Chapters on Jewish Literature

New. New New Chapters on Jewish Literature by Israel Abrahams THE "VINEYARD" AT JAMNIA Schools at Jamnia, Lydda, Usha, and Sepphoris-The Tannaim compile the Mishnah-Jochanan, Akiba, Meir, Judah-Aquila The story of Jewish literature, after the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem in the year 70 of the Christian era, centres round the city of Jamnia Jamnia, or Jabneh, lay near the sea, beautifully situated on the slopes of a gentle hill in the lowlands, about twenty-eight miles from the capital When Vespasian was advancing to the siege of Jerusalem, he occupied Jamnia, and thither the Jewish Synhedrion, or Great Council, transferred itself when Jerusalem fell A college existed there already, but Jamnia then became the head-quarters of Jewish learning, and retained that position till the year 135 At that date the learned circle moved further north, to Galilee, and, besides the famous school at Lydda in Judea, others were founded in Tiberias, Usha, and Sepphoris The real founder of the College at Jamnia was Jochanan, the son of Zakkai, called "the father of wisdom" Like the Greek philosophers who taught their pupils in the gardens of the "Academy" at Athens, the Rabbis may have lectured to their students in a "Vineyard" at Jamnia Possibly the term "Vineyard" was only a metaphor applied to the meeting-place of the Wise at Jamnia, but, at all events, the result of these pleasant intellectual gatherings was the Rabbinical literature Jochanan himself was a typical Rabbi For a great part of his life he followed a mercantile pursuit, and earned his bread by manual labor His originality as a teacher lay in his perception that Judaism could survive the loss of its national centre He felt that "charity and the love of men may replace the sacrifices" He would have preferred his brethren to submit to Rome, and his political foresight was justified when the war of independence closed in disaster As Graetz has well said, like Jeremiah Jochanan wept over the desolation of Zion, but like Zerubbabel he created a new sanctuary Jochanan's new sanctuary was the school We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience