dignity beyond all his predecessors (B), and reigned as ablo- ruined by lute as any eaftern monarch; which raised fuch diffentions their dif between him and the chiefs of the academies, as quickly fentions. haftened their downfal". That of Pundebita had chofen R. Mifbifher for their chief, and David immediately appointed another, and the jealoufy which reigned between thofe two arose to such a height, during the space of five years, that the only expedient they could think of to put an end to it, was to erect two schools in that place, tho' it had a contrary effect. That of Sora had scarcely raised itself up from the low degree it had formerly funk into, when David fent likewise thither one R: Jom Tob, a man fo ignorant and unfit, that the academy must have been foon abandoned, had not they sent for a proper perfon from Egypt, to prefide over, and raise the character of it. This was R. Saadiah, a man of great learn- R. Saadiing and abilities, and who made it his firft care to explode the ah opposed doctrine of the tranfmigration of fouls, which had gone cur- by the rent for many ages, not only among the Perfians and Arabs, chief. but even among the Jews. He had already made fome progrefs in it, when the prince of the captivity fent for him to fubfcribe to a new regulation which he thought was repugnant to the Jewish laws, and which he therefore stiffly refused to fign, and thereby made him fo far his utter enemy, that he was forced to retire, and feek for fhelter in fome place out of his reach, where he continued till the breach between them was happily made up (C).. * GANTZ TZEMACH, p. 130. (B) The Jews complain that their chiefs till then ufed to pay tribute to the Khalifs, but that he found means to fhake off that ignominious yoke; to which two things chiefly contributed, viz. his long reign of thirty years and upwards, and the weakness of the then Khalif, Mochtader, who had been depofed twice by his officers, and was wholly governed by them t. (C) This refufal, we are told, fo exafperated the Jewish chief, that he fent at firft his fon to him, with a threatening to have his head broke, if he did not obey, and other opprobrious THE language, with which Saadiah It was during this recefs that Found a new aca Jews very THE Jewish nation was at this time so numerous and pow. numerous. erful, that they reckoned no less than nine hundred thousand of them in the city of Pherutz-Shiboor (D). This number may probably have been greatly exaggerated by the Jewish writers. However, here it was that they had founded a new academy, at the head of which was the famed R. Sherira, under whom it flourished about thirty years. He was a man of great learning, but a mortal enemy to the Chriftians, especially to 1037. the monks; and was, on that account, highly respected by his fcholars and the whole nation, and being at length worn out with age, left the chair to his fon Hay, whom the Jews ftyled the most excellent of all the excellent. The rest of his character and writings the reader may fee in the margin (E). demy. of thofe books which were fince (D) This city, whose name fignifies the breach of Sapor, ftood about five miles diftant from Babylon, and is by fome fuppofed to have been built by Sapor II. king of Perfia, a great conqueror, who built many cities in that kingdom. Others afcribe the honour of it to rabbi Shiabour or Sapor XV. though he only founded the academy of it (39). But what hath (E) He is pretended to be lineally defcended from king David, and as fuch bore the lion in his arms, as did all the kings of Judah, "pursuant to Jacob's prophecy concerning that tribe (40), rendered him still more famous, was the number and variety of his writings, fuch as his treatise on buying or felling, pledges, wages, and on the interpretation of dreams, which last was printed at Venice, among fome other pieces of R. Solomon Jarchi, on the fame fubject (41), an. 1623. At Amfterdam, an. (39) Vid. D. Herbelot. Bibl. Orient. fub. voc. (4) Vid. Gn. xlix. 9. See al Anc. Hift. vol. iii. p. 450. & feq. (P), (41) Bartoloc, Bibl. Rabbin, vol. ii. p. 387. He is faid to have been the laft, as well as the greatest, of all the Gaons, or fublimes, and to have prefided at that academy 1636, and 1642. And at Wetmersdorff, with the Shabare Zion, or Gates of Sion, an. 1690 (42). His book intitled Mishphete Shebughath, or judgments on oaths, in zo fections, printed at Venice, an. 1602, in which those on buying and felling, above-mentioned, were likewise printed there. His poetic treatise, intitled Muffar Haßbekel, or on the forming of the understanding, printed at Paris, an. 1562, and at Venice, an. 1579. His Piruh Shemoth 42 and 72, or an expofition of the names of God, written with 42 and with 72 letters (43). And laftly his questions on the book called Jetzirah, or a treatife of the formation, is remarkable for fhewing the manner in which the great name of God was anciently written at Jerufalem; which being fomewhat curious and uncommon we have here fubjoined (44). We shall forbear inferting the conjectures which fome learned Christians have drawn from the triplicate number of o's or circles, which they think to have been meant to fignify fo many lights, implying thereby the mystery of the three perfons in the Godhead. R. Hay was a great cabbalift, and hath not only explained the terms of that art, but his treatise of the voice of God, with power, is full of cabbalistical principles. His reputation was fo great among thofe of his nation, that they flocked to him from all parts, to confult and hear him; and he was chofen chief of the academy of Pundebita, as well as of that of Pherutz-fbiabboor, in which laft he had fucceeded his father, from the 29th year of his age. There