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234 '

Afres of

Annates

Man

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

liuman life is symbolicallj' conipan-d to the twelve signs of the zixliae (Kiiirlish translation in "Jewish C'lironiele." Nov. 23. ISii-l. p. U). Theconipiilaliiin of tifleen years for inch aire, to be found in the aihlilion to Abot. v. 21 (Taylor. ">>ayinj;s of the Fatlicrs," Eni;. ed.. pi). !I7, DS, Cambridge, 1897). and attributed to Ben Bag Bag, or Samuel lia-^atan (ibid. p. 22). became very popular among Jews because of the educational hints thrown out in the sjiying. which was parai)lirased in verse by Solomon ben Isaiie Levi, in his conimeiitary called "Leb Abot" (The Heart of the Fathers), "published in Aliriihiini ilin Ezra's poem, entitled Salonica. 'M'i. CJIortal Man Should 131 im^103 mar noiS e'er be .Mindful of his Urigin," etc.), has often been pid)lished (see. for instance. Abravanel. "Nahlat Abot." p. 189/<. Venice. I.IOT; "Midrash Shemucl " of Samuel Uceilo. Frankfort-on-theMain ed., p. 56(( the poems of Ibn Ezra. ed. Ahiasjif, Warsaw, 1893; Taylor. "Savings of the Fathers." p. 22: comjiare Steinsclineiderin "Z. D. M. G.." IS^O, iv. 164. n. 77). p. 24)

p



A German

version of the

poem which

is

incorporated

in the Sepliardic liturgy is given in Ij('>w's book, pp. 38, 39; and another in Lettcri.s, " Andachtsbuch." Other poetic selecetc., pp. 14!), lot). Prague. 18(ii). tions by Spanish Jewish poets, amient and modern,

on the various stages of human

are reproduced

life,

f.r.. )ip. 37—41. division into seven ages apjiears to have been originally Greek, and is atlributed .to Solon (flourished about t):i!S-.").iS H.C.). who. according to Philo (" Oe Muudi Opitieio," ed. Mangey. i. 2.5, 20), speaks of ten ages of seven years each. The seven ages are first met with in Hip])oerates (died about 357 n.c). and are also given by Philo. whose divisions are infancy, childhood, boj'hood, jouth. manhood, middle age, and old age. Reference to the seven periods are (|uite fre(|Uent There are some dala which Li'iw in the Jlidrash. has omitted to mention. The .Midrash Tadsheh enumerates a number of things divisible into seven parts, such as festivals, stars, portions of the human anatomy, etc. Among others are the following:

in Liiw,

The

c"x. D^y. nan. nyj. ih'' nioip 'r. which are the equivalents of the designations in Hippoc}pr,

2C'.



rates (see Jelliuek. "]5. H." iii. 168. lAijisic. 185.j; siitirical subdiEgers, in " Hclir. Bibl." xvi. 17). vision into heptads may be found in Eccl. I{. to i. 2:

A

234

"Studies in Jtidaisra," 1896, pp. 295, is also an interesting elaboration of the legend of the Seven Ages of Man in an old Midrash on the "Formation of the Child " (Ye^.inil ha-Wela(i, from Midr. Zulta. eil. Buber. p. 84. where it is ascribed to Judali bar Simon, who. in turn, transmits it in the name of Joshua ben Levi. The fullest and most striking parallel to Shakespeare's "Seven Ages" (on which a special monograph was written by Or. John Evans, entitled "Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man. or the Progress of Human Life." London. 1834) is to be found The followjug is a transin the Jlidrash Taiihuma. lation: sic.

