The Pre-Talmudic Haggada. excluded are quite distinctly singled out as the Samaritans, the half-heathen Jews. To solve the problem, we must look for Rabbinical analogies in the Midrash. Nor is i t difficult to discover these. After the worship of the golden calf, Moses, says the Bibl e (Exodus xxxii . 20), gave the Israelites water mixed with the ashes of the idol to drink, and the Targum Jerushalmi explains it , better than the Talmud (Joma lxxxvii .): the water branded the stain of impurity upon their foreheads, and those thus marked were th e three thousand killed by the Levites. I n the very same manner the Midrash has Gehazi punished with the sign of leprosy upon the forehead, because he made the golden calf for King Jeroboam. And I should not be surprised i f another Midrash will yet be discovered which tells us that Micha, the maker of the idol of Dan (Judges xvii. and xviii.), who, according to the Midrash was, by the help of Satanic power, the real maker of the golde n calf, had this mark of leprosy on his forehead. For he is identical with the Samiri, or Samaritan of the Koran, who has for ever to go about crying out, “Là misàs,” Touch me not ! ארקי אמט אמט. Here now we find the connecting link. The Samaritans were again tested by Jeremiah, and by the sign of leprosy on their foreheads—as we may no w surmise—which has been changed by the Christian interpolator into the sign of a seal, although only the disobedient, as we read, were marked, found to be still addicted to idolatry. Our conjecture will be corroborated, i f not verified, by the final act of our story. Jeremiah, the book continues, starts from Babylonia at once, that is, on the twelfth day of Nissan, when Ezra started, according to the Scriptures. The failure of Zerubbabel’s attempt was probably the reason why Jeremiah’s name was connected with Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s return rather than with the former’s (see 2 Mac. i . — i i . ; and Sanhedrin xxxviii., where Nehemiah is identified with Zerubbabel !). Ezra arrived in Jerusalem at the beginning of the month of Ab, and after a three days’ rest, he held a great festival 139

doi:10.4324/9780203056202-30

Chapter

The Pre-Talmudic Haggada. excluded are quite distinctly singled out as the Samaritans, the half-heathen Jews. To solve the problem, we must look for Rabbinical analogies in the Midrash. Nor is i t difficult to discover these. After the worship of the golden calf, Moses, says the Bibl e (Exodus xxxii . 20), gave the Israelites water mixed with the ashes of the idol to drink, and the Targum Jerushalmi explains it , better than the Talmud (Joma lxxxvii .): the water branded the stain of impurity upon their foreheads, and those thus marked were th e three thousand killed by the Levites. I n the very same manner the Midrash has Gehazi punished with the sign of leprosy upon the forehead, because he made the golden calf for King Jeroboam. And I should not be surprised i f another Midrash will yet be discovered which tells us that Micha, the maker of the idol of Dan (Judges xvii. and xviii.), who, according to the Midrash was, by the help of Satanic power, the real maker of the golde n calf, had this mark of leprosy on his forehead. For he is identical with the Samiri, or Samaritan of the Koran, who has for ever to go about crying out, “Là misàs,” Touch me not ! ארקי אמט אמט. Here now we find the connecting link. The Samaritans were again tested by Jeremiah, and by the sign of leprosy on their foreheads—as we may no w surmise—which has been changed by the Christian interpolator into the sign of a seal, although only the disobedient, as we read, were marked, found to be still addicted to idolatry. Our conjecture will be corroborated, i f not verified, by the final act of our story. Jeremiah, the book continues, starts from Babylonia at once, that is, on the twelfth day of Nissan, when Ezra started, according to the Scriptures. The failure of Zerubbabel’s attempt was probably the reason why Jeremiah’s name was connected with Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s return rather than with the former’s (see 2 Mac. i . — i i . ; and Sanhedrin xxxviii., where Nehemiah is identified with Zerubbabel !). Ezra arrived in Jerusalem at the beginning of the month of Ab, and after a three days’ rest, he held a great festival 139

Chapter

The Pre-Talmudic Haggada. excluded are quite distinctly singled out as the Samaritans, the half-heathen Jews. To solve the problem, we must look for Rabbinical analogies in the Midrash. Nor is i t difficult to discover these. After the worship of the golden calf, Moses, says the Bibl e (Exodus xxxii . 20), gave the Israelites water mixed with the ashes of the idol to drink, and the Targum Jerushalmi explains it , better than the Talmud (Joma lxxxvii .): the water branded the stain of impurity upon their foreheads, and those thus marked were th e three thousand killed by the Levites. I n the very same manner the Midrash has Gehazi punished with the sign of leprosy upon the forehead, because he made the golden calf for King Jeroboam. And I should not be surprised i f another Midrash will yet be discovered which tells us that Micha, the maker of the idol of Dan (Judges xvii. and xviii.), who, according to the Midrash was, by the help of Satanic power, the real maker of the golde n calf, had this mark of leprosy on his forehead. For he is identical with the Samiri, or Samaritan of the Koran, who has for ever to go about crying out, “Là misàs,” Touch me not ! ארקי אמט אמט. Here now we find the connecting link. The Samaritans were again tested by Jeremiah, and by the sign of leprosy on their foreheads—as we may no w surmise—which has been changed by the Christian interpolator into the sign of a seal, although only the disobedient, as we read, were marked, found to be still addicted to idolatry. Our conjecture will be corroborated, i f not verified, by the final act of our story. Jeremiah, the book continues, starts from Babylonia at once, that is, on the twelfth day of Nissan, when Ezra started, according to the Scriptures. The failure of Zerubbabel’s attempt was probably the reason why Jeremiah’s name was connected with Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s return rather than with the former’s (see 2 Mac. i . — i i . ; and Sanhedrin xxxviii., where Nehemiah is identified with Zerubbabel !). Ezra arrived in Jerusalem at the beginning of the month of Ab, and after a three days’ rest, he held a great festival 139

