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SELECTED ESSAYS
BY
AHAD HA-'AM
SELECTED ESSAYS
BY
AHAD HA-'AM
Translated from the Hebrew
By
LEON SIMON
Philadelphia
The Jewish Publication Society of America
1912
Copyright, 1912, by
The Jewish Publication Society of America
TO MY TEACHER
AH AD HA-'AM
AND TO MY FRIEND
ASHER GINZBERG
THIS VOLUME OF TRANSLATIONS
IS DEDICA TED
DS
PREFACE
The collected Essays of Abaci Ha-' Am ^ (Asher
Ginzberg) appeared in 1904 in three volumes, under
the title 'Al Parashat Derahim (" At the Parting of the
Ways "). The Essays included in the present volume
are a comparatively small selection, but they will prob-
ably give an adequate idea of the author's attitude on
Jewish questions.
The Essays do not appear in strict chronological
order in this volume, because the first eight of them
form a single series (to which the author gave the
name of " Fragments," with the subtitle " Short Talks
on Great Subjects " ^), and it did not seem desirable to
break up this series. INIoreover, the essay " Flesh and
Spirit," which is latest in date, belongs of right to the
" Fragments," and has been placed immediately after
them at the author's wish.
Ahad Ha-' Am has been translated into many lan-
guages, but very few of the Essays in his collected
' This pseudonym, which has been invariably used by Asher
Ginzberg, since his first appearance in print, means "one of the
people."
' It is worth mentioning that this subtitle was chosen before
the author had heard of J. A. Froude's book with a very
similar name.
8 PREFACE
works have appeared in English.* I have refrained
of set purpose from consulting any other translation,
desiring that my own version should be as close a
reproduction of the original as I could make of it.
The translation has had the advantage of the
author's revision, and my best thanks are due to him
for the correction of many errors and the suggestion
of many improvements. But this acknowledgment of
assistance involves no transfer of responsibility.
The foot-notes which I have added are placed in
square brackets : the others appear in the original.
London, December, 191 i.
L. S.
* He has written a good deal since 1904, but the later essays
have not yet appeared in book form. A translation of one of
them ("Judaism and the Gospels") appeared in the Jewish
Review for September 1910 (vol. i, no. 3).
CONTENTS
Page
Preface 7
Introduction 1 1
Sacred and Profane 41
Justice and Mercy 46
Positive and Negative 53
Anticipations and Survivals 67
Past and Future 80
Two Masters 91
Imitation and Assimilation 107
Priest and Prophet 125
Flesh and Spirit 139
Many Inventions 159
Slavery in Freedom 171
Some Consolation 195
Ancestor Worship 205
The Transvaluation of Values 217
A New Savior 242
The Spiritual Revival 253
Moses 306
Index 331
INTRODUCTION
BY THE TRANSLATOR
The Essays of Ahad Ha-'Am deal with a great
variety of subjects ; but they are all concerned more
or less directly with the theoretical and the practical
problems of the Jewish people. They present, in out-
line at least, a philosophy of Jewish history (that term
being used in its widest sense, to include the develop-
ment of Jewish thought) ; and at the same time they
advocate certain practical steps which are the logical
outcome of that philosophy. Many of them have been
written on the occasion of passing events, and are
mainly critical, or even polemical, in character. Essays
of this kind have their value as indicating the appli-
cation of the author's point of view to particular ques-
tions. But for the purpose of the present volume of
translations it has been considered preferable to select
those Essays which deal with the more permanent
aspects of Jewish life and thought.
The aim of this Introduction is to present the
author's main ideas, which are scattered through the
various Essays, in a connected form, and thus place
the reader at a standpoint from which each Essay can
be appreciated in its relation to the general scheme of
the author's thought. In performing this task, it may
well be that the translator has not escaped the danger
that besets any writer who attempts to state in his
INTRODUCTION
own way the philosophy of his teacher — the danger
of putting things in a wrong perspective, of distrib-
uting the emphasis in a way which the teacher would
not accept. For this reason I think it well to state
that the responsibility for the presentment of " Ahad
Ha-'Amism " contained in this Introduction rests with
myself alone. How far it is a just presentment the
Essays themselves will enable the reader to determine.
I
The history of the Hebrews (it will be convenient
to use this term in speaking of the race, because
" Jew " and " Jewish " have acquired a specifically re-
ligious connotation) is the history of a living organism,
whose life is the outward expression of a certain fun-
damental character or spirit. The mode of expres-
sion varies at different times, being determined largely
by external circumstances. But throughout the
national " will-to-live " is asserting itself, not merely
in the physical survival of the Hebrews, but in the
creation of a specific type of life, and the expression
of a specific outlook on human problems, without
which the mere existence of the Hebrews as a race
would mean nothing. This type of life and this out-
look embody, in deed and in thought, the Hebrew
spirit.
It will be as well to examine this word " spirit " a
little more closely, because the Hebrew word of which
it is the nearest English equivalent is one of very
frequent occurrence in the writings of Ahad Ha-' Am,
INTRODUCTION 13
and the word " spirit " and more especially the adjec-
tive " spiritual " are apt, if used without explanation,
to convey an impression foreign to the meaning of the
original. To begin with, we instinctively think of
"spirit" as the antithesis of "flesh" or "body:"
devotion to " the things of the spirit " implies at once
an attitude of hostility, or, at best, of indifference, to
the things of the flesh. To read that idea into the
word " spirit " as used in an English translation of
Ahad Ha-' Am — inevitably used, for there is no better
word — would be to misconstrue him entirely. The
" spirit " is that of which " mind " and " body " are
alike the expression: it is the inner or real life, the
inwardness of a thing — what the Germans call das
Wesen. The English use of the word approaches
nearer to this sense in such a phrase as " the spirit of
the age." But the case is even harder with the adjec-
tive " spiritual," which, as ordinarily used in English,
has a distinct reference to religion, and to religion con-
ceived as something essentially apart from (and above)
the ordinary concerns of human life. To be " spirit-
ual " is to be " other-worldly." But there is no such
suggestion about the word as it must be used in trans-
lating or writing about Ahad Ha-' Am. That which
is " spiritual " is simply that which relates to the
" spirit " — the inwardness, das Wesen — of a thing, or
a person, or an institution, or a nation. Thus the
literature and the type of life in which the spirit of a
people expresses itself may be spoken of as the " spirit-
ual creations," or " spiritual possessions " of that peo-
14 INTRODUCTION
pie, without its being implied that they are of a reli-
gious as opposed to a secular character. The line of
distinction is drawn not between the higher and the
lower, or between the next world and this, but between
the underlying idea and its outward expressions.
In saying, then, that the history of the Hebrews is
the history of the working out of the Hebrew spirit,
one is not, so far, implying that spirituality, in the
ordinary sense of the term, is a special characteristic
of the Hebrew race. A similar statement would be
true of the history of any nation, be it never so mate-
rialistic in its outlook and its aims. But it is, in fact,
the case that the outlook and the aims of the Hebrew
genius have never been materialistic. Nay, more : the
bent of the Hebrew mind has never been turned even
towards the spiritualized materialism that finds its ex-
pression in beauty of form and language, but always
to the discovery of fundamental truths about the uni-
verse, and the embodiment, in actual life, of funda-
mental principles based on those truths. Thus the
Hebrew spirit is essentially religious and moral. It
has expressed itself not in the building up of an
empire, not in the elaboration of political institutions,
not in the perfection of mechanical devices, not in the
production of works of art, but in the search after
God, and in the attempt to found a social order based
on God's will.
It follows, then, that the typical products of the
Hebrew spirit are not conquerors or inventors or
artists, but prophets — men whose special gift it is to
INTRODUCTION 15
see into the heart of things, and to enunciate moral
laws based on the spiritual truths which are revealed
to their superior insight. The Prophets, from Moses
onwards, have been regarded by the Hebrews through-
out their history as the fine flower of the race ; and
the Prophetic writings present the Hebraic outlook on
life in its supreme literary expression. The historical
(or rather archeological) accuracy of the particular
statements about the Prophets as individuals which
are contained in the Bible does not affect their value,
and the value of their writings, from this point of
view. Their acceptance by the nation as the highest
type which it has produced, and as the exponents of
its own outlook and ideals, endows them with more
than individual importance, and gives their writings
a value which depends in no way on their personalities.
The Prophetic books are not merely the utterances of
particular men at particular epochs of history; they
are the mirror of the Hebrew soul.
In the essential characteristics of the Prophet, there-
fore, we shall find the Hebrew ideal of character ; and
in the Prophetic teaching we shall find the Hebrew
ideal of conduct. Thus through the Prophets we can
discover the real meaning of the term " Hebrew
spirit " — the quintessence, as it were, of Hebraism.
The functions of the Prophet do not necessarily in-
clude foretelling the future; he is rather a Seer than
a fore-seer. Hebrew tradition finds the greatest of
the Prophets in Moses, who has little claim to the title
in the narrower current sense; and so it is appro-
1 6 INTRODUCTION
priately in his essay on Moses that Ahad Ha-' Am sets
forth what are in his view the fundamental quahties
of the Prophetic type. " The Prophet has two funda-
mental qualities, which distinguish him from the rest
of mankind. First, he is a man of truth. He sees
life as it is, with a view unwarped by subjective feel-
ings ; and he tells you what he sees just as he sees it,
unaffected by irrelevant considerations. He tells the
truth not because he wishes to tell the truth, not be-
cause he has convinced himself, after inquiry, that
such is his duty, but because he needs must, because
truth-telling is a special characteristic of his genius —
a characteristic of which he cannot rid himself, even
if he would. . . . Secondly, the Prophet is an ex-
tremist. He concentrates his whole heart and mind
on his ideal, in which he finds the goal of life, and to
which he is determined to make the whole world do
service, without the smallest exception. . . . He can
accept no excuse, can consent to no compromise, can
never cease thundering his passionate denunciations,
even if the whole universe is against him."
From the absolute truthfulness of the Prophet, and
his absolute refusal to compromise, it follows that his
ideal is perfect Justice, which is " truth in action," or
Righteousness. The Prophet as such stands for the
ideal of a society based on absolute righteousness: a
society, that is, in which each individual does that
which is right from the point of view of the whole,
without regard to his personal interest or convenience.
And that which is right from the point of view of the
INTRODUCTION 17
whole society is that which is right from the point of
view of the whole universe: for such a society em-
bodies in human life the principle of right on which
the universe is based. It is, in religious phraseology,
a society which works out the will of God on earth.
But the Prophets were not content merely to lay
down in the abstract the ideal of a righteous society:
they laid it down as an ideal for their own people.
Their outlook was universal — they wished to see the
sway of righteousness established over the whole
earth. But it was at the same time essentially national,
inasmuch as they regarded it as the peculiar function
of the Hebrews to work out the ideal in their own
national life and thus secure its universal accept-
ance. They demanded that Israel should be among
the nations what they themselves were in Israel — an
elemental force making for righteousness. Such a
force can be thwarted, or deflected from its course,
by adverse circumstances, or, in other words, by the
impact of other opposing forces with which it comes
into conflict ; but it can never cease to be what it is, or
to struggle along its own path. The nation of the
Prophets can no more compromise with life than could
the Prophets themselves. Other nations may rest con-
tent with something less than the absolute ideal ; they
may recognize that this or that, though desirable in
itself, is impossible of attainment in a world such as
ours, and may rest satisfied with here or there a step
forward. But for the Hebrew nation — as the Prophets
conceived it — there could be no acceptance of half-
1 8 INTRODUCTION
measures. Nothing less than the ideal of absolute
righteousness could suffice.
In accepting, as they did, this conception of the
Prophets, the Hebrews laid on themselves the duty of
struggling forever against the world on behalf of a
cause which is, in the ordinary human view, hopeless.
They condemned themselves to an everlasting life of
preaching in the wilderness. Only by ceasing to be a
nation can they cease to be a force making for abso-
lute righteousness, brooking no compromises and con-
tent with no half -attainments. This is what it means
to them to be " a peculiar people."
II
In accepting the Prophets and their Law, the
Hebrews were simply expressing their own national
spirit. But the acceptance of an ideal is easier than its
fulfilment. In a moment of spiritual exaltation, when
we rise to our true height, we may cry " we will do and
we will obey ; " but the thing is not so simple as it
seems. When the moment's enthusiasm is gone, a
body of ordinary mortals cannot take hold of an abso-
lute ideal which has been enunciated without regard
to the facts of everyday life. The ideal must be led
down to them, as it were, through suitable channels,
by which it is adapted to their requirements and their
capabilities. These channels — these intermediaries be-
tween the Prophets and the people — are the Priests.
The Priest is essentially what the Prophet essentially
is not — a man of compromise, a man of the hour.
INTRODUCTION 19
Aaron, making a golden calf because the people want
something tangible to worship, is the typical Priest.
In his anxiety to prevent a complete revolt from the
Prophet by a reasonable compromise, he abandons
the very principle for which the Prophet stands, and
by virtue of which alone he is worth following. Thus
the Priest, devoted adherent of the Prophet as he is,
becomes the Prophet's worst enemy. But, the facts
of ordinary life being on the side of the Priest, on the
side of compromise, it follows that the Prophetic ideal
would be lost entirely, did not the unquenchable spirit
of the nation, which is the Prophetic spirit, ever and
anon reassert itself.
The centuries that elapsed between the close of the
Prophetic era and the rise of the Maccabeans were
essentially a Priestly period, a period of compromise.
And so, when Alexander let loose the flowing tide of
Hellenism over the East, the Hebrews accepted an
amalgamation of their own traditional way of life
with Greek ideas and practices. It was only when
Antiochus threatened the complete extinction of
Hebraism that the Hebrew spirit rose again in all its
strength. The success of the Maccabean rising led to
a reaction against Hellenism, and to much missionary
activity in the outside world, which sowed the seeds
of the coming revolution. But within the Maccabean
kingdom itself the victory was not complete. The
Sadducees, who for the most part were favored by
the royal house, were men of the Priestly type. They
stood for a rigid adherence to the letter of the
INTRODUCTION
Prophetic Law ; but they acquiesced in the replace-
ment of its spirit by a materiahsm which regarded
wealth and political power as desirable ends. They
secured for a time the political existence of the
Hebrews, without which the Prophetic ideal could not
be realized ; but they preserved the body of Hebraism
at the expense of its soul. And over against them
there rose up another sect, the Essenes, which went
to the opposite extreme, and in a life of asceticism
and abnegation endeavored to preserve the soul with-
out the body.
But the Prophetic ideal, demanding as it did the
expression of the Hebrew spirit in the national life,
found its heirs neither in the Sadducees nor in the
Essenes. It was the Pharisees who, despite the
obloquy so liberally meted out to them in the New
Testament, were the true heirs of the Prophetic spirit.
It was they who refused either to compromise wnth
the materialism of the world, like the Sadducees, or to
abandon the world as hopeless because it was material-
istic, as the Essenes did. Their ideal was to make the
Law a living tradition, developing organically in con-
nection with the development of the society whose
spirit it both reflected and moulded, and remaining
true throughout to the Prophetic teaching. The
national separateness of the Hebrews was no less
essential to them than to the Sadducees ; but they saw
what it was that made that national separateness
essential, and did not mistake immediate political in-
dependence for an end in itself. They could not sacri-
INTRODUCTION
fice the substance for the shadow. Hence they
acquiesced in the destruction of the last vestiges of
their national liberty by the Romans, so long as they
were permitted to keep the lamp of Hebrew tradition
alight in their schools, to preserve their ideal intact
against the day when its perfect fulfilment should be
possible. And the preservation of their ideal was for
them not only worth more than political independence :
it was worth more even than the acceptance by the
world of their ideal in a modified form. The spread
of Christianity was a victory for the Hebrew spirit ;
but it was a Priestly victory, a victory gained at the
expense of the abandonment of something funda-
mental — of the idea that the spirit must be embodied
in the corporate life of a definite society. It was
impossible to breathe the soul of Hebraism into an
alien body without distorting and corrupting the soul
itself. Hence the Pharisees could not throw in their
lot with the Christians ; Hebrew separateness was
maintained, and the ideal was kept alive, as a memory
and a hope, through the centuries.
HI
For the Prophets, as we have seen, the national ex-
istence of the Hebrews — their existence as a corporate
society of human beings, living out their own life in
accordance with a law that expressed their own spirit
— was something essential. Hence the Pharisees
and their Rabbis, who were the heirs of the Prophets,
were cheered in their exile by the hope of an early
INTRODUCTION
restoration of their national life. But as time went
on, and the exile continued, this simple faith was in-
evitably weakened. The hope was not, indeed, aban-
doned ; but it became a yearning for a " far-off divine
event " rather than an active expectation of an immi-
nent change in material circumstances. The coming
of the Messiah still meant the national restoration of
Israel to his ancestral land ; there was no thought of
a " spiritual Zion." But the exile, the Galiit, was
now a thing of indefinite duration, not simply a tem-
porary accident ; and the national way of life and
thought had to be adapted to the new circumstances.
The armory of the Hebrews, their Torah, had now to
be drawn on for shields and bucklers against the
forces that threatened to extinguish them, rather than
for weapons with which to fight for the attainment of
their ideal. The Hebrew spirit, robbed of its natural
setting in a Hebrew life, and thrown on the defensive,
had to express itself as best it could in those human
activities which were left untouched by the demands
of life in a non-Hebraic environment ; and in that
narrower sphere every precaution had to be taken to
keep out the devastating hand of alien influences.
The Hebrews, in a word, became Jews, and their
Hebraism was narrowed down to Judaism, and to
a Judaism which was forced, in self-defence, to ex-
press itself in an ever more stringent code of observ-
ances, to make a fence round the Law in place of the
lost safeguard of a national life.
The Judaism of the Rabbis, then, is but an imper-
INTRODUCTION 23
feet reproduction of the Prophetic Hebraism. It is
vitally affected on its practical side, and to a less
degree on its theoretical side, by the exchange of
freedom for Galut. But for all that Judaism is still
an expression, albeit a truncated expression, of the
Hebrew spirit — of that spirit which knows no compro-
mise with opposing forces, which demands absolute
truth in thought and absolute righteousness in action.
In order to realize this, we have but to examine the
characteristic Jewish attitude on one or two of the
fundamental problems of religion and morality.
At the outset of any inquiry into the nature and
functions of man, we are faced with the apparent
dualism of body and soul. For the philosopher this
dualism is something illogical, and therefore unbear-
able : he is driven to seek for some single reality to
which the two elements can be referred, be that unity
matter or spirit or something which is neither. Re-
ligion, on the other hand, in its modern forms, tends
not only to accept this dualism, but to regard the two
elements as necessarily antagonistic. The soul is the
Divine element in man, striving upwards towards its
Divine source ; the body is of the earth, and its evil
nature must be constantly combated, lest it drag down
the soul into the mire. Hence arises the distinction
between " religious " and " secular," and, in the last
resort, the abandonment of merely worldly concerns
to the devil. Religion, fighting the battle of the soul
against the body, is faced with a task that is hopeless
from the outset. Hence the ideal of absolute right-
24 INTRODUCTION
doing becomes an impossible one for this life. The
soul must struggle through this " vale of tears " as
best it can, supporting and consoling itself by the
hope of full fruition in the world to come.
To this " religious " attitude the Hebraism of the
Prophets is of necessity fundamentally opposed. For
them the ideal of absolute righteousness was a first
postulate. It was an ideal to which the life of their
own nation — the whole life, not merely a part of it —
was consecrated ; and the task thus set before the
nation was of sufficient grandeur, the hope thus held
out to it was sufficiently splendid, to remove any temp-
tation to exalt the future life at the expense of this.
Thus Hebraism knows of no antagonism between body
and soul, nor of any distinction between " religious "
and " secular." Nor does Hebraism trouble about
personal immortality. The nation is immortal by virtue
of its lofty mission ; and for the individual it is sufficient
to know that he is doing his part in the work of an
immortal nation.
This conception, however, could not be expected to
stand the strain of a national calamity, which seemed
for the time to deal the national ideal its death-blow.
In hours of darkness and despair men naturally sought
comfort in the thought that death might bring a con-
summation which seemed too much to expect from
life. And if this tendency made itself felt among the
Hebrews even in the time of the Babylonian captivity,
it was bound to become stronger still in the protracted
gloom of the second exile. Thus " other-worldliness "
INTRODUCTION 25
came to play a not inconsiderable part in Jewish
thought. Men came to believe that this world, which
offered them no comforting prospect of the realization
of their national ideal, did not really matter — that it
was nothing more than a preparation for another
world, in which the sway of righteousness would be
established without any effort on the part of weak
human beings. Hence such sayings as this are found
in the Talmud : " This world is, as it were, the en-
trance-hall to the world to come. Prepare thyself
in the entrance-hall, that thou mayest become worthy
to enter the banqueting-hall." But the influence of
the Prophets was too strong to allow of a complete
shifting of the centre of gravity from this world to
the next. Personal immortality became an accepted
idea among Jews, but its acceptance did not involve
any condemnation of life on earth. And, above all,
the idea of the sanctification of the whole of human life
in the service of God has remained the cornerstone of
Judaism throughout its history. Judaism, true to the
Prophetic teaching, regards the body as an instrument
of the Divine will, not as something inherently recal-
citrant and bound up with sin. It accepts the funda-
mental facts of human life and strives to make the
best of them, never resting content with any standard
lower than that of absolute perfection.
It might seem at first sight that in this acceptance
of facts there is something inconsistent with the " ex-
tremeness " which is characteristic of the Prophetic
outlook. But to be an extremist does not necessarily
26 INTRODUCTION
involve taking a distorted view of the facts or shutting
one's eyes to half the truth. That kind of " extreme-
ness " is essentially opposed to the love of truth, which
is another characteristic of the Prophet. The real
extremist is he who, realizing the whole truth so far
as he can, will rest content with nothing less than the
complete embodiment of that whole truth in actual
life. The truth for which he stands is certain to lie
somewhere between two exaggerated conceptions, and
it is just because he stands for truth and justice (which
is " truth in action ") and will admit of no compro-
mise, that he cannot allow any quarter to the exag-
gerations, but must have the perfect mean. From this
point of view w^e may appreciate the Jewish attitude
towards asceticism as a correct interpretation of the
Prophetic Hebraism. Asceticism in its true form —
that is to say, asceticism practiced because the flesh
and its appetites are believed to be inherently evil —
is in one sense an extreme. But it does not corre-
spond, in the Jewish view, to the truth, any more than
does the opposite idea, that the flesh and its appetites
are the only things that make life worth living.
Each of these views is unjust to one side of humanity.
Hence asceticism as a principle of life is as far re-
moved from Judaism as is sensualism. So far as self-
mortification has played a part in Jewish life, its ob-
ject has been, not to punish the flesh as something
evil, but to purify it and render it more worthy of
the high mission which it has in common with the
soul.
INTRODUCTION 27
And as the false " extremism " which rests on a
neglect of half the truth has no place, for Jewish
thought, in regulating the economy of the individual
life, so also it is debarred from exerting any influence
on the determination of the correct relation between
the individual and society as a whole. Judaism has
no place for that extreme altruism which makes self-
sacrifice an end in itself. The justice of the individ-
ual's claim is to be decided by a reference to the good
of the whole ; and if that criterion gives one individual
a certain right, it would be positively unjust on his
part (because detrimental to the interests of the
whole) to waive his right. Judaism is " extreme "
only in demanding that the test of the common good
shall be applied with absolute impartiality. The ideal
can only be attained when each individual is capable
of judging his own case with as complete disinterest-
edness as though it were another's.
But if the individual cannot assert the claims of his
individuality against the commonwealth, this does not
mean that Judaism stands for the ideal of a dead level
of mediocrity. That ideal is another " extreme " of
the wrong kind, like that of unfettered individualism.
Judaism not only has room for, but demands, the
supreme personality, the Superman ; but his supremacy
is to He in the development of his exceptional gifts,
not at the expense of his weaker fellows, but for their
good in common with his own. The Prophet is the
Jewish Superman ; and only through their Prophets can
the Jews become what their national ideal demands
28 INTRODUCTION
that they should be — a Supernation. Thus for Juda-
ism the Prophet is the goal as well as the source
of its life ; and it is the true Hebrew spirit that finds
expression in the aspiration which has been the life-
breath of Judaism for centuries. It is the true Hebrew
spirit that demands ultimately the single supreme
Prophet, in whom prophecy and fulfilment shall be
united — the Messiah.
IV
If we turn from this examination of some of .the
fundamental conceptions of Judaism to look at the
Jews of the modern world, we are struck with a pain-
ful sense of contrast. Neither the Hebraism of the
Prophets nor the Judaism of the Rabbis seems to find
expression in the Jew whom the world knows to-day.
A burning idealism, a passionate and uncompromising
pursuit of righteousness, a determination to make
religion and life coextensive — these are not the char-
acteristics that are associated with the cosmopolitan
financier who too often figures in the popular mind as
the typical Jew. Of the Jew who is more really
typical — the Ghetto Jew, who lives the life of his
forefathers, and clings to their ideas, unenlightened
and untarnished by the culture and the materialism
of modern civilization — the outside world knows noth-
ing. And the growing class of assimilated Jews which
lies between these extremes is so anxious — and so
successfully anxious — to be like its surroundings, and
to keep its differences in the background, that it can-
INTRODUCTION 29
not be marked out as standing for a distinctive ideal:
its outlook on life, its manners and customs, are too
completely dominated by the influences of its non-
Jewish surroundings. Where, then, is the Hebrew-
spirit to-day? Perhaps in the unexplored Ghetto?
But the Ghetto is breaking up before our eyes ; and
in any case a spirit that can only live by shutting out
the light of modern progress might as well be dead.
Are we then to conclude that the survival of the
Jews is a meaningless freak of history? Are we to
advise them to give up a hopeless struggle against
overwhelming odds?
Before advocating such a step, we should remember
what it is that has brought about the present condition
of things. For eighteen centuries the homeless Jew
has been the butt of hatred and oppression, has been
seaman on board every ship of state but his own, has
been made the huckster of the world's spiritual and
material goods, has been alternately master in the
narrow Ghetto and slave in the larger world of an
alien culture, has been driven from the soil and the
sun into the soul-withering atmosphere of the count-
ing-house — has been forced, in a word, to live every
life imaginable except that of his own individuality.
It is this long-drawn-out tragedy of a lodger life that
has produced the apparent impotence of the Hebrew
spirit to-day, not any weakening of the spirit itself,
nor any lack of a field in which it might work. And
just because the spirit has dragged on a weary ex-
istence through all these centuries — for that very
30 INTRODUCTION
reason a voluntary act of national suicide (even if the
world would allow it) is unthinkable. The escape
from impotence is to be found in life, not in death.
The solution of the Jewish problem lies in the " revival
of the spirit " ; and when we have ascertained what
change in existing conditions is necessary to that
revival, we shall have determined the practical course
which the Jews of the present day must pursue.
V
If Hebraism is a force in the modern world only
by virtue of its expression in ancient Hebrew litera-
ture, and not by virtue of any influence exerted by
Jews at the present time, that is because neither of the
two kinds of life open to the Jews — life in the Ghetto
and life under conditions of emancipation — offers
conditions in which there is any possibility of an un-
fettered development of the Hebrew spirit.
In the Ghetto, indeed, the Jew is to some extent his
own master. He can lead there a kind of life which
is distinctively his own, organized in such a way as to
reflect his particular outlook and ideals. And, in fact,
it is true that the Ghetto, with its insistence on tradi-
tion, its devotion to the study of the past, and its
steadfast persistence in hoping against hope for the
realization of the Messianic dream, has been an ex-
pression and a preservative of the Hebrew spirit. But
the autonomy of the Ghetto, if such it can be called, is
too cramped and too precarious to permit of any real
progress. Pent up within the Ghetto walls, and sur-
INTRODUCTION 31
rounded by enemies on whose " tolerance " they de-
pended, the Jews have been cut off from all contact
with the bigger problems of modern life, and with the
broad movements of thought that went on outside.
The life of which they were masters was a narrow
one ; and the concentration of their enormous mental
and moral forces within an area so circumscribed led,
on the one hand, indeed, to the production of a human
type unsurpassed, at its best, for spirituality and
moral grandeur, but, on the other hand, to the piling
up of mountains of minute regulations and prescrip-
tions, which threatened in time to stifle the underlying
spirit. The Ghetto saved Hebraism from extinction,
but only at the expense of a one-sided development,
and finally of petrifaction. And even if Hebraism in
its Ghetto form were ultimately worth preserving, the
Jews could not be expected deliberately to resist the
forces which, since the time of Moses Mendelssohn,
have been making for the overthrow of the Ghetto
walls. They must inevitably take advantage of the
progress — a progress all too slow, it is true — among
modern European nations of the recognition of their
rights as human beings. They were and are bound
to accept emancipation with the eagerness of the
prisoner who is allowed to leave his dungeon for the
air and the sunshine. But what are the effects of
emancipation on the Hebrew spirit?
At first sight they appear to be favorable. The
cramping and the spiritual inbreeding of the Ghetto
are gone. The Jew is allowed to breathe the free air
32 INTRODUCTION
of European enlightenment, and even to play his part
in the wide arena of European political life. He can
drink freely at the well of culture from which modern
nations derive their spiritual sustenance. He can
stand up as a free man among free men. But there
is another side to the shield. For the Jew can only
win all these privileges by becoming part and parcel
of the particular nation in which he happens to live ;
and as his own racial instinct is too strong to allow
him to merge himself absolutely in his surroundings
(a consummation which, in any case, modern nations
are not over-ready to accept), he has to cast about for
some means of preserving his own identity while be-
coming something else. This was the problem which
confronted the earliest generation of emancipated
Jews in modern times ; and they could only solve it by
deliberately accepting Judaism as a substitute for
Hebraism — in other words, by acquiescing once for all
in the restriction of that part of their lives which re-
mained their own to the sphere of religion. The
exiled Hebrews of old time submitted perforce to this
restriction ; it was a necessary condition of the Galut,
and could only be removed by the restoration of their
national life. But their emancipated descendants in
modern times regarded it as a privilege that they were
able to be Jews by religion only, and to become Ger-
mans or Englishmen or Frenchmen in all their ordi-
nary relations with other men. We shall have occa-
sion to glance later on at the results of this gymnastic
feat, by which the emancipated Jew saved his Judaism
for the time beinsr.
INTRODUCTION 33
But for the moment it is sufificient to point out that
Judaism was saved at the expense of Hebraism. The
Hebrew spirit can only be fully expressed in a life
which it moulds and fashions from start to finish ; but
in the life of the emancipated Jews the area of its
operations is even more restricted than in the Ghetto.
For in the Ghetto life, stunted though it be, the terms
" Jew " and '* man " are at least coextensive ; in the
outside world the larger part of the man belongs irre-
vocably to another form of life, another social organ-
ization, in the fashioning of which the Hebrew spirit
has had no hand.
Thus the Jew cannot be himself again, cannot live
out his own life and develop his essential individual-
ity, either in the Ghetto or under conditions of eman-
cipation. What he needs for the " revival of the
spirit " is the possibility of combining the unadul-
terated Jewishness of the Ghetto with the breadth and
freedom of modern life. And this combination can
only be rendered possible by the restoration of that
element which has been lacking in Jewish life for so
many centuries, and to the lack of which the present
impotence of the Hebrew spirit is traceable. What
the Jew needs is a soil of his own, a fixed centre for
his national life. And that centre can be found only
in the land with which the history of the Jews is in-
evitably bound up, which has been the goal of their
most cherished aspirations since they left it for the
wilderness of Galut, which is one of the fibres of their
national being. Only in Palestine can the Jew become
3
34 INTRODUCTION
once more a Hebrew. There and only there can he
take up the thread of his national history, and begin
over again the eternal pursuit of his ideal. There
and only there can the Hebrew spirit again find a
body, and become effectively a force making for ab-
solute righteousness.
VI
The return to Palestine, then, is essential. But this
idea, though it follows inevitably from a true view
of Jewish history, cannot be widely accepted without
a revolution in thought. The Ghetto Jew still cherishes
the hope of an eventual restoration, and of the ulti-
mate establishment of the kingdom of righteousness;
but the centuries of cramping and stunting have made
him unable to realize that there can be any direct
connection between the ideal and life as it is. For him
the longed-for consummation must be brought about
by a sudden miracle from above, not by a process of
evolution in which human effort plays a part. Nay,
he has even come to regard as sacrilegious any at-
tempt on the part of mere human beings to hasten the
end. The emancipated Jew, again, is losing his hold
on the ancestral hope, which does not fit with ease
into his scheme of things. In so far as he retains the
hope, it is of a purely spiritual nature, and is even
more emphatically for him than for the Ghetto Jew
a thing that must be banned from the sphere of prac-
tical life, since his immediate ideals can only be those
of his adopted nation. In neither case, therefore, is
INTRODUCTION 35
the idea of a return to Palestine likely to find ready
acceptance. In both cases a radical change is neces-
sary before any progress can be made.
It is not difficult to see by what means that change
is to be brought about. Hebraism has expressed itself
both theoretically and practically; and, while the
practical rebirth of the Hebrew spirit can only take
place in Palestine, it can be cultivated on the theo-
retical side even in the Diaspora, by a study of the
literature in which it is enshrined. That literature
is, of course, a literature written in Hebrew : for body
and soul are one, and the Hebrew language is the
natural and inevitable vesture of Hebraic thought.
Hence the immediate step towards the solution of the
Jewish question is the return of the Jews to their own
" spiritual possessions " — to the Hebrew language and
literature. Only by learning to understand and to
value the ideas for which they have stood in the past
can they become capable of desiring to stand for
something in the present and the future. They must
grasp and assimilate Hebraism as a way of thought
and an outlook on life — as a " culture " — before they
can attain either the will or the power to embody
Hebraism in practice.
Now the study of the Hebrew language and litera-
ture is not dead, either in the Ghetto or among eman-
cipated Jews ; and its value is so generally recognized
(at least in theory) by the Jewish people, that any
advocacy of its claims is like forcing an open door.
But what Ahad Ha-" Am demands is not the study of
36 INTRODUCTION
the Hebrew language and literature as it is pursued
at present either within or without the Ghetto. In
the one case, devotion to the past involves the sacrifice
of the breadth and fulness of life in the present; in
the other case, the study of Hebrew literature is
mainly a pursuit of the antiquarian and the archeolo-
gist, and even so it tends ( for a reason which we shall
have occasion to mention later) gradually to lose its
hold on the intellectual element of emancipated Jewry,
and to be driven out of the field by non- Jewish culture.
But the study that is to lead to the rebirth of the
Hebrew spirit must have throughout a conscious rela-
tion to its end. Its touch must be the touch of life,
not that of death. It must not kill either the present,
like the Ghetto student, or the past, like the emanci-
pated Jewish antiquarian; it must make past and
present a living, organic whole in the world of ideas,
in order that it may fructify in the creation of a living,
organic whole in the world of fact. It was in this
spirit that Ahad Ha-' Am once projected a great
Hebrew Encyclopedia, which should do for the Jews
something like what the French Encyclopedia did for
the French people. It would be, as the Talmud was
of old, a storehouse of Hebraism, restating the
Hebrew point of view in terms adapted to modern
ideas and methods of historical research. Such an
encyclopedia would not be a collection of dead facts
for the use of the antiquarian. It would be a living
literary expression of the Hebrew spirit, and would
impress that spirit on the minds of the rising genera-
tion of Jews.
INTRODUCTION 37
But it must not be thought that this educating
process can be satisfactorily carried on under present
conditions. The return to an understanding of the
Hebrew spirit, which has Palestine for its goal, can-
not be attained without the help of Palestine. The
ancient land of the Hebrews must play its part in the
reintegration of Hebraism on the theoretical as well
as on the practical side. The immediate function of
Palestine is to be a " spiritual centre " of Hebraism :
the seat of a small settlement of Jews, not necessarily
independent in the political sense, but free from the
cramping conditions of the Ghetto, and drawing in-
spiration for its work of learning and teaching from
the life-giving touch of the native soil of Hebraism,
From this centre a new life would be breathed into
the dead bones of the scattered Jewish people ; and
the " revival of the spirit," receiving its impulse from
Palestine, would result in the further strengthening of
the Palestinian settlement. But without this " spirit-
ual centre " the work of national regeneration in the
Diaspora cannot make headway against the forces of
assimilation. Hence the return to Palestine must
precede as well as follow the restoration of Jewish
culture to its proper place in the lives of Jews in other
lands. It must be undertaken at once by the remnant
in whom the national consciousness has been neither
sublimated into a pious aspiration nor crushed by the
weight of a foreign culture. It will be the work of
these pioneers to make Palestine a magnet for larger
sections of those yet unborn generations to whom the
38 INTRODUCTION
" spiritual centre " will give a true conception of their
birthright and their destiny.
VII
Such is, in outline, Ahad Ha-'Am's presentment of
the Jewish problem, and the solution which he offers.
His attitude toward the two other solutions which are
advocated in modern times can be indicated briefly, as
it is the natural result of his own positive standpoint.
It is not to be expected that he should show much
sympathy with those who hold that not only the sur-
vival of the Jews, but their survival as a homeless and
scattered people, is necessary in order that they may
fulfil their " mission " — that is, in order that they may
be a light to the nations, and lead them in the path of
righteousness. Philosophically, this theory has a tele-
ological basis which is repugnant to him. But his
objection does not rest solely on abstract grounds.
The facts of Jewish life do not square with the pre-
tensions of the " mission " theory, whatever may be
its metaphysical justification. So far as the congested
masses of Jews in Eastern Europe are concerned,
nobody could claim that they are or could be accepted
by the nations which rob them of human rights as a
pattern and an inspiration. The privilege of a " mis-
sion" is only claimed for the emancipated minority
of Jews. But the very conditions of emancipation rob
that minority of the power to embody Hebrew ideals in
its own life so fully as to impress them by force of
example on the life of the nations. Dominated as they
INTRODUCTION 39
are by the culture of their environment, emancipated
Jews lack not only the opportunity, but also — what is
worse — the desire to preserve their spiritual kinship
with their own past. The " misbion " postulates a
spiritual separateness which can only be maintained if
Jews are spiritually fed on the products of the
Hebrew genius ; but the training of the average eman-
cipated Jew differs very little from that of his non-
Jewish neighbor. And this state of things is inevit-
able so long as the Jew can attain fulness of life only
through more or less complete assimilation. If the
Jews are to perform a " mission," they must work out
their ideals in their own life first of all : and for tha-t
they must have a concrete basis of their own. The
" mission " theory is in fact the view of the Essenes
over again : it expects the spirit to live without a body.
With the other modern solution of the problem —
that which is known as Zionism — Ahad Ha-' Am is
naturally in closer sympathy: for Zionism demands,
no less than his own theory, the restoration of Jewish
life in Palestine. It is not surprising that he went to
the first Zionist Congress ; but it is not surprising,
either, that he came away disappointed. For he found
that the similarity between his own ideal and that of
the Zionist movement was only external. The Zionists
seemed to be trying to save the body of the Jewish
people, not its soul. Like the Sadducees, they would
have the corporate national existence at all costs,
without regard to the spirit which it might express.
But for him body without soul was as meaningless as
40 INTRODUCTION
soul without body. This is not the place to discuss
how far the more recent development of Zionism has
brought it nearer to his ideal. But in its earlier years,
at any rate, Herzl's movement could no more satisfy
him than the " mission " theory. For him the only
possible way was and is that of the Pharisees — the
union of body and soul, the revival of the Hebrew
spirit through the creation of a concrete Jewish life in
Palestine.
SACRED AND PROFANE
(1891)
Between things sacred and profane there is this
difference among others. In profane matters the
instrument derives its worth from the end, and is valued
for the most part only in so far as it is a means to
that end ; and consequently we change the instruments
as the end demands, and finally, when the end is no
longer pursued, the instruments automatically fall into
disuse. But in sacred matters the end invests the in-
strument with a sanctity of its own. Consequently,
there is no changing or varying of the instrument ; and
when the end has ceased to be pursued, the instrument
does not fall out of use, but is directed towards another
end. In other words : in the one case we preserve the
shell for the sake of the kernel, and discard the shell
when we have eaten the kernel ; in the other case we
raise the shell to the dignity of the kernel, and do not
rob it of that dignity even if the kernel withers, but
make a new kernel for it.
The ancient Egyptians were accustomed on certain
festivals to use only vessels of stone. This custom
was a survival from the Stone Age, when the human
race did not know how to use other minerals ^ ; and it
survived in spite of the fact that subsequently the
^ Lubbock.
42 SACRED AND PROFANE
Egyptians learned to make vessels of better material.
That is to say, for ordinary purposes they had no
difficulty in changing a worse instrument for a better ;
but on sacred days they did not dare to drive out the old
before the new, because here the instrument itself had
become sacred. No doubt the Egyptian priests sought
and found weighty esoteric reasons for this custom ;
that is, they sought and found a new end for an
outworn instrument, a new kernel for an empty shell.
Take an instance nearer home. Why do we Jews
continue to write the Law only on parchment, in man-
uscript, and in scroll form? Wherefore all this
trouble four hundred years after Gutenberg? It is
because our ancestors, in common with the rest of the
human race, used to make all their books in this
fashion in the days when the Temple stood, and when
the world knew no better means than this. For our
ordinary books, of course, we use the improved
modern methods ; but in the case of books devoted to
sacred purposes, everything, even the mode of writing,
is sacred.
We find the same distinction within the sphere of
books itself. Profane books (except poetry, the whole
essence of which lies in its beautiful shell) are nothing
but instruments for imparting knowledge of a certain
subject-matter, nothing but shells of the ideas con-
tained in them. Hence, as knowledge of the subject-
matter grows and spreads, so does the book itself
sink more and more into oblivion. Thus the books of
most importance in the history of man's intellectual
SACRED AND PROFANE 43
development, books whose content has become com-
mon property for all time, lie on remote shelves in our
libraries, and are but seldom opened. The theories
of Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton are imparted to
the young students in our schools; but even among
trained physicists there are few who have drawn their
knowledge of these theories from the original sources.
Plato's works, again, that mighty river of whose waters
we drink even to-day through so many channels —
how many are there now who read them, or even know
their names? Maybe we grieve to see that even the
children of the spirit are not immortal, that in the
fulness of days each is forgotten when its work is
done ; and one might well believe that if the authors of
these books had had the choice, they would have asked
that their teachings should not spread so widely as to
enable their books to be forgotten. But they had not
the choice, and, though the heart may grieve, stern
logic finds that thus it must be: when we have eaten
the kernel, we have no more use for the shell.
Thus it is with profane books ; but with sacred books
it is otherwise. Here the content sanctifies the book,
and subsequently the book becomes the essential, and
the content the accident. The book remains un-
changed forever ; the content changes ceaselessly witK
the progress of life and culture. What is there that
men have not found in our sacred books, from Philo's
day to this ? In Alexandria they found Plato in them ;
in Spain, Aristotle ; the Cabbalists found their own
teaching, and the followers of other religions theirs;
44 SACRED AND PROFANE
nay, some pious scholars have even found in them
Copernicus and Darwin. All these men sought in
Scripture only the truth — each one his ov^n truth — and
all found that which they sought. They found it be-
cause they had to find it: because if they had not found
it, then truth would not have been truth, or the Scrip-
tures would not have been holy.
And yet we have among us " Reformers " who
think that we can strip the shell of practical observ-
ance from our religion, and retain only the kernel, the
abstract beliefs ; or, again, that we can strip our sacred
writings of their original language, and retain only
their kernel in translations. Both fail alike to see that
it is just the ancient cask with its ancient form that is
holy, and sanctifies all that is in it, though it may be
emptied and filled with new wine from time to time ;
whereas, if once the cask is broken or remoulded, the
wine will lose its taste, though it be never so old.
The Reformers fail to see this ; but the people
as a whole has always acted as though it felt this
truth by some natural instinct. The people has not
violently attacked those of its teachers who have filled
its cask with new wine from foreign vintages, like
Maimonides and his school ; on the contrary, it has
never ceased to honor and reverence them. But the
Karaites and such, who dared to lay a hand on the
holy cask, and change its form according to their own
ideas — these have had but short shrift, despite all
protests and assurances that their wine was the real
old wine, which had lain long years in the cellar,
untouched.
SACRED AND PROFANE 45
Laugh who will at this zealous regard for the cask :
the history of those who have treasured the wine will
give him pause. ^
* [An allusion to a Talmudic legend (Baba Batra, i6') ac-
cording to which, when God told Satan that he might do what
he liked with Job, but must save his life, Satan replied that he
might as well have been told to break the cask and preserve the
wine.]
JUSTICE AND MERCY
(1891)
The difference between Justice and Mercy is only
this, that Justice measures the cause by the effect,
Mercy the effect by the cause. That is to say, Justice
regards only the character of the deed, and judges
the doer accordingly ; Mercy considers first the char-
acter of the doer at the moment of the deed, and
judges the deed accordingly.
For instance : the Law says, " Thou shalt not steal."
If a man transgresses and steals, " he shall surely
pay." So far all will agree. But what if he has not
the w^herewithal ? Justice answers, " If he have noth-
ing, then he shall be sold for his theft ; " Mercy
says, " Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy
his soul when he is hungry." Justice judges the
theft, Mercy the thief.
Or again: it is a well-know^n fact that parents gen-
erally transmit their moral characteristics to their chil-
dren. But w^hile Justice drew from this fact the infer-
ence that the sins of the fathers should be visited on
the children, Mercy in our time has extracted a teach-
ing of opposite import: that the sins of the children
may be forgiven if they are an inheritance from the
fathers. Justice seeks to exterminate sin; Mercy
regards only the sinner.
JUSTICE AND MERCY 47
According to an ancient legend, the Creator in-
tended at first to create His world by the attribute of
Justice alone, and it was only afterwards that He
repented Him, and joined with it the attribute of
Mercy. In truth, we find that the attribute of Justice
precedes that of Mercy in the process of moral de-
velopment, both in individuals and in nations. Chil-
dren, and nations in their childhood, distinguish only
between deeds, not between doers. They exterminate
evil by rooting out the evil-doers and all that is con-
nected with them; they do not discriminate between
the sin of error and the sin of presumption, between
the sin of compulsion and the sin of freewill, between
the sin committed with knowledge and that committed
in ignorance. The angry child breaks the thing over
which he has stumbled; nations in the stage of child-
hood kill the beast " through which hurt hath come
to a man." It is only at a later stage and by a gradual
process that Mercy finds its way first into the human
head, to refine our moral ideas, and then also into the
human heart, to purify and to soften the feelings.
First we have the judicial pronouncement: " Whoso
sheddeth man's blood " (whether in error or of evil
intent), "his blood shall be shed." The deed itself,
the blood that has been shed, demands recompense
from the doer ; and " the land cannot be cleansed ....
but by the blood of him that shed it." In the fulness of
time man comes to understand that the unintentional
homicide is " not worthy of death ; " but even when that
stage has been reached, it is long before he can restrain
48 JUSTICE AND MERCY
the feelings of his untamed heart, which demands ven-
geance for blood. It is at this stage that nations set
aside cities of refuge for the benefit of the homicide,
" lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while
his heart is hot."
" The Law exonerates him who acts under com-
pulsion : " ^ for us this is axiomatic. But there was a
time when this principle needed proofs and examples
to secure its acceptance, and so we read : " But
unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the
damsel no sin worthy of death : for as when a man
riseth against his neighbor, and slayeth him, even so
is this matter: for he found her in the field, and the
betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save
her." The Law does not usually give reasons for its
ordinances in this fashion ; but it was recognized that
here was a great innovation, opposed to popular ideas.
The legend quoted above says that the Creator
joined the attribute of Mercy with that of Justice,
not that He substituted the one for the other. In
truth, ]\Iercy is of value only when it is combined with
Justice. Mercy stands high on the ladder of moral
development ; but Justice is the moral foundation on
which the ladder stands.
There can be no doubt that mankind would not have
struggled hard to climb the moral ladder, if not for
the fear of that inward monitor, which tells a man of
his sin in the secret recesses of his soul, and gnaws
his heart, and says, " Qimb upwards : cleanse thy-
' [Baba Kamma, 29*.]
JUSTICE AND MERCY 49
self." This inward voice, which we call " conscience,"
or (in more mystical phrase) " the voice of God mov-
ing in the heart of man," is in reality nothing but the
echo of a man's own pronouncement on the sins of
others: so it has been well explained by Adam Smith
and his followers. Every man is accustomed from his
earliest years to see his parents and his teachers pro-
nouncing condemnation on every act of wrong-doing ;
and so he learns to do the same himself. In time
habit becomes second nature, and when he meets an
act of wrong-doing, he not merely condemns it with
his lips, but actually experiences a feeling of moral
indignation or loathing. This feeling, accompanying
the phenomenon of sin, becomes ever (as is the way
of all feelings) more and more closely connected with
the phenomenon that gives rise to it ; until at last the
tie becomes so strong that the two can no longer be
severed, even if both the phenomenon and the feeling
are predicable of the same person. So, when a man's
conscience pricks him, he is, for the moment, a
double personality ; it is as though the conscience (that
is, the feeling that accompanies the phenomenon) were
a separate being, hurling reproaches at its possessor,
and saying: "Wretch! What would you have said, if
you had seen others acting thus ? "
The moral ideas that flourish in the atmosphere of
society, and become implanted in the mind of each
individual through education and social intercourse —
these, then, are the real source of the inward moral
voice. Thus, so long as the feeling of Justice predomi-
4
so JUSTICE AND MERCY
nates, men become accustomed from their youth to
hate abstract evil as such, and to loathe evil-doers,
without much inquiry into the distant causes that have
led to the evil act ; and, by a further development, they
learn to gauge their own actions also by the measure
with which they gauge the actions of others. It is
not so when the atmosphere is one of Mercy only.
Then it is not the evil deed, but the evil will that
awakens the moral feeling; then a man is absolved
from Justice, if he can be excused by an appeal to the
hidden facts of his spiritual life. Such an atmosphere
as this does not encourage the utterance of " man's
pronouncement on the sins of others ; " and therefore
the inward echo of this voice — conscience — is also
silent.
Yet in every generation Mercy has its apostles —
the men who climb the moral ladder till they reach the
level of absolute Mercy. They believe, in their sim-
plicity, that if all mankind mounted with them to this
height, the world would become a Garden of Eden ;
and so they teach their followers, " Judge every man
favorably." ^ The pupils argue, rightly enough, that
they, too, are men ; and so they apply this teaching to
themselves first of all. It is for the most part difficult
to find excuses for another man, to penetrate into his
spiritual life, and seek there the psychological cause of
his transgression ; but it is all too easy for a man to
be always finding excuses for himself, seeing that in
reality even our " free " actions are bound and knit
' [Pirke Abot, i. 6.]
JUSTICE AND MERCY 51
by thousands of slender threads, seen and unseen, to
various causes that precede them in the inner life.
It may be that a man cannot always find these chains,
cannot always understand how the sin came to be com-
mitted, why he chose evil ; but he always feels that
some hidden hand influenced his choice, that some
" spirit of folly " entered into him at that moment.
And so the fault is not his ; the hidden cause is to
blame.
When our apostles of Mercy see that the only result
of their teaching is to enable men to justify themselves,
they attempt to put matters right by carrying their
original error a stage further, and adding another
precept, " Judge not thy fellow until thou hast come
into his place." ^ That is to say, if you cannot judge
another man favorably, do not judge him at all until
you have been in his position : then, when it is your
own soul instead of his, you will understand his feel-
ings, and it will not be difficult for you to excuse him
as you would excuse yourself.
Here, then, Mercy has reached its uttermost limit:
the abolition of all judgments, a general pardon to all
men for all actions. But how has it reached this point ?
Its path has been exactly the opposite of that pursued
by the moral sentiment in its natural development.
The moral sentiment finds the criterion of morality in
the social atmosphere, and by this criterion measures
first others, and then itself; whereas Mercy allows
a man first of all to measure himself by any criterion
^[Pirke Abot, ii. 5.]
52 JUSTICE AND MERCY
that he may choose, only on condition that he proceed
next to apply the same standard to others.
This doctrine, if it were universally followed, might
well reduce the world to a condition of moral chaos.
The moral sentiment, robbed of all external assistance
and support, would gradually be uprooted from the
human heart. But, happily for mankind, the multitude
is not large-hearted enough for this doctrine of Mercy,
which, despite all the honor lavished upon it, will never
be more than a beautiful phrase of the moralists. It
is not such phrases that stir the moral atmosphere, but
the needs of life, individual and social. Our individual
needs do, indeed, whisper to us sometimes, " Judge thy
fellow unfavorably, in order that thou mayest come
into his place " — that is, gain esteem from his disgrace,
and benefit by his downfall. But, on the other side,
the needs of society tell us, " In righteousness shalt
thou .judge thy neighbor:" judge him, yes; but in
righteousness: and so learn to judge yourself also,
when you find yourself in his place.
There are in every generation a few righteous men
who arrive at this middle position — not beloved of the
apostles of Mercy — after a hard struggle with that
whisper of the Self ; who by dint of habit come tO'
make Justice a need of the individual Ego. These
are the men who bear the banner of moral progress,
the end of which is to make peace between the indi-
vidual needs and the social, and to impose on both one
single law — the law of Righteousness.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
(1891)
Even when the world as a whole is at peace, there
is no rest or peace for its inhabitants. Penetrate to
the real life, be it of worms or of men, and beneath
the veil of peace you will find an incessant struggle
for existence, a constant round of aggression and
spoliation, in which every victory involves a defeat
and a death.
