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
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
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-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-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
Alms. The object of the later are Orphans Widows Synagogues and the Holy house for so they call the Temple which they expect shall be rebuilt at the coming of their Messiah And therefore toward the structure thereof every dying Jew that is able contributes something For they have erected a Treasury to this purpose which is managed by the Masters and carefully improved by them The rest of the Estate is divided among the Wives and Children The Wives first taking out their Dowries doubled If the Children of the dying person be very young the Master is to be their Guardian who with a signal care labours to improve their Fortunes The Alms likewise are deposite in the Rabbies hands who out of them disposeth of some Females every year in Marriage When the sick man has set his house in order and is under evident indications of Death He makes confession of his Faith and in a short Oraison is recommended to Mercie And the breath is no sooner out of his Nostrils but they prepare for his Funeral which is always within the natural day of his Departure And first the Corps is washed in clean water or if he be rich in water of Roses Orange-flowers or any thing that is Aromatick While the Corps is thus making clean they pray that God would cleanse the Soul from all the defilements that it had contracted in the body This ceremony of washing being finished they put the Corps in a clean Shirt and Drawers and then a Strip of linnen resembling the Zizith and after all they sow him in a very white Sheet and put him into a Coffin The relations of the Deceased for seven daies after the Interment stir not abroad or if by some extraordinary occasion they are forced to go out of doors it is without Shoos which is a token with them that they have lost a dear Friend For the seven daies that they stay within the Neighbours come to the house to pray with them and their Mourning habit is either a black Ganiphe or the same clothes they wore when the party died The Corps is born by four to the place of Burial in this procession In the first rank march the Chachams or Priests next to them the kindred of the Deceased after whom come those that are Invited to the Funeral and all singing in a sort of plain-song the 49th Psalm And if it last not till they come to the Grave they begin it again At the Grave ten Rabbies or so many old Jews in their room say over some certain Psalms composed by the Rabbins for that purpose And when they are ended the Corps is laid in the Grave and covered with Earth and the Rabbies compassing the Grave seven times say From the Earth thou camest and to the Earth thou art returned After this is done they return from the Grave to the house of the Deceased where one who as chief Mourner receives them with his Jaws tied up with a linnen Cloth after the same manner that they binde up the Dead And by this the Mourner is said to testifie that he was ready to die with his Friend And thus muffled the Mourner goes for seven daies during which time the rest of his Friends come twice every twenty four hours to pray with him At the end of these seven daies the Friends of the Deceased repair to his Grave which they cover with a black Cloth and say this Prayer Vide Syracides 22.23 Judge of the Truth who Judgest truly be Judge of the Truth for all thy Judgements are Justice and Truth And then the Kindred of the Dead wish one another good health and Comfort And the same Ceremonie is repeated precisely that day twelvemonth till which time the Obsequies are incompleat If the Friends of the Deceased be devout they often every Week repair to his Grave where they make great Lamentation and bitter Weeping over him they pray at the same time That God would pardon his Sins and receive him into the Garden Meaning the Garden out of which Adam was cast when he became disobedient In the Funeral-Rites of the Jews the same order is observed for both Sexes only with this Decorum that the Women meddle not with the Men nor the Men with the Women but each Wash and Shrowd those of their own Sex They never bury their Dead promiscuously with those of another Faith but have purchased distinct Burying-places where they reside which they very much respect and to which they often resort both in contemplation of their own Mortality and to lament and pray for those who are dead already It may not be unfit to observe that though the Modern Ceremonies of Burial are neither so numerous nor costly as those of old among the Jews yet they do not much varie from them For the washing of the Body was in use at the time of Tabitha's death and the Chief Mourner spoken of before as also the Weekly Lamenting of the Dead refers to the Women hired to lament at Burials And which the Scripture calls Mourning-Women Jerem. 9.17 the same with the Praeficae among the Romans They likewise agree in the places of Burial which are now as formerly without the Towns or Cities where they live except that in Fez they have a Burying-place within the City adjoyning to the Juderia or the part where they live as was said in the entrance of this Discourse Enquiring after Inscriptions or Epitaphs and though often in the Burying-place for that end I could see none nor any other State about the Graves than Green Turf and Boughs But this remark respects the Jews in Barbary whom I conceive to come far short of those of other Countries in this sort of Funeral Pomp. But we are told that they were not without Inscriptions upon their Sepulchers as Hic jacet N. Memoria ejus sit in Benedictione Though this I confess be now used rather as an honourable Commemoration when any Author of worth being dead is cited by the Masters than as a common Epitaph But when they use Sepulchral Inscriptions they are usually a Prayer for the Dead such as Let his Soul be received into the Garden of Eden Or Let his Soul be bound in the bundle of Life with the rest of the Just The Confession of Sins made by the Sick upon his Death-bed I Acknowledge and confess before thee O Lord my God and the God of my Fathers the Mighty God of the Spirits of all flesh that both my Health and Death are in thy hands Restore me I beseech thee to my former health be mindful of me and hear my Prayers as in the time of King Ezechias when he also was grievously sick But if the time of my Visitation be come that I must die let my death be an Expiation for all my sins iniquities and transgressions whether I have committed them ignorantly or knowingly from the day that I first drew in the light Grant I beseech thee that I may have my Portion in Paradise