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The essentials of liberal Judaism Mattuck, Israel I. TSBIBLIOTHEK TUBINGEN § “ UNIVERSIT N P LI 5 & O Vs LLI O der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM by ISRAEL L MATTUCI, AN, D.IL 1, Rabbz, Liberal Fewish Synagogue LONDON LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LTD. BROADWAY HOUSE, 68-74 CARTER LANE, E.C. First Publi&hed, 1947 TO THE MEMORY OF CLAUDE GOLDSMID MONTEFIORE T T FO0 This book 1s produced in complete conformity with the authorized economy standards PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY J. W. ARROWSMITH LTD., QUAY STREET AND SMALL STREET, BRISTOL. CHAPTER I IT ITI 1V v V1 VII VIII IX XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE CONCEPTION OF GOD IN JUDAISM THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD GROUNDS FOR THE BELIEF IN GoD Gop AND THE UNIVERSE THE ProBLEM OF EvVIL Gop aND ManN . THE GUIDANCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY Gobp’s GUIDANCE IN THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS . PRAYER : A SIN, REPENTANCE AND ATONEMENT Tue WorsHIP oF GoD JupaisM AND THE SociAL ORDER THE MEssiaNic IDeEa THE MissioN oF ISRAEL LiBERAL JupAisM AND ORTHODOX ]UDAISM DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY THE HoLy DAvys " WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A JEW APPENDIX : JEWISH LITERATURE THE BIBLE . THE TALMUD THE JEWISH APOCRYPHA . Post-TALMUDIC JEWISH LITERATURE. TuE TRrRADITIONAL PRAYER BOOK JEwWISH SECTS . PAGE vii 10 19 29 40 48 57 68 79 84 94 104 115 121 128 141 152 163 171 173 176 177 181 182 INTRODUCTION THIS book is based on the lessons which for a number of years have been used in preparing candidates for Confirma- tion; it aims to present simply, but I hope not too meagrely, the teachings and practices of Judaism as they are presented in Liberal Judaism. Following the late Dr. Claude G. Montefiore, I call this presentation Liberal Judaism; it has been called Reform Judaism in some places. In recent years the name Progressive Judaism has come into use for it, chiefly under the influence of the name, World Union for Progressive Judaism, adopted for the international organisation which was established at a Con- ference held in London in 1926 of representatives of the Liberal Jewish organisations in Germany, the United States and England. The fundamental ideas of Liberal Judaism are also accepted by implication, if not explicitly, by some congregations which call themselves Conservative. A religion has three related parts: ideas, observances and directions for conduct. It is a system of thought, a form of worship and a way of life. It offers a faith, a discipline and an ethic. This book deals with these three elements in Judaism as it is interpreted by, and presented in, Liberal Judaism. Any attempt to expound the ideas of Judaism is con- fronted with an initial difficulty. Where shall we find them? There is no creed in Judaism as in other religions. A creed is an official statement of the beliefs of a religion which all its adherents must accept, like the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church. There is nothing like it in Judaism. In the Orthodox Jewish Prayer Book, a creed of thirteen articles is usually included, which was drawn up by the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides. It has, however, no official authority. Some Jewish religious leaders in Maimonides’ own time, and after him, objected to it. Judaism has definite ideas; but it has no dogmas, that is, authoritative statements of beliefs, which must always remain the same. How, then, shall we know what its essentials are? vii N Vil INTRODUCTION Liberal Judaism answers that they are to be sought in the Bible, Talmud, Prayer Book, and, in fact, in all Jewish religious literature. I have, therefore, put brief accounts of them in an appendix. But Liberal Judaism is concerned not only with the ‘question, Where shall we find the teachings of Judaism, but also with the question, How shall we find them? It is the fundamental principle of Liberal Judaism that Judaism is a developing religion. There is no book, therefore, or set of books, which must be treated as the authority for Judaism, in the sense that what they say must for all time be accepted as Jewish belief and the observances they command must for all time be followed as Jewish practice. It gives a very important place to the instruction derived from the Bible and Talmud, but it does not maintain that we have to accept all the ideas or observe all the practices which are in them. Later developments in thought and life have also to be taken into account. To find the teachings of Judaism, then, the ideas handed down in the Jewish tradition, embodied in Jewish religious literature, chiefly in the Bible and Talmud, must be combined with modern thought. By combining Jewish tradition with modern thought, Liberal Judaism finds the fundamental permanent ideas of Judaism and the way to express them. Similarly, it finds direction for Jewish observances by combining Jewish tradition with the thought, and relating it to the life, of Jews to-day. Following most of the Prophets, however, Liberal Judaism gives to ceremonies in their totality only a secondary, and subordinate, place in its interpretation of Judaism, valuing and stressing only those which express, and can stimulate, effectively the Jewish spirit. Not all Liberal Jews will agree with everything that is said in this book. The divergences involve, however, only details, not the fundamental attitude, or essentials, in the Liberal interpretation and presentation of Judaism. 3.1 CHAfTER T THE CONCEPTION OF GOD IN JUDAISM TuE belief in God is fundamental to Judaism. No one can call himself a Jew in the religious sense if he does not believe in God. About some religious ideas it is possible for Jews to hold different views; but not about the existence of God. To believe in God means more, however, than to acknow- ledge His existence. It is not enough just to believe that thereisa God. To believe in God means also to feel that He exists. It means, further, to realise that we are individually related to Him. There are three elements in the belief in God: (1) the intellectual element, i.e. belief with the mind; (2) the emotional element, i.e. the feeling of God; and (3) the personal element, i.e. the feeling for God: a sense of individual relation with Him, the sense that we have something to do with Him and that He has something to do with us, that we are bound to Him and He affects us. Let me try to explain by analogies these three elements in the belief in God. The first element is analogous to our attitude, say, to the President of Chile. We acknowledge his existence, but it doesn’t mean anything to us; we have no feelings about him or towards him. He is there, and by being there explains a number of things that happen in Chile. About the King of England, on the other hand, we have some feeling. He not only exists, but we feel his existence in diverse ways; his existence has an emotional effect on us. That illustrates the second element. The third, the personal element, can be I o THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM illustrated only by our relation to those who are closest to us; it is like the relation between a child and his father, or between a man and wife. The child knows of his father’s existence, feels it, and realises that he is bound to his father and that the father affects him; there is an effective relation- ship between them. These illustrations cover what we mean by the belief in God in Judaism. It means an apprehension of Him in thought, in feeling and in a sense of personal relationship. If we have the Jewish belief in God, we think of God, we feel His presence, and we are aware of a dynamic connection between Him and us. Philosophy may be satisfied with the first, poetry has enough for its purpose in the second, religion is not complete without the third element. This is also, perhaps, the hardest part of religion to attain. Itis the personal experience of God. It requires the exercise of the spirit God-ward, by prayer, meditation and study. There is a difficulty about the belief in God in that He cannot be defined. The difficulty which some people feel because, to use their words, “ you can’t prove that God exists,” is not, I think, very serious. What they mean is that “you can’t prove it ”’ by physical, or concrete, methods. You can’t say: “ Look, here is God,” for God can’t be seen with the physical eyes as we see a tree or a star. The story is told that the Roman Emperor Hadrian once said to Rabbi Joshua ben Chananiah, “Show me your God,”’ and threatened him with death if he failed to comply with the command by the morrow. The command was silly; but the Rabbi couldn’t just bluntly say so to the Emperor. He thought of a way out of his difficulty. The following day, at noon, when the sun was at its zenith, he returned to the Emperor and bade him step out into the palace court. When the Emperor complied, the Rabbi pointed to the sun, asking him to look at it; but the Emperor could not look at it because of its blinding 11ght Then Rabbi Joshua said, “ You cannot look upon this, one . e THE CONCEPTION OF GOD IN JUDAISM 3 of God’s messengers; how can you expect to behold God, the Master Himself? ”’ Much exists which cannot be seen with the eyes, heard with the ears, or felt with the hands. Such are love and hate, joy and sorrow, the inspiration of the poet, the vision of the artist. We can see their manifestations, we cannot see them. We can see what love does, but the love itself, which is in the heart, is invisible. Nor can the existence of God be proved in the way scientists prove their theories. They use microscopes, but God can’t be seen; they use weights and measures, but God can’t be weighed and measured. The same applies to all life. What does life look like? How much does it weigh? How long is it in inches, feet and yards? But we know life exists. So, the fact that “ you can’t prove the existence of God ”’ should not create any great difficulty for thought. But it does, I think, create a difficulty for some people that God can’t be defined. It is true that life, too, can’t be defined, but, then, we are not asked to worship it. But Judaism requires the worship of God. Yet it does not define Him. It says, moreover, that He cannot be defined. For a very good and inescapable reason : you can only define something which is like other things. An elephant is defined as an animal, but if there were no other animals, the defini- tion would be no definition; it would just be like saying: an elephant is an elephant. Electricity can be defined as a force because there are other forces. Because according to Judaism there is only one God, He cannot be defined. God is God. The only definition the Bible gives of God is that He is not like men. It was natural for primitive peoples to think of their gods as magnified men, having bodies like men, but bigger, stronger, and not subject like the bodies of men to disease and death. Gods conceived in this way could be représented by idols and pictured in statues. Judaism from an early stage in its development rejected idolatry. And throughout its history Judaism has condemned idolatry as N i 4 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM a cardinal sin against God. There are two kinds of idolatry mentioned in the Bible. One is the idolatry that worships images, as the Egyptians and Babylonians did, of animals, or of forms representing things in nature like the sun, moon and stars. The other kind of idolatry was the use of an image in the worship of God. Judaism condemned both forms of idolatry; the first kind because it was the worship of false gods, the second because it was the false worship of the true God. The fact that idols were used extensively in the religions that worshipped many gods may have had something to do with the uncompromising condemnation of 1dolatry by Judaism; it was a danger to monotheism, which is the belief in, and worship of, one God. Moreover, some forms of idolatry included practices which Judaism condemned ~ as most immoral; so that idol-worship became synonymous with immorality. But there is still another reason for the vehement hostility of Judaism against the use of idols in the worship of God. They imply that God has a physical form; otherwise he could not be represented in a figure of stone, wood, or metal. And Judaism maintains insistently and uncompromisingly that God cannot be conceived in a physical form. In the Book of Deuteronomy, the author, in recounting the story about the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, to avoid the possible wrong inference from it that God could be seen, insists: ““ Ye heard the voice (z.e. the sound) of words, but ye saw no form; only ye heard a voice ’ (Deuteronomy 4: 12). Some of the very early stories in the Bible originally presented God in the form of a man; such a conception of God 1s called “ anthropo- morphic.” Later, however, most of these stories were purged of their anthropomorphism; Judaism could not harbour, or tolerate, an anthropomorphic conception of God. On the contrary, practically its only definition of God in His essence—that 1s, the definition of what He is— THE CONCEPTION OF GOD IN JUDAISM 5 is that He is “ not flesh and blood,” that, as the Jewish philosophers put it, He is incorporeal, which means that Heis notabody, He does not have a physical form, as man has. He must not be represented by an idol. ' But the Jewish conception of God now has a further consequence; it precludes a belief in an incarnation, the belief, which is held by several religions, that God has appeared in the form of a man. There have been many men in the history of the world who, by their holy character and good actions, have helped others to “see” God, that is to realise that there is a God who inspires and guides men to be holy and to live holy lives. For Judaism, the prophets lawgivers, poets, great rabbis, and many unnamed pious souls, have been a channel through whom God revealed Himself to men. But Judaism does not believe that any man ever has fully embodied, or ever can fully embody, God. God is not like man; so no man can ever be God. THE SHEMA Judaism makes one fundamental positive assertion about the essence of God, how God is, so to speak constituted. He is One. The affirmation of His unity is the creed of Judaism. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” It is called the Shema because ‘ Shema,” the Hebrew for “ hear,” is the first word in its Hebrew form: SHEMA YISRAEL ADONAI ELOHENU ADONAI ECHAD. It is the fourth verse of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy; and with the five verses that follow it, which are frequently included when the Shema is referred to, it forms probably the oldest part of the Jewish Prayer Book. - It 18 \in all morning and evening services. It is also in the bed-time prayers in traditional Prayer Books. . Its most dramatic use has been as a confession of faith before death. It is uncertain when the practice began for 6 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Jews who are dying to recite the Shema; but it must be very old, for there is a suggestion of it in the account which the Talmud gives of the death of Rabbi Akiba, who was executed by the Romans in 160 c.e. While he was being terribly tortured, he recited the Shema with a peaceful, or rather joyful, smile. When the Roman governor, who was also the executioner, asked him what sorcery enabled him to bear pain in this way, he replied: “ I am no sorcerer, but I rejoice that I am permitted to love God with my life.” Another version says that his disciples asked him why he faced death so joyfully; and he replied: “ All my life I have wondered how to fulfil the commandment to love God with ‘ my soul ’ (referring to the commandment ‘ And thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, soul, and might’); and now I can fulfil it.” In the story of his death, told in the Talmud, it is said that he died just as he was saying ‘ Echad ”’ (One) the last word of the Shema. It may be that the practice for Jews to say the Shema when dying originated with him. But however and when- ever it originated, it shows, with dramatic impressiveness, the supreme place given in the religious life of the Jews to the affirmation of the unity of God. The unity of God has two meanings. The first is, that - there 1s one God who is the Creator and Ruler of the universe, one Supreme Power who alone is to be worshipped as God. Judaism attained to that idea after a time of development which supplied a preparation for it. The writings in the Bible, because they spread over many cen- turies, afford illustrations of what various and successive ages thought about God. In those parts, for example, which were written before the Prophets who lived in the eighth century B.C.E., we find ideas about God altogether different from the ideas which these and later Prophets taught. 'The early conception of God was that He was the God of the Israelites, while every other nation had its THE CONCEPTION OF GOD IN JUDAISM ¥ own god. Though it was the duty of the Israelites to worship their God, they yet recognised the existence of other gods. An Israelite, living in 1000 B.C.E., if asked about God, would have said: *“ There are many gods, but there is only one God whom I should worship—the God of Israel.” With the teachings of the prophets of the eighth century B.C.E., Amos, Hosea, Micah and Isaiah, there came into Judaism a newly-developed conception of God. The God of Israel, they taught, was the God of the whole world, the Lord of all nations and all peoples. He is the God of universal justice, taught Amos. All nations are in His hands and He uses them as He wills, taught Isaiah. He will redeem Israel from sin and suffering, and through Israel, He will send redemption to the whole world, taught all the Prophets. This belief in one God, who alone is the Power that rules and guides the universe and all things that are in it, is called monotheism. Itis distinguished from polytheism, which is the name given to the belief in many gods. The religions of the Greeks and Romans were polytheistic. They believed in various gods and goddesses, each one being the ruler over some part of the universe, or some phase of life. There were the god of might and the goddess of wisdom, the god of mechanical arts and the god of military power, the goddess of beauty and the goddess of right, the god of rain and the god of sunshine, and so on; each one having his or her particular work to do and his or her special powers. Each one was worshipped in a particular manner. The religions of nearly all ancient peoples were polytheistic. The monotheism of the Jewish prophets is also to be distinguished from what is called dualism. This was the religion of the ancient Persians. It taught the belief in two supreme powers, one, the power of light and good, the other, the power of darkness and evil. The Persians believed that these two contended for the mastery over 3 ~ THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM the world to decide which should be absolute ruler; in the end the power of good would prevail. In opposition to this belief, the Prophet of the Exile declared in God’s name: ‘“ I am the Lord, and there is none else; beside me there is no God. I form the light, and create darkness; - I make peace, and create evil; I am the Lord, that doeth all these things” (Isaiah 45: 52 and 7). The monotheism of the Jewish religion, which has been called ‘‘ethical monotheism ” because it stresses the righteousness of God and makes right conduct the way to worship Him, is the great contribution which the Jews have made to the civilisation of the world. They were the first to learn that one God was the Author and Ruler of the Universe. 'The religions which now hold this belief received it from the Jews. The second meaning of the unity of God is that He is all one. He cannot be divided into parts, or analysed into aspects. God reveals Himself in an infinite number of ways. He reveals Himself in all the multifarious pheno- mena in the physical universe, in the plants and trees, in the sun, moon and stars, in the thunder and lightning, in the order of nature wherein each thing has its place and each force its way. “ The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork,” sang the Psalmist. God reveals Himself also in the hearts and minds of men who are moved, under His inspiration, to aspira- tions for goodness, to deeds of righteousness, to the love - of beauty, and to the pursuit of truth. The author of the Book of Job wrote: * There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding” (Job 32:8). However varied and numerous the manifestations of God, He is the same in them all. He does not, so to speak, show a part of Himself, or one side of Himself, at one time, and another part of Himself, or another side of Himself, at another time. He is the same in the blade of THE CONCEPTION OF GOD IN JUDAISM 9 grass, in the glory of the sunset, and in the wisdom, art and goodness of men. Itisa conception of God which overawes the mind by its grandeur, and at the same time brings God near to men. °‘ For thus saith the high and lofty One that ° inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones’ (Isaiah 57: 15). The same God dwells in the incomprehensible grandeur of the universe and pours out His love on men. * There is no place in the universe without His presence,” said the Rabbis. He 1is, therefore, to be found whenever and wherever men seek Him. And they who find Him, find not a part of Him or an aspect of Him, but Him; so that He is present in all that they experience, to help them support the hard, to rejoice in the happy, to pursue the good. God is One; and human life with its light and shade, its joys and sorrows, its aspirations and frustrations, is unified by the faith in Him which exalts the human spirit. Beyond saying that God is incorporeal and that He is One, Judaism does not define the essence of God, it does not describe what He is. But it does define His attributes, His character. He is eternal, holy, just, loving, perfect with all kinds of perfection. It is, however, inevitable that men should not be able fully to apprehend the nature of God, fully to know Him. For He is God, and man ‘with his limited mind cannot expect to comprehend fully the infinite God, the Power who is infinitely greater than the whole universe. The attributes we ascribe to Him are only an attempt to put into words our limited human apprehension of Him. CHAPIER 11 THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD THE difference between knowing God in His essence and knowing the attributes of God is suggested in an old story which has been preserved in the Bible. Though it obviously comes from an early stage in the history of Judaism, the writer expresses, in primitive language, the idea that God in His essence cannot be apprehended, but He can be known, through His works, in His attributes. The story occurs in the thirty-third chapter of Exodus. In it Moses says to God: “ Let me see you.” God answers: ‘“ No man can see me, but you can see my goodness.” Men naturally hanker to see God. That is why in some religions God is given an incarnation in a man. But because God is God, He cannot be seen; and for the same reason, Judaism maintains, that He cannot be incarnated in a man. But His attributes, His qualities, can be, and are, perceived by men. The Lord, the Lord God, is merciful and gracious, infinitely patient, abounding in lovingkindness and faith- fulness, keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin ”’ (Exodus 34: 6-7). LLOVE AND JUSTICE It is rather odd that this magnificent declaration of God’s boundless love is followed by the threat of punish- ment for those guilty of sin; it seems to contradict the preceding statement that God, in His love, forgives sin. It rouses the suspicion, therefore, that it may have been I0 THE ATITRIBUTES OF GOD Il added by some editor, a suspicion which is strengthened by the fact that the Hebrew text is incomplete. In the Talmud, the two parts are reconciled by making the second apply to sinners who do not repent. It is a fact of human experience that they who have sinned and repent overcome the evil spiritual and moral consequences of their sin, but the sinners who do not repent suffer in their spiritual and moral nature; frequently their sin brings on them sad physical consequences. It is a further fact of human experience that through the channel of heredity the character of parents affects the lives of their children. But in Jewish thought and belief, the fact that sin, if unrepented, produces consequences which might be described as punishment did not interfere with the belief that God is loving, or hinder the full experience of His love. That is possible because Judaism stresses with equal emphasis the love and justice of God. Love and justice are not two separate or distinct qualities in Him, they are not different aspects of Him. They are one and the same. - God’s love is in His justice, His justice is in His love. In men love and justice may sometimes conflict; that is because neither man’s love, nor his justice, is perfect. Butin God they are perfect, and in their perfection they coalesce. The necessities of language compel us to speak of God’s love and justice, though we ought to speak of God’s love- Just1ce or justice-love, as one. It is sometimes said that Judaism stresses the JUSthC of God but not His love. The quotation I have just given from Exodus 34 should be enough to prevent such an idea. But there are many other statements in the Bible (and many more in later Jewish literature) to refute it. Hosea gives God’s love for Israel the central place in his teaching: it is like the love of a husband for his wife, which persists even if the wife is faithless. But God’s love is not only for Israel, it is for all men. ‘‘ Have we not all one Father? N F 12 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Has not one God created us?” (Malachi 2: 10). His love extends to all His creatures. ‘ The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works >’ (Psalm 145: 9). Akiba said: ‘‘ Beloved is man, because he was created in the image of God; still more beloved in that it was made known to him that he was created in the image, as it is said ‘ In the image of God He made man.”” God showed His love for men in making them in His own image and in giving them the knowledge of their divine heritage. God’s love 1s especially shown in His forgiveness of sinners. ‘‘ His arm is outstretched to receive the penitent.” The proclamation of God’s forgiving love (from Exodus 34) is included in all Jewish penitential services. God’s love helps the sorrowing and broken-hearted. God has com- passion like a father: ““ Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that revere him ” (Psalm 103: 13). He comforts like a mother: ““ As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah 66: 13). The greatest gift of God’s love was the revelation of His Law. All these and an infinite number of other manifestations of God show His infinite love. “ Thy loving kindness, O Lord, is in the heavens; Thy faithfulness reaches unto the skies ”’ (Psalm 36: 5). Itis thislove of God which makes it appropriate to call him * Father.” There is an obvious difficulty, which interferes with the experience of God’s love, in the sin, misery, sorrow, suffering and trouble in human life. These things are in themselves evil, though they may lead to good. There are also other things in the life of the world which appear to us to be evil. And evil challenges the faith in God’s love and interferes with the experience of it. Some people have found it difficult to believe in God because of the evil in the world. But we must not forget that the good in the world also calls for explanation: the order of the universe, the beauties in nature, the joys in human life, above all, b e THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 13 the ordinary goodness of men and women, which even impels them at times to deeds of self-sacrifice. These, too, call for an explanation. We just expect them; we expect goodness in the world. Why? The problem of evil is, however, extremely difficult, but it is eased by remembering that no event stands by itself: it belongs to a scheme, emerging out of past events, related to a pattern of present events, and itself affecting the course of future events. Obv1ously, therefore, no event can be judged in isolation, by itself. The judgment *“ good ”’ r “ bad 7 can rightly be made only about the whole pattern or scheme to which it belongs. And Judaism maintains the belief that because God is loving the scheme of things is good. The incidents that may not appear to be good in themselves are yet somehow related to the goodness of the whole scheme, like discords in a musical composition which make an integral contribution to its beauty. So, too, the justice of God must be sought primarily in the general scheme of things, in the ordered life of the universe, in the laws which it follows, in the relation between causes and effects, between actions and consequences. This is a somewhat extended meaning of the justice of God to fit in with the modern conception of the universe which describes its life by general laws. The justice, like the love, of God is manifested in its ordered scheme; but just as His love i1s manifested to men in a personal way, so, too, 1s His justice. He treats men fairly. In some ways it 1s harder to realise God’s justice than His love. For if we direct our thought and feeling towards Him, if we love Him, we shall feel His love in a personal way. To appreciate God’s justice a larger framework is needed. It is revealed in the whole of history more clearly than at any particular time, in a series of events more clearly than in a particular event. But we share individually in the course of history; the historic events in our lifetime impinge on our personal 14 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM lives. God’s justice means that what happens to men individually happens to them fairly in accordance with the scheme of things emanating from Him. It may be hard for us to see His justice, as it is to see His love, in every event. But it is the firm assurance of Judaism that God’s love and justice are present together in His dealings with men. HoOLINESS 'The attributes which Jewish teaching ascribes to God are covered by the affirmation that God is holy. The idea of holiness is complex; defined most simply, it signifies supreme exaltation. It includes, therefore, the idea of perfection. God is a perfect Being without any flaws or faults. Though we cannot quite understand what this means in its full divine sense, our human ideas help us to understand it somewhat. We know that the best of men have some faults. They may not be good always, nor can they possess complete knowledge, or fully attain truth, beauty, righteousness. Human shortcomings make the very best of men imperfect. But God is perfect. Perfect truth, perfect goodness and perfect beauty belong to Him. Perfect love and perfect righteousness are His qualities. ALMIGHTY Two other attributes ascribed to God must be mentioned. One is His power. He is the Source of the forces and powers that work in the universe. His might is manifested in the forces of nature; in the force which keeps the planets in their places, in the quakings of the earth, in the flashes of lightning, in the growth of plants. The strength which resides in the seed causing it to grow into a tree comes from Him. The faculties of man which make it possible for him to think and to act come from God. God is the THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD ' | Creator of the universe, and He is the Guide of the universe, because He is the Source of all life and the forces that make it up. That 1s the meaning of ‘‘ Almighty.” It 1s necessary not to confuse the power of God with such unrestricted activity as a child means by * doing anything he likes.” God’s activity flows from His nature, what He does expresses what He 1s. He cannot act differ- ently from His nature. He acts in accordance with His nature. That is the fullness of power. God manifests Himself in the universe, in its existence, in the forces working in it, in the order which regulates its life. In this sense . He 1s almighty. The Bible sometimes calls Him * the Lord of Hosts ” ; though its original meaning may have been that He was the Lord of the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon and stars, it came to mean, when used by the Prophets and in later Judaism, just the God of all power. ETERNAL The other attribute that has to be mentioned is one that belongs both to His qualities and His essence; He is eternal. In saying that this quality belongs also to His essence I do not contradict what I have said about our inability to define the essence of God. The essence of God that can’t be defined is, so to speak, the stuff He is made of. But a quality can be an integral part of His being. All His attributes are. It can, in a sense, be said of them all that they describe both His essence and character. God is perfect; He is perfection. God is just; He is justice. God is almighty; He is all power. He is truth, He 1s beauty, He is goodness. An analogy may help me to explain what I mean. When I speak of a red cloth, I conceive of the redness as a quality of colour attaching to the cloth, though it may, as in the case of redwood, be an integral part of the stuff. But when I speak of cotton cloth, cotton describes 16 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM its texture. Now all the attributes of God are in His essence. But the attribute of eternal is, to use a comparative where it 1s really inapplicable, more so. That essential significance of Eternal comes out in the affirmation “ God is Eternal Life,” and in the frequent use of ‘‘the Eternal” as a name for God. | What does eternal mean? It is difficult to put the idea into words. It may just mean going on for ever, endless, infinite. Even when defined in this way, it is not altogether easy to grasp. But that definition does not go deep enough. ‘“ Eternal ”’ means outside space and time. Space and time are measurements. Inches, acres, gallons, tons are measure- ments of space; hours, years, centuries are measurements of time. “ Eternal” describes that which cannot be measured by space and time. When we say that God is eternal, we mean that no term referring to space or time can be used about Him. The eternal attribute of God may be explained briefly, but inadequately, as follows: (@) God i1s eternal in time. His existence did not begin at any one moment, nor will it end at any time. He is “from everlasting to everlasting,” having no beginning and no end. In the words of the Psalmist: * Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to ever- lasting, Thou art God.” (b) God is eternal in space. He is not at one place, but not at another, but He fills the universe and is greater ~ than the universe. One cannot say He is in heaven, or ~upon earth; He is everywhere. He fills the universe but He is also outside it. The universe is a part of Him, but only a part, for He is greater than the universe. Of a man we may say that he is here now, to-morrow he may be elsewhere. But for God there is no now and then. And there is no here and elsewhere; all is now and here. He is just Being. The idea is difficult to grasp because it THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 17 cannot be visualised, we cannot form a picture of it. The nearest analogy in the physical world is, perhaps, electricity. Nobody knows what it is, there is no picture of it; but it cannot help us to grasp fully the idea of eternity because— here the analogy stops—electricity can be measured, it is in space and time, being physical though invisible. The idea of eternity must be altogether reached by the mind, without the help of the physical senses. Only by thought can we get some understanding of it. It is the depth of the now and here. Theologians often discuss about the transcendence and immanence of God. Transcendence means that He i1s more and greater than the universe, and outside it. Imman- ence means that He is in the universe. Jewish teaching ascribes to Him both immanence and transcendence. He is in the universe; He is also outside the universe. The world reveals Him, but it does not contain Him. He fills the universe with His presence, but He is more than the universe. ‘ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory ” (Isaiah 6: 3). But “ His glory is above the earth and heaven ”’ (Psalm 148: 13). Tae NAMES OoF GOD In our prayers we call God, our God, our King, our Lord, or our Father. In the Bible, He is sometimes called Jehovah. This name arose through the misreading of the Hebrew letters by which His name was indicated to the ancient Hebrews. Those letters were the Hebrew equiva- lents of JuVH, probably read originally Yahveh. When, however, the belief in God developed into the belief that He was the God of the whole universe, this special name was avoided and finally not used at all; and wherever it occurred, Adonai, which means Lord, was read instead of it. 'To remind people that wherever the Bible had juvh, 18 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM they should read Adonai, the vowels of Adonai (a, o, a) were given to JHVH, so that it looked like Jehovah. And that is how early Christian translators of the Bible read it, not knowing that the vowels really belonged to Adonai. The Bible and the Prayer Book sometimes use Jah for God; it is a shortened form of juva. 