288 M I E M I E published, with a critical commentary, at Vilna, by Salomon Buber (1880, 8vo), where also simultaneously a third edition of this Midrash on the last three books of Moses, with a short commentary on it, came out by Aharon Mosheh Padova, of Carlin. The Lckah Tab on the five Mcqilloth is as yet unpublished ; there exist, how ever, several good MSS. of it, both in public and private libraries, the finest copy in every respect being that preserved in the Uni versity Library, Cambridge (Add. 378. 1). (18) Mcnorath Hammaor is a scientific, though incomplete, collection of the principal Agadoth of the Talmudim and Midrashim, byR. Yizhak Abohab the elder( flourished 13th century). The editions, with and without translations, are very numerous, the ed. princ. being Constantinople, 1514, folio. There are trans lations in Spanish, Judaeo-German, and German, but not in English. We append two specimens of Midrashim, the first from Pesikotho, leaf 1276, and the second from Midrash Shemoth Rabbah, cap. ii. FIRST SPECIMEN. The Holy One (blessed be He!) said to the Prophets,i Go ye and comfort ye Jerusalem ! Then went HOSEA to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He!) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said, What hast tliou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (xiv. 6 [5]), "I will be as the dew unto Israel! " But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (ix. 16), " Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb!" and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the second prophecy ? Then went JOEL to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He!) sent me to ihee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (iv. 18), "And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, &c. ! " But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (i. 5), " Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth! " and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the second prophecy? Then went AMOS to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He !) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (ix. 11), " In that day will 1 raise up the taber nacle of David that is fallen ! " But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (v. 2), " The Virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise!" and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the second prophecy ? Then went MICAH 2 to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He !) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (vii. 18), "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoncth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?" But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (i. 5), " For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel, &c. !" and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the second prophecy ? Then went NAHUM to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He!) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (ii. 1 [i. 15]), " For the wicked shall no more pass through thee!" But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (i. 11), " There is one come out of thee that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor!" and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the second prophecy ( ? Then went HABAKKUK to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He!) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (iii. 18), " Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, even for the salvation with Thine Anointed One ! " But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (i. 2), " Lord, how long shall I cry and Thou wilt not hear, even cry out unto Thee of violence and Thou wilt not save ! " and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the second prophecy? Then went ZEPHANIAH to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He!) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (i. 12), " And it shall come to pass at that time that I shall search Jerusalem with lights!" But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (i. 15), "A day of darkness and gloominess! " and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the second prophecy ? Then went HAGGAI to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He!) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me ? The Prophet said (ii. 19), " Is the seed yet in the barn ! Yea, as yet the vine and the fig tree and the pomegranate and the olive tree hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you!" But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (i. 6), " Ye have sown much and bring in little, <fec. ! " and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the second prophecy. Then went ZECHARIAH to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He!) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (i. 15), "And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease : for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction ! " But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (i. 2), " The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers! " and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the last prophecy? Then went MALACHI to comfort her and said, The Holy One (blessed be He!) sent me to thee to comfort thee. She said to him, What hast thou in thine hand to comfort me? The Prophet said (iii. 12), "And all nations shall call you blessed : for ye shall be a delightsome land ! " But Jerusalem said to him, Only yesterday thou toldest me (i. 10), "I have no delight in you!" and now thou speakest to me thus. Which shall we believe, the first or the last prophecy? Then went all the Prophets to the Holy One (blessed be He!) saying to Him, Lord of the Universe, Jerusalem will not accept consolation at our hands. Then the Holy One (blessed be He!) said to them, "I and you will together go to comfort her; and this is why it says (Isaiah xl. 1), Comfort ye, comfort ye MY PEOPLE, comfort her WITH MK.S Comfort her, ye celestial ones! comfort her, ye terrestrial ones! Comfort her. ye living ones! comfort her, ye dead ones! Comfort her in this world ! comfort her in the world to come ! 