Sabbath. Caught up in the whirl of commercial and industrial competition,
the Jew, like Ixion in the fable, is bound to his wheel of business, and
enjoys neither rest for his body nor elevation for his soul on God’s holy
day. True, the Synagogue still preserves the sanctity of the ancient
Sabbath, however small may be the attendance at the divine service, and in
many pious homes the family still rallies around the festive table,
lighted by the Sabbath lamp and decorated by the symbolic cup of wine. But
for the majority of Western Jews the Sabbath has lost its pristine
sanctity and splendor, to the great detriment of Jewish religious life.
Therefore many now ask: “Is it sufficient to have a vicarious observance
of the historical Sabbath, the ‘sign between God and Israel,’ by an hour
or two in the Synagogue, but without rest for the entire day? Or shall the
civic day of rest, though Christian in origin and character, take the
place of the Jewish Sabbath with its sacred traditions, so that possibly
at last it may become the Sabbath day predicted by the seer upon which
‘all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord’?”(1472) In the halcyon
days of the reform movement in Germany this view was often expressed when
the radical reformers celebrated the civic day of rest as the Jewish
Sabbath, not in the spirit of dissension, but for the sake of giving
Judaism a larger scope and a wider outlook. In America, too, the idea of
transferring the Sabbath to Sunday was broached by some leading Reform
rabbis and met with hearty support on the part of their congregations.
Since then a more conservative view has taken hold of most of the liberal
elements of Jewry also in America. While divine service on Sundays has
been introduced with decided success in many cities and eminent preachers
bring the message of Judaism home to thousands that would otherwise remain
strangers to the house of God and to the influence of religion, the
conviction has become well established that the continuity with our great
past must be upheld, and the general feeling is that the historical
Sabbath should under no condition be entirely given up. It is inseparably
connected with the election of Israel as a priest-people, while the
Christian “Lord’s Day” represents views and tendencies opposed to those of
Judaism, whether considered in its original meaning or in that given it by
the Church.(1473) The Jew may properly use the civic day of rest in common
with his Christian fellow-citizen for religious devotion and instruction
for young and old; it will supplement his neglected Sabbath service, until
conditions have changed. Perhaps the Jew in Mohammedan countries may even
at some time observe Friday as is done by the Mosque, and accordingly
consecrate this day in common with his fellow-citizens. Still, between the
Sabbath observed by the Church and the one of the Mosque stands the Jewish
Sabbath in solemn grandeur and patriarchal dignity, waiting with Israel,
its keeper and ally, for the day when all humanity will worship the one
holy God of Abraham, and when our ancient Sabbath may truly become the
Sabbath of the world.
8. In all lands time was originally regulated by the movements of the
moon, which are within the observation of all. The alternation of its
increase and decrease divided the month into two parts, which were then
subdivided into four. Therefore the original month among both the
Babylonians and the Hebrews consisted of four weeks of seven days each,
the last day of each week being the Sabbath, the “day of standstill,” and
two days of the new moon.(1474) Both the new moon and full moon were
special days of celebration,(1475) and later two other Sabbath days were
added between them to correspond to the four phases of the moon. Still
later the week was detached altogether from the moon and made a fixed
period of seven days, solemnly ended by the Sabbath. Thus Judaism raised
the Sabbath above all dependence on nature and into the realm of holiness.
The Jewish Sabbath became the witness to God, the Creator ruling above
nature in absolute freedom.(1476)
Still the ancient festival of the new moon was preserved as an observance
in the Temple, and it afterward survived only in the liturgy of the
Synagogue. While ancient Israel had observed the New Moon as a day of rest
even more sacred than the Sabbath,(1477) the Priestly Code placed it among
the festivals only as a day of sacrifice, but as neither a day of rest nor
of popular celebration.(1478) Beside the recital of the _Hallel_ Psalms
and the _Mussaf_ (“additional”) prayer in the Synagogue no religious
significance was attached to it in the daily life of the people. Still the
fact that the Jewish calendar was regulated by the moon, while that of
other nations depended on the solar year, led the rabbis to compare the
unique history of Israel to the course of the moon. As the moon changes
continually, waxing and waning but ever renewing itself after each
decline, so Israel renews itself after every fall; while the proud nations
of the world, which count their year by the course of the sun, rise and
set, as it does, with no hope of renewal.(1479) At the same time,
assurance was found in the prophetic words that “the light of the moon
shall be as the light of the sun and the light of the sun shall be
sevenfold as the light of the seven days” and “thy (Israel’s) sun shall no
more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall
be thine everlasting light.”(1480)
9. The various Jewish festivals, like the Sabbath, were detached from
their original relation to nature and turned into historical memorials,
eloquent testimonies to the great works of God and of Israel’s power of
rejuvenation. The Passover was originally the spring festival of the
shepherds when they hallowed the thresholds,(1481) but was later
identified with the agricultural Feast of Unleavened Bread in Palestine,
and at an early period was further transformed into a festival of
redemption. The former rites of consecration of tent and herd were taken
as symbols of the wondrous deliverance of the Hebrews from the Egyptian
yoke. The sacrifice of the “passing over the threshold,” with the
sprinkling of the blood on the doorposts and lintels of each house,
observed each spring exactly as is still done among the semi-pagan
inhabitants of Syria and Arabia, was reinterpreted. According to the
Mosaic code it indicated the wondrous passing of the angel of death over
the thresholds of the Israelites in Egypt, while he entered the homes of
the Egyptians to slay the first-born and avenge the wrongs of
Israel.(1482) Likewise the cakes of bread without leaven (the _Mazzoth_)
baked for the festival were taken as reminders of the hasty exodus of the
fathers from the land of oppression. Thus the spring festival became a
memorial of the springtime of liberty for the nation and at the same time
a consecration of the Jewish home to the covenant God of Israel. God was
to enter the Jewish home as He did in Egypt, as the Redeemer and Protector
of Israel. Young and old listened with perennial interest to the story of
the deliverance, offering praise for the wonders of the past and voicing
their confidence in the future redemption from oppression and woe.
However burdensome the Passover minutiæ, especially in regard to the
prohibition of leaven, became to the Jewish household, the predominant
feature was always an exuberance of joy. In the darkest days of
medievalism the synagogue and home resounded with song and thanksgiving,
and the young imbibed the joy and comfort of their elders through the
beautiful symbols of the feast and the richly adorned tale of the
deliverance (the _Haggadah_). The Passover feast with its “night of divine
watching” endowed the Jew ever anew with endurance during the dark night
of medieval tyranny, and with faith in “the Keeper of Israel who
slumbereth not nor sleepeth.”(1483) Moreover, as the springtide of nature
fills each creature with joy and hope, so Israel’s feast of redemption
promises the great day of liberty to those who still chafe under the yoke
of oppression. The modern Jew is beginning to see in the reawakening of
his religious and social life in western lands the token of the future
liberation of all mankind.(1484) The Passover feast brings him the clear
and hopeful message of freedom for humanity from all bondage of body and
of spirit.
10. The Feast of Weeks or Festival of the First Fruits in Biblical times
was merely a farmer’s holiday at the end of the seven weeks of harvest. At
the beginning of the harvest parched grains of barley were offered, while
at its end two loaves of the new wheat flour were brought as a
thank-offering for the new crop.(1485) Rabbinical Judaism, however,
transformed it into a historical feast by making it the memorial day of
the giving of the Ten Words on Mount Sinai. It was thus given a universal
significance, as the Midrash has it, “turning the Feast of the First
Fruits into a festival commemorating the ripening of the first fruits of
the spiritual harvest for the people of the covenant.”(1486) Henceforth
the Ten Words were to be solemnly read to the congregation on that day,
and the pledge of loyalty made by the fathers thereby renewed each year by
Israel’s faithful sons. The leaders of Reform Judaism surrounded the day
with new charm by the introduction of the confirmation ceremony,(1487)
thus rendering it a feast of consecration of the Jewish youth to the
ancient covenant, of yearly renewal of loyalty by the rising generation to
the ancestral faith.
11. The main festival in Biblical times was the Feast of _Sukkoth_, or
Tabernacles, the great harvest festival of autumn, when the people flocked
to the central sanctuary in solemn procession, carrying palms and other
plants. Hence this was called the _Hag_ or Pilgrimage Feast.(1488) In the
post-exilic Priestly Code this festival also was made historical, and the
name Feast of Sukkoth (which denoted originally Feast of Pilgrimage Tents)
was connected with the exodus from Egypt, when the town of _Sukkoth_
(possibly named from the tents of their encampment) was made the rallying
point of the fugitive Hebrews at their departure from Egypt. The
commentators no longer understood this connection, and traced the name to
the tents erected by the people in their wanderings through the
wilderness.(1489) It seems that from very ancient times popular rites were
performed at this feast, which took a specially solemn form in the holding
of a procession from the pool of Shiloah at the foot of the Temple mount
to the altar in the Temple, to offer there a libation of water, which was
a sort of symbolic prayer for rain for the opening year. Obviously, it is
this feast which is referred to in the last chapter of Zechariah, while
this outburst of popular joy found a deep response among the pious leaders
of the people and is echoed in the liturgy of the medieval
Synagogue.(1490) The Halakic rules concerning the tabernacle and the four
plans for it tended to obscure the real significance of the
festival;(1491) yet in the synagogue and the home it retained its original
character as a “season of gladness.” The joyous gratitude to God for His
protection of Israel during the forty years of wanderings through the
wilderness expanded into thanksgiving for His guidance throughout the
forty centuries of Israel’s pilgrimage through all lands and ages. This
joy culminated on the last day in the Feast of Rejoicing in the Law, when
the annual cycle of readings from the Pentateuch was completed in the
Synagogue amid overflowing pride in the possession of God’s law by
Israel.(1492) The rabbis gave Sukkoth a universal significance by taking
the seventy bullocks prescribed for the seven days as offerings for the
salvation of the seventy nations of the world, while the one bullock
offered on the last day suggested the uniqueness of Israel as God’s
peculiar people.(1493)
12. The highest point of religious devotion in the synagogue is reached on
the New Year’s day and the Day of Atonement preceding the Feast of
Sukkoth. These are first mentioned in the Priestly Code and were
undoubtedly instituted after the time of Ezra;(1494) they were then
brought into closer connection by the Pharisees and permeated with lofty
ideas which struck the deepest chords of the human heart and voiced the
sublimest truths of religion for all time to come.
