FOREIGN OFFICE,
_November 2, 1917_.
DEAR LORD ROTHSCHILD,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s
Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist
aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:――
‘His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their
best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice
the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in
Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any
other country.’
Yours sincerely,
ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.
ISRAEL’S PRESERVATION
THE destruction of the Holy City, the ruin of the House of God, the
dispersion of the Chosen People into all the kingdoms of the earth, and
their continued existence as a nation, notwithstanding every attempt
to exterminate them or to compel them to forsake those ordinances
which distinguish them to this very day from all other nations, is
emphatically one of the strongest evidences we can have of the truth
of the Bible. Jerusalem was indeed once a great city, and the Temple
magnifical; but the Jews themselves were greater than either; hence,
while the two former have been given over to spoliation, the latter
have been wonderfully, miraculously preserved. The annals of the world
do not contain anything so remarkable in human experience, so greatly
surpassing human power and human prescience. Exiled and dispersed,
reviled and persecuted, oppressed and suffering, often denied the
commonest rights of humanity, and still more often made the victim
of ruthless fanaticism and bigoted prejudice, the Jews are divinely
preserved for a purpose worthy of a God!
ST. JEROME, 4th cent.
ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS[62]
THE Jew has made a marvellous fight in this world, in all the ages;
and has done it with his hands tied behind him. The Egyptian, the
Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and
splendour, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the
Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples
have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out,
and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all,
beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence,
no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his
energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind.
MARK TWAIN, 1898.
IV
THE VOICE OF PRAYER
(THE JEWISH YEAR)
_HOW precious is Thy loving-kindness, O God, and the children of
men take refuge under the shadow of Thy wings. For with Thee is the
fountain of life; in Thy light do we see light._
PSALM 36. 8, 10.
ON PRAYER AND PRAISE
THERE is an old story, invented by the sages and handed down by memory
from age to age. They say, when God had finished the world, He asked
one of the angels if aught were wanting on land or on sea, in air or
in heaven. The angel answered that all was perfect; one thing only he
desired――speech, to praise God’s works, or recount them, which would be
their praise. And the Father approved the angel’s words, and not long
afterwards appeared the race, gifted with the muses and with song. This
is the ancient story, and in consonance with its spirit I say: ‘It is
God’s peculiar work to benefit, and His creatures’ work to give Him
thanks’.
PHILO JUDAEUS, 1st cent.
* * * * *
THERE are halls in the heavens above that open but to the voice of song.
ZOHAR.
ON MORNING SERVICE
LET man strengthen himself like a lion and arise in the early morn to
render service to his Creator; as David said, ‘I will awake the dawn’
(Psalm 57. 9).
COMMENTARY: _Strengthen himself._――The root-idea of such strengthening
is to prepare himself to resist temptations and evil desires which
during this day may assail him: as it is said, ‘Who is strong? He that
subdues his passions.’ _Like a lion._――As a lion is the most fearless
of animals, so shall he likewise, in the performance of his duties,
fear nothing, but rely firmly on his God.
GLOSS: ‘I have set the Lord always before me’ (Psalm 16. 8): This is
a leading principle in Religion, and in the upward strivings of the
righteous who walk ever in the presence of God. For a man’s mode of
life, his demeanour and his deeds, his speech and his movements, when
alone in the house or in the intimate circle of his family and friends,
are unlike those which he would exhibit when in the presence of a
great king. And how much more considered will his demeanour be, if
he reflect that there stands over him the King of kings, the Holy One,
blessed be He, whose glory fills the whole earth, watching his conduct
and surveying his deeds; even as it is written: ‘Can any hide himself
in secret places that I shall not see him?’ saith the Lord (Jeremiah
23. 24). Such contemplation must perforce imbue him with a true sense
of reverence and humility, prompted by a feeling of unworthiness,
before the Holy Name; and he will be heedless of whoever may mock at
him because of his devotions.
SHULCHAN ARUCH, 1, § 1.
(_Trans. A. Feldman._)
שַׁחַר אֲבַקֶּשְׁךָ
AT THE DAWN I SEEK THEE
AT the dawn I seek Thee,
Refuge, Rock sublime;
Set my prayer before Thee in the morning,
And my prayer at eventime.
I before Thy greatness
Stand and am afraid:
All my secret thoughts Thine eye beholdeth
Deep within my bosom laid.
