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diff --git a/7836.txt b/7836.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8e078f --- /dev/null +++ b/7836.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3385 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jewish History, by S. M. Dubnow + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Jewish History + +Author: S. M. Dubnow + + +Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7836] +This file was first posted on May 21, 2003 +Last Updated: May 8, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEWISH HISTORY *** + + + + +Produced by David King, Charles Franks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + +JEWISH HISTORY + +AN ESSAY IN THE PHILOSOPHY +OF HISTORY + +By S. M. Dubnow + + + + +PREFACE TO THE GERMAN TRANSLATION + + +The author of the present essay, S. M. Dubnow, occupies a well-nigh +dominating position in Russian-Jewish literature as an historian and +an acute critic. His investigations into the history of the +Polish-Russian Jews, especially his achievements in the history of +Chassidism, have been of fundamental importance in these departments. +What raises Mr. Dubnow far above the status of the professional +historian, and awakens the reader's lively interest in him, is not so +much the matter of his books, as the manner of presentation. It is +rare to meet with an historian in whom scientific objectivity and +thoroughness are so harmoniously combined with an ardent temperament +and plastic ability. Mr. Dubnow's scientific activity, first and last, +is a striking refutation of the widespread opinion that identifies +attractiveness of form in the work of a scholar with superficiality of +content. Even his strictly scientific investigations, besides offering +the scholar a wealth of new suggestions, form instructive and +entertaining reading matter for the educated layman. In his critical +essays, Mr. Dubnow shows himself to be possessed of keen psychologic +insight. By virtue of this quality of delicate perception, he aims to +assign to every historical fact its proper place in the line of +development, and so establish the bond between it and the general +history of mankind. This psychologic ability contributes vastly to the +interest aroused by Mr. Dubnow's historical works outside of the +limited circle of scholars. There is a passage in one of his books[1] +in which, in his incisive manner, he expresses his views on the limits +and tasks of historical writing. As the passage bears upon the methods +employed in the present essay, and, at the same time, is a +characteristic specimen of our author's style, I take the liberty of +quoting: + +"The popularization of history is by no means to be pursued to the +detriment of its severely scientific treatment. What is to be guarded +against is the notion that tedium is inseparable from the scientific +method. I have always been of the opinion that the dulness commonly +looked upon as the prerogative of scholarly inquiries, is not an +inherent attribute. In most cases it is conditioned, not by the nature +of the subject under investigation, but by the temper of the +investigator. Often, indeed, the tediousness of a learned disquisition +is intentional: it is considered one of the polite conventions of the +academic guild, and by many is identified with scientific thoroughness +and profound learning.... If, in general, deadening, hide-bound caste +methods, not seldom the cover for poverty of thought and lack of +cleverness, are reprehensible, they are doubly reprehensible in +history. The history of a people is not a mere mental discipline, like +botany or mathematics, but a living science, a _magistra vitae_, +leading straight to national self-knowledge, and acting to a certain +degree upon the national character. History is a science _by_ the +people, _for_ the people, and, therefore, its place is the open +forum, not the scholar's musty closet. We relate the events of the +past to the people, not merely to a handful of archaeologists and +numismaticians. We work for national self-knowledge, not for our own +intellectual diversion." + + [1] In the introduction to his _Historische Mitteilungen, + Vorarbeiten zu einer Geschichte der pol-nischrussischen + Juden_. + +These are the principles that have guided Mr. Dubnow in all his works, +and he has been true to them in the present essay, which exhibits in a +remarkably striking way the author's art of making "all things seem +fresh and new, important and attractive." New and important his essay +undoubtedly is. The author attempts, for the first time, a psychologic +characterization of Jewish history. He endeavors to demonstrate the +inner connection between events, and develop the ideas that underlie +them, or, to use his own expression, lay bare the soul of Jewish +history, which clothes itself with external events as with a bodily +envelope. Jewish history has never before been considered from this +philosophic point of view, certainly not in German literature. The +present work, therefore, cannot fail to prove stimulating. As for the +poet's other requirement, attractiveness, it is fully met by the work +here translated. The qualities of Mr. Dubnow's style, as described +above, are present to a marked degree. The enthusiasm flaming up in +every line, coupled with his plastic, figurative style, and his +scintillating conceits, which lend vivacity to his presentation, is +bound to charm the reader. Yet, in spite of the racy style, even the +layman will have no difficulty in discovering that it is not a clever +journalist, an artificer of well-turned phrases, who is speaking to +him, but a scholar by profession, whose foremost concern is with +historical truth, and whose every statement rests upon accurate, +scientific knowledge; not a bookworm with pale, academic blood +trickling through his veins, but a man who, with unsoured mien, with +fresh, buoyant delight, offers the world the results laboriously +reached in his study, after all evidences of toil and moil have been +carefully removed; who derives inspiration from the noble and the +sublime in whatever guise it may appear, and who knows how to +communicate his inspiration to others. + +The translator lays this book of an accomplished and spirited +historian before the German public. He does so in the hope that it +will shed new light upon Jewish history even for professional +scholars. He is confident that in many to whom our unexampled past of +four thousand years' duration is now _terra incognita_, it will +arouse enthusiastic interest, and even to those who, like the +translator himself, differ from the author in religious views, it will +furnish edifying and suggestive reading. J. F. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION + + +The English translation of Mr. Dubnow's Essay is based upon the +authorized German translation, which was made from the original +Russian. It is published under the joint auspices of the Jewish +Publication Society of America and the Jewish Historical Society of +England. H. S. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +PREFACE TO THE GERMAN TRANSLATION + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + +I + +THE RANGE OF JEWISH HISTORY + Historical and Unhistorical Peoples + Three Groups of Nations + The "Most Historical" People + Extent of Jewish History + +II + +THE CONTENT OF JEWISH HISTORY + Two Periods of Jewish History + The Period of Independence + The Election of the Jewish People + Priests and Prophets + The Babylonian Exile and the Scribes + The Dispersion + Jewish History and Universal History + Jewish History Characterized + +III + +THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JEWISH HISTORY + The National Aspect of Jewish History + The Historical Consciousness + The National Idea and National Feeling + The Universal Aspect of Jewish History + An Historical Experiment + A Moral Discipline + Humanitarian Significance of Jewish History + Schleiden and George Eliot + +IV + +THE HISTORICAL SYNTHESIS + Three Primary Periods + Four Composite Periods + +V + +THE PRIMARY OR BIBLICAL PERIOD + Cosmic Origin of the Jewish Religion + Tribal Organization + Egyptian Influence and Experiences + Moses + Mosaism a Religious and Moral as well as a Social and Political + System + National Deities + The Prophets and the two Kingdoms + Judaism a Universal Religion + +VI + +THE SECONDARY OR SPIRITUAL-POLITICAL PERIOD + Growth of National Feeling + Ezra and Nehemiah + The Scribes + Hellenism + The Maccabees + Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes + Alexandrian Jews + Christianity + +VII + +THE TERTIARY TALMUDIC OR NATIONAL-RELIGIOUS +PERIOD + The Isolation of Jewry and Judaism + The Mishna + The Talmud + Intellectual Activity in Palestine and Babylonia + The Agada and the Midrash + Unification of Judaism + +VIII + +THE GAONIC PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE ORIENTAL JEWS (500-980) + The Academies + Islam + Karaism + Beginning of Persecutions in Europe + Arabic Civilization in Europe + +IX + +THE RABBINIC-PHILOSOPHICAL PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE SPANISH +JEWS (980-1492) + The Spanish Jews + The Arabic-Jewish Renaissance + The Crusades and the Jews + Degradation of the Jews in Christian Europe + The Provence + The Lateran Council + The Kabbala + Expulsion from Spain + +X + +THE RABBINIC-MYSTICAL PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE GERMAN-POLISH +JEWS (1492-1789) + The Humanists and the Reformation + Palestine an Asylum for Jews + Messianic Belief and Hopes + Holland a Jewish Centre + Poland and the Jews + The Rabbinical Authorities of Poland + Isolation of the Polish Jews + Mysticism and the Practical Kabbala + Chassidism + Persecutions and Morbid Piety + +XI + +THE MODERN PERIOD OF ENLIGHTENMENT (THE NINETEENTH CENTURY) + The French Revolution + The Jewish Middle Ages + Spiritual and Civil Emancipation + The Successors of Mendelssohn + Zunz and the Science of Judaism + The Modern Movements outside of Germany + The Jew in Russia + His Regeneration + Anti-Semitism and Judophobia + +XII + +THE TEACHINGS OF JEWISH HISTORY + Jewry a Spiritual Community + Jewry Indestructible + The Creative Principle of Jewry + The Task of the Future + The Jew and the Nations + The Ultimate Ideal + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + + +What is Jewish History? In the first place, what does it offer as to +quantity and as to quality? What are its range and content, and what +distinguishes it in these two respects from the history of other +nations? Furthermore, what is the essential meaning, what the spirit, +of Jewish History? Or, to put the question in another way, to what +general results are we led by the aggregate of its facts, considered, +not as a whole, but genetically, as a succession of evolutionary +stages in the consciousness and education of the Jewish people? + +If we could find precise answers to these several questions, they +would constitute a characterization of Jewish History as accurate as +is attainable. To present such a characterization succinctly is the +purpose of the following essay. + + + + +JEWISH HISTORY + +AN ESSAY IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY + + + + +I + +THE RANGE OF JEWISH HISTORY + + + Le peuple juif n'est pas seulement considerable par son + antiquite, mais il est encore singulier en sa duree, qui a + toujours continue depuis son origine jusqu'a maintenant ... + S'etendant depuis les premiers temps jusqu'aux derniers, + l'histoire des juifs enferme dans sa duree celle de toutes nos + histoires.--PASCAL, _Pensees_, II, 7. + +To make clear the range of Jewish history, it is necessary to set down +a few general, elementary definitions by way of introduction. + +It has long been recognized that a fundamental difference exists +between historical and unhistorical peoples, a difference growing out +of the fact of the natural inequality between the various elements +composing the human race. Unhistorical is the attribute applied to +peoples that have not yet broken away, or have not departed very far, +from the state of primitive savagery, as, for instance, the barbarous +races of Asia and Africa who were the prehistoric ancestors of the +Europeans, or the obscure, untutored tribes of the present, like the +Tartars and the Kirghiz. Unhistorical peoples, then, are ethnic groups +of all sorts that are bereft of a distinctive, spiritual +individuality, and have failed to display normal, independent capacity +for culture. The term historical, on the other hand, is applied to the +nations that have had a conscious, purposeful history of appreciable +duration; that have progressed, stage by stage, in their growth and in +the improvement of their mode and their views of life; that have +demonstrated mental productivity of some sort, and have elaborated +principles of civilization and social life more or less rational; +nations, in short, representing not only zoologic, but also spiritual +types.[2] + + [2] "The primitive peoples that change with their environment, + constantly adapting themselves to their habitat and to + external nature, have no history.... Only those nations and + states belong to history which display self-conscious action; + which evince an inner spiritual life by diversified + manifestations; and combine into an organic whole what they + receive from without, and what they themselves originate." + (Introduction to Weber's _Allgemeine Weltgeschichte_, i, + pp. 16-18.) + +Chronologically considered, these latter nations, of a higher type, +are usually divided into three groups: 1, the most ancient civilized +peoples of the Orient, such as the Chinese, the Hindoos, the +Egyptians, the Chaldeans; 2, the ancient or classic peoples of the +Occident, the Greeks and the Romans; and 3, the modern peoples, the +civilized nations of Europe and America of the present day. The most +ancient peoples of the Orient, standing "at the threshold of history," +were the first heralds of a religious consciousness and of moral +principles. In hoary antiquity, when most of the representatives of +the human kind were nothing more than a peculiar variety of the class +mammalia, the peoples called the most ancient brought forth recognized +forms of social life and a variety of theories of living of fairly +far-reaching effect. All these culture-bearers of the Orient soon +disappeared from the surface of history. Some (the Chaldeans, +Phoenicians, and Egyptians) were washed away by the flood of time, and +their remnants were absorbed by younger and more vigorous peoples. +Others (the Hindoos and Persians) relapsed into a semi-barbarous +state; and a third class (the Chinese) were arrested in their growth, +and remained fixed in immobility. The best that the antique Orient had +to bequeath in the way of spiritual possessions fell to the share of +the classic nations of the West, the Greeks and the Romans. They +greatly increased the heritage by their own spiritual achievements, +and so produced a much more complex and diversified civilization, +which has served as the substratum for the further development of the +better part of mankind. Even the classic nations had to step aside as +soon as their historical mission was fulfilled. They left the field +free for the younger nations, with greater capability of living, which +at that time had barely worked their way up to the beginnings of a +civilization. One after the other, during the first two centuries of +the Christian era, the members of this European family of nations +appeared in the arena of history. They form the kernel of the +civilized part of mankind at the present day. + +Now, if we examine this accepted classification with a view to finding +the place belonging to the Jewish people in the chronological series, +we meet with embarrassing difficulties, and finally arrive at the +conclusion that its history cannot be accommodated within the compass +of the classification. Into which of the three historical groups +mentioned could the Jewish people be put? Are we to call it one of the +most ancient, one of the ancient, or one of the modern nations? It is +evident that it may lay claim to the first description, as well as to +the second and the last. In company with the most ancient nations of +the Orient, the Jewish people stood at the "threshold of history." It +was the contemporary of the earliest civilized nations, the Egyptians +and the Chaldeans. In those remote days it created and spread a +religious world-idea underlying an exalted social and moral system +surpassing everything produced in this sphere by its Oriental +contemporaries. Again, with the classical Greeks and Romans, it forms +the celebrated historical triad universally recognized as the source +of all great systems of civilization. Finally, in fellowship with the +nations of to-day, it leads an historical life, striding onward in the +path of progress without stay or interruption. Deprived of political +independence, it nevertheless continues to fill a place in the world +of thought as a distinctly marked spiritual individuality, as one of +the most active and intelligent forces. How, then, are we to +denominate this omnipresent people, which, from the first moment of +its historical existence up to our days, a period of thirty-five +hundred years, has been developing continuously. In view of this +Methuselah among the nations, whose life is co-extensive with the +whole of history, how are we to dispose of the inevitable barriers +between "the most ancient" and "the ancient," between "the ancient" +and "the modern" nations--the fateful barriers which form the +milestones on the path of the historical peoples, and which the Jewish +people has more than once overstepped? + +A definition of the Jewish people must needs correspond to the +aggregate of the concepts expressed by the three group-names, most +ancient, ancient, and modern. The only description applicable to it is +"the historical nation of all times," a description bringing into +relief the contrast between it and all other nations of modern and +ancient times, whose historical existence either came to an end in +days long past, or began at a date comparatively recent. And granted +that there are "historical" and "unhistorical" peoples, then it is +beyond dispute that the Jewish people deserves to be called "the most +historical" (_historicissimus_). If the history of the world be +conceived as a circle, then Jewish history occupies the position of +the diameter, the line passing through its centre, and the history of +every other nation is represented by a chord marking off a smaller +segment of the circle. The history of the Jewish people is like an +axis crossing the history of mankind from one of its poles to the +other. As an unbroken thread it runs through the ancient civilization +of Egypt and Mesopotamia, down to the present-day culture of France +and Germany. Its divisions are measured by thousands of years. + +Jewish history, then, in its range, or, better, in its duration, +presents an unique phenomenon. It consists of the longest series of +events ever recorded in the annals of a single people. To sum up its +peculiarity briefly, it embraces a period of thirty-five hundred +years, and in all this vast extent it suffers no interruption. At +every point it is alive, full of sterling content. Presently we shall +see that in respect to content, too, it is distinguished by +exceptional characteristics. + + + + +II + +THE CONTENT OF JEWISH HISTORY + + +From the point of view of content, or qualitative structure, Jewish +history, it is well known, falls into two parts. The dividing point +between the two parts is the moment in which the Jewish state +collapsed irretrievably under the blows of the Roman Empire (70 C. +E.). The first half deals with the vicissitudes of a nation, which, +though frequently at the mercy of stronger nations, still maintained +possession of its territory and government, and was ruled by its own +laws. In the second half, we encounter the history of a people without +a government, more than that, without a land, a people stripped of all +the tangible accompaniments of nationality, and nevertheless +successful in preserving its spiritual unity, its originality, +complete and undiminished. + +At first glance, Jewish history during the period of independence +seems to be but slightly different from the history of other nations. +Though not without individual coloring, there are yet the same wars +and intestine disturbances, the same political revolutions and +dynastic quarrels, the same conflicts between the classes of the +people, the same warring between economical interests. This is only a +surface view of Jewish history. If we pierce to its depths, and +scrutinize the processes that take place in its penetralia, we +perceive that even in the early period there were latent within it +great powers of intellect, universal principles, which, visibly or +invisibly, determined the course of events. We have before us not a +simple political or racial entity, but, to an eminent degree, "a +spiritual people." The national development is based upon an +all-pervasive religious tradition, which lives in the soul of the +people as the Sinaitic Revelation, the Law of Moses. With this holy +tradition, embracing a luminous theory of life and an explicit code of +morality and social converse, was associated the idea of the election +of the Jewish people, of its peculiar spiritual mission. "And ye shall +be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" is the figurative +expression of this ideal calling. It conveys the thought that the +Israelitish people as a whole, without distinction of rank and +regardless of the social prominence of individuals, has been called to +guide the other nations toward sublime moral and religious principles, +and to officiate for them, the laity as it were, in the capacity of +priests. This exalted ideal would never have been reached, if the +development of the Jewish people had lain along hackneyed lines; if, +like the Egyptians and the Chaldeans, it had had an inflexible caste +of priests, who consider the guardianship of the