JEWISH CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS.
By An Israelite
Development of Rabbinism.
WHILE the Jews were in Babylonian captivity, they were not instructed in the ways of God, save orally by the mouths of the prophets. Their literature, save the writings of Jeremiah, was supposed to have been destroyed at the time the temple was burned by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. When, therefore, they were released from their period of captivity, there were but very few who knew much concerning the commandments and statutes of the Lord. This is evident from the last two chapters of Ezra, and also from the book of Nehemiah. However, shortly after the restoration and the reinstating of the Jewish polity, Ezra began to reform the people, and labor among them for a complete reformation. He found his work to be much more difficult than he anticipated, since the people were so fearfully ignorant, and had so far departed from the law of God. In order to bring about the desired change, it is said that he associated with him some of the most learned men among the Jews, into an organized college or synod, which he termed “The Great Synagogue.” It was the purpose of these men to expound to the masses the meaning of the law, and to interpret the revealed will of God as found in the Scriptures of the prophets. No one for a moment will doubt but that Ezra’s intentions were of the very best in securing these men as his colleagues in the work; but the effects of that synod and many others akin to it which followed in its train, will never be known nor rightly understood until the Teacher of the truth shall come, and expose to the universe the evil of those false teachers. The first few years of their experience things moved along smoothly, but as soon as the scribe passed away, yea, even somewhat in his day, things began to take a different turn, and radical changes were made by these men. The successors soon gained the idea that they were divinely chosen, and consequently their teachings must be correct. They considered themselves the people able to tell the real meaning of the law of God, and restore its beauty which had been lost to the laity. Or, as the “Talmud” expresses it, “As soon as the men of the ‘Great Synagogue’ met together, they restored the law to its pristine glory.” Having imbibed this idea, they began to assume other beliefs equally as false. Claiming divine appointment, they naturally regarded themselves as more holy than the rest of the people, and esteemed themselves paragons of purity and righteousness. The leaders had a great opportunity in carrying out their plans, because of the ignorance of the people in general, and the paucity of books. As these teachers began to exalt self, very naturally religion dwindled into a sort of formalism, and the amount of piety a man possessed was due largely to the amount of external duties he performed, and the rites and ceremonies he celebrated. As a result of this course, real spiritual life became almost extinct, and legality took its place. By degrees the masses received various portions of the Holy Writ, with many additional features which their predecessors had never possessed. It is said of Ezra that he read out of the law of God, and gave them the sense, or meaning, of the text from the Scriptures direct; these teachers gave the supposed sense of the Scriptures to the people. But the difference of the meaning which they rendered and that exegesis given by Ezra, was that it was simply the ideas of men and their understanding of the Word, in place of the interpretation of the text by the Spirit. So now, if a man wanted to know the meaning of a certain portion of Scripture, he would have to inquire what such and such a scholar said it meant. While progressing in this apostasy, it often occurred to their minds that it might be possible that at some time in the future, their exposition might be questioned, and incongruities discovered. It was therefore necessary that some steps be taken to give their work a “divine” mold, and thus make it to the people coördinate with that of the prophets who had preceded them. If this could be accomplished, whatever difficulty might arise in the mind of the student in later years, it could be told him that, as all Scripture given by inspiration could not be easily understood, and sometimes apparently seemed contradictory, so it was with this work when compared with the Scriptures of Moses and the prophets, for it was all of God. Now the question arose as to how this could be done. It is admitted by the rabbis themselves that there were five things lacking in the second temple which existed in the first; and one of the missing gifts was the “spirit of prophecy.” Therefore they could not say they were inspired as were the other prophets. But a substitute for this gift was devised, which has satisfied the minds of hundreds of thousands of their followers even to this present day. When several of the scholiasts were discussing some point in the law, and each giving its true (?) meaning, frequently there would be dissonance among themselves; yet all of them felt that his idea was the correct one. Of course it was evident to them that all the ideas could not be correct, as many were so opposed to one another. So they hit on a plan for deciding who was right. Suddenly one of the most influential of them, or some of his friends, would hear a voice, which was heard only by those individuals who were interested in that definite one’s ideas, which voice declared that his interpretation was the correct one. This voice was named “Both-kol,” or “daughter of a voice.” When any one heard this utterance, all debate immediately ceased, as this was considered to be the divine sanction of the true interpretation. The way now being paved for their divine authority for true explanation, they were prepared to enforce their teachings upon all as equally important as God’s Word. Therefore it is not astonishing that we find such statements as the following: “To be against the word of the scribes is more punishable than to be against the Word of the Bible.” This is but logical from the position they had taken. They regarded themselves as divine expositors of the Bible. If the people disregarded their word, which was the only mode to determine7the intent of the truth, the Bible itself was of no use to them, as they could not understand it. But it is an awful act to oppose the Word of God. Therefore to oppose their words must, by such arguments, be worse than denying the Bible itself. Again, “The voice of the rabbis is as the voice of God.” “He who transgresses the words of the scribes throws away his life.” Many more such quotations might be cited. It will be seen from these statements that all the prerogatives which God assumed, when speaking directly through the prophets, were claimed by them. Now they were prepared to give the people a direct line of succession from Moses, in the reception of the Word of God. So we read in “Ethics of the Fathers,” chapter 1: “Moses received the law from Sinai, and delivered it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Great Synagogue.” Thus the foundations of this traditional fabric were well laid, which afforded the successors opportunities to exalt their dogmas above the Word of God itself.