unto Ahraham when he went to Sacrifice his only Son And now with great chearfulness they bless their Lot that God has chosen them for his Heritage and the people of his Covenant But besides all this they have in this Office a peculiar Thanksgiving for the Delivery of the Law and a Prayer which they say with a low voice for the restauration of the Temple That in their dayes God would rebuild the House of his Sanctuary which they hourly hope for And they shut all with praying that God would lead them in his righteousness and make plain his way before them And this is the sum of their dayly Morning-Service for whose more regular Celebration there are Rubricks intermingled with it directing them to the Responses Praises and how every part must come in course This Morning-Office as was said is very long for which they make sufficient amends in the brevity of the other two In some places they have a Custom for those to shut the Prayer-Book who are at Variance with their Neighbours thereby signifying that they will not Pray at all because they cannot pray aright till the difference be reconciled At the saying of Give Ear O Israel the Lord our God is one God they turn themselves East and North at the pronouncing of Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath they jump up three times They dare not turn their Backs on the Chest where the Law is deposit and lest they should do otherwise they go backward out of the Synagogue having their eyes always fixed thereon They are very careful that nothing may interrupt them in their Devotions at which if they sneeze they account it a lucky token of being therein accepted but to break wind preposterously is a very unhappy abodement I have omitted in the former Paragraph to observe that after the appointed course of Psalms they have two Lessons the first out of the Law which is always read by the Chasán or some eminent Jew The second Lesson is taken out of the Prophets and is read by any ordinary Jew who is able to read distinctly And in the difference of the persons imployed in these Lessons they show the great value and esteem which they have for the Law above the Prophets There is an universal Agreement among the Jews of all Countries that they ought every day to repeat a hundred Benedictions which they thus compute At wâ—shing in the Morning twenty three At their Entrance into the Synagogue six At putting on of the Zizith or Fringes one At putting on the Tephillim one At every one of the three Offices in the Synagogue eighteen Three after dinner and two before night At going to sleep two and as many at
with such offensive creatures and it was agreed that those creatures which were generated by natural coition should not be hurt and therefore Flies were free but those which were bred of corrupt putrified matter were to be killed and therefore Lice They are forbidden to climb trees lest they should break the boughs He who feeds his Hen and Chickens in any open place where the rain may fall with any Corn must not give them more than they can eat lest when it rains it should grow and so he might be said to sow on the Sabbath which is a sin unpardonable They must not knock at the dore with the iron hammer lest they may seem to drive a nail and therefore Chassan the Sexton doth knock with his fist They may not knock with the fingers on the table nor write on sand or ashes but they may in the Air. No Picture either in paper or wax is to be defaced The sum of all that they are forbidden is contained in 39 Articles to which all lesser matters are reducible The First Article concerns Plowing under which is comprehended dressing of Gardens removing Herbs setting Trees planting Vines digging pruning c. whereby the growth of any thing may be improved and because it is not lawful to fill Ditches the Rabbies have thought fit that the Chambers should be sprinkled with water that the dust might not arise but sweeping is forbidden lest thereby any little chink in the Chamber should be filled and for this reason they would not throw nutshels towards the Ditch lest peradventure they might fall into it The Second Article concerns Reaping under which is contained gathering any kinde of Fruit which they are forbidden as also to take honey from the Bees and such-like They may on the Sabbath eat any Fruit as it hangs on the stalk but not break the stalk they may not go over a Corn-field newly sown lest the Corn should stick to their shoos which is as if they had purposed to take it And it seems that the Jews were offended with our Saviour for the breach of this Article when his Disciples pluckt off the ears of Corn on the Sabbath Mat. 12. The Third Article respects Thrashing to which pertaineth beating of Hemp or Flax to press any moist Fruits as Grapes and such-like Milking is also contained under this Article but the Rabbies don't as yet agree about it You may judge of the other Articles accordingly The difference betwixt the general ones and those contained under them is not great He who beareth false witness against another is to be stoned and he who willingly sins him God shall judge and root out of the Land of the Living These are explained in the Talmud in Tractatu de Sabbatho Chapter 7. with many more but they are too tedious to be named And though the Jews think that they rightly observe the Sabbath yet they may be convinced of the contrary from their own Conscience For we read in the Talmud that he who observeth all the Ceremonies of the Sabbath to do them shall have free pardon of all sins yea though he be an Idolater as Enoch in whose time they say this sin had its Original According to Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord And Esay the 56.2 Blessed is the man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it Rabbi Juda said If the Israelites had kept the first Sabbath aright immediately after the Law was given no Nation would ever have overcome them And another Rabbi said If they had kept the two first Sabbaths aright they had soon been set at liberty according to Esay 56.4 They that keep my Sabbaths aright them will I bring back into my holy Mountain that is Jerusalem But seeing they are not neither are like to be set at liberty it must needs be because they have not kept the Sabbath aright as they confessed while the Temple stood at Jerusalem As the Talmud expresly speaketh For no other reason was the Temple at Jerusalem destroyed but because the Jews observed not the Sabbath aright As it is written Ezek. 22.27 They have hid their eyes from my Sabbath and I am polluted among them The Jews celebrate the Sabbath with Wine Fish and Flesh and all kinde of Delights they abstain from work and are not at any time desirous to do any thing but only command the poor Christians and therefore boast that they are Lords over them I shall conclude this Chapt. with the complaint which God made to Israel by the Prophet Esay Esay 1.13 Incense is an abomination unto me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meetings Your new Moons and your appointed Seasons my Soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them CHAP. XVIII Of the Jews Feasts The manner of their Celebration IN the Order of Prayers according to the Hebrew Use the Offices for the Festivals immediately follow those of the Sabbath though the Service-book doth not yield Offices for every Feast which are in present observation with them For besides a peculiar Order for the Purim there is but one general Office for all the rest Now besides what occurs in Holy Writ concerning the institution and reason of the Jewish Festivals there are some modern Customs chiefly therein to be considered which we shall refer to the several Feasts and only give them a naked enumeration The chief both of the Antient and Modern Jewish Festivals are the Passover the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles The Passover is the first both in time and dignity and the Divine Scriptures exhibit enough in testimony both of its Institution and Designe So that we shall only succinctly set down the usual Rites of its present observation And in the first place the Jews esteem the Passover of so great moment that their preparation for its solemnity is much more great than to all the other Festivals For the Wealthier and Devouter sort spend above a Lunar Month in preparing for its coming But their preparations consist not in any Spiritual exercise but in a carnal providing for the body Where they use no small curiosity and diligence in getting the finest Wheat for the unleavened bread which by Divine appointment is thereon to be eaten And what is very commendable the Richer are careful to provide the Poorer with fine Wheat for the same purpose gratis out of their own Store For they account it a great Scandal to their Religion that any Jew should be unprovided of things requisite to so sacred a celebration The two or three daies before the Passover are spent in cleansing their houses and washing their Furniture of brass pewter and iron On the Eve of the Feast the First-born of the Family always fasts and the rest of the houshold are imployed in searching every corner that not a crum of leaven'd bread may remain till the Passover And because
and sing an Hymn wherein they commemorate their deliverance And having past the afternoon and part of the night in liberal refreshment they eat the third Cake and drink a glass of Wine Then the Father of the Family saith Grace and with the fourth cup of Wine in his hand repeats the 6 verse of the 79 Psalm and the last verse of Lamentations the 3. and utters most direful Execrations against all that are not of their Religion And immediately upon this they go to sleep On the night of the Passover they think themselves so safe from danger that they let the doors stand open which at other times are bolted and locked with all imaginable security But some tell us that they leave their doors open upon the night of the Passover that there may be nothing to hinder the entrance of Elias whose coming on that night is expected As for the rationale of the four Cups of Wine the number of the Cakes time of Execration and other mysterious Rites of this Festival it is to be learned out of their Masters whither the Curious are remitted All that I have here to take notice of is their Custom of showing the Paschal Cakes to their Children and instructing them in the Institution and Ceremonies of the Passover Wherein they pretend to be very faithful observers of Exod. 12.26 27. As for the other daies of this Feast there is little to be observed concerning them except that thereon the Jews eat better and go finer than at other times CHAP. XIX Of their Pentecost or Feast of weeks THe meaning and institution of this Festival may partly be learned from its name For Pentecost denotes the time of its observation which was the fiftieth day reckoning from the second of the Passover It was also called the Feast of Harvest and of First-fruits because the Jews then began their Harvest and offered the first Fruits of the Earth Exod. 23.16 And seeing they cannot keep this Feast according to its first Institution they spend the time allotted thereunto in praying for their Restauration that God would hasten their return to Canaan and the rebuilding of the Temple