spiritual treasures +of the nation the exclusive privilege of their estate, and strive to +keep the mass of the people in crass ignorance. For a time, something +approaching this condition prevailed among the Jews. The priests +descended from Aaron, with the Temple servants (the Levites), formed a +priestly class, and played the part of authoritative bearers of the +religious tradition. But early, in the very infancy of the nation, +there arose by the side of this official, aristocratic hierarchy, a +far mightier priesthood, a democratic fraternity, seeking to enlighten +the whole nation, and inculcating convictions that make for a +consciously held aim. The Prophets were the real and appointed +executors of the holy command enjoining the "conversion" of all Jews +into "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Their activity cannot +be paralleled in the whole range of the world's history. They were not +priests, but popular educators and popular teachers. They were +animated by the desire to instil into every soul a deeply religious +consciousness, to ennoble every heart by moral aspirations, to +indoctrinate every individual with an unequivocal theory of life, to +inspire every member of the nation with lofty ideals. Their work did +not fail to leave its traces. Slowly but deeply idealism entered into +the very pith and marrow of the national consciousness. This +consciousness gained in strength and amplitude century by century, +showing itself particularly in the latter part of the first period, +after the crisis known as "the Babylonian Exile." Thanks to the +exertions of the _Soferim_ (Scribes), directed toward the +broadest popularization of the Holy Writings, and constituting the +formal complement to the work of the Prophets, spiritual activity +became an integral part of Jewish national life. In the closing +centuries of its political existence, the Jewish people received its +permanent form. There was imposed upon it the unmistakable hallmark of +spirituality that has always identified it in the throng of the +nations. Out of the bosom of Judaism went forth the religion that in a +short time ran its triumphant course through the whole ancient world, +transforming races of barbarians into civilized beings. It was the +fulfilment of the Prophetical promise--that the nations would walk in +the light of Israel. + +At the very moment when the strength and fertility of the Jewish mind +reached the culminating point, occurred a political revolution--the +period of homeless wandering began. It seemed as though, before +scattering the Jewish people to all ends of the earth, the providence +of history desired to teach it a final lesson, to take with it on its +way. It seemed to say: "Now you may go forth. Your character has been +sufficiently tempered; you can bear the bitterest of hardships. You +are equipped with an inexhaustible store of energy, and you can live +for centuries, yea, for thousands of years, under conditions that +would prove the bane of other nations in less than a single century. +State, territory, army, the external attributes of national power, are +for you superfluous luxury. Go out into the world to prove that a +people can continue to live without these attributes, solely and alone +through strength of spirit welding its widely scattered particles into +one firm organism!"--And the Jewish people went forth and proved it. + +This "proof" adduced by Jewry at the cost of eighteen centuries of +privation and suffering, forms the characteristic feature of the +second half of Jewish history, the period of homelessness and +dispersion. Uprooted from its political soil, national life displayed +itself on intellectual fields exclusively. "To think and to suffer" +became the watchword of the Jewish people, not merely because forced +upon it by external circumstances beyond its control, but chiefly +because it was conditioned by the very disposition of the people, by +its national inclinations. The extraordinary mental energy that had +matured the Bible and the old writings in the first period, manifested +itself in the second period in the encyclopedic productions of the +Talmudists, in the religious philosophy of the middle ages, in +Rabbinism, in the Kabbala, in mysticism, and in science. The spiritual +discipline of the school came to mean for the Jew what military +discipline is for other nations. His remarkable longevity is due, I am +tempted to say, to the acrid spiritual brine in which he was cured. In +its second half, the originality of Jewish history consists indeed, in +the circumstance that it is the only history stripped of every active +political element. There are no diplomatic artifices, no wars, no +campaigns, no unwarranted encroachments backed by armed force upon the +rights of other nations, nothing of all that constitutes the chief +content--the monotonous and for the most part idea-less content--of +many other chapters in the history of the world. Jewish history +presents the chronicle of an ample spiritual life, a gallery of +pictures representing national scenes. Before our eyes passes a long +procession of facts from the fields of intellectual effort, of +morality, religion, and social converse. Finally, the thrilling drama +of Jewish martyrdom is unrolled to our astonished gaze. If the inner +life and the social and intellectual development of a people form the +kernel of history, and politics and occasional wars are but its +husk,[3] then certainly the history of the Jewish diaspora is all +kernel. In contrast with the history of other nations it describes, +not the accidental deeds of princes and generals, not external pomp +and physical prowess, but the life and development of a whole people. +It gives heartrending expression to the spiritual strivings of a +nation whose brow is resplendent with the thorny crown of martyrdom. +It breathes heroism of mind that conquers bodily pain. In a word, +Jewish history is history sublimated.[4] + + [3] "History, without these (inner, spiritual elements), is a + shell without a kernel; and such is almost all the history + which is extant in the world." (Macaulay, on Mitford's History + of Greece, Collected Works, i, 198, ed. A. and C. Armstrong + and Son.) + + [4] A Jewish historian makes the pregnant remark: "If ever the + time comes when the prophecies of the Jewish seers are + fulfilled, and nation no longer raises the sword against + nation; when the olive leaf instead of the laurel adorns the + brow of the great, and the achievements of noble minds are + familiar to the dwellers in cottages and palaces alike, then + the history of the world will have the same character as + Jewish history. On its pages will be inscribed, not the + warrior's prowess and his victories, nor diplomatic schemes + and triumphs, but the progress of culture and its practical + application in real life." + +In spite of the noteworthy features that raise Jewish history above +the level of the ordinary, and assign it a peculiar place, it is +nevertheless not isolated, not severed from the history of mankind. +Rather is it most intimately interwoven with world-affairs at every +point throughout its whole extent. As the diameter, Jewish history is +again and again intersected by the chords of the historical circle. +The fortunes of the pilgrim people scattered in all the countries of +the civilized world are organically connected with the fortunes of the +most representative nations and states, and with manifold tendencies +of human thought. The bond uniting them is twofold: in the times when +the powers of darkness and fanaticism held sway, the Jews were +amenable to the "physical" influence exerted by their neighbors in the +form of persecutions, infringements of the liberty of conscience, +inquisitions, violence of every sort; and during the prevalence of +enlightment and humanity, the Jews were acted upon by the intellectual +and cultural stimulus proceeding from the peoples with whom they +entered into close relations. Momentary aberrations and reactionary +incidents are not taken into account here. On its side, Jewry made its +personality felt among the nations by its independent, intellectual +activity, its theory of life, its literature, by the very fact, +indeed, of its ideal staunchness and tenacity, its peculiar historical +physiognomy. From this reciprocal relation issued a great cycle of +historical events and spiritual currents, making the past of the +Jewish people an organic constituent of the past of all that portion +of mankind which has contributed to the treasury of human thought. + +We see, then, that in reference to content Jewish history is unique in +both its halves. In the first "national" period, it is the history of +a people to which the epithet "peculiar" has been conceded, a people +which has developed under the influence of exceptional circumstances, +and finally attained to so high a degree of spiritual perfection and +fertility that the creation of a new religious theory of life, which +eventually gained universal supremacy, neither exhausted its resources +nor ended its activity. Not only did it continue to live upon its vast +store of spiritual energy, but day by day it increased the store. In +the second "lackland" half, it is the instructive history of a +scattered people, organically one, in spite of dispersion, by reason +of its unshaken ideal traditions; a people accepting misery and +hardship with stoic calm, combining the characteristics of the thinker +with those of the sufferer, and eking out existence under conditions +which no other nation has found adequate, or, indeed, can ever find +adequate. The account of the people as teacher of religion--this is +the content of the first half of Jewish history; the account of the +people as thinker, stoic, and sufferer--this is the content of the +second half of Jewish history. + +A summing up of all that has been said in this and the previous +chapter proves true the statement with which we began, that Jewish +history, in respect to its quantitative dimensions as well as its +qualitative structure, is to the last degree distinctive and presents +a phenomenon of undeniable uniqueness. + + + + +III + +THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JEWISH HISTORY + + +We turn now to the question of the significance to be attached to +Jewish history. In view of its peculiar qualities, what has it to +offer to the present generation and to future generations as a subject +of study and research? + +The significance of Jewish history is twofold. It is at once national +and universal. At present the fulcrum of Jewish national being lies in +the historical consciousness. In the days of antiquity, the Jews were +welded into a single united nation by the triple agencies of state, +race, and religion, the complete array of material and spiritual +forces directed to one point. Later, in the period of homelessness and +dispersion, it was chiefly religious consciousness that cemented Jewry +into a whole, and replaced the severed political bond as well as the +dulled racial instinct, which is bound to go on losing in keenness in +proportion to the degree of removal from primitive conditions and +native soil. In our days, when the liberal movements leavening the +whole of mankind, if they have not completely shattered the religious +consciousness, have at least, in an important section of Jewry, +effected a change in its form; when abrupt differences of opinion with +regard to questions of faith and cult are asserting their presence; +and traditional Judaism developed in historical sequence is proving +powerless to hold together the diverse factors of the national +organism,--in these days the keystone of national unity seems to be +the historical consciousness. Composed alike of physical, +intellectual, and moral elements, of habits and views, of emotions and +impressions nursed into being and perfection by the hereditary +instinct active for thousands of years, this historical consciousness +is a remarkably puzzling and complex psychic phenomenon. By our common +memory of a great, stirring past and heroic deeds on the battle-fields +of the spirit, by the exalted historical mission allotted to us, by +our thorn-strewn pilgrim's path, our martyrdom assumed for the sake of +our principles, by such moral ties, we Jews, whether consciously or +unconsciously, are bound fast to one another. As Renan well says: +"Common sorrow unites men more closely than common joy." A long chain +of historical traditions is cast about us all like a strong ring. Our +wonderful, unparalleled past attracts us with magnetic power. In the +course of centuries, as generation followed generation, similarity of +historical fortunes produced a mass of similar impressions which have +crystallized, and have thrown off the deposit that may be called "the +Jewish national soul." This is the soil in which, deep down, lies +imbedded, as an unconscious element, the Jewish national _feeling_, +and as a conscious element, the Jewish national _idea_. + +It follows that the Jewish national idea and the national feeling +connected with it have their origin primarily in the historical +consciousness, in a certain complex of ideas and psychic +predispositions. These ideas and predispositions, the deposit left by +the aggregate of historical impressions, are of necessity the common +property of the whole nation, and they can be developed and quickened +to a considerable degree by a renewal of the impressions through the +study of history. Upon the knowledge of history, then, depends the +strength of the national consciousness.[5] + + [5] A different aspect of the same thought is presented with + logical clearness in another publication by our author. "The + national _idea_, and the national _feeling_," says + Mr. Dubnow, "must be kept strictly apart. Unfortunately the + difference between them is usually obliterated. National + feeling is spontaneous. To a greater or less degree it is + inborn in all the members of the nation as a feeling of + kinship. It has its flood-tide and its ebbtide in + correspondence to external conditions, either forcing the + nation to defend its nationality, or relieving it of the + necessity for self-defense. As this feeling is not merely a + blind impulse, but a complicated psychic phenomenon, it can be + subjected to a psychologic analysis. From the given historical + facts or the ideas that have become the common treasure of a + nation, thinking men, living life consciously, can, in one way + or another, derive the origin, development, and vital force of + its national feeling. The results of such an analysis, + arranged in some sort of system, form the content of the + national idea. The task of the national idea it is to clarify + the national feeling, and give it logical sanction for the + benefit of those who cannot rest satisfied with an unconscious + feeling. + + "In what, to be specific, does the essence of our Jewish national + idea consist? Or, putting the question in another form, what + is the cement that unites us into a single compact organism? + Territory and government, the external ties usually binding a + nation together, we have long ago lost. Their place is filled + by abstract principles, by religion and race. Undeniably these + are factors of first importance, and yet we ask the question, + do they alone and exclusively maintain the national cohesion + of Jewry? No, we reply, for if we admitted this proposition, + we should by consequence have to accept the inference, that + the laxity of religious principle prevailing among + free-thinking Jews, and the obliteration of race peculiarities + in the 'civilized' strata of our people, bring in their train + a corresponding weakening, or, indeed, a complete breaking up, + of our national foundations--which in point of fact is not the + case. On the contrary, it is noticeable that the + latitudinarians, the _libres penseurs_, and the + indifferent on the subject of religion, stand in the forefront + of all our national movements. Seeing that to belong to it is + in most cases heroism, and in many martyrdom, what is it that + attracts these Jews so forcibly to their people? There must be + something common to us all, so comprehensive that in the face + of multifarious views and degrees of culture it acts as a + consolidating force. This 'something,' I am convinced, is the + community of historical fortunes of all the scattered parts of + the Jewish nation. We are welded together by our glorious + past. We are encircled by a mighty chain of similar historical + impressions suffered by our ancestors, century after century + pressing in upon the Jewish soul, and leaving behind a + substantial deposit. In short, the Jewish national idea is + based chiefly upon the historical consciousness." [Note of the + German trl.] + +But over and above its national significance, Jewish history, we +repeat, possesses universal significance. Let us, in the first place, +examine its value for science and philosophy. Inasmuch as it is +pre-eminently a chronicle of ideas and spiritual movements, Jewish +history affords the philosopher or psychologist material for +observation of the most important and useful kind. The study of other, +mostly dull chapters of universal history has led to the fixing of +psychologic or sociologic theses, to the working out of comprehensive +philosophic systems, to the determination of general laws. Surely it +follows without far-fetched proof, that in some respects the chapter +dealing with Jewish history must supply material of the most original +character for such theses and philosophies. If it is true, as the last +chapter set out to demonstrate, that Jewish history is distinguished +by sharply marked and peculiar features, and refuses to accommodate +itself to conventional forms, then its content must have an original +contribution to make to philosophy. It does not admit of a doubt that +the study of Jewish history would yield new propositions appertaining +to the philosophy of history and the psychology of nations, hitherto +overlooked by inquirers occupied with the other divisions of universal +history. Inductive logic lays down a rule for ascertaining the law of +a phenomenon produced by two or more contributory causes. By means of +what might be called a laboratory experiment, the several causes must +be disengaged from one another, and the effect of each observed by +itself. Thus it becomes possible to arrive with mathematical precision +at the share of each cause in the result achieved by several +co-operating causes. This method of difference, as it is called, is +available, however, only for a limited number of phenomena, only for +phenomena in the department of the natural sciences. It is in the +nature of the case that mental and spiritual phenomena, though they +may be observed, cannot be artificially reproduced. Now, in one +respect, Jewish history affords the advantages of an arranged +experiment. The historical life of ordinary nations, such nations as +are endowed with territory and are organized into a state, is a +complete intermingling of the political with the spiritual element. +Totally ignorant as we are of the development either would have +assumed, had it been dissevered from the other, the laws governing +each of the elements singly can be discovered only approximately. +Jewish history, in which the two elements have for many centuries been +completely disentangled from each other, presents a natural +experiment, with the advantage of artificial exclusions, rendering +possible the determination of the laws of spiritual phenomena with far +greater scientific exactitude than the laws of phenomena that result +from several similar causes. + +Besides this high value for the purposes of science, this fruitful +suggestiveness for philosophic thought, Jewish history, as compared +with the history of other nations, enjoys another distinction in its +capacity to exercise an ennobling influence upon the heart. Nothing so +exalts and refines human nature as the contemplation of moral +steadfastness, the history of the trials of a martyr who has fought +and suffered for his convictions. At bottom, the second half of Jewish +history is nothing but this. The effective educational worth of the +Biblical part of Jewish history is disputed by none. It is called +"sacred" history, and he who acquires a knowledge of it is thought to +advance the salvation of his soul. Only a very few, however, recognize +the profound, moral content of the second half of Jewish history, the +history of the diaspora. Yet, by reason of its exceptional qualities +and intensely tragic circumstances, it is beyond all others calculated +to yield edification to a notable degree. The Jewish people is +deserving of attention not only in the time when it displayed its +power and enjoyed its independence, but as well in the period of its +weakness and oppression, during which it was compelled to purchase +spiritual development by constant sacrifice of self. A thinker crowned +with thorns demands no less veneration than a thinker with the laurel +wreath upon his brow. The flame issuing from the funeral pile on which +martyrs die an heroic death for their ideas is, in its way, as +awe-inspiring as the flame from Sinai's height. With equal force, +though by different methods, both touch the heart, and arouse the +moral sentiment. Biblical Israel the celebrated--medieval Judah the +despised--it is one and the same people, judged variously in the +various phases of its historical life. If Israel bestowed upon mankind +a religious theory of life, Judah gave it a thrilling example of +tenacious vitality and power of resistance for the sake of conviction. +This uninterrupted life of the spirit, this untiring aspiration for +the higher and the better in the domain of religious thought, +philosophy, and science, this moral intrepidity in night and storm and +in despite of all the blows of fortune--is it not an imposing, +soul-stirring spectacle? The inexpressible tragedy of the Jewish +historical life is unfailing in its effect upon a susceptible +heart.