(printed p. 135 — Book II)
The Jews who live among us in Germany and the other parts of Europe retain almost the institutions, laws, ceremonies, and certainly the perfidy, obstinacy, greed, and wickedness of the Pharisees. Therefore I have sometimes not unwillingly agreed with some of them when, in their synagogue at Worms, they told me that they were Pharisees.
Benjamin, in his Itinerary, also mentions others who, not many years ago, lived in the east, in these words: “The Pharisees mourn Zion and lament Jerusalem, abstaining from meat and wine, always dressed in dark garments, living in caves or huts, fasting every day except the Sabbath, and with constant prayers imploring the mercy of God and the holy name for the deliverance of the captivity of Israel.” So he says.