Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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M ASMID 25 Torah-true Judaism, as he prefers to call it. Describing eloquently the tragedy of the mod- ern man — during the week he is a mere ma- chine, on Sunday he attempts to escape his worries by giving himself up to violent pleas- ures — the rabbi continues: ... a restless week is followed by a restless Sunday, an exciting Sunday by a hard week, and the strain of our vital forces becomes tremendous. The Jews in the Torah have been given a day of rest that is different from any other day of rest . . . On the Sabbath, the Torah-true Jew not only rests but he is free from the strain of the mechanical devices of industry. The superficial mind considers it ludicrous that we are forbidden to press an electric but- ton on the Sabbath, to answer the telephone, to write, to ride, to buy, to handle money. All these prohibitions, they feel, in modern times, should be done away with. These ob- jectors do not realize th3 tremendous protec- tion afforded us by these strict enactments. On the Sabbath, by reason of these strict laws, the Jew is freed from the life-destroy- ing strain which modern industrial life has put upon him. On Shabbos, the Jew has a neshama yethera, an extra soul which re- vitalizes his heart and mind. It is a day which affords his creative genius opportunity for reassertion of hopes and aspirations. After presenting the Jewish conception of marriage and of social justice, he proceeds to discuss the Jewish Question. Here he makes a statement which so remarkably expresses the attitude of all traditional Jews and which has been their rock throughout the ages: Anti- Semitism, intolerance, are Gentile problems. Ours is the task to raise Jewry to the heights of Judaism. Other high-lights of the series are the fas- cinating chapter by the Reverend Dr. Gaster on the Romance of the Hebrew Alphabet, The Ccntrality of Palestine in Jewish Life by Dr. David De Sola Pool, Faith and Science by Dr. Moses L. Isaacs, Schechita by Dr. M. S. Lieber, a summary of Bachya ' s Duties of the Heart by the Rev. E. Collins, Scientific Aspects of the Jewish Dietary Laws by Dr. D. I. Macht, and the genial application of judicial reasoning to The Great Preamble — a Rereading of Genesis by Prof. Nathan Isaacs of Harvard University. The Jewish Library is doing fine service in disseminating the orthodox ideal in Amer- ican Jewry. Let us hope that it will grow. The powers of Orthodoxy in this country and abroad have by far not yet been exhaust- ed. If these essays will be backed by activity in the field of propagating tradition, Judaism may yet come to its own even in this coun- try. Mr. LEWISOHN ' S VIEW ON MARRIAGE STEPHEN ESCOTT By LUDWIG Lewisohn By Louis Barishnikoff STEPHEN ESCOTT, a psychological novel, treats of the much-discussed problem of sex relations with a deep penetrating vision, an idealistic temperament and a humane spirit. The discussions are never marred by platitudes or slovenliness. The language is frank and emphatic: always vivid and stimulating to both the emotion and the mind. Lewisohn casts an all-embracing commen- tary on modern love and marriage in the form of a story told by Stephen Escott. Stephen Escott is an American youth brought up by parents to whom sex is asso- ciated with filth and sin. Because of his de- sire for sexual satisfaction, Escott, falls in love with Dorothy, a girl who typifies Amer- ican young womanhood. Stephen deifies her. He makes romantic love to her in the solitude of his walks and dreams. He thinks at once of the possibilities of marriage, and soon casts his sail on the high sea of matrimony. The Escott marriage assumes on the sur- face a countenance of contentment. Theirs is apparently a pleasant home and there are children: but husband and wife are miser- able. The man takes refuge in sensual dreams, the women in bitterness which turns to ill- ness. She is always pale, quiet and down- trodden, and has about her a certain dignified pathos. She cannot resign herself to the de- gradation to which the holy institution of marriage has been debased. She fears all thought of the biological consequences mar- riage involves — not because she is revolution- ary, but because she is pure, frail and modest. She despises Mrs. Sampson, the Jewess, who is plump and pregnant. She cannot bear her jollity and calm acceptance of everything ne- gative marriage offers. Mrs. Escott does not complain much to Stephen. She is. however, sad and sullen and does not realize that her sad-eyed silence must be acutely irritating to Stephen. We become aware of his feelings at her death. He immediately goes in search of Beatrice, a woman who can offer him physical delight and sensual satisfaction.