[6] The wonderful exhibition of spirit triumphant, subduing the +pangs of the flesh, must move every heart, and exercise uplifting +influence upon the non-Jew no less than upon the Jew. + + [6] "If there are ranks in suffering, Israel takes precedence of + all the nations--if the duration of sorrows and the patience + with which they are borne ennoble, the Jews are among the + aristocracy of every land--if a literature is called rich in + the possession of a few classic tragedies, what shall we say + to a National Tragedy lasting for fifteen hundred years, in + which the poets and the actors were also the heroes?" (Zunz, + _Die synagogale Poesie_. Translation by George Eliot in + "Daniel Deronda.") + +For non-Jews a knowledge of Jewish history may, under certain +conditions, come to have another, an humanitarian significance. It is +inconceivable that the Jewish people should be held in execration by +those acquainted with the course of its history, with its tragic and +heroic past.[7] Indeed, so far as Jew-haters by profession are +concerned, it is running a risk to recommend the study of Jewish +history to them, without adding a word of caution. Its effect upon +them might be disastrous. They might find themselves cured of their +modern disease, and in the possession of ideas that would render +worthless their whole stock in trade. Verily, he must have fallen to +the zero-point of anti-Semitic callousness who is not thrilled through +and through by the lofty fortitude, the saint-like humility, the +trustful resignation to the will of God, the stoic firmness, laid bare +by the study of Jewish history. The tribute of respect cannot be +readily withheld from him to whom the words of the poet[8] are +applicable: + + "To die was not his hope; he fain + Would live to think and suffer pain." + + [7] As examples and a proof of the strong humanitarian influence + Jewish history exercises upon Christians, I would point to the + relation established between the Jews and two celebrities of + the nineteenth century, Schleiden and George Eliot. In his old + age, the great scientist and thinker accidentally, in the + course of his study of sources for the history of botany, + became acquainted with medieval Jewish history. It filled him + with ardent enthusiasm for the Jews, for their intellectual + strength, their patience under martyrdom. Dominated by this + feeling, he wrote the two admirable sketches: _Die Bedeutung + der Juden fuer Erhaltung und Wiederbelebung der Wissenschaften + im Mittelalter_ (1876) and _Die Romantik des Martyriums + bei den Juden im Mittelalter_ (1878). According to his own + confession, the impulse to write them was "the wish to take at + least the first step toward making partial amends for the + unspeakable wrong inflicted by Christians upon Jews." As for + George Eliot, it may not be generally known that it was her + reading of histories of the Jews that inspired her with the + profound veneration for the Jewish people to which she gave + glowing utterance in "Daniel Deronda." (She cites Zunz, was + personally acquainted with Emanuel Deutsch, and carried on a + correspondence with Professor Dr. David Kaufmann. See + _George Eliot's Life as related in her Letters and + Journals_. Arranged and edited by her husband, J. W. Cross, + Vol. iii, ed. Harper and Brothers.) Her enthusiasm prompted + her, in 1879, to indite her passionate apology for the Jews, + under the title, "The Modern Hep! Hep! Hep!" + + [8] Pushkin. + +When, in days to come, the curtain rises upon the touching tragedy of +Jewish history, revealing it to the astonished eye of a modern +generation, then, perhaps, hearts will be attuned to tenderness, and +on the ruins of national hostility will be enthroned mutual love, +growing out of mutual understanding and mutual esteem. And who can +tell--perhaps Jewish history will have a not inconsiderable share in +the spiritual change that is to annihilate national intolerance, the +modern substitute for the religious bigotry of the middle ages. In +this case, the future task of Jewish history will prove as sublime as +was the mission of the Jewish people in the past. The latter consisted +in the spread of the dogma of the unity of creation; the former will +contribute indirectly to the realization of the not yet accepted dogma +of the unity of the human race. + + + + +IV + +THE HISTORICAL SYNTHESIS + + +To define the scope of Jewish history, its content and its +significance, or its place among scientific pursuits, disposes only of +the formal part of the task we have set ourselves. The central problem +is to unfold the meaning of Jewish history, to discover the principle +toward which its diversified phenomena converge, to state the +universal laws and philosophic inferences deducible from the peculiar +course of its events. If we liken history to an organic being, then +the skeleton of facts is its body, and the soul is the spiritual bond +that unites the facts into a whole, that conveys the meaning, the +psychologic essence, of the facts. It becomes our duty, then, to +unbare the soul of Jewish history, or, in scientific parlance, to +construct, on the basis of the facts, the synthesis of the whole of +Jewish national life. To this end, we must pass in review, by periods +and epochs, one after another, the most important groups of historical +events, the most noteworthy currents in life and thought that tell of +the stages in the development of Jewry and of Judaism. Exhaustive +treatment of the philosophical synthesis of a history extending over +three thousand years is possible only in a voluminous work. In an +essay like the present it can merely be sketched in large outline, or +painted in miniature. We cannot expect to do more than state a series +of general principles substantiated by the most fundamental arguments. +Complete demonstration of each of the principles must be sought in the +annals that recount the events of Jewish history in detail. + +The historical synthesis reduces itself, then, to uncovering the +psychologic processes of national development. The object before us to +be studied is the national spirit undergoing continuous evolution +during thousands of years. Our task is to arrive at the laws +underlying this growth. We shall reach our goal by imitating the +procedure of the geologist, who divides the mass of the earth into its +several strata or formations. In Jewish history there may be +distinguished three chief stratifications answering to its first three +periods, the Biblical period, the period of the Second Temple, and the +Talmudic period. The later periods are nothing more than these same +formations combined in various ways, with now and then the addition of +new strata. Of the composite periods there are four, which arrange +themselves either according to hegemonies, the countries in which at +given times lay the centre of gravity of the scattered Jewish people, +or according to the intellectual currents there predominant. + +This, then, is our scheme: + + I. The chief formations: + a) The primary or Biblical period. + b) The secondary or spiritual-political period + (the period of the Second Temple, 538 + B. C. E. to 70 C.E.) + c) The tertiary or national-religious period + (the Talmudic period, 70-500). + + II. The composite formations: + a) The Gaonic period, or the hegemony of + the Oriental Jews (500-980). + b) The Rabbinic-philosophical period, or the + hegemony of the Spanish Jews (980-1492). + c) The Rabbinic-mystical period, or the hegemony + of the German-Polish Jews + (1492-1789). + d) The modern period of enlightenment (the + nineteenth century). + + + + +V + +THE PRIMARY OR BIBLICAL PERIOD + + +In the daybreak of history, the hoary days when seeming and reality +merge into each other, and the outlines of persons and things fade +into the surrounding mist, the picture of a nomad people, moving from +the deserts of Arabia in the direction of Mesopotamia and Western +Asia, detaches itself clear and distinct from the dim background. The +tiny tribe, a branch of the Semitic race, bears a peculiar stamp of +its own. A shepherd people, always living in close touch with nature, +it yet resists the potent influence of the natural phenomena, which, +as a rule, entrap primitive man, and make him the bond-slave of the +visible and material. Tent life has attuned these Semitic nomads to +contemplativeness. In the endless variety of the phenomena of nature, +they seek to discover a single guiding power. They entertain an +obscure presentiment of the existence of an invisible, universal soul +animating the visible, material universe. The intuition is personified +in the Patriarch Abraham, who, according to Biblical tradition, held +communion with God, when, on the open field, "he looked up toward +heaven, and counted the stars," or when, "at the setting of the sun, +he fell into benumbing sleep, and terror seized upon him by reason of +the impenetrable darkness." Here we have a clear expression of the +original, purely cosmical character of the Jewish religion. + +There was no lack of human influence acting from without. Chaldea, +which the peculiar Semitic shepherds crossed in their pilgrimage, +presented them with notions from its rich mythology and cosmogony. The +natives of Syria and Canaan, among whom in the course of time the +Abrahamites settled, imparted to them many of their religious views +and customs. Nevertheless, the kernel of their pure original theory +remained intact. The patriarchal mode of life, admirable in its +simplicity, continued to hold its own within the circle of the +firmly-knitted tribe. It was in Canaan, however, that the shepherd +people hailing from Arabia showed the first signs of approaching +disintegration. Various tribal groups, like Moab and Ammon, +consolidated themselves. They took permanent foothold in the land, and +submitted with more or less readiness to the influences exerted by the +indigenous peoples. The guardianship of the sublime traditions of the +tribe remained with one group alone, the "sons of Jacob" or the "sons +of Israel," so named from the third Patriarch Jacob. To this group of +the Israelites composed of smaller, closely united divisions, a +special mission was allotted; its development was destined to lie +along peculiar lines. The fortunes awaiting it were distinctive, and +for thousands of years have filled thinking and believing mankind with +wondering admiration. + +Great characters are formed under the influence of powerful +impressions, of violent convulsions, and especially under the +influence of suffering. The Israelites early passed through their +school of suffering in Egypt. The removal of the sons of Jacob from +the banks of the Jordan to those of the Nile was of decisive +importance for the progress of their history. When the patriarchal +Israelitish shepherds encountered the old, highly complex culture of +the Egyptians, crystallized into fixed forms even at that early date, +it was like the clash between two opposing electric currents. The pure +conception of God, of _Elohim_, as of the spirit informing and +supporting the universe, collided with the blurred system of heathen +deities and crass idolatry. The simple cult of the shepherds, +consisting of a few severely plain ceremonies, transmitted from +generation to generation, was confronted with the insidious, coarsely +sensual animal worship of the Egyptians. The patriarchal customs of +the Israelites were brought into marked contrast with the vices of a +corrupt civilization. Sound in body and soul, the son of nature +suddenly found himself in unsavory surroundings fashioned by culture, +in which he was as much despised as the inoffensive nomad is by +"civilized" man of settled habit. The scorn had a practical result in +the enslavement of the Israelites by the Pharaohs. Association with +the Egyptians acted as a force at once of attraction and of repulsion. +The manners and customs of the natives could not fail to leave an +impression upon the simple aliens, and invite imitation on their part. +On the other hand, the whole life of the Egyptians, their crude +notions of religion, and their immoral ways, were calculated to +inspire the more enlightened among the Israelites with disgust. The +hostility of the Egyptians toward the "intruders," and the horrible +persecutions in which it expressed itself, could not but bring out +more aggressively the old spiritual opposition between the two races. +The antagonism between them was the first influence to foster the germ +of Israel's national consciousness, the consciousness of his peculiar +character, his individuality. This early intimation of a national +consciousness was weak. It manifested itself only in the chosen few. +But it existed, and the time was appointed when, under more favorable +conditions, it would develop, and display the extent of its power. + +This consciousness it was that inspired the activity of Moses, +Israel's teacher and liberator. He was penetrated alike by national +and religious feeling, and his desire was to impart both national and +religious feeling to his brethren. The fact of national redemption he +connected with the fact of religious revelation. "I am the Lord thy +God who have brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt" was +proclaimed from Sinai. The God-idea was nationalized. Thenceforth +"Eternal" became the name peculiar to the God of Israel. He was, +indeed, the same _Elohim_, the Creator of the world and its +Guide, who had been dimly discerned by the spiritual vision of the +Patriarchs. At the same time He was the special God of the Israelitish +nation, the only nation that avouched Him with a full and undivided +heart, the nation chosen by God Himself to carry out, alone, His +sublime plans.[9] In his wanderings, Israel became acquainted with the +chaotic religious systems of other nations. Seeing to what they paid +the tribute of divine adoration, he could not but be dominated by the +consciousness that he alone from of old had been the exponent of the +religious idea in its purity. The resolution must have ripened within +him to continue for all time to advocate and cherish this idea. From +that moment Israel was possessed of a clear theory of life in religion +and morality, and of a definite aim pursued with conscious intent. + + [9] This is the true recondite meaning of the verses Exod. vi, + 2-3: "And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the + Eternal: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto + Jacob, as _El-Shaddai_ (God Almighty), but by my name + Eternal I was not known unto them." + +Its originators designed that this Israelitish conception of life +should serve not merely theoretically, as the basis of religious +doctrine, but also practically, as the starting point of legislation. +It was to be realized in the daily walks of the people, which at this +very time attained to political independence. Sublime religious +conceptions were not to be made the content of a visionary creed, the +subject of dreamy contemplation, but, in the form of perspicuous +guiding principles, were to control all spheres of individual and +social life. Men must beware of looking upon religion as an ideal to +be yearned for, it should be an ideal to be applied directly, day by +day, to practical contingencies. In "Mosaism," so-called, the +religious and the ethical are intimately interwoven with the social +and the political. The chief dogmas of creed are stated as principles +shaping practical life. For instance, the exalted idea of One God +applied to social life produces the principle of the equality of all +men before the One Supreme Power, a principle on which the whole of +Biblical legislation is built. The commands concerning love of +neighbor, the condemnation of slavery, the obligation to aid the poor, +humane treatment of the stranger, sympathy and compassion with every +living being--all these lofty injunctions ensue as inevitable +consequences from the principle of equality. Biblical legislation is +perhaps the only example of a political and social code based, not +upon abstract reasoning alone, but also upon the requirements of the +feelings, upon the finest impulses of the human soul. By the side of +formal right and legality, it emphasizes, and, in a series of +precepts, makes tangible, the principle of justice and humanity. The +Mosaic law is a "propaganda by deed." Everywhere it demands active, +more than passive, morality. Herein, in this elevated characteristic, +this vital attribute, consists the chief source of the power of +Mosaism. The same characteristic, to be sure, prevented it from at +once gaining ground in the national life. It established itself only +gradually, after many fluctuations and errors. In the course of the +centuries, and keeping pace with the growth of the national +consciousness, it was cultivated and perfected in detail. + +The conquest of Canaan wrought a radical transformation in the life of +the Israelitish people. The acquiring of national territory supplied +firm ground for the development and manifold application of the +principles of Mosaism. At first, however, advance was out of the +question. The mass of the people had not reached the degree of +spiritual maturity requisite for the espousal of principles +constituting an exalted theory of life. It could be understood and +represented only by a thoughtful minority, which consisted chiefly of +Aaronites and Levites, together forming a priestly estate, though not +a hierarchy animated by the isolating spirit of caste that flourished +among all the other peoples of the Orient. The populace discovered +only the ceremonial side of the religion; its kernel was hidden from +their sight. Defective spiritual culture made the people susceptible +to alien influences, to notions more closely akin to its +understanding. Residence in Canaan, among related Semitic tribes that +had long before separated from the Israelites, and adopted altogether +different views and customs, produced a far greater metamorphosis in +the character of the Israelites than the sojourn in Egypt. After the +first flush of victory, when the unity of the Israelitish people had +been weakened by the particularistic efforts of several of the tribes, +the spiritual bonds confining the nation began to relax. Political +decay always brings religious defection in its train. Whenever Israel +came under the dominion of the neighboring tribes, he also fell a +victim to their cult. This phenomenon is throughout characteristic of +the so-called era of the Judges. It is a natural phenomenon readily +explained on psychologic grounds. The Mosaic national conception of +the "Eternal" entered more and more deeply into the national +consciousness, and, accommodating itself to the limited mental +capacity of the majority, became narrower and narrower in compass--the +lot of all great ideas! The "Eternal" was no longer thought of as the +only One God of the whole universe, but as the tutelar deity of the +Israelitish tribe. The idea of national tutelar deities was at that +time deeply rooted in the consciousness of all the peoples of Western +Asia. Each nation, as it had a king of its own, had a tribal god of +its own. The Phoenicians had their Baal, the Moabites their Kemosh, the +Ammonites their Milkom. Belief in the god peculiar to a nation by no +means excluded belief in the existence of other national gods. A +people worshiped its own god, because it regarded him as its master +and protecting lord. In fact, according to the views then prevalent, a +conflict between two nations was the conflict between two national +deities. In the measure in which respect for the god of the defeated +party waned, waxed the number of worshipers of the god of the +victorious nation, and not merely among the conquerors, but also among +the adherents of other religions.