Chapter C: G. Montefiore, 1893 (1)

* * * * *

REMEMBER thy last end, and cease from enmity.

ECCLESIASTICUS 28. 6.

LIGHT IN DARKNESS

WHEN Adam saw for the first time the sun go down, and an ever-deepening gloom enfold creation, his mind was filled with terror. God then took pity on him, and endowed him with the divine intuition to take two stones――the name of one was Darkness and the name of the other Shadow of Death――and rub them against each other, and so discover fire. Thereupon Adam exclaimed with grateful joy: ‘Blessed be the Creator of Light’.

TALMUD.

WHENCE AND WHITHER

I

AKABYA, son of Mahalalel, said, ‘Reflect upon three things, and thou wilt not come within the power of sin: know whence thou camest, and whither thou art going, and before whom thou wilt in future have to render account and reckoning’.

ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.

II

AN old Saxon chieftain was once revelling with his boon companions in the brilliantly lighted banqueting hall, when he noticed a bird flying from end to end, and he exclaimed: ‘Even thus is our fate. Out of the darkness we come; we speed for a while through a gay and merry world, and then again into darkness we lapse.’ Ah, not so, dear Congregants! ‘The dust returneth to the earth, as it was, but the spirit returneth unto God who gave it.’ Our true essence is deathless――spirit of God’s undying Spirit, soul of His immortal Soul. If we have risen to a true conception of life and our duty, if we have proved ourselves faithful to our mission, then our end will not be a leap in the dark, but――

‘Life’s race well run,
Life’s work well done,
Life’s crown well won’:

then come rest and peace――rest with God, peace everlasting.

HERMANN ADLER, 1898.

TIME AND ETERNITY

GOD, the Source of life, has placed in our nature the blessed hope of immortality, by which we may console ourselves for the vanity of life, and overcome the dread of death. If thou art in truth of the higher sphere, why should the thought of leaving this lower region trouble thee? Especially since the very pleasures which thou seekest on earth are, in reality, but briars and thorns. Therefore seek them not. But what shouldst thou do? This: Use thy time as thou wouldst a doubtful companion: extract the good and avoid the evil. Avail thyself of the few opportunities of improvement in his company, and use thy discretion so that thou mayest suffer no injury from thy association with him. And remember that the companionship of time is but of short duration. It flies more quickly than the shades of evening. We are like a child that grasps in his hand a sunbeam. He opens his hand soon again, but, to his amazement, finds it empty and the brightness gone.

YEDAYA PENINI, 14th cent.

* * * * *

WHATSOEVER thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.

ECCLESIASTES 9. 10.

* * * * *

ACCUSTOM thyself to complete any good work thou hast undertaken.

DERECH ERETZ ZUTTA, 8th cent.

TALMUDIC PARABLES AND LEGENDS

I

THE HEART ENNOBLES ANY CALLING

RABBI BAROKA, a saintly mystic, one day as he was walking through the crowded market-place of his town, met Elijah, the wandering spirit of prophecy in Jewish lore. ‘Who of all this multitude has the best claim to Heaven?’ asks the Rabbi of his spirit companion. The prophet points to a disreputable, weird-looking creature, a turnkey. ‘That man yonder, because he is considerate to his prisoners, and refrains from all unnecessary cruelty. In that miniature hell over which he presides he has suppressed many a horror.’ ‘And who else is here sure of eternal life?’ continues the Rabbi. Elijah then points to two motley-dressed fellows, clowns, who were supplying amusement to the bystanders. The Rabbi’s astonishment knew no bounds. ‘Scorn them not,’ explains the prophet; ‘it is always their habit, even when not performing for hire, to cheer the depressed and the sorrowful. Whenever they see a sufferer they join him, and by merry talk cause him to forget his grief.’

The heart ennobles any calling. A turnkey may leave the saintly behind in true merit of life; and a jester may be first in the kingdom of heaven, if disinterestedly he has diminished the sadness of human lives.

II

‘WE LIVE IN DEEDS, NOT YEARS’

A KING had a vineyard, and he hired a number of labourers, one of whom worked more diligently and better than the others. What did the king? He took him by the hand and showed him friendship, and walked in the vineyard conversing with him. At eventide, all the labourers came to receive their hire, and the king paid that labourer too for a full day’s work.

Then were the other labourers sorely vexed. They said, ‘Behold, we have worked the whole day, whereas this one has only worked a few hours’.

Then said the king, ‘Why do you speak thus? Consider. This one, in a few hours, did more work for me than you who toiled the whole day long.’

III

THE ACORN

A RABBI was once passing through a field where he saw a very old man planting an oak-tree. ‘Why are you planting that tree?’ said he. ‘You surely do not expect to live long enough to see the acorn growing up into an oak-tree?’

‘Ah,’ replied the old man, ‘my ancestors planted trees not for themselves, but for us, in order that we might enjoy their shade or their fruit. I am doing likewise for those who will come after me.’

IV

EARTHLY TREASURES

ALEXANDER, the world conqueror, came across a simple people in Africa who knew not war. He lingered to learn their ways. Two citizens appeared before their chief with this point of dispute: One had bought a piece of land and discovered a treasure in it; he claimed that this belonged to the seller, and wished to return it. The seller, on the other hand, declared that he sold the land with all it might contain. So he refused to accept the treasure. The chief, turning to the buyer, said: ‘Thou hast a son?’ ‘Yes.’ And addressing the seller, ‘Thou hast a daughter?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Marry one to the other and make the treasure their marriage portion.’ They left content. ‘In my country’, said the surprised Alexander, ‘the disputants would have been imprisoned, and the treasure confiscated for the king.’ ‘Is your country blessed by sun and rain?’ asked the chief. ‘Yes,’ replied Alexander. ‘Does it contain cattle?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then it must be for the sake of these innocent animals that the sun shines upon it; surely its people are unworthy of such blessing.’

