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167 Nor may the Essenes be classed among the order of ascetics. While some of their institutions, notably celibacy, appear to lend support to the theory that would class them as such, their fundamental doctrines show no connection with the pessimism that is the essential factor in AscetEssenes not

icism. tists;

They were

political indifferen-

they were but

little, if

at

all,

under the sway of national aspirations.

Ascetics,

They stood for a universal fellowship of the pure and just. They set but little store by the goods of this earth, and were members of a communistic fraternity. But it is inadmissible to construe from these elements of their hopes and habits the inference that in them is to be found a genuine Jewish order of monks and ascetics. stronger case against the theory that Judaism is a very uncongenial soil for the growth of Asceticism might be made out by an appeal to the later Jewish mystics, the Hasidim and Cabalists of various forms, all ecstatic fantastics, and this is a point that must not be overlooked more or less strongly under the influence of distinctly non- Jewish conceits. Looking upon this life as essentially good, according to Gen. i. 31 upon the human body as a servant of the spirit, and therefore not corrupt upon the joys of earth as God-given and therefore to be cherished with gratitude toward the divine giver having a prayer for every indulgence in food and drink; a benediction for every new experience of whatever nature, gladsome or sad the Jew partook with genuine zest of the good cheer of life, without, however, lapsing into frivolity, gluttony, or intemper-

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taught him to remember his dignity as one made in the image of God, and to hold his body in esteem as the temple of God's spirit within, a dwelling of the Most Holy, "a host," as Hillel put it, "for the guest, the soul," kept the ance.

Asceticism Ascetics

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

167

His

religion, that

Jew

equidistant from the pole of self-torturing pessimism, from the mortification of the flesh under the obsession of its sinfulness and foulness, and from the other pole of levity and sensuousness. Never intemperate in drink or food, he sought and found true joy in the consecration of his life and all of its powers and opportunities to the service of his God, a God who had caused the fruit of the vine to grow and the earth to give forth the bread, a God who created the light and sent the darkness, a God who, as a Talmudical legend one of the many with Elijah for their subject has it, reserves paradise "for them that cause their fellows to laugh " (Ta'an. 22a). The most beautiful saying of the rabbis about Asceticism is: "Man will have to give account in the

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future for every lawful enjoyment offered to him which he has ungratefully refused " (Rab in Yer. Kid., at the close); compare Tanh., end, "The wicked in his life is considered as one dead," etc.

Bibliography



Lazarus, Ethics of Judaism, §§ 246-256.

E. G. H.

k.

ASCETICS While the dominant note of Judaism is optimism, faith in a God who delights in the happiness of His creatures and expects their grateful appreciation of His bounties see Abstinence there have, nevertheless, been prevalent in Jewish

—

Jife certain ascetic tendencies

—

of which the historian

must

account. The two great rabbinical the first pre-Christian century, the Shammaites and the Hillelites, debated the question whether life was worth living or Shamnot "tob le-adam shenibra mishelo maites and nibra " ('Er. 134), and there was an unHillelites. mistakable element of austerity in the teaching of many a Shammaite that favored asceticism (compare II Esdras iv. 12). While one teacher would say, " The Shekinah rests on man only amid cheerfulness that comes from duty well performed " (Pes. ii. 7a), another held the view that " there should be no unrestrained laughter in this

take schools of

—

world

" (Ber. 31a).

it was particularly with the view of fitting the soul for communion with God, or for the purpose of keeping the body sufficiently pure to allow it to come into contact with sacred objects, that many strove to avoid things that either cause intoxication or Levitical impurity, the drinking of wine (Lev. x. 9; Num. vi. 3; Amos ii. 12; Judges xiii. 14), or sexual intercourse, which was forbidden to the people of Israel, in preparation for the Sinai Revelation (Ex. xix. 15), and to Moses during the life of communion with God (Deut. ix. 9, 18; I Sam. According to this principle the xxi. 5; Shab. 87a). life of the ancient Hasidirn or Perushim (Pharisees) and Zenu'im (Essenes) was regulated. At the same time these devotees of holiness, making "askesis" (the practise of fortitude) their special object of life

But

Mangey, "De Vita Contemplativa," were naturally led to view sensual Conybeare (" About Philo's contaminating.

(see Philo, ed. ii.

475, 477, 482),

life as

Contemplative Life," p. 266) says: "Philo's ideal was to die daily, to mortify the flesh with fasting; he only insisted that the seclusion from social life should take place at the age of fifty, the time when the Levites retired from the active duties of the Temple service " (see all the passages in Conybeare, pp. 265-273, 315).

I.e.

This was exactly the view of the Essenes and Therapeutse also, in whatever connection they stood to Jonadab ben Rechab and the Kenites (see Mek. Yitro, 2, regarding "the water-drinkers" (sJiote mayim), as some of these are called). Banus, the eremite saint with whom Josephus passed three -

years of his tainly

an

life

ascetic.

(Josephus, "Vita," §

2),

was

cer-

Likewise were John the Baptist

iii. 4 and parallels) and the early Christians, Jesus and Paul included, in so far as they shunned marriage as a concession to the flesh (Matt. xix. 1012 I Cor. vii. 28-38), imbued with ascetic views. It was exactly in opposition to this tendency, so marked in early Christianity, that the Talmudists denounced fasting and penitence (Ta'anit 11a, b)

(Matt.



in the Elijah legend (Ta'anit 22a). Upon the destruction of the Temple in the year 70, a veritable wave of asceticism swept over the people, and in tribute to the national misfortune various ascetic rules were instituted (see B. B. 60*; Tosefta Sotah, end; II Esdras ix. 24; compare Bacher, " Agada der Tannaiten," i. 164).

and accentuated the duty of cheerfulness

Still,

mysticism, which goes hand in hand with

Judah asceticism, always had its esoteric circles. ha-Nasi, called "the saint," was an ascetic (Ket. Mar, the son of Rabina, fasted throughout 104a).