For which they use this form Let it be thy good pleasure O Lord our God and the God of our Fathers that the house of thy Sanctuary may speedily be rebuilt in our daies and give us our portion in thy Law And indeed this Feast may well bear the Title of the Feast of Harvest because it contain'd the weeks usual for that season which were bounded with two remarkable daies whereof the one began and the other ended the Harvest The former was called the second of the Passover and the later the Pentecost And from this second day of the Passover they number their Sabbaths which Custom explains the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Sabbatum used in the Gospel At this Festival the present Ceremonies are but few only they carry the Law twice in Procession and read out of it such portions as concern the Oblations which were of old accustomed to be offered And these parcels of the Law are after a most solemn manner read by five select Jews Their entertainments likewise are at this time very plain and frugal using little flesh-diet though they are bound to use some that they may not contradict their own rule A Feast without flesh is without joy But still white meats and confection of milks are their prime Delicacies And this sort of Viand is at this time made use of out of no less mystery than that by its colour and dulcour they might be remember'd of the purity and delightfulness of the Law To which they allude the 10 verse of the 19 Psalm They have a Custom at this Feast to strow the Synagogues their dwelling Houses and the Streets if they have leave with Greens and to wear some upon their heads out of no deeper mystery than to commemorate that pleasant Verdure which was upon Mount Sinai when the Law was there given unto their great Master Moses A Custom they have likewise to bake a Cake of seven folds to signifie say they the seven Heavens into which God ascended when he went up from the Mount At the beginning of this Feast the Jews with great Devotion make this Prayer Blessed art thou O Lord our God the King of the World who hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and hast inabled us rightly to number the days as thou hast commanded us this being the first day Thus they proceed to number until the whole fifty daies be expired every day using the same Benediction CHAP. XX. Of the Feast of Tabernacles THis is the third Capital Feast of Divine appointment among the Jews which those of Barbary keep at present as their Fathers did antiently in Booths which being made of green Canes it is now generally known among them by the Spanish name of Fiesta de las writing as it is pronounced Caunias or the Feast of Reeds And the end of this Feast is to preserve the memory of their Ancestors long Pilgrimage in the Wilderness and it lasts eight daies The Institution hereof is to be met with Deut. 16. and Exod. 23 and 34. Now as of old the chief Solemnity and observation of this Festival is confined to the first and second day thereof In that Liturgie of the Jews which I have so often named there is no proper Office for this Feast so that thereon they do no more but go to the Synagogue and there solemnize the Vsual Service and thence hasten home to their Booths Bowers Tents or Tabernacles which they finde furnished as richly as their Estate and Fortunes will make them During the whole eight daies of this Festival they live in their Booths and adorn them with the Furniture of their houses and constantly lodge therein unless it fall out that the rains which in Barbary often begin in September the time of this Feast force them into more comfortable lodgings Paulus Fagius on Levit. 23. reports out of the Rabbins that every man was bound every morning to bring a burden of Cittern Palm Mirtle or Willow-boughs toward the making of these Booths And this burden was called Hosanna And the cutting down of the Boughs and strowing them in the way and crying Hosanna to Christ as he rode to Hierusalem is thought to have been in allusion to this Custom And the Jews in Barbary are wont at this Festival to take any sort of boughs in their hands and to shake them toward the four Cardinal Points of Heaven beginning at the East And by this action they foretel and threaten destruction to all the ends of the Earth that oppose them With these Boughs also they make a great noise in allusion to the 12 verse of the 69 Psalm and also to terrifie the Devil and triumph over sin At the shaking of these Boughs they use these words Blessed art thou O Lord our God King of the World who hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and commanded
us to carry a bundle of Palm At this time also the Law is brought to the Reading-place about which they walk with great state and nothing but threatning and victory appear in their looks This they do seven times in memory of their Fathers compassing the walls of Hiericho But others say That this compassing of the Reading-place seven times is in prediction of the certain ruine of their Enemies And this notice of the Ceremonie is very agreeable to the Execratory which is now used by them Wherein they profoundly curse the Christians desiring that God would smite them as he did the First-born of Egypt And though this Direful Prayer is not found in that Liturgie printed at Venice as I above-mentioned yet I am assured by a good Author that it is extant in the Machsor of the Cracovian Impression Upon the last day of this Festival the last Section of the Law is constantly read and the first Section begun For they begin and end the Lesson of the Law on the same day to declare their joy therein This last day of the Feast of Tents is called the Great day of the Feast S. John 7.37 where Tremelius observes that on the last of Tabernacles the antient Jews used to incompass the Altar as the modern Jews now the Reading-place with Palms in their hands crying Hosanna that is Preserve us we beseech thee Whence it was called Hasanna Rabba or the Great Hosanna or the Chief of the Feast And that on the same day they drew water from the Well of Shiloah at the foot of Mount Sion and brought it to the Temple where the Priests mingled it with the best Wine and poured it on the Altar and that the people sang these words of Esay With joy shall they draw water out of the Wells of Salvation To which our Saviour is thought to have alluded in that speech which on this day he made use of S. John 7.38 Every one that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow living waters When they have built their Tabernacles they may not use them till the Father of the Family hath consecrated both them and all the Utensils of the Feast wherein he gives God thanks that he hath chosen and sanctified the Jews above all other Nations and that to them only belongs the habitation in Tents At the expiration of the Feast when they come out of their Tabernacles the Chief of the Family saith these words God grant that the following year we may dwell in the Tent of the Leviathan The mystery of which Prayer depends upon the Opinion that the Jews have of eating with their Messias of the great Fish called a Leviathan which they imagine to be of a Poetical Magnitude and preserved on purpose for that great Entertainment to which they shall all be invited by Messias at his coming And the Prayer above-named has respect to this Opinion and designes no more than their desires that their King may have a speedy advent And having now taken this short view of the present Rites wherewith the Jews celebrate their three Cardinal Feasts their Minor Festivals come next to be considered Among which their Purim or Feast of Lots merits the first remembrance For to it is allotted a proper Office which honour is not granted to any of the rest CHAP. XXI Of the Jews Purim or Feast of Lots THe word Purim is Persick and signifies Lots and the Feast bears this name from the occasion of its Institution which without the trouble of transcribing is to be seen at large in the Book of Esther The Mischiefs plotted against the Jews falling upon their Enemies and those being killed by them who designed their destruction and all this happening upon the 13 of the Month Adar answering to our February and ending upon the 14 of the same Month in memory of their own deliverance and the destruction of their Enemies the Jews keep those two daies Festival whereon they both happened In the Celebration of this Feast they at present use these Ceremonies First they light up great store of Lamps that thereby they may testifie their joy and read over the Book of Esther At which both the women and children are bound to be present Who at the naming of Haman make an hideous noise beating with their hands and stamping with their feet and at the same time pronounce these words Let his name be blotted out Let the name of the ungodly come to naught Cursed be Haman blessed be Mordachee Cursed be Zeresch but blessed be Esther Cursed be all Idolaters and blessed be all Israelites Which Maledictions are now applied to the Christians And when they come to that passage concerning the death of Haman's Sons they huddle it over without pause or distinction intimating that they were all killed in a moment and that they hate to be long mentioning them When they come out of the Synagogue they fall to eating and drinking and are therein much more liberal at this than any other time And they have a Rule that at the Feast of Purim they should drink till they cannot distinguish between Cursed be Haman and blessed be Mordachee At this Feast the Rich supply the Poor with Wine and Viands and for two daies none undertake any Servile work The women especially are to keep Holy-day in honour of her who was the occasion of their Deliverance At this Feast also they salute one another with presents and bestow large Alms upon the Needy in compliance with what their Great Patriot commanded Esther 9 20 21 22. Where he established the Institution of the Feast of Lots The Mattins of this Feast begin with extolling Gods mercie and power in their Deliverance After which follow the Proper Lessons out of Esther When those are finished the Chasan leaves the Pulpit and saith part of the Dayly Service Their Vespers they begin with this Psalm My God my God why hast thou forsaken me c. and then again a Lesson is read out of Esther and after that the ordinary Evening-Service Then follow four Benedictions and all is concluded with select Psalms Purim is the last of their Anniversary Festivals for happening in Adar there is none between it and Easter which alwaies falls in Nisan the Month that began the Year when the Hebrews came out of Egypt and which still keeps that place in the Computation of their Greater Feasts Besides their Purim and the three Capital Feasts which we have already considered the Jews have other Minor Festivals as that of Reconciliation Dedication Church-Officers New year and Lunar Mutations of which take this short account in their Order And beginning with their Feast of Reconcilement or Expiation we finde the ground thereof in Lev. 16. and an express Statute for its Celebration v. 29. In the seventh month on the tenth day of the month ye shall afflict your souls and do no work at all whether he be one of your own Country or a stranger ihat sojourneth among you v. 30.
