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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6971.txt b/6971.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b565ff7 --- /dev/null +++ b/6971.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2446 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Judaism, by Israel Abrahams + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Judaism + +Author: Israel Abrahams + +Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6971] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on February 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDAISM *** + + + + +This eBook produced by: Distributed Proofreaders, John Williams, +and David Starner + + + + +JUDAISM + +By +ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, M.A. + +READER IN TALMUDIC AND RABBINIC LITERATURE + +UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE + + + +FOREWORD + +The writer has attempted in this volume to take up a few of the most +characteristic points in Jewish doctrine and practice, and to explain +some of the various phases through which they have passed, since the +first centuries of the Christian era. + +The presentation is probably much less detached than is the case +with other volumes in this series. But the difference was scarcely +avoidable. The writer was not expounding a religious system which has +no relation to his own life. On the contrary, the writer is himself a +Jew, and thus is deeply concerned personally in the matters discussed +in the book. + +The reader must be warned to keep this fact in mind throughout. On the one +hand, the book must suffer a loss of objectivity; but, on the other hand, +there may be some compensating gain of intensity. The author trusts, +at all events, that, though he has not written with indifference, he +has escaped the pitfall of undue partiality. + +I. A. + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE LEGACY FROM THE PAST + + II. RELIGION AS LAW + + III. ARTICLES OF FAITH + + IV. SOME CONCEPTS OF JUDAISM + + V. SOME OBSERVANCES OF JUDAISM + + VI. JEWISH MYSTICISM + + VII. ESCHATOLOGY + +VIII. THE SURVIVAL OF JUDAISM + + SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS ON JUDAISM + + + + +JUDAISM + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE LEGACY FROM THE PAST + + +The aim of this little book is to present in brief outline some of the +leading conceptions of the religion familiar since the Christian Era +under the name Judaism. + +The word 'Judaism' occurs for the first time at about 100 B.C., in the +Graeco-Jewish literature. In the second book of the Maccabees (ii. 21, +viii. 1), 'Judaism' signifies the religion of the Jews as contrasted with +Hellenism, the religion of the Greeks. In the New Testament (Gal. i. 13) +the same word seems to denote the Pharisaic system as an antithesis to +the Gentile Christianity. In Hebrew the corresponding noun never occurs +in the Bible, and it is rare even in the Rabbinic books. When it does +meet us, _Jahaduth_ implies the monotheism of the Jews as opposed +to the polytheism of the heathen. + +Thus the term 'Judaism' did not pass through quite the same transitions +as did the name 'Jew.' Judaism appears from the first as a religion +transcending tribal bounds. The 'Jew,' on the other hand, was originally +a Judaean, a member of the Southern Confederacy called in the Bible +Judah, and by the Greeks and Romans Judaea. Soon, however, 'Jew' came +to include what had earlier been the Northern Confederacy of Israel as +well, so that in the post-exilic period _Jehudi_ or 'Jew' means an +adherent of Judaism without regard to local nationality. + +Judaism, then, is here taken to represent that later development of +the Religion of Israel which began with the reorganisation after the +Babylonian Exile (444 B.C.), and was crystallised by the Roman Exile +(during the first centuries of the Christian Era). The exact period +which will be here seized as a starting-point is the moment when the +people of Israel were losing, never so far to regain, their territorial +association with Palestine, and were becoming (what they have ever since +been) a community as distinct from a nation. They remained, it is true, +a distinct race, and this is still in a sense true. Yet at various +periods a number of proselytes have been admitted, and in other ways +the purity of the race has been affected. At all events territorial +nationality ceased from a date which may be roughly fixed at 135 A.D., +when the last desperate revolt under Bar-Cochba failed, and Hadrian drew +his Roman plough over the city of Jerusalem and the Temple area. A new +city with a new name arose on the ruins. The ruins afterwards reasserted +themselves, and Aelia Capitolina as a designation of Jerusalem is familiar +only to archaeologists. + +But though the name of Hadrian's new city has faded, the effect of +its foundation remained. Aelia Capitolina, with its market-places and +theatre, replaced the olden narrow-streeted town; a House of Venus reared +its stately form in the north, and a Sanctuary to Jupiter covered, in the +east, the site of the former Temple. Heathen colonists were introduced, +and the Jew, who was to become in future centuries an alien everywhere, +was made by Hadrian an alien in his fatherland. For the Roman Emperor +denied to Jews the right of entry into Jerusalem. Thus Hadrian completed +the work of Titus, and Judaism was divorced from its local habitation. +More unreservedly than during the Babylonian Exile, Judaism in the Roman +Exile perforce became the religion of a community and not of a state; +and Israel for the first time constituted a Church. But it was a Church +with no visible home. Christianity for several centuries was to have a +centre at Rome, Islam at Mecca. But Judaism had and has no centre at all. + +It will be obvious that the aim of the present book makes it both +superfluous and inappropriate to discuss the vexed problems connected with +the origins of the Religion of Israel, its aspects in primitive times, +its passage through a national to an ethical monotheism, its expansion +into the universalism of the second Isaiah. What concerns us here is +merely the legacy which the Religion of Israel bequeathed to Judaism as +we have defined it. This legacy and the manner in which it was treasured, +enlarged, and administered will occupy us in the rest of this book. + +But this much must be premised. If the Religion of Israel passed through +the stages of totemism, animism, and polydemonism; if it was indebted +to Canaanite, Kenite, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and other foreign +influences; if it experienced a stage of monolatry or henotheism (in +which Israel recognised one God, but did not think of that God as the +only God of all men) before ethical monotheism of the universalistic +type was reached; if, further, all these stages and the moral and +religious ideas connected with each left a more or less clear mark in +the sacred literature of Israel; then the legacy which Judaism received +from its past was a syncretism of the whole of the religious experiences +of Israel as interpreted in the light of Israel's latest, highest, most +approved standards. Like the Bourbon, the Jew forgets nothing; but unlike +the Bourbon, the Jew is always learning. The domestic stories of the +Patriarchs were not rejected as unprofitable when Israel became deeply +impregnated with the monogamous teachings of writers like the author +of the last chapter of Proverbs; the character of David was idealised +by the spiritual associations of the Psalter, parts of which tradition +ascribed to him; the earthly life was etherialised and much of the sacred +literature reinterpreted in the light of an added belief in immortality; +God, in the early literature a tribal non-moral deity, was in the later +literature a righteous ruler who with Amos and Hosea loved and demanded +righteousness in man. Judaism took over as one indivisible body of sacred +teachings both the early and the later literature in which these varying +conceptions of God were enshrined; the Law was accepted as the guiding +rule of life, the ritual of ceremony and sacrifice was treasured as a holy +memory, and as a memory not contradictory of the prophetic exaltation of +inward religion but as consistent with that exaltation, as interpreting +it, as but another aspect of Micah's enunciation of the demands of God: +'What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, +and to walk humbly with thy God?' + +Judaism, in short, included for the Jew all that had gone before. But +for St. Paul's attitude of hostility to the Law, but for the deep-seated +conviction that the Pauline Christianity was a denial of the Jewish +monotheism, the Jew might have accepted much of the teaching of Jesus as +an integral part of Judaism. In the realm of ideas which he conceived as +belonging to his tradition the Jew was not logical; he did not pick and +choose; he absorbed the whole. In the Jewish theology of all ages we find +the most obvious contradictions. There was no attempt at reconciliation +of such contradictions; they were juxtaposed in a mechanical mixture, +there was no chemical compound. The Jew was always a man of moods, and +his religion responded to those varying phases of feeling and belief +and action. Hence such varying judgments have been formed of him and his +religion. If, after the mediaeval philosophy had attempted to systematise +Judaism, the religion remained unsystematic, it is easy to understand +that in the earlier centuries of the Christian Era contradictions +between past and present, between different strata of religious thought, +caused no trouble to the Jew so long as those contradictions could be +fitted into his general scheme of life. Though he was the product of +development, development was an idea foreign to his conception of the +ways of God with man. And to this extent he was right. For though men's +ideas of God change, God Himself is changeless. The Jew transferred the +changelessness of God to men's changing ideas about him. With childlike +naivete he accepted all, he adopted all, and he syncretised it all as best +he could into the loose system on which Pharisaism grafted itself. The +legacy of the past thus was the past. + +One element in the legacy was negative. The Temple and the Sacrificial +system were gone for ever. That this must have powerfully affected +Judaism goes without saying. Synagogue replaced Temple, prayer assumed +the function of sacrifice, penitence and not the blood of bulls supplied +the ritual of atonement. Events had prepared the way for this change and +had prevented it attaining the character of an upheaval. For synagogues +had grown up all over the land soon after the fifth century B.C.; regular +services of prayer with instruction in the Scriptures had been established +long before the Christian Era; the inward atonement had been preferred +to, or at least associated with, the outward rite before the outward +rite was torn away. It may be that, as Professor Burkitt has suggested, +the awful experiences of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the +Temple produced within Pharisaism a moral reformation which drove the Jew +within and thus spiritualised Judaism. For undoubtedly the Pharisee of the +Gospels is by no means the Pharisee as we meet him in the Jewish books. +There was always a latent power and tendency in Judaism towards inward +religion; and it may be that this power was intensified, this tendency +encouraged, by the loss of Temple and its Sacrificial rites. + +But though the Temple had gone the Covenant remained. Not so much in +name as in essence. We do not hear much of the Covenant in the Rabbinic +books, but its spirit pervades Judaism. Of all the legacy of the past +the Covenant was the most inspiring element. Beginning with Abraham, the +Covenant established a special relation between God and Abraham's seed. 'I +have known him, that he may command his children and his household after +him, that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and +judgment' (Gen. xviii. 19). Of this Covenant, the outward sign was the +rite of circumcision. Renewed with Moses, and followed in traditional +opinion by the Ten Commandments, the Sinaitic Covenant was a further +link in the bond between God and His people. Of this Mosaic Covenant +the outward sign was the Sabbath. It is of no moment for our present +argument whether Abraham and Moses were historical persons or figments +of tradition. A Gamaliel would have as little doubted their reality as +would a St. Paul. And whatever Criticism may be doing with Abraham, it +is coming more and more to see that behind the eighth-century prophets +there must have towered the figure of a, if not of the traditional, +Moses; behind the prophets a, if not the, Law. Be that as it may, to the +Jew of the Christian Era, Abraham and Moses were real and the Covenant +unalterable. By the syncretism which has been already described Jeremiah's +New Covenant was not regarded as new. Nor was it new; it represented +a change of stress, not of contents. When he said (Jer. xxxi. 33), +'This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel, after +those days, saith the Lord; I will put my law in their inward parts, and +in their heart will I write it,' Jeremiah, it has been held, was making +Christianity possible. But he was also making Judaism possible. Here and +nowhere else is to be found the principle which enabled Judaism to survive +the loss of Temple and nationality. And the New Covenant was in no sense +inconsistent with the Old. For not only does Jeremiah proceed to add in +the self-same verse, 'I will be their God, and they will be my people,' +but the New Covenant is specifically made with the house of Judah and of +Israel, and it is associated with the permanence of the seed of Israel +as a separate people and with the Divine rebuilding of Jerusalem. The +Jew had no thought of analysing these verses into the words of the true +Jeremiah and those of his editors. The point is that over and above, +in complementary explanation of, the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants with +their external signs, over and above the Call of the Patriarch and the +Theophany of Sinai, was the Jeremian Covenant written in Israel's heart. + +The Covenant conferred a distinction and imposed a duty. It was a bond +between a gracious God and a grateful Israel. It dignified history, +for it interpreted history in terms of providence and purpose; it +transfigured virtue by making virtue service; it was the salt of life, +for how could present degradation demoralise, seeing that God was +in it, to fulfil His part of the bond, to hold Israel as His jewel, +though Rome might despise? The Covenant made the Jew self-confident and +arrogant, but these very faults were needed to save him. It was his only +defence against the world's scorn. He forgot that the correlative of the +Covenant was Isaiah's 'Covenant-People'--missionary to the Gentiles and +the World. He relegated his world-mission (which Christianity and Islam +in part gloriously fulfilled) to a dim Messianic future, and was content +if in his own present he remained faithful to his mission to himself. + +Above all, the legacy from the past came to Judaism hallowed and +humanised by all the experience of redemption and suffering which had +marked Israel's course in ages past, and was to mark his course in +ages to come. The Exodus, the Exile, the Maccabean heroism, the Roman +catastrophe; Prophet, Wise Man, Priest and Scribe,--all had left their +trace. Judaism was a religion based on a book and on a tradition; but +it was also a religion based on a unique experience. The book might +be misread, the tradition encumbered, but the experience was eternally +clear and inspiring. It shone through the Roman Diaspora as it afterwards +illuminated the Roman Ghetto, making the present tolerable by the memory +of the past and the hope of the future. + + + +CHAPTER II + +RELIGION AS LAW + + +The feature of Judaism which first attracts an outsider's attention, and +which claims a front place in this survey, is its 'Nomism' or 'Legalism.' +Life was placed under the control of Law. Not only morality, but religion +also, was codified. 