THE PENTATEUCH.

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very few who wear even the Talith at those prayers, excepting the Reader.

God is said to enter the synagogue as soon as the door is opened, and when ten are assembled together, and each of them thirteen years and a day old, at least (for otherwise certain prayers cannot be sung after a solemn manner), then he is said to be in the midst of them, and the Chazan, or Reader, goes up to the table, or altar, or stands before the ark, and begins to sing prayers aloud, in which the rest of the congregation join, but in a softer and less audible voice. The form and mode of prayer is not uniform among the Jewish congregations. The Germans sing in a louder tone than the rest. The Eastern and Spanish Jews sing much after the same manner as the Turks; and the Italians soft and slow. Their prayers are longer or shorter, according as the days are, or are not, festival. In this particular, too, the several branches differ greatly.

The rabbis have divided the five books of Moses into fiftytwo lessons, called Parushioth, or divisions; and one of them is read every week in their synagogues; so that in the compass of a year every Jew, be he where he may, is expected to read the whole book through. On Mondays and Thursdays, after having said their penitential prayers, they take the Sefer Tora, or book of the law, out of the ark, and while that verse of the 34th Psalm, "O praise the Lord with me," etc., and some others are repeating, they place it on the desk; where, being opened and unrolled, they desire three persons to read the beginning of the Parascia, which means section or chapter, in the same place with them. And the whole congregation repeat some words of it, which are preceded and followed with a blessing. After this, the Reader gives them his benediction, and they all promise either to bestow something on the poor, or to contribute towards the necessities of the synagogue. Then the Sefer Tora is held up wide open, and the Reader, showing the writing thereof, says to the congregation, according to Deuteronomy, chapter iv., verse 44, "This is the law which Moses set before," etc. After this declaration, the book is rolled up and covered,

and then shut up in the ark. Besides this, no day must pass without reading some portion of the law at home.

An epitome of the tenets, ordinances, and traditions of all the rabbis up to the time of Rabbi Juda, about 120 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, called the Mishna, was divided into six parts; the first treats of agriculture; the second of festivals; the third of marriages, and everything relating to women; the fourth of law-suits, and of the disputes which arise from loss or interest, and of all manner of civil affairs; the fifth, of sacrifices; and the sixth, of things clean and unclean. This being very concise, occasioned various disputes; a circumstance which prompted two rabbis of Babylon to the compilation of all the interpretations, controversies, and additions which had been written upon the Mishna, together with other supplementary matter. Thus they placed the Mishna as the text, and the rest as an exposition; the whole forming the book called the Talmud Babli, the Talmud of Babylon, or Ghemara, which signifies the book of completion.

CHAPTER XIII

THE JEWS.

Slavery under the Mosaic Law-Laws Respecting Marriage-Betrothals and Marriage Funeral Ceremonies-The Sanhedrin-Worship in the Synagogue.

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SLAVERY UNDER THE MOSAIC LAW.

HE law delivered by Moses to the Jews contained not only directions for the manner in which sacrifices were to be offered, and, indeed, the whole service, first of the tabernacle and then of the temple, but, likewise, a system of moral precepts. The distinctions of persons, according to the different ranks in life, were pointed out. Women were not permitted to wear the same habit as the men. Young persons were commanded to stand up in a reverent manner before the aged, and to treat them with every mark of respect. The same justice was to be done to strangers as to free-born subjects. No stranger was to be chosen king over them; for, as they were surrounded by heathen nations, a stranger, having the civil power in his hands, might have led them into idolatry. They were commanded not to abhor, nor to treat with contempt, the Edomites; because they were the descendants of Esau, the elder brother of Jacob; nor were they to treat the Egyptians with cruelty.

Slavery was permitted by the law of Moses, but slaves or bondmen were not to be treated with cruelty; and the reason assigned was, that the children of Israel had themselves been slaves in the land of Egypt. The Jewish slavery was twofold, and arose from a variety of circumstances. When men were reduced to poverty, it was in the power of their credit

ors to sell them: but they were not to be treated as strangers; they were to be treated in the same manner as hired servants; and when the year of jubilee took place, they, and their wives, with their children, were to be set at liberty, and they were to return to the possessions of their ancestors. Those persons who were purchased, or, in other words, taken into a state of servitude, were not to be sold by their masters, nor were they to be treated with any sort of severity. When a servant was discharged, his master was to give him as much corn, wine, oil, and other necessaries, as he and his wife and children could carry home to their houses.

In the patriarchal age, the power of masters over their servants was unlimited, for they had a right to put them to death whenever they pleased; but after the children of Israel had returned from Egypt, this power was confined within proper bounds. Such as engaged for a limited time were to have leave to go out at the expiration of it; and if a man was married when he entered into servitude, his wife and children were to be set at liberty; but if his master gave him a wife, both she and the children were to remain the property of the master. This circumstance, however, seldom took place, for the law had provided a remedy. It frequently happened, that when the term of servitude expired, the servant, having no prospect of procuring a subsistence, and, at the same time, unwilling to part with his wife and children, told his master that he would serve him during the remainder of his life. In such cases the master took him before the elders, or judges, and in their presence an awl was bored through his ear and fixed to a post in the gate of the city; signifying that he and his wife and children were to serve the master till death. It was the same with women servants, who were bound by the same obligations. With respect to strangers, they were, at all times, permitted to redeem themselves, and this was to be done in an equitable manner before the judges. All the arrears due to them were to be paid; and if the time of their servitude was not expired, then they were to make a proper deduction, so that the master should not receive the least injury.