For on that day shall the Priest make an Atonement for you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. In obedience unto which Law the Jews upon the 10 of Tizri repair to their Synagogues and in places of open Toleration carry wax-lights in their hands which when they have lighted they begin in a very dismal note to lament their sins and continue fasting and praying for ten daies which are called the daies of Contrition for which their Liturgy has a proper Office Every morning during this Feast of Expiation they thrice repeat this Confession O Lord thy people the house of Israel they have sin'd they have done wickedly they have transgressed before thee I beseech thee now O Lord pardon the sins iniquities and transgressions with which the people the house of Israel have sin'd done wickedly and transgressed before thee as it is written in the Law of thy Servant Moses That in that day he shall make an Atonement for you that he might cleanse you and that you might be clean from all your iniquities before the Lord. This Confession saith P. Fagius is of very great Antiquity and was made by the High-Priest when he disburden'd the sins of the whole Congregation upon the Head of the Scape-goat Since the destruction of their City the Jews have no place for a proper Sacrifice and therefore instead thereof when they come from the Synagogue every Father of a Family takes a Cock a white one if possible upon the 9th day of the Feast and calling his Household about him repeats several Sentences of Scripture among which the principal are the 17 vers of Psalm 107. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted And 23 vers of Job 13. How many are mine iniquities and sins Make me to know my transgression and my sin After the repetition of these Scriptures he waves the Cock three times about his head at each of which he useth these or the like words Let this Cock be a Commutation for me Let it be my substitute Let it be an Expiation for me Let the Bird die but let life and happiness be to me and to all Israel Amen Then he again swings the Cock thrice about his head once for himself once for his Sons and once for the Strangers that are with him Then he kills the Cock and saith I have deserved thus to die The Woman takes a Hen and doth the like for those of her Sex In Barbary where the Houses are flat-roofed they cast the Garbage thereon to be devoured by some ravenous Birds in token that their sins are removed as the Entrails they cast out Now the reason why they chuse a Cock for the Expiatory is drawn from the ambiguous word in the Talmud which may signifie either Man or Cock So that they repute the death of a Cock as much as that of a Man and to this Domestick bird the 53 of Esay with many other Passages of Holy Writ are prophanely and ridiculously applied But however they may at this Feast greatly extol the Merits of the Cock and imagine all their sins to be atoned by his death yet when themselves come to die they acknowledge no Commutation but skin for skin according to this saying of one of their Masters when he was a dying Let my own death be the Expiation and Satisfaction for all my sins When they have done with the Cock they repair to the Sepulchres where they repeat enlarge and enforce their Prayers and Confessions They bestow the value of their Cocks upon the Poor to whom formerly they gave their Carkasses which they now keep to furnish out their own Tables Besides that form of publick Confession which we mentioned before they use private Confession one to another which they thus perform About the middle of the Service they make an interruption and two by two step aside in the Synagogue and confess their sins to each other During the time of Confession he that confesseth turns his face Northward and with great seeming Contrition bows his body beats his brest and readily submits his back to such stripes as his friend will inflict who yet never exceeds the number of 39. And the first having thus made Confession the second goes upon the same duty This Feast as it has the name of Expiation because according to its first Institution the High-Priest did then confess his own sins and the sins of the people and by certain Rites did expiate and make atonement to God for them so is it likewise called the Feast of Reconciliation because at this time they endeavour a general Amnesty and Pardon For they labour that no quarrel among them remain unreconciled He that seeks to be at peace with his Neighbour though he be refused is looked upon as innocent They hold this Reconciliation so necessary that if the offended die without it the offender must go to his Grâ—â—e and in the presence and hearing of ten Witnesses confess his trespass Upon the Even of the 9th of this Feast they repair to the Synagogue where they trim and encrease the number of their Lamps The women do the like at home If the Lamps burn cleer it is a good signe that their sins are pardoned and that they shall live chearful and happy But if the Lamps burn dim it is a sad abodement their trespasses are not expiated Whereupon some of them renew their penances and use several abstinences and remain restless till the Omen alter Some are reported at this time to bribe the Devil that he may not accuse them and some again are so confident of their Expiation that they bid the Devil do his worst That the Expiation Reconcilement might be extended unto all upon the Eve of the 9th of this Feast they absolve all Offenders restore the Excommunicate and admit to the Prayers and Communion of the Synagogue even the stubborn and refractary At last the Chasan blesseth the people stretching out his hands toward them which hands the people dare not stedfastly look upon while they are elevate because they suppose them for that time to be full of the Holy Ghost After the Expiation is thus ended they continue a space fasting at the Synagogue and then return home to feast and to testifie their mutual Peace and Reconcilement Their next Feast is that of Dedication whose Institution we meet with in 1 Maccab. 4.59 Moreover Judas and his brethren c. And this our Saviour honour'd with his presence S. John 10.22 not to countenance the abuses but to own its appointment and to approve the Consecration and Dedication of times and places to Gods service This Feast in the N. T. is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Renovations or a Feast wherein something is renewed and is in memory of second Dedications It continues 8 daies during which time the Synagogues are full of Candles which may be the reason that the Spanish Jews call it Fiesta de
las Candelas and some call it the Feast of Oyl and both give this reason of the name In the Dedication of the Temple and Restauration of the Divine Worship there wanted Oyl for the Holy Lamps whereupon Judas Maccabaeus diligently seeking every corner of the Temple for Oyl at length found a Jar full which was sealed with the High-Priests Seal and had never fallen into the desecrating hands of the Enemy But the Oyl was of so small a quantity that it was but enough for one night Whereupon he and the people became very sorrowful not being able to procure Oyl for the present necessity For the place where it was to be bought stood three daies journey from Hierusalem But God saith the story by a bountiful Miracle made the small Jar of Oyl to last the whole eight daies of the Feast In memory of which miraculous supply some as I said have called it the Feast of Candles and others the Feast of Oyl They spend the eight daies in junketing and Games little of Religion appearing through the whole Solemnity They have another Feast in remembrance of giving the Law at which time they sell those Ecclesiastick Offices we spoke of before and which always falls out upon the same day that the last Section of the Law is finished and the first begun And they begin the Law the same day they end it that the Devil may not tell God that Israel is weary of his Law On this Feast all the Copies of Law are taken out of the Ark and in very solemn Procession is carri'd through the Synagogue with all manner of Exultation and rejoycing And after this they make the best provision they can possible which they call the Supper upon the finishing the Law And it is founded upon the Act of Solomon who coming to Hierusalem and there offering Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings before the Ark of the Covenant of the Law made a Feast to all his Servants 1 Kings 3.15 The next Feast is that of the New year which is kept in Tizri for that is the first Month according to their Secular though but the seventh according to their Ecclesiastical Computation On the day of this Festival they repair to the Synagogue and the Usual Service being ended with a short Prayer they consecrate the Feast and drink if they can possible procure it some Mustum because it is Wine of a good abodement of an happy Year which they then wish one to another The Younger sort do now receive the Chief Priests Benediction which he gives them by laying his hands upon their heads and praying they may have a Good Year In some places Rams horns are sounded at this Feast in memory think some of the Ram which was sacrificed in stead of Isaac some in memory of the giving of the Law with sound of Cornets and some to minde them of the day of Judgement to which they shall be summoned by the sound of Trumpets Now the deliverance of Isaac and the giving of the Law did and