Count Teleki : a story of modern Jewish life and customs

Preface

IN the Autumn of 18 — I was staying at that most delightful of all Swiss hotels, the Beau Rivage, on the lake of Geneva. One evening, whilst enjoying from the balcony in front of my rooms the glorious sunset, bathing in its gold red light the coronet of snow on the distant peaks of Mont Blanc, and the vine-clad mountains reflected in the azure mirror of the lake below, my attention was attracted by a lady contemplating from an adjoining balcony the scene before her. I have faintly attempted to describe her in the Roxandra de Rudolstadt of these pages. It was my good fortune a few days after to meet my fair incognita at a pic-nic in Baron H.'s grounds, and to be introduced. The introduction led to a friendship which death only lately severed. She was the daughter of a French banker of Hebrew faith ; but much to her father's deep sorrow had com pleted her Judaism by embracing Christianity.

Shortly after her conversion she married a young Frenchman of noble birth and good fortune. When I first made her acquaintance she was intending to stay some little time on the shores of Lake Leman, with her husband and

PREFACE.

. VI family, preparatory to wintering at Nice, for her health was then delicate. The history and customs of that high Oriental caste which under the name of Jews are the exiles of the world, had always been a subject of great interest to me ; and my conversation with the Vicomtesse de * * * often turned upon the rites of those who had formerly been of her creed. I could have had no more instructive companion. She was well read in Oriental literature, partly from having lived some time in the East, where her husband was engaged in a diplomatic mission by the French Government, and partly from her natural love for all matters connected with the manners and customs of Eastern nations. As regards her own race, had she belonged to the other and more scholarly sex she could not have possessed a deeper knowledge of their religious observances.

I became an attentive listener. The result was that I acquired an amount of information of a peculiar kind which I thought, if published, might be of some value both to the Biblical student and general reader. I became the more encouraged to carry my idea into execution from the ignorance which I soon dis covered the world at large possesses respecting the ceremonies and observances of those from whom we have adopted many of their laws and customs, all their literature, and all their religion. It is hoped that the following pages may tend in a measure to dispel this ignorance. Junior Carlton Club, April, 1869. CONTENTS. CHAP. PACE I. INTRODUCTORY I II. MODERN JUDAISM 19 III. WITH THE CHIEF RABBI 44 IV. MODERN JUDÆA 59 V. "THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY" JT, VI. THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT 103 VII. THE RUDOLSTADTS 120 VIII.

ASCOT 149 IX. A JEWISH FUNERAL 173 X. "WHAT IS THE TALMUD?" 1 89 XI. AT ILFRACOMBE 204 XII. l'homme propose 224 XIII. THE NEW YEAR AND THE DAY OF ATONE MENT 242 XIV. FEAST OF TABERNACLES CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE XV. TEIGNBRIDGE 270 XVI. THE FEAST OF DEDICATION 29O XVII. "THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE INFERNO". 303 XVIII. DISCOVERED 325 XIX. AT SHRECKENSTEIN 343 XX. THE FEAST OF PASSOVER 357 XXI. EOTHEN 370 XXII. FINIS

Chapter I. Introductory

COLD grey morning in May. The sky a dull leaden colour. Ploughing the chopping sea between Dover and Calais, the night-mail packet. The cliffs of Calais fast blending with the horizon, and the white shores of England becoming at every pulse of the revolving paddle-wheels distincter and more distinct. Wind blowing strongly from the east. On the quarter-deck passengers walking quickly to and fro, smoking and gaily chatting : others lying down, victims of the worst of human sufferings — vial de mer. Frenchmen clothed in quaint garments and hideous head-gear, pale, tired, and bored, melancholily gazing at la perfide Albion. Germans loudly speaking their guttural language to each other whilst making earnest and pantomimical gestures. Englishmen and Americans smoking, laughing, and abusing the rheumatic wind B that swept the decks fore and aft.

Sailors active like monkeys, uncovering tarpaulins, hauling ropes, and quickly obeying rapid orders, for the packet Breeze was nearing Dover harbour. A party of young Englishmen, returning from the Paris races, were standing near the man at the wheel, talking and laughing. " And so Dizzy is to be Prime Minister ?" " So the papers say. Who are going to form the Ministry ?" " Oh, all kinds of reports. Moses and Son have been offered the Board of Trade, I hear — latest intelligence from the Minories." " I say, Charley, if the Chancellorship of the Exche quer goes a-begging we could recommend one or two of the 'peculiar people' well fitted by long financial practice among the nobility and gentry to suck the blood of the nation." " Yes. I was thinking of sending Mossy Bob's name in to my governor at the Treasury.

