Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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M A S M 1 D Jew? Tliis vital c|iics[ion must be iinswcrcd. Oni.- (liin is tcTtain, that every man lias a ri lit lo live- in hi liiiic . Il is unjust to ikiii.md ili.ii one live ilie lile of pasi generations. In l.iii, ii i uiir Jiil to live our life in ilie present, to lullrll (In Av mands of our own limes. Judaism is noi only capable of fulfilling the demantis of our times; it is not only sunicienlly modern as to make it jJOSSible to li ' i ' wilh it in oin ' il.iy; Iml we even assert that il is by f.U ' the mosi .ulv.uucd sl.uidpoini possible. The profound insight of Judaism is, in many respects, far ahead of our times. There is no other salvation for the Jewish minority than the realization of this. Not by compromises but by knowing his true character and defending it ener- getically can the Jew survive. There is perhaps no doctrine in the world which is less disposed to compromise than the Jewish doctrine. In seeking a .solution, we must first ask our- selves: What is modern . ' What characterizes the modern man . ' There are many factors to be found. We will stress three of them. These three present themselves quite naturally, since we may approach man from three sides: his thought, his desires, and his feelings. Thus this classifica- tion arises without any systematic or pedantic con- siderations. The modern man claims that he does not wish to be siiperst ' it ' ioiis. He loves clear, scientific thinking. He does not believe in things which he considers the product of childish dreams or fantastic fabrications. Secondly, the modern man is very little disposed to asceticism. He is occupied not so much with the other world as with this world. He loves this world. He wishes to reconstruct his environment, to set it in order so that it may be livable. He does not like to make distinaions between this world and the other, between body and soul. He seeks unity. Thirdly, modern man emphasizes communal life. He senses that no one can be an isolated being, that every one must live in human society and is dependent upon it for existence. He seeks to understand phenomena not so much on the basi of introspection as on the basis of social relations or, w-e may say, from a historical basis. I.ct us observe the an nude ol Judaism toward these three major characteristics of modern man. No world-view is less supersriiious than Judaism. None is more in harmony with human rca.son. I Icrmann Cohen, one of the most significant of modern religious philosophers, calls Judaism the religion of rca.son. Why. ' The foundation of Judaism is monotheism. Judai.sm teaches not only ihat there is one God, and not many gods; but il also asserts the Oueiiess of God. That is the granite foundation on which Judaism stands or falls. It is asserted that outside of God there is no reality. The only reality that there is, is God, In other words, God is reality. The Hebrew root of the word for God (which the Jew does not utter) is equivalent to reality or absolute reality. Everything outside of God has no reality. It is created; it is creature. Therefore nothin g owes its reality to itself; nothing lives of its own force; nothing has substance of its own. Whoever con- siders anything in this world a being is practis- ing idolatry. The fundamental task of Judaism is to destroy idolatry. Idolatry means more than kneeling before a statue. It means to believe that the phenomen.i of the world about us are reality in themselves. As for example, the belief that there is matter which has always existed; or that nature is eternal ; or that there are natural forces ' which exist in and for themselves; or natural laws which have absolute validity. In fact, the laws of logic and of mathematics are not, from this point of view, absolute laws. Nothing in the world can claim to be valid or eternal or inde- pendent of God ' s reality. Nothing can raise the claim to be worshipped. There is nothing before which the Jew must bow or kneel. In the story of Esther it is told that all the courtiers prostrated themselves before Haman. Only Mordecai refused to do so, tliereby enraging Haman. When asked hy he did not kneel. Mordecai revealed that he v.as a Jew. And it s.iys, But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. The idea of idolatry is here much more broadlv conceived than is com- monly assumed. we

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MASMID Judaism and JModern Thought Dr. Erich Gutkind Editors Note: Di Grakind, an exile from Nazi Germany, is at present Professor of Philos- ophy at the New School for Social Research. Dur- ing the coming year, he will be associated with the Philosophy Department of Yeshiva College. The article which follows is the text of a lecture delivered recently by Professor G ilkind before the Yeshiva College Alumni Association. The Jewish people today face one of the darkest and most critical periods in their long and suffer- ing-laden history. There have been persecutions before, but never have they assumed such world- wide proportions. Previous persecutions were in most cases confined to a single country; today this fiendish gospel of hate is preached everywhere. However, the greatest danger facing Judaism to- day is not this exiernal danger. On the contrary, those familiar with Jewish history know that, in the past, persecution and oppression have served to strengthen and fortify Judaism. The appalling danger which threatens the Jews today is not ex- ternal, but internal. It comes from within them, from within their own midst. It is the danger of forgetting the great Jewish truths, of desiring to dissolve themselves into the surrounding world, of desiring to strip themselves of Judaism. Ths great peril is assimilation. The Jew will ever remain a minority. But those who fear to belong to a minority misunderstand the essence of Juda- ism. He who has not the courage to remain in the minority, and, in fact, in a very weak minor- it) ' , cannot be a Jew. The Jew must have the strength to stand alone if necessary. That is how the history of the Jews began. Abraham heard the call of God and prepared to leave the house of his fath er and the land in which he lived. And he dauntlessly set himself