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24 M ASM I D True. Dr. Silver is rather conservative in his v iews. He upholds the old morality, the stability of marriage, and opposes unreason- able change . (Whom would the doctor trust to discriminate between what is reason- able and what is not?) His conservatism, however, is based, not on faith and tradi- tion, but on his own experience and reason- ing. Yet such basis is a very weak one for religion. For there is no earthly reason why others should not try to see things for them- selves, and thus reach conclusions other than those entertained by the rabbi. There are times, too, when his logic may be contested. He assumes, for instance, that any de- parture from the traditional conception of our attitude toward G-d, of human relation- ship, of our purpose in life, has the only al- ternative of regarding life as a comedy or a tragedy or a farce. Such attitudes, he conti- nues, fail to inspire men to become builders of the earth, teachers, prophets, fashioners of new truth and new beauty. These state- ments are contradicted by fact. Artists, poets, social reformers, need not always subscribe to the doctrines of any one established reli- gion. Devotion to humanity and to human happiness may be independent of one ' s reli- gious convictions. Dr. Silver, moreover, never mentions the Jewish religion. He always speaks of reli- gion in general, in essence. The doctor, no doubt, had his own reasons for doing this. Yet we cannot help being reminded that this is characteristic of all reformed Jews. These Jews prefer to be cosmopolitan in their re- ligion. Let there be no mistake about the matter. Had they been called Episcopalians or Baptists, they would have boasted of their particularism. Judaism, however, smacks of Eastern Europeans, of the undesirable and the inferior race; tactful people avoid the use of such provoking terms. That from such tactfulness there is but one step to- wards assimilation is more than evident. In contrast, the Jewish Library is written by men thoroughly conscious and proud of their Jcwishncss. They are burning with en- thusiasm towards everything that is Jewish. Such attitude, it has never been doubted, is the only safe course in preserving Judaism. Again, faith and tradition are frankly ac- cepted and are merely shown to have worked well and to be superior to all possible substi- tutes. Religion is thus an impregnable fac- tor in both preserving order and raising the spiritual standards of the people. In a sound and wholesome style. Dr. Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, expounds the constructive forces of the Fun- damental Ideals and Proclamations of Juda- ism. He shows how the idea of the unity G-d is bound with right living and with the ulti- mate hopes of humanity. Polytheism broke the unity of man; it gave religious sanction to the foulest practices . . . Ethical monothe- ism is Messianic. Righteousness, it proclaims, is a cosmic force; and. consequently, what ought to be, must be and will be. He cites the emphasis that Judaism has laid upon the proper upbringing of children, upon the affection between children and parents, and upon the freedom of. and reverence for. women. The Oral Law, he states, forms the soul of Judaism, and gives it individuality and uniqueness among the living faiths of men. In contrasting the traditional mode of living with Modern Life. he points to the danger that the latter may bring upon humanity. ... we must not forget that modern life tends to the destruction of the family, the cheapening of human life, the loss of all belief in absolute values, be they of religion or of morality. Mankind. Juda- ism holds, does not live in a world of ideas only. Men and women, as we know them, cannot dispense with symbols that give tan- gibility to ideas, etc. One of the features that commend the Jew- ish Library, is that it is written by a number of authors, each one contributing his own in- dividuality. This not only offers variety, bul also points out in a very real manner that Judaism may suit personalities of diverse types. As a result we have the exactness and clarity of a mind like Dr. Jung ' s, the editor of the series, projected in his essay on What Is Orthodox Judaism. ' ' In a succint style he compresses into a few paragraphs what Orthodox Judaism offers to Jews both as in- dividuals and as a nation. He then deals with the modern problems that face Orthodoxy, or

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26 M ASMID In Beatrice. Lewisohn offers a symbolical study of woman ' s position when she has separated herself from the herd. She does not marry because she refuses to be dominated by man. She drives love back to its purely physiological limits. Love in the higher sense has no place in her life. Thus she may play, but must forget. Love fills only a brief hour in her life while her other hours are passed without tenderness, solicitude, companion- ship or affection. She is driven from situa- tion to situation not by her strength, but by her weakness, not by her crude power but by her spiritual and emotional impotence. Es- cott fails to extract any contentment from his companionship with Beatrice and settles into a life of resignation. Escott ' s friend and law-partner, David Sampson is blest by a happy marriage which has been made and kept perfect by acts of will rather than by gook luck which most people regard as the cause of happiness in marriage. Escott ' s and Sampson ' s practice as divorce lawyers brings them into touch with many phases of American marriage. Escott ' s under- standing ripens with his practice, under David ' s wise counsel. The last cause handled by the firm is the defense of Paul Gordon for the murder of his wife ' s lover. Gordon ' s wife has been for him the fulfillment of a yearning for beauty. From his passion for her his poetry has sprung. Incapable of such love, she allows herself to be seduced into a love affair with a man who will take any- thing brief and cheap. In defense of his poetic ideals of love, Gordon kills him. Lewisohn thus indicates that passion, romance and adventure of love are being grossly overestimated and that this age, with its curious psychical cross-currents and its un- happy competition between the sexes, is espe- cially unfavorable to the poetry of the pass- ions. He believes that woman should be- have exactly as woman has always functioned — as tradition has moulded her. He sym- pathizes with the individualistic woman, but sincerely and stringently announces that woman must let her instincts become neither atrophied nor perverted, but use them under strict intellectual control. Through the Escotts, Lewisohn shows the appalling results of sex ignorance; through Paul Gordon and his wife we see the futility of passionate love and of poetic romance. Through the Sampsons, Lewisohn points to his thorough belief in the Jewish view that the basic instinct for marriage is not sexual desire but reproduction. THE DUAL CHARACTER OF THE JEW THE LAST DAYS OF SHYLOCK By LuDwiG Lewisohn Harpers H Bros. By Hugo Mantel In The Last Days of Shylock, Lewisohn attempts to describe the life of Shylock from the point where Shakespeare left him. After the formal baptism which was forced upon him by the court of Venice, he escapes from the town and settles in Constantinople. His life there is among Jews only and we see be- fore us an entirely different Shylock. This divergence from the original character of Shy- lock has moved many to decry Lewisohn ' s novel as a pious wish to vindicate the Jews. His wish was not realized, it is claimed, be- cause the original character disappears in the novel and another Jew, Reb Shylock, comes upon the scene. Others, on the contrary, criticize Lewisohn on the ground that he en- tirely missed Shakespeare ' s point. Shylock, they say, was never intended to represent any living human being: he was a mere buffoon whose behavior, claim and fate were supposed to amuse the public. One can hardly be patient with this last attitude. Shakespeare ' s characters, be thoy buffoons or not, are always taken from life. One of the aspects of the genius of Shakes- peare, as is well known, is that even his most eccentric characters, under the most fantastic conditions, are full-blooded human beings. The assertion that Shakespeare never saw a Jew is somewhat improbable in the light of the recent discovery of Sil Sidney Lee and the late Lucien Wolf that there was never a time even before Cromwell when ther: wcr.- no Jews in London. It is. 1 believe, by no means a compliment to Shakespeare to sup- pose that he was not curious enough to get acquainted with this rare type of people.