The New Year’s Day on the first of Tishri appears in the Mosaic Code
simply as the memorial “Day of the Blowing of the Trumpet,” because of the
increased number of trumpet blasts to usher in the seventh or Sabbatical
month with its great pilgrim feast. Under Babylonian influence, however,
it received a new name and meaning. The Babylonian New Year was looked
upon as a heavenly day of destiny when the fates of all beings on earth
and in heaven were foretold for the whole year from the tables of destiny.
The leaders of Jewish thought also adopted the first day of the holy month
of Tishri as a day of divine judgment, when God allots to each man his
destiny for the year according to his record of good and evil deeds in the
book of life.(1495) Accordingly, the stirring notes of the Shofar were to
strike the hearts of the people with fear, that they might repent of their
sins and improve their ways during the new year. As fixed by tradition,
the liturgy contained three blasts of the Shofar to proclaim three great
ideas of Judaism:(1496) the recognition of God as King of the world; as
Judge, remembering the actions and thoughts of men and nations for their
reward and punishment; and as the Ruler of history, who revealed Himself
to Israel in the trumpet-blasts of Sinai and will gather all men and
nations by the trumpet-blasts of the Judgment Day at the end of time.
The main purpose of the New Year was to render it a day of renewal of the
heart, so that man might put himself in harmony with the great Judge on
high and receive life anew from His hand, while he fills his spirit with
new and better resolves for the future. Judaism does not place the day of
judgment after death, when repentance is beyond reach and the sinner can
only await damnation, as is done by Christianity after the apocalyptic
views adopted from the Parsees. The Jewish judgment day occurs at the
beginning of every year, a day of self-examination and improvement of men
before God. On this day—in the orthodox Synagogue on the second day of the
New Year—the chapter is read from the Torah describing Abraham’s great act
of faith on Mount Moriah, the heroic pattern of Jewish martyrdom, and
stirring prayers, litanies, and songs prepare the worshiper for the “great
day” of the year, the Day of Atonement, which is to come on the tenth day
of Tishri, the last of the ten Days of Repentance.
13. The Day of Atonement figures in the Mosaic Code as the day when the
high priest in the Temple performed the important function of expiation
for the sanctuary, the priesthood, and the people. The mass of the people
were to observe the day from evening to evening as a Sabbath and a fast
day to obtain pardon for their sins before God.(1497) A very primitive
rite which survived for this day was the selection of two goats, one of
which was to be sent to Azazel, the demon of the wilderness, to bear away
the sins of the people, while the other was to be offered to the Lord as a
sacrifice. We learn from the Mishnaic sources that the sending forth of
the scapegoat was accompanied by strange practices betraying intense
popular interest, and its arrival at the bottom of the wild ravine, where
Azazel was supposed to dwell, was announced by signals from station to
station, until they reached the Temple mount, and the news of it was then
received with wild bursts of joy by the people. The young men and maidens
assembled on the heights of Jerusalem, like the men at the pilgrimage
feast at Shiloh, and held, as it were, nuptial dances.(1498) The day was
one of communion with God for the high-priest alone; he confessed his sins
and those of the people and implored forgiveness, and it was actually
believed that he beheld the Majesty of God on that day when he entered the
Holy of Holies with the incense shrouding his face.(1499)
In contrast to this priestly monopoly of service with its external and
archaic forms of expiation, the founders of the Synagogue invested the Day
of Atonement with a higher meaning in accord with the spirit of the
prophets of old, the doctrine of God’s mercy and paternal love. Atonement
could no longer be obtained by the priest with the sacrificial blood, the
incense, or the scapegoat; it must come through the repentance of the
sinner, leading him back from the path of error to the way of God. As the
high-priest in the Temple, so now every son of Israel was to spend the day
in the house of prayer, confessing his sins before God with a contrite
heart, awaiting with awe the realization of God’s promise to Moses: “I
have pardoned according to thy word.”(1500) Indeed, a forward step in the
history of religion is represented in the interpretation of the verse:
“For on this day _he_—that is, the high-priest—shall make atonement for
you to cleanse you,” which was now understood to refer to God: “He shall
make atonement for you through this day.”(1501) Therefore R. Akiba could
exclaim proudly, as he thought of the Paulinian doctrine of vicarious
atonement: “Happy are ye Israelites! Before whom do you cleanse yourselves
from sin, and who cleanses you? Your Father in heaven!”(1502) No mediator
was needed between man and his heavenly Father from the moment that each
individual learned to approach God in true humility on the Day of
Atonement, imploring His pardon for sin and promising to amend his ways.
With profound intuition the rabbis attributed God’s pardon to the petition
of Moses, saying that He revealed Himself in His attribute of mercy on the
very tenth of Tishri, foreshadowing for all time the divine forgiveness of
sin on the Day of Atonement.(1503)
As the Mishnah expressly states, even the Day of Atonement cannot bring
forgiveness so long as injustice cleaves to one’s hand or evil speech to
the lips and no attempt is made to repair the injury and appease one’s
fellow-man.(1504) Where justice is lacking, divine love cannot exert its
saving power. God’s mercy and long-suffering cannot remove sin, unless the
root of evil is removed from the heart and every wrong redressed in
sincere repentance. The spirit of God is invoked on these great days at
the year’s commencement only that the penitent soul may thus receive
strength to improve its ways, that good conduct in the future may atone
for the errors of the past. Surely no religion in the world can equal the
sublime teachings of the New Year’s day and the Day of Atonement, first
filling the heart of mortal man with awe before the Judge of the world and
then cheering it with the assurance of God’s paternal love being ever
ready to extend mercy to His repentant children. While the other festivals
of the year are specifically Jewish in historic associations and meaning,
these two days on the threshold of each new year are universally human,
and the chief prayers for this day are of a universal character, appealing
to every human heart. Indeed, it is characteristic that both the
concluding service for the day, the _Neilah_, and the Scriptural reading
of the _Minhah_ Service, selected from the book of Jonah, tell that God’s
all-forgiving mercy extends to the non-Jewish world as well as to the
Jew.(1505)
14. Altogether, the Synagogue gave to the annual cycle of the Jewish life
a beautiful rhythm in its alternation of joy and sorrow, lending a higher
solemnity to general experience. All the festivals mentioned above were
preceded by a series of Sabbaths to prepare the congregation for the
coming of the sad or the joyful season with its historical reminiscences.
So the memorial day of the destruction of Jerusalem, the ninth of Ab, had
three weeks previously to herald in a day commemorating the siege of
Jerusalem, the seventeenth of Tammuz; but it had also seven Sabbath days
to follow, which afforded words of consolation and hope of a more glorious
future for the mourning nation.(1506) Of course, the brighter days of the
present era have greatly modified the lugubrious character of these
eventful days of the past, even in those circles where the hope for the
restoration of the Jewish nation and Temple is still expressed in prayer.
At the same time, the commemoration of the destruction of State and
Temple, the great turning-point in the history of the Jew, ought to be
given a prominent place in the Reform Synagogue as well, though celebrated
in the spirit of progressive Judaism.
The feast of Hanukkah with its lights and song, jubilant with the
Maccabean victory in the battle for Israel’s faith, still resounds in the
Jewish home and the house of God with the prophetic watchword: “Not by
might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.”(1507)
The mirthful feast of Purim, with its half-serious, half-jovial use of the
scroll of Esther and its popular rejoicing, assumed in the course of time
a more earnest character, because the plot of Haman and the rescue of the
Jews became typical in Jewish history. Therefore the story of Amalek, the
arch-foe of Israel, is read in the Synagogue on the preceding Sabbath as a
reminder of the constant battle which Israel must wage for its supreme
religious task.(1508)
15. Through the entire history of Judaism since the Exile, the Synagogue
brought its religious truth home to the people each Sabbath and holy day
through the reading and expounding of the Torah and the prophets. These
words of consolation and admonition struck a deep chord in the hearts of
the people, so that learning was the coveted prize of all and ignorance of
the law became a mark of inferiority. Beside these stated occasions, all
times of joy or sadness such as weddings and funerals were given some
attention in the Synagogue, as linking the individual to the communal
life, and linking his personal joy and sorrow with the past sadness and
future glory of Jerusalem, as if they but mirrored the greater events of
the people. Thus the whole life was to be placed in the service of the
social body, and could not be torn asunder or divided into things holy and
things profane. Religion must send forth its rays like the sun, illumining
and warming all of man’s deeds and thoughts.
