of all Jews up to the modern period were the sequel to this sequel.
Through them all may be detected the unifying principle that literature
in its truest sense includes life itself; that intellect is the handmaid
to conscience; and that the best books are those which best teach men
how to live. This underlying unity gave more harmony to Jewish
literature than is possessed by many literatures more distinctively
national. The maxim, "Righteousness delivers from death," applies to
books as well as to men. A literature whose consistent theme is
Righteousness is immortal. On the very day on which Jerusalem fell, this
theory of the interconnection between literature and life became the
fixed principle of Jewish thought, and it ceased to hold undisputed sway
only in the age of Mendelssohn. It was in the "Vineyard" of Jamnia that
the theory received its firm foundation. A starting-point for this
volume will therefore be sought in the meeting-place in which the
Rabbis, exiled from the Holy City, found a new fatherland in the Book of
books.






CONTENTS


PAGE
PREFACE 5

CHAPTER