The Jewish advance., August 16, 1878, Page 5, Image 5

About The Jewish advance. (Chicago, Ill.) 1878-1881

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«D1·e(Könige,« ,,Char:
freitag,« «Palmfonntag,«
Charfreitag
GEijttsdimekstaH
»Kurzgesajzte Var
ftetzung du« jüdijchen Zeiuechnung«
.,9«gaqrja)1nucx perj
HebraefrinnenX
»wauende1i Locken«
,,Zwei alte THan ;
recepte«
»Wege und Ziel
neuester jiidifchet Gesel)icl)te."
s liothek.«
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I nicht der
I Menschen-Dasein»
it) «t-he original is sing11lm«.)
siehe-n Dajeiu aus Erden ein Kriegsng 's« l
»Da erhob fid)Jes-aiak)311111 zweiten Male ;F."
zweite sp f
Jesnjah ?«
the remark (in a. foot not-e)
»Schon
bihtisch darin
»Probenf aus dem Divan des KaraitenI
Dishunjexttjähkige IVbuxIstagsfFier »Na- I
than des Weisen,«
by Dr. Baar, is a verys
»die schözien Gpsftcr·begegneft sicl),«« \n\n Schnabel be it said that he has given us
nothing of the kind. Let us see then
what we have in the “Illustrated Hebrew
Almanac for the Year 5639.”
The Hebrew calendar is simply a copy
of the usual European lunch ; there is
nothing in it to bespeak the American
character, and ' many things which are
strangely out of place. Thus, for in
stance we are informed of the most im
portant dates of the
and we are cn
tirely in the dark about the dates ot the
American year which might interest us.
The mention of the Catholic festive
days may be to some practical purpose
in Europe, where the markets, fairs and
business-seasons of the year count by
those days. But who cares for them in
this country ? Would not the dates of
the declaration of independence, the
ascention of the Presidents of the U. S.,
the close of the civil war, or even the
thanksgiving’s day, (if nonsense we must
have), be of more interest to us? But
not the slightest hints for such dates
are given in Mr. Schnabel s calendar.
The good, aged Israelite who will refer
to that calendar for the date of his
Jahreszeit, will be reminded of
and
the clays on
which
lie or his father was mobbed in Germany
by pious Catholics turning out in pro
cession ; but he will not be reminded of
the day on which he has to procure a
turkey for dinner. Young America will
not be likely to refer to this calendar at
all, as it is printed in Hebrew and in
German. But there are good selections
of talmudical adages in the calendar —
well, they might have made a redeeming
feature if they had been given in Eng
lish, they are all in German, however.
The literary articles of the Almanac
consist of German essays and sketches
of great merit and otherwise. We will
take them up seriatim.
The first article is a
by Rev.
Dr. M. Mielziner of Aew York, it is in
its right p]#ce, and its contents speak
well of the author. It coulcl bear a
* translation into English and might be ot
sufficient interest to young American
readers, who desire to know something
of the Jewish calendar. The concise
ness and clearness with which this
article is written are highly creditable.
The author knew his subject and knew
also for what class of readers he was
treating on it. In nine short paragraphs
he has embraced the principle features
of the Jewish calendar and some ot the
rules of its composition. We remember,
however, an article on the same subject
by Rev. Dr. Felsenthal in “Young Is
rael” which was more to the point.
Hereupon follows an article (probably j
by the editor) on the
a very creditable and m
terestmg essay. Y\ e were somewnat
disappointed, however, not to find in it
any remark about the curly qualities of
the head-gear. And it seems that the
' oi which we have
even a mention in the bong ot bongs,
would not be out ot place in such an
essay. The “hair lookihg like a heard ot
kids descending the mount ot Gilead,
was as much of racial quality with the
Jews as those ‘‘as black as a raven. ’
And if a speculation on dying the hair
is not out of place in that article a hint
about artificial curls would certainly be
in place. The illustration accompany
ing this article is a head, of a gypsy
which we have seen somewhere.
The next article is
by Rev. Dr. Jastrow, of Rmla
delphia. It is a thoroughly gooa enort.
The practical moral which the learned
writer deducts from the two sayings of
Jose-ben-Joeser and of Jose-ben-Jo
hanan (Aboth. I, 4 & 5), is of the same
tendency as that ot the
the new commentary to tlie Mishnan oy
Israel Lipshitz. The historical sugges
tions regarding the times and the places
where those two teachers have officiated
are of value to the scholar. The descrip
tions of the Helenistic and Chassidaic
tendencies of those times, and their
application to the modern state of Ju
daism are graphic, tasteful, interesting
and instructive to any class of readers.
There is a fine satirical vein running
terough that article, which enhances its
value and mahes it the more attractive.
This article of Dr. Jastrow alone makes
the Almanac worth five times its price.
It is a production which coin puses favor
ably with many literary efforts of our
European scholars.
