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Title: A Book of Jewish Thoughts
Author: Various
Language: English
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Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Text in small capitals has been replaced by all capitals.
Footnotes are identified in the text with a number in
brackets [2] and have been accumulated in a single section
at the end of the text.
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text or to provide additional information for the modern
reader. These notes are not identified in the text, but have
been accumulated in a single section at the end of the book.
A BOOK OF JEWISH THOUGHTS
Selected and Arranged
by
THE CHIEF RABBI
(DR. J. H. HERTZ)
Humphrey Milford
Oxford University Press
London Edinburgh Glasgow New York
Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay
5680――1920
TO
THE SACRED MEMORY
OF THE
SONS OF ISRAEL
WHO FELL
IN THE GREAT WAR
1914‒1918
PREFATORY NOTE
THIS Book of Jewish Thoughts brings the message of Judaism together
with memories of Jewish martyrdom and spiritual achievement throughout
the ages. Its first part, ‘I am an Hebrew’, covers the more important
aspects of the life and consciousness of the Jew. The second, ‘The
People of the Book’, deals with Israel’s religious contribution to
mankind, and touches upon some epochal events in Israel’s story. In
the third, ‘The Testimony of the Nations’, will be found some striking
tributes to Jews and Judaism from non-Jewish sources. The fourth part,
‘The Voice of Prayer’, surveys the Sacred Occasions of the Jewish Year,
and takes note of their echoes in the Liturgy. The fifth and concluding
part, ‘The Voice of Wisdom’, is, in the main, a collection of the deep
sayings of the Jewish sages on the ultimate problems of Life and the
Hereafter.
The nucleus from which this Jewish anthology gradually developed was
produced three years ago for the use of Jewish sailors and soldiers.
To many of them, I have been assured, it came as a re-discovery of the
imperishable wealth of Israel’s heritage; while to the non-Jew into
whose hands it fell it was a striking revelation of Jewish ideals and
teachings. I can pray for no better result for this enlarged Library
Edition.
Grateful acknowledgement is due to the authors, translators, and
publishers, for their courteous permission to reprint selections
from their works; to Dayan H. M. Lazarus, M.A., and Miss Elsa Linde,
for various useful suggestions; and to the Revs. J. Mann, D.Litt.,
S. Lipson, and I. Livingstone for help in the preparation of the Index
of Subjects.
J. H. H.
London, 1920.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. I AM AN HEBREW
YE ARE MY WITNESSES: Isaiah; Jacobs; Aguilar
I AM AN HEBREW: C. Adler
THE GOOD FIGHT: Eleazar of Worms
EVERY ISRAELITE HOLDS THE HONOUR OF HIS ENTIRE PEOPLE IN HIS
HANDS: Talmud; Montefiore
THE PATHS OF LIFE: Eliezer ben Isaac; Asher ben Yechiel
IN THE OLD GHETTO: Philipson; E. G. Hirsch
THE JEWISH WOMAN: M. Lazarus; Hertz; Talmud
THE JEWISH MOTHER: Szold; Lucas
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Cohen; Book of Morals; Morais
THE SACRED TONGUE: Joseph
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE: Schechter; Szold
WHAT IS CULTURE? Hertz
THE STUDENT OF THE TORAH: Jellinek
BAR MITZVAH PRAYER: Artom
ON THE THRESHOLD OF MANHOOD: Proverbs; Ethics of the Fathers
A FATHER’S ADMONITION: Maimonides
WHAT MAKES A MAN A JEW? Joseph
‘I BELIEVE’: Margolis
JUDAISM A POSITIVE RELIGION: Schechter
THE MISSION OF ISRAEL: H. Adler; Kohler
TOLERANCE: Gabirol; Midrash; Crescas; Mendelssohn; Talmud
OUR HERITAGE: Josephus
OUR FATHERS: Ecclesiasticus
THE OBLIGATIONS OF HEREDITY: Dubnow; Hertz
ZEDAKAH――CHARITY: Jacob ben Asher
ZEDAKAH――JUSTICE: Geiger
THE JEWISH POOR: Schechter; Abrahams
AT ‘THE OLD PEOPLE’S REST’, JERUSALEM: E. N. Adler
SHARING THE BURDEN: Talmud; Singer
THE DUTY OF SELF-RESPECT: Achad Ha’am
ANTI-SEMITISM: Nordau; Schechter; Nordau; Disraeli; Hertz;
Hagadah; Isaiah
THE JEW AS A PATRIOT: E. Lazarus; Goldsmid
THE JEWISH SOLDIER: Lucas
THE JEW’S LOVE OF BRITAIN: H. Adler
TO ENGLAND: Raskin
JUDAISM AND THE JEW IN AMERICA: Harris; Kohut
THE DELUGE OF FIRE: Hertz
THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS: Joel; Isaiah; Kings; Daily
Prayer Book
THE MESSIANIC HOPE: Mendes; Malachi
THE VISION OF A UNITED HUMANITY: Isaiah; Joseph
TRUST YE IN THE LORD FOR EVER: Isaiah
II. THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
ISRAEL IMMORTAL: Jeremiah; Halevi; Ecclesiasticus; Midrash
THE ETERNAL RIDDLE: Raskin
THE SECRET OF ISRAEL’S IMMORTALITY: Graetz
THE BOOK OF BOOKS: Heine
THE BIBLE: Levi; Zangwill
A JEWISH VERSION OF THE BIBLE: Schechter; Friedländer;
Sulzberger; Leeser; H. Adler; Translators’ Preface; Rashi;
Ecclesiasticus
ISRAEL THE PEOPLE OF REVELATION: Halevi; Geiger
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD AND ISRAEL IS HIS PROPHET: Zangwill
MOSES: Heine
THE PROPHETS: Jacobs; Shemtob; Darmesteter; J. Lazarus
THE TALMUD: Deutsch
JEWISH LITERATURE: Abrahams
THE WORK OF THE RABBIS: Büchler
ISRAEL’S HISTORY NEVER-ENDING: Magnus; Zangwill
THE MEANING OF JEWISH HISTORY: Jacobs; Halevi; Gaster
THE HALLOWING OF JEWISH HISTORY: Dubnow
ISRAEL’S MARTYRDOM: Zunz; Graetz
UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS: Josephus; Fuerst
IN MEDIAEVAL ROME: Hertz; Steinschneider
THE FIRST CRUSADE: Kalonymos ben Yehudah
THE SECOND CRUSADE: Ephraim of Bonn
JEWISH SUFFERING: Heine
THE JEWS OF YORK: D’Israeli
THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN: Frankl
THE EXODUS: E. Lazarus
A SONG OF REDEMPTION: Gabirol
SHYLOCK: Joseph
ON THE EVE OF THE RE-SETTLEMENT IN ENGLAND: Manasseh ben Israel
JEWISH EMANCIPATION: S. R. Hirsch; Rothschild
THE JEWISH QUESTION: J. Lazarus; Franzos; Steinschneider; Zunz
THE JEWS OF ENGLAND: Zangwill
WELCOME OF THE HEBREW CONGREGATION, NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND,
U.S.A., TO GEORGE WASHINGTON
BRITISH CITIZENSHIP: Hertz
THE RUSSIAN JEW: I. Friedlander
YIDDISH: Zangwill; Wiener
RUSSO-JEWISH EDUCATION: I. Friedlander
PASSOVER IN OLD RUSSIA: Antin
THE POGROM: Dymov
UNDER THE ROMANOFFS: Wolf; E. Lazarus
SOLDIERS OF NICHOLAS: Antin
BONTZYE SHWEIG: Peretz
THE WATCH ON THE JORDAN: Imber
THE TRAGEDY OF ASSIMILATION: Schechter; Achad Ha’am
THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES: Ezekiel
PALESTINE: Munk
THE LAST CORPSES IN THE DESERT: Byalik
ZIONISM: Herzl; Wolf; Abrahams
THE BRITISH DECLARATION ON PALESTINE: Herzl; Jewish Chronicle;
Hertz
JUDAISM AND THE NEW JUDEA: Herzl; Saadyah; Schechter; Noah;
Hertz; Eichholz
III. THE TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS
WORLD’S DEBT TO ISRAEL: Abbott; Cornill
ISRAEL AND HIS REVELATION: Arnold
ISRAEL, GREECE, AND ROME: Renan; Wagner; Lotze
WHAT IS A JEW? Tolstoy
THE BOOK OF THE AGES: Harnack; Scott; Whitman
THE BIBLE, THE EPIC OF THE WORLD: Frazer; Stevenson; Froude
THE BIBLE IN EDUCATION: Huxley; Goethe
THE BIBLE AND DEMOCRACY: Wyclif; Huxley; Nietzsche
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE: Renan
REBECCA’S HYMN: Scott
MOSES: George
THE BURIAL OF MOSES: Alexander
ISRAEL’S PSALTER: Dow; Rhys; Cornill
THE PSALMS IN HUMAN LIFE: Prothero
THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH: Addison
O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST: Watts
THE LIVING POWER OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS: Jowett; Froude
THE BOOK OF JONAH: Cornill; Goethe
JOB: Carlyle; Froude
ECCLESIASTES: Ellis
THE BOOK OF ESTHER: Stanley; Whittier
THE TALMUD: Robinson
THE HUMANITY OF JEWISH WISDOM: Gorky
THE PHARISEES: Huxley; Box; Herford
THE JEWISH PRAYER BOOK: Biddle
IN A SYNAGOGUE: Eliot
THE TORCH OF JEWISH LEARNING: Beaulieu
DURING THE CRUSADES: Strindberg
THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN AND PORTUGAL: Lecky
A PROTEST AGAINST THE AUTO-DA-FÉ OF SEPTEMBER 20, 1761, LISBON:
Voltaire
THE BIBLE IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND: Green
FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF THE JEWS: Macaulay
IGNORANCE OF JUDAISM: Eliot; Blake
‘THEY ARE OUR ELDERS’: Beaulieu
THE JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT: Longfellow
THE JEW AS A CITIZEN: Roosevelt
IN THE EAST END OF LONDON: Schreiner
THE RUSSIAN AGONY: Milyukov; Lecky; Tolstoy; Schreiner
THE BLOOD LIBEL――BRITISH PROTEST
JEWISH NATIONALISM: Eliot; Sykes
A JEWISH NATIONAL HOME: Balfour
ISRAEL’S PRESERVATION: St. Jerome
ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS: Twain
IV. THE VOICE OF PRAYER: THE JEWISH YEAR
ON PRAYER AND PRAISE: Philo; Zohar
ON MORNING SERVICE: Shulchan Aruch
AT THE DAWN I SEEK THEE: Gabirol
MORNING PRAYERS: Daily Prayer Book; Bachya
ADON OLAM: Abrahams; Carvalho
ADON OLAM AND MODERN SCIENCE: Haffkine
THE SHEMA: Hertz; Zohar
‘THE SOUL THOU HAST GIVEN ME IS PURE’: Kohler
THE MERIT OF THE FATHERS: Levy; Abrahams
THE KADDISH: Kompert; Wisdom of Solomon; Daniel
THE HOLINESS OF HOME: Jacobs; Disraeli
KINDLING THE SABBATH LIGHT: Raskin
LECHA DODI: Alkabetz; Achad Ha’am
SABBATH PRAYER: Zohar
THE SABBATH: Salaman
PRAYER BEFORE THE NEW MOON: Daily Prayer Book
THE SEDER: Raskin
ISRAEL’S WATCH-NIGHT: Joseph
PASSOVER AND FREEDOM: Hertz; Joseph
‘ADDIR HU’: Gottheil; Talmud
THE FEAST OF WEEKS: Psalms
A SELF-DENYING GUILD: Joseph; Daily Prayer Book
AKDOMUS: Nehoraï
THE BIBLE: Rosenfeld
THE SEPHER TORAH: Haffkine
RELIGION AND MORALITY: Daiches
SYMBOLS AND CEREMONIES: Jung
CUSTOM IN RELIGION: Gottheil
‘IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TIMES’: S. R. Hirsch
FAITH: Singer
ODE TO ZION: Halevi
THE ETERNAL CITY OF THE ETERNAL PEOPLE: Hertz; Isaiah
NEW YEAR: Moïse
WRITTEN AND SEALED: Baalshem; Joseph
THE SHOFAR: Maimonides; Deuteronomy; Psalms
MY KING: Moses ben Nachman
THE LORD IS KING, THE LORD WAS KING, THE LORD SHALL BE KING
FOR EVER AND EVER: Kalir
IF NOT HIGHER: Peretz
DAY OF ATONEMENT: Gottheil; Ecclesiasticus
THE MESSAGE OF YOM KIPPUR: Hertz
‘FORGIVEN’: Yomtob of York
CONFESSION: Gabirol
YOM KIPPUR MEDITATIONS: Bachya; Gabirol
THE INFINITE MERCIES OF GOD: Exodus; Talmud
BROTHERHOOD: Hertz; Ezekiel
ATONEMENT PROMISE AND ADMONITION: Isaiah
LORD, THINE HUMBLE SERVANTS HEAR: Yehudah
GOD THAT DOEST WONDROUSLY: Mosheh
TABERNACLES: Halevi
PSALMS AND MYRTLES: Kalir
THE HARVEST FESTIVAL: Joseph; Disraeli
JOYOUS SERVICE: Abrahams; Talmud
REJOICING OF THE LAW: Festival Prayer Book
SIMCHAS TORAH: Gordon
THE MACCABEAN WARRIORS: Maccabees
THE FEAST OF LIGHTS: E. Lazarus
THE MENORAH: Herzl
THE STORY OF THE MACCABEES: Joseph
CHANUCAH HYMN: Gottheil
PURIM: Book of Esther
SERVANT OF GOD: Halevi
HYMN OF GLORY: Judah the Pious
V. THE VOICE OF WISDOM
GOD, WHOM SHALL I COMPARE TO THEE! Halevi
GREAT IS TRUTH: Esdras; Talmud
THE RIGHT LIFE: Micah; Isaiah; Spinoza
THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S WORK: Maimonides
THE TWO NATURES IN MAN: Moses of Coucy
FREEDOM OF THE WILL: Maimonides
THE WICKED SAITH IN HIS HEART: Wisdom of Solomon
REPENTANCE OF THE WICKED: Wisdom of Solomon
WISE COUNSEL: Maimonides; Benedict of Oxford; Ethics of the
Fathers
THE DUTY OF HOLINESS: Leviticus; Kohler; Talmud
THE CITY OF GOD: Philo; Maimonides; Zohar
HUMILITY: Bachya; Daily Prayer Book; Ibn Ezra
SAYINGS FROM THE TALMUD
THE DEDICATED LIFE Philo
GOD AND MAN: Ethics of the Fathers
GOLDEN RULES: Leviticus; Talmud; Achaï
DEEDS THE BEST COMMENDATION: Talmud; Ethics of the Fathers
A MEDIAEVAL JEWISH MORALIST: Eleazar of Worms
THE MYSTERY OF PAIN: S. A. Adler
MEETING ADVERSITY: Hertz
THE CONTEMPLATION OF DEATH: Montefiore; Ecclesiasticus
LIGHT IN DARKNESS: Talmud
WHENCE AND WHITHER: Ethics of the Fathers; H. Adler
TIME AND ETERNITY: Yedaya Penini; Ecclesiastes;
Derech Eretz Zutta
TALMUDIC PARABLES AND LEGENDS
ALMIGHTY, WHAT IS MAN? Gabirol
RESIGNATION: Green
IMMORTALITY: Talmud; Ethics of the Fathers
ETERNAL HOPE: Psalms
TRUE WISDOM: Job; Ethics of the Fathers
NOTES
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SOURCES
INDEX OF SUBJECTS
_BEHOLD, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send
a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst
for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord._
AMOS 8. 11.
I
I AM AN HEBREW
_THEN said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, ... what is thine
occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what
people art thou?_
_And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of
heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land._
JONAH 1. 8, 9.
אַתֶּם עֵדָי
YE ARE MY WITNESSES
YE are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen.
ISAIAH 43. 10.
* * * * *
THE history of Israel is the great living proof of the working of
Divine Providence in the affairs of the world. Alone among the nations,
Israel has shared in all great movements since mankind became conscious
of their destinies. If there is no Divine purpose in the long travail
of Israel, it is vain to seek for any such purpose in man’s life. In
the reflected light of that purpose each Jew should lead his life with
an added dignity.
JOSEPH JACOBS, 1897.
* * * * *
EVERY Hebrew should look upon his Faith as a temple extending over
every land to prove the immutability of God and the unity of His
purposes. He should regard himself as one of the pillars which support
that temple from falling to the ground; and add, however insignificant
in itself, to the strength, the durability, and the beauty of the whole.
GRACE AGUILAR, 1842.
I AM AN HEBREW
I WILL continue to hold my banner aloft. I find myself born――ay,
born――into a people and a religion. The preservation of my people must
be for a purpose, for God does nothing without a purpose. His reasons
are unfathomable to me, but on my own reason I place little dependence;
test it where I will it fails me. The simple, the ultimate in every
direction is sealed to me. It is as difficult to understand matter
as mind. The courses of the planets are no harder to explain than the
growth of a blade of grass. Therefore am I willing to remain a link
in the great chain. What has been preserved for four thousand years
was not saved that I should overthrow it. My people have survived
the prehistoric paganism, the Babylonian polytheism, the aesthetic
Hellenism, the sagacious Romanism, at once the blandishments and
persecutions of the Church; and it will survive the modern dilettantism
and the current materialism, holding aloft the traditional Jewish
ideals inflexibly until the world shall become capable of recognizing
their worth.
CYRUS ADLER, 1894.
THE GOOD FIGHT
IF thou hadst lived in the dread days of martyrdom, and the peoples had
fallen on thee to force thee to apostatize from thy faith, thou wouldst
surely, as did so many, have given thy life in its defence. Well then,
fight now the fight laid on thee in the better days, the fight with
evil desire; fight and conquer, and seek for allies in this warfare
of your soul, seek them in the fear of God and the study of the Law.
Forget not that God recompenses according to the measure wherewith ye
withstand the evil in your heart. Be a man in thy youth; but if thou
wert then defeated in the struggle, return, return at last to God,
however old thou mayest be.
ELEAZAR (ROKËACH) OF WORMS, c. 1200.
(_Trans. M. Joseph._)
EVERY ISRAELITE HOLDS THE HONOUR
OF HIS ENTIRE PEOPLE IN HIS HANDS
I
‘ALL Israelites are mutually accountable for each other.’ In a boat at
sea one of the men began to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat. On
being remonstrated with, he answered: ‘I am only boring under my own
seat’. ‘Yes’, said his comrades, ‘but when the sea rushes in we shall
all be drowned with you.’ So it is with Israel. Its weal or its woe is
in the hands of every individual Israelite.
TALMUD.
* * * * *
II
WE Jews have a more pressing responsibility for our lives and beliefs
than perhaps any other religious community.
Don’t shelter yourself in any course of action by the idea that
‘it is _my_ affair’. It is your affair, but it is also mine and the
community’s. Nor can we neglect the world beyond. A fierce light beats
upon the Jew. It is a grave responsibility this――to be a Jew; and you
can’t escape from it, even if you choose to ignore it. Ethically or
religiously, we Jews can be and do nothing light-heartedly. Ten bad
Jews may help to damn us; ten good Jews may help to save us. Which
_minyan_ will you join?
C. G. MONTEFIORE, 1900.
THE PATHS OF LIFE
I
MY son, give God all honour and the gratitude which is His due. Thou
hast need of Him, but He needs thee not. Put no trust in thy mere
corporeal well-being here below. Many a one has lain down to sleep at
nightfall, but at morn has not risen again. Fear the Lord, the God of
thy fathers; fail never at eventide to pronounce the great word wherein
Israel is wont to proclaim that He is, and that He is One, and One only;
at dawn fail never to read the appointed prayer. See that thou guard
well thy soul’s holiness; let the thought of thy heart be saintly, and
profane not thy soul with words of impurity.
Visit the sick and suffering man, and let thy countenance be cheerful
when he sees it, but not so that thou oppress the helpless one with
gaiety. Comfort those that are in grief; let piety where thou seest it
affect thee even to tears; and then it may be that thou wilt be spared
the grief of weeping over the death of thy children.
Respect the poor man by gifts whose hand he knows not of; be not deaf
to his beseechings, deal not hard words out to him, and give him of thy
richest food when he sits at meat with thee.
From a wicked neighbour, see that thou keep aloof, and spend not much
of thy time among the people who speak ill of their brother-man; be not
as the fly that is always seeking sick and wounded places; and tell not
of the faults and failings of those about thee.
Take no one to wife unworthy to be thy life’s partner, and keep thy
sons close to the study of Divine things. Dare not to rejoice when
thine enemy comes to the ground; but give him food when he hungers.
Be on thy guard lest thou give pain ever to the widow and the orphan;
and beware lest thou ever set thyself up to be both witness and judge
against an other.
Never enter thy house with abrupt and startling step, and bear not
thyself so that those who dwell under thy roof shall dread when in thy
presence. Purge thy soul of angry passion, that inheritance of fools;
love wise men, and strive to know more and more of the works and the
ways of the Creator.
ELIEZER BEN ISAAC, 1050.
II
BE not ready to quarrel; avoid oaths and passionate adjurations,
excess of laughter and outbursts of wrath; they disturb and confound
the reason of man. Avoid all dealings wherein there is a lie; utter not
the name of God superfluously, or in places dirty or defiled.
Cut from under thee all mere human supports, and make not gold the
foremost longing of thy life; for that is the first step to idolatry.
Rather give money than words; and as to ill words, see that thou place
them in the scale of understanding before they leave thy lips.
What has been uttered in thy presence, even though not told as secret,
let it not pass from thee to others. And if one tell thee a tale, say
not to him that thou hast heard it all before. Do not fix thine eyes
too much on one who is far above thee in wealth, but on those who are
behind thee in worldly fortune.
Put no one to open shame; misuse not thy power against any one; who can
tell whether thou wilt not some day be powerless thyself?
Do not struggle vaingloriously for the small triumph of showing thyself
in the right and a wise man in the wrong; thou art not one whit the
wiser therefor. Be not angry or unkind to any one for trifles, lest
thou make thyself enemies unnecessarily.
Do not refuse things out of mere obstinacy to thy fellow-citizens,
rather put thy will below their wishes. Avoid, as much as may be, bad
men, men of persistent angry feelings, fools; thou canst get nothing
from their company but shame. Be the first to extend courteous greeting
to every one, whatever be his faith; provoke not to wrath one of
another belief than thine.
ASHER BEN YECHIEL, 1300.
IN THE OLD GHETTO
IN the narrow lanes and by-ways of the old Jewish quarter of many a
European town there grew up that beautiful Jewish home-life which,
though its story is seldom recorded, is more important than the outer
events and misfortunes that historians have made note of. And as we
look upon the unsightly houses, the wretched exterior seems to float
away and the home-scenes of joy and love and religious constancy shine
brilliantly forth――perpetual lamps――and explain how, in spite of woe
and misery such as have fallen to the lot of no other people, the Jews
have found strength to live and hope on.
D. PHILIPSON, 1894.
* * * * *
SAY what you will of the Judaism of the Middle Ages; call it narrow;
deride it as superstitious; unless lost to all sense of justice, or
without power to dive beneath the surface of the seeming to the roots
of the real, you cannot but witness to the incontrovertible fact that
for sweetness and spirituality of life, the Jew of the Ghetto, the Jew
of the Middle Ages, the Jew under the yoke of the Talmud, challenges
the whole world.
E. G. HIRSCH, 1895.
THE JEWISH WOMAN
IN the days of horror of the later Roman Empire, throughout the time
of the migration of nations, it was not war alone that destroyed
and annihilated all those peoples of which, despite their former
world-dominating greatness, nothing remains but their name. It was
rather the ensuing demoralization of home life. This is proved――it
cannot be repeated too often――by the Jews; for they suffered more
severely and more cruelly by wars than any other nation; but, among
them, the inmost living germ of morality――strict discipline and family
devotion――was at all times preserved. This wonderful and mysterious
preservation of the Jewish people is due to the Jewish woman. This
is her glory, not alone in the history of her own people, but in the
history of the world.
M. LAZARUS.
* * * * *
THE Jew’s home has rarely been his ‘castle’. Throughout the ages it has
been something far higher――his sanctuary.
J. H. HERTZ.
* * * * *
BE careful not to cause woman to weep, for God counts her tears. Israel
was redeemed from Egypt on account of the virtue of its women. He who
weds a good woman, it is as if he had fulfilled all the precepts of the
Law.
TALMUD.
THE JEWISH MOTHER
JEWISH custom bids the Jewish mother, after her preparations for the
Sabbath have been completed on Friday evening, kindle the Sabbath lamp.
That is symbolic of the Jewish woman’s influence on her own home, and
through it upon larger circles. She is the inspirer of a pure, chaste,
family life whose hallowing influences are incalculable; she is the
centre of all spiritual endeavours, the confidante and fosterer of
every undertaking. To her the Talmudic sentence applies: ‘It is woman
alone through whom God’s blessings are vouchsafed to a house’.
HENRIETTA SZOLD, 1893.
YIDDISH CRADLE SONG
O! HUSH thee, my darling, sleep soundly my son,
Sleep soundly and sweetly till day has begun;
For under the bed of good children at night
There lies, till the morning, a kid snowy white.
We’ll send it to market to buy _Sechora_,
While my little lad goes to study Torah.
Sleep soundly at night and learn Torah by day,
Then thou’ll be a Rabbi when I have grown grey.
But I’ll give thee to-morrow ripe nuts and a toy,
If thou’lt sleep as I bid thee, my own little boy.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
IT seems to me that if the development of the religious sense is
omitted from education, the most exalted idea of goodness is left
out. Life is so much the poorer for being shorn of the halo of high
spiritual aspiration. Instead of a fixed and lofty ideal of life and
conduct, based on the highest conception of Divine Perfection of which
the human mind is capable, there prevails a limited and _fluctuating_
ideal, subject to the chance influences of surroundings and associates,
and coloured by the social grade and worldly interests of each
individual.
JULIA M. COHEN, 1907.
* * * * *
THE thread on which the different good qualities of human beings are
strung as pearls, is the fear of God. When the fastenings of this fear
are unloosed, the pearls roll in all directions and are lost one by one.
BOOK OF MORALS, 15th cent.
* * * * *
THE knowledge of Hebrew is the golden hinge upon which our national and
religious existence turns. Flowing down from the hills of eternity, the
Hebrew language has been set apart by God as the receptacle of truths
destined to sway mankind and humanize the world.
SABATO MORAIS, 1876.
THE SACRED TONGUE[1]
THE Synagogue service is essentially the expression of the soul of
collective Israel. In the Synagogue we meet as Jews, there in prayer,
in aspiration, in confession of faith, to carry on the stream of
spiritual effort which has flowed unbroken through the ages ever since
Israel became conscious of himself. Therefore the prayers will not
merely voice private needs and modern ideas, but will chiefly speak
of Israel. And so they will largely be in Hebrew, Israel’s historic
language. You may get rid of Hebrew, but with it you will get rid
of the Synagogue too, of the Synagogue as a living organism, as the
well-spring of Jewish feeling and the inspiration of Jewish life. Nor
is this all. The claim of Hebrew, though bound up with the interests of
public worship, yet transcends them. It will meet you whenever you open
your Jewish history, whenever you open your Bible. As long as we remain
Jews and call the Bible our own, the Tongue in which it is written must
be inestimably sacred to us.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1907.
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
THE Hebrew language is the great depository of all that is best in
the soul-life of the Congregation of Israel. Without it we will become
severed from the great Tree which is life unto those that cling to it.
Hellenistic Judaism[2] is the only one known to history which dared to
make this experiment of dispensing with the Sacred Language. The result
was death. It withered away and terminated in total and wholesale
apostasy from Judaism. Let us not deceive ourselves. There is no future
in this country for a Judaism that resists either the English or the
Hebrew language.
S. SCHECHTER, 1904.
* * * * *
THERE is a vast storehouse filled with treasures. The key, the Hebrew
language, is in our guardianship. Have we a right to throw the key
into the ocean of oblivion? More than that: when we have ceased to be
efficient guardians of our treasures, of what use are we in the world?
I fear that in the case of such flagrant dereliction of duty, the
twentieth century will have in store for us not a Ghetto, but a grave.
HENRIETTA SZOLD, 1896.
WHAT IS CULTURE?
NOT what a man has――knowledge, skill, or goods of life――determines
his culture, but what a man _is_: culture is not so much mastery of
things as mastery of self. And only that nation can be called cultured
which adds to or, at least, broadens and deepens the spiritual assets
of mankind; which introduces some distinctive note into the soul-life
of the world; which teaches humanity a new angle of vision towards the
Infinite; and by its living and, if need be, by its dying, vindicates
the eternal values of life――conscience, honour, liberty.
Judged by this test, some of the littlest of peoples――Judea, Greece,
Elizabethan England――stand foremost among cultured nations, champions
of the sacred heritage of man. Judged by this test, many a poor Jew,
though he be devoid of the graces, amenities, and comforts of life, is
yet possessed of culture. An ancient language, a classical language, a
holy language, is as familiar to him as his mother-tongue; saturated is
he with the sublimest of literatures, which hallows his life and endows
him with high faith and invincible courage.
Sympathetic appreciation of this indomitable type, this harmonious
albeit rugged personality, might well be taken as a touchstone of a
man’s mentality, culture, and humanity.
J. H. HERTZ, 1915.
THE STUDENT OF THE TORAH[3]
IF one asks a student to-day why he studies, he will at once, in spite
of his youth, give a very practical answer. He mentions the profession
for which he is preparing himself, and through which he will obtain a
lucrative office or a comfortable position in life.
It is entirely different with those who expended their time and powers
on the study of the Talmud. They wished to derive no profit from their
studies; not to use them, as a Mishna teacher says, ‘as a spade to dig
wherewith nor as a crown wherewith to aggrandise oneself’. ‘Say not’,
exclaims the Talmud, ‘I will study the Torah in order that people may
call me Sage or Master, but study from pure love to God, to cleave more
closely unto Him through the knowledge and understanding of His word.’
Day and night did they bury themselves in the study of subjects that
had nothing to do with social life or with gain; often they became
engrossed in the investigation of laws of sacrifices and purification,
although these had long since grown obsolete. They desired nothing
but knowledge, understanding, illumination. Where is there another
people on earth among whom studies which aimed only at truth and the
development of the spiritual life were cultivated with such pure,
devoted, and selfless love as in Israel?
A. JELLINEK, 1882.
BAR MITZVAH PRAYER[4]
O MY God, and God of My Fathers,
On this solemn and sacred day, which marketh my passage from boyhood
to manhood, I humbly venture to raise my eyes unto Thee, and to
declare with sincerity and truth that henceforth I will observe all
Thy commandments, and undertake to bear the responsibility of all mine
actions towards Thee. In my earliest infancy I was brought within Thy
sacred covenant with Israel, and to-day I again enter as an active
responsible member the pale of Thine elect congregation, in the midst
of which I will never cease to glorify Thy holy name in the face of all
nations.
Do Thou, O Heavenly Father, hearken unto this my humble prayer, and
vouchsafe unto me Thy gracious blessings, so that my earthly life may
be sustained and made happy by Thine ineffable mercies. Teach me the
way of Thy statutes, that I may obey them, and faithfully carry out Thy
ordinances. Dispose my heart to love Thee and to fear Thy holy name,
and grant me Thy support and the strength necessary to avoid the
worldly dangers which encompass the path lying before me. Save me from
temptation, so that I may with fortitude observe Thy holy Law and those
precepts on which human happiness and eternal life depend. Thus I will
every day of my life trustfully and gladly proclaim: ‘Hear, O Israel,
the Lord is our God, the Lord is one!’
BENJAMIN ARTOM, 1868.
ON THE THRESHOLD OF MANHOOD
MY son, keep the commandment of thy father,
And forsake not the teaching of thy mother.
Bind them continually upon thy heart,
Tie them about thy neck.
When thou walkest, it shall lead thee;
When thou liest down, it shall watch over thee;
And when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light,
And reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
To keep thee from the evil woman.
PROVERBS 6. 20‒4.
* * * * *
RABBI Hanina[5], son of Dosa, said: ‘He in whom the fear of sin comes
before wisdom, his wisdom shall endure; but he in whom wisdom comes
before the fear of sin, his wisdom will not endure.’
Rabbi Eleazar[6], son of Azaryah, said: ‘He whose wisdom exceeds
his works, to what is he like? To a tree whose branches are many, but
whose roots are few; and the wind comes and plucks it up and overturns
it upon its face. But he whose works exceed his wisdom, to what is
he like? To a tree whose branches are few, but whose roots are many,
so that even if all the winds in the world come and blow upon it, it
cannot be stirred from its place.’
ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.
A FATHER’S ADMONITION
FEAR the Lord the God of thy Fathers and serve Him in love, for fear
only restrains a man from sin, while love stimulates him to good.
Accustom thyself to habitual goodness, for a man’s character is what
habit makes it. The perfection of the body is a necessary antecedent to
the perfection of the soul, for health is the key to the inner chamber.
Measure thy words, for by multiplying words thou increasest error. If
thou find in the Law or the Prophets or the Sages a hard saying which
thou canst not understand, stand fast by thy faith and attribute the
fault to thine own want of intelligence. Place it in a corner of your
heart for future consideration, but despise not thy religion because
thou art unable to understand one difficult matter.
Love truth and uprightness――the ornaments of the soul――and cleave
unto them; prosperity so obtained is built on a sure rock. Keep firmly
to thy word; let not a legal contract or witnesses be more binding
than thine verbal promise whether in public or in private. Disdain
reservations and subterfuges, evasions and sharp practices. Woe to him
who builds his house upon them. Abhor inactivity and indolence, the
causes of destruction of body, of penury, of self-contempt――the ladders
of Satan and his satellites.
Defile not your souls by quarrelsomeness and petulance. I have seen
the white become black, the low brought still lower, families driven
into exile, princes deposed from their high estate, great cities laid
in ruins, assemblies dispersed, the pious humiliated, the honourable
held lightly and despised, all on account of quarrelsomeness. Glory in
forbearance, for in that is true strength and victory.
MOSES MAIMONIDES.
WHAT MAKES A MAN A JEW?
JUDAISM is something more than a badge, something more than a
birth-mark; it is a life. To be born a Jew does not declare any of
us to be of the elect; it only designates us for enrolment among the
elect. God signs the covenant, but we have to seal it――to seal it by a
life of service. ‘What makes a man a Jew?’ is a question that is often
asked. The answer is, two things: membership of the Jewish brotherhood,
and loyal fulfilment of the obligations which that membership imposes.
To be of the Jewish race but to trample upon Jewish duty is to be
faithless to Israel.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1903.
‘I BELIEVE’
I BELIEVE in God, the One and Holy, the Creator and Sustainer of the
world.
I believe that man possesses a Divine power wherewith he may subdue
his evil impulses and passions, strive to come nearer and nearer the
perfection of God, and commune with Him in prayer.
I believe that select individuals are, from time to time, called by God
as prophets and charged with the mission of declaring His will unto men.
I believe that man is subject to God’s law and responsible to the
Searcher of the human heart and the Righteous Judge for all his
thoughts and deeds.
I believe that he who confesses his sins and turns from his evil
ways and truly repents is lovingly forgiven by his Father in Heaven.
I believe that the pious who obey God’s law and do His will with a
perfect heart, and those who truly repent, share, as immortal souls,
in the everlasting life of God.
I believe that Israel was chosen by God as His anointed servant to
proclaim unto the families of mankind His truth; and, though despised
and rejected by men, to continue as His witness until there come in
through him the Kingdom of Peace and moral perfection, and the fullness
of the knowledge of God, the true Community of the Children of the
living God.
M. L. MARGOLIS, 1904.
JUDAISM A POSITIVE RELIGION
SATISFYING the needs of anybody and everybody, of every moment and
every fleeting season, is not the highest ideal which Judaism set
before itself. Altogether I venture to think that the now fashionable
test of determining the worth of a religion by its capability to supply
the various demands of the great market of believers has something
low and mercenary about it. True religion is not a jack-of-all-trades,
meaning Monotheism to the philosopher, Pluralism to the crowd, some
mysterious Nothing to the agnostic, Pantheism to the poet, and Service
of Man to the hero-worshipper. Its mission is just as much to teach
the world that there _are_ false gods and false ideals as to bring it
nearer to the true one. Abraham, the friend of God, who was destined
to become the first winner of souls, began his career, according to
the legend, with breaking idols, and it is his particular glory to have
been in opposition to the whole world. Judaism means to convert the
world, not to convert itself. It will not die in order _not_ to live.
It disdains a victory by defeating itself, in giving up its essential
doctrines, its most sacred symbols, its most precious traditions, and
its most vital teaching. It has confidence in the world; it hopes and
prays and waits patiently for the Great Day when the world will be ripe
for its acceptance.
S. SCHECHTER, 1893.
THE MISSION OF ISRAEL
Think of the meaning of that simple ceremony in our service when the
Minister takes his stand before the Ark, and clasping the sacred scroll
in his arms, proclaims the שמע, belief in the unity of One Eternal,
Almighty God. This rite symbolizes the mission of Israel to the world:
With the Law of God folded in his arms and its words engraved upon his
heart, he has gone up and down the earth proclaiming his belief in the
One Supreme Being――a Being whose spirit fills all time and all space,
a Being never embodied, but made manifest to man in the glory of the
creation and in His all-wise behests, which teach mercy, love, and
justice....
HERMANN ADLER, 1895.
* * * * *
A CLEAR and concise definition of Judaism[7] is very difficult to
give, for the reason that it is not a religion pure and simple based
upon accepted creeds, but is one inseparably connected with the Jewish
nation as the depositary and guardian of the truths held by it for
mankind.
Far from having become 1,900 years ago a stagnant religion, Judaism
has ever remained ‘a river of God full of living waters’, which, while
running within the river-bed of a single nation, has continued to feed
anew the great streams of human civilization.
K. KOHLER, 1904.
TOLERANCE
I
THOU art the Lord, and all beings are Thy servants,
Thy domain;
And through those who serve idols vain
Thine honour is not detracted from,
_For they all aim to Thee to come_;
But they are as the blind,
That seeking the royal road could not find;
The one sank in destruction’s well;
Another into a cavity fell,
And all thought they had reached what they sought
Yet toiled for naught.
SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, 1050.
(_Trans. M. Jastrow._)
* * * * *
I CALL heaven and earth to witness that whether it be Jew or heathen,
man or woman, free or bondman――only according to their acts does the
Divine spirit rest upon them.
MIDRASH.
* * * * *
SALVATION is attained not by subscription to metaphysical dogmas, but
solely by love of God that fulfils itself in action. This is a cardinal
truth in Judaism.
CHASDAI CRESCAS, 1410.
II
YOUR question, why I do not try to make converts, has, I must say,
somewhat surprised me. The duty to proselytize springs clearly from the
idea that outside a certain belief there is no salvation. I, as a Jew,
am not bound to accept that dogma, because, according to the teachings
of the Rabbis, _the righteous of all nations shall have part in the
rewards of the future world_. Your motive, therefore, is foreign to me;
nay, as a Jew, I am not allowed publicly to attack any religion which
is sound in its moral teachings.
MOSES MENDELSSOHN, 1770.
_To a non-Jewish correspondent._
* * * * *
I AM the creature of God, and so is my fellow-man; my calling is in
the town, and his in the fields; I go early to my work, and he to his;
he does not boast of his labour nor I of mine, and if thou wouldst say,
‘I accomplish great things and he little things’, we have learnt that
_whether a man accomplish great things or small, his reward is the same
if only his heart be set upon Heaven_.
TALMUD.
OUR HERITAGE
OUR laws have been such as have always inspired admiration and
imitation in all other men.
Nay, farther, multitudes of mankind have had a great inclination of
a long time to follow our religious observances; for there is not
any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation
whatsoever, whither our custom of resting on the seventh day hath not
come, and by which our fasts and lighting up lamps, and many of our
prohibitions as to our food, are not observed;[8] they also endeavour
to imitate our mutual concord with one another, and the charitable
distribution of our goods, and our diligence in our trades, and our
fortitude in undergoing distresses on account of our laws. And what
is here matter of the greatest admiration, our Law hath no bait of
pleasure to allure men to it, but it prevails by its own force; and as
God himself pervades all the world, so hath our Law passed through all
the world also.
As to the laws themselves more words are unnecessary, for they are
visible in their own nature, and appear to teach not impiety, but the
truest piety in the world. They are enemies to injustice; they banish
idleness and luxurious living; and they instruct men to be content with
what they have, and to be laborious in their calling. They forbid men
to make war from a desire of getting more, but make men courageous in
defending the laws. On which account I am so bold as to say that we are
become the teachers of other men in the greatest number of things, and
those of the most excellent nature only; for what is more excellent
than inviolable piety? What is more just than submission to laws, and
more advantageous than mutual love and concord? And this so far that
we are to be neither divided by calamities, nor to become injurious and
seditious in prosperity; but to contemn death when we are in war, and
in peace to apply ourselves to our handicrafts, or to our tillage of
the ground; while we in all things and in all ways are satisfied that
God is the Judge and Governor of our actions.
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, 1st cent.
OUR FATHERS
LET us now praise famous men,
Our fathers in their generations.
The Lord manifested in them great glory,
Even His mighty power from the beginning.
Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms,
And were men renowned for their power,
Giving counsel by their understanding,
Such as have brought tidings in prophecies:
Leaders of the people by their counsels,
And by their understanding men of learning for the people;
Wise were their words in their instruction:
Such as sought out musical tunes,
And set forth verses in writing:
Rich men furnished with ability,
Living peaceably in their habitations:
All these were honoured in their generations,
And were a glory in their days.
There be of them, that have left a name behind them,
To declare their praises.
And some there be, which have no memorial;
Who are perished as though they had not been,
And are become as though they had not been born,
And their children after them.
But these were men of mercy,
Whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten.
With their seed shall remain continually a good inheritance;
Their children are within the covenants.
Their seed standeth fast,
And their children for their sakes.
Their seed shall remain for ever,
And their glory shall not be blotted out.
Their bodies are buried in peace,
And their name liveth for evermore.
Peoples will declare their wisdom,
And the congregation telleth out their praise.
ECCLESIASTICUS 44. 1‒15.
THE OBLIGATIONS OF HEREDITY
JEWISH history admonishes the Jews: ‘_Noblesse oblige_’. The privilege
of belonging to a people to whom the honourable 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.
S. M. DUBNOW, 1893.
* * * * *
OUR virtues are Israel’s: all our success in life we owe to the fact
that the blood of the ‘toughest of peoples’ is coursing in our veins.
Our vices are our own. Now the world inverts the distribution. Our
virtues it credits to us, to our individual brilliancy, diligence,
courage. Whereas the crimes, vices, and failings of any single Jew, no
matter how estranged from his people or his people’s faith he may be,
it puts down to his Jewishness, and fathers them upon the entire Jewish
race.
Is it not a matter of sacred honour, as far as in us lies to counteract
the world’s injustice to our people by rendering, when the opportunity
is ours, some repayment for all we owe to Israel?
J. H. HERTZ, 1915.
ZEDAKAH[9]――CHARITY
TUR, II, § 247
THE dispensing of charity according to one’s means is a positive
precept, which demands greater care and diligence in its fulfilment
than all the other positive precepts of the Law. For its neglect may
possibly lead to the taking of life, inasmuch as the denial of timely
aid may compass the death of the poor man who needs our immediate help.
Whoso closes his eyes to this duty and hardens his heart to his needy
brother is called a worthless man, and is regarded as an idolater. But
whosoever is careful in the fulfilment of this duty attests himself
as belonging to the seed of Abraham, whom the Lord hath blessed: ‘For
I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his
household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do
_Zedakah_ and justice’ (Genesis 18. 19).
Charity is the main foundation of Israel’s pre-eminence, and the basis
of the Law of Truth. As the prophet says unto Zion: ‘By _Zedakah_ shalt
thou be established’ (Isaiah 54. 14). Its practice will alone bring
about Israel’s redemption: ‘Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and
they that return of her with _Zedakah_’ (Isaiah 1. 27). Charity is
greater than all sacrifices, says Rabbi Eleazar; even as it is written,
‘To do _Zedakah_ and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than
sacrifice’ (Proverbs 21. 3).
Whoso pities the poor shall himself receive compassion from the Holy
One, blessed be He. Let man further reflect that as there is a wheel of
fortune revolving in this world, perchance some day either he himself,
or his son, or his son’s son, may be brought down to the same lowly
state. Nor let it enter his mind to say: ‘How can I give to the poor
and thus lessen my possessions?’ For man must know that he is not the
master of what he has, but only the guardian, to carry out the will of
Him who entrusted these things to his keeping.
Whosoever withholds alms from the needy thereby withdraws himself from
the lustre of the Shechinah and the light of the Law.
Let man therefore be exceedingly diligent in the right bestowal of
charity.
JACOB BEN ASHER, 1320.
(_Trans. A. Feldman._)
ZEDAKAH――JUSTICE.
_‘NEITHER shalt thou favour a poor man his cause’_ (Exodus 23. 3).
It is one of the deep and fundamental traits of Judaism that whilst
presupposing sympathy and commiseration with the poor and the hapless,
it nevertheless fears that in a suit-at-law justice might be outraged
_in favour of the poor man_ even when he is in the wrong――outraged just
because of his very distress. Sympathy and compassion are emotions that
have their proper place and use, but even these noble feelings must be
silenced in the presence of Justice. In this Scriptural command there
is a height of conception, a sublimity of moral view, which compels the
reverence of all.
A. GEIGER, 1865.
THE JEWISH POOR
THE Kingdom of God――the Rabbis held――is inconsistent with a state of
social misery. They were not satisfied with feeding the poor. Their
great ideal was not to allow a man to be poor, not to allow him to
come down into the depths of poverty. They say, ‘Try to prevent it by
teaching him a trade. Try all methods before you permit him to become
an object of charity, which must degrade him, tender as your dealings
with him may be.’
S. SCHECHTER, 1893.
* * * * *
IT is an arduous task to think for the Jewish poor. He has a rooted
notion that he is the best, the only judge, of what is good for you
to do for him. And the fact is that these self-confident recipients of
your generosity really are often your betters in many qualifications.
Large-mindedness is needed here. We must respect old habits; we must
fathom the deep moral springs of life. We must beware that our brothers
do not divest themselves of their best, and assume our worst.
I. ABRAHAMS, 1896.
AT ‘THE OLD PEOPLE’S REST’, JERUSALEM
A SCORE or so of old men with white beards seated at a long table
covered by open books of the Talmud. The sacred scroll of the Law is
enshrined at their left, and behind them we see ponderous old tomes,
tight fitted into the alcove of a vault-like chamber, with quaint
curves and angles. Is not this some souvenir from the brush of an old
master? No, it is a group of inmates of the ‘Old People’s Rest’ at
Jerusalem.
What strikes one most about the inmates is the refinement and
intellectuality of their features. It is a workhouse where aged
failures in the struggle for existence are permitted to pass away
in peace. Not here will we meet with degraded types of the European
inebriate or jailbird. They are all representative of one very
fascinating aspect of Judaism which it is the fashion to doubt or decry.
It is not only in India that the Yogi, or contemplative Sage, is to be
met with, who, having fulfilled his whole duty as a man, retires from
active life to meditate on the here and the hereafter. We have our
Jewish Yogis even outside the dazzling effulgence which emanates from
the Zohar. They work not, neither do they spin, but the world is better
for their being in it, even if not of it. It is refreshing to think
that not everybody is in a hurry, not everybody busy money-making or
money-spending, and that a few there are who are survivals of more
tranquil ages.
E. N. ADLER, 1895.
SHARING THE BURDEN
I
WHEN trouble comes upon the congregation, it is not right for a man to
say, ‘I will eat and drink, and things will be peaceful for me’. Moses,
our Teacher, always bore his share in the troubles of the congregation,
as it is written, ‘They took a stone and put it under him’ (Exodus 17.
12). Could they not have given him a chair or a cushion? But then he
said, ‘Since the Israelites are in trouble, lo, I will bear my part
with them, for he who bears his portion of the burden will live to
enjoy the hour of consolation’. Woe to one who thinks, ‘Ah, well, I
will neglect my duty. Who can know whether I bear my part or not?’
Even the stones of the house, ay, the limbs of the trees shall testify
against him, as it is written, ‘For the stones will cry from the wall,
and the limbs of the trees will testify’.
TALMUD.
II[10]
‘IT is high time’, wrote Leopold Zunz, in the days when the
emancipation of the Jews in Europe was being constantly postponed, or
was being dealt with in a huckstering and grudging spirit, ‘It is high
time that instead of having rights and liberties doled out to them,
they should obtain Right and Liberty.’ It was well said: ‘Right and
Liberty’ are one and indivisible, and belong to all men as such. Well,
‘Right and Liberty’ are ours, if any people on the face of the earth
can be said to possess them. Surely we owe something to the land and
the people where and among whom our lines are fallen, and of which
we are an integral part. We owe it to them to take our share of the
national burdens and in the national life, to seek our prosperity in
theirs, to respect the law and its representatives, from the humblest
officer of justice to the Sovereign upon the throne.
SIMEON SINGER, 1894.
THE DUTY OF SELF-RESPECT
NOTHING is more dangerous for a nation or for an individual than
to plead guilty to imaginary sins. Where the sin is real――by honest
endeavour the sinner can purify himself. But when a man has been
persuaded to suspect himself unjustly――what _can_ he do? Our greatest
need is emancipation from self-contempt, from this idea that we are
really worse than all the world. Otherwise we may in course of time
become in reality what we now imagine ourselves to be.
ACHAD HA’AM, 1891.
ANTI-SEMITISM
I
JEWISH misery has two forms, the material and the moral. In Eastern
Europe, in those regions which shelter the vast majority of our race,
we see a painful fight for the maintenance of a bare existence. In
Western Europe, the Jew has bread; but man does not live on bread alone.