V

ALEXANDER AT THE GATES OF PARADISE

ALEXANDER the Great, in his travels in the East, one day wandered to the gate of Paradise. He knocked, and the guardian angel asked, ‘Who is there?’ ‘Alexander,’ was the answer. ‘Who is Alexander?’ ‘Alexander, you know――_the_ Alexander――Alexander the Great――Conqueror of the world.’ ‘We know him not――he cannot enter here. _This is the Lord’s gate; only the righteous enter._’ Alexander then more humbly begged for something to show he had reached the heavenly gate, and a small fragment of a human skull was thrown to him, with the words, ‘Weigh it’. He took it away, and showed it contemptuously to his Wise Men, who brought a pair of scales, and, placing the bone in one, Alexander put some of his silver and gold against it in the other; but the small bone outweighed them all. More and more silver and gold were put into the scale, and at last all his crown jewels and diadems were in; but they all flew upwards like feathers before the weight of the bone, till one of the Wise Men placed a few grains of dust on the bone. Up flew the scale! The bone was that which surrounded the eye, and nothing will ever satisfy the eye until covered by the dust of the grave.

VI

HEAVENLY TREASURES

KING MONOBAZ, who in the days of the Second Temple became a proselyte to Judaism, unlocked his ancestral treasures at a time of famine, and distributed them among the poor. His ministers rebuked him, saying, ‘Thy fathers amassed, thou dost squander’. ‘Nay,’ said the benevolent king, ‘they preserved earthly, but I heavenly, treasures; theirs could be stolen, mine are beyond mortal reach; theirs were barren, mine will bear fruit time without end; they preserved money, I have preserved lives. The treasures which my fathers laid by are for this world, mine are for eternity.’

VII

TOLERATION

An aged man, whom Abraham hospitably invited to his tent, refused to join him in prayer to the one spiritual God. Learning that he was a fire-worshipper, Abraham drove him from his door. That night God appeared to Abraham in a vision and said: ‘I have borne with that ignorant man for seventy years: could you not have patiently suffered him one night?’

VIII

THE TORAH IS ISRAEL’S LIFE

ONCE the Romans issued a decree that the Jews should no longer occupy themselves in the study of the Torah. Rabbi Akiba, however, was most zealous in spreading a love and knowledge of the Torah amongst all the Jewish communities. One day his friend Pappus met him and spake thus: ‘Akiba, art thou not afraid? Thou surely must know that thy deeds will bring thee into mortal danger!’ ‘Stay a while!’ retorted Akiba, ‘let me tell thee a story: A fox was walking on the brink of a stream, in the clear waters of which were a number of fishes running to and fro. Said the fox to the fishes, ‘Why do you run so?’ ‘We run’, replied they, ‘because we fear the fishermen’s nets.’ ‘Come up on the dry land’, said the fox, ‘and live with me in safety, even as my forefathers once lived in safety with yours.’ But the fishes said, ‘This surely is not the cleverest amongst animals that speaks thus. Water is our natural home. If we are not safe there, how much less safe should we be on land, where we must surely die!’ It is exactly so with us Jews’, continued Akiba. ‘The Torah is our life and the length of our days. We may, whilst loving and studying the Torah, be in great danger from our enemies; but if we were to give up its study, we should speedily disappear and be no more.’

IX

ISRAEL’S LOYALTY

THERE was once a man who betrothed himself to a beautiful maiden and then went away, and the maiden waited and he came not. Friends and rivals mocked her and said, ‘He will never come’. She went into her room and took out the letters in which he had promised to be ever faithful. Weeping she read them and was comforted. In time he returned, and inquiring how she had kept her faith so long, she showed him his letters. Israel in misery, in captivity, was mocked by the nations for her hopes of redemption; but Israel went into her schools and synagogues and took out the letters, and was comforted. God would in time redeem her and say, ‘How could you alone among all the mocking nations be faithful?’ Then Israel would point to the Law and the Prophets and answer, ‘Had I not your promise here?’

X

THE JEWELS

RABBI MEIR sat during the whole of the Sabbath-day in the School instructing the people. During his absence from the house his two sons died, both of them of uncommon beauty, and enlightened in the Law. His wife bore them to her bedchamber, and spread a white covering over their bodies. In the evening Rabbi Meir came home. ‘Where are my sons?’ he asked. ‘I repeatedly looked round the School, and I did not see them there.’ She reached him a goblet. He praised the Lord at the going out of the Sabbath, drank, and again asked: ‘Where are my sons?’ ‘They will not be afar off’, she said, and placed food before him that he might eat. When he had said grace after the meal, she thus addressed him: ‘With thy permission, I would fain propose to thee one question’. ‘Ask it then’, he replied. ‘A few days ago a person entrusted some jewels into my custody, and now he demands them of me; should I give them back again?’ ‘This is a question’, said the Rabbi, ‘which my wife should not have thought it necessary to ask. What! wouldst thou hesitate to restore to every one his own?’ ‘No,’ she replied; ‘but yet I thought it best not to restore them without acquainting you therewith.’ She then led him to the chamber, and took the white covering from the dead bodies. ‘Ah, my sons! my sons!’ loudly lamented the father. ‘My sons! the light of my eyes!’ The mother turned away and wept bitterly. At length she took her husband by the hand, and said: ‘Didst thou not teach me that we must not be reluctant to restore that which was entrusted to our keeping? See――the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!’

XI

THE TWO SHIPS

TWO ships were once seen to be sailing near land. One of them was going forth from the harbour, and the other was coming into the harbour. Every one was cheering the outgoing ship, and every one was giving it a hearty send-off. But the incoming ship was scarcely noticed.

A wise man was looking at the two ships, and he said: ‘Rejoice not over the ship that is setting out to sea, for you know not what destiny awaits it, what storms it may encounter, what dangers it may have to undergo. Rejoice rather over the ship that has reached port safely and brought back all its passengers in peace.’

It is the way of the world, that when a human being is born, all rejoice; but when he dies, all sorrow. Rather ought the opposite to be the case. No one can tell what troubles await the child on its journey into manhood. But when a man has lived and dies in peace, all should rejoice, seeing that he has completed his journey, and is departing this world with the imperishable crown of a good name.

XII

THE MAN AND HIS THREE FRIENDS

A CERTAIN man had three friends, two of whom he loved dearly, but the other he lightly esteemed. It happened one day that the king commanded his presence at court, at which he was greatly alarmed, and wished to procure an advocate. Accordingly he went to the two friends whom he loved; one flatly refused to accompany him, the other offered to go with him as far as the king’s gate, but no farther. In his extremity he called upon the third friend, whom he least esteemed, and he not only went willingly with him, but so ably defended him before the king that he was acquitted.