His experience in bills would be useful in Parliament, and the Irish members would support him to a man on the strength of borrowing at less interest. That's something, now this Irish Church question is coming on." " My governor says Dizzy is safe to be defeated on the Irish Church." " Our Hebrew premier and the Protestant religion ! wouldn't be a bad cry to go to the country on." " Excellent." INTRODUCTORY. 3 " Has Dr. Cumming written anything about Disraeli's elevation being one of the signs of the times, and that now the chosen people are about to return to Jerusalem ?" " I wish they would : perhaps in their eager desire to revisit their native land they might forget sundry bits of paper with my valuable signature attached." " Not likely, my boy. The memory of the Caucasian mystery is tenacious, as we all know by what our papas would say, alas ! sad experience."

" They say that Rothschild is going to be King of Jerusalem as soon as he has won the Derby — in fact that he has bought the Plains of Mamre already, as exercis ing grounds for his horses." "Quite correct, my boy, as your information always is. A racecourse is going to be made between Jaffa and Jerusalem. The Passover Cup is to be run before Good wood ; the Lebanon Stakes and the Houndsditch Steeple Chase in the October meetings. These are the only three races subscribed for at present." " Dull place, Jerusalem ! I was there last year with my people. Awfully slow. Nothing to do, except seeing a lot of Jews in sackcloth and ashes. All very well if you care about seeing curiosities, Noah's Ark, and all that kind of thing — divinity, you know — beyond that, as Sir Charles says, nothing in it."

" But I say, it's an awful thing to think that the head of the Government — the first man in Europe — is a Jew, — a ' Eberew Jew,' as they say on the stage. Shades of B former premiers, can ye rest in your graves and see your parliamentary descendants so insulted !" " Not at all. I'd far rather see Dizzy in than Glad stone, and those Reformers. Conservatism and the Cau casian mystery for ever ! Le Jew est fail. Vive le Jew ! as they say in Baden." " It's all bosh about his being a Jew. There are very grave doubts about his having ever been one, and if it were so, he's not a Jew now. I look upon Disraeli as the first man of the age." " Well, I don't believe in proselytes, for my part. Religion's like bachelorhood, once changed one never can be suited." " Besides, I object on the grounds of political economy," said another.

" Political economy ! Good heavens, where did the fellow get the word from ? He's been reading a book and muddling himself in his old age, I do believe. Go on Dick, my son." " Shut up ! I object on political economical grounds, for I have heard that, by an abstruse arithmetical calcu lation made by the most eminent Cambridge men and Broad Church divines, it takes a small fortune to convert a Jew. Now, I consider that that fortune, whatever it is, ought to be appropriated to a more patriotic and cheaper cause." " Hear, hear, Dick. Le Jew ne vautpas la chandelle /' "My dear boy, that is twice within the last few minutes that you have quoted French, and barring the INTRODUCTORY. 5 pronunciation, you speak it well. How long have you been on the Continong?" " None of your chaff." " Charley has been staying at Baden, under very Parisian influences, which accounts for his marvellous progress."

" Oh, have you ? Had good sport ?" " Nothing much : just a little ' flutter,' that's all." " Any one break the bank whilst you were there ?': " Yes. There was rather a good match between a Jew and a Greek who were stopping at the ' Stephanie.' The Greek bet the Jew a thousand louis that he would break the bank first, both to play with the same capital, and each to stick to one colour throughout. The Jew chose the red, and each began with something like 7000/. Having the most sublime confidence in the race of Israel whenever the acquisition of money is their object, I backed the Jew for a monkey, with Harry Clavering, against his opponent. For a time the colours turned up fairly evenly, but after a bit there was a run upon the black, and Mein Herr the Hebrew playing the maximum every time got it rather hot, and I saw the drops of perspiration like the dew of Mount Hermon standing on his brow, and I thought my monkey looked awfully fishy.

But Israel, as usual, was equal to the occasion, and played with great pluck. The colour changed, and there was a run on the red for twenty-five consecutive times — the Jew all the time playing double — I mean staking the maximum at the same time both on the colour and on manque, and losing upon neither. The result was that he cleaned his friend the Greek entirely out, broke the bank, and won me my monkey." " Bravo !" " He did rather a neat thing, that same Jew. Opposite him, whilst he was steadily winning, was a very pretty girl, who had lost every thing, and womanlike, put up her pretty hands, and began to cry. Quietly the Hebrew handed over to her a five-thousand-franc note, saying, 'Pardon, madame, un tnouchoir!' Rather neat, I thought." "Very. Gallant Moses !" "By Jove, I see the 'Lord Warden,' quite distinctly.

