The days of religious wars have gone. The Inquisition is dead and theocracy is dying even at Tibet. The modern man, be he Gentile or Jew, no longer thinks more theologico as in the Middle Ages, but rather more sociologico. The time when a given religious dogma, a categorical philosophic principle, or some definite spiritual force was the driving power in history is far gone. Law and order in our political and social life are not derived from books and principles, but from life itself. Any attempt to return to the status quo ante 1789, is an assault on modern civilization, an attempt to re-establish theocracy in its various forms. In the life of our own people the process of secularization is going on with the same rapidity as in the life of any other nation. Within five decades we have created a secular literature in Hebrew as well as in the other languages spoken by Jews, and all the forms It often happened that during the process of adaptation, Jews lost their way and became separated from their people, but the bulk of the nation has passed through the crisis caused by the process of transition and made itself at home in the new conditions without disintegration. Though fanatics have profaned the tombstone of Maimonides by writing on it: "Infidel and Heretic," Judaism ratified the peace which Maimonides concluded in its behalf with Aristotelianism. All the hue and cry against Maimonides was in the end of no avail, because at that time the deed of Maimonides was a step forward towards progress. At a time when the Roman Cath In short, Judaism has never resisted real progress and has always known how to make peace with the tendencies and currents of the time without weakening its own position. As it has reconciled itself to new conditions in the past so today it is making peace with the tendencies of our own time. Separation of state from church and the overthrow of theocracy and secularization of life are strong currents in our contemporaneous history. In the life of our people, these tendencies of the time have taken the form of nationalism and Zionism. Neither mean alienation from the religion of our ancestors, as many misled rabbis argue, but only imply that the Jewish religion has a definite place in Jewish life, but cannot and should not rule our lives altogether. This is a general human tendency which we should not and ought not oppose; unfortunately, there are leading Jews who deem it their duty to resist the forces of progress and to display medievalism at the expense of With regard to the philosophy of Judaism as represented by old-fashioned Reform, it Reform Judaism of today is surely not the Judaism of the year 1700 or 1500. It is a modern Judaism adapted to modern life. The same Jews, who are arguing that we cannot Either Judaism cannot undergo a change and must remain what it always was—and then reform is unjustifiable—or Judaism can adapt itself to modern life and make peace with the tendencies of the time—and then why stick to the fictitious supremacy of the spiritual side of Judaism? No less contradictory and confusing is the philosophy of the other school of thought that preaches spiritual nationalism as the only solution of the Jewish question. If spiritualism is no longer the prime factor in life, and if it is no longer in a position to maintain its hold on the peoples of the earth as it did in Did Mecca, the centre of Mohamedan spiritualism, prevent the conquest of Egypt, Morocco, Tunis and Tripoli by the Christian nations? (And Mecca is the spiritual centre not of a people of fourteen but of a religious community of two hundred millions.) Despite Mecca and despite the pan-Islamic movement, the holy war proclaimed by the Caliph two years ago was a failure. Instead of a united Islam we have today an independent Mecca, an Egypt that is loyal to England, and an Algeria and a Morocco that are loyal to France. If Mecca could not contain Islam politically and could not save the Islamitic nations from being conquered, how could a much smaller Jewish spiritual centre in Palestine save the Jewish people politically and nationally? This is the question which we would like to submit to these "spiritual" nationalists. These Neo-Ahad-Ha'amists are by no means better than the adherents of old-fashioned Re |