Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/310

264 Agriculture

tllE

JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

tural life so extensively treated of in the Mishnah, the wliolc first section, Zera'im (with the exception of the lirst tri'alise), being devoted to it. Love for Agriculture was a.ssiduonsly inculcated by the Jewish sjiges. "Hate not toilsome occupation and husbandry appointed by the Most High" (Eeclus. [Sirach], vii. 1.5, Oirik). In Yitn Adie et Evic, 22, it is the archangel Michael who instructs Adam in jiaradise how to sow and to plant. In the Hook of Jubilees, xi. Abraham is represented as the inventor of an improved method of plowing the liehl so as to jirotect the seeds against birds. In Ex. H. xxxix. we are told that the faithful observanei' of the agricultural seasons by the inliabitantsof I'alcstine induced Abraham to nnike his stay there. In the Testaments of the Patriarchs it is Issachar, the model of Es.sene piety (com]iare (!en. H. xcviii. xcix. Targ. Gen. ilix. i.")).who says (Testament of Issjichar, iii. ,j): " I became a husbandman for my parents an<l brelhreu, and brought in the friuts of the lield according to the season, and my father blessed me, for he sjiw Keep therefore that I walked in simplicity.

tlieir produce with tbeni even Salibalh. hiive an extellent description of the fertility of the soil liy a iionJewish observer, in the Letter of Arisleas (^S 107-114). written in the second century ii.c, and in Ilecatieus, fragments of which are pre-

the Jews exchanged

on the

264

siicri'd

We

served by Diodorus, xl. 3, 7. Josephus ("Contm Apionein," i. 22) says: "Unlike other cities which, havin-j: a large population, neglect agriculture, the inliabitantsof the higldand of Samaria and the neigliborliood of Iduniaa devote great labor to the cultivation of the soil. The land has large plantations of olive-trees, of wheat, barley, and other cereals, and an abundance of wine, dates, and other fruit. It is well adapted both for agriculture and commerce." In the sanu' work (i. 12) he says: "We neither inhabit a maritime country mu' do we delight in merchandise: having a fruitful country for our habitation, we take jiams in cultivating that only." In liis "15. J." ii. 3, ^S 2—i, he describes Galilee as "exceedingly fertile, full of iilautalions of trees of all sorts, no part of it lying idle; its many villages



.

^i^^^^'^ ^S/ffn^.

.

.

'

MAXJI" -^

Plowing (From

Wilkiii-siin,

a.nd Hoeing. "

An,-I.^nt

Egyptians.")

Law of God, my children, and get simplicity. Bow down your back unto husbandry and labor in

full of

people owing to the richness of the soil." So Perea, "in spite of its rougher soil, is richly planted

the

fruit-trees, chiefly the olive, the vine, and the palm-tree." "Still more fruitful are the hills and valleys of Samaria and Jndca. Besides their abundance of trees, the)' are full of autumnal fruit, both such as grow wild and such as recniire cultivation." Especially of the Hasidim or Essenes we are told by Philo("6n the Virtuous Being Free," xii,, and in the fragment preserved by Eusebius, "Pra'i>. Ev." viii. 10) that tbey devoted all their energy and skill to the cultivation of the soil as a truly ]ieaceable ]nirsnit of life. Indeed, it required no small share of self-sacrifice and piety to live as a farmer and observe the Mosaic laws concerning the tithes and other gifts claimed by priest and Levite. the altar and the poor, the Sabbatical yearof release and similar precepts, while at the sjime time many a year's produce was spoiled by locusts and drought or other irresistible cause. What such a calamity meant for the nation may be learned from the Book of Joel and from Megillat Ta'anit. But, unlike the Israelites during the First Temple, the Jews of the second commonwealth conscientiously observed the seventh year of release (see Josephus." Ant." xii. 9, ^5; xiv. 10, § 5). Still the rural po]Hilation {'am hi iirez) was not as strict in these matters as the doctors of the law wished them to be, and they were consequently treated with suspicion. All the more rigorous were the Hasidim or Pharisees in their exclusivism. It is cbielly owing to this feature that we find agricul-

tillage of the ground in all manners of husbandry, offering gifts unto the Lord with thanksgiving, for with the tirst-fruit of the earth did the Lord bless me, even as He blessed all the saints from Abel even

with

until

now." Accordingly, many prom-

In the East,

inent rabbis in Judea and in Babylonia were industrious cultivators of the soil, notwithstanding Ecelus. xxxviii. 25: "Ilowcan he get wisdom that holdclh a plow?" (compare Ber. 35//): manv instances in the Talmud (Peali. ii. 6;

Shab. 150i; Hul.10.5i/) illustrate this fact. Habba's pupils were exempted from attending his lectures in the

months of Nisan and

Tishri, as these

sowing and

harvest seasons required their presence in the

field

(Ber. 35A).

The .Jews were probably the chief producers of wine and oil also in Syria and all the lands colonized by them, or otherwise the rabbinical prohibition of the wine and oil jirepared by the heathen (Shah. Vi) could hardly have been adhered to. In Africa also the .Tewish colonists produced wine, oil, and Egyptian wheat, and the strange identification of the cod Serapis with Joseph made bv both .Jews ('Ab. Zarah. AZii; Tos., 'Ab. Zarah.v. [vi.] 1) and Christians (see "Vita Saturnini," quoted by ^Momm.sen, " Homische Gesehichte," v. .5H5, and King, "Gnostics," p. 161) probably owes its origin to the fact that the wheat exported from Alexandria was shipjiid to the Serapeum in. Ostia under the .symbolic tutelage