Yet we do distinguish between time of war and
time of peace. We reserve the term " war " for a
visible struggle between two camps,' such as occurs
but seldom — a struggle that we can observe, whose
causes and effects we can trace, from beginning to
end. But to all the continual petty wars between man
and man, of which we know in a general way that they
are in progress, but of which we cannot envisage all the
details and particulars, we give the name of " peace,"
because such is the normal condition of things.
In the spiritual world also there is war and peace;
and here also " peace " means nothing but a number
of continual petty wars that we cannot see — wars of
idea against idea, of demand against demand, of custom
against custom. The very slightest change in any de-
partment of life — as, for instance, the substitution
of one letter for another in the spelling of a word —
54 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
can only be brought about by a battle and a victory ;
but these tiny events happen silently, and escape obser-
vation at the time. It is only afterwards, when the
sum total of all the changes has become a considerable
quantity, that men of intelligence look backwards, and
find to their astonishment that everything — opinions,
modes of life, speech, pronunciation — has undergone
vast changes. These changes appear to have taken
place automatically; we do not know in detail when
they came about, or through whose agency.
Peace, then, is the name that we give to a con-
tinuous, gradual development. But in the spiritual
world, as in the material, there is sometimes a state
of war ; that is, a visible struggle between two spiritual
camps, two complete systems, the one new, the other
old. The preparations for such a war are made under
cover, deep down in the process of continuous devel-
opment. It is only when all is in readiness that the
war breaks out openly, with all its drums and tramp-
lings ; and then a short space of time sees the most
far-reaching changes.
The character of these changes, as well as the general
course of the w^ar, depends chiefly on the character of
the new system of thought that raises the storm. They
differ according as the system is wholly positive,
wholly negative, or partly positive and partly negative.
A new positive system comes into existence when
the process of continuous development produces in
the minds of a select few some new positive concept.
This may be either a belief in some new truth not
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE 55
hitherto accepted by society, or the consciousness of
some new need not hitherto felt by society; generally
the two go together. This new conception, in accord-
ance with a well-known psychological law, gives rise
to other conceptions of a like nature, all of which
strengthen one another, and become knit together, till
at last they form a complete system. The centre-point
of the system is the new positive principle ; and round
this centre are grouped a number of different beliefs,
feelings, impulses, needs, and so forth, which depend
on it and derive their unity from it.
A new system such as this, though essentially and
originally it is wholly positive, cannot help including
unconsciously some element of negation. That is to
say, it cannot help coming into contact, on one side or
another, with some existing system that covers the
same ground. It may not damage the essential feature,
the centre, of the old system; but it will certainly
damage one of the conceptions on its circumference,
or, at the very least, it will lessen the strength of men's
attachment to the old principles. When, therefore,
the reformers begin to put their system into practice, to
strive for the attainment of what they need by the
methods in which they believe, their action necessarily
arouses opposition on the part of the more devoted
adherents of the old system, with which the reformers
have unwittingly come into conflict. The result of this
opposition is that the new system spreads, and attracts
to its ranks all those who are adapted to receive it.
As their number increases, the animosity of their
56 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
opponents grows in intensity; and so the opposition
waxes stronger and stronger, until it becomes war to
the knife.
At first the disciples of the new teaching are
astounded at the accusations hurled at them. They
find themselves charged with attempting to overthrow
established principles ; and they protest bitterly that no
such thought ever entered their minds. They protest
with truth : for, indeed, their whole aim is to add, not
to take away. Intent on their task of addition, they
overlook the negation that follows at its heels ; even
when the negation has been made plain by their oppo-
nents, they strive to keep it hidden from others, and to
ignore its existence themselves, and they do not recog-
nize the artificiality of the means by which they attain
this end.
The older school, on the other hand, who derive
all their inspiration from the old doctrine, are quick
to see or feel the danger threatened by the new teach-
ing; and they strive, therefore, to uproot the young
plant while it is still tender. But as a rule they do not
succeed. Despite their efforts, the new system finds
its proper place ; gradually the two systems, the new
and the old, lose some of their more sharply opposed
characteristics, share the forces of society between
them in proportion to their relative strength, and
ultimately come to terms and live at peace. By this
process society has been enriched; its tree of life has
gained a new branch ; its spiritual equipment has
received a positive addition.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE 57
It was by such a process as this that philosophy
found its way into Jewish thought in the Middle
Ages. First of all a new positive system came to
birth in a few minds. Their need was for the under-
standing of natural phenomena and human life ; their
belief, that they could attain this end by means of
Arabic philosophy. There followed the diffusion of
this system; the opposition of the Rabbis, who saw
in the new teaching a source of danger to another,
older, positive system — the Law and religious observ-
ance ; then the apologetic treatises of the Reform-
ers, who denied the existence of the danger ; finally,
a compromise between the Bible and philosophy, re-
sulting on the one hand in " rationalized faith," on
the other in " religious philosophy."
The birth and development of Hasidism in modern
times followed similar lines. First there was a new
positive system : the need for spiritual exaltation and
enthusiasm, the belief in the possibility of their attain-
ment through the service of God as a joyful perform-
ance of duty. Then the system spread ; it was attacked
by the Talmudists ; the new sect defended themselves ;
finally, Hasidim study the Talmud, Talmudists adopt
Hasidism. If the first Hasidim could hear the great
designs attributed to them in our generation, as though
it had been their set purpose to oppose Rabbinic teach-
ing, they would be at a loss to understand them ; just
as in their own day they could not understand why
they were persecuted. They did not feel that in their
teaching and in their practice there was an element
58 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
Opposed to any tenet accepted and held sacred by the
nation as a whole. On the contrary, they called their
persecutors Alitnaggedim (opposers) : unlike Luther's
disciples, who chose the name of Protestants for
themselves.
Just as the continuous process of development gives
birth to new positive elements, so also it destroys old
positive elements in individual minds, and undermines
some of the needs and the beliefs on which the social
fabric is built. The result is that these individuals
find in some department of life, each one in the sphere
nearest to himself, certain excrescences or superfluities,
the removal of which would, in their opinion, be of
benefit to the world. Then these negatives find each
other, on the principle of " like to like ; " they stimulate
and strengthen one another, until they, too, become
united at last in a single complete system, with a fun-
damental and universal negative as its centre-point.
This negative attracts to its banner many of the indi-
viduals whose attitude is negative on particular points
of belief. Hitherto they have been but scattered units,
agreeing (or sometimes disagreeing) with one another
as regards certain particulars, without being conscious
of their inner unity; henceforth they form a single
camp, which wages war against an existing positive
system — war in the name of negation and destruction.
The result of such a war is usually neither a decisive
victory for one side nor the establishment of peace
and intercourse between the two opponents. The
result is absolute and eternal separation. Weary and
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE S9
spent with the stress of battle, the two enemies leave
the field to rest. Those who believe in the positive
doctrine return to their former system of life ; the
unbelievers go their own way, and form a separate
sect with a new system. This negative sect represents
a step backwards, not a step forwards ; it rubs one
inscription from the slate without substituting another.
All that it can do is to rewrite what it has left in
larger letters, until the gap left by the erasure is filled :
that is to say, it emphasizes some other, older, positive
belief, and strives to unite under this banner all the
spiritual forces that were attached to the positive
belief which it has destroyed, and are now left with-
out a rallying-point. This method is satisfactory so
long as the new sect has to continue fighting its
enemies. The very negation, gathering all its forces
to conquer, becomes by this means a source of warmth
and life, and adds strength to the positive element,
which was left untouched. But when the external war
is at an end, and the negation sinks back into what it
really is, mere nothingness, then its internal life also
comes to a standstill. The positive content of its creed
shrinks to its proper proportions ; and the spiritual life,
half emptied of its content, becomes withered and im-
poverished.
The sect of the Karaites is an excellent example of
such a negative movement. Even before the time of
Anan there were men whose attitude was negative on
particular points, who could not find satisfaction in
the disputations of the Talmudic schools of Babylon,
6o POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
or in this or that new-fangled legal pronouncement.
But they were not united in a single sect, so long as
these particular negatives did not group themselves
as a system round about some fundamental negation.
Anan found a common ground for them all in the
destruction of the belief in the existence of the Oral
Law, and the denial of the need for that Law. Im-
mediately large numbers trooped to enlist under this
banner, and became a single army, a negative sect.
So long as this sect persecuted and was persecuted, it
lived and felt: felt a burning hatred for the Talmud,
and a boundless love for the Bible, in which it still
believed. But so soon as it separated itself altogether
from the body of the people, and its hatred and its
love no longer found sustenance in the spirit of oppo-
sition, it ceased to move, and so lay like a stone, which
none has turned to this day.
But a purely negative movement, like Karaism, is as
a matter of fact extremely rare. Most men are unable
to uproot that which is firmly implanted in their hearts,
even after the plant has withered. Even if a certain
doctrine no longer appeals to them for its own sake, yet
they cannot dispense with other beliefs and spiritual
needs which depend on it, either as its immediate
results, or as having been subsequently combined with
it. Such men anticipate from the beginning the spirit-
ual void that will be left by the process of uprooting,
and so they shrink back. They stand and wait, these
moderates of the party of negation, until some new
positive belief comes in their way, capable of filling up
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE 6i
this void, and of becoming a new centre for all those
feelings, impulses, and so forth, hitherto centred on
the old positive belief, which they now wish to destroy.
The first apostles of this new positive belief are per-
secuted by the conservatives, who reveal the hidden
negation that it contains ; and then those who con-
sciously stand for a negation have a new lease of life.
They have found something on which to anchor : they
stand forth at once to assist the persecuted, and accept
the new positive belief, and all that it involves, with
extravagant enthusiasm. They accept it without over-
much examination or inquiry, because the important
thing for them is not the positive belief, but the possi-
bility, which they obtain at the same time, of holding to
their negation. In proportion as they scrutinize the old
doctrine in all its details, and find in it the tiniest and
subtlest flaws and shortcomings, so do they shut their
eyes to all that is bad in the new creed. On this they
lavish a far more exaggerated admiration than did its
first propounders, because, whereas for the latter it is
but a part, an addition to the old doctrine, for these it is
all in all, and they must needs find everything in it. The
originators of the new movement are at first opposed
to this alliance, thrust on them by men whose sole
creed is a negation. But the persecution meted out
to both alike by the conservatives, which forces them
to fight for life together on the same field of battle,
gradually accustoms them to this alliance; until at
length they become in fact a single army, devoted to a
single system. This system is a combination of posi-
(>2 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
tive and negative ; but the one party accepts the posi-
tive for the sake of the negative, while the other
accepts the negative for the sake of the positive.
A war of this kind extends over many years, or
even over many generations. As a rule the innovators
have at first the upper hand, for two reasons. On the
one side, it is difficult to restrain the force of skepti-
cism, or negation, when once it has been aroused ; on
the other side, the new positive belief is stronger than
the old, being a product of the present, and therefore
more in accord with the spirit of the time than the
belief inherited from past ages. But then a change
comes. The innovators believe that victory is at hand ;
they cease to concentrate all their forces on the battle
against the old doctrine ; and many of them begin in-
stead to scrutinize the new system with the same pene-
trating gaze to which hitherto they have subjected
only the old. Naturally, they find in the new system
also withered shoots that need uprooting. Nay, more :
when they take stock of the old shoots that have been
weeded out, they find that many of them are sound
and healthy, that skepticism has uprooted them un-
necessarily, in the heat of opposition to the received
beliefs. Thus their scrutiny enlightens them in two
ways : they see that the change has not been a com-
plete deliverance, and that in many respects their loss
has exceeded their gain. Too much of the old has
been removed ; and the gap cannot wholly be filled by
the new.
At this stage the camp of the new movement is full
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE 63
of sects and small parties of all conceivable kinds.
Those who feel dissatisfied pursue some ideal, look
for some means of satisfying their souls ; and as they
wander this way and that, they move away from the
main body, some forwards, others backwards. But
neither party finds the rest that it seeks. Artificial
ideals cannot long satisfy a natural need. Thus in
the end many of them despair ; they become accus-
tomed to a life of spiritual emptiness, and seek no
further.
When the conservatives see the trouble in the reform
camp, they have a new lease of strength. Their
despair is again turned to hope. A little longer, and
the world will turn back to the point at which it stood
in the good old days. But as a rule they are out in
their reckoning. For the most part such movements
as these, progressive or retrogressive, do not move
society either forwards or backwards. They simply
show that society needs some third system, inter-
mediate between the other two, which shall stand in
between the new and the old, uprooting from the new
that which needs uprooting, and restoring to the old
that which has been uprooted in ignorance. Thus the
old and the new will be clothed in a single new form,
suited to the spirit of the age, which will set up an
equilibrium between the spiritual inheritance from the
past, and those elements of the new teaching which
have already fastened their roots firmly in the life of
the community. A system such as this comes forward
of itself in course of time, as a result of the move-
64 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
ments that we have described. But sometimes it comes
sooner, sometimes later : this depends on a number of
complex causes and a variety of circumstances.
A combined movement of this sort began in Jewish
history a hundred years ago, and is still pursuing its
course. Judging by its progress in recent years, we
may conclude that it is no longer far from the right
path.
Even before the modern Haskalah ^ movement, there
were among Western Jews certain " moderates of the
party of negation " ; but they did not declare war on
the existing order of things, because they had noth-
ing wherewith to fill the gap. At last a new positive
creed developed in a few minds : the need for the
rights of citizenship, coupled with the belief in their
attainment through European culture. At once the
forces of negation attached themselves to the new
positive cause (whose adherents, be it remarked, may
really have been at first " seekers after goodness and
wisdom," - and did not know that subsequently nega-
tion would fasten on to their creed and count its years
from the time of Mendelssohn's German translation of
^ [The Hebrew word Haskalah, translated "enlightenment"
for want of a more adequate equivalent, is used to denote
modem European culture, as distinguished from the purely
Hebraic studies to which the Jewish mind was confined during
some centuries of Ghetto life. It includes not only the pursuit of
"general" (/. e. non-Jewish) subjects of knowledge, but also
the application of modern methods of research to Hebrew litera-
ture and Jewish history.]
'["The Society of Seekers after Goodness and Wisdom"
was the name that Mendelssohn's disciples gave to themselves.]
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE 65
the Bible). The two parties became one, and proceeded
mercilessly, exultantly, amid triumphant blowing of
trumpets, to overthrow all the strongholds of their
nation. But when the victory was won, or seemed to
be won, the new doctrine was subjected to the scrutiny
of criticism, which discovered shortcomings in its
positive element, and still greater shortcomings on its
negative side. The process of overthrowing had gone
too far. It had not stopped short at primitive beliefs
and outworn customs, but had affected the very essen-
tials of national life and national unity. So the critics
"became conscious of a gap, and cast about for means
to fill it. And not in vain, as they believed. Some of
them thought to fill the gap by building magnificent,
synagogues and preaching sermons full of " water,
water everywhere " ; others again — and these were the
bigger men — by that new creation of theirs, to which
they gave a high-sounding title, commensurate with the
loftiness of its mission : to wit, Jewish Science.^
The literature of Jewish Science sometimes presents
a strange phenomenon. One finds a preface full of
reverent devotion to Israel, to Jewish nationality, and
Jewish literature ; while the body of the book — the
" science " in whose honor the preface was written —
consists of minute investigations and discussions of
^ ["Jewish Science " is a mistranslation of the German term
Judische Wissenschaff, which has unfortunately obtained cur-
rency. The term denotes th^ application of modem, so-called
"scientific" methods of investigation and research to Jewish
history and the problems of Judaism.]
66 POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
commentators and punctuators and lifeless liturgical
compositions, without which the world would have
been no whit the poorer. This is a striking proof of
the need that these writers feel for some positive
national conception, to justify their love for their
people to themselves, and so enable them to devote
themselves to the service of the national spirit. But
alas! their quest is vain; they must needs be content
with tombstones and synagogue chants. Others, too,
have sought in vain, and have retraced their steps to
the camp of conservatism. Others, again, are left un-
satisfied, or else depart, never to return.
In later years a movement of an almost identical
character was set on foot among the Jews of North-
ern Europe. But in Russia circumstances have
brought about, as though automatically, that " middle
system " for which the savants of Germany sought in
vain — a system capable of restoring equilibrium be-
tween the old and the new, by clothing both in a
single new form. We stand and gaze at this " form,"
so simple, so natural, so easily intelligible to the plain-
est mind, and we wonder that it was so long in coming.
Is it necessary to name this movement? Or is it
enough to point eastwards, to the land of our an-
cestors ?
ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS
(1891)
Students of jurisprudence know (and who knows
so well as the Jew?) that the laws and statutes of
every nation are not all observed and obeyed at all
times in the same degree ; that in all countries and in
all ages there are certain laws, be they new or old,
which are perfectly valid according to the statute
book, and are yet disregarded by those who administer
justice, and are wholly or largely ineffective in practice.
If one examines a law of this kind, one will always
find that its spirit is opposed to the spirit that pre-
vails at the time in the moral and political life of
society. If it is a new law, it will be found to have
come into existence before its time, to have been the
work of lawgivers whose spiritual development was
in advance of that of the general body of society. If
it is an old law, we shall find that its day is past, that
society in its spiritual development has left behind it
the spirit of those old lawgivers. In either case, this
particular law, being out of harmony with the spirit
that governs the progress of life in that particular
age, may be valued and honored like all the other
laws, but has no power to make itself felt in practice.
And yet reformers act quite rightly when they
anticipate the course of events, and put laws on the
68 ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS
Statute book before the time has come when they
can be practically effective; and conservatives also act
rightly when they secure the survival in the statute
book of laws whose time has gone by. Both parties
know that they are doing good service, each for its
own cause. They both understand that the spirit of
society moves in a circle, now forwards, now back-
wards, and that in this circular movement it may
arrive, sooner or later, at the stage of development
that these laws represent. When that time comes, it
will be a matter of importance whether the laws are
there in readiness or not. If they are, the spirit of
society will quickly enter into them, as a soul enters
into a body, and will inform them with life, and
make them active forces, while they will be for the
spirit a definite, material form, through which its pre-
eminence will be secured. But if there is not this
material form waiting for the spirit to enter into it ;
if the spirit is compelled to wander bodiless until it
can create for itself a new corporeal vesture, then there
is danger that, before the spirit can gain a firm footing
where it desires to stay, the wheel may turn again,
and the favorable moment be lost.
This is true not only of written laws and statutes,
but also of the unwritten ideas and judgments of the
human mind. In every age you will find certain
isolated beliefs and opinions, out of all relation to the
ruling principles on which the life of that age is built.
They lie hidden in a water-tight compartment of the
mind, and have no effect whatever on the course of
ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS 69
practical life. Ideas such as these are mostly survivals,
inherited from earlier generations. In their own time
they were founded on current conceptions and actual
needs of life; but gradually the spirit of society has
changed: the foundations on which these ideas rested
have been removed, and the ideas stand by a miracle.
Their appearance of life is illusory: it is no real life of
motion and activity, but the passive life of an old man
whose " moisture is gone, and his natural force abated."
Anthropologists (such as Tylor and many after him)
have found aged creatures of this description in every
branch of life; and they live sometimes to a remark-
able age.
So much for the survivals. But there are here also
anticipations, children who have not reached their
full strength — ideas born in the minds of a few men
of finer mould, who stand above their generation, and
whom favoring circumstances have enabled to dis-
seminate their ideas, and to win acceptance for them,
before their time: that is, before the age is fully able
to understand and assimilate them. These ideas, being
only learned parrot-wise, and being out of harmony
with the prevailing spirit, are left, like the survivals,
outside the sphere of active forces. Their life is that
of the babe and the suckling. Grown men fondle them,
take pleasure in their childish prattle, sometimes play
with them ; but never ask their advice on a practical
question.
And yet, so long as the breath of life remains in
them, there is hope both for the anticipations and for
70 ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS
the survivals: for the one in the forward march of
the spirit, for the other in its backward trend. And
so here also we must say that philosophers have done
well to work for the dissemination of their new
opinions, or the strengthening of the old opinions to
which they have been attached, without caring whether
the age was fit to receive them, whether it received
them for their own sake or for the sake of something
else, whether it could find in them a mode of life and
a guide in practice. These philosophers know that a
live weakling is better than a dead Hercules ; that so
long as an idea lives in the human mind, be it but in
a strange and distorted form, be its life but a passive
life confined to some dim, narrow chamber of the mind
— so long it may hope in the fulness of time to find its
true embodiment ; so long it may hope, when the right
day dawns, to fill the souls of men, to become the liv-
ing spirit that informs all thoughts and all actions.
For an instance of an anticipation, take the idea of
the Unity of God among the Jews in the period of the
Judges and the Kings, until the Babylonian Exile.
Hume and his followers have proved conclusively
that what first aroused man to a recognition of his
Creator was not his wonder at the beauty of nature
and her marvels, but his dread of the untoward acci-
dents of life. Primitive man, wandering about the
earth in search of food, without shelter from the rain
or protection against the cold, persecuted unsparingly
by the tricks of nature and by wild beasts, was not in
a position to take note of the laws of creation, to
ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS yi
gaze awe-struck at the beauty of the world, and to
ponder the question " whether such a world could be
without a guide." ^ All his impulses, feelings, and
thoughts were concentrated on a single desire, the
desire for life ; in the light of that desire he saw but
two things in all nature — good and evil : that which
helped and that which hindered in his struggle for
existence. As for the good, he strove to extract from
it all possible benefit, without much preliminary
thought about its source. But evil was more common
and more readily perceptible than good : and how
escape from evil? This question gave his mind no
rest ; it was this question that first awoke in him,
almost unconsciously, the great idea that every natural
phenomenon has a lord, who can be appeased by words
and won over by gifts to hold evil in check. Yes,
and also — the idea developed of itself — to bestow
good. Thus all the common phenomena of nature be-
came gods, in more or less close contact with human
life and happiness ; the earth became as full of deities
as nature of good things and evil.
But it was not only from nature and her blind
forces that primitive man had to suffer. The hand of
his fellow-man too was against him. In those days
there were no states or kingdoms, no fixed rules of
life or ordinances of justice. The human race was
divided into families, each living its own life, and each
engaged in an endless war of extinction with its
neighbor. The evil caused by man to man was some-
^ [Midrash, Lek Leka, 39.]
72 ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS
times even more terrible than the hostility of nature.
And here also man sought and found help in a divine
power ; only in this case he did not turn to the gods
of nature, who were common to himself and his
enemies. Each family looked for help to its own
special god, a god who had no care in the world but
itself, no purpose but to protect it from its enemies.
Thus, when in course of time these families grew into
nations living a settled life, and the war of man against
man took on a more general form ; when the individual
man was able to sit at peace with his household in
the midst of his people, and the process of merciless
destruction was carried on by nation against nation,
not by family against family: then the family gods
disappeared, or sank to the level of household spirits;
but their place was filled by national gods, one god
for each nation, whose function it was to watch over
it in time of peace, and to punish its enemies in time
of war.
This double polytheism, natural and national, has
its source, therefore, not in an accidental error of
judgment, but in the real needs of the human soul
and the conditions of human life in primitive ages.
Since these needs and these conditions did not differ
materially in different countries, it is no matter for
wonder that among all ancient peoples we find the
same faith (though names and external forms vary) :
a faith in nature-gods, who help man in his war with
nature, and in national gods, who help the nation in
its war with other nations. But in some cases the
ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS 73
belief in the nature-gods is more prominent, in others
the beHef in the national gods; this is determined by
the character and history of the particular nation, by
its relation to nature and its status among other
peoples.
Hence, when the abstract idea of the Unity of God
arose and spread among the Israelites in early days,
it could not possibly be anything but an anticipation.
Only a select few had a true and living comprehension
of the idea, compelling the heart to feel and the will
to follow. The masses, although they heard the idea
preached times without number by their Prophets, and
thought that they believed in it, had only an external
knowledge of it ; and their belief was an isolated
belief, not linked with actual life, and without in-
fluence in practice. It was in vain that the Prophets
labored to breathe the spirit of life into this belief.
It was so far removed from the contemporary current
of ideas and feelings, that it could not possibly root
itself firmly in the heart, or find a spiritual thread by
which to link itself with actual life.
The author of the Book of Judges has a way of
complaining of the fickleness of our ancestors in those
days. In time of trouble they always turned to the
God of their forefathers ; but when he had saved
them from their enemies, they regularly returned to
the service of other gods, " and remembered not the
Lord their God who had delivered them from all their
enemies round about." But, in fact, our ancestors
were not so fickle as to change their faith like a coat,
74 ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS
and alternate between two opposed religions. They
had always one faith — the early double polytheism.
Hence, in time of national trouble, of war and perse-
cution at the hands of other nations, " the children
of Israel cried unto the Lord their God." It was not
that they repented, in the Prophetic sense, and re-
solved to live henceforth as believers in absolute
Unity. They turned to the God of their ancestors, to
their own special national God, and prayed Him to
fight their enemies. When the external danger was
over, and the national trouble gave way to the indi-
vidual troubles of each man and each household, they
returned to the everyday gods of nature.
It was only after the destruction of the Temple,
when the spirit of the exiled people had changed
sufficiently to admit of a belief in the Unity, that the
Prophets of the time found it easy to uproot the popu-
lar faith, and to make the idea of the Unity supreme
throughout the whole range of the people's life. It
was not that the people suddenly looked upwards and
was struck with the force of the " argument from
design ; " but the national disaster had strengthened the
national feeling, and raised it to such a pitch that
individual sorrows vanished before the national
trouble. The people, with all its thoughts and feelings
concentrated on this one sorrow, was compelled to
hold fast to its one remaining hope : its faith in its
national God and in the greatness of His power to
save His people, not merely in its own country but
also on foreign soil. But this hope could subsist only
ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS 7S
on condition that the victory of the Babylonian king
was not regarded as the victory of the Babylonian
gods. Not they, but the God of Israel, who was also
the God of the world, had given all countries over to
the king of Babylon; and He who had given would
take away. For all the earth was His : " He created
it, and gave it to whoso seemed right in His eyes." ^
Thus at length the people understood and felt the
sublime teaching, which hitherto it had known from
afar, with mere lip-knowledge. The seed which the
earlier Prophets had sown on the barren rock burst
into fruit now that its time had come. When the
Prophet of the Exile cried in the name of the Lord,
" To whom will ye liken Me and make Me equal ? . . .
I am God, and there is none else," his words were
in accord with the wishes of the people and its national
hope ; and so they sank into the heart of the people,
and wiped out every trace of the earlier outlook and
manner of life.
This national hope, as embodied in the idea of the
return to Palestine, affords, in a much later age, an
instance of a " survival."
It is a phenomenon of constant occurrence, that an
object pursued first as a means comes afterwards to
be pursued as an end. Originally it is sought after
not for its own sake, but because of its connection
with some other object of desire; but in course of
time the habit of pursuing and esteeming the first
object, though only for the sake of the second, creates
^[Rashi on Gen. i. i. ]
•jf, ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS
a feeling of affection for the first, which is quite inde-
pendent of any ulterior aim ; and this affection some-
times becomes so strong that the ulterior aim, which
was its original justification, is sacrificed for its sake.
Thus it is with the miser. He begins by loving money
for the enjoyment that its use affords ; he ends by
forgetting his original object, and develops an insatia-
ble thirst for money as such, which will not allow him
even to make use of it for purposes of enjoyment.
Similarly, the great religious idea, which, at the
time of its revival, after the destruction of the first
Temple, was meant to be only a foundation and sup-
port for the national hope, grew and developed in the
period of the second Temple, until it became the whole
content of the nation's spiritual life, and rose superior
even to that national ideal from which it drew its be-
ing. Religion occupied the first place, and everything
else became secondary; the Jews demanded scarcely
anything except to be allowed to serve God in peace
and quiet. When this was conceded, they were con-
tent to bear a foreign yoke silently and patiently;
when it was not, they fought with the strength of lions,
and knew no rest until they were again free to devote
themselves uninterruptedly to the service of their
Heavenly Father, whom they loved now not for the
sake of any national reward, but with a whole-hearted
affection, beside which life itself was of no account.
Thus it came about that, after the destruction of the
second Temple, what the Jews felt most keenly was
not the ruin of their country and their national life,
ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS 77
but " the destruction of the House [of God] : " the
loss of their rehgious centre, of the power to serve
God in His holy sanctuary, and to offer sacrifices at
their appointed times. Their loss was spiritual, and
the gap was to be filled by spiritual means. Prayers
stood for sacrifices, the Synagogue for the Temple,
the heavenly Jerusalem for the earthly, study of the
Law for everything. Thus armed, the Jewish people
set out on its long and arduous journey, on its wan-
derings " from nation to nation." It was a long exile
of much study and much prayer, in which the national
hope for the return to Zion was never forgotten. But
this hope was not now, as in the days of the Babylon-
ian exile, a hope that materialized in action, and pro-
duced a Zerubbabel, an Ezra, a Nehemiah; it was
merely a source of spiritual consolation, enervating
its possessor, and lulling him into a sleep of sweet
dreams. For now that the religious ideal had con-
quered the national, the nation could no longer be
satisfied with little, or be content to see in the return
to Zion merely its own national salvation. " The land
of Israel " must be " spread over all the lands," in
order " to set the world right by the kingdom of the
Eternal," in order that " all that have breath in their
nostrils might say, The Lord God of Israel is King."
And so, hoping for more than it could possibly achieve,
the nation ceased gradually to do even what it could
achieve ; and the idea of the return to Zion, wrapped
in a cloud of phantasies and visions, withdrew from
the world of action, and could no longer be a direct
78 ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS
Stimulus to practical effort. Yet, even so, it never
ceased to live and to exert a spiritual influence; and
hence it had sometimes an effect even on practical life,
although insensibly and indirectly. At first our ances-
tors asked in all sincerity and simplicity, " May not
the Messiah come to-day or to-morrow ? " and ordered
their lives accordingly. Afterwards their courage
drooped ; their belief in imminent salvation became
weaker and weaker, and no longer dictated their every-
day conduct ; but even then it could occasionally be
blown into flame by some visionary, and become em-
bodied in a material form, as witness the so-called
" Messianic " movements, in which the nation strove
to attain its hope by practical methods, which were as
spiritual and religious as the hope itself. But from
the day when the last "Messiah" (Sabbatai Zebi)
came to a bad end, and the spread of education made
it impossible for any dreamer to capture thousands of
followers, the bond between life and the national hope
was broken; the hope ceased to exert even a spiritual
influence on the people, to be even a source of com-
fort in time of trouble, and became an aged, doddering
creature — a survival.
It had almost become unthinkable that this outworn
hope could renew its youth, and become again the
mainspring of a new movement, least of all of a
rational and spontaneous movement. And yet that
is what has happened. The revolutions of life's wheel
have carried the spirit of our people from point to
point on the circle, until now it begins to approach
ANTICIPATIONS AND SURVIVALS 79
once more the healthy and natural condition of two
thousand years ago. This ancient spirit, roused once
more to life, has breathed life into the ancient ideal,
has found in that ideal its fitting external form, and
become to it as soul to body.
But it is not for us, who see " the love of Zion " in
its new form, full of life and youthful hope, to treat
with disrespect the aged survival of past generations.
It is not for us to forget what the new spirit owes to
this neglected and forgotten survival, which our ances-
tors hid away in a dim, narrow chamber of their
hearts, to live its death-in-life until the present day.
For, but for this survival, the new spirit would not
have found straightway a suitable body with which to
clothe itself ; and then, perhaps, it might have gone as
it came, and passed away without leaving any abiding
trace in history.
PAST AND FUTURE
(1891)
Adam was unconsciously a great philosopher when
he first uttered the word " I." Think how subsequent
philosophers have labored, how they have created
" mountains " of argument " hanging on a hair," in
order to explain this little word; and yet they have
never arrived at a full understanding and a clear defi-
nition.' What is the " self " ? This question is asked
again and again in every age, and in every age finds
a different answer, according to the position of science
and philosophy at that particular time. Thus philoso-
phers believed a generation ago that the existence of
the " self " as a complete and fundamental reality
was an obvious fact, a universal intuition that needed
no proof ; whereas contemporary philosophy speaks
of the " division of the self," of " a double self," and
so forth.
But without following the philosophers into the
deep waters of metaphysics, we may say in the speech
of ordinary men that the " self " of every individual
is the result of the combination of his memory and
his will — that is, the union of the past and the future.
When a man says " I," he is not thinking of his hair
and his nails, which are here to-day and tossed on the
dust-heap to-morrow ; nor of his hands and feet, or
PAST AND FUTURE 8i
the ojiher parts of his anatomy of flesh and blood,
which is constantly changing. He is thinking of that
inner spirit, or force, which in some hidden manner
unites all the impressions and memories of the past
with all his desires and hopes for the future, and
makes of the whole one single, complete, organic entity.
This spiritual entity grows and develops concur-
rently with the physical, external man ; but its growth
is in the reverse direction — from the future to the
past. " When a man is young," — so the ancient sages
said of King Solomon — " he writes songs ; grown up,
he speaks in proverbs ; in old age he preaches pessi-
mism." So in truth it is. The " self " of the young
man is poor in memories, but rich in hopes and desires.
Wholly intent on the boundless future, he is inspired
to lyric song and to action. When he reaches middle
age, and has grown rich in experiences and memories,
while he has still strength to desire and to work for the
attainment of his desires, an equilibrium is estab-
lished between the two parts of his self: the future
arouses his will to activity, but this activity is curbed
and guided by the past. At this stage he speaks in
proverbs — ^that is, he lays down general principles for
the future on the basis of the past. Finally, when he
grows old, and has no more strength to work for the
future, his self is inevitably emptied of desires and
hopes ; there is nothing left for him but to dive into the
sea of the past, to confine himself to the analysis of
those impressions and memories which he has acquired
in his lifetime : and so at last, if he is as wise as Solo-
6
82 PAST AND FUTURE
mon, he " preaches pessimism," and gets him comfort.
But not all old men are as wise as Solomon. Most,
men have not the strength or the aptitude for finding
comfort in " vanity of vanities," and so dying in
peace. Old age in its distress calls Faith to its aid,
and Faith gives to the self the future that it lacks:
a future adapted to the character of old age, a future
which does not demand strength and activity, but
gives everything without effort. The self takes hold
of this future, though it has no warrant in experience,
and links it firmly with the past, till they become a
single whole. The future will supply all that was
lacking in the past ; the future will be as sweet as the
past was bitter. Nay, more: jealousy, as well as the
desire for pleasure, takes toll of the future for the
debt of the past ; and the poor are not satisfied till they
have said that the kingdom of Heaven is for them
alone.
The " national self," also, has been made the sub-
ject of subtle inquiry and profound reasoning. But
here, too, some philosophers (John Stuart Mill and
Renan) have come to recognize that in essence and
principle this idea is nothing but a combination of past
and future — a combination, that is, of memories and
impressions with hopes and desires, all closely inter-
woven, and common to all the individual members of
the nation.
As in the individual, so in the nation, if we con-
sider the proportion of the two component parts to
each other in the complex self, we find three stages.
PAST AND FUTURE 83
A nation has its childhood, the time of the Song of
Songs, in which it looks more especially at the future,
and its life is a medley of desires and hopes, expressed
in speech and in action, without limit, system, or
measure. It has no experience, no reasoned memories
of the past, to serve as canon or criterion ; on the con-
trary, even the little that it does inherit from the past
is affected by its aspirations, and becomes poetry. But
gradually the nation is taught by events to look back-
wards with a clearer vision, to understand itself, its
character, and the conditions of its existence in the light
of its past experience. Thus it becomes a wise and en-
lightened nation, knowing " whence it hath come and
whither it goeth " ; past and future are united in the
self in the true proportion, and in a way calculated
to further its happiness and development. Such good
times as these endure for a longer or a shorter period,
at the end of which the nation enters, sometimes pre-
maturely, on its old age. Then, seeing that its strength
is dwindling, and it can no longer work for the objects
of its desire, it ceases even to desire, and confines itself
to memories of the past. This period of degeneracy
(as in the case of the Greeks) is the golden age of
the antiquarian, of the manuscript collector and the
bibliophile, of the critic and the commentator and the
supercommentator. At last the members of the nation
gradually attain to the wisdom of Solomon: they say
" vanity of vanities," and disappear one by one.
But in this case also it sometimes happens that, in
spite of all the external symptoms of old age and
84 PAST AND FUTURE
weakness, the feeling of self is still strong in the heart
of the nation, which neither will nor can accept the
verdict of history, and be content to have its last
moments sweetened by pleasant memories. It demands
a future; it desires life, come what may. Then, in
this case also, Faith comes on the wings of Fancy, and
gives the nation what it seeks without trouble or effort,
and in liberal measure, proportioned to the bitterness
of the past. " According to the sorrow shall be the
reward." ^ But at this stage there is an important dif-
ference between the individual and the nation. The
individual dies: die he must: all his hopes for the
future cannot save him from death. But the nation
has a spiritual thread of life, and physical laws do
not set a limit to its years or its strength. And so,
let it but make the future an integral part of its self,
though it be only in the form of a fanciful hope, it has
found the spring of life, the proper spiritual food
which will preserve and sustain it for many a long
year, despite all its ailments and diseases. And, since
it lives, it is always possible that in course of time
circumstances will enable it to live and regain strength
among healthy and powerful nations, and derive sus-
tenance from its intercourse with them : until at last,
with the healthy blood of youth in its veins, the nation,
conscious of its new strength, will become conscious
also of new desires, impelling it to work actively,
with body and spirit, for the future.
The historical books of the Bible were written or
* [Pirke Abot, v. 26.]
PAST AND FUTURE 8$
arranged, as is well known, in the period of the
Babylonian exile. Israel was old at that time, and the
decay of its powers had gone so far that all the
people were conscious of it, and cried in bitterness
of soul, " Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost ; we
are cut off for our parts," So there arose wise men
who tried to save the national self by strengthening the
element of the past. It is very doubtful whether they
could have attained their object by this means alone.
But, fortunately for itself, the nation did not look to
the wise men for a solution of the question of its
existence, but to the Prophets ; and the Prophets gave
the solution required. They made the future live
again, and so completed the self. The future of
Prophecy was at first a future close at hand: it was
afterwards, when the second Temple had been built
and the great promises were not fulfilled, that the
future was postponed, as a consequence, from gen-
eration to generation. This postponement was carried
on and on, until and after the destruction of the
second Temple. Sometimes the future loomed un-
duly large, sometimes it sank far into the back-
ground, according to the conditions and the needs of
different generations ; but throughout the whole course
of history, almost till our own time, it never ceased
to be an important and fundamental part of the
national self. It was the future that enabled our
ancestors to live on, despite their weakness and their
heavy burden, while other nations, with a more bril-
liant past, perished and disappeared.
86 PAST AND FUTURE
We are, indeed, in the habit of thinking that Israel
was kept ahve by the Law alone. But our remote
ancestors, who handed down the Law to us, admitted
that the Law itself only lived in our keeping for the
sake of the future, and that, if not for the future, there
would have been no real reason for its preservation.
" Though I banish you from the land, yet be ye observ-
ant of my commandments, so that, when ye return,
they will not be new to you." ^
It was because they regarded the Law in this way
that they compiled whole treatises on the minutiae
of the laws of sacrifices and offerings, of the garments
and service of the priests, and so forth. They had no
love of antiquarian research ; but they firmly believed
that all these matters would again become living ques-
tions : and, as they could not observe these command-
ments in practice, they endeavored at least to know
them perfectly, " in order that when they returned,
they should not be new to them." These treatises, on
which the youth of Israel was subsequently trained
generation after generation, did a great deal to implant
the hope for a future in the nation's heart. Those
who studied them grew accustomed to regard the
future for which they hoped as a tangible thing.
They must be prepared for it, and must spend their
time in discussing questions connected with it. Thus
the " commandments depending on the Land " helped
to preserve the race perhaps more than those which
applied in exile also.
^Sifre, 'Ekeb.
PAST AND FUTURE 87
Even in the twelfth century c. e., more than a
thousand years after the destruction of the Temple,
the greatest sage of the exile ^ spared himself no labor
in collecting and arranging the *' laws for the time of
the Messiah." ^ The author of the " Letter to the Jews
of Yemen " was fully aware of the importance of the
future for the preservation of the people ; and therefore
he gave it a place among the principles of the Jewish
religion. His acutely logical mind did not fail to see the
objections that were brought against this proceeding
after his death by the pupils of his pupils (like the
author of the PrinciplesY ; but he understood what
they failed to understand — that a people cannot live
on logic, that without a hope for the future even
the Law, with all its logical principles, would sink
into oblivion, and that all the signs of history and all
the proofs of scholasticism would not avail to save the
Law — and its people — from death.
In Babylon, then, when the nation was beginning,
under the stress of a sudden disaster, to despair of
the future, the wise men saved what they could of the
national Ego, and the Prophets completed their work,
and saved the whole. But in more recent days we
observe a different phenomenon, which is without a
parallel since the dispersion. The nation does not
^ [Maimonides, who formulated thirteen articles of the Jewish
faith, and included belief in the Messiah. Some of his fol-
lowers opposed him on this point.]
' [That is, laws which cannot be observed until the Messiah
comes.]
' [Rabbi Joseph Albc]
88 PAST AND FUTURE
despair of the future: on the contrary, the future is
ever on its hps, as of old: but in its heart it has for-
gotten the future, first through overwhelming troubles,
afterwards through excess of prosperity. And in this
latter time, when the condition of the people has vastly
improved, and it has been able to regain strength among
strong and healthy nations ; when its newborn strength
might have enabled it to work actively for the future,
and nothing was needed but to awake the dormant
hope: just at this auspicious time the wise men have
set about to uproot the sleeping hope and banish its
very name even from the lips of the people. Nirvana is
the new ideal preached by our latter-day sages,
in place of the national future. Even Nirvana, how-
ever, cannot be reached by a single step, but only
through a long series of metempsychoses. What shall
the people do meantime? For answer, we find that
just in proportion as the Future sinks into insignifi-
cance as an element in the national Ego, so, under the
influence of these same sages, at the same time and in
the same place, the Past grows in importance. Be-
tween the new Prayer Book without a reference to
the Future, and the new literature dealing with the
history of the Past, there is an internal, psychological
bond of relation, the strength of which is not fully
recognized by the Reformers themselves. The aged
people, whose hope they have killed, asks for consola-
tion and recompense for the loss. They point to the
past, and tell the people that it must find there its
pleasure and delight, until at length it will recognize
PAST AND FUTURE 89
that a Past without a Future needs no individual Ego
to support it; that even if that Past is worthy of a
permanent place in human memory, it can hold its
place independently of its former guardians ; and a
mere aristocratic pride (as who should say, " My
ancestors saved Rome ")^ does not make it worth while
to live and to suffer.
Those who desire the completion of the national
Ego will not agree with these apostles of the past as
to their aim ; but they will approve their methods and
find them useful. By all means let the sages strengthen
the Past at the expense of the Future. The " Prophets "
will follow, and will build a strong Future on the
foundations of the Past. From this combination the
national Ego will derive fulness and strength.
Far more dangerous, therefore, is that other section,
which seeks salvation in a Future not connected with
our Past, and believes that after a history extending
over thousands of years a people can begin all over
again, like a newborn child, and create for itself a
new national land, a new national life and aims. This
section forgets that it is the nation — that is, the national
Ego in the form given to it by history — that desires
to live : not some other nation, but just this one, with
all its essentials, and all its memories, and all its
hopes. If this nation could have become another, it
would long since have found many ways to its salva-
tion. There is, indeed, another Ego, the particular
' [i. e., the geese on the Capitol, which saved Rome from the
Cauls].
90 PAST AND FUTURE
temporary Ego of each individual Jew. The individual
whose existence is endangered is certainly at liberty
to seek an escape by any means, and to find a refuge
in any place ; and whoever saves a large number of
such individuals, by whatever means and in whatever
place, confers a temporary benefit on the whole people,
of which these individuals are parts. But the national
Ego, the eternal Ego of the Jewish people, is another
matter; and they err who think it possible to lead
this also along the path of their own choice. The path
of the national Ego is already marked and laid out by
its essential character, and that character has its
foundation in the Past, and its completion in the
Future.^
' [This essay was written in the early days of the Argentine
colonies, when Baron Hirsch and many others still dreamt of
saving the Jewish people by means of such colonies.]
TWO MASTERS
(1892)
Familiar as we now are with the phenomena of
hypnotism, we know that under certain conditions it is
possible to induce a peculiar kind of sleep in a human
being, and that, if the hypnotic subject is commanded
to perform at a certain time after his awakening
some action foreign to his character and his wishes, he
will obey the order at the appointed time. He will
not know, however, that he is compelled to do so by
the will and behest of another. He will firmly believe
(according to the evidence of expert investigators)
that he is doing what he does of his own freewill and
because he likes to do so, for various reasons which
his imagination will create, in order to satisfy his
own mind.
The phenomenon in this form excites surprise, as
something extraordinary ; but we find a parallel in the
experience of every man and every age, though the
phenomenon is not ordinarily thrown into such strong
relief, and therefore does not excite surprise or attract
attention. Every civilized man who is born and bred
in an orderly state of society lives all his life in the
condition of the hypnotic subject, unconsciously sub-
servient to the will of others. The social environ-
ment produces the hypnotic sleep in him from his
92 TWO MASTERS
earliest years. In the form of education, it imposes on
him a load of various commands, which from the outset
limit his movements, and give a definite character to
his intelligence, his feelings, his impulses, and his
desires. In later life this activity of the social environ-
ment is ceaselessly continued in various ways. Lan-
guage and literature, religion and morality, laws and
customs — all these and their like are the media through
which society puts the individual to sleep, and con-
stantly repeats to him its commandments, until he can
no longer help rendering them obedience.
Society, however, which thus influences the indi-
vidual, is not a thing apart, external to the individual.
Its whole existence and activity are in and through
individuals, who transmit its commands one to another,
and influence one another, by word and deed, in ways
determined by the spirit of society. It may, therefore,
be said with justice that every individual member of
society carries in his own being thousands of hidden
hypnotic agents, whose commands are stern and per-
emptory. " Such and such shall be your opinions ;
such and such your actions." The individual obeys,
unconsciously. His opinions and his actions are
framed to order. At the same time, he finds cogent
arguments in favor of his opinions, and sound reasons
for his actions. He is not conscious that it is the spirit
of other men that thinks in his brain and actuates his
hand, while his own essential spirit, his inner Ego, is
sometimes utterly at variance with the resulting ideas
and actions, but cannot make its voice heard because
TWO MASTERS 93
of the thousand tongues of the external Ego (what
a French philosopher, Bergson, calls the " verbal
Ego ") in which society enfolds him.
We may go further. Society does not create its
spiritual stock-in-trade and its way of life afresh in
every generation. These things come to birth in the
earliest stages of society, being a product of the con-
ditions of life, then proceed through a long course of
development till they attain a form that suits that
particular society, and then, finally, are handed down
from generation to generation without any funda-
mental change. Thus society in any given generation
is nothing but the instrument of the will of earlier gen-
erations. The arch-hypnotizers, the all-powerful mas-
ters of the individual and of society alike, are the
men of the distant past. The grass has grown on
their graves for hundreds of years, it may be for thou-
sands ; but their voice is still obeyed, their command-
ments are still observed, and no man or generation
can tell where lies the dividing line between himself
and them, between his and theirs.
When, therefore, we hear people talking loudly
about their " inner consciousness," by which they pro-
nounce judgment on truth and falsehood, good and
evil, beauty and ugliness, we have a right to remem-
ber what we should find if we could analyze this
" consciousness." We should find that the elements
of which it was compounded were almost entirely
the different commands of different hypnotic agents
in different ages, which, through a complex chain of
94 TWO MASTERS
causes, had become united in this particular body of
men, and had found its manifestation in their pecuHar
Ego. For example: when Mortara, the well-known
priest, hurls his thunders from the pulpit at the
enemies of the Catholic- faith, and strives out of the
depths of his " inner consciousness " to prove the
righteousness and truth of that faith, we have a right
to remember that if the Catholic priests had not
snatched him in childhood from the arms of his Jewish
mother, and had not brought him perforce under the
sway of certain hypnotic agents, ancient and modern,
his " inner consciousness " would now have,' been
composed of far other elements, and other hypnotic
agents, of a very different character, would now have
been speaking through his lips, with precisely the same
warmth of conviction.
In normal periods — that is, when society is proceed-
ing in all matters along the path marked out by pre-
ceding generations — past and present join forces in a
single task : they repeat the tale of social commands to
the individual in the same language and the same words.
At such a time, therefore, the individual is able to
live in peace and quiet in his condition of hypnotic
slumber ; he can move all his life long in the narrow
circle described around him by the past and the pres-
ent, and yet consider himself a free man, knowing
and feeling nothing of the iron chains by which he is
bound.
But times are not always normal. Occasionally (it
does not matter here from what cause) the social
TWO MASTERS 95
atmosphere is suddenly disturbed by the breath of a
new spirit, which brings with it new ideas, new desires,
of which earher generations had no conception. These
spiritual aliens knock at the door, and seek admission
into the heart of society. The old ideas, already in
possession, come out to meet the strangers, and
examine them critically, to see whether they bring
peace or war. Finding that they possess no disquali-
fication except their strangeness, they admit the new-
comers, and allot them a quiet corner for themselves,
on condition that they do not interfere with the work
and the sovereign power of the natives. For a time
the aliens observe this condition ; they keep to their
quiet corner, and take no part in the administration.
But gradually they extend their domain, take firmer
root, and spread their ramifications abroad : until at last
they also have power, they rule and command, they
are now the citizens of the present. And then they
come out of their obscurity, and stand revealed in all
their strength. In this their new position they meet
once more with the citizens of earlier days.
This meeting of the old and the new sometimes
leads to unity and amity. This happens when they are
useful to each other: thus the doctrine of hypnotism
and the belief in spiritualism have come to terms in
the systems of certain thinkers. But more usually the
result is hatred and contention. There is suddenly
revealed an inner contradiction between the character-
istics and the tendencies of the old and of the new, a
contradiction unseen at the time of their first meeting,
96 TWO MASTERS
when the new idea was young, and its characteristics
insufficiently developed.
Fortunately for mankind, this contradiction is only^
revealed when it has already been adjusted under
the surface: that is to say, when the present has not
merely found a firm foothold for itself, but has also
succeeded, silently and unobserved, in tunnelling under
the foundations of its enemy, the past. It is only when
the old fortress is wholly overthrown that men open
their eyes, and notice what has already been done with-
out their knowledge. They see a tottering ruin in
place of what they thought a solid building; and,
though the sight may grieve them, they are bound to
admit that what is done cannot be undone. So they
must needs find consolation, and the wound is soon
healed.
Phenomena of this kind are of frequent occurrence
in the history of enlightened nations, and it is to such
phenomena that historians generally refer when they
speak of " the spirit of the age," which they regard
as the justification and the cause of various social
changes. This spirit is always the result of a number
of small changes, which at first do not seem to trench
on the domain of the past, and therefore make head-
way easily enough. But when once they have won
an assured place, and become as it were at home, they
never turn back again, even if their path is beset with
hostile survivals from the past. Gradually they suck
the strength out of such survivals, and leave them mere
dry bones : and when that is done it needs but a very
TWO MASTERS 97
small breeze to blow these antiques once for all out of
existence.
Such is the course of events where development
proceeds naturally, without any sudden and artificial
stimulus. But it sometimes happens, especially in
connection with questions of great importance, that
men of wisdom and foresight observe and proclaim
the contradiction between the old and the new before
the new has succeeded in secretly undermining the
strength of the old. These tale-tellers are always
extremists: that is to say, men whose life has been
such that their " inner consciousness," in relation to
the particular question at issue, is composed only of
elements of the old, or only of elements of the new.
In either case they draw inferences from their own
state of mind to that of society, and see there only
half the truth — either the power of the old alone, or
that of the new alone. And just as they themselves
have found it easy to expel the one before the other,
so they believe that it will not be difficult to expel
the object of their aversion (whether that is the old
or the new) from society by revealing the contradic-
tion between it and the other element.
Whether this movement is initiated by those who
believe in the old or by those who believe in the new,
it causes serious trouble, because it forces society to
seek an answer to the question, Which is to go? at
a time -when society is still bound by ties of affection
to each of the opposing forces, and cannot drive out
either the one or the other. Sometimes, indeed,
7
98 TWO MASTERS
society attempts to silence, by forcible measures, one
of the two voices, though each voice is its own, and to
be guided for a time by one alone ; but the other voice
is soon heard again, and society is compelled' to listen,
cannot be deaf. Then the great question, the question
that must have an answer, is this : How is it possible
to serve both these masters, who are at war with each
other ?
There are no limits to the power of Necessity; and
it finds an answer even to so hard a question as this.
The thinking members of the community begin to
find a compromise, a via media, between the old and
the new. Either they clothe the one in a new guise,
or they cast a veil over the other: anything rather
than that the two should confront each other in their
true forms. The new guise may be but an imperfect
and ill-fitting cloak, and the veil may be full of holes ;
but as a temporary expedient it is enough. Society
finds peace for a time, and can become gradually
accustomed to serving the two masters at once ; until
at last the hour arrives when there is no need for a
modus Vivendi between them. Men become habituated
to an extraordinary state of mind, in which two con-
flicting ideas are not fused, but are kept separate in
water-tight compartments. Each idea works itself out
in its own compartment, without interfering with the
other or trespassing on its domain.