16. The weakness of the Synagogue was its Orientalism. Amid all the
changes of time and environment, it remained separated from the
surrounding world to such an extent that it could no longer exert an
influence to win outsiders for its great truths. Until recently the Hebrew
language was retained for the entire liturgy, although it had become
unintelligible to the majority of the Jews in western lands, and even
though the rabbis had declared in Talmudic times that the verse: “Hear O
Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One” indicates that the words
should be spoken in a language which can be heard and understood by the
people.(1509) The Torah likewise was, and in the ancient Synagogue is
still read exclusively in the Hebrew original, in spite of the fact that
the original reading under Ezra was accompanied by a translation and
interpretation in the Aramaic vernacular. Thus only could the Torah become
“the heritage of the whole congregation of Jacob,” which fact gave rise to
both the Aramaic and Greek translations of the Bible which carried the
truths of Judaism to the wider circle of the world. These plain facts were
ignored through the centuries to the detriment of the Jewish faith, and
this neglect, in turn, engendered a false conception of Judaism, making it
seem ever more exclusive and narrow. Instead of becoming “our wisdom and
understanding before all the nations,”(1510) knowledge of the Torah
dwindled to a possession of the few, while the ceremonial laws, observed
by the many, were performed without any understanding of their origin or
purpose. But in the last century under the banner of Reform Judaism many
of these points were altered. The vernacular was introduced into the
Synagogue, so that the modern Jew might pray in the same tongue in which
he feels and thinks, thus turning the prayers from mechanical recitations
into true offerings of the soul, and bringing the Scriptural readings
nearer to the consciousness of the congregation. Likewise the
reintroduction of the sermon in the vernacular as part of the divine
service for Sabbath and holy days became the vehicle to awaken religious
sentiments in the hearts of the people, and thereby to revive the spirit
of the ancient prophets and Haggadists.(1511)
17. This Orientalism is especially marked in the attitude of the older
Synagogue to women. True enough, woman was honored as the mistress of the
home. She kindled the Sabbath light, provided for the joy and comfort of
domestic life, especially on the holy days, observed strictly the laws of
diet and purity, and awakened the spirit of piety in her children. Still
she was excluded from the regular divine service in the Synagogue. She did
not count as a member of the religious community, which consisted
exclusively of men. She had to sit in the gallery behind a trellis during
the service and could not even join the men in saying grace at table. A
few rare women were privileged to study Hebrew, such as the daughter of
Rashi, but as a rule woman’s education was neglected as if “she had no
claim on any other wisdom than the distaff.”(1512) More and more Judaism
lost sight of its noble types of women in antiquity; it forgot the
Biblical heroines such as Miriam and Deborah, Hannah and Hulda, and
Talmudic ones such as Beruria the wife of Rabbi Meir. Such women as these
might have repeated the words: “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only through
Moses? Hath He not also spoken through us?”(1513) Aside from the sphere of
religion, in which woman always manifests a splendid wealth of sentiment,
she was held in subjection by Oriental laws in both marital and social
relations,(1514) and her natural vocation as religious teacher of the
children in the home failed to receive full recognition also.
The first attempt to liberate the Jewish woman from the yoke of
Orientalism was made in the eleventh century by Rabbi Gershon ben Jehudah
of Mayence, at that time the leading rabbi of Germany. Under the influence
of Occidental ideas he secured equal rights for men and women in
marriage.(1515) But only in our own time were full rights accorded her in
the Synagogue, owing to the reform movement in Germany and Austria. As a
matter of fact, the confirmation of children of both sexes, which was
gradually introduced in many conservative congregations also, was the
virtual recognition of woman as the equal of man in Synagogue and
school.(1516) Finally, upon the initiative of Isaac M. Wise, then Rabbi in
Albany, N. Y., family pews were introduced in the American Synagogue and
woman was seated beside her husband, son, father, and brother as their
equal. With her greater emotional powers she is able to lend a new
solemnity and dignity to the religious and educational efforts of the
Synagogue, wherever she is admitted as a full participant in the service.
18. Another shortcoming of the Synagogue and of Rabbinical Judaism in
general was its formalism. Too much stress was laid upon the perfunctory
“discharge of duty,” the outward performance of the letter of the law, and
not enough upon the spiritual basis of the Jewish religion. The form
obscured the spirit, even though it never quite succeeded in throttling
it. This formalism of the ignorant, but observant multitude was censured
as early as the eleventh century by Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakudah in his
“Duties of the Heart,” a philosophical work in which he emphatically urges
the need of inwardness for the Jewish faith.(1517) Later the mystics of
Germany and Palestine, while strong supporters of the law, opposed the
one-sidedness of legalism and intellectualism, and endeavored to instill
elements of deeper devotion into the Jewish soul through the introduction
of their secret lore, _Cabbalah_, or “esoteric tradition.”(1518) Their
offering, however, was anything but beneficial to the soul of Judaism. A
mysticism which attempts to fathom the unfathomable depth of the divine
accords but ill with the teaching of Judaism, which says: “The secret
things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed
belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words
of this law.”(1519) The Cabbalah was but the reaction to the excessive
rationalism of the Spanish-Arabic period. As the ultimate source of
religion is not reason but the heart, so the cultivation of the intellect
at the expense of the emotions can be only harmful to the faith. The
legalism and casuistry of the Talmud and the Codes appealed too much to
the intellect, disregarding the deeper emotional sources of religion and
morality; on the other hand, the mysticism of the Cabbalists
overemphasized the emotional element, and eliminated much of the rational
basis of Judaism. True religion grasps the whole of man and shows God’s
world as a harmonious whole, reflecting in both mind and heart the
greatness and majesty of God on high. In order to open the flood-gates of
the soul and render religion again the deepest and strongest force of
life, the Synagogue must revitalize its time-honored institutions and
ceremonies. Thus only will they become real powers of the Jewish spirit,
testimonies to the living God, witnessing to the truth of the Biblical
words: “For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too
hard for thee, neither is it too far off. It is not in heaven, that thou
shouldest 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
thou shouldest 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 thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”(1520)
19. The Synagogue need no longer restrict itself to the ancient forms of
worship in its appeal to the Jewish soul. It must point to the loftiest
ideals for the future of all humanity, if it is to be true to its
prophetic spirit of yore. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for
all peoples,” exclaimed the seer of the exile.(1521) “Hear O Israel, the
Lord our God, the Lord is one” must be echoed in all lands and languages,
by all God-seeking minds and hearts, to realize the prophetic vision: “And
the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day the Lord shall be
One, and His name One.”(1522) Just as there is but one truth, one justice,
and one love, however differently the various races and classes of men may
conceive them, so Israel shall uphold God, the only One, as the bond of
unity for all men, despite their diversity of ideas and cultures, and His
truth will be the beacon-light for all humanity. As the Psalms, prophets,
and the opening chapters of the Pentateuch speak a language appealing to
the common sense of mankind, so the divine worship of the Synagogue must
again strike the deeper chords of humanity, in its weal and woe, its hope
and fear, its aspirations and ideals. Therefore it is not enough that the
institutions and ceremonies of the Synagogue are testimonies to the great
past of Israel. They must also become eloquent heralds and monitors of the
glorious future, when all mankind will have learned the lessons of the
Jewish festivals, the ideals of liberty, law, and peace, the thoughts of
the divine judgment and the divine mercy. They must help also to bring
about the time when the ideal of social justice, which the Mosaic Code
holds forth for the Israelitish nation, will have become the motive-power
and incentive to the reëstablishment of human society upon new
foundations.
Jehudah ha Levi, the lofty poet of medieval Jewry,(1523) speaks of Israel
as the “heart of humanity,” because it has supplied the spiritual and
moral life-blood of the civilized world. Israel provides continually the
rejuvenating influence of society. Israel’s history is the history of the
world in miniature. As the Midrash says,(1524) the confession of God’s
unity imposes upon us the obligation to lead all God’s children to love
Him with heart and soul and might, thus working toward the time when “the
earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea.”(1525) All the social, political, and intellectual
movements of our restless, heaven-storming age, notwithstanding temporary
lapses into barbarism and hatred, point unerringly to the final goal, the
unity of all human and cosmic life under the supreme leadership of God on
high. In the midst of all these movements of the day stands the Jew, God’s
witness from of old, yet vigorous and youthful still, surveying the
experiences of the past and voicing the hope of the future, exclaiming in
the words of his traditional prayers: “Happy are we; how goodly is our
portion! how pleasant our lot! how beautiful our inheritance!”(1526) Our
faith is the faith of the coming humanity; our hope of Zion is the kingdom
of God, which will include all the ideals of mankind.
Chapter LIX. The Ethics of Judaism and the Kingdom of God
1. The soul of the Jewish religion is its ethics. Its God is the
Fountainhead and Ideal of morality. At the beginning of the summary of the
ethical laws in the Mosaic Code stands the verse: “Ye shall be holy, for I
the Lord your God am holy.”(1527) This provides the Jew with the loftiest
possible motive for perfection and at the same time the greatest incentive
to an ever higher conception of life and life’s purpose. Accordingly, the
kingdom of God for whose coming the Jew longs from the beginning until the
end of the year,(1528) does not rest in a world beyond the grave, but (in
consonance with the ideal of Israel’s sages and prophets) in a complete
moral order on earth, the reign of truth, righteousness and holiness among
all men and nations. Jewish ethics, then, derives its sanction from God,
the Author and Master of life, and sees its purpose in the hallowing of
all life, individual and social. Its motive is the splendid conception
that man, with his finite ends, is linked to the infinite God with His
infinite ends; or, as the rabbis express it, “Man is a co-worker with God
in the work of creation.”(1529)
2. Both the term ethics (from the Greek _ethos_) and morality (from the
Latin _mores_) are derived from custom or habit. In distinction to this,
the Hebrew Scripture points to God’s will as perceived in the human
conscience as the source of all morality. Those ethical systems which
dispense with religion fail to take due cognizance of the voice of duty
which says to each man: “Thou shalt” or “Thou shalt not!” Duty
distinguishes man from all other creatures. However low man may be in the
scale of freedom, he is moved to action by an impulse from within, not by
a compulsion from without. Of course, morality must travel a long road
from the primitive code, which does not extend beyond the near kinsmen, to
the ideal of civilized man which encompasses the world. Still man’s steps
are always directed by some rule of duty. The voice of conscience, heard
clearly or dimly, is not, as is so often asserted, the product, but the
original guiding factor of human society. The divine inner power of
morality has made man, not man morality. Morality and religion,
inseparably united in the Decalogue of Sinai, will attain their perfection
together in the kingdom of God upon the Zion heights of humanity.