I vote we breakfast there, and go up to town by a later train." "Agreed !" Listening to this highly instructive conversation was a young man, apparently of about twenty-five years of age. His arms were folded, and his lip from time to time slightly curled with scorn as he surveyed the several speakers. He was dressed in dark grey, with a thick great coat, lined with sable, and with cuffs and collars of the same fur, closely buttoned round his tall, well-made figure. On his head was a felt hat, shaped like that worn by a Tyrolese peasant. When the Englishmen had finished their conversation, he turned round and walked up and down the deck. Occasionally he took off his hat, and let the cold keen wind play around his black clustering curls. Let me INTRODUCTORY. 7 take one of these opportunities to describe him.

A broad — not lofty — forehead, all the more white from the contrast afforded by the rich, dark hair that surmounted it, curled a la Byron. Eyes, deep-set, dark, and singu larly lustrous — a sort of liquid film in their lustre — fringed with long, thick black lashes curling upwards, like those of an Italian woman. Eyebrows well arched, silky, but distinctly pencilled, gave a marked expres sion of penetration to his face, the complexion of which was a clear white, seldom seen except in the region of the Caucasus. A nose, not Grecian, not Roman, but a well-sculptured blending of the two, the bridge clearly cut, with nostrils delicate and transparent as a beauty's ; one of those noses that Leech used so well to portray in his ' swells.' A short upper lip met a mouth curved like Apollo's bow — the lips full, but not too full, just enough to give a slight expression of animalism to a face almost too refined and delicate for a man.

The chin resolute and well cut. No beard or whisker tended to vulgarize his patrician features, only a slight black silky moustache, carefully kept, and often stroked by its owner. His head was exquisitely small and well shaped, and set on a neck white and full as a column of marble. Lovers of race would have seen in him those two unmistakeable signs of good birth — hands white, well shaped, taper fingered ; and feet small as a woman's, and with insteps arched like an Arab's. His figure was tall and graceful, and as he paced to and fro the deck, his air of bon ton attracted the envious gaze of more than one London dandy, who wondered who the deuce that fellow was. Steamboat report put him down as a Russian prince. " Will you have some breakfast, sir ?" said the steward. " Coffee, tea, eggs and bacon, and a 'am down below, sir." Said the stranger in a voice sost and musical, but with a marked foreign accent, " I thank you ; I shall wait till I arrive in London."

" Long time to wait, sir. It's now six, and you wont be in London till nine." " You know London ?" " Depends upon what you calls London. I don't know much of the West End, except to take my missus to the theayters when I'm off duty ; but I knows the city, every hinch of it, cos my father's one of the warders of the Tower, you know, sir." " I know nothing. It is my first visit to England. I am directed to go to Finsbury-square, in the city. You know it ?" " Oh certainly. I knows Finsbury — it isn't what I call a slap-up part of the town — full of Jews, doctors, and such like, but it's quiet and respectable. Long way from the West End though, sir." " I care not. It is the East End of London which I wish to see. Your Exchange, your Tower, your Bank your Bishopsgate-street, your Houndsditch." " Oh ! don't say our Houndsditch, sir. We don't live there — only them Jew people.

It's full of them — them as ain't got much money, though for my part I never INTRODUCTORY. 9 knew'd a Jew wot hadn't got much money. What with cheating, prigging, and receiving stolen goods, they ought to be rich, oughtn't they, sir ? A bad lot, sir. I've met a goodish many, but I never seed their virtues, only their wices. Show me a Jew, and I'll show you wice. But what can you expect from a people what hates Christianity ; and as I hear crucifies their babies out of derision to us, and only believes in what they calls circumscissoring — a kind of hopposition shop to our baptism !" " You appear to know a great deal of these people," said the stranger, quietly. " Yes, sir. My father lives not far from them. Hounds ditch ain't a hundred miles from the Tower, you see, sir. Can't live near a Jew without knowing summut of him precious soon, but still at the same time there's a good deal of prejudice concerning them among us.

I have known Jews as is no Jews — people quite content with fifty per cent, profit, and a asking three times as much as other people ; but them is the exception, I own. They've got a place down there which they calls a Sinnersgog, a kind of church, you know, sir, where they reads out of a book backwards, and prays with their hats on, all the time a jumping up and sitting down, and kicking up doose's own delight. They're a rummy lot, sir ; and ain't they cunning ! I never knew but one man who got the advantage of a Jew, and it were in this way. You see, sir " " Thank you, I am not curious on the subject," said the stranger, curtly, and turning on his heel. Three hours later he arrived in London. Of all the dreary localities of London, Finsbury-square is the dreariest. It bears a striking relationship to its sister spot of exile, Bloomsbury-square.

