PREFACE TO THE THREE INDICES ΤΟ "GENESIS ACCORDING TO THE TALMUD." Translated from the Hebrew, with some slight alterations and additions, such as were deemed either desirable or necessary. 66 READER! the frozen "Sea of the Talmud" is now broken up, and much of its ice has already vanished. The book of " Genesis according to the Talmud" on the one hand, and the English translation of the same on the other, have brought about this desirable result. The Sea of the Talmud" is now open to a very considerable degree, so that if you wish to take a voyage to the literary regions hitherto unexplored, you can do so with a fair prospect of success. To facilitate your scholastic journey, and to make the same short and easy, I have carefully prepared the following three Indices for your aid and guidance. Index I. will guide you to about one thousand seven hundred passages of Scripture from other portions of the Old and New Testaments that are explained or referred to in this book of Genesis. By comparing the Bible with the Talmud you will be able to judge how far they agree or disagree, and how far the Rabbis have honestly or dishonestly handled the Word of God, which, we are told by the highest authority, "is made of none effect by their tradition" (See Mar. vii. 13). Theological, Exegetical, and Controversial writers, will find this Index of no small service. Index II. will give you a bird's-eye view of two hundred and ten Synoptical Notes, or classified subjects, arranged in alphabetical order, forming, as it were, a kind of abridged Talmudical Cyclopædia, the value of which will be obvious to all students. Index III. will assist you to find with ease about one thousand two hundred different subjects scattered throughout the book of Genesis, forming a short Concordance to itself and to the Talmud, thus enabling you to commune with the past, present, and future, with the material and immaterial, with the visible and invisible worlds. For instance: if you wish to commune with our first parent Adam, you have only to call out: "Adam! Adam! where art thou?" and he will at once respond: "Behold, here am I." If you call on, the Chief of Proselytes, the Father of the Faithful: "Abraham! Abraham!" he will without delay answer and say: "Here am I.' And thus also when you call Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David, and Solomon; any of the Priests, Prophets, Kings, Princes, Senators, and Judges; any Saint, Philosopher, Rabbi, or Disciple; Master, Slave, Orphan, and Widow; the blind, lame, deaf, and dumb; each will reply to your call and say: "Behold, here am I. Also Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leal; Miriam, Hannah, Esther, and Abigail; Empresses, Queens, Princesses, Roman Matronas, and Rabbinical Ladies; Young Ladies and Young Men who eclipsed the sun by their " שהיו מגנין את החמה ביופיין,too beauty." Daughters of Zion and Jerusalem, Holy and Unholy Women, Old Witches and Dancing Spinsters attracting Bachelors by their seductive manœuvres; all these, and more than these, you will find in their respective places, and each will say: "Behold, here am I." "Wisdom also shall cry, and understanding shall put forth her voice;" Knowledge and Ignorance; Speech and Silence; Truth and Falsehood; Peace and War; Life and Death; Light and Darkness; Pride and Humility; Modesty and Impudence; Love and Hatred; Envy and Jealousy; Anger and Longsuffering; all these and many others shall each either roar or whisper: "Behold, here am I." Hills and Mountains shall echo the noise of the Rivers and the Seas; the Grass of the Field and the Trees of the Forest shall clap their hands and shout; "the Stone shall cry out of the wall, and the Beam out of the timber shall answer it;" Empires, Kingdoms, Provinces, Cities, Villages, Temples, Colleges, Theatres, Baths, Bridges, etc., etc., shall each respond to your call: "Behold, here am I." The Wolf and the Lamb, the Leopard and the Kid, the Cow and the Bear, the Lion and the Ox, the Eagle and Leviathan, the Serpent and the Scorpion, in short the Cattle on a thousand hills, the wild Beasts of the forest, the Birds of the air, the Fishes of the sea, and the Reptiles from under the earth shall each come, when called, and bow down before you and say, Behold, here am I." Yes, by means of this third Index, not only "the Earth and the fulness thereof, the World and they that dwell therein," but also the Seven Heavens and all the Hosts of Heaven; the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars; Michael, Gabriel, Oriel, Sandalphon, Metatron, and all holy angels; Satan, or the Devil; Ashmedai, the King of the Evil Spirits; Lillith and Egrath and Machlath, the female Devils; and Dumah, the Angel of Death, and hosts of Ghosts, shall each answer to your call," Behold, here am I." Even respecting the Most High, the Rabbis, as you will find by consulting this Index, will tell you more than He has told them by His servant Moses and the Prophets. But since they themselves say, "Whoso addeth diminishes," Dion ba, you must judge them accordingly. ,כל המוסיף גורע And now I take this opportunity to apprise you that the Book of Exodus, which, by the very nature of its contents, far exceeds in matter and in importance the Book of Genesis, is ready for Press in the original, and for translation into English. But I must also add that the publication of the Book of Exodus depends now on others and not on me. I am sincerely grateful first of all, and above all, to Professor Delitzsch of the Leipsic University; next to Dr. Farrar, Canon of Westininster; and to Canon Spence, Vicar of St. Pancras, for his excellent Preface to this work; also to Dr. Pusey, Canon Liddon, and Canon King, of the University of Oxford; to Dr. Miller, of North Carolina; to the Chief Censors of Hebrew Literature of St. Petersburg and Warsaw; to the Editors of the Jewish and Christian Press in London and in Vienna; and lastly to several literary gentlemen, some of them personal friends, for all the encouragement they respectively have given me in my undertaking of "The Pentateuch according to the Talmud," the completion of which, humanly speaking, depends on the encouragement I may yet get from others to strengthen my hands. P. I. HERSHON. HINCKLEY VILLA, WOOD GREEN, LONDON, N. INDEX I. TO SCRIPTURE TEXTS. GENESIS. 350. v. 12, p. 265. v. 8, p. 79. v. 25, p. 419. v. 2, p. 123. CHAP. V. v. 1, p. 66. CHAP. XI. v. 2, p. 194. 5. v. 2, p. 211. CHAP. XIV. v. 1, p. 194. v. 21, p. 270. v. 2, p. 194. 7, p. 6. V. 8, p. 270. 336. v. 16, 241. CHAP. XIX. v. 1, p. 305. v. 3. p. 307. v. 16, p. 137. CHAP. XXX. v. 1, p. 117. 326. CHAP. XXXIII. v. 12, p. 238. 393. v. 13, v. 32, p. v. 14, v. 7, p. CHAP. XXXIV. v. 2, p. 264. v. 11, p. 67. 19, p. 412. CHAP. XXXVI. v. 16, p. 392. V. 16- 391. v. 29, p. 391. v. 40, p. 391. CHAP. XXXVIII. v. 26, p. 407. 174. CHAP. XLI. v. 32, p. 435. v. 46, p. 411. v. 50, p. 255. CHAP. XLIX. v. 6, p. 5. CHAP. L. v. 5, p. 486. CHAP. XXI. v. 1, p. 329. v. 12, p. 17. CHAP. I. v. 6, p. 253. v. 10, p. 291. v. 14, p. 392. v. 21, p. 15, p. 17. v. 15, p. 185. CHAP. XXIII. v. 2, p. 294. 15, v. 63, p. 320. |