3. Ethical elements, greater or smaller, enter into all religions and
codes of law of the various nations. Ancient Egypt, Persia and India even
connected ethical principle and the future of the soul so closely, that
certain ethical laws were to determine one’s fate in heaven or hell. This
led to the idea that this life is but the preparatory stage to the great
hereafter. But antiquity also witnessed more or less successful attempts
to emancipate ethics from religion. When the old beliefs no longer
satisfied the thinking mind and no longer kept men from corruption,
various philosophers attempted to provide general principles of morality
as substitutes for the departed deities. Confucius built up in China a
system of common-sense ethics based upon the communal life, but without
any religious ideals; this satisfied the commonplace attitude of that
country, but could not pass beyond the confines of the far East. A
semi-religious ascetic system was offered at about the same time by
Gautama Buddha of India, a prince garbed as a mendicant friar, who
preached the gospel of love and charity for all fellow creatures. His
leading maxims were blind resignation and self-effacement in the presence
of the ills, suffering and death which rule the entire domain of life. All
existence was evil to him, with its pleasure, passion and desire, its
thought and feeling; his aim was a state of apathy and listlessness,
_Nirvana_; while sympathy and compassion for fellow creatures were to
offer some relief to a life of delusion and despair. The Hindu conception
of the unbearable woe of the world corresponded more or less with the hot
climate, which renders the people indolent and apathetic. In striking
contrast to this was the vigorous manhood of the ethical systems developed
on the healthy soil of Greece, under the azure canopy of a sky that fills
the soul with beauty and joy. Life should be valued for the happiness it
offers to the individual or to society. The good should be loved for its
beauty, the just admired for its nobility. Greek ethics was thus both
aristocratic and utilitarian; it took no heed of the toiling slave, the
suffering poor, or the unprotected stranger. Both the Buddhist and the
Hellenic systems lacked the energizing force and motive of the highest
purpose of life, because both have left out of their purview the great
Ruler who summons man to his duty, saying: “I am the Lord thy God; thou
shalt and thou shalt not!”
4. Between the two extremes, the Hellenic self-expansion and the Buddhist
self-extinction, Jewish ethics labors for self-elevation under the
uplifting power of a holy God. The term which Scripture uses for moral
conduct is, very significantly, “to walk in the ways of God.” The rabbis
explain this as follows: “As God is merciful and gracious, so be thou
merciful and gracious. As God is called righteous, so be thou righteous.
As God is holy, so do thou strive to be holy.”(1530) Another of their
maxims is: “How can mortal man walk after God, who is an all-consuming
fire? What Scripture means is that man should emulate God. As He clothes
the naked, nurses the sick, comforts the sorrowing, and buries the dead,
so should man.”(1531) In other words, human life must take its pattern
from the divine goodness and holiness.
5. Obviously, Jewish ethics had to go through the same long process of
development as the Jewish religion itself. A very high stage is
represented by that disinterested goodness taught by Antigonus of Soko in
the second pre-Christian century and by ben Azzai in the second century of
the present era, which no longer anticipates reward or punishment, but
does good for its own sake and shuns evil because it is evil.(1532) As
long as the law tolerated slavery, polygamy, and blood vengeance, and
man’s personality was not recognized on principle as being made in the
image of God, the practical morality of the Hebrews could not rise above
that of other nations, except in so far as the shepherd’s compassion for
the beast occasioned sympathy also for the fellow-man. After all, Jewish
ethics became the ethics of humanity because of the God-conception of the
prophets,—the righteous, merciful, and holy God, the God “who executeth
the judgment of the fatherless and the widow, and loveth the stranger in
giving him food and raiment.”(1533) The conception of Jewish ethics as
human ethics is voiced in the familiar verse: “It hath been told thee, O
man, what is good and what the Lord doth require of thee: only to do
justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.”(1534) The
all-ruling and all-seeing God of the Psalmist made men feel that only such
a one can stand in His holy place “who hath clean hands and a pure heart,
who hath not lifted up his soul unto falsehood, nor sworn
deceitfully.”(1535) After law-giver, prophet, and psalmist came the wise,
who gave ethics a more practical and popular character in the wisdom
literature, and then came the _Hasidim_ or Essenes, who, while seeking the
highest piety or saintliness as life’s aim, deepened and spiritualized
their ethical ideals. Some of these considered the essential principles of
morality to be love of God and of the fellow-man;(1536) while rabbinical
ethics in general laid great stress on motive as determining the value of
the deed. The words, “Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God,” so often repeated
in the law, are taken to mean: Fear Him who looks into the heart, judging
motives and intentions.(1537)
6. As the Mosaic Code presented the ceremonial and moral laws together as
divine, so the rabbinical schools treated them all as divine commandments
without any distinction. Hence the Mishnah and the Talmud fail to give
ethics the prominent place it occupies in the prophetic and wisdom
literature of the Bible and did not even make an attempt to formulate a
system of ethics. The ethical rules in the “Sayings of the Fathers” and
similar later collections make no pretentions to being general or
systematic. The ethical teachings became conspicuous only through contact
with the Hellenic world in the propaganda literature, with its aim to win
the Gentile world to Judaism. Thus at an early period handbooks on ethics
were written and circulated in the Greek language, some of which were
afterward appropriated by the Christian Church. This entire movement is
summed up in the well-known answer of Hillel to the heathen who desired to
join the Jewish faith: “What is hateful to thee, do thou not unto thy
fellow man; this is the law, and all the rest is merely commentary.”(1538)
On the whole, rabbinical Judaism elaborated no ethical system before the
Middle Ages. Then, under Mohammedan influence, the Aristotelian and
Neo-Platonic philosophies in vogue gave rise to certain ethical works more
or less in accord with their philosophic or mystic prototypes. In
addition, ethical treatises were often written in the form of wills and of
popular admonitions, which were sometimes broad and human, at other times
stern and ascetic. One thought, however, prevailed through the ages: as
life emanates from the God of holiness, so it must ever serve His holy
purposes and benefit all His earthly children. “All the laws given by God
to Israel have only the purification and ennobling of the life of men for
their object,” say the rabbis.(1539)
7. Perhaps the best summary of Jewish ethics was presented by Hillel in
the famous three words: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But
if I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when then?”(1540) We
find here three spheres of duty: toward one’s self, toward others, and
toward the life before us. In contrast to purely altruistic or socialistic
ethics, Jewish morality accentuated the value of the individual even apart
from the social organism. Man is a child of God, a. self-conscious
personality, who is to unfold and improve the powers implanted by his
divine Maker, in both body and soul, laboring in this way toward the
purpose for which he was created. Man was created single, says one of the
sages in the Mishnah,(1541) that he might know that he forms a world for
himself, and the whole creation must aid him in unfolding the divine image
within himself. Accordingly, self-preservation, self-improvement and
self-perfection are duties of every man. This implies first the care for
the human body as the temple which enshrines the divine spirit. In the
eyes of Judaism, to neglect or enfeeble the body, the instrument of the
soul, is altogether sinful. As the Sabbath law demands physical rest and
recreation after the week’s work, so the Jewish religion in general trains
men to enjoy the gifts of God; and the rabbis declare that their rejection
(except for disciplinary reasons) is ingratitude for which man must give
an account at the last Judgment Day.(1542) The Pharisean teacher who
opposed the Essenic custom of fasting and declared it sinful, unless it be
for special purposes, would have deprecated even more strongly the ascetic
Christian or Hindoo saint who castigated his body as the seat of
sin.(1543) As Hillel remarked: “See what care is bestowed upon the statue
of the emperor to keep it clean and bright; ought we not, likewise, keep
God’s image, our body, clean and free from every blemish?”(1544)
In regard to our moral and spiritual selves the rabbinical maxim is:
“Beautify thyself first, and then beautify others.”(1545) Only as we first
ennoble ourselves can we then contribute to the elevation of the world
about us. Our industry promotes the welfare of the community as well as of
ourselves; our idleness harms others as well as ourselves.(1546) Upon
self-respect rest our honor and our character. Virtue also is the result
of self-control and self-conquest.(1547) “There shall be no strange God in
thee.” This Psalm verse is taken by the rabbis to mean that no anger and
passion nor any evil desire or overbearing pride shall obtain their
mastery over thee.(1548) Man asserts himself in braving temptation and
trial, in overcoming sin and grief. Greater still is the hero who, in
complete self-mastery, can sacrifice himself in a great cause. Martyrdom
for the sake of God, which the rabbis call sanctification of the name of
God,(1549) is really the assertion of the divine life in the midst of
death. But desertion of life from selfish motives through suicide is all
the more despicable. He who sells his human birthright to escape pain or
disgrace, though greatly to be pitied, has forfeited his claim and his
share in the world to come.(1550)
Not only our life is to be maintained amid all trials as a sacred trust,
but also our rights, our freedom, and our individuality, for we must not
allow our personality to become the slave or tool of others. Job, who
battled for his own convictions against the false assumption of his
friends, was at last praised and rewarded by God.(1551) The Biblical
verse: “For they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of
Egypt, they shall not be sold as slaves,” is explained by the rabbis: “My
servants, but not servants to servants,” and is thus applicable to
spiritual slavery as well.(1552)
8. Therefore the Jewish conception of duty to our fellow-men is by no
means comprised in love or benevolence. Long before Hillel, other Jewish
sages gave the so-called Golden Rule: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” a
negative form: “What is hateful to thee do not do unto thy fellow
men.”(1553) Taken in the positive form, the command cannot be literally
carried out. We cannot love the stranger as we love ourselves or our kin;
still less can we love our enemy, as is demanded by the Sermon on the
Mount. According to the Hebrew Scriptures(1554) we can and should treat
our enemy magnanimously and forgive him, but we cannot truly love him,
unless he turns from an enemy to a friend. The real meaning given by the
rabbis to the command, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is: “Put thyself in
his place and act accordingly. As thou dost not desire to be robbed of thy
property or good name or to be injured or insulted, so do not these things
unto thy fellow man.”(1555) They then take the closing words, “I am the
Lord thy God,” as an oath by God: “I am the Lord, the Creator of thy
fellow man as well as of thee; therefore, if thou showest love to him, I
shall surely reward thee, and if not, I am the Judge ready to punish
thee.”(1556) Love of all fellow-men is, in fact, taught by both
Hillel(1557) and Philo.(1558) Love and helpful sympathy are implied also
by the verse from Deuteronomy: “He (the Lord) loveth the stranger in
giving him bread and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger.”(1559) All
members of the human household are dependent on each other for kindness
and good will, whether we are rich or poor, high or lowly, in life or in
death; so do we owe love and kindness to all men alike.