" Forn<nv. seyen Wi^rlds follow one another in rapid sueeession. Ilrsl. the ehilil may In* coniiian.^l to a king; alt gR-et It tliry finhnu-e and kiss It. it beto cat^ii a glimpse of ii ing but one year old. In the sei-ond stage, when altout two years old. It "may be eompao-d ti.i the unelean animal whleh wallows In the nilre. In the third jHTlod. It resembles a kid of the goats, which capers hither and thither in the pres*'nce of Irs mother an object of delight and joy to its pan-nts, niakliig glad the hearts of all whi) l(K)k upon it. [This period would Include the age at yhich it Iwgins Ut walk alone along the public way. ande.xtends to the yeare of maturity at the age of eiglil«-<'n.] And now. in the fourth stjige. lie may t)e likened to a siiirlted steed, ninniiig in the nice and contuiing In the siiviiglli of yoiitli. But there comes the iirih slai:*'. in which he becomes as the saddled ass. when, at the UL'e nf furty. he is bowed duwn by to travel backwanl and the weight of wife and children. lia furwardin order lo bring bonie sustenance for the iiienibersof his liousehold. And tiow mucli keener this contest iteconn^i In the sixth [leriod of life, when, like a whining hound, the brea.lwinner of the family in shamelessness nfces and tears atwait, snatching fnan one "in order to give to another. And. lastly, there arrives the seventh stage of man's existence. In wlilcii, ajx'-llke, his countenance changes, and childlike, he asketh for ewrythlng, eating and itrlnking and playing as a child and there he sils, eyen his children "and his household mocking at him, disregarding tiim and loathing him and when he utters a word, he hears siidi expressions a.s ' Let him alone, for he Is old anil childish.' This is the period in which liissli-ep Is so light, that In the

and long



—

mg





a bird's wing 'v.iiiUl n>iise him fnaii his slumlter; this peil(»de. tends t" t lie t line liiwhicli his hour of tlepart lire this world Is fixed, at which the self.same angel comes to him and lusks him, Host thou recuenizeme? ' to which he rephi's, * Inde*»d, I do: but wherefore d<'sl tliou come lo just this day V ' 'In order to take thee out of this world,' says the angel, 'for thy time has come to depart hence.' ImmHllalely he commences to weep : and his cry pierces the world from one end

the

iliiller- tif

and

fri-Uii

'

me

the other: aiMressiiig the angel, he exclaims, ' Ila-st thou not already c-ause

" Tlie Seven Vanities of whieli the Pr*'aelier speaks correspond to the seven eons of man. The r)ii)d of a year is iilce a at two or tliree lie Is like liiniB. put in a oneli ami ailoreii l).v all at ten he l«uinils like a kid at a swine tluhbllnp in filth lio!"se neiphintr and spirited, and desires a twenty lie is like a wife;'vhen he has inarrie<i a wife, lieliold he is like an ass; when ehiliiren are boni to him. he is shameless as a dnir in pmrnrinp the means of sustenance : when he has prown old he is like an aiie— that Is, If he is an am ha-<irr2 [i)moniinusl— liut a learned man like David Is a king, thougb old (I. Kings, 1. D." (







I

The Siinie tradition is quoted in the unpublished Midrash ha-Gadol to Gen. ii. 1 with some peculiar variations. Parallels from folk-lore, especially on the zoological metaphors, are given by Ijiw ("Lebensiilterr" m'. 23. 24. 371. notes 40." 41) and by Egers ("Ilebr. Bibl." xvi. 17). Kenderings of the above in G<'rman are to be found in Wi'iusche. "I)er Midrash Kohelet." p. 3 (Leipsic, IHSO). Liiw (I.e.. pp. 22. 23) and J. Dessauer. "Spruchlexikon des Tal-

mud und Jlidrasch."

pp. 12o, 126, No. !)4S (Budapest, 1876). give paraphrases of the tradition in verse (for English translations, see Taylor. "Sayings of the Fathers." p. Ill; Hurwitz. "Hebrew Tales." American ed.. 1847. pp. 75. 76; W. A.

Hyman

Clouston. "Flowers from a Persian Garden."

257-259 (London,

189(1).

with parallels; compare

pp. also

.



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The fir.st Jewish author who mentions the classification of Hippocrates is Solomon ha Levi of Salonica, whose views may be found in a sermon delivered by him on the Feast of Tabernacles in 1574. He identities the seven stages of Hippocrates with the seven names of the evil inclination (" "i'ezer liara' ") spoken of in the Talmud (see his "Dibre Slielomoh" (The Words of Solonton). pp. lOlf, 297./; Low. I.e.. pp. 31, 32. 36). The jdiysician Tobias Cohen (1652-1729) was also familiar with the division into heptads. "The life of man." he says, "according to the opinion of the ))hysicians, is divisible into seven chai)tcr.s, as follows: infancy, childhoml, pubertv, youth, prime, old aire, and very old age" (see ]A')J.e.. pp. 36. 372. notes 82, 83). His views diiler from those of Philo. Low. I.e.. gives a German translation of Cohen's own ideas on the subject despite his learning and culture, he seemed to be intliienced by the symbolism of luimbers (see his " Maaseh Tobiah." p. 73«). About other divisions

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