'Nomism,' it has been truly said, 'has always +formed a fundamental trait of Judaism, one of whose chief aims has ever +been to mould life in all its varying relations according to the Law, +and to make obedience to the commandments a necessity and a custom' +(Lauterbach, _Jewish Encyclopedia_, ix. 326). Only the latest +development of Judaism is away from this direction. Individualism is +nowadays replacing the olden solidarity. Thus, at the Central Conference +of American Rabbis, held in July 1906 at Indianapolis, a project to +formulate a system of laws for modern use was promptly rejected. The +chief modern problem in Jewish life is just this: To what extent, and +in what manner, can Judaism still place itself under the reign of Law? + +But for many centuries, certainly up to the French Revolution, Religion +as Law was the dominant conception in Judaism. Before examining the +validity of this conception a word is necessary as to the mode in which +it expressed itself. Conduct, social and individual, moral and ritual, +was regulated in the minutest details. As the Dayan M. Hyamson has +said, the maxim _De minimis non curat lex_ was not applicable to +the Jewish Law. This Law was a system of opinion and of practice and of +feeling in which the great principles of morality, the deepest concerns of +spiritual religion, the genuinely essential requirements of ritual, all +found a prominent place. To assert that Pharisaism included the small +and excluded the great, that it enforced rules and forgot principles, +that it exalted the letter and neglected the spirit, is a palpable libel. +Pharisaism was founded on God. On this foundation was erected a structure +which embraced the eternal principles of religion. But the system, it +must be added, went far beyond this. It held that there was a right and +a wrong way of doing things in themselves trivial. Prescription ruled +in a stupendous array of matters which other systems deliberately left to +the fancy, the judgment, the conscience of the individual. Law seized upon +the whole life, both in its inward experiences and outward manifestations. +Harnack characterises the system harshly enough. Christianity did not add +to Judaism, it subtracted. Expanding a famous epigram of Wellhausen's, +Harnack admits that everything taught in the Gospels 'was also to be +found in the Prophets, and even in the Jewish tradition of their time. The +Pharisees themselves were in possession of it; but, unfortunately, they +were in possession of much else besides. With them it was weighted, +darkened, distorted, rendered ineffective and deprived of its force by a +thousand things which they also held to be religious, and every whit as +important as mercy and judgment. They reduced everything into one fabric; +the good and holy was only one woof in a broad earthly warp' (_What +is Christianity?_ p. 47). It is necessary to qualify this judgment, +but it does bring out the all-pervadingness of Law in Judaism. 'And thou +shalt speak of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by +the way, when thou liest down and when thou risest up' (Deut. vi. 7). The +Word of God was to occupy the Jew's thoughts constantly; in his daily +employment and during his manifold activities; when at work and when +at rest. And as a correlative, the Law must direct this complex life, +the Code must authorise action or forbid it, must turn the thoughts and +emotions in one direction and divert them from another. + +Nothing in the history of religions can be cited as a complete parallel to +this. But incomplete parallels abound. A very large portion of all men's +lives is regulated from without: by the Bible and other sacred books; by +the institutions and rites of religion; by the law of the land; by the +imposed rules of accepted guides, poets, philosophers, physicians; and +above all by social conventions, current fashions, and popular maxims. +Only in the rarest case is an exceptional man the monstrosity which, +we are told, every Israelite was in the epoch of the Judges--a law +unto himself. + +But in Judaism, until the period of modern reform, this fact of human +life was not merely an unconscious truism, it was consciously admitted. +And it was realised in a Code. + +Or rather in a series of Codes. First came the _Mishnah_, a Code +compiled at about the year 200 A.D., but the result of a Pharisaic +activity extending over more than two centuries. While Christianity was +producing the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament--the work in large +part of Jews, or of men born in the circle of Judaism--Judaism in its +other manifestation was working at the Code known as the _Mishnah_. +This word means 'repetition,' or 'teaching by repetition'; it was an +oral tradition reduced to writing long after much of its contents had +been sifted in the discussions of the schools. In part earlier and in +part later than the _Mishnah_ was the _Midrash_ ('inquiry,' +'interpretation'), not a Code, but a two-fold exposition of Scripture; +homiletic with copious use of parable, and legalistic with an eye +to the regulation of conduct. Then came the _Talmud_ in two +recensions, the Palestinian and the Babylonian, the latter completed +about 500 A.D. For some centuries afterwards the Geonim (heads of the +Rabbinical Universities in Persia) continued to analyse and define +the legal prescriptions and ritual of Judaism, adding and changing in +accord with the needs of the day; for Tradition was a living, fluid +thing. Then in the eleventh century Isaac of Fez (Alfasi) formulated +a guide to Talmudic Law, and about a hundred years later (1180) +Maimonides produced his _Strong Hand_, a Code of law and custom +which influenced Jewish life ever after. Other codifications were made; +but finally, in the sixteenth century, Joseph Caro (mystic and legalist) +compiled the _Table Prepared_ (_Shulchan Aruch_), which, with +masterly skill, collected the whole of the traditional law, arranged +it under convenient heads in chapters and paragraphs, and carried down +to our own day the Rabbinic conception of life. Under this Code, with +more or less relaxation, the great bulk of Jews still live. But the +revolt against it, or emancipation from it, is progressing every year, +for the olden Jewish conception of religion and the old Jewish theory +of life are, as hinted above, becoming seriously undermined. + +Now in what precedes there has been some intentional ambiguity in +the use of the word Law. Much of the misunderstanding of Judaism has +arisen from this ambiguity. 'Law' is in no adequate sense what the Jews +themselves understood by the nomism of their religion. In modern times +Law and Religion tend more and more to separate, and to speak of Judaism +as Law _eo ipso_ implies a divorce of Judaism from Religion. The +old antithesis between letter and spirit is but a phase of the same +criticism. Law must specify, and the lawyer interprets Acts of Parliament +by their letter; he refuses to be guided by the motives of the Act, he +is concerned with what the Act distinctly formulates in set terms. In +this sense Judaism never was a Legal Religion. It did most assiduously +seek to get to the underlying motives of the written laws, and all the +expansions of the Law were based on a desire more fully to realise the +meaning and intention of the written Code. In other words, the Law was +looked upon as the expression of the Will of God. Man was to yield to +that Will for two reasons. First, because God is the perfect ideal of +goodness. That ideal was for man to revere, and, so far as in him lay, +to imitate. 'As I am merciful, be thou merciful; because I am gracious, +be thou gracious.' The 'Imitation of God' is a notion which constantly +meets us in Rabbinic literature. It is based on the Scriptural text: +'Be ye holy, for I the Lord am holy.' 'God, the ideal of all morality, +is the founder of man's moral nature.' This is Professor Lazarus' +modern way of putting it. But in substance it is the Jewish conception +through all the ages. And there is a second reason. The Jew would not +have understood the possibility of any other expression of the Divine +Will than the expression which Judaism enshrined. For though he held that +the Law was something imposed from without, he identified this imposed +Law with the law which his own moral nature posited. The Rabbis tell us +that certain things in the written Law could have been reached by man +without the Law. The Law was in large part a correspondence to man's moral +nature. This Rabbinic idea Lazarus sums up in the epigram: 'Moral laws, +then, are not laws because they are written; they are written because +they are laws.' The moral principle is autonomous, but its archetype is +God. The ultimate reason, like the highest aim of morality, should be +in itself. The threat of punishment and the promise of reward are the +psychologic means to secure the fulfilment of laws, never the reasons for +the laws, nor the motives to action. It is easy and necessary sometimes +to praise and justify eudemonism, but, as Lazarus adds, 'Not a state to +be reached, not a good to be won, not an evil to be warded off, is the +impelling force of morality, but itself furnishes the creative impulse, +the supreme commanding authority' (_Ethics of Judaism_, I. chap, +ii.). And so the Rabbi of the third century B.C., Antigonos of Socho, put +it in the memorable saying: 'Be not like servants who minister to their +master upon the condition of receiving a reward; but be like servants +who minister to their master without the condition of receiving a reward; +and let the Fear of heaven be upon you' (Aboth, i. 3). + +Clearly the multiplication of rules obscures principles. The object of +codification, to get at the full meaning of principles, is defeated by +its own success. For it is always easier to follow rules than to apply +principles. Virtues are more attainable than virtue, characteristics than +character. And while it is false to assert that Judaism attached more +importance to ritual than to religion, yet, the two being placed on one +and the same plane, it is possible to find in co-existence ritual piety +and moral baseness. Such a combination is ugly, and people do not stop +to think whether the baseness would be more or less if the ritual piety +were absent instead of present. But it is the fact that on the whole +the Jewish codification of religion did not produce the evil results +possible or even likely to accrue. The Jew was always distinguished for +his domestic virtues, his purity of life, his sobriety, his charity, +his devotion. These were the immediate consequence of his Law-abiding +disposition and theory. Perhaps there was some lack of enthusiasm, +something too much of the temperate. But the facts of life always +brought their corrective. Martyrdom was the means by which the Jewish +consciousness was kept at a glowing heat. And as the Jew was constantly +called upon to die for his religion, the religion ennobled the life +which was willingly surrendered for the religion. The Messianic Hope +was vitalised by persecution. The Jew, devotee of practical ideals, +became also a dreamer. His visions of God were ever present to remind +him that the law which he codified was to him the Law of God. + + + +CHAPTER III + +ARTICLES OF FAITH + + +It is often said that Judaism left belief free while it put conduct +into fetters. Neither half of this assertion is strictly true. Belief +was not free altogether; conduct was not altogether controlled. In the +_Mishnah_ (Sanhedrin, x. 1) certain classes of unbelievers are +pronounced portionless in the world to come. Among those excluded +from Paradise are men who deny the resurrection of the dead, and men +who refuse assent to the doctrine of the Divine origin of the Torah, +or Scripture. Thus it cannot be said that belief was, in the Rabbinic +system, perfectly free. Equally inaccurate is the assertion that conduct +was entirely a matter of prescription. Not only were men praised for +works of supererogation, performance of more than the Law required; not +only were there important divergences in the practical rules of conduct +formulated by the various Rabbis; but there was a whole class of actions +described as 'matters given over to the heart,' delicate refinements +of conduct which the law left untouched and were a concern exclusively +of the feeling, the private judgment of the individual. The right of +private judgment was passionately insisted on in matters of conduct, as +when Rabbi Joshua refused to be guided as to his practical decisions by +the Daughter of the Voice, the supernatural utterance from on high. The +Law, he contended, is on earth, not in heaven; and man must be his own +judge in applying the Law to his own life and time. And, the Talmud adds, +God Himself announced that Rabbi Joshua was right. + +Thus there was neither complete fluidity of doctrine nor complete rigidity +of conduct. There was freedom of conduct within the law, and there was +law within freedom of doctrine. + +But Dr. Emil Hirsch puts the case fairly when he says: 'In the +same sense as Christianity or Islam, Judaism cannot be credited with +Articles of Faith. Many attempts have indeed been made at systematising +and reducing to a fixed phraseology and sequence the contents of the +Jewish religion. But these have always lacked the one essential element: +authoritative sanction on the part of a supreme ecclesiastical body' +(_Jewish Encyclopedia_, ii. 148). + +Since the epoch of the Great Sanhedrin, there has been no central +authority recognised throughout Jewry. The Jewish organisation has long +been congregational. Since the fourth century there has been no body +with any jurisdiction over the mass of Jews. At that date the Calendar +was fixed by astronomical calculations. The Patriarch, in Babylon, +thereby voluntarily abandoned the hold he had previously had over the +scattered Jews, for it was no longer the fiat of the Patriarch that +settled the dates of the Festivals. While there was something like a +central authority, the Canon of Scripture had been fixed by Synods, but +there is no record of any attempt to promulgate articles of faith. During +the revolt against Hadrian an Assembly of Rabbis was held at Lydda. It was +then decided that a Jew must yield his life rather than accept safety from +the Roman power, if such conformity involved one of the three offences: +idolatry, murder, and unchastity (including, incest and adultery). But +while this decision throws a favourable light on the Rabbinic theory of +life, it can in no sense be called a fixation of a creed. There were +numerous synods in the Middle Ages, but they invariably dealt with +practical morals or with the problems which arose from time to time in +regard to the relations between Jews and their Christian neighbours. It is +true that we occasionally read of excommunications for heresy. But in +the case, for instance, of Spinoza, the Amsterdam Synagogue was much +more anxious to dissociate itself from the heresies of Spinoza than to +compel Spinoza to conform to the beliefs of the Synagogue. And though +this power of excommunication might have been employed by the mediaeval +Rabbis to enforce the acceptance of a creed, in point of fact no such +step was ever taken. + +Since the time of Moses Mendelssohn (1728-1786), the chief Jewish +dogma has been that Judaism has no dogmas. In the sense assigned above +this is clearly true. Dogmas imposed by an authority able and willing +to enforce conformity and punish dissent are non-existent in Judaism. +In olden times membership of the religion of Judaism was almost entirely +a question of birth and race, not of confession. Proselytes were admitted +by circumcision and baptism, and nothing beyond an acceptance of the +Unity of God and the abjuration of idolatry is even now required by way +of profession from a proselyte. At the same time the earliest passage +put into the public liturgy was the Shema' (Deuteronomy vi. 4-9), in +which the unity of God and the duty to love God are expressed. The Ten +Commandments were also recited daily in the Temple. It is instructive to +note the reason given for the subsequent removal of the Decalogue from the +daily liturgy. It was feared that some might assume that the Decalogue +comprised the whole of the binding law. Hence the prominent position +given to them in the Temple service was no longer assigned to the Ten +Commandments in the ritual of the Synagogue. In modern times, however, +there is a growing practice of reading the Decalogue every Sabbath day. + +What we do find in Pharisaic Judaism, and this is the real answer to +Harnack (_supra_, p. 