the last Judgement say they shall happen upon the first day of Tizri answering to our September The Jews have had a Custome on this day to run into the Rivers and there to shake off their Sins that according to Micah 7.19 they may be carried into the depths of the Sea If at this Lustration they have the good Fortune to see a Fish they shake themselves lustily on purpose to load it with their Sins that it may swim away with them and be as the Scape-goat of old which carried the peoples Sins into the Desart Some among them would have this repairing to the running-Water to be in memory of Abraham's being led by an Evil Spirit into a River when he went to Sacrifice his Son where being in great danger of Drowning he prai'd unto God and the River upon the sudden became dry Land But he that shall converse with the Jews shall be furnished with plenty of Stories of this nature and if upon every occasion I should have set down the Miracles wherewith their most ridiculous and improbable Rites are attested I might have made this Discourse Voluminous to no purpose Their last Feast I shall take notice of is that of their New-Moons which are a sort of Half Holy-days the Morning as on other daies being spent in the Synagogues and the Afternoon in Good Company At the first sight of the New-moon they have a Benediction wherein they bless God that with the breath of his Mouth he hath created the Heavens and all the Host thereof and appointed them Laws which they observe That he reneweth the Moon and makes it assist the pregnant Hebrews And then they leap as 't were to catch her and wish their Enemies may come no nearer them than they to the Moon Then they extol her good qualities for which they have but little reason seeing that they are told how in the beginning God deprived the Moon of Light for Murmuring against Him to expiate which Crime of the Moon the Jews were appointed to keep this Feast At the Feast of Tabernacles they Divine from the rays of the Moon of the accidents of the whole Year If the Shadows of their Bodies appear defective they accordingly foretel their own or Friends Deaths As if a man see his Shadow without a Head then he is to fall into danger of Death or die the following year If it wants a Finger he shall loose a good Friend If the Right hand a Son If the Left a Daughter If no Shadow at all appear then the man's death is unavoidable CHAP. XXII Of the Jewish Fasts THe Jewish Fasts except that upon the Expiation are esteem'd to be all of Humane Institution Their first Fast is in memory of Nebuchadnezzar's Siege of Hierusalem which happened upon the tenth of Tebeth answering to our December for which their Liturgy hath a small Office Their second is in memory of Moses's breaking the two Tables of the Law for the loss of their daily Sacrifice for setting Idolatry in the Temple for the second Siege of the City and breaking down the Walls thereof And this constantly falls upon the 17th of Thamuz corresponding to our June and lasts till the ninth of Ab. All the daies of this Fast are accounted ominous and unlucky so that thereon they avoid all business of moment and if possible to begin Journeys or attempt ought that is considerable And so careful are they hereon to be idle that School-boys are not thereon to be Corrected Upon the fifth of Ab or July they sit on the Ground read Jeremiah's Lamentations bewail the Dead and the loss of Hierusalem and for ten daies live so severely that they abstain from every thing wherein is supposed to be delight Their third Fast is for the death of Gedaliah whom we read was Treacherously Murthered Jer. 41.2 and it falls out in Tizri or September Besides these Fasts which are of publick Institution they have several that are private as those of
Munday and Thursday one for the death of Miriam and Eli and another for the turning of the Bible out of holy Hebrew into profane Greek by the Seventy Translators But these Fasts being the private Exercises but of some Jews their Rites fall under no certain annotation The general Rule in all their Fasting is to abstain from all manner of Meat and Drink till the Stars appear and if the Jews were Orthodox in the circumstances of this Afflictive no people would therein exceed them But in this as all other things they are palpably Carnal relying upon the very doing of the work and esteeming a meer Corporal abstinence highly Meritorious Besides there are not a few Miracles ascribed to the bare act of Fasting The Prayer used upon Fasting-daies translated out of the Jews Liturgy HEar our voice O Lord our God and have Compassion upon us and with Mercie hear our Prayers and impart thy pity and subdue us to thy Holiness Deliver us from death and the sword and hunger and captivity from the prey and an evil desire and bad infirmities and hard chances Pronounce a good sentence upon me and all the males of my house And let thy Compassions return with thy Conditions and O Lord our God deal with us in mercie and favour and enter with us before the Rule of Justice and harken unto our Prayer our Supplication and Cry for thou hearest the Prayer of every mouth Answer me O my Father answer me in this day of Fasting and Affliction Because I am in a great strait by reason I have offended and rebelled against thee since the day that I was upon the Earth until this hour I blush and am ashamed of my Rebellion I repent me of my sins and transgressions Notwithstanding I have put thy Mercies before mine eyes with which thou art wont to keep off thy fury and to be appeased with thy Creatures Thou art good to pardon and hast great pity upon all that call upon thee For thy manifold Mercies now answer me and let a little of my Fat and Bloud be mingled with my fasting and be received of thee as the fat put upon the top of thy Altar to pardon every one that hath sin'd and that hath striven and rebelled against thee I beseech thee for the sake of thy Power Soveraignty and Knowledge bear good will unto me for thy Great Mercies and look not upon my wickedness nor stop thine ears at my prayers be nigh unto my calling and to the calling of the men of my house It is said Before we cry unto thee thou wilt answer before we speak thou wilt hear It shall be that before they cry I will answer and before they speak I will hear That thou O Lord wilt deliver and answer and be appeased in the hour of adversity and hear the Petition of every mouth Blessed be thou Adonai Lord hear our Prayer The Prayer used by the Jews after they have done fasting translated out of their Liturgy O Lord of the Worlds I have afflicted my self this day with fasting before thee I have made known and manifest before the Seat of thy Honour that in the time that the house of thy Sanctuary stood the man that sin'd brought before thee an Offering and offer'd nothing but the fat and bloud and was forgiven And at present we have neither Sanctuary that is Temple nor Altar for our many sins nor Priest to pardon Let it be thy will Lord our God and the God of our Fathers that the little of my fat and bloud which is this day spent before thee may be reckon'd with my fast and accepted before the Seat of thy Honour even as if I had done it upon the sides of thy Altar and receive me of thy great mercies CHAP. XXIII Of the Jewish Excommunication THe Mahumedans as I have observed in another Discourse are not acquainted with Church-censures the contriver of that Religion having left all sorts of Delinquents to the Civil Sword And though for greater Decorum and Solemnity the Grand Segnor keeps his Musti whom he makes his Pope and pretended Oracle in Religion yet he has no power to chastize any by Spiritual Censures be their Enormities never so hainous And upon this account the Jews upbraid Mahumedism with great deficiency because it has no power to terrifie Evil doers to preserve the broken from the whole and to prevent and divert Gods Judgements to bring Offenders to amendment and to maintain the credit and power of their Religion To all which ends the Jews manage and hold Excommunication necessary Concerning which this ensuing Chapter shall give the Reader a short account of the causes of Excommunication its kindes and form Some have thought that the Jews of old used Excommunications onely in case of Pollutions of which they held chiefly these three sorts viz. by Leprosie touching of the Dead and an Issue And that to these three sorts of Pollutions were adapted as many kindes of Excommunication namely the Niddui Herem and Shammatha But besides these three causes of Excommunication among the Primitive Jews the Modern assigne twenty four more for all or any of which they at present Excommunicate that is forbid those of their Religion the free enjoyment of all Civil and Religious Society The causes of Excommunication among the Jews are chiefly these 1. He that doth Scandalize a Master though he be dead 2. He that doth revile a publique Minister of Justice 3. He that calls a Free-man a Slave or Servant 4. He that doth not appear at the Consistory upon the day prefixt 5. He that doth undervalue a single Precept or one head of Doctrine which is contained in the Prescripts of the Scribes or the Law 6. He that doth not what he is appointed stands Excommunicated till he doth it 7. He that keeps in his House what may do mischief to another as a biting Dog or broken Scales is Excommunicated until the fault be corrected that is till the Dog be Hanged and the Scales be mended 8. He that sells his Land to a Gentile is Excommunicate till the Damage be repaired that thereby shall accrew unto an Israelite 9. He that in the Courts of the Gentiles shall be a Witness against an Hebrew so that he shall be forced to pay Money contrary to the custom of his Nation shall be Excommunicate until he refund it 10. The Priest that Sacrificing doth not give the Dues to the rest of the Priests is to stand Excommunicate until he doth 11. He that shall do any Work in the forenoon of the day before the Passover 12. He that shall carelessly or with an Oath or in lofty and Hyperbolical terms pronounce the Name of God 13. They that shall cause the Vulgar to profane the Name of God 14. He that shall cause the Vulgar to eat holy things out of holy places 15. He that doth reckon the Years and prefix the Months out of the Holy Land That is shall otherwise observe the Months and Years than of