His misery is moral. It exists in the constant wounding of self-respect
and honour.
MAX NORDAU, 1897.
* * * * *
I REMEMBER when I used to come home from the Cheder[11], bleeding and
crying from the wounds inflicted upon me by the Christian boys, my
father used to say, ‘My child, we are in Golus (exile), and we must
submit to God’s will’. And he made me understand that this is only
a passing stage in history, as we Jews belong to Eternity, when God
will comfort His people. Thus the pain was only physical; but my
real suffering began later in life, when I emigrated from Roumania to
so-called civilized countries, and found there what I might call the
Higher Anti-Semitism, which burns the soul though it leaves the body
unhurt.
S. SCHECHTER, 1903.
II
NOT rarely a Jew is heard to murmur that we must learn from our
enemies and try to remedy our failings. He forgets, however, that the
anti-Semitic accusations are valueless, because they are not based on
a criticism of real facts, but are merely due to the psychological law
according to which children, savages, and malevolent fools make persons
and things against which they have an aversion responsible for their
sufferings.
Pretexts change, but the hatred remains. The Jews are not hated because
they have evil qualities; evil qualities are sought for in them because
they are hated.
MAX NORDAU.
* * * * *
MY grandmother, the beautiful daughter of a family who had suffered
much from persecution, had imbibed that dislike for her race which
the vain are too apt to adopt when they find they are born to public
contempt. The indignant feeling that should be reserved for the
persecutor, in the mortification of their disturbed sensibility,
is too often visited on the victim; and the cause of annoyance is
recognized not in the ignorant malevolence of the powerful, but in the
conscientious conviction of the innocent sufferer.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, 1848.
III
ANTI-SEMITES accuse the Jewish people of an incapacity for forgiveness
and love. Let these preachers of love first practise it. Let them
refrain, at least, from incendiary slanders against Israel who, among
all the peoples of the world, has agonized and suffered most from
hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness at the hands of others. Let
such preachers of love remember the Mosaic Law: ‘Thou shalt not bear
false witness against thy neighbour’.
J. H. HERTZ, 1919.
* * * * *
NOT one man alone has risen up against us to destroy us, but in every
generation there rise up against us those who seek to destroy us; but
the Holy One, blessed be He, delivers us from their hands.
PASSOVER HAGADAH.
* * * * *
NO weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue
that shall rise against thee in judgement thou shalt condemn.
ISAIAH 54. 17.
THE JEW AS A PATRIOT
EVERY student of the Hebrew language is aware that we have in the
conjugation of its verbs a mood known as the Intensive (Piel) Voice,
which by means of an almost imperceptible modification of vowel points
intensifies the meaning of the primitive root. A similar significance
seems to attach to the Jews themselves in connexion with the people
among whom they dwell. They are the _intensive form_ of any nationality
whose language and customs they adopt.
EMMA LAZARUS, 1882.
* * * * *
LOYALTY to the flag for which the sun once stood still, can only deepen
our devotion to the flag on which the sun never sets.
Col. A. E. GOLDSMID, 1902.
THE JEWISH SOLDIER
MOTHER England, Mother England, ’mid the thousands
Far beyond the sea to-day,
Doing battle for thy honour, for thy glory,
Is there place for us, a little band of brothers?
England, say!
Long ago and far away, O Mother England,
We were warriors brave and bold;
But a hundred nations rose in arms against us,
And the shades of exile closed o’er those heroic
Days of old.
Thou hast given us home and freedom, Mother England,
Thou hast let us live again,
Free and fearless, ’midst thy free and fearless children,
Sharing with them, as one people, grief and gladness,
Joy and pain.
For the Jew has heart and hand, our Mother England,
And they both are thine to-day――
Thine for life and thine for death――yea, thine for ever!
Wilt thou take them as we give them, freely, gladly?
England, say!
ALICE LUCAS, 1899.
THE JEW’S LOVE OF BRITAIN[12]
IS it a matter of surprise that so goodly a number of our
brethren offered themselves willingly among the people? One of the
masterpieces of eloquence bequeathed to us by classic antiquity is the
funeral oration delivered by Pericles on those who had fallen in the
Peloponnesian War. He dilates upon the sources of Athens’ greatness.
He portrays in glowing colours how justice is there equally meted out
to all citizens, from the highest to the lowest, how all are under the
aegis of freedom, and all equally inspired by obedience to law. And he
continues: ‘Such a country well deserves that her children should die
for her!’ The members of the House of Israel have always faithfully
served the country of their birth or their adoption. But surely England
deserves that we, her Jewish children, should gladly live and die for
her: since here, as in no other country, the teachings of Holy Writ are
venerated and obeyed. Here, as in no other Empire in the world, there
breathes a passionate love of freedom, a burning hatred of tyrant wrong.
HERMANN ADLER, _at the unveiling of the
Memorial to the Jewish soldiers who fell
in the South African War_, 1905.
TO ENGLAND
LINES OF A RUSSIAN JEW
IN childhood I learned to love thee,
Thy name was a legend to me;
I dreamt of a distant great island,
Where men may be strong, yet be free.
And I, who the clatter of fetters
Have heard in my childhood and youth,
Do bless thee for giving me refuge,
And faith in the triumph of truth.
Thou art not my stepmother, England,
My sister of mercy thou art;
For thee in the hour of thy trial
A brotherly love fills my heart.
P. M. RASKIN, 1914.
JUDAISM AND THE JEW IN AMERICA
I
LIKE the river that takes its rise in the distant hills, gradually
courses its way through the country, passing alike through sublime
landscape and hideous morass, offering its banks for the foundation
of great cities, its waters enriched and modified by the tributaries
that gradually flow towards it, until it at last loses itself in the
ocean: so Judaism, taking its rise among the mountains of Sinai, slowly
and steadily has advanced; passing alternately through a golden age of
toleration and an iron age of persecution, giving its moral code for
the foundation of many a government; modified by the customs and modes
of life of each nation through which it has passed, chastened and
enriched by centuries of experience――shall I say, as I said with the
river, that it, too, at last loses itself in the great sea of humanity?
No! rather like the Gulf Stream, which, passing through the vast
Atlantic Ocean, part of it, and yet distinct from it, never losing
its individuality, but always detected by its deeper colour and warmer
temperature, until it eventually modifies the severe climate of a
distant country: so Judaism, passing through all the nations of the old
world, part of them, and yet distinct from them, ever recognized by its
depth and intensity, has at last reached this new world without having
lost its individuality. And here it is still able, by the loftiness
of its ethical truth and by the purity of its principles, to give
intellectual and moral stamina to a never-ending future humanity.
M. H. HARRIS, 1887.
II
WE, more than any other nation on the globe, recall the happy day when
the light of promise first dawned in a modern Canaan, overflowing with
the milk and honey of humane kindness, in a land symbolized by the
torch of the goddess of liberty, whose soft, mild, yet penetrating rays
are reflected o’er all the scattered sons of much-tried Israel, whom
she so benignantly beckons to these shores.
ALEXANDER KOHUT, _on the 400th Anniversary
of the Discovery of America_, 1892.
THE DELUGE OF FIRE
(1914‒1918)
MANKIND craves the conviction that the agony and tears and suffering
of these hundreds of millions of belligerents, constituting the vast
majority of the human race, are not in vain; that somehow good will
come of all this infinite woe.
In old Jewish books there is a wondrous legend of a second Deluge,
a Deluge of Fire, that would sweep over the earth. In anticipation of
it, the children of men were bidden to write the story of man on tables
of clay, as such tables would not only escape destruction, but would
become the more enduring. We to-day are the eyewitnesses of such a
fire-deluge dreamt of by the ancients. Let us not, however, fear that
civilization and religion will perish from the earth. Quite other
will be its far-reaching results for mankind. Right and humanity will
emerge stronger than ever from this world-conflagration. Before this
war we saw that the laws of God and man were written as it were on
mere tables of clay, breakable and effaceable at will. This very
world-conflagration, however, will yet render the Law of Nations
indestructible and for ever unassailable by insolence or power. The
behests of humanity, which so far have been but pious wishes, will be
converted into regulative principles in international dealings.
J. H. HERTZ, _to a congregation of Jewish
soldiers at the Front, France_, 1915.
THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS
THE sun and the moon are become black,
And the stars withdraw their shining ...
And the heavens and the earth shall shake;
But the Lord will be a refuge unto His people.
JOEL 4. 15, 16.
* * * * *
AND the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
And the idols shall utterly pass away.
ISAIAH 2. 17, 18.
* * * * *
AND, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the
mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord
was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was
not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord
was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
1 KINGS 19. 11, 12.
* * * * *
HEAL us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; save us, and we shall be
saved; for Thou art our praise. Vouchsafe a perfect healing unto
all our wounds; for Thou, almighty King, art a faithful and merciful
Physician.
DAILY PRAYER BOOK.
THE MESSIANIC HOPE
WHEN the harp of Judah sounded, thrilled with the touch of inspiration
Divine, among the echoes it waked in the human heart were those
sweet sounds whose witcheries transport the soul into the realms of
happiness. That melody has been our source of courage, our solace and
our strength, and in all our wanderings we have sung it. It is the
music of the Messianic age, the triumph-hymn to be one day thundered
by all humanity, the real psalm of life as mankind shall sing it when
Israel’s world-task of teaching it shall have been accomplished. Its
harmony is the harmony of the families of the earth, at last at peace,
at last united in brotherhood, at last happy in their return to the One
Great Father.
H. PEREIRA MENDES, 1887.
* * * * *
HAVE we not all one father?
Hath not one God created us?
Why do we deal treacherously every man
against his brother,
Profaning the covenant of our fathers?
MALACHI 2. 10.
THE VISION OF A UNITED HUMANITY
AND it shall come to pass in the end of days,
That the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be
established as the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow unto it,
And many peoples shall go and say:
‘Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
And He will teach us of His ways;
And we will walk in His paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And He shall judge between the nations,
And shall decide for many peoples;
And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
And their spears into pruning-hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war any more.
ISAIAH 2. 2‒4.
* * * * *
THE Jew who is true to himself will labour with especial energy in
the cause of peace. His religion, his history, his mission, all pledge
him to a policy of peace, as a citizen as well as an individual. The
war-loving Jew is a contradiction in terms. The ‘Man of Sorrows’ must
beware of helping, however remotely, to heap sorrow upon others.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1903.
TRUST YE IN THE LORD FOR EVER
THOU wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
Thee; because he trusted in Thee.
Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for the Lord is God, an
everlasting Rock.
The way of the just is straight: Thou, Most Upright, makest
plain the path of the just.
Yea, in the way of Thy judgements, O Lord, have we waited for
Thee; to Thy name and to Thy memorial is the desire of
our soul.
With my soul have I desired Thee in the night;
Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early: for
when Thy judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of
the world learn righteousness.
Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn
righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal
wrongfully and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
Lord, Thy hand is lifted up, yet they see not: but they shall
see Thy zeal for the people, and be ashamed; yea, the
fire of Thine adversaries shall devour them.
Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us: for Thou hast also
wrought all our works for us.
ISAIAH 26. 3, 4, 7‒12.
II
THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
_NOW the Lord said unto Abram: ‘... I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will
I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’_
GENESIS 12. 1‒3.
_THUS saith God the Lord ... I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness and have taken hold of thine hand, and kept thee, and
set thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the nations; to
open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and
them that sit in darkness out of the prison house._
ISAIAH 42. 5‒7.
ISRAEL IMMORTAL
THUS saith the Lord, Who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the
ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, Who
stirreth up the sea, that the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts
is His name: If these ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord,
then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me
for ever.
JEREMIAH 31. 35, 36.
* * * * *
THE sun and moon for ever shine――by day
And night they mark the Eternal’s high design.
Changeless and tireless, speeding on their way,
The sun and moon for ever shine.
Symbols are they of Israel’s chosen line,
A nation still, though countless foes combine;
Smitten by God and healed by God are they:
They shall not fear, safe ’neath the Rock divine,
Nor cease to be, until men cease to say,
The sun and moon for ever shine.
YEHUDAH HALEVI, 1150.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
* * * * *
THE life of man is numbered by days,
The days of Israel are innumerable.
ECCLESIASTICUS 37. 25.
* * * * *
KINGDOMS arise and kingdoms pass away, but Israel endureth for evermore.
MIDRASH.
THE ETERNAL RIDDLE[13]
ISRAEL, my people,
God’s greatest riddle,
Will thy solution
Ever be told?
Fought――never conquered,
Bent――never broken,
Mortal――immortal,
Youthful, though old.
Egypt enslaved thee,
Babylon crushed thee,
Rome led thee captive,
Homeless thy head.
Where are those nations
Mighty and fearsome?
Thou hast survived them,
They are long dead.
Nations keep coming,
Nations keep going,
Passing like shadows,
Wiped off the earth.
Thou an eternal
Witness remainest,
Watching their burial,
Watching their birth.
Pray, who revealed thee
Heavens great secret:
Death and destruction
Thus to defy?
Suffering torture,
Stake, inquisition――
Prithee, who taught thee
Never to die?
Ay, and who gave thee
Faith, deep as ocean,
Strong as the rock-hills,
Fierce as the sun?
Hated and hunted,
Ever thou wand’rest,
Bearing a message:
God is but one!
Pray, has thy saga
Likewise an ending,
As its beginning
Glorious of old?
Israel, my people,
God’s greatest riddle,
Will thy solution
Ever be told?
P. M. RASKIN, 1914.
THE SECRET OF ISRAEL’S IMMORTALITY[14]
WHAT has prevented this constantly migrating people, this veritable
Wandering Jew, from degenerating into brutalized vagabonds, into
vagrant hordes of gipsies? The answer is at hand. In its journey
through the desert of life, for eighteen centuries, the Jewish people
carried along the Ark of the Covenant, which breathed into its heart
ideal aspirations, and even illumined the badge of disgrace affixed
to its garment with an apostolic glory. The proscribed, outlawed,
universally persecuted Jew felt a sublime, noble pride in being
singled out to perpetuate and to suffer for a religion which reflects
eternity, by which the nations of the earth were gradually educated
to a knowledge of God and morality, and from which is to spring the
salvation and redemption of the world.
Such a people, which disdains its present but has the eye steadily
fixed on its future, which lives as it were on hope, is on that very
account eternal, like hope.
H. GRAETZ, 1853.
THE BOOK OF BOOKS
THE Bible, what a book! Large and wide as the world, based on
the abysses of creation, and towering aloft into the blue secrets
of heaven. Sunrise and sunset, promise and fulfilment, birth and
death――the whole drama of humanity――are contained in this one book. It
is the Book of Books. The Jews may readily be consoled at the loss of
Jerusalem, and the Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant, and all the
crown jewels of King Solomon. Such forfeiture is as naught when weighed
against the Bible, the imperishable treasure that they have saved. If I
do not err, it was Mahomet who named the Jews the ‘People of the Book’,
a name which in Eastern countries has remained theirs to the present
day, and is deeply significant. That one book is to the Jews their
country. Within the well-fenced boundaries of that book they live and
have their being; they enjoy their inalienable citizenship, are strong
to admiration; thence none can dislodge them. Absorbed in the perusal
of their sacred book they little heeded the changes that were wrought
in the real world around them. Nations rose and vanished, States
flourished and decayed, revolutions raged throughout the earth――but
they, the Jews, sat poring over this book, unconscious of the wild
chase of time that rushed on above their heads.
H. HEINE, 1830.
THE BIBLE[15]
AS to an ancient temple
Whose vast proportions tower
With summit inaccessible
Among the stars of heaven;
While the resistless ocean
Of peoples and of cities
Breaks at its feet in foam,
Work that a hundred ages
Hallow: I bow to thee.
From out thy mighty bosom
Rise hymns sublime, and melodies
Like to the heavens singing
Praises to their Creator;
While at the sound, an ecstasy,
A trance, fills all my being
With terror and with awe――
I feel my proud heart thrilling
With throbs of holy pride.
Oh! come, thou high beneficent
Heritage of my fathers;
Our country, altar, prophet,
Our life, our all, art thou!
In doubt, in woe, in outrage,
In pangs of dissolution
That wring our tortured hearts,
Come, ope the rosy portals
Of Hope to us once more.
Ah me! what countless miseries,
What tears all unregarded.
Hast thou consoled and softened
With gentle voice and holy!
How many hearts that struggle
With doubt, remorse, anxiety,
With all the woes of ages,
Dost thou, on ample pinions,
Lift purified to Heaven!
Listen! the world is rising,
Seeking, unquiet, thrilling,
Awakens the new century
To new hopes and new visions.
Men hear upon the mountains
Strange and life-giving voices;
Every soul seems to wait,
And from that Book the signal
For the new day shall come.
DAVID LEVI, 1846.
(_Trans. Mary A. Craig._)
* * * * *
FROM century to century, even unto this day, through the fairest
regions of civilization, the Bible dominates existence. Its vision of
life moulds states and societies. Its Psalms are more popular in every
country than the poems of the nation’s own poets. Beside this one book
with its infinite editions ... all other literatures seem ‘trifles
light as air’.
ISRAEL ZANGWILL, 1895.
A JEWISH VERSION OF THE BIBLE
I
OUR great claim to the gratitude of mankind is that we gave to the
world the word of God, the Bible. We have stormed heaven to snatch down
this heavenly gift, as the Paitan[16] puts it. We threw ourselves into
the breach, and covered it with our bodies against every attack. We
allowed ourselves to be slain in hundreds and thousands rather than
become unfaithful to it, and we bore witness to its truth, and watched
over its purity, in the face of a hostile world. The Bible is our sole
_raison d’être_; and it is just this which the Higher Anti-Semitism,
both within and without our ranks, is seeking to destroy, denying all
our claims for the past and leaving us without hope for the future.
This intellectual persecution can only be fought with intellectual
weapons, and unless we make an effort to recover our Bible we are
irrevocably lost from both worlds.
S. SCHECHTER, 1903.
II
THERE is an old tradition that the day on which, for the first time,
the Pentateuch was translated into a foreign language――into Greek――was
considered by Jews as a day of great national calamity. It was feared
that the translation, being incorrect, might become the source of
error instead of being the fountain of divine truths. The fear felt
and expressed about two thousand years ago has been fully justified by
the history of the several versions that have since been undertaken,
and by the large number of false doctrines, supposed to be founded on
the authority of Holy Writ, whilst really originating in mistakes made
by translators.
M. FRIEDLÄNDER, 1886.
* * * * *
NEW translations of the Bible have appeared and are appearing in
various languages; but none of them has made, or intends to make, a
complete and exhaustive use of Jewish contributions to the subject.
Great university professors who know much, very much, but who do not
know Jewish literature, unconsciously assume that they do not know it
because it is not worth knowing――a judgement that no man has a right
to pronounce until he has studied it――and this they have not done.
M. SULZBERGER, 1898.
* * * * *
THE book, commonly known as the Authorized, or King James’s Version,
has been so long looked upon with a deep veneration almost bordering
on superstitious dread, that, to most persons, the very thought of
furnishing an improved translation of the Divine records will be viewed
as an impious assumption and a contempt of the wisdom of former ages.
Since the time of King James, however, the world has progressed in
biblical knowledge no less than in all other branches of science; and
giant minds have laboured to make clear what formerly was obscure.
ISAAC LEESER, 1855.
* * * * *
I FULLY admit the great merits of the Revised Version of the Bible. It
corrects many faults, amends many mistranslations of the so-called King
James’s Version, without impairing the antique charm of the English
Bible, without putting out of tune the music so dear to our ears. Yet
even that great work, compiled by the most eminent scholars and learned
theologians in the land, is disfigured by errors due to dogmatic
preconceptions.
HERMANN ADLER, 1896.
III
THE present translation[17] has a character of its own. It aims to
combine the spirit of Jewish tradition with the results of biblical
scholarship, ancient, mediaeval, and modern. It gives to the Jewish
world a translation of the Scriptures done by men imbued with the
Jewish consciousness, while the non-Jewish world, it is hoped, will
welcome a translation that presents many passages from the Jewish
traditional point of view.
The Jew cannot afford to have his own Bible translation prepared for
him by others. He cannot have it as a gift, even as he cannot borrow
his soul from others. If a new country and a new language metamorphose
him into a new man, the duty of this new man is to prepare a new garb
and a new method of expression for what is most sacred and most dear
to him.
_From_ TRANSLATORS’ PREFACE,
_Jewish Version of the Bible, 1916._
IV
SCRIPTURE must be interpreted according to its plain, natural sense,
each word according to the context. Traditional exposition, however,
may also be taken to heart, as it is said: ‘Is not My word like as
fire?’――consisting of many sparks――‘and like a hammer that breaketh
the rock in pieces?’――and therefore capable of various explanations.
RASHI, 1080.
V
THERE is none that hath ever made an end of learning it, and there
is none that will ever find out all its mysteries. For its wisdom is
richer than any sea, and its word deeper than any abyss.
ECCLESIASTICUS 24. 28, 29.
ISRAEL THE PEOPLE OF REVELATION
HAD there been no Israelites there would be no Torah. Israel’s
pre-eminence is not derived from Moses, it is Moses whose pre-eminence
is due to Israel. The Divine love went out towards the multitude of the
children of the Patriarchs, the Congregation of Jacob. Moses was merely
the divinely chosen instrument through whom God’s Blessing was to be
assured unto them. We are called not the people of Moses, but the
people of God.
YEHUDAH HALEVI, 1141.
* * * * *
THE Greeks were not all artists, but the Greek nation was alone capable
of producing a Phidias or a Praxiteles. The same was the case with
Judaism. It is certain that not all Jews were prophets; the exclamation,
‘Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets!’ was a pious
wish. Nevertheless, Israel is the people of Revelation. It must have
had a native endowment that could produce, that could rear, such men.
Nor does Judaism claim to be the work of single individuals; it does
not speak of the God of Moses, nor of the God of the Prophets, but of
the God of Israel. The fact that the greatest prophet left his work
unfinished contains a profound truth. _No man knoweth of his sepulchre
unto this day._ Thereon our ancient teachers remark: ‘His grave should
not serve as a place of pilgrimage whither men go to do honour to _one
man_, and thus raise him above the level of man’.
A. GEIGER, 1865.
THERE IS NO GOD BUT GOD AND ISRAEL IS HIS PROPHET[18]
WHEN one thinks how this earliest of
theistic creeds has persisted through the ages, by what wonderful
constructive statecraft it has built up a race of which the lowest unit
is no atom in a ‘submerged tenth’, but an equal member of a great
historic brotherhood, a scion of the oldest of surviving civilizations,
a student of sacred books, a lover of home and peace; when one
remembers how he has agonized――the great misunderstood of history――how
his ‘pestilent heresy’ has been chastised and rebuked by Popes and
Crusaders, Inquisitors and Missionaries, how he has remained sublimely
protestant, imperturbable amid marvellous cathedrals and all the
splendid shows of Christendom, and how despite all and after all he is
living to see the world turning slowly back to his vision of life; then
one seems to see the ‘finger of God’, the hand of the Master-Artist,
behind the comedy-tragedy of existence, to believe that Israel is
veritably a nation with a mission, that there is no God but God and
Israel is His prophet.
ISRAEL ZANGWILL.
MOSES[19]
HOW small Sinai appears when Moses stands upon it! This mountain is
only the pedestal for the feet of the man whose head reaches up to
the heavens, where he speaks with God.... Formerly I could not pardon
the legislator of the Jews his hatred against the plastic arts. I
did not see that, notwithstanding his hostility to art, Moses was a
great artist, and possessed the true artistic spirit. But this spirit
was directed by him, as by his Egyptian compatriots, to colossal and
indestructible undertakings. He built human pyramids, carved human
obelisks; he took a poor shepherd family and created a nation from
it――a great, eternal, holy people; a people of God, destined to outlive
the centuries, and to serve as a pattern to all other nations, even as
a prototype to the whole of mankind. He created Israel.
As of the master-builder, so of his work――the Hebrew people――I did not
speak with sufficient reverence. I see now that the Greeks were only
handsome youths, whilst the Jews were always men――powerful, indomitable
men――who have fought and suffered on every battlefield of human thought.
H. HEINE, 1854.
THE PROPHETS[20]
I
’TIS a little people, but it has done great things. It had but a
precarious hold on a few crags and highlands between the desert and
the deep sea, yet its thinkers and sages with eagle vision took into
their thought the destinies of all humanity, and rang out in clarion
voice a message of hope to the downtrodden of all races. Claiming
for themselves and their people the duty and obligations of a true
aristocracy, they held forth to the peoples ideals of a true democracy
founded on right and justice. Their voices have never ceased to re-echo
around the world, and the greatest things that have been done to raise
men’s lot have been always in the spirit, often in the name, of the
Hebrew prophets.
JOSEPH JACOBS, 1919.
* * * * *
THE mere foretelling of future events is the lowest stage of prophecy,
and in the eyes of the great Prophets of Israel it was of quite
secondary importance. Their aim was to fathom the secrets of holiness;
and their striving, by means of admonition and moral suasion, to guide
the peoples in the paths which lead mankind to spiritual and political
well-being.
SHEMTOB IBN SHEMTOB, 1489.
II
IT was part of the spirit of Prophecy to be dumb-founded at human
ferocity as at something against nature and reason. In the presence
of the iniquities of the world, the heart of the Prophets bled as
though from a wound of the Divine Spirit, and their cry of indignation
re-echoed the wrath of the Deity. Greece and Rome had their rich and
poor, just as Israel had in the days of Jeroboam II, and the various
classes continued to slaughter one another for centuries; but no voice
of justice and pity arose from the fierce tumult. Therefore the words
of the Prophets have more vitality at the present time, and answer
better to the needs of modern souls, than all the classic masterpieces
of antiquity.
JAMES DARMESTETER, 1891.
* * * * *
IN Hebrew prophecy we have no crumbling monument of perishable stone,
the silent witness of a past that is dead and gone, but the quickening
breath of the spirit itself. In the ardent souls of the Prophets
the thought of Deity was centred as in a burning-glass――a fire that
consumed them, a shining light for men. Theirs was the abiding sense
of an eternal Will and Purpose underlying human transient schemes, an
eternal Presence, transfusing all of life as with a hidden flame; so
that love of country, love of right, love of man, were not alone human
things, but also divine, because they were embraced and focussed in a
single living unity――the love of God.
JOSEPHINE LAZARUS, 1893.
THE TALMUD[21]
THE Talmud is the work which embodies the civil and canonical law of
the Jewish people, forming a kind of supplement to the Pentateuch――a
supplement such as took 1,000 years of a nation’s life to produce. It
is not merely a dull treatise, but it appeals to the imagination and
the feelings, and to all that is noblest and purest. Between the rugged
boulders of the law which bestrew the path of the Talmud there grow
the blue flowers of romance――parable, tale, gnome, saga; its elements
are taken from heaven and earth, but chiefly and most lovingly from
the human heart and from Scripture, for every verse and every word in
this latter became, as it were, a golden nail upon which it hung its
gorgeous tapestries.
The fundamental law of all human and social economy in the Talmud was
the absolute equality of men. It was pointed out that man was created
alone――lest one should say to another, ‘I am of the better or earlier
stock’. In a discussion that arose among the Masters as to which was
the most important passage in the whole Bible, one pointed to the verse
‘And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’. The other contradicted
him and pointed to the words ‘This is the book of the generations of
man’ (Gen. 5. 1)――not black, not white, not great, not small, but _man_.
‘The law given on Mount Sinai’, the Masters said, ‘though emphatically
addressed to one people, belongs to all humanity. It was not given in
any king’s land, not in any city or inhabited spot――it was given on
God’s own highway, in the desert――not in the darkness and stillness
of night, but in plain day, amid thunder and lightning. And why was it
given on Sinai? Because it is the lowliest of mountains――to show that
God’s spirit rests only upon them that are meek and lowly in their
hearts.’
The Talmud taught that religion was not a thing of creed or dogma or
faith merely, but of active goodness. Scripture said, ‘Ye shall walk in
the ways of the Lord’. ‘But the Lord is a consuming fire; how can men
walk in His ways?’ ‘By being’, the rabbis answered, ‘as He is――merciful,
loving, long-suffering. Mark how on the first page of the Pentateuch
God clothed the naked――Adam; and on the last he buried the dead――Moses.
He heals the sick, frees the captives, does good to His enemies, and is
merciful both to the living and to the dead.’
The most transcendental love of the rabbis was lavished on children.
All the verses of Scripture that spoke of flowers and gardens were
applied to children and schools. The highest and most exalted title
which they bestowed in their poetical flights upon God Himself was that
of ‘Pedagogue of Man’. Indeed, the relationship of man to God they
could not express more pregnantly than by the most familiar words which
occur from one end of the Talmud to the other, ‘Our Father in Heaven’.
I have been able to bring before you what proves, as it were, but
a drop in the vast ocean of Talmud――that strange, wild, weird ocean,
with its leviathans, and its wrecks of golden argosies, and with its
forlorn bells that send up their dreamy sounds ever and anon, while the
fisherman bends upon his oar, and starts and listens, and perchance the
tears may come into his eyes.
EMANUEL DEUTSCH, 1868.
JEWISH LITERATURE
RABBINISM was a sequel to the Bible, and if, like all sequels, it
was unequal to its original, it nevertheless shared its greatness.
The works of all Jews up to the modern period were the sequel to this
sequel. Through them all may be detected the unifying principle that
literature in its truest sense includes life itself; that intellect
is the handmaid to conscience; and that the best books are those which
best teach men how to live. This underlying unity gave more harmony
to Jewish literature than is possessed by many literatures more
distinctively national. The maxim ‘Righteousness delivers from death’
applies to books as well as to men. A literature whose consistent theme
is Righteousness, is immortal.
I. ABRAHAMS, 1899.
THE WORK OF THE RABBIS[22]
JUDAISM and the Bible are by no means identical; the Bible is only
one constituent part of Judaism, though the most fundamental one. Who
taught the average Jew to understand his Judaism, to love his religion
and his God? Without the zeal of the Rabbis, the Bible would never have
become the guide of every Jew. They translated it into the vernacular
for the people, and expounded it to the masses. They taught them not
to despair under the tortures of the present, but to look forward to
the future. At the same time they developed the spirit of the Bible
and never lost sight of the lofty teachings of the Prophets. It is
the immortal merit of the unknown Rabbis of the centuries immediately
before and after the common era that they found and applied the proper
‘fences’ for the preservation of Judaism, and that they succeeded in
rescuing real morality and pure monotheism for the ages that were to
follow.
A. BÜCHLER, 1908.
ISRAEL’S HISTORY NEVER-ENDING
ISRAEL’S ‘Heroic History’, as Manasseh ben Israel called it, is in
truth never-ending. Line upon line is still being added, and _finis_
will never be written on the page of Jewish history till the Light
which shineth more and more unto the Perfect Day shall fall upon
it, and illumine the whole beautiful world. Each Jew and each Jewess
is making his or her mark, or his or her stain, upon the wonderful
unfinished history of the Jews, the history which Herder called the
greatest poem of all time. _‘Ye are my witnesses’, saith the Lord._
Loyal and steadfast witnesses is it, or self-seeking and suborned ones?
A witness of some sort every Jew born is bound to be. He must fulfil
his mission, and through good report and through evil report, and
though it be only writ in water, he must add his item of evidence to
the record that all who run may read.
LADY MAGNUS, 1886.
* * * * *
THE story of this little sect――the most remarkable survival of the
fittest known to humanity――in no way corresponds with its numbers; it
is not a tale of majorities. It is a story that begins very near the
beginning of history, and shows little sign of drawing to a conclusion.
It is a story that has chapters in every country on earth, that has
borne the impress of every period. All men and all ages pass through it
in unending procession.
ISRAEL ZANGWILL, 1895.
THE MEANING OF JEWISH HISTORY
MAN is made man by history. It is history that causes the men
of historic nations to be more civilized than the savage. The Jew
recognizes that he is made what he is by the history of his fathers,
and feels he is losing his better self so far as he loses his hold on
his past history.
JOSEPH JACOBS, 1889.
* * * * *
ISRAEL is the heart of mankind.
YEHUDAH HALEVI.
* * * * *
THE high-road of Jewish history leads to wide outlooks. That which is
great and lasting in Jewish history is the spiritual wealth accumulated
through the ages; the description of the fierce battles fought between
the powers of darkness and light, of freedom and persecution, of
knowledge and ignorance. Our great men are the heroes of the school
and the sages of the synagogue, not the knights of the sanguinary
battlefield. No widow was left to mourn through our victory, no mother
for her lost son, no orphan for the lost father.
M. GASTER, 1906.
THE HALLOWING OF JEWISH HISTORY
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. 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. 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
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 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.
S. M. DUBNOW, 1893.
ISRAEL’S MARTYRDOM
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 can challenge 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?
LEOPOLD ZUNZ, 1855.
* * * * *
COMBINE all the woes that temporal and ecclesiastical tyrannies have
ever inflicted on men or nations, and you will not have reached the
full measure of suffering which this martyr people was called upon to
endure century upon century. It was as if all the powers of earth had
conspired――and they did so conspire――to exterminate the Jewish people,
or at least to transform it into a brutalized horde. History dare not
pass over in silence these scenes of wellnigh unutterable misery. It
is her duty to give a true and vivid account of them; to evoke due
admiration for the superhuman endurance of this suffering people,
and to testify that Israel, like his ancestor in the days of old, has
striven with gods and with men, and has prevailed.
H. GRAETZ.
UNDER THE ROMAN EMPERORS
THERE had now a tumult arisen in Alexandria between the Jewish
inhabitants and the Greeks, and three ambassadors were chosen out of
each party that were at variance who came to Caius (Caligula). Now,
one of the Greek ambassadors was Apion, who uttered many blasphemies
against the Jews; and among other things he said that while all who
were subject to the Roman Empire built altars and temples to Caesar,
and in other regards universally received him as they received the
gods, these Jews alone thought it a dishonourable thing for them to
erect statues in honour of him, as well as to swear by his name.
Hereupon Caligula, taking it very heinously that he should be thus
despised by the Jews alone, gave orders to make an invasion of Judea
with a great body of troops, and, if they were obstinate, to conquer
them by war, and then to erect the statues. Accordingly Petronius,
the Governor of Syria, got together as great a number of auxiliaries
as he possibly could, and took with him two legions of the Roman army.
But there came many ten thousands of the Jews to Petronius, to offer
their petitions to him, that he would not compel them to transgress
and violate the law of their forefathers. ‘If’, said they, ‘thou art
entirely resolved to bring this statue, and erect it, do thou first
kill us, and then do what thou hast resolved on; for, while we are
alive, we cannot permit such things as are forbidden us to be done by
the authority of our Legislator.’
Petronius then hasted to Tiberias; and many thousands of the Jews met
Petronius again, when he was come to Tiberias. Then Petronius said to
them: ‘Will you then make war with Caesar without considering his great
preparations for war and your own weakness?’ They replied: ‘We will not
by any means make war with him, but still we will die before we see our
laws transgressed’. So they threw themselves down upon their faces, and
stretched out their throats, and said they were ready to be slain. Thus
they continued in their resolution, and proposed to themselves to die
willingly rather than to see the dedication of the statue[23].
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, 1st cent.
* * * * *
IN the world-wide Roman Empire it was the Jews alone who refused the
erection of statues and the paying of divine honours to Caligula, and
_thereby saved the honour of the human race_ when all the other peoples
slavishly obeyed the decree of the Imperial madman.
J. FUERST, 1890.
IN MEDIAEVAL ROME
IN the whole history of heroism there is nothing finer than the example
of the Jews of the Roman Ghetto, a handful of men who for 1,500 years
and longer remained true to their own ideals――unmoved and undazzled by
the triumphant world-power of the dominant faith; and undaunted
By the torture prolonged from age to age,
By the infamy, Israel’s heritage,
By the Ghetto’s plague, by the garb’s disgrace,
By the badge of shame, by the felon’s place,
By the branding tool, by the bloody whip,
And the summons to Christian fellowship.
Helpless victims of all the horrors enumerated in these burning lines
of Robert Browning, these Jews were yet _free men_. Not a trace of what
a modern Jewish thinker――Achad Ha’am――has called ‘spiritual slavery’
was theirs. In all fundamental matters they were totally indifferent to
the opinion of those who might torture the body but could never crush
the soul.
J. H. HERTZ, 1915.
* * * * *
THE history of the daughter religions of Judaism is one uninterrupted
series of attempts to commit matricide.
M. STEINSCHNEIDER, 1893.
THE FIRST CRUSADE (1096)[24]
YEA, they slay us and they smite,
Vex our souls with sore affright;
All the closer cleave we, Lord,
To Thine everlasting word.
Not a word of all their Mass
Shall our lips in homage pass;
Though they curse, and bind, and kill,
The living God is with us still.
We still are Thine, though limbs are torn;
Better death than life forsworn.
Noblest matrons seek for death,
Rob their children of their breath;
Fathers, in their fiery zeal,
Slay their sons with murderous steel,
And in heat of holiest strife,
For love of Thee, spare not their life.
The fair and young lie down to die
In witness of Thy Unity;
From dying lips the accents swell,
‘Thy God is One, O Israel’;
And bridegroom answers unto bride,
‘The Lord is God, and none beside’,
And, knit with bonds of holiest faith,
They pass to endless life through death.
KALONYMOS BEN YEHUDAH.
(_Trans. E. H. Plumptre._)
THE SECOND CRUSADE
IN the year 1146 Israel’s communities were terror-stricken. The monk
Rudolph who shamefully persecuted Israel, arose against the people of
God, in order, like Haman of old, to destroy, to slay, and to cause
to perish. He travelled throughout Germany to bestow the cross of the
crusaders upon all who consented to set out for Jerusalem to fight
against the Moslems. In every place where he came he aroused the
people, crying, ‘Avenge ye first the vengeance of our God on His
enemies who are here before us, and then we will go forward’. When the
Jews heard this, their courage failed them by reason of the rage of
their oppressor who sought their destruction. They cried to God, saying:
‘Alas, O Lord God! Behold fifty years, like the period of a jubilee,
have not yet elapsed since we shed our blood like water to sanctify Thy
holy, great, and revered Name, on the day of the great slaughter. Wilt
Thou indeed forsake us for ever and extend Thy wrath against us unto
all generations? Shall misery follow misery?’
The Lord heard our supplications, and turned unto us, and had pity
upon us, according to His abundant loving-kindness. He sent one of
their greatest and respected teachers, the abbot Bernard, from the town
Clairvaux in France, after this evil monk. And he also preached to his
people according to their custom, crying ‘It is good that you are ready
to go forth against the Moslems; but whosoever uses violence against
the Jews commits a deadly sin’.
All honoured this monk as one of their saints, neither has it ever been
said that he received a bribe for his good service to us. Many desisted
from any further murderous attacks against us. We gladly gave our
possessions as a ransom for our lives. Whatever was asked of us, silver
or gold, we withheld not.
If our Creator in His great compassion had not sent us this abbot,
there would have been none in Israel that would have escaped or
remained alive. Blessed be He who saves and delivers. Praised be His
Name.
EPHRAIM OF BONN, 1180.
JEWISH SUFFERING
BREAK forth in lamentation,
My agonizing song,
That like a lava-torrent
Has boiled within me long.
My song shall thrill each hearer,
And none so deaf but hears,
For the burden of my ditty
Is the pain of a thousand years.
It melts both gentle and simple,
Even hearts of stone are riven――
Sets women and flowers weeping;
They weep, the stars of heaven.
And all these tears are flowing
By channels still and wide,
Homeward they are all flowing
To meet in Jordan’s tide.
H. HEINE, 1824.
THE JEWS OF YORK (1190)
WHEN Richard I ascended the throne, the Jews, to conciliate the Royal
protection, brought their tributes. Many had hastened from remote
parts of England, and, appearing at Westminster, the Court and the
mob imagined that they had leagued to bewitch His Majesty. A rumour
spread rapidly through the city that in honour of the festival the Jews
were to be massacred. The populace, at once eager of Royalty and riot,
pillaged and burnt their houses and murdered the devoted Jews.
The people of York soon gathered to imitate the people of London. The
alarmed Jews hastened to Jocenus, the most opulent of the Jews, who
conducted them to the Governor of York Castle, and prevailed on him to
afford them an asylum for their persons and effects.
The castle had sufficient strength for their defence; but a suspicion
arising that the Governor, who often went out, intended to betray them,
they one day refused him entrance. He complained to the sheriff of the
county; and the chiefs of the violent party, who stood deeply indebted
to the Jews, uniting with him, orders were issued to attack the castle.
The cruel multitude, united with the soldiery, felt such a desire
of slaughtering those they intended to despoil, that the sheriff,
repenting of the order, revoked it; but in vain: fanaticism and robbery
once set loose will satiate their appetency for blood and plunder. The
attacks continued, till at length the Jews perceived they could hold
out no longer, and a council was called to consider what remained to be
done in the extremity of danger.
When the Jewish council was assembled, the Haham[25] rose, and
addressed them in this manner: ‘Men of Israel! the God of our ancestors
is omniscient, and there is no one who can say, Why doest Thou this?
This day He commands us to die for His Law; for that Law which we have
cherished from the first hour it was given, which we have preserved
pure throughout our captivity in all nations; and for which, because
of the many consolations it has given us and the eternal hope it
communicates, can we do less than die? Death is before our eyes; and
we have only to choose an honourable and easy one. If we fall into the
hands of our enemies, which you know we cannot escape, our death will
be ignominious and cruel. It is therefore my advice that we elude their
tortures; that we ourselves should be our own executioners; and that we
voluntarily surrender our lives to our Creator. God seems to call for
us, but let us not be unworthy of that call.’ Having said this, the old
man sat down and wept.
The assembly was divided in its opinions. Again the Rabbin rose, and
spoke these few words in a firm and decisive tone. ‘My children! since
we are not unanimous in our opinions, let those who do not approve of
my advice depart from this assembly!’ Some departed, but the greater
number attached themselves to their venerable priest. They now employed
themselves in consuming their valuables by fire; and every man, fearful
of trusting to the timid and irresolute hand of the women, first
destroyed his wife and children, and then himself. Jocenus and the
Rabbin alone remained. Their life was protracted to the last, that
they might see everything performed according to their orders. Jocenus,
being the chief Jew, was distinguished by the last mark of human
respect in receiving his death from the consecrated hand of the aged
Rabbin, who immediately after performed the melancholy duty on himself.
All this was transacted in the depth of the night. In the morning the
walls of the castle were seen wrapt in flames, and only a few miserable
and pusillanimous beings, unworthy of the sword, were viewed on the
battlements pointing to their extinct brethren. When they opened the
gates of the castle, these men verified the prediction of their late
Rabbin; for the multitude, bursting through the solitary courts, found
themselves defrauded of their hopes, and in a moment avenged themselves
on the feeble wretches who knew not to die with honour.
ISAAC D’ISRAELI, 1793.
THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN, 1492
LOOK, they move! No comrades near but curses;
Tears gleam in beards of men sore with reverses;
Flowers from fields abandoned, loving nurses,
Fondly deck the women’s raven hair.
Faded, scentless flowers that shall remind them
Of their precious homes and graves behind them;
Old men, clasping Torah-scrolls, unbind them,
Lift the parchment flags and silent lead.
Mock not with thy light, O sun, our morrow;
Cease not, cease not, O ye songs of sorrow;
From what land a refuge can we borrow,
Weary, thrust out, God-forsaken we?
Could ye, suff’ring souls, peer through the Future,
From despair ye would awake to rapture;
Lo! The Genoese boldly steers to capture
Freedom’s realm beyond an unsailed sea![26]
L. A. FRANKL.
(_Trans. by M. D. Louis._)
THE EXODUS
(AUGUST 3, 1492)
THE Spanish noon is a blaze of azure fire, and the dusty pilgrims crawl
like an endless serpent along treeless plains and bleached high-roads,
through rock-split ravines and castellated, cathedral-shadowed towns.
2. The hoary patriarch, wrinkled as an almond shell, bows painfully
upon his staff. The beautiful young mother, ivory-pale, wellnigh swoons
beneath her burden; in her large enfolding arms nestles her sleeping
babe, round her knees flock her little ones with bruised and bleeding
feet. ‘Mother, shall we soon be there?’
3. The halt, the blind, are amid the train. Sturdy pack-horses
laboriously drag the tented wagons wherein lie the sick athirst with
fever.
4. The panting mules are urged forward by spur and goad; stuffed are
the heavy saddle-bags with the wreckage of ruined homes.
5. Hark to the tinkling silver bells that adorn the tenderly carried
silken scrolls.
6. Noble and abject, learned and simple, illustrious and obscure,
plod side by side, all brothers now, all merged in one routed army of
misfortune.
7. Woe to the straggler who falls by the wayside! No friend shall close
his eyes.
8. They leave behind the grape, the olive, and the fig; the vines
they planted, the corn they sowed, the garden-cities of Andalusia and
Aragon, Estremadura and La Mancha, of Granada and Castile; the altar,
the hearth, and the grave of their fathers.
9. The townsman spits at their garments, the shepherd quits his flock,
the peasant his plough, to pelt with curses and stones; the villager
sets on their trail his yelping cur.
10. Oh, the weary march! oh, the uptorn roots of home! oh, the
blankness of the receding goal!
11. Listen to their lamentations. _They that ate dainty food are
desolate in the streets; they were reared in scarlet embrace dunghills.
They flee away and wander about. Men say among the nations, They shall
no more sojourn there; our end is near, our days are full, our doom is
come._ (Lam. 4. 5, 15, 18.)
12. Whither shall they turn? for the West hath cast them out, and the
East refuseth to receive.
EMMA LAZARUS, 1883.
A SONG OF REDEMPTION
SURELY a limit boundeth every woe,
But mine enduring anguish hath no end;
My grievous years are spent in ceaseless flow,
My wound hath no amend.
O’erwhelmed, my helm doth fail, no hand is strong
To steer the bark to port, her longed-for aim.
How long, O Lord, wilt Thou my doom prolong?
When shall be heard the Dove’s[27] sweet voice of song?
O leave us not to perish for our wrong,
Who bear Thy Name!
_Wherefore wilt Thou forget us, Lord, for aye?_
_Mercy we crave!_
_O Lord, we hope in Thee alway,_
_Our King will save!_
Wounded and crushed beneath my load I sigh,
Despised and abject, outcast, trampled low;
How long, O Lord, shall I of violence cry,
My heart dissolve with woe?
How many years without a gleam of light
Has thraldom been our lot, our portion pain?
With Ishmael[28] as a lion in his might,
And Persia as an owl of darksome night,
Beset on either side, behold our plight
Betwixt the twain.
_Wherefore wilt Thou forget us, Lord, for aye?_
_Mercy we crave!_
_O Lord, we hope in Thee alway,_
_Our King will save!_
SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, 1050.
(_Trans. Nina Salaman._)
SHYLOCK
SHYLOCK is ‘the Jew that Shakespeare drew’. He is not the Jew of real
life, even in the Middle Ages, stained as their story is with the hot
tears――nay, the very heart’s blood――of the martyred race. The mediaeval
Jew did not take vengeance on his cruel foes. Nay, more than this:
with a sublime magnanimity he could actually preach and practise widest
benevolence towards his oppressors. Throughout the Middle Ages, when
Jews were daily plundered and tortured, and done to death ‘for the
glory of God’, not a word was breathed against the morality of the
victims. They suffered because they were heretics, because they would
not juggle with their conscience and profess a belief that did not live
in their souls. But Jewish ethics soared to still nobler heights. The
Jew preserved his integrity in spite of his suffering; but more than
this, he forgave――ay, even blessed――its authors. The Jews hunted out
of Spain in 1492 were in turn cruelly expelled from Portugal. Some
took refuge on the African coast. Eighty years later the descendants of
the men who had committed or allowed these enormities were defeated in
Africa, whither they had been led by their king, Dom Sebastian. Those
who were not slain were offered as slaves at Fez to the descendants of
the Jewish exiles from Portugal. ‘The humbled Portuguese nobles’, the
historian narrates, ‘were comforted when their purchasers proved to be
Jews, for they knew that they had humane hearts.’
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1891.
ON THE EVE OF THE RE-SETTLEMENT IN ENGLAND
THE Lord, blessed for ever, by His prophet Jeremiah (chap. 29. 7)
gives it in command to the captive Israelites that were dispersed
among the heathens, that they should continually pray for and endeavour
the peace, welfare, and prosperity of the city wherein they dwelt and
the inhabitants thereof. This the Jews have always done, and continue
to this day in all their synagogues, with a particular blessing of
the prince or magistrate under whose protection they live. And this
the Right Honourable my Lord St. John can testify, who, when he was
ambassador to the Lords the States of the United Provinces, was pleased
to honour our synagogue at Amsterdam with his presence, where our
nation entertained him with music and all expressions of joy and
gladness, and also pronounced a blessing, not only upon His Honour then
present, but upon the whole Commonwealth of England, for that they were
a people in league and amity, and because we conceived some hopes that
they would manifest towards us what we ever bare towards them, viz. all
love and affection.
MANASSEH BEN ISRAEL, 1656.
JEWISH EMANCIPATION
THE whole question of emancipation, as it concerns only our external
condition, is in Judaism but of secondary interest. Sooner or later
the nations will decide the question between right and wrong, between
humanity and inhumanity; and the first awakening of a higher calling
than the mere lust for possession and enjoyment, the first expression
of a nobler recognition of God as the only Lord and Father, and of
the earth as a Holy Land assigned by Him to all men for the fulfilment
of their human calling――will find its expression everywhere in the
emancipation of all who are oppressed, including the Jews. We have a
higher object to attain, and this is entirely in our own hands――the
ennobling of ourselves, the realization of Judaism by Jews.
SAMSON RAPHAEL HIRSCH, 1836.
(_Trans. B. Drachmann._)
* * * * *
IF the political privileges we have gained could in any way weaken
our Jewish sympathies, they would have been purchased at a terrible
cost, and would signally defeat the intentions of those who aided and
laboured for the movement.
