Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and R. Ishmael ben
Elisha were in truth more liberal-minded than the leaders of the
party of progress, notably than R. Akiba. Even the Ultramontanes
have never hesitated at departures from the usage of the ancient
and mediaeval church; and the Pharisaic rabbins were guided in
their innovations by liberal principles no more than they.
The object of the new determinations was simply to widen the
domain of the law in a consistent manner, to bring the individual
entirely under the iron rule of system. But the Jewish
communities gave willing obedience to the hierarchy of the
rabbins; Judaism had to be maintained, cost what it might. That
the means employed were well adapted to the purpose of maintaining
the Jews as a firmly compacted religious community even after all
bonds of nationality had fallen away cannot be doubted. But
whether the attainment of this purpose by incredible exertion was
a real blessing to themselves and the world may very well be
disputed.
One consequence of the process of intellectual isolation and of the
effort to shape everything in accordance with hard and fast rules
and doctrines was the systematisation and codification of juristic
and ritual tradition, a work with which a beginning was made in the
century following the destruction of Jerusalem.
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