Page:The old paths, or The Talmud tested by Scripture.djvu/256

 in the darkest times, ever claimed such personal authority as is here given to every individual rabbi. It is true that he may, if he please, forgive the unfortunate offender, but it is much to be feared that such absolute power would in most cases be too strong a temptation to the frail sons of men. And at all events the principle is utterly inconsistent with wise legislation, and most dangerous to the liberty of the poor and unlearned; for the reader will observe that it is only an unlearned man, an "am-haaretz," who may be dealt with in this summary manner. And this is another proof that the religion of the oral law is a religion devised for the advantage of the rich and learned, but regardless of the spiritual and temporal welfare of the lower classes. For the learned and the great the law is very different:—

"A wise man, old in wisdom, or a prince, or a president of a tribunal, who has sinned, is never to be excommunicated publicly, unless he have done as Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and his companions. But when he commits other sins, he is to be flogged in private. For it is said, 'Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night,' (Hos. iv. 5,) i.e., although he fall, cover him as it were with the night. And they say to him, 'Honour thyself, and abide in thy house.' (2 Kings xiv. 10.) In like manner, when a disciple of a wise man makes himself guilty of excommunication, it is unlawful for the tribunal to be too quick, and to excommunicate him hastily." (Ibid. c. vii. 1.) The rabbies have endeavoured to justify this different legislation for the learned and unlearned by a verse of the Bible, but their interpretation of that verse is quite erroneous. When God says, "Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet shall also fall with thee in the night," he is not speaking of the learned and unlearned, nor of the different way in which their sins were to be punished, but of the destruction which was coming upon Israel, as may be seen in Kimchi's Commentary. He interprets the verse thus—