Liberal Judaism and 
 Social Service 
 
 
 HARRY S. LEWIS, M.A. 
 
 A 
 
 NEW YORK 
 BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 "The Jewish Book Concern" 
 
 ^^WWMw/^fm^/wfwiw/w/wfw/w/wt'W^^^
 
 THE LEWISOHN LECTURES, 1913 
 
 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND 
 SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 BY 
 
 HARRY S. LEWIS, M. A. 
 
 Joint Author of " The Jew in London " 
 
 Issued Jointly for 
 
 The Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis 
 and the Free Synagogue 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 1915
 
 Copyright. 1915 
 Eastern Conference of Reform Rabbis
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 en 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Pe 
 
 Introduction ..... 5 
 
 I. The New Covenant . . . . 13 
 
 II. Some Biblical Concepts of Social Duty . 33 
 
 III. Some Rabbinic Concepts of Social Duty . 59 
 
 IV. Jewish Charity in The Middle Ages . 85 
 
 V. Jewish Social Service of Today . . 109 
 
 VI. The City of God .139
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The theme of these lectures is liberal Judaism in its 
 relation to social service. I shall attempt to treat from 
 a standpoint frankly sectional a subject of universal in- 
 terest. Jews are a small minority, liberal Jews are a 
 minority of that minority, whilst every sane thinker, 
 whatever be his race or creed, realizes the need for a 
 deeper sense of human fellowship. It is a pressing ques- 
 tion for every religionist whether the faith to which he 
 is attached supplies this need. Accordingly the Jew is 
 led to inquire whether Judaism makes him and his co- 
 religionists more serviceable members of the human fam- 
 ily. Such an inquiry bristles with difficulties, for it in- 
 volves not only a knowledge of facts but the power to 
 interpret them. It is hard enough to form a dispassionate 
 estimate of the share taken by the members of our race 
 in the world of labor, of business, of thought, of philan- 
 thropy and of public service; but our perplexities are 
 multiplied when we ask ourselves how far their merits 
 and demerits in the pursuit of these activities are caused 
 or conditioned by their Judaism. Perhaps the average 
 Jew ought to be a thorough Jew all the time, but he is 
 certainly nothing of the kind ; he is, for better or worse, 
 modified if not transformed by his environment. Fur- 
 ther we must bear in mind that there is a distinction to be 
 drawn between the Jewishness of the Jew and his Ju- 
 daism, that is to say, between his instinctive racial pe- 
 culiarities and the religious principles which consciously 
 
 5
 
 6 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 mould his life. In order to form a just estimate of the 
 value of Judaism as a force that promotes the salvation 
 of society we must study it as it exists in action here 
 and now in action on the macrocosm, and in action 
 on that microcosm, which is you or I. What is Judaism 
 doing for and with our fellow Jews? What is its in- 
 fluence as a leaven which works within our own hearts? 
 We must not anticipate satisfaction certainly not self- 
 satisfaction from truthful answers to such searching 
 questions. Yet it may be that we shall learn not only 
 the present achievements and failures of Judaism but 
 also its potentialities to inspire men and women with 
 faith and zeal in the service of their fellows, so that 
 the crooked may be made straight and the rough places 
 plain. 
 
 Thus our inquiry into Judaism as a force that makes 
 for social righteousness involves an examination of the 
 present and a forecast of the future. But the present 
 and future of Judaism are unintelligible without a care- 
 ful and loving study of its past. Ours is an historical 
 religion, whose soul came to it from afar ; it has changed 
 greatly, but it retains its identity. A modern reform 
 temple is a very different place from the Temple of 
 Solomon, but the same Decalogue is the central feature 
 of both. Modern philanthropy and social service rest 
 on fundamental principles, enunciated long ago by the 
 heroes of Bible and Talmud. So also the study of 
 Hebrew institutions, as they existed at various stages 
 of our long history, will show how permanent are the 
 needs of humanity in general and of Israel in particular. 
 The characteristic Jewish nose appears already in the
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 portrayal of Jehu's servants on an Assyrian monument ; 
 our mental and moral peculiarities have probably been 
 just as persistent. To understand the social message of 
 Judaism, we must search the Scriptures and our post- 
 biblical literature, for the books of a people not only 
 register their existing ideals but give birth to new ones. 
 
 We shall doubtless find important differences between 
 the present and the past. In modern times, many a line 
 of demarcation between Jew and Christian has been 
 removed in the spiritual as in the material sphere. Books, 
 newspapers and the common school have proved potent 
 solvents of ancient prejudices. Nowadays Jewish and 
 Christian pulpits teach much the same system of social 
 ethics; outworn theological conceptions are repudiated 
 or quietly ignored and modern ideas take their place. 
 Hence it follows that modern Judaism is not drawn 
 exclusively from Jewish sources ; we have learned to 
 welcome truth wherever we find it. Not that this open- 
 mindedness is an altogether new thing in Israel ; for the 
 Hebrew spirit; as represented by its most influential 
 exponents, has never been an uncompromising foe of 
 Hellenism or of any other system of alien doctrine. But 
 the new thought of today has given Judaism opportu- 
 nities to develop upon a scale hitherto impossible. We 
 no longer recognize an absolute distinction between in- 
 spired and uninspired literature. The Hebrew Scriptures 
 do not exhaust all truth ; they are "for guidance, not for 
 dominion over the spirit." 1 Thus the way is opened 
 
 ! Gustav Gottheil in Judaism at the World's Parliament of 
 Religions, p. 30.
 
 8 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 for our recognition of revelation, as a process at work 
 yesterday, today and forever. "God is not dumb, that 
 He should speak no more." He speaks through modern 
 sages and poets, as he did of old through Isaiah and the 
 Psalmists. In addition to the old Bible, we reverence 
 the Bible ever new whose inspired authors are the great 
 and good of all races and all ages. Its opening words 
 were written at the dawn of history and it ends with 
 blank pages which are open to receive the messages of 
 teachers yet to be. The social teaching of liberal Ju- 
 daism is derived not only from Jewish literature but 
 from every book which has added to the sum of sav- 
 ing knowledge or which touches the conscience and in- 
 spires us to help our fellow men. 
 
 And in another sense we have learned to take a wider 
 view than that which was possible to our fathers. For 
 us, social service means the service of all mankind with- 
 out distinction of race and creed. Judaism was never 
 destitute of universalist elements. The highest doctrine 
 of our Scriptures included the notion that God is the 
 father of all men, that He cares alike for all His chil- 
 dren and that He will lead them at last to walk in His 
 ways. 2 This same sublime teaching appears occasionally 
 in the Talmud and in mediaeval Hebrew literature. But 
 it is not surprising that the Jews did not always keep 
 up to this high level either in theory or practice. After 
 all, their treatment at the hands of the Gentiles was 
 not calculated to promote brotherly love. Accordingly 
 they considered it a duty to act with justice and gen- 
 
 2 See a noble passage in Montefiore's Bible for Home Reading 
 Vol. II, pp. 772-773.
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 erosity towards co-religionists and philo-semitic Gen- 
 tiles but with bare justice towards others. 3 In ordinary 
 cases, almsgiving to Gentiles was only held to be in- 
 cumbent, because its absence would have aroused hostil- 
 ity. So also the Messianic hopes of our ancestors in- 
 cluded the triumph of hate as well as that of love. In 
 the good time to come, the persecutors of Israel would 
 perish. The wheel would come full circle. Gentile su- 
 premacy would end and God's people inherit the earth. 
 The hope for all mankind, that is involved in the Mes- 
 sianic ideas, was never forgotten but it became some- 
 what obscured; the expectation of a national triumph 
 was a more prominent feature in the consciousness of 
 mediaeval Jews. Small blame to them that this was so. 
 But we should be disgraced indeed if the happier con- 
 ditions of today had not induced a revulsion of feeling 
 towards our brethren of other nations. This beneficial 
 change has certainly taken place and the modern Jew, 
 with all his faults, seldom lacks something of that broad 
 humanitarian sentiment which is the best manifesta- 
 tion of the spirit of the age. Indeed there is a real 
 danger that the Jew, because he is more partial to the 
 stranger, may befriend his brother- Jew less. This should 
 not be. We are not worse universalists, if our efforts 
 for social service are primarily devoted to the cause of 
 
 3 In David Kimchi's commentary on Psalm 15, there is an 
 instructive note on this subject. He remarks that to lend money 
 without interest is an act of mercy. The Mosaic Law requires 
 us to show this consideration to a fellow-Israelite, but not to 
 a gentile. Yet this discrimination, he continues, must not be 
 exercised in lands where Jews are well treated. There is also 
 some Talmudic authority for the view that the ideal Jew does 
 not exact interest from a non-Jew. (Makkoth 24a.)
 
 10 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 our kith and kin. Many of us feel that we can thus 
 find the work which needs us most and which we are 
 best fitted to discharge. Like Moses, when he grew into 
 young manhood, we may well feel the call to go out unto 
 our brethren, to look on their burdens and to relieve 
 them. At the same time, social workers of all creeds rec- 
 ognize more and more that they must join hands as cit- 
 izens, as lovers of their kind, as children of the all-father. 
 To fight disease, to reduce destitution, to promote educa- 
 tion, we need close co-operation between all existing agen- 
 cies, whatever be their denominational affiliations. We 
 need this co-operation because of its practical utility ; we 
 need it also so that we may be inspired to do our duty as 
 co-workers in a common cause. The Jew, who has 
 emerged from the ghetto into the ampler atmosphere of 
 the modern world should not fail to be stirred by this 
 wide appeal. He will not be less responsive to the 
 claims of his own race, because he realizes also the claims 
 of all races. He will understand that the special func- 
 tion of the modern Jew is to show, both by precept and 
 example, that the principles of the old Hebrew prophets 
 are still potent to transfigure the life of the individual 
 and to uplift society. According to the measure of 
 his talents and opportunities, he will serve his genera- 
 tion. He will serve it not only by his work but also 
 by his hopefulness, for as a true exponent of the Hebrew 
 spirit he will be an incurable meliorist. He will hope 
 wisely, nobly, unselfishly: such hopes tend to bring 
 about their own fulfillment. 
 
 Such is the part which the Jew should play in the 
 modern world. Of course, no one actually reaches so
 
 INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 high a level of achievement; few even approach it. The 
 idealist, who acts up to his ideals, is the exception in 
 this as in every age. The modern Jew, indeed, is ex- 
 posed to peculiar dangers. The race for wealth, so 
 characteristic of our day, the greed for pleasure, even 
 the inevitable struggle for existence are foes of idealism. 
 Nor must we minimize the perils that have accompanied 
 Jewish emancipation and the break up of orthodoxy. In 
 too many cases the result has been spiritual bankruptcy 
 and the multiplication of Jewish materialists the worst 
 of all materialists as they have been called self -cen- 
 tered, self-complaisant, self-indulgent. Yet there is nc 
 occasion for despair. Judaism lives, as it has always 
 lived, in its idealists, who are as genuine now as ever 
 they were. Idealism sometimes deceives itself in part ; 
 indeed the simultaneous fulfilment of all ideals is incon- 
 ceivable, because they are so divergent. But the search 
 after God and the good never goes unrewarded ; some 
 new aspect of truth always emerges. The Jewish socialist 
 may repudiate the God of Israel and the very name of 
 Judaism, but he shows himself true to the principles 
 of our ancient prophets, when he denounces social in- 
 justice. His separate proposals for the reconstruction of 
 society may be impossible, but his dream of a better 
 ordered world will one day be realized. Zionist schemes 
 for the rejuvenation of the Hebrew nation may or may 
 not be sound; but the deeper sense of Jewish solidarity 
 which has already resulted from the movement cannot 
 but do good. We might concede that liberal Judaism 
 was as unjewish (whatever be the meaning of that ques- 
 tion-begging epithet) as the most bitter of its opponents
 
 allege ; but abiding blessing must result from a movement, 
 which represents an earnest and self-sacrificing effort to 
 reinterpret Judaism in terms of the modern spirit, so 
 that we may have a heightened God-consciousness and be 
 inspired to lead lives of vigorous and joyous service. 
 
 Service that is the Leitmotiv of the idealisms, which 
 are dominant in modern times. I have named three 
 forms of idealism socialism, Zionism and liberal Ju- 
 daism that now affect different sections of the Jewish 
 race. The humanitarian impulse is strong in all of 
 them, even in Zionism, which appeals primarily to racial 
 feeling but derives much of its strength from the desire of 
 many Jews, who are themselves free from molestation, to 
 secure a haven of rest and security for their oppressed 
 brethren. As for liberal Judaism, its most urgent duty, as 
 I shall try to show, is to preach that religion in action 
 finds its highest expression in the service of man. In 
 this respect at least, it will, if true to itself, be true also 
 to the genuine traditions of the Hebrew race.
 
 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL 
 SERVICE 
 
 i 
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 
 
 The Jewish prayer-book for the Day of Atonement 
 contains a beautiful passage about the contrast between 
 mortal man and eternal God. "Man comes from the 
 dust and returns thither. He gets his bread at the peril 
 of his life. He is like the brittle bowl, the fading grass, 
 the withering flower, the passing shadow, the melting 
 cloud, the fluttering wind, the fleeting dream. But Thou, 
 O God, art eternal; Thou art King everlasting." Tri- 
 umphant is this thought of an enduring purpose, which re- 
 mains constant in a world of flux and flow. The great 
 affirmation is to affirm the eternities. If the belief in 
 a personal God disappeared, the moral world would still 
 abide, although human endeavor would lose some of its 
 elasticity and joyousness. But suppose our modern im- 
 moralists persuaded us that virtue \was a matter of 
 fashion or personal taste and that the concept of eternal 
 righteousness was an idle dream. Then indeed the light 
 of the world would be eclipsed and man would walk 
 in darkness. In the physical world, we cannot set things 
 going without a fixed point of support. So is it in the 
 moral world, but there the evidence of the senses fails 
 us and we can but rely upon our spiritual experiences, 
 through which the triumphs of faith are verified. Thus 
 does the clinging soul learn to rely upon the everlasting 
 arms which uphold it. 
 
 13
 
 14 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 But now comes the tragedy. The subject matter of 
 faith relates to the eternities, but forms of faith are local 
 and temporary. Religion is one, but religions, past and 
 present are innumerable. And each particular system 
 of religion is itself changing, like all other embodiments 
 of human thought. As a rule, religious development 
 proceeds slowly and only manifests itself in slight al- 
 terations of doctrine or ritual. But now and then there 
 is a "day of the Lord" (to use a favorite phrase of 
 the prophets) when men discover that their former out- 
 look upon life and thought has been transformed, sc 
 that the old expressions of belief appear false or irrele- 
 vant. Away, cry some eager spirits, with this faith of 
 yesterday, that has become the superstition of today ! 
 But men will not lightly abandon their faith of yesterday. 
 They love it as their ancestral heritage; it is to many 
 of them a source of comfort and a bulwark of virtue. 
 Thus religious and thoughtful persons, who live at such 
 an epoch, feel that they stand at a parting of the ways. 
 Shall they attempt to mediate between the conflicting 
 claims of old and new, or is it necessary to choose the 
 one and to reject the other? Such is the position, in 
 which liberal religionists, both Jews and Christians, stand 
 today. They have to consider whether belief in the old 
 historical religions is compatible with modern thought. 
 Is the liberal Christian truly a Christian, and the lib- 
 eral Jew truly a Jew? Do we want a new religion or 
 shall we advance along the old paths, which our fathers 
 trod? Let us consider some aspects of this problem in 
 its relation to our own people. 
 
 Now no single solution of our spiritual perplexities
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 15 
 
 will receive universal assent. A man's religion should 
 sum up his most intimate convictions ; dearest friend and 
 most revered adviser cannot define it for him. The late 
 Charles Voysey of the Theistic Church wrote a book 
 upon "Religion for All Men," but such a phrase is partly 
 misleading, for our deepest knowledge depends not only 
 upon the ultimate reality of the thing known but also 
 upon our faculty to know it. Your religion and mine., 
 O my brother, would not have been quite the same, 
 although we had lived in the so-called age of faith, 
 when men and women were expected to take everything 
 for granted. Still less shall we be in absolute agreement 
 in this restless twentieth century, when the doubting 
 spirit is abroad and authority is no longer permitted by 
 free men and women to be the despot of their inner 
 life. Yet an interchange of spiritual experiences between 
 man and man is always helpful; still more so between 
 Jew and Jew. Ultra-orthodox Jews and ultra-liberals 
 often feel the same religious difficulties and may learn 
 from one another. Perhaps therefore some thoughts 
 about the social and ethical aspects of our faith, which 
 have relieved the perplexities of the present speaker, 
 may help others to feel that what we need is not a 
 new religion but rather Judaism made new. 
 
 My plea is for a view of Judaism, in which the old 
 and the new are harmoniously blended. Some may 
 perhaps suggest that such a conception is an unsatis- 
 factory compromise, invented by modern latitudinarians, 
 who are halting between two opinions. Not so. At 
 every stage in its history, Judaism would have languished 
 in the absence of new thought and new ideals. The
 
 16 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 prophets above all were eager reformers of contempo- 
 rary orthodox religion, as modern Biblical scholars have 
 clearly demonstrated. I feel indeed that I can best treat 
 this part of my subject by quoting and explaining Jere- 
 miah's grand utterance concerning the new revelation 
 which he felt to be imminent. Although he had in mind 
 the religious needs of his own age, he spoke with such 
 spiritual insight, that his words express or imply an ever 
 living message for the guidance of distant generations 
 The passage runs as follows: 
 
 "Behold the days come, saith Yahweh, when I will 
 make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with 
 the house of Judah. * * * I will put My law in 
 their inward parts and in their heart will I write it ; and 
 I will be their God and they shall be My people; and 
 they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and 
 every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh: for they 
 shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the 
 greatest of them, saith Yahweh." * * * (Jer. Ch. 31, 
 w. 31, 33, 34). 
 
 This passage is, of course, celebrated through its prom- 
 inence in the history of Christianity. Jeremiah's "new 
 covenant" has given rise to the familiar "new testament" 
 by a verbal substitution due to the Septuagint, which 
 preferred to render the Hebrew b'rith as a testament i. e. 
 a grant, given by God's free grace, rather than as a 
 compact between two parties, conceived as co-equals. 
 The Christian church, after some preliminary hesita- 
 tion, decided that the "new testament" had superseded 
 its predecessor for "that which is becoming old and 
 waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away" (Hebrews 
 8:13). But Jeremiah certainly intended to suggest no
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 17 
 
 such antithesis as that which is drawn by Christians be- 
 tween law and gospel. The new covenant, of which he 
 had a vision, was to have the same content as the old 
 one. He warned his people to walk in the good old 
 paths, wherein they would find rest for their souls. 1 But 
 this rest could not. in his judgment, be obtained by 
 ceremonial observances. The pre-exilic prophets were 
 all indifferent or hostile to ritual, but Jeremiah more sc 
 than the others, for he denied the efficacy and divine 
 origin of the whole sacrificial system, and doubtless con- 
 sidered that the ordinances extant upon this subject were 
 among the forgeries which had been fabricated by the 
 lying pen of the scribes. 2 The duty of Israel was not 
 to be discharged by punctiliousness in ritual but by the 
 knowledge of God. The mark of the new age would 
 be that all men, small and great, should possess this 
 knowledge. 
 
 How then did Jeremiah suppose that man can know 
 God? 
 
 The prophet answers this question for us in the de- 
 scription which he gives of the good king Josiah. The 
 latter ate and drank (i. e. he enjoyed the good things 
 of this world), but he also "did judgment and justice. 
 Then it was well with him. He vindicated the cause 
 of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this 
 
 ijer. 6:16. 
 
 2Jer. 7:21-22; 8:8. In Jer. 33:18, the restoration of sacri- 
 fices is predicted as a feature of the good time to come. This 
 passage must be from another hand. The authenticity of Jer. 
 17:19-27, in which great stress is laid upon the observance 
 of the Sabbath, has also been questioned, but with less apparent 
 reason.
 
 18 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 to know me? saith Yahweh." (Jer. 22:15-16). The 
 pursuit of social righteousness, the prophet would say. 
 leads man to know God. 3 In our days, the opponents 
 of liberal religion are accustomed to decry it as "mere" 
 morality, which neglects the contemplative and institu- 
 tional sides of religion. This criticism may be partly 
 justified, for it is difficult to emphasize one aspect of 
 truth without underestimating others. But if it be a 
 fault to identify the knowledge of God with zeal for 
 righteousness, it is a fault on the right side and one to 
 which Jeremiah would have pleaded guilty with an easy 
 conscience. Let no man, the prophet tells us, glory in 
 his wisdom, his physical strength or his riches, but only 
 in his knowledge of God as the author of loving kindness, 
 judgment and righteousness. 4 
 
 Thus the old and the new covenants, according to 
 Jeremiah, both provided that Yahweh would be Israel's 
 God and would protect them, provided that their life 
 was virtuous and therefore godlike. In what way then 
 did the new covenant differ from the old one? Accord- 
 ing to the Jewish commentator, David Kimchi, the old 
 covenant was forcibly imposed upon the Israelites and 
 was violated by them, whereas the new one would be 
 written on their hearts, ever remembered and ever cher- 
 ished. This view of the prophet's meaning appears to 
 be essentially correct, although it needs some expansion. 
 When the new covenant between God and his people 
 
 3There is a similar thought in Hosea 4:1, where the prophet 
 appears to identify the knowledge of God with truth (i. e., 
 trustworthiness) and the love of our fellow men. 
 
 Jer. 9:23.
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 19 
 
 has been ratified, the law divine will be written in the 
 human heart, that is to say it will become part of every 
 man's nature "a principle operative from within." 
 (Driver). Thus understood, Jeremiah's doctrine of the 
 new covenant is of great practical importance. Not only 
 does it throw light upon the moral development of the 
 human race, but it shows us how to train our own will 
 so that we may be enabled to live the good life. The 
 one thing necessary for the future of Judaism is that 
 we should all become not merely "children of the cov- 
 enant" made in the flesh, but "children of the new cov- 
 enant," which is ratified by the heart. 
 
 What was the old covenant, the supersession of which 
 Jeremiah hoped to see? It was a covenant that rested 
 on fear. It threatened offenders against the law with 
 this penalty or that at the hands of God or man. Such 
 appeals to force and to the fear of force are, of course, 
 necessary for the stability of society. Some men would 
 disregard the very elements of decent conduct, unless 
 they feared the consequences of doing so. They do not 
 steal, lest they be sent to prison; they carry out their 
 contracts, lest they be mulcted in damages; they obey 
 the behests of public opinion, lest they suffer social os- 
 tracism. What is our judgment of such persons? Our 
 first thought about them is that such virtue as they pos- 
 sess is extremely insecure. At any moment they may 
 commit a convenient act of wrong-doing, if they think 
 that they can escape the watchful eye of their fellow- 
 men. Nor is the fear of divine retribution a more ef- 
 fective restraint. On the contrary, the effect is so re- 
 mote from the cause, that most men will hardly realize
 
 20 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 it "Because sentence against an evil work is not ex- 
 ecuted speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men 
 is fully set in them to do evil." (Eccl. 8: 11.) And 
 there is a deeper reason why fear is a very imperfect 
 aid to virtue. As a rule, the dread of punishment is a 
 restraining but not a propulsive force; it seldom pro- 
 duces an act of positive goodness and certainly is in- 
 capable of forming the higher types of character. Be- 
 sides, the man who does right through fear, makes such 
 show of virtue as he possesses contemptible. We feel 
 instinctively that his prudential morality is no morality 
 at all; if he only dared he would commit sins of un- 
 speakable vileness. Now there is a mean devil in all 
 of us, that must be tamed at times by the rod of terror, 
 but the higher side of our nature has to be developed 
 by quite other means. 
 
 Yet the reign of fear has been an indispensable stage 
 m human development. Untaught man flees from the 
 physical dangers which he knows not how to conquer; 
 otherwise his life would be forfeit. Only at a later 
 stage of his history does he learn to face peril and to 
 overcome it. So also does fear promote morality in 
 primitive man, who is restrained from the commission 
 of anti-social actions, lest he incur the wrath of his gods 
 and his tribe. Nor can fear be regarded as an emotion, 
 necessary to the savage and the would-be criminal, but ly- 
 ing outside our own personal experience. "Fears and hopes 
 accustom man to right conduct and thus form the basis 
 of social habit which is the actual foundation of all con- 
 duct in any case, and the necessary prerequisite for 
 sound reflection upon conduct and the attainment of
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 21 
 
 any higher sense of morality." 5 The acts which we fear 
 to do we cease to do and the desire to perform them 
 ceases in consequence. By degrees, the undesired action 
 becomes an action which we condemn. Thus our moral 
 sense emerges. We no longer need external compulsion, 
 for our conscience exercises upon us a more effective 
 restraint. Instead of doing right because we fear to 
 do wrong, we do right because we feel that we ought 
 to do right. Fear is replaced by reverence. We become 
 afraid not of divine punishment but of God Himself, 
 who speaks within our heart; we learn to feel awe of 
 what God is, rather than fear of what he might do. 
 The new covenant is coming into being. 
 
 So far so good, but more is required of us. If we do 
 right from a mere sense of duty, it cannot be said that 
 as yet the law of God has been written in our hearts. 
 The conception of duty almost implies that of reluctance. 
 When we perform a spontaneous act of virtue, the idea 
 that we ought to do it hardly shapes itself within our 
 minds: there is no divided self pulled this way or that, 
 until the stern voice of duty issues its edict, which we 
 dare not disobey. The perfect life of man is that in 
 which he does right because he wants to do right. Not 
 fear, not even reverence, but love has become the law 
 of his being. He loves God with all his might and his 
 neighbor as himself. "He does God's will in love and 
 rejoices in chastisement." 6 His desire for righteousness 
 is vital, persistent, passionate; "he bears all things, be- 
 
 5 See Schiller, Humanism, p. 255. 
 6Yoma 23a.
 
 lieves all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 7 
 Such is the ideal man, who has risen to the height of 
 his destiny. It is certain that none of us will attain to 
 such perfection, but we are poor creatures, unless we 
 struggle towards it. Nor will our efforts go unrewarded. 
 Every virtuous deed accomplished will make virtue 
 easier, so that in our best moments we shall be tuned 
 into harmony with the divine will. Thus through us 
 and through millions like us, will Jeremiah's dream of 
 the "new covenant" become a reality. 
 
 Another point should be noted. Under the new cov- 
 enant. God's law is to be written in the heart. Now 
 the heart (as the Talmud already remarks) 8 was con- 
 sidered by the ancient Israelites to be the seat of the in- 
 tellect: the word leb (heart) in Hebrew is often equiva- 
 lent to "brain" in English. The law in the heart is 
 therefore a law, approved by the intellect ; it is the prod- 
 uct of independent thought. The law in my heart or 
 in yours is far from being the whole of God's law, 
 but just so much of it as each of us can master. Thus 
 my religion and yours can never be exactly the same, 
 although they may resemble each other so closely, that 
 we can worship together and unite in the same con- 
 fession of faith. But minds, like faces, are never du- 
 plicated ; if we think at all about religion, each of us will 
 follow his own line of thought. Commonplace creatures 
 though we are, we must not suppose that our reflections 
 and heart-stirrings are empty and futile. True religion 
 
 ?1 Corinthians 13:7. 
 Berachoth 61a.
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 23 
 
 is always in the making and we shall play a part, how- 
 ever small, in this great process, if our spirit is attentive 
 to the divine promptings. It is a rare moment when 
 a great teacher arises with his new revelation about 
 God and goodness. But he does not come to the world 
 as an isolated phenomenon. His message might never 
 have formed itself within his consciousness, had it not 
 harmonized with the thought of his age; he would not 
 inspire his hearers with his own fervor unless he gave 
 utterance to thoughts that were already struggling for 
 expression within their hearts. The prophetic leader 
 needs a prophetic people; the new covenant must be 
 ratified by the rank and file in the army of the Lord. 
 
 Let us now consider another difference between the 
 old and the new covenants. As has been often pointed 
 out, Jeremiah was the founder of personal religion, for, 
 unlike the older prophets, he does not address himself 
 to Israel, as an organic totality, but to the Israelite. "In 
 place of the general body of the people which had hitherto 
 constituted the subject of religion, the individual now 
 comes forward with his claim to the most direct per- 
 sonal communion with his God. * * * The "new 
 covenant" can blossom and bear fruit wherever an Israel- 
 ite looks up to his God with a grateful and trustful 
 heart." 9 
 
 This was an immense service to spiritual progress, for 
 it enabled the religion of Israel to survive the ruin of the 
 Hebrew State. Jeremiah witnessed the break up of the 
 theocracy, which was never afterwards to be re-estab- 
 
 9Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible," Vol. 5, p. 697 (Kautzsch).
 