9. However, love as a principle of action is not sufficiently firm to
fashion human conduct or rule society. It is too much swayed by impulse
and emotion and is often too partial. Love without justice leads to abuse
and wrong, as we see in the history of the Church, which began with the
principle of love, but often failed to heed the admonitions of justice.
Therefore justice is the all-inclusive principle of human conduct in the
eyes of Judaism. Justice is impartial by its very nature. It must right
every wrong and vindicate the cause of the oppressed. “When Thy judgments
are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness,”
said the prophet,(1560) describing the just man as he “that walketh
righteously and speaketh uprightly, that despiseth the gain of
oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth
his ear from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking on
evil.”(1561) Justice is the requisite not only in action, but also in
disposition,(1562) implying honesty in intention as in deed, uprightness
in speech and mien, perfect rectitude, neither taking advantage of
ignorance nor abusing confidence.(1563) It is sinful to acquire wealth by
betting or gambling,(1564) or by cornering food-supplies to raise the
market price.(1565) The rabbis derive from Scripture the thought that,
just as “your balances and weights, your ephah and hin” must be just, so
should your yea and nay.(1566) The verse, “Justice, justice shalt them
follow,”(1567) is explained thus in a Midrash which is quoted by Bahya ben
Asher of the thirteenth century: “Justice, whether to your profit or loss,
whether in word or in action, whether to Jew or non-Jew.”(1568) This
category of justice covers also regard for the honor of our fellow-men,
lest we harm it by the tongue of the back-biter,(1569) by the ear that
listens to calumny,(1570) or by suspicion cast upon the innocent.(1571)
“God in His law takes especial care of the honor of our fellow-men,” say
the rabbis, and “he who publicly puts his fellow man to shame forfeits his
share in the world to come.”(1572)
10. But the Jewish conception of justice is broader than mere abstention
from hurting our fellow-men. Justice is a positive conception.
Righteousness (_Zedakah_) includes also charity and philanthropy. It
asserts the claim of the poor upon the rich, of the helpless upon him who
possesses the means to help. “He who prevents the poor from reaping the
corners of the field or the gleanings of the harvest, or in any way
withholds that which has been assigned them by the law of Moses, is a
robber,” says the Mishnah, “for it is written: ‘Remove not the old
landmark, and enter not into the field of the fatherless.’ ”(1573) Jewish
ethics holds that charity is not a gift of condescending love, but a duty.
It is incumbent upon the fortunate to rescue the unfortunate, since all
that we possess is only lent to us by God, the Owner of the world, with
the charge that we provide for the needy who are under His special
protection. Those who refuse to give the poor their share abuse the divine
trust. “If thou lendest money to My people, to the poor with thee,”(1574)
says Scripture, and the rabbis comment on this to the effect that “the
poor are called God’s people; do not forget that the turn of fortune which
made you rich and them poor may turn, and that you may then be in
need.”(1575) Nor is it sufficient merely to give to him who is poor; we
are bidden to uphold him when his powers fail.(1576)
This is the very principle of ethics of the Mosaic law, the principle for
which the great prophets fought with all the vigor and vehemence of the
divine spirit—social justice. The cry: “Woe unto them that join house to
house, that lay field to field, till there be no room,”(1577) the
condemnation of those “that swallow the needy and destroy the poor of the
land,”(1578) the curse hurled at him who withholdeth corn,(1579) laid the
foundations of a higher justice, which is not satisfied with mitigating
the misery of the unfortunate by acts of charity, but insists on a
readjustment of the social conditions which create poverty. This spirit
created the poor laws of the Mosaic Code, which were partially adopted by
both Christians and Mohammedans. It dictated the Mosaic institutions of
the seventh year of release and the Jubilee year for the restoration of
fields and houses, to prevent the tyranny of wealth from becoming a
permanent source of oppression. While these were scarcely ever put into
practice, they remained as a protest and an appeal. Their aim and
permanent influence tended toward relations between the upper and lower
classes, which would insure the latter some degree of independence and
dignity. In fact, the foundations laid by the Hebrew Scripture underlie
all our great modern efforts to turn the forces of charity so as to check
the sources of evil in our social organism. Modern philanthropy, taking
its clue from the old Hebrew ideal, aims not to alleviate but to cure, and
to stimulate the natural good in society, material, moral and
intellectual, that it may overcome the evil. We are recognizing more and
more the principle of mutual responsibility and interdependence of men and
classes. Yet this very principle, modern as it seems, was recognized by
the Jewish sages, as we see in the remarkable passage where the rabbis
comment on the law concerning the case of a slain body found in the field,
with the murderer unknown. The Bible commands that in such a case the
elders of the city should kill a heifer, wash their hands over it, and
say: “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen
it.”(1580) The rabbis then ask: “How could the elders of a city ever be
suspected of the crime of murder?” and their reply is: “Even if they only
failed to provide the poor in their charge with the necessary food, and he
became a highway robber and murderer; or if they left him without the
necessary protection, and he fell a victim to murderers, they are held
responsible for the crime before the higher court of God.”(1581) That is,
according to our station we are all responsible for the social conditions
which create poverty and crime, and it is our duty to establish such
relations between the individual and the community as will remove the
causes of all the evils of society.
11. This, in a way, anticipates the third maxim of Hillel: “If not now,
when then?” Judaism cannot accept the New Testament spirit of
other-worldliness, which prompted the teaching: “Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what
ye shall put on,” or “Resist not evil.”(1582) Such a view disregards the
values and duties of domestic, civic, and industrial life, and creates an
inseparable gulf between sacred and profane, between religion and culture.
In contrast to this, Jewish ethics sets the highest value upon all things
that make man more of a human being and increase his power of doing good.
To Judaism marriage and home life are regarded as the normal conditions of
human welfare and sane morality, while celibacy is considered
abnormal.(1583) Labor establishes the dignity of man,(1584) while wealth
is a source of blessing, a stewardship in the service of society.(1585) In
opposition to the practice fostered by the Essenes and afterwards adopted
by the early Church, of devoting one’s whole fortune to charity, the
rabbis decreed that one should not give over one fifth of one’s
possessions.(1586) As has well been said, Judaism teaches a “robust
morality.”(1587) It regards life as a continual battle for God and right
against every sort of injustice,(1588) for truth against every kind of
falsehood. At the same time it fosters also the gentler virtues of
meekness,(1589) kindness to animals,(1590) peaceableness and
modesty.(1591)
12. Jewish ethics excels all other ethical systems, especially in its
insistence on purity and holiness. Not only is any unchaste look, thought,
or act condemned, exactly as in the Sermon on the Mount,(1592) as
approaching adultery,(1593) but all profanity of act or speech is declared
to be an unpardonable offense against the majesty of God.(1594) Modesty in
demeanor and dress was both preached and practiced by the Jews throughout
the Middle Ages, while in non-Jewish circles coarseness and lewdness
prevailed among high and low, in minstrel song and monastic life. “The
Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp ... therefore shall thy camp
be holy, that He see no unseemly thing in thee, and turn away from
thee.”(1595) These Biblical words created among the Essenes (the _Zenuim_)
and later among the entire Jewish people a spirit of chastity and modesty
which made the Jewish home of old a model of purity and sanctity. The
great problem for modern Israel, amid our present allurements of luxury
and pleasure, is to restore the home to its pristine glory as a sanctuary
of God, a training school for virtue, so that its influence may extend
over the whole of life.