'The Bible also uses Elohim for God; in the English translation of the Bible it is always translated God while JHVH is translated ~ the Lord. Other names for God are, in the Bible, Shaddai (trans- lated Almighty), El Shaddai (translated God Almighty), jave Zebaot (Lord of Hosts), the Most High, the Holy One. In post-Biblical Jewish writings God is referred to by various names, probably to avoid using the name God. He is called the Holy One blessed be He; Heaven, as in the phrase the Kingdom of Heaven which means the rule of God. The Talmud uses frequently the name, in Aramaic, Rachmana, the Merciful One. It has a special interest because it is the name extensively used for God in the Koran, the Scriptures of the Mohammedans. In Rabbinic literature, the Name, and the Place, are sometimes used for God. The appropriateness of these terms is obvious, except the last one, the Place. The explanation given for it is that God is the place, the home, of the world; He encompasses everything, all existence is in Him. CHAPTER 111 GROUNDS FOR THE BELIEEF IN GOD THE belief in God was always accepted in Judaism as axiomatic. There could be no questioning it. A Psalmist does say: “ The fool saith in his heart; There is no God,” but the Psalmist expresses the general view of his time that nobody but a fool would think of denying the existence of God. So the Bible and Talmud contain no arguments about the existence of God or attempts to prove it. Jewish philosophers of later times did, like other philosophers, discuss the grounds for the belief in Him, but the Prophets of the Bible and the Rabbis of the Talmud did not argue about Him. They gave instruction in the way to serve Him, with exhortations to men to obey His Law loyally and zealously. The Prophets pointed to the manifestations of God in nature and to the evidence of His guidance in history, especially in the history of Israel, to impress on men the duty to worship Him. It is the theme of the sermons in the Book of Deuteronomy that Israel must give loyal and loving service to God who brought them out of Egypt, gave them a revelation of His Law, and led them safely through the wilderness. The author of Deuteronomy could not conceive that these great events could have hap- pened without the will of God. And all Jewish teaching agrees with him in seeing God’s guidance in Jewish history. Similarly, all Jewish teaching agrees with the view often expressed in the Bible that the phenomena of nature are the work of God. That idea is stressed sometimes to evoke 20 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM loyalty and devotion to God, as in the tenth chapter (verse 14) of Deuteronomy; and sometimes to encourage trust in God, as in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, where the Prophet reminds the Jewish exiles, who were sceptical about his prophecy that they would be delivered, that the creation and rule of the universe show the greatness of God’s power. The two sources, nature and history, from which the Biblical writers drew arguments for trust in God and loyal -service to Him, supply the first grounds for the belief in Him. Let us examine them. Gop IN NATURE An American writer of the last century, who was also a scientist—John Fiske—wrote a little book entitled T/rough Nature to God, which attained considerable popularity when published and maintained it for a considerable time. He marshalled many facts in the physical universe to support the conclusion that there is a mind behind it. Sir James Jeans has in our time pursued a similar line of thought. Not all scientists have agreed with them; but really God is not a subject for science. Its field is nature, it deals with the physical events and phenomena which constitute the physical universe. That which is not physical falls outside its field. It is important to appreciate that fact. Some people have the idea—I am afraid that some scientists have encouraged it—that science explains, or can explain, everything. Of course, it does nothing of the sort. There are many things 1t doesn’t, and can’t, explain. It does not explain why Shakespeare’s plays are great and how Shakespeare got the genius to write them ; why Raphael’s paintings, Michelangelo’s statues and Beethoven’s sym- phonies are beautiful and how their authors got the ability to create them. It does not explain why it is right to make great sacrifices to help others and to maintain the best GROUNDS FOR THE BELIEF IN GOD 21 kind of life in ourselves. In other words, science does not have anything to do with literature, art, music, and morality. But that 1s not all. Even in nature, in the physical universe, science covers only a limited field. It cannot, for example, explain what life 1s. It describes, in biology and related fields, how living things behave, but it cannot explain what life itself 1s. Yet obviously it is the most fundamental reality in the physical universe. The very first thing we learn to know about ourselves is that we are alive, and that there is in us a certain something which we call “‘ life.”” We cannot define it, but we know we have it. It works within us, making us grow, making us want certain things, such as air and food for our bodies, and knowledge for our minds. This life in us feels, thinks and wills (z.e. resolves upon doing things). We find that we have a body, which we can exercise, and powers, such as the faculty of thought and power of action, which we can use. But not only human beings possess life. All animals have it too, and, in what appears to be a lesser degree, the flowers, the trees, and the grass; in them, too, there is life, growing and working, so that a tiny seed becomes a beautiful flower, or a large tree bearing fruit. In a still lesser degree, this life may also be present in other parts of physical nature, such as stones; science teaches that there is nothing in the universe in which there is not this principle or quality of life. Whence does it come, this life in men, in animals, in the flower and trees, and in the star? Moreover, life is constantly developing. Out of the lower comes the higher. There is evolution. We are told by scientists that the beautiful and the good things which we now see in the world have not always been so beautiful and good. Man is perhaps the best example. At one time he was on a par with the monkey, and still further back perhaps no more than the jellyfish. Yet see what he is now! He has 22 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM been developing—we don’t know for how long. Is there any goal towards which this development is directed? Why does life develop? While science describes what happens in the physical universe, it does not explain why. And—this is perhaps the most important point of. all—while science describes the physical universe, it does not explain its origin, whence it comes, and why it is here. In the nebular hypothesis, science suggests (though it cannot prove) how the earth, the stones, trees and plants came into being. The hypothesis is that originally there was just a ball of fire revolving at an inconceivable speed, which, as it revolved, shot off bits of itself which, being separated from the fire, lost their heat. The earth was one of those bits; when it became cold enough, things began to grow on it. Now, this theory does not explain why there should have been a ball of fire, or why the bits that shot off should have cooled, or why when the bit which is our earth cooled, it should have produced plants, trees, animals and men. Let me make it emphatically clear that I do not mean to underrate the importance of science. On the contrary, I recognise its very high value. Not only because of its practical achievements, the machines it has invented, the medicines it has discovered or produced, and the innumer- able ways by which it has added security, comfort and power to human life, but also because it gives us a knowledge of truth about the physical universe. And truth in all its aspects has a supreme value. But I want to point out that science deals only with a part of the universe. In thatfield, it speaks with complete authority so that its results must be accepted. But its authority does not extend to the whole universe, and what it says about its own field does not necessarily apply to the whole universe. Religion answers the questions about the universe which science does not answer, and explains facts in the universe GROUNDS FOR THE BELIEF IN GOL 23 which are outside the field of science. The first of the questions is: Whence comes the world? If some morning upon waking we find in the room a vase of flowers which had not been there the night before, then we should at once ask: Who put them there? So, just as soon as we begin to think, we ask that question about the world and the things 1 1t. The answer which Judaism gives is: *“ From God.” The world comes from God. God exists, so to speak, in His own right. He is, in the language of philosophers, self-existent; in the language of religion, eternal; in the language of prayer, there was none before Him. By His will the world came into being. That is what we mean by saying that God is the Creator of the Universe. The principle, or the belief, that God created the world is a principle of religion. Science can have nothing to say about it. Nor does it try ; it just describes the ways by which the physical world came to be what it is. It has the nebular hypothesis by which it tries to explain how the earth, the stars and planets came from an original ball of fire. It has the theory of evolution, to describe how the diverse forms of life developed on the earth. It describes what has happened, but does not explain it. The physical universe shows, according to Jewish teaching, the creative work of God, and the natural laws which physical events follow, show His method of creation. It is reasonable to argue that the physical universe gives grounds for the belief in God. THE SPIRIT IN MAN The history of mankind presents the most significant development of all. We should have to go back hundreds of thousands of years for the time when men looked different; but not so long ago men thought differently and felt differ- ently from what they do to-day. Historic records, though NG o 24 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM they cover a comparatively small part, the most recent one, of the history of man, show that there has been growth in every department of human life—in the knowledge of truth, in the knowledge of art, in government, and so on. The ~ civilisation which separates us from primitive man means more knowledge, finer arts, and, above all, a higher sense of goodness, with an increased ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Compare the white man who lives in the western and northern parts of the world with the Fiji Islanders. As we read history we see that man has been gradually advancing, though slowly and not steadlly He knows more, that means he has grown in the possession of truth; he has developed the arts, that means he has grown in the apprecia- tion of beauty; he is guided by higher moral standards, that means he has grown in the knowledge of right and wrong. However dissatisfied we may be with human life as it is, and however much we want to improve it, we must yet recognise that in all that matters most, it is better than it was. That is plain beyond any possible doubt when we compare man as he is now with man as he was when he lived in caves or even as he was later when he emerged into history.. Why, we may ask, has he progressed instead of standing still? Standing still is easy—progressing is hard. It cannot be said that the desire for happiness has impelled him. The progress has not made him happler Who has led him to progress? The nature of man gives, however, the strongest reason for the belief in God. Man is a part of the universe; but he has faculties and powers which distinguish him from other parts of the universe, giving him and his life a special quality. He shares with the other parts of the universe a physical life, but he possesses also a form of life which is not physical. His life manifests itself in him in a two-fold form. 'There is his physical life which is in the body, and GROUNDS FOR THE BELIEF IN GOD 25 there is his spiritual life. Whether any other creature in the universe possesses spiritual life, we have no means of knowing. We do, however, know of its existence in man, because we feel it in ourselves, and we can percelve it working in others. The spiritual life in man has sometimes been called his soul. But whether we call it soul or give it any other name, or give it no name at all, we know it from its manifestations. We cannot see it with our eyes (because it is spiritual) but we can perceive it with our understanding; we can see the ways in which it shows itself. Thought and conscience are two of its manifestations. Thought itself is not a physical thing. It cannot be seen, it cannot be weighed, it cannot be measured. It belongs to the mind, which is not physical. We use the brain in think- ing, but if there were a way by which we could look into the brain with our eyes, we should not see the ideas we are thinking. Mind uses the brain, but the brain is not the mind. The same thing can be said about conscience. It makes judgments between right and wrong. Now, such judgments, like 1deas, cannot be seen with the physical eye; they cannot be touched, or apprehended by any physical means. But both thought and conscience are not only a real part of us but, we might also say, the most important part of us. Each human being is aware of them in himself. Thought and conscience in man have an important im- plication for our understanding of the universe. Thought deals with truth; by it we try to find out what is true, and to distinguish between the true and the false. It implies, therefore, that there is such a thing as truth and that it is man’s business to find it, that there are true ideas and it is man’s duty to hold them. Conscience implies that there is right and there is wrong, and that it is man’s duty to find out what is right and what is wrong, and to follow the right and avoid the wrong. B 26 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM The spiritual life in man gives ground, therefore, for the belief in God in two ways. First, by itself. . It shows that physical things do not constitute the whole of the universe. The universe is more than matter; so that it cannot be explained in terms of matter and physical forces. Secondly, " by its activity. In his spiritual activity man pursues truth, strives for goodness, and rejoices in beauty. All this is natural to us; we just think it natural that we should want to know things, that scientists should give up their lives in finding out things about the universe. Some of their dis- coveries are useful, but a good many are not, they are just knowledge about the universe—that is knowledge of truth. We just think it natural that we should find delight in literature, art and music, and in all that gives us the sense of beauty; and we think it natural that men and women should spend their lives, sometimes in spite of great hard- ship, to create beautiful statues, paintings, symphonies, or writings. We think it natural to make a distinction between right and wrong. Even small children have a sense of right and wrong; they know that it is right to do certain things, though they do not always do them, and that it is wrong to do others, though they do not always avoid them. Whence this sense of right and wrong? If we say that it is inherited knowledge, we are only putting the question further back. If I have inherited my conscience from my ancestors and they from theirs, and so on, as far back as you like, there still remains the question: How did conscience begin? When man first came to know a difference between right and wrong, who taught him? The important fact is that men always have had a conscience; they have always had some sense of right and wrong. Though morality has undergone a development, so that actions considered right at one time were considered wrong later, and actions considered wrong sometimes came to be con- sidered right, the fact that there always has been morality, . GROUNDS FOR THE BELIEF IN GOD 277 that men always have distinguished between right and wrong, is significant for our understanding of the universe, for since man is a part of the universe, his nature must give ‘some idea about the nature of the universe. To sum up, a number of questions present themselves to us when we think about the universe. Whence does it come? What is the source of life? Why has this life the power of development, which in the case of man shows itself in his progress to a higher and better kind of life? Whence does man derive his spirit with his love of truth, discrimination between good and evil, and appreciation of beauty? There are various answers to all these questions which philosophers and others have given. No one answer has ever been accepted by all men. The questions are so difficult that to answer them with absolute certainty would require more knowledge than any human being, or group of human beings, have had, or perhaps ever can have. We must be satisfied with the most likely answer—the answer which most appeals to our reason and satisfies our feelings. The answer Judaism gives is: God is the Author of the universe and the Source of its life, the Power that guides it, the Source of man’s spirit with its power of apprehending truth, goodness and beauty. 'The life of the universe must come from a source of all being. 'The spirit of man shows that there is spirit in the universe. The sense of goodness in man must come from a goodness which is much higher, much greater, infinitely better than itself. And there must be a power which is interested in making the world and humanity move forward towards a better life. As when we see a ray of light, we look for its source and find that it comes from some burning flame which is all light, so when we see some life, some goodness, we know that the source must be that which is all life, all goodness. The grounds, then, for our belief in God are the life of the universe and the life and nature of man. The belief in 28 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM God explains them; it also makes sense of the universe. What does the world mean? Is it merely a jumble of events? The belief in God explains the world and gives a meaning to its life. At first the universe and man present a mystery. But, out of the mystery comes the answer to our question- ings. Life, power, goodness, truth, beauty, all come from Him who is the Great Author, God. And they lead to Him. Men learn to know God best, however, through inner, personal experience. We learn to know Him as we learn to know a human friend—by communion. We feel the love of a human friend when we are with him. So do we feel the attributes of God, His perfect love and perfect goodness, when we feel His presence. We experience God when we experience the qualities which make up His being. We can also experience Him Himself, feel His presence. Our first knowledge of Him comes to us from those men who, because they had this experience of God in the highest degree, have by their lives and by their writings become our teachers in the knowledge of Him. But faith in God comes to men in largest measure only when they strive, by work, thought and prayer to realise His presence, to come near to Him, and to commune with Him. The ultimate ground for our personal faith in God is something in ourselves which finds intellectual and emotional satisfaction in that faith. It explains us to ourselves and it explains the universe to us. 'The belief in God answers such questions as “ Why is there a world?”’ and ““ Why are some things right and others wrong ?”’ But that is not all. It gives men a Friend and Helper who satisfies their spiritual longings and needs with His love and light. Ultimately, men find God in the universe by finding Him in themselves. CHAPIER IV GOD AND THE UNIVERSE THERE emerges from the preceding discussion of the grounds for the belief in God the view of God’s relation to the universe as a whole and of His special relation to men. What God means to the universe and to man is summed up in the *“ Adon Olam.” Lord of the universe, who reigned Ere earth and heaven’s fashioning, When to create the world he deigned, Then was his name proclaimed King. And at the end of days shall he, The dreaded one, still reign alone, Who was, who is, and still will be Unchanged upon his glorious throne. And he is one; his powers transcend, Supreme, unfathomed depth and height, Without beginning, without end, His are dominion, power, and might. My God and my Redeemer he, My Rock in sorrow’s darkest day, A help and refuge unto me, My cup’s full portion when I pray. My soul unto his hand divine Do I commend; I will not fear; My body with it I resign; I dread no evil; God is near. 29 30. THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM CREATION God is the creator of the world; it comes from Him. The prophet Jeremiah makes God’s creative power the distinc- tion between Him, the true God, on the one hand, and the false gods and idols on the other. He calls them vanity, because they have no creative power. God is the true God because He is the creator of the world. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens. He (the true God) has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens ”’ (Jeremiah 10: 11-12). The creative power of God is referred to in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah which says of God that He “has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance ” (Isaiah 40: 12). That God is the creator of the world is taught by the first verse of the Bible: ‘ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The first chapter of Genesis has caused religion a good deal of difficulty, unnecessary difficulty. It says that the earth and sky, the sun, moon and stars, trees and plants, beasts, birds and men were from the beginning as they are now. Scientists, however, say that they are the result of millions of years of development. For those who believe that the Bible contains a perfect revelation from God, that it was, so to speak, dictated by Him, so that every sentence must be true, the discrepancy between science and the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis produces a difficulty. For the Liberal Jewish view, however, of the Bible, which will be fully explained in a later chapter, there is no difficulty at all. It does not require that we accept GOD AND THE UNIVERSE 31 every detailed statement in it as historically or scientifi- cally true. The general underlying idea may be true, but the details in which it is expressed may not be. So Liberal Judaism does not accept the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. It accepts from science the idea that life on the earth developed from lower forms to higher forms, from weaker to stronger, from the crude to the finer. This development shows the constant working of God’s creative power. The world was not created once for all, but is still being created, by God. Instead, therefore, of saying with the author of the first chapter of Genesis that God created all forms of life in their full development during six days somewhere in the remote past, we believe that God has been creating forms of life during millions of years, that He is still creating, and that He will continue to create, until the universe and all things in it have become a perfect expression of His being. The theory of evolution, therefore, which is associated with Darwin, does not deny God’s creative power. It has two parts. The first is that life has evolved from crude and simple beginnings to finer and more varied forms. That part of the theory is older than Darwin. He went further, however, by adding an explanation of how evolution works; he called it ‘‘ the theory of natural selection.” Many forms of life come into being but only those survive which are suited to their environments; they are selected for life. The dinosaurus perished because it did not suit the condi- tions of life, the elephant lives because it does. Not all scientists accept this theory but all agree that there has been evolution. We do not, however, know the “law” of evolution, how it works, what process or method it uses. For religion, as Liberal Jews understand it, evolution is the name for God’s creative work. The *‘ law of evolution,” if we knew it, would describe the method which God uses in creating the world. | 32 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM The first chapter of Genesis contains, or suggests, how- ever, some ideas which have a permanent religious value, such as that ““ man was created in the image of God.” But its most fundamental idea is that the world comes from God. To the question which arose naturally in the minds of men when they began to think, Whence comes the world ? different peoples of antiquity gave different answers. Even the second chapter of Genesis gives a somewhat different account from the first, but both agree that God is the creator of the world. 'That idea gives permanent religious value to the Biblical creation story. It is fundamental. The details in the story have no importance; they belong not to religion but to an ancient, and very much antiquated, attempt at science. We can grasp the religious significance of the creation story in Genesis more clearly if we compare it with the creation story of the Babylonians, from which some scholars think it was derived. 'The Babylonian account of creation tells us that first the gods came into existence. Then the lower gods rebelled against the higher ones. Tiamat, a monster with a brood of monsters, was the leader of the former. She was slain by Marduk, the champion of the higher gods; and out of her body the world was created. Tiamat was the dragon of chaos and darkness; Marduk the god of light and order. In Genesis, there is only one God, not many gods, and He created the world; one power over the whole universe, not a number of contending powers. When, however, we pass from the general and funda- mental principle that underlies the creation story in Genesis to details, we leave the realm of religion and enter the realm of science. And according to science creation is not to be conceived as an act completed in the past, but as a continuous - process, producing growth and development. Evolution ”’ is the name for this creative process. It describes the working of God’s creative power in the universe. GOD AND THE UNIVERSE 33 LLAws oF NATURE Similarly, God’s activity is manifested in all that happens in physical nature. The ways in which it works are des- cribed in what are called “ the laws of nature.” The law of gravity is an example. If we throw a ball into the air we know that it must come down again, drawn back to the earth by a force called gravity. We always expect that to happen because, so far as we know, it always has happened; and the explanation given by science is that the earth attracts objects to itself. It is this force which keeps all things upon the earth from flying off into space. We could find other illustrations of the laws of nature in the ways of growth, whether growth of a human being or the growth of an animal or plant. There are the laws by which chemical elements when combined produce substances; as when two parts of hydrogen mixed with one part of oxygen produce water. It 1s a law that the earth revolves around the sun. These laws describe the ways in which things happen in the physical universe. They are not laws in the sense that they are command- ments. ‘‘ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” is a law which is a commandment. A law of nature is not a matter of ‘‘ought,” it justis. The law of evolution does not say that things ought to develop; it just says that they did, and do, develop. That a plant requires sunlight for its growth is a law which describes what happens. It is the work of science to find out these laws. They have always existed, but the knowledge of them has come to men gradu- ally. Science, by its investigations, studies and experiments, has always striven, and strives now, to learn what they are ; from time to time it has learnt, and is learning, to know more of them. Before the time of Isaac Newton, for example, the law of gravity was not known. Similarly, there was a time when we did not know about evolution. Before the time 34 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM of Copernicus and Galileo, men thought that the sun moved around the earth. We now know that the earth moves round the sun. What science calls the laws of nature religion calls the ways of God; they describe the ways in which He works in the physical universe. There need be no conflict between science and religion. Science is a knowledge of the material universe, religion explains the universe; science describes the physical life of the universe, religion tells whence it comes; science finds out the ways in which things happen, religion says those are the ways in which God works; science shows us the world, religion shows us God, the Creator and Guide of the world. The idea that there is a conflict between science and religion arose largely because of some stories in the Bible, chiefly, besides the story of creation, the stories of miracles. Science says that miracles cannot happen. For the Liberal Jewish view of the Bible its stories of miracles create no difficulty. We need not accept them as historic records of actual events. But because the Bible contains these stories, the question of miracles has intruded itself into religion. MIRACLES The question falls into two parts. In the first place, did the miracles in the Bible happen? Secondly, can miracles happen? If the answer to the first question 1s ‘‘ yes,” then it answers also the second question. But the answer to the first question cannot be an assured ‘‘yes.” 'The Bible is not in its purpose a history-book. There are reasons for thinking that many of the stories in it are unhistorical. There are divergent stories about the same event; they can’t all be historically true. The Bible was written long after some of the events about which it tells, so that the writers had to use stories which for many centuries had been GOD AND THE UNIVERSE 35 handed down simply by word of mouth. Fathers told them to their sons, and they to their sons, and so on. It was only natural that the stories changed during the process. Let me give one example—the story of the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14. The Hebrews left Egypt about 1300 B.C.E. The account of the Exodus, in our Bible, was written probably about goo B.c.k. It obviously combines two older accounts. In one story, when the Hebrews came to the Red Sea a strong east wind driving the waters back from the shore enabled them to cross. The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land.” In the other story, ‘“‘the waters were divided.” “And the - children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.” The first story tells of a fortunate occurrence. It was a thing liable to happen any time, the wind blowing back the water. Fortunately for the Hebrews, according to the first version of the story, it happened when they wanted to cross. The second story, however, tells that something happened which never happened before and has never happened since; something which cannot be explained by the way in which water normally behaves; in fact, the Red Sea, according to that story, behaved in a way in which water probably never could behave, but it did so then because God told it to. It was a miracle. - It is impossible to say what did bappen; but it is evident that Exodus 14 cannot be taken as historical evidence of what happened. This applies to all the stories of miracles that are found in the Bible. It cannot be said that they happened. The second question is: Can miracles happen? Science answers: No; everything that happens must be in accord with, and be explained by, the ““ laws of nature,” an event 36 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM must be the result of preceding causes which will always produce the same effect. That does not exclude unusual events resulting from a rare combination of causes, or even a unique event resulting from such a combination of causes as has never occurred before. Science says: I have never found such an event, and there is no historically reliable record of one. But even if such an event had occurred, so long as 1t could be explained as the result of antecedent physical causes, it would not have been a miracle. If the stories of miracles in the Bible could be accepted as historically accurate, then the events of which they tell would have natural explanations which we have not yet found. The Red Indians did not know the natural explana- tion of an eclipse of the sun, they thought it a miracle. But if there are natural explanations for the miracles in the Bible, then they were not miracles. The essential point about a miracle is that it is an occurrence contrary to the laws of nature, produced by the special intervention of God. For, what is a miracle? The word is now used in different senses. If a man’s motor-car overturned with him in it and he crawled out from under it unhurt, we say it was a miracle. But obviously, that is not the same as if the motor- car suddenly rose into the air and flew. Technically, a _miracle is an incident which seems to violate a law of nature. When there is another known law to explain it, it is not a miracle. An aeroplane, being heavier than air, violates, in flying, the law of gravity; but its power to fly is explained by the laws of mechanics. On the other hand, if a bar of steel suddenly rose and flew, that would be different, there would be nothing in our knowledge to explain it. It is, for example, a law of nature that the earth constantly revolves about the sun. If the earth should for a moment stand still, we should say that it was a miracle, unless we discovered some law which would explain this moment of cessation in- the earth’s motion. GOD AND THE UNIVERSE 94 On the basis of what we believe about the relation of God to the universe, I find it impossible to believe in miracles. God rules the universe by the laws of nature. They describe the ways in which He works in the universe. And God, being perfect, does not change. To the ancients miracles presented no difficulty or problem. They did not know about laws of nature. Men generally believed that God ruled the world by special commands. Things happened because God ordered in each case that it should happen. And therefore something quite unusual could, to their way of thinking, happen just as well as not. If it rained on a Mon- day morning at ten o’clock, it did so (they thought) because God specially commanded that the rain should come down at that time. But science has taught us that there are causes which produce the rain. But whatever be our personal views about miracles, I must stress the fact that religion as interpreted in Liberal Judaism does not require us to believe in them. That does not, however, mean that the stories of miracles which are in the Bible have no value. They cannot be used as history but they have a psychological and religious meaning. They show how great some events and persons were considered. The story of the crossing of the Red Sea shows that the ancient Hebrews considered the Exodus from Egypt so great an event that it could only have come through the special help - of God. And the writers of the Bible used these stories to prove that God was the Guardian and Guide of Israel; that He helped and saved Israel in times of crisis. To them the sign of God’s providence and power was the occurrence of something extraordinary, something miraculous. God’s providence and God’s power are something real to us, too. We, too, see evidence of them in events in Israel’s past history, but we need not surround them with stories of miracles. God’s workings and His power manifest them- selves in the ordinary course of life; and He brings great 38 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM events to pass by means which, though they seem ordinary because they are in accord with the order in the universe which He has ordained, are yet the wonderful tokens of His Providence. A similar significance attaches to the stories of miracles performed by great men. There is a story that Elisha brought back to life a dead child. This and other stories about him show how the people of his time, and of later times, felt his greatness; they saw in it a divine power. For us a great man shows his divine quality in all his good works. There is a poem by an American poet which 1llustrates the point of view I am trying to expound. A pious man, feeling depressed, decides to make a pilgrimage to a distant mountain where, tradition said, God reveals himself. When he reaches the mountain he waits and watches, first eagerly, then patiently, for a miracle; but none comes. As he turns away, disappointed, depressed and sorrowful, with eyes downcast, he sees a small violet. His spirit leaps with joy. Here is a revelation of God. Yet there are plenty of violets around his home; but he did not appreciate them. So he concludes: | Had I but trusted to my nature And had faith in lowly things, Thou Thyself wouldst then have taught me And set free my spirit’s wings. The stories of miracles arose out of the feeling of God’s rule over the universe and His guidance for men. But His rule over the universe 1s to us manifested in the ordinary ways of nature—as they were to the author of Psalm 104 and the Prophet of Isaiah 40. God’s power in creating and ruling the universe is to be seen in all things of the world, whether they be great or small. There is not a creature in whom there is not a sign of God’s working, for all the life GOD AND THE UNIVERSE 39 in the universe, and all the power by which that life is sustained, guided and developed, all come from God. “ Why ” it is asked in a passage in the Talmud, * did God reveal himself to Moses in a bramble bush, the lowliest, or poorest, of shrubs ? Would a fruit tree not have been more appropriate?”’ 'The answer is: To show that there is no place without the Shechinah (the presence of God),” that ‘there 1s no place in the world where He is not. He fills it all so that all manifests Him. The life that is in the tiny blade of grass, or in the little flower, even as the life that is in man, or as the light that streams from the sun, all alike are from God; and the power which makes that tiny blade of grass to grow, and that tiny flower to bloom and blossom, is the same power that makes man live, grow, think and achieve. God’s life and God’s activity are in all things in the universe; in accordance with His laws, in obedience to His rule, they come into being and live. It is a teaching of Judaism that the world, because it emanates from God and is the scene of His activity, is a good world. The idea is found in the first chapter of Genesis. ‘“ And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). It is difficult to perceive the goodness of the world in every one of its details; but that did not, and does not, prevent the Jewish affirmation that it is a good world because it is God’s world. | CHAPTER V dHE PROBLEM OF EVIL As in other fields of human thought so in the field of religion there are a number of problems; and as in philosophy and science so in religion, some of the problems remain unsolved. Human knowledge is necessarily limited. Though man has in the course of his progress discovered much about the universe, he cannot hope to attain a complete knowledge of it, which means a knowledge of all truth. The universe 1s so vast, life so profound, and truth so unlimited, that it would be presumptuous of men to think that they could ever know everything. However large the field of human knowledge becomes, there will always remain a field of human ignorance. However much men learn, there must remain some things which they do not know. There is, therefore, no department of human thought free from problems which have not yet been solved. In religion that applies to the problem of evil. What is the problem of evil? It can be put simply into a question. Why is there evil in the universe? Since God is perfect goodness and since He i1s the Author, Ruler and Guide of the universe, why are there some things in it which are not good, creatures and events which, so far as we know, are evil? A word of caution must be interposed here. Not all which we call evil necessarily 1s evil. We judge things ~ from our human point of view; that is inevitable. But we ~ have to allow for the possibility that many things in the uni- verse should not, and cannot, be judged from the human point of view. _ We call earthquakes evil. Certainly, the suffering they 40 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 41 cause 1s evil. About that there can be no question. But does that justify us in calling the earthquake evil? The tiger and the lion are dangerous to men, but does that justify us in calling them evil? But we are, I think, justified in asking why there are forces in nature which cause destruction, like floods, storms and earthquakes; dangerous beasts, like lions and tigers; parasites, like the ivy which, clinging round the tree, kills it, and the disease-germs which attack men and animals. We ask why do they exist, because the destruction and sufferings which they cause do not seem to fit in with the idea that God is the Creator and Ruler of the world. There may be a good side to them ; in some cases we can see it, but in many we do not know what good they do. But the suffer- ing they cause would still remain a problem, though obviously not so acute, if they also performed a beneficial service. In the sphere of human life, the problem of evil is raised by two facts: suffering and sin. Why do men suffer and why do they sin? How can the existence of sin and suffering be reconciled with the rule of God? The problem of human suffering is treated dramatically in the Book of Job. Job suffers a series of misfortunes, culminating in a terrible physical disease. And he complains bitterly: Why do I suffer? 'There was a belief at one time that suffering and misfortune resulted from sin; so the friends who come to console Job suggest that he must have sinned to suffer so much. Job, however, protests that he did not sin; and he adds that even if he did sin, he should not have been made to endure such terrible affliction. The author of the main part of the book offers no answer to Job’s question. He makes Job hold on to his faith in God in spite of his suffering. He seems to suggest that Job needs that faith all the more because he suffers. Someone who added the Elihu speeches (chapters 32 to 37) goes further and even suggests that the suffering, far from being the result of sin, shows the opposite. “ Whom the Lord loves 42 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM he chastises.” He may have meant, what is often true in individual cases, that suffering purifies the character or personality of the sufferer, generating strength in the spirit and driving it to high attainment. He who can endure suffering courageously comes out of the ordeal, like gold which passes through the fire, more pure. The author of the closing chapters of the drama—it may have been the author of the main part of the book, or an- other writer—puts speeches (chapters 38—41) into the mouth of God which answer Job’s question simply by saying that there are many things in the universe which we cannot understand. We do not understand the reasons for all the natural phenomena, we do not comprehend the way natural forces work. In magnificent poetry he describes some ordinary facts in the universe which present a mystery. Where is the way to the dwelling of light, And as for darkness, where is the place thereof? [Job 38:19.] By what way is the light parted, Or the east wind scattered upon the earthp Who hath cleft a channel for the water-flood, Or a way for the lightning of the thunder; To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; On the wilderness, wherein there is no man; To satisfy the waste and desolate ground; And to cause the tender grass to spring forth? Hath the rain a father? -Or who hath begotten the drops of dew? [Job 38:24-28.] And here is the description of the battle-horse among the mysteries of nature: Hast thou given the horse his might? Hast thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane ? Hast thou made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; He goeth out to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not dismayed; FTHE PROBLEM OF EVIL 43 Neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, The flashing spear and the javelin. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage; Neither believeth he that it is the voice of the trumpet. As oft as the trumpet soundeth he saith, Aha! And he smelleth the battle afar off, The thunder of the captains, and the shouting. [Job 39: 19-25.] The author of this part of the Book of Job answers Job’s question, Why do I suffer? with ‘“There is no knowing, suffering is part of the mystery in a mysterious universe.” Men must trust that whatever God does is good and right. This may be the only possible conclusion for us. On the other hand, for some of the sufferings in human life we can see a partial explanation. Sin and wrong-doing frequently cause it. No act and no thought can be separated from its effect. An act or thought may have two kinds of effects. ‘A wrong act may bring physical suffering on the doer. Plea- sures that are wrong, or excessive indulgence in any kind of pleasure, may ruin the health of the body. But even when there are no visible physical or material evil consequences to the doer of an evil deed, there are certainly evil consequences of another kind. 'To cheat engenders the quality of dis- honesty in the cheater, which grows by every act of cheating. The character of a man is vitiated, if his words, thoughts or actions are evil. An act or thought always has an inner effect, it does something to the inner life of the doer or thinker. The result of a bad deed or bad thought is badness. A good deed or good thought increases inner goodness; it makes one better. This helps us to understand the truth in the answer sug- gested in the Elihu speeches, “ Whom the Lord loves, He chastises.” Suffering helps men to become stronger in their moral natures, and to develop their good qualities. The Rabbis likened the people of Israel to an olive. The harder the olive is pressed, the more pure is the oil it produces. 44 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM So, said they, with the Jews, the harder they were persecuted and oppressed the more faithful were they to God; they were made better by their sufferings. Similarly, all men can be purified, made better and finer, by suffering. It can help them to look deeper into the meaning of human life, and to see more clearly the right way to live. Men can make them- selves better when they take to heart the misfortunes that befall them. But they must, in their hearts, have trust in God; faith that He is good. An act or thought may also do good or ill to others. The sin of one man may hurt others. Very often the suffering which follows wrong-doing falls apparently not on the wrong-doer but on others. The nation which causes a war suffers itself, it is true, but it also brings much suffering on the peaceful nations whom it attacks. The same happens in the lives of individuals. The deeper consequence of sin falls upon the wrong-doer, but the physical harm may fall on others. The tyrant who oppresses his people vitiates his own moral nature but he causes much suffering to his people. That seems at first sight unfair, unjust, but if we look at it in relation to the whole scheme of human life we can, I think, understand it. Men are related to one another by a number of bonds; they are not just isolated individuals, but members of a society. Nations, too, are not just isolated groups but parts of humanity. Therefore, what affects one part must neces- sarily affect also other parts. Just as in the human body, damage to one limb produces an effect on the whole system, so in the society of men or of nations, what happens to one member affects the others. There is what we might call a law of solidarity. Solidarity means the relation between a number of individuals which constitutes them into a unity so that they are affected by one another. Through that relation we derive individually a number of benefits. One member of a group can, by his goodness, THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 45 wisdom or skill, benefit its other members. That, we think, is right, fair and just. But if we are to have relations with one another through which we can pass benefits to one another, obviously one who does wrong can use those relations to hurt others. If we are to have, and we must have, governments in order that men may live together in peace and strive together for righteousness, then it becomes possible for a wicked ruler to use the power of government for evil ends. It would be a pleasanter world if men could do good to one another but not harm. But such a world is impossible. To do good to one another, men must be related to one another. That relation gives a wrong-doer the possibility to hurt others. It happens not infrequently that the good may suffer most from the wrongs committed by others. That is the idea which underlies the famous poems about the Suffering Servant in Isaiah (42: 1—4, 49: 1-6; 50: 4-9 and 52: 13 to 53: 12). They describe one who 1s pure and righteous, suffering quietly and patiently under insult and persecution, because he is the Servant of God; one who, because he was a prophet, suffered martyrdom. The result, however, of his teaching and suffering will be that many will be brought to God. He suffers in the service of God. The poems may refer (1) to some individual whom the writer knew, possibly Jeremiah, whose experiences fit the description; or (2) to the pious, or prophetic, section among the Jews; or (3) to the whole of Israel, who were at the time suffering the shame and hardship of exile in Babylonia. Most scholars adopt the third explanation. Some say the poems refer to the actual Israel; others say that the poet had in his mind the ideal Israel. In our present context the poems interest us for what they say about suffering. It sometimes attends the service of God. Jeremiah had learnt that fact from his experience (Jeremiah 12), and the author of the Servant poems elaborates Nt 46 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM the idea that suffering may, often does, accompany the service of God. 