BARON LIONEL DE ROTHSCHILD, 1869.
THE JEWISH QUESTION
TO approach the Jewish question is to be confronted with every
great question of the day――social, political, financial, humanitarian,
national, and religious. Each phase should be treated by an expert;
but however discussed or dealt with, there is one point of view which
should never be lost sight of, namely, the point of view of humanity.
First and foremost we must be human if we would raise our voice on so
human a theme.
JOSEPHINE LAZARUS, 1892.
* * * * *
EVERY country has the Jews it deserves.
K. E. FRANZOS, 1875.
* * * * *
TO base the appeal for justice to present-day Jewry upon the
cultural services of ancient Israel would be treason to the inalienable
rights of man. A people may for a time be robbed of these rights,
but――whatever the alleged political reason for such a crime――it cannot
be legally or equitably deprived of them.
M. STEINSCHNEIDER, 1893.
* * * * *
IN a free State, it is not the Christian that rules the Jew, neither is
it the Jew that rules the Christian; it is Justice that rules.
LEOPOLD ZUNZ, 1859.
THE JEWS OF ENGLAND[29]
(1290‒1902)
AN Edward’s England spat us out――a band
Foredoomed to redden Vistula or Rhine,
And leaf-like toss with every wind malign.
All mocked the faith they could not understand.
Six centuries have passed. The yellow brand
On shoulder nor on soul has left a sign,
And on our brows must Edward’s England twine
Her civic laurels with an equal hand.
Thick-clustered stars of fierce supremacy
Upon the martial breast of England glance!
She seems of War the very Deity.
Could aught remain her glory to enhance?
Yea, for I count her noblest victory
Her triumph o’er her own intolerance.
ISRAEL ZANGWILL, 1902.
WELCOME OF THE HEBREW CONGREGATION, NEWPORT,[30]
RHODE ISLAND, U.S.A., TO GEORGE WASHINGTON
SIR,
Permit the Children of the Stock of Abraham to approach you with the
most cordial affection and esteem for your person and merits, and to
join with your fellow citizens in welcoming you to Newport.
Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free
citizens, we now (with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty
Disposer of all events) behold a Government erected by the Majesty
of the people――a Government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to
persecution no assistance, but generously affording to all, liberty
of conscience, and immunities of citizenship, deeming every one,
of whatever Nation, tongue, or language, equal parts of the great
Government Machine. This so ample and extensive Federal Union, whose
basis is Philanthropy, Mutual Confidence, and Public Virtue, we cannot
but acknowledge to be the work of the great God, Who ruleth in the
Armies of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, doing
whatever seemeth Him good.
For all the blessings of civil and religious liberty which we enjoy
under an equal and benign administration, we desire to send up our
thanks to the Ancient of Days, the great Preserver of men, beseeching
Him that the Angel who conducted our forefathers through the Wilderness
into the Promised Land may graciously conduct you through all the
difficulties and dangers of this mortal life. And when, like Joshua,
full of days and full of honour, you are gathered to your Fathers, may
you be admitted into the Heavenly Paradise to partake of the water of
life and the tree of immortality.
Done and signed by order of the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode
Island, August 17th, 1790.
MOSES SEIXAS.
BRITISH CITIZENSHIP
BRITISH patriotism is not the mediaeval demand that the citizens of
any one country all think alike, that they be of the same blood, or
that they even speak the same language. Britain’s mild sovereignty
respects the personality of the ethnic groups found within the borders
of its world-wide dominion; nay, it fosters the linguistic heritage,
the national individuality even, of Irishman and Welshman, of French
Canadian and Afrikander Boer, and encourages them all to develop along
their own lines. Any one, therefore, who deems that patriotism exacts
from him the purposeless sacrifice of his religious tradition and
historic memory――that man is an alien in spirit to the Anglo-Saxon
genius, and is unworthy of his British citizenship.
J. H. HERTZ, 1915.
THE RUSSIAN JEW[31]
SCIENTISTS tell us that coal is nothing but concentrated sunlight.
Primeval forests that for years out of number had been drinking in the
rays of the sun, having been buried beneath the ground and excluded
from the reviving touch of light and air, were gradually turned into
coal――black, rugged, shapeless, yet retaining all its pristine energy,
which, when released, provides us with light and heat. The story of
the Russian Jew is the story of the coal. Under a surface marred by
oppression and persecution he has accumulated immense stores of energy,
in which we may find an unlimited supply of light and heat for our
minds and our hearts. All we need is to discover the process, long
known in the case of coal, of transforming latent strength into living
power.
I. FRIEDLANDER, 1915.
YIDDISH[32]
I HAVE never been able to understand how it is that a language spoken
by perhaps more than half of the Jewish race should be regarded with
such horror, as though it were a crime. Six million speakers are
sufficient to give historic dignity to any language! One great writer
alone is enough to make it holy and immortal. Take Norwegian. It is the
language of only two million people. But it has become immortal through
the great literary achievements of Ibsen. And even though Yiddish
cannot boast of so great a writer as Ibsen, it has reason to be proud
of numerous smaller men――poets, romancers, satirists, dramatists.
The main point is that Yiddish incorporates the essence of a life which
is distinctive and unlike any other. There is nothing of holiness in
any of the outer expressions of life. The one and only thing holy is
the _human soul_, which is the source and fount of all human effort.
ISRAEL ZANGWILL, 1906.
* * * * *
THERE is probably no other language in existence on which so much
opprobrium has been heaped as on Yiddish. Such a bias can be explained
only as a manifestation of a general prejudice against everything
Jewish.
LEO WIENER, 1899.
RUSSO-JEWISH EDUCATION
AMONG the Jews of Poland and Russia there was no learned estate, not
because there were no scholars, but because the people itself was a
nation of students. The ideal type for the Russian Jew was the _Lamdan_,
the scholar. The highest ambition of the Russian Jew was that his sons,
and if he had only daughters, that his sons-in-law should be _Lomdim_;
and the greatest achievement of a man’s life was his ability to provide
sufficiently for them, so that, relieved from economic cares, they
might devote themselves unrestrictedly to Jewish learning. To be sure,
this learning was one-sided. Yet it was both wide and deep, for it
embraced the almost boundless domain of religious Hebrew literature,
and involved the knowledge of one of the most complicated systems of
law. The knowledge of the Hebrew prayers and the Five Books of Moses
would not have been sufficient to save the Russian Jew from the most
terrible opprobrium――that of being an _Am-Haaretz_, an ignoramus.
The ability to understand a Talmudic text, which demands years of
preparation, was the minimum requirement for one who wanted to be of
any consequence in the community.
I. FRIEDLANDER, 1913.
PASSOVER IN OLD RUSSIA[33]
THE Passover season, when we celebrated our deliverance from the land
of Egypt, and felt so glad and thankful as if it had only just happened,
was the time our Gentile neighbours chose to remind us that Russia was
another Egypt. It was not so bad within the Pale; but in Russian cities,
and even more in the country districts, where Jewish families lived
scattered by special permission of the police, who were always changing
their minds about letting them stay, the Gentiles made the Passover
a time of horror for the Jews. Somebody would start up that lie about
murdering Christian children, and the stupid peasants would get mad
about it, and fill themselves with vodka, and set out to kill the Jews.
They attacked them with knives and clubs, and scythes and axes, killed
them or tortured them, and burned their houses. This was called a
‘pogrom’. Jews who escaped the pogroms came with wounds on them, and
horrible, horrible stories of little babies torn limb from limb before
their mother’s eyes. Only to hear these things made one sob and sob and
choke with pain. People who saw such things never smiled any more, no
matter how long they lived; and sometimes their hair turned white in a
day, and some people became insane on the spot.
MARY ANTIN, 1911.
THE POGROM
OCTOBER, 1905
IT had already lasted two days. But as nobody dined, nobody exchanged
greetings, and nobody thought of winding up the clock for the night
(for people slept dressed, anywhere, on lofts, in sheds, or in empty
railway carriages), all notion of time had disappeared. People only
heard the incessant jingling of broken glass-panes. At this terrible
sound, the arms stiffened and the eyes became distended with fright.
Some distant houses were burning. Along the red-tinted street with the
red pavement, there ran by a red man, whilst another red man stretched
his arm, and from the tips of his fingers there broke forth quickly a
sharp, snapping, cracking sound――and the running man dropped down.
A strange, sharp cry, ‘They are shoo-ooting!’ passed along the street.
Invisible and inexorable demons made their appearance. Houses and
nurseries were broken in. Old men had their arms fractured; women’s
white bosoms were trampled upon by heavy, dirty heels. Many were
perishing by torture; others were burnt alive.
Two persons were hiding in a dark cellar; an old man with his son, a
schoolboy. The old man went up and opened the outer door again, to make
the place look deserted by the owners. A merchant had run in. He wept,
not from fear but from feeling himself in security.
‘I have a son like you’, he said, tearfully.
He then breathed heavily and nervously, and added reflectively, ‘Like
you, my boy, yes!’
The master of the house caught the merchant by his elbow, pulled him
close to himself, and whispered into his ear:
‘Hush! They might hear us!’
There they stood, expectant. Now and then, a rustling; an even,
sleepless breathing could be heard. The brain cannot familiarize itself
with these sounds in the darkness and silence. Perhaps they were asleep,
none could tell.
At night――it must have been late at night――another two stole in quietly.
‘Is it you?’ asked one of them, without seeing anybody, and the sudden
sound of his voice seemed to light up the darkness for a moment.
‘Yes’, answered the schoolboy. ‘It’s all right!’
‘Hush! They might hear you’, said the owner of the cellar, catching
each of them by the arm and pulling them down.
The new-comers placed themselves by the wall, while one of them was
rubbing his forehead with his hand.
‘What is the matter?’ asked the schoolboy in a whisper.
‘It is blood.’
Then they grew silent. The injured man applied a handkerchief to
his wound, and became quiet. There followed again a thick silence,
untroubled by time. Again a sleepless breathing!
On the top, underneath the ceiling, a very faint whiteness appeared.
The schoolboy was asleep, but the other four raised their heads and
looked up. They looked long, for about half an hour, so that their
muscles were aching through the protracted craning of their necks. At
last it became clear that it was a tiny little window through which
dawn peeped in.
Then hasty, frightened steps were heard, and there appeared a tall,
coatless man, followed by a woman with a baby in her arms. The dawn was
advancing, and one could read the expression of wild fear that stamped
itself upon their faces.
‘This way! This way!’ whispered the man.
‘They are running after us, they are looking out for us’, said
the woman. Her shoes were put on her bare feet, and her young body
displayed strange, white, malignant spots, reminding one of a corpse.
‘They won’t find us; but, for God’s sake, be quiet!’
‘They are close by in the courtyard. Oh! be quiet, be quiet....’
The wounded man got hold of the merchant and the owner by the hand,
while the merchant seized the man who had no coat. There they stood,
forming a live chain, looking on at the mother with her baby.
All of a sudden there broke out a strange though familiar sound, so
close and doomful. What doom it foreboded they felt at once, but their
brains were loath to believe it.
The sound was repeated. It was the cry of the infant. The merchant made
a kindly face and said: ‘Baby is crying....’
‘Lull him, my dear’, said he, rushing to the mother. ‘You will cause
the death of us all.’
Everybody’s chest and throat gasped with faintness. The mother marched
up and down the cellar lulling and coaxing.
‘You must not cry; sleep, my golden one ... It is I, your mother ... my
heart....’
But the child cried on obstinately, wildly. There must have been
something in the mother’s face that was not calculated to produce a
tranquilizing effect.
And now, in this warm and strange underground atmosphere, the woman’s
brain wrenched out a wild, mad, idea. It seemed to her that she had
read it in the eyes, in the suffering silence of these unknown people.
And these unhappy, frightened men understood that she was thinking of
them. They understood it by the unutterably mournful tenderness with
which she chanted, while drinking in the infant’s eyes with her own.
‘He will soon fall asleep. I know. It is always like that; he cries for
a moment, then he falls asleep at once. He is a very quiet boy.’ She
addressed the tall man with a painful, insinuating smile. From outside
there broke in a distant noise. Then came a thud, and a crack, shaking
the air.
‘They are searching’, whispered the schoolboy.
But the infant went on crying hopelessly.
‘He will undo us all’, blurted out the tall man.
‘I shall not give him away ... no, never!’ ejaculated the distracted
mother.
‘O God’, whispered the merchant, and covered his face with his hands.
His hair was unkempt after a sleepless night. The tall man stared at
the infant with fixed, protruding eyes....
‘I don’t know you’, the woman uttered, low and crossly, on catching
that fixed look. ‘Who are you? What do you want of me?’
She rushed to the other men, but everybody drew back from her with fear.
The infant was crying on, piercing the brain with its shouting.
‘Give it to me’, said the merchant, his right eyebrow trembling.
‘Children like me.’
All of a sudden it grew dark in the cellar; somebody had approached
the little window and was listening. At this shadow, breaking in so
suddenly, they all grew quiet. They felt that it was coming, it was
near, and that not another second must be lost.
The mother turned round. She stood up on her toes, and with high,
uplifted arms she handed over her child to the merchant. It seemed to
her that by this gesture she was committing a terrible crime ... that
hissing voices were cursing her, rejecting her from heaven for ever and
ever....
Strange to say, finding itself in the thick, clumsy, but loving hands
of the merchant, the child grew silent.
But the mother interpreted this silence differently. In sight of
everybody the woman grew grey in a single moment, as if they had
poured some acid over her hair. And as soon as the child’s cry died
away, there resounded another cry, more awful, more shattering and
heart-rending.
The mother rose up on her toes; and grey, terrible, like the goddess of
justice herself, she howled in a desperate, inhuman voice that brought
destruction with it.... Nobody had expected that sudden madness. The
schoolboy fell in a swoon.
* * * * *
Afterwards, the newspapers reported details of the killing of six men
and an infant by the mob; for none had dared to touch the mad old woman
of twenty-six.
OSSIP DYMOV, 1906.
UNDER THE ROMANOFFS
THE plaything of a heartless bureaucracy, the natural prey of all the
savage elements of society, loaded with fetters in one place, and in
another driven out like some wild beast, the Russian Jew finds that
for him, at least, life is composed of little else than bitterness,
suffering, and degradation.
For magnitude and gloom the tragical situation has no parallel in
history. Some six millions of human beings are unceasingly subjected
to a State-directed torture which is both destructive and demoralizing,
and constitutes at once a crime against humanity and an international
perplexity.
LUCIEN WOLF, 1912.
* * * * *
EACH crime that wakes in man the beast,
Is visited upon his kind.
The lust of mobs, the greed of priest,
The tyranny of kings, combined
To root his seed from earth again,
His record is one cry of pain.
*****
Coward? Not he, who faces death,
Who singly against worlds has fought,
For what? A name he may not breathe,
For liberty of prayer and thought.
EMMA LAZARUS, 1882.
‘SOLDIERS OF NICHOLAS’[34]
THERE was one thing the Gentiles might do to me worse than burning or
rending. It was what was done to unprotected Jewish children who fell
into the hands of priests or nuns. They might baptize me. That would
be worse than death by torture. Every Jewish child had that feeling.
There were stories by the dozen of Jewish boys who were kidnapped by
the Czar’s agents and brought up in Gentile families till they were old
enough to enter the army, where they served until forty years of age;
and all those years the priests tried, by bribes and daily tortures,
to force them to accept baptism, but in vain. This was the time of
Nicholas I.
Some of these ‘soldiers of Nicholas’, as they were called, were taken
as little boys of seven or eight――snatched from their mothers’ laps.
They were carried to distant villages, where their friends could never
trace them, and turned over to some dirty, brutal peasant, who used
them like slaves, and kept them with the pigs. No two were ever left
together; and they were given false names, so that they were entirely
cut off from their own world. And then the lonely child was turned over
to the priests, and he was flogged and starved and terrified――a little
helpless boy who cried for his mother; but still he refused to be
baptized. The priests promised him good things to eat, fine clothes,
and freedom from labour; but the boy turned away, and said his prayers
secretly――the Hebrew prayers.
As he grew older, severer tortures were invented for him; still he
refused baptism. By this time he had forgotten his mother’s face, and
of his prayers perhaps only the ‘Shema’ remained in his memory; but he
was a Jew, and nothing would make him change. After he entered the army,
he was bribed with promises of promotions and honours. He remained a
private, and endured the cruellest discipline. When he was discharged,
at the age of forty, he was a broken man, without a home, without a
clue to his origin, and he spent the rest of his life wandering among
Jewish settlements, searching for his family, hiding the scars of
torture under his rags, begging his way from door to door.
There were men in our town whose faces made you old in a minute. They
had served Nicholas I, and come back, unbaptized.
MARY ANTIN, 1911.
BONTZYE SHWEIG[35]
(BONTZYE THE SILENT)
DOWN here, in this world, Silent Bontzye’s death made no impression at
all. Ask any one you like who Bontzye was, how he lived, and what he
died of; whether of heart failure, or whether his strength gave out, or
whether his back broke under a heavy load, and they won’t know. Perhaps,
after all, he died of hunger.
Bontzye lived quietly and died quietly. He passed through our world
like a shadow. He lived like a little dun-coloured grain of sand on
the sea-shore, among millions of his kind; and when the wind lifted him
and blew him over to the other side of the sea, nobody noticed it. When
he was alive, the mud in the street preserved no impression of his feet;
after his death the wind overturned the little board on his grave. The
grave-digger’s wife found it a long way off from the spot, and boiled a
potful of potatoes over it. Three days after that, the grave-digger had
forgotten where he had laid him.
A shadow! His likeness remained photographed in nobody’s brain, in
nobody’s heart; not a trace of him remained.
‘No kith, no kin!’ He lived and died alone.
Had the world been less busy, some one might have remarked that
Bontzye (also a human being) went about with two extinguished eyes and
fearfully hollow cheeks; that even when he had no load on his shoulders
his head drooped earthward as though, while yet alive, he were looking
for his grave. When they carried Bontzye into the hospital, his corner
in the underground lodging was soon filled――there were ten of his like
waiting for it, and they put it up for auction among themselves. When
they carried him from the hospital bed to the dead-house, there were
twenty poor sick persons waiting for the bed. When he had been taken
out of the dead-house, they brought in twenty bodies from under a
building that had fallen in. Who knows how long he will rest in his
grave? Who knows how many are waiting for the little plot of ground?
A quiet birth, a quiet life, a quiet death, and a quieter burial.
* * * * *
But it was not so in the Other World. There Bontzye’s death made a
great impression.
The blast of the great Messianic Shofar sounded through all the seven
heavens; Bontzye Shweig has left the earth! The largest angels with the
broadest wings flew about and told one another; Bontzye Shweig is to
take his seat in the Heavenly Academy! In Paradise there was a noise
and a joyful tumult: Bontzye Shweig! Just fancy! Bontzye Shweig!
Little child-angels with sparkling eyes, gold thread-work wings, and
silver slippers, ran delightedly to meet him. The rustle of the wings,
the clatter of the little slippers, and the merry laughter of the fresh,
rosy mouths, filled all the heavens and reached to the Throne of Glory.
Abraham our father stood in the gate, his right hand stretched out with
a hearty greeting, and a sweet smile lit up his old face.
What are they wheeling through heaven? Two angels are pushing a golden
arm-chair into Paradise for Bontzye Shweig.
What flashed so brightly? They were carrying past a gold crown set with
precious stones all for Bontzye Shweig.
‘Before the decision of the Heavenly Court has been given?’ ask
the saints, not quite without jealousy. ‘Oh’, reply the angels, ‘that
will be a mere formality. Even the prosecutor won’t say a word against
Bontzye Shweig. The case will not last five minutes.’ Just consider!
Bontzye Shweig!
All this time, Bontzye, just as in the other world, was too frightened
to speak. He is sure it is all a dream, or else simply a mistake. He
dared not raise his eyes, lest the dream should vanish, lest he should
wake up in some cave full of snakes and lizards. He was afraid to speak,
afraid to move, lest he should be recognized and flung into the pit.
He trembles and does not hear the angels’ compliments, does not see how
they dance round him, makes no answer to the greeting of Abraham our
father, and when he is led into the presence of the Heavenly Court he
does not even wish it ‘Good morning!’ He is beside himself with terror.
‘Who knows what rich man, what rabbi, what saint, they take me for?
He will come――and that will be the end of me!’ His terror is such, he
never even hears the president call out: ‘The case of Bontzye Shweig!’
adding, as he hands the deeds to the advocate, ‘Read, but make haste!’
The whole hall goes round and round in Bontzye’s eyes; there is a
rushing in his ears. And through the rushing he hears more and more
clearly the voice of the advocate, speaking sweetly as a violin.
‘His name’, he hears, ‘fitted him like the dress made for a slender
figure by the hand of an artist-tailor.’
‘What is he talking about?’ wondered Bontzye, and he heard an impatient
voice break in with: ‘No similes, please!’
‘He never’, continued the advocate, ‘was heard to complain of either
God or man; there was never a flash of hatred in his eye; he never
lifted it with a claim on heaven.’
Still Bontzye does not understand, and once again the hard voice
interrupts: ‘No rhetoric, please!’
‘Job gave way――this one was more unfortunate.’
‘Facts, dry facts.’
‘He kept silent’, the advocate went on, ‘even when his mother died and
he was given a stepmother at thirteen years old――a serpent, a vixen.’
‘Can they mean me after all?’ thought Bontzye.
‘No insinuations against a third party’, said the president, angrily.
‘She grudged him every mouthful――stale, mouldy bread, tendons instead
of meat――and she drank coffee with cream.’
‘Keep to the subject’, ordered the president.
‘She grudged him everything but her finger-nails, and his black
and blue body showed through the holes in his torn and fusty clothes.
Winter time, in the hardest frost, he had to chop wood for her,
barefoot in the yard; and his hands were too young and too weak, the
logs too thick, the hatchet too blunt. But he kept silent, even to his
father.’
‘To that drunkard?’ laughs the accuser, and Bontzye feels cold in every
limb.
‘And always alone’, he continued; ‘no playmates, no school, nor
teaching of any kind――never a whole garment――never a free moment.’
‘Facts, please!’ reminded the president.
‘He kept silent even later, when his father seized him by the hair
in a fit of drunkenness and flung him out into the street on a snowy
winter’s night. He quietly picked himself up out of the snow and ran
whither his feet carried him. He kept silent all the way to the great
town――however hungry he might be, he only begged with his eyes. Bathed
in a cold sweat, crushed under heavy loads, his empty stomach convulsed
with hunger――he kept silent. Bespattered with mud, spat at, driven with
his load off the pavement and into the road among the cabs, carts, and
tramways, looking death in the eyes every moment. He never calculated
the difference between other people’s lot and his own――he kept silent.
And he never insisted loudly on his pay; he stood in the doorway like
a beggar, with a dog-like pleading in his eyes――‘Come again later!’ and
he went like a shadow to come again later, and beg for his wage more
humbly than before. He kept silent even when they cheated him of part,
or threw in a false coin.
‘He took everything in silence.’
‘They mean me after all’, thought Bontzye.
* * * * *
‘Once’, continued the advocate, after a sip of water, ‘a change came
into his life: there came flying along a carriage on rubber tires,
drawn by two runaway horses. The driver already lay some distance off
on the pavement with a cracked skull, the terrified horses foamed at
the mouth, sparks shot from their hoofs, their eyes shone like fiery
lamps on a winter’s night――and in the carriage, more dead than alive,
sat a man.
‘And Bontzye stopped the horses. And the man he had saved was a
charitable Jew who was not ungrateful. He put the dead man’s whip into
Bontzye’s hands, and Bontzye became a coachman. More than that, he was
provided with a wife. And Bontzye kept silent!’
‘Me, they mean me!’ Bontzye assured himself again, and yet had not the
courage to give a glance at the Heavenly Court.
He listens to the advocate further:
‘He kept silent also when his protector became bankrupt and did not pay
him his wages. He kept silent when his wife ran away from him.’
‘Me, they mean me!’ Now he is sure of it.
* * * * *
‘He kept silent even’, began the angelic advocate once more in a still
softer and sadder voice, ‘when the same philanthropist paid all his
creditors their due but him――and even when (riding once again in a
carriage with rubber tires and fiery horses) he knocked Bontzye down
and drove over him. He kept silent even in the hospital, where one may
cry out. He kept silent when the doctor would not come to his bedside
without being paid fifteen kopeks, and when the attendant demanded
another five――for changing his linen.
‘He kept silent in the death struggle――silent in death.
‘Not a word against God; not a word against men!
‘Dixi!’
Once more Bontzye trembled all over. He knew that after the advocate
comes the prosecutor. Who knows what he will say? Bontzye himself
remembered nothing of his life. Even in the other world he forgot every
moment what had happened in the one before. The advocate had recalled
everything to his mind. Who knows what the prosecutor will not remind
him of?
‘Gentlemen’, begins the prosecutor, in a voice biting and acid as
vinegar――but he breaks off.
‘Gentlemen’, he begins again, but his voice is milder, and a second
time he breaks off.
Then from out the same throat comes in a voice that is almost gentle:
‘Gentlemen! He was silent! I will be silent too!’
There is a hush――and there sounds in front a new, soft, trembling voice:
‘Bontzye, my child!’ It speaks like a harp. ‘My dear child, Bontzye!’
And Bontzye’s heart melts within him. Now he would lift up his eyes,
but they are blinded with tears; he never felt such sweet emotion
before. ‘My child! Bontzye!’――no one, since his mother died, had spoken
to him with such words in such a voice.
‘My child’, continues the presiding judge, ‘you have suffered and kept
silent; there is no whole limb, no whole bone in your body without a
scar, without a wound, not a fibre of your soul that has not bled――and
you kept silent. There they did not understand. Perhaps you yourself
did not know that you might have cried out, and that at your cry
the walls of Jericho would have shaken and fallen. You yourself knew
nothing of your hidden power.
‘In the other world your silence was not understood, but that is the
World of Delusion; in the World of Truth you will receive your reward.
The Heavenly Court will not judge you; the Heavenly Court will not pass
sentence on you; they will not apportion you a reward. Take what you
will! Everything is yours.’
Bontzye looks up for the first time. He is dazzled; everything shines
and flashes and streams with light.
‘_Taki_――really?’ he asks, shyly.
‘Yes, really!’ answers the presiding judge, with decision; ‘really,
I tell you, everything is yours; everything in heaven belongs to you.
Because all that shines and sparkles is only the reflection of your
hidden goodness, a reflection of your soul. You only take of what is
yours.’
‘_Taki?_’ asks Bontzye again, this time in a firmer voice.
‘_Taki!_ taki! taki!’ they answer from all sides.
‘Well, if it is so’, Bontzye smiles, ‘I would like to have every day,
for breakfast, a hot roll with fresh butter.’
The Court and the angels looked down, a little ashamed; the prosecutor
laughed.
J. L. PERETZ, 1894.
(_Trans. Helena Frank._)
THE WATCH ON THE JORDAN[36]
(ZIONIST HYMN)
LIKE the crash of the thunder
Which splitteth asunder
The flame of the cloud,
On our ears ever falling
A voice is heard calling
From Zion aloud.
‘Let your spirits’ desires
For the land of your sires
Eternally burn;
From the foe to deliver
Our own holy river,
To Jordan return.’
Where the soft-flowing stream
Murmurs low as in dream
There set we our watch!
Our watchword, ‘The sword
Of our land and our Lord’;
By Jordan then set we our watch.
Rest in peace, lovéd land,
For we rest not, but stand,
Off-shaken our sloth.
When the bolts of war rattle,
To shirk not the battle
We make thee our oath.
As we hope for a heaven,
Thy chains shall be riven,
Thine ensign unfurled.
And in pride of our race
We will fearlessly face
The might of the world.
When our trumpet is blown,
And our standard is flown,
Then set we our watch!
Our watchword, ‘The sword
Of our land and our Lord’;
By Jordan then set we our watch.
Yea, as long as there be
Birds in air, fish in sea,
And blood in our veins;
And the lions in might,
Leaping down from the height,
Shaking, roaring, their manes;
And the dew nightly laves,
The forgotten old graves
Where Judah’s sires sleep;
We swear, who are living,
To rest not in striving,
To pause not to weep.
Let the trumpet be blown,
Let the standard be flown,
Now set we our watch;
Our watchword, ‘The sword
Of our land and our Lord’;
In Jordan now set we our watch.
N. H. IMBER.
(_Trans. I. Zangwill._)
THE TRAGEDY OF ASSIMILATION
WHAT I understand by assimilation is loss of identity. It is this kind
of assimilation, with the terrible consequences indicated, that I dread
most――even more than pogroms.
It _is_ a tragedy to see a great, ancient people, distinguished for
its loyalty to its religion, and its devotion to its sacred Law, losing
thousands every day by the mere process of attrition. It _is_ a tragedy
to see a language held sacred by all the world, in which Holy Writ was
composed, which served as the depository of Israel’s greatest and best
thoughts, doomed to oblivion. It _is_ a tragedy to see the descendants
of those who revealed religion to the world, and who developed the
greatest religious literature in existence, so little familiar with
real Jewish thought that they have no other interpretation to offer
of Israel’s Scriptures, Israel’s religion, and Israel’s ideals and
aspirations and hopes, than those suggested by their natural opponents,
slavishly following their opinions, copying their phrases, and
repeating their catchwords. I am not accusing anybody. I am only
stating facts. We are helpless spectators of the Jewish soul wasting
away before our very eyes.
Now, the rebirth of Israel’s national consciousness and the revival
of Judaism are inseparable. When Israel found itself, it found its
God. When Israel lost itself, or began to work at its self-effacement,
it was sure to deny its God. The selection of Israel, the
indestructibility of God’s covenant with Israel, the immortality of
Israel as a nation, and the final restoration of Israel to Palestine,
where the nation will live a holy life, on holy ground, with all the
wide-reaching consequences of the conversion of humanity, and the
establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth――all these are the common
ideals and the common ideas that permeate the whole of Jewish
literature extending over nearly four thousand years.
S. SCHECHTER, 1906.
* * * * *
THERE has been one short period in modern Jewish history when Israel
grew utterly weary of toil and trouble, and began to take pleasure in
the fleeting hour, as other nations do. But this was a mere passing
phase, a temporary loss of consciousness. The prophetic spirit cannot
be crushed, except for a time. It comes to life again, and masters
the Prophet in his own despite. So, too, the prophetic People regained
consciousness in its own despite. The Spirit that called Moses
thousands of years ago and sent him on his mission, against his own
will, now calls again the generation of to-day, saying, ‘_And that
which cometh into your mind shall not be at all; in that ye say, We
will be as the nations ... As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with
a mighty hand ... will I be king over you._’
ACHAD HA’AM, 1904.
(_Trans. Leon Simon._)
THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES
THE hand of the Lord was upon me, and the Lord carried me out in a
spirit, and set me down in the midst of the valley, and it was full of
bones; and He caused me to pass by them round about, and, behold, there
were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And
He said unto me: ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered:
‘O Lord God, Thou knowest’. Then he said unto me: ‘Prophesy over these
bones, and say unto them: O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord:
Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath
to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you,
and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put
breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.’
So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was
a noise, and behold a commotion, and the bones came together, bone to
its bone. And I beheld, and, lo, there were sinews upon them, and flesh
came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them.
Then said He unto me: ‘Prophesy unto the breath, prophesy, son of man,
and say to the breath: Thus saith the Lord God: Come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ So
I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and
they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great host. Then
He said unto me: ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel;
behold, they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost: we are
clean cut off. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them: Thus saith the
Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up
out of your graves, O My people; and I will bring you into the Land of
Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your
graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people. And
I will put My spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you
in your own land; and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and
performed it, saith the Lord.’
EZEKIEL 37. 1‒14.
PALESTINE
THE very name Palestine stirs within us the most elevated sentiments.
There is no country, no matter how important in itself, to which
such sublime memories attach themselves. From our earliest youth,
our imagination, nourished on the sacred traditions of the Hebrew
Scriptures, loves to transport itself to those heights where of old
pious souls heard in each echo the voice of God, where each stone is a
symbol of divine revelation, each ruin a monument of divine anger. The
followers of three religions turn with veneration towards these ruins
of 2,000 years. All find consolation in that land, some by its memories,
others by its hopes. Even sceptics are ready to render historic justice
to the great events of which it was the theatre: thus the description
of this land and its story have a palpitating interest for all.
S. MUNK, 1863.
THE LAST CORPSES IN THE DESERT
UP, wanderers in the wild, and come away!
Long is the journey yet and long the fray.
Enough of roving now in desert places――
There lies a great, wide road before your faces.
But forty years of wandering have sped,
And yet we leave six hundred thousand dead.
Dishonoured let them lie, across the pack
They bore from out of Egypt on their back.
Sweet be their dreams of garlic and of leek,
Of flesh-pots wide, of fatty steam and reek.
Around the last dead slave, maybe to-night,
The desert wind with desert beast shall fight,
And joyously to-morrow’s dawning shine
Upon the firstlings of a mighty line,
And lest the sands with all their sleepers start,
Let each man’s footfall sound but in his heart.
Let each man in his heart hear God’s voice say:
‘A new land’s border shalt thou cross to-day!
‘No more the quails from heav’n, no more light bread――
The bread of toil, fruit of the hands, instead.
‘No more wild tents pitched under heaven’s dome――
Another kind shall ye set up for home.
‘Beneath His sky, the wilderness outside,
God has another world that reaches wide,
‘Beyond the howling desert with its sand,
There waits beneath His stars the Promised Land.’
CH. N. BYALIK, 1896.
(_Trans. Helena Frank._)
ZIONISM
ONE thing is to me certain, high above any doubt: the movement will
continue. I know not when I shall die, but Zionism will never die.
THEODOR HERZL, 1898.
* * * * *
ZIONISM is the lineal heir of the attachment to Zion which led the
Babylonian exiles under Zerubbabel to rebuild the Temple, and which
flamed up in the heroic struggle of the Maccabees against Antiochus
Epiphanes. The idea that it is a set-back of Jewish history is a
controversial fiction. The great bulk of the Jewish people have
throughout their history remained faithful to the dream of a
restoration of their national life in Judea.
The Zionist movement is to-day the greatest popular movement that
Jewish history has ever known.
LUCIEN WOLF, 1910,
_in Encyclopaedia Britannica_.
* * * * *
ALL over the world Jews are resolved that our common Judaism shall
not be crushed out by short-sighted fanatics for local patriotism; and,
in so far as Zionism strengthens this sense of the solidarity of our
common Judaism, we are all Zionists.
I. ABRAHAMS, 1905.
THE BRITISH DECLARATION ON PALESTINE[37]
NOVEMBER 2, 1917――APRIL 24, 1920
ENGLAND, great England, whose gaze sweeps over all the seas――free
England――will understand and sympathize with the aims and aspirations
of Zionism.
THEODOR HERZL, 1900.
* * * * *
FOR the first time since the days of Cyrus, a great Government has
hailed the Jews as one among the family of nations. This is much
more than a Jewish triumph. It is a triumph for civilization and for
humanity. It will mean releasing for mankind, as a great spiritual
force, the soul of our people.
JEWISH CHRONICLE, NOVEMBER 9, 1917.
* * * * *
A LAND focuses a people, and calls forth, as nothing else can, its
spiritual potentialities. The resurrection of the Jewish nation on its
own soil will reopen its sacred fountains of creative energy. Remember
the days of old. After the proclamation issued by Cyrus, the mass
of the Jewish people still remained in Babylon. All told only 42,000
men, women, and children took advantage of the king’s proclamation
and followed Ezra back to Zion, the land of their fathers. But compare
the contribution to civilization made by these men with that of their
brethren who remained in the Dispersion. The handful of ‘Zionists’ and
their descendants, because living on their own soil, changed the entire
future of mankind. They edited and collected the Prophets, wrote some
of the fairest portions of the Scriptures, formed the canon of the
Bible, and gave the world its monotheistic religions. As in the days
of Cyrus, the overwhelming majority of Jews of to-day will continue
to live where they now are, praying and working in absolute loyalty
for the land of their birth or adoption, and ever beholding their peace
in its welfare. Only a remnant shall return. But it is the national
rejuvenation of that remnant that will open a new chapter in the annals
of the human spirit.
J. H. HERTZ, 1917.
* * * * *
FOR millions of poor and hundreds of thousands of prosperous Jews
Mr. Balfour’s announcement had the serene sound of a long-expected
Messianic message. The day that witnessed Great Britain’s decision to
stake the whole of the Empire’s power in the Jewish cause is one which
can never be blotted out from the world’s history.
MAXIMILIAN HARDEN, 1917.
JUDAISM AND THE NEW JUDEA
I
THE return to Zion must be preceded by our return to Judaism.
THEODOR HERZL, 1897.
* * * * *
ISRAEL is a nation by reason only of his religion, by his possession of
the Torah.
SAADYAH GAON, 933.
* * * * *
ISRAEL, to the Rabbis at least, is not a nation by virtue of race
or of certain peculiar political combinations. The brutal Torah-less
nationalism promulgated in certain quarters would have been to them
just as hateful as the suicidal Torah-less universalism preached in
other quarters. And if we could imagine for a moment Israel giving
up its allegiance to God, its Torah, and its divine institution, the
Rabbis would be the first to sign its death warrant as a nation.
S. SCHECHTER, 1909.
* * * * *
WE will return to Zion as we went forth, bringing back the faith we
carried away with us.
MORDECAI M. NOAH, 1824.
II
ISRAEL’S contribution to the common treasure of humanity will ever
be primarily religious. Wide sympathy, ready help, and absolute
self-determination must therefore be accorded in the New Judea to
Jewish religious learning, Jewish religious institutions, and Jewish
religious life. They alone contain the secret of Israel’s immortality.
The story of Israel’s ancient kinsmen――Moab, Ammon, Edom――though these
remained on their own soil, loses itself in the sands of the desert,
while the story of Israel issues in eternity. Why? Israel alone had the
Torah, and it is that which endowed him with deathlessness. And Israel
will remain deathless――as long as Israel continues to cling to the
Torah. Without the Torah, Israel’s story will also lose itself in the
sands of the desert, _even on its own soil_.
The New Judea must be the spiritual descendant of old Judea, and the
mission of Judea, new or old, is first of all to be Judea.
J. H. HERTZ, 1918.
* * * * *
I LIKE to think of Jewish History as standing ever at the centre point
of its path――having as much to look forward to as to look back upon;
and the events of to-day, with their special message to Israel, must
surely fortify us in this view, and speed us to make good our efforts
for our people and for the nations.
A. EICHHOLZ, 1917.
III
THE TESTIMONY OF THE NATIONS
_ENGLAND, awake! awake! awake!
Jerusalem thy sister calls.
Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death
And close her from thy ancient walls?_
_Thy hills and valleys felt her feet
Gently upon their bosoms move;
Thy gates beheld sweet Zion’s ways:
Then was a time of joy and love._
WILLIAM BLAKE.
WORLD’S DEBT TO ISRAEL
WE Gentiles owe our life to Israel. It is Israel who has brought us the
message that God is one, and that God is a just and righteous God, and
demands righteousness of his children, and demands nothing else. It is
Israel that has brought us the message that God is our Father. It is
Israel who, in bringing us the divine law, has laid the foundation of
liberty. It is Israel who had the first free institutions the world
ever saw. It is Israel who has brought us our Bible, our prophets,
our apostles. When sometimes our own unchristian prejudices flame out
against the Jewish people, let us remember that all that we have and
all that we are we owe, under God, to what Judaism has given us.
LYMAN ABBOTT.
* * * * *
AT a time when the deepest night of inhumanity covered the rest of
mankind, the religion of Israel breathed forth a spirit of love and
brotherhood which must fill even the stranger, if he be only willing
to see, with reverence and admiration. Israel has given the world true
humanitarianism, just as it has given the world the true God.
C. H. CORNILL, 1895.
ISRAEL AND HIS REVELATION
THE religion of the Bible is well said to be _revealed_, because the
great natural truth, that ‘righteousness tendeth to life’, is seized
and exhibited there with such incomparable force and efficacy. All, or
very nearly all, the nations of mankind have recognized the importance
of conduct, and have attributed to it a natural obligation. They,
however, looked at conduct, not as something full of happiness and joy,
but as something one could not manage to do without. But ‘Zion heard
of it and rejoiced, and the daughters of Judah were _glad_, because of
thy judgements, O Eternal!’ Happiness is our being’s end and aim, and
no one has ever come near Israel in feeling, and in making others feel,
that to righteousness belongs happiness! As long as the world lasts,
all who want to make progress in righteousness will come to Israel for
inspiration, as to the people who have had the sense for righteousness
most glowing and strongest.
This does truly constitute for Israel a most extra-ordinary distinction.
‘God hath given commandment to bless, and He hath blessed, and we
cannot reverse it; He hath not seen iniquity in Jacob, and He hath not
seen perverseness in Israel; the Eternal, his God, is with him.’
MATTHEW ARNOLD, 1875.
ISRAEL, GREECE, AND ROME[38]
FOR a philosophic mind there are not more than three histories of real
interest in the past of humanity: Greek history, the history of Israel,
and Roman history.
Greece has an exceptional past. Our science, our arts, our
literature, our philosophy, our political code, our maritime law,
are of Greek origin. The framework of human culture created by Greece
is susceptible of indefinite enlargement. Greece had only one thing
wanting in the circle of her moral and intellectual activity, but this
was an important void; she despised the humble and did not feel the
need of a just God. Her philosophers, while dreaming of the immortality
of the soul, were tolerant towards the iniquities of this world. Her
religions were merely elegant municipal playthings.
... Israel’s sages burned with anger over the abuses of the world.
The prophets were fanatics in the cause of social justice, and loudly
proclaimed that if the world was not just, or capable of becoming so,
it had better be destroyed――a view which, if utterly wrong, led to
deeds of heroism and brought about a grand awakening of the forces of
humanity.
One other great humanizing force had to be created――a force powerful
enough to beat down the obstacles which local patriotism offered to
the idealistic propaganda of Greece and Judea. Rome fulfilled this
extraordinary function. Force is not a pleasant thing to contemplate,
and the recollections of Rome will never have the powerful attraction
of the affairs of Greece and of Israel; but Roman history is none the
less part and parcel of these histories, which are the pivot of all the
rest, and which we may call providential.
ERNEST RENAN, 1887.
* * * * *
NONE of the resplendent names in history――Egypt, Athens, Rome――can
compare in eternal grandeur with Jerusalem. For Israel has given to
mankind the category of holiness. Israel alone has known the thirst
for social justice, and that inner saintliness which is the source of
justice.
CHARLES WAGNER, 1918.
* * * * *
AMONG the theocratic nations of the ancient East, the Hebrews seem to
us as sober men in a world of intoxicated beings. Antiquity, however,
held _them_ to be the dreamers among waking folk.
H. LOTZE, 1864.
WHAT IS A JEW?
WHAT is a Jew? This question is not at all so odd as it seems. Let us
see what kind of peculiar creature the Jew is, which all the rulers and
all nations have together and separately abused and molested, oppressed
and persecuted, trampled and butchered, burned and hanged――and in spite
of all this is yet alive! What is a Jew, who has never allowed himself
to be led astray by all the earthly possessions which his oppressors
and persecutors constantly offered him in order that he should change
his faith and forsake his own Jewish religion?
_The Jew is that sacred being who has brought down from heaven the
everlasting fire, and has illumined with it the entire world. He is the
religious source, spring, and fountain out of which all the rest of the
peoples have drawn their beliefs and their religions._
_The Jew is the pioneer of liberty._ Even in those olden days, when
the people were divided into but two distinct classes, slaves and
masters――even so long ago had the law of Moses prohibited the practice
of keeping a person in bondage for more than six years.
_The Jew is the pioneer of civilization._ Ignorance was condemned
in olden Palestine more even than it is to-day in civilized Europe.
Moreover, in those wild and barbarous days, when neither life nor the
death of any one counted for anything at all, Rabbi Akiba[39] did not
refrain from expressing himself openly against capital punishment,
a practice which is recognized to-day as a highly civilized way of
punishment.
_The Jew is the emblem of civil and religious toleration._ ‘Love the
stranger and the sojourner’, Moses commands, ‘because you have been
strangers in the land of Egypt.’ And this was said in those remote
and savage times when the principal ambition of the races and nations
consisted in crushing and enslaving one another. As concerns religious
toleration, the Jewish faith is not only far from the missionary spirit
of converting people of other denominations, but on the contrary the
Talmud commands the Rabbis to inform and explain to every one who
willingly comes to accept the Jewish religion, all the difficulties
involved in its acceptance, and to point out to the would-be proselyte
that the righteous of all nations have a share in immortality. Of such
a lofty and ideal religious toleration not even the moralists of our
present day can boast.
_The Jew is the emblem of eternity._ He whom neither slaughter nor
torture of thousands of years could destroy, he whom neither fire nor
sword nor inquisition was able to wipe off from the face of the earth,
he who was the first to produce the oracles of God, he who has been for
so long the guardian of prophecy, and who transmitted it to the rest of
the world――such a nation cannot be destroyed. The Jew is everlasting as
is eternity itself.
LEO TOLSTOY.
THE BOOK OF THE AGES[40]
THE Bible is the book of the ancient world, the book of the Middle Ages,
and the book of modern times. Where does Homer stand compared with the
Bible? Where the Vedas or the Koran? The Bible is inexhaustible.
A. HARNACK.
* * * * *
WITHIN this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest he of human race
To whom God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, and learn the way;
And better had he ne’er been born
Who reads to doubt, or reads to scorn.
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
* * * * *
HOW many ages and generations have brooded and wept and agonized over
this book! What untellable joys and ecstasies, what support to martyrs
at the stake, from it! To what myriads has it been the shore and rock
of safety――the refuge from driving tempest and wreck! Translated into
all languages, how it has united this diverse world! Of its thousands
there is not a verse, not a word, but is thick-studded with human
emotion.
WALT WHITMAN.
THE BIBLE, THE EPIC OF THE WORLD[41]
APART from all questions of religious and historical import, the Bible
is the epic of the world. It unrolls a vast panorama in which the ages
move before us in a long train of solemn imagery from the creation
of the world onward. Against this gorgeous background we see mankind
strutting, playing their little part on the stage of history. We see
them taken from the dust and returning to the dust. We see the rise and
fall of empires, we see great cities, now the hive of busy industry,
now silent and desolate――a den of wild beasts. All life’s fever is
there, its hopes and joys, its suffering and sin and sorrow.
J. G. FRAZER, 1895.
* * * * *
WRITTEN in the East, these characters live for ever in the West;
written in one province, they pervade the world; penned in rude times,
they are prized more and more as civilization advances; product of
antiquity, they come home to the business and bosoms of men, women,
and children in modern days.
R. L. STEVENSON.
* * * * *
THE Bible thoroughly known is a literature in itself――the rarest and
the richest in all departments of thought or imagination which exists.
J. A. FROUDE, 1886.
THE BIBLE IN EDUCATION[42]
CONSIDER the great historical fact that for three centuries this
Book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in
English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain, and
is familiar to noble and simple, from John o’ Groat’s to Land’s End;
that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in
exquisite beauties of a merely literary form; and, finally, that it
forbids the veriest hind who never left his village to be ignorant
of the existence of other countries and other civilizations, and of
a great past, stretching back to the furthest limits of the oldest
nations of the world. By the study of what other book could children
be so much humanized, and made to feel that each figure in that vast
historical procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary space
in the interval between the Eternities; and earns the blessings or the
curses of all time, according to its effort to do good and hate evil?
T. H. HUXLEY, 1870.
* * * * *
THE greater the intellectual progress of the ages, the more fully will
it be possible to employ the Bible not only as the foundation, but as
the instrument, of education.
J. W. GOETHE.
THE BIBLE AND DEMOCRACY
THIS Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, and for
the people.
JOHN WYCLIF, _in Preface to first
English Translation of the Bible_, 1384.
* * * * *
THROUGHOUT the history of the Western world the Scriptures have been
the great instigators of revolt against the worst forms of clerical
and political despotism. The Bible has been the Magna Charta of the
poor and of the oppressed; down to modern times no State has had a
constitution in which the interests of the people are so largely taken
into account, in which the duties so much more than the privileges of
rulers are insisted upon, as that drawn up for Israel in Deuteronomy
and in Leviticus; nowhere is the fundamental truth that the welfare of
the State, in the long run, depends on the uprightness of the citizen
so strongly laid down.... The Bible is the most democratic book in the
world.
T. H. HUXLEY, 1892.
* * * * *
WHERE there is no reverence for the Bible, there can be no true
refinement of manners.
F. NIETZSCHE.
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
A QUIVER full of steel arrows, a cable with strong coils, a trumpet of
brass crashing through the air with two or three sharp notes――such is
the Hebrew language. The letters of its books are not to be many, but
they are to be letters of fire. A language of this sort is not destined
to say much, but what it does is beaten out upon an anvil. It is to
pour floods of anger and utter cries of rage against the abuses of the
world, calling the four winds of heaven to the assault of the citadels
of evil. Like the jubilee horn of the sanctuary it will be put to
no profane use; but it will sound the notes of the holy war against
injustice and the call of the great assemblies; it will have accents
of rejoicing, and accents of terror; it will become the trumpet of
judgement.
ERNEST RENAN, 1887.
REBECCA’S HYMN
WHEN Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Out from the land of bondage came,
Her fathers’ God before her moved,
An awful guide in smoke and flame.
By day, along the astonished lands,
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night, Arabia’s crimsoned sands
Returned the fiery column’s glow.
There rose the choral hymn of praise,
And trump and timbrel answered keen,
And Zion’s daughters poured their lays,
With priest’s and warrior’s voice between.
No portents now our foes amaze,
Forsaken Israel wanders lone;
Our fathers would not know Thy ways,
And Thou hast left them to their own.
But present still, though now unseen!
When brightly shines the prosperous day.
Be thoughts of Thee a cloudy screen
To temper the deceitful ray.