 24 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 lished except during the brief period of Maccabean as- 
 cendancy. Henceforward the ideal of national righteous- 
 ness became to Israel a far-off dream, that could only 
 be realized when Messiah should come. But the proph- 
 et's faith was unshaken. He proclaimed that Jahweh 
 would be revealed to every pious Israelite through his 
 own spiritual experience; thus every devout and loving 
 soul would know its God. 
 
 Rauschenbusch in his fine book on "Christianity and 
 the Social Crisis" has shown that Jeremiah's achievement 
 involved some loss. A religion, which is purely individ- 
 ualistic, is one-sided. The true scope of religion in- 
 cludes all kinds of human activity, whether exercised 
 by the individual or by society as a whole. No spiritual 
 faith is complete, which loses touch with the social ideal. 
 This truth, so nobly taught in the nineteenth century 
 by such men as Kingsley and Ruskin, is realized by our 
 finer and bolder spiritual leaders of today, who "carry 
 the religious spirit freely into the discussion of public 
 questions. * * * It was the evidence of religious 
 genius when Jeremiah carried religion out of national life 
 into the experiences of the suffering individual soul. To- 
 day it is evidence of spontaneous religious power if a 
 man can carry religion from private experience into 
 national life." 10 Thus Rauschenbusch calls upon the 
 Christian church to awaken the social conscience. The 
 synagogue should not be backward in the performance 
 of the same high duty. Judaism has indeed never lost 
 sight of the social aspects of religion. In our liturgy, 
 the worshipper identifies himself habitually with the con- 
 
 lORauschenbusch, op. cit. p. 364. See also pp. 27-32.
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 25 
 
 gregation of Israel; this sense of solidarity inspired the 
 lives of our fathers, as well as their prayers, during the 
 long night of persecution. It was a current saying that 
 all Jews are mutually responsible for one another. 11 
 In every centre of Jewish population, the ecclesiastical 
 heads of the community made provision for the relief 
 of suffering, for the education of poor children and 
 for the prevention of injustice and oppression in the 
 business life of their co-religionists. In short, the life 
 of a Jew, as a social unit, was fully controlled by the 
 synagogue, until the time of his civil emancipation. This 
 state of things has now ended. The Jew, as a subject 
 of the modern State, is set free from ecclesiastical con- 
 trol, and the most intimate relations of his life are 
 regulated by the secular authorities. If he resides in a 
 democratic country, the sphere of his duties has been 
 changed still further. In such a case, it is not enough 
 for him to obey the law as a passive subject, he is ex- 
 pected to prove himself an active citizen, who tries to 
 form a correct judgment of public affairs, so that he may 
 raise his voice or at least cast his vote in favor of good 
 measures and good men. Jewish ecclesiastical leaders no 
 longer put forward any pretension to exercise direct au- 
 thority in secular matters. Yet the development of the 
 synagogue, if its function be rightly understood, may well 
 be similar to that of the English throne, which has lost 
 its coercive power but acquired an increased influence. 
 Judaism must teach, as of old, that all civil authority 
 shall be exercised on religious principles and that the 
 
 "Shebuoth 39a.
 
 26 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 members of the chosen race are in honor bound to be 
 foremost amongst the champions of political and so- 
 cial Justice. Jeremiah's conception of the tender per- 
 sonal relation developed between the individual wor- 
 shipper and his God must supplement but not supplant 
 the grand thought of many another teacher in Israel that 
 a sound national life can only be based upon the eternal 
 principles of righteousness. 
 ***** 
 
 Jeremiah's theology, like that of all the Hebrew proph- 
 ets, is very simple. He teaches that Yahweh is the cre- 
 ator of earth and sky, the ruler of the nations, the hope 
 of Israel; above all, that He is a perfect moral Being, 
 the God of justice and mercy. And the prophet would 
 have us realize that we should strive to make these eth- 
 ical attributes our own; to know God we must walk in 
 Hfis ways. To repeat my former quotation from Jere- 
 miah's tribute to the good King: "He vindicated the 
 cause of the poor and needy * * * Was not this to 
 know Me?" In other words, the service of man leads 
 to the knowledge of God. 
 
 Now there are many varieties of experience which 
 bring the idea of God into the human consciousness. 
 What God is we cannot tell ; we must be content to know 
 what He is to us. This assurance comes to us, above 
 all, in moments of "perfect disenthralment" 12 from our 
 selfish preoccupations, when we lose ourselves in the 
 thought of all that is divine in the world around us. The 
 knowledge of God comes to different men in different 
 ways. Sometimes he reveals Himself to us through our 
 
 12 "That perfect disenthralment which is God." Lowell.
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 27 
 
 consciousness of the beauty and the wonder of Nature. 
 The student may become aware of God through his read- 
 ing, the philosopher through his speculations. To others, 
 God speaks through poetry, through music, through pic- 
 tures. The sense of the Divine comes to many a devout 
 soul in answer to prayer. "The Shechinah rests on man 
 at times of duteous joy," 13 declares the Talmud and it 
 is well said. But sorrow also, when rightly used, puri- 
 fies men and brings them nearer to God. The very tor- 
 ments of doubt that make us cry "O that I knew where 
 I might find Him" are often the birth-pangs of a faith 
 more vital than the old. "God," it has been beautifully 
 said, "is everywhere. The laughter of children, the 
 beauty of women and trees and hills, the affections of 
 home; our own high purposes, the honesty, courage, 
 heroism of our fellows a thousand daily experiences re- 
 veal him." 14 But above all, through love for men our 
 brothers we begin to realize the bonds of love that unite 
 us with our Father in Heaven and thus gain such knowl- 
 edge of God, as is possible to man. 
 
 But let us not trust overmuch to fine phrases. To 
 love mankind in the abstract may mean little or nothing. 
 Vital knowledge of God depends upon our love for the 
 living creatures of flesh and blood, whom we know and 
 can serve. Such love must be first shown to our own 
 nearest and dearest. We are not to imitate the lady 
 with an invalid mother, who went out as a hospital 
 nurse, because there was nothing to be done at home. 
 
 i3Shabbath 30b. 
 
 14 R. L. Bremner, The 'Modern Pilgrimage from Theology to 
 Religion, p. 29.
 
 28 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Yet there are other spheres of love besides the home. 
 We must beware, as Wordsworth tells us, of selfishness 
 
 "Disguised in gentle names 
 Of peace and quiet and domestic love." 
 
 "Many a man, in his affection and service to his 
 family, forgets that he belongs also to the collective 
 being; that he cannot without guilt sever himself from 
 the needs of his parish, of his nation, of his race, of 
 the poor, of the miserable, of the oppressed." (Farrar.) 
 It is true that we cannot love all men equally. On the 
 other hand, affection, like all moral qualities, is acquired 
 by practising it ; to be loving, we must love. By showing 
 kindness to all about us we shall grow in warmth of 
 heart and in breadth of sympathy, until love becomes the 
 supreme law of our being. So shall we be guided towards 
 the knowledge of God. The loving agnostic has a bet- 
 ter idea of the divine nature than has the unloving re- 
 ligionist. "We become united to God not by mystical 
 absorption but by partaking, whether consciously or un- 
 consciously, of that truth and justice and love which 
 He Himself is." (Jowett.) The world's greatest need 
 is a living faith in goodness, through which the Source 
 of all righteousness will be revealed to the hearts of 
 men. 
 
 Shakespeare has said of mercy that it blesses him that 
 gives and him that takes. This thought may be applied 
 to all forms of social service that are carried out in 
 the right spirit. Those who perform kindly deeds not 
 only bring joy into the lives of others but also gain 
 true happiness and peace of mind, such as the self- 
 indulgent can never experience. And many another spir-
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 29 
 
 itual grace is added to them. For example, social serv- 
 ice is often the means of bringing Jewish indifferentists 
 back to Judaism. It is sometimes argued that a man 
 who has not joined a Jewish congregation has forfeited 
 the right to be considered a Jew. This is a hard saying 
 and untrue. Much splendid service is rendered to Jew- 
 ish social and charitable institutions by men and women 
 who have become estranged from the synagogue. They 
 have ceased to worship the God of Israel, but they still 
 feel the racial consciousness, which impels them to serve 
 their fellow- Jews. Sometimes this feeling is the result 
 of a moribund Judaism, which bids fair to pass away 
 in the next generation. In many cases, however, it has 
 a redemptive force; those, who have been active in the 
 charitable work of the community, often return to the 
 synagogue afterwards. Their sense of brotherly duty 
 has brought them home at last. 
 
 We rejoice therefore in the sense of obligation that 
 binds Jew to Jew through fellowship of race, as we 
 rejoice in the wider brotherhood that binds man to man. 
 But we must not allow ourselves to be misled by the 
 spurious liberalism which asserts that everything de- 
 pends on deed and nothing upon belief. A man's creed 
 the formulary of belief which he accepts from his pas- 
 tors and masters may indeed have little enough to do 
 with his true self, but a vital faith in God, if he is priv- 
 ileged to possess it, has a determining influence upon 
 all that he does and is. Consider particularly the case 
 of the social worker, who aims to help the careless, slug- 
 gish, ignorant or impure to make a better use of life. 
 If he is a believer in God, he has a mighty weapon at
 
 30 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 his command. It is true that the success of his efforts 
 will not depend upon his moral admonitions, which are 
 only exceptional, but upon his personality, which will be 
 constantly felt. He will spend himself to give relief, 
 education, amusement or simple friendship to the neg- 
 lected and he will thus show them the loveliness of the 
 good life. Yet occasions for a direct moral appeal can- 
 not be entirely absent and fortunate is the social worker 
 who is conscious of a message to be spoken in the name 
 of the God of righteousness. In our efforts to strength- 
 en the weak against temptation and to make them feel 
 that virtue is worth a struggle, more can be achieved by 
 religious faith, which depends upon the love for a Per- 
 son, than by ethical faith, which ultimately requires us 
 to love an abstraction. Some thoughtful agnostics them- 
 selves regret that they cannot with sincerity appeal to 
 the sanctions of religion as an aid to social work. I 
 have heard it said, from this standpoint, that the weak 
 and ignorant still need God to keep them straight, al- 
 though educated men and women can be virtuous with- 
 out personifying the principle of virtue. But such a 
 view is superficial. Religion benefits not only those who 
 are weak but those who think themselves strong; it is 
 needed by the reformer as well as by those whom he 
 wishes to reform. Sooner or later, we are apt to be- 
 come disappointed with social work, unless the sense 
 of God's presence in humanity saves us from fainting 
 by the way. A purely secular outlook on life appears 
 unsatisfying in the long run. This fact is illustrated by 
 a touching passage in the Autobiography of John Stuart 
 Mill, assuredly one of the noblest rationalists who have
 
 THE NEW COVENANT 31 
 
 ever lived. He once asked himself whether, supposing 
 all the reforms he desired were attained that day, he 
 would be satisfied or happy and found himself com- 
 pelled to admit that he would not be. The history of 
 reform is the history of disappointment. Again and 
 again has the reformer in religion, politics or education 
 set out to make all things new, but the result, however 
 salutary, seldom or never comes up to his original ex- 
 pectation. The Messiah is always coming, but he never 
 comes. Utopia has often been born, but straightway 
 it dies. We survey the larger stretches of time and behold 
 "morning cometh but also night." There has been im- 
 mense material and moral progress amongst the higher 
 races of mankind, but crime, degradation and destitu- 
 tion arising in the very bosom of our civilization, still 
 present problems, which seem insoluble and are certainly 
 unsolved. And so we are assailed by doubts as to the 
 reality of progress. May it not be, we sometimes ask 
 ourselves, that humanity, like the population of Anatole 
 France's "Penguin Island" will double back upon its 
 traces and revert to barbarism through the operation 
 of some unknown law. How shall we release ourselves 
 from all such perplexities about ourselves, our fellow- 
 men and the future of the world? Whence shall our 
 help come? The only satisfying answer is that of the 
 Psalmist: Our help is from the Lord, who maketh 
 heaven and earth from the Lord, whose purpose may 
 be delayed, but come it will, for a thousand years in 
 His sight are but as yesterday. 
 
 How fair is our portion and how goodly our heritage, 
 if this faith be ours! It is for us to show that our
 
 32 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 trust in God is a vital force, which makes us labor zeal- 
 ously for the good of others. So shall we render true 
 service to man and through that service we shall grasp 
 the meaning of life and the knowledge of God.
 
 II 
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 
 
 We used to be taught that the Bible is God's book and 
 that in it He speaks to man. This is a childlike rep- 
 resentation, which appears inadequate to the modern 
 mind, yet it suggests more than one important truth. It 
 may well be said that God speaks to us not only through 
 the Bible but through every national literature, which 
 shows us how a people was inspired to fulfil its destiny 
 for its own benefit and ultimately for that of mankind. 
 I apply this statement not only to such nations as Greece 
 and Rome, whose "words have gone out to the end of 
 the world" and whose services to mankind are univer- 
 sally recognized, but even to the detested military des- 
 potisms of antiquity. The records of Assyria's military 
 prowess, of Babylon's commercial expansion and of the 
 wisdom of the Egyptians all prove that these master 
 nations achieved in their time something of substance 
 towards the development of civilization. Ruthless and 
 cruel they were; yet they were the first to teach man- 
 kind how to organize for a common cause, how to bring 
 order out of chaos and how to establish the supremacy 
 of law. Whilst each of these nations flourished it was 
 a chosen people; the ancient inscriptions of its kings 
 have this much in common with the Bible, that they re- 
 veal God, as He fulfils Himself in history. We may 
 say further that the world's best literature, ancient and 
 modern, is in some measure sacred to us, because it 
 
 33
 
 34 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 1 
 
 gives a picture of humanity struggling upwards towards 
 the light and of God, who does not leave Himself with- 
 out a witness in the hearts and lives of man. The more 
 parallels to the great sayings of the Bible that scholars 
 can discover amongst other nations far and wide, the 
 better we are pleased. 
 
 But if there are many Bibles, our Bible is for us the 
 Bible of Bibles. Considering it historically, we recog- 
 nize that the lofty ethical teaching therein contained 
 has guided the most progressive nations of the world 
 into the path of righteousness. Nor has its natural force 
 abated, although we now realize that it includes imper- 
 fect and temporary teachings besides those of lasting 
 inspiration. The Bible is as precious to us as ever, for 
 many of its words have a unique power to touch our 
 hearts and to uplift us into converse with heaven. We 
 are confident that it is inspired, because it inspires us. 
 As we study the Bible, we seem to hear the voice of 
 God speaking, as He did on Sinai according to Jewish 
 legend, to the souls of all the generations. 
 
 The interest of our Scriptures is many-sided and every 
 man can derive from them a message, appropriate to 
 his own needs. Judaism also, the religious system based 
 on the Bible, has been all things to all men. To some 
 it has meant observance, to others study, to others again 
 mystical contemplation. None of these aspects of Ju- 
 daism is destitute of enduring value ; they all correspond 
 to human needs, which call for satisfaction. But any 
 religion, worthy of the name, must be beyond everything 
 else a source of moral inspiration ; it must quicken within 
 us a sense of duty towards our higher self, towards the
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 35 
 
 members of our family and towards the rest of mankind. 
 Such is the religion of the Bible, which surrounds eth- 
 ical concepts with a warm emotional atmosphere. Time 
 has modified most of the methods, by means of which 
 these teachings are to be applied to human conduct, but 
 they still embody in substance the principles of a good 
 life. This is notably the case with those ethical concepts 
 of the Bible, which relate to social righteousness. The 
 progress of the world has depended and will continue 
 to depend upon the extent to which these great thoughts 
 are put into practice. Let us try therefore to discover 
 some of the leading doctrines of social obligation in the 
 Bible; if we read aright the wisdom of the ages, it will 
 help us to unravel our own moral perplexities. 
 
 There are two possible methods in which to approach 
 our subject. We might collect an anthology of Biblical 
 texts, selecting from the Law and the Prophets, from 
 the Psalms and the Wisdom Literature a number of 
 utterances, full of moral fervor and spiritual insight. 
 Such passages are a Bible within the Bible; they have 
 called many to righteousness throughout the ages. 
 Preachers and writers of edifying books are apt to con- 
 centrate all their attention upon these golden texts and 
 to ignore everything in the Bible, which does not satisfy 
 the moral aspiration of our own day. It would be pleas- 
 ant and easy to follow their example. 
 
 A moment's reflection, however, will show us that the 
 course just described is unscientific and misleading. The 
 ethical ideas of the Bible were not without antecedents; 
 they must be studied historically. Revelation is sub- 
 ject to natural law and the light of truth found its
 
 36 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 way, as with the gradual breaking of the dawn, to the 
 hearts of Israel's spiritual teachers. The Bible supplies 
 us with a record of this progressive revelation and the 
 highest ethical teachings therein contained will be bet- 
 ter appreciated if we compare them with the crude con- 
 ceptions from which they took their origin in a more 
 primitive age. Consider for example the teaching, 
 stated or implied in various parts of the Bible, concern- 
 ing the duty of truthfulness. From the dawn of Israel's 
 history, the violation of an oath was regarded as a 
 grave offense against God, but no blame attached orig- 
 inally to those who outwitted an enemy by telling an 
 untruth, when they were not put upon their oath. Abra- 
 ham and Jacob, as characterized in the earliest Hebrew 
 legends, tell lies without any apparent scruple. Moses 
 is represented as asking Pharaoh to sanction the tem- 
 porary departure of the Israelites into the wilderness for 
 the purpose of a religious festival, although he intended 
 from the first that they should never return to Egypt. 
 We read that the prophet Samuel was ordered by God 
 to prevaricate to the elders of Bethlehem, because his 
 life would have been endangered, if he had disclosed 
 the true purpose of his coming to their city. David's 
 perfidy to Uriah was severely condemned, but his sys- 
 tematic deception of Achish was probably regarded as 
 patriotic and praiseworthy. In the book of Kings, we 
 read that God Himself sent a lying spirit to Ahab's 
 prophets so that the wicked king might be enticed to 
 his destruction. 1 On the other hand, to deceive a fellow 
 tribesman was condemned from the first, especially if 
 
 II Kings 22:20-22.
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 37 
 
 the person deceived was one to whom obedience and 
 respect were due. The severe penalty inflicted upon 
 Gehazi for his attempt to deceive Elisha illustrates this 
 fact for the preprophetic period. The prophets built 
 upon these basic conceptions and greatly extended the 
 range of their application. "In the prophetical writings, 
 lying is conceived not merely as a principal kind, but 
 almost as the soul of wickedness, and so sometimes ap- 
 pears as the symbol of all moral evil." 2 In the exilic 
 and post-exilic sections of the Bible, the duty of truth 
 speaking is regarded as absolute. "Lie not one to an- 
 other." "The lip of truth shall be established for ever; 
 but a lying tongue is but for a moment." "Yahweh, who 
 shall sojourn in Thy Tabernacle? * * * He that 
 speaketh truth in his heart." 3 These are only a few 
 out of many passages, which show how richly the teach- 
 ing of the prophets bore fruit. Truth came to be re- 
 garded as the ideal virtue, which was characteristic of 
 God's people. Whereas the right hand of aliens was 
 a right hand of falsehood, the remnant of Israel would 
 not speak lies, neither would a deceitful tongue be found 
 in their mouth. 4 
 
 Or consider again how usage and feeling varied with 
 regard to the legitimacy of personal vengeance. Lamech, 
 Gideon and Samson, heroes of the old Hebrew sagas, 
 became illustrious because of their prowess in execut- 
 ing blood revenge upon their public and private en- 
 emies. "In earlier times when the lex talionis was in 
 
 2Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. Ill, p. 112. 
 
 3Lev. 19:11; Prov. 12:19; Ps. 15:1-2. 
 
 4 Ps. 144:8; Zeph 3: 13 (a post-exilic passage).
 
 38 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 unrestricted operation, no one stopped to ask whether 
 the slayer did the deed by accident or with malice pre- 
 pense. Joab took the life of Abner, although he knew 
 that his rival had killed his brother in self-defense." 5 
 This right of "wild justice" (once indeed an obligation) 
 was gradually limited. The unintentional homicide was 
 protected from injury; retaliation was restricted so that 
 one life only, that of the murderer himself, might be 
 exacted for a life; finally the avenger of blood was 
 not allowed to execute justice on the murderer until the 
 case had been investigated by an impartial tribunal. Sim- 
 ilarly men gradually realized that they must not avenge 
 personal injuries, inflicted on them. David was at first 
 inclined to wreak vengeance on Nabal, but he achieved 
 self-mastery and left his cause to God. In other cases 
 he displayed great magnanimity and forgave unreserved- 
 ly his personal foes. 6 Joseph, according to the Elohist, 
 accepted the repentance of his brethren in the most gen- 
 erous spirit. 7 Notable also is the early law, that proper 
 attention must be given to the ox or the ass of an enemy, 
 if it be found going astray or overburdened. 8 Such legis- 
 lation was probably in part the cause and in part the 
 effect of the humane disposition of the Hebrew nation, 
 whose kings, as judged by contemporary standards, were 
 noted for their mercy towards fallen enemies. 9 It is 
 
 SMitchell, The Ethics of the Old Testament, p. 115. 
 6The repulsive death-bed scene in 1 Kings: 2:1-9 is, we may 
 well suppose, unhistorical (See Encyclopaedia Biblica, p. 1034n). 
 7Gen. 50:15-21. 
 8Ex. 23:4-5. 
 n Kings 20:31.
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 39 
 
 true that atrocities were sometimes committed in war. 
 The extermination of the Canaanites never happened on 
 the scale recorded in the book of Joshua, but the total 
 population of cities captured by storm was sometimes 
 put to the sword under the influence of a religious frenzy. 
 It was not yet understood that we should hate idolatry, 
 but love the idolater. This partly explains the fact, 
 which at first sight seems very disappointing, that hos- 
 tility to national enemies is sometimes expressed with 
 peculiar emphasis after the exile. It was an era when 
 the pious Jew regarded with horror the idolatry and 
 moral corruption of the heathen world. Those who 
 were on the Lord's side, felt impelled to pray that Hte 
 should cut off the workers of iniquity by His just decree, 
 so that they might no longer vex or tempt the righteous. 
 Further, Israel, from the fall of Jerusalem until the 
 completion of the Canon, was so often subjected to 
 cruel oppression at the hands of the nations that we can 
 well understand the occasional outbursts of hatred, which 
 occur in certain psalms and in other Biblical writings. 
 It would not have been wonderful if the whole Jewish 
 nation, including its religious leaders, had cherished the 
 same feeling of blind hostility to the gentiles. But this 
 was not the case. After the exile, there began the dis- 
 persion of Israel, the lingering suffering of which was 
 not without its compensations. Foreign nations became 
 better known, sometimes proving repulsive to the Jews, 
 but sometimes also attractive. It is not surprising there- 
 fore that the later books of the Bible supply such striking 
 examples of particularistic and also of universalistic feel- 
 ing. In many a noble picture of the Messianic era, our
 
 40 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 seers and poets give expression to hopes not only for 
 their own nation but also for all mankind, who shall at 
 last be united in love to God and man through the 
 missionary efforts of Israel. Some Biblical writers pray 
 for the utter destruction of their natural enemies, but 
 others believe that the heathen will be redeemed through 
 chastisement: "Jahweh shall smite Egypt, smiting and 
 healing; and when they return unto Jahweh, He shall 
 receive their supplication and shall heal them." 10 We 
 even find, in one place, the remarkable doctrine that the 
 gods of the actual unregenerate nations were only so 
 many names of the one true God, so that heathen wor- 
 ship was in reality "incense offered unto His name and 
 a pure oblation." (Malachi 1:11). Thus much was done 
 by the finer spirits in post-exilic Israel to moderate the 
 bitterness of national feuds. As to the revenge of pri- 
 vate wrongs, it was henceforward forbidden without re- 
 serve. The message of the Book of Proverbs is that 
 we moist overcome hatred by love and take a noble 
 revenge upon our enemies by helping them in their need. 11 
 The most constant element in the ethical teaching of 
 the Bible is insistence on justice, especially on justice 
 to the helpless; this we find in almost every section, to 
 
 lOIsaiah 19:22; Compare Jer. 12:14-17, Isaiah 26:9, Zeph. 
 3:8-9 and perhaps Ps 83:16. 
 
 iiPrpv. 10:12; 25:21-22, etc. Compare also Job 31:29-30. 
 Fault is 9ften found with Prov. 24:17-18: "At the fall of the 
 enemy rejoice not, at his overthrow do not exult, lest Yahweh 
 see and be displeased and turn His anger from him." But the 
 meaning seems to be that the avenger is more guilty than the 
 enemy, on whom he takes vengeance ; the divine punishment will 
 therefore fall on his own head. So Toy in the International 
 Critical Commentary. In post-biblical literature, we find still
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 41 
 
 whatever age it belongs. It is a remarkable fact, how- 
 ever, that the portions of Scripture, written before the 
 book of Deuteronomy, contain few references to the 
 charitable relief of the poor. The bestowal of such 
 assistance is never recorded in the legends of the patri- 
 archs, which reflect the popular ideal of a perfect life in 
 the brave days of old ; nor do we read of it in the books 
 of Judges and Samuel. Elijah and especially Elisha 
 perform, according to the book of Kings, miracles of 
 benevolence, similar to those afterwards attributed to 
 Jesus ; these narrations and the actual facts that underlie 
 them, probably mark the gradual formation of a new 
 ideal of goodness. In the earliest code of Hebrew legis- 
 lation that contained in the so-called Book of the Cov- 
 enant (Exodus XXI XXIII) the only laws of char- 
 ity are the prohibition of usury and the command that 
 the land should lie fallow in the seventh year "that 
 the poor of thy people may eat and what they leave the 
 beast of the field shall eat." 12 Man's duty to man, as 
 conceived by Amos, Isaiah and Micah, is to be just and 
 to check injustice in others. 13 Hosea, it is true, gives a 
 
 loftier teaching with regard to the forgiveness of pur enemies. 
 Many illustrative passages are collected in the article "Enemy, 
 treatment of an," in the Jewish Encyclopedia. There is another 
 noble passage bearing on this subject in the Testaments 
 of the Twelve Patriarchs (T. Gad 6:3-7). Dr. R. H. Charles, 
 the leading authority on the apocalyptic books, considers this to 
 be "the most remarkable statement on the subject of forgive- 
 ness in all ancient literature." 
 !2Exodus 22:25-27; 23:11. 
 
 13 In Isaiah 32:8, the citizen of the ideal Messianic common- 
 wealth is characterised as Nadib, i. e., a noble, self-sacrificing 
 philanthropist. But this passage is almost certainly post-exilic 
 as is the great saying in Micah: "What does Yahweh re-
 
 42 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 deeper interpretation to the idea of virtue, which he 
 traces back to its source in a heart filled with dutiful love 
 (hesed) to God and man. Even so, Hosea considers 
 that the loving heart is, above everything, true to the 
 obligations of civil righteousness. When he complains 
 that there is no love in the land, he does not mean that 
 his contemporaries are merely harsh and unkind, but 
 that they show their loveless disposition by swearing, 
 lying, killing, stealing, adultery. 14 In short, Hosea real- 
 ized justice and love as interdependent. He admonished 
 his people to sow for themselves righteousness and to 
 reap the fruit of love. 15 
 
 The reason why so little is said about charity in the 
 older portions of the Bible is not far to seek. It is 
 because Hebrew civilization, like other ancient polities, 
 was partly founded on slavery. "Charity finds an ex- 
 tended scope for action only when there exists a large 
 class of men at once independent and impoverished. In 
 the ancient societies, slavery in a great measure replaced 
 pauperism and by securing the subsistence of a very 
 large proportion of the poor contracted the sphere of 
 charity." 16 The institution of slavery in Israel goes back 
 to the dawn of history. Ebed, the Hebrew word for 
 slave, is common in all parts of the Bible and is found 
 in the other Semitic dialects: sachir, on the other hand, 
 
 quire of thee? Only to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk 
 humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8). 
 
