We will notice first, the place held by its Rabbanim in the long succession of schools, or generations of scribes, students of the law, and commentators, which formed the boast of the Jewish nation after the destruction of Jerusalem. At the head of all are placed the Tanaim, the sages and learned men of Israel, who assisted Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh, in the third century, to commit to writing the Oral Law. The later Rabbins, whose explanations and paraphrases of that Mishna formed the two Talmuds, bear the name of Emoraim, or commentators.

(To be continued.)

THE FIRST-BORN OF EGYPT.

A LYRIC FOR THE PASSOVER.

WHEN life is forgot, and night hath power,
And mortals feel no dread;

When silence and slumber rule the hour,
And dreams are round the head;

God shall smite the first-born of Egypt's race,
The destroyer shall enter each dwelling-place-
Shall enter and choose his dead.

"To your homes," said the leader of Israel's host,
"And slaughter a sacrifice:

Let the life-blood be sprinkled on each door-post,
Nor stir till the morn arise;

And the angel of vengeance shall pass you by,
He shall see the red stain, and shall not come nigh
Where the hope of your household lies."

The people hear, and they bow them low-
Each to his house hath flown;

From the "Jewish Chronicle."

The lamb is slain, and with blood they go

And sprinkle the lintel-stone;

And the doors they close when the sun hath set,
But few in oblivion's sleep forget

The judgment to be done.

'Tis midnight-yet they hear no sound
Along the lone, still street;

No blast of a pestilence sweeps the ground,
No tramp of unearthly feet,
Nor rush as of harpy wing goes by,

But the calm moon floats in the cloudless sky,
'Mid her wan light clear and sweet.

From the couches of slumber ten thousand cries
Burst forth 'mid the silence dread-
The youth by his living brother lies
Sightless, and dumb, and dead.

The infant lies cold at his mother's breast,
She had kiss'd him alive as she sank to rest,
She awakens-his life hath fled!

And shrieks from the palace-chambers break-
Their inmates are steep'd in woe,

And Pharaoh hath found his proud arm too weak
To arrest the mighty blow:

Wail, King of the Pyramids! Egypt's throne
Cannot lighten thy heart of a single groan,
For thy kingdom's heir laid low.

Wail, King of the Pyramids! Death hath cast
His shafts through thine empire wide,
But o'er Israel in bondage his rage hath past,
No first-born of her's hath died.

Go, satrap! command that the captive be free,

Lest their God in fierce anger should smite even thee, On the crown of thy purple pride.

ANON.

London: Printed at the Operative Jewish Converts' Institution, Palestine Place, Bethnal Green.

THE JEWISH ADVOCATE.

JUNE, 1852.

THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE JEWS

PROPHECY.

VI.

"ISAIAH was the first of those four who are called the greater prophets. He prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, about the year 760 before Christ."

vii.

;

His writings contain many distinct prophecies respecting the restoration of Judah and Israel prophecies, which it seems impossible to apply to any other than to the two families into which the Lord's ancient people were and are divided. We shall, pursuing our former course, select some of these predictions, adding also, part of the remarks of a writer of the eighteenth century.

"Isaiah ii. 1.-The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz, saw, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

"2. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

"3. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

66

4. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

"Notwithstanding that this prophecy is, in verse 1, expressly said to be concerning Judah and Jerusalem, yet almost all commentators have applied it to the establishment of the Christian Church, which immediately followed the first coming of Christ, and its prevailing over the religion of the heathens. But in fact, those events do by no means answer to this prophetic description. For not to insist upon the time here specified, the last days; when was it, since this prophecy was delivered, that any nations of the world were so peaceably inclined, as to beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks? or that nation did not lift up sword against nation? nor learn war any more? On the contrary, has not this latter been the constant practice of all nations? and is it not so at this present time? This prophecy is therefore not yet fulfilled; but refers to that time, when the Lord shall restore his people Israel: and by taking both them and his whole church under his more immediate protection, and subduing all their enemies, shall. cause mercy and truth to meet together, righteousness and peace to kiss each other, and truth to

flourish out of the earth, until the final period of all things."

VIII.

“Isaiah xi. 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious.

“11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

"12. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of the earth.

13. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

"This prophecy is so express for a second restoration of Israel, (as appears by the 11th verse,) that if there were no other to be found, I think this alone would be enough to ascertain that event. Neither can it be truly asserted, that Israel has already been recovered a second time, or indeed ever recovered from all the places here mentioned. Besides, the words in that day do here plainly signify a time yet future; because they refer to the kingdom of the branch out of the root of Jesse, mentioned in ver. 1, the peaceableness and happiness of which is described in ver. 6-9, by the wolf's lying down with the Lamb,