[10] These crude, coarsely +materialistic conceptions of God gained entrance with the masses of +the Israelitish people. If Moab had his Kemosh, and Ammon his Milkom, +then Israel had his "Eternal," who, after the model of all other +national gods, protected and abandoned his "clients" at pleasure, in +the one case winning, in the other losing, the devotion of his +partisans. In times of distress, in which the Israelites groaned under +the yoke of the alien, the enslaved "forgot" their "conquered" +"Eternal." As they paid the tribute due the strange king, and yielded +themselves to his power, so they submitted to the strange god, and +paid him his due tribute of devotion. It followed that liberation from +the yoke of the stranger coincided with return to the God of Israel, +the "Eternal." At such times the national spirit leaped into flaming +life. This sums up the achievements of the hero-Judges. But the traces +of repeated backsliding were deep and long visible, for, together with +the religious ideas of the strange peoples, the Israelites accepted +their customs, as a rule corrupt and noxious customs, in sharp +contrast with the lofty principles of the Mosaic Law, designed to +control social life and the life of the individual. + + [10] "Ye have forsaken me," says God unto Israel, "and served + other gods; wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry + unto the gods which ye have chosen: let them deliver you in + the time of your tribulations" (Judges X, 13-14). The same + idea is brought out still more forcibly in the arguments + adduced by Jephthah in his message to the king of Ammon (more + correctly, Moab), who had laid claim to Israelitish lands: + "Thou," says Jephthah, "mayest possess that which Kemosh thy + god giveth thee to possess, but what the Lord our God giveth + us to possess, that will we possess" (Judges xi, 24). Usually + these words are taken ironically; to me they seem to convey + literal truth rather than irony. + +The Prophet Samuel, coming after the unsettled period of the Judges, +had only partial success in purifying the views of the people and +elevating it out of degradation to a higher spiritual level. His work +was continued with more marked results in the brilliant reigns of +Saul, David, and Solomon. An end was put to the baleful disunion among +the tribes, and the bond of national tradition was strengthened. The +consolidated Israelitish kingdom triumphed over its former oppressors. +The gods of the strange peoples cringed in the dust before the +all-powerful "Eternal." But, with the division of the kingdom and the +political rupture between Judah and Israel, the period of +efflorescence soon came to an end. Again confusion reigned supreme, +and customs and convictions deteriorated under foreign influence. +Prophets like Elijah and Elisha, feverish though their activity was, +stood powerless before the rank immorality in the two states. The +northern kingdom of Israel, composed of the Ten Tribes, passed swiftly +downward on the road to destruction, sharing the fate of the +numberless Oriental states whose end was inevitable by reason of inner +decay. The inspired words of the early Israelitish Prophets, Amos, +Hosea, and Micah, their trumpet-toned reproofs, their thrilling +admonitions, died unheeded upon the air--society was too depraved to +understand their import. It was reserved for later generations to give +ear to their immortal utterances, eloquent witnesses to the lofty +heights to which the Jewish spirit was permitted to mount in times of +general decline. The northern kingdom sank into irretrievable ruin. +Then came the turn of Judah. He, too, had disregarded the law of +"sanctification" from Sinai, and had nearly arrived at the point of +stifling his better impulses in the morass of materialistic living. + +At this critical moment, on the line between to be and not to be, a +miracle came to pass. The spirit of the people, become flesh in its +noblest sons, rose aloft. From out of the midst of the political +disturbances, the frightful infamy, and the moral corruption, +resounded the impressive call of the great Prophets of Judah. Like a +flaming torch carried through dense darkness, they cast a glaring +light upon the vices of society, at the same time illuminating the +path that leads upward to the goal of the ethical ideal. At first the +negative, denouncing element predominated in the exhortations of the +Prophets: unsparingly they scourged the demoralization and the +iniquity, the social injustice and the political errors prevalent in +their time; they threatened divine punishment, that is, the natural +consequences of evil-doing, and appealed to the reason rather than the +feelings of the people. But gradually they elaborated positive ideals, +more soul-stirring than the ideals identified with the old religious +tradition. The Prophets were the first to touch the root of the evil. +It is clear that they realized that alien influences and the low grade +of intelligence possessed by the masses were not the sole causes of +the frequent backsliding of the people. The Jewish doctrine itself +bore within it the germ of error. The two chief pillars of the old +faith--the nationalizing of the God-idea, and the stress laid upon the +cult, the ceremonial side of religion, as compared with moral +requirements--were first and foremost to be held responsible for the +flagrant departures from the spirit of Judaism. This was the direction +in which reform was needed. Thereafter the sermons of the Prophets +betray everywhere the intense desire, on the one hand, to restore to +the God-idea its original universal character, and, on the other hand, +while strongly emphasizing the importance of morality in the religious +and the social sphere, to derogate from the value of the ceremonial +system. The "Eternal" is no longer the national God of Israel, +belonging to him exclusively; He becomes the God of the whole of +mankind, the same _Elohim_, Creator and Preserver of the world, +whom the Patriarchs had worshiped, and to whom, being His creatures, +all men owe worship. His precepts and His laws of morality are binding +upon all nations; they will bring salvation and blessing to all +without distinction.[11] The ideal of piety consists in the profession +of God and a life of rectitude. The time will come when all nations +will be penetrated by true knowledge of God and actuated by the +noblest motives; then will follow the universal brotherhood of man. +Until this consummation is reached, and so long as Israel is the only +nation formally professing the one true God, and accepting His blessed +law, Israel's sole task is to embody in himself the highest ideals, to +be an "ensign to the nations," to bear before them the banner of God's +law, destined in time to effect the transformation of the whole of +mankind. Israel is a missionary to the nations. As such he must stand +before them as a model of holiness and purity. Here is the origin of +the great idea of the spiritual "Messianism" of the Jewish people, or, +better, its "missionism," an eternal idea, far more comprehensive than +the old idea of national election, which it supplanted. + + [11] Two Biblical passages, the one from Deuteronomy, the other + from Deutero-Isaiah, afford a signal illustration of the + contrast between the religious nationalism of the Mosaic law + and the universalism of the Prophets. Moses says to Israel: + "Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy + God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, + above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord + did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were + more in number than any people: for ye were the fewest of all + people. But because the Lord loved you...." (Deut. vii, 6-8). + And these are the words of the prophecy: "Listen, O isles, + unto me, and hearken, ye people, from far! The Lord hath + called me... and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, + in whom I will be glorified! But I had thought, I have labored + in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain; yet + surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. + For now said the Lord unto me... It is too light a thing that + thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, + and to restore the preserved of Israel: no, I will also give + thee for a light to the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach + unto the end of the earth" (Is. xlix, 1-6). + +These sublime teachings were inculcated at the moment in which Judah +was hastening to meet his fate. It had become impossible to check the +natural results of the earlier transgressions. The inevitable +happened; Babylon the mighty laid her ponderous hand upon tiny Judah. +But Judah could not be crushed. From the heavy chastisement the Jewish +nation emerged purified, re-born for a new life. + + + + +VI + +THE SECONDARY OR SPIRITUAL-POLITICAL PERIOD + + +The rank and file of a people are instructed by revolutions and +catastrophes better than by sermons. More quickly than Isaiah and +Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar brought the Jews to a recognition of their +tasks. The short span of the Babylonian Exile (586-538 B. C. E.) was a +period of introspection and searching self-examination for the people. +Spiritual forces hitherto latent came into play; a degree of +self-consciousness asserted itself. The people grasped its mission. At +last it comprehended that to imitate inferior races, instead of +teaching them and making itself a model for them to follow, was +treason to its vocation in life. When the hour of release from the +Babylonian yoke struck, the people suddenly saw under its feet "a new +earth," and to "a new heaven" above it raised eyes dim with tears of +repentance and emotion. It renewed its covenant with God. Like the +Exodus from Egypt, so the second national deliverance was connected +with a revelation. But the messages delivered by the last +Prophets--especially by "the great unknown," the author of the latter +part of the Book of Isaiah--were too exalted, too universal in +conception, for a people but lately emerged from a severe crisis to +set about their realization at once. They could only illumine its path +as a guiding-star, inspire it as the ultimate goal, the far-off +Messianic ideal. Meanwhile the necessity appeared for uniform +religious laws, dogmas, and customs, to bind the Jews together +externally as a nation. The moralizing religion of the Prophets was +calculated to bring about the regeneration of the individual, +regardless of national ties; but at that moment the chief point +involved was the nation. It had to be established and its organization +perfected. The universalism of the Prophets was inadequate for the +consolidating of a nation. To this end outward religious discipline +was requisite, an official cult and public ceremonies. Led by such +considerations, the Jewish captives, on their return to Jerusalem, +first of all devoted themselves to the erection of a Temple, to the +creating of a visible religious centre, which was to be the rallying +point for the whole nation. + +The days of the Prophets were over. Their religious universalism could +apply only to a distant future. In the present, the nation, before it +might pose as a teacher, had to learn and grow spiritually strong. +Aims of such compass require centuries for their realization. +Therefore, the spiritual-national unification of the people was pushed +into the foreground. The place of the Prophet was filled by the Priest +and the Scribe. Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah were permeated by the +purpose to make religion and the cult subservient to the cause of +national union and isolation. The erection of the Temple, the solemn +service with the singing of Psalms and the public reading from the +"Book of the Law" (the Pentateuch, which underwent its final redaction +at that time), the removal of whatever might arouse the remembrance of +strange and heathen institutions--these were the levers of their +unifying activity. At first sight this activity might appear almost +too one-sided. But if we summon to mind a picture of the conditions +prevailing in those days, we are forced to the conclusion that, in the +interest of national restoration, a consistent course was imperative. +In point of fact, however, some of Ezra's innovations testify to the +broad-minded, reformatory character of this activity; as, for +instance, the public reading of the Pentateuch, introduced with a view +to making the people see the necessity of obtaining detailed knowledge +of the principles of its religion, and obeying the precepts of the +Law, not blindly, but with conscious assent. The object steadily aimed +at was the elevation of the whole body of the people to the plane of +spirituality, its transformation, in accordance with the Biblical +injunction, into a "kingdom of priests." + +This injunction of civilizing import became the starting point of the +activity of all of Ezra's successors, of the so-called school of the +_Soferim_, the Scribes, those versed in the art of writing. The +political calm that prevailed during the two centuries of the Persian +supremacy (538-332 B. C. E.), was calculated to an eminent degree to +promote spiritual development and the organization of the inner life +of the people. During this period, a large part of the writings after +the Pentateuch that have been received into the Bible were collected, +compiled, and reduced to writing. The immortal thoughts of the +Prophets clothed themselves in the visible garb of letters. On +parchment rolls and in books they were made accessible to distant +ages. The impressive traditions transmitted from earliest times, the +chronicles of the past of the people, the Psalms brought forth by the +religious enthusiasm of a long series of poets, all were gathered and +put into literary shape with the extreme of care. The spiritual +treasures of the nation were capitalized, and to this process of +capitalization solely and alone generations of men have owed the +possibility of resorting to them as a source of faith and knowledge. +Without the work of compilation achieved by the _Soferim_, of +which the uninstructed are apt to speak slightingly, mankind to-day +had no Bible, that central sun in world-literature. + +These two centuries may fitly be called the school-days of the Jewish +nation; the Scribes were the teachers of Jewry. In the way of original +work but little was produced. The people fed upon the store of +spiritual food, of which sufficient had been laid up for several +generations. It was then that the Jews first earned their title to the +name, "the People of the Book." They made subservient to themselves +the two mightiest instruments of thought, the art of writing and of +reading. Their progress was brilliant, and when their schooling had +come to an end, and they stepped out into the broader life, they were +at once able to apply their knowledge successfully to practical +contingencies. They were prepared for all the vicissitudes of life. +Their spiritual equipment was complete. + +Nothing could have been more opportune than this readiness to assume +the responsibilities of existence, for a time of peril and menace was +again approaching. From out of the West, a new agent of civilization, +Hellenism, advanced upon the East. Alexander the Great had put an end +to the huge Persian monarchy, and brought the whole of Western Asia +under his dominion (332 B. C. E.). His generals divided the conquered +lands among themselves. With all their might, the Ptolemies in Egypt +and the Seleucidae in Syria hellenized the countries subject to their +rule. In the old domain of the Pharaohs, as in Babylonia, in Phoenicia, +and in Syria, the Greek language was currently spoken, Greek +ceremonies were observed, the Greek mode of life was adopted. Athens +ceded her rights of primogeniture to New Athens, Alexandria, capital +of Egypt, and cosmopolitan centre of the civilized world. For a whole +century Judea played the sad part of the apple of discord between the +Egyptian and the Syrian dynasty (320-203 B. C. E.). By turns she owned +the sway of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidae, until finally, in 203, +she was declared a Syro-Macedonian province. Here, as in the other +parts of their realm, the rulers devoted themselves energetically to +the dissemination of Greek culture. Meeting with resistance, they had +resort to main force. At first, indeed, a large part of the people +permitted itself to be blinded by the "beauty of Japheth," and +promoted assimilation with the Greeks. But when the spread of +Hellenism began to threaten the spiritual individuality of Judaism, +the rest of the nation, endowed with greater capacity of resistance, +arose and sturdily repulsed the enemy. + +Hellenism was the first gravely dangerous opponent Judaism had to +encounter. It was not the ordinary meeting of two peoples, or of two +kinds of civilization. It was a clash between two theories of life +that stood abruptly opposed to each other, were, indeed, mutually +exclusive. It was a duel between "the Eternal" on the one side, and +Zeus on the other--between the Creator of the universe, the invisible +spiritual Being who had, in a miraculous way, revealed religious and +ethical ideals to mankind, and the deity who resided upon Olympus, who +personified the highest force of nature, consumed vast quantities of +nectar and ambrosia, and led a pretty wild life upon Olympus and +elsewhere. In the sphere of religion and morality, Hellene and Judean +could not come close to each other. The former deified nature herself, +the material universe; the latter deified the Creator of nature, the +spirit informing the material universe. The Hellene paid homage first +and foremost to external beauty and physical strength; the Judean to +inner beauty and spiritual heroism. The Hellenic theory identified the +moral with the beautiful and the agreeable, and made life consist of +an uninterrupted series of physical and mental pleasures. The Judean +theory is permeated by the strictly ethical notions of duty, of +purity, of "holiness"; it denounces licentiousness, and sets up as its +ideal the controlling of the passions and the infinite improvement of +the soul, not of the intellect alone, but of the feelings as well. +These differences between the two theories of life showed themselves +in the brusque opposition in character and customs that made the +Greeks and the Jews absolute antipodes in many spheres of life. It +cannot be denied that in matters of the intellect, especially in the +field of philosophy and science, not to mention art, it might have +been greatly to the advantage of the Jews to become disciples of the +Greeks. Nor is there any doubt that the brighter aspects of Hellenism +would make an admirable complement to Judaism. An harmonious blending +of the Prophets with Socrates and Plato would have produced a +many-sided, ideal _Weltanschauung_. The course of historical events +from the first made such blending, which would doubtless have +required great sacrifices on both sides, an impossible consummation. +In point of fact, the events were such as to widen the abyss between +the two systems. The meeting of Judaism and Hellenism unfortunately +occurred at the very moment when the classical Hellenes had been +supplanted by the hellenized Macedonians and Syrians, who had accepted +what were probably the worst elements of the antique system, while +appropriating but few of the intellectual excellencies of Greek +culture. There was another thwarting circumstance. In this epoch, the +Greeks were the political oppressors of the Jews, outraging Jewish +national feeling through their tyranny to the same degree as by their +immoral life they shocked Jewish ethical feeling and Jewish chastity. + +Outraged national and religious feeling found expression in the +insurrection of the Maccabees (168 B. C. E.). The hoary priest +Mattathias and his sons fought for the dearest and noblest treasures +of Judaism. Enthusiasm begets heroism. The Syrian-Greek yoke was +thrown off, and, after groaning under alien rule, the Persian, the +Egyptian, and the Syro-Macedonian, for four hundred years, Judea +became an independent state. In its foreign relations, the new state +was secured by the self-sacrificing courage of the first Maccabean +brothers, and from within it was supported by the deep-sunk pillars of +the spiritual life. The rise of the three famous parties, the +Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes, by no means testifies, as +many would have us believe, to national disintegration, but rather to +the intense spiritual activity of the people. The three tendencies +afforded opportunity for the self-consciousness of the nation to +express itself in all its variety and force. The unbending religious +dogmatism of the Sadducees, the comprehensive practical sense of the +Pharisees in religious and Rational concerns, the contemplative +mysticism of the Essenes, they are the most important offshoots from +the Jewish system as held at that time. In consequence of the external +conditions that brought about the destruction of the Maccabean +state[12] after a century's existence (165-63 B. C. E.), the Pharisee +tendency, which had proved itself the best in practice, won the upper +hand. When Judea was held fast in the clutches of the Roman eagle, all +hope of escape being cut off, the far-seeing leaders of the people +gained the firm conviction that the only trustworthy support of the +Jewish nation lay in its religion. They realized that the preservation +of national unity could be effected only by a consistent organization +of the religious law, which was to envelop and shape the whole +external life of the people. This explains the feverish activity of +the early creators of the Mishna, of Hillel, Shammai, and others, and +it interprets also the watchword of still older fame, "Make a fence +about the Law." If up to that moment religious usage in its +development had kept abreast of the requirements of social and +individual life, the requirements out of which it had grown forth, it +now became a national function, and its further evolution advanced +with tremendous strides. For the protection of the old "Mosaic Laws," +a twofold and a threefold fence of new legal ordinances was erected +about them, and the cult became more and more complicated. But the +externals of religion did not monopolize all the forces. The moral +element in the nation was promoted with equal vigor. Hillel, the head +of the Pharisee party, was not a legislator alone, he was also a model +of humane principles and rare moral attainments. + + [12] The external causes of the downfall of the Maccabean state, + dynastic quarrels, are well known. Much less light has been + thrown upon the inner, deeper-lying causes of the catastrophe. + These are possibly to be sought in the priestly-political + dualism of the Judean form of government. The ideal of a + nation educated by means of the Bible was a theocratic state, + and the first princes of the Maccabean house, acting at once + as regents and as high priests, in a measure reached this + ideal. But the attempts of other nations had demonstrated + conclusively enough that a dualistic form of government cannot + maintain itself permanently. Sooner or later one of the two + elements, the priestly or the secular, is bound to prevail + over the other and crush it. In the Judean realm, with its + profoundly religious trend, the priestly element obtained the + ascendency, and political ruin ensued. The priestly-political + retreated before the priestly-national form of government. + Though the religious element was powerless to preserve the + _state_ from destruction, we shall see that it has + brilliantly vindicated its ability to keep the _nation_ + intact. + +While Judaism, in its native country was striving to isolate itself, +and was seizing upon all sorts of expedients to insure this end, it +readily entered into relations, outside of Judea, with other systems +of thought, and accepted elements of the classical culture. Instead of +the violent opposition which the Palestinian Judaism of the +pre-Maccabean period, that is, the period of strife, had offered to +Hellenism, the tendency to make mutual concessions, and pave the way +for an understanding between the two theories of life, asserted itself +in Alexandria. In the capital city of the hellenized world the Jews +constituted one of the most important elements of