" In our day," says an American philosopher
(John Fiske), " it is hard to realize the startling effect
of the discovery that man does not dwell at the centre
TWO MASTERS 99
of things, but is the denizen of an obscure and tiny
speck of cosmical matter quite invisible amid the in-
numerable throng of flaming suns that make up our
galaxy. To the contemporaries of Copernicus the new-
doctrine seemed to strike at the very foundations of
Christian theology. In a universe where so much had
been made without discernible reference to man, what
became of that elaborate scheme of salvation which
seemed to rest upon the assumption that the career of
Humanity was the sole object of God's creative fore-
thought and fostering care? When we bear this in
mind, we see how natural and inevitable it was that the
Church should persecute such men as Galileo and
Bruno. At the saine time it is instructive to ob-
serve that, while the Copernican astronomy has be-
come firmly established in spite of priestly opposi-
tion, the foundations of Christian theology have not
been shaken thereby. It is not that the question
which once so sorely puzzled men has ever been settled,
but that it has been outgrown."
At first, that is, when the priests revealed the awful
contradiction between the old and the new, and these
two forces stood opposed to each other, society
was compelled to seek some answer to a question
by which the peace of mankind was disturbed. So
volumes were written with the object of concealing
the weakness of the old belief, or casting a veil over
the new .theory. But in course of time the human
mind became accustomed to the coexistence of these
two powers; and by dint of habit the contradiction
TWO MASTERS
between them ceased to te a cause of trouble or dis-
turbance of the peace. It was no longer necessary,
therefore, to combine the two by artificial means. A
definite sphere of influence was conceded to each, in
which it might hold undisputed sway, without trench-
ing on the dominion of the other.
The result of the change is seen in its most com-
plete form in such men as the Italian Secchi, who
was at the same time a distinguished astronomer and
a devout priest. When he was asked how he com-
bined the two opposites, he used to reply, " When I
study astronomy I forget my priesthood, and when I
perform my priestly duties I forget astronomy."
We meet with a similar state of mind constantly in
the affairs of every day, only it passes unobserved.
How common it is to find one of the parties to a
discussion adducing arguments to show that some
received opinion, or some established custom, cannot
hold ground against " the spirit of the age," and being
met, not with a refutation of his arguments, but with
the curt reply, " That is an old objection." Men of
healthy intelligence regard this answer with surprise
and contempt, and return to the charge with the ques-
tion, "If the objection is old, does it follow that it
has no force ? " Logically they are doubtless right.
But the human mind has laws of its own, which are
not always consonant with those of logic ; and from
the point of view of these psychological laws the
victory is with the defendant, though he is generally
ignorant himself of the inner meaning of his defence.
TWO MASTERS
The inner meaning is this: the contradiction between
the old and the new has long been matter of common
knowledge, and yet they both live and flourish. This
proves that the human mind has by now become
accustomed to their coexistence, in spite of the oppo-
sition between them ; and therefore no harm can result
to either from their meeting.
Thus the priests in the times of Copernicus and
Galileo, opposing the new as they did only out of
regard for the safety of the old, adopted a wise course
in hastening to bring the two into open conflict, while
the old belief was yet strong. They did not succeed
in driving out the new teaching, as they wished ; but
they attained their real object. The old remained,
its strength undiminished, side by side with the new,
in spite of the contradiction between them.
There is a lesson here for the extremists on the
other side, the apostles of reform. It should be their
business to put off the open conflict until their new
doctrine has done its work in secret, and the weaken-
ing of the old belief has proceeded so far as to render
possible its complete overthrow. If they do not fol-
low that course, but precipitate matters, and disclose
the gulf in the mind of society before it has widened
to its utmost limits, hoping by this means to hasten
the death of the old belief and dethrone it prematurely,
then their action is ill-advised, and their hopes will
not be fulfilled. More than that: they will actually
prolong the life of the old belief, and their own hands
will build its defences against the new doctrine, by
TWO MASTERS
habituating society to the conflict, and making men
regard the contradiction between the two as " an old
objection."
This lesson in tactics has proved a stumbling-block
to the best spirits of our people in the past ; and to
this day they have not mastered it, and a stumbling-
block it remains.
Hatred of the Jews is one of the best-established
commands of the past to the nations of Europe, among
whom its roots are firm and deep. Jerusalem and
Rome — religion and life — combined to cast a hypnotic
sleep on the " barbarians " who conquered Europe, by
imposing on them laws and ordinances innumerable ;
and this law also, that of Jew-hatred, they promulgated
in concert, and handed it down through many different
channels to these their heirs. Later generations
strengthened the law, and repeated it to their children,
until it became in very truth a spiritual disease trans-
mitted from father to son.^ Not that it was a disease
at first. On the contrary: until the end of the Mid-
dle Ages it might well be reckoned a sign of health
in the peoples of Europe, because it was in complete
accord with all the other prevailing opinions and senti-
ments : and what is the health of society but the perfect
harmony of all its ways of thought? But in modern
times, since opinions and sentiments founded on the
conception of humanity have come into being, and de-
veloped, and gained a commanding influence on the
life of society, Jew-hatred really deserves the name of
' Leo Pinsker, Auto-Emancipation, p. 5.
TH^O MASTERS 103
a disease, inasmuch as it is opposed to the foundations
on which society is based.
Yet, call it what you will, the fact remains that this
hatred, this behest of past ages, remains in its full
strength, with all its practical consequences, even
now, when the Present has attained strength and a
large measure of development, and in many depart-
ments of life the shadows of the Past have vanished.
This proves that in this case the Past had struck its
roots very deep, so deep that the developing Present
has not yet reached them, nor been able to weaken them
beneath the surface.
If our leaders, who fought the battle of emancipa-
tion at the beginning of the nineteenth century, had
paid heed to this warning, they would have armed
themselves with patience (ever the armor of our
people), and would have waited for the Present to
develop and strengthen itself yet further. Then,
without the alarums of war, this relic of the Past would
have been undermined ; its practical consequences
would have become " dry bones " ; and then would
have been the time to make an open attack on the
remnant, in order to sweep it out of existence. But
our leaders in those days saw nothing but the Present,
and judged society by themselves. In their " inner
consciousness " there was no longer any place for
religious zealotry or national hatred ; and so they
believed that the forces of the Past were equally
weak in society as a whole. If society was yet the
slave of the Past in relation to the Jews, this, they
104 TWO MASTERS
thought, could only be due to an error of logic, to the
failure to recognize the contradiction between this
relic of the Past and the spirit of the age. All that
was necessary, therefore, was to disclose this contra-
diction: the shadows would vanish immediately, and
the sun of emancipation would shine on the Jews.
It is quite true that society was taken aback at first,
and could find no answer to the complaints and the
demands of the Jews, who suddenly came forth from
the Ghetto to appeal to that humanity of which society
is so proud. And so society made an honest attempt
to silence the Past by main force, and resolved, per-
haps with a half-stifled sigh, to include even the hated
Jew in the great ideal of " liberty, equality, fraternity."
But this artificial state of things could not endure.
The Past was still too strong; its voice rose in spite
of forcible attempts to silence it, and made itself
heard first in the inner consciousness of men, then
publicly as an avowed doctrine.
But even now we fail to appreciate the significance
of this warning. In our distress we still appeal to " the
spirit of the age," still insist on the discrepancy be-
tween that spirit and our own condition. By such
open and continuous insistence we compel society,
not to tear out the Past by its roots (that it could no
longer do, even if it wished) , but to seek some artificial
means of restoring the inner harmony ; to find some
excuse for amplifying the accepted ideal of the Present
by a small addition, which the Past demands : to wit,
" except the Jews," Such an artificial means is found
TWO MASTERS 105
in those monstrous and amazing accusations which
are periodically revived, although convincing proofs
of their f a' =;ehood have been published times without
number. I'nese accusations, like the speculations of
Galileo and his followers on the relation of religion
to the Copernican system, are merely the result of
the psychological necessity of combining, by any pos-
sible means, two powerful spiritual forces which are
in opposition to each other. So long, therefore, as
society is compelled, in relation to the Jewish question,
to seek peace of soul by such means as this, the accusa-
tions in question will always come up again, and noth-
ing can suppress them.
Perhaps — indeed, it is a fair conclusion from what
precedes — this need for an artificial means of har-
monizing contradictions is only temporary. Perhaps
the continual conflict of Past and Present, in which
we ourselves are engaged, will gradually accustom
society to the coexistence of these two powers ; and
one day the contradiction will cease to be a disturbing
force, even without the aid of a harmonizing middle
term.
Should this be so, it is not outside the bounds of
possibility that in course of time the gospel of Human-
ity will grow and spread, until it really embraces the
whole human race, white, black, and yellow, and until
its wings shelter even the worst criminals, to the
satisfaction of certain well-known criminologists.
Then our world will be a world of righteousness and
justice, mercy and pity, in relation to every living
io6 TWO MASTERS
thing: its mercy will extend even to the bird in its
nest : but always — " except the Jews." If any man
arise in that day and ask, " How can this be ? Surely,
the contradiction is obvious and glaring," he will
receive two answers. Thinking men will say, with
Secchi, " When we are occupied with Humanity, we
forget the Jews, and when we are occupied with the
Jews, we forget Humanity." But simple men will
give a simple answer : " That is an old objection."
• IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
(1893)
We use the tenn Imitation, generally in a depre-
ciatory sense, to indicate that which a man says, does,
thinks, or feels, not out of his own inner life, as an in-
evitable consequence of his spiritual condition and his
relation to the external world, but by virtue of his in-
grained tendency to make himself like others, and to
be this or that because others are this or that.
If we accept the doctrine that moral good is good
in itself, and evil evil in itself, and that we distinguish
between the two not by syllogisms, but by a particular
" moral sense " implanted in our being, then we are
certainly justified in regarding Imitation as a moral
shortcoming. The moral sense does not approve this
habit of the ape. But if we agree with another school
of thought, that the distinction between good and evil
rests on a balancing of gains and losses from the point
of view of the happiness and development of human
society, then we may doubt whether the judgment of
the moral sense in this case is just. There may be a
certain amount of exaggeration and one-sidedness in the
doctrine of the French thinker Tarde, who holds that
all history is but the fruit of Imitation, acting in
accordance with certain laws. But as to the essential
point, a cursory examination of history is sufficient
io8 IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
to convince us that this not entirely praiseworthy
habit is in truth one of the foundations of society,
without which its birth and development would have
been impossible. For, consider: had men been by
nature not inclined in any way to follow one another,
had each one thought his thoughts, and done his
deeds, out of his own inner world alone, without
yielding obedience to the force of any other person-
ality, could men like these have attained, by common
consent, to such social possessions as established laws
and customs, and common ideas about religion and
morality, possessions which are, indeed, in their
general aspect, natural results of general causes, but
which, regarded in detail, depend wholly on causes
of a particular and individual character? Above all,
how could language have been created and developed
in any society, if no man had imitated his neighbor,
but each had waited until he reached the spiritual con-
dition in which he would be impelled to call each thing
by the particular name by which his neighbor called
it? Without language, no knowledge: and so man
would never have risen above the beast.
But even Imitation would not have been enough to
secure the spreading of these common possessions
among all the individual members of society, if each
individual had imitated all the rest in an equal degree.
In that case the number of the objects of imitation
would have been equal to that of the imitators ; each
man would have chosen one object of imitation out
of many, according to his " spiritual condition " ; and
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION 109
SO the same difficulty would confront us again. If
society is to be moulded into one single form, there
must be some centre towards which all the forces of
Imitation are attracted, directly or indirectly, and
which thus becomes the single or the chief object of
universal imitation.
Such a centre was, indeed, found in every society
in the earliest stages of its development, and especially
in that primitive period in which the human spirit
was struggling to emerge from the depths of beast-
hood and attain to a human and social form of life.
At that low stage, in which savage tribes remain to
this day, when man was constantly threatened by
dangers from all sides, he set an exaggerated value
on brute force, and reverenced the stronger as an
angel of Heaven. Every family or tribe looked with
reverence on its head and protector, " the prince of
God in its midst." The individuality of each man,
with all its particular characteristics and qualities,
was completely suppressed before the majestic dignity
of this their ideal. Thus he became the centre towards
which the imitative instinct of all his fellow-tribesmen
directed itself automatically ; and it is no wonder if,
not of design or set purpose, but merely through the
effacement of the lower personality before the higher,
his words and his actions and his habits became the
common possession of the whole tribe. This common
possession was handed down as an inheritance from
father to son ; and in each succeeding generation there
was another " prince of God," who was faithful to
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
tradition, but also amplified it where it no longer
satisfied the needs of a more developed life ; and so his
addition became, through imitation, common property.
Thus, by an easy process, certain fixed habits of life
became general in that particular society, until, in
course of time, its individual members were like so
many reproductions of a single type.
There is no nation or society, not even the most
modern, that did not originally pass through this or
a similar stage : the stage of becoming, or growth, in
which scattered elements are welded together into a
single social body around certain central figures, by
means of self-efifacing Imitation. But in more modern
times, when the human spirit has progressed some-
what, there is this diflference, that the cause of self-
effacement, and thus of imitation and of the welding
process, is not necessarily a purely physical force, but
may equally well be some great force of a spiritual
character.
Imitation of this kind, however, which has for its
central object some living, active individual, inevitably
grows rarer and rarer from one generation to another.
Each new generation inherits from its predecessors
the results of Imitation up to that time, that is, the
things that have become common property; and as
these things increase in number, so does the society
approach the perfection of its form: until at last that
form is complete and rounded on all sides, and the
best men of the living generation have no opportunity
of adding anything essential to it. From that time
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
onwards, therefore, the central object of imitation
lies wholly in the past, in those " mighty men of re-
nown " who in their day impressed their own image
on the form of society. Just as the results of Imita-
tion during all the generations of growth have been
combined into a single form of life, so, too, those
who made that form in those earlier generations are
now combined, under the name of " ancestors " or
" predecessors," into a single abstract being, which
is the central object of imitation. Before this model
the men of later generations, great and small alike,
efface their own particular individuality ; on this they
gaze with reverence and say, "If our predecessors
were as men, then are we but as asses." ^
At the same time, the imitation of one man by another
within the living generation does not cease ; but it
is confined to unimportant details, it lacks a single
common centre, and, as a rule, it arises from quite a
different cause. That self-effacement, which is the
result of reverent awe, no longer finds a suitable ob-
ject in the present, which is living entirely on the
past ; and so the impulse to imitation of the living by
the living is now given by competition, the roots of
which*lie in jealousy and self-love. There are many
who succeed even then in attracting the attention of
society, and rising above their fellows, through some
new discovery in matters of detail, whether theoretical
or practical. Their success impels others to follow in
their footsteps, not by way of self-effacement, but, on
^[Shabbat, 112'.]
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
the contrary, out of jealousy for their own individual-
ity, and a desire to rise to the same level as others.
This kind of Imitation differs from the other in
its character as in its cause. At the stage that we
have called self-effacement the imitator wishes to copy
the spirit or personality of the model, as it is mani-
fested in his actions ; he therefore imitates these
actions in every detail, faithful to the impress stamped
upon them by the personality by which he is attracted.
But at the stage of competition, the whole desire of
the imitator is to reveal his own spirit or personality
in those ways in which the model revealed his. He
therefore endeavors to change the original impress,
according as his personality or his position differs
from that of his model.
This kind of Imitation, also, is of benefit to society.
The self-effacing imitation of the past secures stability
and solidity ; the competitive imitation of one indi-
vidual by another makes for progress, not by means of
noisy and sudden revolutions, but by means of con-
tinual small additions, which have in time a cumu-
lative effect, and carry society beyond the limits laid
down by the " predecessors."
But Imitation is not always confined to the sphere
of a single society. Progress gradually brings dif-
ferent societies into closer intimacy and fuller acquain-
tance with one another ; and then Imitation widens
its scope, and becomes intersocial or international.
The character of this Imitation will be determined
by the character of the communities that are brought
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION 113
into contact. If they are more or less equal in strength
and on much the same level of culture, then there will
immediately be " competitive imitation " on both
sides. Either vi^ill learn from the other new ways
of expressing its spirit, and will strive to surpass the
other in those ways. But it will be different if one of
the two societies concerned is so much smaller and
weaker than the other in physical or spiritual strength
as to feel its own lack of vitality and individuality
when brought face to face with the superior commun-
ity. In that case the result will be a self-effacing imi-
tation on the part of the weaker, arising not from a
desire to express its own spirit, but from respect and
submission. This imitation will be complete and
slavish. It will not stop at those qualities which have
impelled the weaker community to efface its own indi-
viduality, and in which the imitated community really
excels ; it will extend also to those qualities which, in
the superior community itself, are only the result of
subservience to the distant past, and which, accord-
ingly, would never have forced themselves, of their
own strength, on any community which had not itself
inherited that past.
No community can sink to such a position as this
without danger to its very existence. The new sub-
servience to a foreign community gradually replaces
the old subservience to its own past, and the centre
to which the forces of imitation are directed shifts
more and more from the latter to the former. The
national or communal self-consciousness loses its foun-
8
114 IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
dation, and gradually fades away, until at last the
community reaches an unnatural condition, which
is neither life nor death. " The soul is burnt out, yet
the body remains." ^ Then the individual members
find a way of escape from this death-in-life by com-
plete assimilation with the foreign community.
When the cause of this self-effacement is physical
or material strength, and the weaker community can-
not hope to strengthen itself on the material side, then,
indeed, there is nothing for it but assimilation. It was
in this way that the smaller nations of ancient times
disappeared when their territories were conquered by
more powerful nations. The strong arm — the highest
ideal of those days — always brought about the self-
effacement of the conquered nation before the con-
queror; and after long years of slavery and humilia-
tion, with no possibility of self-help, the survivors lost
their reverence for their own past, and one by one
left the fold to become swallowed up in the stronger
enemy.
But such is not the usual development when the
self-effacement is due to some great spiritual force.
An external, material force is clearly discernible in its
effects, and it is impossible for the weaker community
to belittle its importance, or to stem the tide of its
progress. But the advent of a foreign spiritual force
is not so obvious ; and means can be found by which
its importance can be made to appear less, and its
progress can be hindered, among a people to which it
* [Sanhedrin, 52 ^]
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION us
is foreign. When, therefore, a community finds its
individuality endangered by an alien spiritual force,
and men begin to imitate the foreign mode of life in
which that force is embodied, there will always be a
party of patriots, who strive to belittle the external
force in the estimation of their own people, and to
cut off their people entirely from all contact with the
foreign life, so that it may have no attraction for them.
These patriots generally succeed at first in staying
the progress of the external force, and thus pre-
vent imitation. But this prevention is not a com-
plete cure. The community remains always in danger ;
it may be that the conditions of life will break down
the barriers erected by force, and then contact will
lead to self-effacement, self-effacement to imitation,
and imitation to assimilation. Nay, more: the very
separation sometimes has the opposite effect to that
which is intended: for there are many who catch
glimpses of the foreign life from afar, and admire it
without being able to approach, until at last they leap
over the barrier once for all, and escape to the enemy's
camp.
As a result of this experiment in restriction, the
leaders of the community generally learn — and it is
fortunate for them and for the community if they learn
in time — that it is not Imitation as such that leads to
Assimilation. The real cause is the original self-
effacement, which leads to Assimilation through the
medium of Imitation. Their task, therefore, is not to
check Imitation, but to abolish self-effacement. This
ii6 IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
abolition, too, must be effected by means of Imitation,
but of the competitive kind. That is to say, they must
appropriate for their community that spiritual force
which is the cause of the self-effacement, so that the
community will no longer look with distant awe on
the foreign life in which that force is embodied, but,
on the contrary, will turn that force to its own uses,
in order, as we said, " to reveal its own spirit or per-
sonality in those ways in which the model revealed
his." When once the community is started on this
path of Imitation, self-love will make it believe in its
own strength, and value the imitative actions peculiar
to itself more than those developed by its model. The
further imitation proceeds on these lines, the more it
reveals the spirit of the imitators, and the less it re-
mains faithful to the original type. Thus the self-
consciousness of the imitating community becomes
ever stronger, and the danger of Assimilation disap-
pears.
Examples of this kind of imitation are found both
in ancient and in modern history. Such was the rela-
tion of the Romans to Greek culture ; such the rela-
tion of the Russians to the culture of Western Europe.
Both began with self-effacement before a foreign
spiritual' force, and therefore with slavish imitation
of a foreign kind of life, in thought, speech, and action.
Patriots like Cato, who tried to shut out the stream
of imitation altogether, succeeded only partially and
temporarily. Patriots of clearer vision began subse-
quently to lead Imitation along the road of competition,
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION 117
of a striving to embody the spiritual force — the cause
of self-effacement — in the particular type of life of
their own people. The result was that the self-efface-
ment ceased, and the Imitation produced a strengthen-
ing of the national self-consciousness.
This will explain why the Jewish race has persisted
in exile, and has not become lost in the nations, in spite
of its inveterate tendency to Imitation.
As early as the time of the Prophets, our ancestors
learned to despise physical strength, and to honor only
the power of the spirit. For this reason, they never
allowed their own individuality to be effaced because of
the superior physical strength of the persecutor. It was
only in the face of some great spiritual force in the life
of a foreign people that they could sink their own indi-
viduality and give themselves up entirely to that life.
Knowing this, their leaders endeavored to cut them
off entirely from the spiritual life of other nations,
and not to allow the smallest opening for imitation.
This policy of separation, apart from the fact that it
caused many to leap over the barrier once for all,
could not, in view of the position of our people among
the nations, be carried out consistently. When the
era of contact set in, and continued unbroken, there
were constant proofs that the apprehensions of the
patriots had been groundless, and their efforts at restric-
tion unnecessary. The Jews have not merely a ten-
dency to Imitation, but a genius for it. Whatever they
imitate, they imitate well. Before long they succeed in
appropriating for themselves the foreign spiritual force
ii8 IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
to which they have become subservient. Then their
teachers show them how to use this force for their own
ends, in order to reveal their own spirit; and so the
self-effacement ceases, and the Imitation, turned into
the channel of competition, gives added strength to the
Hebrew self-consciousness.
Long before the Hellenists in Palestine tried to sub-
stitute Greek culture for Judaism, the Jews in Egypt
had come into close contact with the Greeks, with their
life, their spirit, and their philosophy: yet we do not
find among them any pronounced movement towards
Assimilation. On the contrary, they employed their
Greek knowledge as an instrument for revealing the
essential spirit of Judaism, for showing the world its
beauty, and vindicating it against the proud philosophy
of Greece. That is to say, starting from an Imitation
which had its source in self-effacement before an
alien spiritual force, they succeeded, by means of that
Imitation, in making the force their own, and in pass-
ing from self-effacement to competition.
If those Elders, who translated the Bible into
Greek for the benefit of the Egyptian Jews, had also
translated Plato into Hebrew for the benefit of the
Jews in Palestine, in order to make the spiritual power
of the Greeks a possession of our people on its own
land and in its own language, then, we may well be-
lieve, the same process — the transition from self-efface-
ment to competition — would have taken place in
Palestine also; but in a still higher degree, and with
consequences yet more important for the development
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION 119
of the inner spirit of Judaism. As a result there
would have been no " traitorous enemies of the cove-
nant " among our people, and perhaps there would have
been no need of the Maccabees and all the spiritual
history which had its ultimate cause in that period.
Perhaps — who knows? — the whole history of the
human race would have taken a totally different
course.
But the Elders did not translate Plato into Hebrew.
It was only at a much later dat^, in the period of
Arabic culture, that the Greek spirit became a posses-
sion of our people in their own language — but not on
their own land. And yet even then, though on foreign
soil, self-effacement soon gave place to competition,
and this form of Imitation had the most astonishing
results. Language, literature, and religion, all renewed
their youth ; and each helped to reveal the inner spirit
of Judaism through the medium of the new spiritual
possession. To such an extent did this new spirit be-
come identified with the Hebrew individuality that
the thinkers of the period could not believe that it
was foreign to them, and that Israel could ever have
existed without it. They could not rest satisfied until
they found an ancient legend to the effect that Socrates
and Plato learned their philosophy from the Prophets,
and that the whole of Greek philosophy was stolen
from Jewish books which perished in the destruction
of the Temple.
Since that time our history has again divided itself
into two periods — a long period of complete separa-
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
tion, and a short period of complete self-effacement.
But once more we are nearing the conviction that
safety lies on neither of these ways, but on a third,
which is midway between them : that is, the perfection
of the national individuality by means of competitive
Imitation.
Signs of this conviction are to be found not alone in
the most recent years, since the day when Nationalism
became the watchword of a party in Israel, but also
much earlier. We find them on the theoretical side in
the production of a literature, in European languages,
dealing with the spirit of Judaism and its value ; on the
practical side, in a movement towards the reform of the
externals of Judaism. This practical movement is,
indeed, held by many, including some of the reformers
themselves, to be a long step towards Assimilation. But
they are wrong. When self-effacement has proceeded
so far that those who practice it no longer feel any inner
bond uniting them with their own past, and really wish
to emancipate the community by means of complete
assimilation with a foreign body, then they no longer
feel even the necessity of raising their inheritance to
that degree of perfection which, according to their
ideas, it demands. On the contrary, they tend rather to
leave it alone and allow it to perish of itself. Until that
day comes, they imitate the customs of their ancestors
to an extent determined by accident. It is a sort of
artificial, momentary self-effacement, as though it were
not they themselves who acted so, but the spirit of
their ancestors had entered into them at that moment,
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
and had acted as it had been accustomed to act of old.
Geiger expresses the opinion that a writer who
writes in Hebrew at the present day does not express
his own inner spirit, but lives for the time being in
another world, the world of the Talmud and the
Rabbis, and adopts their mode of thinking. This is
true of most of our Western scholars, as is evident
from their style, because in their case the link between
their ancestral language and their own being is broken.
But with the Hebrew writers of Northern Europe and
Palestine, for whom Hebrew is still a part of their
being, the case is just the reverse. When they write,
the necessity of writing Hebrew springs from their
innermost being ; and they therefore strive to improve
the language and bring it to a stage of perfection that
will enable them to express their thoughts in it with
freedom, just as their ancestors did.
When, therefore, we find Geiger and his school giv-
ing their whole lives and all their powers to the reform
of another part of their inheritance, according to their
own ideas ; when we find them content to accept the
language as it is, but not content to accept the religion
as it is : we have here a decisive proof that it is on the
religious side that their Hebrew individuality still
lives. That individuality is not dead in them, but only
stunted ; and their real and true desire, whether or not
they admit this to themselves and to others, is just
this : " To reveal their own spirit or personality in those
ways in which their model reveals his."
Assimilation, then, is not a danger that the Jewish
122 IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
people must dread for the future. What it has to fear
is being split up into fragments. The manner in which
the Jews work for the perfection of their individuality
depends everywhere on the character of that foreign
spiritual force which is at work in their surroundings,
and which arouses them to what we have called " com-
petitive imitation." One cannot but fear, therefore,
that their efforts may be dissipated in various direc-
tions, according as the " spiritual force " varies in dif-
ferent countries ; so that in the end Israel will be no
longer one people, but a number of separate tribes, as
at the beginning of its history.
Such an apprehension may derive support from
experience. The Jews of Northern Europe, for ex-
ample, received their first lessons in Western culture
from the Jews of Germany. Thus their central ob-
ject of Imitation, before which they sank their own
individuality, was not the " foreign spiritual force "
at work in their surroundings, but that which they saw
at work among their own people in Germany. They
therefore imitated the German Jews slavishly, without
regard to differences of place and condition, as though
they also had been perfect Germans in every respect.
But in course of time, when the Jews of Northern
Europe had made " enlightenment " their own to a
certain extent, and became conscious of their new-
won strength, they passed from the stage of self-
effacement to that of competition in relation to the
Jews of Germany, and began to depart from their
prototype, being influenced by the different character
IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION 123
of the " spiritual force " in the countries in which they
lived. Similarly, the Jews of France are even now a
model for Imitation to the Jews in the East ; but
even in their case this state of things is only temporary,
and will disappear when the Eastern Jews become
conscious of their new strength. Thus, the more
any section of our people adds to its spiritual strength,
the more completely it becomes emancipated from the
influence of that other section which it formerly imi-
tated ; and so the danger of being split up into fragments
grows ever more serious.
But there is one escape — and one only — from this
danger. Just as in the stage of growth the members
of the community were welded into a single whole,
despite their different individual characteristics,
through the agency of one central individual ; so also
in the stage of dissipation the different sections of the
people can be welded together, in spite of their dif-
ferent local characteristics, through the agency of
a local centre, which will possess a strong attraction
for all of them, not because of some accidental or
temporary relation, but by virtue of its own right.
Such a centre will claim a certain allegiance from each
scattered section of the people. Each section will de-
velop its own individuality along lines determined by
imitation of its own surroundings ; but all will find in
this centre at once a purifying fire and a connecting
link.
In the childhood of the Jewish people, when it was
split up into separate tribes, the military prowess of
124 IMITATION AND ASSIMILATION
David and the wise statesmanship of Solomon suc-
ceeded in creating for it a centre such as this, " whither
the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord." But to-day,
in its old age, neither strength nor wisdom nor even
wealth will avail to create such a centre anew. And
so all those who desire to see the nation reunited will
be compelled, in spite of themselves, to bow before
historical necessity, and to turn eastwards, to the land
which was our centre and our pattern in ancient days.^
^ [Here also, as in "Past and Future" (pp. 80-90), there is
an allusion to the attempt of Baron Hirsch to create a Jewish
national centre in the Argentine — an attempt which at that
time made a deep impression on the Jewish communities in
Russia, and was regarded by many as the beginning of the
national redemption.]
PRIEST AND PROPHET
(1893)
We learn from the science of mechanics that the
impact of two forces moving in different directions —
one eastward, for example, and one northward — will
produce a movement in an intermediate direction. At
a time when men were accustomed to attribute all
motion to a guiding will, they may have explained this
phenomenon by supposing that the two original forces
made a compromise, and agreed that each should be
satisfied with a little, so as to leave something for the
other. Nowadays, when we distinguish between
volitional and mechanical motion, we know that this
" compromise " is not the result of a conscious assent
on the part of the two forces ; that, on the contrary,
each of them plays for its own hand, and endeavors
not to be turned from its course even a hair's breadth ;
and that it is just this struggle between them that
produces the intermediate movement, which takes a
direction not identical with either of the other two.
The motions of the heavenly bodies are determined,
as is well known, not only by the relation of each one
to the sun, but also by their influence on one another,
by which each is compelled to swerve to some extent
from the course that it would have pursued if left to
itself. If, therefore, we were privileged, as Socrates
126 PRIEST AND PROPHET
was, to hear the " heavenly harmony," it may be that
we should hear nothing but continual wrangling
among the worlds above. We should find each one
striving with all its might to make for itself a path
according to its own particular bent, and unwilling to
budge a single inch for the convenience of the others.
But it is just because the stars do behave thus that no
single one has its own way ; and so the external har-
mony is produced by the agency of all the stars, and
without the consent of a single one. Nay, more : if,
by some miracle, a few of the stars were suddenly
smitten with what we call " generosity," and were
enabled to get outside their own narrow point of
view, and to understand and allow for the ambitions
of their fellow-stars, and consequently made way for
one another of their own accord, then the whole cosmic
order would be destroyed at once, and chaos would
reign once more.
Similarly, if it were possible to observe what hap-
pens in the microcosm of the human soul, we should
see the same phenomenon there.
The ancient Jewish sages, who looked ai the world
through the glass of morality, saw only two primal
forces at work in the spiritual life: the impulse to
good and the impulse to evil. The conflict between
these two opposing forces was as long as life itself :
they fought unceasingly, unwearyingly, without possi-
bility of peace, each striving for the complete fulfil-
ment of its own end, even to the uttermost. The
impulse to evil (so they held) was absolutely evil,
PRIEST AND PROPHET 1 27
redeemed by no single spark of goodness. They
pictured it lying in wait for every man to the end of
his days, tempting him to evil deeds and arousing in
him base desires, ever tending mercilessly to drag
him down to the lowest depths of sin and infamy.
And, on the other side, they beheld the impulse to
good as something absolutely good ; intolerant of evil
in any form, in any degree, for any purpose ; abominat-
ing all " the vanities of this world," even such as are
necessary, because of their essential inferiority ; striv-
ing ever to uplift a man higher and higher, to make
him wholly spiritual. Each of the two principles is
absolutely uncompromising; but it is just for this
reason that their struggle results in a compromise and
a certain balance of power. Neither of them is allowed
to destroy the world by holding undivided sway. It
happened once — so a charming Talmudic story ^ relates
— that the Righteous captured the impulse to evil, and
clapped it in prison. For three whole days the impulse
to good was sole ruler : " and they sought for a new-
laid egg, and none was found."
Modern European scholars, who investigate the
soul from a very different point of view, find in it
many more than two forces; but they describe the
workings of those forces in much the same way. A
French thinker, Paulhan, regards the human soul as
a large community, containing innumerable individ-
uals: that is to say, impressions, ideas, feelings, im-
pulses, and so forth. Each of these individuals lives a
»[Yoma, 69*.]
128 PRIEST AND PROPHET
life of its own, and struggles to widen the sphere of its
influence, associating with itself all that is akin to its
own character, and repelling all that is opposed to
it. Each strives, in short, to set its own impress on
the whole life of the soul. There is no mutual accommo-
dation among them, no regard for one another. The
triumph of one is the defeat of another; and the de-
feated idea or impulse never acquiesces in its defeat,
but remains ever on the alert, waiting for a favorable
opportunity to reassert itself and extend its dominion.
And it is just through this action of the individual
members of the spiritual community, with their mutual
hatred and envy, that human life attains complexity
and breadth, many-sidedness and variety. It may
happen in course of time, after much tossing about
in different directions, that the soul reaches a condition
of equilibrium ; in other words, the spiritual life takes
a definite middle course, from which it cannot be di-
verted by the sudden revolt of any of its powers, each
of which is forcibly kept w'ithin bounds. This is the
condition of " moral harmony," outwardly so beautiful,
w'hich the Greek philosophers — those apostles of the
beautiful — regarded as the summit of human perfec-
tion.
It may be taken, then, as a general principle, that
whenever we see a complex whole which captivates us
by its many-sided beauty, we see the result of a struggle
between certain primal forces, which are themselves
simple and one-sided ; and it is just this one-sidedness
of the elements, each of which strives solely for its own
PRIEST AND PROPHET 129
end, but never attains it, that produces the complex
unity, the established harmony of the whole.
This principle applies to social life, with all its many
sides ; and not least to its intellectual and moral aspects.
In the early history of any epoch-making idea there
have aways been men who have devoted to that idea,
and to it alone, all their powers, both physical and
spiritual. Such men as these look at the world ex-
clusively from the point of view of their idea, and
wish to save society by it alone. They take no account
of all the other forces at work that are pulling in
other directions ; and they even disregard the limits
that Nature herself sets to their activities. They
refuse to compromise ; and, although conflicting forces
and natural laws do not bow down before them, and
they do not get their own way, yet their efforts are not
wasted. They make the new idea a primal force, which
drives the current of life in its own particular direction,
as other forces in theirs ; and the harmony of social
life, being a product of the struggle between all the
forces, is, therefore, bound to be affected more or less
by the advent of this new force. But just as no one
force ever obtains a complete and absolute victory,
so there is no original idea that can hold its own un-
less it is carefully guarded by its adherents. If, as
often happens, after the new idea has produced a cer-
tain effect, its adherents become " broad-minded," ad-
mit that things cannot go wholly one way, and acquiesce
gladly in the enforced compromise produced by the con-
flict of forces : then they may, indeed, rise in the esti-
9
130 PRIEST AND PROPHET
mation of the masses, on whom the harmony of the
community depends ; but at the same time their idea will
cease to be a primal force in its own right. Its
influence will accordingly be further and further
diminished by the action of other forces, old and new,
in their constantly watchful and internecine struggle
— a struggle in which our idea will have no special
body of adherents to guard it and widen the sphere
of its influence.
There are thus two ways of doing service in the
cause of an idea ; and the difference between them is
that which in ancient days distinguished the Priest
from the Prophet.
The Prophet is essentially a one-sided man. A cer-
tain moral idea fills his whole being, masters his every
feeling and sensation, engrosses his whole attention.
He can only see the world through the mirror of his
idea; he desires nothing, strives for nothing, except
to make every phase of the life around him an embodi-
ment of that idea in its perfect form. His whole life
is spent in fighting for this ideal with all his strength ;
for its sake he lays waste his powers, unsparing of
himself, regardless of the conditions of life and the
demands of the general harmony. His gaze is fixed
always on what otigjit to be in accordance with his
own convictions ; never on what can be consistently
with the general condition of things outside himself.
The Prophet is thus a primal force. His action affects
the character of the general harmony, while he him-
self does not become a part of that harmony, but
PRIEST AND PROPHET 131
remains always a man apart, a narrow-minded ex-
tremist, zealous for his own ideal, and intolerant of
every other. And since he cannot have all that he
would, he is in a perpetual state of anger and grief;
he remains all his life " a man of strife and a man of
contention to the whole earth." Not only this : the
other members of society, those many-sided dwarfs,
creatures of the general harmony, cry out after him,
" The Prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad " ;
and they look with lofty contempt on his narrowness
and extremeness. They do not see that they themselves
and their own many-sided lives are but as the soil
which depends for its fertility on these narrow-minded
giants.
It is otherwise with the Priest. He appears on the
scene at a time when Prophecy has already succeeded
in hewing out a path for its Idea ; when that Idea has
already had a certain effect on the trend of society,
and has brought about a new harmony or balance be-
tween the different forces at work. The Priest also
fosters the Idea, and desires to perpetuate it; but he
is not of the race of giants. He has not the strength
to fight continually against necessity and actuality;
his tendency is rather to bow to the one and come to
terms with the other. Instead of clinging to the nar-
rowness of the Prophet, and demanding of reality
what it cannot give, he broadens his outlook, and takes
a wider view of the relation between his Idea and the
facts of life. Not what ought to be, but what can be,
is what he seeks. His watchword is not the Idea, the
132 PRIEST AND PROPHET
whole Idea, and nothing but the Idea ; he accepts the
complex " harmony " which has resulted from the
conflict of that Idea with other forces. His battle is
no longer a battle against actuality, but a battle in the
name of actuality against its enemies. The Idea of the
Priest is not, therefore, a primal force; it is an acci-
dental complex of various forces, among which there
is no essential connection. Their temporary union is
due simply to the fact that they have happened to
come into conflict in actual life, and have been com-
pelled to compromise and join hands. The living,
absolute Idea, which strove to make itself all-powerful,
and changed the external form of life while remaining
itself unchanged — this elemental Idea has died and
passed away together with its Prophets. Nothing
remains but its effects — the superficial impress that it
has been able to leave on the complex form of life.
It is this form of life, already outworn, that the Priests
strive to perpetuate, for the sake of the Prophetic
impress that it bears.
Other nations have at various times had their
Prophets, men whose life was the life of an em-
bodied Idea; who had their effect, smaller or greater,
on their people's history, and left the results of their
work in charge of Priests till the end of time. But
it is pre-eminently among the ancient Hebrews that
Prophecy is found, not as an accidental or temporary
phenomenon, but continuously through many genera-
tions. Prophecy is, as it were, the hall-mark of the
Hebrew national spirit.
PRIEST AND PROPHET 133
The fundamental idea of the Hebrew Prophets was
the universal dominion of absolute justice. In Heaven
it rules through the eternally Righteous, " who holds
in His right hand the attribute of judgment," and
righteously judges all His creatures; and on earth
through man, on whom, created in God's image,
lies the duty of cherishing the attribute of his Maker,
and helping Him, to the best of his meagre power, to
guide His world in the path of Righteousness. This
Idea, with all its religious and moral corollaries, was
the breath of life to the Hebrew Prophets. It was their
all in all, beyond which there was nothing of any im-
portance. Righteousness for them is beauty, it is
goodness, wisdom, truth: without it all these are
naught. When the Prophet saw injustice, either on
the part of men or on the part of Providence, he did
not inquire closely into its causes, nor bend the knee
to necessity, and judge the evil-doers leniently ; nor
again did he give himself up to despair, or doubt the
strength of Righteousness, or the possibility of its
victory. He simply complained, pouring out his soul
in words of fire; then went his way again, fighting
for his ideal, and full of hope that in time — perhaps
even " at the end of time " — Righteousness would be
lord over all the earth. " Thou art Righteous, O
Lord," — this the Prophet cannot doubt, although his
eyes tell him that " the way of the wicked prospereth " :
he feels it as a moral necessity to set Righteousness on
the throne, and this feeling is strong enough to con-
quer the evidence of his eyes. " But I will speak
134 PRIEST AND PROPHET
judgments with .thee " : this is the fearless challenge
of Righteousness on earth to Righteousness in Heaven.
These "judgments" reHeve his pain; and he returns
to his life's work, and lives on by the faith that is in
him.
These Prophets of Righteousness transcended in
spirit political and national boundaries, and preached
the gospel of justice and charity for the whole human
race. Yet they remained true to their people Israel;
they, too, saw in it the chosen people ; and from their
words it might appear that Israel is their whole world.
But their devotion to the universal ideal had its effect
on their national feeling. Their nationalism became
a kind of corollary to their fundamental Idea. Firmly
as they believed in the victory of absolute Righteous-
ness, yet the fact that they turn their gaze time after
time to " the end of days " proves that they knew — as
by a whisper from the " spirit of holiness " within them
— how great and how arduous was the work that man-
kind must do before .that consummation could be
reached. They knew, also, that such work as this
could not be done by scattered individuals, approaching
it sporadically, each man for himself, at different times
and in different places ; but that it needed a whole
community, which should be continuously, throughout
all generations, the standard-bearer of the force of
Righteousness against all the other forces that rule
the world: which should assume of its own freewill
the yoke of eternal obedience to the absolute dominion
of a single Idea, and for the sake of that Idea should
PRIEST AND PROPHET 135
wage incessant war against the way of the world.
This task, grand and lofty, indeed, but not attractive
or highly-esteemed, the Prophets, whose habit was
to see their innermost desire as though it were already
realized in the external world, saw placed on the
shoulders of their own small nation, because they
loved it so well. Their national ideal was not " a
kingdom of Priests," but " would that all the people
of the Lord were Prophets." They wished the whole
people to be a primal force, a force making for Right-
eousness, in the general life of humanity, just as they
were themselves in its own particular national life.
But this double Prophetic idea, at once universal
and national, was met in actual life, like every primal
force, by other forces, which hindered its progress,
and did not allow it free development. And in this
case also the result of the conflict was to weld together
the efifects of all these forces into a new, complex or-
ganism ; and so the idea of the Prophets produced the
teaching of the Priests.
In the early stages, while Prophecy had not ceased
altogether, the Prophets were accordingly more hostile
to the Priests than to the general body of the people.
The authors of the living Idea, which they had drawn
from their innermost being, and by which they be-
lieved that they could conquer the whole world, they
could not be content with seeing its image stamped, as
it were, on the surface of an organism moulded out of
many elements, and so fixed and stereotyped forever.
Nay, more: in the very fact that their Idea had thus
136 PRIEST AND PROPHET
become a part of the social organism, they saw a kind
of barrier between it and the people. But the opposi-
tion between the Prophets and the Priests died out
gradually with the decay of Prophecy: and then the
guidance of the people was left in the hands of the
Priests (though they were not always called by that
name), as sole heirs of the Prophetic Idea. The inde-
pendence of this Idea, and the growth of its special in-
fluence, were at an end, because it had no longer a
ijtandard-bearer of its own.
When, therefore, the time came for this Idea — that
is to say, its universal element — to cross the borders
of Palestine, and become an active force throughout
the world, the Priestly Judaism of those days was
unable to guide it aright, and to preserve it in its
pristine purity amid the host of different forces with
which it came into conflict. Thus it was only for a
moment that it remained a primal force; after that
its influence became but as a single current, mingling
and uniting with the myriad other currents in the
great ocean of life. And since the number of alien
influences at work was far greater here than it had
been in the birthplace of the Idea, it followed that its
visible effects were now even less than they had been
before.
If, then, the Hebrew Prophets were to arise from
their graves to-day, and observe the results of their
work through the length and breadth of the world,
they would have small cause for satisfaction or paeans
of triumph. Now, after a long experience of thou-
PRIEST AND PROPHET 137
sands of years, they would recognize still more strongly
the need of a " standard-bearer " to uphold their
universal Idea; and for this reason they would be
strengthened in their devotion to their national Idea.
With even more fervor than before they would ex-
claim, " Would that all the people of the Lord were
Prophets."
We do, indeed, occasionally hear some such excla-
mation from the lips of Jewish scholars and preachers
in Western Europe, who uphold the doctrine of the
" mission of Israel." But it follows from what has
been said that the Prophetic mission is distinguished
from theirs in three essentials.
In the first place, the mission in the Prophetic sense
is not the revelation of some new theoretical truth,
and its promulgation throughout the world, until its
universal acceptance brings about the fulfilment of
the mission. The ideal of the Prophets is to influence
practical life in the direction of absolute Righteous-
ness — an ideal for which there can never be a complete
victory.
Secondly, this influence, being practical and not
theoretical, demands, as a necessary condition of its
possibility, not the complete dispersion of Israel among
the nations, but, on the contrary, a union and concen-
tration, at least partial, of all its forces, in the place
where it will be possible for the nation to direct its
life in accordance with its own character.
Thirdly, since this influence can never hope for a
complete victory over the other influences at work on
138 PRIEST AND PROPHET
human society, which draw it in other directions, it
follows that there can be no end either to the mission
or to those to whom it is entrusted. The end can
come, if at all, only when men cease to be men, and
their life to be human life: in that great day of the
Jewish dream, when " the righteous sit crowned in
glory, and drink in the radiance of the Divine
Presence."
FLESH AND SPIRIT
(1904)
Asceticism may be defined as the psychological ten-
dency, frequently manifested both in individuals and
in whole societies, to turn from the pleasures of the
world with hatred and contempt, and to regard every
material good thing of life as something evil and
degraded, .to be avoided by him who cares for his soul's
health.
Asceticism, so defined, is not a descriptive term for
certain outward practices, but a name for the inner
spring of conduct which prompts those practices ; and
thus we exclude all those phenomena which have an
external similarity to asceticism, but are of an essen-
tially dififerent character. A man may renounce pleas-
ure, or even mortify his flesh of set purpose, and yet
not deserve the name of ascetic, because, so far from
despising the life of the body, he actually sets store by
it, and only refrains from pleasure in order to avoid
danger to his health, or physical pain : as when a man
avoids wine and other luxuries by order of his doctor,
for the sake of his health ; or when, in anticipation of a
long and difficult journey, a man reduces his allowance
of food and sleep, so as to be able to bear privation
in time of need without detriment to his health or
undue suffering; and so forth. Further, even when
140 FLESH AND SPIRIT
abstinence and self-denial are prompted by religious
motives, they are not always due to asceticism in the
strict sense. In almost all primitive religions fasting
and similar " afflictions of the soul " were considered
an important part of the service of Grod, and the priests
were accustomed, when performing their sacred duties,
" to cut themselves with swords and knives till the
blood flowed." But there is here no asceticism, because
the motive is not hatred of the body, but excessive
love of the body. Primitive man had a rooted belief
that his god, like the head of his tribe, could be pro-
pitiated by a costly offering of his most valuable posses-
sion, and especially of flesh and fat and blood, which
are the dainties most palatable to the savage. Now,
the greater the value of the offering in the opinion of
the bringer, the greater, clearly, would be his confi-
dence in its acceptability to the god as a proof of his
true service and fidelity. It was, then, by this process
of reasoning, which followed inevitably from the fun-
damental belief just mentioned, that men were led to
sacrifice even their offspring to their gods in time of
trouble ; and the same reasoning was responsible for
the unnatural idea of sacrificing part of a man's own
body, his fat and blood, as the most precious of his
possessions. Thus religion produced, together with
the idea of sacrifices in general, that of fasting and
mortification, not from a desire to turn men away from
the flesh, but because fasting and mortification seemed
to be the greatest sacrifice of which flesh and blood
was capable, and therefore the most certain means of
FLESH AND SPIRIT 141
propitiating God and gaining His grace. Hence it is
that in all ages this method has been most used in times
of acutest distress, when it was necessary " to cry
mightily unto God," and avert His anger by every
possible means.
But true asceticism, as I have said, is that which
has its source in hatred and contempt for the flesh. It
makes war on the flesh not for the sake of some fur-
ther end, but because the flesh in itself is unworthy
and despicable, and degrades man, who is the flower
of creation. For asceticism there is no more impor-
tant concern in life than this eternal war on the flesh,
with all its desires and its pleasures ; there is no higher
victory for man than the killing of the flesh, the ex-
tinction of its desires, and the refusal of its pleasures.
Isolated instances of such asceticism are found at
all times and in all places ; but as a constant phenome-
non, as a sovereign rule of life governing large masses
of men for generation after generation, we meet with
it first of all in India, among the Buddhists, and much
later among Christian nations also. The history of
European culture, especially from the fourth century
till the end of the Middle Ages, is full of strange and
almost incredible stories, which show with abundant
clearness how this revolt against the flesh, this desire
to wage a ruthless war of extermination on the flesh,
can gain ascendancy over the human mind, and how
this revolt can spread, like an epidemic, from place to
place, from man to man, without limit to its growth.
We stand aghast at this phenomenon, utterly opposed
142 FLESH AND SPIRIT
as it is to those general principles which are accepted
in our day as laws of history. The whole of civiliza-
tion, according to these principles, is simply a result
of the ineradicable desire, which man shares with the
rest of the animal world, .to prolong life, to lighten its
hardships, to make it smooth and pleasant. The cease-
less warfare, now physical, now spiritual, between man
and man, between nation and nation, has its real cause
in the desire of every man or nation to add to the num-
ber of his and its possessions, material or spiritual,
so as to secure the greatest possible fulness and com-
pleteness of life, by reducing pain to the minimum
and increasing pleasure to the maximum. So far the
laws of history. And now, in the very heart of this
all-devouring ocean of selfishness, behold one solitary
stream making its lonely way against the flowing tide.
The current of the whole world is set towards the
broadening of life ; every living thing struggles to
drink its fill from every spring of enjoyment and hap-
piness : and here are these mortals deliberately narrow-
ing their lives, and running away from enjoyment and
natural happiness as from the plague. Whence and
in what way can a man get this unnatural impulse, so
utterly opposed to the universal law of life?
This is no new problem, and I am not here concerned
primarily with its solution. I will only indicate briefly
the solution that seems to me most satisfactory, con-
fining myself to what is necessary to my present pur-
pose.
Since man emerged from the darkness of barbarism,
FLESH AND SPIRIT 143
and became a civilized being, striving after self-knowl-
edge and knowledge of the outside world, he has de-
veloped two fundamental demands : the demand for
the cause and the demand for the end. Turn where he
will, he meets with perplexing phenomena, which force
him to stop and ask himself: Whence and whither?
What is the cause that produced these things? and
what is the end, the object, of their existence? But
there is a great difference between these two demands.
The problem of the cause is a logical one, and the de-
mand for its solution is therefore absolute and common
to all human beings ; whereas the problem of the end
is a moral one, and the demand for its solution is
accordingly relative, varying with the degree of moral
development in the individual. The laws of knowl-
edge, which govern our reason, require absolutely
that every fact shall have a cause ; anything without
a precedent cause is inconceivable. We might, how-
ever, conceive the whole world as simply the inevitable
result of certain causes, without reference to any par-
ticular end, were it not that our moral sense is up in
arms against this conception, and a world without any
end is in our view mere vanity and emptiness, as
though it had reeled back into chaos. And the demand
for an end is especially strong in the case of the indi-
vidual's own life. For the most part life is a hard and
bitter thing, full of troubles and sufferings that have no
compensation ; and, however clearly we recognize the
causes, natural and social, that produce this result, we
are still not satisfied or relieved. The moral sense still
complains and still questions : To what end ?
144 FLESH AND SPIRIT
No doubt there are men who are driven to despair
by their failure to find an answer to this question, and
bitterly resolve that " the superiority of man over the
beasts is nothing," and that the whole aim and object
of our being is to " eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die." For man, as for all the animals, there is nothing
more. Have you had the luck to feast well at life's
table? Then rejoice in your good fortune, and die in
peace. Have you failed of this happiness ? Then suffer
in silence. There is no right, no purpose, no end in the
government of the world ; it is just a chain of cause
and effect.
But most men cannot be satisfied with this philosophy
of despair, which robs life of its glamor. Their desire
for existence will not let them find comfort for to-day's
troubles in the thought of to-morrow's death. On the
contrary, it forces them to seek consolation not only
against the sufferings of the hfe that is theirs to-day,
but also against the bitterness of the death that to-
morrow will bring. Not finding what they want in
the real world, they arrive finally at the idea of a
world beyond nature, and transfer the centre of gravity
of their Ego from the body to the soul. This flesh, con-
demned to suffer and finally to rot, is but a temporary
external garment of the real, eternal Ego, that spiritual
essence which lives independently of the body, and
does not die with the body ; this spiritual self alone is
the real man, with a future and a lofty purpose in
a world where all is good. This fleeting life in the
vale of tears, bound up with the mortal flesh, is noth-
FLESH AND SPIRIT 14S
ing but a shadow, and like a shadow it will pass, with
all its sufferings. Now, when once a man has got so
far as to divide himself into two, and regard his body
as something external, which is not himself, he has no
difficulty in going further. He follows out this idea
till he regards the body as the enemy of his eternal
Ego, keeping him from his true life by its constant
demands and numerous ailments. So it follows that
my Ego is bound to fight this enemy, to subdue it and
weaken it as far as possible, so that it may not be a
hindrance to my real life, and may not drag me at its
heels into the morass of its own degraded existence,
with all its bestiality and its utter worthlessness.