15), is an attempt to reduce the whole Law +to certain fundamental principles. When a would-be proselyte accosted +Hillel, in the reign of Herod, with the demand that the Rabbi should +communicate the whole of Judaism while the questioner stood on one foot, +Hillel made the famous reply: 'What thou hatest do unto no man; that +is the whole Law, the rest is commentary.' This recalls another famous +summarisation, that given by Jesus later on in the Gospel. A little +more than a century later, Akiba said that the command to love one's +neighbour is the fundamental principle of the Law. Ben Azzai chose for +this distinction another sentence: 'This is the book of the generations +of man,' implying the equality of all men in regard to the love borne by +God for His creatures. Another Rabbi, Simlai (third century), has this +remarkable saying: 'Six hundred and thirteen precepts were imparted unto +Moses, three hundred and sixty-five negative (in correspondence with +the days of the solar year), and two hundred and forty-eight positive +(in correspondence with the number of a man's limbs). David came and +established them as eleven, as it is written: A psalm of David--Lord +who shall sojourn in Thy tent, who shall dwell in Thy holy mountain? +(i) He that walketh uprightly and (ii) worketh righteousness and (iii) +speaketh the truth in his heart. (iv) He that backbiteth not with his +tongue, (v) nor doeth evil to his neighbour, (vi) nor taketh up a reproach +against another; (vii) in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, (viii) but +who honoureth them that fear the Lord. (ix) He that sweareth to his own +hurt, and changeth not; (x) He that putteth not out his money to usury, +(xi) nor taketh a bribe against the innocent. He that doeth these things +shall never be moved. Thus David reduced the Law to eleven principles. +Then came Micah and reduced them to three, as it is written: 'What doth +the Lord require of thee but (i) to do justice, (ii) to love mercy, and +(iii) to walk humbly with thy God? Then came Habbakuk and made the whole +Law stand on one fundamental idea, 'The righteous man liveth by his faith' +(Makkoth, 23 b). + +This desire to find one or a few general fundamental passages on +which the whole Scripture might be seen to base itself is, however, +far removed from anything of the nature of the Christian Creeds or +of the Mohammedan Kalimah. And when we remember that the Pharisees +and Sadducees differed on questions of doctrine (such as the belief in +immortality held by the former and rejected by the latter), it becomes +clear that the absence of a formal declaration of faith must have been +deliberate. The most that was done was to introduce into the Liturgy a +paragraph in which the assembled worshippers declared their assent to +the truth and permanent validity of the Word of God. After the Shema' +(whose contents are summarised above), the assembled worshippers daily +recited a passage in which they said (and still say): 'True and firm is +this Thy word unto us for ever.... True is it that Thou art indeed our +God ... and there is none beside Thee.' + +After all, the difference between Pharisee and Sadducee was political +rather than theological. It was not till Judaism came into contact, +contact alike of attraction and repulsion, with other systems that a +desire or a need for formulating Articles of Faith was felt. Philo, coming +under the Hellenic spirit, was thus the first to make the attempt. In +the last chapter of the tract on the Creation (_De Opifico_, lxi.), +Philo enumerates what he terms the five most beautiful lessons, superior +to all others. These are--(i) God is; (ii) God is One; (iii) the World +was created (and is not eternal); (iv) the World is one, like unto God in +singleness; and (v) God exercises a continual providence for the benefit +of the world, caring for His creatures like a parent for his children. + +Philo's lead found no imitators. It was not for many centuries that +two causes led the Synagogue to formulate a creed. And even then it +was not the Synagogue as a body that acted, nor was it a creed that +resulted. The first cause was the rise of sects within the Synagogue. Of +these sects the most important was that of the Karaites or Scripturalists. +Rejecting tradition, the Karaites expounded their beliefs both as a +justification of themselves against the Traditionalists and possibly as +a remedy against their own tendency to divide within their own order +into smaller sects. In the middle of the twelfth century the Karaite +Judah Hadassi of Constantinople arranged the whole Pentateuch under +the headings of the Decalogue, much as Philo had done long before. +And so he formulates ten dogmas of Judaism. These are--(i) Creation +(as opposed to the Aristotelian doctrine of the eternity of the world); +(ii) the existence of God; (iii) God is one and incorporeal; (iv) Moses +and the other canonical prophets were called by God; (v) the Law is the +Word of God, it is complete, and the Oral Tradition was unnecessary; +(vi) the Law must be read by the Jew in the original Hebrew; (vii) the +Temple of Jerusalem was the place chosen by God for His manifestation; +(viii) the Resurrection of the dead; (ix) the Coming of Messiah, son of +David; (x) Final Judgment and Retribution. + +Within the main body of the Synagogue we have to wait for the same +moment for a formulation of Articles of Faith. Maimonides (1135-1204) +was a younger contemporary of Hadassi; he it was that drew up the one +and only set of principles which have ever enjoyed wide authority in +Judaism. Before Maimonides there had been some inclination towards +a creed, but he is the first to put one into set terms. Maimonides +was much influenced by Aristotelianism, and this gave him an impulse +towards a logical statement of the tenets of Judaism. On the other side, +he was deeply concerned by the criticism of Judaism from the side of +Mohammedan theologians. The latter contended, in particular, that the +biblical anthropomorphisms were destructive of a belief in the pure +spirituality of God. Hence Maimonides devoted much of his great treatise, +_Guide for the Perplexed_, to a philosophical allegorisation of the +human terms applied to God in the Hebrew Bible. In his Commentary on the +_Mishnah_ (Sanhedrin, Introduction to Chelek), Maimonides declares +'The roots of our law and its fundamental principles are thirteen.' These +are--(i) Belief in the existence of God, the Creator; (ii) belief in +the unity of God; (iii) belief in the incorporeality of God; (iv) belief +in the priority and eternity of God; (v) belief that to God and to God +alone worship must be offered; (vi) belief in prophecy; (vii) belief that +Moses was the greatest of all prophets; (viii) belief that the Law was +revealed from heaven; (ix) belief that the Law will never be abrogated, +and that no other Law will ever come from God; (x) belief that God knows +the works of men; (xi) belief in reward and punishment; (xii) belief in +the coming of the Messiah; (xiii) belief in the resurrection of the dead.' + +Now here we have for the first time a set of beliefs which were a test of +Judaism. Maimonides leaves no doubt as to his meaning. For he concluded +by saying: 'When all these principles of faith are in the safe keeping +of a man, and his conviction of them is well established, he then enters +into the general body of Israel'; and, on the other hand: 'When, however, +a man breaks away from any one of these fundamental principles of belief, +then of him it is said that he has gone out of the general body of +Israel and he denies the root-truths of Judaism.' This formulation of +a dogmatic test was never confirmed by any body of Rabbis. No Jew was +ever excommunicated for declaring his dissent from these articles. No +Jew was ever called upon formally to express his assent to them. But, as +Professor Schechter justly writes: 'Among the Maimonists we may probably +include the great majority of Jews, who accepted the Thirteen Articles +without further question. Maimonides must have filled up a great gap +in Jewish theology, a gap, moreover, the existence of which was very +generally perceived. A century had hardly lapsed before the Thirteen +Articles had become a theme for the poets of the Synagogue. And almost +every country can show a poem or a prayer founded on these Articles' +(_Studies in Judaism_, p. 301). + +Yet the opposition to the Articles was both impressive and +persistent. Some denied altogether the admissibility of Articles, +claiming that the whole Law and nothing but the Law was the Charter of +Judaism. Others criticised the Maimonist Articles in detail. Certainly +they are far from logically drawn up, some paragraphs being dictated +by opposition to Islam rather than by positive needs of the Jewish +position. A favourite condensation was a smaller list of three Articles: +(i) Existence of God; (ii) Revelation; and (iii) Retribution. These three +Articles are usually associated with the name of Joseph Albo (1380-1444), +though they are somewhat older. There is no doubt but that these Articles +found, in recent centuries, more acceptance than the Maimonist Thirteen, +though the latter still hold their place in the orthodox Jewish Prayer +Books. They may be found in the _Authorised Daily Prayer Book_, +ed. Singer, p. 89. + +Moses Mendelssohn (1728-1786), who strongly maintained that Judaism +is a life, not a creed, made the practice of formulating Articles of +Judaism unfashionable. But not for long. More and more, Judaic ritual has +fallen into disregard since the French Revolution. Judaism has therefore +tended to express itself as a system of doctrines rather than as a body +of practices. And there was a special reason why the Maimonist Articles +could not remain. Reference is not meant to the fact that many Jews came +to doubt the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch. But there were lacking in +the Maimonist Creed all emotional elements. On the one hand, Maimonides, +rationalist and anti-Mystic as he was, makes no allowance for the doctrine +of the Immanence of God. Then, owing to his unemotional nature, he laid +no stress on all the affecting and moving associations of the belief in +the Mission of Israel as the Chosen People. Before Maimonides, if there +had been one dogma of Judaism at all, it was the Election of Israel. +Jehuda Halevi, the greatest of the Hebrew poets of the Middle Ages, +had at the beginning of the twelfth century, some half century before +Maimonides, given expression to this in the famous epigram: 'Israel is +to the nations like the heart to the limbs.' + +Though, however, the Creed of Maimonides has no position of authority +in the Synagogue, modern times have witnessed no successful intrusion of +a rival. Most writers of treatises on Judaism prefer to describe rather +than to define the religious tenets of the faith. In America there have +been several suggestions of a Creed. Articles of faith have been there +chiefly formulated for the reception of proselytes. This purpose is a +natural cause of precision in belief; for while one who already stands +within by birth or race is rarely called upon to justify his faith, +the newcomer is under the necessity to do so. In the pre-Christian +Judaism it is probable that there was a Catechism or short manual of +instruction called in Greek the _Didache_, in which the Golden Rule +in Hillel's negative form and the Decalogue occupied a front place. Thus +we find, too, modern American Jews formulating Articles of Faith as a +Proselyte Confession. In 1896 the Central Conference of American Rabbis +adopted the following five principles for such a Confession: (i) God +the Only One; (ii) Man His Image; (iii) Immortality of the Soul; (iv) +Retribution; (v) Israel's Mission. During the past few months a tract, +entitled 'Essentials of Judaism,' has been issued in London by the Jewish +Religious Union. The author, N. S. Joseph, is careful to explain that he +is not putting forth these principles as 'dogmatic Articles of Faith,' +and that they are solely 'suggestive outlines of belief which may be +gradually imparted to children, the outlines being afterwards filled +up by the teacher. But the eight paragraphs of these Essentials are at +once so ably compiled and so informing as to the modern trend of Jewish +belief that they will be here cited without comment. + +According then to this presentation, the Essentials of Judaism are: '(i) +There is One Eternal God, who is the sole Origin of all things and forces, +and the Source of all living souls. He rules the universe with justice, +righteousness, mercy, and love. (ii) Our souls, emanating from God, are +immortal, and will return to Him when our life on earth ceases. While +we are here, our souls can hold direct communion with God in prayer and +praise, and in silent contemplation and admiration of His works. (iii) +Our souls are directly responsible to God for the work of our life on +earth. God, being All-merciful, will judge us with loving-kindness, and +being All-just, will allow for our imperfections; and we, therefore, +need no mediator and no vicarious atonement to ensure the future +welfare of our souls. (iv) God is the One and only God. He is Eternal +and Omnipresent. He not only pervades the entire world, but is also +within us; and His Spirit helps and leads us towards goodness and truth. +(v) Duty should be the moving force of our life; and the thought that God +is always in us and about us should incite us to lead good and beneficent +lives, showing our love of God by loving our fellow-creatures, and working +for their happiness and betterment with all our might. (vi) In various +bygone times God has revealed, and even in our own days continues to +reveal to us, something of His nature and will, by inspiring the best +and wisest minds with noble thoughts and new ideas, to be conveyed to +us in words, so that this world may constantly improve and grow happier +and better. (vii) Long ago some of our forefathers were thus inspired, +and they handed down to us--and through us to the world at large--some +of God's choicest gifts, the principles of Religion and Morality, now +recorded in our Bible; and these spiritual gifts of God have gradually +spread among our fellow-men, so that much of our religion and of its +morality has been adopted by them. (viii) Till the main religious and +moral principles of Judaism have been accepted by the world at large, +the maintenance by the Jews of a separate corporate existence is a +religious duty incumbent upon them. They are the "witnesses" of God, +and they must adhere to their religion, showing forth its truth and +excellence to all mankind. This has been and is and will continue to +be their mission. Their public worship and private virtues must be the +outward manifestation of the fulfilment of that mission.' + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SOME CONCEPTS OF JUDAISM + + +Though there are no accepted Articles of Faith in Judaism, there is +a complete consensus of opinion that Monotheism is the basis of the +religion. The Unity of God was more than a doctrine. It was associated +with the noblest hope of Israel, with Israel's Mission to the world. + +The Unity of God was even more than a hope. It was an inspiration, +a passion. For it the Jews 'passed through fire and water,' enduring +tribulation and death for the sake of the Unity. All the Jewish +martyrologies are written round this text. + +In one passage the Talmud actually defines the Jew as the +Monotheist. 