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, Iam an Hebrew; and Ifear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. JONAH1.8,9.
?????? ????? YE ARE MY WITNESSES YE are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom Ihave chosen. ISAIAH43.10.
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. Ifind 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 Iplace little dependence; test it where Iwill 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 Iwilling to remain a link in the great chain. What has been preserved for four thousand years was not saved that Ishould 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. Afierce 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, 15thcent.
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 TONGUE1 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 Judaism2 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? Ifear 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 TORAH3 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, ‘Iwill 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 PRAYER4 O MY God, and God of My Fathers, On this solemn and sacred day, which marketh my passage from boyhood to manhood, Ihumbly venture to raise my eyes unto Thee, and to declare with sincerity and truth that henceforth Iwill observe all Thy commandments, and undertake to bear the responsibility of all mine actions towards Thee. In my earliest infancy Iwas brought within Thy sacred covenant with Israel, and to-day Iagain enter as an active responsible member the pale of Thine elect congregation, in the midst of which Iwill never cease to glorify Thy holy name in the face of all nations. Do Thou, OHeavenly 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 Imay 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 Imay with fortitude observe Thy holy Law and those precepts on which human happiness and eternal life depend. Thus Iwill every day of my life trustfully and gladly proclaim: ‘Hear, OIsrael, 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 Hanina5, 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 Eleazar6, 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. Ihave 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 AMAN AJEW? 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 Iventure 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 ???, 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 Judaism7 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 Ido not try to make converts, has, Imust 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, Iam 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; Igo early to my work, and he to his; he does not boast of his labour nor Iof mine, and if thou wouldst say, ‘Iaccomplish 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 Iam 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.
ZEDAKAH9?—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 Ihave 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 Igive 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.) ‘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, ‘Iwill 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, Iwill 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, Iwill neglect my duty. Who can know whether Ibear 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.
‘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 Iused to come home from the Cheder11, 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 Iemigrated from Roumania to so-called civilized countries, and found there what Imight 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. ISAIAH54.17.
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. Asimilar 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, OMother 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 BRITAIN12 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 INAMERICA
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 Isay, as Isaid 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. JOEL4. 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. ISAIAH2. 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 KINGS19. 11, 12.
HEAL us, OLord, 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 FOREVER 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, OLord, have we waited for Thee; to Thy name and to Thy memorial is the desire of our soul. With my soul have Idesired Thee in the night; Yea, with my spirit within me will Iseek 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.
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