Since this philosophy is essentially intended as a con-
solation for those who are harassed by life's troubles,
it is no wonder that, as these troubles grow, the hatred
of the flesh grows also, and the desire to destroy it root
and branch becomes more strong. It is a matter of
everyday experience that when a man is troubled by
pain in some part of his body which is not vital, say
a tooth, he is seized with violent hatred of the particu-
lar member, and wants to have his revenge on it. The
same thing happens in regard to the body as a whole.
Once let a man look on his body as an external gar-
ment, on which his real life in no way depends, and he
will come to hate these undesirable earthy wrappings
in proportion as they cause him trouble. Hence we
find the tendency to asceticism and mortification of
the flesh increasing most markedly in dark and un-
happy periods, when misery stalks abroad, and men
10
146 FLESH AND SPIRIT
suffer without knowing how to find rehef. Then it is
that they fall savagely on their tortured flesh as the
seat of all the pain.
Thus the troubles of this life have given rise to two
sharply opposed theories. On the one side there is
the materialist view, which makes the flesh supreme,
and sees no aim for human life but to enjoy the pleas-
ure of the moment, until death shall come and put a
stop to the silly game. On the other side we have the
spiritual theory, which aims at killing the flesh, so
that the spirit may be freed from its foe, and man may
be brought nearer to his eternal goal.
But Judaism in its original form held equally aloof
from either extreme, and solved the problem of life
and its aim in quite a different way.
In the period of the first Temple we find no trace
of the idea that man is divisible into body and soul.
Man, as a living and thinking creature, is one whole
of many parts. The word Nefesh (translated " soul ")
includes everything, body and soul and all the life-
processes that depend on them. The Nefesh, that is, the
individual man, lives its life and dies its death. There
is no question of survival. And yet primitive Judaism
was not troubled by the question of life and death, and
did not arrive at that stage of utter despair which
produced among other nations the materialist idea
of the supremacy of the flesh and the filling of life's
void by the intoxication of the senses. Judaism did
not turn heavenwards, and create in Heaven an eternal
habitation of souls. It found " eternal life " on earth,
FLESH AND SPIRIT 147
by strengthening the social f eehng in the individual, by
making him regard himself not as an isolated being,
with an existence bounded by birth and death, but as
part of a larger whole, as a limb of the social body.
This conception shifts the centre of gravity of the Ego
not from the flesh to the spirit, but from the individual
to the community ; and, concurrently with this shifting,
the problem of life becomes a problem not of individual
but of social life. I live for the sake of the perpetua-
tion and the happiness of the community of which I
am a member ; I die to make room for new individuals,
who will mould the community afresh and not allow it
to stagnate and remain forever in one position. When
the individual thus values the community as his own
life, and strives after its happiness as though it were
his individual well-being, he finds satisfaction, and no
longer feels so keenly the bitterness of his individual
existence, because he sees the end for which he lives
and suffers. But this can only be so when the life of
the community has an end of such importance as to
outweigh, in the judgment of the individual, all possi-
ble hardships. For otherwise the old question
remains, only that it is shifted from the individual to
the community. I bear with life in order that the com-
munity may live : but why does the community live ?
What value has its existence, that I should bear my
sufferings cheerfully for its sake ? Thus Judaism, hav-
ing shifted the centre of gravity from the individual
to the community, was forced to find an answer to the
problem of the communal life. It had to find for that
148 FLESH AND SPIRIT
life some aim of sufficient grandeur and importance
to uplift the individual, and to give him satisfaction
at a time when his own particular life was unpleasant.
So it was that Israel as a community became " a king-
dom of priests and a holy nation," a nation conse-
crated from its birth to the service of setting the whole
of mankind an example by its Law.
Thus Judaism solved the problem of life, and had
no place for the two extreme views. Man is one and
indivisible ; all his limbs, his feelings, his emotions,
his thoughts make up a single whole. And his life is
not wasted, because he is an Israelite, a member of
the nation which exists for a lofty end. Since, further,
the community is only the sum of its individual mem-
bers, it follows that every Israelite is entitled to re-
gard himself as the cause of his people's existence, and
to believe that he too is lifted above oblivion by his
share in the nation's imperishable life. Hence in this
early period of Jewish history we do not find any ten-
dency to real asceticism, that is to say, to hatred and
annihilation of the flesh. That tendency can only arise
when life can find no aim in this world, and has to
seek its aim in another. There were no doubt Nazarites
in Israel in those days, who observed the outward
habits of the ascetic; but all this, as I have said, was
simply part and parcel of the practice of sacrifice.
How far the Nazarites were removed from hatred of
the flesh we may see from the fact that even Samson
was regarded as a Nazarite.
This philosophy of life, which raises the individual
FLESH AND SPIRIT 149
above all feelings of self-love, and teaches him to find
the aim of his life in the perpetuation and well-being
of the community, has been condemned by many non-
Jewish scholars as being too materialistic, and has been
regarded as a proof of the inferiority of Judaism, which
does not promise immortality to every individual, and
a reward to the righteous after death, as other religions
do. So great is the power of hatred to blind the eyes
and pervert the judgment !
But a change came after the destruction of the first
Temple, when the national disaster weakened the
nation's belief in its future, and the national instinct
could no longer supply a basis for life. Then, indeed,
Judaism was forced to seek a solution for the problem
of life in the dualism which distinguishes between body
and soul. But the deep-rooted partiality to the body
and material life was so strong that even the new theory
could not transform it entirely. Hence, unlike other
nations, the Jews of that period did not eliminate the
body even from the future life, but left it a place be-
yond the grave by their belief in the " resurrection of
the dead." The end of man's life was now, no doubt,
the uplifting of the spirit, and the bringing it near to
" the God of spirits " ; but the body was regarded not
as the enemy of the spirit, but as its helper and ally.
The body was associated with the spirit in order to
serve it, and enable it to achieve perfection by good ac-
tions. And therefore, even in this period, Judaism did
not arrive at the idea of the annihilation of the flesh. It
regarded such annihilation not as righteousness, but
ISO FLESH AND SPIRIT
as a sin. The two elements in man, the physical and
the spiritual, can and must live in perfect accord, not
as enemies ; and this accord is not a truce between two
opposing forces, based on a compromise and mutual
accommodation, but a real inner union. The spiritual
element is to penetrate into the very heart of the
material life, to purify it and cleanse it, to make all its
complex fulness a part of the spiritual life. Such
union does not degrade the spirit, but uplifts the flesh,
which is irradiated by the spirit's sanctity; and .their
joint life, each linked with and completing the other,
brings man to his true goal.
Talmudic literature is full of utterances which con-
firm the view here put forward. It is sufficient to
mention, by way of example, Hillel's saying about the
importance of the body,^ and the repeated condemna-
tions of those who mortify the flesh, especially the
familiar saying : " Every man will have to give an
account of himself for every good thing which he
would have liked to eat, but did not." ^
Even the two non-confonnist sects, the Sadducees
and the Essenes, which might seem at first sight to
have stood for the two extreme views, really based
themselves on Jewish teaching, and developed no ex-
travagant theories about the life of the individual. The
Sadducees did not incline towards the sovereignty
of the flesh, nor the Essenes towards its annihilation.
The truth is that the Sadducees, who endeavored in
^ Vayikra Rabba, 34.
'Jerusalem Talmud, end of Kiddushin.
FLESH AND SPIRIT 151
all things .to revive the older Judaism, held to the
Scriptural view in this matter as in others, that is, that
the individual has only his life on earth, and eternal
life belongs solely to the nation as a whole, to which
the individual must subordinate his existence. The
Essenes, on the other side, starting from the eternity
of the individual spirit as the most fundamental of all
principles, endeavored to hold aloof from everything
that distracts attention from the spiritual life. But
they never despised or hated the flesh ; and Philo says
of them that " they avoided luxuries, because they saw
in them injury to health of body and soid."
In the Middle Ages, no doubt, Judaism did not
escape the infection of alien theories based on hatred
of the flesh ; but the best Jewish thinkers, such as
Maimonides, tried to stem the tide of foreign influence.
They remained true to the traditional Jewish stand-
point, and taught the people to honor the body, to set
store by its life and satisfy its legitimate demands,
not to set body and spirit at odds. It was only after
the expulsion from Spain, when the Jews were perse-
cuted in most countries of the Diaspora, that the Cab-
balists, especially those of Palestine, succeeded in ob-
scuring the light, and won many converts to asceticism
in its grimmest form. But their dominance was not
of long duration ; it was overthrown by a movement
from within, first by the sect of Sabbatai Zebi and
later by Hasidism. The ground was cut from under
their asceticism, and material life was restored to its
former esteem and importance.
152 FLESH AND SPIRIT
And yet we do find even in Jewish history traces
of these two extreme views — the sovereignty of the
flesh and its annihilation. But that characteristic ten-
dency, which we have already noticed, to transfer the
centre of gravity from the individual to the national
life, is evident here also ; and so the Jews applied to the
national life those ideas which other nations applied to
the life of the individual.
In the very earliest times there was in Israel a con-
siderable party which adopted the materialistic view of
the national life. The whole aim of this party was to
make the body politic dominant above all other inter-
ests, to win for the Jewish State a position of honor
among its neighbors, and to secure it against external
aggression. They neither sought nor desired any
other end for the national life. This party was that
of the aristocrats, the entourage of the king, the mili-
tary leaders, and most of the priests: in a word, all
those whose private lives were far removed from
human misery, which demands consolation. The
spiritual aspect of the national life had no meaning for
them. They were almost always ready to desert the
spiritual heritage of the nation, " to serve other gods,"
if only they thought that there was some political ad-
vantage to be gained. Against this political material-
ism the Prophets stood forward in all their spiritual
grandeur, and fought it incessantly; until at last it
vanished automatically with the overthrow of the
State. But certain modern historians are quite wrong
when they assert that the Prophets hated the State as
FLESH AND SPIRIT 153
such, and desired its destruction, because they regarded
its very existence as essentially inconsistent with that
spiritual life which was their aim. This political
asceticism, this desire for the annihilation of the flesh
of the national organism as a means to the strengthen-
ing of its spirit, was in reality quite repugnant to the
view of the Prophets. We have only to read those
passages in which the Prophets rejoice in the victories
of the State — in the time of Sennacherib, for instance —
or bewail its defeats, to see at once how they valued
the State, and how essential political freedom was, in
their view, to the advancement of the very ideals for
which they preached and fought. But at the same
time they did not forget that only the spirit can exalt
life, whether individual or national, and give it a
meaning and an aim. Hence they demanded emphati-
cally that the aim should not be subordinated to the
means, that the flesh should not be made sovereign
over the spirit. The Prophets, then, simply applied
to the national life that principle which Judaism had
established for the life of the individual : the unity of
flesh and spirit, in the sense which I have explained.
The real ascetic view was applied to the national life
only in the time of the second Temple, and then not
by the Pharisees,^ but by the Essenes. So far as the
'[The word "Pharisee" is derived from the root parosh,
which means "to separate," and is therefore usually regarded
as meaning a man " separated " from the concerns of everyday
life, i. e., a sort of hermit or ascetic. The author seems to ac-
cept this explanation. Others, however, regard the Pharisees
as having stood for national separateness ; others, again, derive
1S4 FLESH AND SPIRIT
individual was concerned, the Essenes, as I have said,
had no leaning towards hatred of the flesh. But they
did adopt that attitude as regards the body politic.
These spiritually-minded men saw corruption eating
at the very heart of the Jewish State ; they saw its
rulers, as in the time of the first Temple, exalting
the flesh and disregarding all but physical force ; they
saw the best minds of the nation spending their
strength in a vain effort to uplift the body politic
from its internal decay, and once more to breathe the
spirit of true Judaism into this corrupt flesh, now
abandoned as a prey to the dogs. Seeing all this, they
gave way to despair, turned their backs on political life
altogether, and fled to the wilderness, there to live out
their individual lives in holiness and purity, far from
this incurable corruption. And in this lonely existence,
removed from society and its turmoil, their hatred
of the State grew stronger and stronger, until even in
its last moments, when it was hovering betwixt life
and death, some of them actually did not conceal their
joy at its impending destruction.
But these political ascetics had no great influence
over the popular mind. It was not they, but another
sect, called Pharisees, although they had no vestige
of real asceticism,^ who were the teachers and guides
of the people, and who upheld the Jewish view which
the name from a secondary sense of the same root, "to explain,
expound," and make the Pharisees the "expounders of the
Law."]
* [See the previous foot-note.]
FLESH AND SPIRIT 155
was handed down from the Prophets : that is, the com-
bination of flesh and spirit. They did not run away
from life, and did not wish to demolish the State.
On the contrary, they stood at their post in the very
thick of life's battle, and tried with all their might
to save the State from moral decay, and to mould
it according to the spirit of Judaism. They knew full
well that spirit without flesh is but an unsubstantial
shade, and that the spirit of Judaism could not develop
and attain its end without a political body, in which
it could find concrete expression. For this reason the
Pharisees were always fighting a twofold battle: on
the one hand, they opposed the political materialists
within, for whom the State was only a body without
an essential spirit, and, on the other side, they fought
together with these opponents against the enemy with-
out, in order to save the State from destruction. Only
at the very last, when the imminent death of the body
politic was beyond all doubt, did the root difference be-
tween the two kinds of patriots, who stood shoulder to
shoulder, necessarily reveal itself ; and then the separa-
tion was complete. The political materialists, for whom
the existence of the State was everything, had nothing
to live for after the political catastrophe ; and so they
fought desperately, and did not budge until they fell
dead among the ruins that they loved. But the
Pharisees remembered, even in that awful moment,
that the political body had a claim on their affections
only because of the national spirit which found expres-
sion in it, and needed its help. Hence they never
156 FLESH AND SPIRIT
entertained the strange idea that the destruction of the
State involved the death of the people, and that life
was no longer worth living. On the contrary : now,
now they felt it absolutely necessary to find some tem-
porary means of preserving the nation and its spirit
even without a State, until such time as God should
have mercy on His people and restore it to its land
and freedom. So the bond was broken : the political
Zealots remained sword in hand on the walls of Jeru-
salem, while the Pharisees took the scroll of the Law
and went to Jabneh.^
And the work of the Pharisees bore fruit. They
succeeded in creating a national body which hung in
mid-air, without any foundation on the solid earth,
and in this body the Hebrew national spirit has had its
abode and lived its life for two thousand years. The
organization of the Ghetto, the foundations of which
were laid in the generations that followed the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem, is a thing marvellous and quite
unique. It was based on the idea that the aim of life
is the perfection of the spirit, but that the spirit needs
a body to serve as its instrument. The Pharisees
thought at that time that, until the nation could again
find an abode for its spirit in a single complete and
free political body, the gap must be filled artificially
by the concentration of that spirit in a number of
1 [Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai obtained permission from the
victorious Romans to retire with his disciples to Jabneh, where
he kept alight the lamp of Jewish study, and thus secured the
continuance of Judaism despite the overthrow of the Jewish
State.]
FLESH AND SPIRIT 157
small and scattered social bodies, all formed in its
image, all living one form of life, and all united,
despite their local separateness, by a common recog-
nition of their original unity and their striving after
a single aim and perfect union in the future.
But this artificial building stood too long. It was
erected only to serve for a short time, in the days when
men firmly believed that to-day or to-morrow Messiah
would come ; but at last its foundations decayed, and
its walls cracked and gaped ever more and more.
Then there came again spiritually-minded men, who
revived the political asceticism of the Essenes. They
saw at its very worst the scattered and enslaved con-
dition of the dispossessed nation; they saw no hope
of a return to the land ; they saw, too, the organization
of the Ghetto, in which there was at least some shadow
of a concrete national life, breaking up before their
eyes. Despair took hold of them, and made them
absolutely deny bodily life to their nation, made them
regard its existence as purely spiritual. Israel, they
said, is a spirit without a body ; the spirit is not only
the aim of Jewish life, it is the whole life; the flesh
is not merely something subsidiary, it is actually a
dangerous enemy, a hindrance to the development of
the spirit and its conquest of the world.
We need not be surprised that this extreme view
produced its opposite, as extreme views always do, and
that we have seen a recrudescence of that political
materialism which confines the life of Israel to the
body, to the Jewish State.
IS8 FLESH AND SPIRIT
This phenomenon is still recent, and has not yet
reached its full development. But past experience
justifies the belief that both these extreme views, hav-
ing no root and basis in the heart of the nation, will
disappear, and give place to the only view that really
has its source in Judaism, the view of the Prophets in
the days of the first State, and that of the Pharisees
in the days of the second. If, as we hope, the future
holds for Israel yet a third national existence, we may
believe that the fundamental principle of individual as
of national life will be neither the sovereignty of the
flesh over the spirit, nor the annihilation of the flesh
for the spirit's sake, but the uplifting of the flesh by
the spirit.
MANY INVENTIONS
(1890)
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright;
but they have sought out many inventions (Eccl. 7 : 29). Be
not righteous over much ; neithermakethyself over wise {id. 16).
The progress of human behefs and opinions offers
an instructive subject of contemplation to one who
has faith in the sovereign power of truth and reason.
Let him consider attentively the important changes
which each school of thought has undergone in the
course of a development shaped by temporary and local
influences; let him think of the disputes, the disquisi-
tions, the books without number, by which each school
has fondly thought to demonstrate the correctness of
its own view, and to crush the opposing theory once for
all, but which have almost always had the result of
widening the gulf and rousing the obstinate conflict
to fresh fury : and his faith, despite himself, will
w^eaken. He will begin to see that the human mind
is not guided by reason alone in pronouncing on any
question which affects, in a greater or less degree,
the material or moral welfare of the individual. We
think, indeed, that we are seeking the truth, and
nothing but the truth; and we try to establish our
opinions, for ourselves as well as for others, bv
reasoned arguments. But in fact there is another
i6o MANY INVENTIONS
force at work below the surface, a force which quietly
assumes control of the mind's movements, and directs
them whither it will, giving to its commands the sem-
blance of reason and truth. This all-powerful force
disguises itself in innumerable changes of shape and
form; but a penetrating eye will recognize it, beneath
them all, as the desire for life and well-being. This
desire, which is implanted in us by nature, forces every
living thing to pursue at all times that which brings
life and pleasure, and to shun that which leads to de-
struction or pain. For every living thing this desire
is the motive and the goal of every single action. In
the case of human beings, it is the supreme force
which influences, recognized or unrecognized, con-
sciously or unconsciously, not only their actions and
their schemes, but also their beliefs and their opinions.
For man's struggle for life and well-being has a dis-
tinct quality of its own. In the case of all other
living things, the struggle is purely external : it is a
struggle against hostile natural forces, against an
environment inimical to life and well-being. But man
has to go through a further, internal struggle, a
struggle against himself, against his own thoughts and
feelings, which interfere more or less with his mental
peace and quiet, and thus with his general well-being.
Every mishap, every wound which he gets in the
external struggle, produces feelings of pain and dis-
tress, which impair his vitality for some time after-
wards ; the impression left by every painful experience
remains long after its cause has vanished: and these
MANY INVENTIONS i6i
memories of the past cause him painful apprehensions
as to the future, and thus embitter his existence in the
present, and do not allow him to enjoy whole-heartedly
even such little fruit as he has been able to pluck from
the tree of life. The will-to-live cannot tolerate such
a condition of things : for without spiritual rest there
is no life and no well-being. So man must needs
endeavor, without desiring or feeling it, to transform
in thought these disquieting experiences and accidents
of his external struggle ; he must seek explanations
for them which are in harmony with his innermost
desire, and can bring him satisfaction.
In the early days of the human race, when man had
not laid hold of the tree of knowledge, nor searched
deeply into the mysteries of life and the universe;
when, with eyes closed, he followed his natural im-
pulses, which guided spontaneously his physical and
spiritual powers, and satisfied his simple wants without
undue exertion: in those days his two battles were
waged by two different forces — by Reason and by
Imagination ; and his will-to-live controlled these two
forces, and made them work for his well-being.
Reason discovered the chain of causation in things,
and thus taught him how to obtain his desires and
remove external obstacles. Imagination fulfilled its
function in the inner life: it brought him comfort in
trouble, and the strength that is born of hope; it kept
him from faltering, and prevented a despairing flight
from the battlefield. Reason was the general, direct-
ing his forces in their work ; Imagination was the priest
i62 MANY INVENTIONS
who accompanied .the army, strengthening the weak
and the wounded, and administering sweet comfort
to their souls. Whenever Reason was unable to lead
the way to victory. Imagination could lead the way
to rest, by refashioning the chain of cause and effect,
and could shed a cheerful light on every circumstance
and every event, good and evil alike. When the
thunder peals, and the blinding lightning-flashes play,
and terror lays hold on all living things, man, too,
leaves his work in field or forest, and hastens, quak-
ing with fear, to hide in some rocky cavern from, the
anger of a hidden God : when lo ! Imagination comes
to his aid, and shows him Jupiter sitting on the top
of Olympus, and hurling his lightnings and his
thunders upon the heads of his enemies who have
sinned against him. So man calls on his God, appeases
Him with an offering from his flock or herd or .the
fruit of his land, and returns to his work with a
tranquil mind, to struggle for his existence against
his external enemies, under the generalship of Reason.
Even in the face of death, when he sees that fell
destroyer, the all-devouring, all-consuming, and knows
that upon him, too, must come the end of all flesh, even
then his desire for existence does not desert him ; even
then he does not succumb to despair and hatred of life.
Imagination has power to open the gates of hell be-
fore him, to show him life and well-being even there,
under the earth. And it is not a different life, of a
strange, spiritual kind, that he sees there, but just a
simple human life of body and soul, wherein every
MANY INVENTIONS 163
man lives as he did on earth ; wherein the small remains
small, and the great is still great; wherein the master
is master, and the slave is not free. This marvellous
faith, traces of which are found even among the
cultured nations of the ancient world,^ and which
scientific research has discovered to-day among various
tribes in the stage of childhood, is a result of the will-to-
live, and dates from that distant age when man, not
yet finding his natural state a burden, wished for noth-
ing better in his eternal home. And this faith not only
freed him from the fear of death, but also strengthened
his hands in the battle of life, because he always
remembered that he would remain forever and ever in
the condition in which death overtook him, and every
upward step on the ladder of well-being in this life
would mean an increase of his happiness after death.
Thus, turn where we will, we find Reason and Im-
agination, work and hope, walking hand-in-hand in
the life of the natural man, and helping each other in
the internal as in the external struggle. He has not
yet come to regard hatred of life as righteousness or
as wisdom ; and so he pursues well-being openly and
without shame. It never occurs to him to look for
any object in life except this single, natural object-
to be, and to live a life of well-being. For this object
he fights unweariedly with all his might, and with all
the means which Reason can devise ; while Imagination
stands by the side of Reason, ready to remove every
idea or feeling that might disturb its work.
* Comp. De Coulanges, La citd antique, bk. i.
i64 MANY INVENTIONS
But as society develops and grows more complex,
new wants and new cares are born, which had no exist-
ence in earlier ages. The path of life is strewn with
artificial obstacles, which call for deliberation and
resource, demand knowledge and efficiency. The
struggle for existence becomes inevitably a hard and
bitter war-in-peace ; and thousands are beaten for
one who wins. In this period the more intelligent be-
gin to realize that all is not right with the world. The
simple dreams of childhood no longer satisfy their
developed intellects. Their hope for well-being, in
life or after death, is destroyed; and with it they lose
the feeling of joy in life, and the strength of will to
act. Finally, weary of toil and trouble, despairing of
happiness, they turn away from the corpse-strewn field
of battle against external forces, and concentrate their
powers on their inner life, on the efifort to find rest and
comfort for themselves and their like. And now their
world becomes a chaos; their spiritual equilibrium is
upset. Imagination and Reason invade each other's
provinces, and every man, according to his tempera-
ment and his education, lays hold of the one or the
other, or passes from the one to the other, finding no
satisfaction. For in this extremity he turns to both
of them at once, seeking an answer to the question
which overshadows his whole being — the question of
life or death, good or evil ; and each of them answers
in its own way. Thus they produce two new views
on the nature and the function of life. These views also
have their roots in the desire for life and well-being:
MANY INVENTIONS 165
but it is a stern and a terrible well-being that they
bring, and a life how different from that healthy-
natural life of willing and acting and achieving !
The one view soars aloft on the wings of Imagina-
tion, up above the boundaries of nature and human
life, into the upper world of wonders, the spiritual
and eternal world. Dazzled by the lightning gleam of
such a world, the human mind turns back and re-
gards its fortune on earth, and sighs, " Vanity of vani-
ties, all is vanity ! " There is no good and no evil, no
life and no death, in .tliis vale of tears; all is but an
enforced preparation for the life yonder, but a series
of snares and pitfalls and hard struggles, out of which
one in a thousand may win safely through to happiness
in a world where all is good. This view, soaring as
it does beyond the bounds of nature, leaves Reason
and experience behind; it neither relies on them
nor fears them, but simply disregards them. Hence
it satisfies those who can wing their flight freely into
the upper world.
But there are men who are bound by the chains of
Reason, which judges only by what the eye can see ;
and for such men there is no aerial soaring. Seeking
an answer to life's great question, they look right and
left, and find no help save in cold Reason, with its
judgments and its proofs, which promise so much and
give so little. Yet rest they must have at all costs;
their desire for life will not be stifled. So they are
forced to take up with another view, a philosophical
view, which also tells them that " all is vanity," but
i66 MANY INVENTIONS
in a very different sense. For whereas the first view
denied d-eath, this one does not beHeve in life. The
first view sought tangible well-being and happiness,
and found them in another world; the second seeks
only perfect rest, and finds it by crushing out every
disturbing feeling and desire — by deciding, like the
fox in the old fable, that the unattainable grapes are
sour. All human pleasures are but fleeting shadows,
baits for fools, at whose stupidity the wise can laugh.
Man is pure Reason ; his happiness lies in a lonely life
of contemplation, beyond the hurtful reach of accident.
So long as these views were widely held, they both
turned the attention of men entirely away from the
natural life. The one view, according to which hatred
of life is righteousness, produced hermits and anchor-
ites, who fled from the turmoil of life into forests and
deserts, and spent all their days there with folded
arms, enveloped in a cloud of dreams and fancies ;
the second, regarding hatred of life as wisdom, filled
Greece and Rome with philoeophizlng beggars,
mouths without hands, who looked on their surround-
ings with haughty contempt, hating and hated by all
men. To the first class belonged that ancient saint
of whom it is recorded that he thus rebuked the man
who brought him news of his father's death : " Silence,
thou blasphemer ! Man is immortal ! " And the second
class is represented by the Greek philosopher who re-
ceived the tidings of his son's death calmly, with the
remark, " Even while he was alive I knew that my
son was not immortal." ^
*Comp. Lecky, European Morals, i, p. 191.
MANY INVENTIONS 167
The course of human thought on life generally, as
applied to the individual, is paralleled by that of
Hebrew thought on the life of the Hebrew nation;
and the one process may fitly serve to illustrate the
other. After what has been said, a brief adumbration
will be sufficient to indicate my meaning.
In the early days of Jewish history, when the people
was full of youthful vigor, and had had no experience
of misfortune, the national will-to-live was healthy
and natural, and its biddings were followed spon-
taneously, without sophisticated questionings. Wisely
and skilfully the nation fought for life against its
external enemies ; and at home the Prophets en-
couraged and incited to action, by painting in brilliant
and alluring colors that national happiness which was
the nation's goal — a happiness not to be sought in
Heaven or outside nature, but very near to each man's
heart; a happiness to be sought in the present, to be
fought for every day.
But those good old times were not of long dura-
tion. East and west, on Israel's borders, mighty
empires grew up; his tiny land was a stepping-stone
on their way to foreign conquests; and their proud
heel trod upon the poor, small nation which dwelt
there alone in the midst of these encircling giants.
Time after time the Jews tried to throw off the yoke,
but in vain; and at last they gave up the struggle in
despair. But now, when they could no longer hope to
regain life and liberty by their own strength, they
ceased to carry on the external struggle, and began
i68 MANY INVENTIONS
to think about the internal, spiritual life; to find a
medicine for the broken heart and bind up the wounds
of the spirit. The national hopes of the earlier
Prophetic visions unconsciously assumed a new form;
they became etherealized, supernatural, outside time.
On the foundation of these hopes the will-to-live built
a castle in the air, which reached as high as the
heavens. As the actual position of the nation sunk
lower and lower, so its spirit soared heavenwards,
leaving the concrete, present life of will and action
for a visionary life in the bosom of a boundless future.
The nation soon became a slave to this spiritual disease,
which was an inevitable outcome of its condition and
its history ; it could no longer turn back and look down
from Heaven upon earth, no longer feel the beauty of
life, the sweetness of freedom, or the wretchedness
of its own condition. It understood, as by a natural
intuition, that such feelings were fraught with danger
to its inward peace, perhaps even to its very existence.
For centuries this idea was supreme in Israel — its
comfort in misery, its happiness in misfortune. But
a new age came, when the spirit of philosophy walked
the earth, and laid waste the castles of Imagination
throughout the world. The Jewish castle, too, was not
spared ; the new spirit breathed upon it, and its foun-
dations shook. Then among our people also there
arose the second theory, the fox-and-grapes philosophy.
A new generation has a,risen in Israel, which believes
no more than its fathers did in the possibility of achiev-
ing the national well-being by natural means, but has
MANY INVENTIONS i6g
abandoned, in conformity with the spirit of the age,
even that behef in which they found consolation. But
this generation, too, is imbued, despite itself, with the
national will-to-live, which cannot be crushed ; and so
it can find spiritual peace only by striving with all its
might to transform this troublesome and disquieting
feeling, by endeavoring to believe, or even to prove,
that to love one's own nation means to hate mankind ;
that national unity is a piece of youthful folly, and a
disgrace to a nation grown wise with years ; that the
Hebrew people can be — nay, is morally bound to
be — happy without the sour grapes ; that a kind Provi-
dence has given this people a mission different from
that of any other people, a spiritual, intellectual mission,
which demands no practical service, but only preachers
and divines.
As with the human spirit in general, so with the
spirit of our nation : " God hath made them aright,
but they have sought out many inventions." But these
inventions, whether they take the guise of faith or
of philosophy, are not the fruit of free speculation or
of the search after truth for truth's sake : they are
spiritual diseases, with which the human race (or the
nation) has become infected as a result of certain his-
torical causes. The diseases are different in character,
but alike in their effects. The one seeks life in death,
the other death in life ; but both alike prevent the
human race (or the nation) from attending to this
world, and lead it away from the plain, natural course
which lies before every living thing — to seek life in
life, and to defend its existence to the last gasp.
170 MANY INVENTIONS
What does Nature say to these two extremes of
human and of Jewish thought? To the one: " Be not
righteous over much " ; and to the other : " Make not
thyself over wise."
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM ^
(1891)
The opponents of the Hoveve Zion in the Russian
Jewish press think that they have need of no more
formidable weapons than those which they used to
employ when they fought the battle of " culture "
against the " obscurantists." That is to say, instead
of examining our views and proving us in the wrong by
arguments based on reason and facts, they think that
they can put us out of court by an array of dis-
tinguished names; they think that they can frighten
us by pointing out how widely we differ from the
Jewish thinkers of Western Europe. They forget that
their new opponents include many who are no strangers
to Western culture, and who are therefore quite aware
that even professors sometimes sin against the light,
that even members of Academies have been known to
cling to obsolete beliefs.
Thus, these opponents of ours try to make us see,
for our own good, to what a pitch of spiritual exalta-
* [This essay, published in Ha-Meliz (1892), was a reply to an
article entitled "Eternal Ideals," which had appeared in the
Russian Voschod, from the pen of a prominent Jewish writer.
The Voschod was a Russian Jewish monthly, since defunct. It
will be observed that this essay was written many years before
the Dreyfus case, which was the first practical revelation of
French anti-Semitism.]
172 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
tion our people have risen in France, where even anti-
Semitism has not made them " narrow." Anti-Semit-
ism ! To the French Jews, with their " breadth of
view," it is as though it did not exist : they go securely
and calmly on their way towards those " eternal ideals "
which their predecessors, the Jewish scholars of the
last generation, set before them. But we, the small of
soul, we have lost the way and turned back. Such, at
least, is the opinion of our opponents : and for evidence
they bring an array of distinguished names, in .the
face of which who so bold as to doubt that they are
right?
And yet I for one am bold enough to doubt the
" calmness " of the Jews of France in the face of anti-
Semitism ; to doubt even their " spiritual exaltation,'*
and the value of those " eternal ideals " which they
pursue. And, indeed, I find ground for these doubts
in the very words of those " distinguished " people
who are held up to us in tcrrorem.
Four years ago, at a meeting of the Societe des
Etudes Juives in Paris, Theodore Reinach, the secretary
of the society, drew the attention of his hearers to the
danger which threatened the Jews in France through
the growth of anti-Semitism. " Ah ! " he cried, " anti-
Semitism, which was thought dead in this beautiful
France of ours, is trying to raise its head. A single
pamphleteer^ beat his drum, and now he is surprised
at his wonderful success. This success — so I would
fain believe — is only temporary ; but for all that it is
* [Drumont.]
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM i73
a bad sign." M. Reinach thinks, all the same, that
there is no smoke without fire, that there must be a
grain of truth in the charges of the anti-Semites.
" Being, as we are, the smallest religious sect ; being,
as we are, strangers newly arrived in the French
household, we are especially subject to jealousy and
criticism." Even our abilities and our successes in
every field are no protection for us. On^ the con-
trary, " it is just these that inflame jealousy." There
is, therefore, but one remedy for us. We must be
very circumspect in all our actions, so as not to give
an opening to our enemies. " Our merchants must
all be honest, our rich men all unassuming and charit-
able, our scholars all modest, our writers all disinter-
ested patriots." Then, naturally, such angels will
please even the French.^
It is unnecessary to say that this excellent advice of
M. Reinach has never been followed, and never will
be. Since then things have not become better, but
the reverse. Instead of the " single pamphleteer " we
find now many pamphleteers, none of whom need
grumble, for " beautiful France " listens to them with
keen pleasure, takes their words to heart, and is roused
to increased jealousy and more inflamed hatred every
day. Our brethren in France endeavor, indeed, to
believe, with M. Reinach, that " this success is only
temporary." But there are not many who feel, like
him, and not all those who so feel proclaim it as he did,
* Comp. Actes el conferences de la soci^t^ des dtudes juives,
1887, p. cxxxii.
174 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
that this belief is without foundation, but is only what
" they would fain believe," or, rather, what they must
believe, if they are not willing to give up in despair the
struggle of a hundred years. And yet, if you listen
carefully to their quavering voices, when all their
talk is of belief and hope, you will hear the stifled
sigh, and the voice of a secret doubt, which would make
themselves heard, but that they are forced back and
buried under a heap of high-sounding phrases.
I have before me as I write a new French book, in
which the writers whom I mentioned at the outset have
found the beautiful ideas to which I have referred, a
book called La Gerhe} It was issued last year by
the publisher of the Archives Israelites, to commemo-
rate the fiftieth anniversary of that publication. Had
such a jubilee volume been published twenty years
ago, it would undoubtedly have recounted with paeans
of triumph all the victories of the " Frenchmen of the
Jewish persuasion " during these fifty years. It would
have described exultantly their success, their advance
in every sphere of life, their present happiness and
honored estate, their bright hopes for the future. But
in fact it appears now, and not twenty years ago ; and
what is it that we hear? Without offence to its
authors and admirers be it spoken: we hear cries of
defeat, not paeans of triumph. It is in vain that we
look for any sign of genuine rejoicing, of such
" exaltation of spirit " as would be proper to this
jubilee festival. Through the whole book, from be-
^La Gerbe: Etudes, souvenirs, etc., Paris, 1890.
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM 175
ginning to end, there runs an undercurrent of grief,
a dark thread of lamentation.
First of all let us hear the editor himself, the central
figure of the celebration, give his account of the achieve-
ments of his publication. " In the year 1840," he tells
us, " fifty years after the promulgation of the principles
of 1789, the Jews possessed rights on paper; but in
practice their rights were non-existent. " And then
he asks in a parenthesis, " Do they exist fully even in
1890?" After this question, which calls for no
answer, he goes on to recount his battles against preju-
dice, and tells how he has tried unceasingly to spread
the great principle of " social assimilation (la fusion
sociale) with all its corollaries." What he says
amounts to this, that even the second jubilee after the
principles of '89 has not brought the desired happi-
ness; that hatred of the Jews has revived even in
France, despite the principles of '89, and despite all
the battles against prejudice and all efforts to promote
assimilation. And so — our respected editor promises
to continue to fight and strive.
There follow a large number of articles, almost all
written by distinguished men, and almost all, what-
ever their subject, working round as it were auto-
matically to the question of anti-Semitism. Is not this
a sure indication that this accursed question fills their
whole horizon, so that they cannot turn their atten-
tion from it even for a moment, but it must needs
force itself to the front, of whatever subject they may
treat?
176 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
The writers in La Gerbe are certainly men of
parts and distinction, and it is not for such men as these
to turn back in fright at the sight of the enemy — still
less to let others see that they are afraid. They know
how to control themselves and make a show of look-
ing at all these things from above; they know how to
comfort themselves and their readers with pleasant
hopes and fair promises, which read sometimes like
little prophecies. One of the writers promises us on
his word that this is the last battle between the Jews
and their enemies, and it will end in complete victory
for us, to be followed by real peace for all time. The
great Revolution of '89 is always on their tongues.
They refer again and again to the " rights of man "
{les droits de I'homme), or, as some put it, " the new
Ten Commandments " which that Revolution promul-
gated ; and each time they express the hope — a hope
which is also a sort of prayer — that the French people
will not forever forget those great days, that the
French people will not, cannot turn back, that the
French people is still, as of old, the great, the en-
lightened, the glorious, the mighty people, and so
forth, and so forth.
Whether these prophecies will be fulfilled or not is
a question with which we are not here concerned.
But in the meantime it requires no very penetrating
vision to discern from them, and from the pages of
La Gerbe generally, the true spiritual condition
of the French Jews at the present time. There is here
none of that " exaltation " which some would fain
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM 177
discover, but the exact opposite. Their condition may
be justly defined as spiritual slavery under the veil of
outward freedom. In reality they accepted this
slavery a hundred years ago, together with their
" rights " ; but it is only in these evil days that it
stands revealed in all its glory.
The writers of La Gerbe try, for instance, to
prove to us and to our enemies that the fortunes of
the Jews in every country are inextricably bound up
with those of its other inhabitants, or even with those
of humanity as a whole ; that the troubles of the Jews
in any particular country are not, therefore, peculiar
to them, but are shared by all the other inhabitants,
or even by humanity as a whole; and that for this
reason .... but the conclusion is self-evident.
One writer, wishing to reassure the rich Jews of
France, whose apprehensions have been aroused by
the anti-Semitic movement, tells them this very pleas-
ing story. In 1840, during the February Revolution, a
rumor got abroad in a certain Alsatian city that the
revolutionaries intended to attack and loot the houses of
the rich Jews. The Jews were very much perturbed,
and hastened to seek the protection of the commander
of the garrison which was permanently quartered in the
city. He, however, refused to protect them, unless
the National Guard would assist him. To the com-
mander of the National Guard, therefore, they
addressed themselves, only to be met with con-
temptuous jeers from men who did not see any harm
in the looting of a few Jewish houses. So the Jews
178 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
returned home in fear and trembling. But on .the
following day it became known that the revolutionaries
had designs on all men of property, without distinction
of creed, and were going to include the houses of rich
Christians in their round of visits. At once both the
permanent garrison and the National Guard appeared
in the streets, and " the Jewish question was settled "
— so our narrator concludes, with a smile of satisfac-
tion : adding that he thinks it unnecessary " to ex-
patiate on the lofty moral of this story." In truth, we
can find a lofty moral in this story, from our own
point of view. But shall we really find the " moral "
which our narrator wishes to draw ? At any rate, his
moral is not exactly " lofty."
This trick of exciting sympathy with the Jews on
the ground that it will benefit other people is very
familiar to us here also. Our Russian Jewish writers,
from the time of Orshansky to the present day, are
never weary of seeking arguments to prove that the
Jews are a milch cow, which must be treated gently for
the sake of its milk. Naturally, our French savants do
not condescend to use this ugly metaphor. They wrap
up the idea in a nice " ideal " form. But when all is
said, the idea is the same there as here ; and a terrible
idea it is, sufificient in itself to show how far even
Western Jews are from being free men at heart.
Picture the situation to yourself. Surrounded by
armed bandits, I cry out " Help ! Help ! Danger ! " Is
not every man bound to hasten to my help? Is it
not a fearful, an indelible disgrace, that I am forced
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM 179
to prove first of all that my danger affects other people,
affects the whole human race? As though my blood
were not good enough, unless it be mingled with
the blood of others ! As though the human race were
something apart, in which I have no share, and not
simply a collective name for its individual members,
of whom I am one!
This slavery becomes more and more apparent, when
the writers in La Gerbe come to deal with the
internal affairs of Judaism. Valiantly they champion
the cause of our religion against its rivals, knowing
as they do that this is permitted in France, where
neither the Government nor the people cares very much
about such discussions. But when they have to dis-
close the national connection between the Jews of
France and other Jews, or between them and their
ancestral land, a connection in which it is possible to
find something inconsistent to a certain extent with
the extreme and zealot patriotism which is in vogue
in France, then we discover once more their moral
slavery — a spiritual yoke which throttles them, and
reduces them to a condition of undisguised embarrass-
ment.
One of the contributors, the distinguished philoso-
pher Adolphe Franck, expresses the opinion that every
Jew, without distinction of nationality, who enjoys the
fruits of emancipation in any country, is bound to be
grateful, first and foremost, to the Frenchmen of the
Revolution, and must therefore regard France as his
first fatherland, the second, being his actual birthplace.
i8o SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
And here our philosopher finds it his duty suddenly
to add: "Jerusalem is [for the Jew] nothing more
than the birthplace of his memories and his faith. He
may gfive it a place in his religious service ; but he him-
self belongs to the land of his birth." This way of
regarding Jerusalem is a very trite commonplace,
which our Western thinkers grind out again and again
in various forms. Not long ago another philosopher,
a German Jew, published a new volume, which contains
a scientific article on the Book of Lamentations. Now,
a scientific article has no concern with questions of
practical conduct; and yet the author finds it neces-
sary to touch in conclusion on the practical question,
whether at the present day we have a right to read
this book in our synagogues. He answers in the
affirmative, on the ground that the Christians too read
it in their churches three days before Easter. " If
we are asked, ' What is Zion to you, and what are you
to Zion ? ' we reply calmly, ' Zion is the innermost
kernel of the inner consciousness of modern
nations. ' " ^ This answer is not perhaps so clear as
it might be, even in the original ; but the writer's ob-
ject is perfectly clear. We have, therefore, no right
to be angry if our French philosopher also adopts this
view. But when we read the whole article in La
Gerhe, and find the author concluding that the Jews
have a special " mission," which they received in
Jerusalem, which they have not yet completely ful-
*Steinthal, Zu Bibel und Religionsphilosophie (Berlin, 1890),
P-33-
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM i8i
filled, and for the sake of which they live, and must
live till they do fulfil it completely, then we shall have
a serious question to put. The duty of gratitude, we
argue, is so important in our author's view, that he
would have every Jew put France before the country
of his birth — France, which was nothing more than
the cause of our obtaining external rights, which we
might have obtained without her, if only we had de-
serted our " mission." That being so, does it not
follow a fortiori that Jerusalem, which gave us this
very " mission," the cause and object of our life, has
a claim on our gratitude prior even to that of France?
Even so great a philosopher as our author could not,
I think, find a logical flaw in this argument: and yet
he could write as he has done. Is not this moral
slavery ?
Another thinker — a man who bears all the troubles
of French Jewry on his shoulders, and is withal an
active participator in work for the good of the Jews
as a whole — recounts the good services rendered by
the journal which is celebrating its jubilee; and one
of them is this, that it has helped to strengthen the
bond between the Jews in France and those in other
countries. But as he wrote these words, the recollec-
tion of "beautiful France," and of the anti-Semitism
which prevails there, must have crossed his mind ; for
he pauses to justify the slip of the pen by which he, a
Frenchman, could welcome a strengthening of the
bond between the Jewish community in France and
Jewish communities elsewhere. He tries to show that
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
though the French Jews are well known for the
thoroughness of their patriotism and their devotion
to their country, yet it is no breach of duty on their
part to sympathize with their brother Jews, who are
still subject to disabilities in other countries, or to
rejoice with those of them whose position improves.
For my part, I have sufficient confidence in this dis-
tinguished man, and in his whole-hearted devotion to
his people, the Jews, to believe that, even if it were
proved to him beyond all doubt that French patriotism
is inconsistent with affection for his flesh and blood
in other countries, he would still feel that affection
for them secretly, in the depths of his being ; that even
if all the Jews were blessed with full emancipation,
and there were no longer any room for *^ sympathy "
with these and " rejoicing " with those, he would still
desire to maintain permanently his connection with
the whole body, and to take part in all their interests.
But if this be so, what are all these excuses, what is
this constraint which he pleads, if not moral slavery?
But this moral slavery is only half the price which
Western Jews have paid for their emancipation.
Beneath the cloak of their political freedom there lies
another, perhaps a harder, form of slavery — intellectual
slavery; and this, too, has left its mark on the book
which we are considering.
Having agreed, for the sake of emancipation, to
deny the existence of the Jews as a people, and regard
Judaism simply and solely as a religion. Western Jews
have thereby pledged themselves and their posterity
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM 183
to guard with the utmost care the religious unity of
Israel. But emancipation demanded certain practical
changes in religious matters ; and not everybody could
make this sacrifice. Hence people " of the Jewish
persuasion " have split into various sects ; the unity
of the religion, on its practical side, has vanished.
There remains, then, no other bond than that of
religion on its theoretical side — that is to say, certain
abstract beliefs which are held by all Jews. This bond,
apart from the inherent weakness which it has in com-
mon with every spiritual conception that is not crystal-
lized into practice, has grown still weaker of recent
years, and is becoming more and more feeble every day.
Scientific development has shaken the foundations of
every faith, and the Jewish faith has not escaped: so
much so that even the editor of La Gerbe con-
fesses, with a sigh, that " the scientific heresy which
bears the name of Darwin " is gaining ground, and it
is only from a feeling of twhlcsse oblige that he still
continues to combat it. What, then, are those Jews
to do who have nothing left but this theoretical
religion, which is itself losing its hold on them? Are
they to give up Judaism altogether, and become com-
pletely assimilated to their surroundings? A few of
them have done this : but why should they not all adopt
the same course? Why do most of them feel that they
cannot? Where is the chain to which they can point
as that which holds them fast to Judaism, and does
not allow them to be free? Is it the instinctive
national feeling which they have inherited, which is
1 84 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
independent of religious beliefs or practices? Away
with the suggestion ! Did they not give up this feel-
ing a hundred years ago, in exchange for emancipa-
tion? Yet the fact remains that it is not in their
power to uproot this feeling. Try as they will to
conceal it, seek as they will for subterfuges to deceive
the world and themselves, it lives none the less ;
resent it as they will, it is a force at the centre of their
being. But this answer, though it satisfies us, does not
satisfy them. They have publicly renounced their
Jewish nationality, and they cannot go back on their
words ; they cannot confess that they have sold that
which was not theirs to sell. But this being so, how
can they justify their obstinate clinging to the name
of Jew — a name which brings them neither honor nor
profit — for the sake of certain theoretical beliefs which
they no longer hold, or which, if they do really and
sincerely maintain them, they might equally hold
without this special name, as every non-Jewish Deist
has done?
For a long time this question has been constantly
troubling the Jewish thinkers of Western Europe ; and
it is this question which drove them, in the last gen-
eration, to propound that new, strange gospel to which
they cling so tenaciously to this very day — I mean that
famous gospel of " the mission of Israel among the
nations." This theory is based on an antiquated idea,
which is at variance with all the principles of modern
science : as though every nation had been created from
the first for some particular purpose, and so had a
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM 185
" mission " which it must fulfil, living on against its
will until its Heaven-sent task is done. Thus, for ex-
ample, the Greeks were created to polish and perfect
external beauty ; the Romans to exalt and extol physical
force/ On this hypothesis, it is not difficult to find an
answer to our own question — an answer not incon-
sistent, on the one hand, with emancipation, and, on
the other hand, with the unity of Judaism, The
answer is this : Israel as a people is dead ; but the
Jewish Church still lives, and must live, because the
mission of Israel is not completely fulfilled, so long as
absolute monotheism, vdth all its consequences, has
not conquered the whole world. Till that victory is
achieved, Israel must live in spite of itself, must bear
and sufifer and fight : to this end it was created — " to
know God and to bring others to that knowledge." '
If, then, we wish really to fulfil our function, is it not
our duty to be God's apostles, to consecrate all our
strength to the diffusion of that knowledge for the
sake of which we live ?
" Heaven forbid ! " answer our " missionists " — and
their attitude needs no explanation — " it is not for us
to hasten on the end. God has entrusted the truth to
our keeping; but he has not imposed on us the task
of spreading the truth." '
How, then, shall we arrive ultimately at the fulfil-
ment of our mission ?
*Munk, Palestine (Paris, 1845), p. 99.
* Munk, ibid. ; La Gerbe, p. 7.
' La Gerbe, p. 12.
1 86 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
Munk answers thus : " Our mission advances cease-
lessly towards its fulfilment through the progress of
religious ideas."'' And since our Scriptures are,
according" to the " missionists," the foundation and
cause of this prog'ress, they give us the credit of it, as
though we ourselves were doing our duty on behalf
of religious progress. It is for this reason, and for
this reason alone, that we must remain loyal to our
standard until the very end.
In itself, therefore, our mission is an easy and a com-
fortable one. At least there is nothing disgraceful in
being the teachers of the whole world, in regarding
the whole human race, to the end of time, as pupils
who slake their thirst at the fountain of our inspira-
tion : more especially when this honorable task of ours
involves no labor or worry on our part. We are like
the Israelites at the Red Sea: the progress which
emanates from the Scriptures is to fight for our mission,
while we look on and rejoice. Now, this would be very
well indeed, if the pupils on their side were amenable
and docile, and paid the proper respect to their teacher.
But in fact they are impertinent fellows, these pupils.
They kick their teacher: they heap curses on him:
they are forever besmirching his name, until his life
becomes a positive burden to him. And so we are left
face to face with the same question. We are no longer
doing anything useful towards the fulfilment of our
mission: the Scriptures, and consequently religious
progress, are independent of us, and will do their
* Ibid. p. 7.
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM 187
work without us : we are nothing but a monument on
the path of religious progress, which marches on to
its consummation without our assistance. Why, then,
this life of trouble? The Greeks, who were created,
according to this theory, for the sake of beauty, pro-
duced all those beautiful works of art, wrote all those
beautiful books ; and then, when there was nothing
more for them to do, although their mission was not
completely fulfilled, and although during all the cen-
turies which separated them from the Renaissance
their beauty lay hidden from the world — then history
removed them from the stage, and left the rest to that
progress which proceeded automatically from the
Greek legacy of works of art and books. Why, then,
should not history allow us to make our exit? We
have done all that we could for our mission : we have
produced the Scriptures. Further there is nothing
for us to do : why, then, must we live ?
One of our " missionist " thinkers, a learned
preacher, deals with this question in an article en-
titled, "Why Do We Remain Jews?", and tries to
answer the question from another side. We remain
faithful to Judaism, he thinks, because there is no
other religion for which we could change it. Every
other religion contains something which we cannot
accept. " Natural religion " would, indeed, be suffi-
cient for us. But if we think of accepting natural
religion, we must first know what are its principles.
Let us, then, look for them in books which set out to
expound them, for instance, in Simon's Natural
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
Religion. We find that this religion has three fun-
damental principles : creation, revelation, and reward
and punishment. At once we remember that as much
as five hundred years ago Rabbi Joseph Albo, author of
the Principles, based Judaism on three dogmas very
much like these. Judaism, therefoie, is natural religion,
and there is no need to change.
Now I might ask this preacher how he would answer
those Jews (and there are many of them nowadays)
for whom the religion of Simon and his school is an
antiquated philosophy, very far from being " natural,"
and who still desire to remain Jews, without knowing
why they so desire. But I will not ask him this ques-
tion : for as a preacher he is only concerned with
philosophers who are also believers. And there is
another question which I might put to him. Does he
really and honestly believe that there is no diflference
between Simon's " Revelation of the Godhead " and
Albo's " Law from Heaven " ? But this also I will not
ask, because I know that it has always been the habit
of religious philosophy — a habit long since recognized
and sanctioned — to twist texts for the purpose of recon-
ciling contradictions. The criticism that I do oflFer —
and it is one which deserves our preacher's attention —
I will put in the form of the following dilemma. If
Judaism includes, in addition to those principles men-
tioned above, certain things which have no parallel in
natural religion, then the question confronts us again :
Why should we not change the one for the other ? But
if there is no real difference except that of name, then.