'Whoever repudiates the service of other gods is called a Jew' +(Megillah, 13 a). + +But this all-pervading doctrine of the Unity did not reach Judaism as an +abstract philosophical truth. Hence, though the belief in the Unity of +God, associated as it was with the belief in the Spirituality of God, +might have been expected to lead to the conception of an Absolute, +Transcendent Being such as we meet in Islam, it did not so lead in +Judaism. Judaism never attempted to define God at all. Maimonides +put the seal on the reluctance of Jewish theology to go beyond, or +to fall short of, what historic Judaism delivered. Judaism wavers +between the two opposite conceptions: absolute transcendentalism and +absolute pantheism. Sometimes Judaism speaks with the voice of Isaiah; +sometimes with the voice of Spinoza. It found the bridge in the Psalter. +'The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him.' The Law brought heaven +to earth; Prayer raised earth to heaven. + +As was remarked above, Jewish theology never shrank from inconsistency. It +accepted at once God's foreknowledge and man's free-will. So it described +the knowledge of God as far above man's reach; yet it felt God near, +sympathetic, a Father and Friend. The liturgy of the Synagogue has been +well termed a 'precipitate' of all the Jewish teaching as to God. He is +the Great, the Mighty, the Awful, the Most High, the King. But He is also +the Father, Helper, Deliverer, the Peace-Maker, Supporter of the weak, +Healer of the sick. All human knowledge is a direct manifestation of +His grace. Man's body, with all its animal functions, is His handiwork. +He created joy, and made the Bridegroom and the Bride. He formed the fruit +of the Vine, and is the Source of all the lawful pleasures of men. He is +the Righteous Judge; but He remembers that man is dust, He pardons sins, +and His loving-kindness is over all. He is unchangeable, yet repentance +can avert the evil decree. He is in heaven, yet he puts the love and +fear of Him into man's very heart. He breathed the Soul into man, and +is faithful to those that sleep in the grave. He is the Reviver of the +dead. He is Holy, and He sanctified Israel with His commandments. And +the whole is pervaded with the thought of God's Unity and the consequent +unity of mankind. Here again we meet the curious syncretism which we +have so often observed. God is in a special sense the God of Israel; +but He is unequivocally, too, the God of all flesh. + +Moses Mendelssohn said that, when in the company of a Christian friend, +he never felt the remotest desire to convert him to Judaism. This is the +explanation of the effect on the Jews of the combined belief in God as +the God of Israel, and also as the God of all men. At one time Judaism +was certainly a missionary religion. But after the loss of nationality +this quality was practically dormant. Belief was not necessary to +salvation. 'The pious of all nations have a part in the world to come' +may have been but a casual utterance of an ancient Rabbi, but it rose +into a settled conviction of later Judaism. Moreover, it was dangerous +for Jews to attempt any religious propaganda in the Middle Ages, and +thus the pressure of fact came to the support of theory. Mendelssohn +even held that the same religion was not necessarily good for all, +just as the same form of government may not fit equally all the various +national idiosyncrasies. Judaism for the Jew may almost be claimed as +a principle of orthodox Judaism. It says to the outsider: You may come +in if you will, but we warn you what it means. At all events it does +not seek to attract. It is not strange that this attitude has led to +unpopularity. The reason of this resentment is not that men wish to be +invited to join Judaism; it lies rather in the sense that the absence +of invitation implies an arrogant reserve. To some extent this is the +case. The old-fashioned Jew is inclined to think himself superior to +other men. Such a thought has its pathos. + +On the other hand, the national as contrasted with the universal aspect +of Judaism is on the wane. Many Jewish liturgies have, for instance, +eliminated the prayers for the restoration of sacrifices; and several have +removed or spiritualised the petitions for the recovery of the Jewish +nationality. Modern reformed Judaism is a universalistic Judaism. It +lays stress on the function of Israel, the Servant, as a 'Light to the +Nations.' It tends to eliminate those ceremonies and beliefs which are +less compatible with a universal than with, a racial religion. Modern +Zionism is not a real reaction against this tendency. For Zionism is +either non-religious or, if religious, brings to the front what has +always been a corrective to the nationalism of orthodox Judaism. For +the separation of Israel has ever been a means to an end; never an end +in itself. Often the end has been forgotten in the means, but never for +long. The end of Israel's separateness is the good of the world. And +the religious as distinct from the merely political Zionist who thinks +that Judaism would gain by a return to Palestine is just the one who also +thinks that return is a necessary preliminary to the Messianic Age, when +all men shall flow unto Zion and seek God there. Reformed Jews would have +to be Zionists also in this sense, were it not that many of them no longer +share the belief in the national aspects of the prophecies as to Israel's +future. These may believe that the world may become full of the knowledge +of God without any antecedent withdrawal of Israel from the world. + +If Judaism as a system of doctrine is necessarily syncretistic in +its conception of God, then we may expect the same syncretism in its +theory of God's relation to man. It must be said at once that the term +'theory' is ill-chosen. It is laid to the charge of Judaism that it has no +'theory' of Sin. This is true. If virtue and righteousness are obedience, +then disobedience is both vice and sin. No further theory was required +or possible. Atonement is reversion to obedience. Now it was said above +that the doctrine of the Unity did not reach Judaism as a philosophical +truth exactly defined and apprehended. It came as the result of a long +historic groping for the truth, and when it came it brought with it olden +anthropomorphic wrappings and tribal adornments which were not easily to +be discarded, if they ever were entirely discarded. So with the relation +of God to man in general and Israel in particular. The unchangeable +God is not susceptible to the change implied in Atonement. But history +presented to the Jew examples of what he could not otherwise interpret +than as reconciliation between God the Father and Israel the wayward +but always at heart loyal Son. And this interpretation was true to the +inward experience. Man's repentance was correlated with the sorrow of +God. God as well as man repented, the former of punishment, the latter +of sin. The process of atonement included contrition, confession, and +change of life. Undoubtedly Jewish theology lays the greatest stress on +the active stage of the process. Jewish moralists use the word Teshubah +(literally 'turning' or 'return,' _i.e._ a turning from evil or +a return to God) chiefly to mean a change of life. Sin is evil life, +atonement is the better life. The better life was attained by fasting, +prayer, and charity, by a purification of the heart and a cleansing of the +hands. The ritual side of atonement was seriously weakened by the loss +of the Temple. The sacrificial atonement was gone. Nothing replaced +it ritually. Hence the Jewish tendency towards a practical religion +was strengthened by its almost enforced stress in atonement on moral +betterment. But this moral betterment depended on a renewed communion +with God. Sin estranged, atonement brought near. Jewish theology regarded +sin as a triumph of the _Yetser Ha-ra_ (the 'evil inclination') +over the _Yetser Ha-tob_ (the 'good inclination'). Man was always +liable to fall a prey to his lower self. But such a fall, though usual +and universal, was not inevitable. Man reasserted his higher self when +he curbed his passions, undid the wrong he had wrought to others, and +turned again to God with a contrite heart. As a taint of the soul, sin +was washed away by the suppliant's tears and confession, by his sense +of loss, his bitter consciousness of humiliation, but withal man was +helpless without God. God was needed for the atonement. Israel never +dreamed of putting forward his righteousness as a claim to pardon. +'We are empty of good works' is the constant refrain of the Jewish +penitential appeals. The final reliance is on God and on God alone. Yet +Judaism took over from its past the anthropomorphic belief that God could +be moved by man's prayers, contrition, amendment--especially by man's +amendment. Atonement was only real when the amendment began; it only +lasted while the amendment endured. Man must not think to throw his own +burden entirely on God. God will help him to bear it, and will lighten +the weight from willing shoulders. But bear it man can and must. The +shoulders must be at all events willing. + +Judaism as a theology stood or fell by its belief that man can affect +God. If, for instance, prayer had no validity, then Judaism had no basis. +Judaism did not distinguish between the objective and subjective efficacy +of prayer. The two went together. The acceptance of the will of God +and the inclining of God's purpose to the desire of man were two sides +of one fact. The Rabbinic Judaism did not mechanically posit, however, +the objective validity of prayer. On the contrary, the man who prayed +expecting an answer was regarded as arrogant and sinful. A famous Talmudic +prayer sums up the submissive aspect of the Jew in this brief petition +(Berachoth, 29 a): 'Do Thy will in heaven above, and grant contentment of +spirit to those that fear Thee below; and that which is good in Thine eyes +do. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hearest prayer.' This, be it remembered, +was the prayer of a Pharisee. So, too, a very large portion of all Jewish +prayer is not petition but praise. Still, Judaism believed, not that +prayer would be answered, but that it could be answered. In modern times +the chief cause of the weakening of religion all round, in and out of +the Jewish communion, is the growing disbelief in the objective validity +of prayer. And a similar remark applies to the belief in miracles. +But to a much less extent. All ancient religions were based on miracle, +and even to the later religious consciousness a denial of miracle seems +to deny the divine Omnipotence. Jewish theology from the Rabbinic age +sought to evade the difficulty by the mystic notion that all miracles +were latent in ordered nature at the creation. And so the miraculous +becomes interconnected with Providence as revealed in history. But the +belief in special miracles recurs again and again in Judaism, and though +discarded by most reformed theologies, must be admitted as a prevailing +concept of the older religion. + +But the belief was rather in general than in special Providence. There +was a communal solidarity which made most of the Jewish prayers communal +more than personal. It is held by many that in the Psalter 'I' in the +majority of cases means the whole people. The sense of brotherhood, in +other relations besides public worship, is a perennial characteristic +of Judaism. + +Even more marked is this in the conception of the family. The hallowing +of home-life was one of the best features of Judaism. Chastity was +the mark of men and women alike. The position of the Jewish woman was +in many ways high. At law she enjoyed certain privileges and suffered +certain disabilities. But in the house she was queen. Monogamy had been +the rule of Jewish life from the period of the return from the Babylonian +Exile. In the Middle Ages the custom of monogamy was legalised in Western +Jewish communities. Connected with the fraternity of the Jewish communal +organisation and the incomparable affection and mutual devotion of +the home-life was the habit of charity. Charity, in the sense both of +almsgiving and of loving-kindness, was the virtue of virtues. The very +word which in the Hebrew Bible means righteousness means in Rabbinic +Hebrew charity. 'On three things the world stands,' says a Rabbi, +'on law, on public worship, and on the bestowal of loving-kindness.' + +Some other concepts of Judaism and their influence on character will +be treated in a later chapter. Here a final word must be said on the +Hallowing of Knowledge. + +In one of the oldest prayers of the Synagogue, repeated thrice daily, +occurs this paragraph: 'Thou dost graciously bestow on man knowledge, +and teachest mortals understanding; O let us be graciously endowed by +Thee with knowledge, understanding, and discernment. Blessed art Thou, +O Lord, gracious Giver of Knowledge.' The intellect was to be turned +to the service of the God from whom intelligence emanated. The Jewish +estimate of intellect and learning led to some unamiable contempt of the +fool and the ignoramus. But the evil tendency of identifying learning +with religion was more than mitigated by the encouragement which this +concept gave to education. The ideal was that every Jew must be a scholar, +or at all events a student. Obscurantism could not for any lengthy period +lodge itself in the Jewish camp. There was no learned caste. The fact that +the Bible and much of the most admired literature was in Hebrew made most +Jews bilingual at least. But it was not merely that knowledge was useful, +that it added dignity to man, and realised part of his possibilities. +The service of the Lord called for the dedication of the reason as well +as for the purification of the heart. The Jew had to think as well as +feel He had to serve with the mind as well as with the body. Therefore +it was that he was always anxious to justify his religion to his reason. +Maimonides devoted a large section of his _Guide_ to the explanation +of the motives of the commandments. And his example was imitated. +The Law was the expression of the Will of God, and obeyed and loved +as such. But the Law was also the expression of the Divine Reason. +Hence man had the right and the duty to examine and realise how his own +human reason was satisfied by the Law. In a sense the Jew was a quite +simple believer. But never a simpleton. '_Know_ the Lord thy God' +was the key-note of this aspect of Jewish theology. + + + +CHAPTER V + +SOME OBSERVANCES OF JUDAISM + + +The historical consciousness of Israel was vitalised by a unique +adaptability to present conditions. This is shown in the fidelity +with which a number of ancient festivals have been maintained through +the ages. Some of these were taken over from pre-Israelite cults. They +were nature feasts, and these are among the oldest rites of men. But, +as Maimonides wisely said eight centuries ago, religious rites depend +not so much on their origins as on the use men make of them. People who +wish to return to the primitive usages of this or that church have no +grasp of the value and significance of ceremonial. Here, at all events, +we are not concerned with origins. The really interesting thing is that +feasts, which originated in the fields and under the free heaven, were +observed and enjoyed in the confined streets of the Ghetto. The influence +of ceremonial is undying when it is bound up with a community's life. 'It +is impossible to create festivals to order. One must use those which +exist, and where necessary charge them with new meanings.' So writes +Mr. Montefiore in his _Liberal Judaism_ (p. 155). + +This is precisely what has happened with the Passover, Pentecost, and +the Feast of Tabernacles. These three festivals were originally, as has +been said, nature feasts. But they became also pilgrim feasts. After the +fall of the Temple the pilgrimages to Jerusalem, of course, ceased, and +there was an end to the sacrificial rites connected with them all. The +only sense in which they can still be called pilgrim feasts is that, +despite the general laxity of Sabbath observance and Synagogue attendance, +these three celebrations are nowadays occasions on which, in spring, +summer, and autumn, a large section of the Jewish community contrives +to wend its way to places of public worship. + +In the Jewish Liturgy the three feasts have special designations. They +are called respectively 'The Season of our Freedom,' 'the Season of the +Giving of our Law,' and 'the Season of our Joy.' These descriptions are +not biblical, nor are they found in this precise form until the fixation +of the Synagogue liturgy in the early part of the Middle Ages. But they +have had a powerful influence in perpetuating the hold that the three +pilgrim feasts have on the heart and consciousness of Israel. Liberty, +Revelation, Joy--these are a sequence of wondrous appeal. Now it is +easily seen that these ideas have no indissoluble connection with specific +historical traditions. True, 'Freedom' implies the Exodus; 'Revelation,' +the Sinaitic theophany; 'Joy,' the harvest merry-makings, and perhaps +some connection with the biblical narrative of Israel's wanderings in the +wilderness. But the connection, though essential for the construction of +the association, is not essential for its retention. 