; ledge, that is, to transgress one of the seven commandments which he gave to him, and then the glorified body of Adam and the animals became sinful and miserable. But the Holy one said to Satan, I will put enmity between thee, Satan, and the woman, (for thou shalt try to lead her astray from me, but she shall hate thee,)" and between thy seed," the passions, or bad men, and "her seed" the Messiah, and the people beloved. He shall finally overcome thee, and take thy power: ' It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," the heel of Messiah the son of Ephraim, that is, he, the son of Ephraim, shall, by the devices of the Devil, be killed; and that Messiah, the son of Ephraim, was Jeroboam. He in the beginning was a pious and good man, for "Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour," but as soon as Satan bruised his heel, Jeroboam made Israel sin but the Lord has given him his kingdom, he shall therefore be the first Messiah who shall be put to death, and they shall look upon that Messiah whom they have pierced, and mourn; for Satan has bruised his heel, and Satan bruises likewise the heel of poor Israel, for we poor Jews are, alas! in captivity. For Satan has induced us to sin; he is the cause that we poor Jews sit alone, and nobody considers us; but redemption will soon come to poor Israel, and those children of Jacob, who said to their brother Joseph, "Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us ?" (Genesis xxxvii. 8.) have said to Joseph, in a prophetical tone, "And we will also be my Lord's servants." "Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim," Isaiah xi. 13. For Messiah Ben Ephraim, and Messiah Ben David, shall live together in peace, and then the mystery of the three initial characters of the three words, "Thousand, two hun ,איך מנתיט רשעיס 11 .dred and ninety, Dan, xii shall be fulfilled; for the initial letter of is, of on is 2, ofpyn is n, those three characters joined together, form the word no, truth; for the whole world will be converted to the truth, 8; and the time shall then be, when all the Gentiles shall flow unto the mountain of the Lord, and many shall say, "Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and 1777 he will teach us (not all his ways, for this he did only to the Jews, but) , of his ways," for indicates only a part of a thing; he shall teach the Gentiles to acknowledge him, the Holy One, who is blessed as their God. He shall teach them to observe the seven commandments given to Adam, which are found in Gemarah of Sanhedrin, page 56. 1. Blasphemy; 2. Robbery; 3. Idolatry; 4. Bloodshed; 5. Discovery of nakedness; 6. Making eunuchs; 7. Mixing with beasts. Every word which that sincere Rabbi spake, confirmed me in the belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. I replied, 1 Kings xiv. 10 proves that out of Jeroboam, the Messiah cannot come secondly, We find only one Messiah out of the stem of Jesse the Son of David. Thirdly, I believe myself, that Israel will be restored to their own land: but as we meet in the holy books with prophecies which must convince us that Messiah must have already made his appearance for the first time, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, &c." (Gen. xlix 10.) and indicates royal power, see Psalm ii. 9. Amos i. 5, Numbers xxi. 18;-we must, therefore, conclude, that he must have come. This becomes evident by Daniel ix. ; and that Jesus was the Messiah, becomes clear by Micah v. Haggai ii. 7, 9, Zech. xii. 10, Isa. liii. Rabbi M. It is true that is the mark of royal power, or rather, that which a king holds in his hand, viz. a rod, but a rod is not so much as a staff, and our rabbies say, therefore, that the sense is this, "A little rod shall not be taken from the tribe of Judah, and the writers from between his feet, until the Messiah shall come;" and the whole meaning is this, After that the kingdom shall be taken from Judah, a little rod shall remain, a little power in the tribe of poor Judah, even at the time when they shall sigh in captivity, when poor Israel shall no longer be able to distinguish their tribes, some writers shall yet remain between their feet, and that little power shall not be taken from the tribe of Judah until Shiloh shall come; but after that, poor Israel shall be entirely oppressed, so that no man shall be among the tribe of Judah, to comfort Israel; then shall be the time of the approaching Messiah; for Moses said, (now mark well the perversion of a whole text of Moses, translated by Rabbi Mendel,) Deuteronomy xxxii. part of the 36th to the 39th verse," When he seeth that their power is gone, and that there is none shut up or left, and (the heathen) shall say, Where is their God, the Rock, in whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings? Let him (Jehovah) rise up, and help you, (Israelites,) and be your protection: then shall the Holy One say, See ye (heathen) now, that I, even I, am he, and there is no God beside me," &c. "Rejoice, O ye nations," &c. The Holy One will then give power to us poor Jews, who do not dare now to