SLAVERY m FREEDOM 189
indeed, the question becomes more insistent: Why not
accept a change of name, if by means of this purely
external change we can win freedom from all our
sufferings? It is not the name that is of importance
to our mission, but the power to fulfil it : that is, the
power to spread the knowledge of the Godhead in the
Jewish sense: and our power to do this will surely
increase out of all proportion if we substitute the name
of " natural religion " for that of " Jewish religion."
But in that case it is not merely permissible, it is
obligatory on us to take this step, for the sake of that
mission for which we were created.
It is perhaps superfluous to deal at length with this
theory, which, indeed, it is difficult, in our day, to
treat seriously. We are forced, despite ourselves, into
a smile, a smile of bitter irony, when we see distin-
guished men, who might have shown their sorely tried
people real light on its hard and thorny path, wasting
their time with such pleasant sophistries as these ; try-
ing to believe, and to persuade others, that a whole
people can have maintained its existence, and borne a
heavy burden of religious observance and an iron
yoke of persecutions, torments, and curses for thou-
sands of years, all for the purpose of teaching the
world a certain philosophy, which is already expounded
in whole libraries of books, in every conceivable lan-
guage and every conceivable style, from which who
will may learn without any assistance from us: and
especially at the present time, when the number of those
who wish to learn grows less every day, nay, when we
190 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
ourselves are every day forgetting our own teaching.
It is, indeed, surprising that such a thinker as Munk,
and even the older thinkers of our own day, could and
still can believe in the mission of Israel in the sense
explained above. But we shall be less surprised if
we remember that Munk wrote in the " forties," and
that the older contributors to La Gerbe are for the
most part children of that earlier generation which
educated them — children of an age in which the idea
of a " final cause " was intelligible and current as a
scientific theory. It is, however, a stranger phenome-
non, and more difficult to explain, that the same position
should be adopted by thinkers and writers of the pres-
ent generation. These men, who know and admit that
" the scientific heresy which bears the name of Dar-
win " is gaining ground, that is to say, that the world
is accepting gradually a scientific theory which does
not admit the existence of purpose or end even where
it seems most obvious — how can these men still cling
to a doctrine which demands belief in the missions
of nations generally, in the mission of Israel in par-
ticular, and, above all, in such a wonderful mission as
.this? There can be but one answer. They are com-
pelled to do so, because they can find no other way of
reconciling Judaism with emancipation. In the first
place, Israel has no right to be anything but a Church
consecrated to Heaven ; in the second place, this
heavenly bond has become too weak ; and in the third
place — and this is the important thing — they feel, in
spite of it all, that Jews they are, and Jews they want
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM 191
to be. And so, in order to conceal the contradiction
between these " truths," they are forced to take refuge
in this antiquated theory. On all other questions of
conduct or of scholarship they belong to their own
generation; but on the Jewish question they cannot
move from the position which their fathers took up
fifty years ago. As though these fifty years had brought
no change of idea and outlook into the world !
Thus this intellectual slavery also is a result of
political freedom. If not for this freedom, emanci-
pated Jews would not deny the existence of the Jewish
nation ; they would not have to climb up to Heaven,
on an old and rickety ladder, to seek there what they
might have found on earth. It might be maintained,
indeed, that even then there would have been thinkers
who inclined to look for some " mission " for their
people, or, to speak more accurately, for some spiritual
aim suited to its spiritual characteristics. But then
they might have found a different aim — not, perhaps,
a finer one, but still one that would have gained accept-
ance more readily, one more in accordance with the
ideas of modern times and with the truths of logic
and of history. For instance, they might have argued
thus: Here has our people been wandering over the
face of the earth for some two thousand years, in the
course of which we do not find that it has ever con-
sciously invented any new thing of importance, has
ever beaten out any new highway on the tract of life.
Its part has been always that of the huckster; it has
peddled about all kinds of goods, material and spiritual,
192 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
of Other people's making. All the good work which
the Jews did for the world's culture in the Middle
Ages was at bottom nothing but huckstering and ped-
dling: they picked up learning in the East, and gave
it to the West. " Yes " replies Munk, in extenuation,
" because the mission of Israel does not lie in making
new discoveries." ^ Well, so let it be ! But now that
we see that Israel was fitted to be, and in fact has
been, a huckster of culture, surely common sense will
tell us that this is the occupation for Israel to follow
now, if some spiritual aim is wanted. Now, therefore,
that we have acquired culture in the West, let us
return and carry it to the East. And, if we are so
very fond of teaching, it is surely better for us to go
where there is a more evident lack of teachers, and
where it is easier to find attentive pupils.
But the truth is that if Western Jews were not slaves
to their emancipation, it would never have entered
their heads to consecrate their people to spiritual mis-
sions or aims before it had fulfilled that physical,
natural " mission " which belongs to every organism —
before it had created for itself conditions suitable to
its character, in which it could develop its latent
powers and aptitudes, its own particular form of life,
in a normal manner, and in obedience to the demands
of its nature. Then, and only then, after all this had
been achieved — then and only then, we may well be-
lieve, its development might lead it in course of time
to some field of work in which it would be specially
' Dictionnaire des sciences philosophiques, iii, article "Juifs."
SLAVERY IN FREEDOM 193
fitted to act as teacher, and thus contribute once again
to the general good of humanity, in a way suited to
the spirit of the modern world. And if then philoso-
phers tell us that in this field of work lies the "mis-
sion " of our people, for which it was created, I shall
not, indeed, be able to subscribe to their view ; but I
shall not quarrel with them on a mere question of
names.
But alas! I shall doubtless be dead and buried be-
fore then. To-day, while I am still alive, I try mayhap
to give my weary eyes a rest from the scene of igno-
rance, of degradation, of unutterable poverty that con-
fronts me here in Russia, and find comfort by look-
ing yonder across the border, where there are Jewish
professors, Jewish members of Academies, Jewish offi-
cers in the army, Jewish civil servants ; and when I see
there, behind the glory and the grandeur of it all, a
twofold spiritual slavery — moral slavery and intel-
lectual slavery — and ask myself: Do I envy these fel-
low-Jews of mine their emancipation? — I answer, in
all truth and sincerity : No ! a thousand times No ! The
privileges are not worth the price ! I may not be eman-
cipated ; but at least I have not sold my soul for eman-
cipation. I at least can proclaim from the housetops
that my kith and kin are dear to me wherever they are,
without being constrained to find forced and unsatis-
factory excuses. I at least can remember Jerusalem
at other times than those of " divine service " : I can
mourn for its loss, in public or in private, without
being asked what Zion is to me, or I to Zion. I at
13
J 94 SLAVERY IN FREEDOM
least have no need to exalt my people to Heaven, to
trumpet its superiority above all other nations, in order
to find a justification for its existence. I at least know
" why I remain a Jew " — or, rather, I can find no
meaning in such a question, any more than if I were
asked why I remain my father's son. I at least can
speak my mind concerning the beliefs and the opinions
which I have inherited from my ancestors, without
fearing to snap the bond that unites me to my people.
I can even adopt that " scientific heresy which bears
the name of Darwin," without any danger to my Juda-
ism. In a word, I am my own, and my opinions and
feelings are my own. I have no reason for conceal-
ing or denying them, for deceiving others or myself.
And this spiritual freedom — scoff who will ! — I would
not exchange or barter for all the emancipation in the
world.
SOME CONSOLATION
(1892)
In all this fresh outbreak of calamities that has
come upon us of late, there is nothing so distressing to
every Jew as the recrudescence of the " blood-accusa-
tion." This abominable charge, old though it is, strikes
us, and will always strike us, as something new ; and
since the Middle Ages it has always profoundly agitated
the spirit of the Jewish people, not only in the actual
place where the cry has been raised, but even in distant
countries where the incident has been merely reported.
If I say that this blood-accusation has profoundly
agitated the spirit of the Jewish people, it is because
the roots of this phenomenon lie, to my mind, not in
any external cause, but in the innermost spirit of the
Jew. If in medieval instances of the blood-accusa-
tion we find that the whole people used to regard itself
as standing at the judgment bar together with the
wretches whom fortune made the immediate victims
of the scourge, we may explain this fact as a result
of the physical danger to the whole people, which was
involved in every local incident of this kind. Again,
if, fifty years ago, the Damascus blood-accusation so
cruelly disturbed the halcyon calm of European Jewry,
one might attribute this to just the opposite cause, to
the extreme jealousy of the emancipated Jews for
196 SOME CONSOLATION
their newly-won dignity and privileges. But at the
present day neither explanation is open. On the one
hand, the physical danger is no longer serious,
especially in the case of distant communities; on the
other hand, we have grown used to listening with
equanimity to those who revile us, and we are no
longer consumed with a jealous regard for our dignity.
Yet even to-day the blood-accusation comes as a rude
and violent shock, which rouses the whole of Jewry
to a passionate repudiation of this outrageous charge.
Clearly, then, it is not a question of mere regard for
personal safety or dignity: the spirit of the people is
stung to consciousness and activity by the sense of
its shame. In all else it might be said of us, in the
words of the wise prince of old time, that " the dead
flesh feels not the knife " ; but here the knife cuts not
only the flesh — it touches the soul.
Yet " there is no evil without good," that is, with-
out a good moral. The great evil with which we are
concerned here is not without its useful lesson, which
it were well that we should learn. We are not masters
of our fate : good and evil we accept from without,
as perforce we must; so that it is fitting that we
should always look for the useful lesson hidden in the
evil that comes upon us, and find thus at least some
consolation.
Convention is one of the most important factors in
social life. There was a time when even philosophers
thought that the universal acceptance of an idea was
a certain proof of its truth, and used this as an argu-
SOME CONSOLATION i97
ment in their demonstration of the existence of God.
That is no longer so. Philosophers know now that
there is no lie, no piece of folly, which cannot gain
universal acceptance under suitable conditions. But
this knowledge is confined to philosophers; for the
mass of men there is still no greater authority than
this conventional acceptance. If " everybody " believes
that this or that is so, of course it is so; if I do not
understand it, others do; if I see what appears to con-
tradict it, why, " everybody " sees the same thing, and
yet believes, and am I wiser than the whole world?
Such is roughly the reasoning, conscious or vaguely
conscious, of the plain man ; and, having reasoned thus,
he too accepts the idea, and helps to make it an accepted
convention.
It is a powerful force, this of convention, so power-
ful, that, generally speaking, a man cannot escape its
influence even when he is himself its object. If
" everybody " says of such an one that he is a pro-
found thinker or a sincere believer, that he has this
or that good or bad quality, he ends by accepting this
idea himself, even though at first he may not have
discovered in himself that superiority or defect which
others ascribe to him. Nay, more : this acceptance of
an idea by its object moulds him little by little, until
he approximates, or at least tends to approximate,
to the state of mind in which " everybody " assumes
him to be. For this reason educationalists rightly
warn us against directing the attention of children, at
the beginning of their development, to their moral
198 SOME CONSOLATION
shortcomings, and still more against attributing to
them imaginary shortcomings : because by such means
we may accentuate the real faults, and create a ten-
dency towards the imaginary ones.
But of course " everybody " means something dif-
ferent for each man. For each of us " the world " is
that society of which he considers himself a member,
and with the other members of which he finds a cer-
tain point of contact. No man is affected by the con-
ventional beliefs of groups which are entirely strange
to him in spirit, with which he feels no connection in
thought. Take for instance the " orthodox " and the
" enlightened " Jews. Each school has its own con-
ventional ideas ; neither pays any attention to those of
the other, even in matters which do not affect religion ;
and their mutual scorn and ridicule have not the least
effect, because each regards the other as non-existent.
But when conditions arise which force the members of
the two schools into constant intercourse, and they get
used to meeting on a broad basis of common humanity,
then " the world " becomes a bigger world, and the
views of all are affected in many ways by the con-
ventional beliefs of " the world " in its new and
wider sense.
This will explain why in the old days, when our
ancestors believed in a literal sense that they were
" the chosen people," the purity of their souls was not
sullied by the shame which the world imputed to them.
Conscious of their own worth, they were not in the
least affected by the conventional ideas of the out-
SOME CONSOLATION 199
side world, which was to them a society of alien beings,
fundamentally different from and unrelated to them-
selves. In those days the Jew could listen unmoved
to the tale of moral defects and sins of conduct which
the world told and believed of him, without feeling
any inner sense of shame or humiliation. What mat-
tered the ideas of these aliens about him and his worth ?
All that he asked of them was to let him live in peace.
But in modern times it is different. Our " world "
has expanded: what Europe believes, affects every
side of our lives in the most vital way. And since we
no longer treat the outside world as a thing apart, we
are influenced, despite ourselves, by the fact that the
outside world treats us as a thing apart. It was
recently asked by a Russian writer, in all simplicity:
Since everybody hates the Jews, can we think that
everybody is wrong, and the Jews are right? There
are many among us Jews on whom a similar question
half-unconsciously forces itself. Can we think, they
ask, that all the vicious characteristics and evil prac-
tices which the whole world ascribes to the Jews are
sheer imagination?
This doubt, once aroused, is easily strengthened by
those false inferences from particular to universal
which are so common among ordinary men. There
is a well-known story about a traveller who, happen-
ing on an inn where the hostler stammered, wrote in
his diary, " The hostlers in X. are stammerers." This
story is a comic illustration of the kind of logic on
which most of the plain man's general propositions
SOME CONSOLATION
are based. He generalizes from the particular in-
stance to the whole class with the name of which that
instance is normally labelled. He does not see that
one particular may belong to several classes, that is,
may have affinities with one class of things by virtue
of one of its qualities, and with another class by
virtue of a second, whereas its name only indicates its
connection with one of these classes through a single
aspect, not through all its aspects. It is in proposi-
tions of this kind that the universally accepted ideas
about the Jews can and do find their support. " A
and B are Jews by name and dishonest by character:
ergo, the Jews are dishonest." True logic will reply, of
course, that even if all the Jews of modern times were
really dishonest, that would still not prove the general
proposition, that " the Jews are dishonest," that is, that
the quality of dishonesty, which belongs to every Jew,
belongs to him by virtue of his inclusion in the class
of Jews, and not by virtue of his inclusion in some
other class — for instance, that of tradesmen — which
embraces the individual Jew together with other indi-
viduals who have no connection with the class of Jews.
In order to decide this question, we must first of all
examine the other individuals who are included, to-
gether with the Jews, in other classes. If this exam-
ination shows that the quality of dishonesty does not
belong to any class which embraces both Jews and
non-Jews, then, but not till then, have we the right to
lay down the judgment that Judaism is the source of
dishonesty. But, as I have said, men are not usually
SOME CONSOLATION
very logical, and we cannot demand strict logic even
of the ordinary run of Jews. They hear the univers-
ally accepted judgment; they see that it is actually
true of a good many Jews ; and this is sufficient to
make them begin to subscribe to the judgment them-
selves. Thus " Jewish characteristics " pass from hand
to hand like an honest coin, which, having become
current in the outside world, gains currency also among
the Jews. But there is this difference. The outside
world recounts our bad qualities one by one, with
a mocking and triumphant exultation ; while we repeat
the lesson after them word for word, in the still
small voice of puling self-extenuation. For them
(to borrow a simile from Talmudic law) we are the
earthenware vessel which cannot be cleansed, but must
be broken ; for ourselves we are the vessel of metal,
which may be cleansed by water and fire.
But this state of things, if it continues, may do us
a great moral harm. There is nothing more dangerous
for a nation or for an individual than to plead guilty
to imaginary sins. Where the sin is real, there is
opportunity for repentance; by honest endeavor the
sinner may purify himself. But when a man has been
persuaded to suspect himself unjustly, how can he get
rid of his consciousness of guilt ? " Remove the beam
from your eye," they tell him ; and he would fain obey,
but cannot, because the beam is not really there. He
is in the position of the monomaniac who, for some
reason, has come to believe that a heavy weight is
hanging from his nose and cannot be removed. But
SOME CONSOLATION
the evil goes further than this. Sometimes the con-
viction of sin actually produces in the individual that
failing with which he believes the whole people to be
infected, although, as an individual, he is entirely free
from any predisposition towards it. For instance: a
people which has produced men like Maimonides must
number in its ranks even to-day systematic, orderly,
and methodical persons, who might be able to permeate
the work of the community in which they take part
with their own habits, and to influence their fellow-
workers in the same direction. But it is an accepted
idea that objection to order and method is a Jewish
quality; and we ourselves have accepted this idea,
though it is by no means clear whether this char-
acteristic, which is, in fact, common among a large
section of Jews, belongs to the Jews as such, or is
due, as appears more probable, to the Heder train-
ing. Hence those of us who have a love of order
come to believe that there is no going against the
national character, and are therefore powerless to
reform. Indeed, if they are patriotic, they actually
set about to conquer their own " anti- Jewish " love of
order, and teach themselves to behave in true " Jew-
ish " fashion.
What we need, then, is some means of emancipating
ourselves from the influence of conventional prejudices
as to the characteristics and the moral worth of the
Jews. We must get rid of this self-contempt, this idea
that we are really worse than all the world. Other-
wise we may in course of time become in reality what
we now imagine ourselves to be.
SOME CONSOLATION 203
This necessary means of escape the world itself,
with its accepted beliefs, affords us — through the blood-
accusation. This accusation is the solitary case in
which the general acceptance of an idea about ourselves
does not make us doubt whether all the world can be
wrong, and we right, because it is based on an absolute
lie, and is not even supported by any false inference
from particular to universal. Every Jew who has been
brought up among Jews knows as an indisputable fact
that throughout the length and breadth of Jewry there
is not a single individual who drinks human blood for
religious purposes. We ought, therefore, always to
remember that in this instance the general belief,
which is brought to our notice ever and anon by the
revival of the blood-accusation, is absolutely wrong;
because this will make it easier for us to get rid of the
tendency to bow to the authority of " everybody " in
other matters. Let the world say what it will about
our moral inferiority : we know that its ideas rest on
popular logic, and have no real scientific basis. Who
has ever penetrated into the very heart of the Jew, and
discovered his essential nature ? Who has ever weighed
the Jew against the non-Jew of the same class — Jewish
tradesman against non-Jewish tradesman, persecuted
Jew against persecuted non-Jew, starved Jew against
starved non-Jew, and so on — who has carried out this
test, scientifically and impartially, and found the balance
incline to this side or to that?
" But " — you ask — " is it possible that everybody
can be wrong, and the Jews right ? "
ao4 SOME CONSOLATION
Yes, it is possible: the blood-accusation proves it
possible. Here, you see, the Jews are right and per-
fectly innocent. A Jew and blood — could there be a
more complete contradiction? And yet ....
ANCESTOR WORSHIP
(1897)
Since the very beginning of the intellectual develop-
ment of mankind various philosophers and men of
letters have been ceaselessly waging war on those
superstitions, those barbarous laws and customs, which
each generation inherits from its predecessors ; but
never has this heirloom of the human race fallen on
such evil days as these. At first sight, indeed, it
appears as though its more aggressive opponents had
diminished in number; as though it were no longer a
target for so many keen arrows. But in reality the
battle has not ceased: only the weapons are different.
Formerly the philosophers and men of letters drew
their weapons from the armory of logic. They tried
to prove that a certain belief could not hold its ground
in the face of logical deduction or scientific evidence;
that this or that custom or law was opposed to
moral ideas, or was detrimental to the individual or to
society. Proofs of this nature were set forth in an
attractive literary form, expounded and emphasized in
a smooth and easy style, pointed by striking phrases
and epigrams. And yet they influenced but a handful
of individuals. The mass of men, and even the mass
of educated men, remained faithful to their inherited
2o6 ANCESTOR WORSHIP
opinions and traditional way of life, and paid little
heed to the criticisms of logic and science. Nay, the
effect of these criticisms on the world at large was
actually in inverse proportion to their simplicity and
clearness : whence arose that great generalization anent
the progress of intellectual development, that the
simplest and clearest truth is the least readily accepted
by the majority of men. Thus in every generation we
find these pugnacious critics complaining bitterly of the
pig-headedness and inveterate stupidity of mankind.
They do not stop to consider what is the root of this
" stupidity " ; it does not occur to them that they them-
selves, with their methods of warfare, supply theii
enemy with the strength to resist them. Yet such is
in fact the case. For they provoke the antagonism of
a powerful human feeling, that of respect for the
past. This feeling has been a power in the human
mind from the most distant ages; and there is much
probability in the view held by many scholars, that in
the childhood of mankind men went so far as to regard
their ancestors as gods. Hence, every idea which
seems to derogate from the respect due to our ancestors
and mar the brightness of that vivid picture of them
which is treasured by their descendants, inevitably
rouses this feeling to determined opposition. It finds
in this feeling an effective bar to its acceptance. " This
belief, or law, or custom, which we have inherited from
our ancestors is absurd " — why, it is as though one
should say, " Our ancestors, who left us such absurdi-
ties, were fools." And the more obvious and indis-
ANCESTOR WORSHIP 207
putable the falsehood or the barbarism, the greater
the insult to the ancestors who clung to it, and the
greater, therefore, the obstinacy with which men resist
the idea that their ancestors were unable to see through
so crude a piece of error or folly. How could they
have helped noticing it? — this is the first question that
occurs to the plain man, whether he formulates it dis-
tinctly or not, when he hears any criticism of opinions
and customs which have the sanction of long accept-
ance. If the only answer vouchsafed to him is that
his ancestors were deficient in insight, or were the prey
of impostors — and this was the old method of account-
ing for the facts of history — then he is bound to come
to an exactly opposite conclusion. Our ancestors, he
decides, were certainly guided by wisdom in all that
they said and did, and their words and actions are
eternally right ; but we are unable to understand them,
because they were giants, or we are pigmies.
But since the conceptions associated with the term
" evolution " arose in the domain of natural science,
and made their way subsequently into philosophy and
history, the situation has changed completely. In place
of invective and moral condemnation, tirade and
sarcasm, we now have analysis. The modern critic
analyzes human opinions and actions. He does not rest
content with a pronouncement that this belief is false,
or that custom absurd. He regards all human actions
and thoughts as natural phenomena, the inevitable
result of certain causes, fruits, as it were, of the human
tree, which came to birth and went through the slow
2o8 ANCESTOR WORSHIP
process of ripening according to definite laws, like
those which determine the growth of all things in the
vegetable and animal worlds. And just as the natural
scientist is not concerned to pronounce judgment on the
objects which he examines, to say, " this is good, that
bad; this is sweet, that bitter; this is beautiful, that
ugly"; just as he knows no distmction between the
most exquisite bird and the most repulsive insect, but
examines all alike with the minutest attention, doing
his best to penetrate into the mystery of their lives and
the process of their evolution : so, too, the student of
the spiritual life of mankind has no concern with good
and evil, wisdom or folly. For him it is all the fruit
of the human tree. All the phenomena alike attract
him and stimulate him to a thorough investigation, in
order that he may understand how such things come
into being, what internal and external conditions are
necessary for their life and development, why and how
they change from age to age, and so forth. For in-
vestigation of this kind there is no difference between
earlier and later generations of men. There are no
giants and no pigmies. All alike are men, all are
subject to eternal laws, and all in every age produce
such fruit as is determined by their condition and their
environment. Examination of this kind, in its analysis
and exposition of ancient beliefs and actions, does not
look down contemptuously on the ancients. It treats
with quiet courtesy and respect even the things that
we consider most barbarous or most wicked, those on
which the logical critics pour out torrents of abuse and
ANCESTOR WORSHIP 209
mockery, insult and vituperation. It recognizes — and
it alone recognizes — that our outlook differs from that
of our ancestors, not because we are essentially better
than they were, but simply because our mental condi-
tion has changed, and our environment is different;
that there is nothing so barbarous, so evil, that the
human mind cannot accept it and foster it, given suit-
able conditions; and that consequently many of the
sacred truths of every generation must become false-
hoods and absurdities in the next, and they who judge
to-day will not escape scot free from the tribunal of
to-morrow.
Hence the multiplication and diffusion of works
written in this spirit of historical criticism have done
much more to free the human mind from its subservi-
ence to the past than all the incisive reasoning of the
heretics of past generations. Every thinking man who
examines the past in this spirit becomes, as it were,
a reincarnation of the souls of all the ages. Under-
standing the mental life of past generations, and enter-
ing sympathetically into their ideals, he does not regard
it as a defect in them that their opinions and customs
do not in every respect come up to the standard of
our ideas and demands at the present day. Conse-
quently, the feeling of respect for the men of the past
does not compel him to follow them in practice; he
recognizes that every generation has its ideals, every
generation its truths. And so the ancients do not
lose the respect due to them : their thoughts and their
actions were such as suited the conditions of their own
14
ANCESTOR WORSHIP
time, just as our thoughts and our actions corre-
spond to the conditions in which we are placed to-day.
What I have said is true of the world in general ;
but in Jewish life the traces of this change of atti-
tude are not yet visible. We are, indeed, always be-
hindhand in these matters ; " new " ideas dawn on us
at a time when they have reached their twilight for the
rest of the world. So with us the old struggle between
respect for tradition and modern criticism is still
fought on the old lines. Criticism of tradition involves
contempt and depreciation of those from whom it has
been inherited; and so, out of respect for them, we
are bound to observe their tradition to the very letter.
It is true that of late the noise of battle has sub-
sided even among us, and for many years we have
scarcely heard any dispute about the authoritative
beliefs and laws of our people. But this is not because
loud criticism has given place to quiet investigation:
it is because the idea of nationalism has captured the
best elements in our literature, and many adherents
of this creed, which is based on a feeling of respect
and affection for the national spirit, think it their duty
to say Amen, though it be but with the lips, to all
the hallowed traditions of the past. They too have
fallen a prey to the mistaken notion that it is impossi-
ble to look at the past impartially, and to recognize
how much of it seems strange from the point of view of
modern conceptions, without at the same time pro-
nouncing adversely on the intrinsic worth of the past — ■
which of course would bring the nation into contempt,
ANCESTOR WORSHIP
and would weaken the feeling of affection for the
national spirit. Hence, in Western Europe, where
most Jewish thinkers still regard Judaism solely as a
religion, attempts are still made to reform the religious
life of the Jews and purify their laws, by means of that
logical criticism which can only judge the value of
early institutions by our standards, and cannot examine
their intrinsic qualities and their rise and development
by the light of the ideas with which they were con-
temporary.
As a type of this kind of criticism take an article
which I have before me, entitled " Research and Re-
form." 1
Undoubtedly this article is right in the main. All
the sections and paragraphs from the Shulhan 'Aruk
which the author quotes are certainly quite foreign to
our spirit at the present day ; certainly " there is not
a single Jew of modern education who can believe in
them." But the inference which he draws, that " we
must proclaim aloud, in season and out of season, that
this is not our Law," is wrong, and has no more foun-
dation than his hope that such proclamation will avail
" to remove every stumbling-block from the path of
the blind." The Shulhan 'Anik is not (as he says)
' This article, written by an Italian Rabbi, A. Lolli, appeared
in Ha-Shiloah, vol. ii, no. 4. It attacks the Shulhan 'Aruk,
which contains so many laws that are distasteful to us, and
demands that such laws should be abolished, and that we
should "proclaim aloud, in season and out of season, that this
is not our Law." [The Shulhan 'Aruk is a code of Jewish law,
which is the final authority for orthodox Jews.]
ANCESTOR WORSHIP
" the book that we have chosen for our guide," but the
book that has been made our guide, whether we would
or not, by force of historical development: because
this book, just as it is, in its present form, with all its
most uncouth sections, was the book that best suited
the spirit of our people, their condition and their needs,
in those generations in which they accepted it as bind-
ing on themselves and their descendants. If we pro-
claim that " this is not our Law," we shall be proclaim-
ing a falsehood. This is our Law, couched in the only
form which was possible in the Middle Ages : just as
the Talmud is our Law in the form which it took in the
last days of the ancient world, and just as the Bible is
our Law in the form which it took while the Jews still
lived as a nation on their own land. The three books
are but three milestones on the road of a single de-
velopment, that of the spirit of the Jewish nation.
Each corresponds to the nation's condition and needs
in a different period.
In the Middle Ages exile and persecution left our
people but one mainstay — the Torah ; and since Torah
was everything, ever>'thing was Torah, and no Jew
moved a finger without first finding authority in the
Torah. Religious precepts were regarded as laws of
nature, which it was men's duty to know and Hve by,
if they wished for life, without reasoning about them
or distinguishing between the pleasant and the unpleas-
ant. And just as medical science is not ashamed to
treat of the hidden organs of the human body, so the
Torah could not leave untouched any jot or tittle of
ANCESTOR WORSHIP 213
the minutiae of life, be they never so repulsive. There
is a delightful story in the Talmud which illustrates ex-
cellently the mental outlook of our ancestors, and the
attitude to the Torah which had begun even then to
develop. King David, they say, went into his bath-
room naked, and was grieved to think that at that
moment there was no link between himself and the
Torah, until he remembered " the sign in his flesh,"
and was comforted! The Jew of those days felt his
life and his individuality only so long as he was sur-
rounded by an atmosphere of Torah. Let him leave
that atmosphere for a moment, and it was as though
he had suddenly entered a strange world. All the
bitterness of his life in a foreign land, all the horror
of his position in this world, was borne in upon him
with overwhelming force, and threw him into a frenzy
of dark foreboding; till he turned and fled back into
his own retreat, where he could breathe the air that
was so dear to him. So completely was the soul of
the Jew in those days identified with the Torah, so
utterly unable to bear anything profane, that even so
simple and necessary a process as the morning rinsing
of the mouth had to be made a religious custom, and
provided with a " reason." Its object was — to cleanse
the mouth for prayer!'^
Our reverend critic quotes the dictum of Samuel
David Luzzatto, that "the Mishnah and the Talmud
are not books which were originally intended to be a
* See Orah Hayyim, iv, 17, and the commentary of the
Wilna Gaon.
214 ANCESTOR WORSHIP
code of laws and ritual ordinances." After what we
have seen, it is not surprising that this view, correct
though it is, could never be accepted by the people at
large. What they needed in those days was not a
collection of the utterances of learned men, each
occasioned by particular circumstances, or a body of
different opinions which might be accepted or rejected.
They needed neither more nor less than " laws and
ritual ordinances," fixed immutably and beyond ques-
tion, possessed of an authority backed by force, and
capable of giving a definite religious form to the whole
content of life, down to the smallest detail. Out of
this imperative need arose inevitably the new way of
regarding the Talmud, the only source from which
such laws and ordinances could be derived, as having
throughout the force of a living and eternal law. Out
of this need arose also the Yad ha-hasakah ^ of
Maimonides (to use a late subtitle which goes to the
very root of the matter), the dogmatic presentment of
.the religious prescriptions as deduced from the Talmud
according to certain general principles of interpreta-
tion, which are purely external, and make no distinc-
tion between different laws on the ground of their
intrinsic value, and no attempt to exclude those which
had worth only in their own time and place. Any
such distinction, any such attempt, would have been
>[Yad ha-hazakah ("Strong Hand") is the subtitle of Mai-
monides' Mishneh Torah, a codification of the whole of Jewish
law. The author regards it here as a hint at the enforced
authority of the prescriptions of ceremonial Judaism.]
ANCESTOR WORSHIP 21s
opposed to the idea of the Talmud as a book of laws
and religious ordinances intended for all time; but it
was only on the basis of that idea that the dogmatic
structure could expand and develop till it reached
its full dimensions, and became all-embracing, in the
Shulhan 'Aruk.
Now it is quite obvious that this need for a detailed
code of religious observances is not widely felt in our
own time. Even those Jews who still carry out every
detail of the Shulhan 'Aruk do so only because they are
slaves to the past. If the Shulhan 'Aruk had not been
there already, our generation would certainly not have
produced it. And yet it is a great mistake to think
that the wall of tradition can be overthrown to-day
by a blast of the trumpet. We have to take into account
the powerful feeling of respect for antiquity, which
guards the wall like an armed battalion, and is but
roused by the trumpet sound to a more strenuous de-
fence. In the day when there has been born and de-
veloped in us a new kind of need, a need to under-
stand the rise and growth of traditional practices as a
natural process ; when we have a new Maimonides,
gifted with the historical sense, to rearrange the whole
Law, not in an artificial, logical order, but according
to the historical evolution of each prescription ; when
in place of critics of the Shidhan 'Aruk, proclaiming
that " this is not our Law," we have commentators of
a new kind, who shall try to discover the source of Its
ordinances in the mental life of the people, to show
why and how they grew up from within, or were im-
2i6 ANCESTOR WORSHIP
ported and naturalized through stress or favor of
circumstances: in that day, but not before, will there
be a severance of the link between the feeling of respect
for antiquity and practical life; and we shall be able
to love and respect the spirit of our people perhaps
even more than we do now, and to feel in every nerve
the intense tragedy that lurks beneath even the most
barbarous relics of our past, without being compelled
to regard our tradition, in all its details, as a body of
laws and ordinances superior to time and place.
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
(1898)
Amid the confused Babel of voices that are heard
in the prevaihng chaos of modern Jewry, there is one
angry, strident, revolutionary voice which gains the
public ear occasionally, and leaves a most extraordinary
impression. To most men it is quite unintelligible :
they stand amazed for one moment — and go their way.
A few there are who understand at least where the
voice comes from, and these, because they understand
so much, sorrowfully shake their heads, and likewise
go their way. But the younger men, ever on the alert,
ever receptive of new ideas, drink in the new gospel
which this voice proclaims ; they are thrilled by it,
attracted by it, without inquiring very deeply what is
its ultimate worth, or whether the idea which it con-
tains is really a new truth, worthy all this enthusiasm.
The new gospel is that of " the transvaluation of
values " ; and as for the idea which it contains, it is,
indeed, no easy task to penetrate the darkness which
envelops it, and to state it in clear and definite form ;
but if we examine the utterances of its votaries, and
piece together the shreds and scraps of intelligible
speech which sometimes float on the stream of incom-
prehensibility, we may perhaps describe it thus:
The whole life of the Jews from the time of the
2i8 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
Prophets to the present day has been, in the opinion of
those who propound this new gospel, one long mis-
take; and it demands immediate rectification. During
all these centuries Judaism has exalted the abstract,
spiritual ideal above real, physical force : it has exalted
the " book " over the " sword." By this means it has
destroyed in the Jews the striving after individual
mastery; it has subordinated the reality of life to its
shadow ; it has made .the Jew a sort of appendage to
an abstract moral law. In this condition it is impossi-
ble for the Jews to live on among the nations; still
more impossible for them to restore their national life
in their own country. Now, therefore, that .the desire
for a national rebirth has been aroused in us, it be-
hooves us first of all to trans-valuate the moral values
which are accepted among us at present ; to overthrow,
mercilessly and at a single blow, the historic edifice
which our ancestors have left us, seeing that it is built
up on this dangerously mistaken idea of the superior-
ity of spirit to matter, and of the subordination of the
individual life to abstract moral laws. We must, then,
start again from the beginning, and build up a new
structure on a foundation of new values. We must
put the body above the spirit; we must unfetter the
soul, which craves for life, and awaken in it a passion
for power and mastery, so that it may satisfy all its
desires by force, in unlimited freedom.
Like all the other new gospels which run riot in
our literature, this gospel of the " trans valuation of
values " is not a home product, nor did it spring into
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 219
being in response to the demands of our own life.
Our literary men found it ready-grown in a strange
soil, and thought to give us the benefit of this precious
plant, without considering how far, if at all, our own
soil was suitable for its reception.
There arose in Germany, in this generation of ours,
a philosopher-poet, thinker and seer in one, named
Friedrich Nietzsche, who roused a large section of
the youth of Europe to enthusiasm by a new ethical
doctrine, based on the " transvaluation of all values "
(Umwertung alter Werte). According to him, the
function of the human being, like that of all other
beings, is to develop and expand unceasingly the
powers which Nature has given him, in order that the
specific type may attain to the highest of which it is
capable. Now, since the perfection of the specific type
is only possible through the " struggle for existence "
between the individual members of the species, in
which the stronger advances ever higher and higher,
recking nothing if his upward progress involves crush-
ing and trampling on the weaker, it follows that the
moral law is founded on an absolute mistake. It is
wrong to regard that as good which brings welfare to
the human race in general, and lessens the amount of
suffering, and to call that evil which has the reverse
effect. The moral law, working on this basis, has
turned the world upside down; it has degraded the
high, and exalted the low. The few strong men, whose
superior endowments of body and mind fit them to
rise to the top, and thus carry the specific type
220 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
nearer to its perfection, are made subordinate to the
many weaklings. Not alone are they unable to remove
from their path this obstacle to their development : they
are actually commanded by morality to serve the weak,
to treat them with sympathy, to help them, to do them
charity — in a word, to forgo the expansion of their
own powers and their own individual growth, and to
consecrate themselves wholly to the service of others,
of the despicable and worthless multitude. The in-
evitable result is that the human type, instead of striv-
ing upwards, instead of producing in each successive
generation stronger and nobler examples, and thus
approaching nearer and nearer to its perfection, does
in fact progress downwards, dragging down even
the chosen few of every generation to the low level of
the multitude, and thus ever widening the gulf that
separates it from its true function. In order, then, to
restore the power of self-perfection to the human type,
we need a complete change of moral values. We must
give back to the idea of good the meaning which it
had of old, before " Jewish morality " overthrew Greek
and Roman culture. " Good " is to be applied to the
strong man, who has both the power to expand and
complete his life, and the will to be master of his
world {dcr Wille zur Macht), without considering at
all how much the great mob of inferior beings may lose
in the process. For only he, only the " Superman "
(Ubermensch) , is the fine flower and the goal of the
human race ; the rest were created only to subserve
his end, to be the ladder on which he can climb up to
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 221
his proper level. But we are not to regard the Super-
man as a sort of darling child of Nature, to whom
she has given the right to satisfy his desires and enjoy
all the good things of the world merely for his own
pleasure. No: what is honored in him is the human
type, which in him progresses and approaches nearer
to its perfection. For this reason the development of
his powers and the mastery of the world are not only
a privilege for the Superman ; they are also a high and
arduous duty, to which he must sacrifice his personal
happiness as he sacrifices the happiness of others ; for
the sake of which he must be as unsparing of himself
as of others. " Deem ye that I take thought for my
happiness?" says the Superman {Zarathustra) ; " it is
for my work that I take thought." This work, the
advancement of the human type in each succeeding
generation, though it be but in a few examples, to a
higher level than that of the mass of men: this work
is in itself a desirable goal, quite independently of its
results from the point of view of the happiness or
misery, the advantage or disadvantage, of the multi-
tude. And so the moral and cultural value of any
period of history does not depend, as is generally sup-
posed, on the level of happiness and culture reached
by the generality of men in that period, but precisely
on the extent to which the specific type, as manifested
in one or more individuals, is raised above the general
level.
This is the fundamental idea of the doctrine of the
" transvaluation of values " in its original German
222 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
form.^ It desires not merely to change morality in
certain details — to pronounce some things evil which
were regarded as good, and the reverse — but to alter
the very foundation of morality, the actual standard
by reference to which things are pronounced good or
evil. Hitherto the standard has been the lessening of
pain and increasing of happiness among the mass of
human beings. Everything that was calculated to
assist in a greater or lesser degree towards the attain-
ment of that object, whether directly or indirectly,
whether at once or in the near or distant future, has
been good; everything that was calculated from any
point of view to produce the reverse effect has been
evil. Now we are told that moral qualities and actions
are not to be estimated at all by reference to their
effects in relation to the mass of men ; that there is
one thing which is essentially good, which is an end
in itself, and needs no testing by any external stand-
ard — ^and that is the free development of individuality
in the elect of the human race, and the ascent of the
specific type in them to a level higher than that of the
generality of men. Thus — as Simmel rightly points
out — Nietzsche rendered himself immune from any
' In Nietzsche's own works his teaching is enveloped in a
cloud of extravagances and poetic exubei ances. They are also
full of contradictions in points of detail, so that it is very diffi-
cult to extract from them a single coherent system. So far as
this is possible, it has been done excellently by that acute phi-
losopher Georg Simmel in his essay " Friedrich Nietzsche,"
printed in the Zeitschrift fiir Philosophie und philosophische
Kritik, vol. 107, part 2.
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 223
criticism based on logic or experience. All criticism
of that kind must of necessity rest on the old standard
which he will not accept. It can only point to the in-
jury which such a theory will inflict on human life in
general, to its evil effects on the diffusion of culture,
and so forth. But according to the theory in question
the whole life and the whole culture of the mass of
men cannot weigh against a single Superman.
We see now whence our own literary men got the
idea of the " transvaluation of values," and what they
have done with it. They found a new doctrine, uni-
versal in its scope, and certainly calculated to appeal
to men of imagination ; and its attraction for them
produced a desire to propound a similar new doctrine,
of special application to the Jews. So far I have
no fault to find with them. The same thing has often
been done before, from the Alexandrian period to
our own day ; and Judaism has more than once been
made richer in new conceptions and stimulating
ideas. But here, as in every process which demands
artistic skill, the essential thing is that the artist should
understand the possibilities of his material, and know
how to subdue it to the form. He must not be mastered
by his material, and let it turn under his hands into a
useless piece of ware.
More than a year ago I crossed swords with these
young writers, who complain of a spiritual " cleft "
in their inner life, and think that they can bridge
over the gap by introducing " European " ideas
into Hebrew literature; and I said to them at
224 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
that time : " It is not sufficient for us simply to
import the foreign material; we must first of all
adapt and assimilate it to our national genius.
We see, for example, that the ideas of Friedrich
Nietzsche have captured many young Jews, and have
come into conflict with their Judaism, and produced
a cleft in their inner life. What are we to do? Let us
analyze these ideas, and divide them into their con-
stituent parts, in order to discover what it is in them
that attracts, and what it is that is at variance with
Judaism. This analysis may prove to us at last that
there is no essential connection between these two
parts — that the first is a human element, while the
second is simply German or Aryan, and has become
associated with the other only because .they happened
to fuse in the mind of a particular man who was also
a German. Then we shall be able to give these ideas
a new form ; to free the human element from its sub-
ordination to the German form, and subordinate it
instead to our own form. Thus we shall have the
necessary assimilation, and we shall be importing into
our literature ideas which are new, hut not foreign." ^
If our Nietzscheans had adopted that course, they
would have found that their master's doctrine does, in
fact, contain two separable elements — one human and
universal, the other merely Aryan; and that the first
of these, so far from being opposed to Judaism,
actually strengthens Judaism.
'See the essay called " Good Advice" [not included in this
translation].
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 22s
The human element in the doctrine of the '* trans-
valuation of values " is that change in the moral stand-
ard which I have described above. The end of moral
good is not the uplifting of the human race in general,
but the raising of the human type in its highest mani-
festations above the general level. This postulate is,
as I have said, one of those fundamental principles
which each man admits or denies according to his
taste and inclination, and which cannot be met by argu-
ments derived from other premises. But if this postu-
late cannot be tested by any standard external to itself,
that very fact imposes a restriction on those who lay
it down. It is impossible for them to define clearly
and convincingly the nature of that superior .type which
they desiderate. Seeing that the goal is the mere
existence of the Superman, and not his efifect on the
world, we have no criterion by which to distinguish
those human qualities of which the development marks
the progress of the type, from those which are signs
of backwardness and retrogression. Here again, as
in the case of the postulate itself, we are dependent
on our esthetic taste and our moral bent. Nietzsche
himself, it is .true, exalts physical force and external
beauty; he longs for "the fair beast" {die blonde
Bestie) — the strong, beautiful beast which shall rule
the world, and act in all things according to its will.
But it is obvious that this conception of the Superman
does not follow by logical necessity from his funda-
mental postulate. It is no longer the philosopher as
such who speaks; it is the man of Aryan race, who,
IS
226 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
with his excessive regard for physical power and
beauty, depicts his ideal according to his own taste.
We are, therefore, at liberty to suppose that this same
Nietzsche, if his taste had been Hebraic, might still
have changed the moral standard, and made the Super-
man an end in himself, but would in that case have
attributed to his Superman quite different character-
istics — the expansion of moral power, the subjuga-
tion of the bestial instincts, the striving after truth and
righteousness in thought and deed, the eternal warfare
against falsehood and wickedness : in a word, that
moral ideal which Judaism has impressed on us. And
what is there to prove that the change in the moral
standard necessarily involves changing the Hebraic
outlook, and substituting the Aryan : that man be-
comes Superman not through moral strength and the
beauty of the soul, but only through the physical
strength and the external beauty of the " fair beast " ?
Those who are at all expert in this matter do not
need to be told that there is no necessity now for the
creation of a Jewish Nietzscheism of this kind, because
it has existed for centuries. Nietzsche, as a German,
may be pardoned for having failed to understand
Judaism, and having confused it with another doctrine,
which sprang out of it and went off on another track.
But his Jewish disciples ought to know that Judaism
has never based itself on mercy alone, and has never
made its Superman subordinate to the mass of men,
as though the whole aim and object of his existence
were simply to increase the happiness of the multi-
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 227
tude. We all know the importance of the Zaddik,
the " righteous man," in our ethical literature, from
the Talmud and the Midrashim to the literature of
Hasidism : we know that, so far from his having been
created for the sake of others, " the whole world was
only created for his sake," and that he is an end for
himself. Phrases like this, as is well known, are of
frequent occurrence in our literature ; and they did
not remain mere expressions of individual opinion,
mere philosophic tags, but obtained popular currency,
and became generally accepted principles of morality.
More than this : if we search deeper, we shall find
this idea, in a wider presentation, at the very basis of
the Jewish national consciousness.
Nietzsche himself complained, in his last book, that
hitherto there had been no attempt to educate men de-
liberately with the object of producing the Superman.
If such a man happened occasionally to be produced,
this was merely "a happy accident, not the result of
conscious will " ^ Indeed, it is easy enough to depict
the Superman in lofty poetic images that fire the imagi-
nation ; but if he is to be a phenomenon of constant oc-
currence, and not merely an occasional accident, the
surrounding conditions of life must be adapted to that
end. You cannot get water from a rock, or fruit from
the parched soil of the desert. When all is said, man
is a social animal ; and even the soul of the Superman
is a product of society, and cannot wholly free itself
^Comp. A. Riehl, "Friedrich Nietzsche" (Stuttgart, 1897),
p. 125.
228 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
from the moral atmosphere in which it has grown
and developed. If we agree, then, that the Superina;r
is the goal of all things, we must needs agree also that
an essential condition of the attainment of this goal is
the Superwafz'on: that is to say, there must be a single
nation better adapted than other nations, by virtue of
its inherent characteristics, to moral development, and
ordering its whole life in accordance with a moral law
which stands higher than the common type. This
nation will then serve as the soil essentially and
supremely fitted to produce that fairest of all fruits —
the Superman.
This idea opens up a wide prospect, in which Juda-
ism appears in a new and splendid light. Many of the
" shortcomings " of Judaism, by which strangers judge
us, and which our own scholars try to deny or excuse,
become, when viewed in the light of this idea, positive
superiorities, which are a credit to Judaism, and need
neither denial nor excuse.
It is almost universally admitted that the Jews have
a genius for morality, and in this respect are superior to
all other nations.^ It matters not how this happened,
or in what way this trait developed : we certainly find
that in the very earliest times the Jewish people be-
came conscious of its superiority in this respect over
the surrounding nations. This consciousness found its
expression, in accordance with the spirit of that age,
in the religious dogma that God had chosen out Israel
' Nietzsche himself often admits this : see, for instance, Zur
Geschichte-der Moral (Leipzig, 1894), p. 51.
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 229
" to make him high above all nations." But this elec-
tion of Israel was not to be a domination based on
force, for Israel is " the fewest of all peoples." It was
for moral development that Israel was chosen by God,
" to be a peculiar people unto Himself .... and to
keep all His commandments " ; that is, to give con-
crete expression in every generation to the highest
type of morality, to submit always to the yoke of the
most exacting moral obligations, and this without any
regard to the gain or loss of the rest of mankind, but
solely for the sake of the existence of this supreme
type.^ This consciousness of its moral election has
been preserved by the Jewish people throughout its
history, and has been its solace in all its sufferings.
The Jews have never tried, save in exceptional cir-
cumstances, to increase their numbers by conversion;
not, as their enemies aver, out of jealousy, nor yet, as
their apologists plead in excuse, out of tolerance, but
simply because it is a characteristic of the superior type
" that it will not consent to lower the value of its own
duties by making them the duties of all men; that it
will not shuffle off or share with others its own respon-
sibility." 2 Judaism does indeed present, in this
respect, a unique phenomenon. It distinguishes the
Jews from the rest of mankind only in that it imposes
on them exacting and arduous obligations; whereas
' Nietzsche says somewhere, that under certain conditions it
is possible for whole families, or even whole tribes, to rise to the
level of the Superman (Riehl, ibid. ).
'^ Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Bose (Leipzig, 1894), p. 264.
230 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
for the non-Jews the yoke is lightened, and they are
allowed the reward of a future life for the mere ful-
filment of the most elementary moral duties, the so-
called " seven commandments given to the sons of
Noah." It is only during the last century, since the
French Revolution raised the banner of equality and
fraternity among all men, and made the general well-
being the supreme moral ideal, that Jewish apologists
have begun to be ashamed of the idea of Israel's elec-
tion in its old sense. Finding this idea opposed to
that of absolute equality and the pursuit of the general
well-being, they have tried to adapt Judaism to modern
requirements by inventing the famous theory of " the
mission of Israel among the nations." Thus they rec-
oncile the idea of the national election with that of
human equality, by making the one a means to the
other. Israel is, indeed (so they argue), the chosen
people ; but for what end was he chosen ? To spread
good-will and well-being throughout the world, by
teaching mankind the way of life according to that
true Law which was entrusted to him for this very
purpose. Now there is no need to repeat here the
oft-repeated criticism of this compromise, that it has
no foundation in actuality, and rests entirely on a
metaphysical dogma. It is enough to point out that
the Jewish people as a whole has always interpreted
its " mission " simply as the performance of its own
duties, without regard to the external world, and has
regarded its election, from the earliest times to the
present day, as the end of all else, and not as a means
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 231
to the happiness of the rest of the world. The Prophets
no doubt gave utterance to the hope that Judaism
would exert an influence for good on the moral con-
dition of the other nations; but their idea was that
this result would follow naturally from the existence
among the Jews of the highest type of morality, not
that the Jews existed solely for the purpose of striv-
ing to exert this influence. It is the nations who are
to say, " Come ye and let us go up to the mountain
of the Lord, .... and He will teach us of His
ways, and we will walk in His paths." We do not
find that Israel is to say, " Come, let us go out to the
nations and teach them the ways of the Lord, that they
may walk in His paths."
This idea of Israel as the Supernation might be
expanded and amplified into a complete system. For
the profound tragedy of our spiritual life in the pres-
ent day is perhaps only a result of our failure to justify
in practice the potentialities of our election. On the
one hand, there still lives within us, though it be only
in the form of an instinctive feeling, a belief in that
moral fitness for which we were chosen from all the
nations, and in that national mission which consists
in living the highest type of moral life, in being the
moral Supernation. But, on the other hand, since
the day when we left the Ghetto, and started to
partake of the world's life and its civilization, we can-
not help seeing that our superiority is potential merely.
Actually we are not superior to other nations even in
the sphere of morality. We have been unable to ful-
2ZZ THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
fil our mission in exile, because we could not make
our lives a true expression of our own character, inde-
pendent of the opinion or the will of others. And
so it may even be that many of our latter-day Zionists,
who base their Zionism on economic and political
grounds, and scoff at the national " election " and the
moral " mission " — it may even be that many of these
have been driven to Zionism simply by force of this
contrast between the possibilities and the actualities of
Jewish history : being forced thereby, all unconsciously,
to seek some firm resting-place for their people, in
order that it may have the opportunity once more of
developmg its genius for morality, and fulfilling its
" mission " as the Supernation.
But enough. I meant no more than to show that the
doctrine of the " transvaluation of values " is really
capable of being assimilated by Judaism, and of enrich-
ing Judaism without doing violence to its spirit, by
introducing '' ideas which are new, but not foreign,"
or, rather, by introducing ideas which are not even
essentially new. For, more than eight hundred years
ago there lived a Jewish philosopher-poet, Rabbi
Jehudah Halevi, who recognized the inner meaning
and value of the election of Israel, and made it the
foundation of his system, very much on the lines of
what I have said above, though in a different style.^
And now what have our young writers done with
this doctrine?
They have neglected what is essentially original in
' See his Kuzari, bk. i.
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 233
it, and have seized only on the new phrase ^nd the
Aryan element which its author introduced: and with
these they come to their own people, as with a medi-
cine to cure the diseases of its old age. For them the
essential thing is not the emancipation of the superior
type from its subservience to the multitude ; it is the
emancipation of physical life from its subservience to
the limiting power of the spirit. Such a point of view
as this can never ally itself with Judaism. No wonder,
then, that they feel a *' cleft in their souls," and begin
to cry, " Transvaluation ! New values ! Let the Book
give place to the sword, and the Prophets to the fair
beast ! " This cry has become especially prominent
during the last year; and we are told every day that
our whole world must be destroyed root and branch,
and rebuilt all over again. But we are never told how
you can destroy with one breath the national founda-
tion of an ancient people, or how you can build up a
new life for a nation after destroying the very essence
of its being, and stifling its historic soul.