is even some probability that he was chosen likewise chief of the captivity, during his father's life-time; but they both did, by fome means, fo exafperate those of their nation, that they fell into difgrace fome time after, under the khaliphat of Al-Kader, who being come to the crown, traifed a kind of perfecution against the Jews, for having taken too great advantage of the civil difcords that then reigned, and had affumed greater privileges than they had a right to claim. Among them Sherira, and his fon Hai, were accused of having raised their authority beyond its due bounds, and condemned to be ftript of all their wealth, dignities, and privileges. The former, who was then near 100 years of age, was apprehended and imprifoned, but the latter had the good luck to escape, and foon after to be reftored to his academy, over which he prefided till the year 1037 (45). (42) Vid. Wolf Bibl. Hæbr. p. 345. (43) Vid. Noflos Chochmab, p. 195, & Wolf, ub. fup. (44) De boc auct, vid plur. in Gantz Izemach David ad An. M. 4757, feu Chr. 997. Sepber Jucbafin, p. 125. Shalsbeļetb Hakkabalaḥ, p. 37. De boc vid. vol. iii. p. 120, & feq. (45) Gantz, ub.fup. & al. fup. citat. Jews perjecuted. about 40 years. He died in the year 1037, and in the 69th of his age*s His fucceffor Hezechias, chief of the captivity, was more unfortunate under that Khalif, as well as the Jews under him; he being put to death with all his family, except two of his fons, who fled into Spain, by the time he had enjoyed that dignity about two years: after which the academies were ordered to be fhut up, and the learned doctors obliged to retire into the weft; whither they were followed by the rest of that nation, to avoid further perfecution. A year or two before, that is, about the beginning of Hezechias's reign, happened that famed fchifm between the fons of Afber and Naphthali, which is looked The rife of upon to have given birth to the firft Mafforites. They are at least the first grammarians that took upon them to revise and correct the facred books (F). However that may be, the persecution, a new fchifm. * GANTZ ibid. fub. A. M. 4797. Juchas. p. 125, Shalfhel. Hakkabal. p. 37. BARTOLOC. WOLF, HOTTINGER Hift. Eccl. N. T. §xi. p. 495: (F) They were called Mofes and Aaron; and as to their ftyling themselves the fons of Aber and Naphthali, that was the name of their tribe, and not of their parents. Aaron hath been fuppofed by fome critics (46) to have been a native of Tiberias, because that academy, over which he prefided, took his part against Mofes, and his eaftern followers, who preferred the corrections of his antagonifts. It were loft labour to enquire after his native country, but it is plain, from the Jewish historians, that he taught in the eaft, under Hezechias, from which he might afterwards retire to Tiberias, on account of the perfecution. And here it was that the doctors gave him the preference to Mofes, as he had preferred that city and academy to all others, to take refuge in. However, the difpute (46) Capel. Arcan. Pun&tat. between him and his competitor, was not about the points, as Capellus imagined, but about the terms of fcripture. A learned critic in thofe matters, who had examined the corrections of Aaron, both printed and in manufcript, makes very light of them (47), and thinks them pofterior to the Majorah, and tho' new, yet too trifling, notwithstanding the noise which that divifion hath made, which is no more than common, moft of the school disputes being of that nature. However, if he is right, it ftill fhews the authority of the Hebrew to be the greater, and that the original text, had till then been fo far preferved in its purity, as to ftand in no great need of their correction. That these two competitors flourished in the eleventh century, feems indifputable not (47) Simon Hift. Crit. V. T. only perfecution, which was partly owing to the civil difcords that then reigned among the Khalifs (of which we have spoke more fully in their history †) and partly to the jealousy which they conceived of the chief of the captivity, and of their raifing fome revolt, proved fo fevere and violent, as to bring on not only the deftruction of their family, the fhuting up of all the academies, as we lately hinted, but likewise to oblige the rest Expelled of the Jewish nation to seek for refuge, fome in the deserts from the of Arabia, and others in the provinces of the weft. And east. here it is that most authors place the total extinction of the Retire into dignity of the princes of the captivity; tho' if we may believe Spain, the Jewish travellers Benjamin de Tudela, and rabbi Peta- &c. chiah, who vifited thofe parts in the 12th century, they ftill End of found one of thofe chiefs among the difperfed Jews in Perfia, their who was called Samuel, and boasted himself lineally defcend-princes. ed from the great prophet of that name; and for proof of it, produced a regular genealogy from the one quite down to the other; which, if true, proves, ift. that those princes were not all of the lineage of David, as the Jews pretend: fecondly, that they were not wholly abolished in the 11th century, tho' they must be supposed to have funk much from their former fplendor and authority, if they really enjoyed more than the bare name. And as for the academies, especially thofe of Sora, Pundebita, and Pharutz-Shiboor, it plainly appears that they were quite abolished from the year 1039; and if any schools were left in those parts that affumed the name of academies, they were too poor and obfcure to deserve it (G). We have Vol. iii. p. 131, & feq. Y SOLOMON, BEN VIRG. Sheveth Jehudah, p. 307. only because they taught in the (G) The Chriftians have taken occafion from thence to |