old their Fathers appointed them in the Holy Land 16. He that putteth a Stumbling-block before the Blinde or causeth him to slip 17. He that hindereth the Common people in keeping any Commandment 18. The Priest that suffereth a torn Beast to be Sacrificed 19. He that killeth a Beast for the Sacrifice and doth not first try his Knife before a Master Rabbi or Wise man 20. He that is morose and backward to Learn 21. He that keeps company with the Wife whom he has Divorced 22. The Wise man that is ill-reported or of a bad fame 23. He that doth undeservedly Excommunicate another 24. He that profaneth the Festivals These were the old primarie Causes of Excommunication most of which are now in present use with the Jews Those indeed relating to the Sacrifices because they now have none are quite out of use As also that which respects their selling of Land or House for in Barbary they have none but what they hire The kindes or rather the Degrees of Excommunication in antient use with the Jews were the three above-named whereof the Niddui is by some Christian Authors reckoned the lowest sort and by which they understand a Separation from or a casting out of the Synagogue which usually lasted 30 days but might be of a shorter or longer continuance as the Offended gave signes of Repentance During the time of this Excommunication the party was not to come within four Cubits either of a man or Woman nor to dress or trim himself as at other times yet they say he was admitted to Instruction to hear Divine Service to hire others to let out himself to work on condition of observing the four Cubits distance but now mentioned But if the Consistory pleased upon the contumacie of the Excommunicate they might retrench these Priviledges and aggravate the Penance even to the denial of his Son Circumcision and the Burial of his Dead Also if himself died he was denied all usual Rites of Burial and a great Stone laid upon his Grave in token that he deserved to have been Stoned to death The denouncing of this Excommunication was not always confined to the Court or Consistory which at this day cannot consist of fewer than three Masters for it was in the power of any private person to Excommunicate those whom they found guilty of the thirteenth cause of Excommunication and he that was herein negligent incurr'd the like penalty But they were presently absolved lest it should become a Snare and an offence unto others And to restrain them to Sobriety herein the Court had power to punish him that did it rashly From these private Excommunications their Superiours Rabbins and chief Lawyers were Exempt for these had a priviledge to Excommunicate and Absolve themselves The form both of Extrajudicial and legal Excommunication was one and the same which is this N. Let him be Excommunicate And the Excommunicate upon Repentance was absolved in this form N. Thou hast Absolution or thy offence is forgiven thee But at the time of Absolution the Court had power to correct the Trespasser with Stripes The second kinde of Excommunication was called Shammatha the same with the Maran-Atha think the most And it sounds saith Mr. Selden according to the opinion of some The Lord cometh He would not have his Shammatha at all to differ from Niddui which opinion he grounds upon some sayings in the Talmudick Commentaries But J. Drusius intimates otherwise when he saith the Jews were wont to Excommunicate per maledictionem that was their Cherem or Anathema per Separationem that was their Niddui and by Maranatha the same with Shammatha and by others of that kinde By this last intimation I conceive may be meant the Anathema Maranatha Their Shammatha was a total Exclusion from the Church a blotting them out of the Book of Life and not permitting them the least communion in things of publick Religion And by the word Shammatha they signifie the coming of the Lord to take Vengeance upon those who are thus Excommunicate And it was never pronounced upon the offender till he became desperately irreclaimable A third kind of Excommunication was the Cherem which enforced the Niddui when the offender within 30 daies gave no signes of Amendment nor sought to be reconciled A new form of Excommunication was now used containing dreadful Execrations Imprecations and Cursings of it As to the Maranatha an old Spanish Author tells us it got the signification of Anathema upon this occasion The Jews glorying of their Messias to come commonly used the word Maran Our Lord in opposition whereunto the Christians used to say Maran Atha Our Lord or Messias is come already Whereupon no small strife arose betwixt them The Jews frequently out of contempt saying Maran and contumeliously called the Christians Maranites On the contrary the Christians replied Maran Atha affirming that their Lord was come already And hence it grew that the Spaniards call those Maranos who being discended of Jewish Parents and being Christians turn Apostates and yet expect the coming of Messias But the Maranatha is certainly of far greater antiquity than in this story it can pretend to For it was used in S. Paul's time as 1 Cor. 16.22 doth cleerly testifie Where an old English Translation cited by Mr. Selden of an hundred twenty and five years standing renders Anathema Maranatha Let him be had in Execration to death Meaning perhaps that the Excommunicate should die under this severe Censure For Anathema being added to Maranatha by a general agreement was the highest degree of Excommunication There were indeed two sorts of Cherem in the Old Testament the one a Consecration of things to Gods Service by separating them from Common and Ordinary use Of which we read Lev. 27.28 And as in the case of Hierioâ—â— where pilfering or stealth of such things as were devoted was punishable by death Jos 7. The other sort of Cherem was a devoting of persons unto death But the Cherem we now speak of was in our Saviours time a very fearful kinde of Excommunication among the Jews In which with Solemnity and Authority and a heap of direful Execrations and Cursings a man was turned out of the Synagogue And this sort of Excommunication was so dreadful that for fear of it many principal Jews who believed on Christ durst not confess him S. John 9.22 12.42 and 16.2 Of the manifold use of this Cherem among the antient Jews Mr. Selden has made so plentiful a Collection that the Reader may there best be satisfied De jure naturali gentium c. lib. 4. c. 7 c. That which upon this subject I have here to take further notice of is the Antient Form of their General Cherem or Anathema as it denotes the severest Censure of the Jewish Church The Form I shall here insert is taken out of that Ritual which they call Sepher Colbo or Pandects and which was used against all those Israelites who wilfully and knowingly transgressed any chapter of
known integrity and good fame If the Creditor have any thing under the Debtor's hand he has the priviledge of attesting the truth thereof by his own Oath But if he demands a debt for which he can produce no Writing the Debtor has leave to swear the Negative If the Witnesses whose names are at the Bill be dead and there be none to attest their Hands the Bill is invalid cast out of Court That which much renowns their Judicial Procedures is cheapness and expedition the whole matter being tried and determined in a few hours Yet if either party finde himself agrieved he has the liberty of appealing to another Court and may carry the Appeal as far as Hierusalem beyond which there lies none But though they may dislike yet they dare not revile the Sentence of any Court. For to speak evil of any Minister of Justice is ipso facto Excommunication And he incurs the like punishment who ventures to appeal to a second Court before he has obtain'd leave from the first which laies so great a restraint upon Appeals that few now happen unless in some such important Case as Marriage and Divorce It is very observable that the Jews have made very cautious Provision to conserve the Esteem and Reverence of their Masters Insomuch that none in word or carriage can offer them the least disrespect but he is Excommunicate and his Testimony render'd invalid And if within three daies he make not his Peace with the offended Rabbi the Excommunication is aggravated and pronounced before witness in open Court by a Rabbi who superaddes thereunto a Solemn Malediction If the Excommunicate flie to another Country the Curse follows him and he is sent before to beg pardon and be absolved in the same place where the Crime was committed or in case of contumacie the Execration