13. Thus Jewish ethics derives its sanction from the idea of a God of
holiness. But it never made life austere, depriving it of joy, or
begrudging man his cheerfulness and laughter. On the contrary, the Sabbath
and many of the holy days are seasons of joy, for gladness should bring
the spirit of God near to man.(1596) Moreover, the Talmud holds that we
should encourage every means of promoting cheer among men. This is
illustrated by one of the popular legends of the prophet Elijah, who told
the saintly Rabbi Beroka, who prided himself upon his austerity, that his
companions in Paradise were to be two jesters, because they cheered the
depressed and increased the joy in the world.(1597)
As a matter of fact, the Jewish ideal of holiness is all-inclusive. It
aims to hallow every pursuit and endeavor, all social relations and
activities, insisting only on a pure motive and disinterested service. As
the Ruler of life is the source of all morality, so all of life should be
made holy with duty. Man becomes a child of God through his
responsibility, instead of remaining a mere product of the social forces
about him or of claiming self-sufficient sovereignty and refusing to
acknowledge a higher Will. Jewish ethics is autonomous, because it insists
on the divine spirit in man.(1598) As we follow the divine Pattern of
holiness, all that we have and are, body and soul, weal and woe, wealth
and want, pain and pleasure, life and death, become stepping-stones on the
road to holiness and godliness. Life is like a ladder on which man can
rise from round to round, to come ever nearer to God on high who beckons
him toward ever higher ideals and achievements. Man and humanity are thus
given the potentiality of infinite progress in every direction. Science
and art, industry and commerce, literature and law, every pursuit of man
comes within the scope of religion and ethics. For God’s kingdom of truth,
righteousness and peace, as beheld by Israel’s seers of old, will be fully
established on earth only when all the forces of material, intellectual,
and social life have been unfolded, when all the prophetic ideals, the
visions and aspirations of all the seers of humanity have been realized,
and the Zion heights of human perfection have at last been attained. “The
wise have no rest, neither in this world nor in the world to come, for it
is said: ‘they go from strength to strength, [until] they appear before
God on Zion.’ ”(1599)
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
A. d. R. N. Aboth di Rabbi Nathan
A. T. Altes Testament
Ab. Z. Aboda Zarah
Ag. Agada
Ann. Annotations
Ant. Antiquities (of Josephus)
Ap. Apionem, contra
Apoc. Apocalyptic
Arak. Arakin
Art. Article
B. Babli (Babylonian)
b. ben
B. B. Baba Bathra
B. H. Beth ha Midrash
B. K. Baba Kamma
B. M. Baba Metzia
Beitr. Beitraege
Ber. Berakoth
Bibl. Bible or Biblical
C. C. A. R. Central Conference of American Rabbis
Cant. Canticles
Chron. Chronicles
Ch. Chapter
Comm. Commentary, -ies
Comp. Compare
Cor. Corinthians, Epistle to
Dan. Daniel
Deut. Deuteronomy
Dict. Dictionary
Eccl. Ecclesiastes
Enc. Encyclopedia
(_a_) Brit. Britannia
(_b_) R. a. Eth.... of Religion and Ethics
Ep. Epistle
Eph. Ephesians, Epistle to
Ethnol. Ethnologische
Ex. Exodus
Ez. Ezekiel
G. J. Geschichte der Juden (Graetz)
G. Jud. Geschichte des Judenthums (Jost)
G. V. I. Geschichte des Volkes Israel (Schuerer)
Gal. Galatians, Epistle to
Gen. Genesis
Ges. Abh. Gesammelte Abhandlungen
Ges. Schrf. Gesammelte Schriften
Gesch. u. Lit. Geschichte und Literature
Gottesd. Gottesdienstliche
H. Hilkoth
H. B. Handbuch
H. J. History of Jews (Graetz)
H. U. C. Hebrew Union College
Hab. Habakkuk
Hag. Hagigah
Hist. History
Hor. Horayoth
Hul. Hullin
Introd. Introduction
Isai. Isaiah
Israel. Israelitisch
J. Journal
J. E. Jewish Encyclopedia
J. Q. R. Jewish Quarterly Review
J. W. Jewish War (Josephus)
Jahrb. Jahrbuch
Jer. Jeremiah
Jew. Jewish
Josh. Joshua
Jud. Judenthums
Judg. Judges
Jued. Juedisch
K. A. T. “Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament”
Ker. Kerithoth
Keth. Kethuboth
Kil. Kilayim
L. Literature
l. c. loco citato, the same place;
libro citato, the same book (for the usual o. c. = opere
citato).
Lam. Lamentations
Lev. Leviticus
M. K. Moed Katan
Macc. Maccabees, Book of
Maim. Maimonides
Mak. Makkoth
Mal. Malachi
Mas. Masseketh
Meg. Megillah
Mek. Mekiltha
Men. Menahoth
Mid. Midrash
Mtschr. Monatsschrift fuer Geschichte und Wissenschaft des
Judenthums
Mitth. Mittheilungen
Nachgel-Schr. Nachgelassene Schriften
Neh. Nehemiah
Nid. Niddah
Numb. Numbers
P. d. R. El. Pirke di Rabbi Eliezer
Pars. Parsisch
Pes. Pesahim, -ee
Pes. R. Pesikta Rabbathi
Pesik. Pesikta di Rab Kahana
Phil. Philosophy or Philosophical
Prov. Proverbs
Prot. Protestantisch
Ps. Psalms
Psych. Psychologisch
Quel. Quellen
R. Rabbah, also Rabbi, Rabban
R. h. Sh. Rosh ha Shanah
R. W. B. Real-Woerterbuch
ref. referring or reference
Rel. Religion
S. O. Seder Olam
s. v. sub verbo
Sam. Samuel
Sanh. Sanhedrin
Sh. A. Shulhan Aruk
Shab. Shabuoth
Sibyl. Sibylline Books
Slav. Slavonic
Soc. Society
Stud. Studien or Studies
Suk. Sukkah
Syst. System or Systematic
T. d. b. E. Tanna di be Eliahu
Tanh. Tanhuma
Teh. Tehillim
Theol. Theologisch
Tos. Tosefta
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INDEX
Aaronites, 344 f.
Ab, Ninth of, 461, 469
Abba Areka
_See_ Rab
Abbahu, 153, 422
Abelson, 245, 271, 422
Ablat, 403
Abraham, 32, 62, 65 f., 112, 114, 219, 259, 292, 329, 336 f., 417
Abraham ben David of Posquieres, 14, 81, 237, 387
Abraham ibn Daud, 22, 68, 136, 178, 292
Abraham Ibn Ezra, 97, 152, 188, 190, 194, 273
Abrahams, Israel, 192, 346, 348
Abravanel, Isaac, 27
Abstinence
_See_ Asceticism
Abulafia, Abr., 431
Adam, 222-230, 244, 252; heavenly, 437
Adonai, 59, 61, 221 f., 359
Affliction, 130
Ahha, R., 224
Ahriman, 301, 382 f.
Akiba, R., 14, 26, 32, 50, 126, 130 f., 150, 176, 216, 222, 232, 257, 259,
311, 361, 467
Albo, Joseph, 24-26, 163 f., 272 f., 294, 309-339
Alenu, 57, 331, 341, 477
Alfarabi, 68
Allegory, 116, 224, 268
Alpha and Omega, 137
Altruism, 482
Am haaretz, 347, 358
Amos, 248, 264, 324
Anaxoras, 37, 67, 84
Angels, 81, 180-188
Anger
_See_ Wrath
Animals, 489
Anselm of Canterbury, 68
Anthropology, 204
Anthropomorphism, 74-76, 115 f.
Antigonos of Soko, 480
Antinomian, 428, 439
Antoninus, 403, 422
Apicoros—Epicurean, 21, 65
Apocalyptic books, 12 f. 232 f., 283
Apocryphal books, 12 f.
Apologetics, 4
Apostate, 6, 424 f.
Apostles, 435
Apostolic convention, 436
Aquilas, 286, 421
Arelim, 402
Aristeas, 347
Aristotelian, 38, 68, 75, 89, 153, 162, 172, 291
Aristotle, 1, 67, 84, 87, 152, 215, 359, 405
Arnold, Matthew, 121, 131
Art, 480 f.
Articles of faith, 19-28
Aryan, 9, 58
Asceticism, 150, 189, 318, 490
Asenath, 416
Assimilation, 12, 396
Atheism, 65, 67
Atonement, 254
Atonement, Day of, 466-469
Attributes of God
_See_ God
Aub, Joseph, 446
Autonomy of morality, 491
Azazel, 190, 194, 466
Azkarah, 263
Babylonian, 11, 15, 75, 118, 128, 140, 181, 220, 240, 356
Bacher, W., 76
Bahya ben Asher, 486
Bahya b. Joseph ibn Pakudah, 3, 68, 175, 291, 473
Banquet of the pious in the future, 305
Baptism, 417, 436
Bar Kochba, 361, 384, 385
Bathing
_See_ Baptism
Bath Kol, 201
Beck, L., 15
Beecher, W. J., 42
Belief, 20, 65
_See also_ Faith
Ben Azzai, 124, 311, 480
Ben Sira, 13, 40, 232, 282, and elsewhere
Ben Zoma, 312
Benedictions, Eighteen, 135, 192, 284, 297
Benevolence, 319, 485
Bentwich, N., 140, 290
Bergson, H., 71, 154
Bernays, J., 49, 412
Beroka, R., 490
Berosus, 213
Bertholet, A., 409
Beruria, 110, 396
Bezold, C., 194
Biblical canon, 11, 43, 201
Bloch, M., 12
Bloch, Ph., 23, 236
Blood, 48, 123
Body, 209, 214
Boeklen, E., 302 f.
