signify that they will now have no more children. The son will inherit all, inasmuch as he was born to them in their old age. Therefore is he very dear to them.

Again, ingeniously but questionably :—

Lower than ten Abraham would not ask, (in interceding for Sodom): for inasmuch as there were not ten righteous, the world was not saved, but the whole generation of the deluge was lost. For there were only Noah, and his wife, and his three sons, and their three wives, making in all eight. And there were not ten; therefore was the whole world lost.

Again :

The Imre Noam proposes a difficulty. Why is it here written (Gen. xxii.11), that the angel called to Abraham out of heaven? And why did not the angel come down to Abraham; as in the case of Hagar an angel came and said, Take Ishmael? __And here it stands written, that the angel spake to Abraham from heaven. The answer is: On this occasion it was necessary for the angel to cry hastily; for Abraham was very quick to kill Isaac.

What is here stated of Abraham may be true: but it is expressly said that the angel called out of heaven to Hagar also (Gen. xxi. 17). The character of ingenuity belongs also to the following extract: and the lesson of truth which it conveys, is, at any rate, an important one.

Our wise men say, that we should not exaggerate what is commanded to us. For God did not forbid (to touch the tree): and Eve made an addition, and lied; (saying, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it.) Thence came she into sin. For then went the serpent, and struck the hand of Eve against the tree of knowledge, and said: As thou diest not from touching, so shalt thou not die from eating.

The scale now rapidly descends.

And as they contended together, Abel went and threw Cain upon the earth, and had Cain under. Then said Cain, Abel, we are the only two sons of our father Adam; and wherefore wilt thou kill me? Then Abel had compassion, and let him get up. Therefore it is here said, that "Cain rose up," and slew his brother. That is, he lay beneath him, and arose.

It is written (Gen. vii. 23) Ach Noach; (Nouh only remained alive.) This, being interpreted, means, Noah cried, Ach! For he once (in the ark) delayed to feed the wolf. Then came the wolf, and bit him; therefore did Noah cry, Ach!

Here we see the end of unsanctified ingenuity, occupying itself in the word of God. Yet no doubt many of our readers are aware, how passages, or doctrines of the New Testament, are sometimes illustrated by expressions of the Rabbinical commentators. For instance, the argument of St. Paul, that the Lord, having ascended, must first have descended (Eph. iv.9).

And, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (Gen. xxviii. 12). The angels dwell in heaven. Therefore we should expect it rather to stand, The angels first descended: and afterwards, They ascended again. The point, noticed by the commentator, is precisely that on which St. Paul insists.

The following passage will perhaps remind our readers, of our Lord's proof of the resurrection, from the expression," the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

Why is it said, The God of Isaac? (Isaac being yet alive, Gen. xxviii. 13.) We do not commonly use the expression of a living person. There are often righteous men, who at first are pious; but it frequently happens, that, when a man becomes old, he denies God. Therefore shall a man not commend himself, till he is dead.

Hence it is evident, that the commentator had an idea of a separate state, in which, at any rate, the expression might allow ably have been used, in speaking of the patriarch, if not before. The idea of shedding blood, as an atonement for sin, is very evident in the following passage, referring to the offering of Isaac. Abraham is represented as speaking.

When Israel shall transgress, this shall be an atonement for my children, as if I had made blood to flow from him.

Indeed, similar illustrations of the New Testament are numerous. We quote two given by Lightfoot, from memory."Why was Moses commanded to take the serpent by the tail? Because none but the Messiah can bruise his head. " And again, as to our Lord's saying, that not one jot shall perish from the Law. The jot is, in the Greek, iota, answering to the Hebrew yod, and to our i orj; in both Greek and Hebrew the smallest letter of the alphabet. Now the Rabbies give an instance in which a yod, or jot, belonging to the Law, is preserved from perishing, in a very remarkable manner. The name of Sarai,, is changed to Sarah; and the yod at the end of her name seems lost. But afterwards the name of Hoshea is changed; and the yod re-appears, at the beginning of his new name, yw, Joshua!

But we pass on to the next work upon our list.

The Sepher Lev Tov treats of various subjects: the synagogue; prayer; conversion or repentance; almsgiving; the Sabbath; humility; education of children, &c.; and may be regarded as a summary of religious and moral duties. According to Bartolocci, it was first published in folio, at Amsterdam, in 1670. Our copy is in quarto. It begins by stating, that the angels, being pure spirit, are incapable of doing evil, and therefore receive no reward: the beasts, being merely flesh and blood, are incapable of doing good, and therefore receive no punishment: and consequently man was made, an angel in a beast, spirit in flesh and blood, capable of doing evil and of doing good; in order that hell and paradise might not exist in vain. All we can say of this is, that it is very ingenious.

The so called work of Joseph Ben Gurion, Josephus, Josippus, or Josiphon, is a history of the world, but more especially of the Jews, from the creation to the middle of the last century. Only the first part, which extends to the destruction of the temple by the Romans, ought properly to bear the name of Josiphon. The Jews, we believe, regard it as authentic; and

not as an imitation of the well-known history of Flavius Josephus. Concerning Mahomet and his followers, the author of the second part writes thus:-" At the same time, King Mahomet their prophet changed their name; that they should no more be called Hagarenes, after Hagar: for he called them Saracens, after the name of Sarah, who was a lady; that they might no longer be called after Hagar, who was a bondmaid." Sec. viii. In Part the First, we have a bold attempt of Scipio to deliver Rome, after it had been besieged by Hannibal eighteen years. Having proceeded with a Roman army to Africa, "he beat Asdrubal, who was a brother of king Hannibal, and cut off his head, and took it with him to Rome. And he carried it upon the wall, and cried to Hannibal, and said; Why seekest thou to conquer our country, and goest not to defend thine own country from my hand? For I have laid it waste, and there hast thou the head of thy brother for a proof. And he cast the head to him from the wall." Sec. xxiii. Nothing is wanting to complete this description, but the elegant cut which accompanies our copy, and represents the head either of Asdrubal or of Scipio frowning over the wall, grim as a Gorgon's, and larger than the capitol.