is aggravated Sometimes the delinquent Jew frees himself from the whole Censure by turning Renegate The Masters of which the Court consists are chosen upon their Reputation for their Learnedness in the Law and Integrity of their Manners and for a clearer testimony of the former they sometime are tried by Disputation But besides Vnderstanding and Good life there is a competent Age required to make a Master Who upon Election is invested with Authority in this form Behold Hands are laid upon thee and Power is given thee to exercise Authority in things Criminal That which most tends to the Commendation of the Jewish Courts are as I said Brevity and Cheapness For they use no Delatory Artifices nor Covetous Exactions but in a very small time and at a very easie rate the Litigants know their Doom CHAP. XXV The manner of the Jews Alms and of their making provision for the Poor THose who have observed that the Jews have no Beggers seem not well informed of the manner of their Alms and their way of providing for the Poor Whom 't is true we may not reckon among Beggers as that word usually implies a seeking Relief from house to house For though among the Jews in Barbary there is great store of needy persons yet they are supplied after a manner which much conceals as to men of other Religions their Poverty For the Wealthier take care to provide for them and very much magnifie their Religion upon this very score that they live under its profession in a more mutual Charity of Alms than either the Moore or Christian both which with great insulting I have heard them upbraiding with their common Beggers And it cannot be denied but that the Jews manner of Relieving their Poor is Regular and Commendable For first they suffer them not to take Alms of any man who is of a different Religion from their own and this inspection of them and their wants is consigned to no meaner persons than their chief Masters who once or oftener every Year as occasion requires are very solemn in this Inspection In every Synagogue they have in store several Copies of the Law which they sell for great sums of Money But the Buyers are not permitted to carrie these Copies out of the Synagogue or any further to impropriate them to their own use than that if any of them fall into Necessity they may be sold again to relieve them And therefore the Name of the Buyer is upon a Label annexed to the Copie of the Law that they may know to whom it belongs and for whose use it may be sold if any of the Buyer's Relations be reduced to Want Insomuch that the buying of one of these Copies of the Law is a certain provision against Poverty if it shall happen But that which is here chiefly to be remarked is their raising of Maintenance for the Poor with the prizes of these Copies And to make more ready Chapmen the buying of them is accounted very Honourable and Meritorious of no small Interest to the Buyer's Familie Another way of raising Provisions for the Poor are the Legacies and Bequeathments of dying persons For the Jews have a Rule that none die safely who bequeath not some part of their Estates to the Corban of the Poor Next they have their Contributions and out of all these together they raise Portions and make provisions for Orphans and indigent Females and the Necessitous in general And to prevent all Sophistication and partiality herein the poorer Females are provided for by Lot and without respect of Circumstances those on whom the Lot falls are first placed in Marriage They moreover permit the Poor upon every Friday and Holy-day-eve to receive private Alms to honour that is to keep the Sabbath and the Festival with They have also their Kibbuz or Letters of Collection by which the Indigent has liberty to go from Synagogue to Synagogue to receive the Benevolence of their Country-men And these Kibbuz much resemble our Briefs In them the Poverty Religion and Honesty of the Bearers are certified who are first to produce them to the Chief Master of the Synagogue and he having given his approbation thereof appoints a day for the Collection which is usually made at the door of the Synagogue By these Letters also the necessitous Father raiseth Portions for his Daughters When any poor Jew is upon a Journey it is the custom for him to repair for relief to those of his own Religion who are oblidgd to treat him civilly but his company quickly becomes troublesom according to the old saying among them The first day a Guest the second a Burden the third day a Vagamond CHAP. XXVI Their Visitation of the Sick Testaments Burial of the Dead c. WHen a Jew falling sick apprehends his Disease to be mortal he sends for a Sabio or Master and some of his more intimate Friends with whose advice and assistance he sets his house in order The Rabbi first draws up an Envois of his Estate then he takes account of his Debts and making first provision for their payment out of the Estate the rest is disposed of in Legacies and
the present Judaism for which they are not furnished with an Evasion For the Jewish Masters take an especial care and use an utmost diligence to see the Youth be so profoundly instructed in the Elements of their Religion that it may be no easie task to efface the Characters of their first Catechism or to pull down the Fortress of Education And above all it is in this point highly considerable that the common sort of Jews are bound to acquiesce in the Judgement of their Rabbins to whom they make their last appeal when pressed with Arguments too difficult for their own Solution Of which I could produce a numerous Citation but I shall content my self with the single instance of one Jacob Israel Belgara who from Hag. 2.7 being clearly confuted that the time of Messias's Advent was already past eluded the whole Argument by referring himself to the Sentiments of their Masters The next thing which may be reckon'd among the grand impediments of the Jews Conversion are the Christians uncharitable Dissentions and Divisions which they suppose proceedeth from a want of the Vnity of Truth in the Foundation And which they can no way make agreeable to that mutual peace and affection foretold to flourish among the Professors of the true Messias and to be the signals of his Kingdom Isaiah 11.6 7 c. This I alwaies found a string continually harp'd upon by the Jews one scoffingly told me that if he should turn Christian he knew not what Sect to be of reflecting upon the manifold divisions that are wofully hapned under the general denomination of Christian In the body a wound is worse than corruption the former being a Solution of Continuity the later but a disorder of some Humour In Christians evil manners are wholly contradictions of the Purity of their Religion but Schism brings its Truth into question and is of that wretched consequence that it keeps those out that are without and drives those out that are within For our speaking with different tongues will make the Atheist as well as Infidel say that we are mad But were the scandal of our Divisions removed yet the Naughtiness of our lives would become a new hinderance of the Jews conversion who are very greatly scandalized with the open and even professed transgression of the third Commandment so apparent in those Blasphemies which hellish mouthes dart up against God and those horrid Oaths which are become with some meer Interjections of Speech and with others Phrases of Gallantry And that those sins which the Jews severely punish should become the Christians Physick and Recreations and that we should live in so palpable a contradiction to our Vow and Promise of a cleer contrary Carriage And it was this Licentiousness of Conversation that made a leud Jew in Spain turn'd to Popery magnifie the happiness of his change because he had light on a Religion wherein at once he could enjoy Both his Beads and his Whore Reflecting upon that old Spanish Proverb Las quentas en la Máno y el Diáblo en el Capillo Good words and wicked works And if this obstacle were also taken away and Christians would take care to be as regular as their Religion doth oblige them yet there wants proper means for the Jews Conversion as being vouchsafed neither competent conversation nor Books for that purpose As to the first none I think will deny it highly requisite in this affair unless such as would make the Gospel like weapon-Salve to work at a distance Now we know that in our own Nation there is no such competent familiarity or civil Society held with the Jews as in any degree of probability may in ordinary course be sufficient for their Conversion For since their Expulsion out of England by King Edward the First about the year 1290 the greatest conversation with them has been managed by Tradesmen upon the account of Trafick and secular purposes as is evident at this day And we have been so far from endeavouring their conversion to Christianity that that which might greatly have encouraged it is quite taken away I mean the House of Converts erected by our Henry the Third which he piously indowed for the maintenance of poor Jews converted to Christianity where every one during their lives was allowed two pence a day and appointed by Edward the Third for Records to be kept therein now called the Rowles Nor hath it fared any better with the Jews in other Nations than in our own for since from France they were banished by Philippus Pulcher Anno 1307 From Spain by Ferdinand Anno 1492 From Portugal by Emanuel Anno 1497 Out