1. Judaism recognizes two distinct types of divine attributes. Those which
we have so far considered belong to the metaphysical group, which chiefly
engage the attention of the philosopher. They represent God as a
transcendental Being who is ever beyond our comprehension, because our
finite intellect can never grasp the infinite Spirit. They are not
descriptions, but rather inferences from the works of the Master of the
world to the Master himself. But there are other divine attributes which
we derive from our own moral nature, and which invest our whole life with
a higher moral character. Instead of arising from the external necessity
which governs nature in its causes and effects, these rest upon our
assumption of inner freedom, setting the aims for all that we achieve.
This moral nature is realized to some extent even by the savage, when he
trembles before his deity in pangs of conscience, or endeavors to
propitiate him by sacrifices. Still, Judaism alone fully realized the
moral nature of the Deity; this was done by investing the term “holiness”
with the idea of moral perfection, so that God became the ideal and
pattern of the loftiest morality. “Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am
holy.”(254)—This is the central and culminating idea of the Jewish
law.(255)
2. Holiness is the essence of all moral perfection; it is purity unsullied
by any breath of evil. True holiness can be ascribed only to Divinity,
above the realm of the flesh and the senses. “There is none holy but the
Lord, for there is none beside Thee,” says Scripture.(256) Whether man
stands on a lower or higher level of culture, he has in all his plans and
aspirations some ideal of perfection to which he may never attain, but
which serves as the standard for his actions. The best of his doings falls
short of what he ought to do; in his highest efforts he realizes the
potentiality of better things. This ideal of moral perfection works as the
motive power of the will in setting for it a standard; it establishes
human freedom in place of nature’s compulsion, but such an ideal can
emanate only from the moral power ruling life, which we designate as the
divine Holiness.
3. Scripture says of God that He “walketh in holiness,”(257) and
accordingly morality in man is spoken of as “walking in the ways of
God.”(258) “Walk before Me and be perfect!” says God to Abraham.(259)
Moses approached God with two petitions,—the one, “Show me Thy ways that I
may know Thee!” the other, “Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory!” In response
to the latter God said, “No man can see Me and live”, but the former
petition was granted in that the Lord revealed Himself in His moral
attributes.(260) These alone can be understood and emulated by man; in
regard to the so-called metaphysical attributes God will ever remain
beyond human comprehension and emulation.
4. In order to serve as vehicle for the expression of the highest moral
perfection, the Biblical term for holiness, _Kadosh_, had to undergo a
long process of development, obscuring its original meaning. The history
of this term gives us the deepest insight into the working of the Jewish
genius towards the full revelation of the God of holiness. At first the
word _Kadosh_(261) seems to have denoted unapproachableness in the sense
in which fire is unapproachable, that is, threatening and consuming. This
fiery nature was ascribed by primitive man to all divine beings. Hence the
angels are termed “the holy ones” in Scripture.(262) According to both
priestly practice and popular belief, the man who approached one of these
holy ones with hand or foot, or even with his gaze, was doomed to
die.(263) Out of such crude conceptions evolved the idea of God’s majesty
as unapproachable in the sense of the sublime, banishing everything
profane from its presence, and visiting with punishment every violation of
its sanctity. The old conception of the fiery appearance of the Deity
served especially as a figurative expression of the moral power of God,
which manifests itself as a “consuming fire,”(264) exterminating evil, and
making man long for the good and the true, for righteousness and love.