In like manner, every man has three friends when Death summons him to appear before his Creator. His first friend, whom he loves most, namely, his money, cannot go with him a single step; his second, relations and neighbours, can only accompany him to the grave, but cannot defend him before the Judge; while his third friend, whom he does not highly esteem――his good works――goes with him before the King, and obtains his acquittal.

XIII

VANITY OF HUMAN PLEASURE

A FOX was eyeing longingly some luscious fruit in a very fine garden. But there was no way for him to enter. At last he espied an opening through which, he thought, he might possibly get in, but soon found the hole too small to admit his body. ‘True,’ he said, ‘the hole is small, but if I fast three days my body will become sufficiently reduced to admit me.’ He did so; and to his joy he now feasted to his heart’s content upon the grapes and all the other good things in the orchard. But lo! when he desired to escape before the master of the garden came upon him he saw, to his great consternation, that the opening had again become too small for him. Poor animal! he had a second time to fast three days; and having made good his escape, he cast a farewell glance upon the scene of his late revels, saying: ‘O garden, charming art thou and exquisite are thy fruits! But of what avail hast thou been unto me? What have I now for all my labour and cunning?’

It is even so with man. Naked he comes into the world, naked he must leave it. Of all his toil therein he carries nothing away with him save the fruits of his good deeds.

XIV

BODY AND SOUL

THE Roman Emperor Antoninus once said to Rabbi Judah the Prince, ‘On the great Day of Judgement, soul and body will each plead excuse for sin committed. The body will say to the Heavenly Judge, “It is the soul, and not I, that has sinned. Without it I am as lifeless as a stone.” On the other hand, the soul will say, “How canst Thou impute sin to me? It is the body that has dragged me down.”’

‘Let me tell you a parable’, answered Rabbi Judah the Prince. ‘A king once had a beautiful garden stocked with the choicest fruits. He set two men to keep guard over it――a blind man and a lame man. “I see some fine fruit yonder”, said the lame man one day. “Come up on my shoulder”, said the blind man, “I will carry you to the spot, and we shall both enjoy the fruit.” The owner, missing the fruit, haled both men before him for punishment. “How could I have been the thief?” queried the lame man, “seeing that I cannot walk?” “Could I have stolen the fruit?” retorted the blind man; “I am unable to see anything.” What did the king? He placed the lame man on the shoulders of the blind man and sentenced them both as one.’

In the same way will the Divine Judge of the Universe mete out judgement to body and soul jointly.

ALMIGHTY, WHAT IS MAN?

ALMIGHTY! what is man?
But flesh and blood.
Like shadows flee his days,
He marks not how they vanish from his gaze,
Now like a flower blowing,
Now scorched by sunbeams glowing.
And wilt Thou of his trespasses inquire?
How may he ever bear
Thine anger just, Thy vengeance dire?
Then spare him, be Thou merciful, O King,
Upon the dreaded day of reckoning!

Almighty! what is man?
A faded leaf!
If Thou dost weigh him in the balance――lo!
He disappears――a breath that thou dost blow.
His heart is ever filled
With lust of lies unstilled.
Wilt Thou bear in mind his crime
Unto all time?
He fades away like clouds sun-kissed,
Dissolves like mist.
Then spare him! let him love and mercy win,
According to Thy grace, and not according to his sin!

SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, 1050.
(_Trans. Emma Lazarus._)

הַצּוּר תָּמִים

RESIGNATION

RIGHTEOUS art Thou, O God, and ever just,
And none can question, none withstand Thy will;
And though our hearts be humbled to the dust,
Teach us, through all, to see Thy mercy still.

Our life is measured out by Thee above,
And to Thy will each human heart must bow;
No frail remonstrance mars our perfect love,
No man shall say to Thee, ‘What doest Thou?’

When suffering to human fault is due,
Forgive, O Lord, and stay Thine hand, we pray;
And when it brings but trial of faith anew,
Turn Thou the night of gloom to trustful day.

When blessings bring Thy sunshine to our heart,
Let gratitude uplift each soul at rest;
And when to bear our griefs becomes our part,
Let faith and hope exhort us――God knows best.

The Lord hath given――praise unto His Name!
But with that praise our task is but begun.
The Lord hath taken――still our thought the same,
His is Law our Law; His will, not ours, be done.

A. A. GREEN, 1917.

IMMORTALITY

THERE are those who gain eternity in a lifetime, others who gain it in one brief hour.

TALMUD.

* * * * *

RABBI JACOB[86] said: This world is like a vestibule before the world to come. Prepare thyself in the vestibule, so that thou mayest enter into the palace.

Better is one hour of repentance and good deeds in this world than the whole life in the world to come; and better is one hour of blissfulness of spirit in the world to come than the whole life of this world.

ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.

ETERNAL HOPE

WHOM have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.
My flesh and my heart faileth:
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

PSALM 73. 25‒6.

TRUE WISDOM

SURELY there is a mine for silver,
And a place for gold which they refine.
Iron is taken out of the earth,
And brass is molten out of the stone.
Man setteth an end to darkness,
And searcheth out to the farthest bound
The stones of thick darkness and of the shadow of death.
He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn;
He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock;
He overturneth the mountains by the roots.
He cutteth out passages among the rocks,
And his eye seeth every precious thing.
He bindeth the streams that they trickle not,
And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.

But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
The deep saith, It is not in me:
And the sea saith, It is not with me.
It cannot be gotten for gold,
Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
Whence then cometh wisdom?
And where is the place of understanding?
Destruction and Death say,
We have heard a rumour thereof with our ears,
God understandeth the way thereof,
And He knoweth the place thereof,

And unto man He said,
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil is understanding.

JOB 28. 1‒4, 9‒15, 20, 22‒3, 28.

* * * * *

RABBI TARPHON[87] said: The day is short, and the work is great, but the labourers are idle, though the reward be great, and the Master of the work is urgent. It is not incumbent upon thee to complete the work; but neither art thou free to desist from it. Faithful is thine Employer to pay the reward of thy labour. But know that the reward unto the righteous is not of this world.

ETHICS OF THE FATHERS.