of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily by Charles the Fifth Anno 1539. they have in these Kingdoms been so far from any enjoyment of that Society requisite to make them converts that they dare not set a foot within their Borders without running very great adventures as is known to all acquainted with the Regiment of those Countries 'T is true in the Jurisdiction of Avignon the Popes State the Jews are admitted And they are very numerous in Rome Venice Legorn c. not to speak of their Toleration in Germany Bohemia Polonia Lituania Russia yet they are so little invited to Christianity that they meet with no small motives to the contrary For in the Papal Dominions no Jew can be admitted to Baptism till he has renounced the World that is till he confess all the Estate gotten in Judaism was ill gotten and that he doth and ought to renounce it and leave it to the Church And it is but cold comfort to a Jew so notoriously devoted to the world to take a final farewel of his beloved Mammon and to devest himself and Family of all maintenance at his initiation into Christianity without any convenient provision for his future subsistence unless he will betake himself to a Cloyster a kinde of life very unpleasing to the Jews as contrary to the designe of Nature which intended man for Society and each to be helpful to other in civil duties Besides that Monkery is a trade which they never finde commended or injoyn'd by God never practised or counselled by their renowned Ancestors who received continual instruction and inspiration from above which none of their Patriarchs or Prophets have given Example of only in three or four thousand years Elias and some one or other have been found upon very extraordinary cause to have taken also an extraordinary course of life though of other nature and to other purpose then the Votaries of the Roman Church 'T is true the Pope has power to dispense in this particular and to grant the Jew Baptism without confiscation of his Estate yet this is so seldom and uncertain that few Jews are found so hardy as to trie the Experiment In the next place as to Books tending to further the Jews conversion it must be granted that there is no small impediment arising from this particular For notwithstanding that many
it to Embrace and Kiss it to Weep over it and after all perhaps to cast it to the Ground to let the people see they meant not there to terminate their Worship the very sight hereof doth as much induce the Jews to hate Christianity as any reason can be alledged to perswade them to love and Embrace it These are the Terms in which the Jews with whom I have conversed do stand who above all that has been said derive the greatest obstruction of their Conversion from their own obstinacy being not more scandalized than stifneckt nor less untractable within than offended without And as proud of their opinions as they are despised for them Glorying in their Ancestors and Founders in Gods Temple and Oracles peculiar promises and Prerogatives long continuance in Honour and Prosperity and indefatigable in their Expectation of being Triumphantly recollected and Victoriously to Reign over the Edomites when the promise of their Messias shall be perform'd which has as they say so long beyond the appointed time been protracted by reason of their own Vnworthiness A SUMMARY DISCOURSE Concerning the Jewish TALMUD MISNA GEMARA HAving in the former part of the Antecedent Discourse observed That there are no Jews to be met with who adhere to the Old Bible without Talmud-Traditions I thought it would be disagreeable neither to the Reader nor the Subject to give a succinct account of the Talmud Misna and Gemara in order to facilitate the meaning of the Traditions above-mentioned And waving all Critical reserches into the word Talmud which makes so great a Noise in the World it may suffice to observe that by a sort of Metonymy it signifies the Book containing the main Doctrines of the Jews which by way of Eminence is called the Talmud or Doctrinal So that the word Talmud may as well be used for a System of Christian as Jewish Doctrines for any thing therein to the contrary The two Talmuds of which hereafter are according to Mr. Selden the Pandects of the Jews Sacred and Civil Laws and they are generally received of the present Hebrews for the Great Body of their Learning and Standard by which the whole Israelitick Nation is to regulate both their Conversation and Doctrine And there needs no other Testimonie of their great esteem hereof than the RR's frequent using it in the proof and Confirmation of their Tenets For it is very observable that the Talmud is oftener brought in Vindication of their Religion than Moses the Prophets and Holy Writings Insomuch that they make it and not the Old Bible the Touchstone of their Doctrine and that into which they resolve the Decision of all their Cases Nor are they herein greatly blameable seeing they esteem the Talmud of equal Authority with the Canonical Scriptures and no more inferiour thereunto than a Law given by word of mouth is to one in Writing For the Jews hold there is a twofold Law which they are bound to observe the one written which is contained in the five Books of Moses the other Oral which they call the Misna or Traditional Law which God gave to Moses at the same time he did the other but did not commit it to Writing but left it to be preserved and propagated Orally Some of the Masters gifted with a wonderful Sagacity with great assurance maintain that Moses during his abode in the Mount could not discern the time of Night from the Day but by the delivery of these two Laws That when God gave the Written Law he knew it was Day and that it was Night when he gave the Oral And R. Eliesar as a late Author writes affirms that Moses read the Scripture by Day and the Misna by Night But this will scarce sound congruously if it be considered that the Misna was not written and therefore could not be Read till some thousand years after Moses received it in the Mount And as to the reason why God would not suffer it to be written it was the profound Mysteriousness of its Nature say the Masters which to have communicated by writing to the Vulgar People would have been no better than to give Holy things unto Dogs and to cast Pearls before Swine Others are of opinion that God foreseeing how the Nations would Transcribe the Books of the Law Prophets and Holy Writings and pervert them to Heretical and Impious Doctrines lest they should to the like to the Misna or the Second Law for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies he would not suffer it to be committed to Letters And here it may be pardonable to take notice of two things first that by the Holy Writings which the Jews call Cetaphim they understand the Books of Daniel Psalms Proverbs Job Canticles Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes Ezra Nehemiah Chronicles and that they were Compiled or Collected by Esdras and the Seniors of the Synagogue after the Jews returned from Babylon Next that the Jews were of old so cautious of preserving their Law secret to themselves that they would not suffer it to be Translated into any other Language out of their own Insomuch that in the daies of Ptolemy when the Penteteuch was put in Greek by the Jews of Alexandria they say that as if God had been therewith displeased there happened three daies of darkness over the whole Earth And to testifie their own abhorrence of so execrable a fact the Jews appointed a solemn Fast to be kept upon the eighth of Tebeth as the immortal Joseph Scaliger hath observed But to return That Moses in the Mount did receive from God not onely the Written Law but also a secret Explanation thereof seems to have been the opinion of Origen of the third and Hillary of the fourth Age. And this Explanation is supposed to have been none other but the Misna or the Oral and Second Law we now speak of which was preserved as the Cabala of the Creation and of the things happening before the Flood by Tradition from minde to minde to use Mirandula without Letters by word of mouth For Moses thus delivered it to Aaron and he to his Sons they to Joshua Joshua to the Elders the Elders to the Prophets the Prophets to the Great Synagogue and so it was drawn down by the Rabbins of successive Ages of whom the Famous Ramban has given an account And in this state the Misna continued till many years after the Nativity of our Blessed Saviour even till Rabbi Jehuda who for his Piety was called the Saint and for his singular love to his Nation and knowledge in their Law the Prince perceiving that this Oral Tradition grew difficult and that thereby the Misna was in no small hazard to be utterly lost or grievously corrupted by reason of the extreme dispersion of his Nation collected all the Notes taken by the Jews to assist their Memories which contain'd any thing of the Misna and digested them into one Volume which he called the Sepher Misnaioth or the Book of Traditions And this was no sooner compiled than