The Almanack is such as the Jews commonly use. The year 5589 answers, according to this reckoning, to A. D. 1829; except that the Jewish year commenced September 9th, 1828. It contains many things usually found in almanacks, such as the changes of the moon, times of sunrise and sunset, &c.; together with the days of the months, Jewish and Christian; and the festivals, both of the church and synagogue: for instance, December 28, AND TP, (kinder tag, children's day,) the feast of the Holy Innocents: September 17, aw, the Eve of the day of Atonement. Being published in Holland, it contains much local information, for persons residing in that country; for

,אורדר דער דילישאנסין אונד פאשטוואגן example, respecting the -The ingenious reader will in אורדר פון דיא טרעק שיפן and the

terpret.

We have said, in the second place, that this language is, comparatively speaking, easy of attainment. Though it has many Hebrew words, they are generally such, as a slight knowledge of the Hebrew language will help the learner to detect: and most of them are to be found, provided they do not occur in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the short but useful Lexicon Rabbinico-Philosophicum of Buxtorf, at the end of his Lexicon Hebraicum et Chaldaicum. As to the Polish words, their number, in many Judeo-Polish books, is so small, as to be scarcely worth mentioning. The Jews are said to have moved into

Poland from the banks of the Rhine, in great numbers, at the time of the Crusades; in consequence of the horrible cruelties which they experienced from the crusaders. There seems every reason to think, that they took their present language with them and it is now called Judeo-Polish, more, probably, on account of its being spoken in Poland, than from the number of its Polish words. It is sometimes printed in the German letter, but has a character of its own, which we give beneath, with the corresponding Hebrew letters. It will be seen that the character nearly resembles the Rabbinic *. The common handwriting of the Jews has some contractions, which make it difficult. We may perhaps present our readers, at some future period, with a fac-simile; as, if they have any Jewish books, the knowledge of this hand may be of service to them, in euabling them to read the manuscript notes, which are often very

numerous.

It will be requisite, then, for the learner to know some Hebrew; and if he be able to use his Buxtorf's Lexicon with expedition, he will find the advantage. He will also require Buxtorf's useful little work, De Abbreviaturis Hebraicis, containing the explanation of the contractions, which occur so frequently in Jewish writings. For instance, for 19 (the day of atonement): " for (the giving of the Law). With respect to the student's knowledge of German, this ought to be pretty fluent and extensive; as there is no dictionary, at least that we are acquainted with, of the JudeoPolish. It is not requisite, indeed, that he should be able tọ read the modern, and more affected writers, of that language. Nevertheless, he ought to have a good knowledge of the plain, staple German, as it is written by Luther; in order that he may know the words again, when he meets with them in a new character, and perhaps a little altered in their spelling and terminations. When the student has proceeded thus far, it will not, perhaps, be well for him to advance, at once, to the reading of Judeo-Polish works, published by the Jews themselves; as the type is sometimes very bad, the printing incorrect, and the spelling variable. He will here find the advantage of some of the works, published in this language, by the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews. Their New Testament, printed by Mackintosh, was executed by a Jew, and is a very excellent work, both as to type, accuracy of rendering, and

אבגדהוזחטיכול מס נוסע פף צץ קישת : 6 בגד הוזחטיכן נ א מ נ ס ע פון קיט ת: וטע

6

style. To the last point, the Jews themselves bear witness. It has, also, very few Polish words. This, with the advantage of having a translation, makes it a very easy and suitable book for the beginner. He should read two of the Gospels in it, at least, before he attempts to go any further. And it may be well, if he also reads a few chapters of the Judeo-Polish Pentateuch, lately published by the same Society. This, also, ap pears to be a remarkably well-executed work; though the Jews of Poland have suspected that there was witchcraft in it at least, because of something like the appearance of a cross, or crucifix, in the upright line of the daleth (). This notion of theirs, however, did not perhaps originate with the people, so much as with their Rabbies, who were desirous te prevent their accepting and reading the book. We hope and expect that the remaining portions of their own Scriptures, in the Judeo-Polish, being now in course of publication or translation, will in due time be given to them by the London Society (which has already printed for them both the Old Testament and the New, in the Hebrew); and we pray that they may prove a blessing, to them and to their children after them.

The

The learner may now proceed, to books printed by the Jews themselves. He may begin with the Tsínnah Rénnah, which we have already described, and which is about as easy a book, as any we have met with in the language. He may then proceed to our friend Josephus. He will probably not have read many pages in either of these works, before he finds that he has a greater insight into many things connected with the Jews, than he ever had before. If Josephus be found hard, it may be well that the student should know of a Latin translation of the first part, by Gagnier, Oxford, 1706. It is entitled Josippon, sive Josephi Ben-Gorionis Historia Judaica Libri sex. translation, however, is from the Hebrew, and therefore does not always run very closely with the Judeo-Polish. Still it may be of use, in occasionally explaining hard words, which there are no means of interpreting in any other way. At the same time, the student should look well at a word, before he gives it up: for it will sometimes happen, that terms which at first appear quite strange to him, turn out, upon a little examination, to be merely old acquaintances in a new dress; being, if not Hebrew, either modern words, or proper names, a little metamorphosed. For example: 3, sand; KIK, so wohl; 3, zins ;

the סינא ;Ludovicus or Louis לודוויק ; Caesar קיסר ;monath

river Seine; y, England; ON, Italy; &c. Proper names, and Hebrew words, as well as the titles of books, are frequently printed in Hebrew characters.