E-text prepared by Chuck Greif
A GUIDE FOR THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF JEWISH YOUTH.
Proposed to Teachers by
ISAAC REGGIO,
Rabbi and Professor, Member of the Oriental and Leipsic, Halle,
etc., etc., etc.
Translated from the Italian by M. H. Picciotto.
London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.,
Stationers'--Hall Court.
MDCCCLV.
London: Printed by J. Wertheimer and Co.
SYNOPSIS.
Notice by the Translator.
Author's Preface.
CHAPTER I.
GOD.
1. His existence. Cosmological argument.
2. First Cause, necessary, eternal.
3. Omnipotent, free, provident, omniscient, infallible.
4. All-wise, good, pure, immutable.
5. God.
6. Psychological argument.
7. Moral argument.
CHAPTER II.
MAN.
8. His faculties.
9. His destination.
10. Intellect.
11. Reason.
12. Free will.
13. Immortal soul.
14. Double tendency.
15. Contrast.
16. Choice.
17. Conscience.
18. Feeling.
CHAPTER III.
NATURAL RELIGION.
19. Idea of religion.
20. Necessity for man.
21. Faith.
CHAPTER IV.
INSUFFICIENCY OF NATURAL RELIGION.
22. Obstacles.
23. Tardy development of reason.
24. Ascendancy of sensuality.
25. Want of opportunity.
26. Social life.
27. Internal anarchy.
28. Limitation of human understanding.
29. Uncertainty of human knowledge.
30. Experience.
31. Necessity of a revelation.
CHAPTER V.
REVEALED RELIGION.
32. Its actuality.
33. Its truth.
34. Its fundamental principle.
35. Relation between God and man.
36. Divine plan.
37. Essence of revelation.
38. Lofty aspiration of man.
39. Prophecy.
40. Prediction of the future.
CHAPTER VI.
OBJECTION AND ANSWER.
41. Rationalism antagonistic to faith.
42. Self-love in the physical world.
43. Self-love in man.
44. Heroism of man.
45. Proceeding from love.
46. Is the cause of faith.
47. Is not the offspring of imagination
48. Depends on the subjection of the sensual appetites.
49. Furnishes evidence to faith.
CHAPTER VII.
PRELIMINARY DISPOSITIONS OF REVELATION.
50. Contingency in revelation.
51. Its removal.
52. Choice of a portion of mankind.
53. Beginning from an individual.
54. Election of that individual.
CHAPTER VIII.
PATRIARCHAL EPOCH.
55. Abraham.
56. His virtues.
57. Aim of his vocation.
58. Covenant established with him.
59. Circumcision.
60. Abraham's progeny.
61. Providential measures.
CHAPTER IX.
SINAITIC REVELATION.
62. Egyptian bondage. Moses.
63. Preamble of the revelation.
64. Modality of the revelation
65. Decalogue.
CHAPTER X.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
66. First Commandment,
67. Second,
68. Third,
69. Fourth,
70. Fifth,
71. Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth,
72. Ninth.
73. Tenth.
CHAPTER XI.
SUCCESSIVE REVELATIONS.
74. Their character.
76. Their twofold direction.
75. Their sanction.
CHAPTER XII.
REVEALED NOTIONS RESPECTING GOD.
77. Knowledge of God.
78. Opportunity of such a knowledge.
79. Immediate relation between God and man.
80. Love of God.
81. Fear of God.
82. Other duties towards God.
CHAPTER XIII.
DUTIES TOWARDS FELLOW-MEN.
83. Justice.
84. Negative duties.
85. Positive duties.
86. Other duties.
87. Charity and benevolence.
88. Duties toward the animate and inanimate nature.
CHAPTER XIV.
DUTIES TOWARDS ONE'S-SELF.
89. Fundamental rule.
91. Sanctification.
90. Duties towards the body.
92. Other special obligations.
CHAPTER XV.
JUDAISM.
93. Religious idea.
94. Its vicissitudes among the Jews.
95. Mosaism.
96. Prophetism.
CHAPTER XVI.
CONCLUSION.
97. Action, creed, hopes.
NOTICE.
THE name of Isaac Reggio of Goritz, is now a celebrity in the Hebrew
literary world. A man of vast mind, a profound scholar, a philosopher,
and an elegant writer, his numerous works on Theology, Hermeneutics,
Philology, History, and Literature, written in Hebrew, in Italian, and
in German, have tended much to revive the taste for Hebrew literature,
and to reconcile modern education to the study of Jewish antiquities.
The present little book is one of his latest productions in the Italian
language. In a style at once concise and perspicuous, and with a form of
reasoning suited to the scientific requirements of the times, he
introduces the student to an enlarged view of Religion, ascends with him
to the heavenly source from which it emanated, and leads him, through
the paths of virtue and love, to the comprehension and admiration of the
objects contemplated by it. In short, he teaches--if I am permitted the
expression--_the philosophy of religion_.