* * * * *

_REMEMBER also thy Creator in the days of thy youth, or ever the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them: or ever the sun and the light, and the moon and the stars be darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return to God who gave it._

_This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man._

ECCLESIASTES 12. 1‒2, 7, 13.

NOTES

THROUGHOUT this Jewish Anthology the unit of selection is the Jewish _thought_. Abridgement has therefore been unhesitatingly resorted to wherever condensation helped to make the thought stand out in clearer light. Utmost care has, however, been taken that such condensation in no way obscures the original meaning of the Author.

The bibliographic notes are intended for those who may desire to extend their acquaintance with Jewish books. Only such sources as are available in English and are within possible reach of the ordinary reader have been indicated.

In the Scripture selections, wherever the rhythm and beauty of either the Authorized Version or the Revised Version could be retained, this has been done. In the majority of cases, however, the quotations are from the more faithful Jewish Version. The numbering of the Bible verses is according to the Hebrew text.

ABBREVIATIONS:

J. Q. R. = Jewish Quarterly Review (Old Series).
J. P. S. = Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia.
J. E. = Jewish Encyclopedia. This standard reference work should
be consulted for fuller information on the authors,
sources, and subjects brought together in this book.

I

PAGE

3. Jacobs: ‘The Typical Character of Anglo-Jewry,’ J. Q. R., 1898.

Aguilar: _The Spirit of Judaism_, chap. viii. A. S. Isaacs’
_The Young Champion_ is a biography of Grace Aguilar for
young readers. J. P. S., 1916.

5. For Eleazar of Worms, see M. Joseph in _Jews’ College Jubilee
Volume_, 1905.

6. Montefiore: From a Sermon preached before the Jewish students
of Cambridge University.
‘Individual offences bring shame not only upon the persons
who commit them, but upon the entire race, which, says an
old writer, like a harp-string, has but to be struck at one
end and it vibrates throughout. This has been the fate of
Israel in every age; and the world’s habit of identifying
the race with the shortcomings of the individual seems to
be ineradicable. Public transgression――transgression which
involves the whole House of Israel――is in a special sense
branded as a _Chillul Hashem_, as “a profanation of the
Name” just as good deeds, done publicly, which reflect
lustre on all Israel, are praised as a _Kiddush Hashem_,
“a sanctification of the Name”.’ (Morris Joseph, _Judaism as
Life and Creed_. 3rd Edition. Routledge――an excellent book
that should be in every English-speaking Jewish home.)

7‒9. For other specimens of Jewish Moralists see _Hebrew
Characteristics_, published by the old American Jewish
Publication Society, 1872; and I. Abrahams, ‘Jewish Ethical
Wills,’ in J. Q. R., 1891.

10. Philipson: _Old European Jewries_, J. P. S.

11. Lazarus: Quoted in Nahida Remy, _The Jewish Woman_. (Bloch
Publishing Co., New York.)

The Jewish Home――Cf. Morris Joseph on the question of
intermarriage.
‘Every Jew should feel himself bound, even though the duty
involves the sacrifice of precious affections, to avoid acts
calculated, however remotely, to weaken the stability of
the ancestral religion. It is true that occasional unions
between Jew and Gentile do no appreciable harm to the Jewish
cause, however much mischief they may lay up, in the shape
of jealousy and dissension, for those who contract them,
and of religious confusion, for the children. But a general
practice begins as a rule by being occasional. Every Jew who
contemplates marriage outside the pale must regard himself
as paving the way to a disruption which will be the final,
as it will be the culminating, disaster in the history of
his people.’

12. Szold: ‘What has Judaism done for Woman?’ in _Judaism at the
|[Chicago]| World’s Parliament of Religions_, Cincinnati,
1894.

Cradle Song: quoted in Schechter, _Studies in Judaism_,
i, 1896. ‘The Child in Jewish Literature.’ Another version in
I. Zangwill’s _They that Walk in Darkness_ is as follows:――

Sleep, my birdie, shut your eyes,
Oh, sleep, my little one;
Too soon from cradle you’ll arise
To work that must be done.

Almonds and raisins you shall sell,
And Holy Scrolls shall write;
So sleep, dear child, sleep sound and well,
Your future beckons bright.

Brum shall learn of ancient days,
And love good folk of this;
So sleep, dear babe, your mother prays,
And God will send you bliss.

For the Yiddish folk-song see Wiener, _History of Yiddish
Literature in the Nineteenth Century_, New York and London,
1899; and Kurt Schindler, ‘The Russian-Jewish Folk Song’, in
_The Menorah Journal_, New York, 1917.
‘The Russian Jewish folk-song has grown and was reared under
the greatest oppression, and the grimmest tyranny that
a race ever went through. By this very oppression it has
become tense, quivering, abounding with emotion; in its
melodies the Jewish heart is laid open, and it speaks in a
language understandable to all. Its songs have an elemental
appeal――they represent the collective outcry of a suffering,
unbendable race.’ (Schindler.)

13. Cohen: Preface, _Children’s Psalm Book._ (Routledge.)
The following words recently written by America’s leading
educationist are of deep significance:――‘Education the world
over was at first for a long time almost solely religious,
and, while it was once a master-stroke of toleration to
eliminate it from the school, in doing so we nearly lost
from our educational system the greatest of all the motives
that makes for virtue, reverence, self-knowledge and
self-control. Now we are beginning to realize the wrong
we have committed against child-nature and are seeking
in various ways to atone for it.’ (G. Stanley Hall, in
Introduction to L. Grossmann’s _The Aims of Teaching in
Jewish Schools_, Cincinnati, 1919.)
Cf. the chapter on Religious Education with Bibliography
in M. Friedländer, _The Jewish Religion_, second edition
(P. Vallentine).

Morais: in _Abarbanel’s School and Family Reader for
Israelites_, New York, 1883, a book well worth reprinting.