 HHosea 4:1-2. See Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel. 
 (second edition) p. 162. 
 
 15 Hosea 10:12. See Harper's note on passage in the Inter- 
 national Critical Commentary. 
 
 16 Lecky, History of European Morals, Vol. 2, p. 73.
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 43 
 
 first occurs in Isaiah in the sense of a mercenary sol- 
 dier, 17 and it is not applied to a wage-earner by any 
 writer earlier than the Deuteronomist. 18 In more ancient 
 times, the people carried out their agricultural or pas- 
 toral work with the aid of slaves, some of whom were 
 foreign prisoners of war, whilst others were of native 
 birth insolvent debtors, convicted thieves who could not 
 make good their theft, children sold into slavery by poor 
 parents, destitute paupers who had sold themselves as 
 bondmen. Now the lot of a slave, who lives in enforced 
 dependence upon the will of another man, can never be 
 secure or satisfactory, but he is much more happily 
 situated in some countries than in others. We gather 
 from a number of indications that the slaves who lived 
 in an ancient Israelite household, were treated as though 
 they were in some sort members of the family. Thus 
 the slave Eliezer, although a foreigner, was in Abra- 
 ham's confidence and was considered a possible heir to 
 his master. Abigail asked advice from one of her hus- 
 band's slaves at a time of danger. Saul was on terms 
 of intimacy with his slave. During their search for the 
 asses they exchanged ideas freely and they sat down 
 together at the feast. When Saul required some money 
 for the prophet's fee, his slave lent it to him; hence it 
 appears that slaves were in possession of property. For- 
 eign captives, subjected to task work "hewers of wood 
 and drawers of water" were in much worse case; but 
 even they possessed a recognized status in the commu- 
 
 I'See Isaiah 16:14; 21:16. So Jer. 46:21. 
 Deut. 24:14.
 
 44 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 nity, 19 and their interest was protected not only by cus- 
 tom but by law. In the Book of the Covenant, in Deu- 
 teronomy, and in the Priestly Code alike, we find pro- 
 visions, which became in course of time more and more 
 stringent, to save slaves from unfair treatment. The 
 laws for their protection in the Book of the Covenant 
 gave to a Hebrew slave the option of freedom after seven 
 years' service ; they make man-stealing a capital offense ; 
 they provide for the punishment of a master who beats 
 his slave to death and for the freedom of a slave de- 
 prived of an eye or tooth ; they secure for man-servants 
 and maid-servants a share of Sabbath rest. Some of 
 these laws were stumbling blocks to faith, whilst it was 
 still believed that the inspiration of the Bible was ab- 
 solute and unchanging. Special difficulty was felt in 
 understanding why sure vengeance should be taken upon 
 a master if his slave dies beneath the lash, but not if 
 the latter survived for a day or two, "for he is his 
 money." We now perceive that laws of this character 
 represent an advance on earlier usage which empowered 
 a master to kill his slave at pleasure and that they mark 
 an important stage in the evolution of ethics. 
 
 Kind to their slaves, the ancient Hebrews were also 
 kind to strangers. As we have seen, opportunities for 
 charity are restricted in a primitive community. It is 
 otherwise with the practice of hospitality, which is es- 
 pecially important at a time when the wayfarer is not 
 protected by any public authority and his sole reliance 
 is on the generosity of individuals. It was tempting to 
 
 19 See Deut. 29:11. This is a late passage, but it may register 
 a more ancient usage.
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 45 
 
 take advantage of a stranger's weakness, but mankind 
 learned to obey a nobler impulse. Human nature 
 changed ; the demand for a virtue created a supply of it. 
 The virtue of hospitality was highly esteemed amongst 
 many nations of antiquity. It plays a part of especial 
 importance in the religious life of the Israelites, who 
 gave to wayfarers generous entertainment and protec- 
 tion. 20 Nor was their kindness displayed only to tran- 
 sient guests. The ger or protected stranger who had 
 come to settle in the land of Israel was held to be 
 under the protection of the God of Israel. According 
 to the most ancient Hebrew legislation, such strangers 
 must not be oppressed and they must be permitted to 
 rest on the Sabbath if they render service in return for 
 their protection. Our feeling towards them must be 
 sympathetic: "ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing 
 ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." 21 
 
 Thus the keynote of Israel's earliest legislation was 
 justice mated with chivalry. It implied a general con- 
 ception of social ethics, already perfect and absolute, how- 
 ever imperfectly it was at first understood. Amos, 
 Hosea, Isaiah and Micah cannot rightly be described as 
 
 20The assassination of Sisera by Jael, as related in Judges 
 Ch. 4, involved a treacherous breach of hospitality and was in 
 contravention to the rules of morality, ancient as well as modern. 
 But the account is based on a misunderstanding, as can be seen 
 when it is compared with the poem in Judges, Ch. 5, where the 
 incident is described by a contemporary. "The act by which 
 Jael gained such renown was not the murder of a sleeping 
 man, but the use of a daring stratagem which gave her a 
 momentary chance to deliver a courageous blow." (Robertson 
 Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, p. 132.) 
 
 2lEx. 22:21; 23:9; 23:12.
 
 46 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 the "creators of ethical monotheism" for Yahweh had 
 long ago revealed Himself to Israel as the God of right- 
 eousness. These great prophets did not proclaim a new 
 morality, but they warned their people of impending ruin, 
 which could only be averted by the performance of du- 
 ties familiar but neglected. Their originality mainly 
 consisted in the peculiar emphasis, which they placed 
 upon God's absolute righteousness. He would punish 
 guilty Israel with a punishment at least as severe as 
 that inflicted on other sinful nations. Nor could the 
 divine wrath be appeased by the pious observance of 
 ritual requirements. The whole sacrificial system, with 
 its accompanying ceremonial, was swept aside by Amos 
 and the other pre-exilic prophets as utterly vain. They 
 believed that God required from his people righteousness 
 and nothing else. 
 
 The result of prophetic teaching, so far as it could be 
 embodied in a code, was the book of Deuteronomy. Here 
 ceremonialism comes into its own again; it plays a part 
 subordinate although important. "With priestly insti- 
 tutions the author has greater sympathy than the proph- 
 ets generally. * * * A right heart, instinct with true 
 affections towards God and man, is indeed the only re- 
 ligion which has value in his eyes: but he is aware that 
 external forms, if properly observed, may exercise and 
 keep alive a religious spirit, may guard Israel's "holi- 
 ness" from profanation and preserve it from contamina- 
 tion with heathen influences. 22 The Deuteronomist 
 gives an ethical and humanitarian tinge to some of the 
 
 22Driver on Deuteronomy (International Critical Commentary) 
 p. XXX.
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 47 
 
 ritual laws which he takes over from primitive custom 
 or earlier legislation. He admonishes his people that 
 they should show hospitality towards the destitute on 
 the occasion of religious festivals (Deut. 16:11, 14), and 
 that they should allow not only their own dependents 
 but also settlers in the land to rest on the Sabbath (5 : 14). 
 Very striking is the law in Deuteronomy with reference 
 to the privileges of gleaners (24: 19-21). There is a 
 widespread superstition that the last sheaf of corn left 
 in the field contains the corn spirit and that it is dan- 
 gerous to take it away with the others. The Deuter- 
 onomist makes no mention of this scruple, but he makes 
 a good use of the custom based upon it and reserves 
 the gleanings in field, olive-garden and vineyard for the 
 enjoyment of the settler, the orphan and the widow. To 
 these and other dependent classes of society he also 
 assigns a tithe of all the crops in every third year 
 (14:29; 26:12-15). Similarly he directs that a liberal 
 gift be rendered to Hebrew slaves on the occasion of 
 their manumission. (15:13-14). 
 
 In Deuteronomy, laws of justice to all and particularly 
 fo the poor are more detailed and elaborate than be- 
 fore. There are besides many regulations that tend to 
 foster the growth of kindness and forbearance to others 
 in all the relationships of life. Man, declares the Deu- 
 teronomist, should walk in God's ways (10:12). I think 
 the Rabbis rightly explain this to mean that we should 
 imitate the divine attributes and be merciful even as 
 God is merciful. 23 Accordingly the lawgiver warns us 
 
 23 See Sifre on Deut. 10:12. The thought is clearly involved in 
 the teaching of Deut. 10:17-19. "Yahweh loves the stranger. 
 . . Love ye also the stranger."
 
 48 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 not only to treat others generously but also to enter in- 
 to their feelings lest they be exposed to shame. Thus a 
 creditor is not given the right of entry into the bor- 
 rower's house in order to take away a pledge as security 
 for the debt ; he must wait until it is brought out to him 
 (24:10-11). Tools of trade must not be taken in pledge 
 at all (24:6); a poor man's mantle may be so taken, 
 but it must be restored at night time, "that he may sleep 
 in his garment and bless thee" (24:12-13). Excessive 
 corporal punishment is forbidden, "lest thy brother be 
 dishonored before thy sight" (25:3). The Israelite must 
 provide a parapet to his house top, lest he endanger 
 human life (22:8). If he finds lost property, he must 
 restore it to his "brother," that is to say, not only to a 
 fellow Israelite, but also to the member of a kindred 
 race (22:1-3). Amongst the "brethren" of Israel, the 
 Edomite is specifically included (23:7). "The owner 
 of a vineyard or field of corn is not to grudge the passer- 
 by a few grapes or ears of corn if he plucks them as he 
 walks along; on the other hand the passerby is not 
 to take advantage of the liberty thus granted to him, 
 for the purpose of enriching himself unreasonably at 
 his neighbor's expense." 24 Runaway slaves are not to 
 be handed over to their masters, but must be given free 
 right of settlement in the land (23:15-16); to harbor 
 such a fugitive was a capital offense according to the 
 code of Hammurabi, so that this law at least cannot 
 have been derived from Babylon. The Deuteronomist 
 teaches that we must show kindness not only to man 
 
 24Driver, op. cit. on Deut. 23 :24-25.
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 49 
 
 but also to beast; we must allow our cattle to rest on 
 the Sabbath and we must not muzzle the ox when he 
 is treading out the corn (5 :14, 25 :4). In short, we must 
 not "harden our heart or shut our hand" from any 
 that need our help. 
 
 The ethical teaching of Jeremiah followed the same 
 lines as those pursued by the earlier prophets. Like 
 them, he warned his people against the oppression of 
 the weak, against bloodshed and theft, adultery and 
 falsehood. But he realized that it is not enough to de- 
 nounce outward manifestations of wrongdoing. The 
 root of sin is within the heart, which must be cleansed 
 and dedicated to God, before true religion is possible 
 to man. Hence he is led to his doctrine of the "new 
 covenant," which we have already considered in some 
 detail. 
 
 Ezekiel's conception of morality is best illustrated by 
 the following passage, in which he characterizes a typi- 
 cally righteous man: "If a man be just and do that 
 which is lawful and right, and has not eaten upon the 
 mountains" (i. e. he has not shared in the corrupt sac- 
 rificial feasts at the mountain shrines) "neither has he 
 lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, 
 neither has he defiled his neighbor's wife, neither has 
 he come near to a woman in her separation; 25 and he 
 has not wronged any, but has restored to the debtor 
 his pledge, has spoiled none by violence, has given his 
 
 25 This prohibition which does not occur in the earlier Law- 
 literature, is first found in Lev. 20:18 (in the Holiness Code). 
 It rests, however, on a Taboo, almost universal, and dates 
 from remote antiquity. See Robertson Smith, Religion of the 
 Semites, p. 447.
 
 50 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with 
 a garment; he that has not given forth upon usury, 
 neither has taken any increase, that has withdrawn his 
 hand from iniquity, has executed true judgment be- 
 tween man and man, has walked in my statutes, and has 
 kept my judgments to deal truly; he is just, he shall 
 surely live, saith the Lord Yahweh." (Ezek. 18:5-9). 
 Thus virtue, as the prophet understands it, mainly con- 
 sists in obedience to the laws of Deuteronomy, that 
 prohibit idolatry, impurity of worship and of life, in- 
 justice and oppression. But Ezekiel is the first to men- 
 tion amongst the characteristics of the good man, that 
 he "gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked 
 with a garment" not only at harvest time or at the 
 celebration of a festival, but as one of the regular duties 
 of daily life. Writing in the same spirit Ezekiel de- 
 clared that the guilt of Sodom consisted in this, that 
 its citizens in their pride and prosperity gave no sup- 
 port to the poor (Ezek. 16:49). The same lesson is 
 expanded in form and rendered more appealing by the 
 unknown prophet to whom we owe Isaiah 58 the chap- 
 ter about the keeping of a true fast: "Is it not to share 
 thy bread with the hungry and to bring the outcast 
 poor into thy house? When thou seest the naked, thou 
 shall cover him and hide not thyself from thy own 
 flesh?" A beautiful spirit is at work here, but it is not 
 the same as that of the earlier teachers. Amos would 
 have said, Right the wrongs of the outcast poor: the 
 prophet of the exile pleaded that their necessities should 
 be relieved. A new concept of righteousness was being 
 evolved, or perhaps we should say that the ideal of
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 51 
 
 righteousness was now regarded from a fresh angle. 
 After the return from captivity, the administration of 
 justice was only partly controlled by Israelites, who 
 must needs submit to the caprices of alien rulers. Hence 
 it was now impossible to root out oppression by means 
 of human activity. The immediate task of good men 
 was to relieve the victims of oppression and to pray 
 for the speedy coming of a golden age, when the world 
 would be saved by a divine catastrophe. As time went 
 on the typical good deed was more and more regarded 
 as an act of mercy rather than of justice. We already 
 see an approach to this conception in the psalmist's pic- 
 ture of the ideal man, who "disperses and gives to the 
 poor" so that "his righteousness endures for ever" (Ps. 
 112:9). But righteousness and mercy are not as yet 
 identified: "all that is meant is that mercifulness is one 
 feature of the ideal righteous character." 
 
 The new conception of righteousness, that gained 
 ground after the exile, supplemented but did not sup- 
 plant the moral ideals of the great prophets from Amos 
 to Jeremiah. More stress was now laid upon generosity, 
 but the claims of justice were not forgotten. A few 
 voices were still heard to declare that nothing matters 
 except obedience to the behests of morality. A psalmist 
 taught that man's fellowship with God depends entirely 
 upon the fulfilment of his duty to his neighbor, no 
 mention being made of any ritual requirements (Ps. 15). 
 Zechariah informed the returning exiles that it was a 
 matter of indifference whether they fasted or feasted; 
 to win God's favor, they must speak the truth, set up 
 wholesome justice, plan no evil against others and love
 
 52 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 no false oath (Zech. 8:16). But the dominant teach- 
 ing of the time was different. Religious enthusiasm, di- 
 vorced through force of circumstances from national life, 
 found expression in personal piety, in ceremonial ob- 
 servance and in devotion to the sacred book of the Law. 
 Not that the ethical side of religion was forgotten. The 
 central precept of the time was "Be holy" and holiness 
 included man's duty to man as well as his real or imag- 
 inary duty to God. In the name of holiness, he ate no 
 tabooed meat and wore no coat made from tabooed cloth ; 
 but also in the name of holiness, he was called upon 
 to be honorable, considerate, just and pure. It is to 
 the age of Ezekiel that we owe the noble moral teach- 
 ing in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, including the 
 immortal precepts, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
 self," "Thou shalt love the foreign settler as thyself." 
 (Lev. 19:18, 34). They are the whole Law and all 
 else is commentary. 
 
 In the psalms, the teaching of social ethics is mostly 
 indirect. They include a few didactic poems, designed to 
 teach the fear of the Lord. But usually they are ad- 
 dressed not to man, but to God. As he begins his 
 prayer or praise, the heart of the psalmist is filled with 
 the remembrance of the divine glory, with gratitude for 
 the protection granted him, with longing for forgiveness 
 and for the joy of God's presence within the soul. His 
 intent is to seek after grace rather than to teach others. 
 But the words of many a psalm are a source of moral 
 inspiration, that has never failed the children of men 
 during the long ages that have passed since it was writ- 
 ten. When we read of God, as the psalmists picture
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 53 
 
 Him, just, glorious and loving, hating wickedness and 
 befriending the lowly, we become conscious of an ideal, 
 towards which we would fain struggle upwards in our 
 dealings with our fellows. 
 
 The book of Proverbs, on the other hand, is didactic 
 from beginning to end. Its aim is to attach its readers 
 to "wisdom," that is to say, to a method of life based 
 on practical good sense and on the fear of God. In 
 contradistinction from the books of the prophets and 
 from nearly all the psalms, it takes no account of na- 
 tional life; it instructs individuals how to live good lives 
 whether in a public or private station, and warns them 
 to be clean livers, temperate in eating and drinking, mod- 
 est and industrious. The demands of social ethics also 
 receive attention. We are taught to behave justly and 
 sincerely, to refrain from slander, to be patient, good- 
 tempered and forgiving. There is little that is new in 
 this advice, but it was never before expressed in Jewish 
 literature in such a spirit of universalism. Wisdom here 
 calls not to Israel but to mankind; her voice is to all 
 the sons of men. For our present purpose, the most in- 
 teresting verses in the book are those dealing with the 
 relationship between rich and poor. A few proverbs 
 describe the situation from the standpoint of a detached 
 and rather worldly observer, as when we are told that 
 "the poor -man uses entreaties, but the rich answers 
 roughly" (Prov. 18:23), or that "the poor man is hated 
 even by his neighbor" (14 :20). But this unsympathetic 
 attitude, which the sage has observed in many rich men, 
 is condemned by him:
 
 54 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 "He who despises his neighbor sins, 
 But happy he who has pity on the poor" (14:21). 
 
 Almsgiving is frequently commended as a virtuous act, 
 rewarded by God, for "whosoever has pity upon the 
 poor lends to Yahweh" (19:17). The ideal housewife 
 is charitable and sympathetic ; "she spreads out her hands 
 to the poor" and "kindly counsel is on her tongue" 
 (31 :20, 26). Very notable also is the following proverb : 
 
 "The rich and the poor meet together, 
 Yahweh is the maker of them all" (22:2). 
 
 "The meaning is: there are social differences among 
 men ; but all men, as creatures of God, have their rights 
 and their natural obligations of respect and kindness" 
 (Toy). The proverb gives fine expression to a funda- 
 mental truth. 
 
 The book of Job is inspired by noble humanitarian 
 sentiment. Its theme is the undeserved affliction of the 
 righteous. The circumstances of the poet's age forced 
 this perennial problem into special prominence. Towards 
 the end of the Babylonian captivity, the pious Israelite 
 had believed that his period of trial would soon be over 
 and that the glory of Yahweh was about to shine upon 
 him in the sight of all flesh. These anticipations of sal- 
 vation had not, however, been realized after the return 
 of the exiles. Israel under the Persians was still op- 
 pressed: "the earth was given into the hand of the 
 wicked" and there seemed no prospect of release. The 
 world was out of joint and it seemed most unlikely that 
 any one would be born to set it right. The perplexing 
 questions, that troubled the mind of his contemporaries, 
 are presented to us by the author of Job as the laments
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 55 
 
 of a blameless sufferer, who speaks not only in his own 
 name but in that of afflicted humanity. As we read the 
 book, the poet makes us share some of his own sym- 
 pathy with his fellow-men. Again and again, Job de- 
 scribes his woeful plight with simple pathos and 
 arouses our pity for all who suffer as he did, so that 
 we feel a call to give them relief. It is a very fine 
 thought of the poet, when he shows us that Job, in 
 the intensity of his own agony, was able to feel for 
 others. 26 His picture of the submerged masses in town 
 and country is painfully realistic; would that it were 
 more completely obsolete even now! We are shown 
 the vagrants, who herd together like wild asses in the 
 wilderness, with no shelter except the rocks and caves 
 and with no food except the roots and garbage of the 
 desert. Others are forced by hunger into complete 
 slavery or into a condition of bondage, which amounts 
 to the same thing. They toil on their masters' estates 
 and starve in the midst of plenty : 
 "They go naked without clothing, 
 Themselves hungry, they carry sheaves, 
 They make oil within the walls of these men, 
 They tread wine presses but themselves suffer 
 
 thirst." 
 And city life is no better: 
 
 "From out the city the dying groan,, 
 And the soul of the wounded cries out." 
 
 26See Job Ch. 24. In the book of Ecclesiastes also, the thouffht 
 of man's inhumanity to man excites in the author a deep 
 sympathy with the oppressed, who have none to dry their tears.
 
 56 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Job speaks, as it has been finely said, as a very tribune 
 of the oppressed masses. His words reach down the 
 ages and plead the cause of the poor. 
 
 Very beautiful again is Job's description of his own 
 happy past, when he was honored and beloved by all on 
 account of his benevolence and love of justice: 
 
 "When the ear heard of me, it called me blessed, 
 And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me : 
 Because I delivered the poor that cried, 
 The fatherless also that had none to help him. 
 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came 
 
 upon me, 
 
 And I caused the widow's heart to sing with joy. 
 I was eyes to the blind, 
 And feet was I to the lame. 
 I was father to the poor, 
 
 And the cause of him whom I knew not I searched 
 out." 
 
 (Job 29:11-16). 
 
 This same sense of social obligation is apparent in 
 Job's closing speech (Job 31), in which he protests his 
 innocence of mortal sin. He lays special stress upon 
 the guilt which he would have incurred, had he ignored 
 the rights and claims of humanity. In dealing with his 
 slaves, he had never abused his power, for he realized 
 that the slave was also a child of God 
 "Did not He that made me in the womb make him ? 
 And did not One fashion us both?" 
 
 He had ministered to the necessities of his fellow 
 creatures with an unsparing hand. He had shared his 
 daily bread with the poor and clothed them with the
 
 SOME BIBLICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 57 
 
 fleeces of his sheep. He had not allowed the stranger 
 to sleep in the street, but had opened his doors for all 
 who needed shelter. And Job's words seem to end hope- 
 fully. His kindness and just conduct towards his fel- 
 low men must vindicate him at last. "Once more he 
 throws himself on God no longer in passionate expostu- 
 lation, but in pleading humility" (Froude). Thus his 
 ears are opened to hear the voice of God, who bids 
 him contemplate the beauty and wonder of nature and 
 rest assured that eternal goodness lies concealed in the 
 heart of all things. 
 
 One further concept of social duty, as presented in the 
 Bible, must not be forgotten. Besides saving our fellow 
 men from suffering, we must save them from sin. Such 
 is the teaching of the Holiness Code : "thou shalt surely 
 rebuke thy neighbor, and not bear sin because of him" 
 (Lev. 19:17), by omitting to point out his faults. Mal- 
 achi's ideal priest so gained men's confidence that they 
 sought instruction at his mouth and "he turned many 
 away from iniquity" (Mai. 2:6). The penitent psalm- 
 ist resolved that he would use his own experience of 
 sin and of deliverance from sin to reclaim others who 
 had fallen: 
 
 "I will teach transgressors Thy ways, 
 And sinners shall be converted unto Thee." 
 
 (Ps. 51:13). 
 
 Above all, the conviction is cherished in some exilic 
 and post-exilic prophecies, that Israel would become the 
 teacher of religion to the world. "The remnant of Jacob 
 shall be in the midst of many nations as dew from Jah- 
 weh" (Micah 5:7), which gives life and refreshment.
 
 58 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 From Zion would go forth instruction to establish peace 
 universal amongst men. 27 Israel or a company of faith- 
 ful men in Israel was appointed to be the servant of 
 Yahweh, who should "set true religion in the earth." 
 In the performance of this great mission, the servant of 
 Yahweh would not shrink from shame and persecution. 
 His faith would be far higher than that of Job, for he 
 would understand the beauty of self-sacrifice and accept 
 adversity in a gentle and uncomplaining spirit. The 
 chastisement that brought healing to his fellow men 
 would be upon him and recovery would come to them 
 through his wounds. 28 The details of the picture are 
 left undetermined; we are not told in what way the 
 servant of Yahweh bears the diseases of others and the 
 burden of their guilt. We find no formulated doctrine 
 of vicarious punishment or even of vicarious suffering. 
 But there is no mistaking the ideal which the poet makes 
 us admire in the creature of his imagination and calls 
 upon us to realize, so far as we can, in our own lives. 
 The servant of Yahweh 
 
 " . . rejects the lore 
 Of nicely calculated less or more." 
 He does not count the cost to himself, if he can help 
 his fellow men. He is willing to die, if need be, that 
 others may live. 
 
 27Isaiah 2:1-4, Micah 4:1-3. 
 
 28The passages about the servant of Yahweh, referred to, are 
 Isaiah 42:4; 50:6; 53:4-7.
 
 Ill 
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 
 
 The charge is commonly made against Judaism that 
 its conception of righteousness is harsh and narrow. It 
 is said that Judaism lays stress upon justice, while Chris- 
 tianity alone exalts the surpassing quality of mercy. 
 But this criticism ignores the evolution of ethics in the 
 history of Israel. Before the exile, the sterner side of 
 virtue was made to stand in strong relief, because the 
 leading thought of prophets and lawgivers was that of a 
 whole nation, founded on righteousness. In public ad- 
 ministration, the supreme requisite is justice, for it is 
 only through justice that the weak will obtain merciful 
 treatment. Chivalry and humane conduct were, from 
 the first, included in the Israelite's conception of morality, 
 but the importance of these qualities was, as we have 
 already seen, particularly emphasized after the Babylo- 
 nian captivity. Henceforward Israel never regained its 
 political independence except for a brief space in the 
 days of the Maccabees; in these changed circumstances 
 it was inevitable that ideals of conduct should also 
 change. The phase of righteousness, that came into 
 special prominence was that which one individual can 
 
 59
 
 60 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 practice towards another. The summit of virtue, as 
 described by the Rabbis, is attained by the merciful man 
 who renders to his neighbor his neighbor's due and more 
 besides. Severely condemned is he who insists on his 
 strict legal rights and says, "What is mine is mine, and 
 what is thine is thine." 5 The righteous man must be 
 generous besides being just. 
 
 Thus the conception of "righteousness"was varied in 
 the course of time, and the Hebrew word tsedakah, 
 expressing the idea of righteousness, underwent a cor- 
 responding change of meaning. In the Bible, tsedakah 
 stands for justice and for the blessings and victories 
 whereby a just cause is vindicated; or it means the sum 
 total of moral qualities amongst which justice and mercy 
 are both included. But in post-biblical Hebrew, this 
 word denotes any exercise of benevolence that goes be- 
 yond the letter of the law. 6 So far from including the 
 quality of justice it actually excludes it: "where judg- 
 ment is, there is no room for tsedakah, and where tseda- 
 kah is, there is no judgment. 7 In the Jewish prayer 
 book, God is besought to deal in tsedakah (charity) and 
 in kindness with his creatures who cannot plead for their 
 justification good deeds of their own. 8 The usual mean- 
 ing of tsedakah in post-biblical Hebrew is still more 
 specialized; as a rule it denotes almsgiving. This usage 
 probably appears already in one of the chapters of Dan- 
 
 SAboth V:13. Many other illustrative passages are quoted in 
 Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, pp. 215-216. 
 
 6 The word tsedek, however, continues to denote justice and 
 righteousness in post-biblical Hebrew. 
 
 7 Sanhedrin 6b. 
 
 ^Authorized Daily Prayer-Book (ed. Singer), p. 57.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 61 
 
 iel, written in Aramaic: "Break off thy sins by tsidkah 
 and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor." 9 
 Tsidkah may here mean "good deeds," but the parallelism 
 of the verse rather suggests that it has acquired the 
 special sense of almsgiving, which so often belongs to 
 it in subsequent literature. This change in the use of 
 language corresponded with the change of thought, al- 
 ready described. Benevolence came to be regarded as the 
 highest quality which man can practice towards man; 
 the faithful Jew was eager to give expression to his kind- 
 ly disposition by liberality to the poor. He regarded 
 almsgiving as righteousness in action. 
 
 Benevolence is virtuous, but it is certainly not the 
 whole of virtue ; still less should almsgiving be identified 
 with righteousness. By laying so much stress on mercy, 
 the Jews might be thought to have neglected the claims 
 of justice, upon which their great prophets had insisted 
 so strongly. Such a charge might be substantiated 
 against some degenerate Jews but not against 
 the teachers of Judaism. The merciful deeds of 
 an unjust man in Israel were considered as worthless. 
 "If a man steals with one hand," said the Rabbis, "and 
 gives charity with the other hand, he will not be ac- 
 quitted in the hereafter." 10 True charity must be mated 
 with justice: "whosoever practices charity and justice 
 
 9 Daniel 4 :27. In the original Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus, writ- 
 ten at a date earlier than that of Daniel tsedakah sometimes 
 means "almsgiving" and sometimes "righteousness." 
 
