The secret is, that insiders understand the limitations of the criticism, which outsiders are apt to take in bulk.

No race in the world possesses a richer anecdotal lore than the Jews--such pawky, even blasphemous humor, not understandable of the heathen, and to a suspicious mind Pinchas's overflowing cornucopia of such would have suggested a prior period of Continental wandering from town to town, like the _Minnesingers_ of the middle ages, repaying the hospitality of his Jewish entertainers with a budget of good stories and gossip from the scenes of his pilgrimages.
"Do you know the story ?" he went on, encouraged by Simcha's smiling face, "of the old Reb and the _Havdolah_?
His wife left town for a few days and when she returned the Reb took out a bottle of wine, poured some into the consecration cup and began to recite the blessing.

'What art thou doing ?' demanded his wife in amaze.' I am making _Havdolah_,' replied the Reb.

'But it is not the conclusion of a festival to-night,' she said.

'Oh, yes, it is,' he answered.