One can understand — and one can tolerate — the indi-
vidual Jew who is captivated by the Superman in
Nietzsche's sense ; who bows the knee to Zarathustra,
throws off his allegiance to the Prophets, and goes
about to regulate his own private life in accordance
with these new values. But it is difficult to under-
stand, and still more difficult to tolerate, the extraor-
dinary proceeding of these men, who offer such a new
law of life as this to the whole nation,, and are simple
enough to think that it can be accepted by a people
234 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
which, almost from the moment of its first appearance
in the world's history, has existed only to protest
vehemently and unceasingly on behalf of the rights
of the spirit against those of the strong arm and
the sword ; which, from time immemorial to the pres-
ent day, has derived all its spiritual strength simply
from its steadfast faith in its moral mission, in its obli-
gation and its capacity to approach nearer than other
nations to the ideal of moral perfection. This people,
they fondly imagine, could suddenly, after thousands
of years, change its values, forgo its national pre-
eminence in the moral sphere, in order to become " the
tail of the lions " in the sphere of the sword ; could
overthrow the mighty temple which it has built to the
God of righteousness, in order to set up in its place
a mean and lowly altar (it has no strength for more)
to the idol of physical force.
There is a further point that requires mention.
These writers go much further than their master in
waging war against the Book and all that it contains —
that is, against the laws which set a limit to the suprem-
acy of the individual will — and in lavishing affection
on the dissenters and the rebels of the wilder-
ness, who refused to subordinate the " glory of life "
to abstract laws, and to change the fleshpots of Egypt
for the heavy yoke of moral obligations. Nietzsche
himself, for all his worship of the strong arm and
the glory of physical life, regards righteousness as
the highest perfection attainable on earth : so much
so, that he finds it hard to believe that it is within the
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 23s
power of man, even of the Superman, to conquer the
feehng of hate and revenge, and to be guided by abso-
lute justice in his relations with friends and foes alike.
Hence he finds it a great advantage that righteousness
should be embodied in fixed abstract laws, which enable
a man to test the justice of his actions in relation to
the objective rule, without being compelled to remem-
ber, in the moment of his self-examination, the living
enemy, who arouses his passions, so that his judgment
is obscured by his subjective inclinations.^
And here I am reminded that these writers of ours
are in the habit of paying me an undeserved honor.
They applaud me because in one of my essays ^ I, too,
have protested against our being " the people of the
Book." To be sure, they think that I am inconsistently
denying my own " heresy " when I couple this protest
with praise of our " national possessions " and their
natural development, and do not demand, as they do,
the complete destruction of the Book. But here again
they have simply found a new phrase and seized on it,
without examining its true inwardness. My regret
was not for the existence of the Book in itself, but
for its petrifaction. I lamented the fact that its de-
velopment has been arrested, that it no longer corre-
sponds to the inner moral feeling, as it used to do, in
the earlier days of Jewish history, when " the voice
of God in the heart of man " used to draw its inspira-
tion direct from the phenomena of life and nature,
* Genealogie, pp. 82-84.
* "The Law in the Soul." [Not included in this translation.]
236 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
and the Book itself was compelled to change its con-
tents little by little, imperceptibly, in order to conform
to the moral consciousness of the people. And so I
was not advocating the dominance of the sword over
the Book; I was pleading for the dominance of that
moral force which was implanted in our people cen-
turies ago, which itself produced the Book, and re-
newed the spirit of the Book in each successive period,
according to its own needs. It was only after a long
spell of exile that much suffering quelled the spirit,
and the moral feeling practically ceased to develop,
so that there were no further changes made in the
contents of the Book, and the people became abso-
lutely enslaved to a series of lifeless letters. And
it is in accordance with this view, and not in con-
tradiction to it, that I maintained in the essay in
question, as I always maintain, that there is no call for
uprooting, or for proclaiming the change of values with
the blare of trumpets ; but only for the introduction
of what I have called " a new current of life " into
our spiritual world : this new current being " a living
desire for the unity of the nation, for its rebirth, and
its unfettered development along its own lines, as one
of the social units of humanity." This new current
would bring fresh life to our people, and would restore
to it the faculty of moral self-development; and then,
as a natural consequence, the Book, too, would develop
once more, responding to the true needs and demands
of the national spirit, and not to the shrieks of a few
imaginative young men, who have eaten the sour grapes
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 237
of a foreign philosophy, and want the whole nation's
teeth to be set on edge.
On more general grounds, too, these writers of ours
should have studied the laws of historical evolution
a little more deeply before trying their hands at pull-
ing down and building up. It is true that Nietzsche
himself hated historians, and stigmatized Darwin and
Spencer, the authors of the evolutionary theory, as
mediocrities. But this did not prevent even him from
inventing historical hypotheses in order to explain
the progress of morality, or from taking the comer-
stone of his new system from Darwin. These writers
of ours seem to regard the moral code of each nation
as something external, manufactured from beginning
to end by certain individuals, who were fully conscious
of what they were doing, and had a definite end in
view. In order, therefore, that this moral code may
be changed — or, rather, in order that it may be utterly
destroyed, and another set up in its place — all that is
needed is that certain other individuals should pro-
claim, loudly and savagely, that a change of values is
imperative. An idea of this kind was all very well
years ago, in the time of Rousseau and his school.
But these modernest of modern writers, who consider
themselves the writers of the future, ought to know
that you cannot manufacture a new moral code for a
nation, any more than you can manufacture it a new
language. The laws of morality, like those of lan-
guage, are an outcome of the national character ; they
are a fruit which ripens little by little through the
238 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
ages, under the influence of innumerable causes, some
permanent, some transient, not in accordance with a
system laid down and defined at the outset. Hence it
results that in both cases logical contradictions abound,
the norm and the exception live side by side. No
man has the power to pull them down and build them
up according to his desire and taste : they change con-
stantly of their own accord, reflecting the changes in
the nation's circumstances, character, and needs. Now,
despite all this, Volapuk as a language has some value ;
it may serve as an artificial aid in time of need. But
a moral Volapiik is a piece of utter fatuity, as un-
profitable as it is unnecessary ; it serves no purpose but
to waste time, and to confuse ardent young men who
are athirst for exciting novelties. The inventor of
Volapuk, wishing his language to be accepted univers-
ally, found it necessary to expunge the letter r from
his alphabet, because it cannot be pronounced by — the
Chinese. But the authors of our moral Volapiik do
not trouble to inquire as to the capabilities of the
nation for which they are building: they hold a pistol
to your head, and ofifer you the blessing of a new law,
against which every fibre of your being revolts, without
first inquiring whether you can accept it.
" It is a thing of the highest importance to instil
into the minds of the people .... that feeling of
reverence which will teach them that there are certain
things which they may not touch, certain sanctuaries
which they may not approach without removing their
shoes, which must be preserved from the hand of pro-
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 239
fanation. . . . And, on the other side, when we
consider the so-called ' men of culture,' those who
believe in * modern ideas,' there is nothing that so
disgusts us as their apparent lack of a sense of shame,
and that easy effrontery of hand and eye with which
they maul and finger everything."
That is a hard saying, but it is not one for which I
need ask pardon of our Nietzscheans. The saying is
not mine: it comes from their own Bible. It was
Nietzsche who wrote these words; and they were
directed against those who lay irreverent hands on
the Hebrew Book — on the Scriptures. " Such books as
this," he adds, " with their fathomless depth and their
priceless worth, need an external authority, backed by
force, to protect them, in order that they may remain
in existence for all the thousands of years which are
necessary before their wealth can be exhausted." ^
These are the master's words. Hearing, after this,
the words of his Jewish pupils, one cannot resist the
thought that it is better for our children to wander
abroad themselves, and draw the noxious water from
the fountainhead, than to get it at second hand in this
Hebrew " cleft " literature, which promises to reconcile
the claims of Judaism with those of human life in
general.
[A criticism of the foregoing essay appeared in Ha-Shiloah,
to which Ahad Ha-' Am replied in the same journal. The fol-
^Jenseits, p. 254.
240 THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES
lowing paragraph from his reply puts very clearly the point at
issue between the "young men" and himself.]
I have never yet discovered what phraseology or
what style must be used to convince people of the
truth that a belief in the fundamental morality of the
Jewish spirit is not in the least opposed to the ideal
of the national revival, but rather affords the true his-
torical basis and logical substructure of that ideal.
Times beyond number, in all shapes and forms, have
I urged this view. Indeed, if I mistake not, I was one
of the first to point out the absolute necessity of
awakening our dormant genius for morality in order
to overcome the petrifaction which has seized on our
life, and to give us an immediate link with nature,
without the intervention of " the Book." As regards
the very point on which the author of this article
attacks me, I have explained again and again that
there is no inconsistency between the striving after a
healthy national life and the cultivation of our moral
strength. And yet the champions of our " young
men " can still go on repeating that " we must pay
attention also to our physical resources, and strive
after a national life like all other nations." As though
that were anything new! What they have discovered
is not the need for a change, for a return to nature:
that idea they found ready-made in books of the old-
fashioned moral school. The real foundation of their
theory is the antithesis between this need and the bent
towards morality, which has been characteristic of the
Jewish spirit since the Jews existed. Consequently,
THE TRANSVALUATION OF VALUES 241
those who wish to defend them, and to reply to the
criticisms of their opponents, are bound to demon-
strate the reahty of that antithesis, and the necessity
for the destruction of this moral bent. To come and
argue, on behalf of the " young men," simply that
we stand in need of a healthy national life, like all
other nations, is merely to bring coals to Newcastle;
and to add naively that the existence of this need
proves " the moral theory of Rabbi Jehudah Halevi "
obsolete — this shows that the critic is unacquainted
with what he is criticising. For the whole object of
my arguments has been to show that there is no incom-
patibility between the need for a national revival and
the " moral " theory of Judaism, and that this theory
does not necessarily involve acceptance of the point of
view indicated by such phrases as " the people of the
Book," and " exceptions to all historical laws." It is,
on the contrary, actually opposed to that point of view,
because it attempts to apply universal historical laws to
Jewish life, and for that very reason cannot stomach the
Ideas of our " young men," who ride roughshod over
history and its universal laws.
z6
A NEW SAVIOR
(1901)
The Annual Meeting of the Council of the Jewish
Colonization Association, held at Paris in October last,
at which the fate of the Jewish agricultural laborers
in Palestine was decided, is now a matter of history.
These unfortunate laborers sent a deputation to Paris,
to call on the members of the Council before the meet-
ing, and explain the position to each one separately,
so that he might be able to consider the matter at
leisure, and need not say a hasty Amen to other people's
views at the meeting itself. There were gentlemen
among the members of the Council who received the
deputation courteously, and listened to their sugges-
tions with patience and sympathy, though they knew
beforehand that these suggestions had no chance of
being carried out. But one member shut his door in
the face of the humble Palestinians, and gave them,
instead of spoken comfort, a written insult — a proced-
ure which was hardly becoming to a cultured aristocrat
of his type. He thus laid himself open to the suspicion
of entertaining a hatred and contempt for Oriental
Jews so strong as to overcome the good breeding of
the Frenchman, and make him trample under heel
the rudiments of polite behavior.
A NEW SAVIOR 243
But, in truth, we mortals judge by appearances. The
end of the story puts a different color on the beginning,
and shows that this gentleman, at the very time when
he was outwardly so unkind to these unfortunate men,
was secretly bubbling over with sympathy for all his
unhappy brethren in the East. We find that while the
laborers' deputation stood on his door-step and could
not gain admittance, he was sitting in his study and
seeking a remedy for an evil far greater than the hard
case of some hundreds of workmen : to wit, the moral
and material poverty of all the myriads of Jews in the
East.
Nor did he seek in vain. Scarce had the ink dried
on the pen with which he wrote his reply to the
deputation and their " insane suggestions " (proposi-
tions insensees), when lo and behold! he writes and
publishes in a French Jewish paper an article on " The
Internal Emancipation of Judaism," in which he calls
on the " enlightened " Jews of the West to unite in
aid of their brethren in the East, so as to free them
from that " inner slavery " in which they are sunk at
present, and which is responsible for all their troubles.
Another contributor to the same journal attacks his
views, of course with much bowing and scraping and
profuse expressions of gratitude, in the name of Juda-
ism, for the fact that so great a man should patronize
it, and condescend to take an interest in its problems ;
and our distinguished friend actually goes to the
trouble of writing a second and even a third article,
both breathing an intense pity for his poor benighted
244 A NEW SAVIOR
brethren, so sadly in need of the light which he is pre-
pared, at some personal sacrifice, to shed on them —
although (this may be read quite clearly between the
lines) he is what he is and they are what they are ! ^
Now what, think you, is this " inner slavery " with
which we are infected? It is nothing more or less
than the observance of the Sabbath and the dietary
laws. The dietary laws make our meat dear, and
prevent us from having the benefit of " healthy and
cheap forms of food, such as swine's flesh " ; and the
Sabbath involves heavy loss to business men, and does
not allow poor men to obtain work in factories. But
this, in the opinion of our distinguished friend, is not
the main point. To lose money is a bad thing; but
much worse, much more bitter, is the moral loss in
which these rites involve us. " Now, when the progress
of science and the moral consciousness has done so
much to draw the hearts of men nearer together, the
Jews are cut oif by their religious precepts, which sur-
round them with a gulf deeper than that of hatred
and prejudice, by encouraging the false idea that they
are strangers among the nations." " This is the real
yellow badge, which we must remove from our breth-
ren " — such is the trumpet-call with which our dis-
tinguished friend concludes his last article.
Do you wish for proof that all these rites have lost
their potency ? Why, " almost all those Jews who,
since the time of Spinoza have been to the outside
^S. Reinach, L'emancipation interieure du judalsme (L'Uni-
vers Israelite, nos. 6, 8, 12).
A NEW SAVIOR 24S
world the fine flower of Judaism, have emancipated
.themselves more or less completely from religious
observances. The belief in one God, the belief in
progress and the triumph of right, the bed-rock on
which the Jewish outlook is based, have nothing to
fear from the abolition of the Sabbath and the dietary
laws." Of course, our distinguished friend is himself
one of those Jews who are to the outside world the
fine flower of Judaism, and so he is not ashamed to
open his door to the world (that same door which was
closed in the faces of the poor laborers), and let every-
body see how things are conducted inside. " I do
not ask for emancipation for myself: I have already
achieved it, and need no external aid. But I do ask for
an attempt to emancipate, by means of organized
propaganda, the great mass of the members of my
communion, the poor who believe."
The thought may spring to one's mind, If he was
able to emancipate himself without external aid, is it
not possible that the poor Eastern Jews also may attain
the same result by their own efforts, without his
assistance, when circumstances really make it neces-
sary that they should do so? But our distinguished
friend scouts any such idea. These poor people be-
lieve that religious ceremonies are holy, and must not
be touched ; " and in order to show them their mistake,
there is need of reasoned argument, explanation of
the social basis of morality, historical expositions, and
so forth, all of which must be brought to them from
without." The Jews of France were able to emanci-
246 A NEW SAVIOR
pate themselves from the burden of these observances,
" because they lived in an atmosphere of enlighten-
ment " ; but the case of the Eastern Jews is different.
" How can you hope," cries our author, " that all the
millions of Jews in Russia and Roumania will be
brought into an atmosphere of philosophy and science
like ours in the West? It is heartless, then, to expect
them to emancipate themselves. We must assist them."
Assist them — but how and wherewith?
The answer is very simple. The emancipated West-
ern Jews are to put into our hands the weapon which
we lack, rational criticism, and with this weapon we
are to cut the stout cords that bind us; and then we
are free ! It is a very powerful weapon, this of rational
criticism. By its means " it is possible to awaken
doubts in simple, trusting minds ; it is possible to make
respectable inhabitants of every small Polish town ask
the hitherto forbidden question, Why do we not follow
the example of our Western fellow-Jews ? Why should
we not be content to be Jews of their type ? "
And while he is waiting for others to come and help
him in bringing us this weapon of rational criticism,
our author does his own little best, and stretches out
to us, for the time being, just the butt-end of the
knife, in this wise : Do you imagine, he says, that
from time immemorial the Sabbath has been a day of
rest for the weary, and that it has therefore a moral
value? You are mistaken! Even before the giving
of the Law it was the practice to refrain from work on
that day, because it was regarded as a day of evil
A NEW SAVIOR 247
omen, on which nothing could prosper ^ ; and this is
an idle superstition, which must be rooted out. Do
you think, again, that from time immemorial your
ancestors used to sacrifice their lives for the sanctity
of the Sabbath, and would suffer heavy loss rather
than profane it? You are mistaken! Mattathias,
the father of the Hasrnoneans, allowed his men to de-
fend themselves against .the enemy even on the Sab-
bath. This proves that self-preservation is the first
of all laws ; and therefore you, too, are in duty bound
to go to your work on the Sabbath, in order not to
suffer loss in your business ; you, too, are in duty bound
not to waste your money on kasher meat, when swine's
flesh is so cheap.
So this weapon of rational criticism is not a very
sharp one, nor a very new one. On its own merits,
indeed, it is not worth a moment's notice, after a
century of attempts at " religious reform," many of
which have been much more able and intelligent. But
the novelty of this attempt lies not in itself, but in
its being made for the sake of other people, as a kind
of charity ; and for this reason I have thought it worth
bringing to the notice of our own community.
Throughout the nineteenth century we have been used
to seeing the Reformers working each for the benefit
of the Jews in his own country, and leaving the Jews
in other countries to look after themselves and intro-
' This is a well-known theory, based on records of a Sabbath
of this kind in the ancient history of Babylon. See for example
Sayce, Religion of the Ancient Babylonians (1887), p. 76.
248 A NEIV SAVIOR
duce reforms suited to their own way of thinking and
the local conditions, of which they were the best
judges. But now we have a really fin-de-sihle idea
in Reform: to send a reforming weapon of foreign
manufacture to .those poorer brethren who lived in
countries where it is not produced.
One is inclined to smile at the simplicity of this
learned scholar; but the smile vanishes as one remem-
bers that it is men of this kind who stand at the head
of powerful organizations, whose yea or nay deter-
mines the fate of measures of the highest importance
in our national life. We are not concerned here with
the learned scholar, the member of the Academic
frangaise; we have already grown accustomed to these
scholars who do not know their people, and hurl their
utterances down from the lofty heights of Olympus.
But here we have a man who has been appointed a
steward of the congregation, of the whole people, who
is one of the leading members of the Jewish Coloniza-
tion Association and the Alliance: and this man is so
far removed from the general body of his people as to
suppose, in all sincerity and simplicity, that the myriads
of Eastern Jews have never heard this profound wis-
dom of his, and are incapable of grasping it, unless he
and his like hand them the " weapon of rational criti-
cism." If you tell him that this same weapon has
been lying about our streets for years past, and has
actually become rusty, he will not believe you, or, what
is worse, will not understand you, even if he does be-
lieve. Men of this kind, themselves without any
A NEW SAVIOR 249
vestige of true Jewish feeling, cannot by any means
be brought to understand how there can be among us
intelligent men, familiar with all the theories of the
learned world about the origin of the Sabbath and the
other religious observances, who know also what our
author himself affects not to know, that even " the
bed-rock on which the Jewish outlook is based " did
not spring into being full-grown, but was gradually
evolved, like the conception of the Sabbath, out of the
crude beliefs and emotions of primitive man, and who
can still find the Sabbath a delight, can respect and
hold sacred the day which has been sanctified by the
blood of our people, and has preserved it for thousands
of years from spiritual degeneration, although they
may not be scrupulously careful as regards all the
details of the multifarious kinds of forbidden work.
They cannot understand how such men, though they
may not be very particular about what they eat away
from home, can still observe Kashrut in their
houses, because they do not wish their tables to be
regarded as unclean by the Jewish public: not that
they fear the public, as our author erroneously sup-
poses in one of his essays, but that they value the
national tie that unites them with it: and how even
those who act otherwise would yet regard it as the
height of impertinence for a Jew to boast publicly
that he is no longer at one with the great mass of his
people as regards his domestic life and his food. All
this is quite unintelligible to Western communal leaders
of the type of our author. And not only that : even the
250 A NEW SAVIOR
real significance of historical events, which are all that
remains to them of Judaism, is now quite beyond their
comprehension, because they have lost the national
feeling. Remember Mattathias the Priest, that national
hero who turned his back in scorn and loathing on the
Syrian officer, with his promises of life and wealth and
glory, and sacrificed himself and his family for the
honor of his people and his religion. Remember that
passionate cry of his, " Our holy things, our pride and
our glory, have been laid waste ; why then should we
live?" This is the hero whom our French savior
brings in evidence that it is our duty to abolish the
Sabbath, because " a man must live " ! Our Member
of the Academy does not understand that if Mattathias
allowed fighting on the Sabbath, he only did so in
order to preserve the whole nation, in order that the
Jews might be able to remain separate from other
nations in their inner life, and develop in their own
way as a distinct and individual people. That is to
say, his purpose was exactly the reverse of that with
which our distinguished friend now suggests the
abolition of the Sabbath. If IMattathias had heard
our friend putting him to this use, and then adding
that " in our day the Jews are no longer a nation," I
fear that he might have treated him as he treated the
first Jew who went up to the Syrian altar.
One is reminded of the Polish nobles of a former
generation, and the way in which they treated " their "
Jews, The poor Jew stands with bared head before his
lord, as needs he must for his belly's sake ; and the lord
A NEW SAVIOR 251
treats him with the utmost contempt, imagining the
while, guileless creature that he is, that the Jew him-
self is conscious of his own worthlessness, and ac-
knowledges the lofty superiority of his lord and feeder.
He does not know that in his heart of hearts the Jew
despises him and his like, and thinks nothing of all
their glory and riches and wisdom, because he is fully
aware that he himself, for all his material poverty,
stands morally far above all these lords of his, who are
slaves to this temporary life. So it is with us and our
distinguished brethren of the West. They see the
Jews of the East coming to beg material aid of them
in time of .trouble ; and apparently they are crass
enough to suppose that these Jews confess also to a
spiritual inferiority, and are waiting for the West to
emancipate them not only from their external poverty,
but also from their inner slavery. Could these saviors
of ours but know what we think of them, of that inner
slavery to which tJwy condemn themselves when they
barter their national spirit for paper privileges; of
that " slavery in freedom " of which the French Jews
have taken so liberal a dose: could they but know
this, they might perhaps understand how profound is
the contempt which we, ingrates that we are, return
them for their kindness when they come to emancipate
us from our spiritual bondage.
Slaves that you are, emancipate yourselves first!
But you cannot! It is not in you to emancipate
yourselves. " It is heartless to expect you to emanci-
pate yourselves." That is a task beyond your moral
252 A NEW SAVIOR
strength. It is not you, but we, " the poor who be-
lieve," in the East, who will emancipate you from that
inner slavery in which, all unconscious, you are sunk.
We will fill your spiritual emptiness with Jewish,
feeling; we will bring you Judaism, not the fair-
sounding, meaningless lip-phrase which is your con-
fession of faith, but a living Judaism of the heart;
inspired with the will and the power to develop and to
renew its strength. And then you will change your
tune about slavery and emancipation.
If you have eyes to see what is going on around
you, use them! Here are these paupers coming
from the East, and beginning already to exercise an in-
fluence on your communities, while you disdain to take
notice of them. Even so the lordly Romans in their
day looked down with contempt on the " paupers
from the East," until these paupers came and over-
turned their world.
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL*
(1902)
It is not a mere accident that the question of Jewish
culture has come to the front with the rise of " poHti-
cal "' Zionism, Zionism — unquaHfied by any epithet —
existed before, but it knew nothing of any problem
of culture. It knew only its own plain and simple
aim : that of placing the Hebrew nationality in new
conditions, which should give it the possibility of de-
veloping all the various sides of its individuality. This
being the aim of the earlier Zionists, the first article
in their programme was naturally the creation of a
fixed, independent centre for our nationality in our
ancestral land. But at the same time they kept a
watchful eye on every side of the Hfe of the Hebrew
nationality as it exists at present, and used every suit-
able means of strengthening it and promoting its de-
velopment. A society of Zionists in Warsaw, for in-
stance, was engaged at one and the same time in
founding a colony in Palestine, a school of the modern
type in Warsaw, and an association for the diffusion
' [This essay was originally an address delivered before the
general meeting of Russian Zionists at Minsk, in the summer of
1902. Only a part of it, that part which deals with the question
of Jewish culture in its broader aspects, is here translated. The
omitted portion is not of any considerable length.]
254 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
of Hebrew literature. That is to say, these men
thought it their duty to combine " poHtical " with
" cultural " work ; and all this in the name of Zionism
(or Hibbat Zion, as it was then called). Nobody
challenged this combination; nobody raised the ques-
tion whether this " cultural " work was right or wrong,
obligatory or permissible. It was understood on all
sides that the conception of Zionism must include all
that comes within the definition of Hebrew nationality.
Any piece of work which would assist in strengthen-
ing and developing the nationality was Zionist work
beyond all manner of doubt.
And now a new Zionism has arisen, and has adopted
the term " political " as its descriptive epithet. What,
we may inquire, is the- precise point of this epithet?
It adds nothing to the older Zionism, for Zionism has
always been, in its hopes for the distant future, essen-
tially " political." From its inception Zionism had at
its very root the hope of attaining in Palestine, at some
distant date, absolute independence in the conduct of
the national life. That was a necessary condition of
the unhindered and complete development of the
national individuality. Now, even the newer Zionism
cannot bring the Messiah " to-day or to-morrow " ;
hence it also is " political " only in its hopes for the
future. Small wonder then that the epithet, which
clearly added nothing, was often understood as tak-
ing something away. It was taken by political Zion-
ists to mean something like this : The earlier Zionists
included in Zionism everything germane to the de-
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 255
velopment of the Hebrew national individuality;
whereas for us it has only a political aim. Zionism
for us means simply the foundation in Palestine, by
means of diplomatic negotiations with Turkey and other
powers, of a " safe refuge " for all oppressed and per-
secuted Jews, who cannot live under tolerable condi-
tions in their native countries, and seek a means of
escape from poverty and hunger. Even the Basle pro-
gramme helped to fix this idea in people's minds, be-
cause in its first paragraph it defined the aim of Zion-
ism thus : " To found in Palestine a safe refuge for
the Jewish people," and made no mention of the Jew-
ish nationality. The various speeches of Zionist leaders
at Basle, in London, and elsewhere, which were a sort
of commentary on this paragraph, stated emphatically
and repeatedly that Zionism had come to solve once
for all the economic and political problem of the Jews ;
that its aim was to gather all the oppressed of Israel
into one place, into the Jewish State, where they could
live in security, and be no longer foreigners and aliens,
whose struggle for existence excites the jealousy and
ill-will of the native population. This is not the place
to examine this form of Zionism with a view to dis-
covering how far its promises as to the solution of the
Jewish problem were capable of fulfilment in the
natural course of events. I have dealt with this point
on several occasions elsewhere. Here I only wish to
point out that these promises had the effect of attract-
ing attention mainly to the political aspect of Zionism,
until the Zionist conception became narrowed down,
and lost half its meaning.
2s6 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
Thus the " problem of culture " was a child of
political Zionism. For centuries our people have suf-
fered torments for the sake of the preservation of the
products of their national spirit, seeing in these pro-
ducts the be-all and end-all of their existence. And
now that they have at last come to recognize that suf-
fering alone is not enough, but that it is necessary to
work actively for the national revival — now, forsooth,
it has become a " question," whether the strengthening
of the national spirit and the development of the
nation's spiritual products are essential parts of the
work of the revival. And this question is answered
by many in the negative !
But it must be added that this negative attitude, if
we may trust those who adopt it, does not involve any
opposition to " cultural " work as such. " Far be it
from us," they say, " to deny the usefulness of such
work. Though we do not regard it as Zionist work,
we do not say that Zionists should not take it up. On
the contrary, we actually encourage them to take part
in cultural work so far as they can. But we do not
wish to make it obligatory on them, because that would
be mixing up Zionism with matters which are not essen-
tial to it, and have no necessary connection with its
principles." Certainly it cannot be denied that many
of these Zionists, who regard " culture " as something
foreign to the conception of Zionism, do in fact take
part in cultural work, do in fact found schools and
libraries, and in some cases even help in the diffusion
of Hebrew literature and so forth. Nay, more : if you
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 257
examine Zionist societies in various places, you will
find that it is precisely such work that keeps them
alive. Wherever a Zionist society really lives, its life
is generally a result of cultural work, because such
work can obtain a hold on the members, and give them
the opportunity of devoted and persistent activity of
a concrete nature, which has a visible usefulness. And,
on the other hand, where a society is content to do no
more for Zionism than sell " shekolim " and shares and
hold " political " lectures, there you will generally
notice a feeling of emptiness and the absence of a
life-giving force ; and in the end such a society pines
and wastes away for lack of food, for lack, that is, of
solid and constant work, which can rivet the attention,
occupy the mind, and rouse the emotions and the will
without intermission. All this is quite true. But to
what conclusion does it drive us? Those who oppose
" culture " conclude that there is no need to talk a
great deal about " cultural work," or to argue and
dispute about the purely theoretical question, whether
such work is essentially bound up with the conception
of Zionism, or not. This question, they say, is purely
one of theory ; in actual practice most Zionists do per-
form their share of this work to the best of their ability.
But this conclusion is right only from the point of
view of the interests of culture ; it is not right from that
of the interests of Zionism. It may be true that cul-
tural work needs no express sanction from Zionism,
so long as Zionism, in its purely political form, cannot
provide its adherents with any other form of work
17
258 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
which has greater attractions and a stronger hold. So
long as that is the case, political Zionism is bound to
rely on the help of cultural work, which is better able
to satisfy .the mind and provide an outlet for the
energies of those who detest waste of time and idle
talk. But if this sanction is not necessary to culture,
it is most emphatically necessary to Zionism. Every
.true lover of Zionism must realize the danger which
it incurs through the diffusion of the idea that it has
no concern with anything except diplomacy and finan-
cial transactions, and that all internal national work
is a thing apart, which has no lot or portion in Zion-
ism itself. If this idea gains general acceptance, it
will end by bringing Zionism very low indeed. It
will make Zionism an empty, meaningless phrase, a
mere romance of diplomatic embassies, interviews with
high personages, promises, et hoc gcmis omne. Such
a romance appeals to the imagination ; but it leaves no
room for creative work, which alone can slake the
thirst for activity.
When, therefore, we demand a clear and explicit
statement that work for the revival of the national
spirit and the development of its products is of the
very essence of Zionism, and that Zionism is incon-
ceivable without such work, we are not giving utter-
ance to a mere empty formula, or fighting for a name.
We are endeavoring to save the honor of Zionism, and
to preserve it from that narrowness and decay which
will be the inevitable, though undesired, result of the
action of those leaders and champions of the movement
who wish to confine it to the political aspect.
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 259
But before we attempt to make cultural work a
part of the Zionist programme, we must distinguish
between the two branches of that work. These two
branches, though they differ in kind, have hitherto
been confused, with the result that the question has
become still further complicated.
The degree of culture to which a nation has attained
may be estimated from two points of view : from that
of the culture which it has produced, and from that
of the state of its cultural life at any given time. In
other words, " culture " has both an objective and a sub-
jective meaning. Objectively, a nation's culture is
something which has a reality of its own : it is the con-
crete expression of the best minds of the nation in every
period of its existence. The nation expresses itself
in certain definite forms, which remain for all time,
and are no longer dependent on those who created
them, any more than a fallen apple is dependent on
the tree from which it fell. For instance, we still
have the benefit of Greek culture : we drink in the
wisdom of Greek philosophers, and enjoy the poetry
and the art which that great nation has left us, though
the nation itself, which created all this culture, has
vanished from the face of the earth. But the " state
of the cultural life " of any nation is purely subjective
and temporary: it means the degree to which culture
is diffused among the individual members of the nation,
and the extent to which its influence is visible in their
private and public life. The " state of the cultural life "
is thus essentially dependent on the individuals of whom
26o THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
it is predicated, and with them it passes and changes
from one period to another.
Culture in the objective sense and culture in the
subjective sense do not necessarily reach the same
degree of development at the same time. There are
periods in the history of a nation in which all its spirit-
ual strength is concentrated in a few exceptionally
gifted minds ; and these produce an original culture
of high value, which the generality of their country-
men (such is their " state of culture " at that par-
ticular time) cannot even fully understand. The
England of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
affords an illustration. Shakespeare, Bacon, Locke,
Hume, and the other great English writers of that
period, a large body of men, relatively speaking, created
new worlds in literature and philosophy, by the light
of which men still walk at the present day. But the
great mass of the English people was then in a low
state of culture, which did not by any means corre-
spond to the level reached by these giants. On the
other hand, the intellectual forces of a nation in a
particular period may find their expression in the gen-
eral state of culture : education may be universal and
the tone of life throughout enlightened and refined :
while, at the same time, this culture may be barren,
producing no master-minds able to express the spirit
of the nation in original creative work, but dependent
entirely on its own past, or on borrowings from other
nations. This is the condition, for instance, of the
Swiss at the present day. They are all educated in
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 261
excellent schools, which satisfy the highest demands
of European enlightenment; in many departments of
the national life they show a high, and perhaps un-
equalled, level of culture. But from the point of view
of objective culture Switzerland is unproductive : as
yet there has arisen no great creative intellect, capable
of embodying the Swiss spirit in an original national
culture; and even the best teachers in the Swiss uni-
versities have to be imported from abroad.
In dealing, therefore, with the question of spread-
ing culture among the Jewish people, we must remem-
ber that there are two terms involved : on the one hand,
the culture (in the objective sense) which we wish to
spread; on the other hand, the people in relation to
that culture. Our task thus falls into two halves. We
have in the first place to perfect the body of culture
which the Jewish people has created in the past, and
to stimulate its creative power to fresh expression ;
and in the second place to raise the cultural level of
the people in general, and to make its objective culture
the subjective possession of each of its individual mem-
bers. And in order to discover what we ought to do,
and what we can do, in each of these two directions,
we must clearly understand the position and the needs
both of the culture and of the people.
I propose to deal in turn with each of the two halves
into which I have divided the main question.
The existence of an original Hebrew culture needs
no proof. So long as the Bible is extant, the creative
power of the Jewish mind will remain undeniable.
262 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
Even those who deny that the Jews are a people at
the present day are compelled to admit that when they
were a people they were a creative people, and the pro-
ducts of their creative power bear the indelible impress
of their native genius. This being so, all .those of us
who believe, or rather feel, that the Jews are still a
people, have the right to believe equally, without look-
ing for any special proof, that the Jewish creative
genius still lives, and is capable of expressing itself
anew. But a different idea has gained currency of
late, and especially among Zionists : to wit, that there
is no true Hebrew culture outside the Scriptures, which
the Jews produced while they lived and worked in a
normal manner on their own land ; that all the litera-
ture of the Diaspora does not express the true Hebrew
genius, and has no connection with the earlier litera-
ture, because the heavy yoke of exile crushed the
creative faculty and made it sterile. Those Zionists
who hold this view apparently think that it strengthens
the case for Zionism, because it belittles yet another
side of the life of the exile. But as a matter of fact,
if this view were correct, we should be compelled to
doubt whether there were any hope for a revival of our
creative power, even after the return to our own land.
Every vital function which ceases to work becomes
weaker and weaker, until at last it atrophies ; and two
thousand years of disuse would be sufficient to kill
the strongest function imaginable. But, fortunately,
this view has no foundation. The unfavorable condi-
tions in which we have lived since the Dispersion have
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 263
naturally left their mark on our literary work; but
the Jewish genius has undergone no change in its
essential characteristics, and has never ceased to pro-
duce. For instance, it is the fashion amongst non-
Jewish scholars (and of course most Jewish scholars
adopt the fashion, as usual) to emphasize the essen-
tial and fundamental difference between the teaching
of the Prophets and the practical Judaism which grew
up in the time of the second Temple, and received its
final form after the destruction of that Temple. The
teaching of the Prophets, they say, was exclusively
moral, and was directed towards a lofty spiritual ideal ;
whereas the later practical Judaism concerned itself
only with external regulations, and wasted its strength
in the creation of innumerable trivial ordinances, with
no moral value whatever. The difference is, in their
view, so patent that it cannot possibly be denied. And
yet, if we look more closely, we shall find that these two
Judaisms, widely as they differ in content, are products
of one and the same spirit, whose impress they bear
in common. It is a fundamental characteristic of the
Jews that they do not readily compromise, and have
no love for half measures. When once they have
recognized the truth of a particular conception, and
made it a basis of action, they give themselves wholly
to it, and strive to work out its every detail in practice ;
there is no regard for side issues, no concession to
existing interests. It was this characteristic that pro-
duced first of all, in the days of our freedom, the
teaching of the Prophets, with its extreme insistence
264 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
• . "^
on morality; it was this that produced afterwards, in
the days when we were slaves, the teaching of the
Talmud and the Shulhan 'Aruk, with its equally
extreme insistence on practice. The nation was driven
to emphasize the aspect of practical observance by
the necessity of preserving itself in conditions of
slavery and dispersion : hence the belief that " the Holy
One, blessed be He, wished to bestow merit on Israel ;
wherefore he multiplied for them the Law and the
commandments." Once entered on the path of the mul-
tiplication of commandments, we went on multiplying
and multiplying without end. We did not discrimi-
nate between the important and the trivial; we could
not give up the pettiest of petty details.
The national creative power, then, is not dead; it
has not changed, nor has it ceased to bear fruit in its
own way; only the changed conditions have given its
fruit a different taste. The fruit produced by a tree
in the place where it grows naturally and freely is un-
like that which it bears when it is preserved by arti-
ficial means in a strange soil; and yet the tree is the
same in its essential nature, and so long as it lives it
produces fruit of its own specific kind. So it is with
the Hebrew spirit : it bore fruit after its own kind, and
created a literature in a mould original and peculiar
to itself, not only while the Jews lived in their own
country, but also in the lands of their exile, so long as
the conditions were such as to leave the nation any
possibility of devoting its whole spiritual energy to its
own work.
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 265
It is only in the latest period, that of emancipation
and assimilation, that Hebrew culture has really be-
come sterile, and has borne practically no fresh fruit
at all. This does not mean that our creative power
has been suddenly destroyed, or that we are no longer
capable of doing original work. It is the tendency to
sink the national individuality, and merge it in that
of other nations, that has produced two characteristic
phenomena of this period : on the one hand, the con-
scious and deliberate neglect of our original spiritual
qualities and the striving to be like other people
in every possible way; on the other hand, the loss to
ourselves of the most gifted men whom we have pro-
duced in the last few generations, and their abandon-
ment of Jewish national work for a life devoted to the
service of other nations.
Indeed, these very men, with their great gifts, are
themselves a proof that we still have within us, as a
people, a perennial spring of living creative power.
For try as they will to conceal their Jewish character-
istics, and to embody in their work the national spirit
of the people whose livery they have adopted, the light
of literary and artistic criticism reveals quite clearly
their almost universal failure. Despite themselves, the
spirit of Judaism comes to the surface in all that they
attempt, and gives their work a special and distinc-
tive character, which is not found in the work of non-
Jewish laborers in the same field. It is beyond dispute,
therefore, that, if all these scattered forces had been
combined in working for our own national culture, as
266 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
in earlier times, that culture would be to-day one of
the richest and most original in the whole world. We
might attempt to find satisfaction in this thought. But,
unfortunately, it can only serve to increase our de-
spondency, when we see our people exporting without
importing, and scattering the sparks of its spiritual
fire in all directions, to augment the wealth and the
fame of its enemies and its persecutors, while for itself
it has no enjoyment of its own wealth, and its national
treasury is none the richer for all the work of its most
gifted sons. At the present day we are suffering
heavily from that " evil " which the writer of Eccle-
siastes long ago noticed as " heavy upon men," —
" a man to w'hom God giveth riches, wealth, and honor
.... yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof,
but a stranger eateth it."
But we have already gone so far in renouncing our
national individuality that we are no longer even con-
scious of the evil ; and the dispersion of our intellectual
forces scarce claims a passing sigh of regret. Nay,
when we see a Jew earning fame by distinguished work
in any non- Jewish w^orld of culture, our hearts swell
with pride and joy, and we hasten to proclaim from the
housetops that " so-and-so is one of our people,"
though " so-and-so " may be doing his utmost to for-
get and bury the relationship. Occasionally such
an incident as this may provoke some of us to lament
the sorry plight of a nation which can only till the
fields of other peoples, while its own lies neglected and
untended ; but many of our " superior " and " broad-
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 267
minded " brothers treat us with a lofty contempt, and
regard our complaint as treason to " humanity."
" What do we care," you will hear them argue,
" whether a man works for his own people or for
another? Enough that his work benefits humanity at
large. The good of humanity — ^.that is the one ideal
of the future; to set up any other is a sign of petty
tribalism and narrow-mindedness." This is certainly
a " broad " view : but it overlooks the fact that great-
ness is a matter not of breadth only, but of depth. In
reality, this view, for all its breadth, is utterly super-
ficial. For consider the two sides of the antithesis.
In the one case a man works among his own people,
in the environment which gave him birth and endowed
him with his special aptitude, which encircled the first
slow growth of his faculties and implanted in him the
rudiments of his human consciousness, his fundamental
ideas and feelings, thus determining in his childhood
what should be the bent and character of his mind
throughout his life. In the other case he works among
an alien people, in a world that is not his own, and in
which he cannot become at home unless he artificially
change his nature and the current of his mind, thereby
inevitably tearing himself into two disparate halves,
and foredooming all his work to reveal, in its character
and its products, this want of harmony and wholeness.
Is there really no difference?
It follows, then, that humanity at large suffers to
some extent from the dispersion of our cultural forces ;
and therefore our staunchest champions of humanity
268 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
have a perfect right to share unhesitatingly in our con-
cern at this dispersion. But even if they think that
the loss to humanity is not so great as to justify them
in feeling concerned about it, we at least, we who are
nationalists, need not be ashamed, I think, to publish
abroad our distress at this enslavement of our capaci-
ties to alien races, and at the resulting loss to our in-
ternal national life. Even the most ardent " liberals,"
whose watchword is humanity, and whose lodestar
is progress, even they certainly permit themselves and
others to take suitable measures for attaining their
own particular ends, so long as those measures do not
involve any loss to humanity or progress; and if this
is permitted to individuals in their private lives, why
should it be forbidden to a whole nation in its national
life? We need not, therefore, answer those who ask
what humanity loses by our loss : it is rather for them
to explain to us what humanity gains by our loss, and
what humanity would lose if we, and not an alien peo-
ple, were to derive a national advantage from the men
of genius whom we produce ; if we, and not an alien
people, were to lay on the altar of humanity the offer-
ings of our own sons, who owe to us their existence
and their inspiration.
Recently, for instance, we buried and mourned for
Antokolsky. While the tears yet flow for the prema-
ture death of this great artist, the time has not come
to examine in detail, and without fear or favor, his
relation on the one hand to his own people, which gave
him inspiration and genius, and on the other hand to
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 269
the alien nation from which he derived riches and
honor. But there is one general truth which we cannot
hide. The mourning which his death has caused
throughout the whole world, and especially in his native
land, must cause us a secret pang, when we see that
others arrogate to themselves the glory of his name
now that he is dead, just as they took the fruits of his
genius while he was alive : and we, meanwhile, can
only reflect sadly on what Antokolsky might have
given, but did not give, to his people, and on the terri-
ble poverty and degradation of our national position,
but for which men like Antokolsky would not look
abroad for an outlet for their genius.
And who will dare to say that this pang which we
feel is a sin against humanity and progress? How
would progress have suffered, what would humanity
have lost, if Antokolsky had devoted his genius, or at
least some considerable portion of it, to the service of
his own people's culture ; if the matter which he en-
dowed with form and soul had been taken from our
national life, which was undoubtedly much closer to
him in spirit, much more intelligible to him, than the
alien life in which he sought his subjects ?
Of course, it is easy to solve the difficulty by a gen-
eralization. It is easy to say — and we do in fact hear
it said very often — that Jewish life is very circum-
scribed, and does not afford sufficient material for a
creative work of genius ; that therefore great artists
are compelled to rely on non- Jewish life as a medium
for the expression of their ideas. But this solution
270 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
vanishes like smoke as soon as we pass from the gen-
eralization to the individual instances. Thus, to take
one example, Antokolsky wished to produce a statue
of a violent and cruel tyrant, steeped in bloodshed,
universally dreaded, and yet not wholly dead to the
voice of conscience, but alternating always between
crime and repentance. Could there be a more perfect
type of such a tyrant than Herod, as history portrays
his character and his actions? And if Antokolsky
nevertheless chose as his model not Herod, but the
Russian king, Ivan the Terrible, was it really because
there was a richer and fuller interest, a more broadly
human appeal, in the figure of this obscure tyrant,
almost unknown outside his own country, and scarcely
intelligible to any but his own countrymen, than in
that of Herod, which was bound up by a thousand
links with the general culture of his era, which exer-
cised a certain influence on the history of the world,
and which was certainly familiar to the artist himself
before ever he heard even the name of Ivan the Terri-
ble? And here is yet another instance. When Anto-
kolsky wished to create a type of a lonely recluse,
writing his books in the isolation of his own chamber,
he went back to the eleventh century, to a monastery
in Kieff, to find the well-known Russian monkish
chronicler Nestor; whereas he had seen in his own
birthplace, Wilna, a recluse type of a much broader
human appeal, and much closer to himself in spirit —
the type, I mean, of the " perpetual student " whom a
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 271
Hebrew poet has so brilliantly depicted/ the recluse
who does not shut himself out of the world in a monas-
tery, but lives in society, and is yet as far as any monk
from the bustle and turmoil of life, knowing no world
but that of the books which he reads, or, if he is a
great man, the books which he writes. When Anto-
kolsky was a small boy he must certainly have listened
with reverence to the stories told by the old men of his
town about the great recluse who lived there a hundred
years before, whose whole life was one long day of
study and writing, without pause or rest. But Anto-
kolsky, the great artist, did not remember the Gaon of
Wilna, who fired the boy's imagination : he wandered
far afield to a medieval Russian monastery, outside
the ken of himself and his ancestors, in order to find
there what he could have found among his own people,
and in his own town.
Was this really so necessar}^ so essential to the wel-
fare of art and the good of humanity, that we have
no right to lament our loss, and to lament it aloud?
Yet there were some among us who thought it their
duty to hide this national grief under the veil of love
for humanity; and some of these even allowed them-
selves, according to reports in the press, to bear false
witness against their people over the coffin, actually
congratulating the house of Israel on the fact that
* [Ch. N. Bialik, the greatest poet produced by the modern
Hebrew revival, has drawn in his "Ha-Matmid" a masterly
picture of the "perpetual student," who allows himself scarcely
five hours' rest in the twenty-four from the study of the
Talmud.]
272 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
Antokolsky's genius and his creations had passed into
other ownership ! ^ And the endeavor to show the
world how far we are always prepared to shrink and
double ourselves up in order to make room for others,
has gone to such lengths that Jewish writers have not
stopped short of disclaiming, with gratuitous generos-
ity, the characteristics of their own people, and ascrib-
ing them to others, in order that they might be able to
point out that Antokolsky was a Russian to the very
core. " The characteristics of Antokolsky's work," so
writes a Jew in a Jewish paper, " are essentially char-
acteristic of Russian art in general: idealism in con-
ception and realism in execution You cannot
find among Antokolsky's productions even one dedi-
cated exclusively to beauty of form, say of the human
body. He always looks for the soul abiding in that
body." ^ So these characteristics, which have notori-
ously distinguished the spirit of Israel from time imme-
morial, came to Antokolsky not from his own people,
but, if you please, because he acquired " the essential
characteristics of Russian art " !
But Antokolsky is not the only Jew who has conse-
crated the force of his genius to the service of an alien
people. All our greatest artists, thinkers, and writers
do the like. They leave our humble cottage as soon
as they feel that their exceptional abilities will open
the doors of splendid palaces. And when they achieve
greatness and renown, we gaze at their elevation from
* See the Voschod, July ii, 1902 (no. 28).
' The Jewish Chronicle, July 25, 1902.
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 273
afar, and share in the pride and the joy which they
feel at having had the good fortune to escape from
our darkness into the foreign hght. But even this
pitiable pride of ours is regarded by our enemies as
the height of impudence: as though a slave should
dare to remind you that he also has a share and a
stake in his master's property. They grow rich by
our poverty, prosperous by our decay; and then they
cry out on this despicable nation, which has not a
single corner of its own in the temple of modern cul-
ture ! Such, it seems, has ever been our fate. Several
nations have even annexed our God, and now scorn-
fully ask us, " Where is your God? "
But there is another side to the picture. Our best
and most original minds — those whose Hebrew origi-
nality reveals itself, in their own despite, even when
they work in alien fields — stand, as we have seen,
outside our own body politic. What then remains
inside ? For the most part, only the smaller minds and
those of poorer grain ; and these are carried away, root
and branch, by the current of the alien culture in the
midst of which they live. Thus all their work in the
sphere of Jewish culture is in the main nothing but an
imitation of the foreigner, an imitation without any
quality of originality, restraint, insight, or proportion.
There is one department of learning that belongs
wholly to us, both in name and in substance — I mean
the so-called " Jewish Science." ^ Here certainly was
an outlet for our intellectual energies, an opportunity
*[See note on p. 65.]
18
274 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
for US to reveal our latent originality. But what hap-
pens in practice? The most eager and most original
workers in this field are non-Jewish scholars; and
these are slavishly followed and imitated by the Jewish
scholars, who never turn a hair's breadth from the
general principles and lines of research laid down by
their masters, even where they are by no means above
criticism. Until quite recently there was no sign of
any attempt on the part of Jewish scholars to contro-
vert even this axiom of Christian investigators, that
the historical evidence of Greek and Roman literature
is always to be accepted as against that of the Talmud
and the Midrashim, where the two are in conflict.
It is only this year that a Jewish scholar ^ has exam-
ined this general principle in connection with a particu-
lar question, and has found that it has no foundation,
but that, on the contrary, the Talmudical references
are more in accordance with historical truth. The
logical method of the Talmud, again, has not yet been
thoroughly investigated by Jewish scholars; and the
idea which the outside world has formed of the Tal-
mudic style of argument, that it is opposed to true
logic and sound sense, has become current among us
also to such an extent that the phrase " Talmudic
sophism " has become with us a nickname for every
crooked and far-fetched piece of quibbling. But last
year a Jewish scholar ^ showed that the Talmudic
' [Dr. Biichler, then in Vienna, now principal of Jews' College
London.]
* [Dr. Schwarz, of Vienna.]
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 27s
method rests on sound foundations, and will repay
study; and that, in fact, the difference between that
method and Greek logic is not accidental, and does not
convict the Jewish Rabbis of ignorance, but has its
roots in a deep-seated and fundamental difference of
spirit between the Jews and the Greeks.
But such instances of independent investigation,
real free-ihivikmg we may call it, are very rare in
the history of " Jewish Science," and have only begun
to appear recently ; and it may be that they are one of
the results of the modern revival of the spirit of nation-
alism among the Jews. However that may be, " Jew-
ish Science " as a whole is still a bondslave to the
alien; the genuine Hebrew spirit has not found full
and original expression in this movement, as we might
legitimately have hoped.
But in truth such a hope was not legitimate, not if
we remember in what manner the birth and growth
of the " Jewish Science " movement came about, and
to what end they were directed. When Jewish
scholars turned their eyes to the past, they were not
impelled to do so by something within them that
demanded that the national spirit should continue to
develop in the future; they were not looking for a
spiritual thread to bind together all the successive
phases of our national life; they were not seeking to
strengthen this thread by the aid of a clear historic
consciousness. " Jewish Science " owes its being not
to any nationalist impulse of this kind, but to other
impulses of a temporary and accidental character.
276 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
which were calculated for the most part to sever the
national bond not merely as between past and present,
but even as between the scattered groups into which the
nation is divided to-day. Zunz, who led the founders of
the movement, regarded it as a means of converting the
world to more friendly feelings towards the Jews, and
of obtaining the supreme ideal of those days — equality
of rights. Geiger threw himself heart and soul into
" Jewish Science," in order to find support for his
great ideal — religious reform — which was itself essen-
tially a means to the acquisition of equal rights. Even
Zechariah Frankel, who was closer than they were to
the Hebrew spirit, did not hesitate to publish in the
" sixties," at the beginning of one of the numbers of the
Monatsschrift which he founded for " Jewish Science,"
the opinion that the national life of the Jews of Prus-
sia had ended with the removal of the last of their
civil disabilities in that country, and that thenceforth
it was their duty to give themselves whole-heartedly to
the life of the nation in which they lived. Since,
therefore, he went on, the Jews have no longer a
separate history, historical investigation of their past
will in future have no connection with their life in the
present and the future, but will be a purely theoretical
science.^ Such ideas, of course, could not restore to
the Jewish spirit its independence and its capacity
for original expression ; and so " Jewish Science " be-
came nothing more than a memorial tablet to our dead
spiritual activity.
* The number of the Monatsschrift is not before me as I uTite,
and I^ive the substance of Frankel's remarks from memory.