1 Comp. fesik/o Rabba/hi, ed. Friedmann, leaf 1DR6. 2 See J esikto Rabba/hi (cd. Friedmann, leaf 1386), where it says (before the paragraph on Nahum), " Obadyah prophesied for Edom, and Yonah for Nineveh." This, it is true, is a mere gloss ; but it is the true reason why these two prophets are left out. 3 There is a play here upon the meaning of the Hebrew ^y, which may be road either Ammi("my people") or Iinmi (" with me"). SECOND SPECIMEN-. And whom does He try? The righteous one; for if .guys (Ps. xi. 5), " The Lord trieth the righteous." And by what does He try him ? liy the feeding of sheep. David He tried by sheep and found him a good shepherd, for it says(Ps. Ixxviii. 70), And He took him from the restraints of sheep." What is the meaning of Mimmikhleoth f The root is the same as that of vayyik- kale [haggeshem] (Gen. viii. 2), "And the rain was restrained." David restrained the big sheep in favour of the small ones. He brought out first the young ones, so that they should feed on the tender herbs; then he brought out the old ones that they should feed on the less tender herbs; and, finally, he brought out th j strong sheep that they should feed on the coarser herbs. Upon this the Holy One (blessed be He!) said, He who understandeth to feed sheep according to their strength, let him come and feed My people! And this it is what is written (Ps. Ixxviii. 71), " From following the ewes great with young He brought him to feed Jacob His people!" And the same was the case as regards Moses, whom the Holy One (blessed be He !) tried by sheep. Our rabbis say, When Moses our teacher (peace be upon him !) was feeding the sheep of Jethro in the wilderness, a kid ran away from him, and Moses ran after it till they came to a mountain- hollow. When it had reached the mountain-hollow there was a pool of water, and the kid stood still in order to drink. When Moses reached the kid he said to it, I did not know that thou didst run away from me because thou wast thirsty and faint. Thereupon he put it on his shoulders and walked back with it to the flock. 1 Then said the Holy One (blessed be He!), Thou art compassionate in the feeding of sheep belonging to mere flesh and blood (man); as thou livest, thou shalt feed My flock, even Israel! Behold, this it is that is written (Exod. iii. 1), "And Moses was feeding the flock, <fcc." (S. M. S.-S.) MIEDZYRZECZ PODLASKI (Russian, Mejiryechie), a district town of Russian Poland, in the government of Siedlce, 16 miles to the east of the government capital, on the railway between Warsaw and Brest-Litovskiy. 1 t is first mentioned in the year 1390 as a feudal dominion of King Yaghello. After frequently changing hands it became the property of the Czartoryski, and afterwards of the Potocki family, whose palace is still to be seen in the town. Its 10,000 inhabitants half of whom are Greek nonconformists, and half Jews and Poles carry on some trade in bristles, and pursue minor industries. MIERIS, the name of a family of artists who practised painting at Leyden for three generations in the 17th and 18th centuries. I. FRANS VAN MIERIS, the elder, son of Jan van Mierls, a goldsmith and diamond setter, was born, according to Houbraken, at Leyden on the 16th of April 1635, and died there on the 12th of March 1681. His father wished to train him to his own business, but Frans preferred drawing to chasing, and took service with Abraham Tor- envliet, a glazier who kept a school of design. As often happens, the youth s style was influenced by his earliest surroundings. In his father s shop he became familiar with the ways and dress of people of distinction. His eye was fascinated in turn by the sheen of jewellery and stained glass ; and, though he soon gave up the teaching of Torenvliet for that of Gerard Dow and Abraham van den Tempel, he acquired a manner which had more of the finish of the exquisites of the Dutch school than of the breadth of the disciples of Rembrandt. It should be borne in mind that he seldom chose panels of which the size exceeded 12 to 15 inches, and whenever his name is attached to a picture above that size we may surely assign it to his son Willem or to some other imitator. Unlike Gerard Dow when he first left Rembrandt, or Jan Steen when he started on an independent career, he never ven tured to design figures as large as life. Characteristic of his art in its minute proportions is a shiny brightness and metallic polish. The subjects which he treated best are those in which he illustrated the habits or actions of the wealthier classes ; but he sometimes succeeded in homely incidents and in portrait, and not unfrequently he ven tured on allegory. He repeatedly painted the satin skirt which Terburg brought into fashion, and he often rivalled Terburg in the faithful rendering of rich and highly- coloured woven tissues. But he remained below Terburg and Metzu, because he had not their delicate perception of harmony or their charming mellowness of touch and tint, and he fell behind Gerard Dow, because he was hard and had not his feeling for effect by concentrated light and shade. In the form of his composition, which sometimes represents the framework of a window enlivened with
- Who, on reading this, does not think of such passages in the New Testament