And, withal, what is it
Heart and tongue can do?
What is this my strength, and what is even
This, the spirit in me, too?
But, indeed, man’s singing
May seem good to Thee;
So I praise Thee, singing, while there dwelleth
Yet the breath of God in me.
SOLOMON IBN GABIROL, 1050.
(_Trans. Nina Salaman._)
MORNING PRAYERS
MAY it be Thy will, O God, that I walk in Thy law, and cleave to Thy
commandments. Lead me not into sin or temptation or contempt. Let not
evil desire rule over me. Bend my will to Thine. Keep me from sinful
men and worthless companions. Help me to cling to the good, and give
me grace in Thy sight and in the sight of those about me. Amen.
DAILY PRAYER BOOK.
* * * * *
O GOD, I stand before Thee, knowing all my deficiencies, and
overwhelmed by Thy greatness and majesty. But Thou hast commanded
me to pray to Thee, and hast suffered me to offer homage to Thine
exalted Name according to the measure of my knowledge, and to lay my
supplication before Thee. Thou knowest best what is for my good. If I
recite my wants, it is not to remind Thee of them, but only so that I
may understand better how great is my dependence upon Thee. If, then, I
ask Thee for the things that make not for my well-being, it is because
I am ignorant; Thy choice is better than mine, and I submit myself to
Thine unalterable decrees and Thy supreme direction. ‘O Lord, my heart
is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in
great matters, or in things too wonderful for me. Surely I have stilled
and quieted my soul; like a child with his mother, my soul is with me
like a weaned child’ (Psalm 131).
BACHYA IBN PAKUDAH, 1040.
ADON OLAM[63]
I
THE charm of the Adon Olam consists in the subtle manner in which
Jewish dogmatics are associated with the simplest spiritual thoughts.
In the first four lines we have a picture of God, the eternal Lord,
existing before the creation of the world, existing still when the
world shall cease to be. Between the eternal past and the eternal
future comes the world of time. This is purely Jewish dogmatics.
Aristotle held that the world was eternal; Judaism, that it was
created. It is God alone who is eternal. Further, Judaism conceives of
God as Something apart from, outside of, His world. He transcends man
and the universe. Yet God is also immanent; He dwells within the human
soul as well as within the world. God is not one with man, but akin to
man; He is high above the world, yet nigh unto them that call upon Him.
The God who exists for ever is proclaimed King when men acknowledge
His Kingship and show Him the allegiance of worship and obedience.
The God who stands high above creation is the One into whose hand man
commits himself without fear. The Majestic King is also the Redeemer.
The transcendent God is a Refuge in man’s distress. He does not merely
raise a banner, He is the Banner; He does not only hold out the cup of
salvation, He is the consummate Cup.
I. ABRAHAMS, 1906.
II
BEFORE the glorious orbs of light
Had shed one blissful ray,
In awful power, the Lord of might
Reign’d in eternal day.
At His creative, holy word
The voice of nature spoke,
Unnumber’d worlds with one accord
To living joys awoke.
Then was proclaim’d the mighty King
In majesty on high!
Then did the holy creatures sing
His praises through the sky.
All-merciful in strength He reigns
Immutable! supreme!
His hand the universe sustains,
He only can redeem.
Almighty, powerful and just!
Thou art my God, my Friend,
My rock, my refuge and my trust,
On Thee my hopes depend.
O! be my guardian whilst I sleep,
For Thou didst lend me breath:
And when I wake, my spirit keep,
And save my soul in death.
D. N. CARVALHO, 1830.
ADON OLAM AND MODERN SCIENCE
ALONE of all religious and philosophic conceptions of man, the faith
which binds together the Jews has not been harmed by the advance of
research, but, on the contrary, has been vindicated in its profoundest
tenets. Slowly and by degrees Science is being brought to recognize
in the universe the existence of One Power, which is of no beginning
and no end; which has existed before all things were formed, and will
remain in its integrity when all is gone; the Source and Origin of all,
in Itself beyond any conception or image that man can form and set up
before his eye or mind; whereas all things perceivable as matter and
force are subjected to his inquiry and designs. This sum total of the
scientific discoveries of all lands and times is an approach of the
world’s thought to our Adon Olam, the sublime chant, by means of which
the Jew has wrought and will further work the most momentous changes in
the world.