 10 Midrash on Prov. 11 :21. Cf. "He that sacrifices of a thing 
 wrongly gotten, his offering is made in mockery" (Ecclesiasticus 
 34:18).
 
 62 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 fills as it were the world with love." 11 We may say 
 indeed that Judaism regards charity as a branch of jus- 
 tice. According to the Bible the poor man, who is our 
 brother and our flesh, has an actual right to our as- 
 sistance. Those who fail to render the charitable gifts, 
 specified in the Mosaic Law, are called by the Rabbis 
 robbers of the poor. 12 It was considered to be the 
 privilege of a rich Jew, and not merely his duty, to aid 
 his brethren. "The poor man," said R. Joshua (second 
 century) "does more for the householder than the house- 
 holder does for him. The one receives material assist- 
 ance, the other is rewarded by God for a meritorious 
 deed." 13 This conception exerted upon the Jewish peo- 
 ple an influence which was not an unmixed blessing, but 
 it emphasized the vital truth that charitable deeds are 
 not mere works of supererogation. As the Rev. Morris 
 Joseph has finely written: "The love which is en- 
 joined upon us is seen to be, after all, but another 
 name for justice. Forgiveness, forbearance, charity, 
 merciful acts of every kind, become the rightful due 
 of our fellow-man, who, like ourself, is a unit of the 
 human brotherhood. * * * It is because charity is 
 given so often as an act of grace and not as a debt due 
 to the poor, that it is given so ungraciously, and thus 
 fails to achieve its great end the closing of the rent 
 that divides the social organism." 14 Charity, as enjoined 
 by Judaism, was not tainted by this defect. 
 
 HSuccah 49b. 
 
 i2Aboth V:12. 
 
 "Leviticus Rabbah, Ch. 34. 
 
 ^Judaism as Creed and Life, pp. 399-400.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 63 
 
 Although the Rabbis magnify the merit of almsgiving, 
 they lay even greater stress upon benevolence as a gen- 
 eral rule of life. According to one of the most ancient 
 sayings in the Mishna, the world was created to serve 
 three ends the study of the Law, the worship of God 
 and the bestowal of kindness. 15 In three respects, say 
 the Rabbis, kindness excels almsgiving: we can show 
 kindness, not only by gracious gifts, but also by gra- 
 cious deeds and words ; we can be kind to rich and poor 
 alike; we can manifest our kindly disposition even in 
 our treatment of the dead, when we busy ourselves in 
 their honorable burial. 16 In the same passage of the 
 Talmud, R. Eleazar 17 (third century) is recorded as pro- 
 nouncing almsgiving to be greater than all the offerings; 
 but he declares it to be rewarded by God only so far 
 as it contains the element of personal kindness. If we 
 would dry the tears of those who suffer, the first re- 
 quirement is a gracious disposition. This doctrine, which 
 pervades the whole of Rabbinic literature, is finely ex- 
 pressed in Ecclesiasticus (the book of Ben Sira), com- 
 posed at the dawn of the period, when Scribe and Phari- 
 see were about to replace prophet and psalmist as Is- 
 rael's spiritual leaders. The following scattered verses 
 show how noble a type of benevolence was preached 
 by Ben Sira: 
 
 iSAboth 1:2. 
 i<5Succah 49b. 
 
 17 R. Eleazar b. Pedat was himself exceedingly poor and fre- 
 quently sang the praises of charity. For a collection of his 
 sayings on the subject, see Jewish Ency. s. v. Eleazar II.
 
 64 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 "Reject not the supplication of the afflicted, 
 
 Neither turn away thy face from a poor man." (4 :4) . 
 
 "Fail not to be with them that weep, 
 
 And mourn with them that mourn. 
 
 Be not slow to visit the sick. 
 
 For that shall make thee to be beloved" (7:34-35). 
 
 "My son, blemish not thy good deeds, 
 
 Neither use uncomfortable words when thou givest 
 anything" (18:15). 
 
 "Lo, is not a word better than a gift, 
 
 But both are with a gracious man" (18:17). 
 All this teaching was repeated and emphasized by the 
 sages of Talmud and Midrash. In particular, it was a 
 favorite thought that a gracious word is as essential as 
 a gracious deed. 18 
 
 In the book of Tobit, probably written in the second 
 century B. C, great stress is laid on the meritoriousness 
 of almsgiving. The following passage is characteristic: 
 "Give alms of thy substance ; and when thou givest alms, 
 let not thine eye be envious, neither turn thy face from 
 any poor, and the face of God shall not be turned away 
 from thee. If thou hast abundance, give alms accord- 
 ingly: if thou hast but a little be not afraid to give 
 according to that little: for thou layest up a good treas- 
 ure for thyself against the day of necessity. Because 
 that alms do deliver from death and suffer not to come 
 into darkness." We find here two conceptions that were 
 greatly developed in subsequent Jewish teaching. All 
 men, whether rich or poor, are taught to give charity, 
 
 i8Cf. Baba Bathra 9b, Sifre on Deut. 15:10.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 65 
 
 so far as their means permit. "Charity is like a coat 
 of mail, made up of many small scales." 19 "Even the 
 poor man," said Mar Zutra, "who is himself supported 
 by charity, should give charity to others." 20 Indeed the 
 sacrifices of the poor, like the widow's mite in the New 
 Testament, were held to be more acceptable than any 
 others for it was their very life that they rendered. 21 
 Equally characteristic, if less admirable, is the doc- 
 trine, found in Tobit as already in Ecclesiasticus, that 
 there is an atoning power in almsgiving. "Righteous- 
 ness (tsedakah) delivers from death," we read in the 
 Book of Proverbs (10:2). Tobit quotes this verse, 
 but understands tsedakah to mean almsgiving. 22 This 
 false exegesis, probably exemplified rather than orig- 
 inated by Tobit, has been fraught with important re- 
 sults to Judaism and Christianity. The belief that alms- 
 giving delivers from "death" (in whatever sense under- 
 stood) supplied a new stimulus for liberality. Jewish 
 teachers developed the idea in two directions. Some- 
 times they enlarged upon the redemptive power of alms- 
 giving, through which our life on earth becomes long 
 and prosperous and we escape a premature or violent 
 death; 23 sometimes they extolled it as a means of salva- 
 tion from the pangs of hell. The first of these con- 
 ceptions notwithstanding its crudity, had an immense 
 
 I'Baba Bathra 9b. 
 20Gittin 7b. 
 2iMenachoth 104b. 
 22See Tobit 12:9. 
 
 23Stories of miraculous escape from violent death through 
 a charitable deed are given in Shabbath 156b.
 
 66 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 influence on the Jewish consciousness, so long as be- 
 lief in the miraculous was an active force in religious 
 life. In Ecclesiasticus and Tobit, deliverance from death 
 is to be understood quite literally, for the authors of 
 these books knew nothing of divine retribution in an- 
 other world; they still held the ancient Hebrew belief 
 against which Job so strongly protested, that virtue re- 
 ceives a visible reward on earth. When belief in the 
 Resurrection became general, it did not extinguish men's 
 hope for earthly happiness, which could be secured some- 
 times if not always by almsgiving and other deeds pleas- 
 ing to God. "For four causes a man escapes his doom; 
 because of almsgiving, prayer, change of name, change of 
 conduct." 24 When Benjamin the righteous was about 
 to die, the angels interceded for him because of his lib- 
 erality to a certain widow and twenty-two years were 
 added to his life. 25 When R. Meir visited the town of 
 Mamla, the inhabitants asked for his prayers, because 
 they died young. "Busy yourselves in almsgiving," he 
 said, and you will be privileged to enjoy old age." 26 
 It was believed that the charitable usually obtain worldly 
 prosperity. "God will provide the man who pursues 
 after charity with money to give in charity and with 
 worthy persons upon whom to bestow it." 27 "If thou 
 givest alms from thy purse," said R. Abba, "God will 
 guard thee from town-taxes and town-fines, from cap- 
 itation taxes and from taxes on crops." 28 It is not worth 
 
 24R sh Ha-Shanah 16b. 
 2SBaba Bathra lla. 
 26Bereshith Rabbah, Ch. 59. 
 27Baba Bathra 9b. 
 28T. J. Peah 1:1.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 67 
 
 while to repeat the extravagant stories of the Talmud 
 about the disasters which befell good men and their fam- 
 ilies, because they failed to render adequate and prompt 
 help to the poor. 29 More worthy of notice is the admoni- 
 tion that we should show mercy to others, in the hope 
 that we may receive mercy from them and theirs in the 
 hour of need, for the wheel of fortune revolves and pov- 
 erty will assuredly overtake us or some generation of our 
 descendants. 30 The self-regarding motive for giving 
 charity is here so etherealized, that it becomes almost 
 altruistic. 
 
 The Rabbis teach without hesitation that God will in 
 the hereafter reward all good deeds, particularly acts 
 of personal kindness. "These are the things," we read 
 in a well-known passage of the Mishna, which is in- 
 corporated in the Jewish liturgy, "the fruits of which 
 a man enjoys in this world, whilst the stock remains for 
 him for the world to come ; honoring father and mother, 
 the practice of charity, timely attendance at the house 
 of study morning and evening, hospitality to wayfarers, 
 visiting the sick, dowering the bride, attending the dead 
 to the grave. * * *" 31 But more stress is laid in 
 the Rabbinical writings upon the temporal blessings with 
 which almsgiving is rewarded than upon its efficacy in 
 the hereafter. The most interesting expression of the 
 latter thought is put into the mouth of Monobaz, the 
 
 29Cf. the story about the daughter of Nicodemus b. Gorion 
 (Kethuboth 66b). For an English rendering see The Story of 
 the Jewish People, by J. M. Myers, p. 156. 
 
 30Shabbath ISlb. 
 
 3iPeah 1:1.
 
 68 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 king of Adiabene, who sent large gifts for the relief 
 of the poor of Jerusalem in a year of famine. His 
 brethren having protested against such prodigal expen- 
 diture of his patrimony, he replied: 
 "My ancestors laid up here on earth, I, in heaven. 
 My ancestors laid up treasures where the human hand 
 
 can reach them; I, where no human hand can 
 
 reach them. 
 My ancestors laid up treasures that bear no fruit; I, 
 
 such as bear fruit. 
 My ancestors laid up treasures of Mammon ; I, treasures 
 
 of souls. 
 My ancestors gathered and will not reap the benefit; I 
 
 have gathered and shall reap the benefit. 
 My ancestors laid up treasures for this world; I, for 
 
 the world to come." 32 
 
 In this passage, as in the book of Tobit, almsgiving 
 is viewed as the provision of "good treasure against 
 the day of necessity." We are reminded also of Ben 
 Sira's counsel, "Lay up thy treasure according to the 
 commandments of the most High, and it shall bring thee 
 more profit than gold. Shut up alms in thy storehouses, 
 and it shall deliver thee from all affliction." (Ecclesias- 
 ticus 29:11-12). A closer parallel, however, by reason 
 of its otherworldliness is supplied by the injunction in 
 the Sermon on the Mount to "lay up treasures in heaven, 
 where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where 
 thieves do not break through nor steal" (Matth. 6:20). 33 
 
 3 2 Tosefta Peah IV:20 as rendered in the Jewish Ency., 3. v. 
 Alms. 
 
 33The Church borrowed from the Synagogue the idea that 
 sins could be remitted by almsgiving, but gave to this doctrine 
 a much wider and more injurious extension. See Chadwick, 
 The Church, the State and the Poor, pp. 41-49.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 69 
 
 Such appeals to the benevolent are doubtless effective in 
 many instances, but they have a bad influence in so far 
 as they suggest the noxious doctrine that the poor exist 
 in order that the rich may have opportunities to acquire 
 merit. Indeed, R. Akiba almost said as much. "If your 
 God loves the poor," he was asked by the Roman gov- 
 ernor, "why does he not feed them?" R. Akiba an- 
 swered that it was to save us by means of them from 
 the judgment of Gehenna. 34 The following Talmudic 
 passage carries still further the condonation of selfish 
 charity: "He who says, I give this piece of money as 
 alms that my sons may live or that I may inherit eter- 
 nal life, is acting as a man, perfectly righteous." 35 The 
 Talmud quotes this view with some appearance of hesi- 
 tation but makes no attempt to reject it. And not al- 
 together wrongly. The person, whose conduct is under 
 consideration, must be taken as having acted from mixed 
 motives. His desire to carry out the commandments 
 of his Creator is combined with that of promoting his 
 own advantage. Such conduct is certainly far from 
 ideal. The inner grace corresponds imperfectly with the 
 outward deed of charity and the deed itself is unlikely 
 to be one of supremely efficient service. But imperfect 
 righteousness must not be rejected with overmuch scorn. 
 The lower motive does not exclude the higher motive; 
 it even leads up to it. "Let a man study the Law and 
 perform good deeds, even if not for their own sake, for 
 afterwards he will come to do so for their own sake." 36 
 
 3*Baba Bathra lOa. 
 
 sspesachim 8a. See Rashi's note to the passage. 
 
 36Pesachim 50b.
 
 70 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Otherworldliness may ultimately bring us to show pity 
 for pity's sake, or in more theological language, we may 
 thus attain to the disinterested love of God and man. 
 In the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, a Jewish 
 Apocalyptic work written at the end of the first century 
 B. C M Issachar is made to speak as the embodiment of 
 this exalted benevolence : "On all the poor and oppressed 
 I bestowed the good things of the earth in the singleness 
 of my heart. * * * If any man were in distress I 
 joined my sighs with his, and I shared my bread with 
 the poor. * * * I loved the Lord; likewise als 
 every man with all my heart." 37 
 
 Belief in the atoning power of alms played no more 
 than a subsidiary part in the promotion of charity among 
 the Jews. The desire of personal advantage in this 
 world or the next may incite people to liberality, but 
 it will hardly make them exercise much thoughtfulness 
 towards the poor, whom they are using for their own 
 ends. Very different is the practical sympathy which 
 the Rabbis recommended and their people jpracticed. 
 There is every reason to believe that the charitable 
 Jew of the past (and the same may be said of the 
 typical charitable Jew of the present) served his fellow- 
 man in a spirit of whole-hearted humanity. This fact 
 is made apparent by the great delicacy of feeling, with 
 which charity was given under the direction of the Rab- 
 bis. It was regarded as essential that the recipient 
 should not be put to shame. Rabbi Yannai once saw 
 some one giving a silver coin in public to a poor man. 
 
 3?Test. Issachar 3:8; 7 :5-6.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 71 
 
 "It would have been better," said he, "to give him noth- 
 ing than so to give it that he was put to shame." 38 It 
 in recorded in the Mishnah that the temple contained a 
 hall devoted to the purpose of secret donations: money 
 was deposited there in secret by pious donors for the 
 honorable maintenance of poor persons, who were of 
 good descent. 39 Similar institutions were established in 
 other cities of Palestine. 40 To put money into the char- 
 ity box, of which the overseers of the poor had charge, 
 was considered to be the best form of almsgiving, because 
 the donors and recipients were unknown to each other, 
 so that there could be no feeling of patronage on one 
 side nor of shame on the other. 41 A quaint story is 
 related of a certain worthy of the Talmud, who hid 
 himself in an oven, lest he should be recognized by a 
 poor man, for whom he had deposited some money 
 under the socket of the door. 42 "If you have lent money 
 to a poor man" said a mediaeval writer, "who wishes 
 to repay the debt but cannot do so, turn aside if you 
 see him approaching, lest he suppose that you are in- 
 wardly reproaching him for his indebtedness." 43 The 
 relief loan, which still plays a large part in Jewish phil- 
 anthropy, was highly commended by the Rabbis, because 
 a poor man can accept it without loss of self-respect, 
 and he will often apply for a second loan, although 
 
 38 Hagigah, 5a. 
 39Mishnah, Shekalim V, 6. 
 OTosefta Shekalim 11:16. 
 iBaba Bathra lOb. 
 *2Kethuboth 67b. 
 <3Sefer Hasidim 327.
 
 72 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 he be ashamed to take a second gift. 44 In other cases, a 
 poor man can best be assisted by those who buy his 
 merchandise or give him employment. 45 "A loan is 
 better than a gift," we read elsewhere, "but to take 
 a poor man into partnership is the best of all" 46 There 
 was a certain originality in the charitable methods of 
 R. Jonah, who resorted to a species of pious and char- 
 itable fraud in order to spare the feelings of those whom 
 he wished to benefit. When he saw a man of good 
 family in reduced circumstances, he would pretend that 
 the latter had inherited property in another town. "Ac- 
 cept this money," he would say, "and repay me in the 
 future." When the proffered loan had been accepted, 
 he would declare that it was intended as a gift, free 
 and unconditional. 47 
 
 I may here mention another rule of the Rabbis, which 
 illustrates their delicacy of feeling in dealing with the 
 unfortunate. What is to be done if a widow and an 
 orphan present themselves to us for relief and we are 
 unable to assist both ? In such circumstances, the widow, 
 according to the Talmud, has the first claim upon our 
 assistance, for a man, rather than a woman, is accus- 
 tomed to beg from door to door. 48 An interesting note 
 on this passage is given by a Lithuanian Rabbi of the 
 eighteenth century. In his time, women itinerant beg- 
 gars were numerous; but he declared that the ancient 
 
 "Kethuboth 67b, Sefer Hasidim 1034. 
 <5Sefer Hasidim 1035. 
 <6Shabbath 63a. 
 ?T. J. Peah VIII, 9. 
 48Kethuboth 67a.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 73 
 
 rule must still be observed, although the reason for it 
 applied no longer. 49 
 
 Long before the days of scientific philanthropy, the 
 Jews were made aware that charity must be adequate. 
 The Rabbis deduced this lesson from the words of 
 Scripture, "Lend him sufficient for his need in that 
 which he wanteth" (Deut. 15:8). "Thou must support 
 the poor man," they taught, "but thou needest not en- 
 rich him. Yet thou must assist him to' maintain him- 
 self on a scale appropriate to his condition, so that he 
 is fed and clothed in his accustomed manner. He must 
 even be provided, if it be necessary, with a horse to 
 ride on and a servant to run before him." so On the 
 other hand begging was discouraged. When an unknown 
 applicant asked for alms, interim relief was given in the 
 form of food, but he received no clothing until his case 
 had been investigated. 51 The Rabbis lived in a more 
 easy-going age than ours; they recommended that the 
 traveling beggar should be given his customary small 
 silver coin and no more, but that poor people of real 
 need and desert should receive all they required. 52 
 
 But how can the charitable be certain that their bene- 
 factions are well bestowed? At least since the age of 
 Ecclesiasticus we have record of impostors : "Many have 
 refused to lend for other men's ill dealing, fearing to 
 be deceived." (Ecclesiasticus 29:7). The prototype of 
 the rogues, who impose on the credulity of modern He- 
 
 49Hachmath Haadam s. 145 (2). 
 SOSifre on Text, Tosefta Peah Ch. 4. 
 SiBaba Bathra 9a. 
 52T. J. Peah VIII :7.
 
 74 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 brew-Christian missions appears already in the Eccle- 
 siastical history of Socrates (c 400). The latter tells the 
 story of a Jew who, pretending to be a convert to Chris- 
 tianity, had been often baptised in different sects and had 
 amassed a considerable fortune by the gifts he received 
 on these occasions. 53 The Mishnah tells us of beggars 
 who counterfeited physical deformities; they would pre- 
 tend to be blind, lame or humpbacked. A beggar of 
 Tiberias died whilst he was soliciting alms and it was 
 discovered that he had a purse of gold in his possession. 54 
 The comments of the Rabbis on cases such as these are 
 instructive. He that "pursues not after charity" is pun- 
 ished, they tell us, in that his gifts go to the undeserv- 
 ing. 55 This is a remark of permanent value. To avoid 
 wasting our charity, we must take trouble about it. 
 'Happy is he,' (not who gives to the poor but) 'who con- 
 siders the poor,' (Ps. 41 :1) for he takes thought how 
 he can best carry out the duty of showing benevolence. 56 
 Yet the Rabbis would not have us be oversuspicious. In 
 cases of uncertainty, the poor man is to have the bene- 
 fit of the doubt : "the giver gives and let the recipient be- 
 think himself.' 57 A case is mentioned in which a man, 
 suspected to be an impostor, proved not to be so. Dur- 
 ing his lifetime the world had mocked at him for ac- 
 cepting charity. After his death, it was discovered that 
 he had given away to other poor men all that he had re- 
 
 S3Lecky, History of European Morals, (Vol. II p. 80 n.). 
 5T. J. Peah VIII :9. 
 sSBaba Bathra 9b. 
 56T. J. Peah VIII: 9 
 
 57 Op. cit. VIII :7. Cf. also the following dictum in the first 
 chapter of the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (an ancient
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 75 
 
 ceived. 58 "Be grateful to impostors" said one of the Rab- 
 bis. "If there were no impostors, every refusal of alms 
 would be a flagrant sin." 
 
 The Rabbis are careful to advise us not to expect grat- 
 itude from those whom we benefit; indeed those who 
 expect gratitude rob their good deeds of all grace and 
 deserve no thanks. R. Eleazar b Pedath was once told 
 on his return home that a company of wayfarers had 
 been fed at his house and that they had prayed for him 
 as a token of gratitude. 'I have no reward,' said he. On 
 another occasion, he was informed that a similar com- 
 pany, after receiving entertainment had cursed him. 
 'Now, I have a good reward,' he said. The Rabbi in 
 question was acting as an overseer of charity, and this 
 task was then, as it always is, a thankless one. When 
 the same post was offered to R. Akiba in an earlier age, 
 he asked his wife whether he should accept it. 'Yes,' 
 she said," on the clear understanding that you will be 
 cursed and despised. 59 R. Akiba's administration of the 
 office was certainly not lacking in vigor, for he levied 
 heavy contributions upon men of means for the support 
 of the poor. 60 But he obtained in full measure the only 
 popularity worth having that which comes unsought. 
 
 An important regulation about charity was made at 
 Usha in the middle of the second century, probably at 
 
 Jewish work, revised for Christian use) : "Blessed be he that 
 giveth according to the commandments for he is blameless, but 
 he that had not need shall give account, wherefore he received 
 and for what." 
 
 58Qp. cit. VIII :9. 
 
 *T. J. Peah VIII :7. 
 
 See Vayikra Kabbah Ch. 34.
 
 76 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 the synod which was convened in this city of Galilee 
 The period was critical. The persecution which followed 
 the suppression of the Bar Coziba's rebellion was over, 
 but its effects remained in the widespread misery that pre- 
 vailed. To relieve this misery, it was decided that men 
 should devote one-fifth of their possessions to charity. 
 Yet characteristic moderation was observed. No further 
 sacrifice was required from any one, nor was it even 
 sanctioned. A certain R. Yeshebab desired to distribute 
 amongst the poor all that he had, but he was not permit- 
 ted to do so. 61 As a permanent law of Rabbinical Juda- 
 ism, the regulation of Usha is only applied in this nega- 
 tive sense. Indeed, it is recorded in the Babylonian Tal- 
 mud as a restraint on charity: "However liberal a man 
 may be, he must not give away to the poor more than one 
 fifth of his possessions." 62 This rule does not apply how- 
 ever to testamentary dispositions of property. Mar Ukba 
 left half his fortune to charity, for he said : "My provision 
 is scanty and the journey is long." 63 During a man's 
 life-time, he was expected to devote a tithe of his income 
 to charity a liberal but not excessive proportion. 
 
 Another decree issued at Usha throws light upon our 
 subject. It was enacted that children must be main- 
 tained by parents during their early years. 64 This order 
 was necessitated by the great poverty of the time, for 
 many parents were tempted to throw upon the commun- 
 ity the burden of their children's maintenance. The Rabbis 
 
 61T. J. Peah 1:1. 
 WKethuboth 50a. 
 3Kethuboth 67b. 
 <Kethuboth 49b.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 77 
 
 took steps to prevent so grave a neglect of parental duty. 
 By mieans of the law just cited and others of similar char- 
 acter, they made it clear that charity begins at home. A 
 man's first duty is to maintain himself, his wife and his 
 young children. If he can do anything further, he must 
 support his grown-up children and his parents, should 
 they be in need. 65 A mediaeval writer expresses indig- 
 nation at the conduct of a rich man, who gave a large 
 sum of money in charity but left his own kinsmen to 
 starve. 66 Charity to poor relatives comes before charity 
 to strangers. It is also taught that local charities are en- 
 titled to our support in preference to those of another 
 city. 67 
 
 That Jewish charity went mainly to Jews was a matter 
 of course. It was not, however, entirely limited to them. 
 The only person absolutely excluded from assistance was 
 the Jew, who transgressed the Law deliberately and im- 
 penitently. 68 "For the sake of peace," we read in the 
 Mishnah, "the gentile poor are not prevented from sharing 
 
 6SA man's duty to himself is affirmed in R. Akiba's dictum: 
 "Thine own life comes before thy neighbor's life" (Baba 
 Metzia 62a). The duties of husband to wife receive elaborate 
 consideration in the Talmud. The maintenance of children un- 
 til their seventh year was an absolute obligation (Kethuboth 
 65b) ; after they reached this age, it was in theory within the 
 father's discretion to refuse them support, but the ecclesiastical 
 authorities put such pressure upon him that he could not exer- 
 cise this discretion if he was in possession of means (See Com- 
 mentary of Maimonides on Mishnah, Kethuboth IV :6) The 
 passages from the Talmud, which deal with a son's obligation 
 to support his father are collected in Tosafoth on Kiddushin 
 32a. 
 
 "Sefer Hasidim 324. 
 
 6?Baba Metzia 71a. 
 
 8Gittin 47 a .
 
 78 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 in the gleanings of the harvest." On the same principle, 
 they were given alms together with the Jewish poor, 
 their sick were visited and their dead were buried. 69 
 These tolerant regulations probably date from the time 
 of King Agrippa, under whom the Jews enjoyed the 
 last period of happiness and of comparative freedom 
 that was theirs before the destruction of the second 
 temple. Josephus tells us of this good king that he 
 was equally humane and liberal to all men, whether 
 natives or foreigners. 70 During his reign, the Sanhedrin, 
 under the direction of Gamaliel the elder, originated va- 
 rious laws for the promotion of social order and these 
 may well have included regulations about charity, which 
 embodied Agrippa's benevolent intentions towards for- 
 eigners. 71 During the Middle Ages, the Jews contin- 
 ued to behave charitably to non-Jews: "they do relieve 
 all their own poor," wrote Leon of Modena (17th cen- 
 tury), "and besides these they do upon all occasions 
 help any object of charity, let him be what he will." 72 
 In some places, it was customary to give alms to gen- 
 tiles on the feast of Purim. 73 
 
 A rule, equally ancient in origin but opposite in 
 tendency, is that which discourages the acceptance of 
 charity from gentiles. When first made, it was directed 
 against the use of tainted money. Just as the sacrifice 
 
 6'Gittin S9b and 61 a. 
 
 70Antiquities, Book 19 Ch. 7. 
 
 71 See Graetz, Gesch. d Juden, Vol. Ill p. 349, Weiss, Dor 1, 178 
 
 ^"History of the Present Jews Throughout the World," 
 translated from Leon of Modena's Italian work by Simon 
 Ockley (1707). 
 
 73Qrach Chayim 694 (3).
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 79 
 
 of the wicked was an abomination, so were the con- 
 tributions to charity of malefactors such as the farmers 
 of taxes, whose whole wealth was based upon oppression 
 and robbery. 74 Gifts for the support of the poor and 
 for the maintenance of the temple must, in like man- 
 ner, have always been accepted with reluctance, when 
 they were offered by public enemies. They were at 
 last declined. Josephus declares that it was 'the begin- 
 ning of our war with the Romans' when the governor 
 of the Temple persuaded those who officiated in the Di- 
 vine Service to receive no gift or sacrifice from any for- 
 eigner. 75 This seems to have been the occasion for a 
 stormy meeting, described in the Talmud, when "eighteen 
 articles" were adopted by a majority of the Rabbis pres- 
 ent, in accordance with the ideas of the school of Sham- 
 mai. 76 According to the best opinion, these articles all 
 restricted intercourse between Jew and gentile, an order 
 to reject all gifts offered by the latter being included 
 in the number. We read of a later objection, raised 
 against the acceptance of charity from gentiles, in a 
 remark of Rab Nahman, a Babylonian teacher of the 
 fourth century. He describes those who accept such 
 presents as persons "who eat something unmentionable" 
 and declares their action to be profanation of the Divine 
 Name. 77 The language is unseemly, but the view is an 
 
 7 *Mishnah Baba Kama X:l. 
 
