Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/243

* JEWS. 217 JEWS. colonies for them in Delaware, Xew Jersey, the Dakotas, Penasvlvania, Connecticut, and also in Argentina. JUDAISM AT THE PBESEXT TIltE. In taking a rapid survey of the Jews as they exist to-day, we see at one and the same time a great diversity coupled with a fundamental con- formity. This diversity has arisen from the attempt which the Jew is bound to make to fit his ancient beliefs and ceremonies into modern ways of thinking and modern conditions. Out- wardly the Jews may be divided into two dis- tinctive classes, the so-called Ashkenazim, or the descendants of the Jews of iliddle and Eastern Europe, and the Hephardim, or descendants of the Jews who lived formerly in Spain and Por- tugal. Brought up under different conditions, the Sephardim had the benefit of a general cul- ture earlier than had the Ashkenazim; and so imbued were they with the Spanish and Portu- guese civilization that they carried it with them wherever they went after the expulsions of 1492 and 1496. To this day, whether in Europe, Asia, North Africa, or America, Sephardim are apt to congregate among themselves, having their own sj-nagogues and their own ecclesiastical authorities. They are readily distinguished from the Ashkenazim by their names, and in the syna- gogue by their more Oriental pronunciation of the Hebrew, and certain peculiarities in their ritual. They are, however, few in number, and by intermarriage with Ashkenazim are gradually losing their identity. .Judaism was never a favorable ground for the growth of sects. The enmity of the outside world produced a soli- darity which triumphed over all attempts at di- vision. The only sect that may be said to exist to-day is that of the Karaites," who probably do not number more than fifteen or twenty thousand, and are to be found in Southern Russia, in various parts of the Turkish Empire, and in Egj'pt. The Samaritans, of whom about two hun- dred souls still live in Xablus, the ancient She- chem, can hardly be counted as among the Jews, since they live a life entirely apart from the rest of the community and seek to preserve their ancient schismatic condition. Among the Ashkenazic Jews there are in reality only two divisions, the orthodox and the reform, and even here these divisions are by no means clearlj' cut. There being no Jewish Church as such, and each community, and even each congregation, being a law unto itself, the greatest variation is found, starting with the ultra-orthodox and reaching down to the most radical reform. For purposes of distinction we may speak of the three follow- ing divisions : orthodox, conservative, and reform Jews. The orthodox Jew believes in the absolute authority, not only of the Bible as the Word of God. but also of the traditional body of laws, statutes, and observances which have grown up around the written law in course of time and which form the 'oral law.' After passing through various codifications, from the time of the two Talmuds (fourth to sixth century), this law was put into some sort of final shape by .Joseph Caro (sixteenth century). His Shtdhai'i Artik is con- sidered the norm by which the orthodox Jew ■regulates both his religious and his everyday life. He believes that a strict performance of all its minor regulations is obligatory upon him on all occasions and at all times. The conservative Jew holds in practice also to the validity of both the oral and the written law, but is a little less rigid in his observances, and believes that some concession ought to be made to the spirit of the times and the conditions of modern life. Eeform Judaism takes quite a different attitude respect- ing both the written and the oral law. It pro- fesses to see a regular development in both, and believes that Jewish belief and Jewish practice are supple enough to adapt themselves to all changes of environment and to all phases of human thought. Commencing with Moses Men- delssohn, toward the end of the eighteenth cen- tury, this reform has made greatest progress in Germany and the United States. Starting as an attempt to modernize the public worship of the synagogue, it has gradually so developed as to become a sort of Unitarianism modified by pecu- liar Jewish observances. It has more or less radical ideas in regard to the inspiration of the Bible; it has largely introduced the vernacular into the synagogue service, from which it seeks to remove all traces of its Oriental origin, and dis- cards the separation of the sexes, the covering of the head, and the observance of the second-day festivals. In some places Sunday services have been introduced, in addition to those on the his- torical Sabbath (in Berlin as early as 1840, in the United States during the last quarter of the nineteenth century). In only one place (Chicago) I'as the Saturday service been entirely discarded in favor of the Sunday. Between these divisions, however, there are many subdivisions, and the words 'orthodox' and 'reform.' as regards the Jews, are loosely and variously applied. It is impossible to give a single description of the Jewish rites and ceremonies of to-day, because of the diversity which exists. Nominally, the seventh day is the day of the .Jewish Sabbath ; the demands made by modern commercial life render an observance of the day extremely difficult, and, except a small number of the orthodo.x, most Jew.s to-day keep their places of business open on the Sabbath. The festival of the New Year and the Fast of the Day of Atonement, both of which occur in the months of September and October, are perhaps the two festivals which are most rigidly observed. The Passover festival, which falls usually in the month of March or April, is still observed by most Jews, who abstain for a week from eating leaven. The celebration of th.:! Pentecost festival (end of May or beginning of •Tune), which commemorates the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, has been made more solemn by the Reform Jews, among whom it is the day of confirmation. Formerly (and this is the rule today in orthodox Jewish congregations) bovs were confirmed at Ihe age of thirteen, in whatever month they reached that period of life. Reform Judaism has substituted for this the annual day of confirmation, in which the girls participate tcgether with the boys. The Feast of Tabernacles (celebrated in the autumn), which commemo- rates the dwelling of the Israelites in booths during the passage through the wilderness, is still universally ob.served in some manner or other. The minor festivals, such as the Ninth of Ab, the day upon which the Temple in .Jerusalem was destroyed; Purim. the commemoration of the deeds of Esther and Mordecai ; as well as other minor festivals, are to-day observed only by the orthodox: though there is a tendency, even among reform Jews, to lay more than ordinary weight upon the celebration of the Chamikkah, which re-