W. M. HAFFKINE, 1916.
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל
THE SHEMA
‘HEAR, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.’ That is
at once the quintessential embodiment of all our philosophy, as well
as chief among Israel’s contributions to the everlasting truths of
religion. The first prayer of innocent child-lips, the last confession
of the dying, the Shema has been the watchword and the rallying-cry
of a hundred generations in Israel. By it were they welded into one
Brotherhood to do the will of their Father who is in heaven. The
reading of the Shema has――in rabbinic phrase――clothed Israel with
invincible lion-strength, and endowed him with the double-edged sword
of the spirit against the unutterable terrors of his long night of
exile.
J. H. HERTZ, 1912.
* * * * *
WHEN men in prayer declare the Unity of the Holy Name in love and
reverence, the walls of earth’s darkness are cleft in twain, and the
Face of the Heavenly King is revealed, lighting up the universe.
ZOHAR.
אֱלֹהָי נְשָׁמָה
‘THE SOUL THOU HAST GIVEN ME IS PURE’
NEXT to God’s unity, the most essential and characteristic doctrine of
Judaism is that concerning God’s relation to man. Heathenism degraded
man by making him kneel before brutes and the works of his hand:
Judaism declared man to be made in the image of God, the crown and
culmination of God’s creation, the appointed ruler of the earth. In
him, as the end of Creation, the earthly and the divine are singularly
blended.
Judaism rejects the idea of an inherent impurity in the flesh or in
matter as opposed to the spirit. Nor does Judaism accept the doctrine
of Original Sin. In the words of the daily morning prayer, ‘The soul
that Thou hast given me is pure, Thou hast created it, Thou hast
fashioned it, and Thou hast breathed it into me, and Thou preservest
it within me, and at the appointed time Thou wilt take it from me to
return it within me in the future’.
K. KOHLER, 1904,
_in Jewish Encyclopedia_.
זְכוּת אָבוֹת
THE ‘MERIT OF THE FATHERS’
JUDAISM insists that man has an inborn impulse to virtue (‘Original
Virtue’) which can overcome all temptation to sin; an impulse
immeasurably strengthened through the merit of the fathers (_Zechuth
Aboth_) which is accounted unto their children as righteousness. That
man is best able to advance on the road to moral perfection who starts
with the accumulated spiritual heritage of righteous ancestors.
S. LEVY, 1905.
* * * * *
THE old Jewish doctrine of the ‘merit of the fathers’ has a
counterpart――the idea that the righteousness of the living child
favourably affects the fate of the dead father. This might be called
the doctrine of the ‘merit of the children’. In this way the living
and the dead hold converse. The real message of the dead is――their
virtue. The real response of the living is again――their virtue. Thus
is a bridge built over the chasm of the tomb. Thus do the hearts of
fathers and children beat in eternal unison.
I. ABRAHAMS, 1919.
THE KADDISH
ITS origin is mysterious; angels are said to have brought it down
from heaven and taught it to men. About this prayer the tenderest
threads of filial feeling and human recollection are entwined; for
it is the prayer of the orphans! When the father or the mother dies,
the surviving sons are to recite it twice daily, morning and evening,
throughout the year of mourning, and then also on each recurring
anniversary of the death――on the _Yahrzeit_.
It possesses wonderful power. Truly, if there is any bond strong and
indissoluble enough to chain heaven to earth, it is this prayer. It
keeps the living together, and forms the bridge to the mysterious realm
of the dead. One might almost say that this prayer is the watchman
and the guardian of the people by whom alone it is uttered; therein
lies the warrant of its continuance. Can a people disappear and be
annihilated so long as a child remembers its parents? It may sound
strange: in the midst of the wildest dissipation has this prayer
recalled to his better self many a dissolute character, so that he has
bethought himself and for a time at least purified himself by honouring
the memory of his parents.
Because this prayer is a resurrection in the spirit of the perishable
in man, because it does not acknowledge death, because it permits
the blossom which, withered, has fallen from the tree of mankind to
flower and develop again in the human heart, therefore it possesses
sanctifying power. To know that when thou diest, the earth falling on
thy head will not cover thee entirely; to know that there remain behind,
those who, wherever they may be on this wide earth, whether they may
be poor or rich, will send this prayer after thee; to know that thou
leavest them no house, no estate, no field by which they must remember
thee, and that yet they will cherish thy memory as their dearest
inheritance――what more satisfying knowledge canst thou ever hope for?
