The Legends of the Jews, vol 1
The Legends of the Jews, vol 1
Book Excerpt
o what
happened under their eyes, they drew from the fountain-head of
the past. The events in the ancient history of Israel, which was
not only studied, but lived over again daily, stimulated the
desire to criticize it. The religious reflections upon nature
laid down in the myths of the people, the fairy tales, which have
the sole object of pleasing, and the legends, which are the
people's verdict upon history--all these were welded into one
product. The fancy of the Jewish people was engaged by the past
reflected in the Bible, and all its creations wear a Biblical hue
for this reason. This explains the peculiar form of the Haggadah.
But what is spontaneously brought forth by the people is often preserved only in the form impressed upon it by the feeling and the thought of the poet, or by the speculations of the learned. Also Jewish legends have rarely been transmitted in their original shape. They have been perpetuated in the form of Midrash, that is, Scriptural exegesis. The teachers of the Haggadah, cal
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