it gain'd such credit with the Hebrews as to be publickly taught in their Colledges and to be made the Catechism of their Youth as in another Discourse I have observed The time when this Syntagm was finished by Rabbi Jehuda is not certain but most conjecture it was about an hundred and twenty years after the Destruction of the Temple and near upon the 190th year of the Crucifixion About an hundred and eighty years after that Rabbi Jehuda had thus composed the Misna one R. Jochanan who for many years had been the Head of a Colledge in Palestine added to the Misna of Jehuda his Gemara which together with the Misna made up the Hierusalem-Talmud or the Doctrinal of the Jews who dwelt in the Citie and Judea But this was looked upon as not sufficient for all the Constitutions and Decisions of the Hebrews in Captivity and Dispersion especially after they were passed from under the Roman to the Persick Empire And therefore one Rabbi Ashi or Ase composed a Second Gemara about an hundred years after the First which being effected by him when he lived in Babylon and for the use of the Jews there it with the Misna was called the Babylonian Talmud And notwithstanding that the Talmud of Hierusalem is confessed by the Jews to have fewer Mysterious that is Fabulous Stories than the Talmud of Babylon yet this later hath obtain'd publick Honour and Belief among them and at this day is universally received as the Authentick Body of their Law In this Compilement the Misna is as the Text and the Gemara as the Comment in which the different Opinions of the Ancient Masters are reported and discuss'd and a final and absolute Decision thereunto annexed And thus we have seen in brief the Original of the Talmud which by way of eminence is often stiled the Law and indifferently used for the Misna or the Secundary Law which contains the Traditions of Moses and the Gemara containing the Disputations and Decisions that have been made upon those Traditions though properly speaking these two are constituent parts of the Talmud In which many passages are inserted which if taken literally the Jews confess would look like the most idle and Romantick Tales that ever filled a Legend And therefore they assigne them a secret and reserved interpretation which say they fall not under the comprehension of Vulgar and Ordinary Capacities But after all this it must be granted that some Christian Writers understand the Talmud to be nothing else but a System of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Traditions of the Jewish Fathers which if granted can at most respect but one part thereof namely the Misna It is true that these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were highly valued by the Pharisaical Jews and as meanly looked upon by the Sadduces who pleaded as eagerly for their Non-observance as the other did to the contrarie And the fierce and impetuous contention which hapned about these Traditions in the School of Antigonus Sochaeus gave name and birth to the Pharisees and Sadduces the first factious Sectaries notorious among the Jews Josephus speaks much of their Emulation and Strife and how the Sadduces were abetted by the Wealthy and the Pharisees by the Multitude And that in the end the later so prevailed with the Populacie as to have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be taught for Doctrine and to be made an Authentick Institution of their Schools Of which numerous are said to have been erected purposely to advance the Pharisaical Discipline Yet it must here be remarked that the teaching of these Traditions did not totally exclude though greatly diminish the instruction of the written Law For in every Colledge of the University of Hierusalem there were two Schools the one called the Bibliotheca because therein they used Books and taught the Scriptural Law the other was called the Misna or Beth Talmud or House of Doctrine by reason of the Traditions that therein were instilled Both these Schools flourished till they were laid desolate by Titus whose desolation occasioned in great part the writing of the Sepher Misnaioth by R. Juda who is said to have lived under the three Antonines Pius Marcus and Commodus But what in this affair is not the least observable there is no express notice taken of the Talmud by those Fathers who lived in the four first Ages of Christianity notwithstanding they spoke many things of the Jewish Traditions And Tertullian ex professo writing against the Jews though he speaks distinctly of the Primordial Law given to Adam and of the Law of the two Tables delivered to Moses yet he makes not the least mention of the Misna or Oral Law S. Austin of the fifth Age doth expresly name this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Second Law as containing certain Traditions of the Jews which they wrote not but got by heart and transfused them from one to another by word of mouth But the great darkness that befel the Jews Records at the beginning of Christianity might be one reason why the knowledge of the Talmud came so late to the Christian world And indeed for almost two Ages after the Talmud was finished but little light or certainty is to be met with in the History of the Jews And as to our part of the world it was not much acquainted with the Doctrines and Records of the Hebrews till they were expell'd Babylon At which time a great part of them came into Europe and especially settled in Spain where applying themselves unto Studie the Rabbins began to multiply and grow Learned and to illustrate the Talmud with Commentaries Expositions and Homilies As is to be seen in the Writings of Zacuth Abarbinel Gautz Ben Nachman c. all Spanish Jews but especially R. Moses Ben Maimon born at Corduba and a Student in Egypt whence he was called Moses Egyptius who in the 23d year of his Age began to comment upon the Misnaioth or the Text of the Talmud which he finished at thirty He lived seventy years and during his whole life was so studious in writing upon and instructing Religion that to this day it is said of him From Moses the Prophet to Moses the Egyptian there was never such another Moses The first among Christians who took more solemn Cognizance of the Talmud was Justinian the Emperour who about the 551 year of Christ gave Toleration to the Jews to read the Sacred Bible in their Synagogues in the Greek Tongue but utterly prohibited them the Reading of the Misna as being neither adjoyned to the Sacred Books nor delivered from above to the Prophets but a meer invention of Earthly Men who had nothing of Heaven in them As is to be seen Novella 146. where the Notes upon that Constitution say that the Misna Torah was Composed out of the Caballisticks and Anagogicks of the Jews or some allegorical interpretations pretended to be derived from Moses When the Jews were setled in Italy and France the Bishops of Rome began to take severe cognizance of the Talmud For Pope Innocent IV. commanded all the Copies thereof that could be found in France to be burned because it contained manifest Blasphemies against God Christ and the Virgin Mary inextricable abuses erronious and unheard-of Fooleries And in Italy the Talmud fell under the same Condemnation for Pope Julius the third by solemn Bull sentenc'd it to the Flames as containing many things offending the Divine Law and the Orthodox Faith Upon which the Inquisition seised upon all the Gemara's that could be met with in the Regions of Italy and made them an Holocaust to the Holy Chair c. FINIS THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THe present Condition of the Jews in Barbary their places of Residence Profession Apparel Stature and Complexion c. page 7. CHAP. II. The Moral Conversation of the Barbary-Jews the ingredients of their Religion their backwardness to Disputes their Creed occasion Author with a short Paraphrase thereof c. 13. CHAP. III The Barbary-Jews Opinion of the Trinity Angels several States of the Soul the Law Merit Purgatory Resurrection last Judgment end of the World c. 26. CHAP. IV. Their Opinion of Matrimony and Coelibate their Espousals Dowry-Bill c. 40. CHAP. V. Of other Ceremonies relating to their Marriages 46. CHAP. VI. Their Opinion of Sterility their Lilis their Rites of Child-birth 54. CHAP. VII Of the Rites of Circumcision and Purirification 59. CHAP. VIII Of the Jews Polygamy Divorce A Copy of their Bill of Dismission c. 71. CHAP. IX Of the Jews Concubinage Of their Marrying the Brothers Wife 74. CHAP. X. Of the Institution of their Children the time and manner thereof 80. CHAP. XI Of their Synagogues the Officers thereof time of their Election Hours of Prayer 88. CHAP. XII Of the Jews Preparation to the Synagogue 93. CHAP. XIII Of the Jews Zizith and Tephillim or Phylactery or Prayer-Ornaments 99. CHAP. XIV Of the Jews hastening to Morning Prayer Their manner of Entrancâ— into and Deportment in the Synâ—gogue c. 104. CHAP. XV. Their Ceremonies about the Book of the Law Their Manner of Celebrating the Sabbath The Offices which thereon are Solemniz'd c. 112. CHAP. XVI How the Jews prepare themselves for the Sabbath and how they begin it 130. CHAP XVII How the Jews hallow the Sabbath and how they end it 150. CHAP. XVIII Of the Jews Feasts The manner of their Celebration 167. CHAP. XIX Of their Pentecost or Feast of weeks 175. CHAP. XX. Of the Feast of Tabernacles 177. CHAP. XXI Of the Jews Purim or Feast of Lots 182. CHAP. XXII Of the Jewish Fasts 194. CHAP. XXIII Of the Jewish Excommunication 198. CHAP. XXIV Concerning the present Judicature among the Jews 210. CHAP. XXV The manner of the Jews Alms and of their making provision for Poor 213. CHAP. XXVI Their Visitation of the Sick Testaments Burial of the Dead c. 216. The Conclusion Wherein is considered the present Obstructions of the Jews Conversion 225. A Summary Discourse concerning the Jewish Talmud Misna and Gemara 239. FINIS