DOI link for The Pre-Talmudic Haggada. excluded are quite distinctly singled out as the Samaritans, the half-heathen Jews. To solve the problem, we must look for Rabbinical analogies in the Midrash. Nor is i t difficult to discover these. After the worship of the golden calf, Moses, says the Bibl e (Exodus xxxii . 20), gave the Israelites water mixed with the ashes of the idol to drink, and the Targum Jerushalmi explains it , better than the Talmud (Joma lxxxvii .): the water branded the stain of impurity upon their foreheads, and those thus marked were th e three thousand killed by the Levites. I n the very same manner the Midrash has Gehazi punished with the sign of leprosy upon the forehead, because he made the golden calf for King Jeroboam. And I should not be surprised i f another Midrash will yet be discovered which tells us that Micha, the maker of the idol of Dan (Judges xvii. and xviii.), who, according to the Midrash was, by the help of Satanic power, the real maker of the golde n calf, had this mark of leprosy on his forehead. For he is identical with the Samiri, or Samaritan of the Koran, who has for ever to go about crying out, “Là misàs,” Touch me not ! ארקי אמט אמט. Here now we find the connecting link. The Samaritans were again tested by Jeremiah, and by the sign of leprosy on their foreheads—as we may no w surmise—which has been changed by the Christian interpolator into the sign of a seal, although only the disobedient, as we read, were marked, found to be still addicted to idolatry. Our conjecture will be corroborated, i f not verified, by the final act of our story. Jeremiah, the book continues, starts from Babylonia at once, that is, on the twelfth day of Nissan, when Ezra started, according to the Scriptures. The failure of Zerubbabel’s attempt was probably the reason why Jeremiah’s name was connected with Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s return rather than with the former’s (see 2 Mac. i . — i i . ; and Sanhedrin xxxviii., where Nehemiah is identified with Zerubbabel !). Ezra arrived in Jerusalem at the beginning of the month of Ab, and after a three days’ rest, he held a great festival 139

The Pre-Talmudic Haggada. excluded are quite distinctly singled out as the Samaritans, the half-heathen Jews. To solve the problem, we must look for Rabbinical analogies in the Midrash. Nor is i t difficult to discover these. After the worship of the golden calf, Moses, says the Bibl e (Exodus xxxii . 20), gave the Israelites water mixed with the ashes of the idol to drink, and the Targum Jerushalmi explains it , better than the Talmud (Joma lxxxvii .): the water branded the stain of impurity upon their foreheads, and those thus marked were th e three thousand killed by the Levites. I n the very same manner the Midrash has Gehazi punished with the sign of leprosy upon the forehead, because he made the golden calf for King Jeroboam. And I should not be surprised i f another Midrash will yet be discovered which tells us that Micha, the maker of the idol of Dan (Judges xvii. and xviii.), who, according to the Midrash was, by the help of Satanic power, the real maker of the golde n calf, had this mark of leprosy on his forehead. For he is identical with the Samiri, or Samaritan of the Koran, who has for ever to go about crying out, “Là misàs,” Touch me not ! ארקי אמט אמט. Here now we find the connecting link. The Samaritans were again tested by Jeremiah, and by the sign of leprosy on their foreheads—as we may no w surmise—which has been changed by the Christian interpolator into the sign of a seal, although only the disobedient, as we read, were marked, found to be still addicted to idolatry. Our conjecture will be corroborated, i f not verified, by the final act of our story. Jeremiah, the book continues, starts from Babylonia at once, that is, on the twelfth day of Nissan, when Ezra started, according to the Scriptures. The failure of Zerubbabel’s attempt was probably the reason why Jeremiah’s name was connected with Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s return rather than with the former’s (see 2 Mac. i . — i i . ; and Sanhedrin xxxviii., where Nehemiah is identified with Zerubbabel !). Ezra arrived in Jerusalem at the beginning of the month of Ab, and after a three days’ rest, he held a great festival 139

ABSTRACT

The Pre-Talmudic Haggada. 4 1 3

1 Cf. Luke xiii. 33 ff. ; Pesiktha Rabb., §§ 30 and 33.

4 1 4 The Jewish Quarterly Review.

The Pre-Talmudic Haggada. 4 1 5

1 The drawing of a magic circle, ascribed also to the prophet Habakkuk, and even to Plato (see Z. d. M. L . G., X X V I I I . , 49), and to Moses (Aboth di R. Nathan, ed. Schechter, p. 156), is part of the mystic practice of the Gnostics (see Dietrich Abraxas, 158). About this esoteric love of the Essenes the instructive work of A. Dietrech, Abraxas, 1891, gives in teresting information. No one who has read this book w i l l be i n doubt any longer that the םרימה ירפס, condemned as containing obnoxious heresy, are the writings of Hermes, i n which Jewish pseudography took a prominent part, and not Homeros, as Dr. Kohut, nor ἱμερος, as D. Kassel, nor ἡμερασια, as Graetz proposed to read. They must have had some sacred character, or else the Mishnah’s declaration, Yadaim at the close: םידי תא ןיאמממ ןיא would be more than superfluous.