Hebrew Tales - Selected and Translated from the Writings of the Ancient Hebrew Sages

Hyman Hurwitz

Spalding & Shepard

1847

171 páginas

5h 42m

ISBN-10: 0554834162

This little compilation is not made exclusively for the use of
the young, although they will profit by it most largely; but readers of all classes may be made wiser and better by the simple
and striking lessons which it contains. The selection is made
from a work of the same title, which was published some time
ago by the learned Hebraist, Hurwitz. From the Talmud,
and other similar collections of ancient Jewish writings, he culled
a large number of moral sayings, parables, and narratives, the
forms in which the wisdom of the Orientals is usually embodied,
and put them forth for the entertainment and instruction of a
later age and a Christian people. This collection the American
editor has sifted over again with good taste and discretion, and has
thus formed quite a remarkable little book, which we can cordially commend to the attention of our readers. The simplicity of the style, the aptness of the illustrations, and the beauty of the
sentiment or thought often remind one of favorite passages of Holy
Writ. The lessons here taught come with less authority, indeed,
than if borrowed from the sacred volume ; but they are impres
sive and sound, affecting the imagination strongly from their de
cided hue of Orientalism, and adapted to purify and elevate Jhe
heart and the life. The publication will do much good, also,
if it should induce some who make a boast of their Christian
faith to surrender at least of a portion of their anti-Jewish prejudices.