| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | The Hebrew Mind | | By M. L. R. Breslar |
| | | GIFTS, as romantic as the cruse of oil, | |
| Found in the days of mad Antiochus, | |
| Were brewed by Hadrian from henbane; spruce | |
| For Israel’s quaffing; potions, framed to foil | |
| A nation’s growth, they met with swift recoil! | 5 |
| Tempt never genius, with devil’s juice! | |
| Vain arts, O Hadrian, and vain the ruse,— | |
| When balked by birds, who garnered all the spoil. | |
| For Hadrian, as for Vespasian, | |
| History sheds a tear of wonder blind; | 10 |
| Mere vessels those, Balaam’s sent to bless, | |
| They scourged with fire and sword, till the dread ban | |
| Flowered, like Aaron’s rod of loveliness, | |
| And forged that wondrous thing, the Hebrew mind. | | | | |
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