And such is the knowledge bequeathed to us all by the Kaddish.
L. KOMPERT.
* * * * *
THE souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall
touch them. They are in peace. Their hope is full of immortality.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 3. 1, 3, 4.
* * * * *
AND they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament;
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
DANIEL 12. 3.
THE HOLINESS OF HOME
IT is impossible to describe to those who have not experienced it,
the feeling of holy joy which is diffused throughout the humblest
Hebrew home by the solemn repetition of acts which in themselves may
be regarded as mere customs, without vital connexion with the souls
of men. And the particular institution in which it is embodied most
characteristically is that of the Sabbath. I do not know how it has
come about that a ‘Judaic Sabbath’ means a day of austere gloom. As
a matter of fact, it is the one bright spot in the Jewish life. All
is joy and good-humour in the Jewish home on the Friday night, when
Sabbath ‘comes in’. I would attribute a good deal of the difference
between the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath to the seemingly
mechanical difference that the former begins and ends at an hour when
its advent or exit can be solemnized by ceremonial. It is, indeed, to
the Sabbath primarily, and the other home ceremonials which embody the
Hebraic conception of the Holiness of the Home, that we can trace the
remarkable persistence of the Jewish race through the ages.
JOSEPH JACOBS, 1889.
* * * * *
THE patriarchal feeling still lingers about his hearth. A man, however
fallen, who loves his home, is not wholly lost. The trumpet of Sinai
still sounds in the Hebrew ear.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI.
KINDLING THE SABBATH LIGHT
FROM memory’s spring flows a vision to-night,
My mother is kindling and blessing the light;
The light of Queen Sabbath, the heavenly flame,
That one day in seven quells hunger and shame.
My mother is praying and screening her face,
Too bashful to gaze at the Sabbath light’s grace.
She murmurs devoutly, ‘Almighty, be blessed,
For sending Thy angel of joy and of rest.
‘And may as the candles of Sabbath divine
The eyes of my son in Thy Law ever shine.’
Of childhood, fair childhood, the years are long fled:
Youth’s candles are quenched, and my mother is dead.
And yet ev’ry Friday, when twilight arrives,
The face of my mother within me revives;
A prayer on her lips, ‘O Almighty, be blessed,
For sending us Sabbath, the angel of rest.’
And some hidden feeling I cannot control
A Sabbath light kindles deep, deep in my soul.
P. M. RASKIN.
לְכָה דוֹדִי
COME, my beloved, with chorusing praise,
Welcome the Sabbath Bride, Queen of the days.
Sabbath, to welcome thee, joyous we haste;
Fountain of blessing from ever thou wast,
First in God’s planning, though fashioned the last――
Crown of His handiwork, chiefest of days.
City of holiness, filled are the years;
Up from thine overthrow! Forth from thy fears!
Long hast thou dwelt in the valley of tears,
Now shall God’s tenderness shepherd thy ways.
Wake and bestir thee, for come is thy light!
Up! With thy shining the world shall be bright.
Sing! For thy Lord is revealed in His might――
Thine is the splendour His glory displays!
SOLOMON HALEVI ALKABETZ, 16th cent.
(_Trans. S. Solis-Cohen._)
* * * * *
FAR more than Israel has kept the Sabbath, it is the Sabbath that has
kept Israel.
ACHAD HA’AM, 1898.
SABBATH PRAYER
BLESSED be the name of the Sovereign of the universe. Blessed be Thy
crown and Thy abiding-place. Let Thy favour rest with Thy people Israel
for ever: show them the redemption of Thy right hand in Thy holy temple.
Vouchsafe unto us the benign gift of Thy light, and in mercy accept our
supplications. May it be Thy will to prolong our life in well-being.
Let me also be numbered among the righteous, so that Thou mayest be
merciful unto me, and have me in Thy keeping, with all that belong to
me and to Thy people Israel. Thou art He that feedeth and sustaineth
all; Thou art He that ruleth over all; Thou art He that ruleth over
kings, for dominion is Thine. I am the servant of the Holy One, blessed
be He, before whom and before whose glorious Law I prostrate myself at
all times; not in man do I put my trust, nor upon any angel do I rely,
but upon the God of Heaven, who is the God of truth, and whose Law is
truth, and whose prophets are prophets of truth, and who aboundeth in
deeds of goodness and truth. In Him I put my trust, and unto His holy
and glorious name I utter praises. May it be Thy will to open my heart
unto Thy Law, and to fulfil the wishes of my heart and of the hearts of
all Thy people Israel for good, for life, and for peace.