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 277
And we find another memorial tablet in that branch
of literary work in which the national spirit of every
people finds its chief expression, — I mean, in our
national literature.
Our " national literature " is often taken in a wide
sense, to include everything that has been or is writ-
ten by men of Jewish race in any language. If we
accept .that definition, we cannot complain of the
poverty of this literature. Heine's love-poems, Borne's
crusade against the political reaction in Germany,
Brandes' critical essays on all the literatures in the
world except the Hebrew — all these are ours, are parts
of our national literature. But this conception is fun-
damentally wrong. The national literature of any
nation is only that which is written in its own national
language. When an individual member of that nation
writes in a foreign language, what he writes may, in-
deed, reveal traces of his own national spirit, even if
his subject has no connection with his nation (and this
is, in fact, the case with the great Jewish writers whom
I have mentioned, and others whom I have not men-
tioned) ; it may even influence the history of his nation,
if it deals with questions affecting their life. But
national literature it is not: it belongs wholly to the
general body of literature of that nation in whose
language it is written. North America has many able
writers ; a flood of new books, some of them of great
merit, pours forth there every year, to say nothing of
innumerable periodicals : and in spite of this the
Americans have as yet no real national literature, be-
278 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
cause they have no separate national language, and
there is no clearly defined and recognized border line
between American literature and its stronger and
richer sister, English literature, which annexes all that
is written in the English language. So with the Swiss :
their literary productions go to swell the literature of
the three great nations in whose languages they write,
and they themselves have no national literature of their
own, if we exclude what little has been written in the
prevailing dialect of German Switzerland.
Our national literature, then, is that alone which is
written in our national language; it does not include
what Jews write in other languages. If they write
on subjects which concern other nations as well, or
other nations only, their books belong to the litera-
ture of the nation in whose language they are written ;
and the best of them find a place in the history of that
literature, though not always a place commensurate
with their value, side by side with the native writers.
If they write exclusively on matters concerning the
Jewish people and its national life, they are building
themselves a Ghetto in a foreign literature: and this
Ghetto, like any other, is regarded by the native popu-
lation as of no account, and by the Hebrew community
as a merely temporary product, which is not destined
to endure as part of its national life, which it may and
does enjoy at that time and in that place, but which
cannot call forth, as a national literature does, a living
and imperishable sentiment. Thus, for example, our
community has already almost forgotten the name of
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 279
Levanda: his sketches of Jewish life in Russia, which
twenty years ago were still among the most popular
in Russian Jewish circles, have now very few readers
indeed. But Smolenskin's stories, very similar to
those of Levanda in subject, and much inferior to
them in ability and taste, are still as widely read and
as popular as though they had been written yesterday.
The only reason that I can find for this difference is
that Smolenskin wrote his stories in Hebrew, and
Levanda in Russian. This example, which is not
unique, proves that the Jewish nation recognizes as its
national literature only what is written in its own
language. For this reason it retains its afifection for
Smolenskin's stories, which enriched its national litera-
ture, even now when they belong to a bygone age;
while writers like Levanda, who use a foreign lan-
guage, are popular only so long as their books are
fresh, and are then forgotten, being indeed but a
temporary phenomenon, which had its uses for a cer-
tain time, but did not permanently increase the national
wealth.^
But I touch here on a fresh question, which has
come to the front only in our own time: I mean the
' Even Abraham Geiger, far removed as he was, by the trend
of his ideas, from recognizing the value of Hebrew at the
present day as the national language, was forced to confess that
Hebrew works of scholarship or general literature are much
more highly valued by the people, and retain its affection and
respect much longer than books on the Jews and Judaism writ-
ten in other languages (A. Geiger, Nachgelassene Schriften,
ii, pp. 286-288).
28o THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
question of the " Jargon." Our ancestors in every
generation, though they always spoke the languages
of the countries to which they were exiled, recog-
nized beyond all shadow of doubt that we had but one
national language — Hebrew. Even the Jewish-Ger-
man Jargon, which has been spoken by Jews in
Northern Europe for so many centuries, never had
for them any greater importance than the other lan-
guages of the Diaspora, and they used it, like other
languages, only under compulsion, for the sake of those
who were ignorant of Hebrew.
But now there is among us a party which would
raise this Jargon to the dignity of a national language.
Since, they argue, the majority of the Jews have in
course of time acquired a new language, which is
peculiar to them, and is not shared by any other
people, we must accept facts as they are, and acknowl-
edge, whether we will or not, that this is our national
language to-day, and not Hebrew, which has not been
spoken for two thousand years, and in the present
generation is known to very few even as a literary
medium. This theory as to the national language leads
logically to a new view of the national literature. If
the Jargon is our national language, then, of course,
the Jargon literature is our national literature ; and as
such it claims our affection and respect, and demands
that we should give our best energies to the task of
perfecting it and making it worthy of its honored
name. We must no longer waste time on Hebrew
literature, which is a mere survival, galvanized for the
time being into an artificial life.
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 28 c
This is not the place to enter into a detailed discus-
sion of this question. But it seems to me, speaking
generally, that it is just the upholders of the view
which I have mentioned, with their appeal to facts as
they are, who really turn a blind eye to the actual facts,
and wish to create an artificial state of things on an
unstable foundation.
In the first place, the actual facts of history are
against them. Never since the world began has it
happened that a nation has accepted as its national
language an alien tongue acquired in a strange land,
after a long history during which it knew nothing of
this tongue, but had another national language, always
recognized as such, in which it produced a literature
of wide range and glorious achievement, expressing
every side of its national individuality. There is not
a single nation, alive or dead, of which we can say that
it existed before its national language — that whole
periods of its recorded history passed away before its
national language was known to it. No man can re-
gard as his own natural speech any language which
he has learned after arriving at manhood. His lan-
guage is that in which his cradle-songs were sung,
that which took root in his being before he knew
himself, and grew up in him together with his self-
consciousness. Similarly, a nation has no national
language except that which was its own when it stood
on the threshold of its history, before its national self-
consciousness was fully developed — that language
which has accompanied it through every period of its
282 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
career, and is inextricably bound up with all its
memories.
In the second place, the actual facts of the present
are against them. This Jargon, though it is to-day
the language of most Jews, is gradually being forgot-
ten all over the world, and will have disappeared some
generations hence. In America, where the Jargon and
its literature are most flourishing (save the mark!),
it is in reality only the language of the older genera-
tion, which brought it from Europe. The younger
generation, born in America and educated in Ameri-
can schools, speaks English and does not understand
the Jargon. If not for the yearly inrush of Jargon-
speaking immigrants, there would not be a vestige of
the language left in the New World. But the volume
of immigration into America is bound in the nature of
things to decrease in course of time; and with it the
Jargon-speaking population will also decrease, until
the Jargon is extinct. Even in its native countries —
Russia, Galicia, and Roumania — the Jargon is being
driven to the wall by the language of the country,
just in so far as education is spreading among the
Jews. Thus, even at the present day, there are in
those countries thousands of families from which the
Jargon is banished. There is therefore no doubt that
before long Yiddish will cease to be a living and spoken
language. The process of its decay is an inevitable
outcome of the conditions of life; and all the efforts
of its supporters to raise it in the popular estimation
by the agency of an attractive literature will not avail
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 283
to stem this process, any more than Hebrew Htera-
ture, which certainly has always stood high in the
popular estimation, availed to preserve Hebrew as a
spoken language when the conditions of life demanded
its abandonment in favor of other forms of speech.
Their labors in the service of Yiddish can have only
this result: that after two or three generations we
shall have tzvo dead literary languages, instead of
one, as at present, and that our descendants will con-
sequently be morally bound, in the name of national-
ism, to learn both of them from books.
But I am confident that we shall not be brought into
this absurd position. The Jargon, like all the other
languages which the Jews have employed at different
times, never has been and never will be regarded by
the nation as anything but an external and temporary
medium of intercourse; nor can its literature live any
longer than the language itself. So soon as the Jargon
ceases to be spoken, it will be forgotten, and its litera-
ture with it; and then nobody will claim for it, on the
ground of national sentiment, what our best men have
always claimed for Hebrew — that it should be an
obligatory subject of study.
In cases of aphasia it often happens, so doctors tell
us, that the patient forgets all the languages that he
has ever learned from books, including even the one
that he was in the habit of using before his malady
began, but remembers his native language — his mother
tongue — and can use it with ease, even though he may
not have spoken it since his childhood. Such is
284 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
the strength of the natural, organic link between a
human being and his own language. There is the
same link between a nation and its real national lan-
guage. True, an evil fate has bereft us of our national
languag-e, and forced us to use others in its stead; but
no other language has ever ousted it, or can ever oust
it, from its place in the roots of our being. All of
them, the Jargon not excluded, obtain a foothold as the
result of temporary circumstances, and lapse into ob-
livion again when circumstances change, and we have
no further need of them. But Hebrew has been our
language ever since we came into existence ; and He-
brew alone is linked to us inseparably and eternally as
part of our being. We are therefore justified in con-
cluding that Hebrew has been, is, and will always be,
our national language ; that our national literature,
throughout all time, is the literature written in Hebrew.
We are at liberty to use any other language that is gen-
erally understood among our people for the diffusion
of ideas and knowledge; and such use undeniably
serves a practical purpose for the time being. But it
is a very long step from this temporary usefulness to
the dignity of an undying national literature : so long
a step that it is matter for wonder how sane men can
confuse two such different ideas. Indeed, if I am not
mistaken, the best of the Jargon writers are themselves
conscious that the Jargon and its literature are doomed
to oblivion, and that only Hebrew literature can sur-
vive among the Jews forever ; and it is for this reason
that they have their works translated into Hebrew, in
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 285
order to gain them admittance into our national litera-
ture, and to secure their survival.
I have dealt perhaps at undue length with this ques-
tion, which is not an essential part of my subject. My
excuse must be that I could not pass over the confu-
sion of thought that has latterly prevailed among us
on the question of our national literature. But now to
return to our subject.
We have decided that Hebrew literature alone is
our true national literature. But how poor, how
meagre has this literature become of late years !
Some time ago I had occasion to discuss the present
position of our literature ; ^ and for that reason I do not
propose now to enlarge on this subject, which in any
case calls for no long exposition. Any qualified judge
must admit that our literature has reached a high level
of perfection in one branch only — that of self-adver-
tisement. If you took our literature at its own present
valuation, you might suppose that it was achieving
wonders and growing richer and richer every day.
But the sober truth is that this self-advertisement is
the sum total of its wealth : it is a case of vox et
prcEterea nihil.
Before the Haskalah period ^ we had indeed an
original national literature. This literature is open to
adverse criticism from various points of view : it may
be censured alike for its content and for its form,
though most of its critics have exaggerated its de-
' In the essay entitled "After Ten Years" [not included in
this translation].
' [See note on p. 64].
286 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
f ects ; but at least it cannot be denied that this litera-
ture is ours, that it was a product of the Jewish spirit,
that it was a faithful expression of the contemporary
inner life of the nation, and that all our best intellects
contributed to its making in each successive age. But
in recent times, from the day when we left the Ghetto,
and began to scatter our energies to the four winds of
heaven, our literature has been smitten by the same
curse that has fallen on every branch of our national
culture. The really original intellects desert their own
poverty-stricken people, and give their efforts .to the
enrichment of those who are already rich ; while our
literature remains a barren field for dullards and
mediocrities to trample on, with that excessive unre-
straint which a man may use in his own bedroom.
Even what is good in our literature — the work of the
few writers who deserve the name — is good only in
that it resembles more or less the good products of
other literatures. From the beginning of modern
Hebrew literature to the present day we have pro-
duced scarce one really original book to which we
could point as an individual expression of our national
spirit. It is almost all translation or imitation, and
for the most part badly done at that: the translation
being too far from the original, and the imitation too
near. And the translation and the imitation have
this in common, that they are foreign in spirit. We
cannot feel that our national life is linked with a litera-
ture like this, which is in its essence nothing but a
purveyor of foreign goods, presenting the ideas and
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 287
feelings of foreign writers in a vastly inferior form.
With shame we must confess it : if we wish to find
even the shadow of an original literature in the modern
period, we have to turn to the literature of Hasidism,
which, with all its follies, has here and .there a pro-
found idea, stamped with the hall-mark of Hebrew
originality. The Haskalah literature has not nearly so
much to show.
Such, then, is the condition of our national culture in
all its branches.
The whole world is reverberating just now with the
cry of our wandering poor for bread. Help is offered
from every side, in large measure or in small. In time
they will find a resting-place, though it be only tem-
porary, one here, one there, and the Jewish people
will not be wiped off the face of the earth. But mean-
while the rot is spreading internally, and no cry is
raised. Our national spirit is perishing, and not a
word is said ; our national heritage is coming .to an end
before our very eyes, and we are silent.
Deep indeed must be our degradation, if we have
no understanding, no feeling left for anything but the
physical suffering which touches our flesh and bone.
There are indeed a few individuals among the
Zionists who recognize and acknowledge that the spirit-
ual trouble of which I have spoken hitherto is fraught
with danger to our people's future no less than the
physical trouble ; and that a " home of refuge " for
the national spirit is therefore not less imperatively
necessary than a home of refuge for our homeless
288 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
wanderers. But they imagine that there is one method
of solving both problems ; that the very attempt to
create a healthy and well-ordered settlement in Pales-
tine involves the creation of that national basis which
is necessary for the revival of the national spirit in
that country — that basis without which we cannot hope
to give firmness and stability to the national spiritual
centre of our aspirations. It is, indeed, impossible to
maintain that the material settlement has no bearing
on our spiritual problem, or that this problem can be
solved without the aid of such a settlement. On the
contrary, the whole point of the material settlement
consists, to my mind, in this — and it makes no differ-
ence whether those who are engaged in the work of
settlement realize it or not — that it can be the founda-
tion of that national spiritual centre which is destined
to be created in our ancestral country in response to a
real and insistent national demand. The material
problem, on the other hand, will not disappear even
after the creation of a home of refuge, because in the
ordinary course of things immigration into the Jewish
settlement cannot counterbalance the natural increase
of the Jews in those countries where the majority of
them live at present. I have endeavored to make this
clear in other essays, which probably are familiar to
most of my readers ; ^ and it is not necessary to enlarge
' [The reference is to a number of controversial Essays in
which the author criticised the Herzlian conception of Zionism.
These Essays, which are familiar to most readers of Hebrew,
are not included in the present translation.]
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 289
on the subject here. But it does not at all follow from
this admission that we must pay no attention for the
present to the spiritual revival, but must sit and wait
with folded arms until it comes of itself, until, that is,
the material settlement is sufficiently established and
completed. It is impossible, in my opinion, to deny that
only a very large settlement could be sufficient for
that purpose. Not twenty agricultural colonies, not
even a hundred, though they be never so well ordered,
can automatically effect our spiritual salvation, in the
sense of a reunion of our scattered forces and their
concentration in the service of the national culture.
That result may be achieved when we have an exten-
sive and complete national centre, embracing every
department of human life, and producing in each de-
partment new demands and new means to their ful-
filment. But can we sit and wait for the realization
of this great dream — a realization which, by universal
admission, cannot be speedy — and meanwhile allow
our spiritual strength to waste away before our very
eyes?
It is for this reason that I maintain that work for
the national revival cannot be confined to the material
settlement alone. We must take hold of both ends of
the stick. On the one side, we must work for the
creation of an extensive and well-ordered settlement
in our ancestral land ; but on the other side we are
not at liberty to neglect the effort to create there, at
the same time, a fixed and independent centre for our
national culture, for learning, art, and literature. Little
19
290 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
by little, willing hands must be brought into our coun-
try, to repair its ruins and restore its pristine glories;
but at the same time we must have hearts and minds,
endowed with knowledge and sympathy and ability,
to repair our spiritual ruins, and restore to our nation
its glorious name and its rightful place in the comity
of human culture. And so the foundation of a single
great school of learning or art in Palestine, the estab-
lishment of a single university for the study of lan-
guage and literature, would be, to my mind, a national
work of the highest importance, and would do more
to bring us near to our goal than a hundred agricul-
tural colonies. For such colonies are, as I have said,
nothing more than bricks for the building of the
future : in themselves they cannot yet be regarded as a
central force capable of moulding anew the life of the
whole people. But a great educational institution in
Palestine, which should attract Jews of learning and
ability in large numbers to carry on their work on
Jewish national lines in a true Jewish spirit, without
constraint or undue influence from without, might even
now rejuvenate the whole people and breathe new life
into Judaism and Jewish literature.
I know full well that such is not the usual course
of things. In every nation which develops in a healthy
and natural way, the development starts from below
and proceeds upwards. First of all, the economic and
political foundations of the national life are consoli-
dated; and it is only after creating such external con-
ditions as are favorable to its survival that the nation
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 291
turns to less material things, and produces what it is
capable of producing in the domain of culture. That
is the course of development of a young nation, new
to the stage of history, which mounts the ladder of
progress rung by rung. But with the Jews it is dif-
ferent. They climbed the lower rungs of the ladder
thousands of years ago, and then, after they had at-
tained to a high stage of culture, their natural progress
was forcibly arrested : the ground was cut away from
under their feet, and they were left hanging in mid-
air, burdened with a heavy pack of valuable spiritual
goods, but robbed of any basis for a healthy existence
and a free development. Generations came and went
— and still this wretched nation was left hanging in
mid-air, exerting all its remaining strength to preserve
its inheritance of culture, and to save itself from fall-
ing below the level which it had reached in its more
prosperous days. And now, when its life is illumined
by a spark of hope, when it dreams of a return to the
solid earth, of a national life based on secure and
natural foundations — can we now bid this nation throw
away its spiritual burden, so as to be able the more
easily to concentrate on the material work which should
come first in the natural order of things, and then
afterwards begin again from the bottom of the ladder,
in the customary way?
" There is nothing in the universal that is not in the
particulars." There is no nation so rich as ours in men
who combine a highly developed intellect with an ele-
mentary ignorance of the alphabet of culture, and are
292 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
forced to make up this deficiency after they have
reached maturity and acquired a large stock of know-
ledge. Solomon Maimon, for example, went to school,
and learned German and other subjects together with
children, when he had arrived at middle age, and was
known in Germany as a profound philosopher. Now
what would he have said, and others like him (and
there have been many Jews of this type in the past
few generations), if some fatuous person had ad-
vised them to forget all that they had learned before,
and to devote their whole mind to the elementary sub-
jects, until they should attain once more, slowly
and laboriously, to the rank of educated men, progress-
ing from the simple to the difficult, as other mortals
do? The Jews as a nation are in an analogous posi-
tion, child and grown man in one. The Jewish nation
emerged from childhood a hundred generations back,
and now demands the food of grown men ; but the con-
ditions under which it lives compel it to go to kinder-
garten again, and to master the alphabet of national
life. What then is it to do? " It is good that thou
shouldst take hold of this ; yea, also from that with-
draw not thy hand " : build from below and from
above at the same time! Of course, nation building
in this style is something abnormal. But then our
life altogether is abnormal ; and build how we will,
the building must be something quite without prece-
dent. In this matter, therefore, we must not look for
guidance to the history of other nations: we must do
what our peculiar position forces us to do, relying on
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 293
our nation's strength of will and power of endurance,
which have preserved it miraculously to the present
day, and will be its savior in the future.
But we must recognize at the outset that this pro-
gramme of a spiritual " back to the land," if one may
so call it, of the re-centralization of our spiritual
potentialities, is not one which can be carried out easily,
and as it were by the way. To lay the foundations of
a spiritual " refuge " for our national culture demands
perhaps preparations no less elaborate, and resources no
less extensive, than to lay the foundations of a material
refuge for persecuted Jews. And besides the work
of preparation for the future, there is also a great deal
of work to be done in the present. We are all familiar
with the division in the Zionist camp on the question
of the immediate programme. For my own part, I
am of opinion that work for the improvement of the
material and political position of the Jews in the
Diaspora, though it is undoubtedly necessary and use-
ful as a temporary measure of relief, however slight,
and though it has, therefore, undeniable claims on all
who have the opportunity of taking part in such work,
is yet not properly to be included in the work essential
to Zionism. Life in exile, at its best, will always
remain life in exile ; that is to say, it will always remain
the opposite of that free national life which is the aim
of the Zionist movement: and one movement cannot
concern itself with two opposites. But it is different
in the case of cultural work. Our national creative
power, as I have said above, remains the same in all
294 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
ages; and it has not ceased even in exile to work in
its own specific fashion. Hence, every atom of that
power which is severed from its original source, and
floats away into a strange world, is an irreparable loss
to the nation. To gather these atoms together, and
keep them in our own world for the benefit of our own
national culture, is essentially Zionist work, because it
adds to our spiritual wealth in the present, and also
prepares the way for the greater cultural work that
is to come after the establishment of the centre in
Palestine. That centre once established, Palestine
will make use of the products of these forces, and will
enable their activity to be carried on in a more com-
plete and perfect manner.
This is a long and arduous task, and certainly de-
mands a powerful and well-knit organization, the busi-
ness of which will be to gather the necessary resources
without delay, and to keep constant watch over these
erring atoms of spiritual force, so that they may neither
waste away unheard of, nor be attracted outside the
confines of Judaism. The organization will have to
support every achievement or creation of promise in
any branch of culture, always with an eye to a gradual
approach towards its real goal — the establishment of the
spiritual centre in Palestine. Now the Zionist organ-
ization of to-day, with all its faults, is as yet the only
Jewish institution brought into being for the sake of the
national revival. But it cannot possibly be saddled
also with the task of reviving the national culture. In
the first place, it has enough to do in propagating the
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 295
idea, in educating people up to its aims, and strength-
ening its own institutions: indeed, these objects, which
he nearest to its intention and aim, are already beyond
its strength. Secondly, no single organization can
pursue two objects which, however closely connected,
are different in character, and demand different means
and different men. The man who is able to collect
funds and sell shares is not necessarily able to recog-
nize a budding literary talent, and to further its de-
velopment. The man with a gift for diplomacy
and political organization may not be the ideal leader
for a spiritual movement, or the man best able to
organize educational and literary effort. Thirdly, there
is not as yet complete unanimity among nationalist
Jews as regards either the means or the end of the
national movement. We have, on the one side, the
" political " Zionists, who regard the spiritual aspect
as subsidiary and not worth the trouble; we have, at
the other extreme, the " spiritual " Zionists, who are
dissatisfied with all " political " work, at least in its
present form, and think it useless. We have, further,
" nationalists " of different kinds, who do not believe
in Zionism at all, but have a regard for the national
culture, and think that the concentration of effort on
its promotion is a great national object, which deserves
the widest support. This being so, if we wish not to
waste any of our strength, which is little enough as
it is, but to use it all in the service of the general
culture, finding for each individual his proper work,
we must establish a special organization for cultural
296 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
work. That organization will attract to itself all those
who appreciate the value of the national culture, and
make its extension and free development their aim,
whether they are Zionists in the official sense, or not.
All its machinery and its activities must be directed
solely to its own end; it must neither subserve the
political organization nor be dependent on its opinion.
It is of course obvious that the two organizations,
aiming, as they do after all aim, at the same end —
that of the revival of Israel — and differing only in
that they approach the goal from different sides, must
be closely interconnected, and be in constant need of
each other. But if only they both understand the
ultimate object which they have in common, their rela-
tion will not be one of jealousy and competition, but
one of peace and harmony and constant mutual assist-
ance. There will perhaps be more unity than there
is at present within the Zionist organization between
the different elements which are mixed up together,
and are' pulling Zionism this way and that.
This brings us to the second branch of cultural work.
This side of the question is in reality much simpler
than the other aspect, and needs no long exposition.
Does the Jewish people as a whole stand in need
of improvement from the point of view of culture?
Some months ago a Jewish writer in a Russian
periodical tried to prove that the Jews ought not to
complain, because they are on a higher level of culture
ithan the nations among which they live. The Jews,
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 297
he points out, can read and write, and are endowed
with exceptional intellectual and psychological quali-
ties, wl ich enable them everywhere to adapt them-
selves to the surrounding conditions much more readily
than other nations. Why, then, should they grumble?
The whole cry has been raised by a few atrabilious
scribblers on the lookout for a grievance; it is they
who are responsible for the invention of the " Jewish
tragedy."
This kind of reasoning is characteristic of slaves,
whose highest ideal is to be entirely like their masters.
The master is the criterion by which they measure
themselves and their own worth. If they find that
they come up to the standard and have no need to be
ashamed before their master, they think themselves
lucky, and do not dare to ask for anything more. But
the free man measures himself and his standing by
his own measure, not by other people's. His ideal
is not to attain to the level of the men around him,
but to rise as high as his own powers enable him to
rise. If circumstances hinder his development, and
do not allow him to put forth his powers to their full
extent and realize all the possibilities of his individual-
ity, he suffers untold agonies, and it is no comfort to
him that even as things are he is superior to many
other men. Take a young Jew in some benighted
village, who is spending himself in the search after
knowledge, and eating out his heart because he cannot
burst the trammels and find free scope for his self-de-
velopment, and ask him why he is discontented — point
298 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
out to him that even as things are he has attained to a
higher level of culture than many men in the big
cities, and that he ought to be satisfied with that. He
will tell you that the man must be utterly cramped in
mind and devoid of sensibility who does not feel the
enormous tragedy of the soul conscious of manifold
powers that seek an outlet and find none.
If we estimate the cultural position of the Jewish
people by this criterion, we shall have to admit that it
is very unsatisfactory, and much worse than that of
other nations. Every other nation is free to climb as
high on the ladder of culture as its strength allows.
If it stops at an early stage, that only proves, unfor-
tunately for this particular nation, that it is not fit
to mount higher. But we Jews are hemmed in by
obstacles of all kinds. We are compelled to fight at
every turn, with what strength we have left, for things
which every other nation obtains without a struggle.
When we see that, in spite of all, we are not inferior
to other nations, and need not be ashamed of ourselves,
this should not console us; on the contrary, it ought
to be galling to us to see how much further we might
rise, if we too could use our powers without hindrance,
and if each of us could develop in the way best suited
to him, as other men do. None but a slave could fail
to feel or could deny the national tragedy involved in
the inability to rise to the level of culture for which
we are fitted by our inherent powers.
Beyond doubt, therefore, there is an urgent need for
the improvement of our position from the point of
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 299
view of culture. But this is not ut itself a task for
Zionism ; it only becomes so because of its national
aspect. Zionism need not and cannot be a sort of
" Association for the Diffusion of Enlightenment," ^
because enlightenment as such has no necessary con-
nection with the Zionist ideal, and many people are
engaged in " diffusing " it without the assistance of
Zionism. Modern life of its own accord forces Jews
to pursue enlightenment ; and even the best minds of
the " upper ten " of Jewry have been accustomed
these three generations to work strenuously for
the enlightenment of the people, seeking in this way to
satisfy that national instinct which occasionally impels
them to demonstrate in some tangible fashion that there
is a link between them and their nation. Hence Zion-
ism has no need to undertake this task; it would be
simply carrying coals to Newcastle. But, on the other
side, Zionism is bound to supply this work of enlight-
enment with the 'nationalist basis which it lacks at
present. We are all familiar with the inwardness of
that enlightenment which our philanthropic benefac-
tors are endeavoring to spread among the Jews. We
know that its growth is in inverse proportion to the
development of the national spirit, which dwindles
ever more and more as this enlightenment spreads.
Hence the improvement of our cultural position, which
should be, as with other nations, an elixir of life for
the people, inspiring it with new strength and vigor
in its struggle for existence, has become a poison, bring-
* [As to " Enlightenment " see note on p. 64.]
300 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
ing in its train nothing but death and disintegration.
For this reason Zionism, which aims at the revival of
the national spirit, cannot exclude popular enlighten-
ment from the sphere of its proper work, and allow
its opponents to use this force for their own ends.
To exercise a wise guidance over the movement for
the diffusion of enlightenment ; to secure that it shall
be conducted in the national spirit, and shall be produc-
tive of good to the nation ; to wage incessant warfare
against the alien spirit which is artificially introduced
into our midst along with enlightenment, though the two
have no essential connection — this is one of the most
important branches of Zionist work. Zionism, we must
all agree, has need not only of subscriptions and shares,
but even more of souls. One Jewish soul saved from
the snare of assimilation is worth never so many shares.
At one of the earlier Congresses the battle-cry went
forth, " Win over the synagogue organization." Zion-
ists everywhere responded obediently, and spent much
time and effort in an unequal struggle with the com-
munal leaders. But so far their labor has scarcely
anywhere had any tangible results. Indeed, it would
have been better, in my opinion, if the watchword
had been, " Win over the educational organization."
In the synagogue we have to deal with the parents, in
the schools with the children. To conquer the parents,
to infuse a new spirit into grown men who have
already settled down into a certain way of life, whose
opinions and feelings have already become, as it
were, stereotyped, would be a matter of more labor
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 301
than profit; the small results would not generally
be worth the expenditure of energy. Surely, it were
better for our purpose to lay out this energy on the
conquest of the children. In them we have a clean
sheet on which we may write what we will. If in
course of time we can put into the field a large
squadron of younger men to fight their elders, the
products of the school against the leaders of the syna-
gogue, where will the victory lie? History bears wit-
ness that in a war of parents and children it is always
the children who win in the end; the future is theirs.
But the duty of Zionists in the sphere of education
is not confined to schools of the " enlightened " type.
We must remember that, side by side with the " im-
proved " education of to-day, we have also the old
traditional system, which is no doubt losing ground
every year, but is still strong, is struggling hard for
its existence, and will undoubtedly play an important
part in our national life for many years to come, in-
fluencing by its method and its spirit the education
and upbuilding of tens of thousands of Jewish children.
This being so, we are bound to pay attention to this
system of education also, and reform it too, in a man-
ner suited to our purpose. We must not, indeed,
set out with the idea that the traditional system is
opposed, like the " improved " system as at present
used, to our national spirit. It is well known that the
atmosphere of the Heder is Jewish through and
through. The picture of " the community of Israel,"
with its sorrows and its hopes, is placed in the fore-
302 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
ground of the children's daily life in the Heder, and
works itself ineradicably into the texture of their
minds. There is not a book in the Heder but reminds
its young readers of their people and its history in
happiness and in exile. Even the Song of Songs, the
only love-song left to our people from the days of its
youth, is metamorphosed into a national hymn, wherein
the community of Israel pours out her heart before
her " Beloved," weeps and smiles, entreats and yearns ;
and the Song inspires in the hearts of the tender
Heder children a love for their nation that passes all
bounds. Yet it is obvious and undeniable, however
extraordinary, that most orthodox Jews who have been
trained in this system, for all their devotion to the com-
munity of Israel, are unable to understand the ideal
of the regeneration of Israel as a people. The masses
stand aloof, and regard the new movement with com-
plete indifference ; and their leaders are mostly opposed
to it, and try, by every means that jealousy and hatred
can suggest, to put obstacles in its path.
This is not the place for a lengthy explanation of the
causes of this inconsistency. But I think it right to
mention here an expression used by a well-known
Rabbi in the course of the discussion on culture at the
last Congress. " In my opinion," he said, with an
allusion to his orthodox friends, " a Jew who is no
Zionist is still a Jew ; but he is not a logical Jew." ^
No doubt the Rabbi meant that the Jew who is con-
' Report of the Sixth Congress, p. 394.
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 303
cerned for his national possessions, and has been
accustomed from the eadiest years of childhood to
mourn his people's ruin and dream of its restoration,
must, if he were logical, be thrilled at the trumpet-call
of the revival, and be one of the first to put hand and
heart to the work. If he fails to do so, it is simply a
mistake, due to lack of logic. This explanation cannot,
indeed, be considered satisfactory to-day, when philos-
ophers have taught us that there is no such thing as a
'* mistake," and that men's loves and hates are not dic-
tated by logic. But for our present purpose we need not
go deeply into the question. Even if we agree with the
Rabbi that nothing but a lack of logic is responsible,
we must still admit that, since these lack-logics are the
majority of the products of the Heder, this fact can-
not be a mere accident, but there must be some fault
inherent in the educational system of the Heder, which
perverts its pupils' sense of logic, and makes them
unable to understand or feel the connection between the
" community of Israel " of the Song of Songs, yearn-
ing after her " Beloved " in Heaven and waiting for
Him to bring her redemption, and the actual people
of Israel, yearning after its beloved land and striving
to redeem that land by its own strength.
If this is so, whose business is it to reform this
educational system, in order to straighten out the
crookedness of its logic, if not that of the orthodox
Zionists, who are themselves emancipated from this
logical inconsistency, and at the same time recognize
and acknowledge that it is rampant in their own camp ?
304 THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
I say "the orthodox Zionists" advisedly: for we
have no need and no right to demand of any section
that it shall entrust the education of its children to
another section which is fundamentally opposed to its
views on human life. Just as the " modernists " can-
not sacrifice the education that they want in order to
satisfy the orthodox, so the orthodox cannot give
way a single inch in a matter so vital to the existence
of the ancient stronghold for which .they would give
their lives. It is a natural desire, and therefore a
natural and inviolable right, of every man to educate
his children so that they will grow up to be of his own
way of thinking. And since the two main sections of
the Jewish people are united under the banner of Zion-
ism, they must both recognize the points of union and
of difference between them in every department of
life, and especially in that of education. They must
both obey the demands of the wider idea that unites
them. Every inevitable outcome of that idea is com-
mon to both, and imposes on both an equally binding
obligation. But outside the limits thus laid down they
are once more separate sections, and each has the
right to act as it thinks best, with absolute freedom, in
all its affairs. If we take this criterion, we shall con-
clude that Zionism must demand from both sections —
and both must obey implicitly and without reserve —
that each shall make the ideal of the national revival,
in the modern sense, the basis of education ; but on
this foundation each is at liberty to erect its own super-
structure in its own way, without hindrance or inter-
ference from outside.
THE SPIRITUAL REVIVAL 305
This solution of the problem is so natural and so
simple, that one cannot help being surprised at the
angry struggle which goes on incessantly within the
camp on the question of education.
With this I think that I have fulfilled the promise
made at the beginning of this paper: to clear up the
" problem of culture " in the plain meaning of the
term, without introducing startling new ideas or over-
subtle refinements. It may be that many of my readers
hoped for more practical suggestions as to the organ-
ization of the work of culture in its two aspects ; for
Zionists nowadays attach so much importance to
questions of organization. But to my mind that is
not the essential thing. The idea itself, if it is clearly
understood and accepted with thorough conviction,
will be the best organizer; it will always produce the
necessary m.achinery in a form suited to its object.
Wherever you find men worrying too much about their
organization and continually patching it up, you may
be sure that the underlying idea is not sufficiently un-
derstood.
Perhaps these words of mine will help to clear up
the conceptions involved in the phrase " cultural work,"
and create a true appreciation of the nature and object
of that work. If so, the practical results will follow.
MOSES
(1904)
The influence of great men on the history of the
human race is a subject of much discussion among
philosophers. Some maintain that the great men create
history, and the masses are nothing more than the
material on which they work. Others assert that the
masses are the moving force, and the great men of
every age are only inevitable products of that age and
its conditions. Such discussions make one reflect on
the tendency of philosophers to shut their eyes to what
lies in front of them, and to seek by roundabout paths
what is really so near. Surely it is obvious that the
real great men of history, the men, that is, who have
become forces in the life of humanity, are not actual,
concrete persons who existed in a certain age. There
is not a single great man in history of whom the popu-
lar fancy has not drawn a picture entirely different
from the actual man ; and it is this imaginary concep-
tion, created by the masses to suit their needs and their
inclinations, that is the real great man, exerting an
influence which abides in some cases for thousands of
years — this, and not the concrete original, who lived
a short space in the actual world, and was never seen
by the masses in his true likeness.
And so it is when learned scholars burrow in the
MOSES 307
dust of ancient books and manuscripts, in order to
raise the great men of history from the grave in their
true shapes ; believing the while that they are sacrifi-
cing their eyesight for the sake of " historical truth."
It is borne in on me that these scholars have a ten-
dency to overestimate the value of their discoveries,
and will not appreciate the simple fact that not every
archeological truth is also an historical truth. Histori-
cal truth is that, and that alone, which reveals the
forces that go to mould the social life of mankind.
Every man who leaves a perceptible mark on that life,
though he may be a purely imaginary figure, is a real
historical force ; his existence is an historical truth.
And on the other hand, every man who has left no
impress on the general course of life, be his concrete
existence at a particular time never so indisputable,
is only one of the million : and the truth contained in
the statement that such an one existed is a merely
literal truth, which makes absolutely no difference, and
is therefore, in the historical sense, no truth at all.
Goethe's Werther, for instance, was a pure fiction;
but his influence on that generation was so immense as
to cause a large number of suicides : and therefore he
is, in the historical sense, much more truly a real
person than this or that actual German of the same
period, who lived an actual concrete life, and died, and
was forgotten, and became as though he had never
been. Hence I do not grow enthusiastic when the
drag-net of scholarship hauls up some new " truth "
about a great man of the past; when it is proved by
3o8 MOSES
the most convincing evidence that some national hero,
who lives on in the hearts of his people, and influences
their development, never existed, or was something
absolutely unlike the popular picture of him. On such
occasions I tell myself: all this is very fine and very
good, and certainly this " truth " will erase or alter a
paragraph of a chapter in the book of archeology;
but it will not make history erase the name of its hero,
or change its attitude towards him, because real history
has no concern with so-and-so who is dead, and who
was never seen in that form by the nation at large, but
only by antiquarians ; its concern is only with the living
hero, whose image is graven in the hearts of men, who
has become a force in human life. And what cares
history whether this force was at one time a walking
and talking biped, or whether it was never anything
but a creature of the imagination, labelled with the
name of some concrete man? In either case history is
certain about his existence, because history feels his
effects.
And so when I read the Haggadah on the eve of
Passover, and the spirit of Moses the son of Amram,
that supremest of heroes, who stands like a pillar of
light on the threshold of our history, hovers before
me and lifts me out of this nether world, I am quite
oblivious of all the doubts and questions propounded
by non-Jewish critics. I care not whether this man
Moses really existed ; whether his life and his activity
really corresponded to our traditional account of him ;
whether he was really the savior of Israel and gave
MOSES 309
his people the Law in the form in which it is preserved
among us ; and so forth. I have one short and simple
answer for all these conundrums. This Moses, I say,
this man of old time, whose existence and character
you are trying to elucidate, matters to nobody but
scholars like you. We have another Moses of our
own, whose image has been enshrined in the hearts
of the Jewish people for generations, and whose influ-
ence on our national life has never ceased from ancient
times till the present day. The existence of this Moses,
as a historical fact, depends in no way on your investi-
gations. For even if you succeeded in demonstrating
conclusively that the man Moses never existed, or that
he was not such a man as we supposed, you would not
thereby detract one jot from the historical reality of
the ideal Moses — the Moses who has been our leader
not only for forty years in the wilderness of Sinai, but
for thousands of years in all the wildernesses in which
we have wandered since the Exodus.
And it is not only the existence of this Moses that
is clear and indisputable to me. His character is
equally plain, and is not liable to be altered by any
archeological discovery. This ideal — I reason — has
been created in the spirit of the Jewish people ; and
the creator creates in his own image. These ideal fig-
ures, into which a nation breathes its most intense
aspirations, seem to be fashioned automatically, without
conscious purpose ; and therefore, though they cannot,
of course, escape a certain superfluous and inhar-
monious embroidery, and though we cannot insist that
3IO MOSES
every detail shall be organically related to the central
idea, yet the picture as a whole, if we look at its broad
outlines, does always represent that idea which is the
cause of its existence, and as it were the seed from
which the whole tree has grown.
I take, therefore, a comprehensive view of the whole
range of tradition about Aloses, and ask myself first
of all : What essentially is Moses ? In other words,
what manner of thing is the national ideal which has
its embodiment in Moses ? There are heroes and heroes
— heroes of war, heroes of thought, and so forth ; and
when we examine an ideal picture we must first be
clear as to the essential nature of the ideal which the
artist had in his mind and attempted to portray.
And as I look at the figure of Moses I go on to ask:
Was he a military hero?
No ! The w^hole canvas betrays no hint of physical
force. We never find Moses at the head of an army,
performing feats of valor against the enemy. Only
once do we see him on the battlefield, in the battle
with Amalek ; and there he simply stands and watches
the course of the fighting, helping the army of Israel
by his moral strength, but taking no part in the actual
battle.
Again: Was he a statesman?
Again, no! When he had to confront Pharaoh and
discuss questions of politics with him, he was helpless
without his brother Aaron, his mouthpiece.
Was he, then, a lawgiver?
Once more, no! Every lawgiver makes laws for
MOSES 3H
his own age, with a view to the particular needs of
that time and that place in which he and his people
live. But Moses made laws for the future, for a
generation that did not yet exist, and a country not
yet conquered; and tradition has made no secret of
the fact that many laws attributed to Moses only came
into force after several generations, while others have
never been put into practice at all.
What, then, was Moses?
Tradition answers in the most explicit terms :
" There arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto
Moses." This, then, is what Moses was : a Prophet.
But he was different from the other Prophets, whose
appearance in our history, as a specific type, dates
only from the period of the monarchy. He was,
as later generations learned to call him, " the lord of
the Prophets," that is, the ideal archetype of Hebrew
prophecy in the purest and most exalted sense of the
word.
Again I take a comprehensive glance at what read-
ing and reflection have taught me about the nature
of Hebrew prophecy, and try to define its essential
characteristics.
The Prophet has two fundamental qualities, which
distinguish him from the rest of mankind. First, he
is a man of truth. He sees life as it is, with a view
unwarped by subjective feelings ; and he tells you what
he sees just as he sees it, unaffected by irrelevant con-
siderations. He tells the truth not because he wishes
to tell the truth, not because he has convinced him-
312 MOSES
self, after inquiry, that such is his duty, but because
he needs must, because truth-telHng is a special char-
acteristic of his genius — a characteristic of which he
cannot rid himself, even if he would. It has been
well said by Carlyle that every man can attain to the
elevation of the Prophet by seeking truth ; but whereas
the ordinary man is able to reach that plane by
strength of will and enormous effort, the Prophet can
stand on no other by reason of his very nature.
Secondly, the Prophet is an extremist. He concen-
trates his whole heart and mind on his ideal, in which
he finds the goal of life, and to which he is deter-
mined to make the whole world do service, without
the smallest exception. There is in his soul a complete,
ideal world ; and on that pattern he labors to reform
the external world of reality. He has a clear con-
viction that so things must be, and no more is needed
to make him demand that so they shall be. He
can accept no excuse, can consent to no compromise,
can never cease thundering his passionate denuncia-
tions, even if the whole universe is against him.
From these two fundamental characteristics there
results a third, which is a combination of the other
two: namely, the supremacy of absolute righteousness
in the Prophet's soul, in his every word and action.
As a man of truth he cannot help being also a man
of justice or righteousness ; for what is righteous-
ness but truth in action ? And as an extremist he can-
not subordinate righteousness (any more than he can
subordinate truth) to any irrelevant end ; he cannot
MOSES 313
desert righteousness from motives of temporary ex-
pediency, even at the bidding of love or pity. Thus
the Prophet's righteousness is absolute, knowing no
restriction either on the side of social necessities or on
that of human feelings.
The Prophet, then, is in this position: on the one
hand, he cannot altogether reform the world according
to his desire ; on the other hand, he cannot cheat himself
and shut his eyes to its defects. Hence it is impossible
for him ever to be at peace with the actual life in
which his days are spent. There is thus a grain of
truth in the popular idea of the Prophet as above all
a man who predicts the future ; for, in truth, the whole
world of the Prophet consists of his heart's vision of
what is to come, of " the latter end of days." This is
his delight and his comfort whenever the cup of sor-
rows is full to the brim, and he has no strength left
to pour out his soul in bitter outcry against the evil
that he sees around him.
But just as the Prophet will not bow to the world,
so the world will not bow to him, will not accept his
influence immediately and directly. This influence
must first pass through certain channels in which it
becomes adapted to the conditions of life. Then only
can it affect mankind. These channels are human
channels. They are men who cannot rise to the
Prophet's elevation, and have no sympathy with his
extremism, but are none the less nearer to him in
spirit than the mass of men, and are capable of being
influenced by him up to a certain point. These men
314 MOSES
are the Priests of the prophetic ideal. They stand be-
tween the Prophet and the world, and transmit his in-
fluence by devious ways, adapting their methods to
the needs of each particular time, and not insisting
that the message shall descend on the workaday world
in all its pristine purity.
Thus I picture the Prophet in his purest form.^
Such, in essentials, were all the true Prophets of
Israel, from Hosea and Amos to Jeremiah and Ezekiel ;
but the type is most perfectly realized in the ideal
picture of " the lord of the Prophets."
When Moses first leaves the schoolroom and goes
out into the world, he is at once brought face to face
with a violation of justice, and unhesitatingly he takes
the side of the injured. Here at the outset is revealed
the eternal struggle between the Prophet and the
world.
" An Egyptian smiting a Hebrew," the strong tread-
ing scornfully on the weak — this every-day occurrence
is his first experience. The Prophet's indignation is
aroused, and he helps the weaker. Then " two
Hebrews strove together" — two brothers, both weak,
both slaves of Pharaoh : and yet they fight each other.
Once more the Prophet's sense of justice compels him,
and he meddles in a quarrel which is not his. But this
time he discovers that it is no easy matter to fight the
battle of justice; that the world is stronger than him-
self, and that he who stands against the world does
so at his peril. Yet this experience does not make
' See the essay " Priest and Prophet " [p. 125],
MOSES 3 IS
him prudent or cautious. His zeal for justice drives
him from his country; and as soon as he reaches
another haunt of men, while he is still sitting by the
well outside the city, before he has had time to find
a friend and shelter, he hears once more the cry of
outraged justice, and runs immediately to its aid. This
time the wranglers are not Hebrews, but foreigners
and strangers. But what of that ? The Prophet makes
no distinction between man and man, only between
right and wrong. He sees strong shepherds trampling
on the rights of weak women — " and Moses stood up
and helped them."
This is the sum of our knowledge about Moses' life
till the time when he stood before Pharaoh — and he
was then " eighty years old." Of all that long stretch
of years, and what happened in them, tradition takes
no account, because they were only the preface, only
the preparation for the real work of the Prophet. If
an exception was made in the case of these three
events, which happened to the Prophet at the outset
of his life's journey, and if we see that all three have
the same characteristic, that of the Prophet standing
up against the world in the name of righteousness, we
may believe that the object of the tradition was to
throw this conflict into relief, and to show how the
Prophet displayed the essential qualities of his kind
from the very first. We may therefore infer that
throughout the whole of that period, in all his wander-
ings, he never ceased to fight the battle of justice, until
the day came when he was to be the savior of his
3i6 MOSES
people, and teach the world justice, not for his own
time merely, but for all eternity.
That great moment dawned in the wilderness, far
away from the turmoil of the world. The Prophet's
soul is weary of his ceaseless battle, and he would fain
rest in peace. He turns his back on men for the
shepherd's life, and takes his sheep into the wilder-
ness. There " he came to the mountain of God, unto
Horeb." But even here there is no rest for him. He
feels that he has not yet fulfilled his mission ; a secret
force in his heart urges him on, saying, " What doest
thou here ? Go thou, work and fight : for to that end
wast thou created." He would like to disregard this
voice, but cannot. The Prophet hears " the voice of
God " in his heart, whether he will or not: " and if I
say, I will not make mention of him then
there is in mine heart as it were a burning fire shut up
in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I
cannot contain."
And the Prophet remembers that in his youth, at
his first encounter with life, the same fire burnt in his
heart and gave him no rest. From that day to this he
has done all in his power to make justice supreme in
the world : and the fire is still burning. The best of his
years, the flower of his strength, have been consumed
in the battle ; and victory is not his. Now old age has
come upon him ; yet a little, and he will be sapless as
a withered and barren tree — even like this bush before
him. Can he still find new means of reaching his goal ?
Can his old age succeed where his youth has failed?
MOSES 317
What is there to do that he has not done ? Why should
the fire still burn within him, still disturb his soul's
peace ?
Suddenly he hears the inner " voice of God " — the
voice that he knows so well — calling to him from some
forgotten corner of his heart :
" I am the God of thy father .... I have surely
seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt
.... Come now, therefore, and I will send thee
unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
"The God of his father," "the affliction of his
people " — how can he have forgotten all this till now ?
Faithfully has he served the God of the Universe,
fighting a hero's battle for universal justice. In
Midian, in every country in which he set foot, he has
striven always to deliver the oppressed from the
oppressor, has preached always truth and peace and
charity. But the God of his father he has forgotten;
his people he has not remembered ; the affliction where-
with the Egyptians afflict his people — of that he has
taken no thought.
Now a new hope springs up in the Prophet's heart,
and grows stronger each moment. With this hope,
he feels, his strength increases, and the days of his
youth are renewed. Now he knows the right way to
the goal which he has striven after all his life.
Hitherto he has consumed his strength among
strangers, who looked on him as an alien even after he
had spent years among them ; who took no account
3i8 MOSES
of him, and paid no heed to his teaching; who would
not beheve him even if he called on the name of their
own gods. But now, now he will go to his own breth-
ren, his own people, and will speak to them in the name
of the God of his fathers and theirs. They will know
and respect him ; they will listen to all that he says,
will listen and obey : and the sovereignty of right-
eousness, hitherto nothing more than his heart's ideal,
will be established in the world by this his people,
which he will bring forth out of the house of bondage.
Under the spell of this noble idea the Prophet for-
gets for a moment all the obstacles in his path, and
in fancy sees himself already in Egypt among his
people. To Pharaoh, indeed, he will not go alone.
He knows beforehand that such a man as he, unskilled
to speak smooth words, cannot bend the hearts of kings
to his desire. But he will approach first of all his own
people; he will assemble the "elders of Israel," men
who are known in the royal house; to them first he
will reveal the great tidings, that God has visited them.
And these men, the flower of the people, will under-
stand him and " hearken to his voice." They will go
with him to Pharaoh, and give God's message to the
king in a language which he understands.
But how if even they, the elders of Israel, " will not
hearken to his voice," " will not believe " in his mis-
sion?
In that case he knows what to do. Not for nothing
was he brought up in Pharaoh's house on the knees
of the magicians. " Enchantments " are an abomina-
MOSES 319
tion to him ; but what can he do if the " elders of
Israel " believe only in such things, and are open to
no other appeal?
Even the " sons of God " have been known to fall
from Heaven to earth; and even the Prophet has his
moments of relapse, when the spirit of prophecy deserts
him, and his mortal elements drag him down into the
mire of the world. But only for a moment can the
Prophet cease to be what he ought to be, and needs
must be — a man of truth. Scarcely has Moses con-
ceived this idea of gaining credence by means of magic
enchantments, when the Prophet in him rises up in
arms against this unclean thought. Never ! Since first
he began to hear " the voice of God " his tongue has
been a holy instrument, the outer vesture of that
Divine voice within him ; but " a man of words," a
man whose words are only means to the attainment of
his desires, not genuinely connected with his thought
— such a man he has never been " heretofore," nor
will ever be. That is a price which he will not pay
even for the redemption of his people. If there is no
way but through enchantments, then let the redemp-
tion be achieved by others, and let him alone in his
spotless truth, alone in the wilderness:
" Oh, Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him
whom Thou wilt send."
But it is not easy for the Prophet to remain in the
wilderness. The burning fire which has just roused
all his spiritual forces to action has not yet been
quelled ; it will give him no rest till he find some way
to ca-rry out his thought.
320 MOSES
So, at last, the Prophet finds the necessary " chan-
nel " through which his influence shall reach the
people. He has a brother in Egypt, a man of position,
a Levite, who knows how to shape his words to the
needs of the time and the place. His brother will need
no enchantments to gain him allegiance. He, the
" Priest " of the future, will go with the Prophet to
the elders and to the king himself. Nay, he will know
how to find a way into the hearts of all of them :
" And thou shalt speak unto him .... and he
shall be thy spokesman unto the people : and it shall
come to pass, that he shall be to thee a mouth, and
thou shalt be to him as God."
So the immediate goal is reached. Pharaoh and all
his host lie at the bottom of the Red Sea, and Moses
stands at the head of a free people, leading them to the
land of their ancestors.
" Then sang Moses . . . ." In this hour of happi-
ness his heart overflows with emotion, and pours itself
out in song. He does not know that he is still at the
beginning of his journey ; he does not know that the
real task, the most difficult task, has still to be com-
menced. Pharaoh is gone, but his work remains ; the
master has ceased to be master, but the slaves have not
ceased to be slaves. A people trained for generations
in the house of bondage cannot cast oflf in an instant
the effects of that training and become truly free, even
when the chains have been struck oflf.
But the Prophet believes in the power of his ideal.
He is convinced that the ideal which he is destined to
MOSES 321
give to his people will have sufficient force to expel
the taint of slavery, and to imbue this slave-people
with a new spirit of strength and upward striving,
equal to all the demands of its lofty mission.
Then the Prophet gathers his people at the foot of
the mountain, opens the innermost heavens before
them, and shows them the God of their fathers in a
new form, in all His universal grandeur.
" For all the earth is Mine," so speaks the voice of
the God of Israel " out of the midst of the fire."
