Daniel 7:3-17. Rohling identifies ancient Rome of the old prayer by which is meant the Roman empire that definitively put an end to the Jewish state, with Christi ans. As his authority for "seed of cattle" Rohling quotes Yebamoth 94b Tos., without giving the words of the passage. He simply copied Eisenmenger, without even bothering to consult the Talmud to ascertain whether there was anything like it to be found. Franz Delitzsch did not find the passage, and Nöldeke and Wünsche do not find anything, even in the little mutilated edition of Amsterdam, "that bears any resemblance to the quotation of Rohlings". II. Graves of Non-Jews. The Talmud teaches again that the graves of the Goyim do not contaminate Israel because the Jews alone are human beings, while the other nations have the nature of beasts. Rohling, The Talmudic Jew, p. 58. He refers to Baba Metsia 114b. Again, in My Answer to the Rabbis, p. 23, "That the Akum are not human beings, but animals. Yore Deah 372, 2; cf. Yebam. 61." Yebamoth 61a reads (N. and W. 159b): It has been taught: And thus Rabbi Simon ben Jochai spoke: The graves of the Nochrim do not contaminate in the tent, as it says, ye are sheep, sheep of my pasture, ye are men, i. e. you are called men, but the Nochrim are not called men (Ez. 34:31). Nöldeke and Wünsche comment on this: But this is immediately followed by the discussions of several passages in which the non-Israelites are expressly called "men". Compare number 166, in which, in the main, the same passages are quoted. On no account may we infer from these or similar utterances a common Jewish view or doctrine that the Goyim were not human beings. In elucidation of this passage, we add the following: According to the Biblical law, the corpse as well as the grave of a man is unclean; an Aaronide (priest) is not permitted to touch a corpse or to step on a grave. 1 This law was observable (1) It was a generally accepted, undisputed maxim that the body and grave of a signally pious and virtuous man are not unclean. before the great war of revolution. In the several years' war against the Romans, in which, according to the reports of Josephus, many hundreds of thousands were killed on either side, the small country of Palestine came to be looked upon as a single grave. There were not four square yards of ground in the home of the Jewish priesthood that could be certified as free of corpses. The law became a calamity for the Aaronides. Simon ben Jochai, after leaving his cave, successfully insisted on a qualification of these commandments of cleanliness. The town of Tiberias, with its hot medicinal springs, built, as is well-known, in honour of the emperor Tiberius stood partly on graves. Some parts of the town were quite inaccessible to the priests; in pious circles, the town was called the town of graves, so that it was only possible to coax people to settle there by offers of gifts and privileges. (Josephus, Antiquities 18, 2; 3.) Rabbi Simon examined the different quarters of the town, and marked the spots where there were corpses; he had these removed later on, and declared the town "clean". When, nevertheless, voices were raised against this declaration, he referred to an old tradition which countenanced this declaration of cleanness. (Jerushalmi Shebuoth 9, 1.) Continuing his efforts, Simon ben Jochai tried to declare the innumerable graves of the Roman warriors in Palestine as "clean" in order to restore to the Aaronides, in part at least, the old freedom of moving from place to place. In the law regarding pollution through the dead are found the words adam ki yamuth, when a man dieth (Num. 19, 14). This evidently does not mean "anyone whosoever", but one belonging to those to whom this law applies. The code of law of every country means by "anyone" a national. "One" or "somebody" is expressed by the word "Adam"; Adam, the object of the law, is the Jew; but man as the creature of God, distinguished by the godlike image, is every man without any discrimination. But here the word of the law applies to the Jews exclusively, and therefore Rabbi Simon declares that the law about the pollution through graves applies to those Israelites only to whom the law is addressed. Nay, more: the graves of the Israelites of the time before the passing of this law are not included in this commandment: even the graves of the patriarchs are to be looked upon as graves of the sons of Noah. "Graves" before the word (before the passing of this law) or the graves of the patriarchs do not pollute in the tent. Nazir 54 a. Rashi on the passage: The fathers before the proclamation of the Torah were like the sons of Noah. No uncleanness attaches to the pious and their disciples. Yalkut on When Judah Hanasi died, R. Jannay exclaimed: Priestly cleanness does not obtain to-day. Jer. Berachoth 3, 1. On the day of Judah Hanasi's death, sanctity did not obtain. R. Chayim Cohen said, Had he been present at the death of R. Tam, he would not have observed the laws of cleanness. Tosafoth on Kethuboth 103 b. It is evident from this that the "cleanness" of non-Jewish bodies cannot possibly have any inhuman connotation. The grave of a baptised Jew, on the other hand, is looked upon as the grave of an Israelite (Yore Deah 372, 2 Hagaah), for the dead belonged to the company of those to whom the law was addressed. Logical