PREFACE.

THE following Selections will, it is humbly hoped, go far to supply the Biblical student with the means, at present scarcely within his reach, of acquiring an accurate knowledge of Rabbinical Hebrew. They are chiefly intended, however, to make the English reader acquainted, at a comparatively trifling expense of time and labour, with the sentiments of Maimonides re-. specting some of the most interesting and important questions in Theology, (such, for example, as regard the Deity, the Angels, Prophecy, Sin, Repentance, Free-will, Predestination, &c.), which are discussed by him in his justly celebrated work the Yad Hachazakah*; a work,

* pinn↑ The mighty Hand. This name, which denotes the grandeur and importance of the work, and also alludes to the fourteen Books, or head divisions, of which it is composed, (the numerical amount of the word being 14.), is

the

recognized by the Jews, even at the present day, as an admirable exposition of their law and of the main principles of their creed.

As the translator is not aware that he has ever been anticipated in his object by any other English work of the same tendency, he hopes that this first attempt will meet with that indulgence, which is rarely denied to a work of a new character, and which he craves, in the present instance, with the greater earnestness, since he here ventures to address the English public in a language which is not his own. Should the acknowledged deficiencies of this work give rise to the wish, on the part of the English reader, of seeing the subject taken up and improved by one of the learned men of his own country, he may rest assured that the translator most cordially joins in this wish. Until however this wish shall be realised, the following pages, notwithstanding the imperfect state in which they make their appearance, may still be of use to those who wish to make themselves acquainted with the language of the

the name by which this work is commonly called, though the title originally given to it by the Author was The double law, or The two-fold law; the work comprising the whole of the yawn verbal or oral law, by

which the anɔ

mined.

written law, is defined and deter

Rabbins, and not without interest to those who wish to know how some of the most important questions in Theology were treated by one of the most celebrated amongst them, in the twelfth century.

The translator moreover trusts that English critics will be too generous to think of putting to to the test of severe criticism the English of a foreigner, who came to this country but a very few years ago, at a period of life not the most favorable for acquiring a new language, and destitute even of the slightest acquaintance with the English tongue. Any remarks which they may condescend to make, tending either to set him right respecting any particular passages in which he may not have hit upon the precise meaning of his Author, or to point out to him any additional means by which these Selections may be made to answer more completely the purpose for which they are intended, will be received with sincere thanks, acknowledged in the most unequivocal manner, and, if found just, duly noticed in any future edition.

The rule by which the translator was guided in the choice of his Selections, having been to insert those chapters only of the first Book of

the Yad Hachazakah, which relate to Theology

and Ethics, he at first thought of passing over the third and fourth Chapters of the Precepts relating to the foundations of the Law, which, treating chiefly of Physics, seemed to be foreign to the purpose for which this work was intended; though, as a matter of curiosity, perhaps not altogether destitute of interest. He changed his mind, however, with respect to the fourth Chapter, in consequence of the definition of the word soul, introduced therein; and, after having admitted this Chapter, he could not, with any propriety, omit the other, with which it is intimately connected.

The plan, adopted and pursued by the translator, through the whole of this work, has been the following:

1. To be as literal in the translation as the idioms of the two languages would admit; and where the idiom of the Hebrew could not be retained in the English text without the risk of rendering the passage unintelligible to the reader, to give the literal translation of the Hebrew words in a note, or parenthesis, or in the Glossary.

2. To furnish the reader with Extracts and Translations from the Talmud and the Medrashim, illustrative of the sentiments, traditions, and sayings of the ancient Rabbins, quoted by

Maimonides, which, though well known to the learned men among the Jews, might have been mistaken, by those who are unacquainted with the sources from which they are drawn, for visionary fancies proceeding from that Author himself.

3. To introduce explanatory notes, or parenthetical observations, whenever the conciseness or ambiguity of the original was thought to render them necessary.

4. To give, for the most part, the quotations from the Scriptures, in the words of the authorized English Version, but uniformly to call the attention of the reader to those passages of Scripture, which seem to have been understood and interpreted by Maimonides, or by other Rabbins, in a different manner.

These rules form the basis of the plan upon which

which this work has been executed. Other less important improvements which have been made upon the original text, such as the supplying of the references to the quotations from the Scriptures, and the completing of those passages of Scripture, which, in the text, are given in fragments only, may be of some service to the reader.

With regard to the Hebrew Text, as given in the following Selections, several copies of the