r incessant delving into the mysteries of
the Talmud. The free will of the people was suppressed. Instead of
giving the healthy imagination and pure reason full power to act, the
teachers of the _Cabala_ arrogated to themselves the power to decide
what to do and how to do it, and as a result the Jewish observances, as
they exist to-day in pious communities, are bound up in arbitrary rules
and superstitious absurdities which are as unlike the primitive and
rational religion of Israel as night is to day."

This bold utterance produced a profound sensation in Bensef's little
dining-room. Murmurs of disapproval and of indignation frequently
interrupted the speaker, and long before he had finished, several of his
listeners had sprung up and were pacing the room in great excitement.
Never before had any one dared so to trample upon the time-honored
beliefs of Israel. For infinitely less had the ban been hurled against
hundreds of offenders and the renegades placed beyond the pale of
Judaism.

The Rabbi alone preserved his composure. Mendel lost not a word of the
discussion. He sat motionless, with staring eyes and wide open mouth, as
though the stranger's eloquence had changed him into stone.

"No, this is too much!" at length stammered Hirsch Bensef. "Such a
condemnation of our holy religion is blasphemy. Rabbi, can you sit by
and remain silent?"

The Rabbi moved uneasily upon his chair, but said nothing.

Philip continued:

"That your Rabbi should be of one mind with you is natural, but that
does not in any way impair the force of what I have said. You will all
admit that you place more weight upon your ceremonials than upon your
faith. You deem it more important to preserve a certain position of the
feet, a proper intonation of the voice during prayers than to fully
understand the prayer itself, and in spite of your pretended belief in
the greatness and goodness of God, you belittle Him by the thought that
an omission of a single ceremony, the eating of meat and milk together,
the tearing of a _tzitzith_ (fringe) will offend Him, or that a certain
number of _mitzvoth_ (good acts) will propitiate Him. Do you understand
now what I mean when I say that superstition is not religion?"

"But," returned Goldheim, "the _Shulkan-aruch_ commands us to do certain
things in certain ways. Is it not our duty as God-fearing Jews to obey
the laws that have His sanction?"

"Undoubtedly! If you were certain that this book contained