And oh, when stoops on Judah’s path
In shade and storm the frequent night,
Be Thou, long-suffering, slow to wrath,
A burning and a shining light!
Our harps we left by Babel’s streams,
The tyrant’s jest, the Gentile’s scorn;
No censer round our altar beams,
And mute are timbrel, harp, and horn.
But Thou hast said, ‘The blood of goat,
The flesh of rams, I will not prize;
A contrite heart, a humble thought,
Are Mine accepted sacrifice’.
SIR WALTER SCOTT, 1820.
MOSES[43]
TO lead into freedom a people long crushed by tyranny; to discipline
and order such a mighty host; to harden them into fighting men, before
whom warlike tribes quailed and walled cities went down; to repress
discontent and jealousy and mutiny; to combat reactions and reversions;
to turn the quick, fierce flame of enthusiasm to the service of a
steady purpose, require some towering character――a character blending
in highest expression the qualities of politician, patriot, philosopher,
and statesman――the union of the wisdom of the Egyptians with the
unselfish devotion of the meekest of men.
The striking differences between Egyptian and Hebrew polity are not of
form, but of essence. The tendency of the one is to subordination and
oppression; of the other, to individual freedom. Strangest of recorded
birth! From the strongest and most splendid despotism of antiquity
comes the freest republic. From between the paws of the rock-hewn
Sphinx rises the genius of human liberty, and the trumpets of the
Exodus throb with the defiant proclamation of the rights of man.
The Hebrew commonwealth was based upon the individual――a commonwealth
whose ideal it was that every man should sit under his own vine and
fig-tree, with none to vex him or make him afraid; a commonwealth in
which none should be condemned to ceaseless toil; in which, for even
the bond slave there should be hope; in which, for even the beast of
burden there should be rest. It is not the protection of property,
but the protection of humanity, that is the aim of the Mosaic code.
Its Sabbath day and Sabbath year secure, even to the lowliest, rest
and leisure. With the blast of the jubilee trumpets the slave goes
free, and a re-division of the land secures again to the poorest his
fair share in the bounty of the common Creator. The reaper must leave
something for the gleaner; even the ox cannot be muzzled as he treadeth
out the corn. Everywhere, in everything, the dominant idea is that of
our homely phrase――‘Live and let live.’
That there is one day in the week that the working man may call his
own, one day in the week on which the hammer is silent and the loom
stands idle, is due, through Christianity, to Judaism――to the code
promulgated in the Sinaitic wilderness. And who that considers the
waste of productive forces can doubt that modern society would be not
merely happier, but richer, had we received as well as the Sabbath
day the grand idea of the Sabbath year, or, adapting its spirit to our
changed conditions, secured in another way an equivalent reduction of
working hours.
It is in these characteristics of the Mosaic institutions that, as
in the fragments of a Colossus, we may read the greatness of the mind
whose impress they bear――of a mind in advance of its surroundings, in
advance of its age; of one of those star souls that dwindle not with
distance, but, glowing with the radiance of essential truth, hold their
light while institutions and languages and creeds change and pass.
Leader and servant of men! Law-giver and benefactor! Toiler towards
the Promised Land seen only by the eye of faith! Type of the high
souls who in every age have given to earth its heroes and its martyrs,
whose deeds are the precious possession of the race, whose memories are
its sacred heritage! With whom among the founders of Empire shall we
compare him?
To dispute about the inspiration of such a man were to dispute about
words. From the depths of the Unseen such characters must draw their
strength; from fountains that flow only from the pure in heart must
come their wisdom. Of something more real than matter; of something
higher than the stars; of a light that will endure when suns are dead
and dark; of a purpose of which the physical universe is but a passing
phrase, such lives tell.
HENRY GEORGE, 1884.
THE BURIAL OF MOSES
BY Nebo’s lonely mountain,
On this side Jordan’s wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab,
There lies a lonely grave.
But no man built that sepulchre,
And no man saw it e’er;
For the angels of God upturned the sod
And laid the dead man there.
That was the grandest funeral
That ever passed on earth;
Yet no man heard the trampling,
Or saw the train go forth:
Noiselessly as the daylight
Comes when the night is done,
And the crimson streak on ocean’s cheek
Grows into the great sun.
Perchance the bald old eagle
On grey Beth-peor’s height
Out of his rocky eyrie
Looked on the wondrous sight;
Perchance the lion stalking
Still shuns that hallowed spot;
For beast and bird have seen and heard
That which man knoweth not.
This was the bravest warrior
That ever buckled sword;
This the most gifted poet
That ever breathed a word;
And never earth’s philosopher
Traced with his golden pen
On the deathless page truths half so sage
As he wrote down for men.
C. F. ALEXANDER.
ISRAEL’S PSALTER
AT no period throughout the whole range of Jewish history has the
poetic voice been mute. Every great fact throughout its entire course,
right down to modern times, has left its impress on the Synagogue
liturgy. Jewish poetry is the mirror of Jewish national life, and
poetic utterance a divine instinct of the Jewish mind. For to the
Hebrew, poetry was both prayer and praise, and alike in mercy and
affliction the poet’s words became for the Hebrew the medium of direct
communion with the Divine. Adoration can rise no higher than we find it
in the Psalter.
JOHN E. DOW, 1890.
* * * * *
THE ancient psalm still keeps its music, and this is but the outer
sign of its spiritual power, which remains as near and intimate to our
needs, human and divine, as in David’s day. So, indeed, it seems to
have remained through all the centuries――the one body of poetry which
has gone on, apart from the change of races and languages, speaking
with a voice of power to the hearts of men.
ERNEST RHYS, 1895.
* * * * *
THE Psalms resound, and will continue to resound, as long as there
shall be men created in the image of God, in whose hearts the sacred
fire of religion shines and glows; for they are religion itself put
into speech.
C. H. CORNILL, 1897.
THE PSALMS IN HUMAN LIFE
ABOVE the couch of David, according to Rabbinical tradition, there hung
a harp. The midnight breeze, as it rippled over the strings, made such
music that the poet king was constrained to rise from his bed, and till
the dawn flushed the eastern skies he wedded words to the strains. The
poetry of that tradition is condensed in the saying that the Book of
Psalms contains the whole music of the heart of man, swept by the hand
of his Maker. In it are gathered the lyrical burst of his tenderness,
the moan of his penitence, the pathos of his sorrow, the triumph of his
victory, the despair of his defeat, the firmness of his confidence, the
rapture of his assured hope.
The Psalms express in exquisite words the kinship which every
thoughtful human heart craves to find with a supreme, unchanging,
loving God, who will be to him a protector, guardian, and friend. They
translate into speech the spiritual passion of the loftiest genius;
they also utter, with the beauty born of truth and simplicity, the
inarticulate and humble longings of the unlettered peasant. They alone
have known no limitations to a particular age, country, or form of
faith. In the Psalms the vast hosts of suffering humanity have found
the deepest expression of their hopes and fears.
R. E. PROTHERO, 1903.
THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH
(PSALM 19)
The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
Th’ unwearied sun from day to day
Does his Creator’s power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale;
And nightly to the list’ning earth,
Repeats the story of her birth:
Whilst all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though nor real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
For ever singing as they shine,
‘The hand that made us is divine.’
JOSEPH ADDISON, 1719.
‘O GOD, OUR HELP IN AGES PAST’
(PSALM 90)
O GOD, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home;
Beneath the shadow of Thy Throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.
Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.
ISAAC WATTS, 1719.
THE LIVING POWER OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS[44]
THE moral feelings of men have been deepened and strengthened, and also
softened, and almost created, by the Jewish prophets. In modern times
we hardly like to acknowledge the full force of their words, lest they
should prove subversive to society. And so we explain them away or
spiritualize them, and convert what is figurative into what is literal,
and what is literal into what is figurative. And still, after all our
interpretation or misinterpretation, whether due to a false theology or
an imperfect knowledge of the original language, the force of the words
remains, and a light of heavenly truth and love streams from them even
now more than 2,500 years after they were first uttered.
BENJAMIN JOWETT.
* * * * *
ONE lesson, and only one, history may be said to repeat with
distinctness, that the world is built somehow on moral foundations;
that in the long run it is well with the good; in the long run it is
ill with the wicked. But this is no science; it is no more than the old
doctrine taught long ago by the Hebrew prophets.
J. A. FROUDE, 1889.
THE BOOK OF JONAH.
AN involuntary smile passes over one’s features at the mention of the
name of Jonah. For the popular conception sees nothing in this book but
a silly tale exciting us to derision. I have read the Book of Jonah at
least a hundred times, and I will publicly avow that I cannot even now
take up this marvellous book, nay, nor even speak of it, without the
tears rising to my eyes and my heart beating higher. This apparently
trivial book is one of the deepest and grandest that was ever written,
and I should like to say to every one who approaches it, ‘Take off thy
shoes, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground’.
Jonah receives from God the command to go to Nineveh to proclaim the
judgement, but he rose to flee from the presence of the Lord by ship
unto Tarshish in the far west. From the very beginning of the narrative,
the genuine and loyal devotion of the heathen seamen is placed in
intentional and exceedingly powerful contrast to the behaviour of the
prophet――they are the sincere believers: he is the only heathen on
board. After Jonah has been saved from storm and sea by the fish, he
again receives the command to go to Nineveh. He obeys; and, wonderful
to relate, scarcely has the strange preacher traversed the third part
of the city crying out his warning, than the whole of Nineveh proclaim
a fast and put on sackcloth. The people of Nineveh believed the words
of the preacher and humiliated themselves before God; therefore, the
ground and motive of the Divine judgement ceased to exist: ‘God
repented of the evil that He thought to do them, and He did it not’.
Now comes the fourth chapter, on account of which the whole book was
written, and which cannot be replaced by paraphrase.
‘But it’ [i.e. God’s determining not to destroy Nineveh because of its
sincere repentance] ‘displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not
this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to
flee unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and full
of compassion, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and repentest
Thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life
from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said,
Doest thou well to be angry? Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat
on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under
it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And
the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah, that
it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his evil case.
So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the gourd. But God prepared
a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that
it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared
a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he
fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is
better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou
well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even
unto death. And the Lord said, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the
which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in
a night and perished in a night; and should not I have pity on Nineveh,
that great city; wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that
cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also
much cattle’?
With this question the book closes. More simply, as something quite
self-evident, and therefore more sublimely and touchingly, the truth
was never spoken in the Hebrew Scriptures that God, as Creator of the
whole earth, must also be the God and Father of the entire world, in
whose loving, kind, and fatherly heart all men are equal, before whom
there is no difference of nation and creed, but only men, whom He has
created in His own image.[45]
C. H. CORNILL, 1894.
I AM convinced that the Bible becomes ever more beautiful the more it
is understood.
J. W. GOETHE.
JOB
I CALL the Book of Job one of the grandest things ever written with
pen ... a noble book, all men’s book! There is nothing, I think, in the
Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit.
T. CARLYLE.
* * * * *
THIS extraordinary book――a book of which it is to say little to call
it unequalled of its kind, and which will one day, perhaps, when it is
allowed to stand on its own merits, be seen towering up alone, far away
above all the poetry of the world.
J. A. FROUDE, 1885.
ECCLESIASTES
THE old cycles are for ever renewed, and it is no paradox that he who
would advance can never cling too close to the past. _The thing that
has been is the thing that will be again_; if we realize that, we may
avoid many of the disillusions, miseries, insanities that for ever
accompany the throes of new birth. Set your shoulder joyously to the
world’s wheel; you may spare yourself some unhappiness if, beforehand,
you slip the Book of Ecclesiastes beneath your arm.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
THE BOOK OF ESTHER[46]
WITHIN it burn a lofty independence and a genuine patriotism.
The story of Esther, glorified by the genius of Handel and sanctified
by the piety of Racine, not only affords material for the noblest and
gentlest of meditations, but is a token that in the daily events――the
unforeseen chances――of life, in little unremembered acts, God is surely
present.
When Esther nerved herself to enter, at the risk of her life, the
presence of Ahasuerus――‘I will go in unto the king, and if I perish
I perish’――when her patriotic feeling vented itself in that noble cry,
‘How can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or
how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred’?――she expressed,
although she never named the name of God, a religious devotion as
acceptable to Him as that of Moses and David.
A. P. STANLEY, 1876.
* * * * *
WE search the world for truth; we cull
The good, the pure, the beautiful
From graven stone and written scroll,
From all old flower-fields of the soul;
And, weary seekers of the best,
We come back laden from our quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read.
J. G. WHITTIER.
THE TALMUD[47]
THE Talmud, which was as a second life to the men of the Ghetto,
was not only a book of philosophy or devotion, it was a reservoir
of national life; it was the faithful mirror of the civilization of
Babylon and Judea, and, at the same time, a magical phantasmagoria of
all the wild dreams, the fables, the legends, the scraps of science
more or less exact, the reveries, the audacious theories discovered by
the Wandering Jew in his endless travels. Every generation of Judaism
had accumulated its facts and fancies there. Even the Bible itself did
not come so close to the daily life of the Ghetto as the Talmud and the
Mishna. The Bible was a thing eternal, apart, unchanging. The Talmud
was a daily companion, living, breathing, contemporary, with a hundred
remedies for a hundred needs. A nation persecuted, lives through its
time of stress rather by its commentaries than by its Scriptures.
In the Ghetto the Talmud was a door into the ideal always open. When
the Christians burned the Jews they did no enduring harm to Judaism,
for martyrdom purifies and strengthens every cause. But when they
sequestrated every copy of the Talmud that fraud or force could
discover, and burned the spiritual bread of a devoted people upon
the public square, they committed an irreparable injury; for, by
withdrawing its ideal, they debased the population of the Ghetto.
A. MARY F. ROBINSON, 1892.
THE HUMANITY OF JEWISH WISDOM
IN my early youth I read――I have forgotten where――the words of the
ancient Jewish sage――Hillel, if I remember rightly: ‘If thou art not
for thyself, who will be for thee? But if thou art for thyself alone,
wherefore art thou’?[48]
The inner meaning of these words impressed me with its profound wisdom,
and I interpreted them for myself in this manner: I must actively take
care of myself, that my life should be better, and I must not impose
the care of myself on other people’s shoulders; but if I am going to
take care of myself alone, of nothing but my own personal life, it will
be useless, ugly, meaningless. This thought ate its way deep into my
soul, and I say now with conviction: Hillel’s wisdom served as a strong
staff on my road, which was neither even nor easy.
I believe that Jewish wisdom is more all-human and universal than
any other; and this not only because of its immemorial age, not
only because it is the firstborn, but also because of the powerful
humaneness that saturates it, because of its high estimate of man.
MAXIM GORKY, 1916.
THE PHARISEES[49]
OF all the strange ironies of history, perhaps the strangest is that
‘Pharisee’ is current as a term of reproach among the theological
descendants of that sect of Nazarenes who, without the martyr spirit
of those primitive Puritans, would never have come into existence.
T. H. HUXLEY.
* * * * *
THE Pharisees built up religious individualism and a purely spiritual
worship; they deepened the belief in a future life; they championed
the cause of the laity against an exclusive priesthood; they made the
Scriptures the possession of the people, and in the weekly assemblages
of the Synagogue they preached to them the truths and hopes of religion
out of the Sacred Books.... The Pharisees consistently strove to bring
life more and more under the dominion of religious observance. By
carefully formed habits, by the ceremonial of religious observances,
religious ideas and sanctions could be impressed upon the people’s mind
and heart. But the outward was subordinated to the inward.
CANON G. H. BOX, 1911.
* * * * *
PHARISAISM in history has had a hard fate. For there has seldom been
for Christians the opportunity to know what Pharisaism really meant,
and perhaps still more seldom the desire to use that opportunity.
Is then the Christian religion so weak that it must be advocated by
blackening the character of its oldest rival?
R. TRAVERS HERFORD, 1912.
THE JEWISH PRAYER BOOK
WHEN we come to view the half-dozen or so great Liturgies of the world
purely as religious documents, and to weigh their value as devotional
classics, the incomparable superiority of the Jewish convincingly
appears. The Jewish Liturgy occupies its pages with the One Eternal
Lord; holds ever true, confident, and direct speech with Him; exhausts
the resources of language in songs of praise, in utterances of loving
gratitude, in rejoicing at His nearness, in natural outpourings of
grief for sin; never so much as a dream of intercessors or of hidings
from His blessed punishments; and, withal, such a sweet sense of the
divine accessibility every moment to each sinful, suffering child of
earth. Where shall one find a hymn of universal faith like the Adon
Olam, of mystical beauty like the Hymn of Glory[50]; or services so
solemn, touching, and tender as those appointed for Yom Kippur? Compare
the misery, gloom, and introspection surrounding other requiem and
funeral services, with the chastened, dignified sobriety of the Hebrew
prayer for the dying,[51] and the healthy, cheerful manliness of the
Mourner’s Kaddish.
Again, there is most refreshing silence in regard to life-conditions
after death. Neither is there any spiteful condemnation of the
followers of other faiths; the Jew is singularly free from narrow
intolerance.
Certainly the Jew has cause to thank God, and the fathers before him,
for the noblest Liturgy the annals of faith can show.
G. E. BIDDLE, 1907.
IN A SYNAGOGUE[52]
DERONDA gave himself up to that strongest effect of chanted liturgies
which is independent of detailed verbal meaning. The most powerful
movement of feeling with a liturgy is the prayer which seeks for
nothing special, but is a yearning to escape from the limitations
of our own weakness and an invocation of all Good to enter and abide
with us; or else a self-oblivious lifting up of gladness, a ‘Gloria in
excelsis’ that such Good exists; both the yearning and the exultation
gathering their utmost force from the sense of communion in a form
which has expressed them both for long generations of struggling
fellow-men. The Hebrew liturgy, like others, has its transitions of
litany, lyric proclamation, dry statement, and blessing; but this
evening all were one for Deronda; the chant of the Chazan’s or Reader’s
grand wide-ranging voice with its passage from monotony to sudden
cries, the outburst of sweet boys’ voices from the little choir, the
devotional swaying of men’s bodies backwards and forwards, the very
commonness of the building and shabbiness of the scene where a national
faith, which had penetrated the thinking of half the world, had moulded
the splendid forms of that world’s religion, was finding a remote,
obscure echo――all were blent for him as one expression of a binding
history, tragic and yet glorious.
GEORGE ELIOT, 1876.
THE TORCH OF JEWISH LEARNING[53]
LEARNING was for two thousand years the sole claim to distinction
recognized by Israel. ‘The scholar’, says the Talmud, ‘takes precedence
over the king.’ Israel remained faithful to this precept throughout
all her humiliations. Whenever, in Christian or Moslem lands, a hostile
hand closed her schools, the rabbis crossed the seas to reopen their
academies in a distant country. Like the legendary Wandering Jew,
the flickering torch of Jewish scholarship thus passed from East to
West, from North to South, changing every two or three hundred years
from one country to another. Whenever a royal edict commanded them to
leave, within three months, the country in which their fathers had been
buried and their sons had been born, the treasure which the Jews were
most anxious to carry away with them was their books. Among all the
_autos-da-fé_ which the daughter of Zion has had to witness, none has
cost her such bitter tears as those flames which, during the Middle
Ages, greedily consumed the scrolls of the Talmud.
A. LEROY BEAULIEU, 1893.
DURING THE CRUSADES[54]
IN the little town Tiberias, on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret,
sat the old Jew Eleazar, with his family, prepared to celebrate the
Passover. It was the fourteenth day of the month Nisan of the year 1089.
After the head of the family had washed his hands, he blessed the gifts
of God, drank some wine, took some of the bitter herbs, and ate and
gave to the others. After that, the second cup of wine was served, and
the youngest son of the house asked, according to the sacred custom,
‘What is the meaning of this feast?’
The father answered: ‘The Lord brought us with a strong hand out of
the Egyptian bondage’. Thereafter a blessing was pronounced on the
unleavened bread, and they sat down to eat. The old Eleazar spoke of
past times, and contrasted them with the present: ‘Man born of woman
lives but a short time, and is full of trouble; he cometh up like a
flower, and is cut down; he fleeth hence like a shadow, and continueth
not. A stranger and a sojourner is he upon earth, and therefore he
should be always ready for his journey as we are, this holy evening.’
The eldest son, Jacob, who had come home in the evening after a journey,
seemed to wish to say something, but did not venture to do so till the
fourth and last cup was drunk.
‘Now, Jacob’, said Eleazar, ‘you want to talk. You come from a journey,
though somewhat late, and have something new to tell us. Hush! I hear
steps in the garden!’
All hurried to the window, for they lived in troublous times; but, as
no one was to be seen outside, they sat down again at the table.
‘Speak, Jacob’, Eleazar said again.
‘I come from Antioch, where the Crusaders are besieged by Kerboga, the
Emir Mosul. Famine has raged among them, and of three hundred thousand
Goyim, only twenty thousand remain.’
‘What had they to do here?’
‘Now, on the roads, they are talking of a new battle which the Goyim
have won, and they believe that the Crusaders will march straight on
Jerusalem.’
‘Well, they won’t come here.’
‘They won’t find the way, unless there are traitors.’
‘The Christians are misguided, and their doctrine is folly. They
believe the Messiah has come, although the world is like a hell, and
men resemble devils! And it ever gets worse....’
Then the door was flung open, and on the threshold appeared a little
man, emaciated as a skeleton, with burning eyes――Peter the Hermit.
He was clothed in rags, carried a cross in his hands, and bore a red
cross-shaped sign on his shoulder.
‘Are you Christians?’ he asked.
‘No’, answered Eleazar, ‘we are of Israel.’
‘Out with you!――down to the lake and be baptized, or you will die the
death!’
Then Eleazar turned to the Hermit, and cried, ‘No! I and my house will
serve the Lord, as we have done this holy evening according to the law
of our fathers. We suffer for our sins, that is true, but you, godless,
cursed man, pride not yourself on your power, for you have not yet
escaped the judgement of Almighty God.’
The Hermit had gone out to his followers. Those within the house closed
the window-shutters and the door.
There was a cry without: ‘Fire the house!’
‘Let us bless God, and die!’ said Eleazar, and none of them hesitated.
Eleazar spoke: ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He will stand
at the latter day upon the earth. And when I am free from my flesh, I
shall see God. Him shall I see and not another, and for that my soul
and my heart cry out.’
The mother had taken the youngest son in her arms, as though she wished
to protect him against the fire which now seized on the wall.
Then Eleazar began the Song of the Three Children[55] in the fire, and
when they came to the words,
‘O thank the Lord, for He is good,
And His mercy endureth for ever’,
their voices were choked, and they ended their days like the Maccabees.
AUGUST STRINDBERG, 1907.
THE EXPULSION FROM SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1492‒1497[56]
THE persecution of the Jewish race dates from the very earliest period
in which Christianity obtained the direction of the civil powers; and
the hatred of the Jews was for many centuries a faithful index of the
piety of the Christians.
Insulted, plundered, hated, and despised by all Christian nations,
banished from England by Edward I, and from France by Charles VI,
they found in the Spanish Moors rulers who were probably not without
a special sympathy for a race whose pure monotheism formed a marked
contrast to the scarcely disguised polytheism of the Spanish Catholics;
and Jewish learning and Jewish genius contributed very largely to
that bright but transient civilization which radiated from Toledo
and Cordova, and exercised so salutary an influence upon the belief
of Europe. But when, in an ill-omened hour, the Cross supplanted the
Crescent on the heights of the Alhambra, this solitary refuge was
destroyed, the last gleam of tolerance vanished from Spain, and the
expulsion of the Jews was determined.
This edict was immediately due to the exertions of Torquemada; but
its ultimate cause is to be found in that steadily increasing popular
fanaticism which made it impossible for the two races to exist together.
In 1390, about a hundred years before the conquest of Granada, the
Catholics of Seville being excited by the eloquence of a great preacher,
named Hernando Martinez, had attacked the Jews’ quarter, and murdered
4,000 Jews, Martinez himself presiding over the massacre. About a year
later, and partly through the influence of the same eminent divine,
similar scenes took place at Valentia, Cordova, Burgos, Toledo, and
Barcelona ... and more than once during the fifteenth century. At
last the Moorish war, which had always been regarded as a crusade, was
drawing to a close, the religious fervour of the Spanish rose to the
highest point, and the Inquisition was established as its expression.
Numbers of converted Jews were massacred; others, who had been baptized
during past explosions of popular fury, fled to the Moors, in order to
practise their rites, and at last, after a desperate resistance, were
captured and burnt alive. The clergy exerted all their energies to
produce the expulsion of the entire race, and to effect this object all
the old calumnies were revived, and two or three miracles invented.
It must be acknowledged that history relates very few measures that
produced so vast an amount of calamity. In three short months, all
unconverted Jews were obliged, under pain of death, to abandon the
Spanish soil. Multitudes, falling into the hands of the pirates, who
swarmed around the coast, were plundered of all they possessed and
reduced to slavery; multitudes died of famine or of plague, or were
murdered or tortured with horrible cruelty by the African savages.
About 80,000 took refuge in Portugal, relying on the promise of the
king. Spanish priests lashed the Portuguese into fury, and the king
was persuaded to issue an edict which threw even that of Isabella into
the shade. All the adult Jews were banished from Portugal; but first
of all their children below the age of fourteen were taken from them
to be educated as Christians. Then, indeed, the cup of bitterness was
filled to the brim. The serene fortitude with which the exiled people
had borne so many and such grievous calamities gave way, and was
replaced by the wildest paroxysms of despair. When at last, childless
and broken-hearted, they sought to leave the land, they found that
the ships had been purposely detained, and the allotted time, having
expired, they were reduced to slavery and baptized by force. A great
peal of rejoicing filled the Peninsula, and proclaimed that the triumph
of the Spanish priests was complete.
Certainly the heroism of the defenders of every other creed fades into
insignificance before this martyr people, who for thirteen centuries
confronted all the evils that the fiercest fanaticism could devise,
enduring obloquy and spoliation and the violation of the dearest ties,
and the infliction of the most hideous sufferings, rather than abandon
their faith.
Persecution came to the Jewish nation in its most horrible forms, yet
surrounded by every circumstance of petty annoyance that could destroy
its grandeur, and it continued for centuries their abiding portion. But
above all this the genius of that wonderful people rose supreme. While
those around them were grovelling in the darkness of besotted ignorance;
while juggling miracles and lying relics were the themes on which
almost all Europe was expatiating; while the intellect of Christendom,
enthralled by countless superstitions, had sunk into a deadly torpor,
in which all love of inquiry and all search for truth were abandoned,
the Jews were still pursuing the path of knowledge, amassing learning,
and stimulating progress with the same unflinching constancy that they
manifested in their faith. They were the most skilful physicians, the
ablest financiers, and among the most profound philosophers.
W. E. H. LECKY, 1865.
A PROTEST AGAINST THE AUTO-DA-FÉ
OF SEPTEMBER 20, 1761, LISBON
WHAT was their crime? Only that they were born. They were born
Israelites, they celebrated Pesach; that is the only reason that the
Portuguese burnt them. Would you believe that while the flames were
consuming these innocent victims, the inquisitors and the other savages
were chanting _our_ prayers? These pitiless monsters were invoking
the God of mercy and kindness, the God of pardon, while committing
the most atrocious and barbarous crime, while acting in a way which
demons in their rage would not use against their brother demons.
Your madness goes so far as to say that we are scattered because our
fathers condemned to death him whom you worship. O ye pious tigers,
ye fanatical panthers, who despise your sect so much that you have no
better way of supporting it than by executioners, cannot you see that
it was only the Romans who condemned him? We had not, at that time, the
right to inflict death; we were governed by Quirinus, Varus, Pilate.
No crucifixion was practised among us. Not a trace of that form of
punishment is to be found. Cease, therefore, to punish a whole nation
for an event for which it cannot be responsible. Would it be just to
go and burn the Pope and all the Monsignori at Rome to-day because the
first Romans ravished the Sabines and pillaged the Samnites?
O God, who hast created us all, who desirest not the misfortune of Thy
creatures, God, Father of all, God of mercy, accomplish Thou that there
be no longer on this globe, on this least of all the worlds, either
fanatics or persecutors. Amen.
F. M. A. VOLTAIRE,
_in ‘Sermon du Rabin Akib’_.
THE BIBLE IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND[57]
NO greater moral change ever passed over a nation than passed over
England during the years of the reign of Elizabeth. England became the
people of a book, and that book was the Bible. It was read in churches,
and it was read at home, and everywhere its words, as they fell on
ears which custom had not deadened to their force and beauty, kindled
a startling enthusiasm. As a mere literary monument, the English
Version of the Bible remains the noblest example of the English tongue,
while its perpetual use made it from the instant of its appearance the
standard of our language. But far greater than its effect on literature
was the effect of the Bible on the character of the people at large.
Elizabeth might silence or tune the pulpits, but it was impossible
for her to silence or tune the great preachers of justice, and mercy,
and truth, who spoke from the Book which the Lord again opened to the
people. The effect of the Bible in this way was simply amazing. The
whole temper of the nation was changed. A new conception of life and
of man superseded the old. A new moral and religious impulse spread
through every class.
J. R. GREEN, 1874.
FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF THE JEWS
IN the infancy of civilization, when our island was as savage as
New Guinea, when letters and arts were still unknown to Athens, when
scarcely a thatched hut stood on what was afterwards the site of Rome,
this contemned people had their fenced cities and cedar palaces, their
splendid Temple, their fleets of merchant ships, their schools of
sacred learning, their great statesmen and soldiers, their natural
philosophers, their historians, and their poets. What nation ever
contended more manfully against overwhelming odds for its independence
and religion? What nation ever, in its last agonies, gave such signal
proofs of what may be accomplished by a brave despair? And if, in the
course of many centuries, the oppressed descendants of warriors and
sages have degenerated from the qualities of their fathers ... shall
we consider this as a matter of reproach to them? Shall we not rather
consider it as matter of shame and remorse to ourselves? Let us do
justice to them. Let us open to them the door of the House of Commons.
Let us open to them every career in which ability and energy can be
displayed. Till we have done this, let us not presume to say that
there is no genius among the countrymen of Isaiah, no heroism among
the descendants of the Maccabees.
LORD MACAULAY, 1833.
IGNORANCE OF JUDAISM
HE had been roused to the consciousness of knowing hardly anything
about modern Judaism or the inner Jewish history. The Chosen People
have been commonly treated as a people chosen for the sake of somebody
else, and their thinking as something (no matter exactly what) that
ought to have been entirely otherwise; and Deronda, like his neighbours,
had regarded Judaism as a sort of eccentric fossilized form which an
accomplished man might dispense with studying, and leave to specialists.
But there had flashed on him the hitherto neglected reality that
Judaism was something still throbbing in human lives, still making for
them the only conceivable vesture of the world.
GEORGE ELIOT, 1876,
_in ‘Daniel Deronda’_.
* * * * *
MOCK on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau!
Mock on, mock on! ’tis all in vain:
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.
And every sand becomes a gem
Reflected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking eye,
But still in Israel’s paths they shine.
WILLIAM BLAKE.
THEY ARE OUR ELDERS
NEXT to the selection that has been in operation for centuries, it is,
in my opinion, the antiquity and the continuity of their civilization
that throws some light upon the Jews as well as upon the place they
occupy in our midst. They were here before us; they are our elders.
Their children were taught to read from the scrolls of the Torah before
our Latin alphabet had reached its final form, long before Cyrillus
and Methodius had given writing to the Slavs, and before the Runic
characters were known to the Germans of the North. As compared with the
Jews, we are young, we are new-comers; in the matter of civilization
they are far ahead of us. It was in vain that we locked them up for
several hundred years behind the walls of the Ghetto. No sooner were
their prison gates unbarred than they easily caught up with us, even
on those paths which we had opened up without their aid.
A. LEROY BEAULIEU, 1893.
THE JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT[58]
HOW strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves,
Close by the street of this fair seaport town,
Silent beside the never-silent waves,
At rest in all this moving up and down.
How came they here? What burst of Christian hate,
What persecution, merciless and blind,
Drove o’er the sea――that desert desolate――
These Ishmaels and Hagars of mankind?
Pride and humiliation hand in hand
Walked with them through the world where’er they went;
Trampled and beaten were they as the sand,
And yet unshaken as the continent.
For in the background figures vague and vast
Of patriarchs and prophets rose sublime,
And all the great traditions of the Past
They saw reflected in the coming time.
And thus forever with reverted look
The mystic volume of the world they read,
Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book,
Till life became a Legend of the Dead.
H. W. LONGFELLOW, 1858.
THE JEW AS A CITIZEN
I AM glad to be able to say that while the Jews of the United States
have remained loyal to their faith and their race traditions, they
are engaged in generous rivalry with their fellow-citizens of other
denominations in advancing the interests of our common country. This
is true, not only of the descendants of the early settlers and those
of American birth, but of a great and constantly increasing proportion
of those who have come to our shores within the last twenty-five
years as refugees reduced to the direst straits of penury and misery.
In a few years, men and women hitherto utterly unaccustomed to any
of the privileges of citizenship have moved mightily upward toward
the standard of loyal, self-respecting American citizenship; of that
citizenship which not merely insists upon its rights, but also eagerly
recognizes its duty to do its full share in the material, social, and
moral advancement of the nation.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
_on the 250th anniversary of the
Settlement of the Jews in the
United States, November, 1905_.
IN THE EAST END OF LONDON
SOME years ago, when I was living in Europe, I went for six months to
reside in the very poorest part of the East End of London, when I made
friends with a poor Jewish woman. She took me into the tiny one-roomed
tenement where she and her husband and their children lived on the few
shillings a week they earned by their joint labour. Though it had all
the misery and confinement which extreme poverty means in a great city,
I had yet often a curious feeling that it was a _home_. With however
much difficulty, a few pence would be saved to celebrate, if it were
but in a pitiful little way, the festivals of their people; though it
were by starving themselves, the parents would lay by something for
the education of their children or to procure them some little extra
comfort. And the conclusion was forced on me that, taking the very
poorest class of Jew and comparing him with an exactly analogous class
of non-Jews earning the same wages and living in the same locality, the
life of the Jew was, on the whole, more mentally healthful, more human,
and had in it an element of hope that was often wanting in that of
others. I felt that these people needed but a little space, a little
chance, to develop into some far higher form. The material was there.
Therefore I would welcome the exiled Russian Jew to South Africa, not
merely with pity, but with a feeling of pride that any member of that
great, much-suffering people, to whom the world owes so great a debt,
should find a refuge and a home among us.
OLIVE SCHREINER, 1906.
THE RUSSIAN AGONY[59]
I. THE BEGINNINGS
IN 1563 Ivan the Terrible conquered Polotzk, and for the first time
the Russian Government was confronted by the fact of the existence of
the Jewish nationality. The Czar’s advisers were somewhat perplexed,
and asked him what to do with these newly acquired subjects. Ivan the
Terrible answered unhesitatingly: ‘Baptize them or drown them in the
river’. They were drowned.
P. MILYUKOV, 1916.
II. IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY[60]
FEW facts in the nineteenth century have been so well calculated to
disenchant the believers in perpetual progress with their creed as the
anti-Semite movement, which in a few years has swept like an angry wave
over the greater part of Europe.
The recent movement for proscribing, under pretence of preventing
cruelty to animals, the mode of killing animals for food which is
enjoined in the Jewish ritual, is certainly at least as much due to
dislike to the Jews as to consideration for cattle. It appears to have
arisen among the German anti-Semites, especially in Saxony....
The Russian persecution stands in some degree apart from the other
forms of the anti-Semite movement, both on account of its unparalleled
magnitude and ferocity, and also because it is the direct act of a
Government deliberately, systematically, remorselessly seeking to
reduce to utter misery millions of its own subjects.
An evil chance had placed upon the throne an absolute ruler who
combined with much private virtue and very limited faculties all the
genuine fanaticism of the great persecutors of the past, and who found
a new Torquemada at his side. He reigned over an administration which
is among the most despotic, and probably, without exception, the most
corrupt and the most cruel in Europe.
W. E. H. LECKY, 1896.
III. IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
TO lock people like wild beasts in a cage, to surround them with
disgraceful laws, as in an immense circus, for the sole revolting
purpose to let loose the murderous mob upon them whenever practicable
for St. Petersburg――terrible, terrible!
Anti-Semitism is a mad passion, akin to the lowest perversities of
diseased human nature. It is the will to hate.
The Emperor Hadrian was an honest anti-Semite. One day, the Talmud
records, on his journey in the East, a Jew passed the Imperial train
and saluted the Emperor. He was beside himself with rage. ‘You, a Jew,
dare to greet the Emperor! You shall pay for this with your life.’
In the course of the same day another Jew passed him, and, warned
by example, he did not greet Hadrian. ‘You, a Jew, dare to pass the
Emperor without a greeting!’ he angrily exclaimed. ‘You have forfeited
your life.’ To his astonished courtiers he replied: ‘I hate the Jews.
Whatever they do, I find intolerable. I therefore make use of any
pretext to destroy them.’
So are all anti-Semites.
LEO TOLSTOY, 1904.
IV. THE MORAL
THE study of the history of Europe during the past centuries teaches
us one uniform lesson: _That the nations which have received and in any
way dealt fairly and mercifully with the Jew have prospered; and that
the nations that have tortured and oppressed him have written out their
own curse_.
OLIVE SCHREINER, 1906.
THE BLOOD LIBEL
BRITISH PROTEST, 1912
WE desire to associate ourselves with the protests signed in Russia,
France, and Germany by leading Christian Theologians, Men of Letters,
Scientists, Politicians, and others against the attempt made in the
City of Kieff to revive the hideous charge of Ritual Murder――known as
the ‘Blood Accusation’――against Judaism and the Jewish People.
The question is one of humanity, civilization, and truth. The ‘blood
accusation’ is a relic of the days of witchcraft and ‘black magic’,
a cruel and utterly baseless libel on Judaism, an insult to Western
culture, and a dishonour to the Churches in whose name it has been
falsely formulated by ignorant fanatics. Religious minorities other
than the Jews, such as the early Christians, the Quakers, and Christian
Missionaries in China, have been victimized by it. It has been
denounced by the best men of all ages and creeds. The Popes, the
founders of the Reformation, the Khalif of Islam, statesmen of every
country, together with all the great seats of learning in Europe, have
publicly repudiated it.
_Signed by_:――
_The_ ARCHBISHOPS _of_ CANTERBURY, YORK, ARMAGH; _the_ CARDINAL
ARCHBISHOP _of_ WESTMINSTER, _and the_ HEADS _of all other_
CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS.
_The_ BISHOPS _of_ LONDON, OXFORD, WORCESTER, WINCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM,
GLOUCESTER, LIVERPOOL, MANCHESTER, _&c._; _the_ DEANS _of_
WESTMINSTER, CANTERBURY, NORWICH, RIPON, _&c._
_The_ DUKES _of_ NORFOLK _and_ NORTHUMBERLAND, _and the_ EARLS _of_
ROSEBERY, SELBORNE, _and_ CROMER; LORDS MILNER _and_ RAYLEIGH;
A. J. BALFOUR, SIR EDWARD CARSON, GEN. N. G. LYTTELTON, _&c._
FREDERIC HARRISON, A. V. DICEY, SIR WILLIAM OSLER, SIR FRANCIS
DARWIN, SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY; JAMES A. H. MURRAY, NORMAN LOCKYER,
J. G. FRAZER, _&c._
SIR OLIVER LODGE, _the_ PRINCIPALS _of eleven_ OXFORD COLLEGES;
_the_ MASTERS _of seven_ CAMBRIDGE COLLEGES, S. R. DRIVER,
F. C. BURKITT, A. E. COWLEY, W. SANDAY, H. B. SWETE, ESTLIN
CARPENTER, A. E. GARVIE, A. C. HEADLAM, KIRSOPP LAKE, _&c._
JUSTICES EVE, WARRINGTON, _and_ VAUGHAN WILLIAMS.
A. C. DOYLE, THOS. HARDY, ANTHONY HOPE, A. QUILLER-COUCH, G. B. SHAW,
H. G. WELLS, _&c._
_The_ EDITORS _of the_ _Edinburgh_, _Quarterly_, _Fortnightly_,
_Hibbert_, _Quest_, _Spectator_, _Nation_, _Daily Telegraph_,
_Manchester Guardian_, _Daily Chronicle_, _Daily News_, _Pall
Mall Gazette_, _&c., &c._
JEWISH NATIONALISM
WHEN it is rational to say, ‘I know not my father or my mother, let
my children be aliens to me that no prayer of mine may touch them’,
then it will be rational for the Jew to say, ‘I will not cherish the
prophetic consciousness of our nationality――let the Hebrew cease to
be, and let all his memorials be antiquarian trifles, dead as the wall
paintings of a conjectured race’.
The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.
Let us help to will our own better future and the better future of the
world――not renounce our higher gift and say, ‘Let us be as if we were
not among the populations’; but choose our full heritage, claim the
brotherhood of our nation, and carry into it a new brotherhood with the
nations of the Gentiles. The vision is there; it will be fulfilled.
GEORGE ELIOT, 1876,
_in ‘Daniel Deronda’_.
* * * * *
No British Jew would be less British because he looked upon the cradle
of his race with pride, and at the religious centre of his faith with
happiness and reverence.
SIR MARK SYKES, 1918.
A JEWISH NATIONAL HOME[61]
FOREIGN OFFICE,
_November 2, 1917_.
DEAR LORD ROTHSCHILD,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s
Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist
aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:――
‘His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their
best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice
the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any
other country.’
Yours sincerely,
ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.
ISRAEL’S PRESERVATION
THE destruction of the Holy City, the ruin of the House of God, the
dispersion of the Chosen People into all the kingdoms of the earth, and
their continued existence as a nation, notwithstanding every attempt
to exterminate them or to compel them to forsake those ordinances
which distinguish them to this very day from all other nations, is
emphatically one of the strongest evidences we can have of the truth
of the Bible. Jerusalem was indeed once a great city, and the Temple
magnifical; but the Jews themselves were greater than either; hence,
while the two former have been given over to spoliation, the latter
have been wonderfully, miraculously preserved. The annals of the world
do not contain anything so remarkable in human experience, so greatly
surpassing human power and human prescience. Exiled and dispersed,
reviled and persecuted, oppressed and suffering, often denied the
commonest rights of humanity, and still more often made the victim
of ruthless fanaticism and bigoted prejudice, the Jews are divinely
preserved for a purpose worthy of a God!
ST. JEROME, 4th cent.
ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS[62]
THE Jew has made a marvellous fight in this world, in all the ages;
and has done it with his hands tied behind him. The Egyptian, the
Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and
splendour, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the
Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples
have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out,
and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all,
beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence,
no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his
energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind.
MARK TWAIN, 1898.
IV
THE VOICE OF PRAYER
(THE JEWISH YEAR)
_HOW precious is Thy loving-kindness, O God, and the children of
men take refuge under the shadow of Thy wings. For with Thee is the
fountain of life; in Thy light do we see light._
PSALM 36. 8, 10.
ON PRAYER AND PRAISE
THERE is an old story, invented by the sages and handed down by memory
from age to age. They say, when God had finished the world, He asked
one of the angels if aught were wanting on land or on sea, in air or
in heaven. The angel answered that all was perfect; one thing only he
desired――speech, to praise God’s works, or recount them, which would be
their praise. And the Father approved the angel’s words, and not long
afterwards appeared the race, gifted with the muses and with song. This
is the ancient story, and in consonance with its spirit I say: ‘It is
God’s peculiar work to benefit, and His creatures’ work to give Him
thanks’.
PHILO JUDAEUS, 1st cent.
* * * * *
THERE are halls in the heavens above that open but to the voice of song.
ZOHAR.
ON MORNING SERVICE
LET man strengthen himself like a lion and arise in the early morn to
render service to his Creator; as David said, ‘I will awake the dawn’
(Psalm 57. 9).
COMMENTARY: _Strengthen himself._――The root-idea of such strengthening
is to prepare himself to resist temptations and evil desires which
during this day may assail him: as it is said, ‘Who is strong? He that
subdues his passions.’ _Like a lion._――As a lion is the most fearless
of animals, so shall he likewise, in the performance of his duties,
fear nothing, but rely firmly on his God.
GLOSS: ‘I have set the Lord always before me’ (Psalm 16. 8): This is
a leading principle in Religion, and in the upward strivings of the
righteous who walk ever in the presence of God. For a man’s mode of
life, his demeanour and his deeds, his speech and his movements, when
alone in the house or in the intimate circle of his family and friends,
are unlike those which he would exhibit when in the presence of a
great king. And how much more considered will his demeanour be, if
he reflect that there stands over him the King of kings, the Holy One,
blessed be He, whose glory fills the whole earth, watching his conduct
and surveying his deeds; even as it is written: ‘Can any hide himself
in secret places that I shall not see him?’ saith the Lord (Jeremiah
23. 24). Such contemplation must perforce imbue him with a true sense
of reverence and humility, prompted by a feeling of unworthiness,
before the Holy Name; and he will be heedless of whoever may mock at
him because of his devotions.
SHULCHAN ARUCH, 1, § 1.
(_Trans. A. Feldman._)
שַׁחַר אֲבַקֶּשְׁךָ
AT THE DAWN I SEEK THEE
AT the dawn I seek Thee,
Refuge, Rock sublime;
Set my prayer before Thee in the morning,
And my prayer at eventime.
I before Thy greatness
Stand and am afraid:
All my secret thoughts Thine eye beholdeth
Deep within my bosom laid.
And, withal, what is it
Heart and tongue can do?
What is this my strength, and what is even
This, the spirit in me, too?
But, indeed, man’s singing
May seem good to Thee;
So I praise Thee, singing, while there dwelleth
Yet the breath of God in me.
SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, 1050.
(_Trans. Nina Salaman._)
MORNING PRAYERS
MAY it be Thy will, O God, that I walk in Thy law, and cleave to Thy
commandments. Lead me not into sin or temptation or contempt. Let not
evil desire rule over me. Bend my will to Thine. Keep me from sinful
men and worthless companions. Help me to cling to the good, and give
me grace in Thy sight and in the sight of those about me. Amen.
DAILY PRAYER BOOK.
* * * * *
O GOD, I stand before Thee, knowing all my deficiencies, and
overwhelmed by Thy greatness and majesty. But Thou hast commanded
me to pray to Thee, and hast suffered me to offer homage to Thine
exalted Name according to the measure of my knowledge, and to lay my
supplication before Thee. Thou knowest best what is for my good. If I
recite my wants, it is not to remind Thee of them, but only so that I
may understand better how great is my dependence upon Thee. If, then, I
ask Thee for the things that make not for my well-being, it is because
I am ignorant; Thy choice is better than mine, and I submit myself to
Thine unalterable decrees and Thy supreme direction. ‘O Lord, my heart
is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in
great matters, or in things too wonderful for me. Surely I have stilled
and quieted my soul; like a child with his mother, my soul is with me
like a weaned child’ (Psalm 131).
BACHYA IBN PAKUDAH, 1040.
ADON OLAM[63]
I
THE charm of the Adon Olam consists in the subtle manner in which
Jewish dogmatics are associated with the simplest spiritual thoughts.
In the first four lines we have a picture of God, the eternal Lord,
existing before the creation of the world, existing still when the
world shall cease to be. Between the eternal past and the eternal
future comes the world of time. This is purely Jewish dogmatics.
Aristotle held that the world was eternal; Judaism, that it was
created. It is God alone who is eternal. Further, Judaism conceives of
God as Something apart from, outside of, His world. He transcends man
and the universe. Yet God is also immanent; He dwells within the human
soul as well as within the world. God is not one with man, but akin to
man; He is high above the world, yet nigh unto them that call upon Him.
The God who exists for ever is proclaimed King when men acknowledge
His Kingship and show Him the allegiance of worship and obedience.
The God who stands high above creation is the One into whose hand man
commits himself without fear. The Majestic King is also the Redeemer.
The transcendent God is a Refuge in man’s distress. He does not merely
raise a banner, He is the Banner; He does not only hold out the cup of
salvation, He is the consummate Cup.
I. ABRAHAMS, 1906.
II
BEFORE the glorious orbs of light
Had shed one blissful ray,
In awful power, the Lord of might
Reign’d in eternal day.
At His creative, holy word
The voice of nature spoke,
Unnumber’d worlds with one accord
To living joys awoke.
Then was proclaim’d the mighty King
In majesty on high!
Then did the holy creatures sing
His praises through the sky.
All-merciful in strength He reigns
Immutable! supreme!
His hand the universe sustains,
He only can redeem.
Almighty, powerful and just!
Thou art my God, my Friend,
My rock, my refuge and my trust,
On Thee my hopes depend.
O! be my guardian whilst I sleep,
For Thou didst lend me breath:
And when I wake, my spirit keep,
And save my soul in death.
D. N. CARVALHO, 1830.
ADON OLAM AND MODERN SCIENCE
ALONE of all religious and philosophic conceptions of man, the faith
which binds together the Jews has not been harmed by the advance of
research, but, on the contrary, has been vindicated in its profoundest
tenets. Slowly and by degrees Science is being brought to recognize
in the universe the existence of One Power, which is of no beginning
and no end; which has existed before all things were formed, and will
remain in its integrity when all is gone; the Source and Origin of all,
in Itself beyond any conception or image that man can form and set up
before his eye or mind; whereas all things perceivable as matter and
force are subjected to his inquiry and designs. This sum total of the
scientific discoveries of all lands and times is an approach of the
world’s thought to our Adon Olam, the sublime chant, by means of which
the Jew has wrought and will further work the most momentous changes in
the world.
W. M. HAFFKINE, 1916.
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל
THE SHEMA
‘HEAR, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.’ That is
at once the quintessential embodiment of all our philosophy, as well
as chief among Israel’s contributions to the everlasting truths of
religion. The first prayer of innocent child-lips, the last confession
of the dying, the Shema has been the watchword and the rallying-cry
of a hundred generations in Israel. By it were they welded into one
Brotherhood to do the will of their Father who is in heaven. The
reading of the Shema has――in rabbinic phrase――clothed Israel with
invincible lion-strength, and endowed him with the double-edged sword
of the spirit against the unutterable terrors of his long night of
exile.
