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Notes and Discussion. 333
Hanassiah, and so on. All this might he, but there is nothing in what
Dr. Neubauer brings forward that obliges us to make these forced assump-
tions instead of taking the straightforward facts of the case, as they come
out in the records and in Jewish literature. Indeed I fail to see why Dr.
Neubauer refuses to accept such simple and obvious identifications which
chime in with all the facts of the case and do not require us to assume
that documents are wrong — a very dangerous assumption which only
Dr. Neubauer's long familiarity with Hebrew MSS. excuses him for
making.
Altogether, in order to sustain his objections to my very obvious
identifications, Dr. Neubauer has to assume an age of 130 for Berachyah
in 1333, has to slice Isaac of Russia into two, has to deny the English
domicile of Moses ben Isaac against all authorities, including himself
in the Histoire Litteraire, has to assume that Elijah wrote four when
he meant ,five, and that he was living in Normandy in 1333 when no
Jews were in France, has to assume without any evidence that the
JEsvp of Alfred was known in Provence, has to attribute an utterly
unknown work to the Rashbam, has to transform Moses of Lontres
into Moses Roti, has to assume that a writer of the fourteenth century
never quotes any authority who is known to have written later than
1210 — and all for what ? Simply, to leave us still more in the dark
than before, with Jewish writers using French words when there were
no French Jews, and with writings that find no natural place in the
history of Jewish or of mediaeval literature. I still, therefore, remain
of the opinion that when we find an English Jew, who is ignorant of
all Jewish literature after 1210, quoting Samuel the Punctuator, Isaac
of Tchernigof and Berachyah the Punctuator, it is not too hazardous
to identify these with Jews residing in England at the end of the
twelfth century and known as " Samuel le Pointur," " Isaac de Russie,"
and "Benedict le Puncteur."
Joseph Jacobs.
A New Volume of the Work entitled mm TlD;>n.— I published
some years ago (lievve des Etudes Jitives, t. xiii. page 229 sqq.) extracts
from the Agadic collection of Jacob, son of Hananel et Sikeli (of Sicily),
on Leviticus, concerning the Midrash Yelamdenu from the unique MS.
in the library of Baron de Giinzburg of St. Petersburg (Cod. 512). The
Bodleian Library has recently acquired a MS. which contains the collec-
tion of the same author on Numbers and Deuteronomy, which, like that
on Leviticus, consists of extracts from the A/jadah in the Talmud and
the Midrashim. This work is mentioned in a Yemen Midrash composed
between the years 1484 and 1492. (See the Catalogue of the Bodleian
Library, No. 2493.) It is there said that Jacob went from Damascus to
Aden ; indeed, we find in the colophon of our MS. that he finished his
work Thursday, the sixth of the month Tishri, 5093 = 1332.
Our MS. may, therefore, prove of interest for the edition of the great
Midrash of Yemen, which Mr. Scbechter is preparing for publication.
I abstain, therefore, from giving Agadic extracts from it, leaving this to
Mr. Schechter, who is more experienced in this matter than I am. I
Y
334 The Jewish Quarterly Review.
shall only give the original of part of Jacob's preface, where he enume-
rates his sources. They are the following : —
nnt« ww Knawn mo rmr : ninaon nnto dw two mo nw
mD njn-iK : mnaDO d*k6pi t»n ^>aa mo^n mD nya-M • mnaDD
naoo ♦nrown nwaDD iK?n jmnaDO wthv^ wan •vfxrtv iin^n
'. j^an roDo • ntno naDD • nim naD naDD • nb naDD • ninDt?
: man «n*nai onj naDD • anay naDD • D»ma naDD • n'^x naDD
tid • nan in^>« mo : kdn p« inn ♦ nan pK n,m • ps in (so) idj
' nan tnpn • nan mot? n*>« • nan nvnca : w^« nam : kdn in*te
«n^ao :Woe» m sn^ao :nan onann r6« 'nan wd tanDa
: sum am snp^a : twna am «np»DB : nao : s-ibd : mv ja pjnac m
j nn mo : D^n emu t tkd n >pna : -iry^K ti 'pna : oSy mD
W» nno : nnDK emo : naw imo : on^n w trno : r6np emo
: jawn ruw : ino^ : wjyn n^o : Win w i te 1» Tijrfot -i
n^nan tjnam max
Jacob, who visited many Talmud schools in various countries, did not
find the missing fifth part of the Palestinian Talmud, neither does he
mention the Midrash Mdbbathi, attributed to Moses had-Darshan of
Narbonne, nor the Yalkut Shimeoni. But what is more astonishing is
that he ignores entirely the Zohar, although he mentions the Bahir
His omission of the Tanhuma would prove that this Midrash is iden-
tical with the Yelamdenu, except in the arrangement of the two.
A. Nedbauer.