14. Joseph, _The Message of Judaism_ (G. Routledge), ‘Hebrew and
the Synagogue.’

15. Schechter: _Seminary Addresses_, Ark Publishing Co., Cincinnati,
1915. These addresses of eloquent wisdom contain the ripest
thoughts of that great scholar.
In 1870 Peretz Smolenskin, then the foremost neo-Hebrew writer,
proclaimed: ‘The wilfully blind bid us be like all the
other nations. Yea, let us be like all the other nations,
unashamed of the rock whence we have been hewn; like the
rest, holding dear our language and the honour of our people.
We need not blush for clinging to the ancient language with
which we wandered from land to land, in which our poets sang,
and our seers prophesied, and in which our fathers poured
out their hearts unto God. They who thrust us away from the
Hebrew language meditate evil against our people and against
its glory.’

20. Maimonides: Some scholars question the Maimonidean authorship
of this Admonition.

22. In _Year Book of Central Conference of American Rabbis_, 1904.

23. _Aspects of Rabbinic Theology_, p. 76.

24. Adler: _Anglo-Jewish Memories_, p. 272.

25. Gabirol: Probably the very earliest enunciation of Tolerance
in Western Europe.

27. _Against Apion_, concluding paragraphs.
Ecclesiasticus: Written originally in Hebrew by Simon ben
Jeshua ben Sira, who flourished in Jerusalem in the second
century, B.C.E. Translated into Greek by the author’s
grandson, who resided in Egypt between 132‒116. The Hebrew
original was lost for over 1,000 years, and was re-discovered
in the Cairo Geniza by Dr. Schechter in 1896.

28. The change from the Revised Version in the second line is
according to the newly-discovered Hebrew original.
_Their name liveth for evermore_; the phrasing of the
Authorized Version has been restored. These five words have
been chosen by the Imperial War Graves Commission as the
inscription for the central monuments on the cemeteries in
France and Flanders.

30. Dubnow: _Jewish History_, J. P. S., chap. 12. Dubnow’s sketch
is a brief, philosophical survey of Jewish History.

Hertz: From Presidential Address, Union of Jewish Literary
Societies, ‘On “Renaissance” and “Culture” and their Jewish
Applications’.

32. Geiger: _Judaism and its History_, I, 2.

33. _Aspects of Rabbinic Theology_, p. 112.

34. _Jews in Many Lands._ J. P. S.

35. Singer: _Sermons_, i. ‘Judaism and Citizenship.’ (Routledge.)

36. Achad Ha’am: _Selected Essays_, J. P. S., 1912.
‘Some Consolation.’ A number of those original and
thought-compelling essays have been republished in the
series _Zionist Pamphlets_, 1916 & 1917.
The words ‘The Duty of Self-Respect’ are the title of a paper
by the late F. D. Mocatta.

37. Nordau: Address at First Zionist Congress, Basle.

Schechter: _Seminary Addresses_. ‘Higher Criticism――Higher
Anti-Semitism.’

38. Disraeli: From Preface to _Collected Works of Isaac D’Israeli_.

39. Hertz: From Reply to ‘Verax’, _The Times_, November 29, 1919.
Recent anti-Semitic attacks in the Press recall
Steinschneider’s comment: ‘When dealing with Jewish questions
it is not necessary to be either logical or fair. It seems
one may say anything of Jews so long as it brings them into
contempt.’

40. _An Epistle to the Hebrews._ Letter 4. Republished by the
Federation of American Zionists, 1900.

41. These stirring lines were written during the Boer War.

42. Dr. Adler continues: ‘Here we are spared the most distressful
sight, the revival of odious religious prejudices and
pernicious racial antipathies.’ These words would require
some qualification to-day.

43. _Songs of a Wanderer_, J. P. S.

48. ‘Why am I a Jew?’ North American Review.
A similar thought is expressed by the same writer in his
Address at the Chicago Parliament of Religions: ‘There is
a legend that when Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden, an
angel shattered the gates, and the fragments flying all over
the earth are the precious stones. We can carry the legend
further. The precious stones were picked up by the various
religions and philosophies of the world. Each claimed and
claims that its own fragment alone reflects the light of
heaven. In God’s own time we shall, all of us, fit our
fragments together and reconstruct the Gates of Paradise.
Through the gates shall all peoples pass to the foot of
God’s throne. The throne is called by us the mercy-seat.
Name of happy augury, for God’s Mercy shall wipe out all
record of mankind’s errors and strayings, the sad story of
our unbrotherly actions.’

49. _Judaism as Creed and Life._ Book III, chap. x. Book III is the
best modern presentation of the ethical life under the aspect
of Judaism.

II

53. Lucas: _The Jewish Year_, Macmillan, 1898. Every one of
Mrs. Lucas’s admirable versions of the principal mediaeval
Jewish hymns quoted in this book are from the above volume.

58. Levi: See Miss Helen Zimmern’s monograph on ‘David Levi, Poet
and Patriot’, in the J. Q. R., 1897.

59. Zangwill: ‘The Position of Judaism’. North American Review.

60. Schechter: _Seminary Addresses_. ‘Higher Criticism――Higher
Anti-Semitism’.

61. Sulzberger: From Address at the Decennial Meeting of the
J. P. S.

Leeser: Preface, _The Twenty-four Books of the Holy Scriptures_.

62. Adler: From a Sermon, ‘This Book of the Law’.

63. Rashi: On Exodus vi. 9. _Scripture must be interpreted according
to its plain, natural sense_――an epoch-making pronouncement
in the history of Bible exegesis. Though he is not the author
of this canon of interpretation, Rashi is the first seriously
to attempt its application. ‘Rashi deserves the foremost place
which the judgment of Jewish scholars generally accords him.
He has two of the greatest and rarest gifts of the commentator,
the instinct to discern precisely the point at which
explanation is necessary, and the art of giving or indicating
the needed help in the fewest words.’ (G. F. Moore.)

64. Halevi: _Cusari_, ii, 56. Translated by H. Hirschfeld under the
Arabic title _Kitab Al-Khazari_ (Routledge), 1905.

Geiger: _Judaism and its History_, I, 3.

67. Jacobs: _Jewish Contributions to Civilization_, J. P. S.

Shemtob: A remarkable anticipation by over three and a half
centuries of the modern view of the rôle of the Prophets.