ZOHAR.
THE SABBATH
NOT for us the Sabbath of the quiet streets,
Sabbath, peaceful o’er the world outspread,
Felt where every man his neighbour greets,
Heard in hush of many a slowly passing tread.
Not the robe of silence for our holy day:
Noisy run the worker and the player;
Toil and stir and laughter of the way
Surge around the steps that seek a place of prayer.
Silent we, while through the thronging street and mart
Work-day clamour of the city rolls:
Cloistered inly, from the world apart,
Ours it is to bear the Sabbath in our souls.
NINA SALAMAN, 1918.
PRAYER BEFORE THE NEW MOON
MAY it be Thy will, O Lord our God and the God of our fathers, to renew
unto us this coming month for good and for blessing. O grant us long
life, a life of blessing, of sustenance, of bodily vigour, a life
marked by the fear of Heaven and the dread of sin, a life free from
shame and reproach; a life in which the desires of our heart shall be
fulfilled for good.
May the Holy One, blessed be He, renew it unto us and unto all His
people, the house of Israel, for life and peace, for gladness and joy,
for salvation and consolation; and let us say, Amen.
DAILY PRAYER BOOK.
THE SEDER[64]
FAIR is the twilight,
And fragrant and still:
Little by little
The synagogues fill.
One by one kindle
The night’s gleaming eyes;
Candles in windows
And stars in the skies.
Ended in _Shool_ is
The service divine;
Seder is started
With legends and wine.
Father is blessing
The night of all nights;
All who are hungry
To feast he invites.
‘All who are homeless
Yet masters shall be,
Slaves who are this year――
The next shall be free!’
Children ask ‘questions’,
And father replies;
Playfully sparkle
The wine and the eyes.
Hymns of redemption
All merrily sing;
Queen is each mother,
Each father a king.
Midnight. The Seder
Is come to an end;
Guardian angels
From heaven descend.
Each one a message
Of liberty brings;
Scattering blessings
Of peace from his wings.
P. M. RASKIN.
לֵיל שִׁמּוּרִים
ISRAEL’S WATCH-NIGHT
ISRAEL’S great watch-night dates its origin from the very Deliverance
it was to commemorate through all the coming years. Ah! With what a
delirious impatience did Pharaoh’s slaves await the midnight hour that
was to be at once the knell of Egypt’s tyranny and the joy-note that
announced their own freedom! God Himself had singled it out as the time
for fulfilling His ancient promise――singled it out, as the Rabbins tell
us in hyperbolical language, from the days of creation itself. Too long
had unrighteousness flourished. Too long had God seemed to slumber in
His Heaven; but now He was to show that the cry of the oppressed had
never failed to reach Him, for accumulated wrongs were to be redressed
by a complete and unparalleled deliverance. It was for so signal a
vindication of the Divine justice that this night was reserved. It
was as though the Supreme had set His finger upon this night, in the
almanac of Heaven, and declared: This shall witness the long-deferred
triumph of Right over Might; this shall tell for all time that I am
the Lord, that I reign, and that righteousness and justice are the
foundation of My throne, the principles on which I govern My world.
This night shall show to all coming generations that it is only the
fool who says in his heart ‘There is no God’; that the earthly despot
who pursues his career of cruelty, thinking that he has only his
victims’ tears to reckon with, is deluding himself to his own ruin.
And is this truth not worth treasuring in these latter days? Often
does God seem to hide Himself, to have deserted earth and shut Himself
up in Heaven. It is the souls of the meek and the faithful from which
humanity’s tears are distilled, from which the painful chorus of
a world’s lament goes up, and seemingly up in vain. But the lesson
taught to Pharaoh and to Israel on that awful, that joyous night of
deliverance, is still a living lesson; not one jot of its force is
abated. God neither slumbers nor sleeps. He watches ever. Not one sigh
passes unrecorded in the Heavenly Volume.
MORRIS JOSEPH, 1893.
PASSOVER AND FREEDOM