Bousset, W., 19, 43 f., 61 f., 74, 84, 123, 128, 143 f., 185, 195, 246,
252, 303
Breath of life, 212
Brugsch, H., 288
Buddha, 405, 478
Cabbalah, 203, 244, 294, 473
Calendar, Jewish, 460
Calvin, 195
Caro, Joseph, 56
Cassel, D., 214, 236, 489
Celibacy, 313, 316
Ceremonies, 346, 449 ff.
Charles, R. H., 283
Cheerfulness, 318, 490
Cheyne, T. K., 409
Christian Science, 178
Christian theology, 5, 123, 192, 248, 252 f., 304, 347, 355
Christian trinity, 56, 86, 116 f., 441 f.
Christianity, 17, 41, 54, 116, 329, 427
Christianity, Paulinian, 12, 51, 116, 439
Christ(os), 86, 221, 433, 437
Church’s providential mission, 444
Circumcision, 50, 346, 402, 416, 449 f.
Civilization, 316
Clemens, Flavius, 421
Cohen, Hermann, 196
Commerce, Jewish, 364
Compassion of God
_See_ God
Compassion of man, 126
Condescension of God
_See_ God
Confession, 5, 20, 192
Confirmation, 449, 463, 473
Confucius, 405, 478
Conscience, 30, 64
Consciousness, Man’s, of God, 29
Continuity of soul
_See_ Immortality
Continuity with the past, 14
Conversion, 418, 423
Cosmogony, 148 f.
Cosmology, 141
Cosmos, 68, 146
Covenant, God’s, 48, 51, 157-161, 235-270, 322
Creation, 147-153
Creative principles, 203
Credo, 22-25, 31
Crescas, Hasdai, 24 f., 131, 163, 172, 194, 236 f., 293, 308 f.
Critical research of Bible
_See_ Historical research
Cross, 438
Culture, 310, 363
Curtiss, S. I., 454
Cuzari
_See_ Jehuda ha Levi
Cyrus, 85, 334
Dama ben Nethina, 399
Daniel, 288
Darwin, 154
David, 242, 291
David ben Zimra, 27
Davidson, A. B., 83, 115 f., 139, 167, 182 f., 247, 370
Day of judgment, 394
Day of the Lord
_See_ JHVH, Day of
Death, 85, 177, 278 f.
Deism, 79
Delitzsch, Fried., 6
Dembitz, L. N., 269
Demons, 190 ff.
Descartes, 68
Determinism, 255, 330
Deutero-Isaiah, 51, 85, 267, 336, 369
Dietary laws, 346, 451 f.
Dillmann, A., 30 f., 59, 83 ff., 157 ff., 231
Doctrine, 47
Doellinger, J. J. I. v., 54
Dorner, A., 6, 18
Dosithean, 13
Draper, J. W., 88
Drummond, J., 69, 72 f., 99 f.
Dualism, 85 f., 178, 184, 189, 214, 220, 438
Dubno, S., 7
Duran, Simon, 24
Duty, 478
Duty to fellow man, 319, 484
Duty to self, 482
Ecclesiastical, 5, 16
Ecstasy, 38
Edom—Rome, 430
Einhorn, David, viii, 389, 446, 453 f., 461
Elbogen, I., 269
Eleazar ben Pedath, 329
Election of Israel
_See_ Israel
Eliezer ben Hyrcanos, 50, 257, 305, 316, 403, 419
Elijah, 46, 49
Elisha ben Abuyah, 118
Elohim, 57 f., 180 f., 210, 405
Emden, Jacob, 427
Enoch, 232, 336
Eschatology
_See_ Future life
Eschelbacher, J., 15
Essenes, 12, 40, 163, 183, 185, 191, 316, 419, 434, 481, 489 f.
Eternity, 98 f.
Ethics, 69, 120, 398, 477, 491
Euken, R., 195
Evil, 176, 179
Evil, Spirits of, 189-196
Evolution, 11, 36, 100
Exile, Babylonian, 10 f., 266
Ezekiel, 13, 105, 221, 249, 283, 299, 337 f., 345, 392 f.
Ezra, 10 f., 17
Faith, 19 f.
Faithfulness of God
_See_ God
Faithfulness of Israel
_See_ Israel
Falashas, 13, 457
Family life, 316
Fasting, 483
Fate, 168
Fatherhood of God, 256-260
Fear of God, 29
Feast of Weeks
_See_ Shabuoth
Felsenthal, B., 19
Festivals, 461-470
Finality, 6, 475 f.
Finkelscherer, 194
Flesh, 212
Formalism, 351, 473
Foster, 62, 271
Frankel, Z., 3, 43
Frederick II, 444
Freedom of will, 171 f., 231, 237
Friedlander, G., 438
Friendship, 318
Future life, 281-308
Gabirol, Solomon Ibn, 80, 89, 98, 141, 187
Gamaliel, 77, 97, 129, 152, 289
Gehenna, 110
Geiger, Abraham, viii, 2, 12, 14 ff., 35, 43, 58, 110, 201, 446, 453, 472
Genius, 35, 103
Ger, 50, 409 ff.
_See also_ Proselyte
Gershom ben Jehuda, 472
Gersonides, 13, 156, 194, 236
Ginzberg, Asher, 7
Gnosticism, 86, 141, 153, 427
God, 52-145
God no abstraction, 78, 143
God of the fathers, 16
God’s, condescension, 72, 81, 142-144
essence, 72-81
eternity, 98-100
existence, 64-71
faithfulness, 134-137
fatherhood, 256-260
foreknowledge, 105, 167
goodness, 126, 132
grace, 114 f., 246 f.
holiness, 100-109, 149 f.
immanence, 79 f., 98
incorporeality
_See_ Spirituality
jealousy, 54, 83, 105
justice, 118, 125
kingdom
_See_ Kingdom of God
knowledge, 138-141
mercy, 113
names, 58, 63, 291
omnipotence, 91-95
omnipresence, 96-98
omniscience, 93-95
personality, 73-76, 98, 106, 144
relation to the world, 146-151
self-consciousness, 73
spirit, 97-200; in man, 216-230
spirituality, 22, 74-78
supermundaneity, 99
transcendence, 74 f., 100
truthfulness, 134-137
unity, 82-90, 96 f., 105
wisdom, 138 f.
wrath and punishment, 107
God-childship, Man’s, 27
God-consciousness, Man’s, 29-31
Gods, Heathen, 53, 113, 136, 177
Goel, 256
Gog and Magog, 381, 383
Golden rule, 484
Goldziher, I., 22, 441
Goodness, 126, 132, 150
Goy, 400
Grace of God
_See_ God
Graetz, H., 7, 43, 416, 472
Greek church, 429
ethics, 443
philosophy, 12, 23, 66 f., 84 f., 315
wisdom, 336
Gressmann, H., 378
Guedemann, M., 42, 355
Guttmann, J., 22, 306
Habakkuk, 334
Haftarah, 357
Haggada and Halakah, 12 f.
Hananel, R., 21
Haninah ben Dosa, 163, 165, 273
Hanukkah, 409
Harnack, A., 413
Harper, R. F., 190
Hartmann, E. v., 78
Hasidim and Hasidean, 62, 127, 163, 266 f., 283, 289, 308, 344, 481
Hatred, 398
Heathenism, 52, 57, 83 f., 176, 399 f., 405
Hebrew, 16, 470 f.
Helbo, R., 421
Helen of Adiabene, 416
Hellenism, 23, 335
Hellenistic Judaism, 233, 289, 303, 339, 414
literature, 12, 258
philosophy, 232
propaganda, 251 f., 334, 415 f., 436
Herford, R. T., 439
Hezekiah, 281
Hillel, 127, 209, 304, 335, 360, 418, 423, 481 ff.
Hillel, R., 388
Hillul and Kiddush hashem, 348 f.
Hirsch, E. G., 19, 458, 480
Hirsch, Samson Raphael, 269, 453
Hirsch, S. A., 407
Hirsch, Samuel, viii, 446
Historical research, 4, 12, 46
Hochmuth, A., 23 f.
Holdheim, Samuel, viii, 462
Holiness, 102, 109, 477 f., 491
Holiness, God’s
_See_ God
Holiness, Levitical, 104
Holy Land
_See_ Palestine
Holy spirit, 11, 200 f.
Horowitz, S., 22 f., 37
Horwitz, Sabbathai, 14
Hosea, 29, 49, 114 f., 249, 257, 264, 324, 333
Humanity, 51, 310, 315, 398, 475
Husik, 37, 68 ff., 214 f., 291 f.
Ibn Daud
_See_ Abraham ibn Daud
Ibn Ezra
_See_ Abraham Ibn Ezra
Ibn Sina, 68
Ibn Verga, 431
Ihering, R. v., 409
Imitatio Dei, 477, 479, 490
Immanence of God
_See_ God
Immortality, 24, 286, 297
Individual man, 310
Industry, 317
Inspiration, 39 f.
Institution of the synagogue
_See_ Synagogue
Intercession, 200 f., 406 f.
Intermarriage, 444 f.
Intermediary powers, 197-205
Internationalism, 321 f.
Intolerance, 404 f.
Isaac ben Shesheth, 171, 427
Isaac Napaha, 428
Isaiah, 244, 264, 328, 333, 397
Ishmael, 430
Islam, 17, 41, 86 f., 329, 427, 441 f.