Compare with the two other selections on the Prophets the
following by Felix Adler:――
‘Either we must place nature uppermost, or man uppermost.
If we choose the former, then man himself becomes a mere
soulless tool in the hands of destiny, a part of a machine,
the product of his circumstances. If we choose the latter,
then all nature will catch a reflected light from the glory
of the moral aims of man.
‘The Hebrew Prophets chose the latter alternative. They
asserted the freedom of man; and the general conscience of
mankind, despite all cavilings and sophistry to the contrary,
has ever responded to their declaration with a loud Amen.
They argued, to put their thought in modern language, that
we may fairly judge of the whole course of evolution by its
highest outcome, and they believed its highest outcome to be,
not mere mechanical order of beauty, but righteousness.

‘The Hebrew Prophets interpreted the universe in terms of
humanity’s aspirations. They believe that the ends of
justice are too precious to be lost; that, if righteousness
is not yet real in the world, it must be made real; and,
hence, that there must be a Power in the world which makes
for righteousness.’

68. Darmesteter: _Selected Essays_, translated by Jastrow, N.Y.,
1895.

Lazarus: _The Spirit of Judaism_, New York, 1895.

69. _The Literary Remains of Emanuel Deutsch_, 1874. _The Talmud:
Two Essays by Deutsch and Darmesteter_, J. P. S., 1911.

71. _Chapters in Jewish Literature_, J. P. S. Preface.

73. Magnus: _Outlines of Jewish History_, J. P. S., p. 333.

74. Jacobs: _Jewish Ideals and other Essays_, 1896.

Halevi: _Cusari_, ii, 36.

Gaster: Presidential Address, Transactions of Jewish Historical
Society of England, vol. viii.

75. _Jewish History_, concluding paragraph.

76. Zunz: _Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters_, chap. ii. ‘Leiden.’
This wonderful presentation of the Sufferings of the Jews
in the Middle Ages has been translated by Dr. A. Löwy in
_Miscellany of Hebrew Literature_. First Series, 1872; and
has been republished in the ‘Library of Jewish Classics’,
Bloch Publishing Co., New York, 1916.

77. _Antiquities of the Jews._ Book xviii, 8.

80. Dean Plumptre, _Lazarus and other Poems_.

82. Heine: The following is a more literal version by Nina
Salaman:――

Break out in loud lamenting,
Thou sombre martyr-song,
That all aflame I have carried
In my silent soul so long.

Into all ears it presses,
Thence every heart to gain――
I have conjured up so fiercely
The thousand-year-old pain.

The great and small are weeping,
Even men so cold of eye;
The women weep and the flowers,
The stars are weeping on high.

And all these tears are flowing
In silent brotherhood,
Southward-flowing and falling
All into Jordan’s flood.

83. _Curiosities of Literature_, vol. ii.

86. Abarbanel’s _Reader_.

87. _Poems of Emma Lazarus_, _New York_, 1889, vol. ii.

89. _Songs of Exile_, J. P. S., 1901.

90. From ‘Jewish Ethics’ (M. Joseph) in _Religious Systems of the
World_, London, 1892.

91. ‘Vindiciae Judaeorum’, i. 7, in L. Wolf, _Manasseh Ben Israel’s
Mission to Oliver Cromwell_, 1901.

92. Hirsch: _Nineteen Letters of Ben Uziel_, 16th Letter (Funk and
Wagnalls) New York, 1899.

95. J. E., vol. xii, 348.

96. Hertz: ‘Lord Rothschild: A Memorial Sermon.’

97. _History of the Jews in Poland and Russia_ (Putnams), 1915,
conclusion.

99. _Past and Present: A Collection of Jewish Essays_, chap. xvi,
Ark Publishing Co., Cincinnati, 1919.

101. ‘What is a pogrom? Better than any abstract definition is
a concrete record taken haphazard of an actual pogrom.
Orscha is a town of 14,000 inhabitants, half of them Jews.
On October 18, 1905, the news of the proclamation of the
Constitution reached Orscha. On the 19th the general strike
stopped; Jew and Christian embraced; the houses were hung
with flags, a service of thanksgiving was held; processions
filled the streets. In the evening the Mohilev police
officer Misgaib entered the town, and the rumour ran round
that a patriotic demonstration was to take place and the
Jews to be beaten. On the 20th, drunken men gathered to
take the official’s orders. On the morning of the 21st, the
peasants entered the town armed with axes and guns. “The
village authorities have sent us; whoever does not come
will be punished. We are to do whatever is ordered.” At
one o’clock a priest exhorted the crowds of the faithful
to purge their city of the aliens, and the cry arose, “Long
live absolutism! Down with the mayor, who has sold the town
to the Jews”. The first murders followed. The house of a
rich Jew was stormed. Without the soldiers fired, a priest
held service, and a band played the national anthem; while
within eight men, women and children were tortured to death.
The appetite was only whetted. At six o’clock the peasants
begged the police for more orders, more work. They were told
to wait till daylight; the darkness might encourage the Jews
to resist. On the same day twelve Jewish youths came from
Shklov to help their brethren. They were met at the station
and murdered, and for seven hours every man that passed
mutilated or insulted their dead bodies. The massacre became
general. The 23rd was given up to plunder. At mid-day the
Vice-Governor spoke to the crowds: “Children, it is enough.
You have had three days’ amusement, now go home and sing
‘God save the Czar’”. The pogrom at Orscha was typical of
the 690 greater and lesser pogroms which took place that
October.’ (H. Sacher on ‘Die Judenpogromme in Russland’.
_Jewish Review_, i.)

106. Wolf: ‘_The Legal Sufferings of the Jews in Russia_.’

Lazarus: First appeared in ‘_Songs of a Semite_’, New York,
1882.

_Each crime that wakes in man the beast,
Is visited upon his kind._

The lines, written in 1882, apply with hundredfold force
to the uninterrupted pogroms that have been raging in the
Ukraine throughout 1919. More than 100,000 Jews――men, women,
and children――have been butchered in cold blood by the
hordes under Generals Denikin and Petlura. The soldiery,
intoxicated with blood, invented the most diabolical
tortures. See the Report on Jewish Pogroms by Kieff Pogrom
Relief Committee, controlled by the Russian Red Cross,
London, 1920. ‘Our masses in Eastern Europe have been facing
death in seven circles of hell. It is sufficient to remember
the multi-massacres of Ukrainia. For this cold murder of
whole communities not Heaven itself nor all the mercy of
the angels could find palliation. There is no instance that
shows so much as this the ghastly descent of human character
into primitive brutality and cannibalism. This is a deed
which in its horror and wicked purposelessness should have
stunned the world.’ (Nahum Sokolow, Opening Address of
London Zionist Conference, July 7, 1920.) The following
stanzas are from Mr. Zangwill’s appeal to American Jewry on
behalf of the victims:――

OUR OWN

By devastated dwellings,
By desecrated fanes,
By hearth-stones, cold and crimsoned,
And slaughter-reeking lanes,
Again is the Hebrew quarter
Through half of Europe known;
And crouching in the shambles,
Rachel, the ancient crone,
Weeps again for her children
and the fate that is her own.

