_Before the Yale Menorah Society, October 14, 1914_
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IT is a great pleasure for me to speak to the Menorah Society, and a
double pleasure when I see beside me the Menorah emblem, the emblem of
light, "the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual
grace." Jewish history is embodied in a great literature, and a
literature which is worthy of deep and earnest study. It is the common
heritage of all mankind, and should be studied by every man who lays
claim to culture and education.
By studying the literature of the Jewish race, men at Yale and
elsewhere can do a great work for the learning and for the inspiration
of our country; especially can this Society do a noble and inspiring
work. History is in large measure made by the study of the literatures
of ancient races. What was it that waked Europe during the dark ages
from her apathy and ignorance but the discovery and the revival of the
Greek and Latin classics by enthusiastic scholars? In the various
centres of learning at the end of what we call the "dark ages," we
find groups of earnest young men devoting themselves to this study,
and in these groups we find the influence which roused Europe from her
period of intellectual torpor.
Classics are the literatures which thus make history; which serve the
needs of all peoples, voicing truths of universal application. And
though it is to the Greek and Latin that the name classics has been
often confined, yet the Hebrew classics are being recognized more and
more as worthy of a place beside if not above them. Interest in the
Jewish classics never utterly perished. Throughout all ages the
theologian kept alive his interest in those writings; but there is
something of more than mere professional interest in these studies,
something which closely touches every man's development and
experience.
It is not for me to attempt to say what these writings mean to
humanity. Biblical writings are far above any individual praise. But I
may with propriety say the reading of the Hebrew writings in English
has meant much to me personally. As a boy I read fewer books than do
youngsters of the present day, and among them the Bible was one of
extraordinary interest. I read the Psalms and Isaiah as wonderful
poetry, and turned to the Bible as to a storehouse of historical
literature.
Hebrew history has been of great importance in the early history of
our country. The early settlement in America was due to the same
causes as the settlement of Canaan by the Hebrews. To the Pilgrim
Fathers the Old Testament was a supporting hand and a guide for them
in all matters. They took the Jewish theocracy as their model of
government and, in the measure that they patterned after a good model,
they achieved good results. So largely are the early history and
institutions of the United States a copy of Jewish institutions that
the spirit of the American people both before and after the Revolution
cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of Hebrew literature.
These early settlers were imbued with spirit and desire for the best
in life by reading the Bible. It was their one book, and "a man of one
book makes a strong man." And perhaps it is the Old Testament rather
than the New Testament the knowledge of which is of greater
consequence for the best understanding of the peculiar conditions of
the early American people.
Therefore I welcome your Society first because it represents something
which has done much for learning in our great centres of learning, the
universities; and second, because as Americans, Jewish history means
much to us in understanding the early development of our own country.