Volume I Part 8 (1/2)

More wholesome and more closely related to life was the trend of the Jewish apologetic literature which sprang up in Poland in the last quarter of the sixteenth century. The religious unrest which had been engendered by the Reformation gave rise to several rationalistic sects with radical, anti-ecclesiastic tendencies. Nearest of all to the tenets of Judaism was the sect of the Anti-Trinitarians (called Unitarians, Arians, or Socinians[116]), who denied the dogma of the Trinity and the divine nature of Jesus, but recognized the religious and moral teachings of the Gospels. Among the Anti-Trinitarian leaders were the theologian Simon Budny, of Vilna, and Martin Chekhovich, of Lublin. Stung by the fact that the Catholic clergy applied to them the contemptuous appellation of ”Judaizers,” or semi-Jews, the sectarians were anxious to demonstrate to the world that their doctrine had nothing in common with Judaism. For this purpose they carried on oral disputes with the rabbis, and tried to expose the ”Jewish falsehoods” in their works.

Martin Chekhovich was particularly zealous in holding theological disputations, both in Lublin and in other cities, ”with genuine as well as pseudo-Jews.” The results of these disputations are embodied in several chapters of his books ent.i.tled ”Christian Dialogues” (1575) and ”Catechism” (1580). One of his Jewish opponents, Jacob (Nahman) of Belzhytz,[117] found it necessary to answer him in public in a little book written in the Polish language (_Odpis na dyalogi Czechowicza_, ”Retort to the Dialogues of Chekhovich,” 1581). Jacob of Belzhytz defends the simple dogmas of Judaism, and accuses his antagonists of desiring to arouse hostility to the Jewish people. The following observation of Jacob is interesting as showing the methods of disputation then in vogue:

It often happens that a Christian puts a question to me from Holy Writ, to which I reply also from Holy Writ, and I try to argue it properly. But suddenly he will pick out another pa.s.sage [from the Bible], saying: ”How do you understand this?” and thus he does not finish the first question, on which it would be necessary to dwell longer. This is exactly what happens when the hunter's dogs are hounding the rabbit which flees from the road into a by-path, and, while the dogs are trying to catch it, slips away into the bushes. For this reason the Jew too has to interrupt the Christian in the midst of his speech, lest the latter escape like the rabbit as soon as he has finished speaking.

Chekhovich replied to Jacob's pamphlet in print in the same year. While defending his ”Dialogues,” he criticized the errors of the Talmud, and made sport of several Jewish customs, such as the use of _tefillin_, _mezuza_, and _tzitzith_.

A serious retort to the Christian theologians came from Isaac Troki, a cultured Karaite,[118] who died in 1594. He argued with Catholics, Lutherans, and Arians in Poland, not as a dilettante, but as a profound student of the Gospels and of Christian theology. About 1593 he wrote his remarkable apologetic treatise under the t.i.tle _Hizzuk Emuna_ (”Fortification of the Faith”). In the first part of his book, the author defends Judaism against the attacks of the Christian theologians, while in the second he takes the offensive and criticizes the teachings of the Church. He detects a whole series of contradictions in the texts of the Synoptic Gospels, pointing out the radical deviations of the New Testament from the Old and the departure of the later dogmatism of the Church from the New Testament itself. With calmness and a.s.surance he proves the logical and historical impossibility of the interpretations of the well-known Biblical prophecies which serve as the substructure of the Christian dogma.

For a long time no one was bold enough to print this ”dreadful treatise,” and it was circulated in ma.n.u.script both in the Hebrew original and in a Spanish and German version. The Hebrew original, accompanied by a Latin translation, was printed for the first time from a defective copy by the German scholar Wagenseil, Professor of Law in Bavaria. Wagenseil published the treatise _Hizzuk Emuna_ in his collection of anti-Christian writings, to which he gave the awe-inspiring t.i.tle ”The Fiery Arrows of Satan” (_Tela Ignea Satanae_, 1681), and which were published for missionary purposes, ”in order that the Christians may refute this book, which may otherwise fortify the Jews in their errors.” The pious German professor could not foresee that his edition would he subsequently employed by men of the type of Voltaire and the French encyclopedists of the eighteenth century as a weapon to attack the doctrine of the Church. Voltaire commented on the book of Isaac Troki in these words: ”Not even the most decided opponents of religion have brought forward any arguments which could not be found in the 'Fortification of the Faith' by Rabbi Isaac.” In modern times the _Hizzuk Emuna_ has been reprinted from more accurate copies, and has been translated into several European languages.[119]

FOOTNOTES:

[65] See pp. 72 and 73.

[66] [_Unanimi voto et consensu_ are the exact words of the doc.u.ment.

See Bersohn, _Dyplomatariusz_ (Collection of ancient Polish enactments relating to Jews), p. 51.]

[67] [Literally, By-Kahals.]

[68] [a = short German _a_. In Hebrew ???.]

[69] [Great Poland, Little Poland, Red Russia, and Volhynia. Volhynia at first formed part of the Lithuanian Duchy, but was ceded to the Crown, in 1569, by the Union of Lublin.]

[70] In the middle of the seventeenth century their number was six.

[71] Nathan Hannover, in his _Yeven Metzula_ [see p. 157, n. 1], ed.

Venice, 1653, p. 12.

[72] [A Hebrew term designating public-spirited Jews who defend the interests of their coreligionists before the Government. In Polish official doc.u.ments they are referred to as ”General Syndics.” In Poland the _shtadlans_ were regular officials maintained by the Jewish community. Comp. the article by L. Lewin, _Der Schtadlan im Posener Ghetto_, in _Festschrift_ published in honor of Dr. Wolf Feilchenfeld (1907), pp. 31 _et seq._]

[73] Towards the end of the sixteenth century Warsaw, instead of Cracow, became the residence of the Polish kings. The Jews had no right of domicile in Warsaw, and were permitted only to visit it temporarily.

[See p. 85.]

[74] [See p. 93, n. 1.]

[75] [See p. 76, n. 1.]

[76] [The so-called _Judisch-Deutsch_, which was by the Jews brought from Germany to Poland and Lithuania. It was only in the latter part of the seventeenth century that the dialect of Polish-Lithuanian Jewry began to depart from the _Judisch-Deutsch_ as spoken by the German Jews, thus laying the foundation for modern _Yiddish_. See Dubnow's article ”On the Spoken Dialect and the Popular Literature of the Polish and Lithuanian Jews in the Sixteenth and the First Half of the Seventeenth Century,” in the periodical _Yevreyskaya Starina_, i. (1909), pp. 1 _et seq._]

[77] [_I. e._ Red Russia, or Galicia.]

[78] _Yeven Metzula_ [see p. 157, n. 1], towards the end.

[79] [Literally, ”our teacher,” a t.i.tle bestowed since the Middle Ages on every ordained rabbi.]

[80] [Literally, ”companion,” ”colleague,” a t.i.tle conferred upon men who, without being ordained, have attained a high degree of scholars.h.i.+p.]

[81] [Abbreviation for Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac (d. 1105), a famous French rabbi, whose commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud are marked by wonderful lucidity.]