'The Passover,' says +Mr. Montefiore (_Liberal Judaism_, p. 155), 'practically celebrates +the formation of the Jewish people. It is also the festival of liberty. In +view of these two central features, it does not matter that we no longer +believe in the miraculous incidents of the Exodus story. They are mere +trappings which can easily be dispensed with. A festival of liberty, +the formation of a people for a religious task, a people destined to +become a purely religious community whose continued existence has no +meaning or value except on the ground of religion,--here we have ideas, +which can fitly form the subject of a yearly celebration.' Again, as +to Pentecost and the Ten Commandments, Mr. Montefiore writes: 'We do +not believe that any divine or miraculous voice, still less that God +Himself, audibly pronounced the Ten Words. But their importance lies in +themselves, not in their surroundings and origin. Liberals as well as +orthodox may therefore join in the festival of the Ten Commandments. +Pentecost celebrates the definite union of religion with morality, +the inseparable conjunction of the "service" of God with the "service" +of man. Can any religious festival have a nobler subject?' Finally, as +to tabernacles, Mr. Montefiore thus expresses himself: 'For us, to-day, +the connection with the wanderings from Egypt, which the latest [biblical] +legislators attempted, has again disappeared. Tabernacles is a harvest +festival; it is a nature festival. Should not a religion have a festival +or holy day of this kind? Is not the conception of God as the ruler and +sustainer of nature, the immanent and all-pervading spirit, one aspect of +the Divine, which can fitly be thought of and celebrated year by year? +Thus each of the three great Pentateuchal festivals may reasonably and +joyfully be observed by liberals and orthodox alike. We have no need or +wish to make a change.' And of the actual ceremonial rites connected +with the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, it is apparently only +the avoidance of leaven on the first of the three that is regarded as +unimportant. But even there Mr. Montefiore's own feeling is in favour +of the rite. 'It is,' he says, 'a matter of comparative unimportance +whether the practice of eating unleavened bread in the house for the +seven days of the Passover be maintained or not. Those who appreciate +the value of a pretty and ancient symbol, both for children and adults, +will not easily abandon the custom.' + +This is surely a remarkable development. In the Christian Church it seems +that certain festivals are retaining their general hold because they +are becoming public, national holidays. But in Judaism the hold is to be +maintained precisely on the ground that there is to be nothing national +about them, they are to be reinterpreted ideally and symbolically. It +remains to be seen whether this is possible, and it is too early to +predict the verdict of experience. The process is in active incubation +in America as well as in Europe, but it cannot be claimed that the eggs +are hatched yet. On the other hand, Zionism has so far had no effect in +the opposite direction. There has been no nationalisation of Judaism as +a result of the new striving after political nationality. Many who had +previously been detached from the Jewish community have been brought back +by Zionism, but they have not been re-attached to the religion. There +has been no perceptible increase, for instance, in the number of those +who fast on the Ninth of Ab, the anniversary of the destruction of the +Temple. Hence, from these and other considerations, of which limited +space prevents the specification, it seems on the whole likely that, +as in the past so in the future, the Festivals of the Synagogue will +survive by changes in religious significance rather than by any deepening +of national association. + +Except that the Synagogues are decked with flowers, while the Decalogue +is solemnly intoned from the Scroll of the Pentateuch, the Feast of +Pentecost has no ceremonial trappings even with the orthodox. Passover and +Tabernacles stand on a different footing. The abstention from leavened +bread on the former feast has led to a closely organised system of +cleansing the houses, an interminable array of rules as to food; while +the prescriptions of the Law as to the bearing of palm-branches and other +emblems, and the ordinance as to dwelling in booths, have surrounded +the Feast of Tabernacles with a considerable, if less extensive, +ceremonial. But there is this difference. The Passover is primarily a +festival of the Home, Tabernacles of the Synagogue. In Europe the habit +of actually dwelling in booths has been long unusual, owing to climatic +considerations. But of late years it has become customary for every +Synagogue to raise its communal booth, to which many Jews pay visits of +ceremony. On the other hand, the Passover is _par excellence_ a home +rite. On the first two evenings (or at all events on the first evening) +there takes place the _Seder_, (literally 'service'), a service of +prayer, which is at the same time a family meal. Gathered round the table, +on which are spread unleavened cakes, bitter herbs, and other emblems of +joy and sorrow, the family recounts in prose and song the narrative of +the Exodus. The service is in two parts, between which comes the evening +meal. The hallowing of the home here attains its highest point. + +Unless, indeed, this distinction be allotted to the Sabbath. The +rigidity of the laws regarding Sabbath observance is undeniable. Movement +was restricted, many acts were forbidden which were not in themselves +laborious. The Sabbath was hedged in by a formidable array of enactments. +To an outside critic it is not wonderful that the Jewish Sabbath has +a repellent look. But to the insider things wear another aspect. +The Sabbath was and is a day of delight. On it the Jew had a foretaste +of the happiness of the world to come. The reader who wishes to have a +spirited, and absolutely true, picture of the Jewish Sabbath cannot do +better than turn to Dr. Schechter's excellent _Studies in Judaism_ +(pp. 296 _seq._). As Dr. Schechter pithily puts it: 'Somebody, +either the learned professors, or the millions of the Jewish people, +must be under a delusion.' Right through the Middle Ages the Sabbath grew +deeper into the affections of the Jews. It was not till after the French +Revolution and the era of emancipation, that a change occurred. Mixing +with the world, and sharing the world's pursuits, the Jews began to +find it hard to observe the Saturday Sabbath as of old. In still more +recent times the difficulty has increased. Added to this, the growing +laxity in observances has affected the Sabbath. This is one of the most +pressing problems that face the Jewish community to-day. Here and there +an attempt has been made by small sections of Jews to substitute a Sunday +Sabbath for the Saturday Sabbath. But the plan has not prospered. + +One of the most notable rites of the Service of the Passover eve is the +sanctification with wine, a ceremony common to the ordinary Sabbath eve. +This rite has perhaps had much to do with the characteristic sobriety +of Israel. Wine forms part of almost every Jewish rite, including the +marriage ceremony. Wine thus becomes associated with religion, and +undue indulgence is a sin as well as a vice. 'No joy without wine,' +runs an old Rabbinic prescription. Joy is the hallmark of Judaism; +'Joyous Service' its summary of man's relation to the Law. So far is +Judaism from being a gloomy religion, that it is almost too light-hearted, +just as was the religion of ancient Greece. But the Talmud tells us of a +class who in the early part of the first century were known as 'lovers +of sorrow.' These men were in love with misfortune; for to every trial +of Israel corresponded an intervention of the divine salvation. This is +the secret of the Jewish gaiety. The resilience under tribulation was +the result of a firm confidence in the saving fidelity of God. And the +gaiety was tempered by solemnity, as the observances, to which we now +turn, will amply show. + +Far more remarkable than anything yet discussed is the change effected in +two other holy days since Bible times. The genius of Judaism is nowhere +more conspicuous than in the fuller meanings which have been infused +into the New Year's Day and the Day of Atonement. The New Year is the +first day of the seventh month (Tishri), when the ecclesiastical year +began. In the Bible the festival is only known as a 'day of blowing the +shofar' (ram's horn). In the Synagogue this rite was retained after +the destruction of the Temple, and it still is universally observed. +But the day was transformed into a Day of Judgment, the opening of a +ten days' period of Penitence which closed with the Day of Atonement. + +Here, too, the change effected in a biblical rite transformed +its character. 'It needed a long upward development before a day, +originally instituted on priestly ideas of national sin and collective +atonement, could be transformed into the purely spiritual festival which +we celebrate to-day' (Montefiore, _op. cit._, p. 160). But the day +is none the less associated with a strict rite, the fast. It is one of +the few ascetic ceremonies in the Jewish Calendar as known to most Jews. +There is a strain of asceticism in some forms of Judaism, and on this +a few words will be said later. But, on the whole, there is in modern +Judaism a tendency to underrate somewhat the value of asceticism in +religion. Hence the fast has a distinct importance in and for itself, +and it is regrettable that the laudable desire to spiritualise the day +is leading to a depreciation of the fast as such. But the real change +is due to the cessation of sacrifices. In the Levitical Code, sacrifice +had a primary importance in the scheme of atonement. But with the loss +of the Temple, the idea of sacrifice entirely vanished, and atonement +became a matter for the personal conscience. It was henceforth an inward +sense of sin translating itself into the better life. 'To purify desire, +to ennoble the will--this is the essential condition of atonement. Nay, +it is atonement' (Joseph, _Judaism as Creed and Life_, p. 267; +cf. _supra_, p. 45). This, in the opinion of Christian theologians, +is a shallow view of atonement. But it is at all events an attempt to +apply theology to life. And its justification lies in its success. + +Of the other festivals a word is due concerning two of them, which +differ much in significance and in development. Purim and Chanuka are +their names. Purim was probably the ancient Babylonian Saturnalia, and +it is still observed as a kind of Carnival by many Jews, though their +number is decreasing. For Purim is emphatically a Ghetto feast. And this +description applies in more ways than one. In the first place, the Book +of Esther, with which the Jewish Purim is associated, is not a book that +commends itself to the modern Jewish consciousness. The historicity of +the story is doubted, and its narrow outlook is not that of prophetic +Judaism. Observed as mediaeval Jews observed it, Purim was a thoroughly +innocent festivity. The unpleasant taste left by the closing scenes of the +book was washed off by the geniality of temper which saw the humours of +Haman's fall and never for a moment rested in a feeling of vindictiveness. +But the whole book breathes so nationalistic a spirit, so uncompromising +a belief that the enemy of Israel must be the enemy of God, that it has +become difficult for modern Judaism to retain any affection for it. It +makes its appeal to the persecuted, no doubt: it conveys a stirring lesson +in the providential care with which God watches over His people: it bids +the sufferer hope. Esther's splendid surrender of self, her immortal +declaration, 'If I perish, I perish,' still may legitimately thrill all +hearts. But the Carnival has no place in the life of a Western city, +still less the sectional Carnival. The hobby-horse had its opportunity +and the maskers their rights in the Ghetto, but only there. Purim thus +is now chiefly retained as a children's feast, and still better as a +feast of charity, of the interchange of gifts between friends, and the +bestowal of alms on the needy. This is a worthy survival. + +Chanuka, on the other hand, grows every year into greater popularity. This +festival of light, when lamps are kindled in honour of the Maccabean +heroes, has of late been rediscovered by the liberals. For the first four +centuries of the Christian Era, the festival of Chanuka ('Dedication') +was observed by the Church as well as by the Synagogue. But for some +centuries afterwards the significance of the anniversary was obscured. It +is now realised as a momentous event in the world's history. It was not +merely a local triumph of Hebraism over Hellenism, but it represents +the re-entry of the East into the civilisation of the West. Alexander +the Great had occidentalised the Orient. But with the success of the +Judaeans against the Seleucids and of the Parthians against the Romans, +the East reasserted itself. And the newly recovered influence has never +again been surrendered. Hence this feast is a feast of ideals. Year by +year this is becoming more clearly seen. And the symbol of the feast, +light, is itself an inspiration. + +The Jew is really a very sentimental being. He loves symbols. A +good deal of his fondness for ritual is due to this fact. The outward +marks of an inner state have always appealed to him. Ancient taboos +became not only consecrated but symbolical. Whether it be the rite of +circumcision, or the use of phylacteries and fringed praying garments, +or the adfixture of little scrolls in metal cases on the door-posts, or +the glad submission to the dietary laws, in all these matters sentiment +played a considerable part. And the word sentiment is used in its +best sense. Abstract morality is well enough for the philosopher, +but men of flesh and blood want their morality expressed in terms of +feeling. Love of God is a fine thing, but the Jew wished to do loving +acts of service. Obedience to the Will of God, the suppression of the +human desires before that Will, is a great ideal. But the Jew wished to +realise that he was obeying, that he was making the self-suppression. He +was not satisfied with a general law of holiness: he felt impelled to +holiness in detail, to a life in which the laws of bodily hygiene were +obeyed as part of the same law of holiness that imposed ritual and moral +purity. Much of the intricate system, of observance briefly summarised in +this paragraph, a system which filled the Jew's life, is passing away. +This is largely because Jews are surrendering their own original theory +of life and religion. Modern Judaism seems to have no use for the ritual +system. The older Judaism might retort that, if that be so, it has no +use for the modern Judaism. It is, however, clear that modern Judaism +now realises the mistake made by the Reformers of the mid-nineteenth +century. Hence we are hearing, and shall no doubt hear more and more, of +the modification of observances in Judaism rather than of their abolition. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JEWISH MYSTICISM + + +'Judaism is often called the religion of reason. It is this, but it is +also the religion of the soul. It recognises the value of that mystic +insight, those indefinable intuitions which, taking up the task at the +point where the mind impotently abandons it, carries us straight into the +presence of the King. Thus it has found room both for the keen speculator +on theological problems and for the mystic who, because he feels God, +declines to reason about Him--for a Maimonides and a Mendelssohn, but also +for a Nachmanides, a Vital, and a Luria' (M. Joseph, _op. cit._, +p. 47). Used in a vague way, mysticism stands for spiritual inwardness. +Religion without mysticism, said Amiel, is a rose without perfume. This +saying is no more precise and no more informing than Matthew Arnold's +definition of religion as morality touched with emotion. Neither +mysticism nor an emotional touch makes religion. They are as often as not +concomitants of a pathological state which is the denial of religion. But +if mysticism means a personal attitude towards God in which the heart is +active as well as the mind, then religion cannot exist without mysticism. + +When, however, we regard mysticism as what it very often is, as an +antithesis to institutional religion and a revolt against authority +and forms, then it may seem at first sight paradoxical to recognise +the mystic's claim to the hospitality of Judaism. That a religion which +produced the Psalter, and not only produced it, but used it with never +a break, should be a religion, with intensely spiritual possibilities, +and its adherents capable of a vivid sense of the nearness of God, with +an ever-felt and never-satisfied longing for communion with Him, is what +we should fully expect. But this expectation would rather make us look +for an expression on the lines of the 119th Psalm, in which the Law is so +markedly associated with freedom and spirituality. Judaism, after all, +allowed to authority and Law a supreme place. But the mystic relies on +his own intuitions, depends on his personal experiences. Judaism, on the +other hand, is a scheme in which personal experiences only count in so +far as they are brought into the general fund of the communal experience. + +But in discussing Judaism it is always imperative to discard all +_a priori_ probabilities. Judaism is the great upsetter of +the probable. Analyse a tendency of Judaism and predict its logical +consequences, and then look in Judaism for consequences quite other than +these. Over and over again things are not what they ought to be. The +sacrificial system should have destroyed spirituality; in fact, it +produced the Psalter, 'the hymnbook of the second Temple.' Pharisaism +ought to have led to externalism; in fact, it did not, for somehow +excessive scrupulosity in rite and pietistic exercises went hand in hand +with simple faith and religious inwardness. So, too, the expression of +ethics and religion as Law ought to have suppressed individuality; in +fact, it sometimes gave an impulse to each individual to try to impose +his own concepts, norms, and acts as a Law upon the rest. Each thought +very much for himself, and desired that others should think likewise. We +have already seen that in matters of dogma there never was any corporate +action at all; in ancient times, as now, it is not possible to pronounce +definitely on the dogmatic teachings of Judaism. Though there has been and +is a certain consensus of opinion on many matters, yet neither in practice +nor in beliefs have the local, the temporal, the personal elements ever +been negligible. In order to expound or define a tenet or rite of Judaism +it is mostly necessary to go into questions of time and place and person. + +Perhaps, then, we ought to be prepared to find, as in point of fact we +do find, within the main body of Judaism, and not merely as a freak of +occasional eccentrics, distinct mystical tendencies. These tendencies +have often been active well inside the sphere of the Law. Mysticism was, +as we shall see, sometimes a revolt against Law; but it was often, in +Judaism as in the Roman Catholic Church, the outcome of a sincere and +even passionate devotion to authority. Jewish mysticism, in particular, +starts as an interpretation of the Scriptures. Certain truths were arrived +at by man either intuitively or rationally, and these were harmonised +with the Bible by a process of lifting the veil from the text, and thus +penetrating to the true meaning hidden beneath the letter. Allegorical +and esoteric exegesis always had this aim: to find written what had +been otherwise found. Honour was thus done to the Scriptures, though the +latter were somewhat cavalierly treated in the process; Philo's doctrine +(at the beginning of the Christian era) and the great canonical book of +the mediaeval Cabbala, the Zohar (beginning of the fourteenth century), +were alike in this, they were largely commentaries on the Pentateuch. +Maimonides in the twelfth century followed the same method, and only +differed from these in the nature of his deductions from Scripture. This +prince of rationalists agreed with the mystics in adopting an esoteric +exegesis. But he read Aristotle into the text, while the mystics read +Plato into it. They were alike faithful to the Law, or rather to their +own interpretations of its terms. + +But further than this,--a large portion of Jewish mysticism was the +work of lawyers. Some of the foremost mystics were famous Talmudists, +men who were appealed to for decisions on ritual and conduct. It is +a phenomenon that constantly meets us in Jewish theology. There were +antinomian mystics and legalistic opponents of mysticism, but many, +like Nachmanides (1195-1270) and Joseph Caro (1488-1575), doubled the +parts of Cabbalist and Talmudist. That Jewish mysticism comes to look +like a revolt against the Talmud is due to the course of mediaeval +scholasticism. While Aristotle was supreme, it was impossible for man +to conceive as knowable anything unattainable by reason. But reason must +always leave God as unknowable. Mysticism did not assert that God was +knowable, but it substituted something else for this spiritual scepticism. +Mysticism started with the conviction that God was unknowable by reason, +but it held that God was nevertheless realisable in the human experience. +Accepting and adopting various Neo-Platonic theories of emanation, +elaborating thence an intricate angelology, the mystics threw a bridge +over the gulf between God and man. Philo's Logos, the Personified Wisdom +of the Palestinian Midrash, the demiurge of Gnosticism, the incarnate +Christ, were all but various phases of this same attempt to cross an +otherwise impassable chasm. Throughout its whole history, Jewish mysticism +substituted mediate creation for immediate creation out of nothing, and +the mediate beings were not created but were emanations. This view was +much influenced by Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021-1070). God is to Gabirol +an absolute Unity, in which form and substance are identical. Hence +He cannot be attributively defined, and man can know Him only by means +of beings which emanate from Him. Nor was this idea confined to Jewish +philosophy of the Greece-Arabic school. The German Cabbala, too, which +owed nothing directly to that school, held that God was not rationally +knowable. The result must be, not merely to exalt visionary meditation +over calm ratiocination, but to place reliance on inward experience +instead of on external authority, which makes its appeal necessarily to +the reason. Here we see elements of revolt. For, as Dr. L. Ginzberg well +says, 'while study of the Law was to Talmudists the very acme of piety, +the mystics accorded the first place to prayer, which was considered +as a mystical progress towards God, demanding a state of ecstasy.' The +Jewish mystic must invent means for inducing such a state, for Judaism +cannot endure a passive waiting for the moving spirit. The mystic soul +must learn how to mount the chariot (Merkaba) and ride into the inmost +halls of Heaven. Mostly the ecstatic state was induced by fasting and +other ascetic exercises, a necessary preliminary being moral purity; +then there were solitary meditations and long night vigils; lastly, +prescribed ritual of proved efficacy during the very act of prayer. Thus +mysticism had a farther attraction for a certain class of Jews, in that +it supplied the missing element of asceticism which is indispensable to +men more austerely disposed than the average Jew. + +In the sixteenth century a very strong impetus was given to Jewish +mysticism by Isaac Luria (1534-1572). His chief contributions to the +movement were practical, though he doubtless taught a theoretical +Cabbala also. But Judaism, even in its mystical phases, remains a +religion of conduct. Luria was convinced that man can conquer matter; +this practical conviction was the moving force of his whole life. His +own manner of living was saintly; and he taught his disciples that +they too could, by penitence, confession, prayer, and charity, evade +bodily trammels and send their souls straight to God even during their +terrestrial pilgrimage. Luria taught all this not only while submitting +to Law, but under the stress of a passionate submission to it. He added +in particular a new beauty to the Sabbath. Many of the most fascinatingly +religious rites connected now with the Sabbath are of his devising. The +white Sabbath garb, the joyous mystical hymns full of the Bride and of +Love, the special Sabbath foods, the notion of the 'over-Soul'--these +and many other of the Lurian rites and fancies still hold wide sway +in the Orient. The 'over-Soul' was a very inspiring conception, which +certainly did not originate with Luria. According to a Talmudic Rabbi +(Resh Lakish, third century), on Adam was bestowed a higher soul on +the Sabbath, which he lost at the close of the day. Luria seized upon +this mystical idea, and used it at once to spiritualise the Sabbath and +attach to it an ecstatic joyousness. The ritual of the 'over-Soul' was +an elaborate means by which a relation was established between heaven +and earth. But all this symbolism had but the slightest connection with +dogma. It was practical through and through. It emerged in a number of new +rites, it based itself on and became the cause of a deepening devotion to +morality. Luria would have looked with dismay on the moral laxity which +did later on intrude, in consequence of unbridled emotionalism and mystic +hysteria. There comes the point when he that interprets Law emotionally +is no longer Law-abiding. The antinomian crisis thus produced meets us in +the careers of many who, like Sabbatai Zebi, assumed the Messianic role. + +Jewish mysticism, starting as an ascetic corrective to the conventional +hedonism, lost its ascetic character and degenerated into licentiousness. +This was the case with the eighteenth-century mysticism known as +Chassidism, though, as its name ('Saintliness') implies, it was +innocent enough at its initiation. Violent dances, and other emotional +and sensual stimulations, led to a state of exaltation during which +the line of morality was overstepped. But there was nevertheless, +as Dr. Schechter has shown, considerable spiritual worth and beauty +in Chassidism. It transferred the centre of gravity from thinking to +feeling; it led away from the worship of Scripture to the love of God. +The fresh air of religion was breathed once more, the stars and the open +sky replaced the midnight lamp and the college. But it was destined to +raise a fog more murky than the confined atmosphere of the study. The +man with the book was often nearer God than was the man of the earth. + +The opposition of Talmudism against the neo-mysticism was thus on the +whole just and salutary. This opposition, no doubt, was bitter chiefly +when mysticism became revolutionary in practice, when it invaded the +established customs of legalistic orthodoxy. But it was also felt that +mysticism went dangerously near to a denial of the absolute Unity of +God. It was more difficult to attack it on its theoretical than on its +practical side, however. The Jewish mystic did sometimes adopt a most +irritating policy of deliberately altering customs as though for the +very pleasure of change. Now in most religious controversies discipline +counts for more than belief. As Salimbene asserts of his own day: +'It was far less dangerous to debate in the schools whether God really +existed, than to wear publicly and pertinaciously a frock and cowl of +any but the orthodox cut.' But the Talmudists' antagonism to mysticism +was not exclusively of this kind in the eighteenth century. Mysticism +is often mere delusion. In the last resort man has no other guide than +his reason. It is his own reason that convinces him of the limitations +of his reason. But those limitations are not to be overpassed by a +visionary self-introspection, unless this, too, is subjected to rational +criticism. Mysticism does its true part when it applies this criticism +also to the current forms, conventions, and institutions. Conventions, +forms, and institutions, after all, represent the corporate wisdom, +the accumulated experiences of men throughout the ages. Mysticism is the +experience of one. Each does right to test the corporate experience by +his own experience. But he must not elevate himself into a law even for +himself. That, in a sentence, would summarise the attitude of Judaism +towards mysticism. It is medicine, not a food. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ESCHATOLOGY + + +That the soul has a life of its own after death was a firmly fixed +idea in Judaism, though, except in the works of philosophers and in +the liberal theology of modern Judaism, the grosser conception of a +bodily Resurrection was predominant over the purely spiritual idea of +Immortality. Curiously enough, Maimonides, who formulated the belief in +Resurrection as a dogma of the Synagogue, himself held that the world to +come is altogether free from material factors. At a much earlier period +(in the third century) Rab had said (Ber. 17 a): 'Not as this world is +the world to come. In the world to come there is no eating or drinking, +no sexual intercourse, no barter, no envy, hatred, or contention. But the +righteous sit with their crowns on their heads, enjoying the splendour +of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence).' Commenting on this in various +places, Maimonides emphatically asserts the spirituality of the future +life. In his _Siraj_ he says, with reference to the utterance of +Rab just quoted: 'By the remark of the Sages "with their crowns on their +heads" is meant the preservation of the soul in the intellectual sphere, +and the merging of the two into one.... By their remark "enjoying the +splendour of the Shechinah" is meant that those souls will reap bliss in +what they comprehend of the Creator, just as the Angels enjoy felicity in +what they understand of His existence. And so the felicity and the final +goal consists in reaching to this exalted company and attaining this high +pitch.' Again, in his philosophical _Guide_ (I. xli.), Maimonides +distinguishes three kinds of 'soul': (1) The principle of animality, (2) +the principle of humanity, and (3) the principle of intellectuality, that +part of man's individuality which can exist independently of the body, +and therefore alone survives death. Even more remarkable is the fact that +Maimonides enunciates the same opinion in his Code (Laws of Repentance, +viii. 2). For the Code differs from the other two of the three main +works of Maimonides in that it is less personal, and expresses what the +author conceives to be the general opinion of Judaism as interpreted by +its most authoritative teachers. + +There can be no question but that this repeated insistence of Maimonides +has strongly affected all subsequent Jewish thought. To him, eternal +bliss consists in perfect spiritual communion with God. 'He who desires to +serve God from Love must not serve to win the future world. But he does +right and eschews wrong because he is man, and owes it to his manhood +to perfect himself. This effort brings him to the type of perfect man, +whose soul shall live in the state that befits it, viz. in the world to +come.' Thus the world to come is a state rather than a place. + +But Maimonides' view was not accepted without dispute. It was indeed +quite easy to cite Rabbinic passages in which the world to come is +identified with the bodily Resurrection. Against Maimonides were produced +such Talmudic utterances as the following: 'Said Rabbi Chiya b. Joseph, +the Righteous shall arise clad in their garments, for if a grain of wheat +which is buried naked comes forth with many garments, how much more shall +the righteous arise full garbed, seeing that they were interred with +shrouds' (Kethub. 