culture. According +to Mommsen, the Jewish colony in Alexandria was not inferior, in point +of numbers, to the Jewish population of Jerusalem, the metropolis. +Influenced by Greek civilization, the Jews in turn exercised decisive +influence upon their heathen surroundings, and introduced a new +principle of development into the activity of the cultivated classes. +The Greek translation of the Biblical writings formed the connecting +link between Judaism and Hellenism. The "Septuaginta," the translation +of the Pentateuch, in use since the third century before the Christian +era, had acquainted the classical world with Jewish views and +principles. The productions of the Prophets and, in later centuries, +of the other Biblical authors, translated and spread broadcast, acted +irresistibly upon the spirit of the cultivated heathen, and granted +him a glimpse into a world of hitherto unknown notions. On this soil +sprang up the voluminous Judeo-Hellenic literature, of which but a +few, though characteristic, specimens have descended to us. The +intermingling of Greek philosophy with Jewish religious conceptions +resulted in a new religio-philosophic doctrine, with a mystic tinge, +of which Philo is the chief exponent. In Jerusalem, Judaism appeared +as a system of practical ceremonies and moral principles; in +Alexandria, it presented itself as a complex of abstract symbols and +poetical allegories. The Alexandrian form of Judaism might satisfy the +intellect, but it could not appeal to the feelings. It may have made +Judaism accessible to the cultivated minority, to the upper ten +thousand with philosophic training; for the masses of the heathen +people Judaism continued unintelligible. Yet it was pre-eminently the +masses that were strongly possessed by religious craving. Disappointed +in their old beliefs, they panted after a new belief, after spiritual +enlightenment. In the decaying classical world, which had so long +filled out life with materialistic and intellectual interests, the +moral and religious feelings, the desire for a living faith, for an +active inspiration, had awakened, and was growing with irresistible +force. + +Then, from deep out of the bosom of Judaism, there sprang a moral, +religious doctrine destined to allay the burning thirst for religion, +and bring about a reorganization of the heathen world. The originators +of Christianity stood wholly upon the ground of Judaism. In their +teachings were reflected as well the lofty moral principles of the +Pharisee leader as the contemplative aims of the Essenes. But the same +external circumstances that had put Judaism under the necessity of +choosing a sharply-defined practical, national policy, made it +impossible for Judaism to fraternize with the preachers of the new +doctrine. Judaism, in fact, was compelled to put aside entirely the +thought of universal missionary activity. Instead, it had to devote +its powers to the more pressing task of guarding the spiritual unity +of a nation whose political bonds were visibly dropping away. + +For just then the Jewish nation, gory with its own blood, was +struggling in the talons of the Roman eagle. Its sons fought +heroically, without thought of self. When, finally, physical strength +gave out, their spiritual energy rose to an intenser degree. The state +was annihilated, the nation remained alive. At the very moment when +the Temple was enwrapped in flames, and the Roman legions flooded +Jerusalem, the spiritual leaders of Jewry sat musing, busily casting +about for a means whereby, without a state, without a capital, without +a Temple, Jewish unity might be maintained. And they solved the +difficult problem. + + + + +VII + +THE TERTIARY TALMUDIC OR NATIONAL-RELIGIOUS PERIOD + + +The solution of the problem consisted chiefly in more strictly +following out the process of isolation. In a time in which the worship +of God preached by Judaism was rapidly spreading to all parts of the +classical world, and the fundamental principles of the Jewish religion +were steadily gaining appreciation and active adherence, this intense +desire for seclusion may at first glance seem curious. But the +phenomenon is perfectly simple. A foremost factor was national +feeling, enhanced to a tremendous degree at the time of the +destruction of Jerusalem. Lacking a political basis, it was +transferred to religious soil. Every tradition, every custom, however +insignificant, was cherished as a jewel. Though without a state and +without territory, the Jews desired to form a nation, if only a +spiritual nation, complete in itself. They considered themselves then +as before the sole guardians of the law of God. They did not believe +in a speedy fulfilment of the prophetical promise concerning "the end +of time" when all nations would be converted to God. A scrupulous +keeper of the Law, Judaism would not hear of the compromises that +heathendom, lately entered into the bosom of the faith, claimed as its +due consideration. It refused to sacrifice a single feature of its +simple dogmatism, of its essential ceremonies, such as circumcision +and Sabbath rest. Moreover, in the period following close upon the +fall of the Temple, a part of the people still nursed the hope of +political restoration, a hope repudiating in its totality the +proclamation of quite another Messianic doctrine. The delusion ended +tragically in Bar Kochba's hapless rebellion (135 C. E.), whose +disastrous issue cut off the last remnant of hope for the restoration +of an "earthly kingdom." Thereafter the ideal of a spiritual state was +replaced by the ideal of a spiritual nation, rallying about a peculiar +religious banner. Jewry grew more and more absorbed in itself. Its +seclusion from the rest of the world became progressively more +complete. Instinct dictated this course as an escape from the danger +of extinction, or, at least, of stagnation. It was conscious of +possessing enough vitality and energy to live for itself and work out +its own salvation. It had its spiritual interests, its peculiar +ideals, and a firm belief in the future. It constituted an ancient +order, whose patent of nobility had been conferred upon it in the days +of the hoary past by the Lord God Himself. Such as it was, it could +not consent to ally itself with _parvenus_, ennobled but to-day, +and yesterday still bowing down before "gods of silver and gods of +gold." This white-haired old man, with a stormy past full of +experiences and thought, would not mingle with the scatter-brained +crowd, would not descend to the level of neophytes dominated by +fleeting, youthful enthusiasm. Loyally this weather-bronzed, +inflexible guardian of the Law stuck to his post--the post entrusted +to him by God Himself--and, faithful to his duty, held fast to the +principle _j'y suis, j'y reste_. + +As a political nation threatened by its neighbors seeks support in its +army, and provides sufficient implements of war, so a spiritual nation +must have spiritual weapons of defense at its command. Such weapons +were forged in great numbers, and deposited in the vast arsenal called +the Talmud. The Talmud represents a complicated spiritual discipline, +enjoining unconditional obedience to a higher invisible power. Where +discipline is concerned, questions as to the necessity for one or +another regulation are out of place. Every regulation is necessary, if +only because it contributes to the desired end, namely, discipline. +Let no one ask, then, to what purpose the innumerable religious and +ritual regulations, sometimes reaching the extreme of pettiness, to +what purpose the comprehensive code in which every step in the life of +the faithful is foreseen. The Talmudic religious provisions, all taken +together, aim to put the regimen of the nation on a strictly uniform +basis, so that everywhere the Jew may be able to distinguish a brother +in faith by his peculiar mode of life. It is a uniform with insignia, +by which soldiers of the same regiment recognize one another. Despite +the vast extent of the Jewish diaspora, the Jews formed a +well-articulated spiritual army, an invisible "state of God" +(_civitas dei_). Hence these "knights of the spirit," the +citizens of this invisible state, had to wear a distinct uniform, and +be governed by a suitable code of army regulations. + +As a protection for Jewish national unity, which was exposed to the +greatest danger after the downfall of the state, there arose and +developed, without any external influence whatsoever, an extraordinary +dictatorship, unofficial and spiritual. The legislative activity of +all the dictators--such as, Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Akiba, +the Hillelites, and the Shammaites--was formulated in the Mishna, the +"oral law," which was the substructure of the Talmud. Their activity +had a characteristic feature, which deserves somewhat particularized +description. The laws were not laid down arbitrarily and without +ceremony. In order to possess binding force, they required the +authoritative confirmation to be found in the Mosaic Books. From +these, whether by logical or by forced interpretation of the holy +text, its words, or, perchance, its letters, they had to be derived. +Each law, barring only the original "traditions," the _Halacha +le-Moshe mi-Sinai_, was promulgated over the supreme signature, as +it were, that is, with the authentication of a word from the Holy +Scriptures. Or it was inferred from another law so authenticated. The +elaboration of every law was thus connected with a very complicated +process of thought, requiring both inductive and deductive reasoning, +and uniting juridical interpretation with the refinements of +casuistry. This legislation was the beginning of Talmudic science, +which from that time on, for many centuries, growing with the ages, +claimed in chief part the intellectual activity of Jewry. The schools +and the academies worked out a system of laws at once religious and +practical in character, which constituted, in turn, the object of +further theoretic study in the same schools and academies. In the +course of time, however, the means became the end. Theoretic +investigation of the law, extending and developing to the furthest +limits, in itself, without reference to its practical value, afforded +satisfaction to the spiritual need. The results of theorizing often +attained the binding force of law in practical life, not because +circumstances ordered it, but simply because one or another academy, +by dint of logic or casuistry, had established it as law. The number +of such deductions from original and secondary laws increased in +geometric progression, and practical life all but failed to keep up +with the theory. The "close of the Mishna," that is, its reduction to +writing, had no daunting effect upon the zeal for research. If +anything, a new and strong impetus was imparted to it. As up to that +time the text of the Holy Scriptures had been made the basis of +interpretation, giving rise to the most diverse inferences, so the +rabbis now began to use the law book recently canonized as a new basis +of interpretation, and to carry its principles to their utmost +consequences. In this way originated first the "Palestinian Gemara." +Later, when the Patriarchate in Palestine was stripped of its glory by +persecutions, and, in consequence, the centre of activity had to be +transferred from the Talmud academies of Palestine to those of +Babylonia, supreme place and exclusive dominion were obtained by the +"Babylonian Gemara," put into permanent form about the year 500 C. E., +a gigantic work, the result of two hundred years of mental labor. + +This busy intellectual activity was as comprehensive as it was +thoroughgoing. Talmudic legislation, the Halacha, by no means confines +itself to religious practices, extensive as this field is. It embraces +the whole range of civil and social life. Apart from the dietary laws, +the regulations for the festivals and the divine service, and a mass +of enactments for the shaping of daily life, the Talmud elaborated a +comprehensive and fairly well-ordered system of civil and criminal +law, which not infrequently bears favorable comparison with the famous +_rationi scriptae_ of the Romans. While proceeding with extreme +rigor and scrupulousness in ritual matters, the Talmud is governed in +its social legislation by the noblest humanitarian principles. +Doubtless this difference of attitude can be explained by the fact +that religious norms are of very much greater importance for a nation +than judicial regulations, which concern themselves only with the +interests of the individual, and exercise but little influence upon +the development of the national spirit. + +The most sympathetic aspects of the Jewish spirit in that epoch are +revealed in the moral and poetic elements of the Talmud, in the Agada. +They are the receptacles into which the people poured all its +sentiments, its whole soul. They are a clear reflex of its inner +world, its feelings, hopes, ideals. The collective work of the nation +and the trend of history have left much plainer traces in the Agada +than in the dry, methodical Halacha. In the Agada the learned jurist +and formalist appears transformed into a sage or poet, conversing with +the people in a warm, cordial tone, about the phenomena of nature, +history, and life. The reader is often thrown into amazement by the +depth of thought and the loftiness of feeling manifested in the Agada. +Involuntarily one pays the tribute of reverence to its practical +wisdom, to its touching legends pervaded by the magic breath of poesy, +to the patriarchal purity of its views. But these pearls are not +strung upon one string, they are not arranged in a complete system. +They are imbedded here and there, in gay variety, in a vast mass of +heterogeneous opinions and sentiments naive at times and at times +eccentric. The reader becomes aware of the thoughts before they are +consolidated. They are still in a fluid, mobile state, still in +process of making. The same vivacious, versatile spirit is revealed in +the Midrashim literature, directly continuing the Agada up to the end +of the middle ages. These two species of Jewish literature, the Agada +and the Midrashim, have a far greater absolute value than the Halacha. +The latter is an official work, the former a national product. Like +every other special legislation, the Halacha is bound to definite +conditions and times, while the Agada concerns itself with the eternal +verities. The creations of the philosophers, poets, and moralists are +more permanent than the work of legislators. + +Beautiful as the Agada is, and with all its profundity, it lacks +breadth. It rests wholly on the national, not on a universal basis. It +would be vain to seek in it for the comprehensive universalism of the +Prophets. Every lofty ideal is claimed as exclusively Jewish. So far +from bridging over the chasm between Israel and the other nations, +knowledge and morality served to widen it. It could not be otherwise, +there was no influx of air from without. The national horizon grew +more and more contracted. The activities of the people gathered +intensity, but in the same measure they lost in breadth. It was the +only result to be expected from the course of history in those ages. +Let us try to conceive what the first five centuries of the Christian +era, the centuries during which the Talmud was built up, meant in the +life of mankind. Barbarism, darkness, and elemental outbreaks of man's +migratory instincts, illustrated by the "great migration of races," +are characteristic features of those centuries. It was a wretched +transition period between the fall of the world of antique culture and +the first germinating of a new Christian civilization. The Orient, the +centre and hearth of Judaism, was shrouded in impenetrable darkness. +In Palestine and in Babylonia, their two chief seats, the Jews were +surrounded by nations that still occupied the lowest rung of the +ladder of civilization, that had not yet risen above naive mysticism +in religion, or continued to be immersed in superstitions of the +grossest sort. + +In this abysmal night of the middle ages, the lamp of thought was fed +and guarded solely and alone by the Jews. It is not astonishing, then, +that oblivious of the other nations they should have dispensed light +only for themselves. Furthermore, the circumstance must be considered +that, in the period under discussion, the impulse to separate from +Judaism gained ground in the Christian world. After the Council of +Nicaea, after Constantine the Great had established Christianity as +the state-church, the official breach between the Old Testament and +the New Testament partisans became unavoidable. + +Thus the Jews, robbed of their political home, created a spiritual +home for themselves. Through the instrumentality of the numberless +religious rules which the Talmud had laid down, and which shaped the +life of the individual as well as that of the community, they were +welded into a firmly united whole. The Jewish spirit--national feeling +and individual mental effort alike--was absorbed in this pursuit of +unification. Head, heart, hands, all human functions of the Jew, were +brought under complete control and cast into fixed forms, by these +five centuries of labor. With painful exactitude, the Talmud +prescribed ordinances for all the vicissitudes of life, yet, at the +same time, offered sufficient food for brain and heart. It was at once +a religion and a science. The Jew was equipped with all the +necessaries. He could satisfy his wants from his own store. There was +no need for him to knock at strange doors, even though he had thereby +profited. The consequences of this attitude, positive as well as +negative consequences, asserted themselves in the further course of +Jewish history. + + + + +VIII + +THE GAONIC PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE ORIENTAL JEWS (500-980) + + +With the close of the Talmud, at the beginning of the sixth century, +the feverish intellectual activity abated. The Jewish centre of +gravity continued in Babylonia. In this country, in which the Jewish +race had heard its cradle song at the dawn of existence, and later on +_Judaea capta_ had sat and wept remembering Zion, Judaism, after +the destruction of the second Temple and hundreds of years of trials, +was favored with a secure asylum. In the rest of the diaspora, +persecution gave the Jews no respite, but in Babylonia, under Persian +rule, they lived for some centuries comparatively free from +molestation. Indeed, they enjoyed a measure of autonomy in internal +affairs, under a chief who was entitled Exilarch (_Resh-Galutha_). +The Law and the word of God went forth from Babylonia for the Jews of +all lands. The Babylonian Talmud became the anthoritative code for the +Jewish people, a holy book second only to the Bible. The intellectual +calm that supervened at the beginning of the sixth century and lasted +until the end of the eighth century, betrayed itself in the slackening of +independent creation, though not in the flagging of intellectual activity +in general. In the schools and academies of Pumbeditha, Nahardea, +and Sura, scientific work was carried on with the same zest as before, +only this work had for its primary object the sifting and exposition of +the material heaped up by the preceding generations. This was the +province of the Sabureans and the Geonim, whose relation to the Talmud +was the same as that of the Scribes (the _Soferim_) of the Second +Temple to the Bible (see above, ch. vi). In the later period, as in the +earlier, the aim was the capitalization of the accumulated spiritual +treasures, an undertaking that gives little occasion for movement and +life, but all the more for endurance and industry. + +This intellectual balance was destroyed by two events: the appearance +of Islam and the rise of Karaism. Islam, the second legitimate +offspring of Judaism, was appointed to give to religious thought in +the slumbering Orient the slight impulse it needed to start it on its +rapid career of sovereign power. Barely emancipated from swaddling +clothes, young Hotspur at once began to rage. He sought an outlet for +his unconquerable thirst for action, his lust for world-dominion. The +victorious religious wars of the followers of Allah ensued. This +foreign movement was not without significance for the fate of the +Jews. They were surrounded no longer by heathens but by Mohammedans, +who believed in the God of the Bible, and through the mouth of their +prophet conferred upon the Jews the honorable appellation of "the +People of the Book." In the eighth century the wars ceased, and the +impetuous energy of the rejuvenated Orient was diverted into quieter +channels. The Bagdad Khalifate arose, the peaceful era of the growth +of industry, the sciences, and the arts was inaugurated. Endowed with +quick discernment for every enlightening movement, the Jews yielded to +the vivifying magic of young Arabic culture. + +Partly under the influence of the Arabic tendency to split into +religio-philosophic sects, partly from inner causes, Karaism sprang up +in the second half of the eighth century. Its active career began with +a vehement protest against the Talmud as the regulator of life and +thought. It proclaimed the creators of this vast encyclopedia to be +usurpers of spiritual power, and urged a return to the Biblical laws +in their unadulterated simplicity. The weakness of its positive +principles hindered the spread of Karaism, keeping it forever within +the narrow limits of a sect and consigning it to stagnation. What gave +it vogue during the first century of its existence was its negative +strength, its violent opposition to the Talmud, which aroused +strenuous intellectual activity. For a long time it turned Judaism +away from its one-sided Talmudic tendency, and opened up new avenues +of work for it. True to their motto: "Search diligently in the Holy +Scriptures," the adherents of Karaism applied themselves to the +rational study of the Bible, which had come to be, among the +Talmudists, the object of casuistic interpretation and legendary +adornment. By the cultivation of grammar and lexicography as applied +to the Biblical thesaurus of words, they resuscitated the Hebrew +language, which, ousted by the Aramaic dialect, had already sunk into +oblivion. By the same means they laid the foundation of a school of +rejuvenated poetry. In general, thought on religious and philosophic +subjects was promoted to a higher degree by the lively discussions +between them and the Talmudists. + +By imperceptible steps Talmudic Judaism, influenced at once by the +enlightened Arabs and the protesting Karaites, departed from the "four +ells of the Halacha," and widened its horizon. Among the spiritual +leaders of the people arose men who occupied themselves not only with +the study of the Talmud but also with a rational exegesis of the +Bible, with philology, poetry, philosophy. The great Gaon Saadiah +(892-942) united within himself all strands of thought. Over and above +a large number of philological and other writings of scientific +purport, he created a momentous religio-philosophic system, with the +aim to clarify Judaism and refine religious conceptions. He was an +encyclopedic thinker, a representative of the highest Jewish culture +and of Arabic culture as well--he wrote his works in Arabic by +preference. In this way Jewish thought gained ground more and more in +the Orient. It was in the West, however, that it attained soon after +to the climax of its development. + +Gradually the centre of gravity of Jewry shifted from Asia Minor to +Western Europe. Beginning with the sixth century, the sparsely sown +Jewish population of Occidental Europe increased rapidly in numbers. +In Italy, Byzantium, France, and Visigothic Spain, important Jewish +communities were formed. The medieval intolerance of the Church, +though neither so widespread nor so violent as it later became, +suffered its first outbreak in that early century. The persecutions of +the Jews by the Visigothic kings of Spain and the Bishops Avitus of +Clermont and Agobard in France (sixth to the ninth century) were the +prelude to the more systematic and the more bloody cruelties of +subsequent days. The insignificant numbers of the European Jews and +the insecurity of their condition stood in the way of forming an +intellectual centre of their own. They were compelled to acknowledge +the spiritual supremacy of their Oriental brethren in faith. With the +beginning of the tenth century the situation underwent a change. +Arabic civilization, which had penetrated to Spain in previous +centuries, brought about a radical transformation in the character of +the country. The realm of the fanatic Visigoths, half barbarous and +wholly averse to the light of progress, changed into the prosperous +and civilized Khalifate of the Ommeyyades. Thither the best forces of +Oriental Jewry transferred themselves. With the growth of the Jewish +population in Arabic Spain and the strengthening of its communal +organization, the spiritual centre of the Jewish people gradually +established itself in Spain. The academies of Sura and Pumbeditha +yielded first place to the high schools of Cordova and Toledo. + +The Jewry of the East resigned the national hegemony to the Jewry of +the West. The Geonim withdrew in favor of the Rabbis. After centuries +of seclusion, the Jewish spirit once more asserted itself, and enjoyed +a period of efflorescence. The process of national growth became more +complex, more varied. + + + + +IX + +THE RABBINIC-PHILOSOPHICAL PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE SPANISH JEWS +(980-1492) + + +The five centuries marked at their beginning by the rise of +Arabic-Jewish civilization in Spain and at their end by the banishment +of the Jews from Spain (980-1492), offer the Jewish historian an +abundance of culture manifestations and intellectual movements so +luxuriant that it is well-nigh impossible to gather them up in one +formula. The monotony formerly prevailing in Jewish national life, +both in its external and in its internal relations, was succeeded by +almost gaily checkered variety. Swept along by the movement towards +enlightenment that dominated their surroundings, the Jews of Arabic +Spain threw themselves into energetic work in all the spheres of life +and thought. While they had political ground more or less firm under +their feet, and for the most part enjoyed peace and liberty, the Jews +in the Christian lands of Europe stood upon volcanic soil, every +moment threatening to swallow them up. Exposed constantly to +persecutions, they lived more or less isolated, and devoted themselves +to one-sided though intense intellectual activity. Sombre shadows and +streaks of bright light alternate with each other in this period. In +its second half, the clouds massed themselves heavily upon the +darkening horizon. Even the "privileged" Spanish Jews suffered an +untoward change in their affairs at the beginning of the thirteenth +century: gradually they were withdrawn from under the sovereignty of +the Arabs, and made subject to the power of the Catholic monarchs. +They became thenceforward the equal partners of their brethren in +faith in the rest of Europe. All without distinction had a share in +the spiritual martyrdom which is the greenest bayleaf in the crown of +Jewish history. To think and to suffer became the watchword of the +whole nation. + +At first, as we have said, a considerable portion of the Jewish people +enjoyed the happy possibility of thinking. This was during the +classical epoch of the Arabic-Jewish Renaissance, which preceded the +Italian Renaissance by four centuries. There is a fundamental +difference between the two Renaissance periods: the earlier one was +signalized by a re-birth of the sciences and of philosophy, the later +one pre-eminently of the arts and of literature. The eleventh and +twelfth centuries marked the meridian of the intellectual development +of medieval Judaism. As once, in Alexandria, the union of Judaic with +Hellenic culture brought in its train a superabundance of new ideas of +a universal character, so again the amalgamation, on Spanish soil, of +Jewish culture with Arabic gave rise to rich intellectual results, +more lasting and fruitful than the Alexandrian, inasmuch as, in spite +of their universal character, they did not contravene the national +spirit. The Jewish people dropped its misanthropy and its leaning +toward isolation. The Jews entered all sorts of careers: by the side +of influential and cultivated statesmen, such as Chasdai ibn Shaprut +and Samuel Hanagid, at the courts of the Khalifs, stood a brilliant +group of grammarians, poets, and philosophers, like Jonah ibn Ganach, +Solomon Gabirol, and Moses ibn Ezra. The philosophic-critical +scepticism of Abraham ibn Ezra co-existed in peace and harmony with +the philosophic-poetic enthusiasm of Jehuda Halevi. The study of +medicine, mathematics, physics, and astronomy went hand in hand with +the study of the Talmud, which, though it may not have occupied the +first place with the Spanish Jews of this time, by no means +disappeared, as witness the compendium by Alphassi. Unusual breadth +and fulness of the spiritual life is the distinction of the epoch. +This variety of mental traits combined in a marvelous union to form +the great personality of Maimonides, the crown of a glorious period. +With one "Strong Hand," this intellectual giant brought order out of +the Talmudic chaos, which at his word was transformed into a +symmetrical, legal system; with the other, he "guided the Perplexed" +through the realm of faith and knowledge. For rationalistic clarity +and breadth of view no counterpart to the religio-philosophic doctrine +which he formulated can be found in the whole extent of medieval +literature. The main feature of the philosophy of Maimonides and of +the systems based upon it is rationalism, not a dry, scholastic, +abstract rationalism, but a living rationalism, embracing the whole +field of the most exalted psychic phenomena. It is not philosophy pure +and simple, but religious philosophy, an harmonization, more or less +felicitous, of the postulates of reason with the dogmas of faith. It +is reason mitigated by faith, and faith regulated by reason. In the +darkness of the middle ages, when the Romish Church impregnated +religion with the crudest superstitions, going so far as to forbid its +adherents to read the Bible, and when the greatest philosopher +representatives of the Church, like Albertus Magnus, would have +rejected offhand, as a childish fancy or, indeed, as an heretical +chimera, any attempt to rescue the lower classes of the people from +their wretched state of spiritual servitude--in a time like this, the +truly majestic spectacle is presented of a philosophy declaring war on +superstition, and setting out to purify the religious notions of the +people. + +Not a breath of this ample spiritual development of the Jews of Arabic +Spain reached the Jews living in the Christian countries of Europe. +Their circumstances were too grievous, and in sombreness their inner +life matched their outer estate. Their horizon was as contracted as +the streets of the Jewries in which they were penned. The crusades +(beginning in 1096) clearly showed the Jews of France and Germany what +sentiments their neighbors cherished towards them. They were the first +returns which Christianity paid the Jewish people for its old-time +teaching of religion. The descendants of the "chosen people," the +originators of the Bible, were condemned to torture of a sort to +exhaust their spiritual heritage. Judaism suffered the tragic fate of +King Lear. Was it conceivable that the horrors--the rivers of blood, +the groans of massacred communities, the serried ranks of martyrs, the +ever-haunting fear of the morrow--should fail to leave traces in the +character of Judaism? The Jewish people realized its imminent danger. +It convulsively held fast to its precious relics, clung to the pillars +of its religion, which it regarded as the only asylum. The Jewish +spirit again withdrew from the outer world. It gave itself up wholly +to the study of the Talmud. In northern France and in Germany, +Talmudic learning degenerated into the extreme of scholastic pedantry, +the lot of every branch of science that is lopped off from the main +trunk of knowledge, and vegetates in a heavy, dank atmosphere, lacking +light and air. Rashi (1064-1105), whose genial activity began before +the first crusade, opened up Jewish religious literature to the +popular mind, by his systematic commentaries on the Bible and the +Talmud. On the other hand, the Tossafists, the school of commentators +succeeding him, by their petty quibbling and hairsplitting casuistry +made the Talmudic books more intricate and less intelligible. Such +being the intellectual bias of the age, a sober, rationalistic +philosophy could not assert itself. In lieu of an Ibn Ezra or a +Maimonides, we have Jehuda Hachassid and Eliezer of Worms, with their +mystical books of devotion, _Sefer Chassidim, Rokeach_, etc., +filled with pietistic reflections on the other world, in which the +earth figures as a "vale of tears." Poetry likewise took on the dismal +hue of its environment. Instead of the varied lyrical notes of Gabirol +and Halevi, who sang the weal and woe, not only of the nation, but +also of the individual, and lost themselves in psychologic analysis, +there now fall upon our ear the melancholy, heartrending strains of +synagogue poetry, the harrowing outcries that forced themselves from +the oppressed bosoms of the hunted people, the prayerful lamentations +that so often shook the crumbling walls of the medieval synagogues at +the very moment when, full of worshipers, they were fired by the +inhuman crusaders. A mighty chord reverberates in this poetry: +_Morituri te salutant_. + +One small spot there was, in the whole of Europe, in which Jews could +still hope to endure existence and enjoy a measure of security. This +was Southern France, or the Provence. The population of Provence had +assimilated the culture of the neighboring country, Arabic Spain, and +become the mediator between it and the rest of Europe. This work of +mediation was undertaken primarily by the Jews. In the twelfth century +several universities existed in Provence, which were frequented in +great numbers by students from all countries. At these universities +the teachers of philosophy, medicine, and other branches of science +were for the most part Jews. The rationalistic philosophy of the +Spanish Jews was there proclaimed _ex cathedra_. The Tibbonides +translated all the more important works of the Jewish thinkers of +Spain from Arabic into Hebrew. The Kimchis devoted themselves to +grammatical studies and the investigation of the Bible. In +Montpellier, Narbonne, and Lunel, intellectual work was in full swing. +Rational ideas gradually leavened the masses of the Provencal +population. Conscience freed from intellectual trammels began to +revolt against the oppression exercised by the Roman clergy. Through +the Albigensian heresy, Innocent III, founder of the papal power, had +his attention directed to the Jews, whom he considered the dangerous +protagonists of rationalism. The "heresy" was stifled, Provence in all +her magnificence fell a prey to the Roman mania for destruction, and, +on the ruins of a noble civilization, the Dominican Inquisition raged +with all its horrors (1213). + +Thenceforward the Catholic Church devoted herself to a hostile watch +upon the Jews. Either she persecuted them directly through her +Inquisition, or indirectly through her omnipotent influence on kings +and peoples. In the hearts of the citizens of medieval Europe, the +flame of religious hatred was enkindled, and religious hatred served +as a cloak for the basest passions. Jewish history from that time on +became a history of uninterrupted suffering. The Lateran Council +declared the Jews to be outcasts, and designed a peculiar, +dishonorable badge for them, a round patch of yellow cloth, to be worn +on their upper garment (1215). In France the Jews became by turns the +victims of royal rapacity and the scapegoats of popular fanaticism. +Massacres, confiscations, banishments followed by dearly purchased +permission to return, by renewed restrictions, persecutions, and +oppressions--these were the measures that characterized the treatment +of the Jews in France until their final expulsion (1394). In Germany +the Jews were not so much hated as despised. They were _servi +camerae_, serfs of the state, and as such had to pay oppressive +taxes. Besides, they were limited to the meanest trades and to usury +and peddling. They were shut up in their narrow Jewries, huddled in +wretched cabins, which clustered about the dilapidated synagogue in a +shamefaced way. What strange homes! What gigantic misery, what +boundless suffering dumbly borne, was concealed in those crumbling, +curse-laden dwellings! And yet, how resplendent they were with +spiritual light, what exalted virtues, what lofty heroism they +harbored! In those gloomy, tumbledown Jew houses, intellectual +endeavor was at white heat. The torch of faith blazed clear in them, +and on the pure domestic hearth played a gentle flame. In the abject, +dishonored son of the Ghetto was hidden an intellectual giant. In his +nerveless body, bent double by suffering, and enveloped in the shabby +old cloak still further disfigured by the yellow wheel, dwelt the soul +of a thinker. The son of the Ghetto might have worn his badge with +pride, for in truth it was a medal of distinction awarded by the papal +Church to the Jews, for dauntlessness and courage. The awkward, puny +Jew in his way was stronger and braver than a German knight armed +cap-a-pie, for he was penetrated by the faith that "moves mountains." +And when the worst came to the worst, he demonstrated his courage. +When his peaceful home was stormed by the bestialized hordes of +Armleder, or the drunken bands of the Flagellants, or the furious +avengers of the "Black Death," he did not yield, did not purchase life +by disgraceful treason. With invincible courage he put his head under +the executioner's axe, and breathed forth his heroic spirit with the +enthusiastic cry: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One." + +At length the turn of the Spanish Jews arrived. For the unbroken peace +they had enjoyed, they had to atone by centuries of unexampled +suffering. By degrees, the Arabs were forced out of the Pyrenean +Peninsula, and the power they had to abdicate was assumed by the +Catholic kings of Castile and Aragon. In 1236 occurred the fall of +Cordova, the most important centre of Arabic Jewish culture. +Thereafter Arab power held sway only in the province of Granada. The +fortunes of the Spanish Jews underwent a calamitous change. The kings +and the upper ten thousand were, indeed, favorably disposed toward +them. At the courts of Castile and Aragon, the Jews were active as +ministers, physicians, astronomers. But the people, incited by the +propaganda of the clerics, nursed frightful hatred against the Jews, +not only as "infidels," but also as intellectual aristocrats. The rage +of the populace was the combustible material in the terrific +explosions that occurred periodically, in the bloody saturnalia of the +Pastouraux (1320), in the Black Death riots (1348), in the massacre of +Seville (1391). + +Dire blows of fortune were unable to weigh down the Spanish Jew, +accustomed to independence, as they did the German Jew. He carried his +head proudly on high, for he was conscious that in all respects he +stood above the rabble pursuing him, above its very leaders, the +clerics. In spite of untoward fate his mental development proceeded, +but inevitably it was modified by the trend of the times. By the side +of the philosophic tendency of the previous age, a mystical tendency +appeared in literature. The Kabbala, with its mist-shrouded symbolism, +so grateful to the feelings and the imagination, chimed in better than +rationalistic philosophy with the depressed humor under which the +greater part of the Jews were then laboring. Another force +antagonistic to rationalistic philosophy was the Rabbinism +transplanted from France and Germany. The controversy between +Rabbinism and philosophy, which dragged itself through three-quarters +of a century (1232-1305), ended in the formal triumph of Rabbinism. +However, philosophic activity merely languished, it did not cease +entirely; in fact, the three currents for some time ran along parallel +with one another. Next to the pillars of Rabbinism, Asheri, Rashba, +Isaac ben Sheshet, loomed up the philosophers, Gersonides (Ralbag), +Kreskas, and Albo, and a long line of Kabbalists, beginning with +Nachmanides and Moses de Leon, the compiler of the Zohar, and ending +with the anonymous authors of the mysterious "Kana and Pelia." + +The times grew less and less propitious. Catholicism steadily gained +ground in Spain. The scowling Dominican put forward his claim upon the +Jewish soul with vehement emphasis, and made every effort to drag it +into the bosom of the alone-saving Church. The conversion of the Jews +would have been a great triumph, indeed, for Catholicism militant. The +conversion methods of the Dominican monk were of a most insinuating +kind--he usually began with a public religious disputation. +Unfortunately, the Jews were experts in the art of debate, and too +often by their bold replies covered the self-sufficient dignitaries of +Rome with confusion. The Jews should have known, from bitter +experience, that such boldness would not be passed over silently. From +sumptuous debating hall to Dominican prison and scaffold was but a +short step. In 1391, one of these worthy soul-catchers, Bishop +Ferdinando Martinez, set the fanatical mob of Seville on the Jews, and +not without success. Terrorized by the threat of death, many accepted +Catholicism under duress. But they became Christians only in +appearance; in reality they remained true to the faith of their +fathers, and, in secret, running the risk of loss of life, they +fulfilled all the Jewish ordinances. This is the prologue to the +thrilling Marrano tragedy. + +Finally, the moment approached when gloomy Catholicism attained to +unchallenged supremacy in the Pyrenean Peninsula. On the ruins of the +enlightened culture of the Arabs, Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella +of Castile reared the reactionary government of medieval Rome. The +Inquisition was introduced (1480). Torquemada presided as high priest +over the rites attending the human sacrifices. _Ad gloriam +ecclesiae_, the whole of Spain was illuminated. Everywhere the +funeral pyres of the Inquisition flared to the skies, the air was rent +by the despairing shrieks of martyrs enveloped in flames or racked by +tortures, the prisons overflowed with Marranos,--all instruments of +torture were vigorously plied. + +At last the hour of redemption struck: in 1492 all Jews were driven +from Spain, and a few years later from Portugal. Jewish-Arabic culture +after five centuries of ascendency suffered a sudden collapse. The +unhappy people again grasped its staff, and wandered forth into the +world without knowing whither. + + + + +X + +THE RABBINIC-MYSTICAL PERIOD, OR THE HEGEMONY OF THE GERMAN-POLISH +JEWS (1492-1789) + + +The expulsion from Spain was a stunning blow. The hoary martyr people +which had defied so many storms in its long life was for a moment +dazed. The soil of Europe was quaking under its feet. At the time when +the medieval period had formally come to a close for Occidental +Christendom, and the modern period had opened, the middle ages +continued in unmitigated brutality for the Jews. If anything, the life +of the Jews had become more unendurable than before. What, indeed, had +the much-vaunted modern age to offer them? In the ranks of the +humanistic movement Reuchlin alone stood forth prominently as the +advocate of the Jews, and he was powerless before the prejudices of +the populace. The Reformation in Germany and elsewhere had illuminated +the minds of the people, but had not softened their hearts. Luther +himself, the creator of the Reformation, was not