endeavor to establish the thoughts and lessons to be deduced from the
course of Jewish history.
Above all, Jewish history possesses the student with the conviction
that Jewry at all times, even in the period of political independence,
was pre-eminently a spiritual nation, and a spiritual nation it
continues to be in our own days, too. Furthermore, it inspires him
with the belief that Jewry, being a spiritual entity, cannot suffer
annihilation: the body, the mold, may be destroyed, the spirit is
immortal. Bereft of country and dispersed as it is, the Jewish nation
lives, and will go on living, because a creative principle permeates
it, a principle that is the root of its being and an indigenous
product of its history. This principle consists first in a sum of
definite religious, moral, or philosophic ideals, whose exponent at
all times was the Jewish people, either in its totality, or in the
person of its most prominent representatives. Next, this principle
consists in a sum of historical memories, recollections of what in the
course of many centuries the Jewish people experienced, thought, and
felt, in the depths of its being. Finally, it consists in the
consciousness that true Judaism, which has accomplished great things
for humanity in the past, has not yet played out its part, and,
therefore, may not perish. In short, the Jewish people lives because
it contains a living soul which refuses to separate from its
integument, and cannot be forced out of it by heavy trials and
misfortunes, such as would unfailingly inflict mortal injury upon less
sturdy organisms.
This self-consciousness is the source from which the suffering Jewish
soul draws comfort. History speaks to it constantly through the mouth
of the great apostle who went forth from the midst of Israel eighteen
hundred years ago: "Call to remembrance the former days, in which,
after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings;
partly, being made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions;
and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used.... Cast
not away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of
reward" (Epistle to the Hebrews, x, 32-34, 35).
Jewish history, moreover, arouses in the Jew the desire to work
unceasingly at the task of perfecting himself. To direct his attention
to his glorious past, to the resplendent intellectual feats of his
ancestors, to their masterly skill in thinking and suffering, does not
lull him to sleep, does not awaken a dullard's complacency or hollow
self-conceit. On the contrary, it makes exacting demands upon him.
Jewish history admonishes the Jews: "_Noblesse oblige_. The
privilege of belonging to a people to whom the honorable title of the
'veteran of history' has been conceded, puts serious responsibilities
on your shoulders. You must demonstrate that you are worthy of your
heroic past. The descendants of teachers of religion and martyrs of
the faith dare not be insignificant, not to say wicked. If the long
centuries of wandering and misery have inoculated you with faults,
extirpate them in the name of the exalted moral ideals whose bearers
you were commissioned to be. If, in the course of time, elements out
of harmony with your essential being have fastened upon your mind,
cast them out, purify yourselves. In all places and at all times, in
joy and and in sorrow, you must aim to live for the higher, the
spiritual interests. But never may you deem yourselves perfect. If you
become faithless to these sacred principles, you sever the bonds that
unite you with the most vital elements of your past, with the first
cause of your national existence."
The final lesson to be learned is that in the sunny days of mankind's
history, in which reason, justice, and philanthropic instinct had the
upper hand, the Jews steadfastly made common cause with the other
nations. Hand in hand with them, they trod the path leading to
perfection. But in the dark days, during the reign of rude force,
prejudice, and passion, of which they were the first victims, the Jews
retired from the world, withdrew into their shell, to await better
days. Union with mankind at large, on the basis of the spiritual and
the intellectual, the goal set up by the Jewish Prophets in their
sublime vision of the future (Isaiah, ch. ii, and Micah, ch. iv), is
the ultimate ideal of Judaism's noblest votaries. Will their radiant
hope ever attain to realization? If ever it should be realized,--and
it is incumbent upon us to believe that it will,--not a slight part of
the merits involved will be due to Jewish history. We have adverted to
the lofty moral and humanitarian significance of Jewish history in its
role as conciliator. With regard to one-half of Jewish history, this
conciliatory power is even now a well-established fact. The first part
of Jewish history, the Biblical part, is a source from which, for many
centuries, millions of human beings belonging to the most diverse
denominations have derived instruction, solace, and inspiration. It is
read with devotion by Christians in both hemispheres, in their houses
and their temples. Its heroes have long ago become types, incarnations
of great ideas. The events it relates serve as living ethical
formulas. But a time will come--perhaps it is not very far off--when
the second half of Jewish history, the record of the two thousand
years of the Jewish people's life after the Biblical period, will be
accorded the same treatment. This latter part of Jewish history is not
yet known, and many, in the thrall of prejudice, do not wish to know
it. But ere long it will be known and appreciated. For the thinking
portion of mankind it will be a source of uplifting moral and
philosophical teaching. The thousand years' martyrdom of the Jewish
people, its unbroken pilgrimage, its tragic fate, its teachers of
religion, its martyrs, philosophers, champions, this whole epic will
in days to come sink deep into the memory of men. It will speak to the
heart and the conscience of men, not merely to their curious mind. It
will secure respect for the silvery hair of the Jewish people, a
people of thinkers and sufferers. It will dispense consolation to the
afflicted, and by its examples of spiritual steadfastness and
self-denial encourage martyrs in their devotion. It is our firm
conviction that the time is approaching in which the second half of
Jewish history will be to the noblest part of _thinking_ humanity
what its first half has long been to _believing_ humanity, a
source of sublime moral truths. In this sense, Jewish history in its
entirety is the pledge of the spiritual union between the Jews and the
rest of the nations.