The only essay to match the proceed
ing one. is that of Rev. Dr. B. Felsen
tiia 1, oi this , city, on
It matches
the former article in the ability of treat
ment, but it is of greater value to the
Scholar. While the essay of Dr. Jas
trow is objective in contents as well as
in tendency, Dr. Felsenthal’s essay is
thoroughly subjective.
Beginning with the reform of Judaism
which was initiated by Mendelssohn, the
author gives a clear insight into the na
ture of the changes which have since
taken place. He shows that the only
way of furthering the advancment of
Judaism is to develop it from its own
essence and through its own spirit, and
not by engrafting into it plants of a
foreign growth. He contrasts the re
form Judaism of Alexandria with that
of the present time, and demonstrates
how the former was more consistent than
the latter ; the former was an infusion
of new life, the latter is an absorbtion of
disintegrating elements. He insists earn
estly and pleadingly that our Rabbis
should put asiefo all iconoclastic efforts
now (the idols will fall by themselves,
now their bases being morbid and unten
able) and employ all their energies to es
tablish and to expose the positive tenden
cy of Judaism. It is impossible for us to
do justice to Dr. Felsenthal’s article in
a brief review. Every sentence of it is
pregnant with thought. The vast amount
of historical knowledge, the deep insight
into the spirit of historical facts, and
the earnestness with which Dr. Felsen
thal pleads his cause, betrays the great
scholar, profound thinker and devoted
Jew.
A sad contrast to the foregoing, is an
essay “7m cngcn Rahmen,” by llev. Dr.
G. Gottheil, of N. Y. With the excep
tion of one or two able sermons and the
articles on "The Position of Jews in
America.” which has been published in
the North-American Review, this was
the first effort of Dr. Gottheil we saw in
print—and it is poor enough in all re
spects, it appears poorer when compared
with those which preceed it. His lead
ing idea is to sum up Judaism in terms
as brief as possible. He opens with a
little anecdote of the king who, when
compelled to lead his army into the bat-1
tie field, felt it very hard to separate
him sell from
I hat king ordered that a selec
tion of the best books should be made
for him to take along. The selection
which was made proved to be too many
to take into the field, and he ordered a
selection from the selection, until at last
one small volume was selected in which
the wisdom contained in the whole
was summed up.— '
i -Now the author says
.It a little pedantry be per
missible, we would suggest that
would be more correct,,
SWen*
and, consequently too much knowl
edge is too burdensom, and we must
have a summary of the “beloved, great
library” (to speak in the words of
the distinguished author, which sound
as peculiar in English as in German) in
a small volume. To say that Job said
that “life in the world is warfare” with
such a nonchalence, is a little too much
even for Rev. Dr. Gottheil. A warfare
has always been considered an honorable
thing for the participants. Job’s pes
sinism endeavors vp prove that man is
only a toy in the hands of Providence,
consequently not a being who goes out
on a warfare. Give man an individuali
ty and you destroy the whole beauty
and force of Job’s character. We do
not know any place in the book of Job
in which an expression so disfiguring the
character of the great sufferer occurs.
By the similarity of words, however, we
conjectured that our author meant to
quote
(Job
vii, 1.) If we have guessed right, the
authorities of Dr. Gottheil for such a
translation are the Targum, which trans
lates the word
with
and the
\ ulgate, which renders it uMilitia ”
Both of these authorities have been su
perficially understood. As to the mean
ing of the Targum we would refer the
distinguished author to Bereshitli Rab
ba, ch. 10:
from whence it becomes apparent
(it no casuistry is taken recourse to)
that it refers to the mercenary, the
hired soldier who was engaged only for
a certain time, and who was regarded
with contempt by the native troops,
'file Vulgate corroborates this idea in
the following translation of the whole
verse : Militia est vita hominis super
terrain: et sicut dies mcrcenarii, dies
ejiis. The second part of the same verse
is a perfect, parallelism
to this meaning of the first part. The
succeeding verse reiterates the same idea.
The shortness of .the time of life is here
the point, and not the nature and the
quality thereof.
To sum up the ''beloved, great library”
of the Jewish religion, the Dr. proceeds
with the story of Hilel’s convert, with
R. Simlai’s saying of Moccoth fob 28,
etc., to the same effect. We cannot
dwell at length on the learned explana
tions (with foot notes) of the learned
author, but we will cite one instance.
The passage (Maccoth 24, a)
Dr. Gottheir renders
Hereto he questions in a loot note :
The Dr. undoubtedly
means to imply with this query that It.
Simla! had ascribed this passage to a
second Isaiah, and thus to find talmud
ical support for the modern Bible criti
cism, which ascribes the latter part of
Is. from chapter 40 to the end to another
author (a second Isaiah)—all this from
the use oi the word
li this be the
case we would suggest that every time
that word occurs in the Talmud, with
reference to a rabbin who has recanted
from his first teaching or changed his
opinion, it was not that rabbin, but “a
second one” bearing the same name. Or
even when the
occurs with refer
ence to auother subject as
it means another
or a second one.—But the fact is, that
the Doctor’s query is a
the
word
itself refers to one person
who had maintained a different opinion
previously, and no one ever thought of
ascribing the latter part of Isaiah to a
different author before Koppe, who had
“breathed the first suspicion” on this
subject, Doderslein, who had reiterated
it and their successors, who have con
firmed it. Then the Doctor renders
with
„28otjut)aigfeu„
and makes
which is not the case at
all. In Hebrew this word means jus
tice,” “strict adherence to certain regu
lations,” originally it means “power.”
