The days of religious wars have gone. The Inquisition is dead and
theocracy is dying even at Tibet. The modern man, be he Gentile or
Jew, no longer thinks _more theologico_ as in the Middle Ages, but
rather _more sociologico_. The time when a given religious dogma, a
categorical philosophic principle, or some definite spiritual force
was the driving power in history is far gone. Law and order in our
political and social life are not derived from books and principles,
but from life itself. Any attempt to return to the status quo ante
1789, is an assault on modern civilization, an attempt to re-establish
theocracy in its various forms.
In the life of our own people the process of secularization is going
on with the same rapidity as in the life of any other nation. Within
five decades we have created a secular literature in Hebrew as well as
in the other languages spoken by Jews, and all the forms of our modes
of life, public as well as private, have gone through the process of
secularization. Even the modern orthodox Jew, who observes all laws and
rituals, differs quite in his disposition of mind from the orthodox Jew
of the seventeenth or eighteenth century. In worldly affairs he is a
man of his time and thinks in the terms of his time. To the credit of
our people be it said that they have understood how to adapt themselves
to the conditions of the time.
It often happened that during the process of adaptation, Jews lost
their way and became separated from their people, but the bulk of
the nation has passed through the crisis caused by the process of
transition and made itself at home in the new conditions without
disintegration.
Though fanatics have profaned the tombstone of Maimonides by writing
on it: "Infidel and Heretic," Judaism ratified the peace which
Maimonides concluded in its behalf with Aristotelianism. All the hue
and cry against Maimonides was in the end of no avail, because at that
time the deed of Maimonides was a step forward towards progress. At
a time when the Roman Catholic Church fought Copernicus and Galileo
no representatives of Judaism participated in this fight, though the
Synagogue had an older historic reason to oppose Copernicus than had
the Roman Catholic Church.
In short, Judaism has never resisted real progress and has always
known how to make peace with the tendencies and currents of the time
without weakening its own position. As it has reconciled itself to new
conditions in the past so today it is making peace with the tendencies
of our own time. Separation of state from church and the overthrow
of theocracy and secularization of life are strong currents in our
contemporaneous history. In the life of our people, these tendencies of
the time have taken the form of nationalism and Zionism. Neither mean
alienation from the religion of our ancestors, as many misled rabbis
argue, but only imply that the Jewish religion has a definite place in
Jewish life, but cannot and should not rule our lives altogether.
This is a general human tendency which we should not and ought not
oppose; unfortunately, there are leading Jews who deem it their duty
to resist the forces of progress and to display medievalism at the
expense of our people and its prestige, and to the exclusion of all
modern and intellectual forces. This resistance we find represented in
two schools of thought, in the school of _old-fashioned Reform_ and in
that of the _semi-nationalistic spiritualism_. The representatives of
the one school argue that we are only a spiritual people and that we
are violating the spirit of Judaism if we strive to become a secular
people. The others do not go so far, but they also maintain that Jewish
nationalism is above all spiritual in nature and that, if Jewish
nationalism has a duty to perform, this duty consists in establishing
a Jewish _spiritual_ centre in Palestine. Both schools of thought may
be characterized as utterly reactionary, because they imply that we
should stand still, where humanity stood two or three hundred years
ago; that we should continue to submit to the law of the book instead
of submitting to the law of life, and that we should continue to live
as a spiritual people and give spiritualism the first place, while the
basis of present day civilization is secular in nature.
With regard to the philosophy of Judaism as represented by
old-fashioned Reform, it suffices to remember that every people on
earth had a period in its history when it considered itself a spiritual
people. And to the present day every civilized people firmly and
sincerely believes that it has a special mission to perform. The author
of "Oraisons Funèbres" formulated such a spiritual mission for the
French, Fichte did it for the Germans, and Katkov for the Russians.
But neither the French nor the Germans nor the Russian people clung
to their mission-theory. While appreciating these spiritual values,
they have outgrown spiritualism as the all embracing guide of the
nation's life and have settled down to work out their salvation in a
very prosaic and profane way. Either the Jewish people are subject to
the laws of historic progress, and then we have to keep pace with that
historical progress, or else we miraculously form an exception to the
rule and laws of history--we are an island in the ocean of life--and
then we ought to be today what we were two, three, five or twelve
hundred years ago.
Reform Judaism of today is surely not the Judaism of the year 1700 or
1500. It is a modern Judaism adapted to modern life. The same Jews,
who are arguing that we cannot give up spiritualism as the prime
factor of Jewish life and that we cannot stick to the old conception
of Judaism, have deemed it advisable to introduce reforms into a field
of Judaism that was considered the very stronghold of spiritualism in
the Jewish religion. That is where the contradiction and confusion come
in. So far as religion is concerned, these reformers conform to the
requirements of the time, but on the other hand they still cling to
the spiritualistic supremacy in Jewish life, to the theory of Israel's
mission, as if they were Jews of the seventeenth century.
Either Judaism cannot undergo a change and must remain what it always
was--and then reform is unjustifiable--or Judaism can adapt itself to
modern life and make peace with the tendencies of the time--and then
why stick to the fictitious supremacy of the spiritual side of Judaism?
No less contradictory and confusing is the philosophy of the other
school of thought that preaches spiritual nationalism as the only
solution of the Jewish question. If spiritualism is no longer the prime
factor in life, and if it is no longer in a position to maintain its
hold on the peoples of the earth as it did in the days gone by when
men thought _more theologico_, how can it hold its grip on the Jewish
people? And how can a purely spiritual centre even in Palestine answer
the Jewish question?
Did Mecca, the centre of Mohamedan spiritualism, prevent the conquest
of Egypt, Morocco, Tunis and Tripoli by the Christian nations? (And
Mecca is the spiritual centre not of a people of fourteen but of a
religious community of two hundred millions.)
Despite Mecca and despite the pan-Islamic movement, the holy war
proclaimed by the Caliph two years ago was a failure. Instead of a
united Islam we have today an independent Mecca, an Egypt that is loyal
to England, and an Algeria and a Morocco that are loyal to France.
If Mecca could not contain Islam politically and could not save the
Islamitic nations from being conquered, how could a much smaller Jewish
_spiritual_ centre in Palestine save the Jewish people politically and
nationally? This is the question which we would like to submit to these
"spiritual" nationalists.
These Neo-Ahad-Ha'amists are by no means better than the adherents
of old-fashioned Reform; both cling to the spiritualistic supremacy
in Jewish life, and both oppose the necessary gradual secularization
of Judaism. Both would have us stand still, or, if possible, draw us
back to a medievalism that has no room in modern life, and both are
reactionaries in the full meaning of the term. They are our "dark
forces" and the time seems very near when we will have to rise against
both and overcome them. There is reason to fear that in the hour of
fate they will put obstacles in the way of our redemption.