'The history of the Jews supplies an out- standing example of suffering in the service of God. It was given to the Jews to bring to the world a knowledge of God and His law. To do that they had to maintain their religious distinctiveness, they had to be different from other people in religion. Because of their distinctiveness, they were made to suffer. They who would serve God must be prepared to suffer, and often do suffer. Thatisafact of experience. The good often suffer at the hands of wrong-doers because of their good- ness. But goodness is a service to God, so that the suffering helps their service; not because, as some think, the suffering of one can atone for the sins of others, but because the suffering of God’s servants shows their firm loyalty to Him, setting it off like a dark background to a light. By suffering for their faith, the Jews have collectively shown how much their faith means to them, and how powerful that faith is in them. : Jews individually have, under the guidance of their religion, faced personal afflictions with the simple faith that if God allows them to suffer, it must be right. Moreover, there is the belief often expressed in Jewish writings that what seems evil would show itself to be good, if we knew all. Pious Jews used to accept personal misfortunes with the prayer: May this, too, be for good. Spiritual and moral evil is the most difficult part of the problem of evil. Why do men sin, and do wrong? That question will have to be discussed when we consider the relation between God and man. The answer I shall suggest will be that human sin 1s a concomitant of human freedom. Man is free. He is not perhaps completely free to choose his conduct and direct his thoughts and feelings; but he is very largely free. In giving man freedom, God has limited His own power. He is ready to inspire and guide men, but THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 47 freedom means that they may also rebel against God, with- out God interfering. 'The evil which sinful men cause in the world i1s, therefore, the price we pay for man’s moral freedom. 'To fight against evil and for the good is to use the freedom God has given men in His service. It 1s, however, necessary to recall, in order to keep the right balance of thought, what I pointed out in a previous chapter.” It is not only the evil in the world that calls for explanation; goodness, too, must be explained. The fact that we ask why is there wrong in the world shows that we take the good for granted; we expect goodness in the world. Why? The fact that we are disturbed by the existence of destructive forces shows that we expect the universe to be full of beneficial forces, forces that create and enrich life. Why? When we ask: Why are men allowed to do wrong? we imply that we expect them to be good and do good. Why? 'Have we the right to expect it? Only if we believe in God. The expectation of goodness in the universe implies faith in God. CHAPTER VI GOD AND MAN FroM the belief in God there emerges the Jewish conception of man. Itisinvolved in the relation between God and man. It is closer, and goes deeper, than the relation between God and the physical universe. God, the creator of the universe is the creator of man, for man is a part of the universe. Man’s life, man’s power and man’s faculties, all come from God. But when we speak of the creation of man by God we mean something more than the formation or development of his body. For, although man’s life has a physical form, 1t is not all physical, it is more than a body; he has a spirit which thinks, feels, wills, believes, trusts and aspires. It is - the most personal part of us; it is the innermost part of our life. Defined negatively, it is that aspect of man’s life which is incorporeal (z.e. has no body), though it uses the body and its powers. Defined positively, however, it is that part of man which includes his thoughts, his hopes, his resolutions, his goodness, his ideals and his faith. These constitute his personality. 'They show themselves in actions, but they are our selves. The spiritual life as we know it is closely associated with the physical life. The two together constitute the life of a man; both come from God, and in both we perceive the existence of that which is divine. Both are sacred. The soul is holy, so is the body; for both contain the life which God gives us. But it is the spirit of man, the essence of him which we call personality, which gives him his special re- lation to God, the relation described in the assertion that 48 GOD AND MAN " 49 “ man was created in the image of God,” and in the declara- tion “Ye are children of the Lord your God” (Deuter- onomy 14: I). The spirit of man is the most nearly divine part of him, it is the aspect of his life nearest to God. It represents God, expresses His being, more nearly than the rest of the uni- verse. God is in the universe, manifesting Himself by His activity. In man, however, He manifests Himself. An old Jewish prayer begins: ‘‘ The soul which thou hast given me.” ‘“ The spirit of man,” says Proverbs, ‘“‘is the lamp of the Lord, searching out his innermost parts”’ (Proverbs 20: 27). What the prayer meant by * soul”” and the author of Proverbs by “spirit” we express most often by the word ° personahty it means the essence of a man’s being, that which he is in himself. The spirit in man makes him kin with God. Several important consequences for man follow from his ~ relation to God. In the first place it gives him a high value. The spirit of man makes him great, that is, valuable in the sight of God. At the same time, it makes him humble. ““When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy hands, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him but little lower than the angels, and crownest him with glory and honour >’ (Psalm 8:3°5 The) spirit of man probably distinguishes him from the other creatures upon earth. The desires, sensibilities and feelings which belong to his body, he shares with the animals. An animal has the same desire for food, and feels pain when it is hurt. But the spiritual life is most highly developed in man. It is that which makes him the chief creature of God. Whatever of greatness or superiority there is in him, he possesses because of his spiritual endowment. There are creatures which are more mighty than he, like the lion; swifter than he, like the eagle; bigger than he, like 50 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM the elephant. There is perhaps no physical quality in which he is not excelled by one or another animal. But he is higher than the animals because he can think, he can hope, he can know God. Here, too, lies his power, which oftentimes gives him dominion over creatures and forces that are physically more mighty than he. Because of the spirit in man and the power it gives him, we may say of him, with the Psalmist, that he is ““ but little lower than the angels.” Yet we must not forget that great as man may be when compared with other creatures, he yet falls far, far below his Creator, and he is far below what God would have him be. Though his spirit makes him the highest creature we know, he is far from that perfection to which God would have him attain. He is sinful; he is weak; he often does wrong; he does not always do what is right. Judaism calls attention to the sin, weakness, and smallness of man. It is realistic, it looks at life as it is. The frailty and the sin of man are facts. It is necessary for men to realise their personal faults and sinfulness, and the general weakness and sinfulness of man, in order that they may be impelied to strive for a closer relation with God. But at the same time Judaism stresses the greatness of man derived from his relation to God. He has the spirit of God in him. IMMORTALITY The high valuation of man derived from his relation to God is expressed also in another way. He shares in eternal life, he has an eternal quality. If we should argue in the form of logic, we should say: God is eternal life; man is related to God; therefore, man has within him something of eternal life. Eternal life, as I tried to explain in Chapter I1I, means iife which is outside space and time, life in a form which cannot be measured or described by standards of space and time. ‘“ God is eternal Life ”’ means that no terms of space GOD AND MAN 51 or time can be applied to Him. He is all being; and being includes space and time, so that it is greater than all space and time. Of God we cannot say He is here or there, now or then; we can only say He is. So by eternal life in man, we mean that phase of his life which 1s not measured by the passing of time or the limits of space. There is a part of our life which is measured by time and limited by space. I can measure my work by time and locate it in space. I can say that I work so many hours at such and such a place. I can say of my body that it is so many feet high, that it lives in a definite place, and that it lives for so many years. But we have seen that there is something more to human life than the body and that which is associated with it. Now, is there not something within every one of us, which, if it sought to express itself in words, would just say, “I live” ? We could not say that it lives in one particular place and not in another, that it measures so many inches or feet, or that it has any particular length of time. It just lives. Because we cannot say of this phase of our life, as we can say of our body, that it is confined to a specific place, and lasts a definite length of time, we recognise in it the quality of eternal life. Take thought, for example. Where is the place of a thought? What are its dimensions? What is its length in inches or in minutes? These questions seem irrelevant. While I am in this place where I am now writing, my thought can be in China or Timbuctoo. And in a space of time which the clock would measure by seconds, I can think of a month or a year, and in the present I can think of the past or future. Thought is, however, only one manifestation of the spirit of man. Faith is perhaps the activity in which it comes nearest to showing its full character. And faith cannot be measured by a clock or foot-rule. Itisabove space and time. Moreover, the spirit has in itself a kind of consciousness of eternity. It knows that it is not physical, it knows that 52 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM though it seems to live in the body, it is more than the body. It transcends, rises above, physical limitations. Out of this consciousness arises the hope of immortality. It is the hope that death is not the end of human life, that a man lives on, in some way, after his bodily existence has ended. It springs from the belief that, because of our relation to God, we ‘share in eternal life. For death is a physical phenomenon, it cannot apply to that aspect of our life which is not phys1cal but spiritual. The hope of immortality does not mean that we live two separate lives, one before death, and one after. There is not a life after death separated from the life on earth. The life after death continues the earthly life, so that we are even now and here living the eternal life. Man’s life on earth shares 1n eternal life, it has an eternal quality. Some people believe that it is possible for the living to communicate with the dead. That belief is called spiritual- ism. If, indeed, there was clear evidence of this communica- tion, it would prove that the dead were still living. But there has been no such evidence. Even if there were, it would have but a limited value. The important thing is not that men may live after death, but that their life has an eternal quality. The hope of immortality rests ulti- mately on the belief that men are so related to God that human personality partakes of His eternal life. The hope of immortality can be, and has been, a source of consolation and encouragement. In a play called The Blue Bird, the author, M. Maeterlinck, leads two children, who are in search of happiness, to the entrance of a cemetery. Though at first afraid to enter, they finally manage to pluck up enough courage to do so. When they step inside the gate, lo and behold, there are no tombs, no graves and no monuments. There is a large garden of beautiful flowers, so that the children are made to exclaim: “ There is no death.” 'That puts the belief in immortality in its simplest GOD AND MAN 53 form. But its full meaning lies in the eternal quality which it ascribes to man. It belongs to the high valuation which religion puts on man as a consequence of the belief in God. It is not certain whether the belief in immortality occurs in the Bible. In the earlier parts of the Bible there is the belief in a shadowy, and seemingly empty kind of life after death in Sheol (which, like the Greek ““ Hades,” just means a world under the earth). In one or two places in the later parts of the Bible, there are references to the resurrection of the dead. In Daniel 12: 2 the reference is clear. In Isaiah 26: 19 it is not clear whether the writer intends what he says to be taken literally or figuratively. “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise.” He may just mean that the people will revive after a time of physical or spiritual depression. The belief in the resurrec- tion means the belief that the bodies of the dead will come to life again. It came to be associated with the coming of the Messiah. And it is still a belief of Orthodox Judaism that when the Messiah comes, all the dead will come to life again on earth. (Orthodox Christianity has a similar belief.) The belief in immortality, however, means that life con- tinues after death. In Orthodox Judaism (and orthodox Christianity), it is added to the belief in the resurrection of the body; but Liberal Judaism holds only the belief in immortality. Some Biblical scholars think that Psalms 49 and 73 refer to it. But its first clear statement in Jewish literature occurs in a book in the Apocrypha written about 150 B.C.E.,, The Wisdom of Solomon, which contains the famous passage: ' The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God. And no torment shall touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died; and their departure was accounted to be their hurt, and their journeying away from us to be their ruin; But they are in peace. N 54 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM For even if in the sight of men they be punished, Their hope is full of immortality; And having borne a little chastening, they shall receive great good; Because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of himself. Life becomes rich with meaning and full of significance when once we realise that it is eternal. 'That part of our existence which consists of actions and thoughts, which come and go, must be judged by their relation to the eternal life in us. Truth and falsehood are no longer merely momentary incidents, right and wrong are not merely acts done and over for all time. We cannot say of anything, ““ It is done, gone and forgotten.” 'To put it in other words, the hope of immortality possesses ethical significance. If the life, the personality, of man persists (endures untouched by death), we must all the more zealously aim that that life, or personality, attain to its highest possible excellence. THE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF MAN From the Jewish valuation of man, derived from his rela- tion to God, issues the principle of respect for human personality. All human beings have inalienable rights, rights to which they are entitled as human beings, regardless of position or wealth, and, in some matters such as adequate food, regardless even of ability. It is the principle which is the ground of political democracy and requires social justice. Men have human rights because they are children of God. A further consequence of man’s relation to God is in his responsibilities; it imposes duties on men. Just as man’s relation to God gives all men individually inalienable rights, so it lays on them inescapable obligations. Being the children of God, they must strive to be like the Father. “ Holy shall ye be, for I the Lord your God am holy ” (Leviticus 19: 2). GOD AND MAN 55 Thus Judaism has made ‘‘ imitatio dei ” (imitation of God) the ideal for human conduct. The spiritual and moral duties of men emanate from the nature of God. God is righteous, therefore men must practise righteousness. And when we ask what is righteousness, the answer is: the kind of actions which can be ascribed to God. Thatis right which, with sincere conviction and earnest thought, we believe fits God’s nature or is in accordance with His will. It is true that we cannot know for certain about His nature, nor can we know for certain what accords with His will; but we must try our best to find out by the exercise of our reason and conscience; and what we find out must be for us the guide to the good life. We are not, however, left only to our own resources. The lives of the best men and the instruction of great teachers, embodied in literature and tradition, especially for us Jews in Jewish literature and in the moral tradition of Judaism, help us to see what is the right and best way of living, so as to make our lives accord as much as possible ~ with the will of God. ’ The reason for the obligations of men may be put in another way. They belong to God’s rule over the universe, which naturally involves man; but in his case it imposes not only physical laws to which he inevitably conforms, but also spiritual and ethical laws which he should obey because of his higher, or spiritual, nature. God rules the physical uni- verse in ways which are called laws of nature. In God’s rule over man, there are laws of another kind, which He has ordained, and which man must obey. They are the laws of truth and righteousness. They, too, belong to God’s rule over the universe. But man has been left free to obey or disobey these laws. In the case of physical laws there is no choice. Everything in the universe just follows them. Men cannot choose whether they would obey the law of gravity or not. They just do in the same way that the stone obeys it. In fact, 56 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM natural laws are in a sense not laws at all. They do not call for conscious obedience. They do not say what ought to be done, but they describe what happens. Moral laws are different. They tell what ought to be done; they call for conscious obedience. A man should obey them. But he can disobey them. ‘ Thou shalt not kill ” is a command- ment, a law for human life, which men should obey, but they can violate it. God’s rule over man differs, then, in an important respect from His rule over the physical universe. The law of gravity is an example of His rule over the phy- sical universe, the Ten Commandments belong to His rule over man. If, then, we ask “ Why should we do that which is right and avoid that which is wrong? ’ the answer is: ““ It is our duty, imposed upon us by the rule of God.” Heis a righteous God; He is a God of right, Himself doing that which is perfectly right, and commanding men to strive to do that which is right. There is a further point about man’s spiritual and moral obligations entailed by his relation to God. By fulfilling them, men realise that relation in their personal lives. We come nearer to God by obeying His law, by ‘‘ imitating Him, by living in accordance with His rule and nature. By doing right we put ourselves in line with Him. Ethical conduct leads to Him. It is a way of atonement. By our personal spiritual and moral striving we identify ourselves with God. The law of God expresses His nature, it em- bodies His will. It is, therefore, the link between Him and us. If we follow it, we get to Him. 'To strive for holiness, righteousness and truth brings men individually nearer to God. At the same time, it brings out the best that is in them. By living in accordance with the rule of God, they realise themselves, attaining the best kind of life, and developing the potentialities with which man is endowed through his kinship with God. CHAPTER VII kY THE GUIDANCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY IT is a teaching of Judaism that God guides men. That means that humanity as a whole has in the course of its life, in its history, been guided by God; that groups of people, like nations, may in their collective lives be guided by Him; and that individual human beings can be guided by Him in their thought and actions. In human history, in the life of mankind, from its begin- nings to the present time, the guidance of God is evidenced in the general advance from crude to more civilised ways of living, from primitive to higher ideas and standards of con- duct, from the original to the developed state of man. The progress has not been steady, there have been ‘ back- slidings,”” outbreaks of savagery in civilised times, reversions to lower standards even after higher ones had been learnt. Sometimes a later age has appeared worse than a preceding one. Some people would say that of our time. Such periods, or events, break, but neither stop nor alter, the general movement of human history in a way which shows progress. In some fields the progress has been steady. Men now know more about the universe, more not only than was known by cave-men, but more even than was known by the philosophers of ancient Greece. That does not mean that we are wiser than those philosophers, wiser in the sense that we have a greater capacity for thought, that we can think “better than they. It means only that the amount of human knowledge has grown. Many of the things taught to chil- dren in the science lessons at school were unknown to Plato, but he remains one of the greatest thinkers of all time. ¢ 57 58 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM The development of machinery may be included in the growth of knowledge, being the result of new facts discovered about the physical universe. "The development of wireless, for example, began with the discovery of air-waves. Inven- tions come from knowledge. A good many people take the inventions themselves as evidence of progress. "Their judgment may be justified, i£ not completely, yet in large measure. New inventions may signify an advance in human life. It is, however, difficult to decide whether they do or not because it is difficult to fix a test of progress. Mere movement, like that of a cat running round in circles, is obviously not progress. Progress means movement towards a goal. So we are brought up against the question: What is the goal of human- ity, what is the right aim for human life ? Philosophers have argued much about the question without reaching any con- clusions on which all, or any large number of them, agree. Religions, too, give diverse answers. '"The answer which Judaism gives consists of two parts. '"The first is that men should attain to the full development of the spiritual and moral possibilities which inhere in human nature because of its divine quality. In other words, it might be said, daringly but reverently, that the goal for human beings individually is to be as much like God as is humanly possible. '"That is the first part of the goal for human life afırmed by Judaism. The second part applies to human beings collectively, to humanity; it is expressed in the idea of the Messianic age. It is the hope that a time will come when all men and nations will serve God, and when human societies will, by their Justice, righteousness, and, in general, their respect for human rights and fulfilment of human duties, conform fully to the will of God, obey His rule and attain to ‘““the Kingdom of God.” To decide, then, whether humanity has progressed, we have to decide whether men and human society are spiritually THE GUIDANCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY 59 and morally better than they were in the past. The un- doubted increase in knowledge clearly shows progress of one kind. It is progress in the acquisition of truth; the spirit of man has grown. But has it made him any better or any happier? Whether men to-day are happier than men in the past has, however, nothing to do with the question of progress. Primitive man was probably, in a sense, happier than ctvilised man, but in that sense the cow is happier still. It has few desires and it can feel only actual physical pain. Mechanical inventions do not necessarily increase happiness. On the contrary some of them have been used to bring greater woe. Nor can it be said of knowledge that it necessarily brings happiness. If happiness were the aim of human life, then it would be more than doubtful whether civilisation means progress. But it does mean a greater and finer capacity for joy—the joy of knowledge, art, literature. That entails, however, a greater possibility of pain. The finest love gives the highest joy, but it can cause the deepest pain. Civilisation means a keener sensitivity. Civilised man is more sensitive than primitive man. He has a finer spiritual and moral constitution. He has a greater potential of happiness, but that involves a greater sensitivity to pain, an enlarged danger of suffering. In some fields of human endeavour, there is no evidence of progress over long stretches of history; at times there may even have been degeneration or retrogression. In painting, for example, the works of Titian, Michelangelo, or Raphael, remain supreme. There have been very few, if any, since their time, and there are none in our time, to equal them. The significance of that fact in its bearing on the belief in progress is reduced, however, when we remem- ber that genius is an individual endowment, a phenomenon, therefore, which may be unrelated to ages or periods, cropping up, as it were, at any time. 60 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM In philosophy, art and literature, the human race does not seem to have progressed in many centuries. The Bible as literature, Plato in philosophy, Greek sculpture, the paintings of the Italian masters, the plays of Shakespeare, remain unsurpassed in their several kinds. But let us take a longer view and compare the art of Europe from the Greeks on- ward with the scratchings of the first cave-men on the walls of their caves. Their attempts to draw forms are interesting, but in beauty they fall far below the pictures of Raphael and Rembrandt. Compared with primitive man, civilised man has a higher developed sense of beauty. There is still a further fact to consider. Though some of the highest works of art and literature were produced many centuries ago, an increasing number of people have in the course of time learned to appreciate them; and that, too, is progress. In human knowledge the progress is even clearer. Not only has it grown, but it is also more diffused, more men share in it. 'That is spiritual progress. For knowledge means the possession of truth. . When we know more, we have more truth in our minds. That makes knowledge very important in itself. And that is why increase in knowledge means spiritual progress. The development of religion shows another aspect of spiritual progress. It is a long story and it does not by any means show a steady line of advance. But again the religion of civilised men is vastly higher than the religion of primi- tive men. The fact that many people in our time seem to have no religion might be used for an argument that the world is less religious than it was. It is impossible to say whether that is actually so or not. It is true that religious services are not so well attended as they used to be. But that may be because some people who believe in religion do not think it necessary to attend services. That is an unfor- tunate mistake; a mistake because worship is important for religion; unfortunate, because it weakens religion. But THE GUIDANCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY 61 people who do not attend public worship may yet adhere to religion in their personal lives. The fact remains, however, that the 1deas and institutions of religion have developed in a way which may rightly be called progressive. The ideas of Judaism and Christianity to-day about God, about the way to worship Him, about the nature of man and his destiny, are the result of a long development, a development from crude rites and primitive beliefs to rites that accord with civilised life and ideas that fit in with developed knowledge. So we have in the changes which have come in religion during the whole course of human history another example of spiritual progress. Human history presents a clear record of moral and social progress. A few specific examples must suffice to support this statement. Slavery is one. Until the nineteenth cen- tury, slavery was generally approved. The ancient Jews, as is shown in some Biblical laws and in some of the utterances of the Prophets, were uneasy about it, but they tolerated it while restricting it in various ways. The Greeks, on the other hand, looked on it as a normal, valuable and good institution of human society. Plato prescribes it for his ideal State. Now the general judgment of the human race condemns 1t. At first, a few religious and moral leaders urged its abolition. Wilberforce persuaded Parliament in 1833 to forbid the slave-trade in the West Indies. In the United States the negro slaves were freed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Now everybody recognises that slavery is morally wrong. In that respect human morality shows a decided advance. Take another example. In the early part of the nine- teenth century, young children, sometimes only nine years old, worked in factories and mines, as long as twelve or even fourteen hours a day, for a few shillings a week. Now the law forbids employing children under fourteen or making those who may be employed work too many hours a day. 62 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM The change shows a moral development. What was once thought right is now condemned as wrong. 'That implies a more sensitive conscience, a finer moral sense. These illustrations, and others like them, prove that humanity has advanced morally in the course of its history and even in recent centuries. 'The progress has been clear | though not steady. But what about the social and moral evils in the present life of humanity—wars, slums, cruelty and poverty? In the first place, let us remember we are not asking whether the world is perfect; of course it isn’t, it has a long way to go to get anywhere near being perfect; but we are asking whether it is better than it was. The evils in the world are not new, they have always existed. Furthermore— and this, I think, is most important—our attitude to them has ‘changed; they are not now accepted as inevitable. On the contrary, it is generally agreed that we must work to eliminate them. That was not always so. War used to be accepted as a normal element in the life of mankind. It is true the Jewish Prophets looked forward to a time when the nations * shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”” 'They recognised the evil of war, but not only before, and in, their time, but long, long after them, men generally continued to recognise war as a normal function of nations. Plato includes in his ideal State a permanent class of warriors with the function not only to defend their country when attacked but to attack other countries for the sake of gain. Down to comparatively recent centuries wars of aggression were a common feature of European life; the nations guilty of them were not condemned as immoral. Now they are condemned, and attempts are being made to stop them by an international organisation. That does not necessarily mean that all wars will be prevented. The police - do not prevent all burglaries and murders. So it may never THE GUIDANCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY 63 be possible to prevent war completely, but the efforts to prevent it show a change in the moral judgment on it. The two terrible wars in our time have perhaps more than any other cause made many people doubt whether the human race has progressed morally. The evil of war has even been magnified in our time by the advance of science which has put into the hands of men weapons with a terrible power of destruction. The atomic bomb has made war an im- measurably greater evil than it was; but at the same time we must attend to the fact that the moral judgment on war has changed. 'The idea of the Jewish Prophets has prevailed. Most people now want to stop wars. In the same way most people want to eliminate poverty and its evil consequences. All this shows moral progress. The examples of great cruelty which we have witnessed in our time do not refute that conclusion. In the first place, when we say that the world is morally better than it was, we do not necessarily mean that every human being rises to the highest moral level. It would be unfair, and unscientific, to judge all humanity by those who behave like savages, just as it is unfair to judge a nation by its criminals. More- over, the horrible cruelty of the Nazis evoked not only condemnation but also heroic resistance. The world as a whole follows higher ideas and ways. Many more examples could be adduced of progress in morality, progress both in thought and practice. Have there been any changes for the worse to counterbalance them ? I doubt it. Of course, people who like the old caste system in this and other countries think, because it has been, or is being, broken up, that the world is * going to the dogs.” They considered it a part of God’s scheme for the universe. At one time members of *‘ the lower classes ”’ thanked Him “ for the station in which He had put them.” Now they refuse to accept the position of “ class inferiority,” inferior- ity by birth. Those who benefited by the old class-system & : g 4 64. THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM regret the change; and others may, without any selfish con- siderations, feel that much good has been lost by its going; but I think that most of us would agree that the moral gain is much greater than the loss. The wrong and evil in the world stick out in such a way. as to make people forget the righteousness and goodness in it. Taking a long and wide view of humanity and human history, we are amply justified in concluding from all the facts that there has been progress in human morality. The conclusion is supported by the fact that many people are, on moral, including social, grounds, not satisfied with the world asitis. They say that itis not good enough and that we ought to make it better. It is a desire for, and shows an impulse to, moral progress. It may reasonably be taken as evidence of the progressive moral tendency, or urge, in human life. There is still much in the life of the human race which is wrong but the wrongs which remain should not make us forget the wrongs that have been eliminated. There is still much that is good and right which has to be established, but the good we lack must not be allowed to obscure the good which has been achieved. Let me recapitulate to this point. We are looking for the guidance, or influence, of God in human life; and we looked for it first in the whole history of the human race. In that history we found clear evidence of changes, or developments, in several respects. Knowledge has grown greatly; moral ideas have so changed that some things, like slavery, which once were accepted as normal, came to be condemned as morally wrong; ideas of beauty have developed; and the ideas of religion have been freed from the crudities, and worse, of its primitive origins. We call all these changes and developments progress because they mark steps towards the goal which religion assigns to human life, the attainment of the spiritual and moral best. They spell progress only if we use the alphabet of religion. If we accept religious standards, THE GUIDANCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY 65 with the goal which religion sets for human life, then the development of the moral judgments of humanity and the attainment of spiritual growth in man signify progress. Even, howerver, if all the facts which I have adduced as evidence of human progress, be rejected, the rejection could apply only to the recorded history of the human race; there would still remain all the differences between civilised man and primitive man to prove that the human race has pro- gressed, spiritually, morally, intellectually, and in the manner of living. And when we try to appraise the course of human life in relation to the scheme of the universe, we must not only compare this year with the last, this century with the last, but this millenium with the millenium before it, and this age with the ages that have preceded it. When we want to find the direction in which humanity is moving we must compare where it is now with where it was not only in the times of the Borgias and Alexander the Great, but also with where it was in the time of the cave-man. '"T'he shorter comparisons may not always present clear evidence of progress, the longer comparisons leave no doubt about it. But are we justified in saying that this progress shows the guidance of God? Logically, it follows from the belief that God is the ruler of the universe that the processes in it show His activity. But there are also other reasons. Why should humanity progress spiritually, morally, and intellectually? We accept it as the right thing; we expect it. But what sense is there in it, why does it happen, what impels it, to what purpose or end is it directed? It is, of course, possible to answer all these questions with: ‘ We don’t know.’” But that answer won’t do. Because we have to know how to live. It may be good enough for a philoso- pher in his study to come to the conclusion that he can’t find the answers to all questions, but when he leaves his study and goes out into the world, there are some questions he must answer. He can’t just say ‘‘ I don’t know whether c* 66 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM I am going in the right direction.” We are all individually involved in the question about the reason for human pro- gress and its goal. We must have a conviction about the answer, in order that we may fit our individual lives and aims into the scheme of human life. In other words we must know how to live. God is the answer to all the questions about the cause and aims of human progress. That is the best, if not the only, way to explain it. How could it be explained other- wise? Let us look at just one other explanation; it is, I think, the best of those that leave out God. It is derived from the general idea that what is called morality is simply the actions that have been found best for men to live together in society ; that, for example, murder is wrong simply because men found that it just wouldn’t do for them to go about killing one another. A number of moral prohibitions might be plausibly explained in that way. But could that explain the moral objection to slavery? On the contrary, it worked ~ very well; so well, in fact, that the slave-owners always opposed the abolition of slavery, and so well in ancient Greece that Plato included it in his ideal State. ‘'Take another example. The Spartans used to kill children born crippled or weaklings. As civilisation has advanced we have provided more and more institutions to care for the weak, the sick, and the aged. 'That accords with the ideal in many laws in the Bible, which prescribe care for the weak and help for the needy. The reason the Bible gives for these laws is that God in His love for all his children demands that the strong should help the weak. He cares for man, and it is His will that men should care for one another. That can be the only ground for providing hospitals not only for the sick who can be cured but also for those who cannot be cured. It cannot be said that as human society developed, men found that they could live together better if they took special care of those who were too weak to be of any use. THE GUIDANCE OF GOD IN HUMAN HISTORY 67 Moreover, there is something in the spirit of the ordinary civilised person that impels him to help the weak. Just think how we feel if we see anybody maltreating a cripple. Because it is unfair? Yes. But why bother about fairness? T’here is something in the spirit of man that makes him feel that fairness is right. How did it get there? Inherited? Yes. But to be inherited it had to begin somewhere, some- how. When a fortune is inherited, somebody in the past has accumulated it. If there is in the spirit of man a quality inherited from the past, how and why did it originate? Of all the possible explanations of the spiritual and moral possessions of the human race, and of its spiritual and moral progress, the most probable is that they issue from the universe, that there is a Power in the universe so inter- ested in what is right, good, true, and beautiful, that man, being part of the universe, and made responsive to it by his spirit, feels the pressure to pursue what is right, good, true, and beautiful. And that Power we call God. In the spiritual and moral progress, therefore, of the human race, we see the influence and guidance of God. If we leave Hiım out, we should have to ascribe to matter, to lumps of clay, the power to change for the better. We should have to believe that matter is progressive in its own nature, that the spiritual, ethical and intellectual progress of man comes from his body, its physical needs and desires. 'That appears to me a most unlikely explanation. Literature, art and music cannot be explained in that way. Man’s sense of right and wrong cannot be explained in that way. It is infinitely more probable that a Power from whom the life of the universe comes is interested in literature, art and music because there is Beauty in Him, interested in science and philosophy and religion because there is T'ruth in Him, and interested in Righteousness and Goodness because He is righteous and good. And He impels men to strive for Beauty, Truth and Righteousness. CHAPTER VIIIl GODS8 GUIDANCE IN THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS Ir I were attempting a complete account of the guidance of God in human life, I should have to discuss here His relation to groups of men, like nations. It would obviously entail the examination of the histories of the several nations. I do not possess the equipment for such a task. 