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Critical Notices. 695
Mxdrasch Samuel. Aijadische Abhandlung uber das Bvch Samuel heraus-
gegeben, Von Salomon Bubek. (Cracow, 1893.)
There is no necessity to introduce to our readers the indefatigable
and critical editor of various Midrashim, viz., the Pesikta de R. Kahn&,
the Thanhuma, the Midrash on the Psalms and on Esther, which is
followed now by that on Samuel. For this last work Herr Buber has
made use of the editions of Constantinople, 1522, and of Venice, 1546,
as well as of the Parma MS., De Rossi, 1563. In a word, he availed
himself of all that is extant for the purposes of a critical edition.
The editor's method is here the same as in his previous edition, viz.,
he gives a preface containing everything which concerns the Midrash.
After having stated that the Midrasch Samuel is sometimes quoted,
as is often the case with early Babbinical works, by the first three
words with which it begins, Herr Buber states that the fatherland
of this Midrash is Palestine ; then follows the enumeration of the
sources of which the compiler of it made use, which gives
the only clue, when no date is fixed by the compiler, for fixing it
approximately. Next come an alphabetical list of the Tanaim and
Amoraim quoted in this Midrash, and the enumeration of mediaeval
Babbis who made use of it, the earliest of which at present
known is Rashi. Then follows the description of the Parma MS., by
the help of which the text of the Midrash is critically given, as well
as that of the bibliography of previous editions of it. Very
useful is the list of passages quoted from our Midrash in the
Yalqut. We miss, however, the alphabetical list of Latin and Greek
words used by the compiler of the Midrash Samuel. Herr Buber has
now in preparation a critical edition of the Midrash on Lamentations,
as well as an unknown Midrash on the Pentateuch, edited from a MS.
acquired by him at Aleppo. When the forthcoming edition of the
Great Midrash of Yemen, which Mr. Schechter has in hand, appears,
as well as that of the Yalqut Malthiri on Isaiah and the Minor
Prophets, an edition of which we may shortly expect by Dr. Gaster
and Mr. Spiro (and we hope that that on Psalms will not be for-
gotten), there will be ample material for writing an exhaustive and
critical account of the Midrashic literature, for which Zunz is still
the only source.
A. Neubauer.
Jews in Poland.
Mr. W. R. Morfill, M.A., Oriel College, Oxford, Reader in Russian
and the other Slavonic language in the University of Oxford, has just
brought out an excellent history of Poland, in the series of the History
Y Y 2
696 The Jewish Quarterly Review.
of the Nations (T. Fisher Unwin). The readers of our Quarterly
will no doubt be interested to see what he impartially says of the
Jews in Poland (page 18) : "The Jews came into Polaud iu very
early times ; they carried on a great part of the trade of the country.
In all probability the oldest Jewish immigration reached Poland from
the countries on the lower Danube, and from the kingdom of the
Khazars, who had accepted the Hebrew faith. The introduction of
the Jews into the national Sagas and the legends of the Church, shows
that they were very numerous, and not without influence on the
country. At the end of the eleventh century another stream of
Jewish immigrations came from Germany. In the year 1264 Boleslas
the Pious granted them certain privileges. At first these advantages
were only-conceded to the Jews of Great Poland, but they were ex-
tended in 1334 by Oasimir the Great, who was probably in want of
money. Some think that the Jewish statute enacted by this monarch
was suggested by a privilege granted by Frederick, Dnks of Austria,
in 1244, which was frequently imitated afterwards. It is computed
that the number of Jews in the countries which once formed Poland
amounted to 2,200,000. They have never become assimilated, and
they use German instead of the Polish language." It is scarcely
admissible that converted Khazars immigrated to Polaud, since, as
Morfill rightly says, all the Polish Jews speak German, and none of
them Tatar, which was the language of the Khazars. The converted
Jews of that race emigrated most likely to the Caucasus and Persia.
We know that Jews of Kiev and Tchernigoff came to Germany and
Lorraine in the eleventh century, and these were not of German
origin.
On p. 44 he says : " In 1334 the great statute concerning the Jews
was enacted. There is also another statute called Prieilegia
Jadaorum, dated 1357. Casimir is said to have favoured the Jews on
account of his fondness for a Jewess named Esther, but the tale is
rejected by the historian Caro."
We should have liked to see some more details concerning the large
Jewish congregations in Poland, but that is scarcely possible when an
author is limited to 375 pages. We take the opportunity of mention-
ing the second edition of documents concerning the cruel persecutions
of the Jews in Poland by Chmielnicki in the years 1648 and 1649, as
well as those under Gonta in the year 1768, prepared by the late
Magister Jonah Gurluud, Rabbi of Odessa, and edited by Herr David
Cohen, with a biography of the deceased. The monograph contains,
first, the JVil D'D, printed first at Venice without date, a second
edition appeared in Graeber's Otsnr has-Sifrotk, and now for a third
time with many emendations and notes ; second, the treatise nns
Critical Notices. 697
naiBTI, printed at Amsterdam in 1651, edited now with notes ia a more
correct form ; third, a Selihah for the 20th of Siwan, printed first at
Cracow in 1650, and extremely rare ; fourth, collected notes concern-
ing these calamitie< ; fifth, the history of the cruelties committed by
Iwan Gonta in the Ukraine in the year 1768, in J'tidisch-Deutsch,
printed at Vilna ia the year 1805 ; sixth, a sermoa delivered on the
occasion by R. Abraham Meir ben-Levi Epstein, unedited. We draw
the attention of our readers to the fact that the product of the sale of
this monograph will benefit the Jewish Society of Agriculture in
Syria and Palestine. We hope that our brethren will respond to this
appeal for help for the Jewish colonies in the Holy Land. Contribu-
tions will be welcome, and Herr Benjamin Sagal TroitzkaiaUlitsa,
Dom Reich at Odessa, has undertaken to forward the money to its
destination.
A. N.
Discussion on Isaiah (ch. lii. 13ff. and ch. liii.) from, an Unpublished
Manuscript of the Sixteenth Century, with Preliminary
Notes on Judaeo-polcmic Literature. By Rev. Alexander
Koiitjt, D.D., Ph. D., New York, 1893.
The well-known Rabbi of the Temple Ahawath Chesed, New York,
is taking a little rest after the achievement of his great edition of
R. Nathan's Aruhh (which we hope will sooner or later be duly
noticed in this Quarterly), by publishing minor items concerning
Jewish literature. In the present pleasing monograph he notices
a hitherto unknown treatise relating to Anti-Christian controversy,
from a MS. in his possession, formerly belonging to the late Rabbi of
Baltimore, Dr. A, S. Bettelheim, who bought it in Prague many
years ago. It seems to have been composed in Holland in the year
1551 a.d., and as far as concerns the passage on the fifty-third chapter
of Isaiah, this treatise does not agree with any of those given in the
Catena printed in Oxford in 1877 with the title of " The Fifty-third
of Isaiah according to Jewish Interpreters." Consequently Dr. Kohut's
MS. is at present unique, and will have to ba used for a second edition
of the Oxford Catena, together with other interpretations which have
turned up since 1877. They are, 1. By David Kokhabi (of Estella),
in his work with the title of in ?~\iO (see Histoire litteraire de la
France, t. xxxi. p. 472, not yet published) ; 2, by the physician
Jacob Zahalon of Rome (1630-1693) in his commentary on Isaiah,
and controversial passages in other prophets, to be found in his
3py myiS" (MS. in possession of Dr. Med. Ascarelli at Rome, com-
prising 401 pages), and by Hillel ben Jacob hak-Kohen, in the MS.