I humbly, but firmly believe that, in the hands of able Jewish teachers,
this work will considerably assist them to infuse into religious
instruction a little more spirituality, and to impart a more
comprehensive view of religion, than the routine of former days deemed
necessary, and that, by so doing, they will be better able to enlarge
and satisfy the minds, improve the hearts, and generally advance the
moral education of youth.
Notwithstanding the well-intentioned and beneficial efforts of many
friends of education among the British Jews, and the praiseworthy
exertions of some excellent teachers, the education of the mass is, we
must confess, still in a condition, in which the attainment of those
objects has not ceased to be a desideratum. We may or may not be on a
level with our neighbours, but we have very urgent and special calls of
our own for self-improvement, we have a particular mission to fulfil,
with its concomitant duties. Such self-improvement and such duties are
demanded by the spirit--not of _the age_, as is too commonly said and
believed--but of an age which began thirty-two centuries ago, at the
revelation on Mount Sinai--the spirit of Judaism, of well-understood
Judaism. Our age, with all its boasted and undeniable progress, is
still, morally, far below the type designed by Providence for humanity
in the Sinaitic dispensation, far behind the spirit which dictated and
pervades the pages of the sacred volume, and which, when thoroughly
understood and generally acted upon, must bring about the supreme reign
of justice, charity, and universal love, and--as far as attainable--the
ultimate perfection of mankind.
It has appeared to me that these truths find a plain and logical
exposition in this little work, and that its contents may not prove
uninteresting even to the general reader. I also believe that a more
correct apprehension of the true spirit and principles of Judaism by our
Christian brethren, than is commonly arrived at, will have the twofold
effect, of gradually leading to a larger measure of justice being dealt
to the Jew, and inducing the latter to a higher degree of self-respect.
For these several reasons, I have volunteered to translate it for the
use of the English public, while other versions are being prepared in
Germany and France. I trust that those to whose lot has fallen the
honourable but arduous task of educating and informing young minds, and
to whom it is more particularly addressed, will give it their earnest
consideration, for the sake of whatever good they may cull from it, as a
material in aid, while they are laying the foundations of virtue in the
hearts of the rising generation.
That the results may correspond to the intentions is the sincere wish of
THE TRANSLATOR.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
TO INSTRUCTORS.
IN the exercise of the sacred mission entrusted to you by
Providence--that of educating our youth to piety and religion--it must
have frequently occurred to you, to wish that such an instruction could
be imparted, not in the shape of dogmas demanding to be admitted without
investigation, but as doctrines addressed to the intellect by proper
demonstrations, and finding their way to the heart by stimulating its
noblest feelings. The little book that I present to you is intended to
satisfy, at least in part, that wish. You will not find in it a complete
treatise on Jewish Theology, or a systematic catechism, but only the
essential elements, which may serve to the future elaboration of both.
You will find deposited in it the rough materials, which some abler
hands will perhaps one day employ in constructing an edifice, in which
our youth may find a safe refuge from the storms of doubt, unbelief, and
irreligion. I have purposed to avoid all exuberant ornaments of style,
all pompous parade of erudition, and contented myself with a plain
diction, and a strict laconism. I have not quoted authors who preceded
me in the same field; I have not called up for investigation what of
valuable or defective could be found in them; in short, I have not
instituted comparisons, scientific disquisitions, or critical
examinations of the opinions of others. A series of aphorisms, simple,
plain, unadorned, of easy understanding, drawn from no other source than
the Divine Word, presented with the greatest possible perspicuity and
precision, progressing in a regular chain of consequential propositions,
and containing in few words the most important points of the Israelitish
creed--that is the form in which I have thought more proper to present
to those, who are already versed in the Bible and in Hebrew literature,
a skeleton of the vast religious science, in which they may perceive at
a glance the principal characteristic of Judaism, its various
ramifications, subsidiary parts, and special tendencies; they may then
easily discover and account for the multifarious phases, in which it
manifested itself in the various epochs of the universal history of
mankind. To supply the deficiencies, to adorn those naked propositions,
to provide them with evidence deduced from the sacred text, to enlarge
them with appropriate applications, to illustrate them with examples, in
fine, to reduce the whole into such a catechistic form as will suit a
sound system of instruction--such is the task which remains entrusted to
your intelligence, and to your zeal. By employing the proffered
materials with that discretion which is peculiar to your ministry, with
that method which the tender minds of your pupils require, and with the
love inspired by the sublimity and importance of the subject, yours will
be the merit of having propagated the seeds of truth that will bring
forth charity and universal edification; to me suffices the happiness of
having, in some degree, contributed to so noble a work.
