A strong opponent of Azariah Dei Rossi was Loewe Ben Bezalel (1530-1609), rabbi of Posen and Prague and the hero of many legends. He maintained the absolute belief in Rabbinic authority in every respect. In spite of occasional opposition the “Shulhan Aruk” soon attained general popularity and was considered an authoritative book, to which many prominent rabbis, as Abraham Gombiner, Sabbatai Cohen and David Halevi added their glosses. These were in the later editions added to the “Shulhan Aruk,” the authority of which is indicated by the fact that the glossaries are called “Aharonim” (epigones).
The sufferings which Jews had to endure during the fifteenth century and of which the expulsion from Spain and Portugal was the culmination, were the cause of a strengthening of mysticism. Particularly in Palestine, to which quite a number of Spanish Jews were drawn by Messianic hopes, such a center was formed. In Safed, where Joseph Caro wrote his “Shulhan Aruk,” a number of disciples gathered around Isaac Luria, who preached a religion based on the belief in the mysterious. He did not write, but numerous disciples put his ideas in writing. Among them were Hayyim Vital, who was considered a worker of miracles, and Elijah de Vidas, whose work, “The Beginning of Wisdom,” became a favorite book for edification. Another Kabbalistic author of the same circle was Solomon Halevi Alkabez, best known by his popular Sabbath hymn, “Lekah Dodi,” which also has a Kabbalistic tendency.
German Jews came to Palestine to join the circle of mystics. One was Isaiah Horowitz (1550-1630), who had been rabbi of Frankfort-on-the-Main and Prague. Of his works a large Kabbalistic compendium, “The Two Tablets of the Covenant” (Shelah), became very popular. Abstracts of it were made and translated into Judæo-German. Even in Italy, where secular culture was far more general among Jews than in any other country in Europe, Kabbala had a strong hold on the people. A great enthusiast for the doctrine of mysticism was Moses Hayyim Luzzatto (1707-1747), who wrote allegorical dramas in Hebrew, one of which, “Praise to the Righteous,” is a masterpiece of modern Hebrew literature. His ethical treatise, “The Path of the Righteous,” is also deservedly popular. He went to Palestine hoping to receive prophetic inspiration there, and died at the age of forty of the plague.
Talmudic literature monopolized the activities of the German and Polish Jews, the latter being considered the leaders in this line and filling most of the Rabbinic positions in Western Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Among the most prominent dialecticians may be mentioned Jacob Joshua of Lemberg (1680-1756), rabbi of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Aryeh Loeb of Minsk, rabbi of Metz (1700-1786), Ezekiel Landau (1713-1793), rabbi of Prague, and Jonathan Eybeschuetz (1690-1764), rabbi of Metz and Altona, whose works show the highest development in this branch. Already in the eighteenth century a sounder development of Rabbinic studies, showing the beginnings of criticism and an interest in historical and archæological questions, began.
Among those who led to the scientific presentation of Rabbinic literature in modern times are to be mentioned Jair Hayyim Bacharach (1634-1702), rabbi of Worms, of whose works very little has been preserved but who was interested in the scientific presentation of Rabbinic theology as the theory of oral tradition, and Jacob Emden (1696-1776), the bitter opponent of Jonathan Eybeschuetz, who gathered historical material on Sabbatai Zebi, and the mystics who followed him and had the boldness, although a believer in Kabbala, to state that the Zohar, as we possess it, is not the work of Simeon ben Johai. An emancipation from the strict Rabbinic dialectics by better attention to correct Rabbinic texts and to the study of philological and archæological questions is found in the works of Joseph Steinhart (1706-1776), rabbi of Fuerth, Isaiah Pick (1720-1799), and Elijah of Wilna (1720-1797).
The sufferings of the Jews in Spain stimulated interest in historical literature and various authors, chiefly prompted by a desire to keep up the courage of the Jews in the midst of persecutions, wrote historical works. Among them may be mentioned Gedaliah ibn Yahya, an Italian who wrote the “Chain of Tradition,” Solomon ibn Verga, a Spaniard who emigrated to Turkey and wrote “Shebet Jehudah,” Joseph Cohen of Avignon, who wrote “The Valley of Weeping,” and Samuel Usque, who wrote a work in Portuguese called “Consolations in Tribulation,” all of the sixteenth century. Somewhat later David Gans (died at Prague in 1617) wrote a dry compilation of events in Jewish and general history under the title “Zemah David.”
To the seventeenth century belongs the Oriental, David Conforte, his “Kore Hadorot” being chiefly valued for its accounts of Rabbinic literature in the Orient. Jehiel Heilprin of Minsk, eighteenth century, wrote a history in the style of a chronicle, beginning with Creation. It shows a naive belief in the historicity of the Midrash but is very valuable by reason of its collection of historic passages from Rabbinic literature. Secular education was slowly beginning to find its way among the Jews. Quite a number of German Jews studied medicine in Italy, chiefly from a practical point of view. Tobias Cohen of Metz (1652-1729) studied in Frankfort-on-the-Oder, being supported by the Elector of Brandenburg. In his later years he lived in the Orient, where he wrote a compilation on various scientific subjects, “Maaseh Tobiyah.” In this he shows sound knowledge of medicine.
CHAPTER VIII
THE PERIOD OF EMANCIPATION FROM 1791.
In the middle of the eighteenth century a slow but marked improvement in the condition of the Jews is noticeable. To some extent this is due to the change in the economic life of the Jews, many of whom were engaged in manufacturing pursuits and in such mercantile enterprises as were of noticeable benefit to the state. Some Jews were farmers of the tobacco monopoly, in many states an important part of the revenue, others engaged in various manufacturing enterprises and thus received privileges which exempted them from the disabilities imposed on other Jews. This was the case in Prussia, where Jewish enterprises created the flourishing textile industry in and near Berlin. One of these manufacturers was Bernhard Isaac, in whose house Moses Mendelssohn lived first as tutor and then as bookkeeper. Frederick the Great gave to some Jews the same rights as Christian merchants, although he was in general not well disposed toward the Jews, and would not allow them to engage in agriculture or ship-building. Aaron Elias Seligmann established a large tobacco manufactory in Laimen, Bavaria, in 1779, which gave occupation to many hands; for his merit in developing industry the King of Bavaria bestowed a baronetcy on him in 1814. Israel Hönig was farmer of the tobacco monopoly in Austria, and was in 1789 knighted by Emperor Joseph II.