Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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MASMID worldliness and realism of the Jews is as magni- ficent as it is modern. It is a realism which is far in advance of all realistic conceptions of out times. God, the world, and man are sharply separated from one another in Judaism. In the tension between these three poles lies true reality. In M other interpretations, these three merge into one another. Either the world becomes submerged once more in God or else God becomes submerged in the world. God is then nothing but the whole world. That is pantheism. Or else, man sinks mystically into God. Then God is made a man, and the idea of God is destroyed. This has been the development of Christian theology. However, it is also wrong for man to become submerged in the world. That is a false teaching, grown out of the soil of a science which is today obsolete. In it, man is only a piece of nature. Man is only a part of Nature, a by-product of Nature. This is also contradictory to modern conceptions. The modern world is coming to believe, more and more, that man is a creature apart from Nature. The existence of man is f indamentally different from the existence of animals or plants. The existence of man is not the same as the existence of a stone. There is no general existence, ' shared in equally by all creatures. It is not true that stones and plants and animals and man all exist uniformly. The existence of man is of a higher sort than that of all Nature. Man is the keystone of Nature, the key to Nature. Modern bio- logy has worked out a strong case for the theory that man is a kind of blue-print, underlying all of organic Nature, just as a blue-print underlies an edifice. The edifice is constructed only by means of the blue-print. Man is the blue-print of Nature. One of the most modern of debates centers about the question as to whether man is a blind-alley of Nature. Modern science is very disposed to deny this. It approaches the biblical interpretation, which has the development of Nature culminate in man. Man must not be interpreted from his animal side, from his zoological side, from the point of view of race or blood. Man is interpreted as a historical creature, a being that lives in a society, as a fellow -creature. To everj ' man there belongs a You. No I can be understood without a You. The most profound characteristic of man is that he possesses speech, that he is addressed and answers. Speech is the highest phenomenon to be found on earth. The historical and socio- logical interpretation of man, the masterpiece of modern times, is Jewish through and through. This leads us to the third main point, the emphasis of society today. Our times have turned away from the isolation of the individual. We are trying to understand the individual in a new way, to bring him into a relation with his fellow- creatures. The individual has his rights; and these rights, unfortunately, are being more and more forgotten today. The over-emphasis of the individual has been followed by its opposite, the over-emphasis of society. Here Judaism is un- questionably faced with great struggles. What is the position of the individual with respea to the whole? The Jewish teachings stress the responsi- bility of the totality for each and every individual. The individual, on the other hand must also answer for the totality. It is important to remem- ber that the majority of the Jewish prayers are worded in the first person plural, we. The highest demand which Judaism makes, the demand of holiness, is not directed only to the individual, but to the people as a whole. It is said, Ye shall be holy — a kingdom of priests — a holy people. Many commandments are directed towards the in- dividual; for example, Thou shalt not kill. This highest of all demands, the one of holiness, how- ever is directed preferably to the totality. But what is it that binds the totality? What is a people? Here we must bring out a fundamental element of Judaism. The Jewish people is a founded people. It is not a nation in the manner of other nations. It was one of the greatest mistakes of Jewish history when the people chose a king for the first time, and said, We also may be like all the nations. Ever} ' conception of the Jewish Twelve

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MASMID service of NaiLirc. Tlic greatest cmancipaiion of mankinil, tliat is, from Nature, is the work ol the Jews. Ill jiiil.iisin, m,m r.iiscs liiinstll .iliove Nature. In tliis .iiilip.illiy Id .ill siipcrslilidns, ilitic lies ,111 .iin.uliiin iiii vi will 111. liiil.iiMii li.is never ilcniiJ llii.s w ' dilcl. We niiisl hiikiiiIhi iIi.iI in the story of uciiidii, ilun ' appr.ii .it;.iin .iiul .iL;.iin the words, Ami CoJ s.iw ili.ii ii ,i.s ijddii. ' ' I li. world is Clod ' s ,md is L;ood. I he Jewish toncep tion is opiiinistli. Another great conception of the world, tin. Indian, is pessimistic, and hiindreils of millions of people believe in ii implicitly. In the eyes of this part of Inimanity, the world is e il, the world connotes suffering. With each thing we do we only entangle ourselves more and more in this suflering. The highest goal of man is knowledge. This knowledge consists in realizing that all existence is devoid of meaning. The highest goal is the extinction of the world, and that can be attained only by ever greater de- tachment from the vi ' orld, by asceticism. This is the exact opposite of the optimistic Jewish inter- pretation of the world. This pessimistic conception is not limited to India alone. Great philosophers have shared it. Even Christianity holds that the completion of man lies in the Beyond. Philosophers like Schopenhauer teach that the wotld is evil, and that there is no higher goal than the extinction of this world. This attitude, in turn, influenced great artists, as, for example, Richard Wagner. His Tristan is based on the philosophy of Schopenhauer. The Jewish conception, on the other hand, demands the glorification of the world Jewish philosophy differs very strongly from mysticism. Mysticism demands the fusion of man with God. The great goal of the mystic is an intense desire to become at one with God. This view Jewish philosophy sharply rejects. When Moses asked God, Show me Thy glory, God answered, Thou c.inst not see my face: for no man shall see me and live, But God shows Moses His attributes, and tliese attributes of God are ethical attributes. Thus God directs Moses to the world. Moses is not