the strength of the Jewish nation, and with which its religious future was also to lie. For it is one
of those strangely significant, almost symbolical, facts in history, that after the destruction of
Jerusalem the spiritual supremacy of Palestine passed to Babylonia, and that Rabbinical
Judaism, under the stress of political adversity, voluntarily transferred itself to the seats of
Israel's ancient dispersion, as if to ratify by its own act what the judgment of God had formerly
executed. But long before that time the Babylonian `dispersion' had already stretched out its
hands in every direction. Northwards, it had spread through Armenia, the Caucasus, and to the
shores of the Black Sea, and through Media to those of the Caspian. Southwards, it had
extended to the Persian Gulf and through the vast extent of Arabia, although Arabia Felix and
the land of the Homerites may have received their first Jewish colonies from the opposite shores
of Ethiopia. Eastwards it had passed as far as India.60 Everywhere we have distinct notices of
these wanderers, and everywhere they appear as in closest connection with the Rabbinical
hierarchy of Palestine. Thus the Mishnah, in an extremely curious section,61 tells us how on
Sabbaths the Jewesses of Arabia might wear their long veils, and those of India the kerchief
round the head, customary in those countries, without incurring the guilt of desecrating the holy
day by needlessly carrying what, in the eyes of the law, would be a burden;62 while in the rubric
for the Day of Atonement we have it noted that the dress which the High-Priest wore `between
the evenings' of the great fast - that is, as afternoon darkened into evening - was of most costly
`Indian' stuff.63
60. In this, as in so many respects, Dr. Neubauer has collated very interesting information, to which we
refer. See his Géogr. du Talm. pp. 369-399.
61. The whole section gives a most curious glimpse of the dress and ornaments worn by the Jews at
that time. The reader interested in the subject will find special information in the three little volumes of
Hartmann (Die Hebräerin am Putztische), in N. G. Schröder's some -what heavy work: De Vestitu Mulier.
Hebr., and especially in that interesting tractate, Trachten d. Juden, by Dr. A. Brüll, of which,
unfortunately, only one part has appeared.
62. Shabb. vi. 6.
63. Yoma iii. 7.
That among such a vast community there should have been poverty, and that at one time, as the
Palestinians sneered, learning may have been left to pine in want, we can readily believe. For, as
one of the Rabbis had it in explanation of Deut. xxx. 13: `Wisdom is not "beyond the sea" - that
is, it will not be found among traders or merchants,'64 whose mind must be engrossed by gain.
And it was trade and commerce which procured to the Babylonians their wealth and influence,
although agriculture was not neglected. Their caravans - of whose camel drivers, by the way, no
very flattering account is given65 - carried the rich carpets and woven stuffs of the East, as well
as its precious spices, to the West: generally through Palestine to the Phoenician harbours,
where a fleet of merchantmen belonging to Jewish bankers and shippers lay ready to convey
them to every quarter of the world. These merchant princes were keenly alive to all that passed,
not only in the financial, but in the political world. We know that they were in possession of
State secrets, and entrusted with the intricacies of diplomacy. Yet, whatever its condition, this
Eastern Jewish community was intensely Hebrew. Only eight days' journey - though, according