innocent of hating +the followers of an alien faith. The Jews especially did not enjoy too +great a measure of his sympathies. The wars growing out of the +Reformation, which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries +devastated Europe in the name of religion, were not calculated to +favor the spread of tolerance and milder manners. The conflict raging +in the bosom of the Church and setting her own children by the ears, +was yet insufficient to divert her maternal care from her +"unbelieving" stepchildren. In Spain and Portugal, stakes continued to +burn two centuries longer for the benefit of the Marranos, the false +Christians. In Germany and Austria, the Jews were kept in the same +condition of servitude as before. Their economic circumstances were +appalling. They were forced to emigrate _en masse_ to Poland, +which offered the adherents of their faith a comparatively quiet life, +and by and by was invested with the Jewish hegemony. Some of the +smaller states and independent towns of Italy also afforded the Jews +an asylum, though one not always to be depended upon. A group of +hard-driven Spanish exiles, for instance, under the leadership of +Abarbanel had found peace in Italy. The rest had turned to Turkey and +her province Palestine, + +For a time, indeed, the Jewish spiritual centre was located in Turkey. +What Europe, old, Christian, and hardhearted, refused the Jews, was +granted them by Turkey, young, Mussulman, and liberal. On hearing of +the banishment of the Jews from Spain, Sultan Bajazet exclaimed: "How +can you call Ferdinand of Aragon a wise king, the same Ferdinand who +has made his land poor and enriched ours?" His amazement characterizes +the relation of Turkey to the Jews of the day. The one-time Marrano, +Joseph Nassi, rose to be a considerable dignitary at the court of +Sultan Selim (1566-1580). Occasionally he succeeded, by diplomatic +means, in wreaking vengeance upon European courts in retaliation for +the brutal tortures inflicted upon his people. With the generosity of +a Maecenas, he assembled Jewish scholars and poets, and surrounded +himself with a sunlit atmosphere of intellectuality and talent. All +other Jewish communities looked up to that of Constantinople. Now and +again its rabbis played the part of Patriarchs of the synagogue. To +this commanding position the rabbis of Palestine especially were +inclined to lay claim. They even attempted to restore the +Patriarchate, and the famous controversy between Jacob Berab and Levi +ben Chabib regarding the _Semicha_ is another evidence of the +same assertive tendency. Among the Spanish exiles settled in the Holy +Land a peculiar spiritual current set in. The storm-tossed wanderers, +but now returned to their native Jordan from the shores of the +blood-stained Tagus and Guadalquivir, were mightily moved at the sight +of their ancestral home. Ahasuerus, who on his thorn-strewn pilgrim's +path had drained the cup of woe to the dregs, suddenly caught sight of +the home of his childhood razed level with the ground. The precious, +never-to-be-forgotten ruins exhaled the home feeling, which took +possession of him with irresistible charm. Into his soul there flowed +sweet memories of a golden youth, past beyond recall. The impact of +these emotions enkindled passionate "longing for Zion" in the heart of +the forlorn, homeless martyr. He was seized by torturing thirst for +political resurrection. Such melancholy feelings and vehement +outbursts found expression in the practical Kabbala, originating with +Ari (Isaac Luria) and his famous Safed school. A mystical belief in +the coming of Messiah thenceforward became one of the essential +elements of the Jewish spirit. It vanquished the heart of the learned +Joseph Karo, who had brought Rabbinism to its climax by the +compilation of his celebrated ritual code, the Shulchan Aruch. With +equal force it dominated the being of Solomon Molcho, the enthusiastic +youth who, at one time a Marrano, on his public return to Judaism +proclaimed the speedy regeneration of Israel. He sealed his faith in +his prophecy with death at the stake (1532). The Marranos beyond the +Pyrenees and the unfortunate Jews of Italy, who, in the second half of +the sixteenth century had to bear the brunt of papal fanaticism, on +the increase since the Reformation, were kept in a state of constant +excitement by this Messianic doctrine, with its obscure stirrings of +hope. A mournful national feeling pervades the Jewish literature of +the time. Recollections of torments endured enflamed all hearts. A +series of chronicles were thus produced that record the centuries of +Jewish martyrdom--_Jocha-sin, Shebet Jehuda, Emek ha-Bacha_, etc. +The art of printing, even then developed to a considerable degree of +perfection, became for the dispersed Jews the strongest bond of +spiritual union. The papal _index librorum prohibitorum_ was +impotent in the face of the all-pervading propaganda for thought and +feeling carried on by the printing press. + +After Palestine and Turkey, Holland for a time became the spiritual +centre of the scattered Jews (in the seventeenth century). Holland was +warmly attached to the cause of liberty. When it succeeded in freeing +itself from the clutches of fanatical Spain and her rapacious king, +Philip II, it inaugurated the golden era of liberty of conscience, of +peaceful development in culture and industry, and granted an asylum to +the persecuted and abandoned of all countries. By the thousands the +harassed Ghetto sons, especially the Marranos from Spain and Portugal, +migrated to Holland. Amsterdam became a second Cordova. The +intellectual life was quickened. Freedom from restraint tended to +break down the national exclusivism of the Jew, and intercourse with +his liberal surroundings varied his mental pursuits. Rabbinism, the +Kabbala, philosophy, national poetry--they all had their prominent +representatives in Holland. These manifold tendencies were united in +the literary activity of Manasseh ben Israel, a scholar of extensive, +though not intensive, encyclopedic attainments. Free thought and +religious rationalism were embodied in Uriel Acosta. To a still higher +degree they were illustrated in the theory of life expounded by the +immortal author of the "Theologico-Political Tractate" (1640-1677). +This advanced state of culture in Holland did not fail to react upon +the neighboring countries. Under the impulse of enthusiasm for the +Bible Puritan England under Cromwell opened its portals to the Jews. +In Italy, in the dank atmosphere of rabbinical dialectics and morbid +mysticism, great figures loom up--Leon de Modena, the antagonist of +Rabbinism and of the Kabbala, and Joseph del Medigo, mathematician, +philosopher, and mystic, the disciple of Galileo. + +These purple patches were nothing more than the accidents of a +transition period. The people as a whole was on the decline. The +Jewish mind darted hither and thither, like a startled bird seeking +its nest. Holland or Turkey was an inadequate substitute for Spain, if +only for the reason that but a tiny fraction of the Jews had found +shelter in either. The Jewish national centre must perforce coincide +with the numerical centre of the dispersed people, in which, moreover, +conditions must grant Jews the possibility of living undisturbed in +closely compacted masses, and of perfecting a well-knit organization +of social and individual life. Outside of Spain these conditions were +fulfilled only by Poland, which gradually, beginning with the +sixteenth century, assumed the hegemony over the Jewry of the world. +This marks the displacement of the Sephardic (Spanish, in a broader +sense, Romanic) element, and the supremacy of the Ashkenazic +(German-Polish) element. + +Poland had been a resort for Jewish immigrants from Germany since the +outbreak of the Crusades, until, in the sixteenth century, it rose to +the position of a Jewish centre of the first magnitude. As the +merchant middle class, the Jews were protected and advanced by the +kings and the Szlachta. The consequent security of their position +induced so rapid a growth of the Jewish element that in a little while +the Jews of Poland outnumbered those of the old Jewish settlements in +Occidental Europe. The numerous privileges granted the Jews, by +Boleslaus of Kalish (1246), Kasimir the Great (1347-1370), Witowt +(1388), Kasimir IV (1447), and some of their successors, fortified +their position in the extended territory covered by Poland, Lithuania, +and the Ukraine. Their peculiar circumstances in Poland left an +impress upon their inner life. An intense mental activity was called +forth. This activity can be traced back to German beginnings, though +at the same time it is made up of many original elements. For a space +Rabbinism monopolized the intellectual endeavors of the Polish Jews. +The rabbi of Cracow, Moses Isserles, and the rabbi of Ostrog, Solomon +Luria (d. 1572), disputed first place with the foremost rabbinical +authorities of other countries. Their decisions and circular letters +regarding religious and legal questions were accorded binding force. +Associates and successors of theirs founded Talmud academies +throughout the country, and large numbers of students attended them. +Commentators upon the Talmud and expounders of classical works in +Jewish theological literature appeared in shoals. Jewish printing +establishments in Cracow and Lublin were assiduous in turning out a +mass of writings, which spread the fame of the Polish rabbis to the +remotest communities. The large autonomy enjoyed by the Polish and +Lithuanian Jews conferred executive power upon rabbinical legislation. +The _Kahal_, or Jewish communal government, to a certain degree +invested with judicial and administrative competence, could not do +without the guiding hand of the rabbis as interpreters of the law. The +guild of rabbis, on their side, chose a "college of judges," with +fairly extensive jurisdiction, from among their own members. The +organization of the Rabbinical Conferences, or the "Synods of the Four +Countries," formed the keystone of this intricate social-spiritual +hierarchy. The comprehensive inner autonomy and the system of Talmud +academies (_Yeshiboth_) that covered the whole of Poland remind +one of the brilliant days of the Exilarchate and the Babylonia of the +Geonim. One element was lacking, there was no versatile, commanding +thinker like Saadia Gaon. Secular knowledge and philosophy were under +the ban in Poland. Rabbinism absorbed the whole output of intellectual +energy. As little as the Poles resembled the Arabs of the "golden +age," did the Polish Jews resemble their brethren in faith in the +Orient at Saadia's time or in the Spain of Gabirol and Maimonides. +Isolation and clannishness were inevitable in view of the character of +the Christian environment and the almost insuperable barriers raised +between the classes of Polish society. But it was this exclusiveness +that gave peculiar stability and completeness to the life of the Jew +as an individual and as a member of Jewish society, and it was the +same exclusiveness that afforded opportunity for the development of a +sharply defined culture, for its fixation to the point of resisting +violent shocks and beyond the danger point of extinction through +foreign invasion. + +The fateful year 1648 formed a turning point in the history of the +Polish Jews, as in the history of the countries belonging to the +Polish crown. The Cossack butcheries and wars of extermination of +1648-1658 were the same for the Polish Jews that the Crusades, the +Black Death, and all the other occasions for carnage had been for the +Jews of Western Europe. It seemed as though history desired to avoid +the reproach of partiality, and hastened to mete out even-handed +justice by apportioning the same measure of woe to the Jews of Poland +as to the Jews of Western Europe. But the Polish Jews were prepared to +accept the questionable gift from the hands of history. They had +mounted that eminence of spiritual stability on which suffering loses +the power to weaken its victim, but, on the contrary, endues him with +strength. More than ever they shrank into their shell. They shut +themselves up more completely in their inner world, and became morally +dulled against the persecutions, the bitter humiliations, the deep +scorn, which their surroundings visited upon them. The Polish Jew +gradually accustomed himself to his pitiable condition. He hardly knew +that life might be other than it was. That the Polish lord to whom he +was a means of entertainment might treat him with a trace of respect, +or that his neighbors, the middle class merchant, the German guild +member, and the Little Russian peasant, might cherish kindly feelings +toward him, he could not conceive as a possibility. Seeing himself +surrounded by enemies, he took precautions to fortify his camp, not so +much to protect himself against hostile assaults from without--they +were inevitable--as to paralyze the disastrous consequences of such +assaults in his inner world. To compass this end he brought into play +all the means suggested by his exceptional position before the law and +by his own peculiar social constitution. The _Kahal_, the +autonomous rabbinical administration of communal affairs, more and +more assumed the character of an inner dictatorship. Jewish society +was persistently kept under the discipline of rigid principles. In +many affairs the synagogue attained the position of a court of final +appeal. The people were united, or rather packed, into a solid mass by +purely mechanical processes--by pressure from without, and by drawing +tight a noose from within. Besides this social factor tending to +consolidate the Jewish people into a separate union, an intellectual +lever was applied to produce the same result. Rabbinism employed the +mystical as its adjutant. The one exercised control over all minds, +the other over all hearts. The growth of mysticism was fostered both +by the unfortunate conditions under which the Polish Jews endured +existence and by the Messianic movements which made their appearance +among the Jews of other countries. + +In the second half of the seventeenth century, mysticism reached its +zenith in Turkey, the country in which, had stood the cradle of the +"practical Kabbala." The teachings of Ari, Vital, and the school +established by them spread like wildfire. Messianic extravagances +intoxicated the baited and persecuted people. In Smyrna appeared the +false Messiah, Sabbatai Zebi. As by magic he attracted to himself a +tremendous company of adherents in the East and in the West. For a +quarter of a century (1650-1676), he kept the Jewish communities +everywhere in a state of quivering suspense. + +The harassed people tossed to and fro like a fever patient, and raved +about political re-birth. Its delirious visions still further heated +its agitated blood. It came to its senses but slowly. Not even the +apostasy and death of Sabbatai Zebi sufficed to sober all his +followers. Under the guise of a symbolic faith in a Messiah, many of +them, publicly or secretly, continued the propaganda for his +doctrines. + +This propaganda prepared the fertile soil from which, in the +eighteenth century, shot up Messianic systems, tending to split +Judaism into sects. Nowhere did the mystical teachings evoke so ready +a response as in Poland, the very centre of Judaism. At first an ally +of the rabbinical school, mysticism grown passionate and +uncontrollable now and again acted as the violent opponent of +Rabbinism. Secret devotion to the Sabbatian doctrines, which had made +their home in Poland, sometimes led to such extremes in dogma and +ethics that the rabbis could not contain themselves. Chayyim Malach, +Judah Chassid, and other Galician mystics, in the second decade of the +eighteenth century brought down upon themselves a rabbinical decree of +excommunication. The mystical tendency was the precursor of the +heretical half-Christian sect of Frankists, who ventured so far as to +lift a hand against the fundamentals of Judaism: they rejected the +Talmud in favor of the Zohar (1756-1773). At the same time a much more +profound movement, instinct with greater vitality, made its appearance +among the Polish-Jewish masses, a movement rooted in their social and +spiritual organization. The wretched, debased condition of the average +Jew, conjoined with the traditions of the Kabbala and the excrescences +of Rabbinism, created a foothold for Chassidic teaching. Chassidism +replaced Talmudic ratiocination by exalted religious sentiment. By the +force of enthusiasm for faith, it drew its adherents together into a +firmly welded unit in contrast with Rabbinism, which sought the same +goal by the aid of the formal law. Scenting danger, the rabbinical +hierarchy declared war upon the Kabbala. Emden opposed Eibeschuetz, the +Polish Sabbatians and Frankists were fought to the death, the Wilna +Gaon organized a campaign against the Chassidim. Too late! Rabbinism +was too old, too arid, to tone down the impulsive outbreaks of passion +among the people. In their religious exaltation the masses were +looking for an elixir. They were languishing, not for light to +illumine the reason, but for warmth to set the heart aglow. They +desired to lose themselves in ecstatic self-renunciation. Chassidism +and its necessary dependence upon the Zaddik offered the masses the +means of this forgetfulness of self through faith. They were the +medium through which the people saw the world in a rosy light, and the +consequences following upon their prevalence were seen in a marked +intensification of Jewish exclusiveness. + +The same aloofness characterizes the Jews of the rest of the +eighteenth century diaspora. Wherever, as in Germany, Austria, and +Italy, Jews were settled in considerable numbers, they were separated +from their surroundings by forbidding Ghetto walls. On the whole, no +difference is noticeable between conditions affecting Jews in one +country and those in another. Everywhere they were merely tolerated, +everywhere oppressed and humiliated. The bloody persecutions of the +middle ages were replaced by the burden of the exceptional laws, which +in practice degraded the Jews socially to an inferior race, to +citizens of a subordinate degree. The consequences were uniformly the +same in all countries: spiritual isolation and a morbid religious +mood. During the first half of the "century of reason," Jewry +presented the appearance of an exhausted wanderer, heavily dragging +himself on his way, his consciousness clouded, his trend of thought +obviously anti-rationalistic. At the very moment in which Europe was +beginning to realize its medieval errors and repent of them, and the +era of universal ideals of humanity was dawning, Judaism raised +barricades between itself and the world at large. Elijah Gaon and +Israel Besht were the contemporaries of Voltaire and Rousseau. +Apparently there was no possibility of establishing communication +between these two diametrically opposed worlds. But history is a +magician. Not far from the Poland enveloped in medieval darkness, the +morning light of a new life was breaking upon slumbering Jewry in +German lands. New voices made themselves heard, reverberating like an +echo to the appeal issued by the "great century" in behalf of a +spiritual and social regeneration of mankind. + + + + +XI + +THE MODERN PERIOD OF ENLIGHTENMENT (THE NINETEENTH CENTURY) + + +Two phenomena signalized the beginning of the latest period in Jewish +history: the lofty activity of Mendelssohn and the occurrence of the +great French Revolution. The man stands for the spiritual emancipation +of the Jews, the movement for their political emancipation. At bottom, +these two phenomena were by no means the ultimate causes of the social +and spiritual regeneration of the Jewish people. They were only the +products of the more general causes that had effected a similar +regeneration in all the peoples of Western Europe. The new currents, +the abandonment of effete intellectual and social forms, the +substitution of juster and more energetic principles, the protest +against superstition and despotism--all these traits had a common +origin, the resuscitation of reason and free thought, which dominated +all minds without asking whether they belonged to Jew or to Christian. +It might seem that the rejuvenation of the Jews had been consummated +more rapidly than the rejuvenation of the other peoples. The latter +had had two centuries, the period elapsing since the middle ages, that +is, the period between the Reformation and the great Revolution, in +which to prepare for a more rational and a more humane conduct of +life. As for the Jews, their middle ages began much later, and ended +later, almost on the eve of 1789, so that the revolution in their +minds and their mode of life had to accomplish itself hastily, under +the urgence of swiftly crowding events, by the omission of +intermediate stages. But it must be taken into consideration that long +before, in the Judeo-Hellenic and in the Arabic-Spanish period, the +Jews had passed through their "century of reason." In spite of the +intervening ages of suffering and gloom, the faculty of assimilating +new principles had survived. For the descendants of Philo and +Maimonides the rationalistic movement of the eighteenth century was in +part a repetition of a well-known historical process. They had had the +benefit of a similar course of studies before, and, therefore, had no +need to cram on the eve of the final examination. + +In point of fact, the transformation in the life of the Jews did take +place with extraordinary swiftness. It was hastened in France by the +principles of the Revolution and the proclamation of the civil +equality of Jews with the other citizens. In Germany, however, it +advanced upon purely spiritual lines. Mendelssohn and Lessing, the +heralds of spiritual reform, who exposed old prejudices, carried on +their labors at a time in which the Jews still stood beyond the pale +of the law, a condition which it did not occur to Frederick II, "the +philosopher upon the throne," to