FROM THE REV. DR. MARCUS JASTROW.
As a Jewish clergyman, and as a conservative Bible scholar, the Rev. Dr. Jastrow is honored on both sides of the Atlantic for his special attainments in Talmudic and Rabbinical lore. His great work, “A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature,” is a monument of his learning and ability in these fields. He writes:
“I have read your interesting work, ‘The Threshold Covenant,’ with great attention, and derived from it more information than I can possibly thank you for.
“As I am unable to form an independent opinion on the bearing of your evidences on the thesis of your work, I can refer only to those parts of it which treat of Jewish customs and ideas, and, here, I feel it a privilege to be permitted to say that I admire your ingenious conception of the passover covenant in Egypt. Especially interesting, and undoubtedly correct, is your interpretation of Exodus 12 : 23, according to which the Lord passes over the threshold in order to visit the Israelitish house, and will not allow the destroyer to enter.
“It may not be out of place here to direct your attention to a passage in Talmud Yerushalmi, Aboda Zara III, 42 d, where it is said about the Philistines: ‘They revered the threshold (miftan) more than the Dagon,’ to which is added, ‘All other nations made (worshiped) only one miftan, but the Israelites made many miftanoth,’ which explains the verse, ‘And I will visit punishment on him who leaps, and on the miftan’ (Zeph. 1 : 9). You will observe that the Talmud quotes the verse different from the Massoretic text, which reads, ‘on every one who leaps over the miftan.’ I am unable to decide whether the deviation from the Massoretic text is owing to a different text before the Talmudic authority under consideration, or merely to a slip of memory, such as often occurs with those who quote from memory.
“In Talmud Babli, referring to the Philistines in relation to the Dagon, it is said: ‘They let alone the Dagon and worshiped the miftan, for they said, His prince (genius) has abandoned the Dagon and has come to sit on the miftan.’ All of which proves that there lingered yet in the memory of the Talmudists the traditional recollection of miftan worship.”