 Jewish War, 11:17. 
 
 ? 6The leading passage is T. J. Shabbath 1 :4. I adopt Graetz' 
 view as to the occasion and nature of the '"eighteen articles." 
 See the Hebrew translation of his history (Vol. II, pp. 90-93) 
 for a full discussion of the subject. 
 
 77 Sanhedrin 26b.
 
 80 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 intelligible one, for it rests upon the underlying idea that 
 Jews bring discredit upon themselves and their religion 
 when they fail to support their own poor. Hence a 
 Jew is not permitted, according to Rabbinical law, to 
 receive aid from a gentile except under stress of dire 
 necessity. A grant made by a king to a Jewish con- 
 gregation is, however, to be accepted as a matter of policy. 
 His present should be passed on to the gentile poor, if 
 it is possible to do so without deceiving the royal donor. 78 
 Yet the Talmud contains one fine appreciation at least, 
 of the charity practiced by non-Jews. This is the well- 
 known utterance of R. Johanan b Zakkai: "As a sin- 
 offering makes atonement for Israel, so alms for the 
 Gentiles. 79 
 
 The teaching of the Rabbis was addressed not only 
 to those who gave charity, but also to those who con- 
 templated receiving it. The latter were urged to make 
 every possible effort to retain their independence. "Make 
 thy Sabbath as bare of all comfort as a week-day," said 
 R. Akiba, "but do not become dependent on others." 80 
 Another Rabbi said to a learned colleague, "Flay an ox 
 in the market and take thy wages ; say not, I am a great 
 man and the work is beneath my dignity." 81 "Blessed 
 be the man who trusts in the Lord" such a man is he 
 who pinches himself that he may continue to be self- 
 supporting. But the Rabbis recognized also that every 
 virtue, even that of independence, may be carried to ex- 
 
 'Baba Bathra lOb. 
 "I. c. 
 OShabbath 118a. 
 
 Bathra HOa.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 81 
 
 cess. Those who are incapacitated from work by age 
 or disease must consent to take charity; if they refuse 
 it, they are accounted as self-murderers. 82 Yet it is a 
 bitter experience for honorable men to become dependent 
 on the bounty of others. In a prayer, which certain 
 sages of the Talmud recommended for daily use, the 
 suppliant exclaims "Grant that we may not be obliged 
 to ask the help of men, and let not our food be de- 
 pendent on their bounty, for their gifts are small, but 
 the shame they inflict is great." 83 
 
 Weiss, in his history of Jewish tradition, points out 
 how great was the development of laws, relating to 
 almsgiving and benevolence, when Israel lived under 
 the Romans. In his opinion, the Rabbis found it nec- 
 essary to emphasize their people's duty towards the poor 
 in order to counteract alien influences, which were cal- 
 culated to corrupt the pristine Jewish virtues. 84 This 
 theory as to the motive, which actuated the Rabbis, may 
 or may not be correct; but their actual teaching speaks 
 for itself. The ideal Israelite, as they pictured him, was 
 merciful, modest, benevolent; 85 they exerted themselves 
 to the utmost to convert this characterization into a 
 reality. There are abundant proofs, some of which have 
 been collected in these lectures, that their efforts were 
 successful and that Jewish charity was habitual, warm- 
 hearted and exemplary. Thus the claim that "Chris- 
 tianity for the first time made charity a rudimentary 
 
 82End of Peah, Mishnah and T. J. 
 83T. J. Berachoth IV :2. 
 <Weiss, Dor 11:24-26. 
 85Yebamoth 79a.
 
 82 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 virtue" can only be admitted, in so far as it refers to 
 the gentile world. The triumphs of Christian charity 
 have been illustrious, but the church has achieved them 
 by following in the footsteps of the Synagogue. 
 
 A wise benevolence has an eye for the future. It is 
 not satisfied with palliatives for the relief of destitu- 
 tion; it desires to see destitution abolished. How far 
 were the Rabbis alive to this requirement? Absolutely 
 so in their dealings with individual cases of poverty. 
 They were not satisfied with feeding the poor; their 
 great ideal was not to allow man to be poor and they 
 preferred, when it was possible, to help their struggling 
 brethren to help themselves. 86 But the Rabbis (or at 
 least a majority of them) had a wider vision still. Their 
 hope was that of a good time to come in which poverty 
 should be no more. In a well-known passage of the 
 Talmud, 87 Mar Samuel declares that in the days of the 
 Messiah Israel will be free from alien rule but the world's 
 life will continue unchanged in other respects, for 
 it is written that "the poor shall not cease from the 
 land." He realizes that a world without poverty would 
 be an earthly paradise; unfortunately, as he supposes, 
 such a world will never be. More consonant with Jew- 
 ish teaching, however, is that brighter view of the fu- 
 ture, which is put forward by R. Johanan in the same 
 passage: "All the promises of the prophets will be ful- 
 filled in the days of the Messiah and not deferred until 
 the next world ; as to the joys of the hereafter, they have 
 been revealed to no human eye." Thus the Messianic 
 
 86See Schechter Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, p. 112. 
 87Berachoth 34b.
 
 SOME RABBINIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL DUTY 83 
 
 era is pictured as one of diffused prosperity and happi- 
 ness. These material blessings form a fitting background 
 for the spiritual graces of transfigured humanity in the 
 golden age to be.
 
 IV 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 It is a boast of the Jewish people that they support 
 their own poor everywhere and always. In modern 
 times this claim cannot be entirely substantiated. Jew- 
 ish charities cover a wide field, but many services requis- 
 ite for the relief of distress are no longer rendered on 
 denominational lines. In the Middle Ages, on the other 
 hand, Jewish communities throughout the world were 
 set in an environment, indifferent at best and often ac- 
 tively hostile. "All Israelites," said Maimonides, "and 
 those who have joined them are as brethren. To whom 
 shall they lift up their eyes for help in times of need? 
 Not to the gentiles who hate and persecute them, but 
 to their own brethren." 1 The assistance required was 
 supplied by individual benefactors, as well as by organ- 
 ized communal societies. It was not confined to the 
 local poor; coreligionists arriving from other parts of 
 the world also received their share. The sense of soli- 
 darity in Israel was strengthened by persecution, so 
 prevalent in the Middle Ages and not extinct even to- 
 day. 
 
 One of the chief forms of mediaeval charity was the 
 ransom of captives. Assistance of this character was 
 
 iMatnoth Aniyim, Ch. 10 s. 2. 
 
 85
 
 86 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 already rendered in Bible times. "We after our abil- 
 ity," said Nehemiah, "have redeemed our brethren the 
 Jews, who were sold to the heathen" (Neh. 5:8), that 
 is to say, he had purchased the freedom of those whom 
 he found to be working off debts in the service of non- 
 Jews. So to act was considered as the fulfilment of a 
 most sacred duty, for slavery is such a terrible calam- 
 ity. "The sword is worse than natural death, for the 
 sword disfigures; famine is worse than the sword, for 
 famine tortures; captivity is the worst of all, for it may 
 involve them all." 2 Money collected for other purposes, 
 even for the building of the temple or the relief of the 
 poor, might be appropriated for the ransom of captives. 
 To delay this duty was not permitted lest loss of life 
 should follow. Not that it was possible to save all Jews 
 from slavery. "The prisoner unaided cannot deliver 
 himself from the dungeon," 3 says the Talmudic prov- 
 erb ; collective Israel was often too weak to rescue more 
 than a stray few of the suffering children of Israel. 
 Notably was this the case after the destruction of the 
 temple by the Romans and after the suppression of Bar 
 Coziba's rebellion. Such numbers of Jews, with their 
 wives and children, were sold into slavery on both these 
 occasions that they fetched very low prices: it seemed 
 like a fulfilment of the prophecy, "Ye shall sell your- 
 selves unto your enemies for bondmen and for bond- 
 women and no man shall buy you" (Deut. 28:68). Most 
 of the victims had to resign themselves to their hard fate ; 
 
 2Baba Bathra 8b. 
 3Berachoth 5b.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 87 
 
 but occasionally they received manumission from their 
 masters and occasionally brothers in faith were enabled 
 to purchase their liberty. When R. Joshua b Hananiah 
 visited Rome, he heard that there was in prison a pretty 
 Jewish boy, curly haired and open eyed. The Rabbi went 
 to the gate of the prison and recited the question, taken 
 from the book of Isaiah, "Who gave Jacob for a spoil 
 and Israel to the robbers?" (Isaiah 42:24). The child 
 immediately recognized and completed the quotation: 
 "Did not the Lord? He against whom we have sinned, 
 and in whose ways they would not walk, neither were 
 they obedient to his law." Thereupon R. Joshua swore 
 that he would redeem a child of such promise whatever 
 might be the ransom required. He did so and the child 
 grew up to be the renowned teacher, R. Ishmael b 
 Elisha. 4 The very large ransom paid in this case was 
 considered justifiable, because it procured the release 
 of a promising scholar. Otherwise, no higher price might 
 be paid for any captive than that which he would fetch, 
 if sold in the slave-market. This restriction was made 
 in the interests of the community, lest the kidnapping of 
 Jewish captives might become too profitable a business. 
 Similarly, Jewish captives might not be assisted to es- 
 cape, lest the safety of other captives or of the whole 
 community should be endangered. But these rules could 
 hardly be maintained in practice. Jewish captives had 
 often to be ransomed at any cost in the Middle Ages 
 in order that they might be saved from death or mutila- 
 tion. Curiously enough, in the leading case of refusal 
 
 Gittin 58a.
 
 88 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 to pay excessive ransom, the restriction imposed by the 
 Mishnah did not apply, for the victim was R. Meir of 
 Rothenberg, the spiritual leader of the Jews of Ger- 
 many in the thirteenth century. He performed a sub- 
 lime act of self-abnegation and refused to imperil the 
 freedom of other Rabbis by allowing his brethren to pay 
 the Emperor Rudolph an exorbitant sum for his release. 
 Thus this noble captive languished in custody for the 
 rest of his life; but many another prisoner (sometimes 
 an ignoble one) was ransomed. Meir Lublin, a Polish 
 Rabbi of the sixteenth century, was asked whether the 
 community should ransom a young man, who, having 
 been arrested by the gentiles on the charge of inter- 
 course with a harlot, was in danger of death or forced 
 conversion. The Rabbi advised that this should be 
 done, whatever might be the cost. The charge, in his 
 opinion, was a mere pretext; even if it could be sub- 
 stantiated, the offense was not a capital one according 
 to gentile law. The true purpose of the authorities was 
 that of extracting money from the Jews of the locality 
 and a refusal to pay in the case under consideration 
 would be followed by other charges, still more danger- 
 ous to the community. If the young man were forced 
 into apostasy he might be made to slander his brethren 
 and there was no knowing how the matter might end. 5 
 This incident occurring at a time and place in which the 
 Jews were comparatively well off is instructive as il- 
 lustrating the wariness with which the Jews had to steer 
 their way through the perils that constantly threatened 
 them during the Middle Ages. 
 
 5 Meir Lublin, Resp. IS.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 89 
 
 The "ransom of captives" sometimes meant in prac- 
 tice the payment of money to procure the release of actual 
 criminals. It was felt that they must be rescued from 
 torture and the other barbarities, practiced in a mediaeval 
 dungeon. Thus Rabbi Jair Bachrach (seventeenth cen- 
 tury) pleaded with his brethren to strive for the release 
 of a certain "notorious Jewish thief," who was being 
 punished with excessive severity. On the other hand, 
 he goes on to say, no steps should be taken for the ben- 
 efit of persons, convicted of making or wilfully circu- 
 lating false coins, lest it be thought that this offense, 
 practiced by a certain number of degenerate Jews, was 
 condoned by the community. To purchase the pardon 
 of a thief was not open to the same objection, "for there 
 are thousands of thieves amongst Christians." 6 Meir 
 Lublin discusses in one of his responsa the rare case of a 
 Jewish murderer, whom the gentiles had taken into cus- 
 tody. He advised that no action should be taken to 
 avert the infliction of a death penalty. 7 In the seven- 
 teenth century, we find the following fine pronouncement 
 by a Lithuanian Rabbi: "I emphatically protest against 
 the custom of our communal leaders of purchasing the 
 freedom of Jewish criminals. Such a policy encourages 
 crime among our people. I am especially troubled by the 
 fact that, thanks to the clergy, such criminals may escape 
 punishment by adopting Christianity. Mistaken piety im- 
 pels our leaders to bribe the officials in order to prevent 
 such conversions. We should endeavor to deprive crim- 
 inals of opportunities to escape justice." 8 
 
 Quoted in Pithe Teshubah on Yoreh Deah 251 (2). 
 ?Meir Lublin, Resp. 138. 
 ^Jewish Ency. s. v. Lithuania.
 
 90 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Needless to say, most of the "captives" who required 
 assistance, were not criminals but the victims of crime. 
 There were many such throughout the Middle Ages, 
 even at the best of times. Compared with the general 
 population, many of the Jews were great travelers and 
 the perils of travel were then great. To cross the Med- 
 iterranean was an adventure indeed, when pirates abound- 
 ed and when certain ship-captains were capable of selling 
 their own passengers into slavery. To purchase the free- 
 dom of kidnapped Jews, who were exposed for sale in a 
 slave market was regarded as a plain duty by the local 
 congregation. It was thus that the Jews of Cordova, 
 towards the middle of the tenth century, procured the 
 manumission of an unknown stranger and thus obtained 
 the services of a distinguished Rabbi, who not only su- 
 pervised the affairs of their own community but took the 
 first decisive steps towards making Spain a centre of 
 Talmudic study. But it was at times of acute persecu- 
 tion that the ransom of the captives was effected on the 
 largest scale. Wide as the bounds of Jewish dispersion 
 were the operations of Jewish charity ; had this not been 
 the case, Judaism would have been long extinct. Above 
 all, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain spurred their 
 brethren in other countries to make supreme efforts for 
 their deliverance from death, slavery or forced conver- 
 sion. Quite similar was the course of events in the mid- 
 dle of the seventeenth century, at the time of the Cos- 
 sacks' invasion. Once again Israel suffered widespread 
 destruction and once again brotherly love proved to be 
 stronger than death. In the year 1648, three thousand 
 Jews of Podolia, who had surrendered to the Tartars
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 91 
 
 of the Crimea in order to escape massacre, were ran- 
 somed by their brethren of Constantinople; and messen- 
 gers were sent to Germany and Italy, in order that funds 
 might be collected for the continuance of the work. The 
 need was immense, for the sufferers were numbered by 
 hundreds of thousands, but Jewish congregations in all 
 parts of Europe and of northern Africa did their utmost 
 to meet it. The Jews of Germany had themselves suf- 
 fered through the ravages of the thirty years' war, but 
 they responded nobly to the appeal of their brethren. 
 In the year 1656, the members of the Leghorn community 
 gave one-fourth of their incomes .towards the ransom 
 of captives and the relief of refugees from Poland. Thus 
 the solidarity of Israel was nobly vindicated. 9 
 
 Hospitality to strangers is the form of personal serv- 
 ice, which is first recorded in the early pages of the Bible 
 and there must have been opportunities to practice it in 
 the most primitive conditions of society. The circum- 
 stances of Jewish history have always accentuated the 
 importance of showing hospitality. The "'wandering 
 Jew" has been and still is a typical figure. Sometimes 
 he has been a traveling scholar, open eyed and impe- 
 cunious; sometimes he has left his home in quest of a 
 livelihood; sometimes he has been the victim of perse- 
 cution, fleeing alone or in company with others to seek 
 for an asylum in distant lands. Whatever were the 
 circumstances of the mediaeval wanderer, he seldom lacked 
 good cheer in the homes of his coreligionists who be- 
 lieved that when the poor man stood at their gate, God 
 
 "See Hebrew Graetz, VIII 153.
 
 92 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 was on his right hand. 10 "Let thy house be opened 
 wide," said R. Yose b Yohanan, a president of the San- 
 hedrin in the second century B. C, "and make the poor 
 to be inmates of thy house." 11 Rab Huna, a wealthy 
 Babylonian teacher of the third century, is said to have 
 opened the doors of his house before every meal, and 
 to have made proclamation, "whosoever is hungry, let 
 him come and eat." 12 A general invitation to all and 
 sundry was considered to be particularly appropriate 
 on the Passover evening and Rab Huna's greeting to the 
 hungry is still recited at the beginning of the domestic 
 service for that occasion. But it has long been im- 
 practicable to keep open house. This is already noted by 
 Rab Mattithiah, head of one of the Babylonian academies 
 (c 861). "Our fathers," he said, "were accustomed to 
 leave their doors open, so that any poor Jew might enter, 
 but nowadays most of our neighbors are gentiles. We 
 therefore provide the brethren with Passover relief before 
 the festival begins, lest they be forced to beg at our doors, 
 and we continue to repeat the words, which custom has 
 consecrated, 13 
 
 The food which a man gives to the poor at his own 
 table is declared in the Talmud to be the equivalent of 
 an offering presented on the altar. 14 This being so, it 
 was held that our hospitality like the sacrifices of ancient 
 days, should be given from our best. We must feed 
 
 lOLeviticus Rabbah Ch. 34. 
 
 UAboth 1:5. 
 
 !2Taanith 20b. 
 
 13 Quoted by Abudarham in his commentary on the Haggadah. 
 
 "Hagigah 27a.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 93 
 
 the hungry with the sweetest dishes on our table and 
 clothe the naked with our most beautiful coverings. 15 
 The manner in which hospitality was shown was also 
 considered to be of great importance. 16 Guests should 
 be received with a pleasant countenance ; food should be 
 handed to them at once for they may be ashamed to 
 ask. Although the host feel sad he should beam on his 
 guests. Let him not tell them his troubles, lest they sus- 
 pect that he is displeased to see them. He must try to 
 make them feel that his only cause for regret is in 
 being unable to give more. After entertaining them with 
 the best fare at his disposal, he should provide them 
 with a comfortable bed, for good rest gives more sat- 
 isfaction than good food itself. Moreover he should 
 escort them on their way, when they depart, and he 
 should give them provision for the next stage of their 
 journey. This last lesson is deduced by the Talmud 
 from the declaration which was to be made by the elders 
 of the city, nearest to the scene of an undiscovered mur- 
 der. "Our hands," said they, "have not shed the blood 
 and our eyes have not seen it" (Deut. 21:7). "Who 
 would suppose that the elders of the city had shed 
 blood? The meaning is however that they have allowed 
 no stranger to depart unprovided with food and with 
 escort for the journey." 17 
 
 Guests were warned that they must not abuse the 
 hospitality of their host. The professional diner out was 
 
 iSYoreh Deah 248 (8), following Maimonides. 
 l6The rules for hospitality which I mention are those col- 
 lected in the Menorath Ha-Maor by Isaac Aboab (c. 1300). 
 i7Sotah 46b.
 
 94 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 condemned. 18 The guest who brought another guest 
 with him was regarded as the meanest of mankind. 19 
 Those who entered the house of another man were to 
 comply with all his requests. 20 They must do nothing 
 to cause annoyance to him or to their fellow guests. 
 They must accept his hospitality heartily and grate- 
 fully; at the end of the meal they must pray for his 
 welfare. 21 Some Jewish rules of etiquette for the guid- 
 ance of guests resemble those which obtain in Arab 
 society. In both cases, for example, the guest is recom- 
 mended to leave something on his plate as evidence that 
 he has had enough and more than enough. 22 
 
 When the number of wayfarers who required shelter 
 in a town was such as to overtax the resources of private 
 hospitality, the deficiency was supplied by organized char- 
 ity. It was the practice of Jewish communities to make 
 grants to impecunious strangers in cash or in kind and 
 besides this they usually provided a guest house or Jews' 
 Inn for the reception of friendless travelers. Lodging 
 places of wayfaring men existed so early that legend 
 attributed their institution to Abraham. 23 Gratuitous 
 public inns are mentioned in the Talmud, but they be- 
 came more numerous in the Middle Ages, when a guest 
 house was commonly provided at the cost of the com- 
 munity in order to provide for travelers for whom pri- 
 
 J8Cf. Ecclesiasticus 29:23-28, Pesachim 49a. 
 I'Derech Eretz zuta ch. 8, Baba Bathra 98b. 
 20Derech Eretz Rabbah Ch. 6. 
 2iBerachoth 46a, 58a. 
 
 22Derech Eretz Rabbah Ch. 6. Cf. Hastings; Dictionary of 
 the Bible, s. v. Hospitality. 
 23Sotah lOa.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 95 
 
 vate entertainment was lacking. In other cases the com- 
 munity paid ordinary Jewish inn-keepers for the board 
 and lodging of such travelers. 24 
 
 Hospitality extended to students of the Law was re- 
 garded as especially meritorious. Hence centres of Jew- 
 ish learning were also notable centres of hospitality. The 
 wandering student was met with everywhere, for it was 
 an accepted principle that those who learned the Law 
 from one master could never attain to eminence. 23 At 
 a time when books were few, it was necessary to seek 
 for guidance from many living voices. As Christian 
 students were attracted from all parts of Europe to the 
 mediaeval universities, so did budding Jewish scholars 
 flock to the celebrated academies of Rabbinical learn- 
 ing. Some of them suffered great privations, as did 
 Rashi, who left his newly married wife and betook him- 
 self to the sages of Lorraine, under whom he studied 
 "with lack of bread and raiment and with a millstone 
 round his neck." Sometimes, however, external condi- 
 tions of Jewish life were more favorable and students 
 received generous maintenance, until their studies were 
 completed. At Lunel in the twelfth century, the students 
 that came from distant towns to learn the Law were 
 taught, boarded, lodged and clothed by the congregation. 
 In a neighboring town R. Abraham b David founded an 
 Academy for the use of all comers and, being a rich man, 
 he paid the expenses of those who were without means. 26 
 
 24 Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, pp. 74, 314. 
 25Abodah Zarah 19a. 
 
 26 See Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, edited by Marcus 
 Adler, pp. 3-4.
 
 96 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 In the fifteenth century "bahurim" (young students of 
 the Talmud) were generally lodged in a hostel provided 
 for their reception, the cost being defrayed by voluntary 
 contributions. A little later, the centre of Jewish learn- 
 ing shifted from Germany to Poland. Before the time 
 of the Cossacks' invasions, the Rabbinical academies 
 (Yeshiboth) of Poland were fairly prosperous. "Nearly 
 all communities in Poland supported a Yeshibah. They 
 maintained the students and gave them out of the public 
 funds fixed sums weekly for ordinary expenses. * * * 
 A community consisting of fifty householders supported 
 about thirty students. In addition to receiving fixed sti- 
 pends the students were invited as guests to the table 
 of the community, every household having invariably 
 one or more such guests from the Yeshibah." 27 In the 
 middle of the seventeenth century evil days set in for 
 the Jews of Poland and their houses of study, which 
 never fully regained their former prestige. 28 Yet they 
 have continued to attract numerous students who have, 
 with admirable enthusiasm for knowledge, scorned de- 
 lights and lived laborious days. Admirable also has been, 
 and still is, the generosity shown to the Yeshiboth and 
 their students bv the lovers of Jewish learning, them- 
 selves in many cases poor men and women. 
 
 Another form of personal service, upon which the Rab- 
 bis laid great stress, is the visitation of the sick in 
 
 2' 'Yemen Mezulah, by Nathan Hanover, as rendered in Jew- 
 ish Ency. s. v. Yeshibah. 
 
 28 The Yeshibah of Volozhin founded in 1803 was pre-emi- 
 nent among the Yeshiboth of its time, but it was after all a 
 splendid survival.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 97 
 
 their homes. The sight of a friend's face, say the 
 Rabbis, removes one-sixtieth part of a disease. R. 
 Akiba once went to see one of his pupils who was lying 
 sick and unvisited. "O my teacher," said the sick man, 
 "thou hast saved my life." 29 Those who visited the suf- 
 ferer, beside cheering him, joined with him in a prayer 
 for his recovery. If the call was paid on a Sabbath day 
 they would say, "On this day we may not utter words 
 of prayer that cause grief. Yet healing will quickly 
 come, for God's mercy is great. Enjoy therefore the 
 Sabbath rest in peace." 30 
 
 Sick travellers were accommodated in the general hos- 
 tels for strangers, to which allusion has already been 
 made. When the Christian matron Fabiola in the fourth 
 century founded at Rome, as an act of penance, the first 
 public hospital, she adapted a Jewish institution to more 
 general use. Special houses for the sick were found 
 occasionally during the Middle Ages in Jewish commun- 
 ities. 31 The first of such hospitals of which record re- 
 mains was established at Cologne in the eleventh century. 
 As we approach modern times, we begin to hear of 
 such institutions as the Beth Holim of London (founded 
 in 1747), which was at once a home for the aged and 
 a hospital for the sick. The material needs of those who 
 lay sick within their own homes likewise received atten- 
 tion. Many Jewish doctors gave gratuitous treatment 
 to such as could not afford to pay their usual fees. 
 
 29Nedarim 39b and 40a. 
 30Shabbath 12b. 
 
 31 Jewish Ency. (Ill 670) s. v. Charity; see articles also on 
 Hospital, Hekdesh.
 
 98 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Societies for supplying the poor in their sickness with 
 medicine and warm clothing existed in many centres 
 of Jewish life. 
 
 At the beginning of the apocryphal book of Tobit, 
 we read of a pious deed, performed by the hero of the 
 story. On a certain occasion at the feast of Pentecost, 
 he sent his son to invite a poor man who should share 
 in his family celebration. The son returned saying that 
 "one of our nation was strangled and cast out in the 
 market-place." Tobit immediately left his meat and 
 buried the corpse. The passage is very characteristic 
 of Jewish thought, for the Rabbis considered it to be 
 a religious duty of the highest importance to bury a 
 dead body which was found untended. Even the High 
 Priest who might not defile himself by touching the 
 corpse of his nearest relative must perform this act 
 of piety. One story given of R. Akiba's initiation as 
 a student of the Law represents him as carrying to the 
 nearest burial place a corpse, which he found by the 
 roadside. He then reported the matter to the Rabbis, 
 who told him that he had acted sinfully, because a 
 dead body, that lies outside the borders of a city, must 
 be buried at the spot where it is found. Then said 
 R. Akiba, 'if I incurred guilt when I thought to act 
 meritoriously, how much more must I do so when I 
 have no virtuous intention.' 32 From that time he never 
 ceased, we are told, to attend upon the sages, for he 
 understood that piety was impossible without knowl- 
 edge. Thus Rabbinical Judaism taught its followers to 
 carry out their duty to the living and the dead with a 
 
 32T. J. Nazir VI :1.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 99 
 
 combination of inward reverence and outward punc- 
 tiliousness. It was finely taught that the burial of the 
 dead is an act of true charity, because those upon whom 
 it is bestowed can give no recompense. 33 It was also 
 a good feature about Jewish funerals of the old tradi- 
 tional type that they were unostentatious. This fact 
 was already noted by Josephus. "Our law," he writes, 
 "has also taken care of the decent burial of the dead, 
 but without any extravagant expenses for their funerals 
 and without the erection of any illustrious monuments 
 for them." 34 The rich and poor after their death should 
 be treated alike and various funeral customs mentioned 
 in the Talmud were based on this principle. Thus all 
 dead bodies were buried in simple linen garments, and 
 the same kind of bier was used for both rich and poor. 35 
 Nor were elaborate sepulchres encouraged by the Rabbis. 
 'The righteous need no monuments," said R. Simeon b 
 Gamaliel, (second century) "their words will keep their 
 memory green. 36 Fulsome epitaphs did not come into 
 fashion until the later middle ages; monuments that 
 commemorate the ostentation of those who erected them 
 have existed here and there at various periods, but it 
 was only in modern times that they became a glaring of- 
 fense against good taste. In such external matters, at 
 least, we do not show so much regard for the feelings of 
 the poor, as did our fathers. 
 
 In Jewish communities of the old school, societies 
 
 33 Rashi on Gen. 47 :29, based on Midrash Tanchuma. 
 34 Josephus, Against Apion II :27. 
 35Moed Katan 27b. 
 36T. J. Shekalim 11:7.
 
