Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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M ASM ID in every instance, provides the method and oul lines the padi, toward its realization. This is an- odier aspect of the comparative mistrust the I brah has for mere theoretical speculation unrelated i conduct, The Mit .vah or ceremony speaks bnlli to the Jew and for him. By insisting on certain actions and prayers in moments of great emotional dis- turbance, the ceremony reduces the expenditure ol emotional energy and steadies our heartbeat, pre venting us from losing balance, in hours, alike, of extreme happiness or unliappiness. III. TIIK WORKMANSHIP OF JUDAISM The ceremony speaks to us, pointing out spiritual vistas to encourage our moral effort ; the ceremony speaks for us, articulating our sorrows and joys, when expression, though vital, is impossible because of pent-up feeling. The ceremony thus tra ins us in self restraint and in constant vision of that good and beauty which we are to achieve by our own effort. Recognizing the need for occasional up- lifting above the humdrum drabness of life, the Torah through ceremony, diverts our gaze above the sphere of cut-throat competition, social annoy- ances and personal disabilities, toward a contem- plation of a better world, of which we should not merely dream but for the consummation of which the ideal calls and the ceremony guides our steps. The Torah stated the divine command Love thy neighbor as thyself. As a means towards the realization of this precept, the Torah has the principle of the foreigner ' s equality before the Law; of the civic duty to help the poor, and to take care of the stranger. Such activity, not de- pendent upon a man ' s temper, or mood, but rep- resenting the legal minimum of his contributions to social welfare, is the first step towards the reali- zation of that ideal. The obligation to take care of non-Jewish poor as well as of the Jewish desti- tute, tends to make these steps more valuable, to train the Jew towards a general humanitarian tend- ency. Our ceremonies, such the one described, are the source of humanitarian vision, the springs of kindliness which feed interdenominational friend- ship and influence action. IV. G i- CON I 101 Bui behind them .ill i the revelation thai all tin ' thing an nol merely fine deeds, they derive theii importance from the fad thai theii performance is the revealed will ol , d. I ., the Jew, lb,, one good in life is conformity with the will -.( G-d Sin is refusal to accept tin law oi G-d 01 action against it. The Jew, according to the |ewi h Bible, i nol the on ji child ol G-d, bul In piritual fit tborn, carrier of the Father ' s message. He is charged with the message and to safeguard it; he must go his own way, live his own life, protect the scparatc- ness of his march thru history, protect the pristine purity of his failh, protect the very uniqueness of his destiny, resist every influence, that would change his message, develop thru centuries his mode of expression, the force of his example, the influence of his heirloom, the Torah, so that his labor for the ideal might be successful. The ultimate goal is the penetration of every nation with the living ideal of ethical monotheism to a degree which will beautify life, unite man and banish wickedness from the world. The task is dependent on the capacity of Israel to walk his way thru the ages, trained in G-d- consciousness, isolated during the centuries of struggles, in the world but not of it. The discipline of suffering for the ideal, the discipline of struggle for freedom of conscience, the hard battle against passion, desire, vanity, they are to help the Jew to retain his identity, and thru his identity the un- diluted strength of his message, his G-d-conscious- ness as the single propelling force in his individual and collective life. Hence every Jewish ceremony is part of the G-d-given way of life, every com- mandment based on the will of G-d, every step prescribed by G-d. or nullified by its non-con- formity with His will. When the message underlying the Jewish cere- monies is appreciated these latter become the wings by which the Jew lifts himself into the sphere of his historical ideal, which help him to defeat the downward pull of gravitation. But if they are not related to the totality of Jewish life, they be-

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Twenty-Si. MASMID Aspects of Judaism By Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung I. SOME ASPECTS OF JUDAISM Judaism is the religion of the Jew. It is based on the Torah of Moses. Torah means direction. We look upon the Torah as the direction to happy and noble life. The faith in the revelation of God ' s Will is the immovable foundation of Jewish survival. Without acceptance of the authority of the Torah, a Jewish generation, however brilliant, powerful, philanthropic, has in the many instances of our historical experience proved too weak to withstand the assaults of outside influences. With the elim- ination of that faith, the Jewish community had eliminated its vital force, and rapidly disappeared in the majority. Beyond this principle Judaism has no dogma. From time to time problems have arisen, the formu- lation of which, or the solution to which, seemed to touch foundations of the faith, and during cer- tain of these periods Judaism ' s attitude toward these ideas was considered as of dogmatic importance. But their importance shrunk as new problems be- gan to focus general attention on themselves. Judaism knows no literalism or fundamentalism. The text of the Bible is subjected to ever new interpretations, and each new interpretation has been hailed as the fruit of the faith, and welcomed as an additional source of mental and spiritual en- richment. This principle is not a child of our liberal age, but has been acted upon for the last two millennia, by rabbi and learned layman alike. II. THE METHOD OF JUDAISM For Jewish life, however, this interpreting ac- tivity, whilst fruitful and encouraging, is not all- important. When a Jewish boy reaches religious maturity (at the age of thirteen), he is not asked or