votive hands and feet (iii, 2), yet the Jews now carve the "hand of might" on their doorways even in Jerusalem, where I have seen one painted red.[1] The worship of the spirits of mountains, hills, trees, and springs, which dated back among the Hittites to 1400 b.c., continued (iii, 6) to be observed,[2] and the little niches for statues are still found at springs in Palestine. The triumphal arches of the Romans were unclean to the Jew (iv, 6) on account of sculptures such as we still find on the roof of the Baalbek temple. A few statues of gods, from Gaza, Baalbek, &c., have also survived the destruction by the monks in the times of Constantine and of Theodosius.
The Jews had often pagan servants, and the Jewesses pagan nurses (Abodah Zara, ii, 2, 4), but the touch of the "country folk" polluted the Pharisees (Hagigah, ii, 7). To entice a Jew to worship some local demon was a heinous offence (Sanhedrin, vii, 10), and sorcerers were punished with death while the Sanhedrin had power, though conjurers were allowed (Sanhedrin, vii, 10). The Samaritans[3] rendered a third of the Holy Land unclean, and the waters of Jordan and of the Yermuk impure (Parah, viii, 10). Samaritan bread was unclean (Shebiith, viii, 10), yet an Israelite in Syria might serve a Samaritan as gardener (Khalah, iv, 7). The Samaritans were charged with lighting false beacons to throw out the proclamation of the New Moon by the Jews (Rosh hash Shanah, ii, 4), but the eating of garlic on the Sabbath—for family reasons-—was common to Jew and Samaritan (Nedarim, iii, 10).[4] The Mishnah was the work of Pharisees; and the Sadducees and Boethusians are hardly less condemned in it than the pagans.[5] The Galilean Sadducees[6] appear to have been in their own opinion Pharisees, but not in that of the Jerusalem School. The Khasidin or Saints, of whom Simon the Just said that the world stood on their acts (Pirki Aboth, i, 2), were probably the companions of Judas Maccabæus. They, as well as the Perushim (Hagigah, ii, 7), or Pharisees, are still a sect. The "stranger" of the Old Testament[7] was, according to the Rabbis, to be
- ↑ Dr. Chaplin tells me of other examples painted white.
- ↑ In Kholin, i, 8, is mentioned also the invocation of mountains, hills, rivers, the sea, and the desert.
- ↑ The story of the dove worshipped on Gerizim is not found in the Mishnah, though Maimonides relates it. It appears to originate in the Samaritan legend of the dove which carried news from Joshua when enclosed by the giants in the seven magic walls of the brazen city of Jocneam to Nabih, King of Gilead (Samaritan Book of Joshua). I conjecture that the impurity of the rivers was due to their passing by the Samaritan region.
- ↑ Garlic was regarded as a stimulant; it prevented jealousy (T. B. Baba Kama, 82a).
- ↑ The sects are noticed in Rosh hash Shanah, ii, 1, 2; Niddah, iv, 2, vii, 3; Yadaim, iv, 6; Menakhoth, x, 3.
- ↑ Yadaim, iv, 8.
- ↑ "Stranger" is, strictly speaking, a man of another tribe living with protectors, like the Arab jár.