J. H. HERTZ, 1912.
* * * * *
WHEN men in prayer declare the Unity of the Holy Name in love and
reverence, the walls of earth’s darkness are cleft in twain, and the
Face of the Heavenly King is revealed, lighting up the universe.
ZOHAR.
אֱלֹהָי נְשָׁמָה
‘THE SOUL THOU HAST GIVEN ME IS PURE’
NEXT to God’s unity, the most essential and characteristic doctrine of
Judaism is that concerning God’s relation to man. Heathenism degraded
man by making him kneel before brutes and the works of his hand:
Judaism declared man to be made in the image of God, the crown and
culmination of God’s creation, the appointed ruler of the earth. In
him, as the end of Creation, the earthly and the divine are singularly
blended.
Judaism rejects the idea of an inherent impurity in the flesh or in
matter as opposed to the spirit. Nor does Judaism accept the doctrine
of Original Sin. In the words of the daily morning prayer, ‘The soul
that Thou hast given me is pure, Thou hast created it, Thou hast
fashioned it, and Thou hast breathed it into me, and Thou preservest
it within me, and at the appointed time Thou wilt take it from me to
return it within me in the future’.
K. KOHLER, 1904,
_in Jewish Encyclopedia_.
זְכוּת אָבוֹת
THE ‘MERIT OF THE FATHERS’
JUDAISM insists that man has an inborn impulse to virtue (‘Original
Virtue’) which can overcome all temptation to sin; an impulse
immeasurably strengthened through the merit of the fathers (_Zechuth
Aboth_) which is accounted unto their children as righteousness. That
man is best able to advance on the road to moral perfection who starts
with the accumulated spiritual heritage of righteous ancestors.
S. LEVY, 1905.
* * * * *
THE old Jewish doctrine of the ‘merit of the fathers’ has a
counterpart――the idea that the righteousness of the living child
favourably affects the fate of the dead father. This might be called
the doctrine of the ‘merit of the children’. In this way the living
and the dead hold converse. The real message of the dead is――their
virtue. The real response of the living is again――their virtue. Thus
is a bridge built over the chasm of the tomb. Thus do the hearts of
fathers and children beat in eternal unison.
I. ABRAHAMS, 1919.
THE KADDISH
ITS origin is mysterious; angels are said to have brought it down
from heaven and taught it to men. About this prayer the tenderest
threads of filial feeling and human recollection are entwined; for
it is the prayer of the orphans! When the father or the mother dies,
the surviving sons are to recite it twice daily, morning and evening,
throughout the year of mourning, and then also on each recurring
anniversary of the death――on the _Yahrzeit_.
It possesses wonderful power. Truly, if there is any bond strong and
indissoluble enough to chain heaven to earth, it is this prayer. It
keeps the living together, and forms the bridge to the mysterious realm
of the dead. One might almost say that this prayer is the watchman
and the guardian of the people by whom alone it is uttered; therein
lies the warrant of its continuance. Can a people disappear and be
annihilated so long as a child remembers its parents? It may sound
strange: in the midst of the wildest dissipation has this prayer
recalled to his better self many a dissolute character, so that he has
bethought himself and for a time at least purified himself by honouring
the memory of his parents.
Because this prayer is a resurrection in the spirit of the perishable
in man, because it does not acknowledge death, because it permits
the blossom which, withered, has fallen from the tree of mankind to
flower and develop again in the human heart, therefore it possesses
sanctifying power. To know that when thou diest, the earth falling on
thy head will not cover thee entirely; to know that there remain behind,
those who, wherever they may be on this wide earth, whether they may
be poor or rich, will send this prayer after thee; to know that thou
leavest them no house, no estate, no field by which they must remember
thee, and that yet they will cherish thy memory as their dearest
inheritance――what more satisfying knowledge canst thou ever hope for?
And such is the knowledge bequeathed to us all by the Kaddish.
L. KOMPERT.
* * * * *
THE souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall
touch them. They are in peace. Their hope is full of immortality.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 3. 1, 3, 4.
* * * * *
AND they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament;
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
DANIEL 12. 3.
THE HOLINESS OF HOME
IT is impossible to describe to those who have not experienced it,
the feeling of holy joy which is diffused throughout the humblest
Hebrew home by the solemn repetition of acts which in themselves may
be regarded as mere customs, without vital connexion with the souls
of men. And the particular institution in which it is embodied most
characteristically is that of the Sabbath. I do not know how it has
come about that a ‘Judaic Sabbath’ means a day of austere gloom. As
a matter of fact, it is the one bright spot in the Jewish life. All
is joy and good-humour in the Jewish home on the Friday night, when
Sabbath ‘comes in’. I would attribute a good deal of the difference
between the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath to the seemingly
mechanical difference that the former begins and ends at an hour when
its advent or exit can be solemnized by ceremonial. It is, indeed, to
the Sabbath primarily, and the other home ceremonials which embody the
Hebraic conception of the Holiness of the Home, that we can trace the
remarkable persistence of the Jewish race through the ages.
JOSEPH JACOBS, 1889.
* * * * *
THE patriarchal feeling still lingers about his hearth. A man, however
fallen, who loves his home, is not wholly lost. The trumpet of Sinai
still sounds in the Hebrew ear.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI.
KINDLING THE SABBATH LIGHT
FROM memory’s spring flows a vision to-night,
My mother is kindling and blessing the light;
The light of Queen Sabbath, the heavenly flame,
That one day in seven quells hunger and shame.
My mother is praying and screening her face,
Too bashful to gaze at the Sabbath light’s grace.
She murmurs devoutly, ‘Almighty, be blessed,
For sending Thy angel of joy and of rest.
‘And may as the candles of Sabbath divine
The eyes of my son in Thy Law ever shine.’
Of childhood, fair childhood, the years are long fled:
Youth’s candles are quenched, and my mother is dead.
And yet ev’ry Friday, when twilight arrives,
The face of my mother within me revives;
A prayer on her lips, ‘O Almighty, be blessed,
For sending us Sabbath, the angel of rest.’
And some hidden feeling I cannot control
A Sabbath light kindles deep, deep in my soul.
P. M. RASKIN.
לְכָה דוֹדִי
COME, my beloved, with chorusing praise,
Welcome the Sabbath Bride, Queen of the days.
Sabbath, to welcome thee, joyous we haste;
Fountain of blessing from ever thou wast,
First in God’s planning, though fashioned the last――
Crown of His handiwork, chiefest of days.
City of holiness, filled are the years;
Up from thine overthrow! Forth from thy fears!
Long hast thou dwelt in the valley of tears,
Now shall God’s tenderness shepherd thy ways.
Wake and bestir thee, for come is thy light!
Up! With thy shining the world shall be bright.
Sing! For thy Lord is revealed in His might――
Thine is the splendour His glory displays!
SOLOMON HALEVI ALKABETZ, 16th cent.
(_Trans. S. Solis-Cohen._)
* * * * *
FAR more than Israel has kept the Sabbath, it is the Sabbath that has
kept Israel.
ACHAD HA’AM, 1898.
SABBATH PRAYER
BLESSED be the name of the Sovereign of the universe. Blessed be Thy
crown and Thy abiding-place. Let Thy favour rest with Thy people Israel
for ever: show them the redemption of Thy right hand in Thy holy temple.
Vouchsafe unto us the benign gift of Thy light, and in mercy accept our
supplications. May it be Thy will to prolong our life in well-being.
Let me also be numbered among the righteous, so that Thou mayest be
merciful unto me, and have me in Thy keeping, with all that belong to
me and to Thy people Israel. Thou art He that feedeth and sustaineth
all; Thou art He that ruleth over all; Thou art He that ruleth over
kings, for dominion is Thine. I am the servant of the Holy One, blessed
be He, before whom and before whose glorious Law I prostrate myself at
all times; not in man do I put my trust, nor upon any angel do I rely,
but upon the God of Heaven, who is the God of truth, and whose Law is
truth, and whose prophets are prophets of truth, and who aboundeth in
deeds of goodness and truth. In Him I put my trust, and unto His holy
and glorious name I utter praises. May it be Thy will to open my heart
unto Thy Law, and to fulfil the wishes of my heart and of the hearts of
all Thy people Israel for good, for life, and for peace.
ZOHAR.
THE SABBATH
NOT for us the Sabbath of the quiet streets,
Sabbath, peaceful o’er the world outspread,
Felt where every man his neighbour greets,
Heard in hush of many a slowly passing tread.
Not the robe of silence for our holy day:
Noisy run the worker and the player;
Toil and stir and laughter of the way
Surge around the steps that seek a place of prayer.
Silent we, while through the thronging street and mart
Work-day clamour of the city rolls:
Cloistered inly, from the world apart,
Ours it is to bear the Sabbath in our souls.
NINA SALAMAN, 1918.
PRAYER BEFORE THE NEW MOON
MAY it be Thy will, O Lord our God and the God of our fathers, to renew
unto us this coming month for good and for blessing. O grant us long
life, a life of blessing, of sustenance, of bodily vigour, a life
marked by the fear of Heaven and the dread of sin, a life free from
shame and reproach; a life in which the desires of our heart shall be
fulfilled for good.
May the Holy One, blessed be He, renew it unto us and unto all His
people, the house of Israel, for life and peace, for gladness and joy,
for salvation and consolation; and let us say, Amen.
DAILY PRAYER BOOK.
THE SEDER[64]
FAIR is the twilight,
And fragrant and still:
Little by little
The synagogues fill.
One by one kindle
The night’s gleaming eyes;
Candles in windows
And stars in the skies.
Ended in _Shool_ is
The service divine;
Seder is started
With legends and wine.
Father is blessing
The night of all nights;
All who are hungry
To feast he invites.
‘All who are homeless
Yet masters shall be,
Slaves who are this year――
The next shall be free!’
Children ask ‘questions’,
And father replies;
Playfully sparkle
The wine and the eyes.
Hymns of redemption
All merrily sing;
Queen is each mother,
Each father a king.
Midnight. The Seder
Is come to an end;
Guardian angels
From heaven descend.
Each one a message
Of liberty brings;
Scattering blessings
Of peace from his wings.
P. M. RASKIN.
לֵיל שִׁמּוּרִים
ISRAEL’S WATCH-NIGHT
ISRAEL’S great watch-night dates its origin from the very Deliverance
it was to commemorate through all the coming years. Ah! With what a
delirious impatience did Pharaoh’s slaves await the midnight hour that
was to be at once the knell of Egypt’s tyranny and the joy-note that
announced their own freedom! God Himself had singled it out as the time
for fulfilling His ancient promise――singled it out, as the Rabbins tell
us in hyperbolical language, from the days of creation itself. Too long
had unrighteousness flourished. Too long had God seemed to slumber in
His Heaven; but now He was to show that the cry of the oppressed had
never failed to reach Him, for accumulated wrongs were to be redressed
by a complete and unparalleled deliverance. It was for so signal a
vindication of the Divine justice that this night was reserved. It
was as though the Supreme had set His finger upon this night, in the
almanac of Heaven, and declared: This shall witness the long-deferred
triumph of Right over Might; this shall tell for all time that I am
the Lord, that I reign, and that righteousness and justice are the
foundation of My throne, the principles on which I govern My world.
This night shall show to all coming generations that it is only the
fool who says in his heart ‘There is no God’; that the earthly despot
who pursues his career of cruelty, thinking that he has only his
victims’ tears to reckon with, is deluding himself to his own ruin.
And is this truth not worth treasuring in these latter days? Often
does God seem to hide Himself, to have deserted earth and shut Himself
up in Heaven. It is the souls of the meek and the faithful from which
humanity’s tears are distilled, from which the painful chorus of
a world’s lament goes up, and seemingly up in vain. But the lesson
taught to Pharaoh and to Israel on that awful, that joyous night of
deliverance, is still a living lesson; not one jot of its force is
abated. God neither slumbers nor sleeps. He watches ever. Not one sigh
passes unrecorded in the Heavenly Volume.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1893.
PASSOVER AND FREEDOM
PASSOVER is the Festival of Spring. Its human appeal, therefore,
is as old as humanity, and as perennial as Spring. But it is as an
historical festival,――Israel’s birthday――as the annual commemoration of
an event which has changed the destinies of mankind, that it proclaims
the man-redeeming truth, God is the God of Freedom. Even as in Egypt
He espoused the cause of brick-making helots against the mighty royal
oppressor, He for ever judgeth the world in righteousness, and the
peoples with equity. There is an overruling Providence that exalts
righteousness and freedom and humbles the Dominion of iniquity and
oppression. This teaching has been as a light unto the nations of the
Western world in their weary, age-long warfare for liberty.
J. H. HERTZ, 1918.
* * * * *
THE Passover affirms the great truth that liberty is the inalienable
right of every human being. The Feast of Israel’s freedom, its
celebration is Israel’s homage to the great principle of _human
freedom_.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1903.
‘ADDIR HU’
GOD of Might,
God of Right,
Thee we give all glory.
Thine the praise
In our days
As in ages hoary.
When we hear,
Year by year,
Our redemption’s story,
Now as erst,
When Thou first
Mad’st the proclamation,
Warning loud
Ev’ry proud,
Ev’ry tyrant nation,
We Thy fame
Still proclaim,
God of our salvation.
G. GOTTHEIL.
* * * * *
WHEN the Egyptian hosts were drowning in the Red Sea, the angels in
heaven were about to break forth in songs of jubilation. But the Holy
One, blessed be He, silenced them with the words: ‘My creatures are
perishing, and ye are ready to sing!’
TALMUD.
שָׁבֻעוֹת
THE FEAST OF WEEKS
FOR ever, O Lord,
Thy word is settled in heaven.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:
Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
They abide this day according to Thine ordinances;
For all things are Thy servants.
Unless Thy law had been my delight,
I should then have perished in mine affliction.
I have seen an end of all perfection;
But Thy commandment is exceeding broad.
Thy commandments make me wiser than mine enemies;
For they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers;
For Thy testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
Because I have kept Thy precepts.
I have refrained my feet from every evil way,
That I might observe Thy word.
I have not turned aside from Thy judgements;
For Thou hast taught me.
PSALM 119. 90‒2; 96; 98‒102.
A SELF-DENYING GUILD
IS there not something spiritually attractive in the idea of the Jew
of this age voluntarily submitting to restrictions on his appetites
for the sake of duty――forming one of a religious guild whose special
characteristic is self-control? It ought to be the pride of the modern
Jew――and every child should be taught to feel it――that his religion
demands from him a self-abnegation from which other religionists are
absolved; that the price to be paid for the privilege of belonging to
the hierarchy of Israel is continuous and conscious self-sacrifice.
The Dietary Laws foster this spirit of self-surrender. Respect for them
teaches and helps the Jew, in Rabbinic language, to abase his desires
before the will of his Father in Heaven.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1893.
* * * * *
WITH everlasting love Thou hast loved the house of Israel, Thy people;
a Law and commandments, statutes and judgements, hast Thou taught us.
Therefore, O Lord our God, when we lie down and when we rise up we will
meditate on Thy statutes; yea, we will rejoice in the words of Thy Law
and in Thy commandments for ever; for they are our life and the length
of our days.
DAILY PRAYER BOOK.
אַקְדָמוּת
COULD we with ink the ocean fill,
Were every blade of grass a quill,
Were the world of parchment made,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love
Of God above
Would drain that ocean dry;
Nor would the scroll
Contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky!
MEIR BEN ISAAC NEHORAÏ, 1050.
THE BIBLE
IS it a book, a world, a heaven?
Are those words, or flames, or shining stars,
Or burning torches, or clouds of fire
What is it, I ask ye――the Bible?
Who inspired those infinite truths?
Who spoke through the mouth of the prophet?
Who mapped out the highways of ages,
The glorious lines of the Scriptures?
Who planted the flowers of wisdom
In this sacred soil of the angels?
O dream of eternity――Bible――
O Light that is all and for ever.
MORRIS ROSENFELD, 1918.
THE SEPHER TORAH[65]
FOR any community of people to be, and to remain, Jewish, they must be
brought up from their tenderest childhood to regard the Sepher Torah
as the title-deed of their birthright and pedigree, which they are
religiously to hand down unaltered from generation to generation. For
is there a Jewish community anywhere, however safely domiciled, which
has relinquished the Torah for even one generation and has survived
that separation? The Jewish masses, though dispersed to the four winds
of the world and mostly destitute of mere shelter――_because tenacious
of their creed_, endure, true to themselves and to their past.
The Torah, therefore, is a fountain of life. In it is protection
greater than in fortresses. Those who forsake the Torah, bringing it
into disrepute and weakening the hold it has on us, are working at the
destruction of the brotherhood that cradled and sheltered their fathers
and forefathers through all the vicissitudes of the bygone ages, to
whom they owe their own life and presence on earth.
W. M. HAFFKINE, 1917.
RELIGION AND MORALITY
‘I AM the Lord thy God’――the pronouncement that forms the
introduction to the Decalogue――is rightly regarded as the indispensable
basis for all the Commandments, upon whose conscientious fulfilment the
well-being of humanity depends. The identification of moral laws with
religious precepts, which has been so fully accomplished for the first
time in the Law of Moses, gives to the Bible its exceptional importance
as a regulator of the conduct of men and of nations. Those who are
convinced that by wronging their fellow-men, or transgressing any of
the established laws, they violate a command that comes from God, and
defy the will of their Maker as expressed in His law, are much less
liable to wrongdoing than those who create their own ethical theories
and set up their own standards of right and wrong, relying upon their
conscience and sense of honour as infallible guides. To some it seems
a kind of humiliation if a super-human authority is pointed to as
the indispensable guide of human conduct. But man ought never to
have assumed such pride as to feel humiliated by the idea of his
imperfection and his need of guidance and restraint. History does not
justify this pride.
SALIS DAICHES, 1910.
SYMBOLS AND CEREMONIES
YOU have heard that in Egypt the waters of the Nile overflowing
its banks, take the place of rain; and that these fructifying waters
are led by various channels into the remote fields to irrigate them.
Now, the Nile with its precious floods would be of no benefit to
the fields without these channels. Thus it is with the Torah and the
_Mitzvoth_.[66] The Torah is the mighty stream of spirituality flowing
since ancient times through Israel. It would have caused no useful
fruits to grow, and would have produced no spiritual progress, no moral
advancement, had the Mitzvah not been there to lead its divine floods
into the houses, the hearts, and the minds of the individual members
of the people, by connecting practical life in all its variety and its
activities with the spiritual truths of religion.
It is the greatest mistake, based on an entire misunderstanding of
human nature, to assume that men are capable of living in a world of
ideas only, and can dispense with symbols that should embody these
ideas and give them tangibility and visible form. Only the Mitzvah is
the ladder connecting heaven and earth. The Tefillin, containing among
others the commandment: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might’, are laid on
the head, the seat of thought, and on the arm, the instrument of action,
opposite to the heart, the seat of feeling; thus teaching that all our
thoughts, feelings, and actions must conform to the will of God. This
Mitzvah, performed daily, has contributed more effectively to preserve
and to further the morality of our people than have all the learned
books on ethics written by our religious philosophers.
M. JUNG, 1917.
CUSTOM IN RELIGION
RELIGION, they say, is only custom. I might agree with this if the
‘only’ were left out. Customs are the flowers of civilization. You can
tell a man’s education, yea, even much of his character, by his habits.
Morality, ethics, are words derived from roots denoting that which is
acknowledged and adopted by the people as right and proper. Manners
and usages are the silent compact, the unwritten law which preserve the
proprieties of civilized society.
Religion will not come to our aid the moment we call for her; she
must be loved and cherished at all times if she is to prove our true
friend in need. Much of the present indifference of our young people is
directly traceable to the absence of all religious observances in their
homes. Piety is the fruit of religious customs.
G. GOTTHEIL, 1896.
‘IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TIMES’
WAS Judaism ever ‘in accordance with the times’? Did Judaism ever
correspond with the views of dominant contemporaries? Was it ever
convenient to be a Jew or a Jewess?
Was the Judaism of our ancestors in accordance with the times, when
compelled by the Egyptians to bend their necks during centuries under
the yoke of slavery and to suffer their babes to be buried in the waves
of the Nile? Was the Judaism of the Maccabees in accordance with their
times, when they resisted to the utmost the introduction of Grecian
manners prevailing in their days? When the Temple at Jerusalem was
destroyed by the Romans and the sons of Judah were slaughtered, sold
in slave markets, cast before wild beasts or scattered through every
country then known; when Worldly Wisdom would have taught, ‘Now it is
certainly impossible for us to remain Jews’――did not the Hillels[67]
and the son of Zakkai[68] teach yet more earnestly the holiness of
our laws and our customs, and so order and regulate things that not a
fibre might be lost from the ancestral sanctuary? Was that Judaism in
accordance with the times, for which, during the centuries following
the Dispersion, our fathers suffered in all lands, through all the
various periods, the most degrading oppression, the most biting
contempt, and a thousand-fold death and persecution?
And yet _we_ would make it the aim and scope of Judaism to be always
‘in accordance with the times’!
SAMSON RAPHAEL HIRSCH, 1854.
(_Trans. Isaac Leeser._)
FAITH
WHILE faith and reason are blended in the religion of Israel as
perhaps in no other, it is not the second place that must be assigned
to faith. From the foot of Sinai there is wafted to us the voice
declaring with the most perfect childlike faith, ‘_All that the Lord
hath spoken we will do and we will hear_’. It is not surprising that a
people who, in their infancy, could give utterance to an expression of
trust so childlike, yet so sublime, should produce a prophet who summed
up the whole of Israel’s law in the words, ‘_The just shall live by his
faith_’.
SIMEON SINGER, 1906.
צִיּוֹן הֲלֹא תִשְׁאֲלִי
ODE TO ZION
(HYMN FOR THE FAST OF AB)
ART thou not, Zion, fain
To send forth greetings from thy sacred rock
Unto thy captive train,
Who greet thee as the remnants of thy flock?
Take Thou on every side,
East, west and south and north, their greetings multiplied.
Sadly he greets thee still,
The prisoner of hope who, day and night,
Sheds ceaseless tears, like dew on Hermon’s hill.
Would that they fell upon thy mountain’s height!
Harsh is my voice when I bewail thy woes,
But when in fancy’s dreams
I see thy freedom, forth its cadence flows,
Sweet as the harps that hung by Babel’s streams.
The glory of the Lord will ever be
Thy sole and perfect light;
No need hast thou then, to illumine thee
Of sun by day, or moon and stars by night.
I would that, where God’s spirit was of yore
Poured out unto thy holy ones, I might
There too my soul outpour.
Oh, who will lead me on
To seek the spots where, in far distant years,
The angels in their glory dawned upon
Thy messengers and seers!
Oh, who will give me wings
That I may fly away,
And there, at rest from all my wanderings,
The ruins of my heart among thy ruins lay?
I’ll bend my face unto thy soil, and hold
Thy stones as special gold.
And when in Hebron I have stood beside
My fathers’ tombs, then will I pass in turn
Thy plains and forest wide,
Until I stand on Gilead and discern
Mount Hor and Mount Abarim, ’neath whose crest
Thy luminaries twain, thy guides and beacons rest.
Thy air is life unto my soul, thy grains
Of dust are myrrh, thy streams with honey flow
Naked and barefoot to thy ruined fanes
How gladly would I go!
To where the ark was treasured, and in dim
Recesses dwelt the holy cherubim.
Perfect in beauty, Zion, how in thee
Do love and grace unite!
The souls of thy companions tenderly
Turn unto thee; thy joy was their delight,
And weeping they lament thy ruin now.
In distant exile, for thy sacred height
They long, and towards thy gates in prayer they bow.
Shinar and Pathros! come they near to thee?
Naught are they by thy light and right divine.
To what can be compared the majesty
Of thy anointed line?
To what the singers, seers, and Levites thine?
The rule of idols fails and is cast down;
Thy power eternal is, from age to age thy crown.
The Lord desires thee for His dwelling-place
Eternally, and bless’d
Is he whom God has chosen for the grace
Within thy courts to rest.
Happy is he that watches, drawing near,
Until he sees thy glorious lights arise,
And over whom thy dawn breaks full and clear,
Set in the Orient skies.
But happiest he, who, with exultant eyes,
The bliss of thy redeemed ones shall behold,
And see thy youth renewed as in the days of old.
YEHUDAH HALEVI, 1145.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
THE ETERNAL CITY OF THE ETERNAL PEOPLE
JERUSALEM, the hearth of pure religion, the home of prophecy,
the sacred fountain of the word of God, is the very emblem of the
deathlessness of the spirit. With its 4,000 years’ history it is
coeval with the Jew, and is as unique among cities as is Israel among
the nations. Like the Jew, this Holy City of Israel――the spiritual
capital of humanity that has for ages been the magnetic pole of the
love and reverence of mankind――is deathless; fire and sword and all
the engines of destruction have been hurled against it in vain. A score
of conquerors have held it as their choicest prize; and more than a
dozen times has it been utterly destroyed. The Assyrians burnt it and
deported its population; the Romans slew a million of its inhabitants,
razed it to the ground, passed the ploughshare over it, and strewed its
furrows with salt; Hadrian banished its very name from the lips of men,
changed it to ‘Aelia Capitolina’, and prohibited any Jew from entering
its precincts on pain of death. Persians and Arabs, Barbarians and
Crusaders and Turks, took it and retook it, ravaged it and burnt it;
and yet, marvellous to relate, it ever rises from its ashes to renewed
life and glory. And now, on the very day that 2,080 years ago Judah
Maccabee rescued it from the heathens, the Holy City has passed into
British occupation! What a privilege it is to have lived to see such
a world-historic event! A new future, with undreamt-of possibilities,
opens before this eternal city of the eternal people. But in the
future, as in the past, it will proclaim the prophetic teaching of
the Maccabean festival: ‘_Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit,
saith the Lord of Hosts_’.
J. H. HERTZ, _at the Thanksgiving
Service for the Taking of Jerusalem
by H. M. Forces_, 1917.
* * * * *
ARISE, shine, for thy light is come
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:
They all are gathered together, and come to thee;
Thy sons come from far,
And thy daughters are borne on the side.
Then thou shalt see and be radiant,
And thy heart shall throb and be enlarged.
Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated,
So that no man passed through thee,
I will make thee an eternal excellency,
A joy of many generations.
Thy sun shall no more go down,
Neither shall thy moon withdraw itself,
For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light,
And the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
ISAIAH 60. 1, 4‒5, 15, 20.
רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה
NEW YEAR
INTO the tomb of ages past
Another year hath now been cast;
Shall time unheeded take its flight,
Nor leave one ray of higher light
That on man’s pilgrimage may shine
And lead his soul to spheres divine?
Ah! which of us, if self-reviewed,
Can boast unfailing rectitude?
Who can declare his wayward will
More prone to righteous deed than ill?
Or, in his retrospect of life,
No traces find of passion’s strife?
With firm resolve your bosoms nerve
The God of right alone to serve;
Speech, thought, and act to regulate
By what His perfect laws dictate;
Nor from His holy precepts stray,
By worldly idols lured away.
Peace to the house of Israel:
May joy within it ever dwell!
PENINA MOÏSE, 1838.
WRITTEN AND SEALED
‘TO be inscribed in the Book of Life.’ This must be understood in a
spiritual sense. When a man clings to the love of God, and, putting
his trust in His infinite mercy, takes upon himself the yoke of the
Kingdom of heaven――he therewith inscribes himself in the Book of Life.
Whereas the man, a slave to his passions, who so loses his belief in
the all-embracing love of God that he fails to repent and return to his
Father in heaven, this despairing of the love of God is equivalent to
his being inscribed――God forbid――in the Book of Death.
ISRAEL BAALSHEM, 1700.
* * * * *
IN a higher than their literal sense the words of the liturgy are true.
Our destiny――our spiritual destiny――is written down on New Year’s Day
and sealed on the Day of Atonement. We write it down in the penitence
with which we greet the dawn of the year, we seal it with the amendment
which we solemnly vow on the Fast of Kippur. The time for penitence is
with us; the Fast with its supreme task awaits us. Let our endeavours
to see ourselves as we really are, our sorrow for our shortcomings, the
unrest of our unshriven soul, prepare us for the final act of atonement.
The Day of Atonement shall lead us, with hearts bowed in submission, to
the Divine throne; and God will lovingly lift us up, absolved, forgiven,
filled with the spirit of faith and loving obedience. We shall begin
to live at last, to live before Him, to live the true life which is
inspired by the constant thought of His presence.
MORRIS JOSEPH.
THE SHOFAR
THE Scriptural injunction of the Shofar for the New Year’s Day has a
profound meaning. It says: Awake, ye sleepers, and ponder your deeds;
remember your Creator, and go back to Him in penitence. Be not of those
that miss realities in their hunt after shadows, and waste their years
in seeking after vain things which cannot profit or deliver. Look well
to your souls and consider your acts; forsake each of you his evil ways
and thoughts, and return to God, so that He may have mercy upon you.
MOSES MAIMONIDES, 1180.
* * * * *
FOR this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard
for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that thou shouldst
say: ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make
us to hear it, that we may do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that
thou shouldst say: ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto
us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?’ But the word is very
nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
DEUTERONOMY 30. 11‒14.
* * * * *
THE Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
PSALM 27. 1.
MY KING
ERE time began, ere age to age had thrilled,
I waited in His storehouse, as He willed.
He gave me being; but, my years fulfilled,
I shall be summoned back before the King.
Thou gavest me a light my path to guide,
To prove my heart’s recesses still untried;
And as I went, Thy voice in warning cried:
‘Child! fear thou Him who is thy God and King!’
Erring, I wandered in the wilderness,
In passion’s grave nigh sinking, powerless;
Now deeply I repent, in sore distress,
That I kept not the statutes of the King!
Thine is the love, O God, and Thine the grace
That folds the sinner in its mild embrace;
Thine the forgiveness bridging o’er the space
’Twixt man’s works and the task set by the King.
Unheeding all my sins, I cling to Thee!
I know that mercy will Thy footstool be;
Before I call, oh! do Thou answer me,
For nothing dare I claim of Thee, my King.
MOSES BEN NACHMAN, 1300.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
THE LORD IS KING, THE LORD WAS KING,
THE LORD SHALL BE KING FOR EVER AND EVER[69]
THY people in passionate worship cry
One to another the Lord is King.
In awe of the marvels beneath the sky
Each explains that the Lord was King.
One sound from Thy pastures ascends on high:
The chant that the Lord shall be King for ever.
_The Lord is King, the Lord was King,
the Lord shall be King for ever and ever._
The universe throbs with Thy pauseless praise,
Chorus eternal, the Lord is King.
Thy glory is cried from the dawn of days,
Worshippers calling the Lord was King.
And ever the Saints who shall witness Thy ways
Shall cry that the Lord shall be King for ever.
_The Lord is King, the Lord was King,
the Lord shall be King for ever and ever._
ELEAZAR KALIR, 8th cent.
(_Trans. I. Zangwill._)
IF NOT HIGHER
AND the Rebbe[70] of Nemirov, every Friday Morning early at
Sliches[71]-time, disappeared, melted into thin air! He was not to be
found anywhere, either in the synagogue or in the two houses-of-study,
or worshipping in some Minyan,[72] and most certainly not at home. His
door stood open, people went in and out as they pleased――no one ever
stole anything from the Rebbe――but there was not a soul in the house.
Where can the Rebbe be?
Where should he be, with the Solemn Days so near, if not in heaven?
Jews need a livelihood, peace, health; they wish to be good and pious,
and their sins are great, and Satan with his thousand eyes spies out
the world from one end to the other, and he sees, and accuses, and
tells tales――and who shall help if not the Rebbe? So thought the people.
Once, however, there came a Lithuanian――and he laughed! You know
the Lithuanian Jews――they rather despise books of devotion, but stuff
themselves with the Talmud and the Codes. And who, I ask you, is going
to argue with a _Litvack_?
What becomes of the Rebbe?
‘I don’t know, and I don’t care’, says he, shrugging his shoulders, and
all the while (what it is to be a Lithuanian!) determined to find out!
The very same evening, soon after prayers, the Lithuanian steals into
the Rebbe’s room, lays himself down under the Rebbe’s bed, and lies low.
He intends to stay there all night, to find out where the Rebbe goes,
and what he does at Sliches-time.
Day has not broken when he hears the call to prayer. The Rebbe has been
awake some time. The Lithuanian has heard him sighing and groaning for
a whole hour. Whoever has heard the groaning of the Nemirover Rebbe
knows what sorrow for All-Israel, what distress of mind, found voice in
every groan.
After that the Lithuanian hears the people rise and leave the house.
Once more it is quiet and dark, only a very little moonlight comes in
through the shutter. He confessed afterwards, did the Lithuanian, that
when he found himself alone with the Rebbe, terror took hold of him.
But a Lithuanian is dogged. He quivers and quakes like a fish, but he
does not budge.
At last the Rebbe (long life to him!) rises in his turn. He goes to
the wardrobe, and takes out a packet which proves to be the dress of
a peasant: linen trousers, high boots, a pelisse, a wide felt hat, and
a long and broad leather belt studded with brass nails. The Rebbe puts
them on.
Out of the pockets of the pelisse dangles the end of a thick cord, a
peasant’s cord.
On his way out, the Rebbe steps aside into the kitchen, stoops, takes a
hatchet from under the bed, puts it into his belt, and leaves the house.
The Lithuanian trembles, but he persists.
* * * * *
A fearful Solemn Day hush broods over the dark streets, broken not
infrequently by a cry of supplication from some little Minyan, or the
moan of some sick person behind a window. The Rebbe keeps to the street
side, and walks in the shadow of the houses. He glides from one to the
other, the Lithuanian after him. And the Lithuanian hears the sound of
his own heart-beats mingle with the heavy footfall of the Rebbe; but he
follows on, and together they emerge from the town.
Behind the town stands a little wood. The Rebbe (long life to him!)
enters it. He walks on thirty or forty paces, and then he stops beside
a small tree. And the Lithuanian, with amazement, sees the Rebbe take
his hatchet and strike the tree. He sees the Rebbe strike blow after
blow, he hears the tree creak and snap. And the little tree falls, and
the Rebbe splits it up into logs, and the logs into splinters. Then he
makes a bundle, binds it round with the cord, throws it on his shoulder,
replaces the hatchet in his belt, leaves the wood, and goes back into
the town.
In one of the back streets he stops beside a poor, tumble-down little
house, and taps at the window.
‘Who is there?’ cries a frightened voice within.
The Lithuanian knows it to be the voice of a Jewess, a sick Jewess.
‘I’, answers the Rebbe, in the peasant tongue.
‘Who is I?’ inquires the voice, further.
And the Rebbe answers again in the Little-Russian speech:
‘Vassil.’
‘Which Vassil? And what do you want, Vassil?’
‘I have wood to sell’, says the sham peasant, ‘very cheap, for next to
nothing.’ And without further ado he goes in. The Lithuanian steals in
behind him, and sees, in the grey light of dawn, a poor room with poor,
broken furniture. In the bed lies a sick Jewess huddled up in rags, who
says bitterly:
‘Wood to sell――and where am I, a poor widow, to get money to buy it?’
‘I will give you a six-groschen worth on credit.’
‘And how am I ever to repay you?’ groans the poor woman.
‘Foolish creature!’ the Rebbe upbraids her. ‘See here: you are a poor
sick Jewess, and I am willing to trust you with the little bundle of
wood; I believe that in time you will repay me. And you, you have such
a great, mighty God, and you do not trust Him! Not even to the amount
of a miserable six groschen for a bundle of wood!’
‘And who is to light the stove?’ groans the widow. ‘Do I look like
getting up to do it, and my son away at work?’
‘I will also light the stove for you’, said the Rebbe. And the Rebbe,
while he laid the wood in the stove, repeated, groaning, the first part
of the Sliches. Then, when the stove was alight and the wood crackled
cheerily, he repeated, more gaily, the second part of the Sliches. He
repeated the third part when the fire had burnt itself out, and he shut
the stove doors.
* * * * *
The Lithuanian, who saw all this, remained with the Rebbe as one of his
followers.
And, later, when any one told how the Rebbe early every morning at
Sliches-time raised himself and flew up into heaven, the Lithuanian,
instead of laughing, added quietly:
‘If not higher.’
J. L. PERETZ.
(_Trans. Helena Frank._)
יוֹם כִּפּוּר
DAY OF ATONEMENT
TO Thee we give ourselves to-day,
Forgetful of the world outside;
We tarry in Thy house, O Lord,
From eventide to eventide.
From Thy all-searching, righteous eye
Our deepest heart can nothing hide;
It crieth up to Thee for peace
From eventide to eventide.
Who could endure, shouldst Thou, O God,
As we deserve, for ever chide?
We therefore seek Thy pardoning grace
From eventide to eventide.
O may we lay to heart how swift
The years of life do onward glide;
So learn to live that we may see
Thy light at our life’s eventide.
G. GOTTHEIL.
FORGIVE thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done thee;
And then thy sins shall be pardoned when thou prayest.
Man cherisheth anger against man;
And doth he seek healing from the Lord?
Upon a man like himself he hath no mercy;
And doth he make supplication for his own sins?
ECCLESIASTICUS 28. 2‒4.
THE MESSAGE OF YOM KIPPUR
IN large letters, so that even he that runs may read, does Yom Kippur
spell forth the fundamentals of Judaism, of religion, of the higher
life of man. Sin is not an evil power whose chains the children of
flesh must helplessly drag towards a weary tomb. We can always shake
off its yoke; and what is more, we need never assume its yoke. An
ancient fable tells us of distant oceans with mountainous rocks of
magnet of such terrific power that wreck and ruin befell any ship
venturing near them. Instantly the iron nails would fly out of the
ship, bolts and fastenings would be torn away by that magnetic force;
the vessel would become nothing more than so many planks of wood, and
all on board fall a prey to the hungry waters. Sins there are that,
likewise, unhinge all our stays of character, rob us of the restraints
of past habits and education, and leave us helpless playthings on the
billows of temptation and passion. Yet a man is the pilot of his life’s
barque, and can at all times steer it so as never to come near those
mountains of destruction and death.
And, secondly, there is an atonement for man’s sins. We may repair
the ravages of sin, rebuild the shifting foundations of character,
and join again the sundered strands of our spiritual fabric. We spurn
the old pagan fatalism which declares that there is no forgiveness for
sin. Nature provides some escape from physical disease; shall the soul,
injured by temptation’s fire, scarred by sin, not be able to recover
its pristine strength and beauty? No matter how harsh nature and man
may seem, the God of Eternal Right holds a deep pity that can atone and
save, bury not only sin, but its grave and graveyard with it!
As clear as a bell resounds the third and greatest teaching of Yom
Kippur: man himself must prepare himself for atonement, and no priest
or mediator can prepare or work atonement for him. Virtue is victory
by the individual himself over temptation that assails him. The battle
cannot be fought nor the victory won by another. The human soul,
wandering on the devious labyrinthine paths of sin, must itself essay
to forsake the Way of Sorrow and proceed on the Way of Salvation.
This is the most splendid, the most momentous fact in human life: that
though man cannot always even half control his destiny, God has given
the reins of man’s conduct altogether into his hands.
No wonder that the Synagogue has ever looked upon this day of prayer,
fasting, and humiliation as a _festival_. A generation or two ago
our forefathers stood robed in white in the Synagogue, during the
entire Atonement Day. Originally these white garments were not worn
as reminders of the grave; they were an outward sign of the festal
character of this Day, appointed for life’s spiritual renewal. ‘When
men are summoned before an earthly ruler’, says the Jerusalem Talmud,
‘to defend themselves against some charge, they appear downcast and
dressed in black like mourners. Israel appears before God on the
Atonement Day attired in white as if going to a feast, because he is
confident that as soon as he returns penitently to his Maker, He will
not condemn, but will abundantly pardon.’
J. H. HERTZ, 1900.
אָמְנָם כֵּן־סָלַחְתִּי
‘FORGIVEN’[73]
RAISE to Thee this my plea, take my pray’r,
Sin unmake for Thy sake and declare,
‘Forgiven!’
Tears, regret, witness set in sin’s place;
Uplift trust from the dust to Thy face――
‘Forgiven!’
Voice that sighs, tear-filled eyes, do not spurn;
Weigh and pause, plead my cause, and return
‘Forgiven!’
Yea, off-rolled――as foretold――clouds impure,
Zion’s folk, free of yoke, O assure
‘Forgiven!’
YOMTOB OF YORK, 1190.
(_Trans. I. Zangwill._)
תֶר מַלְכוּת
CONFESSION
SHAME-STRICKEN, bending low,
My God, I come before Thee, for I know
That even as Thou on high
Exalted art in power and majesty,
So weak and frail am I:
That perfect as Thou art,
So I deficient am in every part.
Thou art all-wise, all-good, all-great, divine,
Yea, Thou art God: eternity is Thine;
While I, a thing of clay,
The creature of a day,
Pass shadow-like, a breath, that comes and flees away.
My God, I know my sins are numberless,
More than I can recall to memory
Or tell their tale: yet some will I confess,
Even a few, though as a drop it be
In all the sea.
I will declare my trespasses and sin,
And peradventure silence then may fall
Upon their waves and billows’ raging din,
And Thou wilt hear from heaven, when I call,
And pardon all.
My God, if mine iniquity
Too great for all endurance be,
Yet for Thy name’s sake pardon me.
For if in Thee I may not dare
To hope, who else will hear my prayer?
Therefore, although Thou slay me, yet
In Thee my faith and trust is set:
And though Thou seekest out my sin,
From Thee to Thee I fly to win
A place of refuge, and within
Thy shadow from Thy anger hide,
Until Thy wrath be turned aside.
Unto Thy mercy I will cling
Until Thou hearken, pitying:
Nor will I quit my hold of Thee
Until Thy blessing light on me.
Remember, O my God, I pray,
How Thou hast formed me out of clay,
What troubles set upon my way.
Do Thou not, then, my deeds requite
According to my sins aright,
But with Thy mercy infinite.
For well I know, through good and ill,
That Thou in love hast chastened still,
Afflicting me in faithfulness,
That Thou my latter end may’st bless.
SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, 1050.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
YOM KIPPUR MEDITATIONS
I
MY soul, be not senseless, like a beast, deeply sunk;――be not drowsy,
with passion drunk.――Hewn from reason’s mind thou art;――from wisdom’s
well thy waters start,――from the Lord’s heavenly realm!
My soul, let not the body’s wanton pleasures capture thee,――its showy
treasures not enrapture thee;――they melt away――like the dew before the
day,――they avail naught when they begin,――and their end is shame and
sin.
My soul, look carefully back――on thy pilgrim’s track;――all cometh from
the dust,――and thither return it must.――Whatever has been moulded and
built,――when its time is fulfilled,――must go back to the ground――where
its material was found.――Death is life’s brother.――They keep fast
to one another,――each taking hold of one end of their plunder,――and
none can tear them asunder.――Soon thou wilt come――to thine eternal
home,――where thou must show thy work and receive thy wages――on rightful
scales and gauges,――or good or bad, according to the worth――of thy
deeds on earth.
Therefore get thee up, and to thy Master pray――by night and day;――bow
down before Him, be meek,――and let thy tears bedew thy cheek.――Seek
the Lord, thy Light,――with all thy might;――walk in meekness, pursue
the right;――so that with His mercy-screen the Master――hide thee in the
day of disaster.――Then thou shalt shine like the heavens bright,――and
like the sun when going forth in might;――and o’er thy head――shall be
spread――the rays――of the sun of grace――that brings――healing and joy in
his wings.
BACHYA IBN PAKUDAH, 1040.
(_Trans. M. Jastrow._)
II
FORGET thine anguish,
Vexed heart, again.
Why shouldst thou languish,
With earthly pain?
The husk shall slumber,
Bedded in clay,
Silent and sombre,
Oblivion’s prey.
But, Spirit immortal,
Thou at Death’s portal
Tremblest with fear.
If he caress thee,
Curse thee, or bless thee,
Thou must draw near,
From him the worth of thy works to hear.
Why, full of terror,
Compassed with error,
Trouble thy heart
For thy mortal part?
The soul flies home――
The corpse is dumb.
Of all thou didst have
Follows naught to the grave.
Thou fliest thy nest,
Swift as a bird to thy place of rest.
Life is a vine-branch;
A vintager, Death.
He threatens and lowers
More near with each breath.
Then hasten, arise!
Seek God, O my soul!
For time quickly flies,
Still far is the goal.
Vain heart praying dumbly,
Learn to prize humbly
The meanest of fare.
Forget all thy sorrow,
Behold, death is there!
Dove-like lamenting,
Be full of repenting;
Lift vision supernal
To raptures eternal;
On every occasion
Seek lasting salvation.
Pour thy heart out in weeping
While others are sleeping.
Pray to Him when all’s still,
Performing His will.
And so shall the Angel of Peace be thy warden,
And guide thee at last to the heavenly garden.
SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, 1050.
(_Trans. Emma Lazarus_).
THE INFINITE MERCIES OF GOD
THE Lord, the Lord is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger
and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; keeping lovingkindness for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
EXODUS 34. 6, 7.
* * * * *
MAY it be Thy will, O God, that we return to Thee in perfect penitence,
so that we may not be ashamed to meet our fathers in the life to come.
Unite our hearts, O God, to fear Thy name; keep us far from what Thou
hatest; bring us near to what Thou lovest; and deal mercifully with us
for Thy name’s sake.
May it be Thy will, O God, that love and peace and brotherliness dwell
among us! May our hopes of Heaven be fulfilled! Grant that the good
inclination may uphold us. Fill us with the desire to fear Thy name,
and do Thou give us our soul’s peace. Amen.
TALMUD.
BROTHERHOOD
AT the beginning of the Atonement service the most venerable men in the
congregation solemnly repeat from the Almemor[74]: ‘With the permission
of the Court on High, and with the permission of the Congregation
below, we declare it permitted to pray with hardened transgressors’.
Why this custom? In some communities of the Middle Ages there were
persons who, by their conduct, had placed themselves outside the
pale of Judaism; cowardly apostates, for example, who sold their
souls; informers, who spread broadcast false accusations against their
brethren; insubordinates, outcasts, criminals. Throughout the year
these never sought spiritual fellowship with their brethren. On Yom
Kippur, however, they would steal into some corner of the synagogue
and join the worshippers in prayer. The Rabbis thereupon instituted
this solemn declaration, in order to proclaim in most unmistakable
terms that, no matter what is a man’s mode of life――slanderer, apostate,
outcast――he is still a brother. ‘_We_ have transgressed, _we_ have
dealt treacherously, _we_ have robbed,’ do we pray. We associate
ourselves with the most forlorn souls that sin in darkness, because we
recognize that society――we ourselves――are largely responsible for their
actions. Many a time has our evil example misled others, and become a
stumbling-block in the way of the blind. And all our Yom Kippur vows
to rise to a higher life are useless, unless we endeavour to raise
others who have fallen. A traveller was crossing mountain heights of
untrodden snow alone. He struggled bravely against the sense of sleep
which weighed down his eyelids, but it was fast stealing over him, and
he knew that if he fell asleep death would inevitably follow. At this
crisis his foot struck against a heap lying across his path. Stooping
down, he found it to be a human body half buried in the snow. The next
moment he held him in his arms, and was rubbing and chafing the frozen
man’s limbs. The effort to restore another unto life brought back to
himself warmth and energy, and was the means of saving both. The same
law obtains in the realm of the soul. In order that our spiritual
vitality may quicken into new life, we must help others in highest
matters of faith and hope.
‘Heaven’s gate is shut
To him who comes alone;
Save thou a soul,
And it shall save thine own.’
J. H. HERTZ, 1898.
* * * * *
I WILL seek that which is lost, and will bring again that which is
driven away, and will bind up that which is broken, and will strengthen
that which is sick.
EZEKIEL 34. 16.
ATONEMENT PROMISE AND ADMONITION
I
SEEK ye the Lord while He may be found,
Call ye upon Him while He is near;
Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the man of iniquity his thoughts;
And let him return unto the Lord,
And He will have compassion upon him,
And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven,
And returneth not thither,
Except it water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
And give seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth:
It shall not return unto Me void,
Except it accomplish that which I please,
And make the thing whereto I sent it prosper.
ISAIAH 55. 6‒11.
II
THEN shall thy light break forth as the morning,
And thy healing shall spring forth speedily;
And thy righteousness shall go before thee,
The glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer;
Thou shalt cry, and He will say: ‘Here I am.’
If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke,
The putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedness;
And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry,
And satisfy the afflicted soul;
Then shall thy light rise in darkness,
And thy gloom be as the noonday;
And the Lord will guide thee continually,
And satisfy thy soul in drought,
And make strong thy bones;
And thou shalt be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste
places,
Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations;
And thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The
restorer of paths to dwell in.
ISAIAH 58. 8‒12.
LORD, THINE HUMBLE SERVANTS HEAR
LORD, thine humble servants hear,
Suppliant now before Thee;
Our Father, from Thy children’s plea
Turn not, we implore Thee!
Lord, blot out our evil pride,
All our sins before Thee;
Our Father, for Thy Mercy’s sake,
Pardon, we implore Thee.
Lord, no sacrifice we bring,
Prayers and tears implore Thee;
Our Father, take the gift we lay,
Contrite hearts before Thee.
Lord, Thy sheep have wandered far,
Gather them before Thee;
Our Father, let Thy shepherd’s love
Guide us, we implore Thee.
Lord, forgive and comfort all
That in truth implore Thee;
Our Father, let our evening prayer
Thus find grace before Thee.
R. YEHUDAH.
(_Trans. S. Solis-Cohen._)
אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה
GOD THAT DOEST WONDROUSLY
(NE’ILAH)
GOD, that doest wondrously,
God, that doest wondrously,
Pardon at Thy people’s cry,
As the closing hour draws nigh!
Few are Israel’s sons, and weak;
Thee, in penitence, they seek.