admonished as to faith and interpretation, he is enjoined as to the traditional ideals and observances of Jewish life. In Jewish thought the division has long been recognized between obvious social postu- lates like honesty, chastity, love of one ' s neighbor, and between what are called ceremonies. This division, however, was not made in the Bible. The Torah embraces every aspect of life and its text knows of no division between ceremonial and moral law. In Judaism they are co-ordinated. Judaism has demanded from its adherents loyalty to its social ideals. But Judaism has never been satisfied with the mere call to great ideals. Hu- manity, according to the Torah, needs more than announcements, however solemn or emphatic, of abstract goals. General great ideals have a habit of impressing our emotions without influencing our conduct. Judaism holds that a training is necessary in a habit which will always consider the ideal, that the ideal must be brought home, first by humani- tarian exercises, then by symbols and ceremonies, conveying emotional experiences which keep the vision of beauty and goodness before the people, without which view the ideal becomes stale, a futile phrase. Thus Love thy neighbor as thyself is twice enjoined in Leviticus, the third book of the Torah of Moses. But the very same chapter insists on the practical realization of its implication. It de- mands part of our annual harvest as our minimum contribution to our poor neighbor. The ceremonial of Jewish holidays is a veritable symphony of good- ness, from the gift to the poor on the eve of the holy day so that the stranger at our gate too, may rejoice on the day of our feast, to the many religious acts and symbols expressive of cosmo- politan human sympathy. The ceremony indeed is the method of Judaism. It connects practical life in all its variety and all its activities with the spiritual truths of religion; it gives tang ible form to those ideas and ideals. Judaism not only states the ideal, but consistently.

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Twenty-Eight M A S M I D come a leaden weight. Ceremonies are the wheels of his progress to- wards social righteousness. But if thru ignorance, lassitude, indifference, their meaning is not known, they become clogs. Some Jews impatient with the slow progress of humanitarian effort, unaware of the fact that wheels need a driving spirit, discard the wheels, deny the value of ceremonies and then censure the vehicle for its inability to move for- ward. We are a minority. A minority comes into being out of a consciousness of some immanent difference which distinguishes it from the major- ity. A minority can survive only as long as a consciousness of this difference and a recognition of its worthwhileness prevail in the minds of its members. It may be astonishing to friend and foe that we Jews are but one percent of humanity. It is a surpassingly hard task for a scattered minority of one percent to reach longevity. The struggle for national survival is accentuated by the levelling tendencies of the industrial age, by the rearousing of cosmopolitan hope and endeavor, by international, interracial, interdenominational class struggle. All these tendencies represent so many unceasing assaults on our personal Jewishness, on our national existence. We have no refuge, no unassailable fortress other than the Jewish life, the atmosphere, in which the Lord is set continually before us. The laws of the Torah in their totality create the Jewish environment, in which the Jew works out his salva- tion for the salvation of man. Thru a number of customs, laws, regulations, admonitions, en- couragements, cognitions the Jew is to be kept in contact with the divine spirit. No secular pursuits need interfere for one moment with this essential relationship, which is the true object of religion. On the contrary, by means of customs, and laws, ev ery action becomes sublimated into a channel of communion, into an act of worship. The Jew can thus achieve spiritual victory without doing violence to human nature, without hermit-like fleet- ing from the world, without sealing his senses her- metically to the beauties and blessings of life. V. THE TORAH AS JEWRY ' S SHIELD The double impact of economic struggle and the unceasing assaults on the Jews should have de- stroyed us long ago. But the Law has been our shield and defender. The seventh day Sabbath, with its prohibition to engage in any kind of work, with its insistence that the Jew keep away from business, business thought, and from all mechanical devices, establishes for the Jew a day of a dif- ferent attitude, and affords him tremendous pro- tection against the life-destroying strain of the in- dustrial age. Family life so arranged as to retain woman ' s self-respect and freedom in marriage, family worship, home celebrations, all strengthen his Jewish integration. The dietary laws not only enhance G-d-consciousness, they also help to pre- vent intermarriage, the safest and speediest way to racial suicide. VI. THE LIFE IN THE TORAH There may be a notion in the minds of the uninitiated that the ceremonies and symbols con- stitute indeed a great burden. Such minds do not sufficiently appreciate the fact that these customs and observances are trained into the child ' s mind and life from early infancy, so that they become its natural environment. The nearest analogy would be the Oxford and Cambridge training, one major purpose of which is to produce gentlemen. There are a number of Cambridge customs, attitudes, observances which a Cambridge man would normally and naturally re- tain or perform and the suggestions of which would continue to exercise an encouraging, a pleasing and also a definitely spiritual influence on him. The Oxford man will not feel selfishly proud of his training, but he will look upon it as a special opportunity which is his special responsibility, to spread, in the most intelligent, effective manner, the ideals of his Alma Mater. So does the Jew welcome and hail with native expectant joy the thousand and one intimate touches and suggestions of the Jewish life which are his abiding, living commentary to Judaism.