111 b). Again, 'Rabbi Jannai said to his children, +Bury me not in white garments or in black: not in white, lest I be not +held worthy (of heaven) and thus may be like a bridegroom among mourners +(in Gehenna); nor in black, lest if I am held worthy, I be like a mourner +among bridegrooms (in heaven). But bury me in coloured garments (so that +my appearance will be partly in keeping with either fate),' (Sabbath, +114 a). Or finally: 'They arise with their blemishes, and then are healed' +(Sanh. 91 b). + +The popular fancy, in its natural longing for a personal existence +after the bodily death, certainly seized upon the belief in Resurrection +with avidity. It had its roots partly in the individual consciousness, +partly in the communal. For the Resurrection was closely connected with +such hopes as those expressed in Ezekiel's vision of the re-animation +of Israel's dry bones (Ezek. xxxvii.). Thus popular theology adopted +many ideas based on the Resurrection. The myth of the Leviathan hardly +belongs here, for, widespread as it was, it was certainly not regarded +in a material light. The Leviathan was created on the fifth day, and +its flesh will be served as a banquet for the righteous at the advent +of Messiah. The mediaeval poets found much attraction in this idea, +and allowed their imagination full play concerning the details of +the divine repast. Maimonides entirely spiritualised the idea, and +his example was here decisive. The conception of the Resurrection +had other consequences. As the scene of the Resurrection is to be +Jerusalem, there grew up a strong desire to be buried on the western +slope of Mount Olivet. In fact, many burial and mourning customs of +the Synagogue originated from a belief in the bodily Resurrection. But +even in the orthodox liturgy the direct references to it are vague and +idealised. Two passages of great beauty may be cited. The first is taken +from the _Authorised Daily Prayer Book_ (ed. Singer, p. 5): + +'O my God, the soul which Thou gavest me is pure; Thou didst create it, +Thou didst form it, Thou didst breathe it into me; Thou preservest it +within me; and Thou wilt take it from me, but wilt restore it unto me +hereafter. So long as the soul is within me, I will give thanks unto +Thee, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, Sovereign of all works, +Lord of all souls! Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who restorest souls unto +dead bodies.' The last phrase is also extant in another reading in the +Talmud and in some liturgies: 'Blessed art Thou, who revivest the dead,' +but the meaning of the two forms is identical. This passage, be it noted, +is ancient, and is recited every morning at prayer. The second passage is +recited even more frequently, for it is said thrice daily, and also forms +part of the funeral service. It may be found in the Prayer Book just +quoted on p. 44: 'Thou, O Lord, art mighty for ever, Thou quickenest +the dead, Thou art mighty to save. Thou sustainest the living with +loving-kindness, quickenest the dead with great mercy, supportest the +falling, healest the sick, loosest the bound, and keepest Thy faith to +them that sleep in the dust. Who is like unto Thee, Lord of mighty acts, +and who resembleth Thee, O King, who killest and quickenest, and causest +salvation to spring forth? Yea faithful art Thou to quicken the dead.' + +The later history of the doctrine in the Synagogue may be best summarised +in the words of Dr. Kohler, whose theological articles in the _Jewish +Encyclopedia_ deserve grateful recognition. What follows may be +read at full length in that work, vol. vi. p. 567: 'While mediaeval +philosophy dwelt on the intellectual, moral, or spiritual nature of the +soul to prove its immortality, the Cabbalists endeavoured to explain the +soul as a light from heaven, after Proverbs xx. 27, and immortality as +a return to the celestial world of pure light. But the belief in the +pre-existence of the soul led the mystics to the adoption, with all +its weird notions and superstitions, of the Pythagorean system of the +transmigration of the soul.' Moses Mendelssohn revived the Platonic form +of the doctrine of immortality. Thenceforth the dogma of the Resurrection +was gradually discarded until it was eliminated from the Prayer Book of +the Reform congregations. Man's future was thought of as the realisation +of those 'higher expectations which are sown, as part of its very nature, +in every human soul.' The statement of Genesis that 'God made man in +His own image,' and the idea conveyed in the text (1 Samuel xxv. 29), +'May the soul ... be bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord thy +God,' which as a divine promise and a human supplication 'filled the +generations with comfort and hope, received a new meaning from this view +of man's future; and the Rabbinical saying (Ber. 64 a): "The Righteous +rest not, either in this or in the future world, but go from strength +to strength until they see God in Zion," appeared to offer an endless +vista to the hope of immortality.' + +But quite apart from this indefiniteness of attitude as to the meaning +of immortality, it is scarcely possible to speak of a Jewish Eschatology +at all. The development of an Eschatology occurred in that section of +Jewish opinion which remained on the fringe. It must be sought in the +apocalyptic literature, which has been preserved in Greek. The whole +subject had but a small attraction for Judaism proper. Naturally there +was some curiosity and some speculation. The Day of the Lord, with its +combination of Retribution and Salvation, was pictured in various ways +and with some elaboration of detail. Paradise and Hell were mapped out, +and the comfortable compartments to be occupied by the saints and the +miserable quarters of sinners were specified with the precision of an +Ordnance Survey. Purgatory was an institution not limited to the Roman +Catholic Church; it had a strong hold on the mediaeval Jewish mind. The +intermediate state was a favourite escape from the theological necessity +of condemning sinners to eternal punishment. The Jewish heart could +not suffer the pain of conceiving Gehenna inevitable. So, one by one, +those who might logically be committed there were rescued on various +pretexts. In the end the number of the individual sinners who were to +suffer eternal torture could be named on the fingers of one hand. + +By the preceding paragraph it is not implied that Jewish literature in +Hebrew has not its full complement of fancies, horrible and beautiful, +regarding heaven and hell. But such fancies were neither dogmatic +nor popular. They never found their way into the tenets of Judaism as +formulated by any authority; they never became a moving power in the life +of the Jewish masses. It was the poets who nourished these lurid ideas, +and poetry which has done so much for the good of religion has also done +it many a disservice. Judaism, in its prosaic form, accepted the ideas +of Immortality, Retribution, and so forth, but the real interest was in +life here, not in life hereafter. + +We can see how the two were bridged over by the Jewish conviction of +human solidarity. For twelve months after the death of a father the son +recited daily the Kaddish prayer (_Authorised Daily Prayer Book_, +p. 77). This was a mere Doxology, opening: 'Magnified and sanctified +be His great name in the world which He hath created according to His +will. May He establish His kingdom during your life and during your days, +and during the life of all the house of Israel, even speedily and at a +near time, and say ye Amen.' As to the Messianic idea of the Kingdom of +God, something will be said in the next chapter. But this Doxology was +believed efficacious to save the departed soul when uttered by the living +son. The generations were thus bound together, and just as the merits of +the fathers could exert benign influence over the erring child on earth, +so could the praises of the child move the mercy of God in favour of +the erring father in Purgatory. It was a beautiful expression of the +unbreakable chain of tradition, a tradition whose links were human +hearts. In such conceptions, rather than in descriptive pictures of +Paradise and Gehenna, is the true mind of Judaism to be discerned. + +That the first formal sign of grief at the death of a parent should be a +Doxology will not have escaped notice. God is the Righteous Judge. Thus, +in the Eschatology of Judaism, this idea of Judgment predominates. A +favourite passage was the Mishnic utterance (second century): 'Rabbi +Eleazar said: They that are born are destined to die, and they that +die to be brought to life again, and they that live to be judged.' +(Aboth, iv. 29). But in another sense, too, there was judgment at +death. The sorrow of the survivors, like the decease of the departed, +was to be considered as God's doing, and therefore right. Hence in the +very moment of the death of a loved one, when grief was most poignant, +the survivor stood forth before the congregation and praised God. And so +the Burial Service is named in Hebrew 'Zidduk Ha-din,' _i.e._ 'The +Justification of the Judgment.' A few sentences in it ran thus (_Prayer +Book_, p. 318): 'The Rock, His work is perfect.... He ruleth below and +above, He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up again.... Blessed be +the true Judge.' And perhaps more than all attempts to analyse beliefs +and dogmas, the following prayer, recited during the week of mourning +for the dead, will convey to the reader the real attitude of Judaism +(at least in its central variety) to some of the questions which have +occupied us in this chapter. The quotation is made from p. 323 of the +same Prayer Book that has been already cited several times above: + +'O Lord and King, who art full of compassion, in whose hand is the soul +of every living thing and the breath of all flesh, who killest and makest +alive, who bringest down to the grave and bringest up again, receive, +we beseech Thee, in Thy great loving-kindness, the soul of our brother +who hath been gathered unto his people. Have mercy upon him, pardon all +his transgressions, for there is not a righteous man upon earth, who +doeth good and sinneth not. Remember unto him the righteousness which +he wrought, and let his reward be with him and his recompense before +him. O shelter his soul in the shadow of Thy wings. Make known to Him the +path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand are +pleasures for evermore. Vouchsafe unto him of the abounding happiness +that is treasured up for the righteous, as it is written, Oh how great +is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which +Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the children of men! + +'O Lord, who healest the broken-hearted and bindest up their wounds, +grant Thy consolation unto the mourners: put into their hearts the +fear and love of Thee, that they may serve Thee with a perfect heart, +and let their latter end be peace. + +'Like one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and in +Jerusalem shall ye be comforted. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither +shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting +light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. + +'He will destroy death for ever; and the Lord will wipe away tears from +off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off +all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.' + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SURVIVAL OF JUDAISM + + +The Messianic Hope has an intimate connection with Eschatology. Whereas, +however, the latter in so far as it affirmed a Resurrection conceived +of the immortality of Israelites, the former conceived the Immortality +of Israel. It is not necessary here to trace the origin and history of +the Messianic idea in Judaism. That this idea had a strong nationalistic +tinge is obvious. The Messiah was to be a person of Davidic descent, +who would be the restorer of Israel's greatness. Throughout Jewish +history, despite the constant injunction to refrain 'from calculating +the date of the end,' men have arisen who have claimed to be Messiahs, +and these have mostly asserted their claim on nationalistic pleas. They +were to be kings of Israel as well as inaugurators of a new regime of +moral and spiritual life. But though this is true without qualification, +it is equally true that the philosophers of the Middle Ages tried to +remove all materialistic notions from the Messianic idea. It is very +difficult to assert nowadays whether Judaism does or does not expect +a personal Messiah. A very marked change has undoubtedly come over the +spirit of the dream. + +On the one hand the neo-Nationalists deny any Messianic hopes. When that +great leader, Theodor Herzl, started a Zionistic movement without claiming +to be the Jewish Messiah, he was putting the seal on a far-reaching change +in Jewish sentiment. Dr. J. H. Greenstone, who has just published an +interesting volume on the _Messianic Idea in Jewish History_, writes +(p. 276): 'After the first Basle Congress (1897), when Zionism assumed +its present political aspect, Dr. Max Nordau, the vice-president of the +Congress, found it necessary to address an article to the Hebrew-reading +public, in which he disclaimed all pretensions of Messiahship for himself +or for his colleague Dr. Theodor Herzl.' We have thus this extraordinary +situation. Many orthodox Jews stood aloof from the Zionistic movement +because it was not Messianic, while many unorthodox Jews joined it just +because of the movement's detachment from Messianic ideas. + +It may be well to cite Dr. Greenstone's verdict on the whole question, +as the reader may care to have the opinion of so competent an authority +whose view differs from that of the present writer. 'Sacred as Zionism +is to many of its adherents, it cannot and will not take the place of the +Messianic hope. Zionism aims at the establishment of a Jewish State in +Palestine under the protection of the powers of Europe. The Messianic hope +promises the establishment, by the Jews, of a world-power in Palestine +to which all the nations of the earth will pay homage. Zionism, even +in its political aspect, will fulfil only one phase of the Jewish +Messianic hope. As such, if successful, it may contribute toward the +full realisation of the hope. If not successful, it will not deprive +the Jews of the hope. The Messianic hope is wider than the emancipation +of the Jews, it is more comprehensive than the establishment of a +Jewish, politically independent State. It participates in the larger +ideals of humanity, the ideals of perfection for the human race, but it +remains on Jewish soil, and retains its peculiarly Jewish significance. +It promises universal peace, an age of justice and of righteousness, an +age in which all men will recognise that God is One and His name One. +But this glorious age will come about through the regeneration of the +Jewish people, which in turn be effected by a man, a scion of the house +of David, sent by God to guide them on the road to righteousness. The +people chosen by God to be His messengers to the world will then be +able to accomplish their mission of regenerating the world. This was +the Messianic hope proclaimed by the prophets and sages, and this is +the Messianic hope of most Jews to-day, the difference between the +various sections being only a difference in the details of the hope' +(_op. cit._, p. 278). + +Dr. Greenstone surely cannot mean that the question of a 'personal +Messiah' is a mere detail of the belief. Yet it is on that point that +opinion is most divided among Jews. The older belief undeniably was what +Dr. Greenstone enunciates. But for this belief, none of what Mr. Zangwill +aptly terms the 'Dreamers of the Ghetto' would have found the ready +acceptance that several of them did when they presented themselves as +Messiah or his forerunners. And no doubt there are many Jews who still +cling to this form of the belief. + +On the other hand, there has been a slow but widespread tendency to +reinterpret the whole intention of the Messianic hope of Judaism. In +1869, and again in 1885, American Conferences of liberal Rabbis adopted +resolutions to the following effect: 'The Messianic aim of Israel is not +the restoration of the old Jewish State under a descendant of David, +involving a second separation from the nations of the earth, but the +union of all children of God in the confession of the unity of God, +so as to realise the unity of all rational creatures and their call to +moral sanctification.' This view sees in the destruction of the Temple +and the dispersal of Israel not a punishment but a stage in the fulfilment +of Israel's destiny as revealed to Abraham. Israel is High-Priest, and +can only fulfil his mission in the close neighbourhood of those to whom +he is elected to minister. + +This, no less than the non-Messianic Zionism, is a considerable change +from older beliefs. As a Messianic hope it transcends the visions of +Isaiah. The prophet looks forward to an ideal future, a reign of peace +and felicity, but the nations are to flow to Zion. The significance of +the change lies in this. The Messianic idea now means to many Jews a +belief in human development and progress, with the Jews filling the role +of the Messianic people, but only as _primus inter pares_. It is +the expression of a genuine optimism. 