Skip to content
Storgy

The Annotated Edition

RABBI. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Summary, meaning, line-by-line analysis & FAQ.

Read aloud in ~1 minOpen reading mode →

A rabbi named Ben Israel, full of bravado, boasts about his extensive knowledge of Jewish sacred texts.

Poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Themes
doubt, faith, identity
The PoemFull text

RABBI.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I am the Rabbi Ben Israel, Throughout this village known full well, And, as my scholars all will tell, Learned in things divine; The Cabala and Talmud hoar Than all the prophets prize I more, For water is all Bible lore, But Mishna is strong wine. My fame extends from West to East, And always, at the Purim feast, I am as drunk as any beast That wallows in his sty; The wine it so elateth me, That I no difference can see Between "Accursed Haman be!" And "Blessed be Mordecai!" Come hither, Judas Iscariot; Say, if thy lesson thou hast got From the Rabbinical Book or not. Why howl the dogs at night?

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

A rabbi named Ben Israel, full of bravado, boasts about his extensive knowledge of Jewish sacred texts. However, he confesses that he gets so drunk during the Purim festival that he struggles to distinguish between a hero and a villain. The poem concludes abruptly when he turns to a student named Judas Iscariot and poses a peculiar, riddle-like question about why dogs howl at night. It has the feel of a comic sketch that takes an unsettling turn at the end.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. I am the Rabbi Ben Israel, / Throughout this village known full well,

    Editor's note

    The rabbi proudly introduces himself, clearly relishing his status as a local celebrity—everyone in the village knows who he is. He quickly shares how well-versed he is in "things divine." This self-congratulatory tone is our first hint that Longfellow is crafting a comic, somewhat satirical character.

  2. The Cabala and Talmud hoar / Than all the prophets prize I more,

    Editor's note

    The rabbi sees the Cabala (Jewish mystical tradition) and the ancient Talmud as more important than the biblical prophets. He takes it a step further by considering the Mishna (the oral law written down around 200 CE) to be even more valuable than scripture itself. His metaphor — the Bible as water and the Mishna as strong wine — is clever, yet it subtly hints at the wine that will lead to his downfall in the next stanza.

  3. My fame extends from West to East, / And always, at the Purim feast,

    Editor's note

    The Purim feast is a Jewish holiday that features a tradition of drinking wine until one can’t tell the villain Haman from the hero Mordecai — both characters from the Book of Esther. The rabbi's remark that he gets "as drunk as any beast" serves as both a confession and a joke: while he’s adhering to religious custom, likening himself to a wallowing animal undercuts the dignity he tried to assert in the first stanza.

  4. The wine it so elateth me, / That I no difference can see

    Editor's note

    This is the punchline of the first two stanzas. The rabbi, who values subtle textual distinctions more than anything, fails to recognize the simplest moral difference — between the cursed Haman and the blessed Mordecai. His vast knowledge turns into a drunken haze. Longfellow humorously highlights the disconnect between religious scholarship and real human actions.

  5. Come hither, Judas Iscariot; / Say, if thy lesson thou hast got

    Editor's note

    The poem takes a sharp turn. The rabbi suddenly calls on a student, and when he says "Judas Iscariot" — the figure from the New Testament known for betrayal — it feels like a bucket of cold water has been thrown over us. It’s unclear if this is just a Jewish student sharing a common name or if it's an intentional anachronism, but either way, it’s unsettling. The question he asks — why do dogs howl at night? — comes off like an old folk riddle or a test of superstition, creating a strange contrast to the sophisticated scholarship the rabbi was just boasting about. The poem wraps up here, leaving us hanging with the riddle still unanswered.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

Comic and self-deprecating for most of the poem, it takes a sudden eerie turn at the end. The rabbi's voice is pompous and blustering, enhancing the humor of his drunken confession. In the final stanza, the humor fades, giving way to a sense of unease — the mention of Judas Iscariot and the unresolved riddle about howling dogs create an abrupt, slightly sinister conclusion to the piece.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

Wine
Wine operates on two levels in this context. The rabbi employs it as a metaphor, illustrating the depth of the Mishna compared to plain scripture. Then it turns literal — the Purim wine that blurs his scholarly distinctions. It embodies both the pinnacle of religious tradition and the force that humbles the learned individual.
The Purim feast
Purim is an authentic Jewish holiday that commemorates the story of Esther, and the custom of drinking until one can no longer distinguish between Haman and Mordecai is indeed real. Longfellow highlights that even sacred rituals have a humorous, human aspect — and that the rabbi's impaired judgment is, interestingly enough, accepted within the religious context.
Judas Iscariot
The name holds significant weight in Western culture, representing the ultimate symbol of betrayal. Introducing it into a scene of Jewish scholarship creates a striking clash of traditions. This choice might indicate that the poem belongs to a larger dramatic or narrative piece, or it could be Longfellow intentionally disrupting the comic mood just as it reaches its conclusion.
Howling dogs
Dogs howling at night is a common folk omen linked to death, the supernatural, or hidden knowledge. The rabbi's last question to his student implies that even with extensive Talmudic learning, there remains a realm of superstition and mystery that scholarship cannot fully explain.

§06Historical context

Historical context

Longfellow wrote this poem as part of his interest in dramatic monologues and character sketches — a form he explored throughout his career alongside his more well-known narrative poems like *Evangeline* and *The Song of Hiawatha*. By the mid-19th century, American readers were captivated by Jewish religious traditions, primarily through the lens of Christian biblical education, and Longfellow tapped into that curiosity here. The Purim drinking custom he mentions is genuine: the Talmud indeed instructs participants to drink until they can't tell "Cursed be Haman" from "Blessed be Mordecai." The poem's humorous portrayal of a pompous scholar brought low by wine follows a long tradition of clerical satire that dates back to Chaucer. The unfinished nature of the final stanza — a question left unanswered — hints that the poem could be a fragment or an early draft of a more extensive dramatic work.

§07FAQ

Questions readers ask

The Mishna is the written account of Jewish oral law, put together around 200 CE. It's complex and rich, requiring in-depth study to fully understand — which is why the rabbi refers to it as "strong wine" compared to the Bible's "water." He suggests that the Mishna challenges scholars and offers greater rewards for those who delve deeper. While it's a nod to his own expertise, it also sets up the irony that real wine will diminish that expertise by the end of stanza two.

Read next

Poems in the same key

Similar poems

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock — T. S. EliotThe Collar — George HerbertThe Windhover — Gerard Manley Hopkins

More by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Browse all Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poems →

Themes in this poem

Poems about doubtPoems about faithPoems about identityPoems about memory