The wisdom of their wise men is perished, and the understanding of their prudent men is hid. Oh Lord, hasten the time when the eyes of this blind people shall be opened, and their deaf ears unstopped, that they may listen to that blessed voice which once spake to this people in the following words. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, and to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Amen.

אמר רבי אליעזר עם הארץ מותר לנוחרו ביום הכפורים שחל להיות בשבת אמרו לו תלמידיו רבי אמור לשוחטו אמר להם זה טעון ברכה וזה אינו טעון ברכה ואמר רבי אליעזר עם הארץ אסור להתלוות עימו בדרך שנאמר כי היא חייך ואורך ימיך הוא על חייו לא חס על חיי חבירו לא כל שכן אמר רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר רבי יוחנן עם הארץ מותר לקורעו כדג ומגבו' תניא אמר רבי עקיבח כשהייתי עם הארץ אמרתי מי יתן לי תלמוד חכם ואנשכנו כחמור אמרו לו תלמידיו אמור ככלב אמר להם זה נושך ושובר את העצם וזה נושך ואינו שובר את העצם תניא רבי אליעזר בן יעקוב אומר אלמלא צריכים אנו להן למשא ולמתן היו הורגין אותנו' וכ' וגדולה השנאה ששונאין עם הארץ את תלמידי חכמים יותר משנאה ששונאין אומות העולם את ישראל ונשותיהן יותר מהם תנו רבנן ששה דברים נאמרו בעם הארץ אין מוסרין לו עדות ואין מקבלין עדות ממנו * ואין מגלין לו סוד' ואין ממנין אותו אפרט רפוס היתומים ואין ממנין אותו אפיטופוס על קופה של צדקה ואין מתכוין עימו בדרך וי"א אף אין מכריזין על אבדתו ותנא קמא זמנין דנפיק ברא מעליא מיניה ואכיל ליה ומקיים ביה מה שנאמר יבין רשע וצדיק ילבש

even on the day of atonement which happens to be עם הארץ

"Rabbi Eliezer saith, It is lawful to thrust through a

kept on the Sabbath. Then his disciples said to him, 'Rabbi, why dost thou not say to kill him?' (i. e. with a knife, as the Jews butcher animals.) Then he said to them, 'Because the former mode of killing requires no blessing, and the latter requires a blessing.' (The Jews before they kill any animal pronounce a blessing.) • Rabbi Eliezer continued, it is una • It lawful to travel in company with a 7, for it is written in Deut., For he is thy life, and the length of thy days, and he

does not pity his own life, (i. e. his spiritual (עם הארץ i. e. the)

life,) how much less would he pity that of his fellow? Rabbi Samuel, the son of Natchmainy, said, in the name of Rabbi Yankhanin, it is lawful to tear asunder a 7 like a fish, beginning from his back. Rabbi Akiba, (to whom I alluded

before, who is buried at Tiberias, and all the Jews pray at his grave,) said, when I was a 7 myself, I thought, if one would deliver (into my hands) a b (a Talmudical wise man) I would have bitten him like as an ass does. His disciples said to him, why do you not say (you would have bitten him) as a dog? Then he said to them, because the former breaks along the bone when he is biting, but the latter (i. e. the dog,) does not so. Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Jacob, said, if they had no need of us to trade with them, they would kill us, (propriety requires me to omit one sentence,) and the 7 hates then the wise men of the Talmud, more than the nations of the world (i. e. the Gentiles) do, and their wives yet more than they. (These latter clauses are ingeniously introduced by these great and cunning Rabbies to vindicate the malignancy of against

עם הארצים the

The Rabbies have taught six things re

specting him, (i. e. the 78 ) viz.

1st. He ought not to be chosen as a witness.

2d. His witness is not to be received.

3d. He is not to be intrusted with any secrets.

4th. He is not to be chosen as a guardian over orphans. 5th. He is not to be chosen as a guardian of public affairs. 6th. He is not to be joined with as a traveller.

And some say that if any thing of his has been found, the one who found it may keep it without making it first known. The former Rabbies disagree respecting the last, for he (i. e. the 7) may have a good son who would spend it for his own use, and thus the verse in Job will be fulfilled: He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on. Job 22: 12.

The commentary of with respect to the first permission, that of thrusting through a 78 on the day of atonement, renders the word, to thrust through, thus:

" לנוחרו "ר"ל לביישו וכישול דמו אפילו ביום הכפורים דאז יש לכל אדם שלום זה עם זה אפילו הכי מותר לבייש אותו ביום הכפורים וכן לקורעו כדג רמז דדמו מותר ליטול על ידי ביוש

i. e. to make a to blush even on the day of atonement, when all live in peace and harmony: and the reason why they called blushing, which means thrusting through, is, that when a man has blushed his blood disappears, and he becomes pale as if he had been killed, and we ought accordingly to understand the same of the next permission, to tear a 7 asunder like a fish.

-Such language as that of the abominable Talmud and its corrupt commentary, it need not be said, produces a vast evil, by infusing the most horrible doctrines into the minds of its votaries.