 100 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 were and still are organized to tend the dying and bury 
 the dead. From the seventeenth century if not earlier, 
 they were known as "holy leagues." The members re- 
 cited psalms and other prayers at the bedside of the dy- 
 ing; they watched the corpse, which must not be left un- 
 attended before its interment ; they washed the dead body, 
 clothed it in a shroud and deposited it in the coffin ; they 
 attended the funeral and comforted the mourners. In 
 some cities the "holy league" supplied the bereaved fam- 
 ily with food and money during the seven days of 
 mourning. 37 
 
 Those who adopt orphan children and bring them up 
 until their marriage are highly commended in the Talmud, 
 because they are doing charity at all times, that is, they 
 perform a continuous act of benevolence. 38 During the 
 Middle Ages, it seems always to have been possible to 
 find foster-parents for destitute orphan children. Or- 
 phanages were not founded until the latter part of the 
 eighteenth century. The provision of dowries for poor 
 girls, especially those who were orphans, was a favorite 
 form of charity; at Rome (and doubtless elsewhere) 
 curious customs existed in connection with it. Thus 
 jewelry was sometimes lent to those brides who had 
 none. The recipients of dowries were often selected by 
 lot. This endowment of poor maidens was not usually a 
 
 3?See Hachmath Ha-adam 163 (5). The provision of meals 
 during the week of mourning sometimes led to abuse. When 
 given by the rich to the rich, they were liable to become feasts 
 of gluttony. It would be much better, said an ethical teacher 
 of the 17th century, to give money for the upkeep of houses of 
 study. Meil tsedakah 1467. 
 
 3Ketuboth SOa in allusion to Ps. 106:3.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 101 
 
 charge upon communal funds, but was undertaken by 
 societies, organized for the purpose. The institution of 
 such societies began at latest in the thirteenth century 
 and they afterwards became an important feature in Jew- 
 ish life. "There are in great cities," wrote Leon of Mo- 
 dena ( 17th century) "fraternities or companies for works 
 of charity" amongst which the writer includes the care 
 of the sick, the burial of the dead, almsgiving, redeeming 
 of slaves, marrying maids. A number of other services 
 were fulfilled by similar bodies. We read, for example, 
 of societies for clothing the poor, for giving festival re- 
 lief and for lending books. 39 The collection of money 
 for distribution in the Holy Land was also super- 
 vised by special committees in nearly all the principal 
 towns. 40 
 
 Special charitable societies came into existance to sup- 
 plement the relief which had been dispensed since the 
 time of the Mishnah by the Jewish community itself, 
 through its authorized executive officers. These over- 
 seers of the poor obtained a part of their funds from 
 compulsory levies upon the well-to-do, a distraint being 
 levied upon the property of defaulters. 41 The fines im- 
 posed upon offenders against congregational regulations 
 were also added to the Charity fund; while damages, 
 
 39 This was considered a very good form of charity. When a 
 man devoted a tithe of his income to charity he might purchase 
 with a part of the money Hebrew books to be lent to students. 
 If so he should write on the fly-leaf that they are bought from 
 the tithe, so that his heirs may know how to use them (Ture 
 Zahab on Yoreh Deah, s. 249). 
 
 4 <>See Jewish Ency. s. v. Halukkah. 
 
 "Yoreh Deah, s. 248.
 
 102 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 awarded to a complainant for, the injuries which he had 
 sustained, were often devoted to the same good purpose. 42 
 Similarly we read of payments to the charity fund that 
 were exacted by a society of pietists from any of their 
 members who interrupted the studies of others by idle 
 talk or who came late to Synagogue without a reasonable 
 excuse. 43 But the larger part of the resources com- 
 manded by the overseers of the poor were derived from 
 voluntary contributions. All, except the poor, were ex- 
 pected to give a tithe of their income in charity. 44 The 
 poor and the orphan were recommended as an act of 
 grace, to give whatever they could afford. When new 
 clothes were given to a poor man he was not forced to 
 hand over his old ones to the collectors of charity, but 
 it was held that he might well do so. 45 Collectors of 
 Charity accepted small sums only from slaves, children 
 and women, lest any of these dependent persons should 
 be tempted to give money to which they themselves had 
 no right. The collectors were also warned that they must 
 not take advantage of those who were known to be ex- 
 ceptionally generous. 46 
 
 It was customary to make offerings to charity during 
 public worship and large sums were obtained by this 
 means. On week-days, the money given was put into the 
 poor box. To make such contributions on fast days was 
 especially commendable: "the reward of fasting is char- 
 
 <2Qp. cit. 258 (9). 
 Sefer Hasidim 965. 
 4 Matnoth Aniyim VII :5. 
 45Yoreh Deah 253 (8). 
 4 6Qp. cit. 248 (7).
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 103 
 
 ity," by means of which the poor man, who is faint be- 
 cause of his pious abstinence, is provided with food at 
 night-fall. 47 On Sabbaths and festivals no Jew might 
 carry money with him, but his donations to charity were 
 publicly announced in the Synagogue. Those who were 
 called up to the reading of the Law paid for the privi- 
 lege by their generosity to the poor. Various members 
 of the synagogue bought by auction the right to perform 
 certain ceremonies, such as that of wrapping the scroll 
 of the Law in its vestments after the lesson had been read 
 from it. Gifts to charity were announced when there was 
 a wedding in the family of a congregant, or when a child 
 was born to him. Memorial offerings for the dead were 
 made on the anniversaries of their decease, as well as on 
 the High Festivals. 48 Legacies to the overseers of the 
 poor for the maintenance of their work were also com 
 mon; in some places it was customary for rich persons 
 to make large bequests of this nature. A typical case is 
 recorded where the trustees of an orphan were directed 
 by his late father to give alms every year to the poor from 
 his estate on the feast of Hanuccah. 49 
 
 The overseers of the poor in the time of the Mishnah, 
 organized two forms of public charity, one for casual re- 
 lief, the other for regular relief. The former of these 
 consisted of relief in kind, which was distributed alike to 
 the resident poor and to strangers, who were provided 
 
 <7Beracloth 6b, Yoreh Deah 256 (2). 
 
 48 The main authority for the statements in this paragraph 
 is Or Zarua 1 :26. See also Orach Hayim 147, Si f the Kohen 
 on Yoreh Deah 256. 
 
 49 See Moses Isserlein on Yoreh Deah 258 (5) also Ture Zahab 
 on passage.
 
 104 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 with bed and with two meals, one to eat on the spot, and 
 the other to take away with them. Those who remained 
 in the town over Sabbath, received three meals for the 
 day. This kind of assistance, as dispensed by the over- 
 seers of the poor, was already falling into disuse in the 
 time of Maimonides, for it was superseded by private 
 charity, by the provision of communal hostelries, and by 
 the benevolent activity of the special societies already 
 referred to. 50 Weekly distributions from the Kuppah or 
 charity fund to the resident poor continued, however, to 
 be a permanent feature of Jewish life throughout the 
 Middle Ages. The Talmud did not permit a scholar to 
 reside in a city, where systematic assistance to the poor 
 was not given, 51 and Maimonides declared that so far as 
 he knew, this duty was not neglected by any Jewish com- 
 munity. This organized charity relieved the indigent Jew 
 from the necessity of soliciting alms in person. In the 
 seventeenth century, however, the position changed for 
 the worse. Poverty then increased and the poor box was 
 not so well lined. Besides, the Jews lived together in 
 their ghettos like the members of one large family and 
 they could beg from one another without being exposed 
 to the unfavorable notice of the outside public. Hence 
 we find that the poor became accustomed to beg assistance 
 from private persons as well as from the communal of- 
 ficials. Leon of Modena describes the practice of his 
 own day in the following passage (the quaintness of 
 which may be partly due to his English translator) : "In 
 great towns, on Fridays and the eves of other great festi- 
 
 soSee Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, p. 311. 
 SiSanhedrin 17b.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 105 
 
 val, the poor go about to rich men's houses and others 
 of the middle sort to gather their alms, and they give to 
 everyone something according to their ability. Besides 
 the Parnasim or Memunnim, 52 whose office is to look 
 after such things, take care to send them something home 
 to their houses every week, especially to such as have 
 lived in good credit, or are modest and ashamed to beg, 
 or sick persons, or widows who do not go abroad." In 
 special cases, collections for individuals were taken in 
 the synagogue. 
 
 The problem also, presented by the itinerant beggar, 
 became more insistent towards the end of the Middle 
 Ages. The cause is not far to seek. Restrictions on 
 trade and on the practice of handicrafts, expulsions from 
 city after city and from whole countries, confiscations of 
 goods, cruel massacres all the forms of persecution, to 
 which the Jews were subject, had done their work only 
 too effectively. The bulk of the Jewish population, es- 
 pecially in central Europe, became terribly poor, not only 
 in resources but also in industrial capabilities. The evil 
 reached its height after the Cossacks invaded Poland. 
 A large proportion of the Polish Jews were reduced to 
 indigence by the war and there were among them many 
 students of the Talmud, who, unable to make a living by 
 secular pursuits, emigrated year after year to the South 
 and West of Europe in order to turn their knowledge to 
 account. Some of them were distinguished Talmudists 
 and had the good fortune to obtain favor from congre- 
 gations of more or less importance, who required Rabbis. 
 
 S 2i. e., the Wardens or members of the Executive.
 
 106 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 But many worthy men and others not so worthy, who 
 could not find such openings, had to be satisfied with 
 less eligible employments, such as that of teaching He- 
 brew to children for a mere pittance. Others again led 
 a wandering life, earning their bread either by hawking 
 or by various expedients reputable or disreputable. They 
 became itinerant preachers or cantors ; they acted as mar- 
 riage-brokers, bringing news of well-dowered maidens in 
 distant towns; they attended weddings as professional 
 jesters; they cast out spirits and \\rote amulets. Some 
 became mjere beggars (Schnorrers) ; who went from place 
 to place with plausible stories, on the strength of which 
 they asked for help. They would represent themselves 
 as fugitives from persecution ; as victims of a conflagra- 
 tion or of a miscarrage of justice, as rich men who had 
 lost their fortune, or as scholars who had lost their mem- 
 ory through a visitation of Heaven. How were the stories 
 to be tested? This question had been already considered 
 by the Jewish authorities of former times. Thus the Jew- 
 ish Council of Lithuania in 1623, when dealing with the 
 situation that arose through the arrival of refugees from 
 Germany during the thirty years' war, decided that beg- 
 gars should receive no assistance except to leave the 
 country, unless they brought a recommendation from the 
 Rabbi of their native place. 53 This rule afterwards pre- 
 vailed generally and it was applied to the refugees from 
 Poland. To quote again the words of Leon of Modena: 
 "If a poor man has any pressing necessity, which exceeds 
 the abilities of the town where he lives, he makes ap- 
 
 53See Hebrew Graetz, Vol. VIII, p. 107 n.
 
 JEWISH CHARITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES 107 
 
 plication to the principal Rabbis, who set their hands to 
 a certificate that he is an honest man and one that de- 
 serves their charity and desires that every one would give 
 him assistance. Into whatsoever place he comes with 
 this paper, where there are any Jews, be it hamlet, cas- 
 tle or any little place, he is entertained a day or two with 
 meat, drink and lodging and some money given him at 
 parting. When he comes into any larger city, he gets his 
 certificate confirmed by the subscriptions of the Rabbis 
 that dwell there ; and he goes to the synagogues * * * 
 and he receives assistance." But written testimonials 
 constituted, after all, a very imperfect safeguard against 
 deception. They might have been given by a Rabbi, who 
 wished to escape the importunity of an applicant, of 
 whom he really knew nothing or next to nothing. It was 
 notorious that the literary schnorrer, whose stock-in- 
 trade was one of his own worthless compositions, could 
 nearly always produce some testimonals from well-known 
 Rabbis, in which he was commended as a paragon of 
 learning. And worse still, the benevolent had to reckon 
 with impostors, who made use of spurious testimonials. 
 This abuse was stated by R. Moses Hagiz (1671-1750) to 
 have become very common. After praising "our brethren 
 from Poland," who had spread the knowledge of the 
 Torah far and wide, he lamented that in his own gene- 
 ration so many of them, who appealed for help to the 
 Jews of other lands, came with lying tales and forged 
 letters. 54 Let us not forget, however, that the delinquents 
 were after all more sinned against than sinning. They 
 
 54 Mishnath Hachamim 15a.
 
 108 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 lived at a time when Jewish impoverishment had reached 
 its climax. They often sailed under false colors, but 
 their sufferings were real enough. Nor is it entirely ir- 
 relevant to note that the moral decline of the period was 
 checked during the eighteenth century, by the religious 
 movements, brought about both by the Hasidim and by 
 their distinguished opponent the Wilna Gaon. 
 
 The stream of emigration from Russia and Poland, 
 when once begun, never afterwards ceased; indeed, its 
 pace has been greatly accelerated in modern times. Many 
 of the emigrants have possessed great power of adapt- 
 ibility to circumstances and have become successful busi- 
 ness men. Others have applied the sharpness of intellect, 
 which they derived originally from their Talmudic studies, 
 to secular learning with brilliant results. But there has 
 always remained a residuum of failures, for whom char- 
 ity is called upon to make provision. Jewish charitable 
 societies in mjany lands have made gallant efforts to re- 
 lieve, cure and prevent destitution. But much remains 
 to be done. 
 
 One thought must always suggest itself to us, when 
 we study, however superficially, any important aspect of 
 our past history. The marvel of Jewish life in the Middle 
 Ages is that, while there were so many circumstances 
 that tended to degrade our fathers, they were in fact so 
 little degraded. The influence of Judaism on heart and 
 head carried them through their difficulties to a triumph- 
 ant issue.
 
 V 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 
 
 The social service of our day is, of course, a theme 
 not for a lecture but for an encyclopedia. Turn over 
 the pages of the Charities' Register, issued in a great 
 city, and you will be struck not only by the number of 
 societies enumerated and by the large amount of their 
 combined expenditure but also by the variety of func- 
 tions which they discharge. This is an age of special- 
 ization in charitable effort as in everything else. 
 Every possible variety of good work is attempted with 
 more or less success either by a society founded for 
 that single purpose or by the appropriate department 
 of a more comprehensive organization. The ramifi- 
 cations of medical charities, educational charities and 
 charities for general relief are highly complicated; to 
 understand the working of all this machinery of social 
 uplift requires special study and critically to examine 
 it would entail a very difficult investigation. But there 
 are some aspects of Jewish social service to which I 
 should like to invite attention. Certain outstanding 
 problems confront us now; it is my aim to indicate 
 what they are rather than to suggest final solutions. 
 
 The title of my paper suggests at once a general 
 question of importance. How far should Jewish social 
 service be conducted on denominational lines? It may 
 
 109
 
 110 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 indeed be assumed without demur that Jews owe a 
 special duty to their co-religionists. Such a propo- 
 sition would be affirmed with virtual unanimity in any 
 assembly either of Jews or of non-Jews. A charitable 
 agency, therefore, which carries on work in a Jewish 
 district, should attract generous Jewish support, both 
 in the form of subscriptions and in that of personal 
 service. But it has yet to be determined how far so- 
 cial service should be rendered to Jews by organiza- 
 tions distinct from those that benefit non-Jews. Is 
 the Jewish child to receive education or vocational 
 training in a denominational school? Is the sick Jew 
 to be treated in a Jewish hospital ? Should the activity 
 of settlements be organized upon a denominational 
 basis? 1 These and similar questions arise from time 
 to time in various parts of the Jewish world and are 
 apt to be hotly debated. In order to decide them 
 aright, account must be taken of local circumstances, 
 but we should also be guided by broad principles of 
 general application. 
 
 If we are persons of wide sympathy, our bias will 
 undoubtedly be towards the undenominational idea, so 
 
 question may perhaps be answered in a foot-note. Some 
 of the best known university settlements are situated in Jew- 
 ish districts and our co-religionists make large use of the 
 recreative and educational facilities they offer. There is hearty 
 co-operation between Jews and non-Jews in the conduct of the 
 work. The activity of settlements is pursued in an atmos- 
 phere of friendliness, which helps to dissipate prejudices of 
 class and sect. Denominational settlements can hardly pro- 
 mote the same breadth of view, but they justify their existence 
 as separate entities, if they put their religious work in the 
 forefront. No attempt to run a Jewish settlement on merely 
 racial lines deserves support; it must be enthusiastically re- 
 ligious or it is nothing.
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 111 
 
 far as it can be effectively applied. In order that a 
 society, organized by Jews for Jews, may justify its 
 existence, it must do work which could not be 
 thoroughly accomplished by an undenominational 
 body. Societies in which the teaching of Judaism 
 plays an essential part, not to speak of such as are 
 dedicated entirely to this purpose, satisfy this condi- 
 tion. Frankly denominational as they are, they con- 
 stitute Judaism's first line of defense and have the high- 
 est claim upon all who love their faith. On the other 
 hand, the instruction of Jewish children in secular sub- 
 jects is best conducted in undenominational schools. 
 This view prevails generally in countries of enlight- 
 enment ; the complete segregation of Jewish children in 
 separate schools would hardly find support in modern 
 times, except from Anti-Semites. The existence of 
 Jewish elementary schools in England is explained by 
 the fact that the English system of public education 
 before 1870 rested upon a denominational basis, which 
 has been largely maintained by subsequent legislation. 
 The existing Jewish schools justify themselves by 
 their efficiency, but no new ones have been added for 
 many years. The majority of Jewish children in Eng- 
 land now attend schools, "provided" by the County 
 and City Councils; such instruction in Hebrew and 
 religion as they receive is given after school hours. 
 There is little doubt that the "non-provided" schools 
 which still exist, will ultimately be absorbed in the 
 general system, for their distinctive character is as- 
 sailed by the more progressive elements in English 
 public life.
 
 112 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 In ordinary circumstances, children are best cared 
 for in their homes; the most valuable elements in a 
 child's religious education are supplied by its parents, 
 although religious instruction (a very different thing) 
 may be delegated to others. But this principle some- 
 times breaks down. It breaks down in the case of 
 many children, whose fathers are chronic invalids or 
 whose mothers have been left as destitute widows. 
 What is to be done for these poor little ones? One 
 way out of the difficulty is to give the head of the fam- 
 ily a maintenance grant, that will adequately cover the 
 needs of all its members. If sufficient funds are ob- 
 tainable, this is the best way to deal with the case of 
 parents, whose energy and common sense will enable 
 them to bring up their children really well. But des- 
 titution sometimes so discourages men and women 
 that they are incapacitated from the efficient perform- 
 ance of parental duties. In such cases, the interest of 
 the child is the primary consideration ; he should be 
 transferred to the charge of a public body or charitable 
 society, which assumes, for a time at least, all parental 
 responsibilities, including the duty of providing 
 moral and religious education. When this transfer- 
 ence has to be made, Jewish children should, of course, 
 be entrusted to Jewish care. The duty of providing 
 orphan asylums has accordingly been recognized by 
 Jewish communities in many lands. The spirit in 
 which these institutions are conducted, is in accord 
 with the ideal, formulated by Baruch Auerbach, the 
 founder of the Jewish Orphan Asylum at Berlin. 
 "Orphans," he said, "are not merely poor children,
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 113 
 
 but children without parents ; to raise and bring them 
 up, an orphan asylum should give these children not 
 merely bread and a shelter but parental love also, and 
 practical training" 2 Neither of these last two require- 
 ments is easy to fulfil; but without them an Orphan 
 School is worse than useless. Technical or vocational 
 work forms therefore an important part of the cur- 
 riculum; the success in after life of most lads trained 
 at such institutions as the Jews' Orphan Asylum of 
 London, speaks well for the efficiency of this practical 
 training. To provide an equivalent of the love, given 
 by natural parents, is impossible, but everything 
 should be done to make orphan children breathe the at- 
 mosphere of affection which makes a home happy. A 
 staff of earnest and devoted teachers can do much to 
 meet this want, but it is also important that the condi- 
 tions of their work should be as favorable as possible. The 
 barrack-school with its large dormitories and dining- 
 halls is now condemned both on theoretical grounds 
 and as the result of practical experience. Small or- 
 phanages may be retained to satisfy the needs of the 
 less populous cities, but the larger institutions will re- 
 quire to be remodelled. This has already been done 
 with remarkable success by the Hebrew Sheltering 
 Guardians of New York. Their orphanage has been 
 removed from the city to a quiet rural district, where 
 small parties of children are housed in a number of 
 separate cottages each under the personal care of a 
 house-mother. The best features of Jewish home life 
 
 2 Jewish Ency., s. v. Auerbach, Baruch.
 
 114 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 are present in this institution, which is probably des- 
 tined to serve as the model for many others. 
 
 Another difficult problem, with which Jewish char- 
 ity is called upon to deal, is that presented by the child, 
 who is a delinquent or the offspring of vicious parents. 
 Once there were very few such children in Israel, but 
 their number, like that of adult criminals and prosti- 
 tutes, has greatly increased during the last twenty- 
 five years. 3 They are mostly committed to non-Jew- 
 ish institutions, being visited at longer or shorter in- 
 tervals by friendly visitors, lay or clerical, from whom 
 they receive religious instruction. But this arrange- 
 ment is not satisfactory. If we would save children, 
 whose moral development has been marred by vicious 
 or incompetent parents, we dare not neglect the 
 most potent influence at our command, the influence 
 of religion. We go far towards solving the problem of 
 the delinquent child, if we arouse the dormant poten- 
 tialities of his moral nature. The best hope for him is 
 in a religious school, but it must be one where religion 
 is not only taught but also lived. This implies the 
 need of a teaching staff of unusual ability and religious 
 zeal. Teachers, possessing these qualities and having 
 at the same time a desire to take up institutional work, 
 are not easy to obtain, but the main desideratum is to 
 
 3 Various causes have brought about this sad state of things. 
 Among the forces of demoralization, we may probably reckon 
 the growth of the factory system in Jewish industries and the 
 consequent neglect of the home, the peculiar temptations of 
 modern industrial life, and not least, the unsettlement in morals, 
 due to wholesale emigration and to the break-up of ortho- 
 doxy.
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 115 
 
 secure the right person as superintendent. If this re- 
 sponsible post be well filled, the training of a good of- 
 ficial staff is only a matter of time. Another point to 
 be kept in mind with regard to correctional establish- 
 ments is the need of proper classification. Truants 
 and boys who are merely troublesome at home or at 
 school, should not be sent to institutions, intended for 
 the reception of more hardened offenders. We may 
 spread moral disease in our attempt to cure it, if we 
 neglect this simple precaution. 
 
 My remarks about the proper treatment of the delin- 
 quent child apply equally to the so-called "fallen" girl. 
 Here again the need of proper classification is urgent 
 and here again the best results will be obtained in de- 
 nominational institutions, if they are rightly con- 
 ducted. The Jewess, who succumbs to temptation, 
 needs Jewish teaching and she needs also Jewish sym- 
 pathy the sympathy of those who understand her pe- 
 culiar difficulties and the unwholesome surroundings, 
 to which her delinquency can generally be traced. Fur- 
 ther, Jews should undertake the after-care of those 
 who leave the Rescue Home and should hold them- 
 selves responsible for preventive work, designed to 
 cleanse the community from the disgrace of commer- 
 cialized vice. The grave evil just mentioned so far as 
 it affects the Jewish people, is largely international in 
 its operation, many of the victims being conveyed to 
 foreign lands. The combined force of Jewish agencies 
 in different parts of the world can alone save them from 
 destruction. Very impressive is the annual report of 
 the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and
 
 116 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Women, in which we read of the joint efforts put forth 
 by this British Society and by the Hilfsverein der 
 Deutschen Juden, the French Committee, the American 
 Council of Jewish Women, the Jewish Colonial Associ- 
 ation and a number of other Jewish organizations in dif- 
 ferent countries. The brotherhood and sisterhood of 
 Israel have combined in a strenuous effort to wipe out 
 a stain which besmirches the honor of our race. 
 
 We conclude therefore that every well-ordered Jew- 
 ish community should provide itself with orphanages, 
 correctional schools and rescue homes, which are spe- 
 cifically Jewish, in order that they may be made cen- 
 tres of direct religious teaching and influence. Homes 
 for friendless Jewish work-girls also form an indispens- 
 able part of the communal equipment. There are other 
 institutions in which the management should be Jew- 
 ish, in order that the atmosphere may be Jewish. I 
 have especially in mind Homes for the Aged and the 
 Incurable. It is essential for the happiness of the in- 
 mates that they should spend their declining years in a 
 Jewish environment, to which most of them have been 
 accustomed all their life. The question of food is also 
 important. The majority of working-class Jews, in- 
 cluding persons otherwise unobservant, adhere to the 
 dietary laws as a praiseworthy custom if not as a 
 religious obligation. They prefer to eat kosher meat, 
 if it can be obtained without much trouble. This pi- 
 ous feeling (this prejudice, if you prefer to call it so) 
 increases with age and should certainly be respected. 
 Still more weight must be given to the convictions of 
 an earnest minority, who look upon the Dietary Laws
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 117 
 
 as divine. 4 The attraction of Jewish cookery, which 
 can be enjoyed in a communal institution, must also 
 not be forgotten. The familiar old-time dishes appeal 
 not only to the palate but also to the imagination. 
 
 What are we to say about the Jewish hospitals, 
 which are to be found in many parts of the world, notably 
 in Germany and in the United States? Speaking in the 
 abstract, one would be inclined to regret their exist- 
 ence. The fight against disease is a matter of common 
 concern and should be carried on with the closest co- 
 operation of all men. A practical lesson in brotherly 
 love is supplied by such an institution as the London 
 Hospital, where men and women of all creeds are to 
 be found amongst the governors, the subscribers, the 
 medical staff, the nurses and the patients. Undoubt- 
 edly also the highest efficiency is obtainable when the 
 location of hospitals and their classification are deter- 
 mined by medical requirements only, without regard to 
 the denominational affiliations of the patients. This 
 point is especially clear in a city of moderate size, 
 where the choice lies between a single institution, 
 large enough to attract a staff of first-rate ability, and 
 several denominational institutions too small to attain 
 excellence. Certain general arguments are used in 
 
 4 We should treat with especial tenderness the feelings of in- 
 tellectual non-combatants, whose faith might possibly be shat- 
 tered but could not be remodelled. It is a cause for regret 
 that in America kosher meat is not supplied in a number of 
 Jewish hospitals, including most of those with the largest re- 
 sources at their command. All the requirements of orthodoxy 
 are, however, satisfied at the Montefiore Home for Chronic 
 Invalids a New York Institution, which is one of the best 
 equipped of Jewish medical charities.
 
 118 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 favor of Jewish hospitals, but they fail to carry con- 
 viction. The desire of Jewish patients for special food 
 and religious ministrations can be met within the walls 
 of an undenominational hospital. Where such pa- 
 tients are numerous they can be collected into special 
 wards. Even where they are few, it should be possible 
 to arrange for the establishment of a kosher kitchen 
 and for the regular visitation of the institution by a 
 local Rabbi. Jewish patients of foreign speech are 
 subject to serious disqualifications in some non- Jew- 
 ish hospitals, but good feeling and a little good sense 
 can easily solve the difficulty. In a country, such as 
 England, where the system of medical charities is es- 
 sentially undenominational, there is no justification 
 for the existence of separate Jewish hospitals and the 
 general sense of the community will probably con- 
 tinue hostile to their establishment. 5 In the United 
 States, different conditions prevail. Most of the vol- 
 untary hospitals are under denominational manage- 
 ment or, at least, have a distinctly denominational at- 
 mosphere. The sick and injured of all creeds and 
 nationalities are admissible, 6 but Jewish patients in 
 non-Jewish hospitals are apt to feel that they are out 
 of place. Municipal hospitals to which many Jews 
 resort by force of necessity, are as little liked as the 
 
 SThe only existing Jewish Hospital in England is at Man- 
 chester. A site for a Jewish Hospital has been purchased in 
 London ; the movement for establishing it is popular in the 
 East End and has a few influential supporters. The Jewish 
 Chronicle is in favor of the project. 
 