A GUIDE FOR THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF JEWISH YOUTH.
CHAPTER I.
I. WHOEVER directs his mind to the contemplation of the objects that
surround him, the aggregate of which is called the universe, will soon
perceive, that the parts of which it is composed undergo continually
various modifications and successive changes, every one of them
exercising some influence on the others, and receiving from them some
alteration. This state of mutual dependence, in which the parts of the
universe stand in relation to each other, leads us necessarily to
conclude, that none of them has within itself the reason or cause of its
existence, but that all of them together depend upon a cause which is
out of themselves, and through which they began to exist; the universe,
then, has had a cause, an Author.
II. This Author of the universe, if he had not in himself the reason of
his existence, must also have it in others, and these again in others.
Consequently, we must either suppose an endless progression of causes
and effects, which is repugnant to reason, or arrive at last at a Being
existing by and of himself,--that is to say, one who owes not his
existence to others, and has caused all other things to exist;--and in
that case, the reason of his existence must be part of his _own_ essence
and nature, and, consequently, inseparable from him and indestructible.
The Author of the universe is then a Being necessary and eternal; and as
to Him all things owe their existence, it follows that through Him they
began to exist, and He created them from nought.
III. He, who could create all from nought, has a power without limits,
and nothing is to Him impossible; He, who has given existence to all
things, has also ordained the laws to which they are subject; He, who
has ordained at His will the laws of nature, has also the power of
changing or suspending them at His will; and lastly, He, who caused all
things to exist, can alone keep them in existence, governing and
directing them with ceaseless providence; and such continual action
implies, of necessity, that He should know everything, that nothing
should be hidden from Him, and that in Him error should be impossible.
The Author of the universe is then omnipotent, free, all-provident,
omniscient, and infallible.
IV. Again, whoever attentively contemplates the universe cannot help
discovering, with admiration, in every part of it a stupendous art, a
constant order, a systematic correspondence of means to ends, which
demonstrate that all has been arranged on a predetermined plan and for a
fixed purpose, to which all the particular dispositions developed in the
course of the natural phenomena are exquisitely adapted. This order and
this harmony--which manifest themselves, also, in all the progressive
courses of nature--indicate a self-developing excellence, and a tendency
to an ever-increasing perfectibility, such as can only emanate from a
cause infinitely intelligent and good; and as such qualities cannot be
attributed to a being corporeal, because limited and subject to changes,
it follows that the Author of the universe is all-wise and good, pure
and immutable.
V. Now, this Being, necessary and eternal, whom the contemplation of the
universe alone reveals to us as the Author of everything, as omnipotent,
free, all-provident, omniscient, infallible, pure, immutable, all-wise,
and good, is He whom we call GOD.
VI. But our conviction of the existence of God need not be derived
exclusively from the wonders of the universe; for every man can find in
himself the evident proof of the existence of that supreme cause. In
fact, man feels within himself that he thinks; and if he were even to
doubt it, he could not deny that at least he doubts; and the doubt
itself is already a thought. Admitting that he possesses the faculty of
thinking, he must admit that there is within himself a substance, a
being, a something which thinks. But this being, who is conscious of his
own thoughts, is also conscious that he exists not by himself, that he
has not existed from all eternity, that he is subject to changes, that
even the simple ideas, which compose his thoughts, are not produced by
himself, but acquired through his senses from external objects; and, in
short, that he depends upon various causes placed without himself, and
undergoes vicissitudes, which it is not in his power to remove.
Therefore man has not within himself the reason of his own existence,
but he must trace it to another, who is the Author of it. Now, this
Author cannot have received His own existence from another, if He is to
be considered the primary cause; otherwise we should fall into a
succession of causes and effects to infinity. Then, the true Author of
our existence is one who exists by Himself, and as such He is eternal,
omnipotent, all-wise, etc., etc.; He is God.
VII. Another source, affording the proof of the existence of God, man
finds in himself when his intellectual faculties have attained a certain
degree of culture and maturity. He then knows himself to be a moral
being; that is to say, a being who, placed between good and evil, can,
of his own free will, adhere to the former and reject the latter, if he
follows the dictates of his reason. Then the moral sense awakens in his
mind the idea of a supreme blessing, of a progressive and infallible
moral perfection, of a future final accord between virtue and felicity,
and their necessary co-existence. Now, he cannot expect this supreme
blessing from anything that surrounds him in nature, because he does not
find in the latter the desired union of happiness with virtue, enjoyment
with merit. He must, therefore, seek it in a Supreme Cause existing out
of nature--in a Cause which should contain in itself the type of the
moral law, embrace the whole extent of that law with infinite
intelligence, and act up to its dictates with a powerful will. This
Supreme Cause is God.