Equally gloomy and deserted, it looks like an oasis of uninhabitation and neglect in the midst of a busy thoroughfare. Here and there the names of several doctors — doctors not yet risen to the medical purple of Saville-row or Albemarle-street — appear on the different doors of the houses, and those of a few merchants on dirty wire blinds, show the world that the large gaunt houses are occupied. No children gambol in the garden of the square ; nurses are never seen wheeling perambulators within its sacred enclo sure. Not a carriage ever stands at any door, not a pedestrian walks its forlorn pavement. It would appear as if its inhabitants lived entirely within their doors, never stirring out, and the rest of the world avoiding them rigorously. In this remote, unfriendly, melancholy spot are a few hotels, something of the Leicester-square type, on a strictly private scale, and looking cleaner.

At one of these, the cab containing our steamboat stranger stopped. A private servant, evidently a valet, immediately came forward. " Well, Steiner," said the stranger, in German. " Good morning, Herr Count. Your apartments are ready ; be pleased to follow me." And so saying, the valet led his master into a suite of rooms on the drawing-room floor, handsomely but gaudily furnished, and in bad taste. INTRODUCTORY. 11 " Prepare my room, Steiner, and unpack my things." " And so at last I am in England," said the stranger, throwing himself into a crimson satin fauteuil that flamed against the window; "this England, the country of so many of my exiled race, once our bitterest persecutor, now our freest home ! Surely here, in this country, so just in its laws, so jealous of its freedom, so genuine in its sympathies, whose benevolence and philanthropy are proverbial amongst my people abroad ; this England, to whom we all look for aid in moments of oppression and persecution, surely here I shall find the dark clouds of prejudice rolled away, and my race basking in the sunshine of honour and respect."

He paused for a few moments, then continued — " And if not, what care we ? Here, if prejudice remain, the law at least makes us equal. No oppressive edicts control us, confining our talents, degrading our manhood's honour — here in this country I have so much heard of, all professions are open to us ; Jew and Gentile fight alike — not perhaps equally, but still both unre stricted — in the arena of life for the world's prizes. Here, though a Jew is a Jew, and hence subject to narrow-minded prejudice and the worldling's ridicule — as I saw on the steamer to-day — yet here he is a man for all that. Where freedom exists, I fear not Israel's reputation. Oh, Christianity ! you have bound us down with cruel laws, hounded us from land to land, oppressed us killed us, tortured us, endeavoured to annihilate us, but we still exist ; whilst other nations have perished off the face of the earth beneath a quarter of our sufferings ; and in our existence we learn the immutable laws of ethno logy, that a superior race can not be absorbed in an inferior !

Upbraid us, when you left but one profession open to us — usury, and took our life when we but mur mured and wished for other channels for our industry ; and then wonder that you made us a mercenary and servile people ! All we have been we owe to your accursed hate ; all we shall be will be due to ourselves. Oh, Christianity ! you hated creed of a hated prophet" — said the stranger, with a curling lip — " all that you pos sess is deduced from us, the victims of your pretended derision ! Ay, you jealous Christians, pretended derision, for in despising us you throw derision on yourselves ! Our prophets are your own. The sacred history of our sacred race is your lamp to your feet and lantern to your paths. In your cathedrals and churches you read the pages of our fathers, and sing the melodies of our grandest Psalmist.

Nay, the very additions to your faith are yet from us ; your priests vainly attempting to deduce their apostolical succession, only prove their wish and anxiety to be considered as the spiritual descendants of Jews. The proud Pontiff of Rome owes all his idolatrous glory to being the pretended successor of him who forsook the religion of his race — the apostle whom you call Saint Peter. And He, your Founder and chief corner-stone, your Redeemer and acknowledged Saviour, who perished by my ancestry, who was He but a Jew of the purest type — the Jewish INTRODUCTORY. 13 son of a Jewish carpenter ! Inconsistent sect ! you cling to the garments of a Jew, and from his past history evolve your own religion, and then despise him for all you owe to him ! But what cares the fountain head for the pollution of its stream ?

Give us Liberty and Equality, we care not for Fraternity, and the world shall soon see that the glory has not departed from Israel ! The sceptre has not departed from Judah, 'tis only held in abeyance for a time by the will of the Great Eternal ; and the clouds are now fast dissolving that so long have enveloped you, my beloved race, in misery and oppression ; and the time is nigh at hand when you will have ceased your sufferings, and avenged your wrongs !" His soliloquy was interrupted by the entrance of his servant. " All is prepared, Herr Count." " Good. I shall breakfast an hour hence." And the stranger entered an inner apartment, through one of the folding doors. It was a good-sized room, containing the usual bed-room furniture in heavy dark mahogany. Over the chimney-piece, which looked to wards the East, was what appeared to be a small notice, framed and hung like a picture.