and simple as this argument is, the Talmudist according to his method, required a special proof in a passage of the Bible. For the concept "man", the Hebrew language has three terms: Ish, Enosh, Adam, the last word having a twofold meaning, equivalent to both: the generic term "man", and the first typical man created by God. It is a peculiarity of the Book of Ezekiel that in it God apostrophizes the prophet throughout as "son of Adam”. (2:1; 3:1; 3: 10, 17; 4: 1, &c.) The word “son of man" has here already that mystical connotation in which it is used in the New Testament, and there is no doubt that also the saying of the prophet Ezekiel (34, 30; 31) is to be understood in this sense when he addresses his regenerate co-nationals: Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And ye, my flock, the flock of my pasture (Adam), are men, and I am your God saith the Lord God. Ezekiel designates himself, the receiver of the divine revelation, as the "son of Adam", and the faithful god-fearing community as "Adam". Thus we find in Midrash Rabba on Lev. section 2, number 8: "The designation "Adam" expresses the love, the friendship, and the goodwill of God for the man thus designated. Thus, God addressed the prophet Ezekiel 'Ben Adam', i. e. ‘son of pious, righteous, and charitable men'." Simon ben Jochai lived in the middle of the second Christian century; the term "son of Adam" had, within the Christian community, just acquired a peculiar connotation. Like Ezekiel, the founder of Christianity applied this term to himself. To this word a deep mystical signifiance was being attached. Compare Acts 7: 55; John 3: 13; 16; 6: 27; 6: 53; 6: 62; 11: 4; 17: 1. The "son of Adam" is not identical with the common "man"; he is rather a man chosen by God, and the Christian dogma gave a higher, nay, the highest signification to this term: the Christian community distinguished between the "old Adam" (Rom. 6,6; Eph. 4:22; Kor. 3:9) and the "new Adam", Christ (Rom. 5: 19ff.; I Cor. 15:47). To the Jewish way of thinking, the discrimination between the "old" and the "new" Adam was foreign. The Talmud regards the man created by God not only as the progenitor of mankind, but also as the archetype of humanity, in whose life the panorama of history and of the events of the nations of all future ages is revealed. In Adam he planted the germ for the evolution of future generations (Baba Metsia 85b; Aboda Zara 5a and Midrash Rabba on Gen. section 24); the germ of the civilization of countries and cities (Berachoth 31a; Sota 46b), the germ of the invention of arts and trades (Midrash Rabba on Gen. 24); he was created as the light of the world (Jerushalmi Sabbath 2,4; Midrash Rabba on Gen. section 12), as the priest and teacher and firstborn. The words of the Psalmist "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written" (Ps. 139: 16) — this refers, it says in Midrash Rabba on Gen. section 24, to Adam when he was still undeveloped, when God made him see each generation with its teachers, sages, leaders, and chiefs. The life of Adam is called the Book of Psalms (Yalkut on Ps. 630). He was considered the prototype of the destiny of Israel: his breach of the covenant (Hos. 6: 7), his banishment from Eden, the fatherly call made in spite of his offence, "Where art thou?" and the paternal care for his future destiny, were equally applicable to Israel. (Compare Midrash Rabba on Gen. section 19.) These views, possibly due to the spiritual movement among the Christian community within Judaism, are reflected in the theory that the word "Adam", in contradistinction to "Ish" and "Enosh", does not mean "man" generally, in its usual connotation, but a man who is distinguished by some particular relation to God, as was Adam who was created by God, and that, therefore, the law about pollution through dead bodies, beginning with the words "adam ki yamuth", refers exclusively to Jewish graves. The Tosaphists found that Rabbi Simon's view was not in harmony with innumerable passages of the Bible, and they interpreted his opinion to mean a grammatical distinction: Wherever in Scripture that word occurs with the article (“ha adam”) it designates every man, "man" generally; but where the word appears without the article preceding it ("adam") it is the designation for a typical man. Tosafoth Yebamoth 61 a; N. and W. 160. Moreover, that the distinction between "adam" and "ha adam" was familiar to the Talmudists is evident from Yebamoth 63a, where it says that the Jew, as long as he is unmarried or possesses no land, is no "adam"; this, surely, does not mean that an unmarried Jew who possesses no land is cattle and not a Jew or a man. Rabbi Eliezer said: Every man who has not a wife is not a man, for it says (Gen. 5: 2): Male and female created he them, and called their name (together) Adam. Rabbi Eliezer said further: Every man who has no land is not a man, for it says (Ps. 115:16): The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath he given to the children of men. Yebamoth 63a; N. and W. 163. In both passages one reads Adam without the article! Finally we mention that the opinion of Rabbi Simon ben Jochai was rejected by his associates in the college. But Rabbi Isaac said that one does not proceed according to the opinion of Rabbi Simon the son of Jochai (to declare the graves of the non |