 ^Jewish hospitals, in their turn, receive patients of other 
 creeds.
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 119 
 
 English poor-law infirmaries, which they resemble in 
 many ways. It is natural, therefore, that American 
 Jews, like the Roman Catholics, the Presbyterians and 
 other churches, should provide for the needs of their 
 own sick. It is also a fact that the best training for 
 a Jewish doctor and the best opportunities for his pro- 
 fessional advancement are furnished by Jewish hos- 
 pitals, which serve, therefore, more purposes than one 
 and are becoming more and more numerous. They 
 include establishments of every degree of efficiency 
 and inefficiency, two or three of the largest being 
 model establishments of world-wide renown. The 
 average level is said to be a high one, for a Jewish 
 community is accustomed to make it a point of honor 
 that their hospital should be at least as well found as 
 any in the city. The existence of Jewish hospitals in 
 America is probably justified as a means of protection 
 against social prejudice. Later on, they will doubtless 
 become an anachronism, if only because the provision 
 of hospitals is destined to become a branch of the pub- 
 lic service in all civilized lands. 
 
 I have as yet said nothing about the most impor- 
 tant Jewish charities, those that give direct relief. 
 These societies, although sectional, should not, I think, 
 be regarded as denominational, for they are concerned 
 with Jews as members, not of a religious community, 
 but of a race. The subscribers, the active workers, 
 the honorary officers of these societies are in many 
 cases Jews by descent but not by birth: the impulse 
 that makes them support Jewish charities may be 
 called religious using the word in a broad sense but
 
 120 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 it is certainly not denominational. The scrutiny of a 
 subscription list supplies, no doubt, an insufficient 
 basis on which to found conclusions as to the aims and 
 methods of a society. The social work of the Sal- 
 vation Army, for example, is ancillary to its spiritual 
 activities, although it obtains financial support from all 
 and sundry. But not so with the modern representa- 
 tive charities that relieve Jewish distress. The closer 
 we examine them, the more we are struck with their 
 secular outlook. Those who apply to them for assist- 
 ance gain nothing by mjaking professions of piety. It 
 is a matter of indifference to the agents of such bodies 
 as the Jewish Board of Guardians in London, whether 
 or not their "clients" attend synagogue or observe the 
 Jewish ritual laws. 7 Acceptance of assistance from 
 Christian missions is the only offense against Juda- 
 ism, which is still penalized and then only in aggra- 
 vated cases where there have been systematic de- 
 ception and double-dealing. In the matter of Sabbath 
 observance, the policy of the Board tends to increase, 
 rather than to lessen, the prevailing laxity. No spe- 
 cial consideration would be given, I think, to an appli- 
 cant whose need arose from refusal to work on the 
 
 7 It was . not always so. Unobservant Jews used to forfeit 
 all claims for assistance (See p. 79 above). Even in 1831, 
 the Comite de Bienfaisance of Paris rejected as unseemly 
 (inconvenant) the offer of a certain M. Fould, a banker, to give 
 twenty-five loads of wood for distribution during the winter 
 months, "five of which were to be reserved for heads of fam- 
 ilies, whose children worked at a trade, and especially for those 
 who worked on Saturdays as on other days." (Kahn "Histoire 
 de la Communaute Israelite de Paris, Le Comite de Bienfaisance 
 p. 24.)
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 121 
 
 Sabbath. Some of the Board's activity actually fos- 
 ters Sabbath-breaking. Their wise efforts to promote 
 Jewish dispersion from congested districts have this 
 tendency and the same may be said of their appren- 
 ticeship work, which withdraws lads from trades dis- 
 tinctively Jewish. It is true that the apprentices are 
 not permitted to work on the Sabbath, but most of 
 them do so after the expiration of their indentures. 
 This result may be regretted by some of the Board's 
 members and subscribers, but they make no serious 
 effort to prevent it. 
 
 The secular outlook of modern Jewish charity 
 is perhaps illustrated by the exclusion of the clergy 
 from the membership of the Jewish Board of Guar- 
 dians in London by an 'unwritten rule' a rule rig- 
 idly maintained for many years, although there is 
 one recent exception. 8 Another cause for this exclu- 
 sion is the belief that the training and experience of 
 the clergy, as well as the atmosphere in which they 
 live, tend to make them unbusinesslike. This belief 
 is partly due to lay prejudice, but there is some truth 
 in it. And it is a great pity. The modern synagogue 
 need not directly organize social service, it should 
 not do so, I think, but it will be false to its mission, 
 unless it inspire social service. Nor is it sufficient for 
 the teacher of religion to preach social service; he 
 
 8 This practice does not obtain in the smaller English com- 
 munities, where the Board of Guardians has no paid staff and 
 the minister acts as a general servant to the congregation. 
 It is to be found in some of the larger provincial centres but not 
 in all. At Leeds, the Jewish minister plays the chief part in the 
 administration of charity.
 
 122 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 must qualify himself to practise it and to show others 
 how they are to do so. It is true that we do not want 
 all our Rabbis to be of the same type. The scholarly 
 minister, who is an authority in Jewish learning, and 
 the clerical educational expert are both essential fig- 
 ures. But most of the working Rabbis, who will serve 
 the congregations of the not distant future, will be 
 above everything social workers and inspirers of so- 
 cial work. The training which they receive in their 
 student days must be planned accordingly. 9 It would 
 also be advantageous if most Rabbis, before assuming 
 the charge of a congregation undertook settlement 
 work for a year or so, or were employed in the office 
 of a Jewish charitable or educational society. They 
 would thus be enabled to gain a grasp of affairs, that 
 would stand them in good stead throughout their min- 
 istry. 
 
 It is highly desirable that Rabbis should co-operate 
 in charitable work. At the same time, the organiza- 
 tion of Jewish relief has rightly been entrusted to 
 agencies, independent of the synagogue. 10 The best 
 thought of the day outside the Jewish community as 
 within it does not favor the administration of relief 
 
 9 A candidate for the title of Rabbi, should be required to 
 complete satisfactorily one of several alternative courses in 
 addition to obtaining a competent elementary knowledge of the 
 Hebrew language and of Jewish history, literature and theology. 
 If he specializes in a branch or in branches of sociology, 
 the instruction in this subject as given in his University should 
 be supplemented by special tuition in a Rabbinical college, 
 in the principles and technique of Jewish social service. 
 
 10 In a German city, however, the Armen-Commission der 
 Jiidischen Gemeinde consists of delegates from the local con- 
 gregations.
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 123 
 
 through the churches. The clergyman, as social 
 worker, will render the best service, when he co-oper- 
 ates with the members of a society over whom he can 
 claim no authority except that derived from the con- 
 fidence, which his single-minded zeal and ability in- 
 spire. However great his knowledge, skill and fair- 
 ness may be in dealing with problems of destitution, 
 he should not be constituted as an administrator of relief 
 ex-offido. If he acts in this capacity with an authority de- 
 rived from his office, it is almost inevitable that a 
 false idea of religion wll acquire currency. It will be 
 supposed, especially by the uneducated, that prefer- 
 ence is given to those applicants for relief, who attend 
 worship and make professions of piety. Once this 
 idea is abroad, bad results cannot but follow. The 
 house of God will become the resort of plausible hum- 
 bugs. Worse still, the prevailing opinion amongst 
 persons of sturdy independence, who should be the 
 best friends of religious bodies, will grow hostile to 
 them. The modern synagogue is almost entirely free 
 from these evil conditions, which still disfigure many 
 of the modern churches. Such conformity with Jewish 
 ceremonial observance, as survives amongst laymen 
 in the countries of enlightenment, is disinterested, for 
 the appearance of piety has long ceased to be profit- 
 able. The would-be beneficiary of organized Jewish 
 charity is offered no inducement to play the part of a 
 religious hypocrite. 
 
 The representative Jewish relief agencies are, I re- 
 peat, essentially undenominational. Yet they are Jew- 
 ish, that is, administered by Jews for the benefit of
 
 124 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 their fellow-Jews. It is necessary for us to maintain 
 special societies of this character shall I not say be- 
 cause we are a peculiar people? It is at least certain 
 that a Jewish applicant for relief in an American or 
 English city is a very different person from most 
 gentile applicants. He is generally a native of a Rus- 
 sian, Austrian or Roumanian ghetto. 11 If not a recent 
 arrival, his physical or mental condition is probably 
 such that he is below the average, reached by most of 
 his co-religionists, in ability to adapt himself to a new 
 environment; otherwise he would have made himself 
 independent of charity. And he often has withal some- 
 thing of the spirit of the wanderer. Having few local 
 attachments, he is willing to try his luck anywhere. 
 He may speak no language but Yiddish, he may ap- 
 pear to be the most helpless creature imaginable ; yet 
 he will transfer his fortunes upon slight inducement 
 from London to Paris, to New York, to Cape Town, to 
 Buenos Ayres. Hence Jewish charities have to deal 
 every day with problems that are much less character- 
 istic of the gentile world, the problem of the deserted 
 wife, the problem of the destitute traveller, who is 
 not a tramp but a home-seeker. Again, Jewish char- 
 ities are called upon to assist a large number of refu- 
 gees, some of whom have left Eastern Europe with- 
 out being taught a trade, whilst others have to apply 
 their knowledge of a handicraft to the methods of 
 
 11 In the fiscal year ending September 30, 1913, there were 
 6498 applicants for relief to the United Hebrew Charities of 
 New York. Of these, only 174 were native Americans. Na- 
 tive applicants to the London Jewish Board of Guardians dur- 
 ing 1913, were 492, the total number of applicants being 3592.
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 125 
 
 practising it that prevails in another country, or, if 
 this be impossible, to seek a new avocation. To help 
 them to become self-supporting, there is scope for 
 much specialized ability. 
 
 The utility of Jewish societies for dealing with Jew- 
 ish poverty does not merely depend upon the peculiar 
 features of their work. It depends also upon the fact 
 that there is more mutual understanding between Jew 
 and Jew than between Jew and Christian, unless the 
 Christian is a person of exceptional gifts. There is 
 not much chance of helping a man, unless you can 
 gain his confidence, for you must induce him to tell 
 you just where the trouble lies so that you may 
 be enabled to discuss with him possible remedies. 
 But it is one of the disagreeable facts about 
 organized charity that it breeds an atmosphere of 
 suspicion. The would-be recipient is tempted to 
 represent his plight in the most dismal colors, whilst 
 the agents of the relief society are keen to detect im- 
 posture or exaggeration. It is especially difficult to 
 dispel this mutual suspicion, when one is dealing with 
 Jewish cases. The Jewish immigrant has been bred in 
 a hard school; he has been harried and harassed 
 all his life by petty official and by populace ; he has 
 learned to surround himself with a protective armor 
 of deception and mistrust as a mere measure of 
 self-defense. He is genuinely amiable and courteous, 
 much more so indeed than the average English work- 
 man. If a stranger visits a gentile home in East Lon- 
 don, the interview will probably begin and end in the 
 street; if he visits a foreign Jew he will be at once
 
 126 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 invited indoors and the best chair will be dusted for 
 his reception. This friendliness is quite genuine but 
 it does not prevent the foreign Jew from distrusting 
 the gentile, to whom, in turn, his aim and morals, with 
 their queer combination of meannesses and ideal as- 
 pirations, must always remain something of a puzzle 
 Non- Jewish charitable societies (apart from those con- 
 nected with missionary efforts) are always glad to re- 
 fer Jewish cases to the communal agencies, that are 
 better able to deal with them. 
 
 But here an attentive reader of my paper may per- 
 haps be disposed to interpolate two pertinent ques- 
 tions. If the foreign Jew distrusts the Gentile, has 
 he more confidence in those who appear to value their 
 English, German or American citizenship more than 
 their Judaism ? Do the latter understand him and his 
 requirements? We can answer both these questions 
 in the affirmative, but not without considerable quali- 
 fications. The foreign Jew has much in common with 
 his native brother. His children, if not he, are the 
 raw material out of which the Jew with western cul- 
 ture is to be made; he himself usually looks forward 
 to the process with satisfaction; he has considerable 
 admiration and respect for the finished article. And 
 if we are asked for proof that the native Jews of West- 
 ern countries feel practical sympathy for their immi- 
 grant brethren, we point instinctively to the splendid 
 charities, designed for the advancement of the He- 
 brew race, to which so much money, so much thought, 
 so much devoted personal service are given. The main 
 burden of supporting these charities rests everywhere,
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 127 
 
 it is true, upon the shoulders of a public-spirited min- 
 ority and many, who are in a position to help, stand 
 ignobly aloof. But this is a drawback to which all 
 voluntary endeavor is subject. When all deductions 
 have been made, it is safe to say that the representa- 
 tive Israelite, whose word carries weight in the pro- 
 fessional or business world, is usually a man who gives 
 his money, his time, or both to serve the poor of his 
 people. Of course his motive is not always the highest. 
 He may subscribe to a charity, in which he is not great*- 
 ly interested, because he has received an appeal from 
 some one whom he cannot well refuse. Or he may be 
 a social climber, who pays his shot for the privilege 
 of sitting on a Committee, in company with those 
 whom he would not meet elsewhere. But it would 
 require the folly of a professional cynic to make us 
 suppose that such motives are often the dominant ones. 
 If present at all, they are subordinate ; whilst most of 
 those who support Jewish charities have no selfish 
 purpose to serve. Their good will towards their peo- 
 ple is absolutely genuine. 
 
 Yet native Jew and foreign-born Jew do not co- 
 operate as they should in charitable work. Foreign 
 Jews, who make a fortune, may or may not support Jew- 
 ish charities. Much more numerous are those who ob- 
 tain a fair measure of success, after they have settled 
 for a few years in their new home, but retain their 
 old ideas and methods of living. They are mostly 
 charitable people, yet they include but few supporters 
 of the chief communal institutions, which they re- 
 gard as tainted with too much officialdom, with too
 
 128 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 many refusals of assistance, with an excess of "scien- 
 tific" charity and a deficiency of rachamanuth (tender- 
 ness of heart). Accurate criticism this is not, but its 
 utterance is natural, so long as the administrators of 
 Jewish charity neglect to take counsel with the lar- 
 ger section of the community that section to which 
 belong not only most applicants for help but also a 
 large proportion of those immigrants, who are hard- 
 working, self-supporting and in some cases prosperous. 
 If the co-operation of such men were secured, the pub- 
 lic opinion of the community with regard to charitable 
 administration would become better informed. Many 
 good results would obviously follow. Inefficient and 
 superfluous societies would disappear, or they would 
 be reconstituted as local branches of the organized 
 machinery of communal charity. The schnorrer 12 and 
 the begging-letter writer would cease to find encourage- 
 ment. The m,oral authority of Jewish charities would 
 be far greater than it is now, for their policy would 
 no longer be that which the rich enforce upon the poor, 
 but it would be backed by the best mind of all sections 
 in Israel. This is the surest way to give permanence 
 to social work. It is not enough to help people 
 wisely; we must either help them in accordance with 
 their wishes, or convince them that wisdom lies in 
 our ideas and not in theirs. In other words, it is nec- 
 essary to apply democratic principles to charitable ad- 
 ministration. Now our existing Jewish institutions are 
 far from being democratically managed. "The bell 
 
 i2See p. 107.
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 129 
 
 has become the symbol of the Jewish Board of Guard- 
 ians," wrote the London correspondent of a New York 
 Yiddish newspaper 13 the bell, rung by an official to 
 notify an applicant that his interview with the Com- 
 mittee is at an end and that he must leave the office 
 without further ado. The bell does not reason, it 
 passes judgment: such is the typical attitude of a plu- 
 tocracy, benevolent and intelligent, but imperious to- 
 wards its dependents, when they are inclined to kick 
 over the traces. That which seems the shortest way 
 of arriving at the goal desired, may prove the longest 
 in the end : it is better to govern with the good will of 
 the governed, even although it is necessary to educate 
 them first. I have no scheme to suggest whereby these 
 generalities may be translated into action. It seems 
 clear, however, that the governing bodies of our char- 
 ities should gradually be made representative of all 
 sections of the community. In dealing with Metro- 
 politan relief problems, the best results will perhaps 
 be obtained by the establishment of local committees, 
 to which a central Board will delegate some of its 
 powers. Tentative steps in this direction should cer- 
 tainly be made. 
 
 In many cases, charity is unable to remove the 
 causes of distress and can only mitigate its effects 
 by the application of palliatives. Some difficult ques- 
 tions of principle arise in this branch of Jewish char- 
 itable administration. The honest workman, left des- 
 titute by old age or by a breakdown in health, should 
 
 'Die Wahrheit," September 8, 1913.
 
 130 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 be honorably pensioned either by his late employer, 
 by a charitable society, or by the State. If worthy of 
 help at all, he is worthy of adequate help, so that he 
 may live in reasonable comfort with the members of 
 his family. On the other hand the character, method 
 of life and past record of many applicants for relief 
 are such, that no charitable society is disposed to spend 
 much upon them. The problem of their maintenance 
 is not to be solved by doles ; it must be undertaken by 
 the State on an entirely different basis. But communal 
 charity hardly tries to carry out these principles. In 
 too many cases, it can spare but insufficient help for 
 the deserving poor, who are permanently disabled, 
 because a portion of its resources have been dissi- 
 pated in casual relief to the unhelpable. Unfortun- 
 ately it has become a dogma of Judaism that Jews 
 always support their own poor. In point of fact, they 
 do not and cannot support them completely. Various 
 communal societies receive subsidies from public 
 funds, and many Jews are inmates of municipal in- 
 stitutions. Above all, the extent of Jewish destitution 
 is such, that no private societies could adequately 
 cover the entire field. This patent fact would be more 
 generally recognized and the cruel kindness of giving 
 inadequate relief would be discontinued, were it not for 
 the fear of arousing anti- Jewish prejudice. We must 
 learn to take the world into our confidence; that is 
 the braver and wiser course. 
 
 The most encouraging feature of modern Jewish 
 charity is the attention given to remedial meas- 
 ures, old and new, and to preventive work, which pro-
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 131 
 
 vides a cure for social evils before the emergency for 
 dealing with these evils actually presents itself. I 
 wish I could have found statistics, showing how often 
 a little timely help given to a family, struggling with 
 sickness or misfortune, has made them self-supporting 
 thereafter. Cases of the kind are certainly of fre- 
 quent occurrence. Jewish promoters of charity are also 
 mindful of the old Rabbinic principle that a loan 
 is often better than a gift. Loan departments are at- 
 tached to some of the larger communal institutions 
 and similar work is carried out by separate societies, 
 organized for the purpose. Money is lent without in- 
 terest for business purposes, a responsible surety or 
 sureties being required. The loan is repaid in weekly 
 instalments. The remarkable feature of this work is 
 that the proportion of bad debts is very small, al- 
 though the borrowers are, of course, poor people. In 
 the case of the Hebrew Free Loan (Gemilath Chasodim) 
 Society of New York, the proportion of irrecoverables 
 is about 3/5 of 1 per cent, out of $632,000 lent during 
 the last financial year. Jewish agencies for granting 
 philanthropic loans are generally successful because 
 the need which they meet is widely felt. The ambi- 
 tion of most Jews is to start in business for themselves, 
 so that they may work for profits and not for wages. 
 In many cases, a timely loan will launch them on their 
 career. 14 
 
 14 For the sake of completeness, mention should be made of 
 the loans without surety that are granted by the Relief Com- 
 mittee of the Jewish Board of Guardians of London, in ad- 
 dition to the advances made by their Loan Committee. The 
 repayment of these relief loans is not enforced and very little
 
 132 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Manful efforts have been made by Jewish charity in 
 recent years to fight against tuberculosis, less preval- 
 ent amongst Jews than amongst the general popula- 
 tion, yet terribly destructive. It has long been known 
 that the disease was arrested by removal to a purer 
 and dryer atmosphere, but the work of a sanatorium 
 was long ineffective, because the patient relapsed so 
 rapidly after his return to the old bad conditions. On 
 the other hand, emigration, which gives the consump- 
 tive his best chance of recovery, is generally imprac- 
 ticable. Much good can be effected, however, by the 
 after-care of consumptives in their own homes, so 
 that the patients themselves and the members of their 
 families, who may be predisposed to the disease, are 
 enabled to live under good conditions. In New York, 
 a joint Committee of the United Hebrew Charities 
 and of the Free Synagogue is applying this treatment 
 in a number of cases. Striking results have been al- 
 ready obtained. "A careful investigation made by the 
 Committee, of 495 cases of persons discharged from 
 Bedford Sanitarium, showed that 55 per cent suffered 
 a relapse within a short time after their discharge and 
 a return to their former environment. Of the fam- 
 ilies cared for by the Joint Committee only 8 per cent 
 relapsed into their former condition." In London, 
 
 is recovered. (In the Board's annual reports, the amount re- 
 paid is not stated, although we can probably deduce it from 
 the figures given.) These loans seem often to be offered with 
 the purpose of stimulating the semi-schnorrer to self-reliance; 
 failure to repay the loan is a bar to future relief, except in 
 the case of sickness or other emergency. Relief loans are 
 also granted by the United Hebrew Charities of New York and 
 the proportion of repayments is much larger.
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 133 
 
 where similar methods are employed, about one fourth 
 of the total expenditure of the Relief Committee of the 
 Board of Guardians is now used for the benefit of con- 
 sumptives and their families. 
 
 Another splendid branch of remedial work, in which 
 the American Jews have achieved remarkable success, 
 is that undertaken by the National Desertion Bureau. 
 The great evil of wife desertion, which is the sorest 
 blot of Jewish home life, has been greatly reduced 
 and will in time become uncommon. These results 
 have been made possible, because the abandonment 
 of a child has now been made a felony in most or all 
 of the United States; offenders, when located, are sub- 
 ject to inter-state extradition and are prosecuted by 
 the District-Attorney. But this bare statement gives 
 very little idea of the far-reaching and varied charac- 
 ter of the work effected. Offenders are traced with 
 great ingenuity and success; reconciliations between 
 husband and wife are arranged whenever possible ; in 
 other cases, the husband is induced to agree to sign 
 an agreement for a voluntary separation with due pro- 
 vision for his wife and children. In more extreme 
 cases, where prosecution is necessary, sentence is sus- 
 pended upon a promise to contribute a specified 
 amount for the support of the family. 13 Similar work 
 should be attempted in Europe, although the same de- 
 gree of success could hardly be hoped for. I suggest 
 to the Board of Deputies of British Jews that they 
 
 15 The work is fully described in the Report of the National 
 Confeience of Jewish Charities in the United States, held at 
 Cleveland in 1912.
 
 134 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 might well take up the subject, in its legal and inter- 
 national aspects. 
 
 The most important problems of Jewish preventive 
 philanthropy in the United States are probably those 
 connected with immigration. The new arrivals are so 
 numerous and usually so untaught. They face serious 
 dangers and temptations ; in order to succeed, they must 
 learn to accommodate themselves to an unfamiliar envi- 
 ronment. When they arrive, they must be assisted to 
 find their friends; they must be given all necessary in- 
 formation to save them from falling into bad hands; 
 they must receive, when necessary, a temporary shel- 
 ter and assistance in finding employment. Amongst 
 the difficulties to be overcome, not the least perplex- 
 ing are those which arise from a "new phenomenon in 
 the history of the world, that of the migrating, un- 
 attached young girl travelling alone, * * * break- 
 ing or loosening ties of family temporarily or perma- 
 mently, detaching herself from all that was familiar 
 and going out into the world." 16 All this work is 
 undertaken with remarkable originality, sympathy and 
 business ability by the Hebrew Sheltering and Im- 
 migrant Aid Society, by the Council of Jewish Women, 
 and by the Clara de Hirsch Home for Immigrant Girls. 
 
 Almost equally important are the operations of the 
 Industrial Removal Office (financed by the Jewish Co- 
 lonial Association), which deals with applicants, who 
 wish to leave New York for interior cities. This work 
 
 16 Proceeding of the Sixth Triennial Convention of the Coun- 
 cil of Jewish Women (1911) : Executive Secretary's Report, 
 p. 76.
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 135 
 
 requires great delicacy of handling. The highly com- 
 petent workman who can shift for himself, does not re- 
 quire assistance. On the other hand, it is worse than 
 useless to send away those who are too incompetent 
 to achieve economic independence anywhere. The 
 persons dealt with have been unsuccessful in New 
 York through force of circumstances, but it is judged 
 that they are capable of doing better elsewhere. They 
 are carefully selected and sent to communities, that 
 express willingness to receive them. In 1913, 6469 
 persons were sent away, mostly to the central States. 
 The direct results achieved are admirable, but the in- 
 direct influence of the work is probably more impor- 
 tant still. "A case in point is that of certain city in 
 Indiana, which ten years ago had a Jewish population 
 of not more than thirty families all of German origin. 
 To-day a conservative estimate places the nurriber at 
 one thousand. The Removal Office has not sent more 
 than one-third of that number" 17 
 
 Much might be added about the devices adopted in 
 America - to prevent abuses, that commonly arise 
 in charitable administration. The recent establishment 
 in New York of the Social Service Exchange, in 
 which Jewish bodies participate, deserves especial 
 mention. 18 Every charitable society of importance in 
 
 * 7 The Removal Work, Including Galveston, by David M. 
 Bressler, presented before the "National Conference of Jewish 
 Charities" (1910). An interesting experiment, on the same 
 lines as those indicated above, was undertaken in England 
 on a small scale, under the auspices of the late Lord Swaythling 
 
 18 Similar Exchanges exist in some other cities notably at 
 Boston. At Berlin, elaborate precautions are taken to prevent 
 overlapping.
 
 136 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 the city now furnishes this central exchange with a 
 list of all the cases which it relieves. Overlapping is 
 thus reduced to a minimum; it is even avoided as be- 
 tween Jewish charities and the principal missions for 
 promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. Very im- 
 portant also is the work of the Transportation Com- 
 mittee of the National Conference of Jewish Char- 
 ities. The different communities throughout the 
 United States have undertaken not to forward an ap- 
 plicant for transportation from one city to another 
 without the advice and consent of the city of destin- 
 ation. When this rule is violated, the initial city in- 
 demnifies the city of destination for any expense in- 
 curred. When disputes arise between different cities, 
 they are referred for settlement to the Transporta- 
 tion Committee. It is a system which should be 
 adopted in other countries. 
 
 In the Jewish world there are many other forms of 
 charitable work. It is not within the scope of this 
 paper to name them all, far less to describe them. It 
 is clear, however, that the whole subject is one for 
 comparative study. Jewish social service would 
 everywhere be more efficient if we knew accurately 
 how it was rendered by our brethren in other lands. 
 The subject should be treated extensively and also in- 
 tensively. Very valuable would be a descriptive and 
 critical survey of world-wide Jewish charity, in which 
 the broad aspects of the subject were alone considered. 
 This work should be accompanied or perhaps preceded 
 by a series of monographs, each devoted to a single 
 branch of Jewish charity and based upon thorough in-
 
 JEWISH SOCIAL SERVICE OF TODAY 13? 
 
 vestigation of the work, which is carried out by exist- 
 ing institutions. The preparation of such volumes 
 would involve considerable expense, but this could 
 easily be met, if it represented, as is fitting, the com- 
 bined effort of universal Israel. In order to supply 
 the initial impetus, an international congress on Jew- 
 ish social service should be convened. I venture to 
 think that such an assembly would serve this pur- 
 pose and many others. Its published proceedings 
 would form in themselves a document of unique value. 
 The constitution of the Congress would furnish an in- 
 spiring object-lesson in the vital strength of Jewish 
 solidarity; for it might be made thoroughly represen- 
 tative of our race. The Zionist and the anti-Zion- 
 ist, the orthodox and reformer would have an oppor- 
 tunity to exchange ideas upon topics of common con- 
 cern. They would disperse, after the congress was 
 over, with a clearer realization of work to be shared in 
 their people's cause.
 
 VI 
 THE CITY OF GOD 
 
 "They shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion 
 of the Holy One of Israel." So prophesied one of those 
 seers, whose collected works are known to us as the 
 book of Isaiah. There was, of course, no novelty in 
 the idea that Jerusalem was a sacred city. It was the 
 city, wherein the temple had once stood, the city of 
 sacred memories. The theme of the prophet is not, 
 however, the past glory of Jerusalem, but its future 
 transfiguration. According to his thought, the City of 
 God is the new Jerusalem, the ideal city yet to be. To 
 the carnal eye, it might look like the actual city of to- 
 day, but the eye of the spirit will see in it a marvellous 
 change. The officers of the city will be peace and its 
 exactors righteousness. Violence and destruction will 
 no longer be heard therein; its walls shall be called 
 salvation and its gates, praise. "The light that never 
 was on sea and land" will glow on the faces of 
 the citizens. They will all be righteous and the sun 
 of God's presence will shine within their hearts. Vain 
 dreams of national ascendancy pass also through the 
 prophet's mind, but these obscure only slightly the 
 brightness of his vision a vision which can be realized 
 in its essentials not only in his own Jerusalem but in 
 any spot on God's earth, where evil is overcome by 
 virtue. 
 
