ing on Kippur day, giving the heave-offering to the priest, the number of lashes to be given to the culprit, the amount of leavened bread which, if eaten on Passover, makes one liable to punishment, as to mixture of forbidden and permitted food; and many such institutions which make the general laws of the Bible more applicable to practical life. In this respect, they were indeed the perfecters and modellers of the Torah, and only through their effort the Law became a law of life, adapted to all conditions of a living, thriving community. Only those who lived near their age could fully appreciate their activities, so that the Talmud has it in one place (Erubin 21), חביבין דברי סופרים יותר מדברי תורה ("The words of the Sopherim are more beloved than the words of the Torah.")
The period during which the Keneseth Ha-Gedolah exercised its power was therefore by no means a period of stagnation. In the words of Kuenen : “ oral tradition grew up luxuriantly by the side ofthe Torah; much, very much was done for the instruction of the people; the conception of religion did not remain stationary.’” When we examine the activities of these Sopherim, we see that they were the natural heirs of
the prophets and their worthy successors. Their work during the two centuries of their existence was, to embody the ideals of the prophets in some concrete form and present them to the people. Judaism then stepped out of the exclusive circle of the prophetic schools and of the priestly domain and became the possession of the people. But in order that these high and exalted ideals might appeal more readily to the commonalty, they had to put them into tangible form. The polity of the Jews was then based upon the Law of Moses, made practical through the interpretation and investigation of these Sopherim, who, dwelling among the people, honored and respected by,them, enjoying the high distinction of being chosen to the Maamad, could easily enforce these institutions and establish them permanently in Israel. The glimpses that we obtain from this obscure period of our history, and glimpses only they are indeed, prove the period to be.one of greatest activity, exerting the most potent influence upon the development of Judaism, upon the religion that we observe to-day, and worthy of greater consideration at the hands of our historians.
JULIUS H. GREENSTONE.
Two Men Praying in the Synagogue
I.
The Miser
HE wore a very old praying-shawl decked with yellow spots, and his cap was frayed and worn, as if it had been twisted out of shape by being pulled tightly over its owner's ears. He held a prayer book in his hands, the pages of which were dropping out of their cover. Upon these pages were finger marks, drops of candle grease and tear stains,—not his tears, but his father's, stains of a period in his family history for which he had little affection. There were no genuine tears in his eyes. He stood at his prayers as if he were discharging a very disagreeable duty, for he was no hypocrite, to any great extent, and he would not grimace, unless it were necessary to show his neighbors that on this Day of Atonement he was of the same clay as themselves. No words came from his lips, for his heart was as cold as stone, and his voice
seemed unwilling to pray, although, unconsciously, he was murmuring the chant which his neighbors were intoning.
He did not ask for anything. The mysterious relation of man to God did not trouble him; he expected no help from God. And in fact he would have no favors from either God or man. His fellows were tools to be used for his own personal aggrandizement. He did not pray for long life. What concerned him just then was the very pertinent problem of how to keep his grasp on whatever he now possessed, and it was immaterial to him how many years he had yet to live.
He mumbled the words of the prayers mechanically. Then he stopped abruptly; a page was missing from his book. He leant over and read in the prayer book of the neighbor to his left. This he did until the man frowned. The neighbor felt that the very first glance was one too many. When the miser leant over once more, the man frankly resented his impertinence and