'Character, no less than Career,' +said George Eliot, 'is a process and an unfolding.' So with the Character +of mankind as a whole. But this idea of development, unfolding, is quite +modern in the real sense of the terms; it is something outside the range +even of the second Isaiah. Judaism was never quite sure whether to join +the ranks of the '_laudatores temporis acti_,' or to believe that man +never is but always to be blest. On the one hand, the person of Adam was +endowed with perfections such as none of his successors matched. On the +other hand, the Golden Age of Judaism, as Kenan said, was thrown forward +into the future. That on the whole Judaism has taken the prospective +rather than the retrospective view, is the sole justification for the +modern conception of the Messianic Age which is fast becoming predominant +in the Synagogue. The Synagogue does not share the Roman poet's sentiment: + + 'A race of men baser than their sires + Gave birth to us, a progeny more vile, + Who dower the world with offspring viler still'; + +but the English poet's trust: + + 'Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, + And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.' + +Denouncing the 'Calculators of the End,' a Rabbi said (Sanh. 97 b): +'All the computed terms have passed, and the matter dependeth now on +repentance and good deeds' (cf. S. Singer, The Messianic Idea in Judaism, +pp. 1 and 18) + +If, however, Israel is not destined to a Restoration, if the +Jewish Mission is the propagation of an idea, on what ground is the +continued existence of Israel as a separate organisation defensible or +justified? Israel is indestructible, said Jehuda Halevi in the twelfth +century; certainly Israel is undestroyed. When Frederick the Great +asked what should make him believe in God, he received in answer, +'the survival of the Jews.' Dr. Guttmann of Breslau not long since put +forward a similar plea in vindication of the continued significance of +Judaism. In nature all forms die when their utility is over; in history, +peoples succumb when their work in and for the world is complete. Shall, +he asks, we recognise Judaism as the solitary exception, as the unique +instance of the survival of the unfit and the unnecessary? + +The modern apologists for all religions rarely belong to the rank +and file. Whether it be Harnack for Christianity or Mr. Montefiore +for Judaism, the vindicators stand far above the average of the +believers whose faith they are vindicating. The average man needs +no defence for a religion which enables him to live and thrive, +materially and spiritually. The importance of this consideration is very +great. Restricting our attention to Judaism, it is clear that it still +offers ideals to many, prescribes and enforces a moral law, teaches a +satisfying doctrine of God. If so, then it is futile to discuss whether +Judaism is still necessary. Can the world afford to surrender a single +one of its forces for good? If there are ten millions of men, women, and +children who live, and live not ignobly, by Judaism, can it be contended +that Judaism is obsolete? The first, the main justification of Judaism is +its continued efficiency, its proved power still to control and inspire +many millions of human lives. There are more people living as Jews to-day, +than there were at any previous moment in the world's history. + +But, like many answers to questions, this reply does not satisfy those +who raise the question. I refer exclusively to the doubters among the Jews +themselves, for if Jews were themselves convinced of the justification of +the Jewish separateness, the rest of the world would be convinced. Now, +the Jews who ask this question are those who are not so completely given +over to Judaism, that they are blind to the claims of other religions. +To them the question is one not of absolute, but of comparative +truth. Judaism may still be a power, but it may not be a desirable +power. The further question therefore arises as to the mission of Israel +in history to come as well as in history past. History seems contradicted +by the claim made by Judaism. Jews are quick enough to see the weakness +of the pretension made by certain sects of dogmatic Christianity that +it is the last word of religion, that all saving truth was once for +all revealed some nineteen centuries ago. History, says the Jewish +controversialist, teaches no such lessons of finality. Forces appear, +work their destined course, and then make way for other forces. The world +does not stand still; it moves on. Then how can Judaism claim for itself +a permanence, a finality, which it must deny to every other system, +to every other influence which has in its turn moulded human destiny? + +A favourite answer is: Judaism is the exception that proves the rule. It +_has_ been a permanent force in the world's history. It is argued +that Jewish ideals have exercised recurrent influence at all important +crises. Dr. Guttmann somewhat rhetorically makes this identical claim. He +points to the birth of Christianity, the rise of Islam, the mediaeval +Scholasticism, the Italian Renaissance, the German Reformation, the +English and American Puritanism, the modern humanitarian movement, as +exemplifications of the continued power of Judaism to mould the minds +and souls of men. There is a sense in which this claim is just. It +is a valuable support to the Jew's allegiance to Judaism. But even if +Dr. Guttmann's claim were granted, and it is considerably exaggerated, +how does it help? We are all agreed as to the debt which the world owes +to Greece. That debt is a great one. Is it obsolete? Surely not. Greece +has again and again revived its ancient power to inspire men. The +world would be a poor one to-day without all that Greek culture stands +for. Greece did not give men enough to live by; Hebraism did that. But +Greece made life more worth living. Hellenism is an ever-recurrent +force in human civilisation. Yet no one argues that because Hellenism +is still necessary, Hellenes are also necessary. Who contends that for +carrying on Greek culture you need Greeks? On the contrary, it was the +case of Greece that gave rise to the profound observation that just as +a man must die to live, so peoples must die that men may live through +them. Renan, who, among the moderns, gave fullest value to this truth, +included Judaea with Greece in the generalisation. Certainly as a nation, +whether temporarily or irrevocably, Judaea perished no less than Athens, +that a new world might be born. And a new Jewish nation would no more +be the old Judaea of Isaiah than the Athens of to-day is the Athens of +Pericles, or the Rome of to-day the Rome of Augustus. History does not +retrace its steps. + +Athens fell, and with it the Athenians. Why then, when Judaea fell, did +the Jews remain? Greek culture does not need Greeks to carry it on; +why does Jewish culture need Jews? The first suggestion to be offered +is this:--Israel is the protestant people. Every religious or moral +innovator has also been a protestant. Socrates, Jesus, Luther; Isaiah, +Maimonides, Spinoza; all of them, besides their contributions--very +unequal contributions--to the positive store of truth, assumed also the +negative attitude of protesters. They refused to go with the multitude, +to acquiesce in current conventions. They were all unpopular and even +anti-popular. The Jews as a community have fulfilled, and are fulfilling, +this protestant function. They have been and are unpopular just because +of their protestant function. They refuse to go with the multitude; +they refuse to acquiesce. Geiger used this argument very forcibly, +from the spiritual point of view, in the early part of the nineteenth +century, and Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu (in his book _Israel among the +Nations_) even more forcibly used it at the end of the same century, +from the historical point of view. This ingenious French observer cites +a suspicion that 'the sons of Jacob, as compared with the rest of the +human race, represent a higher state of evolution' (p. 232). No modern +Jew would make so preposterous a claim. But when the same writer sees +in the Jew a _different_ stage of evolution, then he is on the +right tack. Here is a passage which deserves to be quoted again and +again: 'I have little taste, I confess, for uniformity; I leave that +to the Jacobins. My ideal of a nation is not a monolith, nor a bronze +formed at a single casting. It is better that a people should be composed +of diverse elements and of many races. If the Jew differs from us, so +much the better; he is the more likely to bring a little variety into +the flat monotony of our modern civilisation' (p. 261). And the same +argument applies to religions. There is a permanent value to the world +in Israel's determined, protestant attitude. The handful of protestants +who, in Elijah's day, refused to bow to Baal and to kiss him, were the +real saviours of their generation. And though the world to-day is in no +need of such salvation, still the Jew remains the finest exemplification +of the truth that God fulfils Himself in many ways, lest one good custom +should corrupt the world. + +Then again, Judaism seems destined to survive because it represents +at once the God-idea and the ethical idea. The liberal Jew, as well as +the orthodox, believes that no other religion does this in the same way +as does Judaism. Putting it crudely, the Jew would perhaps admit that +Christianity has absorbed, developed, enlarged and purified the Hebrew +ethics, but he would, rightly or wrongly, think that it has obscured by +dogmatic accretions the Jewish Monotheism. On the other hand, the Jew +would admit that Islam has absorbed and purified the Jewish Monotheism, +but has done less of the flattery of imitation to the Hebrew ethics. Islam +has certainly a pure creed; it freed itself from the entanglements of +anthropomorphic metaphors and conceptions of God, which are apparent in +the early strata of the Hebrew Bible, and from which Judaism, because +of its reverence for the Bible, has not emancipated itself yet. But that +it can emancipate itself is becoming progressively more clear. And even +if we drop comparisons, Judaism stands for a life in which goodness and +God are the paramount interests. + +But, beyond all, the Jew believes himself to be a Witness to God. He +thinks that on him, in some real sense, depends the fulfilment of the +purposes of God. It may be an arrogant thought, but unlike most boasts it +at once humiliates and ennobles, humiliates by the consciousness of what +is, ennobles by the vision of what might be. After enumerating certain +ethical and religious ideas which, he holds, Judaism still has to teach +the world, the Rev. M. Joseph adds: 'But to the Jew himself, first of +all, these truths are uttered. He is to help to win the world for the +highest ideals. But if he is to succeed, he must himself be conspicuously +faithful to them. He is the chosen, but his very election binds him to +vigorous service of truth and righteousness. "Be ye clean, ye that bear +the vessels of the Lord." Only when Israel proves by the nobility of his +life that he deserves his holy vocation will the accomplishment of his +mission be at hand. When all the peoples of the earth shall see that he +is worthily called by the name of the Lord, the Divine name and law will +be near to the attainment of their destined empire over the hearts of men' +(_Judaism as Creed and Life_, p. 513). + +A community that believes itself to fill this place in the Divine +purpose deserves to live. Its separate existence is a means, not an end; +for when all has been said, the one God carries with it the idea of one +humanity. The Fatherhood of God implies the brotherhood of man. And so, +amid all its trust that the long travail of centuries cannot fulfil +itself in Israel's annihilation, amid all its particularism, there soars +aloft the belief in the day when there will be no religions, but only +Religion, when Israel will come together with other communions, or they +with Israel. And so, thrice daily, in most Synagogues of Israel, this +prayer is uttered: 'We therefore hope in Thee, O Lord our God, that we +may speedily behold the glory of Thy might, when Thou wilt remove the +abominations from the earth, and the idols will be utterly cut off; +when the world will be perfected under the kingdom of the Almighty, +and all the children of flesh will call upon Thy name, when Thou wilt +turn unto Thee all the wicked of the earth. Let all the inhabitants of +the world perceive and know that unto Thee every knee must bow, every +tongue must swear. Before Thee, O Lord our God, let them bow and fall; +and unto Thy glorious name let them give honour. Let them all accept +the yoke of Thy kingdom, and do Thou reign over them speedily, and for +ever and ever. For the Kingdom is Thine, and to all eternity Thou wilt +reign in glory; as it is written in Thy Law, The Lord shall reign for +ever and ever. And it is said, And the Lord shall be King over all the +earth; in that day shall the Lord be One, and His name One.' + +Modern Judaism, in short, claims no finality but what is expressed in +that hope. It holds itself ready to develop, to modify, to absorb, to +assimilate, except in so far as such processes seem inconsistent with +this hope. Modern Jews think that in some respects the Rabbinic Judaism +was an advance on the Biblical; they think further that their own modern +Judaism is an advance on the Rabbinic. Judaism, as they conceive it, is +the one religion, with a great history behind it, that does not claim the +religious doctrines of some particular moment in its history to be the +last word on Religion. It thinks that the last word is yet to be spoken, +and is inspired with the confidence that its own continuance will make +that last word fuller and truer when it comes, if it ever does come. + + + +SELECTED LIST OF BOOKS ON JUDAISM + + +[This list does not include works on the early Religion of Israel, +or articles in the standard Dictionaries of the Bible. For the rest, +only works written in English are cited, and for the most part Jewish +expositions of Judaism.] + +Articles in the _Jewish Encyclopedia_ (New York and London, Funk +and Wagnalls, 12 vols. 1901-1906). Especially the following: 'Articles of +Faith' (E. G. Hirsch); 'Atonement' (K. Kohler); 'Cabala' (L. Ginzberg); +'Catechisms' (E. Schreiber); 'Conferences' (D. Philipson); 'Ethics' +(K. Kohler, I. Broyde and E. G. Hirsch); 'Eschatology' (K. Kohler); +'God' (E. G. Hirsch); 'Hassidim' (S. M. Dubnow); 'Immortality' +(K. Kohler); 'Judaism' (K. Kohler); 'Law, Codification of' (L. Ginzberg); +'Messiah' (M. Buttenwieser); 'Nomism' (J. Z. Lauterbach and K. Kohler); +'Pharisees' (K. Kohler); 'Keform Judaism' (E. G. Hirsch and D. Philipson); +'Resurrection' (K. Kohler); 'Sabbath' (E. G. Hirsch and J. H. Greenstone); +'Theology' (J. Z. Lauterbach). + +M. FRIEDLANDER.--_The Jewish Religion_ (Kegan Paul, 1891). + +J. H. GREENSTONE.--_The Messiah Idea in Jewish History_ +(Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1906). + +M. JOSEPH.--_Judaism as Creed and Life_ (London, Macmillan, 1903). + +N. S. JOSEPH.--_Religion, Natural and Revealed_ (London, Macmillan, +1906). + +M. LAZARUS.--_The Ethics of Judaism_ (London, Macmillan; 2 vols., +1900-1) + +C. G. MONTEFIORE.--_Hibbert Lectures_ (London, Williams and Norgate, +1892, especially _Lectures_ VII.-IX.). + +------_Liberal Judaism_ (London, Macmillan, 1903). + +S. SCHECHTER.--_Studies in Judaism_ (London, A. and C. Black, 1896). + +E. SCHURER.--_A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ_ +(Edinburgh, T. and T. Clark, 1890). + +S. SINGER.--_Authorised Daily Prayer Book_ (London, Eyre and +Spottiswoode; many editions). + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Judaism, by Israel Abrahams + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUDAISM *** + +This file should be named 6971.txt or 6971.zip + +This eBook produced by: Distributed Proofreaders, John Williams, +and David Starner + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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