Part 48

R. Moses Haddarschan: This evil leaven is placed in man from the time that he is formed.

Massechet Succa: This evil leaven has seven names in Scripture. It is called evil, an unclean prepuce, an enemy, a scandal, a heart of stone, the north wind; all this signifies the malignity which is concealed and ingrained in the heart of man.

Midrasch Tillim says the same thing, and that God will free the good nature of man from the evil.

This malignity is renewed every day against man, as it is written, Psalm xxxvii. The wicked watcheth the just, and striveth to kill him, but God will not abandon him.

This malignity tries the heart of man in this life, and will accuse him in the other.

All this is found in the Talmud.

Midrasch Tillim on Ps. iv.: "Stand in awe and sin not." Stand in awe and be afraid of your lust, and it will not lead you into sin. And on Ps. xxxvi. "The wicked has said in his heart: Let not the fear of God be before me." That is to say that the malignity natural to man has said that to the wicked.

Misdrasch el Kohelet: "Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king who cannot foresee the future." The child is virtue, and the king is the malignity of man. It is called king because all the members obey it, and old because it is in the heart of man from infancy to old age, and foolish because it leads man in the way of perdition which he does not foresee.

The same thing is in Misdrasch Tillim.

Bereschist Rabba on Ps. xxxv.: "Lord, all my bones shall bless thee, who deliverest the poor from the tyrant." And is there a greater tyrant than the evil leaven? And on Proverbs xxv., "If thine enemy be hungry, feed him." That is to say, if the evil leaven hunger, give him the bread of wisdom of which speaks Prov. ix., and if he be thirsty, give him the water of which speaks Isaiah lv.

Misdrasch Tillim says the same thing, and that the Scripture in that passage speaking of our enemy, means the evil leaven, and that in giving it that bread and that water, we heap coals of fire on his head.

Misdrasch Kohelet on Ecclesiastes ix. "A great king besieged a little city." This great king is the evil leaven, the great engines with which he surrounds it are temptations, and there has been found a poor wise man who has delivered it, that is to say virtue.

And on Ps. xli. "Blessed is he that considereth the poor."

And on Ps. lxxviii. The spirit goeth and returneth not again, whereof some have taken occasion of error concerning the immortality of the soul; but the sense is that this spirit is the evil leaven, which accompanies man till death, and will not return at the resurrection.

And on Ps. ciii. the same thing.

And on Ps. xvi.

Chronology of Rabbinism.

The citations of pages are from the book Pugio.

Page 27, R. Hakadosch, anno 200, author of the Mischna or vocal law, or second law.

Commentaries on the Mischna, anno 340:

The one, Siphra. Barajetot. Talmud Hierosol. Tosiphtot.

Bereschit Rabah, by R. Osaiah Rabah, commentary on the Mischna.

Bereschit Rabah, Bar Naconi, are subtle and agreeable discourses, historical and theological. The same author wrote the books called Rabot.

A hundred years after the Talmud Hierosol. anno 440, was made the Babylonian Talmud, by R. Ase, by the universal consent of all the Jews, who are necessarily obliged to observe all that is contained therein.

The addition of R. Ase is called the Gemara, that is to say the commentary on the Mischna.

And the Talmud as a whole comprises the Mischna and the Gemara.

THE PERPETUITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

Perpetuity.--That religion has always existed on earth, which consists in believing that man has fallen from a state of glory and of communion with God into a state of sorrow, penitence, and estrangement from God, but that after this life we shall be restored by a Messiah who was to come. All things have passed away, and this has subsisted for which are all things.