to look upon God, but upon the world, upon the world as it rcflcxts the light of Ciod. He sees the world as it is constructed according to the order of God. The will of the Jews is c|uitc definitely liirecied towards the bet- terment of this world. That is why the Jewish teachings do not speak of a Beyond , but of the ' coming world. This udiid is fundamentally good. The cv ' il in the world comes from the disorder which man has caused, and this disorder is rooted in the fact that man was free, Man was created as a free being. He might accept or reject the order which he found. If man did not have this freedom, he would not be a man. He would then be nothing but a perfect machine. He would be dead. The meaning of Judaism is the constant re- establishment of the original meaning of Creation. To carry the truth of the very beginning of things through all times and not to allow it.self to be misled, is the purpose of the Jewish religion. This basic truth must be brought to life anew in all times. A great opportunity for a revivification of Judaism lies in t he fact that it is no ascetic doctrine. Judaism does not teach flight from the world. On the contrary, it commands that the responsibility for the world be assumed. There is perhaps no religion of mankind which em- phasizes as strongly iis Jewish wisdom the element of Joy. Joy is not only allowed, it is demanded. Thus there is a command to eat and drink with pleasure. To abstain from pleasure is a sin. This teaching is entirely positive. It conquers death not only by the hope of a continuation of personal existence beyond the grave: it conquers death by a basic extirpation of the roots of death. Death is rooted in the disorder of the world. The connection between God and man is broken and must be remade. The Jewish teaching has created the splendid conception of Schechina. This is the presence of God in the world. God wishes this world to be his residence. The Jewish con- ception of God h.is nothing to do with the pale abstractions of philosophers and theologians. It is an immeasurablv reali.stic conception. This EJet ' en

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M a:;m I u pc()|ilc wliiili ihn ' s iKii (.ikc inio ajiisiilcraiion iIk I.h( ili.il ilic j( s ,iic- ,1 rouncic-il jicopL-, is liiiulainciii.illy wron . At tlic bcginnin; ol Judaism, llicn is nu mytiioio y, tlicTO are no tkilic.l aspects of ii.iuhl-. Jiulaisni has imiliin lo ilci with race. As a race, Jmlaisni is iiiorc oniplitaifil liian vvc can possibly iiii.it;inc. il is absolutely iiii possible to iinl any racial characteristic whatsoever, of which it could be said, This is Jewish. All imaginable types are to be found among the jews, and this very universalism is what constitutes the greatness of the Jews. The great poet, Jehuila Halevy, said in a deeply philo- sophical book, in Al Khusari : The Jewish people are the heart of humanity. They con- stitiuc a niiiiiatiu ' e ni.uikind. But they cannot be understood as something biological. The Jewish people have not grown up, like a nation. They have not grown like animals or like plants or like rocks. They are joniided. At the begin- ning of their history, we find the decision of one man. a man v ' ho must be interpreted as a historical personality. The Jewish people grow out of the decision of the man, Abraham. It is thus artificial, and that is its greatness. It is not a product of Nature. It is a higher system than the system of Nature. A founded people is basically different from a grown national people. The Jews are not merely a group of people who embrace the same creed. They are bound together nor merely by religious dogmas. The fact that the Jews have no religion which is detached from actual life, has been a deciding factor in molding their existence. Religion as it is com- monly understood is an attitude flowing parallel to life, and in a certain sense, even against life. It is a holiday attitude, a peculiar tension, which has nothing to do with everyday existence. The basic doctrine of the Jews, however, is the sancti- fication of daily life. It strives for the permeation of ever-j-day life with holiness. Thus the prophet Zechariah in his splendid vision declares that in the coming Jerusalem every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord. Thus, there is nothinc; which does not belong within the realm of holiness. Nothing is excluded, not even eating and drinking or the lowliest liMutions of our bodies. No moment, no action, slight as it may be, stands outside ihc sphere of sanctity. The Jewish law encompasses the whole person, not merely a part of him. TTiis lends an unusually high tension to existence, ' Ihc life of a really great Jew stands in its totality at every moment and in all details in the presence of God. It exists in its completene.ss not only in single holiday hours but in every moment of life. Judaism stresses not only the intellect, but the body as well. It does not recognize the distinction between body ami soul in which the soul is the essential and the body the unimportant element. There is no separation of the inner from the outer, of the higher worlds from the lower worlds. Judaism teaches the doctrine of unity. Unity is its highest principle. Life, in all its manifold aspects, is an indivisible unit. It is a totality including in its scope both the highest thoughts of the intellect and the very lowliest functions of the body. This is an attitude which one may very well charaaerise as modern. In fact, one can even say that our times have still a long way to go before they will arrive at such a view. The Jewish teachings have at all times been wise enough to realize that it is not sufficient merely to think beautiful thoughts. Religion is not simply an inner attitude. Ritual is inseparably bound up with ideals, a ritual which fsermeates all of life. Ritual regulates man ' s everyday be- havior even to the very smallest detail. Jewish tradition has continued this permeation of life with the order of God. The Talmud is a protocol of a conversation of more than a thousand years ' duration concerning these questions, a conversa- tion which was conducted by thousands of the wisest of men. This conversation has never died out; and it will be one of the great tasks of the Jews of our times to revive this discussion, and to continue it. To these wise men, not the slightest detail seemed so insignificant as to be neglected. It is said of a Zaddik that he was once asked where the most holv was to be found, and he Thirl ecK