No laughter rings in these ruins
Save of girls to madness shamed.
Their mothers disembowelled
Lie stark ’mid children maimed.
The Shool has a great congregation
But never a psalm they drone.
Shrouded in red-striped Tallisim,
Levi huddles with Kohn;
But the blood from their bodies oozing
is the blood that is your own.

Shot, some six to the bullet,
Lashed and trailed in the dust,
Mutilated with hatchets
In superbestial lust――
No beast can even imagine
What Christians do or condone――
Surely these bear our burden
And for our sins atone,
And if we hide our faces,
then the guilt is as our own.

At last but a naked rabble,
Clawing the dust for bread,
Jabbering, wailing, whining,
Hordes of the living dead,
Half apes, half ghosts, they grovel,
Nor human is their tone,
Yet they are not brutes but brethren,
These wrecks of the hunger-zone,
And their death-cry rings to heaven
in the tongue that is your own.

107. For an historical account of these child-martyrdoms, see
Dubnow, _History of the Jewish Russia and Poland_, J. P. S.,
1918, vol. ii, pp. 18‒29.

109. _Stories and Pictures_, J. P. S., 1906, contains the best work
of Peretz. The Yiddish original of ‘Bontzie Schweig’, with
English translation, is published in Wiener, pp. 332‒53.
With Peretz, Yiddish letters ‘enter into competition with
what is best in the world’s literature, where he will some
day occupy an honourable place. Peretz offers gladly all he
has, his genius, in the service of the lowly. Literature,
according to him, is a consolation to those who have no
other consolation, a safe and pleasurable retreat for those
who are buffeted about on the stormy sea of life. For these
reasons he prefers to dwell with the down-trodden and the
submerged.’ (Wiener).

117. Cf. Emma Lazarus’ _Banner of the Jew_:――

Oh for Jerusalem’s trumpet now,
To blow a blast of shattering power,
To wake the sleepers high and low,
And rouse them to the urgent hour!
No hand for vengeance――but to save,
A million naked swords should wave.

Oh deem not dead that martial fire,
Say not the mystic flame is spent!
With Moses’ law and David’s lyre,
Your ancient strength remains unbent.
Let but an Ezra rise anew,
To lift the _Banner of the Jew_!

A rag, a mock at first――ere long,
When men have bled and women wept
To guard its precious folds from wrong,
Even they who shrunk, even they who slept,
Shall leap to bless it, and to save.
Strike! for the brave revere the brave!

‘When the anti-Semite agitation took the form of massacre
and spoliation, several pamphlets were published by Jews in
Russia, advocating the restoration of the Jewish State. They
found a powerful echo in the United States, where a young
Jewish poetess, Miss Emma Lazarus, passionately championed
the Zionist cause in verse not unworthy of Yehudah Halevi.’
(Lucien Wolf, _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, ‘Zionism’.)

119. _Seminary Addresses_, ‘Zionism’.

120. _Selected Essays_, ‘Moses’.

123. _Jewish Review_, I.

124. Herzl: ‘Herzl’s personal charm was irresistible. His sincerity,
his eloquence, his tact, his devotion, his power, were
recognized on all hands. He spent his whole strength in the
furtherance of his ideas. Diplomatic interviews, exhausting
journeys, impressive mass meetings, brilliant literary
propaganda――all these methods were employed by him to the
utmost limit of self-denial. He was beyond question the most
influential Jewish personality of the nineteenth century.
He effectively roused Jews all the world over to an earnest
and vital interest in their present and their future. Herzl
thus left an indelible mark on his time, and his renown
is assured whatever be the fate in store for the political
Zionism which he founded and for which he gave his life.’ (I.
Abrahams in _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.)

125. Herzl: Address at Zionist Congress, London, 1900.

Hertz: Address at Thanksgiving Meeting for the Balfour
Declaration, Dec. 2, 1917.

127. Herzl: Address at First Zionist Congress, Basle, 1897.

Schechter: _Aspects_, 105.

Noah: See ‘Noah’s Ark’ in Zangwill’s _Dreamers of the Ghetto_
for an account of this early American Zionist.

III

131. Cornill: In the same masterly address, _Humanity in the Old
Testament_, this great Biblical scholar says:――
‘But not only to man does the humanitarianism of the Torah
extend, it cares for the brute as well, and places it
likewise under legal protection, to which I know of no
analogy in older extra-Israelitish codes. The Israelite
ascribed a soul even to the brute, and saw in it a creature
of God, which, while subservient to man by God, yet should
not be helplessly exposed to his caprice. What a truly
humanitarian sentiment finds expression in the Law; “Thou
shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn”.
The brute should not perform hard labour, and at the same
time have food before its eyes, without the possibility of
eating therefrom. I remember some time ago, to have read
that one of the richest Italian real-estate owners, at
the grape-harvest, fastened iron muzzles to his miserable,
fever-stricken workmen, so that it might not occur to these
poor peasants, working for starvation wages under the glowing
sun of Southern Italy, to satiate their burning thirst and
their gnawing hunger with a few of the millions of grapes of
the owner.’

132. _Literature and Dogma_, 1, 4, and xi, 6.

133. _History of the People of Israel._ Preface.