 139
 
 140 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 This is a beautiful picture, but many would deny 
 that it is more. Amuse yourselves with these dreams, 
 they would say, as you would seek distraction in a 
 romance, but forget them during your workaday hours. 
 But this is bad advice; it is unpractical as well, al- 
 though it comes from those who consider themselves 
 practical people. All the world's best achievement 
 springs from idealism, of which we cannot have too 
 much, provided it faces the facts of existence. The 
 day-dreamer will not help us much, it is true, for he 
 lacks concentration and remains out of touch with the 
 world of reality. The serviceable idealist not only 
 dreams dreams but tries to realize them. His is a vi- 
 rile idealism, that is allied to close thought. He takes 
 account of the forces that retard progress as well as 
 of those that promote it. But being a man of faith, he 
 is confident that the obstructions confronting the for- 
 ward march of humanity are not insurmountable ; 
 there is a way through to the light which can and must 
 be won. Such idealism will get things done, that are 
 beyond the ken of those, who have ceased to hope and 
 work for better things. In science, in business, in 
 politics, in all the traffic of life, it is the man of genius 
 with a vision, who achieves the big results. It is good 
 for ordinary people, who are far from being men and 
 women of genius, to remember this. None of us is al- 
 together incapable of generous vision. If we cultivate 
 this faculty, we shall exact from life the highest pos- 
 sibilities, which it has to offer us ; we shall do our work 
 better, and certainly we shall enjoy it more. 
 
 It may further be pointed out that two kinds of
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 141 
 
 idealism are required for the building up of the City 
 of God. There is the idealism of the practical man, en- 
 gaged in clearing away the next two or three visible 
 obstructions to progress in some department of bene- 
 ficial activity. Such idealism belongs, for example, to 
 the statesman or captain of industry, who combines 
 practical sagacity and knowledge of affairs with gen- 
 erous enthusiasm and belief in the possibilities of hu- 
 man nature. It is needed, in a lesser degree, by the 
 rank and file of humanity ; otherwise the appeal made to 
 them by their leaders will call forth no worthy re- 
 sponse. In a democratic state, in particular, it is es- 
 sential that there should be a common stock of vital- 
 izing ideas, that bear upon present-day problems. Few 
 are the masters who are capable of originating these 
 great thoughts, but many will become disciples of the 
 masters, if their minds are convinced, their imagin- 
 ations fired, their hearts touched. We need therefore 
 a second kind of idealist, whose strength does not lie 
 in administrative ability but in his insight into ulti- 
 mate realities. He does not tell us how to do things, 
 (or if he does he generally tells us wrong) but we 
 learn from him what things are worth doing and he 
 inspires us with longing to see them accomplished. Be 
 he poet, creative thinker, tribune of the people, pro- 
 phet, he moves his generation and may continue to 
 move posterity "to sympathy with hopes and fears it 
 heeded not." Thus he does the world a great service, 
 possibly the greatest of all, for the possession of an 
 ideal is a necessary condition for all true progress. 
 Our life lacks unity of purpose, unless we have a vision
 
 142 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 of the far-distant time when the perfect life for the in- 
 dividual and for the human race shall at last be real- 
 ized. 
 
 Now observe that the place on which the hopes of 
 the prophet were set is a city. In this respect, his 
 words come closer home to us, for the whole tendency, 
 for good or evil, of our civilization is to encourage 
 urban life at the expense of rural life. "The progress 
 of mankind," said Canon Barnett, "is from an ideal gar- 
 den to an ideal city, from Eden to the City of God." 
 True that the rapid growth of most cities in modern 
 times has been attended by many patent evils, both 
 material and spiritual ; true that it has given rise to 
 social problems of peculiar difficulty. None the less, 
 life in cities has been at once an essential condition 
 and an inevitable result of modern progress ; through- 
 out the civilized world the town population is growing 
 and the rural population tends to diminish, actually 
 or relatively. This tendency towards concentration 
 may be in part a passing phase ; increased facilities of 
 rapid locomotion may enable us to live, or at least to 
 sleep, amid country sights. At the same time, the city 
 will doubtless continue to be the centre of human pro- 
 gress. It is part of the divine plan that this should be 
 so. Cowper's thought that "God made the country 
 and man made the town" is superficial at best. We 
 smile when we read the words of Socrates, who said 
 that in the city he could learn from men, but the fields 
 and the trees could teach him nothing. The error of 
 caring for nature to the exclusion of mankind is quite 
 as gross. Wordsworth who called himself "a wor-
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 143 
 
 shipper of nature unwearied in that service" learned 
 that he could best appreciate the beauties of sound- 
 ing cataract and lonely stream when he discerned be- 
 hind them "the still sad music of humanity." 
 
 Let us prize our cities, .therefore, and try to make 
 them holy places. Would that we could feel for them 
 even a fraction of that affection which made the inhab- 
 itants of Jerusalem exclaim, "If I forget thee, O Jeru- 
 salem, may my right hand forget its cunning!" Such 
 passionate love will best supply a motive for high en- 
 deavor, so that we may help to make the place we live 
 in a worthy home for its teeming masses. 
 
 What then can we do to make our city a better 
 place? Many things, but first and foremost we can 
 perform the duties that lie nearest to hand. The ordi- 
 nary work of daily life must be performed strenuously 
 and honorably. The prosperity of a city depends upon 
 the vigor with which the inhabitants apply themselves 
 to their various avocations. Through the example 
 which we set to our neighbors, we can, each of us, do 
 something to raise or lower the moral standard that 
 prevails. The spirit of sober work is inspiring ; the man 
 who holds rigidly to his engagements "who swears to 
 his own hurt yet changes not," will brace up the moral 
 tone of his neighbors. On the other hand, the example 
 of trickery and of wild speculation is sadly infectious. 
 In these days of keen competition, there is a real dan- 
 ger that rigid standards of business ethics may go out 
 of fashion. The struggling trader, in attempting to 
 keep his head above water, is sadly tempted to imitate 
 some of the tricky methods employed with apparent
 
 144 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 success by his less scrupulous rivals. Nor are the tac- 
 tics of "big business" always above suspicion. It does 
 not generally pay to break the law, but its terms may 
 often be evaded. The manufacturer, working under a 
 contract, will subject himself to penalties, if he fails 
 to supply goods according to specification, but it may 
 be that he can earn many a dishonest penny by lower- 
 ing the quality of work or material, whilst adher- 
 ing to the letter of the bargain. In the long run, such 
 devices defeat their own object; profits are made but 
 "repeat" orders are lost. But in some cases an im- 
 mediate splash is all-important, whatever may happen 
 afterwards. Or again bargains, not secured by a bind- 
 ing instrument, are dishonorably repudiated, if the turn 
 of the market has rendered them unremunerative. Such 
 malpractices as these destroy that mutual confidence 
 between man and man, which is the breath of life to 
 a commercial community; when employed in export 
 transactions, they are unpatriotic as well as dishonor- 
 able, for the culprits injure their country's credit 
 abroad. Public opinion, emphatic and universal, will 
 suppress all such dishonorable trading in the City of 
 God. We must likewise strive our utmost to raise the 
 standard of knowledge, taste and morality in contem- 
 porary society, so that the sale of useless trash be dis- 
 continued, as well as the abuses, mendacities and 
 wastefulness, that are common in many forms of ad- 
 vertising. In time to come, the law will suppress much 
 traffic of this description, as it already forbids the sale 
 of food products, that are adulterated or injurious to 
 health. Meanwhile, each of us can do something to
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 145 
 
 foster the growth of a sane public sentiment, which 
 will regard it as infamous to deal in quack medicine, 
 in tawdry finery, designed to tempt the working girl 
 to foolish extravagance, in painted shoddy, that coun- 
 terfeits broadcloth in the tailor's show-room and goes 
 to pieces on the first rainy day of wear. In the city 
 of God, merchandise will be made for use and not 
 merely for sale. Men will cease to be hirelings; they 
 will learn to appreciate that work well done is sacred 
 and that it is the primary manifestation of good cit- 
 izenship. 
 
 Another thought. The City of God is the city of 
 homes. Home, like the heaven which it should re- 
 semble, may be defined as a state of mind rather than 
 a mere place. It stands for family affection, for the 
 prattling of merry children, for intercourse with 
 friends; it stands also for fellowship with our books, 
 for quiet thought, for refreshment of spirit. Darby 
 and Joan should be hospitable so far as their means 
 allow and an occasional evening's diversion at a play, 
 a concert, or a friend's house will do them a world of 
 good. But gadabouts they will not be ; if their wedded 
 life is worthy of the name, most of their leisure will 
 be spent together at home. And opportunities for 
 solitude are also advisable. It is good for man to be 
 alone now and then and for woman also pro- 
 vided the loneliness be sweet-tempered and not too 
 prolonged. But solitude is a luxury beyond the reach 
 of most people, especially in great cities where rents 
 are so heavy. Home life in a tenement house is as- 
 suredly home life under difficulties. What is a com-
 
 146 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 mon result? The wife is often left behind to look 
 after small children, whilst her husband spends his 
 evenings elsewhere, sometimes in doubtful surround- 
 ings. School boys and school girls are at play in the 
 streets, where they are exposed to many bad in- 
 fluences. When they become a little older, they pa- 
 rade the brightly lighted thoroughfares, they are to be 
 found in dancing halls, at the "movies" anywhere, 
 to escape from the close atmosphere and confined sur- 
 roundings of the home. Boys' and girls' Clubs, eve- 
 ning schools, public libraries, settlement houses, all 
 do their best to attract these wandering spirits, but 
 only with partial success, and, in any case, the har- 
 monious development of character requires home in- 
 fluence besides that exerted by outside institutions. 
 I have said that home is a state of mind; but it must 
 be remembered that states of mind are affected by ex- 
 ternal conditions. The home life of a city will not be 
 satisfactory, unless the people be well housed. I will 
 not discuss how this is to be brought about, whether 
 by the erection of municipal buildings, by increased 
 facilities of cheap and rapid transit, by the removal of 
 factories to the suburbs, or by the creation of garden 
 cities. But assuredly all religious agencies must 
 preach the doctrine of divine discontent with bad hous- 
 ing conditions as with all forms of evil. We must not 
 assume that any abuse is inevitable; let us rather be- 
 stir ourselves to get rid of it. 
 
 Poverty is not the only enemy of home life, nor the 
 worst. Dissatisfaction with quiet surroundings, love 
 of glare and glitter, restless pursuit of pleasure and
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 147 
 
 excitement are not confined to any single section of 
 society, but they claim most victims from the well- 
 to-do, who can afford to gratify the caprice of every 
 moment. The worst enemy of home-life is self-in- 
 dulgence, which prevents marriages, renders them un- 
 fruitful, and destroys conjugal affection. Nor do I 
 refer only to the grosser forms of self-indulgence, to 
 which the gambler, the drunkard or the libertine re- 
 sorts. Respectable self-indulgence is almost equally 
 anti-social. The stability of the home and its very 
 existence are in jeopardy because of the high stand- 
 ard of comfort, which modern men and women are 
 taught to regard as their due. The bachelor and the 
 bachelor girl often refuse to submit to the loss of 
 freedom, which marriage involves and to the still 
 greater restrictions upon their comfort, which the 
 sweet burden of children imposes. Hence results the 
 present underfertility of Western nations, which con- 
 stitutes so grave a menace to our civilization. Many 
 palliatives have been proposed, but there is no real 
 remedy, except in the growth of better ideals. We 
 must learn to set a higher value upon home life and 
 upon the duty we owe to our race and to humanity. 
 This truth was realized in Jewish households of old; 
 it must be taught anew if the City of God is to come 
 into being. 
 
 Amongst the noblest triumphs of modern times are 
 those achieved in the fight against disease. Advance 
 in medical science has placed many powerful weapons 
 of precision in the hand of our physicians. Sufferers 
 from acute and dangerous diseases, however poor they
 
 148 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 may be, receive skilled attention in hospitals, splen- 
 didly equipped and staffed. Still more far-reaching 
 perhaps is the increased regard for sanitation, through 
 which disease is prevented. The great cities of the 
 world have been provided with good water supplies, 
 that not only satisfy present-day needs but also an- 
 ticipate the requirements of posterity. Laws have been 
 passed for the prevention of sanitary defects in work- 
 shops and dwellings, for the removal of house refuse, 
 for the abatement of overcrowding. Building regu- 
 lations have been devised to diminish the risk of fire 
 and of accident and to prevent the occupation of tene- 
 ments, where sunlight cannot penetrate. The sale of 
 unsound meat, of decayed fruit, of cakes made with 
 rotten eggs, of milk adulterated with water or doctored 
 with preservatives, has been made an offense against 
 the law. These and similar measures not only bring 
 about material improvement, but they constitute a 
 moral advance. It is true that mixed motives have 
 been operative and that some sanitary precautions 
 have been dictated by enlightened self-interest. When 
 my neighbor's house is afire, mine also is in danger. 
 When his house is badly drained, the filth disease 
 which attacks his child may quickly spread to the in- 
 mates of my home. By taking care of my neighbor's 
 health I realize that I may preserve my own. But 
 nobler forces are also at work. We feel increasingly 
 that good health is one of the most important of civic 
 and national assets. The public conscience is more 
 sensitive than in the past; taught by science that 
 much disease is preventable, we ask why it is not pre-
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 149 
 
 vented. Hence we see about us signs of much earnest 
 sanitary effort, legislative, administrative and philan- 
 thropic. Very notable is the modern struggle against 
 tuberculosis, which has been undertaken with so much 
 energy both by public and private agencies, many 
 Jewish bodies being prominent amongst the latter. 
 Another fine effort is that taken in many lands to di- 
 minish the terrible scourge of infant mortality, the 
 greater part of which is absolutely unnecessary. 
 Supervision of the milk supply, the provision of suit- 
 able nourishment for child or nursing mother, the es- 
 tablishment of milk stations where babies are fed, 
 where they are periodically examined, and where they 
 receive medical treatment if necessary, the prohibi- 
 tion of women's employment for some time before and 
 after child-birth, the diffusion of knowledge amongst 
 nursing and expectant mothers, all these expedients 
 have been adopted with good results in one country 
 or another and the rate of infant mortality, which long 
 remained stationary, is now decreasing. Yet it is still 
 far too high ; English statisticians show us that "even 
 an old man of 84 has a better chance of living another 
 week than has the new born baby." Such success as 
 has been attained must spur us forward to further 
 efforts. 
 
 Of public health work, in general, the same may be 
 said. It is still in its early stages and present achieve- 
 ments must be regarded as but the earnest of future 
 results. The scientific methods of town-planning, 
 which have been adopted in some German cities, must 
 be made universal, so that existing insanitary areas
 
 150 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 may be quickly remodelled and the growth of new 
 ones prevented. The smoke nuisance must be abated 
 in our manufacturing centres, a reform already ef- 
 fected in Nottingham, where the nature of the staple 
 local industry requires it, and possible everywhere 
 else, provided that the public health be considered as 
 worth paying for. And matters still more elementary 
 must receive attention. Houses, built back to back 
 without through ventilation, (such as abound in 
 Leeds) must be demolished. No urban dwelling must 
 be licensed for occupation, unless it be provided with 
 a separate water-supply and a water-closet, automatic- 
 ally flushed. Bath-rooms must no longer be a luxury 
 of the well-to-do; they will perhaps first come into 
 general use in the schools as an adjunct of physical 
 education, but soon they must be found in the home 
 of every working man. Food products, exposed for 
 sale, must be standardized. And, to carry our antici- 
 pations slightly further forward, the slaughter house, 
 with its degrading concomitants, will be improved 
 out of existence, so that the Jewish conception of holi- 
 ness, as partly resting on a physical basis, may justify 
 itself in a modernized and rational form. One other 
 forecast of the future may be put forward with con- 
 fidence. If any real progress is to be made, sanitary 
 legislation will keep in step with the forward march 
 of the sanitary conscience. Good health laws are val- 
 ueless unless they are well administered and contin- 
 uous good administration by a public authority is im- 
 possible, unless this sanitary conscience be rendered 
 sensitive and well-informed. To promote this result is
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 151 
 
 a worthy task for the church universal. The City of 
 God will guard the health of its people. 
 
 Is the present social order to continue in the beau- 
 tiful City that is to be, or will the world be reorganized 
 on a collectivist basis? I do not know and I will not 
 attempt to prophesy. Indeed, it seems to me very 
 foolish to talk about the events of the future, as though 
 they were predestined. The future will be what it 
 is made by mankind, above all, by those sections of 
 mankind, who, having brains and insight, use these 
 gifts aright. Some of these leaders of men will be 
 supporters of things as they more or less are ; others 
 will be preachers of social revolution. Victory may 
 incline this way or that, but one thing is certain. The 
 preservation of social peace can only be secured, if 
 those at the head of affairs possess wisdom, good feel- 
 ing and foresight. The established order of things 
 holds the field and has behind it the tradition of in- 
 evitability, that counts for so much with the mass of 
 men. Fundamental changes do not usually gain ac- 
 ceptance, except as a means of escape from intolerable 
 corruptions. The opponents of socialism hold, there- 
 fore, a position of strategic advantage, provided they 
 redress the people's serious grievances before the tidal 
 wave of revolution sweeps away them and their cause. 
 For it cannot be denied that many a measure of social 
 reform is overdue not in one country but in all. Un- 
 rest, dangerous and well-grounded, exists today 
 amongst the workers of the world. The unemployed 
 are to be found in all large cities and so are the under- 
 paid, the overworked, the prematurely superannuated.
 
 152 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Wages increase, but the cost of living increases more, 
 so that the workman is worse off than he was in the 
 nineties of the last century. Men are forced to work 
 under dangerous conditions, because manufacturers 
 fail to spend enough money on their machinery and 
 plant. The profits do not permit it, they explain. It 
 is no wonder that a growing feeling of exasperation 
 is abroad, which is certainly not diminished by the 
 spectacle, visible to every workman, of luxury in which 
 it is very unlikely that he will ever participate. In so 
 far as this exasperation is based upon mere envy, the 
 workman may come to recognize its futility, whether 
 through the force of reason or the logic of events. But, 
 more often than not, he does well to be angry, for he 
 is not receiving his due. Society must recognize, as 
 Mr. Victor Hartshorn, the leader of the South Wales 
 Miners, has well said, "that the claim of the worker to 
 a sufficiency of food and clothing and a fuller life is 
 just, and that it must be made the first charge upon 
 the wealth produced. It must be a fixed and certain 
 minimum standard of comfort" 1 If the present order 
 of Society can do justice to the worker, it will justify 
 its own existence; otherwise, its ultimate doom is 
 sealed. 
 
 We look forward therefore to an age of social re- 
 construction although not necessarily to one of sen- 
 sational changes. Such an age will come in peace, if 
 all classes of society act with forbearance and good 
 feeling. The poor man must not be impatient, because 
 
 What the Worker Wants (The Daily Mail Enquiry,) p. 99
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 153 
 
 ancient abuses are not remedied by a single stroke of 
 the legislative pen. The rich man, on the other hand, 
 who will be called upon to surrender some of his 
 privileges and superfluities for the benefit of his poorer 
 brethren must learn to do so with dignity and cheer- 
 fulness. The establishment of a minimum wage in all 
 industries is one of labor's most reasonable demands. 
 It will involve a loss of profit to many employers and 
 perhaps put a few of them out of business. But sub- 
 mit they must to a measure, which is so just and so 
 generally beneficial. Again, the requirements of so- 
 cial reform will necessitate successive additions to tax- 
 ation, the burden of which must be imposed on the 
 shoulders best able to bear it. As we form a wider 
 conception of public duty we learn that social better- 
 ment is a corporate obligation, to which each of us 
 must contribute a share, proportional to his ability. 
 Many departments of social service will be organized 
 on so large a scale, that they could never be covered 
 by private philanthropy. The country, the State, the 
 city must spare neither labor nor treasure to deal with 
 the problems of unemployment, of pauperism, of ed- 
 ucational imperfections, of disease, in a broad and 
 statesmanlike spirit. Here again there is ample room 
 for church and synagogue to exert their influence. 
 They must impress their congregations with a sense 
 of responsibility for the well-being of others and warn 
 them against the besetting sin of selfishness. Such 
 teaching must not be expressed in vague generalities; 
 it must be applied to the living issues of today. We 
 have too many preachers, whose practice if not their
 
 154 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 theory, coincides with the tactful sentiment of 
 D O'Phase, Esquire in the Biglow Papers: 
 
 I'm willin' a man should go tollable strong 
 Agin wrong in the abstract, fer thet kind o' wrong 
 Is oilers unpop'lar an' never gits pitied, 
 Because it's a crime no one never committed; 
 But he mustn't be hard on partickler sins, 
 Coz then he'll be kickin' the people's own shins. 
 Without turning his pulpit into a party platform, the 
 preacher must deal fearlessly with the moral issues, 
 that are involved in public questions, and he must 
 press forward the claims of social justice. About cer- 
 emonies and abstract doctrines religious bodies may 
 agree to differ; here is a grand field of work, to be 
 shared in common. 
 
 But we are not to rely exclusively upon municipal 
 and political effort for the regeneration of mankind. 
 In the past, much more has been done for human bet- 
 terment by voluntary beneficence than by the State. 
 The history of Jewish charity confirms this conclu- 
 sion, so far as it concerns our own people. In Chris- 
 tendom, charity has covered the globe with countless 
 institutions of mercy; in past times, it not only re- 
 lieved poverty and distress, but it founded schools and 
 colleges, it built bridges and reclaimed waste land. 
 It is true that the function of charity changes from 
 time to time. Many services, formerly in the hands of 
 charitable bodies have been transferred to public man- 
 agement in order that they may be discharged on a 
 larger scale. The early history of the English Poor- 
 law, after the suppression of the monasteries, illus-
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 155 
 
 trates the nature of the process; so does the develop- 
 ment of English elementary education, which is no 
 longer financed to any great extent by voluntary sub- 
 scriptions. In every form of social work, the volun- 
 tary principle is most readily applicable to its earlier 
 or experimental stages: when operations are widely 
 extended, support from public funds may become es- 
 sential and the demand for public control insistent. 
 But we are far removed from the time, if such a time 
 will ever come, when the voluntary principle in organ- 
 ized social service will be entirely superseded. As for 
 social service not organized, but spontaneously ren- 
 dered in the hour of need that will always continue, 
 whatever political or economic changes there may be ; 
 its disappearance would make the world a cheerless 
 waste. 
 
 Good philanthropic workers are hard to find for more 
 reasons than one. Patience, efficiency and enthusiasm 
 are all needed and the conjunction of these qualities 
 is not very common. It is also to be lamented that 
 men and women of admirable zeal for social reform 
 often refuse to undertake charitable work or give it 
 up after a trial. Sometimes their objections are di- 
 rected against the incompetence of charitable agencies. 
 They complain of societies, so swathed in red-tape, 
 that an applicant for relief suffers long delay ; and they 
 complain of others, so lavish and unbusinesslike in 
 their methods, that imposture is positively encouraged. 
 But criticism, so destitute of constructiveness, does 
 not take us far. The charges made against our char- 
 ities, are indeed true in part. Social service is imper-
 
 156 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 feet, because it is carried on by human instruments, 
 themselves imperfect. To cut off the supply of good 
 social workers will not mend matters; we want more 
 such workers than ever before. An argument, which 
 sounds more serious, is that which condemns charity 
 as being essentially bad, because it renders the poor 
 dependent upon the bounty of the rich and unwilling 
 to fight for their rights. Better therefore, it is some- 
 times said, to throw our energies into political and 
 municipal work, to agitate for better legislation or to 
 secure a better administration of the laws that already 
 exist. But this argument also is fallacious. It is only 
 too true that charity is sometimes put forward as a 
 substitute for social justice ; we must never tire of 
 denying this false and mischievous claim. It does not 
 follow, however, that charity is in itself injurious; on 
 the contrary, it is indispensable. A better social order 
 may be established in the future, but this very day the 
 destitute must be fed, the sick must be tended, the sad 
 must be comforted, those ready to fall must be saved 
 from temptation. It is good to sow the seed that will 
 yield a bountiful harvest hereafter, but the needs of 
 the present must not be ignored. 
 
 Another reason for magnifying the office of the so- 
 cial worker must not be forgotten. Political agitation 
 has one dangerous defect of its qualities. Almost in- 
 evitably it is conducted with bitterness. "Hate the sin, 
 but not the sinner," said Beruria to her husband. This 
 advice is habitually disregarded in the heat of contro- 
 versy. The socialist does not confine himself to the 
 denunciation of capitalism, but he is apt to draw a
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 157 
 
 picture, lurid, provocative and necessarily unfair, of 
 the individual capitalist. Speakers and writers, who 
 appeal to capitalist sympathies, are often equally un- 
 fair ; some of the leading English and American news- 
 papers are at their worst when they discuss labor ques- 
 tions. These unfair attacks, so harmful both in their 
 direct effects and in their indirect influence, are de- 
 livered in the heat of controversy ; but they would 
 be impossible except for the mutual ignorance which 
 divides class from class. The old patriarchal rela- 
 tionship between master and man is almost a thing 
 of the past; the vast industrial concerns of today are 
 joined with their workmen by the cash nexus only. 
 Rich and poor reside far apart from each other in 
 different sections of our cities; half the world has 
 but a distorted idea of how the other half lives. And 
 so arises class antagonism, which may grow into a 
 menace to society and into a hindrance to social re- 
 construction on the best and surest foundations. The 
 social worker should be a beneficent missionary, who 
 bridges over the gulf that divides class from class. 
 Valuable service of this nature has been rendered by 
 social settlements, now numerous in large cities, where 
 the democratic spirit and the sense of good fellow- 
 ship are so pronounced. 
 
 Political and social reform are good. Blessed also 
 is charity, especially remedial and preventive charity. 
 But more is needed to build up the City of God. We 
 must deal with the causes of evil, tracing it back to 
 its stronghold, which is the heart of man. In the ab- 
 sence of moral regeneration, all progress is illusory.
 
 158 LIBERAL JUDAISM AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Improved environment and improved character are 
 both essential factors in human progress, for they act 
 and react upon one another; but the greater of these 
 is character. "Man will return to his idols and his 
 cupidities in spite of all revolutions, until his nature is 
 changed." (G. B. S.) If a man is to inherit the King- 
 dom, he must become superman not Nietsche's super- 
 man, ruthless and selfish, but a superman who devotes 
 his high power to the service of his fellows. True that 
 perfection in the individual or in the social order is 
 unattainable; as we approach the mountain-top, fresh 
 vistas open before our gaze. Yet we must seek after 
 perfection, "weary but pursuing." 
 
 We have now thought out some characteristics of 
 the ideal city. It will be a place of honest labor and 
 strong corporate life, where each of the citizens will 
 prize his own home and will endeavor to bring light 
 and happiness into the homes of others. But our pic- 
 ture is still imperfect, for our thoughts have not dwelt 
 on the force, which can alone bring these things to 
 pass. "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman 
 awaketh but in vain." Without faith in eternal right- 
 eousness, without the indwelling of the divine Spirit, 
 we can do nothing. The danger against which we 
 must fight is not the theoretical unbelief of today, but 
 its practical ungodliness. As Dr. Fairbairn has well 
 said, "The worst denial is not the denial of the name 
 of God, but of the reign of God, and His reign is de- 
 nied whenever men confess that He is, but live as if 
 He had no kingdom, no law to govern the individual, 
 to be incorporated or realized in the society or in the
 
 THE CITY OF GOD 159 
 
 State." The religion which saves is the religion which 
 sanctifies all the actions and thoughts of man. 
 
 And for the Jew, religion spells Judaism. Through- 
 out its long history, Judaism has guided Israel along 
 the path of social righteousness and its potentialities 
 remain unexhausted. This is an age of reconstruction 
 for all historic religions and our own faith is not ex- 
 empt from the same necessity. We must teach the 
 masses of our people, upon whom the Judaism of yes- 
 terday has lost hold, that their salvation lies in Liberal 
 Judaism, which is beginning to find itself today and 
 which will become the Judaism of tomorrow.
 
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