improve. A whole generation was +destined to pass before the civil emancipation of the German Jews was +accomplished. Meantime their spiritual emancipation proceeded apace, +without help from the ruling powers. A time so early as the end of the +eighteenth century found the German Jews in a position to keep step +with their Christian fellow-citizens in cultural progress. Enlightened +Jews formed close connections with enlightened Christians, and joined +them in the universal concerns of mankind as confederates espousing +the same fundamental principles. If they renounced some of their +religious and national traditions, it was by no means out of +complaisance for their neighbors. They were guided solely and alone by +those universal principles that forced non-Jews as well as Jews to +reject many traditions as incompatible with reason and conscience. +Non-Jews and Jews alike yielded themselves up to the fresh inspiration +of the time, and permitted themselves to be carried along by the +universal transforming movement. Mendelssohn himself, circumspect and +wise, did not move off from religious national ground. But the +generation after him abandoned his position for that of universal +humanity, or, better, German nationality. His successors intoxicated +themselves with deep draughts of the marvelous poetry created by the +magic of Goethe and Schiller. They permitted themselves to be rushed +along by the liberty doctrines of 1789, they plunged head over heels +into the vortex of romanticism, and took an active part in the +conspicuous movements of Europe, political, social, and literary, as +witness Borne, Heine, and their fellow-combatants. + +The excitement soon evaporated. When the noise of the liberty +love-feasts had subsided, when the cruel reaction (after 1814) had +settled heavily upon the Europe of the nineteenth century, and God's +earth had again become the arena of those agents of darkness whom +dreamers had thought buried forever beneath the ruins of the old +order, then the German Jews, or such of them as thought, came to their +senses. The more intelligent Jewish circles realized that, in devotion +to the German national movement, they had completely neglected their +own people. Yet their people, too, had needs, practical or spiritual, +had its peculiar national sphere of activity, circumscribed, indeed, +by the larger sphere of mankind's activities as by a concentric +circle, but by no means merged into it. To atone for their sin, +thinking Jews retraced their steps. They took in hand the transforming +of Jewish inner life, the simplification of the extremely complicated +Jewish ritual, the remodeling of pedagogic methods, and, above all, +the cultivation of the extended fields of Jewish science, whose head +and front is Jewish historical research in all its vastness and +detail. Heine's friend, Zunz, laid the cornerstone of Jewish science +in the second decade of the nineteenth century. His work was taken up +by a goodly company of zealous and able builders occupied for half a +century with the task of rearing the proud edifice of a scientific +historical literature, in which national self-consciousness was +sheltered and fostered. At the very height of this reforming and +literary activity, German Jewry was overwhelmed by the civil +emancipation of 1848. Again a stirring movement drew them into +sympathy with a great general cause, but this time without drawing +them away from Jewish national interests. Cultural and civil +assimilation was accomplished as an inner compelling necessity, as a +natural outcome of living. But spiritual assimilation, in the sense of +a merging of Judaism in foreign elements, was earnestly repudiated by +the noblest representatives of Judaism. It was their ideal that +universal activity and national activity should be pursued to the +prejudice of neither, certainly not to the exclusion of one or the +other, but in perfect harmony with each other. In point of fact, it +may be asserted that, in spite of a frequent tendency to go to the one +or the other extreme, the two currents, the universal and the +national, co-exist within German Jewry, and there is no fear of their +uniting, they run parallel with each other. The Jewish genius is +versatile. Without hurt to itself it can be active in all sorts of +careers: in politics and in civil life, in parliament and on the +lecture platform, in all branches of science and departments of +literature, in every one of the chambers of mankind's intellectual +laboratory. At the same time it has its domestic hearth, its national +sanctuary; it has its sphere of original work and its self-consciousness, +its national interests and spiritual ideals rooted in the past of the Jew. +By the side of a Lassalle, a Lasker, and a Marx towers a Riesser, a +Geiger, a Graetz. The leveling process unavoidably connected with +widespread culture, so far from causing spiritual desolation in +German Judaism, has, on the contrary, furnished redundant proof +that even under present conditions, so unfavorable to what is +individual and original, the Jewish people has preserved its vitality +to the full. + +An analogous movement stirred the other countries of Western +Europe--France, Italy, and England. The political emancipation of the +Jews was accomplished earlier in them than in Germany. The +reconstruction of the inner life, too, proceeded more quietly and +regularly, without leaps and bounds, and religious reform established +itself by degrees. Yet even here, where the Jewish contingent was +insignificant, the spiritual physiognomy of the Jews maintained its +typical character. In these countries, as in Germany, the Jew +assimilated European culture with all its advantages and its +drawbacks. He was active on diplomatic fields, he devoted himself to +economic investigations, he produced intellectual creations of all +kinds--first and last he felt himself to be a citizen of his country. +None the less he was a loyal son of the Jewish people considered as a +spiritual people with an appointed task. Cremieux, Beaconsfield, +Luzzatti are counterbalanced by Salvador, Frank, Munk, Reggio, and +Montefiore. All the good qualities and the shortcomings distinctive of +the civilization of modern times adhere to the Jew. But at its worst +modern civilization has not succeeded in extinguishing the national +spirit in Jewry. The national spirit continues to live in the people, +and it is this spirit that quickens the people. The genius of Jewish +history, as in centuries gone by, holds watch over the sons of the +"eternal people" scattered to all ends of the earth. West-European +Jewry may say of itself, without presumption: _Cogito ergo sum_. + +Russian Jewry, the Jewry that had been Polish, and that is counted by +the millions, might, if necessary, prove its existence by even more +tangible marks than Occidental Jewry. To begin with, the centre of +gravity of the Jewish nation lies in Russia, whose Jews not only +outnumber those of the rest of Europe, but continue to live in a +compact mass. Besides, they have preserved the original Jewish culture +and their traditional physiognomy to a higher degree than the Jews of +other countries. The development of the Russian Jews took a course +very different from that of the Jews of the West. This difference was +conditioned by the tremendous contrast between Russian culture and +West-European culture, and by the change which the external +circumstances of Jews outside of Russia underwent during the modern +period. The admission of the Polish provinces into the Russian Empire +at the end of the eighteenth century found the numerous Jewish +population in an almost medieval condition, the same condition in +which the non-Jewish population of Russian Poland was at that time. +The Polish regime, as we saw above, had isolated the Jews alike in +civil and spiritual relations. The new order did not break down the +barriers. The masses of Jews cooped up in the "Pale of Settlement" +were strong only by reason of their inner unity, their firmly +established patriarchal organization. The bulwark of Rabbinism and the +citadel of Chassidism protected them against alien influences. They +guarded their isolation jealously. True to the law of inertia, they +would not allow the privilege of isolation to be wrested from them. +They did not care to step beyond the ramparts. Why, indeed, should the +Jews have quitted their fortress, if outside of their walls they could +expect nothing but scorn and blows? The unfortunates encaged in the +sinister Pale of Settlement could have been lured out of their +exclusive position only by complete civil emancipation combined with a +higher degree of culture than had been attained by Russian society, an +impossible set of circumstances in the first half of the nineteenth +century. The legislative measures of the time, in so far as they +relate to the Jews, breathe the spirit of police surveillance rather +than of enlightenment and humanity. To civilizing and intellectual +influences from without the way was equally barred. Yet all this +watchfulness was of no avail. Nothing could prevent the liberty +principles espoused by the Jews of Western Europe from being smuggled +into the Pale, to leaven the sad, serried masses. A sluggish process +of fermentation set in, and culminated in the literary activity of +Isaac Beer Levinsohn and of the Wilna reformers of the second and +fourth decades of the nineteenth century. They were the harbingers of +approaching spring. + +When spring finally came (after 1855), and the sun sent down his +genial rays upon the wretched Jewry of Russia, life and activity began +to appear at once, especially in the upper strata. As in Germany, so +in Russia spiritual emancipation preceded political emancipation. +Still shorn almost entirely of the elementary rights of citizens, the +Russian Jews nevertheless followed their ideal promptings, and +participated enthusiastically in the movement for enlightenment which +at that time held the noblest of the Russians enthralled. In a +considerable portion of the Russian Jewish community a process of +culture regeneration began, an eager throwing off of outworn forms of +life and thought, a swift adoption of humane principles. Jewish young +men crowded into the secular schools, in which they came in close +contact with their Christian contemporaries. Influenced by their new +companions, they gave themselves up to Russian national movements, +often at the cost of renunciation of self. Some of them, indeed, in +one-sided aspiration strove to become, not Russians, but men. The +influence exercised by literature was more moderate than that of the +schools. Rabbinic and Chassidistic literature, on the point of dying +out as it was, abandoned the field to the literature of enlightenment +in the Hebrew language, a literature of somewhat primitive character. +It consisted chiefly of naive novels and of didactic writings of +publicists, and lacked the solid scientific and historical element +that forms the crown of Western Jewish literature. It is indisputable, +however, that it exerted an educational influence. Besides, it +possesses the merit of having resuscitated one of the most valuable of +Jewish national possessions, the Hebrew language in its purity, which +in Russia alone has become a pliant instrument of literary expression. +A still greater field was reserved for the Jewish-Russian literature +that arose in the "sixties." It was called into being in order to +present a vivid and true picture of the social and spiritual interests +of the Jews. Proceeding from discussions of current political topics, +this literature gradually widened its limits so as to include Jewish +history, Jewish science, and the portrayal of Jewish life, and more +and more approached the character of a normal European literature. All +this was in the making, and the most important work had not yet begun. +The lower strata of the people had not been touched by the fresh air. +In time, if all had gone well, they, too, would have had their day. +And if the minority of the Jewish people in the West in a short span +of time brought forth so many notable workers in so many departments +of life and thought, how much superior would be the culture +achievements of the Eastern majority! How vigorously the mighty mental +forces latent in Russian Jewry would develop when their advance was no +longer obstructed by all sorts of obstacles, and they could be applied +to every sphere of political, social, and intellectual life! + +Nothing of all this came to pass; exactly the opposite happened. Not +only were the barriers in the way of a prosperous, free development of +Jewry not removed, but fresh hindrances without number were +multiplied. Some spectre of the middle ages, some power of darkness, +put brakes upon the wheel of history. It first appeared in the West, +under the name anti-Semitism, among the dregs of European society. But +in its earliest abode it was and is still met with an abrupt rebuff on +the part of the most intelligent circles, those whom even the present +age of decadence has not succeeded in robbing of belief in lofty moral +ideals. Anti-Semitism in the West is in _anima vili_. Its cult is +confined to a certain party, which enjoys a rather scandalous +reputation. But there are countries in which this power of darkness, +in the coarser form of Judophobia[13], has cast its baleful spell upon +the most influential members of society and upon the press. There it +has ripened noxious fruit. Mocking at the exalted ideals and the +ethical traditions of religious and thinking mankind, Judophobia +shamelessly professes the dogma of misanthropy. Its propaganda is +bringing about the moral ruin of an immature society, not yet +confirmed in ethical or truly religious principles. Upon its victims, +the Jews, it has the same effect as the misfortunes of the middle +ages, which were meted out to our hoary people with overflowing +measure, and against which it learnt to assume an armor of steel. The +recent severe trials are having the same result as the persecutions of +former days: they do not weaken, on the contrary, they invigorate the +Jewish spirit, they spur on to thought, they stimulate the pulse of +the people. + + "The hammer shivers glass, + But iron by its blows is forged."[14] + + [13] As anti-Semitism is called in Russia. + [14] Pushkin. + +The historical process Jewry has undergone repeatedly, it must undergo +once again. But now, too, in this blasting time of confusion and +dispersion, of daily torture and the horrors of international +conflict, "the keeper of Israel slumbereth not and sleepeth not." The +Jewish spirit is on the alert. It is ever purging and tempering itself +in the furnace of suffering. The people which justly bears the name of +the veteran of history withdraws and falls into a revery. It is not a +narrow-minded fanatic's flight from the world, but the concentrated +thought of a mourner. Jewry is absorbed in contemplation of its great, +unparalleled past. More than ever it is now in need of the teachings +of its past, of the moral support and the prudent counsels of its +history, its four thousand years of life crowded with checkered +experiences. + + + + +XII + +THE TEACHINGS OF JEWISH HISTORY + + +Let us return now to the starting point of our discussion, and +endeavor to establish the thoughts and lessons to be deduced from the +course of Jewish history. + +Above all, Jewish history possesses the student with the conviction +that Jewry at all times, even in the period of political independence, +was pre-eminently a spiritual nation, and a spiritual nation it +continues to be in our own days, too. Furthermore, it inspires him +with the belief that Jewry, being a spiritual entity, cannot suffer +annihilation: the body, the mold, may be destroyed, the spirit is +immortal. Bereft of country and dispersed as it is, the Jewish nation +lives, and will go on living, because a creative principle permeates +it, a principle that is the root of its being and an indigenous +product of its history. This principle consists first in a sum of +definite religious, moral, or philosophic ideals, whose exponent at +all times was the Jewish people, either in its totality, or in the +person of its most prominent representatives. Next, this principle +consists in a sum of historical memories, recollections of what in the +course of many centuries the Jewish people experienced, thought, and +felt, in the depths of its being. Finally, it consists in the +consciousness that true Judaism, which has accomplished great things +for humanity in the past, has not yet played out its part, and, +therefore, may not perish. In short, the Jewish people lives because +it contains a living soul which refuses to separate from its +integument, and cannot be forced out of it by heavy trials and +misfortunes, such as would unfailingly inflict mortal injury upon less +sturdy organisms. + +This self-consciousness is the source from which the suffering Jewish +soul draws comfort. History speaks to it constantly through the mouth +of the great apostle who went forth from the midst of Israel eighteen +hundred years ago: "Call to remembrance the former days, in which, +after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings; +partly, being made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions; +and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used.... Cast +not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of +reward" (Epistle to the Hebrews, x, 32-34, 35). + +Jewish history, moreover, arouses in the Jew the desire to work +unceasingly at the task of perfecting himself. To direct his attention +to his glorious past, to the resplendent intellectual feats of his +ancestors, to their masterly skill in thinking and suffering, does not +lull him to sleep, does not awaken a dullard's complacency or hollow +self-conceit. On the contrary, it makes exacting demands upon him. +Jewish history admonishes the Jews: "_Noblesse oblige_. The +privilege of belonging to a people to whom the honorable title of the +'veteran of history' has been conceded, puts serious responsibilities +on your shoulders. You must demonstrate that you are worthy of your +heroic past. The descendants of teachers of religion and martyrs of +the faith dare not be insignificant, not to say wicked. If the long +centuries of wandering and misery have inoculated you with faults, +extirpate them in the name of the exalted moral ideals whose bearers +you were commissioned to be. If, in the course of time, elements out +of harmony with your essential being have fastened upon your mind, +cast them out, purify yourselves. In all places and at all times, in +joy and and in sorrow, you must aim to live for the higher, the +spiritual interests. But never may you deem yourselves perfect. If you +become faithless to these sacred principles, you sever the bonds that +unite you with the most vital elements of your past, with the first +cause of your national existence." + +The final lesson to be learned is that in the sunny days of mankind's +history, in which reason, justice, and philanthropic instinct had the +upper hand, the Jews steadfastly made common cause with the other +nations. Hand in hand with them, they trod the path leading to +perfection. But in the dark days, during the reign of rude force, +prejudice, and passion, of which they were the first victims, the Jews +retired from the world, withdrew into their shell, to await better +days. Union with mankind at large, on the basis of the spiritual and +the intellectual, the goal set up by the Jewish Prophets in their +sublime vision of the future (Isaiah, ch. ii, and Micah, ch. iv), is +the ultimate ideal of Judaism's noblest votaries. Will their radiant +hope ever attain to realization? If ever it should be realized,--and +it is incumbent upon us to believe that it will,--not a slight part of +the merits involved will be due to Jewish history. We have adverted to +the lofty moral and humanitarian significance of Jewish history in its +role as conciliator. With regard to one-half of Jewish history, this +conciliatory power is even now a well-established fact. The first part +of Jewish history, the Biblical part, is a source from which, for many +centuries, millions of human beings belonging to the most diverse +denominations have derived instruction, solace, and inspiration. It is +read with devotion by Christians in both hemispheres, in their houses +and their temples. Its heroes have long ago become types, incarnations +of great ideas. The events it relates serve as living ethical +formulas. But a time will come--perhaps it is not very far off--when +the second half of Jewish history, the record of the two thousand +years of the Jewish people's life after the Biblical period, will be +accorded the same treatment. This latter part of Jewish history is not +yet known, and many, in the thrall of prejudice, do not wish to know +it. But ere long it will be known and appreciated. For the thinking +portion of mankind it will be a source of uplifting moral and +philosophical teaching. The thousand years' martyrdom of the Jewish +people, its unbroken pilgrimage, its tragic fate, its teachers of +religion, its martyrs, philosophers, champions, this whole epic will +in days to come sink deep into the memory of men. It will speak to the +heart and the conscience of men, not merely to their curious mind. It +will secure respect for the silvery hair of the Jewish people, a +people of thinkers and sufferers. It will dispense consolation to the +afflicted, and by its examples of spiritual steadfastness and +self-denial encourage martyrs in their devotion. It is our firm +conviction that the time is approaching in which the second half of +Jewish history will be to the noblest part of _thinking_ humanity +what its first half has long been to _believing_ humanity, a +source of sublime moral truths. In this sense, Jewish history in its +entirety is the pledge of the spiritual union between the Jews and the +rest of the nations. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jewish History, by S. M. 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