134. Lotze: _Microcosm_, III.

138. Frazer: _Passages of the Bible chosen for their Literary
Beauty_.――Preface.

Compare the following from the same writer’s _The Folklore of
the Old Testament_ (Macmillan, 1918):――
‘The revelation of the baser elements which underlay the
civilization of ancient Israel, as they underlie the
civilization of modern Europe, serves rather as a foil to
enhance by contrast the glory of a people which, from such
dark depths of ignorance and cruelty, could rise to such
bright heights of wisdom and virtue. The annals of savagery
and superstition unhappily compose a large part of human
literature; but in what other volume shall we find, side by
side with that melancholy record, psalmists who poured forth
their sweet and solemn strains of meditative piety in the
solitude of the hills or in green pastures and beside still
waters; prophets who lit up their beatific visions of a
blissful future with the glow of an impassioned imagination;
historians who bequeathed to distant ages the scenes of a
remote past embalmed for ever in the amber of a pellucid
style? These are the true glories of the Old Testament and
of Israel.’

139. Huxley: _Educational Essays_.

140. Huxley: ‘From the free spirit of the Mosaic law sprang the
intensity of family life that amid all dispersions and
persecutions has preserved the individuality of the Hebrew
race; that love of independence that under the most adverse
circumstance has characterized the Jew; that burning
patriotism that flamed up in the Maccabees and bared the
breasts of Jewish peasants to the serried steel of Grecian
phalanx and the resistless onset of Roman legion; that
stubborn courage that in exile and in torture held the
Jew to his faith. It kindled that fire that has made the
strains of Hebrew seers and poets phrase for us the highest
exaltations of thought; that intellectual vigour that has
over and over again made the dry staff bud and blossom.
And it has exerted its power wherever the influence of the
Hebrew scriptures has been felt. It has toppled thrones and
cast down hierarchies.’ (Henry George.)

141. Renan: _History of the People of Israel_, chap. 7.

143. _Moses._ This splendid lecture should be read in full.
It is published in a penny edition by the ‘Land Value’
Publication Dept., Strand.

147. Dow: ‘Hebrew and Puritan’, J. Q. R., iii.

Rhys: _Lyrical Poetry from the Bible_. (Dent.) Introduction.

Cornill: _The Culture of Ancient Israel_. Open Court Publishing
Co., Chicago. ‘The Psalms in the World’s Literature.’

151. Jowett: _Selected Passages from the Theological Writings_,
1903, p. 53.

152. _The Prophets of Israel._ Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago,
1895.

156. Stanley: _History of the Jewish Church_, iii, lecture 45.

157. ‘Social Life in France in the Fourteenth Century’ (The Jews),
Fortnightly Review, vol. 57.

158. _The Shield_, edited by Gorky, &c., A. A. Knopf, New York,
1917. ‘Russia and the Jews.’

159. Herford: _Pharisaism: Its aim and methods_, 1912, chap. vi.

160. ‘A Theist’s Impressions of Judaism’, J. Q. R., xix.

162. _Israel among the Nations. _New York, 1893.

166. _Rationalism in Europe_, chap. vi.

171. _Short History of the English People_, chap. viii, i.

172. _Essay and Speech on Jewish Disabilities_, ed. I. Abrahams and
S. Levy. (Jewish Historical Society of England) 1910.

177. From ‘A Letter on the Jew’ sent to a Jewish meeting, Capetown,
July 1, 1906.

178. Milyukov: In _The Shield_, ‘The Jewish Question in Russia’.

Lecky: _Democracy and Liberty_, 1896.

179. The Talmudic Story is from _Three Legends_ (Berlin, 1904),
written and published by Tolstoy in aid of the victims of the
Kishineff pogrom.

180. Schreiner: See Note 177.

181. The British Protest, together with the French, German, and
Russian Protests, were republished in pamphlet form by the
_Jewish Chronicle_ in 1913.

185. Quoted in Davies’s _Gems from the Fathers_ (Bagster).

IV

189. Philo: C. G. Montefiore, ‘Florilegium Philonis’, in J. Q. R.
vii (1895) is a good introduction to the Moses Mendelssohn
of Hellenistic Judaism.

193. Abrahams: _Authorized Prayer Book, Annotated Edition_, p. viii.

Both Mrs. Lucas in _The Jewish Year_, and Mr. Zangwill in _The
Service of the Synagogue_ (Routledge) have produced versions
of Adon Olam. The following is by George Borrow in _The Bible
in Spain_:――

Reigned the Universe’s Master,
ere were earthly things begun;
When His mandate all created,
Ruler was the name he won;
And alone He’ll rule tremendous
when all things are past and gone,
He no equal has, nor consort,
He, the singular and lone,
Has no end and no beginning;
His the sceptre, might, and throne.
He’s my God and living Saviour,
rock to whom in need I run;
He’s my banner and my refuge,
fount of weal when call’d upon;
In His hand I place my spirit,
at nightfall and at rise of sun,
And therewith my body also;
God’s my God――I fear no one.

194. From the first Jewish Hymn Book in America――a free rendering.

195. _The Menorah Journal_, vol. ii, 1916. ‘A Plea for Orthodoxy.’

196. Hertz: _Inaugural Sermon_, Congregation Orach Chayim, New York,
1912.

198. Abrahams: ‘Judaism and Spiritism’, in _Jewish Guardian_,
October 1, 1919.

199. In Philipson, _Old European Jewries_, J. P. S.

201. Jacobs: _Jewish Ideals_. ‘And what great bliss and happiness
did the Sabbath bring to the family life. When Friday evening
came and the Sabbath lamps were lighted and our fathers sang
their Sabbath hymns, they forgot, once in each week, all the
sorrows and cares of everyday life, and all the affronts and
insults which, without pity and without mercy, were heaped
upon them, and at last on the Sabbath they felt released in
body and soul from all troubles and burdens.’ (B. Felsenthal.)

A SABBATH TABLE-SONG.

Treasure of heart for the broken people,
Gift of new soul for the souls distrest,
Soother of sighs for the prisoned spirit――
The Sabbath of rest.
_This day is for Israel light and rejoicing,
A Sabbath of rest._

When the work of the worlds in their wonder was finished,
Thou madest this day to be holy and blest,
And those heavy-laden find safety and stillness,
A Sabbath of rest.
_This day is for Israel light and rejoicing,
A Sabbath of rest._

ISAAC LURIA, 1560.
(_Trans. Nina Salaman._)

202. _Songs of a Wanderer._

204. See _Authorized Prayer Book, Annotated Edition_, pp. cxlix
and cclix.

206. Also in _Songs of a Wanderer_.