O regard their anguished cry,
As the closing hour draws nigh!
Souls in grief before Thee poured,
Agonize for deed and word;
‘We have sinned. Forgive!’ they cry,
As the closing hour draws nigh!
Heal them! Let their trust in Thee
Turn aside Wrath’s dread decree;
Doom them not, but heed their cry,
As the closing hour draws nigh!
For our Fathers’ righteousness
Save us now in our distress;
Make us glad with freedom’s cry,
As the closing hour draws nigh!
R. MOSHEH.
(_Trans. S. Solis-Cohen._)
TABERNACLES
זְמַן שִׂמְחָתֵנוּ
THE divine religion does not urge us to lead an ascetic life, but
guides us in the middle path, equidistant from the extremes of too
much and too little; it allows free play to every God-given faculty of
both body and soul, within the limits drawn by the Divine Hand itself.
For certain it is that what we devote to one faculty in excessive
measure we withdraw from another faculty, and thus lose the harmony
which should pervade our whole life. In general, let me impress this
principle upon thy mind: the essence of our whole law is contained in
these three things――reverence, love, joy. They are the way to bring us
near to God. Thy contrition on the day of fasting is in no wise more
pleasing to Him than thy joy on the sabbath or the festival, if so be
that thy delight comes from a devout and full heart. Just as prayer
requires reflection and devotion, so does joy in God’s commandments and
the study of His revelation. Thou must rejoice in the love of Him who
gave the Law, being persuaded that the giving thereof was an act of His
love towards thee.
YEHUDAH HALEVI, 1141.
PALMS AND MYRTLES
THY praise, O Lord, will I proclaim
In hymns unto Thy glorious name.
O Thou Redeemer, Lord and King,
Redemption to Thy faithful bring!
Before Thine altar they rejoice
With branch of palm and myrtle-stem;
To Thee they raise the prayerful voice――
Have mercy, save and prosper them.
They overflow with prayer and praise
To Him who knows the future days.
Have mercy Thou, and hear the prayer
Of those who palms and myrtles bear.
Thee day and night they sanctify
And in perpetual song adore;
Like to the heavenly host, they cry,
‘Blessed art Thou for evermore’.
ELEAZAR KALIR, 8th cent.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
THE HARVEST FESTIVAL
IN keeping in view the agricultural aspect of the Three Festivals,
the modern Jew performs no unimportant duty. He realizes the fact that
Israel was once a people who lived by tilling the soil, and that the
commercial character which so largely distinguishes his people in these
times is not, as is commonly thought, inborn, but is the result of the
unkindly conditions in which they have been compelled to live. It is
good for us and the world at large to remember that the history of our
race has its idyllic side.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1903.
* * * * *
THE vineyards of Israel have ceased to exist, but the eternal Law
enjoins the children of Israel still to celebrate the vintage. A race
that persist in celebrating their vintage, although they have no fruits
to gather, will regain their vineyards.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, 1846.
JOYOUS SERVICE
THE easily depressed, the despondent and morose man has often
become what he is from mere selfishness. It is so delightful to pity
ourselves, to yield to the ‘luxury of woe’, and sing a plaintive song
of self-commiseration in a minor key. But the next step is to give your
soul to the devil. Judaism is not more emphatic against the latter than
the former, and I am sure that there are few wickeder thoughts than
this: that God made me with a despondent, melancholy heart. Shammai
said: ‘Always be cheerful’. R. Ishmael said: ‘Ever be joyful’. This
Rabbi Ishmael died a martyr’s death in the second century of this
era. Do you think that when he suffered he repined and said: ‘If I had
known how my life was to end I would have wept my days away instead of
joyously doing my duty’? Serve the Lord with gladness, and the gladness
will leave its after-glow of resignation, contentment, and peace.
I. ABRAHAMS, 1893.
* * * * *
THE Spirit of God abideth not where there is either needless grieving
or inactivity; but only where there is _joyful_ performance of duty.
TALMUD.
REJOICING OF THE LAW[75]
שִׂישׂוּ וְשִׂמְחוּ
THIS Feast of the Law all your gladness display,
To-day all your homages render.
What profit can lead one so pleasant a way,
What jewels can vie with its splendour?
Then exult in the Law on its festival day,
The Law is our Light and Defender.
My God I will praise in a jubilant lay,
My hope in Him never surrender,
His glory proclaim where His chosen sons pray,
My Rock all my trust shall engender.
Then exult in the Law on its festival day,
The Law is our Light and Defender.
My heart of Thy goodness shall carol alway,
Thy praises I ever will render;
While breath is, my lips all Thy wonders shall say,
Thy truth and Thy kindness so tender.
Then exult in the Law on its festival day,
The Law is our Light and Defender.
FESTIVAL PRAYER BOOK.
(_Trans. I. Zangwill._)
SIMCHAS TORAH
LECHAYIM,[76] my brethren, Lechayim, I say,
Health, peace, and good fortune I wish you to-day.
To-day we have ended the Torah once more;
To-day we begin it anew, as of yore.
Be thankful and glad and the Lord extol,
Who gave us the Law on its parchment scroll.
The Torah has been our consolation,
Our help in exile and sore privation.
Lost have we all we were wont to prize:
Our holy temple a ruin lies;
Laid waste is the land where our songs we sung;
Forgotten our language, our mother-tongue;
Of kingdom and priesthood are we bereft;
Our Faith is our only treasure left.
God in our hearts, the Law in our hands,
We have wandered sadly through many lands.
We have suffered much; yet, behold, we live
Through the comfort the Law alone can give.
Two thousand years, a little thing when spoken;
Two thousand years tormented, crushed, and broken
Seven and seventy dark generations
Filled up with anguish and lamentations!
Their tale of sorrow did I unfold,
No _Simchas Torah_ to-day we’d hold.
And why should I tell it you all again?
In our bones ’tis branded with fire and pain.
We have sacrificed all. We have given our wealth,
Our homes, our honours, our land, our health,
Our lives――like Hannah[77] her children seven――
For the sake of the Torah that came from heaven.
And now, what next? Will they let us be?
Have the nations then come at last to see
That we Jews are men like the rest, and no more
Need we wander homeless as heretofore,
Abused and slandered wherever we go?
Ah! I cannot tell you. But this I know,
That the same God still lives in heaven above,
And on earth the same Law, the same Faith, that we love.
Then fear not, and weep not, but hope in the Lord,
And the sacred Torah, his Holy Word.
Lechayim, my brethren, Lechayim, I say!
Health, peace, and good fortune I wish you to-day.
To-day we have ended the Torah once more;
To-day we begin it again, as of yore.
Be thankful and glad and the Lord extol,
Who gave us the Law on its parchment scroll.
J. L. GORDON.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas and Helena Frank._)
THE MACCABEAN WARRIORS
They were ready either to live or die nobly.
1 MACCABEES 4. 35.
* * * * *
AND King Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be
one people, and that each should forsake his own laws. And he sent
letters unto Jerusalem and the cities of Judah that they should profane
the sabbaths and feasts, pollute the sanctuary, and build altars and
temples and shrines for idols; and whosoever shall not do according
to the word of the king, he shall die. And he appointed overseers over
all the people, and he commanded the cities of Judah to sacrifice, city
by city. And they did evil things in the land; and they made Israel to
hide themselves in every place of refuge which they had. And they rent
in pieces the Books of the Law which they found, and set them on fire.
And wheresoever was found with any a Book of the Covenant, and if any
consented to the Law, the king’s sentence delivered him to death.
And in those days rose up Mattathias, a priest from Jerusalem; and
he dwelt at Modin. And he had five sons, John, Simon, Judas (who was
called Maccabaeus), Eleazar, Jonathan. And he saw the blasphemies that
were committed in Judah and in Jerusalem, and Mattathias and his sons
rent their clothes, and put on sackcloth, and mourned exceedingly.
And the king’s officers, that were enforcing the apostasy, came into
the city Modin. And many of Israel came unto them, and Mattathias
and his sons were gathered together. And the king’s officers spake to
Mattathias, saying, ‘Thou art a ruler and an honourable and great man
in this city, and strengthened with sons and brethren; now therefore
come thou first and do the commandment of the king, as all nations have
done, and the men of Judah, and they that remain in Jerusalem; so shalt
thou and thy house be in the number of the king’s Friends, and thou and
thy children shall be honoured with silver and gold, and many rewards.’
And Mattathias answered and said with a loud voice, ‘_Though all the
nations that are under the king’s dominion obey him, and fall away
every one from the religion of their fathers, yet will I and my sons
and my brethren walk in the covenant of our fathers_.’ And Mattathias
cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying, ‘Whosoever is zealous
for the Law, and maintaineth the Covenant, let him follow me.’
Then were gathered together unto them every one that offered himself
willingly for the Law. And all they that fled from the evils were
added to them, and became a stay unto them. And they mustered a host,
and pulled down the altars; and they pursued after the sons of pride,
neither suffered they the sinner to triumph.
_Selection from_
1 MACCABEES 1. 41‒2. 48.
THE FEAST OF LIGHTS
KINDLE the taper like the steadfast star,
Ablaze on evening’s forehead o’er the earth,
And add each night a lustre till afar
An eightfold splendour shine above thy hearth.
Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the lyre,
Blow the brass trumpet and the harsh-tongued horn;
Chant psalms of victory till the heart takes fire,
The Maccabean spirit leap new-born.
EMMA LAZARUS.
THE MENORAH
DEEP in his soul he began to feel the need of being a Jew. His
circumstances were not unsatisfactory; he enjoyed an ample income and a
profession that permitted him to do whatever his heart desired. For he
was an artist. His Jewish origin and the faith of his fathers had long
since ceased to trouble him, when suddenly the old hatred came to the
surface again in a new mob-cry. With many others he believed that this
flood would shortly subside. But there was no change for the better;
and every blow, even though not aimed directly at him, struck him with
fresh pain, till little by little his soul became one bleeding wound.
These sorrows, buried deep in his heart and silenced there, evoked
thoughts of their origin and of his Judaism; and now he did something
he could not perhaps have done in the old days――he began to love his
Judaism with an intense fervour. Although in his own eyes he could not,
at first, clearly justify this new yearning, it became so powerful at
length that it crystallized from vague emotions into a definite idea
which he must needs express. It was the conviction that there was only
one solution for this moral misery――the return to Judaism.
The Jew of to-day had lost the poise which was his fathers’ very being.
This generation, having grown up under the influence of alien cultures,
was no longer capable of that return which he had perceived to be their
redemption. But the new generation would be capable of it, if it were
only given the right direction early enough. He resolved, therefore,
that his own children, at least, should be shown the proper path. They
should be trained as Jews in their own home.
Hitherto he had permitted to pass by unobserved the holiday which the
wonderful apparition of the Maccabees had illumined for thousands of
years with the glow of miniature lights. Now, however, he made this
holiday an opportunity to prepare something beautiful which should
be for ever commemorated in the minds of his children. In their young
souls should be implanted early a steadfast devotion to their ancient
people. He bought a Menorah, and when he held this nine-branched
candlestick in his hands for the first time, a strange mood came over
him. In his father’s house also the lights had once burned in his youth,
now far away, and the recollection gave him a sad and tender feeling
for home. The tradition was neither cold nor dead――thus it had passed
through the ages, one light kindling another. Moreover, the ancient
form of the Menorah had excited his interest. Clearly the design was
suggested by the tree――in the centre the sturdy trunk, on right and
left four branches, one below the other, in one place, and all of equal
height. A later symbolism brought with it the short ninth branch, which
projects in front and functions as a servant. What mystery had the
generations which followed one another read into this form of art, at
once so simple and natural! And our artist wondered to himself if it
were not possible to animate again the withered form of the Menorah――to
water its roots, as one would a tree. The mere sound of the name,
which he now pronounced every evening to his children, gave him great
pleasure. There was a lovable ring to the word when it came from the
lips of little children.
On the first night the candle was lit and the origin of the holiday
explained. The wonderful incident of the lights that strangely remained
burning so long, the story of the return from the Babylonian exile,
the second Temple, the Maccabees――our friend told his children all he
knew. It was not very much, to be sure; but it served. When the second
candle was lit, they repeated what he had told them; and though it had
all been learnt from him, it seemed to him quite new and beautiful. In
the days that followed, he waited keenly for the evenings which became
ever brighter. Candle after candle stood in the Menorah, and the
father mused on the little candles with his children till at length
his reflections became too deep to be uttered before them.
Then came the eighth day, when the whole row burns, even the faithful
ninth, the servant, which on other nights is used only for the lighting
of the others. A great splendour streamed from the Menorah. The
children’s eyes glistened. But for our friend all this was the symbol
of the enkindling of a nation. When there is but one light, all is
still dark, and the solitary light looks melancholy. Soon it finds one
companion, then another, and another. The darkness must retreat. The
light comes first to the young and the poor――then others join who love
Justice, Truth, Liberty, Progress, Humanity, and Beauty. When all the
candles burn, then we must all stand and rejoice over the achievement.
And no office can be more blessed than that of a Servant of the Light.
THEODOR HERZL.
(_Trans. B. L. Pouzzner._)
THE STORY OF THE MACCABEES
IT is good for Jewish lads to include warriors of their own race in
their gallery of heroes, to be able to say, ‘My people has produced its
brave men equally with the Greeks and the Romans’.
But still better it is for them to feel that these brave men drew
their courage from the purest of all sources, from a passionate love
for their religion, from a veneration for the good and the true and
the morally beautiful. The Maccabees boldly faced overwhelming odds,
not for their own selfish ends, but in a spirit of self-sacrificing
fidelity to the holiest of all causes. They threw themselves upon the
enemy in the temper that takes the martyr to the stake; they did it not
for gain or glory, but solely for conscience’ sake. They felt that God
was calling to them, and they could not hold back. Theirs was a unique
effort. Others had, it is true, displayed an equally noble courage on
the battle-field. But what they had fought for was their fatherland and
their mother tongue, their hearths and homes. To fight for Religion was
a new thing.
The little Maccabean band was like a rock in the midst of a surging sea.
Standing almost alone in their day, the heroes beat back the forces
that threatened to involve all mankind in a common demoralization. They
kept a corner of the world sweet in an impure age. They held aloft the
torch of true religion at a time when thick darkness was covering the
nations.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1903.
CHANUCAH HYMN
ROCK of Ages, let our song
Praise Thy saving power;
Thou, amidst the raging foes,
Wast our shelt’ring tower.
Furious they assailed us,
But Thine arm availed us;
And Thy word
Broke their sword
When our own strength failed us.
Kindling new the holy lamps,
Priests approved in suffering
Purified the nation’s shrine,
Brought to God their offering.
And His courts surrounding
Hear, in joy abounding,
Happy throngs
Singing songs
With a mighty sounding.
Children of the Martyr-race,
Whether free or fettered,
Wake the echoes of the songs
Where ye may be scattered.
Yours the message cheering,
That the time is nearing
Which shall see
All men free,
Tyrants disappearing.
G. GOTTHEIL.
PURIM[78]
THERE was a certain Jew in Shushan ... whose name was Mordecai.... And
he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter ... and
when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own
daughter.... And Esther was taken unto King Ahasuerus into his house
royal ... and the king loved Esther ... and she obtained grace and
favour in his sight....
After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman, and set his seat
above all the princes that were with him. And Haman said, ‘There is a
certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all
the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from those of
every people, neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not
for the king’s profit to suffer them. If it please the king let it be
written that they be destroyed ... both young and old, little children
and women, in one day.’ And the king said unto Haman, ‘The people is
given to thee to do with them as it seemeth good to thee’.
Now, when Mordecai knew all that was done he rent his clothes ... and
charged Esther that she should go in unto the king to make supplication
unto him for her people――‘Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape
in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether
holdest thy peace at this time, then shall relief and deliverance arise
to the Jews from another place: and who knoweth whether thou art not
come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’ ... Esther bade them
return answer unto Mordecai, ‘So will I go in unto the king ... and if
I perish, I perish....’
Then Esther the queen ... said, ‘If I have found favour in thy sight,
O king ... let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my
request; for we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain
and to perish....’ Then spake the king Ahasuerus, ‘Who is he, and where
is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?’ And Esther said, ‘An
adversary and an enemy, even this wicked Haman’.
Then said one of the chamberlains, ‘Behold also, the gallows which
Haman hath made for Mordecai, who spake good for the king (and saved
the king’s life) standeth in the house of Haman’. And the king said,
‘Hang him thereon’. So they hanged Haman.... And the king said, ‘Write
ye also to the Jews as it liketh you, in the king’s name....’ The Jews
had light and gladness and joy and honour. And whithersoever the king’s
commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness and joy....
... Therefore do the Jews ... make the fourteenth day of the month Adar
a day of gladness and feasting ... and of sending gifts to the poor.
BOOK OF ESTHER.
SERVANT OF GOD
SPIRIT and flesh are Thine,
O Heavenly Shepherd mine;
My hopes, my thoughts, my fears, Thou seest all,
Thou measurest my path, my steps dost know.
When Thou upholdest, who can make me fall?
When Thou restrainest, who can bid me go?
_O would that I might be
A servant unto Thee,
Thou God, by all adored!
Then, though by friends out-cast,
Thy hand would hold me fast,
And draw me near to Thee, my King and Lord!_
Fain would my heart come nigh
To Thee, O God, on high,
But evil thoughts have led me far astray
From the pure path of righteous government.
Guide Thou me back into Thy holy way,
And count me not as one impenitent.
_O would that I might be
A servant unto Thee,
Thou God, by all adored!
Then, though by friends out-cast,
Thy hand would hold me fast,
And draw me near to Thee, my King and Lord!_
Contrite and full of dread,
I mourn each moment fled,
’Midst idle follies roaming desolate:
I sink beneath transgressions manifold,
That from Thy presence keep me separate,
Nor can sin-darkened eyes Thy light behold.
_O would that I might be
A servant unto Thee,
Thou God, by all adored!
Then, though by friends out-cast,
Thy hand would hold me fast,
And draw me near to Thee, my King and Lord!_
So lead me that I may
Thy sovereign will obey.
Make pure my heart to seek Thy truth divine;
When burns my wound, be Thou with healing near!
Answer me, Lord! for sore distress is mine,
And say unto Thy servant, I am here.
_O would that I might be
A servant unto Thee,
Thou God, by all adored!
Then, though by friends out-cast,
Thy hand would hold me fast,
And draw me near to Thee, my King and Lord!_
YEHUDAH HALEVI, 1140.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
HYMN OF GLORY
SWEET hymns and songs will I indite
To sing of Thee by day and night――
Of Thee, who art my soul’s delight.
How doth my soul within me yearn
Beneath Thy shadow to return,
Thy secret mysteries to learn!
And even while yet Thy glory fires
My words, and hymns of praise inspires,
Thy love it is my heart desires.
Thy glory shall my discourse be;
In images I picture Thee,
Although Thyself I cannot see.
O Thou whose word is truth alway,
Thy people seek Thy face this day;
O be Thou near them when they pray.
O may my words of blessing rise
To Thee, who, throned above the skies,
Art just and mighty, great and wise.
My meditation day and night,
May it be pleasant in Thy sight,
For Thou art all my soul’s delight.
JUDAH THE PIOUS, 12th cent.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
V
THE VOICE OF WISDOM
_THUS saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man
glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he
understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord who exercise loving
kindness, judgement, and righteousness in the earth: for in these
things I delight, saith the Lord._
JEREMIAH 9. 23‒4.
* * * * *
_HE that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye,
shall He not see? He that instructeth the nations, shall not He correct,
Even He that teacheth man knowledge?_
PSALM 94. 9‒10.
GOD, WHOM SHALL I COMPARE TO THEE!
GOD, whom shall I compare to Thee,
When Thou to none canst likened be?
Under what image shall I dare
To picture Thee, when everywhere
All Nature’s forms Thine impress bear?
Hearts, seeking Thee, from search refrain,
And weary tongues their praise restrain.
Thyself unbound by time and place,
Thou dost pervade, support, embrace
The world and all created space.
Deep, deep beyond all fathoming,
Far, far beyond all measuring,
We can but seek Thy deeds alone;
When bow Thy saints before Thy throne
Then is Thy faithfulness made known.
Thy righteousness we can discern,
Thy holy law proclaim and learn.
Is not Thy presence near alway
To them who penitently pray,
But far from those who sinning stray?
Pure souls behold Thee, and no need
Have they of light: they hear and heed
Thee with the mind’s keen ear, although
The ear of flesh be dull and slow.
Their voices answer to and fro.
Thy holiness for ever they proclaim:
The Lord of Hosts! thrice holy is His name.
YEHUDAH HALEVI.
(_Trans. Alice Lucas._)
GREAT IS TRUTH
GREAT is Truth, and stronger than all things. All the earth calleth
upon Truth, and the heaven blesseth her; all works shake and tremble,
but with her is no unrighteous thing.... Truth abideth, and is strong
for ever; she liveth and conquereth for evermore.... She is the
strength, and the kingdom, and the power, and the majesty, of all ages.
Blessed be the God of Truth.
1 ESDRAS 4. 35, 36, 38, 40.
* * * * *
TRUTH is the seal of God.
TALMUD.
THE RIGHT LIFE
IT hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord doth
require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God.
MICAH 6. 8.
* * * * *
WOE unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for
light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter!
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own
sight!
ISAIAH 5. 20‒2.
* * * * *
THE proper study of a wise man is not how to die, but how to live.
A man who desires to help others by counsel or deed will refrain
from dwelling on men’s faults, and will speak but sparingly of human
weaknesses. But he will speak at large of man’s virtue and power, and
the means of perfecting the same, that thus men may endeavour joyously
to live, so far as in them lies, after the commandment of reason.
BENEDICT SPINOZA, 1674.
THE GOODNESS OF GOD’S WORK
MEN frequently think that the evils in the world are more numerous
than the good things; many sayings and songs of the nations dwell on
this idea. They say that the good is found only exceptionally, whilst
evil things are numerous and lasting. The origin of this error is to
be found in the circumstance that men judge of the _whole universe_ by
examining one single person only. If anything happens to him contrary
to his expectation, forthwith they conclude that the whole universe is
evil. All mankind at present in existence forms only an infinitesimal
portion of the permanent universe. It is of great advantage that man
should know his station. Numerous evils to which persons are exposed
are due to the defects existing in the persons themselves. We seek
relief from our own faults; we suffer from evils which we inflict on
ourselves, and we ascribe them to God who is far from connected with
them. As Solomon explained it: The foolishness of man perverteth his
way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord.
MOSES MAIMONIDES, 1190.
THE TWO NATURES IN MAN
IT is because man is half angel, half brute, that his inner life
witnesses such bitter war between such unlike natures. The brute in him
clamours for sensual joy and things in which there is only vanity; but
the angel resists and strives to make him know that meat, drink, sleep
are but means whereby the body may be made efficient for the study of
the truths, and the doing of the will, of God. Not until the very hour
of death can it be certain or known to what measure the victory has
been won. He who is but a novice in the fear of God will do well to say
audibly each day, as he rises: ‘This day I will be a faithful servant
of the Almighty. I will be on my guard against wrath, falsehood, hatred,
and quarrelsomeness, and will forgive those who wound me.’ For whoso
forgives is forgiven in his turn; hard-heartedness and a temper that
will not make up quarrels are a heavy burden of sin, and unworthy of
an Israelite.
MOSES OF COUCY, 13th cent.
FREEDOM OF THE WILL
FREE will is granted to every man. If he desire to incline towards
the good way and be righteous, he has the power to do so; and if he
desire to incline towards the unrighteous way and be a wicked man, he
has also the power to do so. Give no room in your minds to that which
is asserted by heathen fools, and also by many of the ignorant among
the Israelites themselves, namely: that the Holy One, blessed be He,
decrees that a man from his birth should be either a righteous man or
a wicked man.
Since the power of doing good or evil is in our own hands, and
since all the wicked deeds which we have committed have been committed
with our full consciousness, it befits us to turn in penitence and to
forsake our evil deeds; the power of doing so being still in our hands.
Now this matter is a very important principle; nay, it is the pillar of
the Law and of the commandments.
MOSES MAIMONIDES, 1180.
THE WICKED SAITH IN HIS HEART
FOR they said within themselves, reasoning not aright,
‘Short and sorrowful is our life;
And there is no healing when a man cometh to his end,
And none was ever known that returned out of Hades.
Because by mere chance were we born,
And hereafter we shall be as though we had never been:
And our name shall be forgotten in time,
And no man shall remember our works;
And our life shall pass away as the traces of a cloud,
And shall be scattered as is a mist.
For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
And there is no putting back of our end.
Come therefore and let us enjoy the good things that now
are;
And let us use the creation with all our soul as youth’s
possession.
Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and perfumes;
And let no flower of spring pass us by:
Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be
withered:
Let none of us go without his share in our proud revelry:
Everywhere let us leave tokens of our mirth:
Because this is our portion, and our lot is this.
Let our strength be to us a law of righteousness;
For that which is weak is convicted to be of no service.’
Thus reasoned they, and they were led astray;
For their wickedness blinded them,
And they knew not the mysteries of God,
Neither hoped they for wages of holiness,
Nor did they judge that there is a prize for blameless
souls.
Because God created man for incorruption,
And made him an image of His own everlastingness.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 2. 1, 2, 4‒9, 11, 21‒3.
REPENTANCE OF THE WICKED
THEY shall say within themselves repenting:
‘Verily we went astray from the way of truth,
We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and
destruction,
And we journeyed through trackless deserts,
But the way of the Lord we knew not.
What did our arrogancy profit us?
And what good have riches and vaunting brought us?
Those things all passed away as a shadow,
As a ship passing through the billowy water,
Whereof, when it is gone by, there is no trace to be found,
Neither pathway of its keel in the billows:
Or as when a bird flieth through the air,
No token of her passage is found,
But the light wind, lashed with the stroke of her pinions,
And rent asunder with the violent rush, is passed through
by the motion of her wings,
And afterwards no sign of her coming is found therein:
So we also, as soon as we were born, ceased to be;
And of virtue we had no sign to show,
But in our wickedness we were utterly consumed.
Because the hope of the ungodly man is as chaff carried by
the wind,
And passeth by as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth
but a day.
‘But the righteous live for ever,
And in the Lord is their reward,
And the care for them with the Most High.’
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 5. 3, 6‒11, 13‒15.
WISE COUNSEL
I
THE soul, when accustomed to superfluous things, acquires a strong
habit of desiring others which are necessary neither for the
preservation of the individual nor for that of the species. This
desire is without limit; whilst things which are necessary are few,
and restricted within certain bounds. Lay this well to heart, reflect
on it again and again; that which is superfluous is without end (and
therefore the desire for it also without limit). Thus you desire to
have your vessels of silver, but golden vessels are still better;
others even have vessels studded with sapphires, emeralds, or rubies.
Those, therefore, who are ignorant of this truth, that the desire for
superfluous things is without limit, are constantly in trouble and pain.
When they thus meet with the consequences of their course they complain
of the judgements of God; they go so far as to say that God’s power
is insufficient, because He has given to this Universe the properties
which they imagine cause these evils.
MOSES MAIMONIDES.
II
PREFER one in hand to two in hope; a little certainty is better than
a great perhaps. Sooner a servant among the noble than leader among
the common; for some of their honour will stick to you, while you must
share the contempt of your contemptible followers.
The proud cedar is felled, the lowly bush is untouched; fire rises and
dies away, water flows down and for ever. If for what beauty or riches
you have, you raise your head above neighbour or brother, you feed
hateful envy, and the beggar whom you despise may yet triumph over you.
Better enough in freedom than plenty at the table of another.
Love thy children with impartial love; the hope oft errs that you place
on the more promising, and all your joy may come from him that you have
kept in the background.
BENEDICT OF OXFORD, 1195.
(_Trans. Joseph Jacobs._)
III
THERE are seven marks of an uncultured, and seven of a wise, man. The
wise man does not speak before him who is greater than he in wisdom,
and does not break in upon the speech of his fellow; he is not hasty
to answer; he questions according to the subject-matter, and answers
to the point; he speaks upon the first thing first, and upon the last,
last; regarding that which he has not understood, he says, ‘I do not
understand it’, and he acknowledges the truth.
ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.
THE DUTY OF HOLINESS
I AM the Lord your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye
holy; for I am holy.
LEVITICUS 11. 44.
* * * * *
IN rabbinical ethics, holiness is the highest ideal. The entire system
of the Jewish law has the hallowing of life as its aim, to be reached
through good works, through observance of the Sabbath and Holy-days,
and through the sanctification of God’s name (Kiddush Hashem). Holiness
became for rabbinical Judaism synonymous with purity of life, purity of
action, and purity of thought; and under its influence personal purity
in Judaism became the highest standard and maxim of ethics found in any
religious system.
K. KOHLER,[79] 1904.
* * * * *
‘CLEANLINESS is next to Godliness.’――Carefulness leads to cleanliness;
cleanliness to purity; purity to humility; humility to saintliness;
saintliness to fear of sin; fear of sin to holiness; and holiness to
immortality.
TALMUD.
THE CITY OF GOD
DO not seek for the City of God on earth, for it is not built of wood
or stone; but seek it in the soul of the man who is at peace with
himself and is a lover of true wisdom.
If a man practises ablutions of the body, but defiles his mind――if he
offers hecatombs, founds a temple, adorns a shrine, and does nothing
for making his soul beautiful――let him not be called religious. He
has wandered far from real religion, mistaking ritual for holiness;
attempting, as it were, to bribe the Incorruptible and to flatter Him
whom none can flatter. God welcomes the genuine service of a soul, the
sacrifice of truth; but from display of wealth He turns away.
Will any man with impure soul and with no intention to repent dare to
approach the Most High God? The grateful soul of the wise man is the
true altar of God.
PHILO JUDAEUS, 1st cent.
* * * * *
THINK not meanly of thyself, and despair not of perfection.
MOSES MAIMONIDES, 1200.
* * * * *
A MAN should so live that at the close of every day he can repeat: ‘I
have not wasted my day’.
ZOHAR.
HUMILITY
THE man who does good works is more likely to be overtaken by pride
in them than by any other moral mischance, and its effect on conduct
is injurious in the extreme. Therefore, among the most necessary of
virtues is that one which banishes pride; and this is, humility.
First among the signs by which the meek are known is that when
misfortunes come to them their endurance triumphs over their fear and
grief, and they willingly submit to the decree of God, and own that His
judgements are righteous.
In matters of justice, however, the meek will be high-spirited and
fearless, punishing the wicked without fear for favour. He will help
the oppressed and rescue him from the power of the oppressor.
BACHYA IBN PAKUDAH, 1040.
* * * * *
AT all times let a man fear God as well in private as in public,
acknowledge the truth, and speak the truth in his heart; and let
him rise early and say: Sovereign of all worlds! Not because of our
righteous acts do we lay our supplications before Thee, but because
of Thine abundant mercies.
DAILY PRAYER BOOK.
* * * * *
WISDOM begetteth humility.
ABRAHAM IBN EZRA, 1167.
SAYINGS FROM THE TALMUD
I
BE thou the cursed, not he who curses. Be of them that are persecuted,
not of them that persecute. Look at Scripture: there is not a single
bird more persecuted than the dove; yet God has chosen her to be
offered up on His altar. The bull is hunted by the lion, the sheep by
the wolf, the goat by the tiger. And God said, ‘Bring Me a sacrifice,
not from them that persecute, but from them that are persecuted’.
Scripture ordains that the Hebrew slave who ‘loves’ his bondage shall
have his ear pierced against the door-post (Exodus 21). Why? Because it
is that ear which heard on Sinai, ‘They are My servants, they shall not
be sold as bondsmen’. They are _My_ servants, not servants’ servants.
And this man voluntarily throws away his precious freedom――‘Pierce his
ear!’
II
EVEN when the gates of heaven are shut to prayer, they are open to
tears. Prayer is Israel’s only weapon, a weapon inherited from his
fathers, a weapon tried in a thousand battles.
When the righteous man dies, it is the earth that loses. The lost jewel
will always be a jewel, but the possessor who has lost it――well may he
weep.
To one who denied resurrection, Gabiha ben Pasissa said: ‘If what
never before existed, exists, why may not that which once existed exist
again?’
Life is a passing shadow, says Scripture. Is it the shadow of a tower,
of a tree? A shadow that prevails for a while? No, it is the shadow of
a bird in its flight――away flies the bird, and there is neither bird
nor shadow.
Repent one day before thy death. There was a king who bade all his
servants to a great repast, but did not indicate the hour. Some went
home and put on their best garments and stood at the door of the
palace; others said, ‘There is ample time, the king will let us know
beforehand’. But the king summoned them of a sudden; and those that
came in their best garments were well received, but the foolish ones
who came in their slovenliness, were turned away in disgrace.
Iron breaks the stone, fire melts iron, water extinguishes fire,
the clouds drink up the water, a storm drives away the clouds, man
withstands the storm, fear unmans man, wine dispels fear, sleep drives
away wine, and death sweeps all away――even sleep. But Solomon the Wise
says: ‘Charity delivereth from death’.
III
FOUR shall not enter Paradise: the scoffer, the liar, the hypocrite,
and the slanderer.
The cock and the owl both await the daylight. ‘The light’, says the
cock, ‘brings delight to me; but what are you waiting for?’
Thy friend has a friend, and thy friend’s friend has a friend: be
discreet.
He who is ashamed will not easily commit sin. Commit a sin twice, and
you will think it perfectly allowable. There is a great difference
between him who is ashamed before his own self, and him who is only
ashamed before others.
The sun will go down all by himself, without thy assistance. Not what
thou sayest about thyself, but what others say. He who humiliates
himself will be lifted up; he who raises himself up will be humiliated.
Whosoever runs after greatness, greatness runs away from him; he who
runs from greatness, greatness follows him.
If the young tell thee, Build; and the old tell thee, Destroy――follow
the counsel of the elders; for often the destruction of the elders is
construction, and the construction of the young is destruction.
IV
‘FEAR God, as much as you fear man’, said Johanan ben Zakkai.[80] ‘Not
more?’ asked his pupils in surprise. ‘If you would but fear Him as
much!’ said the dying sage.
The righteous are masters of their passions. Not so the wicked: they
are the slaves of their desires. The righteous need no monuments: their
deeds are their monuments. The righteous promise little and do much;
the wicked promise much and do not perform even a little. Let thy yea
be yea, and thy nay be nay.
In Palestine it was considered a sign of descent from a good family if
any one first broke off in a quarrel. The greatest of heroes is he who
turneth an enemy into a friend.
Giving is not the essential thing, but to give with delicacy of
feeling. Scripture does not say, ‘Happy is he who giveth to the poor’,
but, ‘Happy is he who _wisely considereth_ the poor’. He who makes the
sorrowful rejoice will partake of life everlasting.
As the ocean never freezes, so the gate of repentance is never closed.
The best preacher is the heart, the best teacher time, the best book
the world, the best friend God.
He who curbs his wrath, his sins will be forgiven. Whosoever does
not persecute them that persecute him, whosoever takes an offence in
silence, he who does good because of love, he who is cheerful under his
sufferings, they are the friends of God, and of them the Scripture says,
‘But they that love Him shall be as the sun, when he goeth forth in his
might’.
THE DEDICATED LIFE
MOSES has shown that we should all confess our gratitude for the powers
we possess. The wise man should dedicate his sagacity, the eloquent man
should devote his excellence of speech, to the praise of God in prose
and verse; and, in general, the natural philosopher should offer his
physics, the moralist his ethics, the artist and the man of science
the arts and sciences they know. So, too, the sailor and the pilot will
dedicate their favourable voyage, the husbandman his fruitful harvest,
the herdsman the increase of his cattle, the doctor the recovery of
his patients, the general his victory in fight, and the statesman or
the monarch his legal chieftaincy or kingly rule. Let no one, however
humble and insignificant he be, despairing of a better fortune, scruple
to become a suppliant of God. Even if he can expect nothing more,
let him give thanks to the best of his power for what he has already
received. Infinite are the gifts he has: birth, life, nature, soul,
sensation, imagination, desire, reason. Reason is a small word, but
a most perfect thing, a fragment of the world-soul, or, as for the
disciples of the Mosaic philosophy it is more pious to say, a true
impression of the Divine Image.
PHILO JUDAEUS, 1st cent.
GOD AND MAN
RABBI AKIBA[81] said: Beloved is man, for he was created in the image
of God; but it was by a special love that it was made known to him that
he was created in the image of God.
Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is given; and the world
is judged by grace, yet all is according to the amount of the work.
* * * * *
BEN AZZAI[82] said: Despise not any man, and carp not at anything; for
there is not a man that has not his hour, and there is not a thing that
has not its place.
* * * * *
HILLEL[83] said: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And being
for myself only, what am I? and, if not now, when?
Separate not thyself from the community. Trust not in thyself until the
day of thy death. Judge not thy neighbour until thou art come into his
place.
ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.
GOLDEN RULES
THOU shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
LEVITICUS 19. 18.
* * * * *
RABBI AKIBA said: _Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself_. This is a
fundamental principle of religion.
* * * * *
HILLEL used to say: _Whatever is hateful unto thee, do it not unto thy
fellow_. This is the whole Law; the rest is but commentary.
TALMUD.
* * * * *
‘_THOU shalt not hate the brother in thy heart_’ (Leviticus 19. 17).
Our Rabbis taught that this precept might be explained to mean only
that you must not injure him, nor insult him, nor vex him, and so the
words ‘_in thine heart_’ are added to forbid us even to feel hatred
in our heart without giving it outward expression. Causeless hatred
ranks with the three capital sins: Idolatry, Immorality, and Murder.
The Second Temple, although in its time study of the Law and good works
flourished and God’s Commandments were obeyed, was destroyed because of
causeless hatred, one of the deadly sins.
ACHAÏ (GAON), 8th cent.
(_Trans. E. N. Adler._)
DEEDS THE BEST COMMENDATION
WHEN Akabya,[84] son of Mahalalel, was on his death-bed, his son
asked, ‘Father, commend me to thy friends’. ‘No, my son,’ said he, ‘I
shall not commend thee.’ ‘Hast thou found aught unworthy in me?’ ‘No,
my son,’ replied he, ‘thy deeds will bring thee near unto men, and thy
deeds will drive thee from them.’
TALMUD.
* * * * *
RABBI HANINA, son of Dosa, said: He in whom the spirit of his fellow
men taketh delight, in him the Spirit of the All-present taketh delight;
and he in whom the spirit of his fellow men taketh not delight, in him
the Spirit of the All-present taketh not delight.
* * * * *
RABBI JUDAH THE PRINCE[85] said, Which is the right course that a
man should choose for himself? That which he feels to be in itself
honourable to the doer, and which also brings him the respect of his
fellow men. Reflect upon three things, and thou wilt not come within
the power of sin: Know what is above thee――a seeing Eye, a hearing Ear,
and all thy deeds are written in a Book.
ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.
A MEDIAEVAL JEWISH MORALIST
I
NO crown carries such royalty with it as doth humility; no monument
gives such glory as an unsullied name; no worldly gain can equal that
which comes from observing God’s laws. The highest sacrifice is a
broken and contrite heart; the highest wisdom is that which is found in
the Law; the noblest of all ornaments is modesty; the most beautiful of
all things man can do is to forgive wrong.
Cherish a good heart when thou findest it in any one; hate, for thou
mayest hate it, the haughtiness of the overbearing man, and keep the
boaster at a distance. There is no skill or cleverness to be compared
to that which avoids temptation; there is no force, no strength that
can equal piety. All honour to him who thinks continually and with an
anxious heart of his Maker; who prays, reads, and learns, and all these
with a passionate yearning for his Maker’s grace.
II
LET thy dealings be of such sort that a blush need never visit thy
cheek; be sternly dumb to the voice of passion; commit no sin, saying
to thyself that thou wilt repent and make atonement at a later time.
Let no oath ever pass thy lips; play not the haughty aristocrat in
thine heart; follow not the desire of the eyes; banish carefully all
guile from thy soul, all unseemly self-assertion from thy bearing and
thy temper.
Speak never mere empty words; enter into strife with no man; place no
reliance on men of mocking lips; wrangle not with evil men; cherish no
too fixed good opinion of thyself, but lend thine ear to remonstrance
and reproof.
Be not weakly pleased at demonstrations of honour; strive not anxiously
for distinction; never let a thought of envy of those who do grave
wrong cross thy mind; be never enviously jealous of others, or too
eager for money.
Honour thy parents; make peace whenever thou canst among people, lead
them gently into the good path; place thy trust in, give thy company
to, those who fear God.
III
IF the means of thy support in life be measured out scantily to thee,
remember that thou hast to be thankful and grateful even for the mere
privilege to breathe, and that thou must take up that suffering as a
test of thy piety and a preparation for better things. But if worldly
wealth be lent to thee, exalt not thyself above thy brother; for both
of ye came naked into the world, and both of ye will surely have to
sleep at last together in the dust.
Bear well thy heart against the assaults of envy, which kills even
sooner than death itself; and know no envy at all, save such envy of
the merits of virtuous men as shall lead thee to emulate the beauty of
their lives. Surrender not thyself a slave to hate, that ruin of all
the heart’s good resolves, that destroyer of the very savour of food,
of our sleep, of all reverence in our souls.
Keep peace both within the city and without, for it goes well with all
those who are counsellors of peace; be wholly sincere; mislead no one
by prevarications, by words smoother than intention, as little as by
direct falsehood. For God the Eternal is a God of Truth; it is He from
whom truth flowed first, He who begat truth and sent it into creation.
ELEAZAR (ROKËACH) OF WORMS, _c._ 1200.
THE MYSTERY OF PAIN
THE mystery of pain is an old problem. The Rabbis were deeply impressed
with its gravity and complexity. The sorrows of the universe and the
agony of Israel; the suffering of the nation and the pain of the
individual, formed the inspiration of some of their noblest thoughts.
They fully realized that suffering can chasten and heal and purify,
even ‘as salt cleanses meat’. And so they call God’s chastisements
the blessed scourges of love, and tell us that even as the olive only
gives forth its sweet and perfumed oil on being crushed, so also Israel
only reaches perfection through crushing sorrows. They tell us that
in the thick darkness of the world-problem is God――the ‘Light Behind’;
that all things work together for good――even Death; they represent God
as saying to mankind, ‘with thy very wounds I will heal thee’; they
say that those whom God afflicts bear His name; that only through a
‘sorrow’s crown of sorrows’ cometh true life. Heaven is not to be won
by rest and ease and quiet. Only those who have suffered and endured
greatly have achieved greatly. The world’s greatest workers, thinkers,
and teachers have only reached the pinnacle of fame by surmounting
obstacles which to ordinary men, content with the lower slopes, would
have seemed insuperable. Man has ever risen nearer to God by the
altar-stairs of pain and sorrow――those altar-stairs which lead through
darkness, for ever upwards, towards the very Throne of God.
S. ALFRED ADLER, 1906.
MEETING ADVERSITY
ACCORDING to ancient Jewish custom, the ceremony of cutting our
garments when our nearest and dearest on earth is lying dead before
us, is to be performed _standing up_. This teaches: meet all sorrow
standing upright. The future may be dark, veiled from the eye of
mortals――but not the manner in which we are to meet the future. To
rail at life, to rebel against a destiny that has cast our lines in
unpleasant places, is of little avail. We cannot lay down terms to
life. Life must be accepted on its own terms. But hard as life’s terms
are, life (it has been finely said) never dictates unrighteousness,
unholiness, dishonour.
J. H. HERTZ, 1900.
THE CONTEMPLATION OF DEATH
THE contemplation of death should plant within the soul elevation and
peace. Above all, it should make us see things in their true light. For
all things which seem foolish in the light of death are really foolish
in themselves. To be annoyed because So-and-so has slighted us or been
somewhat more successful in social distinctions, pulled himself somehow
one rung higher up the ladder than ourselves――how ridiculous all this
seems when we couple it with the thought of death! To pass each day
simply and solely in the eager pursuit of money or of fame, this also
seems like living with shadows when one might take one’s part with
realities. Surely when death is at hand we should desire to say, ‘I
have contributed my grain to the great store of the eternal. I have
borne my part in the struggle for goodness.’ And let no man or woman
suppose that the smallest social act of goodness is wasted for society
at large. All our help, petty though it be, is needed; and though we
know not the manner, the fruit of every faithful service is surely
gathered in. Let the true and noble words of a great teacher ring in
conclusion upon our ears: ‘The growing good of the world is partly
dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you
and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived
faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs’.
C. G. MONTEFIORE, 1893.
* * * * *
REMEMBER thy last end, and cease from enmity.
ECCLESIASTICUS 28. 6.
LIGHT IN DARKNESS
WHEN Adam saw for the first time the sun go down, and an ever-deepening
gloom enfold creation, his mind was filled with terror. God then took
pity on him, and endowed him with the divine intuition to take two
stones――the name of one was Darkness and the name of the other Shadow
of Death――and rub them against each other, and so discover fire.
Thereupon Adam exclaimed with grateful joy: ‘Blessed be the Creator of
Light’.
TALMUD.
WHENCE AND WHITHER
I
AKABYA, son of Mahalalel, said, ‘Reflect upon three things, and thou
wilt not come within the power of sin: know whence thou camest, and
whither thou art going, and before whom thou wilt in future have to
render account and reckoning’.
ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.
II
AN old Saxon chieftain was once revelling with his boon companions in
the brilliantly lighted banqueting hall, when he noticed a bird flying
from end to end, and he exclaimed: ‘Even thus is our fate. Out of the
darkness we come; we speed for a while through a gay and merry world,
and then again into darkness we lapse.’ Ah, not so, dear Congregants!
‘The dust returneth to the earth, as it was, but the spirit returneth
unto God who gave it.’ Our true essence is deathless――spirit of God’s
undying Spirit, soul of His immortal Soul. If we have risen to a true
conception of life and our duty, if we have proved ourselves faithful
to our mission, then our end will not be a leap in the dark, but――
‘Life’s race well run,
Life’s work well done,
Life’s crown well won’:
then come rest and peace――rest with God, peace everlasting.
HERMANN ADLER, 1898.
TIME AND ETERNITY
GOD, the Source of life, has placed in our nature the blessed hope of
immortality, by which we may console ourselves for the vanity of life,
and overcome the dread of death. If thou art in truth of the higher
sphere, why should the thought of leaving this lower region trouble
thee? Especially since the very pleasures which thou seekest on earth
are, in reality, but briars and thorns. Therefore seek them not. But
what shouldst thou do? This: Use thy time as thou wouldst a doubtful
companion: extract the good and avoid the evil. Avail thyself of the
few opportunities of improvement in his company, and use thy discretion
so that thou mayest suffer no injury from thy association with him. And
remember that the companionship of time is but of short duration. It
flies more quickly than the shades of evening. We are like a child that
grasps in his hand a sunbeam. He opens his hand soon again, but, to his
amazement, finds it empty and the brightness gone.
YEDAYA PENINI, 14th cent.
* * * * *
WHATSOEVER thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.
ECCLESIASTES 9. 10.
* * * * *
ACCUSTOM thyself to complete any good work thou hast undertaken.
DERECH ERETZ ZUTTA, 8th cent.
TALMUDIC PARABLES AND LEGENDS
I
THE HEART ENNOBLES ANY CALLING
RABBI BAROKA, a saintly mystic, one day as he was walking through the
crowded market-place of his town, met Elijah, the wandering spirit of
prophecy in Jewish lore. ‘Who of all this multitude has the best claim
to Heaven?’ asks the Rabbi of his spirit companion. The prophet points
to a disreputable, weird-looking creature, a turnkey. ‘That man yonder,
because he is considerate to his prisoners, and refrains from all
unnecessary cruelty. In that miniature hell over which he presides he
has suppressed many a horror.’ ‘And who else is here sure of eternal
life?’ continues the Rabbi. Elijah then points to two motley-dressed
fellows, clowns, who were supplying amusement to the bystanders. The
Rabbi’s astonishment knew no bounds. ‘Scorn them not,’ explains the
prophet; ‘it is always their habit, even when not performing for hire,
to cheer the depressed and the sorrowful. Whenever they see a sufferer
they join him, and by merry talk cause him to forget his grief.’
The heart ennobles any calling. A turnkey may leave the saintly behind
in true merit of life; and a jester may be first in the kingdom of
heaven, if disinterestedly he has diminished the sadness of human lives.
II
‘WE LIVE IN DEEDS, NOT YEARS’
A KING had a vineyard, and he hired a number of labourers, one of whom
worked more diligently and better than the others. What did the king?
He took him by the hand and showed him friendship, and walked in the
vineyard conversing with him. At eventide, all the labourers came to
receive their hire, and the king paid that labourer too for a full
day’s work.
Then were the other labourers sorely vexed. They said, ‘Behold, we have
worked the whole day, whereas this one has only worked a few hours’.
Then said the king, ‘Why do you speak thus? Consider. This one, in a
few hours, did more work for me than you who toiled the whole day long.’
III
THE ACORN
A RABBI was once passing through a field where he saw a very old man
planting an oak-tree. ‘Why are you planting that tree?’ said he. ‘You
surely do not expect to live long enough to see the acorn growing up
into an oak-tree?’
‘Ah,’ replied the old man, ‘my ancestors planted trees not for
themselves, but for us, in order that we might enjoy their shade or
their fruit. I am doing likewise for those who will come after me.’
IV
EARTHLY TREASURES
ALEXANDER, the world conqueror, came across a simple people in
Africa who knew not war. He lingered to learn their ways. Two citizens
appeared before their chief with this point of dispute: One had bought
a piece of land and discovered a treasure in it; he claimed that this
belonged to the seller, and wished to return it. The seller, on the
other hand, declared that he sold the land with all it might contain.