In the Gammarah Sabbath, page 63, the following injunc

אם תלמוד חכם נוקם ונוטר כנחש חגרהו על מתניך : tion is to be found If a wise man who אם עם הארץ הוא חסיד אל תדור בשכונותי

knows the Talmud, (lit., a wise man in the Talmud,) retains anger and revenge like a serpent, put him on thy loins, i. e., associate with him; but if a peasant, who does not know the Talmud, is pious, dwell not in his neighborhood, i. e., have nothing to do with him. In

Gammarah Yooma, page 76, and in Nedorim, page 32, it is asserted that, i. e., those who are wise in the Talmudical learning, are free from every duty to the governments under which they sojourn, and of course the peasants must pay for them. And, therefore, wherever the Talmudists have the power in their hands, which they generally have in all places, they actually press down the poor ignorant people, and grind their faces. In Poland and Russia, where the estimate of taxation is put into the hands of each respective community, and where the Jews have the same privilege, the ignorant people, are obliged to bear the whole burden; especially if a levy of men is ordered, the only child of the 7 is snatched away, and the many children of the ¬¬ remain untouched. Again, in the Holy Land, where one would suppose that oppression cannot exist, because all the Jews who go there from Poland and Russia are supported by their brethren in Europe, and each one has an equal share in the money which is sent for their support; yet, as the 'Rabbies

have the whole management of their affairs, the

ignorant people, that is, those who are ignorant of the cunning devices of the Talmud, groan under the sway of oppression. The portion of money due to them is withholden, or they get not the full amount, and thus are often reduced either to starvation, or to begging from the Spanish Jews. Many, in the bitterness of their feelings, have poured forth their hearts to me, and have asked my advice, how they should get the portion assigned to them, and how they should deliver themselves from the oppressions of the Rabbies. I was strongly tempted to go myself to the

latter, and remonstrate with them for their proceedings, but ill health disqualified me. The small room which 1 occupied at Jerusalem has many times been sprinkled with the tears of the oppressed, imploring me to take their part. Oppression is confined to the followers of the Talmud; among the German Jews, but more especially those of Prussia Proper, who are not deluded by the Talmud, no oppression exists, and this difference holds true everywhere. The evil influence which the Talmud exerts over the mind and heart, can only be known by those who have been under the tuition of its precepts, and have been rescued from its corruptions by the light and spirit of the gospel. Its degenerating iufluence is the sole cause of the degradation of my nation. It not only corrupts the heart, but it subverts the word of God, which would otherwise make them wise unto salvation. It is a poisonous plant, which destroys all who partake of it; so that I cannot but compare them to the valley of dry bones described by Ezekiel.

I shall mention one more point only, and then close my subject, though much remains to be told. I would briefly remark, that the Judaism of the present day is mostly the offspring of pure Talmudical abominations. That which is derived from the Bible, is either added to or diminished by the Talmud, which is directly at variance with the command in Deut. 4: 2, "Ye shall not add unto the word which I commanded you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it." I have alluded to the ordinance of circumcision: to this the Talmud by a direct injunction has added another called

, which is the tearing of the fore-skin with the forefingers, which causes the most excruciating pain to infants sometimes for weeks and months, and many die in consequence of it. The Talmudists have the audacity to assert that circumcision without is useless. This assumption is found in the Gammarah Sabbath, section 13. In the

Rabbi רבי אליעזר אומר מל ולא פרע כאילו לא מל following words

Eliezer said, circumcision without the practice of n is as if no circumcision took place. By taking this ceremony as a specimen' of the perversions which accompany all the observances which are drawn from the Bible, we shall find, as I have before remarked, that these are blended with or absorbed by the Talmudical.

The more I become acquainted with the actual condition

of Judaism, the more I am convinced that much can be done among the Jews by missionary efforts, and particularly by those who are of their own nation; not only by preaching the gospel, but arguing against that which they call the religion of the Bible, and also by example.

The reason of my undertaking this representation of the actual state of Judaism, which has been a difficult task for me to persevere in, in my evidently declining state of health, is that my dear parents may know their condition, and that the pity which ought to be felt for them should go into more active operation, notwithstanding past discouragements.*

* On a review of this whole article, and a comparison of Mr. Calman's statements with those of Mr. Herschell, we apprehend it may leave upon the mind of the reader some wrong impressions as to the state of the Jewish religion in many of the countries where Jews reside. It is plain that the object of Mr. Calman is to show the defects and perversions of Judaism which prevail to a greater or less extent in most countries, for the purpose of exciting Christian sympathy in behalf of the deluded disciples of the Talmud, rather than to give a full account of the system. And many of the things here stated may be rationally accounted for, if considered in connection with their producing causes. They are the results of a blind and fanatical devotion to the senseless interpretations of the Talmud. The Jews who visit and reside in Palestine, are almost universally of this superstitious or fanatical class. Such, too, we are assured, is generally the character of the Jews of Poland and Hungary, at the present day, while_the great majority of the Jews in Germany, Holland, France, England and America, pay less attention to the instructions of the Talmud, and conform, in their religious observances, to the teachings of the Old Testament Scriptures. These are characterized by few of the extravagances described by Mr. C.

It is worthy of remark, that, in the countries last named, the advances made among the Jews in the education of their Rabbies, and the instruction of their people in useful trades, since the commencement of the present century, have wrought a great improvement in the state of the Jews. In former times the Rabbies were educated only in the Talmud, and were almost universally unable to write or even to read in their mother tongue. This is still the case generally in Pal