COMPILED FROM THE TALMUD AND OTHER RABBINICAL RABBI CONGR. "TEMPLE OF ISRAEL," WILMINGTON, N. C. до BALTIMORE: M. CURLANDER, LAW BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER. 1891. ISA 980 TO THE READER. As these paragraphs, now ready for the printer, lie before me, I imagine them in your hands, and hear you enquire after their author's object in penning and publishing them. To satisfy your natural curiosity, I beg leave to point to the motto and to the conclusion of this work, and to assure you that I had in view no other than the two-fold object of acquainting those to whom the Talmud is "as a sealed book" with an important part of its contents-its system of criminal jurisprudence; and of thus contributing my mite towards the vindication of the Israelitish people's ancient literature from the aspersions cast upon it by inimical and, not unfrequently, ignorant writers. Which of these motives first prompted this labor, I am unable to determine even for myself; but I trust that you will appreciate the importance of both together. Mr. Arnold has truly said: "Every thing of the nature of law has a peculiar interest and value, because it is the expression of the deliberate mind of the supreme government of society; and as history, as commonly written, records so much of the |