(vide : Isaiah xlix, 24, and Fuearst.)
Ihe Aramaic meaning of the word
tor ’ chanty has been adopted at a
much later period, and used by the tal
mudists in this sense. To sum it
up, the whole article „uiengeu fttafymen,,
we will merely say that, it is very simi
lar in character to the talmudical expla
nations of liev. Dr. RV it aver, which ap
pear occasionally in the Am. Israelite ;
There was once a time when such
scholarship could be passed oft' on
an American Jewish audience. Our
scholars of the present time should
be a little more particular in their work.
In his subjective remarks, Dr. Gotheil
is entirely out of his element ; in his
objective reflections which constitute
the latter part of the essay, he is more
interesting.
bv
Rev. Dr. A. Heubsch of N. Y., follows
the article of Dr. Gottheil, and affords
the reader a pleasant relief. There are
eight gems of ancient literature trans
lated in chaste, elegant and highly fin
ished German rhymes,
Thereupon follows a very able sketch
of a biography of Adolphe Cremieux, a
few very good adages in German rhyme,
and an interesting story by Rabbi Eliren
thal of Horic. In that story there are a
few blurs which are intended for illus
trations. On the subject of the narra
tive ? Oh, no ! An Egyptian landscape, /
a praying child, the ruins of a Baal tem
ple, which are just put into represent
the American humbug, where the Amer
ican spirit is missing entirely.
suggestive essay. It is peculiar how
The
same subject lias been treated almost
simultaneously l>y Dr. Ludwig Philipp
solin, of Bonn, Dr. Lehman, of Mayence
and by Dr. Boar, of N. Y.
Next come two English articles ; the
one is a story of Podolian life translated
from the German, the other is a fable,
“Autobiography of a Sparrow.” They
are both good, only somewhat stiff in
diction. The last article is a short me
trical translation of -a few verses “Long
ing for Jerusalem” of B. Jeliuda Halevi.
Now taking the almanac as a whole,
we are at a loss to say for what class of
readers it was made up. There is noth
ing in it to make it attractive for the
young. The good scholarly essays may
be worth a great deal for 'the student,
but they would be of greater value if
the almanac had been of a more popular
nature, and thus they would force their
way on a larger class of readers. For
the thoroughly Americanized Israelite,
the almanac is altogether too much Ger
man. The German Israelite of this
country will find the European works of
this kind much more interesting. Pa
scheles’Almanac, for instance, which was
just now laid on our table, contains a
better and more practicable selection of
reading matter. And if Mr. Schnabel’s
almanac was intended for a circulation
in Europe, the compiler could not give
a greater slight to his adopted land, than
by ignoring it so entirely as he did.
The European Israelite who will pur
chase an American almanac, will expect
to find in it something of the country
where it lias been issued. He will find
-the illustrations to which avc have
referred and which are, to match the
character of the entire Avork, neither
here nor there.
EDITORIAL BRIEFS.
The recognition which the Jewish
Advance finds in the world, is proven
by the valuable contributions wdiich ac
cumulate on us. Our European corres
pondents even begin to put in an appear
ance. It will yet take time, however,—
as our pessimistic friends prognosticate
—before the general Jewish reader wdll
find out the value of a strictly chaste
and useful Jewish journal. But we
trust in the good common sense of our
people, that the time will not tell too
heavily on us for want of support.
The pamphlet entitled uZur Prose
litengrage,” which has been recently
published by Rev. Dr. B. Felsenthal, of
this city, has been copied entire, includ
ing even the unacht/raeg 1 iche Pemerkun
gen, in the Nenzeit of Vienna, This is
an endorsement of the importance of
that work, which may cause just satis
faction to the author. Simon Scanto,
the editor of the Neuzeit, is one of the
foremost Jewish journalists of the pres
ent time, and a l iebrcw scholar of high
attainments.
"The wandering Jew” has become a
favorite subject, not only with poets,
novelists and painters, bat also with
Jewish ministers. For the latter it is,
indeed, a very grateful subject. To our
knowledge three Jewish lectures on “the
wandering Jew” been published by our
ministers ; one by Rev. Dr. Felsenthal
in 1872, another one by Rev. Dr. Wise
in 1877, a third one recently by Rev. Dr.
Kohler, and we remember a fourth one
by W. P. Solomon of New York. Com
paring these productions on one and the
same theme, we find that they are one
and the same in name only. The modes
of treatment are entirely unlike each
other. And the subject is by far not
exhausted. It will take yet a long, long
time before the world will know “the
wandering Jew” as it should.