So he refused to accept the treasure. The chief, turning to the buyer,
said: ‘Thou hast a son?’ ‘Yes.’ And addressing the seller, ‘Thou hast
a daughter?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Marry one to the other and make the treasure
their marriage portion.’ They left content. ‘In my country’, said the
surprised Alexander, ‘the disputants would have been imprisoned, and
the treasure confiscated for the king.’ ‘Is your country blessed by sun
and rain?’ asked the chief. ‘Yes,’ replied Alexander. ‘Does it contain
cattle?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then it must be for the sake of these innocent animals
that the sun shines upon it; surely its people are unworthy of such
blessing.’
V
ALEXANDER AT THE GATES OF PARADISE
ALEXANDER the Great, in his travels in the East, one day wandered to
the gate of Paradise. He knocked, and the guardian angel asked, ‘Who
is there?’ ‘Alexander,’ was the answer. ‘Who is Alexander?’ ‘Alexander,
you know――_the_ Alexander――Alexander the Great――Conqueror of the world.’
‘We know him not――he cannot enter here. _This is the Lord’s gate; only
the righteous enter._’ Alexander then more humbly begged for something
to show he had reached the heavenly gate, and a small fragment of a
human skull was thrown to him, with the words, ‘Weigh it’. He took it
away, and showed it contemptuously to his Wise Men, who brought a pair
of scales, and, placing the bone in one, Alexander put some of his
silver and gold against it in the other; but the small bone outweighed
them all. More and more silver and gold were put into the scale, and
at last all his crown jewels and diadems were in; but they all flew
upwards like feathers before the weight of the bone, till one of the
Wise Men placed a few grains of dust on the bone. Up flew the scale!
The bone was that which surrounded the eye, and nothing will ever
satisfy the eye until covered by the dust of the grave.
VI
HEAVENLY TREASURES
KING MONOBAZ, who in the days of the Second Temple became a proselyte
to Judaism, unlocked his ancestral treasures at a time of famine, and
distributed them among the poor. His ministers rebuked him, saying,
‘Thy fathers amassed, thou dost squander’. ‘Nay,’ said the benevolent
king, ‘they preserved earthly, but I heavenly, treasures; theirs could
be stolen, mine are beyond mortal reach; theirs were barren, mine will
bear fruit time without end; they preserved money, I have preserved
lives. The treasures which my fathers laid by are for this world, mine
are for eternity.’
VII
TOLERATION
An aged man, whom Abraham hospitably invited to his tent, refused
to join him in prayer to the one spiritual God. Learning that he was
a fire-worshipper, Abraham drove him from his door. That night God
appeared to Abraham in a vision and said: ‘I have borne with that
ignorant man for seventy years: could you not have patiently suffered
him one night?’
VIII
THE TORAH IS ISRAEL’S LIFE
ONCE the Romans issued a decree that the Jews should no longer occupy
themselves in the study of the Torah. Rabbi Akiba, however, was most
zealous in spreading a love and knowledge of the Torah amongst all the
Jewish communities. One day his friend Pappus met him and spake thus:
‘Akiba, art thou not afraid? Thou surely must know that thy deeds will
bring thee into mortal danger!’ ‘Stay a while!’ retorted Akiba, ‘let me
tell thee a story: A fox was walking on the brink of a stream, in the
clear waters of which were a number of fishes running to and fro. Said
the fox to the fishes, ‘Why do you run so?’ ‘We run’, replied they,
‘because we fear the fishermen’s nets.’ ‘Come up on the dry land’, said
the fox, ‘and live with me in safety, even as my forefathers once lived
in safety with yours.’ But the fishes said, ‘This surely is not the
cleverest amongst animals that speaks thus. Water is our natural home.
If we are not safe there, how much less safe should we be on land,
where we must surely die!’ It is exactly so with us Jews’, continued
Akiba. ‘The Torah is our life and the length of our days. We may,
whilst loving and studying the Torah, be in great danger from our
enemies; but if we were to give up its study, we should speedily
disappear and be no more.’
IX
ISRAEL’S LOYALTY
THERE was once a man who betrothed himself to a beautiful maiden and
then went away, and the maiden waited and he came not. Friends and
rivals mocked her and said, ‘He will never come’. She went into her
room and took out the letters in which he had promised to be ever
faithful. Weeping she read them and was comforted. In time he returned,
and inquiring how she had kept her faith so long, she showed him his
letters. Israel in misery, in captivity, was mocked by the nations
for her hopes of redemption; but Israel went into her schools and
synagogues and took out the letters, and was comforted. God would in
time redeem her and say, ‘How could you alone among all the mocking
nations be faithful?’ Then Israel would point to the Law and the
Prophets and answer, ‘Had I not your promise here?’
X
THE JEWELS
RABBI MEIR sat during the whole of the Sabbath-day in the School
instructing the people. During his absence from the house his two
sons died, both of them of uncommon beauty, and enlightened in the Law.
His wife bore them to her bedchamber, and spread a white covering over
their bodies. In the evening Rabbi Meir came home. ‘Where are my sons?’
he asked. ‘I repeatedly looked round the School, and I did not see them
there.’ She reached him a goblet. He praised the Lord at the going out
of the Sabbath, drank, and again asked: ‘Where are my sons?’ ‘They will
not be afar off’, she said, and placed food before him that he might
eat. When he had said grace after the meal, she thus addressed him:
‘With thy permission, I would fain propose to thee one question’. ‘Ask
it then’, he replied. ‘A few days ago a person entrusted some jewels
into my custody, and now he demands them of me; should I give them back
again?’ ‘This is a question’, said the Rabbi, ‘which my wife should
not have thought it necessary to ask. What! wouldst thou hesitate to
restore to every one his own?’ ‘No,’ she replied; ‘but yet I thought
it best not to restore them without acquainting you therewith.’ She
then led him to the chamber, and took the white covering from the
dead bodies. ‘Ah, my sons! my sons!’ loudly lamented the father. ‘My
sons! the light of my eyes!’ The mother turned away and wept bitterly.
At length she took her husband by the hand, and said: ‘Didst thou
not teach me that we must not be reluctant to restore that which was
entrusted to our keeping? See――the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away; blessed be the name of the Lord!’
XI
THE TWO SHIPS
TWO ships were once seen to be sailing near land. One of them was
going forth from the harbour, and the other was coming into the harbour.
Every one was cheering the outgoing ship, and every one was giving it a
hearty send-off. But the incoming ship was scarcely noticed.
A wise man was looking at the two ships, and he said: ‘Rejoice not
over the ship that is setting out to sea, for you know not what destiny
awaits it, what storms it may encounter, what dangers it may have to
undergo. Rejoice rather over the ship that has reached port safely and
brought back all its passengers in peace.’
It is the way of the world, that when a human being is born, all
rejoice; but when he dies, all sorrow. Rather ought the opposite to be
the case. No one can tell what troubles await the child on its journey
into manhood. But when a man has lived and dies in peace, all should
rejoice, seeing that he has completed his journey, and is departing
this world with the imperishable crown of a good name.
XII
THE MAN AND HIS THREE FRIENDS
A CERTAIN man had three friends, two of whom he loved dearly, but the
other he lightly esteemed. It happened one day that the king commanded
his presence at court, at which he was greatly alarmed, and wished to
procure an advocate. Accordingly he went to the two friends whom he
loved; one flatly refused to accompany him, the other offered to go
with him as far as the king’s gate, but no farther. In his extremity he
called upon the third friend, whom he least esteemed, and he not only
went willingly with him, but so ably defended him before the king that
he was acquitted.
In like manner, every man has three friends when Death summons him
to appear before his Creator. His first friend, whom he loves most,
namely, his money, cannot go with him a single step; his second,
relations and neighbours, can only accompany him to the grave, but
cannot defend him before the Judge; while his third friend, whom he
does not highly esteem――his good works――goes with him before the King,
and obtains his acquittal.
XIII
VANITY OF HUMAN PLEASURE
A FOX was eyeing longingly some luscious fruit in a very fine garden.
But there was no way for him to enter. At last he espied an opening
through which, he thought, he might possibly get in, but soon found the
hole too small to admit his body. ‘True,’ he said, ‘the hole is small,
but if I fast three days my body will become sufficiently reduced to
admit me.’ He did so; and to his joy he now feasted to his heart’s
content upon the grapes and all the other good things in the orchard.
But lo! when he desired to escape before the master of the garden came
upon him he saw, to his great consternation, that the opening had again
become too small for him. Poor animal! he had a second time to fast
three days; and having made good his escape, he cast a farewell glance
upon the scene of his late revels, saying: ‘O garden, charming art thou
and exquisite are thy fruits! But of what avail hast thou been unto me?
What have I now for all my labour and cunning?’
It is even so with man. Naked he comes into the world, naked he must
leave it. Of all his toil therein he carries nothing away with him save
the fruits of his good deeds.
XIV
BODY AND SOUL
THE Roman Emperor Antoninus once said to Rabbi Judah the Prince, ‘On
the great Day of Judgement, soul and body will each plead excuse for
sin committed. The body will say to the Heavenly Judge, “It is the soul,
and not I, that has sinned. Without it I am as lifeless as a stone.” On
the other hand, the soul will say, “How canst Thou impute sin to me? It
is the body that has dragged me down.”’
‘Let me tell you a parable’, answered Rabbi Judah the Prince. ‘A king
once had a beautiful garden stocked with the choicest fruits. He set
two men to keep guard over it――a blind man and a lame man. “I see some
fine fruit yonder”, said the lame man one day. “Come up on my shoulder”,
said the blind man, “I will carry you to the spot, and we shall both
enjoy the fruit.” The owner, missing the fruit, haled both men before
him for punishment. “How could I have been the thief?” queried the
lame man, “seeing that I cannot walk?” “Could I have stolen the fruit?”
retorted the blind man; “I am unable to see anything.” What did the
king? He placed the lame man on the shoulders of the blind man and
sentenced them both as one.’
In the same way will the Divine Judge of the Universe mete out
judgement to body and soul jointly.
ALMIGHTY, WHAT IS MAN?
ALMIGHTY! what is man?
But flesh and blood.
Like shadows flee his days,
He marks not how they vanish from his gaze,
Now like a flower blowing,
Now scorched by sunbeams glowing.
And wilt Thou of his trespasses inquire?
How may he ever bear
Thine anger just, Thy vengeance dire?
Then spare him, be Thou merciful, O King,
Upon the dreaded day of reckoning!
Almighty! what is man?
A faded leaf!
If Thou dost weigh him in the balance――lo!
He disappears――a breath that thou dost blow.
His heart is ever filled
With lust of lies unstilled.
Wilt Thou bear in mind his crime
Unto all time?
He fades away like clouds sun-kissed,
Dissolves like mist.
Then spare him! let him love and mercy win,
According to Thy grace, and not according to his sin!
SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, 1050.
(_Trans. Emma Lazarus._)
הַצּוּר תָּמִים
RESIGNATION
RIGHTEOUS art Thou, O God, and ever just,
And none can question, none withstand Thy will;
And though our hearts be humbled to the dust,
Teach us, through all, to see Thy mercy still.
Our life is measured out by Thee above,
And to Thy will each human heart must bow;
No frail remonstrance mars our perfect love,
No man shall say to Thee, ‘What doest Thou?’
When suffering to human fault is due,
Forgive, O Lord, and stay Thine hand, we pray;
And when it brings but trial of faith anew,
Turn Thou the night of gloom to trustful day.
When blessings bring Thy sunshine to our heart,
Let gratitude uplift each soul at rest;
And when to bear our griefs becomes our part,
Let faith and hope exhort us――God knows best.
The Lord hath given――praise unto His Name!
But with that praise our task is but begun.
The Lord hath taken――still our thought the same,
His is Law our Law; His will, not ours, be done.
A. A. GREEN, 1917.
IMMORTALITY
THERE are those who gain eternity in a lifetime, others who gain it in
one brief hour.
TALMUD.
* * * * *
RABBI JACOB[86] said: This world is like a vestibule before the world
to come. Prepare thyself in the vestibule, so that thou mayest enter
into the palace.
Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the
whole life in the world to come; and better is one hour of blissfulness
of spirit in the world to come than the whole life of this world.
ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.
ETERNAL HOPE
WHOM have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth:
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.
PSALM 73. 25‒6.
TRUE WISDOM
SURELY there is a mine for silver,
And a place for gold which they refine.
Iron is taken out of the earth,
And brass is molten out of the stone.
Man setteth an end to darkness,
And searcheth out to the farthest bound
The stones of thick darkness and of the shadow of death.
He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn;
He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock;
He overturneth the mountains by the roots.
He cutteth out passages among the rocks,
And his eye seeth every precious thing.
He bindeth the streams that they trickle not,
And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
The deep saith, It is not in me:
And the sea saith, It is not with me.
It cannot be gotten for gold,
Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
Whence then cometh wisdom?
And where is the place of understanding?
Destruction and Death say,
We have heard a rumour thereof with our ears,
God understandeth the way thereof,
And He knoweth the place thereof,
And unto man He said,
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil is understanding.
JOB 28. 1‒4, 9‒15, 20, 22‒3, 28.
* * * * *
RABBI TARPHON[87] said: The day is short, and the work is great, but
the labourers are idle, though the reward be great, and the Master of
the work is urgent. It is not incumbent upon thee to complete the work;
but neither art thou free to desist from it. Faithful is thine Employer
to pay the reward of thy labour. But know that the reward unto the
righteous is not of this world.
ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.
* * * * *
_REMEMBER also thy Creator in the days of thy youth, or ever the evil
days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no
pleasure in them: or ever the sun and the light, and the moon and the
stars be darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; and the dust
return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return to God who gave
it._
_This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: fear God, and keep
His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man._
ECCLESIASTES 12. 1‒2, 7, 13.
NOTES
THROUGHOUT this Jewish Anthology the unit of selection is the Jewish
_thought_. Abridgement has therefore been unhesitatingly resorted to
wherever condensation helped to make the thought stand out in clearer
light. Utmost care has, however, been taken that such condensation in
no way obscures the original meaning of the Author.
The bibliographic notes are intended for those who may desire to
extend their acquaintance with Jewish books. Only such sources as are
available in English and are within possible reach of the ordinary
reader have been indicated.
In the Scripture selections, wherever the rhythm and beauty of either
the Authorized Version or the Revised Version could be retained, this
has been done. In the majority of cases, however, the quotations are
from the more faithful Jewish Version. The numbering of the Bible
verses is according to the Hebrew text.
ABBREVIATIONS:
J. Q. R. = Jewish Quarterly Review (Old Series).
J. P. S. = Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia.
J. E. = Jewish Encyclopedia. This standard reference work should
be consulted for fuller information on the authors,
sources, and subjects brought together in this book.
I
PAGE
3. Jacobs: ‘The Typical Character of Anglo-Jewry,’ J. Q. R., 1898.
Aguilar: _The Spirit of Judaism_, chap. viii. A. S. Isaacs’
_The Young Champion_ is a biography of Grace Aguilar for
young readers. J. P. S., 1916.
5. For Eleazar of Worms, see M. Joseph in _Jews’ College Jubilee
Volume_, 1905.
6. Montefiore: From a Sermon preached before the Jewish students
of Cambridge University.
‘Individual offences bring shame not only upon the persons
who commit them, but upon the entire race, which, says an
old writer, like a harp-string, has but to be struck at one
end and it vibrates throughout. This has been the fate of
Israel in every age; and the world’s habit of identifying
the race with the shortcomings of the individual seems to
be ineradicable. Public transgression――transgression which
involves the whole House of Israel――is in a special sense
branded as a _Chillul Hashem_, as “a profanation of the
Name” just as good deeds, done publicly, which reflect
lustre on all Israel, are praised as a _Kiddush Hashem_,
“a sanctification of the Name”.’ (Morris Joseph, _Judaism as
Life and Creed_. 3rd Edition. Routledge――an excellent book
that should be in every English-speaking Jewish home.)
7‒9. For other specimens of Jewish Moralists see _Hebrew
Characteristics_, published by the old American Jewish
Publication Society, 1872; and I. Abrahams, ‘Jewish Ethical
Wills,’ in J. Q. R., 1891.
10. Philipson: _Old European Jewries_, J. P. S.
11. Lazarus: Quoted in Nahida Remy, _The Jewish Woman_. (Bloch
Publishing Co., New York.)
The Jewish Home――Cf. Morris Joseph on the question of
intermarriage.
‘Every Jew should feel himself bound, even though the duty
involves the sacrifice of precious affections, to avoid acts
calculated, however remotely, to weaken the stability of
the ancestral religion. It is true that occasional unions
between Jew and Gentile do no appreciable harm to the Jewish
cause, however much mischief they may lay up, in the shape
of jealousy and dissension, for those who contract them,
and of religious confusion, for the children. But a general
practice begins as a rule by being occasional. Every Jew who
contemplates marriage outside the pale must regard himself
as paving the way to a disruption which will be the final,
as it will be the culminating, disaster in the history of
his people.’
12. Szold: ‘What has Judaism done for Woman?’ in _Judaism at the
|[Chicago]| World’s Parliament of Religions_, Cincinnati,
1894.
Cradle Song: quoted in Schechter, _Studies in Judaism_,
i, 1896. ‘The Child in Jewish Literature.’ Another version in
I. Zangwill’s _They that Walk in Darkness_ is as follows:――
Sleep, my birdie, shut your eyes,
Oh, sleep, my little one;
Too soon from cradle you’ll arise
To work that must be done.
Almonds and raisins you shall sell,
And Holy Scrolls shall write;
So sleep, dear child, sleep sound and well,
Your future beckons bright.
Brum shall learn of ancient days,
And love good folk of this;
So sleep, dear babe, your mother prays,
And God will send you bliss.
For the Yiddish folk-song see Wiener, _History of Yiddish
Literature in the Nineteenth Century_, New York and London,
1899; and Kurt Schindler, ‘The Russian-Jewish Folk Song’, in
_The Menorah Journal_, New York, 1917.
‘The Russian Jewish folk-song has grown and was reared under
the greatest oppression, and the grimmest tyranny that
a race ever went through. By this very oppression it has
become tense, quivering, abounding with emotion; in its
melodies the Jewish heart is laid open, and it speaks in a
language understandable to all. Its songs have an elemental
appeal――they represent the collective outcry of a suffering,
unbendable race.’ (Schindler.)
13. Cohen: Preface, _Children’s Psalm Book._ (Routledge.)
The following words recently written by America’s leading
educationist are of deep significance:――‘Education the world
over was at first for a long time almost solely religious,
and, while it was once a master-stroke of toleration to
eliminate it from the school, in doing so we nearly lost
from our educational system the greatest of all the motives
that makes for virtue, reverence, self-knowledge and
self-control. Now we are beginning to realize the wrong
we have committed against child-nature and are seeking
in various ways to atone for it.’ (G. Stanley Hall, in
Introduction to L. Grossmann’s _The Aims of Teaching in
Jewish Schools_, Cincinnati, 1919.)
Cf. the chapter on Religious Education with Bibliography
in M. Friedländer, _The Jewish Religion_, second edition
(P. Vallentine).
Morais: in _Abarbanel’s School and Family Reader for
Israelites_, New York, 1883, a book well worth reprinting.
14. Joseph, _The Message of Judaism_ (G. Routledge), ‘Hebrew and
the Synagogue.’
15. Schechter: _Seminary Addresses_, Ark Publishing Co., Cincinnati,
1915. These addresses of eloquent wisdom contain the ripest
thoughts of that great scholar.
In 1870 Peretz Smolenskin, then the foremost neo-Hebrew writer,
proclaimed: ‘The wilfully blind bid us be like all the
other nations. Yea, let us be like all the other nations,
unashamed of the rock whence we have been hewn; like the
rest, holding dear our language and the honour of our people.
We need not blush for clinging to the ancient language with
which we wandered from land to land, in which our poets sang,
and our seers prophesied, and in which our fathers poured
out their hearts unto God. They who thrust us away from the
Hebrew language meditate evil against our people and against
its glory.’
20. Maimonides: Some scholars question the Maimonidean authorship
of this Admonition.
22. In _Year Book of Central Conference of American Rabbis_, 1904.
23. _Aspects of Rabbinic Theology_, p. 76.
24. Adler: _Anglo-Jewish Memories_, p. 272.
25. Gabirol: Probably the very earliest enunciation of Tolerance
in Western Europe.
27. _Against Apion_, concluding paragraphs.
Ecclesiasticus: Written originally in Hebrew by Simon ben
Jeshua ben Sira, who flourished in Jerusalem in the second
century, B.C.E. Translated into Greek by the author’s
grandson, who resided in Egypt between 132‒116. The Hebrew
original was lost for over 1,000 years, and was re-discovered
in the Cairo Geniza by Dr. Schechter in 1896.
28. The change from the Revised Version in the second line is
according to the newly-discovered Hebrew original.
_Their name liveth for evermore_; the phrasing of the
Authorized Version has been restored. These five words have
been chosen by the Imperial War Graves Commission as the
inscription for the central monuments on the cemeteries in
France and Flanders.
30. Dubnow: _Jewish History_, J. P. S., chap. 12. Dubnow’s sketch
is a brief, philosophical survey of Jewish History.
Hertz: From Presidential Address, Union of Jewish Literary
Societies, ‘On “Renaissance” and “Culture” and their Jewish
Applications’.
32. Geiger: _Judaism and its History_, I, 2.
33. _Aspects of Rabbinic Theology_, p. 112.
34. _Jews in Many Lands._ J. P. S.
35. Singer: _Sermons_, i. ‘Judaism and Citizenship.’ (Routledge.)
36. Achad Ha’am: _Selected Essays_, J. P. S., 1912.
‘Some Consolation.’ A number of those original and
thought-compelling essays have been republished in the
series _Zionist Pamphlets_, 1916 & 1917.
The words ‘The Duty of Self-Respect’ are the title of a paper
by the late F. D. Mocatta.
37. Nordau: Address at First Zionist Congress, Basle.
Schechter: _Seminary Addresses_. ‘Higher Criticism――Higher
Anti-Semitism.’
38. Disraeli: From Preface to _Collected Works of Isaac D’Israeli_.
39. Hertz: From Reply to ‘Verax’, _The Times_, November 29, 1919.
Recent anti-Semitic attacks in the Press recall
Steinschneider’s comment: ‘When dealing with Jewish questions
it is not necessary to be either logical or fair. It seems
one may say anything of Jews so long as it brings them into
contempt.’
40. _An Epistle to the Hebrews._ Letter 4. Republished by the
Federation of American Zionists, 1900.
41. These stirring lines were written during the Boer War.
42. Dr. Adler continues: ‘Here we are spared the most distressful
sight, the revival of odious religious prejudices and
pernicious racial antipathies.’ These words would require
some qualification to-day.
43. _Songs of a Wanderer_, J. P. S.
48. ‘Why am I a Jew?’ North American Review.
A similar thought is expressed by the same writer in his
Address at the Chicago Parliament of Religions: ‘There is
a legend that when Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden, an
angel shattered the gates, and the fragments flying all over
the earth are the precious stones. We can carry the legend
further. The precious stones were picked up by the various
religions and philosophies of the world. Each claimed and
claims that its own fragment alone reflects the light of
heaven. In God’s own time we shall, all of us, fit our
fragments together and reconstruct the Gates of Paradise.
Through the gates shall all peoples pass to the foot of
God’s throne. The throne is called by us the mercy-seat.
Name of happy augury, for God’s Mercy shall wipe out all
record of mankind’s errors and strayings, the sad story of
our unbrotherly actions.’
49. _Judaism as Creed and Life._ Book III, chap. x. Book III is the
best modern presentation of the ethical life under the aspect
of Judaism.
II
53. Lucas: _The Jewish Year_, Macmillan, 1898. Every one of
Mrs. Lucas’s admirable versions of the principal mediaeval
Jewish hymns quoted in this book are from the above volume.
58. Levi: See Miss Helen Zimmern’s monograph on ‘David Levi, Poet
and Patriot’, in the J. Q. R., 1897.
59. Zangwill: ‘The Position of Judaism’. North American Review.
60. Schechter: _Seminary Addresses_. ‘Higher Criticism――Higher
Anti-Semitism’.
61. Sulzberger: From Address at the Decennial Meeting of the
J. P. S.
Leeser: Preface, _The Twenty-four Books of the Holy Scriptures_.
62. Adler: From a Sermon, ‘This Book of the Law’.
63. Rashi: On Exodus vi. 9. _Scripture must be interpreted according
to its plain, natural sense_――an epoch-making pronouncement
in the history of Bible exegesis. Though he is not the author
of this canon of interpretation, Rashi is the first seriously
to attempt its application. ‘Rashi deserves the foremost place
which the judgment of Jewish scholars generally accords him.
He has two of the greatest and rarest gifts of the commentator,
the instinct to discern precisely the point at which
explanation is necessary, and the art of giving or indicating
the needed help in the fewest words.’ (G. F. Moore.)
64. Halevi: _Cusari_, ii, 56. Translated by H. Hirschfeld under the
Arabic title _Kitab Al-Khazari_ (Routledge), 1905.
Geiger: _Judaism and its History_, I, 3.
67. Jacobs: _Jewish Contributions to Civilization_, J. P. S.
Shemtob: A remarkable anticipation by over three and a half
centuries of the modern view of the rôle of the Prophets.
Compare with the two other selections on the Prophets the
following by Felix Adler:――
‘Either we must place nature uppermost, or man uppermost.
If we choose the former, then man himself becomes a mere
soulless tool in the hands of destiny, a part of a machine,
the product of his circumstances. If we choose the latter,
then all nature will catch a reflected light from the glory
of the moral aims of man.
‘The Hebrew Prophets chose the latter alternative. They
asserted the freedom of man; and the general conscience of
mankind, despite all cavilings and sophistry to the contrary,
has ever responded to their declaration with a loud Amen.
They argued, to put their thought in modern language, that
we may fairly judge of the whole course of evolution by its
highest outcome, and they believed its highest outcome to be,
not mere mechanical order of beauty, but righteousness.
‘The Hebrew Prophets interpreted the universe in terms of
humanity’s aspirations. They believe that the ends of
justice are too precious to be lost; that, if righteousness
is not yet real in the world, it must be made real; and,
hence, that there must be a Power in the world which makes
for righteousness.’
68. Darmesteter: _Selected Essays_, translated by Jastrow, N.Y.,
1895.
Lazarus: _The Spirit of Judaism_, New York, 1895.
69. _The Literary Remains of Emanuel Deutsch_, 1874. _The Talmud:
Two Essays by Deutsch and Darmesteter_, J. P. S., 1911.
71. _Chapters in Jewish Literature_, J. P. S. Preface.
73. Magnus: _Outlines of Jewish History_, J. P. S., p. 333.
74. Jacobs: _Jewish Ideals and other Essays_, 1896.
Halevi: _Cusari_, ii, 36.
Gaster: Presidential Address, Transactions of Jewish Historical
Society of England, vol. viii.
75. _Jewish History_, concluding paragraph.
76. Zunz: _Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters_, chap. ii. ‘Leiden.’
This wonderful presentation of the Sufferings of the Jews
in the Middle Ages has been translated by Dr. A. Löwy in
_Miscellany of Hebrew Literature_. First Series, 1872; and
has been republished in the ‘Library of Jewish Classics’,
Bloch Publishing Co., New York, 1916.
77. _Antiquities of the Jews._ Book xviii, 8.
80. Dean Plumptre, _Lazarus and other Poems_.
82. Heine: The following is a more literal version by Nina
Salaman:――
Break out in loud lamenting,
Thou sombre martyr-song,
That all aflame I have carried
In my silent soul so long.
Into all ears it presses,
Thence every heart to gain――
I have conjured up so fiercely
The thousand-year-old pain.
The great and small are weeping,
Even men so cold of eye;
The women weep and the flowers,
The stars are weeping on high.
And all these tears are flowing
In silent brotherhood,
Southward-flowing and falling
All into Jordan’s flood.
83. _Curiosities of Literature_, vol. ii.
86. Abarbanel’s _Reader_.
87. _Poems of Emma Lazarus_, _New York_, 1889, vol. ii.
89. _Songs of Exile_, J. P. S., 1901.
90. From ‘Jewish Ethics’ (M. Joseph) in _Religious Systems of the
World_, London, 1892.
91. ‘Vindiciae Judaeorum’, i. 7, in L. Wolf, _Manasseh Ben Israel’s
Mission to Oliver Cromwell_, 1901.
92. Hirsch: _Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel_, 16th Letter (Funk and
Wagnalls) New York, 1899.
95. J. E., vol. xii, 348.
96. Hertz: ‘Lord Rothschild: A Memorial Sermon.’
97. _History of the Jews in Poland and Russia_ (Putnams), 1915,
conclusion.
99. _Past and Present: A Collection of Jewish Essays_, chap. xvi,
Ark Publishing Co., Cincinnati, 1919.
101. ‘What is a pogrom? Better than any abstract definition is
a concrete record taken haphazard of an actual pogrom.
Orscha is a town of 14,000 inhabitants, half of them Jews.
On October 18, 1905, the news of the proclamation of the
Constitution reached Orscha. On the 19th the general strike
stopped; Jew and Christian embraced; the houses were hung
with flags, a service of thanksgiving was held; processions
filled the streets. In the evening the Mohilev police
officer Misgaib entered the town, and the rumour ran round
that a patriotic demonstration was to take place and the
Jews to be beaten. On the 20th, drunken men gathered to
take the official’s orders. On the morning of the 21st, the
peasants entered the town armed with axes and guns. “The
village authorities have sent us; whoever does not come
will be punished. We are to do whatever is ordered.” At
one o’clock a priest exhorted the crowds of the faithful
to purge their city of the aliens, and the cry arose, “Long
live absolutism! Down with the mayor, who has sold the town
to the Jews”. The first murders followed. The house of a
rich Jew was stormed. Without the soldiers fired, a priest
held service, and a band played the national anthem; while
within eight men, women and children were tortured to death.
The appetite was only whetted. At six o’clock the peasants
begged the police for more orders, more work. They were told
to wait till daylight; the darkness might encourage the Jews
to resist. On the same day twelve Jewish youths came from
Shklov to help their brethren. They were met at the station
and murdered, and for seven hours every man that passed
mutilated or insulted their dead bodies. The massacre became
general. The 23rd was given up to plunder. At mid-day the
Vice-Governor spoke to the crowds: “Children, it is enough.
You have had three days’ amusement, now go home and sing
‘God save the Czar’”. The pogrom at Orscha was typical of
the 690 greater and lesser pogroms which took place that
October.’ (H. Sacher on ‘Die Judenpogromme in Russland’.
_Jewish Review_, i.)
106. Wolf: ‘_The Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia_.’
Lazarus: First appeared in ‘_Songs of a Semite_’, New York,
1882.
_Each crime that wakes in man the beast,
Is visited upon his kind._
The lines, written in 1882, apply with hundredfold force
to the uninterrupted pogroms that have been raging in the
Ukraine throughout 1919. More than 100,000 Jews――men, women,
and children――have been butchered in cold blood by the
hordes under Generals Denikin and Petlura. The soldiery,
intoxicated with blood, invented the most diabolical
tortures. See the Report on Jewish Pogroms by Kieff Pogrom
Relief Committee, controlled by the Russian Red Cross,
London, 1920. ‘Our masses in Eastern Europe have been facing
death in seven circles of hell. It is sufficient to remember
the multi-massacres of Ukrainia. For this cold murder of
whole communities not Heaven itself nor all the mercy of
the angels could find palliation. There is no instance that
shows so much as this the ghastly descent of human character
into primitive brutality and cannibalism. This is a deed
which in its horror and wicked purposelessness should have
stunned the world.’ (Nahum Sokolow, Opening Address of
London Zionist Conference, July 7, 1920.) The following
stanzas are from Mr. Zangwill’s appeal to American Jewry on
behalf of the victims:――
OUR OWN
By devastated dwellings,
By desecrated fanes,
By hearth-stones, cold and crimsoned,
And slaughter-reeking lanes,
Again is the Hebrew quarter
Through half of Europe known;
And crouching in the shambles,
Rachel, the ancient crone,
Weeps again for her children
and the fate that is her own.
No laughter rings in these ruins
Save of girls to madness shamed.
Their mothers disembowelled
Lie stark ’mid children maimed.
The Shool has a great congregation
But never a psalm they drone.
Shrouded in red-striped Tallisim,
Levi huddles with Kohn;
But the blood from their bodies oozing
is the blood that is your own.
Shot, some six to the bullet,
Lashed and trailed in the dust,
Mutilated with hatchets
In superbestial lust――
No beast can even imagine
What Christians do or condone――
Surely these bear our burden
And for our sins atone,
And if we hide our faces,
then the guilt is as our own.
At last but a naked rabble,
Clawing the dust for bread,
Jabbering, wailing, whining,
Hordes of the living dead,
Half apes, half ghosts, they grovel,
Nor human is their tone,
Yet they are not brutes but brethren,
These wrecks of the hunger-zone,
And their death-cry rings to heaven
in the tongue that is your own.
107. For an historical account of these child-martyrdoms, see
Dubnow, _History of the Jewish Russia and Poland_, J. P. S.,
1918, vol. ii, pp. 18‒29.
109. _Stories and Pictures_, J. P. S., 1906, contains the best work
of Peretz. The Yiddish original of ‘Bontzie Schweig’, with
English translation, is published in Wiener, pp. 332‒53.
With Peretz, Yiddish letters ‘enter into competition with
what is best in the world’s literature, where he will some
day occupy an honourable place. Peretz offers gladly all he
has, his genius, in the service of the lowly. Literature,
according to him, is a consolation to those who have no
other consolation, a safe and pleasurable retreat for those
who are buffeted about on the stormy sea of life. For these
reasons he prefers to dwell with the down-trodden and the
submerged.’ (Wiener).
117. Cf. Emma Lazarus’ _Banner of the Jew_:――
Oh for Jerusalem’s trumpet now,
To blow a blast of shattering power,
To wake the sleepers high and low,
And rouse them to the urgent hour!
No hand for vengeance――but to save,
A million naked swords should wave.
Oh deem not dead that martial fire,
Say not the mystic flame is spent!
With Moses’ law and David’s lyre,
Your ancient strength remains unbent.
Let but an Ezra rise anew,
To lift the _Banner of the Jew_!
A rag, a mock at first――ere long,
When men have bled and women wept
To guard its precious folds from wrong,
Even they who shrunk, even they who slept,
Shall leap to bless it, and to save.
Strike! for the brave revere the brave!
‘When the anti-Semite agitation took the form of massacre
and spoliation, several pamphlets were published by Jews in
Russia, advocating the restoration of the Jewish State. They
found a powerful echo in the United States, where a young
Jewish poetess, Miss Emma Lazarus, passionately championed
the Zionist cause in verse not unworthy of Yehudah Halevi.’
(Lucien Wolf, _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, ‘Zionism’.)
119. _Seminary Addresses_, ‘Zionism’.
120. _Selected Essays_, ‘Moses’.
123. _Jewish Review_, I.
124. Herzl: ‘Herzl’s personal charm was irresistible. His sincerity,
his eloquence, his tact, his devotion, his power, were
recognized on all hands. He spent his whole strength in the
furtherance of his ideas. Diplomatic interviews, exhausting
journeys, impressive mass meetings, brilliant literary
propaganda――all these methods were employed by him to the
utmost limit of self-denial. He was beyond question the most
influential Jewish personality of the nineteenth century.
He effectively roused Jews all the world over to an earnest
and vital interest in their present and their future. Herzl
thus left an indelible mark on his time, and his renown
is assured whatever be the fate in store for the political
Zionism which he founded and for which he gave his life.’ (I.
Abrahams in _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.)
125. Herzl: Address at Zionist Congress, London, 1900.
Hertz: Address at Thanksgiving Meeting for the Balfour
Declaration, Dec. 2, 1917.
127. Herzl: Address at First Zionist Congress, Basle, 1897.
Schechter: _Aspects_, 105.
Noah: See ‘Noah’s Ark’ in Zangwill’s _Dreamers of the Ghetto_
for an account of this early American Zionist.
III
131. Cornill: In the same masterly address, _Humanity in the Old
Testament_, this great Biblical scholar says:――
‘But not only to man does the humanitarianism of the Torah
extend, it cares for the brute as well, and places it
likewise under legal protection, to which I know of no
analogy in older extra-Israelitish codes. The Israelite
ascribed a soul even to the brute, and saw in it a creature
of God, which, while subservient to man by God, yet should
not be helplessly exposed to his caprice. What a truly
humanitarian sentiment finds expression in the Law; “Thou
shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn”.
The brute should not perform hard labour, and at the same
time have food before its eyes, without the possibility of
eating therefrom. I remember some time ago, to have read
that one of the richest Italian real-estate owners, at
the grape-harvest, fastened iron muzzles to his miserable,
fever-stricken workmen, so that it might not occur to these
poor peasants, working for starvation wages under the glowing
sun of Southern Italy, to satiate their burning thirst and
their gnawing hunger with a few of the millions of grapes of
the owner.’
132. _Literature and Dogma_, 1, 4, and xi, 6.
133. _History of the People of Israel._ Preface.
134. Lotze: _Microcosm_, III.
138. Frazer: _Passages of the Bible chosen for their Literary
Beauty_.――Preface.
Compare the following from the same writer’s _The Folklore of
the Old Testament_ (Macmillan, 1918):――
‘The revelation of the baser elements which underlay the
civilization of ancient Israel, as they underlie the
civilization of modern Europe, serves rather as a foil to
enhance by contrast the glory of a people which, from such
dark depths of ignorance and cruelty, could rise to such
bright heights of wisdom and virtue. The annals of savagery
and superstition unhappily compose a large part of human
literature; but in what other volume shall we find, side by
side with that melancholy record, psalmists who poured forth
their sweet and solemn strains of meditative piety in the
solitude of the hills or in green pastures and beside still
waters; prophets who lit up their beatific visions of a
blissful future with the glow of an impassioned imagination;
historians who bequeathed to distant ages the scenes of a
remote past embalmed for ever in the amber of a pellucid
style? These are the true glories of the Old Testament and
of Israel.’
139. Huxley: _Educational Essays_.
140. Huxley: ‘From the free spirit of the Mosaic law sprang the
intensity of family life that amid all dispersions and
persecutions has preserved the individuality of the Hebrew
race; that love of independence that under the most adverse
circumstance has characterized the Jew; that burning
patriotism that flamed up in the Maccabees and bared the
breasts of Jewish peasants to the serried steel of Grecian
phalanx and the resistless onset of Roman legion; that
stubborn courage that in exile and in torture held the
Jew to his faith. It kindled that fire that has made the
strains of Hebrew seers and poets phrase for us the highest
exaltations of thought; that intellectual vigour that has
over and over again made the dry staff bud and blossom.
And it has exerted its power wherever the influence of the
Hebrew scriptures has been felt. It has toppled thrones and
cast down hierarchies.’ (Henry George.)
141. Renan: _History of the People of Israel_, chap. 7.
143. _Moses._ This splendid lecture should be read in full.
It is published in a penny edition by the ‘Land Value’
Publication Dept., Strand.
147. Dow: ‘Hebrew and Puritan’, J. Q. R., iii.
Rhys: _Lyrical Poetry from the Bible_. (Dent.) Introduction.
Cornill: _The Culture of Ancient Israel_. Open Court Publishing
Co., Chicago. ‘The Psalms in the World’s Literature.’
151. Jowett: _Selected Passages from the Theological Writings_,
1903, p. 53.
152. _The Prophets of Israel._ Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago,
1895.
156. Stanley: _History of the Jewish Church_, iii, lecture 45.
157. ‘Social Life in France in the Fourteenth Century’ (The Jews),
Fortnightly Review, vol. 57.
158. _The Shield_, edited by Gorky, &c., A. A. Knopf, New York,
1917. ‘Russia and the Jews.’
159. Herford: _Pharisaism: Its aim and methods_, 1912, chap. vi.
160. ‘A Theist’s Impressions of Judaism’, J. Q. R., xix.
162. _Israel among the Nations. _New York, 1893.
166. _Rationalism in Europe_, chap. vi.
171. _Short History of the English People_, chap. viii, i.
172. _Essay and Speech on Jewish Disabilities_, ed. I. Abrahams and
S. Levy. (Jewish Historical Society of England) 1910.
177. From ‘A Letter on the Jew’ sent to a Jewish meeting, Capetown,
July 1, 1906.
178. Milyukov: In _The Shield_, ‘The Jewish Question in Russia’.
Lecky: _Democracy and Liberty_, 1896.
179. The Talmudic Story is from _Three Legends_ (Berlin, 1904),
written and published by Tolstoy in aid of the victims of the
Kishineff pogrom.
180. Schreiner: See Note 177.
181. The British Protest, together with the French, German, and
Russian Protests, were republished in pamphlet form by the
_Jewish Chronicle_ in 1913.
185. Quoted in Davies’s _Gems from the Fathers_ (Bagster).
IV
189. Philo: C. G. Montefiore, ‘Florilegium Philonis’, in J. Q. R.
vii (1895) is a good introduction to the Moses Mendelssohn
of Hellenistic Judaism.
193. Abrahams: _Authorized Prayer Book, Annotated Edition_, p. viii.
Both Mrs. Lucas in _The Jewish Year_, and Mr. Zangwill in _The
Service of the Synagogue_ (Routledge) have produced versions
of Adon Olam. The following is by George Borrow in _The Bible
in Spain_:――
Reigned the Universe’s Master,
ere were earthly things begun;
When His mandate all created,
Ruler was the name he won;
And alone He’ll rule tremendous
when all things are past and gone,
He no equal has, nor consort,
He, the singular and lone,
Has no end and no beginning;
His the sceptre, might, and throne.
He’s my God and living Saviour,
rock to whom in need I run;
He’s my banner and my refuge,
fount of weal when call’d upon;
In His hand I place my spirit,
at nightfall and at rise of sun,
And therewith my body also;
God’s my God――I fear no one.
194. From the first Jewish Hymn Book in America――a free rendering.
195. _The Menorah Journal_, vol. ii, 1916. ‘A Plea for Orthodoxy.’
196. Hertz: _Inaugural Sermon_, Congregation Orach Chayim, New York,
1912.
198. Abrahams: ‘Judaism and Spiritism’, in _Jewish Guardian_,
October 1, 1919.
199. In Philipson, _Old European Jewries_, J. P. S.
201. Jacobs: _Jewish Ideals_. ‘And what great bliss and happiness
did the Sabbath bring to the family life. When Friday evening
came and the Sabbath lamps were lighted and our fathers sang
their Sabbath hymns, they forgot, once in each week, all the
sorrows and cares of everyday life, and all the affronts and
insults which, without pity and without mercy, were heaped
upon them, and at last on the Sabbath they felt released in
body and soul from all troubles and burdens.’ (B. Felsenthal.)
A SABBATH TABLE-SONG.
Treasure of heart for the broken people,
Gift of new soul for the souls distrest,
Soother of sighs for the prisoned spirit――
The Sabbath of rest.
_This day is for Israel light and rejoicing,
A Sabbath of rest._
When the work of the worlds in their wonder was finished,
Thou madest this day to be holy and blest,
And those heavy-laden find safety and stillness,
A Sabbath of rest.
_This day is for Israel light and rejoicing,
A Sabbath of rest._
ISAAC LURIA, 1560.
(_Trans. Nina Salaman._)
202. _Songs of a Wanderer._
204. See _Authorized Prayer Book, Annotated Edition_, pp. cxlix
and cclix.
206. Also in _Songs of a Wanderer_.
207. _The Ideal in Judaism_, 1893.
209. Hertz: Passover as Israel’s birthday. ‘A people who, though
they never founded a great empire nor built a great
metropolis, have exercised upon a large portion of mankind
an influence, wide-spread, potent and continuous; a people
who have for nearly two thousand years been without country
or organized nationality yet have preserved their identity
and faith through all vicissitudes of time and fortune;
who have been overthrown, crushed, scattered; who have been
ground, as it were, to very dust, and flung to the four
winds of heaven; yet who, though thrones have fallen, and
empires have perished, and creeds have changed, and living
tongues have become dead, still exist with a vitality
seemingly unimpaired; a people who unite the strangest
contradictions; whose annals now blaze with glory, now sound
the depths of shame and woe――the advent of such a people
marks an epoch in the history of the world.’ (Henry George.)
213. Akdomus: Translation of a thought at the beginning of _Akdomus_,
the Aramaic hymn that precedes the Reading of the Law on
Pentecost. I have not been able to discover the name of the
translator.
Rosenfeld: From a forthcoming book of poems, _Songs of
a Pilgrim_ (Jewish Forum Publishing Co., New York). He
is known to the non-Jewish world by his _Songs from the
Ghetto_――powerful descriptions of the New York sweatshop
inferno. This volume has been translated into most Western
languages. ‘It was left for a Russian Jew at the end of
the nineteenth century to see and paint hell in colours not
attempted by anyone since the days of Dante ... the hell
he has not only visited, but that he has lived through.’
(Wiener.)
214. _The Sinaist_, 1, 2. ‘The Torah――our Greatest Benefactor.’
216. _The Sinaist_, 1, 3.
TEPHILLIN
Erect he stands, in fervent prayer,
His body cloaked in silken Tallis;
He seems a king, so free from care,
His wife a queen, his home a palace.
These bands he wears and softly prays,
Devoting strength and mind to God;
His body slowly, gently sways――
He walks the ground his fathers trod.
This daily commune with the Master
Lifts him above mere common clay;
The Jewish heart, like alabaster,
Grows pure and purer every day.
(Aaron Schaffer in _Standard Book of
Jewish Verses_, New York, Dodd, Mead & Co.)
217. _Sun and Shield_――a book of devout thoughts for everyday use.
Bloch Publishing Co., New York.
218. _The Occident_, vol. 12. It is a pity that no selection of
S. R. Hirsch’s Essays has as yet appeared in English.
219. _Sermons_, i. ‘Faith’, the last sermon preached by him. The
Jewish idea of faith is that of fidelity, absolute loyalty
to God. ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.’
Young Sorley, writing a few days before he fell in battle,
says: ‘Real faith is not that which says “we _must_ win for
our cause is just”; but that which says “our cause is just;
therefore we can disregard defeat”. All outlooks are at
present material, and the unseen value of justice as justice,
independent entirely of results, is forgotten. It is looked
upon merely as an agent for winning battles.’ (_Letters of
Charles Sorley_, 1919.)
220. Halevi’s Ode to Zion is one of the noblest religious poems in
the literature of the World:――
Pure and faithful, ever spotless,
Was his song, even as his soul was;
Soul, that when the Maker fashioned,
With His handiwork delighted.
Straight He kissed the beauteous spirit;
And that kiss of grace, re-echoing,
Fills with music all his singing,
Whom it consecrated――poet. (Heine.)
226. For Israel Baalshem, See Schechter, _Studies_, i. ‘The
Chassidim.’
Joseph: _The Message of Judaism_.
228. _Songs of Zion._ An excellent translation of a poem of great
mystic beauty.
229. This hymn forms part of the New Year Morning Service.
230. _Stories and Pictures._ Peretz inimitably succeeds in revealing
the whole inner world of Chassidic life. The Rebbe referred
to is Nathan ben Naphtali Hertz, a disciple of Nahman of
Bratzlav. The story is also related of R. Moses Sassow.
235. From a Sermon preached at Capetown to a Congregation of
Refugees from the Transvaal during the Boer War.
237. _Service of the Synagogue_, Eve of the Day of Atonement. Only
the last portion of this alphabetic acrostic is given here.
238. From _The Royal Crown_, Gabirol’s best known and most
important composition, containing his thoughts on religion
and philosophy, and expressing all his ardent love of God. In
many congregations, this poem is recited at the conclusion of
the Eve of Atonement (Kol Nidra) Service.
240. _Abodath Yisrael_, by Szold and Jastrow, Philadelphia, 1873.
241. _Poems of Emma Lazarus_, vol. ii.
249. This hymn introduces the concluding service on the Day of
Atonement in the Sephardi Liturgy.
250. _Cusari_, ii, 50. The translation is from Gottheil, _Sun and
Shield_.
252. Joseph: _Judaism as Life and Creed_.
Disraeli: _Tancred_.
253. _Aspects of Judaism_, p. 109.
255. J. Q. R., 1903. For the Yiddish original, See Wiener,
_History_, p. 272.
259. The Menorah――the more correct title would be ‘The Chanukah
Lamp’.
268. In England every morning service closes with this hymn being
recited before the open Ark.
V
273. Spinoza: _Ethics_.
274. _Guide to the Perplexed._
275. See Notes 7‒9.
280. Maimonides: _The Eight Chapters on Ethics_, ed. Gorfinkle,
New York, 1912.
Jacobs: _Jews of Angevin England_, p. 172.
Ethics of the Fathers: _Authorized Prayer Book_, pp. 184‒209.
A good edition, Hebrew and English, with commentary, is by
Gorfinkle, in Library of Jewish Classics, Bloch Publishing
Co., New York.
282. ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’: The Jewish mystic’s
Ladder of Perfection. Its author is Rabbi Pinhas ben Yair――a
second-century saint and teacher.
283. Yellin-Abrahams’ _Maimonides_, J. P. S.
285. _The Literary Remains of Emanuel Deutsch_, ‘The Talmud’, for a
larger selection of Talmudic sayings.
296. _The Discipline of Sorrow_, 1911. ‘The terrible events of life
are great eye-openers. They force us to learn that which it
is wholesome for us to know, but which habitually we try to
ignore, namely, that really we have no claim on a long life;
that we are each of us liable to be called off at any moment,
and that the main point is not how long we live, but with
what meaning we fill the short allotted span――for short it
is at best.
As in every battle, so in the great battle of Humanity,
the fallen and wounded, too, have a share in the victory;
by their sufferings they have helped, and the greenest
wreaths belong to them.’ (Felix Adler in _Life and Destiny_,
New York. McClure, Philips & Co.)
297. See Note 235.
298. _Aspects of Judaism_, ii, 5.
300. Adler: ‘Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild――a Funeral Address’.
301. Penini: translation in Gottheil, _Sun and Shield_.
308. ‘The Jewels’――based on a version by S. T. Coleridge.
