-in Jerusalem another (two editions of the Talmud). We obey the
second Moses (Majmonides) and the new ones call him heretic. I
encourage the savants to write such wise books that the clever and
stupid can understand them." It was at the time when the Occidental
Israelites, settled in France and Spain, raised the question as to
whether the professors of the Talmud and Bible should be permitted to
acquire a knowledge of the lay sciences. Many opinions were
considered, but none was strong enough to prevail, because the
partisans of absolute separation from mental work and human
tendencies constituted a great majority among the Israelites. Every
society has such moments of darkness. It happens especially when a
nation is exhausted by a series of successful efforts, after having
undergone tortures, and enfeebled by the streams of blood poured out.
The Occidental Jews, after centuries of existence in abject fear,
wandering through fire and blood, passed such a moment in the
sixteenth century. The time was still far distant which gave birth to
famous doctors of secular sciences beloved of the people, esteemed by
Kings. The high ideas of Majmonides who, giving deserved credit to
the legislation of Israel, admired also the Greek scholars, were also
far from the--they were even forgotten. Majmonides, who wished to
base the knowledge of the Bible and Talmud on a foundation of
mathematical and astronomical truths, and make it durable; who openly
expressed the desire to shorten the twenty-five hundred sheets of the
Talmud into one chapter, clear as the day; who did not justify
religious beliefs which were contrary to commonsense, and claimed
that "the eyes are placed in the front, and not in the rear of man's
head, in order that he may look before him," and prophesied that the
whole world would one day be filled with knowledge, as the sea is
filled with water--such a man was despised. Four centuries had passed
since the dignified, sweet, highly sympathetic figure of the
Israelitic thinker had disappeared from the face of the earth. He was
one of the greatest thinkers of the middle ages. The giant with the
eagle eye and fiery heart had been succeeded by dwarfs, whose weak
breasts were saturated with bitterness, and whose eyes looked on the
world sadly, suspiciously, narrow-mindedly. "Keep away from Greek
knowledge," Joseph Ezobi cried to his son, "because it is like the
wine-garden of Sodom, pouring into man's head drunkenness and sin