["Scroll of Darkness" (comp. Amos iv. 13), with a clever allusion to the similarly sounding words in Zech. v. 1.]
135 [In Polish Szczebrzeszyn, a town in the region of Lublin.]
136 ["Troublous Times," allusion to Dan. ix. 25.]
137 ["Door of Repentance."]
138 [See p. 98, n. 1.]
139 [I.e. son of Mark, or Mordecai. On "syndics" see p. 111, n. 2.]
140 [Twenty per cent was the legalized rate of interest in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century. See Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, p. 242.]
141 We quote the following in abbreviated form. [For the complete text see the article cited in the next note.]
142 From the Hebrew text it is not clear whether they offered themselves voluntarily as victims, or whether they were picked out by others. According to the local tradition in Ruzhany, the former was the case. [See Dubnow in the Russian Jewish monthly Voskhod, July, 1903, p. 19, n. 1.]
143 The corresponding word in Hebrew (שלומים), which is marked with dots in the original, represents the year of the event: [5]420 aera mundi, which equals 1659 C. E.
144 I.e. they tried to convert the martyrs to Catholicism.
145 [Allusion to Judges ix. 9, where the English version translates differently. The Hebrew word for "tree" also signifies "wood," and is used in polemic literature for "cross."]
146 [See p. 91, n. 1.]
147 [See p. 96, n. 1.]
148 [The Senate formed the upper chamber of the Polish parliament.]
149 In the "Political Catechism of the Polish Republic," published in 1735, we read the following: "Who is it in this vast country that engages in commerce, in handicrafts, in keeping inns and taverns?"—"The Jews." … "What may be the reason for it?"—"Because all commerce and handicrafts are prohibited to the Shlakhta on account of the importance of this estate, just as sins are prohibited by the commandments of God and by the law of nature."—"Who imposes and who pays the taxes?"—"The taxes are imposed by the nobility, and they are paid by the peasant, the burgher, and the Jew."
150 [See above, p. 46, n. 1, and p. 60, n. 1.]
151 [More exactly, faktor, Polish designation for broker, agent, and general utility man.]
152 [Popular Polish form of the Jewish name Baer.]
153 The last order was subsequently repealed.
154 [See p. 55.]
155 [See pp. 164 and 165.]
156 According to another version, he expressed his willingness to embrace Christianity in order to escape death, but afterwards repented.
157 [In Podolia.]
158 [In the province of Kiev.]
159 [In Volhynia.]
160 [Near Lublin.]
161 Another variant of the name is Jelek. [The latter form is declared to be incorrect by A. Berliner, Gutachten Ganganelli's (Berlin, 1888), p. 41.]
162 Of all the accusations of this kind, the Cardinal recognizes the correctness of only two, the murder of Simon of Trent in 1475 and of Andreas of Brixen in 1462, adding, however, that even their death was not caused by the legendary Jewish ritual, but simply by Jewish "hatred against the Christians."
163 [See p. 78.]
164 [See p. 143, n. 2.]
165 [A word of uncertain origin meaning "rebel" or "rioter." See p. 149.]
166 [A town in Podolia.]
167 [See p. 142, n. 1.]
168 [See p. 320, n. 2.]
169 [Pronounced Ooman̄, with a soft sound at the end. In Polish the name is spelled Humań.]
170 According to the Polish census of 1764–1766 the number of Jews in Poland and Lithuania amounted during those years, on the eve of the partitions, to 621,000 souls.
CHAPTER VI
THE INNER LIFE OF POLISH JEWRY DURING THE PERIOD OF DECLINE
1. Jewish Self-Government
The fact that the Jews of Poland, despite the general disintegration of the country, where right was supplanted by privilege and liberty by license, were yet able to hold their own as an organized social unit, was principally due to that vast scheme of communal self-government which had become an integral part of Polish-Jewish life during the preceding period. Surrounded by enemies, ostracized by all other estates and social groups, Polish Jewry, guided