315. Cf. _Authorized Prayer Book_, p. 318.
318. Ethics of the Fathers: The fourth chapter ends with the words
of R. Eleazar Hakkappar:――
‘The born are to die and the dead to live on again; and those
who enter the eternal life, to be judged. Therefore, let it
be known, understood and remembered, that He, the Almighty,
is the Maker and the Creator; He is the Discerner, He
the Judge, He the Witness, He the Complainant; and that
He shall judge in the hereafter, before whom there is no
unrighteousness, and no forgetting, no regard for rank, no
taking of bribes. Know that all is according to reckoning.
Let not thy passions persuade thee that the grave will
be a place of refuge for thee. For without thy will wert
thou created, without thy will thou wast born; thou livest
perforce, and perforce thou shalt at last die, and perforce
thou shalt in the future have to give account before the
Supreme King, the Holy One, blessed be He.’
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SOURCES
† Indicates translators or translations.
I――JEWISH
ABRAHAM ibn EZRA. (1104‒1167). Famous Spanish-Jewish Bible
commentator, traveller and poet. Visited London Jewry in 1158. 284.
ABRAHAMS, Israel. Reader in Talmudic, Cambridge University. ‘Jewish
Life in the Middle Ages.’ 33, 71, 124, 193, 198, 253.
ACHAD HA’AM. See GINZBERG, Asher.
ACHAI (GAON). Eighth century. First rabbinical author after close of
Talmud. ‘Sheeltoth.’ 291.
ADLER, Cyrus. American educationist; Editor of ‘Jewish Quarterly
Review’. 4.
ADLER, Elkan N. Communal worker, traveller, and collector of Hebrew
MSS. ‘Jews in Many Lands.’ 34, †[291].
ADLER, Felix. American educationist of Jewish descent. 328, 344.
ADLER, Hermann. (1839‒1911). Chief Rabbi (1891). ‘Anglo-Jewish
Memories.’ 24, 42, 62, 300.
ADLER, S. Alfred. (1875‒1910). Son of above. ‘The Discipline of
Sorrow.’ 296.
AGUILAR, Grace. (1816‒1847). Anglo-Jewish author. ‘The Vale of
Cedars.’ 3.
ALKABETZ, Solomon Halevi. 16th century, hymn-writer and mystic. 203.
ANTIN, Mary. Russo-American writer. ‘The Promised Land.’ 100, 107.
ARTOM, Benjamin. (1835‒1879). Italian Rabbi. London Haham (1866). 18.
ASHER ben YECHIEL. (1250‒1328). Spanish-Jewish Talmudist. 8.
BAALSHEM, Israel. (1700‒1760). Famous Mystic. Founder of the sect of
Chassidim (Pietists). 226.
BACHYA ibn PAKUDA. 11th century, Spanish-Jewish ethical philosopher.
‘The Duties of the Heart.’ 192, 240, 284.
BENEDICT of OXFORD. (Berechyah Nakdan), 12th-century Anglo-French
fabulist. 280.
BIBLE.
Genesis. 52;
Exodus. 243;
Leviticus. 282, 291;
Deuteronomy. 227;
1 Kings. 47;
Isaiah. 3, 39, 47, 49, 50, 52, 224, 246, 247, 273;
Jeremiah. 53, 270;
Ezekiel. 121, 245;
Joel. 47;
Amos. xvi;
Jonah. 2;
Micah. 273;
Malachi. 48;
Psalms. 188, 192, 211, 227, 270, 316;
Proverbs. 19;
Job. 317;
Lamentations. 88;
Ecclesiastes. 301, 319;
Esther. 264;
Daniel. 200.
BOOK OF MORALS. 15th-century ethical work. 13.
BÜCHLER, A. Jewish scholar; Principal of Jews’ College, London. 72.
BYALIK, Chayim Nachman. Greatest contemporary Hebrew poet. 123.
CARVALHO, David Nunes. (1784‒1860). Lay Reader of Charleston, S.C.,
Synagogue. 194.
COHEN, Julia M. (1862‒1917). Anglo-Jewish communal worker. 13.
CRESCAS, Chasdai. (1340‒1410). Religious philosopher. ‘Or Adonay.’
25.
DAICHES, Salis. Anglo-Jewish Rabbi. 215.
DARMESTETER, James. (1849‒1894). French Orientalist. ‘The Prophets
of Israel.’ 68.
DERECH ERETZ ZUTTA. 8th-century ethical treatise. 301.
DEUTSCH, Emanuel. (1829‒1873). Jewish scholar and Orientalist. ‘The
Talmud.’ 69.
DISRAELI, Benjamin. (1804‒1881). British Prime Minister and novelist.
‘Alroy.’ 38, 201, 252.
D’ISRAELI, Isaac. (1766‒1848). Anglo-Jewish man of letters.
‘Curiosities of Literature.’ 83.
† DRACHMANN, Bernard. American rabbi. 92.
DUBNOW, Simon. Russo-Jewish historian. 30, 75.
DYMOV, Ossip. Russian writer. 101.
ECCLESIASTICUS (Ben Sira). A book of the Apocrypha. 28, 53, 63, 234,
299.
EICHHOLZ, A. English educationist. 128.
ELEAZAR (ROKËACH) of WORMS. 13th century, mystic and hymn-writer.
5, 293.
ELIEZER ben ISAAC. 11th century, ethical writer. 7.
EPHRAIM of BONN. (1133‒1196). Chronicler, poet, and Talmudist. 81.
1 ESDRAS. A book of the Apocrypha. 272.
ETHICS OF THE FATHERS. (Pirke Aboth); treatise of Mishnah, containing
ethical sayings. 19, 281, 290, 292, 300, 316, 318, 344.
† FELDMAN, Asher. Dayan of the United Synagogue. 31, 190.
FELSENTHAL, B. (1822‒1908). American rabbi. 339.
† FRANK, Helena. Translator of Peretz and other Yiddish writers.
109, 123, 230, 255.
FRANKL, L. A. (1810‒1894). Poet and writer. 86.
FRANZOS, Karl Emil. (1848‒1904). Ghetto novelist. ‘The Jews of
Barnow.’ 93.
FRIEDLÄNDER, Israel. (1876‒1920). Bible scholar and historian. 97,
99.
FRIEDLÄNDER, Michael. (1883‒1910). Late Principal of Jews’ College.
‘The Jewish Religion.’ 60.
FUERST, Julius. (1826‒1899). Talmudic lexicographer. 78.
GABIROL, SOLOMON ibn. (1021‒1058). Poet and hymn-writer. Great
philosopher. Known in Middle Ages as Avicebron. ‘The Royal Crown.’
25, 89, 191, 238, 241, 314.
GASTER, Moses. Haham (1887). Folklorist. 74.
GEIGER, Abraham. (1810‒1874). Noted rabbi and Bible critic. ‘Judaism
and its History.’ 32, 64.
GINZBERG, Asher. (Achad Ha’am) Hebrew writer and philosopher.
‘Selected Essays.’ 36, 120, 203.
GOLDSMID. Col. A. E. (1846‒1904). Anglo-Jewish soldier. 40.
GORDON, Judah Leon. (1831‒1892). Hebrew poet. 255.
GOTTHEIL, Gustav. (1827‒1903). American rabbi and hymn-writer. 210,
217, 234, 263.
GRAETZ, Hirsch. (1817‒1891). Famous historian of the Jews. 56, 76.
GREEN, A. A. Anglo-Jewish minister. 315.
HAFFKINE, Waldemar M. C.I.E. Russo-British bacteriologist. 195, 214.
HALEVI, YEHUDAH. (1085‒1140). Physician, religious philosopher, and
greatest post-Biblical Jewish poet. 53, 64, 74, 220, 250, 266, 271.
HARDEN, Maximilian. German journalist of Jewish descent. 126.
HARRIS, M. H. American rabbi. 44.
HEINE, H. (1797‒1856). Great lyric poet and journalist. 57, 66, 82,
329, 342.
HERTZ, J. H. Chief Rabbi (1913). 11, 16, 30, 39, 46, 79, 96, 125,
128, 196, 209, 223, 235, 244, 297.
HERZL, Theodor. (1860‒1904). Founder of the Political Zionist
Movement. 124, 125, 127, 259.
HIRSCH, Emil G. American rabbi. 10.
HIRSCH, Samson R. (1808‒1888). Rabbi and religious philosopher. ‘The
Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel.’ 92, 218.
IMBER, Naphtali H. (1856‒1909). Hebrew poet. ‘Hatikvah.’ 117.
JACOB ben ASHER. Died 1340. Spanish Talmudist, codifier, and Bible
commentator; son of Asher ben Yechiel. ‘Arba Turim.’ 31.
JACOBS, Joseph. (1854‒1916). Folklorist and essayist. ‘Jewish Ideals.’
3, 67, 74, 201, † [280].
† JASTROW, Marcus. (1831‒1903). American rabbi and Talmudic
lexicographer. 25, 240.
JEWISH CHRONICLE. (1841). Anglo-Jewish Weekly. 125.
JELLINEK, A. (1821‒1893). Famous preacher and Jewish bibliographer.
17.
JOSEPH, Morris. Anglo-Jewish minister. ‘Judaism as Creed and Life.’
14, 21, 49, 90, 207, 209, 212, 226, 252, 262, 322, † [5].
JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS. (37‒95 C.E.). Ancient Jewish general, historian,
and apologist. ‘Antiquities of the Jews.’ 27, 77.
JUDAH the PIOUS. Died 1217. Ethical writer and mystic. ‘The Book of
Saints.’ 268.
JUNG, Maier. Chief Minister of Federation of Synagogues, London. 216.
KALIR, ELEAZAR. 8th century, liturgical poet. 229, 251.
KALONYMOS ben YEHUDAH. 12th century, liturgical poet. 80.
KOHLER, Kaufmann. President Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati. 24,
197, 282.
KOHUT, Alexander. (1842‒1894). American rabbi and Talmudic
lexicographer. 45.
KOMPERT, Leopold. (1822‒1866). Ghetto novelist. 199.
LAZARUS, Emma. (1849‒1887). American poetess. 40, 87, 106, 259, 333,
† [241, 314].
LAZARUS, Josephine. (1846‒1895). Sister of above. ‘The Spirit of
Judaism.’ 68, 93.
LAZARUS, Moritz. (1824‒1903). Co-founder of Ethnic Psychology. ‘The
Ethics of Judaism.’ 11.
LEESER, Isaac. (1806‒1868). American preacher and Bible translator.
61, † [218].
LEVI, David. (1816‒1898). Italian Jewish poet. 58.
LEVY, S. Anglo-Jewish minister. 198.
† LOUIS, Minnie D. American communal worker. 86.
LUCAS, Alice. Translator of Mediaeval Jewish poets. ‘The Jewish
Year.’ 41, † [12, 220, 228, 238, 251, 255, 266, 268, 271].
LURIA, ISAAC. (1534‒1572). Great Mystic. Founder of modern Cabala.
339.
1 MACCABEES. Book of the Apocrypha. 257.
MAGNUS, Lady. Author of ‘Outlines of Jewish History.’ 73.
MAIMONIDES, MOSES. (1135‒1204). Great Talmudist, foremost mediaeval
Jewish philosopher, and court-physician. ‘Guide of the Perplexed’;
‘Yad Hachazakah’. 20, 227, 274, 276, 280, 283.
MANASSEH ben ISRAEL. (1604‒1657). Amsterdam rabbi, apologist and
theologian. Obtained the re-admission of the Jews to England under
Cromwell. 91.
MARGOLIS, M. L. Editor-in-chief, new Jewish Bible Version. 22.
MEIR ben ISAAC NEHORAÏ. 11th century, hymn-writer. 213.
MENDELSSOHN, Moses. (1729‒1786). Philosopher and Bible translator;
foremost Jewish figure of 18th century. 26.
MENDES, H. Pereira. American rabbi. 48, 326.
MIDRASH. 3rd to 10th centuries. Rabbinic homilies on the Scriptures.
25, 53.
MOÏSE, Penina. (1797‒1880). American hymn-writer. 225.
MONTEFIORE, C. G. Theologian and lay preacher. ‘Bible for Home
Reading.’ 6, 298.
MORAIS, Sabato. (1823‒1897). Italian-American rabbi. Founder, Jewish
Theological Seminary of America. 13.
MOSES of COUCY. 13th century, Talmudic codifier. 275.
MOSES ben NACHMAN (Nachmanides). (1194‒1270). Talmudist, mystic,
exegete, and apologist. 228.
MOSHEH, R. Date unknown. Mediaeval hymn-writer. 249.
MUNK, Salomon. (1803‒1867). French Orientalist. 122.
NOAH, M. M. (1785‒1851). American journalist and politician. Pioneer
Zionist. 127.
NORDAU, Max. Author and philosopher. Vice-President Zion Congresses.
37, 38.
PENINI, YEDAYA. (1270‒1340). Provençal Jewish poet and philosopher.
301.
PERETZ, Isaac L. (1851‒1915). Yiddish man of letters. 109, 230.
PHILIPSON, D. American preacher. 10.
PHILO JUDAEUS. (20 B.C.‒40 C.E.). Flourished in Alexandria. Renowned
Jewish philosopher. 189, 283, 289.
† POUZZNER, B. L. Translator of ‘The Menorah’. 259.
PRAYER BOOK.
Daily. 47, 192, 205, 212, 284.
Festival. 39, 254.
RASHI (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac of Troyes). (1040‒1105). French Bible
exegete and greatest commentator of Talmud. His commentary on
Pentateuch has never been surpassed in enduring popularity. 63.
RASKIN, P. M. Anglo-Russian poet. 43, 54, 202, 206.
ROSENFELD, Morris. Russian-American Yiddish poet. 213.
ROTHSCHILD, Baron Lionel de. (1808‒1879). Leader of Anglo-Jewish
community. First Jewish M.P. 92.
SAADYAH GAON. (892‒942). President of the Academy at Sura, Babylon;
religious philosopher, exegete, and polemic writer. 127.
SACHER, H. English journalist; Zionist writer. 330.
SALAMAN, Nina Davis. Translator mediaeval Jewish poets. ‘Songs of
Exile.’ 205, † [89, 191, 329, 339].
SCHAFFER, Aaron. Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University. 341.
SCHECHTER, Solomon. (1847‒1915). Theologian, Talmudist, and essayist.
‘Studies in Judaism.’ 15, 23, 33, 37, 60, 119, 127.
SCHINDLER, Kurt. Jewish musical composer. 323.
SHEMTOB, ibn SHEMTOB. 15th-century Spanish philosopher. 67.
SHULCHAN ARUCH. Authoritative code of Rabbinic Judaism by Joseph Caro
(1488‒1575). The ‘COMMENTARY’ is by David ben Samuel (1586‒1667);
and the ‘GLOSS’ by Moses Isserles (1520‒1572). 190.
† SIMON, Leon. Hebraist and Zionist writer. 120.
SINGER, Simeon. (1846‒1906). Anglo-Jewish preacher. 35, 219.
SMOLENSKIN, Peretz. (1842‒1885). Hebrew novelist and journalist.
‘Astray on Life’s Pathways’. 324.
SOKOLOW, Nahum. Hebrew writer and Zionist leader. 331.
† SOLIS-COHEN, Solomon. American physician and writer. 203, 248, 249.
SPINOZA, Benedict. (1632‒1677). Great Dutch-Jewish philosopher. 273.
STEINSCHNEIDER, Moritz. (1816‒1907). Noted Hebrew bibliographer. 79,
93, 326.
SULZBERGER, Mayer. American jurist, bookman, and communal leader. 61.
SZOLD, Henrietta. American Jewish writer and translator. 12, 15.
TALMUD. Body of Jewish law and legend as expounded in the Jewish
Academies of Palestine (200‒375) and of Babylon (200‒500); generic
designation for the whole of early Rabbinic literature. 6, 11, 26,
35, 210, 243, 253, 272, 282, 285, 291, 292, 299, 302‒313, 316.
WIENER, Leo. Professor at Harvard University. Historian of Yiddish
Literature. 98, 333, 341.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON. A book of the Apocrypha. 200, 277, 278.
WOLF, Lucien. Journalist and historian. 106, 124, 334.
YEHUDAH, R. Date unknown. Mediaeval hymn-writer. 248.
YOMTOB of YORK. Hymn-writer, probably suffered martyrdom at York
in 1190. 237.
ZANGWILL, Israel. Novelist and playwright. ‘Children of the Ghetto.’
59, 65, 73, 94, 98, 332, † [117, 229, 237, 254, 323].
ZOHAR. A mystical Commentary on the Pentateuch, probably 1290. 189,
196, 204, 283.
ZUNZ, Leopold. (1794‒1886). Founder of the New Jewish Learning. 76,
93.
II――NON-JEWISH
ABBOTT, Lyman. American preacher and journalist. 131.
ADDISON, Joseph. (1672‒1719). Essayist and poet. 149.
ALEXANDER, C. F. (1818‒1895). Irish poet. 146.
ARNOLD, Matthew. (1822‒1888). Poet and critic. 132.
BALFOUR, A. J. H.M. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 184.
BEAULIEU, Anatole Leroy. French historian. ‘Israel among the
Nations.’ 162, 174.
BIDDLE, G. E. Unitarian writer. 160.
BLAKE, William. (1757‒1827). Poet, mystic, and painter. 130, 173.
† BORROW, GEORGE. (1803‒1881). English traveller. 338.
BOX, Canon G. H. English Hebraist. 159.
CARLYLE, Thomas. (1795‒1881). Essayist, historian, and philosopher.
155.
CORNILL, Carl H. (1854‒1920). Theologian and Bible critic. 131, 147,
152, 335.
† CRAIG, Mary A. Translator of David Levi’s Poems. 58.
DOW, John E. Author of ‘Hebrew and Puritan’. 147.
ELIOT, George (Marian Lewes Cross). (1819‒1880). English novelist.
‘Daniel Deronda.’ 161, 173, 183.
ELLIS, Havelock. British psychologist. 155.
FRAZER, Sir James G. British anthropologist. 138, 336.
FROUDE, James Anthony. (1818‒1894). Historian and essayist. 138, 151,
155.
GEORGE, Henry. (1839‒1897). Political economist and social reformer.
143, 336, 340.
GOETHE, J. W. (1749‒1832). Great German poet and critic. 139, 154.
GORKY, Maxim. Russian man of letters. 158.
GREEN, John R. (1837‒1883). English historian. 171.
HALL, G. Stanley. American psychologist and educationist. 324.
HARNACK, A. Church historian. 137.
HERFORD, R. Travers. Theologian and Rabbinic scholar. ‘Pharisaism.’
159.
HUXLEY, T. H. (1825‒1895). Biologist and religious controversialist.
139, 140, 159.
JEROME, St. (340‒420). Church Father; translated Bible into Latin
(Vulgate Version). 185.
JOWETT, Benjamin. (1817‒1893). Theologian and translator of Plato.
151.
LECKY, William E. H. (1838‒1903). Historian and publicist. 166, 178.
LONGFELLOW, Henry W. (1807‒1882). American poet. 175.
LOTZE, H. (1817‒1881). German idealist philosopher. 134.
MACAULAY, Lord. (1800‒1859). Historian, essayist, and politician.
172.
MILYUKOV, Paul. Russian politician. 178.
MOORE, G. F. American Bible critic. 327.
NIETZSCHE, F. (1844‒1900). German philosopher. 140.
† PLUMPTRE, Dean E. H. (1821‒1891). Anglican divine. 80.
PROTHERO, R. E. Former editor ‘Quarterly Review’. ‘The Psalms in
Human Life.’ 148.
RENAN, Ernest. (1823‒1892). Historian, philosopher, and Orientalist.
133, 141.
RHYS, Ernest. Man of letters. 147.
ROBINSON, A. M. F. (Madame Duclaux). English poet and writer. 157.
ROOSEVELT, Theodore. (1858‒1919). Historian and statesman; President,
U.S.A. 176.
SCHREINER, Olive. South African novelist. 177, 180.
SCOTT, Sir Walter. (1771‒1823). Great novelist and poet. 137, 141.
SORLEY, Charles. (1896‒1915). Student and soldier. 342.
STANLEY, A. P. (1815‒1881). Author of ‘History of the Jewish Church’.
156.
STEVENSON, Robert Louis. (1850‒1894). Essayist and novelist. 138.
STRINDBERG, August. (1849‒1912). Swedish author. 163.
SYKES, Sir Mark. (1879‒1919). British statesman. 183.
TOLSTOY, Leo. (1828‒1910). Russian novelist and social reformer.
135, 179.
TWAIN, Mark (S. L. Clemens). (1835‒1910). American writer. 186.
VOLTAIRE, F. M. A. de. (1694‒1778). French philosopher and man of
letters. 170.
WAGNER, Charles. (1851‒1918). French Protestant divine. 134.
WATTS, Isaac. (1674‒1748). Hymn-writer. 150.
WHITMAN, Walt. (1819‒1892). American poet. 137.
WHITTIER, J. G. (1807‒1892). American poet. 156.
WYCLIF, John. (1320‒1384). Reformer and Bible translator. 140.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS
Ab, Fast of; Hymn for, 220 ff.
Abraham, 23, 52;
and Toleration, 306.
Achad Ha’am, 79.
Acorn, Parable of, 303.
Addir Hu, 210.
ADON OLAM, 190, 193 ff., 338.
Adversity, meeting, 297.
Ahasuerus, 264.
Akabya ben Mahalalel, 292, 300.
Akdomus, 213.
AKIBA, RABBI, 135, 290, 291, 307.
Alexander the Great, 304‒5.
Am-Haaretz, 99.
AMERICA, The Jew in, 44‒5, 95‒6, 176.
Ammon, 128.
Anger, 8, 9.
Animals, kindness to. _See_ Cattle.
Antiochus Epiphanes, 124, 257.
ANTI-SEMITISM, 37‒9, 178‒82; 30, 107, 131, 157, 165, 169, 175, 185,
326;
‘Higher anti-Semitism’, 37, 60;
_See_ Persecution, Suffering, Pogrom.
Antoninus, Emperor, 313.
Apion, 77.
Apostasy, 5, 15.
Aristotle, 193.
Asceticism, 250.
ASSIMILATION, 119‒20.
Assyrians, 223.
Athens, 42, 134, 172.
ATONEMENT, Day of, 160, 226, 235 ff.
Auto-da-fé, 157, 162, 167, 170.
Babylon, 125, 186.
Barcelona, Massacre at, 167.
BARMITZVAH, 18.
Baroka, Rabbi, 302.
Belief, and Duty, 22.
_See_ Faith.
Ben Azzai, 290.
Ben Sira, 325.
Bernard of Clairvaux, 81.
BIBLE, 57‒63, 137‒40;
in England, 42, 171;
Book of the Ages, 59, 75, 137;
Epic of the world, 57, 59, 138, 213;
in Education, 139;
and Democracy, 140, 143, 159;
and Israel, 5, 57‒60, 131, 132, 140, 157, 185, 308, 336;
the interpretation of, 63, 327;
and Literature, 137, 138, 154, 336;
Reverence for, 140.
Versions: English, 61, 62, 171;
Greek, 60, 61;
Jewish, 60‒3.
BLOOD LIBEL, 100, 181.
Body and soul, 20;
parable of, 313.
Bones, Valley of Dry, 121.
Bontzye Shweig, 109 ff.
Book of Life and Death, 226.
Books, Jews’ Love of their, 162.
Britain, 42, 43, 91, 96, 125.
BROTHERHOOD, 244.
_See_ Responsibility.
BROWNING, Robert, quoted 79.
Burden, Sharing the, 25.
Burgos, massacre at, 167.
Caligula, Jews refuse divine honours to, 77.
Cattle, 144, 304, 335.
CEREMONIAL, 23, 216.
_See_ Symbols, Custom.
CHANUKAH, 259, 263.
CHARITY, 31‒3; 7, 27, 286, 288, 306.
Chazan, 161.
Cheder, 37.
CHILDREN, 70;
merit of, 198;
torn from parents in Portugal, 168;
love for, 281.
_Chillul Hashem_, 322.
Christianity and the Jews, 166 ff.
Christians, early, 181.
CITIZEN, Jew as, 173, 183.
_See_ Patriotism.
CITIZENSHIP, British, 96.
Civilization, Jews as Pioneers of, 135, 172, 174.
‘Cleanliness next to godliness’, 282.
Columbus, 86.
Commentaries, of a nation, 157.
CONDUCT, Rules of, 7‒9, 19‒21, 292.
‘Confession’ by Gabirol, 238.
Consciousness, Jewish, 119.
Conversion of Jews, 107, 168, 178.
_See_ Proselyte.
Cordova, massacre at, 167.
‘Corpses, Last in the desert’, 123.
Counsel, good. _See_ Conduct, Jewish.
Courage of the Jew, 5, 106.
Courtesy, 8, 9.
Cradle song, 12.
CREED, Jewish, 22, 23.
_See_ Belief, Faith.
Crescent and Cross, 166.
Crucifixion, 170.
CRUSADES, 163.
First Crusade, 80;
Second Crusade, 81.
CULTURE, What is? 16.
Custom in Religion, 217.
_See_ Ceremonial.
Cyrillus, 174.
Cyrus, 125, 126.
Dante, 341.
David, 147.
DEATH, 240‒2 and 298‒301; 160, 285 ff., 309 ff., 344.
_See_ Kaddish.
Dedication. _See_ Chanucah.
Deeds, the Best Commendation, 292, 303.
Deluge of Fire, Legend of, 46.
DEMOCRACY and Bible, 140, 143.
Deronda, Daniel, 161, 173.
Destiny. _See_ Free-will.
Dietary Laws, 212.
Dogmas, Judaism and, 24, 25.
East End of London, Jew of, 177.
Ecclesiastes, 155.
Eden, Gates of, 326.
Edom, 128.
EDUCATION, Religious, 13, 324.
_See also_ Bible, Law, Torah.
Egypt, 135, 186;
and Israel, 143;
drowning Egyptians, 210.
Eleazar ben Azaryah, 19.
Elizabeth, Queen, 171.
EMANCIPATION OF JEW, 35‒6, 92‒3;
Macaulay on, 172.
Enemy, Love of, 8.
ENGLAND, 41‒3; 94, 96; 125, 130;
Elizabethan, 16, 171;
resettlement of Jews in, 91;
and Zionism, 125.
ESTHER, 156, 264 ff.
Eternity, Jew the emblem of, 136;
Time and, 301.
ETHICS, Jewish, 5, 7‒9, 32, 293‒5.
Evening Prayer. _See_ Prayer.
Evil inclination, 5, 22.
Exile, 37.
Exodus, the. _See_ Passover;
from Spain. _See_ Spain.
Ezra, 125.
FAITH, 219; 3, 342.
Family. _See_ Home.
‘Famous Men, Let us now praise’, 28.
FATHERS, Merit of, 198.
Fight for religion, 5, 262.
Fire, Deluge of, 46.
Fishes, Akiba’s Parable of, 307.
Forgiveness, 39, 234, 237, 249.
Folk-song, Russian-Jewish, 323.
FREEDOM, 143, 144; 42, 340.
Feast of. _See_ Passover.
FREE-WILL, 276; 226, 235‒6, 290.
Gabiha, 286.
Gates of Eden, legend of, 326.
GHETTO, 10, 157, 174;
in London, 177;
in New York, 341.
‘Glory, Hymn of’, 268.
GOD, 193‒7;
and man, 70, 228, 283, 290;
Kingship of, 120, 228‒9;
love of, 25, 243;
the fear of, 5, 6, 13, 20, 234, 287;
trust in, 50;
servant of, 266‒7;
work of, 274.
Godliness, 282.
Good and evil, 274.
Good inclination, 5, 243.
Gratitude, 289.
GREECE, 133; 16, 186.
Greeks and Jews, 64, 68.
Gulf Stream, comparison to, 44.
Hadrian, 179, 223.
Haham of York, 84.
Halevi, Heine on, 342.
Haman, 264.
Hanina ben Dosa, 19, 292.
Hannah and her seven Sons, 256.
HARVEST FESTIVAL, 252.
Health, preservation of, 20.
‘Hebrew, I am an’, 4.
HEBREW LANGUAGE, 13‒16, 141, 324;
in public worship, 14;
key to Israel’s treasures, 15, 119;
a holy language, 16.
Hellenism, 4.
_See_ Greece, Greeks.
Hellenistic Judaism, 15.
HEREDITY, Obligations of, 30.
HERITAGE, Israel’s, 27.
Hero, the true, 288.
Herzl, 334.
HILLEL, 290‒1; 158, 218.
HISTORY, JEWISH, 73 ff.;
importance of Jewish, 75, 128.
HOLINESS, 282; 134, 201.
HOME, Jewish, 10 ff., 177, 202, 339, 341.
Homer, 137.
Honour, 30, 292.
HUMANITY, a united, 48, 49;
and Israel, 68, 131;
and Prophets, 67, 68, 151, 328;
protection of, aim of Jewish Law, 144, 335.
_See_ Messianic Hope.
Humility, 284; 192, 248, 281, 287, 293.
Ibsen, 98.
Idolatry, 8, 23, 291.
Immorality, cardinal sin of, 291;
purity of life, thought, and action, 282.
IMMORTALITY, 300, 301, 316; 286, 344;
shared by righteous of all faiths, 26;
of Israel. _See_ Israel.
INQUISITION, 167.
Intermarriage, 322.
Ishmael Rabbi, 253.
ISRAEL, antiquity of, 174;
brotherhood of, 196, 244‒5;
and Greece, 64, 133‒4;
heart of mankind, 74;
and humanity, 3, 16, 67, 68, 128, 131, 135;
immortality of, 52 ff., 120‒1, 128, 136, 185‒6, 340;
loyalty of, 308;
martyrdom of, 5, 39, 54‒5, 76, 82, 97, 106, 168;
mission of, 3, 4, 23, 24, 48, 65, 120, 128, 131‒2, 135, 207 ff.;
and the nations, 133, 134, 186;
people of revelation, 64, 132;
preservation of, 3, 4, 11, 22, 28, 119, 120, 340;
St. Jerome on preservation of, 185;
and Rome, 77 ff., 133‒4;
and the Sabbath, 203;
and the Torah, 64, 307;
and Woman, 10, 11;
witnesses of God, 3.
ISRAELITE, responsibility of each, 6, 30, 35, 244, 322.
Ivan the Terrible, 178.
JACOB, RABBI, 316.
Jeremiah and Jewish patriotism, 90.
JERUSALEM, 134, 185, 223;
the ‘Old People’s Rest’ at, 34.
JEW, What is a? 135; 21;
and Bible, 56‒64;
the misunderstood of history, 65, 326;
and Greek, 66;
heroism of, 66, 78, 79;
and scholarship, 99;
and non-Jew, 9, 25, 26;
as citizen, 176;
of East London, 177;
duty of every, 3, 4, 35.
_See_ Israel, History, Patriotism, Learning, &c.
Jewels, story of, 305.
Jewish question, 93.
Job, Book of, 155.
Johanan ben Zakkai, 218, 287.
JONAH, Book of, 152 ff.
Jordan, The Watch on the, 177.
JOY, Religious aspect of, 250, 252 ff., 302.
Judah the Prince, 292, 313.
JUDAISM, 21, 23, 24, 65;
a life, 21, 92;
its obligations, 21;
original truth of, 25, 197;
and daughter religions, 79;
and the times, 218‒9;
and original sin, 197;
and peace, 48‒9;
connected with Jewish nation, 24;
a positive religion, 23;
revival of, 119;
consciousness of, 259‒61.
_See_ Israel, Mission;
dogmas of, _see_ Dogma.
Judea, New, 128.
Justice, sacredness of, 32, 93, 133, 134, 328;
faith and, 342.
KADDISH, 160, 199 ff.
_Kiddush Hashem_, 282, 322.
Kieff, Blood Libel in, 181.
Koran, 137.
Lamdan, 99.
Language, Hebrew. _See_ Hebrew.
LAW, JEWISH, and humanity, 69, 144, 335;
study of, 5, 293;
and Israel’s immortality, 128.
_See_ Torah.
Law of Nations, 46.
Lazarus, Emma, Lucien Wolf on, 334.
LEARNING, Israel and, 162, 169, 177.
_See_ Torah.
Lecha Dodi, 203.
LEGENDS, Talmudic, 302 ff.
Liberty, and the Jew, 135, 209, 285.
LIFE, Paths of, 7 ff.;
the right, 273;
the dedicated, 289;
consists of deeds, not years, 303, 344;
life and death, 310, 344.
Light in darkness, 298.
Light, Sabbath, 201, 339;
kindling the, 202.
Lisbon, Auto-da-fé, 170.
LITERATURE, Jewish, 61, 71, 336;
classic, and the prophets, 68.
LITURGY, superiority of Jewish, 160;
George Eliot on Jewish, 161;
and prayers for the Dying, 160;
poetry and, 140.
_See_ Prayer.
Litvack, 230.
London, the Jew of East, 177.
LOVE, of God, 20, 25, 212;
to our neighbour, 39.
Loyalty to faith and country, 40‒1.
_See_ Patriotism.
Lulav, 251.
Maccabaeus, Judas, 223.
MACCABEES, 124, 218, 257 ff., 262.
Mahomet, 57.
MAN, What is? 314;
half angel, half brute, 275;
and God, 290, 318, 319;
and Nature, 328;
his descent and destiny, 197, 300;
his three friends, 311;
his work for future, 303;
Jewish great men, 74.
Manasseh ben Israel, 73.
Manners, good. _See_ Conduct.
Marriage, 8, 11, 322.
Martinez, Hernando, 167.
MARTYRDOM, Jewish, 76, 82, 168.
Mattathias, 257.
Mediation between man and God. _See_ God.
Meekness. _See_ Humility.
Meir, Rabbi, 308‒9.
MENORAH, 259 ff.
Merciful God. _See_ God.
Merit of the Children, 198.
MERIT OF THE FATHERS, 198.
MESSIANIC HOPE, 23, 48, 49.
Methodius, 174.
Middle Ages, Jew of. _See_ Jew.
Mishnah. _See_ Talmud.
Mission of Israel. _See_ Israel, Messianic Hope, Zionism.
Missionaries, Christian in China, 181.
Mitzvah, 216.
_See_ Ceremonial.
Moab, 128.
Modin, 257.
Money, 306, 311.
Monobaz, King, 306.
MONOTHEISM, 28, 196, 197.
Moors of Spain, 166 ff.
Moral Foundations, 151.
Mordecai, 264 ff.
MOSES, 35, 120, 143 ff., 146, 289;
and Israel, 64‒6;
and Art, 66.
Mother, The Jewish. _See_ Woman.
Murder, 291.
Myrtles, Palms and, 251.
Nation, Jewish. _See_ Zionism.
National consciousness. _See_ Consciousness, Jewish.
Nationalism, and the Torah, 127.
NATIONS, Israel and the, 130 ff., 186.
Nature and Man, 328.
Nazarenes, 159.
Neighbour, love of, 291.
Nemirov, Rabbi of, 230, 342.
New Moon, 205.
Newport, Hebrew Congregation and George Washington, 95;
Hebrew cemetery at, 175.
NEW YEAR FESTIVAL, 226 ff.
Nicholas, Czar, 107‒8.
Nineveh, repentance of the men of, 152.
NOBLESSE OBLIGE, 30.
NON-JEWS AND FUTURE LIFE, 26.
Norwegian and Yiddish, 98.
Original Sin, 197.
Original Virtue, 198.
Orscha, massacre at, 330.
PAIN, the Mystery of, 296;
a discipline, 296, 297, 344.
PALESTINE, as a Jewish National Home, 184;
the British Declaration on, 125 ff.;
restoration to, 120.
Palm-Branch, 251.
Pantheism, 23.
Pappus and Rabbi Akiba, 307.
Parables and legends, Talmudic, 302 ff.
Parents, duties towards, 19.
PASSOVER, 163, 207 ff.;
in Old Russia, 100;
and liberty, 285, 340;
the Seder, 206‒7.
Paths of Life, 7 ff.
PATRIOTISM, 35, 40‒1, 183.
_See_ Citizen, Jew as.
Peace and Judaism, 48‒9.
People of the Book, 57.
Peloponnesian War, 42.
PENTECOST, 211 ff.
Pericles, 42.
PERSECUTION, 97, 166‒70, 178‒80, 285, 340.
_See_ Pogrom, Israel.
Persians, 186.
Peter the Hermit, 164.
PHARISEES, 159.
Philo on Prayer, 189.
Pleasure, worldly, 312.
_See_ Asceticism, Joy.
Pluralism, 23.
Poets, Poetry, 147;
folk-song, 323.
POGROM in Russia, 100‒5, 330.
_See_ Persecution.
Polytheism, 4.
POOR, 33, 140, 288;
Jewish, 33, 177.
Popes, repudiate Blood Libel, 181.
Portugal and the Jews, 90, 166 ff.
Posterity, duty to, 303.
Praise of God’s works, 189.
PRAYER, 160, 161, 189 ff.;
Philo on, 189;
and Tears, 285.
_See_ Liturgy.
Preservation of Israel. _See_ Israel.
Pride, 281, 285.
PROPHETS, the Hebrew, 67‒8, 151, 328.
Proselytes, 26, 27, 136.
_See_ Conversion.
Providence, 3.
PSALMS, The, 147 ff.
PURIM, 264‒5.
Quakers, 181.
RABBIS, Work of the, 69‒72.
Rashi, 327.
Rebecca (Ivanhoe), 141.
Redeemer, God as, 39, 193.
REJOICING OF THE LAW, 254 ff.
RELIGION, 13, 282;
and morality, 215;
and Education, 13, 324;
custom in, 217;
fight for, 262;
and science, 195;
and Zionism, 127‒8.
REPENTANCE, 5, 22, 226, 243, 278, 288.
Resignation, 308‒9, 315. RESPONSIBILITY, Jewish, 6, 30, 35, 244, 322.
Resurrection, 286.
_See_ Immortality.
Revelation and Israel, 64, 132, 336.
Revival, Israel’s, 122.
_See_ Israel.
Richard I, and the Jews, 83.
RIGHTEOUSNESS, 67 ff., 134, 328.
Romanoffs, Under the, 106.
ROME AND ISRAEL, 4, 77 ff., 133‒4, 186, 223.
Rousseau, 173.
RUSSIA, Jew of, 97, 99, 100, 101 ff., 178‒80, 323, 330 ff.;
Olive Schreiner on the, 177.
SABBATH, 12, 27, 144, 201 ff., 339.
Sage, Jewish, 34.
Saintliness. _See_ Holiness.
Salvation, secured by conduct, 25.
SCHOLARSHIP, Jewish, 162; 16, 17, 99.
Science and Judaism, 195.
Scripture, interpretations, 63.
_See_ Bible.
Scroll of the Law, 214.
SEDER, the, 206, 163.
Self-denial. _See_ Dietary Laws.
Selfishness, 158, 290.
Self-reliance, 158, 290.
SELF-RESPECT, Jewish, 36.
Selichoth, 230.
Sepher Torah, 214.
Servant of God, 266, 285.
Service of God, joyous, 253;
the morning, 190‒1.
Service of Synagogue. _See_ Liturgy, Synagogue, Prayer.
Shakespeare, 90.
Shame, 287.
Shammai, 253.
SHEMA, 24, 196.
Ships, Parable of the two, 310.
Shofar, 227.
SHYLOCK, 90.
Sick, visiting the, 7.
SIMCHAS TORAH, 254 ff.
SIN, 235, 282;
Original Sin, 197.
Sincerity, 295.
Slaughtering, Ritual, of Animals, 178.
SLAVERY, Spiritual, 36, 79, 123.
Social Justice, 133, 134.
SOLDIER, THE JEWISH, 41.
Song of the Three Children quoted, 165.
Soul, 20, 197, 240;
Soul and body, 313.
South Africa and the Russian Jew, 177.
SPAIN, Expulsion from, 86‒8, 166‒9.
Speech, 20.
Spiritualism, the real, 198.
STUDENT, the Jewish, 17, 162.
Superstition, 10.
Symbols. _See_ Ceremonies.
Sympathy, 32.
SYNAGOGUE, the, 14, 161 ff.
_See_ Prayer, Liturgy.
TABERNACLES, 250 ff.
TALMUD, 69 ff.;
sayings from, 285 ff.;
parables and legends, 6, 302 ff.;
study of, 17, 34;
burning of the, 156, 162.
_See_ Index of Sources.
Tarphon, Rabbi, 318.
Temple, 172, 185, 218, 291.
TEN COMMANDMENTS, 215.
Tephillin, 216, 341.
TIME AND ETERNITY, 301.
Times, Judaism and the, 218.
Toledo, massacre at, 167.
TOLERANCE, 25 ff., 136, 160, 306;
Jew, emblem of, 136, 306.
TORAH, meaning of, 17;
student of, 17;
and Israel, 127, 128, 307.
_See_ Law, Bible.
TORAH, SEPHER, 214.
Torquemada, 166;
a new, 179.
Tragedy of Assimilation, 119.
Transcendentalism of God, 193.
TREASURES, earthly, 304;
heavenly, 306.
Trust in God, 50, 204, 239.
TRUTH, 8, 20, 272, 284.
UKRAINE, multi-massacres in, 331.
Uprightness, 20.
UNITY OF GOD. _See_ God, Shema.
UNIVERSALISM, Jewish, 25, 26, 69, 158, 210, 306.
Valentia, massacre at, 167.
Versions of the Bible. _See_ Bible.
Vedas, 137.
‘Veteran of History’, 30.
Virtue, Original, 198.
Voltaire, 173.
WAR, the Great, 46, 47.
War Graves Commission, 325.
Warrior, Jew as, 41.
WASHINGTON, George, and the Jews, 95‒6.
WATCH ON THE JORDAN, 117.
WEEKS, FEAST OF. _See_ Pentecost.
White Garments on Day of Atonement, 236.
WICKED, thoughts of, 277;
repentance of, 278.
Widow, duty to, 8.
Wife. _See_ Woman.
WILL, freedom of, 276, 328.
WISDOM, 19, 158, 270, 281, 284;
true, 317;
the wise and foolish, 280‒1.
Witness, Israel as. _See_ Israel.
WOMAN, Jewish, 8, 10‒12.
Words, ill, 8, 9;
multiplying, 20.
Work, 20, 318.
Works, good, 311.
Worship, Public. _See_ Liturgy, Synagogue.
Yahrzeit, 199.
YIDDISH, 98;
Cradle song, 12;
folk-song, 323;
literature, 333.
Yogi, Jewish, 34.
YOM KIPPUR. _See_ Atonement, Day of.
YORK, Jews of, 83‒5.
Youth, its opportunities, 5;
its obligations, 18‒21.
Zechut Abot. _See_ Original Virtue.
ZEDAKAH, 31, 32.
_See_ Justice, Charity.
Zerubbabel, 124.
ZION, Halevi’s Ode to, 220.
ZIONISM, 117‒28, 183, 184, 334;
and religion, 127‒8.
Zohar, 34.
Zunz, 35.
PRINTED AT OXFORD, ENGLAND
BY FREDERICK HALL,
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
Footnotes.
1 – Cf. p. 141.
2 – The Greek-speaking Jewish communities of antiquity, especially
Alexandria, Egypt.
3 – The word Torah has various meanings――the Pentateuch, the
Bible, the Talmud, as well as the whole body of religious
study and practice.
4 – In use in English Sephardi Congregations on the occasion of a
lad reaching the age of thirteen――his religious majority (Bar
Mitzvah).
5 – Lived about 10 B.C.E.‒90 C.E. See p. 292.
6 – Lived first century; President of the Academy at Yabneh.
7 – From _The Jewish Encyclopedia_, ‘Judaism’ (London and New York:
Funk & Wagnalls).
8 – In the first century, large numbers of non-Jews throughout the
Roman world became proselytes to Judaism.
9 – In Hebrew there is only one word, _Zedakah_, for both Charity
and Justice. Charity to the poor is thus merely justice to the
poor.
10 – From _Sermons_ (London: Geo. Routledge & Sons).
11 – School, usually for religious instruction only.
12 – From _Anglo-Jewish Memories_ (London: Geo. Routledge & Sons).
13 – From _Songs of a Wanderer_ (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication
Society).
14 – Cf. p. 214.
15 – Cf. pp. 137‒140.
16 – Name for Synagogue liturgical poet.
17 – The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation, with the aid of
previous versions and with constant consultation of Jewish
Authorities. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.
18 – From ‘The Position of Judaism’, _North American Review_,
April, 1895.
19 – Cf. p. 143.
20 – Cf. p. 151‒4.
21 – Cf. p. 157.
22 – Cf. p. 159.
23 – Only the sudden death of the deranged emperor saved the
defenceless population from fearful massacre.
24 – The Jewish communities in the Rhine region were then
decimated by massacre or by self-immolation in order to
escape baptism.
25 – Term for ‘rabbi’ among Sephardi Jews.
26 – On the day following the expulsion, Columbus set sail for
the discovery of America.
27 – Poetic name for Israel.
28 – ‘Ishmael’ and ‘Persia’ stand for Mohammedan and Christian
Powers respectively.
29 – From _Blind Children_ (London: Heinemann).
30 – One of the oldest Jewish congregations on the North American
continent; founded in 1658.
31 – From _History of the Jews in Poland and Russia_ (London:
G. P. Putnam’s Sons).
32 – From _The Jewish World_, London.
33 – From _The Promised Land_ (London: Heinemann).
34 – From _The Promised Land_ (London: Heinemann).
35 – From _Stories and Pictures_ (Jewish Publication Society,
Philadelphia).
36 – From _Children of the Ghetto_ (London: Heinemann).
37 – See p. 184.
38 – From _History of the People of Israel_ (London: Chapman
& Hall).
39 – See p. 290.
40 – Cf. pp. 57‒63.
41 – From _Passages of the Bible Chosen for their Literary Beauty_
(London: A. & C. Black).
42 – The Works of T. H. Huxley (London: Macmillan & Co.).
43 – Cf. p. 66.
44 – Cf. pp. 67 and 68.
45 – The Book of Jonah, together with Isaiah 58, is the prophetical
Lesson for the Day of Atonement.
46 – From _History of the Jewish Church_ (London: John Murray).
47 – Cf. p. 69.
48 – See p. 290 for the exact wording of Hillel’s saying.
49 – Cf. p. 72.
50 – See p. 268.
51 – Authorized Prayer Book, p. 317.
52 – From _Daniel Deronda_ (London: William Blackwood & Sons).
53 – From _Israel Among the Nations_ (London: Heinemann).
54 – From _Historical Miniatures_ (London: George Allen & Unwin).
55 – A book in the Apocrypha.
56 – From _History of Rationalism in Europe_ (London: Longmans,
Green & Co.).
57 – From _A Short History of the English People_ (London:
Macmillan & Co.).
58 – See foot-note, p. 95. In consequence of the American
Revolution, the congregation became extinct. No Jew lived
in Newport when this poem was written.
59 – Cp. pp. 97‒108.
60 – From _Democracy and Liberty_ (London: Longmans, Green & Co.).
61 – Cp. p. 125.
62 – From _The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg_ (London: Chatto
& Windus).
63 – Authorized Prayer Book, p. 3.
64 – From _Songs of a Jew_ (London: Geo. Routledge & Sons).
65 – _Scroll of the Law._
66 – Plural of _Mitzvah_, a ritual precept or ceremonial law.
_Mitzvah_ also means ‘a good deed’.
67 – See p. 290.
68 – Johanan ben Zakkai, pupil of Hillel and leader of Israel after
the Destruction of Jerusalem (70 C.E.). He rescued Judaism by
founding the Academy at Jabneh.
69 – From _Service of the Synagogue_ (George Routledge & Sons).
70 – Term for ‘rabbi’ among the Chassidim or Pietists of Eastern
Europe.
71 – Penitential Prayers before New Year and Atonement Day.
72 – Temporary group of worshippers; also term for the quorum of
ten males required for public worship; see p. 6, last line.
73 – From _Service of the Synagogue_ (Geo. Routledge & Sons).
74 – Reading Desk, usually in the centre of the Synagogue.
75 – From _Service of the Synagogue_ (George Routledge & Sons).
76 – ‘Your health!’
77 – See 2 Maccabees for the story of the martyr mother and her
seven sons.
78 – Cf. p. 156.
79 – In _The Jewish Encyclopedia_, ‘Holiness’ (London and New York:
Funk & Wagnalls).
80 – See foot-note p. 218.
81 – Greatest of Mishna teachers; mystic, warrior, and martyr
(132 C.E.).
82 – Companion of Akiba; declared the brotherhood of man to be the
fundamental principle of religion.
83 – Most renowned of the Rabbis; born in Babylon about one hundred
years before the Destruction of the Temple (70 C.E.).
84 – Died in the middle of the first century.
85 – Lived 135‒220; ‘Patriarch’ and editor of the Mishna.
86 – Mishna teacher of the 2nd century.
87 – Mishna teacher of the 2nd century.
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Punctuation has been standardized.
This book was written in a period when many words had not become
standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling
variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. These have
been left unchanged unless indicated below.
Index references have not been checked for accuracy.
Changes made
Page 112:
Sentence starting: And through the rushing....
– ‘speakly’ replaced with ‘speaking’
(speaking sweetly as a violin.)
Page 218:
Sentence starting: When the Temple at Jerusalem....
– ‘Wordly’ replaced with ‘Worldly’
(when Worldly Wisdom would)
Page 237:
Sentence starting: Israel appears before God....
– ‘Atonenent’ replaced with ‘Atonement’
(on the Atonement Day)
Page 325:
Sentence starting: 36. Achad Ha’am:...
– ‘Ahad’ replaced with ‘Achad’
(Achad Ha’am:)
Page 359:
Sentence starting: Bontzye Shweig,...
– ‘169’ replaced with ‘109’
(Bontzye Shweig, 109 ff.)
Page 361:
Sentence starting: ....
– ‘Azariah’ replaced with ‘Azaryah’
(Eleazar ben Azaryah, 19.)
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "A Book of Jewish Thoughts" ***
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