It contained these words : — " Misrach. For from the rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering ; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts." The stranger having completed his toilet, stood sor a few moments in meditation ; then going to where his sui great coat was hanging up, he took out of its breast pocket a small red bag ; this bag he placed on the mantelpiece, and proceeded to turn up the sleeves of the left arm of his coat and shirt till his arm was perfectly bare. He now took out from the little bag what looked like two small leathern ink-pots, to which long black straps were attached ; one of these he placed on his naked arm, binding its long strap seven times round at intervals of an inch till it reached his wrist, when he carried it along his palm, and twined it round his middle finger three times, and then twice around his palm.

Whilst performing this strange proceeding he said in Hebrew — " Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy precept, and commanded us to wear phylacteries. Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." The stranger now took from the same bag a similar ornament, and placed it round his head, repeating at the same time the following blessings : — " Blessed art Thou, O Lord, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy precepts, and given to us the precept of phylacteries." Upon the coverlet of the bed was extended a long INTRODUCTORY. 15 white silken mantle, with a deep blue border, and fringes at its four corners ; this he now took and care fully examined the small knots at the end of the fringes, to see that they were all correct, and not damaged in the packing and unpacking.

During the examination he uttered the following prayer : — " Bless the Lord, O my soul : O Lord my God, Thou art very great ; Thou art clothed with honour and majesty ; who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment, who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain. Behold, I prepare my body to cover myself with a com manded covering for the only sacred and blessed name and His Sh'chinah, with fear and love, with perfect unity in the name of all Israel. Behold, I come to cover myself with a vestment of fringes, to perform the precept of my Creator, as it is written, ' That they make them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of their borders a riband of blue.' For blue is like the sea, and the sea is like the sky, and the sky is like the throne of glory ; and as I am covering my body with fringes, so may my soul, its 248 members, and its 365 veins, be covered with the light of fringes which amounts to 613 ; and just as I cover myself with a talith in this world, so may I merit a Rabbinical mantle and a beautiful talith in the world to come, even in the garden of Eden ; and may my soul, body, spirit, and prayer, be delivered from the external ones on account of the precept of the fringes.

And may the talith spread its wings over them, and save them, ' as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over the young.' I come, therefore, to increase sanctity amongst the celestials, and to purify all wickedness and all blemishes that I have committed with my eyes, hands, and body, in this world." Having now satisfied himself that all the fringes were in perfect order, he placed the mantle upon his head, letting the ends fall gracefully behind, very much in the same way as a Spanish woman wears her mantilla. Whilst doing this, he prayed : — " Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us by Thy precepts, and hast given to us the precept of fringes ;" and immediately afterwards he uttered the following : — " Lord of the Universe, it is revealed and known to Thee, that my desire is to do Thy pleasure, and to perform all the precepts which Thou hast written in Thy law, and to attend to all the warnings which Thou hast denounced in Thy law.

May it please Thee, O Lord my God, and the God of my fathers, that Thou mayest be my helper, that I may be prevented from transgressing, either to-day, or any day, even one of the 365 precepts of prohibition ; and that I may be enabled to perform to day, and every day, every precept that may happen to come in my way of the 248 precepts of commandment. And as sor those which I cannot perform, may my good will be taken as a deed, and may it be considered with Thee as if I had actually fulfilled them ; and that it may be made, through my fulfilling this precept, a spiritual garment for my soul, spirit, and breath, for my INTRODUCTORY. 17 spiritual members, and for my 365 spiritual veins ; that through it I may have a Rabbinical mantle in the world of spirits, in the garden of Eden, and be clothed in it at the resurrection of the dead in the world to tt come.

Having finished the above prayers, he took a prayer book from his toilet-table, and standing, dressed as I have described, facing the small picture-frame, read quickly but reverently the prayers for the Morning Service as prescribed in the Tephilloth, or daily form of prayer, according to the order of the German and Polish Jews. At the end of an hour his orisons were finished, and taking off his dress and ornaments, he proceeded to his sitting-room, where he found a substantial dejeuner a la fourchette awaiting him. Seating himself at the table, he said, " Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who bringeth forth bread from the earth," and then commenced his repast. As the different dishes were handed to him, he pronounced a separate blessing upon each. When he had finished, he stood up and said, " Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who feedeth the whole world with His good ness, and with grace, kindness, and mercy giveth food to every creature, for His mercy endureth for ever.