'The Prophets insisted that all nations are under God’s guidance in their national lives. Assyria, said Isaiah, was an instru- ment in His hand. He, said Amos, gave the several peoples their lands. The Medes under Cyrus, said Deutero-Isaiah, were God’s agent. But most of all, all the Prophets said, the history of the Jews moved under the guidance of God. When we consider that history from its beginning to the present time, with all the difficulties and trials it has passed through and the glories it has achieved, we can see the grounds for the Prophets’ grand affirmation; God is the guide of Israel. | The guidance of God, which is so evident in the develop- ment of the human race, is also present in the lives of indi- viduals. Here, however, we may not see it so clearly. God is the guide of every man, and though that guidance is often obscured it is none the less real, none the less the great force in the lives of men. For within every man there is something which causes him to develop and grow, some- thing which drives him toward goodness, something which makes him ever desire to know the truth and to do the right. He may use his freedom in such a way as to work against his better impulses; but they are there just the same. 68 GOD’S GUIDANCE IN THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS 69 Men’s ideals, the high standards by which they would live, and the goals to which they would direct their lives, show God’s guidance of men individually. They show us something better and higher than what we are, that which we would strive to be. Whence do they come, and whence comes the force which drives men towards the practice of goodness, the search for truth? Judaism answers: From God. We say of the Prophets and of many of the authors of the Bible that they were inspired; we mean that they were influenced, in their thought and feeling, by God, that they were instructed by Him, that they derived their 1deas, somehow, from Him. Looking at them from this distance in history, we recognise their inspiration, partly because we feel it in what they said and wrote, and largely because they proclaimed new ideas which are true. Think of the first man who proclaimed that there was only one God over the whole universe. It was a startlingly new idea. It is now the basis of all the higher religions, but there was a time when all religions believed in many, or several, gods. The belief in one God was a tremendous leap forward in spiritual truth. How did the Prophets discover that truth. How did they get to know it? Take another great idea proclaimed by the Prophets, the idea that God does not want worship by animal sacrifices. Again, it was a startlingly new idea. Nearly the whole world believed that He did, some religions still believe it, and it took a long time for any large section of the human race to learn that the belief was wrong. How did Micah or Isaiah learn that God did not want worship by animal sacrifices but worship by conduct that is righteous? How did they obtain the first knowledge of a truth which is now accepted by all the higher religions? Examples could be multiplied, but the two that I have given are enough to show one of the grounds for the belief that the Prophets were inspired by God. They claimed F 70 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM divine inspiration from God. History has proved their claim. They had original ideas; their teachings were new in their time. 'Their teachings have become commonplace, that means that they have been proved true. The combination of originality and truth in the Prophets’ teachings supports the belief that they were inspired, that they were guided by God in their ideas and work. That might also be said of all great men who in the name of God taught new ideas which have been proved true, or which showed men the ways of righteousness and goodness. It ‘“may apply also to great artists, great composers of music, great writers, great poets, great scientists and great philoso- phers; but it applies especially to the great men who dis- covered spiritual and moral truths. They supply the out- standing evidence for the guidance of God in the lives of individual men. From them we learn that the guidance of God i1s available for all men. INSPIRATION Ultimately, the guidance of God in human life, whether in the life of humanity or in the lives of men, belongs to, and issues from, the relation between God and man, which establishes the possibility of communion between God and men. 'This means that there is understanding between them, so that God can “speak” to men and men can “speak ”’ to Him. God influences men, and men can feel His presence; God fills men and men can feel God in them- selves. God’s influence on men is called inspiration; men’s realisation of God, or the effort to realise Him, is called prayer. What comes from God to men is inspiration, what men direct towards God is prayer. Can we define inspiration? I think that we can do it only up to a point. It means that God fills the hearts and ‘minds of men with His spirit. Can we carry the definition GOD’S GUIDANCE IN THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS 71 further? That depends on what we know of the spirit of God. The human intellect must fall very far short of comprehending fully the nature of God. It is impossible for our eyes to see the whole universe. A tiny window can receive a tiny ray of sunshine, but it cannot admit all the sunshine; so the human mind can receive some knowledge of God, but it is very, very far from a full knowledge of Him. But we believe, we feel it to be true, that God is Goodness and that He is the Power that makes for the establishment of goodness in the universe; that He is Truth, and that He is the Power that makes for the knowledge of truth among men ; that He is Beauty and the Power that makes for the creation and appreciation by men of what is beautiful. Whatever, then, of the spirit of goodness and beauty there is in men must come from God. When, therefore, we say that God’s spirit fills the hearts and minds of men, that He inspires men, we mean that a spirit of goodness, truth, justice, beauty, or love takes hold of them. They are stirred by it to seek to know that which is good, true or beautiful. He has implanted in them the urge to goodness, the desire for truth, the love of beauty. But the inspiration doesn’t stop with the urge. When men strive for goodness, truth and beauty, God helps them towards their goal. He answers their striving with His instruction. He teaches them. He is the teacher of mankind and men. And inspiration i1s His method of teaching. It can be illustrated from human experience, with the proviso, however, that human analogies can only inade- quately explain the ways of God. It is the aim of a teacher to rouse in the pupils under his care a desire for knowledge. The good teacher first communicates to the pupils a love of knowledge, he makes them feel that they want to know. ~ This love of knowledge then expresses itself in the efforts which the pupils make to learn things, in the questions they ask, in the lessons they study. The teacher then answers 72 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM the questions, explains the lessons, and so conveys to his pupils as much knowledge as they are able to receive. God inspires men with a love of truth, with a love of goodness, with a love of beauty. In answer to the strivings which result from this inspiration, God teaches them as much as they are able to understand. It is the spirit of God working in men that makes them strive for great ends. God impels them to make the effort and He is ready to help them. Prayer is part of the effort; it is the act of the heart and mind reaching out to God for enlightenment. Study, too, is a part of it; it is the act of the mind seeking to find truth or a knowledge of the right. Meditation is another part; it is quiet waiting on God. In response to their efforts, men receive God’s instruction. He opens men’s eyes that He may show them the light. It must follow from God’s relation to all men that in- spiration is granted to all who make the effort for it, though in varying degrees. Some are more deeply, more greatly, or more fully inspired than others. Our ignorance of God’s ways prevents us from answering altogether the question why this is so. It may be that some are more richly inspired because they are more worthy, more worthy because of the way they live. Or they may receive a larger measure of inspiration because they make a greater effort for truth and goodness. And some seem to have been born with a larger spiritual endowment, with a greater capacity to receive the inspiration of God. The measure of inspiration given to the great religious teachers must have been related to their capacity for it, and to the efforts they made to receive it. The sunshine and the rain come down to the earth in equal measure for all, but some plants can take in more of them than others. It is even so with the instruction that comes from God, some receive more than others because they have a greater spiritual capacity. But with the capacity must go effort, Instruction GOD’S GUIDANCE IN THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS 73 from God comes to men through study, through deep think- ing, through meditation, and through prayer; in other words men receive inspiration according as they seek it and strive for it, with their mind, heart and whole being. It should be possible to learn from the Prophets something about the way inspiration works. Unfortunately, they do not say much about themselves in their books. They varied much in their temperaments; that is clear from their manner of teaching. And those who do give some information about their lives varied in their occupations. Amos was a shepherd, Micah a farmer, Isaiah a member of the royal court, Jeremiah a priest. But whatever their occupations, they must have used the opportunities given them to think about God and His law. Amos while tending his sheep must have been impressed deeply by the forces in nature. Isaiah at the court must have pondered much on the relation between the critical political events of his time and God’s rule of the world. Micah, seeing the hardships of the farmers, must have been stirred to a realisation of the vast discrepancy between men’s deeds and the love and justice of God. Jeremiahwhile learning to be a priest must have been roused to wonder what the T'emple and its sacrifices could mean to God. Only Jeremiah gives some indication of what went on ~ inside him, how inspiration works. ‘‘ There was,” he says, ‘““in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing. I could not contain ” (z.e. I had to speak out). He felt overmastered. Something within him made him say what he said. That probably applies to all the Prophets. It is fair to assume that they had in various ways and by various experiences been prepared to receive from God the messages within them that clamoured for utterance. The assumption is supported by the accounts some of the Pro- phets give of their calls, of the first time they felt the urge to prophesy, that is, to speak in the name of God. Com- munion with God must have been at the centre of their 74 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM preparation for the call. They had put themselves under God’s influence, so that when a message arose within them pushing for utterance, they felt that it came from Him, so that they could preface their exhortations with “ Thus saith the Lord.” They opened themselves to God, as a flower to the sun, and God filled them. They listened to Him and He taught them. They put themselves in His hands and He used them. But after we have studied all that the Prophets tell us about inspiration, it still remains a mystery. In their per- sonalities we feel a divine exaltation, in their words we feel a divine fire, so that when they exclaim ‘‘ Thus saith the Lord,” we are compelled to listen and to respond: ““ It is true.” But inspiration has a mystery at its heart and it works mysteriously. We see only its results; it creates genius. The men inspired by God help others to know something more of truth and something more of goodness than they knew before. Through them God teaches humanity. Imagine a number of men climbing up a mountain. Those in front would be the first to see something new, or perhaps to discover a turn in the path leading to the summit, or to see a light coming over the top. They would then report what they had discovered to those behind them. So all mankind may be pictured as struggling up a mountain to the summit upon which would be found complete good- ness and perfect truth. The leaders would be the first to find the turns in the path leading to the top or to catch a glimpse of the summit, and they would tell what they learned to the others. So, the Jewish Prophets discovered the true God, they came to know Him before others did. And through them God taught first the Jews, then a large part of mankind, to know about Him and His commandments. The results of inspiration may be imperfect or partial. It must be so, because man is imperfect; and he must express GOD’S GUIDANCE IN THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS 75 himself in his own thoughts and in his own words. Even those who are richly filled with the spirit of truth and righteousness may fall short of perfection when they seek to express it, for while they receive their inspiration from God, they are, being men, bound in a measure to their age. Though they rise above the ideas of their times, they must yet be in a measure influenced by them. They are better and wiser than those among whom they live, but not perfect. The world has not yet seen a perfect human being. The imperfection of man blurs the revelation from God. That 1s why we cannot accept any document or set of teachings as a perfect revelation from God. The authors of the Bible, or some of them, were inspired ; with their height- ened spiritual insight they attained visions of a higher truth than had been known before them. God revealed to them much of His truth, but we cannot say that He revealed to them all of His truth. Because of the revelation which came through them, later generations could go further into the revelation from God. Revelation is a progressive process. The Bible shows it. Some ideas and laws in it belong to early times, they *‘ date.”” Others reach the supreme heights of spiritual and moral knowledge. They are eternal. Though the early ideas are crude, they do not detract from the high spiritual and moral value and power of the Bible, when it is rightly understood. It remains inspired, a book of revelation, because it shows throughout a developing knowledge of God and His law. Great men show most clearly the guidance of God in the lives of individuals. The question, however, whether the lives of ordinary human beings show the guidance of God cannot, I think, be answered categorically. It applies not only to their actions but also to what happens to them; and that involves the belief in Providence. It is the general teaching of Judaism that God, in His love, cares for all individuals. But if we ask for details to show that care, 76 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM we cannot be sure to find them in particular circumstances or events. In that respect we can go no further than to believe in God’s Jove and to trust in Him. We cannot say of any particular event in the life of any individual: This shows the special Providence of God. But with the actions of individuals the position is different. I think we can say of the spiritual and moral lives of individuals that they show the guidance of God insofar as men seek that guidance and ~ strive to follow it. So, we may say that God guides men in their actions, if they choose to follow Him. But why does God allow men to do wrong? Obviously we cannot know the answer completely. It must suffice to recognise the fact that men are free, in the sense that they can decide what to do and what not to do, that they can choose between courses of action which are open to them, that they can follow the right way or turn to the wrong way. Because of that freedom men, and groups of men, can act in a way that is wrong, a way which falls below the highest and best. Since God has left men free, there must be a good purpose in their freedom. We cannot know God’s designs. But we can, from our human experience, see the value and significance of freedom. It is a condition of responsi- bility; it is also a condition of growth. If men are to grow in knowledge they must be allowed to make mistakes. A good teacher will not do the work for his pupils. They must do it themselves, even if, in doing it themselves, they will make many mistakes. So, God leaves it to men to do their own work even though they sometimes make mistakes and do wrong. It may be said that God wants men to develop themselves by their own efforts, and they can do it only by realising their responsibility. Therefore, God has left men free to act as they think best, though what they think best is not always best, or even right. ‘Moreover, because of their freedom, the worship which GOD’S GUIDANCE IN THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS %7 men give to God 1s the obedience of free men, not the enforced obedience of slaves. And only worship given freely can be true worship. So, morality involves freedom. Only actions which are chosen freely for the sake of righteousness can be called moral. The actions of a puppet have no moral significance. But God has not left men unaided in their freedom. He has endowed them with a sense of right and wrong, a conscience, by which they can try to obey His will, receive His guidance, and have His help. He shows them the goal for which they must aim. He shows them the way in which they should go. And He is ready to help them in making the journey. But He does not force them to pursue the good and right. He guides them and leads them, if they are willing to follow. God has made man ‘ sufficient to stand though free to fall.” In the knowledge of goodness, and in the power to pursue goodness, which all men have, we can see God’s guidance. It may also be possible for all men to receive inspiration from God. There is a story in the Bible that Moses said: ““Would that all men were God’s prophets.” That suggests that all men can receive inspiration from God. Jeremiah looks forward to a time when all men shall have in them- selves the knowledge of God. ‘ This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, {rom the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more ”’ (Jeremiah 31: 33-34). And Joel, in his description of a golden age to come, said: “ And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters =8 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit ”’ (Joel 2: 28-29). All this implies the belief that all men have, through their relation with God, the capacity to recetve His inspiration. » And that brings our discussion back to the Jewish valua- tion of man, the high opinion which Judaism has of human nature in spite of its sin and frailty. It is expressed in a passage in Ecclesiasticus. I quote it in full because it can serve as a summary of the teaching of Judaism about man, though I do not mean to suggest that I accept every state- ment in it: The Lord created man of the earth, and turned him back unto it again. He gave them days by number, and a set time, and gave them authority over the things that are thereon. He en- dued them with strength proper to them; and made them ac- cording to his own image. He put the fear of man upon all flesh, and gave him to have dominion over beasts and fowls. Counsel, and tongue, and eyes, ears, and heart, gave he them to under- stand withal. He filled them with the knowledge of wisdom, and shewed them good and evil. He set his eye upon their hearts, to shew them the majesty of his works. And they shall praise the name of his holiness, that they may declare the majesty of his works. He added unto them knowledge, and gave them a law of life for a heritage. He made an everlasting covenant with them, and shewed them his judgments. Their eyes saw the majesty of his glory; and their ear heard the glory of his voice. And he said unto them, Beware of all unrighteousness; and he gave them commandment, each man concerning his neighbour. Their ways are ever before him; and they shall not be hid from his eyes. (Ecclesiasticus 17: 1-15). CHAPTER IX PRAYER THE relation between God and man makes prayer possible. It is the distinctive act of religion. It belongs to religion and fits in only with religion. Without faith in God, it would be nonsense. On the other hand, faith in God makes it a necessity, impels it. For prayer is the effort of man to commune with God. When we pray, we speak to Him, pouring out our feelings, whether they be feelings of need or feelings of joy and thanksgiving; above all, our feeling for Him and the eager desire to come nearer to Him, to feel more strongly His presence. The most common conception of prayer gives it the mean- ing of petition; to pray is to ask God for something. But this is not the essential character of prayer. It is true that many prayers do ask for something. Not all of them, how- ever, ask for things, many ask for help, for strength, for forgiveness. Because we are so weak and imperfect, we naturally want to be stronger and better; and we ask Him who is all-strong and all-perfect, and all-good, to help us. Such prayers are fully justified by our faith in God, our con- ception of Him and our sense of relation to Him. But prayers in which we ask for material things or physical bene- fits, raise some questions which cannot be easily answered. Whatever effect, however, prayer can have must issue from its essential character, from communion with God. Com- munion with God may use diverse channels and impulses; so prayers vary in their content. Some are petitions, others give thanks, and still others, prayers of praise, proclaim the majesty and glory of God. 79 8o THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Prayers of thanksgiving go together with prayers of peti- tion at one end and prayers of praise at the other. They range all the way from joy in some personal good to joy in the beauty and order in the universe. 'The thanks may express happiness in a friend’s recovery from a serious ill- ness or appreciation of a beautiful sunset. Some prayers of thanksgiving give thanks to Him who is the source of all that 1s good, for the physical and material blessings we enjoy. Others thank Him for the succession of day and night, or the majesty of the heavens; and like prayers of praise, express and foster the realisation of God’s infinite greatness and goodness. The services in Jewish prayer-books contain a good many prayers which praise God. (Similar prayers are found in other prayer-books, too, but possibly less, comparatively, than prayers of petition.) 'The large place which Judaism gives to prayers of praise results from the fundamental Jewish conception of God. He is the God of the universe. It is man’s chief religious duty to worship Him. The book of Psalms, therefore, has many prayers of praise to God. There is a saying in the Talmud that prayers of praise are the highest form of prayer. They best express the attitude of worship. In prayers of petition we think partly of our- selves, our needs; in prayers of praise we think wholly of God. It is highly significant that the chief prayer in the Jewish Services, the Shema, does not ask for anything; it proclaims the Unity of God and man’s duty to love Him. It accords, therefore, with an essential quality in the Jewish attitude to God to give the first place among prayers to prayers of praise. They ask for nothing, they just express the feeling of adora- tion in the worshipper ; they are a meditation about God with the desire to contemplate and realise His greatness. Such prayers carry their value in themselves. They bring the worshipper nearer to God. Inthem he communes with God. Of any prayer it can be said that it is effective when he PRAYER 81 who utters it feels that he has really communed with God, of prayers of petition and thanksgiving as well as of prayers of praise and meditation. The primary value of prayer lies not in something outside it, but in itself. It is communion with God. It may therefore, contain anything which is in the mind or heart of the worshipper. Let us take an illustration from the relations between human beings. When something has happened to a man which makes him happy, he wants to tell his friends about it; and he feels satisfied when he sees that they are glad because he is happy. When he is in trouble, he wants to tell the same friends of his need or sorrow. He does not ask any- thing from them; he just tells them what is in his heart. But through their sympathy he receives some encouragement and help. If he is sorrowing for someone who has died, the friends cannot remove the cause of his grief but they can help him to bear it. If this is the case with human friends, it 1s much more so when we sincerely address ourselves to the great Friend. The very communion with Him is effective. No sincere prayer, therefore, is ever unanswered. “'The Lord is nigh unto all who call upon him, who call upon him in truth ”’ (Psalm 145: 18). Every prayer carries its answer in itself. For it brings him who prays into God’s presence. That in itself is a joy; and it gives strength and enlightenment. Can prayer, however, produce specific physical effects? It is hard, practically impossible, for many of us to believe that it can in any way affect the course of physical nature outside man. Can prayer bring rain? Some people believe it can; but our conception of God and the universe precludes such a belief. God works in the physical universe in ways des- cribed by the “ natural laws ”’ of science. That means that every physical event results from preceding causes. No one can say definitely that prayer cannot be among the causes. We don’t know all about the universe; and it must always 82 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM €< remain true that “ there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy ” or discovered by our science. On the other hand, human experience does not give any assured grounds for the belief that prayer can produce an effect on physical nature, such as to cause rain. That does not, I think, necessarily mean that it is wrong to pray for rain. When prayer is taken to mean speaking to God, then the farmer who is anxious about rain will mention his anxiety in his prayer. There is, however, some ground for the belief that prayer may produce a physical effect on man himself. The mind, we know, can affect the body. Shame, which is a thought, makes us blush; fear makes us pale. Prayer must have some influence on the mind or spirit. It produces a feeling of joy, or of strength, or of courage, or of confidence; and these in turn affect the body. But how far prayer can thus produce an effect on the body is another question. Its power in this direction must obviously be limited; it cannot mend a broken leg. But it would seem impossible to say exactly where the power of prayer stops in its effect on the body; we know very little about the power of the human mind over the body. And the 1nner life of man—mind and heart—is the channel through which the effect of prayer can reach his outer or physical life. - The value of prayer is, however, not to be judged by its physical effects; these are incidental to prayer, not its aim, nor its primary significance. It is not to be judged by what it gives but by what it is. 'The question to ask about prayer is not: What do we get out of it, but What do we feel in it? It is valuable not for what benefits we can derive from prayers but for the exaltation we find in them. It is some- thing like looking at a picture, or listening to a symphony, or contemplating the beauties and wonders of nature. Prayer ‘1s contemplating God and being with Him. That is its greatness. Its best analogy is in the ways of human friendship. PRAYER 83 When in prayer we feel ourselves in the presence of God, that is its efficacy. That makes prayer an experience of joy. It applies both to private and public prayer, to the times when we pray alone and to the times when we pray, as we do in the Services at the Synagogue, together with others. But just as the light of the sun which is within the sun itself produces an effect outside it, so the act of praying, which has its significance within itself, can also produce spiritual, mental, moral and physical effects. If, when we pray, we truly feel that we are communing with God, then we shall emerge from that prayer stronger and better. Being in the presence of Him who is all-strong makes us stronger than we are. Being in the presence of Him who is all-good and loving, His goodness and love help us to bear our troubles; at all times the knowledge of God’s presence brings joy, comfort, strength and guidance. Prayer, there- fore, can enlighten the minds and strengthen the hearts of men. God is ever near men, and ready to help them. Though He is great beyond our understanding, though He is infinite and eternal, though neither the earth nor the heavens can contain Him, He is our Father. And, because man is the child of God, men can through prayer, meditation and study, seek and find His help and guidance. A man need only open himself towards God, as a flower turns to the sun, to feel the presence of God. And that is prayer. CHAPTER X SIN, REPENTANCE AND ATONEMENT THE doctrine of man in Judaism issues from its emphasis on his relation to God. Because of it, human personality has an ultimate, or fundamental, value. Man has a touch of the divine in him, he is somewhat akin to God. That is his greatness. Because of their kinship with God, men can speak to Him, pray to Him, and they can * hear ”’ His voice, receive inspiration from Him. But the relation calls for realisation on the part of men. It is true that they are by nature children of God, but they have got to know it. They are truly His children if they are aware of their relation to Him. It is possible for men to ignore God, to be unaware of Him, to live and to act without reference to His law, and so separate themselves from Him, put up a barrier between Him and them. The element in human nature which produces such an attitude to God is called sin. It is necessary to distinguish between two uses of the word sin. In one sense, it is an abstract noun, defining a condition of the spirit. When, however, it has an article, like ‘“a sin” or ‘the sin,” then it is a concrete noun referring to a thought, act, or the like, which is considered wrong. Sin, in the abstract, is a condition of a man’s inner life which turns him away from God. A wrong action is ‘““a sin ”’ because it is contrary to the law of God. The facts described by the two senses of ‘‘ sin’’ interact. The condition of sin produces wrong actions—sins; and wrong actions both cause and aggravate the condition of sin. The sense of relation to God belongs to our inner lives. But it 84 SIN, REPENTANCE AND ATONEMENT 85 is indissolubly bound up with outer facts, with actions; and that in two connected ways. It shows itself in conduct, and 1t is developed, helped, maintained, and strengthened by conduct; it leads to right actions, and right actions help us to realise our relation to God. ‘ It 1s, further, necessary to distinguish between sin and guilt. A sense of sin and a sense of guilt are not the same thing. When the conscience condemns an action as wrong, it rouses a feeling of guilt. But sin involves a feeling of separation from God. The difference is important. A sense of guilt may have a corrosive effect on the mind, like that of rust on iron. A sense of sin, on the other hand, can be a spiritual and moral stimulant. The idea of sin belongs to the framework of religion, it arises out of, and attaches to, man’s relation to God. A sense of guilt may have diverse origins. A guilty conscience, therefore, 1s not the same thing as a sense of sin; it can be taken up into a sense of sin, brought into the framework of our relation to God, but when it is, both its nature and effects are changed. The act which caused it is then recognised as something which proceeded out of a weakness in our spiritual and moral make-up. That is nothing to be ashamed of but something to fight against. The Jewish belief in God and the conception of man imply that it must be the chief concern of men to maintain, each one in himself, the right relation to God. That means to be aware of His presence, to feel close to Him, to direct our thoughts and feelings, minds and hearts, towards Him, and to feel in our spirit the fullness of His love and the guidance of His spirit. Sin means a break in our relation with God, a sense of separation from Him. It may be produced by wrong actions, actions which are contrary to the law of God, actions, therefore, of which it might be said that they show disobedience to God. But sin exists also apart from outer 86 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM causes. It is the name for a feeling inside us, it describes an inner or spiritual condition; it means that there is something wrong with the spirit, which prevents it from attaining fully and feeling constantly its relation with God. In that sense it attaches to all human nature. It belongs to man’s imperfec- tion. That is why ‘‘ there is no man that sinneth not” (I Kings 8: 46). It is not true, as some critics of religion say, that it de- preciates man by the doctrine of sin. It does so only if it exaggerates his sinfulness, or makes him out to be altogether ‘““ a miserable sinner.” Given the right emphasis, the doc- trine of sin points to the greatness of man. It belongs to the conception of man as the child of God. Itimplies faith in man. Judaism does not teach that every human being comes into the world with a load of sin; or—and this is the meaning of original sin—burdened with guilt for a sin committed by a primal ancestor. But Judaism does recognise the fact that human nature is spiritually and morally imperfect, that there are in all men instincts and impulses which may produce sin, inner corruption, spiritual disease. But at the same time it teaches with constant emphasis that by nature man is good and endowed by impulses to goodness. He is so constituted ‘that he can do what is right and good. Righteousness, good- ness and truth are not too hard for men, they can obey God’s law. ‘ For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should 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 you should 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 you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it” (Deuteronomy 30: 11-14). We may interpret that to mean that there is in every man an impulse to goodness. e e O i e s e i o ;4 SIN, REPENTANCE AND ATONEMENT 87 Judaism recognises that fact and emphasises it. But it does not ignore the sinfulness of men; it recognises that man is spiritually imperfect. And our human imperfection stands, so to speak, between us and God, preventing us from being constantly aware of His presence, hindering our efforts to get to Him, or even, sometimes, making us forget or ignore Him altogether. To know God means to think of Him, to seek truth and goodness in His name, to feel His presence. There is an element in human nature which hinders us from doing that all the time. It, and the actions and thoughts which it produces, tend to separate us from God. But what does it mean to separate oneself from God? Surely that is impossible. God does not forsake any of His children. ‘‘ Even if we sin,” runs a passage in the Wisdom of Solomon, * we are thine.”” And another passage in the same book says: ‘ Thou hast mercy on all men, because thou hast power to do all things, and thou overlookest the sins of men to the end they may repent. For thou lovest all things that are, and abhorrest none of the things which thou didst make; for never wouldst thou have formed anything if thou didst hate it. And how would anything have endured, except thou hadst willed it, or that which was not called by thee, how would it have been preserved? But thou sparest all things, because they are thine, O Sovereign Lord, thou lover of men’s lives.” Or as a mediaeval Jewish poet said, “Thou lovest not only the good but also the wicked.” Judaism teaches that God is near all men with His love. Moreover, God fills the universe; how can anyone separate himself from God? The answer is that separation from God describes a human attitude; it can never apply to God’s attitude to men. When a man shuts his eyes, he shuts out the light. When a man shuts his mind so that he does not think about God, or his heart so that he does not feel God’s loving presence, or his conscience so that he does not feel God’s impulsion to 88 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM righteousness, he shuts out God. God does not separate Himself from men, but men can separate themselves from Him, by not believing in Him, by not thinking about Him, by not feeling love for Him, or by not trying to do the things He wants us to do and to avoid the things that are wrong in His sight. It is as if He were constantly holding out- stretched arms towards us, beckoning us to come to Him, but we turn away from Him. Though God is always near us, we have to think of Him, to worship Him, to obey His law, in order to realise His presence. If we do not think of Him, worship Him, and obey His law, then we have forgotten Him, so that though He is still near us, we are far from Him. The question arises: Why 1s there sin in men and why does God allow men to sin? Could man not have been constituted without sin and be prevented from committing sins? In answer to the question ‘“ Why does God allow men to do wrong? >’ 1 suggested that freedom was a condition of morality. If man was compelled to do right, he would have not been a moral being but just a puppet. Freedom means that he can choose between right and wrong. It means, too, that he can choose between loving God and forgetting Him. Evidently, God preferred to let men choose to love Him rather than to compel them to love Him. Moreover, if man is to have moral freedom, the freedom to choose to do the right rather than the wrong, he must be so constituted as to have the possibility to choose the wrong. Morality means to choose doing the right though it 1s possible to do the wrong. It implies a sinful tendency in human nature. If manisto be free, his nature must be such as to allow him freedom. He is, therefore, so constituted that he has the possibility to sin. The Rabbis express that idea by saying that man has two inclinations, ‘‘ a good inclination *’ and *‘ an evil inclination.” It is conceivable that he might have been made without the evil inclination. But, then, he would not have had the freedom of a moral being. Sin attaches to the freedom with SIN, REPENTANCE AND ATONEMENT 89 which man is endowed by his human nature. That explains the paradox in the Rabbinic saying that men can serve God with both “‘ the evil inclination *’ and ‘‘ the good inclination”; they can serve God, in other words, with the whole of their human nature. Butsinis not final. When a man falls away from God, God is ever ready to help him to come back to Him; and when a man loses the way to goodness, God is ready to lead him back to it. If men become weak and are unable to do what God would have them do, He is ever present to help them to regain their strength, if they will show that they want to return to Him. They can show it by their efforts and by prayer. Judaism teaches that man has been given in himself the power to overcome sin, with God’s help. Repentance is the way. Repentance means to realise the wrong we have done, to be sincerely sorry for it, and to resolve truly to strive with all our might to do what is right and to refrain from doing what is wrong. It means also the return to God in our spirit, in our thoughts and feelings. It means fighting against the element in our human make-up which hinders or weakens our attachment to God. Our weakness, ignorance, spiritual inadequacy, all that makes up sinfulness, interferes with our sense of relation with God. But, knowing that we are related to Him, we will be stirred and impelled by that knowledge to fight against sin. The sense of sin has, therefore, a dynamic quality. It makes us look beyond ourselves to God. It compels repentance. 'That dis- tinguishes it further from mere guilt. Moreover, repentance carries the promise of God’s forgiveness. The sense of sin, therefore, leads through repentance to a deeper realisation of God’s love. That is why a feeling of guilt loses its bitterness when it is taken up into a sense of sin before God. It is overcome by His forgiving love which receives the penitent ““ with outstretched arms.” D Q0 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Judaism, as we saw in the Jewish conception of God, lays great stress on God’s forgiveness of sin. It is one of the ways in which He manifests His love for men. It 1s His answer to their repentance. But the repentance must be sincere and effective. When it refers to wrong actions, then repentance means pain that they have been committed and determination not to repeat them. It will not do, says the Mishnah (Yoma 8: 9) for a man to say : I will sin and repent, and sin again and repent. If a wrong was committed against another, repentance involves restitution. The same passage in the Mishnah says: For transgressions that are between man and God the Day of Atonement effects atonement; but for transgressions between one man and another, pardon must first be obtained from the one who has been wronged. And the author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus (about 200 B.C.E.) says that he who has been wronged must forgive the wrong done him. ° Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he has done you; and then your sins shall be pardoned when you pray "’ (Ecclesiasticus 28: 2). Maimonides gives a test for effective repentance. ‘‘ What constitutes perfect repentance? If an occasion in which a man has once trans- gressed occurs again, so that he has it in his power to commit the same offence again, and yet he refrains from it and does not commit it, not out of fear or impotence, but solely from repentance.” 