Volume 1

Rabbinical literature: or, the traditions of the Jews, contained in their Talmud and other mystical writings. Likewise the opinions of that people concerning Messiah, and the time and manner of His appearing; with an appendix, comprizing Buxtorf's account of the religious customs and ceremonies of that nation. Also, A preliminary enquiry into the origin, progress, authority, and usefulness of these traditions; wherein the sense of the strange allegories in the Talmud and Jewish authors is explained / By the Revd. Mr. J.P. Stehelin.

Johann Andreas Eisenmenger

Date:: 1748

Credit: Rabbinical literature: or, the traditions of the Jews, contained in their Talmud and other mystical writings. Likewise the opinions of that people concerning Messiah, and the time and manner of His appearing; with an appendix, comprizing Buxtorf's account of the religious customs and ceremonies of that nation. Also, A preliminary enquiry into the origin, progress, authority, and usefulness of these traditions; wherein the sense of the strange allegories in the Talmud and Jewish authors is explained / By the Revd. Mr. J.P. Stehelin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

43/424 page 29

$[29] the Talmud,, where it is faid, that God laughs,3 weeps,b laments, and faith, JVo unto me, becaufe 1 have deßroyed my Houfe, burnt my Palace, and carried my Children in Captivity ,c pray’s,d wears Frontlets,6 and ftudieth the Law ; f the Defcription of Birds, Reptiles, Fifties ancf Vegetables of a monftrous Size ; the Fables of the tra¬ velling of Ground, and of the fpeaking ofTrees, Moun¬ tains and Stones ; the Opinions of the Rabbins concer¬ ning the Mefiiah 5 the time of his Appearing *, his ga¬ thering the Jews from all Nations and Parts of the World, his conducting them to the Land of Canaan \ the Royal Banquet, to which he fhali invite them, when fitting at a golden Table, they {hall feaft upon the great Ox Shor Habbor, or Behemoth the monftrous Fifti Levi- athan, the Female of the Leviathan, which (hall be fer- ved as Salt-Fifh, and the roafted Fowl Barjuchne ; their Account of the Marriage of the Meifiah and of his Chil- dren, -&c. It can’t be denied that there are feveral Things related in the Talmud, which, taken in a literal Senfe, feem ri¬ diculous and abfurd, but the mod: Learned among the Jews look upon them as fo many fffip Parables, and ex¬ plain them in a myftical Senfe: The Rabbins for the more delightful Entertainment of the People, indulg’d themfelves in the ancient and ufeful way of Inftruä- ing by Metaphors, and figurative Expreftions; Their Books abound every where with Parables, Similitudes, and Figures of Speech: if accordingly we take feveral Paflages of the Talmud in a Myftical Senfe, we find, that far from being ridiculous and abfurd, they contain very ufeful Maxims: To give an Inftance of it. It is faid intheGemara that Raß and Shemuel difputed toge¬ ther, one pretending that D'XlHD ^jlD Hodu was htuated at the beginning of the World, and Cufo at the end of it, and the other af- [al Avoda Sara, c. I. p. 13. [b-] Rabborh fo!. 289. [cj Ibid, [d] Rerachot. c. I. fol.7. [e] Ibid. f. 6. Jalkut, f. 58. [f] Avo¬ da Sara, f. 3. Jalkut Shimeon. P. II. f. 50. firming$

Licence and re-use

Contents

Volumes