a
real delight to the Jews, and it is natural that such books were often
compiled for the masses. Mention must be made of the _Zeena u-Reena_
("Go forth and see"), a work written at the beginning of the eighteenth
century in Jewish-German for the use of women, a work which is still
beloved of the Jewess. But the seeds sown by Abarbanel and others of his
school eventually produced an abundant harvest. Mendelssohn's German
edition of the Pentateuch with the Hebrew Commentary (_Biur_) was the
turning-point in the march towards the modern exposition of the Bible,
which had been inaugurated by the statesman-scholar of Spain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABARBANEL.

Graetz.--IV, II.

I.S. Meisels.--_Don Isaac Abarbanel_, _J.Q.R._, II, p. 37.

S. Schechter.--_Studies in Judaism_, p. 173 [211].

F.D. Mocatta.--_The Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition_
(London, 1877).

Schiller-Szinessy.--_Encycl. Brit._, Vol. I, p. 52.

EXEGESIS 16th-18th CENTURIES.

Steinschneider.--_Jewish Literature_, p. 232 _seq._

BIUR.

_Specimen of the Biur_, translated by A. Benisch (_Miscellany
of the Society of Hebrew Literature_, Vol. I).

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SHULCHAN ARUCH

Asheri's Arba Turim.--Chiddushim and Teshuboth.--Solomon ben
Adereth.--Meir of Rothenburg.--Sheshet and Duran.--Moses and
Judah Minz.--Jacob Weil, Israel Isserlein, Maharil.--David Abi
Zimra.--Joseph Karo.--Jair Bacharach.--Chacham Zevi.--Jacob
Emden.--Ezekiel Landau.

The religious literature of the Jews, so far as practical life was
concerned, culminated in the publication of the "Table Prepared"
(_Shulchan Aruch_), in 1565. The first book of its kind compiled after
the invention of printing, the Shulchan Aruch obtained a popularity
denied to all previous works designed to present a digest of Jewish
ethics and ritual observances. It in no sense superseded the "Strong
Hand" of Maimonides, but it was so much more practical in its scope, so
much clearer as a work of general reference, so much fuller of
_Minhag_, or established custom, that it speedily became the universal
hand-book of Jewish life in many of its phases. It was not accepted in
all its parts, and its blemishes were clearly perceived. The author,
Joseph Karo, was too tender to the past, and admitted some things which
had a historical justification, but which Karo himself would have been
the first to reject as principles of conduct for his own or later times.
On