'The Liberal Jewish Prayer Book adds after this quotation from Maimonides: ‘ As sin is more than transgression in action, so repentance is more than amend- ment in conduct, but, being a return to God, it must produce a fuller obedience to his law.” Men’s repentance and God’s forgiveness produce atone- ment. It is a living, deep feeling of relation with God. We may almost define it as complete identification with Him, in thought, feeling and conduct. In its deepest meaning it is the full realisation of God, the feeling of being filled with Him. At that level only mystics know it, and only poets SIN, REPENTANCE AND ATONEMENT 91 can describe it. Possibly it is described by the Psalmist who wrote: I am continually with thee . . . God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73: 23a and 26b), and also by another Psalmist in the statement: O my soul, thou hast said unto God, Thou art my Lord, I have no good beyond thee (Psalm 16: 2). Men can strive for atonement by fighting against every thought and feeling that interferes with their sense of rela- tion with God, by resisting all temptations to do wrong, by repentance and prayer. They will not, however, be able to attain it altogether by their own efforts. They need God’s help. And according to the teaching of Judaism, God’s help is there waiting for them. God saves men from sin, if they themselves repent. Everyone has the assurance of Judaism that if he truly strives to overcome sin, God will fulfil his efforts with the gift of atonement. ‘‘ His arms are mercifully outstretched to receive the penitent.” In the Talmud it is said: God says to men, Make, by repentance, a way, for me to come to you, which is as big as the eye of a needle, and I will make it so big that horses and chariots can pass through it. If only men try to come to God, He will gladly come to them. If only men try to take God into their lives, He will fill them with the sense of His presence. He is ready to go nearly all the way to meet them, if they but start to come to Him. A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY Deliverance, or redemption, from sin has been called salvation. There is a fundamental difference between the teachings of Judaism and Christianity about the way of salvation. According to Judaism, it comes directly from God to man, and every man must himself strive for it by addressing himself and his prayers directly to God. Accord- ing to Christianity there is a go-between through whom - 02 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM God sends salvation, and in whose name men must pray for it. Christian prayers, therefore, often end with the formula, “ Through Jesus Christ our Lord,” or * For the love of thy only son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” Jewish prayers, on the other hand, most often have no corre- sponding formula. They are prayers to God, that is enough. Sometimes, however, a prayer may say, “ We ask this for Thy Name’s sake (i.e. for Thine own sake) O God.” An ancient prayer in our Services begins: “ Not because of any merit of our own, but because of thine infinite mercies do we lay our supplications before thee.” In Christianity there is an intermediary between God and man; in Judaism, there is none. In Christianity, men approach God, so to speak, through an agent; in Judaism a man can, and should, approach God, himself and directly. According to Christianity, Jesus, by His life and death, has saved, or will save, the world. In Judaism, God’s goodness, helping all men who seek Him, will save the world. God alone is the Saviour. There is, however, another kind of intermediary, the one that brings God’s instruction to men. In teaching and guiding humanity God uses special agents. It is true that He speaks directly to everyone, but He also speaks to them through others. To the Jews of old He spoke through the prophets, lawgivers, poets, wise men, and other teachers, ~who were especially inspired. Through them the Jews received their knowledge about God, and the knowledge of the way to worship Him. By them the Jews were taught to recognise the existence of the one God and the duty to worship Him with love and righteousness. They were the channel of God’s revelation to men. ; It is also a belief of Judaism that the Jews as a people have been and will be used by God as agents for the salvation of humanity. The world’s history shows that He has in the past used Israel as His special agent to teach the SIN, REPENTANCE AND ATONEMENT 93 fundamental principles of religion and righteousness to others. 'The religious and moral life of the Western world is based on the teachings derived from Judaism. Other religions which teach the belief in one God (though they sometimes think of God differently from the way Jews think of Him) got it from the Jews. The idea that the worship of God requires the practise of love and justice towards men, which has become the foundation of all morality, comes from the great Jews who have given us the Bible. Thus the Jews were special agents in the hands of God for the instruction of all mankind in the knowledge of Him and His commandments, and, therefore, in the way of salvation. All this, however, is quite different from the belief that salvation can come to individual men and to the human race only through a mediator. Salvation, Judaism teaches, comes from God; and no one need stand between Him and the individual human being. He will lead the human race tosalvation. He helps individual men to come nearer to Him. And at some future time He will save the world and humanity. He, and He alone, can and will do it; for He alone is our Saviour. That idea is embodied in an old Jewish prayer: “ Trusting in thee, O Lord our God, we hope speedily to behold the glory of thy might, when false gods shall cease to take thy place in the hearts of men, and all mankind will call upon thy name; when thou wilt turn unto thyself all the children of men, and the world will be perfected under thy rule. Let all the inhabitants of the world know that unto thee every knee must bow, every tongue swear loyalty. Before thee, O Lord our God, let them humble themselves; and unto thy glorious name let them give honour; let all accept the yoke of thy kingdom, and do thou reign over them speedily and for ever and ever. For the kingdom is thine, and to all eternity thou wilt reign in glory; as it is written: And the Lord shall be king over all the earth.” (Paraphrase in the Liberal Jewish Prayer Book.) CHAPTER XI THE WORSHIP OF GOD THE worship of God begins with an attitude of mind and heart which springs from faith in God. Faith in God means, in the first place, to recognise that He exists and that He is the ruler of the universe. Worship expresses that faith; for whatever form it takes it expresses what we feel in the presence of God. It is the feeling of awe and reverence before Him. * The beginning of wisdom,” it is said in the Bible, “is the fear of the Lord.” We might paraphrase ““ the beginning of wisdom ’ into ‘ the right understanding of life,” or ‘‘ the foundation of the good life.” “ The fear of the Lord >’ does not mean being afraid of Him. In this context, the Hebrew word which is translated ‘‘ fear ”’ means ~ deep reverence, or awe. It is not only compatible with love, but goes with it. The chief commandment of Judaism is ‘ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and might.” But love excludes fear in the sense of being afraid. We are not afraid of those whom we love. Love can, however, be combined with reverence and a sense of awe. We combine love and reverence in our attitude to our parents. When we are in the presence of great men we have a feeling of awe before them, but we may, at the same time, feel love for them. So, too, when we witness a grand scene in nature, like a beautiful sunset or a magnificent mountain towering into the sky, we feel overawed, but at the same time we feel the joy of beauty which is akin to love. So the feeling of reverence and awe towards God goes with love for Him. 94 THE WORSHIP OF GOD : 95 The phrase “ the fear of the Lord ”’ means, therefore, the attitude towards God which we describe by the word “worship.” *The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” means: The right understanding of life begins with the right attitude to God. ‘ The worship of God is, in the first place, an inner feeling. There is a saying in the Talmud: God wants the heart. This expresses the same idea as the command- ment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul and might. The attitude of worship springs spon- taneously from faith in God. It expresses itself in various concrete ways. The most obvious way is prayer. In prayers of praise we express the feeling of awe inspired by God’s greatness. In prayers of communion we express our love of God by directing the heart and mind towards Him, by rejoicing in His nearness, by thinking of Him with gladness. In prayers of supplication we express our trust in Him. So, in all prayers we express our recognition of God’s greatness and of His rule; we worship Him, whether we extol His greatness, thank Him for His gifts, or ask Him for His help. Prayer is communion with God. When we pray we hold converse with Him. It is not always necessary that we use words, for we can pray without words. The feelings of our hearts, the efforts of our souls to come nearer to God, are prayers, whether we express them in words or not; but words are not prayers unless they express sincere feelings in our hearts. In communing with God, in longing to feel His presence, we give evidence of our reverence for Him, our love for Him, our recognition of His infinite greatness, and our trust in Him. The expression ‘‘ worship of God ”” has been especially applied to the Services in Synagogues, Churches, and the like, which include besides prayers, forms and actions by which men have sought to show their recognition of God’s 4 96 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM being, their trust in Him, and their acceptance of His sovereignty. In ancient days, sacrifices in a Temple were considered the chief element in the worship of God; and in the Temple that stood at Jerusalem, as in all other ancient temples animals and cereals were offered on an altar as sacrifices in the worship of God. But with increased knowledge of God, men learnt that God did not desire this form of worship, as the Prophet Hosea said in God’s name: ““1 desire love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.” The Services in Synagogues consist, therefore, chiefly of prayers accompanied occasionally by ceremonies or rites. That is public worship. It has an importance and value of its own apart from the importance and value of prayer generally. We can pray anywhere and at any time. When- ever or wherever the heart turns to God and conveys its feelings of longing for, or thanks to, Him, whether in words or silence, we have prayer. Public worship, however, the Services in the Synagogue, have a special function; they serve purposes which cannot be served as well, if at all by private prayer. By their surroundings and atmosphere, places of worship help to induce the mood for prayer. A man who may not feel impelled to pray anywhere else, may yet be moved to pray in the Synagogue. Furthermore, public worship, praying with others, may help the individual to realise the presence of God, when perhaps, if he worshipped alone, the realisation might not come to him. Many of us can do together what perhaps none of us could do, or would do, alone. In the same way, we can oftentimes more easily realise the presence of God, and commune with Him, when others join with us in worship. The fact that a number of people are praying together emphasises the bond which unites them. Public worship generally emphasises the brotherhood of man and the ideal b LS TR R THE WORSHIP OF COD 97 unity of mankind. When many together worship one God as their Father, it should help them to realise that they are all brothers. Jews, moreover, are united by a special bond. All ]ews constitute one religious fellowship; they show this unity in faith and religion by worshipping together. The Synagogue is, therefore, the central and chief institution of the Jewish community. It can make us better Jews and Jewesses. It demands that we share in its Services. There are Jews who do not regularly attend Services in a Synagogue. They may in other ways be good Jews. But they are certainly not doing their full duty to the Jewish religion and the Jewish community. The Synagogue and its Services main- tain the strength of the Jewish religion in the life of the Jews. Prayer is, however, only one element in the worship of God. The worship of God covers the whole of life. That was indicated in Judaism by the benedictions prescribed for almost every occasion in life. There were benedictions over food, benedictions for outstanding natural phenomena like thunder or a tree in blossom, benedictions for outstanding experiences such as meeting great and learned men. A benediction (in Hebrew, berachah) is a prayer which begins, ends, or begins and ends, with ““ Blessed art thou, O Lord our God.” An example is the short prayer over bread: ““ Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who causest bread to come out of the earth.” 'These benedictions served to relate the whole of life to the worship of God. Ceremonies have a place in the worship of God. They can serve religion, if they are the right kind, and if they are observed significantly, that is, observed not mechanically but with feeling. They can rouse a sense of holiness, and so help men to lead better and holier lives. Then, like public prayer, they can help to emphasise the bond of fellowship uniting a number of men. The Holy Days, which all Jews observe, remind them of the bond which D¥ 98 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM makes them all into a unity. They can help us at the same time to feel effectively the connection with Israel’s past. Ceremonies can supply the element of beauty in religion; and religion ought to value beauty. The arts originated in religious rites. Poetry, music, painting and sculpture came into being to express religious ideas, and they remained for a long time closely associated with religion. Judaism has used, and uses, only poetry, music, and, incidentally, architecture. It has in the past rejected the pictorial arts. But it put beauty in its ceremonies. It has had many—some observed in the Synagogue, others in the home, and others which have a personal character. Whatever their original meanings were, some of them can be used to bring the element of beauty into the worship of God, in accordance with the exhortation: Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. That imposes the condition on ceremonies that they must be beautiful. Some of the Jewish ceremonies that have come down from the past do not satisfy that condition; so Liberal Judaism either abolishes them, or does not insist on their observance. Ceremonies must, however, possess not only beauty but also meaning. And the meaning must be such that those who are asked, or urged, to observe them can accept. Not all ceremonies that have come down from the past can have meaning for Jews in the present. The ]ew1sh Holy Days satlsfy both condltlons-——-they have beauty in them- serves and in ceremonies which accompany them; and each one has, both in its historic associations and in itself, a meaning and message for to-day and for all time. They hold, therefore, an important and effective place in the Jewish worship of God. The elements in worship which I have mentioned have primarily a spiritual significance. They issue from, and react on, the spirit. Prayer illustrates their character most clearly, the others resemble it both in their origin and effect. THE WORSHIP OF GOD 99 Ceremonies and holy days express a feeling for God and strengthen it. In that way they feed and enlarge the spirit. For that reason they are spiritual duties. They belong to men’s efforts to create in themselves the right kind of character, the highest development of personality that is possible for them, and a spiritual outlook on life. Study, too, belongs to this category of duties. It is a duty to seek knowledge; for in knowledge men possess truth. Sometimes knowledge is valuable because it is useful. It is useful to know how to make a machine or sail a ship. It is useful to know medicine or engineering. But, from the religious point of view, knowledge is also valuable even if it has no practical application; that is, if it is important knowledge. Galileo, it is said, was ready to suffer martyrdom because he insisted that the earth goes around the sun. He ~ did not consider the practical consequences of the truth; he thought truth itself so important that he was ready to sacrifice his life for an idea. Much of the work of scientists and philosophers ends in knowledge which seems to have no practical value. But it is important and valuable because it increases man’s knowledge of truth. Truth is in God. To seek truth is, therefore, to seek Him, to know truth is to be a little like Him. The search for truth, efforts to obtain knowledge, study, serve the growth of personality, they increase and exalt the life of the spirit. That entitles study and all pursuits which enrich the spirit, like music and art, to a place in the worship of God and among the spiritual duties which it lays on men. | We worship God not only by what we do, but by what we are, not only in conduct but also in spirit, in personality. Our actions indicate qualities of character. But character itself is important for our relation to God. As the fruit- bearing tree shows its life in the fruit it produces, so man expresses his qualities in his deeds. But even as the essence of the tree is in its life, so the essence of man is in his 100 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM character. And God is interested in what we are. I, therefore, follows that whatever brings life to the spirit of men has value in His sight. It is a duty which He lays on men to fill themselves with interests, feelings, ideas, hopes, aspirations, faith and vision which will extend their personality to the utmost bounds of its endowment, and to establish in themselves the qualities of character which are appropriate to the divine heritage and high destiny of man. The duties of men in matters affecting themselves need special emphasis because some people seem to think that ““ 1t doesn’t matter what you do so long as you don’t hurt anybody else.” Of course, it is a primary duty of men not to hurt, but to benefit, one another. But it 1s also their primary duty not to hurt themselves spiritually and morally, but to seek what will help their spiritual and moral selves. This aspect of human duty involves the most intimate part of our lives. It includes purity in thought, in feeling and in most personal acts. It belongs to our worship of God because it has to do with our character and personality. An evil thought is wrong; though it hurts no one else, it degrades the one who harbours it. Men have duties to themselves as well as to others. Chastity is one of them. God requires moral purity in men, and men should require ‘it of themselves because of their divine heritage. In the development of personality we are allowed freedom. It is true that each one of us comes into the world with certain inherited tendencies, yet our lives are not unalterably fixed by these tendencies. In other words, though our freedom may not be absolute, it is yet enough to allow us to fill our souls, hearts and minds with faith in God, with holy feelings, with pure thoughts, and with the power to live rightly. We have a choice between good and evil. We can pursue what is good and strengthen ourselves in goodness. We can resist evil, and by resisting it become stronger in goodness THE WORSHIP OF COB 101 and strengthen our hold on virtue. As in physical exercise we push against a weight to strengthen our muscles, so in character, by resisting evil, by shunning that which is bad and wrong and fighting against it, we strengthen our- selves for the good. On the other hand, by yielding to evil, we weaken ourselves. Therefore, the Talmudic Rabbis taught that one good deed brings on another, and one evil deed brings on another, of its own kind. Yielding to temptation once makes it more difficult to resist temptation the next time. The resistance to temptation makes it steadily easier to avoid evil. So the pursuit of good makes it easier to grasp every opportunity for doing a good deed. And if we look for reward and punishment—reward for good and punish- ment for evil—we should find them here. The reward for good is goodness, greater strength and purity in character, and greater power to do good. The punishment for evil is evil, weakness of character and the inability to resist temptation. In doing evil we degrade our personality. By efforts to do good we develop it. And personality holds eternal values. Though the decision lies with us, God i1s ‘ready to help us when we strive for the good. Judaism insists on the duty to sanctify life and all human powers, and to develop the whole of life in purity, holiness and strength. It, therefore, calls for self-control, which, of course, includes occasional self-denial. It does not say that any of the instincts of the body are evil in themselves so that they should be completeiy suppressed, but it says that all the physical instincts must be controlled so that they may fit in with the sanctity of life and the divine dignity of man. . The duties involved in the worship of God are summed up in the commandment: Holy shall you be, for I the Lord your God am holy. To worship God means to follow Him. The ““imitation of God” is the Jewish ideal for human life and conduct. Though men being imperfect cannot attain 102 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM it, they must yet take it for their guide. Their kinship with God both imposes it on them, and enables them to pursue it. A series of rather primitive laws in Deuteronomy 14 are introduced by “ Ye are children of the Lord your God.” The laws themselves have no value or meaning for us; but the reason for them has. It is the reason for all spiritual striving and for all morality. ‘‘ Ye are the children of the Lord your God,” therefore, ‘“ Holy shall ye be.” The spiritual duties which Judaism lays on its adherents, prayer, study, obser- vance, participation in Synagogue Services, are derived from this commandment. They foster the ideal of holiness in character. Being flows into doing. The spiritual and moral qualities which constitute character or personality, attach to our inner being, our feelings, thoughts, hopes, ideals and faith. The outward life, our deeds and utterances, express them. Just as a painter uses a canvas to express the picture in his mind, so man uses life and its activities to express his character, his personality. The personality itself is the essence of his being. Our personal relations to God are centred in it. 'That is why we worship God by what we are. But personality entails activity. The ideal of holiness involves both character and conduct. The commandment “ Holy shall ye be ” is followed by a number of command- ments, including some of the highest ideals to which human morality has attained. Morality is man’s effort to fulfil in conduct his kinship with God. The spiritual, moral and ethical duties which men must obey are implied in it. Because we are His children we must show it in ourselves and in our actions; what we are and what we do must be in accordance with His will. Man, the child of God, must strive to be like the Father, by striving for truth, righteousness and beauty; for God is Truth, Righteousness and Beauty. By pursuing them we ““ imitate ”’ Him. By taking them into our lives we attach THE WORSHIP OF GOD 103 ourselves to Him and show our devotion to Him. Though there have been some men who have lived, and there are some who live, moral lives, seemingly without believing in God, they do not refute the fundamental Jewish teaching that the true basis for the moral life, the surest foundation for virtue, is the love of God; the influences which created their moral outlook undoubtedly originated in religion. Many generations of their ancestors, including often their parents, had the belief in God and followed in their lives the spiritual and moral instruction of religion. They left their descendants a legacy of moral idealism, so that some who themselves have no belief in God are yet guided by moral standards which originated in it and are based on it. But whether, or not, morality requires the belief in God, the belief in God certainly requires morality. The worship of God must engage the whole of man’s life, including what he is and what he does, character and actions, personality and conduct. It calls for social and moral conduct, personal purity, and special acts of devotion to God. It uses prayer and study. It exercises and exalts the personality. It infuses a man and his life with a spirit of holiness. Holiness includes all the ethical and spiritual ideals of Judaism. It is the quality of the life that pursues truth, practises righteousness, maintains purity, prays and works in devotion to God. CHAPTER XII JUDAISM AND THE SOCIAL ORDER Jupaism has always laid great emphasis on ethical conduct. It requires obedience to the Law. And the Law contains instructions in the way to live. Liberal Judaism does not believe that all the commandments and prescriptions in the Bible have permanent value. Some of them belonged to an earlier stage in the development of our religion and have been left behind by its later development. But the law represents the duties which God lays on men to pursue righteousness, exercise love, seek truth and strive for holiness. The Jewish emphasis on ethical conduct has two con- nections with the fundamental Jewish conception that man is related to God. In the first place, that relation lays moral obligations on men. A man has duties towards his neighbours because he is the child of God. Secondly, he has duties towards his neighbours because they are the - children of God. Man’s kinship with God entitles every human being to respect for his personality, and it confers on all men human rights which other men and society as a whole must respect. In a famous passage in the Talmud, the question is asked: What commandment in the Bible sums up all the commandments? A number of answers are given, including, of course, the commandment: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But the Rabbi who speaks last answers that all the commandments are summed up in the statement: Man was created in the image of God (Genesis 5:1). But that 1s not a commandment. It is, however, the principle that underlies all the commandments; 104 JUDAISM AND THE SOCIAL ORDER I05 they all grow out of it. It demands right conduct towards others. | Right conduct towards others is summed up in righteous- ness. It includes both justice and love. ‘It has been told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God”” (Micah 6: 8). Thus does the Prophet Micah define our duties to God and the way we should worship Him. Justice and lovingkindness, or love, we may call ethical duties. Humility before God may be taken to include all the spiritual duties. Ethical duties may be divided into two kinds: first, our duties to other individuals, and secondly, our duties to society. These divisions are not absolutely distinct, for they naturally overlap. If I do wrong to an individual, I am doing wrong to society; and if I do wrong to society, I am doing wrong to an individual or a number of individuals. Similarly, if I do right. But for practical purposes it may be useful to look at them separately. The principle of righteousness is fundamental to both classes of ethical duties. The Jewish prophets constantly insisted on it. God is a God of righteousness and justice; men must be righteous and just, is the theme which runs through all their exhortations. So they sternly denounce all actions that are unjust. The principle of righteousness underlies all the moral and civil laws enunciated by Jewish lawgivers. They sought by these laws to make men just and to establish a just society. The application of the principle of justice in our relations with our fellow men requires us to treat them in a spirit of brotherhood. As one prophet asks, “ Have we not all one father, has not the one God created us, why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?” (Malachi 2: 10). From our belief in the fatherhood of God must follow our recognition of the brotherhood of man. If, then, 106 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM we are guided by this principle in our relations with others, we shall treat them fairly and kindly; negatively, by not hurting them, and positively, by helping them. Hillel, the great Rabbi and sage, said “ What is hateful to thyself, thou shalt not do unto another.” Add to this the positive version of the same rule, ¢ Do unto others what in similar circum- stances you would have them do to you,” and we have a good guide for our relations with our fellow men. The two directions together interpret the commandment: ‘ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ” (Leviticus 19 : 18). It is our duty to help others when they need help, to share with them as far as possible what we have, to do all we can to further the well-being of others, in short, to treat them as brothers. It is an exalted ideal, too difficult for most of us, I fear, but the effort to live by it is a duty Judaism commands. The Bible gives specific directions for ethical conduct. The Ten Commandments lay down the beginnings and foundation of morality. They illustrate the moral standards which we must observe in our personal conduct, and in our conduct towards others; but these standards entail much more than the Ten Commandments explicitly state. They lay down by implication all that is meant by morality, by justice and love. Justice obviously means that we should practise the strict- est honesty in all dealings with others and live up to the highest sense of honour. ‘‘ You shall not steal, neither shall you deal falsely, nor lie one to another’’ (Leviticus 19: 11). ““ You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure’’ (Leviticus 19: 35). “‘Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall you have; I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19: 36). ‘ You shall not have in your bag divers weights, a great and a small ” (Deuteronomy 25: 13). ‘“ You shall not have in your house divers mea- sures, a great and a small”’ (Deuteronomy 25: 14). But JUDAISM AND THE SOCIAL ORDER 107 ““ A perfect and just weight shall you have; a perfect and just measure shall you have; that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you” (Deuteronomy 25: 15). “ These are the things that you shall do: Speak you every man the truth with his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates; and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neigh- bour; and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord ”’ (Zechariah 8: 16 and 17). The principle of justice requires also that we should, in all actions which affect others, consider their human rights and their feelings. 'The Bible contains many commandments which apply this principle to action. There are, for example, commandments which prescribe the treatment that employ- ers should give to their employees. One is: ““ You shall not keep the wages of a hired servant overnight” (Leviticus 19: 13, Deuteronomy 24: 15). The idea of the lawgiver was that the worker might need his wages to buy his food for the next day; it would, therefore, inflict hardship on him if his wages were delayed. Here is another example of a law dealing with the treatment which an employer should give to his employees. If your brother hire himself out to you as a servant (it might mean a slave) “ you shall not rule over him with rigour” (Leviticus 25: 43). Naturally, an employer has considerable power over those whom he employs. That is so to-day; it was still more so in ancient times. The commandment, therefore, lays upon the em- ployer the obligation to treat those who work for him in a way which shows respect for their human personality and consideration for their human feelings and needs. A law in the Bible which shows delicacy of feeling towards others is in Leviticus 19: 14: ‘ You shall not curse the deaf nor put a stumbling block before the blind.” The reason is obvious : you must not take advantage of others’ weakness to say or do anything against them. .’:"—,‘ 5 108 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Even enemies had to be treated with due consideration. Some people have the mistaken idea that the Hebrew Bible not only commends, but even commands, taking revenge. They got the idea from the verse in Exodus 21: 23. 1t says that if one man does physical harm to another * Then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” and so on. It is called the ““lex talionis”’ (law of retaliation). It is found in the part of the Bible which contains one of the oldest codes of law in the world. But the law does not refer to private revenge. On the contrary, it was intended to prevent private revenge. In very early times, if a man was hurt it was considered his right, and, in some cases, the duty of his relatives, to see that the hurt was avenged by inflicting a similar one on him who caused it. 'That was the law of private revenge. In Exodus 21, the lawgiver aims to stop it by laying upon judges the duty to punish, by due process of law, anyone who does harm to another. * Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth’’ was, therefore, not a moral law but a civil law. Later it was interpreted to mean that he who does personal injury to another must pay damages. And that is, of course, the law now in all civilised countries. But the important thing I want to point out is that it is completely wrong to suggest that the original law meant that individuals should hate their enemies or take revenge on them. On the contrary, the same code of laws commands that you must do your enemy a good turn if the chance presents itself. ‘‘ If you meet your enemy’s ox or his ass going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the ass of him that hates you lying under his burden, and would forbear to help him, you shall surely help with him ”’ (Exodus 23: 4-5). And a later code of laws included in the Pentateuch commands: ‘ You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke your neighbour, and not bear sin because of him. You shall JUDAISM AND THE SOCIAL ORDER 100 not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord ” (Leviticus 19: 17-18). The moral laws in the Bible show throughout particular consideration for the poor. In more than one place it is forbidden to take interest. ‘‘ You shall take no interest ”” (Exodus 22: 25. Leviticus 25: 36, Deuteronomy 23: 19). The objection to interest is also referred to in Psalm ı5, which has been called the gentleman’s psalm, because it describes the qualities of a good man. Among these qualities it includes the refusal to take interest. T’he Author- ised Version of the English Bible puts in all these places ‘“ usury ”” instead of ““ interest,”” but the original Hebrew clearly means interest. Why was interest forbidden? "T'his was the social situation to which the prohibition refers: When a farmer’s crop failed so that he had nothing to live on, he would ask a rich man for a loan to enable him to buy food for himself and his family until the next year’s harvest. He needed the loan to buy the necessities of life, and the lawgiver thought it wrong that in such circumstances the rich man should ask for interest. It was the lawgiver’s idea that Judaism re- quired the rich man to make the loan without interest ın order to help a fellow human being in his need. (Compare Deuteronomy 15: 7-11.) Loans nowadays are, however, of a somewhat different character. A business man will borrow money from his bank for the purposes of his business; he wants to use it to make a profit for himself. I do not think that the ‘Biblical law applies to such cases; but I do think it applies to cases where the lender takes advantage of the great need which a borrower may feel in order to charge him a high and unfair rate of interest. It, therefore, translates correctly the spirit of the ancient commandment to put “ usury ”” for ““ interest.”” For usury means the kind of interest which takes an unfair advantage of another man’s II0 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM need. Judaism has always forbidden it. It requires the stronger members of society to help those who are weaker. It requires the rich to help the poor. The Jewish principle is expressed in Leviticus 25: 35-36. ‘“ And if your brother be waxen poor, and his hand fail with you; then you shall uphold him; as a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with you. Take you no usury of him or increase but fear your God; that your brother may live with you.” The principle ‘ that your brother may live with you” pro- duced commandments about specific ways to help the poor. Again and again it is commanded that the owner of a field shall not gather the gleanings of the harvest, the ears of corn which happen to fall to the ground while the sheaves are bound. He also had to leave the corners of every field uncut. Furthermore, if, in collecting the sheaves of corn, he forgot any, he might not go back for them. These things, the glean- ings, the corners of the field, the forgotten sheaves, belonged to the poor, the widow, and the stranger; that is, to people who had no land and, therefore, no harvest of their own. There was a similar law about vineyards and orchards. The fallen fruit, and the fruit that was overlooked in the picking, belonged not to the owner, but to the poor, the widow, and the stranger. In addition, there was a law that a tithe—a tenth of the harvest—had to be given to the poor. All these laws show the social teaching of Judaism. Though they refer to an ancient form of society, when there were no factories and farming was the prevalent occupation, they express and embody a principle which is valid for all time, the principle that the weaker members of society have needs and rights which constitute a claim on the stronger members of society and on society as a whole. Out of that principle issued the great stress which Judaism has laid on charity. Charity means, in the most common sense, giving alms to the poor. But its real meaning is much larger. There are two expressions for it in Hebrew. One is JUDAISM AND THE SOCIAL ORDER I1X gemillut chasadim, which means doing loving kindness; it is the name for acts of service done for others. The other is tsedakah, which literally means justice; it is used for alms- giving. It is unnecessary for my present purpose to show how it happened that a word which means justice came to mean charity. But it is significant that the same word has both meanings, suggesting that charity is an act of justice and that justice requires charity. The obligations towards others which Judaism lays upon its adherents are not, however, fulfilled by acts or gifts of charity. They include also the duty to work for a better social order, that is, a social order which shall be characterised by justice. That obligation calls for thought about the kind of social order justice requires, and for work to establish it. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus there is an interest- ing attempt in this direction, related naturally to the economic and social conditions of the time when it was written. It contains the law of the Jubilee Year. Every fiftieth year, it says, all land shall be returned to its original owners. 'The writer had the idea that when the Hebrews settled in Palestine the land was divided among them in family estates; each family had a piece of land which it cultivated and from which it obtained the means of livelihood. He therefore thought that permanent, or long-term, poverty could be prevented by maintaining these family estates; so he made, or suggested, a law that if 2 member of a family became so poor that he had to sell his bit of land, then he could not sell it permanently, but only lease it until the jubilee year, when it would auto- matically return to him or to his descendants. It is doubt- ful whether the law was ever put into practice. But, whether it was or not, it has this significance: it laid down the duty to work for, and to establish, a social order which will eliminate, or minimise, poverty. The Prophets constantly emphasised that obligation. They condemn again and again the rich people and the 112 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM powerful people who oppress the poor or take no account of their needs. Jeremiah, for example, says to King Jehoiakim, “Thus saith the Lord: Execute judgment and righteous- ness and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the father- less nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. Did not your father. . ..do judgment and justice, then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy (Jeremiah 22:3 and 15). In those days the King was the government, he made the laws; so Jeremiah tells King Jehoiakim that it is his duty to make such laws as will protect and uphold the weaker members of society, in other words, such laws as will make for social justice. The need for some changes in the social order is shown by the fact that some people are poor through no fault in them- selves, but through general causes which must be ascribed to the imperfect organisation of our society. There are con- ditions causing poverty for which no individual, or individuals, are responsible. For example, some years ago a new machine was invented for printing—the linotype. All type used to be set by hand. By means of this machine, however, the work to print a book or newspaper can be done more quickly and by less men. When the machine was introduced, a number of compositors were, therefore, thrown - out of work. Ultimately, more people came to be employed in the printing industry than ever before. The machine reduced the cost of books and papers so that the demand for them increased ; but at first it put some men out of their jobs. If they were young men, they could learn another trade. But there were older men who had spent their lives working at this trade and could not learn another one; what were they to do? They had lost their means of earning a liveli- hood. They became poor. The cause of their poverty was not in any fault of theirs, nor was any other individual responsible for it. If society were perfectly organised, we JUDAISM AND THE SOCIAL ORDER I13 might conceive some way in which such a hardship would be avoided. We want inventions; they mean progress. Society gains something through them. In the long run they increase work; but at first a newly-invented machine is liable to throw a number of people out of work. Is it right that society’s gains should be got at their expense? Society owes them a chance to earn their living. In the 1930’s, many people in England, and in almost every other country, were out of work. There were various causes for this unemployment. But the unemployed were not themselves responsible for the fact that they had no jobs, that they did not have a chance to earn their livelihood. It was the fault of conditions. Should we not aim for a social organisation which will give every man an opportunity to work, so that all may have food, clothing, shelter, and education? Again, there is inequality of opportunities. Not all have the same chances to obtain an education or to learn a trade, or even to develop a strong and healthy body. The children of poor parents have not the same opportunities as the child- ren of rich parents. If without these opportunities they can- not make very much of their lives, is it altogether their fault? 1In the poor districts of any large city there are families who live in a few dingy rooms where they have very little light or air. 