Hitherto you have believed, in common with all other
nations, that every people and every country has its
own god, all-powerful within his boundaries, and that
these gods wage war on one another and conquer one
another, like the nations that serve them. But it is
not so. There is no such thing as a God of Israel and
a different God of Egypt ; there is one God, who was,
is, and shall be : He is Lord of all the earth, and Ruler
over all the nations. And it is this universal God who
is the God of your fathers. The whole world is His
handiwork, and all men are created in His image ; but
you, the children of His chosen Abraham, He has
singled out to be His peculiar people, to be " a kingdom
of priests and an holy nation," to sanctify His name in
the world and to be an example to mankind in your
individual and in your corporate life, which are to be
based on new foundations, on the spirit of Truth and
Righteousness.
" Justice, justice shalt thou follow." " Keep thee
far from a false matter." You shall not respect the
322 MOSES
strong ; " and a stranger shalt thou not wrong
Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child,"
But neither shall you wrest justice on the side of the
w-eak : " Neither shalt thou favor a poor man in his
cause." The guiding rule of your lives shall be neither
hatred and jealousy, nor yet love and pity, for all alike
pervert the view and bias the judgment. " Justice,
justice " — that alone shall be your rule.
" Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking
out of the midst of the fire " such lofty and majestic
words? And the nation that has heard this message,
though it may have been sunk for centuries in the
morass of slavery and degradation, how can it fail to
rise out of the depths, and feel in its innermost soul
the purifying light that streams in upon it ?
So thinks the Prophet ; and the people confirm his
belief, as they cry ecstatically, with one voice, " All
that the Lord hath spoken we will do."
So the Prophet leaves the camp in peace of mind,
and withdraws into solitude on the top of the moun-
tain, there to perfect and complete the law of right-
eousness. But before he has been many days out of
sight the Egyptian bondman rears his head, and in
a moment overturns the dream-castle which the Prophet
has built on the foundation of his faith in the power of
the ideal. " The voice of God " is drowned by " the
noise of the people as they shouted " ; and the Priest,
whom the Prophet trusted, who was his mouthpiece
before Pharaoh and the people, this very Priest is
carried away by the mob, and makes them " gods "
MOSES 323
after their own heart, and builds an altar .... This,
in his view, is what the hour demands : and the Priest
is above all a man of the hour.
The Prophet's grief knows no bounds. All his work,
all his visions of his people's glorious mission, all the
hope which comforted him in his arduous path, all is
vanished into nothing. He is seized by impotent
despair. " The tablets of the Covenant " fall from his
hand and are broken ; his faith in himself and his work
is shaken. Now he sees how hard it is to create a
" peculiar people " out of such warped material, and
for one moment he thinks of abandoning this " obsti-
nate people," and entrusting his tablets to the remnant
who are faithful to his covenant. They will observe
his law, and win over little by little the best of man-
kind, till they become " a great nation " ; and he will
return to his shepherd's life in the wilderness.
But the Prophet is not a Priest : it is not for him to
bow to circumstances without a struggle, and to change
his way of thought at their bidding. The first im-
pulse passes away, and the Prophet returns to his
mission, and resolves to go forward, come what may.
Now he realizes the hard task that lies before him.
He no longer believes in a sudden revolution ; he knows
that signs and wonders and visions of God can arouse
a momentary enthusiasm, but cannot create a new
heart, cannot uproot and implant feelings and inclina-
tions with any stability or permanence. So he sum-
mons all his patience to the task of bearing the trouble-
some burden of his people and training it by slow steps
till it is fit for its mission.
324 MOSES
Thus the first period passes away. The Prophet
teaches, trains, bears, and forgives, borne up by the
hope of seeing the fruits of his labor at no distant day,
when his people's mission will be fulfilled in their
own land.
And then comes the incident of the spies. Here is
a nation on its way to conquer a country by force,
and there build up its own distinctive national life,
which is to be an example to the world: and at the
first unfavorable report despair sets in, and the glorious
future is forgotten. Even the Prophet's heart fails
him at this evidence of utter, fathomless degradation.
Moses now sees, then, that his last hope is ground-
less. Not even education will avail to make this de-
graded mob capable of a lofty mission. Straightway
the Prophet decrees extinction on his generation, and
resolves to remain in the wilderness forty years, till all
that generation be consumed, and its place be taken
by a new generation, born and bred in freedom, and
trained from childhood under the influence of the
Law which it is to observe in the land of its future.
It requires unusual courage to go out boldly to meet
danger, to fall single-handed on an enemy of vastly
superior strength, to plunge into a stormy sea. But
far greater heroism is demanded of the man who goes
about consciously and deliberately to tear out of his
heart a splendid hope, which has been the very breath
of his life ; to stop half-way when all his feelings
tumultuously impel him on towards the goal which
seemed so near. With such heroism has this Hebrew
MOSES 325
tradition endowed its Superman, the prince of its
Prophets. In vain do his followers, now conscious
of their error, urge him to take up the work again, and
lead them to their inheritance ; in vain is their entreaty,
" Lo, we be here, and will go up " ! The Prophet has
decreed, and will not, nay cannot, retract. He is con-
vinced that " this evil congregation " can be of no use
for his purpose, and no entreaty will induce the Prophet
to act against his convictions. He mourns with them
and makes their grief his own; but for their suppli-
cations he has one stern answer, " Go not up, for the
Lord is not among you."
So the Prophet remains in the wilderness, buries
his own generation and trains up a new one. Year
after year passes, and he never grows weary of re-
peating to this growing generation the laws of right-
eousness that must guide its life in the land of its
future; never tires of recalling the glorious past in
which these laws were fashioned. The past and the
future are the Prophet's whole life, each completing
the other. In the present he sees nothing but a wil-
derness, a life far removed from his ideal ; and there-
fore he looks before and after. He lives in the future
world of his vision, and seeks strength in the past
out of which that vision-world is quarried.
Forty years are gone, and the new generation is
about to emerge from its vagabond life in the wilder-
ness, and take up the broken thread of the national
task, when the Prophet dies, and another man assumes
the leadership, and brings the people to its land.
326 MOSES
Why does the Prophet die? Why is it not vouch-
safed to him to complete his work himself ? Tradition,
as we know, gives no sufficient reason. But tradition
recognized, with unerring instinct, that so it needs
must be. When the time comes for the ideal to be em-
bodied in practice, the Prophet can no longer stand at
the head; he must give place to another. The reason
is that from that moment there begins a new period,
a period in which prophecy is dumb, a period of those
half-measures and compromises which are essential to
the battle of life. In this period reality assumes gradu-
ally a form very different from that of the Prophet's
vision ; and so it is better for him to die than to witness
this change. " He shall see the land before him, but
he shall not go thither." He has brought his people
to the border, fitted them for their future, and given
them a noble ideal to be their lodestar in time of
trouble, their comfort and their salvation; the rest is
for other men, who are more skilled to compromise
with life. Let them do what they will do and achieve
what they will achieve, be it much or little. In any
case they will not achieve all that the Prophet wished,
and their way will not be his way.
As for him, the Prophet, he dies, as he .has lived,
in his faith. All the evil that he has seen has been
powerless to quench his hope for the future, or dim
the brightness of the ideal that illumined his path from
afar. He dies with gladness on his face, and with
words of comfort for the latter days on his lips : dies,
as tradition says, " in a kiss," embracing, as it were,
MOSES 327
the ideal to which he has consecrated his Hfe, and for
which he has toiled and suffered till his last breath.
When Heine wanted to describe .the greatness of the
prince of Hebrew poets, Jehudah Halevi, he said that
** he was born with a kiss." But that idea is foreign
to the Jewish spirit. When the national tradition
wishes to describe the greatness of .the prince of
Prophets, it makes him die, not come to life, with a
kiss. That death-kiss is the crown of a work com-
pleted and a duty fulfilled to the uttermost, of a life
whose burden has been borne from first to last with the
steadfastness of a sea-girt rock, which flinches not nor
bows, but bears unmoved the onset of the devouring
waves.
" The creator," I have said, " creates in his own
image." And in truth, our people has but expressed
itself, at its highest, in this picture of Moses. Well
have the Cabbalists said that " Moses is reincarnated
in every age." Some hint of Moses has illumined the
dark life of our people, like a spark, in every genera-
tion. This needs no lengthy proof. We have but to
open our Prayer Book, and we shall see almost on
every page how constant has been the striving after
the realization of the prophetic ideal in all its world-
embracing breadth, constant throughout the blackest
periods of the Jew's history, when his life has been
most precarious, and persecution has driven him from
country to country. Israel has never lived in the pres-
ent. The present, with its evil and its wickedness, has
always filled us with anguish, indignation, and bitter-
328 MOSES
ness. But just as constantly have we been inspired
with brilliant hopes for the future, and an ineradicable
faith in the coming triumph of the good and the right ;
and for these hopes and that faith we have always
sought and found support in the history of our past,
whereon our imagination has brooded, weaving all
manner of fair dreams, so as to make the past a kind
of mirror of the future. Our very Hebrew language,
the garment of the Jewish spirit, has no present tense,
but only a past and a future. The question has been
much debated, whether the fundamental characteristic
of the Jewish spirit is optimism or pessimism ; and ex-
treme views have been propounded on both sides. But
all such discussion is futile. The Jew is both optimist
and pessimist; but his pessimism has reference to the
present, his optimism to the future. This was true of
the Prophets, and it is true of the people of the
Prophets.
There has, indeed, been one short period in modern
Jewish history when Israel grew utterly weary of toil
and trouble, and began to long for solace in the present,
taking pleasure in the fleeting hour, as other nations do,
and demanding no more of life than what it can give.
And when once this longing was aroused, and became
Israel's ideal (despite its fundamental opposition to the
prophetic outlook), the prophetic characteristic at once
manifested itself here also: the ideal was pursued to
extreme lengths, without any regard to the obstacles
that lay in the way of its attainment. The Jews of
that period had no pity on the vision of a great future.
MOSES 329
to which their ancestors clung throughout history.
They wiped it out at a single stroke, as soon as its
abandonment seemed to be a necessary step to the
attainment of the ideal of to-day. And with the future
the past necessarily went, seeing that it had no meaning
except as a mirror of the future. But we all know the
end of the story. The ideal of to-day was not attained ;
and all the labor of that period, its attempt to destroy
one world and build another, left nothing but ruin and
the bitterness that comes of wasted effort.
But this was a mere passing phase, a sort of faint-
ing-fit, a temporary loss of consciousness. The pro-
phetic spirit cannot be crushed, except for a time. It
comes to life again, and masters the Prophet in his
own despite. So, too, the prophetic people regained
consciousness in its own despite, and we see once again
some beginning of the " reincarnation of Moses." The
Spirit which called Moses thousands of years ago and
sent him on his mission, against his own will, now
calls again the generation of to-day, saying,
" And that which cometh into your mind shall not
be at all ; in that ye say, we will be as the nations . . .
as I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty
hand .... will I be king over you."
INDEX
INDEX
Aaron, the typical priest, 19; the
companion of Moses, 320,
322-3.
Actes et conferences de la societe
des etudes juives, cited, 173
(n.)
" After Ten Years," essay by
Ahad Ha-'Am, 285 (n.).
Agricultural colonies, cannot pro-
duce a spiritual revival, 289.
Ahad Ha-'Am, collected essays of,
7; content of essays by, 11;
on study of Hebrew language
and literature, 35-6; projects
a Hebrew Encyclopedia, 36; on
the Jewish mission, 38-9; on
political Zionism, 39-40.
'Al Parashat Derahim, by Ahad
Ha-'Am, 7.
Albo, Joseph, referred to, 87 (and
n.); his basis for Judaism,
188.
Alexander the Great, 19.
Alliance, the, and the emancipa-
tion of the Jews in the East,
248.
Amalek, Moses in the battle with,
310.
America, the Jargon in, 282.
American literature, contrasted
with English, 277-8.
Analysis of the past, 207 et seq.
Anan, founder of Karaism, 60.
Anchorites, how produced, 166.
Anticipations of ideas, character-
ized, 69; value of, 69-70; il-
lustrated, 70-9.
Antiocbus, threatens Hebraism,
19.
Anti-Semitism, alleged not to exist
in France, 172; Reinach warns
against, 172-4; see also Jew-
hatred.
Antokolsky, sculptor, estranged
from the Hebrew spirit, 269-
72-
Aphasia, 283.
Arabic philosophy cultivated by
the Jews, 57.
Archives Israelites, fiftieth anni-
versary of, 174.
Argentine colonies, the, of Baron
Hirsch, 90 (n.), 124 (n.).
Aristotle, alluded to, 43.
Aryan element, the, in Nietzsche't
system, 225-6. 233.
Ascetic, the true, 139; opposed to
the general law of life, 141-2;
see also Asceticism.
Asceticism, the Jewish view of,
26-7; defined, 139-41; in India
and Europe, 141; opposed to
the laws of history, 141-2; ex-
plained by opposition between
flesh and spirit, 142-5; not
consonant with early Juda-
ism, 148; tendency toward, in
Judaism of Middle Ages, 151;
political, among the Jews, 152;
modern Jewish, 157-8; see also
Ascetic.
Assimilation, the result of imita-
tion, 114, lis; of a conquered
nation, 114; due to self-ef-
facement, lis; how to avoid,
II 5-1 6; and reform in Juda-
ism, 120 et seq.; not a danger
to Jews, 121-2; effect of, on
334
INDEX
Jewish creativeness, 265 et
seq.; see also Emancipation ;
Imitation, Self-effacement.
" At the Parting of the Ways,"
by Ahad Ha-" Am, 7.
Auto-Emancipation, by Leo Pins-
ker, cited, 102 (n.).
Baba Batra, cited, 45 (n.).
Baba Kamma, cited, 48 (n.).
Babylonian capitivity, the, 24-5.
Bacon, Francis, a creator of ob-
jective culture, 260.
Basle programme, the, first para-
graph of, 255; see also Zion-
ism.
Bergson, Henri, alluded to, 93.
Bialik, Ch. N., modern Hebrew
poet, 271 (n.).
Bible, the, German translation of,
starts a negative movement,
64-s; expresses the Law in the
terms of early Jewish history,
212; a product of Hebrew ob-
jective culture, 261-2; not
the only product of Hebrew
objective culture, 262-4; see
also Law, the ; Scriptures, the ;
Torah, the.
Blood-accusation, the, recrudes-
cent, 19s; agitates the spirit
of the Jewish people, 195-6;
a means of escape from self-
contempt, 203-4.
Body, the, defined, 23; to be
fought, 14s; view of, in later
Judaism, 25; see also Dualism;
Flesh, the.
Borne, claimed as a national Jewish
writer, 277.
Brandes, claimed as a national Jew-
ish writer, 277.
Bruno, Giordano, alluded to, 99.
Buchler Adolph, and Jewish Sci-
ence, 274 (n.).
Buddhists, the, asceticism among,
141.
Cabbalists, the, alluded to, 43; in-
clined towards asceticism, 151.
Cato, alluded to, 116.
Cause, a, demanded by civilized
man, 143.
Centre, a Jewish, antidote to dis-
sipation, 123; see also Pales-
tine,
Christian investigators, and Jewish
documents, 274.
Christianity an assertion of the
Hebrew spirit, 21.
Community, the, and the individ-
ual, in Judaism, 147-9.
Competition, rooted in jealousy,
iii; stimulates progress, 112,
116, 118; applied to commun-
ities, 113.
Compromise, the Prophets opposed
to, 17; the Hebrews opposed
to, 17-18, 263-4; the Priest a
man of, 18-19; in mechanics,
125-6; in the human soul, 126-
9; in social life, 129-30.
Compulsion, an excuse in the Law,
48.
Congress, Report of the Sixth,
cited, 302.
Conscience, defined, 48-9.
Conservatives, action of, 61-2, 63.
Convention, force of, 196 et seq.
Conversions, the Jewish objection
to, 229.
Copernicus, alluded to, 43, 44, 99,
loi, 105.
Creation, a principle of natural
religion, 188.
Creativeness among the Jews, 265
et seq.; unexhausted, 293-4;
see also Originality.
Cultural work, of the essence of
Zionism, 258; problem of,
cleared up, 305.
Culture, defined as objective and
subjective, 259 et seq.
Culture, Jewish, and political
Zionism, 253, 255-8; and Zion-
ism, 253-4; objective, 261 et
INDEX
335
seq.; loss to, through assimila-
tion, 26s et seq.; revival of,
antecedent to spiritual revival,
289-91; the work necessary for
the revival of, 293-4; the re-
vival of, requires a special or-
ganization, 296; the revival of
national, the aim of Zionism,
299-300; see also Hebrew
Spirit, the; and under Na-
tional, etc.
Damascus blood-accusation, the,
19S-
Darwin, Charles, alluded to, 44,
183, 190, 194; stigmatized by
Nietzsche, 237.
David, king, alluded to, 124.
Death-kiss, the, in Jewish tradition,
326-7.
De Coulanges, cited, 163 (n.).
Deism, and Judaism, 184, 187-8.
Desire for life. See IVill-to-llve,
the.
Despair, the philosophy of, 144.
Diaspora, the, the Hebrew spirit
in, 3S; regeneration in, aided
by Palestine, 37; see also Dis-
persion, the; Dissipation;
Galut, the.
Dictionnaire des sciences philo-
sophiques, cited, 192 (n.).
Dietary laws, the, observance of,
deprecated, 244-5; see also
Kashrut.
Dispersion, the, of Israel, not a
condition of his mission, 137;
see also Diaspora, the; Dissi-
pation; Galut, the.
Dissipation, national, antidote to,
123; see also Diaspora, the;
Dispersion, the; Galut, the.
Dreyfus, alluded to, 171 (n.).
Dualism, the, of body and soul,
23-4; in later Judaism, 149-31;
see also Body, the; Flesh,
the; Soul, the.
East, the, the Jews of, criticised
by S. Reinach, 243 et seq.; j
the emancipation of, 245 et
seq.
Ecclesiastes, quoted, 159.
Education, and Zionism, 301 et seq.
Ego. See Self, the.
Ego, the national. See Self, the
national.
Egypt, the Jews of, averse from
assimilation, 118.
Egyptians, the, use of stone vessels
among, 41-2.
Election of Israel, the dogma of,
228 et seq.
Emancipation, the, of the Jew, fet-
ters the Hebrew spirit, 30;
effects of, 31-2; and the na-
tional restoration, 34-5; and
the spirit of the age, 103-6;
and the Jewish mission, 138-9;
cost of, 182; demands religious
changes, 183; demands denial
of Jewish nationality, 191;
Western Jews slaves to, 192;
and the blood-accusation, 195-
6; and S. Reinach, 245 et seq.;
effect of, on Jewish creative-
ness, 265 et seq.; see also As-
similation.
Encyclopedia, a Hebrew, projected
by Ahad Ha-'Am, 36.
End, an, demanded by the moral
individual, 143.
England, objective culture of, 260.
English literature, contrasted with
American, 277-8.
" Enlightenment." See Haskalah.
Essenes, the, ascetics, 20; con-
trasted with the Pharisees, 20;
and the modern mission the-
ory. 39; on the dualism of
body and soul, 150-1; hold
ascetic view of national life,
153-4. 157-
" Eternal Ideals," article in Vos-
chod, cited, 171 (n.).
European Morals, by Lecky, cited,
166 (n.).
Evil, the, distinguished from evil-
doers, 47-8, 50; in the life of
336
INDEX
primitive man, 71; Jewish view
of impulse to, 126-7.
Evolution, the doctrine of, modifies
the attitude towards the past,
207 et seq.; in the Nietzschean
system, 237.
Exile, the. See Galut, the.
Extremeness, a characteristic of
the prophet, 312.
" Extremism," 26-7.
Extremist, the prophet is an, 16;
definition of, 25-6.
Ezra, alluded to, yy.
Faith, supplies a future to the self,
82; to the nation, 83-4; the re-
sult of the will-to-live, 163;
shaken by science, 183.
Family gods, 72, y^.
Fasting, not asceticism, 140-1,
February Revolution, the, an inci-
dent of, 177-8.
Fiske, John, quoted, 98-9.
Flesh, the, life of, fleeting, 144-5;
how hatred of, grows, 145-6;
annihilation of, as viewed by
later Judaism, 149-50; union
of, with spirit, nationally, 152-
9; see also Body, the ; Dualism.
" Flesh and Spirit," by Ahad Ha-
'Am, 7.
" Fragments," by Ahad Ha-'Am, 7.
France, the Jews of, an object of
imitation, 123; anti-Semitism
alleged not to exist in, 172;
growth of anti-Semitism in,
172-4; status of Jews of, 174
et seq.; the first fatherland of
the Jew, 179, 181.
Franck, Adolphe, on Jewish nation-
ality, 179-81.
Frankel, Zechariah, on national
Jewish life, 276.
Freedom, slavery in. See Slavery
among Western Jews.
French Revolution, the, 175, 176.
Future, the, of the individual, 82;
of a nation, 83, 84; of the
Jewish nation, after the Baby-
lonian exile, 85; of the Jew-
ish nation, in modern times,
88-90; hope of, abandoned,
328-9; see also National restor-
ation, the.
Galicia, the Jargon in, 282.
Galileo, alluded to, 99, 101, 105.
Galut, the, 22; affects Hebraism,
2z, 32; see also Diaspora, the;
Dispersion, the ; Dissipation.
Geiger, Abraham, on the Hebrew
language, 121, 279 (n.); on
purpose of Jewish Science,
276.
Genealogie, by Nietzsche, cited,
235 (n.).
Germany, the Jews of, objects of
imitation, 122.
Ghetto, the, 28, 29, 30-1; saves
Hebraism, 31; organization of,
156.
Goethe, influences his generation
through his Werther, 307.
Good, the, in the life of primitive
man, 71; Jewish view of the
impulse to, 126, 127.
" Good Advice," essay by Ahad
Ha-'Am, cited, 224 (n.).
Great men, in history, 306-8.
Greek culture, and the Romans,
116; in Palestine, 1 18-19; ob-
jective, 259.
Greeks, the national duty of, 187.
Gutenberg, alluded to, 42.
Haggadah, the Passover, alluded
to, 308.
Halevi, Jehudah, on the election of
Israel, 232; alluded to, 241;
described by Heine, 327.
" Ha-Matmid," poem by Bialik,
271 (n.).
Ha-Meliz, cited, 171 (n.).
INDEX
337
Harmony, the heavenly, 126; the
moral, of the Greeks, 128; the
social, 129-30; in the view of
the Prophet, 131; in the view
of the Priest, 132.
Ha-Shiloah, cited, 211 (n.); al-
luded to, 239.
Hasidism, spread of, analyzed, 57-
8; opposed to asceticism, 151;
the literature of, original, 287.
Haskalah, the, defined, 64 (n.) ;
destructive of Jewish national
literature, 285, 287.
Heavenly harmony, the, 126.
Hebraism, threatened by Anti-
ochus, 19; and the Sadducees,
20; narrowed down to Juda-
ism, 22-3; affected by the
Galut, 23; repudiates the dual-
ism of body and soul, 24; not
concerned with personal im-
mortality, 24; " other-world-
liness " introduced into, 24-5;
in modern life, 30; saved by
the Ghetto, 31; Judaism sub-
stituted for, 32-3; in thought
and practice, 35; Palestine a
spiritual centre of, 37; proph-
ecy a phenomenon of, 132; see
also Hebrew spirit, the; Re-
vival of the Hebrew spirit, the.
Hebrew culture, objective, 261; see
also Culture, Jewish.
Hebrew language, the, as an ele-
ment in the revival of the
Hebrew spirit, 35-6; Geiger on,
121, 279 (n.); the vehicle of
the Jewish national literature,
278-9; versus Jargon, 280-5;
the tenses of, 328; see also
Jewish literature, the.
Hebrew literature, the. See He-
brew language, the; Jewish
literature, the.
Hebrew spirit, the, defined, 12;
religious and moral, 14;
prophets the product of, 14-
15; priests the intermediaries
23
for, 18-19; triumphs through
Christianity, 21; on the de-
fensive, 22; in Judaism, 23;
demands the Messiah, 28; in
modern times, 28-9, 30; ex-
pressed in the Ghetto, 30; co-
extensive with life, 33; culti-
vated in the Diaspora, 35; ex-
pressed in an encyclopedia,
36; creative, 264; see also
Culture, Jewish; Hebraism;
Revival of the Hebrew spirit,
the; and under National, etc.;
Spirit; Spiritual.
Hebrews, the, absolute righteous-
ness the ideal of, 18; separate-
ness of, essential, 20-1; na-
tional resto,ration of, 21-2;
changed into Jews, 22; see
also Hebraism; Hebrew spirit,
the; Israel; Jews, the; Mission
of Israel, the; Revival of the
Hebrew spirit, the.
Heder, the, faults of the training
in, 202; Jewish in spirit, 301-3.
Heine, claimed as a national Jew-
ish writer, 277; on Jehudah
Halevi, 327.
Hellenism, 19.
Hellenists, the, in Palestine, 118.
Hermits, how produced, 166; see
also Asceticism.
Herod, the typical tyrant, 270.
Hibbat Zion, Zionism, 254.
Hillel, quoted, 150.
Hirsch, Baron, attempts to create
a Jewish centre, 90 (n.),
124 (n.).
History, the influence of great
men on, 306-8.
Hoveve Zion, the, arguments used
against, 171-2.
Humanity, the loser through Jew-
ish assimilation, 266 et seq.
Hume, cited, 70; a creator of
objective culture, 260.
338
INDEX
Hypnotism, described, 91; exer-
cised by society, 91-3, 102;
and spiritualism, 95.
Idea, a new, as a primal force, 129-
30; how urged by the Prophet,
1 30- 1, 135-6; how urged by the
Priest, 131-2, 135-6.
Imagination, place of, in early
human development, 161-3; in
a complex society, 164-5.
Imitation, a moral shortcoming,
107; as the foundation of
society, 107-8; limitation of, as
such, 108-9; centre of, 109-
11; of the living, 11 1-12; inter-
national, 112; leads to assimi-
lation; 113-14, 115; examples
of proper competitive, 116 et
seq.; among Jews, 117 et seq.;
see also Assimilation; Self-
effacement.
Immortality, national, in the view
of Hebraism, 24; personal, ac-
cepted among Jews, 25; per-
sonal, in Judaism, 146, 149;
affirmed and denied, 166; see
also Other-worldliness.
India, asceticism in, 141.
Individual, the, in Judaism, 27;
and the community, in Juda-
ism, 147-9.
Individuality, the fostering of, an
end, 222.
Inner consciousness, the, its make-
up. 93-4. 97-
Intellectual slavery. See under
Slavery.
"Internal Emancipation of the
Jews, The," by S. Reinach,
243 et seq.
Israel, prophetical demands on,
17-18; perennial steadfastness
of, 328-9; see also Hebrews,
the; Jews, the; Mission of
Israel, the.
Ivan the Terrible, the typical ty-
rant, 270.
Jabneh, Johanan ben Zakkai in,
156 (n.).
Jargon, versus Hebrew, 280-5.
Jealousy, the root of competition,
III.
Jenseits von Gut und Bose, by
Nietzsche, cited, 229 (n.),
230 (n.).
Jew, term with religious connota-
tion, 12; the Ghetto, 28, 30-1,
34-5. 38; the assimilated, 28-
9; the modern history of the,
29-30; see also Jews, the.
Jew-hatred, a bequest of the past,
102-3; mistaken view of, 102-
5; proper measures against,
103; its extinction, 105-6; see
also Anti-Semitism.
Jewish, a term with religious con-
notation, 12.
Jewish Chronicle, the, cited,
272 (n.).
Jewish Colonization Association,
the, and the agriculturists of
Palestine, 242; and the eman-
cipation of the Jews in the
East, 248.
Jewish life, stimulates creativeness,
269 et seq.
Jewish literature, national, de-
scribed, 277 et seq.; destroyed
by the Haskalah, 285, 287; see
also Hebrew language, the.
Jewish mission, the. See Mission
of Israel, the.
Jewish national life. See under
National; Nationality; Na-
tionalism.
Jewish problem, the, the solution
of, 30, 40.
Jewish Science, a negative move-
ment, 65-6; defined, 65 (n.);
not original, 273-5; riot na-
tionalist, 275-6.
Jewish thought, philosophy intro-
duced into, 57.
Jews, the, how developed from
Hebrews, 22; affected by com-
INDEX
339
petitive imitation, iiS et seq.;
not in danger of assimilation,
12 1-2; danger to, 122; of West-
ern Europe, not spiritually
free, 177, 178-9; ancient and
modern, in relation to the out-
side world, 198 et seq.; as
promoters of alien culture,
272-3; anomalous cultural po-
sition of, 292-3; the cultural
position of, 296 et seq.; see
also Hebrews, the; Hebrew
spirit, the, etc. ; Israel; Jews,
the; Mission of Israel, the.
Job, legend about, 45 (n.).
Johanan ben Zakkai, 156 (n.).
Judaism, a narrow Hebraism, 22-
3; and the doctrine of personal
immortality, 25; asceticism in,
26-7; relation of the individual
to the nation in, 27; demands
the superman, 27-8; a substi-
tute for Hebraism, 32-3; re-
form of, proper procedure for,
1 01-2; reform of, tends to-
wards assimilation, 120 et seq.;
attitude of, towards body and
soul, 146-8; "eternal life" in
primitive, 146-7; attempts to
solve the problem of communal
life, 147-9; early, rules out as-
ceticism, 148; in Middle Ages,
inclines to asceticism, 151; as
a religion, championed by
French writers, 179; the unity
of, lost, 183; held theoretically
by emancipated Jews, 183; mis-
sion idea introduced in, 184
et seq.; principles of, enunci-
ated by Albo, 188; to be re-
fashioned by the theory of the
transvaluation of values, 218-
223-4, 232; strengthened by the
Nietzschean system, 224; the
superman of, 226-7; the moral
superiority of, 228-9; the place
of the mission of Israel in,
330-1; the later, and its insis-
tence on practice, 263-4; the
spirit of, in the emancipated
Jew, 265; the reform of, and
Jewish Science, 276.
Judges, the Book of, on the fickle-
ness of the Jew, 73.
Judische Wissenschaft. See Jew-
ish Science.
Justice, the prophetic ideal, 16, 26;
defined, 46; the world to be
created with, 47, 48; in con-
nection with mercy, 48; devel-
oped feeling of, 49-50; value
of, 52; the fundamental idea
of Hebrew prophecy, 133;
zeal for, in Moses, 314-17; see
also Righteousness.
Karaites, the, denounced by the
people, 44; illustrate a nega-
tive movement, 59-60.
Kashrut, observed even by nation-
alists, 249; see also Dietary
laws, the,
Kepler, alluded to, 43.
Kiddushin, cited, 150 (n.).
Kieff, alluded to, 270.
Kiss. See Death-kiss, the,
Kuzari, by Jehudah Halevi, cited,
232 (n.).
La cite antique, by De Coulanges,
cited, 163 (n.).
La Gerbe, a French book, de-
scribed, 174 et seq.
Lamentations, Book of, article on,
cited, 180.
Language, depends on imitation,
108; partial loss of, 283.
Law, the, made a living tradition
by the Pharisees, 20; made a
code, 22; written on parch-
ment, 42; quoted, 46, 47, 48
study of, supreme, 77; need
of Oral, denied, 60; its func
tion in rejuvenating Israel, 86
7; in three different garbs
212; see also Bible, the; Scrip'
340
INDEX
tures, the; Talmud, the;
Torah, the.
" Law in the Soul, The," essay by
Ahad Ha-' Am, cited, 235 (n.).
Laws, disregard of, 67-8.
Lecky, cited, 166 (n.).
Legend, a, about Job, 45 (n.) ; on
justice and mercy, 47,
on the relation of Greek phil
osophy to Hebrew culture
119.
L'emancipation interieure du Juda
isme, by S. Reinach, cited;
244 (n.).
" Letter to the Jews of Yemen,'
by Maimonides, alluded to, 87
Levanda, Russian Jewish writer
279.
Literature, national Jewish, de
scribed, 277 et seq. ; see also
under Hebrew.
Locke, John, a creator of objective
culture, 260.
Logic, demands a cause, 143; di-
rected against tradition, 205-7.
Lolli, A., article by, 211 et seq.
London, alluded to, 255.
Lubbock, quoted, 41 (n.).
L'univers israelite, cited, 244 (n.).
Luzzatto, Samuel David, quoted,
213-14.
Maccabeans, the, 19.
Magic, used by Moses, 318-19.
Maimon, Solomon, philosopher,
292.
Maimonides, Moses, why revered
by the people, 44; on the Mes-
siah, 87 (and n.); opposed to
asceticism, 151; alluded to,
202.
Man, as viewed by Judaism, 148.
Materialist view, the, of life, 146;
of national life, 152.
Mattathias the Hasmonean, and
the Sabbath, 247, 250.
Mendelssohn, Moses, alluded to,
31. 64.
Mercy, defined, 46; the world cre-
ated with, 47, 48; in connec-
tion with justice, 48; false
development of feeling of,
50-2; true place of, 52.
Messiah, the, and the national
restoration, 22; the supreme
prophet, 28; hope of, supreme,
78; Maimonides on, 87; early
advent of, 137; and political
Zionism, 254.
Midrash Lek Leka, quoted, 71 (n.).
Midrashim, the, discredited as his-
torical evidence, 274.
Mill, John Stuart, alluded to, 82,
Minsk, alluded to, 253 (n.).
Mishnah, the, Luzzatto character-
izes, 213-14.
Mishneh Torah, by Maimonides,
214 (n.). See Yad ha-Hasa-
kah.
Mission of Israel, the, Ahad Ha-
'Am's objections to, 38-9; as
viewed in Western Europe,
137; as viewed by the
Prophets, 137-8; Adolphe
Franck on, 180-1; character-
ized, 184 et seq.; an attempt
to adapt Judaism to modern
conditions, 230-1 ; see also Re-
formers, the.
Mitnaggedim, opponents of Hasid-
ism, 58.
Monatsschrift, the, cited, 276
(and n.).
Moral harmony, the, of the Greeks,
128.
Moral slavery. See under Slavery.
Morality, criterion of, 51-2; de-
mands an end, 143; as modi-
fied by the Nietzschean system,
219, 222-3; a genius for, dis-
played by the Jews, 228-g;
the author's plea for, in the
Jews, 235 et seq.; progress of,
explained by Nietzsche, 237;
laws of, an outcome of na-
tional character, 237-8; revival
INDEX
341
of, must precede national re-
vival, 240-1; insisted on by
the Prophets, 263-4.
Mortara, his spiritual being-, 94.
Moses, essay by Ahad Ha-' Am on,
sets forth the fundamental
qualities of the Prophets, 16;
the influence of, not dependent
on his actual existence, 308-9;
character of, created in the
Jewish spirit, 309-10; questions
as to the essential nature of,
310-11; the prophet, 311, 314;
his sense of justice illustrated,
314-17; becomes interested in
his own people, 317-18; re-
sorts to enchantments, 318-19;
enlists the aid of his brother,
320, 322; as the educator of a
slave-people, 320 et seq.; in-
culcates the true God-idiea,
321; ethical lessons of, 321-
2; disappointed by the people,
322-3, 324; persistence and pa-
tience of, 323; spiritual hero-
ism of, 324-5; educates a sec-
ond generation, 325; dies when
ideal is executed in practice,
326; dies in his faith, 326-7;
created in the image of the
Jewish people, 327-9; rein-
carnation of, 329.
Munk, cited, 185 (n.); quoted, 186,
192; alluded to, 190.
Nachgelassene Schriften, by Gei-
ger, cited, 279 (n.).
National culture, the aim of Zion-
ism, 299-300; see also Culture,
Jewish.
National gods, yz, 73, 74.
National hope. See National res-
toration, the.
National Jewish literature. See
Jewish literature, national.
National language, the, of the Jews,
279-85; see also Hebrew lan-
guage, the; Jargon.
National life, Jewish, materialistic
view of, 152.
National restoration, the, 21-2;
and the modern Jew, 34-5; as
a survival, 75-9; in modern
times, 88-90; see also National
revival, the; Palestine; Re-
vival of the Hebrew spirit,
the; Zionism.
National revival, the, not opposed
by the Jewish moral spirit, 240-
i; and Zionism, 294; see also
National restoration, the; Re-
vival of the Hebrew spirit,
the; Zionism.
National self, the. See Self, the
national.
Nationalism, Jewish, a safeguard
against assimilation, 120; the,
of the Hebrew prophets, 134-
S; Jewish, and tradition, 210-
11; of different kinds, 295.
Nationality, Jewish, two views of,
167-70; deprecated by French
writers, 179 et seq.; cause of
Jewish unity, 183; and Zion-
ism, 253-4; and emancipation,
265; and Jewish Science, 275-
6; the language of, 278-85.
Natural religion, supposed to suf-
fice for Jews, 187-8; anti-
quated, 188.
Natural Religion, by Simon, al-
luded to, 187-8.
Nature gods, 72-3.
Nazarites, place of, in Judaism,
148.
Nefesh, meaning of, 146.
Negative, the, in the positive, 55;
development of, 58, 59, 61, 62;
illustrated in Karaism, 59-60;
illustrated in the Mendelssohn-
ian movement, 64-5 ; illus-
trated in Jewish Science, 65-6.
Nehemiah, alluded to, 77.
Nestor, the typical recluse, 270.
New, the, amalgamating with the
old, 95-6, 98, 99-101.
342
INDEX
New Testament, the, the Pharisees
in, 20.
Newton, Isaac, alluded to, 43.
Nietzsche, Friedrich, system of,
analyzed, 219 et seq.; and
evolution, 237; reverence in-
culcated by, 238-9; on the
Hebrew Scriptures, 239.
Nirvana, 88.
Old, the, amalgamating with the
new, 95-6, 98, 99-101.
One-sidedness of elements, makes
complex unity, 128-9.
Optimist, the Jew as, 328.
Orah Hayyim, cited, 213 (n.).
Order, love of, not a Jewish trait,
202.
Originality, loss of, by the Jews,
285-7; see also Creativeness.
Orshansky, alluded to, 178.
Orthodox Jews, their conventional
ideas, 198.
Other-worldliness, usually defined
as spiritual, 13; introduced
into Hebraism, 24-5; see also
Immortality.
Palestine, indispensable for the
revival of the Hebrew spirit,
33-4, 40; as a spiritual centre
of Hebraism, 37-8; colony in,
alluded to, 253; the place of,
in political Zionism, 255; the
revival of national culture in,
290, 294; see also Centre; Na-
tional restoration, the; Na-
tional revival, the; Revival of
the Hebrew spirit, the;
Zionism.
Palestine, by Munk, cited, 185 (n.).
Parchment, used for the Law, 42.
Past, the, in the life of the indi-
vidual, 81; of a nation, 83; of
the Jewish nation, as an asset,
88-90; respect for, a force,
206-7; historical criticism re-
leases from subservience to,
209; see also Tradition.
Paulhan, quoted, 127.
Peace, defined, 53-4.
Perpetual student, the, 270-1
(and n.)
Pessimist, the Jew as, 328.
Pharaoh, Moses before, 315, 318;
discomfited, 320.
Pharisee, meaning of word, :53-
4 (n.).
Pharisees, the, heirs of the pro-
phetic spirit, 20; insist on na-
tional separateness, 20-1; hope
for national restoration, 21-2;
Ahad Ha-' Am in agreement
with, 40; political views of,
154-6; see also Rabbis, the.
Philo, alluded to, 43, 151.
Philosophical theory, the, of life,
165-6; of Jewish national life,
168-9.
Philosophy, on the dualism of body
and soul, 23; introduced into
Jewish thought, 57.
Physical danger, from the blood-
accusation, 196.
Physical force, not valued in Juda-
ism, 218.
Pinsker, Leo, cited, 102 (n.).
Pirke Abot, quoted, 50 (n.), 51
(n.), 84 (n.).
Plato, alluded to, 43, 118, 119.
Political materialism, the Prophets
opposed to, 152-3; the Phari-
sees opposed to, 155.
Polytheism, rise of, 71-2; universal,
72-3; among the Jews, 74.
Positive, the, defined, 54-5; nega-
tive in, 55; defense of, 58-9,
60-1.
Practice, the centre of later Juda-
ism, 263-4.
Prayer, the substitute for sacrifices,
77-
Prayer Book, the Jewish, and the
prophetic ideal, 327.
INDEX
343
Priest, the, the intermediary be-
tween the Prophet and the
people, 18-19; trusted by
Moses, 322; see also Priests.
Priests, function of, 18-19; com-
promise, 19, 131; and the
Pharisees, 21; contrasted with
the prophet, 131-2; teaching of,
produced by the prophet, 13s;
heirs of the prophetic idea,
136; promulgators of the pro-
phetic ideal, 314; see also
Priest, the.
Primal force, a, defined, 129; the
prophetic idea, 130, 135, 136.
Primitive man, 70-2; and sacrifices,
140-1; developed by Reason
and Imagination, 161-3;
frankly exercises the will-to-
live, 163.
Principles, The, by Joseph Albo,
87, 188.
Problem of life, the, solved by as-
ceticism, 144-6; the material-
istic solution, 146; the spirit-
ual solution, 146; the Jewish
solution, 146-9.
Profane, differentiated from sac-
red, 41-2, 42-3.
Prophecy, a Hebraic phenomenon,
132-
Prophet, the, the Jewish super-
man, 27; the goal and source
of life, 28; one-sided, 130; a
primal force, 130; how viewed
by others, 131; contrasted with
the Priest, 131-2, 13s; the fun-
damental idea of, 133; uni-
versalistic and nationalistic,
134-5 ; failure of the idea of,
136-7; the mission of Israel ac-
cording to, 137-8; defined as
to three characteristics, 311-
13; as a predicter of the fu-
ture, 313; influences the world
indirectly, 313-14; see also
Prophecy; Prophetic ideal,
the; Prophets, the.
Prophetic ideal, the, 16-18, 24; per-
petuated by the Pharisees, 20;
national, 24; see also Proph-
ecy; Prophet, the; Prophets,
the.
Prophets, the, as products of the
Hebrew spirit, 14-15; express
the Hebrew ideal of character,
15; not fore-seers, 15; qualities
of, 16; ideals of, 16-17, 24; un-
compromising, 17-18; in rela-
tion to priests, 18-19; con-
sider national separateness es-
sential, 21; urge the doctrine
of the Unity of God, 73, 74-
5; rejuvenate the national self
of the Jew, 83; supposed
teachers of Plato and Socrates,
119; opposed to political ma-
terialism, 152-3; insist upon
unity of flesh and spirit, 153;
the happiness theory of, 167;
on the mission of Israel, 231;
insist on morality, 263-4; see
also Prophecy; Prophet, the;
Prophetic ideal, the.
Rabbis, the, heirs of the prophets,
21; see also Pharisees, the.
Rashi, cited, 75 (n.).
Rational criticism, to emancipate
the Jews of the East, 246 et
seq.
Reason, not the only guide of man,
159; place of, in early human
development, 161-3; in a com-
plex society, 164, 165-6.
Reform of Judaism. See under
Judaism; also Mission of
Israel, the.
Reformers, the, on sacredness, 44;
apologists, 57; and the hope
for the future, 88; work for
the Jews of their respective
countries, 247; see under Ju-
daism; also Mission of Israel,
the.
344
INDEX
Refuge, a, the hope of Zionism,
25s; for the national spirit,
287.
Reinach, S., article of, cited, 244
(n.); analyzed, 243 et seq.
Reinach, Theodore, warns Jews
against anti-Semitism, 172-3.
Religion, on the dualism of body
and soul, 23; supreme among
the Jews, 76-8; fasting in, 140.
Religion of the Ancient Babylon-
ians, by Sayce, cited, 247 (n.).
Religious, distinguished from secu-
lar, 23.
Renan, alluded to, 82.
" Research and Reform," by A.
LoUi, 211 et seq.
Restoration, the national. See
National restoration, the.
Resultant of two forces, 125-6.
Resurrection, the Jewish view of,
149.
Revelation, a principle of natural
religion, 188.
Reverence, inculcated by Nietzsche,
238-9.
Revival of the Hebrew spirit, the,
the solution of the Jewish
problem, 30, 40; conditions
for, 33-4, 35-6; the part of
Palestine in, 37-8; requires a
refuge, 287-9; depends on a
revival of national culture,
289-90; see also Culture, Jew-
ish; Hebrew spirit, the; Pal-
estine; Zionism; and under
National, etc.
Revolution. See February Revo-
lution, the; French Revolu-
tion, the.
Reward and punishment, a princi-
ple of natural religion, 188.
Riehl, A., cited, 227 (n.), 229 (n.).
Righteousness, the prophetic ideal,
1 6, 24; the law of, social and
individual, 52; how defined by
the Hebrew prophets, 133-4;
and the mission of Israel, 137;
hatred of life, 166; in the
Nietzschean system, 234-5;
characteristic of the Prophet,
312-13; see also Justice.
" Rights of man," 176.
Romans, the, and Greek culture,
116.
Roumania, the Jargon in, 282.
Rousseau, alluded to, 237.
Russia, the Jargon in, 282.
Russian spirit, the, expressed by
Antokolsky, 272.
Russians, the, and the culture of
Western Europe, 116.
Sabbatai Zebi, alluded to, 78; the
sect of, not ascetic, 151.
Sabbath, the, observance of, depre-
cated, 244-s, 246-7; and Mat-
tathias the Priest, 247, 250; a
delight even to nationalists,
249.
Sacred, differentiated from pro-
fane, 41, 43-4.
Sacrifice, the notion of, in primi-
tive man, 140.
Sacrifices, replaced by prayer, 77.
Sadducees, the, priestly, 19-20;
contrasted with the Pharisees,
20; and modern Zionism, 39;
on the dualism of body and
soul, 150-1.
Sanhedrin, quoted, ii4(n.).
Sayce, cited, 247 (n.).
Schwarz, Dr., and Jewish Science,
274 (n.).
Science, makes inroads into reli-
gion, 183, 190.
Science, Jewish. See Jewish
Science.
Scriptures, the, independent of
their Jewish promulgators,
186-7; Nietzsche's estimate of,
239; see also Bible the; Law,
the; Torah, the.
Secchi, priest-astronomer, 100, 106.
Secular, distinguished from reli-
gious, 23.
INDEX
345
Self, the, a philosophic concept,
80; memory and will combined,
80-1; at different times of
life, 81-2.
Self, the national, past and future
combined, 82; three stages of,
82-3; rejuvenated by faith, 83-
4, 85; of the Jew, rejuvenated,
85-6; as viewed in modern
times, 88-90.
Self-contempt, in the Jew, 201-2;
the means of escape from,
203-
Self-effacement, as imitation, no,
111, 112, 118; secures stability,
112; of a community, 113; pro-
duces assimilation, 114; of a
conquered nation, 114; due to
physical and spiritual forces,
1 14-15; leads to assimilation,
lis; see also Assimilation;
Imitation.
Self-sacrifice, not an end in itself,
27.
Sennacherib, alluded to, 153.
Shabbat. cited, in (n.).
Shakespeare, a creator of objective
culture, 260.
" Short Talks on Great Subjects,"
by Ahad Ha-' Am, 7.
Shulhan 'Aruk, the, A. Lolli on,
211-12 (and n.); expresses the
Law in the terms of the Middle
Ages, 212; deduced from the
Talmud, 215; in modern times,
215; opposed to compromise,
264; see also Law, the.
Simmel, George, on Nietzsche, 222
(and n.)-3-
Simon, deist, alluded to, 187.
Sins, imaginary, dangerous to
plead guilty of, 201-2.
Skepticism, action of, 62.
Slavery among Western Jews,
spiritual, 177 et seq.; intellec-
tual, 182 et seq.; in freedom,
250-2.
Smith, Adam, on conscience, 49.
Smolenskin, vogue of, 279.
Societe des etudes juives, 172.
Society, circular movement of, 68,
70; hypnotizes the individual,
91-3, 94; secured by imitation,
107-8, 112.
"Society of Seekers after Goodness
and Wisdom, The," 64 (n.).
Socrates, alluded to, 119, 125.
Solomon, king, alluded to, 124.
Song of Songs, the, a national
hymn, 302.
Soul, the, defined, 23; modern view
of, 127-8; the real ego, 144-5;
Jewish definition of, 146;
helped by the body, 149-51;
see also Dualism; Hebrew
Spirit, the; and under Spirit
and Spiritual.
Spencer, stigmatized by Nietzsche,
237-
Spinoza, alluded to, 244.
Spirit, defined, 12-14; the union of,
with the flesh, nationally, 152-
9; of the Jew, agitated by the
blood-accusation, 195-6; see
also Hebrew spirit, the; Soul,
the; and under Spiritual.
Spirit of the age, the, meaning of,
96.
Spiritual, defined, 12-14.
Spiritual force, produces self-ef-
facement, II 4- II 5, 116; effect
of, on Jews, 1 17.
Spiritual rest, craved by the will-
to-live, 161.
Spiritual slavery. See under
Slavery.
Spiritual theory, the, of Jewish
national life, 167-8, 169.
Spiritual view, the, of life, 146.
Spiritual world, the, created by
man's imagination under com-
plex social conditions, 165.
Spiritualism, and hypnotism, 95.
Steinthal, cited, 180 (n.).
Stone, vessels of, used by the
Egyptians, 41.
346
INDEX
" Strong Hand." See Yad ha-
hazakah.
Superman, the, the Prophet as,
27-8; in Nietzsche's system
220-1; an Aryan product, 225
6; depends on environment
227-8; doctrine of, not applic
able to the Jewish nation
233-4; Moses as, 325.
Supernation, the, 28; the soil for
the superman, 228; Israel in
the role of, 228 et scq.
Survivals in beliefs, characterized,
68-9; value of, 69-70; illus-
trated by the Jewish national
hope, 75-9.
Swiss, the, subjective culture of,
260-1; have no national liter-
ature, 278.
Synagogue, the, the substitute
for the Temple, 77.
Synagogue organization, and Zion-
ism, 300-1.
Systems of thought, how modified,
54-6, 58-9.
Talmud, the, quoted, 25, 45 (n.),
127, 150, 213; a storehouse of
Hebraism, 36; expresses the
Law in terms of the latter
days of the ancient world, 212;
Luzzatto characterizes, 213-14;
the basis of laws, 214-15; op-
posed to compromise, 264; dis-
credited as historical evidence,
274; not yet thoroughly in-
vestigated, 274-5; see also Law,
the.
Tarde, quoted, 107.
Temple, the, replaced by the Syna-
gogue, 77.
Torah, the, in defense of the
Hebrew spirit, 22; the Jew
identified with, 212-13; see
also Law, the.
Tradition, combated by logic, 205-
7; treated as a natural phe-
nomenon, 207 tt seq.; criticism
of, among Jews, 210; and
nationalism, 210-11; in mod-
ern times, 215-16; see also
Past, the.
Transvaluation, the, of values,
various views of, 217; de-
mands a rectification of Juda
ism, 218; not a Jewish prod
uct, 218-19; the doctrine of
219-21; as transferred to Juda
ism, 223-32; as falsely applied
to Judaism, 232 et seq.
Truth, the prophet a man of, 16;
love of, and " extremeness,"
26; characteristic of the
Prophet, 311-12.
Tylor, anthropologist, alluded to,
69.
Type, specific, perfection of, de-
manded by Nietzsche, 319-21.
Unity, complex, 128-9.
Unity of God, the, belief in, as an
anticipation, 70 et seq.
Universalism, the, of the prophets,
134. 13s. 136.
Vayikra Rabba, cited, 150 (n.).
Volapiik, alluded to, 238.
Voschod, the, cited, 171 (n.),
272 (n.).
War, defined, 53-4; the object of,
142.
Warsaw, Zionist activities in, 253-4.
Werther, Goethe's, influences his
generation, 307.
Will-to-live, the, in the Hebrew
spirit, 12; fundamental, 160;
craves spiritual rest, 161;
active in the face of death,
162-3; exercised frankly by
primitive man, 163; weakened
in a complex society, 164; pro-
duces two views of life, 164-
6; the Jewish national, 167-
70.
INDEX
347
Wilna, alluded to, 270.
Wilna Gaon, the, cited, 213 (n.);
as a model for an artist, 271.
Wisdom, hatred of life, 166.
Yad ha-hazakah, by Maimonides,
need of, 214 (and n.)-
Yiddish. See Jargon.
Yoma, quoted, 127 (n.).
Zaddik, the, contrasted with
Nietzsche's superman, 227.
Zarathustra, by Nietzsche, quoted,
221.
Zeitschrift fiir Philosophic und
philosophische Kritik, cited,
222 (n.).
Zerubbabel, alluded to, 77.
Zion, place assigned to, by Stein-
thal, 180.
Zionism, in Russia, 66; a possible
justification for, 232; and
Hebrew nationality, 253-4; cul-
tural work the essence of, 258;
the proper task of, 293-4; a
movement for national re-
vival, 294; different kinds of,
295; not a society for the dif-
fusion of enlightenment, 299;
should aim at enlightenment
with a nationalist basis, 299-
300; and education, 301 et seq.;
and organization, 305; see also
National restoration, the; Pal-
estine; Revival of the Hebrew
spirit, the.
Zionism, political, Ahad Ha-'Am's
objection to, 39-40; and Jew-
ish culture, 253, 255-8; defined,
254-5.
Zu Bibel und Religionsphilosophie,
by Steinthal, cited, 180 (n.)-
Zunz, on purpose of Jewish
Science, 276.
Zur Geschichte der Moral, by
Nietzsche, cited, 228 (n.).
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