speak. Secondly, with respect to Daniel, he did not mean the Messiah Ben David for signifies likewise a king, viz. "Kings shall be cut off; there shall be no king in Israel ;" and this is (continued Rebbi Mendel) the history of Jesus of Nazareth. There have been two Messiahs; one lived 172 years before the destruction of the second temple: there lived at Jerusalem Joshua Ben Parahia, a great man among the Sanhedrin, he was surrounded by many disciples: some of his disciples played with a ball near the gate of the temple, and Jesus one of the disciples of Joshua Ben Perahia, who was a relation of the king, who reigned at that time at Jerusalem, did by chance, cast the ball into the eyes of the king; the king therefore desired to put that Jesus to death. Joshua, the son of Perahia, escaped therefore with Jesus and all his disciples to Egypt. There he received the news that the king was dead. He returned therefore to Jerusalem. On their return, they met with the most hospitable reception in the house of a young widow. Rabbi Joshua, the son of Perahia, said to his disciples, How beautiful has been the conduct of that widow.' Jesus misunderstood his master, and observed, Rabbi, the widow is not very beautiful, for her eyes are very ugly.' Rabbi Joshua, the son of Perahia replied, 'How may you dare to look on a woman;' and he excommunicated him immediately. Jesus several times desired his master to pardon him, but in vain; he thereforeformed a party, and induced others to sin, and he troubled his master, until he was stoned. Another Jesus lived after the destruction of the temple, who was an illegitimate child. The history of Jesus of Nazareth, is a mixture of both Jesus's. I observed, that every one who reads the New Testatament will be convinced that those who have written it were not impostors; it is, therefore, highly improbable that good men should have put words into the mouth of a wicked one, such words as no man has hitherto spoken, and that those good men would have suffered death for a wicked one. After this conversation, I asked on what subjects he (Rabbi Mendel) had written books. Rabbi M. About the beauty of creation, the sun, and the course of the stars. It is true that many philosophers have written on these subjects, but they have only mentioned the stars and the sun, and have forgotten the Creator of all those things, without whom, the knowledge of the whole creation is nothing but I have, the Lord be blessed for it, never forgotten Him, the Creator of all things. I observed, that the Talmud had transgressed the commandment of Deut. iv. 2. Rabbi M. Poor Israel wandered into captivity, there they had to meet with many difficulties in observing the law of Moses; the Talmud made therefore 317 precaution walls, in order that the 617 commandments prescribed in the Torah, may be kept in the captivity, for it is written in the Torah, 6 x 0, Levit. xviii. 30, "Ye shall keep my ordinance ;" but as it is twice said, now, it must be translated, "Ye shall make an ordinance to my ordinance;" Here I was obliged to tell Rabbi Mendel, that he perverted the text, in despite of grammar and logic. Abraham Ben David, and Wolf, the Jew from Poland, a book-binder, are now diligently reading the New Testament, and Abraham seems to be convinced of the truth. Rabbi Isaac Ben Solomon argued with me to-day several hours, and confesses that he is not able to encounter my arguments. Abraham's mother wished to see me; she wept when I talked with her about confidence in God, and hope in his salvation. March 28.-Rabbi Mendel sent for me. I took with me the Journal, and read to him the contents of my conversation with him; he told me that I had remembered all he said most exactly. He has published some works of his master Rabbi Elia Wilna. I talked with him about the conversion of the heart. Rabbi Mendel answered, It is enough when our works are good; we are justified when we read the Talmud day and night; he cited as a proof, Psalm xc. 17, "And establish thou the works of our hands, &c." I showed him Ps. li. 10, "Create, &c." He was struck by the observation, that the sacrifices were types of the great sacrifice of the Messiah, Jesus our Lord. I spoke with him of the righteousness of the Messiah, and desired him to explain to me Isaiah liii. Rabbi Mendel. First of all, I must tell you they (general observation.) The prophet speaks in this chapter of the Messiah, of the people of Israel, and Solomon the king. Rabbi Mendel expounded the whole chapter in the most confused and contradictory manner. I will only mention, first, the S, (general observation.) The prophets unite the events which shall take place in their time, with the prediction of those events which shall come to pass in the time of the Messiah. In Isaiah vii, the prophet speaks about the birth of Hezekiah; for is not virgin but young lady; poor Israel, who afflicted in such a degree, that they tear their clothes as for one who died, shall perceive in the reign of Hezekiah, that God is with them; for the Jews shall say in his time, "We may now sit at home, and study the written |