'They cannot afford to live in healthier places. So the lives of the children may be spoilt. These facts show how imperfect our society 1s and how often many have to suffer misery and poverty through no fault of their own, nor can any other individual be blamed for these conditions. But it is the duty of society as a whole to remedy them. It is the duty, therefore, of every member of society—that means all of us—to work for a better society. We must seek out the causes which produce bad social conditions, and we must strive to eradicate them. Some men, in seeking for these causes, may find that they are themselves responsible 114 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM for some poverty and misery. One who employs men to work for him may find that he is not paying them enough to support themselves and their families. Everyone who employs others to work for him should see to it that the con- ditions in the factory or shop should be wholesome and healthy, that the work required of the employees should not be so much as to destroy their health, that the wages they receive should be fair and should allow them to live decently. But a lot of social troubles are not due to individuals, and cannot be remedied by individuals; they can be remedied only by society. We must all work together to find solutions for social problems. They cannot, and will not, be solved very easily or very quickly. They are very, very difficult; but something can be done, something must be done, toward removing the causes of misery and poverty in order that we may have a better society, a society ordered in accordance with the principle of justice. It is a fundamental demand of Judaism. And every individual must share in this task. That applies especially to the citizens of the democratic countries, who, by their votes which elect the governments, share in the responsibilities of government. Liberal Judaism, following the Prophets, attaches supreme importance to moral and social conduct in the worship of God. Rabbinic Judaism had a similar attitude, though it ~ generally attached considerable importance, much more than most of the Prophets, to ritual and ceremonial observances. Like the Prophets, Liberal Judaism gives ceremonial observances only a subsidiary place in the worship of God, and the chief place to right conduct, actions which by their justice and love conform to the will of God. Righteousness in conduct binds men to God; it is a way to Him. Similarly, human society can by a just organisation establish itself in relation with God, it can put itself under His rule and promote His kingdom. CHAPTER XIII THE MESSIANIC IDEA THE ideals and aims laid down in Jewish teaching for the future of humanity are expressed in the Messianic hope. It has a long history. In its best-known form it envisaged the coming of a supernatural person who would deliver the Jews from oppression, restore them to Palestine and win the peoples of the world to the ]ewish religion. To understand this belief and how it arose it is necessary to trace the meaning of the word ‘‘ Messiah.” It was originally used to describe the king or the high priest. It means, literally, anointed. The king and the high priest were anointed when they were inducted into office. The anointing symbolised appointment by God. ‘“Messiah,”’ therefore, came to mean one appointed by God for a special service, a specially important and exalted service. In this sense it was applied by the Deutero-Isaiah to Cyrus. He held the view that Cyrus was appointed by God to deliver the Jews from Babylonian exile. He had good historic grounds for it. It was the policy of Cyrus—which was just the opposite of the policy previously followed by the Babylonian and Assyrian kings—to win the favour of con- ~ quered peoples by letting them remain in their lands rather than to embitter them by exile. He had followed it in his early conquests over the Medes and Persians. His success gave Deutero-Isaiah the idea that he would also conquer Babylonia; and the policy he followed with conquered peoples roused in the Prophet the confident hope that he would allow the Jewish exiles to return to Palestine. 115 L V 116 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Incidentally, it should be pointed out that the Prophet read the position correctly. What he foresaw did happen. "I'he important point, however, in our present context is that the _ title Messiah is deliberately given to Cyrus because, though he was not a Jew, the Prophet conceived him to be appointed by God to fulfil a divine purpose———the restoration of the ; Jews to their land. The passages in the Bible which are usually described as Messianic do not use the word Messiah. '"I’he most famous is, perhaps, Isaiah ı1. Here a poet describes a king, who will rule justly and benevolently, fulfilling his royal function by his moral influence, and bringing happiness to the people under his rule. "T’he king will be a ‘“ shoot from the stock of Jesse.” "Ihat just means a descendant of David. All the kings that ruled over Judah from the time of David to the conquest of the country by Nebuchadnezzar were members of the Davidic dynasty. "They were all, to use the language of the Bible, ‘‘ shoots from the stock of Jesse’’; Jesse was David’s father. '"The poem, then, in Isaiah ı1, describes a king of Judah whose rule will in every way be perfect, an earthly ruler who will be an ideal king. It has been suggested by Biblical scholars that the poem was written to celebrate the birth of an heir-apparent to the throne of Judah, perhaps the birth of Hezekiah or Josiah. It was not an uncommon thing for poets, especially if they were court poets holding a position something like that of the English poet laureate, to celebrate in this way the birth of a prince. But whether this suggestion is correct or not, it is certain that Isaiah ır refers to a present or future king _ who would be an ideal, but a human, king. The suffering-servant poems in the second part of the book of Isaiah have also been given a Messianic interpre- tation. "The suffering servant, it has been said in the past by both Jews and Christians, is the Messiah. '"Ihe difference between the Jews and the Christians was that while the THE MESSIANIC IDEA ‘ 117 Christians said that this suffering Messiah had already come, the Jews said that he was still to come. There is not, how- ever, the slightest indication in the poems themselves that the author intended them to refer to a Messiah. The description of the suffering servant lacks a feature that is prominent in the later idea of the Messiah, namely, that he will deliver the Jews from oppression and restore their national and religious life in Palestine. Nothing of the sort is mentioned in the poems about the suffering servant. On the contrary, instead of being a triumphant king, he 1s a martyred prophet. He is a human being with ordinary humanity but with spiritual and moral grandeur. Of the remaining passages that have been interpreted in a Messianic sense, there is one which, for historic reasons rather than for what it says, has to be mentioned. It is Isaiah 7. In the year 735 B.C.E. Judah was threatened with invasion by the kings of Syria and Ephraim. The king of Judah, Ahaz, in his alarm, wanted to call in the help of Assyria, which was at the time the dominating power in Asia Minor. Isaiah thought that this policy was unwise and dangerous, so he urged Ahaz not to adopt it but to rely on the working of God in human history. To assure him that the issue would be favourable, he gave the king a sign. In the text of the Authorised Version, the sign was ‘ Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat when he knoweth to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good the land whose two kings thou abhorrest shall be forsaken.” Now, if it were not for the use made of this passage in the Gospels 1t would probably not have occurred to anyone to suggest that it refers to a Messiah. For what the passage plainly says is, that when a child about to be born reaches the age of two or three, the age when the child would eat curds (that, rather than * butter ” is the correct translation 118 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM of the Hebrew word) and honey, all will be well with Judah; the danger that threatened it would be past, the kings whom Ahaz feared would be destroyed. There was no need there- fore for him to call in the help of Assyria. But why the reference to a virgin? The fact is that the Hebrew word does not necessarily mean a virgin. Hebrew has a totally different word for virgin; the word used here means a young woman who might be married or unmarried. The prophet probably referred to a young married woman, who obviously expected the birth of a child. Some scholars think that he meant his own wife. That child was the prophet’s sign; by the time he reached the age of two or three, the prophet’s assurance would be fulfilled. *‘Im- manuel ”’ means “ God is with us ”’; and the prophet sug- gested that name for the child to express his faith in the final outcome of the crisis. 'The passage has, therefore, nothing to do with the belief in a Messiah; it deals with a critical situation which arose for Judah in %735 B.C.E. In the whole of the Hebrew Bible there is only one passage that may definitely refer to a superhuman Messiah; it is Daniel 7: 13. But that, too, may refer only to an ideal human king. The only clear and indubitable references to a superhuman Messiah occur in post-Biblical Jewish litera- ture. He became a figure in Jewish apocalyptic, the highly imaginative descriptions of what would happen “ in the end of days,” at the end of human history. The belief in a superhuman Messiah is also found in the Talmud. Itcame to be a cardinal belief of orthodox Judaism that at some time in the future a being in the form of a man, who would, however, be more than human, would come to deliver the Jews from oppression, to restore their life in Palestine as it was in ancient times, and to inaugurate an era of peace and goodness for all humanity. This belief may have evolved out of Isaiah 11. The king described in that poem did not appear in history. It was perhaps natural THE MESSIANIC IDEA 119 therefore to project the hope of his coming into the ultimate future. Whenever the Jews suffered great oppression, as they did under the Romans from 63 B.c.E. onwards, they turned to this hope for encouragement, as if saying to them- selves Though things are terrible now, a time of deliver- ance i1s coming when we shall be saved from our present sufferings and restored to the position which God has as- signed to us.”” And this time, it was believed, would be inaugurated by a superhuman Messiah. Liberal Judaism, on the other hand, does not believe in the coming of such a person, whether in the past or future. There is no need for him. God can work his deliverences in the way in which he works in human history, by inspiring great teachers who teach nations and humanity how to pro- gress in righteousness, and by raising great leaders who will guide nations and mankind to higher achievements in right- eousness. But Liberal Judaism does hold the belief in a Messianic age, basing it on the teachings of the Prophets, who looked forward to a time when there will be lasting peace between nations and when human society will be ordered in full accord with the principle of justice. The Messianic idea comes, therefore, to a belief in human progress. Its basis is twofold. In the first place it rests on the belief in God. That is, I think, how the Prophets came to it. This world is very imperfect. There is in it much that is wrong, much that is evil. To that extent, it is out of accord with the rule and nature of God. It cannot ‘therefore always remain like that; for the rule of God must mean that ultimately the world will be the kind of world that He wants. That kind of world came to be called ¢ the Kingdom of God.” It is the translation of a Hebrew phrase. ‘“ Kingdom ” is here an abstract, not a concrete, noun. It doesn’t mean the place ruled over, but the rule. The King- dom of God means the rule of God over the whole world. The time must come when God’s rule will be fully & 120 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM recognised in the world of which He is the creator and ruler. : | The second ground for the Messianic hope is to be found in human history. It has been a very chequered history, with dark and light spots, with good and bad times. We live in an age in which there is much evil, but it cannot obscure the good achievements in human life. Mankind has made considerable progress since it first rose to the human plane; not only in knowledge, in the arts and in mechanical inventions, but also in goodness. The advance- ment in the past gives ground for the hope of future advance- ment. The belief in a Messianic age is the belief that the human race will, under the guidance of God, progress to the attainment of righteousness, to an age when human beings shall all be righteous, when their relations to one another shall be perfectly righteous, when human society shall be just in its organisation, and when all nations shall live together in peace. The demand that men should strive to create a better world distinguishes the Jewish religion from some others. Other religions have, at times, urged a sort of negative atti- tude to the world. ““ Do not pay more than a minimum of attention to it, it is essentially a bad world.” Some of their teachers have said, in so many words, ‘“The best that men can do in this world is to keep themselves free from sin.” But Judaism teaches that this world is a part of God’s universe; it must, therefore, be essentially a good world, though im- perfect. While striving to keep ourselves free from sin, it is our duty to strive to make the world better and to promote goodness, justice and peace in it. In this way we conform to the Kingdom of God and work for its full realisation in the life of humanity. God will help men in their efforts for a better world, which He will use for His salvation of mankind. CHAPTER XIV THE MISSION OF ISRAEL . IT dawned upon the best minds of ancient Israel that since the God whom Israel worshipped was the God of the whole world, the time must come when the whole world will worship Him. Israel, then, must teach all nations to know Him. This was Israel’s mission. It is the belief that the Jewish people have the task, put upon it by God, to teach all mankind the religious truths which constitute the essence of Judaism. It developed out of the idea of the “ chosen people.” 'The Hebrews looked upon themselves as the chosen people of God, in the sense that they had, as a people, a special relation to Him. It is evident how that idea arose : it was based on history. According to tradition, Jewish history began with Abra- ham, who lived about 1800 or 2000 B.C.E. Behind the Bible stories about him there seems to lie the historic fact that a group of people broke away from the Babylonians, or, as they were then called, Sumerians, who lived in the southern part of the Mesopotamian Valley. Out of this group there finally evolved the Jewish people. The name “ Jew ” does not occur till a much later time. Of Abraham the Bible says that he was called *“ Hebrew.” But it is also clear from the Bible that at an early time the Jews were called “ the Children of Israel.”” It cannot be said with certainty whether the Hebrews, the Children of Israel, formulated a new religion from the very beginning of their existence as a separate people. But certain it is that ultimately they did produce new religious ideas. The chief one is monotheism. E ' 121 N & ‘:;x F 122 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM When all other peoples worshipped diverse gods, the Hebrews came to look upon their God as the God of the whole universe. But He still remained in a sense their God and they His people. That special relation meant, however, a special responsibility—the responsibility to worship Him in special and more exacting ways. It was a responsibility which was a privilege, but it did not mean favours. They were chosen to work for God among men, so that men might come to know and worship God. The idea attained its full and clearest expression in the author of the second part of the Book of Isaiah. * Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen ” (Isaiah 43: 10). “ Thou art my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified ’ (Isaiah 49: 3). The poems about the “ suffering servant of the Lord ” (in Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 52 and 53) describe the way of the mission, what it entails, and what it will achieve. By the suffering servant, most - scholars agree, the prophet-poet meant Israel. *‘ Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment (i.e. religion) to the nations ”’ (Isaiah 42: 1). ‘““ He was despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we esteemed him not’ (Isaish £4: 3). By his knowledge shall my rlghteous ser- vant Just1fy many ’ (Isaiah 53: 11). It is perhaps significant that the clearest statement of Israel’s mission comes from a time when the Jews were in exile. The historical situation may have brought it into the foreground of Jewish thought. The people probably asked, ‘“ Why do we suffer? Why should we, the worshippers of God, be given into the power of others and be subjected to oppression?”’ And the prophet answered them: ‘ Just because you are the servants of God you are thus made to suffer, for you have a mission to fulfil, a task to perform, to THE MISSION OF ISRAEL 123 teach other nations the knowledge of God. And that task entails suffering.” No other people of that time who met with the same fate as the Jews survived it as the Jews did. For the Edomites, Moabites, or Ammonites, exile meant the end of everything— not only the end of nationality, but the end of their religion, the end of their existence. Even the Jews of Northern Palestine, when they were conquered and led into exile by the Assyrians, in 722 B.C.E., disappeared completely. They are ‘‘ the ten lost tribes.” They were swallowed up, ab- sorbed, by the peoples among whom they were exiled. On the other hand, the Jews of Southern Palestine, who suffered a similar fate 140 years later, maintained their identity in exile. 'They were saved by the development of the Jewish religion during the intervening years. For some centuries before the fall of the Jewish nation (586 B.C.E.) the teachings of successive prophets had made the Jews realise that God’s sovereignty was not only over the Jewish nation, but over the whole universe, that the God of Israel was the God of the whole world. Though, therefore, the Jews found themselves, when exiled to Babylonia, deprived for a time of their land, their faith in God and loyalty to their religion were unimpaired. They had learnt that they could worship God and follow their religion any- where. Perhaps their exile taught them to understand even better than before the teachings which they had received from the Prophets about God’s universal sovereignty. Other people still clung to the older belief that each nation had its own god; the conquest of a nation, therefore, meant the conquest of its god. For the Jews, however, there was only one God and He ruled all nations; He could be worshipped in all lands. When, therefore, the Jews of Judah were exiled to Babylonia they did not give up their religion. And by loyalty to it they maintained their identity. The Jews of Northern Palestine were lost in exile because their religion 124 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM had not developed fully the distinctive ideas of Judaism; the Jews of Southern Palestine maintained themselves in exile by the distinctiveness of their religion; it had developed the strength of Jewish monotheism. It may well be that the dispersal of the Jews strengthened in them the sense of a religious mission. But the mission ‘idea was inherent in monotheism. Judaism was the first missionary religion, because it was the first monotheistic religion. It is the nature of truth that it fills those who possess it with the desire to impart it to others. One who knows a truth, or believes he knows a truth, wants others, too, to have it. Philosophers, scientists and historians write books, chiefly because they want others to share their know- ledge. In monotheistic religion this urge is even stronger. They who believe in One God must want the whole world to acknowledge and Worship Him. The religion of the Jews, therefore, generated in them a sense of mission. History supports it. The Jewish religion has, in one form or another, become fundamental to our western civilisation. It was not the religion of the Assyrians or Egyptians or Greeks or Romans, but the religion of the Jews, which has contributed most of the spiritual and moral ideas of the western world, and of a great part of the rest of the world. Christianity and Mchammedanism issued out of Judaism, though they have introduced many and important changes. The world accepted from Judaism the ideas which originally differentiated it from all other religions. The religion of the Jews was monotheism, opposed to the polytheism of other peoples. The religion of the Jews was the belief in a God with universal sovereignty, opposed to the belief in national gods. The religion of the Jews condemned the use of idols, while others maintained them. The religion of the Jews taught that God required for His worship justice, love and humility ; not magical or THE MISSION OF ISRAEL 125§ mysterious rites. And a large part of the world has adopted the Jewish ideas. - Is it not a reasonable inference from history that the Jews will contribute in the future, as they have contributed in the past, to the religious development of the world the ideas which distinguish their religion from others? Israel’s mission is not yet completed. The conception of God in Judaism is different from that in Christianity, the concep- tions of God’s relation to the universe and man’s relation to God are different, the attitude towards this world and life is in a way different. Judaism has distinctive ideas about God, man and the universe. Israel has a religious contribu- tion to make to the life of humanity. We hope for a time when there will be a universal religion, that 1s, a religion to which all men shall adhere, which all men shall recognise as true, and which they shall follow. That does not mean that all religious differences will disap- pear. The diversity of religions means richness, corres- ponding to the rich diversity in human nature. By a universal religion I mean a religious brotherhood including all men, based on a common belief about essentials and ~ fundamentals, with variations in less important matters. We believe that this universal religion will be a development of Judaism, that it will be based upon the essential ideas of Judaism. I do not think it will be exactly the Judaism we know now; I should be sorry to think that there is no room for further growth and development in our religion. But as we believe the essentials of our religion to be true, so do we believe that they will have an important place in the future religion of the world. The belief in the mission of Israel has been, and is, a source of great strength to the Jew. Jews have been forced to endure great suffering and hardship. And all because of their religion. If they had consented to give it up—to play the traitor—they would have avoided persecution and they 126 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM would have had the same rights and privileges as others; but they clung to it firmly. They wanted Judaism, not only for themselves, but also for the world. They saw in it the bond which bound them to God and the force which could lead mankind to Him. What though they suffer, what though others persecute them, are they not * the suffering servant of God who shall make many righteous?” Every Jew is a missionary of Judaism. His missionary work is his life. By the way he lives he shows what Judaism is. 'The specifically missionary work of Judaism attaches directly, however, to the Synagogue. Every Synagogue should, by its services and other activities, be a place where all who wish to know what Judaism is can come to learn. The Jews live among people who are mostly non-Jews. That fact gives them an opportunity to spread a knowledge of Judaism, of the Jewish conception of God, and of all He means for human life, thought and conduct. Liberal Judaism puts considerable emphasis on the mis- sionary idea in Judaism. Judaism is a universal religion, not only the religion of those who happen to be born Jews. Liberal Judaism, therefore, welcomes sincere proselytes gladly. With some other Liberal Jews I think that Judaism should also seek proselytes. Not necessarily from the adher- ents of other theistic religions which, like Judaism, have attained a high stage of development; but from the adherents of lower religions in other parts of the world, and particularly from among those in our part of the world who have no religion. There are, therefore, two ways for Jews to carry out their mission. One is for the Jews collectively and individually to show the beauty, truth and power of Judaism and so bring its influence into the life of humanity; the other is to win proselytes to Judaism. "Two quotations will sum up the missionary hope of Judaism. The first is from the Bible: ‘‘ It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall THE MISSION OF ISRAEL 127 be established in the top of the mountains, and shail be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. And many nations 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 ” (Isaiah 2: 2-3, or Micah 4: 1-2). The other is a mediaeval poem, included in the Synagogue services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in a translation by the late Israel Zangwill: All the world shall come to serve thee And bless thy glorious name. And thy righteousness triumphant The islands shall acclaim. Yea, the peoples shall go seeking Who knew thee not before, And the ends of earth shall praise thee And tell thy greatness o’er. They shall build for thee their altars, Their idols overthrown, And their graven gods shall shame them As they turn to thee alone. They shall worship thee at sunrise And feel thy kingdom’s might, And impart thy understanding To those astray in night. With the coming of thy kingdom The hills shall shout with song, And the islands laugh exultant That they to God belong. And through all their congregations, So loud thy praise shall ring, That the utmost peoples hearing, Shall hail thee crownéd king. CHAPTER XV LIBERAL JUDAISM AND ORTHODOX JUDAISM To clarify the distinctive element in Liberal Judaism, it is necessary to point out wherein it differs from Orthodox Judaism. Differences of belief generally are important because truth is important; but they need not cause conflict among men. All civilised religions have a common aim, the knowledge and worship of God. That common aim can unite them in spite of the differences. That, of course, applies in a special degree to Liberal Judaism and Orthodox Judaism. The differences between them are much less than their common ground. All Jews have a common possession in the history of the Jewish people and in the Jewish tradition, and all Jews are united by their faith in God, their attention to His law, and their belief that the Jews have a religious contribution to make to the life of humanity. The sense of Jewish unity need not be disturbed by the differences. And it violates Jewish teaching to treat them intolerantly. A hint of even more than respect for religious differences is given in the Rabbinic saying : every controversy that is in the name of Heaven [7.e. religious controversy] shall in the end lead to a permanent good result (Ethics of the Fathers, 5: 20). A similar idea is contained in a saying of asecond- century Rabbi, Jochanan the Sandalmaker : every assembly which is in the name of Heaven [i.e. for a religious purpose] will in the end be established (Ethics of the Fathers, 4: 14). The fundamental difference between Orthodox and Liberal Judaism is to be found in their divergent conceptions 128 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND ORTHODOX JUDAISM 12§ of revelation. Orthodox Judaism believes that at some time in the past God revealed His truth and His laws for all time. The ideas which are true and the commandments which have to be obeyed are therefore contained in the writings which embody that revelation. These writings constitute the Law. To put it in a way that may seem crude, yet not, I think, untrue, the belief of Orthodox Judaism is, that on Mount Sinai God dictated to Moses the Pentateuch, which he was commanded to write down so that it was called * the written Law.” In addition, He also gave Moses a number of laws which were to be transmitted by word of mouth. The Talmud which contains them is, therefore, called the Oral Law, (though it was, after a time, written down). For Orthodox Judaism, therefore, what the Bible and Tal- mud teach are divinely true, and all their laws are divine commandments. ‘ On the other hand, Liberal Judaism holds the belief in ~ a progressive revelation, which means that God did not reveal all His laws at once, but He revealed, and reveals, them by development. Man did not learn what was right by one flash of revelation, but his knowledge of right grew, and grew slowly, under the guidance of, and impulsion from, God. This view of revelation is substantiated by, and largely based on, the account of the Bible given by modern Biblical scholarship. : Though the Bible, as we have it, is usually printed in one volume, it is not one book written either by one author or by a number of authors living at the same time and working together. It cannot be called a book in this sense, any more than we could call one book a volume in which a play by Shakespeare, essays by Bacon and Matthew Arnold, poems by Milton and Shelley, and stories by Fielding and Scott, _were bound together. The Bible contains all that is left of the writings and sayings of Hebrew writers and religious teachers who lived before 100 B.C.E. These writings vary E* 130 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM in kind, and treat of various subjects. They include ancient science, philosophy, history, law, poetry, songs, €ven ro- mance and drama, and many addresses of religious teachers. The authors of the many parts lived at different times, some as far back as the tenth century B.C.E.; and they sometimes drew on older, even much older, sources. The latest parts of the Bible come from the second century B.C.E. Some of the books in the Bible are compilations. The Book of Isaiah for example in its present form contains the writings of three different Prophets, living at different times. The first part of the book, chapters 1 to 39, comes from Isaiah, who lived in Jerusalem in the eighth century B.C.E.; the second part, chapters 40 to 55, comes from another prophet—we do not know his name—who lived in the second half of the sixth century B.C.E., probably in Babylonia; the third part, chapters 56 to 66, comes from a prophet who lived at a still later time. Many of the books in the Bible contain additions put in by writers who lived after their original authors. In the traditional view, however, a book that bears the name of a particular person is taken to have been written completely by him. ‘The difference, between the traditional view of the Bible and the view of modern Biblical scholars, which has the most important religious significance, concerns the first five books of the Bible: the Pentateuch. It is the chief part of the Law. ¢ The Law ”’ (in Hebrew *“ Torah,” which means literally “ instruction” and corresponds to “ revelation”) has been the centre of Judaism, and—though the figure changes, the idea presents no incongruity—its basis. The term is sometimes applied to the whole Bible, but essentially it belongs, as it was originally applied, to the Pentateuch, which was considered the heart of the revelation comprised in the Jewish religion, with the laws of the Talmud its com- pletion. The traditional view is that it was written by Moses. The view of modern Biblical scholars is that the books from LIBERAL JUDAISM AND ORTHODOX JUDAISM 1I3I Genesis to Joshua resulted from a combination of a number of *“ documents,” the earliest dating probably from the tenth century B.C.E. though it includes stories that are much older, and the latest dating from the fifth century B.C.E.; with others in between. All these ‘ documents” were woven together, probably in the fourth century B.c.E., and constituted into one book, which was later divided into the first six books of our present Bible. The composite character of the Bible explains the differ- ences and even contradictions in its contents. The Prophets did not all hold the same ideas; and they did not always agree with the lawgivers. Isaiah condemns ceremonialism, while Ezekiel and the Pentateuch have a good deal to say about the Temple and its rites. The “ documents ”’ woven into the Pentateuch do not always agree. 'The result of the interweaving is that stories and laws are sometimes repeated, but not always in the same form. There are, for example, two different creation stories, one in the first chapter of Genesis and another in the second. The Feast of Taber- nacles is given seven days in Deuteronomy; Leviticus adds an eighth day. The whole Bible covers a millennium. The fact that some parts of it are very, very old also explains why some of the ideas in it are strange, crude, or even objectionable. God teaches mankind gradually; it is only natural that the ideas in the oldest part of the Bible would sometimes be different from ideas held now and also from ideas in later parts of the Bible. Take, for example, the many laws about sacrifices. In ancient times men believed that the way to worship God was by sacrificing animals on an altar. But a Jewish prophet, living more than twenty-six centuries ago—Hosea—de- clared that God desires ‘ love and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt oﬁ'erlngs Take another example—the Book of Judges. Its stories contain crude and primitive, sometimes even savage, details. They 132 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM come from a very early time in the history of the Hebrews. It emerges from the modern view of the Bible that it reveals a development of religious thought and practice, a development that ranges from primitive religious beliefs and rites to the highest spiritual and moral truths to which human knowledge and aspiration have attained. It contains the record of the development of Judaism from its beginning to the second century before the Common Era. The Talmud continued that development. Its laws are not found in the Bible, but many of them were in one way or another referred back to it. Some of them may be very old practices which were observed during Biblical times, but for some reason were not included among the Biblical laws. Others originated in post-Biblical times. The Pentateuch, which contains the Biblical laws, was completed probably about the year 300 B.C.E.; the Mishnah which contains the Talmudic laws was compiled in the third century c.e. In the intervening five hundred years there probably arose a number of new practices, which came to be looked upon as authoritative. A few illustrations will indicate the relation between the laws in the Bible and those in the Talmud. There are in the Mishnah laws prescribing the way in which animals should be killed for food. Nothing of the kind is found in the Bible. It may be that the method prescribed was already used in Biblical times, but nothing is said about it in the Pentateuch. On the other hand, some of the laws in the Mishnah clearly came into existence after the time of the Bible. It is, for example, prescribed that at the beginning of the Sabbath lights should be lighted. There is nothing about that in the Bible. In fact, there is evidence to support the conclusion that in Biblical times it was considered wrong to have any light on the Sabbath; but the Rabbis, inter- preting the Sabbath as a joyous day, prescribed lights on Friday evening as a symbol of joy. The law about the LIBERAL JUDAISM AND ORTHODOX JUDAISM 133 Sabbath lights resulted from a developed conception of the Sabbath. 'The laws about Sabbath observance show in another way the development of the Talmudic beyond the Biblical law. The Rabbis forbade a number of actions on the Sabbath about which nothing is said in the Bible. They wanted to make what they called a * fence around the law,” so they laid down prohibitions against actions which, though harm- less in themselves, might lead to a violation of the Sabbath. It was forbidden, for example, to touch a tool on the Sabbath, to prevent its inadvertent use in work. Similarly, prohibi- tions were introduced in other connections to prevent an inadvertent violation of a Biblical law. Of these laws it is specifically stated that they were made by the Rabbis. Other Talmudic laws, however, though not found in the Bible, were given the status of Biblical laws. The claim was made for them that they were given to Moses on Mount Sinai at the same time with the laws in the Bible. To substantiate that claim they were connected with the Bible in ways which to us appear artificial. The pro- hibition, for example, in Rabbinic law against the com- bination of meat and milk was related to the fact that the commandment “ Thou shalt not seethe a kid in the milk of its mother ”’ occurs three times in the Pentateuch. The repetition was due to the fact that the Pentateuch is a com- posite of several codes dealing in part, or largely, with the same matters. But the Rabbis of the Talmud had the belief that the Pentateuch was dictated by God to Moses, that it was, therefore, a unity. If, then, a law was repeated several times, the repetition required, in their view, some explana- tion, and the explanation they gave was that it meant some- thing more than just what it said. Sometimes a non- Biblical law is attached to—the Talmud says * derived from ”’—a superfluous word, or even a superfluous letter, in a Biblical law. "\ i gl 134 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM It comes, therefore, to this: The Talmud contains the laws and religious practices which developed in Judaism after Biblical times, or mostly after Biblical times. 'The claim that they were revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai only asserts the belief in their authoritative character. Histori- cally they came into existence after the time of Moses. That is true of many of the laws in the Bible, it is true of probably all the laws in the Talmud. The ideas expressed in the Talmud are not always exactly like the corresponding ideas in the Bible. Some are even altogether new. The beliefs in the resurrection and immortality are perhaps the best examples. The latter is not found in the Bible, at any rate not clearly. The former is stated clearly in the Bible only once, but in the Talmud it receives frequent and insistent emphasis. Both in its laws and its ideas, therefore, the Talmud goes beyond the Bible. The Jewish Apocrypha also has its place in the history of Judaism. Its books show some of the ideas which Jews held in a period roughly corresponding with the time when the Mishnah was developing. They do not differ from ideas in the Talmud, but they are sometimes presented, like the idea of immortality in the Wisdom of Solomon, with a different emphasis. ‘ The development of Judaism did not stop with the Talmud. The chief repository of Jewish ideas is the Jewish Prayer Book. The oldest prayers in it go back a long time. The general framework of the traditional Services was fixed many centuries ago; it was the result of a development; but new prayers and poems have been added from time to time. In observances, too, there have been some changes since the time of the Talmud. Orthodox Judaism bases itself completely and literally on the Bible and Talmud; but they themselves embody a development of Jewish thought and practice and the development continued after them. And Liberal Judaism LIBERAL JUDAISM AND ORTHODOX JUDAISM 135 takes account of the later developments, while giving to the Bible and Talmud, which together constitute “ the Law,” the supreme place in its interpretation of Judaism. Liberal Judaism and Orthodox Judaism thus hold diver- gent views of “ the Law.” For Orthodox Judaism it contains a perfect and final revelation from God. For Liberal Judaism it contains a progressive revelation from God. And since it shows that revelation is progressive, it cannot itself be final. Liberal Judaism recognises the value for Judaism to-day of the Bible and Talmud. It ascribes absolute authotity, however, to neither, nor to both together; it holds both valuable for their spirit, for many of their teachings, for the place they have in the history and develop- ment of Judaism, and for the guidance they give to the fundamental ideas of Judaism and its 1mportant practices. They contain, both in many details and in the process which they reveal throughout of developing rehglous ideas, a revelation from God. Several practical differences between Liberal and Ortho- dox Judaism follow from their divergent views of revelation. Bible and Talmud, since they embody for Orthodox Judaism a complete and perfect divine revelation, are its authority. They constitute the standards for the knowledge of truth, contain all the laws which Jews must obey, and prescribe the practices which they must observe. Those Jews who do not themselves know what is contained in these books, or who cannot understand them, must consult those who do know—authoritative teachers of the Law. Liberal Judaism, on the other hand, does not recognise any external authority. Bible and Talmud, valuable as they are, do not contain the final word about truth, righteousness and the worship of God. They are not the whole of Judaism. Though they contain a very large and supremely important part of God’s revelation to the Jews, they cannot contain the whole of it. Because Liberal Judaism maintains that revelation is " A 136 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM progressive, it cannot recognise as final any set of ideas enunciated in the past, or now. Moreover, each individual has the duty himself to strive for the instruction and guid- ance of God. He must, with his own spirit, try to learn what is required of him in the worship of God. The results of his own spiritual efforts must be correlated with the results of the best spiritual efforts of the present and pastages. All these together should produce the authoritative result, should reveal to the individual his duties, and teach him the know- ledge of God. ‘ Let it not, however, be supposed that by its conception of revelation, Liberal Judaism denies in any way the inspira- tion, in varying degrees, of our ancient teachers. Quite the contrary. But it recognises that there is a human element in revelation, that God’s instruction of man is regulated by man’s capacity to receive it, that the revelation which came to each age was restricted by the capacities and limitations of that age. | The recognition of the human element in revelation solves many of the difficult problems connected with the Bible. Those who accept the Bible as a perfect and complete revelation, which was given to man without any consideration for man’s limited capacities, may find it very hard to explain those things in it which to us seem very crude, the stories which we cannot believe, and the laws which seem unjust. With the belief in progressive revelation, the difficulty disappears. The human element in the Bible explains its limitations. | ' Because of their different conceptions of revelation, Ortho- dox and Liberal Judaism also differ in their attitude to ideas which have come into existence since the Bible and Talmud were produced. Orthodox Judaism cannot accept them if they contradict anything in the Bible or Talmud. Liberal Judaism can. ‘ Truth is God’s seal,” said a Rabbi in the - Talmud. Whatever is true, therefore, has the quality of LIBERAL JUDAISM AND ORTHODOX JUDAISM 137 revelation. Orthodox Judaism, for example, cannot accept the idea of evolution because it seems to contradict the first chapter of Genesis. Liberal Judaism, on the other hand, can accept it as a later revelation, a further development in man’s knowledge of truth. In the same way there is a difference in the attitude to religious ceremonies. Those who accept the authority of tradition must consider themselves bound to observe all the practices which it commands, whether or not they have any particular present significance. On the other hand, those who do not accept the authority of tradition, even while recognising its value, judge the religious practices which it has transmitted by their meaning for, and effect on, the spiritual and moral life of Jews to-day. There is a common notion that the difference