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(jt)Heighway, Osborn W. Trenery : LEILA ADA, THE JEWISH CONVERT: AN AUTHENTIC MEMOIR

Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1853. 12mo. Vii, 230 pages. First edition. Tissued frontispiece engraving of Leila Ada, inscribed "Yours in Jesus, Leila Ada. " A quote from the first chapter: "The Mishna is said to be an oral law, received from the lips of God, and intended as an exponent of his written law. But we should transgress the purity which religion demands, were we to quote some of its puerile and absurd follies. If those who penned it set about their work with an intention to shock common sense, and load the Jewish religion with contempt, they could scarcely have acquitted themselves better. And let no one suppose that our strictures are unkind: any one at all acquainted with the Mishna, will at once perceive them to be within the bounds of that charity and pity, which we owe to those who err. Indeed, it were but too easy to quote passages which would justify our severest censures. But withal, the Mishna is surrounded with a degree of obscurity and hardness, owing to its orientalisms, and a considerable pervasion of a sort of Hebræo-Grecism in its structure. This obscurity has given rise to another commentary, called the Gemara, or completion. One Gemara, written in Palestine, forms with the Mishna, the Jerusalem Talmud, and another, written at Babylon, composes the Babylonish Talmud, Thus the Mishna, which the Jews declare to be God's own interpretation of his law, requires interpretation from man, and the whole together forms a mighty work of twelve folio volumes. These are the volumes which contain the whole of the Jewish divinity; for, dishonouring to God, they have almost completely withdrawn the Jews from the study of Moses and the Prophets. In common with the rest of her nation, the Talmud formed the basis of Leila's religious education. Of the Old Testament she knew comparatively little. It is far from certain, indeed, that she knew a great deal of the Talmud. For this there were causes: -first, she did not like its study: she tells us in her Reflections, that while believing in its divinity, as she was instructed, she experienced a smothered dislike to many of its forms, observances, and precepts. 'I felt it, ' she says, 'smouldering at the bottom of my heart long before I had moral courage to permit a single thought upon it. I shuddered at my suspicions as blasphemous, yet I could not conquer them. But as the Spirit of God opened my eyes, I felt no difficulty in fully avowing my severest thoughts upon the inane, absurd, debasing studies of the Talmud. I felt no compunction while I openly declared to my own heart that it was an impure, stupid fabrication, composed by fallen and sinful man. ' What a volume is contained in these few thrilling sentences! Would the sons of Jacob speak out, how many would tell us the same story? Impossible it is but that among them there are thousands who, while they dare not repudiate the Talmud, are conscious of a feeling of offence at its impurities, and absurdities. Secondly, her father, although strictly a Jew in belief and profession, gave himself little trouble about their requirements and observances, and, therefore, was very far from pressing them upon his daughter. " Singerman 1278. SUBJECT (S) : Christian converts from Judaism -- Biography. Lacks outer binding. Ex-library with minimal markings. Usual age staining. First signature detached, but present. Text in good condition. (AMR-5-28)

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