."

"The strangers are pushing into the Gates of Zion!" lamented
Abba-Mari, when he learned that the Hebrew youths had begun to study
with masters of other religions. And all the Rabbis and the
Presidents of the Jewish communities in the West, ordered that no man
under thirty years of age should study the lay sciences. "Because,"
said they, "he who has filled his mind with the Bible, and Talmud has
the right to warm himself at the stranger's flame."

The bolder ones, while submitting to the decision of their superiors,
cried, "Rabbi, how can we study lay sciences after our thirtieth
year, when our minds will have become dulled and our memory tired,
and we shall possess enthusiasm no longer and strength of youth."

The orders were obeyed. Their minds grew dull, tired memory fainted,
and the strength and enthusiasm of youth left them. Majmonides,
grave, silent, motionless, stood in the midst of the sea of darkness
which covered the people who had been conducted by him toward the
light. They cursed his memory, and a devastating hand rubbed off his
tomb its grateful and glorious inscription, replacing it with stiff
and cruel words, as fanatical as ignorant:

"Here lies Moses Majmonides, excommunicated heretic."

At the same time the same quarrels raged among the Hebrews settled in
Poland, but being less tired by persecution, and because they were
less tormented than their brothers in the West, and were freer and
more sure of their privileges than their brothers in the West, their
aversion to the 'stranger's flames' was less passionate. Nay, there
was among them quite a numerous party which cried for secular
sciences--for brotherhood with the rest of humanity in intellectual
efforts and tendencies. One of these men who stood at the head of
this party was the Lithuanian Senior, Ezofowich. Under his influence
the Jewish Synod convocated in those times, issued a proclamation to
all the Polish Jews. The principal paragraph of this was:

"Jehovah has numerous Sefirots, Adam has had numerous emanations of
perfection. Therefore an Israelite must not be satisfied with one
religious science only. Although it is a holy science the others must
not on this account be neglected. The best fruit is a paradise apple,
but shall we not eat less good apples? There were Jews in the courts
of kings; Mordoheus was a savant, Esther was clever, Nehemias was a
Persian counsellor, and they liberated the people from captivity.
Study; be useful