between Orthodox Judaism and Liberal Judaism is that Orthodox Jews observe certain things, and Liberal Jews do not. There are such differences between them. Liberal Judaism leaves personal observances, such as the dietary laws, to the religious conscience and thought of the individual Jew. Their value depends on their significance for, and effect on, the religious life of individuals. The same principle is applied by Liberal Judaism to the minutiae which Orthodox Judaism prescribes for the observance of holydays. Some ceremonies, however, which Orthodox Judiasm main- tains with insistence on their obligatory character, Liberal Judaism has definitely abolished. One example is the ceremony called ‘“Chalitzah > which is described in Deutero- nomy 25: 8-10. Another example is the special attention given in the Synagogue Services and in some ritual laws to those who claim to be descended from the priests who served in the Temple (in Hebrew, Cohanim; singular Cohen). But all the differences result from the fundamental differ- ence in their conceptions of revelation. Orthodox Judaism follows the past. Liberal Judaism bases 138 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM itself on Jewish tradition, but it takes account of modern thought and considers the circumstances and religious needs of Jewish life in the present. Ultimately, the authority for the religious life is to be found in the spiritual experience of the individual, supported by the experience of his own age, and influenced by the religious experience of preceding ages. The Services in all Liberal Synagogues differ from the Services in Orthodox Synagogues, some slightly, many widely. The Prayer Books used by Liberal Synagogues vary considerably among themselves. Some follow very closely the form of the Services in the traditional Prayer Book with its main prayers. Others have made changes of diverse extent and importance both in the structure of the Services and in the contents of the prayers. The Services, however, in all Liberal Synagogues diverge in some respects from the Services in Orthodox Synagogues. Significant changes have been made in the contents of some of the traditional prayers to make them conform to the present beliefs of Jews; other changes affected externals, which in some cases, however, involved matters of principle. Liberal Synagogues use in their Services languages other than Hebrew, in each country its language as well as Hebrew. The Services in Orthodox Synagogues are all in Hebrew with a few prayers in Aramaic, which looks like Hebrew. Liberal Synagogues have prayers in the vernacular to relate the Synagogue Services to the present life of the Jews and to make the prayers understood by the worshippers. By this change, however, Liberal Judaism diverges only from present and latter-day Orthodox Judaism; Talmudic or Rab- binic Judaism permitted, and even suggested, that Jews should pray in a language they understood. That principle was followed when Aramaic prayers were introduced into the traditional Prayer Book; it was the language largely used by Jews at the time of Jesus and for several centuries after- wards. LIBERAL JUDAISM AND ORTHODOX JUDAISM 139 The Services in Liberal Synagogues are shorter than those in Orthodox Synagogues; in some Liberal congregations men worship with uncovered heads; in most Liberal Syna- gogues men and women sit together; and there are other similar variations in detail which bring the Services into conformity with the ideas and mode of life of the Jews in the western world. One other difference calls for mention, not so much be- cause of its present importance as because of its place in the history of Judaism. It might almost be said that Liberal Judaism began in this difference. For many centuries it was a belief of Judaism and the hope of Jews that a Messiah would come to lead them back to Palestine, and ultimately to bring the whole world to the true worship of the true God. The first Christians were Jews who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was this Messiah; that was why they called him ““ the Christ,” which is the Greek for the Hebrew “ Messiah.” Only a few Jews accepted this belief; the great majority continued to hope for the Messiah and to expect him. And that expectation has continued to modern times. It is still maintained in Orthodox Judaism. But it is not part of Liberal Judaism. In the early nineteenth century the countries of Central and Western Europe gave Jews the rights of citizenship. (Those countries were their native lands, their ancestors had lived there, in some cases, for centuries; but they had been looked upon as strangers.) The emancipation of the Jews, as this is called, made actual what the Jew had previously felt, that Germany, or France, or England, was his national home, not Palestine. Many Jews gave up the belief in, and hope for, a return of the Jews to Palestine, and with it the belief in the coming of a Messiah. The first prayer books of Liberal Judaism differed from the Orthodox prayer book in omitting all prayers for the coming of a Messiah and the return to Palestine. But Liberal Judaism maintains the 140 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM hope for the coming of a Messianic Age, thatis, an age when humanity shall be perfected in righteousness. And this hope is embodied in many of the prayers in the Liberal Jewish liturgy. The principle that Judaism is a developing religion entails, in its application, some departures in thought and practice from the presentation of Judaism which has prevailed for many centuries. The departures have individually been variously justified. But their fundamental justification lies in that they result from, and express, a development which is not only justifiable but inevitable; a development, more- over, which brings enrichment to Judaism. Judaism cannot for all time be confined in a form given it in the past. It must develop as life changes and human thought grows. A religion must maintain a close and firm relation with human thought and life. If it refuses to develop with them, it is left behind like a backwater. In the case of Judaism, more- over, there is a more specific ground for insistence on its development. It was always a developing religion. Rab- binic Judaism developed out of Biblical Judaism; the Bible itself records a development of ]udalsm Liberal Judaism is its latest development. CHAÄAPFTER 3VI DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY FoRr Jews living among Christians the question naturally arises: How does Judaism differ from Christianity? '"The various forms of Christianity, however, differ so much among themselves that they make it difficult to answer the question with precision. "Ihere is one clear difference; it is fundamental. Judaism rejects the Christian belief about Jesus. '"I'hat does not mean that Jews may not be interested in him, his life and his teachings. On the contrary, they have a Jewish reason for their interest : he was a Jew. Very little is known about him with historic certainty. Some scholars, including some Christian scholars, hold the view that nothing is known about him historically. He is not mentioned in any of the books written in his time. We are, therefore, confined altogether to the Gospels in the New Testament for a knowledge of him and his life. ' The Gospels are not, however, history-books; they are books of devotion written to stimulate the faith of the early Christians. "They were written at different dates, the oldest, Mark, about fifty years after Jesus, and the latest, John, about seventy years still later. "I'he first three, often called the Synoptics because they cover more or less the same ground, contain the stories about Jesus and the sayings as- cribed to him which were current in the early Church, derived, according to some scholars, especially the sayings, from earlier sources. '"I'he fourth Gospel contains a theo- logical interpretation of the tradition about Jesus. 141 N S 142 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM There is no book written by Jesus, like the book of Isaiah or Amos. '"The part of the Hebrew Bible which is most like the Gospels are the chapters in the Books of Kings with the stories about Elijah and Elisha. It is interesting, an dit may be significant, that some of the stories about Jesus re- semble closely stories about Elijah and Elisha. Miracles like those attributed to Jesus were attributed to them long before the Gospels were written. 'The accounts of Jesus’s life, however, in the Gospels, disagree in many details, some of them important. '"The Sermon on the Mount, for example, is found only ın Matthew. Some of the sayings in it occur in various places in Mark. Luke puts some—not all—of them in an address on a different occasıon and in a different place. 'The discrep- ancies and contradictions in the Gospels entail the necessity of selection. Anyone writing a life of Jesus must select the details in the Gospels wıth which to construct his account. 'T'here is, therefore, no life of Jesus about which all students of the Gospels agree. '"T’he details have to be selected on the basis of probability. What probably happened? "The question opens the door to personal feelings and preconcep- tions. Christians and Jews naturally come to the Gospels with different feelings and preconceptions. What will appear probable to the one may appear highly improbable to the other. What, however, can be said with reasonable prob- ability from the Jewish point of view about the life of Jesus? He was born at a time when the Jewish world was in a state of turmoil. Palestine was a province of the Roman Empire ruled by a Roman Governor. Some of the Gover- nors treated the Jews considerately, but some, perhaps the majority, ruled oppressively. '"I'he kings of the Jews were at that time mere functionaries of Rome, puppets or figure- heads. It galled the Jews to be under a foreign rule, and when that rule was exercised with oppression, the bitterness turned into the ferment of rebellion. Several times ‘ Messiahs ”” JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY 143 arose to deliver the Jews from the oppressive rule of Rome; they were executed for rebellion. - The best-known of these ‘“ Messiahs ”’ arose more than a century after the time of Jesus. He was Bar Cochba. When he proclaimed himself the Messiah, many Jews, driven by their bitter suffering under Roman rule, followed him. The great Rabbi Akiba, who was among the chief supporters of Bar Cochba’s Messianic claim, was executed by the Romans. Though all this happened long after Jesus, it throws some light on the events in his time. About twenty centuries ago, in the turmoil provoked among the Jews by the rule of Rome, there appeared one who proclaimed that the end of the world with the judgment of God was near and called on the people to repent of their sins: ‘ Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” The Gospels call him John the Baptist. He probably belonged to a sect called the Essenes who practised frequent ablutions for the sake of ritual purity. Jesus when a young man came under John’s influence. The Gospel story of his life begins then. 'The place of his birth is unknown. His father was one Joseph, a carpenter, his mother’s name was Mary. Jesus lived with them in Nazareth, presumably first learning and then practising his father’strade. Thereis noindication in his later utterances that he had more than the smattering of knowledge which he could pick up through attending the Services in the Synagogue. The impact of John’s personality had a tremendous effect on Jesus. It stirred a sense of calling in him. First as a disciple of John and later as his successor, he carried the message: ‘‘ Repent ye for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” He addressed himself primarily to the am ha-aretz, the people of the land, the name given by the Rabbis to those who had not made a study of the Law. His teaching affected them strongly. The belief that the world would one day come to an end, which seems to us e S 144 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM fantastic, was widely held at the time. With it went the belief that God would pronounce a final judgment on the inhabitants of the earth resulting in the destruction of the wicked and the salvation of the good. That gave point to the call: Repent ye for the Kingdom of God is at hand. And - Jesus taught that the way of repentance was open to all. Itdid not require a knowledge of the Law, its ceremonial minutiae were unimportant. Those who did not know them had as good a chance of salvation as those who did; and perhaps better, because they were not in danger of being puffed up with pride by mere knowledge and meticulous observances. Jesus’s attitude to ceremonial minutiae brought him into conflict with the Pharisees. He did not depreciate the Law, but he did not attach equal importance to everything which the Pharisees included in it. There was a difference be- tween him and them in the way they respectively presented, or interpreted, the requirements of Judaism. Both Jesus and the Pharisees were passionately loyal to Judaism, but they differed about some elements in the ceremonial law. They agreed about the divine character of the Law; they agreed about the supreme importance of its spiritual and moral commandments; they agreed, too, in the value they attached to its chief institutions; but they disagreed about the importance of some ritual prohibitions and requirements. That, however, which brought him into conflict with the Pharisees endeared him to the am ha-aretz, the populace. His sermons to them took a wider sweep, however, than questions of ritual observances. He spoke in pithy, and sometimes paradoxical, sentences, about the fundamental teachings of Judaism, about the spiritual nature of men, their value in the sight of God, and the duties they owe to one another. But perhaps even more than his teaching, his personality deeply impressed those who heard him, so that some gave up their occupations to become his disciples and to share in his religious work. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY 145 Somehow the idea arose among his followers that he was the Messiah. Scholars disagree whether or not he himself ever claimed to be the Messiah. It is conceivable that he remained neutral to the suggestion, neither accepting nor rejecting it, but leaving it to God to give the answer. That would have been in accord with his deep overmastering faith. The suggestion, however, that he was the Messiah alarmed the Sadducees. They were the ruling party at the time. The High Priest and the other priests of the Temple belonged to it. When they heard that Jesus was acclaimed by his followers as the Messiah, they feared that the Roman Governor would take it to mean that the people were rising, or would rise, in rebellion against Rome. For ¢ Messiah ”’ meant then one who would deliver the Jews from the rule of Rome. To avoid the danger for the country in provoking the wrath of Rome, the High Priest and his associates had Jesus arrested and after an informal hearing—they did not have the right of trial in capital cases—they handed him over to the Roman authorities for trial on the charge of fomenting rebellion. He was found guilty and executed in the Roman way, by crucifixion, with the crime for which he was con- demned inscribed on the cross. The letters which now are frequently put at the top of crucifixes, I.N.R.I. stand for Jesus Nazareth Rex Judaeorum—]Jesus Nazareth King of the Jews. Jesus’s influence continued after his death. His followers —they were all Jews—carried out, like all other Jews, the Jewish practices of the time; differing from other Jews only by their belief that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ. When, however, Saul of Tarsus, better known by his Greek name, Paul, was converted to this belief, he inaugurated a movement, both in thought and practice, which led out of Judaism. It produced a new religion which came to be called Christianity. He gave Jesus a significance funda- mentally different from that which was attached to the Messiah. According to ancient belief, sin required a sacrifice 146 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM to be forgiven. So Paul interpreted the death of Jesus as the sacrifice which obtained for humanity forgiveness for sin. He made Jesus into the Redeemer, who by his death, redeemed the world from the guilt which, Paul said, Adam’s sin had laid on mankind and in which all men share indivi- dually. By these teachings, and those related to them, Paul, it may be said, founded Christianity. They were foreign to Judaism and could not fit in with its basic beliefs. Moreover, Paul neglected, in his zeal to win converts to his faith among the Greeks and Romans, some of the institutions of Judaism which were considered important. This neglect involved him in a violent dispute with Jesus’s brother James, who insisted that the ceremonial laws of Judaism had to be observed. Paul, on the other hand, maintained that Jesus had superseded the Law. In this dispute, Paul was the victor. The beliefs he maintained about Jesus came to be the beliefs of Christianity. Christian belief about Jesus did not, however, stop with the belief that he was the Redeemer or Saviour. It developed into the belief that he was God Himself, that he incarnated God, that he was God in the form of a man. That is the essential belief about Jesus in traditional Christianity. It is called the doctrine of the Incarnation. The phrase applied to Jesus in the Gospels, son of God, was interpreted in that sense. Its original meaning is not quite clear; but that doesn’t matter, for we are not concerned with the original ideas about Jesus, but with the position he came to hold in Christian belief. When, therefore, the question is asked: “ Why don’t Jews believe in Christ?”’ we must, before answering, under- stand clearly what is meant by “ believing in Christ.” It might mean to believe that Jesus was a great religious teacher, like the Prophets. Undoubtedly, some Christians think of him in that way. Some Jews, too, are ready to recognise that he was a great religious teacher. They are none JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY 147 the less Jewish for that. The teachings attributed to Jesus are not contrary to Jewish teaching. Some Jewish scholars have pointed to Jewish parallels to the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels, which are found in Rabbinic literature, including the sentences in the prayer which Christians call ““The Lord’s Prayer.” That does not mean that there was nothing original in Jesus’s teachings, but it does mean that there was nothing in them which is contrary to Judaism or which is necessarily un-Jewish. “To believe in Jesus Christ,” originally meant to believe that he was the Messiah whom the Jews in the time of Jesus hoped for and expected. Orthodox Jews, who still believe in the coming of the Messiah, deny that Jesus was the Messiah because he did not fulfil the role of the Messiah, which was to restore Israel and to inaugurate the consum- mation of human history in the Kingdom of God. For Liberal Jews the question whether Jesus was the Messiah does not arise, they do not hold the belief in a personal Messiah, though their interpretation of Judaism includes the hope for a Messianic age. But the epithet * Christ” came to mean in Christian belief much more than ‘“the Messiah.” = In Christianity Jesus is the Redeemer and Saviour. For Judaism, God, and God alone, is the Redeemer and Saviour of mankind and of men. But, Christianity would answer, Jesus was God. That 1s what it means ‘‘ to believe in Christ,” to believe in the doctrine of the Incarnation. That doctrine is not inter- preted alike by all Christians. But, however it is inter- preted, it means that Jesus was not just a man, or just a great man; it means that he was different from all other men who have lived, or will live, in being more than a man; that he was a divine man, a man who was all God. Now, Judaism teaches that human beings have a divine quality; they have, to put it simply, something of God in them. The idea originated in such verses in the Jewish 148 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Bible as “ man was created in the image of God ”’ and * ye are the children of God.” But Judaism has a conception of God which precludes the belief that any man could, so to speak, have the whole of God in him. For God is the God of the universe, and no part of the universe can contain Him. More than that, the whole universe cannot contain Him. He is more than the universe. 'The heaven of heavens cannot contain thee,” says the Bible. And there is a Rabbinic saying: ‘ The universe is not the place of God, but God is the place of the universe,” which may be interpreted that the universe does not contain God, but God contains the universe. Moreover, Judaism has always emphasised that there is a difference in essence between God and man. Though they are related, no one can be both God and man: they are essentially different. That is the chief and funda- mental reason why Jews do not “ believe in Christ.”” There are subsidiary reasons. One is that the stories told about him, which are in the Gospels, do not give any ground for such a belief. But the main reason is that to ‘‘ believe in Christ ”’ is contrary to the Jewish belief in God. Other beliefs followed from the belief in the Incarnation. Whereas Judaism taught that God is one, indivisible, but manifesting Himself in an infinite number of ways, Christ- ianity taught, and teaches, that though God is one, yet He is a trinity, manifesting himself in the three ways described in the formula: Father, Son and Holy Ghost (i.e. holy spirit). I cannot attempt to explain the doctrine of the trinity, for I cannot claim to understand it fully; but it is evident that there is a vast difference between the Christian belief in the trinity of God and the Jewish belief in His unity. Again, the place given to Jesus in the Christian scheme of salvation distinguishes it from Judaism. It is the central teaching of Christianity that Jesus is the Saviour for every individual and the Saviour for all humanity, that through his life, his crucifixion, and his present influence, the world JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY 149 ~will be saved, and every individual man can be saved by believing in him. In this sense, Jesus stands between God and man, as a go-between, a mediator. The Jew does not believe that about Jesus, nor about any man. Judaism teaches that there is a direct and immediate relation between God and every individual human being. Everyone, no matter how unworthy he feels, and we are all unworthy, can, with his prayers, trusting to God’s love, come to Him to ask for forgiveness for sin, and for help in his endeavours towards goodness. Similarly, while Christianity teaches that salvation must come through Jesus, that he will save humanity from all that is evil, that through him, or because of him, God will save humanity, Judaism teaches that God Himself will save humanity directly because He is good and all-loving, and He lays on every man the duty to make himself an instrument for God’s saving power. There can be, and there is, I believe, no objection from the Jewish point of view to the view that Jesus was a great teacher. So were Confucius, Buddha or Mohammed. Jews must, however, have a greater interest in Jesus than in any of them because he was a Jew. He was born a Jew and he died a Jew. If he criticised some of the religious practices of his time, so did the Prophets before him; and like the Prophets, he was loyal to the Jewish religion and attached to the Jewish people. But any conception of Jesus and his work beyond that of a great religious teacher is outside Judaism. There are, however, some Christians who do not believe in the T'rinity or the Incarnation, so that their conception of God appears to be like that of Judaism, and their religious ideas generally appear to be like those held by Liberal Jews. They differ, however, from Liberal Jews in several ways. They hold the Christian conception of the relation between God and man, while Liberal Judaism naturally holds the \\‘W s e 150 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Jewish conception. Moreover, Jesus is for Christians who do not believe in the Incarnation still more than a great man, one who was not only greater than all other great men but one who was in essence different from all human beings, that he was unique. However much Jews may admire the personality and teachings of Jesus given in the Gospels, he remains for them a man. There is a further difference between Liberal Judaism and Liberal Christianity in that they have different traditions. Liberal Judaism is based on Jewish tradition, Liberal Christ- ianity follows Christian tradition. 'The spirit of the Jewish tradition differs from that of the Christian tradition. The different traditions give them different religious backgrounds and different guides to thought and conduct. Moreover, the difference in the histories and essential beliefs of the two religions begets a difference between their attitudes towards life. It cannot be defined sharply; itis largely a difference in emphasis. Both religions, for example, attach value to man’s life on earth, and both look on it as a preparation for another life. The Christian tradition has perhaps emphasised the second part more than the Jewish tradition did, and the Jewish tradition emphasised the first more. The difference in emphasis issues from somewhat divergent valuations of this world. Liberal Jew and Liberal Christian agree in some beliefs—just as Orthodox Jews and Orthodox Christians agree in some beliefs—but there are also important differ- ences between them. If, however, some Christians hold beliefs like those of Liberal Judaism, they do not make our position less Jewish, but their position more nearly Jewish; and as Jews we should be deeply grateful that others are coming to the Jewish conception of God and His relation to the universe. It has been said by some that the difference between Judaism and Christianity is that Christianity is a religion of love and Judaism a religion of justice. We need only be " JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY I5I reminded that the command : * Thou shalt love thy neigh- bour as thyself ”’ is to be found in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, that God’s promise: “I will love them freely ” is in the book of Hosea, and that Jewish belief ascribes to God the statement: “ I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” For Judaism, God’s relation to the universe and to man is described by love and justice, and man’s duty to man includes both love and justice. Another difference between Judaism and Christianity, which is implied by all the differences between them, in- volves the belief about the mission of the Jews. Christians say that though the Jews had a mission before the coming of Jesus, it has been taken over by Christianity. We Jews, on the other hand, believe that we still have the task—and it is a divinely appointed task—to maintain the teachings and ideals which are essentially Jewish. They are different from the teachings of other religions. We believe that they are true, and that they are effective guides and spurs to right living. Their truth and power enforces the duty to maintain them ardently in our lives and to contribute them effectively to the life of humanity. The distinctiveness of the Jewish religion gives the Jews a mission to the world. It should, however, be emphasised that though there are important differences between all forms of Judaism on the one hand, and all forms of Christianity on the other, the adherents of the two religions have in common the spiritual and ethical ideals that issue from the belief in God. Both religions give to faith in God the central and basic place in human life, both stress the high value of human personality, and both lay on their adherents a duty to follow the highest moral standards in conduct and to work for the Kingdom of God. Each religion has a distinctive contribution to make to the religious life of humanity, but they can work together, as well as separately, to promote the influence of religion among men and nations. CHAPTER XVII 1HE HOLY DAYS In addition to its ideas about God, man, and the universe, and its directions for moral conduct, Judaism includes observances. In Liberal Judaism they have a secondary place; but there are some to which it attaches importance. In general, the value of Jewish ceremonies is that they can help to sanctify life, serve the bond which unites all Jews, and symbolise the historical continuity of the Jewish religion. The holy days fulfil this three-fold ~ function. They remind us that we live constantly in the presence of God, that it should be our constant aim to make our lives holy, and by their atmosphere they can help us . in the effort to achieve it. Again, because they are observed by Jews all over the world, they emphasise the unity of Israel. Finally, by observing them, we are brought into relation with Israel’s past. The Sabbath.—First among the Jewish holy days is the Sabbath. Its observance is enjoined in the T'en Command- ments. There are two forms of the Commandments; one is in Exodus 20 and the other is in Deuteronomy 5. They do not both give the same reason for observing the Sabbath. The one given in Exodus 20 1s that God, having created the world in six days, rested on the seventh. In Deuter- onomy 5, however, there is a different, and much more impressive, reason. “‘ That thy manservant and thy maid- servant may rest as well as thou. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and 152 THE HOLY DAYS 153 by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.” The reason in Exodus cannot be accepted literally. It suggests, however, that the Sabbath may be conceived as a reminder of God’s creative power and of His rule over the universe. The reason given in Deuteronomy is the more practical one. In ancient days much, if not all, labour was slave labour, and we know only too well that ‘the slave did not receive too much consideration. The Sabbath gave him a day of rest; it was, therefore, a most valuable social institution. The fact that on it master and slave alike rested, tended further to emphasise that before God all men were alike, being His children. Whatever the origin of the Sabbath, it became, among the Hebrews, a social institution to guarantee the rights of society’s weaker members. There still is in it some- thing of this purpose, but it has now an additional meaning; it is more than a day of rest from work. It remains a social institution, but it is also a spiritual institution. The joy and happiness which we should feel in it is not only the kind that comes with physical rest, but that which comes from close and intimate communion with God. While we can commune with God always, the Sabbath day gives us a special opportunity for it; it stimulates us to raise our thoughts altogether to the very highest plane. The spirit of the day is to be the chief guide in deciding what we should do, and what we should avoid doing, on the Sabbath. Anything which would make us forget that it is the Sabbath. day, or destroy the feeling that we should associate with it, should not be done. Those pleasures, for example, which would jar the spiritual atmosphere of the Sabbath, should be avoided. While, on the other hand, the pleasures which do not violate its spirit are not in the least objectionable; they might rather form part of its joyous observance. ’ F 154 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM Unfortunately, however, it is not possible for all Jews to observe the Jewish Sabbath by refraining from work. The conditions in which we live make it necessary for some to work on the Sabbath in order to earn their liveli- hood. We must recognise and face that fact. What we do ask of the Jews who have to work on the Sabbath is that even during their work they keep in mind that it is the Sabbath day, and that they observe in the true Sabbath spirit the part of the day when they are free from work. The first emphasis in Sabbath observance might be laid on the Friday evening at home. A short service to mark the beginning of the Sabbath helps us at once to enter into its spirit. 'The joy we can find in the sanctified atmosphere of the home fits the Sabbath and expresses its spirit. Con- versely, the Sabbath observance in the home helps us to feel the sanctity of the home and to realise the sanctity of the love which makes a home. The Friday evening Service in the home, therefore, reveals and fosters the exalted Jewish conception of family life. Then there is the public worship which, on the Sabbath, will help us to feel its sanctity. There may, and as far as possible there should be, public worship at other times; but the Synagogue Services on the Sabbath day should be especially significant; they should help all who join in them to feel the joy and spiritual stimulus in the Sabbath day. There is much more that could be said about Sabbath observance, but it can all be summed up in one sentence. We must use all means to deepen our joyous feeling of the sanctity of the Sabbath; in that way it can help us to ‘sanctify our lives, and through it we can receive a deepened sense of relation with God. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.—These days now have a very strong hold on Jews because of their deep and vital significance. They are observed perhaps more extensively than any of the other holy days. The two may well be taken THE HOLY DAYS 148 together, for they are closely related. Yom Kippur concludes the T'en Penitential Days which begin with Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah means the beginning of the year, and is the name given to this day in post-Biblical times. The €< Bible knows of it in one place as ‘“ a memorial of blowing trumpets,”’ and in another as *‘ a day of blowing trumpets.” The references are Leviticus 23 : 24—25 and Numbers 29: 1-6. We therefore speak of it as the ‘“ Day of Memorial.” It has nothing to do with a memorial for the dead. The Jewish year originally began with the month of Nissan; and in the Bible, Tishri, the month which begins with the Day of Memorial, is called the seventh month. For reasons, however, into which it is not necessary to enter, and about which there is some uncertainty, the beginning of the seventh month was a particularly important day. The first of every month was celebrated as the New Moon, but the first of the seventh month was specially observed; it was the chief New Moon. In post-Biblical times, however, Tishri became, under earlier influences, the first month, so that its first day became the beginning of a new year. We do not now reckon our dates by the Jewish calendar; January 1st is New Year’s Day. But Rosh Hashanah remains for us the religious new year. It also retains for us its vital significance because of its associ- ations. It has for many centuries held an important place in the lives of Jews. Furthermore, it begins the season of Penitence culminating in Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur means the Day of Atonement. It has a very long and interesting history which is bound up with the devel- opment of the ideas of sin and forgiveness. It finally became the supreme day in the Jewish Year because it deals with the fundamentals of the religious life according to Judaism. The theme of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the days between them consists of three parts: confession of sin, repentance and atonement. Sin means separation 156 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM from God. It is brought about in various ways. For one. - thing, all human beings are imperfect morally and spiritually. In the second place, we all make moral and spiritual mistakes. Our imperfections, our weaknesses, our faults, our mistakes, must make us feel that because of them we are not so near to God as we ought, and wish, to be. We must recognise our shortcomings and errors—that is confession. We are sorry for them; we are pained by them. We want to remove them and overcome them. That is called repentance. As a result, however, of sincere repentance, two things follow. In the first place, when we feel truly sorry for our faults and weaknesses and mistakes, and we ask God to help us to overcome them, we come nearer to Him. That is the beginning of Atonement. In the second place, confession and repentance generate a greater power to avoid moral mistakes in the future, to overcome spiritual weaknesses, and to work harder to make our lives conform to the will of God. That continues the way of atonement. Furthermore, sins weaken the human soul. The doing of wrong is, as it were, a push down-hill, which, unless checked, may produce more wrong-doing. The observance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the right way can help us to re- gain lost spiritual ground, to develop more spiritual strength, to attain a higher degree of moral and spiritual vision. Man is so constituted that something in him interferes with, and hinders, his full realisation of God. Moral and spiritual weakness dims our vision of Him. We cannot see Him so clearly as we should. The soul be- comes, as it were, clogged with sinfulness. It becomes hardened by spiritual callousness. That which should be the greatest possession of life, our knowledge of God, is always in danger of being lost. These days, though they cannot completely change our nature, can help us, if we use them for sincere and devout communion with God, to free ourselves from the darkness that obscures the vision of R THE. HOLY DAYS 157 God and the callousness that stifles the wish for it, and to bring a clearer knowledge, and rouse a keener awareness, of God and His presence. They can lead us nearer to God, they can make us feel close to Him. That is Atonement. On Rosh Hashanah, the characteristic ceremony is the sounding of the Shofar, a ram’s horn. It was originally used on all the New Moon days to announce the beginning of the new month, to proclaim a fast, announce a holiday, or summon an assembly. It has been retained in the Synagogue only on Rosh Hashanah and, in Orthodox Synagogues, on the days preceding it. Its sound may well mean for us a call to enter into the spirit of the day, and to undertake devoutly the self-examination which the penitential days demand. | The Day of Atonement is observed by Services in the Synagogue which last throughout the day. Many Jews refrain from all food and drink from sunset to sunset; fasting on it is commanded in the traditional law. The fasting should be treated as a sort of discipline, a training, a special effort to attain a better understanding of the deepest moral and spiritual significance of our lives. Yet, though we speak of the methods of observance, it must be kept in mind that, from the Liberal Jewish point of view, the methods of observance must be such as will help individuals to understand most fully the meaning of the day, and to enter most fully into its spirit. Its spiritual value should be kept uppermost, and all else must serve it; we must observe it in a way that will give us its inspiration. Mere formal or mechanical observance, no matter how strict, will not do. It calls for the heart and mind. But even if we observe the Day of Atonement rightly, it can only help us to atonement, to a feeling of close relation with God; it does not automatically establish that relation. To attain it needs constant striving, constant praying, constant spiritual and moral endeavour in our whole life. 158 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM The season of penitence calls more urgently than any other times for a close examination of ourselves. We are asked to consider well, so far as we can, our deeds and our hopes, our actions and our thoughts, all that makes up our life, and by the light which God gives us to judge - between that which is worthy and unworthy, and by the strength and help which God gives us to eliminate the unworthy and to strengthen the worthy. Here, perhaps more clearly than in any other institution, appears the real aim of all religious observances, to bring something to the human spirit which will purify and sanctify its life, and bring it nearer to God. The Festivals.—There are three Jewish festivals: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Their observance is commanded in each of the codes which constitute the Pentateuch, though the commands are not exactly the same in all. The following table gives the relevant passages in the Bible. RS o Feast Exodus Leviticus Numbers | Deuteronomy Passover . ..| 12:14-20 23: 8.8 h: 214 16: 1-8 I13: 3-10 28: 16—25 23: 1417 33: 3 34: 18 {compare II Kings 231 81-23) : Pentecost .. 23: 14419 23: 1521 28: 26 167 g-13 34: 22 Mabernacles. .| 23: 16 23: 34—36 29: 12—40 10117 (compare 34 22 2313044 Nehemiah 8: 14—18) These feasts were probably, in their origin, nature festivals. Each in its turn was a time of thanksgiving for some par- ticular form of the earth’s produce. In the course of their development they came to be associated with historic events. Passover.—Passover was celebrated at the time of the ripening of the grain harvest in Palestine. This harvest lasted about seven weeks and concluded with the Feast of THE HOLY DAYS 159 Pentecost. In its original form, Passover was known as the Feast of Matsot—the feast of unleavened bread. It was an agricultural spring festival; an older nomadic spring festival was probably combined with it. The unleavened bread was significant because it was the grain passing only through the most necessary processes before being baked. In the days of sacrifices such cakes were probably offered in the Temple as a sign of thanksgiving for the harvest. Passover came to be, very early in Jewish history, associated with the Exodus from Egypt, as an annual commemoration of, and thanksgiving for, that deliverance. It celebrates, - therefore, the ideal of freedom, freedom in its spiritual, as well as in its social sense, freedom to serve God and freedom from oppression. The Biblical command is that the Feast be celebrated seven days, with the first day and the last day as rest days. In Rabbinic law that time was extended to eight days. There was some uncertainty as to the exact day on which each month began, with a consequent uncertainty about the exact days on which the feast should be celebrated. To reduce the danger of any mistake, the Rabbis made it eight days, with two rest days at each end. For the same reason the other holy days, except the Day of Atonement, were extended in the same way. For us, astronomy fixes the exact times when the new moon appears. We know when the first of Tishri (Rosh Hashanah) or the fifteenth of Nissan (Passover) will be. Hence we observe them for the number of days given in the Bible. The distinctive features in the observance of Passover are the home service on the first night when the story of the Exodus is recounted, and when the whole significance of the feast is reproduced by a number of symbols. Matsot or unleavened bread, is used during the Festival. The name ‘‘ Passover ” is a translation of the Hebrew ‘‘ Pesach,” which means ‘‘ skipping over.” It did not originate in the 160 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM story about the tenth ‘‘ plague ” but probably in a spring rite performed in very ancient times by shepherds. Pentecost.