ble slaves, degenerate in language and habits,
purchasing the right to live by a tax (_Leibzoll_), in many cities still
wearing a yellow badge, timid, embittered, pale, eloquently silent, the
Jews herded in their Ghetto with its single Jew-gate--they, the
descendants of the Maccabees, the brethren in faith of proud Spanish
grandees, of Andalusian poets and philosophers. The congregations were
poor; immigrant Poles filled the offices of rabbis and teachers, and
occupied themselves solely with the discussion of recondite problems.
The evil nonsense of the Kabbalists was actively propagated by the
Sabbatians, and on the other hand the mystical _Chassidim_ were
beginning to perform their witches' dance. The language commonly used
was the _Judendeutsch_ (the Jewish German jargon) which, stripped of its
former literary dignity, was not much better than thieves' slang. Of
such pitiful elements the life of the Jews was made up during the first
half of the eighteenth century.

Suddenly there burst upon them the great, overwhelming Renaissance! It
seemed as though Ezekiel's vision were about to be fulfilled:[76] "The
hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the
Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones...
there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very
dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I
answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon
these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause
breath to enter into you, and ye shall live ... and ye shall know that I
am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied,
there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together,
bone to his bone ... the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the
skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he
unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the
wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and
breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he
commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood
up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son
of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel."

Is this not a description of Israel's history in modern days? Old
Judaism, seeing the ma