Islam’s mission, 444
Israel, 389 f., 397
Israel’s, characteristics, 326 f.
commerce, 364
consecration, 37
election, 37, 323-330
hope, 378-391, 392-396
martyrdom, 33, 130, 349, 367-377
mission, 328-341, 352-354
cultural, 363
priesthood, 342-343
prophetic genius, 39, 103, 122, 372
relation to the nations, 9, 397-407
separateness, 8, 347 f., 364, 374, 445 f., 452
world-duty, 16
JHVH—Jahveh, 45, 59, 63, 72, 114, 117, 202, 280
JHVH, Day of, 122
James, Wm., 271
Jastrow, J., 296
Jastrow, Morris, 128
Jealousy of God
_See_ God
Jehuda ha Levi, 25, 38, 70, 105, 110, 141, 163, 187, 194, 228, 291, 329,
339, 426, 431, 475
Jehuda ha Nasi, 128, 302, 305, 403
Jellinek, 210
Jeremiah, 30, 45, 126, 249, 252, 257, 265, 320, 410
Jerusalem, 335, 365, 423
Jesus of Nazareth, 46, 433 f.
Jew and Jewry, 7 f., 359, 364, 376
Jew hatred, 9
Jewish nationality, 8
Jewish religion
_See_ Judaism
Job, 32, 124, 281, 319, 370, 372, 484
Joel, 250
Joel, D., 187
Joel, M., 3, 86, 131, 161, 163, 196, 307 f.
Johanan, R., 79, 306, 309, 327
Johanan ben Zakkai, 222, 258, 403
John the Baptist, 434
John Hyrcanus, 419
Jonah, 127, 250
Jose, R., 46, 227
Joseph Ibn Zaddik, 136
Joseph, Morris, 116, 179, 405, 420, 453 f., 458, 489
Josephus, 21, 46 f., 137, 233, 405, 413, 420
Joshua ben Hananiah, 77, 305, 340, 422, 432, 453, 455
Jost, M., 7
Joy of life, 318, 490
Juda Ibn Balag, 144
Judæo-Christians, 427 f., 439
Judaism, Modern or progressive, 51, 104, 342, 364, 422, 445
Judaism, Rabbinic, 143
Judan, R., 186
Justice, 118-124, 485 f.
Justice, Social, 122, 487
Kaddish, 304, 331
Kant, Immanuel, 65, 69, 189
Karaites, 22, 87, 475
Kaufmann, David, 22 f., 68 f., 80, 97, 105, 153, 195 ff.
Kedusha, 192
Kiddush hashem, 348 f.
Kingdom of God, 331-341, 491
Klein, J., 412, 436, 482
Knowledge of God, 29
Knowledge, God’s
_See_ God
Koeberle, 117
Koheleth, 124
Kohler, K., 20, 32, 44, 267, 304, 405, 438, 447, 453 f.
Kohler, M. J., 409
Kohut, Alex., 42, 199
Krauskopf, J., 443
Kremer, A. v., 22, 87
Kuenen, A., 337
Labor, 224, 317
Lame and blind parable, 302
Landsberg, M., 473
Lange, F. A., 87
Lauterbach, J. Z., 439, 482 ff., 486
Law, 45-47, 355-358
Lazarus, L., 106
Lazarus, M., 14, 101, 106, 349, 477 f.
Lecky, W. E. H., 345, 364, 443
Leo Hebraeus, 131
Leo da Modena, 14
Lessing, E. G., 430
Levi, R., 268
Levkovits, M., 178
Life a battle, 282
Loew, Leopold, 22, 27, 472
Loewe ben Bezalel, 228
Logos, 198 f.
Love, 31 f., 121, 126-131, 484
Love, God’s
_See_ God
Loyalty to country, 319 f.
Luria, Isaac, 14
Luther, Martin, 195
Luz, 288
Luzzatto, S. D., 23, 30
Maimonides, 3, 13, 22 f., 30, 38, 72, 87, 110, 138, 153, 162, 170, 178,
187, 194, 224, 228, 236 f., 268, 272, 307 f., 321, 339, 386
f., 404, 426
Makom, 62, 97
Malachi, 249, 263
Man, 182, 206-232
Man, child of God, 256, 260, 310
Man’s, brotherhood, 314, 321
dual nature, 212-217
destiny and origin, 218-230
fall, 221-225
freedom of will, 208, 231-237
individuality, 208
perfectibility, 210, 491
self-consciousness, 35, 216
Manasseh, King, 211, 251
Manasseh ben Israel, 339
Mankind, 310-315
Margolis, Max, 2
Martyrdom of Israel
_See_ Israel
Mazdaism
_See_ Persian
Measure for measure, 124
Medieval Jewry, 361 f., 376, 386, 455
Meir, R., 77, 151, 154, 258, 260, 273, 356, 403, 450, 453
Memra
_See_ Logos
Mendelssohn, M., vii, 19, 30, 68, 142, 165, 295
Mercy of God
_See_ God
Merkabah, 187
Messianic hope, 8, 334 f., 378, 389, 445
Messianic kingdom, 426
Messiah, 25, 333 f., 373, 382 f., 389, 400
Metaphysical, 65, 100, 105
Metatron—Mithras, 185, 199
Micah, 218, 328
Microcosm, 209
Mielziner, M., 446
Mill, John Stuart, 181
Milton, J., 195
Minim—Heretics, 86, 424 ff.
Miracle, 36, 160-166
Misanthropy, 9, 398
Mission of Israel
_See_ Israel
Modesty, 490
Mohammed, 429 f., 441 f.
Mohammedan religion
_See_ Islam
Mohammedan theology, 2, 24, 37, 68, 87, 141, 162, 171, 236
Monotheism, 55-183
Absolute, 428
Ethical, 23, 54, 69, 415
Montefiore, Claude G., 43, 246, 348, 438, 449
Month, 459
Moral order, 119-123
Morgenstern, J., 239
Mosaic code, 335, 345, 414
cult, 263-268
law, 13, 16, 26, 104
Mosaism, 283
Moses, 35-37, 46, 113 f., 228, 232 ff., 240 f.
Mueller, Max, 58
Mutuality, 488
Mysticism and mystics, 3, 14, 36, 89, 131, 136, 157, 473
Naaman, 414
Nahmanides, 194, 224, 244, 294, 307, 426
Nahum of Gimzo, 151, 163
Names of God, 58-63
Nationalism, Jewish, 13 f., 335
Nationality, Jewish, 8
Nature, 148, 156
Nature’s laws, 135, 187
Neoplatonism, 2, 37, 87, 92
Nestorians, 443
Nether world, 279
_See also_ Sheol
Neumark, David, 19, 22, 70, 92, 98, 172, 284, 297, 406
New Year’s Day, 465-468
Nieto, David, 80
Nirvana, 479
Noah, 336, 452
Noahitic laws, 48-51, 110, 404, 412 f., 427
Nomism, 13, 44, 355
Nomos—Law, 43
Oath, 120
Objective and subjective truths, 3
Œnomaos of Gadara, 403
Onias the Saint, 165, 268, 273
Ontological proof
_See_ God’s existence
Optimism, 132, 179, 251
Order, Moral, of the world, 167
Orientalism, 470 f.
Origin, 374
Orthodoxy, 11, 46
Otherworldliness, 124, 352, 395, 440, 489
Pain, 176
Palestine, 3, 38, 335, 394
Pantheism, 80
Paradise legend, 177, 207, 219, 278
Parseeism
_See_ Persian
Particularism, 446
Passover, 461 f.
Patriotism, 320
Paul and Paulinian dogma, 25, 50 f., 116, 21, 259, 355, 417, 428, 437, 440
Peace, 379, 491
Pentecost miracle, 359
Perles, F., 350
Persian, 85, 140, 184-191, 283 ff., 300 f.
Personality of God
_See_ God
Pessimism, 150, 439 f.
Pharaoh, 55
Pharisaic and Pharisees, 12, 20, 189, 233 f., 283 f., 302, 344 f., 413,
418, 439, 457
Philanthropy, 486 f.
Philippson, Ludwig, 165, 210, 444, 446
Philipson, David, 269, 297, 389, 446, 458
Philo, 21, 67, 72, 80, 186, 189, 194, 198, 203, 214 f., 233 f., 268, 290,
294, 351, 405, 413, 423, 439, 452, 457, 485
Philosophy, Greek, 66
Hindoo, 209
Jewish, 2
Philosophy of religion, 70
Phineas ben Yair, 163, 165
Phylacteries
_See_ Tefillin
Plato, 84, 209 f., 215, 405
Platonism, 141, 285, 289 f.
Ploss, H., 449 f.
Porter, F. Ch., 215
Prayer, 261-277
Predetermination, 232
Preëxistence of the Soul, 289
Priest, 343 f.
Priest code, 263, 351
Priest, High, 317, 466
Priesthood of Israel
_See_ Israel
Profanation of name
_See_ Hillul ha Shem
Propaganda, 51, 412-419
Prophecy, 35, 38
Prophetic books, 42
Proselyte, 336 f., 411-423
Protestantism, 363
Providence, 167-175
Psalmist, 10, 13, 60, 265, 299, 309,480
Psychology, 187, 204
Ptolemy Philadelphus, 347
Punishment, Divine
_See_ Retribution
Purgatory, 304
Purim, 470
Purity, 146, 153, 291, 490
Pythagoras, 146, 291
Rab-Abba Areka, 203, 305 f.
Rabba, 428
Rabbinism, 283
Radin, M., 416
Rashi, 312, 388
Rationalism, 13, 38, 89, 450, 474
Rauwenhoff, L. W. E., 2, 65, 101, 106
Redemption, Religion of, 17, 195
Reform Judaism, 269, 330, 340, 389