5. The divine attribute of holiness has accordingly a double meaning. On
the one hand, it indicates spiritual loftiness transcending everything
sensual, which works as a purging power of indignation at evil, rebuking
injustice, impurity and falsehood, and punishing transgression until it is
removed from the sight of God. On the other hand, it denotes the
condescending mercy of God, which, having purged the soul of wrong, wins
it for the right, and which endows man with the power of perfecting
himself, and thus leads him to the gradual building up of the kingdom of
goodness and purity on earth. This ethical conception of holiness, which
emanates from the moral nature of God, revealed to the prophetic genius of
Israel, must not be confused with the old Semitic conception of priestly
or ritual holiness. Ritual holiness is purely external, and is
transferable to persons and things, to times and places, according to
their relation to the Deity. Hence the various cults applied the term
“holy” to the most abominable forms of idolatry and impure worship.(265)
The Mosaic law condemned all these as violations of the holiness of
Israel’s God, but could not help sanctioning many ordinances and rites of
priestly holiness which originated in ancient Semitic usages. Hence the
two conceptions of holiness, the priestly or external and the prophetic or
ethical, became interwoven in the Mosaic code to such an extent as to
impair the standard of ethical holiness stressed by the prophets, the
unique and lofty possession of Judaism. Hence the letter of the Law caused
a deplorable confusion of ideas, which was utilized by the detractors of
Judaism. The liberal movement of modern Judaism, in pointing to the
prophetic ideals as the true basis of the Jewish faith, is at the same
time dispelling this ancient confusion of the two conceptions of holiness.
6. The Levitical holiness adheres outwardly to persons and things and
consists in their separation or their reservation from common use. In
striking contrast to this, the holiness which Judaism attributes to God
denotes the highest ethical purity, unattainable to flesh and blood, but
designed for our emulation.
The contemplation of the divine holiness is to inspire man with fear of
sin and to exert a healthful influence upon his conduct. Thus God became
the hallowing power in Judaism and its institutions, truly the “Holy One
of Israel” according to the term of Isaiah and his great exilic successor,
the so-called Deutero-Isaiah.(266) Thus His holiness invested His people
with special sanctity and imposed upon it special obligations. In the
words of Ezekiel, God became the “Sanctifier of Israel.”(267)
The rabbis penetrated deeply into the spirit of Scripture, at the same
time that they adhered strictly to its letter. While they clung
tenaciously to the ritual holiness of the priestly codes, they recognized
the ideal of holiness which is so sharply opposed in every act and thought
to the demoralizing cults of heathenism.(268)
7. Accordingly, holiness is not the metaphysical concept which Jehuda ha
Levi considers it,(269) but the principle and source of all ethics, the
spirit of absolute morality, lending purpose and value to the whole of
life. As long as men do good or shun evil through fear of punishment or
hope for reward, whether in this life or the hereafter, so long will ideal
morality remain unattained, and man cannot claim to stand upon the ground
of divine holiness. The holy God must penetrate and control all of
life—such is the essence of Judaism. The true aim of human existence is
not salvation of the soul,—a desire which is never quite free from
selfishness,—but holiness emulating God, striving to do good for the sake
of the good without regard to recompense, and to shun evil because it is
evil, aside from all consequences.(270)
8. The fact is that holiness is a religious term, based upon divine
revelation, not a philosophical one resting upon speculative reasoning. It
is a postulate of our moral nature that all life is governed by a holy
Will to which we must submit willingly, and which makes for the good. How
volition and compulsion are with God one and the same, how the good exists
in God without the bad, or holiness and moral purpose without unholy or
immoral elements, how God can be exactly opposite to all we know of
man,—this is a question which philosophy is unable to answer. In fact,
holiness is best defined negatively, as the “negation of all that man from
his own experience knows to be unholy.” These words of the Danish
philosopher Rauwenhoff are made still clearer by the following
observations: “The strength in the idea of holiness lies exactly in its
negative character. There is no comparison of higher or lesser degree
possible between man’s imperfections and God’s perfect goodness. Instead,
there is an absolute contrast between mankind which, even in its noblest
types, must wrestle with the power of evil, and God, in whom nothing can
be imagined which would even suggest the possibility of any moral
shortcoming or imperfection.”(271) As the prophet says, “Thou art too pure
of eyes to look complacently upon evil,”(272) and according to the
Psalmist, “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, and who shall
stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.”(273)
9. The idea of holiness became the preëminent feature of Judaism, so that
the favorite name for God in Rabbinical literature was “the Holy One,
blessed be He,” and the acme of all ceremonial and moral laws alike was
found in “the Hallowing of His name.”(274) If the rabbis as followers of
the Priestly Code were compelled to lay great stress upon ritual holiness,
they yet beheld in it the means of moral purification. They never lost
sight of the prophetic principle that moral purity is the object of all
human life, for “the holy God is sanctified through righteousness.”(275)