up against the whole world. However, a minority need by no means be weak. The strength or weakness of a people does not depend upon its number. It depends upon its character. The stronger the nner life of such a group, the more inconquerabk- they are. The stronger the truth which binds a group of men together, the more invincible they are. The weak Jewish minority was stronger than mighty Egypt, stronger than Assyria and Babylon, stronger than the powerful Roman Empire. This people, small in numbers, has outlived all these mighty empires. It has outlived the kingdoms of the middle ages and the empires of modern times. It stands unvan- quished. The secret of its endurance lies within it. It is the inherent character of the Jewish people, not its external means of power, This strength is based on the fact that we trust in truth. We must believe that, in the final analysis, truth is stronger than any other power; a viewpoint that is, to be sure, not shared by a great part of humanity. Many believe that there is no truth at all, or else that truth is no power. In our times, a mighty con- flict is raging in the world: What is the basis of existence — Truth or Vitality? Powerful move- ments have arisen teaching that everything de- pends only on vitality. A philosopher like Nietz- sche teaches that the lie can promote life better than the truth. Many believe that the basis of our existence cannot be ttuth but that it is a ques- tion of vitality. The basis of existence is biol- ogical or, we might even say, zoological — Race and Blood. The Jewish belief is that a world which is to endure can be built only upon truth. All other attempts lead, in the end, only to catas- trophe. The greatest danger to Judaism, we have said, comes from the midst of Judaism itself. It is the question: Can the modern man still be a Jew. ' Is Judaism obsolete? Does it still fit in with the times? Does it not hinder our development? The question is: How can I, in our times, remain a Eighl

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MASMID We wish to avoid any misunderstanding. We do not say that there are not countless things which have worth. Nay more, Judaism teaches that everything has its worth. There is no one too insignificant or too wicked or too worthless to find consideration. Everyone has a claim to his place in the world. Indeed Judaism goes so far as to ascribe a worth to inanimate things. Thus we find that it is wrong to destroy articles which may have utility. A lovely maxim of the Cabbala says: In all things lie locked sparks of the lost original light. And these sparks await their liberation. Everything contained in the world has a right to its own place, and to partake some day in reality. But nothing has reality in itself. Nothing can therefore be an object of worship or of adoration, not even Nature. There is no more dangetous delusion than the belief that Nature is eternal and Godlike. The conception which we have outlined har- monizes completely with modern science. It is only obsolete science that assumes that there has always been absolute matter, that the world is a mechanism which consists of absolute forces. In modern physics, in Einstein ' s physics, everything has be- come relative. The entire process of nature is dissolved into a system of extremely complicated mathematical equations; really, therefore, into a complicated system of relations. But no substances remain. These disappear completely. Even the concept of natural forces has vanished from modern physics, as has the concept of eternal laws. The latest researches have done away with the concept of natural law. Even in logic and mathematics the concept of compulsion has been pushed further and further back; or it is shown that this compulsion has quite different roots. It is more a form of our thought, as Kant claimed. The modern interpretation of Nature comes much nearer the conception which the Jews have always had, namely the idea of creatio ex nihilo. Cre- ation and Creation out of nothing are in fact, both the same thing. If something had already existed out of which God could have first created the world, it would not have been a real creation. A recent Jewish thinker, Steinheim, says, The idea of ' creation out of nothing ' is the vety standard of the Jewish synagogue. This idea of creatio ex nihilo therefore very emphatically rules out all superstition. For what is superstition if not the consideration of the phenomena which surround us as reality, or the belief that behind these phenomena beings are hidden. All mytho- logies, all beliefs in gods, in demons, in good and bad spirits, arise from the same motive, namely the belief that behind these occurrences there are mysterious beings. Judaism strongly opposed this. Judaism rejects all mythologies, all realms of gods, all dark worlds. However, even such conceptions as those of natural forces are only refined forms of super.nition. Such words also as electricity or gravity are only pictorial ex- pressions, which are in no way better than the old conceptions of gods and spirits. Therefore the Jewish doctrine forbids man to make himself an image. This fundamental law, Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image, is one of the greatest visions ever conceived on earth. This vision separates man from the superstitious and haunted worlds of prehistoric times. It locks up the worlds of mythology and magic. This vision raises man out of a fairy realm and brings him into the world of reality. Without this command- ment there could be no historical life of man. Man would remain ensnared in a child ' s world, in a passive world, in a dream world. He would never break through to reality and co responsi- bility. The cardinal principle of Judaism which we have discussed is, therefore, the guaranty of a clear, responsible human life in reality, in this world, and not in a world populated by super- stitious entities, in which there is no ethical re- sponsibility. The premise of the Oneness of God opens wide the door to science. The exodus from Egypt can also be regarded as the exodus from the house of slavery, the house of mytho- logy. The gods of Egypt with their hawk and ram heads, or the cult of the bull, show man still deeply imbedded in Nature, in the slavery of the Ten