—Pentecost is a Greek word which means fiftieth. In the Bible the feast is called the Feast of Weeks. On the second day of Passover, the High Priest brought an offering in the Temple of an omer (a measure) of barley, and a similar offering was made on each day for seven weeks. At the end of this time, on the fiftieth day, Pentecost was celebrated; hence its name. In some Synagogues the custom i1s still retained of counting these * days of Omer,” as they are called, between Passover and Pentecost. Pentecost originally celebrated the end of the grain har- vest, which was begun by the Passover. The two, therefore, are one in celebrating the same agricultural event. Pentecost is also called in the Bible “the feast of the First Fruits” because it was the time when the first products of the fruit harvest were brought as an offering. It is for us a kind of summer festival. We observe it for one day, as prescribed in the Bible; the Talmudic Rabbis extended it to two days. The Rabbis associated this feast with the giving of the law on Sinai. In Orthodox Judaism that is its paramount significance. Since, however, we Liberal Jews do not believe that the law was given all at once, but was taught to Israel gradually, we associate its giving with the whole of Israel’s history and with the whole development of Judaism. But * the giving of the Law ” means revelation; so Pentecost 1s a festival to thank God for the instruction which he gave, and gives, to'Israel and to humanity, in the knowledge of righteousness and truth. Tabernacles.—The Hebrew name is ‘ Succot,” which means booths. It is also called the Feast of Ingathering. In the Bible it 1s sometimes called just ‘the feast.” It also had its origin in an agricultural festival. It came at the end of the fruit harvest in Palestine which completed practically the agricultural labours for the year. It was THE HOLY DAve 161 called * the feast”” because it was the great pilgrimage of the year, when perhaps more generally than at the other two festivals, the Jews from all over Palestine came to Jerusalem to bring their offerings and to join in the cele- brations. The Biblical command is that at the three festivals all the males were to appear in Jerusalem. But the greatest number came on the Feast of Tabernacles. Booths are a distinctive feature of this feast. They are perhaps (we cannot be certain) reminiscent of the booths that were put up in Jerusalem for the accommodation of all the pilgrims who came for the Festival. Or they may be reminiscent of the harvesters’ booths. They have also been referred back—and this gives the feast its historical association—to the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness, when it is said, they dwelt in booths. Another distinctive feature in the celebration of this Festival is the use of a palm branch and citron during the morning services on the first seven days. They recall the Palestinian fruit harvest. Liberal Synagogues are decorated with fruits and branches which come with the harvests in the lands where the ]ews live now. The spiritual meaning of the feast is, therefore, in its thanksgiving to God for His blessings. Many other thoughts may be associated with it; it reminds men that they should be humble, they are but *‘ sojourners on earth ’; it impresses them with their dependence on God, they live not by their own powers but by His mercy; and, furthermore, it emphasises the duty to share our possessions with our fellow men. God has given them to us to use for others as well as for ourselves. One code in the Bible commands that the feast be observed seven days; another code adds an eighth day, “which is called the Feast of Solemn Assembly. Rabbinic law extended Tabernacles to nine days, with the first two and the last two as complete rest days. Liberal Jews, however, observe the feast for only eight days, with the F* 162 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM first and last days as complete rest days. In Orthodox Synagogues, the last day, or the one before it, is known as Simchat Torah (*‘ Rejoicing in the Law ). On it the reading of the Scroll (which is read through once every year, a defined section on each Sabbath of the year) is completed and begun again. Chanukkah.—Chanukkah is a minor feast, which com- memorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians— a victory which meant religious freedom for the Jews of that time, and the preservation of the Jewish religion. Its origin is given in 1 Maccabees 4: 52—59 and 2 Maccabees 10: 6-8. It lasts eight days but none of them are holy days. 'The significant feature in its celebration is the lighting of lights every evening beginning with one light on the first night, and going on with two on the second, three on the third, and so on, until eight on the eighth. In some places the reverse custom was followed, beginning with eight lights and finishing with one. There is another traditional feast which, though observed by some Jews, is not observed by all—the Feast of Purim. 'The basis for it is the story of Esther. It is a sort of spring carnival with, I think, no particular religious significance. The story upon which it is based is historically doubtful. And there were some objectionable features in its cele- bration. For these reasons, but particularly because it lacks religious significance, many Liberal Synagogues do not observe it. Other Institutions.—In the Judaism that has come down from the past there are other institutions besides the holy days. Some of them are of a technical nature and it would go beyond the limited scope of this book to discuss them here. Others, like the dietary laws, are personal, observed by individuals in their personal lives. The attitude of Liberal Judaism to them is that individuals must decide for themselves which personal observances can help them to live a Jewish life. CHAPTER XVIII WHAT IT MEANS 10 BE. & JENW THE ideas which Liberal Judaism teaches, the way of life it prescribes and the observances it maintains indicate how it defines a Jew. To be a Jew, according to Liberal Judaism, means to hold generally those ideas, to follow that way of life, and to keep those observances. It means, in other words and simply, to adhere to the Jewish religion in thought, feeling and conduct. Adherence to the Jewish religion implies, however, and involves, a sense of identity with the Jewish people. To be a Jew also means, therefore, to feel related to all Jews everywhere. The nature of that relation is derived from the factors which bind the Jews of the world into a unity. Why can we speak of the “ Jewish People ” in spite of the differences that exist among the Jews of the world? There are differ- ences in nationality; some Jews are English, others are French, others are American, and so on. There are also racial or biological differences. There is a community of Jews in India who look like the other Indians; they are called B’nai Israel. In Abyssinia there i1s a community of Jews, the Falashas, who are black like negroes. 'There are biological variations even among the Jews of Europe. But they are all Jews, they all belong to the House of Israel. In spite of all the differences among them, the Jews of the world constitute a people; but they are a people in a different sense from any other people. Their unity is based on religion and history. The Jews of the world have a common religion. The 163 g’ 164 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM religious differences among them are less than the differ- ences between them and other religions. The differences between Orthodox and Liberal Jews are less than the differences between them on the one hand and Christians and Mohammedans on the other. All Jews have in common a fundamental Judaism. The sense, therefore, in the individual Jew of identification with the Jews of the world, of belonging to the Jewish people, of being 2 member of the House of Israel, is rooted in his adherence to the Jewish religion. A man is not a Jew simply because his parents were Jews. Obviously his Jewish birth predisposes him to adhere to the Jewish religion, but it does not by itself make him a Jew. To be a Jew in more than name, he must choose to adhere to the Jewish religion. The Jewish religion is the fundamental basis of Jewish solidarity; adherence to it engenders in the individual Jew the feeling of relationship with all other Jews, so that not only those who are born of Jewish parents but also ‘those who become Jews by conversion can have it. There are some who call themselves Jews though they do not adhere to the Jewish religion; that is because they think that the Jews are a nation. But it is obvious that any one who claims to be a Jew must be able to say the Shema; he must be a Jew in the religious sense. That binds him to all other Jews. Judaism creates the unity of the Jewish people. . ' The unity 1s re-enforced by history. The Jews of the world have up to a point a common history. And the history which they have in common is more important to every section of Jews than its own particular history. The history of the Jews of England has in recent centuries been different from the history of the Jews of America; but both to the Jews of England and to the Jews of America that part of Jewish history is most important which pro- duced the prophets, the lawgivers, the philosophers and p Ry WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A JEW 165 poets. Moses, Isaiah, Hillel, Maimonides, Ibn Gabirol belong to all Jews. Moreover, the Jews of the European and the Western world, who constitute about ninety per cent. of the Jews in the world, have had a common history until comparatively recent centuries, a history which records much suffering inflicted on them because they were Jews. One result of their common hlstory in the past, and of their unity, is that Jews of the various countries share in one another’s history in the present. When Jews are given the full status to which they are humanly entitled in one country, Jews in all other countries rejoice. Similarly, when Jews are persecuted in one country, all Jews feel the pain. They want to help their suffering brethren. Judaism lays on Jews the humanitarian obligation to help all who need help, Jews and non-Jews alike. But it is obvious that Jews who suffer hardship or persecution because they are Jews have a special claim on the help of all other Jews, who must, because they are Jews, feel the urge to give the help. In this way the persecution of any section of Jewry tends to strengthen the unity of Israel. But it would be a mistake to think, as some people seem to think, that persecution has given the Jews their strength to survive. Fundamentally, the Jews live by their faith in God, saying with the Psalmist: Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” The Jews have lived by, according as they have lived for, their religion. This has given them the strength to resist persecution and to triumph over it. The indi- vidual Jew who feels that God wants him to be a Jew maintains his allegiance to Judaism at all costs. The persecutions, however, which Jews have suffered for their religion have strengthened the bond which unites all Jews. But Jewish history has in it more, much more, than perse- cutions; it has great spiritual achievements. All Jews share in the historic heritage of Israel. 166 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM The common history of the Jews re-enforces their common religion to maintain the unity which makes them a people. It is, however, not quite exact or appropriate to speak separately of the Jewish religion and the history of the Jews. The two are inseparably interwoven. Each is a part of the other. The Jews’ religion is at the centre of their history. The history resulted from the religion. When Jews suffered they suffered because of their religion. The religious achievement of the Jews produced the great- ness of the history and its outstanding importance for humanity. That is all obvious and needs no elaboration or argument. 'The converse, that Jewish history is part of the Jewish religion, is not so obvious but equally true. What the Jews experienced moulded their religion and the experience was permanently embedded in the religion. The Exodus from Egypt was an experience that implanted in Judaism an insistent emphasis on men’s right to freedom and a persistent demand for social justice. Many of the great institutions of Judaism are associated with events in the history of the Jews. Only Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur among the holy days have no historic associations, though they are themselves full of historic memories and sentiment. Other religions celebrate the lives of individuals. The life of Jesus in Christianity, Mohammed in Islam, Confucius in Confucianism, Buddha in Buddhism, is in each case an integral part of the religion. Judaism does not celebrate the life of any individual but it celebrates the history of the Jewish people. In this way Judaism gives to the Jewish people the place which other religions give to individuals; Jewish history is, thus, an integral part of the Jewish religion. The religious importance of Jewish history is established also in another way. It follows from the religious impor- tance which Judaism attaches to the Jewish people. They are the * chosen people,” * the witnesses of God,” ¢ His WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A JEW 167 suffering servants,” and “an eternal people.” The idea behind all these expressions is the same: The Jews as a people have a special relation to God. They are, in the language, of Amos, His first born. That means simple that the Jews were the first to know Him. It is not a theological but an historic assertion. It is an historic fact that the Jews were the first monotheists. They discovered the One God and they were the first to worship Him. It is also an historic fact that the other monotheistic religions derived their monotheism from Judaism. It is, therefore, an historic fact that the Jewish people have stood in a special relation to God. It follows that a sense of membership in the Jewish people can be a spiritual dynamic, it can help the individual to attain an effective sense of relation with God. A power, therefore, like that of mediation between God and man can be ascribed to the Jewish people. The individual Jew can come to God through his attachment to the Jewish people. It is true that Judaism does not require an intermediary. It main- tains that every man is immediately related to God, that he can by his own efforts and the grace of God place himself in God’s presence, pray directly to God, and subject himself without any intervention to God’s influence and saving power. But while rejecting the need for an intermediary between God and men, Judaism offers the individual numerous helps in his striving to attain a close relation with God. One of them is membership in the community of Israel. The Jew is brought nearer to God by belonging to the Jewish people. His relation to the Jewish people is established by his adherence to the Jewish religion. His spiritual life is affected by that relation because of the religious significance in the collective life of the Jews. They are a people of religion. So their life becomes a spiritual force in the lives of the individuals who share in it. From 168 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM this intermediary role of the Jewish people their history draws religious importance. The same conclusion could have been reached in another way. The history of the Jews is their life—stoi%r in which God has manifested Himself. It contains the revelation of God on the human plane. Jewish history and the Jewish religion are, therefore, interwoven. And this, incidentally, answers the people who ask why Jewish history is given a large place in the religious instruction of Jewish children. It is because Jewish history is a part of the Jewish religion. The study of it can, there- fore, serve the religious life of the Jew in two ways. In the first place it can introduce him, so to speak, to God. Secondly, it can cultivate the Jewish consciousness, that is, the feeling in the individual Jew of his identity with the Jewish people. And an effective sense of membership in the community of Israel can help the individual to estab- lish his personal relation with God. It brings him nearer to God and it brings God’s law effectively into his life. At the same time and for the same reason it can enforce a high sense of responsibility. The special relation between God and Israel entails a collective obligation on the Jews; they have a mission. Every Jew has an individual share in the obligation, which he can fulfil by living up to the hlghest spiritual and moral demands of Judaism. Because he is a Jew, he must, under the instruction of Judaism and in loyalty to the Jewish people, pursue in the name of God and Judaism the moral and spiritual ideals which constitute righteousness. The sense of identification with the Jewish people has therefore, for the individual Jew several kinds of importance. It helps him to establish his relation with God, it brings him under the influence of the Jewish religion and strengthens his loyalty to it, it enforces a high sense of moral and spiritual obligation. But it does all these things WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A JEW 169 because it identifies him with a people which has a special relation to God. Judaism is a personal religion, and also the religion of a people. When an individual possesses it personally it binds him to the Jewish people; and when he feels his membership in the Jewish people it strengthens his personal hold on the religion. To be a Jew, therefore, means adherence to the Jewish religion with an effective sense of relation to all Jews in the universal community of Israel. ‘ From the definition of what it means to be a Jew we can deduce the ideal of the good Jew. It begins with faith. The good Jew must give to faith in God the commanding place in his life. The desk at which the leader of the Service stands in some synagogues has the inscription (in Hebrew): Know before whom thou standest. For the good Jew the admonition applies to the whole of life : Know before whom (in whose presence) thou livest. A great philosopher has said that we should look at things in the light of eternity. Similarly the good Jew must strive to live by the light of faith in God. With it he faces all that life brings him, thanking God for its blessings, drawing help from Him to bear its burdens, and resisting its blows with a spiritual power that turns them into spiritual progress. Secondly, the good Jew must pursue righteousness. By his faith in God he is instructed in the knowledge of righteousness and impelled to live righteously, to exercise love and justice in all his relations with others, and to work for a social order based on justice and infused with the spirit of human brotherhood. | Thirdly, the good Jew must give time to prayer and study. In them he expresses, and by them he feeds, his faith in God, using his spiritual, intellectual and emotional endowments in His service. Fourthly, the good Jew feels the solidarity of Israel. He identifies himself with the life of the Jewish people, realising S F' A 1’70 THE ESSENTIALS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM his obligation to help Jews who suffer special hardship because they are Jews, and, above all, realising the responsi- bility which the mission of Israel lays on every Jew to show by his life the power of Judaism and to contribute by his life to its influence. Fifthly, the good Jew must conceive life, personality, and conduct in terms of holiness. Observances can help him to keep the ideal before him and to give his life and home that indefinable atmosphere which we call the beauty of holiness. Though few among men have fully attained to holiness yet it belongs to the religious conception of life to strive for it. It distinguishes the religious from the non- religious way of living. All that holiness means is included in the third element of Micah’s definition of the good life : to walk humbly with God. It is the ideal for character and conduct, unattainable as it is majestic, but Judaism makes it the guide to the Jewish way of life. APPENDIX JEWISH LITERATURE THE BIBLE THE Bible, as it has been handed down by Jewish tradition, consists of three parts. The first part, the Pentateuch (from the Greek, meaning five books), which contains the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, is called the TORAH, commonly translated the LAW. This name was also sometimes applied to the whole of the Bible, and sometimes to the Bible and Talmud together. But it belongs primarily to the first five books of the Bible. The second part of the Bible, in the traditional arrange- ment, is called the Prophets. It is sub-divided into two parts. 'The first part, which consists of the books from Joshua to II Kings, is called the Earlier Prophets, because it was believed that they were written by Prophets. The second sub-division is called the Latter Prophets, and includes the prophetic books from Isaiah to Malachi. The first three books in this division, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, are called the major Prophets; the remaining twelve, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, are called the minor Prophets. ° Major” does not mean more important, and ‘‘ minor ”’ less important, but * major ”’ means bigger books and “ minor ”’ smaller books. The third collection is called the Writings (the Greek word ¢ Hagiographa ” which means *‘ sacred writings ”’ is 171 1772 APPENDIX the name frequently applied to it). It includes Psalms, ~ Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and I and II Chronicles. In the English translation of the Bible several books which the Hebrew Bible includes in the third section are scattered through the second section. The Book of Ruth is placed after Judges, because its story is put in the time of the Judges. The Books of I and II Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah follow the Second Book of Kings because they deal with history. The Book of Daniel is put after Ezekiel because the story is put in the time of Ezekiel. Lamenta- tions is placed after Jeremiah because there was a tradition that he was its author. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon are put before the books of the Prophets. The following gives in tabulated form the traditional Jewish arrangement of the Bible: The Torah, Law br Pentateuch: Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy The Earlier Prophets: Joshua Judges I and IT Samuel I and IT Kings The Latter Prophets: The Major Prophets— ~ Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel — JEWISH LITERATURE 173 The Minor Prophets (in Hebrew, often referred .to as ‘“ T'he 'T'welve ”’)— Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi The Hagiographa: Psalms _ Proverbs Job Song of Songs Ruth Lamentations Ecclesiastes Esther Daniel Ezra Nehemiah I and II Chronicles THE TALMUD The Talmud consists of two distinct parts. '"T'he first is the Mishnah. "I'he word means instruction or study. It is the name given to a collection of laws which was compiled by Judah Hanasi (Judah the Prince) in the third century _ C.E. (Common Era, corresponding to the designation A.D. used by Christians). Besides the Mishnah, the Talmud, as it exists now, and as it has existed since about 500 C.E., contains the discussions which took place in the Rabbinic academies about the laws 174 APPENDIX in the Mishnah. These discussions deal largely with the Biblical grounds to be ascribed to the laws in the Mishnah, their application to practice, and so on. In the course of these discussions however, other than legal matters were brought in, and so this part of the Talmud, which is called Gemara, contains not only legal discussions but such things as history, philosophy, folklore, medicine, and so on. It might perhaps be useful to describe briefly the kind of academies in which these discussions occurred. As the knowledge of the Law was considered the supreme pos- session, its study was looked upon as a paramount religious duty. Not everyone, however, could devote himself to it. ‘Those who did sought out a Rabbi who had a reputation for great learning. In this way, academies were established. The procedure in them consisted, however, not only of lectures by the teachers, but also of discussions in which the more advanced students participated while the beginners listened. The leading Rabbis obtained disciples which were called schools. The most famous were the Schools of Hillel and Shammai. Hillel and Shammai were two out- standing masters of the law, who lived in the first century before the Common Era. Their Schools continued long after them. Following their respective masters, the School of Hillel interpreted the law in a more lenient way, while the School of Shammai adopted usually a stricter inter- pretation. It finally, however, became an established principle in Talmudic law that where the Schools of Hillel and Shammai differed, the law was, with a few exceptions, according to the School of Hillel. There are, however, a number of legal discussions reported in the Talmud which reached no definite conclusion. The Gemara (learning, or study), which had been accumu- lating for about 300 years, was compiled and edited by Rabbi Ashi in the fifth century c.e. His work was completed by Rabina towards the end of that century. It is not known THE TALMUD 178 exactly when it was all written down. At first it existed in the minds of the compilers who entrusted it to the memory of their pupils. When finally it was written down, and later printed with commentaries, it filled a number of bulky volumes. Each book is called a tractate. Each tractate has a name taken most often from the subject with which it mainly deals. One tractate, for example, is entitled ‘“Rosh Hashanah’’; another is called ‘“Sanhedrin.” The tractates are grouped according to their subjects into six *“ orders.”” There is a small tractate in the Mishnah (it has no Gemara) with the title Pirke Abot (Chapter of the Fathers) which con- tains a collection of religious and ethical sayings by Rabbis. There are three kinds of laws in the Talmud: 1. Laws for which some ground is found in the Bible. 2. Laws for which no such ground is found; they are just called laws given to Moses on Mount Sinai. 3. Rabbinic enactments. There are various kinds of Rabbinic enactments. Some are wholly new, others are developments of Biblical laws to make them stricter. There are, however, also Rabbinic enactments which change Biblical laws. A famous example deals with the law of the Sabbatical Year. According to the Pentateuch, all debts were cancelled in the Sabbatical Year. The effect of that law was that as the Sabbatical year approached, people who needed loans found it difficult, and practically impossible, to obtain them. Hillel, therefore, prescribed a method by which a debt remained valid during and after the Sabbatical Year. He practically abrogated a Biblical law. . The Talmud, then, consists of an earlier part called the Mishnah, which contains only laws without any discussions about them. These laws deal with religious practices and with matters which are now the subject of civil laws, such as property rights, relations between partners in business, marriage and divorce, and so on. The second part, which 176 APPENDIX is by far the larger part, called the Gemara, consists of the discussions which took place in academies about the laws in the Mishnah. There were academies in Babylonia and in Palestine. The discussions of the Babylonian academies are in the Babylonian Talmud. The discussions of the Palestinian academies are in the Jerusalem Talmud. The former is very much larger than the latter. It is the one referred to whenever the Talmud is mentioned nowadays. In the Gemara the contents are very varied. The legal portions are called Halachah, which means law. The other parts are called Haggadah, which means narrative. The Jerusalem Talmud was compiled—but only mentally —about 400 C.E.; the Babylonian Talmud—also only mentally—by Rabbi Ashi about a century later. The com- pilations may have been based on written notes. At any rate, they were not written down till some time later—it is not known when. The Rabbis who are mentioned in the Mishnah and who, therefore, lived before 300 C.E., are called Tanaim (plural of Tana, which means teacher). The Rabbis mentioned in the Gemara, who, therefore, lived between 300 and 500 C.E., are called Amoraim (plural of Amora, which means teacher, or commentator). The method of deducing laws or ideas from Biblical verses is called Midrash, which means exposi- tion. It is also the name for the books which contain such expositions. It is, however, most frequently applied to books which expounded the Bible in a homiletical way. THE JEWIsH APOCRYPHA The Jewish Apocrypha is a collection of books written by Jews in post-Biblical times, some going back to the second century B.C.E., which were not included in the Jewish Scriptures. They are important for the history of the Jewish religion and its development. The word THE JEWISH APOCRYPHA 177 “apocrypha” means ‘ hidden away.” It is not certain why this name was given them. The probable reason is that they were considered too sacred for general use, but not sacred enough for reading in the Synagogue. It is also suggested by scholars that some of them may have belonged to particular sects with esoteric teachings. Some of these b ooks were written in Hebrew; others in Greek. A few of them contain old stories, like “Judith and Holophernes” and “’The Book of Tobit.”” ‘“The Book of Ecclesiasticus’ contains the sayings of Jesus (the Greek for the Hebrew Joshua), the son of Sirach, who lived about 200 B.c.E. Itislike the book of Proverbs in the Bible. The “Wisdom of Solomon” is a composite book, the first part of which might be called religious philosophy. The belief in the immortality of the soul has an important place in it. It has nothing to do with Solomon, but the author adopted the literary device of making a wise king the speaker, and since Solomon was looked upon as the wise king, the book got the title “Wisdom of Solomon.” The books of the Maccabees (I and IT) give versions of the history of the Maccabaen and preceding periods. There are no laws in the books of the Apocrypha. That may partly explain the fact that little attention was paid to them in later Judaism. On the other hand, they do show some of the ideas which Jews had in the period which roughly corresponds with the time in which the Mishnah was developed. Apart from their intrinsic interest, some of the books in the Jewish Apocrypha are important for the history of the development of the Jewish religion. PosT-TALMUDIC JEWISH LITERATURE After the Talmud, Jewish religious literature became more varied. In the first place, some Jewish religious teachers wrote commentaries on the Bible and Talmud. 178 APPENDIX Some of these commentaries were just exegetical, they explained the text. The best-known commentator is Rashi, a name composed of the initials of his full Hebrew name and title, which was Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac. He lived 1040 to 1105. His commentaries cover the whole of the Bible and Talmud. It has been said that he was the ideal commentator, because he seemed to know exactly what passages a student would find difficult and want to have explained. Some commentaries were, however, homiletical, that is, they based religious or moral lessons on Biblical texts. Perhaps Moses ben Nachman, commonly called Nachmanides (“1des” is a Greek ending which corresponds to the Hebrew “ben” and Arabic *ibn ”— all mean ““son of ’), who lived 1194 to 1270, belongs to this category. In connection with the study of the Bible there were Jewish scholars who wrote about Hebrew grammar. The best-known was perhaps David Kimchi, who lived 1160 to 1235. He also produced a commentary on the Bible. Another commentator on the Bible was Abraham ibn Ezra, who lived 1092 to 1167. He also wrote some poetry for the Services in the Synagogue. Maimonides wrote a commentary on books of the Bible and on the Talmud. Bertinoro (Obadiah ben Abraham), who lived in Italy in the second half of the fifteenth century, wrote a commentary on the Mishnah. Some Jewish religious teachers produced compilations of the laws. The most famous of these are the compilations by Maimonides (1135-1204) and Joseph Caro (1488-1575). Maimonides’ codification of the law is called Mishneh Torah; Caro’s codification is called the Shulchan Aruch, which means * prepared table,” a name given to it because Caro wrote it to give children and those who couldn’t themselves read and study the Talmud a digest of its laws. The following are among the best-known Jewish philoso- POST-FALMUDIC JEWISH LITERATUKE 179 phers or theologians: Philo (Judaeus, the Jew), who lived in Alexandria, in Egypt, from 20 B.C.E. to after 40 c.E. In his chief work he combines Neoplatonic philosophy with the Bible. Saadya Gaon, 892—942, who lived first in Egypt. and the last part of his life in Sura, in Babylonia. ‘ Gaon was a title given to the heads of the Rabbinic academies of Babylonia. His best-known book deals with the doctrines of Judaism. Solomon ibn Gabirol, who lived in Spain, 1021 to 1058. It is said that his philosophy influenced the Schoolmen, Christian philosophers who lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Bachya ibn Pakudah, who lived in Spain, in the eleventh century. His chief work is “The Duties of the Heart.”” Judah ha Levi, 1086 to 1140, in Spain, wrote a book called “ The Cusari,” in which he expounds the i1deas of Judaism and gives philosophic arguments for them. He uses as a framework for his philosophy the story of a Turkish people, living in South Russia, who were con- verted to Judaism. The story, as he tells it, is that the King of the Chazars called in a Jew, a Christian, and a Mohammedan, to expound their respective religions, and in the end, being convinced by the arguments in favour of Judaism, he became a Jew, and converted the people over whom he ruled to Judaism. Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides) who lived 1135 to 1204, in Spain and Egypt. His most famous book on Jewish philosophy is called “More Nebuchim” (Guide to the Perplexed), in which he connected his philosophic ideas, which were based largely on those of Aristotle, with the Bible. He is the author of a Creed, consisting of thirteen articles, usually printed in Orthodox Jewish prayer books after the weekday morning service. Moses Mendelssohn, who lived, 1720 to 1786, in Germany. He wrote on various philosophic subjects. Besides his work on philosophy he holds an important place in Jewish history, because with him began the modern period in Jewish history. He translated the Pentateuch into German; in 180 APPENDIX that, and in other ways, he opened the way for the com- bination of Judaism with modern culture. Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza (1632 to 1677) was the greatest of the philosophers who were Jews. But it may be questioned whether he can appropriately be included in a list of Jewish philosophers. Not because he was excommunicated by the Orthodox Jewish authorities of Amsterdam—the excom- munication would not have made him any the less a Jew, especially as it probably had a political purpose—but because he did not concern himself primarily with a philosophy related to the Jewish religion. But it would, I ‘think, be generally agreed by students of his philosophy that it shows the influence of Jewish thought. - Some outstanding exponents of Liberal Judaism were: in Germany, Leopold Zunz (1794 to 1886) and Abraham Geiger (1810 to 1874); in America, Isaac Mayer Wise (1844 to 1896) and Kaufman Kohler (1843 to 1926); in England, Claude G. Montefiore (1858 to 1938) and Israel Abrahams (1858 to 1925). There have been a number of Jewish poets who wrote - religious poetry, much of which is to be found in the traditional services for the Synagogue. The best-known are Ibn Ezra, Ibn Gabirol and Judah ha Levi, who have already been mentioned in other connections. Some of their poetry has been included, in translations, in our prayer book. A number of Jewish religious poems, however, are anonymous. The best example is the “ Adon Olam.” It is a poem about God. It has been ascribed to Ibn Gabirol, but it is not certain who composed it. The “ Yigdal ”’ is a poem based on the thirteen articles of belief formulated by Maimonides. Josephus (37-after 100 C.E.) was the first Jewish historian. He took part in the war against the Romans. During the latter part of his life he lived in Rome. His chief work is a history of the Jews entitled ¢ The Antiquities of the Jews.” ' ’ THE TRADITIONAL PRAYER BOOK 181 THE TRADITIONAL PRAYER BooOK In the Traditional liturgy for the Synagogue there are three services, Morning (in Hebrew, Shacharit), Afternoon (in Hebrew, Minchah) and Evening (in Hebrew, Ma’arib) for every day. 'The Sabbath and holy days have an Additional Service (in Hebrew, Musaph) after the morning Service. The Day of Atonement has a Closing Service (in Hebrew, Ne’ilah) at the end of the day. Each of the three daily Services consists of an introduction, the main part, and a conclusion. The centre of each Service is the Amidah (which means ‘standing ™) recited while standing, preceded by the Shema with its supplements and introduction. Readings from the Scroll are prescribed for the Services every Sabbath morning and afternoon, all holy day mornings, the evening of the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the afternoon of the Day of Atonement and the afternoon of the ninth of Ab (the fast commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 c.E. by the Romans). The main structure and contents of the Synagogue Services seem to have been settled about 300 c.E. after an obviously long development. Many prayers, however, in the present Prayer Book of Orthodox Judaism, were added later. In the Middle Ages many poems (in Hebrew, piyutim) were introduced in the Services for holy days, special Sabbaths and fast days. Not all deserved such a distinction. Some, however, constitute the outstanding post-Biblical religious poetry of the Jews. Some poems got into the Service for all days. The Adon Olam and the Yigdal are the best-known examples. The former has been ascribed to Solomon ibn Gabirol ; the latter must have been written after the time of Maimonides, and could have been given a place in the Prayer Book only 182 | APPENDIX after his creed, which at first evoked considerable opposition, came to be generally accepted. This hymn has been some- what altered in some Liberal Jewish Prayer Books to make it conform with the teachings of Liberal Judaism. JEwWIsH SECTS Not all Jews always agreed in their beliefs and practices, At the time of Jesus there were two sects, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees recognised only the authority of the Bible, rejecting completely the Rabbinic developments in ceremonial practices and other laws. A similar difference had existed for some time between the Jews and the Samaritans, but in that case it was even bigger because the Samaritans recognised as scripture only the Pentateuch, and, it would seem, the book of Joshua. There are still a few of them in Palestine. Among the Pharisees there was a sect called the Essenes. Jesus, some scholars think, was one of them. We know very little about them, but it would seem that they laid great emphasis on what they conceived to be ritual purity, lived solely by manual labour in communities without private property, and gave much of their time to study and devotion. In the tenth century, a Jewish sect was founded called the Karaites, who, like the Sadducees, recognised only the authority of the Biblical law, which they observed with literal strictness. They are called Karaites (in Hebrew ‘““ Karaim ”’) because of their adherence to the *‘ written Law,” which in Hebrew is called ‘“ Mikra.” They have considerable communities in Egypt, Turkey and Southern Russia. In the eighteenth century, a sect arose in Poland, under the leadership of a man known in history as Israel Baal Shem (Tob), which means * Israel of the good name,” with the possible, and even probable, mystical suggestion of one who JEWISH SECTS 183 stands closest to, or has special power with, God. The sect has the name Chassidim (the pious). It objected to the amount of attention given to the legalistic aspect of Judaism by the study of the Talmud and meticulous ritualism. Its adherents came to be known for their ecstasy in prayer, sometimes induced by such means as swaying the body. In essence, however, Chassidism stressed the worship of God with feeling rather than thought, and joyous feeling. It had another aspect, too. It gave an important place to the Zohar, a book (in several volumes) which contains the Kabbala (which literally means T'radition and developed the implication of esoteric doctrines), a mixture of real mysticism with fantasy and even super- stition. The adherents of this sect are to be found in all the lands where there are Jews from the old Poland, where it originated, and from Galicia, Southern Russia and Lithuania, where it spread soon after its beginning. Two terms frequently used to distinguish between Jews might be appropriately explained here, though they do not name different sects: “‘ Ashkenazim’ and “ Sephardim.” The former is applied to the German Jews, who, in this context, include not only the Jews of Germany but the Jews in other lands such as Russia, Poland, England, America, and so on, whose ancestors came from Germany, in some cases centuries ago. The “ Sephardim ” are the Jews descended from the Jews of Spain and Portugal. There are no important religious differences between the two groups; their Synagogue Services vary in some minor respects. The main forms of Judaism to-day are Orthodox Judaism and Liberal Judaism. The former, it may be said, dates back to the Talmud. The authoritative book for its practices is the ¢ Shulchan Aruch”, written by Joseph Caro in the sixteenth century to supply a digest of Talmudic laws. Liberal Judaism originated in Germany early in the nine- teenth century. The form of Judaism which calls itseif 184 APPENDIX Conservative can justifiably be classed with Liberal Judaism, though in America, its chief home, it adheres more closely to traditional observances than Liberal (or, as it is often called in America, Reform) Judaism. On the other hand, Synagogues in America calling themselves Conserva- tive have gone further from traditional forms than some of the Liberal Synagogues in Germany. And it can be said of “Conservative Judaism > generally that, like Liberal Judaism, it accepts the principle of development, or change, in Jewish thought and practice. Though the differences between Liberal Judaism and Orthodox Judaism are important, they need not interfere with the unity of Israel. That unity is based on the distinc- tive Jewish fundamentals, like the belief in the unity of God, which both maintain; on the attention both give to Jewish Tradition, though they do not agree in their attitudes to some individual traditions; and on the heritage of Jewish history, in which all Jews share. 143 2o K : . —— g , 14 25 ; B LRI S ' - : | t .ip..v{ el - L3l bk : e At A 27 ha b il b R : : . ¥ %4 b 7 E1e - - R Rr b feine pes Sagseats 4 s i ST : , v..ftrwmﬂu;mw}urmm.. % Lt ‘fwm:.«uwmwfy {»v..u..mmmv.w,; : . ﬁ.mmumuq ot distdid L S T anlzﬁ.‘ (},.:ff,w» e % ial ) ?.m‘-::r?.[.wmr Ipadtsrdts sindhiuscll RSO & i ;,mMu. b 5 s’ 4 s NIRRT THE ESSENTIALS LIBERAL JUDA by ISRAEL 1. MATTUCIK, AM B Rabbi, Liberal Yewish Synagogue LONDON LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS BROADWAY HOUSE, 68-74 CARTER LA ‘; i 5 [ % g ! 8 3 4 5 6 & Copyright 4/1999 YxyMaster GmbH www.yxymaster.com 2 1 VierFarbSelector Standard * - Euroskala Offset